Harry didn't know what he had been expecting when the Healers finally let them in to see Sirius, but extreme fury really wasn't it.

"Where the fuck is your father?" He demanded.

He and Susan frowned at each other. Hermione still wasn't awake yet, so Andromeda had only brought the two of them.

"Remus?" Susan offered. "We're not sure? He's not allowed to live with us at the moment."

"He left Narcissa and Andy in charge," Harry added.

"I am going to kill that yellow-bellied…" Sirius descended into swearing which mostly seemed to be in Italian from what Harry could understand.

"What's going on?" He asked carefully when his father had mostly calmed down.

"If you find Remus, lock him in the damn house!" Sirius settled back against his pillows, still simmering steadily.

"Well, at least you seem better," Susan mumbled, moving over to Amelia's bed.

The long and the short of Sirius' diagnosis was this. He'd been under the cruciatus for a long time and no matter how many potions the Healers tried some things would never be the same again. He would likely walk with a cane for the rest of his life and there would be lingering nerve damage. He spent his days at the hospital sitting by his wife's bed and cursing his erstwhile friend under his breath. The Healers had obviously assumed Amelia's baby was his and Sirius, caught up on the new regulations, refused to give them a reason to check. The family visited as much as possible, with the exception of his oldest daughter who remained...unwell.

George's eyes were crusted shut. His limbs felt like lead and there was a heavy pervasive ache in his head. Slowly, he forced his lids open.

White. All he could see was white. There was something warm curled against his back. As he lifted his head he realised the white was an incredibly fluffy pillow he'd had his head buried in. He blinked at it in confusion. None of his furniture looked that nice and it lacked the threadbare edges of the Burrow.

"Oh!"

He looked over and spotted Andromeda Tonks, lowering her book. She looked tired and there was an empty teacup balanced on the arm of her chair.

"What…?" He managed.

"Shush," She helped him sit up so he was sitting against the headboard and handed him a small glass of water that she had to help him sip slowly. "That's it." Everything felt exhausting. What had he…?

He glanced down and spotted two familiar figures next to him. The puff of Hermione's curls sticking up over the covers and Fred's sleeping face on the far side of her. He didn't recognise this room, but judging by the stacks of books and what looked like his old Quidditch strip cast over the back of an armchair, it was probably Hermione's bedroom. He wondered if her bed had been enlarged to fit them, or if it had always been this big.

"Which one are you?" Andromeda asked softly, setting the cup down.

"George," He managed, frowning at her. "How'd we get here?"

"Susan," She started helping him up out of the bed and towards the bathroom, letting him lean heavily on her. "And Nymphadora dragged you in, shouting something about ritual spells and magical exhaustion. I've not been able to get the full story out of either of them."

Once George had finished, Andromeda had waited outside thankfully, she began leading him back to bed.

"You'll be happy to know that whatever it was that you did, Amelia appears to be improving," George felt overwhelming relief which was a little confusing.

"Are Fred and Hemione okay?" He asked, yawning. She settled him back in the bed.

"I think they're going to be fine. Hermione certainly seems to be more aware." When he just frowned at her, she smirked. "One of your eyes is brown, dear. She must be starting to wake up."

Well, that explained why he felt quite so relieved about Amelia.

Hey, 'Mione, he managed before exhaustion dragged him under again.

"Did I say thank you?"

The Twins exchanged an amused look over the pile of blankets that was their girlfriend. This was the first time she'd managed to wake up at the same time as them, but she'd been pretty present in the bond for a while. At least if the startled looks the Black sister's kept giving them were anything to go by.

"What for?" Fred murmured, nudging her calf with his foot.

Hermione fought her way out from under covers and tiredly blew her hair out of her eyes.

"For risking everything to save my step-mother?" She murmured.

"No problem," Fred yawned, resting his head on her shoulder, sleep already pulling him under. "It's gonna wreak havoc on the shop stock though."

She frowned up at George who grimaced.

"We've not been able to cast anything yet, too exhausted. Andromeda says it might be some time until our magic replenishes. We left instructions with Verity to close the doors if she ran out of stock," He grinned slightly. "I felt that, 'Mione."

Hermione was too tired to do much more than ignore the flicker of jealousy that sprung up.

"Shut up,"

There was a silence that was only broken by Fred's soft snoring in her ear. He'd curled around her so tightly it wasn't likely that Hermione would be getting up any time soon. Not that she wanted to.

"Are we okay?" She whispered.

George took her hand under the covers, lacing their fingers together.

"Of course, Amazon," She grinned at their childhood nickname for her. "I was angry, but...you terrified me, you know that?"
Of course, she'd known. She knew everything he felt if she took the time to listen.

"I'm not going to stop fighting them," She admitted sadly.

He snorted.

"You think that's news to me? 'Mione you were always going to fight them, we've known that since you were a tiny first year who thought fighting a cave troll was a good idea instead of running away. And that scares the shit out of me, but I refuse to let you face them alone."

"You two aren't fighters." She whispered. He stiffened in her grip and she explained, "You two...You play tricks and tease people but it's because you want to make people laugh. You want to make people happy. You're so good all of the time and...I don't want to drag you down with me."

"Maybe you're not dragging us down. Maybe we're keeping you afloat." He pressed a kiss against her hair. "We're going to get through this, all three of us. But you can't leave us behind like that again."

"Bellatrix Lestrange wrote to me," Hermione mumbled sleepily.

George scowled at the ceiling.

"Of course she did," He muttered, irritably. "We'll deal with it, okay?"

"Okay."

There was a long pause in which he was certain that she had gone to sleep before,

"I don't think I want to go back to Hogwarts without you two."

She felt George's laugh reverberate through his chest and bubble out, shockingly loud in the darkness of her room.

"'Mione, you think we're going to follow Hogwarts "no visitors" rule? Please. They could barely keep us in the castle when we were students. What makes you think they're going to have any luck keeping us out. Besides, we've got the summer. I think it's time we tried doing this more traditionally. Fred's got plans, you know"

Their sleeping arrangements had been a source of contention in the Black-Bones household. As soon as Sirius had awoken the family had fled back to Potter Manor and away from potential Ministry interference. Andromeda, a Healer herself, had overseen the care of the trio as St Mungo's was out of the question. The research she had done into soul bonds had suggested that keeping them apart would only hinder their recovery.

There was no way to predict the long term effects of the spell. They had been feeding their life force and magic to Amelia with a spell that was designed to kill. Whether they would face problems later in life was impossible to estimate.

"Did Andy say how much longer we'd be stuck like this?" George murmured into Hermione's shoulder.

"Andy," Hermione yawned, "Said it was a miracle we'd woken up at all, and that a little exhaustion was a small price to pay." She was trying to focus on one of the books Susan had brought her, but the words kept blurring before her eyes.

