On the Monday evening following his weekend visits to Sirius, Harry once again found himself riding the spiral staircase up to the Headmaster's Office, a place rapidly becoming all too familiar for the young wizard.

Ever since Snape had stalked towards him during dinner, the expression on his face one of complete hatred, and spat out a summons from the Headmaster, Harry had wracked his brain as to what this could be regarding. As far as he knew, he had not fought any insane Dark Lords, ancient magical creatures or irritating housemates recently, nor had he uncovered any more terrible plots or hidden Death Eaters.

Perhaps there was something wrong with Sirius? He had left the man in good spirits the day before, and surely nothing had happened in only a day. Still, it was the only possibility that he could not immediately dismiss, and so when his ride came to a stop, it was with worry and trepidation that he knocked on the door to the Headmaster's Office.

Once Professor Dumbledore had called for him to enter, Harry stepped into the office and walked quickly forward toward the desk. "You wanted to see me, Professor? Is Sirius okay?" He questioned urgently.

The Headmaster's bushy eyebrows rose slightly in surprise before a flash of understanding crossed his wizened face. The man let out a small chuckle and raised his hands. "Sirius is quite alright Harry, there is nothing to be concerned about. Whatever made you believe there was?"

Harry let out a sigh of relief and sank into the chair behind him. "Well, Snape demanded I come up to see you immediately. I didn't really know what it could be about so I started to worry."

"I see," Dumbledore murmured to himself before splaying his hands to the side apologetically. "I am sorry for the confusion, Harry. I asked Professor Snape to deliver an invitation to come here before curfew, I was not aware that he had misinterpreted my request as an immediate summons."

Harry lowered his eyes sadly. "I was halfway through my dinner."

"I offer you my sincere apologies once more, Harry." The Headmaster spoke, looking suitably contrite.

"I was having meat and potato pie. It was delicious." Harry reported with an air of deep mourning and loss.

"A point to Slytherin in recognition of your noble sacrifice." Dumbledore intoned gravely, his face solemn.

"And there's always treacle tart for dessert on Mondays." Harry sighed, turning his head to look slightly past the man across from him, his eyes losing focus as he lost himself in wistful imaginings of a dessert he could no longer partake in.

"May I offer you a lemon drop in this most trying of times?" The Headmaster offered, sliding the bowl across his desk tantalisingly with amusement dancing in his eyes.

"That's very kind of you, Professor, thank you," Harry grinned, perking up instantly and plucking one of the treats from the bowl.

The Astoria Greengrass School of Acting really did come in handy sometimes.

The Headmaster returned his grin as he slid the bowl back, took one for himself and sat back in his chair. Harry glanced over to Fawkes' perch and saw that the Phoenix had his head tucked under his wing and his usually vibrant red plumage looked duller in places and somewhat weathered. "Is he about to burn, Professor?" He asked, his tongue working awkwardly around the lemon drop.

"Oh, yes," Professor Dumbledore answered as he too turned toward the dozing Phoenix. "It occurs naturally every few years and this cycle has been long overdue."

"Is it painful for him?"

"Not at all," The Headmaster assured. "He will show signs that the time is approaching, such as now, but when it happens it is over in an instant." Harry just nodded as he received the information so the man turned away from his familiar to regard the boy. "Now, Harry, I think it best to move on to the topic I called you here to discuss this evening."

Harry turned to face the man fully, bit down on the lemon drop to crack it open and quickly chewed the remnants before swallowing it down. Professor Dumbledore gave his actions a small smile as he slid his hand into his robes and removed the pale white wand he rarely used. Harry's eyes immediately focused on the wand, feeling the same odd feeling of yearning and desire he had each previous time he had seen it.

"I wonder Harry if you recall who this wand previously belonged to?" The old man asked as he twirled the wand between his long fingers.

Harry tilted his head to the side slightly as he answered. "It was Grindelwald's wand, wasn't it Professor?"

"Correct, Harry, the previous owner of this wand was indeed Gellert Grindelwald. Did you perhaps ever wonder why it is that it is now in my possession?"

"Not really, sir," Harry responded with a shake of his head. "I imagine that when you won it from him you simply decided to keep it."

The Headmaster inclined his head toward him. "When I defeated him in November of 1945, the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW at the time, one VicĂȘncia Santos, requested that I relinquish the wand to her. She desired to hold a grand celebration of victory, during which the wand would be snapped in front of the world's watching press, as a symbolic representation of Grindelwald's reign of terror being broken." Harry nodded along to the story as the Headmaster paused and raised his eyes from the wand to Harry's face. "I refused."

