Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: Here's some silly poolside fluff for if Sirius didn't get sucked back into Dumbledore's shenanigans after breaking out and instead went and got a trial in, say, France.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 13); MC4A
Individual Challenges: True Colours; Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Gryffindor MC (x2); Magical MC (x2); Neurodivergent; Rowl in Her Grave; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; The 3rd Rule; Ship Sails; Claimed; Hold the Mayo; Gender Bender; Do It For Howard; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); In a Flash; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 13 – Assignment 03
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [185](Hugging); 365 [92](Excuse); Herbology Club [1-6](Found Family); Auction [22-2](Sirius & Harry); Back to School Shopping [Books](Less than 1K Words); Pinata [Hard](Femslash)
Other MC4A Challenges: Hunt [Sp Set](Poolside); Chim [Kinzie](Royal Purple); Ship (Heroic Shadow)[Sp Mic 1](Hackers/Programmers AU); TWT (GQ Sirius; Golden Era)[Task 1](Red); Fire [Hard](Adventure Tales); Garden [Rose Types](A Little Birdhouse)
Representation(s): Desi & Autistic Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini; Always Female Harry & Blaise; Recovering Sirius Black
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Grease Monkey; Lyre Liar; Muck & Slime; Abandoned Ship; Head of Perseus; Surprise!; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Found Family; Nontraditional; Mother Hen; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Brooms Only; Car in a Tutu; Clio's Conclusion; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi; Fizzy Lemonade; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Tether); SN (Rail; Ameliorate); FR (Satisfaction); O3 (Oath); TY (Enfant; Avasa)
Word Count: 979

(^^)
A Little Birdhouse
(^^)

Sirius stretched out on the lounger, enjoying the freedom to do so and the sun at the same time. Next to him, his goddaughter did the same. In a wildly inappropriate gesture, Sirius had made sure that their bikinis were matching styles. Unfortunately, his pasty white skin would not support the royal purple that Harini had chosen for hers. It looked nice against the dark sienna skin that she had gotten from her parents. On him, it would just look like he was bruised.

He had settled for a Gryffindor red instead.

He sipped at his fruity cocktail and glanced out over their fellow guests frolicking in the resort's pool. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Harini mirroring him. He hummed to himself. He had missed out on a lot of things during the years he had been locked up. And those relatives of Lily's that Dumbledore had forced the girl to stay with in the meantime probably were stick in the mud.

Maybe Harini needed some advice? Sirius had heard that good parents had those kinds of talks with their children, not that either of his parents ever had. He had gotten a very interesting but clinical lecture from Remus' mother. Hope Lupin had been a pediatric nurse. That conversation had been very illuminating, and Hope was a solid second for Best Mother of a Marauder.

But there was always room for improvement, as Aunt Dorea (the first place winner for Best Mother of a Marauder award) would say.

"So," Sirius started at the same time that Harini said the word. They looked at each other before bursting into laughter. It took several minutes for them both to calm down. They kept setting the other one off whenever they had started calming down.

"Okay, so," Sirius said once they had could look at each other without breaking down into giggles. He swung his legs around so that he was both setting up completely and facing his goddaughter. "You may already have had this talk with someone—probably not the Muggles. Not even I am that stupid—but someone. I just wanted you to know that you could come to me with any questions you had."

"Any questions I have?" Harini asked. Her brow furrowed in obvious confusion. "Are you offering to help me with my homework, because I thought we had already discussed how you should stick with magic and leave my laptop to me."

"Uh, no, just—yeah, no," Sirius agreed hastily. He made a gesture like he was throwing that idea in the trash can where it belonged. Then he touched the center of his chest as he continued speaking. "Me, ward breaking." He pointed towards her. "You, hacking."

"Then what questions do you want me to bring to you?" Harini asked. "I'm never asking your advice on baking again. That was a terrible mistake that no one should ever make. Seriously. People could have died, Sirius."

"Wow," Sirius said dryly, "you start one measly fire—"

"Excuse me," Harini interrupted very rudely, just like her father always would, "but I think you mean three because you started three fires—"

"AS I WAS SAYING—"

"We had to call the Ministry to put out the last one—"

"What can I say? Some places just need to burn—"

"You drooled all over the lead Auror they sent!" Harini finished with a huff. "You literally drooled on him. I can't believe he was still willing to go out with you after that."

"Oh, yeah, well, I'd like to see you do better, Ms. Potter!"

"Oh, yeah, um," Harini answered, suddenly looking very nervous, "about that…"

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked. His mind immediately leap to a conclusion that set his teeth on edge. "Is some guy giving you trouble? Because they should know that I was a warlock for the Unspeakables back in the day and no stupid boy is gonna mess with my princess—"

"Sirius—"

"Don't argue," Sirius continued. "Boys are stupid, especially at your age. I should know. I was one. At least some of the time. Sort of. It's complicated."

"Sirius—"

"Look, gender is a construct—"

"It's a girl!" Harini finally burst out. Silence reigned between them as they just blinked at each other. A few of the other people in the cabana area glanced at them before going on with whatever they were doing. Harini took a deep breath before continuing at a more normal volume. "It's a girl from my programming class. She also goes to Hogwarts, and well, we hit it off. She's really nice."

"Taking after your dad, then?" Sirius asked with a roguish grin. "Find yourself a nice Muggle-born girl to fall in love with? Who is she? When do I meet her?"

"Well, actually," Harini said, glancing at something over his shoulder, "Blaise isn't exactly a Muggle-born? I mean, technically, I think she'd be considered a half-blood or something similar? And if you want, I sort of jumped the broomstick a bit and asked her and her mother to meet us here?"

"Harini Dorea Potter," Sirius stage-whispered in mock outrage, "did you sneak your girlfriend on our family trip to Nice?!"

"Maybe?" she answered hesitantly. Then she squeaked in shock as he lunged forward to pull her into a tight hug. Her arms flailed for a moment before she patted him weakly on the back.

"They grow up so quickly," Sirius wailed dramatically as he released her. "My little puppy, finally creating her own plots and pranks! Where does the time go?"

"Time flies when you're doing time," Harini snarked. Sirius pointed at her in shock. She just rolled her eyes at him. Gods above, but she was so much like her parents. He could only hope that he did half as good a job as they would have.