This took weeks to write for some reason and I really am not satisfied with it. Feel free to give me constructive criticism but I really wanted to write a kind of cute story of Godfather Sirius, since my past two stories were a little more serious (pun intended).
This has barely any plot, just a short drabble of fluff.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: All characters belong to J. . I just make them look cute.
"Pafoo!"
Sirius Black grinned as he stepped into the cottage and closed the door behind him, his eyes on the little, wriggling, black haired kid on his father's lap.
"Hey there, mini-Marauder," he said. He'd gotten into calling James and Lily Potter's firstborn a mini-Marauder recently because he knew how much it irked Lily.
"Pafoo!" Harry shrieked, waving his fat fists around and pumping his legs impatiently.
"Alright, alright," laughed James, getting up from the couch to hand the kid over to his best friend. The moment Harry got within arm's length of Sirius, he reached over – and grabbed a fistful of Sirius's shoulder-length black hair to pull excitedly.
"Whoa!" Sirius jerked backwards, holding the baby under his armpits and stretching his long arms out so that Harry's tiny arms were much too far for the baby to be within close proximity of his hair. "Come on, kid, do you know how much I spend on my hair every month?"
The baby wailed despondently.
Sirius let out an aggrieved sigh. Sacrifices, he supposed glumly, had to be made, particularly when one was a godfather. His supposed best friend, still chuckling on the couch, certainly didn't look like he was going to help.
"Alright, alright," he grumbled and pulled the kid back to his chest. Harry's wails vanished as he immediately swiped two fat fistfuls of hair and began yanking on them like reins.
Sirius winced as his roots pulled sharply and shot a look at the boy's father, lounging at his ease on the couch.
"Prongs?"
"What? I'm not on duty tonight," grinned James.
Ah yes. He'd forgotten. He was the benevolent – but at least very handsome - soul today.
At that moment, Lily Potter swept into the living room. She was dressed in a simple black evening gown that hugged her curves, bared her shoulders but covered her neck and swirled elegantly around her feet which were clad in a pair of black, shiny pumps. Her long dark red hair had been twisted up into an elegant updo held in place with glittering diamond pins that had been a wedding gift from James, complemented by the diamond bobs that adorned her earlobes. The slightest of dark shadow had been brushed onto her eyelids along with a stroke of smokey eyeliner, bringing more attention to her bright, emerald green eyes and a slight kiss of dark red showed on her lips.
"Wow!" Sirius and James said at the same time.
"Mrs Potter, you look stunning," said James in absolute amazement. He had taken to calling Lily "Mrs Potter" because he knew it annoyed her that he frequently liked to feign astonishment that she had actually married him.
"You'll prompt nosebleeds everywhere," agreed Sirius. He was glad she had taken his advice on the black dress – the red dress she had originally chosen would have clashed horribly with her hair.
"Thank you," replied Lily, looking embarrassed but nevertheless pleased – until she caught sight of her son, who had yet to notice her appearance in the room, so preoccupied was he in his quest to make his godfather bald, it seemed.
"Harry James Potter, what are you doing?!" she cried.
The baby turned around in bewilderment – and then beamed at the sight of his mother. "Mama!" he said delightedly, holding up fistfuls of Sirius's long hair. "Fur!"
"He thinks your human form is the same as your Animagus form," Lily said in amused exasperation. Sirius shed an appalling amount of fur in his Animagus form so Harry, every time he was seated on the back of the great dog, would come away with fistfuls of shed fur. Evidently, as he knew both the dog and Sirius by the same name, he was under the impression that Sirius's human form would be able to accomplish such a feat as well.
"Don't blame the kid, Lily," said Sirius, instinct as a godfather making him loyal to his godson despite the fact he was in serious – pun intended – pain. "He doesn't know any – OW!" He jerked Harry away from him, eyes watering, as Harry came away with several strands of hair he had managed to yank from the roots of his godfather's hair.
"Harry!" James hurried forwards and took the wriggling child from his best friend. "You can't yank out Padfoot's hair. He'll be furless when he next transforms."
"Thanks for the support, Prongs," said Sirius, massaging his scalp. Damn, that kid could really pull.
Harry cheerily waved the fistfuls of hair he had managed to yank out so far. "Pafoo!"
Lily was frowning from her husband to her firstborn child to her husband's best friend. "Sirius, are you sure about tonight - ?" she began but Sirius was quick to wave his hand, dismissing her concerns.
