The beach was nearly deserted around him and the only sound that could be heard beside the waves crashing on the sand was the soft murmur of children's laughter somewhere in the distance.

Sirius grinned as he rested stretched on the sand, wearing a faded black pair of swim shorts. He could probably live like that forever – with his family in that calm, warm world under the bright sun and right by the water. Yes, that would be one hell of a life: Izzy would be far away from boys, Harry would be far away from touble, Alex could run around on the beach as much as he wanted, his little Mary… well, she'd have to wait a few more months before enjoying a relocation to the beach-side home. As for him… well, that's wasn't a hard one to guess.

As if an answer to the thought in his mind, he felt the touch of warm, satin-like skin against his own. He didn't need to move his face an inch in order to know what it was – who it was. His body had been built to recognize Mia's for a long time.

"Knut for your thoughts," she whispered playfully into his ear before shifting her body so, while she was kneeling in front of him, her legs would straddle his outstretched ones.

His breath caught for a second as he watched her right in front of him in wonder. Her dark brown hair came tumbling in soft waves against her pale skin and, under the loose white dress flowing with the wind, her curves were soft against her firm – impossibly firm for someone who'd had a baby so recently, though he wouldn't think of it until later – body. "How about you keep the knut and I take the rest for myself?" he asked her suggestively as his hands gripped her hips gently.

Mia smiled, the brown of her eyes sparkling as it met his grey ones. "You can take anything you want," she replied, reaching to press her lips fervently against his.

He let himself fall until his back was resting against the sand, bringing her down with him so her body was fully covering his. Sirius's hands roamed up and down her sides as his lips kept moving against hers passionately, like he's been starving for her form months – it felt like years, actually.

Just as he was about to reach for the zipper of her dress, an odd sensation of suddenly being shaken awake took him over. What the hell? He thought, pulling his lips away from Mia's. Was that an earthquake? No, Mia didn't seem to have felt that at all…

As the feeling persisted, the sensation of his wife's body over his began to weaken and she started to fade in front of him. In fact, the whole picture of the beach and the shinning sun begun to fade away, only to be replaced by his and Mia's darkened room, making him groan.

He'd been dreaming. Of course he had. Unless he'd somehow managed to get himself on some tropical island all of a sudden, sunny beaches would be impossible to find anywhere within apparating range on New Year's Day, not to mention that Mia had just had a baby – no shagging for Daddy during the following six weeks, he thought dramatically. Such an interesting, delightful dream… he and imaginary-Mia had been so close to heaven… Why did it have to be over? Why?

When he noticed the responsible for that unfortunate awakening standing right opposite him, Sirius turned on his best – or was it worst? – glare, shooting daggers at the blasted living thing. It had to have been Kreacher, obviously…

"I am going… to kill you," Sirius murmured through his teeth, noting from the corner of his eye that the alarm clock indicated it was 9 in the morning. He'd slept little more than two hours, totalling around five if he counted the ones he'd slept before Mia had gone to labour.

The house-elf seemed to be pretty immune to his intimidation as it was common sense that, these days, Sirius's nearly inexistent threats to him were never really meant. Most of the time, they merely acted rudely to fill in the role of each other's adversary – it was a matter of habit, after all. "Young Master Alex be awake," Kreacher informed him simply. "Master ask Kreacher to warn."

Seeing there had been a valid reason for having been woken up didn't soften Sirius's temper much – deep down, he believed the little bastard had been somehow watching his dream, only to wake him up exactly in the worst moment. "Fine, I'll go take care of him," he murmured irritably before glancing over his shoulder.

Real-world-Mia was peacefully asleep on her side of the bed, right next to the bassinet that he knew to contain their two-and-a-half-hour-old baby girl. It occurred to Sirius, as he motioned to get up from the bed, that having… hot dreams Mia while their newborn daughter was in the room felt sort of unholy. You really are a shameless pig, aren't you, Black? he thought for a moment before forcing himself to simply forget that matter.

