"Trust me!" Sirius said, laughing. "I think I can take care of my own godson!"
Lily looked at James and sighed. "I know you can take care of him, Sirius, but a weekend without my widdle baby, Harry, will make Mummy go crazy...," she cooed, making Harry gurgle and laugh.

"How hard can it be to watch him for the weekend? Especially since you two need to go on a much needed vacation, I dare say!" Sirius replied.

"Just be careful," Lily responded as she kissed baby Harry on his head. "Be good for Unkie Sirius."
Harry replied to this by gurgling and drooling.

"There's a list of numbers on the side of the refrigerator and if the slightest thing goes wrong, please call me right away!"

"C'mon Lily," James said, rolling his eyes and trying not to laugh. "Let's go. We want to Disapparate before the sun goes down."

"I'm rushing, I'm rushing, so hold your horses," Lily snapped.
James sighed as Lily kissed Harry on his head again then handed him gently over to Sirius.

"Have fun on your trip!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Oh, we will," assured James as he picked up the suitcases and proceeded out the door. Once they left, Sirius faced baby
Harry and said, "Well, it's just you and I now!"

"Gluurrrg." Baby Harry spit-up on Sirius's new robes.

"Ugh. I can see we're going to be in for a long weekend."


Mumbling just how disgusting that little incident was, Sirius took little Harry back to the bedroom and sat him down on
the bed so that he could change his shirt. Harry pouted and stared up at him with adorable green eyes.

"Okay, okay!" said Sirius quickly, deciding to wave his wand over the robes to clean them. "Just give me a second, all right? Please? These things are brand new..."

He changed as swiftly as possible and picked up Harry again, carrying him to the kitchen, patting the baby gently on the back.
On the way there, Sirius was quite terrified when he heard Harry make another one of those "Gluurrrg" noises.

"What--again?" he said, pouting some himself.
Harry, who was giggling, had spit-up on him again.

"I know you did that one on purpose," said Sirius, raising an eyebrow. Yet, he couldn't help but smile slightly.

Sirius, who considered himself quite the intelligent person, was sure this weekend of babysitting would be a piece of cake. After all, how hard was it to keep up with one itty bitty baby? He had no idea that he'd be eating his words in the record-breaking speed of an hour.

It was nearing baby Harry's feeding time and Lily had supplied a Muggle highchair to aid in feeding him. Sirius carefully placed a bib on Harry and opened up a jar of baby food that smelled strongly of dog food. Shaking his head,
he read the label: "Turkey and Vegetables."
Sirius scrunched up his nose as he lifted the spoon to Harry's mouth. "Open for the doggy food," he said sweetly, smiling. Harry did so, obviously enjoying the taste.

This is easy, Sirius thought triumphantly. Maybe this baby thing won't be so bad after all!

Achoo!

Little Harry had suddenly sneezed, spraying that wonderful "food" onto Sirius's face. Sirius froze, his face oddly contorted as he blinked and said sarcastically, "Thanks, a lot, Harry."
Harry cooed, food dripping from his chin.

Grabbing a towel from the table, he wiped Harry's chin and his face off and sighed. Looking at the vile food in his hands,
he breathed deep and again tried to get the food to Harry's mouth and silently prayed that no more would plaster his face. Once the spoon was mere inches away from Harry's mouth, the telephone rang out, startling Sirius and causing the spoon to fall from his hand and land on the floor with a crash.

"Bloody hell," he muttered as got up and went to find the source of the noise.
Harry giggled, thoroughly enjoying this little
mealtime mishap.

The ringing continued and Sirius was beginning to worry that maybe someone had broken into the house and tripped the alarm James had warned him about. He searched around the kitchen, his eyes finally falling upon the telephone.

Ahhh, he thought. James told me about this fellyphone thing.
He picked up the receiver, and though still unsure of how it worked, he screamed "HELLO?!"
A female's voice shouted back. "Sirius! What's going on?! This has been ringing for FIVE MINUTES!"
"I... I," he stuttered, unsure where to begin.

