Title: Cuddles
Characters: Sirius Black, Harry Potter, James Potter and Lily Evans Potter.
Pairing: Mention of Lily x James.
AN: Birthday Fic number two!
So, I hate it when people write stuff that makes it sound as if people are bad parents. That is not what I'm trying to do. I am, however, trying to convey that being a parent is damn hard and that at some point you are going to wonder if that little "bundle of joy" is messing with your psyche for the fun of it! Interesting piece of information for you, skin-to-skin contact with babies increases the oxytocin (feel-good hormones) levels and it decreases levels of cortisol (stress hormones). Sometimes this works but sometimes it doesn't. I can't say this for sure but I imagine that this might not work if the person trying is stressed due to the heartbeat being faster in comparison to if your calm. I'm imagining that Harry is like two or three weeks old or something when this takes place.
Word Count: 1, 392
Harry was screaming. That was the first thing that Sirius noticed when he walked inside the house at Godric's Hollow. Harry was screaming his little head of while his parents were doing their absolute best to sooth him. James' hair looked messier than normal and he had dark rings underneath those hazel-brown eyes. Sirius thought he looked as if he was seconds from begging the baby to stop crying. Lily's red hair was pushed back in a ponytail, it looked like it hadn't been washed for a long time and judging by the way she kept massaging her temple, while James paced the floor with Harry in his arms, Sirius guessed that she was experiencing a terrible headache.
"You need help." Sirius stated as he walked inside the house and went to greet his best friend with his arms open.
"Pads, Padfoot, Sirius, my friend," James said. He sounded exhausted and Sirius wanted to laugh out loud. "You are my hero. Please, I beg of you to take this monster that I love more than life itself and remove him out of my presence."
As soon as Sirius had stepped out of the hug James handed their small baby, who was still crying, to Sirius whom held him against his chest. The man with the raven-coloured hair and hazel eyes hurried up the stairs towards his bedroom quicker than you could have said quidditch while Lily hesitated for a few moments. Eventually Sirius smiled at her and gestured towards the stairs from where they could both hear the sound of the shower running.
"This is what I'm here for," he said. Lily's anxious facial expression turned into a soft smile. "Go ahead love, you both need to take a shower and get some sleep. I'll fix us something to eat when you wake up."
Lily crossed the room and stood on her toes to be able to kiss his forehead. Sirius had never seen anyone look as grateful as the young woman did in that moment. "Thank you so much Sirius."
She leaned down to kiss the screaming baby. Sirius almost hoped that some kind of miracle would take place, for Lily and James, and that Harry magically would stop crying. But he didn't. He was startled and cried lower for a moment but the volume soon rose again and Lily let out an exhausted sigh.
"Go," Sirius repeated and waved towards the stairs once more. Lily raised her hands and backed away from him. "I've got mister Grumpy."
He stood still while listening to Lily walk up the stairs. As soon as the sound disappeared he looked down at the crying child. His little face was red and scrunched together, angry tears fell down and he waved his tiny fists back and forth as if he was objecting to being in this world. Sirius could almost imagine him saying that he did not approve of this place which he had been forced into. His raven-coloured hair reminded him of James but the eyes, Sirius had seen them once, were all Lily.
"So, what's wrong little one?" he asked in a low tone of voice. "What's gotten you all worked up huh?"
Harry screamed as if he didn't listen or as if Sirius words meant very little to him. Sirius didn't know which one it was but he assumed that it could be both. Sirius didn't have much experience with babies. In fact, he had no experience what so ever excluding the first time he saw Harry. But he did have a lot of experience with James and he hoped that would somehow help. Puppies, he thought, he had a lot of experience with puppies. Maybe that would help? Babies and puppies were pretty much the same. They were small and defenceless; the only difference was that one was hairy and bit you while the other had less hair and didn't bite yet. But both cried when upset; they just sounded very different from each other.
"You kind of look like your grandfather," while holding Harry with one arm Sirius somehow managed to get the other arm out of his jacket, and then the other, before throwing the leather jacket on a chair. "His name was Fleamont Potter. I know that it's a funny name but you shouldn't judge okay. He was a great man that one. Took me in when I had run away from my parents at the age of sixteen. You're lucky like that kiddo, you've got two amazing parents who loves you and will do anything to protect you. You should cut them some slack."
Sirius sat down on the couch with his legs together and leaning in an angle which allowed him to rest Harry against them. It was hard, if not impossible, to tell whether Harry enjoyed it or not. He was screaming as much as he did before.
"I wonder if this is Lily's genetics making an appearance or if it's James," Sirius continued even if Harry didn't particularly seem to enjoy listening to him talk. "It's really tough to say little one. For future references it might be good for you to know this; your parents are so stubborn. It would be impossible to tell who's the most stubborn out of the two. Maybe this is the world's way of getting back at them; by giving them a child who is more stubborn than they are. That would be a little funny, don't you think?"
Baby Harry probably didn't agree. Sirius sighed deeply. "Level with me little buddy. Are you hungry? Are you tired? Do you want… Oh."
Sirius didn't hesitate for one second about taking his shirt of and held Harry against his chest. At first, he kept crying as intensely as he had moments before but as Sirius began soothingly rubbing his back the cries turned to whimpers and the whimpers eventually turned to slow breathing. Harry's head rested not far from where the sound of Sirius heart would be loudest.
"Why didn't you just tell me that you wanted cuddles?" Sirius ask in a whispering, soothing tone of voice. "You should have told your parents too little man, language barriers or not, because they have been going crazy trying their best to take care of you."
Harry whimpered and Sirius bit his lower lip not to laugh.
"I'm not blaming you kid, no need to take it personally, but I'm just saying that this could have been solved a lot quicker if you would have told them," he waited for another sound from Harry but nothing happened. Sirius took a deep breath and adjusted his position so that he laid more comfortably. "Your parents really are amazing. I know that you're going to love them when you grow up. But if you ever feel like they just don't get anything or you want to get away from them when you're older; then you know where to come. Because my door will always be open for you, no matter what the future brings."
Sirius tilted his head and got a clear view of Harry's emerald green eyes. He looked straight ahead of himself but when Sirius had tilted his head far enough to the side he glanced up at his godfather. It felt like someone grabbed a hold of his heart. That was the best way to describe what was going on inside his body at that specific moment. For a moment it felt like Sirius was going to melt into a puddle. He didn't know if he believed in love at first sight. He had fallen in love, that was not the reason behind it. He was head over heels in love with Penny. But it was a love which had grown from friendship. Sirius had never loved someone the moment he saw them. Until Harry. Because from the first moment Sirius saw him, he realised there wasn't anything he wouldn't do to keep him protected from the dangers of the world. And he was reminded of it every time he saw his godson.
"You're really cute, you know that, right?" Sirius didn't know if Harry laughed or if he even smiled on purpose but it sure looked like it. He leaned down to kiss the top of Harry's head and then leaned back onto the couch. "I love you kid."
The end
