AN: Here we go, last days of summer break. Are we ready to say by to Sirius and Remus?

Thanks SO much to Katherine my beta.

I own nothing.


Chapter 46

With less than a week to go till the first day of term, Diagon Alley was full of last minute shoppers frantically trying to secure everything they needed.

They started with robes. Mia and Gabe both needed to be refitted for new robes, and their school supplies list said they also needed dress robes. Gabe informed her he had a set that fit him he had to wear for an award his mother had won over the summer. Gabe tried to explain they were for special occasions, but Mia couldn't really picture it till he pointed out a set in the window of a shop. She thought the mens robes looked ok, but the womens robes didn't look like something Mia wanted to wear. They were hanging baggy and frumpy from the mannequin. When she asked the shop clerk about the options available, another witch a few years older than Mia, came over shaking her head.

"No dear, you don't want to get those here. You can send for a catalogue from Twilfitt and Tattings. Their Paris branch has the best robes and you can owl order everything." She looked over her shoulder at a wrack of gerish robes in the corner. "You don't want to wear anything you can find here. Trust me."

Mia frowned but thanked the woman. Maybe she would wait till they were at Hogwarts and she could see what her housemates had. If she needed something quickly, she could always sneak into Hogsmeade. She shivered at the thought of wearing the pea green polyester robes in the window.

Once they had their robes Mia looked over the other clothes sold in the shop, but shook her head. "Gabe, do you know where I can get normal clothes? I need new trousers and socks and things."

"There's a shop we go to on the east end."

Gabe led Mia through a part of Diagon Alley she hadn't been to before and she asked him to wait for her in a bookshop while she went in to buy clothes she was in desperate need of. She hadn't had new underthings in some time, and didn't want to buy them with an audience.

They went about their day and bought everything they needed. Books, quills, ink, potions ingredients.

They stopped for ice cream before returning to the Leaky Cauldron to floo home.

Mia asked Sirius if he wanted to order takeout from the diner in the village, and he agreed and invited Gabe to join. Gabe agreed. Since it was still early he decided to join Mia in her basement lab while she worked on the Ekrizdis potion. They laughed and joked as they always did, but Mia had an edge of tension about her as she worked on the potion. She wanted it to be a success.

As she turned off the flame, the potion turned a rich chocolaty brown and she sighed with relief.

"Did it work?" Gabe asked.

"I won't know till he takes it. But I did it right at least."

"How can you tell if you get a potion right before it's tested?" Gabe asked.

"The ingredients work together in a predictable way. You add one ingredient and it turns yellow, you stir a specific number of times and it turns red. If you know how it should turn out, then you know when you get it right. It's all magical reactions. They are complex, and predictable." Mia pulled a blue bottle off of a shelf and carefully funneled the still warm potion into it. When it was full she corked the bottle and cleaned the cauldron. She smiled softly at Gabe. "Let's hope it works."

Remus appeared, tired and pale, when they sat down for dinner. They told him about the events of the world cup, including the not so wonderful ending. His eyes lit just a little when Mia told him he had mail, and handed over the letter. It was perfectly sealed just as it had been when it arrived. Mia, Gabe and Sirius exchanged looks.

After they ate, Gabe said his goodbyes and headed home to unpack his shopping, and Remus returned to bed.

Mia followed Sirius into the kitchen as it got dark. He reached for the firewhiskey on top of the fridge and pulled it down. Mia took it from his hand before he could unscrew the lid.

"Woah there. I may be the poster child for bad choices, but I think fourteen is a little young for firewhiskey." Sirius said, a dark look in his hollow eyes.

"Do you trust me?" Mia asked.

Sirius scoffed. "Do you trust me?" he asked. Mia winced. "That's what I thought," he said, reaching for the whiskey.

Mia pulled it out of his reach and set it on the table. She held the slim blue bottle out to him. "One sip when it gets dark out. Two in the winter."

Sirius took the bottle from her and examined it closely. "Dreamless sleep potions don't work for me."

"That's not what this is."

Sirius uncorked the bottle and took a sniff. He shrugged and took a sip. His eyes widened when he swallowed. "Chocolate? Where did you find the recipe for this?"

It was Mia's turn to shrug.

"Experimenting on me now are you?"

"Maybe," Mia said. She didn't think he would approve knowing she'd asked Alec about him. Sirius let out a laugh. "Mixing this with alcohol will make you incredibly sick," she said seriously.

"Yes, healer Black," he said with a salute.

Mia sighed again. "Just try it for tonight, okay? If it doesn't work you can go back to your old method," she said, glancing at the whiskey.

