Word Count: 2,793
Rating: PG-13
Category: Humour, Romance
Notes: This fic is part of the ‘Canis Major’ Harry/Sirius Fuh-Q-Fest.  I chose Challenge: 89 — “After a great deal of negative responses to their relationship, Harry and Sirius decide to move into the Muggle world. What kind of adventures will they have as Harry tries to teach Sirius about Muggle living? (Carawen)”.  Many thanks to Titti, Dovie, Immi, Koanju, and Dawn for betaing and being patient with me through the beta process. I know I was horrid, but thank you so much for helping!
Summary: Harry is slowly introducing Sirius to the Muggles’ society. Bowling is the topic of their adventure.  How will Sirius deal with it?
Pairing: Sirius Black/Harry Potter
Warnings: Slash
Dedications: None
Completed Date: April 30, 2003

---

Harry woke up suddenly with the sounds of honking outside his and Sirius’ flat. He blinked twice, grabbed his wand from the night table, cast a silencing charm around the bed, and then snuggled back into the arms of his lover.

Unfortunately, he was wide-awake now. He went through all the trouble of getting rid of the noise so he could sleep more, and now he was awake.

How bloody ironic.

He groaned and lay still to reflect on the past couple weeks of his life. Make that the last six months of his life.

Ever since the news of Harry and Sirius being lovers went public six months ago, life had been a hassle for them. Almost the entire wizarding world seemed to be against their relationship from the beginning and things hadn’t changed. Many of the younger – and sometimes, the older – women were upset that Harry hadn’t chosen one of them to be his wife. Tears were shed over the Daily Prophet article about him coming out and being in love. Everyone had thought he was single and they had all wanted their paws – er hands – on the Boy-Who-Lived.

Some believed since Harry was the heir of Gryffindor that he should continue his lineage, which wasn’t possible if he was dating a man. Of course, many still considered Sirius to be a homicidal maniac, and they believed that he would kill their saviour in the near future. Some went to extremes and believed that Sirius had raped the poor soul. And lastly, some just found homosexuality disgusting.

In conclusion, the majority of the wizarding world hated the fact that Harry Potter was a queer.

Oh, his friends did stick by him, but not very many. Hermione was appalled at first, but after seeing how happy her friend was, she decided to accept the relationship. Unfortunately, her husband, Ron, didn’t see things that way. Ron, in his narrow-minded manner, blew up at his friend. He didn’t seem to mind that Harry was seeing Sirius, but rather that Harry had kept a very important secret from him for a long time. In Ron’s defence, Harry hadn’t told him until a year after they had graduated from Hogwarts.

Remus was supportive, but his lover wasn’t. He wasn’t able to comprehend what Harry saw in the “mutt” as he called Sirius. Unsurprising, since Remus’ lover was none other than Severus Snape. During the war against Voldemort, which ended during Harry’s seventh year, Severus and Sirius worked together, but they still hated each other’s guts. The feelings had always been mutual and would remain that way for the rest of their lives.

Harry’s train of thought was suddenly interrupted by incoherent mumblings from his lover. Sirius hugged Harry closer and said something about bunnies.

A smirk tugged at the corner of Harry’s mouth as Sirius said that. Merlin knew why, Sirius had a fascination for rabbits. Harry mused that the fixation was a side effect from being a dog in his Animagus form. “His inner-Padfoot coming out in his normal form”, he had stated after finding out about the obsession.

Harry was so glad that this was a Saturday morning. After deciding to leave the wizarding society, with Hermione’s help, they both got Muggle jobs. Sirius, who was helpless in everything Muggle-related, fortunately understood one Muggle concept, which happened to be motorbikes. With that fact in mind, Hermione helped Sirius get a job at the local motorbike shop. Due to great interest in Quidditch and the similarities with football, Harry took up coaching at a local public school. Sirius, regardless of being a Chaser in his Hogwarts years, wasn’t able to see why Harry was interested in football. Like Ron, he didn’t understand how anything so dull could be as exciting as Quidditch. Both of them liked their new jobs, but the stress of their occupations left them, nevertheless, craving for the weekend, which had finally come.

Besides starting their new jobs, Harry slowly introduced Sirius to Muggle society. Sirius came from a pureblood family of several generations and his family had chosen not to merge their wizarding life with the Muggles. Sirius was a clueless git in the Muggle world. If it weren’t for Harry, he’d have gone nuts by now.

Today’s plan was to take Sirius bowling. Hermione introduced the game to Harry a few months earlier and he’d taken a liking to the unique sport. Nothing could be compared to Quidditch, but trying to keep the bloody ball out of the gutters was challenging enough. He figured that Sirius might enjoy bowling as well, and would understand the concept of throwing the ball down a lane.

---

Sirius opened his sleepy eyes to find them staring straight into the emerald eyes of his lover. He loved his first sight in the morning to be anything belonging to Harry in his focus. After so many mornings in Azkaban, after nights full of nightmares, this was definitely a better way of waking up.

“Good morning, love.” Harry smiled. “Sleep well? Last night’s activities must’ve tired you out.”

