The Park
By now Sirius had been to y/n’s house and met her parents and 12 year old sister, who were nice and generally accepting of him.
One of y/n’s sister’s comments was “oooo y/n got herself a wizard boyfriend!” to which her parents laughed and said “hun, y/n is a witch, it makes sense for her to have a wizard boyfriend, we would be ok if either of you had a wizard boyfriend or a non wizard one or girlfriend”.
However Sirius and y/n have been very careful and secretive when it comes to Sirius’s family, with y/n being a muggleborn and everything.
-
Every few days after Sirius and y/n started dating, they would meet in the park after y/n was done her shift. Sometimes Sirius would show up as a dog, just to mess with her or for a laugh but most times he didn't because it's inconvenient to find a safe place to switch back to human and have an actual conversation with y/n.
Today was not one of those days, Sirius thought it would be funny if he stayed in dog form and y/n pretended he was her dog while they walked through the park.
Sirius had failed to realise until it was too late that this was going to be one compliment filled walk, naturally.
Sirius had picked a flower from the backyard, it's not like anyone would miss it, nobody goes back there anyways. He put it in his mouth before transforming into a dog and walking to y/n’s house.
Y/n was waiting on the front porch of her house and Sirius saw her face light up when he got closer.
Sirius walked up to her and stretched his neck in order to bring the flower as close to her as he could, she smiled and took the flower out of his mouth.
“Sirius, you don't need to bring me flowers, although it is very cute, you bringing and being yourself is enough” y/n told him and patted him on the head.
On their walk y/n kept a hand on Sirius’s back which was actually more comforting than he thought it would be
I wonder what cuddling would be like if I were in my animagus form? But then I wouldn't be able to talk so scratch that
Sirius thought as they were walking. He hasn't really been paying attention to his surroundings but as he zoned back in, they were at the park and y/n was talking to a woman that might have been about 10 years older than them.
“Can they pet him, they think he's very cute” the other woman asked, “of course” y/n answered and then whispered “I think he's pretty cute too” and smiled at Sirius.
If dogs could blush he would have been, he could feel it, even if no one else could see it. Thinking quickly he faced the 2 little kids who had come towards him in an effort to make it less obvious that he could understand them.
The kids were gentle and y/n and the kid’s mother continued their conversation, her australian shepherd looked a little left out as the kids were petting Sirius and giving him all the attention.
“Can he do any tricks?” the older one asked, y/n turned and looked down at Sirius, he panicked but kept his body as relaxed as possible, while wagging his tail for good measure. “Try some and see for yourself” she said.
This’ll be fun, bring it on
Sirius faced the kids again, one of them started with a simple “sit” and he sat, then shake a paw, then lay down. Soon Sirius was very into this game of Simon says and liked proving he could do whatever they asked.
C’mon something harder!
Both kids began telling commands to Sirius and their own dog as a sort of game.
“Speak!” Sirius tried to say something, anything, but his vocal chords are different and barely anything came out, so he tried barking like an actual dog and that worked a little too well.
It got the attention of a lot more people and the kids backed off “woah! Cool” they said.
“Smokey I think that's enough for now, let's go” y/n said and kneeled down to give him a hug and worked as a way to show the kids he wouldn't hurt them. It was more comforting than her having her hand on his back, Sirius leaned into her more and closed his eyes, this is where he always wants to be from now on, though he wouldn't tell her.
“Sirius!” she whispered, he opened his eyes as soon as she said his name “lets go” y/n said and stood up.
She started to walk further into the park and Sirius had nothing to do but follow, he might get animal control called again if he didn’t so he followed.
Sirius wanted nothing more than to walk under her one hand again and feel the reassurance of it but he was too awkward to do it himself so he stayed behind.
“You can walk next to me you know, it's a bit odd to have a dog walk behind their owner” y/n whispered just loud enough for Sirius to hear, it was his excuse to walk beside her again, and he did.
They encountered a few other dog owners who asked his name and how old he is, to which y/n gave the great answers of “Smokey” and “16.. Months” (she had just barely caught herself on that one).
By now they had reached a place in the park that led to their secret little clearing.
Y/n went ahead through the thick wall of bushes and trees “are you coming or not?” she called back to him.
