Draco and Harry walked down the corridor slowly until they turned the corner at which point they separated and Harry spun around to look at the figure of his godfather. Sirius looked exactly the same as the day Harry had watched him fall through the veil and it brought the whole event crashing back to the front of his thoughts.

"I'm sorry," he said as soon as he could convince his mouth to work.

Sirius looked confused and a little lost, not at all what Harry expected of someone who had seen the other side. There was so much he wanted to say, so much he wanted to know, but no words would form as he stared at the essence of his godfather.

"Harry," the man said slowly, "you don't have anything to be sorry for."

"I killed you," the words slipped out of Harry's mouth in a breathless rush before he could think of anything else.

The fear this admission brought with it caused Harry's throat to tighten and it was like he was suffocating. The obvious pain that flashed across Sirius' face was almost more than Harry could take. For a moment all he wanted to do was run, only Draco's hand on his arm stopped him. As it was, he had to look away, his eyes falling to the floor.

"Oh Merlin, Harry," his godfather said in a surprisingly gentle tone, "you didn't kill me, my own arrogance did that."

That drew Harry's eyes back to Sirius, a denial rising to his lips. The sad, apologetic look in his godfather's face stopped all sound from leaving Harry.

"I'm the one who should be saying sorry to you, Harry," the older man said, looking for all the world as if he had just come back for a visit. "I was so overjoyed at getting out of that house that I was careless. As usual I acted first and asked questions later, only this time there was no James to stop me killing myself or someone else."

Harry winced and looked down again at the reference to his father and couldn't help but feel inadequate. He should have saved him; his dad would have saved Sirius.

"I couldn't reach you," he tried to explain; he wanted to show Sirius that he tried.

"Oh, bloody hell, I'm worse at this than Snape would be," Harry heard his godfather growl and chanced another look up. "I didn't mean you should have saved me, Harry. I seem to remember you were busy staying alive at the time. What I meant was that I've always been the same, only before Azkaban I had your dad to drag me out of the ridiculous situations I would get myself into. I'm a reckless fool, and I always have been; only this time my foolishness left you all alone. I will never forgive myself for abandoning you like that."

It was difficult to take in what he was hearing and Harry could not let his godfather take the blame. It was Harry's fault that they had all been at the Ministry in the first place.

"If I hadn't been such an idiot," he said a little desperately; "if I hadn't ruined the Occlumency lessons; if I had understood how important they would be ... It's all my fault. I fell for Voldemort's trap, I led everyone into danger. It was me."

Tears burned behind Harry's eyes: tears of anger and self loathing; tears of pain and sorrow. He hadn't been able to cry since the first time he had seen Sirius like this, but now he could barely hold it back.

"You were fifteen, Harry," Sirius said earnestly, his own voice full of anguish, "we all expected far too much off you. Anyone else would have folded under the pressure. I've watched you, Harry. Over the past year and a half I've seen you grow and I've seen you live with a pain that would cripple most. You have made me so proud, and you made me realise that you are a much better man than I ever was. I know I would have made a lousy father, but I love you, Harry; you are like the child I will never have."

Harry couldn't stop the tears then and sob which was wrenched from his body caused Draco to step up close to him and wrap his arms around him. Silent comfort came from his soulmate in waves of love and sympathy, but they could not wash away the tide of emotions which threatened to drown Harry. He had expected some sort of recrimination; maybe not a condemnation, but definitely not this.

"You have never been a fool," Harry managed to make his mouth work eventually, although the tears he could see glistening on his godfather's cheeks did not help his equilibrium much. "You are the most courageous man I have ever met."

Even though he very rarely allowed himself to touch or be touched by anyone other than Draco, at that moment Harry wished fervently that Sirius was solid. He wanted to feel the reassuring hug he had felt just a few times before and he wanted to return it. Harry found his hand reaching out even though in his mind he knew that Sirius was non-corporeal and before his godfather could move away or Draco could stop him, his fingers connected with the energy that made up Sirius.

The very ends of his digits disappeared into the opaque vision that was his godfather and a force like none he had ever felt before leapt up Harry's arm. It was blinding and nerve shattering, but strangely intoxicating as well as he was overcome by the sudden sense of his godfather. It was not like seeing into Sirius' mind, but more as if Harry was engulfed by the man as a whole, seeing him fully for the first time. Unfortunately the experience also brought with it the sense of the wrongness that Harry had felt before he had blocked it and it sliced straight through his shield against it. One moment there was a sense of clarity as he sensed his godfather and the next there was blackness.

Harry opened his eyes slowly, blinking back the brightness and allowing his thoughts to settle into some semblance of order. He had not been out for very long, he could tell from the reaction he could still feel in Draco, but he was sitting on the floor resting up against his lover, wrapped in a strong embrace.

"You two are as bad as each other," Draco's tone was exasperated and Harry could feel the anxiety he had caused still running through his soulmate. "Harry didn't it occur to you that if Sirius causes you to nearly pass out when he enters the same room, touching him might be a very bad idea?"

[I had to,] he replied silently, not trusting his voice to work correctly, [I'm sorry, I had to.]

