Chapter Three

A/N: Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. It's going to kick off with this chapter. I just wanted to get a bit of history to the story with the first two. Thanks for reading! Remember, review and subscribe if you like it; and any constructive criticism is encouraged! Thanks!

After dinner Dumbledore took Remus out into the hall to talk while the Trips and Angie helped Molly and Arthur clear away what was left of their meal. Alli and Trili were having a food fight behind the adults' and their older brother's backs before Angie caught on and told them that if they threw one more piece of food at anyone or anything they'd be scrubbing the kitchen clean. Other than that, it wasn't very eventful. Sirius had gone upstairs – Remus had assumed that he went up to his mother's bedroom where he kept Buckbeak.

Most likely sulking, he had thought as he watched his best friend's back retreating out of the kitchen. 'Dumbledore's just left,' he said as he returned to the kitchen, grabbing the last of the plates off the table and putting them in the sink where the other dishes were washing themselves.

Mrs Weasley sighed tiredly. 'Well, I think that's everything, dears. I'll be going up to make sure the rest of the children have gone to bed, and then I'll be retiring myself. Good night, Angie…children.' She smiled at them all as she left the room.

'How're you doing?' Remus asked Angie softly as he helped her put the last of the pots on their hooks.

'Fine...fine,' Angie replied offhandedly. 'A little…shaken up, but I'll be alright. At least he and the children get to see each other.'

'You should talk to him, Angella – set the story straight. I'm not sure what he believes now, whether it is what he thought then or not. But you should go talk to him. Go on, I'll take care of the rest of this.' He gently waved her away.

Upstairs, Sirius was pacing his mother's bedroom, watched by a confusedly interested Buckbeak who was munching on dead rats in the corner next to the canopied four poster, once so grand but now seemingly derelict with moth- and doxy-eaten curtains. After a few more minutes of pacing, with only the sound of crunching rat bones in the background, Sirius stopped in the middle of the room.

'She wouldn't even look at me,' he said woefully to Buckbeak.

The hippogriff clicked his beak in response and went about eating.

'Can't say that I blame her,' he added thoughtfully, now talking to himself. 'I was such an ass…and then I had to go track down Peter. I don't think I even told her. She must've been so upset…'

He stopped mid-sentence; there was a soft knock on the door. He crossed the room in a few hesitant strides and cracked the door just enough to see out. Angella stood on the other side, examining her feet and wringing her hands.

'I…I thought I might come up and chat,' she said, not meeting his gaze. 'If you don't mind,' she added hurriedly.

'Not at all.' He opened the door fully now to allow her to step inside. Well, this is a change of circumstances, he thought as Angella sat down on the edge of the bed, looking ready for flight.

'How…how are you?' Sirius asked uncharacteristically timidly.

'I'm living,' she replied. 'Been teaching at the Academy. They let me and the kids stay there. No sense for us to live somewhere else when we all have business there.'

'Yeah…about that. I told you I didn't want them going there. They should be going to Hogwarts.'

'Well, we hadn't exactly planned on being kicked out of our own house in the middle of the night, had we?' Her tone was more forceful now, and she spoke louder. If he was going to bring this up, she was going to throw it right back in his face. See how he felt being made to feel like the low-life she had felt like all those years ago. 'Do you remember, it was pouring down rain? They were two years old, Sirius, and it was midnight. Did you even hear them crying? Did you hear them asking me where we were going and why Daddy wasn't coming with us? Why Daddy was yelling? Why was I only packing our stuff and not yours, too?'

'Don't you give me the guilt trip, Angella! I'm not the one that went and sold my soul…!'

'I didn't sell my soul, Sirius! Haven't you asked anyone what really happened? Haven't you had the balls to actually admit that you were wrong?'

He yanked her left arm up in the air and shoved her sleeve back revealing the red outline of the Dark Mark on her forearm. 'That. That is why I made you leave…'

'But they were two years old, Sirius! TWO! And you kicked them out, too! You know, we walked – walked halfway across London, in the rain, in the cold, with all our things, to Remus's? Did he ever tell you that?' She yanked her arm out of his grasp and stood up, looking him in the eyes angrily.

'I came here to make things right, Sirius Orion Black, and if me and my children aren't welcome then we can just take our merry asses back to the Academy where we're appreciated!' She began to stomp towards the door. Buckbeak was looking back and forth between them, as if watching some heated tennis match. They seemed to have interrupted his meal.

'Don't you walk away from me!' Sirius called after her.

'Oh, that sounds real manly,' Angie replied sarcastically rolling her eyes as she placed her hand on the doorknob.

