Author's note: So this is something random that popped up in my head a while ago and demanded to be written. While it does have some elements similar to Draco's First Valentine, this oneshot stands completely on its own and doesn't have any link to the aforementioned story.

Warnings: Sirius' pov; some angst; AU in the sense that the Potters are still alive, but Voldemort is gone; some bigotry; pre-slash

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling owns it.

I hope you'll like it!

Unexpected Corner

A loud shrieking sound pierced through his dream, ripping it into tatters. He shot up, flailing around as he tried to grab his wand in order to silence the Wake Up Charm.

"Shit!" he cursed and finally located his wand, snatching it off the nightstand. As soon as his hand closed around it, the piercing, too-loud noise stopped and his ears rang with the sudden silence filling the room.

"You said a naughty word," a sleepy voice piped up next to him and he turned around with a guilty smile.

"If you won't tell your mum, I won't," he said lightly, rubbing over his eyes. His eyelids were heavy with sleep and he wanted nothing more than to drop down and go back to sleep, his soft pillow and warm blanket calling out to him enticingly. He threw a longing look at the blue blanket covering his lap and sighed, running a hand through the tangled strands of his hair.

Alas, he couldn't go back to sleep unless he wanted to face the wrath of Lily or the glower of Moody. Both things he would gladly miss out on whenever possible.

"I won't tell mum if I get pancakes," his godson grinned mischievously and his head popped out completely from where he had curled into a ball underneath the blanket. His black hair – already untameable on its own thanks to the Potter gene – was wild, sticking up in various directions as if he had been hit with the Electric Touch Hex. Big, emerald green eyes glittered, momentarily closing when the eight year old yawned loudly.

"You're a right menace," Sirius informed the boy gravely. "So your silence can be bought with pancakes, huh?"

"With chocolate," Harry stated and then shrieked, legs kicking the blanket down when his godfather started tickling his sides. "N-NO! S-STOP!" Bright laughter bubbled out, his face slowly becoming redder and redder as the older man refused to stop his assault.

"You know what to say to make me stop, pup," Sirius grinned and stopped tickling the young boy long enough to let him catch his breath.

"Not saying it!" Harry gasped and then started shrieking and kicking again when devious fingers tickled him once more.

The sound of the Floo activating downstairs forced Sirius to stop and he cocked his head before chuckling, "Saved by the Floo, Harry. Go get dressed while I'll go see who's paying us a visit on this ungodly hour," he grumbled and swung his legs out of the bed.

"Don't forget the pancakes," Harry reminded him, eyes glittering with a sheen of unshed tears. His cheeks were a fierce red and he panted, trying to recover from the tickling he just had endured.

"So bossy," Sirius muttered and clucked his tongue as he pushed some loose strands out of his face. He didn't bother with a dressing robe; he was wearing a faded blue shirt and pyjama trousers – those would have to do for his early visitor. It wasn't like many people had his Floo address anyway, which narrowed down the list of suspects a lot.

"It looks like a tornado went through this room," Remus remarked idly when Sirius pushed open the door of the living room and halted in the door opening. His friend stood in the middle of the room, surveying the pillows strewn across the floor, some magazines lying open on the couch and the coffee table and a couple of stuffed animals lying in a sad heap in a corner.

"Pillow fight," Sirius explained, shrugging, and stepped further into the room. "What are you doing here, Moony?"

Amber coloured eyes – with the full moon coming up soon, the wolf was close to the surface – regarded him amused. "Just checking whether you would get up on time or not," Remus answered lightly and raised his hands. "Blame Lily for this. It was either her or me showing up."

"Guess I should be glad it's you," Sirius grumbled and scratched the back of his neck, rolling his eyes. "As if I would let Harry be late for his classes."

"You know her," the other man replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets. His eyes flickered up to the ceiling where Harry could be heard pattering around. "How did it go?"

Any shred of amusement was drained out of Sirius at that question and he grimaced. "He was fine during the evening; we had fun with the pillow fight and all, but he had a nightmare last night. He climbed into my bed and as far as I know slept without any problems."

