(I don't own Harry Potter or it's characters, just this fanfiction's plot)

It had been a relatively normal day in Germany. Harry had woken up well after his father, eaten his breakfast, and had caught lizards and worms in the garden for the rest of the morning.

That is, it was a normal morning until his father bounded out the back door, a huge smile on his face; followed closely behind by Harry's favorite cousin, Nymphadora.

"Wotcher, Hades!" She called, running over towards him. Nymphie's hair was beautiful mixture of red, yellow, blue, and green today. "You'll never guess what happened."

"You found a talking lizard in your attic and it wants to start a rebellion."

Laughing, Nymphie shook her head. "No, silly! I got my Hogwarts letter! Today! It's addressed to my room and everything!"

Taking it out, Nymphie let Harry look at it, despite the fact he still couldn't read English yet.

"We're planning on going shopping tomorrow," Nymphie continued babbling. "Mum says you and Uncle Siri are welcomed to come, we'll make a day of it."

"Are you gonna get a wand?" Harry asked, the thought of having his own wand sounded particularly amazing.

"Yup!" Nymphie confirmed, her hair lightening to a golden color. "And mum says I can pick my own cat or toad. I'd rather have a cat, toads are kind of gross."

Giggling, Harry picked up one of the worms he'd dropped that hadn't quite gotten back in the ground. He held it up to Nymphie, causing her to scream and jump back.

Sirius leaned against the doorframe, grinning as he watched his son chase his niece around the garden. It reminded him of when he and Andy were younger.

Harry held his head high as they walked into the Leaky Cauldron's main area, as even at just four years old he knew how he was supposed to behave in public better than most half-bred adults. At least that's what his Aunt Narcissa told him, anyways.

His daddy gripped his shoulder, while Auntie Andy had Nymphie hold her hand while Uncle Ted led them from the pub, ignoring the stares following them.

"I think we should get her robes picked out first," Andromeda said. "That way they can be finished for us when we are on our way out."

"I don't know," Ted said, brushing his blond hair out of his eyes. "I'd kinda like to get the apothecary out of the way, it's terribly smelly in there."

"I want to get my cat first," Nymphie piped in, only to be ignored by her parents.

"Well I suppose Nymphadora and I could head on over and get that done.." Andromeda said, then turned towards Sirius. "Could you and Hades could go to Flourish and Blotts for her books? I know you have your own shopping, but there's this author having a book signing there and-"

"Wait, you mean Gilderoy Lockhart?" Nymphie asked, her hair flushing bright pink.

Blinking, Andromeda nodded. "He's selling this new werewolf book, honestly I don't-"

Nymphadora turned to Sirius, "Oh can I go with you? I love Lockhart's stories and I'd do just about anything to meet him in person."

Sirius laughed awkwardly, "He's really not that special. I went to school with him and he was honestly full of himself-"

Harry watched Nymphie's hair change from pink to orange, and he covered his ears when she squealed.

"Oh please introduce me to him! I'll be good I swear-"

"None of that," Ted said, obviously not liking his daughters obvious crush on the author. "You will go with your mother as planned, I don't want to hear any arguments."

"But-"

"No, you heard your father."

Nymphadora's hair drained black, and her eyes clouded to a stormy grey color. "Okay.."

"Here," Sirius offered, hoping to lift the mood. "Why don't I go pick one of his new books up for you? I'll get it signed and everything."

It worked, Nymphie's hair returned to a bright yellow and she hugged Sirius around the neck. They got a few odd looks from those who didn't believe Blacks were capable of affection.

Ted scowled, but a look from Andromeda reduced him to simple muttering. Oh the woes of fathering a daughter.

Sirius shoved people out of his way as he entered Flourish and Blotts. Merlin's tits the entrance was crowded as hell.

He led Harry over to a corner, bending down to meet his eyes as he said, "You may go look through the kiddies section while I get Nymphie's books. What are our rules?"

"If it looks like it'd belong in one of our libraries, don't touch it." Harry replied, sounding bored. He repeated the phrase many times..

"Good lad," Sirius said, ruffling his hair. "Go on and have some fun, maybe look for something extra to give to Ceres this weekend."

Harry murmured an acknowledgement before he ran towards the back, looking for the picture books.

Sirius sighed, now he had to wait in that horrible line for Nymphadora.

It wasn't as bad as Sirius was expecting. Lockhart probably had some sort of body guard to escort the wine mom's out after they got their copies.

"Ah, I'm surprised to see you here, Black." Lockhart said, flashing him a smile. "Pleasantly, of course, but surprised none the less."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "I'm here for my niece, you know how little girls are."

Laughing, Lockhart opened a book, "Sure you are, and what might her name be?"

"Nymphadora," Sirius said. "It's spelt 'Nymph' then an 'a' then 'Dora- yeah like that. Thanks."

