Grim Tidings

Sirius stared into the fire late that night, absently running his fingers along the wand in his lap. Dumbledore had silenced the Great Hall that night and brought him forward -- announced the acquittal, and Pettigrew's deception and capture and conviction, and that Sirius was now Harry's guardian....

....And everyone had sat there stunned, lost, trying to process it -- not that he could blame them, it was hard enough for him to realize.

And then Harry had stood up from the table and lifted his wand to fire off a fountain of red and gold sparks until nobody could see through the glittering cloud that his hand was shaking. The girl and boy sitting with him had followed suit seconds later, and it had spread until there was a veritable rainbow over the Gryffindor table -- and disconcertingly, an answering shower of celebratory sparks from some of the smaller Slytherins.

The Great Hall had been a glowing blur for Sirius for several long moments. And he'd been seized, illogically, with the urge to walk up to Hogsmeade, Floo to Diagon Alley, and buy himself a new wand. Right away.

So he had.

It was a duplicate of his old one, broken twelve years past when he'd been convicted and sent to Azkaban... he'd thought somehow that it would be a different make, but though he'd tried different wands in Ollivander's shop it had once again been ebony and dragon heartstring, resilient, thirteen inches long, that had shot the familiar golden sparks. Did that mean he hadn't really changed in Azkaban?

He'd thought many things would be different, now that he was free. Peter was on his way to Azkaban, bound to his human shape and rat-killing wards to be placed around his cell. No Animagus tricks would help him escape as they had Sirius.

He tried to feel the satisfaction, the elation, that he'd dreamed of for twelve years and felt earlier that day, but it had left with the sun and he felt only emptiness. Peter's testimony at the trial had been quite complete. Too complete for Sirius' comfort. He had hoped to celebrate the unmasking of a traitor... but found himself mourning a boyhood friend, a quiet young man with a wry sense of humor who had been lost long ago without Sirius noticing.

There was a knock at the door. The hour was very late for visitors... but perhaps Remus had come by for a drink and a talk. "It's unlocked, Moony," he called. But when the door opened, someone else stepped into the room, the firelight gleaming off wire-framed glasses and a grave young face under a shock of unruly black hair, and Sirius' heart clenched.

"Harry. Come in, please, sit down. I wasn't expecting you -- it's after lights-out, isn't it? How did you get by Filch?" He knew he sounded like a bloody idiot, but he couldn't look at Harry without hearing James and Lily asking him to take care of their son, if something happened... and then something had, and he'd broken his word.

Harry absently waved a swatch of shimmery cloth, and Sirius bit back a chuckle. James' old cloak. He should have known. "Ah, yes. If that cloak could talk, Harry...." He shook his head ruefully. "Please sit down. What can I do for you?"

Harry sat stiffly in the other chair, and paused for a long moment, avoiding Sirius' eyes. Finally he glanced up. "Mr. Black...."

"Sirius, please. Mr. Black was --" His father had died while Sirius was in prison. His mother had followed soon after. Neither had known their son was innocent. "Call me Sirius."

"Sirius, then. I don't... want to bother you, I know it's been a long day...."

"Not that long, Harry." He smiled, uncertainly; he'd almost forgotten how. "Any time you ever want something from me, it's not been too long a day."

Harry looked away again, and Sirius mentally cursed himself. Never mind it was far too soon to really act like the boy's godfather... he'd met Lily's sister once, and if Harry was at all used to people going out of their way to accommodate him after twelve years with that woman, Sirius would eat his new wand.

Finally Harry looked up again, and the look in his green eyes pierced Sirius to the heart. "I only thought... if you weren't too tired, I mean... it's just that you -- well, you knew my mum and dad better than just about anyone, and I just...."

Sirius smiled, and blinked away a pricking at the corners of his eyes. "Of course, Harry. James and Lily... of course. No, I'm not too tired. What do you want to know?"

"Well... anything. What were they like?"

"Well, your mum, Lily... stubborn woman, she was. Very gentle, usually, but cross her and she'd flare up like a phoenix, just that hot and fierce. And James... James was the brother I wished I had, as a kid." Sirius shook his head. "Didn't meet him until we'd got up to the dorms, really -- I mean, I'd seen him get Sorted, and all, and the Blacks and the Potters are both solid old wizarding blood, so I knew who he was... but at dinner I was too busy flicking peas at Isobel Figg when the prefects weren't looking to strike up a conversation.

"I'd sort of assumed I'd end up the leader for the boys in our year -- I'd known Peter a bit from before, and we'd played together a bit with some Muggle boys as young kids, and I'd always taken the lead there, but James, well," Sirius smiled. "I'll not say we didn't have our scuffles, but... you'll have been told you look just like him, I expect, and you do, but it's more than anything a sort of air you both have. You're quieter with it -- James was always outgoing, and could fill a room with his laughter -- but I look at your friends, Ron and... Hermione, isn't it? And I see the three of us, how we used to be, and you as James, the one who brought us together. He inspired people, James did. Once you were his friend, there was nothing he wouldn't do for you, and... you never quite knew what to do with that kind of regard but return it, so there ended up being nothing you wouldn't do for him." Sirius felt his voice go ragged, and wiped tears from his eyes, and gazed back into the fire for a long moment to get himself together.

