I've always wondered, what made Sirius so against Blacks? There's gotta be a reason, no? A kid doesn't just wake up one day and start spitting on everything he's been taught to be good and approvable, no? Well, me, I've thought it this way. It's my first fic, be nice… please: 3
Disclaimer: I am certainly not cool enough to have created HP or neither of Rowling's characters.
"Tell me a story, nana!"
"A story? I've already told you all the ones I know!"
"Then make one up!"
"Hm… I think there's one I haven't told you yet-"
"Tell, tell, tell!"
"Now, easy, boy… do you know who's… Orion?"
"Orion...? Hm… My father?"
"And who else?" a sweet, late-teenaged voice said, catching the innocent bursting in the child's accent unconsciously and repeating it without thinking.
"Sirius Orion Black!" instantly came the giggling reply. The raven long-haired girl, laughed at the outburst from the little boy nestled on her chest.
"Yes it is, indeed! Sirius Orion Black! "
"So… I'm also Orion? This is weird." The four-year-old argued tilting his head back, trying to meet the eyes of the person that he now used as a human cradle. "This is weird, nana. How many Orions are there?"
Amused wholeheartedly by the boisterous child leaning fully on her, the girl again laughed. "Well, that I don't know, my lad. But! I can tell you about this other Orion, who lived thousands of years before us…"
"WOW. That most be like the first Orion of them all, no nana?" the child reacted, tugging on the thick blanket that kept them both from freezing ill.
"That's the most likely, yes." she answered, a mean smirk on her face. All of sudden, she started whispering next to the little toddler's ear: "Well now, pay attention my little one. This Orion-"
"You are not going to tell that story to the boy, did you hear me well?!" came a high pitched voice from inside the house in whose roof both the toddler and his nana peacefully sat, glancing at the quiet stars of an unusually clear sky.
"Just the nice part, mom; I promise!" the girl fought back, loudly as well.
"You'd better, young lady!" the yet-unseen woman answered back. As usual, the warning sure didn't make itself wait. "Or else!"
The girl let go a heavy sigh. She was almost old enough to go to Azkaban, but not to convince her mother from stop addressing her that way. "Yes mother," she gave up, giving her dear mom what every parent wants from its child: quiet obedience. After that, she returned to the annoyed child sitting on her: "Very well my lad, where were we?" she asked, holding him by his ribs and tickling him a little. Oddly, the toddler tried his best not to laugh.
Pretending to be upset, the toddler crossed his little arms in front of his chest. "You talk of the oldest Orion ever, nana" the child said in a reproving voice, staring at the surprised girl by the corner of his beautiful dark eyes. "Honestly nana, can't you focus?" he said cockily. At this, even the woman in the lower floor laughed. Sweet little Sirius had that impact on everyone. Such a charming infant he used to be.
"And yes, ladies and gentlemen, he is a Black!" the girl ceremoniously said, like a tv- host announcing the winning answer. Right under them, her mother laughed. "I am truly and sincerely sorry, my lad. Can you forgive me?" she added, making the cute pout she's been trying to get the boy to learn.
He rose from her embrace, staring right into her face. At night, even if it was a clear night with a bright moon, it was hard for a child to identify such an adorable pout; but the boy laughed his baby laugh and, hugging to her neck, answered a high pitched yes. "Then give me an 'I forgive you' kissie" the girl demanded in the same, faked, guilt-filled voice. After giving her a comfortable loud kiss on her slim cheek, he reassumed his position on her lap. "But talk, talk!" he demanded as well, his lovely dark eyes reflecting every star of the shiny arch above their heads.
"Well… this Orion was a giant!" she added theatrically, adorning her speech with hand and mouth gestures, and wise intonations that almost put the baby boy to jump on her lap.
"A giant? Those guys are real big, no?" the boy interrupted leaning forward, expectantly.
"They're huge, my lad! They are inmense!" she continued with her body-play, pleased by making the little boy laugh his lungs off. "They're as big as mountains, and live all together under the trap door of my room…" she could hear a scolding groan from below them. "But that is not what we are talking about now." She corrected, leaving further (and truly useless) threatening to the smart toddler for another time.
The girl felt thrilled watching the little boy cover his mouth with excitement, trying pointlessly to hide his own giggling. "But not only that, my pumpkin; his gorgeousness was almost as amazing as his terrific height. This giant in particular, Orion, was of an incredible beauty! They said-"
"Just like me!" yelled the overjoyed boy, making his nana laugh again. He loved making his nana laugh. In house everyone was always so sad and strict, and he didn't like that! Not even now that he had a baby brother coming it was any better… so utterly boring, everyone at his house was! And that Kreacher scared him so badly…
"I'm afraid that there isn't an Orion as beautiful as you, my lad." His nana said, messing the little boy's hair and getting the though out of his little head. "Now, this hot guy-"
"Language, missy!" came the old woman's voice. The girl just rolled her eyes.
