Chapter Text
Wednesday, 19 August 1592
“Please, tell me more about them,” Harry said imploringly. He’d been following Sirus around like a lost puppy begging for scraps about his parents, and frankly Sirius needed to tell him to sleep, but the poor boy seemed so desperate.
“No, it's late, and you need to sleep,” Sirius said, feeling mighty guilty. He wished Harry would leave him alone. His hair was James, his face was James, his eyes, oh Merlin he had his mothers eyes, and every time Sirius looked at him it was akin to being subjected to the cruciatus curse (Sirius would know).
“Okay,” Harry said sullenly “Which room are you going to put me in?”
“The spare room of course!” Sirius laughed, the kid sounded like he thought he'd be sleeping on the floor. Then he realised and his laughter dropped off.
“You live on a boat in the middle of nowhere, why do you have a spare room?” It seemed to bother Harry that the answer eluded him.
“It’s in case he—one of our friends, come to stay,” Sirius desperately hoped Harry wouldn't notice his little slip, that would be much too hard to explain and he was so young.
“I don't need a whole room to myself, I can sleep on the floor, it’s okay,” Harry said, and Sirius was baffled, he’d assumed since Harry had grown up in the palace he'd be a bit more spoilt.
“Now I don't normally speak for Remus, but I can assure you that it is vital to the both of us for you to know that we value you, and see you as a person, and that means treating you as our equal, which means, giving you a bed,” Sirius took a deep breath, “Okay?”
“Okay,” Harry said.
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When Sirus updated Remus his theories on Harry's upbringing, Remus was indignant.
“Pads, are you sure?” Moony asked. Sirius wished he had the same hope his boyfriend did, but he knew the signs well. Remus may have grown up poor and without parents, but they did care for him at the orphanage, he was treated well.
“No, love, I’m not sure,” Sirius said, because, well, as strong as his suspicions were, they’d only just met the kid, but he was definitely going to keep a lookout for anything else that might clue them in.
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Thursday, 20 August 1592
The next day, Harry was once again pursuing Sirius doggedly. This time, Sirius was making attempts to answer every question he had.
Most of his questions were about James, which Sirius answered with ease, albeit however much he missed his best friend. Then Harry asked about his Mum. Sirius felt a jolt of electricity run through his body.
“Oh Lily Evans, where do I begin?
Friday, 7 April 1573
A hand shot up to answer the question asked by Professor Sinistra about the 8 phases of the lunar cycle. That hand belonged to a girl with fiery red hair and an equally fiery personality. She was smart and vivacious and James Potter was completely in love with her.
Sirius thought his prospects with her were bleak, considering she hated their guts. It wasn't their fault they had made enemies with her slimy best friend Snivellus.
Lily’s answer was correct (new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent), as her answers always were.
“Great job Lily,” Snape drawled, which was responded to with a sharp glare from Profesor Sinastra. Lily was probably the smartest in the year, and Snape loved to make that clear. He constantly had an air of ‘better than everyone’ and he loved to flaunt the fact that he was friends with Lily. The marauders didn't understand how Lily could put up with it.
What the marauders could understand, (apart from James that was), was the fact that Lily thought of James as all ‘all brawn and no brain’. He constantly goofed around in class and would always vie for her attention and Lily wasn't having it.
When Snivellus had first told her that James had a crush on her, she was aghast. She already hated Sirius and James for the harmless little prank they played on Severus in their first year. Not to mention the rest of their various exploits against the Slytherins that came after that.
She hated Remus and Peter too, just for going along with Sirius and James' shenanigans, although not as contemptuously as she hated the other two boys. Remus and Peter were happy with that, always happy to divert attention from themselves onto the more extroverted of the gang.
Sirius reluctantly began to pay attention to class. He was smart, but astrology didn't come too naturally to him, other than the fact he could name a bunch of constellations, thanks to being a part of the infamous Black family. But stars didn't help when it came to moon phases and he really wanted to learn considering some theories he was beginning to have.
James’s new thing was to run his hands through his hair in an effort to keep it spruced up to attempt to get Lily's attention. Unfortunately for Sirius who sat behind him so they could pass notes, his hand would keep blocking the chalkboard. He’d taken to copying Remus’s diligent notes, as a trade for letting Remus copy him when he was sick (he’d let him anyway but Remus didn't know that. In a roundabout way, it was only fair). Remus was sick a lot.
