The day of Sirius Black's birth was a beautiful and shinning day. For, despite the frigidly gray weather outside, the Black manor was filled with warmth and pride for the new Black heir. It was a sight to behold, for the notoriously cold-hearted Black family was gathered together around the beautiful bawling newborn with earnest smiles melted onto their faces. Even the house-elf, Kreacher seemed to grin.

The day of Sirius Black's birth was only the beginning of a new era for the Black family and anyone could see that. Walburga Black was no longer the cool lofty woman from before. The new Walburga Black glowed with happiness and wherever she went, she showed off her gorgeous baby. Orion Black didn't strut around displaying his money and his pure blood status anymore. He now walked high and mighty with the pride of a father. Everyone who saw this change in the family thought it was a miracle and that the little baby Sirius Black was one amazing child to have changed his parents so much. There were many people who doubted that this change was permanent, but their opinions changed as soon as they heard the first word the baby said: "happy". Yet, there were still several who were persistent in thinking that the Blacks were still terrible people and they were rewarded for their persistence after the birth of the second child, Regulus.

At first, it seemed as if the family had become even more generous and kind than ever possible, but the seemingly blessed life of the Blacks that they thought would last forever ended all too soon. No one could say what exactly happened, but it was an overnight change from the warm happy family to the cold harsh people the Blacks had been before.

Undoubtedly, Sirius, being two and a half, was the one who was most impacted by the sudden change in his parents. He didn't understand why his mother didn't hug him or give him a kiss anymore. He couldn't comprehend why his father didn't pick him up and spin him around. He didn't get why Kreacher had to feed him now. But what really struck him the most, was why Regulus was the only one who got to be touched by his parents.

No matter how cold or distant his mother seemed, she always carried Regulus at her side when they went to dinner parties while Sirius was left alone with Kreacher at home. Even if his father was doing important business, he always had time to pick up Regulus if he started crying. Once, Sirius had tried crying for no reason as he had seen Regulus done, but his mother slapped him and ordered Kreacher to deal with him.

Oh how Sirius grew to resent that house-elf even more than his family. For even though his parents only spoke to him to criticize him and his brother was often praised for small tasks, at least he knew the way they felt for him. At least they held no pity for him. Kreacher, on the other hand, preformed all the tasks that a caring parent would, but with none of that fond emotion. To Sirius, that was the thing that hurt him most.

But, his childhood was not all sadness and tears. He found that there were a few relatives of his who were decent, even pleasant, people. His favorite of them all was Uncle Alphard. As far as Sirius knew, Uncle Alphard had no children, but he was still great with children. He could play games with both Sirius and Regulus and he taught the both of them how to fly, play wizard chess, quidditch, and gobstones. Even though he loved both his nephews, he loved Sirius more. Whenever Sirius asked why it was that Uncle Alphard liked him best, Uncle Alphard would smile and say it was because Sirius liked him best. Sirius would always contradict with, "I like Charles Gautwin (the beater for the Appleby Arrows) the best", but that was only for the sake of argument. It was true that he liked Uncle Alphard the best, but he would have liked him even more if Uncle Alphard weren't sick most of the time and unable to visit him. But, sickness was not something he could control and there were limits to what magic could heal.

--

Remus Lupin had been born in a muggle hospital because his mother, being pregnant and frighteningly so, had won the argument against his father at the last minute. That, and she was terrified of any magical healers potentially scarring her precious baby forever. He had been registered as a muggle, but, just moments after his birth, his father stole him away to St. Mungo's to record his birth in the wizarding world. (He had done so while his wife had been catching up on sleep. John Lupin was usually a very brave man, but the one person he was terrified silly of was his dear sweet wife, Caroline.) For the next several years, Remus' life carried on very similarly with his parents constantly fighting over his magical abilities, which were undoubtedly amazing.

One night, John Lupin had been ready to fight his wife, verbally and physically if need be, to grant Remus the permission to live in a magical society. He had tried many times before, but tonight was going to be different, and he knew it. He was more than confident, especially after having just solidified his case against Fenrir Greyback. It would only be a matter of days before that monster would be locked up safely in Azkaban and away from all the children in the world. Just the thought of what might happen if Greyback actually hurt his own son made him shiver with fear. This was exactly why Remus needed to be brought up in the wizarding world: so he could take care of himself if anyone ever tried to hurt him.

