Remus was already there when Harry and Sirius arrived at 12 Grimmauld Place. When he heard the bike approaching, he called for the house-elves to get supper on the table. Harry was laughing as the two came inside.

"But why were they all looking at us like that?" Sirius asked, a confused expression on his face. "I mean, my bike doesn't look any different from any other muggle motorcycle."

"But most muggles wouldn't ride one at this time of year," Harry explained through his chuckles. "They can't cast warming charms, after all, and moving as fast as a motorcycle does makes the air feel even colder than it is already. So they thought you were barmy for riding at all, and worse for subjecting me to the ride as well."

Sirius nodded, his expression clearing. "Oh, now I understand! Maybe I should buy a car, then? Especially since I might need to bring you to muggle places again this winter. Hi, Moony," he smiled at his old friend as they entered the dining room.

"Hi, Uncle Moony," Harry said, giving the werewolf a hug before sitting in what had become his usual spot at the table.

Remus smiled warmly as he returned Harry's hug. "Hello, pup," he said. "Did you and Pads have fun today?"

Harry shrugged a little. "Mostly, although I think seeing everyone in hospital bothered Uncle Sirius more than he expected. But after, I had fun talking and playing with Wills and little Harry, and Uncle Sirius seemed to get along well with Princess Diana."

Sirius shivered a bit. "It was those spike things in their arms that bothered me," he said. "IVs, wasn't it? Her Highness said those IV things put medicines… that's what muggles call potions, right?... directly into the bloodstream, so that when the illness makes them sick, they won't just sick up their medicines. And that if they're even sicking up plain water, the IVs will also keep them from getting dehydrated. But it just looked so horrible, especially on the littlest children."

Remus wrinkled his nose. "That does sound horrible."

"Her Highness is really nice, though," Sirius said, brightening a bit once more. "One little girl wanted to sit on my lap during storytime, because she said I looked a bit like her father, who is overseas with his job. She showed me his picture, and the man does look a little like me. Anyway, Princess Diana said after we left that she'd make some inquiries and see if she couldn't get that little girl's father transferred back to England. And we talked for a while after, while Harry was playing with her boys at the palace. She's going to get me some tapes of various muggle bands she likes, and I'm going to figure out a way to make a tape of the Weird Sisters for her. I'm hoping Arthur Weasley might be able to help with that, since he loves all things muggle so much, maybe he's come up with a way to keep magic from making bat-rees go bad so quickly. I've seen the newest muggle tape machines, and they've got a wireless built right in. So if I get one and enchant it to pick up the WWN as well as muggle channels, I should be able to make tapes of wizarding music… as long as the bat-rees don't go bad in the middle of recording."

Remus and Harry chuckled. "Your mother would be appalled," Remus said. "But I suppose that's as good a reason as any to get one."

"Once you have it, can either of you teach me how wizards dance?" Harry asked. "Lady Malfoy said that once we got done with learning formal table settings and occasions, we'd be moving on to balls. Her Highness taught me a little bit about dancing when we were on holiday, and she's going to give me and Wills another lesson over the Christmas hols, but I've noticed that wizards do a lot of things that muggles would consider old-fashioned, so I wouldn't be surprised if the dances are different, at least for formal things like balls."

"Huh… maybe that's something else you should include in your book, Moony," Sirius grinned. "Speaking of which, Lucius owled before I left this morning, his committee wants you to write the textbook for the wizarding culture course. Harry, what sort of things would muggles consider old-fashioned?"

"Sending messages with flowers, that's the really big one," Harry answered promptly. "The etiquette book Stephen and I got in Diagon Alley had a whole chapter about that, and the meanings of flowers. But when I looked up a muggle etiquette book in the library, the only thing it said about flowers was that it was appropriate for a gentleman to get a corsage for the lady he's escorting to a formal dance, and he should be sure to get something that will look nice with the color dress she's wearing. And if he knows her favourite flower, it's a nice touch to include it in the corsage."

"Learn something new every day," Remus chuckled. "I didn't realise muggles don't know the language of flowers myself. Of course, it's not as though I've had anyone I've cared to send flowers to either. And given my furry little problem, that's probably just as well."

"The right woman won't care, Moony," Sirius said. "Sod the laws anyway. I'll be taking my seat on the Wizengamot after the New Year, and I'm going to see if I can't get some of the restrictions eased. There'd be fewer problems overall, I would think, if more of you could get decent-paying jobs and so better afford the wolfsbane and a secure place to transform." He tilted his head and asked, "And how did you manage the second part, all these years? I know you've been using the back garden here, since it's got the anti-muggle charms on it along with the rest of the house. But wolfsbane or not, you can hardly have transformed in your old flat."

