A/N: I know, I just finished "Strangest Friends," but I love writing this, so tada! Here's the sequel to "Strangest Friends." What's going on is this is taking place after the Triwizard Tournament, which I'm sure you'll figure out soon after you begin reading. I'm sure that you will all post, as you always do, my friends! In other words, tell me what you think, okies? I'm becoming for too much a Romance writer, which is scary, if you know me, but I'll try to have more action in this one! : )
Disclaimer: I don't own the beginning, which is a word for word, well, almost, excerpt from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." That belongs to Miss JK Rowling. But, I do own Jamie and Alayna, in case you were wondering, which I'm sure you weren't!
A Few Friends Less
Chapter 1: Reunion
Sirius and Snape moved toward each other and shook hands. They let go extremely quickly.
"That will do to be going on with," said Dumbledore, stepping between them once more. "Now I have work for each of you. Fudge's attitude, though not unexpected, changes everything. Sirius, I need you to set off at once. You are to alert Jamie Williams, Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher-the old crowd. Lie low at Lupin's for awhile; I'll contact you there."
"But-" said Harry. He did not want to say goodbye again so quickly.
"You'll see me very soon, Harry," said Sirius, turning to him. "I promise you. But I must do what I can, you understand, don't you?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah...of course I do."
Sirius grasped his hand briefly, nodded to Dumbledore, transformed back into the black dog, and ran the length of the room to the door, whose handle he turned with a paw.
Sirius trotted through the crowd of students in the Entrance Hall, a few patting him on the head. They all were starting rumors on what really happened that night. Sirius could hardly believe it himself, as much as he knew it was going to happen. Sirius shook his furry head and full out ran when he reached the school grounds.
Jamie walked into the house, a bunch of grocery bags flying behind her. Sure, she lived in a Muggle town, but she really didn't care if she got caught. She was tired, and grumpy, and had to wake up far to early to pick up her daughter from King's Cross. Jamie began to sort things into the cupboard, still using her trusty wand, as she started to flip through some files from work. As she had guessed, she had ended up working for the Ministry, as well as teaching at a Muggle school. She was multi-talented. She was kind of second in command, if you can say it that way. She signs everything for Fudge, goes to meetings for Fudge, takes notes on everything for Fudge, gives Fudge coffee. And she wasn't even his assistant. She was kind of confused about that too.
Jamie looked onto her notes of stuff she had to do, and saw number one on her list. "Find out what's going on with Sirius Black." Number two. "See what Dumbledore's planning on doing with this supposed You-Know-Who coming back." That was it. That had been it for the last week. Well, number one had been there for a year, and Jamie wasn't about to tell Fudge what was going on. She wasn't going to tell him that they had been engaged to be married, her daughter was his daughter, that they had been writing back and forth over the last year, that it had been her idea to have Sirius go to Harry before seeing his daughter.
Jamie leaned against the counter and wondered what this Voldemort thing was about. She usually heard the first things from Fudge, mainly from his ranting and raving, and that hadn't been apart from it. She decided that it was probably a writing error; Fudge's handwriting wasn't all that legible. She opened up a folder that she had grabbed on her way out of work. It was Sirius's record. Somehow, she thought she could think of other alibis she could feed to Fudge about Sirius.
She flipped through Sirius's record. It had his graduating grades from Hogwarts, his jobs he used to have, and some other things. Something that stuck out to her was a newspaper clipping. It read about how Sirius was convicted as a murderer, that he went to Azkaban for life without a trial, and how he had laughed the whole time. Jamie shook her head and shoved the papers back into the folder and threw it onto the table.
Jamie looked up and saw that the eggs had broken all over the floor, and quickly swept them into the garbage with her wand and sighed. It had been the loneliest thirteen years of her life. She had been doing ok, but whenever she had been assigned to anything about Sirius, she felt lonelier. She missed her daughter too, but she would be back tomorrow, and Jamie was happy about that.