When he turned to Kreacher again, planning to warn him out of making noise on his way out, Sirius saw that the house-elf was already gone. How the hell had he left without him noticing? "Freaky bastard," he mumbled under his breath as he stood up and reached for his black robe before circling the bed in order to go check on Mary.

As he moved to stand right next to the bassinet, he saw his baby daughter sleeping peacefully in it, dressed in warm footie pyjamas, with her little arms raised up over her head. That lovely picture had him smiling widely immediately. She just looked so tiny, so perfect and he really, really felt like picking her up and just holding her for hours. But he didn't – waking up the baby would probably not be a very good idea at that moment, not to mention that he had a little boy in the room right next to that one waiting for him to show up and to tell him that, as of a few hours ago, he had a baby sister.

Softly, he brushed his thumb against his daughter's unbelievably small curled fist, giving her a final smile as he turned his attention to her mother. Mia was also asleep, likely still exhausted from the labour even though it had happened surprisingly fast. Moving the bassinet carefully so he could reach Mia, he pressed a soft kiss to his wife's forehead, which had her mumbling his name under her breath and shift her head in her sleep so it was slightly facing his side of the bed just as he walked out feeling in a pretty great mood.

As he stepped into his son's room, Sirius quickly concluded that Alex's mood was more to the daring side that morning, as he stood up in his cot, apparently getting ready to try to climb out of the rail, his face with a very concentrated expression on it.

"Ah, not so fast, you little monster," Sirius said, mock-glaring at his son. "You know the rules mate: just because Daddy broke out of a big bad prison, doesn't mean you're allowed to do the same with your cot. Little rebel."

"Shwaffas fall," the little boy said, pointing sadly at his favourite toy, the black stuffed dog that mimicked his father's animagus form. "Gimme, Daddy."

So that was why the kid was trying to escape, Sirius thought, picking up the toy from the floor and offering it back to his son, who grinned as he accepted it. "Bet you wish you could make a summoning charm, hum?" His son seemed confused at the meaning of 'summoning'. Then again, the kid was still far from being able to do magic. Even the accidental kind rarely happened before a child turned three years old.

Suddenly forgetting his own confusion, Alex looked around. "Whew's Mama?" he asked. She usually always came with his father what it was time for him to get up

"Mummy's asleep, mate," Sirius said, lifting Alex to let him out of the cot. "Guess what, mate? You're a big brother now."

"Baby home?" the little boy asked, receiving a nod from his father in return. He'd learned, from the bed stories that Sirius and Mia had been reading to him lately, to relate the idea of being a big brother to the arrival of the new baby. "Whew?"

"She's sleeping like Mummy," he told Alex. "She's a girl, you know? Your little sister. Her name is Mary."

"Sissy Mawy?" he asked, curious."Baby!"

Sirius nodded. "That's right, mate. Do you wanna go and see her?"

The little boy nodded eagerly. "Wanna see baby, Daddy."

His father grinned proudly, carrying Alex out of the room. "Then see her, we will. But you have to be really quiet, okay? Mummy's tired and she needs to sleep a little longer." He lifted his index finger to cover his lips. "No noise."

Alex mimicked his father, covering lips with the same finger and blowing a quiet 'shhhh', which let his father know he'd understood.

"That's my boy," Sirius proudly said before reaching up to ruffle his son's head, making him giggle and then, once again, lifting the finger to remind him of the silence-rule.

He quietly opened up the door of the bedroom and stepped in with Alex, closing it behind him. When they approached the bassinet, Sirius immediately saw his son's grey eyes looking down at that oddly perfect little creature sleeping in it – Mary hadn't moved an inch since he'd last seen her – hopefully, he thought, she'd keep on sleeping like a rock for the rest of her baby-hood.

"Tiny," he heard Alex whispering to him like it was a big secret, though he didn't seem very impressed. She looked sort of boring in the little boy's book, clearly too small to be fun, while a little part of him did feel curious about her. Holding his beloved stuffed dog with his left hand, Alex outstretched his right arm towards the baby, though he was certainly too far away to reach her.

