"Come on, Harry, this way".

Following his godfather up the stairs, the black-haired boy tugged his hands back into the sleeves of his thin jacket, curling them into fists as he fought to calm himself down.

He couldn't believe Dumbledore. Were his precious secrets more important than Harry himself? Did he believe that his position as Harry's Headmaster meant he could control every aspect of Harry's life like some kind of puppet master? Part of Harry couldn't wait for Dumbledore and the Order to turn around and give him a command, just so he could throw it back into their faces and walk away – and he knew it would happen, he knew that neither Dumbledore nor the Order believed the ultimatum that had fallen from his lips out of nowhere.

He may not have meant to say it, but he did, and he didn't regret a single word.

As he rounded a corner of the staircase to head up another floor, Harry blinked in confusion and glanced over the banister. "How many floors are there to this place?" he asked curiously, looking up at his godfather's back.

"Four," Sirius said over his shoulder, "And five on weekends. Merlin I hate this place," he added under his breath, Harry almost thinking he'd imagined hearing it.

"It doesn't seem that bad," he lied casually, feeling the anger inside him shift to focus on his godfather at the sound of his voice.

A barked laugh echoed through the stairwell as Sirius slowed to a stop, waiting for Harry to catch up with him. "It's worse than it looks," he said bluntly, "I hated growing up in this place, there was always something bad around every corner. Wait till you meet my mother," he added with a dramatic shudder, "You'll swear off women for the rest of your life".

"This is your house?" Harry questioned, unconsciously leaning against his godfather when Sirius threw his arm over his shoulders again.

"Unfortunately," Sirius agreed as they stepped off onto a landing and started down a hallway. "I loaned it to Albus to use as Headquarters, about the only useful thing I've been able to do," he explained coldly. "Only useful thing besides pranking the hell out of Albus at least, I promised to tone it down, but if he's not going to keep his promises to me then why should I to him you know?"

"You don't have to explain yourself, Sirius," Harry promised him quickly, "I wanted to hit him so badly back there," he confessed as he glanced down at his fists, raising them to show small bloody marks in the shape of fingernails in his palms.

"I wouldn't have stopped you," Sirius deadpanned cheerfully, coming to a stop and turning to face Harry properly. "I just... I want you to know that I'm proud of you, alright?" he asked as he rested his hands on Harry's shoulders, "You could have snapped and hit all of them and no one could have blamed you for it. But you didn't," he continued. "You managed to control your temper and you stared Dumbledore down instead of knocking him out. That's something I could never do".

Letting out a sharp breath, Sirius shook his head, Harry hanging onto every word he said with an embarrassing eagerness. "Merlin," Sirius breathed out slowly, smiling faintly as he stared down at Harry yet saw something else. "You reminded me so much of your mother back in there. She had a temper that woman," he explained, clearly lost in his memories by the look in his eyes, "I remember one time when James pissed her off in Hogsmeade, Death Eaters apparated into the middle of her screaming at him". His godfather stopped and shuddered again, shaking his head as he eyed Harry cautiously, "She channelled all of her anger into tearing the Death Eaters apart with James by her side, the two of them saved so many lives that day".

"I'm pretty sure that's what made your mother give James a shot too," he added with a sly grin, "He had the worst game I've ever seen".

He couldn't help but grin back at Sirius, forgetting for just a moment everything that had happened to him in the past year or so as they two of them just basked in each other's presence.

A door slamming downstairs made them both jump, turning away from each other awkwardly to glance towards the staircase. "Come on, kid, Hedwig's in here," Sirius said softly, keeping his voice low to give them some more time to themselves.

Stiffening when he reached for the snake-themed door handle only to find it locked, Harry's jaw clenched and he turned his head to shoot Sirius a look. When his godfather just smiled sadly at him and shrugged, patting down his pockets to show he had no wand, Harry turned back to the door and tapped into the agitated spark in his chest and carefully directed it down into his hand. He needed to be careful, if he wasn't then he could accidentally incinerate the door and Hedwig waiting beyond it, all he needed was just the right amount of heat and he was in.

