AN: Aaaaand we're back! I'm gonna try to keep to a weekly schedule, although things are a little crazy this Feb as I do a 3rd draft on my novel before I get it off to my editor. I'm so excited and nervous about this stage of publishing!

Thanks SO much to Katherine my beta.

I own nothing.

Chapter 41

A knock sounded on the open door jam and Mia looked up to see Gabe. Sirius didn't seem to stir.

"Do you want to do some exploring?" he asked.

Mia put down the notebook and stood up. "That sounds like fun." She turned to Sirius unsure. "Um.." Mia started.

Sirius turned his head and looked at her expectantly.

"Did you wanna go?" she asked.

Sirius smiled. "You two go have fun."

Mia smiled back softly and followed Gabe out of the tent.

"Did you notice he answers to 'um' now?" Gabe asked once they were out of sight of the tent.

Mia groaned and covered her face. "What am I going to do? It's been so long now calling him anything would just be even more weird!"

Gabe laughed and Mia shoved him causing him to almost fall into a moat surrounding a large stone grey tent. They walked for a while through the tents, pointing out the best of the oddities, a three story tent with battlements on top, gardens and swimming pools and dog houses outside.

"What if you just picked one and started calling him that, just see how he reacts. I bet it would only be weird the first or second time you address him. Just use it like four times in a conversation, and then you'll be fine," Gabe suggested.

"But what one do I use?" Mia asked.

"Well, I call my dad, dad. It's short and simple and easy to remember."

Mia glared at him.

"If that is too much of a commitment you could go with da. It's just a sound not even a full word."

"Can you take this seriously for a moment?" Mia asked.

"I am being serious!" Gabe complained. "If you just do it, it really won't be weird for long, then you avoid the weirdness of calling him Sirius and possibly hurting his feelings, or calling him Father and sounding like a prat."

Mia was quiet while she thought it over. Thinking about calling him dad made her stomach feel weird and then she felt anxious. Having a father wasn't just a switch she could flip inside of herself and then suddenly be ok with that close connection between them as if it had always been. It made her feel so anxious, she just froze up.

Mia sighed and they kept walking. They passed a large ornate tent made of silver and gold striped silk. Two albino peacocks were tethered at the entrance. Mia stopped and stared at the pale all white peacocks. She had seen them before, roaming the gardens of Malfoy Manor. Mia frowned. She didn't think Sirius would do well if he encountered his cousin.

"What's wrong?" Gabe asked.

"I think that's Draco's tent. Those peacocks, I recognize them. It's really close to us, I hope Sirius doesn't wander this way."

"Gold on silver silk? Yikes. I would be embarrassed to be related to someone in that mess too."

"That's no what I mean," Mia said. "He doesn't get along with his family. I mean, he was thrown in Azkaban for supposedly following You-Know-Who and Draco's family may actually follow him. It wouldn't be good for his state of mind, you know? Bring up bad memories."

"How do you think he'll do tonight?" Gabe asked.

Mia frowned. She wasn't sure. She was surprised he agreed to stay as it was, but when she told him the plan he'd just made a comment about not leaving her in a tent with suspicious characters and agreed to come. "Maybe he will just set a sound barrier or something. I don't know."

After they walked a distance, they returned to the tent for lunch in the form of roast beef sandwiches. When the food had all disappeared, they decided to take a walk closer to the stadium. Alec told them that was where the vendors usually set up shop, and it was decided shopping for merchandise and souvenirs would be in order.

Sirius was happy. It was weird.

Sometimes he would act happy and alert when really you could see the gloom hiding beneath the surface, but as they walked through the afternoon with the sun filtering through the trees, he looked downright chipper. Mia wondered if he'd taken another pepperup potion while she was gone. Mia also knew you couldn't exactly overdose on pepperup and that once the smoke wore off, there weren't any clear side effects, but she also knew Sirius, and how he tended to crash as the evening approached.

He seemed to get along great with Mr. Adewumi, and the two of them had been fast friends. Mia and Gabe returned to the tent to see them preparing lunch together and trading stories about past world cups and their adventures. During lunch, and later as they walked through the campsites towards the vendors yelling prices and trying to catch people's attention, she couldn't see the gloom or darkens waiting to return. She didn't think it was a particularly good sign. Coming here to a sporting event, even his favorite event wouldn't bring about such a change.

They stopped by vendors selling merchandise for the different teams first. Gabe bought a sparkling shamrock hat that shot shamrocks out the top every few moments that burst into raining green and gold glitter, a large shamrock pin kept changing to show different encouraging slogans like "Let's go!" and "You can do it!", and lastly he bought a big ridiculous chain of shamrocks that glowed and sparkled, and were to be worn in a huge bunch like a necklace. Mia shook her head at his purchase.

