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He opened the door to his bedroom, when he saw it. He dropped his trunk.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he almost yelled but could keep it down enough to not alarm his parents.

On his bed sat a huge, black dog.

"You are," Draco continued, closing the door behind him, "without a doubt," he locked the door and turned around to face the tail-wagging and panting dog, "the biggest idiot I have ever met."

Sirius turned into his human form. "Oh come on," he whined, "what am I supposed to do all alone in the Forbidden Forest for two weeks? Contemplate how sad and miserable my life is? No thanks. I think I've done enough of that already. And by the way, you are still pretty young, I'm sure you'll meet bigger idiots."

Draco was quite sure that he wouldn't.

"What if my parents find you? Have you even thought this through?" he asked, still shocked. He used his wand to cast a privacy charm. It wouldn't do for his parents to hear him talking to Sirius.

"It was more of a spontaneous decision, really," he admitted.

Draco blinked a couple of times, gobsmacked. "How did you even get here?"

"Jumped on the train in my dog form," he shrugged his shoulders, "does it really matter?"

"No. You can't stay here!"

"Why not? Christmas is the time of the year where you are supposed to be with your family. We are family. You said so yourself."

"Really? First you don't trust me at all and now you want to spend two whole weeks with me and my family?" Draco asked.

"Well, you are a Slytherin," he said as if it would explain everything.

"So what? Pettigrew was a Gryffindor. Does that mean all Gryffindors are treacherous rats? Besides, if you don't like Slytherins, you are definitely in the wrong house, hypocritical bastard," Draco was really having enough of Sirius' dislike of Slytherin. Two out of four people helping him were in Slytherin. It was time he got over that.

Sirius' face fell. "You are right. Everything you say makes perfect sense. It's just… after being alone for nearly 13 years and then meeting you guys and finally having friends and hope again… I just really didn't want to spend Christmas alone."

Draco's anger vanished immediately. "I'm sorry," he muttered. He knew how sad Christmas could be if you couldn't spend it with the people you love. Christmas after his father had been arrested had been a sad affair. The first Christmas without Astoria had been a nightmare. Scorpius had refused to open any of his presents and they had just sat at the table, pushing their breakfast around the plate with their forks, avoiding looking in the direction of the empty chair next to them. His son had taken it hard and Draco, in his own grief, hadn't really known how to deal with it. How to offer comfort when he himself was lacking it. "I guess you can stay in my room. You'll have to sleep on the floor in your dog form, though. And hide under the bed if someone comes in."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Sirius tried to pull Draco into a hug, but he stepped aside.

"So, what do you want to do now? My parents will probably leave me alone till dinner. To unpack," Draco rolled his eyes. As if he ever really unpacked. He left everything in his trunk and only took out what he needed. He did not know why he even bothered bringing his trunk - he had enough clothes at home.

"I don't know. Can you tell me about what happened after I got arrested? The people mostly - I know most of the facts. Cissy, your mother, what did she do? What happened to Neville's parents? How is Harry?"

"I'm not sure if you are going to like any of it, but okay. Father did not go to Azkaban, obviously. He claimed to have been acting under the Imperius curse," he risked a glance in Sirius' direction. His eyebrows were lowered and he clenched his jaw but he did not say anything, so Draco continued. "Aunt Bellatrix... she and Rudolphus and Rabastan... and Barty Crouch Junior..." He took a deep breath. "It was already after his downfall. They captured the Longbottoms and... used the Cruciatus curse on them. I don't know for how long but... it was extensive. They were tortured for longer than anyone who had survived such an attack ever head. All four of them were caught and sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban but... the Longbottoms never recovered. They're in the permanent ward at St. Mungo's."

Sirius' expression had darkened considerably and he was clenching and unclenching his fists. "I- I should have been there, maybe I could have..." he trailed off.

"It's not your fault," Draco said. "I don't think you could have done anything for them."

"It's not just them. I shouldn't have gone after Peter on my own. I should have taken care of Harry. I should have... It's my biggest regret. One of them, at least. I am such an idiot!"

Draco did not say anything. He agreed. Sirius should have prioritized taking care of a helpless baby over getting revenge. But who was he to judge stupid decisions made in the heat of a moment. "We are trying to find a cure for them, Neville and I," he finally continued.

"You... you think there might be one?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "No one has ever seriously looked into it and we do know a potion to reverse some of the nerve damage caused by the curse..."

Sirius seemed lost in thought, so Draco decided to change the topic. "Harry is in Gryffindor." That got Sirius attention. "But we are not exactly friends, so I don't know how much I can tell you about him."

"That's okay. How is he in school? Does he have friends? What kind of person is he?"

Draco pondered his questions for a bit. "He is a good guy. Great Quidditch player. He's seeker. Got on the team in his first year."

"Ah, he is just like James," Sirius said, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"He has a few friends. Ron Weasley, the guy with the rat, and Hermione Granger. She's a m-muggleborn but the best witch in our year. Neville's friends with them too, so you should probably ask him those questions. He's mediocre in school. Has issues with Snape-"

At that, Sirius laughed. "Like father like son, I suppose."

Draco frowned. "He always says Harry is like his father. I guess you would take it as a compliment, but I don't think he intends for it to be one..."

"Tzz," Sirius huffed, "How did old Snivellus become a professor, anyway? Poor kids."

"Hey! He is my godfather and I won't let you talk about him like this."

"I'm sure he is a Death Eater!" Sirius bellowed, all signs of good humor gone.