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Sunday, 15 April 1573
“Oh no James, I think you've just made yourself a mortal enemy,” Sirius laughed as James groaned and dropped onto the ornate common room couch, staring at the fender of the fireplace as the coals smouldered and burt, while Lily made her way up the stairs to the girls' dorms.
“Don't be mean, he already knows his chances are doomed,” Remus nudged him. Of course Sirius knew it wasn't James's fault, how could he have possibly known how badly Lily would react to being asked out.
“You know, next time, I’ll make it even more romantic,” James decided.
“What do you mean ‘next time’, mate, did we just see the same thing,” Peter said, sitting down next to him.
“What I mean, dear Pete, is that I obviously didn't put enough effort into this, I mean how could she reject me?” James said with a little hand flourish type gesture to himself on the word ‘me’.
“I can think of more than a couple ways,” said Sirius, grimacing.
“She’ll realise she's in love with me one day, just you all wait and see,” James said. “I’m serious,” he said, before turning to glare at Sirius, daring him to make that joke one more time. He wanted to so badly, but he restrained himself.
“Oh Merlin, we never should have encouraged this,” Remus said ruefully.
“She hangs around greasy old Snape, aren't you even a little leery about that?” Asked Peter.
“Nah, she's a gryffindor through and through, I just have to make her see that silly Snivellus isn't worth her time,” James declared.
“If you keep going on about her like this it will be agony for the rest of us, I do hope you know,” Sirius said in a joking manner, but soon he’d realise he wasn't wrong. It would be 3am and they’d still be hearing mumbles about her hair, her eyes, her voice, ect. The only thing that James talked about more for the next couple years than Lily Evans, was his favourite sport, Quiditch.
He loved the game, and idolised each of its players. Of course he'd made it to the team at the beginning of the year. He’d tried to convince the other boys to try out too, but only Sirius did, and he didn’t make it to the team. James promised to practice with Sirius this year, now that they were allowed their own brooms, and Sirius thought he was liable to join the team as a beater the next year, considering one of the beaters for Gryfindor was in their 7th year.
James was bewildered at both Remus and Peter's unwillingness to try out, Peter claiming he just wasn't good, which was true, and Remus’s distinct hatred of flying, as evidenced by the fact it was definitely his worst class. Remus and Lily had that in common at least, their lack of talent when it came to flying. They could both write essays and compositions galore but when it came to broomsticks they were stumped, much to the glee of their fellow classmates, who were all sick of those two nerds getting everything right on the first try. Sirius was impressed last lesson, when Remus had hovered above the ground without flinching. Sirius had meanwhile acquitted himself nicely as one of the best fliers in the year, second only to James.
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Thursday, 20 August 1592
“If she hated him so much, why did she marry him?” Harry asked, perplexed.
“Well, by the time 6th year came thay had just become friends, and as to why they got married, well, that's a difficult question to answer, I wasn't there when he proposed” Sirius said, It wasn't exactly a lie, he hadn't been there, but he knew for a fact James would have made him be there, if he had actually proposed at all. How much Harry knew about, well everything, they would have to find out. But for now Sirius was desperately trying to avoid saying anything that would disrupt his worldview anymore than necessary. He had just been thrown out of his home and left for dead, and Sirius didn't even think he’d fully registered it. He didn't much remember being 11 but he was sure most 11 year olds would have cried or at least shut down by now, he would have to ask Remus, he was the one who remembered more of their first couple school years.
“Mhm,” Said Harry, clearly knowing there was something more going on. It was times like these where Sirius wished he were a better liar, that he was a bit more like–no, Sirius would not be thinking about him, not right now, not while he needed to be focused and present for Harry. He would make up for all those lost years.
He would make up for them, for every birthday, every cup of tea, every sunset, every midnight, every single moment he missed. He would be the best damn godfather the world would ever know. Oh shit, he’d forgotten to tell Harry he was his godfather.
“Oh Harry, I forgot to tell you, I’m your godfather!” Sirius grinned.
Maybe, just maybe, Harry would fill just a little bit of the gaping hole in his chest, the one left in the wake of the death of his best friend, his brother, the person who should have been his best mate for life.