In the end, Sirius was able to stay at the Potter's for a full week before Kreacher showed up with a bright red envelope that burst open and showered the four current occupants of the house (since Peter had stayed four days and Remus only three) with an endearing combination of blatant insults and a rather rude dissection of the Potter's family tree.

It had taken a full three days for Walburga and Orion to realize Sirius had gone anywhere (they actually hadn't had Kreacher spying on him this year), and another two for them to care enough to do anything about it. It had taken them another two days to track down where he could have gone, because Regulus claimed to have absolutely no knowledge of his brother's friends.

The Potters took it well, Sirius thought. Better than he did at least. Euphemia simply gave him a hug and told him he was welcome by at any time, Fleamont made an unsavory comment under his breath but ruffled Sirius' hair all the same (he had taken to doing that when he figured out that Sirius took great pride in his perfect hair; "not in this house" he'd said "I don't invent hair products so people can look good without them!"). James simply grinned, gave him a slap on the back, and said he expected Sirius to "give 'em Hel- er, um, a nice hello."

Apparently they were quite okay with being called blood traitors, mongrels, and closely related to the sea slug.

Sirius was not okay with them being called those things, and he went voluntarily with Kreacher just so he could tell them exactly what he thought about them in comparison to the Potters.

A few days after Sirius got home, he was once again just laying around in his room. He was loathe to do anything productive, since that might detract from his campaign to show everyone in the family just how unhappy he was at the moment.

He heard the door creak open.

"Ever heard of knocking?" He drawled in annoyance, turning to glance at the door, and then stopping his sarcasm in the face of raw surprise.

Because it was Regulus. Regulus didn't talk to him… not since he was sorted into Gryffindor. Not unless he was digging for something, or trying to get Sirius to just play along with their parents schemes "for his own sake". He went stone-faced, wondering which it was this time.

"Hey, Siri?" Reg asked, staring a hole in the ground, and Sirius was thrown completely by the old nickname.

"What is it, Reg?" He responded, still guarded. Was this one of the Slytherin tricks? Was he using that nickname to put Sirius at ease? Well it wouldn't work.

"Do mum and dad read our mail?"

...What the heck kinda question was that?

"They read mine," Sirius responded pointedly, and he might have thought Regulus winced if he didn't know better. But… he was acting… well, like Regulus used to. Like Sirius' little brother, before their parents had gotten to him. "Why? … Are you talking to someone you don't want them to know about?" He asked, looking speculatively at the younger boy.

If it was someone their parents wouldn't approve of, odds are it was someone most sane people would approve of. Maybe Regulus wasn't as lost as he'd thought.

"Nevermind," Regulus scowled, thinking that Sirius wasn't going to help him. He shouldn't have even asked; now he had something to use against him. "I shouldn't have asked."

"Kreacher," Sirius said quietly just as Regulus began to close the door.

"What?"

"The elf. It likes you for some inexplicable reason." Regulus wasn't sure if the "inexplicable" part of that was because Sirius thought Kreacher was incapable of compassion, or if he thought Regulus wasn't worth liking. Or, perhaps, a combination of both. "Give the letter to it, have whoever it is respond in kind."

"He," Regulus frowned.

"What?"

"Kreacher's not an it. He's a he."

"Tch," Sirius sneered, falling back onto his bed. Not so much as a thank you for helping. Typical Slytherin…

Regulus frowned at his older brother, who was no longer looking in his direction. He wasn't a fan of how Sirius treated Kreacher, that was only one of the many vastly different ideologies they held, and it was the one Regulus thought most grievous. But Sirius had helped him, and Regulus was a polite boy.

"Thanks," Reg muttered a mite bitterly, closing the door before Sirius could respond.

It was August 20th, Serena's birthday. She was turning twelve. She was, she figured, probably the youngest in her year or at least very close. The cutoff date for Hogwarts, after all, was something she didn't know, and it could be either August 21st or September 1st, but either way there couldn't be that many people.

Alice and Grace had sent her a letter or two each this summer, as had her roommates and Matt, and all sent her birthday wishes around the general time. Most of them had enclosed a piece of candy or a bookmark as a gift, as none of them were good enough friends to spend all that much money on each other.

Janie had sent two letters this summer; he explained that it was because his brother was apparently under the impression that they were friends or something and had taken over his social life; he'd also wished her happy birthday, some time in July, openly admitting that he had no idea when her birthday was and telling her that for her birthday he would generously void a whole two favors for her (and reminding her that she still owed him five anyway).

She and Narcissa had been exchanging letters more regularly, because apparently most people Narcissa's age (and all other ages) were so prejudiced against Slytherins in general and Blacks in particular that the only people who would talk to her were high-and-mighty pureblood supremacists. Narcissa had given her a book about constellations.

Xenophilius and she had also been exchanging letters, mostly about real magical creatures and what Serena had begun to categorize as "Xeno's hypothetical creatures." She and Hagrid had been talking about much the same things, especially what illegal magical creature each would want as a pet (dragons, both agreed). For her birthday Xenophilius had given her a charm that supposedly warded off Nargles and Hagrid sent her a little "forbidden forest scrapbook" of all the creatures he had met (and been able to take a picture of) in the forbidden forest with sections about ones he hadn't been able to photograph as well.

Regulus hadn't written at all.

He'd told her it was best if she didn't write him, and she understood that, but she did consider him her first friend and she had hoped that he would write at least once.

