Chapter two: Years

"Ithaca, your shoes are on backwards."

"No, they're not."

"I am literally looking right at them, and yes. They are."

She narrowed her eyes in a familiar determined expression he'd seen on Sirius enough times to recognize. He mentally groaned. "How do you know your shoes aren't the ones that are backwards? Well yeah society says mine are backwards, but how do they know?"

"You're four, what are you doing using words like 'society'?"

She grinned at him and smoothed out her dress. "Aunt Minnie says it's a'cause I'm gifted."

Remus sighed with a smile and picked her up to go through the Floo. Tonight was the full moon and Ithaca was spending the night with her friend, Neville Longbottom. Remus owed a great deal to Augusta Longbottom. He'd been friends with her son and after he had Ithaca, she helped him more than he could begin to express, showing him the best way to get her to eat, how to get her to sleep through the night, taught him how to get her to listen without him raising his voice. She and Neville became immediate friends and he was content to follow her lead in their games. Augusta watched her during the full moons many times. Between she, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Hagrid, he couldn't ask for better help.

"Ithaca!" She ran to her friend as soon as Remus set her on solid ground.

"Remus," Augusta greeted. "You're looking well considering."

He snorted. "Now I know I look terribly. And I definitely feel it." He sagged tiredly. "She brought her new Rubik's cube. She wants to teach Neville some trick on it. She's already eaten and we went to the park today so she shouldn't have any trouble getting to sleep, but lately she's been having trouble staying asleep so if you wake up to an elbow in your side… "

Augusta nodded at each note. "What's a Rubik's cube?"

"It's a Muggle puzzle of sorts. I can't figure the thing out, but she loves it."

She made an 'ah!' expression and glanced over to the children who were transfixed on Ithaca's new toy, Neville looking very confused at it.

"Well," Remus said, looking around nervously. "I had better get going."

"We will see you tomorrow afternoon."

"Thank you, truly. Ithaca! Come give me a hug before I go, pup."

The little girl in question charged at him with a wild grin, her long black hair trailing in a blur behind her.

"Oof! You're going to crush me."

"Love you, Moony."

He kissed the crown of her head and gave her a last squeeze before leaving.

Ithaca loved playing with Neville, even if he was awfully nervous a lot. Like he was afraid of messing everything up all the time. He just needed to believe in himself more. Aunt Minnie called that confidence. Ithaca remembered because Aunt Minnie also said she had it in spades. She didn't really understand the phrase, but Moony said it meant a lot. It made her smile.

"Where do you think he goes?" She asked her friend, suspiciously eyeing the fireplace.

Neville shrugged. "Probably home to rest cause he's sick."

"But he's sick all the time."

He shrugged again and showed her his new herbology book. She happily looked on with him, but still had her question in the back of her mind.

That night, frightened out of her sleep by a faceless nightmare, Ithaca's little feet slapped at the cold floor as she went down the hall to Neville's room. The door creaked when it opened, and Neville was sleeping peacefully amidst the picture books around him on the bed. Ithaca poked his face until he stirred.

"Wassit?"

"Move over," she whispered, moving his books to the chair in the corner of the room. He shuffled over more and she climbed up, having to pull herself up by grabbing the sheet rather than using the step stool that was Neville's preference.

"Good night," she murmured, snuggling in. Her only answer was a snore.

*

"Today is my birthday," Ithaca told Neville when he came over for the day. Remus smiled. She'd been asking when it was about once a week for the past two months. He had saved up to get her a pet, as she absolutely loved McGonagall's Animagus form, so today he was taking her and Neville to Diagon Alley. She just didn't know that yet.

"Are your shoes on the right feet?" He asked. She gave him a look. "I mean, are they on what society deems is the right feet?"

She sighed dramatically. "Alas, my protest has gone unobserved so yes, they are. But I don't like it."

"Noted." He wasn't sure where she got some of the things she said like this, but somewhere this is how he imagined Sirius was as a child. It was enough to drive a parent insane, but he loved who she was. If she could be Sirius and stop short of his manipulations, he would be okay with that. There was absolutely no denying whose daughter she was.

Luckily, people didn't look at her and think 'Sirius Black' whenever they went to Diagon Alley- which wasn't often. They only saw a wild girl who wanted to see everything.

They lived mostly in the Muggle world as he could get a job there without prejudice of his "furry little problem", so they rarely ventured near other wizards. She didn't understand why, but she didn't really ask aside from the reason when they did go to Diagon Alley. This time he told her Floo powder.

"Moony, look!" She pointed to a new broom on display. He had one that he would occasionally take her up on with him, and she had a child broom Hagrid had given to her last birthday. Neville and Remus followed her down the crowd of people last minute shopping for Hogwarts the next day.

"Ithaca, stay close." She stopped walking and waited for them to catch up before going off again and running into someone, falling. The tall man glanced down casually, his long, white-blond hair shining in the sun. She stood up and brushed herself off. "Ithaca, you can't go running off like that, apologize for bumping into him."

