Author's note: This story is meant to happen in the HP book version, so please try to do not imagine the characters and their appearance from the movies, though I intend to draw some inspiration from lovely fanarts and make Hermione have some kind of African ancestry which gives her a little darker skin than Harry and Ron, which will be used as a smaller culture shock during the time travel
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13 August in the summer 1995, London, 12 Grimmauld Place:
Harry could still not fully believe that he had managed to be free of the changes of illegal magic during the disciplinary hearing. Yes, he tried to avoid using magic outside Hogwarts during the summer holidays because he actually had checked out what meant as underage magic after the event with uncle Vernon's sister Marge back in 1993, but really, did the Ministry of Magic expect him to simply allow Dudley and himself to have their souls sucked out by Dementors?
"They once had to deal with Voldemort and his reign of terror for eleven years where many innocent people of both Muggle and magical origins was killed, it is hard to really blame them for not wanting him to be back. On the other hand, I think it will end up blackfire hard on them if they keep deny his return and not warning people," Sirius said in a voice which did not really hide his own grief over the lives that had been lost in the First Wizarding War. Harry and his godfather was currently sitting at the wooden table in the kitchen, enjoying some nice tea together, taking a chance to talk with each other.
"I just wish that they could stop being such idiots about it," Harry muttered, drinking some more of the tea while Sirius looked.
"Would you like to do something in the Muggle part of London, Harry? I think you need something else to do than being in here and I would love to get outside for a bit."
The suggestion was so unexpected that Harry had to stare at Sirius.
"Really!? But...you could still be recognized...there was reports of you on the television and all…"
"I have a secret ability to escape, remember?" Sirius reminded with a smile, and for a moment some of his former handsomeness returned to his face. Then it clicked for Harry; Sirius meant his Animagus form as a black dog. No one would raise a eye of a teenager walking his "family dog" on the streets of London, especially not in summer holidays.
Half a hour later, when Ginny entered the kitchen to ask Harry and Sirius if they could help with the cleaning upstairs, there was only a quickly-written letter on the table, and the handwriting spoke of a hand which had not been writing many letters for a longer period of the past:
Harry and I am out in Muggle London for some bonding time as godfather and godson. We need to make up for twelve lost years of our relationship. I will be using my Animagus form to avoid discovery. See you later this evening, when we return, Sirius.
For a moment, Ginny wondered if she should tell her mother about this, then thought of how Molly would react and instead chose to find Lupin, who would likely understand a little better why Harry and Sirius had left without a word as they did.
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It felt very strange to be out in London, only the two of them, but Harry had every intention to enjoy the day with Sirius. They had chosen Hyde park for a start, to enjoy the feeling of being outdoors despite being in the capital.
"So...what do you want to do, Harry? It is nice weather, but I am not fully sure of what a young man in your age would want to do," Sirius wondered as they walked out from the park. Looking around, Harry saw a poster beside the front door to a cinema, which read;
Star Wars movies marathon, this weekend
"Shall we test this? A marathon is when they show all the movies in a serie, after each other."
Sirius looked at the poster with a rather interested look in his eyes.
"Star Wars? I remember Lily and some of her fellow Muggle-born students speaking about that movie when we returned to Hogwarts for our seventh year in 1977-78. She had a lot of fun teasing James about that he wanted to know what all that fuss was about whatever they spoke of whatever Luke Skywalker or Han Solo was the coolest and tried to make her reveal the secret, because he mistook them for possible Muggle rivals about her. Sadly, because of the war against Voldemort, we never got to see it with her when we had left Hogwarts."
Somehow, that made Harry feel like he was learning yet another thing about his parents, a little closer to how they had been in character. And yet, the mental image of James trying to challenge two fictional people to a magical duel was pretty funny.
"Dad really believed them to be real people?"
