Return of the Son
Godric’s Hollow was Sirius’ favorite place in the world, only thirty minutes outside of London, but it felt like a million miles away. Sirius had grown up in London, gone to school in London, and ran away from London. And now here he was, in London, staring up at the house where he grew up in and the one that he ran away from.
He knew that sending Harry to the school that he had dropped out of would mean that he would eventually need to come back to London. But he never thought that he would come back to this place, at least not on a holiday.
“Are we going to go in?” Harry asked. “Because I am freezing.”
“Are we not inside already?”
“No.”
“Ah, I thought it was already after dinner and we were leaving,” Sirius said, hoping that it would be true.
“It’s seven fifteen and we are late,” Harry huffed and reached across Sirius to ring the doorbell. It seemed like the time had come.
Neither of his parents answered the door. Why would they, they had a maid to do that for them. It was never useful to learn the names of the maids or get to know them in the slightest. His mother would fire them by the end of the week. Sirius was tempted to keep a tally of how many different maids greeted them every Friday.
“Can I help you?” the woman asked.
“The son,” Sirius pointed to himself and then to Harry, “the grandson. Sorry we are late, there was traffic.”
“Oh yes, please come in,” the woman ushered them in and took their coats. “Your parents are in the drawing room.”
Sirius and Harry followed the woman to the drawing room, or living room, what was with the older generation not adapting to the times?
His mother, Walburga, was flipping through some sort of paperwork, cocktail in hand and was wearing what appeared to be a five-hundred-dollar skirt set. His father, Orion, was sat in his chair reading the paper, sipping on scotch, and wearing a three-piece suit. His parents did not look up when they entered the room. Sirius recalled how just last month he was here begging his parents to finance Harry to go to Hogwarts Academy.
“Mr. Sirius Black and Mr. Harry Potter,” the maid announced after it was clear that neither of his parents were going to look up from their reading.
His mother was the first to look up, finally able to tear herself away from whatever socialite reading she had to do. “Sirius, you came.”
“Of course, I did, you said we had too,” Sirius said, the maid was gone, lucky her.
“And Harry,” his mother paused, “so nice to see you.”
“You as well ma’am,” Harry said awkwardly.
“We thought that you were not going to make it. It is fifteen past, dinner is in fifteen minutes,” Orion said, not looking up from the paper.
“We got stuck in traffic,” Sirius lied. His father just grunted.
They all sat in silence until the maid came back to say that dinner was ready. Sirius and Harry followed his parents to the dining room. There were four place settings on the grand table. One at each head, for his parents and one on each side. Sirius took the one closest to the door in case he needed to escape.
“How are you liking Hogwarts Academy young man?” Orion asked.
“It’s good so far,” Harry said.
“That’s it? It’s good, nothing more to add. They clearly are not teaching an intense curriculum anymore,” Orion said, he returned to his potatoes.
“Dad,” Sirius began. But Harry interrupted him.
“It’s very difficult,” Harry said. “I am trying my best though. I just have some catching up to do and then I will have no problems at all.”
“Good,” was all Orion had to say.
The four of them lapsed into silence again, the only sound being the clanging of silverware on plates.
“How is the Inn Sirius?” His mother asked. Sirius didn’t know if this was a trick or not.
“It’s good, almost the busy season,” Sirius nodded.
“Dad’s also going to school,” Harry supplied. Sirius looked up and gave Harry a stern look.
“School?” Orion asked, looking between Sirius and Harry.
“Business school,” Sirius said, not wanting to give his parents to much information.
“Why?” his mother asked. “And where?”
“At the local community college. Just a couple night classes a week. Trying to get my business degree so I can open my own place.” Sirius knew he overshared immediately.
“Your own place?” Orion asked.
“My friend Dorcas and I are trying to open our own inn.”
“Interesting,” his father said. They all lapsed back into silence. Dinner was finished and dessert was brought out. Sirius was not surprised, but sort of disappointed that there were no lobster puffs.
Finally, it was nine and legally time for Sirius and Harry to leave. His father had retreated to his study to do some work. His mother said a pleasant goodbye and the maid returned with their coats. Sirius led Harry out of the house and into the car. The ride back to Godric’s Hollow was quiet, the only sound was of the radio playing the top 40.
“Do you think he’s still open?” Harry asked as they crossed the town line.
Sirius looked down at the dash, it was almost ten. “Maybe.”
“Should we check?”
“I just want to go home,” Sirius sighed.
“Okay,” Harry nodded. “Are you mad at me?”
“What?” Sirius said as they drove past Remus’. “Why on earth would I even be mad at you?”
“For bringing up the Inn and your classes.”
“No, it was bound to come up anyway,” Sirius shrugged. He turned on his blinker to their road. “I could never be mad at you.”
“You know, I don’t have to go to Hogwarts,” Harry said as they pulled into their driveway.
“Yes, you do.”
“I can just go to Godric High, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“You want to go to Harvard, right?” Sirius asked.
“Yeah, but I can still do that if I stay here.”
“But you have a better chance if you go to Hogwarts. If that means that we have to spend a night once a week with my parents, then so be it. You matter more to me than anything, and I want you to have everything you need to be successful.”
“Okay,” was all Harry said. “I guess I should go do some homework then.”
“Okay. Remus’ for breakfast tomorrow?”
“Of course,” Harry nodded. “Maybe we could go shopping then? To reward ourselves?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“Yeah,” Harry nodded and opened his car door. “Homework calls. Night.”
“Night, love you.”
“Love you too.”
Sirius watched Harry head to the house, knowing that he had made the right choice. But also hoping that this wasn’t about to blow up in his face.