Jamie looked at the clock, it was quarter to nine, and she hadn't eaten yet. As if on cue, her stomach growled loudly. She put a pan on the stove, and fried up the eggs that hadn't busted. She also put some toast in the toaster. She leaned back against the counter and pulled herself onto it. Her stomach growled again, louder this time. Her mind raced to lunch, and she remembered that she had had a huge lunch with her friends Kassie and Mandy. She shrugged and walked back over to the stove and flipped her eggs with a spatula. When one broke, she resorted to her wand.
Jamie watched the eggs, there were a lot, she wasn't sure why she had made so many, and put them onto a plate as the toast popped up. She quickly buttered the toast. She ate quickly, wanting to sleep. It was Friday, a wonderful Friday, and she wasn't exactly planning on going out to party the night away.
After she had finished eating, she still had a bunch of eggs on the plate; she covered the plate and put it into the fridge. Breakfast for tomorrow, she thought. Then, her stomach grumbled again.
"What the heck?" Jamie said aloud, looking down at her stomach.
Jamie shook her head and sighed. Then, her stomach whimpered.
"Ok, that was so not you," she said, jumping up.
There was a scratching at the door, and Jamie cautiously walked to it, opening the big door. She looked through the screen of the outer door, and saw a large black dog, staring up at her. Jamie walked backwards a few steps.
"Oh my..." she whispered, and shook her head. No way. It couldn't be.
Jamie walked back to the door and pushed it open. The big shaggy dog trotted in as Jamie closed the door. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Sirius Black is not in my kitchen in his Animagus form," Jamie said, trying to convince herself.
"Yes, I am," came the voice that had been haunting Jamie's memories for the last thirteen years.
"Oh my, God," Jamie whispered, opening her eyes and looking at Sirius for the first time in thirteen long years. She could hardly believe how much he had changed over time. His hair was long, down to about his elbows, and was a greasy, tangled mop. He had a beard, but it wasn't that long, like he had somehow tried to shave at one point. His robes were dirty and had holes in them, like he had been wearing them for a long time, which he had. His eyes were dull and shallow, and were lacking the normal dancing with merriment and gaiety. He was a heck of a lot more skinnier then last time she had seen him, and looked like he had gone a few weeks without a shower. There were dark circles under his eyes.
"It's me," he said quietly, gesturing his arms, rather like he was announcing the mayor.
"Sirius," Jamie said, her eyes filling with tears. "What... How... Oh my..."
"Oh, come on," Sirius said, "please don't cry. You know I've never really been much for that."
Jamie smiled slightly. "Yeah, that's true."
Sirius stomach rumbled. "That was your stomach then," Jamie said, raising an eyebrow. "Here, want some eggs? Big favorite in this household. Alayna's favorite."
"Alayna?" Sirius asked, watching Jamie as she brought out the left over eggs and flew some bread into the toaster.
"My, or our, or whatever, daughter," Jamie said. "She's coming home tomorrow from Hogwarts."
"Does she know..." his voice trailed off as he began to shove eggs in his mouth.
"That you're her dad?" Jamie asked. "Yes, she does. It was pretty hard on her last year, not saying anything to Harry."
"She knows Harry?" Sirius asked, astonished.
"Mh hm," Jamie said, buttering some toast. "She's in the year behind him. She was talking non-stop about him when she went to school her first year, asking me all these questions. What something to drink?"
"Anything, please," Sirius said. "So, what else does she know?"
"About you?" Jamie asked, tossing the toast onto his plate. "She's known since she was born you were innocent, a belief that wavered from time to time, thanks to Remus. She kept on writing last year though about how much she wanted to see you and all that. She'll be happy."
"I see," Sirius said, spraying some eggs on the table.
"I see your table manners haven't improved," Jamie joked, cleaning it up with a wave of her wand. "You can sleep wherever you want tonight. I have to be up early tomorrow though to go to London to pick up Alayna."
"Ok," Sirius said, gulping down a cup of milk. "Thanks."
"No problem," Jamie said, walking up the stairs to her bedroom.
