Err… just a quick note, so nobody gets confused… as far as the kids are concerned, Remus is Daddy, and Sirius is Papa. It's been mentioned before, but I'm using it a lot in this chapter, so I thought I'd remind you.

And thanks to the lovely OnlyTimeWillTell, alix33, BlackNeonTears, imakeeper, Becky Silver Black, and uknowho for reviewing!

Romulus and Raul were very excited. They'd been rather pouty for the past week because Dara and Allie were going to spend the day at the zoo with Daddy. He'd offered to take the boys, too, but they refused to go to 'Take Your Daughter to Work' Day. After all, there'd only be giiirls there.

But then yesterday Papa promised to take them to a quidditch game while the girls were at the zoo, and now the girls were the jealous ones! Raul privately thought—and Rome agreed—that the girls were more upset about missing a chance to see their brother Harry than they were about missing a quidditch game. Daddy comforted them with the knowledge that Harry would be too busy to talk.

Daddy and the girls left early, by way of the Floo, since they'd have to walk a little ways from the other end to the zoo. There weren't many Floos in that part of London. As soon as they were gone, Raul and Rome started excitedly getting ready to go to Hogwarts. Long before time to leave they were dressed in identical grey sweaters and maroon scarves, following Papa around.

"He's enjoying torturing us, isn't he?" Raul sighed to Rome in the private language the pair of them had developed when they were toddlers. They still used it between themselves when they didn't want to be overheard, although Raul suspected Mum understood it.

"Definitely," Rome agreed darkly. So far they'd watched Papa eat a late breakfast, read the paper—papers, actually. Daily Prophet and the Quibbler. Now they were waiting impatiently while he tried to decide what to wear. Rome rolled his eyes and added, "He's trying not to smile. You can tell by the way the corners of his eyes keep trying to crinkle."

Raul eyed Papa for a moment. He was wearing his favorite robes—the dark silvery grey ones. He might change three or four more times, but it was pretty much a given that he'd end up wearing those. A glance at Rome revealed that he was thinking along the same lines. As one, the two boys each grabbed an arm and started dragging their dark-haired father toward the fireplace.

"Okay, okay, you win! Little brats." Raul found himself scooped up and held upside down by the laughing animagus. "I suppose you want to leave now so we can get good seats before the students arrive?"

"YES!" both boys chorused. Shaking his head and grinning, Sirius set Raul down, and pulled the pot of Floo powder off the shelf.

"Remember now, it's 'Hogwarts, Professor Grey's office.'"

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Hermione wasn't overly enthusiastic about the upcoming quidditch match, having never seen a game before in her life, but she was more than happy to come and support Harry in his first game. It would have been impossible, however, to not catch some of the excitement of the surrounding crowd, especially since Ron beside her was fairly bursting with anticipation.

The players finally came onto the field, Harry looking as if he was very nervous but trying to cover it up. Hermione waved at him, but was distracted by voices behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a tall, handsome man and twin boys. The boys were the ones yelling and waving excitedly, "Look, Papa! It's Harry! Hi Harry!"

She pushed a lock of frizzy hair behind her shoulder while she studied them. The boys were probably eight or nine years old, and they looked a lot like their father. And even more like their mother, Hermione realized, as the Ancient Runes professor—wearing a maroon and gold scarf— joined the group and was addressed as 'Mama.' But it was the man who tugged at Hermione's memory frustratingly. Where had she seen him before?

The first score of the game, followed by Hagrid's arrival, distracted her from her musings momentarily. But nothing could distract her for long. Really it was frustrating. She knew she'd seen him before. Not at King's Cross, though, or Diagon Alley… Or was it at Diagon Alley? Yes! She'd seen is picture…

"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hagrid mumbled, cutting off Hermione's train of thought again. She looked up just in time to see Harry's broom give a wild jerk and unseat him. A strangled sound could be heard from behind her, and she whirled to look for the source. The handsome man was even paler than he'd been before, and the expression on his face wrung at her heart…

Now wasn't the time to watch him. She vaguely heard Hagrid saying something about Dark magic, and she grabbed his binoculars. If she was right, someone in the crowd, somewhere, was trying to kill Harry. Scanning the crowd through the binoculars seemed to take a terribly long time, but she couldn't go any faster, or she'd miss something. "I knew it. Snape—look!"

