Hey! I'm feeling motivated and I'm so proud of myself, you guys! I've had a few lovely people PM me and tell me to keep updating recently and I'm feeling so loved and I'm really glad to see you all like what I'm writing, so here you go!

Read and Review!

Love, Essie

If we go down then we go down together
They'll say you could do anything
They'll say that I was clever
If we go down then we go down together
We'll get away with everything
Let's show them we are better

~Paris, The Chainsmokers

Dany walked into the Auror Department and everyone stared; almost the entire Department knew that she was speaking on Fudge's dismissal today. Alastor walked out of his office.

"Well?" He asked and she grinned.

"We're currently Minister-less. If anyone has a suggestion on who to fill the position, please direct it to a member of the Wizengamot." She said to the room at large and everyone started clapping. Sirius and Harry looked out of Sirius' office. She smiled and waved. Sirius took Harry's hand and they walked over.

"Victory?" He asked her and she nodded as she hugged Harry.

"Yeah…Rae's already been nominated and seconded; they're asking around for any other nominations now." She told her husband quietly. He smiled and kissed her; it surprised her momentarily. They kept it pretty professional at work but apparently that was on hold for today.

"Good. I seriously can't believe my wife just got the Minister of Magic fired." He said softly and she laughed.

"Your wife can't believe it either." She said back. "I'm glad we don't have to flee the country." She mumbled and he kissed her temple quickly. It was reassuring to know that she and her husband and her Godson got to stay where they were.

"Albus?" Sirius said suddenly. Dany turned around and saw Dumbledore walking towards them. Sirius wrapped an arm around his wife.

"Sirius. Harry, I do believe that you've grown another inch since October." He said and Harry smiled from where he was next to his Godfather. "Now, Danilynn, I'd first and foremost would like to congratulate you on the stunning and powerful speech you made today." He said and Dany smiled. Sirius looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Alastor looked amused from what she could see of him behind Dumbledore. Parker and Simmons were behind the professor, watching.

"I was just trying to get the job done, Albus." She said and he smiled slightly.

"Well you did it quite effectively. I dare say that I don't think I've seen anyone so passionate and inspiring on that floor since Daniel. He'd be very proud of you, dear." He said kindly and Dany smiled.

"I try to honor his memory as best I can." She said and Albus laughed.

"I do believe that shouting at the Wizengamot about the meaning of leadership and justice honors him very well." He said with a small smile and Sirius looked amused.

"You were yelling?" He asked and she shrugged.

"She was absolutely expounding upon the meaning of leadership and free speech as a virtue of society. That was after she finished telling us all about the night her parents died and made half of the room cry, of course." Albus said.

"That's so hot." Sirius whispered into her hair, "Daniel's daughter indeed." He said louder and she grinned.

"She truly is…Now, I must ask you to tell your brother to come in as soon as he can to accept the nomination. I'm assuming that he will be accepting, correct?" Dany, Sirius, and even Harry laughed.

"I don't think Uncle Rae would say no." Harry said and the adults nodded.

"He better or I'll knock him over the head. Do you think there will be any more nominations?" Dany asked.

"I doubt it; the amount of support the people have shown for your brother thus far is incredible. I hesitate to say it, but it looks like an easy road from here on out." Albus said and Sirius laughed.

"Bite your tongue. Don't ever say that; you're cursing it." Her husband said and Albus laughed.

"I must admit that I'm superstitious in that respect as well…once you say you're in the clear, it always seems that things will never go your way again. I'll see you all soon, but I must go; Minerva is insisting that I interview professorial applications today. It sounds dreadful." Dumbledore said and shook hands with both Blacks and waved goodbye to Harry before leaving the department.

Parker and Simmons walked up. Sirius removed his hands from her, letting her stand on her own; they didn't need to have a conversation with them with her husband's arms around her.

"So were you scared, Black?" Parker asked and Dany nodded.

"A little…okay, I was terrified. But I didn't really have a choice and I figured that if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. Once I got talking though, it was fine; you stop being nervous when you start getting angry." She said.

"You don't seem like someone who would have a very commanding stage presence." Parker said and Sirius laughed at that.

"Just because I'm short doesn't mean that I can't yell…now as much as I like you both, don't you have some work to be doing?" She asked pointedly and they both shuffled off. Sirius grinned.

