House Hunting

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. However, since Rowling discarded my favourite characters I picked them up and took them into my care to give them the love and attention they deserve...and occasionally give them reason to need that love and attention no matter how much they deserve it without needing a reason.

Summary: During the Christmas break Harry, Sirius and Remus go on a house hunt, but nothing is ever simple for those three as they run into trouble. Warnings: Strong bromance, can't stomach boys being extremely close without it being sexual, then this is not the story for you and you should hit the return button.Descriptions of severe abuse bordering on torture.

This story is part of a series called A Bond of Family. If you are interested in reading the entire series, then the chronological order can be found on my profile.

Special thanks to Kitty for beta-ing this story for me and giving me endless support and inspiration for this series. Thank you for your endless patience with my grammar and for all the lessons you've taught me and are still trying to stamp into my brain.

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Soft tapping on the window woke Harry up and he sleepily reached for his wand; murmuring "Alohomora" before dropping it back onto the nightstand and feeling around for the pouch with money to push it forward before turning around onto his left side; snuggling closer to the warm presence beside him.

Harry smiled as warm arms pulled him automatically closer; holding him close and he rested his head against his godfather's shoulder so that he could look up to the sleeping man.

Sirius' fringe fell over his closed eyes slightly; face relaxed in sleep unbothered by nightmares for a change, something more confirmed by the natural state of order of his short hair.

Where Harry's hair was a natural mess, Sirius' naturally fell into a certain way no matter how much Remus ruffled through it and only the worst of nightmares and a shower could mess it up.

He had always thought the man must spend an incredible amount of time or magic on his hair to get it to look as soft and wavy as it did, but the shocking truth was that the man never even used the mirror beyond using his shaving cream.

But the state of his godfather's hair gave Harry a good indication of how to act around the older man once he'd wake up.

If it was messy it meant he had been plagued by nightmares and he would be disorientated and jumpy for a while and Harry had learned not to move silently like he was used to doing with the Dursleys at any time. But like Remus he had learned to make as much noise as humanly possible without being obvious about it so that Sirius was constantly aware of where they were without even realising it.

The last few days since the man had taken to sleeping on Harry's bed edge as Padfoot to help with his own nightmares, he had begun to change back in his sleep more and more often.

The first time it had happened; Harry had gotten the fright of his life as Sirius had snuggled up to him in his sleep and Remus had spend the majority of the day laughing when he had learned of what had happened.

But his old defence teacher had confided to him that Sirius usually slept as Padfoot these days because it made him feel safer during the dark hours. And it was only when he was in the presence of someone he trusted completely, that he changed back unconsciously.

It had made Harry feel warm and incredibly proud to know he was one of the few people Sirius felt completely comfortable with and the next time he had been woken by a pair of warm arms slipping around him; he had simply snuggled back.

He knew that if it had been anyone else, he probably wouldn't have even thought about sharing a bed regardless of his own nightmares and certainly wouldn't have cuddled with them. But Sirius wasn't other people and Harry was rarely uncomfortable around his godfather nor did he mind the frequent touches that Sirius seemed to shower him with unconsciously.

Apparently his godfather had often cuddled and fallen asleep against Harry's parents in the common room or just on the couch and according to Remus, Harry's mother had once described Sirius as an incredibly affectionate and adorable little kitten as he curled up all around her in sleep; very much like his canine Animagus form would do.

Since arriving at Grimmauld Place that summer, Sirius had told him many stories about his parents; but Remus had also told him small things about his godfather and how much the man truly was like Padfoot in his affectionate and protective behaviour towards those he loved.

Harry had thought he'd gotten to know Sirius relatively well for the short time they had known each other, but was only now realising how wrong he had been.

The impression of his godfather that had formed for him over the last two years hadn't been wrong; but it hadn't been completely right either and as they spend more time actually in contact, Harry began to see past the defences Sirius seemed to have unconsciously pulled up around him as well as everyone else and what he saw warmed his heart.

So seeing him so relaxed in sleep now made Harry happy; for no matter how protective his godfather was of him, during the night Harry could give his godfather a sense of safety with his presence. Enough so that he changed back in his sleep anyway.

It was why he had been so worried about how Sirius would sleep once Harry returned to Hogwarts; and as the end of the holiday was approaching, he had quietly voiced that to Remus, only to have the man reassure him that Sirius wouldn't be alone at all.

The cryptic answer had confused Harry until he had walked into their hotel room after a late afternoon swim to find the two men curled up together on the couch; both fast asleep and looking very much like a couple of canines.

Which, as Harry thought about it, fitted well with both their personalities and other forms and he had a lot of fun imagining Moony and Padfoot like that after a full moon playing around.

Though Remus wasn't as affectionate to Harry as he was to Sirius; something Harry was fairly sure had to do with growing up together, shared experiences and the man's own nature, he was getting more comfortable around Harry as well.

Harry was happy that Remus was getting friendly with him; though also a little relieved the man was a lot more reserved than Sirius was as Harry himself wasn't quite used to affection yet and although he loved and almost craved every interaction with his godfather; he wasn't quite that comfortable with Remus just yet.

A movement at his side made Harry tense; but Sirius simply shifted a little and he relaxed again. He didn't want Sirius to wake up yet; for he knew the other man would try to watch his movements at least a little, be on guard to not overwhelm him.

It wasn't that Harry didn't appreciate the thoughtfulness; but he didn't want his godfather to hold back around him, never around him. But he didn't quite know how to make that known without actually coming out to say it and as a consequence Sirius pulled back every time he had the slightest sense that he made Harry feel uncomfortable.

It seemed that for all that his godfather knew him well, he wasn't quite as good as interpreting his body language. Although he was rapidly getting better at it and Harry himself was learning to just act without thinking; he rather liked how his godfather didn't have the same sense of awareness when asleep and was just cuddly.

The natural behaviour when asleep gave Harry an idea of how Sirius had to have been before the years in Azkaban had robbed him of so much.

"Pup?"

Smiling a little ruefully as Sirius half stretched while uncurling himself from around Harry, he sat up.

"Morning, Siri."

"Morning," Sirius blinked away the sleep in his eyes. "May I ask why there is a brown owl staring at me creepily?"

"Owl?" half turning to see a blurry shape sitting on the bed edge, Harry reached for his glasses and put them on. "I thought it was the Prophet owl and didn't pay it more attention other than to let it in."

"Those know to take the little pouch we ready for them and usually arrives at Remus' window. That's my wallet you've tried to give him."

"Oh."

"I put our subscription on hold during our holiday as I didn't know where exactly you were taking us," Remus' voice greeted them as he entered the bedroom. "Good morning, the two of you have slept far into the day."

Sirius glanced at his pocket watch. "Morning and it's only six so why aren't you still asleep?"

"I had to use the bathroom and then I heard your voices," Remus smiled. "Are you going to ignore that poor owl much longer?"

As if hearing his words and tired of waiting, the owl flapped his wings and landed on Sirius' left shoulder, making him wince as the owl's claws flexed around him.

"Ow, all right," Sirius grumbled, accepting the letter the owl dropped into his hands. "You could've just left it on the table and left since it's not attached to you. You didn't need to take those sharp ends to attack me."

The owl screeched, nipping Sirius' ear gently before lifting off; but the damage had already been done as the sharp claws had dug in. Remus immediately grabbed a towel from the attached bathroom and sat down at Sirius' side to press it against the bleeding wounds. The owl screeched again as it hovered in the air again; giving Harry the distinct feeling the bird was trying to apologise for hurting him. "Yeah, you're forgiven," Sirius hissed as Remus applied pressure and the owl disappeared through the open window.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked. "Those look fairly deep."

"You should have seen the marks your mother's old owl left behind on your father."

"Mum owned an owl?"

"An owl that was truly the devil incarnated. Completely black with a gaze that frightened everyone but your mother and Sirius. She called him Precious, we referred to him as Monster," Remus laughed.

"When did Mum get an owl?"

"Was it third year?"

