Thanks to (Drumroll) Becky Silver Black and Reyna! I don't know what I'd do without you people. You feed me the reviews I crave.

Becky Silver Black: It's fun to get weird looks from strangers! And this chapter has some more free Sirius in it. If you're lucky, in another chapter or two we'll free Harry as well.

Reyna: It's not that much shorter than any of the other chapters. Hehe… and they're all longer than the first one was. Should I give you the interrogator and some rat poison for your Christmas gift?

Well, without further ado, here's your chapter!

Magdalena Bishop was an unremarkable woman. Everything about her, in fact, was unremarkable, from her appearance to her upbringing to her intelligence. In fact, it could even be said she was remarkably unremarkable. However, someone who knew her well—not that there were many such persons—would know that she had two astounding, amazing, remarkable talents. Maggie Bishop could WATCH. And Maggie Bishop could LISTEN.

After sixteen years of working at the zoo, every employee knew of Maggie, but there was perhaps only one employee who knew her. For everyone else, she was the quiet, mothery woman who took care of minor veterinary tasks and whose advice was invariably good. Especially if that advice came unsolicited.

She gave good advice because she watched and listened to people. What had begun as a hobby—stealing bits of romance to enrich her own unremarkable existence—had become a calling. So that now after a lifetime of practice, Maggie could read anyone in moments and know the state of their lives. A single word could speak volumes about an unhappy past, an awkward silence painted a picture of unrequited love, and a half-hidden bashfully exultant smile practically screamed 'I got laid last night.'

It was just such a smile that was causing her trouble this morning. Not because she didn't recognize it, but because she would never have expected to see it on that particular face. The 'I got laid' face simply didn't fit with Remus Lupin.

Maggie thought over what she knew of the zoo's most laconic animal handler. He was one of the hardest workers at the place—the zoo manager was often heard to say 'If there were five Remus Lupins we wouldn't need any other employees.' He worked seven days a week, often covering shifts for others without complaint even though the zoo didn't pay extra for overtime. In fact, he was available at any time, day or night, except for the one day a month he took off to get treated for whatever unpronounceable disease he had. No one actually knew what the disease was, but everyone agreed that it was noncontagious, incurable, and that Lupin was very brave about it. Indeed, so brave was he that all of the single female employees had at some point offered or considered offering to 'comfort' him—in vain, of course. He wasn't at all interested in their offers.

Not that anyone could blame them for trying. Lupin was very handsome, and quite oblivious to the fact, which made him even more attractive. In addition, he had an aura of power about him that humans and animals alike couldn't help but respect. But Maggie thought she had him figured out. Remus Lupin was a modern day St. Francis. The aura of power, the clothes—shabby upon close inspection, charismatic when he chose to speak, beloved of children and animals. He'd even taken his first vacation in three years to help out a friend of his—a single mother with three-year-old twins—who'd been subpoenaed for a trial. Yes, altogether a contemporary St. Francis.

And now, on his first day back after a three week absence, that smile on his face came and shattered Maggie's perfect certainty. Remus is not supposed to get laid…

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Harry pulled out the letter as he trudged to school, glancing around to make sure Dudley was still well behind him. He'd written a thank you letter to Mr. Lupin, the man at the zoo, but he didn't have a stamp to mail it, or money to buy the stamp. And he didn't know where to address it to, but that was a minor matter. He could find a phone book or ask Miss Kettles, if he only had a stamp. But until then, he carried it around with him, and it preyed on his mind.

In frustration, Harry threw the letter as hard as he could, and was somewhat annoyed when it only went a few feet. He kept on walking, but a few paces past the letter he felt remorseful. After all, it had taken almost two days to write.

Harry watched in shock and dismay as the large brown bird flew away with his letter.

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The law offices of Silver, Vaughn, & Verdi were luxuriously furnished with leather chairs and expensive furniture. Which is why Rory and Sirius were both surprised when Aidan Silver, Esq., produced a box of toys for the twins to play with while the three adults discussed Rory's now-official divorce and what would happen to the children.

"So what you're saying," Sirius interrupted the lawyer-wizard's long complicated speech, "Is that Silvanus can't claim the unborn ones if someone else's name is on the birth certificate as father?"

"That's a fairly accurate summary, yes, Mr. Black. For the… er… older children, however, it's the more complicated matter of either convincing Mr. Silvanus to give up all claim on the twins or having him declared an unfit parent. Either would be most difficult. The former almost impossible. The latter, well… as much as I hate to admit it, money and power have a great deal to do with such declarations, and the Silvanus family has a great deal of money and influence."

"Not nearly as much as the Greys, they don't." Rory's eyes had narrowed in grim triumph. If Silver had an answer to that, it was cut off by Sirius's barking laugh.

"If your family name's not enough, I'll add mine. Nobody's going to argue with the last scion of the most ancient and noble house of Black. In fact, you can even put my name on the birth certificate. It's not as if I won't help raise the kids anyway." A thought occurred to him, and he turned to Silver. "It won't matter if it's obviously false, will it? They don't exactly allow conjugal visits in Azkaban."

"It shouldn't. If you claim them, and Ms. Grey doesn't contest it, then they're legally yours. Rather a strange law, but…" Silver shrugged, smiling. "And if you're willing to lend your influence to the child custody proceedings, I have every confidence that the three of us can rain on Mr. Silvanus's parade."

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Less than an hour later, they'd thanked Silver for his advice, and were walking around muggle London, window shopping. Many people turned their heads to watch the handsome couple and the two boys as all four talked and laughed. Even more people turned to watch when the woman suddenly went to her knees, wrapping arms around herself and crying out in pain. Later, Sirius would be amazed at how quickly he got his very pregnant friend and the pair of toddlers to the nearest floo.

On the twenty-second of November, at 4:28 AM and 4:42 AM respectively, Adara Neona and Alhena Selena Grey-Black were born.

Well, it's not quite in the order I promised in the last chapter. Rory's and Sirius's bits sorta meshed together. And that sounded incredibly wrong to me when I reread it just now. But you all know what I meant. And poor Rory's got another set of twins. Oy vey. In case you care, Adara (Maidens) is a star in the same constellation as Sirius, and Alhena (Twins) is in Gemini. Neona and Selena are both Greek names meaning moon.

Aaanyway… don't y'all love Maggie? She's so fun to write. I was going to make this a one-time only appearance for her, just as sort of exposition, but… I like her. And I just spent three paragraphs introducing her for a single scene. Maybe I should bring her back in the future as a babysitter or something? After all, two newborns, two toddlers, and one five-year-old can't take care of themselves, and even a three-parent household needs a babysitter sometimes. And yes, I promise there will be a five-year-old in the house. Soon.

Next chapter: pillow talk, the return of the letter, ancient history, and animagi.