Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Seventy-Three

Home Again

Sirius sighed deeply as he sat down in his chair in the living room of Grimmauld Place; he was even too tired to walk through the cabinet doors that would lead to his house in the Muggle world. He had just returned from a long meeting with the Head of the Auror Department, Rufus Scrimgeour, and he was feeling particularly frustrated. It seemed the Head Auror thought that Sirius should have done more to catch the rat. Though he himself felt the same way, he didn't like the fact that Scrimgeour didn't seem to care at all that Harry was in danger and he had chosen to protect the boy rather than try and catch the criminal. Scrimgeour also didn't seem to take the presences of the Dementors as being the real reason why the rat got away. "Pettigrew should have been even more effected by the Dementors than you and the other," Scrimgeour said dismissively. "You, on the other hand, should have done more to secure your prisoner than worrying about the Dementors!"

"Stupid, Bloodly Git!" Sirius howled from his chair, wishing he could have just said that to the git's face, but he held his tongue, which probably saved his job, but did nothing to help his rage. "Can't even admit it was a mistake to use the damn Dementors!"

"What is Master Sirius doing here, Kreacher wonders?" the elf said coming into the room looking worried (knowing Sirius was usually crueler to him when he was this angry). "Can Kreacher do anything to help, Master?"

"No," Sirius said sharply and then seemed to change his mind. "Wait Kreacher … is there any Firewhiskey in the house?"

"Master Remus is telling Kreacher not to be keeping any in the house," Kreacher said bowing. "He is saying that Master Sirius is always …"

"Never mind," Sirius groaned.

"Kreacher can be getting some Firewhiskey, if Master is needing it," the elf said.

Sirius pinched his nose and then got up, "It's okay Kreacher, I think it's better if I just go … Remus is right, it's never good for me to drink in this house … just makes me angry …"

He was about to get up to go to the cabinet but he change his mind, and walked outside so he could Apparate to his favorite pub. He didn't really want to dwell on what an idiot Scrimgeour was, or think about how his boss was right that he should have secured the rat better. When he walked inside of the pub, he smiled immediately, his worries and anger disappearing when he saw that Emmeline was sitting at the bar talking to the bartender.

O

"Merlin, Em, I've really missed you the last few months," Sirius said smiling contently at the woman that was nuzzling against his chest at the moment. He had been surprised by her warm welcome, having been half afraid that she was going to be upset with him for skipping out on her for several months without even sending her an owl. He had also expected that he was going to have to explain about his involvement with Harry for the last thirteen years, knowing that he wanted to keep this wonderful woman in his life as much as possible now. However, she didn't ask him anything about that and quickly Apparated him to her flat (after he had a pint of beer and exchanged their pleasantries).

"I've missed you too," Emmeline said happily looking up at him. "More than I expected to with you being gone so long."

Sirius sighed. "I'm sorry. For not talking to you … not even writing you since last …"

"Don't worry about Siri, I understand," Emmeline said and Sirius looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"You know, I was expecting you to curse me … or at the very least ignore me for several hours before I wore you down," Sirius said. "I didn't think you would act like this …"

"You did tell me you weren't going to talk to me for a while," Emmeline shrugged, her eyes twinkling with amusement and Sirius knew there was more to this than she was saying right now.

"It's been over five months … that's more than a while," Sirius pointed out.

"Sirius Black, do you want me to curse you, I'm sure I can work that in if you're this insistent about it," Emmeline said smiling wickedly at him and his breath caught. She was stunning when she smiled like that.

"No, I don't want to be cursed," Sirius said. "I was just wondering why you were so understanding."

"You were going after Pettigrew," Emmeline said softly and in a more serious tone and he relented. She would know what that meant to him, after all, she knew him almost as well as he knew himself.

"I supposed I can understand that, but didn't you want to know about why I've been so evasive before?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, so now you're going to tell me about raising Harry Potter, are you?" Emmeline said smiling smugly at Sirius and his mouth dropped as his head snapped towards her.