Sirius woke up on a pull out couch in front of a roaring fire, instead of his normal cave appearances. He had a quilt on top of him, his head was on a pillow, and he was on cushions. It was great. Sirius got up and stretched.
"Morning," Jamie said from the kitchen.
"I thought you had to go and get Alayna," Sirius said asked, scratching his head.
"I do," Jamie said, looking up from some papers. "I have 15 minutes."
"Ok," Sirius said, sitting down across the table from her. "What'cha doing?"
"Some stuff for work," Jamie said. "I'm supposed to be looking for you. Kind of ironic, no?"
Sirius looked at her uneasily. "You work for the Ministry?"
"Yeah," Jamie said. "Si, I'm not going to turn you in."
Sirius looked at Jamie. She hadn't changed too much since the last time he saw her. She still had her spirals in her straw colored blond hair and her deep blue eyes. But now she had small silver wire framed glasses around her eyes. She also had more lines on her face from age. But, Sirius could tell that she was still as sweet and caring as she had ever been. Sirius looked at her hands in curiosity, and saw that her ring finger still held the ring Sirius had given her so many years ago. Sirius's heart jumped.
"I know that," Sirius said.
"Ok," Jamie said. "You want to come with? We could do something to your appearance and you'd be all right to come in public."
"Um..." Sirius said, looking around the room cautiously. "What are you going to do?"
"I'll just cut your hair and you'll be clean shaven," Jamie shrugged.
"Well, all right," Sirius said.
Jamie grabbed her wand, pointed it at Sirius, he cringed, and whispered a few choice words. When she was finished, Sirius had his semi-long hair back and had no beard.
"How's that," Jamie said, holding up a mirror for Sirius to look.
Sirius rubbed his chin, grimacing. "I grew quite fond of that beard."
"Well, get over it," Jamie said, rolling her eyes. "Life goes on past facial hair. You still want to come with?"
"No," Sirius said. "I probably shouldn't. Let you and Alayna have some female bonding. You know. Besides, I might try and get a hold of Remus."
"Ok," Jamie said. "Be back as soon as possible."
Jamie arrived at King's Cross, just as the train was pulling up. She ran through Platform 9 and 3/4, barely getting pulled back out by a bunch of kids.
"Mum!" came a voice that Jamie recognized right away.
Alayna came running up to her. She had Jamie's curls with Sirius's hair color, both of their eyes, the deep sapphire blue, and Jamie's grace on her feet. She also had a few sparse freckles, and Jamie wasn't sure where those had come from.
"Hey, sweetie," Jamie said, wrapping her arms around her daughter. "How was school?"
"It was weird," Alayna said. "Harry Potter got zapped to You-Know-Who and all this weird stuff happened. And then, at the end of term feast, Dumbledore said that You-Know-Who came to power! I could hardly believe it!"
"Mh hm," Jamie said. "Well, I have a bit of a surprise at home."
"Really?" Alayna asked, her eyes wide. "Ok, I'll be right back, I want to say goodbye to Ginny quick!"
Jamie watched as her daughter ran to her redhead friend to say farewell. Jamie steered the cart containing Alayna's trunk and owl out of the platform. Jamie almost ran over a short boy. He looked at her and muttered an apology, and Jamie gasped. She hadn't seen Harry for thirteen years, and she had to admit, he looked just like his father. He had become quite the handsome teenager, a lot like his father indeed.
Harry turned and looked at her. "Yeah, I'm Harry Potter, before you ask."
"No, it's not that," Jamie said. "I know you're Harry Potter, and Harry, I know a lot more about you than you know."
Harry looked at her like she was a nutcase, but turned when he heard a, "Boy, get moving!"
"Uh, right," Harry replied, then waved goodbye over his shoulder.
"Mum, come on!" Alayna said, pushing her mother to the car. "Did you see who that was? It was Harry Potter! Ginny has the hugest crush on him, it isn't even funny. His best friend is Ginny's brother."
"Yeah," Jamie said, climbing into the car. "Well, let's get going now."
"What's the surprise?" Alayna asked excitedly.
