Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. If I did Sirius, Remus, Fred and Dobby would never have died.

Warnings: Character OOC-ness.

It is not written as slash, but if you wish to see it that way, be my guest. I am a firm slash supporter so I will not tolerate any bashing on that part.

I am aware that some things don't really make sense in the line of the books, but I like it so ignore that Harry didn't find some things out before the end of OotP.

This takes place the summer when Harry reaches Grimmauld Place and stayed there.

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In retrospect it was surprising that no one had ever asked the question before. Sure, people were aware of it, but no one had ever asked him about the why.

But it did surprise Harry that it was Sirius of all people who remembered enough of the event to ask the question.

You'd think he had enough other things on his mind while escaping Azkaban to let that little fact slip his mind.

Not that Harry had even realised the man knew anything about it in the first place; the whole thing had completely slipped his mind once the initial fear of being expelled had passed.

How was he supposed to know his godfather would remember it?

Biting back a snort as he looked up into the bemused warm grey eyes of his godfather he took a sip of his tea.

"Well?" Sirius raised a single eyebrow at him in expectation, while beside him Remus shifted in his seat, his green eyes also focused on Harry.

Unable to sleep Harry had left his shared bedroom with Ron earlier and had walked in on the two men softly conversing at the kitchen table.

His initial reaction of turning back had been shot down as they had both welcomed him to join them.

After some probing to see if he was all right the three had settled to drink a nice cup of tea and after some small talk the question had come out of nowhere, completely catching Harry of guard.

"Why do you want to know?" Harry swallowed.

Amused Sirius looked at him. "Because I have always wondered about it. I just never had the opportunity to ask you about it before now."

"I had no idea you even remembered it."

Chuckling Sirius smiled. "Of course I remember. That was the first time in thirteen years that I had seen you. I remember ever single moment of that."

"I rather wish you hadn't," Harry muttered under his breath, startled when both Sirius and Remus raised an eyebrow this time.

"And why would that be?" Remus asked while Harry gaped at them.

"How'd you hear me?"

"He is a werewolf and I am a dog Animagus. Our hearings are better than most," Sirius explained with a shrug before he looked thoughtful. "That is probably why I heard that whale of a relative of yours bellow from several streets away."

"I bet he'd be mortified by that. He always tries to yell at me only indoors so the neighbours won't hear it," Harry snorted.

"I'd say he rather failed at that. I wonder how many others were just as curious as I was after his words."

Flushing Harry looked down at his cup. If he was honest then he'd have to admit he didn't clearly remember just exactly what Uncle Vernon had yelled at him that night. But knowing the man like he did it probably hadn't been anything nice.

"I'm not entirely sure what it was that he yelled at me. He's usually yelling so I automatically delete it once he's done and I was rather angry that night," he finally admitted.

"I gathered that from both your expression and the shrieking human balloon that flew around in the sky," Sirius laughed.

Feeling himself colour Harry ducked his head low even as Remus frowned.

"You blew up your aunt?"

"Not his aunt. At least, I don't think it was Petunia," Sirius shook his head.

"You know my aunt?" Harry asked perplex.

"Met her a few times at your grandparents' house."

"You knew my grandparents?" shocked Harry looked at him.

He already knew Sirius had known his father's parents and had loved them dearly, but he would never have imagined his godfather to have known both sets.

"I knew your grandfather better than your grandmother. His the one who taught me how to drive a car when I was sixteen and I asked for your mother's help. Other than that, I only met them two or three times and I went to their funeral."

Having already known his grandparents from his mother's side had passed away due to the Dursleys' visiting the grave once a year, Harry wasn't surprised. But he was surprised Sirius had gone to their funeral and even more so by the revelation the man knew how to drive a car.

"You have your driver's license?"

"Yes. I wanted to get my official motorcycle license and needed driving experience to be able to apply for that. It came in handy a few times," Sirius leaned forward to fold his fingers around his cup; grey eyes staring at Harry amused. "But we're getting off track as you still haven't answered my question."

Sighing, Harry leaned back into his chair. "I would rather not answer it at all."

"Why not?" Remus' voice was soft as he entered the conversation again, leaning back in his chair as well.

It was a bit surprising how comfortable he was beginning to feel around Remus now, no doubt because the man often hung around Sirius and thus Harry as well.

