A/N: Hello all! Just popping in to say that this is the last "filler chapter" before we start getting in to the main action of Part two. The next couple of chapters will be fast paced and will bring a lot of story lines together. Several characters will be making a reappearance soon too...


June 6th, 1980

I walked towards the pitch, my broom swung over my shoulder, and my navy robes billowing behind me. I was about to walk onto the pitch to play in my first ever professional match. We had gone back to practices in February; for the last four months I have busted my arse to get onto the main team and off of the reserve team. It meant that I was gone from Sirius much more than I had been before, as our season started before the reserve season started, but as we both agreed…it was totally worth it. Instead of spending June and July at home practicing, and leaving in August to finish off the season with the whole team, I was going to be gone the entire time. I still got to go home for a day or two a week – most weeks – but I know the time apart is going to be difficult for both of us.

Sirius was taking his role as Lily and James's Secret Keeper extremely seriously. Dumbledore had performed the charm the day he told us about the prophecy, and since then Sirius had been extra vigilant everywhere he went. It was almost better that I was going to be gone a lot, because it gave him an excuse to spend more nights in Godric's Hollow, within the confines of the Fidelius Charm. As Dumbledore had told us, Sirius couldn't make Godric's Hollow his official home, so he had to spend the majority of his nights in our flat, but he was able to spend more time within the protective barriers of the charm than would have been appropriate if I were home.

"You go kick some arse for us, and we'll be cheering you on as we listen on the wireless," Lily had told me yesterday, her hand resting on her bulging stomach. She was just weeks from giving birth, but still had managed to cook Sirius, Remus and I a four course meal. As she was taking a roast out of the oven, Remus had rushed over and insisted that she sit down; he had returned from his mission in mid-March and had insisted that he not be sent away again until the baby was born. He had been filled in on the prophecy as well, and was embracing the protective instincts that Sirius seemed to be exuding.

Remus, Marlene, Mary, and Sirius were all in the stands today to cheer me on. Frank and Alice had been advised by Dumbledore to perform their own Fidelius Charm; they had kept their Secret Keeper a secret, but I had a feeling it was Frank's mother. She was an intimidating woman, and more than up to the challenge. They had been round Lily and James's a couple of times, and both were doing well, as well as the baby. I started to hear the roar of the crowd as I approached the door to the pitch. My teammates were all lined up, waiting for the commentator to begin announcing the lineup.

"You nervous?" Wesley Wood, our keeper, asked. He looked down at me from his towering height of 6'4", my chin barely coming to his chest. He was an incredibly attractive Scottish man, a couple of years older than me. He had been at Hogwarts when I was a first year, but I hadn't been paying any attention to boys at the time, so I didn't remember him. Plus he was a Hufflepuff, so extra marks against him. We had gotten very close over the last couple of weeks. He knew how difficult it was to be away from home; he had a four year old, Oliver, with his wife Anna. I lamented over missing Sirius, and he told me about all of Oliver's milestones that he was missing. Just last week, Oliver had written his name for the first time, and Anna had posted him the parchment; it now hung proudly in his team locker.

"Not at all Wes! Why on Earth would I be nervous?" I chuckled weakly, adjusting my robes nervously.

"You'll be fine. My first match was great until about eight minutes in," Wesley mentioned.

"What happened?"

"Fell off my broom while avoiding a bludger. Woke up a couple of days later."

I glanced at Wesley sharply. "Very encouraging. Really, smashing pep talk."

"Eyes front everyone. Match is about to begin," William Ackerley, my fellow chaser and team captain, commanded. He shouldered his broom and stood tall. I swallowed my fear, and made my way into place in the lineup.

"Welcome!" I heard the Commentator begin to announce. "We are here on this beautiful summer day to open up the Quidditch Season with our match today; Puddlemere United versus the Holyhead Harpies!"

I knew I would be up against Loraine, the chaser who I had replaced when I joined the Gryffindor team. I wanted to show her that the little girl who lost out on a spot on the team to James Potter was gone; I wanted to prove to myself that I deserved this. The commentator started announcing the Harpies team players, with each player flying out after announced.

