A/N This is the final chapter. I apologise for not giving you any prior warning but I didn't know myself until I finished writing it! There will likely be a sequel covering Harry's later years but I make no promises if and when that will come out. So all I can say at this point is thanks for the ride and enjoy :)

Harry loved his school, his friends, his horses and especially hunting but he did sometimes wonder about the people he'd left behind. He'd had so many reactions to that hunting accident from various people that he found himself imagining what say, Hermione's would have been. Or Ron's. Or, heaven help him, Oliver Wood's.

The more he thought about Hogwarts and his time there, the more he realised he'd just upped and left without a word to anyone. There had been that time in Diagon Alley with the impromptu press conference in Fortescue's but apart from that he'd not paid it any attention at all. He had no problems with this, he much preferred not being the Boy-Who-Lived, but he hadn't said goodbye to anyone. He'd also left the Gryffindor quidditch team needing a new seeker at short notice and now that he was thinking about it Harry realised how bad he felt about the whole thing. This was still on his mind as he got ready for bed and he knew he would have to do something about it if he wanted any peace now.

"Sirius?" Harry began the following morning.

"Yes pup?" Sirius replied, not taking his eyes off the eggs he was frying.

"Will you take me to Hogwarts this weekend?"

Sirius froze. He'd never expected Harry to ask that particular question. He thought Harry was happy with his life now and didn't want to look back. He quickly added the eggs on top of some toast and carried the plates over to his godson.

"Of course I will if you want Harry, but why d'you ask? Has something happened at school?" If there had been an incident at Jackson's involving Harry, Leon Jackson was about to find out exactly why Sirius was a bad person to piss off.

Harry took a big bite of his egg on toast before replying. "Everything's fine at school Sirius. I just feel bad about leaving so abruptly and there's some people I'd like to see. I think I also owe people some answers, I'm sure they're wondering about me. And now I've thought about this, I can't un-think it and it's going to drive me nuts if I don't do something about it!"

"I'll talk to Moony and see what plan we can concoct then. You, however, are going to be late if you don't eat up quickly and then get dressed!"

"Sirius I am dressed!" Harry mock pouted. This had turned into a general joke since Sirius had started cooking breakfast for after Harry's morning ride.

"How many times do I have to tell you Harry, you can't go to school in your riding gear!" Sirius responded in apparent exasperation.

Both boys chuckled and Sirius ruffled Harry's hair affectionately. "Go on eat and shoo. You've got fifteen minutes until we leave."

Once Harry was at school, Sirius flooed to Hogwarts straight into Remus's quarters. As luck had it his old friend wasn't teaching at that time.

"Morning Padfoot, what brings you here so early on a Thursday?" Remus greeted.

"Harry wants to come here this weekend. He said there was nothing wrong with school, he just wanted to see some people."

"That is a surprise! I thought he didn't want to come back here."

"Me too, but apparently he thinks he owes people answers and now can't stop thinking about it."

"How about you floo through about 10ish on Saturday then. We can do whatever Harry likes. It's not a Hogsmeade weekend so everyone he wants to see should be here. If he wants to stay over you're more than welcome to use the dog bed in my spare room."

"Mr Padfoot thanks Mr Moony for such a thoughtful comment and will be sure to be wearing his silver collar for the occasion."

Remus just stared at his friend for a minute before bursting out into gales of laughter. Sirius joined him and the two laughed together for several minutes before they could calm down enough to speak.

"Got me there Pads" Remus managed to gasp out.

"Been a while Moons, been a while. Glad to see the old dog still has it about him!" Sirius puffed up his chest and preened like he was showing off to an appreciative audience.

Remus guffawed. "That look does absolutely nothing for you. Stop being a prat and lets work on this weekend for Harry. Do you know who he wants to see?"

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Harry's list contained the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Professor Flitwick, Hagrid and the headmaster. He had left off Professor McGonagall because he could see her whenever he wanted out of term time.

The chat to Flitwick went well; Harry told the half goblin how much he had enjoyed his Charms classes, why he left and a little about his life now. The pair parted with Flitwick promising that if Harry ever wanted anything he only had to ask. Dumbledore tried weakly to get Harry to return but Sirius nipped that in the bud quickly. Harry apologised for leaving so suddenly, told the man he hoped he hadn't taken it too personally and then explained about some ways he thought Hogwarts could improve. Harry didn't know if the older wizard would take anything onboard but at least it was off his conscience now. Neville, Dean and Seamus he told why he had left and that he hoped they were enjoying themselves. In response they told him all the school gossip, what Hogsmeade weekends were like and asked him questions about his school now. They had a good fun catch-up and they promised to do it again sometime.

Seeing Hermione and Ron again was emotional, and Hermione almost suffocated him with her hug, but it was fun. Ron was much like his other friends had been, except a bit more understanding of his need to get away from the fame and the life threatening experiences. Adrenaline fuelled and exhilarating as those adventures were, even Ron now realised quite how dangerous they had been. After the full story about the Chamber of Secrets had been told to their parents, Arthur and Molly had taken Ginny to St Mungo's where she had stayed for a week. When Ron had commented how Harry always bounced back with just a few days in the Hospital Wing, the Weasley parents had gone livid. Needless to say Ron understood a lot better now the real severity of the situations they'd been in.

Harry chuckled when he heard Ron's story. Mrs Weasley was a lovely person but she had her opinions on things and after everything the redhead had said, he knew that she'd never let him out of her sight if she got hold of him. Thank Merlin Sirius was his guardian. He came out of his thoughts just in time to catch Ron's last comment.

"Wood's well annoyed. Has been all year. I mean Ginny's good, but she's not you and we lost the last match against Ravenclaw by a fraction of a second. Cho Chang just got her hand around it first, they were flying neck and neck."

