When Harry went to bed that night, he was so tired that he forgot to clear his mind. While that might not have been the direct cause of the nightmares that followed, it certainly didn't help.

In his dream, he was taking the OWL exam for DADA. Except, when he looked down, it wasn't himself sitting there, but Snape. Or, as much of the Potions teacher he could make out from glancing at himself without a mirror.

Fear struck him. Harry knew what would happen next, but like in all dreams, he couldn't make himself do what he wanted. His legs did not carry him to the common room, but outside. And too soon, they were at him. Disarming him, turning him upside down, showing off his underwear to the entire school.

It was worse than Snape's memory. Harry saw that Dudley was now with them. His cousin was snickering with his dad, and Sirius. As Harry spun around in the air, he could see that Dudley was a wizard. His wand was out, hexing Harry, shouting that hexing the freak was more fun than Harry Hunting. His dad had an arm around his shoulder, and they kept spinning him around, even making him dance upside down, and he was powerless to stop them...

Harry didn't realize he was awake, nor that he was screaming, until Sirius was there. His wand gave enough light to show that his godfather had climbed into the bed next to Harry, and Sirius now held him close.

He almost wanted to push his godfather away-he'd been in the dream as well as the real event-but he needed the comfort Sirius provided.

Anyway, it had been mostly his father who had hexed Snape.

Harry wrapped his arms around Sirius's shoulders, tightly, as though he would leave the moment he let go.

"That must have been some bad dream?" Sirius asked, his voice soft, the way it always was when Harry had a nightmare.

He nodded, then felt like all the air had been taken from the room. He tried to take deep breaths, but couldn't get his lungs to fill.

"Easy, easy," Sirius soothed, releasing him, but keeping his hands on Harry's shoulders. "Watch me, pup. In, and out. In and out."

As he spoke, he punctuated this by deep breaths, then exhaling them. Harry managed to do the same. It helped-a bit.

"Thanks," he whispered.

Sirius held him close, again, and Harry almost wished he was a small child so he could sit on his godfather's lap and be completely surrounded by him. As though reading his thoughts, Sirius spoke.

"Want me to do a shrinking charm on you?" Sirius asked, teasingly.

Harry forced a laugh, but it ended up a sob.

Sirius sighed, running a hand over Harry's hair. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"It-it wasn't like before. I wasn't at the department of mysteries, or watching you or Cedric die," Harry began. At Sirius's encouraging nod, he forced himself to continue. "You remember the memory I saw? It was that, except it was me. And Dudley was there, and he was hexing me, too, and Dad was laughing with him."

Sirius squeezed his shoulders. "That's a bloody nightmare for sure."

Harry managed a nod. "He wouldn't, would he? If that had been me?"

Sirius's brow furrowed. "Hmm?"

"My dad. He wouldn't have hexed me like that, in front of everyone?" Harry explained, looking down at the covers. "I mean..."

Harry trailed off. When he'd arrived at Hogwarts, his robes had been new, but his muggle clothes were still Dudley's cast offs. Not that anyone could tell, with the robes covering everything, and Harry was pretty sure that the house elves or someone had performed shrinking charms to make the clothes fit him better. Even so, he knew that he'd been scrawny and certainly not as cared for as his father had been.

In another universe, would his father have bullied him, just like he had with Snape?

Sirius rose, and for a moment, Harry thought he had angered him, but then he reached out and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"I believe that is a conversation that needs hot chocolate. Maybe some cake, too," Sirius explained to what was surely Harry's confused look. He removed the top blanket and beckoned Harry to remove the next one. "Now, I'm the first to admit that this house isn't very homey, but with an expansion charm, the couch in the sitting room can be quite comfortable. Will you come with me, pup?"

Nodding, Harry removed another blanket from the bed, and followed Sirius downstairs. The air had a chill to it, so Harry wrapped it around him after they had made their way past the stairs.

He watched as Sirius prepared the hot chocolate, feeling a bit calmer as the odor filled the air. Sirius beckoned him to come close, as soon as he finished putting in the ingredients, and put an arm around Harry. He noticed that he was shorter than his godfather, but not by more than half a head. Sirius let go when the hot drink was ready, but kept an arm around his shoulder as they made their way to the couch. Before sitting down, Sirius waved his wand to expand it, and it became large enough for two people to comfortably sleep in. Which may, Harry thought, be what Sirius intended.

"I'd been thinking," Sirius began, sitting close to Harry but wrapping his hands firmly around his mug, "and while I wouldn't say it was a good thing you had that dream, I had wanted to talk about this further, but without hurting you. I know we left things a bit unfinished, thanks to that good for nothing former undersecretary of the dolt Fudge."

