Harry and Sirius reached their stop in London a short time after midnight. With the beginnings of a stomach cramp from holding in his laughter, and trembling muscles from keeping alert due to a mad prison escapee, it was not a graceful exit from the bus. Harry leaped to his feet as soon as the Knight Bus screeched to halt and tottered his way past Ernie and Stan with all the grace of a new-born foal. He felt Sirius, or Padfoot, rather, nudging him along from behind.

Quite keen to escape the lurching monstrosity, Harry and his invisible companion scrambled out the door into the night with barely a backwards glance.

Once out in the cool, damp air of London at night, Harry turned and waved goodbye to Stan and the driver until the Knight Bus disappeared with a loud crack. There was no need in letting any witnesses see where he was travelling.

The quiet stillness of the wee hours of the London morning settled into Harry's ears slowly.

After the rattling and rumbling of the last few hours, the London suburbs' mundane midnight traffic seemed distant and peaceful. Harry felt a bit of the tension drain out of him; the mad escape had worked, after all, and his plan was continuing apace.

The silence was broken by Sirius' gravelly voice in uncontrollable giggles coming from somewhere near his ankles.

"What in bloody buggering hell are we doing, James? McGonagall would have us in detention from now until Christmas if she'd caught us, you bastard!" As best as Harry could work out, the invisible man had collapsed to the ground in hysterics. "Lily would kill me if I took you on that monstrosity again – despite being her favourite, you know. Lily would kill you too if you risked my lovely, perfectly shaped a– " His voice cut out. Sirius sobered suddenly with sudden grim hopelessness and his deadened voice spoke darkly. "You're dead, James. You're all dead. I killed you."

There was a sudden scrabble in the silence, and Harry was made viscerally aware of the inherent dangers of covering a mad, murderous prison-escapee with an Invisibility Cloak.

"…Sirius?" he asked, in the suddenly still night. There was a pause when Harry didn't think he was going to get a response; Harry found his wand-hand reaching for the pouch about his neck.

Then he heard a noise. Harry tensed, paused, let his hand drop back to his side.

To his horror, Harry realised that down by his ankles, Sirius was sniffling. Then he felt something tug on the hem of his trouser leg.

"I'm sorry James," Harry heard, "I'm so sorry. I can't do it James. You've gone, and Lily's gone, and Remus hates me, and the bloody rat bastard set me up. I don't want to go on James. It's so hard…"

"Sirius," said Harry, panicking. "Sirius, it'll be ok. Mum and Dad forgive you. Remus'll come 'round. You're doing well so far, right?"

"Harry," croaked Sirius in a cracked and broken voice, and Harry's chest clenched tight. To his relief the hood to the Cloak slipped off, and Harry could see where Sirius was huddled. "Harry, I'm so sorry Pup. I let you down. I tried, Harry, I tried to be strong but I messed it all up. I can't help you any more kid. I'm all emptied out. There's nothing left."

In the distant glimmer of a nearby street lamp, Harry was dismayed to see a solitary teardrop work its way down Sirius' grimy cheek and into his beard.

Harry squeezed his fists tight.

"Sirius," he said desperately, "Sirius. You broke out of Azkaban for this, right? No one ever managed that before, you know? Dad would be so proud, don't you think?"

"James," Sirius groaned. "I broke my promise. I told you I'd look after your kid." He sudden desperation he reached up towards the stooping Harry and grabbed Harry's head strongly with both hands. They were cold, far too cold for comfort, and Harry felt Sirius' long nails lightly scrape the sensitive skin of his face.

Harry flinched in the face of Sirius' unblinking stare.

"I'm sorry James, I'm sorry kid, I…" Sirius broke off, glancing around Harry as if he was confused. "James? Harry? Are you…?"

Harry desperately wanted to try a Cheering Charm or give Sirius a Calming Potion, but…were they safe for…unbalanced people? Could he even use magic on Sirius right now? Were there tracking spells or whatever? Harry had no clue.

He swallowed noisily.

