A/N: Sorry, had to take it just for a little editing (I couldn't replace it). Nothing major...

A week had passed since the morning after the third task and Harry and Izzy had made it back home for their Summer Break in the previous day.

Though both Sirius and Mia felt incredibly tense due to the announcement of Voldemort's return, there had been no sign of Death Eater activity other than what had happened in the cemetery.

Harry had been slowly coping with what had happened with his friends', mostly Ginny's, help. It seemed to make things easier to deal with when he could talk to someone who understood by experience what he'd been through and, unlike everyone close to him had feared, he hadn't closed himself to the world.

In the meanwhile, through the whole week members of the first Order of the Phoenix had been contacted for the new order's first meeting and new ones had been recruited.

Early in the morning of the day of the reunion, Mia entered the nursery to see little Alex was still asleep in his cot. She smiled down at the baby as she watched him sleep peacefully. Every day he looked more like Sirius: the soft hair in his head was very dark just like his father's and his eyes, though closed now, were getting greyer and greyer every day.

She reached with her hand to caress his soft cheek and the little boy moved his legs, though he didn't wake up. He looked so innocent now, living in his own world of dreams. He had no idea of the terror that might be rising outside at any moment, while Mia, as much as she and Sirius tried to make everything feel normal around Harry and Izzy, couldn't help feeling that knot in her throat.

Alex moved again in his sleep, this time his arm and she removed her hand. Better let him sleep now, she thought. Poor baby. He'd been restless on and off all night because of the teething. Only around three in the morning, which had been a couple of hours before, they'd managed to get to sleep and not wake up again forty minutes later again.

She turned around to leaved the room and saw Sirius standing by the doorway, smiling at her tiredly – none of them had slept much that night either. She wrapped her arms around him and he kissed the top of her head.

"Is he okay?" Sirius asked her, pulling away to close the nursery's door so the baby wouldn't be disturbed.

Mia nodded. "Out like a rock. I wish I could be too."

"Then let's get you back to bed," he said, putting an arm around her and walking with her the short distance to their room. "We still have at least three hours before the kids are awake, unless they decide to make it an early morning."

She nodded as her head rested against his shoulder and sat on the bed when she reached it, lying down as her husband walked across it to do the same. They turned to their sides, facing each other in the bed.

"Do you feel okay now?" Sirius asked her a whisper.

She nodded. "Yes. I'm just so bloody tired."

"You know, I was thinking that we could get ourselves a little week of vacations," Sirius told her. "Just you, me, the kids and, well, maybe even Lulu is she wants to…"

Mia sighed with her eyes closed. "Somewhere in an island as Muggles. Just as long as there are at least three countries between it and Britain."

"Your wish is an order, Mrs. Black. It would be a good way to finish that year just to ourselves that we took last year," Sirius said. "In September you'll be teaching again in a morning-only schedule and I probably will be working too." He groaned internally. You really need to start working on finding a job. Not that he actually needed paying – Merlin knew he had two vaults in Gringotts, his and his family's, that would keep him living large for all eternity. But with Mia working too, staying at home all day-long would annoy him at some point.

"Yeah," she murmured, half-asleep. "Can we talk about this later? I think I'm… not quite awake."

"Sure," he said, pulling her closed so she could use his chest as a pillow. He kissed her soft hair and, minutes later, clinging to each other, they were asleep.

---

Later, refreshed from the few hours of continuous sleep, they sat with the kids at the kitchen table finishing their breakfast.

"Elizabeth's dad will be keeping Alex and you're going to stay at the Burrow this afternoon while we are in our meeting," Mia was telling Harry and Izzy as she fed little Alex, who seemed to care more about pulling the tips of her hair than in eating. She tried to free her hair from the little fist and the baby gave her what seemed to be an annoyed look that seemed looked ridiculously cute in a face that small. What was it about that baby that made everyone want to just look at him endlessly? It was with effort that Mia managed to look up from Alex to Harry and Izzy again. "Percy will be looking after you."

"Percy?!" Izzy asked her mother in disbelief. "Why does Percy of all people have to be the one watching over us? He's… Count Boredom. Fred and George are off age already. They could watch us without making us want to hide hole."

