Author's Note: Thanks for replying, everyone! If you have any suggestions or anything like that, be sure to say something, because I'll gladly try and put it into my story. My e-mail is extraordinary_14@hotmail.com so feel free to e-mail me about anything. Thanks again! Also, please read "The Ten Auror's of Destiny." It's really good! I read it all in one sitting!
Disclaimer: Same as everytime.
A Few Friends Less
Chapter 3: Even More Memories
Jamie wrapped Molly up in a hug thanking her endlessly as Sirius ruffled Harry's already messy hair and then turned back into his dog form. Jamie turned to Ron quickly, giving him a small smile.
"Ron, will you go and get my daughter?" she asked. "They ran up to Ginny's room, I believe."
"Sure," Ron said. "C'mon, Harry, let's get your stuff."
The two boys left the adults, well the two adults and dog, alone in the living room. Molly began to magically open the curtains, and light flooded back into the rooms. Sirius trotted to Jamie and licked her hand. Jamie smiled and patted his hand.
"So, how are things with you, Jamie?" Molly asked.
"Well, I got a new job," Jamie said, waiting for the kids to come back down.
"Oh really?" Molly asked.
"Yeah, I haven't told Alayna yet," Jamie said, pulling her hair behind her ears. "I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, because of the fiasco with Moody."
"Really?" Molly asked, her eyes widening. "Will you do me a favor and get some cheap books for the kids?"
Jamie smiled and said, "Anything."
Alayna stumbled down the stairs, yelling a good bye to Ginny with Harry at her heels and Ron following him.
"Is this everything, kiddo?" Jamie asked, taking Alayna's bag.
"Yeah, mum," Alayna said. "Thank you, Mrs Weasley!"
"No problem, sweetie, anytime," Molly said. "'Bye, Harry."
"G'bye, Mrs Weasley. Thanks for everything," Harry said, pushing his glasses up on his nose and looking in a bag to see if he had everything.
"Well, we better go," Jamie said. "We can stop at the Dursley's and get your Hogwarts things, Harry."
They walked out of the house and Jamie opened the trunk of the car and dumped all of the things in there. She found everyone in their seats. She started the car and pulled out of the driveway. Her driving ability improved greatly since she had Alayna.
About an hour later, they arrived at the Dursley's. It would normally have taken much longer, but Jamie used some magic to speed it up a bit, if you know what I mean.
"Well, want me to come too?" Jamie asked, glancing at Harry.
"I think Aunt Petunia would freak out if Sirius came in his dog form and Uncle Vernon would call the cops if he came in his regular form," Harry said. "And Dudley would probably try and hit on Alayna, which is not a good thing, might I add."
"Then, I'll just come with," Jamie said. "Alayna, open the trunk when we get out so we can put Harry's stuff back there. Sirius, stay in here, ok?"
Jamie and Harry walked up to the front door and Jamie knocked.
"You don't have to knock," Harry said.
"Whatever," Jamie said.
"Who is it?" said a man that Jamie guessed to be Vernon Dursley. He didn't look to much different from the last time Jamie saw him. "You, boy, you weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow, and who are you?"
Jamie looked at the man and said with a wonderfully straight face, "I'm Harry's girl friend, and we decided to elope, and we wanted to get his stuff."
Harry snickered and Vernon said, "What?"
Jamie rolled her eyes and said, "I'm Harry's god mother and I'm here to get his things and take him home to my house. He's living with me now."
"You don't have anything to do with that murderer guy, do you?" Mr Durlsey said, his eyes suddenly widening in fear.
"So what if I do," Jamie asked and her wand fell out of her pocket. She picked it up and said, "I suggest that you open the door, or I'll help you."
Vernon looked at the wooden stick in Jamie's hand with fear and tore open the door, so Jamie and Harry walked into the house. The first room was the living room, and Jamie looked around it and saw that there were many pictures of the Dursley family, which was so mis-matched that Jamie could hardly stand it, but there were none of the rest of the Petunia's family.
Jamie looked at Petunia, who had recognized Jamie as Lily's best friend when she was alive, and said, "Gee, Petunia, I sure can tell you have a sister. Where are all the pictures of Lily and James, or even little Harry over here?"
"There's no chance in the world I would put any pictures of that worthless family in my house," said Petunia snottily after Vernon told her what Jamie was there to do. "Good riddens, I'm glad they died."
Jamie's jaw dropped and she shook her head. "You did not just say that."
"Yes! I did!" Petunia said, her eyes flashing. "I'm glad you're taking that boy off of our hands. He's to much of a reminder of that Potter boy my good for nothing sister married."
Jamie glared at Petunia and gripped the wand in her hand tight. A spark flew out that end, but luckily, that was it. "Keep talking, Dursley. The Potter's were the best thing that ever happened to me. If I had never met Lily, I don't know where I would be right now. Now, if I were you, I'd quit while I'm ahead, because I have a very deadly piece of wood in my hand, at least for you."
