29 Sirius Black
Not wanting to catch his neighbours' eyes, the older man quickly broke the hug and shoved Harry inside the house.
"I'm still a wanted fugitive, remember?" he replied at Harry's questioning look.
"Oh, yes. There's that as well…" he muttered darkly and Sirius' expression briefly became dejected.
"We can talk about that later… Now why don't you tell me why and how you escaped Hogwarts to visit little ol' me? I'll have you know that not even your father and me pulled that one, albeit we tried," revealed the man, once again, cheerful.
Sirius started walking deeper into the house and Harry wordlessly followed him.
"Well, let's just say that being in Hogwarts hasn't been very nice lately," he blurted and despite all, smiled, infected by his godfather's joviality.
"Hmm, what do you mean?" asked the man with a frown, which Harry, of course, couldn't see.
Harry's reply was cut off as they reached the end of the entrance hall.
'Why are there shrunken house-elf heads mounted on the wall?' he wondered, a slight shiver running down his spine.
'I just hope that Sirius isn't too much like his family.'
Not knowing about Harry's internal monologue, the older man assumed the worst when his godson didn't answer.
Sirius slowly turned around and put a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Hey what's up," he asked softly, noticing that his godson was a little pale.
"It's nothing. Your decoration senses just caught me a bit off guard," the boy said, pointing at the plaques on the wall.
Sirius let out a bark of laughter as his eyes landed on the little heads…
For a moment, Harry thought that his previous fears were confirmed.
"A barmy bunch, my family. Wouldn't you say? Of course, most of them are now dead," he muttered, his cheerfulness dissipating.
They continued their way, though this time in an uncomfortable silence.
The duo passed a door at the far end of the hall and walked down a set of narrow stairs, finding themselves in…
'The kitchen,' Harry realised.
It was barely any less gloomy than the hall they just walked through.
It was a vast room, surrounded by rough, stone walls.
"Lovely, isn't it?" Sirius asked rhetorically, moving towards the only light source, a large fireplace at the other side of the room.
Harry silently walked behind him, noting the long mahogany table that must have been where the late Blacks, once, ate their breakfasts.
"How did you get those butterbeers?" he asked curiously after noticing a few empty bottles of the aforementioned lying around.
"With the help of a useful family heirloom. It's a funny little thing that I didn't even know existed. I found it inside my grandfather's belongings, buried deep down by some other interesting things. The object I mentioned is a ring that can alter the appearance of its wearer. I'll show you how it works later," he answered with a mischievous look.
Sirius then took out his wand and with two precise swishes, a couple of the Victorian chairs from the table flew across the room and in front of the fireplace.
"After you," said the man with mock chivalry, even going as far as to offer Harry a slight bow.
Rolling his eyes at his godfather's antics, Harry sat down on the left chair.
"So, how's life outside Azkaban been treating you?" Harry asked, curious about the infamous prison.
It was said to be the worst and most inhumane prison in the world after all.
Harry immediately realised his mistake as he saw Sirius' eyes lose their spark and his body slightly trembling.
"You know what, now that I've thought about it again, I don't really wanna know about it. I mean, who would want to learn about-"
"Stop," he cut him off.
"Sigh. As you can see, even though I escaped Azkaban, I'm not entirely out of its sinister clutches just yet," Sirius commented darkly.
He leaned in his chair, his two arms on his legs.
He watched in fascination as the mundane fire in front of them burned the oak wood inside the fireplace.
"After leaving that dreadful place, sitting in front of a fire is probably my favourite pastime. Not because I've suddenly become a pyromaniac, mind you, but for the reason that it briefly makes me forget about the prison. The warmth it offers is something that I've never felt once in that horrid cell, not once in twelve bloody years!"
The tired man sighed again and stopped talking, pondering whether he should continue talking or not.
Splat, splat.
'It started raining,' Harry observed absentmindedly.
Sadly, there weren't any windows in the kitchen and he could neither smell the Petrichor, the earthy scent produced when rain fell on dry soil, nor enjoy the the sight of the rainfall.
"How come there are no windows in the kitchen? Isn't that, I dunno, a little bit gloomy?… I mean, how can someone possibly eat breakfast in a dark room every day?" he asked perplexed, also trying to shift Sirius's mind elsewhere.
If the damned prison had such an effect on him, he'd rather not know anything about it.
The man himself let out a chortle of laughter at Harry's innocent question, his eyes sparkling again.
"Well, if you've not noticed it by the decorations already, my mother wasn't exactly following the normal standards, nor was she in any way or form a cheery person. Gloom and death, were here to go to!" the dog animagus revealed, chuckling at Harry's forming horrified expression.
"Don't worry. Despite all of her questionable sanity, even she seemed to dislike the idea of eating in such a place," he said while taking out his wand again, and pointing its edge at the ceiling.
"Tectucauecus," he mumbled, thrusting his wand and piercing the air two times.
Harry watched in fascination as the grey spell connected with the ceiling, revealing the clouded sky.
He unconsciously closed his eyes, waiting to feel the cool drops of rain hit his face.
'Weird, I don't feel anything, yet I can still hear the rain falling,' he thought and opened his eyes, going against his instincts that screamed at him to keep them closed.
He belatedly realised that the drops seemed to hit something two meters above him.
He was broken out of his reverie by another bark of mirth from Sirius.
The action made Harry want to smile…
The fact that he was being laughed at, however, did not.
"Don't tell me they've stopped the whole starry night sky at Hogwarts?" asked the man, amused at Harry's confused expression.
Oh.
'It looks like the same spell. How come it didn't click sooner?' the youth mused.
"I see they kept up the tradition… Anyway, Mum liked the idea from her school days and had my uncle, Alphard, the one who designed most of the house's wards, create something similar. The spell I used is a pretty simple activation charm for the wards. I'm pretty sure there's an obscure spell that has the same effect, but good ol' mum didn't bother learning it," the Black revealed.
After that, the two men, godfather and godson, fell into a comfortable silence.
Sirius went back to enjoying the fire sparking and watching as it slowly devoured the oak logs, while Harry sat back in his chair, thinking what it must have been like for Sirius growing up and absentmindedly observing the raindrops hitting the invisible barrier somewhere above him.
"Hey pup, I've meant to say… Thank you for getting me out of the cell that night," the escapee whispered.
His voice was just loud enough for Harry to catch his words.
"Don't think about it. Isn't that what family's for?" Harry asked him with a bright and easy smile.
"Harry, I-" the almost teary man managed to voice before the whole building shook.
Harry felt something wash over him…
It was a familiar, yet, unpleasant feeling
He didn't know what it meant but it strangely gave him the feeling that he was being put in shackles.
'Wait, that's right. I feel it at Hog-'
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK. YOU ARE SURROUNDED AND UNDER ANTI-APPARITION WARDS. IF YOU DON'T GET OUT IMMEDIATELY WITH BOTH HANDS ON YOUR HEAD, MY AUROR SQUAD WILL RETORT TO FORCE," a feminine voice boomed through the whole building.
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