5 January 1997

The welcome-back-to-school-after-the-holidays banquet at Hogwarts had turned out to be the perfect excuse for Mia to shoo Sirius out of the house.

It wasn't that she'd gotten sick of having her husband around all the time already – it was just that, since Dumbledore had given him a couple of weeks off to take care of the baby, she wanted to make sure Sirius knew that Alex and the baby didn't specifically need him at home all the time to be well-taken care of. If everything went right, he'd know it was okay to go out every now and then and wouldn't spend those two weeks driving her mad with fussing and pampering to the point of her wanting to use those residual hormones of hers to kick his arse. Badly.

Shooing Sirius out of the house for that day had just been for the better good, she concluded as she lounged on her living room's sofa with her eyes closed, Mary resting in her portable cradle by her mother's side. Only there was a problem: she felt bored without him around.

The soft knock on the door had her snapping her eyes open and turn to face the door only to spot her father standing there. Someone to talk to – thank Merlin! "Gabe, come on in," she invited him with a smile, sitting up. "Lulu didn't mention you were dropping by."

"I didn't think I'd have time – Order business," he explained shortly, stepping into the room. These days, he was one of the few Order members that worked full-time for it.

Mia gave him a worried look as he approached the sitting area. "Something bad?"

"Not particularly. Mad-Eye wanted us to go raid a location where we'd been told a couple of escaped Death Eaters had been spotted in – turned out to be a fake lead, after all, and we wasted a whole day preparing the raid for nothing. Don't worry, Mia," Gabriel said, sitting down on an armchair right by the side of the portable bassinet where his little granddaughter slept. "I'd say you have better things to occupy your mind," he pointed out, smiling as he saw the little girl.

She smiled. "I suppose I do," she said in a happy whisper.

"So, where's everyone else?" he asked.

"I'll assume that by everyone you mean Sirius, Lulu and Alex, since Harry and Izzy are currently on the train headed to Hogwarts."

"You assume correctly."

"Well, Sirius is at Hogwarts to attend the banquet tonight – he didn't feel like going but I made him. As for Lulu, she took Alex out to the playground for a while – he was a little jumpy today – most have something to do with those cookies that Kreacher keeps handing him."

"And how's he dealing with the new little sister?"

Mia chuckled. "He adores her. Especially after finding out the amount of racket she can cause, which apparently fascinates him. Yesterday he spent a full hour just watching her with his friend, Darcy – she came here for a little play date. One of them would come call us every time Mary moved an inch. I have a feeling he'll get over this adoration by the time she starts stealing his toys, though. I remember it happened just that way with Harry and Izzy."

"They're kids. I remember my older brother and I were in and out of each other's graces more often than one could possibly register," Gabriel agreed with a sad smile – it was still difficult thinking of his family gone, so he tried to skip the subjects. "Hum, so now you'll spend a few months on maternity leave…"

"Yes, until Easter Break," she confirmed. "Speaking of which, you and Moody were the ones who ran a background check on my substitute for Dumbledore, weren't you? Samantha Lawrence from the British Society for the History of Magic?"

Gabriel nodded. "Nothing bad about her popped out, don't worry. She's replaced you before, when you had Alex, hasn't she?"

Mia nodded. "Yes but back when she first replaced me, there wasn't a war going on. One can never be too careful these days…"

Gabriel nodded, knowingly. "That's a fact – like moody tends to say, constant vigilance is essential. Anyway, as I said, she came completely clea…"

His sentence was interrupted by a tiny, moody wail coming from the cradle where Mary called for their attention, waving her little arms angrily on the air.

"She can't be hungry already – I fed her half an hour ago," Mia mumbled, leaning to check on her fussy daughter. "Just want a little spoiling, don't you, sweetie?"

"Do you mind if I…?" Gabriel said, reaching for the bassinet, making a motion that told Mia he was intending to pick the baby up.

Mia smiled and nodded. "Go ahead," she said, leaning back against the sofa, trusting her father would have it under control.

