AN: Sorry that this is late. I picked up several extra shifts at work that delayed my writing schedule. It is actually because of this delay that I have changed my writing schedule completely. I'm hoping that this change allows for better chapters in the future. On a side note I still need a beta for this story if there are any volunteers let me know.

Disclaimer: Parts of this chapter has parts of Philosopher's Stone pg. 60-61 of the 2004 paperback edition. The parts that are used are the parts from the acceptance letters to Hogwarts and do not belong to me but the wonderful JKR who's wit I only hope to emulate with my writings.

Chapter 4

Sirius landed his bike two blocks over from Privet Drive. He sped the few blocks over to the street where he was imaging the worst things happening to his goddaughter. A girl who in another life would have called him Uncle. He drove up to the suburban four bedroom detached home. A home that was identical to all of the other homes down the street, with it brick facade, neat lawns and front gardens. All with fancy cars lining the driveways. It was always on the quiet streets where the most fucked up things happened.

Sirius dismounted his bike from the place that he decided to park it across the street. He pulled out his gun from its holster and approached the building. The front door was locked but with a thought of 'alhorma' it was opened and he pushed his way into the house. In the living room he saw a boy watching the telly eating ice-cream out of the container with a spoon. "Where is Rose?" he snapped at the boy who just sat there looking dumbly at him. The boy didn't need to answer as Sirius heard the sound of a female child scream up stairs. "Get outside." he ordered the boy but didn't look to see if he fallowed his order. The boy wasn't his concern. Carefully he climbed up the stairs, weapon pointed ahead of him. A quick 'homonus revelo' told him that there were two people in the second room on his right and two people in the second room on his left. He chose right.

He had banged it open once he had peaked inside. "Get your fucking hands off of my God Daughter!" he snarled at the disgrace of a man.

He had his Goddaughter naked across his lap, he bare end up in the air as he was whipping her with the metal end of his belt. Her skin was already split open and he had a look of sick satisfaction on his face. Sirius sorely wanted to just shoot the fucker in the head.

The man didn't move though and let the belt fall against the girl again, the smack of it filling the small room. "Rose, who is this man?" he asked her.

She must have been biting down on something to prevent her screams from filling the room for she didn't respond imminently. "I don't know." she whispered.

"Didn't you hear me? Get your hands off of her! Rose come over here, put your robe on. Your safe now." Sirius didn't know who this asshole thought he was, but his flippant attitude to having a gun in his face was enough to anger him more. Was he so justified in his actions that he felt that Sirius was the one in the wrong here?

Rose looked as if she was about to move to obey him when the man jerked her up and placed used her as a shield. "Oh Rosie here isn't going any where." the man who he didn't know his name had lifted the girl so that his left arm was wrapped around her waist. His right was around her chest, covering her right breast but tightly squeezing the left. She was lifted so that if Sirius was to fire his gun he was likely to shoot Rose instead of him.

"No that I have your attention, let me tell you how this is about to go. You are going to close this door and walk away. But before that you are going to pay these nice people for destroying their property. You see even if you are a cop, and have obtained that weapon legally I have friends in very high places. I wont ever spend the night in lockup. You on the other hand will be fired within the week if you try to pursue this. Leave this house at let this go." Sirius hated men like this. Men who thought that just because he scratched the back of the right people at the right times they were able to get away with anything. That includes being caught red handed abusing a child. If Sirius was a muggle, he would probably think twice about his next actions. Sirius was glad that he wasn't a Muggle.

"Stupify" he cast pointing his wand at the mans exposed leg and the two people crumpled to the ground together. The man was unconscious but the girl looked like she was in shock. It was then sirens could be herd.

"Here," he said offering Rose the robe and a hand up.

"What was that?" She asked eyeing the weapon that he now had holstered.

"I'm part of a special Police unit, we get more advanced guns this was like a stun beam. But since the general public isn't supposed to know about it." he bent over and punched the man in the face, hard enough that he would have a shiner for a while. "We will have to say for the records that I nocked him out. It will be our secret okay?"

She nodded her head. The girl just went through a traumatic experience an while he could tell her about magic it might be too much for her to process at the moment. Sirius did really want to brag about his gun though. When he was put on the force he had to learn how to use the muggle weapon. The problem with the weapon was that it killed people. With a wand he could stop men without having to end their lives. Something that meant that they were actually going to face justice. But he couldn't pull out his wand and just do magic whenever he felt, so he got an upgrade.

