A/N - Some Harry and Sirius interaction, a dash of adorable Neville-ness and a look at a less teary Jily, topped with some Blackinnon back story :) Whoop Whoop!

Disclamer - I do not own Harry Potter.

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Chapter 5:

Saint Mungo's, Halloween Afternoon 1983, DD

After leaving the muggle hospital Auror Black moved toward an old abandoned building Constable Davey had told him was in the area before they got to the hospital. Pulling out his emergency St. Mungo's port key he held tight to the boy, who weighed practically nothing, as he closed one of the boys hands around the port key and touched it himself. Whispering the pass code he felt the familiar whisking away of port-key travel. He landed a block away from St. Mungo's boy still clutched to his chest. He took great care as he moved noting things such as the boys pulse and breathing, when the pulse became faster and the breathing more ragged Sirius pulled the boy back ever so slightly he was met by a pair of the most striking green eyes that made him jump. Those eyes were very reminiscent to the green eyes his best friends wife had. Reminiscent to the green eyes his best friends wife passed down to there son. For a fleeting secound he tried to imagine that instead of holding some random child he held his Godson. He was almost able to due so, but there was one striking difference between the two (other than age) His godson was a happy baby who was doted on and in truth quite spoiled. The boy he held now was malnourished, beaten, and the most striking difference was that the boy was stiff in fear.

"Hey there bud, I am going to get you some help alright. Don't worry you are safe now." He said, the boys expression did not change, if anything it worsened. He tried not to say anything about it as he moved toward the door to St. Mungo's he wrapped the boy tightly in his robe and with one arm leaned the boys head against his shoulder as a Muggle Mother and her pram passed.

"We will be home soon buddy." He said in a soft tone as the Woman passed she turned slightly but payed the two little mind. After she passed he walked up to the manikin.

"Auror Black for Healer McDonald, emergency." He said and the manikin stepped aside allowing him entry. The welcome witch was on her feet approaching him as he walked though the door. It was one thing he actually sometimes enjoyed about his surname, it carried weight in society. He did not always enjoy the privilege. When he was younger he saw his cousin Bellatrix taken back after a simple broom accident before more serious injuries were treated. But in cases like this he was glad he was not a newer pure-blooded family like the Brown's who only reached pure status three generations ago. The boy would be treated earlier because of it and it may make a difference in his recovery.

The woman had a stretcher levitated behind her. Sirius moved the boy from his arms and laid him down. He was taking the boy toward the door when Healer Mary McDonald ran into the room. Sirius knew Mary well. She was a year younger than him at Hogwarts in Gryffindor as well. However, he did not know her that well in school, or though the order even though they were both members. He met her first though a bad case she had worked on, now he knew her better though Regulus.

"Auror Black!," she said, her black hair was pulled up in a low ponytail her dark eyes flicking to the cot in a sigh of relief that was ill fit to the situation as she moved to fall in step at the left side of the bed.

"He is young, we think two. Severe malnutrition and muggle abuse." her eyes flickered up in question. Though out cases Mary had learned not to question Sirius's original findings, they were often quite correct. In fact, they were right at a consistency that made Mary slightly wary of why Sirius had such knowledge.

"Muggle," She repeated looking back down at the boy.

"Those were not created by spells," He said motioning to the few whipping marks that had long since scared over.

"h...ho..." She stuttered before shaking her head. "Any magical scars?" She asked.

"Curse scar on his forehead above left brow. Low body heat, vomited earlier on a Constable." He said, Mary nodded as Sirius slowed his stride allowing the boy to disappear up ahead.

After all he had forms to fill out.

His eyes traveled back to the hall Mary and the boy had dissipated down as he resisted the urge to follow. He never wished to linger around children when he brought them to St. Mungo's he trusted the staff, he trusted Mary even more than the rest of the staff. But there was something about this case, this boy that had him antsy. He shook his head chalking it up to resemblance. After all the kid did have green eyes and crazy black hair making him have slight resemblance with the Godson he had lost two years ago.

That was it, just remembrance. Nothing else. He told himself, a part of his brain huffed in disbelief.

