The large black dog took a big sniff of the young man in front of him.

Harry just smiled as the dog glanced up at him and sniffed again. Finally having reached a conclusion, there was a soft pop and the dog was replaced with an overjoyed Sirius Black.

"Harry!" Sirius screamed at the top of his lungs. He grabbed Harry in a hug and pulled him tight.

Harry returned the embrace and was patting his godfather on the back. "Hi Sirius."

Sirius was not going to let go, as tears were actually in his eyes. He knew better than to let that get out.

"Umm… Sirius?"

Sirius sniffled and hugged tighter. He shook his head, making it clear he wasn't going to be letting go from this hug any time soon.

"Sirius," Harry pleaded. "Come on. You're poking me."

Sirius wiped his eyes and pulled away, forgetting that he'd been 'cleaning' in public. "Sorry," Sirius said, unable to stop grinning. "I guess I'm just real happy to see you."

Harry groaned. "Way to stay classy, Padfoot."

Sirius let out one of those familiar barks of laughter. He stepped back and playfully frowned. "You grew up on me! Merlin's balls, you're old, Harry!"

"It's been ten years," Harry admitted ruefully. "And… bugger me. You look younger than I've ever seen you!"

"I know!" Sirius agreed and looked around them. "Crap. I didn't exactly look both ways before transforming just now. You don't think anyone saw us, did you?"

Harry glanced around and didn't see anyone staring at Sirius in awe or fear. "Don't know."

"Let's hope not," Sirius nodded grabbing Harry by the arm and beginning to walk down the street. "You don't have to be anywhere, do you?"

Harry sighed, falling into step with his godfather. "Yes, Sirius. I've followed you into a brand new dimension, managed to locate you, and now have to cut it short for a board meeting before lunch."

Sirius grinned at the thought Harry came after him. "Excellent! We've got lots to catch up on. You ready to go get drunk and trade stories?"

"It's ten in the morning!"

"You're right," Sirius nodded. "The bars probably aren't open yet."

Harry couldn't stop himself from smiling at his godfather's priorities. "Where are you living?"

"Oh good idea! Moony's got some firewhiskey and a bunch of muggle stuff."

"I do want to catch up, Sirius, but are you sure drinking this early is the best idea?"

Sirius led Harry across the street. "I don't know. Are the last ten years of your life anything like the first five at Hogwarts were?"

Harry paused and agreed. "You're right. We need alcohol."

They were on the steps of the flat next to the magically warded cellar when a man dressed like a Ministry Obliviator came scurrying up. "Did you guys see anything like a man-dog around here?"

"He went that way," Sirius and Harry answered in unison, both pointing in the same direction down the street.

The Obliviator hurried off in the direction they pointed without giving another look back at the two men who weren't exactly dressed like the average muggle.

Sirius and Harry grinned at each other. Sirius pointed out, "Great minds-"

"There's nothing great about your-"

"Get inside," Sirius ordered, interrupting Harry right back.

Harry jogged up the steps to the door, shaking his head in disbelief. "I can't believe I found you."

Harry walked into the modest home while Sirius shut the door behind them. Next to the door, Sirius triggered a simple ward that would silence the home from neighbors and the outside world.

"Harry!" He once more screamed as he jumped onto his startled godson's back.

Harry stumbled forward but caught the edge of a chair and kept from falling. He let Sirius hug him again this time from behind, grateful not to be poked. But he drew the line when Sirius started to give him a noogie. Immediately his invisible magical arms sprung to life and lifted Sirius off his back and held him in place a meter off the ground.

Harry crossed his arms and turned around smirking as Sirius was struggling in air, confused as to what was going on.

Sirius saw the look on Harry's face and realized this was intentional controlled magic. "How the hell are you doing this?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Harry smugly retorted.

"Yes, yes, I would like to know," Sirius answered while kicking his legs back in forth in the air.

Harry set his godfather down gently and shrugged. "I think that'll come up a little further into my tale. But I've only been in this dimension for about a day, and I slept through most of that, so you get to go first."

Sirius nodded and was smiling brightly. "Fair enough. First off though, you can relax. The war here's not half as bad as it probably is for you."

"You'd be surprised," Harry offered.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup."

"Nice," Sirius admitted thinking of all the friends he left behind. "Oh! Drinks! You want a beer?"

"Sure."

