Christmas came and went quietly at Grimmauld Place; the only thing differing from the previous year was that Harry received gifts from both his aunt and cousin. Harry suspected his aunt picked out both gifts – model kits of a Hawker Hurricane and a Stuka dive-bomber – but Dudley had actually signed his own name on the gift tag on the Stuka. He, Sirius, and Remus spent an enjoyable day listening to holiday music, doing puzzles, and playing board games. At tea, Sirius told them he'd proposed to Diana and she'd accepted; they had to get the Queen's approval but would start making plans for the wedding once they had it.

The atmosphere at Buckingham Palace was tense, however. Prince Charles went into a snit when Diana approached his mother for permission to remarry, after the children had been sent to bed.

"You're the mother of my heir," he protested. "You ought to be focusing your attention on raising him, not on dating other men."

"We've been over this before, Charles," Di said through gritted teeth. "Her Majesty considers Sirius to be an acceptable person to be around our boys, so you have no grounds to object. Furthermore, the boys have met Sirius several times now and they like him." Her face softened a bit as she added, "When we first let them know Sirius and I were dating, Wills threatened Sirius if he ever was to hurt me. For his part, Sirius respected his concern for my well-being, and earned respect in return."

"Still, is it wise for Wills to be influenced by this person? I understand he rides a motorcycle, for heaven's sake," Charles said.

"Oh, do grow up, Charles," Prince Andrew put in. "Just because you don't want to ride anything but your polo ponies doesn't mean a motorcycle enthusiast is a bad influence."

Queen Elizabeth exchanged glances with Prince Philip and sighed. "Your jealousy is rather unbecoming, Charles, especially considering the circumstances behind your divorce. I've met with Lord Black and I do approve of him. He's not out to gain influence with our grandson; at least, not to gain influence besides the sort any man would want with his girlfriend's children, that of mutual respect and hopefully some affection. I do have some concerns that I would like to address with Lord Black himself before I write up the formal approval, but Diana, you may tell him that I'm not against the two of you marrying. And please let me know how soon the two of you can meet with me."

"I will, and thank you," Diana said with a grateful smile.

Charles huffed and went to the sideboard to pour himself a fresh drink, while Sarah with baby Eugenie in her arms pounced on Diana. "Did he give you a ring yet? May I see it?"

Diana showed the ring to Sarah, who squealed her approval of both the ring and the meaning behind the stones. The two young women chattered brightly while Charles continued to sulk and Andrew went back to the buffet table for more biscuits.

Her Majesty sighed once again. She murmured to Philip, "Perhaps I ought to keep a closer eye on William, especially if Charles persists in carrying on with Camilla. While there must be some changing with the times, and it may not be as unthinkable to have a divorced woman as consort as when my uncle chose to abdicate rather than be parted from Wallis, I can't help but wonder if the monarchy might be better served if he was to abdicate in favour of William. Still, there are several years to get through before a decision must be made."

*RW*RW*RW*

On 4 January, Stephen headed to the Ministry along with Lucius and Sirius. After some circulating and small talk with other Wizengamot members, Lucius contrived to introduce his younger cousin to Algernon Croaker of the Department of Mysteries.

"So, you're the fellow who convinced Lucius to modify his stance on muggleborn," the Unspeakable said with a hint of a smile. "For that deed alone, some say I ought to be recruiting you for our department. I understand you're aiming for the Department of International Magical Cooperation, though."

"I do hope to someday qualify for a position there," Stephen confirmed. "However, I believe that your department and that one might want to collaborate on a project in the immediate future. May I ensure our privacy for the moment?"

"Certainly," Croaker replied, looking intrigued.

