#but Moonie would be forgiven anyway | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

Text

All in the Family

Chapter 138: Excess of Phlegm

A gnome tried to bite him on the nose. James snatched the thing by its ankle right before the teeth broke skin and was already hurling it as far away from him as he could before he'd even properly gotten to his feet.

The fact that none of them suffered from their brains melting for the recurring switch between night and day was the real mystery to all this. There was a big green pond full of frogs Longbottom was sloshing his way through, the place was lined with gnarled trees and plenty of plants he'd been able to identify from Herbology class and a few he hadn't. The Burrow was just visible in the distance and his stomach snarled with hunger, they really should have taken advantage of Slughorn's food selection while they had the chance, but then he saw Regulus storming over there and decided he'd starve rather than dealing with that arrogant child right now.

His scowl intensified when he saw Peter going after him, Merlin what he wouldn't give to have just left that kid behind! Between him and Snape, who ever would have guessed these two bothersome ones would cause so much misery along this blasted trip.

Sirius was coming over to him eagerly, and he did a double take as he saw the Polyjuice Potion had completely worn off of him and glanced down at himself in surprise to confirm the same, only just realizing everything was fuzzy back around the edges again not from his head still being sore from his latest impact with the ground. The feeling of moving like they were was worse than changing bodies, who knew?

"Odd," he pulled the ripped up shirt off and passed it back, half a mind to steal more clothes from the Weasley's for both of them while here. "Doesn't feel like it's been an hour."

"That spell I put on Longbottom wore off with the jump," Sirius recalled as he passed his glasses back. "To us, it definitely wasn't long enough to have done so. Guess this mess makes even the magic we use on each other wonky, how annoying." It would have been sort of interesting to somehow find a way to gauge time before now if they'd thought about it, but James found when he slipped his pants back on he still had the Polyjuice Potion in his pocket anyways and sighed as he uneasily patted it.

He looked back to see Sirius giving him a beseeching look. His eyes flickering to where Regulus had vanished and back with a look James couldn't quite believe, was he really fixing to defend that kid?

"Listen Prongs, thanks, really, but I wish you'd let him keep going. I hadn't even realized, but he needs to get all that off his chest if he really has a problem with you and I'd rather him take that out on me even unintentionally anyways." Sirius still finished with a guilty look in place that set him bristling.

"You don't deserve that Sirius!" He snapped back at once.

"He thought I was you," Sirius quickly reminded.

"That's not the point!" James insisted. "I wouldn't have just stood there letting him yell at me! He's not your bloody parents, and I'm not going to let him start doing that shit to you if you're hoping that makes it all better! I'm not even sure why you're trying!" He regretted the words the instant they slipped out, Sirius looked so confused and he'd been trying so hard to bite his tongue against saying anything, letting Sirius make his own decisions about his little brother.

"What do you have against Regulus?" Sirius didn't quite demand it, but he sounded so surprised James chose his next words carefully, he'd already felt vaguely paranoid before this. He'd only just turned fourteen after all.

"You never talk about him Sirius, less than even your parents. I always wondered, well, how much he knows about, well, some of your punishments," he admitted, and didn't like the response when Sirius rubbed absently at his shoulder and didn't look at him. Moony wasn't the only one with scars, but some weren't so visible.

He pressed in now that Sirius didn't flat deny it, "I'll not have you feeling guilty you didn't keep that in your life if he stood by and did nothing instead of helping you in that forsaken house."

Sirius let his hand drop and looked back at him steadily. "I don't know okay, I honestly don't want to know if he knows. He's not been in the room and laughing, if that's what you mean. Mostly he just hides in the attic when I start going at it with them and doesn't come down until he's summoned and I've usually cleaned myself up by then. If he suspects anything he hides it well."

"A trait you two share," James grudgingly let some of the ire trickle out of his voice, at least Regulus had never actually hurt Sirius then to appease his parents, the nightmare he hadn't been able to shake. Hearing Voldemort do so to his Padfoot had not let the idea rest though. "I still can't say I'm all gung ho helping you out with him Padfoot, especially if he's going to turn that temper on either of us."

"Hasn't had the best role model from anyone," Sirius quietly muttered.

"You're working on it," James gave a sort of laugh in admittance. Better than having come down the stairs and the two dueling to the death he supposed. He still didn't quite like Sirius just taking this in stride though if this was the alternative, it wasn't natural to not see Sirius fight back.

He sighed when he heard Smith starting the book and decided to brave the house alone for now as he distracted Sirius, "I'm going to see if there's food, and get us both a change of clothes. Go find Moony would you, haven't seen him exiting the garden with the others. Tell him for me I don't bloody care who he snogs in the meantime, will you?"

Sirius looked so hilariously startled that James wondered if he'd gotten it wrong then, but it was probably even better he leave the two to it then. Whatever the hell they were up to, it was helping Sirius, he could tell that much as Padfoot grinned and took off.

James walked with his head held high into the kitchen and made straight for the stove. The others crowded around the table watched him when he walked in, the book still having a few leaves clinging to pages in Alice's hand as she alternately read and shook her head at whatever conversation abruptly stopped at his entrance.

Snorting in derision as if he was supposed to care about being talked about, weather it was a group this size, the whole of his house annoyed he'd lost such a huge chunk of points for his latest prank, or the whole of Hogwarts laughing both at him and with him whenever a prank or counter prank was in action, he strode over to the stove and followed the basic steps of potions class to get a fire going and setting a pot in place before pausing in confusion.

Alice disengaged herself from the table, both of them ignoring the annoyed look Evans and Longbottom gave each other as she came up to him and asked, "like some help?"

"Sure," he smiled at once. "Know how to make grits? Ever tried syrup in that, it's to die for!"

She grinned at his enthusiasm and promised, "oh I'm sure we can whip up some of everything."

He couldn't help but smile at her, there was just something about her round face that radiated kindness, it wasn't hard to see why Longbottom was so smitten even if she was a little too timid for him to get the full appeal. She was short too, barely a few inches difference to Peter, but she nudged him aside gently and he didn't even think about stepping aside for her as she began going through the motions and talking in a level voice everything she was doing, though he hadn't actually asked for a walkthrough.

He listened though. He was painfully aware because of this future his parents clearly hadn't survived to take care of Harry, and it twisted up something in him to ever wonder for long how much time they had left, had they ever shown up in his wedding photos to Evans? While he could go home now and ask his mum to teach him this, he instead likened more to the idea she might not just laugh along with her boy for once, but give her something to be proud of as he studied her wand movements and copied with wavering success.

The milk, water, and salt were all carefully blended together and at a steady boil, even if he was sure they came out a bit too lumpy when Alice quietly redirected, "I hope everything's okay with those three."

The invitation was clear. He ruffled up his hair, his wand slipping and the stirring stopped for a moment as he considered telling her yes, and he would deal with his problems, again. That hadn't exactly been working out for him so far though, and damn if she hadn't been right back in Sirius' own house. Maybe if he'd just bloody talked to Padfoot before this future slammed him in the face he wouldn't have broken his ear drums and had his feelings so viciously kicked into him.

"Not sure how to get Sirius and Peter to talk to each other," he finally admitted his problem. It may have even worked there for a second in Slughorn's house, before Regulus had so rudely interrupted he was sure. "Padfoot's trying, but ah, he's not the best at using his words." He was always more of a free spirited, gestures, and reactionary kind of bloke, and he rarely tried to hide any of it. Maybe if Padfoot hadn't been suppressing how little he'd forgiven Peter on his behalf it wouldn't have been so bad! James wouldn't change him for the world. "I know he tried back in Malfoy's room, but it doesn't seem to have done much good."

He and Remus had been worried about just that, but hadn't let themselves interfere. "I'm not their mother, I can't just make them apologize to each other, but I don't know how else to help. What the hell do I say?"

He finally tapped the pot to get it stirring again lest something burn. It still felt weird to be saying this to anyone but Remus, but he hadn't anything else to offer but an apologetic shrug and mutual agreement there was just no mending this broken bridge with magic. At least Moony had promised he'd keep the two away from each other if he wanted, but that wasn't helping anymore than the two interacting the past few times. They'd been faking it thus far for his sake, and he knew that.

Now Regulus was trying to throw his opinion in, and he'd probably just pushed Peter farther away towards that kid. It's not like Wormtail had stood up for Sirius against the brat! He still didn't appreciate the last time Peter had shouted at Sirius back in the forest!

When Alice finally spoke, her voice was quiet but gentle, she seemed to respect he still was not trying to air their business and the others talking quietly at the table over their game once more should not be able to hear. "I don't know them as well as you do, but I hope you see laughing this off just isn't helping."

He grit his teeth to stop himself snapping at her that wasn't helping either, he still didn't know what else to do!

"I'd say, first step, just make sure you're all on the same page. Then, maybe, see where they want to go from there. Sometimes, we outgrow people, and that's not always a bad thing." She frowned at Evans, and James refused his own look to confirm it even if he knew in his heart what she meant and it was very, very true. He didn't see it as the same thing at all, Peter had never done anything like old Snivilius had. Sirius had over reacted in his anger, but this future wasn't letting up on them for a second about how awful things to come could be, he was entitled to an emotional outburst! He and Remus had tried to stop him from doing Peter a real harm!

"That's not very helpful," he huffed, removing the pot from the heat and grabbing down bowls.

"Sometimes the advice we need isn't what we want to hear," she shrugged, but she still looked sadly at her friend, and then back at him. "I'm sorry."

He huffed and changed the subject to syrup, bacon, and gravy, at least her company wasn't as bad as her fortune cookie nonsense.

Remus was still leaning against the apple tree he'd landed face first on and hadn't chosen to move, instead knocking his head softly against the bark in hopes it would knock some sense into him. Anger at himself still dominated rather than Padfoot not giving him some bloody warning for their stupid prank as he kept replaying what Sirius had said.

A break? They weren't even together as far as Sirius was concerned and he was already laughing about a break. What if Remus never asked for a break, would Sirius keep hooking up with him along with how many others when they got back? Would he be able to keep himself in check and go along with that, pretending to ignore any such thing was happening? He very much doubted it, and it only confirmed in him what he should have known back in that alley way, he really should put a stop to this now.

Amongst the cawing birds in the bright morning sun and the frogs still splashing about in their water, he heard someone approaching him and looked around in mild concern when he realized no shouting had resumed. If James and Regulus were off killing each other, they were doing it quietly.

It was the real Sirius this time, of this he was very confident of as Prongs would still be looking at him like a concerned parent about to give him the sex talk.

"You told him?" Sirius confirmed in delight as he barely came over in arms reach. He even turned around like the conversation was done there and they could go off to join James like nothing had happened.

He should have expected the gleeful smile. Sirius made himself as clear as possible on Slughorn's bed, Remus quickly reminded himself, and even before that. He only sees you as a playfriend, get over it!

Remus' scowl deepened, some of his self-anger getting an easy redirection. "No you arse, he figured it out when I didn't know it was you!"

Sirius just looked confused for a few more moments before he got it, and then he laughed as he edged closer. "What did you do?"

Remus shoved him back away in disgust. "It wasn't funny! What the hell are you so happy for?"

"I wanted to tell him," Sirius reminded with an eye roll, "what are you so angry for?"

Remus bit his lip rather than answer, this was going as horrible as it was possible to! "Look, it means something, different to me, telling people, alright." He tried to plead with him to understand. He clearly didn't. "Sirius, I know you don't see it as a big deal ever to tell us of your last dalliance, but it does to me, okay!"

Sirius just cocked his head to the side and kept watching him as if waiting for further explanation, like he couldn't fathom what other meaning there was, like he really couldn't picture telling his brother who he was hooking up with for any other reason than the fun of it. Remus tried to take some comfort in that Sirius really just didn't have the capacity to even be looking for anything more with anyone, not just with him.

"Okay, fine," Sirius mercifully gave in, though it was clear he still didn't get what Remus' problem was. Remus breathed in relief. "If you don't want him to know yet, I'll push him off what happened. I'd still like to know what you did," he added with a grin.

"How the hell do you think you're going to get away with that?" Remus demanded.

"If I can get McGonagall to not give me detention for transfiguring Eckers into a rocking horse I can do anything!" Sirius declared with the greatest hurt to his pride Remus was questioning this. He still hadn't stopped grinning. "You still have to tell me so I know what I'm working with."

Remus groaned and put his face in his hands, was this not bad enough without the teasing? "I hate you so much."

"Love you too Moony," Sirius casually agreed. "Now come on, work with me!"

Remus finally dropped his hands so he could glare at the bastard, and then let his hand rest on the inside of his thigh of the real Padfoot this time, leaning forward and whispering with as much annoyed suggestiveness in his voice he could, "is that a challenge?" He quickly dropped his hand and crossed his arms with a huff.

His pissed off attempt didn't really work, Sirius' eyes still glazed over with lust for a moment and he licked his lips before he shook his head and muttered, "yeah, that's not very subtle. Any more context I should know?"

"I still never got my pineapple," he sulked, as if that was really his biggest concern.

Sirius gave him a cheeky grin as he patted his bag. "Moony, I'm insulted, you really think I'd leave you hanging?"

He could not imagine where and how Sirius had found the time to nab that in between everything else that had gone on. The thoughtfulness in the action stunned him. Damn him for still getting aroused by this asshole when he wanted to keep glaring at him.

Padfoot's eyes flickered around the garden for inspiration, they even listened to some of the chapter in mutual silence as Harry finally confessed to his friends of the Prophecy hanging over his head and the Phlegm being Fleur Delacor back in wedding bliss to Bill Weasley, but that wasn't striking much. Remus' concern grew even Sirius' silver tongue wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Look, just hang around out here if you want to, avoid Prongs and the others, I'll cover for you, just like always." Sirius finally sighed. "I promise I'll get some actual food for you for the next spot, okay?" He even sacrificed the crystalized pineapple now, tossing him the box and not even taking a single one for himself.

"Don't bother," he grumbled as he caught it, but pocketed it. Deciding to scale the tree for now in any relief to get away, and half tempted to pitch himself off head first. Sirius pouted at him the whole way up until Remus was crunching on an apple so loud he could pretend he didn't hear him walk off.

Sirius kicked and huffed and paced the whole way back to the door, taking twice as long as the trip should be. Great, yeah, even Moony was mad at him now, this just really could not be going worse. He knew he couldn't force the guy to relax about being gay, or whatever he considered getting off with another guy to be. He'd heard plenty of horror stories from other kids in school for their parents' reactions. He had no wish to envision Remus anywhere near that, but did he really think so little of Prongs? Sirius just had to find a way to get him to relax about this, it was by far the easiest problem to focus on, he knew Moony so well he was sure he could come up with a solution to this. It was too bad he couldn't turn into another animal for him to help, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

He walked in and found himself plenty distracted by Alice teaching James how to cook. She was being really nice about it too, even as Sirius watched he waved his wand a little too enthusiastically and sent a packet of bacon flopping to the ground. She corrected him and he got it right in the next go with a very pleased smile and a half glance at Evans, who was ignoring him and playing cards at the table with the others again. James turned away remarkably fast and wasn't even trying to talk to her but kept his focus on Smith. The book was left open at an empty chair, so at least nobody was reading it to try and get them out of a nightmare.

Regulus at least looked in a semi better mood. He wasn't shooting death threats at Prongs at least, but just flat ignoring him, and he didn't at all look up at Sirius' entrance as he took the deck from Evans and shuffled with quite a bit of skill. Peter at least looked around with a half smile at him before waving him towards the food.

Sirius needed no such invitation and leaned next to the stove, stuffing himself silly and still not quite sick of breakfast meals despite the fact they'd been having that in abundance lately but purposefully leaning on Alice's other side and not engaging as her and Prongs chatted casually about their mums different home spells, something he couldn't join in on anyways.

James had never had a problem making friends, Sirius thought back, it was him who'd made the four of them friends, Sirius was still half convinced sifting through memories it would never have worked without Prongs as their buffer until they were all used to each other. So it was still his fault really James was now keeping himself on the outs and not engaging with the rest, but instead sticking by Sirius and keeping himself apart, something he and Moony much preferred.

Attention was one thing he'd had all his life, whether he wanted it or not. He glorified in it at school as much as Prongs, but still far more enjoyed their private jokes alone in their dorms once the laughter had died down, a choice when to be in the spotlight for his amusement and when to leave it, something he'd never been allowed before James.

It wouldn't kill the rest of these guys to understand a good joke and curiosity could do wonders for their own moods.

Stuffing the last of his food into his mouth, he went back to the scullery for a new change of clothes rather than this ripped up shirt, maybe that would help Remus at least somewhat. It greatly irked him nobody did ask why he was outside still even with a ready excuse.

Maybe it was slightly better this way, Remus would refuse this on principle and spoil what Sirius was going for.

He snatched the bottle of Polyjuice Potion out of the back of James' pocket and snagged five cups down, slamming them on the table and pouring a dollop into each, keeping just enough left in the vile he slipped it back in for Remus later and glared at the lot.

"Don't even dare tell me you're not curious?" He accused each and every one of them.

Alice came over at once plucking a thin black strand of hair away. "When I tried in class it was too lumpy, nearly a solid it was so gross, Slughorn gave me an A and I was worried it would be the wrong color if I tried. Thanks Sirius," and she dropped it in.

It frothed and bubbled for only a moment before settling on a beautiful shade of the lightest yellow, like a soft warm light, it even looked kind of fuzzy, like a baby chick.

She grinned in delight, but none of the others exactly looked encouraged to play along.

"Frank?" She sighed.

"I already know what mine is," he tried to put off, glancing guiltily between her and Lily and needlessly rearranging his hand. Sirius had no idea what was going on there. "It's blue, love, and yours is beautiful of course."

She was still pouting at him with those large amber eyes of hers, and so he finally gave in and winced as he came away with some loose blonde hairs, dropping them into his own.

Blue indeed, a very dark royal shade that had the consistency of a squashed berry. She still smiled in delight and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek, but neither went so far as to offer swapping cups and bodies, apparently even they weren't going to indulge them that far.

Peter glanced around but finally went next to at least show a spot of good faith, his mousy brown hair vanishing into the mud for moments before it changed. It was a speck of the light, just before the dawn sky showed a hint that was not quite black. It even had little sparkles of the stars, he'd swear it, the pinpricks desperate to still be seen as the opaque of the day began forcing its way through the peaceful night. In the crest of the velvet, just before the nocturnal animals would end, he smiled and shook his head fondly for the deep purple color.

"Come on then," Peter even reached over and gave Regulus a light prod. "They really didn't mean anything by it this time."

"I'll just wait for my own potions class when I do it," Regulus said stiffly, still only glaring at his plate as he played a card.

Alice knew better than to try and talk Lily into any such thing, she was too stubborn and probably already knew hers anyways considering her advanced potions work.

She was half right, Lily did know what color it was going to be, but with one last begrudging look at Potter to make sure he knew this wasn't for him, she gave her and Frank a friendly smile and plucked a red hair free for them to see.

It was the soft blush just under the surface, the light airy breath that flashed over and warmed the skin. Her breath caught in her throat again as she could already taste how lightly it would flit down one's throat. She brushed her hand through her hair and smiled softly to herself with pride, she'd never been fond of the color pink, it had always been Petunia's favorite, but she looked almost gleefully now at how it softly glowed in her cup, warmth seeping right through to the tips of her fingers once more.

Sighing in resignation of being left out and only for Peter's sake and not the other two, Regulus finally pulled a hair free as well.

Trapped in the forest, it would be the first hint of light. The faint sun flicking through trees, the slightly thicker grass getting just a little more springy with each step, the same shade of hazel flickering out of the corner of his eye when he was on a broom and the Forbidden Forest was just lively enough to grab his attention. The darkest shade of green, or a freckled shade of brown, he smiled softly as he tipped the cup this way and that to catch every last glimmer it would show.

Lily took all of their distraction to collect all of the cards this time and pocket them with purpose when Alice told she was going to finish the chapter.

Alice beamed at everyone smiling once more and mouthed a thank you to Sirius, who graciously acknowledged this with a competitive smirk. She made sure to catch James' eye before picking up the book to finish, and he nodded his resignation at last, their quiet whispers before Sirius had entered finally sinking in.

HPHPHPHP

And just because I don't have a better time to share this considering the location of the future chapter it shows up in I won't spoil, you got these now and this below:

Luna- light Orange/ Hermione- Dark Orange

Ron- Dark Brown/ Neville- Light Brown

Dumbledore- Gold with silver flecks

Fenrir*-

It looked more like smoke resting in the cup, the thick cloying kind that would choke your lungs and suffocate you faster than the fire could reach you. Even being nowhere near the lips, the urge to gag, plug up the nose and run was the first instinct upon seeing it. Surly such a vile color was not meant to ever be seen, let alone consumed, for it would never let go once it latched on.

Voldemort-

It's the color he feels pulsing all around him when that sense of purpose, power, rightness, and even triumph surrounded him. He could feel it now, almost burning out of the cup as the color reflected back his soul. It would darken with time just like the murky little depth of solid black color in the center was now, turning deeper and deeper shades with every new murder he granted those not worthy of this life, but always in the very edges before the liquid traced the rim of the cup, you could still see burning red.