"Those two, I swear…" He said and Harry reappeared. "Hey Harry, why don't you show Dany what you have there?" He said, changing from work to Dad in about a second. Harry held a book out to her. She recognized it immediately.

"Grimm's fairytales…do you like it?" She asked Harry. They all walked back to Sirius' office, as that was where Harry had been camped out so far today. She sat down in an armchair and pulled her Godson into her lap even though he was getting a little big for her to be able to do this. He nodded.

"I really like it. I like how there are a bunch of different stories in one book. Some are kind of scary though." He admitted and Dany had to agree with that. She had read to Sirius from that very same book when he had been laid up with Quidditch injuries and she had to admit that some of them were kind of gory.

"You know that book used to be Padfoot's?" She asked Harry.

"Really?" He asked with wide eyes. Dany nodded.

"Yeah, his uncle used to read to him from it. Then one year, he sent it to me anonymously and then I read to Padfoot when he was sick." She said and Sirius looked up from where he was at his desk; he apparently had gotten very little done with Harry here and was trying to catch up.

"Now you read to me from it." Harry said and Dany nodded.

"And now we read to you…Sirius can you hold onto him for the rest of the day? I need to check on things in the office. I haven't even checked my inbox." She said and her husband nodded. Harry jumped off of her lap and she kissed his head before sitting him back down and wrapping him in a blanket. The mid November cold was starting to seep through the walls and the little boy was easily chilled. She gave him the book back and walked out of Sirius' office and towards her own.

"We saw you being maternal, Dan." Kingsley said as he fell into step with her.

"Oh really?" She said, not really thinking about it.

"Yeah, I was going by Sirius' office with Parker and Simmons and we all got a good look at you wrapping your boy up in a blanket and kissing him on the head. It was very sweet." He said with a grin and she shrugged.

"I'm a mom, Shacklebolt; it's in the job description. Sorry that fact bothers you." She said, not caring in the least.

"Oh I don't care; I have a little sister I absolutely—and unabashedly—spoil. And I think that those two are the best things to happen to you in a really long time and I'm glad to see that you've got a family. Parker and Simmons think it's weird to see you as anything but their drill sergeant. Like the dress isn't weird enough for them, you're also a mom." He laughed and she chuckled. "Alright, I'll let you go; I'm sure you have work to catch up on." He said and walked off as she entered her office. She sat down behind her desk and checked for any new papers that had appeared overnight. The rest of the day passed without much incident and they were able to leave pretty inconspicuously for home.

Dany tracked down Shay after dinner that night, needing to speak to the woman alone for once. "Hey Shay?" She said quietly and the other woman looked up with a smile, putting her book down.

"Hey. What's on your mind, Dan?" She asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to say thanks—about the conversation we had about kids." She said and Shay smiled.

"You talked to Sirius?" Dany nodded.

"Yeah, I did actually. We talked about it at length and it was a really good conversation to have—even though it was pretty awkward to bring up. I mean I think I almost gave him a heart attack when I asked him if he wanted kids. He thought I was already pregnant." Shay laughed at that. "But yeah, we talked about it and decided that we actually do want to have another." She grinned and hugged her sister-in-law. "So, thanks for the advice, really." Dany finished.

"Of course. It's good you got to talk about it. I'm really glad I could help." She said kindly. Dany smiled back. "Would it be horrible if I took this opportunity to ask for some advice in return?" Shay asked and Dany shook her head, sitting down next to her.

"Of course not. What is it?"

"Rhaegar's going to be Minister." It wasn't a question, but Dany still nodded.

"In all probability, yes."

"What is that going to make me?" Dany sighed, deciding how to phrase it.

"Well, I'll imagine Rhaegar will run the Ministry how our family always has and he'll keep you very close to him within the Ministry. My mother oversaw Law Enforcement, but if you'd rather keep an eye on the inner workings of the Ministry or something else, that's fine too. Rhaegar becoming Minister will—in all likelihood—make you the second most-powerful person in Wizarding England." Dany said gently. "You're going to have to get used to having a title. You'll become Lady Shay and the kids will become Miss Danilynn and Mister Mason—it as the same way for Rae and I as kids. Thankfully, I'm married so I'm not still considered Miss Danilynn." Dany added the last part a bit jokingly a Shay smiled weakly. "I know it's a lot. No matter what though, the most important thing is that we stay united as a family. That—by far—is the most important part of Rhaegar becoming Minister. It takes a toll on a family, but it's manageable."

