All Hail the Dark Lord, Or Something Idiotic Like That

The Talk pt3

A/N: Not my story! Original available on ao3

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"If I'm going to talk to someone, it's going to be you...well, besides Ron and Hermione who already know," he assured the man.

"Or the boyfriend maybe?" Sirius tried for some levity with a small smile.

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"I'm not counting him since he's part of the secret," Harry just added, taking a steadying breath for what he was about to do. "Look, Siri, if you want in, I'll tell you. I really do want you to know, and I want you on my side. I need you to be sure you can handle some pretty heavy information though. I need to know that you care about me not some cause or a side in this war or even an idea of who and what you want me to be. Am I asking too much? If so, just tell me, I won't respect you any less, and I'll swear to never take your whiskey again and we can move forward."

To his credit, Sirius did actually take a moment to think about it before responding. "Pup...I know I'm not the best godfather..." he held up his hand to stop Harry before he could protest.

"No, it's true. I can't leave this house and take you places, I'm all over the place mentally, and Remy says I'm way more impulsive than I was even as a teenager. So, I understand that you might not fully trust me, but I want to assure you, more than anything else in this world, that I'm trying to be better for you. I want to be there for you. Even if I sometimes look at you and see James, I do still know you're Harry, and that means more to me than this ridiculous war, the people in this house, my own freedom. You say the word and you and me will run off never to be heard from again. I'm serious. Whatever you need, whatever you want to tell me, I'm here for you."

"Well, you must really mean it since you didn't make the joke about your name," Harry grinned at him.

"I did think it though," Sirius returned his smile slightly. "I didn't put you first before when I escaped...I put my revenge first. I know I wasn't in my right mind then, but I want to do right by you now. I want to be someone you can come to and trust with things."

"Ok, but I'm warning you, if you freak out, I'm going to obliviate you," Harry told him, not as a threat but as a very sincere promise. He wasn't worried about Sirius telling anyone because, one, he really didn't think he would, and two, no one would believe him anyway.

Sirius scoffed. "It might have been a while since I was there, but I'm certain Hogwarts doesn't teach mind magic to anyone, let alone underage students. At most I might get a nosebleed if you tried."

"Well, for starters I'm not fifteen," Harry crossed his arms and leaned back on the couch, trying to take this slowly and not just throw everything at the man all at once. "I act different, I am different, because I came back in time this summer. I'm not the person you knew at the beginning of the summer. I've lived all this before, and Siri...it didn't turn out well at all. My partner and I, we came back to fix things, or fuck it up at the very least."

Sirius frowned, a look of disbelief and confusion in his eyes. "Time travel does not exist past hours...if you were to go back any significant time, then you put your own existence, your own soul, at risk. My knowledge of dark magic is highly limited, but even I know two of a person cannot exist on the same plane for any significant length of time before the soul tries to right itself."

Harry winced at that. "Yeah...I really should have realized that ahead of time. I would have if I'd sat down and really thought it through. But, in my defense, future Hermione was the one who found the ritual, and I was more concerned with getting the ridiculous thing right than thinking through all the magical theory. In hindsight, it should have been obvious though. I'm not saying I wouldn't have done it, I definitely still would, but I might have at least warned my partner first."

"Obvious? What exactly are you claiming to have done?" Sirius raised an eyebrow, still seeming to not quite believe him and getting more and more concerned.

"Yeah, well, we over-wrote our younger selves...basically, fifteen-year-old me was killed in the process of me coming back, or written out of existence at least," Harry grimaced at that. "We didn't mean to, but well, we're still here, just older and all. It was how the ritual solved the two people on one plane issue."

"You look fifteen..." Sirius frowned darkly at the person setting in front of him. He didn't know what was going on, but he was very concerned about Harry. If he wasn't absolutely certain this person was Harry, which he was after all their interactions over the past week, then he would probably be calling in the rest of the house at the moment.

Harry sighed and moved Sephie off his lap to pull his new wand out of the holster on his leg. Sephie stretched really big before wandering over to Sirius to paw at his pants leg. "Go ahead, pick her up," Harry waved at the cat. "Maybe holding her will calm you down when I do what I'm about to do."