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Chapter Text

To say it was unexpected to see your professor standing on your doorstep looking like a normal person was an understatement. Professors aren't even supposed to exist out of school, let alone be ringing your doorbell with such a ferocious determination that it was admirable, granted, the professor in questions had stepped down like all the other professors that had held the position for at least 50 years, but still.

Harry had opened the door at the insistence of his uncle, and also promptly closed it upon seeing his professor. In the short period of time that the door was closed, he tried desperately to flatten his hair a bit, tucked his shirt into his overly large trousers and checked himself in the reflection of the door handle.

Professor Lupin looked quite alright for a person without a job, Harry thought. He had had a haircut, as his hair was shorter and looked less like Snape's excuse for a hairdo, and his face had gotten a bit of colour. He looked better even than when he taught at Hogwarts, which was probably the reason he looked so dreadful all the time, Hogwarts was a terrible place for Defense Against the Dark Arts professors.

From the living room, Vernon Dudley yelled a bunch of incoherent words, either at Harry or the football game on the telly and Harry broke out in nervous laughter. "Good afternoon, Professor Lupin," He said, trying his best to be as polite as possible in case his family was listening in.

"Good afternoon, Harry." Lupin stepped into the hallway, looking around at the walls. "I assume you have all your stuff packed?" 

Harry frowned, then he raised his eyebrows and nodded. "I never unpack it, to be honest." Lupin smiled, a twinkle appearing in his eyes.

They stood in the hallway in silence for a single moment until professor Lupin motioned for the stairs and said "Well, go get it then." Harry couldn't get up the stairs quicker, almost tripping on half the steps.

He grabbed for his stuff, all of which wasn't in his suitcases already and was instead strung around on the floor, bed, or singular dresser. Hedwig was blaring in her cage like she knew what was going on, which to be fair, Harry didn't. He quickly let her out of her cage. "You'll know where to find me, right?" 

Once he had everything messily thrown into his suitcases and the one backpack he owned he was tripping down the staircase trying to carry all of it in one go. Somewhere in his head a tiny version of himself was yelling " You've got to be quick, or you'll miss your chance ." 

He was wheezing at the bottom of the staircase, almost moving onto not breathing at all when he noticed professor Lupin wasn't there at all. Maybe his relatives were right and he'd gone crazy. 

Instead he found professor Lupin and his aunt Petunia having a civilised cup of tea at the dining room table. 

"-I'll be happy to take him off your hands for the summer, not to worry about Dumbledore, that old coot."

Inside of him a bit of rage flared up at the insult about Dumbledore, but it settled quickly, realising the words were coming out of Lupin's mouth. Maybe it was some fake Lupin in polyjuiced form, coming to take him to Voldemort and kill him. Or it was just Lupin, as he had been able to come into the house despite the protective ward. 

"I'll warn you, the boy craves attention and he's quite lazy, a lot like his father, if you ask me."

There goes the rage again, nagging at his chest. His father wasn't lazy. Lupin laughed. 

"Who knows, maybe he'll take after Lily someday."

"It would be more favourable, indeed." Petunia agreed, Harry heard the sound of glasses clinking together. He stepped into the kitchen.

"Boy," Petunia started in a far softer tone than usual. "This is Mr. Remus Lupin, you might already be acquainted with your less favourable heritage, he'll take you away for the rest of the summer." She paused, sipping her tea.

"I expect you to be on your best behaviour for Mr. Lupin." Harry nodded quickly. If it meant he was getting out of there, he was prepared to scrub every restaurant toilet in London. 

Lupin finished his cup in one gulp and stood up, waiting for Aunt Petunia to do the same. "This has been a wonderful chat, Petunia, I'll leave my telephone number with you if you'd like to do it again, present company not included."

He kissed her cheek. He kissed her cheek. He kissed her cheek. Harry was getting a brain aneurysm, what in the bloody hell was going on?

Lupin smiled kindly at Harry and moved his hand to his shoulder. "Come on, Harry, we've got to drive quite a long way in the car and I really don't want to arrive after sundown."

Harry nodded his head and turned to his aunt for a second telling her goodbye, he neglected doing the same for his uncle. 

Once he was buckled into the very old and abysmally small car professor Lupin drove, all his belongings strung around the backseat, he turned to his former professor and professed his utter confusion. 

" How ," He stressed. "Do you know my aunt?" 

Professor Lupin grinned, he grinned! The pit of rage in Harry's stomach set aflame.

"We've spent some Christmases together."

The pit of rage in Harry's stomach, further referred to as The Pit, made a U-turn and twisted into The Pit of Pity. He had spent 10 Christmases with Aunt Petunia and they were the most horrible time of year. Sure when he was one year old he didn't remember, but three year old him remembers the adult men's Christmas socks that were his present that year. And four year old him remembers the same pair but a size bigger. 

"Voluntarily?"

Lupin laughed, loud and heartily. 

"Voluntarily."

Harry shook his head, maybe Lupin was just entirely crazy. Not as crazy of course as some other people Harry had crossed paths with, like the mass murderer fascist wizard that wanted to kill him and the one teacher that had no actual credits whatsoever and tried to wipe the memories of two 12 year olds.

"Why did you call Dumbledore an old coot?" Harry interrogated. The Pit prepared itself to play bad cop. 

"Have you ever wondered why you live with your aunt and uncle?" Lupin deflected. Harry shook his head with determination. 

"Dumbledore said it's because of a blood protection my mum cast," He explained, Lupin listened intently. "When she- when she sacrificed herself to save me-" his voice cracked, less in the teenager way like usual but in the 'help I'm going to cry ' way.

"She cast a spell with her love, a blood protection and I had to stay with a blood relative, it makes sense."

Lupin sighed and shook his head. "Your mum and dad loved you so much." His hands were gripping the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles went white. "After you were born," He took a deep breath.

"It became clear that Petunia didn't share the same sentiment, she and Lil- Your mum had had a big fight that year at Christmas and your mum decided she didn't want you around her anymore. Of course James and Sirius tried to go over there and make things right, when that didn't work your mum officially broke ties. Neither of your parents would've wanted you to be raised by Petunia and especially not Vernon."

Harry bit the inside of his cheek, and wiped a stray curl that was hanging on his forehead behind his ear. He really needed a haircut. 

"Now why would your mother force you to stay with them - why would she do that?" Lupin's sentence ended in a low growl. 

"The thing is Harry, that your mum didn't do that- She would never leave you with someone that doesn't love you."

The teen blinked, that was a take he'd never heard before. Dumbledore had explained the whole thing and it had made sense, but the way Lupin was putting it made it seem more and more like there was a flaw in the story. Harry felt almost compelled to hit his head on the dashboard of the car, why didn't he think of that.

"We- we talked about it," The professor started. "Dying, who would take you. They had a muggle will and everything, so no one could take you, Lily made sure of it. Sirius, Peter or me were supposed to take care of you. We researched spells too, hexes, protections. It just doesn't make sense, what Dumbledore did." 

Harry frowned and looked at his former teacher. "What Dumbledore did?"

"He took you of course, brought you to your aunt and uncle without consulting the ministry or the muggle child protection agency, he didn't ask me for permission either. Even though I should've been your guardian."

The young wizard thought it over. How he could've grown up with Lupin, with an actual room and no bars by the windows and magic. About Dumbledore having no legal right to place him with the Dursleys.

"He manipulated you, you know." Lupin said as the car slowed down, stopping before a red light. "You didn't know anything about this world and he used that to teach you his narrative, he did it to me- to us too. Sirius, me, hell even James. Lily kept warning us, think for yourself, but Dumbledore had the right thing to say and the right thing to think."

His voice became more harsh every word he spoke, like his own pit of anger was welling up. 

"I didn't believe it at first, what Sirius had done, I'd begged Dumbledore for a trial, to re-investigate, but I think Dumbledore just liked it like that, Sirius and I would've taken you in and then Dumbledore wouldn't have gotten his way. Not anymore, you hear me?"

Harry didn't know whether it was a rhetorical question so he opted just to nod. "You're staying with us from now on, me and Sirius."

"I'd love to, honestly." 

"Good."

They had driven barely 5 seconds in complete silence until Harry resumed the role of interrogator. "So Sirius has been staying with you?" 

"In my house in Yorkshire, yes." Harry looked at the road, they had pulled up on the freeway and were driving past a long stretch of concrete buildings by the side of the road. 

"Is he doing okay?" 

"I think so, he's doing better, Azkaban really did a number on him." 

The teen sighed. "Do you think it was Dumbledore's fault, that he had to go to Azkaban?" 

"I do," Lupin whispered. 

"I'm sorry about all you had to go through," Harry replied. "If I'd known I could've done something, people listen to me." 

Professor Lupin sighed, he stretched his arm out to Harry and messed up his hair a little. "You're a kid, Harry, 13 year olds shouldn't have to get involved with politics, even if you're 14 next month." 

Harry scowled and checked his hair in the side mirror, it just bounced back into the usual uncontrollable shape of long black curls. He hadn't even thought about his birthday, he'd only been back from school for a week and with everything that had happened in his previous school year he was still coping with all of it.

"Does Dumbledore know?" Harry wondered.

"Know what?"

"That I'm coming to stay with you and Sirius."

"We didn't exactly tell the chief warlock of the wizengamot that a werewolf and an escaped criminal are taking the saviour of the wizarding world for the summer, if that is what you're asking." 

"Oh. That makes sense." 

A moment of silence rolled over the car. 

"I'll put on some music, if you don't mind." 

Lupin opened a small compartment between the front seat and grabbed a CD out of an open CD case. He clipped it between his ring and middle finger and used his index finger to press a button on the radio player, it ejected another CD. 

The professor pointed at the CD hanging out of the player. "Would you mind?" Harry grabbed the CD and Lupin shoved the new one into the player. 

"Your mum liked to listen to this album, we would put it at top volume to annoy your dad and Sirius, they were into different stuff, loud blaring guitars, you know." He explained as the first song started. "Did I ever tell you about the time we were painting your room?"

Harry frowned, how could he have told him, in the whole escaped murderer fiasco followed by the time travel thing, which was then followed by the only competent professor quitting his job because of the mean former nazi professor revealing his secret situation, and that was followed almost immediately followed up by the summer holiday.

"Of course I haven't, with all that was happening," Lupin shook his head. "So, Sirius and your dad were wearing these identical-"

…

Once they'd pulled into a small, pretty terrible road a bit north of Yorkshire, the conversation had strayed towards Harry's more interesting adventures at Hogwarts so far. 

Harry looked at the building before him, it was small, a bit wonky, but nothing compared to the Burrow. There was a small garden hidden by large green hedges with some pink flowers peeking through, the small gate was covered in plants. 

Lupin parked the car in front of the hedge. He turned off the radio, which had been playing a Joni Mitchell CD for the past 30 minutes. 

Harry got out of the car with a bounce in his step, half ripping the very old car door off its hinges when he went to grab his stuff. 

Professor Lupin laughed, but there was another loud laugh coming from behind him, it was raspy, but not creepy in the evil person kind of way, more sweet and familiar. Harry was holding the door handle with one hand and trying to pop the door back into place with the other, he looked behind him to see where the laugh was coming from and saw a figure standing by the ivy covered gate.

The figure had hair just as dark as Harry's but it was straight and fell to his shoulders, he wore a similar sweater to Lupin, but it seemed too big on him and Harry was pretty sure he'd seen his professor wear it himself before, his face had a bit of a stubble and an overall bit of a gaunt look, but there was an unmistakable smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes.

Harry promptly let go of the car door, letting it hang crooked in the air. "Sirius." He breathed, running at the man with speeds worthy of the Olympics. 

It felt like years since everything happened, Ron's rat turning out to be the guy responsible for his parents' deaths, that was a twist worthy of the conspiracy magazines his aunt secretly loves. But it had been a month, despite that, Harry had received long letters at least twice a week, and had sent equally as long letters back. 

Sirius had been more of an uncle to him in the past year, even though he spent most of that time as a dog barking at dementors that looked at his godson wrong, than Vernon had been in the years he'd lived with him. 

Thus, Harry wrapped his arms around his godfather and buried his face in the crook of his neck. "Harry." 

Unbeknownst to the people who were actively hugging at that time, Lupin was desperately trying to get his car door back into the car. He eventually settled on 'reparo'.  

The hug seemed to have the same effect on Harry as when Mrs. Weasley hugged him. After a second he just melted into it completely like he'd never been anywhere else in his life. Even after they'd both let go, Sirius had his arm around his shoulder firmly, like he was saying "I'm still here "

Lupin was dragging Harry's stuff out of the car, giving up halfway through and just disappearing it after looking over his shoulder twice.

He opened the gate for Harry and Sirius, waiting before they got through to close it. He held his wand to the metal and whispered a few words in Latin.

"What did you do?" Harry wondered, looking at Lupin. "Protective spells, wards," Lupin answered, holding his wand out to Sirius, who took it and pushed it into his trouser pocket.

"Are there wards on the house in Little Whinging too?" 

"Dumbledore seemed to think the blood wards were enough, but as I explained, I don't think he was right and we're not risking anything."

Sirius opened a wooden door which lead directly to a small kitchen, the cabinets looked straight out of a 70s sci fi movie with slightly rounded edges and coloured pastel blues and yellows, in contrast the stove and countertop looked exceptionally old, the finishing touch to the whole ordeal was the sink which was entirely the same monotonous pink puke looking colour. 

All in all the kitchen looked like a hot mess .

Harry absolutely loved it.

The kitchen led to an even smaller hallway, with a staircase leading upwards, a very depressing coat rack next to the front door and two doors on the left side of the hallway. 

"As for the tour," Sirius started, his face erupting in an even wider grin. "We are starting in the main hallway, here are the first mystery doors." The man opened both of them at the same time, there seemed to be only a few centimetres between them, he stepped through one of the doors and stuck his hand out the other. "They both lead to the same place, the sitting room, library, dining room and study." 

Professor Lupin rolled his eyes and led Harry inside. "He means the living room." 

The living room was less poorly designed than the kitchen, but still looked like something that would cause his aunt nightmares. There were two large windows in the room and multiple smaller ones, all of which had different patterned curtains. There were two more doors, one of which presumably led back to the kitchen and another one with large glass panels that led to the garden.

Beneath one of the large windows was a windowsill that had been suited like a built in sofa. Almost all of the walls were covered by bookcases and a large wardrobe, except one, which had blue floral wallpaper with moving birds on it. In the corner of the room, on the side by the garden stood a large sofa and two loveseats, none of which in the same colour, but all of which in brown. 

In the middle of the room stood a circle dining table with two fold up chairs on opposite sides. A few newspapers and a book were strung out on the table, a radio set on top of them. 

It looked almost mundane, like there weren't any wizards living there, if it hadn't been for the few pictures that had been strewn up on the walls. Tiny figures moved around, excitedly waving at Harry. 

Sirius stepped out of the living room and onto the staircase. Harry simply stared. "Well come on then," His godfather whined.

The staircase was narrow and creaky, feeling like it would collapse any minute, thankfully it didn't and Harry was standing upstairs looking at three identical doors. 

Sirius opened the right one and showed off the room, there was one large bed in the middle and a smaller sofa below a window. "This is Remus' room."

He motioned for Harry to come in despite professor Lupin's loud sigh behind him. "It's a mess, I apologise." Harry didn't think the room looked messy, sure there were some clothes lying around, but they were folded on top of the sofa, the large collection of books in the room were stacked on top of each other in front of the bed and the bed had been made on one side, but not the other.

