AN: Over a hundred reviews!?!?!?!?! When did that happen?! I feel so loved! I hope you like this chapter as much as you like all he other ones. Thank you too every one who's review, I love you guys! Anyway, have fun laughing at Sirius' attempts to flirt. And (shameless plug) go read my other HP fic, From the Ashes. It's really short and won't take you long.


"You can't hear what I'm not saying
And I can hold out long enough
Treading water to keep from sinking
Cause I'm not one for reaching
You say that I can play
a pretty convincing role
But I don't need you
I don't think I need you"

~ Sinking, Jars of Clay


For the past month Sirius had been having the best time of his life. After that day on the train, James and Peter had quickly adopted Remus into their group. Though Peter was still jittery about the whole werewolf thing.

And that book of Remus' had proved very useful. They'd turned all of Snape's textbook invisible and had laughed at him all day as he tried to find them. And they'd used a hair-curling charm on Lucius so that his hair turned into a big puffball on his head that Sirius had told him, through his laughter, was all the rage in America. Sirius was still trying to convince Moony to let them use the wall-sticking charm to hang from the ceiling in the girl's shower, though. So far he'd always been turned down.

'Hmm…maybe he was jealous?' Sirius smiled as he entered the Great Hall. It was a nice thought, even if he knew it wasn't true.

His attraction to the other boy had settled down to a low simmer. It was always there in the back of his mind, but the overwhelming need to be the focus of the other boys every thought wasn't as strong as it used to be. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that, now that they were friends, Remus would actually smile when he walked into the room.

And speaking of the scrumptious werewolf, there he was at the Gryffindor table already starting on his breakfast.

"Sit over there," Remus said in way of greeting, pointing to the other side of the table.

"Why?" Sirius asked, looking like the very picture of shock and innocence.

"Because you have that look in your eyes this morning, and I don't feel like being felt up at the breakfast table." Okay, so he'd put his hand on Remus' knee once. Once! That had been two weeks ago! You'd think he would have forgiven him by now.

"I wasn't!" he protested. But Remus just continued to point across the table.

"Are you harassing Moony again, Sirius?" James asked from somewhere behind him.

"Of course," Sirius said brightly. Remus just rolled his eyes as he and James snickered. Peter chuckled too, but he didn't get the joke. Sirius was tempted to snog Remus in front of him, just to see if the nervous little boy would get it then. But he kept his hormones in check and they all sat down for breakfast.

But Sirius couldn't resist proving Remus right, so once they'd all gotten settled he stretched his foot under the table until he'd found Remus'. He'd managed to get his foot under Remus' trouser-leg and halfway up his calf before Remus pulled his foot back and kicked Sirius sharply under the table.

"Ouch!"

"You okay Sirius?" James asked, and then he saw the look of annoyance Remus was wearing and sighed. "What did you do this time?" asked James in exasperation. Sirius was thankfully saved from replying when a mail owl dropped a letter neatly in front of James.

The pain in his leg forgotten, Sirius immediately looked at James expectantly.

"Is that from your dad?" he asked hopefully. James nodded and quickly tore open the letter. About a week ago they'd written James' dad a rather long letter explaining Sirius' predicament and asking if he could stay with James' family over the summer holiday. James looked up from the letter and frowned at Sirius' expectant face.

"Sorry Sirius," he said gravely. "They said you can't stay with us, not permanently anyway." Sirius' heart sand and he too looked down at his breakfast, no longer hungry.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"You could stay at my house again if you want," Sirius turned to stare at Remus as if he grown another head. Remus cleared his throat and looked down at the table. "That is, if you can stand my brother, and it'd have to be for a strategically placed three weeks." He babbled.

Sirius smiled at him gratefully and glared at Peter when he cringed at the overt mention of Remus' Lycanthropy.

"Well that would cover all but a week of the holiday, because my parents did say you could stay for a month," James said. "And I'm sure that Peter can convince his parents to let you stay for just a week, right Peter?" he continued, poking the round boy in the side.

"Oh! Yeah, sure," Peter squeaked out, giving his a sheepish smile. Sirius looked at the three of them and gave them a rather sappy, grateful smile. He had to have the best friends in the world.

"My dad had another idea," James said hesitantly, snapping Sirius out of his mushy thoughts.

"Yeah?" Sirius prompted. James poked at his food and didn't look at him.