"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" Jamie said, winking at her daughter, putting Lily, James, and Harry out of her mind until she was able to talk to Sirius about it.
"Fine," Alayna said. "Think I can go to Ginny's house tomorrow?"
Sirius sat back on the couch he had spent so much time on (A/N: Same house...). He sighed at looked at the mantel. It still was cluttered with pictures and knick-knacks. There weren't any pictures of Pettigrew, but there were lots of Lily and James pictures from before they died. They were waving merrily at Sirius. Sirius got up to look at some of them more carefully, and there was one of a girl he didn't recognize. He guessed it was Alayna. He had to admit that she was a good mix of her parents. The hair, the eyes, although she did have his nose, and the smile. It had been that smile that had kept him from wasting away to nothing in Azkaban. (A/N: Ah! Hopeless romantic, someone slap me!) Well, that and the fact I was innocent, but you know how these things go.
There was a knock on the door that snapped Sirius back to his senses.
'Crap,' he thought. 'What am I gonna do?'
He looked hopelessly at the door, which the person was knocking on again. Sirius cautiously went to the door. When he looked out the window, he saw that it was a man who had to be a Muggle, he wasn't wearing a cloak, and a lot of the wizards were to clueless to change clothes when in the Muggle world.
Sirius sighed, and said, "Who is it?"
"Hey, you're a guy," came a voice.
"No shit, Sherlock," Sirius said. 'What a charmer...'
"Now, that was uncalled for," the man replied. "Who is this?"
"Who are you?" Sirius repeated.
"Who are you?" the man said.
"Answer my question," Sirius said, getting pissed.
"Well, I'm not Sherlock Holmes, as you seem to think," the man said.
'Oh, good one,' Sirius admitted silently. "Fine."
"Ok, I'm Derrick Parcy," said the man. "And you are..."
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked.
"I'm here to see Jamie," said Derrick.
"Why."
"What is this a test?"
"Why?!"
"Because I want to see her!"
"Well, Derrick," he said the name like a curse, "she isn't here."
"Who are you?"
"Well, now, I don't think that you really need to know that," Sirius said. "Goodbye."
"Hey-"
"Derrick? What are you doing here?" came Jamie's voice.
"I'm here to see you!" Derrick replied.
"Well, I believe I told you not to come and see me, unless it was about taking over my class next year," Jamie said firmly.
"Oh yeah... I mean, that's what I'm here for!"
"Sure, now leave, you can call me," Jamie said.
"Yeah, go away!" came a girl's voice.
"Alayna," Jamie said warningly.
"But, mum, you've told him lots of-"
"I'll be off now," Derrick said.
Jamie waited until Derrick was in his car and driving down the street to open the door. Sirius practically fell out of the house; he was leaning against the door to hear properly.
"Who was that?" Sirius asked, accusingly.
"That was the unfortunate Derrick Parcy. He was a substitute teacher once when I had to work over-time for the Ministry at the school I teach at. He's, yeah," Jamie said, ushering Alayna in.
"Her exact words were 'He's a bastard with nothing to his name and only goes for the girls with money,'" Alayna said. "I think I still have the letter, Mum!"
"That's nice," Jamie said, pulling Alayna's trunk into the house.
"So, he isn't..."
"Ah, the same old Sirius, I see," Jamie said, smiling. "No, nothing like that."
"Hold. Up. Sirius, as in THE Sirius?" Alayna said, almost dropping her owl.
"Oh yeah," Jamie said. "You two haven't met, have you? Well, Sirius, this is Alayna. Alayna, Sirius."
"Oh my, God! Cool!" Alayna said, looking at her father. "You are so cool!"
"That's my Alayna, gift of words," Jamie said, rolling her eyes.
"Yup, that's me," Alayna said. "Wanna see my room?"
"Alayna, he isn't a new friend, he's your father," Jamie said. "So don't try and put nail-polish on him."
"What?" Sirius said, turning sharply. "First my beard, now nail polish?"