"You won't even be able to see with all that around your neck," she told him.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be able to see just fine," he said with a wicked grin.

Mia just frowned at him and helped Sirius pick out a shirt with an obnoxious shamrock on it.

At dinner, the normal Sirius she was used to began to seep to the surface. He stopped laughing and chuckling to every joke, and his humor returned to its sardonic and sarcastic tone. As the sun set his eyes darted frequently to the windows and he stopped responding unless spoken to. When Mr. Adewumi excused himself to the bathroom, Sirius took the opportunity to retire to their room. Alec and Gabe said nothing, but instead, Alec fished a container of chocolate ice cream from the icebox and started dishing up bowls.

"Alec, could I ask you a professional question?" Mia asked as the man slid a spoon her way and tossed one to his brother.

The question seemed to catch him off guard but he nodded. "Ask away."

Mia poked her ice cream a few times with her spoon and took a deep breath. "The potion for dreamless sleep is said to react badly for people with extreme and prolonged trauma. Is there anything else they can try?"

Whatever Alec was expecting, that didn't seem to be it. His eyebrows went up at her question and he had to take a moment to deal with the spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. When he was done he gave Mia a long look that said he knew more than she wanted him to.

"He needs to see a proper healer," he said at last.

"He won't go. The Ministry offered, but..." Mia shook her head, she didn't know how to express the stubbornness and pride mixed with his anger at the ministry, and the fear she saw when Remus mentioned healers. "He won't go."

Alec nodded. "There is a potion, but the ingredients alone are expensive and complex. It's not the type of potion anyone but a potions master should attempt."

"That's not a problem for her," Gabe said. "She can brew anything she puts her mind to."

Alec looked at his brother for a moment and then grinned. "Right, I forgot your summer potions project."

He chuckled and Mia wondered what he meant. Did he mean the Animagus potion? Gabe had brewed it at Alec's apartment, but Mia though he'd kept it a secret from his brother. Did his brother know they were both Animagi?

Alec pulled a chair out from the table and sat across from Mia and Gabe. "Right, so the problem is twofold." He ate a spoonful of ice cream before he continued. "There is trauma, and then there is what a dementor can do to you. It's deep. The deepest wounds a person can suffer. Put someone in that environment long term and they go mad. I have no clue how your dad didn't, but it shows he has a strong will and a strong mind."

Alec's warm brown eyes drilled into Mia. She wanted to say so much, how he struggled with the dark, how he never slept, how he drank too much, and how she too wanted to know what had possibly kept him sane, or if maybe he wasn't anymore. Maybe he was just good at pretending.

"Now, there is a potion, it's called the Ekrizdis potion. It will help to counteract the effects of the dementors toxins, but it won't remove dreams or memories, it just gives the patient a better chance at dealing with them. There is no instant cure for trauma, but time can help. Without the effects of the dementors, he will have a fighting chance to heal. When we get back I can copy out the recipe. If you have any questions on it we can meet up and talk."

"Thank you Alec," Mia said. She couldn't even say how much she appreciated it.

He grinned. "Anything for my baby brothers…" He glanced at Gabe. "Friend. Now eat your ice cream you two. They are doing fireworks down by the lake. Have you ever seen magical fireworks Mia?"

Mia had not seen magical fireworks before, and the descriptions Gabe and Alec gave excited her. She wolfed down her ice cream as quickly as possible. When Mr. Adewumi returned Mia excused herself to check on Sirius and invited him to the fireworks. He was sitting on the bed, bent over with his face in his hands. He looked up at her, his eyes haunted when she opened the door.

"We're going to go to the fireworks. Do you want to come?"

He shook his head, a grim expression on his face. "Will you be ok if I-"

He gestured with his head towards the front of the tent, and Mia didn't need to ask what he meant.

"Of course I will be." She tried to smile. "Go home to Remus, he will be having a hard night with the full moon tomorrow night. I'll be totally safe here."

Sirius seemed to relax as though a weight was lifted off his back. "I will be back tomorrow morning bright and early, alright?" he asked.

Mia nodded and grabbed a jacket from her bed. "Get some rest," she said before closing the door behind her.

She told the three waiting Adewumi men that Sirius planned on calling it an early night, and they set off into the dark woods. She didn't want to show Sirius' weakness to them even knowing they wouldn't judge him for it. It just felt too personal.

The fireworks were amazing. Truly magical in the muggle sense of the word. The fireworks took the shape of every creature imaginable, flying burning paths through the sky before exploding in a blaze of glitter and wonder.

AN: so what do you think? Will Mia ever be able to call Sirius anything to his face? Think the potion Alec recommended will help? And what about that other mysterious potions projet Mia has been thinking about?

If you have any interest in learning more about the Young Adult Fantasy book I am in the process of publishing, check it out at hmwrites {{dot}} com /misplacedchild