Chapter Four, Windsor Road

Harry awoke with a start the next morning, due to the sun shining on his face. He opened his eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them with his small fists. His vision was very hazy, and then he remembered that Sirius had taken off his glasses last night. Sitting up he started feeling for his glasses, he found them on the bedside table and put them on. Once his glasses were on his vision became clearer and he looked around the room. He noticed that the sun was shining in through a gap in the dark green curtains, and he realised he was alone Sirius was nowhere to be seen in the room. Harry frowned and started to wonder where Sirius was. He then started to think that Sirius had left him, and had agreed with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, that he was a burden, that he was an unwanted, unloved freak. That though hurt more than Harry thought it would, as he had only known Sirius for a few hours, nevertheless Harry still had to hold back the tears. But he soon found out that he couldn't hold them back any longer and was soon sobbing his little heart out because he had thought that Sirius had really cared about him.

Meanwhile Sirius was coming up the stairs after cleaning the worst out of the kitchen, pantry and the living room. He was now at the bottom of the staircase that led to the landing where his and Harry's bedrooms were, when he heard Harry sobbing through the closed door of Regulus' old room. He ran as fast as he could taking two stairs at a time in his rush to reach his Godson. He burst through the door and saw Harry sitting up in the large bed crying his heart out, Sirius rushed to the bed and pulled Harry onto his lap and wrapped his arms tightly but lovingly around Harry. "Shhh, Harry it's alright. Shh. Come on baby please tell me what's wrong." Sirius asked while rubbing Harry's back.

Harry sniffled and buried his head in Sirius' chest. "I-I th-thought y-you had left me...c-cause you agreed with aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, that I was a freak." Harry said in between sobs. Sirius felt is heart break at his little godson and pulled him closer to his chest before placing a loving and reassuring kiss on his head. "Harry, I would never leave you that's a promise, and I will never ever agree with your aunt and uncle, and you are not a freak Harry. I was downstairs cleaning the kitchen, pantry and living room to get the worst of it out. I'm sorry that I scared you Harry but I didn't want you in those rooms until the worst of it were out as it would be dangerous to you as you could get injured or sick, but you can help me clean the cupboards if you want to as there is nothing dangerous in those three rooms, but you are not allowed to go into any of the other rooms as it would be dangerous as I don't know what is in those rooms." Sirius said sincerely.

Harry nodded and put his arms around Sirius' neck, Sirius wrapped his arms more securely around Harry's small body. "Harry, as there is not enough food that is edible in the kitchen, I've sent Kreacher to re-stock the kitchen, which will probably take all day, so how about we go to this little cafe that's not that far from here to get some breakfast, it's in Windsor Road and later would you like to help me Harry?" Sirius asked. Harry looked up at Sirius with uncertainty in his eyes. "I can help you?" Harry asked in an uncertain voice.

"Of course you can Prongslet; I said you can, so you can." Sirius said. Harry smiled and gave Sirius another hug, which Sirius returned all too happily and kissed Harry's head. "Right, come on Prongslet let's get you dressed, I'll have to change you back into your old clothes but I promise as soon as I can I'll buy you some clothes, shoes and pyjamas and anything else you need including toys." Sirius promised.

"You don't have to I don't want to be a bother." Harry said so quietly that if Sirius didn't have sensitive ears due to being an Animagus he would have missed it.

Sirius rocked Harry slowly and kissed the top of his head. "But I want to Prongslet and you need all those things, you should've had them already but I will get them and you can help pick what you want and you're not a bother so don't ever think that." Sirius reassured his godson. Harry nodded his head and snuggled closer to Sirius who held him closer and breathed in his scent making sure it was stored to memory so if anything could happen to his little pup he could track him to the end of the earth just to find him. After a few minutes he released Harry. "Right Prongslet you need to get up and dressed, but first you need to wash. None of the bathrooms are in good condition at the moment, so I will conjure a bowl of warm soapy water and a flannel for you to wash with, a towel and a new toothpaste and toothbrush. Then you'll get dressed and we can go out for breakfast." Sirius said softly.