"I was kidding," Jamie said. "Come on, I have to take Alayna's trunk to her room anyway."
A/N: It wasn't exactly how I wanted it to start, but you know how these things go. I really have had a writer's block. I know what I'm gonna do for the rest of it though. Score one for me!
Disclaimer: I don't own the beginning, which is a word for word, well, almost, excerpt from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." That belongs to Miss JK Rowling. But, I do own Jamie and Alayna, in case you were wondering, which I'm sure you weren't!
A Few Friends Less
Chapter 1: Reunion
Sirius and Snape moved toward each other and shook hands. They let go extremely quickly.
"That will do to be going on with," said Dumbledore, stepping between them once more. "Now I have work for each of you. Fudge's attitude, though not unexpected, changes everything. Sirius, I need you to set off at once. You are to alert Jamie Williams, Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher-the old crowd. Lie low at Lupin's for awhile; I'll contact you there."
"But-" said Harry. He did not want to say goodbye again so quickly.
"You'll see me very soon, Harry," said Sirius, turning to him. "I promise you. But I must do what I can, you understand, don't you?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah...of course I do."
Sirius grasped his hand briefly, nodded to Dumbledore, transformed back into the black dog, and ran the length of the room to the door, whose handle he turned with a paw.
Sirius trotted through the crowd of students in the Entrance Hall, a few patting him on the head. They all were starting rumors on what really happened that night. Sirius could hardly believe it himself, as much as he knew it was going to happen. Sirius shook his furry head and full out ran when he reached the school grounds.
Jamie walked into the house, a bunch of grocery bags flying behind her. Sure, she lived in a Muggle town, but she really didn't care if she got caught. She was tired, and grumpy, and had to wake up far to early to pick up her daughter from King's Cross. Jamie began to sort things into the cupboard, still using her trusty wand, as she started to flip through some files from work. As she had guessed, she had ended up working for the Ministry, as well as teaching at a Muggle school. She was multi-talented. She was kind of second in command, if you can say it that way. She signs everything for Fudge, goes to meetings for Fudge, takes notes on everything for Fudge, gives Fudge coffee. And she wasn't even his assistant. She was kind of confused about that too.
Jamie looked onto her notes of stuff she had to do, and saw number one on her list. "Find out what's going on with Sirius Black." Number two. "See what Dumbledore's planning on doing with this supposed You-Know-Who coming back." That was it. That had been it for the last week. Well, number one had been there for a year, and Jamie wasn't about to tell Fudge what was going on. She wasn't going to tell him that they had been engaged to be married, her daughter was his daughter, that they had been writing back and forth over the last year, that it had been her idea to have Sirius go to Harry before seeing his daughter.
Jamie leaned against the counter and wondered what this Voldemort thing was about. She usually heard the first things from Fudge, mainly from his ranting and raving, and that hadn't been apart from it. She decided that it was probably a writing error; Fudge's handwriting wasn't all that legible. She opened up a folder that she had grabbed on her way out of work. It was Sirius's record. Somehow, she thought she could think of other alibis she could feed to Fudge about Sirius.
She flipped through Sirius's record. It had his graduating grades from Hogwarts, his jobs he used to have, and some other things. Something that stuck out to her was a newspaper clipping. It read about how Sirius was convicted as a murderer, that he went to Azkaban for life without a trial, and how he had laughed the whole time. Jamie shook her head and shoved the papers back into the folder and threw it onto the table.
Jamie looked up and saw that the eggs had broken all over the floor, and quickly swept them into the garbage with her wand and sighed. It had been the loneliest thirteen years of her life. She had been doing ok, but whenever she had been assigned to anything about Sirius, she felt lonelier. She missed her daughter too, but she would be back tomorrow, and Jamie was happy about that.
Jamie looked at the clock, it was quarter to nine, and she hadn't eaten yet. As if on cue, her stomach growled loudly. She put a pan on the stove, and fried up the eggs that hadn't busted. She also put some toast in the toaster. She leaned back against the counter and pulled herself onto it. Her stomach growled again, louder this time. Her mind raced to lunch, and she remembered that she had had a huge lunch with her friends Kassie and Mandy. She shrugged and walked back over to the stove and flipped her eggs with a spatula. When one broke, she resorted to her wand.
