"Home, Flossy." He lowered her to the ground and cast a spell to seal the house, before standing in front of Flossy and shifting into his Animagus form.

Flossy saw the man become a wolf and she her arched back and bared her teeth, hissing at the wolf. The wolf lay down and whined. Flossy waited but the wolf never attacked, it lay on its stomach and whined at her. Eventually, her natural curiosity got the better of her and she edge towards the wolf. The scent of her human (her wolf?), filled her nose. The scent of calm, of quiet, of warmth, swirled around her and as she eased closer, the scent got stronger. The scent was coming from the wolf.

Flossy leant against the wolf's neck and began to wash its ears, her paw resting on the wolf's snout, the wolf snorted but made no move to get out from under her paw. Minutes passed and the pair settled down to snooze in the late afternoon sun.

"Okay." Paddy looked across the coffee table at the five teens. "One last check."

"Da…" Titania whined.

"Kitten." Paddy tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "One last check."

"Yes, Da." Titania whined, while the twins tried to smother their snickers.

"Trunks." Paddy said.

"Trunks." All five teens held up a hand holding a shrunken trunk.

"Satchels."

"Satchels." Five satchels were held up.

"Wands."

"Wands in holsters." Five sleeves were lifted and forearms bared.

"Hogsmeade slips."

"Hogsmeade slips." Five pieces of parchment were pulled from five pockets.

"Animagi forms."

"Animagi forms." Five hands held up five satchels.

"Animagi."

"Animagi." One by one, five teens became five animals. One cat, two kites, a honey dove and a Gryfflix.

"Uncle Paddy?" Luna asked.

"Yes, Mistress Goldfeather?"

"Why is Lee a non-magical creature and the rest of us magical ones?"

"Oh, that's to do with blood." Paddy replied. "To have a magical Animagus form you have to have two strains of magical blood. One from each parent. Muggleborns rarely managed the transformation, if they do, they usually find that they have a magical grandparent or great-grandparent, often a squib. Meaning they're not truly muggleborns but should be more accurately called squib-borns. Halfbloods are usually natural animals, natural meaning non-magical. To have a magical form, an Animagus has to have two magical parents, it doesn't matter if one is a muggleborn or not, as long as both are magical."

"Is there truth to the myth that purebloods are more likely to have magical Animagus forms, than a halfblood with two magical parents?" Fred asked.

"No." Paddy shook his head. "A halfblood with two magical parents has just as much chance of having a magical form as a pureblood that has only 'pure' blood for generations."

"Figured it might be that." George nodded.

"Alright. Ready to go?" Paddy asked.

"Ready." Five voices answered.

"Then let's go." Paddy pointed towards the floo-fireplace.

"Interesting…" Snape drawled as he entered the DADA Professor's office.

"What is?" Remus Lupin absently replied as he used his wand to direct his books to a bookcase beside the door.

"I would not have perceived you to have been a cat person." Snape tilted his head. "Perhaps it is Minerva's influence? Having her as your Head of House for seven years, must have made an impact."

"It did, but not in a positive way." Lupin replied.

"Oh?"

"I avoided cats like the plague, after leaving Hogwarts. I always assumed that they saw too much, that it was Minerva's Animagus form that allowed her to catch us at exactly the worst moment." He shrugged. "It wasn't until I got this young lady, that I worked out that it was just Minerva. Flossy is the most oblivious creature ever."

"Could that be because of her eyes?" Snape asked.

"Being so cross-eyed?"

"Yes."

"No, I don't think so." Lupin frowned. "She's excellent at climbing trees and getting into places she can't get out of, and quite accurate at catching moths and butterflies." He shrugged. "I think it's more that she just doesn't care, things don't interest her, so she just ignores them."

"Selective sight?" Snape said.

"Well, look where she is." Lupin jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

Flossy sat, with her paws flooded under her, on Lupin's broom as it rested on a pair of brackets above the door to his private quarters. Her tail swished gently in the open doorway, the broom rocking slightly in reaction.

"Ah…" Snape nodded. "I see." He paused. "Is she part kneazle, do you think?"

