A/N: Not as big as the others... because I scrapped a 3000 word scene that was 'bugging me'. Talk about a waste of time...

How Vernon had gotten there was a question that Sirius couldn't honestly say he had an answer for… Yet the man – or rather the stupid oaf – was there and he didn't seem happy at all to be locked out has he banged his beefy hands on the sturdy metal gates. He pitied the aurors who stood awkwardly on the opposite side of the gates, trying to figure out what was going on while the crazy man waved his arms around and yelled nonsense like a mad person.

Annoyed, he cautiously approached the gates although he didn't really feel like handling that really unpleasant situation. He could just turn around and let the aurors handle it. But then again it was just cruel to leave them in the dark…

"… do you have any idea how long it takes to get here from Surrey? Ten hours! Ten bloody hours! And longer if you count the time we spent looking for the wretched castle! We even had to sleep in some dirty godforsaken inn to get here just to end up with some idiots telling us we can't go in. What's all this commotion, anyway? To protect a bloody pile of ruins? School my arse! This is a sham!" Vernon was shouting.

Petunia stood behind him, quiet and with her arms crossed, clearly displeased either from the whole pitiful display or from being there at all.

A few yards behind her, leaning against Vernon's shiny car (completely out of place in there) with a bored expression on his face, was a burly blonde teenager who wore a maroon school uniform – Sirius assumed him to be the son, Dudley Dursley. It was with satisfaction that he spotted inside the car a shape with strawberry blonde hair and curious eyes nearly squished against the window. Little Quinn. He couldn't tell if it was for the distance of for the fact that she was too busy staring at the castle's form but the little girl didn't seem to have noticed him there.

"Sir, I need to ask you to calm down while we handle this situation," one of the aurors – the one Sirius vaguely recalled to be named Williamson – was telling the purple-faced man just as Sirius stepped closer.

"I will not…" His angry face turned to Sirius as soon as he spotted him. "Oi, you! You're the one who got us in this! Tell them to let us in, tell them…"

"Do yourself a favour shut up, Dursley!" Sirius called back before approaching the youngest auror – likely Williamson's trainee – in order to figure out on what going on. "How long has this one been here, Mr…?"

"B… Bellings, sir. He got here about ten minutes ago and just started yelling," the young auror said.

"Bloke's clearly a Muggle with that automobile thingy he was riding…" Williamson said as he made his way to them, deciding to ignore Vernon Dursley's shouts and insults since he simply had no patience for it. "How can he even be here? The muggle-repelling charms…"

"Any chance they're down right now?" Sirius asked.

The older auror shook his head. "Can't be. They're still affecting the bloke at least a little if he sees the castle as a pile of ruins… Doesn't make any sense!"

"Have you called McGonagall already?" he asked.

Williamson nodded and pointed at his trainee. "Bellings here sent her a Patronus. Should be here in a few moments. You know 'grumpy' over there, Black?"

He nodded. "Only vaguely but enough to feel sorry I do," Sirius told him. "Distant Muggle relative, so to speak – I only just met him a few days ago. Rubbed me as a complete arse less than one minute in."

"Sounds pretty accurate to me," the young auror murmured, his trainer nodding in approval.

"Right," Sirius mumbled before huffing. "Do you mind if I go have a word with him?"

"Be my guest," Williamson replied, glad he wasn't doing it himself.

It was like the man had aura of nastiness, Sirius thought as he approached Vernon. His mood was decaying by each step he took and he felt tempted to just walk away several times. But then again, if there was any reason aside from Harry for him to accept talking to Vernon Dursley, that one was sitting in his car and her name was Quinn. Poor kid didn't deserve such a nasty father or, well, step-father and even much less deserved to be endangered by his pig-headedness.

He cleverly turned his ears off at Vernon's insults as he wasn't really sure if his fist would be able to break through the school wards straight into the idiot's face without breaking a few bones or something… He'd be damned if he's risk having himself injured over that idiot.

"What the hell are you doing here, Dursley?" Sirius asked him harshly before looking over the man's shoulder at Petunia's unmoving form. "Didn't I tell you to go to Figg if you wanted our damn protection?" he asked the woman.

