:::Time Skip:::

From Eventide to Daybreak – Chapter 3

Sirius' breath caught slightly as the headline of the Daily Prophet caught his attention.

Manhunt for Peter Pettigrew!

Dear readers, something slightly startling has come to this reporter's attention – Peter Pettigrew, close friend of James Potter, is evidently wanted for questioning about the case of the Potter's murder. As you likely know, in the past four years, the Ministry has been unable to answer the public's cry for answers due to lack of sufficient evidence from either side, and the lack of Sirius Black's presence. While it is currently unknown just exactly what Peter Pettigrew is wanted for, we can clearly make a few guesses.

Cont. on Pg. 4

Sirius, not really interested in what the reporter's guesses were, set the paper down and stared at it for a moment, thinking. After all, it didn't matter what the news thought, but what the Ministry believed. Apparently they were finally following up on Remus' testimony on his behalf. It was about time, really. Sirius wasn't sure what exactly had been holding up the process, but it was likely a combination of things, the least of which was certainly not being the fact that a werewolf was the one giving the testimony. He tamped down on his irritation over this, and took a deep breath, relaxing back into his chair. At least things were finally starting to move along. Wormtail, being as pathetic at magic as he was, probably would be caught within a couple of years… This delay in justice – or revenge, if one were to look at it another way – was enough to enrage Sirius, but he tried to remind himself that he had better things to do – take care of his precious godson.

Sirius' lips curved up a little at the thought of Harry. He was growing up so fast… it would be no time at all that his little Prongslet would be running through the barrier with him at Platform 9 and ¾ for the first time. As it was, Harry was already out in the backyard, probably digging around in the bushes for whatever little creatures he could find. Sirius would never understand his godson's fascination with things like worms and bugs… unless he wanted to prank a girl with them, but there wasn't exactly any girls around the house.

"PADFOOT!"

Sirius nearly jumped out of his skin at the yell. He frowned, and got to his feet, concerned by the tone of Harry's voice. He started moving towards the back as he heard Harry slam the back door open, yelling his name again.

"Padfoot!"

"What is it, Harry?" Sirius asked, crossing to meet him in the middle of the room.

"Come quick! You've got to help him," Harry cried, whipping around and running out the door again.

Sirius ran after him. "Help who, Harry? Who's hurt?" He asked as he followed him across the yard, looking wildly around for someone injured. To his surprise, Harry ran over near a bush, and fell to his knees.

"Help him!" Harry pointed to something in the grass.

Looking at where Harry was pointing, he gasped softly, realizing what he wanted him to help.

"Do you know what happened, or did you find it like this?" Sirius asked, going to his knees next to the small-ish grass snake.*

Harry sniffled lightly. "A bird came and grabbed him while we were talking–" Sirius' eyes widened "–but I yelled at it, and it dropped him. Can you help him?"

He looked up at Sirius, eyes clearly watering as he tried not to cry. Sirius looked at him, hardly breathing, and asked him, "Harry, you said you were talking with him? Was he talking back or were you just pretending?"

Harry looked at him confusedly, "Um, he talked, too, but he's hurt right now! Can't you help him?"

Sirius stared at him in shock for a second, before shaking his head, determined to think about it later, and looked back at the wounded snake on the ground. It wasn't as if he knew for sure that Harry really talked to the snake, anyway. It may have actually just been his imagination – Merlin knew the boy had plenty of it.

He peered closely at the wounds, and seeing that snake was still alive and honestly not too badly injured, absently wondered why it hadn't just slithered away, but he dutifully pulled out his wand and muttered a spell to close the skin over the light lacerations to the snake's hide – and promptly froze at the disturbing hissing sounds coming from Harry's mouth beside him.

Sirius stared, wide-eyed, as the snake turned its head towards Harry, flicked out its tongue and let out a barely audible hiss. He took in the smile that had bloomed on Harry's face, and watched as Harry hissed something back to the snake.

Well. Obviously Harry actually had been talking to it, then.

"Wha… What are you saying to it?" Sirius asked, a bit apprehensive. How, exactly, was Harry a Parselmouth?

