Sirius stared at the girl before him, scarcely able to believe she was finally there before him. Ever since Dumbledore had revealed her existence, he had waited for this moment to come. Now that she was here, however, he was terrified.

What if she rejected him, or worse, what if she had inherited all the abhorrent Black traits and he rejected her? How the devil was he to talk to her? Bloody hell, he didn't even know how to introduce himself, let alone what to say after that.

I'm your uncle, Sirius. I can assure you I'm not nearly as awful as the stories say, though I can't say the same for the rest of our family, or Terribly sorry about your death. I'm glad to see you're recovering nicely?

Buffy's reaction to the madness below did not help matters. She looked as though she were about to bolt.

Knowing he had to act quickly, he said the first thing that came to mind.

"Welcome to the family."

That seemed to put her at ease. At the very least, it kept her from leaving. It even elicited a smile, however tenuous it was.

"Uh, thanks?" she replied, nervously clearing her throat. "I think this is the point where I'm supposed to say that you've got a lovely home..."

"It's bloody awful," he cut in.

She blinked, surprised by his blunt criticism. "Well, I was going to go with different. Unique. Special?" she offered as diplomatically as she could. At his look, she rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, it's awful. Just remember, you said it first."

Sirius grinned, the heavy feeling in his chest already starting to lighten. "Fair enough. Would you like a tour of this monstrosity? After all, it will be yours some day."

Buffy looked ill at this. "Are you serious?"

"Always," he said solemnly.

She let out a decidedly unladylike snort of laughter at his terrible joke. "Oh my god. You truly are the corny uncle I never had," she mused. Then she grew thoughtful. "Except now I do."

"And to conclude our tour, I bring you to our illustrious family tapestry," Sirius declared, gesturing to the hateful piece of fabric pinned to the wall.

He held his breath as she looked it over. While they had steered clear of any talk about Regulus, sticking mainly to the 'delightful' idiosyncrasies of their family home, they could not put it off any longer now that the tour was concluded. Not even Dumbledore could deflect any of the questions she would have, as the old man departed long ago to let them get better acquainted without "a meddling old fool" getting in the way.

Yet Buffy said nothing. She simply looked at the names and pictures of her ancestors with great interest, even though that very same family had just berated, belittled or flat out ignored her from their family portraits for being an illegitimate half-blood. Sirius himself had threatened to burn their canvases to ash if they didn't stop their abuse. He still had half a mind to do so, even though they had quieted down after his threat. Buffy, however, had taken it all in stride, merely smiling sweetly at each one - though he got the distinct impression she had put their faces to memory, along with every insult they slung at her. It struck him that she was doing the same thing now.

She was more Black than she would ever know.

"What's with all the names? I can barely read them. Forget pronouncing them."

Sirius gave her a wry smile. "It's a long-standing family tradition to name our children after a star. I, for example, am named after the Dog Star in the constellation Canis Major," he explained. Then, puffing out his chest in an exaggerated fashion, he added, "We're part of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, after all, with a lineage extending as far back as the stars in the sky; and equally as majestic and dignified, I might add."

Buffy smirked. "No wonder those guys on the wall have massive superiority complexes," she said as she turned her attention back to the tapestry. He noticed the way her eyes lingered on Regulus' picture, but still she said nothing, choosing instead to look at the space below her father.

"I'm not on here."

It was not a question. It was a matter of fact statement, with no trace of longing or anger or even relief.

With no inkling as how she felt about the situation, he approached the subject delicately.

"This is an enchanted tapestry. Only legitimate children appear after the naming ceremony has been performed. It just wouldn't do to air out all our forebears' dalliances. It would be… vulgar."

Though what he spoke was true, his tone was mocking, showing no love for those who came before him and their hypocritical ways.

Buffy was nonplussed by this revelation; she merely shrugged her shoulders as she turned back to the tapestry to study it some more. She whirled around to face him, however, when she came upon his name a moment later.

"Why is your picture burned off?"

It was Sirius' turn to shrug. "I'm the black sheep of the family, or at least one of them. My poor cousin Andromeda made the cardinal sin of falling in love with a Muggle. I merely refused to embrace the family's desire to treat all non-Pureblooded wizards as less than equal."

Buffy frowned, her eyes straying to Regulus' picture. "But everyone else did."

Sirius took a deep breath. They had finally arrived at the moment he dreaded most.

