#wands raised for james and lily potter and their brave sacrifice | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mythsofmodern · 4 years

Text

Lily J. Evans Potter

Lily J. Evans was born to Mr and Mrs Evans, two Muggles of the Evans family, on 30 January, 1960. Her family lives in Cokeworth, England. She has an older sister named Petunia, whom she was quite close to. At the age of nine, Lily became friends with Severus Snape, who lived down in Spinner's End, which was within walking distance of the Evans' house. However, her family was apparently better off, since Petunia sneered at Snape for coming from that poverty-stricken neighborhood

Severus was the first person to tell Lily that she was a witch, and he went on to teach Lily a great deal about the wizarding world while the two eagerly awaited the time when they could attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry together. Lily's magical abilities and friendship with Severus caused problems between the Evans sisters. Envying her sister's abilities, Petunia wrote to Dumbledore, asking if she could attend Hogwarts with Lily. However, the headmaster kindly refused her petition.

At the age of eleven, Lily bought her wand from Ollivanders in Diagon Alley. The wand was 10¼ inches, willow, "swishy", and according to Garrick Ollivander, good for charm work. Shortly before her depart to Hogwarts, Lily and Petunia argued about magic again. Her sister called her a "freak" for possess that power and said it was better that she went to that school so "normal people" would be safe. At the age of eleven, Lily started attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she was Sorted into Gryffindor house. She became quite skilled at Potions, attracting the attention of Professor Horace Slughorn, who made her a member of his Slug Club for the students that he considered talented and possibly successful in the future.

In her fifth year, Lily stood up for her then best friend, Severus Snape, when he was being bullied by James Potter. Lily attempted to stop his bullying, addressing James only by his surname and vice versa in this moment. However, Snape lashed out at her in his humiliation, calling her a "filthy Mudblood." He then begged for Lily's forgiveness, but she asked him if he still intended to join the Death Eaters. When he didn't deny this, Lily realised that Snape did not understand what was wrong with the Death Eaters. This led to a parting of ways between Lily and Snape, as the former had already become dismayed by Snape's fascination with the Dark Arts and friendship with his Slytherin house-mates Mulciber and Avery, both of whom were aspiring Death Eaters.

By Lily's fifth year, James had developed a crush on her, but she didn't reciprocate, calling him an "arrogant toerag" because he bullied other students, particularly her former best friend. While she didn't approve of his bullying, she did admire how James stood up for his friends and other people who were cruelly treated by aspiring-Death Eater.

During their seventh year, James matured somewhat, proving himself to be responsible and brave. However, it is implied that he still had the desire to bully Snape, but was willing to stop actually doing it for Lily's sake. This led to her agreeing to go out with him; gaining genuine affection for him in the process. Due to their academic achievement, skill, and responsibility, the young couple eventually were chosen to be Head Boy and Head Girl.

In late 1977, Lily and James had a disastrous first meeting with Petunia and her then-fiancé, Vernon Dursley, which took place over Christmas break. The evening ended with both Vernon and Petunia storming out of the restaurant and Lily bursting into tears.Petunia was married by the end of 1977. Though Lily and James were invited to the wedding, her sister refused to have Lily as a bridesmaid, upsetting her deeply.

Sometime after graduating from Hogwarts in 1978, Lily and James married, the wedding took place sometime between the summer of 1978 and the autumn of 1979, with Sirius serving as James' best man. Petunia and Vernon refused to attend the wedding, and Lily had little contact with her sister from that point on. Living off James' family fortune, the Potters became full-time members of the Order of the Phoenix, an organisation dedicated to fighting Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, along with their friends Sirius, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. During the war, Lily and James defied Voldemort on at least three occasions, the first being when they refused to join his cause when he tried to recruit them.

Lily became pregnant in the autumn of 1979. Around the same time, Sybill Trelawney made a prophecy in front of Albus Dumbledore, predicting that "the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches" and would be "born to those who have thrice defied him". The first part of the prophecy was overheard by Lily's ex-friend, Snape, who had since become a Death Eater.

The Potters went into hiding while Lily was still pregnant.Their son, Harry James Potter, was born on 31 July, 1980. Due to the danger they were in, Lily and James chose to keep Harry's christening a "very hurried, quiet affair" with Sirius as the only guest. The couple also chose Sirius to be their son's godfather. Lily sent a birth announcement to Petunia; it was to be the last piece of information she ever sent her sister, though Petunia would later send Lily a vase for that Christmas.

The Fidelius Charm was placed on their home in Godric's Hollow. Their Secret-Keeper, Peter, was chosen as a less-likely target for the Death Eaters than Sirius, but he betrayed the Potters by telling Voldemort of their whereabouts barely a week later.

Lily is a beautiful woman with thick, dark red hair that falls to her shoulders, and almond-shaped, bright green eyes. Lily is known for being a vivacious, talented, and popular student. She was a responsible student and leader to be Head Girl in her final year at Hogwarts. Horace Slughorn noted that Lily was witty and charming. Remus Lupin once described her as an uncommonly kind person with a habit of seeing the best in others, even when they could not see it themselves. Lily is a woman of sound moral principles and would stand by them no matter what it cost her, though her actions sometimes were ineffective.