Work had caused him to return home later than usual and, so, he had missed dinner and kissing Remus goodnight. Which wasn't entirely a bad thing, but, being a good father, he enjoyed being able to tell his child how much he loved him. Especially since Remus probably wouldn't let him when he grew older. And older was coming far too soon. Already, Remus complained about being kissed in public or about holding hands with his parents, and his basis for his complaints was that he was now five.

John Lupin, despite all his confidence, felt a terribly cold chill course through his body the moment he stepped through his front door. He blamed it on the wards he placed on the home, but even as he disregarded the feeling he knew something was wrong.

"Caroline," he called out into the well-lit home. "Caaarroolliiinne!"

"What?" a voice snapped back suddenly and a beautiful yet homely woman appeared from the kitchen. The stubborn face that she held melted slightly when she saw her husband's rugged face, but she refused to give in completely.

"I'm home!" he exclaimed as he held his arms wide open with and expecting smile.

She scowled and walked back into the kitchen with him trailing behind her with disappointment. "Don't be so loud. I just managed to make Remus go to bed." She spooned out a bowl of soup that had been simmering on the stove and placed it in front of him.

"This late?" He fished out a spoon from one of the unorganized drawers and sat down to enjoy his meal.

She sighed heavily as she slumped down on a wooden chair next to him. "He kept talking about a friend he was supposed to meet tonight outside. I don't know who it was, but he was so insistent on it. I said I would go with him, but he said that I would just scare his friend away. It had to be him and him alone. Eventually, he cried himself to sleep."

"It wasn't Johnson or Clark?" John asked as he tested his soup. It was rather tasty and at just the right temperature too.

"No. No, it wasn't any of his imaginary friends. It was," she paused and frowned. Caroline remembered the name vividly just a couple minutes ago. It was what Remus had screamed for an hour and a half. So why couldn't she remember it now? "I don't remember. But it had to do with a color."

John laughed a deep and throaty laugh as he lapped up the rest of his dinner. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure he will have forgotten all about it by tomorrow." His eyes twinkled jovially as he waited for her to relax and smile back at him. Once she had, he leaned back in his chair and said, "Now, remember what we were talking about on Wednesday about-"

That night, John Lupin never got a chance to talk about Remus' official entrance into the wizarding world for he was cut off by the shriek and cries of his own son. When he and his wife went to investigate, they found his body lying limp and bleeding heavily from the shoulder. Under John's insistence, Remus was taken to St. Mungo's. It was there that they received the bad news and it was there that the happy life of the Lupin's was turned upside down. It wasn't that the Lupin's had become cruel or distant or mean. It was simply that they always seemed strained to be happy or to smile.

Remus was taken out of school the following week and a month later they moved away to a tiny little town at the edge of a forest. John had been ready to erase Remus' mind of all magic, after agreeing for once with his wife that Remus should no longer come in contact with magic, but he had found that there was no need to. The little boy, who had just turned five, had forgotten everything he had ever known about magic and the wizarding world. He had even forgotten his favorite relative, Cousin Dexter. No one could explain why that happened and the Lupin's didn't force their son to remember. All that mattered was keeping their Remus safe from the rest of the world that could harm him.

--

It came as no surprise when, the summer of Sirius' eleventh birthday, he received an envelope with lovely green ink on it. His parents had mentioned, mostly to Regulus, the letter that would come when they turned eleven. Kreacher, who had come to resent Sirius as much as Sirius resented him, had teased him to no end about not getting his letter. So, when the barn owl, which was far more beautiful than the sleek black owl his father owned, came to him with his letter, the first person he told was Kreacher. Kreacher had then passed the information on to Regulus, who blurted out at dinner time that Sirius was going to Hogwarts.

"Regulus," his mother reprimanded in her soft cold voice, "speak only when it is your turn to speak." Then she turned her grey eyes over to meet Sirius' and asked, "Is it true?"

He wanted to cry out that of course it was and wasn't she proud of him at last? But he held his tongue and answered just as blandly, "Yes, Mother."

His father gave him a small smile of sorts, but it was an empty smile all the same. "All your family has gone to Slytherin." He didn't add on that Sirius was expected to get in as well.

"Yes, Father." He set down his knife and picked up his fork.

"Regulus," his mother scolded again. "Stop playing with your food."

"I was not!" he exclaimed in return and his father turned to give him a stern glare before saying, "Don't speak to your mother like that."

