Sorry for the wait, but here is the next chapter, in this one you'll get to see a bit of Charlie's POV and some Sirius/OC romance. Please please please review, lots of you have been reading but I have had barely any reviews. Next chapter should be up soonish bearing in mind I have a German test on Tuesday which i need to revise for, thanks guys :)

Chapter 5-

James POV

Waking up for school on Monday wasn't as daunting as it usually was in fact all of us Marauders were up before the alarms went off. I suppose mostly it was out of excitement but there was that hint of nervousness about Charlie's first day of preschool.

Since none of us could sleep we all went down to the common room where we found Lily reading a book. She looked so beautiful with her face lit up by the glow of the candle and the way her hair fell into her face made me want to reach out and tuck it behind her ear stroking her cheek lightly as I drew back.

She looked up startled when Remus knocked into one of the coffee tables making a soft scraping noise, enough to bring her back from the fantasy in her book to the reality of life.

"What are you boys doing up, its 5:20am" She asked confused with a hint of amusement it was known to lots of people that we were not early risers,

"Could ask you the same thing" I asked back, enjoying our casual conversation, which seemed to have been improved since our, can I believe it, date on Sunday.

"I was just thinking and then well I couldn't sleep anymore so I came down here" she said spreading her arms to indicate the common room, "You?"

"Same really I suppose the whole psychic thing kept me thinking and then I was worried about Sirius, you know that he will spend all day worrying if she is okay or not, especially now he knows about you know her powers." I told her

"I know," she sighed "I guess the other reason I was up was just because Charlie is growing up, I mean it's going to be so weird not seeing her all the time, but I suppose it is safer and more beneficial to her" She finished an smiled actually smiled at me and I returned the favour before turning to Sirius who was now looking intently into the fire, deep in thought,

"Padfoot mate, you alright" I asked him and he looked up at me,

"Yeah I'm fine, it's just hard to process that's all, I just can't help thinking about all the stuff that she is going to have to see and what happens if someone finds out they'll want to kill her and I can't live without her, she's the reason for my existence" He said head in hands as if it was his fault that all this was happening.

"Sirius we are not going to let anything happen to her" I said repeating the words I had said to him when he told us Saturday night. He looked up at me and smiled,

"Yeah you're right, no one will touch her" he said with determination on his face.

"Sirius when does Charlie have to be at the school by?" lily asked breaking the silence that had drifted over us.

"9:15 and I'll be picking her up at 2:45 you guys can come if you want" he said gesturing to all of us.

"Yeah that will be nice, it's hard to believe really, she's growing up so fast" lily said smiling to herself

I saw Sirius briefly smile to,

"Yeah my little girls getting big, before you know it we'll be buying her school stuff" He said smiling at first but then soon swapped with a look of pain. I mean I suppose it was every dad's worst nightmare that his little girl would grow up

"Yep and she'll come home with her first boyfriend and you guys will be ready to kill him while I'll be assuring you that it will be fine" All of our heads snapped round to Lily's and the sound of her information, all of us with either disgusted or murderous looks upon our faces,

"Don't" Sirius said matter of factly "She will never ever date if it is anything I have to say about it" his face pale and I could just in my mind his thoughts were of him chasing a poor young boy out of the house when he claimed to be Charlie's boyfriend. Trust me I was having similar thoughts.

Lily just laughed and shook her head,

"You boys are so protective of her, I mean what are you going to do when she gets a boyfriend, lock her in her room so she doesn't see him again." She questioned still slightly giggling.

Nobody answered.

Sirius POV

At 8, O'clock I went back up to the dormitory to wake up Charlie for her first day of school. While the others had been talking downstairs my mind had been in two different places, one in the conversation while the other part was thinking about Charlie, everything from the powers to leaving her on her own at school.

I walked over to her 'big girl bed' and awed at the sight of her curled in a ball sucking her thumbs with her blankie wrapped around her hand, it was nearly enough for me not to wake her, but I knew I had to,

"Charlie" I whispered "come on baby time to get up, otherwise you'll be late for school." I continued.

