Perhaps it was because of Harry's skill as a Seeker, but his reflexes were incredible, despite never having played at an arcade before.
"Never?" Sirius asked, after Harry had beat him at a racing game.
He shrugged. "I remember that I played against Dudley once or twice before Hogwarts. I think he claimed I was cheating and Aunt Petunia would yell that I was ruining his toys."
Sirius clenched his fists, then unclenched them. "It must run in the family. Your skill, I mean," he added, quickly.
"Did my dad ever play muggle games?" Harry asked, glancing over at Sirius from the large arcade game they were sharing.
"Sure, during our summer holidays," Sirius answered, easily.
Harry raised his eyebrows. "But how-I thought you both were pure bloods?"
"We were-are. See, Remus' mum was a muggle, so he had some exposure to both worlds, at least, before he was bitten. Also, after that, his parents had to keep his condition a secret, so that was one way that they kept him entertained before he went to Hogwarts," Sirius explained, gently. "He also loved reading muggle books, even though his father read him the standard wizarding fairy stories."
Wizarding fairy stories? Harry hadn't known that any such ones existed, but now that he gave it some thought, it made sense. Draco Malfoy's parents would sooner die than buy their beloved pure-blooded son a copy of a muggle picture book like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", and he couldn't imagine that even the pure-blood equivalent of Hermione Granger would learn to read with Hogwarts textbooks.
"Dudley's old bedroom's got a lot of books, but he's probably never read them. I don't think there's anything related to fairies or magic, since the Durlseys hate anything to do with that," Harry said, thoughtfully. "Uncle Vernon would freak out if I even said 'what's the magic word?'" At Sirius' blank expression, he added, "It's 'please'."
"They got bent out of shape for that?" Sirius remarked, rolling his eyes.
Harry shrugged. "Yeah, well. They hate anything having to do with magic. They only used to let Dudley go trick-or-treating because he put up such a stink about it. Said they'd buy him all the candy he wanted, but..." Harry grinned. "They couldn't say no to their ickle Dudleykins."
"Ickle Dudleykins? Please tell me you're joking!" Sirius guffawed again.
"Oh, I'm not," Harry assured him, still grinning. "They still call him that. Just wait, and you'll hear it any day, now! Probably when he wants seconds of dessert."
Sirius rolled his eyes, then smirked. "I was thinking about what to give you, as a pet name. You do realize, of course, that this means you can't complain about anything I decide on. It can't possibly be as bad as 'ickle Dudleykins'!"
"You were-er-going to give me a pet name?" Harry asked, trying to sound offhanded.
Having spent all of their muggle change, they'd started walking out of the arcade, and Sirius placed the hand not holding the bags of clothes over Harry's shoulder.
"Well, you need a new one. When you were a baby, Remus and I called you 'Prongslet', because of your dad's nickname when he transformed," Sirius explained. "Your dad used to call you 'little snitch' because you were very skilled at summoning his dessert. Also, at flying a toy broom I bought you for your first birthday. I think I still have your mum's thank-you letter in my room. I'll show it to you, if you'd like."
"Sure!" Harry grinned up at Sirius.
"Now, though, I'm thinking of 'puppy', since I become a dog, and 'Padlet' sounds a bit...odd," Sirius continued.
"Hmm," Harry remarked, rather offhandedly. "You're not, er, going to call me that in front of Ron or Hermione, are you?"
Sirius grinned, almost wickedly, but after seeing Harry's shocked expression, shook his head. "No, no, that would be far too embarrassing for you."
"Thanks," Harry laughed. After a pause, he added, "I don't mind being called 'puppy'."
"Puppy it is, then. Of course, in front of the Dursleys, you're 'ickle Harrykins'," Sirius added, sagely.
Harry snorted. "Aunt Petunia would kick you out of the house. Maybe literally," he warned.
"Three muggles against me? I could take them!" Sirius chortled, placing an arm around Harry's shoulder.
It was kind of nice, having someone actually there, caring about him.
Giving him a sweet, not entirely embarrassing, nickname.
Sirius insisted that they stop at a muggle book shop in the mall, much to Harry's amusement. It seemed very much like a Hermione request. But, he obliged, and, still holding onto their bags of clothes, they walked into the busy store.
Sirius grabbed a cart and began filling it with children's books. Not quite picture books, it was true, but ones meant for kids far younger than Harry. Sirius seemed intent as he waded through the aisles, looking for certain ones in particular. Harry had never been much of a reader outside of the school required books-the Dursleys' had been determined to make his life as unpleasant as possible, and certainly wouldn't spend their hard-earned money on books for their lousy nephew. Even getting a library card would have been out of the question, because Harry just knew that Dudley would destroy anything he took out, and he would end up at fault.