Though she has a sharp tongue and had no problems in standing up to others when she is in a temper, Lily is still the type of person who would give others a second chance when they had proven themselves worthy of it.

Since even Lord Voldemort was willing to overlook Lily's Muggle-born status and ask her to join him, this is proof that she was a truly powerful and accomplished witch. She was noted for her particular talent in Potion-making and was able to conjure a corporeal doe Patronus, a mark of superior magical ability.

Magical abilities and skills

Love: Lily displayed a tremendous amount of love throughout her life. When she was only 21 years old, she lovingly sacrificed her own life for her only son despite being given the choice to leave him behind and live. It was this very sacrifice that enabled Harry to survive the Killing Curse, which rebounded off him and destroyed Voldemort's body. It protected her son from her murderer for 16 years after her death, especially due to their blood connection.

Duelling: Along with her husband James, Lily was able to defy and escape Lord Voldemort three times, which showcased her remarkable talent in martial magic.

Potions: According to Slughorn, Lily was an excellent potioneer who impressed him. She had an "instinctual understanding" of the subject.

Charms: Lily excelled in charm-work - her wand was described as being "nice for Charms work". She was able to animate teapots to make "[them] sing" and effectively conjure a corporeal doe Patronus, which is an incredibly advanced piece of protective magic.

Transfiguration: Lily was revealed to have been proficient in transfiguration. When home from Hogwarts for the holidays, she "turned teacups into rats". She also transfigured a lily petal into a fish, which Slughorn described as "beautiful magic, wondrous to behold".

Control of Underage Magic: Before attending Hogwarts, Lily already had a level of control over her magic - once she literally flew into the air after jumping off a swing and subsequently slowed her descent to lightly land on the ground. She also went on to manipulate a flower to open and close its petals like "some bizarre, many-lipped oyster".

from Harry Potter WIki

VERSES

Hogwarts Years Verse: This focuses on Lily's years at Hogwarts. Especially fifth, sixth and seventh year, mostly sitxth and seventh tho. For unplotted things I'll just randomly choose one, however for plotted things I will most likely specify which year. For now the individual years stay untagged. This might changes later. follows canon heavily influenced by headcanons. ( muggle born witch grown // 𝓛.𝓟. marauder era verse. )

The Other Chosen One Verse: The Longbottoms and the Potters get told about the prophecy and since Dumbledore can't really tell which boy it's about, both families go into hiding. However Voldemort chooses the Longbottom's son and after torturing their secret keeper, he finds the family and kills them, failing to kill little Neville and disappears. Everyone assumes he is dead. James and Lily survive and get to raise Harry. ( not marked by death // 𝓛.𝓟. the other chosen one verse. )

Ghost Verse: Everything follows canon until Lily dies. However she can not pass to the other side, then she got an unfinished business. The urge to make sure her son, Harry, is alright keeps her here. Dumbledore forbade her to contact Harry before he got his Hogwarts letter, but let her move to Hogwarts, where she is now living as one of the ghosts. ( darling dearest dead // 𝓛.𝓟. ghost verse. )

Future/Golden Era Verse: Dumbledore sends some members of the Order on a mission at the Ministry, which includes Lily too. They get into a fight and Lily has an accident with some time turners and another unidentified objects that sends her into the future. Dumbledore can't explain what happened, but since Lily doesn't have a place to go, he decides to let her go back to school, since she can still pass as a student and live in Gryffindor until he figures out a solution to send her back in her own time. ( lost in time // 𝓛.𝓟. golden era verse. )

Professor Potter Verse: As Porfessor Slughorn plans his retirement, he decides to write his old student, Lily Evans - now Potter, a letter asking her how she would feel about taking the position, as he plans to put in a few good words for. After thinking about it for a few days Lily decides she likes the idea and ends up being the new Potions teacher at Hogwarts. ( the student becomes the master // 𝓛.𝓟. professor verse. )

Fantastic Beasts Verse: Lily was born in 1899. After finishing her education at Hogwarts, she decided to become a healer at St. Mungo’s. A few years into her education, Lily travelled abroad, to gain experience at other healing institutions as well. It can depend on the thread, if she went to New York, Paris or if she is back in England. In this verse she is not married to James Potter and clearly Harry wasn’t born. ( a different time a different place // 𝓛.𝓟. fantastic beasts verse. )

0 notes

melonbuffet · 6 years

Text

Unpopular headcanon - James and Lily were not soulmates/would not have remained together

*ducks* I'm not saying they weren't compatible at the time - I'm not even saying they weren't in love. I'm saying the idea that they were perfect for each other and would have raised harry happily if they hadn't been killed is an ideal we see through Harry's eyes, when the books leave clues to say this wasn't the case.

1) James participated and died in the first war - that doesn't eliminate the flaws in his character.

