Sirius Black was many things. One the best, if not THE best prankster of his era, the heir of a blueblood fortune that completely went over his head at times, and the black sheep of a family that was tainted by the dregs of dark magic. He was an Auror once. A best friend to his friend. Once upon a time, he even dared to think that he was not that much of a horrible person. He was a lover. He was a godfather.

And then he was a framed man.

Sirius doesn't think about that period of his life much. In fact, he much rather hit his head repeatedly into a brick wall, than think about his tiny, cramped cell, and the rot of death that hung off every inch, and the dementors that circled him in a perpetual torturing ritual.

His thoughts were always the same. James's face, Lily's flaming red hair framing her unmoving face, the look of utter heartbreak on his Godson's face, as he pathetically sobbed in his crib. And the anger. Sirius was afraid of that anger that consumed him during those times.

It had almost made him manic.

He's past it now. He thinks that he is. He's fine now. His name has been cleared. He has a home- once a very reluctant residency in said home- he has his godson, he has a nice thing going with Remus, even though they've been ignoring the elephant in the room for over three years now, ever since he's been out of Azkaban. Life isn't bad.

Not truly pleasant, by any means. But at least it's not barmy brain Sirius harbouring murder tendencies in a grimy cell kind of horrible. He has his fifteen-year-old godson with him. A very terrified fifteen year old at the moment, but Sirius takes what's offered to him.

Harry stares at him the same way he used to as a child. In that peculiar wide-eyed manner that always caught Sirius off guard. It was his ' I'm just a child and have no idea what to do, please help me,' look. Sirius has had many diaper-changing memories with that look.

"What if I'm becoming bad?" Harry asks, his eyes wide with THE look, and his voice trembling. He looks deeply troubled, and it makes something clench in Sirius's heart. He should not be the one dealing with this. In fact, Sirius is the last person who should be comforting Harry.

Harry has had… a very tough few years. Sirius is aware of this. He was there for two-thirds of all those awful things that took place. His precious godson, possibly his only equivalent of a child has been through hell. He has been tortured, forced to witness the rise of his parent's murders, forced to face near-death experiences nearly every year since the age of eleven, and now, and now this.

He and Snape hadn't slept a blink since last summer. Every night was marred with Harry's screams. And they had no choice but to wait for it with a stifling tendril of trepidation every single night, awkwardly tense in the dark living room, Snape ready with a violet vial in his hand, and Sirius wringing his shirt.

Then Harry’s nightmare would hit its mark, the whistling at the start of a game, before both men raced into the room, trying to claw the boy out of the unseen horrors. Trying to calm Harry enough back to some semblance of sleep. Sirius would end up hanging by the door frame while Snape held the boy, gently trying to persuade him into a state of calm without the potion. It didn't work. They had to use the potion nine out of ten nights.

Harry has been having an awful year.

And now here he stands, looking about ready to cry, as Sirius stands before him, just staring at him like some sort of statue.

Harry mistakes his silence. "I'm so sorry I unloaded it like that, I didn't mean to-"

Sirius snaps himself back into the moment. "No. It's not your fault. You're not… of course, you're not a bad person. Harry. Harry, look at me,"

Harry shakes his head. "But the dream… and Ron’s dad is in the hospital-"

"It wasn't you, alright? You saved Arthur's life, Harry. You weren't the one who did it."

Harry's face contorts and the guilt coils in Sirius's guts. "But it felt good," The boy chokes out and Sirius hugs him. Harry's hair is impossibly tangled between his fingers. They should probably give him a haircut at some point.

"You're not bad," he repeats. He's trying to sound like a responsible adult. Like Snape. Why isn't Snape handling this? He's usually the person Harry goes to with this stuff. He usually only offered to talk about his nightmares with the man, only offered to sleep when he was next to the man, only felt safe with the man. Sirius was not THE parent. He was The fun one.

He was the ' I'm gonna feed you cookies for dinner' parent. The fun laundry day parent. The one who handles goofy breakfasts and tasteless pranks. The girl talk parent. He was happy with that role. And now he's a horrible person for even thinking that he doesn't want Harry to come to him with his problems.