Now, it seemed, Sirius was trying to make up for lost time. Well, it wasn't like he had any schoolwork this summer, and reading fiction would be a lot more fun than some of his old textbooks (although, he suspected, Hermione was probably doing just this).
Harry glanced at the ever building pile, and was about to remark that he would never finish everything, when he noticed the title of one near the top.
"'The Witches', Sirius?" he asked, with a laugh. "Really?"
Sirius just grinned. "You should have Ron and Hermione read it once you're done. If you'd like," he added, thoughtfully, "we can read it together."
Harry felt a pang wash over him. He was certainly too big to be read aloud to, but Sirius must have known that it was something the Dursleys had never let him experience as a child. Dudley, of course, had had books read to him by his mum, but Harry had been shut away in his cupboard, not even allowed to listen in.
"Yeah, all right," he answered, forcing a smile.
"We'll start tonight. I'll make us some hot chocolate, and find us some biscuits to go along with a chapter or two," Sirius told Harry, as though guessing what he'd been thinking. "Make a habit out of it this summer."
Harry's smile came more easily this time. "That sounds great, Sirius."
Sirius wanted to finish off the outing with a movie, but weighed down with their purchases (which included a very large bag of muggle candy, including all of Sirius' and Harry's favorites), they reluctantly decided to save that for another time.
"I know there are lockers we can use," Sirius acknowledged, "but I don't entirely trust their safety."
He wasn't wrong. Harry remembered Aunt Petunia telling Uncle Vernon about a similar incident occurring, back when Harry was nine. Vernon had yelled the head off of at least one of the employees at the mall, and they had received a check for what they'd paid, but Petunia still needed to go back and buy everything again.
"People do tend to steal stuff a lot more here," Harry remarked. "It's okay, I already had loads of fun."
More than he'd ever had in the muggle world, really.
Grinning, Sirius used a pay phone to call a cab, and ten minutes later, they were on their way back to Privet Drive.
The best part, when they got home, was seeing Dudley's face when Sirius absentmindedly put the bag of candy on the floor. His eyes practically bulged out of his sockets.
"Now, Dudleykins," Aunt Petunia spoke up, coming around and placing a hand on his shoulders, "you know we don't trust anything from them. Remember the time your tongue blew up from the toffee?"
Sirius glanced at Harry, who shook his head and mouthed, "Later!"
"B-but this is our kind of candy!" Dudley protested, pouting.
Vernon came around and inspected it. "Maybe, son, but they're a tricky lot. Probably did some goobly gook hocus pocus magic to make it so that if one of us eats it, something horrible will happen to us!"
"Maybe," muttered Sirius, darkly.
Aunt Petunia gave him a look that wasn't quite a glare. "Tell you what, popkin. Tomorrow, we'll go to your favorite sweet shop, and you can get as much as you like. How does that sound?" At Dudley's look of longing towards the "unsafe" candy, she added, "And you can have an extra portion of ice cream tonight!"
"Oh, all right," he agreed, rather grumpily.
"We'll just take these upstairs," Harry said, quickly, giving Sirius a look.
Sirius gave Harry a quick nod. "Yes, don't want these in your aunt and uncle's way."
Ten minutes later, all of Harry's new clothes were in his closet. Sirius performed a simple cleaning spell on them, just in case they'd been tried on before by someone who hadn't bathed recently, which was probably one of the few things that he and Aunt Petunia had in common. Afterwards, with the bag of candy safely placed behind the set of books Dudley had likely never touched (just to be on the safe side), and the new ones placed on the shelves, Sirius and Harry sat down on his bed to relax a little before dinner.
Sirius immediately fixed the TV that Dudley had broken years ago, and they turned it on to serve as background noise in case they could be overheard downstairs.
Aunt Marge's room had a TV, of course, and it was further away from the rest of the house, but Harry thought this was nice.
It was the first time Dudley's old room had ever really felt like his, especially with Sirius there.
"So, Harry, you promised you'd tell me why Dudleykins should be afraid of all wizarding candy," his godfather prompted, his arm around Harry's shoulder.
Harry laughed. "Well, you know how two summers ago, I got to go to the Quidditch World Cup with Ron and his family?"
Five minutes later, both of them were in peels of laughter that even the noise of the television couldn't hide.