I do think he improved in his pigheadedness, as most teenage twats do - it's sometimes a little grating to think those sorts of people from school that were insufferable but popular can turn out alright as they grow up, but it's possible and I'd even say common for that to happen. It's also fair to say snape provoked the rivalry, as he was a different kind of arsehole, and the fact that he supported Lupin was against the grain in a loyal way, if very irresponsible at times. BUT - the only proof he really did change his arrogant and superior personality is 1) He became Head Boy 2) Lily eventually changed her mind and went out with him and she seems decent from all the accounts of her that we have 3) Sirius/Lupin attested to it 4) His participation in the Order and subsequent sacrifice show a brave selflessness.

I would argue that 1) Fair enough, he must have become at least somewhat responsible and well liked (although if everyone had known about the snape werewolf incident?...) 2) deserves it own point I'll cover that in a hot minute 3) Clearly these were his friends and idolised him, both in life and understandably in death. All the times we hear their present day perspectives, it does well to keep in mind they are talking to his orphan son who didn't know him and they are looking back on memories of him through over a decade of rose tint, and in Sirius' case a truckload of guilt. Their perspective, while valid in certain respects, definitely can't paint a full picture of his character. 4) He is portrayed in couple of snapshots we have as loving his son - he is playing with him just before Voldemort comes, that's why he had no wand, and obviously he bravely tried to take on Voldemort in a panic to protect his wife and child. Props to the guy, fair play. However, Lily, (lovingly to be fair) references how frustrated he is that he's not out fighting with his friends when she writes to Sirius. There is still a restlessness within him to be the hero, the star of the show, and while it was brave, it was arguably the worst thing he could have done, throwing himself in front of Voldemort without a wand. He's not perfect, and it shows through in his need to be reckless.

I would also reflect on their personalities as we know them, even in reference to an improved James, and their long term compatibility - as I mentioned before, they are similar in a lot of ways, and that is not always a good thing, especially when you are both ambitious and used to attention. I would argue that Lily enjoyed attention based on her becoming Head Girl and particularly because she was one of Slughorn's collected pupils. I am not criticising that, but I am saying that when you are both trying to be the bigger and more important hero and have similar aspirations, that might not work as a long term marriage particularly when you are both putting yourself in danger (I am presuming they would both take the step into being Aurors if Voldemort had been defeated in a different way, although I admit there isn't a huge basis for that in Lily's case).

2) Lily and James were a teen couple who married straight out of school and had a baby within a year of their marriage - because there was a war on and they were both lacking in role model support and options.

Lily made that choice when she was a teen. They fit fairly well at the time - both virulently anti-Voldemort, spent time together in their Head duties, both very smart, attractive and popular - just because Lily was indicated to be moralistic and intelligent doesn't mean she was immune to social pressure or not subject to rushing headfirst into a crush because life at the time seemed so short and exciting. Also something that's rarely internalised because of the age of the actors in the movies is that they were 21 when they died, in the middle of a war, in which they and their infant son had been presented with a prophecy shaped target on their backs. I don't want to crap on young serious relationships (I am 22 and planning to get married this year to my boyfriend who I got with when I was 17) but I feel the circumstances and the time scale that all of this happened speaks to the context of the situation. Furthermore it is worth reflecting that 21 is young for muggles, but it is arguably even younger for a witch or wizard, as wizards live significantly longer than muggles naturally. James' parents have been referenced to have died of old age, so having children is a very long term option for magical people.

This is how I see it from their perspective - the world is crashing around their ears, Voldemort is winning and no one can seem to figure out how to effectively work against him, they are brave and determined and heroic, they can't see themselves living through this and they have both fairly recently lost both of their parents (we know both of their parents must be dead by the time they die because of where harry has to go and the fact that the vault of Potter fortune is described as belonging to both Lily and James rather than just the Potters, also James must have lost them near the end of school or after school because Sirius describes how he got taken in by them when he left home). Their friends and peers are dying too, and this all continues for the rest of their lives. I can see two young people rushing through a life that should have taken time to consider because they are holding on to the time they have so determinedly. They had a huge amount of money and not a lot of time - people have got married for less.

Interestingly, Lupin uses this as one of his excuses not to be with Tonks, convincing himself that her feelings were born of the situation not because of genuine lasting love. Would James and/or Lily have mourned not being together to the extent that Tonks did? I will concede that maybe that's true, but I would argue that neither of them ever had the self doubt that Lupin had, and would have moved on. Also it's worth mentioning that there are not a lot of magical people full stop, and even fewer in their immediate peer group - what alternative partners were there that they frequently interacted with? They are taken up with the war full time, so they are unlikely to meet and get to know muggles.

I don't really want to end by arguing against my points, but I do want to be fair - I fully accept that a significant amount of successful couples in the wizarding world met and married out of school, so it's more of an institution than in the wider muggle community, and many of those couples formed in wartime. As a little note of support for myself though I would say it is different if you marry and have kids after a war, in the knowledge you will truly spend your lives together, than if you marry believing you will be dead soon. Again though, I accept there are successful examples of similar situations/marriages.