He doesn't think that. Sirius, just thinks that maybe, maybe, he's not very skilled in offering the right words. Snape does it all the time. Sirius hates the man for it. But the man is a miracle worker. He knows all the right words and responses. He gets Harry to eat when he's sick, the one who bullies Harry into doing his homework and keeping up his grades and not messing shit with Sirius, the one who granted Harry that minimal amount of sleep just by talking to him.

And now he's nowhere to be found, while Harry, their ward, is having a very messy mental breakdown. Sirius has never dealt with this. "Shhh," he strokes Harry's hair, "It was just a dream. It wasn't you. You're not a bad person. You're the kindest person I know."

Those sound like the right words, but rather than having a soothing effect, they make Harry cry harder. "I'm becoming like him. I'm Voldemort!"

Oh, Sirius had no idea what to say to that. Well, except for the automatic response. "No. No, you're not!" Harry stiffens against him, and his cries increase and Sirius is freaking out. He had never been in this situation before. Not even with Harry as an infant. He had no idea what to do.

"Please don't cry!" he muttered as he patted the boy's head. "Let's get you sitting down, huh?"

They were in their quarters, well, first it was only Snape's. The back of Sirius's knees have been strained against the edge of their couch for nearly twenty minutes now, and it's killing him. In addition to the crying teenager in his arms. He gently lowers them both on the couch and beseechingly stares at their portrait entrance, wishing Snape to barge inside their home.

You evil bastard, Sirius thinks. That man has the worst timing ever. It's lunch break now, he has no classes, and yet, Harry couldn't find him in time. Because if he could have had Severus Snape, he wouldn't have come to Sirius.

"It's okay, Shhh,"

"It's not!" Harry angrily sniffles in his shirt and Sirius winces.

"I meant it figuratively. Kiddo." But Harry doesn't seem to hear him.

"I'm a horrible person!"

Sirius refrains from speaking anymore and holds the boy, calmly waiting for him to tire himself out so he can think of a solution. He won't let Harry go back to classes for today, maybe even the day after. He knew what to do in the coming hours after Harry had been safely dropped in Snape's care, he just didn't know what to do with the boy now.

"You're not bad. I promise, kiddo. You're not bad."

Harry didn't listen to a single word coming out of his mouth.

It took him nearly an hour to silently slump against Sirius in a heap of limbs, worn out and dozing. Sirius gently positions him on the couch and sneaks in his room to grab the comforter off the bed. With Harry settled under the blanket, his face red and his eyes puffed.

Sirius is wincing down to the moment he wrestles Harry's glasses off his face and rubs a hand over his own. He needs to find Snape before Harry wakes up alone.

He drops a quick kiss on his Godson's forehead and races out of their quarters. Time to find Snape.


***

"You need to tell him,"

"Tell Ernie Mcmillan about his abysmal sentence structures? Yes, yes I do need to tell him," answers the infuriating man, his head burrowed in a parchment as he furiously scratches on it with his quill.

"Snape," Sirius growls. The man is almost drowned between two looming stacks of parchments. He's grading the essays.

"Black, I really have no time for this. I have not graded a single essay all week, and all of them are due to be returned tomorrow,"

"It's Harry," that makes the man pause. He looks up from the essay for an instant, as he marks it with the red ink.

"Yes, I know. I haven't had time to grade because I was taking care of Harry,"

Sirius stifles a groan. "No. It's Harry,"

"What about him?" Snape asks as he reaches for another essay.

Sirius presses his lips together. He has to be careful with how he phrases his sentence now. He doesn't want the man thinking that he had freaked out on Harry because the child had freaked out on him regarding a very serious matter. Sirius was a good parent too. He can see to Harry's needs. He doesn't want Snape thinking that Sirius didn't want to deal with Harry.

Because that wasn't true. Harry is his everything. Sirius just didn't want to harm Harry by saying or doing the wrong thing at the worst time possible.

"He had a small fright after a class. About his vision," he sits in a chair in front of the man's desk, as Snape grades the parchment without even once breaking eye contact with him.

"He did," Snape repeats. He doesn't sound like he's really listening.

