Thank you very much to LOBlack for reminding me this fic exists. I enjoy writing, just not on a schedule, and your kind reviews made my day!

The room was dark, with things still floating in the jars Harry still had no desire to know the contents of. He stared at the door to Snape's office in bitter regret of the last time he'd been in here, though the Pensieve was not present.

His dad was a bully, but his mum had forgiven him. His godfather was a good man who had kept his head the whole time they'd been at this, when he had full right to give up his disguise in whatever company he wished, he'd grown out of the impulsive lad who would strike out at somebody else for their own boredom like Malfoy still did.

Lupin picked up the book from Snape's desk, giving a friendly smile to Tonks sprawling across the seat and loudly complaining of how uncomfortable it was. Hermione lit the fireplace much like McGonagall had the first time he'd been in here, giving the place at least some warmth while they were trapped in here. Harry gave a genuine smile as he watched his favorite DADA teacher lean against the desk reading of his most hated teacher, well, in potions. Umbridge was likely equal in his hatred in general, but he'd had reason to hate Snape longer.

When Lupin read out the chapter title, Harry sat on the floor next to Ron by the door, reaching over to whisper to Sirius's soft growls, "best think it as loud as you like now, you're not going to like this."

Neville was gulping and standing dead center of the room, still eyeing the door as if expecting Snape to come in any moment and actually murder him for being in his office where he shouldn't be, he'd had as many nightmares about the scoldings he'd gotten in this place as he had that three-headed dog. Malfoy was the only one in his element, lounging behind Tonks's chair against the wall with an utterly bored expression now, twirling his wand around casually as the book ran down Harry's first few days in the castle.

Sirius was wagging his tail through the majority of it with enough pleasure at first. Mrs. Norris, that had been that old cat's name he couldn't recall! He coughed another laugh and tried to settle comfortably next to his godson as memories resurfaced of all he could tell Harry about his and James's first weeks in school now floating around, it was easy enough to ignore the irony for a bit that they'd finally found their way to the office they'd been meaning to head to back when this mess had started.

He was in such a good mood he barely winced at the idea of Harry not getting all sorts of mail except from the gamekeeper, to busy trying to recall in exact detail a story that involved Remus and Lily he thought his godson would get a kick out of when finally the dreaded moment was being given in more excruciating accuracy than he ever could have cared to remember about old Snivilius, and he had to stare at that ghastly face during Order meetings!

Padfoot was at least trying to restrain himself from growling over every single over-his-age question that was lobbed at Harry and the blatant and hurtful statements made about his godson, but his efforts were still going noticed by them all as his fur bristled on end and his loud displeasure stayed hovering just under the tinner of Remus's every painful word that he was having his own issue getting through; so much so, Harry felt he had no choice. If Sirius kept himself from barking and shouting at the top of his lungs much longer he might figure out how to achieve human speech as a dog soon from sheer frustration he was using his vocal chords so much.

"Hey Neville," Harry said, getting his friend to look at him rather than the black mass of fur that looked ready to bite someone's head off. "I've got something to tell you, and it's a secret. Like, a really big one, but it's not fair he can't say what's on his mind when the rest of us can." Harry swallowed and gave Malfoy one last disgusted look, but his guess back on the platform had been correct, he seemed not at all perturbed by the seemingly sentient dog being so upset on Harry's behalf like Neville clearly was.

"You remember how Sirius Black was, well, 'after me' back in third year?" He even paused to use quotation marks where needed.

"Um, yeah," Neville agreed. Hard to forget as the madman had broken right into their dorm and nearly murdered Ron.

"Well, he wasn't. It was all a set up. He's actually my godfather and um, well, here," he stopped and patted the dog on the back, who still had gray eyes solely on the little red book in disgust, trying to wait as patiently as he was capable of so Neville could digest this first and not stun him again when he spontaneously changed back.

Neville wondered for a moment if Harry was finally starting to show some side-effects of that potion being splashed on him, like vivid delirium. Then he looked again at the strange dog, to Hermione, and then Professor Lupin as if waiting for one of them to say something that would make that go smoother.

When none of that happened, he looked back at Harry and said, "you're telling me that I stunned Sirius Black?"

"And he's not even going to hold a grudge. He does want to rip Snape's ear off though." Harry grinned.

"Well I certainly don't want to be the one to stop that happening," he nodded.

There was the faintest pop, and Sirius was now glowering at Remus, just waiting for him to say something. He however was still scowling down at the little print and doing his best to keep himself from what Sirius happily launched off with. Sirius was an adult and he'd more than proven by even waiting he knew what he was doing.

Instead of launching off into petty insults or even slurs to curse his name to Merlin and back, Sirius turned to Harry and forced himself to speak to his godson without shouting, "do you even realize why that was so insulting to you Harry?"

"Yeah Sirius," Harry huffed, "I get it, he was trying to embarrass me because he hated my dad, Dumebldore told me some of it."

Sirius shook his head slowly and began pacing, running his hands through his hair. He looked quite agitated and very much as if he wished he could go for his wand, though there was nobody here to use it on. "Both of your parents were brilliant at Potions Harry, your dad was raised by two of the best potioneers in history and James was always trying to show off and invent new things to impress Lily. She was a gifted witch, particularly in this class and likely could have answered as well as Hermione! Snape was, he was throwing your past in your face!"

Harry felt his heart sink as low as it could go, right down to the Chamber of Secrets and even farther if the school housed it. "I never knew that."

Sirius sighed without surprise but even more regret. It shouldn't have taken a magical catastrophe for him to share that kind of knowledge with his godson, but this was hands down the most uninterrupted time they'd ever had a chance to spend together. He decided right then he didn't want to spend it dwelling on old grudges involving Snape and making Harry feel worse.

Smoothing out his face and giving the book, mentally Snape, one last scowl, he smiled down at him and promised, "well, there's more where that came from if I have anything to say about it, and now I do!"

Harry laughed softly and nodded his eagerness to that while Remus stopped chewing on his tongue an old bitter regret he'd left his job while waste like this got to keep his. Suddenly the dangers of his condition felt tameable in comparison to what he'd left behind, and he knew Snape had not gotten better with time.

Neville had admittedly let out the smallest squeak in surprise at an old prisoner of Azkaban suddenly being in the room, and an illegal animagus at that, but when he just casually talked to Harry and only gave him the briefest smile it wasn't any more alarming than when McGonagall had done this in class. He didn't even look that much like the photo plastered everywhere a few years back. His face was a bit gaunt, but not nearly as skeletal as it once had been, and his hair was short, he wore clean robes and did not cackle like a mad-man.

Hermione gave him a reassuring pat on the elbow and Ron gave him a thumb's up as he swallowed and took it all in stride, he'd been so distracted he didn't even flush in embarrassment as his first of many catastrophes in that class was explained in detail by Snape's hurtful words of calling him an idiot while he'd been in pain over his very first potion mishap. It was almost nostalgic. Almost.

Tonks sat up in anticipation of what this package could be that Hagrid apparently knew about, she was smiling at the mystery and refused to allow herself to ask the quartet of available kids if they knew, hoping to work it out for herself just out of personal amusement. They already knew what was coming apparently, but she wanted to get some fun out of this. She was busy trying to work out how a troll and three-headed dog could be worked into something being moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts when Remus warned that the chapter was about to be over and to brace for their next impact.