June 16th, 1994

We apparated to the end of Privet Drive in Little Whinging, the tidy little street silent as the Great Hall during the middle of an exam. It was early evening, and the sun had just started setting, providing a beautiful backdrop to the suburban neighborhood. Sirius and I were dressed in muggle clothing; I was wearing a yellow sundress and Sirius was wearing his signature leather jacket and a pair of light jeans. I looked much more cheerful than I felt, and I zeroed in on the house that I knew to be Petunia and Vernon's, although it looked identical to nearly every other house on the street. I took off at a brisk pace, focused only on the front door to number four, with Sirius trailing behind me.

We approached the driveway and I looked at the gardens with an air of disgust. On paper, it looked like the perfect suburban home – well kept lawn, meticulous gardens, spotless driveway– but I knew what lie inside the house did not match the dreamy exterior. I followed the garden path to the front door and knocked assertively on the brown door. It was nearly a minute later that the door was opened slowly.

Petunia Dursley stood there in a light pink dress with a matching sweater and matching shoes, a look of utter distaste on her face. "Can I help you?" She asked snottily, the door open just enough so that she could poke her head out and see who was standing on her front porch.

"Yes," I said brusquely. "You may not recognize us, but we met at Lily and James's wedding. We're Sirius and Addison Black, their maid of honor and best man…Harry's godparents. We would like to speak to you."

"I…don't…I don't know what you are talking about. That boy doesn't have godparents or he wouldn't have been left on our front porch," Petunia stuttered, clearly taken aback by our sudden appearance.

"I assure you he does," Sirius replied, stepping forward so that he was more fully visible under the porch lights.

Petunia gasped, her eyes widening in shock as she recognized him. "Sirius Black!" She shouted, pointing a shaking figure at him. "Vernon!"

"Yes, dear?" We heard a thundering voice come from the living room. After a moment, we heard loud footsteps, and the large form of Vernon Dursley joined his wife in the doorframe. "What the devil is going on here?" He exclaimed upon seeing Sirius standing on his front porch. "I recognize you! You're that escaped convict. Hurry, Petunia, phone the police!"

"Oh for merlin's sake," I cursed, pushing past both Petunia and Vernon so that I was standing in their foyer. "Sirius has been cleared of all charges- surely that information has disseminated to the muggle world by now…it happened ages ago."

Petunia was sharing at us in shock at our presumption, having stormed in to her home without being invited in. Vernon's large face had gone beet red and his large neck was jiggling with his poorly contained anger. "How dare you storm in to our home!" he roared. "You will leave this instant, and never return, or I will– "

"You will what? Phone the police?" I interrupted rudely, imitating his breathy indignant tone. "I was hoping we could sit and chat over a cup of tea, but judging by your ridiculous reaction to our appearance, that was wildly overestimating how polite we could expect you to be," I sighed, looking around at the neatly kept house. It was obvious from looking around that Vernon and Petunia were very proud of their pig-like son; pictures of him at varying degrees of maturation were strung upon every available surface. You would never know from looking around the house that another boy had grown up here, let alone that he was their nephew. "We're here to talk about Harry. You know, the boy that you were supposed to raise as your son?"

Petunia and Vernon looked at each other, their mouths gaping open almost comically. If I wasn't burning with rage, I would almost find their fear funny; as it was, their fear at the mere mention of Harry just confirmed my suspicions that they knew how wrong their behavior had been, and were fearful now that they were going to get their retribution for the years of neglect they had subjected him to.

"Sit." Sirius ordered, pointing to the couch in the formal living room, before taking a seat on the opposite couch. I sat down next to him, looking at the flabbergasted couple expectantly. "Either do it of your own free will, or I will make you," Sirius threatened, pulling his wand out of his pocket. I had held on to his wand all of these years, along with the rest of his personal items that he had had on him at the time of is arrest; he had nearly cried when I handed him his wand back, but he had actually lost it when I handed back his leather jacket. There had barely been a moment since that I had seen him without the jacket on – even though it was the dead of summer.

Petunia and Vernon were obviously scared by the appearance of the wand, and they walked over to the couch robotically as if they had been imperiused. Vernon fell to the couch with a thud, but Petunia lowered her skinny body down more gracefully, sitting on the edge of the couch primly. Sirius and I glared at them for while, watching them grow more and more uncomfortable with each passing second that neither of us spoke.

