I own nothing but the premise of this story, my computer, my coffee and the mug it is found in, and the two lovely ladies known as Dorea and Prudence!
"Harry, could you come here for a moment?"
The voice of his godfather jarred Harry Potter to attention. He looked up from his soup and into the silvery-blue eyes of his godfather, who was watching him with a worried expression from the kitchen doorway. He frowned slightly, pushing away from the table and excusing himself quietly, hurrying after his godfather as the thirty-five-year-old man swung around and walked off up the stairs. Harry followed, hesitating as he found himself in the doorway of Sirius' bedroom. He'd never been in here before, he realized as he stepped slowly into the room. He looked around, amazed at the very Muggle surroundings, before Sirius' light cough attracted his attention. He turned to look and caught sight of Sirius sitting on the bed with a large, leather-bound book in his lap.
"I found this last night and thought you'd like to see it, seeing as you've been so interested in my family lately," he said slowly, gesturing Harry over and opening the book when Harry sat down. One the very first page was the Black family crest and motto, along with The Black Family scrawled in ornate letters. Sirius ran his fingers over the lettering silently for a second before pushing the book into his godson's lap and flipping the page, scanning the other side warily.
On the page was a huge picture of a young woman with strictly pinned-back black hair and two young men, both with wild brown hair and wide blue eyes. Sirius tapped the two women with his index finger, smiling lightly. "That's my mother and her brothers. Walburga, Alphard, and Cygnus. Cygnus is Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Andromeda's father," he explained. "I always liked my uncles. Alphard was the one who left me money when I ran away from home. Cygnus was pretty bitter towards me after I was Sorted into Gryffindor, but I always remember him being nice to me. I'd have to say Aunt Druella was the one who corrupted Bellatrix and Narcissa."
Harry looked at Sirius, studying him as he pointed to a picture on the next page. "That's my great-aunt Charis, her husband Caspar, and their three children. Aunt Dory, Aunt Prue, and Barty... Dorea and Prudence live in the country together. No children, husbands, anything. Prue writes books and Dorea is an alchemist. Trained under Nicholas Flamel himself. She invented an anti-aging potion when she was twenty-three, she and Prue use it. If you saw them, you'd think they were younger than me," he said, smiling fondly at the two brightly-smiling girls in the pictures, who waved up at them. Harry smiled lightly, looking up at Sirius.
"Are they Death Eaters?" he asked softly. Sirius shook his head, laughing bitterly.
"No. They're both very opposed to violence. Prue put up wards on their house with the help of Dumbledore to keep Voldemort away and Dorea never leaves her lab," he said, smiling slightly. "I kind of miss them sometimes. They were always a lot of fun when they came around for Christmas. Dory would enchant the Christmas tree to sing to us, Prue would help Gran with Christmas dinner... That was one of the few things we agreed on as a family. Christmas dinner had to be made by us, whether with magic or not. No house elf help. When I was six, my mother had me and Prue help Gran make Christmas cookies."
Harry smiled at the nostalgic, happy glint in his godfather's eyes, turning the page. There was a picture of three people, two women and a man. Both women were tall and thin, but one had very sharp features and frizzy red hair and the other had very soft, pixie-like features and wavy blonde hair. The man was quite obviously a young Barty Crouch, Sr, with dark hair and eyes and an innocent smile. He looked at Sirius, recognizing them immediately. "Is that Dorea, Prudence, and Mr. Crouch again?"
"Yeah," said Sirius softly, smiling at Harry and ruffling his hair before pointing to the next picture and explaining it, not noticing the small, happy smile on Harry's face as he listened attentively. They stayed there until dinner, talking about the pictures and laughing at stories, and Harry realized that he'd never been more happy in his whole life than when he was sitting and talking to Sirius about his family.
He never wanted it to end.
Author's Note: I'm not sure whether I want to continue this or not, but I'd like to have my own AU-universe story stemming from this. Comment and tell me what you think. Tell me who you would want to see paired together, slash and het both welcome, tell me what you'd like to see (would you like to see Prudence and Dorea, Voldemort, etc, etc.), and anything else you can think of.
Flames will be collected and used to cook things to feed to my pet Beatle-fangirl, Blue. She especially enjoys marshmallows.
Please read and review!