Petunia glared at her and then acted as if Jamie and Harry weren't even there standing in her living room.
"Well, aren't we mature," Jamie muttered. "Come on, Harry, I'll help you with your stuff."
Harry led the way up to his bedroom and on the way, Dudley stopped them.
"Who're you?" the extremely large boy asked, looking at Jamie.
"None of your business," Jamie said, raising an eyebrow at the boy.
"Are you Harry's girl friend?"
"You shouldn't have said that before, Miss Williams," Harry said, grinning.
Jamie made a mental note for her to tell him to call her Jamie. Then, she turned to Dudley and said, "No, now move."
"That's not polite," Dudley said, crossing his arms.
"Well, in case you didn't notice, you're blocking the entrance to the hallway, and you have to move, or I might have to turn you into something," Jamie said, holding her wand. She couldn't believe how much she had to threaten these people.
"W-what?" Dudley said, his eyes filling with terror. "No way! You can't do magic outside of that school on vacations!"
"What makes you think that I still go to Hogwarts?" Jamie asked. "Is it because I'm short? Huh?"
"Well, you are only a few inches taller than Harry," Dudley mumbled.
"That's it," Jamie said, holding her wand and saying an incantation. There was a puff of blue smoke and then Dudley was now a cat. A rather large cat, I might add.
"Don't tell anyone about that, ok, Harry?" Jamie said as Harry stepped over Dudley, who hissed at the two of them. "I'll have to turn him back before we leave though."
"That's a shame," Harry said, opening the door. "I like him as a cat."
"I think I do too," Jamie said, looking around Harry's room. It wasn't to large of a room, she had a feeling that Dudley had a much larger one. She saw that his dresser drawers were open and there were clothes spread around the room. Also, there was an owl cage without an owl. His trunk was at the foot of his bed, open and revealing his text books and other school supplies.
Harry hurriedly shoved some things into his trunk. Jamie went to the window and looked out of it, seeing the sun setting already. It was painting the sky with a mixture of pinks and oranges. Coming out of her trance, she turned back to Harry who was currently under his bed.
"What are you doing?" Jamie asked.
"I have some letters from Sirius and stuff under here in a loose floor board," Harry's muffled voice called out. "The Dursley's would have a fit if they found half the stuff I have down here. All sorts of magical things, you know?"
"Yeah," Jamie said as Harry crawled out from under the bed. "You have everything?"
"Yup, that's it," Harry replied, latching his trunk shut. "It's pretty heavy though, so..."
"Don't worry about it," Jamie said and pulled out her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The trunk started to float behind Jamie and Harry smiled and then led the way out of the Dursley house. Jamie only stopped to turn Dudley back human, much to Harry and Jamie's disappointment. They finally left the house and put everything into the car as the stars began to appear in the sky.
On the way, Harry asked Jamie a question he had been wanting to ask all day. "Why didn't you come and visit me at the Dursley's? You know, try and tell me about being a wizard? It came quite as a shock on my birthday."
"First of all," Jamie said, driving into the drive through of a McDonalds, "I should have knnown that the Dursley's weren't going to tell you that you were a wizard. Second of all, although we were your appointed guardians, we were pretty much told to back off by Dumbledore. Well, I was, because... well, you know." She glanced side ways at Sirius, who was still in his dog form. "Si, if you want to eat, you can turn human. Believe me, we're dealing with Muggles here, and everyone wants the 'I-Haven't-Taken-A-Shower-In-A-Month-Sirius, not the new one."
"Well, I hadn't taken a shower in awhile," Sirius said, changing human again.
"That's explains it," Jamie said, pulling up to the drive through window. "What do you guys want?"
"We're home," Jamie said, unlocking the door as Sirius and Harry carried the trunk up the stairs. Alayna had Harry's and her own bag from the Weasley's over her shoulder.
Jamie opened the door and they all went into the house. Harry and Sirius dropped the trunk on the floor and Jamie had a fuss about them scratching the floor.
"Woah, chill out, mum," Alayna said, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry, she does it all the time."
"She did it to me too," Sirius said.
Jamie glared at the two of them then said, "Come on, Harry, I'll take you to your bedroom."
Jamie and Harry left the kitchen and went to Harry's room, leaving Sirius and Alayna alone. Alayna looked at her father and noticed how her hair was the exact same color as his but it was curly.
Sirius sighed and sat back in a chair. He looked at the curtains that had been drawn shut since he had arrived at the house. He remembered when the curtains would never be closed and shook his head slightly.
"What's wrong, Mr Black?"
Sirius looked up quickly. The last time he had been addressed like that was by Hermione, and she was still thinking that he had killed Harry's parents at the time. It panged him that his own daughter didn't even feel comfortable calling him 'Dad.' "Nothing, Alayna."
"You sure?" she asked, sitting across the table from him. "Mum does that a lot. Then she just stairs into space with this dreamy look on her face. Then she tells me what's wrong and all that. A lot of the time it has to do with memories of you and the Po-" Alayna stopped and looked around uncomfortably. "But, maybe I shouldn't have told you that."
