"Right." James flung himself into a chair. "Progress report."
He grinned at Fred and Hugo, who had been his most enthusiastic co-conspirators.
Albus, like Louis, had utterly refused to join in with the betting, saying that he had better things to waste his galleons on than betting against someone who always cheated. Molly too had been obstinate, although she had been remarkably curious about what everyone else was betting. James hadn't bothered to ask his two eldest cousins. Victoire would have been angry, and he wasn't quite unkind enough to tell Dominique about their theories; she might be discreet, but on the other hand, it might be a bad week for gossip, and Sirius would certainly be a hot topic, especially if his name was combined with Lily's. James thought about the comedy value of this, and regretfully decided that it was not worth the hassle that would come his way afterwards.
So he had left Vic and Dom out of it, and then Rose had been extremely hard to persuade, which was unusual for her. She was still not convinced that either Lily or Sirius was really serious about this, and thought, therefore, that their getting into anything would be stupid to the point of lunacy.
That had made James wonder, with slight unease, whether he really knew his sister's feelings on the matter. He knew what Sirius felt – but did Lily actually feel the same way? He was reassured by the memory of Louis's words on the subject; if Louis was to be believed, then Lily would certainly say yes if Sirius asked her out, no matter what Rose might say.
The problem currently lay in stopping him asking too soon for James to win the bet.
"Well, you heard what Roxy said," Hugo said, a smug tone to his voice.
Hugo had given the pair a week. If anything happened this weekend, he'd have won.
James and Fred glanced at each other. There was no need to tell Hugo that Rose was over there with Sirius now, and would stay the whole afternoon if she could. The reason for this was that Rose had eventually been goaded into betting that Lily and Sirius would never get together.
"Lily's not quite that stupid," she had pronounced.
However, she obviously wasn't quite as confident in Lily's intelligence as she pretended, as she was willing to give up a precious free day to making sure it did not happen. She refused to admit that that was what she was doing, claiming that she wanted to talk to Sirius about his Auror duties starting on Monday. But James knew that she hated to lose bets.
"I still don't think he'll say anything any time soon," Fred put in. "They've only known each other a fortnight. You can't count them meeting for a few hours in 1980."
"I've got a question." Albus had been lying on his brother's sofa, apparently engrossed in a book. "What are you counting as 'together' exactly?" he went on. "I mean, we're talking about the girl who once kissed a guy purely because she was cold and thought it would warm her up. If she did that with Sirius, would you count it as 'together'? Or would they actually have to have agreed to be in a relationship with each other before it counted? 'Together' could mean anything."
"The agreement," James said firmly. "A random one-off thing doesn't count."
"I don't think she'd do that with Sirius anyway," Fred said. "Given that he's practically become part of the family already. That really would be stupid."
"I suppose so," Albus agreed. "Though you never really know with Lily."
"Sure you don't want to bet, Al?" James said.
"Quite sure." Albus turned a page in his book.
"Oh, go on, Al!" Hugo said. "What's the harm?"
Albus raised an eyebrow. "Where do you want me to start?"
"Albus, you're turning into an old man already!" James said. "I mean, you were always a bit like that, but it's getting worse!" His voice changed. "Come on, put a bet on! I won't cheat, I swear; how can I?"
"By persuading Rose to spend her Saturday afternoon with Sirius, so that he doesn't go sloping off to Lily and help Hugo win?" Albus suggested, and then went on, ignoring Hugo's outraged exclamation. "You want to know what I bet? Okay then. I bet they're going to make idiots of the lot of you. That's the only bet I'm making. End of story."
Lily and Rose both stared blankly at the Muggle man. Sirius, on the other hand, froze for a moment, and then his jaw dropped.
Joseph Ashby looked equally gobsmacked.
"I can't believe it," he whispered, "All those years, I thought I must have dreamed it or something. But I knew, really." His voice changed suddenly. "But who are you? How did you get here? Where did you come from? I.. I can't believe I'm really seeing you again It... it is you, isn't it?"
"Um, yeah," Sirius repeated. "It's me. You... you're Joe Ashby?"
Joe smiled shakily. "Yes. I've changed a little bit more than you have." He looked at Sirius. "You look the same as I remember."
"I have no idea what's going on," Rose interrupted. "But I do know that this definitely isn't the place to be having this conversation. Mr... um, Ashby? I take it you knew Sirius once. But maybe we can talk about it somewhere more private."
"Yes of course," the man said, sounding eager. "Have you... have you got time for a cup of tea? We could go back to my house and put the kettle on?"