Jamie watched the eggs, there were a lot, she wasn't sure why she had made so many, and put them onto a plate as the toast popped up. She quickly buttered the toast. She ate quickly, wanting to sleep. It was Friday, a wonderful Friday, and she wasn't exactly planning on going out to party the night away.
After she had finished eating, she still had a bunch of eggs on the plate; she covered the plate and put it into the fridge. Breakfast for tomorrow, she thought. Then, her stomach grumbled again.
"What the heck?" Jamie said aloud, looking down at her stomach.
Jamie shook her head and sighed. Then, her stomach whimpered.
"Ok, that was so not you," she said, jumping up.
There was a scratching at the door, and Jamie cautiously walked to it, opening the big door. She looked through the screen of the outer door, and saw a large black dog, staring up at her. Jamie walked backwards a few steps.
"Oh my..." she whispered, and shook her head. No way. It couldn't be.
Jamie walked back to the door and pushed it open. The big shaggy dog trotted in as Jamie closed the door. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Sirius Black is not in my kitchen in his Animagus form," Jamie said, trying to convince herself.
"Yes, I am," came the voice that had been haunting Jamie's memories for the last thirteen years.
"Oh my, God," Jamie whispered, opening her eyes and looking at Sirius for the first time in thirteen long years. She could hardly believe how much he had changed over time. His hair was long, down to about his elbows, and was a greasy, tangled mop. He had a beard, but it wasn't that long, like he had somehow tried to shave at one point. His robes were dirty and had holes in them, like he had been wearing them for a long time, which he had. His eyes were dull and shallow, and were lacking the normal dancing with merriment and gaiety. He was a heck of a lot more skinnier then last time she had seen him, and looked like he had gone a few weeks without a shower. There were dark circles under his eyes.
"It's me," he said quietly, gesturing his arms, rather like he was announcing the mayor.
"Sirius," Jamie said, her eyes filling with tears. "What... How... Oh my..."
"Oh, come on," Sirius said, "please don't cry. You know I've never really been much for that."
Jamie smiled slightly. "Yeah, that's true."
Sirius stomach rumbled. "That was your stomach then," Jamie said, raising an eyebrow. "Here, want some eggs? Big favorite in this household. Alayna's favorite."
"Alayna?" Sirius asked, watching Jamie as she brought out the left over eggs and flew some bread into the toaster.
"My, or our, or whatever, daughter," Jamie said. "She's coming home tomorrow from Hogwarts."
"Does she know..." his voice trailed off as he began to shove eggs in his mouth.
"That you're her dad?" Jamie asked. "Yes, she does. It was pretty hard on her last year, not saying anything to Harry."
"She knows Harry?" Sirius asked, astonished.
"Mh hm," Jamie said, buttering some toast. "She's in the year behind him. She was talking non-stop about him when she went to school her first year, asking me all these questions. What something to drink?"
"Anything, please," Sirius said. "So, what else does she know?"
"About you?" Jamie asked, tossing the toast onto his plate. "She's known since she was born you were innocent, a belief that wavered from time to time, thanks to Remus. She kept on writing last year though about how much she wanted to see you and all that. She'll be happy."
"I see," Sirius said, spraying some eggs on the table.
"I see your table manners haven't improved," Jamie joked, cleaning it up with a wave of her wand. "You can sleep wherever you want tonight. I have to be up early tomorrow though to go to London to pick up Alayna."
"Ok," Sirius said, gulping down a cup of milk. "Thanks."
"No problem," Jamie said, walking up the stairs to her bedroom.
Sirius woke up on a pull out couch in front of a roaring fire, instead of his normal cave appearances. He had a quilt on top of him, his head was on a pillow, and he was on cushions. It was great. Sirius got up and stretched.
"Morning," Jamie said from the kitchen.
