Sirius Black leaned mournfully against the doorframe into the kitchen, his eyes trained on the balcony above where his godson stood talking to the red headed Weasley girl, Ginny. They were speaking quietly – whether because what they were discussing was confidential, or because it had just become custom to speak quietly in the halls of 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius couldn’t tell, but it was more than likely the former. Harry and Ginny seemed to have grown closer over the summer; being in contact with someone everyday made it difficult not to become friendly.
Harry touched Ginny on the shoulder and Sirius noticed the girl’s face light up at his touch. A grin stretched Sirius’ gaunt features briefly, and he couldn’t help but think how similar the pair were to James and Lily. Well, in appearances, anyway. His smile broadened as he remembered how James had tried for what had certainly felt like ages back then to get Lily to go out with him. He and Remus had money down on how long it would take for James to convince Lily to finally go to Hogsmeade with him. He didn’t remember the dates, but he did remember that he had lost a fair amount of galleons to Remus, who, he thought, had probably bet a longer date. Of course, once the pair had started seeing on another, they had been nearly inseparable, and they were married within a year of leaving Hogwarts.
Any traces of a smile disappeared suddenly from Sirius’ face to be replaced with the same mournful expression. They hadn’t had much of a chance to have a life together before…before Peter betrayed them. A couple of years weren’t nearly long enough. Sirius ran a hand over his rough face. Merlin did he miss them.
He returned his gaze back up to the balcony, where Harry was now standing alone, watching his godfather with a concerned expression. Their eyes connected and Harry moved away from the railing to make his way down the stairs to meet Sirius. “What’s wrong?”
Sirius put a small smile on his face, “Oh, nothing. Just memories catching up with me again.” Sirius paused, wondering how he was going to word next what he wanted to say without being obvious. He came up with nothing, so he decided to buy himself a little time. “Can I have a word?”
Harry jerked his head slightly and Sirius turned into the dark kitchen. He took a seat at the dark wooden table, and Harry sat across from him. They were quiet for a long time, Harry waiting for Sirius to speak, Sirius trying to find the right words.
“Sirius?” Harry was looking at him through his dirty glasses, and the way he was bouncing slightly, Sirius thought he was probably jiggling his leg under the table impatiently.
“Do you have somewhere you want to be?” Sirius finally asked.
“Er…” Harry’s eyes darted away from his godfather and he suddenly looked guilty, “Kind of…”
Sirius pressed his steepled fingers to his lips briefly before laying his palms on the scrubbed table. “Harry…” Merlin, how was he going to do this? His parents hadn’t exactly been around when he might have needed this, though, Sirius thought ruefully, he wouldn’t have accepted their advice evenly, “Harry, when a wizard loves a witch – or, or a wizard…”
Harry’s eyes went wide and horror and embarrassment flew across the teens face. He stood up quickly, causing his chair to slide a few feet across the floor. “Sirius!”
"Harry...sit down, please."
"You don't have to..."
"Yes, I do. Sit." He was the boy's guardian - if he wasn't going to do it, who was? Molly Weasley? Ha!
“No, seriously, they teach sex ed at Hogwarts now…all of the fourth years had to memorize all of the contraceptive spells and everything.”
“Oh.” Now it was Sirius’ turn to go red. “Well then…” he cleared his throat awkwardly, “Go ahead then. Go have fun.”
Harry very nearly ran from the room, casting a quick glance at his godfather before he left the kitchen and Sirius managed a grin for him as he leaned back in his chair. As soon as he was gone, the grin fell from his face and he shook his head. He really ought to do more research into this kind of thing before he dove in head first.