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Harry's heart pounded, all he could hear was all his blood rushing from his head, and he made a few strangled noises.
There, standing with a radiant smile on his face, stood the man Harry had been yearning to see for a solid four months. The man he had watched disappear from his life that wretched evening, the man who he had wept for while Hermione held him and Ron attempted weak jokes to raise his spirits.
"Harry!" As his godfather ran towards him, Harry felt a heavy weight on his heart lift, and his face broke out into a beaming smile.
After engulfing his godson in a hug, Sirius Black stepped back and accidentally trotted on Ron's fingers, but he did not notice. He was too overcome with joy at being back at Hogwarts, back with his best friend's son, right where he belonged.
"Sirius…but I…. you're…how…" To his horror, Harry's eyes swam with tears as he was avalanched with emotions.
"Questions later Harry. It doesn't really matter, does it? I'm back, for good. Well, I have to speak to Dumbledore first, seeing as I cant really go back to Grimmuald Place, but I-"
"Dumbledore doesn't know you're here? How did you get in to the castle?"
"Animagus, remember?" Sirius replied, pointing to himself. Harry mentally slapped himself and took a step back, tripping over Ron's feet. Sirius began to laugh, but looked down and noticed that his godson's best friend was lying on the ground, unconscious.
"Uh, Harry?" Sirius didn't bother to voice his question, he looked pointedly at Ron's body and Harry immediately used his wand to levitate him and started walking towards the tower.
"Now, I know I've been…gone, but I never thought I'd see the day you'd off your best mate."
"He's not dead, just…I stunned him."
"What did he do, try to kiss Hermione?"
"No, wait, wha-"
"Comon, I'm not blind, and if I figured it out then she must have too. She's the brightest witch of her age, she is. And you're not thick either..." Sirius trailed off, noticing the look of utter shock and confusion on Harry's face. "…unless...no, surely you're not…but it did take Lily ages…oh, Merlin Harry, did you inherit nothing from James?!" Or too much from James…
Harry was stunned. His brain was still trying to comprehend the mush of words dribbling out of his godfather's mouth.
Seeing the look on Harry face, Sirius kicked himself for not teaching his father-deprived godson absolutely anything about women. He was Sirius Black after all, plenty of experience and wisdom to pass down; what had he done wasting all that time talking about bloody hippogriffs and Dark Lords?
This boy had bigger problems! Puberty had snuck up on him and his hormones were probably wreaking havoc but he was so oblivious that it must have been driving him crazy! A Marauder's son, already in sixth year with only one girl in his past: despicable, unheard of, bloody preposterous! Sirius, you've been slacking off. Have you no consideration at all for your best friend's son? I'm appalled! Sirius could almost hear James scolding him about letting his little boy down and depriving the female population of a true Marauder's charm and ahem, abilities.
Harry was mortified. His godfather, whom he thought dead, was mumbling about hormones and snogging in broom closets and his beautiful best friend Hermione, who had gorgeous eyes and a perfect smile and…Maybe his hormones were going crazy. This man had been gone for months! He had seen Merlin knows what behind that veil and he wanted to talk about GIRLS?! Azkaban really did drive him insane after all.
Sirius was still mumbling incoherently and was so distracted that he didn't even notice they were already at the Fat Lady's portrait.
"SIRIUS BLACK! SIRIUS BLACK! SOMEONE ALERT DUMBLEDORE! MY MERLIN, SIRIUS BLACK!"
"NO, NO IT'S NOT LIKE THAT PLEASE BE QUIET!" Harry frantically attempted to dissuade the Fat Lady from alerting everyone to Sirius' presence, which could prove fatal as Snape was still around and as much as he would love to see Sirius and Snape duel, he wouldn't want to put his professor in that kind of emotional pain. Right?
Sirius, bless him, was totally unaware of the situation as he was continued to babble and randomly slap himself on the forehead.
"Mr. Potter may I ask…" Too late. Professor McGonagall never had a chance. As soon as Sirius spotted her, he practically jumped into her arms.
"Minnie!
Harry had always regarded Professor McGonagall as the stoic woman she was, a fierce unbreakable rock, so he wasn't prepared for his teacher's face to crumble and for her jaw to drop. It was as strange as seeing Draco Malfoy cuddling with Dobby, a sight he wouldn't particularly enjoy either.
Patting Sirius awkwardly on the shoulder, she regarded him as he stepped back from her. Sirius hadn't changed much, his hair was still shaggy, his face less gaunt than before but Harry could see the ghost of Azkaban upon his features. The only thing that had really changed was his gaze.
As Sirius' eyes explored the room, he feasted on his godson and his former teacher, the portraits, the swinging staircases. Other than the Potter's home, Sirius only really felt completely whole and safe at Hogwarts, and now he was back, with his best friends son, and he was there to stay.