"How often was your dad home?" She asked. These weren't easy questions.

"Well, my teenage years were spent in war and he and Mom would spend days at a time at work. I'd expect Rae to have some heavy work hours for the first year or so—he's going to have to create an entirely new administration and there's going to be major reorganization within the Ministry, all of which are time consuming tasks." Dany said and Shay looked highly resigned to her fate of never seeing her husband. "However, when I was younger—in peacetime—Dad was home every night for dinner. Long hours like that are only temporary and completely unneeded in peacetime." Her face lightened back up. "It's going to be hard at first—of course it is, it's politics and it's a position of power—but it will get easier the longer he's Minister and the more adjusted he becomes."

"Well, as long as it isn't forever, I think I can manage. Anything else?"

"Reserve the right to pull him off his high horse while he's at home. Mom did that all the time when we were kids: Dad would come home and just be used to people following directions and she'd tell him to pull his head out of his ass because 'I don't give a rat's ass who are you outside this house, Daniel. When you're here you're my husband and their father and you're going to set a good example for our children by weeding the flowerbeds and taking the trash out and so help me God if you don't'." Shay laughed. "Really, I'm not joking. Rae will probably need the reality check too—you won't have to deal with him all on your own like Mom did though." Dany said and Shay smiled.

"I'm glad about that. I can't imagine doing all of this without having an extended family to help. You and Sirius are making this so much easier on us—particularly me—and Harry is really helping Mason and Lynn adjust too. You three are such blessings, honestly." Shay said and Dany smiled.

"I'm glad we can help. It's what family's for, huh?" She smiled.

"Obviously. Now, how would you feel about a girls' day tomorrow?"

Sirius woke up the next morning to the best damn sight in the world: Dany not in Azkaban. They had both taken a day off in light of the upheaval their family was in and they were both sleeping far past sunrise as a result. Dany's eyelids fluttered and she snuggled closer to his bare chest, shivering a little. Sirius summoned a blanket from the cupboard in the bathroom and wrapped them in it. The frigid Scotland temperatures and the snow were making it colder than ever and his wife had always been sensitive to the cold—much more so than most people.

It was almost Christmas—a bit more than a month, Sirius realized. This would be his first actual Christmas since 1980—since before he was sent to Azkaban. Shit, he was going to have to go Christmas shopping. Harry would be easy: a real broomstick; he'd only been begging for one for over two months. Of course that would only really be fun for him if Mason—the other Quidditch extraordinaire—got one too. Dany wasn't as easy. This had always been a problem: what do you get a woman who has everything? Just as he thought it, Dany started to wake up, her eyes opening and blinking in the sunlight, squinting and trying to adjust to the light streaming into the room.

"Good morning, beautiful." Sirius said softly to her and she smiled a little at him, running her thumb down his jaw and reaching up to kiss him gently.

"Morning, love. Sleep well?" He nodded.

"Like a dream. Knowing that you're not going to Azkaban helped." He admitted and she smiled a little, sitting up in bed and running a hand through her hair a few times as the covers shifted down to her hips.

"Did you get this?" She asked Sirius, motioning to the blanket. "I don't remember it being here last night. You know, wearing a shirt would probably cut down on the cold." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Actually, it wasn't me that was shivering." He said pointedly and Dany shrugged. "And you know full well that I hate sleeping with a shirt on." She nodded, wrapping the same blanket around her shoulders and nestling back into the pillows next to Sirius. She smelled good.

"I know you do. I appreciate it, actually. I like hearing your heartbeat at night." She slowly admitted with a small smile, although this was far from news to Sirius. He had figured it out when they had been dating at Hogwarts and every time she'd get into bed with him she'd always position herself on his left side, always sleeping with an ear on his chest. "I spent a long time without it." Sirius had the sudden urge to hold his wife to him and let her listen to his heart for as long as she wanted and oddly—he also had an insanely strong desire to hear the heartbeat of a baby coming from her stomach.