While Sirius ran off towards the kitchen, Harry took a better look around the place. It looked like Moony's kind of place, but you could tell there was a lot of Tonks' influence with some of the brightly colored shelves. There were quite a few pictures of Tonks, some with Remus, some without, and even a few with people that Harry realized were his parents of this dimension. Some of the ones of Tonks and Remus were from when Tonks was frighteningly young, but Harry couldn't deny the happiness in their eyes.

One picture immediately caught Harry's eye and he picked it up to examine it closer. The two people waving in the back were undoubtedly, James and Lily Potter, but the two people in front, Harry realized, were what could have been his brother and sister. Harry doubted he'd managed to have an older sister or reddish brown hair, so he got the feeling the Harry Potter of this world died a long time ago.

"Am I dead, Sirius?"

"I hope not," Sirius came back and handed Harry a beer. "Oh… yeah. In this world, you died Halloween 1981."

"And you?"

"Your loving, caring, valiant godfather tried to hold off Voldemort and protect you, but he was killed moments before you did that night."

Harry sipped his beer wondering how he felt about that. "That was twenty-five years ago, wasn't it?"

Sirius grinned as he sat back on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. "Feels like only fifteen, if you ask me."

"Fifteen?" Harry asked. "Are you telling me the Ministry obliviated the ten years you spent in between worlds in the Kingdom of Sensual Pleasure?"

Sirius looked at Harry in surprise and wonder.

"Someone took their gullibility potion, I see," Harry victoriously muttered.

"That's not fair," Sirius argued realizing he may not have spent a decade in a place Harry may have made up. "Because for all the good those Unspeakables did, I still think they obliviated me."

"How's that?"

"Alright," Sirius decided. "So you saw me dueling my cousin, right?"

"More like mocking her and not taking-"

"Yes, yes, that's right," Sirius interrupted. "Not my finest moment. Anyways, she hit me with that blood freezing curse that sent me flying into the veil."

"Blood freezing?" Harry repeated. "Is that what it was?"

Sirius nodded. "Nasty bugger. Very dark because untreated or countered it'll kill you in about five minutes. Paralyzes you immediately and just slowly gets colder and colder. I saw Moony holding you back as I fell into the veil. It all went black for me then. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in a hospital bed in a new dimension. They tell me I've been unconscious and healing for three weeks. The Unspeakables informed me that they interrogated me with veritaserum."

"You don't remember being interrogated?"

Sirius shook his head. "They said I was real messed up but able to talk. I don't know. I don't remember. But they have been a damn sight better than the Ministry back in our world. Set me up with a full nutritional regiment to get me back to pre-Azkaban health, including some expensive mind healing cheering potion treatment, all on their tab. It's why I'm still a little doped up now. Got three more days of progressively weaker doses."

"Expensive cheering potions?"

Sirius shrugged. "I didn't understand it, but there's no denying the end result is a sexy beast."

"You don't remember anything of your time in the Exit?"

Sirius shrugged. "The Unspeakables told me I probably moved through time not just into a new dimension."

"They're wrong," Harry retorted. "You were probably stuck in between dimensions for just shy of ten years."

"How do you figure that?"

"The day you showed up in this dimension was the day I activated the Exit back in ours."

"You know how to activate it?"

Harry shook his head. "Not really, but I've been studying the damn thing for four months."

"Bloody hell, Harry! I just realized you jumped into the Veil! What the hell were you thinking?"

Harry looked a little ashamed at the return of the over-protective godfather attitude. "It wasn't intentional. Besides we're getting sidetracked. The Ministry here fixed you up, drugged you, may have obliviated you, and then what?"

Sirius took a long drink and answered. "I'm a free man, in a new dimension, with absolutely nothing to my name. While I was still healing and staying in St. Mungos they asked if I wanted anyone to come see me. I asked for Moony. I hadn't even considered the possibility that your dad might have been alive."

"Or me?"

"Last I saw you, you had enough problems. Anyways, Moony came to visit me and got the abridged story of my life. Tonks came to visit almost as much and she knows it all too. When the Mediwitch said I could go, Moony said I could always stay with him. Considering he bought this flat with the money he inherited from my death in this dimension, I figured I'd take him up on the offer. Some nights I'll crash on Tonks' couch, but yeah. That's been my life so far."

"Sirius?" Harry asked curiously. "What about James and Lily? You haven't talked to Prongs?"

Sirius pouted and didn't look Harry in the eye. "I met him, but that pillock is nothing like the James Potter that was my best friend."

Harry held back a smile at Sirius' childish behavior. "How is he-"

"He doesn't even like pranks!"