"Yes, for most of his life," he admitted. "I think in the end, however, Regulus realized the madness he had become involved in and tried to back away. I believe that's why he was killed."

Her frown grew deeper. "So this war Dumbledore talked about, he was on the wrong side."

Sirius nodded but said nothing, giving her time to digest this bit of information about her father. Though he was worried how she would take it, he did not regret telling her. She had had enough deceit and half-truths to last a lifetime. As the silence between them grew longer, however, he felt a twinge of panic. He almost vibrated with relief when she finally spoke; he most certainly needed a glass of fire whiskey.

"Maybe it's better I never met him then. We would've had to fight each other. Not to mention he would've hated my mere existence, not being 100% wizard and all."

Sirius shook his head, to the surprise of both. "I don't know about that. For all his faults, Regulus loved his family. That's how he wound up in this mess in the first place, wanting to please mummy and daddy. He even loved that wretched house elf, Kreacher. I- I can't say for certain what he would have done, but I do believe the situation would have played out differently if he had known about you, and not necessarily for the worse."

It was a stunning thought really, one that he had not entertained until that very moment, but it was one Sirius believed to be true.

Buffy, for her part, was understandably skeptical, though she chose not to contradict him. Instead she simply asked, "What was he like?"

It was a loaded question, Sirius knew. She wanted to know who Regulus was beyond the Death Eater, if he was anything else but that.

Wanting to answer her as honestly as possible, he thought for a moment, searching his childhood memories of Regulus, ones that had long been subsumed by more recent and significantly less pleasant ones.

"He was the most annoying little prat, truly," he finally said. "Always following me around when we were younger, asking me incessant questions and copying my every move, at least until he learned that I was not behaving in a manner befitting the firstborn and heir apparent. Confident bugger, too, but then all Blacks are. And Merlin, was he sharp. There wasn't much he couldn't puzzle out if he set his mind to it, even if he didn't always put it to the best use."

As he spoke about his brother, Sirius realized something; though he would never agree with or forgive many of the decisions Regulus had made, it hadn't always been bad between them. Now was not the time to reconcile his feelings for his dead brother, however. It was time to look toward the future.

Hesitantly, he looked at his niece, Regulus' daughter. "Would you tell me a little about yourself?"

Buffy flinched ever so slightly at his question, though she immediately disguised it with a shrug. "Not much to tell. I am- was the Slayer. I came, I died, I conquered."

Sirius felt his heart clench at her response, and not because she chose to reveal nothing about herself. She was so flippant in the way she spoke about her death, too much so. It wasn't natural. There was trauma lurking deep beneath the surface, but she was too proud, too strong, too wounded to acknowledge it, let alone address it. He was absolutely certain of this, for he spoke of his time in Azkaban the same exact way.

Knowing this was perhaps his only opportunity to reach out to her, to provide the comfort and understanding he hadn't allowed anyone to give him, he took her hand in his. "Buffy, I'm so sorry. We all failed you."

Her mouth fell open, clearly taken aback by his admission. "How did you fail me? You didn't even know I existed."

Sirius took a deep breath as he released her hand. "No, but I never once questioned what my brother may have done to get himself killed. Perhaps if I had, it would have led me to you. I'm afraid I'll also be nothing but a burden to you from this day forward."

With that, he told her his whole sordid story; his role in his best friend's death, his imprisonment in Azkaban, and his subsequent escape.

"So you see, to the outside world, I'm a traitor and a murderer," he finished. When Buffy said nothing, he bowed his head. "I'll understand if you don't want anything to do with me, with our entire family. All things considered, it would be best if no one knew who you were, for your own safety. As I understand it, you have a life back in the States, away from this madness, where you won't be fettered by your father… or by me."

Sirius fully expected Buffy to walk out of Grimmauld Place and not look back. He told himself he would honour her decision, whatever it was, no matter how painful. To his surprise, however, she shook her head.

"To the outside world, I'm an arsonist, a juvenile delinquent, and all around mentally unstable," she said. "If you can deal with that, then I'd say we're even."

Astonished by her acceptance, and how easily she gave it, Sirius blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "An arsonist?"

"Yep," she said cheerily. "I burnt the school gym down during a dance. I mean, it was infested with vampires, but the police didn't really embrace that explanation. Go figure."

Sirius threw back his head and laughed. "I think we're going to get along just fine," he announced. Then an idea struck him.

