A Sirius Summer

17th August 1995

Sirius was acting strangely, well strangely for Sirius's standards. Harry was used to the occasional bouts of melancholy and mania from his godfather, but this was just peculiar. Sirius had hidden a small backpack by the back door and was currently riffling through the kitchen cupboards pulling out various snacks and stuffing them into the magically expanded pockets in his leather jacket.

"You okay Siri?" He asked cautiously

"You up for some fun?" Sirius asked ignoring the question and grabbing harry by the wrist, leading him to the basement door. "I've got something to show you I think you'll like"

Harry cautiously followed as Sirius lead the way into the back garden, stopping for a moment to check that no one had seen them leave the house.

"The old coach house is still at the bottom of the garden." Sirius explained as he lead Harry through the overgrown Edwardian style garden. "The rest of the order avoid it as Moony has a room there for his monthly issues, so I've taken the liberty of storing some of my possessions in the rest of the place."

"Such as..?" Harry asked with trepidation.

"You will see pup," Sirius said with a grin. Arriving at an old wooden door, he gave it a shove revealing a large barn type room. It clearly hadn't been disturbed much for many years. Large swaths of fabric were slung over several indistinct structures and the rest of the floor was taken up with boxes strewn in messy piles.

Sirius strode confidently into the mess, leaving Harry trailing cautiously behind. Two weeks cleaning in the main house had taught him to be careful, while his Black blood rendered him immune to many of the cursed items, there were still plenty of dangerous objects around if he wasn't careful.

Walking past what looked like half an old carriage Harry perched on a small pile of crates, watching curiously as Sirius began fiddling with something hidden under a large waxed cotton sheet. With a flourish he whipped the sheet off revealing a shiny red motorbike.

"Well, what do you think pup?"

"Is this..?"

"Yep my old girl." Sirius sighed swinging a leg over to sit on the saddle. "You used to love it when I took you for rides. Lilly hated it, called it death trap and tried to forbid me from riding it."
"I guess that did not work out."

"Nope, you loved it and I wasn't going to deprive you of the experience. Besides it was a lot safer than those toy brooms James got you."

"I think I remember it. I used to dream of Hagrid riding it with me wrapped up in his coat." Sirius gave him a sad smile. He never liked to be reminded of the night everything fell apart.

"So you want a ride? It will have to be just on the roads I'm afraid."

"But what about you being seen?"

"That's what these are for." Sirius grinned holding up two helmets. "I have charms over everything so even in the slight chance we crash we will both walk away just fine, but the helmets give the added protection of covering our faces so we are not recognised."

Harry hesitated for a second before nodding and reaching out to take the smaller of the two helmets, painted a midnight blue with dark grey runes drawn around the edges.
"Brilliant. If you enjoy it then I have most of the parts for a second bike. It was going to be a present for Moony back in the day, but then he told me he hated riding, so I just kept it in the hope that one day it could be given to you." Turning to the bike, he waved his hand at the ignition before gripping the handlebars. The engine made a loud spluttering sound then with a bang Sirius disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"Fuck. I guess we are not going for a ride today." Sirius laughed, waving his arms to clear the air around him. "Uh, how do you feel about learning how to fix a bike?"