She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Of course she knew it was a possibility that might happen, but with how her life generally went she had learned early on not to bother hoping that some long-lost family might show up and get her out of her own personal hell.
When she had sent that letter (which had quickly turned into many, eventually she just bought a two-way diary which made things much faster) she had never expected him to actually show up.
Except now here he was. And she had absolutely no idea how to react to that.
She would openly admit the way he subtly removed her from the home permanently was mostly a blur. She definitely remembered the so-called 'wards' that the headmaster claimed was absolutely essential for her protection slamming into place around the two of them, leaving the house entirely unprotected.
By the time she reoriented herself, they were far from England and halfway to Italy, on a boat of all things. At least she had a proper bed this time.
"Finally awake I see," he said amused.
She didn't even hesitate. The fact he had come for her at all was something she had never dared to hope for in a thousand years.
She tackled him in a hug, practically sobbing into his expensive tailored shirt.
He seemed to understand though. He rubbed her back soothingly.
"Easy, little sister."
"You came. You actually came."
"You really thought I would leave the last of my blood family alone with all the little details that said you were being actively abused and neglected and no one bothered to notice or care?" he said, raising an eyebrow. It hadn't taken that much of a leap to guess what was going on that she refused to mention.
Seeing the proof for himself had pissed him off more than he could have guessed though.
She simply hugged him that much tighter. He let the shock of a rather emotional day drain out of her and just held her. The fact she had fainted once they were properly on the boat and in their room hadn't surprised him at all. He also knew she would likely sleep most of the day tomorrow as well while her mind came to terms with the fact he had cared enough to actually come get her once he found out where she lived and was able to clear up his schedule long enough to do so. The fact he was never letting her go back to that house was also a major factor.
As he predicted, she passed out with a rather strong grip around him.
He simply rearranged the two of them and let his magic coil around her protectively, before taking a light nap himself.
Renato Sinclair was many things, but easily surprised or caught off guard was not one of them. Not anymore.
So finding out that he had a younger sister had come as a major shock. Finding out he wasn't actually from Italy was another, but that one was a lot easier to take than the fact he had actual blood family still living.
And then he started talking to his little sister, who had been just as thrilled/shocked to learn she had an actual sibling out there willing to talk to her.
What started out as a cautious testing of the waters quickly grew to a rather long correspondence. One that was made much easier when he sent her a two-way diary which allowed near instant communications and was less fragile (and expensive) than a two-way mirror.
That was when he started picking up on the little details. Things most people might dismiss, but someone who had been trained to pick up on things in order to kill others (someone like him), it was all too obvious that his sister's home life was less than happy and that she had been emotionally and physically neglected.
And that had pissed him off when he discovered the extent of the damage.
It seemed that a lot of the adults in his sister's life had a great deal to answer for, missing this amount of abuse. Or at the very least allowing it to continue and even forcing her to return every summer. She had openly admitted requesting to at least stay in the school over the summer, but had been denied rather strongly by the headmaster.
So now the World's Greatest Hit Man had a weakness.
He would have to see exactly what the extent of her magical training was before he could start setting up wards on top of everything else. He just hoped she didn't regret asking to live with him once she found out what he did for a living.
Most civilian-raised girls would balk at the idea of having a trained killer around them.
It was around lunch when his sister...and that was one thing he was going to have to get used to, having a baby sister so frail and fragile being in close proximity to him with literally no where else to go or trust, properly woke up.
On the plus side, it seemed his little sister had some steel in her, and once given a chance for her to properly process her emotions was able to bounce back relatively quickly.
There was some caution (quite a bit of it, but considering what he rescued her from, understandable), but the thing that got him the most was the hope in her eyes.
Despite having so much crap piled on her and being thrown straight into the tumultuous deep end more often than not by the 'responsible adults' around her, there was still some hope left in her soul.
"Feeling better, kitten?"
She blushed a little.
"I'm glad you came. No one else ever has."
Renato held his sister close to him, calmly waiting for her to continue.
"Well you better get used to it, kitten. I'm not the sort of person who would leave my little sister in such a caustic environment. I despise child abusers."
She tilted her head.
"Kitten?" she asked.
"You're still little to me, and you said your house animal is a lion. So kitten," he said shrugging.
She snuggled into his side.
"I don't mind. I'd rather be kitten than one of my many hyphenated titles," she said.
Her stomach let out a loud rumble of protest.
He chuckled.
"Come on kitten. I can only assume it's been a while since you ate anything, and anyone would be starving after the past two days you've had."
He noticed that his kitten was subservient, almost submissive around him.
It was common behavior around abuse victims suddenly liberated from their unfavorable position. It was going to take time and patience, but with luck he knew his little kitten would start to properly flourish away from the factors that had hurt her so badly.
So instead he went for a neutral topic once he was certain his sister had eaten as much as her stomach could safely handle without her getting sick.
"There's one thing I still don't get. I know that it's typical for the first born children to end up as the head of a family, particularly old lines. So why is it that you were selected as the heir and I was skipped over?"
She actually blushed.
"About that. I didn't really want to know the details beyond the fact I had an older brother that was never spoken of since you went missing when we were attacked, but the gist of it is that you were born out of wedlock and I wasn't."
"...What?" said Renato, raising an eyebrow.
She had trouble looking him in the eyes, only empathizing how innocent she still was in some ways.
