AN: Sorry about missing my updates! Life is hectic and while I've had time to write chapters, getting them posted at the right time has been difficult. As such, I'm going to go ahead and release this one to the wild even though it's not upload day. I think next upload day is the friday after this one, so expect a chapter then!
Harry was a bit nervous as he paced around the living room of the Tonks house. It had been about two weeks since Sirius had his trial, and outside of the celebratory dinner they had had immediately afterwards, Harry hadn't seen his godfather.
In some ways, Harry was relieved about that. Everything regarding that situation was still very fresh, and time to process it was good for Harry. He'd gotten his feelings about what Sirius was to him in line.
He'd also had time to accept the decision of the Wizengamot that Peter Pettigrew was not found guilty for the murder of his parents. Insufficient evidence that Peter was directly responsible for their deaths had been the verdict, and while this did make Harry upset, other charges levied against Pettigrew earned him a life sentence in Azkaban as it was. Harry could accept that. Memories of the night in question were piecemeal at best, and without any real evidence that Pettigrew WAS the secret keeper beyond the word of Sirius, the court simply couldn't rule that he was directly responsible. Surprisingly, it was the time spent with the Weasley's that had earned Pettigrew the worst sentence. A dozen years of sleeping in the same room as a child of a generally well-regarded pillar of Wizarding Society was a hefty thing in the eyes of the Wizengamot, and the sentence had been passed accordingly. Ten years for every year he had done so was considered a fair precedent by the community, and combined with the sentence for not registering his Animagus status for all that time? Pettigrew would be older than Dumbledore when his sentence was finished, assuming he survived it at all.
Moving back to his thoughts of Sirius, those continued to plague Harry a bit. The man by all accounts could have raised him had that Halloween night gone better, and that was odd to Harry. Sirius was still a free man when he handed Harry over to Hagrid, had he expected to come back and pick him up later? Had the Dursleys simply been a temporary measure? If that wasn't the case, why was he taken there? Harry still occasionally saw glimpses of his scars in the bathroom mirror, covered with age and rejuvenation potions, but never fully gone. Should he consider Sirius responsible for that abuse?
Harry had decided he wouldn't. Sirius was flawed certainly, but he'd thrown himself in front of a raging werewolf and a supposed death eater sympathizer for his safety, much less what had happened before he was born. Had Sirius known what the outcome was, Harry doubted he would allow what occurred to happen, if it had still meant the deaths of James and Lily. Sirius had a special love for him that Harry picked up on. It wasn't as Harry the person, it was for the son of his best friend. This didn't preclude the chance that he wouldn't learn to love Harry, not just James' son, but that simply didn't exist yet. It hadn't had time to develop.
The reason for Harry's worrying about Sirius at this moment though, was that he would be arriving at the household today. A short visit, supposedly Sirius had a number of things to talk about with Harry, and these were the kinds of things he hadn't wanted to do… wherever else he had been these past two weeks.
A green flash alerted Harry to someone making their way through the Floo connected fireplace, and Harry saw the familiar face of Remus Lupin. Following behind him in another flash was Sirius, and then finally Andromeda.
"Hello Harry." Sirius offered. There was a smile on his face, his expression friendly, although definitely tired.
"Hello… Mr. Black?" Harry questioned. He hadn't really thought about what he should call Sirius… should he be cordial? Friendly? Harry hated these kinds of situations.
"Please, Mr. Black was my father. I'm Sirius, though you could call me Padfoot if you like, secret being out and all." Sirius said, as he followed Remus to sit on the couch in the living room. Andromeda stepped out to make some tea, motioning for Harry to take a seat in one of the chairs opposite them.
"Sirius then, for now at least. Sorry, I just… don't really know how to deal with this." Harry said, taking a seat in one of the cushioned chairs in the Tonks living room.
"Andy said you might not. It's fine Harry, really. I'd feel pretty weird too if all of this got dropped in my lap like it did you. I can be Sirius, Uncle, Padfoot, whatever you want me to be. That's one of the things we're here to talk about anyway. Thanks Andy." Sirius said, taking the offered tea from Andromeda as she handed it to him.
"You're welcome, you idiot. Now, before you give my son an anxiety attack, how about we get started with why we're here." Andromeda said, handing another cup of tea to Remus, before bringing Harry his favorite. She sat in the chair next to him, scooting it closer to where he could feel her leg touch his. It was an exceedingly calming presence.
