"Do you really think it was a wise idea of you to come?"

Harry looked up at his godfather, but Sirius didn't seem to be bothered by all the piercing glares he received. His trial had been slightly less than two weeks before, and even though the bigger part of the wizarding community by now knew of his innocence, he still received stares, whispered comments and glares whenever he left the house. Especially if he was with Harry. Many people didn’t really believe that a former Azkaban prisoner was the ideal guardian for the Boy Who Lived. Innocent or not. And then there was the werewolf...

Remus, Harry had come to realize, was constantly keeping an eye on their surroundings, as if he expected someone to try and kill Sirius from behind any moment.

At the moment, the three of them were making their way through King's Cross and towards Platform 9 ¾ where Harry would take the Hogwarts Express.

It was actually the first year at which Harry was a bit sad to return to Hogwarts. He had spent the past two weeks in Remus' house again, together with Remus and Sirius. Remus had recovered surprisingly quickly from Wormtail's attack, and as soon as he and Harry had been up and well again, they had tried to sort out the mess of the past couple of days. By now, Harry knew nearly the complete story of Sirius' and Remus' relationship and he was convinced that those two had only had all those problems because none of them had ever said out loud what should have been obvious. But when he had told them so, Remus had only grinned knowingly and Sirius had said something like 'just wait till you have your first girlfriend, and then we'll talk'.

Those past two weeks had been different from the beginning of their time together, and also a bit more unnerving. It seemed as if all three of them had been walking around on tiptoe, afraid to make a wrong move or to overstep any boundaries. Sirius and Remus had always stayed apart as far as possible whenever Harry was in the room (and he didn't really want to know how that was when he wasn't in the room) and they had taken care of that so thoroughly that it had bordered on being funny.

The three of them were still searching for a good middle-ground to move on, and somehow Harry was sorry to leave before they had found it. They'd have to see how it went when he came home for Christmas, but inwardly Harry was convinced that by then he'd be used to the idea of his godfather and his former teacher being a couple.

He had had a long talk with Remus one night, when Sirius had been away with Dumbledore, and after that evening Harry was a bit more at ease when it came to the issue of Sirius and Remus. Remus wasn't his rival, he was an addition to his 'family', and a pretty funny one at that. Harry only needed to get this message completely in his head. Now that the tension between Sirius and Remus seemed to have been lifted, Harry really enjoyed their bantering on every occasion that presented itself.

Harry liked Remus, he was convinced that they'd get along once this trial period was over. They only had to get used to the changes, that was all. And Harry somehow had to break those news to Ron. He didn't even want to think about that right now. It wasn’t that Ron was downright homophobic or something, not at all. But Ron was... well, Ron.

Harry, Sirius and Remus crossed the Platform as quick as possible, not reacting to any glance or comment, eyes firmly fixed on the red heads of the Weasley family near the end of the train. They had known about Sirius for a bit longer, and even if they hadn't they surely wouldn't comment as viciously as others did.

"Harry dear, there you are. Hello, Remus, Sirius."

Molly's voice was still hesitant at addressing Sirius, but she quickly turned towards Harry and hugged him.

"You're nearly late, I already thought something had happened."

She glared accusingly at Sirius and Remus cleared his throat.

"We had a little... discussion on how to get here. And before you start", he waved at finger at Sirius, "I don't want to hear another word about that blasted motorbike."

Sirius pretended to pout and pulled Harry aside to say goodbye.

"Alright, have a good term, Harry. If something happens, go straight to Albus or fire-call me, alright? A letter from time to time would be nice, too. Have fun and try to stay out of serious trouble."

He gave his godson a hug.

"I love you."

"Love you, too. Take care, Sirius."

"I will."

Harry quickly turned to Remus and gave him a hug as well, then he said goodbye to the Weasleys and climbed into the train alongside Ron. They found an empty compartment and settled in, waving out of the window at their families. Sirius and Remus had stepped back a little so that not all the attention would be focussed on them, but at the moment Harry wondered about something entirely different.

"Where's Hermione?"

Ron shrugged.

"Late, I guess. But she'd better hurry, that has already been the second whistle. We're about to leave any moment now."

As if on cue the apartment door flew open and a flushed and panting Hermione came running in. Not a moment too late because at that moment the train started to move and Harry and Ron quickly waved a final goodbye out of the window.

They settled down and waited for Hermione to calm a little so that she could explain.

"Traffic jam." She finally panted. Ron looked utterly confused, but Harry nodded understandingly.

Ron just waved her off.

"Harry wasn't much earlier, either. Pity, I had thought we could talk a bit to Sirius and Professor Lupin."

Hermione suddenly blushed a deep crimson and glanced at Harry. He frowned.

"Hermione, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing?"

Hermione shrugged.

"Well, nothing I should bother about, at least. It's just that... well, I saw them before I jumped on the train."

Ron shrugged.

"And? I saw them as well. What's so interesting about this?"

Hermione shook her head.

"No, not like that." Again, she glanced at Harry as if she was debating inwardly whether she was telling too much or whether he already knew. Harry had to hide a grin as he could imagine quite well what she had witnessed. Though Sirius and Remus were surely a bit sad that he had left, they would also appreciate to have some undisturbed time to... get reacquainted.

Hermione finally decided to spill the beans.

"Well, when I saw Sirius and Professor Lupin, they were... kissing."

Hermione blushed an even deeper red and Ron looked positively thunderstruck. Harry now really had to hide a grin.

"Kissing?" That was Ron.

"Harry, I'm sorry if that was something you didn't know about, but I just thought that..."

"Kissing?" Ron was still processing that piece of information.

"But... but they're both... I mean Professor Lupin... Sirius... does that mean... kissing?"

Harry sighed. This would take a while to explain. He wondered whether he should send his newly appointed guardian and his former teacher a howler because of public harassment. Not to mention the embarrassment Harry himself would have to go through during the next couple of minutes. Yes, sending a howler would surely be fun.

"KISSING?"

This on the other hand...

Harry leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees.

"Actually, it's a rather long story..."

END