"I have my full complement of teachers. If you were looking for a position, Mrs Frobisher, I'm afraid to say

that Tabitha Penwright was fortunate in her application."

Behind his desk at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore busied his fingers with a feather quill pen.

"I wish her luck," replied Cecilia, sighing inwardly with relief. She knew she would have agreed to teach if he'd asked her but now she was not required and it had steeled her decision.

"Now she hasn't got her ministry work to consider" Dumbledore continued, "I'm sure she'll be an asset to the school. And of course now, rhere are many of the old Order members on hand should we need them. I am not sure many of them will know what to do with their time now the Order is no more."

"I am sure things will crop up," replied Cecilia. "Mr Weasley has the rest of the railways of Britain to explore

with Kingsley." She wondered if she had caught Dumbledore trying to momentarily suppress a smile. The wizard looked at her impassively. You're good, thought Cecilia to herself, tryng to convince me my mind's playing tricks. She grinned.

"How about Harry?"

"He has declined his Aunt's offer to live at Privet Drive. I'm afraid one cannot change much which is ingrained in history and habit, Mrs Frobisher. " And dimension, Cecilia thought to herself. The

Petunia she had known, Petunia Black, would have been the aunt Harry would have wanted, and should have had. She sighed, reminding herself that here it was not to be. He is going to live with his godfather.

"And I believe Draco Malfoy is a young wizard not to be underestimated?" Draco. The boy who had hated her and who had turned out to be so pivotal in the end.

"He has his own mind, Professor, we should never underestimate the young."

"Indeed." Dumbledore put down the quill. Cecilia's eye looked at it. Surely, phoenix feather?

"May I ask you about Severus?"

"You may ask him himself. I believe his fervent wish was to speak to you as soon as you were ready."

"In that case," Cecilia said, getting up from the chair.

"Oh, one more thing. I would be delighted to accept yours and Remus's invitation for this afternoon's wedding. The castle can provide for your reception, as it has done for thousands of years for wizarding couples."

"I will tell Remus," Cecilia said simply, the weight of what was to be organised pressing on her chest. Then, she turned back. "Thank you, Albus, for everything."

And then he watched her go.

Cecilia.

He thought he'd seen every wonder the world had to offer and then he had employed Mrs Frobisher.

88888888

"You talked about co-dominant genes." Snape had returned the DNA traces back to the card folder whence they had come.

"I'll offer to test it on myself," Cecilia began. "Do you really think someone coiuld be made into a wizard?" Snape considered Cecilia's question.

"We discussed a continuum at the cottage and you said time was a factor."

"It's the factor. All it takes is for anyone with a trait to – no!" she protested "No. And yet you tried yourself, there, in the other place. Was it successful? Cecilia? Was it successful? You are the only person who has…will ever have…tried it…"

"I have reason to think temporarily it was." She looked beyond him, at the burn stain on the sandstone wall behind Snape. "You have Tonks, and Nick, there are several others like them."

"Come back and work here, Cecilia," Snape implored her suddenly. Cecilia felt her face blush. She had come down to see Snape to invite him to the standing stones where, in little over three hours she would be Mrs. R J Lupin. She might have known Severus would try to convince her to work with him again.

"No. I cannot. My work is to be with Remus and support him, and our son when he's born." Because of...

..I can hear your thoughts... Cecilia folded her arms, defiantly.

"Then don't!"

What will he be? Cecilia thought. Snape raised a dark eyebrow.

Que se ra se ra.

Look, whether you legillemence me or not, what I choose to do with my time will be my decision and it won't be this, Cecilia thought back, insisrtently.

Instead of thinking, Snape said, "So, why are you here then?"

Through her mind the image of the non-wizard floo powder, and a flit of a face through her mind.

"Remus said I should come. He said I should do what makes me happy."

"He knows you well." Snape held up the residue of Harry's potion. "He knows that you won't rest with something on your mind."

"Tying magic and science together?" Cecilia scoffed. "You've done that, many tmes over Severus. It really is the art of the wize. Truly, the art of the wisest."

"If I could obtain traces especially of non-wizards in a wizard environment, to check whether the trace changes from a muggle to when the muggle was exposed to magic, would that sound like a valid path down which to tread? If I have a trace of a muggle before their exposure, then after several years exposure?" Cecilia nodded.

"And Tonks would be able to help, Nick Smith would run the analysis for you." She turned to go. But then, stepped next to him and took the traces. "Thank you, Severus," Cecilia said, kissing his cheek.

"For what, exactly?"

"My future. You will be there, won't you?"

"Castlerigg stone circle?" Snape repeated. Cecilia nodded.