"Fourth. He would deliver letters for her before staring at James until he got so nervous, he would knock something over," Sirius corrected Remus. "She later told me that she had bought him because no one else seemed to have wanted him. That he stared James down was an added benefit."

"Monster absolutely adored Sirius, though. Often would land onto his shoulder when delivering a letter and staying there no matter how much Lily tried to shoo him off. She usually had to come over to get her mail."

"What is it with you and animals? Crookshanks and Hedwig love you; and Buckbeak accepted you without you having ever bowed to him."

"It must be part of my natural charm," Sirius' words made Harry snort, but Remus smiled.

"As stupid as it sounds, it's actually true. Animals have always been drawn to him and even James confessed in sixth year that when Prongs, he felt instinctively drawn to Sirius. Care of Magical Creatures was always fun with him as well. We had originally split all subjects between the four of us so that we could learn everything we were interested in without having to all follow the class. But James told me so many stories about Care that I decided to add the subject out of pure curiosity."

"You split the classes?"

"Yes, usually so that there were two of us in each class to share notes with and explain what they'd learned to others."

"Which classes did you all take?" Harry asked interested.

"I took Arithmancy, Care and Study of Ancient Runes and James took Ancient Runes and Care. He followed Divination for two months before changing to Muggle Studies to keep Sirius company," Remus huffed out a laugh. "I can't even remember all the subjects you took."

"Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Ghoul Studies, Care, Ancient Studies and Magical and Muggle art."

"Ghoul Studies and Art? I've never heard of those."

"It was an optional class but I didn't see it on the subject list when I taught in your third year so I think they stopped giving it. The classroom is on the Marauder's Map since Sirius followed the subject so you can check it out later."

"I will, but what is it?"

"The class taught about all sorts of ghosts, poltergeists, veelas, ghouls and the likes. It was interesting to follow for a little while as we were taught how they came to exist and stuff like that. I dropped it after getting my OWL for it, though."

"You didn't like it enough to keep going?" Harry looked up to see his godfather smile a little guiltily.

"I learned more through Peeves and the ghosts than from that class. I only kept it on because I wanted to get my OWL for it and unlike with the elective classes, you could only sit in for the exam of an extra-curricular class if you'd actually followed it."

Nodding in understanding, Harry bit his lip. "And Art?"

"Also an extra-curricular subject and pretty much what you would expect. It also covered photography, though. When I had the chance, I sat in on Muggle Art as well as the subject interested me."

"You do like doodling," Harry laughed. "I assume Ancient Studies is kind of like History of Magic?"

"Yes, you learn about the magical cultures of old as well as their curses, counter curses. Egypt seemed to be a favourite of the Professor," Sirius smiled. "Your mother took Arithmancy, Care and Divination. But she, too, dropped Divination as it was the only thing she and your dad agreed on publicly; Divination is useless."

"So they didn't believe in the prophecy?" Harry was more than happy to learn more about his parents as neither man had mentioned what they had studied before.

"It didn't matter what they thought; Riddle believed in it so that was enough to put you in danger and they did take that seriously. But no, they've never believed in the subject."

"And you? You never mentioned taking Divination."

"It's all a big pile of guessing and I was never going to let you do the fighting just because someone predicted that you would have to fight him."

"I was mostly just terrified I would be singled out due to my Lycanthropy and the Professor in charge would out me in the middle of class," Remus admitted. "But I've never really believed in it either."

"Makes sense," Harry frowned. "Why did you take so many classes, though. And why split them? Did you not know what you wanted to do in the future?"

"It was more out of practicality than need. James and Sirius were rather studious and wanted to learn as much as they could to be prepared for anything and we kind of got dragged along. They wanted to sit in on as much NEWT classes as they could without being overwhelmed by homework and since you don't actually have to sit in on elective classes to be able to take the exam, we decided to split the classes and share what we learned between us."

"But you took almost every class and all the extra subjects. Sirius took fifteen subjects! Hermione took twelve and almost lost her mind due to the workload."

"Didn't she use a time turner?" Remus tried to wrack his brain for the information.

"Yes, did you have one, too?" Harry directed to Sirius, surprised as he shook his head.

"I don't think I would have wanted one even if McGonagall had been willing to arrange it. I worked out a schedule with every teacher and skipped classes on mutual agreement if they overlapped with another class I was more interested in that day. James and Remus took notes during their classes so I could just take those if I'd missed it. On the rare occasion I didn't understand something from their notes, they could simply explain it or I was allowed to go to the teacher after dinner."

"Weren't you totally overworked anyway? Hermione was and she didn't even pull pranks like you did."

"No, we kind of cheated there, though. We always asked older students following the same subjects what essays they had been given when they were in our year as they are always the same and worked in advance. Been doing that since our first year and continued to do so all throughout our years there. During holidays I would make the essays meant for the next term and not be bothered with homework at all during the actual classes," Sirius laughed. "It annoyed McGonagall to no end that even with so many classes between us, we still pulled so many pranks."

"Which only got a lot more advanced as we shared knowledge of our new classes. She had been hoping that upon signing off on his classes, it would occupy all of our free time and keep us from playing pranks. Not only did she fail, but both your father and Sirius aced every OWL and NEWT they sat for with the highest possible scores while still playing pranks and causing mayhem," Remus noted.

"You two truly were extraordinary bright weren't you?" Harry breathed out awed, aware that he would never be able to ace all of his OWLs.

"It helped that we knew how to use our brains, but we did put effort into every class we took. We did our research and practised through our pranks and personal defence lessons with Peeves."

"So if I work hard and put in the effort..." Harry couldn't help but smile at the admittance that his father and Sirius had worked hard for their scores and it hadn't just come to them without any effort.

"Then the subjects shouldn't really trouble you, but if they do despite your effort then it is just not the subject for you to take and you should drop it before it makes you miserable," Sirius said. "It's what your dad and I did with Muggle Studies after fifth year. It was horribly outdated and I learned more through Remus and other students than I did in the class."

"You did navigate the train and bus on the way here much better than Mister Weasley ever did, and he's obsessed with Muggles."

"Your father liked the train and especially the underground so we spent hours travelling everywhere during the summer of our sixth year and often dragged Remus along with us to explain what we didn't understand."

"You make it sound like I minded doing so," Remus laughed. "You know my mother was a Muggle; she taught me everything related to Muggles from a young age as she wanted me to see things from both worlds. I loved seeing everything I'd always taken for granted through the eyes of two Pure-Bloods as they viewed things differently than I did."

"You sound like Hermione," Harry pulled a face.

"You should have seen him with the unicorn. He was actually taking notes and ordering me around to get more information on the creature's reactions."

"What happened with the unicorn that he wanted to take notes?"

"Well, you know that boys have to stay at a distance, right? We were keeping our distance and Sirius and James were chatting when the unicorn broke free from the girls and walked straight to Sirius who automatically reached out to pet her; which to the shock of everyone there, he could do without a problem."

"With an adult unicorn?" Harry looked at his godfather incredulously.

"It surprised me as well. Professor Kettleburn was absolutely convinced I must have had creature blood and actually demanded for that to be tested by Slughorn."

"You don't, do you?"

"No, I'm one hundred percent human. There was nothing in my DNA to indicate why animals were so attracted to me."

"Professor Kettleburn moved him in front of all sorts of creatures to see their reaction to him and it was usually funny to see. Though not always, remember those Acromantula?"

"I would rather not. They gave me new nightmare fuel for weeks."

"You met Aragog and his children?"

"That thing has a name?" Sirius shuddered.

"Yeah, he was Hagrid's pet when he was still at Hogwarts."

"Why am I even surprised about that," Remus sighed.

"Because even we wouldn't have imagined Hagrid to take a human flesh eating gigantic spider as a pet and keep him in an area where hundreds of children are," Sirius shuddered again, wincing when that pulled on his shoulder.

"All right, take your shirt off," Remus ordered, removing the towel he had still been holding against it.

