A/N: I'm changing Jack's age from 6 to 10. There is a reason for this (if I ever get around to writing it). Please ignore any references to him being younger until I edit them out.

2

It was late afternoon when Sirius spotted the woman and boy swimming near the shore. The little boy raised his arm and waved to him. He waved back. He was surprised to see them - Severus had said that it was deserted for miles around his house.

They swam up to the shore and walked down the sand to meet him. They didn't seem surprised.

"Greetings stranger," said the lady. "I'm Ann, this is Jack." Sirius introduced himself as Remus Lupin. She was fairly young, Sirius thought, definitely still in her twenties. Her lean, athletic body looked good in her black bikini. Sirius didn't even want to think about when the last time he saw a woman in a bikini was.

"Hello friend of Severus," added Jack. He looked to be about ten, but acted like he was in his teens. He wondered where the boy's father was. Probably in the house farther down the beach.

"Severus?" he spat. "That greasy git is no friend of mine. Don't tell me he was here looking for me?" They nodded. "Well, if he comes back again tell him to shove off."

"That's a fine way to treat a friend," said Ann, "seeing as how it's his house you're staying in." He studied her face. He wondered where she was from.

"Severus can go -"

Ann didn't even admonish him for using such foul language in front of a minor. She just grinned and asked, "Lover's quarrel?"

Sirius let loose a stream of expletives that made his former curse seem like a nursery rhyme.

Ann, however, continued to grin. "How would I know? I've never had one." She looked down at the boy, who had done a handstand and was trying to balance on his hands, and not doing a bad job of it either.

"What, someone as pretty as you?" Sirius thought he must be out of practice. She completely ignored him, turning her back as she started back for her house. Sirius was about to walk away when she asked, "You're coming?" He realized she was talking to him. She laughed at his expression. "Don't think I'm that kind of girl - but I did offer your friend lunch so I might as well offer you supper, lest my new neighbors suspect me of being biased. Are you a wizard too?" He nodded. She must be a witch. "Then go play with Jack," she said, leaving them.

Jack started running down the beach towards a clump of grass. "Come see my shell collection!" he insisted. Sirius followed. What kind of woman would leave her son with a complete stranger? She certainly was odd, but Sirius couldn't exactly claim title to being normal himself.

Sirius watched Jack stack his rather admirable collection of seashells in rows. He made strange designs out of them that made sense only to him. "This is a rabbit," he explained, stacking the shells so they balanced on top of each other perfectly. When Jack exhausted his supply of animals, he started juggling the shells with magic, making them float in patterns around his head like miniature constellations.

"So, what's your mum like?" he asked, trying to get the boy to talk to him. Here he was, single and isolated on a lonely stretch of beach; and there she was, single and isolated on a lonely stretch of beach (she had said that she had no lovers - was it a hint?). It was too perfect. He didn't know if he could love a girl who had more muscles than him, but he could certainly try.

"She dead," said Jack.

It took him a while to realize what he was saying. "Who's the young lady who was at the beach with you earlier, your sister, or babysitter?"

"Momma," Jack said, concentrating of his floating circles and hexagons. Sirius was starting to become bored. He had always prided himself on being great with children - a plus among women - but he didn't even have Jack's attention. Jack was as strange as the lady.

Suddenly Jack looked up and sniffed the air. "Come on," he urged, jumping to his feet. He shrieked, "Pizza!" as he tore across the sand towards the house. Sirius grudgingly followed.

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to," Ann said upon seeing his face at her back door. He immediately felt bad for wanting to leave. He paused in the doorway, unsure what to do.

"Well? Are you coming or leaving? Don't just stand in the door like a dork, move. Come in or go out." With that, she disappeared inside. What a strange lady.

He followed.

Besides the books and papers strewn in piles everywhere, Sirius liked the fact that her house was so open. Maybe it was the high ceilings, or the fact that there were few walls and most rooms opened straight into the next. It was a house you could breathe in, and she didn't clutter it with lots of furniture. A steaming pizza was on the kitchen counter, a cardboard box advertising Red Baron discarded on the floor. Jack was setting four places at the small table by the bay window. It looked dark outside now. He wondered who the fourth place was for.

Apparently Ann didn't know either. "Expecting company?" she asked Jack. He didn't answer, so she left it. They had started into their first slice when Jack looked towards the door. He jumped up and opened it, flinging himself onto the black figure outside, shrieking, "Uncle Severus!"

He came in looking rather sheepish with Jack clinging to his shirt. "I was passing and couldn't resist infringing on your hospitality again," he explained.

"Jack already set you a place at the table," Ann answered as if the only qualification for perfect strangers to eat in her house was that they have plates.

"I knowed you'd came!" Jack said. Severus had become tired of Jack's hanging off his shirt and simply picked the boy up and propped him on his hip. Jack locked his arms around the man's neck.

