And they could never tear us apart

Prompt: power

--

He feels it that first day on the train. It courses through his veins every time they mount brooms together, watching the skies around them and that zipping blur flittering through the heavy cloud cover. It's in the way laughter encircles them in the corridors, lounging over the common room sofa, shouted from the edges of the tallest tower of the castle. It creeps in on the nights that one or both can't sleep, finding solace together behind fluttering bed hangings that muffle their low voices and whispered words through the darkness, silencing secrets only shared between them, things he's only brave enough to admit while the rest of their world sleeps.

It takes a while for him to understand, to grasp that truest of meanings behind every one of their actions. They're very nearly adults when he begins to see it, fully adults when he finally does, long since taken in and harbored like a treasure by a family he doesn't deserve while escaping one they say never deserved him. But when it's there, when he eventually wraps his fingers around it and tucks it in close, he sinks into the knowledge and the comfort of everything it represents.

Because James Potter is the light streaming through rolling storm clouds, the clearing of the air after sweltering heats. He's the dawn of a new day in a life always covered by shadows and threatened by monsters clawing to steal it all away, and Sirius would do anything and everything for him.

It's not weird that we are here! There are SO MANY OF US! We're not outliers, we're not oddballs. We are occupying a space we CREATED and we are still fucking here, having fun with all our younger online friends, which is COOL AND GOOD and NOT EMBARRASSING ACTUALLY. It's fucking rad.

Look. We *built* online fandom, comrades! We built it with Angelfire and Geocities and the fucking telephone cables we unhooked from our phones to plug into our enormous, boxy desktop computers to suffer through glacial download speeds that today's children can't even fathom. I think we should all agree to stop apologizing for being here when this is our fucking house. An excellent sentiment (not mine):

To all of my beloved young friends - remember this when you get older. You don't need to grow out of fandom. Who the fuck cares if it's cringe? Childlike joy is something to CELEBRATE, NOT SOMETHING TO BURY AND HIDE!

As per our FAQ, AI is not welcome on this blog in any shape or form. We won't be publically accusing individual artists or writers of using AI, since ultimately it can't be proved, and we want this blog to be a nice place where everyone feels safe to post, so we are simply going to ask you to Not Be That Person. Don't ruin everyone's fun. If you feel like you don't have the skills to post something, do it anyway! That's how you get better. And someone is going to love it. AI is not the answer.

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Man's best friend.

✸ - complete

⨳ - ongoing

⨳An Acceptably Wrinkled Timeline - 212k - Sirius Black is dead.

Mostly, anyway.

On the brink of passing on, he is visited by a friend of Harry's from the future, who offers to send him back in time to make things right. Can the most brash and reckless member of the Marauders right what's gone wrong? Or will he only succeed in making things so much worse? Moreover, will he be able to rebuild the bridges he's already burnt...or are there some friendships that are simply over long before their time?

2.✸ and a love that I dreamt of came to me at my worst - 90k -

Golden boy James Potter has it all, a family with his high school sweetheart, a job playing his favourite sport and close relationships with his four best mates from school. However, after failing to make the starting line up for Puddlemere United, his perfect life begins to unravel before his eyes. Sirius Black seems to finally have it all worked out. He has found his place professionally in the Department of Mysteries and his personal life is largely drama free. If only he could stop pining after the one thing he can never have. Or, Prongsfoot navigate the personal and professional challenges of their early 30s and fall in love along the way.

3. ✸you'll see me in hindsight - 35k -

Professor McGonagall was still talking but Sirius had been unable to adsorb a single word in several minutes.

Twenty two years. He’d been gone twenty two years.

He’d missed more than two decades. Been gone more years than he had even lived. ____

A mishap with a time turner flings Sirius far into the future. Everything has changed, not least of all, Sirius’s very best friend.

4. ✸Object Permanence - 230k - “Promise me something, Siri.”

“Anything,” Sirius said quickly. There was nothing he would be unwilling to do for Euphemia Potter. He owed the Potters everything.

“Don’t let James run off and marry her without telling him how you feel.”

Sirius froze, shock rendering him momentarily speechless. Effie just stared at him, eyes brimming with soft understanding.

“I - I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sirius stammered.

She raised an eyebrow. “I think you do.”