"And for Puddlemere we have Wood as keeper! Chapman as seeker! Gibson and Fisher as our beaters! And for our chasers – Baker! Team captain – Ackerley! And our newest addition, making her professional debut…Addison Jones!" I pushed off upon hearing my name. Typically Ackerley would fly out last, but as it was my debut, I was given the honor. I flew out to a deafening roar, unlike anything I had ever heard before. I managed to glance around the stadium quickly as I flew around the stadium, before meeting my team in the center. The stadium was packed, but it was all a blur. Before I knew it, the game had begun. I pushed everything out of my mind – the war, Sirius, Lily and James – and focused on doing my job; on doing the thing that I loved most in the world.


July 31st, 1980

We had an easy practice today, as we had a game this weekend. We usually practiced light a couple of days before a match, to give our muscles a chance to relax. We had finished up a couple of minutes ago, and I was in the locker room getting changed.

"All set?" Ellie Chapman, our seeker and the only other girl on the team, asked me. She had just finished drying her hair and was set to walk out of the room. I nodded and walked through the door she was holding open. "Excited to get home and see your husband?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed. Because we were playing a home match this weekend, we were all given the night off to go home to our families. I hadn't seen Sirius since our first match almost four weeks ago; we had won that game, and he had taken me out to celebrate with the rest of the team. Since then, it had been nonstop travel as we had matches throughout the month out of the country. "Are you seeing Richard?"

"No, I cut him off after the Harpies match. He came to the bar with us and he was so clingy; I didn't need that just before I left for a couple of months," Ellie answered, looking disgusted by the thought of attachment. She was not known for staying in a relationship long, to put it nicely. Sirius and her would have gotten along well, had they met at Hogwarts. "I'll probably just head back to my loft, open a bottle of wine, and order takeout."

"Do you fancy coming and having dinner with my family?" I asked her. She shouldn't be alone on her day off – after weeks of intensive training, traveling and staying at inns, she should come have a home cooked meal.

"Go enjoy your family time! I'll be fine with some takeaway."

"No excuses. My father would kill me if he knew I let you go home and have takeout, instead of his…attempt at a home cooked meal." Dad had taken up cooking, in homage to my mother. He had served me some questionable dishes, but even I had to admit that some had been successful.

"Oh alright then, twist my arm," Ellie chuckled, linking her arm through mine. "Plus, it will give me a chance to get a better look at that hunk of a husband of yours."

I laughed with her, knowing she was joking. I apparated to my parent's house, appearing in the backyard. The light was on in the kitchen, and the two of us walked through the backdoor. Dad was standing at the stove, stirring something with a wooden spoon. Lewis was over as well, sitting at the kitchen table looking over some documents and drinking a glass of red wine.

"Hello family!" I announced as I stepped back to let Ellie walk in before me. "This is –"

"Ellie Chapman!" Lewis interrupted me, standing up abruptly and knocking his glass of wine over.

"…Yes," I trailed off, shocked at Lewis's reaction. I should have guessed though; Lewis is just as obsessed with Quidditch as I am.

"You can just call me Ellie, no need for my full name," Ellie laughed, taking Lewis's outstretched hand. "Thank you, Mr. Jones, for letting me crash family dinner."

"Oh, you can call me Harold," Dad said, smiling kindly at Ellie. "And that baboon drooling over you is my idiot son, Lewis."

"Wine?" I asked Ellie, waving my wand to clean up the mess Lewis had made. She nodded yes, as my father chatted with her. I took down two glasses from the cabinet, and walked over to the table, where Lewis was tucking his paperwork back in to his bag.

"How are you, Lew?" I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him in to a tight hug. I grabbed the bottle from behind him and filled two glasses.

"I'm doing good. Work has been crazy – we've sent eight people to Azkaban in the last week alone," He sighed, shoving the last of his papers away.

"Sirius sent me a letter last week telling me he made two arrests himself."

"Yeah I saw his name on the intake forms. Crouch's been all over us to expedite the trials – he wants as many Death Eaters behind bars as possible. Moody has been in our office every day this week, screaming that proper trials need to occur, but Crouch has been cutting every corner he legally can. It's all I can do to manage my clients even get in front of a panel of judges."

"So you work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?" Ellie had wandered back over to us to grab her drink. I left her in Lewis's capable hands, to go say hello to Dad.

