James didn't know where to begin, or what to say. What do you tell your best friend who just found out he would be sent to prison, a literal hell hole, for a crime no one would ever believe he committed. Of all the cruel, unjust things they'd seen in the future so far, this almost rivalled what happened to himself and Lily. He was almost afraid to keep going now, what other horrors would he learn?
Remus was the first to speak up after a very long, drawn out pause, as he said, "Ah, so, what's your deal with Fudge?"
Sirius shook his head from side to side as he sighed, "you're going to think I'm crazy."
"We already think that," Lily stated, giving him her best smile as she continued, "in the best way of course."
Sirius gave an unamused snort, but told them anyways. "Just thinking, I don't like that Fudge was the one to show up to make sure Harry was okay, not days after my supposed escape," here his face twisted off in that same fit of unease he now always felt at the mention of his fate. Quickly shaking that off he pressed on, "me, a supposed Voldemort supporter, according to the general populace. Now, who more than anyone would want to go after Harry?" He finished rhetorically, noting the light the rest of them gained at once.
"You think Fudge thinks you're after Harry?" James said, going a little cross eyed at his own question.
Sirius just shrugged, with his arms still crossed on his chest, glaring moodily down at the book. "Honestly, I'm with Harry, can't think of to many reasons the Minister himself would make an appearance, and be so relieved to find him alive, and be happy about him not going into Hogsmeade."
"I see your point," Remus nodded, "but why is it bothering you so much?" Sirius seemed to be taking this as offensive as if someone had just told him he was going to be a mass murderer.
"Excuse you?" Sirius spluttered. "How would you like it if I turned to you and said, hey, someday soon people are going to think you want Harry dead, let alone being the one to kill him."
Remus flinched back at all of the repressed venom Sirius was showing, but not angry one bit. He nodded in acceptance and apologized.
Sirius backed off at once, but he still looked a mixture of peeved, confused and hurt all the same. James exchanged a look with Lily, then said, "time to play musical chairs you two."
Harry, surprised, got to his feet and followed his mother over to the two seater couch Remus and Sirius had just vacated, placing Sirius in the middle of James and Remus. Harry thought he understood why once James leaned his weight imperceptibly into his best friends. Harry very dearly wanted to offer comfort as well, but recognized he could do no more than give false reassurances like his mother that everything was going to be okay. What Sirius needed now was both Remus keeping him in check, and James support.
It hardly fixed the main problem with him, but they really couldn't think of anything else to say on the matter. No one here could think of much else about how wronged Sirius had been, but there was no way to fix it until they found out exactly what happened. Sirius very dearly wanted the exact opposite of Harry finding these things out, but there wasn't much he could do to stop it. The very idea that Harry would be the one who found out what a horrible murderer he would apparently become made him want to burst into tears, it wasn't fair that he might finally have a chance in this future to get to know the baby he loved so much now, and it would be forever tainted with Harry possibly fearing and hating him.
Yet Harry insisted he must have met Sirius at some point, and he had no ill feelings towards him now, but was he trying to lie and sugar coat it? He didn't ask, unable to decide which answer would be worse.
Looking quite pleased with himself now that he could keep a better eye on Sirius, James took up the book and read.
"That would make any kid your age all kinds of happy," Lily agreed.
"I've sat around there a fair few times just to people watch," Remus agreed, wondering how on earth they could even keep going in such a normal tone after the bombshell that they'd received. He then reflected it wasn't any odder than the whole situation of reading a book about the future.
Lily was just pleased the whole place wasn't storming Harry again. She supposed he'd blend in better without Hagrid, and said gamekeeper shouting his name.
James grimaced almost as bad as if he'd had to say 'mudblood' again. If someone had told him at the start of this book Sirius would turn out to be alive, he would have skipped around dancing with joy no matter what the reason, now that he did have his reason he wanted to vomit and scream all over again at the unfairness of it all. He declined against saying this aloud though, worried it would make Sirius feel all the worse, considering how much he flinched at his own name as well as he continued.
Remus gave a weak, unamused chuckle, picturing some random person actually being afraid of a boy who had once cried all day because Remus had once accidentally turned his hair green, and it had taken a few seconds to correct the colour changing spell and put it right. Sirius had then given an exaggerated hurt expression all day about how Remus had 'shown how he really felt about sharing a house with him.' It was beyond ludicrous that a single person would really think so ill of one of his closest friends.