"I'm sorry, mother." She lied, getting her mom off the story she improvised for the eager toddler. "Well my lad, this super-tall, super-beautiful Orion was a great hunter, and was also very powerful. So, as he knew this (what a beautiful, tall, and powerful hunter he was); he bragged about it a lot, saying that no one could ever defeat him."
"Well, he could." reasoned the toddler, completely indifferent to the sarcasm on his nana's voice. Again, the astonished but pleased girl rolled her eyes.
"Anyhow, as a result of all that bragging the goddess Hera sent a poisonous scorpion to bite him... and he died right after killing the monstrous thing." She ended hastily, waiting for one of the characteristic explosions from the brash toddler.
"No!" came the answer right away, but the girl had already forethought of a way to cut his tantrum before it even started.
"Yes. BUT, the other Gods took pity on him, and made him a place in the sky." She hurriedly said, holding the little boy's shoulders and peeking to his eyes. The boy, nevertheless, was so enrapt in the tale that could only stare at the dark sky.
"HAH! A place in the sky! In the bloody sky! Take that Hera!" the toddler shouted, defiant, pointing his little index to the moon, to a nonexistent goddess. The girl chuckled, leaning a little her head on the little boy's.
"I would be very frightened if I were that Hera Goddess." she said, but the brash little boy ignored the comment. Well, it wasn't all that terrible; she started suspecting the child's hyperactiveness for his small range of attention. "Now pumpkin: do you see those three big bright stars there, the ones that look like following each other?" she interrupted, pointing with the boy's very index to the middle of the Orion constellation. The boy nodded in response. "That's Orion's belt. There he carried his arrows or, whatever other muggle things of the sort." She half-explained to the flabbergasted child on her lap, who now sucked his breath in with a prolonged and surprised 'ahhh'. She definitely managed to calm him down and was glad. "Now, do you see those other stars there? Those are his arms, and those his legs. And that is his arc, the one he used to hunt and kill the monsters…"
Allowing the little boy to stand on her legs, the girl held him close. He was practically sitting on her breast but luckily he wasn't a heavy kid. In his baby face was drawn a deep though. His little frown made his face even cuter, and his nana could just smile. Never in her life had she seen him that concentrated in nothing. Still frowning, he carefully turned around. Still standing on the girl's legs, his little hands on her ears giving him stability; the boy asked: "What I have to do to be on the sky, nana?"
She had seen this coming. The baby is a Black, after all. "Well, you already are on the sky, my lad." She said, giving him a motherly smile. The child had a happiness outburst. Not only that his nana gave him that smile that made him want to hug her with all his might, she even told him he was already in the sky!
"Where, where?" he asked excitedly, letting himself drop all of sudden on the girl's lap. Even tough she was caught off guard, she smiled.
"Let's try and see if you can find it on your own: it's the biggest and brightest star on the sky, in the constellation Canis Major, in the left of Orion." Once she was done, she realized that a four-year-old couldn't possibly understand all whe said... btu not that it mattered anyways. Already, the little one was scrutinizing the dark sky; paying absolutely no attention to hints beyond 'biggest and brightest'.
"There!" he pointed, standing up swift and joyfully. The girl hurried to hold his waist, terrified with the idea that he might fall all free from the roof. As a matter of fact, the child had spotted the star right away; but his so-called nana was planning on making the evening last a bit longer. Placing her left forearm across the toddler's chest like a safety belt, she held him close again. "See? It's right there!" he kept on, overlooking that the girl tried her best to keep him still.
"Where is it, my lad? Do you mean the moon?" she teased, not really seeing much with the jumping toddler right in front of her.
"'course not!" he said on an almost hurt tone, turning suddenly to face her. In his even-now intense stare, the girl could see that the kid wanted her to be serious. His dark eyes pierced her, as if the little boy could see right into her soul. Luckily for the asthounded girl, he was more interesting on making her see his star. "There, nana! Are you blind?" Swiftly, the toddler took the girl's head with one of his tiny hands while placing his head right next to hers. "There, there, there!" he insisted, pointing now openly at the bright star, starting to get frustrated. Even considering the fact that he was a four year old, the boy had absolutely no range of patience.