Sirius smiled. "It's all right. That's pretty much what's going on with me. Seeing Harry reminds me so much of James, and I'm sure Jamie told you that we were best friends for as long as I could remember. He was the only person that meant more to me than your mother."
Alayna and Sirius sat in silence for awhile. "Did you know my mum was an Auror?"
"What?" Sirius asked, stunned.
"Yeah," Alayna said, happy to report something he didn't know. "After you got captured, she quit ballet and became an Auror. She was fixed on finding You-Know-Who. She was as well known as Mad-Eye Moody for awhile there. She quit about two years after I was born. She had left me in the care of Remus a lot, and I had started to think he was my... um..."
"Father," Sirius whispered.
"Yeah," Alayna said, looking up at him guiltily. "I'm really sorry. I know better now."
"It's okay, Alayna," Sirius said. "Did you know who picked out your name?"
"You?" Alayna asked, astonished.
"Yep," Sirius said. "It was either Alayna or Katlyn, but I just didn't like that name. Your mother's pick of course. She was so fixed on Katlyn, I was really surprised she picked Alayna."
"Cool," Alayna said, smiling widely.
"Come on, Layna, time for bed, it's nearly 10:30," Jamie said, appearing again.
"Fine," said Alayna. "Good night, Sirius."
Jamie and Alayna walked down the hallway together, and Sirius distinctly heard Jamie say, "You can call him dad, you know."
A few minutes later, Sirius heard Jamie go into her bedroom and softly shut the door. He weighed the odds, the pros and cons, all that good stuff, and decided to go up there.
He climbed the steps and knocked lightly on the door and he heard a muffled, "Just a sec."
A few seconds later, Jamie opened the door and Jamie looked at him, first shocked then smiled. She was wearing some flannel pajama pants and a large sweatshirt, that he recognized to be his once. She had taken off her glasses. He noticed that she only used them when she was reading. Her hair was also up in a messy pony tail, her curls escaping here and there.
"Hey, Si," Jamie said, turning her back on him and re-entering the room. He saw a few other boxes full of photographs that she had neglected to put back into the closet where she had gotten them from.
Sirius hadn't been into this bedroom since he was taken to Azkaban, and he looked around. He saw that there was the normal dresser, closet, and bed, all in the same places, but the room had been painted a pale blue, a project they were planning on accomplishing before he was captured. There was a shelf with a lot of pictures. There were pictures of Jamie's parents, Sirius's parents, Alayna, and the Potters. There was also a picture of Remus on there. He noticed that there were many pictures around the house of their school years.
Sirius watched Jamie as she began to collect all of the photos and scoop them into the box. "Sorry, I haven't had time to clean up the pictures."
"It's ok," Sirius said, smiling. "Hey, um, I was wondering... d'you have any extra robes?"
"And I'm sure you'd fit into mine," Jamie said, rolling her eyes. "But, I do have all of the ones of yours in this mess somewhere."
"Um, good point," Sirius said. "Why did you keep them."
"C'mon, Sirius," Jamie said, digging through her closet. "I alone was the only person who knew that you were innocent the last many years, besides Alayna, but she doesn't count. You really think I was going to throw them away?" She backed away from the closet, holding out a few robes. "Here's a few, but I don't really know why you need robes at 11 o'clock at night."
Sirius smiled guiltily and said, "So, do you have any pajamas?"
Jamie laughed and nodded, retreating back to the closet.
Sirius sat on the bed and sighed. "Did you keep everything of mine?"
"Well, almost everything," Jamie said, pulling out some pajamas of Sirius's. "They, kind of, snapped your wand when you went to, you know, and I also got rid of some of your Hogwarts things, like old spell books. Alayna is using mainly my old ones."
"Oh," Sirius said, pulling off his shirt. "Um... is there any way I could get a wand?"
Jamie grimaced slightly. "I hate that Olivander guy. He gives me the creeps. Do you know what he asked me when I went in with Alayna?" Sirius shook his head. "He asked me if Alayna was your child, I don't know how he knew that, and then he kind of gave me this look, then said, 'Oh, I see. Hopefully she'll turn out better than the father.' I couldn't believe he said that. Alayna almost burst out crying. She had been wanting to see you all her life, and then here he comes, being a total... argh."
Sirius nodded slowly and stood up, wearing his pajamas. "Well, I'll go out in the living room, then."
"No, Si, you can sleep in here," Jamie said, waving her hand dismissivly. "I'll be right back, though, I'm kind of thirsty."
Jamie walked out into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. As she was drinking it, she heard someone come behind her and she turned to them quickly, out of fear. She was becoming a Moody, and she didn't like it. Sure, she worked aside him many years, but she was afraid she was becoming far to paranoid.
"Harry?" Jamie asked, her heart pace going back to normal.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Harry said, "did I freak you out, Miss Williams?"
"Call me Jamie," Jamie said, smiling. "And I'm fine."