"But he told you nothing?" Remus furrowed his eyebrows, concern flattening his lips into a thin line.

"No, nothing. I asked him whether he wanted to tell me something, but he refused. I wasn't going to push him," the black haired man sighed and jerked his head in the direction of the kitchen. "Mind helping me out with making pancakes?"

Remus blinked and smiled wryly. "I'm pretty sure Lily insisted he would have a normal breakfast and not something as sugary as pancakes," he pointed out, but followed his friend to the kitchen.

"Pancakes are breakfast material," Sirius groused, gathering the ingredients out of the pantry. "It's not like I'm going to let him eat ten of them."

"You did or said something that would piss off Lily if she heard about it and you're buying Harry's silence that way, aren't you?" Remus inquired dryly, leaning his hip against the kitchen counter.

Grey eyes scowled at him, but the owner of them didn't deign his question worthy of a reply. His petulant silence drew laughter out of his friend and the man shook his head fondly. "You never learn, do you, Padfoot?"

"He's far too sneaky for his age, Moony," Sirius whined, taking a pan out of the cupboard.

"Or you're far too easy to manipulate," Remus chimed, rolling up his sleeves.

Before Sirius could retort, small feet came thundering down the stairs and skidded to a halt in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Moony!" Harry cried out surprised and rushed over to the older wizard with a bright grin plastered on his face.

Remus bent down and picked the boy up with a grunt, letting him swing his legs around his waist. "Hey cub, how was the sleepover with Padfoot?"

"We had a pillow fight!" Harry exclaimed and as he launched into his tale of the things they had done yesterday, Sirius started mixing the ingredients together.

Grey met amber over the chattering child and Sirius nodded, assuring the other man silently that he hadn't forgotten about his 'mission'.

His mission could wait, though. First there were pancakes to be devoured.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Sirius knelt down so he could look Harry in his eyes. "Don't you want to go inside, pup? You still have around ten minutes to play before your class starts," he remarked, absentmindedly adjusting the dark green scarf around Harry's neck.

They were lingering in front of the tutor building, parents dropping off their own children brushing past them. The grey building housed several tutors; each one teaching a class of around fifteen children. The classes were mixed in the sense that both Purebloods and Halfbloods were taught together. There had been suggestions made to include Muggleborns as well, but so far those suggestions hadn't been turned into concrete plans yet.

His godson shuffled his feet and looked away with a pout. "Can't I just stay here with you until my class starts?" he pleaded, his fingers fiddling with the tassels of his scarf. "It's more fun to talk with you."

"You know I'm happy to have you with me, Harry," Sirius reassured him, squeezing his shoulder gently. "But I thought you'd want to go play with your friends before class starts."

The dark haired boy muttered something too low for Sirius' ears to pick up and the older wizard frowned. "What's wrong? You know you can tell me everything, right?" he said coaxingly, wondering whether he would succeed where Lily and James had failed.

James and Lily had noticed a while ago that something appeared to be wrong with Harry. He didn't talk about his classes, save for mentioning what he had learnt that day and seemed to avoid any conversation that dealt with playing with his friends. At their wits' end, they had asked Sirius whether he could find out what was bothering their son, knowing that he and Harry shared a close bond.

Harry bit his lip and looked down at the ground, a frown marring his forehead as he muttered, "I said that I – I don't play before class."

"Okay," Sirius said slowly. "What do you do then?"

Harry shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with this particular conversation. "I read while I wait," he replied quietly.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with wanting to read," the older man reasoned, recalling the many times he had found Remus lounging on the couch or hiding in an alcove at Hogwarts, immersed in one of his books. "Do some of your friends like to read?"

"No."

"At least Remus will be happy that you love reading," Sirius said dryly and shook his head. "But it's not like it matters that you read and your friends don't. Remus was the one with his nose constantly in his books and we still became great friends, so - "

"They don't like me," Harry blurted out all of a sudden and the shocked look that appeared in his eyes before it changed into shame made it clear that he hadn't intended on confessing that particular bit.