"Listen, it'll be fine! You and James should really go out and enjoy yourselves. You guys never get to do anything fun anymore."
Lily looked to her husband for support but James simply shrugged. "Padfoot's got in under control. And it is your parents' wedding anniversary."
"Yes, but –"
"Come on, Lily, I'm not going to burn the house down or anything," said Sirius easily. "Harry will be just fine with me. We'll play puzzles or something until the kid gets tired and then he'll be out in no time."
"Pafoo!"
"See? The mini-Marauder loves me!"
"A little too much," muttered James, prying the hair from his son's fat fingers.
"Whatever! We'll have a great time!"
Lily looked from one face to another then sighed. She was outnumbered and if she was honest, she was itching to get out of the house for a couple of hours, with just James, and have proper conversations with adults that didn't involve diaper rash or milk formulas.
"Alright," she conceded. "But we are going to have to do something to your hair, Sirius, if you want to make it through the night alive."
"Shave him bald," suggested James mischievously.
"That's an idea," smirked Lily.
Sirius gathered his hair defensively in one hand. "I thought we were trying to save my hair from Harry?" he asked pointedly. "Not give it the same fate as letting the mini-Marauder loose on my hair?"
"Yeah except if you let us at it, it'll be painless," said Lily brightly.
Sirius scowled.
"What about a hat?" suggested James.
"Sounds relatively harmless," agreed Lily, taking a giggling Harry from her husband and planting a soft kiss on his little nose.
Sirius made a face. "And mess up my beautiful hair?"
"If you leave it the way it is, there won't be any hair left at the end of the night," said Lily.
"Alright … alright …"
In the end, they agreed on a "man bun", as Sirius insisted on calling it.
Harry seemed perplexed when Lily passed him back to Sirius, unable to grasp the fact that the bun sitting at the back of his godfather's head contained all the luscious, long black waves that had been swirling around Sirius's shoulders several minutes ago. He kept peeking over his godfather's shoulder and then swiping at the air with his fists as if the hair was invisible.
James disappeared from the room to change out of his ratty T-shirt and into formal wear, leaving Sirius to wrestle with Harry and Lily checking nervously out of the window every five seconds.
"You keep looking out of the window like that, you're going to get a neck cramp," remarked Sirius as he flipped his giggling godson upside down.
"I can't help it," Lily said testily. "Did you hear about Fabian and Gideon Prewett?"
Sirius grimaced. The pair had already been Order members when he, James, Moony, Wormtail and Lily had joined the ranks following graduation from Hogwarts although he had not had much reason to interact with them. His only real memories of them had been they had had a good sense of humour and laughed easily but he had always known their brother-in-law, Arthur Weasley, who was a Ministry official and friendly with everyone, a great deal better. According to Alastor Moody though – a Ministry Auror who spearheaded most of the Order operations and had a knack for bringing down Death Eaters (also known as Mad Eye Moody) – the brothers had been skilled wizards. Skilled wizards, indeed – their death after being cornered by five Death Eaters had been splashed all over the Daily Prophet in the past few days.
"What have they got anything to do with this?" he asked, keeping his tone light as he flipped Harry right side up.
Lily gave him a look. "They were incredible wizards, Padfoot!"
She must be agitated if she was using his nickname. Sirius fought to keep his tone careless and easy.
"How would you know? Did you ever see them in battle?"
"Mad Eye said so, didn't he? And he's never been wrong, Mad Eye, about any wizard."
Harry attempted to scramble up his arm – Sirius flipped him upside down again and he shrieked with laughter. "What's your point, Lily?"
"Skilled wizards and they still died, Padfoot," said Lily quietly. She let the curtains fall back into place and fear and worry was etched all over her pretty face. "What's going to happen to us – I mean – "
Sirius did his best to look offended. "And what are James and I? Chopped liver?" He flipped his godson right back up and Harry clutched at his neck giggling.
"Ag'in! Ag'in"
Lily walked over to them and he could see his attempts at humour had not worked on her. Her hands were shaking as she took her cheery son into her arms.
"I can't lose any of you, Padfoot," she whispered over her son's tufty black hair. "Not you. Not James. Not Harry. There is no point of tomorrow without any of you."
Sirius felt his heart clench.
