Harry aged 11
"Come here pup" Sirius pulled the boy into a hug on the busy platform of King's Cross station. He found himself emotionally conflicted as he stood on the platform, surrounded by eager First year students. On one hand, he felt an immense excitement for the child and the experiences he was about to have. On the other, he found himself reminiscing on the small boy who he had taken in all those years ago.
"The trains going to leave without me" the boy laughed, squirming out of the man's tight hug. Ron had already run ahead to grab them some seats on the train; Mrs. Weasley being a bit more used to sending a child off to Hogwarts than his uncle was.
Sirius ruffled the boy's hair, "go on then" he nodded towards the train with a smile. He watched as the boy ran towards the train, a quick glance back to offer the man a wave and an ear-splitting grin as he climbed up onto the train.
"See you at Christmas!" the boy yelled out of the window as the steam began rushing up out of the train.
"Write me and tell me what house you're in!" Sirius yelled back, knowing there was no way Harry would be anything other than a Gryffindor.
Sirius watched the train until it was long out of sight, feeling slightly lost on what to do with himself now. Usually, an outing to London was followed by a trip to the ice cream parlor for Harry, though he didn't fancy nursing a sundae alone.
Instead, he said his goodbye's to the remaining Weasley members before heading to the Leaky Cauldron for a pint. Truth be told, he was a bit worried about Harry going to Hogwarts. Not for Harry, he knew the boy would be just fine there. No, he was more worried for himself and what would become of him without the distraction of a rambunctious boy running about the manor.
"Fancy seeing you here" a familiar voice called, and Sirius looked up from his pint to see the friendly face of Remus Lupin.
"That predictable, am I?" he replied with a laugh, waving a hand over to the bartender to order his friend a pint too.
"Where else would a man go after dropping his one and only godson off to the big castle" he answered back, giving a nod of thanks as his beer floated over to the table, only narrowly missing a mans head.
The pair sat in comfortable silence for a while, Remus closely watching his friend with some concern. Sirius had become slightly more withdrawn in the days leading up to September 1st, and it reminded Remus of how he'd been when Harry had first arrived.
"D'you think he'll be alright?" Sirius asked after some time, his eyebrows drawn into a concerned frown as he thought about the train journey, and tried to work out where the train would be at this precise moment.
Remus swallowed a laugh, so as not to dismiss his friends concern, "what makes you think he wouldn't be?" the man asked with a smile.
Looking up into the unconcerned face of his friend, Sirius answered "you know he doesn't like being away from home".
Remus raised an eyebrow at this, given that Harry hadn't expressed any fears of being away from home since he was about 7.
"Its true" Sirius insisted, "you remember I had to floo over to the Weasley's to collect him because he was inconsolable and couldn't get to sleep there".
"That was four years ago, Sirius" Remus explained patiently, "he didn't seem too concerned when he was leaving, did he?" the man asked genuinely, for he had not accompanied the pair to the station.
Sirius thought for a moment before smiling sadly, "No" he shook his head, "he couldn't wait to go".
Something in the mans tone had Remus fighting the urge to roll his eyes, "he's just excited to start Hogwarts" the man began explaining. "Merlin, he's spent the past 10 years hearing you talk about how brilliant it is" he laughed. "I hardly think his excitement was about leaving home".
Sirius smiled at this, "I'll miss him, that's for sure".
"I know" Remus replied, "so, are we taking bets on what house he'll be in?" the man asked, eliciting a laugh from his friend.
"The odds aren't great; he's a guaranteed Gryffindor" Sirius said, recalling the moment he became certain of the fact.
Sirius sat on a park bench as he watched Harry run into the children's play area opposite. There weren't many children there today, given that rain was forecasted, and the skies were fairly grey.
"Leave him alone!" Sirius looked up from his newspaper at the tone of his child, spotting the boy squaring up to two much larger boys. He braced himself to intervene should it escalate any further, lifting his newspaper up slightly to make his observations less obvious.
"He was here first" Sirius smiled, as he watched Harry frown at the standing boys. "You can use it after" he heard Harry add.
"Who was talking to you Shrimp?" one of the boys rounded on Harry, and Sirius moved forward slightly on the bench. Remus had told him that it was important that Harry learn to deal with things like that on his own, and that he should only step in if he thought Harry would get hurt. Sirius, however, was tempted to send a stinging hex their way based on their tone alone.
"You're only picking on him cos he's smaller" Harry shot back, gesturing to the child on the other swing who the boys had initially targeted.
The boys rounded closer, and Sirius again shifted himself forward slightly on the bench, ready to rush over should he need to.
"Get off" one of them repeated, this time to Harry directly.
"No" Harry glared, swinging himself back and forth.
"Get off!" the same boy demanded, this time more aggressively.
"I'll get off when I'm ready" Harry said, "but I can't swing if you keep standing there" he added with a sarcastic tone that had Sirius biting back a smile.
Then, everything seemed a blur and Sirius found himself crashing his hip into the metal gate of the fenced-off play area as he scrambled to get in. He couldn't be certain how it had happened, one minute Harry had been on the swing and the next he was knocked to the floor, one of the boys quickly jumping to take his place. Sirius, however, appeared to have reacted slower than Harry, who promptly stood up and punched the older boy square in the nose.
"Yes, you enjoyed that day a bit too much" Remus smiled knowingly as Sirius recounted the tale.
"You have to admit it was pretty brilliant" Sirius laughed back, "I mean, he was about half the size of them".
"He's always been passionate about fairness".
"He's sent a letter!" Sirius yelled excitedly up the stairs to his friend as soon as the owl dropped off the morning post the next day. Remus had decided to spend a few days at Grimmauld Place with Sirius, to help ease the man into the transition of living there alone.
"Coming!" he heard Remus call, promptly followed by the sound of footsteps rushing down the stairs.
Dear Uncle Sirius (and probably Uncle Remus too),
The train ride here was brilliant, just like you said it would be. You know Ron—he brought along half the contents of the kitchen in his trunk! Mrs. Weasley packed us homemade sandwiches, cakes, and pumpkin pasties. I also spent a lot of my pocket money getting snacks from the trolley, sorry about that!
You've probably already guessed, but just to spell it out for you, I'm in Gryffindor House. I know you and Remus were taking bets, but it doesn't really count when you're both betting on the same thing. Maybe you should both owe me a galleon instead?
Anyway, I just wanted to write to say that I miss you, but not to worry about me because I'm fine. Make sure you tell Kreacher I miss him too! I'll write again at the end of the week.
Love you lots,
Harry
P.S. Ron wanted me to tell you that the Cannons are absolutely going to annihilate the Harpies at the next match.
Sirius laughed at the final line, "as if" he snorted, Remus simply shaking his head at both Ron's antagonizing and Sirius' response.
"Are you satisfied now that he's well?" the man asked, taking a sip of his coffee. Sirius simply nodded as he read the letter again, imagining Harry was there and recounting it aloud.