What Harry hadn't yet seen from the doorway was a dark wooden closet in the corner, both doors wide open and giving a preview of Lupin's clothing style. There was another door, just like the bedroom door, that Sirius opened with so much force it loudly swung against the wall and closed again. "Sorry," Sirius mumbled, opening it a bit less roughly.

The door in question led towards a bathroom, probably the only room in the house that had a singular theme going on. It looked almost brand new. There was a small white sink opposite a drying rack attached to the wall. A shower-bathtub fusion stood on the other side of the room, a bright pink floral shower curtain closing it off from the rest of the room. In the middle of the bathroom was another door.

"We'll have to share the bathroom," Lupin said with a look of apology on his face. "It already looks better than the Hogwarts bathrooms," Harry assured.

The Hogwarts bathrooms were, like all other school bathrooms, the most terrible feature of the school. Hogwarts took the crown there however, with the whole ghost living in the girl's bathroom thing, as well as the general hauntedness of all other bathrooms that was absolutely uncalled for.

"You're absolutely right," Sirius agreed and opened the door to a new room. This room lacked all sorts of character. It was plain, had a single bed, a window, a small desk and a drawer, his suitcases were piled up in the corner. It wasn't bad plain like Harry's room at the Dursleys, but more of a good plain like the Gryffindor dorms at the beginning of term. The room had potential.

"It's not much," Lupin told him. "But it's yours." 

Harry let himself collapse on the bed, his arms spread on the covers. "I love it." 

"You do?" The way Lupin and Sirius were standing in the doorway, they looked a bit like Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Lupin had his arm around Sirius' waist, probably to support him, he'd told Harry how he'd been having a difficult recovery. But the way they looked at him wasn't pity, or hatred, it was more of this expecting look. 

"It's great, really."

…

Living with Professor Lupin and Sirius turned out to be an adventure all on its own. Harry had woken up the first day to a loud clashing sound. He'd rushed downstairs to find every pot and pan on the kitchen floor and his godfather right in the middle, laughing maniacally.

"I don't know how to fry an egg." He told Harry in between laughs. Harry picked up two pots from the floor and set them on the stove, sitting down in their place. "Did you know before…" Harry left the space blank on purpose.

Sirius laughed even louder. "No."

Harry started laughing too. "Come on, let's clean this up." He had picked up three pots by their handles, but they'd vanished from his hands. Sirius waved Lupin's wand. 

"Why do you have that?" Harry wondered, pointing at the thing. He opened a cabinet to find a good frying pan. 

"This?" Sirius waved it, sparks flying out of it. Harry nodded. "Remus says I've been around dark magic for too long and he wants me to reacquaint myself with magic slowly." 

"Oh." Harry had opened the fridge and was now searching for some butter and a carton of eggs. He blessed Professor Lupin for having a fridge, he had no clue how wizards even managed without it. 

"I was sick a bit, I told you right?" He stood up next to Harry and leaned against the counter. "I was sick a bit after leaving Hogwarts, and after getting out of Azkaban, and every time I did magic I just got sicker, Moony did some research and it turns out it's my stupid body not being used to being a normal person that can do things."

The teenager turned on the stove with a swift move and began to hold his right hand above the frying pan, while he used his left to slice some butter. Sirius took a second to notice before he grabbed Harry's hand away from the stove. "Be careful, you could burn yourself."

Harry shrugged. "Do you want your eggs sunny side up, or turned over?" Sirius thought about it. "Turned over." Harry grinned and stuck his hand up in the air. Sirius looked at it. 

"You're supposed to slap it." Harry explained. 

"What?" 

"My hand, lightly. It's called a high five. You do it when something good happens, or in this case we have the same preference in eggs."

"Okay." Sirius held up his hand too and lightly bumped it against Harry's. "No wait," Harry put the butter in the pan and turned to face Sirius fully. 

"Keep your hand in the air like that." Harry motioned. "And now I'll high five you." The teen slapped his godfather's hand. 

"Now you try." Harry held up his own hand. Sirius awkwardly lifted his hand back into the air and high fived. 

"That's fun."

The boy who lived nodded and turned back to his pan. "Now watch and learn some more." 

Harry cracked an egg into the pan and stabbed the yellow in the middle with his spatula. He waited a few seconds.

"Once everything on top isn't clear anymore you put your spatula under the egg and flip it." 

Sirius nodded. Harry flipped the egg. He let go of the spatula and went to open every cabinet in the kitchen at the same time to grab some plates. They turned out to be inside the light yellow and blue cabinet. Harry then proceeded to close all of them one by one and look everywhere else for some bread.

"I should've asked." Harry sighed to himself, piling the egg on a slice of bread. His godfather wondered whether it was the end of the world, judging by the sound of his voice. "Do you want it normal or toasted?" Sirius laughed.

"Normal is fine," Harry stuck his hand up again. "High five?" He asked. Sirius successfully high fived his godson again. The godson in question seemed very excited.

"Your turn." He handed over the spatula to Sirius.

Harry stood by for a whole of two seconds before Sirus broke the entire egg into the pan, shell and all. The wizard looked hopeless as he tried to grab the shells from the pan with his hands. 

He rubbed his face with his hands. "Use your wand." He stressed. His godfather grabbed Lupin's wand from his pocket and pricked at the eggshells in the pan. The teen sighed. "Are you a wizard or not?" 

The eggshells vanished one by one. 

The pair broke into laughter again. 

"What about professor Lupin?" Harry asked once they'd been silent for a second.

"What about him?"

"How does he like his eggs?"

"I- uh-" Sirius three himself down on a small stool in the corner of the little kitchen. The man looked to be deep in thought. He winced and brought his hand to his forehead. 

"Are you okay?" 

Sirius nodded. "I guess I overexerted myself a wee bit." He held up his hand and put two of his fingers together with just a little space in between. "Just a wee bit?" Harry asked, laughing, but still worried.

"Remus likes his eggs runny, and on toast." Sirius waved him off.

It seemed like that was all it took for Harry to get off his case and back to more important things, like breakfast. 

Harry had hurried between the kitchen and the living room to set the table, walking circles through the house. Sirius was still resting and making sure the house didn't burn down. Once breakfast was completely ready and everything was sat on the table, Harry allowed Sirius to go upstairs to wake professor Lupin.

It took Sirius a good 4 minutes to wake his friend and get him downstairs. Remus was wearing a brown striped bathrobe over a white t-shirt and grey flannel pyjama pants. His hair was messy on the top and right side, but completely flat on the other. To top the look off he wore pink fluffy slippers on his feet.

When they realised Harry was definitely not in the living room, they looked towards the kitchen, where they saw Harry glaring at the kettle on the stove.

"What are you doing?" Professor Lupin asked, leaning against the door frame. The teen looked at him, looked at Sirius, who was leaning slightly against Lupin's side and back at the teapot. 

"I forgot the tea." 

"Well we'll hear when it's finished, let's go eat." Lupin motioned for Harry to come into the living room. 

"No wait," Harry placed the spatula on the counter, turned off the stove and grabbed the kettle. He carried it into the living room and placed it on the table. The kettle started screaming.

Professor Lupin and Sirius looked at each other, at Harry and at the kettle. "Did you do that?" Sirius questioned, taking a seat next to Harry.

"It was a matter of necessity." He shrugged, pouring some of the water into his own cup. "Aunt Petunia says breakfast isn't breakfast without some proper tea." 

Besides Harry's apparent skill at wandless magic, the breakfast itself was rather uneventful. 

…

Harry woke up with a start. The sun was shining directly into his eyes and it didn't help that he was blind as a bat. He'd been staying with Sirius and professor " Harry, I am no longer your teacher and I vividly remember having to change your diapers when you we're a baby, please just call me Remus " Lupin for two days so far and it was better than he imagined, when Sirius offered over a month before. Granted, you can't imagine much good when your godfather looked like he'd been living in a dumpster for the past year, which he most likely had been doing. 

He heard laughter coming from next to him. 

"Imagine what your mother would say." He heard professor Lupin's voice, it was light and soft, very unlike the voice of authority he'd use during his classes. He heard Sirius' loud cackle of a laugh.

"About this or all of this." Sirius replied. Whatever Lupin had replied was either too soft for Harry to hear or something not said in words, because he heard Sirius speak in a high pitched mocking voice.

"You dirty little blood traitor fraternising with a werewolf and a halfbreed, not even man enough to actually have killed-" Sirius broke his speech with more laughter. Harry smiled.

"Listen," came Lupin's voice in a more serious tone. "your mother sounds more like this," Lupin made an over the top coughing sound, pretending to prepare himself for the role.

"Filth! Blood Traitor! You no good boy have befouled the name of your family by associating with halfbreeds and mudbloods! Scum!" Once Lupin's acting was over, Sirius loudly clapped for the performance. The whole thing made Harry laugh, he almost forgot that the people on the other side of the wall could hear him just as well as he heard them. Both Sirius and Remus went instantly quiet. Harry heard a soft rumble and someone shuffling around. 

He looked at the wall, expecting something to happen when his door swung open. Lupin and Sirius stood in the door opening with grins on their faces. Like usual, Sirius was leaning onto Lupin a little bit. "Good morning, Harry!" Sirius made his way into the room and dropped down on the end of Harry's bed.

"Mornin'," Harry yawned excessively, feigning innocence. Sirius grabbed him by the shoulders and messed up his hair even more with his knuckles. "You little eavesdropper."

Harry shot them a grin. "You know, the second charm first years learn is a silencing charm." Sirius let go of him, but Harry still leaned against his godfather. 

Lupin nodded towards Sirius like he was saying " You have to hand it to him. He is right ." 

"What did you hear?" Sirius wondered, quite suspiciously even though he wanted not to sound that way. 

"You two making fun of your mother, may I just add she sounds right awful." 

"She was."

Sirius moved himself towards the middle of the bed, he motioned for Lupin to come sit too. 

It felt almost like they were normal people, sitting on the bed for a moment in silence. Just a teenage boy visiting his uncles during the summer holiday. Normal Harry would return home with stories about the beat up car and Sirius' stupid puns. 

"My two favourite people in the world," Sirius grinned. "My godson and the unemployed werewolf I've been leeching off of."

Harry snorted, while Lupin pinched Sirius lightly in his neck. 

"Come on Moony, I'm absolutely hilarious, Harry thinks so." Sirius pointed his thumb at Harry, the boy in question nodded enthusiastically.

"The only thing funny you are is what you are in the head." Lupin deadpanned. 

"That was a terrible insult."

"It's early I'll think of something better when it's not before noon and the escaped convict using up all my savings leaves."

Harry laughed, Sirius pouted. "You want me gone?" 

Lupin rolled his eyes. "What I think professor Lup-" 

"Remus." Lupin corrected.

"What I think Remus was trying to say is that two can play the game of insulting each other but in a funny way." 

Both Sirius and Lup- Remus laughed, which made Harry feel a bit of pride well up in his chest. "See, Moons, Harry thinks I'm hilarious." 

"Or does he think your making-a-fool-of-yourself is hilarious?" profes- Remus, Harry really needed to get the names straight, but in his defence, it was very confusing to have your former professor sort of be your uncle and sort of taking care of you a little bit, looked at Harry over Sirius' slumped shoulders. 

"I-" Harry started.

"Remus," Sirius interrupted. His tone of voice was overdramatic. "Light of my life, moon to my stars, when have I ever made a fool of myself?" 

"Just now, Sirius," Remus patted his leg and stood up. "Just now."

…

Sirius really could not cook, Harry realised that evening. It wasn't even that he was bad at it, but he'd just never cooked anything before in his life. Harry would think that every 34 year old man would know how to cook, but apparently that is not something all 34 year old men know how to do. 

Remus was ' out on the town ', as Sirius called it.

 " Beware of the big bad wolf! " He'd yelled as he left the house. Remus himself called it being a functioning member of society. Harry preferred Sirius' definition for comedic reasons. 

Harry was standing in the kitchen that evening, looking through a cabinet full of various spices and potion ingredients, which looked very much alike, while Sirius sat in the corner and the man asked "What are you cooking?" 

The teenager being asked this question looked at the ingredients he'd scavenged, a bag of rice, a variety of vegetables that would taste acceptable together and a leftover piece of whitefish from when Remus had cooked the day before. Honestly it wasn't the best combination, but it was nearing 8 already and Harry was a hungry growing boy.

"Some fried rice, I think," Harry replied.

"You think?" 

"It'll turn out nice, once it can't give you food poisoning." 

Sirius shrugged in a ' makes sense ' kind of fashion. "Could you cut these please?" Harry shook a box of mushrooms at his godfather. He made a little room for Sirius to work next to him. 

Despite the fiasco with the eggshells, Harry trusted his godfather and current caretaker completely. He should not have. 

"What are you- wash them please- that's not-" Sirius simply pointed his wand at the mushrooms and made water appear. 

"You've got to cut the stems off like this." Harry slowly explained the motions of cutting a mushroom like how he would explain to Dudley how to make his own sandwiches. 

"Well thanks for teaching me, I guess." Sirius held up a mushroom. "Cheers." 

It really made Harry wonder. He'd been cooking since he was barely 4 years old. He would cut his vegetables with a kid's safety knife of course and he stood on a stool to monitor the stove, but it was second nature to him by now. Sirius seemed surprised that the food didn't cut itself. His godfather must've noticed the look of confusion plastered on his face, because he scraped his throat and began to speak.

"My parents were rich," He told Harry. "We were a pureblood family, you had me and my brother, he was a little di- prick honestly, and our cousins, Andromeda, she's really nice actually, but she was disowned for marrying a muggleborn and having my sweet little cousin Nymphadora, and then Bellatrix and Narcissa," 

He wondered where he'd heard the name Narcissa before.

"She married that pompous ass- prick Lucius Malfoy, their son is in your year I believe," 

Harry blinked. Sirius was Malfoy's cousin. That was like saying he was related to a literal Nazi. Well Malfoy wasn't a Nazi, but his dad probably was. A wizarding Nazi at least. Which brought Harry to the question why didn't the wizards learn that all the blood purity stuff was bad. There was a real life war about it, way before the wizards had their stupid war.

"Yeah, no, your dad's family was pureblood too, and rich like nobody's business. You're the heir to a hair potion empire," Sirius laughed. "Never helped James' hair though." 

"I grew up with house elves doing all the cooking and at Hogwarts it wasn't much different and when I came to live with your dad and his parents there was no change." Harry frowned, Sirius had lived with his grandparents?

"Yeah, I ran away from home when I was 15, lived with your dad's mum and dad until I was 18, longer than your dad even. After they died I got an apartment with Remus in muggle London, so there was plenty of take out. And then Azkaban, and then living as a dog, so I never learned to cook." Sirius concluded. Harry's stomach rumbled and dinner wasn't even remotely finished, so he continued chopping. 

"What were my grandparents like?" The teen wondered.

Sirius smiled at the memory. "Well Euphemia was a better mother to me than my own mother. She was from a wizarding clan in India, and she had magical everything. It's more common there to have magical items, not just enchanted, but magic from top to bottom. She liked to read gossip from other wizarding societies, because the gossip in England made her tired. My mum's from a Korean wizarding family if you were wondering, she went to Beauxbatons." 

