A/N: typing with a UK English keyboard is weird... y'all do this normally? lmao. anyways I'm in the UK for work so. Thematically accurate fic update! :) cheers
His interactions with Pandora and Lillian Nott had Sirius think hard in the days following his cousins' first coven meeting. Regulus was gone, Lily and James were gone, but there were still others he loved that he hadn't seen since his release. Between healing and acclimating to having Harry, everything else had fallen to the wayside. It was something he needed to rectify, not only for himself, but for his godson, nephew and niece.
That's what led to him apparating into a secluded alleyway in Muggle London with Harry strapped to his chest with a scarf and taking a stroll down the neighborhood streets until he reached a familiar doorstep. It was swept tidy as always, the flat number gleaming bronze against the simple black door. He could feel the tingle of wards as he stepped up to knock– luckily they weren't limited to specific magical signatures, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to enter until Harry was added.
It took several moments, but eventually the door swung open to reveal an olive-skinned woman with kinky dark brown hair. She'd looked ready to hex him at first glance, but then her gaze fell to the toddler swaddled against him and her eyes widened, tears beginning to pool.
"Hey MacDonald," Sirius said with a wry smirk. "I'd like you to meet Harry Potter." He paused, seeing that the toddler had squirmed until he could look up at the witch, always curious of new people. "Harry, this is your Aunt Mary."
Harry whined and continued to squirm, so when Mary held out her hands in a silent offer to hold him, Sirius easily passed his godson into the witch's arms.
"It's wonderful to meet you, Harry," she murmured softly, propping him against her hip and beginning to bounce him. He babbled back incomprehensibly, his hands reaching up to try and grab at her hair.
This was how it always should've been.
Sirius was thus caught off guard when she slapped him hard across the face.
"You bastard," she seethed, all while Harry burst into giggles. Sirius chalked it up to another thing he got from Lily: the love to see Sirius put in his place. "What the fuck were you thinking?"
He knew she was asking about so many things in that one single question: going to Godric's Hollow alone, chasing the rat alone, seemingly admitting to helping the Potters being murdered… leaving her in the dark.
"I wasn't," he admitted quietly.
"No, you weren't," she agreed, her curls bouncing along with her sharp nod.
"Talk over some firewhiskey?" He offered with a hopeful smile.
Mary looked ready to slap him again, and with Harry's continued encouragement, she just might still.
"With a baby here?" She hissed. "You're going to have tea and you're going to like it."
It was still Mary, just a little rougher around the edges. They all were now, the ones of them that were still left.
Sirius' grin brightened as she shifted enough to let him enter her flat. "Missed you lots, Mary-bell."
Her eyes softened but the rest of her posture remained guarded. "Glad you found your way back, Siri-dear."
Harry babbled the entire time it took for Mary to make tea the Muggle way, with Mary replying to him in the natural pauses he took to breathe. Sirius listened from her small sitting room, sitting upright and proper on her couch for once. He owed Mary much more than an explanation, and he didn't want to respark her ire by lounging like he normally would. She'd hex him for putting his feet on the fabric.
"He certainly has the Potter charm," Mary announced as she levitated the full tea tray into the room, setting it down on the small footstool in front of him.
"I've taught him everything he knows," Sirius retorted, hand over his heart in betrayal.
"Bah!" Harry clapped his hands together. Sirius took it as a sign of agreement.
Mary hummed lightly and sat down in the armchair across from him. Harry was propped on her thigh and quieted once he found interest in the decorative buttons on her knit sweater.
"I'll let you decide where to start," she prompted, focusing on serving herself tea to give him a moment to collect his thoughts. He'd come here knowing this was the main purpose– other than introducing Harry to who would be one of his fiercest protectors– but it still was daunting to force the words out for the first time.
"Azkaban sucks the happiness out of you," he murmured quietly. "It just completely drains you and constantly brings up your very worst memories." He glanced up at Mary. "I suppose you know about us being…"
"About the three of you being Animagi to help with Remus' furry little problem? Both the best and worst-kept secret of our year mates," she huffed. "Figured it out in sixth year."
A ghost of a smile slid across his face. "Changing into Padfoot kept the worst of it at bay, but every time I turned back, the dementors would leech on my worst memory connected to my Animagus form." He shut his eyes reflexively despite the darkness that encroached when he did so. "Every time I transformed, I had to see the terror in Snape's eyes when James dragged him out of the shack, and the fear on Remus' face the next morning, and…"
He heard Mary sigh and the rustle of fabric as she stood up and moved to sit next to him. The hug that she pulled him into was full of comfort, yet not of sympathy.
"It was wrong of you to do," she said firmly. "It might be the worst thing you've ever done," she actually admitted, and Sirius nodded his head against her shoulder. "Snape is owed a long overdue apology."
That made Sirius snort. "He was a Death Eater. Bellatrix told us all about the things he did. He wasn't shy about liking all of it."
"His sins do not absolve your own," Mary stopped his train of thought, "and vice versa." She squeezed him once and pulled back. Sirius opened his eyes to see her watching in subtle amusement now. "That said, it's probably best that you don't apologize in person either."
"A letter?" He couldn't decide if he was joking or not.
"Gosh, no. That'll just make him angrier." She fell silent, thinking. "No, use your Patronus."
He wasn't sure he could even make a Patronus anymore. He was too busy hunting the traitor after Lily and James were killed, and the thought hadn't crossed his mind to try since his release.
Mary made him want to try. Harry made him believe he could do it. He scooped his giggling godson into his arms and pulled his wand out of his inner jacket pocket.
"Ready for some magic, pup?" He asked, tapping his wand harmlessly on the boy's nose.
"Mah!" Harry cheered. It was all Sirius needed.
"Expecto patronum!"
Mary's jaw dropped. Sirius's hand began to shake. Harry whined in confusion and reached his hands out towards the silver, ghostly figure.
Sirius' patronus was Prongs.
"No fair!" Mary's gasp cut through the thick tension. "You had James too?!"
He barked a laugh, his smirk flickering into existence for the briefest moment before fading away as he stared at the shining stag in the middle of Mary's sitting room. "No, I didn't shag James. Although we did kiss once," he mused as an afterthought.
The brunette rolled her eyes. "That means nothing. You kissed every Gryff in our year at least twice." She stepped forward cautiously with a hand raised in greeting, and something mended deep in Sirius' chest as he watched the stag press its head against her palm and scratch at the floor with its hooves.
"It used to be a wolf," he admitted, and both of them swung to look at him. "Or I thought it was. Very big dog, but not exactly Padfoot."
Mary watched him contemplatively. "Sirius, you hurt him, deeply. But I kept up with Lily, and she told me of how he left you all during the war. It's a two way street… and he's no longer the most important person in your life, either." Her gaze fell on Harry, who was still staring at Prongs with wide eyes.
Sirius shifted his hold on Harry as his patronus glided towards them, possibly more for his own reassurance than for Harry's. "You know, I had thought about adopting him," he said softly, "making him my heir." He wasn't sure he was talking to Mary anymore.
"He's already the Potter heir."
The stag's shimmering light seared into Sirius' mind. "I suppose he'll be another Black masquerading as a Potter then? Each generation ought to have at least one."
"Lord have mercy on Professor McGonagall," Mary laughed.
After Sirius passed along the apology he had for Severus Snape, the stag dipped its head and bounded away, replacing the space between them with the gentle afternoon sunlight.