Fred staggered back in from the bathroom and crawled sleepily back under the covers. Hermione squirmed away from his cold hands but couldn't get very far before she ran into George.

"Did you wash your hands in a glacier?"

"This house has terrible hot water," Fred retaliated, splaying his fingers across her bare stomach and scratching at her skin with his nails.

"You move that hand any higher or lower and you're going to set off the alarm again." She warned.

The alarm ward had been at Narcissa's insistence. She took issue with them sleeping together and, despite them all wearing pyjamas, had set up an alarm to warn against any "impropriety". It had only gone off once, and that had been because Hermione had moved in her sleep and set it off by accident. Regardless, the experience had been humiliating for all involved, so none of them had a wish to repeat it.

"I don't know if I'm flattered that they think I have the stamina to get up to anything while this exhausted, or insulted that they think I haven't managed to work out the limits of this ward yet." Fred twisted so he could read over her shoulder. "Why are you reading a textbook? It's the holidays?"

"You can never be too prepared," She murmured, feeling him begin to slip into sleep again. "Want me to read it to you?"

"Sure."

"...The primary use of runes in defences is the implementation of permanent ward schemes, which are not tied to a single individual caster…"

The pain her hands was almost too much to ignore.

They could barely breathe.

The cold stone was sapping away her strength.

They just wanted to lay down and sleep, close their eyes and hope this would all go away.

The agonizing screams were echoing in her ears, going on and on and they wouldn't stop.

Their skirt was sticking to their legs, shivers wracking their body. They had to move.

She couldn't move.

They could still smell her burning.

"WAKE UP!"

The three of them lurched upwards in the same movement and Susan shrieked, as a mixture of eyes turned towards her.

"What?" Three voices demanded, before they turned on each other.

"What was that?"

"Why were you there?"

"What happened?"

"You're never there!"

It was hard to tell who was speaking and Susan tried to follow it before they all took a deep breath. When the Twins opened their eyes again they were blue and staring at Hermione. Tear tracks were making their way down her face and she shuddered, hugging herself tightly.

"Hermione," One of them started, "What the hell?"

She ignored him, looking at Susan.

"Do you want to stay for this?" She asked, sounding hollow. "It's about the Department."

"Do I need to know?" Susan whispered, feeling dread and guilt wrack her.

Hermione shook her head, scrubbing the tears from her cheeks.

"Go back to sleep, Susie."

Fred waited until Susan had left before he rounded on Hermione.

"I've been having dreams about a door and fire and they are the most frightening nightmares I've ever had." She flinched. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"I haven't told you what happened in the Department of Mysteries." She whispered, clutching at her knees. "Have I?"

George reached for her hand but she shook him off. For several minutes her lips moved silently, as though she was trying to find the right words. The Twins sat watching her, not touching her but trying to offer support.

"Umbridge was going to use the Unspeakables to find out the identity of my soulmates," Her voice had that horrible numb tone that both Twins hated. She was shutting herself off from them, which meant that what she was going to say was bad enough that she didn't want to feel their emotions. She was preparing herself for rejection. "I got away from her and I ran, trying to find my way out. But she cornered me. We started duelling and...I was losing. She used the cruciatus curse on me and...She was going to keep me there. She...I was so scared." She spat the word like it was disgusting. "She started talking about my parents. How it was a shame that Pettigrew hadn't finished the job properly. And I...I...I set her alight."

The Twins both winced but didn't move. If they flinched now she'd never believe they didn't blame her.

"She was screaming. I remember Pettigrew screaming, did you know that?" Hermione laughed hollowly. "There is a way someone screams when you've set them on fire. There's nothing like it." She sighed. "There were these tanks with...something in them. She was reaching for me and I shoved her. She landed in the water. The things...They...She didn't get out again and I ran before I saw what happened next. But I know what happened. She died. Her obituary was in the Prophet. Because I killed her. I'm a murderer,"

"No, you're not."

They all jumped, turning to stare at the doorway that Susan hadn't closed on her way out. Leaning heavily on a wooden cane and dressed in hospital pyjamas, Sirius looked exhausted. Fine lines creased his skin, his long hair hanging limply around a face that looked far older than when they'd seen it last. Behind him, Susan and Harry looked pale and frightened, both still in their pyjamas. Evidently Sirius had just managed to get himself freed from St Mungos.

"You are not to blame," He snarled, face twisting with the new scars as he spoke. "You were defending yourself."

For a long moment, they just stared at each other.

"She's dead because of me!" Hermione's voice was harsh as she snapped out the words. "She drowned in those tanks because I pushed her in!"

"And you would have been dead because of her!" Sirius roared and all his children flinched. "If you think for a second I would prefer that my daughter kept her hands free from blood at the expense of her life, then I have failed you, Hermione."

"Dad…" She started to protest but he cut across her.

"No!" He staggered forward, cane thumping against the floor. "We are at war and you will do whatever is fucking necessary to get through it." He sighed, looking exhausted to his core as though this small outburst had taken all his energy. "Do you know what the difference is between you and Death Eater?" He asked softly.

She just stared at him blankly.

"A Death Eater would have enjoyed it. A Death Eater wouldn't feel regret. A Death Eater wouldn't be punishing themselves like this…"

Tears welling in her eyes, Hermione turned to the Twins who were watching her seriously.

"Stop blocking us out," Fred insisted.

"I don't…" She shuddered. "I don't want to feel that."

Fred grabbed her shoulders, resting his forehead against hers.

"Trust me, Hermione. Trust us."

She hesitated, so close that it felt like they shared the air between each other's lungs. He breathed out as she breathed in and...relaxed.

He felt her shields drop and he flooded her with love and acceptance, not bothering to hold anything back. She'd often said that she felt like she was drowning in their emotions, but that was fine. There were worse things to drown in than this.

Sirius watched as his daughter fell apart in the arms of her soulmates, sobbing out her grief and fear before he turned to his other children.

"Has anything else happened that you need to tell me about?" He asked, leaning heavily on his new and much-hated cane.

"Nothing that can't wait till morning,"

The first time Hermione had taken her bracelets off, she'd almost screamed. What had been two, twisting trails of almost flame-like black patterns down her arms had...changed. Considerably.

For one thing, they were far larger. It had once been a heavy single twisting line from shoulder to her middle finger. Now around her bicep and forearm, thick solid bands encircled her arms, like she was wearing a chain that she was holding in place with cuffs. The pattern dominated the backs of her hands as well, splitting at her wrist to trail down each finger.

For another, the marks now glistened like an oil slick, rather than the matt black or grey they had been previously. Though still incredibly dark, colour seemed to filter through it. On her left, red glistened like fire or blood as it seeped down from her arm, getting clearer and cleared until almost entirely red across the back of her hand. On her right, the same but in a deep, heavy blue. Where previously the marks had stopped at the notch at the top of her shoulder, they now wrapped around her collarbone and neck, as though she was wearing a permanent chain. Here the marks remained a deep, coal black, interspersed with the faintest filigree of gold. Without her bracelets, it would be impossible to hide and the soulmarks dominated her skin, drawing the eye. Had Emma Granger still been alive to see it, she would have been horrified at the sheer scale of magical ink.