But just because he was comfortable with Sirius, didn't mean he thought they would stay calm if they found out what had happened. He knew Sirius well enough by now to know what sort of reaction he could expect and voiced as much.

"And why would we get angry?"

"What did she do that would piss us off?"

The two glanced at each other at the questions they asked at the same time; silently communicating for a brief moment before they turned back to Harry as one.

"Answer the question," Remus clearly won out; his voice patient but firm and it told Harry it was not up for negotiation.

"What was the exact question again?"

Smiling sheepishly at the eye roll his godfather gave him, Harry shifted.

"Why did you turn that woman into a human balloon?"

"How do you even know that was me?"

"Really, pup? You were the only magical person in the area beside me. Arabella Figg is a squib so you cannot shove it off on her," Sirius raised an eyebrow. "And more condemning; I heard the whale bellow at you to 'Come back and put her right."

He raised his fingers to mimic punctuation marks while saying the last few words, his expression enough to tell Harry what exactly he thought of Uncle Vernon.

"You heard that?"

"I thought we already covered that part, pup. Now answer and I solemnly swear that I will not commit murder in a fit of anger."

"You swear?" Harry shot his godfather a sceptical glance.

"Don't push it. I already promised I will not kill them, I will not make a promise I'm fairly sure I will break. So why did you blow her up?"

Aware the promise was more than he could have hoped for, as it was unfair to ask Sirius not to get angry about something he himself had lost his temper over, Harry sighed.

"She insulted my parents."

"Insulted them how?" Sirius asked neutrally.

"I don't remember the exact wording, but Aunt Marge kept going on for days; comparing Mum to a dog. She breeds fighting dogs and everything is about them with her," he explained quickly at the confusion.

"Anyway, she kept saying that bad blood always comes out and that and I quote 'if there is something wrong with the bitch, then there'll be something wrong with the pup' and…"

A loud crack made Harry jump moments before Sirius gave a low grumble; pulling a bleeding hand away from the pieces of his now broken cup and gingerly pulling out a piece of glass stuck in his palm without more than a grimace.

A quick wave of his wand healed the cuts immediately and another one repaired the broken cup.

"How come you are so good at healing spells?" awed, Harry remembered how easily Sirius had healed his own hurt hand several days previously during their cleaning.

"We learned strong healing spells early on at Hogwarts," Remus answered softly. "But Sirius already knew a lot of them before he ever even began at Hogwarts."

"Why…"

"Never mind that, what else did this Aunt Marge say?" Sirius cut off Harry's forming question, staring him down.

The stare wasn't filled with anger and Harry let the subject return to what it had been; sensing Sirius didn't want to talk about his spell abilities.

"Well, the Dursleys told everyone that my parents had died in a car crash and Aunt Marge called Dad a good for nothing, unemployed lazy scrounger. She never got the chance to finish as I kind of blew her up then."

For a long moment the kitchen was deadly quiet and Harry was distractedly reminded of the late hour while he waited for the bomb to explode once their shock died down.

"Why a car crash?"

The question was so unlike anything Harry had expected, that it took him a long moment to even register it properly.

"Sorry?"

"Why a car crash? Surely they would understand that you would never believe that? They would have just Apparated away if they ever got into one."

"Ah, I never knew anything about my parents being magical or magic in general before I got my letter."

"They never told you anything?" Remus' voice was soft, but there was a clear hint of barely contained anger in it.

"I'm not surprised to be honest. We both know how much Petunia hated magic so I'm not surprised she denied it's very existence. What I am curious about is how they ever thought they would keep the secret, surely you've had accidental magic as you were growing up," Sirius frowned.

Looking up at his godfather surprised, Harry had to admit he hadn't thought about it like that but it did make sense and his godfather had known enough about Aunt Petunia to predict her behaviour.

It also couldn't be denied that Sirius was anything but an idiot and thought things through without immediately being reckless.

"Yeah, though I never could explain it and any time something weird happened, I always got locked up in my cupboard for longer periods of time. Uncle Vernon always threatened that a good beating could beat the freakishness out…"

He jumped and flinched as all the glasses and plates in the kitchen shattered in their cupboards; an ear deafening crash deafening him momentarily and he looked up to his godfather in shock.

The man was pale as a sheet and his hands were clenched in barely suppressed anger.

