hogwrites | Raising Harry

"An animagus? That's like you. Did they become puppies so they could play with him?" Harry may have been more mature than most kids his age, out of being forced to be, but he still had a childish way of seeing the world. To him, he expected the tale to just be puppies frolicking. He didn't want the werewolf boy to be any sadder. He needed friends and love.

"Was the werewolf surprised and happy?" He expected as much. He bounced a little in excitement. "They could play during the full moon!"

"When you become an animagus, you don't get to pick what animal. It's the animal that fits you best, you know? So, maybe a dog or a cat. Or it can be anything, really." Sirius waved his wand, just showing a load of different animals, rapidly changing from one to the other. He wanted to give the boy a visual spectacle. "But, yes. In our story, the werewolf was so happy. From then on, every full moon, instead of being alone and in pain, he got to play with his friends! They explored everywhere and it was the happiest time of their lives."

Sirius kissed the top of Harry's head, then whispered. "Do you want to know a secret?"

Harry looked fascinated, giggling as he reached out to touch the silvery deer that shot by as the animals changed - it was like touching glitter and silver fell everywhere. With an excited smile, he leaned into Sirius, preening over the fact that he was loved and got a kiss. He was a very happy boy already.

"I wanna know the secret!" Oh, wait. That was rude. "Pretty please." Better.

"One of the boys that was friends with the werewolf, he was your father. James." Sirius smiled, showing one of the boys and then showing how he changed into the stag. Of course that would be the one Harry was drawn to. "And then there was me, of course. You already saw me." Still, he had the boy who changed into the puppy appear as well. "Your father's animagus form was a stag. And I'm the giant puppy."

He laughed, and maybe it did sound just a little bit like barking. "When you were little, you liked playing with his antlers."

"He was a stag? That's amazing." His dad had antlers and his Godfather was a dog, fluffy dog. That was so cool. "What about the werewolf? Did I get to be with him too? He seems nice. I feel bad for him... he had a sad life before his friends." And Harry got that. He had a sad life before Sirius came and fixed it for him.

"Did you all stay friends?" He wondered if they still were. Sure, dad had died but what about the werewolf and the dog?

"It's really complicated." Sirius didn't want to overwhelm the boy with sadness. One thing after the other. However... "You met the werewolf. His name is Remus. Remus Lupin." Which was a bit odd, all things considered, but Sirius figured that the Black Dogstar couldn't exactly talk. "He was there when you were born too. And he held you and he told you stories. He's a better story teller than me."

More coherent, generally. Although he had tried hard today. "He's a good man. One of the best men I've ever known. Now..."

Before more questions could come. "Who wants pizza for breakfast?!"

Remus Lupin. He would remember that name. He was a friend of his dad so sooner or later, he had to find him. He sensed he wasn't allowed to ask more questions but that was okay. For now. He knew he had a morning to get ready for. Sliding out of the bed, he landed on his feet and looked up at Sirius, holding out his hand.

"Can we have pizza for breakfast? Isn't that more of a dinner thing?" He didn't know, he was curious! "I usually have to fry food for breakfast... do we fry the pizza?"

"Nah. We can just eat it cold." Sirius smirked and took Harry's hand, heading out of the room with him. "Cold pizza is a decent breakfast, you'll see. I'm not a proper kind of man, so we will do things a bit improperly, all right? That's more fun."

He led them down the stairs, aiming for the kitchen, where he had wisely stored the pizza. "I cleaned up a bit. Whatcha think?"

Had to get some praise. "Have you ever walked a dog, Harry?"

"It looks so cool." He rushed ahead and then peered about, marvelling at the lack of dust. He touched one of the chairs and smiled as nothing came off it. "You dust better than me. I always miss something." He had a habit of not doing the tops of cupboards and higher up things cause, well, he couldn't reach them. It always got him in trouble.

"I've never walked a dog but... my aunt breeds bulldogs. She has a dog, he's called Ripper. He bites me." So Harry was a bit nervous around dogs, he didn't want to be but he was kind of scared. "He once chased me around the garden all night and stole my shoe." And then he got punished for having one shoe. "Some dogs are mean."

"Not that good at dusting, I just use magic. Good cheats. And yeah, you are right. Some dogs are," Sirius agreed, "But don't worry, I'm not. I'm adorable and precious." That said Sirius picked Harry up and sat him on a chair, only to crouch down next to him and nuzzle his arm, looking up at him as if he was a dog right now. "They are still looking for me, but they don't know I can turn into a dog, you know? So I reckon if we cover up your scar, maybe dye your hair for a bit, you could go into the village with me in dog form and do some shopping. I can carry it back, I have strong jaws."

"I can carry it too. I carry everything, I'm really good at it. I carried all of Dudley's Christmas presents last year. Five bags! I didn't drop any." He was very proud of himself. He grinned, excited to prove how strong he was and reaching out to stroke Sirius's hair because it was so much softer and nicer now. "If we go out shopping together then don't I need to have a lead for you? I don't wanna get lost..."

He could live with dyed hair and not having a full adult but being alone or lost? It was scary.

"Nah, I can carry it. Don't you worry. I'm your adult, right?" What did that even mean? Sirius wished he knew. Whatever. He shook his head at the thought of a lead. Ugh. No. Had to draw a line somewhere. "No lead, but you can hold right on to my fur, all right? And I'll stay right next to you. If anyone is mean, I'll growl."

He wanted to reassure Harry. Poor boy, he really must have had a miserable life. "Harry, my boy, do you happen to know muggle money? Because I've got some, but I know little about it." Oh, right. "Muggles, that's what we call non-magical people."

"I know how money works. It's the math bit I can't do but I know how much things cost. You look at the number on the price tag and match it up to the number. Or the colour. I used to do colours." Red for 10, purple for 20, blue for 5. It was easier like that. And then the coins all meant stuff. "If you show the check out ladies what you have, they usually help too."