Hermione remembered saying something to Ron, and giving him the binoculars, and then she was forcing her way through the staring crowd, heading for the Slytherin stands. The part of her mind that was detached from the need to distract Snape from jinxing Harry winced as she knocked Quirrell over, but she had a more important destination in mind. Blue flames shot out of her wand, and she waited breathlessly for the potions master to discover that he was on fire.

When he did, it was the work of a moment to scoop the flames into a jar, and Hermione was halfway back to the Gryffindor stands before he started looking around. She paused and looked up to check on Harry, and smiled in relief to see him climbing back onto his broom. She arrived just in time to hear the crowd gasp as Harry's broom went into a dive, and she watched in shock until she realized it was too controlled to be a fall. He clapped a hand to his mouth along the way, and rolled off the broom as he reached the ground. Hermione held her breath as Harry began coughing, then burst into cheers with the rest of the Gryffindors—and the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs—as Harry held up the Golden Snitch.

They were on their way to Hagrid's cabin for a cup of tea and to get out of the noise when the man who'd sat behind Hermione in the stands stepped out of the shadows. Harry smiled at him and broke away from his friends to receive a paternal hug and hair-mussing. The conversation was quiet, and only lasted a moment before Harry was heading back to them, and the stranger was smiling at Hagrid. "Tell Fang I'll bring him a steak next time, Hagrid."

The gamekeeper laughed, and shook his head. "Yeh keep forgettin' you're not a studen' anymore. Yeh don't need to get Fang too fat to move."

"True. But it never hurts to keep in practice. Besides, someone else might need it." The man winked at Harry, and started heading back toward the stands.

Hermione waited until he was out of sight, and then asked, "Who was that?"

"The only studen' as ever gave me more trouble than Fred and George Weasley." Hagrid grinned—apparently the trouble was rather amusing.

Seeing Hermione's still-puzzled face, Harry laughed. "He's my godfather. Sirius Black."

I was going to end the chapter here. I did end the chapter here, in fact. Then I changed my mind.

"But he's a murderer! He was sent to Azkaban!" Hermione tried to keep the fear from being apparent in her voice, but… there was a way things were supposed to be, and this wasn't it! All the books she'd read said that Sirius Black killed James and Lily Potter. Harry shouldn't be laughing with—and getting hugs from—the man who killed his parents. And he especially shouldn't be calm about it! And Ron shouldn't be laughing at her!

"So there's something Hermione doesn't know after all!" Ron's shout was triumphant, and she glared at him, slightly offended. Despite the triumph in his voice, his eyes were sympathetic, and he grinned at her almost gently. An idea flickered across Hermione's mind, whispering that Ron took pride in the fact that Hermione 'knew everything,' but he spoke before she could analyze it completely. "Most of your books are more than six years old, aren't they?"

"Well, yes, but he was sent to Azkaban ten years ago, and he was supposed to be there the rest of his life." Hermione frowned. Obviously her friends thought she was missing something, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was.

"Don't worry about it too much, Hermione. There haven't been a lot of books on the subject since then." Harry smiled at her and shrugged. "Guess it's not as interesting when a man goes free, or something. Anyway, about six years ago, a couple of Sirius's friends found proof that he was framed, and got him out. The Ministry actually ended up having to pay him money for wrongful imprisonment and for not giving him a real trial in the first place."

This was news to Hermione, and she wished she had something to write on so she could get it all down. Memory would have to serve, though, and she leaned forward eagerly. "Tell me more…"

Hmm… well, this isn't exactly how I'd intended to set this chapter up. Originally I was also going to track Remus and the girls. But… eh. I decided this flowed better. If you want to see what they're up to, mention it in your review and I'll endeavor to please, although it's not nearly as interesting as this chapter was.

Now, another question. We know Remus works at London Zoo, but… what does Sirius do? I have a couple of vague ideas, but I'd like to hear your suggestions too. (Besides, when I ask questions like that, I get more reviews. Bwahahaha.)