"Sirius," he eventually tried, after a moment of thought. "Sirius, it's okay. You're doing well." He squatted down and grasped awkwardly for his godfather's shoulders underneath the Invisibility Cloak. "James is proud of you. You're here, aren't you? Get your mind back in the game, Padfoot. Harry's relying on you. Smarten up, you can relax and recoup soon. You with me?"

"Back in the game?" Sirius seemed lost, eyes depressingly unfocused. "Head on straight. Get my head on straight. Gotta get back in the game. That's right, Harry's relying on me. I made a promise. I…Harry?"

Harry was relieved, the lost forlorn look in Sirius' eyes had sharpened into focus. "That's right. We've left my uncle and aunt's place. We're going to yours. We just got off the Knight Bus. Are you with me?...Sirius?"

Sirius stared at Harry intently again, making him wonder if his godfather was retreating back into his confusion. But then Sirius spoke in an ordinary, if gravelly, kind of voice, surprising Harry with its normality. "Look, Pup – can I call you Pup? This was a stupid idea."

Harry was somewhat indignant. "What do you…? You mean the Bus? I know it wasn't pleasant, but it was all I could come up with at the time!"

"That too," Sirius agreed fervently. "Damn thing almost killed me, I'm sure. What James would have said if I arrived in the afterlife having been defeated by some purple people-muncher, I don't…" Sirius trailed off. "The house. It won't work."

"Eh?" Harry glanced around. "You think they're following us?"

"They'll be watching it."

Harry blinked, and thought about it. He had been working on the understanding that it was under the Fidelius Charm, but perhaps…

"Ah," he mumbled, intelligently. Presumably the muggle-repellent charms were in existence, but as Harry's mind made a few extra connections he realised: for Dumbledore to be the Secret Keeper in the previous timeline, the Fidelius Charm must have been a recent addition.

He cursed. No Fidelius on the house would make things difficult. And it was supposed to have been the perfect plan! What else of vital importance had he forgotten to take into account?

"Aurors?" he queried.

"Hm," Sirius confirmed. "They can't get in, or the house would kill them – Dark family, the Blacks," he explained in an aside. "My father put every security measure known to wizardkind on it when he lived here. It's Unplottable, so Muggles could never come and call — as if they'd ever have wanted to — so it should be safe for us, but they'll surely be watching the doors and windows."

Harry pondering the problem for a few minutes. In the face of his stillness, Sirius's disembodied head started pacing, muttering something about stupid ideas ruining everything. Harry felt a stab of frustration.

"I didn't think the Ministry was competent?" Harry finally asked.

Sirius released a hacking, hoarse bark of laugher. "They're not, but is it really something you're willing to…" he began again. "It's not something I'm willing to risk my soul for. They'll have..." he trailed away more darkly, finally muttering in a low tone, "They'll have instructions to Kiss me on sight."

"Ah." Harry paused. While Aurors were a real risk, running into Dementors was definitely not in his plan. "But if we get into the house we'd be okay?"

Sirius grimaced. "House elf."

"What?" Harry carefully kept his face blank.

"Nasty thing. Loved my dear ol' Mum. Still does, if it's alive. If I sneak in looking like I'm trying to keep things quiet that loyal house elf of mine will probably make a huge racket and bring half the Ministry running before I can say 'be silent'." He spat the words with such bitterness that Harry worried as to the stability of his plans. But no, he had to get into Grimmauld Place tonight, so Sirius could start to heal there in safety. Sirius continued, "He can't outright betray me, or he'd die, but he'll do his level-best to undermine me."

Harry chose his words carefully. "I have…a bit of a way with house elves." Sirius raised his eyebrows. "If I had one night with this house elf –"

"Demon."

"Demon?"

"Bloody evil little bugger – can't remember its name – evil incarnate, I kid you not."

Harry nodded for a moment, as if he was processing what Sirius was saying. "Well, if you give me a few hours with this house elf of yours, then I think I could fix that."

Sirius stopped his invisible pacing, and turned to face Harry. The weight of his silent stare was somewhat undermined by the fact that he was still only visible from the neck up. "You're an odd child," he muttered. "Very odd." He paused, then huffed quietly. "Well, you're the kid with the plan. How do we get inside without the watchers hearing a fuss?"