She caught a glance of her eyes in the bathroom mirror and realised she wasn't the only one watching.

"Hey!" She shouted, glad she still had her vest on.

"Sorry!" Two unsurprisingly unrepentant voices echoed back to her from her bedroom.

"Still getting the hang of this," George added.

"You look hot!" Fred yelled.

Blushing, Hermione made a significant effort to force them out of her head. This could potentially get very old, very quickly.

The marks were developing. It had taken a long time for them to mature and had they been adults when the Bond formed I would have been concerned about the health of it. As it was, it was an indication that the Bond was evening out and beginning to settle properly. Not yet fully formed but very almost.

For those wondering, Fred and George had corresponding changes, although only on one arm. Blue for George and red for Fred, with the colours strong throughout their marks. The black was unique to Hermione, at the epicentre of them all.

"The Twins gone back home?" Sirius asked, over that morning's Prophet.

Hermione, finally strong enough to walk through the house without needing a sit down every five minutes, nodded.

"Andromeda said if they could cast lumos, they should be back to strength within the week. Apparently they've been running low on stock." It had only taken four days for their magic to recover, which was apparently astonishing.

Sirius, behind the newspaper, hummed. He had been prone to low moods since he'd gotten home from the hospital, and sudden, dark tempers. They'd all taken to treading carefully around him, hoping things would improve when Amelia woke up.

"Susan says you got a letter from dear Bella." He folded the paper in half and looked at her properly. Hermione considered hiding under the table. It had used to work for Harry...

"She wrote to me once." She admitted. Sirius was looking rather more Black-like at the moment so it was probably best to just be honest. He spent more time as Padfoot than he used to, finding it far easier to run on three legs than limp on two. "She...She killed someone. The Unspeakable who'd been helping Umbridge. He was...wasn't even muggleborn, she killed him because he knew I'd been at the Ministry."

"She wasn't always mad," Sirius murmured, thoughtfully scratching at the new scars on his face. "I mean she was always cruel and vindictive, but mad? That came later. I imagine you remind her of herself."

"I don't see the resemblance," Hermione complained bitterly. Her hair was still black, with Narcissa charming the roots to match until the accidental dye had grown out enough to be cut. Apparently the Black heir could not be seen with patchy hair. She didn't mind the colour, but the way some of the ancestral Potter portraits would flinch when she walked by was a little irritating.

He chuckled bitterly.

"Well, no. You wouldn't. But Bella was an incredibly powerful witch, still is really. She could have been one of the brightest of our generation. Or the next Dark Lady," He admitted. "But still. But dear Uncle Cygnus wouldn't hear of his daughter going into trade or working. She'd been betrothed since she was a child. They usually pair off the first born quick," He added at her horrified expression. "And according to the stories, she met the Darkest Dickhead and he promised her power. So she married Rodolphus, don't think she would have gone through with the betrothal otherwise. And then she got stuck, as a lackey. All her power and talent squandered and wasted, even before she was sentenced to Azkaban. I think that was what really drove her mad." His coffee cup began to shake in his hand and he cursed, putting it down until the nerve spasm had passed. "I think in her own bizarre way...she wants to protect you from the mistakes she made."

"I don't want a madwoman's protection!" Hermione snapped. She didn't ask for these things to happen to her.

He shrugged, looking tired and washed out.

"Do you think anyone tells Bellatrix Lestrange what to do?" He shook his head. "If she writes to you, let me know. Otherwise, don't worry about it too much. We've got enough on our plates."

It took a few days once they were back before the Twins were back to their regular strength and able to complete their backlog of work. Both of them were working in the stockroom to keep up with demand as Verity ran the tills. This would have been fine if...they hadn't kept getting stronger.

"Bloody hell!" George backed away coughing from the cauldron he'd been trying to light. It had just exploded in a ball of flame as his simple incendio flared wildly out of control.

"Again?" Fred called sympathetically. He was applying far more concentration to the spell which packed their boxes than was normally required. If this continued they were going to have to resort to muggle methods.

Somewhere in the countryside, Hermione was feeling very amused.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Fred complained. "Serves us right for making fun of you blowing stuff up for years."

The amusement faded as Hermione went back to focusing on whatever it was she was doing.

"How the hell does she cope with this all the time?" His brother muttered, scowling at his ruined cauldron.

"She was a first-year," Fred sighed with relief as the last of the boxes sealed themselves. Last time he'd lost several to over-enthusiastic magic. "She hadn't spent eighteen bloody years settling into her magic. She learned to control this from the very start."

According to Andromeda, who had appointed herself the Twins official healer, the Bond was finally beginning to settle properly. The excess magic it generated which had previously been feeding solely into Hermione, was now being shared more evenly. Which had led to a lot more explosions than even the Weasley Twins were used to.

"Here," Fred tossed a small box to his brother. "I got these from Dad."

"What are they?"

"Matches." George scowled and he laughed. "We've only got three cauldrons left. Deal with it."

Thankfully, Sirius was much laxer about security than Remus was. This meant that Susan had been allowed to go visit Hannah Abbott, Draco could go on a shopping trip to Venice with his mother and Hermione could go see the Twins. Harry, it turned out, was more interested in catnapping his way through the holidays and showed no signs of wanting to go anywhere. He was currently nervously waiting for a reply from Luna, who he'd been writing to. Susan reported that much to Luna's irritation the letters remained strictly platonic.

"Will you be okay?" Tonks asked her, anxiously. There were, of course, restrictions placed on Hermione. She was to be escorted to and from the Twins shop by Tonks. Sirius, apparently, trusted the Twins to look after her, which had stunned both of them.

Hermione laughed, enjoying being out in public for the first time in weeks and the busy noise of the street. The bond was thrumming as she got closer to the brightly coloured shop.

"I'll be fine. I'm at the shop. I won't go anywhere and the Twins will bring me home." She flicked her fingers at the Auror. "Go. Enjoy your date."

"It's not a…" Tonks scowled at her. "Fine. But if Sirius finds out about this I didn't deliver you properly, he'll kill me."

"He won't find out." Hermione waved her away, one hand on the magenta door handle. "Look, I'm at the shop. I'll be fine. I know they're in here. Go!"

Reluctantly Tonks went, and Hermione turned her attention to the shop in front of her. It was an eyesore. Unlike when she'd last seen it, they'd finished decorating and the awful clash of purple and orange was enough to make even her cringe.

"They are never decorating our house," She muttered to herself before stepping inside.