"Oooo, yeah that's gotta hurt, losing like that. Especially for Wood." Harry knew how seriously his old quidditch captain took the sport. It was almost life and death to him. Only just losing at the end of a snitch chase was worse than knowing you were going to lose all along.

"Well Wood's convinced that you would have got it if you were seeking, so I'd just be aware if you're going to see him! The Quidditch Cup all rests on whether Ravenclaw beat Slytherin now. We beat Hufflepuff and they beat Ravenclaw so if the Ravens can beat the snakes it'll be us vs Slytherin for the cup. It's rather close and our last match is still fresh in the team's minds."

Harry hugged Ron awkwardly. "Thanks mate" he said. "I'm going to see them next. I left them till last!"

Ron chuckled and stepped aside so Harry could hug Hermione.

"I'm happy Hermione. I'm the happiest I've ever been now. You'll have to come over in the holidays some time, you'll enjoy it I'm sure. Get your parents to talk to Remus about it, we're not that far from London."

"Oh Harry!" Hermione hugged her friend hard and sobbed onto his shoulder.

"Hey Hermione what's up? I can't face Oliver Wood leaving you in tears. What are you crying for?"

Harry's face showed only concern and Hermione squeezed him again.

"Oh Harry, you're such a gentleman! You've changed so much I can hardly believe it's you!" She wiped her eyes on the back of her hand and coughed slightly to regain her composure. "You bet I'll be over, I want to see what they teach you at your school and I want to see all your books!"

"Of course you would! Nothing too exciting or different really but you're welcome to come-" Harry cut himself off and turned to Sirius. "They can come can't they?"

Sirius chuckled. "Of course they can pup, as long as you've finished your work beforehand."

"Knowing Hermione, we'll do it whilst she's there!"

"And you can't neglect your farm duties either."

"He would never do that, you know that Sirius" Remus replied in defence of Harry.

"I know. I was just making sure."

"We'll be as good as gold" Harry promised.

"Riiiiiiiiiiight. And Hagrid will be Minister for Magic" Sirius retorted with a grin. "What do you want to do now Harry? Chat with these two for longer, or go face this Oliver Wood fellow? I think I might need to keep my wand handy in cases spells start flying by the sounds of things!"

"Oh please no, the spells you come up with will put the twins to shame and they're in the team! We don't need a prank war starting just yet!"

Sirius stuck his tongue out at Harry as Harry turned back to his friends. "So yeah, come visit whenever. But now I should probably go and apologise to the team."

"Good luck mate. We could go flying for a bit later if you wanted?" Ron asked.

"That was be great yeah. You okay with that Hermione?"

"Yeah fine, I need to go to the library anyway."

"Cool. I'll come find you when I've finished being eaten alive by Wood then!" Harry said to Ron. "See you later."

As soon as they had left Harry let out a sigh.

"You ok pup?" asked Sirius. "Are you sure you want to carry on? We can come back later if you want?"

"I don't want to do this Sirius, I need to do this. I imagine they'll be on the pitch about now, might as well see them there."

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They returned to Elmbridge that night after dinner and Harry went straight to bed. Sirius poured himself a firewhiskey and collapsed into one of the squashy lounge armchairs. It had been a rather emotional day.

Feeling the firewhiskey burn down his throat with a sigh, Sirius let his thoughts wander to the most explosive encounter he'd witnessed that day. He knew he'd been warned but he didn't think anyone could be quite THAT fanatical about Quidditch! Hell that boy hadn't even said hello before going off on one about how Harry had let the whole team down and this was the last time he'd ever be able to win the Quidditch Cup and that Harry obviously only thought of himself and not anyone else now. He had even ended his rant with "what happened to catch the snitch or die trying?"

Harry had stood there and just let it all go over him. Sirius wasn't sure how much of it his godson even listened to, it was obvious that this was a tactic the whole team was trained in. Sirius, however, had got angry on Harry's behalf. This boy held a position of respect both within his house and the school and this was not the way to treat your team members in Sirius' opinion.

"Mr Wood." He had spoken up before Harry had chance to. "I don't know what you intend to achieve by badmouthing my godson but it definitely won't bring him back to Hogwarts, that I can assure you. Do you speak just to hear your voice or do you actually listen to what you're saying? Do you ever look around your team when you're lecturing them? Does anything you say ever make any difference?"

Wood had looked around at his team wildly, but they were all staring avidly at Sirius.

"Harry did not leave Hogwarts just to snub you as you seem to believe. Perhaps you remember the whole fight to stop an immortal Lord Voldemort from returning in his first year? Or maybe his fight against a basilisk, a beast that can kill with one look, to save his best friend's sister last year, consequently saving the world again from Voldemort returning and getting himself bitten by said basilisk for his troubles? He put his life in the line for you lot and you repay him by yelling untrue accusations in his face. Take a good look at yourself Mr Wood, or you'll be eaten up in the real world."

Sirius had enjoyed giving that lecture. He thought the rest of the quidditch team had enjoyed it too. It was obvious that they never paid any attention to what their captain said and it was testament to their skill that they played as well as they did under such leadership. Wood had excused himself a short while later, leaving Harry and the rest of the team to chat and have a pick up game between themselves.

The marauder slumped further into his chair, feeling the firewhiskey warm him up from the inside, as the living room fire warmed him from the outside. Only when his eyelids started dropping did Sirius realise actually how tired he was. Harry had gone to bed and would no doubt wake him at the crack of dawn when he went out riding. As emotional as today had been for his godson, Sirius doubted Harry would brood about it. It was done, it was off his conscience so now he really could enjoy his life. Which, unfortunately for his godfather, meant early morning rides.

Sirius chuckled to himself as he finished his glass and headed upstairs. Even if he could, he wouldn't have it any other way.

THE END