The plan bloomed triumphantly in Harry's mind.

"So we would be safe in the house, but have to silence your elf first. Are you being tracked by any…" Harry fluttered his fingers in the dark. "Any magical charms?"

"Dunno," sighed Sirius, sounding like he was moving from curiosity back to hopelessness. "They wouldn't tell me that now, would they?"

"Well," tried Harry, "I can do a little bit of magic since the Trace is not on me or my wand, but if we're not sure what's on you it's probably not worth trying. I could go first and come back for you? Would a little bit of distance help?"

"Strange child," Sirius repeated. "Best not. If there is something on me, there's no telling what the Ministry might pick up. Besides, you're not leaving me until you've got me the rat."

"Huh," said Harry, temporarily derailed. "But what we need is a chance to tell your elf not to draw attention without anyone noticing, right?"

"Hmm."

"So we can sneak in unnoticed." Harry smiled, and pulled out his mokeskin pouch from underneath his shirt. He dug inside it for a moment, before triumphantly brandished his set of keys, and turned to the gently bobbing, invisible luggage that had been following him all the while. Sirius watched in silence as Harry dropped it down the ground and brought it back to visibility.

Then Harry too dropped down onto the ground and fiddled a bit with the trunk. After a few clinks, and Harry's quiet mutterings about lacking light, he turned from his open luggage to reveal to Sirius the entrance to his bedroom compartment.

"Ta-da!" he revealed. "Part of why I bought it is that it stops ambient magic leakage. Hop in, and call your demon-house elf to come here!"

There was a moment of stunned silence, before Harry heard the guttural sound of Sirius croaking laughter, and he saw a gaunt hand pressed briefly against the edge of the trunk, and a flash of cloth as Sirius climbed into the compartment.

"Stay out here and keep watch," Sirius' voice drifted out of the trunk, before his hand snapped up and drew the lid down.

Harry settled down to lean against the closest brick wall, his chest warmed by his momentary triumph.

Harry gazed around the neighbourhood. They were perhaps half an hour's walk away from Grimmauld Place, but the suburban road they were on was still peaceful and calm. The overlooking windows were all dark, and no cars had passed in the ten minutes they had stood here talking.

Harry got comfy on the wall.

It took three minutes for Sirius to pop his head back out of the trunk and lean on the edge of the rim in despair, invisibility cloak somehow misplaced. "I can't call him, James. I've forgotten everything. It's all hopeless."

Harry looked at the gaunt, exhausted man in front of him and felt his own wash of exhaustion. The weight of failure loomed heavily over him. But this was Harry's plan, and he'd lived through a year on the run after all. He drew on his reserves of patience.

Harry crouched down in front of his godfather and smiled encouragingly.

"You've got this, Sirius. I know you can do it. Just a little bit more work and we can let you rest up. What's happened now?"

"I can't remember his name, Prongs. I can't call a house-elf without a name."

Despite feeling significantly worried about the state of Sirius' mind, Harry almost smiled in relief. "That, I can help you with." He stopped to work on his phrasing. No need to give too much away, after all. "Now tell me, what did your dear ol' mum used to say when she wanted to serve her guests tea?"

Sirius blinked up at Harry in confusion, "'Do you take it black?'"

"…" said Harry, nodding encouragingly. "Good? And then did she call for your house elf? What kind of name would a little creature like that…"

"Kreacher!" Sirius jerked upright, and to Harry's dismay there was a loud snap in the air behind him and the low muttering of a very familiar voice. He spun around with a curse and grabbed the house-elf with both hands. His seeker reflexes thus serving him well, Harry lifted the little elf up above his head, and toppled all three of them over and into the compartment.

There was a mad scramble and a good deal of shouting before Harry found himself on his feet again, temporarily deaf in one ear and with a developing bruise over his right eye.

