Disclaimer: The usual...

So to say I have some sudden inspiration for this is an understatement. I've written over 10,000 words for this fic in under two days and other than the fact my hands are throbbing a little, I'm really happy with it.

Read, Review, and Enjoy,

Stars.

P.S. The long passage in italics is a memory

These are the things, the things we lost

The are the things that we lost in the fire fire fire

Flames-they licked the walls

Tenderly they turned to dust all that I adore

~Things We Lost in the Fire, Bastille

A month had passed since Sirius had gone back to work with Dany and he was quickly falling back into the rhythm of the Auror life. At the same time, Sirius, Dany, and Harry were falling into their own rhythm as a family. In the morning, Harry would be left with Molly Weasley and her children. Dany and Sirius would apparate into work and spend their work days answering calls that Law Enforcement just couldn't handle and Sirius took great joy in yelling at Parker and Simmons for not respecting his wife and for not doing their work ("You're lucky that this isn't ten years ago! Your sorry asses wouldn't have even made it into the Department!") Dany noticed that she received more respect than she had in years, since the war ended, ever since Moody had put her and Sirius in the simulator and she had started working with her husband again. When Sirius and Dany would pick Harry up at night, he would tell them about his lessons with Mrs. Weasley, or Aunt Molly as she was quickly becoming. Dany would make dinner while Sirius helped Harry with any homework and then the boys would do the dishes. Once the dishes were done, it was time for a shower and then Dany would read with Harry in bed for a bit. Needless to say that by the time the adults got to bed, they were exhausted.

It was a Tuesday night when Dany decided to broach the subject of her brother. She hesitated for a second, awfully comfortable with where she was at the moment, in her bed, her head on her husband's chest, but nevertheless muttered,

"I'm going to write to my brother tomorrow." She felt the muscles in Sirius' arm that was around her momentarily clench.

"About what?"

"I think it's time for him to come home." Rhaegar was just about ready to lose his mind in the States, despite being a husband and father to two children. He missed his home and he desired to take up the mantle that their father had left behind, a mantle that Lucius Malfoy had made nearly impossible to access. Cornelius Fudge was Minister, but as everyone was well aware, he was inept at best and Dany had spent some time on weekends talking to the older members of the Wizengamot, friends of her father that remembered the days that the Masters family had presided over the Ministry. The general consensus was that Fudge was an idiot, but no one was willing to try to get him kicked out of office. Not that she could blame any of them; it was political suicide if it failed. However, many of them had agreed that they would be willing to back the family, should a competent heir come forward, for a place in the Minister's office and on the Wizengamot. At least half of the Wizengamot had agreed but she knew some would balk when the time came. Such was the way of politics.

"Why do you think that? Dan, we're just getting into a routine with Harry…" Dany propped herself up on an elbow to look her husband in the eye.

"I know but he's been chomping at the bit for years to come back home and I've been trying to keep him away from outing Fudge because if it failed I could forget trying to get you out of jail. But you're out and we have legal custody of Harry, I mean there's nothing that he can really do anymore…besides, there's not going to be some huge campaign to kick Fudge out of office. You need three quarters of the Wizengamot for that, and there's no way. But…more than half of them said that if a willing Masters came forward, they'd support him for a place in the Wizengamot and in the Minister's office." Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, that would maybe work if some long lost cousin stepped up, but Dan, your brother coming back, publically? That just isn't an heir to the name, that's like Lazarus rising combined with the return of the Prodigal Son. There's not going to be some quiet politics, the people are going to revolt. The average witch or wizard remembers your father and your grandfather fondly, and dislikes Fudge. He's done nothing to deserve it, and I think that's why people don't like him: he's done nothing. They want a new Minister and then the Golden Boy of your family returns from the dead? There will be unrest and you know it. Is that really what you want? I'm not trying to start a fight here, I just really want you to think about this."

Dany bit her lip and considered what he said. He was right. People didn't like Fudge, and it was precisely because he had done nothing. He had passively allowed the Wizarding World to operate on its own, and after the strong leadership and reassuring presence of Daniel Masters, and Ethan Masters before him, it seemed like a hollow and dull mimicry of leadership. The bowler hat didn't really help his image either. If she was being honest, her brother, father, and grandfather were striking and rather imposing and Fudge just didn't seem to be, well, a leader.