"Yes. It is not only the Pure-blood families that can be a bit behind popular culture, out of ignorance or arrogance. That misunderstanding did cost James a early Christmas gift for Lily, he had to give her something as punishment unless she broke up with him after their first date," Sirius confirmed with a fond smile of the memories.
After buying two tickets for the marathon, they went to chose popcorn and soft drinks, then searched for their seats.
As they watched the "A New Hope", Harry noticed something about his godfather; Sirius made sure to only eat his share of the popcorn during the really noisy part, likely to not told off for eating and disturb the mood for the other cinema visitors.
"He is very focused on the movie...is this the first time he have seen a movie in a cinema like this?"
Again Harry was reminded of how long Sirius had been absent from his life, and wondered how his life could have been with Sirius as his caretaker instead of his magic-hating aunt and uncle. Then, a careful poke into his arm, and Sirius made a silent pointing against the large screen as reminder to why they was here in the first place.
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Once the Star Wars marathon was over, about seven hours later since there had been two breaks on half a hour between the movies, Harry and Sirius went to find something to eat. They had brought some sandwiches to eat in the second break before watching Return of the Jedi, but now they wanted some real food before returning back to 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Had he not been a fictional character, Darth Vader would be almost perfect as a Death Eater following Voldemort. In terms of being scary, respect giving and ruthless," Sirius informed as they made a order of what that wanted on a outdoor seating, chosen so they could enjoy the summer evening. Harry laughed slightly nervously, he felt that Darth Vader would be a far scarier enemy than Voldemort for Muggle-borns who had grown up with the Star Wars movies and therefore first would think that it was only some fan dressing up as Darth Vader before realizing that it was real.
"It is rather odd to see you dressed in Muggle clothes," Harry commented when he realized that there was something different about the clothes Sirius was wearing, denim jeans, t-shirt and a green summer jacket of light cotton with a hood he could pull over his head to shadow his face if needed. His hair was still long, but it had been cut to be around the length down to his shoulder blades and then set up in a ponytail to keep it out of his eyes.
"It is hard to not notice the difference in fashion between 1981 and 1993, when you are hiding in a animal form and sometimes need to return into a human to better read the newspapers if there was anything useful for me to know," Sirius revealed as they enjoyed some fish and chips as dinner, with some extra salad on the side. They would pay for the food later by using the same Muggle money as for the cinema, money which professor McGonagall had left for the Order to use if there ever was errand needed to be done in the Muggle world.
"Aunt Petunia never really cared for fashion as far as I know, and uncle Vernon always mutter about that people can not dress in a proper style those days."
"Well, Lily had some trouble keeping up with the Muggle fashion when we was at Hogwarts, but some of it was seen in the everyday clothing when we did not wear school uniforms."
Sirius spoke of how the Muggle-born students at Hogwarts tended to show hints to what was the fashion among the non-magical population of Great Britain, and sometimes the half-blood students like Harry himself, if they were raised by the Muggle side of their family. For Harry, who had grown up with only having Dudley's old clothes to wear, it was almost embarrassing to admit to Sirius of how it had been to always have clothes that was four times bigger than himself and Petunia never bothering to at least sew them in so the oversized clothes did not hang off Harry's skinner body.
"Really...did not Eleanor teach Petunia anything of sewing clothes at home, or were your aunt just too lazy to do it with all the store-bought clothes which is for sale in the shops nowadays? I know that Lily did sew several of your baby clothing by herself, had brought a modern sewing machine and all…"
That caught Harry's attention.
"Eleanor? Is that my grandmother's name? Aunt Petunia never speaks of my maternal grandparents and I was never allowed to ask questions about my parents either. It was like they attempted to erase their existence all together, I didn't even know how similar I was to Dad or had Mum's eyes before I got all those photos in the photo album Hagrid gave me at the end of my first school year."
Now it was Sirius turn to look shocked, stopping in the middle of eating a piece of his fried fish.
"She have never told you about your grandparents? Of Eleanor and Anthony Evans?"