Remus grinned. "I apparated up to the Shrieking Shack, of course, and home again in the morning. I figured it wouldn't hurt anything to add to the tales of the haunting there."

Sirius laughed, and explained to Harry, "The Shrieking Shack is the name of the hut that Remus used for his transformations back in our Hogwarts days. Before the wolfsbane potion was invented, the transformations were quite painful, and so the place got the name as well as the reputation of being the most haunted place in Britain, all due to his howls and cries back then. Last I knew, no one would even consider going there at night, for fear of the horrible spirit haunting the place."

Harry grinned as well. "That's actually pretty clever. Do you think someday I'll learn to be an animagus so I can transform with you too?"

"I don't see why not," Remus said. "Mind, it's not the easiest thing to do, and you need to be better than average at transfiguration. But I've always thought that more people would be able to do it, if it wasn't made out to be such an extraordinary feat."

"What lessons were we going to do tomorrow, anyway?" Harry asked.

"That depends," Sirius said. "I owl-ordered a beginners' indoor herbology starter kit that's supposed to be here no later than tomorrow morning, but as I've heard Remus say about the muggle post, the more you want something in particular to arrive, the more likely it is to arrive late."

Harry nodded. "I heard Uncle Vernon say more than once that bills always arrived on time, and everything else came at least three days late. A least a week late, if it contained money."

Sirius chuckled. "Well anyway, if the kit comes in, we'll do an introduction to herbology and potions. If it doesn't, we'll do potions and whatever other subject you feel like, how's that sound?"

"All right," Harry agreed with a smile.

The conversation turned to more tales of Harry's parents as the house elves cleared the meal and brought out a large Banoffee pie for afters. Remus offered to teach Harry to play chess and Sirius coached his godson from the sidelines. Moony's chessmen didn't like that, and kept giving Sirius the two-fingered salute whenever his suggestions worked out, which kept Harry in a near-perpetual state of giggles until bedtime.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

One of the Malfoy's elegant eagle owls arrived with a letter just as Stephen did the next morning. Harry gave the huge bird a piece of his bacon while Sirius scanned the letter and started laughing. "Lucius wants us to come for lunch, even though this isn't the week we usually give the boys lessons together," he said. "They had the Tonks family over for dinner yesterday, and apparently Ted finally went through with the Heritage Trace. He's not heir to anyone, but he's related to the Clearwaters, the Rosiers, the Prewetts, and the Fudges. Lucius admits that three of three muggleborns turning out to be from squib lines is more than just a coincidence, and wants to talk to both you and I, Stephen, about how to adjust people's thinking and better welcome the 'recovered bloodlines' as he puts it, into the wizarding world. Remus, he wants you to come as well, as he'd like your opinions about the Wizarding Culture course and the textbook that you'll be writing. Harry, Draco wants you to bring your broom since the weather is supposed to be clear in Wiltshire this afternoon."

Harry gave an exuberant whoop and dashed upstairs to retrieve his broom, causing all three men to chuckle. "When do we leave?" the boy asked as he charged back into the dining room clutching his Cleansweep.

"At least two more hours," Sirius told him. "You know as well as I do that the Malfoys have lunch around one most weekends, and it's not quite ten now." He summoned quill and parchment and penned a quick acceptance, attaching it to the patient owl's leg before sending the bird on its way. "We've got time enough for a potions lesson before we go."

Harry sighed, but brightened again. "Which potion are we doing today?" he asked eagerly.

"We're up to the basic bruise ointment," Stephen answered. "But we won't have time to do that one today if we're going to the Malfoys. It has to simmer for six hours, being stirred every half hour." He held up the old potions textbook they were using for Harry's lessons to show the instructions to the others.

"How about rainbow ink?" Remus suggested. "It's not in the Hogwarts curriculum, of course, but I have the instructions for it in my prank journal, and it only takes about an hour."

"That sounds like a plan," Sirius nodded. He looked at his godson with a grin. "And I really want to know where you get this love of potions from. James hated potions class with a passion. Only reason he continued taking it NEWT-level was because he needed a NEWT in it to qualify for auror training."

"Lily loved potions, though," Remus reminded his friend as he stood up to go fetch his journal. "Harry might look almost totally like his father, but he seems to have gotten more of Lily's personality."