Doing so without argument, Harry's gaze was automatically drawn to his godfather's thin upper body; although the thinness wasn't what had caught his attention as most of the skin visible to Harry was covered in deep scars of various sizes.

He hardly even noticed Remus leaving the bed to grab the first aid kit and a wet cloth before returning; noticing his gaze as he did so.

"Harry," Remus' voice was filled with apprehension and Sirius tensed as he seemed to realise what had caught Harry's attention; hand flexing automatically to his other wrist where Harry could see a dark mark looking like a rune, but Remus placed a hand onto his arm to stop him.

Grey eyes looked up into green ones, an entire conversation taking place between them before Sirius slumped and pulled his hand back again.

"You are wondering how I got those?" he asked after a long moment of silence, voice breaking slightly as he cleared his throat.

"No...well, that too, but mostly why you don't have any tattoos," Harry didn't dare ask what he originally wanted to.

"Tattoos?" Sirius looked at him confused. "Why would I have tattoos?"

"Yeah. Muggle inmates often get tattoos in jail and though you were innocent I thought you might have some, too."

Sirius stared at Harry in silence for a long moment; his expression guarded before he suddenly shuddered violently. "That...that's a terrifying thought."

"Why?"

"Imagine Dementors painting everlasting pictures of a bunny or so on a prisoner's skin."

Harry smiled weakly though Sirius shuddered again; even more violent now and Remus had to put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"The mere idea of those things coming that close..." he paled considerably as he trailed off and shook his head. "Prisoners are locked in their cells twenty-four hours a day. No contact with one another outside hearing each other scream."

He paused. "Well, we see Fudge once a year and the guards, but other than that there is no contact with anyone as the Dementors don't actually enter the cells themselves without orders."

"You basically spent twelve years confined in solitude with only your worst memories as company," Harry more stated than asked; feeling a sudden urge arise to hug his godfather tightly.

He knew the Dementors brought up the worst memories one had ever experienced but he had at least believed that the inmates of Azkaban at least got some fresh air like Muggle prisoners did. The mere idea of Sirius huddling in a corner while having to relive his worst nightmares with only screams for company in the cold brought tears to his eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sirius immediately shifted closer to pull him into his side for a half hug but Harry shook his head, not trusting his voice to speak just yet.

"At least he's free now Harry. And once he'll get his trial he will stay that way," Remus seemed to know exactly what he was thinking of, though.

"Yeah," pulling back, Harry nodded before his eyes were drawn to one of the many scars on Sirius' torso; being revealed underneath the blood as Remus washed it away. It was a long word carved into his flesh; right over his heart and Harry felt bile rise as the meaning of the word registered.

"Who did that?" he spoke before he could stop himself but managed to pull back just before his fingers touched the word.

Sirius' tensed, confirming to Harry the man hadn't meant for him to see any of these and he was about to apologise and change the subject when his godfather spoke.

"My mother made that one the night before Christmas of fifth year. It was the night I ran away from Grimmauld Place for good," Sirius looked up to the ceiling while taking a deep breath. "I have two matching ones on my upper arms that my father made earlier that vacation."

Sirius' entire demeanour screamed vulnerability and Harry regretted having asked, but the words he had spoken told him his godfather was giving him the opening to ask if he wanted to.

And as much as Harry didn't want to, he couldn't help himself as he couldn't fathom anyone doing something like that to their own child. "Did they use a Quill?"

"No, just carved them in with their wands. Kind of like I did to the toad, only they used dark magic and force to inflict as much pain as they possible could and ensure it wouldn't heal without scarring."

Swallowing, Harry nodded. "You have matching ones on your arms?"

Shifting slightly to not disturb Remus in his nursing work, a word was revealed to Harry as Sirius turned his arm. Disgrace, it didn't matter how many times Harry read the word, it didn't cease to disturb him any less than the first had done. "And the third?"

"Freak," Remus' voice was even softer than Sirius' had been and Harry was fairly sure the man had said it so that Sirius neither had to show or say it himself.

Abomination, disgrace and freak...what kind of sick people must Sirius' parents have been to do that to their own children. Hatred soared through him as he remembered all three of the words had been spit towards his godfather by his mother's portrait on more than one occasion.

"They didn't have much imagination when it came to insults," Sirius tried to make light of the situation as Remus placed a bandage around his shoulder. Harry was about to ask why he hadn't just used magic when he remembered they had agreed to only use magic in emergencies to not draw unwanted attention to themselves.

When Remus was finished, Sirius reached for his shirt; revealing another set of peculiar marks on both sides of his waist.

"Are those teeth marks?" he blurted out, but this time Sirius snorted out a laugh.

"Those are from a run in with...Aragog you said his name was?" Sirius shifted so that his right collarbone was more visible and pointed to a deep looking scar that seemed to be in a roundish shape unlike the lines running all over his torso.

"James gave me this one during the first full moon we spent as Animagi. Moony was a bit overly eager to have playmates and James panicked as he bit me, thinking I was attacked. But he forgot he had an impressive set of antlers and stabbed right through me with them. It's how he got his nickname," it was clearly a good memory for Sirius since it made him smile, though Harry was fairly sure it hadn't been funny at the time.

"This is the one that made James panic," Remus tapped a clear bite mark at the top of Sirius' shoulder, half turning him to show the other side.

"You and James were in hysterics once you transformed back because you had hit an artery and neither of you could focus enough to stop the bleeding until I had already passed out from blood loss," Sirius laughed.

"It wasn't funny, we were terrified," Remus berated him but Harry wasn't really listening to them. When Remus had turned Sirius to show him the mark, his eyes had instead been drawn to the gigantic markings running all over his godfather's back.

"Why...why is there a tree carved into your back?" he choked out; automatically reaching out to make sure he wasn't imagining them but pulled back immediately when Sirius tensed.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"They liked a magical whip...," Sirius cut him off softly, unable to continue but Harry didn't need any more information to know who they were.

"Although, there is one, Rem?"

"This one," Remus cleared his throat; giving Harry the impression he hadn't quite meant to reveal those scars to Harry and still found the sight of them difficult to see.

His hand hovered over a mark slightly less ugly and deep than the rest; not quite touching as if he knew Sirius wouldn't bear his touch right now so Harry quickly focused on it to find it looking like a thin branch in the otherwise puckered white scars forming the tree.

"You gave me that one."

Harry finally tore his eyes from the carved tree to stare at Sirius in shock. "I did that? How!"

"You were a little over a year and playing in the garden when your dad got distracted and you got your hands on his broom without us noticing. I came outside because I couldn't see you any more and called your name. Not realising you were in the sky until you called my name and jumped off your broom. I don't think you quite understood that jumping from your toy broom was a lot different than jumping from a real one. I tripped when diving to catch you in time and pulled my back open on a small rock as we fell."

Harry winced. "Sorry."

"Rather me than you," Sirius shrugged "You got me three more scars in your short life by the way. Want to know which ones?"

Harry let him change the conversation from the scars on his back as the man had turned back, feeling relieved a note of cheerfulness had returned to his voice.

He watched as Sirius pulled his left knee up while pushing his pyjama trousers up to reveal several more scars and a peculiar looking slash on the part of the ankle Harry could see as Sirius covered the rest of it with his hand.

"Is that...what is that?" Harry leaned closer to look at what looked a little like a stick figure of a dog with pointy slashes on his head.

"It is a stag, at least that is what you told me. Daddy Prongs," Sirius chuckled at Harry's horrified expression.

"I carved an ugly disfigured stag into your ankle? Where'd I get a knife to do so in the first place?"

"You did it with a sharp pencil, actually. I didn't even notice you were drawing blood until you started to cry because my blood was running over your pretty picture."

"You didn't..."

"It might be wise to explain that he had just almost gotten his head smashed in after a run-in with a couple of dozen Death Eaters, badly damaged his leg, got cursed repeatedly and was covered in multiple layers of bruises. James drugged him up on so many potions while trying to heal him that you could have put him on fire and he probably wouldn't have noticed with how out of it he was. It was highly unlikely he'd feel the sharp pencil a toddler used on him with that amount of potions in his system," Remus commented in Sirius' defence.

