Think about this for a moment. Think about how hard it must have been for him to say those words.
‘He’s not your son.’
Like no no no, Molly, this is my Harry. My kid. James and Lily’s son from his appearance right down to the way he writes the alphabet and protects his enemies. I’ve known the kid literally since he was born. I know what James and Lily wanted for him. They’d want him to know what he’s getting into. They’d want him to know that we trust him. And Lily would skin me alive if I let her son face the “chosen one” scenario without knowing what it means. James and Lily Potter gave their lives as a result of this Prophecy and you’re telling me they would want to keep him in the dark? He is my godson, Molly. I would do anything to keep him safe. I’m the one Harry wrote to nearly every day for months and I know what he needs. I know what happened in the damned graveyard. I know what Harry’s been through and I know what his parents would want us to do. HE’S. NOT. YOUR. SON.
‘He’s not your son,’ said Sirius quietly.
Sirius is canonically the sort of person who’d get increasingly louder and angrier over the course of an argument. But no. Molly wants Harry to be a child. Her child. And all he can think of is Lily. Her grit. Her principles. The way she’d have laid the truth out before Harry and then taken him out to a Quidditch game or something.
He never gets to say any of that. There’s Molly’s below-the-belt Azkaban taunt and Sirius just retreats into his guilt about not actually being there for Harry… not being able to protect him last year… not keeping James and Lily safe.
Sirius didn’t know that the Dursleys were abusive.
At the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, he automatically assumes that Harry would rather live with them than with him. In the Goblet of Fire, Harry writes to him about Dudley’s video games and diet habits but never explicitly mentions anything about being abused. Even when he gets to Grimmauld Place in the Order of the Phoenix, he expresses his anger at not receiving information and though we know that he was also emotionally exhausted from spending another summer at an abusive household, he never discloses it. In fact, seeing as how he protected Dudley, Sirius could just as well be under the impression that the two were very close.
And I hate this so much because Sirius Orion Black grew up in an abusive household and if he had known for a single second that his godson was facing the same thing that he had faced, he would have really blown up a street in an attempt to get to Privet Drive and rescue Harry.
And it also breaks my heart because you know that Harry knew this which meant that he was more worried about his godfather’s safety and freedom than he was his own health.
Who hurt you and why did you feel the need to hurt us?
I just imagined Sirius being called out to sorting and the hat getting ready to shout SLYTHERIN! almost before even touching one of Sirius’ hair - just like it has done for every Black and Malfoy for centuries- and then suddenly all he hears is this eleven year old thinking “Don’t you fucking dare”
And the Hat is like.
“Well. That’s a ballsy move if I ever saw one. Your family’s going to murder you.”
“I don’t care,” Sirius mutters under his breath.
“Well, if you’re sure…better be GRYFFINDOR.”
The Hall is dead silent as this skinny little eleven year old marches to the Gryffindor table and sits his ass down.
There’s muttering at the Slytherin table about it having been some kind of mistake. At the Gryffindor table too. McGonagall gets the Sorting back under way, and people are a lot less interested in who’s under the Hat now–everyone knows about the Ancient and Noble House of Black by their second year, and the batch of confused first year Muggleborns is being educated rapidly by their pureblood and halfblood peers.
James Potter goes up–there’ve been two more boys Sorted into Gryffindor, three girls, and the Lions barely remembered to cheer–and to the shock of absolutely no one, gets Sorted into the House of the brave as soon as the Hat touches his head, just like the rest of his family. It’s the first thing that’s really gone to plan so far.
He hands the Hat back to McGonagall and proves his Sorting almost at once when he sits down next to Sirius and raises his voice to be heard over the resumed Sorting when he says, “So you got Gryffindor just like you wanted, that’s great! Ignore those tossers,” he continues with a broad gesture to the Slytherin table, where almost Sirius’ entire family is glaring at the pair of them, “they’re just sour.”
“No shouting during the Sorting, Mister Poter,” McGonagall says.
“Yes, Professor,” James says, and immediately turns back to Sirius.
Sirius lets James needle him into a grin, and James scowls pointedly at the rest of Gryffindor House when Sirius’ back is turned, dragging the other boys from their year into the conversation as soon as food is placed out.
McGonagall feels what a more superstitious woman would call a premonition of doom.
sometimes i think a lot about what would have happened if sirius had actually been exonerated at the end of book 3 and harry had gone to live with him and also snape kept his mouth shut and remus kept his job
in the time between sirius being cleared and the end of the school year, sirius starts an intensive course of physical and mental therapy
sirius picking harry up from king’s cross
i know it’s not canon that sirius was an auror after graduating hogwarts but i really like to think he was
anyway once he passes a psych eval he’s reinstated as an auror
kingsley is his partner; they trained together back in the day
it takes kingsley a while but he gets over “sirius black escaped convict and former death eater” and they grow to have a really strong partnership
the rest of the aurors follow suit
the head of the auror office (is it scrimgeour at this point? probably) forming a task force to find pettigrew
sirius wanting to be assigned to that task force but being denied because it’s such a huge conflict of interest
sirius picking up harry from king’s cross when school gets out
both of them really nervous but smiling really big
sirius got a new flat in london in the same neighborhood as his bachelor pad but this one with enough room for both him and harry (and a room that is ostensibly a guest room but really remus uses it all the time that summer)
(he tries to get sirius to let him help with rent and sirius says no because it’s a guest room, remus, you’re a guest, and guests don’t pay rent)
harry spending a lot of time with remus that summer while sirius works
sirius and remus and harry going to the quidditch world cup
ron staying with them in their tent
they get to the top box and they’re in front of the malfoys and sirius just kind of smirks at lucius
sirius’s heart in his throat when he can’t find harry after they’ve gotten the muggles down
sirius almost physically attacking barty crouch for accusing harry of casting the dark mark in the forest
(sirius almost physically attacking barty crouch a lot, tbqh)
sirius trying to be gruff and cheerful when he drops harry off at king’s cross on september first, and thinking about meeting james on that same train 23 years ago
hugging harry tightly but quickly, and harry gripping the back of sirius’s jacket
sirius worried but knowing that remus will look after harry at school
because of how slowly the wheels of justice move, pettigrew’s trial isn’t held until after harry is back at school
remus is there too because they’re both testifying witnesses
it’s a rough day
sirius wondering for a moment if azkaban is a place he’d wish on anyone, even wormtail
then remembering what it felt like to open the door to the cottage at godric’s hollow and seeing james’s body
there on the floor
remus pulls a block of chocolate out of his pocket and hands it to sirius
and then i honestly think sirius would have found a way to get harry out of the triwizard tournament, even if it meant kidnapping the kid
I just imagined Sirius being called out to sorting and the hat getting ready to shout SLYTHERIN! almost before even touching one of Sirius’ hair - just like it has done for every Black and Malfoy for centuries- and then suddenly all he hears is this eleven year old thinking “Don’t you fucking dare”
No surprise, your and Lily’s son turned out to be the best kid in the world. Not exactly sure how much of a part I had to play in that, but I hope you’re happy and not too deeply regretting making me Harry’s godfather instead of Moony. I’d say I’ll try to keep him out of trouble more, except he does a good job of that himself. He’s a good kid, and a damn good Seeker, too. You’d be proud of Harry, if you were here, Merlin’s Beard you would be proud.
Sirius Black who shakes when the sorting hat is placed on his head, and asks for anything but Slytherin, and he doesn’t know, but it was never even a consideration.
Eleven year old Sirius who gets bad dreams about his parents, and the sorting, and his family, and his little…