Now if only Harry knew how much heat that was.

"Harry? What are you-"

Sirius cut himself off as Harry released the melted slop of a handle and launched himself at the door, tucking his shoulder as he slammed into it. He only had a moment to smirk victoriously at it flew open before he was freezing, an angry snarl tearing from his lips as his hand snapped out, his fingers snapping and his spark flaring as a handful of fire flew from his palm. Stalking forward, Harry kicked out at the charred body of the Cornish pixie lying on the floor, fighting the urge to run back downstairs and incinerate Dumbledore beard because...

Because Hedwig…

Melting the lock again as his first (and currently only) friend hooted weakly at him, Harry tore open the cage and reached in for the snowy owl.

"Harry? What was that?"

"Wandless magic," came his curt response, his arms trembling in time with Hedwig as he cradled her to his chest, glaring dangerously around at the pixies that were peering out of the curtains around them.

Sirius scoffed from the doorway, "Don't lie to me, kid. I know what wandless magic is, and that wasn't it," he argued as he moved into the room. "That was a fourth year spell at the very le- oh".

Nodding stiffly as he cradled Hedwig gently, Harry just stroked his fingers down her feathers gently, fighting to keep his flame down as he realised that she'd lost more weight than he first thought if the lightness in his arms was any indication. Glancing down at the floor where numerous blood-spotted white feathers lay, he turned away from the Cornish pixies and shifted Hedwig around in his arms to make her more comfortable, his familiar shaking as she nuzzled closer.

"Your room is at the end of the hallway by the stairs," Sirius whispered, sounding just as pained as Harry felt, "You'll know which one it is. I'll go get your trunk from Ron's room, and... and some supplies".

As Sirius slipped from the room as stealthily as his animagus form, Harry stayed there stiffly, head turning to stare at the Cornish pixies chittering in the curtains. He could already feel his anger rising as he took in the sight of the cage on the table in the centre of the room, looking for the life of him like Hedwig had been left there to rot without any food or water. The Cornish pixies would have loved it, having a target to harass and hurt that couldn't do a thing against them, for all her ferocity Hedwig was harmless when trapped in such a small cage.

A muffled hoot pulled his attention down to his owl immediately, Harry blinking in shock when he saw he'd removed his hand and conjured a fireball without thinking about it. Shaking his anger away and focusing on Hedwig instead, Harry closed his fist around the fireball and hurried from the room, leaving the handle-less door open behind him as he followed Sirius' directions to a door cheerfully marked as 'Harry's Room'.

Looking around desperately, Harry cursed when he realised there was no bowls or water for Hedwig to drink from. Not wanting to deny his clearly starving owl any further, he just pulled a face as he drew his wand and flicked it twice, first transfiguring a rock statue on the desk into a bowl and filling it with water. Carefully lowering Hedwig down to it, he flinched as she let out a soft cooing noise before drinking, exhaustion flooding him as he moved from fear to fury to fear in a few seconds once more. He would call for Kronk tonight, get him to explain things to Madam Bones so he wasn't expelled for saving his owl's life, but there was no way that Harry was going to let her suffer any longer than he had to.

Letting out the breath in his lungs slowly when Hedwig finally pulled away from the bowl, he didn't hesitate to scoop her up again, kicking the chair out from under the desk and smoothly sitting, curling Hedwig into the crook of his arm. It was almost funny, he realised, to watch the usually proud owl nuzzle herself further into his arms without care for her image. Then he remembered why she was acting like this and his fury rose again, only Hedwig's light weight in his arms stopping him from hunting everyone in the house down and burning them.

Flinching as footsteps thundered up the stairs, Harry's hand fell from the owl's chest to pull his wand from his pocket again, holding it at an angle to immediately start cursing whoever came through the door first.

"Harry?"

Relaxing slightly as Sirius stepped into the doorway with a large sack of owl feed in his arms, he watched as his godfather set a second bowl down on the desk and started filling it without another word.

