Just a few notes before I start… I know there is a bit of a clampdown on Author Notes on this site, but this is kind of semi-necessary stuff, and then there won't be any more.

A/N1: Back in 2004 this story was originally a porn-one-shot (but also canon compliant!) Yet, I always felt that I could have made much more of the tale and, although I quite liked my original ending, enough people have wanted a more elaborate yarn and a truly happy ending that I have finally seriously started re-writing, editing and extending the story. With the events of HBP this fic is obviously not remotely canon now, but I don't really care.

A/N2: I had a review a short while back for my fic 'Candlelight and Roses', and I wasn't sure what to make of it. Basically, the reviewer demanded to know why there wasn't some really hot Sirius/Harry action in that story… well, uh, because I'd be deleted if I published such a thing here. So if anyone would like to read the original pornish version of this fic – the original (not quite as good) story is already in my GJ, but I will also (most likely) be re-working that to be less lame too. (I have of course cut the overtly sexual scenes of the original to be able to qualify for an M rating on this site.)

A/N3: The main pairing in this story is very much Sirius/Harry. (Duh, diehard SB/HP shipper here.) But there is also some Harry/Severus stuff that gets skated over, so if that pairing really horrifies you... shoo! (Or don't complain to me.)

A/N4: And I'm done. Here comes the first chapter, I hope it is worth the read… Bleakone my love. This is yours.

xxx

The harsh brightness of the winter sun shone through the small half-open window, and the cool crispness of the morning breeze sent a shiver through his naked body as he contemplated the start of a new day. He stretched out to silence the small auror-issue amulet that was clanging an urgent summons that only he could hear. (Sometimes he still cursed Hermione for inventing such a clever, irritating, noisy device.) He lifted his long lean legs over the blankets, briefly arched his back in a cat-like stretch and made a soft growling sound, trying in vain to shake off the sleepy feeling that refused to let go.

Still in a dreamlike state Harry softly made his way to the bathroom where he turned on the cold tap. Twisting it on to full he let the water splash out of the sink over the wall and floor, enjoying the sensation as icy beads of water spattered his stomach. He swiftly doused his head, and emerged from under the water blinking blindly but with new wakefulness. Turning off the tap he stood silently before the full-length mirror and watched as small droplets of water joined together and formed little streams that trickled down his throat, then slowly flowed down over his stomach.

Closing his eyes he let out a sigh as he felt elegant fingers snake around his body, tracing a line down the middle of his chest before fanning out and fluttering to harshly pinch each nipple between middle finger and thumb till they stood hard and erect.

A hand drifted over the hard lines of his body, taking in the small ripples of muscled belly, the sharp jut of his hipbones and then reached further down until he felt the press of his lover's pale hand.

He exhaled sharply. "I can't," he said softly, "I really need to get to work."

The hand stopped at once, Severus' withdrawal almost instant and uncomplaining. Irrationally he wished for arguments, for laughing attempts at further seduction, for something that would give him the feeling of really being wanted. But nothing was forthcoming.

xxx

"What's happening?" He addressed Ron as he entered his office. "Everyone around here seems to be almost crazier than they were during the war. I decided not to risk delaying anyone for answers as it might have proved dangerous to my health."

Ron pulled a face, "Some left-over remnants of the death eaters are planning something really bad."

Harry flung himself into a chair. "Agghhh." He exclaimed dramatically. "Just when you think you're safe they think up some new dangerous and annoying thing for us to deal with." If he didn't sound sincere, it was because he wasn't. He'd lived on a near constant adrenaline high for far too long during the war to know how to begin to live the life of a normal citizen; he just couldn't seem to stop chasing the evil wizards now.

It defined him, and if he was honest, it was pretty much all he knew. He certainly didn't want to slow down, because that was when he had to think; had to remember. "Are we ever going to catch a break?" He asked Ron loudly, as he tried to silence the insidious demons crying in his head.

Ron shrugged, "Dunno mate. Doesn't look like it."

"So, define really bad for me." Harry prompted as Ron began shuffling the heap of parchments bunched haphazardly on his desk, apparently looking for an abandoned slice of his breakfast toast.

"Oh, Dumbledore will be briefing us all in a minute. But it's a time travel thing. Something about them planning on making big changes, which really can't be good."

"Dumbledore and time travel eh?" Harry raised an eyebrow as Ron unearthed a mug of tea from under his desk debris and took a slurp, "The crazy old coot is out of retirement for this? It must be bad."