It was like being hit with a wall of noise. Explosions and music warred with chatter and the occasional scream. The familiar tang of dungbombs hung in the air along with a strong smell of gunpowder. She ducked as one of her firework designs went rushing past her to explode against a wall. The Bond told her where they were, but Hermione slipped through the throng to investigate the shelves on the other side of the shop. They were probably busy.

Quite happily she spent the next half an hour browsing, grinning when she found a product she recognised and outright laughing at some of the packaging. Her boys had done some amazing work and the sheer joy of the shop seemed to radiate from the brightly coloured walls.

"What the…?"

Part of the back wall of the shop was covered in products packaged in dark blue which were emblazoned with a "GGG" logo. Looking closer Hermione realised she recognised almost all of them. A lot of them were the products she'd come up with last year as part of her campaign against Umbridge. Some of them were just ideas she'd jotted down in their journal. Like the shield hats! They'd managed to make them work!

"Like it?" A voice breathed in her ear.

"What does it stand for?" She asked, leaning back against George as he wound his arms around her waist.

"Granger's Glorious Gizmos." He grinned down at her. "They've been selling like hot cakes. Had an enormous order from the Ministry. Do you know half of them can't cast a decent shield charm?" He pressed a key into her hand. "Head upstairs when you want. We're almost finished for the day."

"How's Fred?" She asked, untangling herself from him.

"He's great. Bit busy right now." Someone called out to him and George turned an enormous smile on the customer. Hermione was fairly certain she saw a girl swoon. "Business calls!"

She watched him vanish into the crowd and rolled her eyes. That's what she got for dating an entrepreneur.

Slipping into the back wasn't too hard, she felt the wash of a ward scheme as she stepped through it, but the Twins had clearly already added her to it. She tried not to let that please her too much.

It was some time before the Twins managed to close up the shop and Hermione had spent her time poking doubtfully around their flat and throwing out old take away containers. Fred apparated right next to her and it was only sheer force of will that stopped her screaming and jumping away.

"Hey!" He grinned before pulling her into a kiss.

"Oh, yeah, leave me to close the doors and walk up the bloody stairs," George grumbled as he came through the door to the flat. Hermione managed to wave a spare hand in his direction that he pressed a kiss to before passing them by.

He'd put the kettle on by the time Fred had released her, and she grinned at him as she tried desperately to set her curls back to rights.

"Always so impatient," He called to Fred, before pulling Hermione into a hug. "Nice to see you properly. You look nice by the way."

Hermione made very sure that she didn't think about the twenty-minute panic she'd had before leaving about what to wear. A panic that only Tonks and some fabric charms had managed to fix. There were some things it was best the Twins didn't know.

"Thanks! The jacket is Dad's though. Remus gave it to me."

"It's very Sirius," The kettle whistled and he let her go so he could make tea. "How's the family?"

They made small talk for a few minutes. It always confused Hermione that while the Twins generally knew how she'd been, they never knew the details. She often had to make a concerted effort to remember to tell them anecdotes because the new strength of the Bond meant that she automatically assumed they were there.

"Is your furniture made out of cardboard boxes?" She asked suddenly, frowning at their oddly square armchair. Fred winced.

"We're making do at the moment." He admitted. "You can only do so much with transfiguration charms…" He trailed off, spying the frown on her face. "'Mione?"

"I've got some stuff you can use," Hermione offered slowly. "If you like. Kitchen stuff too, I think."

They both stared at her.

"You do?"

"Why do you have furniture?"

She chewed her lip, clearly thinking.

"It's...um. My parents' things." She admitted. "The Grangers, I mean. It's all second hand, obviously, but...I'd rather it was used than sitting in a storage shed."

The Twins exchanged a nervous look.

"Are you sure about this, 'Mione?" Fred asked, trying to stay calm.

She nodded, still looking around the flat critically.

"Mm." As though she sensed that wasn't a very helpful response, which given the Bond she probably had, Hermione continued. "This is your home; it should be comfortable. And it'll save you money for the meantime."

"So…" Fred pressed, "You would be...essentially moving your stuff in?"

There was a long pause where the Twins just stared at her and Hermione frowned slightly at the floorboards.

"Would that be a problem?" She asked, seriously considering her own shoes.

"No!"

"Not at all!"

"It's just furniture." She announced, trying to sound bored. "And it'll be two years before Sirius lets me move out of the Potter place so I might as well do it now instead of when you've bought a whole load of new stuff. Then I'll just have to throw everything out."

George was trying very, very hard to not grin.

"I can literally feel you smirking, George!" Hermione snapped. She'd gone rather red.

"So this is to save us money," Fred announced as seriously as he could, fighting his own smile. "And for the sake of the furniture?"

Hermione glared at them.

"Shut up!" She threw up her hands. "It was just an idea. Forget it!"

"Oh no!"

"We're not forgetting this!" George pulled her into his arms. "Two years from now."

"Is that a promise?" Fred murmured, shifting her hair out of the way so he could kiss her neck.

"Maybe," Hermione snapped.

They weren't fooled. She was prickly about feelings, their 'Mione, but they could feel her hopeful joy as if it was their own. Even if she wouldn't come out and say it, this was a commitment. One she felt comfortable and safe enough to give them and one they had no trouble holding her too. Like their mother always said: Give them an inch and they'll run a mile. She'd offered them two years and they were going to get a lifetime if it was the last thing they did.

"C'mon then!" They yanked her towards the door. "Let's go!"

They'd only taken the things they needed. Hermione found herself thankful for her mother's sense of taste, because most of the furnishings were plain, rather than floral which had been the fashion when she was a little girl. Still, the Twins now had plates and cutlery, cookware, a sofa, sheets and pillows, mattresses. A lot of the muggle gadgets had been left behind as the Diagon flat didn't have electricity. They had also taken the family portrait of the Granger family which they proudly displayed on their sitting room wall alongside the Weasley family, pictures from the Yule Ball and one of the three of them under a beech tree at Hogwarts that the Creevey boy had snapped.

"What time were we meant to get you back to Sirius?" Fred asked suddenly.

Hermione looked at her watch and felt her stomach drop.

"About two hours ago?" She offered.

"Oh, shit."

Amelia Bones knew with the certainty of someone who'd been attacked a lot, that she was in St Mungos. There was nowhere else in the wizarding world that had that same stench of cleaning products, air freshening charms and the subtle undertone of vomit.

"Fuck." She muttered.

She didn't bother opening her eyes. Instead, she took stock of her situation, carefully wiggling each of her fingers and clenching her toes, taking in a deep breath to see if she could hold it, shaking her head faintly to see if there was any dizziness.

"All limbs are present and accounted for, and you look as gorgeous as ever."

Sirius.

She let her lips curl into a smile as she stretched. She felt surprisingly well rested for someone whose last memory was attempting to drain her life's blood into an ancient blood ward. Maybe it had worked. Maybe she had died.

If the Afterlife smelled like St Mungo's she was going to demand to speak to someone's manager.

