Familiar Face
Welcome Time Lords
"Welcome home, Time Lord!"
The front door of the Granger household swung open, revealing a nine—almost ten-year-old with black hair pulled into two braids as she smiled at them, her gray eyes twinkling. Hermione heard the chuckles from Harry and Ron behind her as Ron said, "No reason to be embarrassed?"
Hermione froze, staring at her younger sister, who'd rushed out to greet her, unsure of how to react when—after what felt like ages—Sirius suddenly said, "She's adorable."
"Sirius. Really."
"Oh! Doctor Who!" Jules quickly turned on her heels, running into the house as Ron asked, 'who?' in response. Hermione let out a sigh, knowing Jules saying what she did meant she, at the very least, was watching Doctor Who. Hermione started in, definitely wishing Sirius hadn't invited himself and Harry over. Thankfully, Ron's comment went over Jules's head, but Hermione saw her youngest sister was not in sight as she stepped into the front room.
"Oh. You're home." Elizabeth, on the other hand, was. She sat on the couch, reading a teen magazine. Her nose wrinkled up in disgust. Her eyes shifted to behind Hermione. "Who are they? Mum and dad didn't permit you to have anyone over."
"Bloody hell," Ron said, making Hermione glance over her shoulder to see his nose wrinkled up in disgust which made Hermione wish even more that they hadn't come. If there was one member of the family she found embarrassing, it was, in fact, Elizabeth, with her attitude being so Petunia Dursley-like, except coming from a Muggleborn rather than a Muggle. And—she didn't think it fair that Harry had to deal with that.
"Please tell me mum and dad didn't leave you in charge of Jules?"
"You know full well they don't," Elizabeth snapped. "Dad's in the kitchen. Mum's at work."
"Wait. Your dad does the cooking?" Ron—Hermione didn't like how his mouth twisted.
"I cook," Harry piped up.
"Because your aunt makes you," Ron retorted.
"Well, somebody recognizes it's not normal," Elizabeth muttered, snapping her magazine shut before standing up and leaving the room. Hermione glared at her.
"So—I should probably meet your dad then and let him know we're here?" Sirius said as if he'd not just invited himself to a complete stranger's home.
And turning to look at him, Hermione was sure Sirius didn't think his behavior the least bit unusual even for the Wizarding community. Remus reached out, tugging on Sirius' arm. He shook his head. "Sirius…"
"What?" Sirius looked at Remus as if he'd no clue why his friend chastised him.
Hermione used the opportunity to head into the kitchen to forewarn her father, or at least warn him the best she could that his world was about to be turned upside down.
Jules was sitting at the table, or more of up on her knees on a chair while leaning into the table, her silver eyes glued to the television where an episode featuring the Dalek played. However, she didn't pay much attention to which one of the black and white episodes was. In the meantime, her father was also watching, cooking utensil in hand as dinner cooked.
"Dad?" Hermione pushed her lips together, hoping this would get his attention.
He didn't look up and instead continued watching the episode of Doctor Who. She heard someone come up behind her from behind her—more than one person. She also heard Harry as he said, "Sirius…."
Suddenly and unexpectedly—or perhaps not so abruptly- Sirius broke out into rapid French, which included some choice curse words that caught her younger sister's attention, looking at Sirius wide-eyed. They were, after all, the no-no words, or so their father told the youngest as she learned French.
"What is he saying?" Ron asked from in the front room. Hermione could make out something about her father being a wizard.
"I don't know," Harry said. Hermione, though, knew Sirius said something about how her father was supposed to be dead. She took a deep breath as she looked at Sirius, irritated at how he used the non-no French words in front of Jules.
Sirius turned to look at Harry, pointing at Hermione's father, and said, "He's a wizard."
"Um, no. I'm sure he's not." Harry said.
"Okay. What's…" Remus stepped into the room and started, staring right at her father while holding onto the door frame as he stared at her father, not uttering another word.
Her father, on the other hand—Hermione turned her head so she could look at him and saw he wasn't reacting, not at all. He continued watching the episode with the Dalek, and Jules turned her attention back to the television as if deciding the man who was immature enough to utter curse words was of no importance, particularly compared to the obsession she shared with their father.
Sirius, on the other hand, was fuming. Hermione saw the same wild look on his face when dealing with Peter Pettigrew. He pulled himself to his full height and started over. Harry cleared his throat. "I'm sure he's not."
Ron piped up from the front room, getting closer. "Yeah. Hermione's dad's a Muggle."