"Why do you think they don't like you, Harry?" Sirius asked softly, ignoring how much his knees were protesting from kneeling on the ground. Some tiny pebbles dug into his knees, but he ignored those in favour of concentrating on his godson.

"They don't want to play with me," Harry replied in a small voice; the skin of his fingers turning white with the strength he was using to squeeze into the tassels. "They say that I'm evil because that bad man went away after attacking mummy and daddy and they say that only happened because I'm more evil than the bad man. But I don't know what I did! I don't want to be evil!" His voice caught at the last words and tears dribbled over his cheeks, splashing apart in his scarf.

"Hey no, no, pup, you're not evil," Sirius said soothingly, alarmed at the appearance of tears, and he hugged his godson against his chest, rubbing a hand over his small back. "Listen to me: you're not evil, okay? You helped your mum and dad that night by driving that bad man away. An evil person wouldn't have been able to do that. Those children are idiots for saying that to you, don't listen to them. They don't know what they're talking about."

"So I'm not bad?" Harry asked; his eyes gleaming with tears and insecurity.

"You're not bad; you're good. Would I lie to you?"

Mutely Harry shook his head; his hands gripping Sirius' Auror robes tightly.

"See? Trust me, you don't have an evil bone in your body," Sirius said firmly and glanced up at the building, where children were still rushing through the door. "You know what? Why don't you come with me to my office for today, hm? We'll talk to your dad and we'll figure out what to do with the children in your class, okay?"

Harry sniffled, red splotches colouring his cheeks, and nodded hesitatingly. "Won't daddy be mad?"

"No, he won't be," Sirius reassured him and ran a hand through wild, black hair. "He'll understand once we explain what's going on, okay? We'll figure something out, I promise."

"Okay," Harry smiled watery, but there was unwavering trust shining in his eyes and Sirius swallowed, anger burning brightly inside him and he wanted nothing more than to set those idiots straight.

How could anyone look at his sweet, innocent godson and think he was evil? Fucking numbskulls, the lot of them.

"All right, up you go," he said cheerily, forcing the anger down, and swung Harry up in the air, eliciting a startled laugh out of the boy before Harry wrapped his arms and legs around him like a monkey. "Let's go to my office."

A flash of long, blonde hair caught his attention and he craned his neck around, watching how a slender woman, dressed in dark blue robes, walked her son to the building; her long, blonde hair swishing back and forth across her back. Her son had bright blond hair too and Sirius caught the curiosity in grey eyes when the boy turned his head around briefly.

Looking straight in front of him again, Sirius frowned as he made his way to the Apparition point. That blond kid had looked vaguely familiar, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out who he resembled.

Ah well, that didn't matter. He had more important matters to take care of now.

"How's Harry doing now?" Sirius questioned and shifted his leg, rolling his shoulders to get some kinks out of it. They had been hiding in a bush for a couple of hours now, waiting until the suspect finally returned home. The sky was turning a deep purple and in the distance there was the faint rolling of thunder.

Fuck, he hoped the suspect would come home soon; he didn't fancy being caught in the storm that was building up at the moment.

Next to him James grimaced, shaking out his hand. "He's doing better," he murmured, pushing his glasses back onto his nose. "He's started playing with a couple of kids in his class."

"That's good."

"Yeah, so hopefully it'll stay that way," James sighed. "Lily wasn't very impressed with the tutor's reaction when we told her what was going on."

"To be fair," Sirius murmured with a hint of amusement colouring his voice, "Lily is a very difficult woman to impress."

"Don't I know it," the dark haired man smiled wryly. "Anyway, the tutor first tried to brush us off, saying that it couldn't be that bad. She gave in, though, when we told her that we would transfer Harry to another class." He scrunched up his eyebrows and a sneer lingered around his lips.

Ever since that one night when Voldemort had disappeared, the Potter family had acquired quite the fame in the Wizarding World. Sirius had lost count of the many times they didn't have to pay in restaurants or in regular stores and they had been overwhelmed with gifts for both them and Harry during the year following the attack.

