A/N Sorry for the delay in posting. I was away on vacation for a few days. Too much sun and not enough internet access. Thanks for taking the time to review! Your opinions and ideas really help me set the tone of the story.

I promise that the next few chapters will be out much faster. Not much excitement in today's chapter though. We have a lot of background to establish first! Bear with me, lol.

Curlybean, I have a little something for you today. ;)

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It was official. His hand was permanently damaged.

Harry sat at the little dining table in Sirius' sitting room, stacks of books piled all around him, a thick roll of parchment in front of him. Even though he had been working for hours, ever since they had gotten back from Hogsmeade, he still only had three feet of his monster of an essay done.

Grunting in pain, he flexed his writing hand. He turned his head to where his godfather was sitting on the sofa grading papers. Maybe, if he was very lucky, Sirius would let him stop working for the night. He had tried, about an hour earlier, to convince his godfather to show him a little leniency with no luck. Harry found his response entirely unfair. It was his bloody paper after all! Harry was sure that Sirius knew how sorry he was for the misdeeds with the spells. He had certainly apologized enough for it!

He had just opened his mouth to ask, when he was stopped abruptly by Sirius' voice.

"I said no, young man," he stated firmly, without even turning around. The cranky boy glared at his godfather's back wondering why he got stuck with the guardian with a sixth sense for whinging.

"My hand is ready to fall off, Sirius," he moaned half-heartedly, feeling a bit put out. He had been working on it diligently for quite some time and he was getting hungry.

"Then I promise that I will spell it back on for you," Sirius teased. "You won't even be able to tell the difference."

Against his will, a smile started to tug at the corners of Harry's mouth. It was hard to whinge when he was being made fun of by his good humored godfather.

"Well, can't I just stop until we eat then? I'm getting really hungry," he wheedled, knowing how Sirius felt about his eating habits.

"We agreed that you would do homework until six o'clock and then we would have dinner," Sirius reminded him. "You don't have to work on your essay anymore, but you do have to work on something."

Harry groaned and leaned back into his chair in defeat. A quick glance at the clock over the mantle told him that is was just a little after five. Looking at the three blank feet of parchment still in front of him, his hand started to ache again. He promised himself that he would never be careless with spells again.

"Besides, how can you be hungry again so soon?" Sirius asked in surprise. "You had that enormous lunch at The Three Broomsticks and I even let you get a bag of sweets from Honeydukes. Which, by the way, I noticed are all gone," he scolded, finally turning around and giving Harry his patented displeased-godfather glare.

Harry thought back to the brilliant day they had just had. They didn't do anything out of the ordinary for Hogsmeade. Just lunch at The Three Broomsticks, which Harry had never seen half empty before. Apparently it was fairly quiet on non-Hogwarts weekends. Madame Rosemerta was a big fan of Sirius'. She fussed and fawned all over them and kept refilling Harry's hot chocolate mug steadily in order to shamelessly flirt with his godfather. A couple of times it had been so bad that Harry seriously feared for the hasty reappearance of the steak and kidney pie he had eaten.

Afterwards, they shopped in Zonko's, Sirius getting a bit of the mischievous gleam back in his eye as he saw all the new products. He bought Harry a large bag of them with the proviso that he share with Ron and the twins and that he promise to not use any of them on his poor old defenseless godfather. A stipulation that made Harry snort rather loudly and earned him a few stares as his mind raced with visions of replacing all of his godfather's quills with ones that sprayed stinksap.

Then Sirius had dragged a protesting Harry to the barber and allowed the ancient looking proprietor to hack at the unruly mop with particular vengeance. After being handed a small mirror and seeing the short tufts of hair that remained, albeit still unruly, Harry glared at Sirius menacingly until he was taken to Honeydukes and allowed to run wild. He bought bags of sweets for himself as well as Ron and Hermione, demolishing his own within an hour of returning to Hogwarts and being firmly put at the table to work for three hours.

All in all, it had been a great day for Harry. Not the least of the reasons being that he had spent the time with his godfather. Sirius could make anything seem ten times more fun and interesting than it would normally be just by exuding his own unique brand of enthusiasm.

"I'm a growing boy," he answered cheekily, rubbing his good hand through his newly shorn hair. He wrinkled his nose at the length. "I can't believe you let them cut my hair this short. You don't wear your hair this short," he grumped, looking accusingly at his godfather's shoulder length tresses.