"Hey Dan?" She raised an eyebrow. "Come here." He said, sitting up. He slowly took the blanket from her and pulled her into his lap, kissing her. She snogged him back in a way that could—strangely—be described as curious. She didn't know where this was coming from, although apparently was totally okay with it. He broke off the kiss for oxygen and she was looking at him like she wasn't quite sure what he was thinking. "I know we've been shagging a lot because we're trying for a baby, but I really want to do it right tonight, okay?" She looked taken aback and Sirius wondered how good of an idea this random line of conversation had been. "It's been a really long time since we've been able to just enjoy each other, you know?" He hastily added and Dany smiled a little.

"I'd really like that. It's hard with Harry—and now with Rae and Shay and their two, it's even harder. I'm looking forward to it. For now though, I have a girls' day with Shay." She said and got out of bed, walking out of their room in her (actually his) flannel pajama pants and (also his) grey long-sleeved shirt.

Sirius got up as well, putting on a shirt and heading down to the family room, where there were sounds of life. Shay, Dany, and Rhaegar were all there. Rae was reading the paper and the two women were talking.

Dany and Shay were whispering quietly, in a way that screamed that they didn't want to be overheard. Shay was looking too much like she was fifteen for Sirius' liking. He sat down next to Rhaegar and he smiled at his brother-in-law.

"Do you have any idea what they're talking about?" Rhaegar asked him, putting the paper down. Sirius shook his head.

"No clue…but your wife is giggling a little too much for it to be entirely wholesome." He said and they both watched the women talk. Dany's face started to turn pink and she ducked her face behind her hand.

"That doesn't look good either…oh no, I think we're being talked about." Rhaegar said quietly and Sirius looked at him.

"You've got to be joking."

"Unfortunately, I don't think so. I grew up with Dan and had to live with her when Lily would visit and they would talk about you lot. Trust me, they're talking about men." He said quietly and Sirius fought the urge to smack his head into the table. No doubt they were discussing what had just happened in their bedroom.

"Guys? Shay and I are going to take a girls' trip for today. Can you two watch the kids?" Dany asked. Rhaegar nodded.

"Yeah, we'll watch them. What are you two thinking about doing?" He asked and Shay shrugged.

"Lunch, shopping, girly things that you boys wouldn't be interested in at all. Some family bonding before the Ministry circus starts." Shay said in a slightly too-controlled way. Dany and Sirius lied professionally and so did Rhaegar. Shay wasn't quite up to the caliber of bullshitting that the other three in the room were—not yet, anyways. "Where are the kids, anyways?" She asked and Rhaegar gestured upstairs.

"They're playing upstairs in Harry's room, I don't know what they're doing exactly. Something about building a fort." He said with a shrug and both women got up and kissed their husbands on their way by.

"Well we're both going to get showered and then go." Dany said and they left.

"That is so dodgy." Sirius said and his brother-in-law nodded.

"I don't know what they're doing but I have a feeling we're going to find out eventually…so what are we going to entertain our children with?" He asked and Sirius thought about it.

"Not a clue."

"I'm half-tempted to follow them." Rhaegar said and Sirius shook his head.

"No way. Shay might not notice but Dan would figure out that they had a tail almost immediately. I don't want to be sent to St. Mungo's by my own wife because she thinks I'm a stalker." Sirius said and Rhaegar laughed.

"I forget that she's an Auror a lot of the time. I forget that she isn't the little girl who had all that raw power and no refinement." He said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I forget sometimes until I see her at work…speaking of Dan, what are you getting her for Christmas? I just realized that it's only a bit more than a month away." Rhaegar laughed.

"I don't know…what do you get for someone like her?"

"A woman who has everything, you mean?" Sirius finished and he nodded.

"Exactly."

The women came back at almost six that night, carrying bags upon bags of things Sirius could only imagine. He saw both of them toting garment bags, which implied dresses at the very least, which implied shoes by extension. Sirius also caught a glimpse of tissue paper and of the smirks on the women's faces.

"Just going to go put some of this away and then go handle some paperwork." Dany said. Rhaegar and Sirius could hear them giggling all the way upstairs.

"Was that really weird?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, that was really weird." He confirmed.

Sirius heard Dany close the door to her office and he immediately walked up to their room. He looked around for anything that evidenced the shopping trip. There was nothing on or under the bed. He glanced at the closet doors and hesitated. The closet had been Rhea Masters' when she had been alive and now it was filled with his own wife's clothes and not her mother's. If she were going to hide something, it would be in there because she knew that it terrified him. He hesitated before walking into the closet and looking around. He wandered around the closet that was only slightly smaller than their room and something caught his attention. One of the drawers wasn't completely closed. He glanced around and pulled the drawer open.