"I see you haven't missed it" the girl said, her head still clasped by the mesmerized boy. Letting her back rest on the roof completely, she raised him in the air. The toddler laughed, liking both the feeling of flying and the slight tickle of his nana's slender but strong fingers on his ribs. "Yes, my lad!" She congratulated the boy, bringing his forehead to hers, making him laugh his baby laugh every time. By now, she had already vanished from her mind the surprised of seconds ago. "That is your star: 'The Dog Star'; 'The Scorching Sirius'; 'The biggest, brightest star in the whole sky'" She said passionately, looking almost with pride and with overwhelming love at the giggling baby boy she had flying in the air. She carefully put him on all-four over her, still talking to him from her heart. "'The red star', two times bigger than the sun itself!" Awestruck at hearing something he could actually understand, the little boy stared at his nana; his lovely, long-eye-lashed eyes gleaming with a new light while a discrete smile of knowledge already formed in his lips. "That is you, my boy. I want you to never forget that. You are the biggest, brightest star of the sky, twice bigger than the sun. You are Sirius, the scorcher, and you should live that on." Rapt in the truth been told to him, the child was shocked. It was almost as if he already knew this, almost as if this was the truth and everything else a lie… and the truth was coming from the person he loved the most in his world.
Slowly, the girl sat up, kissing the forehead of the now frowned baby. Somewhat afraid of having scared the child, she smiled lovingly to him… and his baby frown faded away. Instead, the little boy broke into tears, jumping from her lap and hugging tightly to her neck. She moved side to side, cradling the sobbing little boy. "There, there my lad; there's no need to be frightened!" she said kissing briefly his smooth forehead before making the child rest his back on her knees. Having the toddler look again to the sky, she aimed her index to the beaming Dog Star, the Alpha Canis Majoris. "That, is your place my lad." She insisted, before closing her eyes and resting her forehead on the little boy's. "You are meant to be in the sky. Never forget that, my precious little Sirius." She whispered, ruffling the boy's hair while he regained calmness. "You, my gorgeous little giant, shine naturally and blindingly…" she continued, kissing with both love and devotion his chunky baby cheeks. "…and you should never let that change, my boy. Never ever; you must promise me, my lad."
Sheepishly, the boy brushed away his own tears. His nana sure talked weird, saying things he did not understand like in all those books she read to him. "Promise you?" he repeated, staring at the girl with big eyes. He loved his nana a lot! She always smiled and played with him! And she gave him kissies all day! "You want me to promise, nana?"
"Yes. I want you to promise me, that you will not, ever change who you are. This is very important, my little giant, you must promise." The girl insisted with a sweet, genuine voice, caressing his chest. After glaring at her a little while, the boy put solemnly his right hand on his chest.
"I promise!" he said, his still-wet-eyes burning with determination. With a smile, the girl took softly his little hand and put it over her own heart.
"Promise me to never change who you are, no matter what." The boy didn't quite understand what was going on, but he did understand the solemnity of a man's promise (his nana had told him, that a man keeps his word… and he was a man!), and he did understand what his nana's eyes said, even if he could not put it in words.
A little confused at the beginning, but he said firmly: "I promise I will never ever change who I am. I promise, I promise." He assured and reassured. Throwing himself to the girl's neck, he kept saying: "I promise, I promise, I promise…"
"Ok, ok, my pumpkin. I understand." She said, smiling at his persistence. Maybe she had scared the boy by talking so sternly to him, but… she was probably never going to see him again. He had been sent to her house because of his new brother. A just born and a three year old were too much burden for his mother. «An awful woman, my sister; I still can't picture her as a mother!», her father, Alphard Black, would say. She agreed absolutely. The 'aunt' Walburga (as well as all the other Blacks) honestly disgusted her. Luckily her father wasn't poisoned with their 'purity-of-blood' mania… and he loved sweet little Sirius!
The child was, indeed, the brightest star in the Black sky. He was loud, and impatient, and hyperactive. Haughty sometimes, overbearing, stubborn, but also so spontaneous, curious, demanding but compliant, impulsive, brave, fearless… Since he put his little baby feet on the front door, handed to the girl's father for a couple months (since no one else in the Black family would shelter the rambunctious toddler) everything in the house seemed to gleam with a new light. The girl was sad that those months were coming to an end, but it made her even sadder the fact that his mother will try her best to crush the blessed spirit of the child… and at least that she could prevent. Soothing the boy, she sang him a random song… before she noticed what she was actually doing; she had already sung the full 'Remember Me' theme at least once. By the time though, the toddler was comfortably asleep on her arms. With a sad smile, she re-entered the house quietly… only to find her down-to-tears mother staring at her from the doorframe, moved from top to bottom. Her hand shivered, seizing tightly the handkerchief with which she uselessly dried tears that kept storming down her cheeks.
"Is… is everything alright… mother?" the girl adventured, not knowing exactly how much of her words the trembling figure had actually heard. With a sad yet radiant smile, the woman bended in and kissed the girl's forehead. Wiping the wetness afterwards, she just caressed her cheek and left the room again after a soft "sleep tight my pumpkins" to both the sleeping boy and the weary girl that held him.
So? Liked what you read? Wanna read more of the sort? Depending on the reviews I get, I'll keep up this story… or not. It's up to you readers anyways. Why would I write for, if not you:D