With a sigh, Sirius convinced himself one little touch wouldn't wake Mary up. "Careful, mate," Sirius warned his son. "Mary will be upset if she wakes up." He leaned further closely to the baby and kept one of his hands holding Alex's outstretched arm, not trusting that he'd be able to judge the amount of strength that 'careful' involved.

It lasted only a moment but it was enough to have Sirius grinning for the rest of the day: his son brushed his little hand against the baby girl's cheek, making her twitch in her sleep but not wake up, and his lips formed an 'o' of surprise, which later shifted to a smile of approval.

"So, what do you think, Alex?" Sirius asked him after they exited the room.

"Baby soft. Smaw," the little boy replied in all seriousness a toddler could have.

His father chuckled. "I'll take that to mean 'I like her'," he decided, walking down the stairs, directed to the kitchen. "And since you like her and she's your baby sister, Alex, you're supposed to protect her from all the wankers that will be following her around in about a decade and a half when she turns out as pretty as your Mom."

"Wanka?" Alex asked in confusion.

Sirius stopped walking, narrowing his eyes. He was trying not to use bad language, he really was, but sometimes he didn't even notice the words leaving his mouth. "Honestly, kid, you're killing me. Why is it that you always pick up the bad words?"

Alex laughed like that was really funny.

He cleared his throat and resumed walking, hoping that if he kept talking, the kid would just forget it. "Anyway, when you're old enough, Daddy will teach you wicked hexes to keep the…" What suitable name should he call them? "…badly-intended young men miles away from her. Bet Harry would help us if we asked him."

"Merlin, he does start corrupting the kid awfully early in the morning," Tonks's familiar voice sounded from the ground floor hallway, to his surprise, just as he was about to reach the last flight of stairs. The surprise faded moment later as he faintly recalled earlier sending them, as well as Lulu and Gabe, an owl telling them the baby had been born.

"Well, it's Sirius, Dora. What do you expect?" Remus was asking as his best friend reached them, glaring, at the same time Kreacher disappeared with a 'pop' to the kitchen. "We hear congratulations are in order."

"Double that because it's a girl," Tonks said in triumph, smirking at her boyfriend. "Which reminds me that you owe me… something from that wager we made a few months ago. You can pay me back at home." That last part had Remus looking away in embarrassment.

Sirius's earlier glare shifted into a smile and he chuckled. "Do I want to know what you guys bet?"

"Probably," she said, winking. "But I don't think Remus here wants me to share that piece of information." Her hair was blonde that day, with pink, purple and blue highlights on it and her colourful look seemed to reflect her very colourful mood. "We came as soon as we found your owl. How does she look like? Mary's her name, isn't it? At least she won't have to spend her whole life hating you for it."

"She looks beautiful," Sirius said, proudly, ignoring her last sentence. "Like a little cute doll."

"And she clearly already has you wrapped around her little finger at less than half a day old," Remus added.

His friend sighed. "I know… But don't worry, mate, give her a few more hours and she'll have you two wrapped it as well. After all, one's got to know how to skim their godparents for all the spoiling they can get…"

Tonks looked confused. "Her godpa…" Then, realization covered her face and she smiled. "Remus and I? Really? I mean… I've got a goddaughter?"

"Assuming you accept the position, yes, you do," Sirius confirmed, glad to see the delight all over his friend's face. Remus, he noted, also seemed pleased from seeing Tonks that happy.

"But Mia's friend. Elizabeth…"

"… was already honoured by having her last name as Mary's middle name. Will accept it or not, woman?"

Suddenly, without a warning, the metamorpagus walked up to him and wrapped her cousin and the toddler he happened to be holding in a tight hug. "Thank you! Just… thank you, Sirius!"

"Don't thank me. This only means you'll have extra babysitting duties," Sirius joked as she pulled away.

She grinned in return. "I'll take it gladly. Honestly, Sirius, this means a lot to me – I never had a goddaughter before!" Still delighted and feeling like she was about to start sounding mental, she picked up Alex from Sirius's arms – talking to a toddler would give her a good excuse to sound mental. "Hello, handsome," she greeted the little boy before he started blabbing happily as she began pacing around with him.