Sure enough, there was a shopping bag with tissue paper coming out of it that had been squeezed into the most mundane place she could apparently think of: a drawer full of socks. Tissue paper in the bag meant only one thing he could possibly think of. It was lingerie. He looked in the bag and was rather disappointed that it looked like pretty ordinary bras and underwear. There was even a compression bra for running. It seemed awfully mundane to bother hiding.

"Sirius Black, you nosy man." A voice said suddenly from the entrance to the closet. He turned around and saw Dany leaned up against the doorframe.

"Uh, sorry?" He said and she laughed.

"You didn't honestly think that if I wanted to hide something from you, I'd put it in here? This is the first place you'd look." She said and took the bag from his hands. "And by the way, these are just some I already owned. What was in the bag when I walked in the house is somewhere else." She said with a wink before waving her wand to put the contents of the bag back where they belong.

"You're tormenting me. I'm well aware of the fact that bag came from an underwear store and you're hiding it from me, aren't you?" She laughed.

"Who said I was hiding anything? Who said I didn't just do that to screw with you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No one, I suppose…but you wouldn't be playing this game if you weren't. I can't ever remember you hiding anything you've bought from me, panties or otherwise. So if you're hiding it, it's something I want to find." He said and she smirked before shrugging and walking out of the closet, leaving him with the bag.

"Good luck." She said, laughing and closing the bedroom door behind her.

That poor boy is never going to find that lingerie, Dany thought to herself as she left Sirius alone and standing in her closet. It had been a good day; she had gone shopping with Shay, buying evening gowns and heels and even starting Christmas shopping. Shay had decided that she would invest in lingerie herself as Dany was already looking for some and the women had had quite the time trying things on and laughing at them. It was the closest Dany had felt to having a sister since Lily and Marlene had died and Alice had gone insane.

Upon her sister-in-law's encouragement, she had bought something completely fun and out of the ordinary and then a couple more things that weren't nearly as, well, lingerie-ish. Shay had gotten a few things herself, claiming that she needed it because 'things are just getting a tad boring and maybe this will help'.

The family ate dinner an hour later and throughout the entire meal, Sirius kept eyeing Dany—probably wondering what she was hiding and where it was. Halfway through dinner Dany excused herself and walked upstairs to quickly put on some of the more subtle lingerie she had bought today—just a light pink strappy, lacy push-up bra and a matching excuse for panties—before putting her clothes back on, as this was possibly the last chance she had to put this on before tonight.

Shay looked up when she sat back down and raised an eyebrow knowingly. Dany looked back at her innocently and went back to eating her salad.

Soon, Dany and Sirius were tucking Harry into bed, kissing him goodnight and turning his lights out.

"Where did you go during dinner?" Sirius asked casually as they walked back to their room.

"What? I went to go pee." Dany fibbed. Technically she had peed too.

"You went all the way upstairs to use the loo? I heard you go up the steps. Shay told me to mind my own business because you were checking on something for her." Sirius said and Dany wanted to walk down one floor, into her brother and sister-in-law's bedroom, and kiss her. Bless that woman, honestly.

"It's a secret." She said with a wink and Sirius groaned. "Now where's all of this incredible sex I was promised?" Dany asked as she went to open their bedroom door. Before she could do that though, Sirius had managed to pick her up, holding her bridal style. "Ah, I do believe that I've found it." She said as he opened the door and quickly closed it behind them before their kid could come looking for them or something. The room was dark—and now very frigid because of the lack of fire or heat coming from the sun. "Did you make it freezing cold in here on purpose?" Dany asked as Sirius put her down in bed.

"I actually didn't, but it's all the more reason to share body heat." He chuckled, making Dany laugh and roll her eyes a little. "I'll light a fire, love." He added and kissed her nose before pulling out his wand and setting a roaring fire in the two fireplaces on opposite ends of their room.

One of the perks of having the master bedroom was having two fireplaces for the coldest winter nights. The fireplaces also apparently really made for great mood lighting because Dany suddenly found her husband about thirty times hotter than she had ten seconds ago in the hallway.