"It should come as no shock to you that Harry returns from Hogwarts tomorrow morning," I began. The muggle couple flinched at the mere mention of Hogwarts, and I rolled my eyes. "As you are aware, Dumbledore asked the two of you to take Harry in to ensure that the magical protection that Lily Potter gifted to him upon the moment of her death continued up until his seventeenth birthday. However, it was always Lily and James's wish that in the event of their death, Harry was to be raised by Sirius and I."

"Well, seems like that was a little difficult, seeing as how this one got himself chucked in to jail," Vernon scoffed, pointing offensively at Sirius. Petunia looked at Vernon fearfully, and then eyed the wand in Sirius's hand.

"Vernon," Petunia warned, her bony hand grasping Vernon's beefy wrist. Vernon scoffed again, but closed his mouth reluctantly.

"Anyway…" Sirius continued, rolling his eyes at the shaking couple. "We intend to respect Lily and James's wishes, and will be taking Harry to live with us from this point of time on."

"No," Petunia said, looking shocked at her own nerve.

"No?" Vernon repeated, looking at his wife incredulously. "This is exactly what we have always wanted, Petunia! To be rid of the boy."

"What about the protection? If you take him away, what will happen to the magic that was supposedly protecting him this entire time?" Petunia asked, ignoring her husband's disbelieving glare. "The entire point of us taking him in was to protect him. Was that all a lie?"

"Harry will come back here for one day a summer. It is our belief that this will be enough to renew the protection each year. He will do so each year until his seventeenth birthday, at which point the protection will be broken and we will arrange for an alternative method of defense," I explained, oddly touched at Petunia's apparent concern for her nephew's wellbeing.

"And the rest of the time he will live with you?" Petunia asked.

"Yes. With us and our daughter," Sirius nodded, answering Petunia's question with an odd look. It looked like Sirius couldn't quite put his finger on how he felt about Petunia's unease.

"Ugh," Vernon spat. "There's more of you? More of you freaks. That daughter of yours is probably just as much a nutter as the lot of you."

Sirius was up before I could stop him and in Vernon's face with his wand against his neck. Petunia squealed, "Vernon!" and tried desperately to pull him away from Sirius to no avail. There wasn't really much room for them to escape, which they quickly realized with a horrified gasp.

"Say whatever you want about me. I couldn't care less what a man the size and shape of a walrus has to say about me. But the moment you insult my daughter, you cross the line, understand Dursley?"

Vernon was shaking properly in fear now. I let Sirius stand there for a beat longer than I probably should have, before I quietly warned, "Sirius. That's not what we're here for." It took Sirius a moment longer, the look in his eye crazed, before he shook his head and turned back to me.

"As much as I would love to make you pay for the way you have treated Harry, we do need you alive so that you can anchor the protection for Harry. The moment he turns seventeen, we no longer need you, so I would keep that in mind from here on out. You will treat Harry with respect and, well I would say kindness but that would be very obviously overestimating your humanity, so let's settle on indifference rather than outright contempt," I threatened, my voice deceptively calm. I got up off of the couch, and linked my arm through Sirius.

"You will pick Harry up at the Hogwarts Express tomorrow morning, and will bring him back here. At 1PM on Saturday, Addison and I will return to retrieve him. If he tells us that you mistreated him at all, we will know. And trust me, you will not like what happens if he tells us anything at all that we don't like. Good day," Sirius said in a deadly voice. The two of us walked out of the house, leaving the Dursleys huddled on their couch, quivering in poorly concealed fear. I felt confident that they had gotten the message. And if they hadn't… they were going to wish that it was Sirius who determined what their punishment was, and not me.


July 31st, 1994

We had picked Harry up from the Dursley's without incident. He had been waiting for us at 12:59PM on the dot in the front foyer of the house that he had called his home for the last nearly fourteen years. When he opened the front door to see us, he had been wearing a face of extreme shock – as though he had been sure we wouldn't show up and was surprised that we actually had.

We'd taken him back to Oak Place, a small cottage near The Burrow that Sirius and I had purchased at the beginning of June; we had realized, somewhat belatedly, that our loft only had two bedrooms, and we would need more space if we were going to raise both a teenaged boy and a teenaged girl. It worked out for everyone; we had practically demanded that Remus move in to the loft, although he had argued relentlessly. We had convinced him that he was actually doing us a favor by keeping the loft in order; saving us from having to list it and deal with people showing up to try to get a glance at Sirius.