Sirius huffs. "He was really upset, crying and all. I got him settled on the couch." he hides his wince this time. "You should… go see him," Snape would say all the right words, perk his son up. Harry needed that weight off his shoulders and Snape, was unfortunately the person to do it.

It took a lot out of Sirius to accept that.

"What was he upset about?" Severus says, too distracted for Sirius's tastes, now drawing two essays to mark simultaneously. "Arthur? I told him that he's well now. I talked to Molly last night. Arthur is out of the wood, he even woke up a few times,"

"I know that," Sirius was eavesdropping as Padfoot last night. He knows all about it.

Snape hums down at his paper. "I told Harry this morning. I don't know why he would be upset."

Sirius cannot take it a moment longer. "Well maybe if you looked up from that bloody parchment for a moment, I'll tell you, Snape!"

Snape's eyes dart up with a look of mild contempt as he lets his quill roll out of his fingers. "What happened," he asks but it doesn't sound like a question.

"He thinks he's becoming like You-Know-Who. He was very distressed about it,"

"That's ridiculous." Snape rolls his eyes, leans back against his chair. "The mental connection that he has with the dark lord is merely out of coincidence. I told him that," Sirius also knew about that part. He was awake the night the vision happened. He morphed into Padfoot and stayed by the boy's side. His head was on Harry's lap the entire time the whole show was going down. He could taste the fear off of Harry's scent.

"He thinks that he's becoming bad," he says now. "Because he enjoyed what was happening to Arthur."

Snape's eyebrows arch. "And you made him understand that this is not true,"

"Of course I did." Harry just didn't seem to believe him.

Snape crosses his arms. "Did you tell him, or did you convince him?"

Sirius is caught off guard. "What? I...He was crying! And sniffling and all that. So I hugged him, and then let him cry it out."

"Yes, but did you reason with him? As to why his concerns are unfounded."

Sirius doesn't know what the man is asking of him. Did he reason with Harry? Well, yes, he was very vehement as he denied Harry's tearful confessions. Harry was too upset to respond, but Sirius thinks that as damage control goes, he wasn't nearly that bad.

"Obviously, I told him that it wasn't true," he says, now defensively glaring at Snape.

The man sighs. "That's not what I asked."

Padfoot grits his teeth, he has had enough of this. "Why don't you just go and take care of this yourself instead of grilling me, Snape?!" he snapped. "He's about to wake up any moment now,"

Wake up alone. Still presumably upset. Thinking that Sirius has abandoned him. Oh great. Oh, merlin. He probably shouldn't have left Harry in that state.

"You cannot keep throwing him at me," Snape says, to Sirius's utter shock. "I've noticed it for a while now. Whenever the child needs emotional support, you just vanish into thin air,"

He lets the words seep into his skin for a moment, absorbs them with a tinge of self-hatred and mild frustration at Snape for daring to phrase this issue in such a way, at this time. He is not an unfit parent. He loves Harry. Harry is his godson. Snape was the one who ruined things by adopting the boy before Sirius could clear his name.

It's not Sirius's fault that they're stuck in this Co-parenting thing together.

"Are you seriously arguing about such a thing with me right now?" He growls, feeling the anger rushing in his veins. Hot and red-sighted. Snape has always been a quick catalyst to Sirius's anger issues.

Snape returns his glare with a cold look of his own. "You left our child by himself after he cried himself to sleep to come find me to damage control." his eyebrows ascend higher. "This clearly needs to be discussed."

"No, it doesn't. He needs you, not me."

"He came to you,"

Sirius pinches the bridge of his nose. "No," he says. "He came into the headquarters, probably looking for you, but got me instead."

Snape, infuriatingly turns back to grading his dumb essays. "Did you offer the help he needed?" He asks.

Sirius wants to throttle the man. "I don't know Snape, alright?!" he jumps out of his chair, and it clatters to the ground. "I cannot deal with emotional trauma. I end up making it worse. He relies on you for that stuff. He needs you to go in there and tell him he's not turning into an evil dark lord. Then you can get back to your shitty grading."

"I cannot keep on being the crutch, Black." the potion master seethes. "We are Co-parenting. He needs you to be emotionally stable as much as he needs me. He knew that I was busy today, already. As I said, I talked with him this morning. But he came looking for you."