As Tonks entertained Alex, Sirius turned to his old friend with a smirk. "You realize that having two of my children as godkids gives you the duty of giving me at least one at some point," he said in a tone so low only Remus could hear. "I don't care if it's your first, second or eleventh child, but you, Moony, owe me and Mia a godchild. By the way, if I could pick the mother," he pointed at Tonks, "I'd pick that one."

Remus rolled his eyes. "You were planning to use that argument for a while, weren't you?"

"Clearly," he confirmed, patting his friend's shoulder. "I had this other thing about morally wanting all my children's godparents to be married to each other but then I remembered you are also Alex's godfather with Elizabeth and, well, as polygamy is sort of illegal…"

"Well, how very thoughtful of you to take that under consideration."

"Oh, yes, I'm widely known for my thoughtfulness. So… have you asked her yet? New year's is always a good occasion."

"No, not yet."

"Why not?"

"Because… just because. Now shut up," Remus told him just as Tonks was re-joining them, now with Alex on the floor, holding her hand as he toddled his way to them.

"So, when do we get to see that baby, anyway?" she asked eagerly. "Alex here says Mary is 'tiny and soft'. And speaking of what he said, he also muttered a word that sounded awfully like wan…"

"No, don't say it out loud! I'm hoping he'll forget that one before Mia hears it," Sirius told her quickly before clearing his throat and changing the subject as Remus gave him a confused look. "Anyway, Mia and the baby are still asleep right now but I don't think it will be long before they're awake. Newborns get hungry often," Sirius explained. "But anyway, come along – Alex and I were heading for breakfast now. I'm sure Kreacher will manage to get you some bacon as well while we wait."

"We've already had breakfast before we came here," Remus pointed out.

"Yes, and it was awful because I was the one cooking it," Tonks said, rolling her eyes. "I'm a train-wreck in the kitchen – salted the eggs three times and then burned them because I got distracted, as if they weren't bad enough already." She looked up at Remus. "What on earth were you thinking to even let me try cooking? I could have set the flat on fire!"

"First, because I have faith one day you'll be able to cook slightly decently, second because you're an auror and I'm sure you know how to put out a fire if it was necessary," he replied, diplomatically.

She snorted. "Maybe you're right about the second part but I'd lose my hopes on the first one if I were you, Remus." She reached down, picking Alex up from the floor. "When you're done gossiping like old ladies or whatever it is you grown up males usually talk about, please join me down at the kitchen." And with that, she headed down the stairs, enjoying another silly chat with Alex.

"You know, crappy cook or not, you'll be an idiot if you don't ever ask her to marry you," Sirius pointed out.

"Padfoot…"

He rose up his arms in defeat. "Just saying, mate. But you still owe me a godchild."

And, grinning, he went down the stairs after Tonks while his friend remained behind, huffing. He really needed to ask her.

It was past lunch-time when Izzy and Harry made it back home from the Burrow, flooing into Grimmauld Place's empty kitchen, battered, exhausted and amused to the bone.

The re-match of the snowball fight had been even more vicious than the first, involving chases across the Weasley's yard (which had resulted in Izzy falling face-first on the snow once, sending everyone in a fit of laughter), fake kidnappings followed by fake ransoms or rescue missions and massive snow forts. It occurred to them that maybe they were dramatizing the whole snow war a little too much mostly because, once again, Mrs. Weasley had stopped them before they were able to finish and declare a winner.

"Thank Merlin it doesn't snow every day of the year," Harry said, roaming near the kitchen counter, trying to get his hands on one of those cookies Kreacher always kept around for Alex. "We'd get ourselves killed in a couple of months if the snowball fights kept happening." And yet, he wished they did. It was unreal how he could just forget everything bad when he was having that much fun with his friends. "So… wanna go back there later and convince the others to do it again tomorrow?"

"What, for you and Ginny to get yourselves snogging behind the snow fort instead of having my back when I was trying to help Ron escape? I'll have a snowball-shaped bruise on my back because of it – Charlie's a bloody brute."

"We've already said we were sorry…" though they hadn't meant it in the slightest. "You were supposed to give us a signal."