"But I drew on him."

"You often did. From the moment you could hold a pencil you drew on me. Often made many people laugh when I showed up at Order meetings with crude flowers or sticky animal figures on my wrists and hands which I claimed I couldn't remove."

"More like you didn't want to remove them because you liked them," Remus accused, making Sirius shrug, not denying the accusation. "You drew a dog on the other side of my ankle and were working on what was supposed to be Moony when you started crying."

"I carved the Marauders into your skin." Harry deadpanned as Sirius nodded; removing his hand while turning his leg so that Harry could see the stick figures of a dog and a very hairy dog with a wide tail.

"Moony doesn't have that large a tail or that large a snout."

"You hadn't actually ever seen Moony with your own eyes so you didn't know that a werewolf's tail is thinner and smaller than a normal wolf's or their snout shorter. You drew it based upon the wolves in the zoo we took you to see a couple of times," Sirius chuckled.

"How did I even know about Moony in the first place?" It seemed unlikely that his family would have told him about the werewolf when he was so little.

"You knew about Prongs and me, having seen both of us transform multiple times and learned to call us by our nicknames on those occasions quickly. And being the curious little fellow that you were you asked to see Moony which of course was impossible. We explained that Moony only came out at the full moon and you weren't allowed to see him until you were an Animagus. You asked what Moony looked like so we took you to the zoo to show you regular wolves so that you had an idea, even if it wasn't completely accurate," Sirius explained.

The explanation made sense and he did know he was curious so he must have been even more curious as a little child. He looked at the drawings again and frowned.

"Why does it look finished if you said I started crying while working on it?"

"Because the idiot let you finish it a few days later," Remus' words made Sirius laugh.

"Your mum had already informed me that it was going to scar and it looked weird to see half a wolf every time I took my socks off. I rather had you finish the entire picture though you refused to draw Wormtail, something I am very happy about now."

"I bet," Harry sighed dryly. "Why couldn't she just heal them?"

"Because I got cursed with dark magic so most of my wounds had to heal the natural way, including your drawings."

"So technically you do have tattoos. They are just a bit crude," Remus suddenly stated.

Sirius barked out a laugh and Harry had to stifle a chuckle; not wanting to laugh at the knowledge that he had added four scars to his godfather's immense collection as a mere toddler. It seemed like his whole family had added to it in some way and he wondered if his mother had made any.

"Don't look so down, pup. These drawings were often the only thing to keep me going when I felt hopeless in Azkaban and the thought of revenge against Wormtail wasn't enough. And even though the Dementors quickly took the happy memory away, it often gave me a very short relief before I managed to draw enough power to change into Padfoot after a few years. I rather like them a lot. They are my second favourite scars," Sirius smiled softly; hands caressed the scars with a fond expression on his face.

The smile made Harry feel a little better; the thought that he had helped his godfather during those awful years because of those stupid stick figures made him be less disturbed by them. Especially since it was clear that Sirius truly liked them.

"I have one from Moony that I am fairly fond of as well. He gave it to me in sixth year after we got into trouble with a pack of wolves outside of Hogsmeade. I had gotten hurt and Moony attacked the wolves that had hurt me before setting his fangs into my shoulder. They left me alone after that."

Sirius smiled at what was obviously a good memory to him but Harry frowned confused.

"He protected you and then bit you?"

"Yes."

Remus chuckled. "Remember what I told you about wolves? They are pack animals and those wolves were threatening my pack. By biting Padfoot like I did I marked him as untouchable. No other pack animal would ever dare to hurt him because it would mean retaliation from me."

"But wouldn't they have gone after dad? He was a stag after all."

"They originally did, Padfoot got hurt while protecting Prongs' back. And since he smelled of blood the wolves were automatically drawn to attack the seemingly weakest of us."

"Shame for them that they didn't count on Moony."

"Don't count Padfoot out, he was quite strong as well," Remus warned him.

"Did you mark my Dad and Peter too?"

Remus shook his head. "Marking Wormtail would have probably ended up in Moony eating him since he was so small."

"Would have saved us a lot of trouble," Sirius grumbled as Remus couldn't suppress a grimace at the clear thought of having eaten Wormtail. Harry bit back a snort as he remembered Sirius living off rats while hiding in the cave and wondered if he had taken any satisfaction in getting to rip rats apart as Padfoot. Sirius caught his expression and winked at him, probably thinking of the same thing if his expression was anything to go by.

Remus cleared his throat and shook his head slightly as if to get rid of the thought, having missed their little exchange.

"Biting Prongs would have marked him as a challenge. Any carnivore would have been driven to try and kill a buck that size, especially if another carnivore had marked him and failed to finish him off."

"And it didn't work like that with Padfoot?"

"No, since a dog is not on the natural food chain for carnivores where stags are. By marking Padfoot as basically his it warned other predators to back off. It only works with non-natural prey."

"Marking him as his...you mean like a lover?" Harry asked surprised.

Remus flushed but shook his head. "That might've made it easier, though."

"How so?"

"Moony marked Padfoot as his little brother; a pack mate to be protected. It wasn't such a problem as Moony is a natural alpha. But the need to protect him was just as overwhelming as myself in the beginning."

"He embarrassed himself a lot," Sirius informed Harry. "One time, he actually growled at Professor McGonagall when she was berating me too hardly for his tastes. Only reason he didn't get into trouble was because he was absolutely mortified once he realised he had done it and she thought she understood why he acted the way that he did."

"You growled at McGonagall?" Harry snorted.

"I blamed Sirius."

"I bet. So where is this pretty scar?" Harry let his eyes travel of his godfather's torso as the man was usually completely dressed and he only knew he had any scars at all because he had seen a few when Sirius had unexpectedly been baking a cake for his birthday that summer.

But he had sense enough to not mention the deep scars on his wrists then, automatically knowing they weren't something he would want to talk about.

It only took a small moment of hesitation before Sirius turned his back to Harry again and touched a scar high on his shoulder that Harry truthfully didn't really need to have pointed out to him.

Refusing to let his gaze wander back to the carved tree, he noticed various other scars that stood out, but only that one could truly be identified as pretty. The bite marks in Sirius' shoulder blade looked like three half moon crescents and although they looked like they had been fairly deep, the skin was healed perfectly so that only those three little punctured half moons stood out.

"That one is nice," he admitted, hesitating to ask his next question as he wasn't quite sure he truly wanted to know. But in the end his curiosity won out as Sirius didn't seem to mind his questions so much any more. "Did my parents give you any more scars?"

"Your mother gave me a nasty burn while she tried to cook something special. Though it's mostly faded," Sirius tapped a tiny mark on his right wrist before indicating to what looked like faint teeth marks. "These are from Remus when he bit me in fifth year."

"I was sick and I didn't mean to," Remus protested to Harry's amusement.

"Hmm, James gave me several ones; all accidental of course. Remus' mother gave me a scar on my leg from opening her oven door. But my favourite one was made by your grandfather," Sirius turned so that his left forearm was visible; revealing a strange mark Harry couldn't completely decipher.

"What is it?"

"The Potter family crest. Dad wore the head of house ring and shortly after I'd ran away, Walburga and Orion tried to get me back under their control when they learned that my grandfather had not disinherited me and in fact had me surpass Orion as heir to the Black family upon his death. Dad held onto me tightly during that confrontation, too tightly as it was revealed later that his ring had basically been engraved into my arm."

"Bet he was mortified," it wasn't the first time Sirius had referred to Harry's grandparents like that but it still warmed his heart to know the man had truly seem Harry's family as his own and still did.

"You would win that bet. James thought it was hilarious and said it was proof I was part of the Potter family but Dad was devastated. He had sworn to himself that he would never hurt me and although it was accidentally, he felt like he had broken his promise so quickly already after making it."

"Poor grandfather. How did you solve that?"

