Throughout the years, Sirius Black had grown used to the sound of doors slamming, hushed argues and stomps up the stairs, but that time he was actually concerned about the commotion going on upstairs.

Being a father of twins was not something he thought he would be, even less a single parent, but he took the job pretty well. Lyra and Alya Black had the same features, but their resemblances stopped right there; while one was brunette, the other was blonde. One seemed calm enough, until put under pressure. The other was a walking storm, but tended to remain calm when needed. While Alya was seen as the "evil" one, those who knew the girls knew Lyra was the meanest. Surely, a lot of argues and fights had broken out between the two of them, but none seemed to last for long or to be vicious, as they had grown to be not only twins, but best friends.

Having that in mind, Sirius was completely confused with all the silence in his house that Saturday morning. It wasn't that early (when was he ever up before 10 a.m. on weekends?), but the lack of voices astonished him. Normally, by that time, Lyra and Alya would be already awoken, running up and down the stairs, failed whispers coming from them. That day, however, the house they had lived for the past 17 years - and seen a lot of shouts - was immersed in the most complete silence.

The first thought to ever cross his mind was that something had happened to them. The horrors of the war still plaged his mind and his heart wasted no time in going cold, freezing him in place. Moments later, he remembered it was over. Voldemort had been dead for a couple of months. The followers who had scattered away had Aurors hot on their trail, Sirius had made sure of that. With a sigh of relief, he made his way upstairs, his steps lightly echoing throughout the wood stair.

What he didn't expect, however, was the sight that greeted him outside Lyra's door. She was there, her hair tousled, her face marked from the pillows and the long t-shirt she used as pajamas was slightly out of place. She had been sleeping, alright, and it should be enough to calm Sirius' heart, at least a little bit, but it didn't. And it wasn't because she looked a mess compared to all the other mornings, but because there was someone behind her, his head facing the inside of the room while his hands ran through his messed up hair.

"Are you sure?" the guy asked, his eyes still averted to the inside of the room, his back to Sirius, completely unaware of him being there.

"Absolutely," Lyra said back. She was looking at the boy, a small smile on her lips, her features carefree. If there was anything he couldn't deny was how much she seemed happy. For the first time in a long while, he could see his daughter acting her age. Surely, though, he didn't like the fact that there was a boy coming out of her room. "He shouldn't be up for another hour or so. You have plenty of time."

"I don't like this one bit, Lya," the brunette boy said once again, his feet finally leading him to the hallway. His whiskey eyes showed some kind of remorse and worry, like he had been doing this way too many times. "Next time, we're going back to my place. My dad wouldn't kill you."

Sirius heard a muffled laugh come from Lyra and he could picture her rolling her eyes. She was about to turn around and see him standing there, but something stopped her. Better yet, someone.

"You know I love you, but this is getting a bit ridiculous," the boy said once again, one of his hands closing around the girl's wrist and pulling her towards him. "We're both 18 and we've known each other since always. Do you really think your dad would be that mad at us?"

Sirius let out a sigh, taking silent steps back until he reached the staircase again, and walked back to the living room, his thoughts consuming him once more.

There was a time where he'd storm into the middle of that conversation and put Lyra 50 meters away from John. His arms would be all over the place, his voice would carry away and from the same way he came, a blonde head would appear, yelling at him for being so dramatic and having no sense of privacy whatsoever. In this scenario, he'd be freaking out over the fact that his little girl – whether she was 8 or 18 – had made her long term boyfriend sleepover.

It wasn't like he didn't know about them, because he did. He remembered vividly the time Lyra and Alya said anything about dating and having boyfriends, he only chose to neglect it.

Sirius had pushed back the feeling he got when he heard his daughters were 'going out' with guys. He knew it was bound to happen sometime, but didn't want to believe that it was already going on. They weren't kids anymore, even if he liked to believe so, but it still caused some kind of anger inside of him, knowing that some guy could just go up and close to his daughters and end up stealing them from him. It didn't help that one of them was the son of one of his best friends.

He always knew John and Lyra were close, always hanging out and being there for each other. Even more after they got into Hogwarts, each of them being sorted into different Houses. It was like they were making up for that, like the amount of time spent together out of school wasn't enough. He never questioned it, though. The years had been rough on them with the girls never knowing their mother and John losing his at only 13.

His track of thought got lost as soon as he heard footsteps entering the living room, him sitting directly to the base of the stair, catching Lyra's wide open eyes and John's terrified look.

"D-Dad!" the girl said. "Hi. What are you doing up so early?"

Sirius looked from her to the clock on the wall, then back at her, one eyebrow up.

"Early?" he questioned, his tone somber. "You might have lost track of time, sweetheart." He went on, his eyes never leaving hers or John's, who was still squirming behind her. "Good morning, John."

