8. A New Home
There was a big official party scheduled for a week later, during which Sirius would officially be welcomed back to the wizarding world. That required them to go and buy dress robes, so the five of them turned up at Diagon Alley, accompanied by several Weasleys and Hermione Granger. Harry was able to get a few minutes with Ginny alone and asked her to be his date for the party.
"You want to go there with me as your date? Oh Harry! Yes, I'd love to."
"And may I give you a set of dress robes for the event? I'd love to give you something really nice and watch you while you pick it at Madam Malkin's."
She smiled. She knew she should have turned the offer down, but she couldn't resist. It would mean she would also have some proper new dress robes for the school functions and she wasn't to say no to that outlook. So she accompanied him inside the shop where Sirius and Remus were already fitted and where Remus was now supervising the fitting of robes for his two children. Harry and Ginny took their time looking at different dress robes and finally bought a set of midnight blue ones for Ginny and Harry's were Gryffindor red and gold. They got ready to have them fitted, when Molly found them and stared at her daughter. Ginny looked stunning. Harry was smitten on the spot when he saw the dress robes fitted to her still rather small, but very slim body. Her coppery red hair flowed down her back and her brown eyes were beaming. Molly looked back and forth between them and kept her mouth shut. 'Let Harry buy her dress robes,' she thought and hoped that something would come out of it.
Ginny saw her mother and dashed to her side.
"Mum, Harry's asked me for a date, he wants me to be his date for the party next week! And look what he's getting me, Mum!" she whispered excitedly.
"Oh, Ginny, that's so sweet. You look simply wonderful," Molly cooed.
"I do? I'm not just a scrawny little thing?"
"No, you're not, and your Mum is very right, you look wonderful, Ginny," Harry said behind her back.
She turned and just had to stumble and fall on him, so he just had to catch her in his arms. She looked up and beamed again. Her smile left him all dizzy and he felt the air and the blood leave his brain and travel down closer to the ground.
Sirius and Remus watched the whole episode with broad grins on their faces. Hermione meanwhile watched them and finally asked:
"Is any of that your doings?"
"No, not at all. I may have given him a few hints, but that's really all, believe me," Remus said, grinning even wider.
"Marauders! Well done," Hermione said.
"We still have it, Sirius! Scheming was always our best trait!"
"Scheming and matchmaking, yes," Sirius confirmed.
They high-fived each other and Hermione just watched them and shook her head. Remus turned to her and said:
"Would you like to come and stay with us for a few days? We're going to move into Sirius' house, which is being cleaned up right now by a team of house-elves from Hogwarts and we'll get there on Monday. You, Ron and Ginny could come and be company for Harry for a couple of days after the party."
"Oh, that would be nice! I'd love to, if my parents allow it."
"Don't tell Harry, it's to be a surprise."
"More scheming, eh?"
"No, we just love to make people happy," Remus smirked.
"You two are brilliant!"
Harry had not noticed anything. He was still watching Ginny and enjoyed the beautiful sight. He had also spoken it out and was still in a daze about it. He finally steadied Ginny and let her go, though he really didn't want to, but what little reason was left in his brain told him they had to get out of their dress robes.
"You're going to be a stunning pair and steal Sirius' show," Molly teased them.
"Oh no, Mum, we would never do that," Ginny protested weakly.
"But now you can go and take the dress robes off, both of you!"
While Harry and Ginny left to change, Sirius approached Molly with his invitation for Ron and Ginny.
"We'd take them home from the Ministry party and keep them for a week or so, if you let them come," Sirius said.
"That's very kind of you, Sirius, I'm sure they'd love to come and yes, I definitely let them go. What do you want, they're growing up so fast..."
"That's very true."
The company then travelled from Madam Malkin's over to Florean Fortescue's where they all ate some ice cream. In the middle of a moment of quiet, Ronja piped up and declared:
"I now have two Daddies! It's the best feeling in the world!"
Sirius looked at her and grinned. She looked up to him and added:
"You're my other Daddy, Daddy, is it okay if I call you that?"
"Yes, little one, it's perfectly okay for you to call me so. I'd love to be your Daddy, you know."
