Ok, so here's the second new chapter, as promised!

Return To The Past

Ebony smiled, her eyes fixed upon her brother's; she marvelled at how similar they were to her own. It seemed strange to her. All of her life she had lived with the Martin's, who were so different to her in looks and temperament; for the first time ever she was looking into a face like her own.

Allowing her vision to fully take in the man before her Ebony suddenly felt a strange sense of belonging. For the first time in over ten years, she was looking at a member of her own family, a man that shared her blood.

Sirius smiled nervously as Ebony stood aside and allowed him to step inside the large cottage.

'Is that my mother's smile, or my father'?' she wondered silently as she lead him into the living room.

The Martin's living room was surprisingly small. Two settees stood against the two far walls and an armchair was perched half-heartedly in front of the long windows. Ebony sat down and gestured for Sirius to sit by her side. Looking extremely lost, Sirius obeyed feeling extremely uncomfortable.

He sat facing the girl and noticed that she too looked extremely uneasy. For a few moments they each sat in complete silence, not knowing what to say, too scared to say what was on their minds.

Sirius wished he could transform again, meeting Ebony had seemed so easy from a dog's point of view. He looked at the young girl, willing her to smile, just wishing that she would revert to the happy, sunny child that he had encountered just six days ago.

'Maybe I should ask him if he wants a drink. Or maybe I should allow him to make the first move. Oh, God this is hard!'

Ebony's mind felt so full of doubts and hesitations that she found herself unable to speak. She had hoped that Sirius would lead the way but she realised that she had been naïve; he looked just as nervous as she felt. Searching within her massive pool of thoughts she pulled out a question and forced it out of her mouth before she had time to change her mind.

'Have you travelled far?'

As soon as she had spoken Ebony felt a thousand times happier.

She had done it.

Maybe it was only a small start, but she had broken the ice.

Sirius smiled. 'Not too far. I came on my motorcycle.'

'Yes.' Ebony nodded. 'I saw you arrive.'

Sirius grinned inside. So she had been watching. He felt a lot more comfortable now that the conversation had begun. Ebony was such a polite young lady, softly spoken with a warm friendly voice. It was almost like listening to his mother, only Ebony had the slightest hint of a southern accent. He watched her intently as she spoke, everything about her reminded him of his mother; it didn't occur to him how much he reminded Ebony of herself. She had the glittering dark eyes, the same black, tangled hair, even the same wide smile as her older brother.

Before Sirius could stop himself, his thoughts came tumbling from his lips.

'You look so much like our mum.'

His brows immediately furrowed in horror. Had he really just said that?

Ebony shrank back into the sofa, her eyes flitted uncomfortably towards the window.

'Sorry.' Sirius apologised quickly. 'I didn't mean to say that.'

'Catherine Martin was my mother.' Ebony said firmly. 'I look nothing like her.'

Sirius looked at his sister with a mixed look of pity and annoyance. The girl had folded her arms tightly against her chest. With her head bowed beneath a mass of shiny hair and her bottom lip stuck out haughtily, Sirius would be forgiven for thinking she had copied the pose from him. 'The Black pet lip' James had called it, Latia did it too.

How could a girl who had spent so long away from her family still have so much in common with them?

 Certainly the Black women both looked the same, mothers and daughters usually do. But so perfectly? Ebony wore her hair in the same style as her mothers, spoke like her mother, carried herself like her mother; how could she sit there and deny that they were ever related?

Sirius did not know how to reply. His instinct was to snap at the girl for being so selfish, for having the cheek to reject her real mother in that way; however, the other voice in his head, the one that usually spoke in the same accent as Remus, told him to be understanding and patient with her- it was not her fault that she didn't know her mum.

Slowly and unsurely, Sirius allowed the Remus-like voice to come out of his mouth, accepting that his friend was usually right in such situations.

'Ebony, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that.'

'It's ok.' Ebony replied sulkily. 'I mean that is why you're here, so that I can find out about my past…and get to know you.'

Sirius nodded. The gift of reason was obviously something that Ebony had received from the Martins.

'Where is Mr Martin?' Sirius asked, breaking away from the topic of family.

'He went to the Wizards Chess Hall; he thought we should be alone for a while.'