"Um, ok," Harry said timidly, and Jamie could hardly believe that this shy little boy was the offspring of James and Lily. She recalled how outgoing the two of them had been, then shook her head.
"So, what's up, Harry?" Jamie asked, setting her glass down.
"I was just wondering," Harry said. "Have you seen an owl?"
"Um, no," Jamie said, "Not recently, why?"
"Oh, well, I had sent one to Sirius, and I figured that she would have returned here, and I'm kind of worried about her, you know?" Harry asked. "In case she got captured or whatever, you know, Sirius's name was on it and all that."
Jamie looked at the boy, and she shook her head again and said, "No, sorry, I haven't seen her lately. I'll keep my eyes out though, ok?"
"Thanks," Harry said, then turned and ran up the steps to his bedroom.
Jamie smiled again, remembering how fond of James's owl James used to be. She could hardly believe how much she had been thinking about Lily and James recently. Ever since Alayna had come back from school her first year, talking endlessly about Harry, she had wanted to see him again. Thinking about harry himself made Jamie think about his parents, and she always felt so sad when she thought of them. She thought back to Lily and James's funeral. That was the last place she had seen Harry. Petunia and Vernon had actually had the decency to come, even though they probably weren't really wanted. Jamie recalled that the two Muggles seemed to have just dumped the baby Harry on her until the end of the service. They had a large elaborate collage of pictures of Lily and James in the front, but someone had actually banded Sirius out of many of them.
Jamie came out of her daze quite suddenly when she felt someone's hands on her shoulders, softly massaging them. Jamie smiled as Sirius did this, the memory of his massages coming back at full blast.
"You know," Jamie said softly, sort of choosing her words wisely. "I've been waiting forever for my family to be together, even with Harry. It kind of makes me feel complete. But I can't help but wonder. Do you think it will stay this way, Sirius? With all this stuff with Voldemort?"
Sirius put his arms around her neck while still facing her back and said, "I'm not sure we can think of anything as for sure right now, Jamie. Look what happened last time we did. Voldemort just seems to be the wild card of wizards. He makes everything that was stable, well, unstable."
Jamie merely nodded, but Sirius's words had helped her in ways unknown to him.
Jamie awoke mid-morning, glad she didn't have to go to work. Well, she was supposed to, but she could just feed Fudge some bull about being fresh on the trail and having to work at home. Yeah, that sounded pretty good to her. Anything to just lay in bed. Eat lunch after she made Alayna make it. Maybe go shopping later. 'Sounds good to me,' Jamie thought and rolled over, and practically had a heart-attack.
"Holy crap!" she yelled, then remembered Sirius was home. So was Harry. Ah, will wonders never cease so early in the morning?
"What?" Sirius said, bolting up. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, nothing," Jamie insisted, her heart rate returning to normal.
"You sure?" Sirius asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah, just a... nightmare," she said.
"All right," Sirius said, and looked at the clock, then added, "At 10:30 in the morning?"
"Uh, yeah," Jamie said, standing up. She could smell bacon. Did Alayna read her mind or something?
Jamie pulled on a sweatshirt over her pajama shirt and walked down to the kitchen. She saw Harry, frying up some bacon and eggs.
"Harry?" Jamie asked, quite surprised. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, hi, Jamie," said Harry, grinning. "I though I'd make some breakfast. That's ok, right?"
"It's fine," Jamie said, trying to stifle a yawn. "Better than me making it."
"Yeah, she can't cook worth-"
"Sirius, shut up," said Jamie, taking some plates out of the cupboard. "You gladly ate it though, so I wouldn't be talking."
"Only because I didn't want to starve," he said, and mimed a faint.
Harry snorted.
"Harry, don't egg him on," said Jamie, placing the plates on the table. "He tries to be funny."
"Hey, I am funny," said Sirius.
"Sure," Jamie said, then there was a small tap on the window.
They all looked up and there was three owls.
"You know, the neighbors are going to start suspecting something," Jamie said, opening the window and all of the owls flew in.
"Hedwig, about time," said Harry, taking off the letter, which he could see was still addressed to Sirius. "Didn't get very far, did you."
The snowy owl nipped at Harry's finger, then flew up into Harry's room, which she somehow knew where it was.
"Here," Harry said, handing the letter to Sirius.
"Oh, I'm charmed," Sirius replied, opening it.
Jamie was paying an owl that had delivered the Daily Prophet, and set the newspaper on the table. The other owl was clicking it's beak impatiently, holding it's leg out with the letter attached.
"Pushy, aren't you," said Sirius, untying it.
The large owl flew out of the open window, soon followed by the Daily Prophet owl.
"What's that?" Jamie asked. "Who's it from?"
"You're pushy too," said Sirius. "It's from Dumbledore."
"And..." Jamie said. Harry listened tentavly too, while flipping some eggs.
"Snape went back to do his thing, and we're just supposed to keep our ears open," Sirius read. "And I'm also supposed to stay hidden. Woah, think of that."