Mia raised an eyebrow before she shoved a spoon full of baby food into Alex's mouth. "Sure. And a few hours later we'd be rescuing you from the ruins of the Burrow."

"They can't be that bad," Sirius defended.

"Really? What would you and James do if you saw yourselves alone at home looking after four underage kids?"

Play a massive prank on them, he thought instinctively. But, thank Merlin, didn't voice it, turning to Izzy instead. "Just remember that there are six of you non-boring people and only one of him."

"Yeah, Fred and George can do magic. Maybe they'll be able to stun him and lock him in the shed," Izzy mumbled.

"Don't you dare, Isabelle Black," her mother warned her.

There was silence for a moment or two before Harry spoke for the first time. "So, what will you do in that meeting you have?" Harry asked them, trying to sound uninterested by poking the eggs on his plate. "Does it have to do with him? Voldemort?"

Sirius sighed. "We can't tell you yet, kid. But we will as soon as we get cleared for it."

"So it is about him," Izzy concluded. They wouldn't have all that secrecy if it wasn't about him.

"We didn't say that and we're not cleared to talk about it with any of you," Mia told her, putting the plate of baby food down and passing Alex to Izzy. She knew her daughter was as hopeless towards her baby brother's effect as she was and, like Mia had predicted, seconds later Izzy had all but forgotten the discussion and started with the baby noises.

But Harry hadn't. "What is that clearance for? I'm not a little kid anymore!" Harry interjected. "I've faced him what? Four times now? I think that gives me the right to know what people are doing about him."

"We know that, Harry," Sirius told him.

"Then why don't you tell me what is going on?"

"We want to, Harry, but we are not the ones in charge in this," Mia told him. "We know you are not a child anymore and, as much as we'd like to protect you from reality, we know we can't. That's why we'll insist you're told about… this so you're prepared for whatever comes."

"And what's coming?" he inquired.

"If only we knew that, kid…" his godfather said.

"But whatever it is, Harry, we can't have you playing hero. We shouldn't keep you in the dark but you can't keep us either, Harry. This needs to go both ways like it did last year with the tournament. If anything happens, you or, if you can't, Izzy or one of your friends come to us before you go ahead and put your life in danger. There are people whose purpose is to help you so don't start thinking you're alone in this take matters on your own. You may not be a little kid but you're still a kid and shouldn't handle everything by yourself."

"I will come to you," he promised with a sigh. "But I have to know that you're doing something and I have to know what is going on." He looked down at his plate. They weren't the bad guys in the middle of all that and he'd acted like they were. "And I'm sorry for snapping."

Shaking his head, Sirius patted his back. "Kid, you've earned the right to snap every once in a while. First, because of all the stuff you've been going through. Second, because you're a teenager."

"Thanks," Harry mumbled before finally looking up.

"So, do we have an understanding here?" he asked. "Anything out of the ordinary, you come to us. Never mind if that happens while you were breaking school rules. I think they are the least of our worries right now." He turned to Mia, looking for an agreement

She huffed. "At this point, I guess they are." Then, she looked at Harry. "But don't push it."

He nodded. "I'll try and yeah, I guess that's a fair deal."

"Er, will that apply to the rest of us or will we be kept in the dark?" Izzy asked as she passed the baby back to her mother, after remaining silent nearly the whole discussion. Sirius and Mia gave her confused looks so she continued. "Whatever you're going to, Ron and Ginny's parents are too. I know it's not as… personal to us as it is for Harry but we should know what is going on. If not or anything else, because we care and we'll go mad if we keep trying to guess whatever you're doing."

Mia sighed. "We'll see what we can do, Izzy," she promised.

"Even you don't get clearance, we'll end up finding out anyway," Izzy told her with a shrug. "Don't ask me how but we will."

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Mia murmured.

Suddenly, Harry wrinkled his nose and eyed little Alex in suspicion. "Does something smell in here or is it just me imagining it?"

"Diaper-changing time," Sirius announced, mock glaring across the table at his squealing infant son. "How can you be that small and do something nearly as smelly as Knockturn Alley, little man?" Then, he turned to his wife. "It's your turn changing him. I did it last time."

Mia rolled her eyes and got up, carrying the baby. "Amazing how you always wrestle me for any baby-related activity except for diaper changing," she said before turning around and making her way to the door.