As she watched, Gabriel reached to get a hold of his granddaughter, stiffly at first. It wasn't the first time he held her but he certainly recalled her being much stiller last time he'd done it. She'd grow up to become a little spitfire, he concluded. After a few seconds of awkward rocking, Mary's fussing seemed to show signs of calming down as she suddenly became very interested in staring up at him instead. It was amazing, he noted, how many she memories she brought back.

"She likes you," Mia told him with a smile. "Just hold her for a little while and hopefully she'll be out like a light soon."

Gabe nodded and looked up at his daughter. "You look tired," he noted.

She shrugged. "It's nothing – I'm still getting used to her schedule. She's worth the trouble, believe me."

Her father smiled. "She's going to look a lot like you, you know?" he pointed out, glancing down at Mary. "Mark my words, she will."

"How is it that you can tell that already?" Mia asked, raising an eyebrow. "She's still a shrivelled little thing."

"She may be but she looks almost exactly the way you did when you were born. Your eyes, for instance, were exactly the same shade of dark blue as hers are now – I'd bet anything they're going to turn brown like yours did. You also had this peach-fuzz hair – very light brown, almost blond, like Mary's here. Lucy was convinced you'd get blonde hair like mine but turns out she was wrong – it got dark like hers and so will this little one's." When he looked up Mia, he noted she was staring at him with a look of half-surprise, half-delight. "What?"

"You remember what shade of blue my eyes were when I was born? And exactly how my hair looked like?" she asked in a very low tone. Lulu had told her they'd been allowed to keep her for themselves for a single night before giving her up. And from that night, he could remember such small details as what shade her eyes and had hair had been… "I never thought you could have… absorbed so much in a single night."

"You can memorize a lot of things when you think that may be the only chance you've got to do it," he told her simply as Mary's eyes slowly dropped as he held her. He'd loved his daughter enough for a whole lifetime that night and then gotten the chance to do it all over again.

"Thank you… I guess," she replied, not sure of what was the right thing to say right then – it touched her more deeply that she could explain. "It means a lot that you'd remember those things."

"You don't have to thank me for that, Mia," he pointed out. "I needed to remember those things."

She smiled at his words. "How about you and Lulu stay for dinner tonight, since Sirius is out? It's time I spent some quality time alone with my parents… and, well, a toddler and a newborn too, if you don't mind. What do you say to that?"

He smiled. "I say it seems like a very good idea."

Spending a couple of hours in the empty Hogwarts staffroom, which he very rarely frequented for some reason, until it was time for him to attend the banquet had seemed like a pretty decent idea by the time Sirius had arrived to the school, rather annoyed from having been shooed away from his home by Mia. Of course, if he'd known who'd join him there later, he probably would have picked some other place to go read the Daily Prophet.

"Well, well, look who's decided disgrace us with a visit," a slow voice – one of the most annoying sounds on Earth, in Sirius's book – spoke. "And here I thought, when the headmaster mentioned he'd given you, Black, two weeks of leave, that this school would be shielded from your unwelcome presence for at least that time."

Sirius didn't even need to look up to know it was Snape. He simple kept on reading – or pretending he was, since the newspaper article on the finances of the ministry didn't interest him whatsoever –, not bothering to remove his feet from the table he'd propelled them onto. "I knew there was a reason why I don't come to the staffroom very often," he said, casually. "As reckless as people deem me for, I don't like risking running into sources of greasy hair – who knows, it might be contagious and I'd end up afflicted for life."

"Your sense of humour is just astounding, Black. Makes me wonder how your wife can spend long enough without laughing to conceive yet another Black, let alone give birth to one," Snape said, making his way around the table Sirius was sitting at in order to reach a counter at the opposite side of the room and serve himself with a cup of tea.

Sirius smiled at the opportunity he's just been given. "You see, Snape, I'm not sure how acquainted you are with that… lovely act that leads to the conceiving but I can assure you that, speaking in theory since it never happened to me personally, laughter wouldn't really get in the way of the mechanics of it. I'm sure a lot of books in the restricted section of the library can confirm that…"

"I see your lack of shame is just as astounding," Snape told him flatly. "What, I wonder, possessed the headmaster to even let you and your questionable… morals near the students?"

