Disclaimer: Believe me, if it was mine, you would just know it.
A/N: Okay, my first foray into the HP fandom! *scuffs sneaker against the floor*. Hullo!
First's first, this is very incredibly AU. In my mind, Sirius never died, and in this little set of instances, he raised Harry too.
Secondly, I've got no clue about how babies are supposed to act and how much they're allowed to know, so I apologize profusely if my portrayal is far from realistic! Hehehe (-_-)
Lastly, this will have several short-ish chapters, all fairly sweet and just generally instances where Harry needed his Godfather around. I've written most of them, so updates should be fairly quick.
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy!
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June 19th 1981
Sirius Black stared almost uncomprehendingly at the official looking parchment in his hands.
No…not true. It can't be true. It…it's not true.
I just left them to finish the clean-up…Death Eaters never come back to the scene…
He, for the most part, felt like he ought to be yelling and destroying everything around him in a childish fit of temper, until someone told him that this was all a stupid prank played by some stupid prat who had no concept of where to draw the line.
Instead, he felt curiously hollow. As though he had been sucker-punched and it was only by sheer force of will that he was still standing.
He was barely aware of the words that were being directed at him from his best friend and brother. He was no more aware of his newfound sister, when her voice joined in, than he was of Prongs'.
Just background noise to the deafening sound of denial that was roaring in his ears.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way. The man and women…the team of three that he had seen just two hours ago…all gone. Granted, he had only met them recently, but he had come to hear about their families. The ones they were now leaving behind. And he would have been there to help, except that this mission had been a close call, and he wanted to reassure Prongs and Lils and baby Harry that everything was okay…
The letter slipped from his numb fingers and he moved to the door on autopilot, feeling the overwhelming need to leave. That part of him that was primed to shout and rage was coming quickly to the forefront, and really, nobody needed to bear witness to that.
He made his way swiftly to the door, knowing James would be reading the letter and knowing that there was a very small window of opportunity for him to leave without the Potters trying to stop him.
He didn't quite count on the littlest bundle of Potter.
"Pa'foo."
It was that single uttered word, from a sleepy baby, that penetrated Sirius' bubble of anguish. If it were any other time, he knew James would have been insufferable about the fact that he responded only to his baby Godson's voice.
Slowly, he turned around, eyes still facing downwards even as Lily stepped closer to him. He wasn't sure whether he didn't want to see the pity on her and James' faces, or whether he didn't want them to see the broken look on his.
Maybe Lily sensed something like that – she was always the most perceptive of them – because instead of trying to meet his eyes, or offer some meaningless platitude, the stunning redhead simply handed him the baby that had called out for him moments before.
Sirius looked up enough to see that baby Harry, instead of cuddled against his mother and close to sleep, was now blearily awake, both arms reaching out to him in a silent demand to be taken. Clearly, the baby didn't care for Sirius' intention to spend the night three sheets to the wind.
He reacted instinctively, arms going to lift and cradle the baby to his chest, as he had done plenty of times before. Harry smiled at him, all softness and warmth and love and comfort, before snuggling deep into the dog animagus' chest, his little face buried in the side of Sirius' neck.
"Pa'foo?"
Wide, sleepy green eyes seemed to plead with him, for what, Sirius couldn't say. But all at once, the sound somehow returned to the room, and the icy blanket of pain that wrapped him slowly dissolved, leaving behind a dull, throbbing hurt.
Sirius took a deep, shuddering breath, finding himself, his composure, and his footing in those emerald orbs.
"Alright, Prongslet…it's okay," he managed to murmur roughly. "I'm here now. I'll stay."
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