Son of the Storm

Home Base

Thor had been rather nervous of Sirius and Harry's first meeting. What if Harry didn't like Sirius? What if Sirius said something inappropriate to Harry? He paused, then inwardly revised the second thought. When would Sirius say something inappropriate to Harry, when Thor wasn't entirely sure that Harry knew the facts of life? Hogwart's sexual education limited to put it mildly, employed in a sort of enter tab A into slot B fashion by Madam Pomfrey, who, wonderful woman though she was, had only been an object of sexual attraction to Amos Diggory, if the uncanny number of injuries he had accumulated were any indication.

As it turned out, he needn't have worried.

When Harry stepped out the plane, Sirius was there to meet him, Pepper and Jane standing by his side. Pepper, moving swiftly and smoothly, gave Harry a welcome back hug and introduced them.

"Harry, this is your godfather Sirius," she had said.

Harry and Sirius had shared a long, unblinking stare, then Harry had said, "Hello."

"Hello."

"You're my godfather?"

"Yup," Sirius said. "I was your dad's best friend since the day we started Hogwarts." He scrutinised Harry. "You look a lot like him, you know, but…"

"I have my mother's eyes, I know," Harry sighed, then shook his head. "Sorry. I hear it a lot."

"I bet you do," Sirius commented. "What I bet you don't hear is that you act like her too."

"Really?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Yeah, you walk like her and talk like her as far as I can see," Sirius said. He shrugged. "It's just a first impression, but…"

"No, Sirius, you're right," Thor said quietly, drawing attention back to him, and gently hugging Harry to his side. "Harry is Lily's son in mind where he is mine in body."

Noticing the spark of interest in Harry's eyes, he realised that this Christmas holiday would be spent fielding questions from Harry about Lily. He didn't mind as such – he loved Lily, and her death still hurt, but it was, strangely yet not strangely, now long in the past for him. Twelve years had passed, and while he wasn't over it as such, he was dealing, as he'd explained to Remus. He could focus on the good times now.

Though, he thought when he saw Sirius' eyes hungrily devour Harry when he wasn't looking, the other man understandably seeking every scrap of information on his godson, he wasn't sure that Sirius could. He had no good memories to buffer the loss of his friend and the treachery of Pettigrew.

Yes, Thor thought as Sirius and Harry chatted away, largely about Quidditch, he hadn't needed to worry about them getting on. But there were other issues that were at work. And those bore careful watching.

OoOoOoO

Despite Thor's understandable concern for the state of his friend's mind, the first couple of days of the holidays passed without incident. Harry's trunk was unpacked, and some of the magical artefacts had been set aside for general examination when Pepper went on leave and was in place to make sure Tony didn't turn Harry's old Sneakoscope into a portal into the realm of Cthulu and ended the world as we know it. It had been wrapped up in a pair of horrible mustard yellow socks until Thor had found out they had belonged to Vernon Dursley. He had then, with Harry's assistance, burned them in place of Vernon, for which he got a ticking off from Jane. Apparently instilling mild psychotic tendencies in ones offspring was not considered a good thing on Earth.

Right here and now, it was cold outside. Winter mists shrouded the ever active city and the sun looked anemic and embarrassed as it slunk behind the clouds, only appearing for a few moments before shame overwhelmed it and it hid once more. The hearth fire, quite expunged of the stench of Eau de Dursley, burned merrily away, and Jane and Thor were kissing. Passionately. Hands were roaming.