"Ooch, that one hurt," he replied sarcastically in an exaggeratedly fake tone. "I'd say it was the that possessed him not to have sacked you already for bullying your students in a regular basis, but since I have no idea what it is, I'll just let you wonder… Go wash your hair with Hippogriff shampoo in the meanwhile, would you? I heard it keeps the flies away."

"I heard the same thing about Dementors keeping criminals away from the general population but it seems to be wrong."

Sirius glared over the newspaper – if he didn't know how Shape's mind worked, he might have let that one pass as a reference to the previous year's massive breakout from Azkaban. "You know, denial doesn't change the fact that, for your disappointment, I was proven innocent. It also won't change the fact that you have the one-year curse that troubles the DADA teacher's position hovering over your head. The odds are not on your favour: one dead, other with permanent brain damage, another kissed by a Dementor and two sacked… the precedents don't look good at all, Snape."

"I suppose that has you rather excited, doesn't it?"

"Very," he confessed. "I'm cheering for the sacking, honestly – I'm good enough not to wish you dead or a vegetable."

Snape narrowed his eyes. "Really? I wouldn't know. Your actions a couple of decades ago didn't show that at all."

Sirius felt the muscles on his neck tensing, folding the newspaper and putting it down. "Oh, you really want to go there? Because all I wanted at fifteen years-old was to have someone's blood in my hands, especially yours," he said, his tone simmering in sarcasm as he slowly stood up, towering a few inches over Snape. "James saved your life that night – least you could do was not treating his son like he's the devil himself and not giving him detention for so much as breathing…"

"That boy thinks that because he'd famous, he can rule this school and get everyone to do as he wishes…"

Aiming for his godson seemed to hit a nerve. "That's crap and you know it! How many times have you heard him announcing his name out loud to open way through a crowded corridor?"

"… he's a disrespectful, attention-seeking, conceited troublemaker. Just like his father…"

"Oh, shove it up your arse, would you, Snivellus?" Sirius shouted, angry enough to reach for the wand on his pocket.

"What is the meaning of this?" McGonagall's raised voice came from the doorway before he could get the wand out.

It was only when he turned to the door that Sirius noticed the small group of students – not quite half a dozen of first and second years – witnessing his and Snape's… altercation. Behind them, the deputy-headmistress, hands on her hips as she gripped a roll of parchment, glared at them with blazes on her eyes.

"To the Great Hall, children," she ordered the students in a tone firm enough to have them speeding away immediately. Then, very slowly, in a way that only engorged the tension in the room, McGonagall stepped into the room, closing and locking the door with a silent wave of her wand, likely casting imperturbable charms on it as well. When she spoke, her voice came out furious and heavy. "Never in my teaching life… brawling! Two teachers! Like hormonal teenage boys… Just childish! Unbelievable!" The fact that it sounded quite incoherent only made them realized just how pissed off she was. McGonagall never sounded incoherent.

Sirius couldn't even bring himself to use her first name as he usually did these days – he felt like a teenage boy again, being scolded for getting in trouble. "Professor, I…"

"Quiet, Black!" she ordered, turning to Snape almost immediately. "You too! I don't want to know why this pitiful scene was taking place; I don't want to know who started it! You are teachers for Merlin's sake. What example are you giving to your students with that childish shouting match? It's unbelievable."

Snape tried to speak. "I'd just like to point out…"

"I said quiet, Severus! I don't want to hear anything," she pointed her wand at the door, opening it. "You are needed down at the Great Hall to keep an eye on the children. As for you," she continued, turning to face Sirius (as Snape left the room with a not-so-happy look on his face) and handing him the roll of parchment she was carrying, "that's the list of the students that are returning to the school on the train. Go down to the gates and check the names of every student that arrives."

"But isn't Hagrid the one who usually does that?"

The older teacher narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Do I need to spell it as a detention the way I used to do when you were sixteen, Sirius?"