"Ron's dad was furious at the twins," Harry recalled, once he'd gotten his breath back. "He said it was those kinds of things that undermined relations between us and the muggles."
"Well, and he wasn't entirely wrong," Sirius allowed, with a huge grin on his face, "but this is Petunia's son, and it's not like anyone forced him to eat the candy."
Harry, who vividly recalled Dudley and his gang chasing him and beating him up on more than one occasion pre-Hogwarts, couldn't disagree.
"Anyway, Mr. Weasley set it right, and there's no permanent harm done," Harry allowed.
Sirius squeezed Harry's shoulder. "No physical permanent harm, you mean."
Harry nodded, leaning in to his godfather, who brushed some hair out of his face. "Right."
They were quiet for a few minutes, with Sirius' arms around Harry, almost protectively, one hand breaking loose on occasion to play with his hair.
"Your dad's hair was the same way as yours," Sirius murmured, after a few minutes of it flopping around, stubborning falling back into place over Harry's forehead. "And his father's, too. It must run in the male side of the family."
"What about his mum's?" Harry asked, looking up at Sirius.
"She had dark hair, but it was straight. I don't know if she used the potion their family created every morning, or if it was like that on its own," Sirius answered. "She wore it long, too. Past her waist."
The image of Cho's hair appeared briefly in Harry's mind, replaced by a more important question. "They created that potion? The one Hermione used for the Yule ball?"
"Yes, James' father, Fleamont, invented it, and sold it for a fortune. They were already quite rich, but the earnings added to it considerably," Sirius explained. Teasingly, he added, "You're not thinking of putting it on your hair, are you?"
Harry made a face. "No thanks. 'Sides, Hermione said it took ages to apply, even if it did make her hair look a lot better!"
"It does," Sirius agreed. "Lasts for less than twenty-four hours, too. James said that his dad had an idea for making it last longer, but they couldn't quite get the kinks out."
Harry rather thought that it was a good thing he didn't have to worry about this. Sure, his hair was messy and never sat straight, but it mattered a lot less for boys than girls.
Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same thing, because he added, "You're not thinking of using it on your hair, are you? You look just fine the way you are, puppy!"
Harry shook his head. "No, I wouldn't want the bother of it."
Sirius chuckled and gave Harry's shoulder another squeeze. They sat like that in silence for a few minutes, watching the unfamiliar muggle TV show, and enjoying being with each other.
Harry was still looking forward to leaving the Dursleys, but this certainly was the most pleasant time he'd spent at Privet Drive in his entire life.
Sirius spoke up again after about several minutes. "Your, er, relatives seem to think I'm about to bring out my wand and turn them into rats if they say the wrong thing."
"Well," Harry began, "they know that you can do magic, even though I'm underage. So, there's that. But, when I first told them about you, I sort of told them the worst stuff..."
He trailed off, wondering how Sirius would react.
Fortunately, Sirius had the beginnings of a grin tugging at his face. "Go on, then."
It was easy enough for Harry to remember, as he'd set the scene to memory. "At the end of my third year, you'd send me your first letter, with the form. Uncle Vernon asked what it was, and I told him it was a letter from my godfather. He sputtered that I didn't have a godfather. I said that I did, that you were my mum and dad's best friend." Harry could feel a laugh coming on. "I told him that you were a convicted murderer, but you'd broken out of wizard prison and were on the run. But, that you liked to keep in touch with me, to hear my news, and make sure I was happy. He was totally speechless!"
Sirius chortled. "Didn't think it was wise to let them know I was innocent, did you?"
"Come to think of it, you just being a wizard and friends with my parents would have been enough, but the part about you being a convicted escaped murderer had a nice ring to it, you know?" Harry asked, giving Sirius the once over.
More chuckles. "Oh, absolutely. I applaud your creativity, puppy, and your dad would be very, very proud as well. As would your mum."
"It's made life a lot more bearable since then," Harry confided.
"This," Sirius made a broad gesture, "is bearable?"
Harry shrugged. "They're the Dursleys. There's only so much you can hope for."
Sirius privately wondered if Harry was setting his hopes too low, but with not too many days ahead, perhaps it would be best to just grin and bear it.
Well, bear it, anyway.
"What was it like before?" Sirius asked, gently.
"Before, like, when I was away at Hogwarts, but here for the summer?" Harry wanted to know.
"Yes," Sirius confirmed.