To be quite honest, Harry had been wondering. He had been pretty clueless about what race he was himself, having thought most of the prejudice against him was because he did weird stuff sometimes, which in his aunt and uncle's case was right. He had a pretty dark complexion if you compared him to Ron, or his cousin Dudley, but on the other hand, he didn't have the same dark brown skin as Dean Thomas or Hermione. His was like, well, he couldn't really think of anything. Well a bit like Parvati and her sister Padma's. 

"Your grandpa was called Fleamont. He was a brilliant potion master who made beautification potions. He had a thing for muggle board games, would always have Remus or Lily play against him to try and win. The Potters are ancient, originally one of the largest trading families of the wizarding world originating from Malaysia."

The teen halted, taking in the information he'd just learned. He took a second to grab a cooking pan and some oil and placed it on the stove. 

"Wait a second, about your mum, she went to Beauxbatons and was from Korea," 

"Well she was from the Korean side of the family-"

"The what now?" Harry almost dropped the vegetables he was sliding into the pan.

"My mum was my dad's second cousin, the same great grandparent. That's why my brother turned out so terrible." 

"You are your own cousin." Harry brought his hand to his forehead in distress. "I know," Sirius agreed.

Luckily the little timer Harry had set for the rice went off, or he'd blow a vessel thinking about it. 

"My family tree looks like a Christmas wreath," Sirius added. 

That would be like if his kids and Dudley's kids- no, he wasn't even going to think about subjecting his non existent future children to the horror of that metaphorical thought. 

Harry let a little bit of water out of the pan and set it down to cool, shoving the vegetables and fish in the pan with his spatula and throwing in a handful of spices he thought would taste nice.

How had they gone from talking about why his godfather couldn't cook to the incestuous nature of Sirius' existence. Maybe Harry had to get his brain to calm down a bit, because it was acting rather overdramatic. 

"You know, most British wizarding families are related in that way, your family a bit less, because it was quite all over the world, but the Lestranges and the Gaunts were quite heavy on the whole marrying your cousin thing, the Malfoys not so much, but some say Abraxas Malfoy's was the bastard child of his father and his father's sister, it would explain the thumb growing out of his forehead."

"Really?" Harry asked.

Sirius thumped him on the forehead. "Of course not, the Malfoy's thought they were too cool for inbreeding, technically not a fully pureblood family, you should mention that to the Malfoy boy." 

"Don't." A tired voice spoke from inside the hallway. Remus appeared in the kitchen, which didn't really fit, so Remus took a seat in the corner. 

They stood in the kitchen in complete silence, Harry pouring the rice into the pan along with as much garlic paste as was socially acceptable, Sirius staring at Remus. 

" How are you Remus , How was your day? Did you happen to send that letter to my cousin Andromeda, Remus? " The werewolf said in a mocking high pitched voice and Sirius' posh accent. 

"Pff- I don't sound like that." Sirius denied, Harry faithfully nodded, but winked at Remus nonetheless. If anything Remus probably sounded more like Sirius than Sirius himself. 

"But did you?" Sirius questioned. 

"No," Remus deadpanned. "I just drove to the owl postal office for stamps." 

"So you did?" Sirius stood up straight.

"I did, I sent her our phone number, it will be more discreet than to use owl post,"

"You could've just used my owl, Hedwig." Harry said, frowning.

"Using your owl would make the letter traceable, she's a very recognisable owl, you see and we'd rather not have anybody realise the boy who lived is here." 

Harry turned off the stove. "Makes sense."

"Dinner anyone?"

…

It wasn't until later that evening that Harry really thought about everything that was going on, until he and Sirius were playing exploding snap. Harry was just beating Sirius mercilessly, according to him of course, when Sirius straight up collapsed.

He was just moving his hand towards the table to grab a drink and fell over, his forehead landing in the empty container of ice cream.

Remus launched to his feet and pulled Sirius up. A square red indent on his forehead. "Could you- uhm." He propped Sirius up on his knee and held him up bridal style. "Get the door?" 

He carefully carried Sirius up the stairs, Harry a few steps in front to open the doors. Upstairs, Remus dumped Sirius on the bed, tucking him in under the covers. He closed the curtains and walked back out of the room with soft strides. Remus closed the door soundlessly and motioned for Harry to come back downstairs. 

"What happened to him?" Harry wondered, a concerned look on his face.

"He's been ill, you know that, from the years in Azkaban and the year on the run, he used up a bit too much of himself today." Remus cleared the table and went into the kitchen to put on the kettle.

"But, why now? He was fine the whole day." Harry moved the stack of plates into the kitchen and sat down on the counter. 

"Let’s say that, uhm- sometimes people, when they haven't eaten in a really long while, when they eat a normal meal they throw up, because their stomachs can't hold it." 

Harry nodded. 

"With Sirius it's the same, but with magic. He's been almost completely submerged in dark magic for 12 years, ways of magic like that are as soul sucking as the creatures that spawn from it. Sometimes he uses too much magic, or is around too much magic and his body shuts down, because it can't process it." Remus explained, sounding quite like the professor he was at Hogwarts.

“But it’s been a year already and he was around Hogwarts for ages.” Harry argued.

“Okay- maybe a bad metaphor, you- in 2nd year you had to regrow your bones, right, because of that idiot Gilderoy Lockhart?” Remus stood up and grabbed two mugs, putting the kettle on and pointing his wand at it.

“Yeah, my arm still feels funny sometimes when it rains,” 

“It’s more like that, it’s like, your magic is injured and when you use it too much you feel the injury again. That’s what Sirius has, I think, it’s not like we can pop him by a healer or anything.” Remus poured tea into the two mugs. He placed one in front of Harry and leaned against the wall with his own cup.

“That makes more sense than the hunger thing, I never throw up anymore.” Harry tried to sip his tea, but noticed it was still too hot and set it back down.

“What do you mean?” Remus asked, the concern in his voice clear.

“Well, I mean- when I’m under house arrest and after- I used to throw up, when I was like 12, it’s not like that- duh- You feed me-”

Remus interrupted the boy. “Please tell me she fed you? Petunia I mean.” 

Harry frowned. “She did, I’m not dead am I? It’s just Uncle Vernon- when I’m under house arrest-”

"Harry, did they feed you properly every day?”

The boy looked taken aback at the directness in his former teacher’s tone and body language. “Well, no, but-”

“I can’t believe I was civil with her, that hag- there’s not a lot to expect, but starving a child-” Remus placed his mug down and  rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You’re not going back there, Harry, I don’t care if we have to go into hiding, but it’s not happening.”

Through Harry’s eyes, this was both a happy, but also a very saddening moment. He was fine, wasn’t he? But that didn’t change Remus’ red hot anger and how guilty Harry felt. 

"I’m sorry,” The boy looked down into his tea.

“Harry, you have nothing to be sorry about, I am sorry, I could’ve tried harder at least, to get you- I could’ve made an appeal, or anything really, the point is- none of this is your fault.” 

“I feel like it is though,” Harry said.

“Then I’m sorry you have to feel like that. You deserve to be fed and taken care of, you know that right? It’s your legal right.” 

Harry nodded, and sipped his tea, it was still far too hot, but it was okay.

The room was enveloped in silence.

“I’m sorry the evening took such a wrong turn,” Remus apologised. “It’s probably not the fun holiday you were expecting." 

The teen shook his head. “So far it’s been the best summer I could wish for,”

…

The first letter Harry sent to Ron since he arrived was almost 3 pages long, more than he would ever write for school. To Hermione he just sent Remus’ telephone number. She called barely 3 hours after he’d sent Hedwig out and he spoke to her for hours. Hermione cussed him out for almost half of that time, scolding him for not reaching out earlier, she spent the rest of the time listing clever ways to prove Sirius’ innocence.

Ron sent back a 4 foot roll of parchment, containing a detailed report of events in the wizarding world, all major league quidditch game outcomes since the school year ended and a detailed description of the Bulgarian Quidditch seeker. He added to the bottom of his letter that they were going to the Quidditch world cup and Harry was going to come with whether he liked it or not.

Sirius treated Ron’s letter like a newspaper, or better than one. He used his rolled up Daily Prophet to smash bugs, Ron’s letter was his only link to modern quidditch, because Remus refused to pay extra for the daily Sports Edition of the Daily Prophet.

Remus ridiculed him for it, but Sirius would always point out that they were now forced to use multiple owls because Remus couldn’t stop sending Hermione books. 

“She’s not even your student anymore,” Sirius yelled, looking at the stack of books Remus was packing in cardboard coloured paper.

“You don’t play quidditch anymore,” Remus pointed out. Sirius stood behind Harry, looking over his godson’s shoulder to look at the quidditch pages Ron sent along.

“I’m not going around sending people brooms-”

“You sent me a broom, remember.” Harry interrupted.

“Okay- I’m not going around sending people- bludgers every other day.” The fugitive corrected himself. 

“She asked for my suggestions regarding literature from the renaissance period in the wizarding world, am I just to disappoint a bright young witch asking for renaissance works?” Remus argued.

“That doesn’t justify sending her 4 books in 2 days.”

"I see it as more of an exchange," Remus said, pointing towards a different stack of books that were clearly muggle works. “She’s sent me the latest muggle literature.”

“You have muggle literature.”

“I don’t have the latest Grisham novel.”

Harry started laughing, both Remus and Sirius looked at him, concerned. 

“You two bicker like an old married couple,”

“You hear what he says?” Sirius started.

“We’re not old- it’s ridiculous-” Remus sputtered.

Harry held his hands up. “I think the saying goes: Don’t shoot the messenger .” He leaned back in his chair as Remus and Sirius tried to justify his words to each other.

“Okay maybe we do.” Remus eventually agreed. 

Sirius frowned. “But we’re not old. I’m barely a decade older-” 

“More like 2 decades.” Harry corrected.

"Like I said, barely a decade older than you. If we’re old then- then you’re old." 

Harry shrugged. “Okay, if you say so.” 

Remus apologetically tied his package to Hedwig’s paw. She pecked at his hand a total of three times and flew off with a loud screech.

“On that note,” Sirius began. “Has Andromeda replied yet?”

The other man sighed. “If she replies you’ll be the first person to know, but like I’ve been saying the past week, it’s not as easy as you would think to convince your cousin that her convicted cousin is innocent without concrete evidence.” Remus sat down at the table and so did Sirius, turning his chair and resting his legs on Remus’ lap.

“Besides, Nymphadora is in auror training, she’s obligated to report you.”

Sirius got a twinkle in his eyes. “Maybe she never got over that crush she had on you and could be a little lax with the rules.”

Remus slapped Sirius’ leg. Sirius retaliated by kicking Remus in the thigh.

“You utter child, I would assume that Nymphadora has grown out of the adoration she had when she was 7 years old,”

“She did say something about eternal love, if I remember it correctly." Sirius joked. 

“Completely infatuated she was with you, remember when she put on that wedding dress for Christmas in their house in London, and she tripped into your arms…”

Harry put aside his letter from Ron and reached for the muggle novels on the table. The one with the dinosaur on it looked pretty interesting. 

“If you don’t stop this instant, you’re sleeping on the sofa.” Sirius didn’t look very threatened, until Remus elaborated. “The bad sofa.” 

Harry didn’t really get it, Sirius already slept on the sofa, right? Where else would he sleep, seeing as he had the other bedroom. Last time when he fainted he did sleep in Remus’ room, maybe they alternated?

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop.” Sirius turned to Harry and winked. “I’ve just missed my cousins so dearly. I can’t help but remember-” He couldn’t finish his sentence, and Remus couldn’t punch him in the shoulder with all the force he could muster before lunch when a bird crashed into the window. 

Remus shoved Sirius’ legs off him and stood up, making his way out into the garden to pick up the bird. He held it up in front of the window. A small barn owl, one they definitely did not recognise, with a note tied to its paw. 

“Speak of the devil,” Sirius said, jumping up to look at the owl, right when Harry made his way over to Remus.

“It’s blank.” Harry looked at the piece of paper, while Remus tended to the owl, Sirius leaned over his shoulder. “It says ‘ Grimmauld Place, tomorrow, noon, don’t bring my cousin ’.”

Remus grabbed the piece of paper. “It’s blank for me too.” 

“She’s a Slytherin, what else would you expect?” Sirius groaned and sat down.

“What does it mean?” Harry wondered.

“It means that if I show up, she knows Sirius is with us, I’d expect aurors from anyone else, but Andromeda is a capable witch, she’ll likely bring Tonks for back up, he’s her husband after all, but that’s it.”

“Oh,” Harry said and sat down as well. 

Remus brought some feed for the owl and let it sit in Hedwig’s cage. 

“Bring me then, I’m obviously not with Voldemort and I can vouch for Sirius.”

“No.” The two adults said simultaneously.

“Or how about you suggest an unbreakable vow, Hermione told me about those, then you have to do what she says, or you can use veritaserum, or maybe just swearing on it, most of the time people trust you if you swear on it.”

Instead of shooting down his idea on instant, Sirius and Remus thought about it for a second.

“It could work,” Sirius said.

“It could, but negotiating won’t help if they attack me right there, they’ll know you’re here. Maybe it’s a diversion, so that you are defenseless when the aurors come charging in." 

“She won’t be that much of a backstabber,” 

“That’s what she thought about you, and then you supposedly betrayed your friends and blew up a street of muggles in the name of a man that wants her and her family wiped out.” 

Sirius breathed. “I didn’t do that, though, you know I didn’t do that.”

“ She doesn’t.”

Harry frowned. “Why shouldn’t I come along? I could help convince her, right?” 

“No.” Sirius and Remus chorused.

Harry crossed his arms and looked at the bookshelves, he pulled the most recent volume of the yellow pages off the shelves and went into the hallway, shutting all the doors to the living room in the most pathetic show of anger possible. 

Sirius called after him, but didn’t follow, instead engaging in further debate with Remus.

The teen flipped through page after page, her husband’s last name Tonks, and her name Andromeda and they lived in London. That was easy to find right? No it wasn’t. There were hundreds of people with that last name and it didn’t help that most of the addresses only had an initial. 

Harry landed on a Tonks, E, A & N in London. That could make sense, Tonks’ first name, Andromeda and Nymphadora and they lived on the outskirts of London. 

It was a bit of a stupid decision to just guess and call a random number from the house where a werewolf was currently harbouring a fugitive and a kidnapped teenager, while the werewolf and the fugitive were currently argueing about meeting up with the people he was calling, but he was already listening to the phone’s sound as he waited for someone to answer.

The phone rang for so long that Harry was expecting to get to the voicemail by now, but somebody picked up. An out of breath voice spoke into the phone “ Tonks residence, ‘ello .”

“Am I speaking to Andr- Andromeda?” He asked, he wasn’t really well versed in phone conversations, but he reckoned that the person at the other end of the line wasn’t either.

“ No you’re not- I don’t sound like her do I? Years of trying to get rid of it and she finally rubbed off on me, Merlin .”

Well, he was definitely speaking to somebody from the wizarding world.

“Uhm- No you don’t- I don’t think so at least, I was wondering if I could speak to her, it’s not really important now exactly, well it is, I don’t really know, could I speak to her?”

“ Of course, I’ll get her for you. ” The other person said and started loudly yelling for their mum. After a bit of a ruffle a woman answered in the same posh english Sirius used.

“ This is Andromeda Tonks, who am I speaking to? "

“It’s- It’s Harry?” Harry had wanted to be anonymous, but it was hard to think of a moniker, last time he’d used Neville’s name, but he reckoned Neville wouldn’t want to be involved with this.

