sirius black (heraldofdeath) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-03-05 15:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: harry potter, ₴ inactive: sirius black |
WHO: Sirius Black & Harry Potter
WHERE: Vallo: Outside of the DOA
WHEN: January 27th, 2021 (Backdated)
WHAT: Reunited~
WARNINGS: Talk of Death
STATUS: Complete
Sirius and Fred were alive. The knowledge hit Harry like a ton of bricks and the benches outside of the DOA really were not the right place to have this kind of… epiphany. Somebody in the building had vaguely given him the information that ‘There could be people from your past here’ but Harry had taken that to mean in a literal sense, people from school that he hadn’t seen in a while or even somebody like Dudley. The Resurrection stone was one thing, but Sirius was able to communicate with everybody else on the network from what he’d seen and unless it was somebody playing a cruel trick or his imagination running far more rampant than he gave it credit for, Sirius was alive. His leg bounced as he wiped off his glasses and pushed them back on his nose to stare out at the road, trying to not looked as panicked and almost afraid as he felt for Sirius appearing around the corner or emerging from the crowds that would occasionally gather and dissipate. Hannah had told him this was real. He wanted it to be real but then again, did he? After everything that had happened with him in the Battle of Hogwarts and the subsequent problems leading up to his breakdown, would Sirius even want to see him anymore? He was a part of the reason that Remus was gone, after all. Not just Remus but everybody else who had fought there and he had to swallow, reminding himself of the various techniques one of his therapists had given him to try and not get stuck in the vicious loop of his own mind. When Harry had shown up on the network, Sirius had felt a bevy of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. There had been a distinct uptick of people from his world arriving and while that tended to happen occasionally in worlds like Vallo, he hadn’t experienced such a thing since his time spent in Tumbleweed. So he had held onto the hope that (some) family or close friends would show up. And Vallo did not disappoint. He had missed Harry terribly - the baby he had known, the man he would become, and every iteration in between. His strongest memory of Harry had been of the baby he had known for barely a year, before they had been separated by cruel circumstances and the death of the Potters. He had gotten to know a few since then, but none for as long as he would have liked before Harry was sent away again or Sirius was dropped into a new world. Sirius hoped this time, they would get to make up for lost time. He knew his own presence probably had unsettled Harry because how could it not? Death was supposed to be permanent and while Sirius hadn’t died yet, he had for this version of Harry. So he didn’t just Apparate the second he saw Harry show up, but instead took his time to go to Harry because appearing out of nowhere in front of someone that was probably having his own rollercoaster of emotions, probably wasn’t the smartest idea. Instead, he Apparated about a block away from the DOA and then walked the rest of the distance, spotting that messy mop of hair that was so unique to any version of Harry, that Sirius could recognize it anywhere. He stopped himself from pulling Harry up off his seat and into a hug, but just barely. “Hey there, Harry,” he said instead, smiling. Harry found himself staring in disbelief as Sirius appeared - or, didn’t, in the sense that he simply walked to the bench as normal as anything, solid and alive. He stood up quickly as soon as he spotted him and realised that while he wasn’t taller than Sirius, he’d caught up to him more than he’d initially thought. He was an adult, but the sight of Sirius almost made him feel like an angsty teenager again who thought the biggest problem in the world was that people weren’t listening to him. He was at least a part of the reason that Sirius had died in the first place, after all. Survivor’s guilt, they called it, but Harry couldn’t help but put the blame on himself when it had been his stupid idea to go to the Ministry anyway. Still, Sirius seemed to know about his own death. It wasn’t news that he’d had to break to him like George had to Fred which was at least partially a relief, but he still felt his eyes sting as he looked up at his godfather. It took him a beat or two of dead silence and staring at him, trying to fit the man in front of him into the same position as the one who had been in his life before. He was the same - eerily similar, in fact. He hadn’t aged and Harry had, like when he’d seen him in the resurrection stone - he looked young and healthy instead of gaunt. He didn’t even manage to say anything before he wrapped his arms around Sirius and hugged him tight, swallowing hard. “You’re actually alive?” There was something off about Harry, something that made Sirius pause. There was a weight to him that Sirius wasn’t used to seeing, not having known a Harry that had lived beyond the war and had to live with the consequences of having survived whereas so many people hadn’t. It wasn’t just losing him that had put that weight on Harry, no, it was the guilt. A guilt Sirius had felt all too often, when he remembered that all of his friends were dead and he was still alive, getting a second chance in another world. But this reunion, it wasn’t about him, not really. It was about Harry. Hugging Harry back, fiercely and without pause, he thumped Harry’s back a couple of times, making sure he felt how real and solid he was. “It’s complicated, but yes, I’m alive.” There was time traveling and powers beyond their knowledge involved, but no matter how, at least they were there together. “I’m sorry I’m not back there, when you come from,” he murmured, eventually pulling away. Leaving his hands on the younger wizard’s shoulders, he looked at Harry in those familiar green eyes. “But we’re together now, yeah?” “That’s not your fault,” was Harry’s immediate response to that. He didn’t want to dwell too much on anything else or bring the mood further down, swallowing slightly. All he wanted to do was hug Sirius for all of the times he’d wanted to and couldn’t but he instead pulled back and gave him a quick nod, wiping his eyes on his sleeves before the tears could fall. It felt stupid to cry over somebody