Luckily he heard James' voice calling out in the background, "Honey, we haven't been gone more than two hours! Surely he couldn't have blown up the house!"
"Really, James!" Lily admonished.
Sirius had to let out a laugh. "Harry and I and the house are fine! I was in the middle of feeding him when you called."

Once he got off the phone with Lily, Sirius turned around and looked at Harry, whose bottom lip was starting to quiver, apparently on the verge of tears.
"What's wrong?" he asked, lifting Harry out of his highchair.

It was then that the most putrid and horrific smell met his nose, much more horrid than the baby food. He wrinkled his nose as a sickening thought entered his head when herealized what it was.

Oh, dear Merlin! he thought, his eyes widening slightly. This is bloody disgusting, he mused.

Carrying Harry at arms length, as if he were diseased, into his bedroom, Sirius placed him on the changing table. Taped to its side was a note in Lily's familiar handwriting, explaining how to change a diaper. Thank you, Lily, he silently prayed as he read the instructions.

Removing Harry's blue jumper, he opened the diaper and nearly passed out. "Sweet, merciful Merlin!" he murmured, leaning against the changing table for support, grasping his chest and breathing heavily. He had battled with teachers, classmates, and ol' Snivellus, but this, he thought, was the worst by far.

As Harry cooed, an idea popped into Sirius' head. Reaching to his robe, he pulled out his wand, aiming it directly at the soiled diaper. "Deletrius!" he shouted. Nothing happened. "Scourgify!" The spell only partially worked and most of the mess still remained. Sirius was starting to grow impatient. He could only hold his breath for so long without passing out. He realized that he was going to have to do this the good ole Muggle way. Grabbing the soiled diaper between his fingers, he moved it out from under Harry, quickly tossed it into the garbage, and pointed his wand at it, yelling "Incendio!"

A small blaze shot up from the trash, signaling that the diaper was now nothing more than ashes. Diaper... zero, Black... one, he thought smugly as he turned to face Harry again.

After gently cleaning Harry off, he turned to start putting things back where they belonged when a delightful squeal from Harry startled him. Turning quickly, he saw that Harry had discovered a bottle of wizards' shampoo and was downing it eagerly, a grin on his happy face. "No!" yelped Sirius, bounding forward to jerk the bottle from baby Harry's hands and setting it aside.

Harry, shocked from such quick movements and his face holding the dawning comprehension of someone who had just had something taken from them, turned his large green eyes toward Sirius. His bottom lip trembled and he slowly began to wail. "Shh...sh...shhh," Sirius said quickly, trying to calm the distressed baby. He picked him up and bounced him gently until he began to quietly hiccup, large purple bubbles issuing from his mouth.

As soon as little Harry was no longer crying and only hiccuping an alarming amount of bubbles, Sirius picked up the shampoo bottle from the floor to see if it was dangerous when indigested. Wizards' shampoo, he discovered, wasn't quite the same as a Muggles'. Although most wizards did use Muggle shampoo, some preferred magical shampoo that could make the hair stay cleaner longer. And when swallowed, he read, only causes hiccups, bubbles, and maybe a bit of a stomachache. But apparently Harry wasn't suffering from a stomachache, because he had gone back to giggling and cooing whenever one of those big purple bubbles came from his mouth.

"You've got to be the happiest kid I've ever seen," said Sirius, shaking his head. "But you sure can cause trouble! You get that from your father, I suppose. Great prankster, he is! If only you could have seen some of the things he did at school..."
He wondered why on earth he was talking to Harry...after all, he really didn't understand any of what he was saying. Harry only goggled at him with those big green eyes.


Soon, Sirius and Harry found themselves in the living room, watching the jellyvision -- as Sirius called it -- and lying, relaxed, on the couch. The person on the television was trying to be a comedian, but Sirius only glared at him.
"What a loser," whispered Sirius, shaking his head with disappointment and holding out his hand with his thumb pointing down. "Booo..." Little Harry was leaning against him, sound asleep. Sirius was quickly bored with the man on the television, and was ecstatic when it finally went off (Sirius didn't know how to change channels) and began to watch a movie, but then he felt his eyes get heavy.
Sirius had drifted off, an arm around baby Harry, who was clutching the Animagus' index finger in his little hand.
And for about thirty minutes, a peaceful silence fell over the household.