Harry shook on his head in response.
"Damn, it has to be that horrible car crash they died in, only weeks after that Lily and James had to go into hiding because of her pregnancy with you. Lily went into a massive shock when she learned that her parents had died the very day after her telling them that they would have not one, but two grandchildren the following summer, each baby born to one of their daughters…" Sirius explained in a grim voice, one hand shadowing his own eyes before he looked at Harry again. As for himself, Harry had lost some of his appetite after hearing Sirius tell of why he had never met his maternal grandmother or grandfather. So the claimed car crash had been real after all, only that it had never been his own parents as aunt Petunia had told him in childhood. Had the death of his grandparents been so horrible that it was too painful to speak of them at all?
Somewhere behind them, Big Ben stroke eight in the evening.
"We need to go home. Or Molly will throw a hissing fit at us both for vanishing despite that we did leave a note to tell where we had gone, even if it was not exactly."
As they passed by British Museum, there was a few workers from the museum outside, having a small lottery just at the front entrance. If someone drew the right number, there was a price of free tickets to the newest exhibition.
"Shall we try?" Sirius suggested, and Harry nodded. It could never harm to try.
"A lottery ticket each, please," Harry requested, handing the Muggle money as he had done all the day, with Sirius carefully confessing earlier that he had no idea which ones to use.
For whatever reason, with neither one even trying to cheat by using magic, Harry and Sirius ended up with a tie in the lottery winnings then it turned out that they both had a winning ticket. Their shared price was a total of six tickets to the newest exhibition.
"You can choose it to be family tickets or separate for each person, just tell at the pay desk before entering the exhibition."
Well, Harry knew which persons he wanted to invite, Hermione and Ron had both said that they too wanted to get out of 12 Grimmauld Place for a little while outside shopping for new school supplies. As for the fourth ticket, maybe Ginny would like to come? Harry had seen her throw annoyed glaces towards her mother behind Mrs Weasley's back, so maybe she needed some time away as well?
"I will invite Remus, this is something I know he likes," Sirius smiled, holding the two remaining tickets in one hand.
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Sirius had been right, Mrs Weasley gave them a loud scolding for vanishing from the house when they came back:
"I cannot believe the two of you to be so careless! Do you both even realize how dangerous it could be for Harry to be outside without more than one person to protect him!? What if you had been attacked in the open street, with the Death Eaters not caring for innocent Muggles being killed by a stray spell?"
It seemed like she had read the note they had left behind that forenoon, but before Molly could say anything else, Sirius made a good reply by pointing out:
"And how many years did I miss to be with my godson while I was in prison? It is pretty hard to spend time with Harry if I would be locked up again."
The small reminder of that Sirius actually was innocent, and would rather not return to Azkaban again, seemed to flatten some of her anger. Taking a chance to leave, Harry decided to tell the two youngest Weasley siblings and Hermione about the tickets. With some luck, they could get away to British Museum before it was time to return back to Hogwarts for their new school year.
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Author's note:
1) Given that Lily's and Petunia's parents had to be at least 18 years old in order to be able of marrying and having their daughters without being a result of teenage pregnancy or, I chose to make both of them born in 1939, so they would be 20 years old when Petunia is born in 1959 (she is mentioned to be born pre-1960 on the HP wiki) and 21 years the following year in 1960 when Lily was born. The idea of early parenthood across the generations will be a hint to something later in-story
2) Related to the idea of Mr and Mrs Evans being born in the late 1930s, I chose the names Eleanor and Anthony from a list over the 200 most popular given names for babies born in that decade. I did not want the most popular names from back then, but rather something which was less popular and might stand out a little more
3) And yes, I tried to find a explanation to why Petunia would say to a much younger Harry that James and Lily had died in a car crash while he survived, so why not have it actually been his maternal grandparents to be the victims there and Petunia used it about Lily and James as well because she did not want Harry to believe in magic?