A/N: I'm dedicating this chapter to one of my first readers and a good friend, Joana, who fought so bravely until the end and will be very missed.
11 August 1996
Bringing Mia back to their old flat had probably been the best idea he'd had in months, Sirius concluded as he woke up with soft, warm lips brushing the bare flesh of his chest. He knew it probably had more to do with the massive amount of pregnancy hormones running through her veins than with his romantic gesture but, Merlin, had she gotten even more affectionate than usual…
Her lips slowly made their way up until they touched his own for a long, passionate kiss. His hands reached up to touch her back, which he found covered only with the thin fabric of her satin nightgown. As she deepened the kiss, he thought for a moment they'd just keep on kissing until one of them passed out due to lack of oxygen. However, maybe for their lives' sakes, she pulled away a few seconds later, breathing heavily.
He opened his eyes to see his wife's brown orbs looking down at him, a blaze of loving lust in them. In that exact moment, as he thought of how deeply he could lose himself in those eyes, he wished, really wished, that baby she was carrying would get its mother's eyes, as both Izzy and Alex had gotten his already.
His hand reached up for her face as her body locked his under hers, though several inches above him in order to keep her bump from being squeezed. "Well, isn't this a wonderful way for me to wake up?" he asked with a grin.
"I thought it would be." She smiled back and, in a matter of seconds, that rather fiery look he'd seen in her eyes softened into Mia's usually warm expression. She shifted her body so she was cuddled against him, clinging to his side the way she had so many times before, back when they lived in that house.
One of his arms circled her and his hand rubbed her back soothingly. He wished he could stay like this forever. "We should get up at some point, shouldn't we?" Sirius asked. "We're supposed to go back home today."
"Hum, hum," she replied, nodding before she mumbled against his shoulder. "It was wonderful us being here alone but I sort of miss being with the kids already."
"Yeah, I miss them too," Sirius replied. "And speaking of kids, we've got that thing at the Burrow. Ginny's birthday. We're supposed to be there by lunch-time."
"Yeah, and if we arrive a minute late, Lulu will start joking that we couldn't keep out of each other's pants until the last minute," Mia said dryly.
Sirius chuckled. "Well, that's actually sort of my plan. Just let me get some breakfast and I'll be up for another round. I wonder if we still could manage in the shower…"
She slapped his shoulder as she sat up. "You randy git. Can't think of anything else, can you?"
"You're one to talk, woman. Last night, you woke me up at three in the morning and quite literally jumped me!"
"Oh, that was just the hormones," she said, looking away a bit embarrassed. She really hadn't been able to help it. "They make me feel… turned on sometimes."
Sirius faked an appalled look. "Using your beloved husband just scratch an itch," he shook his head in a mock-disapproving fashion. "Shame on you. Now I feel objectified. My own wife…"
"Oh, just shut up," Mia told him, rolling her eyes as he laughed. "I know you liked it just as much as I did, so, when you're done with the laughter, we might want to head to the kitchen and have some breakfast, as your unborn child is hungry."
"Well, if that's the case…" He motioned to get up and circled the bed, giving her his hand to help her up too. As soon as she was standing, he pulled her body to his and gave her a small kiss on the lips before they left the room and made their way to the kitchen.
When they got there, however, it was to their surprise that they found a brown owl tapping on the window monotonously with its beak.
"Oh, come on, we were supposed to have a few more hours alone," Sirius complained, pouting like a kid. Why couldn't people just leave them alone for a little longer?
Mia made her way to the window and opened it, taking the message from the bird that remained where it was, likely waiting for an answer. She closed the window back and made her way to sit by the table, her eyes not leaving the handwriting on the envelope that she immediately identified as Dumbledore's. At first, she wondered how the headmaster knew where they were but then she recalled that at Hogwarts they always knew exactly where people were. She looked nervous at the envelope, wondering if it brought bad news.
"From Dumbledore?" Sirius asked, peaking over her shoulder, receiving a nod as a reply. "Well, open it, then."
"I was just going to," she replied, turning the envelope around and breaking its seal before removing the letter, which didn't seem long judging by the first glance.
Dear Sirius and Amelia,
First of all, let me assure you that I'm not writing to give you any bad news or summoning you to give them to you face to face.
It was like he was reading their minds, Mia thought. Or maybe he just knew the fear of a war well enough to know that a simple letter could cause one's blood pressure to hit record levels. She drew a small smile with her lips and resumed reading.