Harry bit his lip at how outraged Sirius was. "That complete bastard."

"He came over with his son, James, junior," Sirius grumbled. "I was all set to surprise him and reveal to him who I really was, where I was from, the works. He didn't even know me, and he was telling his son about how an attitude like mine would never make it in the aurors."

"Well I don't think it would ma-"

"That's not the point," Sirius interrupted. "It's the way he looked down on me just because Moony and I were goofing around. Moony thinks he was probably the same James I knew up until that Halloween."

"So he doesn't know?"

Sirius shook his head. "He thinks I'm some cousin of this world's Sirius Black." Sirius frowned and sipped his beer. "Of course he'll probably figure the truth out when you meet him."

Harry was watching his godfather. "Are you… jealous?"

"Well I just got you back," Sirius pointed out. "And you've got the chance of a lifetime to meet your parents."

"You're pathetic."

"I missed you," Sirius whined. "And now that I've met the monstrosity he's become, I miss Prongs too."

"Monstrosity?"

"He's everything we swore never to become."

"A Death Eater?"

"No," Sirius said with distaste. "Worse. He's a mature adult. A cautious, careful, responsible person who lost his sense of humor and got a stick jammed up his-"

"Egads Padfoot," Harry stopped him. "I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself starting up negotiations with bizarro Prongs over joint custody visits with me. Do you even want to stay in this dimension any longer?"

"As opposed to going back? Or looking for a better alternate dimension?"

"Damn," Harry cursed. "I never even thought about looking for another one."

"Wait, so you know how to get back?"

Harry shrugged. "I was going to suggest the two of us jump into the Exit and see where it takes us."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Boy you really have unraveled the mystery of that thing, haven't you?"

Harry realized this plan would fall under the stupid category and grimaced. "Not to mention you missed out on the fun of that ride."

"It's that pleasant?"

"Probably the worst form of magical transportation I've encountered and I've hated just about all of them, so that's saying something."

"You think maybe you'd want to stay here?" Sirius asked hopefully.

Harry winced a little. "There's a Voldemort here. There isn't one at home. He's kind of a pain in the ass."

"But there isn't a Boy-Who-Lived here. Nor a dangerous but innocent Azkaban escapee either. I know for a fact they're both pains in the arse."

"We're broke. We have absolutely nothing."

"I'm working on a home, and something tells me we'd be able to get by."

"What about our friends back home? You've got family too."

"Who are all already convinced I'm dead, and apparently have been for ten years. I mean I know you'd be starting from scratch, but on the plus side, you would be starting from scratch. No stares, no preconceptions, no ulterior motives, no one will have a clue what that scar on your forehead is from."

Harry was rubbing his chin in thought. "I really don't have any idea what jumping into the Exit will do or where it will take us."

"Why are we even having this conversation then?" Sirius declared. "As far as this world's Voldemort goes, I say fuck him. Don't even give him a second thought."

"I really can't find it in me to care about him," Harry admitted in slight shock. "I suppose he did kill us in this dimension, but by the same argument we may have never been able to come here, if he hadn't."

"Exactly," Sirius agreed before thinking about what Harry said. "What?"

"It's possible that we came to this particular dimension because our counterparts were gone, meaning that just about any dimension we can get to will be one where we were Death Eater fodder," Harry explained. "Maybe."

"Why?"

"Well I mean, maybe we can only be here because our other bodies are dead."

"You've crossed a gateway to a new dimension and you're thinking about the limits to what's possible?"

"Okay fine, whatever, I thought you were trying to convince me to stay."

"Hey, you believe whatever you want and if it works for you," Sirius said with an exaggerated shrug. "All I know is it's a lot harder to pick up chicks who've spent a decade thinking I was the Dark Lord's favorite and a psychopathic killer. Even then sometimes the ones I could pick up aren't exactly the safest way to spend an evening."

"Good point, Padfoot," Harry nodded. "We should definitely base this decision on where we're going to get the most play."

"Well, if you were willing to use your fame," Sirius argued, "then maybe I can see-"

"I was being sarcastic."

"So are you up for staying here?" Sirius asked. "You could get to know your parents."

"Now they're a selling point?"

"No, but I figure a pitiful little orphan boy who never got a chance-"

"Bite me, Sirius. And don't be so melodramatic and jealous. The James and Lily Potter of this world are a middle-aged married couple that had to bury their infant son 25 years ago. Meeting them won't tell me hardly anything about my parents, two people who died so I could live. And now I have to placate your fragile ego despite the fact that I just chased you, my real godfather who did inadvertently die to protect me, across dimensions."