Oak place was surrounded by beautiful oak trees, thus the name, which provided privacy and a large garden that the kids could use to play Quidditch in. It was a light yellow color with forest green shutters and big barn doors. The inside was just as magical as The Burrow, somewhere that I had come to associate with warmth; in the corner were the set of knitting needles that Molly had gifted me a couple of Christmases ago, constantly attempting to recreate the iconic Weasley sweater (with little success). I had loved the cottage on first sight, and Sirius had wasted no time in purchasing the home for me with his newly unfrozen bank account.

The fireplace was crackling merrily, muffins were in the oven baking, and our two kids were upstairs fast asleep – it was a perfectly cozy morning in our new home. Sirius sat at the kitchen table, sipping on a cup of tea and reading the morning paper. He sighed in discontent before flipping the page that he was reading. "What's wrong, love?" I asked, ruffling his hair on my way around the table to check on the sausages.

"Looks like the World Cup is going to be Ireland vs. Bulgaria," he sighed again, taking the toast I was offering him. "I'd at least hoped Britain would've made it, I was rooting for that Oliver Wood – I remember when he was just a baby. Thanks, love," he said through a mouthful of toast.

"Isn't it wonderful that your biggest problem right now is what teams made it to the Quidditch World Cup? That, my love, is what we call character development!" I joked with a wink, nibbling on my own piece of toast.

"Yeah, Sirius! Life is pretty good right now, huh?" Harry called from halfway up the stairs. I hadn't even heard him get up, but I rushed over to the stairs to meet him at the bottom.

"Happy birthday!" I exclaimed, pulling Harry warmly in to my arms. I ushered him over to the table, pushing a plate full of food towards him in a move that strongly reminded me of Molly.

Sirius clapped Harry on the back, filling his own plate from the plate of sausages I put down. "Happy birthday, son."

"Thanks, Addie, Sirius," Harry said in an embarrassed tone. He dug in to his plate enthusiastically as I watched him fondly. Harry had been overjoyed to come home with us; his eyes had lit up when he saw the warm cottage, taking in all of the little magical touches that distinguished it from a muggle home. I'd even commissioned the inventor who created Molly's family clock to create one for me; I know I had seen Harry's eyes water when he saw the title of "family" across the top with four hands and faces – Sirius, Harry, Hollyn, and I. Right now all four hands pointed to "home".

I heard the floorboards creek above me and I knew that Hollyn was waking up. Typically, she wouldn't have woken up for another several hours, but I knew the smell of her favorite lemon poppy seed muffins would been enough to stir her. She came down the stairs minutes later, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Morning," she yawned, stretching in her Weasley sweater. "Lemon muffins?" She asked, sniffing deeply.

"Of course! Happy birthday, sweetheart," I replied, rushing around the table to pull her in to a hug. I set to making her a plate of food while the boys wished her a happy birthday. After placing her plate in front of her, I opened the oven door and checked on the muffins. Satisfied that they were ready, I pulled them out to cool.

"Ireland and Bulgaria?" Hollyn asked, pulling the paper that Sirius had abandoned closer to her and reading the headline.

"Yeah," Sirius pouted, still grumpy about the competing teams.

"What's that?" Harry asked, pulling the paper closer to him. "Quidditch World Cup?"

"Of course!" Sirius slapped his forehead. "You probably wouldn't know much about it." He spent the next twenty minutes explaining the league rules, with input from Hollyn occasionally. I busied myself with the cooking, getting started on a cake for the party this afternoon. I only tuned back in when I heard Hollyn mention me.

"My mom played professionally!" Hollyn bragged. She was looking at me with pride and I smiled back.

"Fourteen years," I said bashfully. "All with Puddlemere United."

"Wow, really? My old Quidditch captain just made their reserve team!" Harry said enthusiastically, glad that he could add something to the conversation.

"Oliver Wood?" Sirius asked. Harry nodded. "Addie was good friends with his dad, Wesley. They played together their entire careers."

"He just retired this season, actually," I told Sirius. "He wanted there to be an open position, so that his son would be considered for it."

"And what about Ellie?" Sirius asked.

"Aunt Ellie?" Hollyn jumped in, looking to me for confirmation. I nodded. "She retired with Mom last year, after she had little Louisa."

"Aunt Ellie?" Sirius repeated, as though it were the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "As in…married to Lewis?" I chuckled and nodded, running my hand through Sirius hair at his shocked expression. "And a baby? I have a niece?"

"And a nephew!" I added. "Maxwell – Max, just turned six, and Louisa is just over a year old. They should all be coming in just a bit. Speaking of, how about we do presents now, before the rest of the family gets here?"

