.

The next few days flew by quickly.

The students were arrived and made their way to their house tables for The Welcome Back Feast was just about to start and Harry was sitting between Albus and Minerva at the Head Table watching all the commotion with big round eyes. He couldn’t believe that there were so many people. He kept checking to see where his uncles were. He felt safer when he knew that they were near him.

As the students filed into the Great Hall they noticed a little one sitting beside their stern Transfiguration Professor and they had to wonder who he was.

As soon as all the students were seated Albus stood up and called for silence. "Welcome back my children. I hope your celebration was a good one for all of you. We have a couple of changes in staff. Let me introduce you to Professor Remus Lupin who will be taking over for Professor Binns who decided to pass over to be with his family. And Professor Sirius Black who will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Adams had a family emergency to attend to. I hope you will make them both feel welcome. Also as you can see we have a small addition to the Head Table. The child sitting between myself and Professor McGonagall is Harry Potter. He will be a permanent resident of this castle as his guardians are professors at this school. Please make him feel welcome and if at any time you see him without an escort please take him to the nearest teacher right away, thank you. Let us now enjoy our meal." The food magically appeared onto the table and the students helped themselves while staring at the Head Table where Harry was sitting.

Throughout dinner Harry was fussy because everytime he would look up from his dinner he would notice students staring at him. He became so upset he yelled out, "NOOOO WOOK!!!!"

"Wan Unkie Sevvy!’ whined a very upset Harry with tears running down his little cheeks. He was so upset that his breathing was coming out in irregular intervals.

Minerva passed a worried message down to Severus, who looked over and saw Harry was really upset so he immediately got up and went over to see what the problem was.

"Oh Severus Harry is so upset and we can’t seem to calm him down and he is calling for you." stated Minerva frustrated.

Severus picked Harry up from Minerva’s lap and Harry immediately laid his head down on Severus’ shoulder.

"What is he so upset about?" asked Severus.

"It seems some of the students kept staring at him and he didn’t like it." replied Minerva. "I will be talking to those students about it not being polite to stare." she continued.

Severus took Harry down to his place and resumed his seat. He patted and rubbed Harry’s back until he calmed down. Then set him in his lap to feed him some dinner from his own plate.

Students from the Slytherin table started to stare, they had never seen their Head of House with a child sitting on his lap let alone feeding said child.

Harry noticed their stares and yelled, "NO WOOK!!!"

Severus looked up and gave them all a glare that made them return to their dinner.

"Its ok Harry those are my Slytherins, they won’t hurt you," stated Severus.

Harry just looked up at Severus puzzled.

Sirius leaned over Remus and told Harry,"They are snakes Harry."

" ‘nakez?" asked Harry looking at Severus for confirmation.

"Yes Harry they are my little snakes," confirmed Severus.

"Me ‘nake doo Unkie Sevvy?" asked Harry curiously.

Upon hearing Harry’s question Sirius sputtered his mouthful of wine all over the table coughing. Remus pounded him on the back helpfully.

"We will see what happens when you are older Harry, ok?" replied Severus with a smirk.

" ‘tay Unkie Sevvy." Harry replied contentedly.

Severus enjoyed the rest of the meal not only because Harry was sitting with him but also because Black was still muttering about Harry’s question of him being a snake too. The look on Black’s face was priceless and Severus would remember it for the rest of his life.

After dinner was over Harry and his Godfathers went back to their quarters so that Remus and Sirius could finish last minute planning for their classes tomorrow. Severus too was going over his class plans for the morning while Harry was sitting on the floor playing with his Animagus friends.

Severus looked up from his class plans. "One of you are going to have to take Harry to class with you tomorrow as I have three different classes making potions that could harm him." explained Severus to the other two.

"He can come with me in the morning." replied Sirius.

Severus nodded then looked over to where Harry was playing. "Harry it is time for your bath. Please put your friends back on the table in your room."

" ‘tay" replied Harry getting up to do as he was told.

After he is bathed and dressed in his pajamas Harry was tucked into bed. Each Godfather said goodnight and kissed him on the forehead before they left the room closing the door and casting an alert spell on him so that they know when he awoke.

The next morning Severus woke Harry up got him washed and dressed so that they could make it to the Great Hall in time for breakfast.

After breakfast Sirius took Harry with him to the Defense classroom. He put Harry down and handed him his friends out of the bag one at a time. "Harry be a good boy and play with your friends while I teach ok." said Sirius.

" ‘tay" replied Harry.

The students filed into the classroom and found their seats. Harry ignored them all and played with his friends in the one corner of the classroom. After checking on Harry, Sirius began his lesson.

After awhile Harry became bored and looked around the room for something to do but the students and Unkie Pafoo were all busy. He really wanted to see Unkie Sevvy right now. He looked over at the door and saw that it is still opened a bit so Harry went over to the door and slipped out quietly as not to disturb his uncle and the students. Now all he had to do is figure out where Unkie Sevvy was.