He reached out to gently grip her upper arms and give them a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry about me, Lily. I'll look out for my own skin and keep you all safe. You're family, aren't you? You can trust me. And James – well, the afterlife isn't going to accept him, even the dead have standards."
He was glad to see that, at least, coaxed a smile out of her.
"Trust me, Lily. I'll keep you guys safe."
"Let's get going," James said, bounding into the living room, looking smart in a black suit that he and Sirius had picked out last week. He stopped halfway, sensing the glum mood.
"I'll get my shawl," said Lily. Her eyes were suspiciously shiny but Sirius didn't say anything as she thrust Harry into James's arms and hurried out of the room.
James turned to look questioningly at his best friend.
"She's worried about us," said Sirius in an undertone. "Fabian and Gideon – "
Understanding flashed across James's face. He shifted Harry to a more comfortable spot on his arm as the little boy wriggled and Sirius couldn't help but notice, with distinct pride, that the movement was no longer a conscious one for James had truly settled into his role as a father. "Yeah, she was really torn up about that. Went on about losing us, did she?"
Sirius nodded.
"What did you say?"
"That I can look after myself and save you all at the same time," said Sirius to a snort from his best friend. "And that you're not likely to die – even the dead have standards."
James snorted again. "At least that means I'm invincible. What are you going to do when Death Eaters attack you – throw a comb at them?"
Sirius frowned. "Not my comb … Too valuable. Maybe my hairspray, I don't really need that right now."
They were still laughing when Lily reentered the room, a dark purple shawl that had been a wedding gift from her parents wrapped securely around her. Her eyes weren't red but as she took Harry from James, she held onto him tightly, as if worried somebody would attempt to steal her baby from her.
"We'd better get going if we are going to beat Vernon and Petunia," said James, referring to Lily's wizard-hating older sister and her equally disdainful husband.
"Yes, of course," said Lily but she still looked worried as she looked at Sirius. "Are you sure you got this under control, Sirius?"
"We'll be fine," said Sirius brightly. "We're just going to stay in all day and play with puzzles, right, mini-Marauder?" He flicked Harry's hair as the baby's cue and the kid obligingly yelled, "Pafoo!"
"See? Nothing to worry about."
"Yeah, they'll be great!" said James, lifting his son from Lily's arms and tossing him once into the air – Harry let out a shriek of excitement and laughter. "Bye, son! Try not to give Padfoot too much trouble! Be good! We'll see you later."
"Dada!" Harry giggled and as James lowered him to eye level, he gave his father a sloppy kiss.
"See? All good," James passed their son back to Lily and attempted to wipe his face with the sleeve of his jacket.
"James!" both Lily and Sirius shouted.
The black haired man paused, staring blankly at them. "What?"
"You'll ruin the jacket," hissed Sirius – he raised his eyes briefly to the heavens - what had he ever done to deserve such idiots as friends. "I got you a monogrammed handkerchief for a reason."
"Oh … oh right …" James pulled the elaborately folded white handkerchief out of the front pocket of his jacket, adorned with the initials "J. P" in one corner and wiped his face. "How could I forget?" His lack of enthusiasm was not lost on Sirius.
"Don't wipe it!" hissed Sirius, hurrying forward. "You'll ruin the lining!"
"It's a handkerchief! It's supposed to wipe things!"
"Not baby drool! Dab it!"
Lily laughed silently and turned back to her son who was pawing at her shawl, apparently very interested in the tassels hanging off the ends. She lifted him up so she could kiss him.
"Bye, Harry. We'll be back later tonight. You be good to your Uncle Padfoot. I love you."
He gurgled happily in response. "Mama!" and he gave her a sloppy kiss as well.
When Lily turned back, she found Sirius folding the handkerchief back into the pocket of James's jacket and her husband looking irritated.
"All ready to go?" she asked.
"Wait just a second …" Sirius began adjusting the lapels of the jacket and Lily couldn't help but laugh at the look on James's face. At last, he released his best friend.
"Let's go," said James, moving to the door, clearly anxious not to give Sirius anymore of an excuse to fuss with any more of his clothing.
Lily gave Harry one last kiss before reluctantly passing him into Sirius's arms and following James to the door.