I saw her eyelids flutter and I stroked back her hair from her face and leant down to kiss her forehead "come on sleepy head wake up now" I said with a bit more volume to my voice, She then opened her grey eyes to look into mine but as she blinked they remained shut, I laughed,

"Come on munchkin I know you're tired but we have to get ready, Daddy has to get ready for school as well."

She stirred and rolled over on to her back her eyes open holding her blankie about her head. I went to the wardrobe and looked inside. I had a conversation with Lily the other day about what i should dress Charlie in for preschool, so we both decided on jeans, converse and a white top with a smiley face on the front along with her Gryffindor hoodie with Black on the back.

When I turned around again Charlie was sitting up in bed looking at me her face giving no emotion away, I knew that she wasn't so keen on the preschool idea, whether it was school in general or being away from me, I didn't know. I laid her clothes out on my bed and went over to her

"Come on you need to get ready Charlie" I said trying to be a strict as possible without feeling like a horrible father, to my surprise she just came and sat in my lap, folding her arms around my neck and snuggling up to my chest. For a moment I didn't do anything and I was trying to process how she was feeling but when nothing came to mind I just hugged her back gently rocking her in my arms,

"What's wrong Charlie-bear?" I asked quietly

"What ifs no one likes me Daddy" She replied. I looked down feeling confused.

"Why would they not like you baby?" I asked my voice given off the same tone that I had in my feelings.

"Because, there might be someone like yucky Malfoy there" She said with a mixture of fear and annoyance, I frowned at this, now Malfoy was making my daughter scared of her new school which was making me pissed.

"Well if there is someone like that, and they get on your nerves then you have my permission to prank them okay" I smiled down at her

"With my new stuff daddy" She asked grinning evilly

"Yes, but don't tell Auntie Lily that I said that deal" I said as I held my hand out to her

"Deal" she said as she smacked my hand.

Once Charlie was ready and I had thrown on some old jeans and a t-shirt in an attempt to try and look presentable, not that it would matter people would take one look at me guess my age, look at how old Charlie was and put two and two together.

As we left the dormitory me carrying her little lion back pack and Charlie sliding down the stair on her bum, making a noise every time she landed on the next step down. We reached the bottom of the stairs and Charlie ran over to Maddie and started talking and playing with her hair.

"How's she feeling mate" Remus asked

"She's worried that no-one will like her because someone like Malfoy will be there" I replied my anger sparking up again.

"She actually said that" he seemed generally surprised.

"Yeah she didn't want to get up; I thought it was just because she was tired but obviously not." I murmured

"That doesn't sound like her, she's not normally scared of anything" He said confused

"Yeah I know" I sighed and looked at the clock on the wall, 9:00 we really had to go.

"Charlie it's time to go now sweetie" her face went from happily talking to her 'aunties' to gripping Maddie's arm so tight that her knuckles looked like they were about to burst through her skin.

"Come on Charlie, preschool's really fun, I went to one and I met Lily there and we are best friends now, you get to do lots of painting and cooking and play games." Alice reassured her while stroking her hair. Sometimes it really fascinated me at how much all of us had grown up since Charlie arrived.

"Will you all come and pick me up and not leaves me there" She asked looking around at every one in our group in turn.

"Yes" we all said in unison

"Kay" she reluctantly slid off Maddie's lap and gave her a big hug as she proceeded to do to everyone in the group before coming over and taking my hand,

"Come on then" I said as we headed off for Dumbledore's floo.

"I hope you have a wonderful day Miss. Charlie" Dumbledore smiled down at her as she was saying goodbye to Fawkes after telling him all that she planned to do at school, which was pretty much what Alice had told her in the common room.

"Bye bye" She waved at him. As we stepped in to fire and I shouted the address of the school

"Little ones preschool." And we were engulfed in the green and yellow flames.

The little building was small, surrounded by a field and trees with a play ground in the corner with a gate around the perimeter of it. The building itself looked very colourful and welcoming with the bright yellow pictures on the outside of the wall, the picture of a forest scene painted on the windows and a great big butterfly painted on the door. Charlie was holding my hand tightly, but not tight enough for me to be concerned. We continued to walk over to the door and stood behind all the other parents who were with their children, I smiled down at Charlie who was looking around at everything that was going on. The parents all started to move in and I followed with Charlie still holding my hand. As everyone went inside I got a glimpse of the interior of the building. It had wooden floors and the walls were covered with different learning mechanisms such as the alphabet and numbers up to 10, in the corner were a selection of games and each table in the room was set up with a different activity.

