As next chapter is the so expected encounter between Darla and Connor, and all its consequences, this one will focus in Sirius and Harry, as the title says. Hope you like the extra amounst of fluffiness of this chapter!

Like always, many thanks to Joy Solo!

Chapter Eleven: Sirius and Harry

Christmas holidays came to an end, much to Harry's disappointment, who had never experienced such happiness in his short and tough life. Sirius was somewhat disappointed too, as he wouldn't spend so much time with Harry from now on, but soon they got used again to their daily routine, which didn't lack of pleasant things.

Sirius and Harry had finally gotten used to each other, and they really enjoyed their mutual company. They spent most of their spare time together, playing football (at which Sirius wasn't very good), watching TV together (within weeks Sirius turned into a Disney specialist) or inventing new games, which used to be highly destructive for the furniture.

On the other hand, Harry also spent time with his best friend, Nicky, whom he saw almost every afternoon, whereas Sirius had made some friends of his own.

The truth is that nothing extraordinary happened to them in the months after Christmas holidays. And yet, everything did.

Sirius' gaze scanned the stadium, searching for something. He grinned when he finally found what he was looking for and headed to where the two men were waiting for him.

Clay Rivers and Stevie MacRae were two of his coworkers, and recently they'd become sort of friends. Sirius found them quite amusing, even though he didn't always get at once their references to Muggle culture, a fact that they were quite oblivious to. After all, they were funny but not very bright.

Clay was somewhat short and plump, with sandy hair, while Stevie was tall and skinny, his jet-black hair already scarce in spite of his twenty-five years. They waved at him, and when he was close enough Sirius noticed they weren't alone: next to Stevie was sitting another one of his coworkers, Linda Kindred. He blinked, barely capable of hiding his surprise. Stevie had been chasing the girl for months and she hadn't done as much as flutter her eyelashes at him. In fact, she had treated him quite disdainfully, but she treated most people around her that way, as though she were above them all. No, she definitely wasn't one of Sirius' favorite people in the world.

'Hey, Sirius, there you are!' Stevie exclaimed cheerfully. 'I hope you don't mind I've brought Linda here along – she's a huge fan of the Manchester United, like you. I told her that West Ham was going to beat them, but she wanted to come all the same.'

'You wish,' Sirius said, and for the first time since he'd met her, she gave him a true smile. 'Everyone knows that West Ham can't beat Manchester.'

Sirius had acquired a liking for football recently, since he'd been deprived of the Quidditch and the Puddlemere United. In fact, the reason he'd chosen to support the Manchester was because its name sounded alike to his favorite Quidditch team. However, now he knew about Manchester as much as he knew about Puddlemere, so no one would suspect he wasn't a true fan.

He sat next to Clay, who didn't support neither West Ham nor Manchester, but who was such a fan of football that he'd go to see any match. Before now, Sirius had never understood the passion his Muggle-born classmates had shown towards football (he'd always thought it was such a dull game compared to Quidditch) but since he'd started hanging out with Stevie and Clay, he'd changed his mind. Football was an interesting sport after all, and Sirius found himself enjoying it almost as much as he'd enjoyed Quidditch matches when he'd gone with James. It seemed like it had been ages ago, but it had only been three or four years. He shook his head. This was so not the moment to think on that sort of stuff. The past was in the past, and it was much better that way. He had to move on, sometime. Or at least he hoped so.

In spite of Sirius's words, West Ham did beat Manchester, much to his and Linda's disappointment. Stevie, on the other hand, was ecstatic. He insisted they all should go to celebrate to the nearest pub, but Sirius glanced at his watch and realised he had barely any time left to pick Harry up from the Tratchbergs's.

'Sorry, mate,' he told Stevie, 'but I've promised Harry we'd go to the zoo.'

Both Stevie and Clay looked disappointed. Linda, in the other hand, seemed interested.

'Who's Harry?'

'My godson,' he replied shortly, but Clay piped up:

'His parents died, and Sirius's raising him since then.'

'Oooh,' Linda said, and Sirius glared at Clay. Was it necessary to give her all that information? 'How old is he?' she asked Sirius, who wondered if it'd be extremely impolite not to answer her.