Forms that one needed to fill out for an unnamed child with no family at hand and little in the form of medical records was, as one would guess, not very time consuming. The paper, however, looked kind of sad after filled out. It was all that was known about the boy and Sirius did not even have a name to fill out. There was only one letter in the first name box. Or it was a letter before he crossed it out. H. Signing his name at the bottom he sighed and turned the paper into the welcome witch. Most cases he would get the information on the case, turn and leave after that leaving the child in the hands of its family and the professionals. But with the little amount of productivity that happened in the Auror office on Halloween he decided to stay with the kid. After all it was not like the boy had any family present at the moment. Mary raised an eyebrow at him when he entered the room.

"He is extremely malnourished. He is very dehydrated, has iron - deficiency anemic from blood loss and an iron lacking diet, well he had an everything lacking diet seeing as they barely fed him. Concussed from blunt force, multiple infections with no sign of ever having treatment, bad eyes from a dark area, broken ribs some partially healed fractures in his legs and arms and bruised hip bone, a bad Irritant dermatitis, he doesn't have hypothermia yet but we need to make sure he stays warm. The worse of it though is that curse scar. Ugly magic in it. I can't exactly name from what though, I have seen something like it but I'll be damned if I can remember. I am going to send it over to the unspeakable maybe they will make better work of it. He also has binds on his core. Quite a bit of binds actually, but the amazing part is it doesn't look like a foreign signature did the binds."

"So his parents," Sirius said trying to stop his eyes from traveling to the boys form.

"Not even that much of a deviance between core and bind." Mary said with a sigh.

"You think he bound his own magic." Sirius said this time unable to steal a look at the boy. Binding magic was exceedingly hard, not to mention the dangers. Binds were only used when Muggleborns did not accept entry into the magic world or others who had mental and or medical shortcomings and were unable to control there magic making it violent. A century ago old families would use partial binding to control accidental magic in children but the act was exceedingly frowned upon once discovered that the act of breaking bounded magic could result in a loss of magic, squibs.

"Probably a defensive mechanism." She nodded.

"Can we unbind the core." Sirius asked.

"It would be too messy we wouldn't be able to tell if it was his core or the binds we were trying to break." She said shaking her head. "It is possible of course but a last resort, we need to get him to release the binds himself. I already gave the needed potions to start helping with the infections, some diaty to help heal the wounds and changed him coating the diaper with lotion, the best would be to set him in some standing water but for now we need to keep him warm so the lotion will just have to do. I need to call a few other people in who are more apt to deal with some of the more severe and uncommon conditions."

"I'll keep an eye on him."

"Sirius," The woman said furrowing her brow. Probably coming up with some crazy idea as to why he was staying rather than going back to the office.

"He shouldn't be alone. He is only a babe, Do we know who he is?"

"For now he has a very low blood count so It is not suggested to use the paternity and or maternity potions until he is a bit stronger, but they take a while to brew anyways. I was going to bring the potions master in here though, He would know better. Unless you are calling in Lily?" She asked.

"No, no, James and Lily are going to stay away from this case. I am just going to run it alone. Send the files back though the muggle system for prosecution on the muggles who beat him and help him ease into the system. No need for James or Lily to step in."

"He almost looks like... never mind. I will be back. Sirius, be careful."

"I am always careful." He said watching as she left the room before he slumped down into a seat once again trying to avert his eyes from the boy before him he leaned down and placed his hands over his face and huffed. A soft whimper negated his efforts however as he turned to face the boy. Who was attempting to exit the bed with great difficulty. He dropped to his feet with a hissed breath as he moved to shuffle his feet across the floor in a quite slow infant like walk before turning slowly to look toward Sirius who averted his eyes quickly. The boy then kept moving toward a small closet in the room that held potions. He opened it slowly and Sirius moved to his feet. His original plan of watching how the boy acted was no longer an option if he endangered himself.

"Hey buddy, that's not a good idea." He said, the boy flinched at the voice. Sirius was not used to such a reaction, in fact he was quite good at putting children at ease made them feel safe. He did not like the flinching toddler before him so he tried a new approach. Leaning down to balance his weight on his heels he reached out to touch the child slowly. The boy jumped back and flinched covering his face whispering words Sirius only slightly caught.