Harry looked up at him with confusion, the smile drifting from his face. "You… You can't understand him? He's a talking snake! Isn't he talking English?"

"Harry… All snakes… they all talk, but not everyone can understand them. All… all I hear is hissing, Prongslet." Sirius was shocked. Not only could Harry Potter, his godson, talk to snakes, but he didn't even realize he was speaking another language!

Harry frowned. "Oh… Well… When I scared off the bird, he wanted to slither away, but I told him to stay and I would get you to come help him." Harry smiled brightly. "And then, when you came an' healed him, I told him, 'I told you so!' – see?"

Sirius blinked at him. "…Right. Um, okay. Well, it's getting a bit late, so… why don't we come inside, and we'll have some lunch, alright?"

"Okay, but Dad–" Sirius' heart warmed, as always, when Harry used that title "–can't I keep him?" Harry's lip pouted out, eyes really big, as he pleaded with him.

Of course, Harry would want to keep the snake, Sirius thought to himself sarcastically. He was still determined to not really think about all this too deeply until later.

"Harry… I'm sorry, but he's a wild snake. He needs to stay out in the wild, okay?"

"But–"

Sirius gave him a Look, and Harry's shoulders slumped.

"Okay…"

Harry looked back to the snake, and again hissed something at it, and it slithered away. Sirius blinked, before shaking his head and stood up with Harry.

"Thanks for healing him," Harry said.

"You're welcome, Harry. I think he might've been alright, anyway, but at least we know for sure, now."

Harry nodded.

*I-`I,~,I`-I*

Later on, when Harry had been put to bed, Sirius finally allowed himself to actually think about what had happened that day.

Parseltongue... Harry was actually a Parselmouth – a Potter was a Parselmouth! Obviously, since the Potters were purebloods, perhaps there was some kind of distant relation to a Parselmouth in there, but for the life of him, he had never heard of any.

There was one thing that he knew for sure, however. That superstitious belief of all Parselmouths being evil was impossible. There was absolutely no way that Harry was evil – any fool could see that. There was no way he would be anything like Voldemort. The way in which Harry used the language – to help an injured animal – and how he hadn't even realized that he was speaking another language only further served to prove that.

Sirius also figured he needed to speak with Harry sometime soon – probably tomorrow – and tell him of the stigma that surrounded the ability. He would tell him that he should keep it secret from everyone except maybe Moony…

There was another thing that he reaffirmed to himself, with the acceptance of this revelation. Sirius loved Harry unconditionally. He had already known that, of course, but with this surprise, and his handling of it, he knew it was true. He would be sure to tell Harry that, as well. No matter what happened, what Harry did, or what kind of man he turned out to be – not that Sirius thought he would turn out to be anything but a good one – he would always love him. He would do his best to teach him, to guide him along, to raise him… but no matter what, he would be there for him. He would make sure that he would not grow up in the stifling, suffocating environment that Sirius himself had grown up in.

He grimaced slightly, then laughed to himself. He would love him always… even if he turned out to be a Slytherin.

-TBC-

AN:

Word count: 1,466

*Male Natrix natrix, commonly called "grass snake," also called "ring snake" or "water snake." Native snake to the British Isles, protected in England under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981. It's a light-to-dark brown color, with yellow-ish stripes & black spots. Just some trivia ;) – I love animals, so I found it interesting, anyway.

That's rather funny. I have exactly two more words in this chapter than the last one. Sorry for the wait! That did take longer than I expected. However, my original plans, like last time, were not panning out, so I ended up just going ahead with the time skip. I'm not going to die if you don't leave a review; however, I would love constructive criticism, as this is my first real story… Also, know that my Sirius is probably going to a lot more mature than canon. 0_o I'm not really sure if I know how to write a childish adult character… lol

I have pretty much decided what the pairings will be, and since I know you're probably going to be asking what it is, I'll go ahead and tell you now so you won't be disappointed – it's going to be Gen. As in, no pairings. Now, will there be attraction? Definitely. Harry and Sirius will not be asexual, guys. xD

(Btw I've also decided my previous ANs are rather obnoxiously long and I'm going to try and avoid that in the future)

Tasha