Time Keeps on Slipping - Chapter 14

Sirius squeezed him with a tight hug. Harry returned it with the same amount of gusto.

"You smell like three-day old wet dog." Harry chuckled.

"Really?" Sirius took a step back and sniffed at himself. "I must be doing something right. I've been in the field for two weeks."

Harry studied his godfather. He actually looked in better health even though it had been years for the old dog. There were a few gray hairs around his temples, but he'd returned to a healthy weight. The only thing that hadn't changed was the haunted look in his eyes.

"All it takes for you to take a day off is for me to come back from the dead?" Harry shook his head.

"Some of us were working while you were taking a nap." Sirius spoke through the lump in his throat. "Wait."

Sirius grabbed a piece of paper from a nearby desk. He ignored the indignant noise the Auror made. Instead, he ripped a strip off of it and wrote something down.

"Read this, not out loud." He held the strip out to him.

-Sirius Black lives in the hidden compartment in his desk-

Harry looked up at Sirius with a raised eyebrow. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a desk raised a bit taller. No one else seemed to notice. Sirius took the paper and torched it.

"Come on." He waved Harry to follow. "We should talk in private."

"Paperwork?" Tonks teased.

Sirius nodded. He led Harry over to his desk. One side of the shelves was in the shape of a compact door. He opened it to reveal a staircase that led down. Harry knew that wizards had magical tents, but this was crazy.

The stairs widened out to normal size once they passed through the door. Once it closed, the stairway brightened up. It was a short trip down into a spacious living space. A few hallways branched off from the main room. Sirius certainly wasn't roughing it. Harry made a point to ignore the multiple bottles of various alcohol scattered around the place. Most were on the empty side of things, but they hadn't reached the level of being scattered on the floor yet.

"This is your place?" Harry asked.

"One of them." Sirius answered.

The older wizard flopped down on a comfy looking couch.

"No house elf?" Harry asked. "What happened to Kreacher?"

"He died." Sirius shrugged. "Turns out my brother Reggie stole one of the horcrux and gave it to the little psycho to destroy. It wasn't until Dumbledore got ahold of it that they were able to take care of it. Voldie had used three relics of the Hogwarts Founders to make his little soul charms. They couldn't be saved, getting rid of the piece inside of it destroyed the container."

Harry rubbed the faded scar on his forehead.

"That scar was one of them." Sirius nodded. "Taking care of the one in your head would have killed you."

Harry laughed.

"Care to the joke?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Voldemort." Harry chuckled. "He saved my life."

Sirius stared at him for a beat before he joined in the laugh. Harry thought back to all the times that Voldemort had tried to kill him through the years. Obviously, Riddle didn't know that Harry had a horcrux in his head. True, they had a mental link, but it could have been explained as a side-effect from the backfiring Death Curse. The Veil removed the piece instead of killing him. Would he have survived the other attempts as well? He could still remember the creeping death of the basilisk venom and didn't think the horcrux would have taken the hit that time. Maybe he would have died and the horcrux would have been attached to his skull.

"How have you been, Padfoot?" Harry met his godfathers' eyes.

The carefully constructed façade crumbled in an instant. Sirius closed his eyes. Tears silently streaked down his face. It wasn't until the bit of moisture cleared tracks on his skin that Harry noticed Sirius' face was covered in grit. The older wizard leaned forward, cradling his head in his hands.

"I failed you twice, Harry." Sirius choked out. "I left you to chase down revenge, then I let you die. It was all my fault."

Harry rushed over to his godfather. He wasn't the best at comforting people, but he had to try. Harry put an arm around the crying wizard's shoulder.

"You didn't fail me." Harry whispered. "I didn't want to lose you again. I saved you and I would do it again without a thought. You deserve to live, Sirius. I wasn't going to let them steal it from you again."

"I was supposed to protect you, pup." Sirius took deep, painful breathes.

"You did." Harry snapped. "The time we spent together was the best of my life. You weren't my dad, but you are my real family. You believed me when no one else would, you helped me without question, and you did your best. I can't tell you how amazing it felt when you showed up at the Ministry. You trusted me, you stood beside me. Everyone else would have told me to run or tried to hide me away."

