accio-shitpost:

if he was honest, sirius didn’t really know what he was doing that night.

he’d only wanted to catch a glimpse of harry. the child who was the baby he remembered as being nestled in james’ arms, gurgling happily and smiling up at him. his godson, though he barely felt old enough to be a godfather.

it had been twelve long years since sirius black had last laid eyes on harry potter, and he was determined to do so again.

he hadn’t known what happened to harry, but he guessed. with james’ family gone, harry had no wizarding grandparents - but he had an aunt, lily’s sister. sirius knew the vague area where she lived, even if he didn’t know her address. looking it up was hard to do inconspicuously in dog form, but he managed it. 11 privet drive. harry’s new home.

still disguised as a dog, he began to run for the address. he was almost there when a boy ran by, startling him into hiding. 

it was james.

no, it wasn’t. even if james was still alive, he wasn’t thirteen any more. but it looked so much like james that sirius did a double take, blinked for a moment at the child before him.

he was james, if james had been starved for weeks. harry potter was lean and pale, his dark hair in complete disarray, his muggle clothes four sizes too big at least. an angry white scar was just visible beneath his hair, shaped like a lightning bolt.

at that moment, sirius was seconds away from transforming again and talking to the boy. he didn’t care that harry didn’t know who he was, or that he was a known criminal in both the muggle and wizarding worlds. he would go back to azkaban, give up on his revenge, just for the chance to talk to james’ son, just for a moment.

the only thing that stopped him was a sudden noise. a crack, and the screeching of tyres. the knight bus. harry scrambled to his feet, and sirius watched from the shadows as he spoke to the conductor, flattening his hair over his scar.

if dogs could smile, sirius would have been smiling. instead he just turned tail, and headed back into the darkness.