The lid was still open, so Harry waved his wand quickly to muffle the space – the Ministry tracking charms on Sirius, if there were any, would be confused by the wizarding space they were inside, so his charms could work here just fine. Having done so, Harry turned back to his companions. Kreacher had disappeared after stomping all over Harry's face, and when Sirius had immediately recalled him, had returned to the luggage compartment with a snarl. Now the two worked hard, shrieking insults at each other at the top of their lungs.

" – nasty, wicked little master with bricks for his brain – " Harry heard Kreacher shout, until the elf was overwhelmed by Sirius roaring back,

" – evil little gremlin, I wish you had drowned yourself in your own p– "

" – If my poor old mistress had seen what a waste of space – "

" – should have died with my dear ol' mum and long may you both burn in – "

" – glad you were rotting in prison – "

Harry pointed his wand again, and called loudly, "Petrificus Totalus!"

The furious house elf snapped to attention and slowly tilted backwards, while Sirius roared with laughter. "Serves you right you vicious little blighter – "

But then Sirius cut off in surprise when Harry conjured a pile of soft pillows for the elf to land on. "James! What are you doing? I thought we were going to kill the little bugger?"

"Er…no?" Harry and Sirius stared at each other for a moment before Sirius' mind lost focus and Harry remembered how functional his godfather currently was.

Harry began to feel like this year was going to be more complicated than he had planned for. "Sirius," he began gently, "remember we had a plan? How about you just tell Kreacher than he needs to obey me like I'm his new master, and then you can go and have a nice rest for a bit. How does that sound?"

Sirius blinked. "Harry? Is that you Harry? What happened to the…oh, there he is. Kreacher, this is Harry. He's my godson. Obey him like you would obey m– , not like me. Obey Harry like he is your other master. Nod if you understand…I said NOD!" Sirius bellowed.

Harry rapidly unpetrified the house elf, who promptly began nodding his head, spitting out some particularly vicious insults while he did so.

Sirius turned to Harry, "Pup, meet Kreacher, a miserable excuse of a house elf, but he's all we've got."

"Thanks Sirius, I think he's got the message," Harry spoke calmly. "Now how about you change back for a bit while Kreacher and I have a little chat."

"Don't worry James," Sirius beamed, a wide, broad smile blooming on his face. "He'll do what he's told now. Kreacher."

Harry heard some rather uncomplimentary comments drift up into the night air. Sirius drew in a deep breath, and Harry spoke quickly to cut him off. To Sirius' complete bafflement, Harry muttered out some brief instructions, then added, "Now, go back home in silence and wait in the kitchen for us. We'll see you there soon."

"…ungrateful degenerates…criminal… would my dear Mistress say…?" Kreacher scowled and muttered, before disappearing in front of their eyes with a particularly loud crack.

Sirius swore.

"Told you about that, didn't I? Did anyone hear?"

Harry shrugged, and climbed up the steps to step out of the bedroom compartment after rifling around in one of the corners of the compartment. "No idea. I've been in here with you for the most part."

"Were you really?" Sirius seemed astonished, but reached up to grab Harry's arm to be helped out of the trunk.

Harry continued. "No one's around, but we'll look a bit weird sitting here alone in the middle of the night, we should get going."

Sirius replaced the Invisibility Cloak around his shoulders and came to stand behind Harry. "So what's the plan now?"

Harry revealed what he had grabbed from the corner of the room.

"Did you know I'm pretty good on a broomstick?"

Sirius laughed again.

Harry and his godfather swept silently through the dark London night, swooping around chimneys and over rooftops. Sirius sat silently behind Harry on the broomstick, holding on to his waist with a casual grip.

Unlike his passenger, Harry himself was not under the Invisibility Cloak, so he was careful to keep to the shadows and out of the pools of light that gathered around the street lights. So close to their destination, so many problems already overcome, the two figures were as close to relaxed as they had been for hours.

Besides, they were flying.