Ebony began to look very uneasy as she engaged eye contact with her brother and asked.

'Your…our….er…mother ...and father….tell me about them.'

Sirius was delighted to hear this question. He wanted more than anything for Ebony to once again become a Black, maybe knowledge would be the first stage of acceptance.

'Well,' he sighed, trying to put the words in order. 'Our mother, Latia…like I said, she looked just like you, scarily so.'

'And our father?' Ebony urged.

A fearful feeling took hold of Sirius's bones.

Could he really tell her the truth?

If he admitted to Ebony that she was only his half-brother would she still care?

Surely the truth would only ruin any chance he had of rebuilding their relationship.

Then again, lying to his sister so soon after their reunion was not a good foundation to try and rebuild on.

It was no use. For now he would stick to the easy version of the truth, the unabridged version would still be available when he and Ebony stood on more solid ground.

'Our Dad, was an Auror. He was a busy man; he never really spent much time at home.' Sirius lied, sticking to Remus's version of events.

Ebony sat a few moments, thinking over what Sirius had said and pondering her next question.

Seeing the thoughtful expression on his sister's face, Sirius began to realise that discussing his parents was actually very difficult. What exactly could he say? Neither of them had very much to do with the baby girl that he had practically raised as his own. He had no tales to tell of trips to the park, days at the beach or playing in the garden. Very soon she was going to realise this. How many stories could he tell her before she wondered why her parents weren't in a single one of them?

Ebony did not seem to mind her brother's short replies. 'It is early days' she thought 'I can always ask more when we know each other better.'

It scared Ebony to ask Sirius questions of his life. She wanted desperately to get to know the mysterious man at her side, but she knew she would not like what she heard. Sirius had been to Azkaban and had suffered great injustice; she did not want to ask him anything that may cause him upset.

With so many subjects that neither dared to approach the conversation soon dried up, leaving both parties feeling extremely awkward.

'So…' Sirius began, after a long, uncomfortable silence. 'Is there anything else that you want to know?'

To Ebony the question seemed bizarre. She wanted to know everything, from beginning to end. Approaching Sirius with her queries was her only problem.

'Can you just tell me all you can?' she asked in the only way she could while avoiding possible offence.

Sirius looked into his sister's dark eyes and smiled. 'I thought you'd never ask.'

In no time Sirius had told Ebony her family history from beginning to end- her birth, her parent's deaths, her time living with her brother, and her adoption. Of course not everything Sirius had said was the complete truth, not that he lied either, he simply gave Ebony a happier version of events.

'You really didn't mind looking after me?' Ebony asked.

'No way.' Sirius grinned, patting the girl affectionately on the shoulder. 'I loved every minute of it, you were everything to me- you still are.'

Sirius had expected Ebony to once again recoil uncomfortably at that remark. He was totally surprised when she threw her arms around his shoulders and gave him a short hug.

Sirius wondered if this could be the happiest moment of his life as he held the young girl closely in his arms. She felt warm against him as he inhaled the sweet smell of her hair. He could feel her heart beat against his chest as she whispered 'Thank you' in his ear. As she pulled away he kept a hand around her waist and with a smile replied, 'Don't mention it.'

After two hours the pair were chatting and laughing like old friends. After asking Ebony about her life at Beauxbatons, Sirius began to relive his days at Hogwarts, giving his sister plenty of tips on causing mayhem at school. To his delight he found that his sister was also a great lover of practical jokes. He barked with laughter as she told him of the time she had asked the Beauxbatons House-elves to sprinkle Sprite Dust over the professor's pillows, causing them to grow pointed ears and long noses over night.

After giving Ebony a blow by blow account of how he and his friends had produced a magical map of Hogwarts, Sirius reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, toy rabbit.

'I found it not long ago,' he told her handing her the toy. 'It was yours; I thought you'd like to have it.'

Ebony smiled sweetly as she ran a palm over the back of the rabbit's head.

'Thank you, I'll take good care of it.'

'It was called 'Bun.'' Sirius told her 'You could never say the whole word. We got it on your first visit to Diagon Alley; you wouldn't leave the house without it.'

Ebony looked at the rabbit's worn face. It had obviously been well loved. Why couldn't she remember it?