"I thought you had to go and get Alayna," Sirius said asked, scratching his head.
"I do," Jamie said, looking up from some papers. "I have 15 minutes."
"Ok," Sirius said, sitting down across the table from her. "What'cha doing?"
"Some stuff for work," Jamie said. "I'm supposed to be looking for you. Kind of ironic, no?"
Sirius looked at her uneasily. "You work for the Ministry?"
"Yeah," Jamie said. "Si, I'm not going to turn you in."
Sirius looked at Jamie. She hadn't changed too much since the last time he saw her. She still had her spirals in her straw colored blond hair and her deep blue eyes. But now she had small silver wire framed glasses around her eyes. She also had more lines on her face from age. But, Sirius could tell that she was still as sweet and caring as she had ever been. Sirius looked at her hands in curiosity, and saw that her ring finger still held the ring Sirius had given her so many years ago. Sirius's heart jumped.
"I know that," Sirius said.
"Ok," Jamie said. "You want to come with? We could do something to your appearance and you'd be all right to come in public."
"Um..." Sirius said, looking around the room cautiously. "What are you going to do?"
"I'll just cut your hair and you'll be clean shaven," Jamie shrugged.
"Well, all right," Sirius said.
Jamie grabbed her wand, pointed it at Sirius, he cringed, and whispered a few choice words. When she was finished, Sirius had his semi-long hair back and had no beard.
"How's that," Jamie said, holding up a mirror for Sirius to look.
Sirius rubbed his chin, grimacing. "I grew quite fond of that beard."
"Well, get over it," Jamie said, rolling her eyes. "Life goes on past facial hair. You still want to come with?"
"No," Sirius said. "I probably shouldn't. Let you and Alayna have some female bonding. You know. Besides, I might try and get a hold of Remus."
"Ok," Jamie said. "Be back as soon as possible."
Jamie arrived at King's Cross, just as the train was pulling up. She ran through Platform 9 and 3/4, barely getting pulled back out by a bunch of kids.
"Mum!" came a voice that Jamie recognized right away.
Alayna came running up to her. She had Jamie's curls with Sirius's hair color, both of their eyes, the deep sapphire blue, and Jamie's grace on her feet. She also had a few sparse freckles, and Jamie wasn't sure where those had come from.
"Hey, sweetie," Jamie said, wrapping her arms around her daughter. "How was school?"
"It was weird," Alayna said. "Harry Potter got zapped to You-Know-Who and all this weird stuff happened. And then, at the end of term feast, Dumbledore said that You-Know-Who came to power! I could hardly believe it!"
"Mh hm," Jamie said. "Well, I have a bit of a surprise at home."
"Really?" Alayna asked, her eyes wide. "Ok, I'll be right back, I want to say goodbye to Ginny quick!"
Jamie watched as her daughter ran to her redhead friend to say farewell. Jamie steered the cart containing Alayna's trunk and owl out of the platform. Jamie almost ran over a short boy. He looked at her and muttered an apology, and Jamie gasped. She hadn't seen Harry for thirteen years, and she had to admit, he looked just like his father. He had become quite the handsome teenager, a lot like his father indeed.
Harry turned and looked at her. "Yeah, I'm Harry Potter, before you ask."
"No, it's not that," Jamie said. "I know you're Harry Potter, and Harry, I know a lot more about you than you know."
Harry looked at her like she was a nutcase, but turned when he heard a, "Boy, get moving!"
"Uh, right," Harry replied, then waved goodbye over his shoulder.
"Mum, come on!" Alayna said, pushing her mother to the car. "Did you see who that was? It was Harry Potter! Ginny has the hugest crush on him, it isn't even funny. His best friend is Ginny's brother."
"Yeah," Jamie said, climbing into the car. "Well, let's get going now."
"What's the surprise?" Alayna asked excitedly.
"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" Jamie said, winking at her daughter, putting Lily, James, and Harry out of her mind until she was able to talk to Sirius about it.
"Fine," Alayna said. "Think I can go to Ginny's house tomorrow?"