"And you died." Sirius yelled as he jumped to his feet. "You died because of me! I should have been the one to fall through the veil."

"And leave me alone again?" Harry got to his feet again, yelling just as loud. "You think that would have redeemed you? You'd go chasing shadows again instead of staying with me? I would rather die – I DID DIE – than to go back to life without you!"

The two glared at each other. In any other situation their wands would have already been out. Standing this close, they both realized that they were roughly the same height now. Not only that, but Sirius was fresh from the field, covered in grit with the only clean part of his face being from the tracks of tears on his cheeks. On the other hand, Harry was relatively fine, aside from crumbled clothes.

Harry let out a little 'snerk' of laughter. Sirius broke a moment later. The two devolved into mad laughter. They collapsed back onto the couch.

"You Potters are so dramatic." Sirius said once he was able to breathe again.

"I'm dramatic?" Harry slapped Sirius on the shoulder. "You're the one that started yelling."

"I'm not good with emotions." The older wizard waved the statement away. "It's one of my well-known character traits."

"I was serious, you know." Harry let out a calming breath.

"I thought you were Harry." Sirius gave him a smug grin.

"I walked into that one." Harry shook his head. "I know you don't like it, but I wasn't scared. I wanted to save you and I did. Ask Hermione, I have a 'saving people' thing."

"Ask the Minister about my godson?" Sirius chuckled. "I'll get right on that."

"The world is crazy." Harry leaned back and luxuriated on the couch. "One moment I'm fighting Death Eaters, the next Hermione is the Minister, and everyone has kids my age."

"I don't." Sirius offered.

"Are you sure about that?" Harry arched an eyebrow. "There have to be a few puppies out there that call Padfoot papa."

"Fuck you." Sirius laughed. "I'll have you know; mating season is one of the major benefits of being an animagus."

"I didn't need that visual." Harry shuddered.

"You've probably got a few brothers and sisters clopping around in the Forbidden Forest." Sirius shrugged.

"Stop." Harry groaned.

"You can dish it out, but can't take it?" Sirius clicked his tongue. "For shame."

They fell into an easy silence as their emotions slowly settled.

"Honestly, how are you doing?" Harry asked after a moment. "No one knew where you were. They just said you were on assignment."

"It's what I do." Sirius shrugged. "I won the war in a single night, they put me on the tough cases."

"That was true?" Harry asked. "I'm impressed."

"It is amazing what you can do with a family library full of dark magic and blind rage." Sirius let out a single, dry laugh. "It kept me busy. I don't like the quiet."

Harry nodded.

"Things were good for a while." Sirius continued. "After that night. They gave me an Order of Merlin, and a sizable 'we fucked up' package for my time in prison. I took the Lord Black title and pushed for all of the remaining Death Eaters to get kissed or tossed in Azkaban. No one wanted to argue with me. They weren't happy with so many 'Noble Houses' getting called out. I told them that they had heirs for a reason. Fresh blood in the Mot, but things went back to 'normal' after a few years. Pureblood supremacists worked their way out of the shadows, prejudice against non-humans hadn't gone away, and crimes against muggles had never been an issue that the Mot cared about."

Harry shook his head.

"Voldemort may have made a big scene, but he was just the figurehead." His voice went flat. "All of the hatred and ideals were there for him to stir up. A symptom, not an illness. Taking care of him and his followers calmed the sniffles, but the infection was still there."

"That sounds rather scientific for a wizard." Harry inclined his head.

"We're not all clueless about the other side of the world." Sirius commented. "Your mother inspired your father and I to take a deep look at the muggle world. It started out as a way to impress her. Then it was just so damn interesting. There are so many strange overlaps too. That's for another day."

"How are things out there now?" Harry asked.

"I don't know." Sirius sighed heavily. "Something Is going on, but I can't put it together. Attacks on muggle communities by magical creatures are on the rise. They don't match the normal behavior patterns. There have always been dangerous creatures out there, but most of them avoided populated areas. Muggle or Magical, they didn't bother them. Attacks against Muggles have increased for the last few months. Something is coming, but I don't know what. The only thing attacking muggles would accomplish would be breaking the Statute of Secrecy."