"What?" Sirius gasped. "How do you know about that?"

"You are adorable when you're shocked," Emmeline chuckled as she sat up and stroke his face.

"I'm serious Em, how did you know?" Sirius asked again.

"When you mentioned Harry the last time I saw you … it just sounded like you were close to him," Emmeline explained. "After you left, I went over our time together and it made sense that you would never bring me to your flat or later home because Harry was there …. or maybe you couldn't because you were living somewhere else that was secret."

"Well, this definitely makes my job easier," Sirius admitted, still looking shocked. "Though, I hope I wasn't as obvious to other people that I've talk with."

"I doubt they know you as well as I do," Emmeline said. "Well, expect perhaps Remus, but I assumed that he already knew all about that."

"Trust me Em, Remus doesn't know me like you do," Sirius said, eyeing her suggestively.

"You always have to go there," Emmeline shook her head.

"You usually like it when I go there," Sirius chuckled.

"Not when I want to know something," Emmeline pointed out. "I am right about Harry, right … you did raise him?"

"Yes, Remus and I raised Harry together," Sirius smiled. "Are you happy now?"

"Yes, it explains a lot," Emmeline smiled.

"Em, I just want to make something clear," Sirius said. "It wasn't just the fact that I was raising Harry that made things difficult between us."

Emmeline actually laughed at that catching him off guard again. "I know that Sirius. And you should know that you weren't the only one making mistakes … I cause several myself."

"I know," Sirius said and she slapped him in the chest. "I just wanted you to know that it was more about my fear of committing among other things, than it was about Harry."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to blame the boy," Emmeline said.

"Good, now that that's over with, can we get back to more pleasurable things," Sirius smirked at her.

"That's fine by me," Emmeline smiled back.

O

Emmeline walked out into the kitchen so she could get herself a glass of water, she had been staying at Sirius's house in the Muggle neighborhood for the last few days.

"Now that's a sight I didn't expect to see," someone said from behind her and she screamed in shock as she turned to find that Remus was in the room. "It nice to see you too," the werewolf added with a grin.

"Dammit Remus, you nearly gave me heart failure!" Emmeline exclaimed.

"What's the ma …?" Sirius questioned clearly worried, but when he got into the living room he saw the chuckling werewolf, so he lowered his wand. "I didn't think you were going to be home for another few hours."

"Well then I'm glad I decided not to take the train home," Remus chuckled. "It would have hated to miss this."

"I think Sirius has started rubbing off on you, Remus," Emmeline grumbled, hating that she had decided to only put on Sirius's shirt when she went to get some water. Still, she walked over to Remus and gave him a hug. "It is nice to see you again."

"You as well," Remus smiled at her. "It seems you have told Emmeline all about us."

"Nope … I didn't have to, she guessed on her own," Sirius said proudly.

Remus raised an eyebrow at that but shrugged it off. It didn't matter if she figured it out or Sirius told her, she should have known by now anyway.

"Will you be staying here for dinner?" Remus asked her.

"Well … er … I probably should be going back," Emmeline said looking at Sirius uncertainly.

"I was thinking that I should probably talk to Harry first …" Sirius added. "I don't want to spring it on him."

"I thought you liked surprises," Remus pointed out.

"I do … but," Sirius said uncertainly and Emmeline went to stand next to him.

"I'm not going to tell you what to do, you'll just do the opposite anyway, but …" Remus started.

"It sounds like you're about to tell me what to do," Sirius point out and Remus chuckled, smiling sheepishly at his friend.

"Sorry … I can't help myself," Remus said and then turned to Emmeline. "Well, if you're going to have to go, I'd like to catch up with you while I have time."

"You're probably going to have plenty of time to do that in the future," Sirius pouted. "Now go away and let us have some time alone together."

"Remus, I would love to talk to you, though I think a change in outfit might be called for," Emmeline said.

"You're right, I'm much to dressed up for this conversation," Remus smiled with amusement.

