Grapefruit. 

Again.

Harry Potter stared at the fruit on his plate at the breakfast table inside Number 4 Privet Drive.

Across the table, Dudley Dursley was making a face of sour, frustrated anger as he watched his mother simpering about the kitchen.

"Don't look so sad popkin!" Aunt Petunia said as she sat down at the table with her own plate, holding an unsweetened quarter of grapefruit. She touched Dudley's arm with a tremulous hand. "Your father's written to the clothier which makes the Smeltings uniforms to see they check the measurements again..."

Smeltings school had written home to Mr. and Mrs. Dursley that their son, Dudley, was unable to fit into even the largest size of the boys' uniform this year. As a result, Petunia had been forced, however hesitantly, to put Dudley onto a diet. This diet included a good deal of baked chicken in the evenings and of quartered grapefruit in the mornings. Harry wondered whether Hermione would be able to take in his Hogwarts uniforms when he got back to school - even though it was Dudley that was being made to diet, the whole family was suffering for it, and none worse than Harry, who had barely weighed as much as Dudley was prescribed to lose to begin with.

"Clearly they've sewn their largest size short this year! Mislabeled, that's what's happened!" Uncle Vernon chuckled. What Uncle Vernon did not mention is that his letter offered to pay any amount to have specially made-to-order uniforms should it be necessary. Anything to return a proper breakfast to the table - pronto. He had just got a rather large bonus from Grunnings and he was willing to spend the lot if it meant he could have bacon smiling up at him from his platter once again.

Harry forced himself to eat the grapefruit. It rather turned his stomach, being so acidic, and made some of his tastebuds feel rather funny. He reckoned he might be allergic to grapefruit, but when he told Aunt Petunia this, she had to simply let him starve to death if he didn't eat the fruit as it was all he was getting.

"I wonder if my godfather, Sirius Black, likes grapefruit?" Harry mused out loud.

Vernon Dursley lowered his paper to look over the top edge at Harry.

Petunia looked at Harry with a bit of shock on her face.

Harry turned back to his grapefruit, trying to keep his amusement off from his face. "Perhaps I'll write him later and ask." 

Petunia looked at Vernon.

"Nobody likes grapefruit," Dudley snapped,  "Don't be stupid. It isn't even real food. It's entirely made of fruit. It's unnatural."

Harry stared at Dudley across the table. "Well, Dudley, this might come as a bit of a shock to you, but fruit is actually --"

Uncle Vernon's eyes flickered fleetingly to Dudley, then back, interrupting Harry. "Writing him, are you?"

"Well I'd write him more if I could get my books and parchments but seeing as they're locked under the stairs --"

"I won't have you doing none of that dangerous magic rubbish being performed in my house..." Uncle Vernon muttered. 

Harry ate another bite of his grapefruit, chewing thoughtfully. "It's alright. I'll just have to figure out how to explain to my godfather when I'm falling behind in my classes because I couldn't do my summer studies. I reckon he won't be very happy to hear about it..."

"Vernon," hissed Aunt Petunia.

Uncle Vernon's mustache bristled.

Later that night, Harry sat in his room at his desk, surrounded by his pile of textbooks and laying his wand carefully on his desk, along with his quills, inks, and parchments. He felt rather proud of himself for having managed to fast-talk his way into getting Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia to allow him to have the trunk. He wondered what Sirius Black would think, knowing he'd told a sort of lie by omitting that he, Sirius, was innocent and not a violent murderer like the news had painted him to be the previous summer.

He reached into his trunk and found the folded up parchment and envelope that had come to him before he'd been sent back to Privet Drive. He flattened it out on the desk top and read over Sirius's messy block-letter hand writing. 

The owl had arrived outside the Express window, and only just made it through the force of the slipstream, tumbling along until Harry had plucked him out of the air and into the compartment where he, Ron, and Hermione had been on their way back to King's Cross Station.

Dear Harry,

I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl post.

Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about the owl's reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job.

I believe the dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted.

There is something I never got around to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolt. Rodger-Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from Gringott's Vault number 711 - my own. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays' worth of presents from your godfathers.

I would also like to apologize for the fright I think I gave you that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you.

I'm enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable.

If you ever need me, send word. Your owl will find me. I'll write again soon. Sirius. 

Harry had read and re-read the letter about twenty times on the train and in the motorcar going home to Little Whinging, but then it had been plucked away and locked up with everything else and Harry had spent miserable times eating grapefruit and just generally trying to avoid Dudley - who was extra nasty given his withdrawals from all the sweets and things he was used to eating all the time - and had never gotten 'round to writing Sirius back.

He had received another letter from Sirius from Hedwig less than a week after being back to the Dursleys from Hogwarts. 

Dear Harry,

Well you may see something about me in the Muggle news if you watch. I did intend to allow some Muggles to see me, but it happened rather by accident instead of as purposefully as I'd planned for it to. It's a rather funny story, and I think you'll rather find it hilarious. It reminded me of your father.

