Title: The (Non-Metaphorical) Finger

Characters: Harry Potter and Sirius Black.

Warning: Badass Harry! Fourth Year AU! Slight Dumbledore bashing.

Word Count: 1, 810

Galleons: 7 + 1 (for this story) = 8

[School/ House]: Durmstrang / Rodopi.

Prompts: [Setting] 12 Grimmauld Place. Minimum 500 words.

AN: This is the last birthday fic for this year. I have been working on these for quite some time. I apologise for the lack of updates of my multi-chapter fic but... well, it was Penny's birthday so. Again, happy birthday I hope you have a good day :) I also really hope that you don't see this and think that I'm a creepy person because I'm really not. I just have an inability to do things ... in a normal amount I guess you could say.

This can be seen as connected to my multi-chapter fic Old Scars and Future Hearts. This means that Peter was caught and Sirius was stated to be innocent. Harry and Draco are friends. Mentions of Sirius x Penny. Written for the [Challenge] The Swear Jar at The Golden Snitch held by whitetiger91.

12 Grimmauld Place was a sad, sad place indeed. Everyone who had been there thought so. The building was not only boring, it was also cold, dark and it felt like cruelty were constantly seeping from the walls like water. No one had set foot inside the building since 1979 and it wasn't hard to tell. Sirius Black hated that building more than anyone else. If he could live the rest of his life without ever stepping inside then that would have made him very happy. Sadly, he had been forced to go inside to collect his things. Not that he was planning on keeping anything. If he could convince himself to walk up the stairs and into the room then he'd push everything into a bag and then he'd throw it all away. He didn't know how much stuff it was until he realised that three hours had gone and a sudden knock on the door was heard.

Sirius looked at Harry as if he had grown an extra head when he walked inside the door with Hedwig in her cage and the trunk behind him. His godson didn't look much better than he did. Sirius brown wild mane was pushed up in a ponytail and he wore a pair of grey sweatpants which hung just below his hips revealing the tattoos along the right side his chest and his right upper arm. He held a cup of tea, still steaming, then narrowed his grey eyes and pointed at his godson. "You're supposed to be in school."

"Yeah, and you're supposed to be with Penny to help her pack her stuff up for your big move." Harry closed the door behind him and opened the cage to let Hedwig out.

The owl flew away and Harry put his hands down his pockets. His shoulders were pulled up higher and almost in line with his chin and he glanced back and forth between the floor and Sirius. He looked healthier than he had the year before when Sirius first saw him. His cheeks were rounder, he was more muscular than scrawny and his raven-coloured mop was way messier than before. Sirius hadn't thought that was possible but Harry had proven him wrong.

"She wasn't feeling up for it this morning. Apparently, being pregnant with twins is hard. And even if I don't really have any experience I think that she's right. So, we decided to postpone it for a day so I came here because apparently no one seems to believe me when I say that I want them to throw everything away. Apparently, people find it hard to believe that I have no good memories from this place. I swear to you kid, people treating me as if I don't know what I want makes me want to turn into the convict they think that I was," Sirius coolly replied while glancing at the worn-down walls. He tilted his head when he looked at Harry. "Tell me why you aren't in school."

"Draco's not in school either. Apparently, he was sick of Dumbledore and his bullshit as he put it himself and he decided that this was as good time as any to quit. I'll bet you a sickle that Penny has convinced him to start packing for you."

Amusement flickered across Sirius face and he almost spit the tea back into the cup but somehow managed to swallow it without spilling it on himself. "I figured that much kid and I'm sure that you're right about him helping Penny with the move. He funnily has a weak spot for her. So, neither of you are in school. I reckon this makes me less likely to win some kind of award for being the best godfather slash guardian. Your dad and I did a lot of stuff when we went to Hogwarts but neither one of us ever left the grounds... Okay, don't look at me like that. We left but we didn't go that far from the school."

Harry scoffed and when he spoke there was a certain bitterness in his voice in spite of the smile Sirius had lured out. "Yeah, but neither one of you were forced to fight for your life each year like fucking clockwork and you weren't forced to participate in some ridiculous tournament to win eternal glory."

Sirius could feel the irritation grow inside of him. His first spontaneous thought had been that he and James would have loved the idea of participating in the tournament; there was no question about which one Harry was talking about. But the look on his godsons face and the words that had been spoken with a level of anger which Sirius had rarely seen in his godson made him stay quiet. Harry looked frustrated. There was no other way of describing it. His hands were clutched as they hung by his sides. Sirius didn't know what was the most painful thing about everything; it was either the fact that his godson didn't feel like he could explode, like he wasn't allowed to get angry, or that he had to go to such extremes to get out of doing something that he didn't want to do.

