A/N: Okay, this was a pretty quick update, hope you appreciate it! This chapter is longer than usual, so PLEASE review!

Reviews:

The Egyptian Sand Quill: hehe, glad you liked it! It is an awesome movie isn't it… Review again!

Sf-former-mk: I'll try and update soon, but I'm not making any promises! Thanks for reviewing!

Chrystyna: Thanks, I'm glad you like it! This is probably my favourite of all my stories so I'll definitely keep it going! Review again!

Kaythara: This chapter is longer, that should make you happy! Thanks for the nice comment and review again!

Disclaimer: I don't own HP

Chapter 12 – Family fun

'Mum! Mum, where are you? I need to talk to you!' Anna looked up from her coffee at the sound of her daughter's voice. Things had not been going exactly as she had planned. She had pictured her reunion with Sirius to be absolutely perfect with her running into her husband's arms and Ari and Sirius loving each other on sight. Needless to say, things had not gone to plan. Anna wondered what her daughter had done now. Funny, she thought, how whenever my daughter wants to talk to me I immediately think she's up to something.

'I'm in the kitchen, honey; what is it?' Arianna entered the kitchen with a mischievous smile on her face. Yep, thought Anna, She's definitely up to something.

'Mum, I need your help.' Anna shot her daughter a suspicious look.

'With what, exactly? I'm not helping if this is another one of those stunts you pulled on poor Harry.'

'Poor Harry, my arse. He had it coming; and anyway, this one is much more elaborate and somehow I think you'll want to help.'

'And what makes you think that?'

'Well, I just thought you might want to join in for a bit of… family fun.' Anna shot Ari a sharp look.

'What do you mean by tha- wait! Come ba- ARIANNA BLACK GET BACK HERE RIGHT THIS MINUTE!' but Ari was already gone. Anna quickly dropped her coffee mug in the sink and ran after her daughter. She followed her down an unfamiliar corridor and down a set of stone steps that seemed to lead to a sort of basement. At the bottom of the stairs, she found Ari waiting for her at a plain wooden door.

'Ah, mother, you decided to join me after all.' Said Ari, smiling lightly.

'Arianna you are going to tell me what is going on right this minute or you are going to be grounded with suspended pocket money until you are seventy!'

'Alright, alright! Just wait till we get inside!' She turned to the wooden door and whispered quickly, 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good.' The door swung open and Ari lead her mother inside. The room was decked out in red and gold from top to bottom. There were a couple of red and gold arm chairs and lounges as well as a fairly large square table with four chairs around it. The walls were covered with a variety of loose pieces of parchment covered in random scribbles and sketches as well as a variety of photos, mostly picturing four boys. But Anna barely noticed any of this. Her eyes were drawn to the figure sitting in one of the arm chairs.

'Sirius!' Sirius smiled.

'Hey, Anna. I see you decided to join us.' Anna looked at her husband in shock.

'Us?' She looked quickly over to where her daughter was standing near the doorway and her eyes narrowed.

'You two planned this together? How? Last time I checked you were refusing to speak to each other!' Arianna shrugged.

'Things change.' Anna was very confused by now.

'What happened?' She demanded, glancing between her husband and daughter. 'Why don't you tell the story, Ari?' said Sirius, grinning slightly. Anna was now even more confused. Had Sirius just called Arianna by her nickname?

'Well… to make a long story short, Sirius caught me after I jumped out of a fifth story window.'

'What! Why on earth did you do that? Arianna you have done some stupid things before but what on earth possessed you to jump from a fifth story window?'

Arianna muttered something that sounded vaguely like 'hippogriff.' Anna turned to Sirius.

'Well? What happened?'

'Umm… well right now isn't really the time but I assure you that there is a perfectly good reason and she wasn't doing anything I wouldn't have done.'

'That hardly makes me feel better.'

'Well she's fine isn't she?'

'Well… I suppose so… but you still have to tell me later. By the way, what is this place?' Sirius grinned broadly.

'The Marauder's lair.'

'The what?'

'The Marauder's lair… honestly, you'd think that someone who shared my gene's would have enough brains to come up with a better name than that…' muttered Ari.

'Hey! It's a great name!' said Sirius defensively.

'Is not!'

'Is too!'

'Is not!'

'Is too!'

'Does it really matter what the name is?' Interrupted Anna, 'What I want to know is how you managed to get this place set up! I doubt your parents would have let you have this place in their own house.' Sirius grinned.