Stephen drew his wand and put up a quick muffliato. "There, folks will know we're talking but they won't be able to make out our words," he said. "For reasons I'm not currently at liberty to divulge, although you and your department will know them at a later time, Lucius has been keeping me up to date about the efforts to find and cleanse certain artifacts created by You Know Who. He mentioned the notes you found, as well as your failure to decipher them, and something occurred to me. You Know Who was a Parselmouth. Is it possible that said notes are in a written form of Parseltongue? British culture fears the talent and considers it Dark, but other cultures feel otherwise. I had Hindu classmates during my Hogwarts years who laughed at the idea of Parselmouths being inherently evil; in India, Parselmouths are revered for their ability to warn snakes away from the villages, and indeed, are often taken into temples to further their education. As my classmates pointed out, Paracelsus was a Parselmouth and look at the advances he made in the art of healing."

Croaker was quick to pick up the implication. "So, we might want to contact the Ministry in India, see if they can send us a Parselmouth to have a look at the notes on the chance they can read them? It's certainly as good an idea as any I've heard lately. Goodness knows we've had experts in pretty much every ancient language you can think of to take a peek at them. We'd really hoped the Arabic chaps would be helpful, as the writings do resemble Arabic – we thought perhaps some sort of code, but in Arabic so that it didn't make sense to those of us who can read bits but aren't fluent, but no luck there. You might be onto something with that written Parseltongue idea, though, especially as it's known that You Know Who spent years traveling abroad. Merlin only knows what he picked up and where."

Stephen shrugged. "Well, I'm a bit young to have known that, but my muggle upbringing often gives me ideas that wouldn't occur to anyone raised in the wizarding world. As I believe I've finally managed to pound into Lucius's head, it's not that one is better than the other, they're just different and sometimes those differences can be of benefit. Certainly Lucius and Narcissa wouldn't have had their daughter without the help of muggle healing techniques. On the other hand, muggles can't mend broken bones overnight and wizarding techniques can."

"True enough," Croaker agreed with a nod. "Well, if we're going to speak to India, I'd best get over to speak with Barty Crouch before the session opens, let him now what I need and why. I'm sure he'll argue me to death over it, because that's what he does. But he'll go along with me in the end, because he hated You Know Who with a passion only exceeded by Alastor Moody and he's been in a strop ever since Lord Black was exonerated and Pettigrew captured. If he thinks he can help keep You Know Who from returning, you can bet he'll help."

"Good to know," Stephen said with a smile, ending the muffliato spell with a flick of his wand. "And it was good meeting you, sir."

"Good meeting you as well, and if you ever do change your mind, you'd be quite welcome in my department as well as Barty's."

"I'll certainly give it some thought."

*RW*RW*RW*

For Harry and Draco, school quickly returned to the usual routine following the holiday break. Ms. St. Claire announced there would be a science fair just before the Easter break, and that she expected each student to contribute a project to display, which would account for half their mark for the term. The two boys, along with Lucy, Surya, and Paul, headed straight for the Little Whinging library after classes, to go over their science texts and research projects to do.

"One thing n-not to do," Paul said, "the v-v-volano model, with the vinegar and soda lava. T-two to six p-people do it every year b-because it's e-easy, and it's h-horribly messy besides."

"Yes, Mum would have a fit if I wanted to do one of those," Surya laughed. "Especially because my brother Kumar did that for his science project back when he was our age. I was just born then, but Mum brought up the mess he made with it for years. I think he was ready to sit his A-levels before she left off."

"I'd like to do something with electricity," Draco said. "Maybe wire up one of those displays with the little Christmas fairy lights and make them blink in sequence."

"Oh, that's a good idea," Harry said. "I might do something with cooking. How yeast reacts with different feeders, perhaps."

"I'm g-g-going to build a model Archemedes screw," Paul said. "I c-can't do electricity or a-anything that could hurt the l-little ones if they got into it, Mum would k-kill me."

"What's an Archemedes screw?" Draco wanted to know.

"It m-moves water uphill by g-g-gravity," Paul said, showing an illustration in a book. "It d-does need some m-muscle power to turn, but it was a h-huge improvement over c-c-carrying buckets uphill."

Lucy nodded. "I might as well do some sort of presentation on leukaemia and how chemotherapy works. If I've had to live through it all, I might as well get some use out of it. What about you, Surya?"