In that same relaxed mood he always found when in the air, Harry smiled to himself as the night air ruffled his hair and he leaned into a steep corner. Gravity and speed pulled at his robes and body with the same familiar grip they always did, and he resisted the lure with a casual ease. He'd sunk into his Occlumency trance again, that inner pool of stillness where he was all calm and calculating. So it was not that he was happy, or excited, exactly. But he was relaxed and enjoying the peaceful sense of rightness. Behind him, he felt the tension melt off his godfather similarly.

Just the homestretch to go.

They slowed as the broomstick neared the entrance to Grimmauld Place, and skated directly over the rooftops, shoes sometimes mere inches from roof peaks and chimneys. While Sirius breathed close to Harry's ear, Harry himself leaned forward, hoping it was obvious, hoping he could spot Grimmauld Place emerging from the dark just like the Leaky Cauldron did when he was close enough.

Distant muggle gardens, three or four floors down, were wreathed in shadows as Harry's eyes strained to spot something different. Something that didn't fit the pattern. He didn't quite know what he was looking for.

Then Harry's seeker eyes quickly picked out an extra rooftop and garden emerging from the anti-muggle wards that the House of Black had put up. He slowed the broomstick and hovered two households away, looking for Ministry watchers from well above the rooftops.

"What do you see?" he whispered, and felt Sirius lean forward to gaze over his shoulder.

They hovered, still in the air, for a long moment.

"I don't believe it," Sirius husky voice murmured after some time. "There's only one."

Harry stared out into the darkness. "Where? I don't see them."

Sirius snorted quietly, sounding for one moment surprisingly like Severus Snape.

Harry shivered as he felt a large hand gently grasp the back of his head, and forced himself to relax as all it did was angle his gaze towards the front steps of the opposite property. "There," Sirius whispered. "In the shadow of the steps. He isn't even disillusioned."

Harry's sharp eyes easily picked the figure out of the darkness, now that he was looking in the right place. A figure dressed in a dark-coloured cloak was leaning heavily against the brickwork in the shadows. It looked very motionless.

"Is he…asleep?" Harry wondered.

"Almost," Sirius replied. "Some young idiot, I suppose. He wouldn't have made it through the last war with skills like that."

"Shall we try the front door?" Harry enquired.

"No," Sirius ruffled Harry's hair. "You had the right of it before. We'll get in through the second-floor window, assuming Kreacher has opened it like you instructed. How did you know about that?"

Harry said nothing, leaning forward instead to gently guide the broomstick around the back of the townhouse, where a bedroom window should be standing open just awaiting their arrival.

Behind him, Sirius just shook his head quietly, and sat back.

Harry and Sirius gently drifted down the back end of the house and stopped by the dark window that was cracked barely open.

They hovered there in silence for a moment. Harry sighed a little. "I see what you mean," he offered, and Sirius rolled his eyes. Kreacher had done exactly what Harry said, and cracked the window open enough for the two to sneak in, but not a quarter-inch more. The gap was maybe six-inches wide.

"Shall we try opening it more?" asked Harry.

Sirius shook his head. "Who knows what noise it might make. We'll make this work."

Harry drifted the broomstick closer. "You first," and after a brief whispered discussion, Sirius agreed.

"Head first, do you think?" Harry asked.

"Into that dark hellhole? Not on your life," Sirius whispered sharply back. "It'll be feet first so I can run away if need be, or not at all."

Upon reflection, Harry agreed with the assessment and the broom slowly hovered a little higher and then a little higher again.

As Harry controlled the broomstick directly above the window, Sirius slipped his feet onto one side of the handle. Grasping the broom handle, and Harry's shoulders tightly, he slowly transferred his weight onto the windowsill, and turned. Carefully, cautiously, as Sirius felt the steadiness of Harry's broom control, he used the broomstick to take his weight as he slid his feet through the gap. Then, with some surprise, Sirius felt Harry manoeuvre the broomstick closer to the gap so that Sirius was levered through the window without having to do a thing. Harry was almost level with the windowsill when Sirius felt his feet hit the floor, and released the broom handle to pull himself inside.

His figure disappeared for a minute, whirling to take stock of the room.

Harry paused, waiting; was it safe?