"I knew you'd come," corrected Ann automatically.

"I knewed you'd come," repeated Jack, beaming in Severus's face.

Severus froze when his gaze caught Sirius sitting at the table. "What do you think you're doing here?" he snarled. "Do you want to be caught? And have Albus blame me for getting yourself in trouble?"

"Look, you slime-bucket, if I want to go for a walk I don't need to check in with you first," answered Sirius. "I can take care of myself without your, er, enthusiastic help."

"And what are you doing here?" Severus demanded. "Walking around just waiting for anyone to recognize you! Well, don't blame me when it does happen." He looked considerably cheerful at the thought.

"Shut up!" Ann said. They both looked at her. "I don't give a damn how much you guys fight as if you were married - just don't do it in my house." She had picked up a dusty book from under the table and was trying to read it. She glanced at Severus. "Sit and eat if you're going to stay," she demanded. "Or else just leave - I can't stand it when people just stand there." She turned a page.

Severus didn't have to think very hard. Little Jack was practically dragging him into the chair next to his, and he did have to keep an eye on that rotten good-for-nothing Sirius. Besides, he liked Ann.

"So what's a nice witch like you doing all alone in place like this?" Sirius said, putting her arm around her shoulders suggestively.

She shrugged it off as if it were a fly. "Reading.and I'm not a witch, I'm a Muggle." He opened his mouth as if he were about to protest, but she jumped back in before he could. "If you don't like it, you can eat it," she said rudely, her eyes never leaving the page.

Severus raised an eyebrow at Sirius. Sirius didn't know how to act around women like her - they didn't follow any of the rules. But then again, whatever Sirius knew was twelve years out of date. Severus, however, seemed to enjoy her ungraceful, matter-of-fact way of speaking.

"If you're a Muggle, then why are you reading that?" he asked, pointing to the ancient book of death curses in her hand. Sirius hadn't even known that book still existed.

"I wanted to," she replied as if it answered everything.

He continued to try to pursue the conversation. Severus was playing some sort of game with Jack using nonsense sign language, which it looked like they were making up as they went along, but he was listening amusedly to Sirius's pitiful attempts to engage Ann in conversation.

"What do you do for a living?" he asked. He wondered if she were independently wealthy, like he practically used to be, or Severus could be if he didn't teach at Hogwarts.

"I read," she answered truthfully.

He thought she was joking. "Does it pay well?"

"I suppose so," she said.

"What are you researching?" asked Severus.

"Whatever I want to. There are over fifty piles of books around here, one for each project I'm currently engaged in, but I have more waiting in the back of my head. I jump around from topic to topic. Right now I'm researching a myth about an ancient book that explains countered curses." Severus nodded as if he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"You do all this for fun?!" Sirius exclaimed. He was flabbergasted.

She put her book down and said seriously, "In the good life, work and play is all the same thing, are they not? I figure if I'm going to be weird and read so much anyway I might as well get some money out of it." She put her book back under the table. "You gotta love what you do and do what you love. So, who loves to clear the table?"

Sirius stared at her.

"Well, don't expect me to do it for you - y'all did just eat my pizza."

Severus silently started clearing off the table and started washing the dirty dished that were overflowing in the sink. Jack sat on the counter next to him and sang funny improvised songs in his soprano voice.

Sirius didn't want Snape to have the satisfaction of knowing that he couldn't find his way back in the dark. He had walked through the water too much to try to smell his way back in dog form, too. He was happy he had a secure place to stay, but considering who was hosting him and why, Sirius would rather be on his own. It had been blackmail (get it, Black mail?), as Severus had told him in no uncertain terms. Sirius had managed to not be caught so far, but it wasn't the kind of life he had a propensity for. In school, he and James had been the trouble makers, but if there was one thing Sirius was bad at it was being sneaky. If anything, Sirius had been very gullible - a character trait he felt had cost the Potters their lives. Remus was the witty, sarcastic one; he was better at staying hidden. One could say that Sirius was a brave man; sometimes, he added, only because he could be exceptionally stupid at times. Dumbledore knew very well that Severus could hide Sirius better than Sirius could hide himself. He also knew that Severus would never incriminate himself by tipping off the authorities that a mass-murderer was knowingly being housed in his property. Of course, Severus being the control freak that he was had insisted on accompanying Sirius, more to make sure Sirius didn't mess up his house, Sirius was sure, than from any noble idea of protecting him. Sirius was glad that Dumbledore had conveniently forgotten to mention to Severus that he was an Animagus. The less Severus knew, he thought, the happier they'd both be. Besides, Sirius didn't trust Severus an inch, though Albus had enormously high faith in him.

He poked at the strange metal box sitting in the open room adjoining the kitchen. What strange contraptions these Muggles came up with. There was a row of small boxes underneath with names like Moulin Rouge and Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail and Mr. Bean.