"Would you like to try your hand at some magic?"

It was a brilliant idea of his, really. It gave them the perfect opportunity to get to know each other a bit more without the suffocating presence of Regulus looming over them. For instance, as he helped her through her initial unease with magic and taught her a few basic spells, he learned that she could be just as sharp-tongued as her father. Unlike Regulus, however, her jibes lacked any underlying nastiness and were directed at herself just as much as him. She was also exceedingly clever, perhaps even more so than his brother, with a temper to match. He could see it now as she struggled with the Unlocking Charm.

Sirius bit back his grin as he watched his niece curse when she pointed his wand at the door and nothing happened. They had progressed through the basic levitation and light spells fairly easily, but one was proving to be a challenge for her.

Sirius wasn't concerned in the slightest, even if it was a spell even first years mastered. While Buffy did have some difficulty with the pronunciation and inflection of the spells themselves, the wand motions that accompanied the spells came almost second nature to her, her muscle memory unparallelled. And when she did get the spell to work correctly, the magic behind it was impressive. Besides, she had only recently come into her magic. It would come in fits and starts until it truly settled. She was also using his wand. Though it would recognize the familial relationship, it would not perform for her as it did him. All things considered, for such a late bloomer - and a somewhat reluctant one at that - she was doing marvelously.

Buffy, however, didn't see it that way. She was getting quite frustrated with herself as she performed the spell yet again, as equally unsuccessful as the last time. He could practically see her temper rising as she stared contemptuously at the door. Before she could do any damage to it, Sirius stepped in.

"Your wand movements are impeccable, but you're over-thinking the words. Just let them flow," he coached.

"Easy for you to say, Mr. 'my family all has strange names so of course this is easy for me'," she grumbled. But she took a deep breath and tried again. "Alohomora."

The lock on the door blasted open.

"Excellent!" Sirius exclaimed. "You'll be dueling with the best of them in no time."

Though she was clearly pleased with herself, she raised her eyebrow at this. "Somehow I'm doubting that, unless I'm allowed to throw the wand at someone."

He shook his head. "Nonsense. You just need a proper wand, one that's your own and responds solely to you."

A brilliant idea blossomed in his mind then, one that was even better than his idea to teach her magic.

"Perhaps we could venture out and get you your first wand?"

In the back of his mind, Sirius acknowledged that it was perhaps foolhardy to reveal his Animagus form to her so soon; traveling to Diagon Alley was another matter entirely. He couldn't resist the opportunity, however, both to leave his miserable house and to spend some more time with his niece.

Instead of taking him up on his offer like he had hoped, Buffy stared at him in shock, which quickly gave way to hesitation.

She had not yet made up her mind as to whether she was going to stay, even beyond today, he realized.

Sirius ruthlessly smothered his disappointment. It had been foolish of him to assume a few magic lessons from a strange old uncle would entice her to stay in London any longer than absolutely necessary. He himself had suggested she keep her distance from him. Just because he so desperately jumped at the chance of having a family once more didn't mean she would; she already had one. It wasn't as if he were completely alone, either. He had Harry, and-

"Aren't you a wanted man? I thought you couldn't leave house."

Sirius blinked, not at all expecting that kind of response. He was nothing if not fast on his feet, however. "Yes, if I were to venture out as myself. As luck would have it, I have an alternate means of appearing in public."

She gave him a quizzical look. "Why don't you do that all the time then? Why the house arrest?"

Sirius coughed. "Well, you see, there are differing opinions on how safe it is for me to disguise myself…"

"By differing opinions, you mean you and Dumbledore," she said perceptively.

He did not reply; it wasn't necessary. Instead of recoiling from the idea like most would, however, a slow grin spread across her face.

"So what exactly do you have in mind?"

Sirius felt his heart leap. From the way she spoke, he knew that, as long as his plan didn't sound too far-fetched, she was game, whether or not Dumbledore - or anyone else, for that matter - approved. More importantly, though, he saw a sparkle in her eye as she spoke, one that had been wholly absent until now.

Sirius vowed right then and there that whatever her decision was, wherever she decided to go, he would do his damnedest to keep her safe and chase away those demons that so obviously haunted her, regardless of the consequences.

A/N: So… it's been forever since I updated. I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this - and I can't blame you if you're not, considering the length of time between chapters - but if you are, I hope this chapter didn't disappoint!