The boy did nothing other than just nod his head in Sirius' direction, his eyes scanning the floor like it needed his undivided attention. If it were possible, they would be able to hear the young boy's heart hammering against his ribcage and the sweat drops forming on his forehead. John Lupin was close to having a heart attack and little did he know that Sirius felt the same way.

The silence in the room was palpable, making the tension grow heavier among them. Sirius Black kept staring at his daughter and his best friend's son, both of them holding hands and their heads hanging low. John wanted nothing more than to just be swallowed by the floor while Lyra kept forcing her brain to come up with a plausible lie that would make her father believe whatever she said. It wasn't easy, she realized after a few seconds. She was caught red-handed and there was no way out of it.

"Does it help if I say this is not what you think it is?" she asked tentatively, her eyes squinting.

"And what do you think I think it is?" Sirius asked back, his arms crossing over his chest. It was a simple action, almost absentminded for him, but something that made John grow anxious. He knew that gone was the man who he called 'uncle' and a very angry father, head of the Auror Department, was in front of him.

"That I may, or may not, have done something really stupid." The black haired girl said back, her shoulders dropping and head shaking. "Which I did not, may I add." She completed hurriedly.

Sirius wanted to chuckle and shake his head. He had lost count of how many times he had been caught in the same situation as the two in front of him. He remembered being lectured countless times by a very worried Mrs. Potter, saying how she wished he could be a little less reckless and tried to knock some sense into Marlene too, as she was always involved in this kind of trouble. He remembered a particularly time where he had sneaked to her house so many times that it actually got him caught, ending up being grounded and not allowed out of the house for at least a month. He also remembered how it didn't work out that good and Marlene showing up on his window, hovering on a broomstick, the wind going through her blonde hair, on her face a smirk upon seeing him enclosed in his own room. But Sirius also knew that he had to be stern. He didn't want that to happen under his watch to any of his daughters. He couldn't do anything that would give someone else a slight chance of winning them over.

"Have I ever told you the story of the time I got grounded for sleeping with your mom?" he asked after a few moments of silence, a deep sigh coming out of him.

Lyra blinked a couple of times, not really sure what was happening at the moment.

"What does this have to do with anything?" she asked taking a step closer to John. At that time, she seriously thought her father had lost it.

"Well, if you just wait..." Sirius said while taking a deep breath, trying to collect his thoughts to himself and organize them before telling the story. "Back when we were in school, your mom lived with her parentes in Scotland." He started with a grin. "We had grown used to having each other around, so it was kind of weird sleeping on my own and having so much alone time. Obviously, I thought it was a good idea to sneak out and visit. Every single night during the summer."

Lyra blinked a few times, engrossed in the story about her dad's past. The past where her mother was still alive and her dad probably didn't have the sad look on his face he always seemed to have. She wanted to know where this story was leading to.

"Eventually, I got caught, no surprise there, and was sentenced to spend the entire month in the house, not allowed to do anything other than what I was asked. It wasn't because of pure stiffness from the Potters, but because we were living under the constant fear of a war raging on. It didn't help that any of us cared about it. All that mattered was living as if there was no tomorrow," Sirius sighed. "So, obviously, your mom thought that there would be no harm in just showing up outside my windon one afternoon, laughing at my face and offering some company. One thing lead to another and next thing you know, Mrs. Potter is walking in on us."

"Oh, wow, dad. You were so punk rock." The girl stated and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Not the point," he said waving his hands. "The thing is... I know what it's like to be young and want to live your on life, but for as long as you live with me, you're going to have to follow my rules. I don't ask for much, kiddo, and I'm not gonna yell at you two or punch John in the face, even if I really want to," he completed with a murderous look to the boy. "But I know that forbidding you or grounding you is not gonna have any effect. Just, please, if you can spare me, do it. Wait for a day I'm not around, or when I have to work through the night, ok?"

Lyra kept looking at her father for a few seconds. Never, in a billion years, she would have thought he would be so calm and understanding like this. She had pictured him marching up to them, slamming John against a wall and yelling at his face for corrupting his little girl – when clearly it had been the other way around – and then Apparating to his house, only to punch uncle Remus in the face just because he was related to the boy. That was the kind of reaction worthy of a very angry and very dramatic Sirius Black. To say that she was beyond surprised was the understatement of the year. The fact that he left the living room shortly after that, not saying any other word, contributed to it.

Sometimes, Alya wanted to punch her sister in the face. But not just some light hit or a game between siblings. Oh, no. She wanted to hit Lyra square in the nose and then shake her shoulders violently, trying to knock (quite literally) some sense into her twin. How could have she managed to screw things up so easily?