Sirius then set down his fork, which still had a tasty piece of meat on it, and excused himself from the table. As soon as the doors to the dining room shut behind him, Sirius ran away as fast as he could. It was unfair that Regulus was able to scream like that when Sirius knew that if he had done the same, his mother would have slapped him and sent him away. It made no sense why they liked Regulus better. Wasn't he the better child? Hasn't he always behaved perfectly and formally? Why did they hate him so much?

From his pocket, Sirius took out the little moving photograph of his mother and father holding him, smiling, and looking fondly at him.

What happened to make them change?

--

Remus was a smart boy. He had always known he could do magic, but he also knew that he could never tell his parents. He couldn't explain why he couldn't tell his parents, but he just knew that he couldn't. But he also knew that his parents were hiding something from him and it was something important. He knew that for several reasons. For one, he never got to see his dad's work place. All the other kids did, and the one time he asked to see, his father bought him a new bicycle and went on a "business trip" for a week. Another thing, he never saw his dad's side of the family. He saw plenty of Granny, Aunt Lauline, Uncle Christopher, and Cousin Cindy, but he never saw anyone from his dad's side. He knew where he got most of his looks from, but he didn't know where his golden eyes came from. His golden eyes that turned an almost feral yellow once a month. What's more, he had no recollection of how he got that gigantic scar on his shoulder that always seemed to be raw red in color. He knew that it was the reason why he turned into a wolf every month and why he wasn't allowed to go to any sleepovers, but he couldn't, for the life of him, remember how it came to be nor what his life was like before that. He asked his parents once, but they took him to the amusement park instead and let him eat as much cotton candy and popcorn as he wanted.

So, Remus Lupin learned quickly that there were certain things not to mention to his parents and that magic was one of them. Which was why, when an owl appeared at his bedroom window one morning bearing a letter, Remus burned it after reading it once right before breakfast.

But the owl came back again. So Remus burned that letter too and told it, in his most stern voice, to go away and never come back. But the owl didn't pay attention, and, the next time it came back, it came with its friends.

"Shoo!" He waved his hands at the birds. "Shoo! Shoo! Go away!" But the more he waved his hands, the closer they came towards him with one of their legs sticking out. "Go away!" he demanded forcefully but they edged closer and closer until they became too close and he let out an accidental shriek.

"Remus!" his mom cried as she burst through the room frantically. Remus knew better than to shriek or cry out, because it always caused his parents to rush towards him with concerned and worried looks. But it had been an accident…he hadn't mean to. The owls just looked so mean. "Remus!" she cried again, but this time with relief and confusion. "What's going on?"

The owls, obviously being a lot smarter than they let on, immediately flocked over to her and stuck out their feet. Confused, she took one from the loudest bird and opened it. She read over it once, before she ran from the room, followed by a flock of owls and Remus.

It was then that Remus saw his mom do magic for the first time. She threw a green powder into the fireplace and called out a place that sounded like "Ministry of Magic". Moments later, his dad appeared and the two of them began discussing in hushed tones, even though they didn't know that Remus was trying to listen from behind the couch.

But he was able to hear bits of the conversation that went along the lines of, "But the children!" "Dumbledore said it was okay," "I'm worried," "I'll ask him now," "Don't tell Remus yet," "Distract him."

His father disappeared back through the flames as Remus dashed back to his room and tried to look like he had been playing with one of the owls that were left behind. His mother appeared at the door in a moment and she smiled the smile that said they were now going to do something fun in order to make Remus forget something. So Remus smiled back expectantly and went to put his shoes on.

They had gone to the park that day before his mom got distracted and decided that his clothes were all too small and, now that he was eleven, he needed some "cool" clothes. They spent hours wandering around shops and, when they returned home, John Lupin was waiting for them with a beautiful cake. The icing on it said, "Happy Birthday Remus. Congratulations on getting into Hogwarts." His mom started crying as his dad explained what Hogwarts was and what the conditions were for being accepted to Hogwarts. In the hour that he spoke, Remus came to understand a lot about that missing part in his life, and, through the bits that his mom said, he understood why they never spoke of it before.

The only real question he had left was why he only had one cake. After all, didn't he deserve one for his birthday and one for Hogwarts?

--

On September 1, 1971, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin crossed onto Platform 9 and ¾ for the first time.