Iron wasn't the best for conducting magic but with adding a wooden sight that went from the handle all the way down to the barrel of the gun, and making it from the same materials that his wand was made of allowed him to cast spells with his gun in situations that allowed it. With the aid of Science Fiction, he was able to play off that his weapon was just more advanced than the average. People were willing to believe it, thinking him more a spy and less a cop. It wasn't useful with a large group of people but the few that caught him bough it. The key was giving them a small piece of information and allowing their imagination's to fill in the rest.

Sirius was putting handcuffs on the uncoicious man on the ground when a large man the size of a walrus with the matching mustache burst into the room. "What the bloody hell is going on in here?!" he yelled. The man was only wearing a robe and socks.

"Mr. Dursley I presume?" Sirius asked him.

The backup that Sirius had called for was now outside and started to come in. "Mr. Dursley, my name is Sirius Black." He pulled out his badge and showed him. "And I am with Scotland Yard. I am here because I have been tracking this man for some time, he has been known to us for a while and tonight we have caught him in the act."

"This is Surrey, you don't have duristrection here," Vernon pointed out.

"Ah yes. But being a Metro Police officer doesn't exclude my rights here unless this is suddenly not England, I'm well within my rights. I'm just wondering why you are more concerned for the man who I'm arresting than the reason as to why I'm arresting him." Just then two officers came into the room. "Ah Peter, Myles. Thankyou for coming, if you don't mind I only brought one pair of handcuffs. Mr. Dursley you are under arrest for child endangerment."

With a whispered 'envierate' and the invisible beam that traveled down his gun and hit the man who was on the floor Sirius bent over. "Ah and it appears that this one is coming to as well. Mr. Sorry-I-Didn't-Catch-Your-Name, you are under arrest for child abuse, rape, and probably several other things after we finish out investagion." He picked the man up by his collar as two constables entered the room. "Can you two take these men out of here?" He asked the new comers. They nodded their heads as they accorded the men out of the room both of them shouting the injustice of the situation.

Sirius looked down at Rose. "I thought that you had an Aunt as well."

Rose looked startled at being addressed probably hoping that the men in the room had forgotten about her. "I do. she always gets sleepy early on the nights that Mr. Gunther comes over. She is probably in bed."

'Not likely with this noise.' Sirius thought, out loud he said. "Peter why don't you go check on our Mrs. Dursley."

"Sure Sirius, we should clear out of here any way and let those forensics people get in here and do their work."

"Rose why don't you grab yourself some proper cloths to change into later and then well head out." she nodded her head an opened her wardrobe pulling out a dress and a pair of panties that she bundled up inside of the dress to hide it.

Together the men went down stairs, Dudley was still watching telly. An officer was in there trying to get him to leave. "After this, Shhh." the boy snapped at the poor young man. Outside there was an ambulance that was waiting.

Sirius handed Rose over to the paramedics, "Alright Rose. I'm going to leave you with them for now. I'll meet you at the hospital though okay?" with the nod of her head he went back to talk to Myles.

"I need you to be the arresting officer on this one. I also need you to be lead investigator. While I would love to be the one to put these assholes away, if I touch this any more than I have they will walk."

"What do you mean?" Myles Carlson asked Sirius.

"That girl, Rose, she is the daughter of the friend that I told you about. The one who got murdered." Sirius said.

"I though that you also said that she was killed as well." Myles said.

"Everyone thought that she was, but the explosion was really bad, there was never a body to be found but everyone just assumed. Fuck I should have looked harder for her." Sirius rubbed his eyes. "Look, I'm going to file for custody of her, If I'm doing that and their defence finds out they will call for a mistrial. I would rather be away from this and see them go away then be a part of it and risk them walking."

"Hey, I get it. Pet and I will take care of this. Go with her to the Hospital, put in the paper work with social services. If she went missing, we might be able to add a human trafficking charge onto this. Take the day off tomorrow as well. But head down to the office and give your statement. If you can, also grab that person who tipped you off."

"Will do Myles thanks." Sirius said as he clasped him on the shoulder. He wasn't overly close with his coworkers. But he did share the occasional drink with them and Sirius was a chatty drunk. It was just good that he didn't ever mention magic whenever it was brought up.

