SPOILERS: You need to have read my Coming Home stories for this to make sense.

CONTENT: Gen, AU

RATING: PG13

SUMMARY: Twenty things about Harry's son Sirius (Coming Home universe)

DISCLAIMER: The Harry Potter series and all the characters associated with it are the property solely of J. K. Rowling, her agents and publishers. No infringement of any rights is intended from the creation of this story. Nor is any money being made from it. This cookie is written solely for the entertainment of the author and her friends, and is not intended for distribution in any shape or form.

NOTES: This one originally dates back to about October 2005, when I was writing the other "Twenty Things" stories, but I abandoned it because I got to no. 14 and couldn't think of anything else to write!  According to my original notes: "This one's for Katerina, who happened to catch my imagination at the right moment.  But I think this had better be the last "Twenty Things" character meme I do!"  I hope Katerina is still reading ...

Comments would be welcome, as always.

Twenty Things about Sirius Potter

by Mad Martha

1.         Sirius was born at his grandparents' house in Provence.  He arrived before anyone was quite ready for him and so spent his first night in a transfigured apple crate, until his uncle could retrieve the family's heirloom cradle from a cousin the next day.  His father Harry says it was a sign of things to come, and certainly Sirius has slept in stranger places since.

2.         His grandmother likes to embarrass him by telling guests and distant relatives all about his birth.  The only person who doesn't find it funny is his mother, Cleone, but this is hardly surprising as the story always begins with how she was so shocked by the first contraction that she accidentally Apparated herself into a neighbour's barn.

3.         His Italian great-grandmother, Nonna Sophia, crocheted him a big, soft baby blanket in shades of blue and with his initials at each corner for his first birthday.  The blanket is the only one of his possessions never to be put into storage when he and Harry travel; it goes everywhere with him, including to Hogwarts.  (Yes - it does clash with all the red and gold furnishings in his Gryffindor dormitory.)

4.         For the first few years of his life, Sirius and his parents lived in a cottage in Provence rented from one of his mother's relatives.  Harry stayed there with him for about a year after Cleone left them, but when Sirius was nearly three he startled their Muggle neighbours very much by accidentally turning several of the horses in an adjacent field a fetching shade of pink.  After that, Harry decided it was time to go back on the road before anything less easily explainable could happen.

5.         Sirius doesn't like snow very much, in spite of various friends over the years trying to show him how much fun it can be.  He would never tell his father this, but he associates it with skiing and although he doesn't have any clear memory of it, he knows that his mother left Harry for a man she met at a ski resort they stayed in when he was very small.

6.         He learned to fly on a magic carpet in Morocco when he was six years old and still wistfully remembers the fun he had playing with the boys at the wizard school there.  He loves his broom and firmly believes that it's impossible to compare brooms and carpets to each other, but it would be nice - just once - to try playing Quidditch on a flying carpet for a change.

7.         A couple of years later, when they were in Kenya, Harry bought him a bicycle as a change from carpets.  Sirius loved that bike.  He's always surprised at the inflexibility of some wizards' imaginations where things like bicycles are concerned; most of them seem to view Muggle vehicles with contempt or condescension.  Which is a shame because he always thought that his bike would fly really well with the right charms on it. 

8.         That, of course, is entirely Harry's fault for telling him about his namesake Sirius Black's flying motorcycle.  Sirius tried to persuade Harry to make his bike fly once or twice, but all Harry would say is that he should try it himself when he was older.  So Harry will only have himself to blame when Sirius does that.  He has it all planned out (although it'll be a different bike of course).

9.         Sirius is bilingual.  He grew up speaking both English and French with his relatives, and likes to tell his friends at Hogwarts that he never knows which language he dreams in.  (That isn't quite true - he dreams in both languages, but never has a problem recognising which is which.)  He hopes one day to be trilingual; Nonna Sophia is very insistent that he should learn Italian, to the point where she contacted Professor McGonagall directly to arrange lessons for him.  (Sirius and Harry would both like to have been privy to that conversation, for Nonna Sophia is an imperious old lady who dominates her entire extended family and likes to get her own way - it was probably a clash of the Titans.)

10.        Sirius has inherited his mother's blue eyes, but apart from that he looks just like his father; everyone says so, except for Remus Lupin who insists the resemblance is much closer to his grandfather James Potter.  But having seen photographs of his father and grandfather when they were his age, Sirius can't see it - he thinks he looks like himself, really.

11.        He inherited one thing from his father that he's sure his grandfather didn't have, though.  He's a Parselmouth.  He doesn't talk about it much because, as Harry says, people behave very stupidly about it, but he really doesn't understand what the problem is.  Talking to snakes was a hoot when he was little, although after a while it gets a bit boring.  It's not as though they have an awful lot to say - they're snakes.  They're interested in food, warm places to bask, the best way to scratch an itchy skin off, the safest place to lay eggs, and staying out of the way of humans.  Not politics or religion or world domination.  Mostly they're surprised that a human is talking to them at all.