Ordinarily, Harry would have smiled at the description, but he couldn't, not really, so he contented himself with nodding and taking a sip of hot chocolate. A warmth spread through him, and then, he managed a smile.

Sirius reached over, again, and placed his nearest arm around Harry's shoulder, careful not to spill either of our drinks. Harry curled into him. Maybe it was the light or the drink, but he felt much better than just fifteen minutes earlier.

"First off, you need to know that your dad was a decent kid," Sirius began. "We met on the train for the first time. We both came from pure-blooded families, but your dad wasn't part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight-"

"The what?" Harry interrupted, then, immediately added, "Sorry."

"That's all right, Harry. You can interrupt me with any questions you may have," Sirius said, gently. "The Sacred Twenty-Eight is a group of twenty-eight wizarding families whose bloodlines were known to be of completely wizarding families as of the beginning of this century. My family limited my brother and my contact with children, before Hogwarts, to families from the twenty-eight. The ones that they approved of, of course. They also wanted us to marry into one of those families, but didn't get their way there. Make sense, pup?"

Harry frowned a bit. "So...my dad wasn't pure-blood?"

Not that it mattered, but he had always thought he was a half blood. Muggle born mum, and dad from an entire wizarding family. But from what Sirius said, that wasn't the case...

"No, he was," Sirius corrected. "All of his family were witches and wizards. And his dad made the sleakeazy potion, so they were very rich. But, Harry, your last name is well known, and they were friendly with muggles, so even though there was no proof that anyone from his family was not a witch or a wizard, they didn't make the cut. Not that it bothered them," Sirius added, with a smile. "There are probably lots of other wizards who meet the standard definition of pure-blood, but aren't on the list. It's just something that people who are on can boast about. However, as they weren't part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, it meant that we didn't meet until Hogwarts. You understand?"

Harry nodded, then took another sip of hot chocolate.

"Anyway, your dad was an only child. I believe his parents had him a bit later in life. It wasn't like the Malfoys, who just wanted to produce a male heir and then be finished. I expect their mum and dad would have loved to have more kids. But it was just him. I don't think he was lonely growing up, but James certainly looked forward to going to school," Sirius continued. Having finished with their drinks, he held Harry close, and carefully wrapped the two blankets around both of them. Then, Sirius placed one hand on his head, and began smoothing his hair back with his hands.

Harry let out a small sigh, and Sirius chuckled. "You going to fall asleep, puppy?"

"I won't," Harry promised, keeping his eyes opened.

Still smoothing his hair, Sirius continued. "Even though we had just met, neither of us liked Snape very much. The first time we heard him spoke, he was talking to your mum, telling her she had to be placed in Slytherin?"

Harry's eyes widened. "He did what?"

"They knew each other from before. Don't know if they went to a muggle school together, but they lived in the same neighborhood. Well, sort of. Lily lived in a much nicer part, but still walking distance from Snape. I didn't know this until much later," Sirius explained. "And they had become friends, so of course, Snape wanted her in his house. Now, it's not unheard of for a muggle born to end up in Slytherin, and as far as I know no one's died after being placed there, but with all that pure blood nonsense, you can see that it's hardly the best place for them. Which Snape should have known. Of course, we didn't know Lily was muggle born, then. But your dad could speak his mind without thinking even then, and with a real Gryffindor as a dad, he said how horrible the house was. It led to a rivalry between the two of them, and since my family had all been there, I suppose I encouraged your dad more than I should."

"Did you start hexing each other right away?" Harry asked, enthrallment by the story usurping his sleepiness.

"We were first years, pup. The only magic we could do in the beginning was shoot sparks with our wands. Sure, you could cause a burn if they didn't go out by the time they reached their intended target, but we were hardly using hexes on each other in the hallways," Sirius explained.

Harry frowned a bit. "You told me in my fourth year that Snape knew more hexes than half the seventh years."

"Sure, he knew the incantations," Sirius corrected, gently. "Didn't mean he had enough training to use them. Not until maybe our fourth year? That's when we started learning curses and counter-curses. Not that we didn't learn disarming and the like in our second year, and a couple of other charms that could serve as useful in a fight. But the powerful stuff came later. And that's when things really heated up." Sirius sighed a bit. "Didn't help that we were sure we were about to reach the point of becoming animagi, except we weren't there yet. That was at the beginning of our fifth year. We studied loads over the summer. Our parents assumed that they had given us extra homework to prepare for our OWL year."

"When did you figure it out in your fifth year?" Harry asked, curling in a bit closer.