If it was convenient to you, I was hoping you could spare me an little time, today if possible, and come to my office so we could discuss a few matters concerning some arrangements for the new school-year at Hogwarts and Harry's extra-curricular activities.I shall explain this more fully when I see you.
Kindly send your answer by return of this owl. Hoping to see you today,
I am, yours most sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
"What do you reckon he means by 'extra-curricular activities'?" Sirius inquired, raising an eyebrow. "The only one I can think of is Quidditch."
"I guess we'll just have to meet him to find out," Mia said. "We could drop by before we head to the Burrow, Molly probably won't be serving lunch until one in the afternoon at least. If we leave by noon…"
Sirius moaned. "Looks the vacation is really over."
Mia shook her head. "Not yet. It's still ten and we have yet two hours to use, Mr. Black. I hope you don't intend to waste them, of course…"
A little smile covered his face as he sat by her side. "Well, if you say so… We could do this more often, you know? We can use this place to hide when we just need a break from the world."
She smiled. "Yeah, I'd like that." She leaned her head against his shoulder. "This is our little home away from home… well, not that far away but you get my point."
He placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Yeah, this is our special place." He let out a huff. "Now, why don't you go ahead and write back to Dumbledore while I make us some breakfast?" Sirius gave her a suggestive look. "Maybe if we hurry we'll have time for that last round I promised you."
"Oh, I'm sure you'll make time if we don't," she pointed out.
"What can I say? I take these matters very seriously."
As it turned out, they ended up arriving at Hogwarts a few minutes late, which highly annoyed Mia as she hated being late for anything. Thankfully, according to Hagrid, Dumbledore had also been held up due to a little trouble with the centaurs in the forest so, by the time they got to the headmaster's office, he still wasn't there.
They sat on the chairs by the desk and were happy to see that the office still looked the same as it had before Umbridge had 'taken over' the position of headmistress. No doubt, the fact that the office had closed itself to her had helped or else Sirius imagined it would have become the same pool of pink, ribbons and lace that her office had been.
All around them, the portraits of the former headmasters lived their 'painted lives', chatting among themselves, having monologues – one of those consisting of some dark-looking bloke reciting in verse the most gruesome Hogwarts rules that, Sirius and Mia hoped, had been overruled centuries before – or napping in their frames. One of those portraits, Phineas Nigellus Black, stared at Sirius fixedly with his eyes narrowing. Sirius, noticing the staring, narrowed his eyes back at him. "What now?"
"Well, if it isn't my worthless, ungrateful great-great-grandson," the portrait spat. "Had to ship my portrait straight to the attic as soon as you took over my family's house, hadn't you?"
Sirius chuckled. "Hum, you waited all this time to be alone with us so you could bug me about it, did you? Merlin, being a portrait must be a damn boring way to live." He'd almost forgotten how much he loved annoying the old berk when he was a kid – as it was practically the only interesting thing to do when he was home during the school breaks – even if his dear mother would get really mental about him disrespecting his ancestors, which he always replied to with a 'Who cares? The guy's dead'.
"Actually, I was the one who had Kreacher shipping your portrait to the attic," Mia pointed out casually.
"But don't hold it against her – your presence, even if in a portrait, was always creepy for children," Sirius stated, grinning before turning to his wife. "Wonder how this bloke made the most hated headmaster Hogwarts ever had."
"Until Umbridge, of course," Mia added. "I don't think even him would be able to beat her there."
It was amusing how, even being a portrait, Phineas's face flushed red with rage. "Oh, just wait until I…"
"… get your hands on us?" Sirius finished for him. "I'd like to see that happen."
"I have never seen such blunt disresp…"
"I apologize for the lateness," Dumbledore interrupted him, stepping into the room in a rush. "The centaurs seemed to believe they spotted suspicious presences on the boundaries of the forest last night. I had to go check for myself."
"Did you find anything?" Sirius inquired, worried, receiving a head shake in return.
"If there was indeed someone there, they were careful not to leave leads behind. I've reached an agreement with the centaurs, though, and they'll allow me to stretch the school wards so they cover all their territory. That, I believe, will narrow the chances of any undesirable individual managing to infiltrate Hogwarts through the forbidden forest," the headmaster explained, taking a seat on the grand chair behind the desk, resting his hands on its surface.
"Albus, your hand!" Mia said, staring at the corpse like aspect that the headmaster's hand seemed to be presenting. The product of a curse? She'd never seen anything like that. "Holy Merlin, what happened? It doesn't look good."
Dumbledore sighed. "A simple moment of recklessness. I'm afraid the damage is permanent, though not painful at the moment." He gave her the shadow of a smile. "There's no need for you to worry about it, Amelia. It's under control."