'We went to a man's house once,' she said quietly. 'He had big, round glasses. I think we saw him a lot.'

Sirius looked at the girl in surprise.

'You remember me?'

'Just bits.' She replied, looking at the floor.

'You must mean James.' Sirius replied sadly. 'He was my best friend, but he's gone now.'

'I'm sorry.' Ebony replied. 'Was he one of the…erm…Maunders..?'

'Marauders,' Sirius replied more brightly, always happy for an excuse to talk of his school days.

'Searchers… We spent most of our spare time sneaking around Hogwarts, looking for secret passages. We came up with the name when we first started to write the map. Yes, James was a Marauder all right, the best, and Remus was one too.'

'So there were three of you?' Ebony asked with interest.

'Four.' Sirius replied bitterly. 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.'

'Who was the fourth?' Ebony enquired innocently.

Sirius shifted uncomfortably and turned to gaze out of the window.

'Wormtail, Peter Pettigrew. Traitor! It was Peter who framed me, had me sent to Azkaban.'

Ebony wished she had never asked. She should not have been so careless. She knew that Sirius had had a terrible past; she had asked too many questions.

'It's alright.' Sirius reassured her, reading her frown lines. 'They were the good days, at school. The only bad thing about those days was meeting him.'

'Why the funny names?' Ebony asked, sure that this question could cause no harm.

'I don't know that I can answer that.' Sirius replied. 'What we did in order to get those nicknames was not only highly illegal, but we did it to protect a friend. I'm not sure that that friend would want me to tell you his secret now, but one day.'

Although Sirius knew that Remus probably wouldn't want Ebony to know he was a werewolf, that was not his only reason for with holding this information. He knew that he could not tell Ebony of his animagus form just yet. If she found out that he was the black dog she had met just days earlier, she may resent him for his lies.

Looking out of the window Sirius noticed that the sky was beginning to darken. He reluctantly told Ebony that he ought to leave as he would not be able to find his way home, should the clouds grow any heavier. Ebony agreed as Mr Martin would be home soon.

As Sirius bid his sister farewell on the doorstep he suddenly felt very sad.

'Will I see you again?' he asked hopefully.

Laughing, Ebony replied, 'Does next Sunday suit you?'

Sunday, Sirius thought, seemed like an eternity away but, at the risk of sounding silly, he agreed that Sunday would be perfect.

'So,' Ebony said uncertainly, not knowing how to say goodbye. 'I'll see you on Sunday.'

'Yeah' said Sirius, awkwardly, wanting more than anything to throw his arms around his sister like a normal brother would.

He realised even now that he was going to miss Ebony horribly. The few hours that he had spent in the Martin house did not seem adequate compared to the years that he had missed out on. There were so many things they had not discussed, so many memories they had not shared.

'Bye then.' Ebony whispered.

And to Sirius's surprise the girl leaned forward on her tip-toes and kissed his cheek.

He could no longer stop himself.

 Reaching forward, Sirius pulled Ebony into a tight hug and prayed that he would never have to let go. But he found that even the strongest of prayers can go unanswered.

'Excuse me, I'd like to get into my house today,' a cold, harsh voice came from behind Sirius.

Pulling away from Ebony, Sirius turned to find an extremely angry looking Mr Martin standing behind him.

It occurred to Sirius that Mr Martin was not as happy about this meeting as he had once made out. In fact, he seemed to look at Sirius in utmost contempt. His thick, grey eyebrows lowered, forcing his eyes to narrow in fury. His face seemed almost red and his lips tightened as he spoke.

'Mr Black, I presume?'

Sirius tried to smile as Martin cast a disapproving glance over his long, straggly hair.

'Yes Mr Martin.'

Sirius admittedly did not expect a warm welcome or even a hand shake but he was very surprised when Mr Martin stormed into his house with a low growl.

Ebony's face filled with worry.

'I'll have to go' she muttered in an apologetic tone before closing the door on her brother and hurrying inside.

Feeling extremely down beat, Sirius clambered upon his motorcycle, already waiting for the day that he would see his sister again. Mr Martin's mood had certainly put a dampener on the day. Sadly, Sirius was forced to wonder if spending time with Ebony was going to be as easy as it had seemed.

He could only wait until Sunday, when time would tell.