"Physically, I'd say not but…?" Lupin raised his brows. "She's certainly smart enough."

"Indeed?" Snape arched an eyebrow.

"Oh, yes." Lupin snorted. "If I hadn't been so stressed by Sirius' escape and cast the Animagus Reversal charm on her, I'd think she wasn't truly a cat."

"You cast the reversal charm on her?" Snape blinked in surprise.

"Oh, yes. After telling her that I wasn't bringing her to Hogwarts unless she wore her harness at all times, and her going to fetch the damned thing? I most certainly did."

"Ah, yes, I think I would be, too." Snape nodded.

"That and she always seems to know the most inconvenient times to get stuck in a blasted tree."

"No, I think that's just a cat trait." Snape disagreed.

"I certainly hope so." Lupin sighed.

"But your… familiar aside, I wanted to speak with you." Snape nodded towards Lupin private quarters.

"Sure, just give me a minute to clear my desk and we can go up." Lupin nodded.

Five minutes later, the pair sat in Lupin's tiny sitting room, tea and biscuits on a side table between them.

"You wanted to speak to me?" Lupin asked.

"Yes, I did." Snape gently put his cup down. "Two things. First? Have you heard from Black?"

"Actually, I have. I was going to let you know this evening." Lupin got to his feet and left the room briefly, returning with a small box. Sitting down, he opened the box, withdrew a wad of parchment and began to sort through them. "The letters from Harry and Sirius that we found in the shack." He laid them back in the box. "Now, these?" He held up two letters. "These came over the summer. Both were posted from Diagon Alley and both were sent during the busiest time of day and the Postmaster doesn't remember who brought them."

"Blast." Snape huffed.

"Yeah." Lupin sighed again. "And there's nothing in them, as far as I can work out that can identify who he is now."

"I see." Snape frowned. "May I?"

"Certainly." Lupin answered and handed the two letters to Snape.

Dear Moony.

Well, I did it. Sirius Black is gone. I have a new name but I'm not ready to hand that out yet. Sorry.

I emptied my vault and Harry emptied his before he

I emptied my vault and used that and what Harry gave to buy a place in the country. It's rather a sweet little place. An old stone cottage with a few outbuildings. I kept the hippogriff, it seems to like it here and has made no effort to leave, but I still refuse to hand feed anything larger the me.

I spend a lot of my time puttering in the garden, Lily was right, you know, getting your hands in good dirt is good for your soul. I no longer wake up screaming everything night. Maybe once a week. I still burn water, I had to get an elf to handle the kitchen or I'd never eat. Thankfully, he's a good cook. I don't think I've eaten better since we were at Hogwarts.

Hope all is well for you, being back at Hogwarts suits you, we always said you made an excellent teacher.

Oops, the elf wants me to go into the village and get some spices for a pie for dessert. I'd better move or he'll be after be with a rolling pin.

Your brother.

?

Dear Moony

All is fine here. Well, sort of. I had a little accident yesterday and my broom is in two pieces, the kitchen window needs repairing, three pots are crushed, the herb garden ended up spread out over half the patio and the elf walloped me with a wooden spoon. My butt still hurts.

Don't laugh.

I miss you. I miss our crazy romps in the forest. I miss going for late night raids on the kitchens. I miss sitting up later at night to talk with you and James. I even miss Snape. Not sure why but I do.

Okay, that was depressing. I woke up this morning and read what I'd written and

Yeah, depressing.

Not today. Today I'm going shopping for a new broom and some paint for one of the bedrooms and for the little room off the utility room, for the elf. The elf wants bright green and I want blue. Guess who won that argument?

Yeah, the elf.

At least he doesn't try and run the rest of the house.

All-in-all, pretty good today.

I'll drop this in the post when I go to the Alley, I have number of errands to run.

?

P.S. Where did you get the cat?

"The cat?"

"Yeah."

"He's been somewhere that he could see you." Snape mused.

"Obviously, but then, he's been to the Alley." Lupin said, suddenly leaning forward.

"A cottage in the country…" Snape pulled a notepad from his pocket and made note

"But close to a village." Lupin added and Snape wrote the comment down.