Sirius crossed the room in two strides, grabbed her hand, flung her around, and held her against him. 'I don't want you to leave,' he said softly.

Angie's eyes softened but her face was still stern. 'And why not?'

Sirius sighed. 'I'm sorry. I'm happy you're here. I'm happy the children are here. We can be a real family again…no, I mean a real family. Most people couldn't say they have both their parents and all their children. Some have died, others got divorced, others affected by the war in one way or another. But, us. We're a real family, Angie. Don't take that away from me again. Please.'

Angie's face softened to match her eyes at this and she laid her head on his chest. 'I do have one bone to pick with you though.'

'What's that, love?'

'Why the hell are you wearing your father's clothes? It's creepy and slightly disturbing.'

Sirius laughed his characteristic bark-like laughter. 'I didn't have anything else to wear that would fit. What d'you want me to do, walk around naked?'

Angie perked up. 'That's not a bad idea,' she said grinning mischievously.

'Well, there are other people that live her, too, dear, and I don't think Molly or Remus would appreciate it if I walked around starking all the time.'

They both chuckled. 'At least tell me you don't sleep in your mom's room. It's awfully dank in here.'

Sirius shook his head, his chin on the top of her head. 'No. I haven't lost my mind that much. I sleep in one of the guest rooms the next floor down. Too many memories I never thought I'd relive in my room.'

Angie sighed and nodded. 'I understand.'

'Do you think they've stopped fighting?' Trili asked Doro as they and Alli were unpacking their room, putting their things in the wardrobes.

'I don't hear them yelling anymore,' replied Alli, stopping and cocking his head to one side to listen.

They had heard their mother and father's raised and muffled voices trailing down the stairs only minutes earlier.

'I bet they're making up,' said Doro with a twisted smile.

'Oh! D! That's disgusting!' Alli and Trili chimed.

'Well. What would you do after not seeing your significant other for fourteen years and just getting all your resentment towards them off your chest?'

'I'd beat them to a bloody fucking pulp, is what I'd do,' said Trili airily, putting one of her low-cut tank-tops on a hanger and hanging it in the wardrobe at the end of the bed she claimed as hers.

'Me, too,' Alli agreed, pulling a pair of jeans out of his trunk and throwing them into the wardrobe opposite Trili's.

'Well, I guess you two aren't as like Dad as we all thought. I'd screw them till all hell broke loose.'

'Just because you and dad've got the libidos of a couple of American college kids doesn't mean we all do, D,' said Alli laughing. Trili looked slightly put off.

Doro shrugged. 'Suit yourselves. I'd only kick the other person's ass if they were a sibling or a cousin or a friend or something. Not my wife or girlfriend.'

There was a knock on the door and Fred and George entered. 'Sorry. Mum wanted us to come and tell you all to lock your door when you go to sleep tonight. In case Kreacher comes in and starts snooping.'

'What's Kreacher?' asked Doro with a wrinkled nose.

'He's the mad old house-elf that lives here.'

'House-elf?' Alli asked incredulously.

Doro looked at him meaningfully but with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

'Yeah. And he keeps stealing stuff we're trying to throw out to try and save it. He's a mad, old git. Just be sure to lock your door, if you don't want your knickers strung all over the room when you wake up.' And the twins left, leaving the door slightly open. Fred poked his head back in. 'And when your mum comes back down, could you tell her Dumbledore just sent her a letter, please? Thanks.'

'Angella,

I will be sending for you around this time tomorrow evening. Please be prepared to begin your task and know that I am very appreciative of your cooperation. Severus will be coming to retrieve you as he will be giving a report at the meeting anyway. Remember, not a word to anyone.

Yours truly,

Albus Dumbledore'

Angie sighed and put down the letter. She wished the butterflies in her stomach would go away. So this was it – well, almost. The moment before the moment she had been waiting for. She was still confused on why Severus Snape, of all people, would be helping her. From what she remembered, he should be loathing the fact that this was even going to happen. She shrugged at the thought. It didn't matter. What mattered, is that this time tomorrow she would be helping to achieve something that no one ever thought would be possible. Why no one had thought to use a vampire before, she didn't know. But then again, it had never crossed her mind before, either.

A/N: Okay, so this chapter didn't turn out the way I hoped it would. There should have been more kerfuffling in Sirius and Angei's kerfuffle, but I think my Muse is on strike again so you can blame them. (I'm not sure if it's a boy Muse or girl Muse…unisex?) Anyway, it's not the greatest, but we're getting up to this mysterious project so woohoo! Review and subscribe, lovies! Thanks!