"We're talking about this kid. I don't know if that's what you want but I think we need to talk," Harry responded to his question by nodding and Sirius took a step forward to lean his arms over his godson's shoulders. He couldn't help but smile when Harry leaned into him. "Because I'm assuming that was the short story."

Harry nodded but didn't say anything as they walked through the house. Sirius boiled some more tea in silence all while keeping a close, but not too close, eye on his godson. It didn't matter that Harry was sitting by the kitchen table looking perfectly fine; Sirius was worried. Harry had his arms stretched forward on the table and would occasionally and aggressively scratch his scalp while groaning loudly.

"I'm assuming that Dumbledore was shocked when you left school." Sirius began as he put the cup of tea in front of Harry before sitting down on the opposite side of the table.

Harry shrugged. "I don't think me leaving was the most shocking event of the night."

A smile appeared on his face. It was the kind of smile that Sirius had seen plenty of times before and while he couldn't help but feel a certain joy when he saw the look on Harry's face, he also felt the pain that came with being reminded of his best friend.

"You're making me all kinds of curious with that look on your face. Don't hold back kid, tell me what happened!"

"Well," Harry laughed again and stretched his arms up in the air making them crack loudly. He then scratched the back of his head on the way down before resting his hands around the warm cup. "I was forced to be a champion for the tournament, which I wasn't happy about, and because of that I lost all my friends except for Draco. Some because they believed that I wanted to compete. Because hey, risking my life for dumb shit sounds like a cool new experience; I haven't done that before."

"Even…"

"Yeah, her too," Harry replied before Sirius had any time to answer the question. "At first I figured that I was going to compete because then maybe I could show them that I didn't want to participate and everything would be fine. Also, Dumbledore told me that I couldn't get out of it. But then I thought about it and I mean really thought about it… and I realised that it was all bullshit. I don't want to compete and they can't make me. Also, I shouldn't have to fight a dragon for my friends to believe in me. They don't believe me then fine, they don't want me in their lives well fine I don't want them in mine either."

Harry laughed and his eyes widened as he went between frowning and smiling.

"So, when it was time for interviews and stuff I decided to tell Dumbledore that I was quitting the tournament. Naturally, he didn't take it too well," Sirius shrugged and rolled his eyes at this. "I got angry at him and did what any normal person would have done. I told him that I didn't want to go to a school where minors could enter contracts or competitions which could lead to someone getting seriously hurt or dying and that I quit. Then I showed him the finger."

Sirius frowned. At least he tried to but it was hard considering what he just thought that he had heard his godson tell him. He pretended to stroke the skin around his mouth and badly hid the smile that erupted. "We're talking a metaphorical finger."

Harry shook his head.

"So, we're talking the actual finger," Sirius repeated and found it harder to keep himself in check. "You actually quit school and then you gave your professor, the principle of Hogwarts, the man who saved the wizarding world from Grindelwald, the non-metaphorical finger."

Harry nodded again and Sirius breathily laughed while telling himself that this was fucking priceless. Then the smile vanished from his godsons face and he frowned. "You have every right to be angry with me. I wouldn't be surprised. I quit school. I realise that was a stupid move but I was angry and tired…"

"Harry," Sirius leaned forward and held one of his godson's hands. "I am not angry with you. This is not the worst thing you could have done. This can be fixed, I can fix it in whatever way you want me to. Believe me, in the grand scheme of things this is not going to be the worst thing you'll ever do."

Harry nodded and managed to turn the uncertain and almost frightened expression on his face into a smile.

"Good," Sirius finished his tea and stood up. "Since you're here, you might as well help me get my stuff and then we can leave this Satan's creation forever. And then you're going to tell Penny the exact same thing that you just told me."

Harry muttered something about having tea to finish but still copied Sirius movement before following him out the room. "I'm assuming that you want me to tell her so that she can yell at me."

"Merlin no," Sirius laughed oud loud; it reminded Harry of a bark and even if he couldn't see his godfathers smile Harry could imagine that it covered his entire face the way it only did because of certain people or in certain moments. "You need to tell her because I cannot wait to see the look on her face when you tell her that you gave Dumbledore the non-metaphorical finger."

The end