He was really moved and pulled her into a tight embrace. Remus just smiled next to him. He saw a few tears twinkle in Sirius' blue eyes and whispered:
"Just like we thought she would. It's perfect, love!"
"I love you, Moony. And I love Ronja and Rashid."
"And don't forget the one we are still waiting for."
"It's hard to still wait for so long."
The house which Sirius had inherited from his parents turned out to be a small fortress castle on an island in the middle of a lake. Remus had known very well that this would be a much safer place than any other for them to live. He had been over several times to set up additional wards and to check upon the state of the furnishing. All had been covered by several centimetres of dust, but the house-elves had made short work of that. There were three rather spacious towers, where the bedrooms were set up. The master bedroom was a huge room between the southern towers. It actually connected them, so that one could walk through a long corridor along the master bedroom from one to the other of those two towers. Sirius had to acquire a small group of house-elves to be able to keep the building cleaned and maintained. Harry and Ginny got a room each in one of the towers, Ron and Hermione received one in the other. Rashid's and Ronja's rooms were on the same level as the master bedroom, in Harry's tower.
Remus had been to the place several times, but had never seen the master bedroom, which was more like a suite with a flight of three rooms and a spacious bathroom. Sirius' mother had furnished the main room all in light blue, a colour which suited Sirius and Remus just fine and they didn't change anything. The furniture was all ebony, and Remus giggled and told Sirius that Hermione would surely condemn it because it was tropical wood.
"Well, you and I wouldn't buy it either today, but it's here, so what do we care. It's in perfectly good condition, too, so it would be a shame to throw it out, wouldn't it?"
"Absolutely, love. Actually I really like this room. Oh, I just remembered, I need to send Anna a letter about that..."
"About time, too, love!" Sirius called after him.
Remus sat down at the desk in the next room, plucked some parchment and wrote to Anna that if she came back, she'd have to find them at Ketwick Black Castle.
Harry, Ronja and Rashid were impressed by the place. Sirius took them on a tour around it and explained that there were only three ways to get to the castle. One was to apparate to a small stone building right outside the fortress. From there one had to know the password to get inside the main building. Apparating in was only possible using a special extra spell to land right inside the little stone building. The second way was by rowing from the boathouse. There was only one door to the outside. The small stone building which served as Apparition point had no doors. Visitors who came by boat had to announce themselves to be let inside. The third way was using the Floo to the formal hall of the castle. There was a huge fireplace, through which one could floo in. The Floo was restricted like it had been done at the Lupin home, only through announcement and resetting was it possible to reach the place.
"And because this place is so safe it was in Dumbledore's best interest to get me freed, so I can give you this home, Harry. Outside of Hogwarts you won't be more safe anywhere," Sirius explained.
"It certainly sounds so. And you don't need to be afraid of the rat anymore."
"I'll only stop being afraid of the rat once he's actually dead, Harry. They're going to put him to Azkaban and I really do wish him a few years of the hell I went through, but then I'd like to see him Kissed, only then he'd not be a danger anymore."
"Well, the trial is in two weeks, you'll see what they do with him soon."
"If he can't escape. I'm actually very astonished that there haven't been any news about McNair and Goyle, but certainly McNair, escaping."
"Fudge can't afford that. He's being watched closely by the Daily Prophet, the Wizarding Council and just about the whole wizarding world in Britain. If he slips one more time it will call for a public riot," Harry said.
"I think, Harry's right. He might dare to do something if it were Malfoy who got caught, but he won't do anything for those two. Not even McNair," Remus added.
"I just hope you are right, you two. I'm just a bit more pessimistic."
But they didn't argue about that for long. They enjoyed their new home and every day was just filled with playing, Harry going out and flying every day and Sirius often accompanied him, sometimes it was Remus who hopped on a broom again. Now they didn't only have access to Sirius' own vault, which was fairly well endowed, but they were able to make full use of the Black's inheritance, which had to be called immense. Not that it was any replacement for Sirius' parents who had both died during his prison stint. He was saddened to no end that they had died not knowing their son had been innocent. When they talked about that one morning, Remus remarked:
"Not that they would have believed you guilty in the first place, Sirius. They accused me of giving up on you, but they understood, when Anna and I got married. Your Mum actually pushed me forward to propose, she thought I'd have to move on or go crazy. She still saw Ronja arrive and I brought the baby to her. She was quite happy about that and declared herself a grand-mum of Ronja's."
