“Oh” Daniel said glancing away; Sirius almost sighed in relief, being under those eyes was too much like being under Melissa’s eyes, they always seemed to see inside the soul of every person. He wondered vaguely when it had began to feel so awkward for him and Daniel to be around each other.

“I was wondering if you wanted to do something today Dan?” he asked. Daniel made a slight face

“Daniel” he remarked glancing back at Sirius “I don’t like my name being shortened Dad so do you mind calling me Daniel in future?” Sirius nodded

“Sorry” he said “I keep forgetting” he glanced round his son’s room really looking at it for the first time.

The room was a green colour and at least three Quidditch trophies were on display since Daniel was Keeper for the Gryffindor squad. A few awards for academic purposes were on show as well. His room was covered in Quidditch posters and several books of every kind were around.

The main thing that caught Sirius’s attention was the sheer amount of pictures that Daniel had. They were several pictures of Daniel with his three closest friends; Rhys Potter, Michael Lupin and Russell Pettigrew not to mention several taken at school with Daniel and some other Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff, even a few Slytherins littered the pin board. It had never struck home till that moment that Daniel was even popular, he had assumed that Daniel was like him and only had a few close friends but that would seem to be incorrect.

As well as his friends there were pictures on Daniel with his siblings, his extended family and his mother but Sirius noticed that there was not a picture of him and Daniel together, because none had been taken. The two pictures by his bed was a picture of Melissa with Daniel as a baby and a recent photo of Daniel with Remus’s daughter Thea, both of them looking extremely happy.

“Err Dad?” Daniel said attracting Sirius’s attention to him “Are you ok?” Sirius nodded and gave him a slight smile

“Just looking at your pictures” he commented “I noticed there isn’t one of you and me up” Daniel looked at him and frowned slightly at the look in his father’s eyes, if he could describe it he would almost said that it look like hurt and regret mingled into one

“Because there is no recent picture of you and me” Daniel replied, his voice slightly cool “I could find plenty of you with the others but…” he shook his head and swiftly changed the subject “We can do something if you want, I just got to finish my essay” his eyes stayed on his father and he pointed at the awards “There for my OWLS because my grades were so high” he commented before looking back at his work, willing his face not to burn in embarrassment. 2 minutes later he glanced up to see Sirius studying all the pictures. He placed his quill away and stood up feeling bizarrely happy that he was taller than his father was “She’s called Emily, she’s in my class” he said. Sirius glanced up from the picture and nodded slowly

“Oh” he indicated the picture by the bed “I didn’t know you knew Thea Lupin well” Daniel nodded his face reddening

“What do you want to do?” he asked awkwardly noticing the way his father was looking at him in understanding.

“It’s your choice” Sirius said “We can do about anything, well except for stuff you’re not allowed to do” Daniel opened his mouth to reply when he stopped and closed it, everything suddenly making sense to him, his mother had obviously put his father up to this, it was the only reason for it. His Dad did stuff like this with Aidan or Sean or even the girls not with him. She must have had a go at him and he was now there to try and keep her happy. He spoke with a cold edge to his voice, his eyes narrowing.

“I don’t mind, what would be acceptable for mum? We can always go round the Potter’s or the Lupin’s or even the Pettigrew and say we went elsewhere, that way you don’t lose out and mum won’t be angry with you” Daniel suggested his eyes focused to the side of Sirius and not on him. Sirius looked at the son who looked the most like him and sighed. Obviously it was going to take more than one day to heal the damage he had done.

“I wasn’t doing this for her” he replied meeting the eyes which flickered over to him for a second “I was doing it because I realised how little I know about my own flesh and blood, since you’re obviously not keen on the idea of spending time with me today perhaps another day would do” he commented with a shrug as he turned and walked to the door trying hard not to feel defeated in any fashion.

“I need a new broom” Daniel said quietly stopping Sirius in his track “I was thinking you could help me pick a good one since you’re meant to be an expert on them, if you don’t mind of course” Sirius glanced back at him before facing him fully

“I certainly could help you there” he answered “We’ve plenty of new brooms coming out this year so you can come with me now and pick the one you like the most”

“Really? Any broom?” Daniel asked taking a step forward and looking at Sirius with an expression torn between excitement and disbelief “We could go now if you want?” Sirius nodded

“Sure I’ve nothing else to do today, we’ll stop by the workshop and you can pick it, then I’ll improve it slightly and you’ll have your broom by the end of today, we could get something to eat after it as well if you want” Daniel nodded

“Fantastic” he commented, grabbing a jumper in case the weather turned cold “I haven’t had a broom, since my other one snapped in two and as you can imagine that ain’t no good for the Keeper, if I don’t practice then Rhys will kill me” he stopped and became quiet. Sirius glanced at him as he led his son down the stairs to the fireplace

“Your broom, the Thunderbolt 3001 snapped in two?” Sirius asked with a frown of confusion “How the hell did you manage that? I designed that broom myself it can’t snap unless a huge force is…” he voice trailed off and he stared at Daniel who shrugged, not quite meeting his eyes

“Well I… well it was the Quidditch final against the Slytherins and well the beaters double teamed me before anyone could realise what was happening because we were winning and they had only scored once, so the bludgers hit my broom at the same time and…”  he stopped and shrugged again

“Were you hurt” Daniel hesitated for a moment then shook his head smiling slightly at Sirius who felt himself relaxing, he might not have been the best father to Daniel but he was still his father at the end of the day. He smiled at Daniel “Well at least it would explain why the broom snapped, its not as if you can expect anything better from a Slytherin” a half smile came over Daniel’s face as Sirius spoke again “Shall we go?” Daniel nodded checking his watch quickly