Sirius ran at the bushes and jumped into them before crashing into y/n and knocking her over, she yelped but was alright after she figured out it was Sirius.
Sirius had landed on top of her and was licking her face all over, just like an excited puppy would, y/n was mock fighting back and trying to hold Sirius still which didn't work great, his tail was wagging so hard that almost his whole body was wagging too.
This is kinda fun, I should spend more time as a dog with no worries
Sirius kept licking until y/n said “stop” in a very serious voice, he tried to tuck his head away out of fear of having hurt her.
Somehow he started bouncing up and down really fast. He peeked with one eye out from under his paw and saw that y/n was smiling which was broken by the laugh she was trying to hold in.
Sirius lifted his head and tilted it, she saw and laughed some more before saying “Sirius, you're so cute” and giving him a hug.
What is this all about?
The hug she gave him was so soft but it wasn't because he was covered in fur.
Y/n held him like that for a while longer but the curiosity and confusion was eating away at him so he transformed back to human, which ended up being a bit more awkward than usual.
Y/n was still holding him so Sirius tried to get up as fast as he could to make it less weird that he was laying on top of her, and suddenly a lot heavier than before. She held onto him though.
“What's going on?” Sirius asked in a very quiet voice, y/n looked at him “what do you mean?” “Why were you laughing at me?” At this point she had loosened her hug so Sirius pushed himself up and sat next to her instead.
“You don't have to be a dog to show affection like that to me” y/n explained, Sirius looked at the grass “so you don't hate me for jumping at you?” he clarified “no, but try doing it as a human next time” she smiled “not that I don't love you as a dog too, you're very cute as a dog, and great overall and now that we’re dating, you can actually show affection to me” Sirius’s cheeks got warm and he tried to hide it but y/n saw it anyway “it's alright, you make me blush all the time too”.
Sirius smiled and looked at her before kissing her properly, this time y/n pushed him over mid-kiss so she could lay on him.
-
They hung out in the clearing for a while after that before deciding they wanted an afternoon snack.
“Hey and then you can practice using muggle money at the same time” y/n mentioned as they walked out of the bushes.
Sirius understood muggle money a bit better now. Y/n had taken time to help him learn the differences between the coins and how much each is worth and if you're paying for something that's more than 5 dollars it's easier to use bills instead of just coins.
They held hands and went over basic muggle money things as they walked to a different cafe than the one y/n works at.
It was sort of freeing to walk around and get to hold y/n’s hand without thinking it's weird, Sirius did have to face the constant paranoia that someone he knew -mostly just his family- would see them holding hands. He just hoped that should the situation occur, they wouldn't know y/n’s heritage and wouldn't berate them with questions.
“So the big silver one with the moose looking thing, it's 25 cents right?” Sirius asked “yep, and how many of those do you need for one dollar?” y/n said “uh five?” “nope, but youre close, it's 4. Remember the little stacks I made to show you? Try and think of those”
The memory came to him and Sirius closed his eyes to better remember what everything looked like, and hoped that y/n wouldn't accidentally let him walk into a pole.
The neat little stacks of coins on the kitchen table at y/n’s house, each equivalent to one dollar. Next to them was all the coins layed out so it was easier to count them.
Leaves, a beaver, a small boat, the one that looks like James’s animagus, a bird, and a bear. Then the bills, they were more obvious because they had bigger numbers and were coloured, five was blue, ten was purple, twenty was green.
Sirius opened his eyes again and felt ready to actually pay by himself to someone that isnt y/n.
They walked into a cafe and up to the counter, y/n gave the person behind the counter a friendly hello while Sirius was paying attention to the food and drink options even though he already knew he wanted a coffee.
“I’ll have a small coffee with milk and a chocolate chip cookie” y/n told the other person, “alright is that everything?” he asked, y/n tugged at Sirius’s arm a little, he turned his attention to the person taking their order “a medium black coffee and a peanut butter cookie” he said.
The guy tapped away at whatever was behind the counter and said their total was 8.25$.
By this point Sirius kept his wizard money in a different pant pocket to the muggle money, he reached into his pocket and pulled out an array of bills and coins.
Thinking back to his lesson at the table, he took a five dollar bill and two of the bigger coins with bears on them and handed them to the guy behind the counter, who had already given y/n their cookies.