That brought a smile to Sirius' sombre face. He quickly kissed Remus and said:
"Thank you for telling me that, love. That makes me feel so much better now. I'm starting to feel at home again here."
"Yes, it's coming and in a few weeks it will be like we had lived here forever."
After the adventurous and exciting few days they were all perfectly happy to enjoy the sun and the quiet. Sniffles had adopted her new home and was roaming the long corridors at liberty, but she slept in a basket in Ronja's room. Sirius and Remus changed the study, which was next to their bedroom to the nursery and used the remaining room for their study. Remus had brought all his books from his home and was in the process of selling the place. Since it had been renovated he got a bit more back than what he paid for it when he finally sold it half a year later.
The week went by in a lazy haze for them all. They used it well to get acquainted with their new home. They received a long letter from Anna who was very happy to hear their good news and who promised to come and see them soon .She also wrote that the baby was well and kicked and moved around in her body.
Finally, Friday and the party came up. Dumbledore sent Winky to look after the children, because Sirius wasn't too sure of his new house-elves yet. Winky turned up precisely on time, smiling broadly, because she already liked the Lupin children a lot. Sirius showed her the house and the areas where the children usually spent their time. Then he also showed her where Sniffles was allowed to go and pee. Amazingly, Winky wasn't afraid of Sniffles, who was a very active puppy now and was dashing through the inner courtyard and the house day in and day out.
At half past five, Sirius, Remus and Harry came out of their rooms, all scrubbed and tubbed, made up and dressed up. Sirius looked very elegant in a nice blue set of dress robes with a casual shawl collar and loose wide sleeves. His black dress shoes shone perfectly. He wore a white shirt under the dress robes, tied at the cuffs with wonderful platinum cuff-links. He showed them to Harry and said:
"I found these in Dad's things. Really liked them, what do you think?"
"But - it's silver, Siri!"
"Nope, it's not. I was afraid so at first, but Remus always knows if anything is silver, so he touched them. I suppose they're platinum."
"Oh, good! They're lovely."
"At least the Ministry hasn't stolen anything. They left it all untouched."
Sirius wore dark blue trousers under his dress robes, which flowed freely to the ground. Harry thought he looked really elegant.
Remus had brushed his hair and gathered it in a tail at the nape of his neck. He wore a golden earring and had a nice gold chain around his neck with as mall star pendant that held diamonds in the constellation of Canis Major. He also wore his old wedding ring again.
His dress robes had a more severe style than Sirius', they were of a brown with a golden sheen, and he wore linen dark brown trousers and a cream coloured linen shirt. The robes had no collar, he had the collar of his shirt pulled to the outside. Harry looked at him and smiled. There was an almost equally stunning difference between this Remus and the shabby Professor as there was between escaped convict and this dressed up Sirius.
"You are both looking unbelievably different and great!" he said.
"You're not half bad yourself, Harry. That red really suits you!" Sirius said with a smile.
Harry's dress robes looked just as nice as the ones Sirius and Remus wore. They were scarlet, almost the same red as the Gryffindor colours, and there were golden stars printed on the fabric. All three were ready to leave and arrived in the living room to show themselves to Ronja and Rashid and to wish them goodnight.
"Oh! You're all so beautiful," Ronja exclaimed.
"Thank you, Ronja. So, who do you like best?" Remus asked.
"Harry! He's got stars all over," she declared.
"Do you think, Ginny will like him, too?" Sirius teased.
"Oh, if she doesn't she's stupid. Ginny's not stupid."
Sirius guffawed and looked at Harry, who had blushed deeply. Ronja came and wanted to be hugged. Sirius lifted her up and held her tightly, then he placed a hearty kiss on her cheek and whispered in a very low and conspiratorial voice:
"Do you think we will manage to get him a girlfriend tonight?"
Ronja giggled and nodded.
"Well, she'll be here tomorrow, you can ask her."
"Oh, that's nice. I like Ginny."
"You're right. I like her, too. Sleep well, my love. We'll probably be coming home very late."
"Thank you, Daddy, have a nice time and sleep well, too, when you get home."
