Sirius Black . . . Babysitter Extraordinaire?!

Chapter 3.

Dogs and Yearbooks

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 REALslobering?" 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.