"Dang," James grinned, "now how come I never got that treatment."
"Because you would have eaten him out of house and home before the first hour was up," Lily replied at once.
"Well here's to self-control," Remus smirked.
"Don't be silly Harry," Lily chided, "you'd still have to take the class, you'd just have an easier time on your homework. Honestly, I wouldn't even be bothered if you'd bought something like that for school."
Then Harry told her the price, and she did a double take before nodding seriously and saying, "okay, good thing you didn't buy it then."
James voice immediately spiked with glee, this could only mean something good. Remus leaned in eagerly as well, and Sirius finally looked almost normal again. What better way to distract him from something so horrible then his favourite sport.
"Sweet," Sirius cried, almost bouncing in place as his eyes lit up like a child, "a new broom! I thought the new Nimbus sounded fantastic, this must be even better!"
"What are all the models anyways?" Harry asked. Yes he'd had an in depth discussion with Ron about this, but he was enjoying watching the three boys acting like their high-strung selves again, and actually wanted to delay the reading for a bit.
James looked ready to jump in and try to describe the brooms in high detail, when Lily butted in saying, "relevant information James," in a singsong voice.
James froze, and glanced over at her with a very hurt look on his face. "I find this very relevant!"
"Yes well I found the reason Astronomy is important to be very relevant," she snipped back.
James frowned, clearly struggling to remember when this had come up, then he offered, "okay, I get to tell Harry about this, then you can tell him about the importance of tracking stars."
Lily grinned and agreed, then James quickly launched into his explanation first. After a lively discussion of nearly every make and model, Lily almost regretted giving in to James, she found it so boring at one point she slipped out of the room to go in and check on baby Harry. James seemed to be winding down by the time she had reentered.
Once he was done, Sirius said in a suffering voice, "alright, so why are we forced to take Astronomy for five years?"
Lily replied with a bit of an impish smirk, "I would like to remind you all, in the very first chapter that 'odd' watch it mentioned Dumbledore owned. All of you knew how to read and understand that because you learned Astronomy."
"So we can read a fancy watch," James dismissed, "we do own analogue watches. We only use those more for traditional reasons now. Got anything else?"
"It's also very important in potion making," Lily continued as if James hadn't spoken. "It doesn't do a Potioner any good to have to sit around and take hours to figure out the position of the planets, which are important in many advanced potions. You need to be able to know and understand this in a very particular frame of time, so if you want a career in Potions you must keep up with Astronomy."
Harry nodded, very curious about this indeed, but it was clear the other three boys were getting rather bored with this conversation. Lily considered going on anyways, just for a bit of payback at James boring her stupid with his broom talk, but lamented that you really couldn't force knowledge, so she agreed to allow the reading to continue.
"Really?" Remus butted in eagerly. "They've gone up in the rankings."
"Just tell me what it is already," Sirius demanded, nearly bouncing in place in anticipation.
"It's a new model all together," James breathed, nearly drooling as he could only picture it, not having a previous model to go off of.
"Well read the sign already," Sirius all but begged, looking near to snatching the book away just to read it himself.
The boys spent just as long interrogating Harry on every detail he remembered of this broom, and Lily simply sat back and watched indulgently for a few minutes before cutting in again and trying to convince them to move on. James huffed and grumbled for a bit, but finally accepted.
Lily beamed with pride as she said, "I'm so proud of you. I can't imagine many boys your age, or older," she cut herself off to give an obvious look at the other three boys, "would take the time to consider that."
Harry blushed a bit at the praise, thanking his Mum. After a pause, the boys finally admitted they were happy Harry didn't buy the broom either, thinking in rational sense of course. It didn't stop them from wanting it any less either.
Sirius nodded like this made absolutely perfect sense to him, making Harry laugh anew.
"How come they don't have some kind of place in school to fix that," Harry asked, this having bothered him several times towards the end of the school year. "Honestly, how come they don't have any way to fix your clothes, I've ripped the hem of my trousers several times and just had to ignore it till summer." He was also thinking of a few other times, like the basilisk biting his arm and leaving a sizable gap in that sleeve as well for the last few weeks of school.
