A.N. Sorry for the delay! I started writing this about 3 or so days after I posted the 16th chapter of HPDM-AV, so I'm starting to get better at managing my time. *sighs * I wish it was summer again. Please review!

Malena

"HARRY! GET AWAY FROM THAT COW!"

"Sirius! It's perfectly nice!"

"HARRY!"

"I'm coming…" The eight year old grumbled and walked away from the fence, where he had been patting the friendly bovine. "Why can't I pat the cow?"

"Because it's not our cow," Sirius said. "Go practice some of your transfiguration. But don't be seen by the Muggles!"

"Can we get a cow?" Harry asked, giving a wicked grin.

"If you can transfigure that rock into a cow, you can keep it," Sirius replied, grabbing a few suitcases out of the back of his car.

"Really?!"

"No. Now get your things from the car. Let's go check out the house."

They had just arrived somewhere out in the middle of no where, as far as Harry was concerned. They had just moved from Paris, where he had finished second grade. He had moved twice during the school year, and had to learn both French and Spanish so he could attend regular school with all of the other children. But then again, he was taking classes that no other child his age was supposed to be taking.

Harry's magical education had continued, even though Sirius had just expected it to stop after they finished The Standard Book of Spells- Grade 1. Sirius had found his godson begging him to get the next book and other books on Potions, History, and Transfiguration. Annoyed with Harry's begging, Sirius sent away for the books, and then promptly moved so they couldn't be traced.

On the car ride to their new location, Harry had been flipping through A History of Magic, a book that he had already read twice, and was getting quite bored of.

"Are there any magic book stores here?" Harry asked, as he grabbed one of his suitcases and walked toward the run-down looking house that sat on the edge of a farm.

"I don't know Harry."

"When can we go to town and see?"

"Tomorrow maybe, after we get settled in."

"What're we going to eat for supper?"

"Macaroni and Cheese."

"Oh no, not that boxed stuff again?" Harry said.

"Yes, but it's probably only for tonight," Sirius said hastily. "Tomorrow we'll have gone to the grocery store and gotten more."

"Do we have any Cheerios?"

"Yes, yes, they're in the box labeled 'Kitchen'. But you're going to have to un-shrink it first."

Sirius took out a key and opened the front door to the house. As they went inside, the first thing they saw was lots of dust. The house was already furnished, in an old fashioned sort of way, and everything seemed to be covered with a heavy layer of dust.

"Well, this will be nice to clean up," Sirius said sarcastically, dropping his suitcase and going to look in the kitchen. As Sirius examined the broken down refrigerator he heard a tremendous whoosh! All of a sudden a huge wind went zooming through the kitchen and blew past Sirius, carrying all of the dust with it, and went out the open window.

Sirius stared as the dust flew into the sky, and away. He walked slowly back into the room and found Harry with his wand out, and grinning sheepishly.

"Whoops," he said, giving a short laugh.

"And, what was that?" Sirius asked, leaning up against the doorframe.

"Banishing charm," Harry said, pocketing his wand. "Well… then…. I'm going to go choose a room and unpack."

With one eyebrow raised, Sirius watched his godson walk up the stairs, his suitcase floating after him.

~*~

Sirius was putting the cheese powder onto the noodles when he heard a knock, and someone calling, "YOO HOO!"

Harry looked up from where he was reading, and jumped up, running to answer the door. They had never gotten many visitors, but Harry still loved meeting new people. Now that they had just moved away from all of Harry's school friends, he was desperate to make new ones.

"Hi!" Harry said cheerfully, whipping the door open.

"Harry, didn't I tell you not to open the door without finding out who it is first!" Sirius said, wiping his hands and walking into the living room. There was a woman standing there, wearing a sleeveless, flowery, dress. She looked around forty years old, and her hair was pulled up into a bun.

"Oh, no one does that around here," said the woman. "So few people that no one gets many visitors anyway."

"Well, we move around a lot," Sirius said, ruffling Harry's hair. "I just want to teach him good skills in case we move to another big city."

"That's so nice. Your son is very fortunate to have a caring father like you."

"He's not my dad, he's my godfather," Harry said before Sirius could stop him. "My name's Harry. What's yours."

"Harry, don't ask the poor woman so many questions," Sirius said, laughing uneasily. "I'm sorry, my name is… Siri."

"Siri, is that English?" The woman said. "I noticed you had sort of an English accent. You must've spent a lot of time in the states though, because it's starting to fade."

"Yes, yes it is," Sirius lied quickly.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Siri…"

"Oh, er, my last name's… White."

"Siri White, okay. My name is Jean. Jean Louise Robin. We live next door to you."

"Is that cow yours?" Harry asked.

"There are lots of cows in this part," Jean said, smiling. "But it most likely was, I reckon."

"Well, it was certainly nice to meet you Ms. Robin," Sirius said, shaking her hand.

"Actually I came over to ask you a question," Jean said, smiling widely. "Would you like to come over for dinner. We have enough food to feed a whole army."

"Well we-"

"Sure!" Harry exclaimed. "Do you have any kids."