"Have fun, you two, you hear?" said Sirius, bouncing Harry awkwardly on his hip the way he'd seen James do it sometimes. The baby's entire weight landed on his hipbone – Ouch. He followed them to the door and paused at the doorway watching the pair walk arm-in-arm down the stairs, all dapper and dressed up. "It's date night! Don't I see you all come back until it's late!"
"Thanks, mate!" tossed back James, over his shoulder.
"Bye, Harry!" Lily called, craning over her neck to take one last look at her baby son, giggling and gurgling in Sirius's arms. "Be a good boy!"
And then it happened.
Harry's lower lip began trembling, perhaps realizing that his parents really were going to leave him as they walked further and further away from him. Tears welled up in his eyes.
The same connection that made them the most formidable pair of Order members caused James to look around and Sirius to look up in sheer panic at the same time. Their eyes met and in that split second, with no visible signs of communication between them, the plan unfolded. Sirius bolted back into the house, slamming the door behind him while James threw his arm around his wife and brightly said, "Let's Apparate now – I want to beat Vernon to the door" and, without waiting for her response, did just that.
Sirius, meanwhile, inside the house, began casting as many Silencing Charms on the house as he could muster before the kid's inevitable temper tantrum. He was tempted to cast one on the kid and just be done with it – hey, it didn't hurt him! – but the last time he tried, Remus had gone berserk and had nearly thrown him out of the top floor window – without magic.
And not a second too soon – Harry exploded into a scream that sounded like Sirius was attempting to chop his little arm off followed by high pitched sobs.
"Come on, mini-Marauder, do you want to play with some puzzles?" Sirius shouted over the cries, whipping out his wand and magicking up several dozen puzzle sets to float around them.
Harry's cries just increased in volume.
Roughly a half hour later found Sirius sprawled onto the floor, staring at the ceiling and contemplating where his life had taken him. The room around him was a mess – soft building blocks had been hurled across the room and lay scattered by the walls, picture books and puzzles were everywhere, paint dripped from the walls with the pots they belonged to chucked empty into random corners and baby food had somehow found its way on the curtains. At Sirius's side, Harry sat sniffling, face red from fifteen minutes of bawling at the top of his lungs and eyes still shiny with fresh tears. Baby food stains could be clearly seen on the little red baby suit his mother had put him in.
His first night babysitting the mini-Marauder alone, thought Sirius glumly, and it was not going well at all. He couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. Harry had always liked him best of all of the Marauders but his first night babysitting the kid without his parents, Remus or Peter and the kid hadn't even waited an hour before bawling his eyes out.
Sirius couldn't help but wish Remus and Peter were here – Moony was a whiz at distracting the kid from the possibility of being abandoned by his parents and even Wormtail could successfully get Harry from bawling his tiny eyes out to madly giggling … without magic.
Aware that the sobs had significantly decreased in volume, he chanced a quick peek at the kid sitting beside him – and hastily averted his gaze back to the ceiling as Harry exploded into high pitched, siren-like wails upon noticing his godfather's attention.
Sirius gritted his teeth. He was beginning to think that this kid – this kid – was taking the piss on him. He would bawl for about five minutes at the top of his lungs then slowly get back down to sniffling miserably but the moment he noticed Sirius chancing a peek at him, he would bawl again. He was beginning to think Harry actually enjoyed the misery he was forcing upon Sirius.
Well. Sirius took a deep breath, still staring at the ceiling. If the kid thought he was a pushover, he was dead wrong. Sirius Black was one of the most skilled members of the Order of Phoenix. There was no way he was going to back down – to a baby, no less. Even if the baby was the devious offspring of a mischievous James Potter and an even worse Lily Evans.
He waited as the wails subsided into teary sniffling. Waited some more as teary sniffling subsided into soft snuffles. There was a slight pause at this point and Sirius almost grinned to himself as he stared at the ceiling, picturing little Harry stealing glances at his godfather, waiting for Sirius to check hopefully on him. The sniffling stopped completely.
Then suddenly, Harry's chubby face entered Sirius's line of vision, his tiny mouth drawn into a petulant pout. "Pafoo?"
Sirius pounced on the kid, roaring "Gotcha!" and for a few moments the house was full of Harry's shrieks of laughter and giggles as his godfather tickled him mercilessly.
"Not even a year old and pulling a fast one on your godfather, Harry?" laughed Sirius, lifting the baby, who was gasping for breath from giggling so much, from the floor and swinging him. He felt like his heart was about to burst with pride at the genuine happiness that radiated from his godson. "Your godfather Sirius has never been prouder, that's for sure."