“ And what are you calling about? ” Andromeda seemed kind of impatient.

“Well, it’s- I’m just going to come out and say it- It’s about the message you sent, about the meeting at grimmy face or something like that-”

“ You’re Harry Potter .” Andromeda stated. “What’s that mum, the real Harry Potter?” the person Harry had just spoken to asked in the background. “ Nymphadora, go help your father set the table .” Andromeda sent them away.

“I am, I just need to ask you about the message.”

“ My cousin, he’s there with you now? ” 

“Well, he doesn’t exactly know I’m calling, he’s having a row with Remus about the note you sent and I- I just wanted to help.” 

“ He’s just letting you out of his sight, the two of them? Are you safe? ”

“Of course I am, and Sirius is not a bad guy, Ms. Andromeda, he’s not guilty, he didn’t even get a trial and we can prove it with Veritaserum, or an unbreakable vow, it was Peter Pettigrew all along, because he was an animagus and he hid away for years with a family and we caught him last year, but we lost him-” Harry rambled.

“ You can prove that Sirius is not guilty of the crimes he went to Azkaban for? ” Andromeda asked. 

“I can, and- and Dumbledore can too, if you ask him, he doesn’t know I’m here, because he’s kind of a prick apparently, but you can ask him.”

“ I- Are you being coerced to say this? Are they forcing you? ”

“No? I just don’t want anybody to get hurt, or sent to prison.” 

“ What’s your goal here? ”

“I just- I really don’t want anybody to get hurt, or sent to prison and I know that your daughter Nymphadora is becoming an auror and I also know that you spelled the message and I know that you are planning something-”

“ Tell me your side of the story, why is Sirius not guilty?” Andromeda demanded.

“Oh- Okay. Well- It started in my 3rd year, I blew up my aunt, uhm- like a balloon, not like a bomb- and it was an accident, I really didn’t do it on purpose, she called my mom a bitch and then I ran away, and I saw a big dog and then the Knight Bus came, I went to Diagon Alley and then the minister arrived and so did the Weasleys and they told me that Sirius had escaped and he was coming to kill me.”

“And on the way to Hogwarts dementors came and I fainted, but professor Lupin helped me and then when I had a quidditch game I fell off my broom because of the dementors and I got a new broom from Sirius and it wasn’t cursed or anything, because McGonnagall checked, and professor Lupin taught me a patronus because I kept fainting when the dementors came and then Sirius broke into my dormitory, but he didn’t hurt anybody, and then Draco Malfoy was being a prick and he sued a Hippogriff- and my friend Ron’s rat was missing and then Ron got dragged into a secret passage under the whomping willow by a dog, so we went after him.”

“And it turned out the dog was secretly Sirius as an animagus, so we had our wands pointed at him, but professor Lupin came in and he hugged Sirius, because he saw Peter Pettigrew on the map- there’s this map that I got from the Weasley twins so I could sneak into Hogsmeade that shows all the people in Hogwarts at all times and I saw Peter Pettigrew’s name on it, so I went after it, but I ran into Snape and then Lupin grabbed it from me- but he came in and he hugged Sirius and then he said he saw Peter Pettigrew’s name here and that meant that Peter Pettigrew was still alive and Sirius explained that he, my dad and Peter became animagi to help Remus because he's a-” Harry cut himself off.

“Well, Peter’s form was a rat and he’d been secretly hiding with the Weasleys as their rat for 12 years and he was the secret keeper to my parents all along and he cut off his finger to fake his own death. So Sirius and Remus turned Peter back to his human form and then Snape came, or was it before, I don’t know, Snape came in and they stunned him- and we went outside to show that Sirius was innocent, but it was the full moon so professor Lupin- and Pettigrew broke free and we had to flee, and Sirius was captured and there were dementors and somebody cast a patronus.”

“But we went into the hospital wing and Dumbledore let us go back in time with a time turner and we set the hippogriff that Draco sued free and I did a patronus to save myself and we flew with the hippogriff to free Sirius and we freed Sirius, and then we went back to school, and then I had to go back with my aunt and uncle, but Remus rescued me, and now I’m here with Sirius, and it’s really great, apart from that he keeps fainting all the time because he’s sick.”

Harry finished, completely out of breath, it was a very weird story to tell.

"It sounds like you’ve had a busy year.” Andromeda remarked.

“Well it was better than the time Ron’s sister got possessed by Voldemort, or the time that my DADA teacher got possessed by Voldemort.”

Andromeda went quiet. “ Put Remus on for me, would you dear? ” 

Harry gulped and held the phone in his hand as he opened the living room door. “Uhm- Remus,” Both men looked up, bent over a few books on the table. “Andromeda wants to talk to you.”

“She called?” Remus asked.

“Let’s say she did.” Harry answered and handed the horn to Remus. 

He went into the living room, picked up the book he was reading, Jurassic Park , and ran up the stairs as fast as he could. As he shut the door, he heard Remus yell “He did what?”

…

The meeting with Andromeda went well, or as well as having both of Harry’s guardians drugged with veritaserum could go. 

Andromeda looked a lot like Sirius, their face shape, the long hair, the way they carried themselves. She had long light brown hair that fell just below her shoulders in wavy curls. She shook off her coat, a long checkered coat that was perfectly appropriate for England’s terrible climate. 

She did not accept a cup of tea, instead she held her bag clutched in one hand and her wand in the other. She administered the veritaserum herself, more than is usually necessary and admitted to Harry that she took a bit of Felix Felicis beforehand. 

Harry imagined this was what seeing your parents drunk must feel like.

Sirius declared his undying familial love to Andromeda immediately, Remus tried to say how much he hated him, but couldn’t get it out of his throat. 

The teenager stood by sipping his tea as his godfather’s cousin started the interrogation.

“Did you kill Peter Pettigrew?” She started, Sirius' eyes went dark. 

“No. I wanted to catch him to bring him to justice, I was not planning to kill him that day."

“That day?” 

“I- I wanted to, this past year, he was so close to Harry and all I could see was red- Harry stopped me though. He did.” 

Andromeda nodded. “Did you betray James and Lily Potter?”

“No!” Sirius exclaimed. “I let them down, switching secret keepers at the last minute, that was my plan, if I was compromised, if they magicked it out of me- I thought they wouldn’t go after Peter, but Peter was already one of them.”

“Were you the one to cause the explosion in the muggle street that day?” 

“No, it was Peter, I begged them to check my wand, Andy, I did, they still have it, I know they do, you can check it.” 

“Did you at any point in time alter your memories?”

“You can do that? Then I’m definitely going to remove that time I walked in on Cissy and Lucius.” Sirius shuddered, Harry felt nauseous all of a sudden.

“It’s a yes or no question.” Andromeda said.

“No, I never altered my own memories.”

Andromeda poured herself a cup of tea. “Remus, did you aid Sirius in altering his memories?”

“No, I would never.”

Harry frowned. “Sorry to interrupt, but what if Sirius altered Remus’ memories, but Sirius altered Remus’ memories of him altering Sirius’ memories?”

“I didn’t do that.” Sirius answered.

“During the war, were you associated with he who must not be named?” She demanded.

“I wasn’t a death eater, or working with death eaters if that’s what you’re asking, but as we both know there’s a familial connection.” 

Harry hung back, hearing hundreds of questions being shot at his godfather and former professor. At one point Andromeda pulled a notebook out of her bag to look for more questions. “You can never be too sure,” she told him, her wand still drawn after hours of talking, she’d renewed the dosage of veritaserum at least 3 times and her vial was empty by the time the sun was staining the sky a deep orange.

Eventually she handed Remus back his wand and placed her notebook back in her bag. Sirius leaped up and engulfed her in a hug. She wormed her arms free and embraced him back, as tight as she could. 

Remus walked towards Harry and casually nudged him into the kitchen. 

“We’ll let them be.”

…

In the few days Harry got to know his ‘Aunt Andromeda’ as she told him to call her, she’d been around every day. She tutted at the room design, fretted over Sirius and went over the whole house with as many cleaning spells as would work together.

Andromeda went full healer on Sirius, but couldn’t manage to find a clear diagnosis other than ‘ magical core tired, idiot keeps overexerting himself’ as she so cleverly told Remus.

It didn’t come as a surprise when Andromeda was standing on their doorstep once again just a week after Harry arrived. It did come as a surprise that a woman with bright pink hair was yelling out that the gate was ‘ a corrupt piece of scrap metal ’ trying to close it behind her.

Harry hadn’t even had breakfast yet.

Andromeda let herself in, but the pink haired woman waited by the door, like she was waiting to be invited in. “Wotcher Harry,” She greeted, leaning against the doorpost.

“Hello?”

“We spoke on the phone.” The woman said, she stuck her hand out. “My name’s Nymphadora, but everyone just calls me Tonks-”

"No they don’t!” Andromeda yelled out from the living room.

“They do!” Tonks yelled back. “I’ve been going by Tonks for years now, that woman is going completely mad, I might be too, coming to meet a convicted criminal and all that.” 

“You can come in if you’d like.” Harry said. Is it some weird type of wizard etiquette to invite someone in? Or was Tonks a vampire?

“Well, I might’ve stepped in some dog poo just now, but mum won’t cast a scourgify to prove a point and I’m rubbish at household spells.”

“I’ve got some flip flops you could wear?” Harry offered.

“You really are the saviour of the wizarding world." Tonks joked and kicked off her boots, coming to sit on the kitchen stool.

Harry ran up the stairs to grab Dudley’s old flip flops, they were barely worn, because Dudley’s feet barely fit in them and Harry had grown out of them before he could even wear them. They were still always in his trunk, partially because he was a hoarder, partially because they were great material to use against Ron.

He handed them to Tonks awkwardly, who was observing the bottom of her boots. 

“Thanks, Haz," She said and put them on over her mismatched socks. Honestly, Harry thought it was a pretty good look. He led her into the living room.

“So where's our mass murderer hanging out?” Harry stopped dead in his tracks. “That was a joke.” Tonks reassured him.

“He’s still in bed, I guess, he tried to transfigure the cushions of the bad sofa and then he fainted.”

“The bad sofa?” Tonks mused, looking at the singular sofa and two chairs. 

"We’ve got another sofa upstairs.” Harry explained

“And this one is?” 

“The good one, I think, Sirius complains about everything.” Tonks laughed awkwardly.

Harry led Tonks upstairs next and decided against opening Remus’ bedroom door, where Andromeda, Remus and Sirius were talking. “This is my room," he announced, opening his own door. 

He’d strung up a few posters now and moved most of his stuff out of his suitcases and into his closet. On his windowsill sat Hedwig’s cage, Hedwig herself on her way to Ron’s again .

Tonks went to sit down on his bed and took a book off his bedside table. An Introduction to Magical Theory , one of Remus’ recommendations from the 4th year reading list.

“So you’re in your what, 3rd year now?” Tonks asked.

“I’m in my 4th year, actually." Harry corrected.

“Seems fun, transfig is gonna be great this year, appearance spells and the like.” To accentuate her point, Tonks changed her hair to a deep purple. 

“How’d you do that so quickly?” Harry asked, whenever they did transfiguration on any living object it always took at least half a minute for the best of students, which meant, it took at least half a minute for Hermione to do it.

“What?” Tonks asked, morphing her face to match Harry’s shocked expression to his green eyes and lightning scar. “This?”

Harry nodded vigorously, as she turned back.

“I’m a Metamorphmagus, it means I can change my appearance at will.”

He looked seriously interested. “I was born one. I get top marks in Concealment and Disguise in Auror Studies without any study at all, it’s great.”

“Can you learn to be a Metamorphmagus?”

Tonks laughed. “It’s a genetic thing, I think- it was a big surprise for both of my parents, so, I don’t think you can.” 

Harry sighed, it would’ve been absolutely wicked.

“It would help with that scar wouldn’t it? Just blend in for once.” Tonks said, Harry hadn’t even thought about it like that. He just thought it would’ve been fun to do. He told her exactly that.

“We could still dye your hair,” She suggested. “Quidditch World Cup’s coming up, we could do it orange, white, green.” Her eyes lit up. “Or bald in the middle like a leprechaun!”

Harry stepped back from her. “I think I’ll just wear some face paint and a hat.” 

Tonks pouted. “I am an almost auror helping you hide a fugitive…” She mentioned, faking innocence. 

“You can’t coerce me into dyeing my hair!” Harry exclaimed.

The Metamorphmagus cackled like a madwoman. “I’m your older cousin now, aren’t I, Haz, I’m obligated to do some teasing.”

The teen sighed. “I’ve had enough of cousins bullying me for a lifetime,”

“Awh- good thing wizards have a longer lifespan, huh?” She joked, flipping through the copy of Quidditch through the Ages on his bedside table.

"You’re an auror in training right?” Harry asked, leaning against his desk.

“Yup, only a few more weeks and I’ve got my badge.” 

“Do you reckon I’d make a good auror?” He looked at her, her hair changing colours as she was thinking. 

“I’ve no clue,” Tonks confessed. “You’d be a great quidditch player, or a chef, or a healer, or whatever you put your mind to, I didn’t want to be an auror ‘til my seventh year. Both my parents are healers you see, but I'm rubbish at potions, and I like having everybody happy, that’s the Hufflepuff in me I guess, so I decided to become an auror.”

“Do you like it?”

Tonks snorted. “Why do you think I went through 3 years of training with Mad Eye bloody Moody? I love it.” Harry didn’t know Mad Eye Moody, but he sounded like an interesting personality to be around, just from his name.

“But you’re doing something illegal right now, aren’t you?"

Tonks rolled her eyes. “I love being an auror, I don’t love the ministry. It’s been just over a decade since the war and they’re all in the death eaters’ pockets again. I nicked Sirius’ file from storage when I first started and it was barely 3 pages long. The man didn’t get a trial, the wand on his person at the time of his arrest never cast the spells he supposedly cast, half the file was illegible because some idiot poured coffee on it. I trust my mum’s word and I trust my own gut,” She defended.

“Besides, Sirius was always my favourite cousin,”

Harry nodded. “Do you think they just screwed Sirius over because of his family?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Tonks answered, standing up and walking towards the door, the sound of her flip flops on the wooden floors announcing her every movement. “I would not be surprised.”

She knocked on the door to Remus’ room and turned to Harry. “They’ve been in there for long enough, haven’t they?”

Remus opened the door, and went back to sit on the sofa in his room. Sirius was laying in the middle of the bed, looking more gaunt than ever before. It shocked Harry, to see his usually lively, slightly homeless looking godfather in such a terrible state.

“... How you manage to catch an influenza virus in the middle of summer is a mystery to me.” Andromeda mumbled, doting over her cousin.

“What happened?” Harry asked Remus. "It’s normally not this bad," 

“He has the flu, somehow, Andy says it’s his compromised immune system. He’s as vulnerable as a muggle baby,” 

“I’m way better than a muggle baby,” Sirius argued.

Tonks stood at the end of the bed to greet her cousin. “Wotcher, Sirius, nice to see you again, I missed you and all that,” 

“You grew.” Sirius noted. 

“13 years can do that to a person.” Tonks said.

“As well as making herself 10 centimeters taller than she actually is,” Andromeda added, Tonks glared at her mother.

“How’s being a wizard cop treating you?” The man questioned, pushing away his cousin’s wand and sitting up straight. 