I was nosing about in the rubbish at a chippy - as a dog, mind  - and there was one of those funny packets of pepper in the bin and I got some of it up my nose and I sneezed quite hard. Well, you see, and as an animagus, sometimes sneezing can have some rather... adverse effects... especially if it's a particularly nasty illness which weakens your ability to hold your shape - or else, as in my case, you're simply not used to having to try particularly hard at holding it. I am a bit out of practice, see... Next thing I know, I'm me, a human, inside the bin and I've tipped it over and fallen quite squarely on my -- well, you know. In the fall, I managed at knocking over about four other bins and making a terrific sound. 

So there I am, covered in garbage, and the back door of the pub opens up. Gave the barmaid a right turn. She shrieks out my name, right horrorstruck she was, watching as I pull a rotten banana peel from my hair, and starts shrieking that I'm about to murder her. I reckon by the time she finished telling everyone in the pub I probably had come at her with a myriad of muggle weaponry in her mind, but honestly all I did was toss the banana peel aside and ask for a hand-up.

She did not give me the hand up.

However, I did see a good deal of policeymen pull up after I'd managed to turn back into a dog. The good news is she'd been on her way from the meat freezer to the kitchens when she heard the commotion my falling over made and she dropped an entire bag of fresh steaks right there in the door! Buckbeak and I have been eating very well ever since and now the policemen are on the hunt for me along by Liverpool and so Hogwarts should be free and clear of Dementors by the time you've gotten back in September!

Harry laughed at this second letter and had gotten to keep it with him because Hedwig had come right to his window and the Dursleys didn't know he'd even gotten it. He kept that one in his pocket and anytime Dudley was being mean at him, Harry would wrap his fist about the letter and remind himself that someday, when they'd figured out how to get his name cleared at the Ministry, he, Harry, would be living with his godfather, Sirius Black, and never have to come back to this horrible place on Private Drive ever again.

He took a deep breath now and dipped his quill in the ink pot.

Dear Sirius,

I am sorry this is the first time I have written. I meant to sooner, but my school things were locked up before this morning.

You see, Uncle Vernon only just decided to let me keep my Hogwarts things in my room just today, after I told him over breakfast about how you were my godfather. They remembered you from the muggle news last summer and seems they were quite keen to give me my things once they heard you'd be angry if I didn't keep up with school.

I might have forgotten to mention that you were innocent.

Do you like Grapefruit? If you do, you ought to come and visit us here at Privet Drive. Funny story. My cousin Dudley has outgrown even the largest robes his muggle school offers and so the nurse there has demanded he go on a diet. Aunt Petunia has put us all on a grapefruits-only for breakfast diet. Do you know - is your tongue supposed to be fuzzy feeling after eating a grapefruit? My mouth has felt funny all week that she'd had us eating them.

Hermione thought the Firebolt might have been from you! Thank you very much, Sirius, times thirteen!

Thank you, too, for the funny owl about your sneeze! I didn't see it on the news but the Dusleys don't like me watching much telly though so I may have just missed it. Perhaps that's why they were so jumpy about it when I mentioned you, though, they might have seen. 

How does that story remind you of my Dad?

I am also excited to get to go to Hogsmeade next term with everyone else like a normal person. I got to a bit last year because of the Marauders Map (so in a way it was you who let me go then, too!) but it will be much nicer, I expect, not being invisible while I am there. Professor Lupin didn't seem to like the idea of me using the Map, but I think you might have thought it funny I made it to Hogsmeade using Dad's old cloak.

Speaking of Professor Lupin, did you hear that he's resigned? I'm really upset. He was a very good teacher and I feel as though I learned a great deal about Defensive Magical Theory this past year. I wish he would have stayed. You might already know. I don't know if you lot are in touch or not.

Well, I suppose I'll write you again later. I hope you're safe. Say hullo to Buckbeak for me.

Harry read over the letter again and decided it was good, so he rolled it up and sealed it, then went over to where Hedwig snoozed on her perch. "Here you are, Hedwig. I don't know where he is, but Sirius says you know where to find him," Harry explained as he tied the letter to Hedwig's leg.

Hedwig ruffled her feathers in response. 

In the hallway, he could hear Dudley shouting in protest. Aunt Petunia had found an economy sized bag of Cadbury Nibbly Fingers in Dudley's room and had just confiscated them, much to Dudley's upset. "You're starving me! You're starving me to death!" Dudley shouted.

Harry's stomach let out a low growl at that exact moment and he looked down at it.

"Hang on, Hedwig, before you go..."

He turned to his desk and grabbed another parchment.

Dear Ron,

Do you like Grapefruit?

Aunt Petunia's got Dudley on a diet.

He paused, listening to Dudley shriek like a pterodactyl.

Please send food - and loads of it! Enough to last the summer, if you can.