Growing up Pureblooded

Look of...... Pity?

     Aries was shocked to find himself riding a Muggle bicycle – something for which his experience and training had done absolutely nothing to prepare him. He tried frantically to maintain his balance, but bicycles were not the same as broomsticks, and within moments his bicycle had fallen over – himself along with it – and his right knee was badly scraped. Aries cursed under his breath and struggled to his feet.

     "Damn Muggle contraption," he muttered.
"Harry?" an eerily-familiar voice called out. "Are you all right?" Aries looked up and turned white. His father – his birth father, James Potter – was running towards him. He looked strong and healthy, and very not-dead. I'm dreaming, Aries thought, then James grabbed him in his strong arms and held him tight, almost as though he were afraid he might Disapparate.

     "I'm all right, really," Aries insisted, but did not fight the embrace. Instead, confused as he was, he found himself hugging back for all he was worth. All his life, Aries had known James's portrait, talked with him, played games with him, but he had never once had the chance to hug the man whom he knew to be his true father. It felt nice. "You're a brave lad," James said proudly, ruffling his hair. Aries noted with chagrin that his hair was as messy as James's. He much preferred having Sirius's hair. 'Let's get you inside.'

     James supported Aries with one arm and they made their way into a modest house with two storeys and a pleasant English garden, which was surrounded by a low stone wall. It was nothing like any of the houses Aries was used to, it seemed even smaller than the house on Privet Drive, but it radiated a sense of warmth and comfortable good cheer.

     James led Aries inside cautiously. Aries caught a glimpse of his forehead in a mirror on the wall of the foyer. There was no scar, though in every other way he looked as Harry Potter ought to do. James helped him into a chair in front of the fireplace, then headed off to fetch some antiseptic. When he came back, he knelt beside Aries and began to tend to the scraped knee. Aries had to admit there was something extraordinarily comforting about having his father administer first aid, but it seemed very strange to him. Even with Uncle Marius and Aunt Clytemnestra, scrapes and cuts had always been left for the house elf to heal, or for Aunt Cassie to banish with a flick of her wand.

     There was a sudden noise in the kitchen. Someone was messing about with pots and pans. Aries's heart leapt within his chest. He was going to meet his mum. "Harry's scraped his knee," James called out. "I think this calls for some consolation." Aries was surprised – and a bit disappointed – to hear Sirius's voice in reply. "I've got just the thing, James," he said. "It will be ready in a moment." Sure enough, just as James had finished bandaging Aries up, Sirius came out carrying a tray with three large bowls of mint ice cream. Aries's godfather looked much as he had during their fight that morning, except that perhaps, Aries noted with amusement, this Sirius was getting a bit stout. But the main difference was in the eyes. The real Sirius's eyes had never lost the haunted look of one who has spent a decade with the Dementors, not completely. They might shine with delight for a moment or two, but at the end of the day, that horrible stare would return. Aries had come hardly to notice it, but the difference in this Sirius was unmistakable. His eyes sparkled with irrepressible mirth, and he seemed...just happier somehow. Oddly enough, seeing how happy Sirius could be only made Aries feel terrible as though it made the real Sirius's sufferings seem all that much worse, and Aries' pigheadedness all that more ungrateful.

     "Thanks," he said as Sirius handed him the bowl of ice cream, and tried to pour into that syllable all the appreciation and affection he suddenly felt for his godfather. "Don't mention it," Sirius replied automatically. "A boy has a right to ice cream when he's scraped up like this. Don't you think, James?" "Absolutely," James said with a wink at Aries. "That's why I suggested it." They devoured the ice cream with gusto, and then watched a film on a Muggle television set. Aries had never watched a film on television before – the Dursleys had never allowed it, and the Black didn't have a television – and so was perhaps rather more enthralled by the experience than James and Sirius thought normal. After the film, James called out for pizza and they started a chess tournament after it arrived. Aries held his own there, but thought it incredibly odd that the pieces just sat there.