"Whoa now! You don't get to trip and fall into the veil claiming you chased after me."

Harry was smiling brightly getting the chance to just bicker back and forth again with Sirius. "Why do you think I cared so much about the Exit and spent the last few months studying it?"

Sirius grinned back. "Fine, if you chased after me, then I died a bloody hero protecting you, not inadvertently."

"I'll get started on your medal right away. Getting hit with a blood freezing curse directly in front of the Exit because you were taunting your cousin sounds like at least an Order of Moron, Second Class."

"Second Class?" Sirius demanded. "What do I have to do to get a First Class?"

"Stay dead," Harry smirked.

"Ouch," Sirius chuckled. "Merlin it's good to see you, Harry."

"You're not going to hug me again, are you?"

Sirius stood up threateningly. "No, I'm going to get another beer. Ready for your next?"

"Sure," Harry agreed handing Sirius his empty bottle. When Sirius reached the kitchen Harry's eyes were drawn to the picture he'd set down. "Hey Padfoot, you never mentioned anything about Lily here. Or their kids."

"I met James Jr. just briefly," Sirius called out. "Seemed like a nice enough kid. Didn't care if I called him Jimmy, though the pillock was as annoyed by that name as he used to be back in school. Seeing you now though, I mean you've got Prongs' hair more, but you don't look like him near as much as you used to. James Jr. looks more like his dad than you do."

"How old is he?"

"Seventeen I think," Sirius answered handing Harry another beer. "He's finishing up his sixth year now. Moony figures he's a shoo-in for Head Boy. Come to think of it, were you Head Boy?"

"I didn't go to Hogwarts for my seventh year," Harry explained. "Had more important things to do."

"What?" Sirius gasped. "I can't believe Dumbledore would let you get away with that."

"Dumbledore was dead by then," Harry flatly stated. "And you haven't finished telling me about the Potters of this world. Lily? The girl's name?"

"Sarah Potter, twenty years old, studying healing and apprenticing to Madame Pomfrey at Hogwarts. Lily's teaching Muggle Studies there. I've not met either of them, but Tonks and Moony insist they're both delightful people. Of course they think the same thing about the anti-Marauder. Now your turn. Go."

"Wow," Harry slowly drawled. "The warmth of the family I never knew is overwhelming in your descriptions. But if that's how we're going to play this game. Let's see fifth year, Department of Mysteries, you died. Dumbledore told me the prophecy that night. Pretty crappy night all around. Sixth year, learned a little about horcruxes and Voldemort. Dumbledore got killed by Snape-"

"What!"

"Yeah, Snivellus," Harry agreed. "Some cocked-up plan where Dumbledore sort of made him do it. But things went to hell in a hand basket after that. Me, Ron, and Hermione ditched school to track down the horcruxes so that Voldemort could at least be theoretically killed. Some good times, some bad times, a lot of studying, took our NEWTs, but six years later all three of us survived and we'd pulled it off. Voldemort was dead for good, I'd killed a number of the more pesky minions along the way, and the rest were easy enough for the Ministry to round up. Since then, the last couple of years have been peaceful and well… boring to be honest."

"No, no, no," Sirius said shaking his head. "You don't get to gloss over everything like that. I need some details."

Harry sighed. "You're really going to force me to relive some of my worst memories?"

Sirius stared at Harry and saw a mixture of amusement and a little bit of genuine apprehension. "Dammit. Fine. I'll get more stories from you as I can dig them out. But give me something at least. Killing Voldemort, how'd that feel?"

Harry took a big drink of his beer and carefully considered his words. "Truthfully? It felt fucking fantastic. Every other time I've been responsible for a death or had to take a life I've felt sadness and anger at the situation. But killing him was better than grabbing the snitch from right under some prick's nose. I felt alive more than I ever have. It was disgusting, gory, messy, and hurt like hell, but to kneel over what was left of his body and to watch it burn was amazing and cleansing and therapeutic and blissful. There really aren't words for the complete and total sense of righteousness I felt. I won, he lost. I lived, he died. And I did it without stooping to half of the shit he did."

"Damn," Sirius whispered watching Harry's little monologue.

"What?"

"You looked a little scary there."

"Might be because I am a little scary."

"Damn."

"What now?"