"He said maybe you could, well, try and find your mum." Sirius stared at him for a long time before letting out a snort of laughter.

"All I know about her is that her name is Io Malius, and she probably married by now, so that's not even true anymore." He said a bit annoyed. His mother probably wouldn't want him anyway; she had left him with his dad after all.

"I could ask my dad to help, he is Minister of Magic after all, he could probably pull some strings with the muggle government or…something…What?" James asked as his three friends stared at him in disbelief.

"Your dad's the Minister of Magic?" Peter squeaked out, eyes wide. James looked at them, blinking owlishly.

"You guys didn't know that?" he asked in surprise. They all shook their heads and then Sirius got an annoyed look on his face and banged his head against the table. They heard him mutter "I am an idiot" under his breath before lifting his head from the table.

"Your dad's name is Harold isn't it." Sirius asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, why?" the bespecaled boy asked in confusion.

"It something the guy on the knight bus said," Sirius said vaguely before turning to Remus, grinning. "See Moony, I could have gone to James' but I still decided to see you, aren't you flattered?"

"Sure…" Remus said, noncommittally. Sirius shook his head, something that James had said nagging at him.

"Could he really find her, do you think?" he asked James, suddenly serious again. James thought about it for a moment, biting his lip before replying.

"I don't know," he said finally. "But it's worth a try. I mean, you can still stay with use," he gestured to Remus, Peter and himself, "if it doesn't work out." Sirius nodded.

"Might as well…"

"Eeep!" they all turned to look at Peter, who was now frantically trying to finish his breakfast. "Ith amotht tum fol clath!" he said around bites. James and Sirius looked at him, completely puzzled.

"It's almost time for class," Remus clarified as he stood from the table and gathered his things. Sirius stood as well.

"Can I walk you to your class?" he asked. Remus frowned at him.

"I have Runes, down in the southern end of the castle. Don't you think that's a bit out of the way, considering that you have Divination, in the North tower?" Remus asked.

"For you? Nothing is out of the way," Sirius said, trying to sound dramatic before bowing to Remus. When he looked up again he saw that Remus was already at the doors leading out of the Great Hall.

"Hey, wait!" Sirius yelled after him. Grabbing his books and running to catch up to he other boy.

James did send a letter to his father after getting as much information from Sirius as he could. But nothing was mentioned about it since and they all thought that they'd have to fall back on having Sirius stay at all three of their houses over the summer. What little hope Sirius had let himself have of hearing from his mother quickly faded and was forgotten.

Time seemed to fly by and it was soon nearly time for their end of term exams. And they unanimously decided to let of a little stress by making some Slytherins lives miserable. And as luck would have it, they found Severus Snape walking down a hall towards them not long after they'd made that decision. A malicious smile crossed Sirius' face as he pulled the other three behind a corner to prepare a plan of attack.

"So what should we do to them?" he asked. James rummaged through his pockets and brought out a dungbomb.

"How about the old tried and true?" he suggested. Sirius chuckled and nodded. Then thought for a moment.

"We'll need a distraction," his eyes swept over Remus and Peter, who were just standing there letting them plan. "Remus! You go and talk to Snape, get him to pay attention to you."

"Why me?'

"Cause you're the least suspicious of us, and Peter wouldn't go within ten feet of him by himself," Sirius said, while Peter protested weakly in the background.

"But what am I supposed to…" he started to ask and then stopped, a wide smile crossing his lips, barring his teeth. "Alright," he said. And turned and walked back out into the corridor. James gave Sirius the dungbomb and they waited.

"Hello Severus," they heard Remus say.

"What do you want, Lupin." Snape replied sharply. Sirius peaked around the corner so that he could see what was going on.

"I was wondering if you knew where Lily was, I wanted to talk to her."

"Lily?" he heard James mutter behind him and had to keep from snickering. James and Snape's rivalry had gone to new heights when they had realized that they both liked the same girl. But James seemed to have the upper hand, since he had his friends to help back him up.

"I have no idea," Snape bit out resentfully. "Why don't you ask Potter."

"Do you like her?" Remus asked, suddenly changing the topic. Snape scowled at him and crossed his arms.

"Why do you want to know," he asked skeptically.