Sirius rolled over to his side and snorted. Suddenly, he awoke with a start as he rolled onto something soft and lumpy. Fearing he may have accidently rolled onto Harry, he leapt off the couch and looked around, his heart beating like a hammer.
Harry, though, wasn't on the couch, in fact, he was no where to be found. "Harry?!" he called out nervously, though he realized that Harry couldn't answer so calling him would be useless.

Sirius dashed into the kitchen, but no Harry. He frantically ran into the bathroom and still, no Harry. Anxiety filled him as thoughts of what could have happened to him. Lily is going to KILL me! he thought. After he checked all
of downstairs, Sirius sat down on the couch again and tried to think of where a little baby could have gone. Surely he wouldn't have gone upstairs, it would simply be too much for Harry to climb the steps. As he sat there, a flash of pink light beamed out from the hallway. Curious, he got up and went to check it out.

"Aha!" Sirius exclaimed as he found Harry sitting on the floor next to the closet with Sirius' wand in hand.
"Blaablu," giggled Harry as another pink shot emitted from Sirius' wand. "No!" he exclaimed. "Wand is not for baby to play with," he scolded softly. But Harry looked up into Sirius' brown eyes, an innocent look on his face. "Blaablu!"
He gently pried the wand away from Harry's little fingers and stuffed it into his back pocket. "What do you say we go to bed now?" he asked, picking up the little boy. Harry smiled at him, and before Sirius could react, he spit up on him for the third time that day. "You know, I think you enjoy doing that WAY too much!"


Upon cleaning his robes again, he took Harry into his room and changed him from his blue jumper into a pair of green pajamas.
As Sirius gently lay Harry down into his crib, he looked up at Sirius, his green eyes getting smaller... and smaller... until Harry was fast asleep. Sirius tip-toed out of the room and into the guest bedroom that James and Lily had set up for him.

Yawning, Sirius glanced at the clock (which read 9:45pm) and sat down on the bed. No sooner had he done so, he too, was fast asleep. He slowly drifted away into a marvelous dream. He, James, Remus, and Peter were back at Hogwarts, and they were pelting Severus Snape with rotten food. Or more likey, he and James were the ones doing the pelting, Remus and Peter were refereeing and stocking up the crate with an endless supply of rotten food.
"What's wrong, Snivellus?" taunted Sirius. "Can't take it?"

James laughed. "Oh, look! Snivelly is starting to snivel!"

"I AM NOT SNIVELING!" Snape shouted.

"Eat fruit, Snivelly!" Sirius yelled, throwing a particularly rotten watermelon at Snape's head. The fruit sailed in slow motion as it traveled toward Severus, but the fruit never made it to his head. Instead, a long "WAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" sounded.

Sirius sat bolt upright in his bed, the living daylights having been nearly scared out of him. "What the bloody hell was that?" he grumbled. As Harry screamed again, he remembered that he was in James and Lily's house watching his godson and not pelting his mortal enemy with rotten fruit. Just my luck, he thought as he looked at the clock through sleepy eyes. 3:30 A.M., he sighed as he slowly got up and stumbled his way out of his bedroom. By Merlin, he thought, I'm staggering more now than when James and I had that all night binge at the Leaky Cauldron.

Finding his way around in the dark, he managed to get into Harry's room where the screams seemed louder than before.
"It's okay," Sirius mumbled sleepily, but Harry wouldn't stop crying. Sirius tried racking his brain as to why he would be crying. "What's wrong? Please tell me you don't need your diaper changed..." As fate would have it, taped to the crib was a note that he hadn't seen before. "If Harry cries during the night, then he is most likey hungry," intoned Sirius as he read the note. "Oookay," he said, lifting Harry out of the crib. "Let's go make you something to eat so I can go back to sleep."