Please reply with arguments/support, I'd love a little debate.

#Harry Potter #lily and james #James Potter #Lily Potter #headcanon

0 notes

all-the-fics-ill-never-publish · 3 years

Text

If Sirius Black Had Never Died

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!

In an alternate world, in which JKR didn’t believe in trauma porn, what happened to Sirius Black could have been incredibly different.

Where should one begin to unravel the threads that led a brave man, one with such potential for redemption, to his death?

Does it begin on the night he was meant to die? When he bolted downstairs to discover that his godson, the legacy and the link he cherishes, was in mortal peril and insisted on following the rest of the Order to the Department of Mysteries, he faced his mad cousin in the Death Chamber, dueling her with all his hatred of the Black family…

Harry watches as Bellatrix Lestrange’s curse hits Sirius in the chest and he topples backwards off the amphitheater steps, hitting the stone floor with a horrible crunch. His godfather’s wild, ironic laugh— what a way to die, at the hands of everything he hated most!—is met with an insane shriek of joy from the madwoman who has felled him. Harry yells in fury and grief as he watched this most important person crumple, and he shakes off Lupin’s restraining hands. No one can stop him as he takes off after Bellatrix, determined to exact revenge. A life for a life— how dare she take from him the only adult who had ever cared about his safety and happiness? The last, closest thing he had to a parent, and she had enjoyed killing him. White-hot fury sustains him, keeps the tears at bay.

The fight is winding down, and Remus Lupin dashes down the remaining steps to fall to his knees at his friend’s side. Please not him, he thinks, reaching madly for a pulse, not this last person, my last friend. Don’t let him… He feels a steady heartbeat beneath his frantic fingers and begins to cry unashamedly with relief. Padfoot is still with him, though Prongs has gone and Wormtail has betrayed them. Mooney is not alone so long as at least one Marauder still lives.

When the Aurors arrive to capture the Death Eaters, it is with Albus Dumbledore and an ashen-faced Harry in tow.

“Sirius is not dead, Harry,” Lupin is quick to reassure him. “But, Dumbledore…” Lupin’s eyes say all the things his voice cannot, and fortunately Dumbledore is quick. He strides over to Sirius, kneels down, and examines him closely.

“Lupin is correct, Harry,” he concurs after a moment, his face grave but his smile reassuring. “Sirius in not in immediate danger from his injuries. If you will go back to my office, I will meet you there once I have attended to him and spoken with Mr. Fudge.”

Dumbledore waves his wand at a piece of rubble nearby and mutters, “Portus”. With one last anguished look at his godfather, still unconscious, Harry takes the proferred Portkey and vanishes.

Dumbledore prevents the Aurors from arresting Sirius on the spot. “He was here at my orders, fighting on our side,” he says, eyes flashing so dangerously that no one argues. “Any questions you have can wait until he is more fully recovered. Remus,” he says, “please take Sirius to St. Mungo’s and stay with him until I arrive. I will want to give Harry a full report.”

In Cornelius Fudge’s office, Dumbledore informs the Minister of Magic in no uncertain terms that Sirius is to be allowed to recover peacefully in St. Mungo’s, and then to report for the trial he should have been given fourteen years before. Dumbledore, as the (presumably) soon-to-be instated Head of the Wizengamot, will oversee the proceedings. In the meantime, there is a very frightened boy who is waiting anxiously for word about his godfather. If the Minister has any further questions, he can send an owl; letters addressed to the Headmaster of Hogwarts will always find him.

When Dumbledore returns to his office later, it is to find a shell-shocked Harry staring blankly into space. He tells the boy that Sirius will live, that the curse damage he suffered is not permanent; Sirius should be up and about in a few days. After that, there will be a trial to clear his name. Harry’s self-recriminations are tinged with relief that his foolishness has not killed this most important person, this almost-parent, but Dumbledore still refuses to accept them. “It is my fault,” he says clearly, “that Sirius was injured.” For he should indeed have known better than to lock the man up inside a house of childhood horrors with no glimpse of the independence he had fought so hard for.

As Dumbledore tells Harry everything about the prophecy, Harry is still too numb with shock to process much, still overwhelmed by the magnitude of what Dumbledore hid from him, but the grief that he might have known— that he did feel for fifteen horrible minutes— is mercifully absent. Some weeks later, when Sirius is finally cleared of all crimes by the Wizengamot, the relief is so heady that Harry smiles and hugs Sirius— unusual, for such an undemonstrative boy. “Maybe now,” he tells his surrogate father, “you’ll be able to get out and about. You probably have enough gold for a new house, too.” Sirius’s answering grin makes him look, once again, like the man who had been James Potter’s best man so many years before.