Harry scooped the eggs onto a plate and set them on the table. "Here you go."
"Thanks, Harry," Jamie said, and sat down while Alayna came down too.
Disclaimer: Same as everytime.
A Few Friends Less
Chapter 3: Even More Memories
Jamie wrapped Molly up in a hug thanking her endlessly as Sirius ruffled Harry's already messy hair and then turned back into his dog form. Jamie turned to Ron quickly, giving him a small smile.
"Ron, will you go and get my daughter?" she asked. "They ran up to Ginny's room, I believe."
"Sure," Ron said. "C'mon, Harry, let's get your stuff."
The two boys left the adults, well the two adults and dog, alone in the living room. Molly began to magically open the curtains, and light flooded back into the rooms. Sirius trotted to Jamie and licked her hand. Jamie smiled and patted his hand.
"So, how are things with you, Jamie?" Molly asked.
"Well, I got a new job," Jamie said, waiting for the kids to come back down.
"Oh really?" Molly asked.
"Yeah, I haven't told Alayna yet," Jamie said, pulling her hair behind her ears. "I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, because of the fiasco with Moody."
"Really?" Molly asked, her eyes widening. "Will you do me a favor and get some cheap books for the kids?"
Jamie smiled and said, "Anything."
Alayna stumbled down the stairs, yelling a good bye to Ginny with Harry at her heels and Ron following him.
"Is this everything, kiddo?" Jamie asked, taking Alayna's bag.
"Yeah, mum," Alayna said. "Thank you, Mrs Weasley!"
"No problem, sweetie, anytime," Molly said. "'Bye, Harry."
"G'bye, Mrs Weasley. Thanks for everything," Harry said, pushing his glasses up on his nose and looking in a bag to see if he had everything.
"Well, we better go," Jamie said. "We can stop at the Dursley's and get your Hogwarts things, Harry."
They walked out of the house and Jamie opened the trunk of the car and dumped all of the things in there. She found everyone in their seats. She started the car and pulled out of the driveway. Her driving ability improved greatly since she had Alayna.
About an hour later, they arrived at the Dursley's. It would normally have taken much longer, but Jamie used some magic to speed it up a bit, if you know what I mean.
"Well, want me to come too?" Jamie asked, glancing at Harry.
"I think Aunt Petunia would freak out if Sirius came in his dog form and Uncle Vernon would call the cops if he came in his regular form," Harry said. "And Dudley would probably try and hit on Alayna, which is not a good thing, might I add."
"Then, I'll just come with," Jamie said. "Alayna, open the trunk when we get out so we can put Harry's stuff back there. Sirius, stay in here, ok?"
Jamie and Harry walked up to the front door and Jamie knocked.
"You don't have to knock," Harry said.
"Whatever," Jamie said.
"Who is it?" said a man that Jamie guessed to be Vernon Dursley. He didn't look to much different from the last time Jamie saw him. "You, boy, you weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow, and who are you?"
Jamie looked at the man and said with a wonderfully straight face, "I'm Harry's girl friend, and we decided to elope, and we wanted to get his stuff."
Harry snickered and Vernon said, "What?"
Jamie rolled her eyes and said, "I'm Harry's god mother and I'm here to get his things and take him home to my house. He's living with me now."
"You don't have anything to do with that murderer guy, do you?" Mr Durlsey said, his eyes suddenly widening in fear.
"So what if I do," Jamie asked and her wand fell out of her pocket. She picked it up and said, "I suggest that you open the door, or I'll help you."
Vernon looked at the wooden stick in Jamie's hand with fear and tore open the door, so Jamie and Harry walked into the house. The first room was the living room, and Jamie looked around it and saw that there were many pictures of the Dursley family, which was so mis-matched that Jamie could hardly stand it, but there were none of the rest of the Petunia's family.
Jamie looked at Petunia, who had recognized Jamie as Lily's best friend when she was alive, and said, "Gee, Petunia, I sure can tell you have a sister. Where are all the pictures of Lily and James, or even little Harry over here?"
"There's no chance in the world I would put any pictures of that worthless family in my house," said Petunia snottily after Vernon told her what Jamie was there to do. "Good riddens, I'm glad they died."
Jamie's jaw dropped and she shook her head. "You did not just say that."
"Yes! I did!" Petunia said, her eyes flashing. "I'm glad you're taking that boy off of our hands. He's to much of a reminder of that Potter boy my good for nothing sister married."
Jamie glared at Petunia and gripped the wand in her hand tight. A spark flew out that end, but luckily, that was it. "Keep talking, Dursley. The Potter's were the best thing that ever happened to me. If I had never met Lily, I don't know where I would be right now. Now, if I were you, I'd quit while I'm ahead, because I have a very deadly piece of wood in my hand, at least for you."
Petunia glared at her and then acted as if Jamie and Harry weren't even there standing in her living room.
"Well, aren't we mature," Jamie muttered. "Come on, Harry, I'll help you with your stuff."