Umbridge- pink

It sits like a heavy film over the tongue once swallowed down, leaving an almost chalky, lingering weight behind. The fluorescent, almost painfully bright color would be bitter, like the darkest tea, and would curl into a nauseating feeling the lower down your body it traveled.

Bellatrix- light green

The neon glow was enticing to look at, as if the vividest shade of a particularly tart apple were sizzling in the cup. One sip was all it would take, and you could not stop. You would keep drinking, even when you were out of breath, and the tang became painful because your mouth was burning, you would still keep swallowing happily for the phosphorescent liquid of the verdant shade. ( I can not believe the books literally glossed over what this canon color should be!)

Snape- light purple

It seemed painful to even look at, the image of drinking it would be worse. The morbid feeling of prodding this color, the heavy purple would whiten slightly and then turn back an even darker shade, to have that inside of him made him want to be sick. He wished it would mottle to the greens and yellows of a fading bruise, but feared it would never happen.

Don't worry, you'll get Remus' eventually. I think mine would be similar to a lime green, and sweet with a nice kick at the end. Let me know yours?

*You would not want to drink Remus/ Fenrir's, or any other werewolves FYI. I have a headcanon of what would happen if you tried to use polyjuice potion on a werewolf, and it's similar but more gruesome than what happened to Hermione when she tried to use it on a cat. Check out my AU, Proper Life, chapter 5 for details if you're curious, it's in the very first section so you don't have to read much if you're not invested in the whole thing.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #HBP #HP #Weasley Garden #Polyjuice Potion #Wolfstar #Jilly #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Peter Pettigrew #Regulus Black #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith #Lily Evans

3 notes · View notes

littlemessyjessi · 4 years ago

Text

“Chasing Jessi”: A Sirius Black Story: Plus Size OC: Chapter 7: Tinkerbell & The Lost Boy

————————-

Sirius Black Imagine Turned Story

Re-Written and Edit of an old story of mine I had on Mibba that deserved some more love and attention, lol.

Sirius Black x Jess Scamander (OC, OFC, PLUS SIZE OC, PLUS SIZE OFC)

————————————

-------------------------------

Sirius Black was lounging comfortably in his bunk. He hadn't even bothered to change out of the KISS shirt and black flannel pajama bottoms at this point. He was reading through a book that he'd borrowed from Jess. Contrary to popular belief... Sirius actually loved to read.

He’d rather die than admit that but he’d learned from an early age that it could easily provide an escape from his horrible daily life.

Again though, he’d rather die than admit and let someone see him doing it.

He was up rather early on a Sunday morning- something that used to be obscenely out of character before he played Quidditch. Now, it seemed that his biological clock was against him. However, it proved rather useful when wanting the shower to yourself or getting to breakfast while everyone was still in bed. He'd been to breakfast already and was currently just relaxing for he had been informed by a tired looking Lily Evans that Jess was not coming down for breakfast this morning. He had been slightly disappointed but guessed that it was because the two girls had been up late talking. He figured that girls did that just as much as boys did. Although, for Jess's sake he hoped not because James had nearly driven him mad last night by both talking about every detail of his and Lily's date and all but demanding the same from Sirius. Honestly, boys were just as bad as girls when it came to gossip.

If not worse. However, he supposed he could just try and read this ridiculous book of hers until she awoke. He had really just settled in and was beginning to immerse himself into this fantasy world when.... "Sirius!!!" His brows furrowed and he glanced over at Remus who was studying on the floor in front of his bunk but he only shrugged.

"Sirius! Ooof! Sorry! Sirius!" "What in the name of Merlin?" he pondered as he sat the book down and went to the door to see none other than his hyperactive girlfriend balancing a package on her hip and apologizing to a fourth year boy who went white as a ghost at the sight of her. "You're ...you're not supposed to be up here." the boy said. "Oh, I'm sorry." she said to him. "I'm just looking for Sirius. See, I have something I have to-" The boy was too shaken to speak. To be fair, she was still wearing her pajamas and he was a fourteen year old boy, most likely with a crush on her. And she was only wearing a big floppy yellow smiley face shirt and some rather short multi colored shorts. "Over here, love." Sirius smirk. She turned to face him with a relieved smile looking so odd with her floral cat ear headband and her big blue monster house shoes. "Thanks, anyway." she told the boy and gave him a one armed hug. Sirius almost snorted when the boy looked as if he may pass out. The poor boy probably didn't know whether he found her attractive, terrifying or strange....or all three. "What are you doing up here?" he asked her as she came to a stop in front of him, "And in your pajamas no less?" "I have something for you." she said simply but he smirked and she smacked him in the stomach, "Not that!" "Aw, and it's almost my birthday too." he moaned playfully and he opened the door and let her him. "Hello, Remus." she greeted the studious green eyed boy. "Oh, uh, hi Jess." he said a little surprised to see her there, especially in her pjs. "Remus, she beats me." Sirius wailed dramatically. "She wounds me." "If it's to your pride..." he said. "I suggest she do it some more. Your head is far too big as it is." Jess grinned in victory. Sirius gasped, "Moony, old boy, I can't believe it! Everyone's mistreating me and it's almost my birthday!" "Sirius, if you don't come sit down, then I'm going to open your present." she informed him smartly. "Present?" he asked. "What present?" "This one." she said tapping the lid of the green box. "You got me a present?" he asked curiously taking a seat on the bunk as the box lay between them. "No." she said. "Well, yes. I did. But this isn't it. This is from my mum and dad." "What?" he asked in disbelief. "From mum and dad." she repeated. "She sent a blasted howler as well. Damn near threatened my life if I opened it. So I'm guessing it's rather good and most likely involving food. Best open it sooner than later." Sirius' hands shook just a little as he pulled the box open and cringed as a howler floated out. It was that same familiar shape that he recognized as the ones Jess usually got. From previous experiences, he was expecting yelling but relaxed when he saw the letter transform and the dark wax sealed lips give him a smile. It began to speak in a soothing tone, "Hello, Dear. Happy Birthday! I do hope you have a good one this year and that you get this package in time. Jess mentioned that you had a particular liking for toffee and fudge so I do hope you like what's inside. She also mentioned that you loved music and so there is something extra special inside from my husband. He said that he wanted it to go someone who could appreciate her as he much as he did. I wasn't allowed to see so I'm trusting that it's appropriate and if it's it not, you'd best tell me so I can tan his hide! Everything is under the shrinking charm so all you need to do is use the Engorgio charm. If you have trouble with it, I would advise you to ask Lily rather than Jess. She means well but she tends to get terribly excited and...blow things up. We are so excited to see Jess making such lovely friends! She speaks very highly of you and bless your soul, you must be patient to deal with her antics! I do hope she isn't being too rough. Some of those pictures... Merlin, I feared she'd nearly kill you with that one on the broom. I've told her about that! Nevertheless, any friend of hers is a friend to us. Welcome to the family, sweet boy. Have a wonderful birthday, dear! May you have many more! P.S. Do not let my child con you out of your presents with her innocent face. I know that she 'seems' sweet but if you give in...you'll regret it. Trust me. Her father has been wrapped around her finger since she was six seconds old. " When the letter was finished it ripped itself up and turned to ash. Sirius was a little disappointed. It had been so nice...he had kind of wanted to keep it. He glanced up to find Remus looking at him curiously and Jess looking mildly offended. "She makes me sound like some kind of animal." she scoffed. "Well..." Remus smirked. "I'd say more reptilian. You do have a certain, what was it you called it Padfoot? Dragon lady...quality about you." "Remus Lupin!" she scolded him. "You are a booger head and I am not talking to you anymore!" "I have chocolate." he said lifting his brows at her and holding up a piece. "All is forgiven." she said racing over to join him. "So what did she get you?" she piped up from her spot with Remus on the floor. Sirius reached into the box to pull out a container and he smiled. "Toffee." he smiled. "Oooh!" she gushed and jumped on his bed. "That's mum homemade toffee! It's really good! She won a blue ribbons for it at the local Muggle fair!" He pulled another out and observed the white chunks with rainbow sprinkles. "Birthday cake fudge." he smiled as he read the label aloud. "It's really good." Jess nodded. "It tastes like white chocolate and cake batter. Mum makes it for Dad every year on his birthday. I bet she had to make two batches!" He pulled out a jar of something and for just a moment it made him think of firewhiskey but he smiled when he read the label. 'Sirius, dear, this is a new recipe I'm trying out. It's called Toffee Syrup. We like to put it in porridge, tea, pumpkin juice, coffee...come to think of it, anything really. I've added just a bit something special to this one. I'd love to hear what you think.' "Mum'll kill me for telling you this but it's really good you mix it with firewhiskey and put it over ice cream." Jess piped up and he lifted his brows at her. "And here I thought you were sweet and innocent." he commented. She laughed, "Sirius, we both know I'm far from either of those." He pulled out a black knitted hat. "Oh, Mum, doesn't want you to catch cold!" she wailed dramatically. "Don't cry on it." he teased. "But she stitched it with love, Sirius!" she wailed again. He resisted the urge to shove her off the bed when something caught his eye. A small black case and upon further inspection he realized that it was a guitar case. 'Engorgio.' he murmured and enlarged it before pulling the zipper open to reveal a beautiful black acoustic guitar. "Ophelia!" Jess squeaked. "What?" Sirius asked her. "It's Ophelia." she said. "It's Dad's guitar. He let me name her when I was a little girl." Sirius frowned, "Oh, maybe you should have it then." "Nah." she shook her head. "I'm rubbish at guitar. I'm a drums kind of girl...much to mum's dismay." She grinned wickedly and pretended to play the drums.

She never failed to make him laugh. He pulled it out and ran his hand over it before glancing into the case and seeing the matching strap and an envelope. He opened the envelope to reveal a small note and a silver chain with a matching guitar pick on the end. "Hello, Sirius. I hope you have a very Happy Birthday. Jess tells me that you love music along with many other things. She seems quite fond of you and speaks of you quite a lot. Which is considerably out of character for her. You have to understand that for the longest time when she wrote home...it was usually to tell us that Lily's eyebrows had grown back or that she'd was very close to finding redcap colony. Naturally, as her father, I was a little defensive about you at first. However, you seem like an alright lad and she seems to take a liking to you. Any man that will willingly let her braid rainbow colored yarn into their hair....well you're alright with me, kid. I hope you have a great birthday and you enjoy old Ophelia. P.S. If you press the guitar pick, you can record yourself. Comes in handy when you're working on songs. ' Sirius carefully sealed the letter back up and placed everything delicately back in the box. "Sirius?" Jess whispered. "You have really, really good parents." he said quietly. Remus quietly left the room, deciding it was best to give the two of them some time. "I know." she said softly. Sirius just nodded, still just slightly shaking until she placed her hand on his. "Maybe you can meet them sometime. You know, to properly welcome you to the family and all." she said. There was more to that statement than either of them were willing to talk about at that moment. Grey eyes caught green and they just stared for a moment. She decided to break the tension with some comedy. "Mum may be swayed by your charms but I will not being giving you your present from me until it's your actual birthday." she said. "You got me a present?" he questioned. "Yes, and I'm not telling so don't even try!" she scolded as she stuck her finger in his face. He smirked at her challenge as he carefully placed the box underneath his bed and grabbed her ankle. "Not even if I do...." he trailed off as he hovered above her neck. "This." She bit her lip when his lips caressed her skin. "No!" she cried out. "Don't use your tricks!" "How about here?" he asked kissing her nose. "Never." she whispered. "Alright." he said. "But I think I'll try one more." "I'll never surrender, Captain Hook!" she called out, grinning wickedly as she saw her book on his bed side table. "Now, now Tinkerbell. Let's not be rash." he teased. "Now give me some of that pixie dust." She erupted into a fit of giggles, "Sirius Black, Lord of the Cheeseballs!" He tickled her relentlessly, "Surrender!" "Never!" she said rolling out from underneath him and racing into the halls, "Lost Boys, unite! We have to defend ourselves against the terrible Captain Hook!" The muggleborns got it, thought it was weird, but go it. Everyone...just kind of wrote it off as Jess being Jess. And James Potter stood at the foot of stairs looking at his friend with an odd expression on his face. "What?" Sirius asked. James shook his head. "Nothing. It's just...you two are clearly into some weird things." he said. Sirius laughed and shoved his friend along into his room. The thing was...he didn't mind her little games. He loved them almost as much as he did her.

Chapter Six

Chapter Eight

Hello, loves! How do we feel about Sirius’ early bday present from Jess’ parents? How are we liking their relationship so far?

I’d love to what you think! Please feel free to hit up the ask box, blast the comment section or reblog with your thoughts and feelings! Next chappie coming soon!

All my love darlings!

Kenny

————————-

@frankie2902

@pleasantdreamqueen @becrazy–beyou

@littledeadrottinghood @blackirisposts

@therealmrshale @woodworthti666@thegreatirene@fanfictionandjunk

@angelus320

@alanlizzingtonshore@buriednurbckyrd@disneymarina@tubbypeachwriting

@sullybot @georgiagrl1990 @whenallsaidanddone

@mischiefnevermanaged94 @inumorph

@congurl

@centerhabit

@bubblymusiclover13

@qtmeryr

@thisismysecrethappyplace

@tnupsweetpie

@alisoncdariel

@hannahloveslife

@wormyboi

@blackirisposts

@maggyme13

@amethyst09

@ibenkastberg

@fanfics1717 @mrscasnovak

@thickemadame @babygirl-barnes

@theladyofmasks @aengsty

@kalliravenne

@witchygagirl

@gruffle1

@writtenbywolfie

@kribbydahhufflepuff

@leah-halliwell92

@thelastwildangel

@silent-browser

@simplymagical@simplymagicalwritings

@lilacflicker

@malulucifer

@minxyvixen

@moncheriemoony

@queenlexusloverofbts

@criminalyetminimal

@plus-size-reader

@owenniasstars

Love, Kenny

#sirius black #sirius orion black #sirius black imagine #sirius black story #sirius black x ps #sirius black x plus size #plus size #ps #ps ofc #ps oc #plus size oc #plus size ofc #sirius black x oc #sirius black x reader #marauders #marauders era #marauders era sirius black #young sirius black

26 notes · View notes

hangingslothcentral · 5 years ago

Text

sirius black was done dirty and i’m mad about it

So you might have seen my big post about how dumbledore is a scumbag for his treatment of Harry, but like, Sirius was done so dirty by this motherfucker I cannot even. It makes me genuinely furious.

Think about it for a minute; Sirius is this wildcard kid. He’s raised in an abusive household, which he eventually flees, and ends up living with the Potters. His parents, in addition to being abusive, are also wizardnazi sympathisers, and Sirius’ younger brother, Reggie, grows up to actually BE a wizardnazi (he ends up being a crucial thorn in Voldy’s side and turns coats later, but he has to have actually joined in earnest).

Sirius is not a quiet, broken little thing in a straightforward sense. He’s a particular flavour of damaged which results in him being loud and brash. He simultaneously loves and loathes himself; he prances around like a show pony and kisses anything that breathes but ultimately beleives himself to be unlovable. He acts fast and rash because he doesn’t have a strong handle on his emotions. He doesn’t understand what healthy love and affection looks like, and often he’s mean to people because keeping them at arms length is less scary than letting them in. When he does allow people to get close, he is fierce, frightening and irrationally protective of them. Stand between Sirius and his friends and he will rip you limb from limb. Because he doesn’t really value himself or his own life, he’s way more likely to throw himself into dangerous situations, either because it allows him to feel fear in a way he can control, or because he genuinely doesn’t care if he lives or dies but DOES care if his people get hurt. Probably most of the time it’s a combination of the two. This is why his dog animagus form is so appropriate for him, imo; he’s not loyal and obedient like a labrador, he’s protective, he’s pack-driven, and he will protect his pack At All Costs.

Dumbledore has watched this kid roll in from the Black family and get sorted into Gryffindor. Dumbledore is a smart guy; he knows this will complicate Sirius’ relationships with his family. No biggy, really. Dumbledore has other shit going on; Voldybaldy is gaining power with frightening speed and ability. Every day the war gets closer and closer to Dumbledore and the school he has chosen as his stomping ground. Sirius getting ostracised is probably a good thing from a distance; the likelihood of him becoming a Death Eater is slimmer.

As he progresses through school Sirius is getting to be more and more of a nuissance. He, James, and Peter are in and out of detention all the time. He notices Sirius is becoming preoccupied with Remus Lupin; this could be a good thing in two respects. Remus is even less likely to end up outside of society if he has social ties, and you hoped him to make friends at school for this reason when you fought for his place. Sirius and James might even shake Remus out of his shell a little bit, maybe direct him towards being able to control himself when in wolf form, the way Fenrir Greyback can. Only this wolf would be on your side (maybe I should also write a ‘How Dumbledoodoo fucked over my boy Remus’ too). Dumbledore likely also hopes, as Remus assumes, that Remus will be a guiding light to his new friends and perhaps curb some of their less desirable habits. But the shenanigans continue, only more on the DL, more efficiently. Remus and Sirius become closer than Dumbledore had anticipated because he has a ton of internalised homophobia and assumes straight until proven queer and it won’t have occured to him that people he did not previously think of as particularly important have so complex a set of inner lives as to be creatures that fall for each other.

The extent to which Sirius will do anything, a n y t h i n g, to strike back at those who have hurt the people he loves becomes clear in his fifth year when he sends Snape into the tunnel under the whomping willow after Remus. Can you imagine how furious Remus would be with him for using him that way? Can you imagine how hurt he would be that Sirius did not even consider how he would feel if he killed someone? None of this would have occured to Sirius. He wanted to see Snape torn to shreds. Wanted him hurt, dead. Wanted him to suffer. How dare Snape insult his Moony? Did Snape think it was cool and fun for this to happen to him every month? Did he think it was a fun little puzzle to solve? Remus is not a puzzle and he is suffering, but he’s not meek and vulnerable, and he can stand up for himself. The obvious answer to this problem, to Sirius, is let Snape solve the riddle and then let Remus rip his head off. Easy, straightforward.

Thank god James went to Dumbledore and explained what was going on because had Remus actually killed or even hurt Snape in his wolf form, he may never have forgiven Sirus for facilitating it. As soon as this is pointed out to Sirius, it is plain to everyone there that he intensely wishes he could take his actions back but there is nothing he could do. And that moment where the egg cracks, where he realises he almost fucked up in a way that would mean one of the people he cares about most in the universe would never speak to him again, that would have happened when Dumbledore called him, James, Snape and Peter to his office after Snape’s life had been saved. Dumbledore would have watched these emotions blossom on Sirius’ face (maybe even sneaking a peak at his thoughts whilst he was at it). He would have known the intensity of Sirius’ feelings, his regret, and the reasoning as to why this unfolded. Dumbledore is not a stupid man. This is why he allows them all to return to school life as normal immediately afterwards with no more serious repurcussions than a slap on the wrist.

So at this point Dumbledore knows - does not suspect, k n o w s - that Sirius is reckless, loyal to a fault, and would go to any lengths imaginable to defend his friends, and their honour he probably also knows now Sirius is madly in love with Remus but that’s neither here not there even if it is important to note.

Time goes on, they finish school and become members of the Order. It’s not confirmed in the books but it’s fairly safe to assume from context that to be a member of the Order you have to have Dumbledore’s trust, in some capacity. In practice, that means Dumbledore reckons he’s got something on you and when it comes down to it, he’s the one holding the cards so you’d have to side with him for your own benefit. He’s earned James, Peter has never been a particular problem, Sirius owes Dumbledore his honour, and Remus would have had literally no opportunities in life were it not for Dumbledore. Thus, a loyal set of additions to his little wizardnazi fighting team.

The prophecy happens, James and Lily’s son is implicated, you know this part of the story. And they are killed by Voldy and Harry is packed off to the Dursleys to become an obscurial and the rest is history. But Sirius. S I R I U S. Sirius ends up in Azkaban for murdering Peter and a bunch of muggles. Yeah, surface level, to an outside observer, maybe this would make sense. Sirius was always a troublemaker, he came from a pureblood, traditionally Slytherin family with ties to voldemort. It would make sense it was him that betrayed Lily and James and also that he would kill Peter for challenging him. IF you only had a very scant awareness of Sirius Black, which we have already established, Dumbledore does not. He knows quite a lot about Sirius, actually. Has a firm grip on what he’s like.

See, Dumbledore never offers to be James and Lily’s secret keeper. It wouldn’t matter that he was an obvious choice, even if that was the reason he gave them. Voldemort is scared of Dumbledore. He would not have dared attack him, and besides, that is just not how the Fidelius Charm operates. Let it be one of the friends, and Dumbledore assumes James and Lily would choose Sirius because it’s Sirius, and he probably would have nudged them in that direction. Why? Because Sirius is rash and loyal to a T. If anyone is going to get killed, weaken the Fidelius charm by having a bunch of people as secret keepers instead of just one because he dies, it’s Sirius. Oh he’d go down in a blaze of righteous glory. But Sirius, by now, has learnt this about himself. He knows. So he tells James and Lily to choose Peter instead.