'Four.'

'Oh, a year older than my daughter, then,' she said thoughtfully, and bit her lip when she realised what she'd said. Sirius stared at her. He had no idea Linda was a mother. He glanced at her left hand and noticed it was ring-less. She followed his gaze and she shrugged.

'I got divorced six months ago,' she said, and something in her voice told him it'd be unwise to ask further questions.

In the meantime, neither Stevie nor Clay had heard a word of what they'd been talking about, as they were immersed in a chat about the match. They motioned towards the exit, and when they reached it Linda declined Stevie's invitation to go to a pub with him and Clay, saying she had to go home at once. She didn't explain any further but then she confessed to Sirius that her ex would take Chrissy, her daughter, to her house and she wanted to be there when they arrived.

Stevie was a little crestfallen at her refusal, but he was too enthusiastic because of West Ham's victory to truly bother. Actually, he didn't even flinch when Sirius offered to give Linda a lift (she lived close to the Tratchbergs), despite one would have thought he'd like to give her a lift home himself, after being her shadow for ages. Sometimes Sirius didn't get Stevie at all, and he suspected it had nothing to do with his magical education.

So he took Linda home on his old motorbike (which he'd recovered shortly after leaving Azkaban, without flying charms, though), and to Sirius's surprise they talked all the way naturally. She told him about Chrissy's fear of kindergarten, and he talked about some of the few problems he'd had with Harry, and he found himself laughing at her comments.

When they finally reached her house, as she got off from the bike she thanked him for the ride and asked him whether they could meet and have coffee sometime. Before thinking, Sirius said yes and she flashed an incredibly white smile at him before walking away. He watched her as she walked away, her sleek dark hair making a curve in the air, and wondered when he'd stopped finding Linda Kindred annoying and started liking her.

'I'm bored'.

Nicky Tratchberg's voice, usually full of cheerfulness, sounded dull and tired, almost like a grown-up's voice.

Harry himself didn't feel quite spirited either. He watched the rain pounding against the windows with a gloomy expression on his face and sighed. It had been raining non-stop for five full days, and both children were bored to death. They had played all the games they knew that could be played indoors without damaging the furniture, and even those that couldn't (Mrs. Tratchberg hadn't been delighted when she'd caught them trying to play volleyball in her living room the previous day), they had watched all the Disney movies they had, they had tried cooking with Nicky's sister, they had played hide and seek and they had even watched the news. And now, they were bored to death.

'Do you want play cards?'

Harry shook his head. They'd already played the only card game they knew and he was quite bored.

'Do you want to draw?'

It was Nicky's turn to shook his head.

'We've been drawing all day at the kindergarten, remember?'

Harry sighed again. 'I'm bored'.

In that moment, they heard the sound of the front door opening and closing.

'Sirius!' Harry exclaimed, and both children ran to greet Harry's godfather.

Sirius gave Harry a hug and caressed Nicky's hair distractedly, and thanked Mrs. Figg for taking care of the children, that he was really sorry but something had come up at work and that he hadn't meant to be so late...

'Don't worry, Sirius. It was only an hour, and I was delighted to take care of them, they're such good kids. We've seen some of my cats photos...'

From both boys' looks, Sirius could easily imagine how much "fun" they had had with Mrs. Figg.

'God, I'm so exhausted,' he mumbled, as soon as Mrs. Figg had left, while he sank into the sofa and took off his shoes. Work had been hellish that day. Stevie had been absent because of a flu, so Sirius had had to take care of all his work, but that hadn't been all. Some clients were much more annoying than usual, and one of them had some sort of tantrum and yelled at Sirius for what seemed hours with no apparent good reason at all, and his boss had also been mad at him, because he had made a tiny mistake – well, maybe not that tiny – with the photocopier. Who could use that hellish machine anyway?

Summing it up, Sirius hand't had the best day of his life. Actually, it had been more than lousy, so all Sirius wanted to do now was to take a nice, hot cup of tea, and maybe watch some telly or read the newspaper. But it seemed he wouldn't get that lucky...

'Sirius, we're bored.'

He turned to look at them.