Sirius looked at the kids and grinned. "It was my turn. But I guess she didn't remember it."

"That's low," Harry told him.

"Really low," Izzy agreed, shaking her head in disapproval.

"Yeah, right, Miss 'if you don't tell us what's going on we'll get a very suspicious and potentially dangerous way to find you'," Sirius countered with a chuckle. "That's close to blackmail. And, as proud as it may make me, also low."

"I wasn't blackmailing anyone," she told him. "I was just telling you… wait, you're just trying to distract me. You know what? Maybe I'll tell Mom it was your turn just to get you in trouble."

"No, you won't. You like me too much Izzybel," he replied, grinning.

---

Though as gloomy as usual, Sirius couldn't help noticing that the interior of the Shrieking Shack had been deeply cleaned for the occasion. Unlike it had been little over a year before when they had confronted Wormtail in that same place there wasn't a single bit of dust, a broken piece of furniture or a ripped curtain. Hogwarts' house-elves had been busy, he could see. The only signs that something vicious had been in there were the badly hidden deep scratches on the walls.

Very few people of the first order could be seen there but, then again, not that many had survived to see the second one rise… Apart from the Hogwarts' teachers, himself, Mia and Lulu, Sirius could see little over half a dozen old members so far. Remus and Elizabeth still weren't there but he knew they'd show up at some point, so he counted them too. It didn't feel the same – not without Lily and James there.

"Oh, Sirius, Amelia, I was just looking for you," Dumbledore's familiar voice said behind them as he approached them from the place where he'd been standing talking to McGonagall. "How's young Harry doing now? Minerva and I were quite worried about his emotional recovery after what he witnessed."

"He's coping," Mia said softly. Every time she said that, she couldn't help feeling hugely relieved. How wrong could that have turned out? "But he wants to know what we're doing. In fact, they all want to know: Harry, Izzy, Ron, Ginny…"

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, I had been thinking whether it would be wise to tell them about the Order and I've concluded that it is safer to do that. We all know what Mr. Potter and his friends tend to do when they want to know something."

"Well, they are curious kids," Sirius said naturally. Merlin knew he and his own friends had been quite like them before… except for the several near-dead experiences.

"I'd also like to discuss something else with you, Sirius," Dumbledore told him. "Is it safe to say that you still haven't found any job?"

"Couldn't be safer. Why?"

"Well, we are in need of a Quidditch coach at the school. I know that you're trained as a curse-breaker and if you'd rather find something in your area, I'd completely understand. But Minerva still dreams about the four Quidditch cups in a row that you and James Potter won for Gryffindor and that is a rather good point in your favour."

"But what happened to Madam Hooch?" Mia asked.

Dumbledore sighed. "Rolanda has received a very good job proposal from a professional Quidditch team. They were quite desperate for a single win and would pay a small fortune for some basic training. Obviously, she had accepted the proposal."

"Wait, desperate for a single win… do you mean the Chudley Cannons?" Sirius asked in amusement. "The Cannons hired a woman who teaches Quidditch to little kids as their new coach? Ron's just going to love hearing that."

The headmaster nodded. "I'm afraid in all my years of life I've never seen them win a single game. I used to support them in my youth but eventually had to give up… Furthermore, Sirius, would you like the position for yourself or should I start thinking of someone else? I need a quick answer because the Ministry seems to be taking some… liberties with filling positions in my staff. I think I'd better take care of this one before they take care of it themselves."

Sirius took a few moments to consider things. He'd chosen to become a curse-breaker because he'd thought it would be fun. And, he had to admit, sometimes it was: just remembering some cases he'd gotten to solve made him want to start a fit of laughter. But the hours were terrible – he recalled spending days in a row barely seeing Mia back when he was working. If he wanted interesting cases, he'd need to go overseas, make twenty-hour days of work and sometimes leave for more than a day and leave his family behind. That was, if he didn't have to be located in another country permanently like Bill Weasley had been. If he wanted normal hours, he'd probably only find positions in Gringotts and that just sounded damn boring to him.

On the other hand, being the Quidditch coach at Hogwarts didn't promise a single boring day. It was Quidditch and he loved it. His job, or at least what he recalled Hooch doing, was teaching first years how to fly, watching the house team's training sessions when they requested it and refereeing the games. No biggie. It would be the perfect fit if… "Will I be able to go back home every day like Mia does?" he asked.