Dumbledore may not have explicitly known this, but he would have known that Sirius would have died before he betrayed his friends. He was probably actually counting on it. Knowing he was at the wreckage at the Potter’s home in Godric’s Hollow would have, should have been enough for Dumbledore to add up these pieces of information and infer that it was not Sirius who was secret keeper. The Fidelius Charm did not break; Peter gave the secret up. And when Sirius went to confront Peter, if Dumbledore had not yet worked this out, he should have guessed at this point what had happened, because of how Sirius was, what he’d have felt about Peter betraying Lily and James.

Anyway, none of the guessing really matters because had Dumbledore even visited Sirius just once, before his trial or after, he’d have heard the full story and put the pieces together. But he didn’t. He didn’t bother because Sirius wasn’t directly important to his plans. Because Sirius was supposed to die and weaken the charm anyway so Dumbledore could have his baby martyr. It didn’t go exactly as Dumbledore had thought, but it worked out mostly to his devices, so why bother asking Sirius for the details? Who cares if he is wrongfully imprisoned? He was always a pain in the neck anyway.

I could go on but this is actually really long now hahahahahaaaaaaaa. yes so consider this pt. 2 of why dumbledore is the worst.

#hp theory #sirius black #harry potter #dumbledore #sirius #dumbledore is the worst #harry potter theory #harry potter imagine #wolfstar #my poor baby boy

174 notes · View notes

pufflyhallows · 5 years ago

Text

Wounds

Pairing: Remus Lupin x reader

Summary: You and Remus were together for eight years. When James and Lily died and Sirius was sent to Azkaban, things got really difficult and he eventually left you. Now you meet again at Hogwarts after you helped Sirius escape and clear everything up. The past is discussed.

a/n: This is the morning after Remus’ transformation and chasing after Harry and Hermione in Prisoner of Azkaban. Reader and Remus were reunited in the Shrieking Shack, but that was focused on Peter so I didn’t think it was relevant to this piece in particular as they didn’t have time to talk there.

Warnings: mentions of death, language, angst.

Word count: 2,960

********

“So this is your office.”

“Was. Was my office.”

Remus was emptying the old drawers of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher’s office. The news about his condition would soon be spread, so the logical thing to do was leave before it did. He wasn’t happy about it, of course – it was yet another job he was losing for the same damn reason. He reckoned that was something that would follow him his entire life, though. At this point, he was merely used to it.

“It was your office,” you repeated, nodding slowly. “I’m sorry you have to leave. I know the kids loved having you as their teacher.”

“You do?” he looked up from the suitcase he was filling with books.

“I had a little chat with Hermione. ‘The best DADA teacher we’ve had so far’, if I remember correctly.”

“Not a very hard title to win. They’ve only had two teachers before me – one had You-Know-Who on the back of his head, and the other was a narcissistic self-proclaimed hero.”

“You’ll never learn how to take a compliment, will you?”

Remus looked down at his suitcase again, a small sheepish smile on his lips.

You had been resting your shoulder on the door frame, arms crossed and eyes everywhere. The office looked smaller than it did in your head. You started to walk around, carefully observing anything interesting you found, arms still crossed on your chest.

“I remember last time I was here,” you broke the silence. “Many years ago when I was just a stupid teenager.”

“You were never stupid,” Remus interrupted.

“Oh, I was. Very much. And I was here because I was in trouble. Professor Jones had caught me cheating on his test. I don’t know if you’ll remember.”

“I remember,” Remus nodded. “You and Sirius got caught, and James felt guilty he hadn’t, so he turned himself in.”

“Yeah! Wow, that was so long ago,” you thought about it for a few seconds before continuing. “Anyway, I was standing here, Sirius and James by my side, and we were all staring at Professor Jones, who was standing right there where you are, behind the desk. He made us sit down and write some famous quote about integrity over and over again.”

“And I dare say neither of you learned the lesson.”

“Depends on what lesson you’re talking about. We cheated on the following test, but didn’t get caught – that lesson we learned.”

Remus snorted a discrete laugh through his nose, eyes on the books he was packing. “I suppose that’s good.”

“Yeah, it is. I mean… it was.”

Remus looked up at you. The history behind your words flooded his mind just as much as it flooded yours, and both of you missed the times when all you had to worry about was detention.

And when you had each other’s embrace to run to. Yeah, that too.

“We had fun, didn’t we, Remus?”

“We did,” he nodded. “But these last years wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t fucked up everything.”

“Stop. I didn’t come here to have this conversation.”

“But we need to have this conversation, Y/N. I need to have this conversation.”

“You asked me for forgiveness right before transforming last night, do you remember? You apologized. And I said I forgive you. We don’t need to talk about this.”

“We do,” Remus walked around the desk and approached you, stopping just a meter away. “There are things I need to say, things that I need you to hear. A simple ‘I’m sorry’ is not enough.”

You looked at each other for a few seconds. Hesitation and uncertainty in your eyes, hope and urgency in Remus’.

“Please,” he muttered.

You chewed on your bottom lip, thinking you weren’t ready for this yet. Yes, you forgave him – you had forgiven him years ago, even before he apologized. But it still hurt. Ten years passed since Remus left you, but the pain was still all too real. It was not left in the past, as you wished.

At the time, you tried to hate him. You tried to despise him, but you failed – you loved him way too much for that. You felt betrayed and abandoned, and you resented him for a while, yes. But hate? You never could, no matter how many times you had made yourself think of him as a coward, a traitor, a selfish asshole. You knew it wasn’t true. Your heart was broken and you wanted to hate him for breaking it, but… you failed.

And now, you knew you were not ready to have this conversation yet. You didn’t resent him anymore and you had forgiven him already, but it still hurt. The past hurt. And you weren’t ready to touch those wounds yet.

“Please, Y/N.”

“Remus, I-”

“I just need you to listen. You don’t have to say or do anything. Just listen.”

You looked into Remus’ pleading eyes and felt like you had no strength to fight any emotions anymore. You would be lying if you said you didn’t want to listen to what he had to say – because you did, very much – but you knew that you just weren’t ready yet.

“I don’t think I can.”

“But… why?”

“I don’t know, Remus,” you sighed, defeated. “I think it’ll break me. I don’t want to relive the past. At least, not right now.”

Remus looked down at his feet, a gesture that instantly reminded you of the shy boy he once was, and you had to close your eyes so you wouldn’t start crying right then and there. He nodded and stepped back, swallowing hard as he carried on with his packing.

“I forgive you. That’s not up to discussion,” you stated, your voice weaker than you intended. “I want you to know that.”

He nodded again, not looking up.

“And I will listen to what you have to say. Just not today.”

“Okay,” he mumbled.

“I’m happy to be here and I want it to stay like that. I’m happy to see you, I’m happy that Sirius is free, I’m happy I got to see Harry all grown… God! Lily’s eyes.”

“But looks just like James,” Remus whispered, a shy smile on the corner of his lips as he still looked down at his suitcase and not at you.

“Yeah. The hair… It’s insane.”

Silence suddenly reigned in the room, making you feel small. Remus had finished emptying the drawers and was now trying to close his super full suitcase. The only sounds in the office came from the Grindylow’s tank in the corner.

You slowly approached the desk, noticing the countless pieces of parchment spread on it. Some were assignments Remus’ students would never get back directly from him, and you knew that would make them sad. However, you noticed a familiar piece of parchment on the table.

“Is that…?” you pointed at it and Remus stopped to look.

“Yes. I intend to give it back to Harry.”

“Awesome,” you reached out, fascinated. “May I…?”

“Of course.”

It was hard to hide the excitement you were feeling at that moment. After all, it was the first time in over a decade that you were able to see and touch the Marauder’s Map.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” you whispered as you pressed the tip of your wand against it.

Thin ink lines began to spread like a spider’s web. They joined each other, they criss-crossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed: Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present THE MARAUDER’S MAP.

Your heart sank. You felt the tears stinging your eyes, but you merely blinked them away. So many memories came at once into your mind, it was hard to keep track of them.

You could read your own name in the Defence Against the Dark Arts office, but not Remus’. That didn’t surprise you. You knew only a Marauder could read another Marauder’s name on the map.

“I hadn’t realized how much I missed this,” you whispered as you traced your name with the tip of your fingers.

“Yeah… me neither.”

“Is this how you found out I was here?”

“No. I recognized you outside my classroom’s window weeks ago. You really fascinated the Ravenclaw first-years. They all thought you had been sent by Rowena Ravenclaw herself.”

You laughed as you recollected the mesmerized look on the students’ faces. “I should’ve remembered the fact that eagles don’t nod when children wave at them.”

“You sure made them happy. And hard to concentrate back on the lesson too.”

“Sorry about that. I was… excited to see you teaching. And now I know that was stupid. I could’ve blown everything up and Sirius wouldn’t have been able to get in and-”

“You think I’d have done something?”

“Well, I don’t know. Sirius escaped prison and suddenly I was here… You could’ve thought I was trying to get Harry and reported me. I have always been associated with Sirius since the beginning, you remember. After he escaped, people thought I had something to do with it.”

Remus looked at you, frowning slightly.

“Which is true,” you clarified. “I had something to do with it. Everything to do with it. But people didn’t know that for sure, so it was a little unfair that they were accusing me.”

Remus raised an eyebrow.

“Okay. It wasn’t unfair, given my history of nagging the Ministry about his arrest,” you sighed. “Public protests that costed me jobs, peace, safety and… relationships.”

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about that.”

“I do, Remus. That’s the thing. I do. I’m just… I don’t know.”

You took a deep breath and put the map down on the desk. Maybe it was time to talk about it.

“I don’t know how to feel about this whole thing right now. Like I said, I’m happy I’m here, but… things didn’t turn out exactly how we planned. Peter escaped and Sirius had to run away on a hippogriff so he wouldn’t be kissed. Now we don’t know when we’ll see him again, do we? And I’m happy to see you, I really am, specially because now you know I was telling the truth and everything else was just media bullshit, but that’s… that’s also exactly why I’m still hurting. You didn’t believe me. You chose to walk away and leave me alone on this. I had to fight this fight by myself, because I couldn’t just leave Sirius there and go live my life like you did. I forgive you and I think I understand now, but I’m still fucking hurting.”

After letting all that out, you felt a tiny bit better. Everything was on the table now for him to see, and you didn’t know what to expect, to be honest. Your voice had broken on the last sentence, but you hoped he hadn’t noticed.

Remus blinked a few times and swallowed hard. He looked at you like he was carefully choosing the words he was about to speak.

“That’s… that’s what you think I did? I ‘left Sirius there and went live my life’?”

You didn’t say anything as now you realized that wasn’t fair. You knew very well that life for him was never easy and he couldn’t just ‘go live it’.

“It killed me, Y/N. A part of me died with James, Lily and Peter, another part of me died when I found out it had been Sirius, and another part of me died when you, the only person left, the only one I had, my everything, started going around defending the murderer. This was the scenario I had, you have to remember that. I was already completely alone before even leaving you. Sirius was all you talked about for the next two years. We didn’t have any conversations that weren’t about him or Peter or the Ministry. And I listened to you. Even though your only reasoning for defending Sirius was that ‘he would never do this’, I listened to you. Despite having all the evidences point to him, I listened to you say he was innocent. I thought you were grieving. I thought you were in denial. I thought it would go away after a while, but it didn’t. You were convinced he was innocent. It was killing me, but I didn’t want to lose you. I stayed.”

Remus took a deep breath and only then you realized you had been holding yours.

“But then…” he continued. “But then you started actually going to the Ministry. You demanded to be heard, you made noise, you protested. You caught the media’s attention by doing so, and soon enough all the Daily Prophet talked about was ‘the lunatic in love with the murderer’. They’re really good, the journalists. They did their research and they got to me. That’s when things really started going south. We had eyes on us every day. Our house was being watched. People left notes, threats, nasty things. You were too busy with the Ministry to notice, but I did. I was the one who got the mail and read them all. I was there in the background of your fight for justice. You lost your job, but you said I didn’t have to worry because you were already applying for new ones. You never got a reply. I was supporting us and it was becoming really difficult. People on the street called me enabler, a fool, irresponsible, and worse things. Soon my boss didn’t want me associated with them, so I lost my job too, when it was already so hard for me to get one. In the meanwhile, when we were at home together, you spent all your time doing research on Magical Law Enforcement and such. You were obsessed. We didn’t talk. But when we did, it was about him. It was then that I started to believe what they said. I started to believe you weren’t grieving, you were just in love with him. My insecurities from school came back and I created in my head an image of you two together. And I believed it. That’s when I left.”

Silence.

You didn’t even try to hold back the tears. They were running down your cheeks freely.

Remus had watery eyes, but not a single tear fell down.

“And now I know you were right. I am so, so fucking sorry, Y/N.”

“I am sorry too.”

You broke down. All the emotions you felt the day he left you were back. Every wound was reopened and started to bleed again.

You covered your face in an attempt to muffle your sobs, your whimpers, and just hide from him. You felt vulnerable, exposed, small.

Hesitantly, Remus walked around the desk and stood by your side. He slowly put his hand on your shoulder and whispered:

“It’s over. It’s all over now.”

You shook your head. “It’s not. It’ll never be over. James and Lily will never come back.”

As your crying got more intense, Remus’ grip on your shoulder tightened, until he decided that wasn’t enough and pulled you into a hug. His arms around you felt good, really good. You instantly felt safe, like you hadn’t in a very long time.

“Shh,” he rubbed your back in a soothing motion, a very familiar gesture that took you back in time to when you were just an angsty teenager with an equally angsty boyfriend.

“I missed you, Remus. I missed you so fucking much.”

“Oh, Y/N. I missed you too.”

The two of you stayed like that for a while, until you managed to compose yourself.

“I’m sorry,” you said again.

“There’s nothing you need to apologize for.”

“This was my fault too, Remus. I didn’t take into account the fact that you were grieving too. You had lost your friends too. I neglected you. I got so involved with trying to prove Sirius’ innocence that I left you to mourn alone. Like I said earlier, I think I understand now why you left. This doesn’t make me hurt any less, but I do understand you better. You put up with your grieving girlfriend defending the murderer of your best friends for two years. That was your point of view.”

“But you were right and I should’ve believed you. I should’ve fought with you. It’ll take a while before I can forgive myself for that.”

“Okay,” you let go of him so you could look into his watery eyes. “But I forgive you.”

“You have always been too nice for your own good.”

You chuckled, stepping back and wiping the remaining tears away. “You’re one to talk.”

“Professor Lupin?”

A small voice came from the doorway, after a quick knock on the open door.

Harry.

“I can come back later.”

“No, Harry. It’s okay,” you motioned for him to come in. “I was just leaving, actually.”

“You were?” Remus muttered to you, not loud enough for Harry to hear.

“Yes. You have very important business to take care of and I’ll leave you to it,” you mumbled back with a small smile.

You turned back to Harry and met the eyes of your late best friend. Swallowing hard, you smiled at him as well. “It was so nice meeting you, Harry. I hope I see you again soon.”

“It was nice to get to know you too, Y/N. Thanks for… for telling me about my mum.”

“Anytime,” you walked up to him and slightly ruffled his hair. “Well, I should get going now. See you around, Remus.”

“See you, Y/N.”

********

198 notes · View notes

imaginejamesandsirius · 5 years ago

Note

Soulmate au where Sirius has James's name on his wrist, James thinks he has no soulmate, until BAM! He finds it in some unusual place for a soulmark and there's Sirius Black's name.

Young Sirius Black had a name printed on his wrist, a thick cuff bracelet to cover it as all soulmarks were, and a belly full of hope: James Potter. His parents tried to tell him that soulmates didn't make them automatically allies, but he knew that was only because the name on his wrist was someone from a family they didn't like. Regulus didn't have to deal with any of that, and when they thought Sirius wasn't listening, they told their second son all about soulmates and how they'd always be there for him. So yeah, Sirius knew they were lying to him in the hopes that he'd manage believe them this time.

When James Potter introduced himself, with a large grin and thick rimmed glasses and messy hair standing out like they were too big for the rest of his body, Sirius smiled back and said his name, hoping for a reaction of some sort. He didn't get one.

They talked on the train ride to Hogwarts, and it became increasingly obvious that James didn't recognize him. It was a terrible feeling, realising that James didn't have his name. Sirius belonged to James, that much was clear. It was like a deep feeling seeped into his bones, this knowledge that he belonged to James. He wished that it went both ways, that James belonged to him too.

That would've been nice.

"D'you have a soulmate?" Sirius asked out of the blue one day.

"Nope," James admitted easily. He didn't seem very down about it, but Sirius definitely would've been in his place. Maybe that was because he knew who his soulmate was, though.

"Do you wish you had one?"

"Eh." James shrugged, frowning at a blot of ink that landed on his parchment. "I guess? It sounds nice, the way people talk about it, and my parents are soulmates, but it's hard to miss what you've never had. What about you?"

Sirius blinked. "I have a soulmate." It would be easier if he didn't maybe, but he also wouldn't give up James's name on his wrist.

"Really?" James asked, more surprised than he should've been considering how close they were-- Sirius ignored the fact that this was his first confirmation that James didn't have a soulmate so there was no reason for James to know anything about his.

"Yeah." He tried to inject enough casualness into his voice that James wouldn't pry further, and it worked.

It had been six and a half years since Sirius met James. And with every buggering year that passed, it became more and more bloody obvious that James didn't have Sirius's name for a reason. James readily admitted that he didn't have a soulmark, but that wasn't what did it; Sirius kept fucking up. Because Sirius wasn't a good person. If he had one main trait, it would be selfishness. He kept pulling James into pranks even though he was Head Boy-- and okay, it's not like James really fought him on it, but he also wasn't instigating anymore, which meant that if Sirius didn't suggest it, they didn't do anything-- he did that thing with Snape a couple years ago that had nearly killed Remus and James, and he kept sabotaging James and Lily's relationship. It's not like he put it in his mind to do it, but that's always what ended up happening. Which sucked. Because James was getting mad at him, and Lily was actually pretty cool which just made it worse (she seemed to think it was a sort of hazing that she had to endure to prove she could be part of the group, and that was the same way Sirius attempted to justify it to himself before Remus had flat out said, "Stop trying to break them up, James is still your best mate and that's not going to change because he's dating someone. Sirius could have stood for his subconscious taking it to heart but whatever).

Anyways, James didn't have his name because Sirius was a complete and absolute berk who didn't deserve being shackled to him for the rest of his life.

"Sorry," Sirius said as soon as he sat on the couch.

"Should I be worried?" Lily asked, her tone flat as she showed how clearly she wasn't worried.

Sirius snorted. "This is going to be the beginning of a great new friendship."

"Between you and...?"

"You."

Lily looked up from her book at that, blinking at him guilelessly.

Fuck she really didn't know. Sirius thought by this point everyone knew he was in love with James, even though neither Remus nor Peter had come out and admitted as much to his face. And if she didn't know that, did she have a reason for why he was being such an arse, or did she just think that's how he was? Either way, that behaviour was coming to an end. Sirius gave her a smirk that looked more like a pained grimace; he wasn't used to apologising even though he had plenty to apologise for. "I've been an arse and I'm sorry. Worried you were going to take James from me, y'know?"

"Not judging, but that's kinda stupid. I'm his girlfriend, you're his best mate. It's not like we're both dating him or summat."

That hurt more, but if she hadn't noticed before, she wasn't going to notice now. "Yeah I figured that out. Rather," he added with a dramatic eye roll, "Moony got so annoyed that he whacked me over the head with his History of Magic essay until I listened to him. I haven't been very nice to you. I'm surprised he hasn't killed me for it yet, to be honest."

"I didn't take it personally," she said with a shrug. "I'm not sure you like anyone other than James. And occasionally Peter and Remus," she tagged on thoughtfully. "Anywho, you will be forgiven shortly, just as soon as I believe it won't keep happening."

"Well here's hoping I don't reclaim being a dumbarse."

Lily chuckled. "Here's hoping."

James showed up on Sirius's doorstep, one hand stuck in his hair like he couldn't bear to be in a normal stance. There was a nervous energy about him, but it wasn't tragic like they'd lost somebody else in the war. "What's wrong?" Sirius asked when he came in, barely finishing the second word before James was blurting out an answer.

"Lily's pregnant."

Sirius's heart stopped. When it started again, it was painful where it beat in his chest, like his ribcage had shrunk at the same time his heart grew and now it was strangled but trying desperately to continue on like nothing had changed. "What?"

"So we're- y'know- getting married only she wants to have it soon, like before she starts to show at all, so I was thinking you could help."

"What?"

"To, y'know, throw the wedding together. I have no idea what goes into it, but you're my best man so you'd have to help anyways, right? And you always pick good flowers and shite, so it makes sense to apply it to weddings, y'know?" James was saying 'you know' a lot, like maybe if he said it enough, Sirius would stop being confused.

"Best man?" Sirius repeated dumbly. He'd never felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest before. He wouldn't recommend it.

"Lily's kind of freaking out, so Marlene and Mary and Dorcas are all at our place comforting her, and they sorta kicked me out, so like, I dunno, maybe they're planning it so you won't have to?"

Did James think the best friend of the groom was traditionally the one to plan the wedding? Or did he assume that Sirius was going to do it because he was used to Sirius taking care of things? "James," Sirius said, and James looked over at him like he was hearing him for the first time since showing up. "Pregnant?"

"Hmm? Yeah, apparently condoms aren't a hundred percent effective, who knew? And her birth control pills aren't very reliable, guess we had an unlucky night, you know? She's only two months in, so we've got a month to the wedding, if that helps."