Then Remus looked up and saw who it was. Lucius Malfoy. He could have sighed. "I'm sorry, sir," he heard her say. He and Lucius were watching each other carefully and he saw the click in the other man's eyes when he realized whose daughter this was.

"Quite alright," he drawled. "Children are, of course, allowed their transgressions."

"Right," Remus said, wanting to get her as far away from this man as humanly possible. "Come along, Ithaca. Neville."

Lucius stopped them, "Uh, Lupin. What brings you here today? It is not often we are blessed with your, presence."

"Floo powder," Ithaca said. "And, it's my birthday."

His steel gray eyes flashed. "Is it? Well the happiest of them to you, Miss Black."

When they were down the street and outside of the Magical Menagerie, she turned to Remus. "I didn't like that man, Moony."

"Why not?" Remus asked curiously.

"He just made me feel strange. And he knew me. I don't know how, but he knew me."

Remus said nothing and they went inside the store. He was almost positive she would choose a cat. Or maybe an owl as she always got excited when the post came in. He did not, however, expect her to bypass both and head toward the stranger animals. She and Neville were looking at ferrets when something landed on her shoulder. A young finger monkey. Her face lit up and she held her hand up for the monkey to crawl in it. Then she looked up at Remus with a grin he could never say no to.

"Twenty galleons." The woman at the counter told them a few minutes later.

It was twice as much as he had wanted to spend. He looked down at Ithaca and the monkey who was currently on Neville's shoulder playing with his ear and sighed softly, getting the money out. No Floo powder for today.

Ithaca named the monkey Powder. He told her, when she asked, that he had only used Floo Powder as a cover for the pet. She was too young to worry about money. She bought it with a smile and proclaimed his name in celebration. Remus couldn't feel too down when seeing how happy the small animal made her. They could just apparate back and forth places for a while.

*

Ithaca glanced nervously at the building in front of her. "Why can't I stay home with Neville and Gran? He doesn't have to come to school."

"Neville is being homeschooled."

"Why can't I be homeschooled?"

Remus sighed. "Because I think it would be best if you were around more kids your age aside from Neville. It could be fun."

She looked doubtful. "What if they don't like me?"

"They will love you," he insisted.

"He's a werewolf!" Ithaca said excitedly.

Neville looked at her with a frown and knitted eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"Moony! Don't you see?" She pulled out a big book from behind her back and flipped to a page in it. "He's gone every month on the full moon, he has all those scars, he doesn't work in the Wizarding world because they would notice and be mean to him."

"Remus is going to be mad that you messed with his books, Ithaca."

She huffed at her friend, the way only seven year olds can. "I'm allowed to read his books."

"When he's supervising."

She opened her mouth to say something when she heard Remus come out of his study. Quickly she stuffed the forbidden book under a pillow and answered yes, she was hungry and ready for lunch. And yes, chicken tenders sounded delicious- did we have ranch? Neville rolled his eyes, a new thing for him courtesy of Ithaca, and went back to his chess game with Powder.

*

"Who were my parents?" She asked him one rainy afternoon at nine years old. She and Powder had gone window to window looking outside with a disappointed sigh. She had wanted to play outside today. Ithaca had never asked about her parents. He told her stories, of course, but he left her parents' names out and never mentioned past Hogwarts.

"What do you want to know?" He asked diplomatically. He had prepared for this day, not being naïve enough to think she would never ask.

"What were their names?"

Remus put his paper down and beckoned her over to sit with him. "Your mother's name was Ellabeth Selwyn. She was a Ravenclaw."

"And my father?"

"His name was S-Sirius Black."

She beamed. "And he was a Gryffindor, like us, right?"

Remus nodded, but was unsure. As she got older, he had the thought that perhaps she was more Slytherin than Gryffindor.

"How did they die?" Ithaca whispered.

Remus kissed her hair and inhaled softly. "I have told you that not all wizards are good, haven't I?" She nodded, cuddling closer to him. "Well a long time ago, one wizard went really bad. His name was Voldemort. He gathered followers and wanted to kill all the Muggles and Muggleborns. He thought that being pureblood made you better."

"But that's crazy!" She said. "Lyla is much better at arithmetic than I am, and she's a Muggle."

Remus couldn't help but smile. Truth from the mouths of babes. "I know that, and you know that, but he and his followers thought differently. Albus led a fight against him. I was part of that fight as were James, Lily, Peter, and Sirius."

"Did he kill them?"

He wanted to lie and say that yes, Voldemort killed her parents, but she would be going to Hogwarts soon and would learn the truth there. He wanted to be the one that had to tell her. "Voldemort killed your mother a few months after you were born. She had tried to defend a Muggle child during a raid."

"A-and my dad?"

"Sirius was a follower of Voldemort." She gasped and Powder even covered his own mouth. "He betrayed us."

Ithaca didn't say anything for a few minutes and then she climbed in Remus' lap and hugged him. "You're my real father, Moony. I love you."

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and hugged her tightly to him. "I love you too, pup."