"He has an elf." Snape made another note.

"A strong-minded elf, if he went after Sirius with a wooden spoon." Lupin snorted.

The two men read the letter over and over, pulling out fact after fact from the sparse lines. Suddenly Lupin sat upright and swore.

"Bollocks." He grabbed the first letter box and spread it out in front of himself. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He tapped the letter with his wand and waited, scarcely daring to breathe.

"Lupin?"

"Wait, just wait." Lupin held up a hand. "Please, Siri, please." He begged and sure enough, the hastily inked letters faded away and another set bled into being.

Moony.

This sucks. I listened to everything Harry said and boy is there a lot of shit that's happened to our prongslet.

First year, McGonagall sent him in detention with Hagrid and the idiot took them into the forest after something that was killing unicorns. First year, for Merlin's sake. Then there was the debacle over the stone. The staff put a bloody Cerberus in the school and hid it behind a door that could be opened by a first year. Poor Harry watched a teacher burn to death and bloody Dumbledore did nothing beyond send him back to abusive muggles.

Second year, there was something petrifying students and the staff did nothing. Harry and one of his mates went after the culprit, which was a basilisk! A basilisk, Moony, in a bloody school and not one adult did anything about it, nor did they do anything to stop the entire school from turning on Harry for being a parselmouth. And the DADA Professor was Lockhart and we know how useless he was, always standing in front of a bloody mirror. Harry had to fight a bloody basilisk! He was 12 years old, Moony, 12! And he was fighting a basilisk while the staff twiddled their proverbial thumbs and did nothing.

And this last year? Dementors. Who in their right mind puts bloody dementors around a school full of children that can't protect themselves from the monsters? The Ministry and Dumbledore, that's who.

At least Harry had Snape. He told me about Snape saving his life and not just once but many times. A cursed broom. Working with Lockhart in a duelling club, he hated Lockhart more than he ever hated us and that's saying something. Coming after the kids the night we caught Peter. Stepping front of the kids in the forest, when you lost control of your Animagus wolf. I know that you would never hurt Harry, but he didn't and he still stood between the pair of you.

And Voldemort. Fuck, Voldemort is the biggest screwup yet.

Horcruxes, Gods above, Moony. The idiot made horcruxes. And Dumbledore and the Ministry left it to Harry to hunt them down and destroy them. He's 13 years old and the safety of our world was lumped on his shoulders. No kid should have to carry that.

And now he's going to drink a potion that will

By morning our sweet little prongslet will be d

We'll never see him again.

It hurts, Moony. It hurts my heart to know what he's been through, so I know that it will hurt yours, but I felt you needed to know.

At Harry's request, I'm using potions to change my identity, a conversion potion to change my name and appearance and an age recalibration potion to alter my age a little. Then Harry found me a platinum and diamond time turner and told me to use it, before lecturing me on 'awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time'. I though about going and getting him, but you can't change something you know to have already happened. At his demand, I'm to do the same as the rest of the wizarding world and forget about him. Well, not forget about him, but let the memories I have be enough. I'm not to go looking for him, I'm not to send him anything. I'm not to do anything that will bring me to the attention of the Ministry. He wants me to remember him as that happy chubby little boy. And I will. For him, I will.

I'll write when I can, after time catches back up, I should be a bit better in my own head, by then . I need to do things right, I owe Harry that and so much more. I will write to you, maybe not regularly but I will write. You won't be able to reply, not at first, I'm not taking the chance that the Aurors will hunt me down and throw me back in Azkaban.

I love you,

Your brother in heart and fur.

?

Lupin reached for the other two letters and tapped his wand against them. Seconds passed and each letter changed.

Dear Moony,

Hi! Long time no writing.

That didn't come out right. Oh, well, you know what I mean.

You know how we laughed at James over Harry turning him purple? And he moaned and said how he wished that when we had kids, they would be just like us?

I have a daughter. Yes, you can laugh.

No, I didn't marry and no, I didn't get a girl pregnant. I'm still gay.

I felt lost and very alone, after I used the time turner. I saw a muggleborn, muggle trained, mind-healer for a while, it really helped. It was she that raised the subject of children and we talked about all the ways people can have children. And boy, was I surprised!