They were all very nice to him. He didn't often have a bad experience shopping. "I can do the money for you. What are we gonna buy?"

"We should write a list, huh?" Sirius got up and first got the pizza box out, opening it up and taking a slice. Then he started the kettle, so they could have some tea. He had found teabags yesterday, so there was that. As he looked around for parchment and a quill, he was already thinking. "We need food and probably stuff to wash our hair, because I used up almost all of that yesterday. What else do we need?"

"Your pen is like a feather." Harry mused as he took a slice of pizza and ate it slowly as he watched Sirius scribble down stuff. "We need shampoo and soap. And we need washing powder so we can wash our clothes. And maybe... do you have any clothes for me? I don't mind what I wear." He never had a selection of his own so he wasn't picky. "We also need to get toilet paper and ... Sirius, what do you like to drink?"

Adults always drank. Not constantly but some did. Vernon always got himself a whiskey for the weekends. "Do you drink a whiskey?" He just wanted to be helpful.

"Er..." Sirius looked at Harry, frowning. He pushed his hair back from his face and tried to think of what to say. How to put this. "It's a quill, not a pen."

So not what he had to say, but whatever. He would work through to it. "You should buy clothes. And magazines, books, toys. Anything you see. I got lots of money and I want you to have everything you want, okay? We can have fun with it together."

He leaned back finally, clearing his throat. "I'm a bit... I probably shouldn't drink any whiskey, you know? It can make people go funny."

"It just makes my uncle louder." He didn't change much as a drunk, he just yelled at the footie louder and smelled worse. Harry liked the idea of Sirius not smelling bad or yelling so he was very happy to not add whiskey to the list. "We can both get toys and then we can share. Do you like monster trucks? We could get them and play."

He wanted to play with Sirius a lot. He was eager to be the kind of boy someone look like Sirius would want to play with. "We could have a footie and kick it around."

Cool kids loved sports.

"I really wanna teach you about Quidditch. That's the sport your father played. Me too. Your father was brilliant at it! Captain of the team at Hogwarts." He nodded his head though, writing 'ball' onto the list. "I know footie, Remus showed it to us when we came to visit. It's good fun too." Not that anything beat quidditch, in his esteem. "We don't have to get everything today. Just the really necessary stuff and some fun stuff. Lots of fun stuff."

Sirius smirked and reached out to ruffle Harry's hair. "So, since when do you go to school, Harry?"

"I went to nursery school when I was ... four? I think. Now I go to St. Grogory's Primary School... I don't like it." Harry pulled a face, his dismay clear. "No one likes me there. They won't play with me or Dudley will beat them up so I gotta stay out of the way. Mostly I just run from Dudley and his friends all day. The teachers don't like me either." It wasn't an overly fun experience for him - he didn't like going to school. He didn't ever want to go back.

"I'm a bit thick but I'm good at sports. They just won't let me on the teams..." Cause associating with him was a bad move. No one did it. "I think if I get a new school, I'll join the footie team."

"I doubt you are thick at all, Harry. Just sounds like you went to a shite school, innit?" Sirius frowned, eating another piece of pizza. "I don't know how I'll sent you to school yet, can't exactly let myself be seen there... But I can teach you, yeah? I can teach you about magic and stuff."

He nodded his head, trying to convince himself. "I was always good in school, I bet I could teach you just fine. We'll make it fun." That should work. "And then no one can bully you either."

"Sounds awesome! Can you teach me all the magic? I want to become a dog too and I want to be able to have a flying bike and make silver people appear!" He basically wanted it all - as one would expect. Eagerly bouncing, he very nearly bounced himself right off his seat. With an eager smile, he looked at Sirius.

"I can count and spell all right so I don't need that kind of stuff." Worth a shot. It was boring, he'd rather skip it. "Magic seems smart to learn."

"You are a bit too young to properly learn magic, I'm afraid. Usually it takes longer for it to manifest... Have you ever done something weird? Something unintentional that you couldn't explain?" Sirius wondered. He knew James' magic had presented itself fairly early on, he wasn't sure about Lily.

Still, he didn't want to break Harry's enthusiasm. "I can tell you about magic though. Lots to understand and learn."

"Once I jumped flew out of a chimney at school and got into trouble for scaling the building. I didn't climb it though. I jumped in a bin and then I was up in a chimney." It was weird but he had been desperate to escape Dudley and then that happened. And he was locked in the cupboard for a week over that one. "Was that magic?"

It seemed really cool. "I also dream about my mom and dad a lot... but I don't know if that's real." It felt real to him but he didn't know what they looked like and who they were so he was probably wrong. "It feels real."

"Might be real, Harry. You never know." Sirius was thoughtful and then he reached out, grabbed Harry and pulled him on his lap, into his arms. He just had to think about James. "A while ago... I was in prison, I was just-- In my cell. I was very sick, I think I was pretty close to dying. And then I had a dream where your father visited me. He was right there, in my cell, and he told me about you. He told me where you were and that those muggles were mean to you. He told me that I had to go and get you, no matter what."

He caught Harry's eyes and smiled a little. "He said that him and your mom, they wanted to help you so badly, but they didn't know how. And so he sent me."

"My dad asked you to come?" Woah. His dad could do that? He felt like he wanted to cry but he bravely fought it. He wasn't much of a crier. He more got angry then upset, not that he could ever truly express his anger. "My mom and dad still watch me and love me then? I hope they're gonna be proud. I try very hard for them." He wanted to make them smile and be happy.

"My aunt says my dad was no good and jobless but he wasn't, was he? He was a wizard." He knew they were wrong. "My parents were awesome, weren't they?"

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