"What… I'm in…" He gulped. "I'm going right now."

"Hurry up! The train is about to arrive," she called after him as he sped away, feeling the hair on the back of his neck standing up.

Merlin, if he'd ever had a flash back to his teenage years, that was it. Even decades after he'd graduated, McGonagall could still give him the chills. There he was, a married man, father four – Four? When did that happen? – and a teacher, doing the walk of shame towards yet another detention. And why was it that he had to stand outside while authentic buckets of snow fell from the sky while Snape got to serve his punishment under the warmth of the Great Hall?

He huffed as he dressed his cloak before walking out of the castle's doors and stepping out into the freezing grounds. Maybe he should have just ignored Mia's insistence and remained home. He'd probably be tickling Alex mercilessly by then or cuddling his little Mary by the fire…

Hagrid was easy to spot by the gates, standing in his winter tent-like fur cloak with the old, lazy dog, Fang, peaking his saggy head from under his owner's cloak, covering the rest of his body from the snow. "Evenin', Sirius," the gamekeeper greeted as he reached him. "What are yeh doin' down here? Waitin' fer the kids?"

"Professor Black got himself grounded by old McGonagall for brawling with Snape," Filch, who seemingly hadn't been too far behind Sirius on the way there, announced with a sadistic snicker before he could even greet the half-giant. t. "She had me coming here to make sure he does his job checking the kids into the school."

If there had been any hope of convincing Hagrid to let him off the hook, the hateful caretaker had just crushed it like a bug. "Hope you freeze solid down here," Sirius told the caretaker through his teeth as the man smiled, showing his half-black teeth.

McGonagall had been right in saying he should hurry. A group of students was already climbing out of one of the Thestral-ridden carriages and approached the gates in a hurry. Thankfully, he thought, there weren't as many kids arriving then as there had been in the first of September – many had already been brought via apparition by their parents and others had simply not left the school for the holidays.

Eight or nine carriages later, he finally spotted Izzy and Harry climbing out of one, followed by Ginny, Hermione, Neville and Luna. "What are you doing down here?" Harry asked him as he approached with a curious look on his face.

Sirius half groaned in annoyance, using his quill to tick his godson's name off the list, followed by his daughter and the rest of their friends, with the half-frozen quill he'd been given. "Checking everyone in, as you can see," he said in a flat tone.

Ginny gave him a confused look. "Why? Isn't it usually Hagrid who does it? Or Filch?"

Sirius shrugged, trying to escape the subject. "Filch is obviously happy enough with annoying everyone by rummaging through their things, trying to find anything either illegal or from the twin's shop." He rolled his eyes. "As if they didn't find fool-proof ways of masking their products." Sirius looked up, trying to spot the students coming after them. "Isn't Ron with you?"

Hermione's reaction, which involved a frown and an annoyed sniff reminded him that she and Ron weren't in speaking to each other and Harry now had to split himself between the two. He guessed now would be Hermione's turn to have Harry's company at the moment.

"Hiding behind a tree with Lavender, for all we know," the prefect girl said flatly.

"Er… right," he mumbled uncomfortably.

"But you still haven't told us why you're standing here at the gates, checking in students," Izzy pointed out, more interested in the potential story behind it – she knew her father enough to be sure that he wouldn't volunteer for a monotonous task such as ticking names from a list.

Sirius gave his daughter a quick – yet not quite meant – glare, wishing she hadn't brought it up again. Yet, it didn't take him long to give in. "I may or may not have had a semi-public altercation with Snape in front of a few students who stayed behind for the holidays and it may or may not have irritated McGonagall to the point of her sending me down here and making me check the students in."

"McGonagall grounded you?" Ginny asked in an amused tone.

Sirius gave her an offended look. "What am I? An eight-year-old kid? She just wanted me to cool-off a little, which is quite literally working in this forsaken weather…"

"A time out it is, then," Izzy concluded with a chuckle.

He directed another glare to Izzy. "Do I have to remind you that I have the power to ground you both at home and at school?"