"Now that you've opened the unimportant presents," Mr. Wendal grinned, "here's mine!" He plopped a large box in front of her at the table and she examined it thoroughly.

"It's a plant, isn't it," she deadpanned. Mr. Wendal gave her an offended look.

"What are they teaching at hogwarts nowadays?" He demanded. "You aren't supposed to be able to read minds yet!"

Serena decided not to point out that he got her a plant every year just so he could beef up the garden, and let her mom give her the real presents. She figured he knew she knew that already.

She unwrapped the box carefully, no doubt this would be another weapon of war against the garden gnomes, so it had to have some sort of defense mechanism. It looked a bit like a cactus. Except instead of spines it seemed to be covered in boils, and it squirmed a little bit on its own.

"It's a mimbulus mimbletonia!" Mr. Wendal grinned excitedly. "And it's just perfect to put in the greenhouse! It spits out all this nasty-smelling pus when it's touched, the gnomes won't know what hit them! Watch, it's really cool-"

"Robert Montgomery Wendal don't you dare get pus all over my kitchen," Mrs. Wendal snapped, knowing from experience that her husband wouldn't hesitate to demonstrate the destructive power of a plant inside the house. "Ready for the rest, Serena?" She asked sweetly, after she had stared Mr. Wendal back into his seat.

"Yes, mum. Thanks dad; I think we should put it either right by the door, or next to the Alihotsy."

A few unwrappings later, and Serena had three high-level magical creatures books, a new dress, and a magic camera.

"We expect you to take lots of pictures," Mrs. Wendal cheerfully instructed as she made sure her daughter knew how to work the camera. "It's a newer model made by some genius muggle, I wasn't about to make you lug around one of those old flash-pan things, but the pictures are still magical after you print them if they're put in the right solution." Mrs. Wendal had a muggle sister a few years younger than her who kept her in touch with the muggle world, so their home actually had quite a few muggle appliances that would have been considered out of place for a normal magical family; a printer and a computer were two of these items.

CRACK.

"Gah!" Mr. Wendal yelled, nearly losing his grip on the mimbulus mimbletonia, catching at the last moment, and accidentally grasping the actual plant and causing foul-smelling pus to fly over everything within a five-foot radius.

Serena had ducked behind a table at the noise, and was glad because it meant she wasn't covered in pus, and Mrs. Wendal bravely ignored the nasty goo splattered over her clothes in favor of whipping out her wand and pointing it at the source of the noise.

It was a house elf.

And he was, currently, giving Mr. Wendal a nasty glare as a glob of pus dripped off of his nose.

"Who are you?" All three Wendals asked in unison, Mr. completely confused, Mrs. a mite threatening, and Serena simply interested.

"Kreacher is a house elf, servant of the Noble House of Black," Kreacher responded, sneering. "Kreacher was asked to come by Young Master Regulus, to give this to Miss 'Serena Wendal'." He held out a thick envelope.

Serena beamed. She couldn't even care less what was actually in the package, if he had gotten her a present or not. Actually, he'd sent his letter with a house elf, and the only house elves she'd seen thus far were in Hogwarts; that was a present all its own!

"I am so sorry," Mrs. Wendal apologized immediately, lowering her wand. "Do you want us to help you clean up or something? We don't usually greet guests with pus… especially not ones bringing letters from my daughter's friends."

Kreacher seemed a bit busy eyeing Serena to care much about what her mother was saying.

So this was Serena Wendal. He had met all of Regulus' other friends before, they were all the children of Noble families like the Blacks after all, but not this one.

"So your name is Kreacher? I'm Serena Wendal. I'm sorry about my dad's plants, we were a bit startled," she introduced, holding her hand out.

Kreacher thought the girl polite, but perhaps a bit daft. He couldn't call Master Regulus' friend daft, though.

"House elves do not shake hands," he said plainly, placing the letter in the outstretched appendage instead. That would not be proper at all. He wasn't actually too mad about the plant though; he could count this as his punishment for not telling the Mistress about this visit.

Then with one more swift glare at Mr. Wendal, he disappeared with another CRACK!

"So what's in the envelope? What did your mysterious rich boyfriend get you?" Mr. Wendal asked with a huge grin. He was fine joking around about dating because he knew with a certainty that Serena didn't care for it a whit. Serena rolled her eyes, opting to open the envelope rather than encourage him by denying something he already knew was untrue.

Inside there was a short letter, and an origami swan.

Its neck was a bit too long, and the tail a bit too short, and its beak was tilted up, and its left wing was shorter than its right, and when it took to the air that caused it to have a limpy sort of off-kilter flight.

The letter read:

Dear Serena,

Sorry I haven't been writing.

I couldn't risk actually buying a necklace anything. So happy birthday. I made it myself. Sirius laughed at it when he saw it though, so if you throw it out I get it. I'd probably throw it out too.

Regulus Arcturus Black

P.S. Gifts. Wizards are definitely better at gifts; I've seen some of those toy tops and you-yous and those numbered bits of paper muggles think are "fun". Wizard gifts are just better. Even this stupid paper swan can at least fly by itself.

Serena decided that this had been the best present by far.

AN: What do you guys think about Sirius' and Regulus' relationship? I was gonna do a "day in the life" thing for each of my main humans, but then the whole summer turned into exploring just how messed up the Black family is.

Also- Serena's parents: good? Annoying? Over-the-top and ridiculous? Like you imagined or completely out of the blue?