"Yes. It is a grave situation indeed." Dumbledore agreed smoothly from the doorway, as Ron snorted rather gleefully into his rediscovered tea.

xxx

It took Dumbledore only a few minutes to lay bare the alarming intelligence that had reached his spies.

Although, as Harry was well aware, it was a simple enough matter for a wizard to make a short journey of a few hours back in time - if not exactly safe.

But it was considered downright suicidal, (not to mention the next best thing to impossible) for a wizard to travel further back than a matter of days.

Travelling back for years was entirely out of the question. Though apparently that was precisely what one or two former death eaters were planning to do.

Their target date or further intentions wasn't at all clear from the information Dumbledore had received, but it seemed likely that whatever their actions, some alteration of history concerning Harry or Voldemort seemed most likely.

"Great." Harry muttered sarcastically. "If I go blue and start fading out in a minute, you'll know a death eater is just throttling me as a toddler."

Ron looked stricken and wrapped protective fingers around his own pale and freckled neck. "Don't even joke Harry. That's exactly the sort of thing they might do."

Dumbledore overheard. "Unfortunately Harry, Mr Weasley is quite correct. It does seem most likely that they will choose to eliminate you swiftly and quietly before you have any chance at becoming a threat to their master at some later date."

"So, I'm back to all the boy-who-lived crap again." Harry sighed irritably. "I could do without this."

Dumbledore was addressing the gathering again. "Ladies and Gentlemen. I suggest we put a stop to this with all speed. By any means necessary."

xxx

It was a garishly sunny afternoon, even in Knockturn alley. Harry prowled along unmolested by the unsavoury throng, his heavy black cloak streaming out behind him in a manner even his lover would have been proud of. He'd learnt intimidation from the best he mused as his eyes unobtrusively searched the crowds for a warlock whom he hoped would have further information about the time altering plans – for a price of course.

Then he saw a familiar face. One he knew as well as his own. At first he thought the brightness of the late afternoon sun had dazzled his eyes, but as he blinked and squinted from under the hood of his cloak, he saw that it most certainly was Bellatrix Lestrange disappearing into a ramshackle building nearby.

Harry didn't wait for reinforcements or further information. He simply barrelled after her with murder in his heart.

He swiftly shadowed her down a narrow passageway and through a heavy oak door.

His instincts for self-preservation kicked in a little too late.

It dawned on him that Bellatrix had led him into a trap only when a grinning Draco Malfoy neatly plucked his wand from his fingers.

"I didn't actually believe anyone could be that stupid." Draco sneered at him, "Yet here you are. Still pining so wretchedly for your pathetic lost mutt that you followed dear Bellatrix in here like a little lamb."

Harry held his tongue. He wouldn't give the death eater scum the satisfaction of knowing how true his words were.

Bellatrix smiled spitefully at Harry's telling silence and with a brief coo of; "Poor silly baby," she quickly cast a spell binding Harry to an uncomfortable old chair.

Harry grimaced as the ropes bit painfully into his flesh and he watched with loathing as Draco handed Bellatrix his wand. With a vacant smile on her face she used his wand to cast a brief and vicious cruciatus, which made his muscles spasm in agony. Then less than a minute later he was released. She swished his wand playfully at him before tucking it away up her sleeve with a maddened giggle.

The two death eaters left the room, their voices fading to a low murmur.

Harry sat panting as his muscles twitched uncomfortably, and he tried to make sense of this odd behaviour. They were death eaters and they had him at their mercy, surely a little more torture and taunting was in order now? That brief agony Bellatrix had inflicted was so much less than he had expected. Then an unpleasant thought came to him. What if they were so ready with their big time travel project that they didn't presently have the time to play with him?

Then he realised he could hear a faint rumble of conversation through the wall behind him, and he tilted his chair back slightly in hopes of hearing properly.

He caught a few snatched words here and there, but none of it that could really be made sense of. He was certain he caught the name James though. Which to him indicated that they were planning to murder his father before Harry himself could even be conceived. With the connection between Bellatrix and Sirius to factor in too, it seemed likely that killing his father at a relatively early stage was a logical solution for the death eaters currently holding the threads of time in their murderous hands.

Frustrated with the situation and with himself he leaned back further, pressing his ear to the damp and mildewed wallpaper, trying to discover an exact date or time, or something solid to work with – assuming he ever managed to escape.