The guy tossed the money in a drawer and took some silver out of it, handed it back to Sirius and wished them a nice day.
Y/n smiled as they walked to wait for their drinks and said he did well, this of course made his face go red.
Damn it, why cant I stop that! Or at least control it better!
Someone else brought over their drinks and they found a table to sit at. “See, I told you you could do it” y/n said as they sat down, “hey I learned from the best” Sirius replied “yeah, that might happen more often considering your grade in herbology” she said and took a sip of her coffee, Sirius wanted to be slightly annoyed but he knew she was right so he said nothing and started on his cookie.
Y/n stuck her tongue out, Sirius shot her a questioning look. She rolled her eyes and sighed “I burnt my tongue” “in an attempt to be sassy” Sirius added “hey!” y/n said and slapped him gently on the arm, he smiled and took a sip of his coffee in as cool of a way as he could, and also burned his tongue. “Karma!” y/n said, “yeah, now we’re even ok?” Sirius asked and tried to fix it by taking another bite of his cookie.
-
That night while lying on his bed, Sirius decided it was finally time to let James and Remus know about y/n.
He flicked on the lamp on his desk and pushed some stuff to the side to make space before grabbing two pieces of parchment, a quill, and a pot of ink.
Sirius sat and pondered how to word his letter, after scribbling some stuff down on a scrap piece of parchment and way too much pondering he settled on sending them different letters instead of the same because that's boring.
Prongs guess what?
I’ll answer before you ask cause otherwise this will take too long,
I got a girlfriend, and even before you did! Look at me go, and he's friends with Evans so don't get mad at me about it, maybe she can even help you ask Evans if you don't pester us =D
Anyways, that's all the important news I got, see you in September (and don't tell anyone else yet, please? I already told Moony though)
-Padfoot
Moony you'll never believe it
I managed to get a girlfriend because I ignored your advice of putting muggle money in a different pocket to wizard money,
Anyway her name is y/n, she's a muggleborn and really nice and really pretty and oh no I’m starting to sound like James and I can't just scratch it out cause you can read through it
I was just excited and wanted to let you know (I’d rather you didn't tell anyone else yet though ok? I have told Prongs)
-Padfoot
He sent the one to James first then sent off the one for Remus before going to bed.
The next day he got an owl from y/n which read the following,
Hey Smokey, I’m going camping with my family for a week starting this afternoon so we can’t hang out but I’m bringing parchment and ink so I can write to you, maybe try being careful about it though considering how your family is about muggleborns and you in general.
Write soon
-y/n xo
This was not the end of the world, she could be going away for longer or something but Sirius was still sad. Maybe it was the fact that they won't be able to hang out as much as they do during the summer when school starts and she's taking a week out of that time, or maybe it was just that he will miss her, either way he was slightly sad.
Sirius waited until later in the morning to write back just so he had his thoughts straight.
Y/n that sounds like fun, hopefully it is for you and your family, camping is something I’ve never really done. I’ll miss you but at least we can write, I'll be careful about it
-Sirius Smokey (only to you :))
He read it over a few times and decided it was alright then sent it.
After lunch Sirius had gotten James and Remus’s replies to his letter, albeit a little surprised that James had written back so quickly, probably cause he mentioned Lily in his letter.
Wait, really? Pads you can't just say stuff like that out of nowhere?! She knows Evans? Are you serious, I need to talk to her about Evans when we go back to school
Congrats on the girlfriend though (I didn't really think you were that into love as a concept, or in the romance scene at all), how you managed to get a girlfriend before I did will remain a mystery to me
Why not tell anyone though? If I were you, would I tell everyone, are you scared of something? Just kidding, see you in September
-Prongs
Sirius smiled and shook his head, what else would he have expected from James. He opened Remus’s letter.
I would love to know how that event played out but in the meantime I will say well done on somehow managing to acquire a girlfriend by ignoring me.
