Chapter Text
I deserve it. Getting shot by Fernando, I deserve it, yes.
It still hurts to breathe as I fall to the tear stained ground, clutching desperately to the bear Arturo gave me. Even as I die in front of my killer, my thoughts will forever remain with my love.
I know Arturo isn’t coming for me. But if he is the last person on my mind, I wouldn’t mind it so much.
——
Green. The color of nature. The color of health. The color of money. The color of her eyes. Her little sister also had green eyes. They were the most beautiful shades of emeralds, that no collector in the world had such precious stones.
It’s also the color of the eyes belonging to the redhead woman above her crib as she found her new life a newborn.
The woman, her hair red like copper, not orange. Her name is Lily. She is Teresa’s mother. How does she know this? Well, she was lucky, or unlucky, depending on different perspectives, to be fully conscious the moment she was born.
Being in shock for months, all she could do was observe and listen. And she did both very well.
That is how she discovered that Lily, could do amazing things. What Teresa thought were miracles happened to be real magic. Her family’s home was modern, though, a bit old for the time she used to live in, but yet it seemed that magic was a common occurrence. Her father was also magical. His name was James and he had some dark eyes with glasses accentuated on his nose, and dark unruly frizzy hair on his head.
“She’s staring at you again, Lils. What do you think Teresa is thinking about.” Blessing or curse, the reincarnated girl did not know, but at least having the same name again is made things easier. “Well, she keeps looking at your hair. Think she’s trying to tell you something?” Lily teased her husband as she adjusted her daughter’s birthday dress.
On this day, Teresa was turning a year old, and she learned from eavesdropping on her parents’ conversations that a friend would be coming over to finally meet her after a year of going into hiding.
The family of three waited, sitting and tucked closed together on the family couch, diligently for hours for the clock to finally strike 4:56PM when the fireplace lit up in flames and out jumped a young man with wavy jet black hair and shiny silver-grey eyes. He wore jeans and a red long sleeve shirt with a black leather jacket with leather belts crisscrossed over his torso. His jeans had long white socks tucked under and his feet were covered in black easy entry shoes.
As soon as they saw him, the pair of parents gets up and rushes over to the new stranger. “Padfoot!” James called out first. The man in question lit up in joy. “Prongs!” As the two began to talk, Lily looked over her daughter.
“That’s Sirius Black. He’s our long time friend from school.” Whole that answered a question, it remained that Teresa did not know if this man was aware of her family’s circumstances. Noticing the skepticism on her baby, Lily consoled her, her magical aura calming over the room.
Lily spoke before the two men got lost in conversation. “James, let’s tell Sirius the news before you two head off to do something.” She called to the smugly as they both were cut off by her.
It was then that Sirius approached the mother-daughter duo. This man has been through a lot, Teresa concluded. She could see it in the tired look in his face. His body slacked, relaxed, but also full of exhaustion. And yet he still found it in himself to smile sincerely.
“Hello there, sweetness. I’m your uncle. It’s good to finally see you.” As he introduced himself, he took out a box from his jacket pocket and took a golden chain bracelet with Teresa’s name engraved. “What have you got there, Padfoot?” James got closer, looking over Sirius’s left shoulder.
Teresa felt like letting her vulnerability slip. She wasn’t sure what country she was in yet, but she knew it was European. And yet this stranger is doing something from her original culture which is bringing the baby’s first gold as a bracelet.
Sirius took the bracelet gently out the box. “I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but in many cultures around the world, on the day of their birth, babies are gifted a small bracelet made of gold and sometimes they have the baby’s name. These gestures are to bring the baby with blessings, good fortune, luck, and as well as protection from evil intentions- why are you two just staring?” Sirius stopped as he noticed his audience was not all there.
True enough, James was slacked jawed while Lily seemed to soak all the information up, not to mention, whom didn’t know how to feel.
“When and where did you learn that, Sirius? That’s amazing. Oh if only you applied yourself just as hard in school.” Lily teased after bringing herself back from her trance. Sirius, not one to back down on the teasing, mirrored her face. “See, see, I can apply myself when I want to.”
“It’s beautiful! I’m sure she’s gonna love it!” James said as he raised Teresa’s small right hand. “Go ahead and put it on before she starts fuzzing.” James urged.
Lily almost laughed at the angry green eyed glare of her daughter towards James.