***

After Hogwarts, everything is perfect for James Potter and Sirius Black – best friends, roommates, and now partners in the Ministry’s Auror training program. But with the spectre of war looming, Sirius seems determined to put himself in danger and James finds himself wrestling with increasingly intense feelings for his best friend.

Or, James and Sirius realise they are far more than platonic soulmates.

A slow-burn, post-Hogwarts, Marauder Era story filled with angst, fluff, unhinged pining, unprofessional workplace behaviour, and shameless meddling from Effie and Monty Potter.

5. ⨳Twisting Fate - 159k -

Sirius figured after being killed in front of his godson and having to listen to his cries of agony that that would just be a sad end to his sad life and he can finally rest in peace and beg for James' forgiveness when he sees him again.

Waking up in his old bedroom right before he started his fifth year wasn't how he imagined the afterlife.

-

It was 1996. Sirius Black was an escaped criminal who was trapped until the end of his days, hating his life, hating what he has become, and never having the opportunity to be there for his godson.

He wakes up in 1975, panicking, confused, and somehow managing to time travel 20 years into the past.

6. ✸A far better thing - 30k - Sirius has saved James from a lifetime of wedded misery to Sirius's cousin, but now they have to face the fact that what Sirius got James into instead is pretty, well. Serious.

And that joke would be funny even if Sirius wasn't engaged to James, but he is, so it's extra funny.

It starting to look like it might be the only thing that is, though.

7. ✸shooting stars, falling objects - 724k - Remus shook his head slowly. “Peter was there. And I saw the body.”

James' stomach dropped. The body. As if Sirius were no more than a discarded shell.

“Well, I didn’t,” James said flatly, crossing his arms. “If I had, I’d have known it wasn’t him.”

“You were a teenager, James,” Remus said gently. “You panicked. You couldn’t have known what would happen that night. When are you going to forgive yourself?”

***

In 1978, just three weeks before graduation, Sirius Black died a hero, protecting Peter Pettigrew from a Death Eater ambush. Five years later, James Potter is the only one who believes he survived.

Until Sirius comes back.

A post-Hogwarts Marauder Era AU about missing memories, love that defies death and the dangerous secrets of the Great and Noble House of Black.

8. ✸In the dark - 72k -

James doesn’t plan on kissing Sirius. No. He’s not into blokes. But when his friend suffers from a nightmare, unable to calm down, what other choice does James have? Sirius is his best friend. His soulmate. His ride-or-die. A kiss is a small price for helping him. But is that all he’s doing? Helping? Or is he providing an outlet for the desires that have been simmering in the background of his mind for a while? Desires he was too scared to act on until now? With the end of Hogwarts fast approaching and the responsibilities of adult life lurking on the horizon, the last thing James needs is to start questioning his plans for the future. They always included a red-headed girl and a white picket fence. Not a whole lot of uncertainty and a dark-haired bloke who uses arrogance to mask a host of insecurities. His best friend. A person James adores with his whole heart. A person he, for some reason, can’t stop kissing.

***

Or, a story where James Potter is the last to know he’s in love with Sirius Black.

9. ✸These golden beacons (i see nothing but black) - 21k -

It's Christmas, and the extremely Gryffindor James Potter has hopelessly fancied untouchable Slytherin Sirius Black in secret for months now.

What he doesn’t know is that they’ve got remarkably similar secrets.

10. ✸In plain sight - 30k - Seventh year isn't turning out the way James had hoped. His parents are unwell, he has been partying more than he should and for the first time in his life his grades are slipping. On top of all that, he is starting to have strange feelings for his best friend.

11. ✸Welcome to the Black charade - 138k -

As heir of the house of Black, Sirius has done all he can to ensure his family’s heritage would remain as impecable as it has always been. He is on top of his classes, captain of the Slytherin quidditch team and follows the obligations and responsibilities that come with his title as well as he can.

It doesn’t really matter that his own happiness isn’t part of the equation or that he doesn’t believe in the pureblood superiority his parents preach. As long as he performs his duties, his parents won’t pay too much attention to Regulus, and his brother’s safety has always been the one true priority in his life.

In his sixth year though, James Potter – Gryffindor’s golden boy - is threatening to unravel the carefully crafted persona he has built.