"I turned his hair and beard into a rainbow for a day."

Harry blinked, processing the worlds before he burst out in laughter.

"I bet he wasn't very happy with that."

"Actually he was. I came over that afternoon for New Year and he cheerfully greeted my parents and me with bright purple hair and a blue beard. Wasn't bothered by it at all. Your grandmother couldn't look at him without laughing for days," Remus said with a chuckle.

"But why was he so happy about it?"

"Because Sirius had dared to prank him in retaliation for hurting him accidentally."

Harry looked at Remus and Sirius confused but Sirius smiled.

"Let's put it this way. Would you ever prank the Dursleys?"

Harry snorted. "No way, they'd skin me alive."

"And Remus and me?"

"If you did something to ask for it then probably yes."

Sirius nodded. "Why would you prank us but not the Dursleys? You haven't really known us all that long."

"Yeah but I trust you guys. You wouldn't hurt me, at least not on purpose."

"Exactly," Remus answered. "Now take that thought and imagine a teenage boy who's been heavily abused his whole life for... well, basically merely breathing. That hurt boy comes to live with you. Would he ever play a prank on you like he's known to do on his friends?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Not likely."

"Why not?"

"He'd be scared to be hurt again, even if the adoptive parent wouldn't hurt him."

"How would you feel if he did prank you after you had accidentally hurt him?"

Harry bit his lip as he let his gaze rest on Sirius' arm. How would he feel if Sirius would dare to prank him, for he had long since realised Remus was talking about his godfather.

"I'd feel...happy. Because by pranking me in retaliation I'd be given trust. The trust to be fair and trusted not to hurt him on purpose. Grandfather was happy because by pranking him Sirius had placed his trust in him."

"Exactly."

"Any more questions?"

Although Harry didn't think Sirius would deny him any answers; he found that he didn't want to ask any more right now. His eyes lingered on the weird shackle-like scars on Sirius' wrists for a brief moment before he shook his head and Sirius put his shirt back on.

"Shall we open that letter now or is there more you want to talk about?" Remus's words made Sirius glance down at the letter that had moved to the edge of the bed during his moving around.

"I completely forgot about that thing," Sirius ripped the envelope open, a piece of paper falling out and a few words written on the parchment that had been folded around it. Sirius reached for the fallen paper and unfolded it, revealing an article of the Daily Prophet.

HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED-RETURNS. TRUTH REVEALED. SIRIUS BLACK CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES, PETER PETTIGREW'S ORDER OF MERLIN REVOKED, REVEALED DEATH EATER. AMELIA BONES TAKES CHARGE.

In a statement earlier today shocking information came to light after a break-in at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Escaped mass murderer Sirius Black and werewolf Remus Lupin barged into a crowded great hall to, as several reliable students testified, demand to know why Hogwarts High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge used an illegal Blood Quill on Black's godson Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived.

During this display of parental behaviour several shocking facts came to light. Black showed the entire student body present Pensieve memories of the Resurrection of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Confirming the story young Harry Potter has insisted on being true since the Triwizard finale, which cost the life of another champion in said tournament.

A student who was shown to be murdered by a believed deceased hero, Peter Pettigrew. A man who supposedly confronted and was killed alongside twelve Muggles by none other than You-Know-Who's right hand Sirius Black.

Murders Black was convicted for, or so everyone believed. Nothing is more shocking than the truth as Black never received a trial in the twelve years he had been imprisoned in Azkaban. A thorough investigation brought shocking results forth as the Pensieve memory showed Pettigrew to willingly aid in the resurrecting of You-Know-Who and his Dark Mark revealed for all to see. A reinvestigation into the transcripts of the received wands at the scene fourteen years ago revealed the simple, yet devastating truth. Not Black's wand, but the one belonging to Pettigrew had fired the spell that resulted in the death of twelve Muggles and in the chaos afterwards Pettigrew disappeared, framing Black for his crime and supposed death.

After the fortunate capture of Pettigrew yesterday eve during an unidentified raid by the Magical Law Enforcement all other charges against the newly reinstated Lord Black were dropped as well, such as the betrayal of the Potter family as Pettigrew testified under Veritaserum to having betrayed the Potters' Secret to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, which led to the famous events involving the Boy Who Lived. More about the Potters and the Fidelius Charm see page 4.

Madam Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was not available for comment as she is busy after the raid of yesterday eve. But she let it be known that she shall do anything in her power to reinstate Lord Black's reputation and honour in the world, including a statement going out to the Muggle law enforcement proclaiming his innocence. She has asked him to come forward to receive the Ministry's sincerest apologies and restitution for the crimes committed against the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black alongside an Order of Merlin first class for his services against He- Who-Must-Not-Be-Named during the First Wizarding War.

For a more in depth article on Lord Black go to page 6...

"You are free," Remus whispered hoarsely, being the first to find his voice as all three of them stared at the paper in shock for several minutes.

"I...I expected they'd be forced to give me a trial now. I never even considered they'd just clear me," Sirius looked stunned.

"You are free," Remus grabbed Sirius and pulled him into a bone crushing embrace, not unlike the one Harry had witnessed them sharing when they first met again in the Shrieking Shack.

Sirius did not react for several seconds before the words slowly seemed to get through to him and he embraced Remus back just as tightly.

Harry swallowed, tears appearing in his eyes at the sight of the two friends before he heard Sirius let out a choke that was dangerously close to tears and Harry moved to wrap his arms around his godfather, too. Remus shifted without ever loosening his hold so that Harry was directly in Sirius' arms and all three of them held on tightly for a good while, Harry more feeling than seeing the tears that were emotionally shed by his two favourite people, too.

"You are free, Siri," Harry eventually whispered, afraid that if he spoke any louder it would all turn out to be a dream. Sirius nodded but did not speak so Harry simply tightened his hold on his godfather again, feeling Remus doing the same.

It was only after what seemed like an eternity that Sirius pulled free from their embraces, rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and looked at the paper again before his eyes fell onto the parchment that had been included and laid forgotten to the side.

Dear Sirius,

I am not sure if you receive the Prophet where you are, but I believe you would like to know this as soon as possible.

Congratulations and I would like to say it is about time.

I expect an invitation to the upcoming adoption as soon as you have arranged for it to happen and for you to bring your little family by for proper congratulations.

Yours truly,

Minerva McGonagall.

"Adoption?" Harry felt his heart skip a beat.

Sirius had mentioned it before, but it had somehow slipped Harry's mind as he was just happy enough to not have to return to the Dursleys for as long as Sirius would want to have him.

But actually being adopted would be beyond his wildest dreams.

He felt a flash of guilt shoot through him for feeling happy and excited to be officially adopted by Sirius, like he would be betraying his parents somehow. But the flash left just as quickly as it had appeared as he knew Sirius would never want to take his parent's place. He would never try to replace his parents no matter what. He knew that by wanting to make it official Sirius simply wanted to legalize his guardianship over him so that no matter what happened, no one could ever try and take him away again like Hagrid had done fourteen years ago.

But more importantly than that Harry knew that Sirius simply wanted to give him a family. Wanted to give him a true home and that they could announce to the world that they were truly a family and not just a couple of guys living together like family. Even if they themselves knew better.

And although he was happy he wouldn't have to return to the Dursleys, he was much happier that Sirius wanted that official bond with him too. That he did not just see him as his godson, his charge. But truly as his son. Harry had already known Sirius loved him more than anything, his actions at Hogwarts had cemented that knowledge into Harry's brain and heart deeply. But loving someone and wanting them around were two different things.

Sirius cleared his throat, not noticing Harry's internal cheering and reading confusion instead of sheer happiness. "I once told McGonagall that if I ever got free the first thing I'd do was legally adopt you so no one could take you away from me again."

"You'd do that?"

"I was going to talk to you about it more properly if I ever got a trial, to see if you would be interested," Sirius shrugged. "It is not truly important; you are and always will be mine no matter what anyone might say but...well..." He trailed of, looking a bit lost how to explain.