Sirius's arms, already snug against Harry's frame, tightened to give him extra comfort. "Mid October. Made it in time for the full moon. We told Remus beforehand. He wouldn't let us see him in the hospital wing the first two years, the damage was so bad. In our third year, we could see what a toll his body went through. We looked forward to making it easier for him."

"And you did?" Harry asked.

"To an extent," Sirius allowed. "It was physically painful even with us there. For an animagus, the change is painless. Not just that. You don't feel anything, really. I could change while half asleep and not think much about it. But Remus felt every bone being twisted, every organ...he tried not to yell out when we were there, but he never managed. Even with the Wolfsbane potion, the physical pain is there. It just lets him keep his mind."

Harry winced. "And going through that every month for years..."

"I don't know how he manages, sometimes. Not just the pain, but the ostracism from the wizarding world for having been bitten. In no small part to that Umbridge bitch," Sirius practically snarled. "When Snape went sniffing around trying to find out what was going on...well, pup, I am hardly proud of what I said, and I am grateful that your dad saved both of our skins. Thing is, as much ad I loved your dad, I think his act sort of inflated his head. Because he saved Snape's life, and Snape still hated him." Sirius sighed. "Had all of us been a bit more mature, we could have agreed to stop fighting each other. Instead, James saw Snape as in his debt, a notion that Dumbledore likely encouraged, and he used this as justification to hurt him."

Harry, still enjoying the feel of Sirius's hands on his head, nodded a bit. He knew that if he ever saved Malfoy's life, he would relish it. Of course, based on the memory, it seemed more like his Dad had been Malfoy, at least for a little. And thinking of being in debt to Malfoy for that reason made him physically ill. Had that been what Snape had felt?

"And so, on that day...?" Harry trailed off.

Sirius stared Harry in the eye. "Pup, I don't remember that day. Nor does Remus. Pensieves tell what happened, and while memories can be tampered with, I don't think that was the case. After all, he hadn't been intending for you to see it."

Stung, Harry lowered his gaze.

"I don't mean it that way," Sirius corrected, quickly. "I only mean that if Snape wanted you to see it, he could have changed it. That's all. I don't remember how it ended, but I don't think we took his pants off. That's something at least one of us would have remembered. Not that it justifies what we did to him."

"Why...did you just do stuff like that to him?" Harry asked, quietly.

"We were all pretty popular, and yeah, your dad would sometimes hex his classmates for fun. They usually retaliated, though." Sirius began to run a hand through Harry's hair again. "The spell that turned him upside down-everyone used that on their peers. Taught us to wear shorts under our robes. 'Specially the girls. Lily was off limits for that, though, as far as your dad was concerned."

This was new information, and suddenly, it changed things. Sure, disarming Snape and choking him with soap was still abhorrent...but if he'd been aware that he could be turned upside down at any moment a teacher wasn't there-and by the sound of it, all students were aware of this-well, it was still two on one bullying, because they hadn't stopped. But it wasn't quite as atrocious.

Still...

"My friends and I don't do that, though. Even Malfoy, who's a real prat and a bully, he doesn't hex us," Harry said, slowly. "And I don't see a lot of hexing for fun going 'round Hogwarts, either."

Sirius sighed. "Remember, we were in the middle of a war, Harry. Voldemort had been in power for oven ten years until that night he tried to kill you. We heard whispers about what he was doing even in our first year. And Snape...he had a better knowledge of hexes than most of the NEWT level students. Your dad hated the dark arts, more than anything, and we were getting a good idea from our families just how much power Voldemort had taken. With Snape being friends with would be Death Eaters and barely hiding his support of Voldemort...pup, your dad probably thought he was justified to mess with him. Looking back, we could have done a lot more to prevent him from joining Voldemort by being decent, maybe."

Harry felt himself nod. It made sense, more than what Sirius and Lupin had told him at school. Especially the part about Voldemort being in power during their time at Hogwarts. Hadn't he and Ron confronted and hexed Malfoy over, in part, his father being a Death Eater? Not that they ever acted first...or swung him upside down in front of the school.

That bit still hurt, to see his father behave so horribly. Harry knew he'd never be able to see his father in the same light as before. As much as he wished he'd never seen Snape's memory, he wished his father hadn't acted like such a prat. At least, Sirius was able to put it in perspective.

All the same, Harry didn't think he would have wanted to be friends with his dad back then, which he told Sirius.

"I don't reckon I'd want to be friends with Dad, least in his fifth year," Harry admitted, turning to study Sirius's reaction.

Sirius gave Harry a wry smile. "The four of us, well, 'sides Remus, were rather narcissistic. Mind you, pup, our hearts were in a good place by becoming animagi. We wanted to make things easier for Remus."