“Great, doing great, I am stuck on desk duty this week, and then have to do a fly along with the Misuse of Magic office, but I’ve almost got all my credits.” 

“ ’m proud of you, Dora.” Sirius said, holding up his hand to high five her. She stared at the open palm with concern. 

“Is this a symptom?” She asked her mother quietly.

“It’s a high five,” Sirius explained. “Harry taught me, you've got to slap my palm like so,” He clapped his hands. Harry sighed from the sofa.

Tonks high fived Sirius, paused, high fived him again and went on to high five everybody else in the room. “This is fun.” She noted.

Once she stopped at the sofa and was high fiving Harry every few seconds, Remus handed her a bucket. "Is this a part of the thing?” She asked. 

Remus shook his head. “He’s gonna throw up,” 

“How do you-” Tonks was interrupted by Sirius making a weird guttural sound. Tonks rushed the bucket over.

“He’s been throwing up all night,” Remus told Harry. The boy frowned. “And you didn't think to tell me?"

“We didn’t want to worry you until we had Andromeda check it out.” The man whispered. “We wanted for you to meet Nymphadora, but not under these circumstances.” 

“It’s fine, I get it.” Harry assured. "She’s great by the way, do you think she could teach me some self defense?”

“Hey!” Remus said, offended. “I’m supposed to be your teacher.”

“Well then you shouldn’t have resigned.” Harry retorted. Remus ruffled his hair and stood up. 

“Tea anyone?” He offered. Four hands shot up in the air. 

“Could you get breakfast too?” Harry asked. “I’m starving.” 

“For me as well, Remus.” Tonks said quickly.

“Don’t be ridiculous, we had breakfast this morning,” Andromeda told her.

“I’m a growing girl,”

“You’re 21 years old,” Andromeda yelled.

“Toast for me, Remus, please.” Sirius asked.

“I’ll just open a restaurant while I’m at it.” Remus grumbled and made his way downstairs.

…

Harry had been living at the house in Yorkshire for about a week when he went into town for the first time. Remus had dug a bike out of the shed and cast a few good ‘reparo ’s on the thing, before sending Harry on his way with a shopping list and a few pound notes.

Town was a bit of a big word for a Tesco, a pub and a church, but Harry preferred it over the shopping street in Little Whinging.

He parked the bike next to a tree and made his way into the grocery store. He got a shopping cart and dumped his jacket and the shopping bag he’d brought in it. Maybe it was a bit stupid, but Harry liked pretending he was an adult that belonged in that Tesco in a small town in Yorkshire. 

He greeted the employees of the store with a smile and helped an old lady with her groceries, all the while pretending that the soft hum of the radio in the background was there solely for him.

It wasn’t until he stood in front of the pharmacy aisle, looking for paracetamol and the store brand Nasaleze, preferably the one for children that he got a bit lost. 

A woman that looked to be in her late 40s looked over at him, at his clueless expression and at the shopping list grasped in his hand. 

“Do you need some help there, young man?” The woman asked, leaving her shopping cart on the other side of the aisle and coming to stand next to him. 

“I do," Harry confessed.

“Why don’t you tell me what you’re looking for? I know how scary all of this can seem for a young lad like you.” Harry showed her his shopping list, the woman read it carefully.

She reached towards the top shelf and pulled out a little box, but she placed it back almost immediately. “When me and my partner first sent our daughter out for groceries we followed her around, just in case.” She mused, reaching for a different box.

“Here we have the paracetamol,” She handed the box over. “and the Nasaleze,” she grabbed a bright pink bottle with the Tesco logo on it. “They’ve only got bubblegum left, do you think that’s okay?” 

“Yeah, I think it’s fine, uhm- my dad is ill, my- uhm- my mum sent me out for some groceries,” The woman frowned.

“That’s too bad, I heard that the weather's finally behaving like it’s summer holiday.” 

“It is?” Harry asked. 

“Well, if you can trust the BBC’s word,” The woman joked as she went back to her own cart. "You tell that dad of yours to get well soon,” She said.

“I will, ma’am, and thank you very much.” 

“It’s nothing, it’s a mother’s job to look out for kids like yourself.” The woman waved him off.

“Still,” Harry insisted. “Thank you,” 

“And have a nice day,” He hastily added.

“You too,” The woman yelled after him, moving to stand in line to pay.

…

Sirius absolutely detested the bubblegum flavour, but Harry and Remus managed to sneak it in nonetheless. 

Andromeda had decided against wizarding cures for an illness more common with muggles, in fear that it might worsen Sirius’ state. Thankfully, the flu passed after a short few days and only left Sirius with a runny nose and a weird assortment of dreams he jokingly tried to analyse using Harry’s divination textbook. 

Things went back to normal, or as normal as living with a fugitive and his former professor could be. Harry could admit he was pretty clueless at times, but he still didn’t know where Remus actually slept, seeing as Sirius had occupied his bedroom for the entirety of his miraculous flu. 

Hermione had thought up this entire theory that because wizards were immune to most muggle illnesses they could be carriers for them without knowing, and that’s why Sirius managed to get the flu seemingly out of nowhere.

Harry thought Remus’ theory that Sirius had the immune system of a muggle baby and therefore was a walking disease catcher was better. He did have to admit that Hermione’s theory was probably more accurate, though he thought Hermione comparing him and Remus to plague rats was a bit rude.

Ron thought that it would’ve been funnier if Sirius had gotten some kind of dog disease, but sent his ‘ get well soon ’ message nonetheless. 

Tonks came over for dinner once, while Sirius was sick and it was possibly the most awkward 2 hours that Harry had to live through in his life.

Andromeda had offered to eat dinner in Sirius’ room and Harry was absolutely sure that they were just going to look at the society pages and gossip about their family members.

Meanwhile Tonks’ hair was turning brighter shades of pink every time Remus entered the room and Harry really wanted to bury his face in the mash potatoes to avoid more of it.

The most ridiculous part of the dinner was that Remus didn’t notice, or desperately tried not to notice and kept steering the conversation back to when Tonks was still a young child. Tonks in turn kept trying to steer the conversation back to how she was a grown adult. 

Eventually Harry had to step in and go “So how’s the office of Magical Misuse?” even though he already received a footlong explanation of their latest adventures from Arthur, attached to his letter from Ron. To be honest, reading about revolving doors trapping muggles was pretty funny.

That’s why it was a terrible, terrible thing when Sirius suggested a family dinner to Andromeda the next time she came by. 

The second Tonks and Andromeda arrived, Harry made sure to drag his sort of cousin up to his room and have a stern talk with her.

“Could you please stop having a crush on Remus?” Harry begged her.

“Hey,” Tonks said, offended. “Who said I have a crush on him?” 

“Me, and I had to watch you being all in love with him for hours . It’s gross, he’s like twice your age.”

“It’s only 13 years.” 

“ I’m only 13 years, and I’ve managed to sort of kill Voldemort 3 whole times, it’s a long time.” Harry argued.

“Well, I can’t help it okay,” 

Harry sat down next to her on his bed. “Would it help if I set you up with somebody else? My friend Ron has a ton of brothers.”

“Like who?” 

“Well, there’s Bill, he’s pretty well- objectively speaking he’s a pretty handsome bloke and you’ve got Charlie-”

“You’re not setting me up with Charlie bloody Weasley.” Tonks screeched.

“Why not?”

“He’s my best friend, and he doesn’t play for my team if you know what I’m saying.”

Harry nodded. “Because he's a Gryffindor, I get it.”

Tonks burst out laughing. “No,” She cried out. “I mean as in, he doesn’t like- keep this between us please- but he doesn’t like girls, or guys for that matter.”

The teen frowned. "Ron always said he was a pretty social guy,”

Tonks laughed even louder. “As in he doesn’t want to date girls, or guys, he doesn’t date anybody.”

“Why would Charlie be dating guys?” Harry asked, he really liked Tonks, but now she wasn’t making any sense.

“I just said he doesn’t,” 

“But Charlie can't date guys, he’s not a girl.” 

Tonks gave him a puzzled look, trying to figure out if he’s actually serious. “Harry, do you know what the word gay means?”

He crossed his arms defensively. “Of course I do, but just so that you're sure what it is, why don’t you tell me what you think it means?”

“It’s what you are- if a boy likes boys, or a girl likes girls, as in, would like to date them and kiss them and- well you’re 13 you get it.” 

“Like homo- homosapiens?” Harry asked, he’d heard his aunt and uncle talk about something like that before.

“Homosexuality, it means a sexual attraction to people of the same gender as you.” Tonks explained.

“But isn’t that illegal?” Harry wondered, he’d definitely heard his aunt and uncle talk about it before, and not very happily.

“In the wizarding world it isn’t, but with muggles it’s still pretty taboo.”

“Oh,” He needed a moment, maybe several. 

“I myself like girls too," Tonks clarified. 

“So liking Remus is just a joke?” Harry asked.

“No, I like girls and guys and people that aren’t girls or guys-” She shut her mouth, Harry had both of his hands on his face and was staring wide eyed at the floor. “I could lend you a book?” The boy didn’t budge.

“I’ll do that." She stood up carefully and went out into the hallway, running down the staircase and coming to join her mother, cousin and childhood crush in the living room. 

Dinner was even worse than Harry had expected, mostly because he was staring at his spaghetti like it was explaining molecular physics to him. Tonks looked anywhere but her mother’s face as she looked at her daughter with disappointment.

Sirius broke the silence by saying “Harry, you’re a bit quiet this evening,”

Harry nodded, not looking up. 

Sirius shot a glare at his cousin. “You broke Harry,” He blamed her.

“I didn't,” she said, her mouth full of spaghetti. “He broke himself.” 

Harry mumbled something unintelligible.

The animagus pointed his fork loosely at his godson. “Look at him, he’s eating his spaghetti without sauce, you broke him.”

“I did not ,” Tonks replied.

Remus tried to shovel some pasta sauce onto Harry’s spaghetti, but the boy didn’t budge from his apparently very interesting conversation with the pasta.

“Well he is a parselmouth," Remus joked, Sirius kicked him under the table.

“Just because we’re godfathering him together doesn’t give you the right to tell terrible dad jokes.” Sirius told him.

“It was a good one,” Tonks defended, stealing a meatball straight out of the pan. Her mother looked increasingly more tired, muttering something about ‘children’ under her breath.

Harry made an actual move by reaching over to Tonks and hitting her in the shoulder. 

“He’s working again,” Tonks announced. Harry mouthed “ I hate you .” at her.

“Teenagers, huh.” Sirius said to Andromeda, who shook her head. “As far as I’m concerned I’m the only grown up at this table.” 

…

Tonks dropped the book she was talking about by extremely discreetly by putting it in between two fashion magazines with beautiful witches on the cover, waving up at him. He went completely red and went up to his room without looking at Sirius and Remus.

It was a surprise to him, that liking boys if you were a boy, was a thing. He didn’t think it was bad or anything, which his aunt and uncle probably did, if he could trust their conversations, but it was confusing. 

He spent 10 years with an aunt and uncle that hated him, in a school in the suburbs, and suddenly he’s a wizard, it wasn’t like he knew about stuff like that before, and he didn’t learn anything about if after.

And it wasn’t just a surprise, that it was a thing, it was scary. He could like boys, if he wanted to, or maybe you were born into it, he wasn’t on that chapter yet, but he could. There was this whole thing that he never knew about.

The book Tonks had given him The Ins and Outs of the Closet by Magdalena Overture, was a thick volume, it had two sides, one presumably about muggles and the other about the magic side of things. 

He started on the muggle side, because it had considerably fewer pages and found that it was an extremely helpful book. At the beginning of every chapter was a small dictionary, which was great for someone like Harry.

The teen cut off reading when it got to the history section, instead turning the book around and reading the part about the wizarding world.

Most words were the same, thankfully. Apparently people in the wizarding world only started using labels after muggles did, at first accidentally using a common slur until a muggle born witch published an essay about it in the 19th century. 

For some words only used in the wizarding world there was a long explanation on how it got like that. There was even a word for wizards that changed their name to a name with the same first letter while transitioning, it was so incredibly long that Harry was actually glad that they didn’t learn about this stuff through school, because he was sure there’d be some ridiculously sized essay involved.

When he did eventually get to the history section after dinner and Remus and Sirius thankfully didn’t say anything about it, he was almost in tears. 

He’d just wanted to know what it was, if it had anything to do with the feeling he got in his stomach when he looked at Hufflepuff’s seeker.

The section of wizarding history was far better than the muggle side, but it was still depressing. Of course Voldemort had to be against that stuff too, the no nosed git really liked being on the wrong side of history.

He was glad it was over when he got to the famous people section, one that was far more extensive on the wizarding side than the muggle side. 

The fact that Dumbledore was on it was a surprise. There was no elaboration, just his name, title and birth year. Harry wondered if other people knew this too, if this book was popular among wizards. He wondered whether everybody knew this already and just didn’t think to tell him and the other muggle raised kids.

Would they put his name on the list too, the minute he figured it out. Harry Potter - Boy who Lived - (1980 - ) , the words magically appearing below Jacob the Paddleboater - Inventor of the Paddleboat - (1432 - 1464*) *: died in a tragic Paddleboat incident .

It worried Harry. It honestly did.

He went to bed early that night, not even going downstairs to have a cup of tea. 

He needed to sleep on it.

…

Sirius and Remus woke him up. Their talking did at least. It was dark out, so it must’ve been late at night.

“-I swear if she went and gave him dirty magazines..." Sirius' voice carried through the thin walls of the house.

“Oh come on- you’ve got nothing to talk about with the poster you had of Tiberia Thunderstorm.” Harry frowned, he didn’t want to know about that. He tried pulling his pillow over his ears.

“It wasn’t like I was actually looking at it.” Sirius said. Harry let the pillow go.

“Yeah you were looking at the poster of that Cannons’ beater on the other side, the witch weekly spread,” Remus mused. “What was his name again, Rudolph-”

“It was Claude Downey and you know it.” Sirius told him. “Besides, I took it down in 5th year.” 

“And you put it back up after you and that Ravenclaw broke up- the one that became headboy our 6th year.”

Headboy? Harry thought, girls can’t become headboy .

“Not the only headboy I shagged,” Sirius said proudly.

“You and James didn’t shag , you kissed, there’s a difference.” Remus corrected. James? Harry’s dad's name was James. Had Sirius and his dad kissed?

This was all Tonks fault, he was blaming her wholly and completely for everything that he was learning.

“At least I didn’t date Lily in 3rd year,” Sirius said.

Now Remus had dated his mum? It kept getting worse.

“We went out for Valentines as friends, because you and James were pricks.” That did make sense.

“Well at least neither of us shagged Peter,” Sirius then said.

“Marlene did,” Remus mentioned.

“And?” 

“I dated Marlene,” 

It went silent, then Sirius started screeching. “Merlin’s underpants, Sirius, Harry’s sleeping,” Remus told him.

“My lips have touched lips that have touched lips that have touched Peter’s.”

“What an interesting way of saying you’ve indirectly shagged Peter.” Remus laughed.

There was a sound of a bed creaking. “I’m sleeping on the good sofa tonight,” Sirius said.

Remus continued laughing, but Sirius started walking away. “Wait, were you serious?”

“I’m always Sirius,” Sirius replied and dramatically walked off, at least Harry presumed. 

He heard footsteps walking in the direction of his room and quickly turned around to pretend to be sleeping, he rested his head on his hands and kept his eyes shut.