"Of course. Family is an important thing, Sirius. Though Hogwarts doesn't often have teachers with spouses and children – and that is not by choice, I assure you – the school rules are ready to deal with those situations."

He looked at Mia, who gave him a radiant smile. She was as happy about it as he was. So, he turned to the headmaster. "Well, you've got yourself a new Quidditch coach. But I'm bringing my own broomstick – if school brooms were any slower, they would be flying backwards."

"I'll confess I wouldn't know because I've never flied one of them," Dumbledore said. Suddenly, he looked over Sirius's should at someone who'd just walked in. "I'm afraid I'll need to leave you two. Severus had just arrived and I needed a word with him."

Just as soon as the headmaster was gone, Sirius turned around to see his very hated former classmate and now, he realized, fellow member of the Hogwarts staff. A job that good had to have something rotten in it. "Snivellus? In the order? Has Dumbledore gone insane? He was a Death Eater. Maybe still is."

"Dumbledore must have his reasons," Mia said quietly.

"They'd better be good reasons," Sirius hissed. "Doesn't the greasy have something else to do? Like terrifying children or hiding from shampoo?"

His wife had to bit her lip not to laugh. "Don't be mean." She pulled him by the arm near the table so they could sit down on the chairs that surrounded it. "Forget about Snape. We have more important stuff to think about. Now both of us have jobs."

That brought a grin to his face. "At the same place. Don't get busy in your breaks, honey, 'cause I may drop by your office to… amuse you, if you know what I mean."

She looked away, playing hard to get. "I'm afraid I don't agree with that sort of relationships between co-workers, Sirius. We'll just have to keep our hands away from each other from now on."

"I'd quit sooner than I'd let that happen, Mia," he replied, holding her face by the chin and pulling her closer so their faces were dangerously close. "My hands belong all over you. How else would I get babies in you?"

"Not anytime soon, Mr. Black," she said, kissing his cheek and pulling away to a more comfortable distance for everyone else in the room. "Speaking of baby. Now that both of us have gotten jobs, we need to get Alex a babysitter…"

"If there's anyone who'll be watching your son while you're working, that person is me," Lulu told her as she came by them, having arrived to the meeting moments earlier. "Just imagine if he ended up with one of those nannies who spend the whole time reading magazines and kept him all day long in his playpen when he's bigger. Forget it, I'll watch him."

"Lulu, but you have your job," Mia replied.

"Yeah, I do," Lulu told her. "And I'll still have it – I'll just do it part-time in the afternoons and weekends from time to time while you're back home. The kid needs someone to make his life a more amusing place and you can only handle so much of dim-witted clients who can't tell the difference between a real book and a magazine. At some point you just feel like cursing them."

Sirius looked up at her thoughtfully. "You could just say you're a big softie who loves babies and can't wait to get your hands on your very handsome grandson."

"If I'm a softie, then so are you," she replied.

"Sure I am. And I'm proud of it," Sirius declared.

He watched by the corner of his eye as Moody approached Dumbledore with a sober look on his face and holding his wand as if they were under attack. He said something to the headmaster that made him look confused and then worried and seconds later he followed the retired auror out of the room.

"Something's happening," Sirius said, getting up. "I'm going to check what it is."

"Wait," his wife, said, getting up too. "I'm going too."

They walked out of the room, silently followed by Lulu, and then heard the loud voices coming from the Shack's entrance hall. Then, they clearly heard Moody yelling 'Stupefy' and the sound of someone falling on the floor.

At first, when they reached the hall none of them could see who'd been stunned as Kingsley Shacklebolt and pink-haired woman who seemed to be an auror as well were leaning over the unconscious body of a man, trying to lift the person to a position that would allow him to be dragged.

And when Mia finally saw the man's face, she thought she was imagining things. She'd be damned if the bloke didn't look just like her late birth-father. It was Gabriel McKinnon.

A/N: Cheers for those who guessed it was Gabriel! His survival will be explained next chapter, don't worry. Anyway, I really hope you liked it - this one was a hard one to come: I wrote and removed two or three more scenes and practically rewrote half the chapter twice. Send some feedback! Review!