The Prisoner of Azkaban
~Sirius~
There's nothing I can say that will make up for the horror you've been through. Twelve years is a long time and we were so sure it was you. I thought you'd turned on us, on Dumbledore you never trusted him and at the time it didn't feel like much of a stretch that you would try and use your name to play You Know Who's side. Maybe to look for Regulus. It sounds so stupid now.
I've spent the last year trying to justify my actions or lack of. I should have known, should have pressed Dumbledore for more information but I didn't and because of it you've suffered in ways I can't even imagine. I wouldn't blame you if you hate me, I hate myself for abandoning you when you needed me. You've always been there for me and I wasn't. I'm ashamed it took Lili's bitch sister Petunia for anyone to even consider you could be innocent and that Severus spoke for you before I did.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry. I'm sorry I abandoned you, and I'm sorry I haven't been able to face you. After everything you did to help me and what you've been through I should have known you were innocent, I should have fought for you like you fought for me. But I didn't and for that, I can never expect your forgiveness.
Dumbledore offered me The Defence Against the Dark Arts position. I wasn't going to take it but Petunia Evans floo'd in five minutes later and told me I was a selfish coward for ignoring you and quite possibly threatened me. I didn't entirely understand what she was saying but it was passionate and aggressive. The point is I said yes.
I know there's no reason you would even want to see me but you said you had Harry now so if while you visit him in Hogsmeade you wanted to have a cup of coffee it would be good to see you, to apologise in person.
I understand if you don't want to, I wouldn't if I were you. I know it's too much to ask but even when I thought, I've missed you Padfoot. I tried not to and I know too much has happened to go back to what we were but I never wanted to go this long without you in my life.
~Yours Moony~
Nia didn't look up from the letter until she was done. There were three pages that could have fit into one but there were paragraphs scratched out and watermarks blotting out others that needed to be rewritten. At first, she doesn't understand why he didn't start again until she looks up to see Sirius staring out the window at the moon. The full moon. Oh, oh.
"Sirius?" Nia asks softly as he just stares into the moon face completely blank. He looks at her and there's so much emotion in those storm-grey eyes but he shakes his head as though trying to get rid of them. He shifts into his animal form and lays his doggy head on her lap.
"This really isn't the healthy way to deal with things." She lightly scolds him but starts scratching behind his ears. "But that was a lot so you can get away with it this once." He hums in agreement and slowly they both drift off.
Harry wakes them the next morning with breakfast in bed. "Isn't he a little old for you?" Harry asks like the little shit he is. Said affectionately of course. Sirius is still asleep, once again human but still using Nia's legs as a pillow curled in an almost fetal position.
"Remus wrote back to him last night. He wasn't exactly in a state to be left alone." She answers, taking the breakfast tray from him and giving him a hug. "You had Sookie or Dobby make this right?"
"As though they'd let me into the kitchen," Harry rolls his eyes and Nia nods, taking a bite of toast. "Was there grovelling? There should have been grovelling." Harry steals one of Nia's sausages from her plate as he waits for her answer.
"There was a little grovelling, more to come if Sirius agrees to meet him at Hogsmeade by the way your permission form is signed in your trunk are you all set for school?"
"You know I am." He answers as Dobby appears at the foot of Sirius's bed, scaring the crap out of Nia and making her spill her orange juice onto Sirius's sleeping face.
Padfoot screams and jumps up at twice the speed he normally wakes with, reaching for the wand Nia had the good sense to keep out of reach.
"Humans have this thing called Knocking Dobby," Nia reminds gently and the house elf apologises profusely and vanishes the orange juice from Sirius's hair and strips the bed from under Nia.
"Dobby collected the post this morning and Masters need to look." He gives Nia the paper despite Sirius being closer and taking her glasses Nia looks at the front page immediately seeing why.
Death Eater Peter Pettigrew escapes Azkaban in the night.
Between two and three am Friday, the twenty-seventh of August known Animagus and formerly undercover Death Eater Peter Pettigrew Escaped his cell in Azkaban prison. Aurors suspect the magical blockers in place on his cell to keep the Rat animagus transforming was tampered with allowing the former spy to escape through the holes in Azkaban's ancient architecture. More on page 10.
Sirius has gotten sight of the article now and Harry put himself between Sirius and the door and the man simmers with rage.
"I'm going to kill him." Sirius does his best to barge past Harry but fortunately, or maybe unfortunately Harry is an expert at dealing with overly emotional adults and pushes him back towards Nia. She grabs him by the shoulder and pushes him down to a sitting position then grabs his face and forces him to look into her eyes.
"And go back to prison? Bailing you out was a one-time thing Padfoot. You don't know where he is, you don't know who's helping him and you have more important things to do than go on a wild rat chase. Harry needs you and I won't let you abandon him for revenge again." Harry had gone silent as Nia started not yelling but lecturing passionately. Sirius still doesn't look calm but scaring Harry won't make it any better. "Just give me some time to figure this out."
Sirius wilts as his anger dissipates and he nods. Nia kisses his cheek and turns to Harry. "Keep him company? I have to talk to Severus." The kid nods and Nia calls Sookie running downstairs. "Can you please take me to Severus Snape's?"
Spinners End is not where Sookie and Nia end up. Instead, they appear outside an apartment building in downturn London. The name Sebastian Snape is on the buzzer. Nia buzzes and a very annoyed Severus tells her to leave.