His bedroom door opened and Sirius stood in the opening to check on him. He held his breath. It didn’t help that Remus yelled after Sirius “Now you’re only 4 steps away from kissing Voldemort’s arse.”

Harry stifled a laugh, Sirius closed the door behind him, turned on Harry’s bedside lamp and came to lean over him. “You little tyke.”

“Good morning,” Harry joked, stretching himself out. 

“We should really put on a permanent silencing charm if you’re gonna eavesdrop on grown up conversations, we could be talking about serious things you know, Tax evasion and the like.” Harry laughed, Sirius went to sit down next to him.

Sirius’ eyes fell on the book on Harry’s bedside table, Harry looked at him with worry. “How are you liking Nymphadora’s book recommendations?” he asked.

“They’re interesting,” Harry answered. 

“I met the author, you know.” Sirius told him. 

“You have?"

“A bit of a nutter, that one, her spellwork on the other hand was excellent. I went to one of her book signings in Manchester, pretty underground all of it, she just looked at me and pressed a little book in my hands, just like she did with all the muggles, but when I looked down my copy was twice its size and had a moving picture on the front.”

Harry looked at Tonks’ copy of the book instead of at his godfather.

“I know it might be awkward, but Remus and I, we’re here for you, for whatever questions you have, I’m your godfather and I take that responsibility very seriously.”

The teen didn’t look up, instead leaning against Sirius’ shoulder and breathing heavily.

“I don’t know what to think anymore, Tonks broke my brain.” Harry confessed.

“So did Remus, just now,” Sirius said. "I indirectly shagged Peter.” He stuck up his nose in disgust. Harry laughed.

Sirius wrapped his arm around his godson. “But all jokes aside, Tonks broke your brain, elaborate.” 

“Well I went to tell her not to flirt with Remus, because it was weird and then I offered to set her up with Charlie Weasley and then she broke my brain.”

Sirius laughed. “She was flirting with Remus?”

“She was trying to at least.” Harry shuddered. 

“And you offered to set her up with Ron’s brother instead?”

“Yeah, but she said he didn’t date girls or guys and then I asked why he would be dating guys and then she said that he didn’t, and then she broke my brain.” Harry explained.

His godfather nodded. “You didn’t know it was an option?”

Harry shook his head. “Not until she told me.” 

“You know, normally people don’t break their brains over stuff like that.”

“Then it’s- well Hufflepuff.” 

Sirius frowned. “What?”

“The Hufflepuff seeker, and the Ravenclaw seeker, but definitely not the Slytherin seeker, because he’s a prick.”

“You have a crush on the Hufflepuff seeker? And the Ravenclaw seeker?” Sirius tried desperately to stop himself from laughing, he couldn’t have his godson thinking this was a laughing matter.

“No, maybe, I’ve never had a crush okay, it’s just that Cedric is a very beautiful person, and honestly so is Cho.” 

“I’m glad you told me,” Sirius started. “I hope you know that it’s completely okay what you’re feeling,” He assured. “and, well, I’ve completely forgotten what I’m supposed to say here, sorry Harry, but you’re my first godson and I don’t have a lot of experience in this field.” 

Harry snorted, Sirius shoved him. "How about a cup of tea, I could go for a cup of tea, some people like tea, you see, I do, other people like coffee, some people like both,” Sirius breathed.  “I could go for a cup of tea about now.”

“A cup of tea sounds nice.” Harry agreed.

They tiptoed past Remus’ room, where the werewolf was snoring already. 

Sirius put on the kettle, but didn’t put the cap on, as to not wake Remus. Harry sat down on the counter.

“Did you shag my dad?” Harry asked.

Sirius sputtered. “Well- I did- Once- or twice- or multiple times- you heard that?”

“It’s fine, as long as you didn’t shag my mum as well,” 

Sirius looked at Harry with a guilty expression, shoulders raised and eyes wide.

“You didn’t,” Harry said.

“Just kidding, Prongslette, your mum wouldn’t have kissed me for a billion galleons.”

Harry let out a breath of relief.

“But you did shag my dad? And some other bloke as well?”

“Well, yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I like men, I’m gay, Harry.” Sirius confessed.

“Why though?” Harry insisted.

“Why am I gay ?” Sirius repeated the question. “It’s not really a choice, I just like guys, I always have, your dad did too, he was completely infatuated with your mum, of course, but he liked both men and women.” 

Harry frowned. “And my mum was okay with that?”

“Of course she was, Marlene and Mary were her best friends and they’d been dating ever since 5th year, as well as me and- your mum was fine with it, I always thought she might’ve been a little-” Sirius waved his hand in the air. “-herself.” 

“Do you think they’d mind?” Harry asked, after Sirius had poured him a cup of tea.

“If you were queer?” Harry remembered the word from the book, an umbrella term for all things gay, trans, bi, lesbian and the like. 

“I think they would have loved you still if you had your nose surgically removed to look like Voldemort’s, Harry, a parent’s love is supposed to be unconditional. Sometimes people just end up with people that aren't fit to be parents, like I did, and like you did, with your aunt and uncle. But your mum and dad, they loved you so much, we all loved you- we love you, still, whether you have a crush on the Hufflepuff seeker or not.” Sirius assured him.

“I might have a wee crush on the Hufflepuff seeker, huh?” Harry asked.

“Just a wee one?” Sirius joked. 

"I still blame Tonks for all of this,” Harry told his godfather, who laughed.

“All of this because my dear cousin has a crush on Remus,” Sirius took a sip of his tea. “Wouldn’t blame her though, our Moony is a very beautiful man.” 

Harry looked at Sirius and laughed, but it didn’t hold for long. He went quiet, frowned and shifted his head a bit to look at Sirius.

“You and Remus?” He yelled out. “You and Remus?” he repeated.

“What?” Sirius asked, his voice high.

“You and Remus? And you didn’t think to tell me? I’ve been here for almost 2 weeks.” Harry continued.

“In our defense, I am still a fugitive, Remus is a jobless werewolf, and you are the boy who lived, raised by Petunia and Vernon Dursley who almost didn’t invite Lily to their wedding, because they thought I looked a bit queer.” 

“- I- uhm - I.” Harry stammered. “You might have a point."

“Of course I do- Remus did a whole speech on it to me, I know stuff now.” 

Harry snorted. “Thanks,” 

“What for,”

“Clearing stuff up, I guess.”

“You’re welcome.”

“But you and Remus? He voluntarily decided to date you ? On purpose?” 

Sirius pinched him. “I don’t know how I managed, but technically we’ve been together for 19 years.”

“With 12 years of prison time in between and the year as a fugitive,” Harry added.

“Of course, who can forget my prison sentence and pretending to be a dog for a year.”

“You’re never a dog anymore,” Harry frowned.

“Sometimes I shift while sleeping, Remus said he’ll just buy me a dog bed and be done with it." 

“I wish I could just be a dog for the rest of my life,” Harry said. Sirius laughed.

“You’re going to have to get used to dog food and dumpsters,” Sirius told him.

“No, I’m not,” Harry shook his head. “I’m going to force you to feed me.”

“As long as you’re going to eat less than you’re eating now, I’m fine with it, you’re eating us out of house and home, young man.”

“I’m a growing boy,” 

Chapter Text

“Tell me again, how did Snape get hired again?” Sirius questioned, it was way past noon and he’d just woken up. Harry had poured himself a cup of sugar with coffee and was trying to drink it in the same casual manner that Remus did. His face permanently frozen in a look of distaste. Remus quirked his eyebrow as if to say ‘ I told you so, you little English twat, stick to tea. ’

Harry shrugged. “Dunno,” He dropped another sugar cube into his coffee. “It’s probably another one of Dumbledore’s plans,” He mused.

“Albus did not feel the need to elaborate it to me,” Remus said, sipping his coffee casually. Harry mimicked the motion.

“But,” Sirius stammered. “He’s a nazi!” 

“And he hates children,” Harry added. 

“And he hates children,” Sirius repeated.

Remus frowned. "Don’t look at me, I didn’t hire him." 

"But he’s a nazi who hates children,” Sirius argued, sipping his tea. He’d never been one for coffee, he only drank it to stay awake during long nights cramming before an exam, or when he was working for the other. But generally, when he could feel his eyes shutting while hanging over a textbook, he swung his legs over the ledge of their dorm room window in Gryffindor tower and lit himself a cigarette. 

“And he can’t teach,” Harry said, holding his cup in his hands and waving it around to accentuate his point. Remus took the cup out of his hands before any of the coffee could spill onto the table.

“And he can’t teach,” Sirius repeated once again.

“If you’re so passionate about this, why don’t you send a letter to Dumbledore about it,” Remus suggested, passing Harry back his cup. "Or better yet, start a petition.” 

Even though the former professor hadn’t been serious, Harry mulled the thought over in his head. “That could work,” he nodded. “but we’d also need a replacement.” 

Remus and Sirius looked at each other and back to Harry. “Your parents were wonderful at potions,” Sirius told him. “I’m pretty sure I saw Snape copying homework off your dad a few times, before he started using that ridiculous nickname, what was it Moons? The bloody princess?”

“The halfblood prince,” Remus corrected. “He’s right though, your dad would have made potion master before 7th year if he wasn’t slacking off so much, your mum even managed to brew a polyjuice in under  a month." Harry looked down into his coffee sludge, trying not to catch his guardians’ eyes. 

“I’m pretty rubbish at potions, though. When we brewed the polyjuice potion Hermione did all the work and she turned into a cat,” The teen told them. “I’m nothing compared to them.” 

Sirius looked at the boy with half a grin on his face, his eyes the size of plates. “Let’s reverse back for a second, you brewed polyjuice potion? You haven’t even started 4th year.”

Harry frowned. “We did it in 2nd year, and it wasn’t like it was hard or anything, Hermione managed just fine without me or Ron.”

“Bloody hell, Moony,” Sirius exclaimed. “that’s our godson right there.” 

The teen felt a bit of pride well up in his chest, he was their godson now. 

“I told you before, Pads, him and his friends are a bunch of geniuses,” Remus said proudly. “I heard from Hagrid that Ron Weasley even managed to invent a spell last year, it did backfire, but ‘ eat slugs ’ is a wonderfully handy incantation.” 

Harry nodded, the flare of pride becoming even greater. Hermione and Ron were the smartest people he knew. “The only reason it went wrong was because his wand broke when we crashed a car into the Whomping Willow.” He defended his friend.

Sirius blinked. "I’m really going to need a detailed account of your 2nd year, prongslet.” Remus agreed vehemently.

“It's a long story.” 

…

Sometimes, things went wrong.

Harry just didn’t realise how wrong until the chief wizard of the Wizengamot was sitting on a folding chair in the living room, while he was yelling about Ron’s newest quidditch letter with a toothbrush in his mouth, wearing a T-Shirt he’d found in the attic that apparently used to belong to his mum, but Sirius had stolen, with the inscription ‘ Dinner time, bring out the wine.’  

“Morning,” The teenager greeted and promptly backed out of the room. He ran upstairs, spit out his toothpaste and switched his T-Shirt for one of his grey long sleeved shirts. He tried to shape his hair so that it looked somewhat presentable and returned downstairs.

Sirius and Remus were sitting opposite Dumbledore who was munching on the cookies Sirius and Harry had baked the previous day, while Remus was at a job interview at a local primary school. Harry stood in front of the table, not knowing what he was supposed to do.

“Please, Harry, take a seat,” Dumbledore held his hand out to a crutch that stood next to him, but instead, Harry sat down next to his godfathers.

Sirius rose and so did Dumbledore. “I’m just grabbing him some breakfast, if you don’t mind,” He said and the headmaster sat back down as Sirius walked towards the kitchen. 

“You believed me when I said he was innocent,” Harry stated, looking at Dumbledore. The man had a twinkle in his blue eyes, like he always did, but this time it made Harry feel uneasy instead. “You still do, right?”

Dumbledore looked down at the plate of cookies. “Professor Lupin told me you and Mr. Black baked these together,” he avoided the question.

“We did,” Harry said. “Sirius is rubbish at cooking so I did most of the work, but he drew in the smiley faces.” Professor Dumbledore looked at the cookies, where the melted chocolate chips formed funny faces.

“They’re very good,” He complimented. Remus looked like he couldn’t take it anymore, his knuckles going white against his tea, that’s how hard he was grasping on.

They sat in silence, waiting for Sirius to return. 

Sirius came back into the living room and placed a plate and a cup of tea in front of Harry. He’d made him some bread, a peanut butter sandwich and a chocolate spread one.

Harry mumbled a ‘ thank you ’ and watched as Sirius took his chair to go sit next to him.

“I will begin by saying I’m not here to arrest you, Mr.Black,” Dumbledore started. He reached for his own cup and took a sip. “I’m simply here to address my concern,” Harry grabbed his sandwich and took a bite, swallowing it down with a sip of tea, it was far too hot, but he wasn’t going to let Dumbledore know that.

“I believe that I explained to professor Lupin why I placed Harry with his muggle relatives and yet, he seems to have made a home here,” Sirius placed his hands protectively on Harry’s shoulder. “It seems that I must not have been convincing enough,” Dumbledore placed his cup back on the table.

“As we all know by now, Voldemort’s return is inevitable and Harry needs to be protected, I believe that the blood magic will ward him against all evil until he comes of age-”

“And then?” Remus asked, breaking his silence. “After he comes of age?” 

“I will protect him of course, as will the order if it is deemed necessary,” Harry blinked, what was the order? and how would it protect him? Remus drank his tea, locking eyes with Sirius and shaking his head.

“What difference would it make if Harry gets to spend his time in a safe household under the appropriate wards? With wards that won’t fall the second he turns 17?” Remus interrogated. 

Professor Dumbledore took another cookie off the plate and Harry wondered if that was a part of his plan as well. “I was not under the impression that his previous household was not safe.” 

“Say, Albus," Sirius interrupted. “ Padfoot, ” Remus warned, but Sirius continued. “Do you care about your students?”

"Of course I do,” The headmaster answered.

“All of your students? Even the kids persuaded to a darker side, kids from a specific house, do you care about them too?” The animagus interrogated.

“As dearly as I wish I could deny this, I still care greatly for the children they once were, even the child that Voldemort once was,” Dumbledore took a sip of his tea, Harry clenched his fist.

“Would you let those students starve? Leave them to rot?” Sirius’ voice grew louder, filling the living room with the shrill echo of his voice.

“Sirius,” Remus said, “Calm down.” 

“I would not, my dear boy, I would never abandon my students.”

“Then why is it that my godson is the exception to that rule, someone you turn a blind eye to the minute the train leaves Hogsmeade’s station at the end of the year?” Remus snaked his arm behind Harry’s back and reached for Sirius’ hand, grasping it firmly in his own.

Dumbledore held onto his cup, but did not drink it, not yet. “I do not know-”

“They starved him, treated him like an animal and that’s just what he’ll tell me, so pray tell, why is he an exception?” Harry flinched at Sirius’ yelling.

“I-” Dumbledore struggled to keep his composure. “Surely it is not- my boy I would never have-” 

“I’d like to stay here,” Harry spoke up. “If that’s okay.” 

Dumbledore placed his cup back down. “It is okay, I apologise, Harry,” He stood up. “I will have to cut this visit short, but I will send an owl to announce my return.”

The man left through the garden and just past the fence, poofed out of existence.

Remus broke out in laughter. As did Sirius. Harry simply looked out the window at the place where Dumbledore just stood seconds ago.