"You're sweet, Ronja!"
Sirius put the girl down and watched her saying goodbye to Harry. She was his daughter, if not in flesh, then certainly in spirit. Ronja had chosen him, trusted him with the deep trust children showed and he intended to not fail her. Her and Rashid. They filed up in front of the fireplace and Remus went first. He vanished, then Harry followed and finally, with a last wink to Ronja and Rashid, Sirius followed them both. They came out at the Leaky Cauldron, from where they walked to the Ministry, which was situated a few blocks after the Gringott's bank. Harry had never been in this area of the Diagon Alley before and noticed now that it seemed to be a residential area for the most part. They reached the Ministry building and were shown inside. There was a large ballroom on the top floor, just above the Minister's office. Many guests had already arrived. There seemed to be hundreds, Harry thought, and in truth there were 460 guests invited, about 380 were present.
They met the Weasleys and Harry took hold of Ginny. After the official announcement, Sirius, Remus, Harry and Ginny stood to be introduced to all the guests. To their dismay, Lucius Malfoy and family belonged to them, and they had to play the role of good guests and not say a thing. Draco of course shot them a look of deepest contempt, but he had to grind his teeth and act nicely.
"So nice to see you again, Sirius, Remus, you are looking well..." Lucius lied.
"I'm doing well, thank you, Lucius. You have met my godson and Miss Weasley, I assume," Sirius replied, just as slippery as Lucius.
"Yes, we've met. I'm pleased to meet you again," Lucius was all social animal.
They were all four very glad to see the Malfoys move on. The line of people seemed endless. Fudge of course had to introduce them all and he hated every minute, which was why Sirius loved every minute. He chatted with the people, all perfectly self-assured. Harry had the impression that Sirius was no novice in such a gathering. Sirius' family was an old wizarding family and had always had some influence on society. He had been brought up with love and fun, but had to learn the formal behaviour that was called for in High Society. Harry hoped they would soon be through with the introductions and started to look the queue over which didn't seem to get shorter. It took more than an hour, until everyone who wanted to be introduced, or re-introduced, had passed them by. Finally it was over and the band started to play dance music.
True to his promise Remus had taught Harry a few steps and Harry had started to get the hang of them. So he wasn't too afraid to ask Ginny to dance now. She happily followed him and soon they found out that they did very well together. Ginny danced well already and she gave him a lot of security.
There was a buffet along the wall on one side of the room, where everyone could pass and get something to drink or some small finger foods, tiny sandwiches and sweets. Another wall held three rows of stuffed chairs to sit down and rest. After about two hours of dancing, Sirius and Remus sat down to have a drink and enjoy a small plate of sandwiches. They were then separated, because a whole lot of ladies wanted to have a dance with them. But both looked after each other through most of their separation.
Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and the twins had a lot of fun. The twins had asked Angelina and Alicia to the ball, but Katie was there as well, with her parents, who had been invited. Actually, Harry saw many of his school mates; the whole Johnson clan was there, Angelina's parents and her siblings, older and younger. Similar to the Weasleys, the Johnsons held a high regard for a whole gaggle of children, so there were seven as well, with Angelina firmly in the middle. Then there were the Jordans, the Patils, the Flitwicks, in fact there were so many people that Harry had lost count. But Sirius thought it would do Harry a lot of good to be introduced to the wizarding society formally and this was an ideal opportunity. Even if some of the people around that evening were Death Eaters. They had to put a good face on things.
The evening wore on and it was long past midnight when the first guests started to leave. There was a fireplace down in the Entrance Hall, which could be used to Floo out. Finally, at about half past three in the morning, the Black-Lupin party bid their goodbyes. Molly had passed Sirius and Remus the bags packed for the three teens, all nicely shrunk to matchbox size. Sirius lined them up in front of the fireplace and called Winky. She was instructed to open the Floo for them. Hermione started.
"What do I have to say, Sirius?" she asked.
"It's Ketwick Black Castle."
"Okay."
Hermione vanished, then Harry, Ginny, Ron and Remus followed, finally Sirius went through as the last and he reset the fireplace to closed Floo. The teens admired the entrance hall of the castle and then even more when they saw the main hall, which was furnished exquisitely, but was a bloody cold corner of the place, as Sirius called it.
