Sirius, James, Katherine, Remus, and Peter were about to walk out the front gates and apparate (some of them side-along) to a nice robe shop that James recommended before heading back to Hogsmeade for some quality entertainment. Kate seriously doubted the quality of the robe shop if James was the one suggesting it, the only one that she would have trusted with finding someplace affordable and tasteful would have been...none of the four people she was keeping company with. Fortunately for her, Sirius was stopped at the gate by Professor McGonagall.

"This was supposed to be brought to your attention days ago but someone-" meaning the headmaster "-misplaced the letter in plain sight on their desk thus forcing me to interrupt your plans for the day."

"What, my dearest professor, does said lost letter have to do with me, who I might remind you has been keeping out of trouble quite nicely as of late."

Kate rolled her eyes. He always spoke more elegantly when he was trying to evade detention. The sad thing was that it usually worked.

"It has nothing to do with your permanent record." She clipped. "It seems that your uncle, Alphard Black, has passed away."

"Uncle Alphard was always such a tough old bloke, are you sure that he's dead?" Meaning he was wishing that it was his mother instead.

"I am absolutely certain, Mister Black."

"He was a great man, for a Black."

"I'm sure." She pursed her lips effectively. "The port-key will be leaving shortly for his funeral."

"I'm not sure about this, professor. I want to pay my respects, really, but those people that call themselves 'family' are going to be there and-"

"We all understand your familial relations are a bit...strained at the moment, but he specifically asked for you to be present at his funeral."

"I will be accompanying him." Kate said as she took his hand.

"Well then, right this way." Her eyebrows rose so far they nearly disappeared under her tartan hat. She turned and started off to a point just outside the gates where another figured stood.

"You don't have to do this." Sirius whispered to Kate.

"Sirius, he was your uncle, and he sent a letter to Dumbledore asking for your presence at his funeral. Also, I'm not overly fond of the idea of you and your friends trying to get me into the most ridiculous looking things in whatever two-knut shop James would be taking us to."

"Hey, he can afford the nice places; his family's as rich as mine...almost."

"Yes, but James doesn't have rich tastes; he shops for convenience...and quittich things." She leaned on his shoulder as they walked and started whispering into his ear. "Think of it as part of my wifely duties."

"What else do you have for 'wifely duties'? I'm very curious."

"Well, my dear, let's just say that you've only seen half of it."

"I like my odds." He leaned in closer to her and touched his lips to hers only to be interrupted.

"Couldn't you wait until you're on Alf's casket?" A familiar snarky voice sneered.

"What are you doing here?"

"Sirius, calm down. He was his uncle too." Kate soothed.

"Yeah, Sirius, listen to your cat."

Sirius could have slapped his brother, or he could have punched him. Or he could do nothing and glare at his brother.

"Gentlemen, remember that you are representing Hogwarts while you are gone. That goes for you too, Keaton. You will behave yourselves and show respect, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Professor." They chorused angelically.

"Here is your port-key. You are expected back by curfew." She handed the tarnished antique mirror to Katherine and started back toward the castle.

"Well boys, do you think that we could all pretend for just today, for your uncle, that you two don't know one another?" She knew that it would be impossible to get them to stop hating one another.

They both nodded solemnly and took hold of the mirror just as their port-key took off. Kate felt the familiar hated hook in her gut and the spinning sensation that was so much worse than any carnival ride she had ever been on, which was plenty.

The three of them fell to the ground with their own 'ooph's 'ouch's and 'gaw's.

Katherine stood up and dusted herself off. She heard hushed whispers, and some angry grumbling, and looked up to find what felt like hundreds of eyes on Sirius...and on her.

"Guess McGonagall wasn't lying when she said the port-key was taking us to the funeral." Sirius muttered.

They stood in a room, lit only by a few sconces on the walls, filled with hard-backed wooden chairs (and the people staring at them). On the far wall was a casket, the lid was down, and an elderly wizard who one could only presume was leading the ceremony.

"How dare you show your face in this place?" A female voice shrieked.

"Just came to show my respects to my uncle. Don't worry, we won't stay long." Sirius' voice was even, but the anger he was directing at the woman was palpable.

"You are no longer a part of this family, and as such you have no right to be here." The woman seethed.

"My apologies, mother-" he said the word with such distain "-but I do have a right to be here, and I will stay until Alphard is nice and snug six feet underground." He took Kate's hand and led her to a couple of empty chairs at the very back of the room while Regulus followed his mother to the front row to sit with a man, whom Katherine could only assume was the boys' father.

"And I thought things were bad between my mother and I." She muttered to him.

"Sorry about that, I didn't want to make a scene."

"That would be a first."

The ceremony itself was dull, to be honest. The old wizard conducting the service went on for decades about Alphard's family and blood-status, it was almost sickening. Kate would have rather heard the muggle lies about the deceased being 'in a better place' than the family tree. Nothing was said about Alphard's life, his accomplishments, fond memories of him; it was all about purity and wealth. She could instantly understand why Sirius chose to flee such a toxic environment.

Sirius' anger had hardly dissipated from the encounter with his mother. He fairly radiated contempt through the entire service. Kate took his hand, her fingers entwined with his. She would touch his arm in reassurance, or stroke his hand soothingly. He was grateful that she had gone with him or he might have pulled his wand out of his pocket and thrown a few good hexes at the most deserving of his 'family' before making a hasty retreat. Kitten held his wand hand though, so he would have to settle with his imagination. He had taken to staring at either the back of either of his parents' heads and hoping that they would eventually combust. Unfortunately the only flames were the ones flickering on the candles in the wall sconces.