"The first summer, they locked all of my books and things in the cupboard under the stairs, and kept Hedwig shut up in my room. They probably would have locked me up, too, except they didn't know that I couldn't use magic outside of school," Harry explained. "Then, Dobby showed up to warn me about not going back, and he used magic, so I got an official warning, and, er, they really did lock me up. In my room. Ron and his brothers flew their dad's flying car to rescue me, since Dobby had been keeping their letters from getting to me, and everyone was worried." Harry took a breath for air, aware of Sirius' hands on his shoulders. "The next summer wasn't quite as bad, because they didn't lock Hedwig up, and she could send letters. That was when-"
"-When I saw the article in the Daily Prophet about Ron's family going on holiday in Egypt, and noticed the markings of that rat, Peter Pettigrew," Sirius interrupted, enthusiastically.
"Er, yeah." Harry grinned. "Except, Uncle Vernon's horrible aunt Marge came to visit us for a week. Honestly, Sirius, if you think they're bad, they're next to nothing compared to her. I managed to mostly hold it together during the week, 'cause Uncle Vernon promised he'd sign the Hogsmeade permission slip if I kept to their script about being in this high level reformed school for criminal minors-"
"He said you were WHERE?" Sirius thundered, squeezing Harry's shoulder so hard it hurt. "Sorry, sorry, puppy!" he apologized, immediately letting go.
"It's okay," Harry answered, truthfully. "Um, I think he said it was Saint Brutus' Secure Center For Incurably Criminal Boys..."
"Sounds almost as bad as Azkaban," Sirius grumbled. After a pause, he asked, gently, "Harry, was that where they were planning to send you before you got your Hogwarts letter?"
"No, they were going to send me to Stonewall, the regular school for kids my age. Dudley got accepted into some fancy prep school, so for the first time in my life, we wouldn't be in the same place. I was almost looking forward to it, until I found out I was a wizard and wouldn't have to live with the Dursleys most of the year," Harry explained, quickly.
Sirius looked relieved. "What did this Marge do on the last night?"
Harry made a face, the memory still sour in his mind. "Called Mum a bad egg, said that my parents were worthless, that they were probably drunk when they got in the car wreck...all sorts of horrible things. I sort of lost control, then, and accidentally inflated her." Chancing a glance at Sirius, who was smirking with satisfaction, Harry added, "I was sure they were going to expel me, so I packed up all of my stuff and left. I thought I might fly to London on my Nimbus, covering myself with my invisibility cloak, and empty out the rest of my money from my vault and go into hiding. Instead, when I saw you, I accidentally waved my wand and ended up on the Knight Bus. Fudge was waiting for me at the Leaky Cauldron, and he was so relieved that I was okay that he said not to worry, just pick out a room and stay there until the term started."
"Didn't stop him from going on about that during your trial, though," Sirius recalled, rather acidly.
"Sure, because I'd gone from being the Boy Who Lived to the Boy Who Lied," Harry reminded him.
"And now, you're the Chosen One." Sirius chuckled, placing an arm around Harry, then holding him close. "Our world's a strange one, puppy."
"Very strange," Harry agreed, leaning in close.
"For what it's worth," Sirius added, reflectively, "I don't blame you for blowing up your aunt-unintentionally, I know, I know! If it wasn't against the law, and I knew where she lived, I might place a few nonfatal hexes on that woman."
"Thanks, Sirius. I don't think there's much chance that I'll have to see her before we leave the Dursleys for good. Also, they modified her memory, so..."
"Too bad. Wise of them, but a shame. Might have taught her a few manners," Sirius mused.
Harry laughed, and they stayed close to each other until Aunt Petunia called them down for dinner.
A/N:
Looking back at my first chapter, I think it was probably out of character for Harry to tell Sirius so soon that, prior to Hogwarts, he slept in a cupboard. Harry isn't really one to complain about his treatment by the Dursleys, and while he trusts Sirius, he would have had some reservations about being so open. Having already written it, though, it would be more trouble for myself and anyone who's read it to take it out. What I might end up doing, instead, is have Harry reflect later on how wise it was to let Sirius know about this particular abuse.
If you'll notice, Harry specifically leaves out that the Dursleys added bars to his windows or nearly starved him when he talks about being rescued by Ron and the twins. He'll likely do more of this if he has to relay what his relatives have done-not lying, but not providing the gory details.
In the event of anything related to Voldemort, Harry will be entirely honest, because he views this as necessary information for those he's keeping in his confidence to have. I will specify later, but Sirius WILL be added to the short list of people who Dumbledore says he can tell everything to.
If you could take a minute to leave a line or two of feedback, I would really appreciate it!