Sirius' eyes softened and he nodded. "Thanks kid."

Mia nodded and turned towards the stairs. She hoped he listened to her, and she hoped the potion worked, but she wouldn't know for sure unless he listened and didn't drink.

The next morning Mia woke and made breakfast. Remus joined her a short time later and devoured the first of the sausage as it made it to the plate. Sirius joined after that, and both Mia and Remus were surprised to see him so awake and so alert. His eyes were bright, and he looked alive. He seemed just as surprised as they did as he sat down and loaded his plate with sausage and eggs. Mia was debating if it was her potion that had worked, or if Sirius had just taken a pepperup potion before coming down stairs. When he saw her looking, he winked, a grin on his face before he took a bite of his eggs.

Mia smiled and took a bite of her toast. The bottle she had given him would last him a month, and she could order ingredients to Hogwarts so she could keep him in stock like she planned with Remus' potion.

The last few days of the summer break Mia saw a huge shift in Sirius' person. His skin no longer looked pale and drawn, and the dark circles under his eyes didn't return with the night. During the day he seemed more at peace, less hyped up from the pepperup potion before the inevitable crash.

If Remus noticed a change he didn't say anything.

As the weekend approached, Mia started to feel a pain in her chest when she thought of leaving these two. She had started to grow comfortable in Sirius' presence, and she even enjoyed his company when they joked or ganged up on Remus. Somehow, without Mia realizing it, these two men had become her family, and she was sad to leave them.

Alec had taken a few pictures at the world cup, and gave copies to Mia and Sirius. They were wonderful. Sirius and Mia wearing their Ireland colors and waving little flags. Gabe chasing Mia though the frame with face paint, and Mia grabbing the paint stick and throwing it off the frame. Mia and Gabe with fireworks flashing in the background.

Mia asked Gabe if he could borrow the camera before term started, and she used it to document her last day with Remus and Sirius.

She woke up early on the first and took a long warm shower. Her trunk was packed, and Remus had added a feather light spell to make it bearable to move. She got dressed in the clothes she had set out the night before and looked around her room one last time. Her shamrock hat necklace and button sat on top of her wardrobe, and a small stack of pictures sat by her vanity. She picked up the pictures, one of her, Remus and Sirius, arm in arm and smiling bright was on top.

She smiled before she stuck them into the pages of her message book and tucked it into her trunk.

She looked up at the ceiling of her room, the sun just beginning to rise, and felt a pang of longing in her chest. Her mother must have been amazing to create something so wonderful. She wished she could have known her.

In her own library, she gave a final look over her books. She had everything she thought would be helpful with her secret project, but it felt strange to leave them behind. They had been her first friends at Hogwarts.

Finally she carried her trunk downstairs and ate a quick breakfast with Remus and Sirius. The men tried to look excited for the start of her term, but she knew them better now and could see the sadness standing out on the edges of their faces.

They took the floo to the Leaky Cauldron, and then took a muggle taxi to Kings Cross. On platform of 9 ¾ with the scarlet steam engine shining behind them, Mia wrapped her hands tightly in her shirt hem.

She wouldn't cry.

"Well, I guess this is it kid," Sirius said, a big fake smile on his face. "We will see you over Christmas, yes?"

Mia nodded.

"Try not to break too many rules this year, will you?" Remus asked. He gave her a big hug, and she held him tight. "And write often."

He stepped back and Mia looked at Sirius.

"And if you do break rules, make sure you don't get caught," he said with another grin. It started to turn down at the edges and Sirius leaned in slowly as if not sure she would accept a hug. She did and squeezed him back as hard as she could. "Thank you for everything kid. I will miss you something fierce," he whispered in her ear before breaking the hug and wiping at his eyes.

Mai nodded, not sure what to say. She grabbed her trunk, but she couldn't meet the eyes of either man. "I miss you both already," she said, her voice almost breaking as she turned and carried her trunk up the train. She looked back just once to see the two men standing there, their hands in their pockets watching her with identical red eyes. She waved and stepped through the door as tears filled her eyes.

She found an empty compartment and grabbed her message book before she stored her trunk in the racks. She let out a shaky breath and wrote the compartment number she was in so Gabe could find her. The pictures she had taken fell out of the book and landed in her lap. She looked over the smiling faces of her family and let the tears fall for just a moment before she brushed them away and tucked the pictures back safe in her book.


AN: And we are back on the Hogwarts Express, heading home for the school year. But is it still where Mia's heart is?

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