"Anyway, we got into loads of trouble -- and had loads of fun together -- at school, and then in the summer after our last year, James and Lily got married. He was more surprised than any of us were -- I swear, Lily spent more time that year fuming about what a clueless sod he was being, and she was right. But they sorted themselves out at last.

"That, of course, was the year Voldemort really got moving. There'd been rumors and disappearances for a few years before that, but that Halloween was the first of the big Muggle-killings, and things got... things got very bad very quickly. I was apprenticed to your friend Ron's father at the time, in the Muggle Artifacts office, and he brought the four of us and Lily into Dumbledore's confidence." Sirius took a deep breath and sighed. "And James quickly became Dumbledore's right hand, and our public face. He was the best Chaser for Puddlemere in forty years, from a respected old family, outspoken and charismatic and brave as anything... when he spoke, even people who thought Dumbledore stuffy and outmoded sat up and listened. And James took one of the toughest jobs of any of us: he was our designated target. He made public appearances, announcements on the Wireless, was on the forefront of nearly every big raid... anything to get the Death-Eaters so riled up at him that they'd strike where we could get at them, James did, and your mum was right there with him every step of the way, on top of all the work she was doing for Experimental Charms. And it worked, too... and then they had you, and scaled back, let the Aurors take up the reins... but it was too late by then, they'd drawn Voldemort's personal attention."

He stopped again, swallowing and eyeing Harry carefully. The boy was staring into the fire too, unblinking, the glare off his glasses making his Lily-green eyes look almost gold. "And everybody knew it," Harry said after a moment, in the scratchy sort of whisper that came when the tears ran down your throat instead, "but not that there was somebody who wouldn't do anything for him."

"None of us did. Well, Peter, I suppose, but..." Sirius laughed harshly. "I thought if any of us was likely to turn, it would be Remus... that Voldemort could force him, as a werewolf. I was a bloody fool, and you've been paying the price of it all your life. 'I'm sorry' doesn't begin to say it."

"Don't." Harry swallowed this time. "...Professor Lupin's been teaching me the Patronus."

"He was always good at that. Teaching, and Defense." Sirius shivered. "Hope you didn't get the practical on that one."

"I've been practicing on a boggart."

Sirius chuckled. "Trust Moony to think of something like that. No, I meant... actual Dementors."

"No. ...Just the ones who went by before the lessons, so I couldn't exactly try it on them."

"I saw that Quidditch match. Ran away when they...." He shuddered. "I was so afraid you'd been hurt."

"Dumbledore got rid of them that time. 'S what Ron and Hermione said."

"He's got the strongest Patronus I've ever seen." Sirius stared into the fire and sighed, drumming his fingers on the armrest, then turned to meet Harry's eyes. "Look, Harry, I know -- we don't know each other very well yet, and everything's still settling, but... well, once I've had a chance to find a place -- Remus is helping me look for a house -- I just thought, if you wanted, well, James and Lily named me your guardian, as well as your godfather, if anything happened to them. So if you wanted, you could come stay with me."

Harry opened his mouth, blinked, and stopped for several long seconds as if someone had sneaked up and snatched the words out of his throat. Then he swallowed again, convulsively. "I -- I could?"

"It won't be a big place -- I've got quite a lot set aside, but it won't stretch that far until I get a job somewhere -- and I understand if you've already said you'd stay at the Weasleys' this summer. But after that... well, it's up to you."

"You'd want me to?"

It was Sirius' turn to blink in surprise. "Of course I would. Even if your parents hadn't asked me to, even if -- I would've taken you in that night, only Hagrid showed up with orders from Dumbledore. And from everything I've heard about you, and seen, you deserve at least a home. I don't know how much of one I can give you, but... if you want it, it's yours."

Harry swallowed again, then grinned slowly. "Of -- course I do." He winced when his voice cracked on the second word, but he'd sat up very straight and it looked for all the world like he was on the verge of bouncing in the chair. "You mean it?"

Sirius grinned back. "Yes, of course I mean it. I'm not damn well letting you go back to Lily's sister now I've got the right to say something about it. I can't imagine she's changed."

"Well, not that I remember." A slight pause; Harry's head tilted birdishly. "Do you think I -- we -- could still visit the Weasleys?"

"Of course you could. Why not? They're your friends." Sirius chuckled. "I might come with you, if they'll forgive me. I can't imagine a better way to forget Azkaban food than at Molly Weasley's table."

"I think she'd like to have you -- once she knows." Harry winced. "Oh. They're all going to be... really upset, finding out about Scabbers."

Sirius nodded. "If I know Molly, she already thinks of you as very nearly one of her own." He smiled faintly at a fond memory. "It'll be hard news, and worse for that, but they're strong."