"Oi," Vernon yelled. "I don't take orders from you, some former escaped convict! I may go along with your protection proposal but I'm doing it in my own terms! You're lucky I even believe in that whole story of us being in danger because of some troublemaker we don't even know!"

This time, Sirius couldn't keep himself from trying to reach across the gates' bars in order to grab the other man by the lapels and give him a damn good shake. He was unable to do so, though, as he felt his hands touching a solid invisible barrier that separated him from Dursley. He cursed eloquently in frustration under his breath. "You really are a stupid idiot, aren't you?" he said, feeling the fury pump through his veins. "You have just no idea what Voldemort's minions would do with a bloke like you and your family if they got their hands on you… which will be very easy for them if you keep trying to be in charge! And I hope that by 'troublemaker' you don't mean Harry because you don't know a thing about your nephew."

"I know enough to say we wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for him! I had to take an extended leave from work for this! Barely had time to explain it to the neighbours."

"Oh, well, what's having a life as opposed to having a job and a reputation?" Sirius told him sarcastically. "Driving all the way from Surrey to here… could you expose yourself a little more? Maybe draw a bull's eye on your car, since you're at it. Do you have a death wish? How did you even know where Hogwarts was, anyway?"

Vernon said nothing and just looked at Petunia.

Her lips remained pursed to their usual thin line until she uttered a short explanation. "Lily wrote to me and told me about it when we were young."

Back then, she still read her letters – letters she hadn't been able to give away to the boy, her nephew as all others she'd actually opened – hoping, selfishly, that her little sister would hate it at Hogwarts, that she would beg to come back home and leave that world of abnormality behind. But she didn't. Instead, Lily wrote about her new friends – freaks too – and how wonderful her new school was, an amazing castle located in the Scottish highlands just a few miles north of a small village called Invergarry.

And now, there she was. But the castle? A bunch of ruins. That was all she saw. She could tell by Quinn's amazed look just as they'd parked that what she saw was different than what she… her people did. Maybe it had been the jealousy for her daughter's ability that had made her order the little girl to stay in the car… What world was that that gave them everything – Lily and Quinn, and her nothing? The powers, the simple ability to see through whatever was covering the castle's real form. She loved them and hated them at the same time – that was the cross she had to bear for the rest of her life…

"Fine, so you people – dumbly – just packed your stuff and came to us," Sirius concluded. "But why Hogwarts? Why come here of all places? What made you think we'd be here? Mia and I."

"We didn't care if you were here or not," Vernon told them detachedly. "What we cared was that the boy was. And you wouldn't have offered us protection if he didn't have it too – the best of it. Well, I'll only take the best for myself, so…"

"Merlin, you really are a self-serving arse, aren't you, Vernon?" Sirius said in disgust. "Well, sorry to disappoint but this school has magical protection all over." He touched the invisible barrier that passed through the gaps between the bars to illustrate it. "Plus, Mia and I are always around – Harry doesn't need a personal bodyguard from the Order here. You should have just stayed at home and waited for us to get there."

"I don't care! I am still the man of this family – I will not take orders from your people!"

At a distance, Sirius could tell Dudley had heard it and was shaking his head dryly, as if saying 'not again'. His father's pig-headedness was no news to him.

Inside the car, he could see Quinn watching him now, softly waving through the window. Sirius waved back and stepped back from the gates when Vernon turned around to start fighting with his wife by telling her he wasn't going along with that sham and was going back home. The one moment when Sirius felt like Petunia might just slightly have a backbone was when she informed him that he was free to go but she was staying and so were the children – Vernon's face had become so purple Sirius nearly believed the guy was choking but instead he started yelling even more loudly.

Several minutes passed with the couple having a shouting match, which Dudley managed to ignore by talking to his little sister through a slight crack on the car window – he did it so naturally that it led Sirius to the conclusion that his parents' fights were sort of a routine to him…

McGonagall arrived in a matter of moments from there, clad in black like she'd been since her closest friend, Dumbledore, had passed away and with a worried expression on her face. She made her way to the aurors and so did Sirius, certain none of them would be able to explain the situation like him.

"Who are those people?" she asked, displeased. "Muggles, you said, Mr. Williamson?"

The older auror nodded. "Yes, Madam. Muggles for sure."

"Not just any Muggles," Sirius added. "The Dursleys."