She chuckled. "You never ground anyone, Daddy. The troublemaker in you doesn't believe in that sort of thing."

"Maybe I'll give it a try just for hell of it, Izzybel," he said, making her shake her head doubtfully.

"Did you at least get to curse Snape?" Neville asked.

"Neville!" Hermione scolded. "Snape's a teacher."

Ginny was the one to respond. "He calls you an insufferable know-it-all. He'd have it coming!"

"He says I'm a delusional airhead," Luna pointed out dreamily. "I think he was attacked by Nargles when he was very young – that might cause the bitterness."

"I'm fairly sure he was born that way, Luna. Unfortunately, though, I didn't get the chance to whip my wand out at all," Sirius pointed out. "Now, you kids go inside – I'll tell you the rest of the story in another time."

"Actually," Harry, who'd been very silent ever since Sirius had mentioned Snape, said. "Can you take a break? There's something I should probably tell you…"

Sirius raised an eyebrow but, seeing from Harry's face that it was serious, signalled at Hagrid to take over his place for a few minutes, ignoring Filch's protests. While the other kids made their way up to the castle, Ginny stayed behind, chatting with Hagrid by the gates as she waited for Harry.

"So?" Sirius asked his godson.

The young boy gulped in hesitation. "During the Christmas Party… the one that Slughorn organized… I heard Snape and Malfoy talking. About Voldemort."

"About Vol… wait, but that party was back in December! Why didn't you say something before?"

"I didn't want to ruin Christmas…" the young boy explained. "I was planning to say it right after New Year's but then Mary was born and it just slipped my mind…"

Sirius sighed. "You could have said something anyway… what did you hear, then?"

"Well, Malfoy's definitely a Death Eater… he has some sort of mission for Voldemort and Snape… he says he made an unbreakable vow to help him with it!"

His eyes narrowed. "An unbreakable vow…" He pursed his lips. That son of a bitch. "He's been playing us all along…."

"Hermione says he might be bluffing in order to find out whatever Malfoy was planning but still…"

"He could be bluffing," Sirius noted flatly, clearly not buying it. "But why is it that I find it so much easier to believe that bastard has been selling us to You-Know-Who? When I get my hands…"

"No! You can't!" Harry said, alarmed. "You can't say anything to him – not before talking to the order! He could try something or if you jumped on him and he was really bluffing, it might get you into trouble, Sirius…"

He had to admit the kid had a point. It would take all the strength he had to face Snape and not ram his fist through his face but he'd have to make an effort. "Fine," Sirius said, looking down at his godson. "But if you find anything else, Harry – anything – you tell me right away okay. Never mind if it is a public holiday of someone's birthday – just tell me, okay?"

Harry nodded. "I'm sorry I only told you now, I just…"

Sirius shook his head. "Never mind, kid. But, remember, next time…"

"I'll run to tell you," Harry promised.

"Good. Now go get your girl and head to the banquet. I'll be there when I'm done here," Sirius told him, receiving a nod in return before Harry started walking towards Ginny and they headed to the castle together.

Then, for the first time that day, Sirius felt thankful to McGonagall for his 'detention' – a little time outside doing a boring task would give him the chance to cool off. And deep down he hoped, just hoped, that Snape was bluffing or else the order would have been fooled by a spy again.

Later, when he stepped into his room at Grimmauld Place, he found his wife already lying down, the baby sleeping peacefully across her chest as Mia rubbed her little back. She smiled up at him as he dragged himself in and circled the bed silently to let himself fall down on the bed by her side, groaning with his eyes closed.

Very softly, he felt her hand caressing his face before moving up to rub his dark, rather messy, hair. "How was your evening?" she asked him softly.

He opened his eyes and sighed as he felt her soothing touch. "Well, I went to the banquet the way you wanted me to, got in a fight with Snape, was grounded by McGonagall for it, then was mocked at by the kids for being grounded and, finally, was told by Harry that he has reasons to believe Snape literally is a traitorous bastard… I'll develop that part in the morning if you don't mind. All in all, same old thing." He let out a breath and reached to touch Mary's tiny fist, which gripped his index finger even in her sleep. "What about you? How was your evening?"