He cleared his throat, clearly hinting that he didn't want to keep discussing the subject – the only thing Mia could do was accepting it.
"Well," he started, "though this wasn't really the reason why I asked you to come, I'll use the occasion to tell you that I had a meeting with Minister Bones concerning this new school year. She seems to be worried about the effects that Cornelius's refusal to allow us to teach the students defence last year will have on their ability to protect themselves."
"She's not the only one," Sirius assured him. "If it wasn't for the DA, Fudge and Umbridge might as well just have handed those kids to the Death Eaters on a silver platter."
"Actually," the headmaster started, "Madam Bones expressed a lot of interest in the DA as her niece, Susan, told her quite a bit about it. She seems to believe it may be a good way to make up for the lack of practical DADA last year."
Mia raised an eyebrow. "Wait. Do you mean she wants to bring the DA back?"
"In a way, yes," Dumbledore confirmed. "Madam Bones suggested we adapted it to a more permanent status as a defence club open to students of all houses. She thinks that would be a good way to incite the students to know how to protect themselves. I'm still not certain of how it will work but I'm inclined to follow with it."
"Well, for the record, I think it is a really good idea," Mia pointed out.
"A good idea? It's bloody brilliant!" Sirius said, grinning widely. "The kids will love it."
"Yes, Minerva thinks so too. I will work with her to settle things for the formation of this club."
"But was this what you meant by the 'extra-curricular activities' you referred in your letter, Albus?" Mia inquired.
"Oh, not quite, actually," the older man told them, his face taking a more serious expression. "I'd better get to the point, then. I'd promised young Harry when we told him about the prophecy that I'd help him get ready to face lord Voldemort, in case you don't recall it."
Both Sirius and Mia nodded silently.
"Well, I believe I should start doing so as soon as the school term starts – we are not in a position to waste time. I thought of doing so in the form of, let's say… private lessons. Not too often so it won't interfere with his school schedule or even the time with his friends. There are some pieces of knowledge that I think Harry should be familiar with. Dark pieces, I'm afraid, that I can't tell you of at the moment with absolute certainty – I'll need Harry's help to verify my suspicions. I wouldn't feel comfortable to take such measures with him without your permission, of course."
Mia was the first to speak. "Honestly, at this point, we think that the more he knows, the more weapons he'll have to fight with. All you can offer him will be welcome at least from my part."
Sirius nodded in agreement. "Like Mia said, we'll pretty much go ahead with all the help we can get."
"I was hoping that would be your answer," Dumbledore stated, looking at them calmly. "I will also need another favour from Harry. It appears the person I have in mind to fill the gap in our staff this year is a bit… resistant. I have a feeling that if your godson had a word with him, he'd be a lot more approachable. It's nothing dangerous, I assure you."
Sirius shrugged. "If the kid's up to it, I don't think there's any problem."
"We'll write you back with what he says, Albus," Mia promised.
"Thank you," Dumbledore said, standing up behind the desk. "Well, I'll apologize for having bothered your plans for the day with such short notice."
"It was no trouble," Mia assured him as she and Sirius have him their hands to shake, avoiding the crippled one.
And just as they were about to leave, Dumbledore called them back and, with a serious face, told them exactly what they needed to hear. "I have much faith in your godson, as well. It's a great burden he has on his shoulders, especially on his age, but I do believe he can win." He just wished he'd be able to be there to see it…
After lunch, the gathering at the Burrow was, as always, an animated event. The voices were loud all around, mixed with laughs and the twins' antics with their products, which absolutely drove Molly Weasley mad. And even though there were nearly two dozen people crowding the Weasley home, there was still a feeling of being among family there.
"Fred, George, don't you dare spike the sweets with your products!" Molly Weasley shouted angrily, her hands gripping her hips in a highly threatening position after she'd spotted her sons from the corner of her eye trying to slip a bunch of wrapped sweets from their pockets into the bowl where the others were.
And as Molly warned them to stay away from the food she'd gotten together for tea, Harry and Ginny, who'd been outside by themselves for a quite a number of minutes, rejoined their friends in a corner of the living room, looking rather flushed and embarrassed.
Hermione was the first one to notice the expressions on their faces. "What happened? Why are you blushing?"
"It was hot outside," Harry said, all too quickly, blushing even further. "Warm Summer day. Nothing wrong with that."
"You were always a crappy liar," Izzy pointed out, almost casually.
"No, I'm not!"
