#but also i've been writing a microfic every time tumblr shows me something i don't want to see

[solitaire-sol]

22: Lineage

For: @prongsfoot-microfic Month: March 2023 AO3: Link Notes: Canon divergence, though right now it's just in the form of a soulmate AU (yes, another one) as encountered by little bitty James and Sirius, with a supporting appearance by a very displeased Walburga Black. Another first-of-several-connected-microfics.

It was strange to think that they might not have met were it not for pureblood traditions, though really, James and Sirius were barely related; courtesy of a shared ancestor from several generations back that made them cousins, probably, or possibly uncle and nephew several times removed. Regardless, there was just enough Black in the Potter line that the latter was invited when the former held the usual grand fête to announce their next Heir: Sirius Orion Black had just made seven years old, which meant that it was time for him to be propped up in front of various friends, relations and people of note as the future head of his House.

Sirius hadn't known who the Potters were, exactly, but it wasn't hard to assume that James was a distant relative, as at the time they looked much alike: The same ink-black hair, the same childish, doll-like features, dressed in similar formal robes for the occasion. The similarities ended there, however, as there was something about James that seemed distinctly novel to Sirius, a certain vivaciousness which an outsider might have largely recognized as the normal exuberance of childhood-- Something which was unsightly enough, to Orion and Walburga's brand of parenting, that it had been quickly trained out of their own sons.

James and his parents had waited patiently with the other guests – well, more or less patiently, in James' case – until they reached the front of the reception line. Their parents exchanged the expected greetings, cordially on the part of Fleamont and Euphemia and with barely restrained disdain from Orion and Walburga; James had bowed beautifully, then stuck out his hand with brassy fearlessness, hazel eyes gleaming with interest. Sirius, despite himself, felt that interest too, something stirring beneath his prematurely disinterested facade like green shoots beneath the winter's snow.

When their hands touched, the light that shone from between their clasped palms was unmistakable: Brilliant gold and deep silver, radiant and shimmering like a living thing, luminous ribbons winding around the two children as their magical cores sensed their fated partner. It was impossible to see that light and think it anything other than the meeting of souls, which was undoubtedly why Walburga had paled and yanked her son away, dragging Sirius towards the house with nary a word for the guests as murmurs of scandalized delight rippled through the crowd. Walburga was muttering under her breath, very unlike her usual dispassionate elegance: “It's bad enough we're related to them at all, however distantly; I refuse to allow my son to be weighed down by a blood-traitor 'soulmate!' This is patently ridiculous--"

Sirius barely heard her, head turned and eyes over his shoulder, struggling to keep James in view for as long as he could. In that moment, barely cognizant of what had just occurred, Sirius only knew that he and James Potter belonged together, that they were bound together by something deeper than blood, against which even his mother's venomous determination surely stood no chance.