"Why, Professor?" Harry asked, even as he felt an odd wave of relief that the wand had not been destroyed.

"Well, as the one who had fought and defeated Grindelwald in single combat, it was my right to take the spoils," The Headmaster answered nonchalantly as his eyes flickered back to the wand. Though his reasoning sounded simple enough, Harry knew there was more to the story.

"That's not the only reason, is it, Professor?" Harry prompted gently. He almost flinched when Professor Dumbledore's eyes moved back up to meet his own with a piercing gaze.

After a moment, during which the Headmaster appeared to be searching for something in the depths of his eyes, the old man inclined his head. "There is," He allowed. "But that is a tale for another day, Harry."

Harry nodded in acceptance. Though a large, curious part of him wanted to know now what that reason was, he knew that it wasn't really any of his business and the Headmaster was under no obligation to tell him if he didn't desire to. "And Santos was fine with that, Professor?" He asked instead, getting them back on track.

"Not at first. She had received rather stern criticisms during the war and I believe that she hoped the image of her with the broken pieces of Grindelwald's wand would help repair her reputation," Professor Dumbledore told him with a wry smile. "But, when I turned down her offers of payment, grand awards and even a special advisory position, insisting that the only reward I wished for was the wand, she relented." The Headmaster paused to place the wand back into his robe, its disappearance causing Harry to experience a strange sense of loss, and continued in an odd voice. "It is common, in matters such as these, for the victor to keep the wand of the defeated."

Harry, who had been staring unthinkingly at the part of the Professor's robes that the wand had vanished into, suddenly looked up at the Headmaster. The last sentence he had said, the way he had said it...

"Why are you telling me this, Professor?" Harry asked warily. His wariness only increased when the Headmaster, rather than answer verbally, slowly reached out to open a side drawer of his desk, his hand dipping inside and removing a thin, long, bone-white wand. As soon as the wand was free of the confines of the desk Harry sensed the thick, black, evilness emanating from it and drew back in horrified revulsion.

"This, Harry, is the wand of Lord Voldemort."

Harry's mind cast back to last Tuesday, when Peter Pettigrew had, during his Veritaserum-enforced confession, revealed himself to be in possession of this wand. Moody had taken it from him then, but Harry had, at the time, been rather more focused on not blowing the rat to pieces and thus had not particularly paid much mind to it.

Now, that same wand, the wand that had been used to murder his parent and countless others, lay innocently on the desk before him.

And Professor Dumbledore was suggesting...

"Are you saying this is mine now?" Harry uttered lowly, his lip curling upwards in disgust as he stared at the wand.

"Indeed," The Headmaster intoned as he leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers over his front. "The Minister, like Madam Santos, wished to have the wand publicly destroyed, but I argued against it and reminded him that you, as the vanquisher of Lord Voldemort, were by right the owner of this wand."

"I don't want it," Harry stated immediately with a shake of his head.

"Do you remember, Harry, what Mr. Ollivander told you about this wand and its relationship to your own?" The Headmaster asked in a considered voice.

Harry frowned slightly as he thought back to that day. "He said they were brothers, Professor. That their feathers were from the same phoenix - Fawkes."

"Are you aware of what that means, Harry?" He asked, and Harry had to shake his head again. He hadn't given it any more thought, too preoccupied as he had been that day with discovering who He-Must-Not-Be-Named even was. "I do not pretend to be an expert in wandlore," The Headmaster continued. "But I know enough to predict that this wand would likely work as well for you as your own."

Harry finally lifted his eyes from the wand to glance at the Headmaster's face to find the man staring back at him with undisguised curiosity. Although the man had presented the information freely, Harry knew what it was that Professor Dumbledore wanted him to do, even if he would not ask it of him.

Slowly, Harry pushed himself to his feet and took a step closer to the desk. He stared down at the wand and for a moment he thought he heard the faint sound of high, cold laughter, but it disappeared when he suddenly reached out without further hesitation and grasped the wand in his hand.

A familiar yet foreign surge rushed up his arm as the wand responded to his touch, bright green and blue sparks erupting from its tip. A part of Harry rejoiced as if a long-lost friend had been returned to him.

And another part cried out in abject horror as bile rose into his throat.

As the two parts of himself battled for dominance, Harry murmured "Lumos" and watched as a bright, almost-blinding ball of light appeared. The wand, as the Headmaster had predicted, responded to his magic and will just as well as his own, and the two parts inside of him settled. Harry glanced up from the light to Professor Dumbledore and noticed that, for a brief moment before he dropped his gaze to Harry's eyes, the man had for some reason been staring at his forehead.