'Well technically we aren't in their house. This room was one of our more brilliant creations. It's linked to all four of the marauders houses. The beauty of it is that no-one can find it unless they are shown by someone who already knows about it!' Anna gulped.

'So we are floating around in limbo right now?' She asked. Sirius and Ari grinned.

'Brilliant isn't it? But that's not what we brought you here to discuss. The thing is, we need a distraction…'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Hermione, have you seen Sirius?' Hermione looked up from the book she was reading to find Harry standing in her doorway.

'No, I haven't seen him since breakfast this morning. Why?' Harry glared at her.

'Is it so wrong for me to want to talk to my godfather?' Hermione ignored him and returned to her book.

'What about you, Ginny?' Harry asked the younger girl, 'Have you seen Sirius since this morning?'

'He's with Black.' Said Ginny. She had been busy writing furiously in her notebook, no doubt trying to come up with some pranks to use in the prank war.

'WHAT?' Harry exploded, 'WHY THE HELL IS HE WITH HER? WHY WOULD HE WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH HER? SHE INSULTED HIM!'

'Oh, give it a rest Harry!' snapped Hermione, 'You know it's not really a crime for her to spend time with the father she only just met! If you stopped being so jealous and selfish-'

'JEALOUS? SELFISH? SHE'S THE ONE WHO SHOW'D UP HERE AND RUINED EVERYTHING!'

'You're jealous Harry! It's not that hard to figure out! You're afraid that Sirius will forget about you now he has his own daughter!'

'That's not true! And why is he with her anyway, Ginny?' Ginny waved away the question.

'It's not important WHY he's with her. The important thing is WHAT they're doing. I overheard them talking. He's decided to join her side in the prank war.' She said darkly. Hermione quickly looked at Harry to see his reaction. To her surprise, Harry didn't start shouting, in fact, his mouth was pressed in a hard line, but he had gone oddly pale.

'I need to have a little word with Black.' He said grimly and marched stiffly out of the room. Hermione shot a worried glance at Ginny.

'Do you think we should go after him? We all know what Harry's like when he's angry. He could really hurt her…' Ginny yawned.

'I'm not too fussed. Let him do his worst.'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'…and so when faze B comes into operation, Mum, you will be?' Anna rolled her eyes.

'I will be in the kitchen and making sure Molly stays away from the second floor landing at all costs.'

'And, Sirius, You will be?'

'Leading the twins out to the second floor landing.' Ari nodded her head in satisfaction.

'And I will be hiding under the disillusion charm, waiting for them to step outside so I can jinx them.'

'I still don't think this is a good idea…' started Anna, but she was interrupted by Ari banging her fist down hard on the table.

'Good God, woman, we are at war!' She yelled. Anna frowned.

'Don't you talk to me like that young lady! You might be 'commander in chief' but I can still ground you!'

'Not likely! I'm leaving for school tomorrow.' She muttered the last part quite bitterly. Sirius looked quite shocked.

'Why don't you want to go to Hogwarts?' he demanded.

'Um… I do… I'm really looking forward to it.' Sirius looked at her suspiciously, but decided to let it slide.

'Oh yeah, about Hogwarts, I've been meaning to tell you. Make sure you are sorted into either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw house. Hufflepuff would be okay… I guess… but you CANNOT be in Slytherin.'

'Why not? You can't tell me what house I can be in!' Arianna flared up, 'What's wrong with Slytherin?'

'Ummm… Ari...' muttered Anna, 'You know Pani House at Holcroft?' Ari nodded.

'Yeah, but what's that got to do with anything?'

'Well Slytherin is kind of the Hogwarts version of Pani.'

'Oh,' She turned to Sirius, 'Sirius, you have my full assurance that I will not be in Slytherin. As if I'd want to live with a huge bunch of Malfoy's…'

'That's good… but did you just say 'Malfoy'?' Ari nodded.

'Yeah, don't tell me you've heard of them? I couldn't stand it if little Princess Lorena was actually telling the truth when she said how famous her family was!'

Sirius laughed.

'Sounds like a typical Malfoy. The Malfoy family originated in England. I didn't know there was an Australian branch. Actually, there is a Malfoy at Hogwarts now. He's in Harry's year so he'll be a year older than you.'

'Great, I just escape one Malfoy and I get another. Brilliant.'

'Actually now that I think about it,' Sirius mused, 'you are actually related to him.'

Arianna's eyes widened.