The Indian girl grinned. "I got a budgie over the holidays. I'll do presentation on teaching him to talk or do tricks. Once I've taught him some, that is."

The friends all chuckled at that and settled in to do their homework before heading home for the evening. Before they left, though, Paul asked, "What d-does your budgie l-look like?"

Surya smiled. "The man at the pet shop said he was a cobalt banded pied. So he's the usual cobalt blue body with a white face and black and white wings, but he's got a white 'belt' about his middle, including the long feathers of his wings, plus a little all-white patch on the back of his head or neck – it's a bit hard to tell sometimes, where the head ends and the neck begins, you know?"

"Yeah," they all agreed as they split up to head their separate ways.

Harry ended up back at the library after dinner, helping Dudley pick out his own project for the science fair after discouraging him from choosing to do the volcano model. Harry suggested a relatively simple project about the different densities of various juices that Dudley decided looked brilliant, especially as the end result to show off in the fair was a striped drink of several different juices of differing densities layered into a tall glass.

*RW*RW*RW*

In February, at Her Majesty's request, Sirius started volunteering part time at the Landmark AIDS Centre in Tulse Hill, giving him a place where the press could find him on a regular basis. She hoped that between him doing some office-keeping there, and his purported handling of 'family ivestments' he wouldn't end up overwhelmed by the paparazzi when he and Diana announced their engagement on Valentine's Day. They planned to wed quietly at the start of the Easter break, so that the princes and Harry could attend without missing school. Sirius would move into Diana's apartment at Kensington Palace; when he gained custody of his godson, Harry would also be made welcome there. Remus would remain at 12 Grimmauld Place to keep the place up for Sirius, and Stephen would also move in there at the end of the school year when the lease on his Little Whinging house finished.

At the science fair in April, Paul's Archemedes screw won first place overall, while Harry's yeast project illustrated with loaves of sourdough bread, quick bread, and yeast bread earned him third place. Draco, Lucy, and Surya all made honourable mention for their projects (top three in each classroom that didn't place in the overall competition) as did Dudley, who, to the surprise of all of them, came over to thank Harry.

"Hey, erm, I just wanted to say thanks, y'know?" Dudley said awkwardly to his cousin. "I woulda done the volcano thing if you hadn't told me not to, and I saw nobody that did the volcano got really good marks on it, 'cause it's so easy. I know I whinged some about finding something else to do, but you were right, and this is the best mark I ever got for science, so thanks."

"You're welcome," Harry barely had time to say before Dudley vanished again.

"Wow, between the lost weight and the found manners, he might not be Pig-boy anymore," Surya said. "Any idea what changed, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "Well, like I said before, the weight loss started after he broke his leg last year. The manners, though, that's more recent. Aunt Petunia admitted to him that she and Uncle Vernon had been wrong in how they treated me for all those years, taking out their dislike of my parents on me, and I guess it just finally started to sink in that he wasn't doing himself any favours treating people like he was doing. That, and he enjoys his boxing lessons, so Aunt Petunia finally has something to hold over his head for his good behaviour – she can always stop the lessons if he's too much of a prat!"

Everyone laughed.

*RW*RW*RW*

Sirius and Diana's wedding took place the Saturday after the science fair, within her apartment in Kensington Palace as they both wanted it to happen as quietly as possible. For Di's part, she'd had the huge fairy-tale extravaganza when she married Charles and didn't want a fuss this time around. Sirius was just happy to be able to marry her and didn't feel the need to make a production of it either. Remus stood up with Sirius, while the Duchess of York was Di's matron of honour. Harry, the princes, Prince Andrew, the Malfoys, and Di's family were the only guests. By keeping it quiet, the couple managed to avoid too many reporters nosing into the status of their relationship, and the Queen would give a brief statement announcing the marriage only after the newlyweds departed for their week-long honeymoon.

After the ceremony, while everyone grabbed plates of nibbles from a buffet, Harry asked where they'd be going.