When he was heading over to his motorcycle he heard a crack over the radio "We are going to need another ambulance here. I can't get this woman up. I think that she has been drugged."

It wasn't Sirius' battel so he ignored it. With a kick the bike came to life and he went to the nearest hospital that they took Rose to. His thoughts were completely on her. What would he say to her? Her life was going to be completely different now. He remembered talking to Lily, about how hard it would have been adjusting to magic if she didn't have Snape to help her. And that was even with her family supporting her. Rose had no one in the world and Sirius was delusional enough to put himself on that list no matter how much he wanted to. Was a stranger to her.

He wasn't lying when he told Myles that he intended to take custody of Rose, but that was only if she wanted to live with him. If she didn't, and she wouldn't blame her for not trusting an adult male, then he would do his best to find a suitable family for her to go to. No matter where she went though it didn't matter too much. At the end of the day he wasn't going to let that girl get too far away from him again.

Rose was brought into the hospital. Everything had happened so quickly. One moment it was an ordinary night then people were kicking down doors and trying to save her. She kept pinching herself to see if she was dreaming, and while she was feeling the pinches she still wasn't dismissing her suspitons. Guns didn't shoot red beams of light when she was awake that was for damn sure.

She was barely settled onto a hospital bed and changed into one of those terrible gowns that were open in the back, when the man who had kicked down the door walked into the room. He was a police officer, she knew that from seeing his badge when he pulled it out, but he didn't look like one. His hair was down to his shoulders and he was wearing jeans that had grease stains on them. He was also wearing a AC/DC t-shirt under a leather jacket. He was someone who looks nothing like someone who would spend any time with Vernon Dursley and that was more comforting than one would think it to be. There was also something familiar about him, like seeing a ghost from a dream.

"Hello." he said as he entered the room. He pulled a chair over from the wall and sat down in it. "I'm sorry that I didn't have a chance to properly introduce myself earlier, but my name is Sirius Black. I used to be friends with your father."

What was she supposed to say, "Thank you?" she asked.

He seemed to feel just as awkward in the situation. "Do you want to know about your parents?" he decided to ask.

She shrugged. "Sure."

Sirius seemed to be a person who liked to talk. "Lets see. Your father was my best friend, we met on the train ride to school. He also met your mother on the same train ride, but your father acted like an ass and she thought that he was too immature and walked away from us. Your father loved your mother from that point on though I think. The three of us all got sorted into the same house at school. Your mum was really smart and got good grades in all of her classes. Your dad was good at... English." the man, Sirius awkwardly paused. Like English wasn't the subject that he was going to say.

Rose was lost in her thoughts when a nurse and a female police officer came into the room. The nurse was carrying some sort of kit that Rose assumed had medical supplies within, the police officer had a camera. The nurse looked at Sirius, "I need you to leave sir, we need some privacy for what we are going to do."

Sirius nodded his head and stud up. "I'll be right outside," he told her and then he was gone.

The nurse washed her hands and put on gloves. She then opened the kit that she brought in to the room with her. The officer was asking her to remove her robe and roll over. Rose could hear the click of the camera as she took photos. When she was done the officer gave her a small smile that was kind and sad at the same time and then stood to the side.

The Nurse then came in to work. She had taken cotton swabs from several places around Roses body when she was finished she placed them into individual tubes an handed it over to the officer. Then she got to work bandaging her and taking a sample of her blood.

"We need to take you down to radiology for x-rays," she told her. "just sit tight darling. After that the doctor will come and see you." the nurse smiled and left the room.

A few minuets latter an orderly was there with a wheal chair. He pushed her down to the basement. They had passed Sirius in the hall. He was having a heated discussion with two police men who looked grim. They were whispering but she knew that they were talking about her. She wondered if they had found out that Mr. Gunther was right and that there was nothing to do about her situation and she would have to go back there after this. Rose hoped that it wasn't that. She would be if for the beating of her life if she ever had to go back there.

She was finished with the x-rays and was waiting down there for a while. Finally, a nurse came and took her back upstairs to her room where she put on the telly and placed on some Disney movie. Something about a princess needing saving from abusive family where she was forced to clean all day and she talked to animals.