'I'm related to Malfoy? Yuk!' Sirius laughed.

'Well, I doubt you're related to your Malfoy, but you're definitely related to dear young Draco.' Arianna had gone very pale by now.

'How is that possible?'

'My dear cousin Narcissa,' Sirius spat, 'married that git Lucius Malfoy. Draco is the vermin they produced together.' Arianna almost laughed.

'Your cousin was called Narcissa? Do you know what that means?' Sirius scowled.

'I do; and I personally think the name suits her brilliantly.' Ari laughed.

'The name would certainly have suited Lorena Malfoy.' She got to her feet and started twirling her hair between her fingers and flouncing around the room.

'All bow down before me because I am Malfoy the Queen of the Snobs! Everybody worship the ground I walk on because I am so beautiful and brilliant and wonderful and modest!' She shrieked in a high-pitched sarcastic voice.

Sirius leaned over and whispered to Anna so Ari couldn't hear.

'I think I'm definitely gonna like this kid.'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fred looked at the clock. II:48 pm. The prank war would end in exactly twelve minutes and so far the scores were dead even. He scowled. As much as he didn't like Arianna he had to admit she had pranking ability. So far today she had managed to prank every member of their team except for him and his brother George. She was good at avoiding being pranked too, He thought bitterly. So far, they had only been able to hit her with a couple of dung bombs and well aimed Jelly legs jinxes, no real pranks. He looked over to the other bed occupying the room and saw his twin lying there and staring into space.

'Twelve minutes left.' George muttered, staring at the clock, 'We have to do something soon; we can't let her beat us… I wonder what she's planning…'

'We'll know soon enough replied Fred, 'She won't want to lose; she'll be trying something any minute now.' POP. Fred and George's heads shot up; instantly awakened from their dreary state. Fred lowered his wand as her saw that the person who had apparated was Sirius Black. He scowled.

'What do you want? Shouldn't you be with your precious little princess?' Ginny had told them about Sirius joining Arianna in the prank war, and needless to say, they weren't happy about it. Sirius scowled.

'Actually, that's why I'm here. The kid's driving me insane! I came in here to escape!' He ran a hand through his longish dark hair and made a face.

'It's all daddy this and daddy that! It's driving me mad!' The twins still looked sceptical.

'Typical that you show up and tell us this a few minutes before the prank war ends.' Said Fred, raising an eyebrow.

'Look,' muttered Sirius in a low voice, 'I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I will anyway. She's put a charm on your bedroom. Anyone inside it at exactly midnight automatically gets transfigured into a cat.' Fred and George looked horrified.

'-She didn't! That's-'

'-outrageous! How dare she-'

'-do such a thing! Midnight's in-'

'-a few minutes! If she thinks-'

'Enough of the twin speak already!' Sirius snapped, 'Warning you will have done a fat lot of good if you don't get out of here right now!' The twins nodded.

'Fine,' said George, 'we'll come, but you have to walk out the door first, just to make sure there's nothing waiting for us out there.' Sirius shrugged.

'Suit yourself.' He marched up to the door, opened it, walked out and spun round a few times on the spot.

'See! Nothing here!' Fred and George shot each other a quick look before following him out the door. As soon as they stepped out of the doorway they were both hit in the chest with pink beams of light and were thrown backwards. Fred got to his feet, closely followed by George. He didn't feel any different. He turned to look at his brother and let out a small yelp. George was exactly the same, save one small thing; he had grown breasts. Fred looked down at his own chest and realised that he was in the same predicament. He turned to turned to face Sirius, but realised that Sirius was no longer standing by himself. Standing beside him, was a smirking Arianna Black.

'You put up a good fight, boys,' She said, her smirk widening as she glanced down at her watch, 'But its midnight now. Looks like the better pranksters won, doesn't it. Excuse me; I have to be up in a few hours for school and I'd like to get some sleep. By the way, that charm has been mixed with an irreversible charm; only I can take it off. You have till I leave tomorrow morning to convince me to do it. G'night.' She turned and walked down the hall, entering her own bedroom and shutting the door. The twins turned to Sirius and were about to start yelling at him when he stopped them.

'Alls fair in love and war.' He said with a laugh, 'I just picked the winning side, that's all.' He apparated away before either of them could protest, leaving Fred and George standing alone in the hallway. Fred turned to his brother and said, 'You gotta admit, she's good.'

A/N: Sooooooo…. What did you think? Please review!