12. ✸Love me like my demons do - 130k - James knows he should be happy - or at least as happy as someone who's 19 and involved in a war can be. He has the girl of his year-long dreams, a flat with the best friend he could ever hope for, and he's fighting for what is right. Despite all that, something is missing. Unfortunately, finally figuring it out only leads to a bigger mess. Fortunately, sometimes even a mess can lead to good things in the end.

Sirius has never really set the bar at happiness per se, but he always thought that getting to leave his family behind, living with James, and watching his friends be happy would be more than enough. As it turns out, family is never as far away as one wants it to be, friendships can be fickle things, and happiness is a very subjective emotion. But if Sirius was ever good at anything, it was at fighting for what he loves.

Or - as if leaving school, figuring out their lives, and fighting in a war wasn't already enough, things really start getting complicated when both Sirius and James have some unexpected epiphanies, the Order realizes they have a traitor in their midst, and Regulus Black turns up on Sirius' and James' doorstep, soaking wet and asking for help.

13. ✸When loyalty becomes courage - 48k -

“Hufflepuff!” The hat called aloud making Sirius wince. He knew the whole school was looking at him, judging him. Everyone had expected him to be sorted into Slytherin, but he’d marched up to that bloody hat stool with only one thought.

Not Slytherin.

- Or an AU when all the marauders are in different houses.

14. ✸The Hopping Pot: the adventures of Messrs. Padfoot and Prongs - 96k - After Sirius Black leaves his home for the last time to live with James Potter, the troublemakers of Hogwarts have the entire summer to spend time together. Sirius turns tedium into revenge plots against Snape, James has mysterious magical artifacts in his family that the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black could only dream about, and the Potters had no idea what they were getting into when they agreed that of course Sirius was part of the family! James and Sirius find their friendship growing even closer and into something more while they learn more about the mysterious Hopping Pot.

15. ✸Their Constellations - 65k - “It's you,” James said. Sirius was confused as to what James was saying. He thought at first he was talking about the constellation that had provided Sirius with his name, but James was looking directly at him, not the sky.

“What are you talking about?” Sirius had a feeling he knew, but he wanted James to say it out loud and confirm it.

“The person I like. It's you.”

*Sirius is keeping his presentation as an omega a secret. He doesn't want it to affect his friendships or his life. But when things come to light, he finds that the outcome is a lot better than he would have originally thought.*

16. ⨳Marauder's Guide to Saving the Wizarding World - 139k -

“What about you?” Sirius demanded, looking up at him, voice still slightly slurry but barely so, as if he was powering through it with sheer willpower alone.

There was a strong pang somewhere near James’ heart. “I’ll be alright when you get better.”

“Pretty sure that despite your best efforts, you two are not actually one being,” the girl remarked drily.

Sirius scowled.

----------------- ◆◇◆◇◆◇◆------------

James and Sirius compete as a team in the Triwizard Tournament, there is something strange going on at the castle, Skeeter enjoys writing about them a little bit too much, and the Dark Lord is on the rise. And that is only the start of it.

Featuring James and Sirius being brilliant at everything but each other

17. ✸Dear Sirius - 227k - Thrice weekly in the Evening Prophet's entertainment section, Sirius Black answers all your questions, from the mundane to the complicated to the just plain weird.

18. ✸The Wedding Date - 25k - All James wants to do is get through the weekend nuptials joining his ex-wife and old-school rival without publicly falling apart. When his blind date is waylaid by an unfortunate work incident, his best friend steps up as his fake date and what is already shaping up to be a difficult weekend is about to become a lot more complicated.

Or an extremely self-indulgent fake relationship AU (very) loosely based on The Wedding Date.

19. ✸Uncertainty - 23k - He knows what he’s going to see as he rushes through the door. There is a desperation in his steps, a doom awaiting. There, in the entrance of this house which he’s never seen before, but familiar still, his best friend lays lifeless on the carpet. He looks older, his hair is shorter, and he’s dead. Sirius screams. He is laying on his four-poster bed in his dorm, drenched in sweat, his hand is clutching the sheets, and his breath is labored. For a moment, he doesn’t know whether he is dreaming or awake.

20. ✸Supernova - 86k - From the outside, it may look like James Potter has everything one needs to be happy. An abundance of talent, a prestigious job, a beautiful wife, an adorable child. So why can’t he let go of the past? Why does he still see silver eyes and a crooked smile when he dreams at night?