"Same old Andy. I'll cut to the chase then. I'm sorry I haven't been around the past couple weeks, after the trial wrapped up and I was free I had a lot I had to do. Registering with the Animagus office, reclaim the Black family Lordship and banking information, and then try and find a place that was livable. On top of that, these two decided I needed to see a mind healer about the trauma from Halloween and the years in Azkaban. They were probably right to do it, but I was hoping to wait a bit to start." Sirius said, taking a sip of tea. "I'm hoping to get the opportunity to visit regularly if you'll let me. That's your decision though. I want to be a part of your life, and I know you're very happy here with Ted and Andy, so I'm not taking you from them if that's a worry."
Harry let out a breath of air he hadn't realized he was holding. That was a worry he had, but it was nice to know it was averted. "I'd like to get to know you better, Sirius. It would be nice to have some connection to who my parents were." Harry said.
"Glad to hear that pup." Sirius said, a smile on his face. "I'm still seeing a mind healer a couple times a week, as well as getting everything sorted out in regards to the home I'm currently living in. There was a house elf taking care of it while I was gone, so it's not filthy or anything, but it is full of some dangerous magic. Curse of being a Black and all. Once I'm sure it's safe I'll let you all come over. I've also started work on seeing what I can do as the head of the Black family. I was removed as the heir after my parents kicked me out, and that all went to Regulus since the girls all were going to be married to other families. Since Regulus is gone however, it defaulted back to me. I'm hoping to use that old name for some good finally. No more dark wizards for the Black family."
"That'll be good. Although Black is such a good name for a dark wizard though. It matches." Andromeda said jokingly.
"You're not wrong there, but it'll be even funnier when the next great good wizard comes along and they're a Black! Speaking of which, I'm still not sure it's possible, but I'd like to un-disown you if you'd let me. We're family Andy, and I'd like that to be the case legally as well." Sirius said. "That'll also make your daughter a Black too, might not mean too much, but it might be a bit of a boon for her. Important name and all that." Sirius said.
"I'm not opposed. If we can turn that family around I'm all for it." Andy said. "It might even make Harry a Black in two ways then!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot that James' Grandmother was a Black. That'll be good for Harry then. Means that if something happened to me making him the head of the Black family won't be too hard, since he's already got the blood in him." Sirius said.
"Why would I need to be head of the Black family?" Harry asked, looking over to Sirius.
"Well, for starters, Azkaban isn't exactly known for being the most healthy of places for it's residents. Twelve years of malnourishment and constant dementor exposure might have caused some… adverse effects. Nothing proven yet, but it's possible that even with a willing lady friend, I might not be able to have kids. I can make piece with that, all things go to plan, you'll be a son I'm proud to have. But beyond that, I could simply get sick normally, or fall off a broom, or any number of things. James and Lily dying did put some things in perspective for me. Life's not a guarantee, and I've already wasted a lot of mine in prison, so I'd like to make the most of what life I have left. So, once I can get everything sorted out, you'll be put first on the list to be the heir to House Black should something happen to me. If I manage to have a kid of my own, you might lose that, but I doubt you'll be too bothered. You're already the heir, soon to be head of House Potter. You'll be fine." Sirius said, looking to Harry. "That actually brings up something else. We need to head to Gringotts after your birthday to talk about getting you properly set up to be the Head of House Potter. Obviously you won't really be able to claim it fully until you're an adult, which I'll have to see if it's been increased or reduced since I've thought about it. It used to be at age 21, although it wouldn't surprise me if it's gone down since then. Since you're the last of your line, you should be able to start claiming some of the benefits after you're 14."
"What would that mean for me though?" Harry asked.
"As much or as little as you want it to. You've seen the Wizengamot, once you are fully the head of House Potter you do have a seat in that body you can use. The preliminary stuff is generally meant for building connections for when you actually do move into the Wizengamot. For example, you and the Longbottom boy are good friends. You will both have seats on the Wizengamot when you come of age, so if you felt strongly about something, then you could talk to him to get him to vote in your favor, even if he didn't have a similarly strong opinion on it. If there was someone who was the actual head while you were the heir, people could use benefits to you as a bargaining chip for the future. Andy's sister Narcissa being Lucius Malfoy's wife came out of one of those deals, since while the Malfoy's had money, they didn't have status in the British wizarding society. Lucius marrying Narcissa fixed that." Sirius said.
