House: Slytherin
Category: Drabble
Prompt: "Can we have pancakes for breakfast?" [Speech]

Word count: 854

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Sirius yawned. "I'm knackered," he groaned. "Can I sleep over, James? Beating you and Lily at Exploding Snap really tired me out."

James raised an eyebrow. "No, and Lily and I were the ones who won Exploding Snap."

But Sirius ignored his friend, instead magicking the living room couch into a plush bed. "Great, I'm glad it's decided. I think I'll sleep here."

James seemed about to protest, but just then Lily walked into the room and laid a hand on his arm. "Hush, James. I've just put Harry to bed."

James scowled but stayed silent. When Lily had left the room, Sirius laughed and elbowed his friends in the ribs. "Yeah, James," he snarked. "You're whipped, mate." James ignored the jab, instead choosing to follow his wife from the room. Smirking to himself now, Sirius conjured a few pillows and a quilt. Then he laid in bed and tried to sleep.

Yet he must have been on an adrenalin rush from the game, for no matter how hard he tried, his mind kept racing. How could he beat Lily and James at Exploding Snap? Those two were so good they must have been reading each other's minds (it was probably a side-effect of being married), but he and Peter could still try.

After what felt like hours of just lying there, his mind fixated in winning a game of Exploding Snap, Sirius gave up and shouted, "Lily! Come tuck me in?"

An answering shout came from the master bedroom. "No! You're too old for that!"

Sirius pouted. "But Harry gets tucked in all the time!"

"Go to sleep, Sirius!"

Sirius turned over, disgruntled. He'd show those Potters when he crushed them in Exploding Snap … him and Pete would show them…

That night, he dreamt of Exploding Snap. He and Peter were playing James and Lily, and then suddenly the game shifted to Exploding Snape, and then some reason he and Peter were suddenly married and winning while James and Lily had Snivellus's guts on their hands… and then Sirius awoke.

Shaking off his crazy dream like a dog shakes off water, Sirius yawned and stretched. He heard his shoulder pop, he heard then the reedy wail of a one-year old. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" he called, making his way to Harry's room. When he threw open the door, the toddler was in his crib, crying and pounding on the bars with his tiny fists.

Sirius hurried over. "Did you miss your Uncle Padfoot?" he asked the one-year-old.

Harry's green eyes lit up. "Uncle Pa'foo! Uncle Pa'foo!" he cried, hopping up and down excitedly.

"Aw, so you did miss me, Pup." Sirius smiled, then easily lifted Harry out of the crib. Holding the boy close, he asked, "Whatcha say we go get us some breakfast?"

Harry smiled widely, though Sirius wasn't sure if it was from the thought of breakfast or just because he got to escape his crib. All the same, he took the toddler to the kitchen, placed him on the counter, and then took out a glass bowl. "Watch this," he told Harry, "Your Uncle Padfoot's gonna make an omelette."

Harry grinned and clapped his hands and, egged on by his nephew's antics, Sirius cracked the first egg with too much force. Yolk spilled all over the counter; at the sight, Sirius winced. Lily wouldn't like that. Well, he'd just have to make her an omelette too. He cracked seven more eggs, mixed them in his bowl… then the bowl slipped from his grasp and shattered.

Sirius groaned. "Really?" But undeterred, he got out another bowl and another dozen eggs. This time, he was more successful in getting the eggs to the pan; however, the stupid eggs then stuck and wouldn't flip. And when Sirius was finally able to flip them, their insides were still runny. Sirius frowned.

"Me tant's juice!" Harry exclaimed, grabbing his little juice cup and throwing it at Sirius. "Gimme juice!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Oi! I'm in a crisis here!" he told Harry. He shoved the runny eggs back onto Lily's cast-iron skillet, then went to refill Harry's juice. But when he returned to the stove, there was smoke rising from the pan. "Shit!" Sirius shouted, throwing Harry's juice aside and making a mad lunge for the stove. Ignoring Harry's angry protests for more juice, Sirius tried desperately chisel the charred eggs from the pan. "No! Shit! Crap! By Merlin's granny panties! Shit, shit, shit!"

He'd just succeeded in taking the burnt eggs off the pan when a very sleepy Lily walked into the kitchen, her bathrobe pulled tight around her. "Morning…" she yawned. Then she blinked. "What're you doing? And stop cursing in front of Harry."

Sirius grimaced. "Sorry Lils, but the situation called for it." He showed her the burnt omelette, then watched her nose wrinkle as she looked from that to the dirty cast-iron skillet to the glass on the floor to the egg-covered cabinets. She began to speak — no doubt to reprimand him— but Sirius gave her his most charming grin and interrupted, "Can we have pancakes for breakfast?"