"Pafoo!" giggled Harry and gave him a sloppy kiss. As Sirius lowered him back to the floor, he wriggled away from his godfather and began crawling, as fast as he could, towards the window.
Instinct and hard learned lessons caused Sirius's hand to jump straight to his pocket, fingers curling around his wand, and his body to fall into a slight fighting stance – one foot in front of the other, leaning forwards, back leg straight and taut to allow him to spring forwards easily if necessary.
His godson reached the wall beneath the window, stood shakily on his chubby, short legs and attempted to pull himself up onto the windowsill. When he realized his arms were much too short to do such a thing, he turned his face towards Sirius, looking peeved. Upon noticing Sirius's attention on him, he pointed imperiously at the window above him.
Sirius thought about telling the kid that that wasn't exactly a good idea but eventually resigned himself simply in crossing the room, scooping Harry up and setting him on the windowsill to see the outside world. His free hand remained curled around his wand and as he propped his godson up on the windowsill, his eyes darted around their surroundings, half expecting Voldemort to jump out at them. Instead, what faced them was an empty street, glowing softly in the light of streetlamps, a stretch of houses with shuttered windows and the Potters' front yard which was filled with overgrown beds of roses, hydrangeas and tulips.
"Pre'y," said Harry. Sirius glanced at him as he pressed his tiny, fat hands against the windows, wide green eyes that were an exact copy of his mother's trained on the beds of flowers.
Sirius felt his comment like a punch in the gut.
Ever since Harry had been born, the Potters had lived in constant fear of being targeted and attacked by Death Eaters and, to the same effect, Voldemort. After all, his parents were two wizards who had been specially singled out by Voldemort – and had managed to effectively escape him four times, leaving mounds of bodies of his Death Eaters in their wake. They were aware, following the birth of Harry, that their little son was the only vulnerability in their hard shell of armour – a vulnerability that Voldemort would have no issues on taking advantage of. So, ever since the birth of Harry, they had gone into hiding – setting up house in Godric's Hollow, where so many wizards resided, they were able to set up as many powerful enchantments as they wished without attracting any particular attention. Lily rarely left the house these days, staying in to care for Harry while James only went out on Order missions, being one of the most powerful and capable wizards in the secret society. Only selected friends were allowed information on their location – only two of Lily's friends and her parents were allowed to visit (though under heavy guard) while Moony, Wormtail and Sirius dropped by frequently to entertain the family.
Sirius had never really given it any thought from little Harry's point of view given that the kid was spoiled senseless by everyone he met. He himself had given Harry a mini version of the Hogwarts Express which could fly around the room, puffing multi-coloured steam when the kid was just three months old. He had always focused the bulk of his sympathy on Lily, who was constantly looking over her shoulder when she went into town to purchase groceries, and James, who was agitated and nervous over his family when he did leave the house but bored and frustrated when he was coped in within the four walls.
But he had never thought about how Harry must feel. The kid had grown up in an atmosphere of fear and nerves. He had grown up never being allowed to leave the house, stuck within all four walls. He only knew a handful of people and none of them children his age because the risk was too great for him to be brought out and meet the children of other people. The poor kid was not even allowed out his own front yard – the flowers outside had been planted and nursed to full health by Wormtail who had wanted Lily to see something beautiful every day she woke up and looked out of the window. Harry himself had never actually touched those flowers.
Sirius hesitated. Lily would kill him if she knew what he was about to do but it was worth it, he decided. No godson of his was going to become a recluse.
"Come on, mini-Marauder," he said, scooping the tiny kid up and heading for the stairs. "Get dressed. We are going out."
Harry only looked confused.
Three minutes later found Sirius digging through Harry's drawers having chucked onto the floor and bed about 95% of it in irritation over how boring his godson's clothes were. Seriously, who even bought most of it? And he'd thought Lily had style …
He turned and found Harry making himself into a sushi roll of his clothes and had to grin. The kid was as goofy as James, that was for sure. But cuter.
"Come on, mini-Marauder," he said, scooping Harry up, shaking him out of a ton of tiny cutesey T-shirts and heading out of the nursery. "Let's go see your Dad's closet."
"Dada!" chirruped Harry happily.