"Oh, even I can see that's balderdash," Ron stated. "What exactly did you do?" he paused for a moment, rethinking the situation. "No, don't answer that question. I don't want to know about you guys snogging under a tree or something."
Ginny turned to glare at her brother. "Actually, we did snog against the tree, not under it, but that's just details," she said just to spite him.
"I said I didn't want to hear about it!" Ron shouted as Harry forced himself to look away from his best mate, unable to face him after what Ginny had said. It was just too odd…
Hermione cleared her throat. "Well and… hum, was it the snogging that caused this… embarrassment of yours? Or did someone walk on you?"
"We weren't the ones who got walked on," Harry stated, grimly.
"We heard noises from the broom shed and went to check if a cat had gotten locked in it or something," Ginny explained, turning to Harry. "Well, it was definitely not a cat."
"Who?" Izzy asked, eagerly intrigued.
"Take a wild guess," her best friend said. "If you want a hint, here's one: Phlegm."
"Bill and Fleur?" Hermione said, beating everyone else in the guessing.
"Oh, Mom would murder them if she knew," Ron said, amused. "Did they even see you there?"
"Yeah," Harry confirmed. "Bill just told us to scram and closed back the door. My guess is he went on with what they were doing."
"Well, they've just gotten engaged," Izzy pointed out. "I guess that gives them the right to celebrate."
Ginny huffed. "Celebrate my arse. Honestly, I'm starting to think that I'm damned to always find my brothers snog their girlfriends: first stupid Percy and Penelope, then Fred and Angelina during the Yule Ball and now Bill and Phlegm."
"Now, now, that's such an ugly name to call our lovely future sister-in-law, Gin-Gin," Fred mock-scolded his sister as he and his twin approached and pulled a couple of chairs to sit along with them.
"Don't call me Gin-Gin. And you say that because you moved out of the house already," Ginny told them. "You don't have to deal with her every day."
"Oh, well, better you than us," George said, pulling what looked like a large bottle of pumpkin juice from behind his back before he did sit down. "We're here to fulfil a very ancient tradition among the Weasleys."
"With pumpkin juice?" Izzy asked them sceptically as George conjured a glass.
"It's not pumpkin juice," Harry told her knowingly. "It's firewhiskey."
"Hiding it in a bottle of pumpkin juice was the only way to smuggle it through Mom," Fred explained, pouring a finger of the gold-tinted liquid into the glass in his brother's hand. "Like my dear brother was saying, we're fulfilling a very old Weasley tradition that says a real Weasley shall have his or her first sip of firewhiskey in his fifteenth birthday."
George nodded. "Of course, us being really nice blokes and all, we usually extend the tradition to a few friends as we did with Harry and Hermione…"
"I refused," the Hogwarts prefect added sharply. "There's a reason why the ministry establishes that underage wizards are not allowed to drink it."
He ignored her. "… and will do with one Miss Black this December," George continued, winking at his sister's best friend, whose lips curled slightly. "But for now it's our dear sister's turn," he finished, passing Ginny the glass.
"Bottoms up, Gin-Gin," Fred urged her.
She looked at them suspiciously. "This really is firewhiskey, isn't it? Not some potion that will make me blue with green dots all over?"
"Only Ogden's best," he assured her. "We'd never prank our favourite sister in her own birthday."
"I'm your only sister," she said before looking tentatively at the glass and bringing it to her lips, taking a sip. She made a face almost immediately but did take another sip before giving the glass back to George.
"Well?" he asked.
She took a moment to gather her thoughts, "It feels like I'm about to breathe fire," she concluded in a rough tone, still frowning at the feeling. "Not bad but I think I'll stick with the butterbeer for now."
"Ah, well, at least she didn't spill it all over us like someone," Fred said, looking at Ron accusatorily.
"You didn't tell me what it was! You just gave me the glass and told me to drink it!"
"By now you should know better than to trust anything we hand you, Ronnie," George stated.
While the twins kept on mocking their youngest brother (with Hermione intervening by pointing one more time that it was wrong to give an underage wizard firewhiskey) and Izzy's attention was unceremoniously captured by little Alex (who wanted a source of entertainment than didn't involve following Crookshanks and pulling his tail), Ginny managed to pull Harry aside so they stood near the door.
"So, what do you say? We go outside, take another walk and snog some more?" she whispered bluntly in his ear.
He raised an eyebrow. "Just how strong was that firewhiskey they gave you?"
