A/N: Could my chapter titles get any more boring?

WARNING: Perhaps I shouldn't spoil your fun before you read this chapter, but something has come to my attention that needs correcting right now.

Folks, this is a P.R.E.V.I.E.W.. This is not the actual story. You will not be getting anymore chapters after this. Not until the story is actually posted.

HEY! You in the front. Put that fruit down! I'm not having any of that!

PUT. IT. DOWN.

NOW!

All right then.

Now, why, you might well ask?

Well, several reasons. One reason is I have to post two other stories first. One is the one I am currently working on, Enemies, and the other is Runaway.

Why do those stories have to go up first? Well, that goes back to a statement I made to BellaMonte earlier. Most of my stories aren't so much based on how much action I can put in them as on the relationships involved. (Family Relations is big on this, hence the name.) And if the other two stories don't go up first, you will not understand some things that happen in Family Relations that are based solely on the relations between the two people involved.

Now, can you read Family Relations without reading Enemies or Runaway? Anything is possible, I'm told. But I take no credit for how confused you will be or the fact you won't get half as much out of the story as those who did read those two stories first.

So, with that in mind, as much as you can, and as always,

Enjoy.

Chapter Three: Meetings-Part Three

Harry sat on an uncomfortable wooden bench, absently swinging his feet back and forth over the dull, over-waxed green plastic tiles of the adoption agency's lobby floor. He doubted that in his entire life he had ever been so bored while being equally so anxious.

Sirius had told him in all hopefulness this would be their last trip to the agency. The adoption should be finalized that morning and that would be that.

Harry certainly hoped so. Things had been anything but normal since Sirius had mentioned the adoption. And things happened so fast after that, Harry hardly had time to even think about what was going on.

The oddest occurrence of all in Harry's mind was the day Arabella had come to him and given him a paper to sign. Harry looked it over carefully as Arabella explained it to him.

"It's a petition to change your name, Harry." She explained with what he could only describe as the most nervous smile he had ever seen his godmother use. "It's just for your protection." Harry could clearly hear the hesitancy in her words. Like she was picking each one with extreme care. "From now on you'll be Harry James Potter Black. All right?"

Harry had stared at the paper, then turned back to his godmother.

"Why isn't Sirius doing this?" he asked.

"Well," Arabella had paused briefly, "this is sort of a surprise, Harry. For after the wedding. It's something I'm doing for him."

Harry glanced up at his godmother, then turned his attention back to the paper. He glanced over it again, this time with something else catching his attention. "This says that if anything happens to you or Sirius, my custody goes to Orion."

"It's a protection clause, Dear." Arabella stated quickly. "It's just if anything were to happen and Sirius or I couldn't take care of you, you would go to Sirius' brother."

"Why Orion?" Harry asked. He had already heard stories about the elder Black brother and he didn't exactly relish the idea of him as a guardian. "Why not Remus? Or Dumbledore."

Arabella looked like she was exactly ten seconds away from some sort of breakdown. "Because Remus can't be given custody, Dear. It's the law governing werewolves. And Dumbledore is much to busy running the school to take on a teenager. Now please, Harry, for me, just sign the document. We'll give it to Sirius after the wedding, all right? He'll be so pleased you signed it. So pleased you wanted to do this for him. To make him happy."

Harry remembered trying to ask something else about the document, but that was all he could recall of the event. He was trying to ask something else, when things went a little fuzzy. He remembered suddenly feeling that signing the paper was simply the right thing to do. Arabella had handed him a quill and directed his hand over the piece of paper where he was to sign.

"Just sign it, Dear." He remembered hearing her say to him. "It's the right thing to do."

When Harry looked up again, he noticed the most startling transformation in his godmother. Never had he seen the woman look more like the Auror she was. Staring down at him with a expression that was anything but her usual, gentle air, Arabella carefully slid the paper out from under his hand and carefully rolled it up and tucked it safely into her robes.

He remembered her telling him something about her wanting him to go take a nap as she slipped the quill out of his hand, that they had a busy day planned the following morning. And finding himself suddenly very tired, he had gone straight up to bed and fallen almost immediately asleep.

After that the court paper was never mentioned again. And after a short period of time, he had nearly forgotten it in the mad rush everything around him turned into.