"Who?"

Halfway through clamping the mouth of the bag shut with a clamp Sirius froze, Harry watching from the corner of his eye as his godfather slowly set the bag down beside the desk, straightening up to watch Hedwig greedily dive for the pellets the moment Harry put her down. He hadn't seen her this hungry since second year when Uncle Vernon locked her in her cage, he'd run out of pellets earlier than he'd expected and had been forced to split his own meals with the unhappy owl.

"I don't know," his godfather claimed slowly, Harry biting back on a snort of disbelief. "I only found out she was here by accident. Albus put some kind of charm on the door, I can't open it without the right key and I don't have a good enough wand to try beat that. For what it's worth, Pup," he added, shifting and pulling Harry's eyes to him for just a second, "I don't think Dumbledore would have kept her in there if he knew about this".

This time Harry let out the snort, "For what it's worth, Sirius," he countered slowly, "He left me locked in a house where I was starved and abused, why would he care about an owl?"

Ignoring the look on his godfather's face, Harry shuffled his chair closer to the desk and rested his chin on his hand, the only noises in the room being that of Hedwig eating and Sirius slowly leaving. Unable to stop himself from smiling as the snowy owl stopped eating to turn and watch him curiously, Harry shook his head and reached out to smooth down an errant feather. "It's okay, Hedwig," he promised gently, "It's going to okay".

His smile falling as Hedwig hooted comfortingly and turned back to her long-awaited meal, Harry found himself glaring at the table. He wanted to believe that Dumbledore had done it on purpose, it would make it so much easier to hate the man if the Headmaster had intentionally hurt Hedwig – but he couldn't. Oh, Harry would still hate and blame Dumbledore for what happened to his avian friend, but his gut told him that the Headmaster would never stoop so low as to hurt Hedwig to get to him. And if there was one thing beside Hedwig that he could trust, then it was his gut, it had never failed him like certain 'friends' had.

Setting his wand down on the desk, Harry looked down at his hands, grimacing as he ran his fingers across the palm of his right hand. He'd just killed something, it might have only been a Cornish pixie but they were still sentient beings, and it didn't matter that he'd been protecting Hedwig he still felt a little sick because of it. But that was the difference wasn't it? He'd been protecting someone's (he could never thing of Hedwig as a 'something') life, he hadn't killed the pixie for sport, and he felt guilty over it instead of feeling smug or worse… feeling like he'd enjoyed it. It was like back in first year when he'd killed Quirrell, he'd had to rationalise it to himself when that had happened too. He did it to protect someone, not to kill it.

Quickly crossing his arms when footsteps sounded on the stairs again, Harry tried to act casual as Sirius hurried into the room, lugging Harry's trunk and broomstick after him and a cautious look on his face. "Sorry, kiddo, they're coming," the man blurted the moment he dropped Harry's things, "I couldn't get your stuff without them realising you were here".

Some traitorous part of Harry leapt at the thought of seeing Ron and Hermione again, but all too quickly he felt the anger that had been burning away at him for most of the summer, removing it from the picture. Just like before he felt too angry for words, but at the same time he felt like he wanted them in front of him now so he could speak (well… not speak, shout) his mind and finally get the answers he felt he deserved from them. The problem with that was that he didn't know if he could speak his mind, he'd been brooding on their 'betrayal' of him ever since he'd first noticed it, for all he knew just looking at them would be enough to blow the top off of the volcano – which considering his power was an apt metaphor.

He didn't want them to suffer – okay he totally wanted them to suffer, but only for what they'd done to him. Guilt, sadness, and most likely the loss of one of their strongest friendships were what he wanted for them. Third degree burns however, were not.

And it was that thought that distracted him from what came next, a large amount of very bushy hair materializing in front of him as Hermione's arms locked into a vice grip around his ribcage.

"HARRY! Harry! Oh Ron! He's here, Harry's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you alright? Have you been – what are you doing?"

