Disclaimer: I do not own HP or KnB.


Prologue

Sirius had a lot of love in his body. He loved his best friends, James and Remus and Peter, he loved his brother, no matter how much of a jerk he was, he loved his best friend's wife, Lily, he loved his adopted parents, Charlus and Dorea Potter, and more than most anything, he loved his god-daughter, Katsa Potter.

Sirius also held a lot of hate. Hate at his blood parents and the Death Eaters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. These people took away his happiness, they tore him down and left him to rot.

Sirius never expected for his two lists to blend. He never expected to have to choose which was more important to him—love or hate.

Peter betrayed them. Peter told You-Know-Who, and now James and Lily were dead. Charlus and Dorea were dead. Regulus was dead. Remus was missing in action.

The people Sirius hated weren't gone. Or at least, some of them. His parents were dead. Sirius had killed many Death Eaters, but there were still too many to count. You-Know-Who may or may not have been dead, but either way something had happened to him. And then there was a new name, transferred over from his love list: Peter.

Peter was out there, alive, and Sirius wanted revenge. But…

Sirius held a one-year-old baby in his arms. Little Katsa, his prongslet. She was alive, and beautiful, and she needed him.

Sirius wanted to act on his hate. He was a Gryffindor, he lived off of reckless decisions.

But Sirius was not going to lose the only person he had left.

So he ran.

He ran and ran and kept running until he was sure no one would follow him. He went to Japan, because the wizarding community in Japan didn't care about what was happening in Britain and they wouldn't ask questions.

Sirius used his connections to build a life for him and Katsa. By that point, he had heard about the Girl-Who-Lived. The world looked up to Katsa Potter as an idol. Sirius erased all of that.

Sirius knew it would probably be best if he changed their names. The chance that someone would recognize them was great. But he couldn't. Katsa Potter was the name James and Lily gave their daughter. It wasn't fair—it wasn't right to take that away.

Sirius couldn't change his name either. As much as he hated his legacy, it had taken him years to reclaim his person from the shadows of his parents. He fought tooth and nail to be able to say his own name without feeling like he was dying, and he was not giving that away.

Sirius got a job at a local magic school. He never pictured himself a teacher, but he was smart and capable and really needed a job. Besides, the practice with taking care of kids would be good.

The situation wasn't ideal. Sirius was more of a fun uncle type of guy, not a father figure. But he'd figure it out. If he could, he would find Remus. If not, if it turned out all of the Marauders were dead (or dead to Sirius), then Sirius would soldier on.

Sirius was a survivor. Now that surviving just extended to a baby too.


Chapter One

Katsa learned basketball much like she learned most things: in a half-muggle, half-wizard location that phased in and out of reality, taught by her godfather's students at odd hours of the morning.

It was Nonaka Sora who taught Katsa. Nonaka was a gender fluid kid two years Katsa's senior in Katsa's godfather's advanced transfiguration class. It was two am when Nonaka started teaching Katsa. He (because when they first played together, Nonaka was a he) told her that he was looking to avoid doing his homework and keeping a normal sleep schedule, and he wanted someone to play basketball with. So, he taught Katsa.

(Katsa thought that he might have been lying about why he taught her. She knew that he didn't get along with the other kids very well, most likely because of his gender identity. She also knew that he didn't get enough sleep—there were constant dark circles under his eyes. But he didn't owe Katsa any answers, so she didn't ask.)

Katsa wasn't good at basketball, not at first. She wasn't terrible at it, but she wasn't some kind of prodigy. It took practice, hours of it, for her to get good.

Katsa never realized how grateful she should have been until looking back on it years later. Nonaka changed her life. emBasketball/em changed her life.

Katsa was used to not fitting in. But in basketball, no one cared that she was a foreigner or that she was a halfblood or that she couldn't seem to decide whether to live in the muggle or the wizarding world. They just cared that she could play.

Katsa would have been fine with playing streetball and never being on an official team. But Sirius didn't like the idea of his seven-year-old goddaughter playing with rough boys on the street, so he signed Katsa up for a junior basketball league.

That marked another monument in Katsa's life. That was when she met Midorima Shintaro for the first time.

Katsa met Midorima's rumors before she met the real him. When Katsa first joined the team, five different people told her to leave that-weird-green-headed kid alone.

Midorima, they told her, was weird, and not normal. He carried around strange items and never talked to anyone. It was really best to stay away with him.

The natural thing to do after that, of course, was to go over and talk to him. Katsa understood being not normal, and she didn't like the thought that someone would be ostracized because of that. Besides, the other kids would realize soon enough that she was weird too. She might as well cut off contact with them first.

Midorima didn't seem to know what to do with himself when talking to her. He avoided eye contact, was constantly fiddling with his glasses, and all of his answers were short and to the point.

Katsa didn't mind that he was awkward. She could be awkward too. Really, it was taking all of her social energy to talk to him. But he just looked so lonely all by himself, that Katsa's heart ached for him.

It happened like this:

Katsa saw that someone was lonely, so she took the first step. It paid off.

It started like this:

Katsa was told to stay away from the freak of the team.

It continued like this:

Katsa did the exact opposite of what she was told by the other children.

It continued like this:

Katsa talked to Midorima one day at practice. Then she talked to him again the next day, and again the next, and again the next.

It continued like this:

Midorima started to speak in sentences more than one word. On the days when Katsa's luck was bad, he would bring her his lucky item.

It continued like this:

Katsa and Midorima went out to eat together after practice. They studied together. They talked, and didn't call each other freaks, and ignored the looks they got from the rest of the team.

It ended like this:

Katsa made a friend. And it didn't end.


Basketball meant a lot of things to Katsa. It meant being something more than an other. It was making her two first friends—Nonaka and Midorima. Basketball was fun, and Katsa was glad to have it.

(Later, Katsa would wish that she had never picked up the ball. She would wish that she had never befriended Midorima, or made the extra effort of reaching out at all. But that's later, and this is now. Now, Katsa loved basketball. And that was enough.)


Thanks to my beta readers, MG and Anna! You're the best!

This fic is based on another HP/KnB fic on ao3 by the name of "Finding your way home" by crocogirly. I have gotten permission by her to post this.

Updates will be Sundays, most likely in the mornings.