James's closet was only slightly better. If there was one thing Sirius wished he could change about all three of his best friends, it was their sense of style. James dressed like a distracted teenager in plain T-shirts and jeans – even as an adult, his wardrobe only consisted of different coloured T-shirts and identical pairs of jeans. And two button up shirts that were still in plastic wrappings. Sirius rolled his eyes in exasperation.
Still, after quite some digging, he managed to find a band tee at the back of the closet that must have either been left there by the house's previous owners or a fairy had placed it there to aid Sirius in his quest because there was no way James listened to any sort of rock band let alone actually went out to purchase their merchandise. He snagged James's favourite pair of jeans and dumped both – as well as, much to his resignation, his own leather jacket because sacrifices had to be made for the sake of his godson no matter how painful – in front of Harry.
"Right," Sirius said, rubbing his hands together. "How about a Shrinking Spell, mini-Marauder?"
Harry gurgled happily.
After some maneuvering, he did manage to nail down the Shrinking Spell. It took even more maneuvering to get Harry out of his playsuit – what was the point of so many damn buttons if they were not going to open up the garment? – and then to get him into the shrunk clothes for Sirius had not anticipated the problem of how miniscule the button on the jeans would become but eventually they managed.
He sat back, extremely pleased with himself. It had taken longer than he would have liked to admit but it had turned out alright and even though Harry was looking rather confused with his change of clothes, the kid looked sharp.
He glanced at his watch. Right, better hurry before his parents got back and Lily slit his throat for even thinking of such a reckless thing.
"Come on, mini-Marauder," Sirius said, scooping him up, standing up and heading for the door. He decided to leave the mess he had created as it was – he could clean up later or James and Lily could do it for him since it was their house. "Let's go on an adventure."
The night was hot and muggy as he stepped outside; it was mid-summer and still humid. It definitely wasn't Sirius's favourite weather – he preferred the cool, crisp, clean air of autumn over the heat and bugs of summer – but he couldn't have asked for a more perfect sky to ride his motorbike – dark enough that any Muggles star gazing wouldn't notice a huge bike sailing cheerily past the stars, light enough for him to be able to see where he was going without needing to cast a Lumos charm and with a few wispy clouds dotting the sky here and there to use as a cover.
"And here's our ride, mini-Marauder," he grinned, showing Harry the pride of his heart: a dark red, trinked out motorbike about three times its original size from when he had first received it and the product of over four years of sweat, blood, tears, endless days of poring over it and many, groggy hours of researching charms to enhance it. It was his pride and joy, his baby, and had been a graduation gift from the Potters as they were made aware of his obsession with motorcycles. So many days had he spent in their backyard polishing it, admiring it, fiddling with it, adding gadgets and trinkets here and there. It had taken years before he and the Marauders had been able to figure out a way to make it fly – and actually stay in the air – and what a glorious day indeed when they had finally nailed it.
Harry regarded the bike with little interest before twisting around on Sirius's shoulder and pointing happily at the rows of beautiful blooms that were a riot of colour on the Potters' front yard. "Pre'y!"
"You break my heart, kid, you know that?" said Sirius, shaking his head as he headed over to the motorbike. He set the kid in the basket he'd arranged in between the handlebars and main seat. Harry settled in with barely a complaint.
"Right," Sirius said, rubbing his hands in glee. "Let's be off, kid. I have a few people I want you to meet."
Two hours and a half later found Sirius sprawled on Jasper Alderoy's couch telling him a joke about a Hippogriff, a giant and a dwarf while downing Butterbears. In the next room, Jasper's wife Mary Macdonald coaxed her twin sons to share their toys with Harry as all three of them crawled around on the floor of the nursery.
It had been, reflected Sirius, a good day. He had first taken Harry to the Leaky Cauldron where the baby had been oohed and aahed and cooed over while he chatted to Tom the bartender about Quidditch and the breakup of his favourite wizarding rock band, 142 Staircases. Then he'd done a round of all the close friends he could think of who did have children – Charlie and Sarah Brown who had one daughter Harry's age, Magnus Bones – who Sirius knew through his brother Edgar Bones, a fellow Order of the Phoenix member who had died at the hands of Death Eaters – who also only had one daughter and as Sirius had walked through the door, whose visiting elder sister Amelia had immediately started telling Sirius off for dressing his godson like "one of those horrible screechy singers you listen to" – and finally, Jasper who had been a Hufflepuff and married Sirius's fellow Gryffindor; Mary had been one of the girls Lily shared a dorm with and an easy target for older, nasty Slytherin boys who'd sniffed an opportunity in her general trusting naivety.