Joseph Ashby lived in a small house near the centre of Barnstaple. He ushered them in and sat them down in a sitting room with chintz covered chairs and a pleasant air.
"Well," Rose said, as they sat down. "Would one of you like to explain please?"
Joe looked worried. "I don't think I can explain, er..." He hesitated, looking for a name.
"Rose," she said. "Rose Weasley."
He nodded. "Well, I'm as puzzled as you are, Miss Weasley. All I know is that when I was a child, my parents found a stray dog in our front garden. A dog that wasn't a dog, although my parents never knew that. He stayed with us for a few days. I... I was delighted. I wanted my parents to keep him. And then he disappeared." He frowned. "I can't remember what happened to him. I never have been able to. I've puzzled over it all my life, but I can't remember."
Rose was looking horrified.
"Sirius," she said. "When you went back to 1981..."
"I told you," said Sirius defensively. "I told you I'd been taken in by Muggles."
"You didn't tell us that any of them knew you weren't a dog!"
"So it's true," Joe said quietly. "I wasn't mad, and I wasn't imagining things."
"Nope," Sirius said cheerfully. "I really exist. Although I technically shouldn't, but I won't get into that now."
"But what are you?" Joe asked in an awed voice.
Sirius hesitated. There was no need, after all, to mention wizards or a magical world.
"I'm an Animagus," he said. "I can turn myself into an animal. A dog, obviously."
Joe's eyes shone. "You're an Animagus? D'you mean there are more?"
"A few," Sirius said. "Not many."
Joe turned to Lily and Rose.
"And you," he said eagerly. "Are you...?"
"No," said Rose shortly. "We're not."
Joe turned back to Sirius, frowning. "But that doesn't explain the fact that you were the same age then, more or less, as you are now."
"Well..." Sirius hesitated again. "You already know I didn't arrive normally. I... came back in time. For me, it only happened last week."
"Last week!" Joe sat back in his chair, astonishment in his eyes. "But... but how?"
"We can't explain, I'm afraid," Rose broke in firmly. "I'm sorry. But we really can't."
Joe nodded sadly. "I suppose I have to accept that. I never thought I'd get any sort of answers at all." He chuckled suddenly. "So when I asked you if you were the Doctor, I wasn't so far off after all."
Rose and Sirius looked blank, but Lily laughed.
"Not so far off," she said. "But he isn't the Doctor. He's just a person. Except when he's a dog. I'm Lily Potter, by the way. My parents live in your old house."
Joe laughed, and then shook his head.
"I remember selling it to the Potters, after Dad died. Look, shall I put the kettle on?"
They agreed to this, and he disappeared to the kitchen.
As soon as he was gone, Rose rounded on Sirius.
"Sirius, we have to..."
"No," he answered, before she could go any further. "I'm not putting a Memory Charm on him. He doesn't deserve that. He won't tell anyone."
"How can you know that?" she demanded.
"I trust him," Sirius said obstinately. "And I owe him that much. He was good to me. He was just a kid who wanted a dog, and I know what that feels like. I'd have given just about anything for a dog when I was a kid. I never got one, obviously."
Rose scowled. "That's got nothing to do with anything, Sirius. He's a Muggle. He shouldn't know anything. In fact, he shouldn't have remembered you at all. There were Aurors there when we left. They should have done Memory Modifications..."
"They probably did," Lily said. "But as they didn't know what or who Sirius was, or that Joe knew he was a person, they couldn't exactly erase that from Joe's mind, could they? They obviously got rid of any memory of the fight – he didn't remember how Sirius disappeared. But they didn't know about the earlier stuff."
Rose closed her eyes for a moment. "Well, what are we going to do about it?"
"Nothing?" Lily suggested. "If he hasn't told anyone for forty seven years, I doubt if he's going to start now."
Joe bustled back in with the cups of tea, and handed them round. Then he looked at them all.
"There's probably a lot I just shouldn't ask, isn't there?" he said wistfully.
"Yes," Lily agreed. "But there's something I want to ask you. After Sirius had gone, did you ever find a smallish brown dog? He'd have been wearing a name tag that said Cuthbert..."
Joe stared at her. "He... he was something to do with you as well?" A horrified expression came into his eyes. "He wasn't an... a... whatever-you-said as well, was he?"
"No." Lily smiled sadly. "He was just our dog. We didn't mean to leave him behind." Tears almost prickled her eyes again at the thought of Cuthbert. Mum had been upset too.