Sirius sighed. "It'll grow back." He turned back to his work, but not before flicking his wand to send a banana sailing across the room from the fruit bowl on the coffee table over to Harry. "Enough stalling. Back to work."

Harry huffed and then began to peel the yellow fruit before pulling his books towards him again. "You're just as bad as Hermione. You know that, don't you?" Harry accused him between bites.

His godfather snickered from the sofa. "Remind me to thank her then. For clearly, she is the reason you have managed to scrape the grades that you have earned so far." He didn't have to see the scowl on Harry's face to know that there was now one there.

"I worked really hard all summer and she wasn't even there," Harry grumbled, somewhat affronted by the accusation. Sirius heard the underlying hurt tone in the boy's voice and wondered if his teasing had gone too far.

"I know you did," he soothed. "And I am very proud of the work you accomplished." He glanced up and saw that Harry's feathers seemed to be a little less ruffled. His godson really had worked very hard on his extra lessons and, on the whole, had complained much less about them than he thought he would.

Sighing unhappily, Harry picked his quill back up. "Does it really have to be six whole feet? I mean, that's massive for an essay!" Sirius threw his quill back down. At this rate he was never going to get any work done.

"Yes, Harry James. It has to be six whole feet. Remember that it's not just an assignment, it's a punishment. A well deserved one, I might add. It's not supposed to be fun." He leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose, the start of a headache definitely on the way. "You should be grateful that I'm having you do it."

Harry's eyebrows shot through the roof at the absurd statement. "Grateful? Why should I be grateful for a punishment that is injuring body parts I'm going to need again someday?" he asked incredulously, waiving his injured limb around for proof. He was still smarting from hearing his godfather use his first and middle names. He felt three years old when Sirius did that.

Sirius turned back around and gave him a stern look.

"Because, if I had not assigned this to you, you would have been serving a week long detention writing lines with Professor McGonagall for that little stunt you pulled, like Mr. Malfoy received. I managed to convince her that I would handle everything myself. Personally, I thought that having to research and write an appropriate essay might be more appealing to you than what your original punishments were going to be." He paused to watch as the blood drained from his godson's face in realization.

"Of course, if you are unhappy with my solution, I could always give her a quick fire call and tell her that you have changed your mind," he added threateningly.

Harry sat back up in his seat and pulled to the parchment towards him. "No sir. I'll do the essay," he responded sullenly, both his writing hand and his backside twinging in fear of the alternatives.

Smirking, Sirius faced back towards his own work. "I thought you would see it my way."

*************

For early September, the weather had turned a bit brisk and Remus found himself pulling his practically threadbare robe tighter around his thin frame. He reminded himself again to get some new ones. With the money that Sirius had insisted on depositing into his Gringott's account, he no longer had monetary worries, but years of frugal habits were hard to overcome. He hated the fact that he was practically rendered unable to provide for himself. All of those years of hard studying, in the hopes that scholastic achievement would outweigh cross species prejudice, had proved for naught.

By great fortune, in the absence of monetary wealth, he had been blessed with a wealth of love and friendship in the forms of James Potter and Sirius Black. It pained him to think about how he had failed them both when they both needed it most. No amount of persuasion from either Harry, on behalf of his parents or Sirius, on behalf of himself could convince him that he had not.

Sirius, no matter how much he wanted to assume all the blame for the demise of James and Lily, could not absolve Remus of the guilt he felt for believing Sirius guilty of betraying them. Even when his lifelong friend had begged his own pardon for suspecting him of the same, the tortured werewolf had not released himself from his endless torment of knowing that he watched an innocent man go to the darkest place on Earth for twelve long years. He had been so blinded by pain and loss he had not been capable of rational thought at the time and had allowed himself to be convinced of something he would never have truly believed for a moment on his own.

And Harry, with his large green trusting eyes, Harry had never, for one moment, laid any of the blame for his parents' death at Remus' feet. Not one word of recrimination from the boy, either regarding Remus' failure at helping to ensure their safety or allowing the unjust imprisonment of the one person who could have raised him in a loving home away from the cruel dispassionate Muggles that despised him. When Albus told Remus that Lily's abhorred sister and brother-in-law were to be the ones to raise the sweet bubbly baby that had captured all of their hearts, Remus had pleaded for another solution.

Albus' swift rejection, citing the blood protection and the certain rejection of his guardianship by the Ministry, had cut him to his core leading to his estrangement from his former headmaster and friend for several years. It wasn't until Albus had finally tracked him down and implored him to come teach at Hogwarts that they had made amends. In deference to the debt he owed Albus for painstakingly arranging his schooling when it was not thought possible and, even more, the chance to finally become reaquainted with the boy he had loved like a son, he agreed.