Sirius tugs at his hair with a loud groan. "I cannot handle that," he grits out.

"Well, you better learn to, Black. He's your son as much as he's mine. He is also a traumatised teenager. I cannot always be there to pick up the pieces."

"You're here now,"

Snape shrugs. "I might not be tomorrow. Or even an hour from now. How will you deal with him in my absence?"

"I don't need you to lecture me. I need you to go comfort him,"

Snape abandons his quill one last time. "He doesn't need to be comforted." he snaps with a frustrated curl of his mouth. "He needs to be reasoned with. Tell him. Explain the facts to him, and then let him deal with it at his own pace. Ask him why he thinks what he does, and rebuke each concern with a reason. That would calm him down more quickly, than letting him cry himself to sleep."

"Why cannot you do that now?" Sirius hates sounding so desperate.

"Because as much as it pains me right now, I'm trusting you to do it. Can you?"

Sirius is not sure. Can he?

He storms out of Snape's office, sulking and stomping his way down to their quarters as he hurls insults at the potion master under his breath. He has no right to do this! To just, just throw Sirius in the midst of Harry's already fragile mindset and hope for the best.

What if Sirius makes it worse? What if he breaks Harry? What if Harry realizes that Sirius isn't good enough and abandons him for Snape?

The last thought makes him pause, right outside the dune lady portrait. This is what he's afraid of, isn't it? Harry thinking that he's not good enough. Sirius screwing something up so badly that it drives Harry away forever. Just one wrong word could set off the ruination of Sirius Black's life for the second time in two decades.

It takes him a full minute to realise how self-catering and utterly ridiculous he sounds. This isn't about him. Not in the slightest. This is about Harry. It doesn't matter what happens to Sirius, or what inconveniences him, Harry is the only thing that matters, and Sirius has to do anything in his power to maintain that statement to hold true for as long as he can.

To the Dune Lady, he says. "Pink lemons," and it opens a nudge, enough to let Sirius sneak inside their living room. Harry is already awake, hugging his knees and staring at Sirius the moment he enters.

"I'm sorry," The boy says, but Sirius shakes his head.

"No. Never be sorry for your feelings, alright?" He walks up to the couch and flops down next to his godson. "I'm sorry for leaving you like that,"

"I shouldn't have-"

"Yes, you should have, kiddo." he ruffles Harry's hair. "You can always come to us with your troubles. My job is trying to fix them."

"You cannot fix this one," Harry mutters. "I'm a monster,"

Sirius's heart breaks upon hearing those words. Harry couldn't have been more wrong. He had never imagined James's son in a situation like this, or rather, a life like this one. It's too much for a child to handle. It's too much for any grown man.

He leans his head against the back of the couch and just lets the words slip out of his mouth. "You are the furthest thing from a monster. You are kind and loving, and the bravest person I have ever seen. You are loyal and responsible. And… Well, you're a Gryffindor."

"But the connection-"

"Listen here, kiddo," Sirius cuts him off. "Is Snape a bad parent?"

"What? No!" Harry sounds horrified.

"Exactly. And he's a Death Eater. Well, he used to be." that took Sirius a lot of time to adjust to. New life, new beginnings… New Snape.

"The world isn't separated into good people and Death eaters, Harry." he opens his eyes and rolls his head to meet Harry's eyes. "You're just a very good person, who has been in a very bad situation. Just because terrible things happened to you, it doesn't mean that you're a terrible person,"

Harry ducks his head, "But what if I am?" He asks and Sirius scoffs and then chuckles.

"Last week, I saw you apologising to a knight for accidentally knocking into his armour." he pulls Harry to his side with a fond smirk. "I think you're fine, kid,"

"If you say so," Harry mutters.

"I know so, Prongslet. And you owe me a big thank you. I'm letting you skip school,"

Harry is smiling. "You're just trying to sound cool because you're getting old," he says wryly and Sirius mocks a glare.

"I have you know, I'm the coolest wizard in this school! Have you ever met me, Potter?"

"Sure you are, Sirius," The boy hugs him, grinning.

Sirius hugs him back. "I know I am."

Maybe he can pull this off after all.