The Secret Life of Sirius Black and His Children

As told by his daughters

Aaliya and Keziah

Disclaimer: We do not own anything in this fic but ourselves and our crazy ideas... believe us when we say you'll know 'em when you see 'em.

Prologue or The Broken Lighter

"Mummy said not to get messy, Aaliya!"

"Keziah, give me one good way to make a mud pie without getting' dirty and I'll do it, 'kay?"

Aaliya's green eyes bored into Keziah's bright blue ones as the five-year-old struggled to understand the six-year-old's logic. "... Wear rubber gloves..."

"Why would I do that?" Aaliya exclaimed. "Mum's out, so I'll clean up before she comes home and she'll neeever know. Come on! You love making mud pies! Come play with me, Kez!"

"Aaliii..." Keziah complained.

Aaliya turned her back on her younger half-sister, her straight black hair fluttering slightly in the breeze as she did so. "Fiiine then. Be that way!"

"Aaliii..."

"The clean toys for cry babies are over there." She pointed to Keziah's pile of spotless toys without turning around.

"AALI!" Keziah screamed at the top of her lungs as the sky darkened.

Startled, Aaliya looked up from her intricate mud pie in time to see a huge, brown and black barn owl swoop over head. She screamed, running to stand by Keziah.

"What is it?" Cried Keziah, hands pressed tight over her eyes in fear.

"It's a humongous dragon wit-" Aaliya retorted sarcastically, recovering from her initial fright. At Keziah's whimper she sighed deeply and said; "It's only an owl. Open your eyes, Kez. It's okay. Look't 'fore it disappear!"

Keziah opened her eyes and gasped. "Owls aren't supposed to be outside in the day!"

"Yeah, and dragons aren't rea-OUCH!" Something had fallen out of the sky and landed with a THWUNK! on Aaliya's head.

Keziah moved from beside Aaliya to examine the object that had fallen. It was a small parcel wrapped in brown paper.

"Stupid bird!" Aaliya cursed. "Come back here and try to shit on my head again! I'll knock your he-"

"AALIIIYA!" Keziah's eyes were big. "I'm gonna tell Mummy on you!"

Aaliya rolled her eyes. "Did you not see that? That bird just crapped on my head! I have a right to be angry here!"

"This isn't bird poop..." Keziah remarked holding up the parcel.

"KEZIAH!" Aaliya screeched, knocking the package out of her step-sister's hand.

The package rolled off of Keziah's hand and unraveled to reveal a bulky silver lighter. "At the age of six, you should be able to tell the difference between bird poo and a parcel."

"Whoa!" Aaliya exclaimed, seeing the lighter laying on the grass. "Amazing! A lighter!"

Keziah whimpered and backed away. "Mummy says those things are dangerous! They start fires."

"Yeah... if you're not careful," Aaliya picked up the lighter and attempted to light it. After two clicks nothing happened. Clicking it a third time, Aaliya complained, "Awww... it's broken."

"Good! You can throw it away, then."

"No! I wanna keep it."

"But..."

"Don't tell Mum."

"But Aaliya..."

"PROMISE, Keziah."

Keziah sighed. "I promise."

"Good," Aaliya smiled. "Let's go get cleaned up then, Mum'll be home shortly."

The girls gathered their yard toys and headed inside to clean up, oblivious to their perplexed neighbor who couldn't figure out why his lights kept flickering whilst his neighbors' still had light.