Draco's eyes narrowed. "Says the guy who spent a decade in Azkaban for being one. Dumbledore thinks he's alright and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hire anyone who would harm the students." Well, that was a lie, but Draco hoped that Dumbledore would at least not knowingly hire a danger to the students.

"Oh, I'm sure it is all just an act. The greasy git would betray our side in a heartbeat if it worked to his advantage."

"Stop it! You don't even know him!"

"I know enough!"

"Right," Draco spat, "because you are such a wonderful judge of character when it comes to who is good and who's not."

A flash of pain flickered across Sirius' face.

"I-I'm sorry," Draco said, regretting his words immediately.

"He really doesn't deserve your kindness, you know?" Sirius said, but most of his anger had left him.

"He really doesn't deserve your hatred. He saved Harry's life a few times already. Would a Death Eater do that?" Draco explained, calmly.

"Saved his life? Why would he even need to save his life?"

"Ehm, there was a teacher who wanted to kill him. Long story," Draco muttered, quickly summarizing the most important details, knowing full well that he was somewhat undermining the argument he had made earlier about Dumbledore's employment policy.

"Snape saved Harry? And I am working together with a Slytherin. What a weird world this is."

"Sirius, I am really sorry about what I said. But if you want to stay here, you have to accept that you can't insult the people I care about. It doesn't matter who they are or what they did in the past. As long as you stay here you will not insult Snape, my family or Slytherin! Have I made myself clear?"

Sirius just bobbed his head.

"How is Remus as a professor? What does he teach?" he finally tried to change the subject.

"Professor Lupin? DADA. So he will probably only stay for a year. Never had a DADA professor for longer than that. He's good though. Knows what he's doing. Seems to enjoy it, too."

"Hmm… Could I send him a letter, maybe? Let him know that I'm innocent."

Draco frowned. "I'm not sure this is a good idea. Snape already thinks he is helping you. If he finds that letter…"

Sirius made a face at the mention of Snape but didn't say anything. "He won't. We can charm the letter so only he can read it."

They argued about this a little longer but in the end, Draco agreed to send Lupin a letter.

"Dear Moony," Sirius dictated.

"Moony?" Draco asked but still wrote it down.

"It's a nickname," he said. As Draco already knew Lupin's secret, he found it was quite an obvious one. A miracle, really, that no one had ever found out about it.

"Dear Moony, I am innocent and I will prove it. Merry Christmas, Padfoot."

"Another nickname?" Draco asked and rolled his eyes. "Is that all you want to say, Padfoot?"

"Oh, what I want to say would fill a thousand letters. But this will do for now. Come January he will know that I am innocent. Everyone will know then."

A knock at the door interrupted them.

"Hide," whispered Draco and motioned Sirius under his bed. He grabbed the letter and hid it under his pillow and then grabbed his wand to end the privacy charm.

"Yes?" Draco called.

"Draco, darling," it was his mother, "may I come in."

Draco checked one last time whether he could tell Sirius was in his room. When he was sufficiently convinced that he could not been seen, he said, "Sure. Come in."

His mother entered and sat down on Draco's bed.

"How are you, Draco? How are things in school?"

"Rather good. My grades are better than ever. I did pretty well in the last Quidditch match. I'm getting along with my housemates... I think I might even have found some friends outside of Slytherin."

His mother frowned but did not comment on this last piece of information. "But do you feel save? I heard what happened. I heard that Sirius Black" at this Draco coughed, he really hoped she did not say that because she was on to them or because Snape had told her, "has been seen around Hogwarts and that he has broken in already. I heard about the Dementors, too. And that they attacked you while you were flying."

She sounded very worried.

"I'm okay, mother. No need to worry. I broke my arm, but it's all healed now." He showed her his arms. "I don't think Black would attack me. He is after Potter, right?"

"Right," his mother repeated but did not sound convinced. "Draco, dear, he has been in Azkaban for over a decade. Who knows what the state of his mind is? And he killed one of his best friends, two if you count his betrayal as murder."

"Mother?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think he really did it? That Sirius Black really was a Death Eater and killed all those muggles? His change of character... it sounds rather sudden."

"It does," Narcissa sighed. "If they had a trial and found him guilty then he probably was guilty."

"But I've heard that there never was a trial," Draco ventured.

"What? He was a part of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black! That is an outrage!" She thought about it for a while. "The story has always struck me as rather odd... and then no one investigated? I never understood why Sirius would be so strongly against the cause right up until…"

"So you think he might have been innocent?"

"I don't know. It all seemed rather unlikely…" now she seemed to be talking to herself. "But he never was properly disowned, so I thought maybe... although he probably thought he was." Narcissa looked conflicted. After a while, she turned her attention back to Draco. "I just don't know. He was very open about despising the way we think, even from a young age on. That could not have been an act. If eight-year-olds say something like that, they tend to mean it... And he was such good friends with James Potter," at that name, she wrinkled her nose, "unruly kids, they were. But he was always so loyal. I was quite fond of him when I was a young girl, but he didn't get along with Lucius… and after being sorted into Gryffindor..."

"So you don't think he did it?"

His mother pondered the question for a few minutes. "Draco, honey, I just don't know. I couldn't believe it when I first heard about it. It just made no sense. If there was one quality I always admired in him, it was his integrity, even if it often lead to his own detriment. But by the time of his arrest I hadn't talked to him for a few years and people change, sometimes. And there were eye witnesses. And if he were innocent, why wouldn't he tell someone?" Narcissa sighed. She left the room, deep in thought.

"Aww Cissy," was what Draco could hear coming from under his bed.

"You might not be as alone as you thought you were," Draco mused.

TBC