"It's called a television," Ann explained right behind him. He jumped when she spoke - she had snuck up right behind him. "You turn it on and it shows different pictures. You can change which pictures it shows by pressing the numbers on the buttons," she said, pointing to several squares that looked like small buttons beneath the screen.

"And what are these boxes down here?" asked Sirius. "Are these some kind of Muggle books?"

"In a way, I guess you could say that. They're stories in picture form. You, uh, feed them into the machine here and it shows them on the screen. They're called movies."

"I've never seen a movie before," he admitted. James and Lily used to go to Muggle towns to watch their movies, but he had never been interested. Looking back, he wished he had gone: it would have been more time he could have spent with them, not another small part of their lives he had never known. He was beginning to become intrigued.

"Would you like to watch one? They usually last between one and two hours."

He looked at the pictures of Muggles in weird poses on the front of each box. "That would be really fun, if you don't mind. Which one of these boxes do we have to feed the machine?"

She laughed and picked up a box, showing him writing on the back. "You can read the synopsis on the back and tell me which one you want to see." She looked up. An owl had just flown in and left a letter on the window seat. "Excuse me."

He continued to look through the Muggle movies, fascinated by the stories they invented. So this was how they managed to amuse themselves without magic. He had put back one he didn't understand at all (The Matrix) when he realized Ann was acting very strangely.

She looked like she was trying to walk and stop herself from walking at the same time. With one hand she gripped the wrist of her other hand that held the letter, as if her hands were fighting one another. Her face was twisted in concentration.

"Ann, are you okay?" he asked. Severus looked up from the dishes Jack was showing him how to put dishes in a box that opened next the sink. Sirius could see that he understood what was happening to Ann.

"Get that letter away from her!" he shouted. He sprinted around Jack and hurled himself at Ann, ripping the letter out of her hand. It flew across the room. They watched it fly in an arch - it slowly ignited. The paper was entirely consumed by the time its ashes reached the ground.

Ann looked disoriented for a second, then her eyes gained focus and she punched Severus in the stomach. "What did you do that for? Now we can't find out who sent it and what they wanted!"

Severus's eyes blazed. "There was an Impervious charm in that letter!"

"Well, you should have read it first to help me figure out who sent it! You think I'm stupid? People send me curses all the time. Jack knows to find as many clues about it as he can before burning it. Now I just have to wait for them to send another!"

Severus looked horrified. "People send you these things?"

"All the time," Ann said. "Every now and then some one sends me a Death curse.

Severus's face remained blank but his eyes looked scared. "But how do you counter it?" he asked.

"I dodge it."

"What if you're not fast enough?" asked Sirius.

Ann looked blankly back at him as if the thought had never occurred to her. "The only time I wasn't fast enough was the first time." She showed them the cartilage at the end of her ear where a small chunk was missing.

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling the truth about what you really do?" Sirius said.

Ann had been calm before now but now she looked dangerously annoyed. Before Sirius had wondered why she hadn't been afraid of him, a stranger. Should he have been the one to be afraid of her? A common Muggle? He was beginning to think that Ann was someone to be reckoned with. "What I do," said Ann "is none of your damn business. I have no obligations to tell you anything."

Ouch, Sirius thought. He was sure she was going to kick them both out now, but instead she said, "Are you going to watch a movie with us or not? If you are then hurry up and pick one - it annoys me when people take too long to make up their minds. Saturday nights are movie nights for me and Jack, and I want to get him to bed on time. Severus, go help him."

Ann started making popcorn while Sirius and Severus looked at the Muggle movies together. They couldn't agree, of course, so Ann picked for them. She made them watch Grave of the Fireflies and then Moulin Rouge. Both Severus and Sirius thought this Muggle magic was pretty neat. But Sirius was starting to worry about Ann - both movies had very sad endings. She certainly had odd tastes. Sneaking a glance at Severus, Sirius had been beside himself with glee to see that there were tears in his eyes when Satine was dying. Well, it might have just been glare from the television, but Sirius had little to happy about these days.

Seeing that she hadn't scared off the two wizards yet, Ann sent Jack to bed and picked a movie called Cube off the shelf.

"Is this one going to be a bit more cheerful?" asked Sirius.

Ann had an odd look in her eyes as she cryptically said, "It had a happy ending."

Cube ended up being a kind of horror movie that was, Sirius thought, quite gruesome and horrific. He was on the edge of the couch the whole time. Apparently, to Ann a happy ending means that one character lived to the end. He was definitely starting to fear for her sanity.

They both thanked her as she let them out the back door.

"Don't thank me, just buy me more popcorn," she said. "I like popcorn." They had both noticed, as over half of the popcorn had found its way into her mouth before anyone else had even taken a handful.

She invited them to come back if they wanted. "If you're not going to be any trouble," she added.

It was quite late before they were on their way back to Severus's house. They didn't even have energy to argue as they walked along the moonlit beach in silence.