Harry nodded and got off of Sirius' lap. Sirius smiled at him and conjured previously said items for Harry to wash and brush his teeth and stood facing the door to give Harry some privacy. Ten minutes later Harry was finished and stood with the thick woollen towel around him. "Umm...Sirius...c-could you please turn my pyjamas back into clothes please?" Harry asked hesitantly. Sirius could have kicked himself as he had forgotten to turn Harry's pyjamas back into clothes. Turning around he smiled reassuringly at his pup. "Of course Prongslet." With a wave of his wand he turned the pyjamas back into clothes and made everything he conjured except the towel disappear, and turned back around to face the door.

Nearly five minutes later found Sirius walking down the flight of stairs heading to the first floor, Harry's small hand held firmly in his. Sirius was just telling Harry that he'll have to transform into Padfoot before they leave the house, when the curtains hiding Sirius' mother flew open and she started screaming at them again making Harry cringe away in fright. "FILTHY BLOOD TRAITORS IN MY HOUSE!! BESCREACHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS!! GET OUT!!" Mrs. Black screamed.

Sirius who felt Harry cringe away in fright, glared at his so-called mother and shouted at her. "SHUT UP YOU MISERABLE OLD HAG!!" But this did not shut up on the contrary it only made her shout in even more anger if that where possible and effectively made Harry bury himself in Sirius' side sobbing.

"YOU!! YOU FILTHY BLOOD TRAITOR!! ABOMINATION OF MY FLESH!! HOW DARE YOU RETURN TO THIS HOUSE!!" She screamed and glared at Sirius while she got her breath back. She was about to start screaming again, when she was shocked into silence when Harry spoke. "H-hello." Harry said tentatively.

Mrs. Black looked at Harry shocked and questionly before deciding to speak to him. "Who are you child." she demanded. Harry mumbled his name so quietly not even Sirius could hear him. "Speak child." snapped Mrs Black. "H-Harry J-James P-Potter." Harry stammered afraid she would start screaming at him again.

Mrs. Black's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing for a moment before she nodded. "I hope this son of mine has told you about who I am?" she asked arrogantly Harry nodded, "Yes your his mother."

"Yes, but has he told you my name?" she asked. Harry shook his head no making her glare at Sirius before she turned her attention back to Harry. "My name is Walburga Black and this is the Most Nobel..."

"Most Nobel House of Black. Yea, yea we know." Sirius interrupted rolling his eyes. "Come on, Harry let's get you some breakfast." Pulling Harry away from the portrait of his mother, but not before Walburga had glared at him and said a farewell to Harry, who hesitantly returned it with a shy wave of his hand as Harry was still scared of her. Sirius noticing this picked Harry up and have him a tight loving hug as he carried him down the stairs. Sirius still couldn't believe how light Harry was, but he said nothing just planting a kiss into Harry's hair as he swore to himself that he was going to look after Harry properly. He had already failed Harry once and he was not planning on doing it again anytime soon. Once they reached the front door Sirius placed Harry on the ground and knelt in front of him with both of his hands on Harry's small shoulders.

"Now, Harry I need to change back into Padfoot, but I will stick close to your side Harry I promise you I will not leave you." Sirius said, seeing his son wanting to ask a question but not feeling comfortable with asking just yet Sirius answered it. "I have to change into Padfoot as there is some very bad people who are looking for me and I don't want them to find us, and they may take you away from me which I don't want them too. So you must not talk to any strangers who try to talk to you just keep walking and I'll be right beside you, I promise Harry." Sirius said leaning forward to kiss Harry's forehead. When Harry nodded in understanding Sirius stood up and gave Harry some Muggle money and opened the door before turning into Padfoot and led the way out of the house and onto the pavement.

Once Harry had reached the pavement he turned around to look up at the house and gasped as he saw the house was no longer there. Sirius nudged Harry against the shoulder with his head as he was taller than Harry in his dog form to get Harry to move. They started walking past the patch of unkempt grass, down the street and round the corner to Windsor Road, where the cafe was. As it was still early, the cafe was nearly empty, when they entered. The woman behind the counter came over to them at the sight of Padfoot. Harry put a hand into Padfoot's fur and asked if he could stay. It was then that the woman saw Harry's tapped glasses, and his extremely baggy, ripped and faded clothes and his holey trainers. She reluctantly agreed that Padfoot could stay but he had to sit on newspapers. Harry thanked the woman after they had showed them to a table, after she laid some newspapers on the floor she took Harry's order which was a bowl of water for Padfoot and a slice of toast and orange juice for himself, but she said she would make Harry beans on toast and left to the kitchen.