All is not perfect, of course. Kreacher had still betrayed his master, and Sirius, unable to look at him and unwilling to confront his own complicity in Kreacher’s behavior, sends him to the Hogwarts kitchens. Number 12 Grimmauld Place is destroyed, but not before Mundungus Fletcher makes off with all the valuables he can. Sirius buys himself a house— a nice, airy one in the countryside— and the Order sets up their headquarters there instead. Harry still has to return to Privet Drive that summer, but only for a few weeks. When Dumbledore collects Harry from the Dursleys, it isn’t to the Burrow that he escorts him, but rather to Nettleford Place, a three-story Victorian pile outside a small village in Devonshire. Harry lives in terror of having this, too, snatched from him; leaving Sirius to seek Horcruxes is one of the most difficult things he can imagine. Will both of them lived to see the end of the war? Will this home, too, be taken from him like so many had before? Will Sirius, like Harry’s parents and Dumbledore, be forced to sacrifice himself as well?

Ah, but this new narrative, while it removes one injustice wrought by the author’s hand, has not yet solved the greatest injustice of all. Perhaps we can take this tale back even further, to a time when Sirius was still young and arrogantly handsome, to the day after his best friends were murdered. To a time when the law should have been more careful…

The Magical Law Enforcement Squad descends upon a Muggle street in early November, 1981. A crater in the pavement is open to the sewers, the bodies of the dead broken on the rubble. The harsh wind threatens to steal their hats even as it whips the robes around the knees of the presumed murderer standing at the far end of the disaster zone. The handsome, careless man is still laughing with a kind of hysteria as members of the Law Enforcement Squad advance on him, wands raised.

“Come with us, Black,” says Bob Ogden, the head of the squad, waving his wand so that ropes spring out to restrain the man. He prays it won’t come to additional violence; he’s getting close to retirement now, and the paperwork from this blast alone will be nightmare enough without extra jinxes flying around. But Black does not fight the ropes as he works to stifle his laugh.

Ogden picks up the wand Sirius drops on the pavement and puts it tip-to-tip with his own. “Priori Incantatem,” he murmurs. If Black did indeed perform this curse, the wand will tell him. But the last spell the wand performed was not a blasting curse; it was a Hover Charm. He looks at the bound man in confusion and then scans the screaming Muggle crowd for an accomplice.

By this point, Ogden’s deputy returns from his conference with the Muggle policeman and murmurs his report into his boss’s ear. His boss starts, shakes his head, then looks at Black once more.

“Who is Peter Pettigrew?” he asks harshly, and Black, having composed himself, scowls darkly.

“A nasty sneaking traitor!” he roars. “You see this street? That’s his doing, the murdering scum! Accusing me of betraying James and Lily, and then doing this! He’ll wish he’d died in this explosion before I’m done with him! Check the sewers! There’s his wand, you’ll see, you’ll see!” Sirius begins to swear with such caustic fervor that several of his guards wince.

Ogden gives two more squad members the nod to search fthe rubble. Sure enough, another wand is discovered on the edge of a large crack in the pipes, near a pile of grimy robes and one severed finger. This wand, much shorter and less well-polished than Sirius Black’s, proves to be the one that cast the blasting curse. But where could the wielder have gone? Did Black cast the curse with another wizard’s wand and then discard it? But then, where had the finger and the robes come from?

Black is still thrown in Azkaban for a week until the trial commences. When he is permitted to stand before the courtroom— looking rather more pale than usual but no less haughty— he tells the story of the Potters’ Fidelius Charm. He was, indeed, supposed to have been their Secret Keeper, but he had convinced James to switch to Peter at the last minute without telling anyone. It was a perfect ruse, he explains, because everyone who knew Peter knew that he had barely passed his examinations. Everyone knew Sirius was closest to James and Lily, would be sure to come after him first and leave Peter, that sad afterthought of any gathering, alone. When he had checked on Peter that Halloween to see if he was still safe, and found an empty house with no sign of a struggle, he had gone immediately to the Potters’ house and found it destroyed. Peter must have told Voldemort the Potters location willingly— there was no other way for the information to be divulged— but that must mean….

His fury with Peter kept him from resisting Hagrid’s insistence that Harry come with him. “Take my bike, then,” Sirius had told Hagrid, “You’ll get there faster, and I won’t be needing it just now.” There would be time, perhaps, if Sirius were able to exact vengeance on Peter, to find Harry again and fulfill the duties with which James and Lily had entrusted him.

But he had counted without Pettigrew’s cowardice and self-preservation, he tells the Wizengamot. When cornered, he screamed for everyone to hear that Sirius had betrayed his best friends, and then blew the street apart and escaped. Pettigrew, Sirius says to the court, is an unregistered Animagus. He can become a rat. The finger left behind was a pathetic attempt to fake his own death. This testimony tallies with the Priori Incantatem evidence collected at the scene, but Bartemius Crouch, Sr, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, does not believe him. It is not until Dumbledore persuades Crouch to hear Sirius’s testimony under the influence of Veritaserum that Sirius is acquitted. Sirius is released, wand intact, still nursing his vendetta against the friend who betrayed them all but with his fury temporarily abated; there are more important things for him to do now.

