"Sirius?"
Sirius Black turns his head, startled. He hadn't noticed his godson standing across the room. He was too far lost in his own thoughts. He turns and smiles, weakly and sadly, but sincerely.
"Sirius," Harry starts again, "You like telling me stories about the past, right?"
Sirius beams, his smile widening slightly. "Of course, Harry, of course! Oh the stories I could tell you about your parents." Sirius gets the same twinkle in his eye he always gets when he has a particularly embarrassing story in mind.
"Actually," Harry says slowly, "I was wondering about you. We always talk about my parents, but you won't really talk about yourself…" Harry trails off as Sirius's expression drops.
"What did you want to know?" his godfather replied, knowing the answer. Harry was nothing if not a strange sort of romantic. He loved hearing about his parents, laughing over Remus's failed love stories, and watching the awkward blooming romance between his two best friends.
"Was there ever…before Azkaban that is…was there…well…Sirius, was there ever a girl in your life?"
There was a long pause, and Harry watched Sirius's eyes burn with a pain that went beyond imprisonment in Azkaban under a false charge, that far surpassed being trapped, uselessly, in the childhood home he hated, and seemed to be a combined yearning for all the people he had lost in his lifetime. Harry instantly regretted asking the question that pulled such an obviously painful memory to light.
"Her name was Alexandra," Sirius said, slowly and carefully, as if he hadn't spoken the word for a while and it had a strange taste. "And she was beautiful."
Harry wasn't sure how long they stood there in silence after that, staring at the Black family tree as they did sometimes, as if perhaps the names of long-deceased Blacks would somehow shed new light on their current circumstances.
"Goodnight Harry," Sirius said with a small, sad smile and a hand on the shoulder. "I'll see you in the morning for breakfast then?" And without waiting for an answer, he was gone.
Well that was strange.
Author's Note: Yes, this is a rewrite of Deadly Poppy's Lost in Another Time, which as you can see I have shortened the title of. No, I am not stealing her ideas; that was my old account, and I'd like to start fresh now that I feel stronger and more confident as a writer. I hope you enjoy this remastering of a story that was really fun to write the first time and hopefully will be just as enjoyable to reopen:)
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter. Trust me, I wish I did. Then maybe I could afford a new laptop screen an not be borrowing a friend's computer while I wait for mine to get fixed -_-