Then he felt the chair give a distinct wobble and a groan under his weight and he almost cheered. Deliberately he began wriggling the chair on two legs, and was rewarded by ever more ominous creaks. It didn't take very long for the aging and abused chair to give way completely and Harry soon found himself slumped on the floor, tangled in a heap of splintered wood and slackened rope. He squirmed and fought furiously to free himself and succeeded just as the door flew open.

The wand levelled at him by Draco Malfoy went flying as Harry rolled to his feet and kicked out, his boot smartly connecting with Malfoy's wrist. The pureblood wizard was unused to physical fights, especially with someone as enraged as Harry now was, and went down quietly with a single blow to the jaw.

Harry then dropped to the floor himself and dived frantically at Malfoy's wand. A rush of green light narrowly missed his left ear, but his fingers found the smooth wood of the wand and he rolled over, and from his reclining position on the floor sent a swift and apparently wholly unexpected stunning spell at the two hulking figures in the doorway.

Harry couldn't help but smirk as he stepped squarely on their unconscious bodies and sidled into the hallway. Apparently the standard of death eaters had dropped quite dramatically since the bad old days.

It didn't take Harry long to find Bellatrix, but it was clear that he had taken almost too long. She was surrounded by a faintly glowing light which was growing steadily brighter, it was clear that some kind of spell was proceeding, so Harry didn't bother with consequences and simply threw himself at her, his hands hooking painfully into her arms as he felt a sickening lurch in his stomach and then the world began to spin and Bellatrix began to scream.

xxx

Harry blinked dazedly in the dimming light of early evening. He must have been unconscious for quite a while he decided, and with a groan he levered himself up onto one elbow and fumbled his glasses back into their proper position. He was in the same room as before he thought. The repulsive yellow wallpaper that had dominated the room he had briefly been imprisoned in covered the walls here too. But something was different, it smelled cleaner somehow, the floors were much less dirty.

Then with a lurch of his stomach he wondered if throwing himself at Bellatrix hadn't worked to break the obviously complex spell she had been weaving. What if they had both ended up at some point in the past with no way home?

A faint moan from behind him broke into his anxious thoughts, and oblivious to the screech of discomfort from his bruised muscles and the sick roiling of his stomach he was on his hands and knees in a heartbeat, roughly pinning Bellatrix to the floor. It was the work of a moment to divest her of both their wands and he had her tied up in a chair before she was even fully conscious.

Not gloating at the reversal of fortunes was an impossibility, and he allowed himself to do just that for a few moments, enjoying the impotent rage flickering in her eyes.

Then he reached into a small hidden pouch in his robes, seeking the miniscule, precious vial he always carried, courtesy of Severus. He watched with pleasure as Bellatrix's eyes widened in recognition of the precious substance.

"Veritaserum." He announced lazily and wholly unnecessarily. "Now you and I are going to have a nice little chat."

Bellatrix weakened quickly once he forced the few drops of potion down her throat, the details of her plan spilling out of her in a rush.

She herself had been in Diagon Alley on this day in the past, and she knew James and Sirius were also in Diagon Alley, and that they would be staying in a room at the Leaky Cauldron for a few days during their Christmas holidays. They would be shopping and drinking and making merry, Sirius would spend time with a lover and Lily Evans would also be putting in an appearance to see James, they would all be busy having fun and not expecting any kind of attack in these very early days of conflict.

Harry learned that Bellatrix had allowed herself precisely twelve hours to destroy the young James Potter, and possibly Lily Evans and Sirius Black too, if the opportunity presented itself. She confessed she had a fancy for seeing if her dear cousin Sirius was weak enough to place under Imperius before ordering him to kill his best friend.

Harry glared at her, sickened by her capacity for cruelty and the terrible world she had planned to create.

He learned that in a little under twelve hours the spell would end, and if they were both within the narrow limits of the spell, they would then be jerked back to the time they had left, as if nothing had ever happened - assuming that nothing had happened.

All Harry had to do was keep Bellatrix from escaping and wreaking havoc, and then she could simply be turned over to the ministry when the spell ended and they both returned to the unchanged future.

Harry tried not to think about the parts of the future he himself might be tempted to reshape. Visions of a gently fluttering veil crowded into his mind and he shook his head frantically, trying to clear the loathsome image from his head.

He checked to see that Bellatrix was indeed securely tied to a very sturdy chair before settling in unhappily for a long wait.