"I want my brother back. I'm tired of being the lone orphan with the dead brother, and I'm tired of lying. I want my life back, and I want my big brother. If that starts riots in the streets, then you can say 'I told you so' and hold it over my head for the rest of my natural life." Sirius sighed and looked at her. For the first time since he had been let out of Azkaban he saw the pride of the Masters' blood she held in her heart. It drove him mad sometimes but she had every reason to be proud of her family. The people loved them. Daniel Masters had been a beacon of light in the war and his death, along with the death of wife Rhea, and the supposed death of Rhaegar, had hit the entirety of the Wizarding World hard. The general public had held vigils all over the country for weeks and Dany had received continuous letters from people mourning her loss, giving her their support, and sending their thoughts for months after her parents' deaths.

Sirius always thought that the public's love of the Masters family was a sore spot and a fear for Fudge. The Masters were notorious for being damn near incorruptible and of course, once Fudge came into office, snakes like Malfoy slowly but surely became more and more important. The people would demand a reinstatement of the dynasty that they had loved for so long, if Rhaegar came back. And Dany would be at the center of the whirlwind, at her brother's side, which meant that Sirius and Harry would be too. He wondered how Rhaegar's wife felt about this, bringing her children into a political move like this. He supposed she knew who she was marrying and was aware that eventually he would try to reclaim his father's position in the Ministry.

"If this is what you want Dan, I'm with you. But know that this isn't going to go away. The people will demand Fudge be removed from office. Ask yourself if you want this in history books." She nodded after a moment,

"I have no choice. Rae is my brother, and it's what he wants. He's going to do it whether I want him to or not. I might as well be with him. A house divided isn't any good. Besides, I know Harry is eager to meet Mason and Lynn. They're the same age as Harry, after all, give or take a few months. And Shay, his wife, is so sweet. Besides, heaven knows we could use someone else around to do some cooking a couple nights a week." She put her head back on his chest, signaling the end of the serious part of the discussion. Sirius agreed with her on the cooking part. Dany looked like she was being run ragged by the domestic house chores that she wasn't used to having to do.

"Have you thought about a House Elf?" She hummed noncommittally.

"Not really. I mean if my mom could do it with Rae and me I think I can handle Harry. Granted my dad helped with the cooking but he was bloody miserable at it so I can't really say if that helped or hindered the process." Sirius chuckled and realized that even though he had been doing the dishes, she had been cooking actual dinners for three people at least, seven nights a week, not to mention breakfast for Harry.

"Dan, do you mind if I make dinner a couple nights a week? I'm getting pretty sick of washing all those dishes, I've got to be honest." He felt her smile into his chest and he smiled towards the ceiling.

"Sure, it's all yours. I'll take dish duty from you those nights, how about that?"

"It's a deal. Now can we go to sleep? We have work tomorrow." She groaned and said,

"Yeah, I'd rather not think about it right now. And Sirius? I know you hate making dinner, so thanks."

"For what? I'm just sick of those dishes."

"Mhm. Just take the thank you."

"You're welcome Dan, now go to sleep."

Sirius and Dany woke up to a shattering sound down stairs in the middle of the same night. They pulled their wands out and went downstairs only to hear a gasp from down the hall towards Dany's office. They exchanged a look and went in to see Harry standing in the middle of the room with a broken vial in his hands,

"I'm sorry—I just wanted to know what it was and it broke." Dany ran towards him, removed the vial but still looked horrified,

"We need to leave this room. Now. That was a vial of my memories, I have no idea what was in there. It's going to—" The room suddenly changed into her childhood bedroom, "—Project the memory. We can't leave until it's over."

"Dan, what is this?"

"This…this is the night my parents died."

Dany woke up sweating in the July heat and with an uneasy feeling that there were a few too many people in her house. She pushed her sheets off her legs and picked her wand up off her bedside table slowly. She crept to her door and slipped out into the hallway and tried to move down the stairs, hoping that it was just her brother having a midnight snack that woke her. She made it less than halfway down the stairs when she saw the back of a hooded figure in the corner of her vision. Dany swore silently; even as a fresh graduate of Hogwarts, she knew what a Death Eater looked like. She moved back up the stairs and hoped to whatever gods there may be that the floorboards didn't squeak.

She passed her own door, quite wishing that she could go back to bed, and walked farther down the hall and slipped into another room without bothering to knock. The room was a mirror of her own, except for the occupant of the bed was male. She quickly ran moved towards the bed and placed a hand over the mouth of her brother and whispered,

"Rae, Rae. Get up." One of Rhaegar Master's eyes opened and looked at his sister, "I'm going to move my hand but you have to whisper. Alright?" He nodded under her hand, sleepily. She removed her hand and he muttered,

"What the Hell could be so important at," he checked the time, "3 in the morning, Dan?"