Sirius nodded. "I just hope Sni… Snape doesn't kill his interest due to his conflict with James," he muttered. "Well, let's head off to the lab, shall we?"

Harry grabbed one last piece of bacon before heading towards the basement stairs. Stephen had explained early on that potions labs in older houses were usually in the basement, as stone walls were far more resistant to damage from exploding or melting cauldrons than wood or plaster, should anything go wrong during the brewing process, and 12 Grimmauld Place was no exception. He thought about what Sirius said, and asked, "Uncle Sirius? Is there any way of changing what I look like? Permanently, I mean. It's not that I dislike how I look or anything, but, well… even you sort of expect me to act just like my father sometimes, because of how much I look like him. I want people to see me, not a… a small version of James Potter."

Sirius halted for a moment in shock. "I… yes, there are some things that can be done," he said dazedly. "I don't know if they're safe on someone your age, though. Kind of like it's not safe to do a magical eye correction before your magical maturity at age sixteen. Sometimes magical maturity, especially in someone powerful, can cause physical changes. Most often when it happens, it's something like a growth spurt… the child going through it grows a couple of inches, literally overnight, something like that. But sometimes it will heal scars and such, and since the eye correction does something to change the shape of parts of your eyes, it can reverse that too. For whatever reason, the correction process tends not to work as well if it's done a second time, so most healers just don't bother mentioning it until after you're sixteen. It's why I hadn't suggested you get it done yet."

"I didn't know you could correct vision with magic," Harry said.

"Me either," Stephen put in. "But we can look into the possibilities, Harry, all right?"

"Okay," Harry agreed.

He washed his hands and set up his cauldron for the lesson. Remus came down to the lab with his journal and the brewing instructions, and took charge of the lesson since Stephen had no idea how to make rainbow ink.

Sirius pulled the younger man off to one side and put up a muffliato spell. "I didn't realise how much being accepted as himself truly means to him," he said. "And it's true also that Snape is likely to look at him and see a miniature version of James. The man tolerated sitting at the table with me that one time, but that was for the sake of his own godson Draco. Lucius admits that Snape's not good with kids in general, and that he dislikes teaching, but that he remains at Hogwarts because he owes Dumbledore in some way. I don't know for sure, but I can't help but wonder if maybe he'd been interested in Lily as more than a friend himself, at least up until that incident where we took it a little too far and he used the word mudblood when she tried to intervene. So he'll not only be seeing a small James, he'll be seeing his own lost opportunity to have had Lily for himself and been the father of her child, if I'm right." He paused, and asked sheepishly, "Do I really treat Harry as if I thought he was James sometimes?"

Stephen frowned thoughtfully. "Well, you do tend to look puzzled and disappointed when he isn't extremely enthusiastic about setting up pranks," he said. "And it's not that he hasn't had fun with some of them, but he does prefer quieter pursuits. I think it's because he's had no friends at all until just a couple months ago, you know? So he enjoys reading and drawing, or practising his yoga or tae kwon do over playing football or something. Also, don't forget he's been abused. From what I've been able to gather, abused children tend to very much dislike being the centre of attention, because if they're being overlooked, they're not being beaten."

"And I have rather been expecting Harry to be a boisterous prankster who lives to be the life of the party, as it were," Sirius admitted, looking chagrined. "As if I don't know enough myself about being different from expectations, what with being the only Black ever sorted into Gryffindor. I should know better. Do me a favour and throw something at my head next time you notice me doing that again, will you?"

Stephen laughed. "I can do that," he said with a nod. "What are your thoughts as to Harry's request, though? It's not anything I even knew could be done."

"Well, there's a second level of the blood adoption, that will give him some of the Black family features mixed with his own," Sirius said. "I'm not sure that a small version of me would go over any better with Snape than Harry's current looks are likely to do. But it's not likely to do anything so extreme, and might change him up just enough to keep everyone from seeing 'James, only with Lily's eyes' like he looks like now. I've just never heard of that level being done on anyone over a year old and don't know if that makes a difference. Aside from that, I know it's possible to do partial transfigurations and make them permanent; healers have done that to adjust the size of a woman's… assets. Make 'em smaller if they're causing her back pain, or bigger if she thinks she looks like a boy. But like the magical vision correction, those won't be done on anyone younger than sixteen." He chuckles, "And I doubt my godson wants that particular enhancement anyway."