When Sirius asks Dumbledore where Harry is, he learns of the ancient magic that protects Harry from Voldemort. As long as Harry lives with his aunt— his mother’s last remaining relative— he will be safe. Sirius cannot take him from that house, or Harry’s protection cannot be guaranteed.

Sirius does not take Harry from the Dursleys, but he shows up on their doorstep in his torn jeans and leather jacket to introduce himself, motorbike parked carelessly on the curb. After they attempt to bar him from the house, Sirius threatens them with his wand and marches in to see the tiny boy with Lily’s eyes in James’s face, crying by himself in a corner of the living room. When Sirius enters, Harry recognizes his Uncle Paddy (as Sirius had styled himself, short for his nickname Padfoot) and stops crying. He reaches up his arms and Sirius picks him up, rocking him and telling him that it’s okay, his parents are gone but he’ll always have Uncle Paddy. He may not be an expert at child care-- Harry is the only baby he’s ever held-- but Sirius is determined to do his best for this little copy of his best friend. For James’s son, he can find the paternal side he’d never known he had.

“Harry has to stay here,” Sirius says to Vernon and Petunia. “For his own protection. But I will come for him every weekend, and if I see the slightest sign of mistreatment,” he adds, pulling out his wand and sticking it in their faces, already mistrusting them because they left Harry to cry alone, “I will take it out of your miserable skins, you got that?” Vernon splutters but hasn’t the nerve to stand up to Sirius Black in a temper; precious few people do.

The Dursleys’ fear of Sirius’s retribution, and Sirius’s own presence, makes Harry’s childhood less uncomfortable than it would have been otherwise. Harry is still forced to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs until the age of ten, but is never locked in there. Dudley still sees to it that he has no friends at school, and that he never has enough to eat during the week. Harry still grows up convinced of his own unimportance and normalizing his abuse. And yet, he knows that at least one person cares about him because, no matter how busy Sirius is working for the Auror office (putting that thirst for vengeance to good use), he always shows up Fridays after work to collect Harry from Privet Drive. He takes Harry back to his house in Devonshire— Harry loves the motorcycle— and lets Harry ride his toy broomstick in the back garden.

On weekends at Sirius’s house, Harry meets his Uncle Mooney, who stays with Sirius in between jobs. Remus Lupin doesn’t have any money— can’t buy presents or Quidditch tickets— but he tells him stories about his parents and shows him pictures of them. He plays board games and listens to the radio, and makes bubbles for the cat to chase. When Harry is ten, Sirius and Remus sit Harry down and explain that Remus is a werewolf, and that that makes it harder for him to be treated equally. Harry scowls and says “It’s not fair for them to think you’re different! You’re a person, you just have a problem!” Remus and Sirius meet each other’s gaze over Harry’s head, both thinking just how much the boy is like James. Sometimes, when Remus needs cheering up, Sirius gets Quidditch tickets for them all. For the last two Marauders, it is both soothing balm and bitter pill to see Harry with eyes alight at the aerial acrobatics; how James would have loved to be there! And so, Harry grows up knowing that he is magic, that his odd flashes when he’s scared or angry are because he has powers, and he knows that there is a wizard school that he can go to when he’s older. But, more importantly, he grows up knowing he is loved by his two adopted uncles, his parents’ best friends, who are more family to him that his blood kin.

The owl with his Hogwarts letter is posted to Sirius instead of the Dursleys, and Sirius takes him to Diagon Alley for the first time. They run into Hagrid in the Leaky Cauldron (he’s the one person Sirius doesn’t try and chase away), and Hagrid tells him how fondly he remembers his parents. Harry still stares and feels funny about Hagrid’s kindness, but relieved that there are other people like Sirius and Remus in the world. Sirius shows Harry the vault full of gold that once belonged to the Potters, but then shuts it and says, “This is your inheritance when you are older, but your education is my responsibility.” In addition to robes and a wand and potions ingredients, he buys Harry an owl that day, so that Harry can write to Uncle Paddy while he’s at school. Harry chooses the large snowy owl that hoots majestically from the top shelf and names her Hedwig. Sirius smiles and tries not to see James’s eleven-year-old face, alive forever in his memory.

Harry has no trouble getting onto Platform 9 3/4 with Sirius escorting him, but is very put-off by the number of kids his own age. Are all of them magic? Sirius seems to know Molly, the short red-haired woman next to them, very well—he asks after her and her husband Arthur, and mentions how long its been seen he’s seen their kids. Molly gives him a hug and then introduces Harry to her children.

“Ron is just starting at Hogwarts this year as well,” she says with a smile, not seeming to notice the scar that had entranced every other wizard he’d met. “It will be good for him to know someone besides his brothers.” So the two boys ride in the same compartment, talking about Quidditch and candy and Harry’s Muggle family. Meanwhile, Sirius tries not to worry too much about sending the boy to school, and resolves not to check the skies every three seconds like an idiot, waiting for an owl.

