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“Remind me why we’re here again,” Harry said in a whiny, exasperated tone, making Sirius once again wonder who was the adult and who was the child.
“C’mon Harry, lighten up!” He said cheerfully. “It’s a carnival! They’re meant to be fun!”
“Not always,” his godson muttered darkly, and Sirius made a note of it, like he always did when Harry made his oblique references to life at his aunt and uncle’s. No one could ever make him say anything about that time outright, but as he relaxed into his new life, he let little allusions to it like this one slip out.
Sirius leaned over and gently ruffled his hair. Harry looked up at him with Lily’s wide green eyes. “I promise, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” he said softly. “But why not try it out? The rides and the food might be nice.”
Harry bit his lip, but he looked more acquiescent. “Better than your cooking, anyway,” he said cheekily.
Sirius gasped, putting a hand to his heart. “Hey! The last quiche came out pretty well!” He protested playfully.
“It was too crusty,” Harry said solemnly. “And the proportions were off. But you’re doing loads better.”
“Why, thank you for the compliment, Master,” Sirius rolled his eyes. Harry had been cooking for two years already – a thought which made him want to track down and kill Vernon and Petunia Dursley – and was therefore a much better cook than Sirius was. The lessons and cooking help was always a fun bonding time, though.
Harry grinned, swinging his arm as though holding his toy lightsaber. “You can still do better, Jedi.” Then his eyes widened as they passed a stall. “Can we get candy floss?”
“Course,” Sirius replied, taking his wallet out. “I’ll stand in line; you can look at what else you want to do as long as you stay in hollering distance.”
Harry had his emergency portkey and calling mirror on him, of course, and several tracking charms placed on him, but Sirius would still rather just not lose him.
Harry grinned, eyes lighting up with cautious excitement. “Yeah, okay.”
Sirius loathed standing in queues. He remembered always ditching them and leaving Remus or Pet—Evans or James’ parents to stand in for him, flirting to cut them, and Disillusioning himself so as to not have to stand in them.
But now he was a godfather. A guardian. A father. He couldn’t be irresponsible and set a bad example.
And he loved Harry so much. Standing in queues was nothing, even if Sirius had loathed the thought as a child, always impatient and moving around.
Paying for two candy flosses, and taking a bite out of his own, remembering the time Lily had taken them to a fair and Sirius had gotten carted off to dog jail, he looked for his godson, knowing the boy rarely strayed out of seeing range.
Sure enough, he was looking at the poster on the wall nearby, fascinated.
“Sirius, look at this!” He said, enthralled. “There’s a maze! And it’s made out of corn!”
“You’ve never seen a corn maze, kiddo?” He asked. “I remember we went to one when we were just out of Hogwarts. Your dad found it really romantic. He and Lily just wouldn’t stop kissing.”
“Ugh,” Harry made a face, but he was smiling the way he always did when Sirius talked about his parents.
It was easier than it had been before. Because Harry deserved to know everything about his heritage, and to have everything that made him happy.
“You want to go in it?” He asked, and his godson nodded vehemently.
“Please, Sirius!” He said. “It says that the maze is nearly seven feet tall!” The tyke seemed to swoon at the thought of something that tall, even if Sirius was 6 foot 1 and had never inspired such intimidation in him. Even when Harry had been wary, certain that he had had ulterior motives in taking him in, he’d been ridiculously cheeky. “And that there are checkpoints, and you get prizes at each one of them!”
Harry looked delighted at the thought. Sirius wondered if he wasn’t giving him enough presents.
Then he remembered Remus rolling his eyes and calling him exorbitant and spoiling and saying ‘Sirius, that pile of presents would be taller than me if I were standing on your shoulders!’.
Yeah, probably not.
Sirius considered it, and talked to one of the staff. “It’ll take almost two hours to get through, and they say the corn maze is pretty tricky,” he reported. “Are you sure you want to do this, Harry?”
Harry frowned concentratedly for a second, but then nodded firmly.
Okay. Harry was seven, and a mature kid besides. He could decide if he wanted to do something.
“Just be warned, I’m not carrying you if you decide you’re too tired in the middle of the maze,” Sirius lied blatantly. He absolutely would do that.
Harry rolled his eyes. “Sure, Sirius. I think it’s more likely I’ll have to carry you anyway.”
Sirius gaped. “The blasphemy! The insult! The lie!”
“Can we do the shooting game first?” His godson ignored the ongoing hysterics, pointing at a stall. “And get a burger?”
He calmed down, taking Harry’s hand and heading to the game. “Yeah. Outside food’s allowed inside the maze, so we can take breaks inside and buy coke and burgers and fruits to eat there.”
Harry’s face lit up. He was always so pleased and content and ridiculously happy with such small things – Ron making a joke, a sleepover being confirmed, learning a new flight maneuver, eating his favourite fruit, reading his favourite book. It was a great trait, but Sirius wished it hadn’t come due to his lack of a happy childhood.