"I'm sure of it," Stephen laughed. "Well, we'll just have to look into that second level blood adoption thing, then."

Sirius ended the muffliato and the two moved over to watch Harry's progress as he sliced, diced, and chopped the various ingredients and added them to the cauldron at the appropriate moments. The animagus was surprised at Harry's skill at preparation, now that he was trying to pay attention to what the boy was doing, rather than assuming that his godson was merely enduring the lesson and eagerly awaiting the chance to do anything else. "You're better than most third-year students at prepping," he said, sounding mildly impressed. "Most kids your age and even a little older don't have such precise knife control."

"I learned to cook before I started primary school," Harry said quietly. "I liked cooking best of all my chores, even though it was hard to reach the cooker and the counters, because Dudley figured out pretty fast that he wouldn't get fed as quickly if he hit me while I was cooking, because I might drop the food and have to start over. He might be dumb about most things, but even he knows better than to get in the cook's way when he wants food, which is almost all the time. Anyway, potions kind of reminds me of cooking, because it's like following a recipe, only with ingredients other than meat and veg and spices."

"That makes perfect sense to me," Remus nodded, as he and Sirius both hid their reactions to learning just how young Harry had been when he made to cook for his relatives. He peered into the cauldron with a smile as Harry added the last ingredient, a half-teaspoon of minced orris root. He gave seven clockwise stirs and the liquid within turned from a milky cream to a shimmering opalescent white. "And that looks perfect, take it off the heat now and let it cool; we'll test it when we get back from the Malfoys later today."

Harry carefully lifted the cauldron off the heat and set it to one side before picking up his mother's wand to put out the flames. Sirius watched him and shook his head. "You know, I can't believe I didn't pay attention to that before. Looks or no looks, you're obviously more like your mum than your dad or it would be his wand you're using now instead of hers."

His godson smiled. "They did both react, but yes, this one much more strongly than my dad's," he replied as he washed his hands. "Is it time to go yet?"

"We're a little early yet, but I don't suppose they'll mind," answered the animagus. "Let's go!" They all trooped upstairs and Harry grabbed his broom before they stepped through the floo two at a time.

A house elf greeted them in the transport room and informed them that the family was in the library, so Sirius led the way in. When he saw who was there, Draco brightened and murmured to his mother, "Am I the future Lord Malfoy right now or just Draco?"

Narcissa chuckled warmly. "Just Draco, dear," she told him.

He jumped up with a grin and raced over to greet Harry and check out the other boy's broom, while the men greeted Narcissa and Sirius introduced Remus to Lucius as the two had not met before. They headed in to lunch, and the conversation turned almost immediately to the textbook for the wizarding culture course. Lucius was astonished to learn that muggles considered sending messages with flowers a quaint historical custom. "How in the blazes is a man supposed to tell his betrothed if he likes her or would prefer to leave her to her own devices so long as she causes no scandal? For that matter, how in Merlin's name do they remain discreet in their assignations if they can't signal to one another across a room with their flowers?"

Stephen shook his head. "Well, first of all, in current British culture, a married couple is supposed to stay faithful to one another. Normally this isn't an issue, as most people choose their own mates; arranged marriages are exceedingly rare, and the few that still take place tend to crumble fairly quickly. It's become common knowledge, for example, that Prince Charles wed Lady Diana Spencer because she was considered a good candidate to be a future queen, but in fact, he would have preferred to marry someone else that he'd courted some years earlier, but who was considered unsuitable. However, it's patently obvious that His Highness goes out of his way to spend as little time as possible in his wife's company."

Harry, listening to the adults speaking, nodded. "They were really awkward to each other when Prince Charles showed up at Balmoral," he said. "And Her Highness admitted to me that they're not getting along well. Aunt Petunia likes reading the gossip newspapers, and I saw there's speculation that they'll divorce."

"Is that even allowed?" Narcissa questioned.

Stephen nodded. "It is now, yes," he said. "Since just after Grindelwald's time, what muggles know as the Second World War, divorce has become more and more socially acceptable. You see, even back then, very few muggles had arranged marriages, and with the war on, people tended to rush into things for fear of one or both of them dying in combat or a bombing or something. From the stories I've heard, some couples back then ran off to Gretna Green less than a month after they'd met, so as to be married before the young man was shipped off to the front. And then it might well have been years before they saw each other again. Plenty of couples discovered once they'd been reunited that they had nothing in common and no real wish to even try to make a go of things together, and so divorce slowly but surely became a viable option. Nowadays it's considered fairly commonplace, at least amongst the general population. If the Prince of Wales gets a divorce, however, that will be somewhat of a shock to many." He chuckled and added, "And the truth is, Princess Diana is loads more popular with people than her husband is. It's already suspected that he and his former paramour are seeing each other again despite both being marred to others, so if they do divorce, the perception will be that the blame is solely on him, whether or not that's actually true."