When Harry makes the House team as a first-year, Sirius rushes to send him the best broom he can get his hands on— a Nimbus Two Thousand!— and writes to Dumbledore for permission to attend Harry’s first match. It’s like stepping back in time, watching the boy who could almost be James’s twin, swoop and dive with so much precision. When Harry’s broom tries to buck him, Sirius has to be restrained by Professor McGonagall (“You cannot interfere with a match, Black!”), but no one laughs harder when Harry almost swallows the Snitch.

When Sirius hears about Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s adventures with the Sorcerer’s Stone, he is horrified to realize that his first instinct is to tell Harry off for breaking rules— after all the things that he and James did in school! When did he become such an adult? He compromises by telling Harry to think about consequences and make plans rather than trust to luck, and then buying him a large ice cream cone on their way from King’s Cross Station to the Dursleys house in Little Whinging. Nonetheless, he’s impressed at the gall— and ability!— of these 11-year-olds. They’ll be something when they’re grown, he thinks with a smile.

In Harry’s second year, when he learns about the Chamber of Secrets, Sirius sends almost weekly owls, worried that Harry’s adventurous, heroic streak will get him into trouble. A monster prowling the castle and attacking people would have been horrible temptation for him and James when they were in school, and it is precisely that knowledge that keeps him up at night, wondering what Harry will do. He’s not sure whether to be proud or furious when he hears about the basilisk and the diary, but can’t help but feel that the joke is on him. He would have done the same thing in Harry’s shoes, and so, he knew, would both Harry’s parents.

When he realizes that Peter is at Hogwarts in Harry’s third year, Sirius goes AWOL from his Auror job and sneaks into the Hogwarts grounds as a dog. He hasn’t transformed in many years; no one but Remus, teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year, would recognize him, and he is careful to stay out of Remus’s sight. Harry tells him about the Marauder’s Map in a letter— “it says ‘Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs’— You and my dad and Uncle Mooney are on here! But who is Wormtail?”— and Sirius puts off answering the letter. He’s not ready to tell him about Wormtail,

Thus, when Sirius drags Ron and “Scabbers” under the Whomping Willow, it is with real terror that Harry and Hermione chase after them, only to be shocked at seeing the enormous dog turn into Harry’s Uncle Padfoot. Harry had never seen his godfather so angry, and felt a little scared of him, but not so scared that, once Remus talked Sirius out of committing immediate murder, he wouldn’t listen to the story of Wormtail. Harry still pleads for Wormtail’s life, and Remus’s transformation into a werewolf still facilitates Pettigrew’s escape. But no crazy heroics are needed on this night, simply a return to the castle and an owl to Sirius’s superiors. Perhaps another man might have been fired for not showing up to work for months, but Sirius manages to spin it as a “deep undercover” operation that he could trust to no one and gets off with a reprimand. Nonetheless, knowing that Wormtail was forever beyond his reach was infuriating and concerning.

Sirius takes Harry and Remus to the Quidditch World Cup the summer Harry turns fourteen, and they meet up with the Weasleys and Hermione there. All of them have seats in the Top Box— Sirius called in a few favors of his own— and have a roaring time watching the match. Harry’s wand is still missing when they get into the forest, the Dark Mark still cast into the sky. Sirius is among the group of Aurors who Apparate onsite immediately, and his fears are only slightly relieved by the fact that no one seems to be present besides Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Who cast it? How much danger is Harry in?

Harry’s shocking entrance into the Triwizard Tournament causes him to send Dumbledore a Howler, venting his frustrations with the selection process. Harry tries to hide under the table, embarrassed that Sirius is yelling at the headmaster. No longer content with letters from Harry, Sirius comes to Hogsmeade for every free weekend the students have. Harry rolls his eyes a little— “No one else’s parents come see them in Hogsmeade, Uncle Paddy!”— but is secretly happy for the support. The Tournament is a lot of pressure and worry, and he can tell that Sirius and Dumbledore are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When Harry arrives back at the edge of the maze after Voldemort’s return, Sirius is in the stands, among the first to reach Harry’s side. The terror and shock in his godson’s eyes, so out of place on a young boy’s face, are more than he can handle. He turns away to talk to Dumbledore about what arrangements need to be made. When he looks back, Mad-Eye Moody— this year’s Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and an old friend and colleague of Sirius’s— is helping Harry up to school. He and Dumbledore look at each other with the same amount of horror and suspicion. Mad-Eye would never remove Harry from Dumbledore and Sirius’s sight after what had happened! Dumbledore waves over McGonagall and Snape— Sirius grimaces but makes no comment— and the four of them walk up to school and arrive just in time to keep “Moody” from blasting Harry’s head off. The stories that follow— both Harry’s and the imposter’s— make Sirius sick to his stomach. How he had hoped that Harry and his friends would be spared their parents’ wars!

That summer, Sirius is spending so much time at Order headquarters in his parents old house that he cannot bring Harry for weekends. By leaving Harry in Privet Drive for a few extra weeks, he hopes to keep him safe. When dementors attack Harry and Dudley, Sirius flies to Little Whinging within an hour, straps Harry’s trunk to his broomstick, and takes him back to 12 Grimmauld Place. The Ministry still has it in for Harry, but Harry doesn’t need to ask Sirius if he can live with him if the hearing goes badly; he already knows he has a home with his godfather.