Y/n is nice, she's in our herbology class which I’m guessing you didn't know considering you hardly show up (we’re all honestly baffled as to how you pass that class at all). She's really good at it though and helps some of us when we need it, convenient for me cause I sit at the same table as her and there are some plants I just can't seem to be able to work with
See you in a month-ish
-Moony
So Remus has sat next to y/n for how many years and never told me about her? What kind of a friend doesn't let their other friends know about the nice, pretty, and smart people in their classes? To be fair Remus doesn't really seem to care about pretty girls all that much, at least not in the same way as James, Rem is always busy doing homework and making sure we aren't causing too much shenanigans. Or maybe I wasn't paying attention when he did, but I’m betting he just never told us. Sirius thought
-
For the next week, Sirius and y/n had sent letters back and forth every other day, she was telling him about all the things she's been doing like watching waterfalls, going swimming, making campfires, kayaking, and other ‘normal’ camping things while Sirius wrote about the Black summer dinner they have every year for whatever reason, they were hosting and how boring it was in general. The part Sirius didn't tell her was that during the meal he would zone out and daydream about hanging out with y/n instead. He did get caught and asked what he was thinking about to which he said nothing and that he was just tired (and everyone jumped at the chance to call him a tired little baby who needs naps, but he didnt care).
When y/n came back, Sirius waited a couple hours before going over to her house to say hi. On his walk over his hands were shaking from excitement but also nerves, he shoved them in his pockets.
What if it's awkward? What if she doesn't want to hang out? What then?
Sirius had made it to the driveway, y/n and her family had finished unpacking the truck and were all inside.
Half of him wanted to run over and give y/n a hug, the other half of him wanted to become a dog and run away as far as he could.
No, come on Padfoot, you're a marauder, you help cause the most pranks at school and you weren't even half as nervous. Youre going to say hello, maybe take her on a picnic, fuck I should have brought food if I was planning on picnicking. No, calm down, she likes you remember? She’ll be happy to see you, she missed you too. Maybe I should run up to her as a dog so I’ll be less obvious to her family, just be yourself it's not tha-
“Sirius!” y/n called and ran towards him, interrupting his inner dialogue. Sirius turned to her just in time to catch her hug at full speed.
“I missed you” she said, hugging him very tight, Sirius relaxed into the hug, then a thought came into his head.
He held y/n equally tight, picked her up and spun her around twice, she made a sound of surprise but held on and seemed to like it.
Sirius put her down “I missed you too” he said, y/n pulled out of the hug part way to look into his eyes. Keeping eye contact with her was still a bit of a challenge for Sirius though.
It didn't last long, y/n took a brief glance over her shoulder, Sirius’s eyes followed to see her family looking out the front window at them. Y/n looked back at him with a smirk and pushed him behind the truck so they were out of sight of the front window before kissing him, hard.
Wow, ok, this is happening
Y/n had him with his back against the tailgate of the truck but he didnt care, they kissed then made out for a little bit.
As new and different as it was Sirius liked it a lot more than when he was a dog just licking y/n’s face.
As soon as they were done and just holding each other, smiling and looking at each other’s eyes again, y/n’s sister came around the side of the pickup. “Are you done yet? Mom! Dad! Y/n has a boyfriend! And they just kissed against the back of the truck, we’re gonna have to wash it now” Sirius and y/n broke apart as soon as she spoke and gave each other an awkward smile before he looked at the ground and y/n’s parents came running out to where they all were.
“That's not very nice of you, you’ve met Sirius and you know him and your sister are dating and we’re fine with that ok? One day you might even have a boyfriend or girlfriend of your own you know” y/n’s mom told her sister. “Yeah but I didn't think they would be making out at the end of our driveway!” she argued, “there's not much we can do about that, so you're going to have to get used to that, besides y/n and Sirius are going back to school in a couple weeks so you won't have to see them until at least christmas break” her dad said.
“Why were you watching anyway if you didn't want to see, huh?” y/n asked her sister who promptly opened her mouth but no words came out, she went a bit red “fine you win” was all she said before she walked back to the house.
“We promise not to do that as much, Sirius is shy anyway, it's just that I missed him” y/n explained to her parents “it's alright, we get it” her mom said and smiled at her dad before they also went back to the house.
“We won't do that as much around them” y/n told Sirius when her parents had gone. Sirius smiled and gave her a light punch on the arm, “what was that for?” “For calling me shy, I have a reputation of being cool to uphold” he explained “not with me you don't cause I’ll like you even if you are shy” y/n said “I’m only shy around you” Sirius protested.
Y/n smiled and took his hand “lets go to the park” she said and off they went.