"I'm not going to hurt you bud. You are safe." He said but the boy kept whispering shaking so much Sirius sighed and allowed one hand to fall from the boys shoulders as he reached his hand into his robe pocket to take out his badge. He moved his other hand to bring the child's small one into the palm of his own and pressed the warm metal into it. The badge was outfitted with an eagle owl on the top below was the word Auror engraved into the metal. It was ornate shield shape with a circle in the middle, two words, honor and duty, inscribed on ribbons fell to the sides of three wands crossed one straight pointing at the middle R one on an angle starting from behind the word and pointing to the beginning and another crossing the other way. The boy looked up, surprise evident in his eyes.

"You see that badge, it means I am a good guy. I am going to keep you safe from the bad guys alright. No one will hurt you while I am here, you may feel uncomfortable and have to drink discussing potions to make yourself feel better but no one will every lay a hand on you." He said the boy just seemed bewildered at the statement and at the badge before him.

"Don't believe me, huh kid. Can't say I blame you. I don't think many people in your life have protected you. But how about this, we learn together alright. This cabinet is dangerous and I don't want you hurt and more than you already are and to make sure that you don't I need you to stay in the bed okay." The boy began to shake his head quickly and murmur more words Sirius could not understand. Pulling the boy into his arms he lifted him and carried him to the small chair he had been sitting on earlier and pulled the boy to his chest humming an old tune as his hand ghosted across the boys back. Soon his stiff posture slumped ever so slightly and his breaths evened against Sirius' neck. It hadn't been an hour when Mary returned to see the small boy asleep in Sirius's arms followed by three other healers.

"Auror Black," She called softly not to spook the child that had shook with fear earlier when she cast the diagnosis spells.

"He's out." He paused to say something else before he shook his head as he placed the boy back on the bed and tucked him in."excuse me," he added as he walked out of the room.

Godric's Hallow, Mid-Afternoon, Halloween 1983, DD

Early afternoon in Godric's Hallow saw Astraea fed lunch and laid down for a nap in the spare room as the others sat down for there lunch. Neville Longbottom smiled as he finished up his soup as he turned to his Aunt Lily whose lap he practically sat on as he perched between her and James. Neville was the first one done with his smaller portion of lunch he happily scarfed down before turning to Lily.

"I is done, can we play outside now?"

"Once everyone finishes Nev," Lily said with a smile.

"But that will take forever," Neville whined

"It won't take all that long dear, an hour or so at most." Lily explained. She knew it wouldn't take that long for everyone to finish but she was hoping to be able to clean the dishes before Neville drug her outside to dig in the dirt.

"But that is forever, I will be four by then." He whined making the adults at the table chuckle at his theatrics.

"No you won't Dirt Money you will be four in July." James said ruffling the boys blondish hair.

"When I am four I will be big, right?" He said turning to face James instead.

"Bigger than you are now, yes," James said.

"Can I go outside by myself then," Neville asked.

"No, it still will not be safe." Lily said from her side. Remus and Marlene shared a sad smile. This conversation was too adorable, but it was equally as painful as they knew that beside the head of blonde hair and brown eyes should be one black hair that wouldn't lay still and green eyes pleading along with.

"Aunt Lily!" The three year old whined.

"Neville!" Lily whined back.

"When will I be big enough." He asked

"When you can spell Mimbulus Mimbletonia," She smiled.

"Mim bus mim blet... That's a hard word." He said crossing his arms in a pout.

"You can go outside by yourself once you can spell it."

"No fair, I is to little."

"That, dear Neville, is the point." She said and Neville huffed once again.

"Can I play in the living room?" He asked hopefully.

"You may be excused to the living room if you stay where you can see us." Lily said and Neville smiled wrapping his small arms around her.

"I love you Aunt Lily, even if you make me spell big words like mim-bus Mim-blet-ona"

"Mimbulus Mimbletonia," She corrected as Neville took off for the Living room to play with the toys the Potter's kept for their Godson.

"I doubt I could spell that one," James smiled.

"Then maybe you shouldn't be let outside by yourself." Lily countered making Marlene and Remus laugh once again.

"Hey, Moony what about Marauder code."

"Goes out the window now Prongs, maybe you should go play with Dirt Monkey in the living room." He laughed, a piece of bread was thrown at Remus for his trouble. Neville smiled from the living room and whispered to himself as a reminder to tell his Gran that she was right. Loves does fix everything.