Harry still spends most of his fifth year in a temper, fighting off his demons from the graveyard and trying not to explode at Umbridge. Sirius’s owls are his only source of comfort, and their communications become extra complicated when Umbridge starts searching the post. It’s not that Sirius is a wanted man, but he’s known to be a Dumbledore supporter in the Ministry, and Umbridge would love to catch both him and Harry in wrongdoing. Sirius goes silent for a month just before Harry’s O.W.L.s. It’s often like this when he has a mission— for the Order or for the Ministry? It’s hard to tell, but Harry is worried. What if this is the time when Sirius doesn’t come back?

So it is in this climate of worry that Voldemort sends Harry the false vision of Sirius captured in the Department of Mysteries. Harry still rushes to his rescue with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna; still is persuaded to take the prophecy; still breaks the prophecy on the steps in the fight. But Sirius never pierces the veil, even though he laughs madly as he feels Bellatrix’s curse knock him backwards into unconsciousness. Harry thinks him dead and chases after Bellatrix, only to meet Voldemort and be saved by Dumbledore. Harry takes a Portkey back to school, meets with Dumbledore, learns about the prophecy and about the magic that keeps him safe as long as he lives in Privet Drive. He listens numbly, horrified at how close he came to losing everything— his friends, and his godfather— all because he could not tell fact from fiction and rushed recklessly to save the day. At Sirius’s bedside that afternoon, Harry apologizes up and down for his mistake and Sirius, still muzzy from the potions, pats his hand and says, “Never mind, your father and I would have done the same.” But Harry has seen Snape’s memory in the Pensieve during Occlumency lessons, and isn’t sure that’s the commendation that Sirius intends. Does he want to be reckless and arrogant, too? What if being like his father and godfather is not what he wants to be anymore?

Sirius is more out of touch than ever the following year— between his work for the Auror office and for the Order, Harry isn’t sure when the man sleeps— but he still does his best. With Harry’s school load, he’s hard put to answer letters anyways, and Hogsmeade weekends are cancelled after Katie Bell’s accident. He tells Sirius over Christmas everything he’s concerned about from Malfoy and Snape, and Sirius frowns without saying anything. He hates Snape more than he hates anyone, but cannot bring himself to accuse Snape of endangering Dumbledore; even Snape has limits, surely.

It is to Sirius that Harry confides the whole Horcrux mission after Dumbledore’s death. Dumbledore had said, “don’t tell anyone,” but Harry can’t bear to leave Uncle Padfoot without an explanation. Sirius wants to argue, but sees the same determination in Harry’s eyes that once belonged to both James and Lily, and holds his tongue. He helps his godson pack, gives him as much advice as he can, teaches him how to get food by magic.

When the Ministry falls, Sirius is forced into hiding in a safe house far from his home in Devonshire. Sirius still leaves when he can, but the thought of Harry, still searching the country for Horcruxes, keeps him from attempting heroics. The last time Harry thought Uncle Padfoot was in danger, he almost got himself and five friends killed on a rescue mission. Sirius will give Harry no reason to worry and distract himself. When he gets word of the battle about to be fought at Hogwarts though, he Apparates at once into the Hogs Head. He knows that the end game is nigh, and can’t wait to get a piece of his murderous Death Eater family.

Sirius howls with grief and rage when Hagrid carries Harry’s body up to the castle, and fights like a wild man. Red tinges his vision as he, McGonagall, and Kingsley attack Voldemort. Sirius doesn’t even care that this is the end. If he could not protect the boy who is like a son to him then he will go down fighting the evil thing that killed him. He does not even notice Molly Weasley take down Bellatrix Lestrange. Any other day and he would have fought for the honor of killing that madwoman. Today he has a bigger opponent.

He almost falls over with shock and joy when Harry pulls off his cloak and challenges Voldemort. Sick with nerves and tension as he watches Harry circle and bait Voldemort, Sirius struggles to blink the ghosts out of his own eyes. This might be James, James as Sirius remembers him— young and strong, determined to fight for the right cause— but even James never had the temerity to call Voldemort “Tom Riddle,” nor the compassion to tell him to feel remorse for his actions and save himself. Neither of Harry’s parents would have used a Disarming Charm on Lord Voldemort, reluctant to kill even at the final hurdle, trusting Voldemort’s wand to rebound and do the deed. Only Harry, Sirius realizes as Tom Riddle’s body fell to the ground in silence, would ever be that decent.

The narrative has been unwound and rewound, to reveal a man who could always have been more than he was, had he been allowed. Adults do not cease to grow at the moment they become adults, but grow and change throughout their lives. Children do not grow up the worse for having adults who love them. Indeed, the love of one adult, constant through their lives, can make all the difference.

#hp #au #fanfic #harry potter #sirius black #long post

0 notes