Right Of Way
May Eve prompt(s): Harry Potter/Batman, Harry Potter meeting Batman. Their first encounter with whatever back story you want.
*This prompt was requested by review on Bite Sized Bits of Fic: but as the back story is like Secret Identities, I posted it here.*
The same day Bruce Wayne comes to Britain, is the same day that Harry Potter – age seven – pets his first stray dog. He remembers because Aunt Petunia shoos him out of the house so that Uncle Vernon and Dudley can watch the telly comfortably.
That it's raining isn't something Aunt Petunia gives a second thought in sending him out into.
He's supposed to be gardening, but he's gone to the park instead. No one else is there, but that suits Harry just fine. He sits and swings until he sees the great big black dog laid out under the tree, watching him with a wagging tail. There is something lonely at the sight of it, lonely just like Harry is.
Harry drags his shoes in the woodchips to slow the swing to a stop. The dog watches him do this, but nothing else. He doesn't run away either, when Harry gets up. Shaking off the feeling of being watched, Harry goes over to the dog. He doesn't really get see them up close and kindly, usually Harry is too busy running from their barks and sharp teeth. Those are only Aunt Marge's dogs.
This one is big enough to send any bulldogs running scared. It's lean and big boned with shaggy black hair falling everywhere.
Harry reaches out, daringly, but it's the black dog that makes the first move toward contact, putting its head under his palm. With how big the dog looked, and how wild, it's surprising how soft the fur is.
"Hello there." Harry greets the dog, smiling. Its mouth gapes open, teeth showing, tongue sticking out in a dog smile.
"He seems to like you." Harry jerks toward the sound of the voice, as if a little boy could defend the stray dog at his feet. What he sees is a man in a rich suit, an umbrella above his head – and the limo stretched out in the road behind him.
"Bruce Wayne." If there could be any doubt in Harry to who this man is, it's banished by the man's first introduction. Harry looks aside to the dog, and feels a yearning – and shame, mixing with frustration. He could never just be let to have a dog, so he asks, to know why Bruce Wayne is here instead of somewhere richer.
"Is he your dog?" The black dog looks up to Bruce, and there is something like a challenge in those eyes.
"No. Just a friend." Bruce Wayne smiles, but Harry doesn't understand why.
"What's his name?" Harry asks instead, and Bruce opens the door to his limo, expectantly.
"Sirius Black." Harry has never heard of a dog with two names, and certainly never a dog which has rich men opening doors for them. Sirius looks back at Harry, waiting before he goes on – waiting for Harry to follow.
"I'll give you a ride home." Bruce says with a sigh.
The thing is though, is that when they reach the Dursley house, Bruce Wayne tells Harry to stay seated – not that that isn't hard to do, with Sirius's head in his lap. Harry watches from a window he can see through but no one can see into, as Bruce Wayne talks to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
The window between passenger and driver rolls down, and an old man meets his eyes in the mirror.
"Hello, Harry. My name is Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth. We three are alike, you see." Sirius raises his head and sits in the backseat, then he changes – shifting and blurring – a man sits where a dog had.
"What are you?" Harry asks, shakily.
"We three are all wizards." Sirius Black reassures him, ruffling his hair with a smile.
"And Bruce Wayne…?" Harry asks, feeling shy with the warmth and easy acceptance.
"Is adopting you as we speak…." Sirius sounds dreadfully amused, but Harry turns back to the window to watch it happen – watch his life change right before his eyes.