Chapter 7

Sirius was sitting at his desk, writing down some calculations. He'd thought about joining the Aurors again, once he felt ready for a job, but eventually had decided against it. There was too much danger involved in chasing Dark wizards. Not that he was a coward, but he needed to be here when Harry arrived, and that was hard to do if a Dark wizard killed him.

Instead, he'd gone into real estate – and Merlin, was that a profession he'd never have thought he'd go for! His 16-year-old self would never have believed it. But he wanted Harry to have a good home, and part of that was the neighbourhood. The renovations to his own house had given him the idea to buy some of the surrounding houses and fix them up into wizarding apartments. He was also thinking about fixing other houses into Muggle apartments, because there was no better way to get to know people than living in close proximity to them.

Suddenly he heard the sound that had changed his life for the better some years ago. He frowned for a moment – the Doctor was early. In fact, several years early, they hadn't even reached the date when Harry would first meet the Doctor, although it would be very soon, Harry was turning six this year. Perhaps they'd decided to come visit on the way to the correct year, but the Doctor hadn't thought he could aim that precisely.

Better go and see what was happening. Laying down his quill, the wizard quickly stood up and made his way to the room that he had specifically added for the TARDIS's use. It was a little bit bigger than her outer dimensions, and if she landed correctly her door would open into the hallway.

Sirius had only just reached said room when the TARDIS door opened and out stepped a youngish looking man with floppy hair. He was wearing a brown vest and a red bowtie. Sirius was fairly sure he'd never seen the man, and yet there was something familiar about him.

He was followed at a more sedate pace by a striking woman with wild curly hair and a wicked smile on her face. She was not even close to familiar, but he could sense immediately that this was a dangerous woman.

The young man was the first to speak. After turning a full circle on the spot to take in his surroundings, he looked at the wizard with obvious delight.

"Sirius, my old friend!" He came forward to plant his hands on Sirius' shoulders and give two kisses in the air next to his cheeks. "How are you doing? It's been such a long time since I saw you. Years! Decades! Maybe even centuries, who knows!"

Sirius was not sure what he wanted to say, even as he opened his mouth, but the woman spoke first. "Doctor, did you ever explain to Sirius about regeneration? Because I don't think he knows who you are."

Sirius looked back at the young man. "You're the Doctor? What happened?"

"Oooh, right, you only knew my old face, didn't you. Well, Time Lords have this trick where a mortally wounded body can regenerate into a new body, which I never explained because I was never in mortal danger when you knew me."

While he talked, his hands waved around as if he didn't quite know what to do with them.

Sirirus looked at him a moment longer, but then he shrugged. What with polyjuice or self-transfigurations – or even metamorphmagi, mustn't forget Tonks – he was not unfamiliar with people looking different from the last time he saw them. Standard procedure in such a case, even if this was the opposite of polyjuice (same person, different face, rather than same face, different person) – ask a question.

"Alright, if you're the Doctor... where did we catch the traitor?"

"In the sewers. And without getting anybody wet, too!"

Sirius nodded. Nobody but himself, the Doctor and Harry knew that. He turned to the woman.

"Don't tell me you're Harry, because last I checked he's not a Time Lord, so unless he's actually a metamorphmagus I doubt he'd end up looking like you."

She laughed, a low but pleasant sound. "Nothing of the sort, darling. I'm River Song, nice to meet you."

The Doctor flapped his hands. "I dropped off Harry ages ago. Thanks for that nice landing room, by the way. I take it I haven't yet?"

River laughed. "That sentence makes no sense if you don't know about time travel."

The Doctor waved off her words. "Good thing we all know about it then."

Sirirus grinned, before answering the Doctor's question.

"No, not yet. As far as I can tell we're almost at the time when you pick up Harry for the first time. So another... four years? Before you drop him off."

"Oh. Yes. Good. Could you maybe not mention this little visit? I only met River a couple of times wearing that face, and she was confusing enough on her own, without the added complication of her travelling with me now."

A wicked smile curved around River's lips. "Aww Sweetie, you say the nicest things. But maybe you should get to the point of the visit?"

"Right! Of course! So, Sirius," he said, clasping his hands together and leaning forward intently, "we were on our way to Baynus Two, when we made a little detour."

"Little meaning 'the other side of the galaxy'," River supplied.

"Honest mistake. We ended up in a cave – which, to be fair, was a fairly big clue that we were not actually on the famous Floating Islands of Andor..."

" – there are no caves anywhere on Baynus One, Two OR Three, and the ones on Four barely deserve the name."

"Where we found someone on the verge of being drowned," the Doctor continued, ignoring River's comments with the ease of practice. "Now generally speaking, in a struggle between a horde of zombies (and just imagine, actual zombies!) and one living person, I'd say we're firmly on the side of said living person. Aren't we?"

"We are."

"So River did her thing," one hand flapped again as if to encompass the thing that River did, "while I rescued the person from imminent drowning and possible zombiehood. I'm not sure how they propagate..."

"Back on track, Doctor."

"Yes! So, once we'd saved this person and had established that we were, in fact, on earth, we found out that he is known to you, or you are known to him, or you know each other... um."

Sirius could almost feel River's eyeroll, but instead of commenting again she opened the TARDIS door.

"You can come out now, love."

And out stepped another young man, about 18 or 19 years old, with the dark hair and eyes typical of the Blacks. Sirius looked at him with wide eyes and a jaw that felt like it wanted to drop to the floor. His eyes sought out the Doctor, then River, then they settled on the young man again. Finally, one word escaped his suddenly dry lips, more a sigh than an actual word.

"Regulus."