Pregnant. And all James had to say about it was that they had an unlucky night? Sirius frowned. "James, do you want to marry her?"

"We're having a kid, we're going to be a family." He stated it like fact, and Sirius took a grounding breath and let it go. If he argued this and won, then what? Lily would have to raise a kid by herself, James would be miserable with guilt, and for every minute afterwards, Sirius would have to wonder if he did it for James's sake or his own.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Unfortunately, now that James was paying attention, he was really paying attention. He caught the strange note in his tone and asked, "What do you mean?"

Sirius shrugged, the lie coming out of his mouth before his brain thought of it. "Her soulmate."

"Shit. I didn't even think about that." James rubbed at his forehead, but he wasn't dissuaded from the whole idea, Sirius could tell that much just from looking at him. "We'll deal with it when she meets him, but right now there's a baby on the way and we have to think of the sprog first. Besides, she probably won't meet him for years, so we'll be out of the war and the baby will be older and- I mean, everything will be easier, then, you know?"

No. "Sure." Things weren't going to be easier in three years or twelve, but at least there wouldn't be a war on. Their issues would be smaller, but it wouldn't feel any better for James to be dealing with it.

Lily and James were both in hospital, and Sirius was taking care of Harry while the remaining Death Eaters were rounded up. It was pretty easy since he'd learned all his babysitting talents alongside James's self imposed parenting lessons while Lils was pregnant. Harry was easily entertained by Padfoot, but getting to sleep and waking up were the absolute worst. Harry knew Sirius, no question, but he always wanted Lily when he woke up, and he wanted one of his parents (sometimes both) when he was going down. Sirius wasn't getting much sleep, but it was more than he'd gotten while pulling shifts at the Auror's office in the day then running for the Order at night.

Harry's soulmark was barely starting to develop, on the bottom of his right foot. It was little more than a grey smudge at the moment, but by his second birthday, the name would be clear. Harry would learn first how to write his name, then how to write his soulmate's. That's how Regulus had learned, and Sirius knew he would've done the same had their parents not been so hellbent on him not attaching himself to James. As always, the thought made him snort in amusement; they'd never been able to control him, not from the moment he was five years old and decided their rules were stupid and outdated.

Sirius ruffled Harry's hair as he played with two stuffies, his hair already dark and thick on his head.

James was gingerly getting out of the shower when he saw his soulmark for the first time in his entire life. Lily was probably still on the couch, too weak to make it further on her own. He'd offered to help, but they'd separated while hiding from Voldemort in that small house, and things were still awkward between them. Knowing that they cared about each other but weren't in love was just... it made sense but he was never going to admit that to her.

While in hospital, they'd shaved his head so they could do some sort of surgery or potion soaking, he had no idea. One of the side effects was getting the chills at all times of the day, so he'd had a hat on the whole time. No one that talked to him had seen it, which was why he was frozen in shock when he saw dark writing on the side of his head in the mirror.

He shuffled closer, tilting his head and leaning in until he was nearly pressing his face against the cool surface. It was hard to read from this distance and with it backwards, but it was a name he knew as well as his own: Sirius Black.

Sirius? But-. It made sense-- it definitely did, the knowledge that Sirius was his soulmate clicked into place like it had always been there-- but why hadn't Sirius said anything? Sirius knew where his soulmark was, he knew who it was, and he hadn't said anything. James had thought he didn't have a soulmate, but with his name on his wrist, Sirius had proof that he did, so why didn't he tell him? Sure they'd been eleven at the time they met, but Sirius didn't know that James thought he was without a soulmate until they were fourteen; that was three years of being best mates, where Sirius could have told him and didn't.

He wanted to grab his wand and apparate over to his flat and demand answers, but even with all the healing potions and the two week long stay in hospital, he couldn't move very quickly. It took him far too long to towel dry, and even longer to get his fumbling limbs through the proper sleeves. He pulled the hat on automatically, paused, then pulled it further down. He wasn't ashamed, but he was still too damn cold all the time and if Sirius hadn't told him, he must have a reason.

James made his way out of the loo and over to the living room. Lily was sitting on the couch, but she'd changed. "How do you feel?"

"Like I nearly got cut in half," she said, because that was basically what had happened. How she survived it long enough for help to arrive was a mystery to everyone, including the healers. "You?"

"Like I'm walking through ice." Both for speed and the bloody temperature. "You okay if I go visit Sirius?"

Lily shifted, then grimaced and held a hand to her stomach. "Try calling him, I'm not sure travelling that far is a good idea."

They'd both been banned from floo travel and any apparation up to a certain range. Flying was, of course, out of the question. James sighed, knowing she was right. "Yeah." He turned and started hobbling towards his room. It took a while, but he made it, landing on the armchair with more force than he should've allowed himself. He tapped the mirror and waited for Sirius to answer. Harry should be in the middle of his nap, so hopefully there wouldn't be any way for Sirius to get out of talking to him.

"Hey, what's up?" Sirius asked, his smiling face replacing James's in the mirror.

"Who's your soulmate?" he blurted out, not wanting to deal with small talk when he could only think about this one topic.

Sirius blinked, smile fading quickly. "What?"

"Your soulmate, who is it?"

"It doesn't matter."

It doesn't matter. His soulmate was James, and he was saying that it didn't matter. To his face. Well. A little disconnected, but it was still to his face. "How can it not matter?"

Sirius shifted uncomfortably. "It just doesn't. Since when do you care? We've talked about it, like, twice and it was ages ago. Nothing's changed. At the end of the day, everything is just as it was when we first met, and nothing's every going to come of-"

"You're full of shite."

He blinked, taken aback. "I- what?"

"You heard me, you're full of shite. You have my name, that changes things."

Sirius's eyes went wide, and he broke the connection.

"Wait, don't-"

His face faded entirely from view, and all that was left was James scowling at himself.

"Bugger." This is why he'd wanted to speak in person. Disapparation was going to be better than trying to floo, so he stuck his head out his door and yelled, "Lily, I'm going to talk to Sirius!"

"Can't it wait?" she called, only she was smart and used a spell to amplify her voice instead of trying to shout.

"No!"

"Fine, but I won't visit you in hospital, I just got out!"

"That's fine!" Then he closed his door and turned on his heel, appearing in Sirius's living room with a pop. He turned in a circle looking for him, and he stumbled to a halt when he saw him in the kitchen, hands planted on the counter and looking half furious, half miserably sad.

"You know James," he said, voice low and hurt, "when I ended the conversation, it meant I didn't want to talk about it. It didn't mean 'come over and bother me when you should be home resting'. What are you doing here?"

"I think it's pretty obvious."

"You could've hurt yourself. Go back home."

"And risk hurting myself further? That's not a very good plan."

Sirius glared at him, but his expression still had that edge of being indescribably upset with him. James had no bloody idea why he looked like that, and that's why he was here.

"I'm not leaving until we talk about this."

Sirius swallowed thickly, and even from this distance, James could see his adam's apple bob with the motion. It looked like he was going to say something, so James waited. It took him another minute to figure out what he wanted to say, and his voice was hoarse as he asked, "How'd you find out?"

James blinked. Of all the things he'd expected to hear, that was not one of them. How the hell did Sirius think he knew? There was only one way for him to know, and Sirius wasn't stupid.

"I never told anyone," he continued, staring down at the empty counter with unseeing eyes, "and it's not like you've talked to my parents about it. Did you just- figure it out? I was obvious, right?" He gave a humorless laugh. "Too obvious. There's- there's no way you barely figured it out. You must've known for a while." He swallowed again. "Are you taking Harry?"

James blinked, tried to figure out what the hell he was talking about, then blinked again when nothing came to him. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He walked closer, then pulled the hat off. It felt weird to have his head so uncovered, but it was important for Sirius to see his soulmark. James turned so the mark would be facing Sirius and tapped his finger against it. "I thought I didn't have one."

Sirius blew out a harsh breath. "Yeah that's because you d-" he stopped abruptly. He must have looked up and seen what James was showing him. "What is that," he whispered.

"Soulmark." James glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, then put the hat back on to face him. "I never saw it, obviously. By the time it formed I had hair and I never had any reason to chop it all off." He rubbed at the spot on his head through his hat.

"So- what? You're here to tell me that we should hook up?" Sirius asked incredulously, tears brimming in his eyes. "Did you forget that you're married? You have a family, remember?"

"Lily and I split."

Sirius scoffed. "Right cause that's so much better. Being your soulmate rebound." He wiped harshly at his eyes. "No thanks."

"Months ago. We split before the attack," he added so it made more sense, "months ago."

"You don't want me James," he said, the admittance sounding too much like heartbreak. "You didn't want me before, and you don't want me now. Go back home. Nothing's changed."

"Home is where you are."

Sirius started shaking his head, and when he looked up again, he was angry. He was crying, but he was pissed off. "You're a fucking liar James. I've always needed you a hell of a lot more than you've needed me and everyone's always known that. You moved on. You got buggering married and had a kid, you bought a house, you- and look at me!" he yelled throwing his arms out to gesture to his flat. It was the same one his uncle had given him his last year of Hogwarts, and he'd never bothered to make it truly his. It had his shit in it, and that was it. He didn't redecorate, he hadn't hung up any art or bought a different couch from the one that had been in it since the beginning.

"There was a war, you didn't have time to-"

"I had time," Sirius cut in, expression twisting, "but I kept hoping you'd come back and tell me we should get a place. Getting everything I want, aren't I?"

James walked over and pulled him in a hug.

"What're you doing?" Sirius asked, pushing weakly against him.

"You were making me sad," James mumbled, holding him tighter. "You talk like I don't care about you, and you're a second choice to the family I wanted."

Sirius sniffled and didn't say anything.

"Like I didn't choose you first. Before we got married, Lily, she- she told me that she knew you were first to me. She didn't even care, can you believe that? It's been obvious all along that we weren't going to end up together. Hell, the only reason we got married was because she got pregnant."

"Yeah well. That's great for you." Sirius raised his arms to hug him back and turned his face into James's shoulder.

James sighed, knowing that he'd have to admit something he'd planned on keeping to himself for his entire life, if he wanted Sirius to believe that this wasn't some instant love soulmate bullshit. "I never told you how I felt-"

Sirius snorted, and James ignored that.

"-because I knew you had a soulmate. You told me what it meant to you, and I just- I didn't think I could handle that: having you only to lose you the moment you met them. I thought it was for the best."

"Liar," Sirius said, but it was less accusing than it had been before. "You- you never- it-."

"I love you," James whispered, and the words hung in the air as tangible as an owl.

Sirius shivered. "You can't be kidding, James. Not now, not about this."

"I'm not. I love you, and we don't have to jump into this, but I missed you so buggering much. Not getting to see you every day was torture, please let me stay. Actually," he amended a second later, "you should come home. Me and Lily have missed Harry, and I know you like our place better than this."

"I don't think Lily would be okay with me moving in," Sirius protested, but it was weak; he wanted to be convinced.

"Lily likes you better than me," James said. It was a little strange that that was true. "If I'm still living there, you can definitely live there."

Sirius said, "You're such a prick," but he relaxed against James.

#prongsfoot #marauders #fanfic #james potter #sirius black #lily evans #harry potter #brief james/lily #filled #getting together #soulmates #first war #post first war #james lives #siriuslystarbucks #awkward-ame

151 notes · View notes

imastrangeone98 · 4 years ago

Text

A Cradle Song

(A/N: I'm still deciding on how the plot for my au should go, but I think I'm narrowing it down. In the meantime, here's a fluffy fluff oneshot that no ones gonna read XD)

I can't decide if it takes place after chpt 18 or just after lost and found itself

Sweet dreams, form a shade o'er my lovely infant's head;

Sweet dreams of pleasant streams,

By happy, silent, moony beams.

Faith's eyes fluttered open. The chill in the room settled deep into her bones.

The remnants of her mother's soft, soothing voice still echoed in her ears.

It was the dream again. The one where her mother would pull her into her lap and croon a sweet lullaby as she coaxed her back to slumber.

The one where her family was whole.

A hopeless dream. A foolish dream.

And like a fool, she chased after it, anyway.

Sleep, sleep, happy child, all creation slept and smil'd;

Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,

While o'er thee, thy mother weep.

She ought to have cried. It would have made dealing with the unexpected torrent inside her more manageable.

But her eyes were dry.

If her mother were here, would she have wept for her brother? Would she have found some sense of meaning in his prolonged life and prayed for his salvation?

...Would she have saved him?

Sweet babe in thy face, holy image I can trace,

Sweet babe, once like thee,

Thy Maker lay and weep for me.

"Faith?" a drowsy voice called out.

Dante stumbled from his room, rubbing his eyes. He saw the half-angel huddled into a small ball on the ground, gaze fixated on the paintbrush that hung proudly on the wall.

The rush of concern he felt snapped him out of his sleepiness.

"Hey," he murmured, slowly approaching her. "What's goin' on?"

Slowly, she turned to face him. And in her golden eyes, there was only pain.

"...What did I do wrong?" she asked, but it seemed as if she wasn't asking him. "Could I have done it differently?"

He watched her, frozen. "...What do you mean?"

She turned back to look at the paintbrush. "I just... I just wanted a family." Unshed tears stained her eyes. "Was I asking for too much?"

His chest tightened.

"...Am I a bad person?"

Weep for thee, for me, for all, when He was an infant small.

Thou His image ever see,

Heavenly face that smiles on thee.

Dante slowly kneeled beside her, gently wrapping his arms around her. Her body trembled slightly under his fingertips.

He willed himself not to crumble.

"No, Faith," he whispered hoarsely. "You're not bad at all."

"I... I feel bad."

"I know you do."

"I didn't save him. My own uncle."

He swallowed down the bitter taste in his mouth. "You did what you could. Sometimes, that's all we can do."

What a hypocrite, he thought to himself.

"But..." she croaked. "But... he was all I had. I- I have no family left. Should I..." Her breaths came out harder; he didn't know how to stop it. "Should I have forgiven him? Should I have- at least- tried to understand him? What if I made a mistake?!"

"Faith..."

"What if- what if he was right?" She pulled away, and stared intensely at her hands, horror in her eyes. "I'm a murderer. I'm a murderer."

He bit his lip. He forced down his tears.

"Does... does not forgiving him- does it make me a bad person?"

He swallowed the lump in his throat. And he breathed.

"You don't owe Gabriel anything. All he did was hurt you."

"But..."

"We all do things we regret, but we keep living anyway." His hands drifted to her cheeks, rubbing warmth into her cold skin. "It's what we do with our regrets that defines us. Makes us who we are."

His thumbs grazed under her eyelids, and they came back wet.

"What if..." She furiously tried to wipe her tears away. "What if it's all I have? What if everything I am is just a mistake?"

Dante sighed and stroked her hair. "I don't know. But... but if you're still here... That means something. Right?" When she began to shake, he fought the urge to cry himself. "You still got a role to play."

And finally, Faith wept. Loud, ugly sobs that wracked through her whole body.

All he could do was hold her.

They sat together in the darkness. The snow continued to fall.

She began to sniffle and lean against him.

"It's cold," he murmured, carefully cradling her in his arms. "Let's get to bed, yeah?"

She just gave a weak nod.

And as he wrapped the blankets around her and pulled her close, he thought of his mother.

And he did something that she used to do for him- something he thought he would never do for anyone.

He sang.

Smile on thee, on me, on all, who became an infant small.

Infant smiles are His own smiles;

Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.

------------------------------------------------------

A/N: fluffy, right? Hehe I'm a woman of my word ;)

there was this one dmc fic I read that was based on a cradle song by William Blake, and it kinda motivated this one- this one isn't as good tho XD

#devil may cry #dmc dante #dmc oc #dante x reader #dante x oc

24 notes · View notes

remywrites5 · 5 years ago

Note

Could you write a Wolfstar with “Why do you care?” or maybe “Is this seat taken”? Or maybe both? 😂🥰

Sirius knew Moony was upset with him and he wasn’t sure how to make it right. He made his way down to the common room and found Remus sitting on one of the sofas, his nose buried in his Ancient Runes book and very distinctively not looking at anyone but especially not Sirius.

“Is this seat taken?” Sirius asked, shuffling his feet awkwardly as he stood before Remus. He couldn’t help the little niggling feeling of hope that Remus would let him off the hook.

“Yes,” Remus said, turning to the side and putting his feet up on the sofa. He gave Sirius one hard stare and then went back to his book as if Sirius wasn’t there at all.

Sirius let out a discouraged little noise and knelt down beside the sofa, throwing himself at the mercy of his friend. “Please Moony, I’ll do anything.”

He could see Remus’ jaw tense as he was clearly grinding his teeth together angrily. “Go away, Sirius.”

Sirius whined loudly and fisted his hand in Remus’ jumper. “Make me,” he challenged, grabbing Remus’ wrist with his other hand.

Remus immediately wrenched his arm out of Sirius’ grip and glared at him. “You don’t fucking want me to do that, mate.”

Sirius tightened his grip on Remus’ jumper and tugged on it. He felt desperate and stupid begging for Remus like this but he couldn’t help it. He’d always wanted Remus’ attention. Right from the beginning of their first year he’d been going out of his way to make Remus his friend. Unlike James, Remus never made anything easy for Sirius.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Sirius said softly. He knew that once Moony started swearing they were all in trouble. An angry, swearing Moony was a Moony about to snap. “I know we had plans for Hogsmeade weekend but something else came up. It’s not like I ditched you, you still had James and Peter to hang out with.”

“No I didn’t,” Remus hissed at him through his gritted teeth. “We made those plans just the two of us. James was off with Lily and Wormtail was trying to get off with some Ravenclaw sixth year. So I spent the whole time alone like some kind of nob.”

Sirius blanched at that. “I didn’t know, Moony,” he said contritely. “It’s just Benjy Fenwick admitted he was bent and I finally got a proper snog from someone. You know I can’t stand it when Prongs does things before me. He’s been snogging Evans for months. I had catching up to do.”

Remus snapped his book shut and got to his feet. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Come on, Moons, just say you forgive me,” Sirius said, still holding onto Remus’ jumper. He was stretching the poor worn fabric out from the space between them. “I said I was sorry.”

“You say that a lot,” Remus told him icily, batting Sirius’ hand away to free his jumper. “I’m staring to doubt you even know what it means.”

Remus gathered up his things and went towards their dormitory. Sirius scrambled to his feet after him, feeling a bit hurt by Moony’s harsh words, no matter how much he probably deserved them. It wasn’t his fault that he was such a cock-up and often had a lot to apologize for. He knew Remus was at least partially referring to the whole Snape incident, which was still a sore subject even two years later. Sirius wondered if he would ever really live that one down even though he had technically been forgiven. “Well I’m sorry that we can’t all be as perfect as you,” Sirius shouted as he stomped his way up the steps.

“I’m not perfect,” Remus said, wheeling around towards Sirius. “But at least I know better than to ditch my friends for some cheap thrill with a guy who doesn’t give a fuck about you!”

“Why do you care?” Sirius yelled back.

“I don’t,” Remus said, trying and failing to make his face look neutral. “I don’t.”

Sirius walked up the last few steps until he was on level with Remus. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his robes and blew his hair out of his face in a huff of breath. “Yeah you do.”

Remus sighed heavily and stared down at his feet, his shoulders slumping. “Just do what you want, Sirius. You will anyway.” With that he turned around and went slipped through the door leading to their dormitory. Sirius stood on the same step, blinking slowly as he tried to decipher what in Merlin’s saggy pants had just happened. It felt like he and Remus were having two different conversations.

He walked the rest of the way to the dormitory, dragging his feet a bit, unsure if Remus wanted to be left alone or not. Gathering up all his courage, Sirius pushed open the door and stood in the entryway holding his breath. He listened closely to be able to hear Remus to try and discover his state of mind. All he could hear was a few little hiccoughs coming from Remus’ bed.

Sirius made his way over slowly and pulled back the curtains around Remus’ bed. Remus sat up quickly and furiously wiped his eyes. “What are you doing?” he asked, his voice still having a hard edge to it despite his tears.

“What are you doing?” Sirius shot back, climbing into Remus’ bed with him. He sat on his heels facing Remus with his arms crossed over his chest. “Why can’t you just be happy for me? I finally found someone at this fucking school who is also into blokes. It’s been years of wanting what everyone else has but I can’t have it because I’m not into girls. I’m so bloody sick of being the only person who feels this way.”

“You’re not the only one that feels that way,” Remus snapped at him. “Fuck you, Sirius. Maybe if you thought about anyone but yourself for once in your bloody life – “

“That is so completely unfair!” Sirius said, throwing his hands up above his head. “You have no idea what this feels like –“

“I’m bloody gay, you massive wanker!” Remus interrupted him with a shout. Both of them fell silent, blinking at each other, their breathing labored from all the yelling and their rising tempers.

Sirius swallowed hard and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “How come you never told me?” he asked, feeling a little betrayed. Sirius had come out to his friends two years ago. It was a little insulting that Remus hadn’t felt he could do the same.

“Or well I…I think I might like…both?” Remus said, wincing slightly. “But that’s not quite as easy to shout at someone.”

Sirius snorted. “I suppose not. But why didn’t you say something?”