"Oh." Joe looked kindly at her. "Well, I'm afraid he died quite a long time ago. But he had a very full and happy life. We never knew where he'd come from. The collar made us think that somebody had lost him, so we advertised, but we never found anyone of course. My parents were a bit bemused by finding two stray dogs in the garden within a week of each other. But after Sirius vanished, they didn't have the heart to say I couldn't keep Cuthbert." He looked round at them, a smile spreading over his face. "He died eventually, while I was away at university. But we'd let him mate with our friend's dog, and we took one of the puppies. We've kept the line going ever since."
Lily stared at him. "You mean you've still got one of Cuthbert's descendants?
The smile grew wider. "More than that, my dear. Would you like to come and have a look?"
He led them through to the kitchen. At the far end of it, a small part was fenced off. As they came in, a head appeared over the fence (which was constructed out of boxes), and a small dog leapt over it to greet them.
She didn't look much like Cuthbert, was Lily's first thought. That wasn't surprising; his genes must be fairly diluted by now. She was about the same size, but her fur was golden and silky, and she looked like she must have some retriever in her. Her ears though, were half pricked, just like Cuthbert's had been.
Then Lily noticed, as she bent to pet the dog, that its nipples were distended and swollen. She looked up, disbelieving, and saw what else was behind the fence. They were no more than squeaking balls of fluff, and there were at least four or five of them, tumbling over each other.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Puppies!"
If Joe had had any doubt about whether his visitors would be pleased to be introduced to the latest litter, they were swiftly laid to rest. To be sure, Rose was ready to leave long before Lily and Sirius had grown tired of sitting on the floor having their fingers chewed, but even she was fairly appreciative.
"I can't believe it," Lily said wonderingly, as she looked at them. "These are Cuthbert's great-great-great-grandchildren or something. Isn't that the weirdest thought?"
"Not really," Sirius said thoughtfully, looking at her. "I can think of at least one weirder one."
And she realised that, of course, meeting the descendants of your friend must be much weirder than meeting the descendants of your dog.
Eventually, they made their way back into the lounge, and Joe showed them a couple of framed photographs on the mantelpiece. The first was his wife, whom he told them was away for a few days, visiting their eldest daughter. Sirius was curious to know about Joe's life after they had left him in 1981, so Joe proudly produced more pictures, many of them of his daughters, the two of them together as children, playing in a swimming pool and laughing at the camera, and then separately, as older girls.
"And that's Helen, my youngest, as she looks now," Joe said, passing Sirius one of the final pictures. "She still lives at home, and works in town here."
Sirius blinked at the picture. He knew her.
She worked in a coffee shop in the centre of Barnstaple; he had engaged in some mild flirtation with her the previous week.
And according to the story they had fed Hugo, he was going out with her.
Harry finished reading through the report of an Auror currently posted on a top secret mission in Scotland, filed it carefully in the drawer marked 'classified,' and picked up the handful of parchment still remaining on his desk. One was an invitation to yet another formal Ministry function. He would find an excuse if possible. He had gone to the last one, so nobody could get annoyed with him.
The others were mostly letters and forms that required his signature. He scanned down the first one, and was just about to put his quill to the parchment when there was a knock at his door.
He looked up as the head of his secretary came round it. Harry had not wanted to be given a secretary, but he had to admit that the young man was efficient, and it did make his job easier. And the young man was one he'd known a long time. His father had been Harry's fellow Auror until he'd moved sideways into the Department of Mysteries. The boy had sometimes played with Albus and Lily; he was a bright spark, and Harry couldn't imagine him staying a secretary for long.
"Yes, David?" he asked, and then looked at his watch. "Oh, sorry. I lost track of the time. You're welcome to go for lunch if you want. I won't be long myself."
"Thanks, sir." The young man grinned. "But actually, you've got a visitor."
"Oh." Harry looked surprised and then frowned. "It's not Birch, is it? I told him..."
"No, sir." David grinned again. "It's not Mr Birch. It's a young woman. Says she needs to talk to you."
Harry stared at him, mystified. "Well, I haven't got much to do. I'll see her. Can you ask her to wait for a minute though? I'll just finish these and I'll be out. If she's happy to wait, I'm sure you won't mind entertaining her for a few minutes. Although you might like to suggest to her that the proper procedure is to make an appointment."
His secretary bit back another grin.
"Yes sir, will do."
His head retreated, and Harry gave his attention to his work again. He emerged from his office a few minutes later to find a familiar figure perched on David Lewis's desk, chatting easily to David.
"Lily!" he said, and looked with exasperation at David. "You could just have told me who it was!"
"Sorry, sir," Lewis said meekly.