Especially today.

Arabella had fussed over him all morning, making sure that he looked just right. Even as they drove to the agency in London she had continued to try and get his hair to look a little more orderly. She had even considered a small spell to do the job. But Sirius had finally called a halt to process at that point, reminding Arabella they had agreed on a strict 'no magic' rule whenever they were dealing with the adoption agency. The agency was run by muggles. If anything 'unusual' were to happen due to a spell suddenly going wrong, it could jeopardize the adoption.

And there seemed to be no guarantees these days about Arabella and her spells. While Sirius had taken control of the adoption process (part of which involved a 'no waiting' policy, despite his earlier opinion that the agency would look more favorably on a married couple than a single father), the planning of the wedding had been left to Arabella. And since the first day she started trying to get things organized, her spells seemed a bit....less focused. Everything from burnt dinners to attacks from feather dusters seemed to suddenly be the norm around the house.

And then there were the trips. The last few weeks seemed an endless series of trips to Harry. Off to Diagon Alley. Or a day trip to London to look for a suit for him. Or a dress for Arabella. Or for something else having to do with the wedding. It always seemed they were off somewhere. Sometimes for the day. Sometimes overnight or for the weekend. When Harry went off with his godmother, he was never sure when he would see Sirius again. In his opinion, it seemed almost as though Arabella was doing her utmost best to keep him and Sirius separated as much as possible, but always with her. Harry had ask once if he could go see Ron for the weekend, sure Arabella would jump at the chance. But she had told him 'no', stating only it wasn't a good idea in her opinion and instead hustled him off to London for the weekend.

But that morning things almost seemed normal with everyone pleasantly over-excited. Especially Harry and Arabella. Harry had spent most of the car ride into London thinking about what he was going to call his godparents now. 'Sirius and Arabella' seemed suddenly out of place. But 'Mom and Dad' didn't seem quite right either. Or maybe it would just take some getting use to. When Arabella had noticed how quiet he had gotten and asked what was on his mind, Harry had told her.

He should have lied.

The dilemma had brought a flurry of suggestions from his godparents. Everything from referring to them simply as still his 'godparents' to, as Sirius had suggested, 'the two people who were going to make his life miserable until he turned eighteen because that was now their job'.

When Harry had asked the question in reverse, Arabella had proudly stated she was going to refer to Harry for what he was; her adopted son. Sirius, on the other hand, had remained uncharacteristically quiet on the matter as he directed the car into the adoption agency parking lot.

And so Harry had sat on the bench for the past hour thinking over various answers to the question. He only looked up when he heard the sound of footsteps echoing down the corridor.

Harry didn't think he had ever seen a stranger procession than the one headed towards him down the hallway.

In the lead was the woman Harry recognized from his earlier visits to the agency as the caseworker who was in charge of the adoption. Harry had had one meeting with her in which she had asked a horribly long list of questions; most of which Harry didn't think were any of her business, but that he had answered anyway so as not to jeopardize the adoption.

Behind the caseworker was a tall man who looked amazingly like Sirius, except that he was dressed very differently. Harry's first thought upon seeing him was that he knew the man from somewhere. A thought he quickly past off to the fact that the man simply bore a striking resemblance to his godfather.

But it was the people bringing up the rear of the procession that struck Harry as the oddest of the four.

Harry had expected his godparents to be happy and excited. But the two's expressions couldn't have been further from 'happy' or 'excited'.

Sirius' gaze seemed fixed on nothing imparticular as he walked behind the man in front of him. Every step seemed to be forced, as did every other movement Sirius made. From his set jaw to the way his cane hit the floor every time he moved it, Sirius seemed as though he had enough anger inside of him that the slightest release would shake the building to its foundation.

Next to him Arabella looked as pale as Harry could ever remember seeing her. She had a nearly white-knuckled grip on Sirius' arm that he seemed oblivious to at the moment. She also didn't seem to be staring at anything imparticular until she came closer to where he was now standing, facing the approaching group. Only then did her gaze shift to him and her expression became even more forlorn.

Not knowing what to think, Harry stayed exactly where he was, not making a move or saying a word. Whatever was going on, he knew it wasn't anything good as the tension from the four pressed in on him as they approached.