Teresa knew that in all her time as a baby, she was only responsible for two tantrums, so yes, she is quite offended at the lies his father so carelessly spouts.
Once Sirius was done, he took the baby’s hand gently. “Look at you, princess. You look ready to take over the world with your cuteness.” Sirius sighed at the sight of his niece.
“By the way, Sirius, there’s another reason we asked you to come.” Sirius looked at James, who spoke with nerves in his voice, looking to his wife for support. At Lily’s smile of encouragement, James proceeds.
“We were hoping for you to be Teresa’s godfather, of course, you don’t have to accept.” James barely finished when Sirius’s eyes filled up with tears. “Me?” Sirius couldn’t believe it. “Why me? Why not Moony? Wormtail, hell, even Dumbledore are better options than me.”
“There’s no one we trust more than you, Sirius. You’ve stood by our side for years. You confided in James when the Black’s disowned you and his family took you in because you deserved better than your birth family. You are kind, thoughtful, caring, brave and compassionate. We know that shall Teresa ever be wronged, you’ll do everything in your power to protect her.” Lily said with finality.
Lily smiled and held Teresa to him. Sirius quickly rushed to hold the baby girl in his arms, gently, soothing, and calming. Though, he was a bit nervous, not knowing whether she would cry or not. He was more than happy when he saw her staring happily at her new bracelet, content in her new godfather’s arms.
It felt nice being accepted into a new family.
As the three adults spoke above her, Teresa examined her gift. The gold, it was so shiny and smooth. The engraving of gold-pink flowers were also flawless details that gave it just more personality. She hadn’t seen good quality gold like this in so long. She could tell when they were fake after years of trying all the best jewels and metals of the world once upon a time.
She had everything. It made her sad that no one ever saw her perspective. She just didn’t want to ever need anything because she already had everything ahead of time. She wanted money to be the least of her worries.
Many parents would want their children to love their lives in luxury, with great careers, admirable goals. In the end she was still the bad guy.
The simple fact that her godfather gifted her something that she valued a lot made him move the lift of her favorite people to the top, and he didn’t even know it.
“She really seems to like the gift, Sirius. You chose quite well.” Lily praised. “You think? I would have thought it bothered her seeing as she keeps fidgeting.”
“Nonsense, she’s just looking at it thoroughly. In her first months, she would keep staring at Lily’s necklace box and would not stop until she had one in her hands. She likes expensive things.” Jane’s explained as he brought out his own ring in the form of the lordship ring of Potter. It was an orange amber with red shades where light reflected.
He moved his right hand close to Teresa’s line of sight. “Check it out, when she first saw my lordship ring, she-“ But distracted, Teresa was not. She would have grabbed her father’s rind by now, but she knew he was going to take it back eventually. This new bracelet was hers and hers only, gifted to her by her godfather.
She’ll be damned if she is ungrateful for another godparent in her life.
Sirius took it as a que to further tease. “You were saying, Prongs?”
“Well, at least she does when I’m around.” James defended. “Hm, of course. By the way, does Teri speak?” Sirius asked, raising the baby further in his arms to be more comfortable for both.
“Teri?” James questions. “You can’t expect me to not give her a nickname. It’s basically our thing at this point.” James shrugged. “True. But yes, she does talk. Though, she is really shy.”
Sirius almost snorted. “Are you sure it’s not you?”
The reality was, Teresa wasn’t sure if her accent would poke though of not. After all, a year isn’t enough to learn a new language. She understood what they spoke to a point, but not even what she learned of English in her past life was enough to comprehend everything.
“Hey there, Teri. Could you do me a favor and prove your father wrong for a bit?” Sirius poked gently at her small hands to get back her a bit of attention. “Can you say Sirius?”
For a few seconds, Teresa stared up at her godfather as he repeated his name for a long time before finally Teresa understood the assignment. “Siri.” And then went back to her bracelet. It was simple enough that she could say it, as his name was of Latin origin. Plus, baby intelligence was held at the minimum.
“Ha! She’s mine now, Prongs!”
“What!? No, no, it doesn’t count! Lily and I have been saying your name around her for a long time! You just happened to get lucky!”
“James. Inside voice please.” Lily walked over to Sirius, taking some hair strands from her baby’s face to the sides. “You know, once has she fuzzed in your arms. Good job.” Lily pointed out. James hugged Sirius from the side, encasing familial warmth in the four people present.
“I wonder what she’ll have to say about the world when she grows up.”