As the brunette's babbling cut off, Harry stiffly finished unwrapping her arms from around him and pushed him away, not having felt that awkward since Gilderoy Lockhart had pulled him in front of a whole bookstore to hug him for the camera. It was funny, once Hermione's hugs felt like everything he'd ever craved wrapped up into one, and yet now he couldn't stand to even be touched by her.

"Oh Harry," Hermione blurted, as he glanced past her to see Ron lurking near the doorway, a grin on the redhead's face (That he was not going to punch off, he swore he wasn't). "I know our letters were useless, but we couldn't tell you anything! Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you and you've got things to tell us – the dementors! When we heard – and that Ministry hearing – it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations-"

"I know," Harry interrupted coldly, stepping away from her as Hermione stepped towards him again, "And I'm not getting expelled, I've dealt with it".

Hermione blinked in confusion, "But Professor Dumbledore said-"

"So that's it then?" Harry cut in, bowling straight over the bookworm's objection, "It's Dumbledore?"

"He leads the Order, Harry," Hermione began hesitantly, her massive intellect finally noticing something was wrong. "He made us swear not to tell you anything".

"Did he make you swear to kidnap Hedwig too?" Harry snapped before he could stop himself – not that he was willing to in the first place. "Did he make you swear to lock her in a room with Cornish pixies and starve her?"

"Starve her?" Hermione echoed weakly, half-turning to where a horrified-looking Ron had frozen where he about to jump onto Harry's bed.

"I forgot to feed Hedwig," the redhead exhaled guiltily, "Merlin I can't believe I forgot to feed Hedw-urk!"

Lowering his fist slowly, Harry glared down at the bleeding boy lying on the ground, having broken his promise of not punching Ron without a care in the world. "Did he tell you to do it?" he demanded as he turned back to the startled Hermione, having bypassed fiery rage straight into some strange kind of cold fury.

"He seemed to think it was for the best".

Hermione's response seemed to only make him angrier, if only because he had thought that she had known. Of all the people he had expected this from, Hermione had been the last person on that list, and now as he stood there staring at the determination on her face he found himself mentally swatting himself around the back of his head. Why would he think that Hermione, for all her blind trust in authority figures, would choose him over them?

"He said you were safer with your relatives," Hermione continued, taking his silence as permission to keep talking, "It's why he had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time".

"Well that shows how much he knows doesn't it?" Harry spat darkly, raising an eyebrow challengingly as Hermione gasped. "I mean, it's not like my relatives have been abusing me ever since I was dumped on their doorstep is it?" he asked, part of him slightly amused by the way Sirius was sitting in the corner of the room watching them silently. "It's not like I was attacked by dementors at any time was I?"

"He wab angwy doh!" Ron exclaimed, having pushed himself off the floor with a hand clasped over his nose.

"He was!" Hermione agreed quickly as Harry felt a rush of sheer hatred at the boy's voice. "He was scary. We saw him when he found out that Mundungus had left before his shift had ended, he was so furious! All the lights were flickering and everything was shaking!" she explained with a dramatic wave of her arms. "He told Mundungus that you better not have been Kissed or he'd wish he had been, then he told Ron to clean his room to prepare for your arrival since there was no other choice than to bring you here. Then he left for the Ministry to try stop you from being expelled!"

And just like that everything clicked into place, making Harry blink almost owlishly as his fury flooded out of him and left his anger at a gentle shimmer.

"Oh," he said simply.

"Yes!" Hermione confirmed, nodding her head rapidly and making her hair dance around wildly. "He's been in and out of the house ever since, trying to get you a fair trial!"

Turning his head away from Hermione to watch Hedwig, the snowy owl having finished eating and now sitting there glaring darkly in Ron's direction, Harry just shook his head.

"Get out".

"I- what?"

"I said get out," Harry repeated, turning back to face his two former friends. "Get out, now, before I start screaming at you".