You'll be back, Cecilia Frobisher, Snape thought to himself. He watched her go, her hair bouncing in all its radiant motherly beauty. Held up a strand which he had stroked off her clothes. You'll be back. We both know you will.

"No," Cecilia called back. "I will not."

Well, I think you've demonstrated residual magic with that legillimency, Mrs soon-to-be Lupin, Snape thought.

As Cecilia stepped out into the courtyard of the school, she considered the weather. It was a day not dissimilar to that on which she had arrived, on the steps of 12, Grimmauld Place, when it had all began, unaware that Rubeus Hagrid was watching her. It had been he who had delivered the letter

which had asked Mrs Frobisher to first meet the Order last year. And now he was watching her

leave. She had done her work. He would miss her.

Walking over to the broom store, the non-wizard floo powder brought her to the aforementioned place. She hadn't seen him properly since he had accompanied Remus back to the cottage, nor the night before, when he was still in his animagus form. Sirius was busy tidying up the ex-Order headquarters as she crackled into existence on the rug before the fireplace.

"I've officially been exonerated," Sirius said, when he'd invited her for a glass of water and a sit down on the newly-cleaned settee. "So it felt the right time to give the Black family house a tidy up, now Harry's going to be living here."

"Not too much," Cecilia said.

"Oh no," Sirius said, airily. "It'll still be suitably gothic. I can't quite bring myself to get rid of the oak panelling. I suppose you get used to things." He waited for Cecilia to ask what she was going to ask. But, he didn't expect what he heard.

"Thank you, Sirius," she said. "For everything. You were so loyal to Harry."

"Ah now, look at you," Sirius nodded, at her stomach. "A new life into the world. I'll babysit for him or her when they arrive."

"Wen he comes," Cecilia replied.

"Or she," Sirius added.

"Or he. By the way," Cecilia added. But Sirius interrupted.

"Cecilia," Sirius sighed, leaning back a little. "I was wrong about you."

"And I about you."

"I said it made no difference for your love for him. But to be honest,you went through an odyssey, most literally. That convinced me, for one."

"And you thought of Harry, that's more than a parent ever would."

They both lapsed to silence. Cecilia felt her cheeks reddening for she still had two more things to ask of Sirius Black.

"Sirius," said Cecilia, uneasily. "I know Remus wants to ask you hinself, so can you act surprised?"

"About what?"

"And we know you are Harry's godfather, so we understand that you may not wish to be one to him."

It took a good thirty seconds for Sirius to figure out what she was trying to say. Then, he took her by the shoulders, hugging her closely.

"Cecilia," he beamed, "I would be honoured. Like I am honoured this afternoon. They lapsed into silence. Then, Sirius asked, "Did you know Snape has asked Tabitha to jump the fire?" She shook her head.

"That is something," she nodded. She closed her eyes for a moment.

"But something is still bothering you?" Sirius asked.

"I was a mother for twelve years there, and I made an awful job of it - " Cecilia beoke off Not even Dumbledore knew what she had been through, not even Lindvald - Aloysius. This baby she was carrying was Septimus, and she had made an awful job of being a mother to him.

"Is that whars worrying you?" Sirius asked, taking her hand. "That place you went to was different to here; circumstances were different, Remus was different." Cecilia nodded, and noticed a sadness in his face. It was coming to an end, this strong relationship of support, Sirius helping him at the time he was a werewolf, sharing those experiences together.

"Remus will still need you after this," said Cecilia. "You are what is left of the Marauders; you give Harry meaning to carry on. You have been friends for so long, nothing will take away his friendship from you, Sirius. Not even me. Sirius..." Cecilia's tone changed, "would you come over, sometimes, to see Remus?I know you don't need to go out any more. I know it would mean a lot, you keeping him company."

"Of course," Sirius nodded, taking her hand again, noticing Remus;s grandmother's brooch. "You can't have him all to yourself." He laughed, and so did Cecilia. It was good to be in his company again. He could be devastatingly charming. But this time, after the Ministry, and keeping up the pretence of disliking her for so long, Cecilia knew his words were genuine.

"Just, when I do, keep yourself safe, you and ..." he trailed off, pressing a palm lightly her stomach, and smiling a little. And then, Sirius handed her a vial, a small one, the residue of the red-blue potion sticking to the inner walls of the glass.

"He didn't take it all. Severus had the rest. He is even now in the process of recreating it."

"For what?"

"For my second godson," Sirius explained, placing a hand on her stomach once more. And then, Cecilia kissed his cheek before getting up and standing by the fireplace.

"See you later," smiled Sirius, then watched her floo back to the cottage.