"Sirius, I think you may have killed her."
"Nah, Minnie isn't feeble Harry, she lived through music in the seventies, put up with that git Snape all these years, and managed to keep her secret desire for Dumbledore hidden, too. Not very well, but-"
Minnie, uh Professor McGonagall, snapped out of her reverie the second she heard Dumbledore. Surely, a coincidence.
"BLACK! TO THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE! NOW!" Grabbing Sirius' by the ear, she started to drag the grown man towards the staircase. She paused and whispered to the Fat Lady, "You didn't see anything, did you?" Her words would have been innocent were it not for the ice-cold tone she used as she addressed the aspiring opera singer sent yet another chill through Harry's spine.
She walked away and it took Harry a full minute to recover from the shock, before he bolted after them. Professor McGonagall was surprisingly fast and as Harry neared them he could hear Sirius babbling again.
"But, I didn't do ANYTHING! Is it really my fault Prongs named you Minnie? I JUST CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD! Professor! Really! I'm a GROWN MAN! Let me go, it hurts!" Sirius' whiny voice was resounding in the corridor, so Professor McGonagall pulled out her wand and Silencioed him.
Harry resisted the urge to collapse in laughter when he saw the look on his godfather's face. Sirius was the prime example of a little boy who had been denied the last cookie and had been told all his birthdays and Christmases were now canceled. His rude gestures complemented by filthy words he was probably screaming only served to contradict his point. Sirius, in fact, was not a grown man, just a rather large and hairy toddler.
As they neared Dumbledore's office, Harry walked right up to his professor and insisted on seeing Dumbledore with them.
Professor McGonagall turned to him and with a somber expression said, "I'm sorry Potter, but I think this is a conversation you should not be included in."
Harry was just about to retort, and Sirius looked as though he was going to hex his former professor because of her blatant overlook of Sirius' power as Harry's legal guardian. Harry was his responsibility, and if he wanted to come with them then by Merlin, he was going to, but just then they reached the Headmaster's office.
"New lemon drops, tastier and longer lasting." Harry could hear the disapproval in Professor McGonagall's voice as she gave the statue the password and proceeded to shove Sirius up the stairs. He also saw the small twitch of her mouth as she tried not to smile at her favorite Headmaster's antics.
"Professor! You can't-I mean, shouldn't Professor Dumbledore decide whether or not I can sit in?"
Without even a glance in his direction, Professor McGonagall gave a very clear, very definitive no with a promise of detention if he inquired further. The statue revolved once again and Harry was left alone.
He walked all the way to the Tower in a huff, mumbling every now and then about hair being too pulled back and causing pressure on certain evil centers of the brain, about how his dead godfather was now eating lemons drops and conversing with his old Headmaster.
He almost barked the password at the Fat Lady and stomped through the portrait hole. Several first years recognized the look on his face, and promptly retreated to their dorms.
Sprawling across the couch he stared at the Common Room ceiling and waited, determined to get answers out of Sirius once he came back. Because, he was coming back, wasn't he? He wouldn't leave him again, would he? What if Dumbledore decided that he was too much of an exposure threat or something of the like?
Harry lay in silence, occasionally sending the portrait hole anxious glances for some time until he heard it swing open. He looked up; a hesitant yet excited expression on his face that quickly turned to a look of surprise and suspicion. It was more than half an hour past curfew, what was she doing out?!
"Hermione!?" The witch in question turned to the couch, and a brilliant smile lit up her face. Harry sighed inwardly, and looked at her expectantly.
"Oh, hi Harry! I'm just going to bed, you know I'm quite tired, just having finished rounds-"
"Hermione." If there was one thing Harry was good at, it was knowing when his best friend, that's right friend, was lying. He had spent so many hours staring, er contemplating her that he knew that if she was angry, her left eyebrow twitched slightly and her nose wrinkled a bit. He knew that when the left corner of her mouth turned slightly down, she was on the verge of tears, and if she bit down on her bottom lip she was trying very, very hard not to say something offensive.
The one look that took quite some time to identify was the lying one. Hermione rarely lied, especially to him, and it took several missed assignments to recognize it. Her mouth had turned to a brilliant smile that didn't quite reach her chocolate eyes, and her left hand twisted a single strand of her hair nervously. Yes, his Hermione was lying and he wanted to know exactly about what.
Harry stared right at her, and Hermione seemed to shrink under his gaze and walked over to him, sitting down on the couch. She looked at the fire and stole a couple of glances at him every couple of seconds, and finally took a deep breath and opened her mouth to speak.
Harry waited with baited breath and didn't even register the absence of a familiar red head.
Ron was still petrified in the corridor.
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