Forever || Harry Potter oneshots

Little Monkey | Sirius and Bellatrix

1st September, 1971

Sirius Orion Black was shaking in his seat in Hogwarts Express, trying to remember whether he should ask the Hat to put him in Slytherin or not. He looked to the boys around him - James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. They all believed that they were going to be in Gryffindor and yet here Sirius was.

Waiting for the one and only Sorting Hat to scream the name of the Slytherin house. Hoping that he could be with Bella, Cissa and Andy and Emma Rosier and his other pureblood friends.

"Hello, hello, little monkey!"

Sirius looked up only to see his cousin Bellatrix Black, smiling down at him with her cheerful smile. Her blue eyes met his within a second and then the world was suddenly better than before. Somehow with his big cousin around he knew that he was going to be in Slytherin, that he wasn't going to disappoint all of his family.

"Bells," he sighed with relief as he stood up to hug her.

His hands tightened around her waist as he breathed the smell of hot chocolate with cinnamon in the early December morning even though it was the begging of September, that made him remember the beautiful Christmases he had after his father left.

"I am coming by to see if you are ready," Bella said taking a step back, looking at his face. "What's wrong?" she asked when she saw the trembling of his hands. "You're worried?"

Sirius couldn't answer.

"Sirius," Bellatrix said calmly. "Tell me what's wrong, little monkey, or else I am writing to uncle Orion..."

Sirius froze before his cousin finished her sentence. "I... I..." he struggled to say. "Um... Bells... I..."

Bellatrix looked at his eyes and smiled. "You're going to make an excellent Slytherin." She stroked his hair gently as if he was her own child. "And if you aren't in Slytherin, I still will be proud of you. OK?"

Sirius nodded.

He had always loved Bellatrix and the way she made him feel - like he could conquer the whole freaking world; like he could be the greatest wizard that there ever was. And then he could smile at her and tell her the same.

The Black cousins were never a good example of loved and supported children and yet they had almost everything they had ever wanted. Even though their parents were devils brought back from hell, they had each other, they had a family in the face of their cousins.

"I don't want to hear any doubts in our family legacy, right, little Monkey?"

***********
"Black, Sirius!" Minerva McGonagall announced.

Sirius took a step forward, trying to be as brave as possible without looking over to the Slytherin table where his three cousins were sitting next to one another, looking at Sirius, expecting to hear that beautifully sounding Slytherin from the Hat.

He sat down, shaking a little and then he heard a voice.

"A Black, ah?" the Hat asked. "Let me ask you this, boy. If you could have anything in the world, doesn't matter if it is a dead person coming back to life or fame and glory, what would you choose?"

Friends, family, Sirius thought immediately.

He would like to be friends with those three boys he was sitting with on the way here. He would like to be friends with that Muddblood with red hair. He would like to be friends with all of them and have fun.

He didn't need fame. He didn't need glory.

He needed friends and adventures with those friends.

"Then it's all decided, doesn't it?" the Hat said slowly. "GRIFFINDOR!" it yelled and the whole world froze.