As we reached the doorway I froze in my step as a beautiful women stood there smiling at me and Charlie,

"Hi you must be Sirius Black, I'm Katie Wright I own the preschool." She said in a honey sweet voice that had me fixated.

She was fairly tall though compared to me she was still short, with long curly brown hair that reached the middle of her back and sapphire blue eyes that twinkled in the sun, she was beautiful and I couldn't help but stare it was only when Charlie squeezed my hand that I realised I was staring at this women while she stood there hand out for me to shake,

"Oh yeah sorry, Sirius Black, this is my daughter Charlie" I gestured towards Charlie taking my eyes off of the gorgeous women before me.

"Hi Charlie, I'm Katie but you can call me Kate okay" She smiled a perfect smile showing of her perfectly white teeth,

"Hi" Charlie said in a small voice, which was when I began to worry again, Charlie was never quiet unless there was something wrong, was she really ready to go to school?

"I'm sorry she is not normally shy, I think she is a bit nervous" I said

"It's fine Mr. Black really some of the children we get that start here end up having temper tantrums so compared to them Charlie is doing extremely well" she said while casting another smile back down to Charlie. "Charlie would you like to come inside with me and we can play some of the games that are set out and later we might be making some cookies" Kate said as she leant down on her knee's to get to the same height as Charlie,

"Daddy" She looked up at me and I felt guilt seeping into every part of my body knowing I had to tell her I was going now.

"I have to go sweetie, daddy has a class today" This earned me a sympathetic look from Kate, not confused or disgusted like I had been given many times before but like she understood, then I realised that Dumbledore obviously would have told her about the situation.

"Oh" She look down and began to scuff her converse toe along the floor, I bent down to her level and looked her in the eyes,

"Charlie I will pick you up later okay you go with Kate and have fun and then at 2:45 daddy will come and pick you up with everyone else okay" I told her, She looked unsure for a moment,

"Okay" She whispered and I leant down to kiss her head

"I love you" I told her

"Love you too daddy" she replied holding my neck tighter and my heart melted.

I leant back to my original height to look at Kate who had now taken hold of Charlie's hand giving her a reassuring squeeze, I took one last look at Charlie and then at the beautiful Kate before aparating away.

Charlie POV

I held Kate's hand as I watched Daddy pop away, I looked up and Kate was smiling at me.

"Come on then sweetie shall we go and play" I nodded back at her; looking back to make sure that daddy wasn't there before following her.

"I'll just take your bag and put it with the other children's okay Charlie" She asked

"Kay" she took the bag off my shoulders and walked away, I looked around and saw some boys come up to me,

"Are you new" One asked and I nodded

"I'm Luke" he said then he pointed at the other two boys,

"That is Ryan and Liam, what's your name?" he asked

"I'm Charlie" they all waved at me and I waved back,

"Do you want to come and play with us?" I nodded eagerly

"I gots some Zonko's products" I whispered to them, aware that I had snuck them in my pocket when Daddy wasn't looking.

We all laughed and ran to the back of the hall.

And so was born the next generation of marauders.

Sirius POV

If it was possible the day could not have gone more slow. By the time 2:45 came around I had only taken notes in 2 subjects, my mind elsewhere.

"Sirius you coming mate" James shouted to me,

"Yeah coming" I called back we were all flooing to the school, all eager to see how Charlie had gotten on. We arrived in Dumbledore's office to see him talking to one of the portraits.

"Ah go ahead all of you the floo should be ready" He said before resuming his conversation with who looked to be Merlin?

One by one we went into the fire place me going first so that they knew the location, I was followed by James, Lily, Remus, Maddie and finally Alice, we stood outside like I had done that morning, waiting to be called in as I waited to see Charlie and Kate again.