Sirius finally came back into the room when the girl ran away from her chance at happiness and back into her abusive family's home. Shutting the telly off Sirius sat down on a chair and looked grimly at her.

"I have permission to take you out of here if you would like." Sirius told her. "I know of a different hospital that I would like to take you too that is slightly more effective than this place. There is someone who I would like you to meet there."

Not really caring about the difference between the two places, after all a hospital was a hospital wasn't it? "Sure." she said.

She jumped down from the bed. Sirius excused himself so she could change in privacy. He handed he a pair of shoes that she had never seen before that it looked like he had pulled from thin air. But they fit her well enough.

In the hall way Sirius was signing forms for her release. "And remember that we will need a report from this other privet hospital saying that she received treatment." a man in a lab coat was saying to Sirius. "By signing this you are personally responsible for the girl. And this will be reflected in the reports that ill have to do."

"That's fine," Sirius said signing his name on the last form. "Come along Rose." he offered her his hand. Feeling that Sirius was trying to make a point and after learning long ago that sometimes it is far better not to argue the small stuff, she took his hand and walked with him out side to the carpark. Outside he lead her to a motorcycle.

"Wow." she whispered looking at it. "Are you sure you are a cop?" she asked him. It was the most words that she had offered him without prompt.

He chuckled. On the other side was a sidecar that she must have missed before from the size of the thing. "Hop in." he instructed and she complied. She had never ridden on a motorbike before, even in the sidecar this was going to be an adventure.

Outside of the parking garage the streets were dark and empty. It was sometime after midnight and Rose had an exhausting day. Within minuets of the drive she was asleep. Soon the bike gave a jolt, Sirius must have goon too quickly over a speed bump and she was awake again. They were just outside of London in a car park near a shopping center. "What are we doing here?" she asked "I thought that we were going to an other hospital."

"We are." He replied. "but this hospital is, well let's say that its privet. Only a few hundred people in the whole of the British Isles knows about this place."

"Are they the same people who gave you your laser gun?" she asked him wondering when she walked into a Bond movie.

He seemed to like that, "How did you guess?" he asked her with a smile and a wink. It wasn't the answer that she was expecting. Who was this guy?

They walked up to a close department store window, inside was one of those creepy manikins that looked like it was going to move at any moment. "I'm here to see a healer." Sirius told the manikin like he was remarking on the weather. The manikin blinked at him and then nodded her head. If Rose wasn't so afraid she would run away. Instead she walked forward with the slight nudge to her back.

The glass wasn't solid and it sent shivers down her spine when she moved through it. On the other side was like walking into the freak show at the circus. There was a man who had two heads and they we arguing with each other. Another was reading a paper upside-down holding it with a tentacle. A woman was hiccupping blue bubbles. A girl who was about five had feet instead of hands and hands instead of feet. "What kind of hospital is this?" she asked with her eyes wide.

Before Sirius could answer a woman was heading towards them. "Sirius I have been waiting here for you for hours! What took so long?"

"Sorry Professor, I had to take her to the muggle doctor first. Protocol and all. Professor this is Primrose Potter. Rose this is Professor McGonagall. She is one of the professors at the finest school in Britain"

"Its nice to meet you Professor." Rose said holding out her hand.

"The pleasure is all mine dear." the woman said shaking her hand. "Now come on. I don't want to think about what those muggles call medicine. We will get you sorted in no time."

There was a painting on the wall with a plaque under it that she couldn't read dew to its distance away from her but the canvas was empty except for its black background. There was a grumpy woman behind a desk in the waiting room who was filing her nails as she barked at people who were lining up to see her. There was a sign next to her dictating where all of the wards were located. Spell Damage? Magical Bugs? Maybe Rose wasn't asleep. Maybe she had fell down the rabbit's hole instead like Alice had. With every passing moment she didn't know witch option was more likely. Though she still wasn't ruling out the whole asleep thing.

They were walked down a hall where the were several dormitory style rooms. They continued down the hall until they went into a large one that said 'Children's ward' on the sign outside. There was only one person inside the ward. was a woman who was wearing something that looked like it was a mix of a lab coat and a dress, in an ugly shade of lime green. The room was lit with the oddest looking light bulbs that Rose had ever seen.

