"Safe is not the same as happy." Sirius argued fiercely and Albus conceded to himself that the other man had a point. "And I think we have very different definitions of safe."
That…rankled. He felt the first stirrings of annoyance. He frowned at the younger wizard. "I have to admit, Sirius," he said quietly, "that I'm surprised at the level of your animosity." He paused. "I had hoped you would extend to me the same forgiveness and chance for redemption that I showed you after your foolish dare to Severus."
Sirius looked at him with disbelief. Albus was suddenly aware of the anger in Sirius's grey eyes. It was like a potion simmering in a cauldron; one wrong ingredient and the whole thing would explode.
"Seriously? You're going to equate an idiotic dare made by school kid, a dare provoked by Snivellus in the first place and which was probably a set up to get Remus killed and me expelled – something I'm sure you were aware of at the time, with failing your duty as Chief Warlock and incarcerating an innocent man for twelve years? And not only failing once but twice when you decided not to protect me at Hogwarts? And let's not forget the highly illegal compulsion charm you placed on me."
Albus blushed, seeing the inequality of the comparison he'd made too late, and realising he'd erred once again in believing Sirius hadn't known that Albus had known Severus had set up the incident in question.
Sirius waved a hand to forestall Albus launching his defence. "But let's say quid pro quo that your forgiveness of my impetuous youth and decision not to expel me wipes out your part in my Azkaban torment and subsequent continuance as a fugitive even when you knew I was innocent…"
His tone was scathing and Albus winced again.
"…and it wouldn't make any difference to my level of animosity because I am not mad on my behalf so much as I am mad on Harry's." Sirius stabbed a finger in his direction.
Well, at least, Albus considered wryly, they'd gotten to the heart of the matter.
"There is no greater love than a parent for a child." Albus commented, his usual calm and good humour returning with the reason for Sirius's anger. "I assure you once again that I have always acted in Harry's best interests."
He ignored the voice in his head pointing out that he had used the boy as bait for Voldemort in his first year because yes, that had happened, but Albus had learned from it and he hadn't used the boy since. For a long moment, he thought Sirius might hex him but the new Head of the House of Black gave an angry huff and sat back.
"You know I think you actually believe that."
The reply disconcerted Albus.
"You really don't see what you've done wrong, do you?" Sirius gesticulated at him. "You don't see your mistakes as mistakes but as perfectly fine decisions."
Sirius was quite correct and, with the exception of the business with the stone, Albus couldn't see that he had made any major mistakes with the boy; Harry had been kept safe. But he realised that he wasn't going to get very far on the subject of Harry without addressing the mistakes Sirius believed Albus had made with Harry.
"I am willing to explain my actions if it will heal this rift between us, Sirius; for Harry's sake." Albus offered eagerly.
Sirius nodded slowly. "Well, let's start with the first decision: why did you decide to send Harry to his aunt's that night in 'eighty-one?"
It was the perfect opening to explain the blood protection, Albus thought happily.
"Initially, the thought came from one of my last conversations with Lily," Albus admitted, "she joked that if they ran out of safe places to hide, as a last resort there was always her sister's house where she had placed blood wards. She confessed that she'd known they were considered borderline illegal, but she'd lost her parents and despite the fact that she and her sister hadn't spoken in some time, she wanted to do everything in her power to protect her."
He picked up his tea and sipped it.
"The night of the tragedy, my monitoring spells at Godric's Hollow told me Harry was still alive. So my idea when I sent Hagrid to recover Harry was simply to hide him with his muggle relations providing some breathing space in the wizarding world to make sense of what had happened before long term decisions were made." Albus explained. "I thought, you see, that there had to be not one but two spies in the Order because of the information that had leaked out. I believed you were the Secret Keeper and had betrayed them fulfilling one role but I could not be certain of the second. It was imperative that Harry was placed beyond the reach of anyone in the Order. The only people I knew for certain were absolutely trustworthy at that point were Minerva, Poppy and Hagrid."
"I don't disagree with your reasoning yet," Sirius commented, "in fact, I agreed with it at the time bar the stuff on the spy side because I knew it was Pettigrew. You thought there were two spies; you didn't account for your spy being an animagus who could sneak into the meetings where he was excluded. If I hadn't been thrown straight to Azkaban, or if you had visited me or ensured that I'd had a trial, you would have found that out."
Albus frowned but he couldn't deny Sirius's charge. "I have admitted that was a mistake."
"Yes, equivalent to my school day misdemeanour daring Snape." Sirius waved a hand as Albus bristled at the intentional poke for his earlier faux pas. "Let's continue; I know you changed your mind and decided to leave Harry there for the long term by the evening of November 1st. Why?"
"While Hagrid brought Harry to Hogwarts, I tracked down Petunia Dursley and examined the blood wards on her home. Lily was always an impressively bright witch and they were outstanding wards. I added a few more to cover the general neighbourhood." Albus recounted. "Then I returned to Hogwarts and made my way to the infirmary where Harry was in the care of Poppy. Poppy had some unusual readings." He considered the best way to frame the information and decided the most straight-forward would gain him points with Sirius. "Harry was – is – protected by a blood protection ward merged with his very skin."
Sirius didn't react.
Albus searched his expression and made an uncomfortable realisation. "You already knew."
"Harry has talked about his adventures," Sirius said quietly.
That was not good.
"…and when Remus and I theorised about how Harry had survived, Remus informed me that he had discussed such a spell with Lily." Sirius continued, shocking Albus from his rumination of how he was going to do damage control.
"Remus had…" Albus repeated with a splutter. He set his tea-cup down with a shaking hand. "Does he know the exact spell? Which reference book she used?"
"Yes as it happens." Sirius said. "I'm sure he would have told you had you informed him about the blood protection back then."
Another dig and Albus couldn't help but wince at the knowledge that he had missed out on such vital information because he had suspected Remus of being the other spy and hadn't confided in him. Of course in hindsight it was easy to see that Lily might have discussed the spell with someone and the obvious person in that circle would have been Remus given his leaning toward academia.
"But back to you," Sirius said, "you found the blood protection ward and…?" He gestured for Albus to continue.
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