12.        Sirius has an excellent relationship with his father.  He thinks that this is probably because they've travelled to all sorts to strange places together, under all sorts of conditions, and it often feels like it's just the two of them against the world.  They don't tell each other everything (that would be weird) and don't exactly live in each other's pockets either, but Sirius knows that they could if they needed to.  He's also secure in the knowledge that he's the most important consideration in Harry's life; and since he's spent time with other kids at Hogwarts he knows exactly how lucky he is that he can say that.

13.        His relationship with his mother (whom he always calls Maman) couldn't be more different.  He doesn't remember a time when she actually lived with them, and although he remembers seeing her quite a lot when he was small she remains to this day a butterfly-like creature who flits in and out of his life at odd intervals leaving only the memory of bright colours and disturbance behind her.  He supposes that he loves her, but it's all very complicated and Sirius realised a long time ago that it's easier to agree with all the things other people (his grandparents, his aunts and uncles, and sometimes even his father) are telling him he's feeling about her, rather than trying to explain how he really feels.

14.        When he was quite young, he would sometimes wonder about her - where was she, what was she doing, was she thinking about him at all?  And then she would arrive, bringing him presents and making a fuss of him, and that was exciting.  It was only when he was older that he began to notice that the gaps between her visits were quite large; that his father would sometimes travel long distances to take him to see her, only for her to not be there as she promised; and that the attention she gave him wasn't as wholehearted as she pretended.  It wasn't until he was older that he discovered his father was shielding him from the quarrels that inevitably erupt whenever Harry and Cleone meet.

15.        These days he only really thinks about her when she writes to him or visits unexpectedly.  Neither of these things happen as frequently as other people think they should, but Sirius isn't all that bothered.  His mother is who she is, that's all, and she'll turn up when she's ready.

16.        Occasionally people will tut over him and talk about his lack of "positive female role models".  This is very stupid, in Sirius's opinion.  There are plenty of older women in his life, from Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey to his dad's friend Hermione and Ron Weasley's mum.  He has his grandmother and Nonna Sophia and all his aunts and great-aunts.  Really his life is awash with female influences, which makes him grateful for his dad and Quidditch.  A man needs space to breathe, after all.

17.        And of course there's Ron, who Sirius thinks is one of the sanest people he's ever met.  He's a broomwright and extremely cool, and there's a lot more to Ron than most people realise.  He was a hero during the war, just like Harry was, although most people forget that and Ron seems happy for it to be that way.  Sometimes, though, if he's in the right mood and Sirius doesn't push him too much, he'll talk about it.  Not much; just a bit.

18.        Ron is Harry's boyfriend, but not many people know that.  Sirius knows all about it, of course, and he thinks it's probably a good thing that they keep it to themselves.  He can't remember a time when Harry didn't have partners of either sex and so it's no big deal to Sirius at all (except when they're weird, like that bloke in Vienna), but he knows the rest of the world can be stupid about sex and he'd rather not listen to people saying stupid stuff about his father because that usually leads to re-educating them with his fists, which gets tedious after a while.  He does hope that Harry will stay with Ron, though.  If he has to have a step-parent, Ron is definitely the one he would choose.

19.        As for himself, Sirius likes to think that having been brought up in a liberal and open-minded family, he is liberal and open-minded about sex himself.  He's not opposed to the idea of trying stuff with another bloke (although he'd prefer that people didn't find out about the Slytherin Beater Incident), but right now he'd rather stick with girls - mostly because they smell nicer, don't have such loud mouths or big heads as blokes, and people don't behave like idiots when a bloke holds hands with a girl in the corridors.  Except for his mates, of course; Tobias and Noah are nosy, sniggering berks with less maturity than his five year old cousin Laurentina, and Tedjminder seems torn between disapproval and saying stuff like do it while you can, all of which is annoying.  Sirius is sometimes tempted to grab that Ravenclaw Chaser, the one with the toned arse and legs (not that he's been looking), and snog him in the Great Hall at breakfast, just to make his so-called best mates scream like girls when they see it.  He doesn't fantasise about the snogging part, by the way, nor the toned arse and legs.  Well - no more than he fantasises about Claudia Binkin's tits, anyway.  (He's seen her tits, but he would never tell anyone that.  He's not a louse, thanks very much.)

20.        Sirius has no idea what he's going to do when he leaves school, but he's not worried about it.  He wouldn't mind making brooms, like Ron does (although really he'd prefer to design them), and he wouldn't mind playing professional Quidditch (but he suspects the opportunity won't be offered).  Being an Auror might be exciting.  Being a Curse-Breaker like Ron's brother Bill would be even better.  But really, there's no rush to decide.  Life's an adventure, something to be savoured - isn't it?

~ finis ~