Sirius sat back on the couch he had spent so much time on (A/N: Same house...). He sighed at looked at the mantel. It still was cluttered with pictures and knick-knacks. There weren't any pictures of Pettigrew, but there were lots of Lily and James pictures from before they died. They were waving merrily at Sirius. Sirius got up to look at some of them more carefully, and there was one of a girl he didn't recognize. He guessed it was Alayna. He had to admit that she was a good mix of her parents. The hair, the eyes, although she did have his nose, and the smile. It had been that smile that had kept him from wasting away to nothing in Azkaban. (A/N: Ah! Hopeless romantic, someone slap me!) Well, that and the fact I was innocent, but you know how these things go.
There was a knock on the door that snapped Sirius back to his senses.
'Crap,' he thought. 'What am I gonna do?'
He looked hopelessly at the door, which the person was knocking on again. Sirius cautiously went to the door. When he looked out the window, he saw that it was a man who had to be a Muggle, he wasn't wearing a cloak, and a lot of the wizards were to clueless to change clothes when in the Muggle world.
Sirius sighed, and said, "Who is it?"
"Hey, you're a guy," came a voice.
"No shit, Sherlock," Sirius said. 'What a charmer...'
"Now, that was uncalled for," the man replied. "Who is this?"
"Who are you?" Sirius repeated.
"Who are you?" the man said.
"Answer my question," Sirius said, getting pissed.
"Well, I'm not Sherlock Holmes, as you seem to think," the man said.
'Oh, good one,' Sirius admitted silently. "Fine."
"Ok, I'm Derrick Parcy," said the man. "And you are..."
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked.
"I'm here to see Jamie," said Derrick.
"Why."
"What is this a test?"
"Why?!"
"Because I want to see her!"
"Well, Derrick," he said the name like a curse, "she isn't here."
"Who are you?"
"Well, now, I don't think that you really need to know that," Sirius said. "Goodbye."
"Hey-"
"Derrick? What are you doing here?" came Jamie's voice.
"I'm here to see you!" Derrick replied.
"Well, I believe I told you not to come and see me, unless it was about taking over my class next year," Jamie said firmly.
"Oh yeah... I mean, that's what I'm here for!"
"Sure, now leave, you can call me," Jamie said.
"Yeah, go away!" came a girl's voice.
"Alayna," Jamie said warningly.
"But, mum, you've told him lots of-"
"I'll be off now," Derrick said.
Jamie waited until Derrick was in his car and driving down the street to open the door. Sirius practically fell out of the house; he was leaning against the door to hear properly.
"Who was that?" Sirius asked, accusingly.
"That was the unfortunate Derrick Parcy. He was a substitute teacher once when I had to work over-time for the Ministry at the school I teach at. He's, yeah," Jamie said, ushering Alayna in.
"Her exact words were 'He's a bastard with nothing to his name and only goes for the girls with money,'" Alayna said. "I think I still have the letter, Mum!"
"That's nice," Jamie said, pulling Alayna's trunk into the house.
"So, he isn't..."
"Ah, the same old Sirius, I see," Jamie said, smiling. "No, nothing like that."
"Hold. Up. Sirius, as in THE Sirius?" Alayna said, almost dropping her owl.
"Oh yeah," Jamie said. "You two haven't met, have you? Well, Sirius, this is Alayna. Alayna, Sirius."
"Oh my, God! Cool!" Alayna said, looking at her father. "You are so cool!"
"That's my Alayna, gift of words," Jamie said, rolling her eyes.
"Yup, that's me," Alayna said. "Wanna see my room?"
"Alayna, he isn't a new friend, he's your father," Jamie said. "So don't try and put nail-polish on him."
"What?" Sirius said, turning sharply. "First my beard, now nail polish?"
"I was kidding," Jamie said. "Come on, I have to take Alayna's trunk to her room anyway."
A/N: It wasn't exactly how I wanted it to start, but you know how these things go. I really have had a writer's block. I know what I'm gonna do for the rest of it though. Score one for me!