Harry led the way up to his bedroom and on the way, Dudley stopped them.
"Who're you?" the extremely large boy asked, looking at Jamie.
"None of your business," Jamie said, raising an eyebrow at the boy.
"Are you Harry's girl friend?"
"You shouldn't have said that before, Miss Williams," Harry said, grinning.
Jamie made a mental note for her to tell him to call her Jamie. Then, she turned to Dudley and said, "No, now move."
"That's not polite," Dudley said, crossing his arms.
"Well, in case you didn't notice, you're blocking the entrance to the hallway, and you have to move, or I might have to turn you into something," Jamie said, holding her wand. She couldn't believe how much she had to threaten these people.
"W-what?" Dudley said, his eyes filling with terror. "No way! You can't do magic outside of that school on vacations!"
"What makes you think that I still go to Hogwarts?" Jamie asked. "Is it because I'm short? Huh?"
"Well, you are only a few inches taller than Harry," Dudley mumbled.
"That's it," Jamie said, holding her wand and saying an incantation. There was a puff of blue smoke and then Dudley was now a cat. A rather large cat, I might add.
"Don't tell anyone about that, ok, Harry?" Jamie said as Harry stepped over Dudley, who hissed at the two of them. "I'll have to turn him back before we leave though."
"That's a shame," Harry said, opening the door. "I like him as a cat."
"I think I do too," Jamie said, looking around Harry's room. It wasn't to large of a room, she had a feeling that Dudley had a much larger one. She saw that his dresser drawers were open and there were clothes spread around the room. Also, there was an owl cage without an owl. His trunk was at the foot of his bed, open and revealing his text books and other school supplies.
Harry hurriedly shoved some things into his trunk. Jamie went to the window and looked out of it, seeing the sun setting already. It was painting the sky with a mixture of pinks and oranges. Coming out of her trance, she turned back to Harry who was currently under his bed.
"What are you doing?" Jamie asked.
"I have some letters from Sirius and stuff under here in a loose floor board," Harry's muffled voice called out. "The Dursley's would have a fit if they found half the stuff I have down here. All sorts of magical things, you know?"
"Yeah," Jamie said as Harry crawled out from under the bed. "You have everything?"
"Yup, that's it," Harry replied, latching his trunk shut. "It's pretty heavy though, so..."
"Don't worry about it," Jamie said and pulled out her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The trunk started to float behind Jamie and Harry smiled and then led the way out of the Dursley house. Jamie only stopped to turn Dudley back human, much to Harry and Jamie's disappointment. They finally left the house and put everything into the car as the stars began to appear in the sky.
On the way, Harry asked Jamie a question he had been wanting to ask all day. "Why didn't you come and visit me at the Dursley's? You know, try and tell me about being a wizard? It came quite as a shock on my birthday."
"First of all," Jamie said, driving into the drive through of a McDonalds, "I should have knnown that the Dursley's weren't going to tell you that you were a wizard. Second of all, although we were your appointed guardians, we were pretty much told to back off by Dumbledore. Well, I was, because... well, you know." She glanced side ways at Sirius, who was still in his dog form. "Si, if you want to eat, you can turn human. Believe me, we're dealing with Muggles here, and everyone wants the 'I-Haven't-Taken-A-Shower-In-A-Month-Sirius, not the new one."
"Well, I hadn't taken a shower in awhile," Sirius said, changing human again.
"That's explains it," Jamie said, pulling up to the drive through window. "What do you guys want?"
"We're home," Jamie said, unlocking the door as Sirius and Harry carried the trunk up the stairs. Alayna had Harry's and her own bag from the Weasley's over her shoulder.
Jamie opened the door and they all went into the house. Harry and Sirius dropped the trunk on the floor and Jamie had a fuss about them scratching the floor.
"Woah, chill out, mum," Alayna said, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry, she does it all the time."
"She did it to me too," Sirius said.
Jamie glared at the two of them then said, "Come on, Harry, I'll take you to your bedroom."
Jamie and Harry left the kitchen and went to Harry's room, leaving Sirius and Alayna alone. Alayna looked at her father and noticed how her hair was the exact same color as his but it was curly.
Sirius sighed and sat back in a chair. He looked at the curtains that had been drawn shut since he had arrived at the house. He remembered when the curtains would never be closed and shook his head slightly.
"What's wrong, Mr Black?"
Sirius looked up quickly. The last time he had been addressed like that was by Hermione, and she was still thinking that he had killed Harry's parents at the time. It panged him that his own daughter didn't even feel comfortable calling him 'Dad.' "Nothing, Alayna."
"You sure?" she asked, sitting across the table from him. "Mum does that a lot. Then she just stairs into space with this dreamy look on her face. Then she tells me what's wrong and all that. A lot of the time it has to do with memories of you and the Po-" Alayna stopped and looked around uncomfortably. "But, maybe I shouldn't have told you that."