Sirius looked perfectly back to normal after the nice long Quidditch distraction and explained for Harry, "the house-elves have been known to take care of the worst of them, like for instance the time Peter got a hole ripped on his backside, long story," he added on when Harry looked about asking for details. "They also put some kind of charm, I think, on them when they go in the wash so that they don't need them every bloody time you have to deal with Herbology. Dirt repelling charms, and maybe they strengthen the material or something, I've never stopped to ask to be honest."*
Harry reflected that he'd never really thought about it, as the Gryffindor boys had a laundry chute that just seemed to magically clean their clothes and shoot them back out perfectly folded, but it did make sense.
"Well, at least you did get your stuff," James muttered, mostly to himself as he remembered worrying about this, and trying to push away the impending feeling that they would just have to rehash that same conversation at the beginning of next book since Harry would still have to go back there! He grit his teeth for a moment before forcing himself to go on in that same light tone as before, not willing to let his good mood be spoiled again so soon.
"Oh," they brightened in understanding at Hagrid sending Harry that book.
Remus stated, "guess that makes sense then, Hagrid would have sent you a textbook for one of your new classes."
"That's not what Kettleburn set us though," Sirius pointed out, "so why the change?"
"You don't think there's a new teacher?" Lily asked in concern, never having taken the class herself, but curious all the same.
"Wouldn't surprise me," James shrugged, "he would be how old now? With two limbs missing? In fact, you remember Hagrid's letter, he was going to tell Harry something, like a surprise? Guess this might have been it. Of course Hagrid would get chummy with a new Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"Great, so we're going to have to deal with three new teachers this year," Sirius rolled his eyes, "I can only hope they're at least competent. Harry hasn't exactly had a good track record so far."
"You can say that again," Harry agreed, wondering why this year in particular made him feel like correcting Sirius on this. Had he finally gotten a decent teacher, at least for DADA?
Sirius released a surprised snort of laughter, picturing books fighting having never come to mind.
"Oh don't," Lily shuddered in true terror, "I don't want to have to deal with anymore of Hagrid's pets."
"Well I seemed to be wrong," Harry soothed.
"Well that was rude," Remus frowned.
"What's his problem," Sirius agreed huffily.
"What a jerk," James agreed with a frown. "Harry might not have needed that book even if he did already have it. Care of Magical creatures isn't mandatory for Hogwarts."
Lily winced in sympathy, but didn't bother to say anything out loud this time. He really had been presumptuous in his actions.
"Hope you'd at least get a discount on that book," Sirius laughed.
"Ah," Lily said in confusion, "I don't get it, they didn't use the counterspell to make the books visible or...?"
"Don't know," Harry shrugged, "didn't ask for details."
"Bird entrails?" James repeated in disgust.
"Well it sounds like an interesting class at least," Remus chuckled.
"Should he really be telling someone not to buy a book from him?" Sirius laughed.
"Well I appreciate it," Lily shrugged, noting Harry seemed to have a pessimistic side enough as is, he didn't need that extra help.
"I'm not that big," Sirius scoffed, growing uneasy all over again at any kind of mention of him, even his animal.
Harry gave him a pitying look, declining to mention that his own imagination might have made that black dog in the alley way bigger than it might have really been.
Now all four of them were frowning, each taking a worried glance at Harry. He was still frowning at Sirius, a perturbed look on his face. Finally Sirius couldn't take it anymore and said, "you're starting to scare me there Harry, what's on your mind."
Harry jolted slightly, Sirius didn't usually refer to him by his actual name, but he gave him a benign smile as he admitted, "guess I just didn't realize your animagus form was a death omen, and you know, not knowing then..."
Remus released a surprised snort of laughter, admitting, "yeah, it honestly did surprise us a bit too when he first achieved his transformation, Peter's a bit superstitious and actually called him a Grim."
James gave a surprised laugh himself, nodding and saying, "we were actually going to use that as his nickname, we kicked around a few things before we settled on what we've got."
"I can see how it would freak you out a bit," Lily nodded in agreement.
Sirius winced, and began ducking into himself, wanting to apologize for clearly frightening Harry so much, since by this point they really were convinced that must have been Sirius, the coincidence was just too high. Before he could let himself feel too much pity though, James absently gave him a nudge with his elbow, and Remus flicked his ear. Sirius was instantly distracted from his thoughts and instead was playfully grumbling about how his friends abused him.
"Now that I'll disagree with," James said lightly, still keeping a protective eye over Sirius to make sure he wasn't going to sink back into that self-pity again.