"Sirius said that you were born while our parents were still in school, and mum was too young to be properly married. And considering she was an Irish Catholic during a time when unwed mothers were frowned upon very heavily, to say nothing of the massive lack of proper support, it was decided that they would leave you with our paternal grandparents until they were properly married and your existence kept secret considering the laws concerning bastard children are not exactly favorable in the least," she explained. "From what I understand quite a bit of alcohol was involved when you were conceived."
"How exactly did our mother hide her pregnancy? Surely someone would have noticed."
"She was very good at Charms. The only ones that knew were their closest friends, who all swore to secrecy. Sirius said that they used the Potter family cloak to send Mum to the Potter estate when you were about due to be born and hid the fact she was absent from the castle with polyjuice. Once you were born, they kept silent on your existence though she visited as often as she could. For the most part you stayed with our grandparents until they graduated and were married. They died soon after the wedding during an attack. When they had me, it was decided to pretend you were an adopted sibling rather than explain the truth to protect you from the old laws."
Renato said nothing. Well that explained far more than he had anticipated. Even he knew that England was one of the few places that had never rescinded the rather annoying "bastard" laws that made it hard for those conceived out of wedlock to inherit anything. It also made them heavily subject to the whims of the head of whatever house they were born into.
Such children were lucky if they were properly adopted into the family and made full members. From the sound of it, he had been after the fact which explained why he still had a trust vault.
"How many know of me now?"
"Most who knew were killed off or agreed to have their memory of the pregnancy erased to protect you from the old laws. Out of those who would remember, I would have to say it would be the Maruaders...though only Remus is left."
"What happened to them?"
"Peter turned out to be a traitor and Sirius... Sirius was killed by our distant cousin Bellatrix a few months ago when I walked right into an ambush."
Renato made a note to get his sister to see Shamal as soon as possible. The Mist was one of the few people he could call friend, even if he was leery of allowing Shamal anywhere near his sister. The man was almost as big a womanizer as Renato himself, though he would openly admit to having problems pinning down his age.
At least he knew he could trust the idiot.
For the next four days, the two managed to make small talk to fill the time.
Renato immediately resolved to have his sister permanently removed from the Hogwarts roster the second he was properly registered as her magical and legal guardian. Of course he would have to use his birth name (which he had been entirely unaware of until she managed to contact him) to avoid anyone making the connection between his sister and him outside the enclaves. But that was a small price to pay to insure his little kitten was finally safe from the fools trying to use her for their own gain.
It was a good thing he had plenty of time to prepare for the fact he was going to be living with his little sister long before he retrieved her. As it turned out the Potter family had vacation homes already in Italy...it had taken a few owls between his kitten and the goblins, but he had been allowed the pick of them.
He chose one a decent distance from Venice with some decent real estate and wards that just needed to be updated. The kitchen had been completely redone, the furniture either replaced or fixed, and the pantry and fridge fully stocked. There was also a decent potions lab that he wasn't really planning to use, and much to his surprise (and secret delight) a medium-sized armory. Sure, most of the stock was outdated, but the weapons themselves were in very good condition and it wouldn't take much to update it to include modern weapons like his guns.
There were several bedrooms and he had promptly claimed the master, though he planned to give his kitten the room right next to it with the massive walk in closet. A closet he fully intended to fill with some actual clothes outside of her school uniform and the rare knitted sweater.
He had seen what his 'cousin' and 'aunt' considered acceptable wear and he had been rather appalled by the very poor quality.
Renato was very much a fashion snob. And he would admit as much if asked...none of his clothes were off the rack and every one of them was custom tailored for him specifically. And that included his beloved fedora with the golden yellow band around it.
His kitten and her owl took to their new home rather well. However it was what happened when Renato contacted Shamal and brought the man to see exactly what they would need to do in order to bring his kitten back to proper health that would give him quite a few headaches and far too many questions.
The two of them had stared at each other in absolute shock...and what could only be recognition.
"Pup?" said Shamal slowly, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"S-Sirius?!" she said, before promptly fainting from shock. Renato was barely able to catch her before she hit her head on the table.
Renato glared at Shamal, before he carefully maneuvered his sister onto one of the couches. A little bit of water from a glass she had on the table woke her up.
"Explain. How do you two already know each other?"
"Forget that. What the hell is she doing here with you?!" said Shamal once he got over his shock.
"He's my brother," said Jasmine.
Sirius, or rather Shamal as he preferred to be known now that he was far from England, blinked twice.
"Wait... this is Richard?" said Shamal incredulous. He had stumbled on James' son by accident and ended up friends with him?
"Will someone mind explaining what the hell is going on before I break out my gun?" Renato asked crossly. He did not like being kept out of the loop.
Shamal looked at Renato and winced.
"A couple months ago I faked my death in England so I could finally be free of the headmaster's manipulations. It was pretty clear he was never going to let me out of the house or bother to clear my name, so I decided to hell with it, I'll just be Shamal full time."
"You couldn't have told me you were alive?!" said Jasmine angrily, tears streaming down her face.
"After what Snape did to your shields, I couldn't risk my other identity getting out. I was planning to come get you by next year at least...though it seems Ren beat me to the punch. I'm sorry you had to see that illusion pup," said Shamal wincing. "It was hard enough to fool Remus into believing I was there while I was out working as Shamal."
Jasmine was still mad he faked his death...but at the same time she was so relieved he was still alive.
Shamal accepted the slap without complaint...and the tackle-hug she gave him after.
Renato, on the other hand, had a major headache from this particular revelation. At least he knew Shamal, Sirius, whatever name he called himself wouldn't be hitting on his sister.