"Padfoot mate you look nervous, I'm sure if something had gone wrong the school would have contacted you or Dumbledore, even one of us lot I mean we are her emergency contacts." Remus said,

"I'm not nervous" I lied, but technically speaking I wasn't nervous about seeing Charlie, I was nervous about seeing Kate which was weird considering how many girlfriends I had had in the past.

Lily was eyeing me suspiciously as if she knew what I was nervous for, just as we were called in the line of parents moved down and we got closer to the door, I spotter her talking to another women she was smiling and laughing, and without even realising I began to laugh too, what was this women doing to me I had barely exchanged two words with her, got her name and said goodbye and yet I was feeling things that I haven't ever felt before, Lily walked up behind me,

"Well she is pretty I guess you'll see her more often now, get to know her a bit better hmm" She winked at me before walking past, if it had been Moony or Prongs saying that i would of hit them on the arm. Hard. However this was Lily my, who I now thought of as my sister and she was right I did want to know this women better, Lily just seemed to know what I was feeling.

"Ah Mr. Black, nice to see you again" She smiled and I returned it,

"Hi, everyone this is Kate, Kate these are... well to save names the people I put down as Charlie's emergency contacts" She laughed

"Hi nice to meet you all, if you just want to come inside Charlie should be sitting down inside on the mat." She gestured for us to go in.

We all walked in and over to the mat where children were being picked up by their family, I looked over and began to panic Charlie was not there,

"She settled in fine-"Kate stopped mid sentence and looked around "she was right there with the boys" she murmured to herself,

"Leah!" she shouted over to another of the staff "did you Charlie, Luke, Ryan and Liam get up" She asked getting panicked now,

"No-" She was cut off by a bang and a cloud of purple smoke coming through the storage room door, followed by giggles and uncontrollable laughter, the door opened and out ran Charlie and three boys who I guessed to be Luke, Liam and Ryan.

I sighed in relief but then got worried again what was the purple smoke? Was Charlie hurt?

I walked forward hurriedly to her followed by the rest of the group and the boy's families, just as the toddlers turned around the smiles dropped from their faces, Charlie looked at the boy's

"Uh oh"

"Well it looks like the next marauders are here" Remus said breaking the tension, but most of the adults in the room were still in shock of how four 3 year olds just pretty much blew up the store cupboard.

I picked Charlie up,

"Charlie what did you do?" I asked in a tone, that she knew not to mess with,

"Just having some fun with my new friend's daddy, I sorry that we made a big mess but it was really funny" She giggled and I shook my head at her, Lily would have to deal with her, I couldn't tell her off for doing something that I did all the time,

"Lily she's yours for discipline, all I will end up doing is giving her more Idea's" I said into Lily's ear and passed Charlie to her ad Lily rolled her eyes.

I walked over to Kate,

"I'm really sorry about the mess I didn't even realise that she had taken some of her products with her," I said praying she would forgive me and not kick Charlie out of the school, she just laughed

"Don't worry about it Sirius, kids are kids I am very impressed that she knew what to do with the whole prank thing," She said

"I make sure she knows what each thing is for and tell her the safety hazards and all of that before she uses things." I looked behind and noticed that Lily had taken everyone outside and I would have to remember to thank her later as it would give me the chance to say what I wanted to,

"I was just wondering if maybe next week you wanted to have dinner, we could talk about Charlie's progress and things," I asked hopefully.

"I would love too, but I have to ask earlier when you said you had to get back to school how old are you?" She asked,

"I'm 17 I'll be 18 in March, You?" I said, confused surely she would have been told by Dumbledore, there was no way earlier she would have looked at me sympathetically instead of disgusted if she hadn't of been told I was still in school.

"I'm 18 I left the America academy of magic last year and came to England with my mother to work here" She said, now I recognised the accent in her voice I couldn't place it earlier when I had first met her.

"Well shall we say the three broom sticks, Saturday at seven?" I questioned

"That sounds great, I'll see you there, and I will see you tomorrow if you're dropping Charlie off." She smiled

"Okay I'll see you then Kate bye." She waved at me as I went outside and aparated on the spot, thinking about the beautiful girl that I now had a date with, the problem was how was I going to break to the guys and worst of all Charlie.