A young lady needs a quiet, respectable hobby," Auntie Andromeda had said after she pressed a pile of soft cloths on Heri and suggested she make herself a new cloth doll. (Did she think Heri was six?) She seemed to be ignoring the fact that her own daughter was more likely to join a burping contest than a knitting circle; Cousin Dora was an unrepentant tomboy who was almost as 'respectable' as Sirius. Auntie Andromeda had only relented when Heri showed the older woman the handkerchief she had edged.
Considering that the other choices included flower-pressing and writing poetry, Heri congratulated herself on dodging a bullet. As it was, her mannerly front was being forced to become so high-society, she was starting to fret that she would develop a split-personality.
"I'd say I'm sorry you have to deal with all this," Cousin Dora had said during a break in yet another one of Auntie Andromeda's lessons. On that occasion, Heri was learning to walk while balancing books on her head. Auntie Andromeda had popped out to talk with Sirius about something. "But I won't, because that would be lying. She had a Hell of a time with me, especially when it became clear that my clumsiness was something I'd never be out-growing. It's nice to see her have so much fun teaching you.
" Heri had glowered a bit in response.
"While I can appreciate her effort, I really don't care much for being 'ladylike.' I've never put so much effort in being girly before in my life."
Cousin Dora snorted and leaned back in her armchair.
"You having me on? I've seen you with a couple of your other bobble-heads giggling on like pixies. As if you don't go to the top school in the nation. If you got any fluffier, you'd be a cloud!"
Heri gave the older girl a look. "People don't like it when you're too serious. They also don't like it when you notice things they'd rather you didn't. It's only polite that I make sure I never give them the impression that I've caught on more than they thought; it would be rude of me to do things I know people don't like. You can call it being an airhead, but I call it being courteous."
"Here now, I'm just saying I don't understand why you act so vapid when everyone already knows you've got some brains in that fluffy little head of yours. A good half of the Auror Corps have family at Hogwarts, and you can bet your arse their midgets carry on about Heri Potter this, and Heri Potter that, and how you're one of the brightest students in your year. It's more or less common knowledge!" That was when Auntie Andromeda returned with more books for the stack.
With a look, she beckoned Heri back over. As Heri got back to her feet, she told Cousin Dora, "I don't doubt that people know I'm not an idiot, but I hope you realise that there's quite a bit of a difference between being smart and being observant." Back before Heri was born, before Lily was too heavily pregnant to attend Order of the Phoenix meetings, Lily used to chat with Alice Longbottom (her dear friend) about what things would be like when their babies were born.
They would talk about genders, and names, and what their children would be like together. They discussed possible personality quirks and how they hoped the children would be friends. They pointedly did not talk about the in evitable troubles of raising children in times of war. A topic the two women often returned to was keeping the children entertained. In other words: toys.
In theory, it would be easy to conjure some bubbles and sparkles every now and then to keep the babies from being bored, but in reality, they had heard enough about Fabian and Gideon Prewett's nephews to know that there were no real substitutes for actual toys. Of course, the trouble with this was that they couldn't pop out to a toy store while being in hiding as they were. They could technically transfigure whatever was lying around the house into a soft toy if they really wanted to, but it struck them as stingy to just pluck up whatever they could get their hands on instead of getting the real deal. It was at this time that Sirius made himself invaluable. Having often heard Lily and Alice fret about not having toys for their children, he began going out to the Alleys in disguise to pick up some.
He figured it was the least he could do since he would be the godfather to Lily's child. He would buy only a couple of them at a time before meetings that he knew both women would attend, as it would have been suspicious for any one person to buy toys in bulk, especially during those tense times. He kept this up right up until the Longbottoms and Potters went under Fidelius, and even afterwards he would pick up a toy during his patrols of the Alleys if one caught his eyes. It was during a patrol of Casu Alley in late September of 1981 that Sirius' eye was not only caught but captured.
In the window of an Enchanter's workshop, there was china doll that looked remarkably similar to how he imagined Heri would look in the future. It was dressed in a lacy cream-coloured dress-and-bonnet outfit, had wavy mahogany hair, and had eyes just a few shades off from the green Lily and Heri shared.
It stood at approximately a foot in height, and the description underneath it boasted that it was fully articulated, that the china was unbreakable, and that the colour would never fade. With one look, Sirius knew that he couldn't possibly leave without buying the doll.
It would be like spotting the Snitch and not chasing after it! He hadn't spent any time with Heri since before she could sit up, and arriving with several holidays worth of presents was only scratching the surface of how he would make up for it.
He would have to hold onto it until he could visit the Potters for Christmas, but there wasn't a doubt in his mind that the doll was meant for Heri.
-----------
If you want to read ahead by 40+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
[email protected]/Playerfanfic