“I think you two broke Dumbledore.” Remus told them, finishing his tea.

“It was a team effort,” Sirius said. Harry still stared.

Sirius wrapped his godson in a hug, Harry frowned. "Come on, Haz, we’ve got you now, there’s no going back.” 

“You stink,”

“Well forgive me for not having the time to shower because professor Dumbledore arrived,”

“Still,” Harry insisted. “You stink,” Sirius let go of his godson and embraced Remus.

“See,” He said as Remus rolled his eyes. "Moony doesn’t think I stink,” 

“You kind of do, pads,” Remus said. Sirius broke free of the embrace and kissed his boyfriend? partner? fellow godfather to the saviour of the wizarding world?

"Eww.” Harry yelled and covered his eyes. They kept becoming more and more sappy and gross ever since Harry realised they were together.

“You hear that, Moony?” Sirius asked, grinning. “Our godson is homophobic,” he accused.

Harry made an offended noise. “ You’re homophobic,” He yelled.

“How so?” 

“You just are,” The teen said. “Remus, back me up here,”

Remus smiled. “Sorry, Sirius, but the kid has a point,” 

Sirius crossed his arms and walked away, grumbling “ you’re homophobic, the two of you, telling me I stink ,”

Once he’d left the room, Harry and Remus broke out in laughter.

Harry finished his breakfast and Remus drank another cup of tea in silence. 

“Remus,” Harry said eventually, hearing the sound of the shower upstairs. “I really get to stay right?”

Remus looked up from the scratch in the table he was observing.

“Yeah, you really get to stay.”

Harry jumped up and launched himself onto Remus, engulfing him in a hug. 

…

Tonks returned before Dumbledore did, announcing herself by cursing at the garden gate, she had to ‘alohomora’ it open to get through. Harry laughed at her from the comfort of the kitchen. 

“We do have a front door,” he said.

“As an auror, I don’t believe you’re telling the truth,” 

Harry’s eyes widened. “Does that mean…” Tonks nodded vigorously. 

The teen ran towards her, across the grass and hugged her. “I’ve got my graduation ceremony tomorrow, it’s gonna be small, because there’s a lot going on at the ministry, but then I’ll actually be an auror,” Tonks told him.

He guided her inside, not once letting go of her shoulders.

“I wish you guys could be there,” The newly appointed auror said. 

“Well, we’re with you in spirit, if that helps,” Harry poured her a cup of tea. “I bet your mum will take lots of pictures as well,” 

“Knowing her and my dad, they might even bring a muggle film crew.” 

Harry laughed and went to pour in the milk, Tonks stopped him quickly. “If you dare pour milk into my tea I will arrest you first thing when I’ve got my badge,”

He frowned. “Everybody drinks it with milk, it’s delicious,” 

“The pour tea leaves didn’t die for you to muddle them down with milk, that’d be like pouring water in your tea-”

“Tea is made with water,”

“It’d be like pouring water in your wine then-”

“I’m not old enough to drink,”

“Pouring water in your butterbeer,”

Harry sighed. “Maybe you have a point. But I still like it with milk.”

“To each their own,” Tonks said, grabbing her cup, raising it up as if to say ‘cheers’ and taking a premature sip, which made her start cursing again.

“Harry, remind me to teach you how to properly cool your tea,” Tonks yelled out one last swear word and shook the bad vibes off as she told him. “Just a little incantation and all is well in tonsil town,” 

“You shouldn’t be encouraging him,” Sirius said. “Especially not you, Auror Tonks,” 

Tonks’ face lit up and she went toward her cousin to hug him. “How about you take one for the team, be my first arrest, I get a promotion like ‘snap’ and I’ll get you a nice inland cell.” She suggested, Sirius rolled his eyes.

“They never fired me, y’know that Dora, I’m your superior officer, technically.” Sirius told her, she kicked his shin. Sirius limped towards the kitchen and grabbed her mug to take a sip from it. “No milk?” he asked, Harry shrugged.

“So, where’s Remus?” Tonks asked, taking her mug back from Sirius. Harry glared at her, Tonks glared right back. “You’ve got beautiful eyes, Haz, but unfortunately I can’t use them to see whatever you’re thinking right now.” She added, giving him a wink.

“He’s still in bed, the lazy bugger, I’m up bright as a daisy at,” Sirius poked his head into the living room. “9.30 in the morning and he’s just doing nothing, setting a very bad example for our godson,”

Harry sat down on the counter, placing his tea on his leg, feeling the warmth radiating from the mug. “He was snoring all this morning and Sirius didn’t want to roll him over,” he confided in Tonks.

“I did want to, he’s just very heavy and I’m terribly ill.” Sirius poured himself some water. 

The teen sighed. “You’re a wizard, can’t you be a little original?”

“I’m old, okay, I get to be stupid and sleep in your room as a dog for 4 hours,” 

“Where do you normally sleep, then, Sirius?” Tonks asked, her hair turning purple.

“Well-” Sirius began, “That is a very good question, a wonderful question in fact, one I have an answer for, definitely, uhm-” 

The corner of Harry’s mouth started turning up, he tried to bite his cheek, but he couldn’t help but grin at his godfather’s struggle.

“The sofa!” Sirius announced, as if he’d just realised they had one. “I sleep on the Sofa,”

Tonks took a sip of her tea. “Alright- Purple or green today, Harry?” 

“Purple’s better.” Tonks’ hair started turning green.

“So you sleep on the sofa? How could you have heard Remus’ snoring?”

Sirius went wide eyed. "The Sofa,” He paused. “Is in Remus’ bedroom.” He looked at Harry as if to ask him to back him up here. Harry nodded at Tonks.

“Interesting,” Tonks grew a beard, only to stroke it thoughtfully. “Very interesting,”

Harry struggled to hold in his laughter, looking away quickly when Sirius eyed him.

“Was this Sofa you speak of the good sofa or the bad sofa?” She interrogated.

“The- Uhm- The bad one?” 

Tonks’ beard disappeared and made way for a copy of Sirius' stammering face. 

“Why are you sleeping on the bad sofa? If it is in fact a bad sofa?”

Harry took a sip of his tea, looking between Tonks and Sirius with a knowing grin.

“Okay- I give up-” Sirius raised his hands in defeat. “Maybe- just maybe, I like not being alone at night, because it reminds me of Azkaban,” Harry frowned, he’d expected something funny, something about Sirius and Remus being totally obvious with their relationship, even before Harry realised, but it was just kind of sad.

“Oh- That’s- that’s really not fun,” Tonks tried to empathize with her cousin. “I mean I kind of had the spooks after this tricky deal with Devil’s Snare after a stake out, and I slept in between mum and dad for weeks, but well- I get it, that’s what I’m saying.”

“Yeah,” Sirius agreed.

Harry wanted to say something funny, something to pierce through the silence, but he himself had ‘the spooks’, as Tonks put it, sometimes. Ron and him had spent plenty of nights huddled together, trying to banish their respective nightmares from their mind. 

Sometimes they’d all push their beds together for a massive sleepover, after Seamus was out of the hospital wing after having half his face blown off, or when Neville had gotten a good grade for potions. Ron said it reminded him of a family camping trip with less Fred and George in it.

“Yeah,” Harry eventually said, his voice soft. He finished his tea and left the kitchen.

…

The same afternoon, Andromeda came by, carrying a massive book in her arms. 

Harry opened the door for her and she dropped the book in his arms, fetching herself a cup of tea before coming to sit in the living room with her daughter, cousin and Remus who looked like he'd just woken up and had in fact just woken up.

She raised the book into her lap and flipped it open to reveal a muggle picture of a young Sirius posing in front of the Black family tapestry, specifically the place where Andromeda’s face had been burned off the family tree.

“Wait a minute," Sirius said, moving so that he could see the picture. “When I gave you that it was definitely a lot smaller.”

Andromeda flipped past a few other pictures of Sirius, in one he was posing in front of a lingerie shop holding an atrociously pink bag that said ‘it’s a girl! ’ under it was written in Andromeda’s fine cursive handwriting ‘ Taken by James Potter, Sirius aged 13 in London 1973’  

“It’s the book you gave us when Nymphadora-"

“Come on, mum, if you’re not going to call me Tonks , you could at least call me anything other than Nymphadora.” Tonks interrupted.

"Well, it’s your name isn’t it?” Andromeda said sweetly. “It’s the book you gave us when Dora was born,” She turned to address her daughter. “Better?”

“A lot better actually.” 

“Why’s there so many pictures of him, then?” Harry asked, looking at a moving picture of Sirius holding an owl like a baby while it was trying to fly away.

“Because it was a gift from Sirius,” Andromeda answered. She flipped towards a page covered in pictures of different babies, or the same baby in the case of Tonks.

“Here’s Dora just a day after she was born,” Andromeda flipped to another page, where a few pictures seemed to have been ripped out and others stuck in their place. “Here’s her with Remus,” Andromeda pointed at a muggle picture of a boy, he had a nasty scar on his face and another on his neck, he wore a thick sweater and a wide smile. The baby in his arms looked like him, somehow.

Remus scowled, looking at himself, but over 20 years younger. Sirius grinned. “Harry, that’s your uncle Moony at your age, cherish the fact that you’re probably taller than he was.”

Harry snorted, Andromeda skipped a bunch of pages until she landed on the right one. “Here, Christmas 1976,” There were a few pictures of the food, of Ted Tonks, Andromeda’s husband and Tonks’ dad, sleeping on the couch, but most of the pictures were of three year old Tonks, her hair alternating colours between pictures. Sirius was sitting on the floor next to Tonks in one, talking animatedly at the toddler.

In another picture, Remus and Ted were lying on opposite couches, fast asleep. Another picture showed Sirius sitting on Remus’ lap at dinner, while Tonks sat on his, he was motioning at the camera, like he was asking Andromeda, who was presumably behind it, to become a human pillow as well.

Another picture was of Tonks sitting on her mother’s lap, while she was sitting at Sirius, who was pretending that it was an extremely strenuous task, while Remus looked directly at the camera, mouthing that he ‘ wanted to be free ’.

“Oh this was wonderful,” Andromeda said, pointing at a picture on a different page. It was of Remus, Sirius, James and a chubby fellow, who Harry presumed was Peter. On Sirius’ shoulder was a young Tonks, according to the inscription underneath ‘ Nymphadora 4 years old at the Potter estate with Remus, Sirius, James and Peter 1977.’ Harry noticed just then that Sirius’ name had been written differently, in Tonks’ blocky handwriting.

Andromeda noticed him staring at it and looked down, filled with guilt. “A lot of the pictures we had of you, Sirius, we had to get rid of after your- after what happened.”

Sirius shook his head and smiled. “I get it, it’s fine, it’s wonderful that you’ve finally brought these by,” 

Harry pointed at a different picture of a tiny version of himself clinging onto his dad. “What’s the story there?" He asked, as the tiny version of himself laughed and started morphing into a tiny version of Tonks.

“She bloody idolised him, that’s the story, all of Sirius’ boys she went mad for, especially you, Remus dear,” Tonks gaped at her mum and went completely red, her hair turning a particularly bright shade of pink.

“Mum,” She yelled, burying her face in her mum’s shoulder.

Sirius laughed, kicking Remus lightly with his foot to get his attention and looked at him as if he was giving him a secret message. Knowing Remus and Sirius, Harry was almost completely sure that Sirius was giving him a secret message.

“Well at least you don’t anymore,” Harry said, a warning tone in his voice. 

“Of course I don’t anymore,” Tonks bit at him, glaring like it was going to send laser beams straight through Harry’s skull.

“And here we have Remus and Sirius at Christmas again,” Andromeda pointed at a picture of Sirius and Remus waltzing through the living room, completely straight faced as Tonks was dancing as well, shaking her butt and wiggling her head.

Tonks struck her palm to her face. “Mum, do you really have to show them this?”

“Of course I do,” Andromeda said, flipping past a few pictures of her daughter. “We don’t want you getting a big head now that you’re an auror, do we?” 

Harry grinned. “Haz, I’ll bring your baby pictures to your bloody Hogwarts graduation if you don’t watch out,” Tonks threatened

“Bold of you to assume I even have baby pictures,” Harry told her and pointed at a picture. “Is that you in the bath there, Nymphadora?” 

Andromeda frowned. “Let’s just,” she closed the book halfway, looking at the teenager. “You don’t have any baby pictures?” 

“I’m sure there are baby pictures of me, but I don’t have them.”

The older witch shot a look at Remus. “Surely you have some,”

“I do,” He assured. “I’ve got a few of him, but nothing after- nothing between the ages of 2 and 11.” 

“Neither do I,” Harry shrugged. “I’ve only got a few from Colin, and I’m in a family portrait at the Weasleys." 

Andromeda looked almost offended, like the lack of Harry’s baby pictures was hurting her  identity as a mother. “I’ll tell Ted to bring the camera around, he’s been wanting to visit, and I’m sure we can find some pictures, we’ve got a whole picture book we need to fill,” 

“We do?” Harry asked.

The witch nodded and reached into her purse, pulling out a book that was just as big as the one she had of Tonks, Harry had no idea how that fit in there. 

“I took the liberty of putting in some of the pictures I’ve got of your mum and dad's wedding in already.” Harry looked at his mum twirling around a young Tonks, and his mum and dad competing in a drinking contest, which his mum won, raising her arms in victory, almost falling over, Remus having to steady her.

“I’ll see if I can find some pictures,” Remus stood up, Sirius followed him. “I’ll help him,”

Harry pulled Tonks’ picture book off of Andromeda’s lap. He opened on the page they’d ended on, of Snape in the Hufflepuff uniform, or was it just Tonks pretending to be Snape?

“Is this you?” He asked his cousin. 

“It is,” Tonks confirmed, turning her face into a copy of Snape’s.

Harry stuck up his nose. “That’s disgusting, honestly, even worse than that time Neville’s boggart was Snape.” 

Tonks stuck out her tongue and turned back to normal. "Neville’s boggart is Snape?” She asked. Andromeda tutted, mumbling about how she’d never liked that boy.

“Yeah, Snape’s had it out for Neville and me and the other Gryffindors for ages, he doesn’t even like Hermione and she’s the smartest person in our year.” 

“I had to tutor all of Dora’s friends since 1st year and he’s still on that bull,” Andromeda proceeded to call Snape a string of curse words under her breath that Harry didn’t believe people actually used.

He flipped to a different page, Christmas again, but it was a more saddening look, only Remus seemed to be there, holding up a mirror through which you could see Sirius’ scowling face. Sirius must’ve said something to anger Tonks, because she was trying to reach through the mirror to hit him. 

‘Christmas 1980, Cousin …. on an away mission, Nymphadora 7 years old, Remus carrying around his …. for Christmas greetings’ Some words were crossed out, but Harry could guess what it was about.

Below the picture was one of Tonks and Remus dancing, Harry’s mum seemed to be cheering them on, while Sirius and James seemed to be doing the tango. ‘Christmas 1979, Nymphadora 6 years old, the Potter brothers messing around’ 

It seemed to go quiet then, when Harry looked at a torn picture. Tonks talked animatedly to a person next to her, their arms reaching out to pick her up in a hug, the person swayed to the side and Tonks disappeared from view. Harry knew it was Sirius, he didn’t have to look at the blacked out words on the page to know it was just another memory Sirius wasn’t allowed to be in.