After the ceremony, three men levitated the coffin and the room emptied into a funeral procession to a cemetery outside. Katherine and Sirius brought up the rear. Once the casket was lowered into the grave and buried everyone trickled back into the building. Sirius stayed behind.

He stared at the fresh mound of dirt, his hands shoved in his pockets as he kicked the ground. He was lost, and more than a bit confused. Kate stood unobtrusively to the side, not knowing what she should do.

"Why would he want me here?" He asked no one in particular. "I left; I'm not part of this family. Was it to torture me somehow, or to get back at my mother for something?"

"It doesn't matter now, you came and you stayed for the whole thing. We can stay as long as you like, or we can leave right now if you want to." "I'm sorry I forced you to come. I can see know why you didn't love the idea."

Sirius turned around and looked at her.

"If I didn't come I would have always wondered. I know that you'll make it up to me; there's still time to get you something pink and frilly."

"We will never have enough time to shop for something pink and frilly." Her tone was icy. "I'm open to something classy though. Well, not too classy, I have my new reputation to uphold."

"What new reputation?"

"As a complete floozy, of course." She laughed and wrapped her arms around her husband's neck, enjoying thinking the word 'husband'.

"Mister Black!" Someone called from the building, which upon closer inspection was not much to behold. Forgetting about the voice, because there were at least three other 'Mister Black's attending; Sirius lowered his face to the lovely specimen in front of him. Naturally, he was interrupted.

"Mister Black, your presence is requested inside."

"I'm sure you have the wrong Black." Sirius fairly growled. He wanted to finish what he had started.

"No, sir. It says here that Sirius Black is to be in attendance when the will is read." The young man was of average height with a very slight frame. When Sirius finally looked at him he had to hold his breath. "My apologies for interrupting, sir." He cough into his fist and looked at the two of them nervously. "You need to be there, I give my word that it will only take a moment of your time."

"Fine, there isn't much else that we have to do." He muttered as he started for the building.

"Don't mind him," Kate said to the man, "family is a bit of a sore spot for him." She jogged to catch up to him and smiled. "Cheer up, Sirius, we'll be out of here soon enough."

He chose not to answer her.

The small room that the service had been held in had been completely transformed by the time that Sirius and Katherine got there. The walls were a soft buttery yellow with bouquets of purple flowers hung where the wall sconces were, natural light shone through the windows. The small hard-backed chairs had been replaced with plush armchairs and where the deceased had lain stood a large wooden desk with many important looking documents on it, and a few elegant quills stood in stands along the front of it next to their own inkpots.

Once again, they sat at the back of the room, making no eye contact with anyone present. The slight young man that had interrupted them entered the room behind an important looking middle-aged wizard. The older man sat on the other side of the desk and scanned the room.

"You have all been requested here today for the reading of the will of one Alphard Black. The requests and conditions of this will are legal, binding and final. Any grievances any of you may have can be swallowed promptly, because nothing is going to change no matter how much you yell, scream, or 

otherwise carry on." He shuffled a few papers and Kate stifled a laugh; the man obviously knew what he was getting himself into. "Shall I continue?"

Everyone in the room nodded enthusiastically, it was no longer a wonder why so many people had arrived at the funeral. It was common knowledge that Alphard was a very rich man and everyone wanted a piece of his fortune.

"Then I shall read. 'I, Alphard Black, being of sound health of mind as of this fifteenth of May, nineteen-seventy-six, do allow-' the rest is just for legal purposes so I think that I will just skip over that unless anyone has any objections." Nobody did. "'To my sister, Walburga Black, and her husband I leave the Black Family Tree tapestry that she has been fond of since childhood. I leave to my youngest nephew, Regulus Black, my villa in Southern France. I would advise him to use it well and to take a page out of my book; the locals are very friendly. My best house-elf, Blinkin, goes to Jacqueline Raubichaud, who resides in the south of France.'"

The rest of the reading went on and on for longer than the 'moment of your time' that the young man had promised Sirius. Everyone was getting more on edge as things were given away. More and more family members and guests received their inheritance, some things were big like Regulus' villa, and some were small like the tea set given to Narcissa.

Suddenly, the older wizard paused (for dramatic effect to be sure) and looked around the room before he continued.

"'Finally, what I know you have all been sitting in such a tiny room waiting for, my vault at Gringott's. I leave it and all of its contents to the rightful heir of the Black fortune, Sirius Black.'"

The lawyer sat back in his chair and closed his eyes to drown out the out-raged cries of all but two people in the room.

"Now, now, people, there is only one man who can change this, and he is freshly buried. So, unless you can bring back the dead, I suggest you all just take what you were given and suck it up." He stood up and gestured an arm toward the door. "Good day to you all."

0O0

Author's Note

This is out a bit later than I wanted, I curse me. So yeah...that's about all I have to say...other than the fact that I'm moving off to school in a week. I'm hoping that the stability of a schedule might give me a more constant update schedule, but we all know how well my hopes work against me. Grrrr...

Just so that everyone knows, the position of the girl that was with Sirius on Slughorn's desk has been filled by anyavioletta. Her audition was amazing, you all saw it, when she was in the broom cupboard with Sirius.

Also, special thanks to Notes-and-Photographs for letting me use Leonard the flying unicorn with the purple handle-bar mustache...and for telling em how to get rid of those pesky squares!

I'm done now. Tell me what you thought if you want to!