Taking Harry downstairs and into the kitchen, he opened one of the cabinets and found a shelf of baby bottles. He took one down and filled it with the formula he found sitting in the fridge. Taped to the formula was another one of Lily's infamous notes on how to feed Harry. Lily and her notes, Sirius thought, a smile creeping onto his face. Following the instructions, he fed Harry, who was cradled in his arms, sucking on the bottle. This isn't so bad. When Harry finished his bottle, Sirius turned him over to burp him. "Blaaaaaaah!" Sirius scruched up his face. He knew he should have seen that one coming. He turned to look at his shoulder and sighed. Harry had spit up on him for the fourth time that day.

Bright and early the next morning, Sirius slowly stumbled out of bed, looking extremely scraggly, his hair all mussed and sticking out at weird spots. Yawning, he got up and went to get Harry.

Upon entering his room, Harry greeted Sirius by rolling over in his crib and gurgling. But at the sight of the disheveled figure, Harry began to whimper. Sirius looked at Harry in mild confusement.

"What's wrong?" he croaked, scratching his behind as he approached the crib. Harry oogled him, not quite sure what to make of this peculiar scene, whether he should be very afraid or laugh. Finally Harry settled on laughing and a small grin appeared on his face and a small squeal left his mouth.

Sirius bent over the crib and gently picked up Harry. Harry, who was now quite fascinated by Sirius' messy mane of hair, began grabbing at it with his chubby fingers.

"OW! Hey, Harry! Quit with the hair pulling!" Sirius exclaimed, using a free hand to massage the part of his head where Harry had pulled his hair. "That hurts!"

After breakfast (which included Sirius wearing more of Harry's "wonderful" food), he decided to take Harry out into the backyard and play with him. Grabbing some of Harry's soft toys, he picked him up and set them and Harry outside on the soft grass.

"Okay," Sirius said, crouching down next him, "catch!" He tossed a red ball just a few feet from where Harry sat. Gurgling, Harry crawled over to it and picked it up, putting it up to his mouth and drooling all over it.

"Ugh," Sirius cringed, picking up the slobbered ball that Harry had now dropped. "You wanna see some REAL slobering?" Sirius asked, smiling. Harry giggled and clapped his hands together. In the blink of an eye, the human Sirius turned into a large, shaggy black dog. Harry however, was not frightened at all by the dog.
He crawled over and put his small, chubby hands onto the black furry face. Sirius the dog sniffed Harry's head, then proceeded to lick it. Harry cooed and squealed in delight, his head and face now dripping wet with doggy drool.
Sirius picked up Harry's red ball in his mouth and began trotting along the back yard with Harry crawling after him.

"Gaa!"
"Woof!"

Sirius stopped running so Harry could catch up with him. "Gleeey!" Harry gurgled, touching the soft black fur again.

Harry crawled around the big black dog, quite fascinated by it, never having seen such a thing before in his short life. As Harry stopped around the backside, Sirius began wagging his tail, much to the enjoyment of Harry. Curiosity getting the better of the baby, Harry grabbed the long black tail and pulled. For such a tiny little thing, he sure had a firm grip. With a small pop, Sirius turned back into a human, a pained look on his face.

"Ohhh-kaaaay," he said with a slight grimace. A distant ringing sounded from inside the house at that moment. "Let's go see who's calling," Sirius said with a slight wince, picking up Harry and heading back indoors. Though still a complete novice when it came to these "crazy Muggle inventions," Sirius hesitantly picked
up the phone.

"HELLO?"
"Hello, Sirius! I was just calling to see how my widdle baby Harry's doing?"
"Hi Lily. Harry's fine. We were just outside in the backyard playing. So, uh," Sirius continued, trying to sound casual, "does James know you're calling?"
"Uh.... (there was an extremely long pause) Remember, if you need to ask me anything, just call!"
With that, there was a loud click on the other end of the phone. Sirius took that as a strong hint that James didn't know Lily was calling. Laughing to himself, he carried Harry into the living room and sat him down on the couch.

"I see James has left his yearbook out," he said, grabbing the book off the small coffee table.
"Shall we see what your dad looked like when he was in school?" Harry gurgled as he sat down on the couch next to him.
Opening the book, he came upon the first page, which had a moving picture of James carrying the Quaffle in his last Quidditch game.