Black Cottage, Late-Night Halloween 1983, DD

Marlene Black nee McKinnon stood silently in the door way of her daughter's room. Astraea was spoiled, there was never any doubt that the daughter of two old an ancient lines (even if none of her grandparents were alive), would be. Her room was testament to that fact. A large oak rocking chair, where her husband presently sat, was placed at the head of the room staring out into the window. The room was painted in a golden color with golden drapes over both the cot and the crib. Oak was the only wood used in the room and its most integrate design was on the chest of drawers and the wardrobe that sat across from the large rocking chair. It had vine working up the sides into relief flowers at the crowns. Scroll relief sculptures surrounded the top of the wardrobe ending in one large flower at the top. The sheets in the crib and the upholstery of the chair where both a burgundy red. It was a room fit for a Gryffindor Princess which was exactly what Astraea would be raised to be.

At the moment however Marlene just watched as the old rocking chair squeaked against the wooden floor as her husband hummed a tune she recognized all to well. She doubted he did however, if he knew the tune he probably would not have hummed it at all. It was Harry's lullaby a wordless tune everyone hummed to the baby when he was fussy. She had not heard it since July of 1981 when she was taken by the Death Eaters. She watched as her husband pushed himself from the old rocker and moved to lay Astraea down in her crib leaning over the edge and grasping the rim tightly. Marlene moved forward as slipping her arms around her husbands waist his entire body relaxed into the comfort as Marlene slipped under his arm between the crib and her husband. She moved her hands up his sides and to his shoulder blades before tracing her fingers down to his own and intertwining their fingers. She then tugged his right hand up with her left before twisting it and placing a kiss to the back. She moved to so the same with the other hand watching as his eyes flickered open and a sad smile graced his face before he dropped her hands and pulled her flush against his chest allowing her ear to press against his chest as his head swooped to lean against the top of her head. Marlene felt tears land against her hair and tightened her hold around his back. Then he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head and she moved her head to capture his lips in her own. As they kissed his arms tightened around her pulling her even closer. Wiggling out of his arms with difficulty Marlene lead him to their room. No words were exchanged, they were long past the time when they needed words to communicate this. This was an old dance they did around each other. It was in fact a similar dance in which they shared their first kiss.

Marlene had been Sirius's rock since the summer before fifth year when she ignored the Potter's, and his own, requests to leave and curled up next to him as he shook with repercussions from the cruciatus curse and wrapped her body around him as a silent act of acceptance and protection. The two were close before that night but something changed then. Marlene became a type of crutch he needed to get though the day. Needless to say the other girls in Hogwarts did not like the fact he was practically dependent on the platonic touch of Marlene. It destroyed many of his relationships and created many fights between Marlene and her boyfriend though out school.

It wasn't until graduation they shared their first kiss, it wasn't until almost months later Sirius even stopped Marlene long enough to talk about it. Three months after that when Marlene's boy friend broke up with her and another month before Sirius took Marlene on their first date, that was truthfully quite the disaster. Seeing London was a great idea for a date, seeing London during a snow storm while riding on the back of a flying motorcycle not so much. Then came the ever so awkward goodnight kiss that never actually happened because both were called to an order meeting where James, ever the prat, decided to announce to the entire meeting the reason the two where late was because Sirius finally took his head out of his a**, as one could guess that went over well. After the order meeting Marlene offered Sirius some hot chocolate at her apartment to finish off the horrible date. He ended up falling asleep on her couch before the drink was even finished. Yes, their first date was quite bad and it was a mutual decision not to have another until they ran into each other at Leaky Cauldron on New Years. After a few more 'random' meetings, that were orchestrated completely by Sirius, they went on there secound official date. He proposed 17 months later after a bad order assignment and they married quietly in September of 1980.

Curled up against her husband Marlene's eyes flickered closed first and Sirius carded a hand though her hair softly before he gave up and moved to collect Astraea, the small girl cried initially at the movement before she curled up against his chest once again and babbled herself to sleep. He laid back down and saw a knowing smile on his wives face as she curled up next to him again. Absentmindedly he continued to hum the old tune once again as his own eyes fluttered closed glad to have another Halloween past.

A/N - Please Review, It makes me update faster (lol) Shameless plug. This was the last already written chapter and I am at the moment questioning how exactly I am going to continue this story. I know the plot just not my exact lay out to fill the next two or three chapters. Hopefully I will have a new one up this weekend, fingers crossed.

I hope you all enjoyed.