"I would love to be officially considered yours. It won't ever replace Mum and Dad, but you and Remus are my family and an adoption would prove it to the world and make it legally impossible for the Ministry or Dumbledore to interfere," Harry beamed.

"So you would be interested?"

"How soon can you get the papers ready?"

All three of them chuckled. "I'd have to go to the Ministry to get them...and invite McGonagall as she'd be mad if we'd do this without her present."

Harry nodded. "Let's finish our little holiday, it's only a few more days anyway and then go. I want to spend as much time with just the two of you as is remotely possible."

"That would involve getting out of bed," Remus noted.

Sirius groaned, grabbed them both and let himself fall back onto the pillows. He hugged Harry to himself and used his hold on Remus' arm to pull him close, too.

"Sightseeing later...cuddle now."

"It is the middle of the day!" Remus exclaimed laughing.

"The best time for a cuddle," Sirius nuzzled Harry's hair, making him laugh.

"I don't think he's going to give us any choice," Harry teased but leaned into his godfather's embrace readily and Remus chuckled before he seemed to resign himself to a cuddle session as well, pulling Sirius against him.

"And you wonder why people are convinced the two of you are dating," Harry snorted out.

Remus shrugged. "Let them think what they want."

"We could do a lot worse," Sirius murmured.

"Like having most of the school convinced you are a complete player?" Remus said innocently, making Sirius snort.

"That is so unfair. I didn't even know about that rumour until seventh year when Peter blew up that potion."

"What potion?" Harry asked.

"He was supposed to brew something simple but messed up something so big that it ended in a castle wide explosion and every student was surrounded by a glow. A glow which showed their sexual status to everyone."

"No way!"

"Yeah. People with a green glow were mostly first and second years who never kissed. Blue meant you had kissed someone while purple indicated some making out and red more."

"How did everyone know what the colours represented?" Harry asked curiously.

"We figured it out pretty quickly when mostly first and second year students were covered in a green glow but barely any upper class student was. And some people had a reputation that gave away what the other colours meant since most of the teachers were glowing red and several sixth and seventh years too," Remus explained.

"What colours were Dad and you guys?" It made sense that the students would quickly figure out what the colours represented with that logic used.

"We were all blue. It was a complete shock to everyone since Sirius had been known as a complete player since second year and was rumoured to have had intercourse with most of the upper-class females and several males."

"Which wasn't true?"

Sirius shook his head. "I was raised in a very abusive home. I couldn't...the only people I ever felt comfortable with and trusted enough that close to me were the Marauders."

"But you had kissed."

Sirius chuckled. "Sort of. I hadn't actually kissed anyone on my own account. But I was kissed twice by someone else."

"By who? Someone I might know?"

"Oh yes. Your father and Remus."

Harry blinked.

"No way! My Dad kissed you!?" he abruptly sat up and stared at Sirius in shock. His mouth opened and closed a few times like a goldfish, making both Marauders laugh as they, too, sat up again.

"James kissed me once early in fourth year. He was drunk beyond anything you could possible imagine and believed me to be Lily. Merlin only knows how he made that mistake, though," Sirius explained.

"It was hilarious. Someone had spiked the punch and while we had the good sense to stay clear of it James wanted to know what it was like to be drunk. He got drunk all right and Sirius decided to get him to bed before he'd make an even bigger fool out of himself. But when he was tucking him in James suddenly grabbed him, murmured Evans and stuck his tongue into his mouth."

"What did you do?" Harry was caught between mortification and utter amusement at his father's antics.

"I bit his tongue," Sirius flushed when Harry snorted as he could see that happening. "But I wasn't really mad as I knew him and although I must have spent at least fifteen minutes brushing my teeth and tongue to get that awful taste of liquor out, I wasn't really mad at him."

Harry could imagine Sirius doing that perfectly and had to work to not laugh. "I bet Dad was mortified when he got up in the morning."

"He was, though more over the fact that he'd tried to molest Sirius than the actual kiss, funnily enough. He even swore a Marauder's oath to never drink again."

"And did he?"

"No, he never drank a single drop of alcohol again. It dulled our senses so none of us ever drank alcohol if we were expecting a fight at any rate but your dad and Sirius never drank a single drop."

"But you drank Firewhisky last summer," Harry pointed out.

"Not by choice I might add. Firewhisky is completely disgusting and burns through your throat."

"Then why..?"

"Because it was the only thing that helped. While I could deal with the Dementors' lingering touch on my own fairly well, the combination of that and that stupid house broke through my defences and left me freezing from the inside out."

"Only thing that could get him warm again was Firewhisky so I made sure he had several glasses of the stuff through the course of the day to keep his blood warming itself."

"Dementors have that much of a lingering effect? I thought chocolate helped with them."

"It does. If you have been exposed to them for a short period of time. But Sirius was exposed to them for an incredible amount of time, making chocolate basically worthless in combination to that house."

"But you don't have any Firewhisky now," Harry noted worriedly but Sirius smiled.

"Because when I'm away from that house I can handle it well enough and chocolate works fine since there is no dark magic eating on my skin."

"So...now that you are free, we'll move somewhere else?" he asked hopefully, making Sirius and Remus both laugh.

"We'll find some place together. We could go look for some places while you are back at Hogwarts and owl you the choices we narrowed it down to...or we could spend some time this holiday to look around?" Sirius asked.

"You would get me involved in the house picking?" Harry asked surprised.

"Of course, you are going to have to live there too," Sirius frowned.

Harry beamed. "Then I'd pick option two. We could always resort to option one if we haven't found anything worthy by the time I have to return right?"

"Right" two voices confirmed.

Harry looked at his godfather with a glint in his eyes.

"So...coming back to our original conversation...your first kiss was with my Dad?" he asked innocently.

Sirius chuckled as he shook his head, not looking the least bit mortified.

"No, Remus stole that one."

"I did not steal it; I more or less accidentally took it," Remus shot back.

"Which translates into stealing it, Moony."

"Do I have to remind you that that was my first kiss too?"

"What happened?" Harry interrupted before the two could really get into a good-natured argument if their teasing expressions and smiling was anything to go by.

"The third week of third year Sirius got really sick. And I mean really, really sick. He had already been unwell at the welcome feast but it got steadily worse as time went by. He was shaky, feverish and all but absolutely refused to go to the hospital wing. I thought he had smelled odd since the start of the year and it increasingly got worse. He kept brushing us off, but eventually he got sick enough that James and I managed to convince him to let us help him and we discovered the...treatment his parents put him through as his wounds had become heavily infected."

"He normally took care of his own injuries without us ever knowing, but hadn't been able to treat the wounds on his back properly, which is when those scars truly formed. They were in horrible shape when we got to them but he made us swear not to tell anyone or bring him to the hospital wing as it would only make things worse for him. It took a lot of persuading, but eventually he did agree to let us care for him, to try and treat them ourselves and promised to let us continue to do so from then on out," Remus sighed even as an apologetic smile formed on Sirius' lips.

"At any rate, we had been trying to keep him warm to break his fever and eventually he fell into an uneasy slumber, during which I tucked him in and well...whenever I was feeling unwell my mother would always kiss my forehead and it never failed to comfort me."

"Which, knowing Sirius had never been comforted like that before, you wanted to give him, too," Harry suddenly had a feeling he knew exactly what had happened as both Sirius and Remus flushed.

"Exactly, only when I leaned down he looked up; still half awake and unaware of what I'd been trying to do and we sort of kissed accidentally."

Harry laughed as he was proven to be correct. "That is so totally something that would happen to the two of you! I bet Dad had a field day with it!"

"Oh he did. Literally fell off the bed and it didn't help that McGonagall walked in at that precise moment."

Harry let out a laugh so loud his eyes widened and he clasped his hands before his mouth, looking horrified at the sound he had produced. Both Remus and Sirius laughed at his own surprise.

"Glad to see you find it so funny."

"What did McGonagall say?" Harry waved Sirius' grumble off.