Harry nodded in understanding, trying to catch Sirius' eye to give him a confident smile, and succeeding after a moment; receiving one back almost instantly.
"Now there's a lost cause," Lily said absently.
They all laughed weakly then, but Sirius still wasn't in much of a mood to make the joke Lily had just mimicked a mirror of all things.
"Why?" Remus asked. "I thought you liked Neville?"
"Wait for it," Harry told him simply.
"Yeah, no one wants their friend around when they're getting told off," Sirius agreed.
James released a surprised burst of laughter, personally he would have been flattered, but he could see the other side to that coin.
"That is a little weird," Lily agreed, coking her head to the side slightly, "they said they were going to be there."
"Haven't you been sending them mail with Hedwig?" Remus asked. "Didn't they know they could find you at the Leaky Cauldron."
Harry shook his head no and said, "I didn't send Hedwig anymore that summer, it was to close to the end of the holidays, and I didn't know if she'd be back in time with an answer before I had to go back to school."
The others disagreed, wanting to point out that Hedwig would have known to go to Hogwarts even if that were the case, but didn't argue the point.
James read that with nothing but fondness colouring his tone, knowing full well that was something he would have done too.
"Finally," Remus grinned.
"I have missed hearing about them," James agreed affectionately.
"Then how did they know you were staying there?" Lily asked.
Harry shrugged and said, "I'm sure I ask him, since I was just wondering the same thing."
"Makes sense," Sirius shrugged, "he knew about you last summer to, you seem pretty popular in his department."
"I get the feeling everyone inside the Ministry always knows about me," Harry replied, not exactly happy about it.
"Oh yeah, she's never heard me speak, how'd she do an impression of me?" Sirius demanded.
James sniffed, choosing to ignore Sirius on that one, as he told Harry, "Go on, tell her the reason you did, and that stern voice will turn to outrage in a second."
Harry just shrugged without a response, having a good idea he didn't actually do that.
The four of them frowned at Harry sharply, not at all pleased this seemed to be the only explanation he was going to give his friends, but Harry was resolutely ignoring all eyes, and they admitted there was no sense badgering him about it now.
Now because of Sirius, they wondered if maybe they had taken too light of the situation before, but none of them said it out loud. Sirius was still looking all kinds of moody any time this subject came up, so James refused to linger on it too long.
"I like to think Ron wouldn't be put in that situation any more then Harry, or at least his Mum would have understood," Lily said, mostly to herself it seemed as the boys seemed to find that comment more amusing than anything.
"Excellent," Harry beamed, more than pleased to hear about this, he'd missed his friends terribly over that summer.
Then they all laughed a bit more as Harry blushed slightly at mimicking himself.
"His new wand," Remus grinned.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," James snorted as he read.
"Poor guy," Lily said in sympathy, wondering why the store hadn't simply found a better method of shutting those books closed with a belt like Harry, and simply selling them that way.
"How many classes is she taking?" Sirius asked faintly.
"Why's she taking Muggle studies?" Remus demanded. "She's a muggleborn?"
"How can she even take all of those classes?" James frowned. "Some of them run at the same time."
Harry didn't have an answer for any of this, but he asked something he'd been wondering for a while, "which classes did you guys take?"
"Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes," James and Lily said at once.
"We both took Care of Magical Creatures," Remus said, gesturing towards himself and Sirius, "but I took Ancient Runes to."
"Muggle Studies as my second option," Sirius responded, stretching out slightly as he forced himself to relax again at this rather normal conversation, might as well enjoy it while it lasted. "Oh and Peter took Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes with James," he added on thoughtfully, thinking Harry would like to know more about their other friend even if he hadn't met him yet.
Harry nodded happily, enjoying the fact he didn't seem to be getting that settling feeling that normally came with relearning things. This meant he'd never learned this about his family before, and he always enjoyed that. These glowing feelings managed to shove out some nasty little pang he suddenly felt at hearing Peter's name. That hadn't come up before this book, why this year in particular would he get a surgence for that name?
Sirius opened his mouth, but Remus quickly said, "yes Sirius, I mimicked Ron, let it go."
Sirius just smirked at him, enjoying the moment anyways.
"Props for that," Lily agreed, never having thought of that point of view before.