Remus sighed and pulled the covers up over his head, hiding himself beneath them. “Because I’m fucking in love with you, aren’t I,” he said bitterly, his voice slightly muffled under the blanket.

“Moony?” Sirius called out hesitantly. He chewed on his bottom lip and ignored the way his palms had suddenly gotten all sweaty. “Come on. You either come out from under there or I’ll force my way in with you. You know I will.”

Remus brought the blanket down and blew his fringe off his forehead. He stared at Sirius almost defiantly as if expecting more of an argument. “Well?” he asked, staring at Sirius expectantly.

“Was Hogsmeade supposed to be like a date?” Sirius asked, a few pieces suddenly slotting themselves together in his mind.

Remus glanced away. “I was going to…you know…maybe tell you how I felt. Or that maybe I did… feel something…for you. It’s stupid.”

“Fuck,” Sirius said, carding his fingers through his hair. “Fuck!”

“Sirius?”

“I kissed Benjy Fenwick!”

Remus scowled at him. “Yes, I’m aware.”

“And I could have been kissing you!” Sirius was absolutely mortified that his life had gone so completely wrong. “Benjy was my first proper kiss and it should have been you!”

“Er, well…” Remus blushed a bright red. “I mean I had hoped…”

“Moony, can I kiss you now?” Sirius asked excitedly, scooting up the bed to be closer to Remus and in kissing distance. “Please?”

Remus shook his head. “You like someone else. It wouldn’t be fair to Benjy –“

“Oh hang Benjy,” Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Remus, you were the first crush I ever had back in third year. But after I came out I thought if you liked boys you would have done the same.”

“I was scared,” Remus said, pulling on a loose thread on his blanket absently. “I thought it might be too much, you know? You guys already put up with the whole werewolf thing and then to be bent on top of that…”

“That’s stupid,” Sirius said, making a face at Remus. “None of us mind the whole werewolf thing. You make it sound like we just tolerate you and that isn’t true at all. You’re mine Moony, and I don’t care if that just means as a friend or as something more, you belong to me.” Sirius reached out and laced his fingers through Remus’, holding his hand. He was quickly losing his patience. He’d only been fantasizing about having Moony all to himself for four years. “Now can I kiss you or not?”

Remus smiled shyly. “I guess that might not be so bad.”

Sirius crawled forward. “It’s going to be brilliant,” he promised, his heart thrumming wildly in his chest. He pressed his lips softly, tenderly, against Remus’, not wanting to overwhelm him for his first kiss. He hoped he had a bit more finesse than Benjy had. Benjy had been a bit too enthusiastic with his tongue in Sirius’ opinion. If he had known he could have had this instead he would have waited.

After a moment or two Sirius broke the kiss, licking his lips and blinking his eyes open. “Well?” he asked nervously, his stomach twisting. If Remus said he didn’t like or that he preferred girls Sirius would be devastated.

“Hmm,” Remus hummed pensively, resting back against his pillows. “I thought you’d be a bit more impressive after all that snogging you did with Benjy.”

“Is that so?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow challengingly at Remus. He captured Remus’ lips again and kissed him harder – more insistent but still keeping the kiss chaste. He was surprised when Remus licked his way into his mouth and deepened the kiss. Remus tangled his fingers in Sirius’ hair and tugged him down until Sirius was lying on top of him, his elbows bracketing Remus’ head. “Moony?”

“Yeah Pads?” Remus asked, smiling up at Sirius, his fingers sliding gently through Sirius’ hair over and over. Sirius’ eyelids fluttered at the contact, the motion of it making his inner dog happy at being petted by Remus.

“Am I forgiven then?” he asked, making his very best puppy dog eyes at Remus.

Moony chuckled. “I suppose so,” he said, letting his nails scratch over the nape of Sirius’ neck and making him shiver happily. “You’ll have to make it up to me somehow. My love can be bought either with chocolates or potions essays.”

Sirius snickered at that. “How about both?” he said, kissing Remus again just because he could. “I want you to love me an awful lot, Moony.”

Remus beamed at him. “I think that sounds like an excellent notion.”

“Good,” Sirius said, kissing Remus sweetly. “And don’t you start thinking you’re off the hook either. You’ve also got a lot to make up for.”

“Such as?”

“All those years I spent pining after you when we could have been together,” Sirius informed him, settling against Remus with his head on his chest.

“I didn’t know you were pining!” Remus said indignantly. “If I had known you wouldn’t have been pining!”

“And I didn’t know Hogsmeade was meant to be a date,” Sirius reasoned, listening to Remus’ strong, steady heartbeat in his ear. “But I’m apparently atoning for that!”

“Fine,” Remus grumbled, kissing the top of Sirius’ head. “How can I make it up to you, Pads?”

Sirius’s grin grew wicked. “Shag me before Prongs shags Evans.”

“Sirius!” Remus said with a gasp. “It’s – it’s a bit soon to be talking about that!”

“Come on, Moony!” Sirius pleaded, glancing up at Remus, who had gone as bright as a tomato. “I’ve got to beat Prongs at something!”

“I’m not shagging you just so you can gloat at James about it,” Remus said firmly. “I’d want it to mean a bit more than that.”

Sirius huffed. “Obviously it would, Moony,” he said in exasperation. He lifted his head up and looked at Remus so that Remus would know that he was being sincere. “Because it would be us. That automatically makes it important. Plus, we’ll be each other’s first shag and that’s pretty fucking romantic.”

“We’ll see how good you are at doing my potions homework and then maybe I’ll shag you,” Remus teased, tugging Sirius up into another kiss, long and lingering and full of promise.

Sirius laughed quietly, already addicted to this, having Remus willingly kissing him and the easy affection of being close to him. “I’ll have you eating those words by Christmas. After all, how will you keep your hands off me now that I’m your boyfriend who gets you chocolate and does your assignments for you? I’m like the complete package. You’ve never had it so good, Moony!”

Remus smiled and hugged Sirius tightly. “No,” he said softly, his voice warm and affectionate. “I don’t believe I have.”

#wolfstar #I write things #long post #anon prompt #fluff #jealousy #misunderstanding #hogwarts seventh year #Marauders #sirius black x remus lupin

108 notes · View notes

edgelord-zuuko · 7 years ago

Text

Only Human

They weren’t ready for life after graduation. Things weren’t easy. Of course, war either brings a couple together or it will tear them apart. James and Lily were brought together by dark times. Sirius and Remus, not so much.

Sirius had proposed, again. Remus had always told him they should wait, now wasn’t the time. So Sirius would wait, and then try again. Tonight had been no different.

“When is the right time, Remus, huh? You keep saying that.” Sirius’ voice filled the flat, leaving no corner untouched by his frustration.

“I don’t know, okay? But it isn’t now. It’s just too dangerous.” Barely a whisper left his lips.

“Bullshit! How is it more dangerous than anything else we do? These missions we go on, even being alive right now is bloody dangerous.”

“I’m tired of this fight. Can we please drop it? It’s not worth it.”

“Not worth it?!” Sirius’ arms flew up in exasperation. “ I’m not worth it? Our future together is not worth it?” A chuckle. “Wow, Remus, tell me how you really feel.”

“I don’t deserve to marry you, okay? I’ll just make it harder for you. Maybe if I didn’t have this condition it’d be-”

“It’d be what? Different? You know, just because you turn into a monster every month does not give you the right to wallow in self pity. I’m so sick of the melodrama.” Sirius had let his frustration get the best of him, once again.

“If that’s how you truly see me, Sirius, then fine.” His statement was punctuated with a pop as Remus suddenly disappeared.

“FUCK!” Glass clattered to the ground, accompanied with the drips of hot blood, leaving a slight fog on where they hit the glass.

He hadn’t even bothered to clean himself up before he flooed to James’.

Sirius heard none of the words his brother said before a hand grabbed his and dragged him to the bathroom. His hand was stuck under the tap and his knuckles were cleaned.

“I really did it this time, Jamie. He’ll never take me back now.” Tears left their stains as the weight of his words crashed into him. How could he have really said that to Remus? Remus, who had forgiven him too much already, who reminded him he could love, who taught him he wasn’t his family or his name. Remus, who made him forget about the curses from his mother and the looks from his cousins. Merlin, Remus deserved the world and Sirius had gone and said that to him.

Any and all reassurance went right through the wizard. He didn’t care what James had to say, Sirius had to find a way to fix this.

As soon as his hand was bandaged, he refused to heal it, Sirius began apparating around London, searching everywhere he could think of. Remus always seemed one step ahead of him. He stopped this tactic when Tom handed him a note in familiar scrawl saying to stop looking for him.

The next week, Sirius never left the flat. He lived on the sofa, his attention peaking everytime someone neared the front door. Eventually, James had to drag him to the shower and Sirius realized Remus wasn’t coming home.

Finally, Sirius wrote his apology. Not like he was going to be able to deliver it verbally.

“Dear Moony Remus”

“I don’t deserve to call you Moony. I fucked up. Big time. I know this. And you probably won’t believe me, but I didn’t mean it. I swear on James’ mother, I didn’t mean what I said. I guess I still haven’t learned to handle my frustration. I’m so sorry I keep taking out on you and I’m sorry I still need to keep apologizing. I know it isn’t fair of me to keep hurting you like this. I understand if you never come back, or even answer this letter. But please, believe me when I say you are not a monster. Never in your life. I might be. Anyway, you don’t want to read me drone on and wallow. I love you.”

“Padfoot”

The owl flew at the same speed as Sirius’ tears, until exhaustion over took him.

A sudden pop broke the silence of the apartment as a head of black hair shot up from the sofa arm.

“You’re not a monster, either, Sirius Black.”

#wolfstar #angst #fanfiction #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter #first wizarding war #sirius black #remus lupin

196 notes · View notes

imaginesofharrypotter · 7 years ago

Text

Idiot

young!Sirius Black x fem!reader

Summary: Being one of the Marauders' is amazing, but when Sirius is constantly ignoring you, the happy days will turn into sleepless nights.

Warnings: angst

Being friends with the Marauders' was no surprise for anyone who knows you. You were very cute just like Peter, but on the inside, you were just as a reckless prankster as James or Sirius, and they welcomed you with open arms because your wicked personality combined with a brilliant mind, just, if not more, like Remus', and it came in hand if he decided not to partake in their pranks, because you were there as the brain of the team.

So it was no surprise either, that after a month of friendship, they made you join them, becoming the first girl Marauder. Even though you were great friends with Lily, given that you were dormmates, she was with the guys mainly because a certain Potter boy, not because wanting to do mischief together.

But it wasn't just a friendship between the six of you. You've grown into a family and made your way into each other's hearth. Except into Sirius', you thought. Because even though you liked the school's heartthrob, Sirius usually just ignored you every time you tried to be kind to him. Okay, it wasn't that bad, you were still kind of friends and get along well-enough when in a group, but every time you tried to be more direct and affectionate, he snapped at you without reasons. It hurt you because at the beginning you maintained a close friendship, but he changed after a while. However, you were stubborn at this and tried again and again and again, your undying crush on him not letting you stop. As he refused to properly talk to you, you were quite like a stalker, getting to know as much about him as possible without being caught, and of course also asking the guys about him.

Sirius was a funny, intelligent guy with a wicked mind which contained dim-witted and brilliant ideas at the same time. He was super protective of the guys and shoved everyone who insulted James, Remus or Peter, so naturally, this caring attitude just drove you closer to him, wanting him more.

When James told you that Sirius ran away from his abusive family, you immediately wanted to comfort him, but he shot everyone out. After classes, he went somewhere alone, taking the Map so nobody could follow him, He barely even showed up in the Great Hall to eat something and went back to his dorm in the middle of the night, having a lack of sleep afterward. He looked so terrible, your heart broke, but he didn't let anyone help him, it affected you so much. you started having more and more sleepless nights also.

One night, you decided that you need some distraction after not being able to fall asleep, again, so you went up to the Astronomy Tower to stare at the landscape, knowing it never failed to calm you down. But you weren't the only one there. A certain black-haired boy stood next to a big window, looking outside.

When the door behind you closed with a sound, Sirius turned around, facing you. He's been crying, you were sure, as the moonlight glimmered on his tear-stained face. You couldn't stand anymore and ran up to him, hugging him as tightly as possible, letting him know I'm there for him and started to cry a little bit myself.

Everything was calm at first, but then suddenly Sirius pulled away harshly.

"Go away!" - he said but you just blinked at him

"I said, GO AWAY!" he shouted this time

"NO!" - you spatted back - "I just want to help, don't you see that?"

"Ohh, I'm honored. You've finally decided you care." - he laughed sarcastically

"What the hell! I've been trying to get close to you again ever since you shot me out, but you just ignore me for years now. We are supposed to be friends, Sirius." - you exclaimed

"Ohh, yeah, like you are friends with the others? Surely, it works out perfectly." - he scoffed

"What do you mean?" - you asked puzzled

"Ohh, come on, you can't be that blind. Certainly for Moony the title 'friends' doesn't work out." - he said

"I know about that, Sirius. And I've talked about it with Remus. We settled that it's better to have someone as a friend in your life than not having them at all." - you explained - "But this doesn't mean you can ditch me like this. That's mine and Remus' concern, you have no words in it. So please, tell me, why don't you want to be my friend?" - I asked a little gentler

He didn't say anything at first, just turned back to the window and watched the scenery. You joined him and stood next to the boy.

"Do you remember when we stopped talking?" - he asked after a while

"Well, I didn't stop. I've always tried to have a conversation with you... But yeah, at the beginning of the third year." - you answered

"Yeah, well, that summer I barely saw you and when we met at the station again, you... grew a form." - he said nervously

"A form?" - you asked puzzled again

"You... started to grow your curves at those parts of your body and I realized that you are a girl and well, I'm a boy. I didn't really understand it at first, that's why I avoid you, I was a complete mess, I still am. Honestly, as the years passed, I became more and more nervous around you, but who could blame me. You are bloody beautiful, intelligent, wicked, so care-free, yet a lot more mature than anyone I know. And Merlin, your laugh is the sweetest sound I've ever heard. And I know I'm an idiot not telling you this sooner, instead of creeping around to get to know you the best without embarrassing myself in front of you, but you are an utterly amazing woman and I'm just... me. And I'll be a lot more idiot afterward, but I have to do this." - and with that he pulled you flush against him, kissing you passionately

You were so shocked that by the time you comprehended what was happening, he pulled away.

"I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have done that. I'll just go." - he turned away and started to go, but you pulled him back

"You really are an idiot." - you whispered and leaned in

He was just as shocked as you were before, but he kissed back a few moments later, a lot more fiercely this time, but still with enormous passion. You only broke apart when the need for air was too unbearable.

"Y/N" - Sirius whispered breathlessly - "I'm terribly sorry. I truly am, but I don't deserve to be forgiven this easily."

"Yes, you were the one who shattered my heart. But I know that you are the only one who can mend it. I need you in my life." - you said, stroking his hair

"Y/N, if you really mean it..." - he started

"I mean it." - you reassured him with a soft smile

"Then will you go out with me?" - he asked hopefully

"On one condition." - you held up your index finger

"Anything, love. I would do anything for you, to earn one more chance, to be with you." - he spattered excitedly

"You'll never ignore me again. No matter what is surrounding us, happiness or problem, we'll always talk to each other and never hide our feelings and thoughts, okay?" - you cupped his cheeks and looked into his eyes

"I promise, love. I'll never do such stupid thing again. You are the one I've ever wanted, I'll never hurt or leave you anymore." - he promised with glittering eyes full of love and passion and sealed it with a long and deep kiss

And in that moment, you knew that any bad thing could come to the world, between the two of you everything will be alright.

Author's note: So yeah, it's been a while. But I'm nearly at the end of this semesters' exams and I'll be freer to write stories. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this story, I think Sirius would be this sweet little boy when he can express his feelings. Have a lovely day ^^

#young sirius black #young sirius x reader #sirius black x reader #sirius black #harry potter

50 notes · View notes

kyloxox · 7 years ago

Text

Forgive Me (Sirius Black x plus size reader)

You and Sirius are the new guardians of Harry, but the problem is you both love each other, but when a secret is spilled cause Sirius be forgiven?

Warnings; Cursing, sadness, angst, small mention of self hatred, small mention of sex.

Notes; This is kind of au cause Sirius isn't in Azkaban and is raising Harry.

You and Sirius had been in watching Harry, since you guys convinced Lily and James to go on a much needed vacation. Harry was only a year old at the time. Sirius was holding baby Harry trying to get him to say 'Prongs.' You were sleeping on Lily's and James' bed.

''Say Prongs, Harry.'' Sirius whispered to the small child. The child just started mumbling words in return.

''Come on Harry, say P-r-o-n-g-s.'' Sirius sounded out each letter of his nickname.

''Throngs.'' Sirius gasped.

''Y/n! Y/n!.'' Sirius happily exclaimed as he got up from the chair and walked over to you. You woke up with a shock as someone called your name.

''What? What?'' You quickly looked around the room ''Did you kill the baby?''

Sirius scoffed ''What kind of babysitter do you think I am?''

''One that pisses me off.'' You smiled at him, and reached your arms out signaling Sirius to hand you Harry. Sirius handed you Harry and you held him in your arms.

Sirius forgot about what he was going to say and watched as you held Harry in your arms. He admired your beauty. He was in love with you, he was in love with you when he first met you at the train station on the first day of Hogwarts, he loved you when he got kicked out of his house. He loved you when you both graduated Hogwarts. And now in this moment, watching you hold Harry, he fell in love with you all over again.

The only problem being you didn't know he loved you. He was then bought out of his thoughts when Harry's small fingers grabbed one of yours.

''No y/n guess what?'' You rolled your eyes.

''What?''

''Harry said Prongs. He said Prongs, y/n!'' Sirius kneeled in front of you and Harry ''Come Harry say Prongs again.'' Harry stayed silent and you stifle out a laugh. ''Shut up.'' Sirius grumbled.

''Come on Harry, give your poor Uncle something to smile about.'' Sirius nudged your side.

''Shut up. Now come on Harry say Prongs again. P-r-o-n-g-s.'' You let out another laugh.

''I think you are going to have to try harder than that-'' You were interrupted by Harry's mumbling.

''P-p-p-'' Harry stopped.

''He's gonna say it y/n, he's gonna say it.'' Sirius hopefully whispered.

''Y/n!'' Harry exclaimed. You gasped and smiled at the young child.

''That's right, sweetie!'' You looked up at Sirius who was now standing ''Looks like I'm the favorite.''

''You wish.''

It happened. James and Lilly were dead. Killed by Voldemort. The minute you heard the horrible news you rushed over to their house. As you arrived in the front of the house, Sirius was already standing there. He turned as he heard you approach. His face was stained with tears, and were red and puffy.

''Sirius.'' You ran up to him and pulled him into a bone crushing huge. He cried into the crook of your neck. ''Shh it will-l be ok-k.'' You choked out between sobs and started to pet his hair.

''What am I supposed to do without them, without him.'' He cried.

''Oh, Sirius it will be ok.'' You cooed

''I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill Pettigrew.'' He broke from your hug and started to leave the house.

''No Sirius, don't'' You grabbed Sirius's sleeve causing him to stop ''We-Harry doesn't need you going to Azkaban.'' He looked you in the eyes ''I don't need you going to Azkaban. I need you, Harry needs you.'' Sirius nodded. You both walked into the house.

''I'll go get Harry, you stay down here.'' You nodded your head and waited for Sirius to come back with Harry. You waited for ten minutes and getting worried you walked into the house.

''Sirius?'' You shouted but received no answer. You heard sobs coming from upstairs. You began to walk up the stairs. ''Sirius?'' You said as you watched him look down at James's lifeless body. You covered your mouth with your hands and began to cry even more.

Sirius turned around to see your body. ''I told you to stay outside.'' Sirius snapped.

''You were taking a while, I got worried-d. I'm-m sorry-y.'' You sobbed. Sirius walked up to you and pulled you into a hug.

''Shh, baby. I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's just-just-''

''I know...I'm going to get Harry.'' You walked down the hallway to Harry's room. As you walked in you saw Lily's lifeless body laying next to the crib. You almost couldn't look at her, seeing your best friend dead. You walked up to Harry and pulled him out of his crib. Then quickly walked down the hallway to where Sirius was standing.

''Is he ok?'' Sirius asked concerned. He moved his finger gently, over Harry's face to make sure is head was ok. His fingers stopped at the lightening bolt scar.

''Yea, I think he's ok, come on we need to leave.'' You pulled Sirius down the stairs and out to door.

That was a night of many things. Both of your best friends had died. You both became Harry's legal guardians. It was one of the many times Sirius fell in love with you even more, and most importantly it was the first time you realized you loved Sirius.

It had been a year since the night, James and Lily were murdered. You, Sirius and Harry lived in a small apartment that only had two bedrooms, but it was all you could afford. But you made do with it. Remus also helped a lot visiting you guys, and babysitting Harry often so you and Sirius could get a break.

And things couldn't be more awkward between you and Sirius. Between finally realizing your feelings for him and people thinking Harry is your actual kid, couldn't get more awkward, but then occasionally people would ask you and Sirius how long you've been together. The answer always being no, but a lot of blushing coming from you and Sirius.