It's been six years. Six years since Sirius Black left England. He practically ran away from the country and hasn’t stopped running since. When he has to return to parts of his old life, he tries his best not to dwell on the past.

What luck then, that the past is one of the first people he runs into.

- “What, so the French sent a cursed Curse-breaker?”

There is humour in James’ voice, signalling that this isn’t meant to insult, merely falling into the way they always used to talk to each other. It’s almost too easy reciprocate, to answer with banter that still feels too familiar and pulls at Sirius to be released. He bites his tongue.

“I can assure you, cursed or not, I am still excellent at my job, Auror Potter,” he says pointedly.

21. ⨳You're fair and I'm insane - 106k - “I love you, Pads,” James murmured, the words torn from him in reflex, too small and inadequate, incapable of holding what he meant them to. “You know I do.”

“I know.” Sirius’s mouth curved into something that might have once been a smile, worn down by years of holding too much in. “You love me.”

Then, softer, lower.

“You just don’t want me.”

or

Five years ago, Sirius laid his heart bare to James, but James was not ready to meet him where he stood. Now that James has finally caught up, he fears he might already be too late.

22. ✸When i put on a show - 52k - James will never understand her friendship with Snape, and that’s fine, just like it’s fine that she rejects him that day on the lake. The thing is, James kind of hates her back—can’t really stand what a stuck-up prude she is. He’s got his own reasons for pursuing her, and like he said, those reasons are strategic.

As long as people think he fancies her, he’s safe. As long as people think he fancies an unattainable girl, they won’t be looking at the way he really fancies an unattainable boy.

xx

Because he's James's best mate, Sirius offers to help set James up with Lily. What he doesn't know is that James fancies him and is enlisting Lily to help set James up with Sirius - while pretending in public that James fancies Lily. What could go wrong? James/Sirius, queerplatonic James/Lily.

23. ✸knock me down a pit and watch me wallow - 42k - If universe wanted seventeen year old James Potter to admit he’s an adult now with all the appropriate complications, Triwizard Tournament news were not the way to show him.

24. ✸Kiss me tonight - 24k - Freshly divorced and out of the closet, James Potter finds himself all alone at Christmas for the first time in years. So instead of being sad at home, he decides to take a trip to Scotland. There, at the Hog’s Head Inn, it quickly becomes apparent he should have checked the brochure more carefully, but maybe there’s a silver lining to it all. James spluttered. “So, you’re suggesting we just share?!” He looked between the two of them: the innkeeper, whose eyes kept darting to the impatient patrons waiting by the bar, and Black, whose eyes—crisp, grey eyes—were travelling from James’s shoulders to his boots. “I might have an old sleeping mat in the cellar, if one of you would prefer the floor?” the innkeeper said dryly. “Or if you don’t want the room at all, I’ve got other people in here waiting for a vacancy.” James opened his mouth to protest, but Black dropped a hand on the counter, palm up. “Just give us the bloody key.

25. ⨳Still life - 55k -

Newly single dad James Potter is trying to remember who he is outside of nappies, nursery runs, and the ghost of the life he had planned. The days are long, London is loud, and his phone screen is cracked—again. As James stumbles his way through a new job, managing life as a working parent and tentative thoughts about dating after divorce, life throws him a curveball in the form of Sirius Black—brilliant, free spirited and absurdly attractive.

26. ✸I would never fall in love (unless it's you i'd fall into) - 25k -

At thirty-two years old, Sirius Black has never had a relationship that's lasted longer than a month, has never had a real connection with anyone, has never even had sex, and he's officially given up. Enter: James Potter. Gorgeous, kind, accomodating James Potter who makes Sirius feel wanted for the first time in his life. Maybe he ought to give this romance thing one more try.

27. ✸A life returned in pieces - 24k - “You need to have yourself looked at,” Lily pleaded. “You can’t do anything for Sirius right now.”

“I can’t leave him,” James shook his head. 

“James -”

“He sacrificed himself for us, Lily!” James snapped. “I’m not leaving him!”

Lily sighed, her lips pressed to a tight line as she gave up, settling in next to him into the hospital chair. 

-

It started as just a bit of fun on James and Lily's wedding night.