"Is that any way to speak to your only friend? Let me up Sev, I need your help." The gate unlocks and Nia walks to his upper-floor apartment surprised at how pretty the view is. He's waiting at the door in black muggle dress pants and a black button-up. Ruining all images of him living in an abandoned warehouse and living a hermit's life outside of school. Even more distressing is Petunia's reaction in her head saying 'He looks good,' Nia wants to bleach their brain. "Severus, don't you look Snazzy. Here I thought you only owned one outfit. Or should I say, Sebastian? All the muggle names and you pick that one?"
"The landlord chose it, What do you want?" He's less than impressed by her barging past into his apartment but this wasn't a conversation to be had in a public hallway.
"Have you seen the Prophet today?" She asks, looking around the surprisingly light apartment. It was still clearly Sev's simple decor in muted tones and filled to the brim with plants both magical and muggle.
"I don't subscribe here, this couldn't have waited till Wednesday?"
"We go back to Hogwarts Wednesday. This is time sensitive." She throws the paper at him and his face remains its usual mask of annoyed indifference.
"Am I supposed to be frightened of a rat?"'
"Given that Pettigrew is the one to raise Voldemort, yes." Severus stops reading and looks at her silently begging for this to be a bad joke.
"When?"
"June twenty-fourth Nineteen ninety-five. The Day of the Third Triwizard Tournament task." She answers and Severus puts down the paper and walks to the beautiful white kitchen with black bench tops. Petunia is losing her shit over Severus's apartment more than she ever does at Fleamont. Not the time Tuney.
"What's your plan?" He takes a bottle of scotch and two glasses, pouring them both a drink.
"It's not so much a plan as lots of little ones for every possibility I can think of. But for now, Pettigrew knows where we live and can tell Voldemort as soon as he's found. I'm going to put my house under Fidelius charm, and I'd like you to be my secret keeper." Severus actually looks shocked and Nia wonders how many times someone has actually trusted him with something important based solely on his own merit. Not because they have something to hold over him.
He pauses for a long time before downing his drink and meeting her eyes. "Of course,'' Nia can see in his eyes that he's feeling some feelings about this but decides to let it slide. She can tease him later.
"In that case, I will leave you and your stunning apartment to whatever it is you do when I'm not around. Thank you, Sev." Nia kisses his cheek and calls Sookie to take her home.
Nia walks through the front door to find Sirius and Harry on the couch staring at each other without blinking. Determination is set on Harry's face as neither breaks eye contact and Nia leans against the wall watching whatever it is they're doing. Finally, Harry's shoulders drop and Sirius barks out a laugh.
"What are you boys up to?" Harry jumps out of his skin, the lamp on the coffee table exploding as well.
"Working on Occlumency." Sirius laughs in response as Dobby appears to clean the glass shards.
"It's going well, I take it?"
"I suck," Harry responds sadly and Nia ruffles his already chaotic hair.
"It'll take time." She promises and Sirius stands up abruptly, not so subtly gesturing to Nia to meet him in the other room.
It is truly excessive how large this house is, as they move from one beautiful living room with a fireplace, balcony and grand piano to another equally well-furnished room holding a massive for the early nineties television and speaker system and floor-to-ceiling book and video shelves.
"So Severus is putting our house under Fidelius' charm and working on tracking Peter. I know you want to do more but this might not be something we can change." She says before Sirius can interrogate her. However, he waves it off.
"I saw something in Harry's head you might want to know about," Sirius sounds a little amused but also nervous.
"I'd prefer Harry be the one to tell me if it's important. I can't betray his trust by gossiping with you." She responds but Sirius shakes his head.
"No, a parenting thing. I think you have to give Harry the talk soon. I saw a couple of snippets of dreams. He figured out pretty quick to change thoughts but I saw enough to know why Sookie's doing his laundry more than usual." He explains and Nia's brain stops working for a second.
"I have to have the talk with him? You're the guy and you knew his dad when he was this age so you have far more insight. You give him the talk."
"He's known you longer. And I was given the talk by Walburga Black who I don't need to remind you married her cousin and believed the only reason anyone should have sex is to produce an Heir once married." Nia makes a face at the thought and Sirius continues. "Not to mention my main point of experience was with another man so I don't know how to deal with the woman part of the conversation save a few broom closet sessions with Marlene Macinnon when I was fourteen." They're both whispering despite being in a different room from Harry who knows there's no point eavesdropping in this house.
"Fuck, okay. We'll do it together. He's still too young for the details but we can explain what's happening and what's going to happen. I'll touch on the feminine side of things so he's not completely clueless as to why Hermione is so ready to kill Ron this year. Maybe it won't be so painful?" She thinks aloud and Sirius runs his fingers through his hair.
"We're telling a thirteen-year-old about sex this is going to be worse than the Cruciatus curse." Nia rolls her eyes and remembers she's still Petunia and Switches to her own face.
"Just for the record I have less experience than you do with both genders so my knowledge is purely theoretical." She grones slouching on the couch.
"Really? I know you're young but you didn't have a high school sweetheart?"
"I was the freak in the corner that spent more time obsessing over fictional characters than speaking to the people around me. Not to mention my home life wasn't great so I wasn't exactly going out to meet people." Sirius sits down next to her as she speaks and she plays with her nails instead of looking at him. "Then I found a book that transported me to an alternate dimension and I surprise adopted a nearly eleven-year-old. Romance hasn't been high on my list of priorities."
"So you've never been kissed?" He asks voice hinting at something and Nia rolls her eyes.
"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were flirting with me Padfoot, aren't you a little old for that?" He looks actually offended for a second before laughing off her words.
"I'm thirty-three and devilishly handsome, and it's simply an offer. My heart is Moony's even if he doesn't want me back, but it is wrong for a beautiful woman such as yourself to be neglected." He responds smoothly and Nia laughs.
"Maybe later handsome. Let's go educate the teenager."