Draco did not reply, but his embrace tightened for a moment and Harry knew he was forgiven. It was strange, but even though his mental barriers were battered, he felt much calmer than before the incident.

"Are you two both okay?" Sirius asked from where he was crouching a few feet away. "I can attract someone's attention if you need me to."

For a second Harry almost just told his godfather that he'd be fine in a moment and then his mind caught up with what the man had just said.

"No one but us can see you," he pointed out.

"True," Sirius replied with a nod, "but I can affect things a little if I try really hard. I could push over a suit of armour or something."

"We'll be fine, thank you," Draco stepped in before Harry's godfather could demonstrate.

Harry would have tried to stand up, but he knew from experience that sitting quietly for a few minutes would be much the best course of action. However, rather than being afraid of what Sirius might do or might be feeling, Harry now felt an overwhelming curiosity. The guilt that had all but consumed him earlier had not simply vanished, but it was far easier to deal with knowing that his godfather really did not blame him, even if he chose to blame himself.

At Sirius' admission that he could affect his environment something tried to spark in Harry's memory, but it wouldn't quite make itself known.

"Have you ever affected me?" he found himself asking quietly.

"Once," Sirius replied. "Last year when that bludger caught you in the Gryffindor practice and you fell. I don't know how I did it exactly, but I stopped you hitting bottom too hard."

The recollection sparked in Harry's mind and it all made sense. At the time he had assumed that Hermione had saved him since she had been watching the practice and was the only one with a wand in her possession, but there had been such a kerfuffle that Harry had never got round to thanking her. It had felt very odd and now he knew why.

"Um, thanks," was about all he could come up with to say which caused Draco to laugh.

"Gryffindors," was the only comment his lover would make when Harry looked at him quizzically.

That made Harry smile and suddenly his head was full of things he wanted to ask and things he wanted to tell his godfather. He looked the man straight in the eye.

"Thanks for coming," he said earnestly. "Can we sit down properly and have a chat? How long can you stay?"

"I usually manage a couple of hours," Sirius replied with a slight smile of his own, "unless I do something showy."

"And you'd never do anything like that would you," Harry replied with a grin.

That drew a chuckle out of Sirius and Harry let himself have just a little hope that this would be okay.

* * *

There was a tentative knock at their door as Harry sat on the bed, quill in hand, but quite incapable of writing the essay he was supposed to be working on. Draco was quietly looking over the notes Professor Deamon had sent over from the DADA lesson and had not commented on his lover's lack of concentration.

Sirius's visit had rather shaken Harry and although he was much calmer than he had been, and, for that matter, far more comfortable with the idea that his godfather was still around, he could not stop his thoughts spinning. Without even thinking about what he was doing Harry let his magical sense focus on whoever was beyond the door.

"Come in, Ron," he called and waited for his friend to do so.

The talk with Sirius had lasted well over an hour before the man had begun to find it difficult to retain his physical integrity. He had said he usually managed longer than that, which had caused more guilt in Harry, since he suspected it had been his touching his godfather which had shortened his stay. The issues between them were by no means completely settled, but healing had begun and Harry was happier than he had been since Sirius' first visit, almost back to the buoyant self he had found when he bonded with Draco.

Harry had been expecting Ron to come and find out what was going on as soon as lessons ended for the day, and the redhead had not disappointed.

"How'd you know it was me?" Ron asked as walked in. "Can you see through doors now? Let me guess, the whole thing in DADA was a new power coming online."

The slight irreverence that his friend had taken to using when it came to any revelations about Harry was a relief to him. He suspected it was as much a coping mechanism as Draco's sarcasm, but Harry appreciated the effort.

"No, it wasn't," he told Ron with a smile, "it was Sirius coming back. But as for the other thing, it's more that the door is irrelevant rather than that I can see through it."

Harry watched as possible responses to those pieces of information battled it out in his friend's features. It was quite obvious that Ron didn't know what to ask first.

"If you don't mind me saying," his friend said eventually, sounding a little awkward, "you look rather cheerful for having seen Padfoot."

"Your tact amazes me, Weasley," Draco said from where he was still reading. "They had a bit of a chat, shared out the guilt evenly like good Gryffindors, and now they're fine about it."

The sarcasm would have sounded scathing to some, but Harry was glad his lover had stepped in. Explaining what he was feeling at the moment would have been difficult and Draco had just saved him from that. Ron still appeared somewhat puzzled, but no longer as curious.

"We talked for a long time," Harry confirmed his soulmate's words, "and it's okay."

His best friend looked at him evenly for a while and then nodded with a smile.

"All I need to know," he said firmly. "If you ever need someone to talk to other than the ferret, you know I'll be here, though, right?"

Harry smiled and nodded as Draco snorted his contempt at the way he had been described. It was, however, quite plain to both Ron and Harry that Ron was forgiven for the nickname since the Slytherin continued what he was doing without comment.

"Hermione said she'd be up in a while," Ron offered as Harry tapped the bed and his friend sat down, "she might be a little pushier. Anyway, about this doors being irrelevant thing."

With a grin Harry tried to figure out how to explain his magical sense to his friend.

~*~

A/N: Many thanks for reading. Check back tomorrow for the next two chapters. In case you were wondering, we have 11 to go.