"Are you asking me or the baby?"

He chuckled softly and shrugged. "Both."

"Well, Mary mostly napped, ate, cried and got spoiled. As for me, I watched her, got visited by Gabe, had dinner with my parents and then Lulu helped me give this little lady a bath afterwards – that is, before she threw one hell of a tantrum. Alex though that part was just hilarious, by the way, since he was watching from the sidelines."

Sirius grinned. "That's my boy," he said proudly. "A little Marauder."

"Clearly," Mia replied. "It seems both of us had interesting evenings, then. I suppose I don't need to ask what you and Snape fought about, do I?"

"He's a smarmy git and I have no patience whatsoever for him," Sirius said shortly. "Of course if I knew about the traitorous bastard part, I might have put some used to my wand… but like I said, I'm not in the mood to talk about that now. Tell me something new."

"I'm thinking of letting the O'Dells, Darcy's grandparents, keep the Wales house," Mia told him.

"Really?"

She nodded. "I spent today's dinner talking to Lulu and Gabe and felt happier spending that little time with them then I ever felt when spending time with Susan and Phillip Davis for the seventeen years I lived in that house – their house. It was beautiful but it was never mine, so it doesn't make much sense for me to keep it now after I haven't been there in years. Last time we talked, the O'Dells were thinking of moving definitely here to Britain in order to be within apparition reach of Seamus at Hogwarts, so if they want to keep that house, it's theirs. Even if they want to pay for it, I'm sure we'll reach an agreement – hopefully, they'll be happier there."

"You're getting rid of your Wales house," he repeated.

She nodded, rubbing the baby's back. "I'm getting rid of it. Do you think it's stupid?"

He shook his head. "No. I just think it is your own way of telling Susan and Phillip to shove it. Besides, I'd say three properties are more than enough for us."

She raised an eyebrow. "Three?"

He nodded. "This one, our old flat and the beach house that I'm planning to get us after the war is over so we can escape there whenever we feel like it – I even had a dream about that last one the day Mary was born."

Mia smiled. "Tell me about it."

"Well, the sun was shining and I was lying on the sand, listening to the waves crashing and the kids playing somewhere. It was kind of great. Then, you showed up, beautiful as ever, in this flowing white dress and quite literally jump me. I'd get into more detail but I'm afraid there are impressionable little ears in this room," he added, nodding at Mary.

"I hope you realize there will be no jumping for at least the next five and a half weeks," Mia pointed out with a smirk.

"I know. I've got a calendar somewhere – I charmed it so it would count the days until the time arrived…"

"How practical of you," she told him. "Though, of course, by the time the time arrives, you'll also have to hope I'm in the mood. And don't forget that little agreement about not getting me pregnant for the next three years."

"Hey, you said two before!" he protested, loud enough to have Mary shifting in her sleep.

"Well, that was before Mary threw that huge tantrum during her bath," she pointed out, shifting on the bed so she could sit up and reach to place the baby in her bassinet. "Depending on how much you, Izzy and Harry help around and on my future wishes, I may or may not be open to renegotiation."

He sniffed, shaking his head as she lay back down. "Renegotiation my arse…"

"And speaking of 'arse' and other non-adequate vocabulary for a nearly two-year-old boy, why did our son utter the word 'wanker' during dinner today?" She pinched his arm, making him let out a muffle whine.

"Ooch, that's gonna leave a mark…" he complained, rubbing his own arm. Little traitor, he thought. When he believed that, after four days, the kid had already forgotten the damn word. He cleared his throat, facing his wife, whose eyebrows were rising in inquisition as her eyes shot bullets of accusation. He took a moment to gulp. "I'm sure there's a perfectly valid explanation for that…"

A/N: After a veeery long week (it felt like a month to me), you get a very long chapter. Almost didn't make it posting tonight... Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter - feedback is appreciated, as always. Review!