"You're not dead," Sirius added, sounding amused.

"Oh, damn," She muttered, "And here was I hoping we'd reached the "Till Death Do Us Part" bit of our vows."

"Getting bored of me already?" He sighed dramatically. "I knew I couldn't be your boy toy forever, but I didn't think I'd lose my older woman so soon."
Amelia snapped her eyes open so she could glare at him.

"Older woman? You're making me sound like I'm eighty, not forty-two."

"Actually, love," Sirius murmured, taking her hand gently. "You're forty-three. Still a full seven years older than me."

"I've missed my birthday?" She sat up or tried to. He helped prop her against the pillows and she took the chance to look him over. His injuries were healed and beginning to scar. He looked much older than the last time she'd seen him. "Siri, how long have I been…?"

"Just over a month," He promised. "Don't worry."

"Is everyone…?"

"Everyone is fine. Cissa and Andy stepped up and looked after the kids, although not well enough to stop them trying insane rituals, but that's a problem for later."

She frowned.

"The Black sisters? Why didn't…?"

Sirius scowled and she watched the new scars crease his face into expressions she didn't know.

"Apparently he did for a bit. But there were increased restrictions on werewolves introduced and he had to rescind his guardianship. The kids haven't seen him in weeks." There was something else he wasn't saying, a wave of furious anger lurking beneath his words, along with betrayal and pain. She hadn't seen him look like that about Remus since after the First War. "I'm going to get the Healer, see if we can't get you out of here as soon as possible."

"Why?" She asked warily.

He leaned close, pressing his lips against her ear. To any passerby, it would look like a tender embrace.

"Because the longer we stay here, the greater the chance is that some helpful healer will try and do a paternity test." He whispered against her skin. "And I'm pretty sure I'm not the father of that baby you're carrying."

He leaned back as she stared at him, wide-eyed.

"The what I'm carrying?" Amelia shrieked.

Luckily Amelia was released from the hospital rather quickly, under the strict promise that she did not return to work until she had recovered properly. A promise Amelia cheerfully broke after three days of bed rest. She returned to find her department in shambles and Aurors relieved to finally have someone with authority to handle the messes they'd gotten themselves into. Out of deference to her "health", Amelia was sticking firmly to desk duty, and attempting to eat two meals a day with her family, even if said meals were now at rather strange hours.

"I'm not going," Amelia announced during one such early breakfast. She was scowling at the letter in Sirius' hands. "I'm too fragile in my condition."

"The same condition that lets you go to work eighteen hours shifts in the DMLE?" Sirius asked archly. "Sure."

She looked desperately towards Minerva. "You're going to have to go too. He can't go alone, he'll probably declare a blood feud."

"Technically the feud between the Blacks and the Weasley's has never been resolved." Sirius sipped his coffee thoughtfully. "I think we're still at war with them."

Minerva sighed.

"Along with half the wizarding world, Sirius. The Ross family has been on the outs with the Blacks since the Covenanters. I considered the matter finished when we adopted a child together," She added when he looked surprised.

"Hermione and Molly are already on strained terms," Amelia was glaring resentfully at the coffee pot, so Sirius banished it with a flick of his hand. "And Sirius and Molly have never gotten along."

"She's not your daughter, Sirius!" Sirius parroted looking smug. "I'm looking forward to watching her eat those words. Not my daughter indeed."

Amelia rolled her eyes.

"That." She jabbed a finger at her husband, "That right there is why you need to go. I can't go because I'll just back up Sirius and our normal Black Wrangler isn't here right now." The couple glared at Remus' empty chair in unison. "So we need someone to keep Sirius in line."

Minerva sighed heavily, clearly wishing she'd returned to the castle, instead of continuing to stay at Potter Manor.

"Not only that," Amelia pointed out, "But we need to keep on good terms with the Weasley's for the Twins sake. They've already proved they'll go wherever Hermione leads them, but it's unfair to ask them to take our side against their own family."

"If she starts that "her surname will be Weasley" crap again I will not be held responsible for my actions," Sirius muttered darkly.

"Why does Dad look like he's trying to set fire to the table?" Hermione murmured, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she walked in.

"You've been invited to dinner with the Weasley's," Amelia passed her the letter. "Sirius has decided he'll be escorting you,"

Hermione choked, looking round the table in horror.

"Minnie, you've got to come too!"

Only Sirius heard Amelia, leaning against his shoulder, mutter,

"Besides, they're going to take her name."

He managed to hide his smug laughter in his mug.

It went about as well as could be expected. The Twins greeted Hermione and her adopted parents at the door, with the looks of men about to face the gallows. Dinner had gone… well, it went okay. Minerva's presence meant that Ron and Ginny were on their best behaviour, Arthur had decided to get ahead of everything by asking Hermione about muggle gadgets, which was a very neutral topic, while Sirius mostly kept his mouth shut. The Twins asked Bill about the wedding, which kept Molly busy until somehow that got onto the topic of future weddings and how they should keep decorations so they could be reused. Bill had tried to save things by claiming he didn't think Charlie or Percy would be settling down anytime soon, and everyone else was too young. Which led to...

"Don't you think it's important they settle down, Sirius?" Molly added pointedly.

The Trio all froze and the table stumbled into silence.

Sirius sent them a blink-and-you-miss-it smirk before turning to Molly with a surprisingly serious look on his face.

"Well Molly, I'm very keen for Hermione to stay connected to her muggle roots. It's very important that we recognised the heritage of her parents." Molly, clearly thinking he was about to agree with her, relaxed. This was a mistake. Sirius frowned quizzically at Hermione. "Darling, how old were your parents again when they got married?"

"Mum was thirty-four," She admitted, catching on to his joke. "Dad, thirty-six."

Molly choked.

"You see," Sirius swept his hand around in a grand gesture. "Muggles do it properly. They make sure they're settling down with the right person. I myself courted Amy for nearly twelve years…"
"Twelve!" Molly gasped out.

Sirius turned to Minerva who looked utterly done with this conversation already.

"And of course we should never forget the traditions of her adopted mother. Minerva, dear, how old were you when you married Elphinstone?"

"Sixty three," Minerva muttered curtly, focusing on her food.

"Well, there you are then!" Sirius' was maintaining an expression of serious consideration. "Sixty three is a fine age to get married." He looked seriously at Molly. "Don't you think so, Molly?"

Molly, as it turned out, did not think so.

The argument was still going over pudding, some twenty minutes later.

"Molly, I don't care if they don't get married. I don't care if they tear up the entire book of antiquated pureblood customs. Hermione could have three illegitimate children with the Bulgarian Quidditch Team and I still would not care!"

Hermione started banging her head off the Weasley's scrubbed kitchen table. Minerva had given up trying to wrangle Sirius when Molly had started asking about "getting married before there were any accidents" of all things. While she was relieved her adopted father wasn't champing at the bit to marry her off, she wished he could be less vulgar about it.