"Why yes, we do," Jean said, looking down at Harry. "Just come over when you're ready."

While Jean gave Sirius directions, Harry went up and changed out of his dirty clothes.

Sirius sat and waited for him to return downstairs.

"Come on Sirius! Let's go!" Harry said as he rushed forward to open the door and leave.

"Wait a minute," Sirius said, shutting the door before Harry could get outside. "First we need to talk."

"What's the matter?"

"Sit."

Harry took a seat, staring at his godfather who sat down across from him.

"Harry, first we need to talk about some safety rules," Sirius said sternly. "You know I don't like it when you answer the door when you don't know who it is."

"I know…." Harry said, lowering his eyes to the floor.

"It could have been anyone! Do you want to get caught?"

"No…"

"Always ask 'who is it' before you answer the door."

"Yes Sirius."

Harry was starting to get that droning tone to his voice that he got when he was bored. Sirius raised his eyebrow and then said, "If you do it again you'll be grounded for a week, without your wand."

Harry's eyes got wide and he looked up at Sirius. "But-but Sirius-"

"Make sure you don't open the door to strangers then," Sirius said.

"Alright, alright, can we go now?"

"That's another thing," Sirius said, leaning back in his chair and observing Harry. "The next time someone asks if you want to go over for dinner, check with me first. Honestly Harry, tonight is not a good night to go out to meet the neighbors. And from now on don't tell them I'm your godfather. We could get in weird situations that way."

"But Jean was really nice and she didn't seem to care that I was your godson!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and pulled Harry up. "Come on. Let's go to dinner. And leave your wand at home!"

~*~

Remus watched as Peter slumped around their living room, a sad look on his face. "I can't believe she broke up with me," Peter said. "I thought this was going to be the one."

"You thought the one before her was the "one" too," Remus said, turning back to his newspaper. "And the one before that."

"But this one felt right," Peter said, plopping into a chair.

"Peter, be happy that you are at least going on dates," Remus said. "I haven't gone on a date in years. Of course, I'm away most of the year… but still!"

"You work too much," Peter mumbled. "When are you going to enjoy life?"

"I did enjoy life. Hogwarts was the best seven years anyone could have. Then after we left there, everything seemed to go downhill."

"Any more news on Black?"

Remus sighed. "None. It's like he disappeared again. We don't even have a clue to where he's hiding…."

Peter sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair.

"Remus?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you think I'm going bald?" Peter said, feeling his hair. Remus looked over at Peter's head. There were a few patches that looked a little less than full.

"Yeah, maybe a little."

Peter sighed in exasperation. "I should have known. My grandfather on my mother's side was bald as an egg."

"So get some hair cream from Diagon Alley tonight," Remus suggested.

"Nah, I can't tonight. I have a different errand to run, and I probably won't be back till late. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow…"

~*~

Sirius sipped his glass of wine as he watched Harry play with the children that lived next door. They were playing with some action figures that Harry didn't seem to interested in, but pretended to be entertained by them anyway. The two little boys were creating sound effects for the fire trucks and the G.I. Joe's, shooting up the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Sirius watched as Harry sighed and asked if they could go play something else.

"Why'dja wanna do that?" Asked one of the boys, who was about six. "Ain't nothing interestin' out here 'cept the animals."

"Can we go see them?" Harry asked.

"MA! WE'RE GONNA GO SEE THE ANIMALS!" Yelled the older kid, who was nine. "C'mon Harry, follow us."

Sirius watched as his godson went running after the two boys.

"So Siri," said the father of the two boys, Roy. "I hear you're Harry's godfather. How'd it come by that you're taking care of him?"

"Oh…" Sirius said. "Well, Harry's parents died when he was one… so I'm taking care of him now."

"Was it aliens?" Roy asked, his eyes getting wide. "I betcha it was aliens, wasn't it?"

"Er… no, it was…. A double case of pneumonia gone awry after a camping trip."

"Don't know what pneumonia has to do with rye bread, but I'm sure it just worsened their illness," replied Roy. "But I betcha that it all leads back to the government and their secret hiding of alien life…"

Harry, Jake, the six-year old, and Mark, the nine-year old, ran across the field until they reached the barn.

"Some of the animals might be sleeping, and try not to spook the horses," Mark said as he pulled open the barn door. Harry nodded eagerly and looked around the dark barn. He could see several large eyes staring at him, and some of the sheep pigs snorted.

"That there's Tillie," said Jake, pointing to one of the pigs. "She's gonna have piglets real soon."

"Wow… how many?"

"We don't know how many," Mark said, as if Harry was being stupid on purpose. "Over here is one of our horses, Kelly."

There was a loud scratching sound from somewhere in the barn, causing Harry to jump.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

"Probably one of the animals, like a goat or sumtin'," said Jake. "Come on, let me show you-"

Harry didn't hear the rest of what Jake said, for at that moment a rat scurried out from under the hay that covered part of the ground. Harry stared at the rat… it looked sort of familiar…

Sirius jumped slightly when the backdoor of the house burst open and Jake and Mark came running in.

"Momma! Something's wrong with Harry! He fainted or something!"