Narcissa nodded. "I see. Divorce only just became legal in the wizarding world since the time of Grindelwald, and there's still a huge social stigma attached to a divorced person. Since about half of wizarding marriages are still arranged ones, the socially acceptable method of dealing with simple incompatibility is to produce an heir quickly and then appear together in public when necessary while ignoring your spouse's little diversions while making sure your own little diversions remain discreet and easily ignored. There are only two reasons for divorce that would still allow a modicum of social acceptance… if the divorced person was a victim of spousal abuse, or if their former spouse sired or bore a child with someone other than them."

Stephen smiled. "Well, that seems perfectly reasonable to me. Those were two of the earliest acceptable reasons for divorce, at least among the general population of muggles, too. The ruling classes had a bit more leeway, especially if a wife proved barren. She'd most often trot off to a religious house to live out her life in some comfort while he could then wed a younger and presumably fecund woman in order to produce an heir or two."

Narcissa closed her eyes briefly, a hint of pain creasing her aristocratic features for a fleeting moment. Lucius reached out and took his wife's hand before addressing Stephen. "We want to speak with one of those muggle healers that specialises in difficult childbearing," he said quietly. "I think I need not point out that money is no object. All we want is another child. Will you help us with this?"

"Of course," Stephen replied promptly. "First thing Monday, I'll make some inquiries as to which doctors and facilities have the best records." He considered what might be needed, and told them, "They will need records of your entire reproductive history for certain, and possibly all of your adult medical records. Can your healer translate magical diagnostics into the muggle sort for the muggle doctors to look over?"

Narcissa and Lucius looked at each other blankly for a moment. "I have no idea," Lucius replied. "It's not anything that's come up before, you understand."

"If the answer is no, with your permission, I'll ask Healer Abbott to suggest someone who can, if he's unable to do it himself," Stephen said. "As painful as it might be for you to discuss the matter, the doctor will need to know everything. Very often, couples with problems having children show certain patterns of those problems, which as often as not gives some clues as to the solution."

Sirius spoke up. "Also, you both need to know that muggle healing can be both incredibly advanced and completely barbaric at the same time. I went with Harry on a visit to a hospital in London yesterday, accompanying the Princess of Wales and young Prince William. On the one hand, muggles have developed potions that can fight and in some cases even cure cancer. On the other hand, they get those potions into the ones who need them, by means of a metal spike stuck in the arm, and some of the side effects of the cancer-fighting potions include hair loss."

Stephen noticed Draco's eyes had gone very big. "Harry, Draco, why don't you go out flying now? I'm sure you have loads to talk about, and would rather not have to listen to us right now."

Lucius nodded his permission and Draco stood up immediately. "Come on, Harry," he said, tugging at his dark-haired friend. Harry stood and allowed the blond boy to lead him out of the dining room.

"I wasn't sure how comfortable you would be going any further with this discussion in Draco's presence," Stephen said. "Sirius raised a good point. Muggle diagnostics and procedures are necessarily more invasive than the wizarding equivalent. While it will be done in a clinical manner, there will be some physical touching of, uh, intimate places." He reddened, but went on anyway. "Obviously I'm not a woman so I don't know exactly what's involved and can't tell you exactly what to expect. But I do know that there will be hands as well as medical equipment in private places. If you want to go through with this, you will have to accept that."

Narcissa looked a bit pale, but nodded. "I appreciate the warning. I can't say I'm entirely comfortable with it, but… if the end result is that Lucius and I have another child, I can tolerate the discomfort." She stood abruptly and brushed off her robe. "And now if you gentlemen will excuse me, I think I'll go give the boys an audience for their aerial antics." She hurried out of the room.

Lucius sighed. "That was awkward, but thank you for being brutally honest, Stephen. Better we have even a vague idea of what to expect, than to be frightened out of our wits while the healer is doing whatever it is that needs doing." He smirked, "Or worse yet, me cursing the poor fellow for thinking he was attempting to assault my wife." He stood as well. "Shall we adjourn to the library and get back to the subject of the wizarding culture textbook and course?"