McGonagall looked at him, completely stunned. "The… the Dursleys? Here at Hogwarts?"

Sirius nodded. "That's right," he confirmed.

"But why, for the love of Merlin?" the woman asked, not understanding one bit of the story.

He turned to the aurors and gave them an apologetic look – they weren't part of the Order, after all, so it wasn't advisable that they'd hear the conversation. "Can you give us a moment, please?"

Both gave him a doubtful look but did step away to mind their business when McGonagall gave them one of her fierce looks. Sirius told the headmistress about what he had gathered from Vernon and Petunia, then: how they'd gotten there, why… By the time he was done, McGonagall was already shaking her head in a disapproving fashion the way she did when a student ended up in her office in trouble.

"How reckless of them – honestly, coming all the way to Scotland to make a point without protection to escort them," the woman said, shaking her head and reaching for her wand. "Will you give me a minute, Sirius? I need to send a Patronus to Alastor – explain all this and arrange for them to be transported to a safe house immediately."

Sirius nodded and McGonagall got to work. Mad-Eye wouldn't be happy and if there was ever any time he'd been craving for one of the former auror's lectures, provided it was directed straight to the snotty couple, that was just it. He didn't even have to hear it – he just wanted to see their faces when being yelled yet by the mangled man.

After the silvery form of the headmistress's owl patronus flew away, the headmistress approached the Aurors and told them to let the Dursleys in, though she didn't look happy about it. "All of them," she instructed before making her way to Sirius again – she was still gathering the patience to deal with that lot and wasn't quite ready to meet them straight at the gates. "The arrangements are being done – they're lucky we value their nephew so much or we wouldn't put up with their temper."

"Tell me about it – I wouldn't shed a tear if Vernon really decided to stay behind. Petunia seems to be set to leave with the children and that's what matters the most," he said. "I still don't get how they managed to get here – I thought the Muggle-repelling charms always gave any Muggles that were approaching the idea that they didn't want to come here. That they were needed somewhere else."

McGonagall nodded. "Yes, that's truth. But not in all cases."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, there's an exception to the muggle-repelling charms – Dumbledore created it himself. Made sure that even when new Muggle-repelling charms were cast on the school, there would always be… well, a backdoor to them."

"But why?" Sirius asked, not really getting the point.

McGonagall sighed. "Imagine you were a Muggle and you lived in a village near the school. You didn't have much money and you needed to bring your child to Hogwarts – the thing is, the Hogwarts express has a single stop before Hogwarts, which is King's Cross. Well, taking your child all the way to London only for him or her to come back to Scotland in the Hogwarts express would be rather pointless and expensive, not to mention a waste of time, don't you think?"

Sirius nodded. "It makes sense, now that you mention it," he had to admit.

"It does, doesn't it?" she said. "Wizards can bring their children to Hogwarts personally if they please – apparate just outside the gates and drop them off with the teacher in charge of watching them. Well, Dumbledore found it rather unfair that Muggles couldn't do the same because of the Muggle repelling charms and created this back door for them – only for them. They can't quite see what the castle looks like but they won't be compelled to leave by the spells. This course is rarely used but the point is that it is available when needed."

"So this 'backdoor' always opens for Muggle parents?" Sirius asked.

McGonagall shook her head. "Not always and not specifically just for parents – after all, not all children are raised by their parents. The criteria for it are that Muggles can approach the castle if they are escorting an underage Wizard or Witch and in the condition that they are previously aware of the Wizarding World's existence. Now, you mentioned they had a young daughter, didn't you, Sirius? A witch?"

He nodded. "Quinn. She's in their car," he said. "I don't think they are here to escort her, though."

"She's with them – that seems to be enough for the backdoor to open. Perhaps later I will try to find a way to have the spells to read the Muggles' intentions before allowing them near." She sighed and shook her head. "That might avoid odd situations like this one…"

Sirius nodded. "Pro… er… Minerva, I need to ask you a favour. Vernon has no idea the little girl is a witch – I'd rather it remained that way. He hates all magic things and is already enough of an arse to the girl as it is. I have reason to believe that she's not his – by birth, I mean. And I wouldn't be surprised if he knew it too."