Sirius smiled. "It's all right. That's pretty much what's going on with me. Seeing Harry reminds me so much of James, and I'm sure Jamie told you that we were best friends for as long as I could remember. He was the only person that meant more to me than your mother."
Alayna and Sirius sat in silence for awhile. "Did you know my mum was an Auror?"
"What?" Sirius asked, stunned.
"Yeah," Alayna said, happy to report something he didn't know. "After you got captured, she quit ballet and became an Auror. She was fixed on finding You-Know-Who. She was as well known as Mad-Eye Moody for awhile there. She quit about two years after I was born. She had left me in the care of Remus a lot, and I had started to think he was my... um..."
"Father," Sirius whispered.
"Yeah," Alayna said, looking up at him guiltily. "I'm really sorry. I know better now."
"It's okay, Alayna," Sirius said. "Did you know who picked out your name?"
"You?" Alayna asked, astonished.
"Yep," Sirius said. "It was either Alayna or Katlyn, but I just didn't like that name. Your mother's pick of course. She was so fixed on Katlyn, I was really surprised she picked Alayna."
"Cool," Alayna said, smiling widely.
"Come on, Layna, time for bed, it's nearly 10:30," Jamie said, appearing again.
"Fine," said Alayna. "Good night, Sirius."
Jamie and Alayna walked down the hallway together, and Sirius distinctly heard Jamie say, "You can call him dad, you know."
A few minutes later, Sirius heard Jamie go into her bedroom and softly shut the door. He weighed the odds, the pros and cons, all that good stuff, and decided to go up there.
He climbed the steps and knocked lightly on the door and he heard a muffled, "Just a sec."
A few seconds later, Jamie opened the door and Jamie looked at him, first shocked then smiled. She was wearing some flannel pajama pants and a large sweatshirt, that he recognized to be his once. She had taken off her glasses. He noticed that she only used them when she was reading. Her hair was also up in a messy pony tail, her curls escaping here and there.
"Hey, Si," Jamie said, turning her back on him and re-entering the room. He saw a few other boxes full of photographs that she had neglected to put back into the closet where she had gotten them from.
Sirius hadn't been into this bedroom since he was taken to Azkaban, and he looked around. He saw that there was the normal dresser, closet, and bed, all in the same places, but the room had been painted a pale blue, a project they were planning on accomplishing before he was captured. There was a shelf with a lot of pictures. There were pictures of Jamie's parents, Sirius's parents, Alayna, and the Potters. There was also a picture of Remus on there. He noticed that there were many pictures around the house of their school years.
Sirius watched Jamie as she began to collect all of the photos and scoop them into the box. "Sorry, I haven't had time to clean up the pictures."
"It's ok," Sirius said, smiling. "Hey, um, I was wondering... d'you have any extra robes?"
"And I'm sure you'd fit into mine," Jamie said, rolling her eyes. "But, I do have all of the ones of yours in this mess somewhere."
"Um, good point," Sirius said. "Why did you keep them."
"C'mon, Sirius," Jamie said, digging through her closet. "I alone was the only person who knew that you were innocent the last many years, besides Alayna, but she doesn't count. You really think I was going to throw them away?" She backed away from the closet, holding out a few robes. "Here's a few, but I don't really know why you need robes at 11 o'clock at night."
Sirius smiled guiltily and said, "So, do you have any pajamas?"
Jamie laughed and nodded, retreating back to the closet.
Sirius sat on the bed and sighed. "Did you keep everything of mine?"
"Well, almost everything," Jamie said, pulling out some pajamas of Sirius's. "They, kind of, snapped your wand when you went to, you know, and I also got rid of some of your Hogwarts things, like old spell books. Alayna is using mainly my old ones."
"Oh," Sirius said, pulling off his shirt. "Um... is there any way I could get a wand?"
Jamie grimaced slightly. "I hate that Olivander guy. He gives me the creeps. Do you know what he asked me when I went in with Alayna?" Sirius shook his head. "He asked me if Alayna was your child, I don't know how he knew that, and then he kind of gave me this look, then said, 'Oh, I see. Hopefully she'll turn out better than the father.' I couldn't believe he said that. Alayna almost burst out crying. She had been wanting to see you all her life, and then here he comes, being a total... argh."
Sirius nodded slowly and stood up, wearing his pajamas. "Well, I'll go out in the living room, then."
"No, Si, you can sleep in here," Jamie said, waving her hand dismissivly. "I'll be right back, though, I'm kind of thirsty."
Jamie walked out into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. As she was drinking it, she heard someone come behind her and she turned to them quickly, out of fear. She was becoming a Moody, and she didn't like it. Sure, she worked aside him many years, but she was afraid she was becoming far to paranoid.
"Harry?" Jamie asked, her heart pace going back to normal.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Harry said, "did I freak you out, Miss Williams?"
"Call me Jamie," Jamie said, smiling. "And I'm fine."
"Um, ok," Harry said timidly, and Jamie could hardly believe that this shy little boy was the offspring of James and Lily. She recalled how outgoing the two of them had been, then shook her head.