"You can only keep this thing warm magically! It's much too big and stony."
"But you can't deny it's beautiful," Ginny said.
"That may be, but it's not very warm to raise children. We'll head on to the less formal part, which is a lot more comfortable, though. You'll like it more than this thing."
He was right. They loved the living room and library. It was also a large room, but it was panelled and the floor had a hardwood floor covered with soft Oriental carpets. The furniture looked antique, but solid. Hermione immediately looked over the many bookshelves, which adorned some of the walls. Sirius grinned and told her:
"There are two more library rooms, you only have to go through that door over there. And there are more shelves throughout the house if you look for them. The house-elves had a lot of work to clean everything, but now it's all in good order and you're welcome to any book you might want to read, Hermione."
"Thank you, Sirius!" she replied and beamed.
"Oh no! Sirius, now she'll do nothing else but read while she's here," groaned Ron.
"Which is her good right, if she wants to do it, because she can do what she likes, Ron," Sirius said.
They moved on up the stairs until they reached the corridor of the master bedroom. They came to Harry's and the children's tower first and Sirius said:
"Well, that's where we leave Harry and Ginny. Harry's room is on the top floor, Ginny's just below. Don't be noisy, Ronja and Rashid have their rooms there, too."
Sirius resized Ginny's duffle bag, she took it and followed Harry up to see her room, then Sirius and Remus showed Ron and Hermione their rooms.
"You're on the top here, Hermione, and Ron, you have the room just below her. There's a bathroom, too."
"Thanks, Sirius! We'll go to bed then," said Hermione.
"Good night, you two, and don't bother in the morning, if you want to sleep in, it's perfectly okay. We'll have a very late breakfast," Remus said.
"Thank you! Where's your room?" Ron inquired.
"Right behind this wall. The door is over there," Sirius pointed.
"Oh, then we're all rather close together. That's great."
"It is more practical this way. Now sleep well!"
"You too! Come on, Ron!" Hermione dashed up the stairs and Ron vanished after her.
Remus and Sirius went to check on the children. Both were peacefully asleep. Remus held Sirius close and when they reached their own bedroom, he said:
"There's hardly anything that moves me more than to watch my children sleep."
"Rashid is just so sweet. He looks so cute when he's sleeping. Like a little angel," Sirius said.
Winky sat in the study and read a book. Sirius and Remus thanked her for her help and sent her back to Hogwarts. Winky got ready to leave, but then she turned and lifted her huge liquid eyes to Sirius and Remus.
"Could sirs maybe talk to Master Dumbledore so that I is coming to work for sirs? I is not happy at Hogwarts, I is working much better with children, there are no small children at Hogwarts."
Sirius smiled and promised:
"Oh Winky, yes, we can do that. You seem to get along very well with Ronja and Rashid, and I think, Professor Dumbledore will gladly let you come work here for us. And we also gladly entrust you with Ronja and Rashid, don't we, Remus?"
"Absolutely. And you can hand in your clothes, if you like, Winky, we will keep them as long as you want us to keep them. You would be giving up your freedom only so long as you want to."
Winky thanked them about a hundred times and then vanished with a crack. Sirius made a mental note to write to Albus the next day.
"She would be ideal for the kids. There might be times when we might be in need of a babysitter and I'd rather have her looking after them than the others we got," Sirius said and started to undress.
"I think you're right. She'll be good for them."
They got out of their clothes and slipped into the bed. Remus happily scooted close and snuggled into Sirius' arms. They kissed for long minutes and then went through the party, analysing the people they met or met again.
"I only hate that everyone knows that I'm a werewolf, now," Remus said with a moan.
"But I absolutely enjoyed their discomfort and that they had to hide it," Sirius snickered. And then added: "And you were never without a dance partner the whole night."
"No, I wasn't. Astonishingly. Most people were actually nice and I had about three offers for the Wolfsbane potion."
"Did you? Now there's a way to propose..." Sirius guffawed.
Remus chuckled, he had thought the same thing. But he had actually received two serious offers from a gentleman and a young lady, both of whom he'd check for being Death Eaters and if they were clean he'd gladly take them up for their offer. He would use one of the guest rooms in the third tower to transform.