"Cause I know someone else who would really like to go out with you," Remus said, almost looking shy and demure. Sirius decided that Remus had distracted the Slytherin git enough and started walking towards them on silent feet.

"You do?" the black haired boy asked just as Sirius came to stand right behind him. He held a finger against his lips and winked at Remus.

"Yeah, I mean, he'd never admit to it, but…" Remus started but was cut off by Snape. Sirius paused and looked at him in confusion. Remus smiled at him.

"He?!" the Slytherin boy squeaked in astonishment.

"But I know Sirius would love to go out with you," he said finally, just as Sirius stuck the dungbomb down the other boys shirt. They both shouted "what?!" at the top of their lungs, staring at him in shock. Remus had the presence of mind to grab Sirius' wrist and drag him back around the corner just as the dungbomb went off. James and Peter were leaning against the wall, fighting to stay upright against the force of their laughter.

"You are so dead," Sirius growled. Remus just smiled at him.

"Potter, Black, Pettigrew!" the stern voice of Professor McGonagall rang through the hall as she marched towards them. "What have you done this time?" she asked once she'd stopped in front of them.

"Why you damn bastards I'll…" Snape shouted as he stalked around the corner, but stopped abruptly when he saw Professor McGonagall. Sirius and James started fanning their noses as the stench from the dungbomb traveled down the corridor.

Professor McGonagall scowled down at them.

"Detention for all three of you," she snapped out, pushing up her glasses up and rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"All four," Snape cut in. "Lupin was in on it too," he said resentfully. Professor McGonagall turned to stare at Remus, whom she apparently hadn't noticed until now. He looked up at her sheepishly.

"It's completely my fault, Professor. I forced him to help us," Sirius said quickly. Professor McGonagall looked between the two of them and shook her head.

"Detention for all four of you and Mr. Black if you would come with me," at this, Remus' eyes got wide and he looked like he was going to try and defend Sirius, but she cut him off.

"This has nothing to do with this little incident. The headmaster wants to see you in his office to discuss something with you." Sirius nodded and followed her, shooting one worried glance back at his friends before they were out of sight.

Sirius had been to Dumbledore's office a few times before, but it had always been for doing something wrong. Why would he want to see him now, if it wasn't for one prank or another?

They stopped in front of the huge stone gargoyle that had thankfully shrunk, at least to Sirius' mind, since the first time he'd been brought here in first year, absolutely certain that he was going to be expelled for smuggling a boobertuber out of Herbology.

With a murmur of 'sugar quill' from Professor McGonagall, the gargoyle leapt aside and they walked up the spiral stair to Dumbledore's circular office.

He was surprised when he found not only the Headmaster in the office, but a tall dark haired woman as well. She had dark, hooded eyes and a haughty expression on her face. And was wearing a very expensive looking robes.

"Oh, good, you look nothing like him." Sirius blinked at the woman standing next to Dumbledore's desk.

"What?" he asked, completely confused.

"Jared Black…or was it Mareth?" she paused and then waved her hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter. I'm just glad to see you got your looks from my side of the family, along with your magic." She said, smiling superiorly as him. Sirius just continued to stare at her.

"What?" he repeated. None of this was making sense, who was this woman?

"Didn't they tell you?" she asked him, but Sirius just shook his head. "No? I'm Io Lastrange…I'm your mother." Sirius' eyes went wide and he gawked at her.

"Imagine my surprise when the Minister of Magic himself owled me and asked if I was a relative of a boy named Sirius Hyperion Black, who just happened to be a friend of his son's." She said, hiding her smiling lips behind her hand as she let out a cultured laugh. "And to think, if I'd know you weren't a squib I wouldn't have left you with that horrid muggle."

"You're my mum?" Sirius asked, his mind whirling at the possibility.

"Yes," she said.

"Lastrange…?" that wasn't what his dad had said her last name was.

"Is my married name. My husband's name is Quintus, but you should call him Mr. Lastrange when you come to live with us. At least until we're all settled." She said as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Live with you?" Sirius said, startled.

"Unless you want to keep living with that muggle," she said with distaste. Sirius mused that she really must have known his dad at some point.

"No! No I…I'd love to…mum," he said quickly, a huge smile on his face.


AN part 2: ::Arra cackles madly:: Yes, she is who you think she is. (think fourth book) Wonderful parents Sirius has, hm? (please don't kill me _;;;)