Harry had fallen asleep in the headmaster's arms, and over the next two days he did a lot more sleeping as well. In between he chatted and played games with Ron and Hermione. Tp begin with Hermione had tried to talk to him about his first awakening, but Ron seemed to realise how uncomfortable it made him. Ron had taken Hermione aside for a quiet word, and ever since, it had been studiously ignored as a possible subject of conversation.

Remus visited a couple of times, but they seemed to understand each other without many words, and the werewolf spent most of his time at Sirius' side. Harry would have liked to have been with his friend, but Madame Pomfrey refused to let him out of bed. The first time he had tried to visit the loo the healer had marched him straight back to his blankets and offered an alternative. The second time he had tried to sneak by her and had been given a stern talking to about energy levels and cracking heads open on porcelain. However, there was nothing that would have kept him in his bed when he heard a moan coming from Sirius'.

Sliding out from under the covers he did not even stop to pull on the dressing gown lying on the chair next to his bed. The stone floor was freezing on his feet, but Madame Pomfrey had confiscated his slippers to prevent him walking anywhere and he was not about to wait around for her to give them back. Running silently on bare feet he crossed to the screened bed and put his head round one of the partitions.

Remus was sitting next to Sirius watching his friend intently, but the werewolf looked up as soon as Harry intruded on their little space.

"He's waking up," Remus said quietly, and beckoned Harry to his side.

Harry did not hesitate and moved between the screens quickly, until he was standing right next to Remus. No more words passed between them as Sirius groaned again and drew both of them to focus back on his recumbent form.

As Harry watched, he felt all fluttery inside, as if his heart had been hit with a Jittering Jinx. It was suddenly hard to breathe. As Sirius' dark eyelashes finally flicked back it was as if Harry could see everything in minute detail and the world moved with an agonising slowness, narrowing down to only the three of them.

Blinking up at the ceiling, for a moment Sirius did not appear to be seeing anything, but then grey eyes slowly began to track across the space above him until they fixed on Harry and Remus. Harry stopped breathing all together, it was just easier. For a moment there was no reaction on Sirius' face at all and his godfather just blinked at Harry, eyes slowly moving between him and Remus.

"Thank you," Sirius said very quietly in a voice that sounded like he had swallowed sharp stones.

The fluttery feeling exploded inside Harry's chest like a blasting hex and his knees all but gave out. If Remus had not been there, he would definitely have fallen as his body seemed to be snatched from his conscious control. A small part of his brain concluded that maybe Madame Pomfrey had been right to keep him in bed, while another section proposed the theory that it was simple shock. The rest just didn't know what to think. He felt himself being sat down as he closed his eyes and hoped that the disorientation would go away quickly.

"Steady there, Harry," Remus' gentle tones said quietly, "slow even breaths."

He did as he was told. He opened his eyes again shortly and was glad to find that everything seemed to be normal. When he plucked up the courage to finally look up, he found Remus standing next to him with an arm draped protectively around his shoulder, and Sirius half propped up on the bed on one arm, looking worried. The first thing that jumped into his head was that his godfather looked really tired and shouldn't be sitting up like that.

"Lie down," he said, reaching out to touch Sirius' hand without really considering what he was doing. "If you fall out of bed, Madame Pomfrey will kill us."

"Promise not to faint on us, and I might just take that advice," Sirius replied as the look of worry on his face was replaced by a slight smile.

Harry was about to protest that he was not going to faint when he realised that that was exactly what he had almost done, and so he nodded rather sheepishly. Sirius took his hand in his before Harry could withdraw it and then gingerly lay back down without letting go. Harry really didn't know what to do and he looked to Remus for help. The werewolf appeared somewhere between joy and amusement, and the enormous happiness radiating off Remus rather took Harry's breath away.

In their little meetings over the last few days they had both been quiet and contemplative, but now Remus seemed to be broadcasting his emotions to the rest of the room.

"Can I get you anything, Padfoot?" the werewolf asked.

"If you can find me a headache potion I will be in your debt for life," Sirius said and lifted his free hand to his temples. "Again," he added as an afterthought.