The caseworker stepped into a side office before reaching him. The black-haired man behind her continued to approach him with long, determined steps.

Harry's eyes never left the man's face as he walked up and stopped finally before him.

"Harry," the stranger said with a forced friendliness that tried to dispel the tension around them with little success, "my name is Orion Black. I'm Sirius' brother."

Harry only nodded slightly in response, his gaze shifting briefly to his godparents. Sirius' expression hadn't changed in the least, but remained fixed on Orion. But Arabella's attention had stay on him, her expression showing nothing but the anguish she was trying so hard to hide.

Harry turned his eyes back to the man standing before him. Suddenly he remembered why the man looked so familiar. Harry had seen pictures of him when they had been living at Sirius' family house during the summer. Harry had, in fact, mistaken several pictures of Orion for Sirius.

Orion held his hand out for Harry. "Harry, I need for you to come with me, all right?"

Harry stayed where he was, ignoring the outstretched hand as he turned his eyes again to this godparents, pleading for them to tell him what was going on. What they wanted him to do.

Harry was so caught up in his confusion over the situation, he failed to even think to protest as Orion reached down and took his hand, directing him to his feet.

He was still staring mutely at his godparents as Orion led him off down the hallway toward the front doors.

Q&A

It's official, folks. I need a keeper. Anyone want to apply?

I know I answered some of your questions to Family Relations, but I'll be darned if I can find them. And I mean I have LOOKED!!! But the file is gone somewhere. W:ho knows? PAR needs a secretary.

I'm answering these as the ones i remember not answering yet. Bit if I missed you, please help me out and let me know.

gatesy: Very true, dear. You can tell if you like a story or not by the first chapter. That is why authors try so hard to get you hooked within the first few pages.

I hope you did well on your essay.

Von: Ummmm, see warning above.

Why does nothing go well for poor Harry? Wouldn't be much of a story if it did, huh?

sparks the insomniac werewolf: I think I answered you before, Dear. But if not, Proper Friends is one of my 'Oh, I have a few spare moments, I'll go work on that story' pieces. What does that mean? Well, I can tell you, right now PAR doesn't have a lot of spare time, so that story is a long time coming.

But it will be posted some day. It's a cute little story dealing with Remus and Snape and their time at school together, and helps to explain some of the things that go on between them in my stories.

TreeHugger: *Looks over notes* Swore I answered this one too.

*Throws notes away* Oh well. Can't find it. Can't prove it. If I did, you get answered twice, Dear.

First off, let me say, 'good for you! PAR is a tree hugger from way on back'.

I always wanted to be someone's hero.

Ummmm, I would check into that left arm thing, Dear. Doesn't sound good. But be sure to do it before you read the warning at the top of the pag............oh. Probably already too late.

FairyTale: there is a great deal of brother interaction in Family Relations. But I'll bet my last dollar it isn't what you're expecting.

Harry may be in for an interesting time, but what about poor Orion? Harry isn't exactly your typical teenager.

The first chapter was posted, Dear. PAR just isn't very good with the chapter-setting-up thing yet.

Lis': Orion has control of Sirius' accounts, not Harry's. If he had control of Harry's accounts, it would be solely as his now legal guardian over Sirius. But legally, no one has control over his accounts. Harry controls his own finances.

fan: Well, I update when I can, Dear. But unfortunately, if you read above, you know this is the last posting on this for a while.

Natural Anthem: Come on! Cliffhangers are fun.

I'm glad you enjoyed Family Life. But as you've seen, this story is only being posted as a preview, not the entire story yet.

Voltora: Well, I counted the chapters this morning, Dear, and it is running longer than Family Life. I just won't say how ,much longer.

Sirius isn't happy about what's going on. For a number of reasons.

lool: I'm a fad now? I'm so excited! My parents will be so pleased.

Unfortunately, your description starts to sound a bit like the 'bad-ass Harry' Rowling turned this kid into, and PAR starts to get a little nervous about that. And I'm afraid he isn't going to have a lot of time for the 'teenage rebellion' thing. He's going to be kept very busy just trying to stay alive.

Reviews are as of 03282004.

And remember;

Obey Gravity.

It's the law.