"Not enough to get me wild. Though it gave me an urge to kiss you senseless," Ginny said. "Shall I remind that it's my birthday and keeping girlfriends happy on their birthday is one of the must do's in a relationship? If you weren't the chosen one and your name didn't show up on the paper every day, I might just dump you for this and go out with Zacharias Smith. I secretly have a thing for his pratish ways."
He chuckled. "Well, we can't have that. Poor Smith deserves more than a vixen like you." Harry liked that they were able to do that – tease each other about things that might otherwise be serious matters. They knew how far they could go out of instinct – maybe it went even deeper than that. It just… fit. "I suppose I can make a sacrifice and take you out for that walk. But with a condition: I don't want to get anywhere near the broom shed."
She laughed and tugged his arm, pulling him out the door.
"Kingsley is making a lot of changes in the department," Tonks was saying as she sat on the sofa area with Remus, Sirius and Mia. "Don't get me wrong – Scrimgeour was a decent bloke, great auror, but there was just too much into bureaucracy. I spent more time filling reports than catching bad guys. That's just plain wrong."
"So much for being an auror," Sirius said with a chuckle. "Kingsley always rubbed me as a practical bloke – he was a couple of years ahead of us in Hogwarts. The legendary leader of the Gryffindor gobstones club, wasn't he, Moony?"
Remus chuckled. "It's hard to recall him that way but, yeah, he was an ace in the game. The whole club wept when he graduated."
Tonks burst into laughter. "I don't believe it," she said, turning to Mia. "Are they taking a piss out of me?"
"No, he really was the leader of the Gobstones club," Mia assured her in amusement. "Elizabeth was in it during her first and second years and – she'll deny it if you ask her – had this enormous crush on Kingsley, who, in her words, 'had the best aim she'd ever seen in her life'."
"Well, he still has a wicked aim, though with his wand," Tonks said before turning to Lupin. "You've been holding out on me, Remus. You never mentioned you had stories as fun as this one from your school years."
His lips curled slightly. "They're not as fun when I have to tell them by myself, Dora."
"Yeah, yeah, feed me with excuses," she said, rolling her eyes. "Starting tonight, I want to know every bit of dirt you have on any of my superiors. I'll make you if I have to."
"You'd do better if you asked Sirius," Remus warned her. "He's the one who memorizes every embarrassing detail of just anything."
Sirius grinned. "A bloke never knows when it comes handy," he stated. "If you did the same, you might use it to impress your woman."
His woman, Remus thought, half amazed. Hard to believe sometimes…
"Well, whatever you can tell, it's welcome," Tonks said.
"I'll see what I can manage to remember," he promised calmly as he spotted the twins making their way to the table in the centre of the room and recalled he needed to talk to them. "I need to go have a word with Fred and George about their new line of products." He motioned to get up but not before Tonks grabbed his arm and pulled him down to kiss his cheek.
Sirius couldn't help noting how amusingly embarrassed his friend got when she did that. He supposed the bloke was still getting used to public displays of affection and the fact that nobody around seemed to be disturbed by them. After his friend was gone, he turned to his distant cousin and grinned. "So, when will you convince that stubborn git to tie the knot?"
"Oh, it takes patience to convince a guy like Remus to do anything," Tonks said. "And while patience isn't one of my most powerful traits, I suppose I can make an effort for him."
Mia smiled. "I can't even start to say how much happier he is with you in his life, Tonks. I feel like we should thank you. He's part of our family."
The metamorphagus's grin widened. "From what he mentioned, I should be the one thanking you guys. He mentioned how much you bugged him to get his head out of his arse."
"Always glad to bug, though I'm willing to take more extreme measures to make sure he gets a ring on his finger," Sirius admitted. "What do you say? You grab his arms, I take his legs and Mia here can bribe some ministry bloke to officiate. Before Moony can even realize what's happening, it will already be too late and you guys will be in your honeymoon."
Tonks snorted loudly. "I was hoping to get him to do that by his own free will but if he gets too bitchy about it, I may take you up on that, Sirius."
"Let's just hope that's not necessary," Mia stated, diplomatically. "He came this far on his own, after all. That's a point on his favour."
"Yeah, there's still hope for him, I guess," Sirius said before smirking at his cousin. "But the offer will remain open 'cause we all know how much of a stubborn arse he is."
Tonks shrugged. "Ah, well, he wouldn't be Remus if he was easy, would he? Lucky him I'm always up for a challenge."
A/N: Slightly late update, I know, but the longest so far. It was hard week emotionally, really. I hope you liked the chapter anyway. Next one will likely mark the beginning of the new school year. Feeback is welcome, as always. Review!