The headmistress nodded sympathetically. "He won't learn what she is from me – it's a shame he'd act like that with any child, his or not. Is there any chance she has a wizard father?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. But Petunia doesn't rub me as a person that would have an affair with a wizard after all the grief she gave to Lily for being magical. She might not know he could be one, though. Honestly, that's for her to know."

McGonagall nodded and glanced at the gates only to see Vernon and Petunia already inside, the first one now yelling face-to-face at the mortified youngest auror. She wondered if it was acceptable for her to cast a tongue-tying hex on the man – he didn't seem to shut up long enough to let other people speak. Plain rude, that one was. "Well, I should go over there and have a word with them." She took a deep breath. "Hopefully Alastor will be here soon."

Sirius nodded. "I'd offer to go along but I'm afraid that without the wards I won't be able to resist punching his face until it looks like a cake."

The headmistress gave him a stern look. "Then you'd better stay where you are. I will have no brawling in my school, Mr. Black."

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed almost automatically, watching as his old teacher walked away, towards the couple.

He could tell that, even for McGonagall, it was hard to keep an even tone around those two when she reached them, cordially pulling them aside to a more secluded spot as to avoid a show for any students who might be watching.

"Hi!" he heard a familiar voice greeting him. He looked to his left and saw little Quinn running towards him with a big smile, followed closely by her brother, who looked quite uncertain.

"Hello Quinn," he greeted the little girl back with a smile, glancing at her parents to make sure they weren't watching – he wouldn't want to get her in trouble. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Mommy packed our things and said we had to leave. We stopped at Duddley's school to get him too," she said, pointing at her older brother.

"So you're Dudley," Sirius told the boy. He really was big but not quite on the fat side like his father. "Nice to meet you. I'm Sirius Black."

He offered his hand to shake and Dudley took it a bit reluctantly – he still wasn't sure of what to think of Sirius at first.

"You're the bloke who went to talk to Mom," the boy said, a bit awkwardly. "Quinn told me about you. You really are like her? You can do those things?"

Sirius nodded. "Many people can, actually, you just don't know about it."

"So, is it true we're in danger?" he asked in a whisper, so Quinn wouldn't catch it – she was once again distracted, looking at the castle up on the hill. "Mom said we'd be in danger if we stayed at home and Quinn told me she overheard Mom and Dad saying it had to do with your world – they're avoiding telling me about it, though. Not sure how they'll be able to keep it up now… But anyway, is it true?"

Sirius had to nod. "Yes, you're in danger. And it has to do with our world – there's a war going on."

"A war?"

He nodded again. "Long story short, there's this evil guy who thinks he's entitled to have the world the way he likes it. He's not too fond of your people – we call them Muggles – or people like us who are born from people like you." He wasn't lying but he certainly tried to bend the story so he wouldn't need to mention Harry's part in it.

Dudley immediately looked at his little sister. "She's in danger too? She's just a kid – she did nothing wrong."

"Everyone is in danger either they did something wrong or not. You Muggles are just the most vulnerable ones," Sirius stated, just as Quinn turned her attention back to them.

"Where are we?" she asked, her eyes shining with curiosity.

Sirius grinned at her. "Remember that special school I told you about?"

Her eyes became huge as she looked at him. "It's here? In the pretty castle?"

He nodded. "That's right."

"Are there princesses up there?" she asked in amazement. "Like in the storybooks?"

Sirius chuckled. "There will be once you enroll."

She giggled and turned to the castle again. "Can I go see it now? Inside?"

"Well, that wouldn't be fair, would it?" he asked – he wouldn't mind showing it to her but it was just too urgent getting her and her family into hiding. A tour would have to wait for another day, another year, even. "All the other kids have to wait until they turn eleven. It's sort of a rule."

Her face fell just a little but she smiled again once she started imagining her life in the big castle a few years from then.

"It really is a castle?" Dudley whispered, doubtfully. "Not a bunch of ruins? 'Cause that's what I see… I thought Quinn was imagining it when she said there was a real castle – little kids have a big imagination."

"Not this big," Sirius informed him. "She can see it because she's like us. There are charms all over that keep you people from stumbling on us – they make the castle look like a bunch of uninteresting ruins and sometimes even make you think they want to leave."