Sirius nodded enthusiastically, bounding to his feet and rushing away excitedly. "I let Sirius be in charge of presents this year…I think he felt like he had some years to make up for," I explained to the two kids, who had turned to look at me, questioning Sirius's odd behavior. I turned my wedding rings around my finger as we waited; ever since I had put them back on, I had taken to playing with them as a reminder that they were there – as a reminder that Sirius was back and it hadn't all been a dream.

Sirius came bounding back in to the kitchen, a large package under his arm and a smaller package in his hands. He placed the small package in front of Hollyn and the large package in front of Harry. Both kids looked at them for a second, before Sirius gestured enthusiastically that they should open them. Harry went first, pulling the wrapping paper off of the package to find a large box. Harry opened the top to find a whole bunch of randomly assorted items; upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a box full of Lily and James's belongings. Harry pulled out a Quidditch Jersey with the last name "Potter" on it – I recognized it as James's from the year he was named captain; still attached to the right chest was his captain's badge. Underneath lay a bunch of photographs, knickknacks, and both Lily and James's wands.

"What is this?" Harry asked, pulling out a golden snitch. He was looking at it closely, reading the words written on the outside.

"Lily's engagement ring," I breathed, staring at the snitch and remembering the sunny afternoon that James had proposed to Lily near the Black Lake. Harry found the grove and popped the snitch open to reveal the opal engagement ring that sat inside. Harry held the snitch delicately, admiring the ring inside with a gentle expression on his face. Harry turned his head and wiped his eyes, trying to hide his watering eyes.

"I went back to Godric's Hollow last week and tried to gather some things that I knew held sentimental value," Sirius explained, laying an arm around Harry's shoulders. "I know that your parents would have really wanted you to have all of this."

I smiled fondly at the pair of men who sat before me, my heart swelling at the bonding moment happening. Harry wiped his eyes again, before muttering a grateful, yet simple, "Thanks."

As Harry had been exploring the contents of the box, Hollyn had unwrapped her own box and pulled out a necklace, similar to the one I wore around my own neck. I smiled at Sirius as he shifted his gaze to our daughter, looking as though he were worried for her reaction.

"It's beautiful," Hollyn whispered, rotating the crystal around in her fingers.
"It looks like yours, Mom."

"It works kind of like a pensieve," Sirius explained, getting up to help Hollyn clasp the necklace around her neck. "You can add whatever memories you want to it, so that you can carry the feelings of those memories with you always. I gave your mom one on her eighteenth birthday – the same day she got her recruitment letters from three professional Quidditch teams!"

"I have that day, my wedding day, the day I found out that I was pregnant, and the memory of Sirius asking my parents for their permission to marry me in mine," I added. "Just recently, I added the memory of realizing that Sirius is innocent, and the day that we all came home together as a family for the first time."

I could tell that Hollyn was overwhelmed by the sentimental value of the necklace. She was breathing heavily, trying to stop the tears from falling. "Can you…" She addressed Sirius, looking nervous. "Can you help me add this moment? I want to remember the feeling of getting my first ever present from my Dad forever."

It was an emotional moment for all of us, and we basked in it for a while as we pulled ourselves together. None looked more affected than Sirius, and I realized that Hollyn had used the word "Dad" in relation to him – she hadn't quite called him Dad yet, but it was as close as she had gotten. While Harry had slid right in to having a family, and had warmed up to both Sirius and I quickly, Hollyn – who had been loved her entire life by a large family – was having a harder time letting Sirius fit in to her life.

After breakfast, Harry and Hollyn went outside to fly and throw around a quaffle. After about an hour, I heard their shouts of greeting and peeked out the kitchen window to see the entire Weasley brood making their way through the oaky path towards our house. The kids immediately joined Hollyn and Harry in the air, and Arthur was met outside by Sirius, who had promised to show him his motorcycle the next time he was over. Sirius had moved the bike into the barn out back when we moved, and Arthur had been overjoyed to learn all about it when we went over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Everyone had adjusted to Sirius being back well, although Molly had been skeptical at first –it had taken until Sirius had drunkenly recounted some of his experiences in Azkaban for her gaze to soften. As we were leaving, I heard her mutter to Arthur, "That poor man. Merlin bless his soul, the things he's been through." She had been considerably nicer to him since then, sometimes staring at him with obvious pity in her eyes; Sirius always complained after she left, wishing she would stop looking at him like that, but it was better than the quiet hostility they had started with.