That day Harry had been over at Remus's. You were in the kitchen cooking some dinner, while Sirius was in the other. Sirius had been standing in your room, in front of the mirror. He ran his fingers through his hair and huffed looking into the mirror.

''Come on, Sirius. You promised James you'd do it after he married Lily. And that was a while ago. Come on you can tell, just say it, y/n I love you.'' He mumbled to himself.

He walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. ''Y/n I have to tell you someth-''

''Hello everybody!'' The door opened to reveal Harry with Remus.

''Can it wait Sirius?'' You said as Harry ran up to you. Sirius faked a smile.

''Of course, actually I will go speak to Moony in the other room.''

''What for?'' Remus shouted as Sirius dragged him into the other room.

''What the hell Moony! I was about to tell her I love her.''

Harry ran from the kitchen to the room where Sirius was but you stopped him from entering as you heard Sirius say that.

''Oh don't forget to mention the creepy ruining all her dates and relationships plan, she'll love that.'' Remus joked.

Wait is that why all your relationships at Hogwarts never worked out cause of Sirius? God the whole you thought that it was your size that ruined them. How could you be so stupid. Now it made sense why it seemed like Sirius excuses of why you couldn't go on a date. You were so down on yourself, thinking no boy liked you, but it really was Sirius who ruined them.

Before Sirius could say anything, before Harry released himself from your grip and came running into the door.

''Sirius!'' Harry yelled as he ran into the room. Sirius looked up at you with a face of horror as he noticed you heard what Remus said.

''I can't believe you.'' You said as you ran out the door and then out of the building.

''Y/n! Y/n! Please listen to me!'' He ran over to you.

''Why you ruined my life when I was at Hogwarts, I hated myself cause I didn't think anyone could ever like me, but when someone did you ruined that.'' You shouted in Sirius' face.

''Y/n! Please love, I was a stupid teenager when I did that. I was just stupid and jealous.''

''Yea no shit you were stupid. You ruined every happy relationship I was in, and then you would go around fucking every girl in the school. How did you think that made me feel?'' Sirius opened his mouth but closed it not knowing what to say, ''You couldn't let me go on one simple date, but it was ok for you to do whatever the fuck you wanted.''

''I wanted to tell you I just-''

''Oh what you were afraid of what people would think of you. Worried people would think you like someone who wasn't skinny. Were you afraid that you couldn't go around fucking every girl, if you had a real relationship? Scared you were going to be 'tied down'.''

''I was afraid you were going to reject me!'' Sirius shouted

''What?''

''I was afraid you wouldn't want to go out with me. I wasn't like those guys you went for. They were usually smart and like you. I was stupid and was failing everyone of my classes. I was afraid I wasn't the type of guy you went for.''

''Sirius, you weren't stupid.''

''Compared to those guys I was.''

''Me wanting to date you wouldn't have depended on your grades anyway.''

''I was a stupid idiot, I ruined all your dates, and slept with random girls to get you out of my head.'' He grabbed your hands in his ''But please, y/b please forgive me.'' You looked into his eyes which were already looking at you.

''Fine, I forgive you.'' Sirius kissed your forehead.

''Thank you I promise you won't regret it.'' You smiled up at him

''I better not.''

#sirius black #Sirius black imagine #young sirius black #young sirius x reader #young sirius imagine #young sirius black x reader #young Sirius black x you #Sirius black x plus size reader #sirius black x reader

511 notes · View notes

halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

Text

The Life that Never Lived

TALONS AND TEA LEAVES

I can never say enough, how much I thank you all for the constant reviews and support I get just from watching the views shoot up every time I check. You are the reason I do this!

HPHP

"Can we please have lunch now," James groaned, rubbing at his stomach and eyeing Lily hopefully before Harry could start.

"Oh yes, alright," Lily sighed, then asked, "would one of you go get the baby please."

Sirius jumped to his feet and did as asked, while Harry followed his Mom into the kitchen, badgering her about letting him help this time. She finally relented, leaving Remus and James in

rather awkward silence.

Remus got to his feet and shuffled awkwardly for a second, then gestured vaguely to the kitchen as he began,"ah, guess I'll-"

"I'm not mad at you Remus," James interrupted, patting his hands on his knees with nerves and not exactly looking over at him. "It's not like it's really your responsibility to look after him-"

"But I still should have done something," Remus cut off, temper at himself beginning to rise again. He didn't really get mad at too much, liking to think of himself as a rather laid back person, but his own actions had set him on edge like he had just found out his future self had dumped Harry at the Dursleys.

"Like what?" Sirius asked, making the pair turn and see Sirius leaning against the door, the baby cradled in his arms.

Remus cast his mind around before offering, "gotten Dumbledore to set up somewhere I could have seen Harry, even if it was infrequently it would have been better than nothing."

Lily and Harry made their reappearance, Lily catching on at once and cutting in, "sorry Remus, but I don't see that happening."

"Why not?" both James and Sirius huffed, since this had been something they had both been thinking.

"Well think about it," Lily snapped. "You're sitting there blaming one of your best friends for something that even Dumbledore or Hagrid didn't do! No one had been there to check on Harry since he was left there, or worse Dumbledore knew and did nothing. Why I still can't imagine, but I still haven't forgiven him for what these books have implied he did back during Harry's first year, so lay off someone who might not have even been given a say in the matter."

Sirius opened, then closed his mouth and turned his attention back to the baby, rather shamefully scuttling into the kitchen to get the kid his food. James shifted his weight around, but nodded and caught Remus' eye saying honestly, "okay, true. I am sorry for, ah, being mad."

Remus hesitated, rocking back on his heels and still looking up to arguing the point anyways, then gave a dark laugh at the irony he was still holding this against himself when clearly no one else was. Now more curious than anything, he persisted, "has anyone stopped to question why though? What exactly was Dumbledore thinking when he cut off Harry like that? Remember how we thought ol' Mrs. Figg might be the same from the Order, and all those random people Harry saw when he was younger. Why didn't he grow up with someone telling him what was going on?"

"Dumbledore explained that in the first chapter," Harry reminded, "said he didn't want me growing up knowing my fame and all."

"I get that," he waved off, "and I'm not saying there's an easy way to explain that to you at any age, but if you'd grown up knowing it, been treated as a normal child and not a hero like someone should have while explaining this to you-" he finished giving a suggestive look to Lily like he expected her to give a counterargument.

She didn't though, no one did. They all saw a leader in Dumbledore, someone to be respected and not questioned too deeply, but this was Harry they were talking about. Had he really done something to make sure Remus didn't do exactly this? If so, then that truly was going to tick them all off, where did he get the authority to do that?

Harry was gently testing his feelings, trying not to pry too deeply as he pondered if he'd ever really been given an answer to this. He was still sure his headmaster explained to him more

properly about these types of things later in life, but had Remus been mentioned during this? He didn't think so, and now almost hoped he had asked at some point.

With nothing else to say on the matter, they ate lunch in relative comfort, and after they were done Sirius insisted he wanted to keep the baby around again. They were all confident nothing to bad should happen to Harry this year, so no one protested as Sirius began one of the toddler's favorite

games, and started releasing colorful puffs of smoke from his wand while he used his chubby fists to clutch at them, random peals of laughter erupting all around.

Harry took one more moment to capture this, looking around at his family and determined to keep this very image in his mind for the rest of his life, before starting his chapter.

The next morning at breakfast, the first thing they saw was Malfoy seemingly entertaining some of Slytherin house with an amusing story.

"Highly doubt it was actually that funny," Sirius said in a goofy voice since he was still mostly entertaining the kid.

As they were walking by, he pretended to faint, to cheering laughing.

"Wow, Sirius was right," Remus rolled his eyes.

"First time for everything," James grinned.

Hermione just told Harry to ignore the lot of them, it wasn't worth retaliating.

"Easier said than done," Harry grumbled.

Another of Malfoy's gang, Pansy Parkinson, caught sight of Harry and jeered at him that the dementors were coming for him.

Harry ground his teeth together in annoyance for a moment, but then Sirius gave a snarky laugh and demanded, "was she actually trying to scare you, because that was pathetic."

Harry slammed into his chair next to George, who asked what was wrong with him. Ron explained just as Malfoy set up another uproar of laughter again at the Slytherin table with his fainting act.

"Probably caught sight of his own reflection," James grumbled.

George called him a git,

"My sentiments exactly," Remus smirked.

stating that he hadn't acted nearly so cocky when the dementors had been near them. Fred agreed that he'd come running into their compartment with wet pants.

"Now there's something I would have liked to see," Sirius grinned, still not completely over his disgust at the beasts, but pretty sure he'd tolerate them just to watch that.

Both of the twins agreed those dementors hadn't made them feel any better, but Harry morosely asked if they'd passed out during their experience. George told Harry to cheer up, no one could act very well with those things around, remembering when their dad had to go out and visit Azkaban once, and he'd come back to the house shaking.

James grimaced and nodded in disgust, having personally never been there himself, but knowing someone else who had that came back in the same way.

Fred agreed that dementors had the effect of draining happiness out of anything, and that most of the prisoners went crazy while there.

Sirius refused to let his mood drop back down at this nasty little reminder, continuing his own personal game with the baby, which made the others realize all the more why he had insisted on wanting him down here.

Then he added on a happier subject Malfoy wouldn't be acting like this long once the first Quidditch game came around, Gryffindor versus Slytherin.

"How could I forget," James smiled, distracted at once from keeping an eye on Sirius to make sure he really was okay.

"I want that chapter," Sirius said at once. "I haven't gotten any of them!"

"Well you can have it," Remus said in disgust, "cause I'm rather sick of them at this point."

"Cheer up Moony," James said with a shrug, "yeah those past ones were awful, but there's no way anything like that can happen again this year. I'm sure Harry will finally have a good game."

He finished with more hope than he should have, rather annoyed that his son couldn't seem to go one year without something bad happening.

This did lighten the mood when Harry remembered his only past game against Malfoy, where the blond had lost quite poorly.

"There's a pick me up," Lily smiled indulgently, still personally feeling she'd rather pull Harry from the team altogether, but it was clear he enjoyed the game as much as any of these boys. She didn't have quite as much faith as them that everything was going to be peachy this year, but she hoped as well.

In a much better mood now, he turned eagerly to his breakfast as Hermione began looking at her schedule for this year, stating they had some new classes. Ron was peeking over her shoulder though, and began laughing that she'd been over scheduled, there wasn't enough time for all that.

Harry was blinking in puzzled shock and confusion, and then looked around to see the others were as well. What on earth could Ron have said that felt so significant to him?

"Can she really have just doubled up her schedule like that?" Lily asked with interest.

"I don't see how," Remus shrugged. "Like Ron said, there really isn't enough time in the day for all of that."

"Then what's she playing at?" Sirius demanded.

They all shrugged, at a complete loss, and Harry continued eagerly hoping for a better answer.

Hermione said she'd worked it out with McGonagall,

"Well that explained nothing," James grumped.

but Ron was persistent as he pointed out some of the flaws, like how at nine o'clock she had both Divination and Muggle Studies at the same time, which repeated with some more of her classes down the list.

"That's impossible though, right?" Harry asked, ruffling up his brows with confusion and annoyance that he really thought he should know the answer to that.

The four of them exchanged stunned looks. Not as impossible as Harry might think, but time magic was a very obscure thing, hardly anyone understood it properly, and those that did, didn't share willingly. For Hermione to have gotten a hold of something like it, even with McGonagall's assent, was mind blowing to them all.

After a bit more of a pause, Lily said slowly, "well, no, not impossible dear. Very ah, very hard to pull off, but not undoable."

"How?" Harry persisted, getting rather eager now they really might know.

"Can't say for sure," James said, running his hand through his hair in confusion. "It's not something any of us have knowledge about, correct me if I'm wrong." He finished with a hopeful

look at his friends.

They however, both shrugged and agreed with the couple. Sirius thought he had once heard of something odd in time magic happening to an Unspeakable, but it had been from a girl in a bar months ago, so he couldn't actually remember the details now. Something about a girl, named Eloise Mintumble, dang what had happened to her again?

Harry nodded in understanding and deflated a bit, knowing it wouldn't do any good to continue pestering them about something they couldn't answer. He did ask though, "but, what if you

wanted to take Arithmancy and Divination, if they really happen at the same time is it just not allowed?"*

"Well no," Lily said fairly, "you'd have to rearrange your schedule and possibly take it without your normal classmates, like Hermione would attend Divination one day and most likely take Arithmancy with perhaps the Ravenclaw students instead of her usual house, and that would have explained it if she wasn't taking three at once. There really just isn't enough time to work all of that in. Plus, it would have been marked on her schedule as such, not the way Professor McGonagall worked it up."

Ron was laughing, saying she couldn't be in both places at once, but Hermione told him he was being silly, she wouldn't be doing that.

"Yes, Ron's the one being silly," Lily rolled her eyes.

He tried to keep arguing, but Hermione wouldn't have it, telling him to get on with his breakfast.

"Wow, she really wants him to let this go," Remus said with a frown.

"And I really hope Ron doesn't let her," James replied with the same frown.

Ron tried one last time, but Hermione snapped at him that what was it to him if she had a full plate this year?

"Because it's weird," Sirius insisted, not that anyone here needed him to remind them of that.

She'd fixed it with her head of house. Hagrid walked in then, carrying a dead polecat.

"Well that's not encouraging," Lily frowned in concern.

"A bit ominous," James agreed in surprise. They really did like Hagrid, but his few experiences with Harry and his pets hadn't ended well so far.

"Don't fret you two," Remus rolled his eyes, "Hagrid can handle anything in that class."

He spotted the trio and told them how excited he was, that they were going to be in his first ever class, and he really hoped it went well.

"So do I," Lily muttered.

Then he walked away towards breakfast, still brimming over at how happy he was to be a teacher, with the dead polecat hanging limply from his hand.

"That, I will admit, is kind of gross," Sirius wrinkled up his nose. "Eating with that thing on the table."

Ron couldn't help a bit of unease as he asked what Hagrid could be doing,

"See," James nodded, "we're not the only ones."

but they realized they'd have to wait for later to find out, as they had Divination to get to, which was up in the North Tower.

"Well glad we get to see this new class," Remus said eagerly. He didn't think much of the future seeing magic, but he wasn't exactly against it either.

"Sorry it had to be so far away though," Sirius grimaced in disgust.

They called a goodbye to the twins, but couldn't exit the hall without Malfoy giving one more performance.

"That's not even funny," James snapped. "If he's going to mock you, at least come up with something better than a three-year old's act."

"James," Lily said severely, wondering if he'd just realized he'd said picking on their son was okay.

"What?" he snapped right back. "You can't stop children from picking on each other Lily, the world doesn't work like that."

The two sat there for a few moments giving each other moody looks, so Harry just decided to read on and hope to ignore this.

Harry could hear people's continued laughter ringing up the stairs.

"Glad to see the whole house has the same sense of humor," Sirius said in disgust, "has to make Malfoy feel better about himself somehow."

Even after two years in this school, they still didn't know every passage of this castle,

"Seven won't either," Remus grinned, finally finding a lighter topic to discuss. "In fact, I'm pretty sure there's no one who actually knows every secret about this school."

and they had never been up to the North Tower before.

"We did, back when it wasn't being used," James nodded. "Peter found the entrance to it, and we kind of used it as a secret meeting place sometimes." Privately keeping out where else they tended to spend their free time. Harry did know about the Shrieking Shack, but not how to get there.

"Wonder what they did to it now it's a classroom," Sirius said eagerly.

Ron was begging for someone to show them a shortcut,

"There are a few," Remus nodded, "but either way, it is a long walk."

as they climbed up the seventh staircase, winding up on an unfamiliar bit of corridor, with a nice painting of a green landscape.

"Oh I remember this nutter," Sirius smirked, now watching Harry eagerly to see how he reacted.

Hermione pointed down one corridor,

Remus leaned in and whispered in Sirius' ear, "if only they had some sort of map to help."

Sirius nodded eagerly, but Harry didn't notice the exchange.

but Ron looked the way she was pointing and said that had to be south, as the lake was visible from there.

"Credit to him for noticing that," Lily said in approval.

Harry had no idea, and was simply enjoying the magical painting. As he watched, a gray pony came trotting onto the scene, and began happily chewing up the grass. While Harry was long used to the magical paintings of the wizarding world going about, he still loved to watch it.

"Agreed," James nodded, "I always find something interesting to talk to them about."

The way he said it made it quite clear these talks weren't always wholesome, but Harry was laughing lightly so Lily didn't see the point in demanding details.

As he kept staring, a tiny man came charging onto the scene dressed as a knight, armor and all. He stopped next to what was obviously his horse, doubling over and panting. The green stains on his knees showed he had recently fallen off of said horse.

"Bet his attitude hasn't improved any," Remus rolled his eyes.

"I'd be more worried if it did," Sirius shrugged, "he is a painting, their behaviour shouldn't change too much."

He caught sight of the three of them, and pulled a sword out that was much too big for him, calling them several ye old names and demanding a fight.

By then the three boys were laughing in both remembrance at their own interactions with Cadogan, and Harry's astonished look at the little painting. Only Lily didn't really know how to

feel just now, not used to this rather exuberant nature from a painting.

Even as he did though, he swung his sword that was bigger than him just that little to far and it swung into the ground point first, while the painting landed face first next to it. Harry asked if he was okay,

"You are so sweet," Lily smiled at her son, which only increased the boy's laughter all the more at Harry's concern for a painting.

but the painting wouldn't be pandered and got back to his feet, tried to wrench his sword out of the ground to no effect, then sat back on the grass. Harry jumped in with the question if he knew where the North Tower was.

"That'll get his attention," Remus nodded approvingly.

The knight's mood changed at once upon hearing they were on a quest, and shouted they could follow him through any deadly adventure to find this place.

James opened his mouth to say something, but then quickly closed it again. He didn't seem to find mocking death that funny anymore.

Then he ran right out of the side of his painting, the three of them scrambling to keep up as he continued in this way, only keeping track of him as he pelted through every painting shouting of the adventures this could lead to. They briefly caught sight of him jumping through a painting full of well dressed women,

"Bet he wouldn't have minded staying in that painting a bit longer," Remus whispered, making

Sirius release a surprised snort of laughter, making the baby in his lap giggle anew.

startling the lot of them though he showed no care as he continued leading them up a spiralling staircase. When they finally reached the landing, he praised at what fun they'd had, and told them that if they needed any more help with these things to simply give Sir Cadogan a call.

"He's certainly handy to have around," Lily said in some unease, still finding him rather odd.

"Plenty entertaining to," James smirked.

Ron agreed they'd do just that, if they ever needed anyone mental.

"You'd be surprised how often someone mental can come in handy," Sirius grinned.

They looked around to find a few other students in their year mulling around, while Harry looked at his schedule again and told that their Professors name was Sybill Trelawney, but where was she? The moment he said that, a staircase fell from the ceiling, ending right at Harry's feet.

"She seems to enjoy a show," Lily said in amusement.

Harry went up first, and found himself in a circular room, with tiny tables and beanbags all around the room, the curtains keeping the room in permanent shadows and the fireplace flickering with mystery.

"At least it sounds comfortable," Sirius grinned, "much better than those stools in the other classrooms."

"I would have fallen asleep in there for sure," Remus rolled his eyes.

The room was already boiling, and there was some smell lingering around the room seemingly coming from a teakettle.

"You're actually starting to make me sleepy just thinking about it," Sirius nodded in agreement.

Along the walls were dusty books, crystal balls, and many other mystical objects. Ron had climbed up next to Harry, and whispered where the teacher was, and his answer came from a whispering voice behind them, welcoming them all while stating it was nice to see them in the physical world for the first time.

Lily rolled her eyes indulgently, she'd clearly pegged this woman right about putting on a show.

They turned to find a woman, stout and covered in thick green shawls wrapped all around her. She wore many golden bangles and heavy such jewellery, with round glasses that gave her the appearance of a gleaming insect when she blinked. She made her way to one ornately done overstuffed chair and instructed the rest of the students filling in to take a seat. She then introduced herself, and explained that they'd never seen her before because she disliked going into the rest of the world, it tended to obscure her Inner Eye.

"Explains why we didn't even know who she was before now," James nodded.

"Think she really does have an Inner Eye?" Sirius asked with amusement.

"She clearly thinks she does," Remus pointed out, causing all of them to laugh again.

Harry and Lily couldn't help but notice how giggly the lot of them were being, and wondered if this was how they normally made up a fight, making a lot of idiotic jokes at each other.

There was no comment to this, so she continued by saying that she was pleased they'd all chosen Divination, as it was the hardest of any magic to learn.

"Now that was just a bit pompous," Lily scoffed.

"All teachers think their branch is the hardest," James agreed.

She did warn though that this class was selective, you must have Sight to progress. Books weren't going to be of much help here.

"Sounds like a loaded class if you ask me," Sirius raised his brow in surprise, "if the teachers already saying she can't teach you much."

Harry and Ron couldn't help but shoot a laughing look at a surprised Hermione.

"I can see where that would bother her," Lily nodded.

Trelawney was still talking of how other wizards were good at making banging noises, smells, and disappearing,

"Are those actual fields of magic," James asked between loud bursts of laughter, "because I think Sirius is most proficient in the smells!"