"Still wouldn't take the extra class," Remus said in disbelief, thinking this poor girl was going to overwork herself in the first week.
"That's a legitimate question," James said, his own amusement still lingering. He was picturing her come midterms and going to at least two professors to drop one of her extra classes just for a breath of fresh air, no one could keep up with that much!
Sirius snapped his fingers and said, "darn, guess she already realizes she's not going to have much time for free reading this term."
"Did she talk to her parents about that before though?" Lily asked in concern. "I asked my parents for an owl for years, but they never gave in to that one."
"I think a girl like Hermione, she most likely did," Remus pacified.
"And it's kind of recommended they get a new owl to," Sirius agreed, wincing in sympathy for the old bird.
"How old is he?" James asked in concern.
"Don't know," Harry shrugged, "Ron's never said specifically."
"Most only live for about five years I think," Lily said, frowning as she thought about it. "Ron said Scabbers used to be Percy's, and that was almost three years ago at this point. Assuming Percy got him very young, he'd still be getting on."
'Poor Ron' they all thought this time, not wanting the poor kid to have to go through the trauma of losing a pet.
"That sounds like all kinds of fun," Lily said in amusement.
"It's one of my favourite shops," Remus agreed.
"Surprised you didn't interrupt me every animal to say what it actually was," James told him.
"I'm not that bad," Remus scoffed, unwilling to admit he'd been mentally doing that anyways, though his friends knew better and exchanged superior smirks like they had when he'd given them an hour long chat about those color changing snails known as streelers.
"Bet he's still better than those," Sirius sniffed, feeling a particular affection for Scabbers, like he would for any rat that reminded him of Peter, and the description was a pretty good fit.
"Well she's just a lovely conversation," Lily frowned severely, that was hardly something you told a child asking for help with his pet.
"And some can live longer," Remus agreed a little hotly, still feeling bad for Ron and wanting to defend his pet, even if he wasn't there right now.
James chuckled, he'd actually been fixing to say something similar before he read Ron's response.
Lily jumped, James had yelled that pretty loud, then scowled at him when she realized he was still reading, "what was that for?"
"Ron said it," he shrugged, giving her a cheeky grin before reading curiously.
"A cat I presume," Remus said mildly, arching a brow in surprise, "though props to it for getting out of its cage."
Sirius popped him lightly, saying, "you really want that thing to eat Scabbers in front of Ron?"
Remus just rolled his eyes as James continued.
Which made everyone in the room laugh at Harry's attempt at humour.
"Really?" Lily demanded. "She bought the cat that attacked Ron's pet?"
"I'm trying to decide if that's her subtle way of saying Ron annoys her," Sirius smirked.
"Hermione's hardly subtle about anything," Remus snorted.
"I'm kind of with Lily," James frowned in disapproval, "it was almost rude of her to buy something that went out of its way to eat Scabbers like that."
Harry wasn't paying much attention to any of them, but was instead fighting the impulse to rub at his temple again. He'd never thought too much about Scabbers other than as Ron's pet, and he had no real feelings towards Hermione buying whatever cat she wanted, but there was something here he wasn't really seeing. Something important he really should remember about these two pets, James hadn't seemed to notice his son's silence as he continued.
Both Sirius and Remus released surprised snorts of laughter at that lovely description.
"That's a real mystery," Sirius rolled his eyes.
Lily huffed and gave him the stank eye. Despite her misgivings about Hermione buying that particular cat at that time, she had nothing against the actual animal. It was in its nature after all, and Sirius mocking it just annoyed her.
James frowned and grit his teeth for a moment, annoyed at once all the good mood seeping right out of the room at this near constant reminder. He wanted more than anything right now to find out what had really happened to his best friend, but the repeating commentary on him was grinding his gears.
Instead of allowing his mood to sink back down, Sirius said in a forced happy voice, "I think I should get some credit for that at least."
Remus gave him a pointed look that said quite clearly he still didn't find him making light of this situation any kind of funny, but no one told him off for it this time. It was better than him being depressed anyways.
Sirius opened, then quickly closed his mouth. He had been fixing to ask how much his head was worth, but decided he really didn't want to know the answer to that.
James voice spiked a bit in confusion upon reading that. What did this have to do with the Weasley's really? Why would it put extra strain on Arthur, or was it something else altogether? Most likely it was the second.