"Ok... How the hell did Dad find out?" she asked one more time, losing her short temper due to the fact that Lyra hadn't answered her yet.

"I overslept, ok?" she said with a sigh. "I know it's a lame excuse and all, but honestly, Aly, I was really sleep deprived after all those months of running for my life. We didn't even do anything. We just slept, literally. I lost track of time and didn't realize Dad would be up already," she explained. "Tell me, Alya, how was I supposed to know?"

Alya thought about how to answer that question and the truth was that she didn't know. She couldn't deny that the war had taken a toll on all of them, running to save their lives while worrying about everyone they cared about. It wasn't an easy year for anyone. She, sometimes, woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, vivid dreams about her days as a war fugitive coming back to her, the menace of the snatchers lurking in every corner as well as the fear of not living to see another day.

Being so, she couldn't really blame her sister for having overslept in the comfort of her bedroom, without being afraid of dying that night, with the man she loved right by her side. It would be too insensitive.

"Ok," Alya breathed out. "It happened and he didn't freak out that much. We can deal with it. It's not like you would go and have some hot sex with John for Dad to hear," she shrugged. "Right?"

"Merlin, Aly, of course not. What do you take me for?" Lyra shot completely taken aback. She would never do something like that to anyone. Ever.

"Just checking," her twin said, her hands up in surrender. "You did not sell me out, though, right?"

Lyra fought the urge to roll her eyes. Twice Alya had accused her of doing something she would never be capable of doing in less than one minute. If they weren't sisters, she'd probably hexed her by now.

"What you do, or do not, in your free time is none of my concern," she started, her fingers tapping against the wood table in the dining room. "So, as long as you don't kill someone, I will not mention a word about you fucking Malfoy, ok?"

"Merlin's pants, Lyra," the blonde girl laughed. "Did someone piss on your cereal today? Is someone not doing their job properly in bed?"

"Yeah, right, cause that's my problem and not you being so obnoxious today."

Alya let out a breathy laugh and shook her head. Her sister's bad humor really wasn't something to mess with, but she couldn't help herself.

"I still don't get it," she said sitting across from Lyra, her laugh gone.

"What?"

"You could have any guy, literally any guy, at Hogwarts or anywhere and you went for the Ravenclaw Pride boy. Why?

Lyra stared ahead, her eyes losing focus as she thought in a way to reply it. Yes, Alya had had relationships before, but she never admited, or never allowed, them to be more than casual hookups. Something to difuse the tension, she had said. It was never something meaningful, never lasting more than a couple of months. It was obvious she wouldn't understand what Lyra felt.

"I don't know," she began, a smile playing in the edges of her lips. "It's just... Everything seems better when we're together. I feel my heart racing when he's around, my stomach drops, my hands get sweaty and, suddenly, nothing else matters. I just love him, Aly. A lot."

A lingering silence fell upon them. Lyra was much too lost in her memories and in her feelings for the Lupin boy while Alya was trying to understand it all. She had never had that, being too much of a high maintenance for anyone to last. She knew it, but she didn't care. She was not looking for romance. She wasn't the kind of person who wanted to grow up, meet someone, fall in love, get married, have kids and the grow old by their lover's side. It was a concept she never understood, unlike Lyra, but she couldn't deny it was a valid one. Alya knew her sister had become a much better person after she and John finally admitted their feelings for each other, how happy she seemed to be out of nowhere and how Alya wanted to throw up at the smallest display of affection.

Then it hit her and her sister's words echoed in her mind.

"Oh my Merlin, I can't believe we never thought about it," she said loudly, startling Lyra.

"What's going on?"

"Don't you get it?," Alya plastered a wicked grin. "You said that when you're with John, nothing else matters, right?" Lyra only nodded. "And I see how lost in the world you get and all that lovey dovey crap," at this point, she was out of her seat, pacing around in the dining room. "So why don't we get Dad a girlfriend? I mean, he'd be over the moon, dacing on table tops, not having a worry in the world and, obviously, cutting us some slack, not being around us all the time."

"Honestly, Alya," Lyra began with a roll of eyes. "This is the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard. Don't you think that, by now, if he wanted, he would have a girlfriend?"

"Lyra, you know how he's all full of crap. I heard him once, telling uncle James that he didn't think it would be fair on us, cause he didn't want us to feel like we were replacing mom," she rolled her eyes this time. "As if we even remembered her. I say we go for it. The man is in great need."

The thought wasn't that crazy, Lyra pondered. Sirius Black had never been with any other woman in 17 years. He had dedicated all this time to his daughters, educating them, helping them when they needed, but now they were old enough to make their own decisions, old enough to make their own mistakes. It was time for him to finally live his life.

With a devious smile, Lyra finally nodded at her sister's direction, silently agreeing with her and already compiling a plan.