"Your dad was an excellent player," Sirius began. "Won a few Quidditch trophies as well. It drove all the girls in school CRAZY! Which in turn drove ol' Snivellus crazy as the girls were ga-ga over James and not him. Mind you," Sirius whispered, leaning in close to Harry, "Snivellus was just a jealous git, and ugly too, so no amount of Quidditch talent would have helped him." Harry squealed.

"This picture here," he said showing Harry a picture on the next page, "was when your father won the House Cup for Gryffindor from right under Snivellus's large hook nose in their Seventh year. Boy, was he peeved! Third year in a row that Gryffindor had won it over Slytherin. Ah, I wish you could have seen Snivelly's face."

Flipping through some more pages, he came across a picture of his and James' friend, Remus Lupin.
"This was when Moony, our nickname for him, first became Prefect. And this picture here," he said, pointing to the one below it, "was when your father became Head Boy." Sirius let out a laugh that sounded like a bark. "It was shortly thereafter when you mum finally started going out with him. Of course, James had to deflate his ego a bit and stop cursing Snivellus whenever he felt like it."

Sighing he added,"It was a sad day when James quit hexing him. You know something? Your father was quite good with hexes.
One time he put a bloody good hex on Snivelly that gave him some massive boils...couldn't sit for a week!"
Turning the pages, he eventually came upon their class photos. James' picture was smiling up as he waved out. Underneath it was the quote: "It was better to have hexed ol' Snivellus and receive detention, than to not hex him and not have any fun at all."

"That was your dad for you," Sirius smiled. He pointed out many of the other pictures with their corresponding quotes: Lily ("Wherever you go, go with all your heart."), Remus ("When the MOON hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore!"), a fidgety Wormtail ("I didn't do it, I swear!"), and to his ("If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bull****").

"Ahhh... memories," he said quietly, fondly looking at the book.

Time flew by as they (mostly Sirius) traveled down memory lane. Little Harry's eyelids were beginning to droop, and Sirius took that as a sign that it was time for Harry's nap.

Feeling rather sleepy himself, Sirius took Harry upstairs and gently placed him in his crib. Stifling a yawn, he tucked Harry in and quietly tiptoed out of his room, only to hear Harry start to whimper.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked, picking Harry back up, but Harry wouldn't calm down. He continued to cry and cry.

"What would Lily do?" he mumbled, bouncing Harry in his arms. 'Maybe a lullaby would help,' he thought. 'But no! I can't sing!'

Sirius tried to hum the Hogwarts school song, but to no avail.
Harry still cried. Thinking of other songs, he tried to sing them, mumbling the words when he couldn't remember them.

"Umm..." he said frantically, bouncing some more.
"Err...R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me! R-E-S-P-E-C-T, hmm hmm hm hm hm hm hmmmmmm! Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, just a lil' bit!"

Harry looked at him, slightly frightened yet fascinated all the
same, and his crying finally reduced to just an occasional whine, with a little scrunched up face.

"Do you like that song?" Sirius asked nervously, as if Harry were grading his performance. "I do too. Long story. I won't tell you that one...you've heard enough from me and my stories, haven't you?"

Harry had finally quieted down, and he was now chewing on his hand, getting his saliva absolutely everywhere. Sirius walked around upstairs, making sure Harry didn't start to cry again. When Harry's eyes began to droop, he took the baby to its bed and sat him down gently inside of it, quietly backing out of the room to leave Harry to his nap.

Feeling relieved, Sirius walked back to his bedroom and collapsed on the bed with a sigh. He was thinking he needed more naps than Harry did at the moment, so he closed his eyes to try and catch up on his rest.

An hour or so passed and Sirius's eyes fluttered open. The whole house was completely silent, except the curtains flapping as the breeze blew in through the open window. Thinking it was too quiet, Sirius got up, stretched, and went to check on Harry. As he reached little Harry's bedroom, he began to talk to Harry in a whisper, in case he was still asleep.

"Ohh...Harry! Are you still sleep--"
He paused with horror. Harry was not in his baby bed. Only blankets and a little pillow.