(Or did it start before that? Did it really start in sixth year when Sirius and Lily dated until death threats and a close call on a Hogsmeade weekend made them break up? Did it start in fifth year when James and Sirius snogged for the first time, because James had finally admitted he was curious? Did it really start in fourth year when James caught Sirius in a broom closet with Frank Longbottom's tongue in his mouth, and Alice Mayweather's hands in his trousers, making James question everything he knew about how people were "supposed to" fit together?)

It was supposed to just be a bit of fun with a trusted friend. Their "joint custody best friend", as Lily liked to joke. It's just that they had so much fun they decided to keep going. To keep inviting Sirius over for dinner, asking him to stay over and pretend that the guest room was even a consideration.

It was just fun. A lot of fun, between consenting adults, in the privacy of their own home. It wasn't anyone else's business, so there was no need to discuss it.

And then Lily came down with a stomach bug. Only it was less a stomach bug and more of a morning sickness situation. A couple of quick diagnostic charms showed that Lily was a few weeks along.

With twin boys.

Unfortunately, there was no spell that could determine paternity prior to them being born.

"I mean, if they're Prongs' kids that'll probably be pretty obvious," Sirius muttered looking at the copy of the scan Lily had gone for at a muggle hospital.

"How do you mean?" James asked frowning at him.

"With how pale Sirius and I are, if they're his the babies might just come out translucent," Lily quipped, not looking up from the pregnancy pamphlets she was flipping through.

James snorted and dissolved in to giggles for a while after that.

---

They eventually settled on an agreement: when the babies were born they'd determine the paternity, and whoever was not the father would then become the godfather.

With that settled, Lily spent the rest of her pregnancy being waited on hand and foot by her boys. It didn't matter what she needed, whether it was a cup of tea, a strange midnight craving, or someone to go down on her, all she had to do was hint she wanted something and one or both of them would hop to it. Lily felt the service was almost worth the mood swings, heartburn, and getting kicked from the inside.

So, when she went in to labor late in July, she had both her boys on hand in the delivery room. They had considered going to St. Mungo's, but the hospital was not safe at that point in the war, so they chose a muggle hospital that Mary MacDonald's parents worked at. And after many hours of pacing, contractions, and other unpleasantness, the first of their twins was born.

"It's a Potter!" James said from where he was at the end of the bed, having caught the baby.

"Congratulations, James! You're a father!" Sirius said, smiling widely from his spot at Lily's side where she'd been crushing his hands.

"Looks like you're a godfather," Lily joked before wincing as another contraction hit.

A few short minutes later, Sirius was holding the first baby, marvelling at the squished face and the wildest hair a newborn could possibly have, so that James could focus on catching the next one. He knew the job was done when Lily collapsed back against the bed, but James was oddly silent for a moment. Sirius looked over, worry frissoning through him at the strange look on James' face. He was about to ask if everything was alright when James looked up, appearing a touch confused.

"So, er... I think this one might be a Black?"

---

"Heteropaternal superfecundation."

"That's a terrible name for a child, Sirius."

Sirius looked up from the medical text to glare at Lily. Only he couldn't hold the expression when he saw her cradling one of the twins while James was changing the other.

"You dam-- darn well know I wasn't suggesting it as a name, Lils. That's the term for when someone has a multiple pregnancy with more than one father in the mix."

"Well, I'm glad there's a muggle name for it so we don't have to obliviate the hospital staff. In the meantime, do we have names for both of our children?" Lily asked.

"I-- Yes, I know what I would like to call him. I just want to be sure that you're both okay with it."

"Well, we're not exactly about to put him back where we found him," James joked, rejoining them with a freshly diapered baby swaddled in blankets.

"I would highly object to that," Lily said, wide eyed as her imagination took her on a terrible mental adventure. She shook her head to dismiss the image and refocused on the present. "Look, the only thing that's changed is that now you're both fathers and godfathers. And quite frankly you two were probably going to get those wires crossed anyways, so I'm fine with it working out this way. Now, these babies need names. James, what are we calling your son?"

"Harry," James said proudly, looking down at the baby Lily was cradling. "He's Harry James Potter."

"Hello Harry," Lily said, pressing a soft kiss to her baby's forehead.

James walked around the bed and offered the bundle in his arms to Sirius, who held his son just as reverently as he'd held his godson.

"Who's this little fellow, then?" James asked Sirius.

"Alphie," Sirius whispered, clearing his throat after a moment. "Alphard Evans Black."

"Evans?" Lily looked at Sirius in surprise, green eyes shining.