To see Sirius and Harry finally together as they always should have been after the horrific deaths of their beloved friends, warmed Remus' heart like he had never thought possible. In just a few short months, he had been joyously watching as both godfather and son blossomed before his eyes. With a loving father figure in his life, Harry had lost much of his hard, defiant exterior and had become more of a regular teen-aged boy. As for Sirius, Remus would never have believed the transformation of his reckless irresponsible friend into adoring firm father if he had not seen it with his own eyes.

Pushing forward into the brisk pre-autumn wind, he made his way towards the odd shaped ramshackle dwelling that was his destination. There was a matter that was both concerning Sirius and potentially endangering Harry. Remus was making it his mission to resolve the situation. He would no longer sit back and watch the two most important people in his life become endangered. He would no longer be blind to potential threats and false information.

Approaching the door, he gritted his teeth and steeled his resolve. He rapped on the door sharply and waited tensely until the tall man with the shocking red hair opened it and smiled warmly at him.

"Remus! What a nice surprise," Arthur greeted him cordially. "What brings you here, today."

Forcing a smile, Remus took a deep breath. "Arthur, I need your help. I need to know everything that has been going on with Alastor Moody lately."

Arthur Weasley frowned briefly at the sharp underlining tone of the normally affable man's voice. Nodding agreeably, he stepped back and invited formidable looking former professor into his home.

Remus Lupin had the soul of a saint, but the heart of a werewolf. Merlin help the one that tried to hurt his loved ones.

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Neither Harry nor Ron could remember when they had ever been so dirty in their lives. What had promised to be another grand adventure in undiscovered castle rooms, had instead been hot, grungy and boring work. Their demeanors were vastly different from what they had been a couple of hours before.

**

"Alright, lads. What are the rules?" Sirius asked with his arms crossed over his chest. The three were in the first of several small filthy rooms in the Astronomy tower that Sirius had picked to re-organize.

"Don't leave the room we working in," Harry answered, rolling his eyes.

"Don't touch anything we don't recognize," Ron chimed in, smirking.

"Don't open boxes without you," Harry added, huffing impatiently.

Sirius repressed a smile at the obvious affronted tone in their voices. Raising an eyebrow he apprised them critically. "And the most important one?"

"Don't do anything dangerous that we would normally do," they replied in unison, cheeks flushing and voices pinched at the reminder of their usual mischief.

Sirius let out a small snort. "Good. I'll be upstairs working on lesson plans for an hour or so, and then I'll come back down and join you." He gave them a quick wink and then strode out of the room.

Left to their buckets of soapy water and rags, the two boys appraised the room to decide where to begin. Both of them considered spending a couple of hours each Sunday helping Sirius clean out the tower rooms to be a brilliant idea.

Ron was pleased with the idea entirely. Of course, the money was nice, meaning he would now be able to buy something really special for Hermione's birthday. The event held more importance than before as he was not entirely sure she had forgiven him for the debacle after Harry's birthday. But, more than that, he would be spending time with Harry. It was hard getting used to not having his best mate around all the time now that they were back in school.

Sure, he had been spending time with Hermione, but she was keeping herself quite busy with studies and S.P.E.W. Ron didn't want to spend all of his time in the library, after all. Besides which, lately he was finding it a bit uncomfortable to spend too much time with her. He wasn't sure why. He actually enjoyed being around her. It just seemed as if he was enjoying it a little too much. The thought disturbed him somehow.

As for the other Gryffindor boys, Neville was caught up in the book that Professor Moody had given him the day of the Unforgivables demonstration and Seamus and Dean had their own dynamic that he didn't really want to intrude upon. Fred and George were keeping completely to themselves these days. Even Lee Jordan was around them less than usual. Ron knew that something was going on with them, but he was keeping his thoughts to himself. He had learned his lesson about snooping around the twins' business uninvited.

Harry was just happy to get away from his school work for a while. His godfather was being annoyingly firm regarding his study habits. Harry was used to studying when and where it suited him, which, most likely, was the basis of his less than stellar grades so far. Sure, his grades were okay, but they were nothing really special. Harry was entertaining ideas of becoming an auror, but Sirius had been quick to point out that he would never make it with his academic record so far.

