This is my first attempt at a Harry Potter fic, so be gentle! This is what I term a 'ficlet' meaning it won't be much more than six chapters long. It DOES involve an OC, but I've tried to make her as little a MarySue as possible, except at some moments when I could not resist poking fun at MarySue's worldwide!

Feel free to flame, as I am a student, and therefore cannot afford to pay my heating bills!

An Unexpected Guest

"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers!"

Harry's head jerked up from his Christmas Turkey, as did everyone else as Mrs. Black's screeching soprano permeated the heavy door of the dining room. Sirius pushed back his chair wearily, ready to go do battle with the moth-eaten curtains, when he suddenly stopped at the sound of her next words.

"YOU! Filthy, half-blood, Elf-Brat bitch! YOU STOLE MY SON! Leave this place, you dirty my halls!"

At those words, Sirius' face split into a huge grin, and he rushed out into the hall. Harry glanced around the rest of the table, seeing the same confused expressions on some of them, but knowing smiles on many of the others. Curious, he pushed open the hall door, with the youngest present all following him, while the original members of the Order of the Phoenix simply laughed.

Harry gaped with shock as he rounded the door to see Sirius locked in a passionate embrace with a tiny woman. He heard Hermione gasp behind him, and wondered what Sirius saw in someone so old. The woman had ice-white hair!

Mrs. Black was finally shocked into silence when the couple broke apart, turned, and shouted, together, "SHUT UP, YOU STUPID OLD BITCH!", then returned to their prior occupation. Harry was momentarily distracted by a golden blur passing in front of him. His head turned, and his hand automatically reached out to catch the small shivering Snitch. As his fingers closed around it, it let out a squeak and he let go of it in shock. Upon hearing this, the woman extracted herself from Sirius' arms and stalked over to Harry, rescuing the Snitch from his palm.

Close to, Harry could see that this was no old woman. She was no taller than himself, with long white hair, a youthful face and slanted eyebrows over piercing grey eyes. In a quiet voice that nevertheless carried to everyone in her vicinity, she said, calmly and clearly, "Watch out, boy. These aren't Snitches, they're Snidgets, and they'll scratch when cornered."

She pulled open her travelling trunk, which had been jarred slightly open when her Hovering Charm had failed and it had fallen to the floor, awakening Mrs. Black and the other portraits. As the lid lifted, what seemed like a hundred fluttering Snidgets rose up and circled the room, twittering and alighting upon the Christmas decorations.

"Oh dear."

Heads turned again, back towards the door, where Mrs. Weasley had appeared. "Tria, dear, isn't that a bit... illegal?"

'Tria' gave a silvery laugh and said, "Completely, Molly."

When Mrs. Weasley still looked troubled, Tria smiled ruefully and tried to catch her eye. "Molly, my existence is illegal. There's no need to worry if anything else I do is on the wrong side of the Ministry."

At this point, Ginny voiced the unasked question of the Weasley children, Harry and Hermione.

"Huh?!?"

Waddya think? Ideas, flames and beta-readers welcome!!