In any case, any risks had well been worth it – Harry had seemed to be both stunned and thrilled at meeting so many children around his age, who burbled in baby language with him. Honestly, seeing how glowingly and obviously happy the kid almost made the very possibility of Lily finding out worth it. Almost.
It was funny that the thought crossed his mind just as he happened to glance at the clock hanging on the wall behind Jasper – and froze.
Ten-fifty. It was ten fifty.
Lily and James said they would be back at eleven.
He bolted to his feet, startling Jasper into silence mid-sentence. The blonde haired man stared at Sirius as he rushed out of the room and into the nursery without a warning.
The nursery was a quaint room at the back of the house painted in cool tones of peach and light blue. Two cots, an armchair and several trunks full to bursting with a random assortment of baby toys had been arranged around the room and a fluffy carpet had been spread across the entire floor to protect the wood underneath from being stained by anything the babies might spill. Everything was organized, neat and orderly – not Sirius's style. He preferred the cheerful chaos of the Potters' nursery which constantly looked like a toy-and-clothes bomb had exploded in the middle of the room.
Mary, a pretty, freckled brunette, was sitting in the middle of the room. Her twin boys, both a little older than Harry, were squabbling over a toy train in her lap and she was desperately trying to get them to let go by waving other toys and puzzles in their faces to no avail. Harry, meanwhile, was lying on the floor, eyes almost half closed in exhaustion and pawing some kind of cube puzzle.
Whoops. Kid's bedtime had been nine thirty.
Sirius hurried over and scooped up the baby who gurgled something that sounded indistinctly like "Pafoo" before promptly falling asleep in his godfather's arms.
"Looks like he had fun," Mary said with a smile as she scooped up her two wriggling and squabbling sons to stand.
"Yeah," said Sirius, distractedly – he was trying to work out the precise amount of time it would take for him to fly back to the Potters and get Harry and the house cleaned up before James and Lily got home. As well as how to get a message to James to delay Lily at the party. "Yeah … Thanks a bunch, Mary … And you too, Jasper," he added as the baffled man walked into the nursery. "I had a great time too … Yeah … "
After a flurry of "thank you"s and "great time"s, he was out the door and on his motorbike. Harry barely even moved as he placed him carefully into the basket between the seat and handlebars other than to nestle more comfortably into the bundle of blankets Sirius had added for his comfort.
Sirius got back in record time. In all things considered, he would have probably saved himself a lot of hassle by Apparating back … but leave his precious bike out of his sight? He shuddered at the very thought – and, he reasoned, as he flew through the sky, pushing as much speed as the vehicle could muster while Harry snored peacefully away, Lily would probably be more suspicious if she saw that his bike was missing.
He didn't even properly land before he was off the bike, a bundled up Harry in his arms as he sprinted up the front steps, banged open the door and ran up the stairs, waving his wand madly as he went to clear up the crazy mess they had left behind before their nighttime adventures. He barged into the nursery, shoved Harry into his cot and began grabbing the clothes strewn all over the room to haphazardly stuff them back into their respective drawers because Lily would be suspicious on why he had taken such a vicious interest in his godson's wardrobe.
The sound of a door opening one landing below rang through his ears followed by Lily's call of, "We're home! Sirius?"
"Up here!" yelled Sirius, sitting back on his heels in relief. Yeah, he was good. He had successfully managed to pull off the stunt of the century …
A thought occurred to him that made his blood run cold.
The clothes. Harry's clothes.
He swiveled and saw his sleeping godson in his cot, lying on his side, looking angelic – still dressed in the leather jacket, band tee and jeans he had shrunk for him.
Crap.
"How was your day, mate - ?" started James's voice on the landing right outside of the door.
Sirius - in full fledged panic mode at the moment because if Lily saw the clothes she would know and he was dead - acted purely on impulse. He grabbed his wand and pointed it at the door just as James's face appeared in the crack between doorframe and the door. The door promptly slammed shut – right in their faces.
"Hey!" yelped James.
"Sirius!" shouted Lily. The doorknob rattled as they attempted to open it. "What are you doing?"