He was so tired all of a sudden, he wanted this conversation over so he could go back to caring for Hedwig and then maybe take a nap and – "But Harry! Dumbledore said-"

"DUMBLEDORE SAID DID HE?" Harry roared, all of his anger coming surging back like a tidal wave and washing away his exhaustion. "DUMBLEDORE SAID? OH YES, LET'S ALL GATHER AROUND AND LISTEN TO WHAT DUMBLEDORE HAS TO SAY SHALL WE?"

"Harry," Hermione whimpered.

"WHAT? HARRY WHAT?" he screamed, stalking away from her into the middle of the room and whirling around. "HARRY HE'S THE HEADMASTER? BIG DEAL!" he yelled, slashing his hand down in front of him, "HE'S THE HEADMASTER NOT A BLOODY GOD! HE STUCK ME WITH THE DURSLEYS WHEN HE KNEW HOW THEY TREATED ME! HE DOESN'T GET TO STEAL MY OWL AND TELL MY FRIENDS NOT TO TALK TO ME, HE DOESN'T! AND YOU!" Harry added, jabbing his finger between the tearing Hermione and the offended-looking Ron "YOU WERE MY BEST FRIENDS! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HELP ME BUT YOU CHOSE DUMBLEDORE OVER ME!"

"We wanted to tell you, Harry, we really did!" Hermione insisted weakly.

"NO YOU DIDN'T! I WOULD HAVE FOUND A WAY! I WOULD HAVE TAKEN ON A DRAGON FOR YOU TWO AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN WRITE ME A BLOODY LETTER BECAUSE THE HEADMASTER TOLD YOU NOT TO! YOU BOTH CHOSE HIM OVER ME AND I HAVE HAD IT!"

Forcibly calming himself down, Harry brutally ignored the tears streaming down Hermione's face as he shot them both a sneer worthy of Snape. "You chose him," he said coldly, purposely keeping his voice down, "Now I'm making my choice, and it's not you".

"You don't mean that, Harry, we're your best mates," Ron blurted dumbly; "We've always got each other's backs don't we?"

"Like you had my back when my name came out of the Goblet of Fire?" Harry drawled, making Ron flinch. "I'll say it one more time, you chose him," he snapped, spitting out the last three words as if they were poisonous. "And now I'm making my choice, I'm looking out for me now, only me".

Turning away from them, Harry walked back over to Hedwig and gently bopped her on the tip of her beak when she just hooted at him softly, looking at him in a way that said she chose him too. "You should leave now," he said over his shoulder as he smiled down at Hedwig, the owl happily hopping onto his offered arm and nuzzling his hand. "Now," he repeated when they didn't move, "Because I wouldn't want me to continue shouting if I were you".

Listening as Ron gently guided a sobbing Hermione from the room, Sirius padding over to shut and lock the door behind them, Harry blinked quickly as tears prickled at his own eyes. He felt empty, and he knew it was his fault, that the emptiness was due to him pushing away the only ones there for him – and yet at the same time he felt fulfilled, like he had finally done something his way, that he had finally done something right.

"I'm proud of you kid," Sirius said, words echoing the ones he'd said earlier as he moved over to gently take Harry into his arms. "I think you made the right choice, no matter how hard it was. You deserve better than that".

Leaning against his godfather, all it took was the man saying "And Pup? I choose you" before Harry was turning his face into Sirius' chest and doing something he hadn't done in years.

He cried.

IGNITION

So this is not how I expected this chapter to go, more of it was spent going over Sirius and Hedwig that dealing with Ron and Hermione, but I think I like it. I didn't think the canon argument was very strong since Harry has already dealt with Dumbledore, but don't worry because this is hardly the only confrontation between the three of them. Right now, Harry's just a little tired - emotionally and physically - so he couldn't put his all into it.

I also want to say "Sorry!" to 'SO-Long-Love', I overreacted and I wish I could say I had had a bad day but there's no excuse. And 'Killy', I'm not sure why you deleted your review since it was a good suggestion, I might try work that quote in later since it's not the most appropriate at the moment.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and I hope you all have a pleasant 2016! Remember that I don't own Harry Potter.

IGNITION