Godfather
"What do you want?" asked Harry as he looked at him puzzled.
"Can we talk for a moment?" asked Sirius.
"It wasn't me," Harry answered. Sirius looked confused, so he continued. "I didn't tell the Prophet anything."
"Oh," said Sirius. "I didn't think you did. But that's not what I'd like to talk to you about."
"Right, go on then," he gestured for him to continue.
"In private," said Sirius as he looked at other students.
Harry looked at Draco, who shrugged.
"Please, Harry," Sirius sounded desperate to the point Harry nearly felt sorry for him.
"Fine," said Harry.
Draco looked at him curiously.
Sirius took a sigh of relief and smiled. "Thank you-"
"I only said I'd talk," said Harry, while looking at a curious Draco. He wished he could explain why he was doing this. But he didn't even know why, so how could he?
Sirius' smile didn't waver. "That's fine. Come with me," he gestured for him to follow as he began to walk away, not taking his eyes off of him.
"See you later," he said to his friends before following Sirius down the hall.
Harry followed Sirius along the corridor and up some stairs. Then another hall, where they heard a strange cackling noise.
"Peeves!" Sirius yelled.
The cackling continued and was also joined by a loud pop. Harry had to hold back a gasp as a small, ghost-like man appeared. But, unlike the other ghosts who were pearly and transparent, this one looked solid and wore a loud, colourful outfit with a bell covered hat, like a jester. Peeves had a huge, wide smile that reached his orange slanted eyes.
"Seriously Black! Nice to see you too!" he giggled. "Oooh!" he said, noticing Harry. "An ickle firstie out and about! Naughty, naughty!" he pointed a mocking finger at him.
"He's my Godson."
"Is he?!" Peeves said in a dramatic shocked voice. He gave Harry a mocking sympathetic look. "You poor ickle boy!"
"Do you want me to fetch the Bloody Baron? Or, better still, Dumbledore?" asked Sirius sharply. Harry suspected that he was offended.
Peeves just rolled his eyes before disappearing with another pop. Harry could have sworn he felt something fly above his head.
"Come on," said Sirius.
Harry followed Sirius down the hall and through a door that Sirius held open for him.
Through the door was, what Harry assumed, was Sirius' office. It wasn't much. The walls were the usual stone grey colour, there was large windows, covered by white and red curtains. There was a red carpet on the wooden floor and a desk in the middle of the room with three chairs, one behind the desk, the other two were in front of it.
"Sit down," he gestured one of the seats as he sat on the seat behind the desk.
Harry sat down and looked intently at him. Sirius looked at him the same way. Harry studied his face. He looked pretty much the same as Harry remembered, although it was clear he had aged slightly. Harry couldn't begin to think what it must be like for Sirius.
"What do you want, Sirius?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
Sirius looked a little surprised at his bluntness. "Just...just to talk."
"Okay, about what?"
Sirius sighed heavily. "Harry... Where did you go? How did you leave through the enchantments?"
"Easily," Harry shrugged. After a pause he asked. "When did you all notice I was gone? A few days? A week?"
"The next morning!" Sirius said. Like that was much better. "I came to get you for breakfast and found you were missing!"
"How did they react? Colin's parents" Harry asked, genuinely curious.
"I wish you wouldn't call them that."
Harry only shrugged. He didn't have to explain himself to him.
Sirius abandoning Harry had been the worst betrayal of all. Because Harry had actually believed he loved him. But after Harry had gone, Sirius never came looking for him. Never. That really bothered him, but he never told his Mum, he didn't know why.
"They were deeply concerned. They were shocked that you made it past the barriers-"
'Ah!' Harry thought to himself. 'They were worried that someone was coming to steal golden boy!'
"-and then they got an owl from a woman saying you'd gone to stay with her. "
"Yes, from my Mum. A message for them to come and get me. Didn't you read it?"
"No. They burned it," Sirius replied with a sigh, reaching into a draw in his desk. "They didn't want me to find out where you were," he pulled out a few packets of chocolate frogs. "Here, these were your favourites when you were little," he held a couple for him to take.
Harry stared at the packets. He'd been very young at the time, so he didn't really remember. But the chocolate frogs brought it back.
When he had been very young, maybe two and a half, he and Sirius had swapped chocolate frog cards while Colin and his parents had been away showing Colin off to fans in America.
And on his third Christmas, Sirius had taken him on a Star Picnic. They'd taken sandwiches, pumpkin juice, lanterns, and a mountain of pumpkin juice. It was a very rare occasion where he and Sirius had been completely alone. Harry could remember laughing until it hurt when Sirius had dropped a lantern on his foot.
"Sirius," Harry began, taking the chocolate frogs, but didn't look at him. "Why didn't you look for me?"
There was a pregnant pause.
"It's complicated Harry."
Harry scoffed. Of course it is! He was beginning to think that "It's complicated" was just code for "We are not having that conversation."
"Okay, see you around then," he said standing up, but he shoved the chocolate frogs in his pockets. He wasn't perfect, and they were still his favourite.
"Where are you going?" Sirius shot up from the desk.
"To catch up with my friends, they're probably worried, it's not every day that- actually, it is starting to become that way. I'm sick of all this! First you abandon me, then you try and coax me back, and now you lie to me-"
"I'm not lying to you, Harry!" Sirius yelled desperately.
Harry jumped a little at the sound, but tried to remain strong. "So why aren't you telling me everything! Keeping things from people is still lying!"
Sirius stood with his eyes closed for a second before opening them with a defeated sigh. "Harry, I wanted to look for you. I begged James to give me that letter, but he told me he burnt it after reading it. I was furious, but James told me it was for the best. He said that this witch could look after you while they focused on Colin. He got the letters yearly, but he thought they were just reminders that you were with her. He didn't read them, apparently. So he didn't know she was applying for Guardianship!"
"But...why didn't you just go to the press!" Harry yelled. "If I meant that much to you the why did you do nothing!"
"Because James and Lily made it very clear to all of us that anyone who interfered would be cut out of the family," Sirius stared at the floor. "And I know this will sound bad, but I love that family. I'm sorry Harry."
"I loved that family once," Harry shrugged.
"I wanted to stay apart of that family, I still do! But I love you too! I didn't want to lose them-"
"So you lost me instead!"
"Don't say that, Harry, please don't say that!" Sirius begged.
"So why did you leave me! If you really cared about me, then where were you!" Harry cried running towards the door.
He was not okay with this! Any of this! Sirius had left him. Fact. There couldn't be any excuse. Sirius had left him!
Harry had just grabbed the door handle when a pair of strong arms wrapped around his small frame and lifted him off the ground. They turned him around and pressed him into a hug.
Harry's head told him to fight. To punch, kick, slap, smack, bite, anything!
But he didn't want to. Instead he wrapped his arms around Sirius' neck.
He felt exhausted. These last few days had been mentally, physically, and very emotionally tiring. He'd pushed his parents away when they 'wanted him back'. That was fair, they didn't want him anyway. He didn't even need to attempt to push Colin away, Colin had pushed him so far that Pluto seemed like a stroll down the road. But Sirius...
He closed his eyes and buried his face in Sirius' neck trying to block everything out.
Sirius shushed him, he hadn't even realised he was crying.
"I'm sorry," he heard Sirius say.
"I forgive you...doesn't make it okay, but I forgive you."
He felt Sirius squeeze him tighter.