"Good your here. Sirius you have some explaining to do but we can get to that latter. Minerva has filled me in on everything that she knows. Rose, I am Healer Tonks. Why don't you climb up on to a bed?"

Rose complied with the woman. Once she was settled under the thin blanket the woman pulled a stick out of her pocket. Not something that Rose was expecting. Maybe a stethoscope or a thermometer. What was a Doctor or a 'Healer?' doing with a stick in her pocket. The healer then waved the stick over Rose and it started to glow.

"What is that?" Rose asked.

"Its just a simple diagnostic spell dear, nothing to worry about." Healer Tonks replied.

"A spell?" Rose asked. "Like a wizard?" she half joked. This dream was getting stranger and stranger.

"I beg your pardon dear but I am a witch."

Rose blinked at her twice "You expect me to believe you?" she asked.

The two women looked at Sirius. "I haven't actually had a chance to tell her." he informed the two women. "Don't give me that look. When I got to the house that man was in the middle of... Any way, I didn't want to put another surprise on her right away." he explained.

"Oh Sirius you were always kind of an idiot but this takes the cake." Healer Tonks said. Turning to Rose "We can answer your questions after your examination. I needed you to hold on to all of your questions until then. The sooner that we finish this the sooner that we can have our conversation." Rose nodded her head and with a few more waves of her wand and the jotting down a few notes on to a clipboard Healer Tonks announced that she was finished.

"Sirius?" healer Tonks asked?

"Yes, I know. The doctor said as much. But I thought that by bringing her here we would be able to prevent much of her suffering." he explained.

"What is wrong?" Rose asked.

The adults shared a quick look then the healer answered. "Rose, what can you tell us about your childhood?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" She asked them. She didn't want to tell them about what she had gone through. People never believed her any way. They didn't care.

"What we can tell Rose, is that you have had quite a few of your bones broken. Some of them more than once. Some of them haven't healed correctly. Can you tell us how all of that happened?" Healer Tonks asked.

"I-," Rose started but then her eyes filled with tears. She blinked once and they fell, but she didn't make a sound. Breathing deeply, she looked at the three adults standing before her. They all looked sad and with pity in their eyes. This isn't what she wanted. She just wanted to be safe. Safe and to be left alone. Why did she have to answer their questions? They found her getting beat by Mr. Gunther. They already knew. Suddenly Rose was angry. If they wanted to know what happened to her she would tell them, it was probably a dream and wouldn't matter any way. "Do you want to know what happened to me? Do you need to know that for the first seven years of my life I have lived under the stairs? That I wouldn't get any food until my aunt could sneak me some after my uncle went to be or after he went to work. Do you want to know about the time that I tried to run away and my uncle took the hot poker from the fireplace and burned the bottoms of my feet so I couldn't walk? And then expected me to still get all of my chores done and then strangle and beat me when I couldn't do it? Or how about the time when Uncle Vernon paid for Aunt Petunia to go on vacation with Dudley so he could have a party with his work friends over and they passed me and two other girls around a circle where they did what ever they wanted to us? Is that what you needed to know?" She was yelling at them by the end of it. God she had forgotten most of it her self. Why were theses adults making her think of these things? It was better for everyone if they all just forgot.

The room was quiet for several moments; the only sounds were Rose breathing heavy as tears quietly dripped down her face "I'm Sorry Rose but we did need to know. We can't help you get better if we don't know. We have to re-brake some of your bones and re-heal them. I suspect that you used your own magic to heal yourself in the first place but without your bones being set properly they healed wrong and have probably been giving you issues that you didn't even know about. I noticed that you came in here with a limp that you are so used to that you don't notice it. Its because your right femur healed crooked. Some of your bones have been completely shattered, those we will have to regrow and will cause you pain but it will be better for you in the long run if we can fix these issues now."

Healer Tonks did at the very least look a bit upset at the pain that she has had to go through. "Do what you have to do then." Rose permitted.

Healer Tonks moved to the corner of the room to where there was a cupboard. Opening it she pulled out three bottles. One was a small blue one the sparkled under the odd bubble like lights. The second was a pale green and larger than the blue one. The last was the largest of the vials but it looked to be the most unappealing. The contents looked like runny cement. The healer handed over the second vial and told her to drink. Rose obeyed the woman and tipped the contents into her mouth. It tasted like how freshly cut grass smells, but as soon as it touched her tongue all of her aches and pains disappeared. She pocketed the two other vials.