Harry started down a hallway looking at the pictures and saying "hewwo" to a few who said hi to him. Harry wandered hallway after hallway trying to find his Unkie Sevvy but so far he only found empty hallways. Harry had wandered around for quite awhile and his little legs were becoming tired so he sat down on the floor to rest before continued his search for his uncle. He sat there wondering if he was ever going to see his uncles and grandparents again. Now he was scared and it getting cold here. He soon had tears running down his little cheeks and was hoping that they find him soon.

Meanwhile back in the Defense classroom Sirius finished explaining the spell they were to work on and turned to put a protective field around Harry so he couldnt be hit with any stray spells by accident and got the shock of his life. Harry wasn’t there. Sirius looked around the room and then noticed the door was ajar. ‘Oh no’ Sirius thought. He got the class’ attention.

"Did anyone see Harry leave the room?" he asked hopefully. They all shook their heads.

"Class is dismissed. I have to find my godson, if any of you would like to help I would greatly appreciate it. He couldn’t have gotten far."

The students join Sirius in looking in the halls surrounding the Defense classroom but there was no sign of the little boy anywhere. Sirius was now getting very worried and knew he needed help searching. He was going to have to tell both Remus and Severus that he lost their godson. He could just hear Severus lecturing him about Harry’s safety and how irresponsible he had been not to make sure the door was closed tightly and spelled so that it wouldn’t open for Harry.

He asked for a volunteer to take a message to Professor Lupin, another one to take a message to Professor Snape and one to Professor Dumbledore. With the messages sent to both godfathers and the Headmaster he waited outside of the Defense classroom for them to come so they could organize a search for Harry.

The messenger arrived at Remus’ classroom in record time and knocked on the door and waited for it to open.

"Sorry to interrupt Professor but I have an urgent message from Professor Black that needs your attention immediately and I am to take your reply back to Professor Black." the young Ravenclaw girl said.

"Thank you Miss.........." said Remus.

"Corbin Sir.......Andrea Corbin" she replied.

Remus read the message from Sirius and his eyes became big as saucers.

"Tell Professor Black that I am on my way please Miss Corbin" replied Remus.

"Right away Sir" Andrea said before turning around and running off to deliver the return message.

Remus turned back to his class and dismissed them and then asked for volunteers to help search for his godson Harry. The whole class volunteered and followed Remus to the Defense classroom.

At the same time the messenger who had volunteered to go to the potions lab took a deep breath then knocked on the door and waited for it to be answered.

"Sir sorry to interrupt but I have an urgent message from Professor Black that needs your immediate attention and I am to wait for your reply." the messenger blurted out quickly.

Severus read the message and swore multiple time and then turned to his class and dismissed them while vanishing the potions they were brewing.

"Tell that idiot I am on my way Mr Tyler." snapped Severus.

"Yes Sir right away." said Mr Tyler while turning and headed back to the Defense classroom to await instructions.

The messenger sent to give the message to Professor Dumbledore stopped in front of the gargoyle guarding the Headmaster’s office.

"I have an urgent message for Professor Dumbledore from Professor Black that needs his immediate attention." supplied the student.

The gargoyle moved aside and the spiral staircase started to climb up to the next floor. Once he got to the office door and was about to knock the door opened so he could enter and head right to the Headmaster.

"Here is the message from Professor Black Sir." the student said.

Albus opened and read the message and then told the student to tell Professor Black he was on his way.

"Yes Sir" the student said turning to go down the stairs to go back to the Defense classroom to wait for instructions.

When Severus got to the Defense classroom he went right up to Sirius and glared at him. "How in the name of Merlin did he get out of the classroom Black?" he demanded.

"One of the students had left the door open and I didn’t notice it until it was too late." replied Sirius solemnly.

Remus came between the two before they could get into it together and said, "Its no good dwelling on what was we need to get a plan together to search for Harry. He must be scared by now."

"Your right Remus we need to get more volunteers to help. We need volunteers to go to Professor McGonagall’s class and Professor Flitwick’s class to explain the situation to them and ask for volunteers to join the search." said Albus.

With the messengers going off to their designation, they started to divide the castle up into sections. Each teacher and a number of students would search each section then report back to the Defense classroom on their findings.

When Minerva with a worried look and Filius arrived with both their classes they each choose a section of the castle to search and then rushed off

An hour later there was still no sign of Harry anywhere. Everyone was becoming very worried.

"There are only these sections left to search. Lets pray we find him in one of these sections." commented Albus in a worried tone.

Severus and his group were searching a section of the dungeons that wasn’t used anymore when a student stopped and called for him to come quickly.