"Just for the record," George complained in her ear. "We would care if you went off with the Bulgarians."
"Yeah," Fred added. "At least show some patriotism. The English team, or even the Welsh at a push."

Hermione snorted loudly and regretted it when both Molly and Sirius remembered she was there.

"We're going for a walk!" George announced loudly and apparated the three of them to the garden in a remarkable display of Gryffindor bravery.

"What do you think about Hope?" Amelia whispered.

"I think I was hoping to get some sleep tonight," Sirius complained in a tired growl. She chuckled. He hadn't appreciated being woken when she'd staggered in late and stumbled into bed. "Hope for what?" He added, eventually.

She stared up at the dark ceiling above their bed, trying to feel the slight curve to her belly under her hand. She wasn't really showing yet, thankfully. Auror armor hid a lot of sins.

"The baby," Sirius jerked, finally giving her his full attention. He sighed heavily.

"After Remus' mother?" He asked softly. Remus' absence wasn't something Amelia had thought she would feel as strongly as she did. But it was like a gaping hole in their family, he had always been there, for as long as she'd known Sirius, really. She did love him too, as it turned out.

"Yeah," She couldn't see his expression. "And Edgar if it's a boy? Unless you want to give them constellation names?"

The Bones didn't have a naming tradition, but they did tend towards more sensible names than the nonsense of the Black family.

Sirius snorted.

"You know my mother had my first born's name picked out since I was ten?"

"Really?"

"Really. It was going to be Cepheus Sirius Black."

"What if you'd had a girl?" She murmured.

"I would never have dishonoured the family by having a girl for my firstborn," He sneered. "Trust me, I am perfectly happy to have children without star names. Harry was named after his muggle grandfather. Even Hermione was named after her parent's love of Shakespeare."

"She was?"

"Yeah," Sirius sighed. "They met at a performance of "Twelfth Night" and her father proposed at "The Winter's Tale", which is where her name comes from. It is quite romantic."

"How do you know that?"

"I do take an interest in my children's heritage, you know." Sirius sounded slightly offended. "It's good for Hermione to remember them. Remember the important stories, rather than how they died. Besides I suspect she'll name her children something incredibly boring, that girl hasn't got a romantic bone in her body."

"Susie was named after a muggle," Amelia admitted and Sirius laughed in surprise. "Cecelia loved going out shopping in muggle London, said they had all the best fashions and she used to drag me along with her. Sister-in-law bonding, she called it. Edgar thought it was the funniest thing. And when she was pregnant she had a funny turn in one of the shops we were in. Started to panic and I had no idea what to do, babies were never my thing and we were with muggles so...Anyway, this woman comes over, probably in her sixties. And she sat Cecilia down and brought her some tea and talked her through it. Cecilia never forgot her kindness and named her daughter after her." She sighed shakily. "She promised Edgar he could name the next one."

Sirius hugged her close and kissed her forehead as the weight of the lost bared down on them both for a moment.

"We could name them Lily, or James?" She offered when she'd calmed.

"No." Sirius insisted, with surprising vehemence. When she twisted to look at him, he seemed almost angry, although not, she sensed, at her. "No. That's Harry's if he wants it. I've already raised one child in their names...not another, Amelia."

She understood. Sirius had always felt both the pressure of raising the Potter's only child and the weight of his lasting feelings for both of them. He'd mostly dealt with it in his own way, but she could understand not wanting to feel that again.

"Besides," He murmured. "I quite like Edgar or Hope. Edgar is much better than Lyall."

She snorted.

"I met Lyall Lupin once. Arrested him actually, would have been when you were in second-year? The man was a prick and a bigot. I'd wager he's partially to blame for our current problem."

"Now dear," Sirius chided. "I don't think you're giving Remus' self-loathing quite enough credit. He managed to be an idiot all by himself."

"Constellation names for the middle names?" She offered to distract him. He paused to think about it.

"How does Edgar Regulus or Hope Lyra sound?" He murmured eventually.

"Like an awful mouthful." She admitted, grinning. "But no worse than Sirius Orion Black, or Amelia Mathilde Bones or Remus John Lupin."

"Or Hermione Jean Granger Black McGonagall."

"That girl has too many surnames," Amelia grumbled. There was an awkward pause. "Sirius," She breathed. "What surname are we going to use?"

"That, dear wife, is a problem for when we've got Remus back."

The rest of August passed in a wonderful sort of bliss. There was a belated birthday party for Harry, to which his favourite present was without a doubt the crochet snitch Luna sent him. Their exam results arrived, Hermione managing nine Outstanding marks. Harry actually failed Astronomy but pointed out that that wasn't his fault, as he'd been too busy comforting Hermione to finish his star chart. Hermione immediately pledged to fulfil all his Astronomy needs for the rest of his life, in the unlikely event that Astronomy was ever actually important. Harry was made Quidditch Captain and received a threatening letter from Angelina Johnson about what she'd do to him if Gryffindor lost the Quidditch Cup. Hermione spent as much time with the Twins as she could, either at their shop or venturing out into the muggle world to enjoy the anonymity that brought.

Amelia sighed heavily as Andromeda worked, prodding at her with her wand and frowning over the glowing lights of diagnostic spells.

"What's the verdict?" She asked nervously. This was the longest Amelia had ever managed to keep a pregnancy and the fear of what seemed inevitable was almost more than she could bear. Usually, things had gone wrong before she'd even noticed she was pregnant.

Andromeda smiled at her and the strain in Amelia's shoulders began to ease.

"Everything looks fine," She assured her, waving away the spells with a flick of her wand. "You're both in good health and, although we're going to keep a close eye on you, I think you're out of the immediate danger zone. You're coming to the end of the first trimester. If you want…" She looked a little awkward. "I can do that paternity test for you?"

Amelia shook her head immediately.

"No. No, I don't need to know. This kid will have two fathers, just like Harry and Hermione. Didn't do them any harm."

Andromeda seemed to accept that easily enough.

"Well, as long as you don't try any more Bones warding rituals, I think you should be fine." That wasn't likely as Amelia had confiscated the Grimoires from her niece as soon as she'd realised what her children had done. And then shouted at an entirely unrepentant Susan for a few hours. Susan refused to apologise, as did Harry and Hermione. The three of them were entirely too smug about the whole thing. "Are you going to tell the children soon?" Amelia didn't respond as a thought began to occur to her. "Amelia!"

"I'm going to be a mother," Amelia whispered, feeling terror pool in her stomach. She looked up at Andromeda who appeared utterly unconcerned with this revelation. "I've never been a mother before!" She shrieked.

Andromeda rolled her eyes.

"There are three children downstairs who would disagree with you."

"Step-Mother!" Amelia insisted. "Aunt. Occasional guardian. Sirius was always Harry's primary parent. Hell, Remus was more of a mother to that boy than I was!"