"So this is mine now, Professor?" Harry asked as he extinguished the light. He moved his left hand to hold the wand across both his palms and began to run his eyes up and down the length of it.

"It is, Harry. To do with as you please," The Headmaster informed him calmly.

"As I please?" Harry clarified.

"As you please."

Harry nodded, took a long, slow, deep breath and then closed his eyes and concentrated. His magic rushed to comply with his wishes, and he felt the searing heat in his hands, though felt no pain. He heard the cracking of wood and smelt the smoke as it rose to filter through his nostrils. After thirty seconds, he allowed the shocking blue, almost white flames that had engulfed his hands to die down and opened his eyes once more.

Lying across his palm and surrounded by ash that had once been yew was an unsinged and pristine phoenix feather.


Daphne let out a tired sigh, sat back in her chair, dropped the quill she had been writing her History of Magic essay with and started to rub at her aching wrist.

As fascinating as a failed Goblin Rebellion from 1890 was, she needed to take a well-earned break before the urge to take up her wand and blow her own brains out became too pressing to ignore any longer. Six inches of parchment did not sound all that much, but with every sentence she wrote she could hear Binns' monotone repeating it back to her inside her head.

She already suffered through three hours a week of the ghost's mind-numbing voice, it really wasn't fair that her traitorous mind tortured her with yet more of it.

Once her wrist had been sufficiently soothed, she leaned her head against the back of her chair and closed her eyes. For the first time tonight, her cosy little corner of the library was blessedly and enjoyably silent and the only sounds she could hear were the scratching of quills against parchment as her companions all focused on their own homework.

Daphne allowed herself a little smile, looking forward to Harry finding them and getting to watch him begin his essay. She would greatly enjoy his suffering, content with the knowledge that he had not even started it yet whilst she only had two more inches to go. She absently wondered what it was that he was discussing with the Headmaster. She had been briefly worried when Snape had interrupted their dinner and snarled his summons, but when Astoria had pointed out that if it had been an emergency they both would likely be summoned as well, she had relaxed. Whatever it was about, she would discover when Harry came to find them.

For now, she would happily enjoy the peace and tranquility.

"Your mum is a fox!"

...she despised Tracey.

She opened her eyes to spear her friend with a look of such utter loathing that, had he been present to witness it, would have had Snape prostrating himself before her begging for tips on how to replicate it. A look that was unfortunately totally wasted on the brown-haired girl who was busy glancing between Daphne and Astoria and looking much too pleased with herself to notice. Daphne turned to the other two girls, hoping for shared solidarity, but Luna had either not heard Tracey's sudden outburst or, more likely, did not find it at all odd or worthy of diverting her attention from her Charms essay in the slightest, whilst Astoria had abandoned her own homework to regard Tracey with an amused grin and thus was not looking Daphne's way.

"While it's cute that you feel attracted to my mum, why exactly did you feel the need to share it?" Her sister questioned as Daphne bemoaned Harry's absence, knowing that he at least would commiserate with her.

Tracey huffed and rolled her eyes. "No that's - no. I meant, your mum's animagus form is a fox!"

"Oh, so you're finally on the predator train like the rest of us? Took you long enough," Astoria smirked, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair triumphantly.

"Well seen as you two, and Harry, were so insistent that whatever she was is a predator, I had to consider the possibility," Tracey grudgingly admitted. The girl had only met Marie Greengrass once and thought she was too nice and kind to be something dangerous, but the unified front from her three children had seemingly convinced her. Tracey turned from Astoria's smug face to look at her. "What do you reckon, Daph? I think I've got it spot on."

Daphne reckoned that she'd quite like to liberate a lance from one of the suits of armour and spear Tracey through the throat with it for the unforgivable crime of disturbing the peace, but instead, she magnanimously decided to let it go and tilted her head toward her friend. "Eh. It's a possibility, but unlikely, I think."

Whilst Astoria nodded in total agreement, Tracey deflated. "But why," She whined.

Daphne shrugged. "They're too skittish."

Tracey narrowed her eyes. "You're just saying that because you think you're right with an eagle. I'm telling you, she's a fox!"

"No, she's a bear," Astoria chirped from her side of the table, which was summarily ignored by the two second-years.

"Why are you so certain she's a fox?" Daphne asked as she began to play with the feather of her quill idly.

"Well, they're intelligent - your mum was in Ravenclaw, they're tricky and resourceful - she was an Auror. Plus they're really pretty, and your mum is really pretty." Tracey listed, crossing her arms with satisfaction once she had finished.

"Really pretty? Are you sure you don't fancy our mum?" Astoria asked, receiving a stormy glare from the older girl.

