A/N:
Many, many thanks to the fabulously talented and patient fringeperson who totally helped me iron out some issues with this chapter and the next!
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Sirius wasn't sure if 'normal' people could abuse the Mini spell as well as he could, but between hitting the materials with a Mini effect and then stuffing them into the enchanted bags he'd had plenty of 'cheats'.
Thankfully, due to this fortuitous sets of circumstances, he been able to start work on the greenhouses during his free time at the Canyon- having bought the lumber on a short trip he and Reggie had taken into the Midlands just after Reggie had returned from his Exams, but before Reggie had gone to interview in Nibelheim- as he had always known that they would need at least two greenhouses, so that ended up saving him a great deal of time. The work ethic of the Canyon also helped, as he'd had several people helping make the frames and such as trade from him teaching them how to do it properly.
Elder Bughe- not to be confused with Elder Bugenhagen, Sirius really didn't understand the Canyon's naming schemes- had given Sirius plenty of the quasi-plastic panels that had been part of an early failed attempt to make solar-panels from some of the Canyon's accrued salvaged materials. Mostly as a thank you for being such an enthusiastic and thorough teacher. The panels, Sirius had to admit, were rather wonderful as insulation, as the panels were able to absorb sunlight and radiate a great deal warmth- they were simply 'failures' as they didn't properly convert that warmth to usable energy.
They were going to be spectacular as greenhouse panels, however. If they worked well Sirius had every intention of returning to the Canyon and helping them make better greenhouses, they desperately needed them.
In the end, this meant that Sirius had the ingredient greenhouse completely finished, and the vegetable one almost finished.
Well, the exteriors at least. The framing of the beds and the dispersion of the dirt and other unmentionable thing that Sirius was definitely not thinking about were part of Regulus and Augusta's purview.
Sirius stood and stretched- he'd taken a short break in the shade- mentally preparing himself for the last leg of greenhouse number two, but happily turned his back on it when he heard Augusta call him.
"Sirius!" Augusta's voice carried easily, despite her not actually shouting. "Please get to a stopping point and come here."
Since he was already on break he just jogged languidly towards the house, noting that he should probably go fight some actual monsters sometime soon. He and Reggie had been running through their fighting stances every morning and tried to spar every few days- Sirius had picked up several new moves in the Canyon and just from observing- but he definitely didn't want to get rusty.
"What's up?" Sirius asked as he entered the backdoor, shaking the crud off his boots as he did so.
Augusta was slightly scary about tracking dirt in all over her floors.
"Oh, good." Augusta said as she entered, in one of her smart trousered outfits.
Sirius quirked a brow at her.
Augusta smiled at him, but there was an edge of deviousness and scheming to it. "We need to go to town." She said by way of reply. "It's early enough that we can stop by and see Regulus and then get what we need."
"Uh huh." Sirius said, wholly amused and ready for whatever craziness Augusta was planning on throwing his way.
"We leave in ten minutes, the boys and I will meet you out front." She said as she turned to leave. "And don't you dare track dirt all over my floors, Sirius Black!"
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The walk down to Nibelheim proper was full of lively chatter and many reminders to the boys about straying too far ahead.
Once they had reached the town, Augusta had grabbed Sirius and dragged him towards the Apothecary shop after gently ushering the boys towards the crowd of playing children near the fountain.
"You sneaky witch." Sirius muttered just loud enough for her to hear as Augusta half-dragged him away.
"I try." Augusta shot back with a crafty smirk, nearly preening.
Sirius laughed all the way into the Apothecary shop.
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Harry and Neville were sort of excited and sort of nervous about introducing themselves to the group of children, but it had gone alright. After their travels they were somewhat used to playing with new kids a lot of the time but it was obvious that the kids from Nibelheim did not share that experience, if their slightly hostile or outright rude remarks and actions were any indication.
"If you want to play with us you have to play by our rules." One boy- the apparent leader- declared, his ashy blond hair glinting in the early morning light.
"Yeah, just 'cause you live in a big fancy house on the hill doesn't make you better than us." One of the others spat borderline-hatefully.
Then there was-
"It's really nice to meet you, but we really don't have room for two more people in our game." One girl said to them rather snootily. In Harry and Neville's humble opinions, she looked anything but actually contrite.