"Remember where I took you that first day we met?" Sirius asked. "Black Oak Hall, the hunting lodge up in Yorkshire. Since we're only going to have a week, we decided we just wanted privacy rather than a grand trip anywhere. We'll ride up there and it'll just be the two of us until it's time to come back here."

Harry smiled. "Oh, the Sense and Sensibility house! Yes, I remember. That's a good place to be alone for a bit."

"My boys will be off at Highgrove with Charles whilst we're gone, so they'll be fine without me about for a time," Diana added. "I understand you'll be spending time with Remus and the Malfoys?"

"Yes, as Dudley's Aunt Marge wants to visit," Harry said. "She's never liked me, so it's best if I'm not there when she comes 'round, so Aunt Petunia doesn't have to try to keep her from saying rude things to me."

Sirius shook his head. "Gotta love it when the so-called adults are more childish than the children," he grumbled.

Remus laughed. "You would know, you old dog. How many times did you declare you might have to age but you weren't ever going to grow up? What changed your mind?"

"Only the two most important people in my life to date," Sirius retorted. "Harry, and Diana. I have to set a good example for him, and I want to be the best I can be for her."

Remus smiled, his expression warming. "You really did grow up, didn't you?" he said. "James and Lily would be so happy for you."

Sirius gave his friend a brief hug. "They would. And just so you know, I have every intention of being happy for you one of these days. Be prepared, Moony, be prepared."

Remus just rolled his eyes, refraining from adding the rude gesture that would be his normal response to a declaration of that sort. "Whatever. Go enjoy your honeymoon, Pads, and don't forget to check in when you two get back."

"We will, and don't you bury yourself in the house working the whole time we're gone either. Take Harry and Draco to the cinema or something, give Lucius and Narcissa a bit of a break. And I'm sure the boys will love it, too. Cissy can't really take Aurora to places like the cinema yet, and Lucius still isn't comfortable doing so without us there to make sure he's not getting anything wrong," Sirus said.

"I will that," Remus said with a grin. "I'm sure there will be something good playing somewhere."

The two men continued to chat while Diana bid her sons farewell. She hugged them tightly and kissed them on the forehead. "All right, loves, I want you to have a good time with your father at Highgrove this week, all right? I'm sure you'll have polo lessons and go fishing and have all sorts of fun," she said. "And I'll see you back here a week from tomorrow."

"We will, Mummy," Wills said with a smile. "And Grandmother said she's going to have us to Sandringham for tea with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Sarah, too."

"That sounds splendid!" Di enthused. "I know you'll enjoy it, especially as I think there's going to be new corgi puppies."

"Mummy," little Harry put in, "I'm glad you and Sirius got married, 'cause he makes you happy. I know Daddy's happy when he's with Camilla, so how come she doesn't get divorced so she and Daddy can marry and be happy?"

Diana paused. "I'm afraid I can't read minds, luv, so I don't know why Camilla hasn't yet gotten a divorce. But do me a favour and don't ask. It's a terribly personal question and Daddy won't be pleased if you ask it. You don't want him to ban you from the polo ponies, do you?"

"No," little Harry agreed. "Have fun on your honeymoon!" He hugged his mother once more, as did Wills, and the two princes darted across the room to stand by Harry and Draco as Sirius placed Diana's coat over her shoulders.

"Ready to be off?" he asked.

She smiled softly. "More than ready," she said, giving him a quick kiss. They threaded their way out of the apartment to the well-wishes of their guests. Once outside, Sirius seated Di in his Porsche and hopped in beside her. They drove to Grimmauld Place, where they took the floo to Black Oak Hall.

The guests at Kensington continued to mingle for another hour or so before the party started to break up. Prince Andrew and Sarah collected Wills and Harry to get them off to Highgrove, while the Malfoys took Remus and Harry back to Wiltshire with them and the Spencers headed for Althorpe. They all agreed that it was a lovely little wedding, and hoped the inevitable headlines would be favourable.