"Honestly Remus, you have to get away from Sirius, he's been a bad influence on you," Emmeline said shaking her head.

"No, I've always been this way, I'm just usually better at controlling my comments," Remus smiled and then looked at Sirius, who was still pouting. "He's like a child whose favorite toy has been taken away."

"He'll be okay," Emmeline chuckled as Sirius glared at the both of them before she left to put something more socially acceptable on. They stayed talking for so long that it was well into the day before they were interrupted in a way that Sirius really didn't want right now.

"Sirius! Remus!" Harry's voice could be heard as he opened the front door. He had come home with Hermione and her parents. "I'm home."

"Bloody Hell!" Sirius said gulping.

"Should I go?" Emmeline asked softly.

"It's sort of pointless now," Sirius sighed. "Just, let me talk to him."

"Okay," Emmeline said as Remus left the room to greet Harry and Sirius followed after him.

"Hey," Harry grinned at Sirius and gave him a hug before he realized that there was something wrong with his uncle. "What's the matter?"

"Er … Harry … I have something I need to tell you," Sirius said rubbing the back of his head.

"Okay," Harry said slowly to him when Sirius didn't say anything. "Er … and that would be?"

"Er … Well, I have a … er … a girlfriend," Sirius said not really knowing how he should put this, he, after all, thought he would have more time to think about this.

"A … what?" Harry said in shock. He definitely hadn't been expecting that one. The truth was he was preparing himself for Remus to announce something like this, but it never occurred to him that Sirius would. He never even heard about Sirius liking someone, not to mention enough so that he would announce it like this.

"And … she's sort of here right now," Sirius added and Harry's expression became even more confused. Sirius had to have obviously cared about this woman, whoever she was, if he told her about this place and him (unless she was a Muggle, but Harry didn't think that was the case). However, Sirius had never told him about this woman. Harry didn't know why, but he didn't like this bit of information at all. "Would you like to meet her?"

"Do I have a choice?" Harry questioned coldly and Sirius grimaced at him.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd meet her … and was nice to her," Sirius muttered and Harry shrugged and Sirius narrowed his eyes at him, not being pleased by the boy's attitude at all.

"Hello Harry, I'm Emmeline Vance," she said coming out of the kitchen introducing herself in a soft voice. Like the rest of the wizarding community, she had heard the stories about Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, but she had always had a separate view of him too. He was Harry Potter, the son of Lily and James Potter, two of her friends.

"Harry," he answered curtly, shaking the hand that she offered him, but didn't seem to be giving her any room to make an impression on him. "I'm tired … I think I'm going to go to my room."

"We're going to have dinner in a few minutes," Sirius said still grimacing.

"I'm not really hungry," Harry said moodily. "I'm sure you won't miss my company much."

"Probably not if you're going to be acting like this," Sirius grumbled back.

"Sirius … maybe I should go," Emmeline said, not liking the obvious distress that she was causing.

"No, you're staying," Sirius said stubbornly and she knew that there was no arguing with him now.

She could leave, but he would not be happy if she had. She still wondered if that might be the better option, but she couldn't do more before Sirius was talking again.

"And you're going to be eating with us," he added to Harry in a cold tone.

Harry stiffen immediately, and mutter his consent, not looking happy at all as he left the room.

"I don't think you handled that very well," Remus informed his friend as he watched their young charge leave the room.

"He was giving me attitude … and he was acting badly to Em without even letting her talk," Sirius grumbled. "It wasn't fair and I'm not going to stand for that."

"Sirius … I don't …" Emmeline tried to say something again but he still wasn't listening.

"He's just going to have to get use to you being around," Sirius huffed and then went into the kitchen leaving Remus and Emmeline looking grim.

"I shouldn't have stayed," Emmeline groaned.

"Don't worry about it … though you two will have to work things out eventually," Remus said to her kindly. "And I know Harry's going to like you as soon as he lets himself get to know you. Now come on, we have an incredibly awkward dinner to get through."