Feeling a bit put out by the bluntly honest comment, Harry had given his godfather quite a shirty remark about how he was not his father nor his godfather. Both of whom, he knew, had excelled academically with seemingly little effort. Keeping his temper in check, Sirius had told him that no one expected him to be either James or himself, but the Auror department did not take anyone with Harry's grades and he would do well to remember that if he wanted to be among their privileged ranks. He also gave the boy a stern glare as he told him that he and his father had studied quite a bit, thank you very much, regardless of what Remus may have told him. Remus had been an earlier, even more studious, version of Hermione. In his opinion, no one could ever have studied too much.

It wasn't as if his godfather was pushing him in the direction of Auror. Harry had no idea of the sleepless nights Sirius spent wondering if his godson would have any future at all. But even though Harry knew he should appreciate all the prodding Sirius was doing in getting him ahead academically, he still found himself bristling over his methods. For his part, Sirius was not so much worried about Harry's career choices as he was about his godson having the best possible chance of saving his own life. Hence, his determination that Harry would study as much as he could make him.

So both boys had started the afternoon in a very good mood, despite the lecture from Sirius before they began. They didn't even mind the first hour as they sorted and scrubbed, becoming blacker with accumulated grime as time wore on. There were all manner of discarded textbooks and files full of the decaying parchment of old Astronomy assignments. The students of Hogwarts had usually found Astronomy to be a dry dull subject and their opinion of the scholastic material was reflected in the apathetic contents of the stacks of essays and charts.

Throwing the brittle yellowing papers into a pile in the corner, they took turns reading some of the more humorous and sarcastic comments to each other to pass the time.

"This is all just a bunch of rubbish!" Ron exclaimed, as he added another foot high stack to the pile. "No one wanted to take the bloody class anyway."

Harry snorted. "Well, they do now," he laughed good naturedly. It was true. Enthusiasm for Astronomy had increased exponentially ever since Professor Black had taken the academic helm.

Ron smiled back. "That's true enough. Sirius is a brilliant professor. I actually want to pay attention, now."

Harry rolled his eyes at the comment. A teacher had to be inspiring indeed to make Ron want to go to class. They shared another minute of laughter before Ron's expression became contemplative.

"How do you like having him here? Honestly," he asked his mate. As much as Ron missed Harry's regular presence, there was no denying that his friend was much happier than he usually was.

Harry was quiet for a moment, his forehead wrinkled in concentration as he pondered his answer. How did he make Ron understand how grateful he was for his godfather's presence without making himself look juvenile and pathetic?

"I'm happy he's here, Ron," he finally answered simply. Sneaking a quick glance at his best friend's face, he decided to damn the consequences and be truthful. To a degree.

"I have a lot of things to deal with. Things in my past, memories of my parents I didn't know I had. He's helping me through it."

Ron looked up in concern and with more than a little bit of hurt. Harry had always come to him with his problems in the past. He suddenly found himself feeling a little put out with the knowledge that Harry's godfather was taking his place in that respect.

For his part, Harry could tell immediately what was upsetting his friend and rushed to assure him. "He knew them, Ron. Better than anyone else. I really need him to talk to me about them. I need to know what their lives were like. Why they did what they did." He pleaded with his eyes for his friend to understand. "No one else can help me with this, not even Remus. He wasn't as close to them at the end as Sirius was. You know what I mean?"

Ron forced himself to nod. He wanted to understand. Deep down he knew that Harry had the right to learn everything he could about his parents and if Sirius could help him with this, who was Ron to deny him? It didn't mean that he missed his friend any less though.

Harry couldn't share with Ron how much he needed Sirius' steadfast paternal love and guidance. That was just too personal.

In near silence, the boys resumed their tiring gritty work.

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Harry was stalling.

He knew it. Sirius knew it. It didn't matter. He was still stalling. As the clock ticked dangerously towards seven o'clock, he sat determinedly at the table, pushing around pieces of the treacle tart that he normally could not get enough of. Sirius had made a special point of having it at the dinner table tonight, hoping that Harry would be a little cheered. His godfather watched him with an appraising eye, unsure of what to do or say to make the next few hours of Harry's life as painless as possible.

Sirius was still fairly upset over Harry's insistence that he not intervene with the detention that Snape had set for him for seemingly no reason. The concerned godfather felt that it was nothing less than his parental duty to march down into the dungeons and physically shake an explanation out of Snivellous. Certainly, it would be cathartic for him to make the greasy git squirm and worry a bit over his fate like he had done to Sirius' child. The mere idea of it brought a small smile to the handsome face with the hard gray eyes. But, for Harry's sake, he held his temper. The boy had pleaded with him to not get involved just yet.