Harry sat quietly in his seat as he looked at Padfoot with fear in his eyes as the other customers in the cafe kept stairing at them. Padfoot started licking Harry's hand reassuringly, trying to calm him down. It seemed to work as Harry gave him a very small smile and started to scratch his ears, the woman came over then with a bowl of water and a glass of orange juice and a plate of Harry's beans on toast and went off to serve the next customer but she kept an eye on Harry. When Harry had finished he stood up with Padfoot at his side and was heading towards the door after he had paid, when he was stopped by the waitress. "Is there anything else you want to eat dear?" Harry looked down at Padfoot and he very discreetly shook his head no. Harry looked up at the waitress and replied in a very quiet voice, "N-no th-thank you." The woman nodded and reluctantly let them leave, but as soon as he had opened the door  he felt strange hands on his shoulders, he looked up to see a strange man with dark brown-greying hair and dark brown eyes.

"Waite a minute son, where are yer parents?" The man asked in a very strong accent. Harry looked up at the man with fear shining more prominate in his eyes, with his left hand tightening its grip in Padfoot's fur while Padfoot growled dangerously at the man. 'If you don't remove your arm around my Godson in five seconds, I'm going to rip your arm off.' Sirius thought as the man wrapped an arm around Harry. 'No one touches my Pup. No one.'

"T-there n-not a-around anymore." Harry said quietly, unshed tears shinning in his eyes. Sirius noticed the change in Harry's voice and the tears in his eyes and growled even more at that. The man took no notice of Sirius and carried on talking to Harry. "Why don't you come back in and sit down." He then started to pull Harry away from the door.

"N-no." Harry stammered and he wriggled free from the man and wrenched the door open again and ran out of the cafe Sirius sticking close to his side. "Wait. Stop!" the man shouted. Harry turned and saw the man had followed him out of the cafe; he then threw a scared look at Sirius and ran faster. He was concentrating hard on running as fast as he could to escape the Muggle that he did not see another man at the end of the path and Harry ran straight into him and fell hard on the floor, making him gasp out in pain, clutching his ribs. Sirius barked loudly, scared that his pup had seriously hurt himself. But when he noticed the man Harry had run into and it did nothing to improve his mood. He placed himself in front of Harry and started growling more furiously at this man or should I say Death Eater. Harry looked up and saw a tall man in an-all-black cloak with white-blonde hair that reached past his shoulders which was tied back with a black-band. He had dark grey eyes, so unlike his Godfather's which were light and held love and kindness in them. Harry also noticed that the man was holding a long cane with the handle in the shape of a silver snake in his left hand.

The blonde haired man looked down at harry with an ugly, but also intrigued look on his face, which Sirius did not like one bit and started growling more furiously than he ever had before. The man reached down and roughly grabbed Harry, just under his shoulder and roughly pulled him to his feet making Harry wince at the tightness of the man's grip on his arm. Sirius noticing Harry wince in pain and the un-shed tears that sprung up in Harry's eyes as he tried to pull away, but the blonde haired man just tightened his grip on Harry's small arm.

The Muggle that was following Harry stood watching the scene in front of him with a frown on his face as he noticed the blonde man was looking at Harry with an ugly look on his face and tightening his grip on Harry's arm, making tears run down his face. He then noticed the large black dog growling at the blonde man looking ready to attack him. "OI! Unhand that child!" shouted the Muggle.

"What is it to you?" The blonde man demanded of the Muggle, turning to Harry he said. "What did I tell you about running off." He still had an ugly look on his face and ignored Harry's confused and scared look. He through the Muggle a disgusted look and started dragging Harry down the road leaving the Muggle frowning behind them and Sirius was keeping as close as he can to Harry as he growled at the man.

Once they had turned a corner Harry was dragged into an alleyway, where Sirius immediately turned back into himself and turned to the blonde man who was still holding his crying Godson. "Get away from my Godson!" Sirius shouted and punched him hard in the face making him fall to the floor and effectively making him let go of Harry. Sirius walked over to Harry and picked him up placing him on his hip and held Harry tight to him, as Harry buried his head into the crook of Sirius' neck and started sobbing. Sirius looked at his crying Godson and kissed his messy black head and started rubbing his back soothingly, before turning his attention back to the blonde man on the floor holding his face. "Black!" The blonde man said with contempt in his voice, while glaring at Sirius.