"Ron's still kind of stunned. ...Crookshanks spent the whole evening purring. Er, that's Hermione's cat."

"Yes, I know. Part Kneazle, if I'm any judge. He's been very helpful."

"He has? No wonder he's smug."

"He deserves to be. Figured out I wasn't a dog, figured out what I was up to, and stole the passwords for me after my, ah, conversation with the Fat Lady." Sirius coughed uncomfortably. "I should go apologize to her. We always used to get on pretty well."

"Maybe if you do that, she'll come back." Harry blinked. "Wait. Stole them? From where?"

"I don't know exactly. Brought me this list of them in his mouth one night. Careless of somebody, whoever it was."

"That's... odd." Harry frowned. "Unless Crookshanks can write, I suppose. The boa can."

"Talented. Remus told me he suspected it understood English."

"He does. I sort of accidentally let him out of the zoo before I came here, and he found his way to Hogsmeade somehow and wrote messages in the dirt asking for me."

"Must've been a spectacle. What do you think of Hogsmeade so far? I remember we couldn't wait to get out of the castle our third year."

"Well... we haven't had that many weekends, and the Dursleys wouldn't sign my pass."

"They wouldn't -- what? That's a load of --" Sirius coughed. "I'll speak to Dumbledore tomorrow, we'll get that sorted out right away. It's not proper Hogwarts without Zonko's and Honeydukes and butterbeer."

Harry grinned. "That sounds great."

"Well, it's the least I can do. Not the last, though. I have Plans." Sirius grinned. "I am reliably informed that you have no respect for rules and authority, for one thing; a laudable trait which ought to be encouraged. And then, of course, there's Christmas."

Harry stared at him uncertainly. "You've been talking to Snape, haven't you?"

"Well, it was mostly Remus talking at both of us. Don't worry, I know better than to believe a word out of Snape's mouth where you're concerned."

Harry relaxed slightly. "That's good." The briefest of hesitations. "You said Christmas. Does that mean I could come," he swallowed, "home with you for it?"

"If I have one by then, absolutely. And we could invite all your friends, if you like." Sirius made a private promise to himself that he would have a place by Christmas, if he had to terrify someone out of theirs to do it.

"That," Harry said softly, "would be really nice." He grinned suddenly. "I'd been hoping, with Tom instead of Voldemort, that I wouldn't have to go back with the Dursleys. But I hadn't reckoned on it being... well... I'd thought the Weasleys would probably let me, and maybe," a slight squirm, "I could get them to let me help pay for things if it were longer term, since I don't like to put them out."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that now. Long as you don't mind instant meals, I'm afraid I'm not much of a cook."

"I can cook some. Well... only Muggle-style...."

"I'll keep that in mind." He grinned. "My old flat had a Muggle kitchen, actually -- one reason the rent was so low. And Lily never quite got used to wizarding cooking. We used to tease her about that. All that groundbreaking experimental work and she never could get the hang of a simple Broiling Charm."

"I'm not sure," Harry said meditatively, "that it seems like a very good idea to tease somebody too much if they're very good at most charms."

"No one ever accused me of wisdom. She turned my teeth green once." He chuckled. "The young lady I was pursuing at the time was somewhat less than bowled over."

"...Yuck."

"Yes, well, that was the last time I made fun of her cooking." Sirius winced slightly. That had been September, and the last time for a lot of things.

"I bet." Harry was quiet for a long moment, chewing on his lip. "You don't mind talking about them, do you? It's... nice to be able to ask." He smiled a little again. "And nice to think about being home somewhere that doesn't involve the Dursleys."

"It helps me, too, you know. Talking about them. Helps me remember the good things, not just... what Azkaban left me. And we'll have plenty of time for me to tell you all of it." He smiled. "You'll always have a home with me."

Harry was staring into the fire again and blinking hard behind his glasses. After a moment he looked up and smiled back. "That's really good to hear. Hard to believe it's only been a day since I thought we wanted to kill each other."

Sirius smiled. "I'm still expecting to wake up to the sound of Aurors crashing in on me. It's been a very busy day." He stared at the fire a moment himself, then blinked, his gaze shifting to the clock on the mantel. "And it's far too late at night for you to be up. I'm always glad to see you, Harry, but I'll still be here in the morning. Go to bed."

Harry looked decidedly startled for a moment, eyes wide and jaw just a bit slack, and then hopped up with a slightly mad grin spreading across his face. "I will. Good night."

Still beaming, he flipped James's Invisibility Cloak over his head on his way to the door. Sirius watched it open and close, then shook his head.

He somehow didn't think Harry was up to anything, not tonight. Which only made it all the more telling for a thirteen-year-old boy to look that delighted at having someone to tell him to go to bed.

*****

Thank you all for reading; hope you liked it. If you need to catch up, the first Time's Riddle story is "Who We Are,", the full series is at our mutual author page, and the prequel telling the tale of Dumbledore's battle with the Seer Grindelwald is "The Potent but Terrible Solution."