Sirius was surprised when Lockhart handed him two, "I didn't-"

"Please, on me." He flashed him another smile. "I've been told my stories can be quite.. captivating."

Face feeling warm, Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'll bet."

Lockhart, either ignoring or not hearing the sarcasm, flipped his hair unnecessarily out of his eyes. "You know, with my sudden rise to fame and all, I've been going to more and more glorious parties as of late."

"Oh, have you?"

"Yes, though you probably haven't noticed. You Black's don't attend events hosted by lesser blood, do you?"

Sirius sputtered, "Wh-what?"

"It's just an observation." Lockhart said, gaze calculative. Under all his flaunts and grandeur, it was easy to forget just who he was. "One I find strange, given your public claims to support muggle and half-blood rights."

Sirius felt the flush leave his face in a rush, leaving him an unhealthy pale. "I only attend the events I do because my family hosts them, there really isn't anything else to it."

"Yes, but it isn't how it looks, is it?"

Sirius should've seen this coming. Granted, he could at least give Lockhart props on having the gall to call him out on his supposed evil deeds to his face.

Lockhart handed him the books, fingers lingering over his own. Sirius reapplied his mask of indifference, "It's not exactly like I'm often invited to such events in the first place."

Lockhart chuckled at that, "I don't think many have the spine to hold up the quill and attempt writing the invite. Though, I myself don't believe that's necessary at this moment. I will be attending McNair's Gala at the end of the month, and I would be happy to give you the honor of accompanying me."

Scratch that. Sirius could strangle the pompous arse for having the audacity to try this shit. He could safely say Lockhart was either so self-confident in his newfound fame that he had no fear about an ex-Death Eater murdering him out of spite, or he never believed Sirius to be one in the first place.

Sirius would bet his wand on the first, because he doubted Lockhart would bet his life on the latter.

"I'll have to speak with my grandad first," Sirius replied evenly. "I wouldn't want to have to cancel if my family had something else planned, you see."

Raising an eyebrow, Lockhart continued to grin at him. "Do you have to ask your grandaddy everytime you wish to have fun?"

Sirius turned up his nose in a haughty way, "Of course not!"

"Then I'll be seeing you on the first."

Sirius didn't deigned Lockhart worthy of a respite. Hades was probably bored out of his mind waiting on him by now, anyways.

Harry walked around the shelves, scanning the book spines to see if one might catch his eye when he accidentally bumped into someone.

While Harry might have been trained from a young age to walk and talk with a certain grace, he was still four. Thus, he was unable to fight gravity and fell rather pitifully on his rump.

Groaning, he looked up to see a tall, ragged looking man with light brown hair. He was a bit intimidating, what with all his scars.

"Are you okay?" He asked, bending down, and that's when Harry saw he was wearing an employee uniform. "Any scraped or bruises?"

"I'm fine." Harry turned his head up haughtily, "I only fell because you were standing in the middle of the.. of the book-way!"

The man looked around, "Where's your mum?"

Harry stood up, dusting his robes off. "I don't have one, daddy's getting Nymphie her books."

"Oh," The man face twisted in a way Harry wasn't used to, sympathy. "I lost my mum when I was little, so you're not alone."

Harry had never felt so confused in his life, "But I didn't lose my mum, I just don't have one."

The man looked like he wanted to say something before he shook his head, straightening back up. "Well, is there anything you're looking for? Can you read yet?"

"In German," Harry answered, "And no, not really."

"Hmm.." The man looked around, before grabbing a little picture book. "I'm not sure if we have anything in German, but these picture books are pretty universal."

Harry took it and after deciding that yes, it was probably safe to read, sat at the little table and opened it up. It was a little story about a girl finding out she was a witch, and Harry soon forgot all about the shaggy man restocking the shelves.

"Hades," He heard his father call. Looking over to see him walking over, "We have what we need, let's go check.."

Sirius stopped short when he locked eyes with Remus, feeling like the heat had been zapped from the room.

He looked a bit tired, maybe even more ragged than before- but there was no mistaking those amber eyes. He'd recognize them anywhere.

"You look well," Sirius said after a while, biting the inside of his cheek.

Remus gritted his teeth, "Save it for someone who gives a damn about what you think."

Sirius flinched, "I wrote to you- I'm not sure if you got my letters.."

"Oh I got them," Remus shoved a book back onto the shelf. "Made nice kindle for my fireplace."

His lip curled when he saw the book he was holding, "Suppose it makes sense you'd read that rubbish."

Sirius's face flushed, "This is for my niece-"

"And she needs two books, does she?"

Harry looked between the two, before collecting the story book and walking over to his father.

"Daddy, I think CeCe might like this."

Sirius tried for a smile, bending down to look at the book. "Hmm.. The Little Witch? You sure?"