"Threatened…did they ever touch you?" his voice was soft, but deadly cold; clearly not even aware of the still ongoing crashes as the shards fell and more items in the kitchen broke. Even Remus shifted in his seat as he could just as easily feel the waves of anger Sirius was starting to radiate but didn't reach out to stop him.

"No, he never laid a hand on me despite his threats. It's like there was something that stopped him from doing so, he'd get glassy eyed and start shaking before simply locking me up in my cupboard and denying me food for punishments," Harry hurried to explain. "You promised you wouldn't kill them!"

"I'm not; killing them would be too easy," Some of the anger radiating off of Sirius seemed to mellow at Harry's words; though his expression was thunderous. "I'm going to kill that fool of a headmaster of yours. What was that moron thinking in placing you there."

"Probably as much as you were when you went after Peter. He must have had his reasons," Remus tensed at his own words even before Sirius glared at him and he shrank a little below the intensive look.

"Don't you dare….don't you even dare."

"I'm sorry, that was uncalled for," Remus admitted immediately, though the apology didn't seem to do anything for Sirius' obvious anger.

"Mum's sacrifice protects me as long as I live in her sister's house. Dumbledore didn't explain the full reasoning behind it, but he hammered that into me," Harry hoped that revealing that Dumbledore indeed must have had his reasons would help calm his godfather down.

"How did your Aunt treat you?"

"What?"

Blinking at the sudden change of subject, Harry answered confused; "She hated my guts and mostly treated me either like a House-elf or like I didn't exist. Why?"

Sirius looked very much like he wanted to let out several colourful curses, but held himself back with clear effort. "Go back to bed, Harry. I have to talk to Dumbledore and I don't want you anywhere near that conversation."

Turning swiftly, he walked towards the living room; clearly intent on using the fireplace there to summon Dumbledore and Harry jumped to his feet, turning to Remus alarmed.

"You can't let him kill him!"

"Believe me, if he sets his mind to something there is no stopping him. But I promise I will do my best," Remus promised as he rose to his feet. "Do as he says."

"You promise?" Harry was debating between ignoring his godfather and try to stop him or make sure to stay as far away as possible from the man when he was going to blow up.

"I do," Remus squeezed his shoulder and guided him to the stairs before disappearing into the living room where Sirius was indeed summoning Dumbledore; closing the door behind him.

Briefly wondering how a simple midnight drink could descent into chaos so badly, he made his way upstairs as he didn't dare to eavesdrop on them. He did keep his ears open as he brushed his teeth and crawled back into bed, but aside from Ron's loud snoring he couldn't hear anything and eventually drifted off to sleep without meaning to.

The next thing he became aware of was being shaken awake by a familiar voice.

"Are you awake?" Fred's voice made him groggily open his eyes, blinking up at the blurry image of a Weasley twin.

"I'm up…why?" accepting the glasses handed to him, he sat up and noticed Ron was still asleep. A quick glance at the clock told him it was still rather early.

"What happened last night?" One of the two asked, though it took Harry's sleepy mind a moment to realise it was George who had spoken.

"What? How do you know?"

"We weren't eavesdropping, but it wasn't hard to deduce something had happened that involved you," Fred admitted cheekily.

"How so?"

"It was rather had to miss the yelling," George winced.

"Not that we aren't used to yelling."

"But it was surprising."

"When we realised who it was who was yelling."

"Never knew he had it in him, did you my dear Fred?"

"Not a clue."

Trying to follow the twin's unique speech pattern he frowned as their words soaked through.

"Who was Sirius yelling at?"

"He certainly did quite a bit of yelling too, but he wasn't who we were surprised at."

"Remus was yelling?" Harry asked confused.

"Yes, we wanted to grab our special ears to learn exactly what he was yelling about."

"But then we heard your name being mentioned."

"And we didn't want to intrude on your privacy."

"But we could hear them taking turns in raising their lovely voices at a third person involved."

Looking between the two, Harry could see they actually looked a little guilty and a wave of gratitude washed over him as they had let their thirst for eavesdropping slide to let him keep his dignity and privacy.

"Who were they yelling at?"

"Dumbledore."

"At least, that's what we assume as that is who is here. When we tried to go downstairs, Remus stopped us."

"Asked us to fetch you because they would like to speak to you before everyone else woke up."

"You better hurry though; Sirius looked more than ready to hex Dumbledore again."

After the way Sirius had stormed off; Harry didn't doubt that and he quickly dressed as he decided brushing his teeth could wait after he had done so only a couple of hours ago.