"Okay Rose, this will be very uncomfortable for you, even with that pain potion. We are going to re-brake your bones and re-heal the ones that we can. The ones that we can't will be vanished and then re-grown overnight. It will hurt but if you are in too much pain you have to let us know alright?"

Rose was nervous but agreed. This dream was starting to take on a strange twist.

"Sirius I need you to come here and hold her hand. Rose you are going to squeeze his hand as hard as you need to when you feel pain Okay? Minerva, can you please stand on the other side of her? Just there, Perfect. Now I need you to hold her leg so that its straight. Yes, just like that. Now one, two, three." And there was a crack. Thanks to the substance in the vial that she had drank Rose just felt a dull ache in her leg. But looking up at Sirius she could tell that they had just broken it. With a wave of her stick, 'wand' she corrected in her mind, and with the golden light that came from it the aching stopped in her leg.

The process continued for several minuets. If there was a clock in the room, it would have said that it had been over an hour since they had started. But finally it was finished. Twenty-three bones were broken and healed. Thirty were vanished entirely and would be re-grown over night dew to the substance that was in the last vial that tasted like death.

"This is the process that will be the most painful for you to endure, Rose. But we are going to give you some dreamless sleep potion as well to help you sleep through the worst of it and to prevent you from getting any nightmares. After they day that you have had I think that will be for the best anyway. Drink up and get some sleep. We will be here in the morning." The healer said.

The three adult said their goodnights after making sure that all of the potion was drunk and they left the room. Out inside the hall the adults closed the door so it was just ajar. Minerva cast a privacy spell. "So," she asked the healer. "how is she?"

Andromeda Tonks sighed. "She has lots of internal damage. Externally she has multiple scars from wounds that were healed incorrectly and quickly. There is sings of malnourishment... She was pregnant at one point. From what I can tell it was terminated before she even knew, not that she would truly know I hope. It seems that it was blunt force trauma that ended it. As you saw, her ribs show sigs of being broken, most of her limb bones looked as if they had been broken at one point in time. Most of that seems old however, four years or older. It would also explain why she was so surprised by my magic. She must be using every ounce that she has keeping herself alive."

It was everything that Sirius was afraid of and more. "What do we do for her?" he asked.

"Well first of all we give her space while still showing her that we support her and she can trust us. She has gone through an ordeal that we can only guess at what it was like. Second we need to find her a place to live, preferably with children that are female. I know that you were hoping to take her Sirius, but I don't think that living in your bactulr pad will be conductive with her mental health. Thirdly we need to set up a support system for her. That system will need to be in place at Hogwarts as well Minerva. Children can be cruel at the best of times. She will be going to Hogwarts with little knowledge of the magical world. Its going to be a big adjustment for any child, add this into the mix and she just might brake. Then there is the fact that everyone thinks that she is dead. Now she is alive, but she will be a hero to some and a villain to others. It wont help that she had been out of the way hiding for all of these years. It wont matter to the public that she has been being abused they will wonder if she has been off being trained by death eaters to become the next dark lady. She has a long road ahead of her." The three of them looked around at each other with grim expressions.

"What about moving her in with you Andi? I know that you and Ted always wanted more children, and isn't your daughter still young?" Sirius asked her, hopping that she would say yes.

"Miss. Tonks will be in her seventh year at Hogwarts this year. It would be good to have a friend already at Hogwarts looking out for her. Especially if she can get all of Huffelpuff keeping an eye on the girl." McGonagall thought out loud.

Andi sighed. "I'll bring Nymphadora by tomorrow to meet her. If they get on well, then it will be worth looking into. I'm not making any promises though. I'll talk to Ted about it when I finally get home."

"I'm going to head out. I'll be around in the early afternoon to do my 'welcome to the wizarding world' speal to her. Explain Diagon Ally to her and magical education. She is a bright girl though. I was with her all day today; she was reading a muggle textbook about science. I might have to see her go to Ravenclaw." McGonagall said. "Good night." and then she was walking away.

"Sirius you should head out too." Andi said to him.

