Title: snakes and xylophones (humor abounds)

Team: Falmouth Falcons

Position: Seeker

Prompt: Fluff - Daily Life/Slice of Life

Summary: When Sirius went to the Potter home, he didn't go after Pettigrew. His godson was far too important for that. Also, when Harry was 6, he found out that his godson could speak to snakes.

In the Black-Lupin-Potter household, zoo visits every Saturday were very important. It was getting to see the animals, something that Harry loved immensely, and Remus would get to take pictures everywhere. Sirius loved to shift into Padfoot and run around the park afterwards, receiving pets and scratches as he was a very lovable dog.

As Sirius was eating an ice cone, waiting for his godson to be done looking for special rocks, Harry ran toward him, covered in dirt and looking absolutely ecstatic. Sirius wondered what sort of trouble his godson had gotten into again.

"Siri, Siri!"

Sirius raised an eyebrow as Harry ran toward him, his green eyes sparkling with joy. There was a bright smile on his cherubic face and Sirius spied a small gap in his smile where he'd lost his first tooth. He made a mental note to put a galleon under Harry's pillow that night.

"What's up, bud?"

"Look!" Harry thrust his hands into Sirius' face, and he looked down. Then he froze.

There was a snake, a real actual snake, in Harry's hands. Sirius took in a sharp breath and nodded slowly. "That's real nice Harry... where'd you find it?"

"Sara isn't an it, Siri! She," Harry emphasized the pronoun heavily, his eyes squinted, "is a garden snake. I want to keep her."

Sirius floundered for a moment. "Harry we can't - we can't bring her back home with us. We can't keep her. That's-"

Tears filled Harry's eyes and the kid looked so upset that for a moment Sirius actually debated bringing the snake home. He wondered how Remus would react to it, seeing the snake in Harry's hands. The were would probably just roll his eyes and go back to taking pictures or reading the plaques about the animals or whatever it was he was doing before.

"We have to put her back Harry." Sirius looked up, praying for strength as Harry's bottom lip wobbled threateningly. "We'll visit her every time we come to the zoo - every Saturday you'll get to see her."

"But... Siri." Harry whined, looking down at the snake in his hands. It, she, wiggled and hissed at Harry.

Harry hissed back.

Sirius blinked, once, twice, as his godson hissed at the small snake in his hands effectively wiping away his argument that Sara could eat Isis, Harry's small owlet that he'd adopted. If Harry could talk to the bloody snake, that meant that Harry could effectively raise the snake.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Why him?

Harry looked up, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy. Sirius sucked in another breath and mentally prepared himself for the berating that Moony was going to give him when he got home.

"Alright - fine. You can keep Sara. But you have to lay down some rules for her and make sure she doesn't do anything... bad." Sirius stared as Harry beamed at him and looked back down at the snake, hissing excitedly.

Sirius made another mental note to tell Remus that Harry could speak parseltongue.

"Okay! I promise Sara will be really good." Harry nodded solemnly, though he was twitching with excitement. Sirius prayed that he hadn't made a bad choice.

"Alright – put her in your pocket and tell her to keep quiet. We're going to miss the music show if we don't head over now." Harry hissed something out and Sara climbed into the pocket of Harry's shorts.

Sirius picked up Harry and speed-walked through the zoo, looking around for Remus. They were only 5 minutes away from the gathering place thingy and Remus would probably behead him if Harry missed the music show.

Apparently, it was a good way for Harry to learn about culture and folklore – Sirius didn't understand at all what that meant but he assumed that it was very important to Remus, so he was doing his best to make sure that Harry got to learn about culture through music. At least the music isn't boring. Or at least Sirius hoped it wasn't.

He spotted Remus standing a corner looking very impatient, probably thinking that they would be late and was getting ready to murder Sirius when they got home. Sirius practically drowned in relief when he noticed that parents were still coming in with their children, letting them off to play with the instruments that were spread out and talk with the other children.

He let Harry down, who smiled widely as he scampered off to the group of children. Sirius knew that by the end of the hour, Harry would have at least 3 new friends – the kid could make friends with anybody if he wanted to.

Sirius sidled up to Remus who raised an eyebrow at him. "What happened now?"

"Harry has a new pet."

Remus blinked. "You won him another stuffed toy?"

Sirius coughed lightly and shook his head. "Er- he found a snake. And he really wanted to keep her. The name is Sara."

There was a beat of silence and Sirius looked away to see Harry playing a xylophone, tapping the keys with excitement sparkling all over him.

Remus snorted. "We should buy him a xylophone."

"You're not going to say anything about the snake?" Sirius blinked in confusion. "You're not… gonna do anything?"

He got an eye roll and an exasperated sigh. "He wants a snake Sirius, and he got a snake. You likely were against it and Harry proved to you that he could take care of it. Or he promised that he would."

Sirius nodded. "He's a parselmouth."

"That… that sounds about right actually."

There was a laugh and Sirius looked over at Harry, who was playing the xylophone more insistently. Harry laughed again, smiling, as he plinked the sticks against the keys. There was a lady behind him, dark skinned and hair in thick braids with beads, who was showing him how to play it. She was smiling too so Sirius assumed that Harry was being his small charming self again.

Sirius hummed, leaning against Remus.

"We really should buy him a xylophone."