"Good luck," they chorused as Harry quickly rushed downstairs and taking a deep breath, he opened the kitchen door, expecting the worse.

What awaited him, however, was surprising.

Sirius was clearly making breakfast while Remus leaned against the counter near him; sipping from a cup he must have fixed earlier as nothing was broken anymore.

No unexpected surprise there, the Headmaster's position at the kitchen table however was.

The man looked absolutely terrible; holding a piece of cloth against a swollen eye, his lip cut and bloody while his whole messy and shaken appearance screamed that he had been in a battle.

The pieces of a broken wand stuck out of his robes; a bruised and swollen hand carefully touching them as if he was pained by the event.

Letting his eyes slide over to his godfather; he was relieved to find he and Remus both looked completely fine.

He progressed all of this in the time it took for Sirius to move to his side and gently lead him to sit at the kitchen table; on the far side away from Dumbledore.

It was impossible to miss the flinch Dumbledore made at Sirius' movement, but Harry chose to ignore him in favour of bigger questions.

"What happened to you, sir?" he asked politely as Remus sat down on his right, effectively blocking easy access for Dumbledore to Harry and Sirius.

Sighing, the man removed the piece of cloth to indeed reveal a harsh black eye.

"I was foolish enough to act on my...failure to see some people's true nature," the man answered cryptically and Harry blinked.

"What?"

"Your godfather has made it...painfully clear what he thought about my...meddling...into your safety and life," Dumbledore seemed to search for the words and he glanced at Harry's left with what looked a lot like nervousness to Harry.

"He did?" he guessed that answered the question of who had roughened Dumbledore up and Harry couldn't stop the awe at his godfathers ability to make a man as powerful as Dumbledore nervous.

"What I mean is that we have had a long conversation last night and some facts were made known to me that I had not taken into consideration. You must forgive me Harry, but I truly did what I thought was the best in the situation."

"That is a load of bull," Sirius interrupted and to Harry's amusement Dumbledore immediately flinched back at the harsh tone.

"What the meddling old fool is skipping around is that he is a stupid idiot who failed to remember that some people simply do not change," Sirius' glare in the headmaster's direction was positively terrifying and so powerful Harry was surprised the man didn't catch on fire.

The expression softened as Sirius turned his attention back to Harry.

"Those blood wards he spoke off?" Sirius waited for Harry's nod before continuing.

"They are worthless."

"But..."

Raising his other hand to quiet him, Harry immediately fell silent, not finishing his interrupting.

"Let me finish first, pup. In the beginning they might have held a tiny bit of power due to the shared blood between you and your aunt. Barely I might add, because your mum's sacrifice was based upon love and as there was anything but that for you in that dreadful house I reacon it is a miracle they ever worked."

Sirius glared at Dumbledore for a moment again; making the much older man swallow thickly, before shifting his gaze back to Harry again.

"But they did however slightly that may be...until Voldemort took your blood to resurrect. The little protection you had back then failed completely, because now he shared that protection."

"What?! But that means..." Harry felt his head spin.

If those blood wards were so weak and even none existing since last June then it was a miracle no Death Eaters had located him during the time he spend at Privet Drive this summer.

"Exactly. Not only were you miserable there for absolutely no good reason, you were also in grave danger for the entire time you were there this summer. Which was proven when those Dementors found you," Remus spat in anger, making Harry turn to him surprised as he had never heard the normally calm man lose his temper before.

"We...spoke...to Dumbledore about this after Sirius realised that those blood wards couldn't possibly work if the Dursleys hated you so much. And he's made it clear that he expects full custody over you immediately."

"But he's a fugitive. He can't take custody over me, isn't that the whole reason why Dumbledore has been calling the shots in the first place?" Harry asked bewildered.

He refused to let the small shimmer of hope that tried to enter his mind take hold of him. He had his hopes shot down before and had absolutely no illusions that it would be different this time.

Dumbledore had probably found another reason to let him stay at the Dursleys anyway.

"That is where it gets a little confusing and I will not bore you with the complete details of what was said, but it comes down to the fact that it had never been his call," Remus glanced at Sirius.

"I had it filed what I wanted to happen to you if I were to die or otherwise be unable to take care of you. The only reason I didn't hex him the moment I found out he didn't follow my wishes is because he ensured me you were well cared for and happy."