Andromeda took her wrist and began to drag her out of the spare bedroom they were using and down the stairs.

"Where are we going?"

"To find Narcissa and then to one of those cafes she likes that serve tiny cakes!" Andromeda announced firmly. "Yes, you're going to be a mother, Amelia! What did you think was going to happen?"

"Will the tiny cakes help?" Amelia asked in a small voice as she was pulled along.

"Well, you will have cake," Andromeda admitted. "And that always helps."

The children were, of course, thrilled.

"So, am I still your heir?" Hermione asked, clearly looking quite happy about rescinding her responsibilities to someone else.

Sirius and Amelia exchanged an awkward grimace and the three teenagers looked between them suspiciously. This was not something Sirius had ever thought he'd have to explain to his children.

"The chances are," He admitted, ruffling his hair nervously, "That you'll still inherit everything."

"The chances are?" Hermione parroted, confused.

Susan's eyes widened and she let out a small squeal.

"That's why you're so mad at Remus!" She shrieked and her aunt and uncle winced.

"It's…" Harry appeared to be extremely confused. "You two and Remus?"

"Hey!" Sirius pointed at his daughter. "She's dating two people! Why can't we?"

"They are my soulmates," Hermione pointed out archly. As she also didn't look terribly surprised by the whole thing, Sirius suspected she'd had her own theory about her parents. "We're destined to be together."

"Oh, yeah," Harry grumbled. "That's why you panic every time they try and get you to commit to anything."

Scowling, Hermione kicked her brother in the shin, before turning back to the adults as he swore.

"Either way, I'm very happy for you." She paused, and then looking a little shy, added, "Will they still be my little brother or sister?"

"Oh, definitely," Amelia promised. "And Susan and Harry's. Blood doesn't make a family, Hermione. Certainly not this one."

"I won't be the youngest anymore!" Harry crowed, looking thrilled, even if he was still rubbing his leg.

"I've always wanted a little brother or sister," Hermione admitted with a smile.

"Hey!" Harry glared at her as Sirius began to laugh. "What am I? Chopped liver?"

"A bane on my life," Hermione complained deadpan.

Amelia joined her laughing husband as their children descended into squabbling.

"I think the kid will be fine," She murmured, watching Susan and Harry team up on their older sister.

"Or as utterly mad as the rest," Sirius replied, smirking.

"George," Hermione murmured. "I've just seen something I need to deal with."

Following her gaze, he stumbled, before nodding and drawing his wand.

"I've got your back." He promised and she knew that he always would.

Hermione took off at a flat sprint, building up enough momentum that when she kicked the unsuspecting man in the leg it was hard enough for him to howl in pain.

"WHAT THE…" He turned to face her and blanched in shock. "Hermione?"

"Dad." Hermione glared at Remus. "What are you doing here?"

Here being the lovely muggle beach George had brought her to. She'd been rather impressed when he'd managed to successfully buy them both ice cream with muggle money, but the lovely mood she'd been in was beginning to fade as she glared at her self-adopted father.

"Enjoying the sunshine," Remus returned warily before he scowled. "What are you doing out here? Are you on your own? Hermione, it isn't safe!"

"Firstly, I've got George," George waved and she continued icily. "Secondly, you do not get to just pick up your parental responsibilities when you feel like it. You want to act like my father, you have to bloody well stick around! You want to run off like a coward, you don't get to tell me what to do."

Remus winced.

"Sirius told you then?"

"Ha!" She glared at him. "Aunt Amy did, which you would know if you were at home instead of hanging around beaches in Brighton. They are both furious, by the way!"

He scowled at that.

"They're safer without me around," He insisted, which Hermione thought would have been more effective if he wasn't wearing the leather bracelets Sirius and Amelia had given him for his last birthday, etched with runes Hermione had never been able to get a good enough look at to translate. The same bracelets Susan suspected had tracking charms on them. "You're safer without me around, Hermione."

She rolled her eyes.

"Urgh, Dad was right. Look, Remus, one way or another, they're going to find you, you know that?"

He hugged her suddenly and although she scowled, she hugged him back.

"Please, Dad," She whispered. "Come home. They're waiting for you."

He let her go, stepping away.

"I can't, Hermione." He looked at George. "Keep her safe for me?"

George laughed.

"You don't have to worry about me. We don't run away when things get scary."

There was a flash of amber in Remus' eyes at the taunt, but he just smiled sadly and turned away, easily getting lost in the crowd of muggle holidaymakers.

"Idiot," Hermione muttered fondly.

The thirty first of August was the worst day of the year, Hermione decided, but she was determined to make the most of it. She'd spent the morning humouring Harry and running through Quidditch drills with him and Draco. The rest of the day she spent with the Twins. They'd spent the afternoon working in the stock room, testing new designs and trying not to get too distracted by each other or the prospect of her imminent departure. With the shop closed up, the Twins had taken her out into muggle London to try and hunt down dinner.

"I meant to ask," Hermione twisted out of the way of a commuter and felt George grab her hand so she wasn't left behind. "When did you two learn about muggle stuff?"

"Ah," Fred admitted, taking her other hand. "You can thank your dad for that."

Hermione's surprise rippled through the bond and they both laughed.

"Sirius said we should try and get to know your heritage," Hermione grinned at him. "So we started ordering takeaways because it was that or eat at the Leaky every night. Turns out muggle food is great and so much cheaper than Tom's cooking."

They stopped at a pedestrian crossing and Hermione looked around, working out where they were.

"Do you two mind a bit of a walk?" She asked, sounding almost nervous. "I want to show you two something."

The cemetery was closed, but Fred made quick work of the lock. Hermione led them unerringly through the dark, tree-lined paths. The further in they got, it was easy to pretend it wasn't enclosed by tall stone buildings, in the centre of a metropolis.

"Their practice was around here," Hermione told them, as they walked. "And my grandparents are buried here. Dad's parents," She added when they looked confused. "I used to sneak away from Lambeth to visit them, but I've not been able to come back since Minnie adopted me."

Both Twins looked unusually sombre as Hermione brought them to a stop at the plain, granite headstone.

"Hi mum," Hermione breathed. "Hi, dad." She took in a shaky breath. "I know its stupid to talk to them like they're still here…"

"No, it's not," George promised her softly.

"Wizards believe the dead watch over us in life," Fred added, smiling down at her. "Do you want to introduce us?"

For a second, Hermione's eyes filled with tears and she took a second to blink them away.

"Mum, Dad," She smiled slightly, "This is Fred and George. They're my boyfriends and, yes I'm dating both of them, but that's normal for wizards!"

The Twins grinned and bowed in unison.

"It's our pleasure to finally meet you."

Later, over Indian take out and muggle cola, sprawled out in the Twins' living room, Hermione took a deep breath.