"Hi daddy," I said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Hello, love," Dad said, smiling at me as he continued stirring his pot. It looked like he was making a pot of gravy and some pasta. I was confident that he could pull this off; he had seen Mom make this comfort meal so many times, that he should be able to do it in his sleep.

"How has work been?"

"It's been fine. Busy, especially now that Lily had to take a leave of absence. Have you seen her recently? How is she?"

"I saw her the day before our first match. She's set to pop any day now – it was probably good timing that she had to stop working, I can't imagine how she would have kept up, being on her feet all day."

"Well you remind her next time you see her that I am more than happy to come help with the birth, if she'll have me." I had told Lewis and Dad about the Fidelius Charm, in general terms. He knew that he couldn't find their house unless he was told where it was; I hadn't told him that Sirius was the secret keeper. I figure that the less either of them knew, the less likely they were to be attacked.

"I will. I should be seeing her tomorrow for breakfast. At least, I think that's what Sirius said in his last letter. Have you heard from him? He should be here by now…"

"I saw him right before I left the office. He told me he was just going to pop home to change before stopping over," Lewis called. He glanced down at his watch. "He should be here shortly, I only arrived a couple of minutes before the two of you."

The four of us sat down to enjoy a glass of wine while the gravy simmered. The three of them were talking about our season so far, and Ellie was praising how quickly I had fit in with Ackerley and Baker. It was nice to know that my teammate was praising me, but I was starting to get worried about Sirius – after not seeing each other for almost a month, I knew that he would have rushed right over here, and it had already been half an hour past when Lewis had expected him.

Just as I was about to get up and say that I needed to check on him, the fireplace next to the stove lit up. Sirius's head popped up in the middle of the flames. I gasped and jumped up from my seat, kneeling down next to his head. "Hi, Kitten," Sirius called from the fireplace.

"What's wrong, what happened?" I scrambled, my mind immediately going to the worst case scenario.

"Lily's gone in to labor!" He exclaimed. His eyes shifted and found my dad's. "Harold, she's asked – well, really demanded – that you come and help with the delivery, if you're willing to do that?"

"Of course," Dad agreed, already grabbing his bag from the hook besides the door. "Where do you need me to come?"

"Come here with Addie, and we'll get you to the house," Sirius said, looking back to me, "Hurry, Addie." Without further ado, Dad and I bid Ellie and Lewis goodbye, and floo'd back to my loft.

We stepped out of the fireplace to Sirius pacing right in front of me. "Thank Merlin. Harold, read this paper – it's from the Secret Keeper. You can floo there now." Sirius tapped the parchment, after Dad had read it, and it lit on fire, disintegrating in to a pile of ash. Dad wasted no time in getting in to the floo and disappearing.

"I came home and James's head was sitting in the fire; he had been waiting for me for an hour. I popped over there and James was freaking out. It took me a minute to realize that he wanted me to come get your dad," Sirius explained to me. "Apparently, Alice had the baby last night too – little boy, named Neville – but Madame Pomfrey is still there – Alice had some complications, but she's fine – so they couldn't get a hold of her, St. Mungo's told her that your dad had left for the day, and I guess they couldn't get through to your floo."

"Ugh, I told Dad to close the floo to all fireplaces but ours," I groaned, upset for not thinking to add the Potter's fireplace to the list.

"It's not your fault, babe. Hello, by the way. It is completely wonderful to see you!" Sirius kissed me quickly, but pulled me towards the fireplace at the same time. "But let's get going, I don't want to miss my goddaughter being born."

"Goddaughter?" I asked, chuckling. As far as I knew, Lily and James didn't even know the gender of the baby.

"I just have a feeling that our little goddaughter, and Alice and Frank's baby boy are going to grow up and fall in love. Poor bloke, with a name like Neville though…family name I suppose," He fantasized as he got in to the fireplace. He winked at me before disappearing, and I just laughed at his excitement. Like he had the right to poke fun at any name, when his own is so ridiculous.

I followed after him, emerging in James and Lily's living room. Remus and Peter were sitting on the couch, firewhiskey in hand. James was standing in the center of the room, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Sirius was standing next to him with his hand on his shoulder; it looked like James was babbling senselessly.

"Addie!" James exclaimed upon seeing me, stopping mid-rant. "Thank Merlin you're here. Can you go check on her? Lily kicked all men out the minute your father arrived, and I am losing my fucking mind."