"If its all the same to you I would like to stay." he told her. She was about to object but Sirius dint give he the opportunity. "Look, I have nothing at my flat but ale and stale pizza. Tonight was the first time that I have been sober while off duty in ten years. I thought that she was dead for ten years. I let her down by not looking for her. And until I can say that she is safe, I'm not going to be much further than a few rooms away. I owe he that much."

"Alright. But you stay out of the way and do as the healers say. I'm going to finish my paper work and then head home and go to bed. See you in the morning."

"Goodnight Andi."

"Goodnight Seri." she said. Giving him a hug and a peck on the check then heading down the hall to the healers' offices.

Sirius went back into the room and transfigured one of the beds into an adult sized one an pulled a spare pillow and blanket from the cupboard and settled down for the night, kicking off his boots and taking off his leather jacket. That was the first night in ten years that Sirius slept soundly.

Rose was happy that for the first time in years she didn't have any nightmares. And accept for that strange dream she slept soundly. Cracking her eyes open though and scrubbing the sleep from it she found her self not at home. Not immiedently recognizing her surrounding she screamed and jumped out of bed.

Sirius was on his feet in moments. "What's going on?" he yelled as he jumped from the bed next to hers pulling out his wand from his pocket. Oh that's right a wand. Magic, that was apparently real. Not seeing any immanent threat, he turned to Rose lowering his wand. "Merlin, Rose. Don't do that. You just scared ten years off of my life." He told her.

"Sorry," she said. "I just forgot."

"'S okay." He said. He put his wand away into his pocket and stretched putting his hands above his head. "Hospital beds are the worst for sleeping on right?" he asked her.

"I can think of a few worse places" she said and he lost some of his grin.

"Yea. I bet you can. Look Rose I haven't had a chance to say it. Or maybe I just didn't because I didn't want to think about it, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you growing up. I should have looked harder for you. If I ever figure out how you got to those people, I will do everything in my power to make them pay." Sirius vowed to the eleven year-old.

Rose didn't know what to say. She wasn't used to anyone caring for her. Not really. Sure Aunt Petunia would try and make sure that she received food at least once a day. If she thought that she could get away with it that is. Her teachers helped her find good secondary schools to apply to but none of them would write a letter of recommendation for her. All of them believing her to be a bad student dew to the lack of her getting her assignments done on time. Rose believed that everyone was out for themselves, and this was probably more of the same. Sirius was probably doing this for some reason that benefited him. She just didn't know what that was yet. But he did save her she supposed. The very least that she could say was, "Thank you."

"Your welcome. I just wish that I could do more. Oh and before I forget here." He pulled out a yellowed envelope. "Minerva meant to give this to you last night. She will be around latter today to explain it to you more but I figure you can read it over now and come up with a list of questions to aske her when she gets here. Make the old broad feel useful and all that."

The envelope was made up of some sort of aged paper. If she didn't know better she would say that it was parchment but no one used that anymore. On it was her old address written in green ink. Inside the letter was printed on the same type of paper with the same green ink. It looked to be hand-written. Apparently magical schools could give their students that personal attention. Sitting back down on the bed she began to read the letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcery, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)

Dear Miss Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. Enclosed you will find a list of all of your required books and equipment. You will also find a list of optional material that you might need traversing this new world that you find yourself in.

Term begins on 1 September. We require your reply no latter than 31 July. Look at the enclosed information on how to send your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"That woman who was here last night was the Deputy Head?" Rose asked.

"What? Oh yes. But she is also the head of transfiguration, bloody good at it too. One to the top five in the world last I knew anything about it. She is one best in all of the British Isles though second only to Dumbledore himself and he taught her."

"Does the Deputy Head usually go around giving students their letters? Or am I special." Rose asked. She didn't like being noticed, it usually leads to trouble.

"Not usually no. most students just receive it via post owls per-usual. The issue comes up when students from none magical families come into the mix. I think that your mother said that McGonagall came and gave her the letter as well. Its nesscarry to explain magic to both the new student and to his or her parents. If the student is the eldest in the family their younger siblings were likely to have magic as well but not always. As you can see with your aunt and your mother." Sirius explained making her fell slightly better, like she wasn't being singled out.

There was a nock on the door and in walked Healer Tonks and with her was a young woman with pink hair. "Ah, good you two are up." She said entering the room. "Rose this is my daughter Nymphadora. Dora, this is Primrose Potter."

