Disclaimer: We all know how these work, I acknowledge that J.K. Rowlings, Warner Bros. and Scholastic own Harry Potter and all other characters and settings from cannon, and I get to write whatever I please and even add in characters of my own as long as I don't get any money. The no money sucks but there you go, at least I don't get lawyers knocking on my door. Addendum: If you recognize a name of a character from elsewhere it isn't mine.
A/N: sorry for the delay RL, have to make a competition dress for my skater and help my youngest work through grief when her hamster died. Thanks for the marvelous reviews. Please sirs and ma'ams can I have some more?
Sirius' Savior
Chapter 49 Home Again
The portkey deposited them at the entrance to the wards of the house. Rachel excused herself to check in with Roy. Two minutes later Harry burst into the house calling, "Beth we're home!"
Moments later they found her in the dining room along with a large spread of food. "I missed you! How was everything? Did you learn a bunch? Are you hungry? I hit the deli on the way home from work." She answered Harry's exuberant hug with one of her own, before practically melting as Sirius kissed her.
Harry ignored Sirius and Beth's reunion in favor of the food on the table. Beth must have stopped at the Greek deli and he dug into spanakopitas, dolmades, greek salad, moussaka, tzatziki and baklava.
Sirius was surprised. Effectively it had only been a month since he'd seen her last but her belly seemed so much bigger. He rubbed his hand over her bump. "You're so beautiful and this has gotten so much bigger."
"I know. Your babies and I missed you, so much. Come sit down, eat. Tell me about everything."
"I want to hold you a moment first, I know for you it's only been a month but for me it's been eleven."
"We have the whole weekend. I politely declined all invitations saying family time after your and Harry's post surgery trip. Mother and Dad insist on seeing you and Harry Tuesday night though. Medi-witch Thompson wants to do a C-section on August 1st."
"Cool, siblings for a belated birthday present." Harry chirped.
"But-"
"She says that it's safer than me going into labor and it's likely I wouldn't last much longer than that anyway with the multiple birth."
"I guess if that's what she said that's the way it is. August 1st it is. Guess that means I need to get a move on in the nursery." Sirius led Beth to a chair and helped her sit and scoot closer to the table.
"Yep, you've got a little under six weeks. So Harry are you ready for your mid-terms?"
"More than. I've been working this material for a year admittedly not highly focused but still a year. I suspect I could do end of term tests and it would be easy. I wish I didn't have to finish this session as a less than full time non-boarding student. But the whole keeping up the fiction bit."
"So what did you like learning the best?"
"Toss up between Defense and Magical theory I think I like the theory because Sirius gave me mum's journals and she has a ton of theories about magic and experiments she was running. It's just really interesting. Mr. Cruz was just really neat, he treated me like a WIS recruit. At first he was really unhappy we were there but when we left he said I should come back. He said I had good instincts. He recommended I learn fencing. We'll have to see if we can bend the rules at Stuart-Cavanaugh, you are supposed to be ten to get on the fencing team."
"If not kiddo we can always go the private lessons route. So Beth where's the mangy cat you got?"
"Sheba isn't mangy! She's probably down in the sunroom. She usually shows up once the sun sets."
"Sheba huh?" Sirius teased.
"Yeah her mom is a first generation Savanah cat and absolutely gorgeous. Melody was told when she got her that Miriah, the mama cat, wasn't likely to have kittens because most first generation Savanahs are infertile. Sheba was the only kitten in the litter. Melody doesn't know what breed the other parent was From the description I thought it might be a kneazle. But we'll have to see if Sheba starts showing kneazle traits when she's older. I went ahead and got her spayed so she's a little put out with me.
"What was the best thing you did?"
"That's hard. Can I give my top ten?"
"Sure."
"Riding a pegasus in Montana. Seeing a North American Frost Dragon up close. Going to the Exploratorium. Doing my vision quest. Going to my first quidditch match. Seeing "Les Miserables" on Broadway. Seeing the view from the World Trade Center. Going to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field. Surfing in Santa Cruz. Holding the wand I made the first time."
"You made your wand?"
"Well, I did about half of it under Ms. Serra's watchful eye." Harry suddenly found himself yawning.
"You're tired kiddo finish your dinner then head to bed."
"You just want alone time with Beth."
"There's that." Sirius said with a smirk. "But you've also had a busy and exhausting trip not to mention you're a growing boy that needs his rest. Finish up."
The twelve week old kitten wandered into the dining room, she looked like a small spotted wildcat with enormous aqua eyes. Upon seeing Sirius her back arched, her fur stood on end and she hissed menacingly. Harry and Beth both busted out laughing. Sirius decided that he would nip this in the bud. He quickly raced over and scooped the kitten up ignoring the menacing growls now emerging from the kitten's throat. He started to rub her gently and offering her bits of lamb from his plate. After a couple of minutes the kitten stopped growling and just looked at Sirius with puzzled eyes.
"I won't hurt you Sheba." It took five more minutes but finally the kitten snatched the bit of lamb he offered and jumped from his grasp. She ran to Beth and wound around her legs purring. Beth and Harry just watched all of the interaction with smiles. After dinner, Harry headed to bed early.