"She faltered in her step momentarily before asking what on earth was going on as the portraits had warned her something was off in our dorm. She took one good look at Sirius before lifting him out of bed and carrying him to the hospital wing while berating us all about getting help when it was clearly needed. Though they never found out about the wounds as Sirius always hid them well behind a rune he had developed himself," Remus added as Harry opened his mouth to ask about it.

"She carried Sirius to the hospital wing?"

"I was a twig so she didn't have any trouble carrying me. Though I still wonder why she didn't use a levitation charm."

"Probably to make sure you were kept warm in the cold corridors with that fever you had. You were quite delirious most of the time," Remus mentioned.

"Hm..."

Harry looked at Sirius for a long moment, thinking if he should ask his question or not when Sirius caught his gaze.

"What do you want to ask?" He asked bemused.

"Well...do you know my parent's first kisses?" Harry asked a bit shyly.

"Your mum was with a Hufflepuff in fifth year," Sirius answered.

"How do you know that?" Harry hadn't thought him to know about his mother.

"I accidentally walked in on them and narrowly avoided being cursed as she screamed at me for ruining her perfectly first moment despite them being in the library."

"Ouch."

"Yes, though it was better than if James had walked in on her. And although technically I was his, we've never counted it so his was your mother's after their first date near the end of our sixth year. She is the only girl he ever kissed, actually."

It was somewhat sad that his mother was the only girl his father had ever kissed, though Harry was also aware of how romantic the mere idea behind it was.

They sat in silence for a couple of moments before Sirius chuckled all of a sudden.

"What?" Harry asked confused.

"You aren't thinking of that are you?" Remus asked warily but Sirius only chuckled harder.

"What is he chuckling about?" Harry asked again.

"If I am correct, then he's having fun about your first kiss."

Only louder chuckling was the answer.

"My first kiss? How could he possibly know about that?" Harry asked, mortified that Sirius had somehow learned of the disastrous kiss he had shared with Cho a few days before and besides Hermione and Ron hadn't shared with anyone.

"Because you kissed him when you were thirteen months old, squarely on the lips before proclaiming you'd marry him when you'd be grown up." "You're kidding me!" Harry exclaimed shocked.

Sirius' chuckling turned into full blown laughter at seeing Harry's face and even Remus couldn't suppress a snicker. "Why?"

Sirius shifted so that he was sitting up more properly after having fallen over in laughter and tried his uttermost best to get his laughing under control before he answered.

"You were convinced Remus and I were together when you were small and you asked your mummy why we weren't wearing rings like mummy and daddy did. She told you that it was because we weren't married," Sirius grinned.

"That combined with an earlier explanation about different sort of kisses, you hobbled over to me, had me lift you up and promptly planted your lips on mine with a loud smack. Once you'd done that you indeed proclaimed you would marry me when you were big and shower me in kisses like daddy did to mummy if Uncle Remy wouldn't."

Harry found his own antics as a baby funny enough to laugh about it.

"How did he react?" Harry turned to Remus, knowing he'd give a better answer.

"He stared at you for a long moment, completely flabbergasted before he smiled and said he couldn't wait for you to grow up and remind you of this."

Even Harry had to laugh now as Sirius had tears running down his cheeks from laughing.

"What did Mum and Dad say?"

"James wouldn't stop teasing either of us for the longest time while Lily couldn't stop laughing. Your accusations weren't even that far-fetched as we indeed lived together."

Harry laughed before he sobered again.

"At least that is a better first kiss story than the one I do remember."

"Kissing your godfather is better than kissing someone you like?" Remus asked surprised. "What happened?"

"When did that happen?" Sirius asked at the same time.

"I made her cry and it was a day before you came to pick me up." Harry said with a blush.

"You..." Remus trailed off in shock.

"Wait, is this that Cho girl you told me you liked last year but who went out with the Cedric guy before starting to show interest in you this year?" Sirius suddenly interrupted.

Harry wasn't surprised that Sirius knew about her as he himself had told Sirius he liked her during one of their long nightly conversations last summer. And during the school year he had written to him about her interest in him. It had been much easier to talk to Sirius about it than with his friends for some reason so he wasn't even surprised as he answered.

"The same."

"Then there is hope for you still. She probably cried because she felt conflicted and guilty for kissing you while she used to like the other boy and she didn't know how things would have gone if he hadn't died so she'll feel guilty about liking you now instead. It is a shame your official first kiss was so...what?" Sirius trailed off as he caught Harry staring at him in shock.

"That...that is almost the exact same thing that Hermione said a few days ago. I thought you had to be a girl to get all that."

"Are you calling me a girl?"

"Erm...no...I...But how do you know stuff like that?" Harry asked.

"It is logical thinking? I would feel conflicted, too, so why wouldn't a girl feel them just as much? Maybe even more since girls are generally much more open in their feelings?" Sirius shrugged.

"You are weird." Harry stated, making Remus laugh.

"He is just a natural. It was always annoying to watch him say all the right things or act perfectly around girls while the rest of us bumbled along quite awkwardly. It was why most thought he was such a player even if he wasn't truly interested in anyone. He could sweet talk his way out of detention by most of the staff because he was so emphatically honest with emotions."

"But he holds the unbroken record of the most detentions ever gotten in one term," Harry exclaimed.

"Imagine that record if I hadn't weaselled my way out of half of them," Sirius shot back.

"You have got to teach me that."

"I could try. You got the shy part working for you, which might outbalance your tendency to ignore the rules."

"I could always claim it are Dad's genes and your bad influence that gets me into trouble."

"That might work, too," Sirius smirked. "Well Mister Potter, considering just who your parents and godfather are I shall let it slide just this once." He said in a strange voice that made Remus burst out laughing and gave Harry the impression of some pompous git.

"Who are you imitating?"

"Slughorn. He was the Potions Professor before Snape and played favourites quite thoroughly," Remus answered.

"Not like Snape does," Remus hurried to explain at seeing Harry's disgusted face.

"He was quite nice most of the time. He just had a tendency to sniff out those students who would become famous or excel and add them to his collection of Sluggers. He held meetings every few weeks with all his favourites attending, calling them his Sluggers. Your mother was part of the club and he wanted your dad and Sirius in it, too."

"Did he get them?"

"Your dad occasionally joined to try and chat up your mother," Sirius answered.

"And you didn't?"

"I had no desire to be wasting my time with the likes of him, not even for James."

"He liked Sirius though. Partly because he was quite good at potions but mostly because he was the first ever Black to not be sorted in Slytherin."

"You were good at Potions?"

"I got by well enough. Your mother however was a genius when it came to Potions. She frequently beat Snape in class, something rarely anyone did."

"You occasionally did if you were bored enough to challenge him," Remus commented when Sirius shrugged. "Snape was furious when he beat his OWL and NEWT scores without even trying."

"Your mum also outshone everyone in Charms. I don't know if you already knew it, but both of your parents were exceptionally talented wizards."

Harry beamed at the acknowledgement Sirius made about his parents, especially since Harry knew and had witnessed that Sirius himself was an exceptional wizard, too. So for him to say the same thing about especially his mother made him really happy.

"Yeah, she was a force to be reckoned with. Especially when her temper got the better of her while dealing with us at Hogwarts; she threw a mean variety of hexes, even as a first year. But other than her temper she truly was remarkably skilful."

"For a Muggle-born?" Harry asked, wondering if Sirius had some lingering prejudices like the Weasleys seemed to have unconsciously, too.

Sirius frowned confused and pleasantly surprised Harry with his answer. "No, for a magical person. Most students had to learn everything from books; your mother was famed for already having had quite the control of her magic even before starting Hogwarts."

Remus chuckled as he explained. "It is not very common for most magical folks to have much control over their magic before starting to learn at Hogwarts. Your dad and I were among those common people. Your mum and Sirius were not."

"You controlled your magic already, too?" Harry asked.