Sirius shuddered so hard at those words, he nearly shook the whole couch with him. Those guards were one of the reasons he felt like fainting at the mere thought of where he was fixing to spend the next twelve years of his life in a very short amount of time. He'd been around a Dementor once in his life, and the thought of forcibly being stuck in their presence for any prolonged time made him want to run for the hills without looking back.
James really couldn't take it this time, and wrapped an arm around his friends shoulder for a brief moment until Sirius did stop his shaking again. He waited until Sirius offered a weak, unreal smile, but at least he attempted it, giving James enough confidence to keep reading and pray for a change of subject.
Remus was trying to swallow back bile at seeing his usually energized friend reduced to this state, while Harry dearly wanted to ask who on earth these guards were if they elicited such strong reactions from people he could hardly imagine being afraid of anything. First Hagrid, now Sirius, what on earth happened in this Azkaban? He still didn't ask though, not wanting to be the one to linger on this.
"Just what I wanted to be reminded of right now," Sirius whispered, thinking about that horrid Chamber the least helpful thing to get his mind off of death and regrets.
James forced as much amusement as he could into this small interaction, perhaps speaking a little louder than was necessary to make sure Sirius got his fill of what he was sure was about to be an amusing moment. Anything with the twins and Percy in the same room almost always meant a laugh.
Then James grinned, looking all too smug at being right, and just as pleased to see a genuine smile come back to his friends face at these twin's antics.
The boys were outright laughing by this point, and Lily couldn't help but smirk along.
Lily shook her head affectionately while this only doubled the boy's amusement.
"Now that's not really fair to Ron," Lily frowned at him.
"I agree," James nodded. He enjoyed being Head Boy in his time, but Percy was being the wrong kind as far as he was concerned. In fact he'd rather enjoy it if Ron got that opportunity, he'd very much noticed the boy's lack of confidence in himself and some responsibility like this might just help him.
"That might be a little awkward," Remus noted, "only one of the twins getting that."
Sirius nodded, agreeing, "yeah, I'd almost feel bad for them."
"I resemble that comment," Remus smirked.
"I think you meant resent," Lily corrected him, knowing he had used the wrong word on purpose.
"That to," he laughed.
While no one else in the room took much notice of this, Harry suddenly looked puzzled. He had a rather distinct feeling Ginny wasn't nearly the sweetheart her mother wanted her to be.
"Rats," Sirius huffed, snapping his fingers in agitation.
Lily gave him the stank eye, even though she knew he didn't mean it anymore then George had.
"I'm getting hungry," Sirius said at once, his mouth watering at the thought of dessert.
"You're always hungry," James reminded him.
Lily ignored the pair, it was still a bit too early for lunch, so instead said, "that's a good question though, since they don't have the Anglia anymore."
"Well that was nice," Remus said, rather puzzled.
"Do the Ministry normally do this?" Harry asked at once, noting how confused the others seemed.
"They're not known to," James shrugged, "it's not their business to make sure every one of their workers gets around, but I suppose Arthur might have been able to make an exception for you," he finished, giving Harry an obvious wink. He didn't really find it funny, the reminder of his son's fame was only a thought away from how he'd gained it, but it made sense.
Harry nodded in understanding all the same.
Which gained a laugh from all present readers.
"I like the fact that means Arthur laughed as well," Remus grinned.
"Those twins had to get their sense of humour from somewhere," Sirius smirked.
"That boy needs to lighten up," Lily rolled her eyes.
"Good to note an obvious Weasley tell," James grinned, feeling rather smug he must have guessed right from this.
"That boy is annoying," Sirius rolled his eyes, "what brother points that out to his parents about his sibling?"
"That was a nice reaction," Remus rolled his eyes, thinking of a couple of worse things Ron could have done in retaliation.
"What's Percy's right to tell him that?" Lily demanded hotly. "It's his badge, not Ron's. Ron's not the type to take it for fun."
"Ouch," James winced in sympathy, wondering if this is why Arthur had looked so upset earlier. Were he and Molly having a fight?
That sparked an interest in all of them, wondering how the couple could be arguing about Harry of all people.
No one could blame Harry for that one bit, it was the normal reaction after all.
"Know what?" Remus asked with unease, not liking the look of this already.
James didn't bother with a response, hoping the book would explain more properly
This short little bit already had Lily worrying at her lip all over again, and the boys weren't looking any better. What worse thing could be going on right now?!