But everything had a negative side and there were also nasty rumours circling around that the Potters themselves had used even Darker magic to fight against Voldemort; the reasoning being that Light magic would never be able to defeat a Dark Wizard of Voldemort's calibre.

It was aggravating as hell to hear random people on the streets dragging his friends' good name through the mud and he had come close to hexing those bastards several times already.

Unfortunately it seemed that some of those people had poisoned their children's minds with their bullshit and his godson was the victim of that.

"I'm glad it worked out in the end," Sirius mumbled and tensed, feeling James simultaneously stiffening up as well. Their eyes had been trained on the dark house in front of them the entire time throughout their conversation, but now the house was no longer dark.

On the ground floor a light flickered faintly and the two Aurors turned their heads and shared a grim look.

Time to enter the house and catch their suspect.

When Harry shuffled his way to him instead of rushing over, Sirius immediately knew something was wrong.

"Hey, pup, what happened?" he asked worriedly, kneeling down when Harry halted in front of him. His concern only deepened when he noticed red rimmed green eyes. "Harry, is something wrong?"

"I – I didn't g-get in-invited t-to Mar-Marcus' Hal-Halloween pa-par-party," Harry stammered through his sniffling and tears started running down his cheeks again. "He-he says th-that n-nobody l-l-likes me and that I-I'm evil and tha-that he doesn't w-want any-anyone e-e-vil at his party."

"Oh, pup," Sirius muttered and hugged him close; his own heart clenching in pain as he felt his godson's body trembling with his sobs. Fury at those disgusting little pests flared up and he wanted nothing more than to march over to those bastards and teach them a lesson they would never forget. How dare they?

"You're not evil, pup, not at all. That Marcus boy is an idiot and he doesn't deserve having you at his party."

"B-but I – I wanted t-to go to the par-party," Harry whimpered, clinging to his godfather's robes; his face pressed against Sirius' shoulder, muffling his voice a bit. "I – I just want t-to play wi-with them!"

"I know, Harry," the older man said quietly and rubbed soothingly over his back. His magic was simmering closely to the surface, itching for an outlet and he had to close his eyes and focus on his breathing in order to calm down.

He couldn't believe how stupid and vicious those children were to the little boy in his arms. Harry had nearly lost his parents when Voldemort had attacked them and instead of thanking him for getting rid of the wizard, they acted like this?

Ungrateful arseholes, he thought darkly, his arms tightening around Harry's back.

"I – I don't know wh-why they do-don't li-like me now," Harry whimpered and he sniffled; his cheeks becoming fiery red. "I – I th-thought they l-liked m-me now, but wh-why are th-they so me-mean?"

"Because they're idiots and they don't deserve your attention," Sirius said tersely and wondered whether it would be considered overkill if he did go teach those bastards a lesson. "We'll go talk with your mum and dad, okay? Maybe it's best if you go to another class and start over again. I'm sure there'll be people there who will like you for who you are."

"Harry?"

The uncertain question coming from an unfamiliar voice had Sirius stiffening and when he raised his head, he saw a blond boy hovering a few feet away, face half hidden behind a black scarf and grey eyes fixated on the dark haired boy in Sirius' arms.

He inhaled sharply when all of a sudden recognition shot through him. But no, it couldn't be … Was that really –

"Are you okay?" The blond boy took a step closer; his gaze flickering towards Sirius for a moment before they went back to Harry.

His godson sniffled again before turning around, rubbing his fists in his eyes. "Draco," he said in a thick, watery voice. "I-I'm not invited to the Halloween party. They – they say I'm evil."

Draco.

Sirius knew of only one person named Draco and he was the son of his cousin Narcissa – who was married to a suspected Death Eater. The name 'Draco' was too uncommon for it to be coincidence. Those grey eyes and that bright blond hair … His mind flashed back to a couple of weeks ago when he had caught sight of a blonde woman walking this boy to his class.

"You're not evil," the boy, Draco, declared and huffed, looking offended in Harry's place. "They're stupid for thinking that."