The boy scratched his chin, seemingly interested. "Quinn said you told her she should come to this school when she turns eleven – that Mom and Dad might try and stop her. I just wanted you to know that, if that's the best for her, I'll make sure she comes here. By then I'll be of age." He glanced at Quinn, now admiring a bunch of wild flowers growing by the roots of a tree.

Sirius couldn't help feeling impressed. "You really care for her, don't you?"

"She's my sister," he said, sighing. "I didn't like her at first. I was the only kid before her, so I got all the attention and all the presents. Then she came." Dudley wasn't sure why he was telling some bloke he'd met like five minutes before all that stuff. He just felt like he needed to let that out – the story had been hidden inside him for so long. "Dad didn't mind her for some reason but Mom was always busy taking care of her 'cause she was a baby. I didn't like it. And then one day, she must be four or five at the time, Mom just started treating her differently, more… harshly."

"She must have seen Quinn using magic," Sirius concluded.

Dudley nodded. "Probably. I still wasn't a big fan of her but it felt wrong – Dad ignoring her, Mom throwing a fit at anything she did… It was nothing like they'd treated me. I guess I started to like Quinn out of pity. Then, Mom and Dad started to make all those big plans for my future, selling drills and stuff like that like what I wanted didn't matter, no matter what I said. And Quinn was just there – listening. She's not even seven, it's weird, but sometimes it's like she understands exactly what I'm saying, no matter how grown-up it sounds."

"Sometimes kids grow up faster than they should," Sirius told him from his own experience.

"I suppose. She's always been here for me even after I was an arse and always made fun of her," Dudley summed up. "The least I can do is pay the favour back. She's my little sister."

Sirius sighed – hopefully Dudley would have more success being an older brother than he had… He probably would. Regulus had been too close to sources of corruption: their parents, their cousins… That wasn't Quinn's case. "You're a good bloke, Dudley," Sirius told him.

Dudley remained quiet in response and just turned to see what Quinn was up too.

It was around that time that Sirius noticed another presence watching them from a few a few yards away on the path. Harry. He appeared to be moving his lips, though there didn't seem to be anyone around to speak to him – he'd bet anything Ginny was right there with him under his invisibility cloak…

"Would you mind staying here for a moment?" Sirius told Dudley, who shrugged in return.

He quickly made his way back to the path and walk along it until he reached his godson, who'd stopped talking in the meanwhile.

"Hi, there, kid," he greeted, "and Ginny."

There was a hiss and then the redhead's voice came. "How did you know I was here?"

"Well, it was either someone being here under the invisibility cloak or Harry having a chat with the voices in his head, which wouldn't be a good sign at all…" Sirius explained, standing by Harry's side and pretending he was just talking to him. "Plus, Izzy mentioned it was your turn to use the invisibility cloak for your secret meetings."

"Yeah… Listen, what did Izzy tell Fred and George for them to find out we were at the boathouse?"Ginny asked.

"Oh, well, nothing on purpose," Sirius assured her. "Believe me, I was there when it happened – they used this whole guessing thing and just started throwing names of places at her and she happened to flinch when they said 'boathouse'. Poor Izzy didn't stand a chance against those two," he declared. "I take it you're asking me that because you received a couple of unexpected visits over there…"

"Oh, we received them alright," Ginny said in a conniving tone.

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "What's that tone you're using?"

Harry cleared his throat at that. "Long story. Let's just say Ginny taught them a valuable lesson."

"By now, Fred must be trying to find a way to get the last twenty minutes of his life wiped out from his memory," Ginny stated proudly from under the cloak.

Sirius furrowed his brow. "What did you do?"

"Oh, we'll tell you later," she promised.

"Anyway," Harry said, "we were just going back to the castle but then we saw McGonagall rushing down here."

"We figured something important must be happening," Ginny stated.

Harry turned to Dudley and Quinn, then. "What happened? Who are those two?"

"Well, we also got a… an unexpected visit," Sirius informed him.

"From who?"

Sirius hesitated before speaking. "The Dursleys."

There was a silent pause, which Harry used to register the information. "You mean my… relatives?" He felt Ginny's hand rubbing against his arm in a supportive fashion.

His godfather nodded, pointing his thumb in the direction where the headmistress had gone along with his uncle and aunt. "McGonagall is talking to Vernon and Petunia right now."