Sirius groaned. “Don’t mention it, it was the best sex I’ve ever had.”

“Oh?” Harry raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean that the previous sessions weren’t up to par?”

With eyes wide open, Sirius sat up quickly. “Oh no, Harry! That’s not what I meant.”

Harry’s voice lowered huskily. “Relax, Siri. I’m just joking. Besides, every time we make love is the best ‘sex’ we ever have.”

The effect of Harry’s voice was most obvious at a certain appendage of Sirius’ body. He groaned as he pressed his morning erection against the sheet. Harry flipped him and straddled him. “Harry, you got too much stamina. Haven’t you had enough?”

“So? I’m twenty, what do you expect?” He kissed him thoroughly and let him go after several minutes of intense snogging. He grinned impishly. “Still not up for it?”

With a growl, Sirius flipped him over so he could be on top, and started attacking his mate passionately.

After their serious lovemaking, both fully satiated and content, Sirius decided to ask Harry what the plan was for the day.

“Bowling.”

“What in Godric’s name is that?”

Smirking, Harry got out of bed. “Well you won’t find out if we stay here all day, now will you?”

“While the idea sounds tempting, I know you will force me out sooner or later, so I have no choice,” Sirius grumbled.

“Of course.” Harry sniggered and went to take a shower.

---

After two hot, steamy showers and platefuls of late breakfast, both men were in a cab taking them to the nearest Bowling Alley. The ride there was uneventful. Sirius was bored in the cab. He hated cars. He very much preferred his motorbike, but unfortunately his bike was in the shop for repairs, which he planned to do the following Monday. Since Sirius loved the exhilarating feeling he got from riding his motorbike, Harry planned to take him to an amusement park sometime in the near future.

They entered the building, and the minute they opened the door, all that could be heard were different cacophonies. Groups of people were talking and yelling, announcements were being heard on the intercom, balls were crashing down the gutters, and the pins falling added much to the chaos.

Both of them stumbled through the crowds and got to the sign-in to rent a lane and shoes.

“Excuse me, we’d like a lane and two pairs of shoes, please,” said Harry, very politely.

“Yes, sir,” said the counter clerk. “May I have your names, and what are your shoe sizes?”

Harry answered and paid for the shoe rental. They walked over to their lane, sat down, and put on their shoes.

“How come we need these funny shoes?”

“These bowling shoes help you slide when you bowl. Our regular shoes don’t have the padding at the bottom to support that, and well, if we were to bowl in our socks it’d be too slippery and we’d be falling down a lot or slide right into the lane itself.”

After tying his shoelaces, Harry got up and led Sirius to the rack of balls. Sirius picked up one of the balls and held it in his hands.

“Wow, these are light. So do I use this?”

Harry glanced at the ball and smirked. “Unless you want to throw that ball into the ceiling and fancy having people think you are a weak little kid, I think not.”

Sirius put the ball back. “So I should use a heavier ball?”

Harry nodded and gave him one. “Here, is it too heavy for you? It should be heavy enough for you to be comfortable with it, but not too heavy for you to have to release the ball with two hands.”

As Harry said that, Sirius’ upper body nearly fell over from the extra weight. Harry quickly took the ball and gave him another ball. Sirius held it and nodded to confirm that this was just right.

“By the way, what are the holes for?”

Harry paused. “That sounded just so wrong… but anyway, you stick you fingers in there.”

Sirius quickly stuck in his thumb, index, and middle finger. “Like this?”

“No. Use your thumb, middle, and ring finger.” Harry demonstrated it on his chosen ball.

Sirius copied Harry’s example. “Ah, got it.”

“Are the holes too small or big for your fingers?”

Sirius paused and tested it. “Fine.” Harry took Sirius to the ball return and sat down to put their names into the computerised scoreboard.

Sirius sat down in one of the chairs and looked at his lover. “I never knew this, but this sport sure has a lot of innuendo.”

Harry blushed and let the comment slide. After finishing with the scoreboard, he pressed “start” and got up.

“Let’s bowl the house down!”

---

“Okay. You see those arrows on the ground? I usually step on the second from the right, on the top row. But since you have longer legs, I think you should start from the bottom row. Here, step up.”

Sirius stepped up and stood where Harry pointed. “Now, professionally, four steps are the minimum and maximum.” Harry positioned himself, and took four large steps and pretended he was bowling. “Pretend you are kind of running and walking at the same time and slide a little bit at the end of the fourth step. The speed adds to the strength of your throw. Since you are right-handed, your right foot should go first and end with the left foot and stick your right leg out to an angle. It’s all about the pose. Try it.”

He did, and Harry’s calculation was right. Sirius, with his long legs, had to start at the bottom row. Yet, he had forgotten to tell the older wizard not to slide too much or he’d go over the foul line. And he did, causing a loud buzzer noise to go off and giving Sirius his first ball score area a huge F.

“What was that?!” Sirius exclaimed.

“Um, a foul. Don’t go over that line, Siri, even if you get a strike, it won’t count with that. That’s one thing you got to be careful of.”

“Now you tell me,” Sirius smiled good-naturedly. “What’s a strike?”