Harry felt a bit overwhelmed with all of this. Suddenly he was expected to be a political figure? Why couldn't he just be Harry? "This is… a lot to take in." Harry said.
"Figured it would be pup. Ideally you would have had bits and pieces of this fed to you over your lifetime. I figure that the Greengrass girl would have filled you in a bit on some of this, but I guess she's done less than I figured." Sirius said. "We'll just take it a step at a time. You don't have to do anything if you don't want to. What I've seen from you though, you aren't someone who would just allow the world to pass him by."
Sirius was right about that. Harry liked being forward and present in events. He took charge, often to his own detriment. "You're right, although it's definitely going to take some time to settle."
"Well, you probably won't need to worry about it too much for a while. We'll meet with the goblins after your birthday and get the paperwork sorted out to claim everything. From there, it's a letter to the ministry saying that you are officially starting the process to take over the Potter family. From there it'll just be boring business stuff, like how have investments done over the years that no one in the family was actively controlling them, have there been any attempts to claim the Potter lordship from someone else, that kind of thing." Sirius said. "I've had my hands full with that myself. Lucius Malfoy has been trying to get his hands on the Black lordship since he's married to Narcissa, who would be the person whose line the Blacks would continue through if I weren't around. That wouldn't be allowed until their son is 14 at the earliest though, since Lucius isn't a Black, and Narcissa can't claim the Black title since she married Lucius and became a Malfoy." Sirius said.
Harry nodded as he processed this information. This was certainly more than he expected to be put on him. He had hoped that this meeting with Sirius would be more fun than… well serious, but it seems that wasn't the case. "Alright, is there anything else that needs to be talked about with that?" Harry asked.
"Nope, we'll head to Gringotts in August, probably the first week if I don't have any appointments I need to get to. Now, on to something else then. Pup, how'd you end up with five girls all chasing you? Even James didn't have that many." Sirius asked, a mischievous smile on his face.
"Dad had girls chasing after him?" Harry asked, curious, but hoping to steer the conversation away from his love life.
"Oh yeah, James was probably Hogwarts most eligible bachelor for most of his tenure. Quidditch star, future head of a notable house, and generally a pretty good looking guy. Girls fawned over him, although he never went for them. There was only Lily in his eyes. Fell for her during their first year and never managed to get over her. She didn't give him the time of day until seventh year, but at that point we all knew it was over. Never seen a better couple. Unfortunately, your dad took all of the luck with the ladies with him. Remus and I never managed to have a steady girlfriend all throughout school." Sirius said, laughing a bit.
"I didn't want anyone to have to deal with my Lycanthropy, you wanted to chase anything in a skirt. Don't equate us on that front." Remus said, elbowing Sirius, getting a deep laugh from the man.
"You're right, you're right." Sirius said. "So, how'd you manage it pup? How'd you get them to go along with it?"
Harry flushed a bit, but spoke anyway. He'd gotten used to this line of questioning. "I didn't do much of anything. They all confessed they had feelings for me, and one of them said that I could realistically date them all, since I'd be available to take multiple wives through the whole last of my line thing. It was easier than thinking about choosing between them. Even before they were my girlfriends, they were my best friends. Hurting them wasn't something I was willing to do." Harry said.
"Well, they are right about that. Especially if you marry the Greengrass and Bones girls, their lines will need heirs that came from them." Sirius said. "Sorry, more politics."
"Lavender always told me it was like this for adults. Here I was thinking she was exaggerating." Harry said, sighing and slumping into his chair.
"It's not all bad pup. Once you get the hang of it, you'll learn the benefits of it too. It helps you sleep better at night knowing you're trying to make a difference. That's what your grandpa always told me anyway." Sirius said, smiling towards him.
Conversation turned a good deal lighter after that. Sirius and Harry got to know each other better, with Remus and Andromeda helping to break any tensions by talking about things that might get them going. Sirius was astounded by Harry's dueling prodigy, although was a bit disappointed by his disinterest in Quidditch. He had apparently planned on buying Harry a Firebolt broom for Christmas and getting it sent to the castle, but when he saw Harry wasn't on the team during any games, assumed he didn't need it. Harry on the other hand, happily heard all kinds of stories about his parents, and even some about his paternal grandparents. Sirius had moved in with James shortly following their second year, and as such spent a good deal of time with the older Potters. Harry was happy to get to know slightly more about his family, even if he would never be able to meet them.