"I just realized you're not going to be able to leave this world's Voldemort alone."

Harry shook his head. "No no. I'm more than happy to leave him alone. This world's Voldemort hasn't done anything to me."

"Besides murder you as an infant?"

"The Voldemort who crapped on my life has been dealt with. Maybe there's a dead baby Harry with a score to settle with this Voldemort, but right now this particular Harry couldn't care less."

"And what happens when you start to care about the people in this dimension?"

Harry sighed. "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it. But if we're starting from scratch, then we're not carrying any old grudges."

"Sorry, I still hate Wormtail and Bella."

"If this world's James seems so different, why's it so hard to believe others might be even more different?"

"But Harry…" Sirius moaned.

"Fine, I hate them too. I'm just saying this Voldemort's done nothing to us, Harry and Sirius the dimension travelers, so I have no desire to have anything to do with him."

"Us?" Sirius grinned. "I'm automatically included in your inevitable quest for vengeance?"

"Everyone I give a damn about in this dimension so far is in this room," Harry shrugged. "I'm grateful to the Unspeakables, Moony, and Tonks for taking care of you, but yes, us. And as low-key as this world's Voldemort has been, there stands a decent chance our paths will never cross."

Sirius just laughed at Harry, making no attempts to calm down.

Harry pouted silently and drank his beer.

"Whatever happened to Peter?" Sirius asked softly before adding louder, "Or Bella?"

"Dead and dead," Harry said. "That's one of the nastier memories."

"Feel up to sharing that one?"

"When's Moony or Tonks getting home?"

"Moony's off work at five and apparates home, so right around then. Tonks' schedule fluctuates a bit more, but usually checks in on me before six."

"You want to go get us something a little stronger and I'll tell you this one?"

Sirius agreed without question and hopped back towards the kitchen to fetch the firewhiskey.

"First thing you should know is the prophecy," Harry yelled down the hall towards Sirius.

"Either must die at the hand of the other?" Sirius called back. "That the one?"

"Yeah. How'd you know that?"

"Same prophecy here," Sirius explained as he poured two small glasses of firewhiskey. "Only people think it's about Neville. Or it used to be."

"Neville? Used to be?"

Sirius took a small sip of his firewhiskey and lay down on the couch. "Long story. Yours first."

Harry nodded and began. "There was a line in the prophecy about he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. The moment Peter and Bella died was the moment the Dark Lord found out a little about that power."

"Is this that thing where you lifted me up and held me there?"

Harry smiled and sent an invisible arm towards his godfather.

Sirius yelped rubbing his shirt. "That's awesome! You have got to teach me how you cast a wandless nipple twisting curse."

"I doubt I'll be able to because that wasn't a spell," Harry said with a shake of his head. "Not exactly."

"Well it sure smarts like one," Sirius said tenderly pushing on his chest.

"After we'd taken our NEWTs," Harry explained. "I needed to focus my studies and wanted to get really good at a field or a style of dueling. I'd heard my mum was pretty impressive at charms and my dad at transfiguration. I'd seen Dumbledore using transfiguration in a duel and it was… it was on a whole different level."

"You transfigured my nipple?"

"No, transfiguration I was decent at, probably as good as Hermione, but it would've taken years to reach even McGonagall's level of mastery. No, after a few days of musing I decided I wanted to master the summoning charm. I'd always been pretty good at that one and I wanted to see how far I could take it."

Sirius was mumbling in confusion to himself. "You summoned my nipple?"

"First I learned it silent, then wandless. After that silent and wandless both was a piece of cake and within just a couple weeks I could summon with only a thought, no hand motion, no movement, no words."

Sirius was impressed listening to Harry.

"After summoning I figured I'd try banishing. Took a bit of work, but pretty soon I could change a light bulb without ever getting off the couch, or even looking up."

Harry grinned at his godfather. "I could completely control nearly all physical aspects of my immediate environment. The more complicated things got the more focused I had to be but it was fun searching for limits. Distances took a lot more control and tired me quickly. After a while we asked Professor Flitwick for advice on directions to improve my talent for this particular branch of charms."

Harry chuckled. "That little bugger was squeaking and chirping with joy. He couldn't believe the level of control I had and it was his idea to take a look at the magic being cast. Are you familiar with any oculamagi spells?"

"Yeah," Sirius said pulling out the wand Tonks had given him. He cast the spell and asked, "What am I looking for?"

Harry cast the same spell and saw their bodies were softly glowing indicating they were wizards. "Can you see the magic glowing around my body?"