'And what I'm supposed to do?'

The children exchanged hopeful looks.

'Play with us?'

At first, Sirius thought of refusing. He was tired, he had had a hard day at work, and all he wanted now was a nice, hot cup of tea and maybe reading the newspaper...

Wait a second. Had he just said that? A cup of tea and a newspaper? When had his life turned that boring?

He took a deep breath and got ready for the challenge.

'What do you want to play?'

The children looked puzzled. 'We've played every game. We've run out of them.'

Sirius tried his best to hide a smile.

'Well, that's impossible, as there are infinite games.' Seeing their incredulous faces, he added, in a mock-offended tone 'Don't you believe me? I'll show you.'

Half an hour later, Sirius had jumped onto the sofa, with a red cloth covering half of his face and seizing a broomstick as if it were a sword.

'You do not dare to face me, cowards?' he bellowed. 'I am not surprised, as I am the most feared pirate of the Caribbean. No man has ever defeated me, and you shall not be the exception. I will take over your island, and get rid of you lot for good!'

He ended his speech with a maniacal laughter, meant to terrify the bravest hearts... or to make them die from laughter.

'Never!' two voices exclaimed at the same time, and two figures jumped from behind one of the amrchairs and onto the coffe table, both of them seizing wooden spoons.

'You'll be kicked out from here, Captain Hook!'

'Yeah, and you shall never re-ret...come back!'

Peter and Pan (none of them had wanted to play Wendy) were pointing their "swords" at the feared Captain Hook, who didn't look that scary at all, although the red cloth covering his left eye and the weird symbols painted with crayons all over his face made him look quite funny. Harry and Nicky had painted their faces too themselves, which may explain the fact they looked so ridiculous, with red and blue lines and circles covering their smooth skin.

'You won't vanquish me that easily!' Hook roared. 'Or at least you'll have to catch me first!'

With those words, the villain jumped from the sofa and ran to the stairs. Peter and Pan (or Pan and Peter, whichever you prefer) ran after him, always clutching their swords.

Hook reached the first floor first and hid in a closet. When the children passed running, he jumped from inside it roaring 'buuhh!' Both boys winced and shrieked, then they remembered they were supposed to be the heroes and ran after him.

Hook entered his bedroom, jumped onto the bed and turned to face his adversaries, who had climbed their way up the bed and got on their feet.

As Sirius tried to give an eloquent and terrifying speech, like all good villains did, Pan and Peter discovered how much fun it was to jump on the bed and temporary forgot about the prior game.

Hook decided that wasn't the way to treat a Big Bad, so he grabbed the nearest boy (who turned out to be Nicky) and bellowed:

'I'll tickle this child to death!'

Harry stopped jumping.

'Noooo!'

He threw himself forward and grabbed his godfather's knees, making him to fall on his back. Sirius had no choice but to free his hostage, who took the chance to grab a pillow and attack him. Harry considered this an excellent idea and energetically imitated his friend, while the most feared pirate of all Caribbean choked and begged for mercy.

That same day, when his mother came to pick him up, Nicky turned to face Harry and whispered in his ear:

'You know, my dad never plays with me right after he comes from work, and neither does my mum. I think you're really lucky.'

Later, when he was getting ready to bed, Harry reflected on what Nicky had said. Until that day, he'd always thought that Nicky was the luckiest boy in the world. He had a dad and a mum, a sister and a brother who always taught him new things, a grandpa and two grandmas, and nearly all the toys he wished. That reminded him of his cousin Dudley, who definately had all the toys and games he wanted. He'd used to think Dudley was the luckiest boy in the world, too. But his Aunt Petunia would never play games, as she feared she might ruin her dress, and Uncle Vernon had preferred to buy his son expensive games rather than to teach him how to play with them. The Tratchbergs were nicer, no doubt, but Mr. Tratchberg worked too much and Mrs. Tratchberg was always too busy to play.

As he got into bed and waited for his godfather to tell him "Good night," Harry discovered that he was much luckier than Nicky or Dudley. Because they might have their parents, and much more toys, but they certainly didn't have Sirius.

'Bloody hell!'