Finally, it was ten minutes before he was due in the dungeons. Sirius leaned over and straightened Harry's tie. He didn't want Snape to be able to give Harry more of a hard time if he perceived that they boy was being insolent with sloppy dress for a formal detention.

"You'd better get going, Harry," he warned quietly. "You don't want to be late and give Professor Snape more ammunition against you."

Groaning, Harry slid out of his chair and put his robe back on. Tonight was going to be endless, he mused silently. Snape had several disgusting and demeaning chores that he handed out during a detention. Harry's stomach lurched involuntarily as he wondered which one it was going to be.

Probably the cruelest one he can think of, the boy thought miserably.

Sirius stood up as well and gave Harry a quick hug. "Just keep your mouth closed and do what he tells you to do. No need to give him a reason to assign you another one, okay?"

Harry nodded dejectedly and grabbed his book bag from the sofa. He headed towards the door but was stopped by his godfather's hand on his shoulder.

"Harry, if he tries to make you do anything that is not in the normal scope of a detention, I want you to leave and come right back here, okay? You are under no obligation to be tortured by him. I'll take care of it if he is overstepping his bounds. Don't do anything yourself. Do you hear me?"

Harry nodded again. "Yes, sir." He wasn't scared of Snape anymore, regardless of Sirius' fears. He just felt completely put out that he had spent the whole summer trying to get his potions professor to think better of him and he had, apparently, completely failed. Snape was just as bitter and cruel as he had always been.

Wishing his godfather a good night, he trudged down the stairs and across the corridors in the direction of the dungeons.

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In the darkened corridor, Harry paused for a brief second before pushing open the heavy oak door that led into the potions classroom. At the far end, Snape sat at his desk, his sallow skin looking even more jaundiced than usual in the dim torchlight of the large room. He didn't seem to have any expression on his face at all as he concentrated on whatever it was on his desk that he was reading.

As quietly and quickly as he could, Harry made his way up the aisle between the class tables and stopped in front of the desk. Not wanting to incur the man's wrath this early on, he remained silently standing, waiting for Snape to acknowledge his appearance. After a few long agonizing minutes, Snape finally deigned to glare at him from between the greasy curtains of his black hair.

"Mister Potter," he drawled sneeringly, "how lovely to see you this evening."

Harry choked back a rude retort after reminding himself of Sirius' warning.

"Good evening, Professor Snape," he greeted as politely as he could.

Snape looked appraisingly at him for a short moment before rising from his desk.

"Put your things away and take out your wand. We shall be picking back up where we left off with your lessons. You have been practicing, I hope."

Harry blinked several times. His face was a mask of confusion at the man's words. Was this what his professor had planned all along?

Severus saw the disbelieving look on Potter's face and grimaced. Merlin save me from the idiocy of this boy! Taking a deep breath, he glared at Harry, who was still standing dumbfounded.

"Surely, you understood that I needed a ruse to explain your presence here this evening? I was under the impression that you knew of my unique circumstances that would not allow for you to be seen with me with any regularity without a good reason?"

"Uh, um..I," Harry stammered in disbelief.

Severus let out a very loud huff. "Stupid boy! How else did you think we were going to be able to continue your lessons without attracting unwanted attention? Didn't your mutt of a godfather suspect that this might be the reason you were summoned here this evening? I don't like the man but I never thought that he was particularly daft."

He was met with a blank stare as Harry mentally tried to accept the sudden turnabout in circumstances. Frustrated, Snape just spun about and set up two chairs in their usual positions. Without being told, Harry sauntered over and took his place, trying desperately to calm his mind enough to properly assume the necessary concentration.

Sitting down across from the boy, Severus adjusted his robes into a more comfortable position. "By the way, Potter. I managed to save a small portion of the potion that I banished from your cauldron. I was pleasantly surprised that it was far beyond your normal work. You will receive an E for your efforts."

Harry dropped his concentration and almost choked as he processed the words. Snape suppressed a snort from seeing the boy's comical response. He couldn't resist taking taking another shot at him.

"I will, of course, be taking the credit for your miraculous new grasp of the subject matter. Clearly you have been making the effort to utilize my superb book."

Watching Harry's jaw drop, he seized the opportunity to draw his wand and attack. "Legilimens!"

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