Still, Gran and their Uncles had raised them right and it wouldn't do for them to react inappropriately.
However, the fact that they didn't really want to be anywhere near the other kids only added to their delight when they caught sight of bright blond hair.
"Cloud!" Harry and Neville both nearly squealed, abandoning the fountain-crew and all but bounding over to Cloud and his mum. They stopped just short of the two and grinned brightly at the two fair-haired Nibelheim natives. "We're so glad we caught you!" Harry belted out happily, all but bouncing in place.
"Yeah, we wanted to know if you wanted to come over and play!" Neville chirped cheerfully, before both boys remembered their manners and shifted guiltily. "Um, sorry ma'am!" Neville squeaked abashedly. "We didn't mean to be rude!"
"Yeah, sorry." Harry hastily apologized as well, straightening up a bit and nodding at the lady in his best approximation of Uncle Regulus' regal nod. "It's nice to see you again, uh, Cloud's mum." Harry reached up to rub the back of his neck embarrassedly. "I kinda forgot your name, sorry."
The woman, who had been looking at them as bemusedly as her son had, finally broke out into a bright, sweet laugh. "You're both adorable." She cooed. "I'm Claudia Strife, but most people call me Audi."
"It's nice to meet you Miss Audi." Both boys said in unison.
Claudia laughed again and patted Cloud's shoulder gently with her semi-free hand- she was holding a rather bulky package wrapped in brown paper and tied neatly with a bit of twine. "Well, you both already know my Cloudy."
They turned their bright grins back to their hopefully-friend. "Heya!" Harry greeted.
Neville had just opened his mouth to say something when a most unwelcome voice broke in. "Hey." The girl from earlier came over with Mr. Play-By-My-Rules just behind her. "We have room for you both in our game, but just you two." She finished with a nasty look in Cloud's direction. She turned back to Harry and Neville with a bright smile, gesturing to the eagerly waiting kids near the fountain. "So come on, we know all the best places!"
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Cloud hadn't known what was happening. One moment he'd been walking next to his Ma on their way to drop off Mrs. Dentson's patched clothes and the next the two boys from the Café had come bounding over, babbling at him and smiling.
The poor blond hadn't known what to do! No one had ever been that excited to see him before, except his Ma! Actually, no one else had ever been excited to see him at all except his Ma.
His heart had sped up and his breaths had gotten shorter as the stupid hope he'd never quite managed to leave behind after every time someone was nice to him one day and then turned him away the next started to warm his insides pleasantly. Cloud wasn't stupid, he knew that he and his Ma weren't well-liked or even reasonably-liked, and he had no idea why! It had to be him, he figured, during the nights when the jeers and taunts echoed through his mind and kept him awake. He'd watch the moonlight dance across his ceiling and wonder how much happier his Ma would be if he'd never existed, because Ma was perfect. She was kind and sweet and beautiful and patient and amazing and he-
Well, it was obvious that everything bad that happened to Ma was his fault.
So, with these two brightly smiling boys in front of him and his Ma laughing Cloud wanted to get it right- for both himself and his Ma. He had wanted to say something- to smile or just do something but his brain just sort of shut down. Just when he had managed to gather his thoughts, though, and had opened his mouth to at least say hi, Terra Manning had come over with Trenton Jr. and Cloud had known what was about to happen.
He wanted to scream or cry or close his eyes as Terra smiled at the other two boys all pretty and perfect as she invited them to play with her and her friends, because Cloud knew how this worked, how it ended and there was no way-
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Harry's green eyes narrowed and his hands clenched into fists, but he took a few deep breaths like Gran had told him- he felt Neville do the same. There was a time when Harry had been shy enough he would have folded and gone with the girl and the rough-looking boy because he'd just wanted to fit in, but now-
Now he had Neville and Uncle Sirius and Uncle Regulus and Nana and he wasn't about to let the boy that he and Neville picked out as their potential big brother get pushed aside by such an ugly, selfish little brat.
"I think." Harry said in his best impression of Nana at her most terrifying. "That you should go back to your friends now."
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The expression on the girl's face turned angry and a hot flush crept up her cheeks. "Now listen here!" She nearly screeched. "This is your one chance to be one of us and if you-"
"We don't want to be one of you, then." Neville spoke up from Harry's other side, glaring fiercely at the girl and the boy who was now doing his best to intimidate him and Harry.