"I gave you a signal! What do you think the waving was about? Physical exercise?" she replied just as steps sounded down the stairs and Sirius showed up by the door.

"Ah, there you are. I thought I'd heard noises down here," he said, raising an eyebrow at them. "What are you fighting about?"

"Snowball war," Harry said.

"Oh, who won this time?"

"Nobody," Izzy said. "Mrs. Weasley hauled us all in to peel potatoes for lunch before we had a chance to finish."

"But I'm pretty sure our team was farther ahead," Harry pointed out.

Sirius snorted. "Well, there's always next winter, kids."

Izzy chuckled. "Fred and George are planning to make a tradition out of this snowball fight thing – say they can't wait until we're all allowed to use magic outside of school."

"I bet Molly will love it," he observed sarcastically.

"They'll never hear the end of it. Anyway, where's Mom?"

"Upstairs in the room," he informed her. "Actually, now that you mention her, we've been waiting for you two to arrive so we could give you your… New Year's gift."

Harry furrowed his brows. "Now we get presents in New Year's as well as Christmas? That's a new one."

His godfather snorted. "Let's just say we weren't really sure of when it would arrive, so you can consider it a late Christmas present. Not to mention that you two will have to share it with the rest of us at home." With an interior snicker, Sirius made a wager against himself, trying to guess whether they'd figure out he was talking about the baby in the next couple of minutes or if he'd get a chance to lead them on a little longer.

"What is it, Dad?" Izzy asked.

"You'll just have to wait and see, Izzybel. But first, I need to enlighten you about the responsibilities that come along with this… little – and I literally mean little – present: whenever you're around it, you'll be in charge of playing with it when it gets big enough to enjoy it, helping when it gets noisy and, well, cleaning its messes. In fact, that last part will be yours exclusive."

His daughter's eyes opened wide and, for a moment, he thought she'd figured it out. In less than one minute, he thought proudly. His daughter was a smarty-pants. "Daddy…" she started, "did you… did you get us a dog?"

Or maybe not… Apparently, the game was still on. "Love, there's only a place for one dog in this house and that dog happens to be me."

"An animagus doesn't count," Harry stated.

"I say it does, kid. Besides," he said, planning to be blunt. "It would be a handful taking care of a dog with the new baby coming." Now, he was just daring them to put the pieces together.

There was a silent pause, during which both Izzy and Harry looked thoughtful. "A cat, then? They're a lot more independent," Harry inquired tentatively.

He rolled his eyes. "What would we want a cat for? We're dog people at this house."

"Then what?" his godson asked, intrigued. "It sure sounds like a living thing. Maybe a hamster?"

"I don't think hamsters are noisy," Izzy pointed out. "Let's see: it's little, it will like to play at some point and it's messy and noisy."

Harry chuckled. "Kind of sounds like Alex when he was a ba… oh. The baby."

"Finally! You were starting to get me worried, you know?" he told them

Izzy's face was like Christmas had just happened all over again. "Mom really had the baby? When? Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Yes, she had a baby. It happened last night and as for the gender… well, it's actually a boy but we named him Mary and plan to raise him as a girl, since you wanted a baby sister so much, Izzybel."

"I know you're lying, Daddy," she said, her voice taking a warning tone.

He gave her a mock-hurt look. "I am not. Not completely, at least. I assure you the baby's name is Mary and that we intend to raise her as a girl, Izzybel."

Her lips curled widely. "So it is a girl." She turned to Harry and gave him a 'Suck it! I was right!' look, settling their constant gender discussion for good before turning back to her father. "Can we go see her now? Please?"

"Sure. Just don't make too much noise – Alex is having his nap." And while he'd barely just finished the last word, she was already making her way upstairs, leaving him and Harry behind, staring.

"They just go mental when there are babies around, don't they?" his godson muttered, thoughtfully. "Girls, I mean."

Sirius nodded. "Usually, yeah." But then again, so did he…

By the time they reached the room, Izzy was already sitting on the edge of her parent's bed, cooing the baby on her mother's arms as little Alex slept, obliviously cuddled against Mia's side. Harry approached to take a look at the little girl too, who stared back at him and Izzy, probably trying to figure out who the heck they were.