Then Sirius' pale hands came back through the little gap, graspingly. Sirius quickly unhooked the Invisibility Cloak from where it had caught on the window frame, and dragged it inside.

Relieved of his passenger, Harry pulled his handle up, and flew a tight loop away from the window and before coming back. He aimed straight at the gap, his full body lying flat against the wood of his broomstick handle, his feet held tight next to the bristles. Sirius, seeing what he intended, stood back from the window as Harry coasted silently and smoothly through the tiny space. There was a quietest of rustles as the bristles slid over the wooden window frame, and then Harry was inside, and they were safe.

"Thank goodness we're both skinny, huh?" Harry asked with a cheeky grin, and Sirius had to laugh as the outrageous plan worked to perfection.

Safely inside, Harry and Sirius glanced around the dark bedroom they had entered, illuminated only by the dimmest of moonlit glows.

There was a strong smell of mustiness and dust and mould. The carpet was deceptively soft and thick, but Harry had to stifle a cough as they threw up clouds of dust with every step they took. Turning to look back once as they left the little bedroom, Harry saw that they had left clear footprints in the layer of dust on the floor. Something crackled under him as he walked, and Harry hoped there weren't too many bodies of spiders, or doxies or whatever, sunk into the sheeting of grey as they died.

They walked carefully down the next corridor and eased themselves through the house in the dark. Even Sirius was strangely silent; perhaps his memories of the place were jarring with its current state, or perhaps it was just that unpleasant to come back.

Grimmauld Place was in dire straits. Even in the dark, the grey coating of dust and cobwebs everywhere were perfectly visible. Harry and Sirius were careful to avoid the strangely clean spots by a number of wardrobes and cabinets and cupboards. They assumed, quite correctly, that any number of Dark Creatures had moved into the dark little spaces.

Any number of pictures remained on the walls where they had presumably lived for years. Some of them slept softly, others snored or wheezed and Harry wondered with a sudden, morbid curiosity: when was it that they had last woken?

He followed Sirius down stairs that should have creaked, but instead they paced on in eerie silence.

Harry was glad he had come here in the company of his godfather; this was not what he had expected at all.

Eventually, after measured steps and faltering footsteps, Harry and Sirius found themselves on the ground floor, where Kreacher obviously lived. While not clean by any stretch of the imagination, there was less dust, and tracks on the floor where the house elf obviously walked.

Harry breathed out a sigh of relief.

Standing in the sitting room, Sirius wrinkled his nose and muttered bad things about house elves. Harry eyed him thoughtfully.

"There's not much we can do in the dark," he offered, as Sirius' inaudible tirade wound itself down. "Do you want to sleep in the trunk for tonight?"

A dark head swivelled his way.

It was the work of a few moments, but Harry soon had Sirius persuaded to follow him in the trunk where they could continue their talk.

Once the luggage was closed firmly, and they were safely ensconced inside it, Harry turned back to his godfather.

"It's a bit rude," he began, "but if you want to sleep on the bed tonight, do you mind if I clean you up a bit?"

Still sounded slightly unhinged or off-balance from the trek through the house, Sirius barked his laughter again. Harry carefully withdrew his wand from the pouch around his neck, and explained how he could cast undetected spells from within it. Sirius, after a moment of silent contemplation, threw his hands up in the air and let Harry have it his way.

Apparently, the whole evening had been so far beyond what the escaped convict had expected that he was willing to roll with whatever Harry suggested. That was exactly to Harry's advantage.

A few cleaning spells later, and another Cornish pastry and water bottle down, Sirius was finally agreeing to settle down in Harry's bed for the night.

Harry argued him down out of his final objection.

"But Kreacher could do anything to the luggage while we're asleep."

Harry smiled. "I'll go out and talk to him now. I promise nothing, but I think by tomorrow we should have a different house elf."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Sirius grumbled, but let Harry climb out of the trunk without moving to stop him.

Harry turned to close the trunk, and smiled reassuringly at the solitary, gaunt figure of his godfather as he gently closed the lid.

"You'll be safe in here," he promised. "I've got your back. Nothing will get past me, so sleep easy and relax."