"You and your father were close, and you told me once that you wished you could keep the name going since he had two daughters. I know you hyphenated when you married James, but I thought-- If you don't like it I can--"

"No, I love it, shut up." Lily said, sniffling.

"The different surnames isn't going to bother anyone?" Sirius asked, looking between his best friends, the two people he loved most in the world.

"Honestly, I think the different birthdays will be a bigger trip up," James said, sitting next to Lily on the bed.

"Different birthdays?" Sirius asked, looking at Lily who seemed equally confused.

Alphard sat back with a contented sigh and picked up his book. His bags were packed, as were his favourite nephew's, and they were ready for the morning when they would leave for a trip to India with the Potters. Alphard was fully prepared to enjoy the sun and warmth and food with good seasoning.

Truly it had been a surprisingly conniving move on Sirius' part to hold off on mentioning he'd been invited until they were all gathered for a dinner at Nightstar Ascendancy Castle. Alphard has nearly bitten his cheek as he watched Sirius play the innocent child, wide eyed and enthusiastic at the opportunity to see an entire other country and theorize about how they may use magic differently. Alphard was certain that if Sirius had asked him parents outright, Walburga and Orion would have found a multitude of excuses to forbid him from going, they had taken the news of Sirius' Sorting quite poorly indeed.

Instead, Sirius had held on to the invitation, keeping completely mum about it until he was asked directly by the family patriarch about how he was fairing in Gryffindor. Sirius had masterfully extolled the virtues of sharing a dorm with the pureblood son of the Potter family — plenty old and solidly reputable even if they didn't hold political power — and the son of a noted member of the DRCMC. Once he had Arcturus and Melania hooked, he had laid out the opportunity to visit India with the family, lamenting that he hadn't been certain if he would be allowed to go without a chaperone.

With an opportunity to travel, help his nephew, and vex his sister all presented together so handsomely, how could Alphard refuse the temptation to offer his presence as a chaperone?

The arrangement had been agreed to before they had finished the second course, and Orion hadn't even picked up on it until later. Walburga, of course, had later tried to spin things so that they appeared relieved that Sirius wouldn't be around to corrupt Regulus. As though a measly two months could undo the last ten that they had spent telling the gullible boy about how great of a betrayal Sirius had committed.

So, Alphard had graciously offered to house Sirius before the trip as well. It truly did Alphard good to watch Walburga fume because she couldn't think of a reason to refuse the offer after spending over thirty minutes complaining about the boy. Ah, siblings.

The quiet clink of Sirius' tea cup being placed in the saucer had Alphard looking over at the 12 year old. Sirius had a thoughtful look on his face, one that told Alphard there would soon be a carefully worded question coming his way. Sure enough, after a moment of ponderous silence, Sirius spoke up.

"Uncle Alphard?"

"Yes, Sirius?"

"I have a question, one that I daren’t ask at home..."

Alphard smiled at the subtle bait and leaned in to give Sirius his full attention.

"Truly? But you believe I can assist you?"

"Possibly," Sirius hedged, looking off to the side for a moment before seeming to commit to his chosen course. "During my first year at Hogwarts I was introduced to a number of… colourful epithets, shall we say?"

"Ah," Alphard said, biting back a grin. It was practically a tradition that children developed a more vulgar vocabulary after beginning at Hogwarts. The trick, as with most things in life, was to not get caught.

"Indeed. And, well... It has made me aware of a peculiar situation. My name is Sirius. Orion. Black." Sirius said, tapping a fingertip against the table for each name as though counting before looking Alphard in the eye. "My initials are S.O.B. ... Do my parents—"

"Well, I wasn't about to tell them!" Alphard blurted out, a shocked thrill running through him.

Sirius' jaw dropped in surprise, though his expression with equal parts shock and delight.

"You knew? And you let them?!"

"Sometimes in this life we have to take pleasure in the small things," Alphard said, raising his chin with dignity, though keenly aware that his mischievous grin gave him away. "And if one of those small things is keeping a running tally of the number of days it's taken for my older sister to realize she gifted her first child a set of initials that rather reflect her nature, then so be it!"

Sirius gaped at him for a moment before closing his mouth and shaking himself.

"Well… I suppose in that case I'll simply have to not bring attention to it," Sirius said, primly, before picking up his book once more, mouth twitching as he fought a smile.