"Oh bloody hell," he murmured, panicking. "HARRY?"

Terrible thoughts were running through his head of Harry's possible kidnapping, and with his heart once again beating at an incredible rate, he ran throughout the house, yelling for Harry, racing downstairs and tripping on the last one, where he began throwing the cabinets open.

"Harry! Where in Merlin's name--oh no, oh no, oh no--"

"Sirius, I suppose this is what you are looking for?"

Starting so bad he hit his head violently on the top of one of the cabinets, he turned to see Albus Dumbledore, with his twinkling blue eyes and a smile, holding a gurgling baby Harry in his arms. Relief swept over him and he felt weak in the knees, he sank to the floor and sat there for a few minutes.

"Headmaster!" he said. "When--I mean, what are you doing here?"

"Lily managed to send me a letter, she wanted me to come and check on you. Oh my, I wasn't supposed to tell you that, was I?" he said innocently. "Ah, Sirius, my boy. What on earth were you doing?"

"Oh, please don't tell Lily!" Sirius shrieked, standing and
bounding forward. "She will decapitate me, I'm telling you, Headmaster, please..."

Dumbledore chuckled, and Harry pulled on his beard, giggling.
"I won't tell Lily, if you promise to watch where Harry's going!" he said pleasantly.

"He was taking a nap, I put him in his baby bed, I'm assuming you came and got him then?"
Dumbledore looked at him closely. "Sirius, Harry was crawling around down here."

Sirius blinked with confusion. "Uhh, Headmaster, his--no, I put him in his baby bed! Then I went to take a nap! How in the hell--?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Never underestimate the powers of a baby wizard."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying that Harry
Apparated out of his bed, came down the stairs, and ran into you?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying, but you never know," said
Dumbledore, looking thoughtful. Shaking his head and laughing at how ridiculous that sounded, he gently took baby Harry from Dumbledore.

"Thank you, Headmaster, for not letting him escape the house." They both grinned at each other.
"You're very welcome, Sirius, and have a nice day."

He turned to leave, but Sirius stopped him. "Wait, you're not going to tell Lily, are you?" he asked fearfully.

"No, Sirius," Dumbledore said softly, still smiling. Sirius looked elated. "Thank you so much!" he whispered. Dumbledore waved a hand and disappeared out of the door, laughing.

"Now, Harry Houdini," said Sirius, looking down at those green eyes. "Let's go see if you're hungry again."

Harry was indeed a bit hungry, and as Sirius fed him, he couldn't get over the fact that Harry had so skillfully escaped his bed. He wondered if it really was by magic, as Dumbledore suggested...

After feeding Harry, he took plenty of care to make sure Harry didn't spit up on him. When Harry didn't, and looked quite relaxed, Sirius grinned.

"Ha ha!" he said, with triumph. "My clothes are clean!"
Harry hiccuped and spat up on his shoulder. Sirius winced. "Ugh. Fine, I take that back. Spoke too soon, didn't
I?" The green-eyed baby giggled loudly.

Sirius went (yet again) to go clean his robes and he got some toys for Harry. Mostly, Harry just chewed on them, but a few times he banged them on the ground with delight then chewed on them again.

"A wonderful way to catch germs," said Sirius, smiling. "Honestly, do you even think about what could be on that floor?" Sirius frowned at himself. "Ooohh, Sirius," he said to himself in a mocking voice. "You're turning into a mummy! Ooohh!" He scowled then mentally smacked himself.

Harry paid him no mind, he only giggled at himself.

Sunday. Beautiful Sunday. Normally a day for relaxing, but not inthis case. Lily and James had called, announcing that they would be coming home just the very next day and the house was in shambles. Sirius hadn't bothered to clean while here, and now was facing the prospect of Lily and James walking into an extremely untidy house... and worst of all, facing Lily's wrath. In the guest bedroom, it appeared to have been struck by a tornado as the contents of Sirius' suitcase had been strewn all over the room; a pair of his underwear was hanging off the side of his bed, leaving him quite perplexed about how they got there.

