When Madame Pomfrey let me go (after a long treatise on the effects of dueling, a lecture I'd gotten too many times when Snape actually got a curse in edgewise to pay any attention to), I prepared to get out of there and think things through. Lily, presumably to make sure I got out of there alright, followed me through the castle halls. It may have been the nice thing to do, but it would also inevitably create more questions than I had answers to.

After Peeves showed up, with the rather uncreative trick of pulling the carpet out from under us— which didn't work too well, anyways, both of us knew the poltergeist too well— I retaliated by turning him green. Lily stared at him as he swooped off cursing like a sailor. I grinned the old maniac grin. "What, never seen that trick before?"

"No, Black did it to Snape once, except his spell went bright pink."

I'd forgotten the old fondness for retaliating by turning things colors. I didn't say another word about anything until we'd gotten stuck waiting on a moving staircase. Lily leaned down, looking onto the floor beneath us, but after all the flip-flops my stomach had already done today I didn't think it was up for it. "Filch is chasing Black and Potter again," she commented.

I really didn't fancy reliving one of those experiences with all the cursing he did normally, even as a spectator. I'd explained away far more learned profanity than had actually resulted by Filch's mouth. "Again?" I just asked lazily.

"Yes, again; they get in trouble all the time. One of their best friends is a prefect and you'd think he'd have put a stop to it." Lily sighed and shrugged. "Than, I may be asking too much for those two to stop goofing off."

I shrugged. "Oh, give it a beak, Lily— I did the same thing."

She snorted. "You would Scott, and I can already tell that much."

"Apparently so," I answered dryly, "considering you don't seem to trust me to get out of a castle I spent seven years learning my way around on my own."

Lily shrugged and glowered loftily at the ceiling. "Madame Pomfrey did say that she could cure the physical bruising, but the confusion had to wear itself off," she reminded me in her defense. "We don't know what part of your brain it decided to addle—"

"I didn't know I had brains that weren't already addled," I was unable to avoid breaking in wryly.

Lily muttered something about it being "typical", though of what she didn't specify. I s'posed it was men— after all, we did the same for women all the time. The staircase met it's next floor, and we ambled down it, in time to hear Sir Cadogan shout something at us. I couldn't help but grin— idiot knight had let me into the Gryffindor common room Harry's third year when no one but me had known it was Peter instead of me.

Harry. . . . The thought of the fat little knight had somehow gotten me on that line. Frankly I wondered what they thought happened to me; as both Dumbledore and Remus had been there I was pretty sure all the kids had turned out alright, or at least without fatalities. I hoped the Death Eaters hadn't gotten that lucky.

But what had Bellatrix done? I had my doubts it was a spell— killing me would've been much simpler. And I'd had very little idea what was going on around me— the only things I'd been paying attention to at the time were Bellatrix and keeping from getting too close to any of the kids. While Madame Pomfrey had managed to get rid of the headache (which was frankly a miracle within itself) my memory of what had been happening in the Department of Mysteries was still pretty hazy.

I didn't realize Lily was talking to me again, until she yanked me out of the way of suit of armor and told me if I always payed this much attention to where I was going, then she understood how I'd managed to get a concussion dueling. I retorted that I was preoccupied figuring a few things out, like how I'd ended up on the Hogwarts ground.

"Ah," she replied, shaking her head. "Any answers?"

"No," I grumbled, "but that's certainly not from lack of effort." Lily hadn't let go of my hand, apparently still not trusting me to avoid anything else in my way. Then again, after the performance I'd put on getting up to the hospital wing I wasn't too surprised.

We got onto the ground without further mishaps, mainly because I saved the racking of my memory for when I was sitting in one place without a sixteen-year-old girl hammering me with reasonable questions I couldn't answer, either because it gave too much away or I simply didn't know.

After saying goodbye to Lily, I headed in the general direction of the Forbidden Forest. When I was sure nobody could still see me even if they were looking, I changed into Snuffles and went deeper into it, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

One thing was fairly sure, and that was I was on my own. I doubted I could satisfactorily explain things even to Dumbledore, who before had at least known half the wrong story. The other was that my only actual recollection of the next two years was the goings on up at the school— I'd be less confused if I stayed near Hogwarts, and some part of me wanted to stay near it anyway. I hadn't seen Lily and James for fifteen years, and I didn't want to give up the opportunity.

Since Lily was always pretty good with names (she only had to yell at me and James once before we were in her vivid memory as nuisances for the next six years), it seemed that I was going to stay under the name I'd come up with on a moment's notice.

That figured out, I turned to slightly less interesting things— Bellatrix and the mysteries of the future could wait until I had a vague idea of what I was doing for the next twenty years. First thing was first— I needed a job, since I hardly intended to spend the next twenty years in the Forbidden Forest. The biggest method of doing that in the wizarding world, like most worlds, was the government, but the minute that occurred to me I decided I'd be damned if I was working for the Ministry. The other easy course of action was Hogsmede, which both kept me close to the school and was actually easy to find.

The whole plotting out of at least the next few months had taken me most of the remaining afternoon and farther into the forest than I'd been before hiding from Dementors in it. Ah, well, I knew my way around easily enough, making my way to the edge and becoming a man again only after I could see the village through the trees.

Even if the last time I'd been in Hogsmede I'd been on four legs, I could see it wouldn't change much in twenty years— same people, same shops, and not even much more wear and tear— the constant visitation of a teenage population kept it in pretty good shape.

The usual assorted crowd of people who weren't necessarily human were wandering in and out of the Three Broomsticks, and I half considered going down to the Hog's Head and seeing if the barman that had once caught me and James playing knock-and-run there on an exceedingly boring visit (Remus and Peter wouldn't have anything to do with it, and Hagrid had had to rescue us) was still around. Honeydukes was pretty quiet; it really only really woke up on Hogsmede weekends, but the post office was nearly as bustling as the Three Broomsticks. I felt pretty much at home here, having spent nine years in and out of these streets.

Zonko's had a help wanted sign out in front of it. I stood for a moment considering whether or not to go in— pushing forty was more than a little old to be clerking a joke shop, but on the other hand I wasn't likely to come up with much else in the way of better ideas, and Zonko's was easily the place here I knew the most about. "Like being old for something's stopped me before," I muttered finally, opening the door.

Author's Note: I'm still a bit curious to know how I've gotten so many reviews on this one. . . . Well, anyways, I'm shocked I managed to get this one out in a reasonable time, getting our mass murderer employed was more than a bit of a challenge (Sirius: I am not a mass murderer, and the only reason it was difficult was that aurors work for the ministry. Me: Yes Padfoot, I know, and we love you anyway). I'll also tell you that the humor at best is going to get gradually darker as the story gets longer, because the major plot of this story is Sirius's fight to understand he has to let Peter be his own man (that's not a spoiler, since we all know what happens), and therefore I'm taking the story quite a ways. Anyway, to answer a few questions— no, CountessMel, Sirius will not end up going to Dumbledore (he would have to much pride), but that doesn't mean he's not going to think about it. Moony, well the first comment was that it might be spell damage, I think that's two paragraphs above what you quoted (don't worry, remember: I missed Ginny's add in Lonely Hearts). Otherwise, let's see, if you're reading this, I beg of you to review it (ANY opinions are more than welcome), and thanks so much to those of you that already have! Cheers! — Loki