"Sorry!" yelled Sirius, sprinting over to Harry and jostling his sleepy and extremely grumpy godson awake so he could pull the clothes off him. "Meant that for the window. Hold on a minute!"
He wrestled the leather jacket and shirt off Harry. Most kids would have probably burst into tears at that point but God bless his godson, Harry was far too sleepy to react much other than to unimpressively scowl at the disruption to his sleep. The jeans took longer but finally it was off. Sirius shoved them under the cot as a makeshift hiding place and sprinted back to the drawers to frantically search for his godson's sleeping clothes.
"Sirius!" cried Lily on the other side of the door. "What are you doing? Open this door right now!"
"It won't open!" yelled back Sirius, digging through the drawers. "I'm trying to find the right spell … Hang on …"
He grabbed a multicoloured polka dot white playsuit and sprinted back to Harry, waking his godson up again to shove the playsuit on him. The bloody buttons were giving him a headache and why were there so many arm and leg and whatever openings in this damn thing –
Click. The door swung open.
"Got it!" said James loudly – then stopped to stare at the scene of a grinning Sirius holding up his extremely groggy son who looked like he had been squished into a weird contraption of fabric where one half of his body was enveloped completely and the other half was exposed. One fat arm of Harry's dangled from an opening with a flower clutched in his fat fist.
"Surprise!" said Sirius, holding up the kid. "Harry wanted to greet you when you came back – and he got you a flower!"
"Aw, Harry, that's so sweet!" cooed Lily, sweeping over to take her son. "Where did you get the flower?"
"I magicked it up," said Sirius quickly, thanking his lucky stars that Harry had plucked one from the beds on the front lawn earlier in the night.
While Lily fussed over her very sleepy son – and adjusted the playsuit on him because apparently Sirius had put his head through an arm opening – James came up right behind Sirius and muttered, quietly enough so that only the two of them could hear, "The jeans are sticking out from under the cot."
Sirius looked down and saw that an edge was peeking out. As casually as he could, he edged over and kicked it back under the cot so it completely disappeared from sight. He chanced a quick look at James who grinned at him, always having his back as he always did.
"Thank you for babysitting tonight, Sirius," said Lily gratefully, as she turned towards him, cradling Harry, who was already fast asleep in her arms. "It was a wonderful night."
"Anything for you, Lily," replied Sirius easily.
"Stay for a pint, mate?" asked James.
"Nah, I think I'll be heading back," said Sirius. He was wiped from all the stress of the night. Taking care of a baby was exhausting. He also made a mental note never to bring up carrying Harry on the bike to Remus – Moony would probably spear him to the ground for "risking Harry's safety" although Wormtail would probably find the whole thing hilarious. "I said I'll be over at Mad Eye's early tomorrow."
They walked him to the front door, Lily complaining James had been unnecessarily catty towards Vernon ("Teasing him about his moustache – honestly, James") and James cracking up over how Vernon's face had gradually changed colour from pink at the beginning of the dinner to deep, puce purple at the end ("You should have seen him, mate, he looked like a giant, round brinjol"). As Sirius stepped away from the door, James clapping him on the back and Lily giving him a kiss on the cheek, he was permitted to hug a sleeping Harry one last time for the night. The baby barely stirred as he cradled him in his arms.
"You get the sidecar next time, mini-Marauder," Sirius whispered as quietly as he could manage. Harry shifted slightly before falling back into a deeper sleep.
As Sirius passed Harry back into his mother's arms and swung a leg over his motorbike, he looked over at them. James, his big grin too goofy, hair too messy and glasses too lopsided to suit the sharp suit he wore, Lily, radiating with a happiness that had nothing to do with the elegant black dress, classy updo or fancy makeup she wore and everything with the man beside her and the baby in her arms, Harry, small and angelic in his sleep with a face that was a mini, identical copy of his father's.
Family.
And it was with a final wave, Sirius kickstarted his motorbike and rose with a roar into the night, his babysitting duties ended for the day.
I hope you enjoyed. Just a few notes: 142 Staircases is an actual band inpired by the number of staircases in Hogwarts. They have not - to my knowledge - broken up but I thought it would be cute to call them a wizarding band. Also most of the parents of the children Sirius brings Harry to meet are purely fictional and ones I created although I think you can guess who their children are.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Leave me a comment and I'll see you in my next story!
xx