"I'm sure Madame Pomfrey has something in her stores," Remus said with a bright smile, and then the werewolf turned and walked through the screens.

That left Harry alone with Sirius and he was terrified.

He looked anywhere but at his godfather until a squeeze of his hand made him glance at his companion. Sirius had an understanding expression on his face, and a deep emotion in his eyes that Harry could not quite figure out.

"It wasn't your fault, Harry," his godfather said quietly, "it was mine. I underestimated Bellatrix and wound up paying the price."

"But..." Harry tried to contradict Sirius.

"No buts," Sirius said in an amazingly firm tone considering the fact that the man could do little more than whisper. "You're still a child, Harry, whether or not Voldemort tricked you has nothing to do with this. Grown wizards with years of experience can't keep him out of their minds, there's no way you could have protected yourself, no matter what Snape tried to tell you. You bear no blame. I am so sorry for what I have put you through. Please forgive me."

Harry could find no words to say, he didn't even know what to think. Sirius was asking for his forgiveness and yet he knew it should be him on his knees begging to be absolved of everything he had done. It was all his fault; he had not studied Occlumency properly, he had allowed Voldemort into his mind, it was all his doing; if he had not been so stupid this would never have happened.

"I," he said quietly, trying to find something in his mind that would make sense. "You would never have been there is it wasn't for me," was all that would come out of his mouth.

Sirius looked at him and for a moment he thought his godfather was about to cry. Instead, much to Harry's horror, Sirius forced himself into a sitting position and dragged Harry towards him. A strong embrace that belied the exhaustion in his godfather's face enfolded Harry and he was almost crushed to Sirius's chest.

"We have failed you, Harry," his godfather whispered in his ear, "we have failed you so badly and yet you don't even see it. I promise you this; it stops now. I love you and I will do everything in my power to protect you. I almost lost the chance and I will not let it happen again."

The vehemence in Sirius' tone was almost frightening and it finally broke through Harry's denial. He felt the love coming through the arms that held him. He realised that it didn't really matter who had caused what, all that mattered was that Sirius loved him and he loved Sirius. For the first time since the Department of Mysteries he allowed himself to remember that fact and nothing else. He reached around Sirius and clung to him.

That was how Madame Pomfrey found them a few minutes later, and it was only reluctantly that Harry let Sirius go so that the school nurse could examine his godfather.

~*~

Madame Pomfrey had finally sent Harry back to his own bed when he had fallen asleep curled up beside his godfather. The only things keeping him in place had been Sirius on one side and the bedside cabinet on the other and he had not complained when he had been escorted back to his own space. The next morning, Madame Pomfrey had also presented him with clothes and told him he was free to wander around as long as he did not overexert himself.

That had been three days previously, and Harry could technically have been living in the guest rooms with Ron and Hermione, but no one had seen fit to ask him to leave the hospital wing. He spent most of his time with Sirius and whoever else was visiting at the time, and for a while he let himself be simply happy.

Sirius was still very weak from his transition from beyond The Veil back to normal reality and could still barely sit up on his own, let alone move from his bed, so Harry made sure he was there for anything his godfather might want or need. The change in Sirius' physical shell had not reverted since he came back, but it seemed to be taking its toll out of him now, rather than when it had happened. He looked a lot younger than before the Veil, but to Harry his godfather looked very tired all the time.

Madame Pomfrey had prescribed weeks of bed rest and nothing more strenuous than a nice game of chess. Hence, Ron had been drafted in to play since Harry was at best, not good, and at worst very bad at the game. Since Sirius had beaten them all except the reigning Gryffindor chess champion, it was now a battle between the two of them. Harry was sitting in a chair watching the game next to Remus who was reading a book. Hermione was on the other side of the bed also watching the game and offering little snippets of chess history, much to the players' annoyance.

It was as Ron's queen set about demolishing one of Sirius' knights that Harry heard the sound of hurrying feet. Everyone was very shocked when the screens opened to reveal Snape.

"Aurors," the Potions master said shortly.