"I love you two." She told them calmly. Both of them froze, looking surprised, Fred with a piece of Naan hanging out his mouth. "Thought you ought to know," She added, blushing heavily as she nervously stirred her curry.

It was as the Twins assured her they felt the same and did their best to show her in actions as well as words, that the last of the walls fell away and the Bond finally completed.

There are many ways to complete a Bond. By actions, words or emotion. Whether it was Hermione finally trusting in the ties that bound them together, finally believing wholeheartedly in the Twins or her admission of her feelings that did it, the strongest soul bond I ever saw finally settled into place as it should always have done. With love, trust and respect.

Remus was certain he was being followed. The bright August weather had been chased off by the heavy oppressive rain as September blew in. The torrential rain had lessened to a thick mist that soaked him as he walked through it, making it impossible to see if anyone else was nearby. The muggle streets of Edinburgh's Old Town were cobbled and, aside from a few drunks hanging out outside the World's End pub, entirely deserted. Nevertheless, Remus had the sinking sensation of being followed.

Flicking up his cloak collar he spied an alleyway and made his way towards it. If he could just disapparate…

The buildings pressed in around him and he spotted a collection of large plastic dustbins he could duck behind just as he noticed the alleyway came to an abrupt dead end. Nerves heightening, he tried to disappear only to reappear exactly where he'd been.

"Fuck," He hissed. Anti-Apparition charm.

He'd been herded. Trapped.

He hid between the bins.

Maybe muggle methods wouldn't fail him.

He could hear footsteps getting closer, boot heels rapping off the wet cobbles. The click of a cane. Didn't Lucius Malfoy use a cane? Whoever they were, they were getting closer. He held his breath and kept as still as possible, trying to cloak himself in the shadows.

"You know," A voice called out. A terribly, painfully, familiar voice. "With the kids back at school, I had a lot of time to track down something I'd lost."

He couldn't believe he'd fallen for this again. After sixth-year, Remus had sworn that was the last time he'd let Sirius Black get the drop on him.

Maybe he could keep hiding behind this bin?

"At least you didn't run to Dumbledore," Sirius added idly. "Can you imagine how far we'd have to go to fetch him then, dear?"

Dear?

There was a rush of air as a cloaked figure dropped down from the wall that blocked the alley. Their boots hit the pavement with the soft thump of a muffling charm and Remus winced as Amelia straightened to her full, intimidating, height.

"Oh, we wouldn't have let him get far." She called back, in a voice dripping with menace.

He was going to die.

Reluctantly, Remus abandoned his bins and stood up, gripping his wand tightly as he stepped out between them.

"Glad to see you're better," He tried, appealing to Amelia's cooler head.

"Are you?" Amelia demanded, rounding on him. Sirius was making his way towards them, blocking the escape. "You didn't hang around to see if I'd wake up."

Apparently Amelia wasn't in the mood to be placated.

"The healers…" He tried.

She made a loud noise and he shut up.

"Now," Amelia took in a deep breath. "I wasn't present for the last conversation about this, which given that this is my body and my baby I find highly insulting. So we're going to start from the beginning."

"Amy…" Remus started.

"You have nothing relevant to say, Lupin." She snapped. "So be quiet. Now, this is how this should have gone." She hauled a bright smile on her face that made Remus distinctly uncomfortable. "Sirius, Remus, I'm having a baby. I don't know which one of you is the biological father, but that shouldn't matter because we already have three children between us. Now I know we thought we were done with babies for a long time but I would like to keep this one," She paused to stare them both down.

"That's wonderful," Sirius beamed at her, clearly playing his role. "I'm so happy, love." He turned to Remus who rolled his eyes.

"You're ins…"

"SHUT UP!" Amelia roared and he closed his mouth. Sirius was just looking smug. "Now," She added in an even tone. "I know that this is a dangerous time, and changes will have to be made. I am prepared to give up active duty and stay in the office. Scrimgeour had promised me maternity leave. I will be going back to work afterwards but Remus doesn't have a job and we've dealt with small children before. Susan will inherit the Bones title and the chances are Hermione will still inherit Black. So…."

Remus had had enough.
"Chances are?" He yelled. "Chances are the…" He stumbled over the word. "Baby is a werewolf. Chances are that kid is the son of a monster." Sirius grabbed him by the collar but Remus kept going. "I've brought too much trouble to you already, Amy. It'll only get worse if I'm still around. People will know and you'll be in danger!" Sirius' wand was digging into his neck but he ignored it.

Amelia shoved her hood back, scowling deeply as she advanced on Remus.

"Fucks sake, man!" She roared. "I adopted Harry Potter, Remus! My step-daughter is receiving letters from Bellatrix Lestrange. My niece spent this summer researching dangerous magical rituals. I am no stranger to my children being in danger!"

Remus went limp.

"What?" He gasped. "Hermione, what's…?"

"It's fine, we've got it under control," Sirius shook him, and Remus glared at him. "You don't get to act shocked when you walk out on us."

"Do you know," Remus was growling now but neither of them backed down. "What will happen to that child if anyone finds out it's mine? They will be ridiculed for the rest of their life, no one will trust them. They'll spend their entire life being treated like a monster. Merlin, Amelia, you even being pregnant right now is enough to get me a jail sentence in Azkaban."

She rolled her eyes.

"As Head of the DMLE it is really unlikely that I am going to arrest either myself or the father of my child." She laughed, "There are perks to the job."

Sirius stepped up close behind him, curling one hand in the back of his coat.

"I know you're scared," He breathed against the back of Remus' neck. "I know that you're worried, but we're strong enough to handle this."

"You know I don't hate you?" Amelia added suddenly, stepping close so he was pinned between the pair of them. "I'm angry you left, don't get me wrong, but I don't hate you. I'm happy this baby is probably yours."

He wouldn't give in. He would do this one thing to keep his family safe.

"Did you know lycanthropy isn't inheritable?" Sirius added conversationally. "I've checked, had bugger all else to do in the last month." His tone became venomous for a second before he reined in his temper. "The kid won't be a werewolf."

"You don't know that!" Remus yelled, willing himself to stay strong.

"And even if the kid was, which it won't be," Amelia smirked at him. "Would you really condemn that child to a life with no guidance, without a parent who knew what they were going through, to full moons spent alone?"

"You spent the last full moon alone, didn't you Remus?" Sirius nipped at his ear. "Couldn't have been fun."

"Come home," Amelia slid her arms around him just above Sirius' and rested her head beneath his chin. "The kids have missed you."

"We've missed you."

"We've been worried without you."

Remus knew exactly what they were doing. They were appealing to the wolfish desire for home and a pack and safety. For a warm and loving Den. After a month spent out in the cold and a month before that sleeping at their bedsides in Hospital...damn it, it was working.

He relaxed in their hold and Sirius kissed his victory into Remus' hair.

"Come on," Amelia murmured. "You've got a lot of grovelling to do back home."