"But why are they here? How? Aren't they Muggles? Mostly, I mean," Ginny inquired in a surprised tone.

"How they got here is too long of a story for me to tell you right now," Sirius said. "Ask me again another time, okay? About the 'why', well, long story short, Vernon Dursley is a stubborn arse who thinks he's 'the man'. He figured he could get his hands on your bodyguards," he told Harry.

"I don't have bodyguards," his godson said flatly.

"That's what I told him. His loss," his godfather pointed out.

"So those two are…" Ginny said, meaning the youngest Dusleys.

"Dudley and Quinn Dursley," Sirius stated. "Harry's cousins." He turned to Harry and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, kid, just because they're here, it doesn't mean you have to talk to any of them right now. I haven't told them about you, so, if you want, you can just walk…"

Harry shook his head, feeling Ginny's touch leaving his right arm as she reached for his hand. "No, it's okay. I… it's not their fault their parents are the way they are. I've actually been wondering about them ever since you told me about the little girl…"

Sirius nodded. "Well, want me to introduce them to you?"

The dark-haired boy hesitated but ended up nodding.

"Remember I'm here if you need," Ginny murmured against his ear. "Just because I'm invisible doesn't mean you get an excuse to forget me."

"As if I ever could…" he responded, smiling just a little.

His godfather gestured with his head towards Dudley and the three of them started walking in that direction.

Moody had already arrived, Sirius noted, watching the man stepping into the school grounds accompanied by Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle as the young auror whose name Sirius had already forgotten held the metal gates open for them.

McGonagall and the older Dursleys emerged from where they'd been talking and Sirius could swear Petunia had nearly fainted at the sight of the Mad-Eye. Then, he saw Moody reaching for his wand as the gates closed back and cast some sort of spell around them. And when the retired auror opened his mouth to yell, no sound reached Sirius – he could only imagine how loud the bloke was shouting for him to have cast a silencing charm around himself and the Dursleys.

Oblivious to that, Quinn was now standing on a rock by her brother's side, as if trying to stand more closely to him in terms of height, and seemed to be pointing at the castle.

"… and there's a big tower, really tall like the buildings in London," she was saying, referring the astronomy tower.

"That tall?" Dudley asked

"Really, really tall. Rapunzel tall," she assured him before jumping off the rock and looking at Sirius again. "Have you ever been up there?"

"Loads of times," he told her – not once since Dumbledore had been killed, though… "What's a Rapunzel?"

Quinn frowned. "Not what, who! She's a princess with really long hair – she lives in a really tall tower without a door and lets her hair down for the evil witch who raised her to climb – and the prince too when the bad witch is away."

"Hum, sounds interesting," Sirius told her as Dudley eyes Harry cautiously. "Though, I know for a fact that most witches are not evil."

"You know real witches?" she asked, amazed – she still hadn't figured out that the actual name for what she was happened to be 'witch'. "Ugly ones with crooked noses?"

"Mostly pretty ones with regular noses," he assured her with a chuckle. "Listen, I've got here someone you might like to meet," he declared, gesturing to his godson. "This is Harry, your cousin."

Both Quinn and Dudley seemed completely surprised for several moments, faced with that revelation.

"I didn't know we had a cousin," Dudley mumbled in a restrained fashion. "Er… our aunt Lily's son?"

Harry just nodded since his tongue didn't seem to be working at the moment – he felt Ginny's hand gripping his own and could almost hear her telling him to calm down despite her not saying a word.

Quinn was blunter than her brother, though. "Really? So you're like me? Mr. Sirius said your Mommy was like me too. Does that mean you study here too? Is it great living in a castle?"

He was almost taken aback by the many questions but there was something in the little girl's greenish brown eyes that made him relax. It's wasn't the eyes, it was the face. She looked vaguely like his mother – just enough so the familiarity would feel… calming. "Er… yeah. I'm like you, I study here and it's great." He could almost see Ginny smiling proudly at his articulate response.

"How come we've never met you before?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't really know about you until a few days ago."

"Mom never told us of you," Dudley stated in a purely informative tone. "Then again, she barely ever mentioned your mom." He swallowed hard and offered him his hand. "Er… nice to meet you, then, I'm Dudley. This is Quinn."