"So, what's up, Harry?" Jamie asked, setting her glass down.
"I was just wondering," Harry said. "Have you seen an owl?"
"Um, no," Jamie said, "Not recently, why?"
"Oh, well, I had sent one to Sirius, and I figured that she would have returned here, and I'm kind of worried about her, you know?" Harry asked. "In case she got captured or whatever, you know, Sirius's name was on it and all that."
Jamie looked at the boy, and she shook her head again and said, "No, sorry, I haven't seen her lately. I'll keep my eyes out though, ok?"
"Thanks," Harry said, then turned and ran up the steps to his bedroom.
Jamie smiled again, remembering how fond of James's owl James used to be. She could hardly believe how much she had been thinking about Lily and James recently. Ever since Alayna had come back from school her first year, talking endlessly about Harry, she had wanted to see him again. Thinking about harry himself made Jamie think about his parents, and she always felt so sad when she thought of them. She thought back to Lily and James's funeral. That was the last place she had seen Harry. Petunia and Vernon had actually had the decency to come, even though they probably weren't really wanted. Jamie recalled that the two Muggles seemed to have just dumped the baby Harry on her until the end of the service. They had a large elaborate collage of pictures of Lily and James in the front, but someone had actually banded Sirius out of many of them.
Jamie came out of her daze quite suddenly when she felt someone's hands on her shoulders, softly massaging them. Jamie smiled as Sirius did this, the memory of his massages coming back at full blast.
"You know," Jamie said softly, sort of choosing her words wisely. "I've been waiting forever for my family to be together, even with Harry. It kind of makes me feel complete. But I can't help but wonder. Do you think it will stay this way, Sirius? With all this stuff with Voldemort?"
Sirius put his arms around her neck while still facing her back and said, "I'm not sure we can think of anything as for sure right now, Jamie. Look what happened last time we did. Voldemort just seems to be the wild card of wizards. He makes everything that was stable, well, unstable."
Jamie merely nodded, but Sirius's words had helped her in ways unknown to him.
Jamie awoke mid-morning, glad she didn't have to go to work. Well, she was supposed to, but she could just feed Fudge some bull about being fresh on the trail and having to work at home. Yeah, that sounded pretty good to her. Anything to just lay in bed. Eat lunch after she made Alayna make it. Maybe go shopping later. 'Sounds good to me,' Jamie thought and rolled over, and practically had a heart-attack.
"Holy crap!" she yelled, then remembered Sirius was home. So was Harry. Ah, will wonders never cease so early in the morning?
"What?" Sirius said, bolting up. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, nothing," Jamie insisted, her heart rate returning to normal.
"You sure?" Sirius asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah, just a... nightmare," she said.
"All right," Sirius said, and looked at the clock, then added, "At 10:30 in the morning?"
"Uh, yeah," Jamie said, standing up. She could smell bacon. Did Alayna read her mind or something?
Jamie pulled on a sweatshirt over her pajama shirt and walked down to the kitchen. She saw Harry, frying up some bacon and eggs.
"Harry?" Jamie asked, quite surprised. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, hi, Jamie," said Harry, grinning. "I though I'd make some breakfast. That's ok, right?"
"It's fine," Jamie said, trying to stifle a yawn. "Better than me making it."
"Yeah, she can't cook worth-"
"Sirius, shut up," said Jamie, taking some plates out of the cupboard. "You gladly ate it though, so I wouldn't be talking."
"Only because I didn't want to starve," he said, and mimed a faint.
Harry snorted.
"Harry, don't egg him on," said Jamie, placing the plates on the table. "He tries to be funny."
"Hey, I am funny," said Sirius.
"Sure," Jamie said, then there was a small tap on the window.
They all looked up and there was three owls.
"You know, the neighbors are going to start suspecting something," Jamie said, opening the window and all of the owls flew in.
"Hedwig, about time," said Harry, taking off the letter, which he could see was still addressed to Sirius. "Didn't get very far, did you."
The snowy owl nipped at Harry's finger, then flew up into Harry's room, which she somehow knew where it was.
"Here," Harry said, handing the letter to Sirius.
"Oh, I'm charmed," Sirius replied, opening it.
Jamie was paying an owl that had delivered the Daily Prophet, and set the newspaper on the table. The other owl was clicking it's beak impatiently, holding it's leg out with the letter attached.
"Pushy, aren't you," said Sirius, untying it.
The large owl flew out of the open window, soon followed by the Daily Prophet owl.
"What's that?" Jamie asked. "Who's it from?"
"You're pushy too," said Sirius. "It's from Dumbledore."
"And..." Jamie said. Harry listened tentavly too, while flipping some eggs.
"Snape went back to do his thing, and we're just supposed to keep our ears open," Sirius read. "And I'm also supposed to stay hidden. Woah, think of that."
Harry scooped the eggs onto a plate and set them on the table. "Here you go."
"Thanks, Harry," Jamie said, and sat down while Alayna came down too.