"Well, you'd better be off for your lunch," Harry told him. "I'll see you in an hour."
When he'd gone, Harry looked at his daughter in a puzzled way.
"What on earth's this all about? You don't normally turn up at the office. I take it nothing's terribly wrong, or you wouldn't have been sitting outside flirting with my secretary..."
Lily went scarlet at this accusation. "I wasn't flirting!" she protested. "I've known Davy since we were kids! We were talking, that's all. Honestly Dad, just because I'm friends with a guy doesn't mean I'm throwing myself at his head."
She paused for breath, and he broke in, ignoring what she had said.
"But what are you doing here?"
Still pink in the face, she hesitated. "Well, I was just passing really..."
"Passing the Auror Office?" he said, distinctly unconvinced.
"I wanted to talk to you, that's all..." she said, the words coming out in a rush.
"Well, I'm honoured," he said dryly. "Not that it's not nice to see you, Lil, but is there any reason why you couldn't have come and talked to me at home?"
"Not really." She seemed to gather herself together slightly. "Only I'm not going to be at home this evening, and it just sort of occurred to me while I was at work. I was wondering whether you'd got anywhere with catching the people from the Sickle Moon, that was all."
He stared at her. "Well, obviously I can't actually give you that information," he pointed out gently. "As you know perfectly well. Are you sure that was all you wanted to say?"
"Well, I was just wondering about it, really. Mainly about the man who attacked me. Because you didn't catch him, did you? And I was just thinking that if you did have any idea who it was, I'd be able to help you. I'd recognise him if I saw him, I'm sure I would!"
Harry looked at his daughter, puzzled. Did she think he wouldn't have thought of that? It sounded like a thin pretext for being here, but unless she really did have something going on with David Lewis - and he couldn't believe that really - why would she want a pretext?
"Anyway, it just occurred to me," she went on. "So I came round to say. Because I might be able to identify him from a photo or something."
"Well, that might be useful," he commented. "If we actually had the first idea who he was. As it is, we've got nothing for you to identify, but your willingness to help the investigation has been noted."
"Right." She slipped off the desk. "Well, I might have lunch in the canteen, now I'm here. By the way, how's Sirius doing? It's his first day, isn't it?"
He stared at her, taken aback by the sudden change of subject.
"Well, yes. I haven't seen all that much of him this morning, though. Handed him over to one of the Junior Aurors to be shown round, and then I believe he's been at the lecture Dennis was giving, with Rose and co. I was going to have a word with him after lunch, and make sure everything's going all right."
"You're not looking after him yourself then?" she asked.
He eyed her quizzically. Since when did Lily take such an interest in the working of the department?
"Well, not all the time," he replied. "I do have other things to do."
"But it's his first day!" she protested.
Harry laughed. "I promise you, he doesn't need me to hold his hand. I never take care of the new trainees, Lily. It isn't part of my job. I'll be checking up on him, but he'll be working with other people most of the time."
"Oh. Okay." She looked at the ground and took a deep breath. "Dad..."
"What?" he asked, as she paused. "Come on, Lily, if there's something you want to say to me, would you say it please? I want my lunch!"
"No," she said hurriedly. "There's nothing. Only... well, if I told you something you weren't expecting, something you might not like... Would you, you know, just try to listen to me and understand, before you said anything?"
Harry stared at her. "You've lost me, Lily," he said at last. "Is this to do with the attack at the Sickle Moon, or Sirius, or something completely different?" He looked up suddenly as the door opened. "And talk of the devil..."
Lily's head jerked round. Sirius had just appeared in the doorway.
"Oh, hey, Lily. Wasn't expecting you to be here."
"No, neither was I," Harry remarked.
"Well, anyway," Sirius said, looking at Harry. "Thought I'd check in. I wasn't sure what I was meant to be doing after lunch, and I couldn't find that bloke, Reeve, who showed me round this morning. Rose was saying they were going to do some practical Dark Arts Detection exercises..." he finished hopefully.
Harry laughed. "Well, I doubt if you need that much Dark Arts Detection practise. But you may as well go along if you want. See how we do things."
Sirius grinned. "Okay, thanks." He glanced at Lily. "I'm going to catch Rose and the others up, and grab some food now."
"I'll join you," Lily said brightly. "I haven't had lunch yet. See you, Dad."
"But what were you going to say?" Harry said with a frown.
"Oh..." Lily looked at Sirius and went a bit pink. "It doesn't matter. I'll tell you another time. Bye Dad!"
Harry watched her almost run out of the door with Sirius. He was still frowning.
What the hell had all that been about?