"Lucius!" Sirius said in the exact same tone. He turned his attention back to Harry, and pulled up his shirt sleeve where he saw that Harry's arm held a very nasty looking purple bruise, Sirius' finger accidently brushed against the bruise making Harry flinch away from his hand. "Oww Siri." Harry sobbed.

"Sorry Prongslet." Sirius said carefully pulling the sleeve back down. He stroked Harry's hair trying to calm his distraught Godson down; Harry turned his head and buried his head in Sirius' chest as he kissed Harry's head, but frowned when he noticed Harry was shaking. "Siri..." He trailed off, but raised a shaking hand and pointed to where Sirius just remembered Lucius was still on the floor. He whipped his head around to see what the man was doing to upset his Godson now and saw that he was raising his wand to point at them. Sirius quickly dug his right hand into his robe pocket and pulled his wand out (which he stole back before escaping) and pointed it at Lucius and shouted "Expelliarmus!" before Lucius had the chance to raise his wand properly. The wand flew out of Lucius' hand and into Sirius' out stretched one, he then pocketed Lucius' wand and pointed his own at Lucius.

"What're you doing here, Lucius?" Sirius growled. "And I haven't forgot what I said, you hurt my Godson and you'll pay for that."

"I would re-think that Black." sneered Lucius. "As for what I'm doing here, you see the Minister realised early this morning that you escaped from Azkaban and it's all over The Daily Prophet and I knew you lived somewhere around here thanks to Narcissa and then who runs into me why it's the famous Harry Potter or the Boy-Who-Lived as he's known."

Sirius through Lucius 'his glare of death'. "Ah, I see you wanted to capture me did you, wanted to steal more money, well think again Lucius because its not going to happen, and you leave Harry out of this do you hear me?" Sirius growled.

"But you're all over the papers Black, as I've said and imagine the Ministers reaction when he finds out that you have the Boy-Who-L...."

"Stop calling Harry that." Sirius snapped. "He is only a little boy, my little boy and if you think I just care about his fame than you are sorely mistaken. I love him; he is my son in everything but blood."

And before Lucius could say another word, Sirius flicked his wand and cried, "Obliviate!" As the spell hit Lucius, his eyes went unfocused and his memory of meeting Sirius and Harry was erased from his mind. "I want you to Apparate home after I have given you back your wand, and if anybody asks how you got that black eye you say you got into a fight." Sirius said smirking as he knew that Lucius won't remember anything he said to tell other people, he will just do it. Lucius nodded as Sirius gave him his wand back, and he sheathed his wand back into his cane. As his eyes started to become unfocused he Apparated home leaving Sirius standing in the alleyway still holding his distraught Godson. Harry sniffled and rested his head more securely on Sirius' shoulder, smelling in his scent which Harry has come to recognise as safety. "S-Siri h-has the bad man gone?"

"Yes Prongslet the bad man's gone now he can't hurt you anymore. How about we go home now?" Sirius asked. Harry nodded clutching tightly to the front of Sirius' robes. "Harry, just get down for a minute while I change my hair colour and robe colour so nobody will recognise me and that way I don't have to change into Padfoot and I can carry you." Sirius explained. Harry nodded and Sirius placed him on the ground. Once he had changed his hair to a light brown and his robes into a red t-shirt and dark blue jeans, he turned to Harry. "How do I look Harry?"

"Awesome!" Harry cried, cheering up a bit at more displays of magic and that he was safe with his Siri. Sirius smiled and ruffled Harry's hair. Harry lifted his arms up and Sirius picked him up holding him close and started to walk out of the alleyway and back into Windsor Road. Sirius continued walking all the way back to Grimmauld Place, every so often looking down at the little boy on his hip. Once he had reached Grimmauld Place Sirius looked around to make sure no one was following them, and stepped onto the path in front of numbers eleven and thirteen.

He looked around once more than looked back at the houses and the newly appeared number twelve, Sirius looked down at the little boy on his hip who he loved as his son and saw the first look of peace and contentment on his face since he had rescued him last night and kissed the top of his head making Harry smile and giggle. "We're home Prongslet." Harry nodded without lifting his head up of off Sirius' shoulder; Sirius smiled down at him and started walking up the steps and opening the door and entering number twelve.