Some of the muggleborn witches that go back to the muggle world, do this thing called surrogacy. They carry a child for another couple and aren't related in any way to that child. Even gay couples can have children using surrogates, they just have to get someone to donate either sperm or eggs, depending on whether they are male or female.

So, I have a daughter.

Oh man, she's a handful but the most beautiful thing I've ever done. I love her so much. And before you ask, yes, she's magical. The first thing I saw her do was summon a piece of jewellery across the room. And she loves her broom, she'd be on it all day every day, if I let her.

I'd like to think that I'm a good father, but I don't know. I do know that I'm nothing like my father and I spend a heck of a lot of time thinking, 'what would Fleamont do?' or 'what would James do?' before I jump in.

I'm learning to think before I leap. Who'd have thought it possible? Not me.

Anyway, she's off to Hogwarts soon. Too soon for my peace of mind, she's growing up so fast. She's going to be a stunning young woman, thank Merlin she doesn't take after me. If you stay at Hogwarts long enough, you'll get to teach her, you might not know who she is, but she'll know you and who knows? Maybe by then, I'll have been brave enough to actually approach you.

Maybe.

I'd better sign off, my kitten wants to go on a picnic and if I'm not careful, she'll take the hippogriff instead of me.

Your brother

?

Dear Moony.

How you doing?

Things are good here.

Summer is beautiful and my kitten has brought home a few friends, so I'm surrounded by kidlets. Picking up after them is a lesson on caution. Frogs and bird eggs and worms and even a few crickets. I hate creepy-crawlies. Ugh.

Kitten bought our elf a puffskein yesterday, don't ask me why, I haven't figured it out. The little guy wears it like a hat and talks to it almost constantly. At least he likes it.

We had a picnic for Harry's birthday, down by the pond, kids running in all directions. I think Harry would have approved. I think James and Lils would have, too.

I've been telling kitten about our time at Hogwarts and it's hard. I'm only now realising how much of a bastard I was to others, mostly Snape, but Reg and Crouch copped it, too. I'm not proud of it. Looking back, I was a right asshole.

I'd like to think that I've got better, but I don't know. Remembering what Harry had been through at the hands of those muggles and at Hogwarts, I really want to smack Dumbledore upside the head. Maybe with a bludger or two. But I remind myself that, that's not what Harry would want me to do.

My garden is looking good. Even my potion ingredients garden is growing well, too well it seems, I'm having to harvest on an almost daily basis, just to keep it under control. I'm thinking about drying the excess and selling it. I'll see what the local apothecary has to say about the quality of it.

Frank would be laughing his ass off, me making a living as a herbologist.

If I get around to telling you who I am now, I might ask for an introduction to Snape, see if he's interested in my not so little garden. Maybe. It scares me, the thought of telling you who I am, now. I don't know why, but it does. Sometimes, I write you letters, telling you. They get screwed up and burnt. I'm such a coward. But I did make my daughter a promise. Before she graduates from Hogwarts, you'll know who I am. If you haven't figured it out by spotting her.

I think it's more likely that one of her friends will spill the potion first, but hey, she's my daughter, for all I know, she could just walk right up to you and say 'hello, Uncle Moony'.

Whoops, something just went crash.

Gotta go.

Love

?

"I've a beater's bat he can use." Snape muttered under his breath.

"Wasn't there a cursed bludger sent after Harry?" Lupin asked.

"Yes, apparently it was sent by a house-elf." Snape's lips twitched.

"You wouldn't happen to know which elf?" Lupin asked, an innocent expression on his face.

"I'm beginning to understand your interest in pranks." Snape said and then froze. "I wonder…?"

"Yes…?"

"I wonder if we could send a request."

"To whom?"

"The Princesses of Pranks." Snape let a sly smile show

"Who?" Lupin asked.

"Let me tell you what I know about them." Snape smirked. "The Weasley twins were the resident pranksters, until the Princesses decided that they needed taking down a peg or two. And now they regularly target the boys. They've turned the boys' hair different colours, changed their…"