(1) Brothers (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

December 24, 1995

Things were feeling strained at White Oak Manor. Since the day Harry arrived home, he has such himself off from his father as much as he could. The first few hours, he had stayed in his room, letting his emotions crash over him. But after a shower and a change of clothes, Harry made his way into his potions lab and stayed there until dinner was ready. He had joined his father in the dining room, but few words were shared between them. Harry kept his eyes on his food and avoided the concerned glances from his father. Once he had finished, he left just as quickly as before and stayed upstairs for the remainder of the evening.

Sirius wasn't sure what to do. His first instinct was to chase after his son and talk to him, find out what had upset him. It had seemed that mere seconds past and Harry went from his normal broody but happy teenage self to a withdrawn and angry young man. The look he had seen in his son's eyes had scared him, but he wasn't sure what had caused the change. At dinner, he had wanted to try and talk to him, but Sirius knew that it wasn't the time.

It was after Harry had disappeared and headed upstairs that Sirius ended up in the main sitting room. He poured himself a large scotch and dropped onto the sofa. There were days when raising a teenager was no problem; Harry was smart enough to almost take care of himself and keep out of trouble. Of course, there were always moments when Harry would react badly, and that was when Sirius would step in. But the moments, just like this one, where Harry's reaction made no sense to Sirius was when he felt like a failure. Shouldn't a father know how to help his son?

Sirius took a large sip of his scotch and seemed to sink lower into the sofa when one of the house-elves, his name was Grimsby, appeared.

"Sorry to disturb you, Master Sirius, but Mistress Lily is here."

Sirius nodded. "Show her in, Grimsby."

The elf disappeared, and barely a moment later, the door to the sitting room opened, and Lily walked in. She looked as concerned as Sirius did. Her red hair was tied up in a messy bun, and her cheeks were blotchy like she had been crying.

Sirius sat up and asked, "Lily, are you alright?"

Lily sniffed and sat down beside him on the couch. "I'm worried about Harry; what happened today..." She rubbed at her nose and took a deep breath.

"I don't understand what happened at all," said Sirius.

Lily said, "I've seen Harry angry, but this was different."

"I don't know what set him off." Sirius took another sip of his drink. "He was fine one moment, then Harvey showed up, and we were all talking about his game, and then Harry just became a different person."

"Have you spoken to him?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No, I didn't want to push him."

"Probably a good idea."

Sirius asked, "You don't think it had something to do with Harvey, do you?"

Lily frowned. "Harvey? What would he have done?"

"They don't exactly get along; maybe Harvey upset him at school?"

She shook her head and said, "Harvey didn't mention anything. All he said was that Harry spoke to him on the train about his theory about Severus and that he was fine."

"Theory about Snape?" questioned Sirius.

Lily sighed. "Oh, it's stupid, but Harvey is convinced that there is something hidden at Hogwarts that Severus is after."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Apparently. I did send Harry a letter and ask that he try and persuade Harvey to not accuse a teacher of such things."