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.
----
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.