Harry Potter and the Canines

IV | Teeth, Teeth, Teeth

Sirius Black leant against a pole at St. Gewelman's park, watching his godson playing with other babies in a sandbox. The children's mothers chattered about him loudly from the bench, wondering how they could get him to come over and talk to them.

One of the mothers took her jacket off seductively, Sirius didn't even glance at her. A few minutes later, much to the surprise of the group of giggling young mothers, a tall welsh man, wrapped in a warm jumper and carrying two coffees arrived. Sirius took a coffee from Remus and kissed him on the cheek, solely to get a reaction out of the women that'd been watching him.

Remus blushed, "What are you up to, Padfoot?" He rolled his eyes at his best friend.

"Watch the bench," laughed Sirius. "I think that they're jealous- shoot"

"What?" Remus looked around anxiously before finding that Harry had fallen out of the sandbox, and was laying on the concrete with a bloody mouth and two of his new, tiny teeth missing. "Shit! Sirius this is bad!"

"Don't cuss please, my toddler has been repeating everything-" warned one of the mothers on the bench, as her little girl shouted "Shit Sirius! Shit!"

"I don't have dental insurance- You have to work with muggles to get that, Remus, and to get dental care. Shoot... Muggles aren't going to just accept a bunch of oddly shaped coins as payment-" Sirius picked Harry up off of the pavement, rocking him in his arms to calm him. "This is bad."

A kind faced, curly haired lady sitting on the grass opposite to them, reading to her daughter stood up suddenly. She picked her daughter up and walked over to the panicking Sirius. "Hi, er, I saw your brother? Or is he your son? Fall just now. I'm Jean Granger, dentist. I can take a look at him, if you'd like?"

Sirius looked at the woman, and then back at Remus.

"My office is barely a block away, and otherwise I'd assume you'll have to wait weeks to get an appointment with your dentist. It's hockey season again, peak time for us, as so many kids are getting their teeth knocked out."

"Teeth," whimpered Harry, blood dripping from his mouth.

"Are you sure?" asked Remus, watching Jean Granger carefully.

"It would be no bother, really," she assured them. "How old is he, by the way? He looks about the same age as my Hermione."

"He's a year old. A year and a bit," said Sirius. "He's my godson. I'm his legal guardian though."

"His name is Harry," Remus added, "Harry Potter. And I'm Remus Lupin, and this is Sirius Black."

"Pleasure to meet you," Jean shook Remus's hand, and then Sirius's, and led them into her office, wondering how in the world the two young men had acquired a baby. Something inside of Jean Granger had told her that something was different in Harry, much like her Hermione, who had never been quite ordinary. Extraordinary things seemed to happen more around Hermione than anyone else that Jean had had the pleasure of meeting.

The dentist only had to take a quick look at Harry's teeth, to ensure tht nothing was really wrong, and that they would grow back properly. But, as it is with most people, Jean Granger's curiosity got the best of her. After rinsing Harry's mouth with an odd tool, she invited Remus and Sirius over for tea, "My flat is right next door, and I'm sure you're starving."

The Grangers's flat was simple and elegant, yet it felt so homey to Sirius. A polar opposite to 12 Grimmauld Place. It reminded him of the Potters's cottage. It wasn't made for decoration.

Remus sat in the sitting room with Jean's husband, watching Harry and Hermione play on the floor, while Sirius and Jean talked.

"I'm sorry if this is rude of me to say," started Sirius, "But could you spit it out? Whatever you've been meaning to say since the park?" Sirius was a people person. He always had been, and he probably always would be. He knew when something was on someone's mind, it was part of what made him such a desirable friend.

"You're special," said Jean, setting her teacup down on the table thoughtfully. "You, your boyfriend, your son. You're all special. My daughter too. And I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but it's certainly something extraordinary. You think that I didn't see you dip that stick of yours into your tea, and turn it into coffee, but I did."

"Your daughter is like this- like us?" Sirius asked, his eyes wide. Of course, he'd heard of muggleborns before. They weren't rare or anything, for Merlin's sake, Harry's own mother was muggleborn. But he had never, never ever, heard of a witch showing signs of magic so early.

"There's this one toy that Hermione doesn't like, a stuffed cat. My husband and I both know that she despises it, so we put it in a box in the wardrobe. Well one day, we woke up in the morning and went into her nursery to check on her... The toy was in shreds on the floor, after having been in a sealed shoebox on a high shelf of the wardrobe in my room," Jean took a deep breath, almost wondering how she'd managed to talk for so long without a break. "It wasn't even creepy or anything, my husband suggested that someone had broken in, but they couldn't have, everything was sealed and locked and nothing was broken. And who in their right mind would break in to do just that?"

Sirius took a sip of his coffee, dreading having to tell this woman about Wizardry. He knew in his heart, he had to tell her. He couldn't just leave her to question every aspect of her life for the next ten years.

"I'm going to sound like a lunatic in saying this, so I'm going to show you first," Sirius decided aloud, and he drew his wand, swishing it at a dead potted plant and whispering a spell. The plant revived itself, and grew past even it's original state.

"I'm a wizard. Remus is a wizard," he said, before adding, "and in fact, not my boyfriend." 

Jean stared at the potted plant for a good thirty seconds, before looking straight at Sirius.

"That's fucking metal."