"Professor please come here!" requested the student staring down a dead end hallway. "There is something down this hallway at the very end. Could it be Harry?" she asked hopefully.

Severus half walked and half ran down the hallway to investigate. When he got to the end he saw that sure enough it was Harry and he sighed with relief.

"Harry?" he said softly so he would not startle the child.

Harry opened his eyes and looked around. In front of him was the person he was searching for, his Unkie Sevvy.

"Unkie Sevvy!!!" exclaimed Harry jumping into Severus’ arms.

Severus caught the little scamp and held him close to him to reassure himself that Harry was alright. He felt Harry shiver and quickly casts a warming charm on his clothing and wrapped him close to his chest with his robes pulled around Harry to warm him up.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. If you would go and alert everyone that he has been found and let the Professors know that I am taking him to the hospital wing to get checked out by Madame Pomfrey as a precaution." requested Severus of all the students with him.

"Oh and 100 points to Ravenclaw Miss Corbin for good observation skills." Severus supplied then turned and headed to the hospital wing.

Andrea smiled widely and then ran to do as Professor Snape had requested.

Severus looked down at Harry as he is walking towards the Hospital Wing and kissed his little forehead and said,"We have been looking for you Harry for a long time now."

"Me no seeded you Unkie Sevvy" Harry told his uncle.

"That is because we just came to this area Harry. You shouldn’t have left Uncle Sirius’ classroom. You could have been hurt and that would have made myself and everyone else so sad." explained Severus.

"Wanded ‘ou Unkie Sevvy" replied Harry with a bit of a pout.

"I know Harry but sometimes it isn’t safe to be with me in my classroom so you must be with Uncle Sirius, Uncle Remus or Granny. You must stay in their classroom unless you are with a grown up. Do you understand?" asked Severus.

" ‘tay" replied Harry.

"No more wandering the halls by yourself. You need a grown up with you at all times. Understand?" asked Severus.

" ‘tay" replied Harry.

They arrived at the Hospital Wing and Poppy met them at the doors of the wing.

"Poppy he was shivering when he was found so I cast a warming charm and kept him close to my body with my cloak around him to keep him warm. supplied Severus.

"Put him on the bed Severus and I will examine him to make sure nothing is wrong with him." replied Poppy.

Just as she was finishing her scans the Hospital Wing doors banged open and Sirius rushed in going straight to Harry. He scooped him up and hugged him tight to him. Then started to scold him.

"Harry you worried me to death. Why did you leave my classroom?" asked Sirius sternly.

"Me wanded Unkie Sevvy" replied Harry.

"You wanted Severus? You wanted SEVERUS!!!! You scare me out of my wits because you wanted Severus????? Of all the stupid things you could do. How could you do such a stupid thing?" Sirius demanded.

Harry didn’t know what to say so he stayed silent and just looked at his uncle confused.

Sirius is so upset and relieved at the same time that he was unsure how to deal with it so he did something that he shouldn’t have. He grabbed Harry by the upper arms and shook him while screaming at him.

"DON’T YOU EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!" Sirius yelled.

Severus wrenched a screaming Harry away from Sirius. He enveloped Harry in his arms and headed to the other end of the Hospital Wing to calm the boy down. Turning to say with disgust and anger in his voice, "You deal with him because if I do he will regret it."

Remus walked over to Sirius looked him in the eye and then punched him sending him arse over tea kettle.

"How could you do that to Harry. He is just a little boy and doesn’t know any better. You owe that little boy a huge apology Sirius and you better pray he forgives you. You were to blame even more than Harry because you are the adult and YOU should have checked Harry’s environment to make sure it is safe for him. If you ever do something like that again you will get more than a punch." Remus told Sirius. Afterwards he headed to the other end of the Hospital Wing to make sure Harry was alright, followed by Poppy.

Sirius got up and sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. ‘What have I done? How could I have done that to my own godson. What kind of monster am I that I can do that to a little boy.’ he thought to himself. He then started crying long mournful sobs. "Oh my God what have I done? He will never forgive me. I have lost my godson forever." wailed Sirius mournfully.

"Mr Black I would recommend you pull yourself together and calmly apologize to not only your godson but his other Godfathers as well and promise to never to repeat this behaviour again. If you do not then you most certainly will loose not only Harry but your friends as well." admonished Albus.

Sirius looked over to where Severus, Remus and Harry were, he slowly got up and walked over to them.

Severus was sitting on the edge of a bed with Harry on his lap cuddled up close to his chest, sniffling while Severus was rocking him back and forth and running his hand through Harry’s hair.

"Harry?" said softly.

"What do you want Black?" snarled Severus.

"Harry I want to say that I am sorry for what I did. I was upset and scared when I couldn’t find you but that is still no excuse for hurting you as I did. I promise you I will never do that ever again." Sirius told Harry quietly.