Remus muttered something under his breath that caused all three of them to continue laughing like idiots. Harry waited indulgently until they had subsided before continuing.

but her branch was much more focused on the mind and mystics of life. Then she turned on Neville, and demanded to know how his grandmother was doing? Neville's lip trembled slightly as he said that last he'd heard she was fine, and Trelawney warned him not to be complacent with that.

Now they were frowning, not finding that remotely funny. Why on earth would this woman say something like that to a child?

Trelawney turned away again like nothing had happened, and began listing some of the things they'd be learning this year, before cutting herself off again and turning on Parvati Patil, warning her to be weary of a redhead.

"What does Ron do to her?" Sirius chuckled.

"Might not be Ron," Remus reminded, "one of the Weasley twins might pull something on her later."

Parvati gave a fearful look at Ron and began edging away from him.

Lily made a little 'pfft' noise in disbelief.

Again Trelawney kept talking like this was perfectly normal, predicting that come February classes would thin out a little due to illnesses, and come Easter someone would leave them for good.

"Well she's just going to be buckets of fun huh?" Sirius snickered.

Harry puzzled why he felt like Trelawney was right, but shrugged and kept going.

Then she turned on Lavender, who tensed up, but the teacher merely asked her to go and fetch the teapot on the shelf. Lavender looked plenty relieved,

"Can't blame her at this point," James nodded, still smirking, "she probably thought she'd get the next death omen."

and she did this, but before she could return to her seat, Trelawney clutched her hand and told her the thing she feared, would happen on Friday the sixteenth of October.

"That poor girl," Lily frowned. "Why would she say something like that?"

"Like you said," Remus shrugged. "I think she's enjoying scaring them. When that Friday comes and goes, and nothing happens, I'm sure these kids will realize they're being played."

"Kind of wishing I'd taken Arithmancy now," Harry grumbled, more annoyance coming up the more he heard about this new teacher. He also had a vague feeling, like she did something really important to his life, or perhaps said something to him? It was such a little thing he didn't really even register it underneath all the grumbling.

Then she addressed the class on their lesson for the day, telling them they were all to drink a cup of tea, swirl the dregs around, and consult their text on what they could mean. Before they could begin, she said to Neville that after he broke his first cup, to not grab one of the pink ones next.

"That's self-fulfilling prophecy," Lily pointed out, "if you say something like that, it's bound to happen."

"So none of you really believes in this stuff?" Harry clarified.

"I think psychics exist," Sirius shrugged, lounging back comfortably. "I had a Great Aunt that was one, she actually did these same kinds of things and had my brother and I going for ages. This Trelawney woman in particular? Nah, she's enjoying herself more than anything."

"So, was your aunt really psychic, or pulling the wool over a couple of naive kids?" Remus asked.

"Both," Sirius grinned, "Dad swears she made a real prophecy to him when he was younger. Never did tell me what it was though, but the way he said it, yeah I believed him."

"Well, aside from Sirius and his gullible nature, no, I don't think any of us believe this," James grinned.

"I'm not gullible," Sirius snapped right back. "Prophecies really do exist!"

"Moving on," Lily rolled her eyes at the pair.

Not ten minutes later, there came the distinct noise of breaking glass, and Trelawney descended on him with a broom and a reminder she favoured the pink cups, and not to grab one of those.

"Well that was fast," Remus remarked.

Harry and Ron had some difficulty gulping down their hot drink,

"At least there's a bonus to this class," Lily grinned.

but finished and did as instructed, Harry flipping through his pages as Ron passed over his cup. Ron asked what Harry was seeing, and Harry just muttered a bunch of brown crap.

All four of them released surprised snorts of laughter at Harry's sass, he clearly wasn't taking this class very seriously, though none of them said it in fear of eliciting a joke from Sirius.

He couldn't help but feel heavy eyed within the dark room and thick smells of the class, making his brain drag.

"Sure she does that on purpose," James nodded.

Perhaps Trelawney heard this, as she called the class to open their minds to the supernatural, block out the mundane of the world.

"Think she heard that, or just good timing?" Sirius asked.

"Timing," Lily shrugged, "Harry can't be the only one who's thinking that."

Harry gave himself a shake then, and took a real crack at finding images while telling Ron that he found a messed up cross, which according to the book meant Ron was going to have a suffering trail, but there was also the sun in there, which meant he was going to be happy about it.

"Sounds like life," James rolled his eyes, "so sorry to Ron for living."

Ron told Harry he needed to get his Inner Eye tested.

None of the boys bothered to stifle their laughter one bit, even Lily was giggling and said to James, "Ron just beat you out of a joke dear."

"I'll forgive him," James chuckled, still bright-eyed.

Ron went for Harry's cup next, saying he first saw a bowler hat, and thinking this meant Harry was going to be the next minister! Then he caught sight of an acorn, which apparently meant money was coming his way.

"An acorn means gold?" Remus demanded. "What exactly does that book translate?"

"You let me know if you figure it out," Harry smirked.

Then he kept spinning it, saying he found something like an animal, maybe a hippo, or a sheep.

"Ron just went from a hippo to a sheep," Remus smirked, "can't imagine what either of those things mean."

Trelawney overheard that, and came over snatching Harry's cup away from Ron while spinning it counter clockwise.

"Did she say to turn it counter clockwise like that?" James snickered. "I don't think she said to do that. Could have saved a bit of confusion."

What she found was a falcon, which meant Harry had an enemy.

"Wow, thanks, I was trying to forget that for five minutes," Lily huffed.

"How did she get a falcon from a hippo?" Sirius demanded of nothing.

Hermione was frowning at her, telling that everyone knew that, as Harry was famous for being against You-Know-Who.

"I love Hermione," Lily beamed, "that girl keeps everyone in perspective."

"She is good to have around," Remus agreed with just a hint of admiration at this girl saying something like that to a teacher. James said as much out loud in amazement, none of them having

guessed it would be this girl who would make a smart comment like that to any adult.

Then Sirius defended her, saying, "now remember what got them to be friends in the first place? Hermione's clearly willing to do a lot, like lie, to defend Harry and Ron."

Harry was smiling, more than pleased his family didn't seem to find either of his friends annoying like he knew some of the kids at school had.

Trelawney ignored her, still eyeing Harry's cup as she found a club, which meant he was going to be attacked soon, muttering to herself how this was not a happy cup.

"Well I've never met an unhappy one so I'll believe you," Sirius smirked.

Ron muttered how he'd thought that part was the bowler hat.

"How do you get a club and a hat twisted?" James burst out laughing.

Then she found a skull, that danger was creeping up on Harry. Finally her eyes spotted something else that made her scream.

"Well she's certainly got their attention," Lily said, raising a brow in surprise.

Neville's hand twitched so hard in shock he broke his new cup.

"Guess she didn't see that coming," Remus smirked.

Trelawney sat down in the nearest chair, closing her eyes in shock.

"She's really hamming this up isn't she," Sirius noted.

She was begging Harry not to ask what she'd seen,

Harry rolled his eyes and said, "as if the whole class wouldn't ask after that little scene." He remembered the sinking feeling of attention as all of the students got up to go around them.

but Dean did anyways, trying to look into Harry's cup himself now. Trelawney gathered herself up and whispered that she'd seen the Grim.

Sirius lost it. Still holding the baby to him, he continued laughing and blinking tears out of his eyes as he realized just how accurate that sentence was. James and Remus weren't much better.

"A giant, black, Scottish Deerhound is going to be tailing you for the rest of your life now," Lily nodded in approval, "well she's got that one right."

"I- told you-" James said between gasping breaths, "we should have- call-called him Grim!"

"And I told you," Remus rebutted, massaging his ribs and trying very hard not to continue laughing as he said, "we should have called him Cloud. It's got a better theme."**

"I like Padfoot," Sirius sniffed, "I think Peter had it better saying we should nickname more after the animals."

"Which is why you two won the vote," James agreed.

Harry was very curious and wanted to ask what other nicknames they might have considered, but decided to ask that later. ***

Harry had never heard of it, along with a couple of other students, but some like Ron looked just as shocked as Trelawney, who explained that it was the spectral dog of death.

"I'm rather flattered she thinks so much of me," Sirius smirked.

"You're so big headed," Lily rolled her eyes at him, "you think every black dog in the world relates to you."

Harry felt his stomach leave him, remembering again that black dog he'd seen the night he'd run away from the Dursleys.

Remus muttered something that made Sirius snicker again, and James release another snort of laughter.

Hermione was looking herself now, and told that she didn't think it looked like a Grim at all.

"Ha!" James laughed, eyes gleaming with continued mirth. "Hermione's going to be the buzz kill to this class, isn't she?" He didn't sound very sorry about it.

"Well this class obviously needs one to keep them from exaggerating," Lily nodded in agreement.

Trelawney finally regained all of her composure, and looked at Hermione with akin to dislike.

"A first for both Hermione and a teacher I'm sure," Sirius nodded.

She told Hermione that she had a very poor aura, and didn't see much for her future predicting skills.

"Was that supposed to be insulting?" Harry asked.

"I guess," Remus shrugged.

Seamus was still looking at the cup, twisting his head from side to side and squinting as he said it sort of looked like a Grim when he did that, then cocking his head the other way and stating but now it looked like a donkey.

The boys almost lost it again, snickering away while Lily continued to giggle as well and state, "if you have to do that much to figure it out, it's hardly a good sign."

Harry couldn't help but smile indulgently at all of them. Back then he knew his thirteen-year-old self had been equally scared and annoyed by this, but watching his family mock the whole

instance actually did put a funny spin on it. It also helped to know what exactly had been dogging him this year, and that he obviously wasn't going to die anytime soon.

Harry lost his patience, telling the class that if they were all done deciding whether or not he was going to die.

"Oh, snappy," James smirked.

"Nice little reality check moment," Lily chuckled.

Nobody would look him in the eye to respond.

"Oh please," Sirius rolled his eyes, "these students are so easy."

Trelawney decided that was enough of class today, and gave them all an early dismissal. Harry and his two friends made to leave, though he couldn't help but notice Ron was avoiding his eye as well.

"Oh, not Ron to," Remus groaned.

"Well he did grow up learning about Grims and such," James nodded fairly. "Remember how Peter flipped out when he first saw Sirius, called him a Grim too. It can be a little shocking at

first."

"I think they're just being superstitious kids," Sirius snorted, rather siding with Remus on this one.

Before they could leave though, Trelawney gave Neville one last warning that he would be late again on the next class, so do some extra studying.

Lily rolled her eyes in contempt, this woman really was going to get on her nerves, wasn't she?

They left and made their way to the next class, Transfiguration.

"Well that was a fun first class," Sirius said with chipper.

"Honestly can't wait for the next one," Remus agreed.

They got a little lost again, so even with their head start they only just made it in time.

"Not a good omen for how the rest of the year works out," Lily grinned.

Harry and his friends sat in the back of the class, so that it would be harder for the other students to stop looking at him like he was going to drop dead any second.

"Not a pleasant feeling," Harry shrugged, "though sadly I was used to being stared at by this point."

He didn't pay any attention to today's lesson, which was McGonagall explaining about Animagi,

All five of them went bright-eyed with interest at this, James and Sirius sharing a wicked grin. Sirius adding on, "this was the class that gave us this idea!"

"We did all kinds of research for ages," James agreed, "double checking all sorts of facts to make sure it would work."

"Did you know what animals you were going to turn into?" Lily asked with interest. "It would be rather pointless to go through the whole process and find out you were all something small and not useful."

"Yes," James nodded, "there's a charm that will tell you. It's fairly reliable, never seen it be wrong."

Harry looked extremely interested in this, nodding as he remembered all the things McGonagall had talked about in this class, and dearly wishing he could spend hours interrogating his Dad and Sirius about these things. He somehow knew, without understanding, he'd never taken to becoming an Animagus himself, but he did rather like the idea. Why wouldn't you want to turn

into an animal at will?

Lily, while still finding the fact that they were illegal one of her greatest hangups as of right now, was rather curious on the subject. She didn't have the inclination to be one but found the whole concept of your animal spirit fascinating. She was determined as soon as those three boys registered, she'd end up launching a whole field worth of studies.

which was a wizard that could change into an animal at will. McGonagall herself demonstrated what that was like as she turned into a tabby cat with square markings around her eyes. When she changed back to her normal self and realized she didn't have anyone's attention, she told them that though it didn't matter, she usually got some applause for that.

That garnered a laugh from all of them. "'Not that it matters'," Sirius chuckled, "oh, she's completely miffed she doesn't have their undivided attention."

"Well can you blame her?" James demanded, still smirking himself. "It takes a lot of work to become an Animagus, I think she enjoys that round of applause for her dedication."

Everyone's eyes flickered towards Harry again, but no one chose to explain except Hermione, who put up her hand.

"Why am I not surprised," Harry nodded, always thankful he could rely on Hermione to answer the questions he found uncomfortable.

She began by explaining they'd just gotten out of Divination, but that was all McGonagall needed as she surmised that someone had been told they were going to die.

All three boys released surprised snorts of laughter, making Lily and Harry give them concerned looks.

"Oh don't mind us," James wheezed, looking far too giddy for the comment as far as Lily was concerned.

"Yeah, we're just over here trying to understand why she always got so lofty with us, when she goes around saying things like that," Remus cackled.

Sirius looked likely to fall off the couch soon, he was still laughing and trying his hardest to not let the baby fall and squirming all around. James finally took over the situation by taking his son back, forcing Sirius to come back down to earth.

There was a brief squabble where James won and was still cuddling his son as Harry continued.

Harry told that it was him, and McGonagall told him that it was a known practice of Trelawney's to tell one student every year they were going to kick the bucket ever since she started here.

"Well she's just a right ray of sunshine," Lily laughed, unable to keep that sarcastic tone out of her voice.

None of them had yet to, and because she never spoke ill of someone she worked with, she paused and had to draw a breath before continuing in the same tone that she didn't put much stock in that branch of magic. A true Seer was of the rarest variety, and Trelawney...

"She's really going out of her way to make sure this class knows how she feels," Remus grinned.

She cleared her throat hard before finishing that as Harry looked perfectly fine to her, he would not be exempt from homework, though if he did croak, he didn't have to worry about turning it in.

"Best teacher ever!" Sirius grinned like a maniac.

"Love her confidence in you," James agreed fervently.

Remus and Lily just laughed lightly, and Harry couldn't help but agree with all of them.

Hermione laughed, and Harry couldn't help but feel better for it. It was a lot harder to feel spooked over the whole mess,

"You were actually scared of this?" Lily demanded, some of her humor gone and annoyance rekindling at that teacher.

"A bit, yeah," Harry admitted with a shrug, "but I guess it was just the environment and stuff. You guys convinced me already it's ridiculous."

"Glad for that," Sirius nodded with content.

away from the atmosphere of the class. Ron still looked a little grim himself as he eyed his best friend, and Lavender was whispering what about what happened to Neville and his cup?

Lily snorted and shook her head, but didn't bother to repeat herself.

When lunch arrived, Hermione tried to convince Ron that he was being dramatic, but Ron still wasn't touching his food.

"Wow, this is really bothering him," Remus noted in surprise.

"Like I said," James offered with a small frown, "Ron might just be the superstitious type. Once he realizes it doesn't really affect anything, he'll get over it."

He asked if Harry had seen a black dog around, and Harry told of what he'd seen when he ran away from the Dursleys.

"Not the best thing to tell him right then," Sirius said lightly.

Ron's fork fell from suddenly numb fingers.

They all nodded, that had been about what they were expecting.

Hermione wasn't fazed, telling that it had probably been a stray.

"Now that I'll disagree with," Remus smirked.

Ron told Hermione off for that, saying he'd had an Uncle Bilius who had seen a Grim, and he'd died twenty-four hours afterwards.

"Ouch," Lily winced in sympathy. "Okay, I know why Ron's so spooked about this now."

"Yeah," Sirius and Remus nodded together, determining to stop picking on him for this now.

"That's Ron's middle name," Harry said randomly, looking for something more pleasant to think about.

Hermione still wasn't impressed, saying that was all coincidence.

"That was a little harsh," James frowned.

"Agreed, that's not something she should have taken so lightly, even though it probably is a coincidence," Remus agreed.

Ron was getting outright mad at her now, telling her that wizards should fear the Grim! Hermione said it was rubbish, they just died from fright at the thought of it.

"Nah," Sirius chuckled, "there are much scarier things to die of fright from than that."

It wasn't a sentence of death, it was just a byproduct of it. Harry was smart enough to still be alive because he hadn't realized what was going on and decided he might as well start digging his grave.

Remus couldn't help another bursting laugh. He wasn't used to Hermione giving off such dark humor, but he found it all the more hilarious coming from her.

Ron was still speechless as he stared at his friend, but Hermione was still going, saying that she found the whole class fairly useless. Ron snapped back it hadn't been a guess, he'd seen that Grim! Hermione shot back that he hadn't even seen it, he'd thought it was a sheep.

"She's got another point," Lily nodded in agreement.

"Ron and Hermione are taking this to an extreme," Sirius noted, "it's a petty argument. Why are they treating it like this?"

"They treat everything like this," Harry noted in a long-suffering voice.

Ron was sure Hermione was now just being mean because Trelawney had insulted her aura, and she just didn't like how badly she was going to do in this class.

"Wow," James said, raising a brow in surprise, "and you put up with this all the time?"

"Yep," Harry nodded, popping the P for emphasis. He was far too used to this to really care though.

Hermione lost her patience, slamming her book down on the table and rattling some plates.

"Temper, temper," Remus muttered, noting she did seem to have one before as well when it came to this type of thing.

She snapped that she wasn't going to be putting up with this class long anyways if guesswork was all it took. She had enjoyed her Arithmancy class much more.

Harry blinked, both shocked and puzzled, then glanced up and around to see the rest of them were as well.

"What did she mean?" Lily asked anyways, not really expecting an answer from all the blank faces. "She hasn't been to that class yet, she's been with you all day."

True to her guess, no one answered. They were all rather stuck, and found it rather frustrating they couldn't figure something out about a third year. Bright as Hermione was, how on earth could she be doing something like this, and none of them understood how?

She stalked away, and Ron now switched to puzzlement as he asked what Hermione had meant, she hadn't been to that class today.

"Glad Ron's just as confused," Remus muttered.

Harry had no idea, but didn't bring it up as they headed outside for their first Care of Magical Creatures class.

Harry pushed eagerly past his confusion about Hermione, wanting very much to remember Hagrid's first class.

Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other,

"A first I'm sure," Lily said with just a hint of sarcasm.

but Harry was far too used to this as they headed towards the Forbidden Forest, finding the Slytherin's already in attendance.

"Oh come on!" James groaned in disgust. "They already have to deal with those jerks in Potions."

Malfoy was chatting with his friends, who were snickering along.

"Probably the dumbest conversation ever," Sirius grumbled.

Harry had the feeling he already knew what they were talking about. Hagrid made his appearance then, telling them to come closer and to follow him!

"At least he's enthusiastic," Remus grinned.

"The best teachers are," James agreed.

He at first began leading them towards the forest,

"Oh please no," Lily shuddered.

"He shouldn't," Sirius frowned, "at least not until his sixth year, seventh at the latest."

"Say what?" Lily balked at him.

"Sure," Remus shrugged "the advanced classes learn how to find and study them in their more natural habitat."

Lily frowned, not really sure how she felt about this. She'd heard more than enough about Harry being in there, but then she could hardly fault him if he did do it for a class. Then again, one of those times he'd been in there was for a detention, and that hadn't exactly gone over well.

and Harry was not pleased at that prospect, having more than enough nightmare fuel from that place.

James couldn't really help but agree, though he thought this class would go a long ways to helping his son if ever he did choose to go back in there.

His assumption was wrong though, as Hagrid made a sharp turn and instead lead them towards a fenced off field.

Lily still couldn't help but release a breath of relief, thankful that she didn't have to deal with that place for now.

There wasn't anything inside yet, as Hagrid told them to come around and begin opening their books,

"Uh oh," Remus frowned.

"Ah, was there some kind of instruction manual we missed?" Sirius asked curiously. "Because I thought you never did get that thing open."

"I didn't," Harry nodded, looking rather upset. He felt like he'd let Hagrid down by this, but he still had no clue what to do with that book. He was also trying very hard to ignore this impending sense of doom, something wrong was going to happen in Hagrid's first class, which made him very uneasy.

but Malfoy was the first to interrupt by asking how to do this? Some of Hagrid's enthusiasm dropped as he realized Malfoy wasn't the only one, they all pulled out their copies of The Monster Book of Monsters, each wrapped up tight.

"Poor Hagrid," Lily frowned, feeling sympathy for him.

"Don't know what to say honestly," James shrugged, "cause I've got no idea either."

Then Hagrid told them that you were supposed to stroke the spine of the book, in a tone implying he had found it obvious.

Remus blinked several times, wondering if he'd heard that right, but no one really interrupted Harry to find out since he was fixing to read it anyways.

He took Hermione's book as an example, tore away the tape sealing it shut, and before the book could do anything Hagrid ran his hand down the brown spine of the book, which then fell open happily.

"Well there you go," James said, quirking a brow in surprise.

"Points for originality," Sirius agreed, "I never would have thought of that."

Malfoy jeered that of course that should have been obvious, his tone implying the exact opposite.

