Pen Pals 4

Chapter 4: Summer Break

Sirius was a Black, and though he liked to think his apple fell quite far from the proverbial family tree when it came to certain family traits, he had to admit he did have a bit of a mean streak. For instance, he adored uncomfortable situations, the more unbearable the better in fact. A small part of him liked to witness other people's misery. A very small part of him. One place he had never thought he would find himself enjoying a bit of drama was the Potter household. And though Sirius loved his friends dearly, and was fiercely protective of his adopted family. He learned that he could just as easily enjoy their small bit of misery as much as any strangers, if not more so.

So there he sat, happily picking at his lunch at the dining room table, watching Harry write away on a bit of nice stationary at one end of the table, as his mother glared at him from the other end. James sat across the table from Sirius, in the middle of his little family, firmly ignoring everything except the daily prophet in front of him.

"Whacha' writing there Harry"

Sirius glanced at his Godson, taking a look at the paper he was scratching away at. He had to blink a few times as it all seemed to look like gibberish. He tried focusing on the weird scribbles only for them to rearrange before his very eyes to spell out, 'Mind your business buddy.' Well that was a cute little trick, and brought back a few memories from his school days.

"His pen pal. He is writing to his pen pal."

Lily answered back, her tone icy. Sirius perked right up at this new bit of news.

"A pen pal? How did that happen."

"A school project apparently." Lily spat.

With a grin, Sirius turned to face Lily. He opened his mouth, only to have his shin kicked by James before he could say anything. Luckily, it didn't seem like he needed to add any fuel to the fire as Lily, unprompted, started to rant.

"Sneaking about the school, talking to some strange boy in America."

Harry let out a little cough. Sirius wondered at that before asking.

"How do you know he's been sneaking around the school?"

"Snape." James and Harry replied in unison, neither looking up from their tasks.

Lily continued on as if there was no interruption.

"Then he comes home, disappears constantly to whatever hidey hole he has on this blasted property, and wards! He warded his room! When I find out how, you better believe-"

"I warded my room because someone kept snooping through my stuff!" Harry finally looked up from his letter. The spitting image of James at this age, his frown was fierce and adorable, and also left little to the imagination on who the 'snooping' culprit was.

"I mean, sneaking around the school was going to be a given no matter what. He's mine and James' son after all." (1) Lilly glared at Sirius as James winked at him from across the table.

"I am your Mother! You're not supposed to have secrets from me."

Sirius winced, dear Lord and Lady of ash and salt, but Lilys voice could get shrill when she was upset.

"Every bloke has secrets from their mother." Harry replied flippantly.

Sirius and James merely nodded in agreement. With a growl the irate mother finally turned her attention to Sirius. She opened her mouth to deliver what Sirius figured was going to be a tongue lashing before she stopped, and looked at him a bit funny.

"Sirius, what in the blazes is wrong with your neck."

Sirius touched his neck self consciously, "Hmm?"

James started snickering from across the table. "Looks like you need to work on your glamour charms Pads."

"Are those- dear Lord, are those love bites Sirius?" Lily screeched.

Sirius clapped both his hands over his neck, swearing. The charms he had applied that morning to hide last night escapades were gone, or at least disappearing. He winced again as he felt the glamour melting off him. How in the seven hells had that happened?

"What have I told you about showing up in this house and exposing Harry to-"

Sirius tuned Lilly out right quick, he has heard that whole song and dance before. Instead he sat and puzzled over his failed spell. He had been applying glamor's to his body to hide his sexual escapades since he was 15 years old. He had never had a spell fail on him yet. What had gone wrong?

Each of the adults were busy either yelling, laughing, or brooding and none noticed a sheepish Harry quickly grab his quill and paper, as well as a little notebook with a handsome little bookmark sticking out. The young wizard made his escape quick.

Hermione couldn't stop laughing as she read through Harry's letter. (2) The idea of men using glamour and beauty charms never crossed her mind. Though it sounded like this Sirius fellow was a bit of a scamp. She picked up the photo that had been sent along with the letter. It was a photo of Harry and his Godfather. She looked over the older man and bit her lip. Where Harry was cute, his godfather was absolutely scorching hot. Tall, high cheekbones, raven black hair that fell to his shoulders, and piercing grey eyes. He had a smile that just spelled trouble.

"You ok pumpkin? You're looking a bit red there."

Hermione smiled at her dad while surreptitiously tucking the photo back in among the pages of Harry's letter.

"Yeah dad, just the sun getting to me. I think I will put on a bit more sunscreen."

She lied easily to her smiling father. Hermione and her father were close, but not talk about boys close. As she entered her teens that seemed to be the one subject they danced around. Both liking to pretend the other never had any interest in the opposite sex. Maxwell Granger wasn't stupid, he knew his daughter would date eventually. He just trusted that his daughter was a smart cookie, and would pick the right guy. As for Hermione, she knew her Dad dated, but it was never anything serious, ever, and she never met the women. And thinking of her father trying to flirt just made her gag.

After applying some sunscreen for show, Hermione turned over on the big oversized lawn chair she rested on. Laying on her stomach and watching the waves crash along the beach for a moment before grabbing her letter giving it another read through.

"Papa."

"Hmm?" Her father replied from next to her, his head buried in a book.

"Do you ever snoop through my things when I am not around?"

This caught his attention, he turned to her and raised his eyebrows.

"No. Honestly, I'm a bit scared to go into your room. Afraid I may touch something I ought not and turn into a toad of some sort."

Hermione giggled at that.

"Why do you ask?"

"Harry used my warding stones to keep his Mother out of his room. Seems she likes to go through his things."

Maxwell Granger let out a bark of laughter.

"Ah, yes, well that's a bit different. Boys tend to have certain, ah, things they may like to start hiding from their mothers once they reach a certain age."

Hermione wondered what Harry might not want his mother seeing, but just shrugged it off.

"Do you think Mama would have gone through my things if she was around?"

She avoided her father's gaze as she asked. They never talked too much of her Mother. She had died in childbirth, and though there were photos of her throughout the house, Hermione knew the loss still weighed on her father.

"No Pumpkin, your Mother wasn't that sort. She was very quite, and loved her privacy too much to ever invade someone else's."

Hermione nodded in understanding.

"But-"

Hermione looked up surprised as her father continued.

"She wasn't one to gossip, but she loved hearing gossip. She would have loved to read that Wizarding Gossip Rag you subscribe too. You get that from her."

Biting her lips to hide an embarrassed smile at being caught, Hermione looked back at the blue waters of Lake Michigan. Reading trashy magazines was definitely a guilty pleasure of hers, and wizarding magazines were just chocked full of silly and wild gossip and stories. It was nice to know that she shared that with her Mum.

1. Yeah, I love the idea of Sirius claiming Harry is his and James love child. Lol, it just seems like something he would do.

2. Instead of writing that out in a letter I thought it would be funnier this way. Plus I adore writing from Sirius POV.

Hope you guys liked this update, though it lacked an actually written out letter. I really wanted to take a stab at writing Lilly and James alive and well. Also, I feel like lots of people make them out to be saints. So I wanted to paint them as normal parents that get upset, snoop, and push their kids boundaries. Harry being an only child, I think Lily might be a bit overbearing on her son. Especially if he's anything like the Marauders. I also wanted a world where Snape and Lilly remained friends. Thought it would be cute for Harry to deal with his mother having a 'spy' inside the school.

Please review and let me know what you think!