Sirius and Beth followed suit but not with the intention of sleeping. The time apart had them both wanting to be close as they talked. Sheba had been spending the nights with Beth but upon finding Sirius in that bed she stalked off in a huff. Sirius and Beth chuckled. Beth spoke softly, "Her nose is out of joint."
"Too bad, this is my bed and there is no way I'm going anywhere else."
"Real deal, how did everything go after I left Arizona."
"Scary. Arizona was the worst. Harry seems to be a potential mage or maybe even arch mage and freeing him of the horcrux had him very off balance. Yiska did his best, and helped him to find his center but it was four and a half months before he was truly stable enough for real training. He definitely has Lily's mindset that bend to the theory side of things Ms. Serra was a cold bitch if I ever saw one but by the end she had warmed up to Harry mostly because he liked magical theory. San Francisco with Rose Tyler was good. She says he's a fair to middling metamorph hair, eye color, and about five percent body mass which basically means he can't do bone structure changes but if he needs a disguise he'll have it. Montana with Malcom Reynolds was good the extra time meant that Harry perfected his core control. He proved to me he no longer needs any guidance in the finance side of things. I didn't tell Malcom but all the suggestions to improve the business came from Harry. I checked them first of course but it was all Harry. Now that he's got the economic stuff do think your dad would be willing to teach him the political stuff?
"New York was good. Jack Harkness wasn't what I expected. He was very playful and I think I learned as much from him as Harry did. Chicago was great. I had a blast with the trainees, and once he got over his hangups about training a kid, Charlie Cruz had fun teaching Harry the basics. Especially once he realized that Harry didn't know the spells but already knew the mindset and had the physical side of things down. It amused him to no end that Harry could kick the asses of a good share of the trainees. He said it would get the more complacent of them off their asses to work harder. We'll probably go back there for more training later."
"So you plan on doing this again?"
"I think I- we'll have to. I don't want Harry going to Hogwarts without a grounding. Between Deatheater children some of them older than him, and Dumbledore... He has to be prepared. I've taught him all the occlumency I know. He's got the basics which will hold up to ninety percent of the people he'll meet and is as much as most pureblood children and aurors every get but it wouldn't stand up to Dumbledore or Moldyshorts. So I need to find him another teacher. Rachel says he's a natural at arithmancy, he's also coming along in his transfiguration. We probably won't be doing jumps this next school break especially with the babies coming but we probably will the one after that. He's picked up a fair amount of gobledegook he still speaks it with a human accent though. I think maybe the next break we should get Grimjaw to send a goblin tutor. I want Walter and I to start teaching him potions on the weekends and next break. But enough about Harry I want to hear about what I missed. You, the babies, our kisses..."
The next morning Sirius woke up early and decided to call Remus and let him know that things went well with getting rid of Harry's horcrux. The phone rang three times before being picked up. "Hey Moony? How's tricks?"
"Sirius?"
"Yup it's me."
"How's Harry?"
"He's good and Horcrux free, and you won't believe how much power that kid has at his disposal."
"Wait last I heard you hadn't found anyone to get rid of it-"
"Well we found someone and did the job and spent most of … Well we found a way to step up training him since his core was strong and with some training stable enough for magical training. Seems like the horcrux had an unexpected benefit."
"Well that something I suppose. I've talked to McGonagall two days ago she's processing still not sure which way she'll swing. She did promise whichever way she won't share with Albus though."
"That's good."
"Oh and I found a legal firm, Baraccas and Smith. John Hannibal Smith and his partner Boscoe Baraccas, they are of the shark variety but oddly enough they seem to have morals. At first they didn't want to touch your case. I showed them the memory of who the secret keeper was oddly enough they changed their mind."
"Funny how that worked."
"They say that it will be tough between the problems with Dumbledore, that the Wizengamot liking to do ostrich impressions, and that the new Minister Fudge was the prosecutor in your case. The Wizengamot aren't going to want to reopen your case."
"Yeah well I think the ICW won't be giving them that option."
"Are there any other consequences to the horcrux other than a super charged core?"
"Harry was really off centered no way to control his magic. We had a bit of trouble, but Yiska Walker found a way. Harry's found his center and when all is said and done he's likely to be a mage if not arch mage and he'll probably mature early. We're still processing everything; he's apparently got some of Moldyshorts memories from the fragment. Which could be an edge in all this, however he had enough on his plate just relearning how to center so for now we've locked those memories down with occlumency. He'll have to deal with them a some point but not today, hell probably not even this year."
"Okay. How's Beth?"
"She's great she and the babies are doing fine. The medi-witch decided that they're doing a Cesarean on August 1st. Harry is regarding it a belated birthday present and can't wait. How are other things?"
"We had some flooding on the Black country estate in England, in France the main house at the vineyard needs the roof repaired. Harry's property in Wales was hit by an appalling storm I am heading out there to check on it today. So same old stuff. Stuff to do."
"Well thanks for handling things. And pass the word on about Harry okay. I'm going to go make breakfast for my family."
"Okay Padfoot. Take care."
"You too."