Sirius nodded before jumping back in surprise as a ghostly magical hand shot out from Harry's body straight towards him. It stopped just before Sirius and grabbed his beer before he could spill it.

"Careful there Padfoot," Harry grinned. "You almost spilled your beer."

"What the hell is that?"

Harry had extended his usual half dozen arms and they were all floating gently in the ambient waves of magic. "These are what my magic manifested due to my constant combination of summoning and banishing charms." One of his extended arms tweaked Sirius on the nose and patted him on the back.

"I'm not sure if there's a limit to the number of arms I can call up, but I did extensive training keeping six of them always up."

"You've got some extra arms," Sirius said. "Did you really need to train yourself how to use them?"

"I'm still figuring out uses for them," Harry said and pushed himself up into the air with three of them.

Sirius could see them lifting Harry in the air, but it was weird seeing only the magic without anything physical behind them. He could see how it appeared Harry could hover at will.

Harry swiftly and smoothly held his physical arms out and pretended to fly in the air towards Sirius stopping just before him. His magical arms extended as he arced backwards away and landed gently right in his seat. "In most duels, I don't even get hit with a spell," Harry added as suddenly six nearby objects began hovering protectively around him each held in magical arms that overlapped and crisscrossed as they floated.

"Damn," Sirius admitted canceling the oculamagi spell on his eyes. "Without seeing the magic it looks even more impressive."

Harry set all the items back where they belonged and let his magical arms dissipate. "And they saved my life when I was captured and held by Death Eaters."

"Bugger," Sirius admitted pouring himself a little more firewhiskey.

"Draco fucking Malfoy," Harry spat the name out, "put Dobby under the Imperius and forced the house elf to slip me a Draught of Living Death. I woke up chained in a magically warded cell. Three days of listening to a few of the idiots spew their usual rubbish, shoving me around, spitting on me, and trying to act superior. But it was clear that I was to be saved for their Master. Finally, Bellatrix put me in magic inhibiting cuffs and led me towards a small meeting room.

"To this day, I'm still slightly curious at what the Dark Lord was going to say but I never gave him the chance. As soon as she led me up to his horribly clichéd throne, I saw the two other Death Eaters already standing by him were Lucius Malfoy and Wormtail. She was about to hand Voldemort my wand when I made my move.

"The magic inhibiting cuffs stop magic channeling out from your hands and wrists but my invisible magical arms were free. And all of my magic had woken up ready and waiting as soon as I got out from the wards of that cell. Voldemort reached out to take my wand from her when he picked up on my magic in the air and stopped short. He looked me straight in the eye right as all six of my arms grabbed their targets and pulled. Three simultaneous cracks echoed around the room as Bellatrix, Lucius, and Peter's heads twisted violently. They all fell to the ground dead from their broken necks while I just stared at Voldemort."

Harry took a large gulp of firewhiskey. "I felt a little sick at the sound, but I saw fear in Voldemort's eyes." Harry shrugged and finished anticlimactically "Then I grabbed my wand, found a broom, and alternated between blocking spells and throwing objects at Voldemort. I took quite a few wrong turns, but eventually escaped."

"Fuck a little scary," Sirius whispered to himself. "You're a lot scary."

"On a completely unrelated side note, if you ever happen to try apparating while wearing magic inhibiting cuffs, you should know that you'll splinch your hands off at the wrist."

Sirius laughed out loud. "Totally unrelated, I'm sure."

"The best part, aside from taking out those three, was Voldemort got a lot more cautious and his attacks slowed down to a trickle." Harry took another drink. "It was when I got back that I found out Voldemort had been busy in the three days he had me locked up."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all," Sirius pointed out in an effort to ease the tension.

Harry sighed tiredly in remembrance. "He drew the aurors to Azkaban in a bit of misdirection and attacked personally in Hogsmeade, during a Hogsmeade weekend."

"Oh," Sirius winced at the thought of students.

"Thing is, you remember the DA?"

"Rebellious little study group you started up, sure."

"Well, after me, Ron, and Hermione didn't return to Hogwarts a few members took it upon themselves to keep the group going, one of those being-"

"Holy crap! Ginny?"

Harry looked at his godfather in surprise. He was about to answer affirmatively when he realized Sirius wasn't even looking at him.

A soft familiar voice spoke up from over Harry's shoulder. "Hi Sirius."

Harry closed his eyes not even wanting to look up. "Aww… bugger."