"James, sit down and have a fucking drink," I demanded, pushing his backwards until he fell into an armchair. "Sirius, keep the liquor flowing." Sirius saluted me with a cheesy smile on his face, and went to grab the bottle and a couple of glasses.

"Remus, Peter – do something productive and make sure James doesn't come upstairs until I come down to get him." I grabbed one of the drinks out of Sirius's hands, and drank it in one gulp. Sirius gave me an offended look, but when I shot him a venomous look, he shut up and handed the second drink to James before refilling his own glass. I took the refilled glass, and drank that one too. "Don't give me that look, I'm about to go see your best friend's wife push a baby out. If anyone deserves liquor, it's James and I."

Sirius shook his head side to side, debating my statement, before evidently agreeing. He kissed my cheek and slapped my arse as I made my way up the stairs. I heard Remus as I reached the top of the landing, "The way you're looking at her arse, mate, I'll be shocked if baby Black on the way soon." I paused for a second, my face flushing. I knew that I wanted a baby, one day; with my career finally kicking off, it wasn't feasible right now, but once I've made more of a name for myself I could risk taking a break to have a baby. In my mind, that was three or four years off, but Sirius and I hadn't explicitly talked about it yet.

"One day, Moony, I'd love to have a family with Addie. But for now, I think we'll just practice the baby making part," Sirius responded with a chuckle. I smiled at his admission, I hadn't really known which way he leaned on children; it was nice to know he also saw babies in our future. A sudden shriek of pain snapped me out of my thoughts, and I pushed thoughts of my future children out of my head in favor of the one being born right now.

I pushed open the door to Lily and James's bedroom. Dad was sitting at the foot of the bed, Lily's legs in stirrups. She was screaming in pain, and I hurried over to grab her hand. She took it in a vice like grip, and I cursed James for getting kicked out and leaving me in his position. "Thank you for being here after my WANKER OF A HUSBAND got too FUCKING ANNOYING to handle," she screamed, clearing hoping James could hear her. I heard some sort of commotion coming from downstairs, indicating that James had indeed heard her.

"Dad, have you given her pain potions?" I asked, fearing for my life at her harsh words, and strong grip that was threatening to injure my throwing hand.

"Already on it," Dad agreed, measuring out a potion that he had pulled from his bag. He handed it to me while he ran some diagnostics, and I practically poured it down Lily's throat. Immediately, the tension fell from Lily's shoulders and she relaxed against her pillows.

"That's loads better, thanks Healer Jones," Lily sighed. She released the hold on my hand. "Sorry, Addie. How much longer do you think?"

"Any minute now, you're fully dilated. Next contraction, we're going to get ready to push, okay?"

Dad was right; it was only minutes later that Lily was screaming again. A few minutes after that, she was holding her newborn baby boy, and I was rushing downstairs.

"It's a boy!" I called. James jumped out of his chair, hands in his hair.

"A boy?" He asked incredulously, as if he had never heard of such a thing.

"Are you sure it's a boy? I could have bet my left bollock it was a girl," Sirius joked, getting up from the couch and putting his arm around me. I took the glass that was in his hands and finished it. Once again, Sirius shot me look of disbelief.

"Yes, Sirius. And stop looking at me like that, seeing a baby being born is almost as traumatic as giving birth," I said shakily. It was an experience like no other, and to be honest, the whole thing had made me feel a little weak in the knees. Lily looked like she was in so much pain; it almost made me want to give up on the idea of kids all together.

"Ugh, Prongs?" Remus said lightly, patting James on the shoulder. "Maybe you should, you know…go meet your son?"

James flinched, like he had already forgotten he had a son. "Blimey, that's such a weird thing to hear. I have a son. Padfoot…I have a son. Harry James Potter, that's the name we agreed on," James looked at Sirius and I, tears in his eyes.

"I know, Prongs," Sirius said gently, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Go on up an meet him. We'll all be down here when you get back." James nodded slowly, and turned to head up the stairs. He ascended slowly, taking his time as though bracing himself. I slumped against Sirius, and he kissed my forehead. After a second, he pulled me down onto his lap in the chair that James had just vacated.

"Can you believe it?" Peter asked quietly.

"I know. Prongs actually tricked Lily in to procreating with him!" Sirius laughed. I nudged him with my elbow, but he just laughed again.