"Uncle Sirius says that too," Harry muttered and he finally seemed to calm down a bit, wiping his cheeks off.

"Draco, what are you …" The blonde woman who had approached the boy trailed off when her ice blue eyes fell on Sirius and she stilled; her perfect blank mask not giving away even the slightest hint of her thoughts.

He smiled thinly and rose up, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Cissy, it's been a while," he stated flatly.

"Sixteen years, isn't it?" Narcissa retorted calmly. "I've heard you're an Auror now."

"Hm, we get quite the interesting cases at times," he murmured and ignored how both boys looked at him confused. "I didn't know your son got tutored here. I'd have thought you would have gone for a private tutor."

"Socialising is an important part in a child's life," she stated and when she tilted her head slightly to the left, her blonde hair glistened. "It was … good to see you. Draco, we need to go home now."

"Mother." Draco chanced a quick look at Harry before he gestured for his mother to bend down. She raised a thin, elegant eyebrow, but acquiesced to Sirius' utter surprise and listened intently to whatever Draco whispered urgently in her ear.

Sirius looked down when he felt a small hand pulling at his robes. "Can we go home now?" Harry asked and sounded tired; his eyes red and puffy and his cheeks tearstained.

Lily was likely going to maim his classmates – and Sirius would be right there to encourage her.

"Yeah, sure, pup," he answered soothingly and ruffled through dark hair.

"Wait, Harry!"

Green eyes swivelled back to Draco, who came rushing over with something clenched in his right hand. He stopped right in front of Harry and a dark blush painted pale cheeks as the Malfoy heir held a card out to Harry.

He jutted out his chin and said, "I'm inviting you to my Halloween party."

Sirius was pretty sure the boy had intended to come across as confident, but his voice wavered and there was insecurity and shyness swimming in those silver grey eyes. Fuck, he hadn't even known a Malfoy brat understood those emotions. What was going on here?

"Really?" Harry asked shyly, blushing as fiercely as the blond boy.

"Really!" Draco nodded and grinned. "It's going to be the best party of all!"

"Thank you," Harry whispered and accepted the card before shocking both adults and Draco by hugging the other boy. "I'll come to your party!"

Sirius wanted to protest, wanted to point out that he still had to get permission from his parents, but the look of pure happiness on his godson's face stopped him and he let out a soft sigh. He and Narcissa shared a look and he smiled wryly.

"I guess it's not going to be another sixteen years before we see each other again," he remarked.

She smiled, inclining her head. "I guess not. I'm looking forward to it. Tell Harry's parents they can contact us for arrangements; our Floo address is on the card." She held out her hand for her son to grasp. "And now, my dragon, we really must go."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Harry!" Draco waved and after throwing the dark haired boy one last grin he followed his mother down the street.

"Do you think I can go to Draco's class?" Harry stared at him uncertainly, biting his lower lip as his fingers tightened around the invitation card.

There were some questions Sirius wanted answered. Like how Harry and Draco had met; how long they had been familiar with each other already, because the interaction just now showed clearly this hadn't been the first time they talked with each other.

He was apprehensive about letting Harry go to a party organised by someone suspected of Death Eater activities. He didn't want his godson to be in danger and the Malfoy name still popped up in some of the Auror cases.

But as he looked down in big, emerald green eyes which shone with hope, he felt himself softening and he smiled, squeezing Harry's shoulder.

"I'm sure you can," he reassured the younger boy. "We'll discuss it with your parents, okay? And we'll also tell them that you've been invited to Draco's party."

The large, happy smile unfolding on his godson's face reinforced his determination. He would keep an eye on Lucius, make sure that the man wouldn't step out of line even with his little toe. If that Malfoy brat was someone who could make Harry happy, well, Sirius thought he could live with that.

As long as his godson was happy, he was happy. Simple as that.

Only time would tell whether he could really trust the Malfoys.

AN2: I have a lot of Godfather-Godson bonding feelings, okay? I'm a sucker for that. That's my excuse for this.

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all in other stories!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.