I was just batting Molly away from the kitchen with threats of violence, when I saw that the rest of the family was making their way inside. Dad came first, followed by Lewis, Ellie and their kids. I was surprised to see Aunt Thea, Uncle Leo, Lydia, Ralph and their spouses following behind them. I assumed Lydia and Ralph's kids, Vincent and Cerise respectively, had joined the brood outside. I hadn't seen any of them in a while, so I made my way over to say my hellos.

I shouldn't have bothered, as Aunt Thea and Uncle Leo ignored me completely in favor of Sirius – Aunt Thea threw her arms around him, as Uncle Leo shook his hand and slapped him on the back. They were all expressing their disbelief at the things he had been through, and I smiled appreciatively at how accepting they were being.

"I always knew someone as sexy as you couldn't be a murderer," Lydia said with a wink, ignoring her husband Dominic's playful roll of the eyes. They were a good match – Dominic had helped calm her down, but still had a good sense of humor.

"Always good to see you, Lydia," Sirius laughed good-naturedly, pulling away from Aunt Thea to pull her in to a hug.

"Di, Ralph, great to see you. Thanks for coming," I said, hugging Ralph and his beautiful French wife Adalene. A couple of years ago, Ralph had become a huge success in the art collector world, selling a large, expensive painting to one of the most prominent French wizarding families. While he was over there making the deal, he met their daughter Adalene, and they had promptly fallen in love. Their daughter Cerise, was due to start at Beauxbatons this coming term, and Ralph and Adalene usually spent most of their time in the French countryside – I hadn't seen them since Hollyn's 7th birthday.

My greetings were interrupted, however, when baby Louisa started crying. I immediately went to Ellie's side, noticing that my Dad and Lewis were deep in conversation with Sirius, and took Louisa from her. I was bouncing the baby on my hip, cooing at her gently and trying to get her to quiet down. As Louisa calmed down, I turned my attention to Lewis, Dad and Sirius. Lewis and Dad were still talking to Sirius, but Sirius's gaze was intensely focused on Louisa and I, not hearing a word that they were saying and me.

"Sirius?" Lewis prompted, when he had repeated himself twice to no response. "You alright, mate?"

Sirius shook his head, his glazed eyes coming back into focus. "Sorry, Lew." He apologized sheepishly. "Just haven't seen a baby since Harry was one."

"Do you want to hold her?" Ellie asked kindly, chuckling at Sirius's enthusiastic nod. I passed Louisa over to Sirius, my heart melting at seeing Sirius hold a baby so tenderly. After a second, I noticed that there was also a pang in my chest – a pang that Sirius had never been able to hold his own baby. I was horrified to realize that my eyes were burning, and I turned my head quickly back to the cake I had been decorating so that no one would see me getting emotional.

"You okay, Addie?" Molly asked with concern, rubbing her hand against my back. She was speaking quietly, and I knew that no one else had noticed that I was upset – I suppose it was only natural that as a mother of seven, Molly was most in tune with other's emotions.

I nodded shakily. "Just…seeing Sirius with a baby…" I trailed off, but I could tell by the sympathetic look in her eye that she knew exactly what I meant. Molly ran her hand over the top of my head affectionately, and I leaned in to it. It felt good having Molly around, almost as if she had taken over somewhat of a motherly role to me as well, even though she was just ten years older than me.

We sat the entire group down for dinner out in the back gardens. With all of us included, there were twenty six – Remus and Hagrid had joined the family for dinner, and all we were missing were Bill and Charlie, who were both too busy with work to get away – so Sirius had magically extended a table to fit us all. It was a loud and raucous affair, all of us shouting over each other and Fred and George igniting fireworks as the cake came out, which caused Louisa and Maxwell to cry. Ellie assured Molly that she didn't mind, but Molly spent ten minutes reprimanding the twins for upsetting the younger children. Hollyn and Ginny disappeared at some point, only to come back downstairs with party hats for everyone – Hagrid's elastic band snapped immediately upon attempting to put it on his head, smacking Percy in the face, which caused the entire group of children to start laughing. Arthur, his face beet red from all of the wine he had indulged in, persuaded Sirius to take the motorcycle out for a ride, which led to all of the kids begging Sirius for a spin – at which point Molly put her foot down and demanded the Weasley clan pack it up.

I looked over at Harry while all of this chaos ensued, and he looked up at me and said, his eyes shining with emotion, "This is the best birthday I have ever had." I pulled him towards me affectionately, looking out at the crazy brood that we called a family, and agreed. It might have been the best day I had ever had, too.