"All the qualities you listed are also reasons why she's an eagle. And honestly, Trace, your description of a fox sounds more like Astoria than Mum," Daphne informed her, before throwing a sly grin her sister's way. "Except the pretty part."

"Shut it, moon face," Astoria snarled instantly. "And besides, this whole conversation is entirely pointless because she's a bear!"

"Are we arguing about this again?" A new voice sounded, causing them all (other than Luna, who remained engrossed in her essay) to look behind Tracey's chair to see that Harry had just arrived.

"Harry!" Daphne beamed, perking up in her seat. She ignored Astoria mimicking her greeting in a mockingly breathless voice and Tracey fake-swooning, resolving to bludgeon them both at a later date, and eagerly moved her bookbag from the seat beside her.

Harry smiled gratefully at her as he slid into the saved seat. "Any changes?" He asked her as he rummaged into his bookbag and retrieved a quill, inkpot and a sheet of parchment.

"Tracey has changed from a horse to a fox, I still say she's an eagle," Daphne began to report as she moved her sheet of notes from class so it was between them both. "Astoria is staying with bear and Luna hasn't said anything for about two hours."

Daphne was actually a little concerned that Luna was sleep-writing.

"Hello, Harry," Greeted the younger blonde girl, who still didn't look up from her work.

Nevermind.

"Hi, Luna," Harry returned, smiling at the top of her head, before he turned the majority of his attention toward beginning his essay.

"So what did Professor Dumbledore want?" Daphne asked as she started the next inch of her essay. As she awaited his answer, she heard both Astoria and Tracey return to their own work, the sound of their quills scratching against parchment clear.

"Oh," Harry began casually as he leaned over to check a fact on her sheet of notes. "He just wanted to give me Voldemort's wand."

Four quills instantly ceased writing as their owners stared at the boy, who pretended not to notice as he continued to write his essay. This time, when Daphne incredulously lifted her head to the other girls, she received her solidarity as each of their expressions mirrored her own.

Daphne was still in a stunned state of silence when Luna, who was the most unflappable of their group, recovered from her surprise and replied. "That makes sense. It is customary when one defeats a Dark Lord to take their wand as a trophy."

Harry snorted. "Yeah, I just didn't figure it counted when you were a year old and have no idea how you even did it."

"Which makes it all the more impressive, I should think," Luna reasoned, before deciding that was the end of the matter and taking up her quill once more. Their interaction had luckily roused Daphne from her stupor, but before she could start to ask for a more detailed explanation another voice cut in.

"Can I see it?" Astoria asked excitedly, glancing up and down Harry's front as if the wand would suddenly appear. Daphne gave her sister a flat look, but when Astoria noticed she just shrugged unrepentantly. "What? You three got to see it when it was taken from Pettigrew but I wasn't there."

"I don't have it anymore," Harry responded, causing her sister to visibly wilt. "I destroyed it."

For a moment there was another pregnant pause before all three of them suddenly began to speak.

"You destroyed V-V-his wand?"

"You couldn't have let me see it just once before your tendency for destruction kicked in?"

"Are you alright?"

The last was asked gently by Daphne, who reached out to take his free hand in hers. He turned to smile gratefully at her and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. It felt so wrong to hold it and have it respond to my magic. I know it was just a wand, but it felt too much like him. That wand was used to kill so many people, to kill my-" He cut himself off with a harsh shake of his head. He took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulder. "I would never be able to use that wand, and I didn't want to risk it ever getting back to him, so I burned it until it was gone."

Daphne nodded understandingly. "What did Dumbledore say?"

"He gave me 10 points for well-executed arson."

"Of course he did."

"But I have this now," Harry said and reached into his bag to pluck out a red phoenix feather. "It didn't burn with the rest, obviously, and it doesn't feel evil either." He twirled the rachis of the feather between two of his fingers and stared contemplatively at it. "Any ideas what to do with this?"

"My birthday is coming up soon," Astoria cut in from the side, causing them both to turn to her.

"In seven months," Daphne responded, scowling at her sister. "That isn't even remotely 'soon'." She turned back to Harry. "You could use it in some sort of ornament?"

Harry nodded as Tracey added her suggestion. "A quill?

"A gift?"

"Shut up, Tori."

"An ornamental quill," Luna spoke, all eyes turning to her as she rolled up her finished essay. "And, should something ever happen to your own wand, you could commission Mr. Ollivander to make you a new one, using this feather as its core."

Harry nodded thoughtfully as he put the feather back into his bag. "That's actually a really good idea, Luna. I'll do that."