"Mhm!" Harry grinned, "It only has pictures, so we can read it together!"

Sirius looked up at Remus, "I hope he didn't bother you too much, he usually doesn't take to strangers."

Remus lip thinned, "Considering I wouldn't have guessed he were your child, I'd say he were an angel."

"I am sorry," Sirius said. "I know you don't believe me, but I am."

"A Death Eater with a moral conscious?" Remus scoffed, "And here I thought I'd seen everything."

"Is there a problem here?" Blotts, one of the owners, asked.

Sirius, knowing full well that if he complained they'd fire Remus, shook his head. "Just making sure this book is in the right language, your employee is just assisting us."

Nodding, Blotts looked a bit disappointed. Hmm, he must have started having his suspicions of Remus..

Watching him walk off, Sirius startled when he heard Remus growl. "You didn't have to do that."

Sirius turned, standing up straight and setting a hand on Harry's head. "I know, but I didn't want to give them the excuse."

Remus scoffed, rolling his eyes as he started restocking again. "Whatever."

After they left the bookstore, Sirius made his way over to Magical Menagerie; a store which sold various magical creatures, including half-kneazles.

Sirius's guess had been correct, after getting her robe size measured and potion supplies, Nymphie had talked her parents into taking her to get her cat. The trio were looking through the cages when Sirius and Harry walked through the door.

Harry's covered his ears and scrunched his nose up, the room was very loud and very smelly. Though he soon found that ignorable when he laid eyes on the kittens.

Sirius, realizing Harry was about to terrorize the poor things, set a hand on his shoulder to stop him from running over.

"Daddy look-" Harry began but was cut off when his father held his hand up.

"Yes, but before you go over there we need to discuss how you are to behave around them." Sirius began. "They're babies, so you must be quiet and are not to pull on their tails or ears. Understand?"

Harry nodded, but Sirius made him look at him.

"Hades."

"Yes Daddy," Harry answered, and Sirius let him go with a grin.

After a while of petting the half-kneazle kittens, Nymphie picked out a calico one and named her Misty. Sirius didn't particularly like cats, the sole exception having been Lily's cat Elvendork. He still didn't know what happened to him..

They decided to get some ice cream before getting Nymphie's wand. Ted taking the kids over to a table while Sirius and Andromeda went inside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour to give their orders.

"What can I get for you?" Florean asked, doing his best to seem unaffected by Sirius's presence.

"Two cones with chocolate ice cream, one cone with strawberry ice cream, and a vanilla cone please." Andromeda replied, smiling as the man went to work on that.

Leaning against the counter, Sirius sighed. Remus having reminded him of a particularly distasteful subject.

"Sickle for your thoughts?" Andromeda asked, eyes flicking over his dejected form.

Sirius gave a shrug. "I'm not sure if you'd be unbiased enough to really help me."

"Try me," Andromeda challenged. She waved her wand to keep eavesdroppers from listening in. "Worst I can be is disappointed in you."

Sirius sighed, "Grandad wants to start Harry on his lessons this year and.. Well, I haven't- I can't make up my mind about some.. aspects of his curriculum."

"The dark arts."

"Yes. He says Hades needs to be able to protect himself, and I want to say no but.. He's not wrong."

Andromeda nodded, "Then agree."

"What?" Sirius straightened up.

"I learned the dark arts, as did you, and we both turned out fine." She looked out the window, where Nymphie was chasing Harry around the tables, the pair being a couple of menaces. "And Nymphadora knows a couple of darker curses and hexes. So long as Hades understands they are only for self-defense, there's nothing wrong with it."

Sirius nodded, not having expected his cousin to actually agree with his grandfather. "I guess there isn't much to say about the matter, is there?"

"Something's bothering you," Andromeda stated. "Come on, out with it."

"It's about James and Lily." Sirius rubbed a hand over his face. "They hated the dark arts, and here I am about to consent to.. To a child learning them."

"Your child, who may very well need them one day." Andromeda squeezed his shoulder, gently rubbing soothing circles into his skin. "You can't live your life trying to make them happy, otherwise you'll be miserable. Honor their memory by keeping Hades safe."

Sirius sighed, he truly, utterly hated it when she was right.

Tonksie is going to Hogwarts :D our little Hufflepuff is growing up, and her first crush!

But in all seriousness, this chapter was a lot of fun to write! Remus got to meet Harry, Sirius got to talk to Andromeda about Harry's schooling, and Ted was properly introduced :)

If you're confused as to why Remus didn't somehow recognize Harry, consider a) Remus didn't know James as a toddler and Harry does look like he could be Sirius's biological son, b) he believes Harry to be with his muggle relatives, and c) that rage is a hell of a blinder

Hope you enjoyed! Please let me know what you think, like, and share!