The matter was settled less than a minute later when little Mary let out a yawn and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep easily as she gripped the index finger Harry had offered her to hold.

"She's so cute, Mom," Izzy was saying.

Sirius chuckled. "Let's see how cute you find her when you and Harry are changing her nappies, Izzybel."

Both teenagers turned their faces to him in a flash.

"Changing her nappies?" Harry asked in alarm, carefully removing his finger from his baby sister's grasp.

"What, you thought I was kidding earlier when I said you two were supposed to always clean her messes whenever you were around?"

Mia quickly joined into the joke. "Sweeties, you got off the hook last time with Alex because, well, there was the triwizard tournament and the school was a mess. A little diaper changing doesn't kill anyone."

"But… but I…" Harry tried to find an excuse. Yes, Mary seemed like a sweet baby and he already had a soft spot for her but changing her nappies… no, that was just weird. He needed an excuse to pass that. "I've got NEWTs next year. I need to study… a lot if I ever want to be an Auror. Just ask Hermione – she says it's vital I start doing it right now. I guess that leaves me no time for changing nappies."

"And I've got OWLs this year," she said, mentally thanking Harry for that save. "In less than six months, actually. It's not that I don't want to…"

"I'm sure you'll be able to fit it in your busy schedules if you, for example, take turns at it," Mia suggested, turning to Sirius, who seemed to be fighting hard not to burst into laughter as he leaned against the doorway. If she'd had any doubt before he was joking, now it was gone. "Don't you think I'm right, Sirius?"

"Absolutely," he managed to agree.

Suddenly, Harry stood up from where he's been sitting on the bed. "I should go floo the Weasleys and tell them about the baby. You know, before I… go study."

Izzy nodded and stood up as well. "I'll help you with that." And, like a flash, the two of them disappeared from the room.

"We'll call you over when she needs a change!" Sirius shouted into the corridor as they seemingly ran for their lives and then, finally, allowed himself to snort, though he was careful not to do it too loud and wake the children. "Hum, isn't it amazing how fast they run when faced with nappies?"

"That was a good one," Mia offered with a smile as she supported the sleeping Mary in one arm in order to pull the covers further onto Alex. "When are you going to tell them you were kidding?"

He shrugged. "I'll let them stew for a while. Who knows, maybe they'll end up actually doing it."

"Who knows," Mia mumbled, looking down at her daughter. "She'll be down for a few hours. Can you put her in the…?"

Even before she was done asking that question, Sirius was already taking the sleeping little girl from her arms, taking a few moments just to look at her before he kissed her brow and placed her down in her bassinet. "Seems like all she does is sleep, hum?"

His wife smiled. "Well, she needs to, doesn't she? So she can grow up to be a beautiful girl."

"She already is a beautiful girl," he pointed out, sitting on the edge of the bed, by her side and reaching to kiss her lips. "And so is her Mommy. I kind of love you, you know?"

"I kind of do," she replied with a smile before peaking over the bassinet to check on Mary and then looking down at the still napping Alex. "We make beautiful babies – I guess marrying you wasn't such a bad idea, after all."

"We'll just have to keep on making pretty babies, then," he told her, chuckling before she frowned. "Too soon?"

"I'll personally hex your bits if you dare impregnating me again anytime during the next year." She paused. "Actually, make that two years."

"You wouldn't."

"Try me," she dared him, leaning against the pillows, a defying smile that she'd clearly picked up from him playing on her lips as she rubbed Alex's hair. "Still love me?"

He shrugged, trying to sound casual. "I suppose I do. It's a chronic sickness, really. I'll just have to live with it." He reached for her hand and lifted it to her lips, kissing it. "But then again, there are much worse things to live with."

A/N: Well, not much to say. It was a mad week about to get even worse and I've got two ora presentations tomorrow, one of which to be made in french, which I honestly am not any good at... Hope you at least liked the chapter. Feedback is more than welcome! Review!