who was right there in front of him when he’d felt so empty for the longest time after Sirius’ death - an angry teenager who couldn’t even cry about it as he was pushed back to his Aunt and Uncle’s house. “...Yeah. We are. A lot of us are,” Harry glanced around them when he remembered that they were in public, taking out a crumpled piece of paper that he’d scribbled down the number of his possibly temporary apartment on. “Um- I suppose I should… go find out where I live. Do- uh. Want to come with me?” it was strange. At home he’d lived alone in Grimmauld Place, never quite able to consider it his even after he cleared out the master bedroom to act as his own. He felt a lot less guilty removing Sirius’ parents things than he did his or Regulus’, keeping the other rooms pretty much closed and locked at all times. Now he didn’t have a home, but he already felt a lot lighter just by virtue of having Sirius and Fred here. “I dunno if there’s already tea in there or not but we can drop into a shop and pick something up on the way? Or just- get a coffee somewhere?” “Not my fault, sure, but I can still feel sorry about the whole thing, can’t I?” Sirius asked, with a small sad smile, wishing things had turned out differently for Harry, that he hadn’t had the fate of the world put onto his too young shoulders. No matter, they were there together now and there was no war to fight in Vallo. Letting go of Harry’s shoulders, Sirius shook his head. “You have a home at Grimmauld Place if you want it, Harry. It’s here, part of the magic of this place, and it’s where I’ve been staying with some friends.” And his children. Not quite sure how to explain that situation to his godson, he shrugged and added, “And my son and daughter.” Out with it quickly, he could explain the rest of it with whatever questions Harry would undoubtedly have. “Regardless, we can have tea there and catch up? Because I know I have a lot to tell you and I’m sure you do as well.” “...I suppose so,” Harry relented a little, perking up a little when Sirius mentioned Grimmauld Place. As awful as it had been at one point, once he’d made friends with Kreacher and cleared out some of the things from the past the house had actually been quite pleasant to live in. Of course, that was very quickly dwarfed by the shock that Sirius had a child. No, children - two. He stared at him for a moment as he tried to work that out in his head, frowning. “I- you have kids? I really don’t want to get in the way, Sirius. It’s honestly okay, I don’t mind the apartment,” he didn’t want to intrude, especially not when Sirius seemed happy here. “But- yeah, sure. Of course we can go get tea? And you can tell me about- uh, your children?” “I know it’s bit of a shock,” Sirius said, smiling ruefully and offering Harry his hand. “But this place isn’t the first world I’ve visited since leaving ours. And I’m going to love telling you all about that and how Zayna and Seren came about. And also about how much of an intrusion you wouldn’t be by coming to stay with us, but we can figure that out later. Come on, I’ll Side-Along you until you get a hang of the Waypoints here and your sense of direction.” “You know, I can finally apparate by myself now,” Harry half-joked but he took Sirius’ hand regardless. “They mentioned the Waypoints, but if they’re anything like Portkeys I might just risk Apparating when and where possible,” he grimaced a little. He still wasn’t a fan of Portkeys to this day. “And- it is a shock, yeah. But if you’re happy, that’s kind of all that really matters to me.” "Couldn't tell you were old enough for that, Harry," Sirius teased, feeling a lightness he hadn't felt in a long time. Life was good, he had the twins and he had his friends who he was making a home with. But having this other part of his life back, so significant in ways that he couldn't explain, it was enough to make him never let go of Harry's hand. At least, figuratively. "I just don't want you to end up some place else before you get a sense of where things are," Sirius explained, though he gave no warning before they appeared outside of Grimmauld Place, just outside of the wards he and Bonnie had placed on the place. "Welcome home, Harry." Side-along still made Harry vaguely nauseous - Apparating in general did, really, but it was one of those things you just… reluctantly got used to. He looked up at the building with a smile, tilting his head. “It’s really weird seeing it outside of London, considering I’ve been living here for like- the past few years,” he didn’t mention Kreacher, though. Probably not the most positive subject for Sirius. “So, uh- you have children? Are you going to get bombarded as soon as you walk through the door?” it was an odd feeling. Not jealousy, that was definitely the wrong word. He was happy for Sirius, but there was definitely a hint of worry there that he would be in the way of Sirius being happy if he was moping around Grimmauld Place which mattered significantly less when he lived there alone. He didn’t know if he wanted him to be a part of the family he seemed to have found here. “They’re still babies, not even one yet,” Sirius explained, as he opened the door to allow them into the house. “They’re with their mother right now, a fine witch that I met in the last world I was in. We luckily ended up here together as well.” He didn’t mention how briefly he had been sent away because it was already complicated enough without that being brought into the conversation as another possibility Harry had to get used to. In due time. Taking them into the kitchen, which was Sirius’ favorite place to be most of the time, he started to go through the refrigerator to see what he could feed his godson. Harry always looked like he needed to be fed a sandwich, a feeling no doubt shared by many others. Still babies. Harry wasn’t sure why, but that was stranger - it was kind of easy to imagine Sirius with a couple of kids that were already half-grown, but babies? He followed Sirius through his house and into the kitchen, raising his eyebrows with a smile as he started poking about for something for them to eat. “What’s her name? Is she gonna be alright with me living here? It’s so weird seeing it but with different decorations in it,” Harry had left it mostly empty, honestly. He really wasn’t very good at decor and most of the things he owned were sentimental - a lot were gifts from Mrs. Weasley, including the nice curtains. “Here, let me help. What are we having?” |