"That jerk," Lily frowned severely. "He didn't figure it out any more than anyone else. Hagrid should take points or something away from him, he shouldn't be allowed to talk to a teacher like

that."

"Here's hoping," Harry nodded in agreement.

Hagrid looked confused as he said he'd thought it was funny.

"I agree," James nodded fervently. "Now that I get the joke, I think it's actually quite hilarious, a monster book that you have to pet to open."

Malfoy didn't agree, mocking that it was quite a laugh if it didn't bite his hand off.

"Wish it had ripped your hand off," Sirius grumbled.

Harry told Malfoy to shut it, while Hagrid continued to look more upset by the minute.

"Wish you'd done more then tell him off," Remus huffed, he more than agreed someone needed to knock that kid down a peg.

Hagrid seemed to lose some of his train of thought as he said that now they needed their creatures, and walked off into the forest.

"Wait, he didn't say which page to turn to," Lily noted with concern.

"Wonder what he's showing," James agreed with more curiosity than anything.

When he was out of sight, Malfoy kept going with his diatribe, stating that Hagrid getting made as teacher was a disgrace, and his father would throw a fit at the Ministry.

"Is that his go-to for everything?" Sirius asked in disgust. "How does anyone stand this kid?"

"Search me," Harry muttered with disdain.

Harry told him to shut up again, and Malfoy just mocked Harry that there was a dementor behind him.

"And that joke is still not funny!" James snapped.

Conversation was cut off by Hagrid coming back in with half a dozen beasts. The front half of their bodies being eagles coupled with wings sprouting from their sides, and the back half being horses.

"Hippogriffs," Remus and Sirius said at once, both grinning at this prospect.

"This out to be fun," James grinned brightly.

"I didn't even know the forest had those," Lily said with honest interest. "Though I do wonder if that wasn't a little big to start?" She posed it more as a question than anything, not having much to do with the field she wasn't really sure on the matter.

"Nah," Remus shrugged, "sure it is a bit advanced, more would have preferred showing that towards the end of the year than the first class, but it's not above them either. A competent person

can learn how to handle one easily enough."

"Sure," Sirius nodded. "We only ran into one, they're really secluded and spend a lot of time in the high branches. This little foal fell down in front of us, and the parents were close by, so we didn't stick around even though we did know what to do with them."

They ranged in a variety of colors, all tethered together with thick collars that led to chains in Hagrid's hand. He corralled them all to the fence, where the class took a collective step back. He introduced them as hippogriffs, declaring them as beautiful. Harry only slightly agreed.

"Oh come on Harry," Sirius said bracingly, "I haven't agreed with a lot of Hagrid's pets before this, but you've got to admit this one fits the bill."

Harry nodded in agreement as he said, "it was like seeing a Centaur for the first time. Just took me a moment to get over the shock before I could appreciate it fully."

It did have a majesty about it, with the front feathers blending into horsehair, the way they tossed their heads, and the sharp intelligent eyes watching them. Hagrid began by saying they could all come closer, but no one moved.

"This class is depressing me," James rolled his eyes.

"Leave them be," Lily scolded at once, "Hagrid hasn't even gotten to how to handle them yet. I'd still be nervous too."

Hermione, Ron, and Harry were the only ones to begin inching forward.

"There's always one brave one," Remus beamed.

Hagrid beamed at them as he began to explain about these creatures, starting by saying how proud they were, and you should never insult one, or it would be the last thing you do. Harry caught sight of Malfoy and his friend's clearly not paying attention,

"Well that's not good," Lily frowned at once. She didn't like those boys more than anyone else, but she certainly didn't want to see them get hurt; which was bound to happen if they truly weren't paying attention to Hagrid in this instance.

"Those little jerks better not do anything to mess with Hagrid," Sirius growled at once.

Harry's bad feeling was rearing up again at once, and he didn't like that his first instinct was to think Sirius was right.

talking at the back of the class, but Hagrid didn't seem to notice as he continued explaining how to approach the hippogriffs for the first time. First you were to walk up to them, and take a bow. If they bowed back, it was them giving permission to approach them, but if they didn't bow back, it was best to move back, as their talons were very sharp. Then he asked for a volunteer, and in answer, the class took another collective step back.

"Ouch," James winced, "and that was sound advice, why are they still so nervous."

Lily just looked to the ceiling in wonder, did any of these boys have a sense of life? They certainly didn't show it very often, since it seemed more often their first instinct was to jump headlong into whatever they saw fit.

Even Harry and his friends still felt nervous, as the animals continued twitching around in unease, clearly uncomfortable with being tied up.

"Now that's a legitimate concern," Lily nodded in understanding, "exactly how tame are these?"

"Quit being such a worry wart Lily," Remus chuckled. "Hagrid's there, and I'm more than confident he can handle this. No, they don't like being tied down, but who does?"

Lily hesitated a moment more before nodding, and amazingly her nerves actually did relax.

Then Harry saw the begging look Hagrid was giving the class, and Harry said he'd try.

"That'a boy," James nodded in approval.

Harry grinned hesitantly back, not exactly mentioning that he had done this more out of loyalty to Hagrid, not out of real interest in wanting to get closer to that Hippogriff.

"What would have happened if no one volunteered?" Lily asked curiously.

"Most likely, the teacher would have demonstrated himself," Remus shrugged, "in this case Hagrid obviously, but there's always one brave soul who volunteers, so it's usually not an issue."

This caused a stirring in the class, Lavender reminding Harry of his tea from this morning.

"Oh please," Lily muttered scathingly, "this exact set of circumstances would have happened whether Harry drank a cup or not."

"Now Lily," Sirius said at once, a light gleaming in his eyes, "think about that. Divination doesn't write what is to happen, it helps to predict what could happen."

Lily looked rather stunned for a moment before nodding, admitting she'd been a little too harsh that time.

"Can't believe you're defending that subject," Remus noted in surprise.

Sirius chuckled and admitted, "well I still think that teacher was rubbish, but I'm hardly going to pass up an instance to correct Lily."

She scowled over at him without any real heat, causing Harry to chuckle lightly before reading.

Harry gave them no notice as he approached, while Hagrid set one of them apart, introducing him as Buckbeak, a dark gray colored hippogriff, and took him apart so that Harry could approach him. When Harry was ready, Hagrid cautioned not to blink too much, he could take that as mistrust.

"Which means you're going to want to start blinking at once," James noted with amusement.

Harry felt his eyes itching at once, but didn't allow that, trusting Hagrid's advice as he kept eye contact when Hagrid instructed him to bow. It made Harry uncomfortable to expose his neck like that, but didn't argue either as he did.

"Glad you're smart enough to listen to him," Remus nodded in approval.

After bowing, he glanced up to see the hippogriff didn't look up to returning the gesture.

"Wonder why," Sirius asked curiously.

"Probably because Harry was still too close, the hippogriff might still have felt threatened," Remus speculated, though not for sure since he wasn't there. There was also the fact that, these were still animals, and it was impossible to truly ever predict what they would do, feel, or think.

Hagrid began to tell Harry to start backing up, he was a little too close, but then the hippogriff did bend it's scaly knees in an unmistakable form of bowing. Hagrid congratulated Harry, telling him he could go and pet him now. Harry would much rather had been told to go back to the rest of the class,

"You're not exactly getting into this," James noted lightly.

Harry just shrugged, he wasn't taking that back.

but moved forward and began lightly rubbing on its beak, which he seemed to enjoy, half closing his eyes and leaning into the touch.

"The area where the beak merges into their face is a particularly scratchy spot to them," Remus nodded, "so I'm sure he did like it, if you were patting in the right spot."

The rest of the students began applauding, all except Malfoy and his friends who looked more like they'd missed a good show.

"Did they really want that thing to attack you?" Lily asked in disgust.

"After what he said about Hermione last year, I'm not putting anything past him," James hissed.

Hagrid then told Harry he'd built up enough trust to ride him.

"Ride him?" they repeated in shock.

"Now that is a bit advanced," Remus noted, "definitely should have been a bit later in education when he's had more confidence, and time, with the beast."

"Guess Hagrid really wants to show off," James shrugged, unable to hold back a hint of jealousy, this was something he'd never got to do before.

Harry did not agree, as the only thing he'd ever flown was a broomstick, and had a feeling the hippogriff wouldn't feel anything alike.

"It won't be," Sirius agreed, "but a fun experiences all the same." He also sounded just a tad envious, he would love to try something like this.

It took a lot for Lily not to snap at them; they were being idiots again, but she also consoled herself that she might be just a bit jumpy and over reactive of late, so held it back she did.

Hagrid began instructing Harry on how to get on, making note not to be pulling feathers as it would bother him, and Harry found a niche where his wing merged to scramble onto the back.

"He didn't even give you a saddle," Remus noted in amusement, "nor did he mention where you are supposed to hold on."

"Didn't exactly give him anything to steer either," James remarked, "so I'm hoping this one doesn't get any ideas."

Buckbeak took to his full height, and when Hagrid gave him a smack to get going, his twelve foot wing span exploded on either side of Harry, and they were off. With several hard downstrokes, they were up in the air and gliding around the enclosure, and Harry had no doubts he'd much rather be on his broom. The horse like creature was a shaky fit, and he had nothing to hold onto or steer except feathers all around, leaving him to clutch at the neck perhaps a little too tight.

"Sounds like a ton of fun," Sirius said eagerly.

"Though I'm glad you're hardly going to quit the Quidditch team in favor of starting a Hippogriff team," James snickered, finding plenty of amusement in that.

Thankfully the ride didn't last long, as without command Buckbeak began soaring into the green grass again, and Harry barely had time to lean back and brace himself as a thud announced his return to land.

"You didn't exactly sound like you were enjoying that," Remus noted with high amusement.

"It's not something I'd want to repeat," Harry admitted, then he blinked for a moment and wondered if that gut feeling was really telling him he had done just this. He certainly hoped not.

Lily couldn't help but grin, more than happy to admit she was just as happy to hear Harry was both safe on the ground, and didn't have a sudden urge to go back up there again.

Hagrid applauded him again, then asked who wanted their turn. The rest of the class had no more qualms about coming forward and being paired off.

"Typical," James grumbled, "they think it's plenty fun now."

Hagrid set them all up, and Harry went back to sit by Hagrid and watch while the students took their turns. Neville was having some issues, as his hippogriff didn't seem likely to bow anytime soon.

"He did have problems with his broom," Sirius remembered, "he's probably just as nervous now, which I'm sure that hippogriff noticed."

Ron and Hermione were now working with a bay one, while Malfoy and been given Buckbeak, who had just bowed back and was being petted by said boy.

"Buckbeak just lost some points with me," Remus muttered to Sirius, who nodded in agreement.

Malfoy wasn't impressed, saying of course it had, it had bowed to Harry after all, meaning it couldn't be very intelligent.

"He what!" Sirius choked out.

"That idiot," Remus frowned, leaning forward in concern. While he hardly liked Malfoy, that kind of insult could get him killed.

Before anyone realized what had happened, Buckbeak lashed out, scraping his claws at whatever he could reach of Malfoy before Hagrid jumped in, putting Buckbeak's collar back on and dragging him away from a bleeding Malfoy.

"Uh oh," James muttered, bouncing around in agitation now, causing the baby in his lap to giggle, thinking this was a new game.

This sadly didn't actually release any tension in the room this time. They had been begging for someone to hit Malfoy for ages now, but not like this! What if this kid really did die? They would all feel ten kinds of awful for ever having mocked him, he was still a child after all, a bad one but still, even Malfoy didn't deserve that!

Harry was reading in honest panic now, very much not appreciating that he had been right in this instance.

When Buckbeak had been secured away, Hagrid ran forward to take a look, finding Malfoy's arm to have jagged tears in it, his blood painting the ground in an uneven pattern as Hagrid picked him up and began carrying him up to the school.

They were all still frowning in deep concern. At least that wasn't in the chest like they had feared, but there was some very important things in the arm that Malfoy could still die from if this got too serious. None of them could think of a thing to say, so the quiet remained while Harry read.

The rest of the class followed in subdued form, the Slytherin's taking the chance to shout abuse about Hagrid.

"About what?" Lily arched a brow in disdain. "How was that Hagrid's fault? Malfoy was the one who didn't listen, in fact I'd laugh if someone decided to give him a detention on top of this."

James managed a half amused laugh at this, noting lovingly he had been thinking along those same lines.

Pansy in particular looked near tears as she swore she'd see that man fired for this.

"It was Malfoy's fault!" Remus snapped in disgust. "They can't fire him, he didn't do anything wrong."

Dean shot back that it had been Malfoy's own doing!

Sirius released a surprised snort of amusement, noting pleasantly, "you just mimicked a kid we hardly even know this time."

Remus gave him the stank eye, he still didn't find it that funny.

Crabbe and Goyle tensed up, looking ready to fight back,

"Ooh, I'm so scared," James scowled.

but then they reached the shadow of the castle, and recognized they couldn't do anything. Pansy was still wailing in despair as she declared she was going to go check on him.

Lily was the only one who looked rather touched by this. Malfoy was an awful child, but they were seeing him from Harry's perspective. If Malfoy had actually managed to get a girlfriend,

maybe he really wasn't as bad as he pretended. She declined mentioning this, knowing quite well the boys wouldn't find that interesting.

The rest of the Slytherin's skulked off, while the Gryffindor's headed off to their tower, still talking about it, but with a more hopeful tone as Harry pointed out Madam Pomfrey had fixed far worse with ease.

"Very true," Remus nodded in agreement, "and he did get there fast enough, there really shouldn't be a problem." Even he couldn't deny that there was still hints of nerves in his voice even as he said that. The best medics in the world couldn't fix everything.

Ron was working himself into a fury again, growling that this was the worst thing that could have happened in Hagrid's first class, and it was all Malfoy's fault.

"Agreed," Lily sighed, more than disgruntled at the boy's actions.

That night at dinner, they were dismayed to see Hagrid hadn't made an appearance.

"Not a particularly good sign," James frowned in concern.

"They wouldn't really fire Hagrid would they?" Harry asked anxiously.

"Dumbledore wouldn't," Sirius said at once.

"They really shouldn't," Remus agreed, explaining better, "if a teacher got fired every time an accident happened in this school, they'd be going through teachers by the month. Accidents

happen in a building full of too many kids and not enough supervision, it's just a fact of life. They really can't blame this all on Hagrid."

"Let's hope a Malfoy will agree with you," James muttered, no hope at all in his voice.

Hermione whispered that Hagrid hadn't really been fired for this?

Sirius was still a little too distracted to notice this time Harry had just mimicked someone.

Ron shot back someone better not have! Harry was distracted by watching the Slytherin table, where the group from their class were all sitting close together and having their own whispered conversation. Harry had the sneaking feeling they were making up a story of what they said happened.

"Well then it's a good thing there are more witnesses than those prats," Lily spat in disgust.

That night they spotted lights on at Hagrid's place, and Harry said that he wanted to go visit him. Ron agreed as it wasn't curfew yet, but Hermione hesitated, eyeing Harry.

"Why?" Sirius demanded, blinking at the random distraction.

Lily frowned pitifully at him, not exactly wanting to mention she had a good idea why Hermione might say that. Harry had a good idea as well, but simply read out sadly.

Explaining that Harry wasn't supposed to be wandering out there, with Sirius Black still around.

"Oh," was the only answer Sirius could come up with to that, slumping back in his seat and crossing his arms moodily. He had almost this whole bleeding chapter without having to think about that, now here was Hermione bringing it up.

James took pity on him and passed him back the baby, forcing an almost genuine smile back onto that Godfather's face.

Harry pointed out he wasn't supposed to leave past the dementors, no one had said anything about the common grounds. Hermione didn't argue further as they left, though still happy they didn't see anyone as they weren't positive this was allowed.

"Of course you are," Remus scoffed, "if Ron said it's not curfew yet, then it's not." He failed to mention something he had noticed, but the others seemed to have skipped in this whole mess. He hadn't seemed to have called Harry to his office yet for that talk that was so desperately needed... surely he was just busy because of the first day back, right?

They knocked on the cabin door, and while Hagrid did call for them to come in, they didn't walk into a good sight. Hagrid was slumped across his table, a huge mug hanging from one hand, and he wasn't focusing on them very well.

"Crap," James muttered in concern, but he was the only one who did. The others had tensed up, now fearing the worst really had happened and someone had actually managed to fire Hagrid.

This really shouldn't be possible though, only Dumbledore actually had the power to fire his staff, and no force on earth should have convinced him to do this!

Hagrid began slurring that he'd broken a record, the shortest teacher to ever have lasted.

Lily opened her mouth in outrage, fully prepared to give a verbal beating to the poor schmuck who had done this to Hagrid, but Harry had been reading ahead a bit desperately, and read loudly before she could get started.

Hermione gasped in shock, demanding to know what had happened, and Hagrid acquitted that it hadn't happened yet, but Malfoy would see to it.

"Oh thank Merlin," Sirius said in relief.

"It doesn't matter what Malfoy says," James said hotly, "Dumbledore won't fire Hagrid! I'll bet my wand on that, especially because it wasn't his bloody fault."

Ron asked how serious Malfoy's injury was.

Sirius released a half-hearted smirk, but he was honestly too curious to hear the answer to reply this time.

Hagrid explained that Pomfrey had fixed it all up in seconds, but Malfoy was still claiming to be in horrible amounts of pain.

"Liar," Remus spat at once in disgust, this finally distracting him from his own thoughts. "If Madam Pomfrey fixed him, then she bleeding fixed him. That brat's lucky he didn't lose his whole

arm, I'll be surprised if he even has a scratch left."

Harry snapped that he was lying.

"I'm glad you believe me Harry," Remus noted in amusement.

Harry gave him a grin while Lily groaned and said, "oh not you too! Please don't encourage that, it's annoying enough when Sirius does it."

Before any of them could comment further, Harry decided to keep reading loudly to avoid a useless dispute.

Hagrid agreed, but Malfoy still had a lot of pull with the ministry, who had told him he'd started to big with hippogriffs,

They all pursed their lips, unwilling to admit this had sort of been on their mind earlier, but then James riled up and grumbled, "but Hagrid was handling things fine, it was Malfoy's fault for not paying attention."

Since they all agreed with him anyways, and couldn't think of anything else to add to that, Harry kept going still rather subdued.

that he should have started with something smaller like flobberworms. Hagrid was blaming himself, but Hermione told him how wrong he was, it was Malfoy's fault!

James poked Sirius before he could mention it this time.

Harry agreed they'd seen the whole thing, they'd stick up for Hagrid that nothing had gone wrong until Malfoy screwed it up. Ron agreed they would make sure people knew what really happened.

Sirius stopped his glaring at his best mate to smile warmly at Harry, knowing without a doubt any of them would have done the same thing in a heartbeat.

Hagrid beamed around at all of them, reaching forward and pulling Harry and Ron into a rib snapping hug.

Remus chuckled and began in a conversational tone, "well, if you do go up to the Hospital to get checked out, make sure to point out to Madam Pomfrey that she needs to discharge Malfoy on the

grounds he's an idiot."

"Duly noted," Harry nodded.

Hermione then told him he'd had enough to drink tonight.

"And I agree," Lily smiled lightly.

Hagrid agreed, and stomped outside where a splashing noise could be heard. Hermione poked her head out and informed them he'd stuck his head in a water trough.

"Well that'll clear you up quick," James chuckled.

Hagrid came back in, shaking out his wet hair and thanking them for coming to see him, when he caught sight of Harry and began screaming that he was out of his mind.

"Wow," James blinked in surprise, "overreaction much."

"Guess I really wasn't allowed on the grounds," Harry noted absently, rubbing his ears at the remembered volume.

Sirius grumbled something under his breath, but refused to let himself react this time, pulling his wand back out and creating a puff of red smoke and making the little baby giggle all over again, the act making him feel slightly better. Though he was forced to continue listing.

He stormed over to Harry and grabbed him, hauling him outside as he told Harry he wasn't supposed to be out of school, then he turned on Ron and Hermione for letting him. He marched them all back to the castle, telling them they'd better not pull a stunt like this again, Hagrid wasn't worth the consequences.

"Unnecessary as that is," Lily noted, giving Sirius a protective sort of watch to make sure he really wasn't going to sink back down into a depression again, "that was still kind of sweet."

"I'd just like to point out that if Harry didn't know what was going on before, Hagrid would kind have blown that then," Remus agreed, placing his elbow on Sirius' shoulder and leaning on him as have blown that then," Remus agreed, placing his elbow on Sirius' shoulder and leaning on him as if he were bored with the whole topic.

"Chapter's over by the way," Harry nodded towards Remus for his turn.

HPHPHP

*Question offered by Grank, I know it's not the best explanation especially when you consider sixth and seventh years who all take combined classes with all the houses and so it wouldn't work out in the same time frames then, but that one really did stump me. I'll try to work out something better and have Harry bring it up again at the end of the year.

**Random note, the dog that played Sirius in the Order of the Phoenix movie was a Scottish Deerhound named Cloud, thought it was funny enough to put in here.

*** Anyone want to suggest some nicknames? I've thought up a few more I'll sprinkle in, but I'm just curious.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #PoA #Reading the books #James Potter #Lily Potter #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #Marauders

4 notes · View notes