"Thanks. Sex isn't any fun if you're freezing your toes off, you know." Dany said and watched him pull his shirt off and toss it in the hamper just inside their bathroom. She decided it was time to answer her husband's question about where exactly she had gone during dinner, so Dany got up and stopped him on his way back to where he had left her in the middle of their bed, placing a hand on his chest to stop his walking.

"Yes?" He asked, looking partially amused.

"You know, when I left dinner tonight, I changed clothes." She said and he looked down at her body.

"You've been wearing this all day, love." She raised an eyebrow and comprehension hit. "Oh, well by all means let me help you out of those ridiculous clothes." He said quickly as she laughed as he pulled her jeans off her legs and unbuttoned her blouse, leaving her in the lingerie she had put on earlier tonight.

"I figured that if you wanted to do it right, I might as well contribute something." She whispered, watching him look her up and down. His eyes returned to her face after a couple moments and he kissed her, putting his hands on her waist and pulling her towards him. His hands were warm, unlike the air in the room.

"I'm glad you did. It never stops amazing me how beautiful you are, love. Do you remember when we were in school and we went back for our Sixth Year and we had gone like three months without sex?" Dany nodded, recalling that point in her life. "Do you remember what you asked me to do when we finally did have sex?"

Dany thought for a minute before shaking her head. She remembered something being vaguely embarrassing, but she had considered everything embarrassing in terms of sex until she was about nineteen and had a couple years of practice behind her. "You asked me to make love to you." As soon as he said it, the memory came to mind. She had asked him for that on the foot of his dorm bed.

"And you did. Care to do so again?" Dany whispered, staring at his eyes. Those damn eyes had screwed with her judgment for half her life—they had been the undoing of her relationship with her first boyfriend because damn, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't ever shake the way she loved those grey eyes of his.

"Why do you think I brought it up, beautiful?" Sirius murmured and picked her up, wrapping her legs around him, and carrying her to bed.

In case anyone ever needed to know, "making love" turned out to be over two hours of sex with almost excessive amounts of touching, kissing, and eye contact that left both of them sweating, gasping for air, and much more satisfied than either of them had been in a very long time.

"Want to know something?" Sirius asked Dany, who was quite happy under the covers, very naked and snuggled up to her husband, limbs tangled together.

"What?" She asked, looking up at him from where her head was on his chest.

"I didn't think you were real when I heard your voice in Azkaban." Sirius said and Dany shifted closer to him, turning her torso a bit so she could meet his eye.

"Really?"

"Really. I thought that I had finally gone mental—that Azkaban had finally gotten the better of me because there was no way that you of all people were actually there. It wasn't until I heard Dumbledore that I knew it was real."

"Why would you think it was more outlandish for me to be there than Dumbledore? I am an Auror." Dany pointed out, curious to understand the faulty logic that had gotten him to that conclusion.

"Because nothing so beautiful was allowed to exist there." He said without thinking. She smiled and rested her head back on his chest.

"I'm real, I promise." She whispered and heard him hum in agreement.

"I know you are and it's incredible. You didn't even seem real when I walked out of that cell in Azkaban. Everything there is so dirty and grey and bleak—myself included—but you weren't—and still aren't—any of those things. It seemed unnatural for you to be there." Sirius said and Dany felt her heart give an uncomfortable squeeze.

"I'm not going anywhere, Sirius. I'm right here and I'm going to stay here forever because I'm yours." She murmured. "Just like in our vows."

"Our vows…is it weird I still remember them?" He asked. She shook her head.

"No, I remember them too." She murmured softly. "We should probably try and sleep—we do have work tomorrow."

"I know…I can't say I'm looking forward to the attention." Sirius said and Dany hummed in agreement.

"Me neither, but it's happening whether we'd like it to or not." She said. "Now, I think it's time for sleep. Sweet dreams, love."

"Goodnight, Dan."

"You're up early, Rae." Dany said as her brother came downstairs the next morning. The kids were getting ready for lessons and Shay was talking to Dany and Sirius at the kitchen table as the two Aurors ate their breakfasts and drank coffee.

"I have business at the Ministry, little sister." He said and poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Oh yeah?" Dany asked.

"Yeah. You see, someone—Danilynn—forgot to tell me to go in and accept the nomination yesterday because she was off buying things with our family money." He said pointedly and Dany bit her lip.

