sometimes i think a lot about what would have happened if sirius had actually been exonerated at the end of book 3 and harry had gone to live with him and also snape kept his mouth shut and remus kept his job

• in the time between sirius being cleared and the end of the school year, sirius starts an intensive course of physical and mental therapy
  

• sirius picking harry up from king’s cross 
  

• i know it’s not canon that sirius was an auror after graduating hogwarts but i really like to think he was
  

• anyway once he passes a psych eval he’s reinstated as an auror
  

• kingsley is his partner; they trained together back in the day
  

• it takes kingsley a while but he gets over “sirius black escaped convict and former death eater” and they grow to have a really strong partnership
  

• the rest of the aurors follow suit
  

• the head of the auror office (is it scrimgeour at this point? probably) forming a task force to find pettigrew
  

• sirius wanting to be assigned to that task force but being denied because it’s such a huge conflict of interest
  

• sirius picking up harry from king’s cross when school gets out 
  

• both of them really nervous but smiling really big
  

• sirius got a new flat in london in the same neighborhood as his bachelor pad but this one with enough room for both him and harry (and a room that is ostensibly a guest room but really remus uses it all the time that summer)
  

• (he tries to get sirius to let him help with rent and sirius says no because it’s a guest room, remus, you’re a guest, and guests don’t pay rent)
  

• harry spending a lot of time with remus that summer while sirius works
  

• sirius and remus and harry going to the quidditch world cup
  

• ron staying with them in their tent 
  

• they get to the top box and they’re in front of the malfoys and sirius just kind of smirks at lucius
  

• sirius’s heart in his throat when he can’t find harry after they’ve gotten the muggles down
  

• sirius almost physically attacking barty crouch for accusing harry of casting the dark mark in the forest
  

• (sirius almost physically attacking barty crouch a lot, tbqh)
  

• sirius trying to be gruff and cheerful when he drops harry off at king’s cross on september first, and thinking about meeting james on that same train 23 years ago
  

• hugging harry tightly but quickly, and harry gripping the back of sirius’s jacket
  

• sirius worried but knowing that remus will look after harry at school
  

• because of how slowly the wheels of justice move, pettigrew’s trial isn’t held until after harry is back at school
  

• remus is there too because they’re both testifying witnesses
  

• it’s a rough day
  

• sirius wondering for a moment if azkaban is a place he’d wish on anyone, even wormtail
  

• then remembering what it felt like to open the door to the cottage at godric’s hollow and seeing james’s body
  

• there on the floor
  

• remus pulls a block of chocolate out of his pocket and hands it to sirius
  

• and then i honestly think sirius would have found a way to get harry out of the triwizard tournament, even if it meant kidnapping the kid
  

• now i’m sad