To top it off, the downstairs wasn't much better by any means. The living room hadn't been vacuumed, the kitchen needed sweeping, and the table in the kitchen was cluttered with junk.

"Looks like today we'll be cleaning up!" he grumbled, holding Harry close to him. Harry merely gurgled, his green eyes scanning the messy rooms. Suddenly, an idea popped into Sirius' head. "Magic!" he exclaimed, scaring Harry by his sudden outburst. "We'll use magic to clean this mess! James and Lily will never suspect a thing!"

Sitting Harry down in his high chair, Sirius pulled out his wand and pointed it at the kitchen. "Scourgify!"

A sweeping wind blew through the kitchen, cleaning the clutter away. When the wind died off, Sirius and Harry looked around at the once again sparkling kitchen. Sighing, and throughly pleased with his efforts, he took Harry out into the living
room and performed the same spell there. Harry giggled in amazement as things began to magically clean themselves.

"You like that, huh?" Sirius asked. He shifted Harry around so Sirius could look into his big, green eyes. "Mummy and daddy will be home shortly."


What normally would have taken all day took only a matter of minutes... the house was again clean. Sighing, he carefully set Harry into a small playpen then proceeded to slump onto the couch. Noticing a small pile of old Daily Prophet newspapers sitting beside the couch, Sirius took them out and began to leaf through them while keeping an eye on Harry simultaneously.

After awhile he became too engrossed in reading an article ("He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Active Again"), causing him to receive quite a shock when a voice called out from the fireplace. Startled, he looked over at the Potter's fireplace and smiled. Remus Lupin's familiar head was situated between the green flames. Though he was pleased to see a friendly face, Sirius couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Let me guess," he began, "Lily told you I was watching Harry and she asked you to keep an eye on me?" Remus shook his head and laughed. "No, it's not that. I was just seeing if Lily and James were back yet."

"No, Lily and James aren't back yet. They're supposed to be here sometime tomorrow."
"Oh, well. You must be bored out of your mind."
"Yeah, it's nice talking to someone who doesn't spit up on me all the time." Sirius looked pointedly over in Harry's direction. Harry only gurgled, his green eyes watching the fireplace in amazement. Remus laughed, then said good-bye and turned around and vanished in the green flames, much to the befuddlement of Harry who watched with a befuddled expression on his face.


The hours passed and eventually Harry fell asleep in his playpen. It was nearing evening time and Sirius felt his stomach begin to growl. Hoisting himself off the couch, he headed into the kitchen to "whip up some grub." Taking out his wand, he twirled it around and magically, dinner for him (steak and potatoes) and Harry (baby pablum) appeared on the table. And to think, James always said I couldn't cook to save my life, Sirius thought, smiling to himself.

Quietly he headed back into the living room to wake Harry for his dinner. "Harry?" he whispered. "Harry?" He looked down into the playpen and noticed that Harry wasn't there. "Not again!" he exclaimed. "I'm going to have to tie that
kid down!"

Luckily he didn't have to look far, as he dashed around the house to look for him, he spotted Harry sitting on the kitchen table with food smeared all over his face and head.

"That wasn't for baby!" he exclaimed, as Harry continued to smear Sirius' dinner all over himself. Grabbing a towel from the kitchen sink, he began to wipe off the messy baby. "Just you wait 'til your mummy and daddy get back," he said. "They're going to be so surprised to learn that their 'widdle, baby Harry' can Apparate!"

Harry laughed.

After Harry was cleaned up and fed (with the right food), Sirius carried Harry back to the playpen then sat back down on the couch, not feeling much like eating any more after cleaning a messy baby. Harry was now cooing in his playpen, quite fascinated by a stuffed snowy-white owl toy in there.

Watching Harry stick the tow owl's head in his mouth and drooling all over it, Sirius yawned... then blinked... then fell asleep.

There was whispering, and everything around him was black. With a start, he opened his eyes and nearly gave himself a heart attack. Sirius was staring into the brown eyes of James Potter, who had a devilish grin on his face.
"What the bloody --!" Sirius exclaimed leaping up to his feet, but tripped up and fell to the ground in a heap.