Dora scrunched up her nose at her mother's comment "Call me Tonks, or well that might be confusing when my mother is your healer. Call me Dora then, Nymphadora is an awful name and I hate it." The girl said.

"Dora," her mother warned.

"What mum? You don't even use it unless I'm in trouble. And that only happens when I change my nose in front of my cousins." She rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, Dora will be starting her seventh year at Hogwarts in the fall. I thought that it would be nice if you got to meet someone closer to your own age who can tell you about the school and answer any questions that you might have. Now lay back on the bed Rose and I'll check you over," Healer Tonks said. Rose complied and with a few waves of her wand she was prounced to be within good health. "We just have to focus on your nutrition, and making sure you stay healthy now," she informed her.

With a wave of her wand breakfast appeared on a near by bed table. "Eat up and drink these," the Healer ordered. "Sirius, go home shower and change. Dora or I will be with her for the morning and you need to check in with work."

Sirius looked like he wanted to argue but the look that the woman was giving him told him that there was no room for argument. "Fine, but ill be back as soon as I can ok?"

Healer Tonks rolled her eyes. "Yes Sirius fine, fine. But go now."

Dora laughed as she sat down on the bed that Sirius had just vacated. "You never told me that your cousin was so ridiculous mum."

"It really wasn't something that you needed to know dear. I didn't really ever think that I would spend too much time with him ever again. Its funny how things change sometimes. Now I have to go and start my shift. Ill be back to check on you two in a bit." Healer Tonks said and she left the room.

"Alright she is gone. What do you want to know?" Dora asked her.

"Excuse me?" Rose asked.

"Oh come on. You live your entire life in the muggle world then all of a sudden a man is kicking down your door and saving you from the worst muggles of the worst with magic. All of a sudden magic is real, and probably a few other things that you dismissed as children's fantasy years ago and now you are not only being saved by it you are part of it. If it was me I would be questioning everyone non stop to the point that they would stun me just to shut me up. Of course I was apparently doing magic within seconds of being born but that is because of my 'gift'," the older girl blabbed.

"What gift is that?" the younger asked.

"See, now your getting it. My gift is this," she closed her eyes and when she opened them she was an exact copy of Rose. All the way down to the last freckle. Closing her eyes again she was back into the form she was when she walked in to the room. "I'm what's known as a metamorhmagus. It's an old family gift apparently but hasn't appeared in the family in centuries. I'm the first one in the black family with it since the last Nymphadora in my mother's family lived over three hundred years ago. It sure pissed them off royally."

"Why would that make your mothers family angry? Wouldn't they be happy that you have that gift then?"

Dora nodded her head. "You would think but apparently my mother's family is nothing but a bunch of inbreeded racist arristracts well all accept my mother's cousin Sirius. My father is a muggle born like how your mother was. And that is a big no-no for magical nobility. So now all of a sudden all of these years latter someone is born with the gift but, it's the firs half-blood to be born in the line in recorded history. It makes their theories about blood purity to be invaled since a half-blood can have more magical talent than a pure-blood. Its all racist bullshit and I'm better off with out them, but Mum is sad that she can't see her sister any more."

"That's stupid." Rose said. "You shouldn't treat family like that. Even when you disagree with them. You shouldn't treat them any better or worse because of the choices that they make or how they are born. Its not right. Its- its just wrong." Rose took a deep breath to steady her self. It sucked that people were rude to their family for no reason even in this new world that she found herself in. you would think that when your lives were made easier with magic that there would be less of a reason to hate others for petty differences.

"I know. But my dad's family is nice enough even if I have to hide my magic from them. Muggles aren't supposed to know about us, and while my dad's siblings know their spouses and children don't so I was only able to see them for short periods of time growing up because I couldn't control my changes. Now that I'm an adult and almost a fully trained witch it doesn't matter so much."

That is how the two girls spent their morning. Telling each other stories about their worlds. Rose found herself able to talk to the girl who she had felt more kinship toward than any member of the family who she was raised by.

AN: I know that the ending of this is kind of lame but I just wanted the chapter out there and done. The there is two more chapters that I currently have planed for before Hogwarts, but it is planed, and will happen soon. Next chapter we catch up with Lily and Harry and Rose gets more settled in her new life.

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