"I woke up about five minutes ago to a bad feeling so I went downstairs and there are Death Eaters in the house." Her brother, at twenty, was stronger and more experienced than his sister. He sat up, fully awake now, and pulled his wand out from under his pillow.

"Did you see how many? Are there any upstairs yet?"

"I saw the back of one's hood about halfway downstairs and I came back up before they saw me. There has to be more than one. No one would be stupid enough to send only one Death Eater to try to kill the bloody Minister of Magic. There aren't any up here as far as I know, but I haven't really been exploring, if you know what I mean." He nodded and, all business now, said

"We need to wake Mom and Dad, come on." He hastily crammed some things into a bag and grabbed a knife off of his desk and handed it to his sister, "You're probably going to need this." She took it and the siblings silently moved down the hallways of their home, brother in front of sister. They were almost to their parents' room when Dany turned around only to be face-to-face with a Death Eater. She gasped but reacted nevertheless. She knocked the wand from his hand and before she could think too much about the fact that he probably had a family somewhere, she cut his throat. Rhaegar looked at his sister with more than mild shock.

"What? It's them or us, isn't it?"

"That it is, Little Sister, that it is." They continued uninterrupted to their parents room and before they could open the door, it opened from the inside to reveal their father already awake and looking rather angry that his house was being broken into by Death Eaters presently.

"Come in, both of you, quickly." The siblings rushed into their parents' room and saw their mother, Rhea, was pulling her hair back and picking up her wand. She turned to see her children and she smiled tightly.

"Thank goodness, you're both okay. How did you know that they were here?" Dany shrugged,

"I don't know, I just woke up and felt that something was just…off. So I woke up Rae." Their mother nodded at them both and put a knife in her boot.

"Good, good. I'm glad to see you're both here. How many are there? Do you know?" Rae half-smiled and said,

"One less than there was when they broke in. Dany just cut one down outside your door." Both of their parents looked at their daughter and for the first time noticed that the knife in her hand wasn't clean, it was stained crimson.

"Danilynn, you're too young to be killing people. But it appears that this is what our times have come to."

"Rhea, dear, can we save this for another time? We're a little short on time, I do believe," Daniel muttered to his wife. She threw a glare at him but there was no menace behind it. The Minister took his children and said, "Listen, both of you. It is imperative that you survive, do you understand? They aren't just here for me; they are here to extinguish our bloodline. You both must carry on. I want you both to leave. Leave now. Take the back exit. Danilynn, you can continue your life here, but Rhaegar, I fear your life in England is ending, at least until Voldemort is no longer a threat."

"Dad, I can't just leave, our people—"

"Yes, they need us, but they need us alive. Your sister will not have children bearing our name, the way it's shaking out her children will be Sirius'; they will be the heirs to the House of Black, which is undesirable to them. Undesirable, but permissible. There can be no more children with the Masters name. We are threat to them. We have been in power at the Ministry as long as the Ministry has been in existence. Someone must take up the mantle. As long as we live, there is hope for our people. Go, both of you." Dany hugged both of her parents and Rhaegar hugged them after and then nodded solemnly at his father, with an understanding that only father and son can share.

The family left together and almost immediately ran into six Death Eaters. Dany saw Rae grab one and break his neck and without thinking, she slipped under one of his arms and stabbed another, spun around and broke another's leg. Once he fell to the ground, she severed his spinal cord. She distantly saw her parents and brother take care of the rest of the Death Eaters and silence overtook the hallway again. Dany saw her mother looking at her like she didn't recognize her. Dany didn't know if she recognized herself. The four quietly moved down the hall towards the stairs and Daniel motioned for his children to go out the back door. Rhaegar shook his head violently, only for his father to nod forcefully back. Their mother kissed them both on the foreheads and smiled a little. The children watched as their parents walked towards the front of the house. Suddenly, a shattering noise broke the deathly silence in the house. Dany nodded at her brother and they headed for the back door as quickly as they could. There was a sudden shout of,

"I've got the parents! Someone find the brats! The Dark Lord doesn't care about the girl, kill the boy." Dany looked frantically at her brother,

"Go, Rae. Go far away. I'll take care of them and fake your death. Go somewhere, anywhere. I'll send word once Voldemort isn't in power."