James laughed and helped his best friend back to his feet. "What's the matter, Padfoot?"
"I - I didn't think you'd be coming back until tomorrow," he answered, rubbing his head.
"Yeah, some nasty hurricanes were coming and we decided to leave early," James
replied. "Besides, Lily was most anxious to come home anyway."

"Hey, look," Sirius began nervously, "I didn't mean to fall asleep like that. I mean, Harry was in his playpen and I... I sat down on the couch, but I didn't mean to fall asleep and..."

The devilish grin on James' face slowly disappeared. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Harry wasn't in the playpen when we came in... he was in your arms. And you were drooling, I might add. Lily thought you might be drowning him." The sly grin slowly returned to James' face.

Sirius opened his mouth to retaliate, but thought better of it. Instead, he smiled as he thought of Harry Apparating into his arms. They walked into the kitchen where they found Lily holding Harry, who was cooing quietly in her arms.

"Thank you so much for watching Harry for us," Lily said smiling, standing up to meet Sirius eye to eye.
"Aw, it was no problem," Sirius replied. After he had said this, he thought back onto all the times Harry had spit up on him... to drinking the wizards shampoo... and to Apparating, causing him to nearly have a heart attack when unable to find him....

"Would Harry like to say bye-bye to Unkie Sirius?" Lily asked, facing Harry toward her. Harry smiled as Lily handed him over to Sirius. He looked down into Harry's big green eyes and smiled himself.

"It was nice looking after you, kiddo." He leaned down and gave Harry a kiss on the forehead. Harry smiled as drool slowly dribbled down his chin. "Be good for your mummy and daddy."

Sirius held Harry closer to him and whispered, "Be sure to show you're mum and dad your new Apparating abilities. They'll really like that one." He smiled deviously as he handed Harry back to Lily.

Sirius stepped out into the cool night air, his suitcase in tow. He stood on the Potter's front lawn and turned around to face their house one last time before he left. Lily, James, and little Harry were waving good-bye to him, or more likely Lily was helping Harry to wave. He smiled and waved good-bye back. Then with a heavy sigh, he pulled out his wand, and with a wave of it, he disappeared into the night.


The End


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By request from our loyal readers, Crimsonphoenix1 and Scheherazade are pleased to present...

Sirius Black . . . The Deleted Scene from Chapter 4

~*~

"Umm..." he said frantically, bouncing some more.
"Err...R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me! R-E-S-P-E-C-T, hmm hmm hm hm hm hm hmmmmmm! Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, just a lil' bit!"

Harry looked at him, slightly frightened yet fascinated all the same, and his crying finally reduced to just an occasional whine, with a little scrunched up face.

"Do you like that song?" Sirius asked nervously, as if Harry were grading his performance. "I do too. Long story. I won't tell you that one...you've heard enough from me and my stories, haven't you?"

Harry had finally quieted down, and he was now chewing on his hand, getting his saliva absolutely everywhere.

"Oh, well, I guess another story can't hurt. It was the summer of 1977. Your dad, Moony, Wormtail, and I were carefree and innocent...." (he gave a small snort) "We were 17 and on top of the world. James was just recently made Head Boy, he was starting to go out with your mum, and ole Snivellus was just as ugly as ever."

Harry gave a small giggle.

"Anyway," continued Sirius, "We had decided to go over to Lily's place one day. Her dreadful sister Petunia, someone who I hope to Merlin you never meet, had gone out for the day so the house was completely ours to command. So naturally, we decided to throw a party. Lily had just brought a Muggle reCORD plaYER and something called reCORDS. To make an even long story longer, she had one from a Muggle lady named Aretha Franklin. Well, I must admit that this lady could really sing. I, having arrived at her house a bit before James did, started, uh, dancing to this song with Lily. Unbeknownst to me, James had arrived not too long after and saw me make a proverbial ass out of my self. He never let me live it down, he did. He said my dancing looked like a spazzing freak."

Sirius scrunched up his face.

Harry giggled some more, as Sirius shifted him to his other arm and started singing again. "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me!" Harry began making gurgling noises in tune to the song.