"There's a baby marauder now," Remus sighed. He was staring into his glass, a pensive look crossing his eyes.

"And we need to do everything we can to protect him," Sirius said fiercely. He stuck his glass out in the air in a toast. "Agreed?"

"Agreed," I affirmed. I clinked my glass – or James's abandoned glass – with his.

"Agreed," Remus said, his own glass joining ours.

"…Agreed," Peter said, after just a moment too long of hesitation. Nobody noticed however, as we all took a drink in honor of Harry James Potter.


October 31st, 1980

"Please, don't tell me any further details about your disgusting date," I begged, leaning down to tie my shoes. I was in the locker room; we had lost to the Falmouth Falcons, just barely, which meant we were out of the running for the International cup, and I was feeling pretty bummed out. We hadn't made it to the Quidditch World Cup either; we had done well, but had been beaten out at the last minute. Ellie seemed to be working through her own disappointment by telling me about the date she had planned for tonight. With my brother.

"We just lost our chance at the International Cup, at least let me fantasize about hot, sweaty sex with your gorgeous brother," Ellie retorted, pretending to swoon up against me. I pushed her away with one hand, halfheartedly. Ellie and Lewis had really hit it off the night we left them alone, and had been dating casually ever since. Honestly, I thought they were well matched. Lewis's biggest problem in past relationships had always been that his girlfriends were upset that he worked so much; Ellie was on the road three quarters of the time, so she didn't care how much he worked.

"Don't put that image in my head," I pleaded, taking my foot off the bench and putting it firmly on the floor.

"Fine, fine," Ellie conceded, putting her hands up in defeat. "What are you up to tonight?"

"It's my godson's first Halloween!" I was so excited to get to the Potter's and see Harry. "They're dressing him up, and we're going to have a nice dinner."

"So exciting! How are Lily and James doing?" I had told Ellie a little bit about how they were in hiding; I had used the excuse that because James was an Auror and Lily was a muggleborn, they were exceptionally worried about Voldemort. The less people knew, the better, but I talked about Harry so much that I had to tell her something.

"Getting a little stir crazy. Sirius told me in his last letter that he was over about five nights a week for dinner, to keep them company. Cooped up with a newborn has had both of their tempers flaring more often than is healthy for a married couple."

"Make sure to take pictures, and don't forget that you and Sirius are having dinner with Lewis and I next week. Now that the season is over, Sirius and I will have plenty of time to properly get to know each other."

"Yeah, yeah. You can harass my husband, and I'll get to think about the fact that you and my brother are shacking up together," I rolled my eyes and pulled open the door.

"You should see the lingerie I bought last week in Paris…" She raised her eyebrows at me a couple of times. "Lewis is going to lose his mind, especially when I do that thing he lik–"

"I'm going now!" I cut her off, spinning on my foot. James and Lily's charming cottage appeared in front of me. Smoke was pillowing out of the chimney, and I could smell Lily's signature treacle tart baking in the oven. I walked right in their front door, making a mental note to remind them that even though they were hidden under the Fidelius Charm, they should at least lock their door.

"Hello, love!" Sirius exclaimed upon seeing me walk in. His hair was longer than it had been when I saw him last month; it felt like it had been forever since I had seen him, so I folded him in to my arms and held tightly. I felt tears spring in to my eyes, and I realized that I had missed him much more than I had allowed myself to recognize. He wrapped his arms around me protectively, kissing the top of my head. "Shame about the match today. Sorry I couldn't make it, but with everything going on, I thought it was safer to keep a low profile. We all listened though!"

"Don't worry about it," I said honestly. His team at work had lost two members within the last month, and the missions they were being sent on were being intercepted by Death Eaters more and more often. "Most important is that you stay safe."

"Did I hear Addie come in?" Lily called from the kitchen. I walked over to the doorway and leaned against it. Lily had set the table for four, plus baby Harry; I guess Remus and Peter were busy today.

"Hello, Lil," I greeted, looking around for Harry. "Where is my godson?"

"I expect he's outside with James. Sirius was outside too until just a minute before you arrived – fetching more drinks," Lily said, turning from the oven to throw her arms around me.