“They’re taking an awfully long time, aren’t they?” Tonks broke the silence. “I’m just going to see if I can help,” 

Harry shook his head. “I don’t think they need your help,”

“Oh, I insist,” Tonks stood up, but she didn’t go into the hallway, she went into the kitchen and Harry could see her go into the garden to kick a trashcan across the grass.

“Ted told me I shouldn’t have torn them up,” Andromeda told him, pointing to the picture. “I was so angry, you have to believe me, Harry.”

The teen thought it over in his head, he could see her side of the story, but it didn’t make it any less painful. “He kept most of the pictures, used a ‘reparo’ on them, he said he didn’t want to pretend nothing ever happened, to pretend that this teenage boy that ate all of our food and was a terrible babysitter was the same adult that committed these crimes,”

She flipped the page to a picture of Sirius on his own, a boy that was barely 16 years old in the picture, preparing for a war, she told Harry. “I wish I could just tell him I forgive him and that I’m sorry,”

“You still can,” Harry argued.

“This boy is not the same man that is raising you, not anymore, and I carry the guilt for that.”

Harry frowned. “It’s not your fault that everything happened,”

“I knew Sirius the longest out of anyone and I should have known that something wasn’t right,” Andromeda closed the book. “Maybe reliving memories wasn’t the best idea,” She mused, looking at the empty room.

Harry looked out the window, where Tonks had disappeared from his view, but small clouds of smoke flew out from behind the hedge. Harry decided not to tell Andromeda that her daughter might be smoking, or on fire, he thought smoking was the more likely option.

“I think it’s cool that you’ve kept all of this,” Harry said. “I don’t have that much stuff from when I was little,”

“It’s a parent’s duty,” Andromeda insisted. “And we’ll just have to make up for it, for you and Sirius both,” 

…

Sirius and Remus only found their way downstairs an hour or so later with a cardboard box they’d sift through another time, looking like they had to battle a dragon to get it. Tonks mentioned this, smelling an awful lot like muggle cigarettes, it made Harry want to hide under the coffee table. Remus’ terrible attempt at an excuse making the teen wonder if Tonks was even more oblivious than him.

Andromeda pulled a bottle of wine from her purse the minute it turned 5 o’clock and told them she had a subscription to the largest wizarding winery in France, the bottle refilling itself automatically. “A wedding gift from Ted,” she said proudly.

Tonks offered a sip to Harry, but he barely took a whiff before he shook his head and grabbed a can of coke from the fridge. 

“You’re wearing each other’s clothes,” Tonks noted after three glasses of wine.

“Of course I’m wearing his clothes, I don’t own anything,” Sirius said quickly, already 4 glasses in.

“What he said,” Remus told her.

Tonks frowned. “I mean, Sirius, that you’re wearing the sweater Remus was wearing this morning, and that Remus is wearing your sweater,”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sirius answered.

“But you do, don’t you?” The young auror interrogated.

Sirius took a sip of his wine. “You want the truth?” He asked.

Harry wanted to barf, Sirius better not say what Harry thought he was going to say.

Tonks nodded. Remus went completely red and Andromeda started laughing.

“Moony and I, we-” 

“You did what?”  Tonks stood up and yelled.

“We found our old Hogwarts uniforms and tried to see if they still fit,” Sirius finished.

“Oh,” Tonks said. "I’m sorry I was planning my reaction for something else.”

Harry felt relieved, he really didn’t want to hear about what Harry thought Sirius was going to say.

“But did they?” Andromeda asked. 

Remus looked up. “What?”

“Did they still fit?”

“Mine did,” Sirius said proudly. “His didn’t.” Remus elbowed Sirius.

“Can I have your old Hogwarts sweaters? Ron said that Bill said that his dad’s old Hogwarts sweaters are really soft.” Harry asked.

“Sure you can,” Remus answered and poured himself another glass of wine. While Harry had been able to keep track of how many glasses Tonks and Sirius were drinking, Andromeda and Remus were a mystery to him.

“You can have mine as well, Haz,” Tonks told him. “I’ve got two Gryffindor ones, one Slytherin sweater that used to be mum’s, three Ravenclaw sweaters and I think 15 Hufflepuff ones.”

Harry opened his mouth to say something like ‘why ?’ but he closed it, just blinking at his cousin. “Thanks,” he said eventually.

“You’re welcome,” Tonks answered, clinking her glass against Harry’s can of coke.

She finished her wine and crossed her arms, looking at her cousin and Remus, sitting next to each other. “Be honest with me for a second,” She said. “You guys are together, right?” 

“What?” Sirius sputtered. “You can’t be- that’s absolut- what are you even-” while Remus encouraged him with words of “exactly- he’s right- what are you talking about?” 

Tonks looked at Harry, to which he looked away like he wasn’t even at the table. Andromeda hid her face in her hands.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” She slammed her hand on the table. “You two have been pretending not to be dating since you were 15, grow some balls,”

Tonks whipped her head around to face her mother. “I thought this was a recent thing! They’ve been- since- mum!” 

“It’s- Andy- You can’t be- You’ve gotta be-” The animagus tried. Remus hid his face in Sirius’ shoulder.

“You two are the most stupid idiots I’ve ever met, you think I didn’t notice when you two snuck off every other minute, or that you held hand all the time, your first apartment had one bloody bedroom.” Andromeda yelled.

Everybody was yelling at each other and through each other, Harry observed the chaos with a grin on his face. 

“You knew!” Tonks accused him. 

Harry raised his hands. “Don’t get angry at me, I found out on my own,”

“I don’t believe you, you little cunt,” 

“Just because you don’t believe it, doesn’t mean it’s not true.” Harry laughed.

Tonks stepped outside for a cigarette a few minutes later, not even hiding it from her mum, and Sirius followed her outside. The room went silent once again. Until Harry couldn’t hold it in anymore and started laughing, as did Remus and Andromeda.

“I believe dinner at the Weasleys is far more calm than here,” Remus joked. 

“Of course it is, Molly keeps a tight ship,” Andromeda said.

Harry frowned. “It’s pretty much the same, actually, at least it was pretty much like this after the twins and Ron stole their dad’s car to break me out of the Dursleys house,” 

“Was that the same car you drove into the Whomping Willow?”

Harry nodded faithfully. “We should get you kids a security detail, or a permanent defense against the dark arts teacher,” Remus suggested.

“You could still try to get your job back? Maybe it doesn’t work on werewolves,” Harry said.

“I won’t give you a better grade because you’re my godson if that’s what you’re thinking,” Remus warned.

The teen laughed. “If it was about better grades I’d ask Aunt Andromeda to try and get the job.” 

Andromeda grinned. “I’m rather inclined towards the potions position, it might do the school some good to have a potions professor that doesn’t hate the students.” 

Harry’s eyes lit up. “You could actually do it! You’d be a great teacher and I bet it’s got better hours than being a healer.” 

“I’ll see if I can get an audience with Dumbledore about my concerns,” She told him solemnly. “But I’m not making any promises, I quite like working at St. Mungo’s.”

Harry launched himself at her, hugging her tightly. She smiled. “Hermione’s going to love you, she’s a really great student to have, and Ron is really great at cooking, so his potions always taste good, they don’t work most of the time, but they do taste good,” 

“What about, I’m not making any promises, don’t you understand?” Andromeda asked, Harry pouted.

Sirius and Tonks marched back inside, twin grins on their faces. 

“Hermione told me that cigarettes can give you lung cancer, did you know that?” Harry told the two with a pointed look.

“That’s very interesting,” Andromeda agreed. "Something I’ve been telling Nymphadora for ages,” 

“Tell me about it,” Remus said. 

…

Andromeda's audience with Dumbledore came sooner than she expected, in the form of her carrying two heavy grocery bags in with her wand and having the garden gate opened for her. 

“Mrs. Tonks,”  Professor Dumbledore announced himself. “How are you on this fine day?” 

“Wonderful,” Andromeda answered, a smile plastered on her face. “I’m just making preparations for dinner this evening,”

“Oh really?” Dumbledore asked, opening the door for her as well, letting her into the kitchen. 

“It’s a celebratory dinner for my daughter, she has just got her badge yesterday.”

The headmaster paused. “Indeed, I should offer my congratulations.” 

The witch placed her bags on the counter and began to grab the items that needed to go in the fridge. “It’s very good that I see you now, Headmaster Dumbledore, as I’d been meaning to talk to you about the position of potion master at Hogwarts,” She said.

Dumbledore perked an eyebrow. “And what about the position would you like to discuss?”

“Its availability.” She answered, quite daring if she said so herself.

“The position has been held by Professor Snape for quite some time now, I thought you’d know.”

Andromeda rose to her full height and looked the wizard right in his eyes. “I wanted to talk about my concerns regarding the position, seeing as I’ve had to tutor my own daughter and some of her friends, and now I’m hearing that the problem still has not been solved.” 

“The problem?”

"I was made aware that my nephew is a very capable young man, as are his companions and it seems as though they are not being taught in a way that they can use that capability, in fact, might I be so bold as to say that they are not being taught at all?” Andromeda said. 

She observed Dumbledore’s face, he did not make it clear what he was feeling and she couldn’t sense it either, she’d always been a good legilimens, but Dumbledore must’ve been better. “This is one of the first times I’ve heard these concerns,” 

“Then you might not have been listening,” She retorted. “I could offer my own capabilities as a licensed potions master as well as a professional healer to take the position, or I could simply observe and aid in the curriculum, as I’ve heard that Professor Snape never officially received his qualifications,” 

Dumbledore’s protections seemed to falter for a single second, but Andromeda caught it, he was impressed, and he was considering her offer. “I’ll see with the rest of my staff if they deem it necessary,”

“Good,” Andromeda said, filling the kettle and putting it on the stove. “You can find the living room, I presume.” 

The old wizard could in fact find the living room and sat down. Andromeda rushed upstairs to get Harry and his godfathers.

Sirius was wearing the most formal shirt they had, his old Hogwarts uniform, Andromeda presumed, Harry had on one of the 20 Hogwarts sweaters Tonks had individually wrapped and sent. Remus was holding up two different shirts in front of his body.

“- Is it obvious it’s Slytherin? I mean it doesn’t have a crest or anything, but it’s got green details on the sleeves.” Harry asked, tugging at the sweater.

“It’s not.” Andromeda answered. 

Harry jumped up, while Sirius grabbed onto Remus’ arm and Remus threw out a string of curses.

“He’s downstairs already,” She announced. “Pick the blue one, Remus, love, it brings out your eyes,” 

Sirius grinned. “It really does." Remus went completely red.

“What don’t you three get about ‘ he’s downstairs already’ ?” Andromeda asked. “Pick up the pace, lads.” 

Harry went to stand by his aunt, like he was reporting for duty. Sirius did as well, Andromeda quickly fixed his hair, brushing it out of his face. Remus finally had the blue shirt on and the four of them filed down the stairs. 

“I’ll get the tea,” Andromeda said. 

Dumbledore was sitting in the living room, eating lemon sherberts from his pocket and Harry found it to be a quite laughable scene. “Good morning, Harry, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black.” The professor greeted.

They all said their respective ‘good mornings’ and sat in silence for a moment until Andromeda came piling in with a tray of tea. 

“I’ve just put the breakfast mix in if you don’t mind, the little vase is the milk.” She said. Sitting down next to Harry on one of the two love seats that was still quite large for them both, Sirius and Remus sat on the other, leaving Dumbledore sitting in the middle of the sofa on his own.

“Did you ask him yet?” Harry whispered.

“I did,” Andromeda answered.

“And?” She didn’t answer, instead grabbing her cup and mixing it with some milk and sugar. 

“You might be wondering why I’m here,” Dumbledore said, and to be quite honest, Harry was wondering why the man was here, again, at least he’d sent an owl this time around. 

“I have, ever since your choice to keep Harry here, been thinking about how to properly manage this, to keep you safe.” Dumbledore took a sip of his tea.

“While I did not agree with your decision to remove Harry from the Dursleys, the wards have already fallen and as you’ve made perfectly clear, he is safer here,” 

Remus nodded while Sirius looked absolutely disinterested.

“I have chosen to pull some strings at the wizengamot to try and reopen your case, and it seems that other than warding the house and perhaps trying to convince some people of your innocence, Mr. Black, there’s not much that I can do.” 

“But what about Pettigrew?” Remus asked.

Dumbledore placed his cup down. “We can only hope that he doesn’t come after Harry, since he hasn’t before, but now that we know what to look for, we can assure his safety properly.” 

“Could you-” Harry asked, but he shut up. 

“What is it, my boy?” Professor Dumbledore asked. Harry wondered how the man could somehow be the greatest wizard alive, but still not find Peter, or kill Voldemort.

“Could you try to convince the Weasleys? And Hermione’s parents? I haven’t seen them all summer and I’m supposed to go to the Quidditch cup this year.”

Sirius laughed, but quickly regained his composure.

“Of course I can, I’ll see to it that I pay the Burrow a visit today or tomorrow.” Dumbledore picked up his tea again, resting it on his knee.

Andromeda took a sip of her own tea and placed it down. “I was wondering, professor Dumbledore, if we could elaborate on the conversation we had earlier, perhaps I could show you my qualifications if you need to think about it a bit more,”

Sirius snorted, as did Remus. 

“Well, of course. If you’d like.”

The witch summoned her purse and took out a binder. “You can see here that I graduated Hogwarts top of my class, which you might remember,” She flipped to a different page, where a list was written out with referrals to different documents. Harry loved Andromeda so much. “And here are my potions qualifications.”

“I took the liberty of looking through my nephew’s curriculum as well to compare it to my daughter’s when she was at school,” She showed him a different page. Dumbledore leaned over to observe the document, clearly interested. Andromeda went to sit down next to him, lecturing him on the subject.

Remus, Sirius and Harry were cracking up, trying not to alert Dumbledore or Andromeda, but failing spectacularly. 

“As I’ve said before, professor Snape already holds this position,” Dumbledore said.

“Well, Mr. Snape might need some help, or replacement, besides, I heard that at Beauxbatons they have multiple teachers for the same subject, don’t they, Remus?” 

Remus hid his laughter as a cough and looked up. "They do, I was one of the 3 history teachers for about 2 years, I’m sure you remember, it’s a quite handy thing, it allows for teachers to go more in depth on their own curriculum.”

Harry frowned. “ You were? ” he mouthed. Remus nodded.

“I’ll- er- I’ll take it into consideration,” Dumbledore said, almost speechless. “Are there any further questions?”

“Not at this moment, no.” Remus answered quickly.

“I do-” Andromeda started. “I was wondering if you’ve already filled the defense against the dark arts position,” 

“We have, Mad Eye Moody applied for the position just yesterday evening," Dumbledore told them.

Andromeda frowned. “I just saw him yesterday and he didn’t say anything about it, actually he was quite drunk,” 

“You know Mad Eye,” Sirius interjected. “Constant vigilance and all that, maybe he was faking,”

Dumbledore finished his cup of tea and stood up. “Well, I’ll be off to see the Weasleys about you, Mr. Black, and I’ll see with Minerva about your suggestions, Mrs. Tonks,”

“That would be great,” Andromeda announced, standing up as well. “I’ve already sent her a letter, explaining my point of view in detail,” She walked into the kitchen, waiting for Dumbledore to follow and let him out.

“She’s really taking this seriously,” Harry said to his godfather

“Andy is a Slytherin, of course she’s taking this seriously.”