Chapter Text
12 Grimmauld Place
12 Grimmauld Place couldn't be seen from the street and looking like a vacant lot until Harry got practically to the doorstep. To see the house, one needed to be invited and, since his guardians lived there, he was always invited.
Harry thought it was odd that an invisible house needed a key. Shouldn't anyone that can see it be allowed in? Magic didn't have to make sense. It simply was. He turned the key to open the door. Harry wondered why his guardians didn't collect him from King's Cross Station.
The house looked entirely remodelled since he visited during Christmas. The lounge had all new furniture and cherry panelling. The chandeliers in the dining room had been cleaned and polished, the dining room chairs had been replaced and the table and buffet were refinished. Mrs. Black and Sirius's other interesting ancestors were no longer gracing the walls. Kreacher must have taken down the portrait of his beloved mistress to prevent her from being harmed when the walls were stripped.
Sirius had came down the stairs by now and started to hug Harry then looked at the trunk in the lounge.
"I got home by Knight Bus," said Harry. "I couldn't very well ask a cabbie to take me to a vacant lot."
"I thought you were staying with your mum." Sirius looked apologetic.
"We decided to go to the Quidditch World Cup. Remus got the tickets." Harry looked around at the newly panelled walls - walls now free of annoying portraits. "I miss your mum. Who is going to call me a reanimated corpse and say other delightful things?"
"Snivellus." Sirius smiled at Harry.
"No, he just scowls in my general direction. He would have to admit I'm a student for him to take away house points. He, occasionally, tells me if I must audit his class to do so quietly not to disturb his students."
"He's a git."
Harry laughed. "Where's her portrait now?"
"Kreacher has it." Sirius put an arm on Harry's shoulder. "I'm sure he sleeps with it at night."
Harry cringed. "Thanks for the mental image. I'll miss her calling me a depraved ghoul. She liked me when she thought I was Young Master Quirrell. She said that you were finally associating with the right sort of wizards. I wouldn't mind her ranting if she wasn't so loud."
"I could tolerate her saying that she disowned me and I don't belong in her house, but the things she said to Remus I can't repeat."
Harry sat at the dining room table. "Remus is very excited about seeing the World Cup. He hasn't been since James and Lily were alive."
"You should really call them Dad and Mum." Sirius went to the kitchen to light the fire for tea.
Harry followed him. "Frank and Marigold Quirrell are my parents. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon raised me for ten years. Lily and James took care of me for my first year, but the boy Lily gave birth to has been buried for over a year."
Sirius put a hand on the shorter man's shoulder. "You shouldn't say such things."
"If I ever marry and sire children, they will be Frank and Marigold's grandchildren. God gave me my eternal soul. I understand that Lily sacrificed her life for mine." Harry walked back to the dining room and sat down. "My parents are alive and love me. Allow me that."
"You and your mum have a great relationship. I wouldn't get in the way of that, but that doesn't mean you deny your other parents."
"I know they loved me, but I'm no longer biologically related to them and I only know them through their photos. You can't ask me to give them something I don't have."
"Remus and I are your godparents because James and Lily wanted me to be your godfather. God granted you your soul, but you exist because of James and Lily's love. You have a different body now, but you're still their boy." The teakettle whistled and Sirius poured out their tea. "I rather not attend The World Quidditch Cup. I'm not good around crowds."
"We have to take muggle transport two weeks ahead and walk ten kilometres through the moor. People from all over the world will be attending. It sounds like a grand party."
"You and Remus can party. I rather sleep."
"Remus said you were a party animal in your youth - wore black and drove a motorcycle."
"I'm domesticated now."
Harry held in a groan. Dogs were domesticated animals.
Sirius sipped his tea. "I couldn't follow sports in Azkaban. Your father loved Quidditch. He was seeker."
"Ginny is seeker of the Gryffindor team." Harry took a scone. "Kreacher didn't bake this."
"He did. Don't worry. He takes too much pride in his work to poison us."
Harry put the scone down without taking a bite. The elf was creepy - not at all right in the head.
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Author's Note: Real Life has me down. Reviews are encouraged. Even just saying hello is nice.