"Sorry. I assumed that you would have known…" She trailed off. "Are you coming in with us?" She asked.

"Yeah, I might as well." He said and Dany and Sirius both stood.

"Well, we're leaving now so come on." Sirius said and headed towards the fireplace.

Rhaegar watched his sister Floo to the atrium and then Sirius and then he went himself. Dany and Sirius were both there, already waiting for him and pointedly ignoring the looks people were giving them—ranging from 'oh hey look at those people' to 'isn't that Daniel Masters' daughter and Sirius Black?' to 'they totally caused Fudge's impeachment'. Rhaegar stepped out of the fireplace and started to follow the other two to the lifts.

"I'm assuming that you remember how to get to the Chief Warlock's office?" Dany asked him and Rhaegar nodded. It was on Level Two with Law Enforcement—including the Aurors—and the courtrooms. "Well, let's go." She said and the three got onto an empty lift. Sirius hit 'Level Two' and waited for the lift to start moving.

Level Two came up and the three got off. Dany and Sirius walked a little bit in front of him, rather hoping to hide him for the most part, so this left Rhaegar with the opportunity to watch them talk without being caught.

For years Rhaegar had suspected that Sirius Black didn't love his sister as much as he claimed he did—or as much as James and Lily Potter (at that time, Lily Evans) had claimed. Now though, there was no denying it. He loved her in the same way their father had loved their mother: completely and unconditionally. The couple paused at a door and turned around.

"This is where we leave you, Rae." Dany said. "Enjoy the political posturing. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go catch some bad guys." She said with a laugh, walking through the door that her husband held open for her.

Rhaegar kept walking through the second floor and without the buffer of his sister and brother-in-law he was definitely getting more and more looks. He ignored it and kept walking until someone saw him, smiled, and—he could have sworn—called him Minister. He stopped dead for a moment, letting that process, and kept going. No way. The Minister of Magic was his father. Not him. Except it was him. Well, almost. Mercifully, arriving at Dumbledore's office derailed this train of thought. He knocked and the door swung open of its own accord.

"Ah, Rhaegar. A pleasure as always." Dumbledore said, motioning him in and waving his wand to close the door. "I see Danilynn forgot to tell you to come in and accept the nomination."

"Yeah, I think she was pretty overwhelmed and it just slipped her mind." He fibbed, sparing his sister from telling people that she had forgotten because she had plans to go shopping. "I have to know—what was David's speech like? He's an abysmal public speaker normally." Dumbledore looked genuinely surprised.

"Rhaegar, David Jones is in a medically induced coma and has been since the day before the trial. He didn't speak—your sister did." Albus said and Rhaegar felt his mouth drop open. "I'm assuming she didn't tell you this."

"That would be an understatement. No one told me. They both just came home and acted like it had been a normal day at work. She spoke on front of the Wizengamot for the first time in her life and I wasn't there?" Rhaegar was actually upset—he felt like he had missed an important milestone in his sister's life. That was a rite of passage in their family and he hadn't been there to see it because he hadn't wanted to look bad.

"She did and to be honest, it was probably best that you weren't there—she reduced half the room to tears and I fear you would have been among them."

"What did—?"

"Cornelius attempted to blame his impeachment on you and your family and argued that he's been more effective than your father was because Lord Voldemort fell during his stint in office and not your father's." Rhaegar opened his mouth, but Dumbledore silenced him. "Danilynn didn't take anyone slandering her father very well and quite candidly told the Wizengamot about the night your parents were murdered…and how your parents gave their lives for yours." He said gently.

"She told you all that?" He asked, more shocked than anything else.

"She did. Almost everyone was in tears by the end—myself included—and then she proceeded to make an argument for impeaching Cornelius. It was quite effective. Obviously. Your father would have been very proud of her. She's so much like him—which I'm sure you've noticed since your return." Rhaegar nodded.

"She is. It takes me off-guard sometimes."

"Now, I do believe it's time we get down to business. There have been no other nominations and the window closes a week after impeachment and it's been two days, I'm not expecting any so I wouldn't worry about competition for now. I'm afraid the paperwork is quite dismal however. Also, I feel obligated to tell you there's already talk of your inauguration in the Wizengamot and they're planning on it to be quite the affair." Rhaegar groaned. "It's a big deal to many people and that aspect of being Minister is out of your control. Now, for the paperwork…"