"Technically," Harry butted in, shifting his weight in agitation due to the mood circling around, "I've been in twice, Ron's only been in once."
"So Arthur was generalizing," Sirius huffed, his eyes narrowing, "that doesn't explain what they're so bothered about."
Harry winced at the sharp tone he used, though it clearly wasn't directed at him specifically.
James groaned and looked ready to toss the book away in anger. Why did he keep getting all the chapters that felt like mentioning how his son could die?
Sirius looked the opposite, ready to faint all over again as he vividly remembered how upset Fudge had seemed that night as well. He hardly wanted confirmation that his theory was right, but it seemed he was about to get it anyways.
James voice spiked all over again, having several testy retorts on his lips for that, but quickly bit them off. It's not like he could blame the Weasleys for thinking this, they didn't know any more about Sirius then Stan had. It just boiled his blood to know anyone thought that way of someone he considered a brother.
Sirius winced and pressed himself back into his seat cushions, wondering just how accurate that accusation was? Azkaban was known to drive people to death if they were there long enough, and his sentence more than met that time.
Remus was getting paler the longer this went on, clenching and unclenching himself up as he, like James, wanted very much to snap at someone for implying this about his friend.
"Is that right," Lily hissed, her eyes narrowing dangerously, "he's told you this, or is it more guess work and slandering?"
Sirius opened, then closed his mouth again. How he had broken out of Azkaban, he had not the slightest clue. The thought had never even occurred to him to figure out how, and he wasn't keen on sitting around pondering it now. However, he did have the fullest confidence that if any student wanted to sneak in and out of that school, he was more than qualified. Everyone here knew this though, and he just couldn't muster up the energy in that moment to say it with as much bragging rights as he normally would have.
Sirius winced at that nightmare of a sentence all over again, never mind that he himself had suggested it earlier. It hardly made him feel better he was obviously right this time.
James was resolutely ignoring him, wanting to laugh at how stupid that sentence was, and hoping for a clue what his friend really would be doing.
Remus wrinkled up his nose in disgust, having to force himself to cut off a mocking laugh at this. Personally, if Sirius really was 'after' Harry, then to him it wasn't even that surprising. Sirius first thought would be to go to his Godson, make absolutely sure he was okay. It wouldn't even surprise him to learn if Sirius did end up spending the rest of his time hiding around and dogging Harry, waiting for a chance to talk to him and try to explain himself.
"Not used to hearing you refer to me by my last name," Sirius said quickly, desperately casting his mind around to distract himself from this depressing topic, even for the shortest amount of time. "It's really weird. I keep thinking you're talking about my Dad or something."
"Half wish I was," James grumbled, turning the page so viciously he almost ripped it out.
James gagged slightly again, but refused to let himself be cut off this time.
Lily's brows shot into her hairline at that, what an odd thing for anyone to think.
"Well he's got that part right at least," Sirius whispered to himself, casting an almost longing look around this once peaceful scene, and one more towards the ceiling where the baby was. Certainly not in the way Arthur had meant it, but he was more than sure a piece of him died that night this family was torn away from him.
Sirius felt another terrible spasm rock him. If he was going to be hanging around Harry this year to try and talk to him, he'd probably be deterred by that!
"You're joking," Remus groaned, going a little green there for a moment.
"Sadly not," James almost growled, finding this to be a horrible idea the longer he thought about it.
"Surely he said no," Lily gasped, "letting those, things, around children!"
Harry couldn't help it anymore, this was such a vivid reaction from them he finally burst out, "who are these guards?"
The four of them exchanged uneasy looks, no one wanting to be the one to answer him.
Finally Remus swallowed back the bile in this throat to answer him. The whole time he talked, Harry was nodding and seemed to be settling down at the information like he always did, but there was something new going on this time. He seemed to be watching Remus with a steady kind of look.
Harry was trying his hardest to simply listen to the awful explanation, but he was having trouble fighting down a sense a Deja vu, like Remus had told him this before. That was ridiculous though, right?
Once he was done, James was quick to read on, wanting more than anything to stop talking about all of this.
Lily huffed and grumbled something under her breath, that they all heard and agreed with anyways.
James paled to the colour Sirius currently was, knowing he'd rather die than let his best friend be dragged back into living with those things.