Sirius shrugged. "I learned how to control it when I was a toddler. A Black simply did not let his emotions get the better of him according to my parents, so any time I did accidental magic I was punished for it severely enough that I quickly learned to control my feelings no matter what they threw at me. Your mother however was a natural."

Harry nodded, feeling pride for his mother but at the same time disgust for Sirius' relatives once more. Willing himself to not bring the subject back to Sirius' cruel family he continued his questioning.

"What was Dad good at?"

"He outshone everyone at Transfiguration," Sirius said, which made Harry smile.

"What were your best subjects?"

"Defence," Remus answered. "For both of us actually. Sirius was good at almost every subject he touched but Defence is where he shone. Me too."

"This completely annoyed my relatives of course. I wasn't supposed to be good at casting spells that countered dark curses. There was actually only one spell I always had trouble with," Sirius admitted.

"Which one?" Harry wondered just what kind of spell could have troubled his godfather so much.

"The Patronus charm."

Harry blushed at the clear pride implicated in Sirius' tone and expression as he looked at him that he himself didn't have any trouble with that spell at all.

"You would need a lot of happy memories for that one to work properly," Harry said and Sirius nodded.

"I didn't manage one at all until after I had run away. And even then it was rather unreliable when needed. We often tried to challenge ourselves ahead of what Hogwarts taught us so we'd been trying to teach ourselves the Patronus charm since second year."

"What were your forms?"

"A wolf and a stag," Remus answered.

"A stag?" Harry asked surprised.

Sirius nodded. "Yes. Usually a Patronus takes the form of the animal you share the deepest similarity with. Which is why a Patronus usually takes the same shape as one's Animagus form."

"But yours doesn't," Harry interrupted.

"No, the times I managed to produce a corporeal one it has always been a stag. We figured that was because basically all the good memories I possessed that were strong enough to use involved your father and thus my Patronus represented that. We experimented with using other memories, ones focusing on Remus and Peter but I never managed to produce more than a bit of silver smoke on those occasions."

"You truly cared deeply about my Dad, didn't you?" Harry asked softly.

"James was my brother; my home," the raw emotion in Sirius' eyes was enough to tell Harry that was not even half of what his father had meant to the man.

"You would have thought they were twins; often they didn't even need to speak to understand what the other was thinking or barely needed two words. It drove the rest of us crazy as we tried to follow their conversations but couldn't because it played out entirely in their eyes," Remus softly continued.

"No one ever even tried to imagine one without the other because it just didn't seem possible; they were attached at the hip and even after Hogwarts they remained inseparable. Your mother always joked that she had gotten two for the price of one, though she never wanted it any other way as she grew extremely close to him as well; calling him her brother," Remus gave a small smile. "Sirius was even the one who gave her away to your father at their wedding."

Harry could almost feel the loss the two men before him had felt simply by looking at them and he felt a deep sorrow as he remembered how easily everyone had turned against his godfather; believing him to have betrayed who was clearly the most important person in his life.

It filled him with anger to know just how easily people had been willing to believe the worst of Sirius, especially if they should have known better. Even from just hearing him talk about his father, telling him stories about him, Harry could tell just how much his father had meant to Sirius and he had no personal memories of the two of them interacting together.

So everyone else truly should have known better than to simply believe things. He swallowed again as he resolutely sat up and threw his arms around Sirius' neck, hugging him close. He ignored the small gasp of surprise he heard and just hugged his godfather closer and buried his face into the other's not bandaged shoulder when he felt arms encircle him and hug him back. Sirius chuckled as he rested his head on Harry's shoulder and whispered in his ear.

"I love you very, very much, too, pup." Harry swallowed a lump before smiling. "I love you, too."

"You know, your mum's Patronus was a deer. Your father always insisted that it was a clear sign they were meant to be," Sirius tried to steer the conversation back to less heavy topics.

"Which of course completely pissed your mother off, who in return would hex him," Remus said with a nod.

"James was proven right in the end though," Sirius' smile made Harry laugh as he sat back, letting go of Sirius but not moving away from his side.

Sirius glanced at the clock before sighing. "What do you think of just getting up since we're all wide awake anyway?"

"It is a scary day when Padfoot rolls out of bed early," Remus joked.

"I think you are mistaking me for Lily, I was always up before the crack of dawn while she had to be dragged out of bed."

Sirius stuck out his tongue at Remus as Harry laughed again. Sirius stared at Harry for a long moment with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I wonder."

"Wonder what?" Harry shifted, slightly nervous under his godfather's intense gaze.

"Just..." Sirius leaned over and without warning poked his finger into Harry's side, who at once let out a chuckle without meaning to.

"Oh no," Remus swiftly moved off the bed as Sirius suddenly beamed and pretty much jumped Harry to attack his sides with his fingers, tickling him mercilessly. Within moments Harry was reduced to laughing so hard that he could barely breathe as his godfather's fingers seemed to find all his ticklish spots without the least bit of effort.

"M...mercy!" Harry squealed out eventually and Sirius finally stopped tickling him, leaning back on his knees as he was laughing almost as hard as Harry himself was doing.

In the long minutes it took for them both to regain their breaths again Harry stared at his godfather's beaming face. While laughing like this his eyes didn't seem as haunted as usual and Harry got glimpses of the young man Sirius would have been if things had been different. He wanted to glare at his godfather, but it came out half-heartedly as he was simply too happy to see his godfather so cheerful and happy. That didn't mean he couldn't try though.

"What did you do that for?"

"Just curious to see if you were ticklish."

"Was Dad ticklish?" Harry asked curiously.

"Not at all. Your mum was, though. She'd squeal delightfully loud whenever I started to tickle her out of the blue, especially if she was being lazy," Sirius said with clear joy and Harry felt his heart jump at the knowledge that he shared one more trait with his mother.

Sirius smiled at him before he leaned forward and dropped a kiss on Harry's nose. Harry blinked surprised at the action and touched his nose confused. "What was that? "

"Something your grandmother always used to do. She'd always kiss your nose when playing with you. Did the same to your father and me at random intervals. Between making dinner or a game, she'd suddenly lean over and drop a kiss on our noses for no particular reason. Said it was a sign of affection."

"Grandmother did?"

"All the time. Your grandfather was more the type to swing an arm around us out of nowhere and pull us close. Scared the living hell out of me the first few times he unthinkingly did that with me, though I'd gotten used to James' displays of affection quite quickly and it wasn't long until I was used to your grandparents, too."

"Dad was a hugger?" That didn't fit with the tough guy image Harry had conjured of his father in his head. But then again Sirius and Remus had proven him wrong on that account, too.

"Not a hugger per se; although he was always tactile in nature. But he was not affectionate with anyone but Sirius and his parents and later your mother. Sirius and James were always touching in some way; holding hands, an arm around his shoulders or simply curled up together absolutely everywhere," Remus smiled while Sirius flushed a little.

"It used to make me feel rather uncomfortable since no one outside of my parents ever touched me; afraid I would contaminate them with my lycanthropy or so," Remus laughed. "Sirius was even worse; he was unfamiliar with any type of friendly touch and it took him a lot of trial and error to get past that. Your father had made it his top priority to shower Sirius in affection and guide him to do what made him comfortable; which in turn led to him trying several things on me as well to see if it was something he was comfortable with."

He gazed down at Sirius fondly. "I'll never forget when you took my hand for the first time back in first year; I was so happy that you trusted me like that that it didn't even make me feel uncomfortable."

"It took me a lot longer to feel comfortable enough to sleep beside you, though," Sirius admitted, but Remus shrugged as if it didn't trouble him.

"So you are both very affectionate," Harry teased; well aware of that fact.

"Like you are one to talk; you're growing more and more affectionate by the day," Sirius snorted; ruffling Harry hair and making him laugh before he slipped from the bed.

"Where are you going?" Remus asked.

"Taking a shower. You guy's wanted to look at a few houses later today, didn't you. We should get ready, have some breakfast and start planning then before we talk the day away," Sirius vanished into the bathroom, leaving the other two to stare after him before springing into action too at his logic.