"But I wasn't happy. I have never been happy at the Dursleys," Harry felt anger build up and was unable to completely banish it from his tone.

"As we learned a few hours ago. You never really spoke about those Muggles before so I had no clear idea it was so bad. Though I should have known, you were way to ready to move in with a complete stranger when we first met. But I was so overjoyed by your reaction that I didn't think clearly about how strange it was and I never thought to ask more thoroughly through our letters."

Sirius looked torn between anger and despair for a moment before his expression turned troubled and he moved to take both of Harry's hands in his own.

"I cannot take custody of you while being on the run and the Ministry would never agree to follow my original back up plan of placing you in Remus' care."

The little ray of hope that had automatically filled him, despite his precaution, immediately vaporised at his godfathers words. He had known it would be taken from him, but it still didn't stop him from being hurt by it anyway.

"So I have to return to the Dursleys," he muttered unhappily, looking down at their hands.

"Yes. As far as the Ministry is concerned that is where you are still living. Which means that you need to keep quiet wherever you are about where you truly live."

His head shot up at his godfather's words, staring at the slowly spreading smile of his lips.

"You mean..."

"That you are coming to life here with me and Remus, in my unofficial custody."

"I don't have to return to the Dursleys? I can stay with you?" Harry had to ask carefully as he looked into the handsome face of his godfather to see if he was truly serious.

"Not if you don't want to," Sirius gave him the choice.

"And he won't stop you?" Harry nodded to Dumbledore, who had remained remarkably quiet during it all.

"He's never been your guardian so he really has no say in the matter," Sirius' tone was dangerous and Dumbledore swallowed again.

"Sirius is your guardian and as long as you don't speak of where you are actually saying I...have no hold over it nor can I argue," he sighed.

"Not if he doesn't want Sirius to curse him with the actual intent to harm," Remus' voice was chilly. "Or for me to add in a few hexes of my own."

"You both did that to him?"

"He tried to chance our minds," Sirius growled. "Like I would ever let him come between us again."

Harry smiled at the fierce protectiveness in his godfather's voice, completely ignoring Dumbledore's presence.

"So what do you think pup? Would you like to come live with us here?"

Not bothering to answer such a stupid question Harry flung himself at his godfather, nearly toppling the man's chair over with the force of it.

Sirius laughed as he tightened his hold on him, hugging him close and Harry returned it in equal force; overwhelmed with happiness that he could stay with Sirius.

After finally untangling themselves after a long moment Remus smiled down at them.

"When can I move in?" Harry cheered, ignoring Dumbledore slowly backing away towards the fireplace now the two Marauders weren't focused on him anymore.

"Do you have any belongings left at the Dursleys?" Sirius asked and Harry quickly shook his head.

"Then you are moving in as soon as you've picked yourself a room."

"I can pick my own room?" surprised Harry watched the two men laugh.

"Of course. We'll clean it out while you are at Hogwarts, then at Christmas you can come home and we'll decorate it to your liking," Sirius frowned at Harry's dazzled expression. "What?"

"Home...I've never come home before," his voice was small as he shifted shyly before the two men.

The calculated expression Sirius shot him confused him as he was unable to decipher it, but he followed him into the hallway as the man took his hand and pulled him with him, Remus following them confused.

"Stand on the front step, count to thirty and then move back inside," Sirius ordered in a tight voice as he opened the front door.

Bewildered Harry did as asked and Remus and Sirius took a step back to give him room to re enter the house.

Staring at them in utter confusion he slowly counted to thirty, secretly thinking Sirius had finally lost it before he noticed Remus' confusion made way for amusement as his godfather whispered something in his ear.

Reaching thirty he stepped back inside again, closing the door behind him. Not sure what to expect from his unpredictable godfather he turned around again.

"Welcome home Harry," they said in union.

Shocked he stared as the two beamed at him with expression so full of happiness and love that Harry couldn't swallow the tight knot that had formed in his throat suddenly.

Realising just what Sirius had done and said, Harry didn't bother to hide the tears that came up as he all but flung himself at his godfather again; once more feeling those warm arms pull him into a hug with ease.

"I'm home," he murmured into his godfather's ear as Remus patted his back softly, for the first time not ashamed of his tears.

For he knew they were tears of joy and the two men with him wouldn't think any less of him for them.

For the first time, he was home.