Or maybe it hadn’t. Maybe that was just Harry’s personality. He adored the kid, he could absolutely believe he was that kind and easy to please naturally.
The whole nature vs nurture thing was giving him a headache.
Anyway, Harry popped all the balloons with darts at the stall, prompting a standing ovation by everyone nearby – those archery classes were really coming in handy – and won a stuffed toy that Harry proudly called Felicity and was clearly going to go everywhere Harry did from now on.
Then they bought tons of gummy worms and two burgers and coke and sweet drinks and fries and fish and chips – enough to make Sirius’ stomach clench at the sight and think that they had enough food to last at least the next week.
Then again, Harry ate food like he was in a competition for it, and he hoarded it like hell. Sirius pretended not to notice the backpack Harry had in his room, with a change of clothes, a fourth of his pocket money given every week, toiletries, a bus schedule, and food.
It killed him a little, but it made Harry feel safe and that was what was important.
Sirius had also gotten a mini-fridge installed in Harry’s room so that he could hoard his food properly. Harry had nearly cried then.
Shaking his head to get rid of the maudlin thoughts, he followed his godson who was running ecstatically in the maze, jumping up and down to look beyond the hedges.
Spoiler alert: he couldn’t.
“I want to be tall,” the boy whined.
He smiled, forcing himself not to think about how malnutritioned and thin Harry had been when he’d first come to live with him. The Dursleys hadn’t starved him, but they’d come pretty close. “James and Lily were pretty scrawny until sixth year too, kiddo. Your genetics aren’t kind to you in that regard.” Too late, he recalled a seven-year-old probably wouldn’t know what ‘genetics’ meant.
Harry surprised him. “But they became tall eventually, right? So I will too?”
“I. . . Don’t think that’s how genes work,” Sirius said slowly.
Harry sighed. “Yeah, we learned about them in school last year, a bit. I wish genes could be affected by nearness. You’re super tall! I want to be just like you!”
Harry was talking only about his height, of course, but Sirius still had to swallow at the sheer earnestness and adoration in his godson’s eyes, and biting back the cynical response, turned to the front and said in a hopefully matter-of-fact voice, “There’s the first checkpoint, kiddo. Want to see what prize is there?”
He did, in fact, want to, and left him behind in the sprint to get there.
When Sirius caught up quickly – maybe Harry had a point wishing for his height – he was joyfully holding up a huge seventy-five colour crayon pack. “Sirius! Sirius, look!” He exclaimed. “It’s awesome! There’re so many new shades! I gotta show Neville and Ron! They’ll be so jealous! And I can colour the dragons in the books so much better now!”
The man at the stall looked at Sirius a little apologetically. “If he’s the kind of kid who chews on stuff or is too messy I can exchange it for something else.” He offered. Harry clutched his new crayon set to his chest and considered Sirius warily.
“He’s fine,” Sirius promised. Harry was even neater than Sirius was – not that that was saying much – with an almost instinctive need to pick up after himself. It was another thing in a long list Sirius had running of how the Dursleys had affected Harry.
He also never chewed on anything. He was a pretty self-possessed kid, all in all.
“Great, let’s go!” Harry cheered.
“There’s a petting zoo down there, if you’re interested,” the man pointed at one of the cut paths.
“What animals are there?” Harry asked.
“Goats, ponies, a lemur, an alpaca—”
“Awesome,” he whispered in awe. Sirius grinned, already able to imagine Harry begging him to let him take one home.
“And a couple dogs—”
His godson stiffened suddenly, clearing his throat. He turned to him, puzzled. “I’m feeling kind of tired, actually,” he said quickly. “Can we just finish the maze, Sirius?”
“You don’t want to see those animals?” He asked, bewildered at the sudden change.
Harry shook his head, curling into himself, all excitement gone, as suspicious and locked up as he had been in the first few months they’d lived together.
“I – alright,” he said, lost. “Let’s find the way out then.” He took his hand, and as they walked through the winding paths – Sirius was beginning to think they were lost – Harry regained his spirit, jumping up and down and running at checkpoints.
By the end of it, Harry had five gifts – not including Felicity – and a very pleased look on his face as they walked out of the final gate, making it just within an hour and a half.
“Wow!” One of the workers commented. “I’ve never seen anyone with such a young child make it through the maze so quickly.”
“You and your dad must make a really good team!” Another clapped.
Before Sirius could correct her, Harry spoke up cheerfully. “Yeah we do, thanks!”
He kept his mouth shut, turning to his godson after being told to come again. “Harry. . .”
“I know,” Harry said, obviously anticipating this. “That wasn’t really correct, but it wasn’t wrong either, right? And explaining everything would just make things complicated and weird.”
Sirius exhaled, smiling through the emotions of grief and happiness and awe, all together. “Yeah, you’re right.” Harry smiled back. “Now, unless you’re that tired, want to try your hand at a couple more games?”
Harry stuck his tongue out. “Try and keep up, old man!” He called, and took off, ignoring Sirius’ playfully irritated reply.
He laughed and ran after his kid, as he always would.