Sirius' scream reverberated through the thin walls and reached Harry's ears, who was looking at the colourful pictures of a book in the living room. He stopped what he was doing and popped his head into the kitchen to see what was going on.

Sirius regretted his cursing, fearing that Harry might repeat it later, but the child's mind was elsewhere: his right foot had just stepped on a huge pool of whitey-water. 'What...?' He began to say, but his words were swallowed by a roaring sound, as more water splashed Sirius, soaking his clothes wet. He had to bite his lower lip to prevent him from cursing again in front of a four-year-old child. The four-year-old child in question was too busy staring at the scene before his eyes in awe.

The whole kitchen's floor was wet, with several pools of the same white water, but that wasn't the most amazing thing of all. Harry blinked in disbelief when he saw what seemed to be dozens of bubbles around his godfather's head, looking like a halo.

It took him a couple of minute to understand what was going on, but he got it when he saw Sirius hitting the washing machine in annoyance. Oh, not again...

When he'd first moved in with Sirius, Harry had noticed that he didn't get on well with electrical machines. In fact, it'd seemed like his godfather had had no idea of how to use the most simple devices, as if he had never lived in a house with electricity before. In the following weeks Sirius learnt how to deal with most of the machines in the house...except for the washing machine. At least every two weeks, Sirius did something wrong and the device broke down. Of course, according to Sirius it was never his fault: the stupid machine just hated him. Harry had begun to think he would learn how to use the washing machine before his godfather.

As Sirius was glaring at the washing machine, trying to figure out a way to fix it, the doorbell rang.

'Who the h...?' he stopped in mid-sentence, suddenly remembering Harry was there.

Impatiently, Sirius umplugged the washer and went to answer the door, although the water kept pouring from inside the machine.

He opened the door briskly, wondering who the hell it could be... and found himself face-to-face with Linda Kindred, who was smiling nervously.

'Hi. I was in the neighbourhood, and I remembered Clay said you lived here so I came to say hi...'

Her eyes widened in shock as she eyed him and noticed his soaked clothes.

'Um, bad time to come over?'

Sirius hastened to shake his head, trying to ignore the drop of water falling down his nose.

'Oh, no, not at all! Come in'

Before she could do so, though, Harry came running.

'Sirius, the water got to the living room!'

The man sighed when he saw the living room's carpet soaking wet. Linda frowned.

'What's going on?'

Before Sirius could answer, Harry piped up:

'Sirius broke the washing machine. Again'.

'Hey, I didn't...'

Linda interrupted him. 'The washing machine?' she asked Harry. 'What's it doing?'

'Nothing now, 'cause Sirius unpluggled it, but before it was pouring water like mad...'

She looked thoughtful. 'Can I have a look at it? I might know how to fix it, or at least what's wrong with it'.

Harry nodded, took her hand and dragged her in. Sirius stared in disbelief, then realised he had been left standing all alone at the doorframe like a fool, and followed them.

In the kitchen, Linda carefully examined the washing machine for several minutes. Neither Sirius nor Harry dared to disturb her concentration. Then, she kneeled and plugged it again.

'No, wait that...'

Too late: with another roaring sound, the machine began pouring water again. Sirius snorted...and then, Linda pressed one small button and the washing machine began working properly.

Sirius' mouth fell open.

'What...? How did you do that?'

Linda looked at him and seemed to take pity on his helplesness, as she said:

'Help me to clean up this mess, and I'll show you'.

The following day, Sirius went to see Mrs. Figg, who had news from Dumbledore. While Harry played with the cats, Sirius told the old woman what had happened, and how Linda had had to teach him to change a lightbulb.

'I felt really stupid,' he admitted.

'There's no reason to feel like that, Sirius. After all, you always used magic before,' she said. Then Mrs. Figg had a thoughtful look on her face. 'I don't know, Sirius. I think that next time you should just try to invite her to dinner, instead of making such a mess to impress her.'

Sirius was just too shocked to protest.

Jesse: I'm happy you liked my Christmas chap! Well, you have to wait no more: next chapter, Darla meets Connor... and I won't say anything else, but you can bet Snape's not gonna be happy!