"Correct!" Sirius had burst in to the kitchen. "And seeing my beautiful wife almost made me forget." He opened the fridge door and grabbed three butterbeers. He opened all three, passing one to me, before opening the door to the back garden and calling out, "James, bring Harry in. Addie is here!"

As soon as James walked through the door, I had my hands out reaching for Harry. James put him into my arms, and I cradled him against my chest. His hair had started to grow in, deep black to match James's. I kissed the top of his head, sniffing the scent of baby powder, lotion, and something uniquely Harry. Harry looked up at me, shifting in my arms so that he was looking straight at me; his green eyes were striking, so much like Lily's that it made me catch my breath. They really had made a baby that was such a perfect mix of the both of them – and I loved him immensely. From the very first moment James had placed him in my arms, I knew that there was nothing I wouldn't do for this child.

I coddled him for a few more minutes, while James and Sirius chatted over their new drinks. It was obvious that the two of them had started drinking early, as they were raucously attempting to get Lily to chug the glass of wine that was sitting next to her pot on the stove. Deciding that I wanted to drink as well, I put Harry down in his high chair and picked up my own bottle; the benefit of being godmother was definitely being able to give Harry back when I wanted to have fun.

"So, how have you two been – really?" I asked, leaning against the island and watching Lily scurry around. She handed me a basket of bread, and I placed it on the table behind me. Realizing that Lily was about ready to start serving dinner, James put his beer bottle down and pulled a bottle of wine out from the rack under the island. He opened it, passed it to Sirius, who then filled the glasses on the table. It was a testament to how well we knew each other that we were able to work in tandem like this without any words being exchanged. After the wine had been poured, Sirius leaned behind me, wrapping his arms around me. He looked expectantly at James, waiting for him to answer my question.

"Honestly?" James looked over his shoulder at Lily. Seeing that she had walked in to the living room to fetch candles for the table, he whispered, "It's been a bloody nightmare. Harry keeps us up all night, and Lily's temper has reached an all time high."

"Watch yourself," Lily announced heatedly, coming back in to the room. She swatted James with the dishtowel that she had draped over her shoulder. "Your temper would be high too, Addie, if you were stuck inside with a crying baby, and Harry."

James chuckled, and walked over to kiss his wife on the cheek. "Such a ray of sunshine, my Lily."

"It's weird that while Addie and I basically never see each other, you two can't get away from each other. Who would have thought things would go this way, given the way we were at school," Sirius chuckled, somewhat bitterly. He still had his arms around my waist, and I leaned back against him.

"Luckily, I'm done for the season now. You've got all of my attention for the next three months," I assured him, turning my head and kissing him. Sirius deepened the kiss, and I could feel him pressing up behind me; although we had company, it was clear he had missed me just as much as I had missed him. What I wouldn't give to drag him home with me right now, and to tear him out of the grey jumper he had thrown on that just so happened to perfectly match his eyes.

"Oi!" James called. "Not in front of the baby."

Sirius kissed me one last time, quickly; I could tell by Lily's glare that it was the right thing to do. Any further displays of affection would have earned us her ire. "It's time to eat, anyway. Everyone sit," Lily said through her icy glare. Her gaze softened, however, when she saw that James had already sat next to harry and was feeding him his dinner, making airplane noises with the spoon. Harry was giggling and flailing his little fists around. Half of the food was ending up on his shirt, but he looked like he was happy.

We spent the rest of the night chatting and drinking. Lily joined us once Harry was put down for sleep, and we had a wonderful night catching up. I could tell that James and Lily were excited to have someone new to talk to; Sirius was good company, but a new face must be nice. Once Lily had fallen asleep on the couch, Sirius and I decided it was time for us to take our leave. We walked in to our apartment, and I smiled at how neat and tidy he had kept it. Last year when I went away with the team, he had lived like a bachelor. This year, we had hit a much better groove in terms of making our long distance relationship work, and it was evident that he hadn't wanted me to come home to a completely different place than I had left. I leaned against Sirius, who wrapped his arm around me.

"Race you to the bedroom!" I called, running from under his arm. As I moved, I started shedding clothing. Sirius barked a laugh, and raced after me, slamming our bedroom door shut behind us. I laughed at the sight of him, glaring at me in an almost predatory way, and shrieked when he caught me around the middle and threw me onto our bed. It was wonderful to be home.