"I know," Harry assured him.

"All the same," Sirius continued, rather self-deprecatingly, "it sure put our noses high in the air. That, and not needing to study much for exams, knowing we'd earn full marks without it. James was a bit worse than me, being a Quidditch star as well as really smart, an animagus, very popular, and handsome. Not unlike a certain godson I know," Sirius added, giving Harry a squeeze, who chuckled a bit awkwardly. "Really, it's a good thing your dad did deflate his head by the time we were in seventh year, or you might not have been born, pup," Sirius finished, rather playfully. "But your dad wasn't cruel to every student. Had he seen you, especially in those hand me downs from your whale of a cousin, he likely would have wanted to be friends with you. Or, at the very least, be kind to you. He might have hexed or pranked people who deserved it, but you, puppy, would never have been one of them."

Harry felt the last of the doubt vanish. Instead, he tried to imagine it. Going to Hogwarts during his dad's time, maybe using Polyjuice or something so they didn't look nearly identical. Meeting on the train. If they had met during their first years, he might have liked him. He wouldn't have been as full of himself, then. It would have been later that Harry would have needed to worry a bit. Of course, had Harry been a first year when his dad was a fifth year, his dad would have had better things to do than disarm and turn upside down a first year student. Especially one in his house.

He nodded, then swallowed hard. "Okay."

It was not so different than the conversation from before, although certainly more reassuring and putting his dad's behavior in context. It didn't excuse his actions towards Snape, but Harry felt that he could understand them a bit more.

Besides, laying next to Sirius, being cuddled and reassured by the next closest thing to his dad, he could almost laugh at the nightmare, and certainly dismiss it as just that.

"I can't tell you how much I wish he had lived," Sirius murmured, hand still stroking Harry's hair. "He should have been here to talk to you about all of this. I do think, pup, that once you see some of my memories in the pensieve, you will get a better sense of your dad."

"D'you know when it will be here?" Harry wondered, trying to hide a yawn.

"Dumbledore sent me an owl that Fawkes would deliver it tomorrow. He needed it for the lessons you will have together, something to do with preparation, but we can use it for the rest of the holidays. I will owl him on the first day of term so that Fawkes can retrieve it. Because it's rather large for a regular owl to carry," Sirius explained.

Harry tried to hide another yawn, and nodded. "Okay."

Sirius wrapped the blankets around himself and Harry more securely. "Let's say we stay down here tonight."

Harry nodded. "Would you keep doing that with my hair for a bit?" he asked, hopefully.

"Sure. Your mum loved that, too. Said it made her feel a bit like a cat, though," Sirius snickered. "I would say that I should chase her around the house, then."

Harry snickered, setting himself closer against his godfather. One arm was already wrapped snugly around him, and the other traced the back of his head, occasionally brushing pieces away from his face. A part of him wondered if his hair would be even more messy than usual the following day, but another part of him didn't care in the least.

"Thanks, Sirius," he mumbled.

"Anytime, puppy," Sirius answered, softy. "I love you, Harry."

"Love you too," he barely managed to whisper.

A cloud of contentment poured over him, and he found himself falling into a far more peaceful sleep than before.

A/N: I, like Harry, thought that what James and (to a lesser extent) Sirius did to Snape in the "Snape's Worst Memory" chapter of the fifth book was just short of the torture curse, and should have had the two of them expelled, possibly thrown into Azkaban for at least a month. Unfortunately, due to the politics of Hogwarts and the wizarding world, it's unlikely that either of them were punished. Even though Sirius and Remus did a passable job of talking to Harry about his dad's behavior, I believe that Harry only "got over it" quickly because there were larger events at stake. We do see a reference to his discomfort in the sixth book-when he tells Remus that his dad had used the levicorpus spell. And Remus, of course, knew exactly what Harry was talking about.

In light of this, I wanted the topic to come up again, free from time restraints in fear of getting caught by teachers, and after Sirius had had a chance to think about what he would want to say. At the same time, Sirius, of all people, was not likely to bring up such an uncomfortable and painful topic.

Hence, the nightmare. And, because Harry had been bullied by Dudley, it made sense to include him in it.

The end result, I believe, is more satisfying than what we saw in canon. While I would never compare my writing skills to JKR, and realize that not everything can be wrapped up neatly in Harry Potter, I did want this (and other things) to have a better resolution.

Please take a few minutes to leave feedback. I'd really appreciate it! :)

Up next: More fluff, featuring a very ticklish Harry and a Sirius who, it turns out, gives very good foot massages.