Remus's mouth pushed together, but the way he looked at Sirius—Sirius stepped over to her dad. He then did the unthinkable and poked her dad—whose relationship with touch wasn't a straightforward matter—in the cheek. "You—" Sirius snapped. "—are a wizard."
Her father continued to look at Doctor Who while Harry's drifted over to look at the black and white film, his mouth pressing together. Hermione expected a meltdown from her father, for him to look at Sirius in utter shock if not outright backing away from the strange man who'd intruded upon the family home. Instead, he said, "I am a Time Lord."
"What the bloody hell!" Sirius got a bit louder, louder than Hermione would like—louder than she knew her father wanted.
"Daddy's a Time Lord," Jules repeated from the table.
Hermione sucked in her breath, catching onto Jules' euphemism for Wizards and Witches, meaning that her father had, in fact, said, "Yes, I am a wizard." Yet, she didn't understand the reason behind using a roundabout way of saying that, mainly when it would tick off Sirius—Sirius was angry, but the way Remus let out a groan—
She turned and looked at Remus, who leaned against the doorway while covering his eyes. She looked back at Sirius and her father and—something told her Sirius, and her father knew each other. Remus seemed to have some inkling of what was going on, yet Harry hadn't picked up on that, so they asked, "Sirus, what's going on?"
Sirius ignored Harry, his focus on her father. He—Hermione wondered if he understood what it meant to be a parental figure, yet Harry hadn't yet figured out the connection she had, so—she shook her head. Sirius poked her father again, this time in the shoulder. "Are you ignoring me?"
Her father was ignoring Sirius in his way, yet it bothered her. Hermione didn't remember a time when her father openly missed someone, let alone acted in an antagonistic manner, yet towards Sirius, he did. She watched him walk over to stir whatever he was cooking for dinner while ignoring Sirius and watching Doctor Who. Jules also watched the show.
Ron wandered in, having grown bored looking around a Muggle front room, and headed straight to the TV. He pointed at the black and white picture. "Hey! What's that?" It was the Dalek, of course. "What kind of magical creature is that?"
"You are ignoring me!" Sirius retorted.
Jules pushed herself higher, her perch at the table becoming even more precarious. "Hey!"
Harry murmured before heading over to take a look. "I don't know."
"You don't know? Didn't your pig cousin—"
"Pig cousin?" Hermione's father retorted, glaring at Ron. "Don't use that language in this house."
His voice made both Harry and Ron look at him while Sirius folded his arms, letting out a huff. "You are definitely ignoring me, Regulus."
"Hey! I can't see!" Jules said from the table while Hermione wondered why Sirius called her father Regulus, though she suspected she knew why.
"That's not his name," Ron said. Sirius turned to look at him, wide eyes. "I mean…"
"Something that starts with an 'S'," Harry said, which was correct as her father was—no, went by the name Sebastian. "And Dudley doesn't like black and white, so no, I don't—"
"Hey! Jules can't see!" Now Jules was standing up in the chair, her father, who would typically notice and correct such things, not catching onto what Jules was doing.
Someone else did, yet Hermione wondered when Remus moved from the door to the table so he could lift Jules and set her down on the chair, saying to her, "You shouldn't stand on chairs like that, Jules. You might get hurt." Jules sat there, her arms crossed. "And Harry. Ron. Could you not stand, so you're blocking her from watching the telly?"
Harry tugged on Ron's so he was no longer, though this didn't stop Jules from pouting. Hermione's father turned his attention to Jules now. The look on his face—Hermione thought Jules standing on the chair was just now sinking in, but he continued to look at her before reaching for the rewind button, meaning they were watching something from his collection when they came in. The act of rewinding the video calmed Jules down, and she went back to watching the show while also going back to her previous position in the chair.
Sirius glared at her dad, watching him. "You are ignoring me, and I don't like it."
"Sirius…" Harry—there was a tone to his voice which meant he was upset, but then Hermione found herself just as upset.
"Regulus, you're supposed to be dead, so how do you—"
"I regenerated," her father muttered. He still didn't look Sirius in the eye, but now he wasn't looking anyone in the eye as he cooked the food.
"You what?" The way Sirius' voice rose made Hermione flinch.
"I regenerated," her father repeated, his voice rather monotone. "Unfortunately, when I regenerated, I ended up with the same ugly mug as before, if not an uglier one."
Hermione's stomach lurched, knowing the self-deprecating tone of voice her father used. Sirius was—the presence of Sirius Black had honestly put her father into a dark place for some reason. There was something, though, about the Doctor Who reference that didn't sit right, but the look on Remus' face said it didn't sit well with him either.
"Daddy died?"