“In bowling, you have something called a frame.” Harry brought Sirius in front of the scoreboard. Those boxes represent a frame. In a frame you have technically two balls to roll. But if you get a strike, which means you knock all ten pins down on the first ball, then it’s only one ball and then it’s the next person’s turn. On the first ball, if you don’t get a strike, and for an example, get an eight, you get to bowl one more time for that frame to get a spare. A spare means that you had knocked all the pins down on the second ball. Yet if you miss, well then it’s a no pointer.”

“I understand.” Sirius went up and grabbed his ball.

Harry walked up with him. “To hold the ball, stick your fingers in the designated holes, and then hold the ball up with your right hand facing the bottom and have your other hand somewhere else on the ball. As you go up there, pull the arm with the ball back for some leverage, release it, don’t throw it, but release it gently with power.” Harry walked back down and motioned him to go.

Sirius concentrated and then took off. He was about to release the ball, when it slipped off in mid-air and bounced behind him. It bounced twice, loudly, and Harry caught the ball before it fell off the raised area so it wouldn’t bounce again. Obviously Sirius wasn’t really paying attention about whether the holes were too big or too small.

They looked at each other and Harry took the ball back and waved him over.

Dryly, he said, “I think we need to find one with smaller holes so it doesn’t slip off like that.”

Sirius took his hands. “I just noticed that you sounded like Hermione when you gave out that bowling lecture.”

Harry gently leaned upward and kissed him. “Of course. She’s the one who taught me. She’s better than me, but she’s a good teacher to have in cases like this. She rubbed off on me.”

With that, it was ball hunting all over again.

---

“Bloody hell!”

Sirius was about to throw the ball at the floor when he thought better of it. He was frustrated. Bowling looked so easy to him. It should have been another simple Muggle activity that he could overcome, but it wasn’t.

He had thrown more gutter balls than he’d intended. When he finally released the ball properly it didn’t hit any pins, but rather went straight into the gutter. He didn’t understand why the ball turned so oddly. Harry had explained to him about how even the slightest turn of a wrist or fingers when releasing the ball will make the ball curve on the lane. No matter how he tried to keep his wrist and fingers straight, it didn’t work. It was as if some magnetic force was always drawing his ball toward the doomed area.

What was worse was that Harry was ahead by seventy points. Harry had gotten a few strikes and spares. Sirius had none of those. He did manage to hit one pin on occasion or two, but other than that it was the gutter.

Meanwhile, Harry was thinking of another tactic for Sirius to try. He noticed that Sirius’ ball tended to curve to the left relentlessly. Judging by the way Sirius was standing, he was probably going to do the same thing again

“Sirius? This time start at the second to the last from the left arrow and do it from there.”

He grumbled to himself as he did Harry’s request. With suppressed anger, he went up and threw the ball. He watched it go to the edge of the right side, and then it curved hard toward the left. The ball hit the left side of the middle pin and he got himself a strike.

Harry started clapping and Sirius was standing there, catching Bertie Bott’s jellybeans in his opened mouth.

Harry got up to where Sirius was standing and gave him a hug. “You finally got one! Siri, good throw!”

Sirius turned around in Harry’s embrace and swung the lithe man in the air. “Yes. All thanks to you, Mr. Potter!”

“And you are very much welcome, Mr. Black.” Harry smiled widely. “Now you have two more balls to roll, get with it.”

Puzzled he let go of Harry. “But I got a strike? That filled the frame.”

“Oh! I forgot to tell you that in the tenth and last frame, if you get a strike or a spare, you get a total of three balls to roll. Consider it a bonus.”

With an impish look, he went and got his ball.

“Let’s see if I can do it again, Coach!”

And he got a nine on the first ball and a spare on the last one. That certainly boosted his score.

---

The two lovers were lying in bed fully dressed. They were too tired from the long day to take their clothes off just now. Their bowling escapade ended on a fairly good note. Sirius admitted that he enjoyed the experience and asked if they could go back next weekend. His new goal was to see if he could at least hit a hundred points game. He had ended up with a score of a sixty. He claimed that his challenge now was to keep the ball out of the gutter as much as possible.

As they were leaving, they ran into Hermione and Ron. Ron still acted like a prat, but he did grudgingly challenge Harry to a bowling game the week after. Harry accepted hesitantly, but knew that this was a giant step in Ron and his friendship. Since Ron started talking to him, Harry took it as a good sign.

“Don’t worry about Ron, Harry.” Sirius brushed his messy hair out of his eyes. “He’s coming around. I got a feeling that Hermione is probably blackmailing him by not having sex.” His eyes gleamed mischievously.

Harry gave Sirius a look and burst out laughing. “Perhaps. I can imagine her doing that, too. Getting into her S.P.E.W stance mode and giving Ron her ‘Don’t-argue-with-me’ look.”

Sirius grinned and yawned. “Thank you, Harry, for taking me bowling. It was annoying at first, but I think I might be able to get a handle on it now.”

“That’s what I love about you, Siri. You don’t give up easily.” He kissed Sirius and both fell into a peaceful slumber.