"Quinn spelled with an 'i' and two 'n's, not two 'e's and an 'n'," the little girl added like it was vital he knew that.

For a moment, she reminded him of Hermione too and he had to chuckle… "So noted," he assured her. He felt Ginny's invisible hand shake against his arm and figured she's found the little girl amusing too.

"Diddy!" they heard a female voice, Petunia's, calling.

Dudley's blush at the nickname was worthy of a true Weasley. "She's got to stop calling me that," he mumbled under his breath, as he turned to his mother.

Petunia stood near the gates, very pale and glaring at Sirius in a 'get away from those kids, they're mine' way. Then, her eyes met Harry's at a distance and she simply froze in her place for several moments before her nephew looked away. No doubt she knew exactly who he was…

"Well," Dudley told Harry as his little sister hugged Sirius goodbye. "We need to go. Maybe after this… er, thing is over – the hiding – we can meet sometime?"

"Yeah, after it's over," Harry agreed – strangely, he did look forward to it. Blood really was thicker than water that way. "I'll be busy for a while… with this war thing."

His cousin seemed surprised. "You're in it too? You're what? Sixteen like me?"

Harry nodded. "I'm in this much more deeply than you can imagine," he mumbled.

"Well, good luck then," Dudley told him before retreating back, getting ready to leave.

Before they did, though, little Quinn climbed back onto the rock she'd been on earlier, which placed her right opposite Harry. She gestured for him to come down and he did, figuring she wanted to tell him some sort of secret. Instead, she kissed his cheek, which nearly made him jump in surprise. He heard a strangled laughing sound coming from his right, which gave away Ginny's amusement at his reaction.

"Will you come and visit me, Harry?" his little cousin asked.

Even though he immediately related visiting Quinn to the possibility of accidentally running into his estranged aunt and uncle, he couldn't help nodding – there was just something entirely too sweet about that little girl with the reddish blonde hair that made it hard for him to say 'no' to her. "Er… sure. If I can. Might take a while, though."

She gave him a radiant smile anyway and ran to join her older brother again.

Sirius chuckled and clapped his godson's back as Dudley and Quinn walked away. "If when you have kids you end up with one as cute as that, you're doomed for life, kid," he warned him. "She's pretty amazing, isn't she? That's saying something, considering who's been raising her…"

Harry nodded. "Reminded me of Hermione with all the questions," he admitted.

"You know, if she wasn't your cousin and a decade younger than you, I might have gotten jealous that such a cute girl would kiss you," Ginny informed him from under the cloak – he could practically hear her smiling as she spoke.

"Oh, don't worry – even if they weren't related and she was your age, she's not red-headed enough for him. Potters have a very specific type," Sirius informed her with a laugh before looking at Harry. "Not so bad meeting them, was it?"

Harry shook his head. "No, not so bad. Dudley was okay too, I suppose. It was better than i expected." He kept his eyes on his cousins as they made their way to their parents, now flanked by Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle, their protectors from then on.

He felt a weight on his right shoulder and figured it was Ginny resting her invisible head there – in a way, it felt awkward feeling her there but not seeing. In another way, it just felt right… in fact, rightness trumped over awkwardness as it should. He'd have wrapped one arm around Ginny's form in return too but he figured that would look just odd for anyone who saw him half-hugging an invisible form – he definitely didn't need to give people more reasons to think he was out of his nut.

Petunia glanced up at him one last time, this time without freezing, and nodded. Maybe it was an apology, maybe just an acknowledgement of his presence – he ended up nodding in return, though his gesture didn't have any actual meaning for him. Maybe it had for her… he didn't really care. His aunt turned to the gates again and approached them with her husband, children and new protectors.

One of the aurors opened the gates to allow them to get out and Quinn turned back one last time to wave at them, to which neither he nor Sirius couldn't help responding with waving too. Ginny for a moment wished she wasn't wearing the cloak so she could wave too…

And as the Dursleys stepped out of Hogwarts, Harry silently wished them all good luck. And hoped he's at least see some of them again in the future.

A/N2: Well, I hope you liked the chapter - seemed like it was needed as a follow-up for the other one about the Dursleys... I'd write more but I'm exhausted (It's 4 in the morning...). Feedback is welcome, as always! Review!