"Yeah." Harry said, in full agreement with his brother. "We don't want to associate with petty little girls who try an' use people to make herself feel better."
"We're better than such things." Neville agreed, standing tall even as the girl grew angrier and the boy grew more aggressive. "Cloud is better than such things. Go back to your friends- who didn't want to play with us all of three minutes ago- and leave us alone, you-you manipulators."
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What?
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They had been watching, so they ducked back when the girl let out a screech and lunged for them, unfortunately that meant they took their eyes off of the boy for a moment and it was all the time the angry child had needed to ball up his fist and send it hurling towards Harry's head.
Harry cried out, because he saw the fist but he just couldn't-
A head full of bright blonde hair burst into Harry's line of vision and though he let out a grunt at the extra weight falling on top of him, he never felt the hit connect.
"Cloud!" Neville yelled, scrambling to his feet to try and get in between his friends and the two tantrum-throwing jerks.
However, that proved to be unnecessary as at that moment Augusta, Sirius, and Regulus arrived along with several other adults.
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"You little bastard!" Trenton Manning (Sr.) screamed as he came barreling out of the Hardware store's front door, heading straight for the downed Strife boy-
-only he never made it that far because before he could reach little Cloud he found his way blocked by a very angry Sirius Black.
"Problem?" The eldest Black brother drawled lazily, his muscles loose and ready and looking entirely disinterested, save for the cold light in his grey eyes.
"Yeah, I got a fuckin' problem!" The father of Trenton Jr. and Terra Manning screamed, spittle flying out of his mouth. "I'm gonna beat that bastard bloody for-"
"For what, exactly." Sirius asked, his eyes icing over further as a sneer tugged at his lips. "Because from where I was standing the altercation happened between my Godsons and those two-" Sirius gestured towards the Manning children. "-and little Cloud stepped in the way of a blow meant for Harry. So why don't you tell me, pal, why exactly you feel as if you have the right to lay a finger on that child."
Manning roared and cocked his fist back, but by then the Sheriff had come out. "What's going on here?" Sheriff James Bradford asked sharply.
Manning whirled to meet the man. "I'll tell you what's going on here!" He roared, pointing a meaty finger towards Sirius. "It's these fuckin' outsiders and them getting' all cozy with the whore-"
Augusta's hand clamping down on Sirius' arm is the only thing that kept him from punching the asshole's lights out, as it was though, the Materia slotted into the bangle he was wearing started to glow brightly anyways.
This caught the attention of several people.
"Everyone not directly involved needs to return to their business." Sheriff Bradford barked sharply, causing the crowd to disperse quickly. "Now then." He said when it was just the Mannings, the Black-Longbottoms, and the Strifes. "Why don't we head over yonder to my office and talk about this situation." The Sheriff kept his hard gaze on the elder Manning until the man snarled something and gestured to his children before storming off in the direction of the Sheriff's office- which was just across the street from the Apothecary- the Hardware story being just across from the Doctor's office. "Mr. Black, I'd feel a whole lot better if I could hold on to that there bracelet while we talk." The Sheriff said, pointedly glancing to the glowing Materia in the bangle on Sirius' wrist.
Sirius blushed a bit. "Sorry. I really didn't appreciate his commentary. Give me a second." Sirius closed his eyes and concentrated, but the glow didn't fade. His eyes snapped back open. "Sorry, Sheriff, I need to bleed off the spell, I can do it straight up, but it'd be best over the fountain."
James knew less than nothing about Materia except that some people could use them, so he nodded and tilted his head for Sirius to get on with it, which Sirius complied with.
Standing just in front of the fountain- that now was devoid of playing children- Sirius held his arm up and released the pent up energy that he'd accidentally fed to the Materia.
Bright, brilliant flames shot straight up into the air, painting the chilly morning air an array of vivid reds and dazzling oranges. The spell lasted nearly a minute before dying down into a gentle wisp of flames that faded out into nothingness after about fifteen more seconds. Sirius waited a few more moments- just to be certain he had really released all of the energy- before he turned around to smile at the obviously gawking Sheriff. "Sorry." He belted out cheerfully. "What he said really made me mad." Sirius clapped his hands together before all but springing forward, "Let's go talk, shall we?"
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