"Dan—"

"Go." He hesitated before handing her another knife and said with a smile,

"It's your turn to impress me, Little Sister. See you soon." He kissed her on the forehead and he vanished from view. With that in mind, she did the exact opposite of her parents' wishes and moved deeper into her home and started to search out a relatively young Death Eater. It didn't take her long.

"Looking for me?" she sweetly said. The man turned around, he seemed to be no more than 25, and tried to stun her but she, for the first time in her life, muttered,

"Avada Kedavra." The man dropped over dead and she approached his body and said, "Incendio." The body caught on fire and she slowly watched it spread down the wood floors and start to lick the walls of her childhood home. She waited a moment longer to make sure that the body of the Death Eater was truly unrecognizable and then she started to make her way towards the door, occasionally lighting fire to something that could catch and spread to other parts of the house. She grabbed her cloak on the way out of the house and put it on as she left. It might be her family's colors of light blue and white, and the fact it was silk would be a dead giveaway that she wasn't an ordinary person, but at least her silver-white hair wasn't visible with the hood up.

She made it as far away from the house as she could without looking back. Once she did, the house was ablaze and the Dark Mark was high in the sky. No one would make it out alive; tonight had been a massacre. She kept walking until she knew she would be out of the range of the wards that should have been in place and just before she disapperated, she saw three Death Eaters had made it out alive. She froze. No one could make it out alive; everyone had to think that Rhaegar had died tonight. Before she could decide what to do, they decided for her. The man in the middle spoke, recognizing her, knowing there was only one place she could have come from,

"It's the littlest Masters! Little orphan Masters, all alone in the world. If it makes you feel any better, Mommy and Big Brother got quick deaths. Two quick deaths. Daddy, not so much. He suffered. I would know, I killed him, after all, he begged to his baby girl just one more time. It appears he'll be getting his wish, just not in this world." Dany slipped her hand back to her wand and slowly moved it out of her pocket. Then quickly, with two flashes of green light, the two men on both dropped to the ground, dead. The Death Eater, for the first time looked fearful of the woman in front of him. She pulled her hood off and put her wand away. "What in the bloody—" before he could finish his sentence she threw a knife directly into his stomach. She pulled her hood back up and on her way by him whispered,

"Two quick deaths," Into his ear. With a crack she vanished, leaving the man bleeding into the dirt.

Danilynn Masters knocked on the Potter's door moments later. Charlie and Dorea Potter opened the door and she looked them directly in the eye and said,

"My parents and brother are dead. The Minister of Magic is dead." Dorea placed a hand over her mouth and Charlie pulled her into the house and into a hug. Two voices rang down from the stairs,

"Dad? Who could possibly be visiting at 4 in the morning?"

"Seriously Charlie, we're trying to sleep up here." Footsteps followed the voices and it was James who came down first in boxers and a t-shirt. Sirius followed behind, dressed similarly.

She pulled back from Charlie's embrace, who dropped his arms and placed an arm around his wife instead, who was crying. She finally pulled off the hood of her cloak and she turned to look at her boyfriend and Lily's fiancé,

"Dany? Dan, what the Hell are you doing here? Why are you hugging my dad?" James said half-nervously half-frantically. She could feel the blood dripping from a cut on her cheek that she didn't remember getting and she knew there was blood all over her hands that wasn't hers. The blood of others had dyed the tips of her silver hair pink. She looked like she had been dragged through Hell and back, she was sure.

"My parents and Rhaegar are dead." James, who reacted similarly to his mom, leaned against a wall to support himself. Sirius hugged his girlfriend and she whispered into his chest, "They're gone, they're gone." She let out a single sob and he rested his chin on top of her head and rubbed her back,

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for your loss, love."

The memory ended and Harry, at nine-years-old, looked rather horrified but also like he had just seen the world's coolest action movie. Sirius just looked sickened at what had brought his now-wife, then-girlfriend, to the Potter's all those years ago.

"Write your brother. We need a leader. Your parents gave their lives to protect you both, and it's time he fulfill his end of the bargain." Dany nodded and found a piece of parchment.

Rae,

Now's a good of time as any. Fudge is a dingbat and I've just about had it. Get the wife and kids together and come home.

Dany

P.S. I miss you and I'm enjoying vacation very much

Before she could stop herself, she attached it to the leg of her owl and sent it flying off to her brother, off to wherever he decided to call home for the past decade.