"Someone wants to swoop in and save the day?" Harry offered.

"Possibly." Sirius nodded. "But it's a dangerous game. A small slip and we're the bad guys instead of the heroes. That wouldn't be a good first impression."

"It would make the Ministry look really bad." Harry suggested. "Could be that someone is trying to discredit Hermione. It didn't sound like they were so happy with the changes she had made."

"She's been Minister for the last five years." Sirius shook his head. "Her changes might have been drastic. They can bitch and moan, but not even the deeply in-bred Purebloods can argue with all the money she's made them. That's what they really care about."

The two sat in silence for a moment.

"Enough about work." Sirius turned to face Harry. "What are your plans now that you're alive again?"

"I was going to finish my time at Hogwarts." Harry shrugged. "They found my OWL results so I can pick them up from there easy enough. It would have been the end of term soon for me. I thought about repeating my fifth year, but it feels right to move on to the next. I did better on my OWLs than I expected. It would be nice to go to Hogwarts without someone trying to kill me for once."

"I could officially adopt you." Sirius offered. "You'd be Harry Black instead of Harry Potter. Then you could go to school without everyone knowing it was you."

"The news is already out." Harry shook his head. "There were a mob of reporters and people waiting for me when I finished up at Gringotts. Changing my name wouldn't fool anyone."

"Are you sure about that?" Sirius gave a snort of dismissal. "Take off your glasses and no one would question Harry Black."

"I doubt it would be that easy." Harry chuckled.

"I got tired of being cooped up in that house and snuck out a few times." Sirius stated casually. "All it took was a pair of glasses for Gerald White to stroll through Diagon Alley without an issue."

"You. Did. What?" Harry glared at his godfather.

"I shaved, got some fresh clothes, and popped on a pair of glasses." Sirius shrugged. "Someone occasionally pointed out that I looked like Sirius Black with glasses. I would argue that Sirius Black doesn't wear glasses."

"That didn't work." Harry gawked at the older wizard.

"I got a couple free drinks for the trouble." Sirius gave him a wide smile.

"Please tell me you're joking." Harry said.

Sirius smiled in reply but didn't say anything more.

"You're staying with Hermione and Ron right now?" Sirius changed the subject.

Harry nodded.

"You could stay with me." Sirius offered.

The hope in his voice almost hurt.

"Here?" Harry waved a hand at the desk-apartment.

"No." Sirius chuckled. "This is one of my hide-outs. A quick place to sleep if I need it."

"And have a drink or two." Harry motioned to the bottles scattered all over the place.

"That too." Sirius shrugged. "I've been sticking to the muggle stuff. It doesn't have the same punch, but I don't have to worry about setting the place on fire if I fall asleep."

"I didn't know that." Harry made a mental note.

"Magical folks are hardier than we look." Sirius replied. "Even you could drink enough to kill a muggle and walk away with a minor hangover."

"Even me?" Harry crossed his arms.

"You know what I mean." Sirius waved it away. "A kid. Teenager, sorry." He paused. "Want to try it out?"

"No thanks." Harry shook his head. "I have to mix a lot into the drink to make it taste good."

"You just haven't had the right stuff." Sirius laughed. "Let's head back up. I'm getting hungry and I don't feel like cooking anything."

"Not sure I'd trust whatever you'd make." Harry teased. "I've had enough people trying to kill me."

"I'll have you know I've only given myself food poisoning twice in the last month." Sirius puffed up with false pride.

"How many times have you cooked this month?" Harry asked.

"Twice, but that's not the point." Sirius headed back up the stairs.

Harry followed a couple of steps behind. The stairwell narrowed as they got closer to the door. It didn't get small enough to touch his shoulders, but it was still uncomfortable.

"Please tell me you have an actual house." Harry muttered.

Sirius didn't say anything in reply. Harry could picture the grin on his godfather's face.