"Severus and Remus I apologize to you as well. I allowed my temper to get the better of me and you have my solemn promise it will never happen again. I will even swear a Wizard’s Oath if you want me to." Sirius told his fellow Godfathers.

"Are you ok Harry?" Sirius asked with regret in his voice.

Harry looked at Sirius then over to Remus and looked up to Severus confused as to what happened. All he knew was that Unkie Pafoo hurt him.

"Harry I am sorry I hurt you I won’t ever do it again I promise." said Sirius.

"No ‘urt ‘gain?" asked Harry curiously.

"I will never hurt you again Harry." replied Sirius.

" ‘tay" replied Harry who then laid his head down onto Severus’ chest and cuddled into him.

"Let’s go to the Great Hall and have lunch so that the whole school can see for themselves that Harry is in fact safe and healthy. We can discuss this in your quarters after lunch." commented Albus.

On the way to the Great Hall Sirius caught up to Albus to ask him a question.

"He isn’t going to forgive me is he Albus?" asked Sirius with a sigh.

"Give it time Sirius. He is young and not sure why you did it. We adults know that your emotions got the better of you but he doesn’t understand that. Go slowly with him and he will start to act "normal" around you again. You need to be patient." Albus told him with a stern look on his face.

"Yes Albus I will be patient and go slowly with him. Hopefully he will forgive me eventually." replied Sirius.

When they got to the Great Hall everyone was waiting for them. When everyone saw Harry in their dour Potions Master’s arms they sighed with relief that he was indeed found and alright.

Albus stayed standing when they got to the Head Table and addressed the Hall. "Ladies and Gentlemen if I could have your attention please. As you can see Harry has been reunited with his guardians and no harm was done. We wish to thank all those who helped in the search for our little escape artist. Afternoon classes are cancelled today so use the time wisely."

The Hall erupted into cheers. The students were making plans of how to spend the free afternoon.

Harry was sitting on Severus’ lap when the cheers started and he jumped from all the noise.

"Its ok Harry its only the dunderheads. Your safe." Severus said tightening his arms around Harry.

"Here have some lunch then we can go to our quarters." explained Severus.

After they finished lunch they all went down to their quarters so they could talk about what happened so that it would never happen ever again.

Severus attempted to put Harry down so he could go play but he was being very clingy and held onto his robes tightly so Severus carried him over to his favourite chair sat down sitting Harry down on his lap. Harry then leaned his head sideways against Severus’ chest and closed his eyes listening to his uncle’s heart beating while Severus ran his hand through Harry’s hair to keep him calm.

The others joined him in the lounge, and no one mentioned that it is Harry’s rest time. They allowed the little boy to cling to Severus until he felt safe again.

Sirius ended the silence. "I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt him or scare him as I did. I was soooooo scared when he went missing and angry at myself for not making sure he was safe and relieved that he was safe and unhurt that I lost control. I regret it more than I can ever say." he said with his head hung.

"Sirius we understand how you were feeling because we were all feeling the same way ourselves but we controlled those feelings before we went to Harry’s side. You have to learn to control your emotions. You don’t want Harry to become afraid of you, do you? Let this be a lesson that you learn from and don’t ever repeat." lectured Minerva.

"I promise I will work on it. I will get control of my emotions before going anywhere near Harry." Sirius said with his hand over his heart. "I hope that you can forgive me for what I did and accept my solemn promise to never do it again."

Remus and Severus looked at each other then at Sirius.

"Sirius I accept your apology and your solemn promise that it will never happen again and I swear to you if you ever break that promise and it happens again you will never see Harry ever again." Remus said with determination. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes Remus I understand and I wouldn’t deserve to be around him if I did break that promise." said Sirius sadly.

"Black I too accept your apology and your solemn promise and add that not only would you never see Harry again but I would make sure you are charged with child abuse. Don’t think I wouldn’t do it either. When it comes to this little guy I will do anything to keep him safe." Severus said stonily.

"I understand Severus and thank you both." said Sirius contritely.

"Now we can go on from here. Like I told you Sirius you will have to be patient with Harry so that you can prove to him that you will not hurt him again. He may be scared around you for while just reassure him that you will not hurt him and he will come to realize that you are telling the truth. You must earn his trust again." supplied Albus.

It was several months before Harry would feel comfortable enough to go with Sirius alone again. Sirius was very patient and went slow with Harry, taking baby steps to earn his trust again. Their relationship finally got back to what it was before the incident and Sirius was careful not to destroy that trust ever again. It hadn’t been easy on Sirius but when he got really frustrated he would go for a walk and calm himself down and if he had to scold Harry he kept his hands either in his pockets or clasped behind his back so that he wouldn’t be tempted to grab hold of Harry and hurt him again. Sirius finally learned to control his emotions.