Both James and Remus voice spiked as they started to protest that sentence, but Sirius was the one to cut them off, only being able to speak just loud enough to catch their attention. He was still having some problems breathing properly to speak to loudly as he said, "thanks guys, really I mean it. Come on though, you can't start yelling about this every time it comes up."
"You bet your arse I can," James snapped right back.
Sirius rolled his eyes indulgently, then took a moment to smile over at Harry. He looked just as frustrated as anyone else, but Sirius knew how the other boy was feeling about people yelling at something he'd rather just skip. It wasn't the same thing, not by a long shot, since Sirius found it more than relevant that they should know what happened at the Dursleys Harry wasn't talking about, but at least he could sympathize the feeling now.
Sirius forced a laugh, but he was the only one who attempted.
James scoffed deep in his throat, while Sirius sunk all the lower, unable to find anger this time. He'd thought it was bad before, but now he not only found out his horrible little theory was right, but Harry was still learning about him like this! It made him want to burst into tears and break someone's ribcage all at the same time.
This time Remus slung his arm across his friend's shoulder, and leaned in to whisper something in his ear. It didn't make him laugh like normal, but it brought up a weak smile none the less, erasing that look however temporarily.
James had to cut himself off every few minutes to mutter what nonsense this was, but he got through most of it intelligibly.
That finally released a bark like laugh from Sirius. It was far more subdued than normal, but he turned gleaming eyes on Harry anyways.
Harry was quick to return it with a smile and say, "probably because I knew deep down you couldn't hurt a butterfly if you wanted to."
"I almost resent that," he said in an attempt at a snooty tone of voice, "I can be plenty vicious when I want to."
"Couldn't hurt me then," Harry amended.
Which made them all beam with unrestrained pleasure. They could have sat around trying to convince Sirius all day about this, but in his mind it would have been more like false hope. He just couldn't shake the horrible image swirling around his brain that he'd gone crazy in that place, and could actually harm his little pup. Coming from Harry though, even his instincts rather than actual memory, made him want to get up and hug his little godson all over again that he was still so confident of this feeling no matter what he heard.
All five of them snorted in disgust again, never not finding that one of the most laughable and insulting things yet.
"I'm respectably afraid of the Headmaster," Sirius opinionated, though no one had asked him he felt obligated to answer anyways. "There's a difference!"
"Sure Padfoot," James said in a soothing voice, giving him a condescending pat on the head, making Sirius swat it away and call James something that made Lily snap, "Sirius!"
Harry and Remus were reduced to laughter again. It didn't fully erase the unease that this topic kept bringing up, but it did remind them all that they were still in the present time. This was not a bloody prophecy to come, they would fix this mess!
Sirius scoffed, this time his cocky nature made a full appearance. No damn dementors were going to stop him from seeing his pup.
Which made the four of them dissolve into renewed yet sad laughter all over again. To them, their world was still tipped upside down because of this constant reminder of such news, and yet Harry was still stuck on this one small thing in the grand scheme. It wasn't really funny, it still made them want to cry that Harry would never properly know Sirius as the Uncle he should have been, but in that moment it was better to laugh then cry.
"Not something I wanted to be reminded of," James pointed out, "no matter how impressive it is."
"Useless," Remus rolled his eyes, "is the wrong word for sure."
"Besides, I've no doubt you could take me down just by batting your eyes a certain way," Sirius grinned, smiling indulgently at the boy, "so maybe they should send you after me."
This time James popped him lightly on the back of his head, ignoring that stupid comment.
"Of that I'll make sure," Sirius whispered, mostly for James benefit who looked all the more annoyed now Harry himself was saying that type of stuff. At Sirius comment though, James relaxed like he never had before during this story. Hagrid, Dumbledore, and the Weasleys were a great source of protection for his son, but he did recognize in that moment the light in this dark subject. Sirius was free, and he would sooner give his own life then let anything happen to Harry. He prayed to Merlin it would never come to that sort of thing, that there would be a miracle sometime soon and the real cause for Sirius' imprisonment would be found and Sirius would be free to look after Harry as he always properly should have, and that was the most reassuring thing of all.
"That's the end of the chapter," James declared trying to pass the book along to Sirius, who didn't exactly look keen on reading.
* question submitted by RoyalRose161, if anybody has any other plot holes or just random questions you'd like to see me try and explain away, feel free to ask.