Luna smiled prettily before she reached into her bag and took out December's issue of The Quibbler, her father's paper, and began to happily tackle the runic puzzle. Harry went back to his essay, sighing unhappily as he prepared for multiple hours of writing about goblin rebellions. Daphne followed suit, smiling to herself and looking forward to being done long before he was. Oh, how she would gloat.

Binns' drone was completely absent as Daphne went back to her essay, and she happily attributed it to the feel of Harry's hand still interlaced with hers. For the next forty minutes, their little group was silent, the only sound the scratching of quills on parchment.

Peace and tranquility.

"Fox."

She was going to butcher Tracey. Slowly.

"Bear."

She wondered what being an only child was going to be like after she murdered her sister. Quieter, hopefully.

"Panther."

She smiled and gave Harry a fond look, deigning to ignore the knowing grins from Astoria and Tracey.

"Eagle."

"Fruitfly."

"No, Luna."

The group returned to silence as the rest of the girls finished their essays. They loyally remained as Harry worked through his own and Daphne only gloated a tiny bit, and she patted him on the head when he finally signed off his finished work just half an hour before curfew.

She was most confused, however, when the second that Harry put away his things a large helping of treacle tart suddenly appeared on the desk before him, and that only deepened when his reaction was not total and utter bafflement as it was for the rest of them - no, instead he burst out into loud, infectious laughter.

Which, of course, attracted the attention of Madam Pince and they were all promptly thrown out of the library for disturbing the peace.

She didn't care.


As Sirius waited impatiently for his godson to arrive for his scheduled visit, he ruminated on all that had happened in the week since he had last seen him.

His mind felt much clearer now that he had been free of Azkaban for almost two weeks. The portions of his meals had been steadily increasing in size, quickly allowing him to put some meat on his skeletal frame, helped of course by the nutrient potions he was given once a day, and the gauntness of his appearance had been reduced. His previous good looks had returned, though he knew there would always be the shadow of Azkaban present in his features.

On Wednesday he had made his first foray back into the wider world when he and Remus had travelled to Diagon Alley. Their first stop had been Gringotts, where he confirmed that, as Andromeda had told him, he was now the last of the Blacks with the deaths of his Grandfather Arcturus and cousins Cassiopeia and Cygnus last year and thus was now the sole owner of the Black Vault and all of its vast wealth due to his Grandfather naming him as his sole heir in his will. Sirius had been most surprised by this news for he had been sure his father, at the behest of his thankfully dearly departed mother, would have ensured his disinheritance.

Sirius knew for a fact that should he ever lose whatever was left of his mind and decide to visit 12 Grimmauld Place he would find a burn mark on the Black Family Tapestry where his name had once been.

After that, they had gone shopping and Sirius had been delighted to have his own clothes once more, but his most important purchase had been his new cedar and dragon heartstring wand. He could not put into words how wonderful it had felt in his hand nor how much he had missed the feel of his magic surging through it, ready to enact his desires.

Before they had left, Sirius had popped into Macmillan & Fawley's to update his will. The only changes needed had been to remove James, Lily and Peter as beneficiaries, leaving only the amounts to be left to Remus, Andromeda and Tonks whilst everything else would be inherited by Harry.

After they had returned to St. Mungo's and just before Remus had left, he had mentioned the offer he had received from Marie Greengrass and his reservations as to whether to accept. Remus had been surprised at first to discover who Harry's guardians were but reasoned that, if Albus Dumbledore knew and trusted them, then they should do the same. Sirius had casually mentioned the possibility of staying with Remus, and whilst his friend had told him that of course, he was welcome to stay with him, for a short while, it was clear that it would likely put the werewolf out more than Sirius was comfortable with.

And so Sirius was in a rather contemplative mood when Madam Farley, who was now on the day shift, came into his room to deliver his evening meal. When Sirius asked if she were free to talk whilst he ate, the matron nodded and took a seat at the table, her expression intrigued.

"I was surprised that you allowed me to leave with Remus earlier," Sirius opened. "I'm grateful."

Madam Farley looked perplexed. "You are not a prisoner here, you are free to come and go as you like."

It was Sirius' turn to look flummoxed. "Really?"

"Your care has been paid for by the Ministry, for as long as you wish to stay." The matron explained gently. "It is your decision when your time with us ends, Sirius. You have recuperated much better than I had expected."

Sirius nodded in response. He spooned a few mouthfuls of stew into his mouth and thought about what she had said for a few moments before he looked up to find her patiently waiting for what he would say next. "Do you think I'm ready to leave?"

Madam Farley's smile was faint but visible as she answered. "As much as I enjoy your company, at this stage, I think the last of your recovery would be better served outside of our walls. The damage done to your body by Azkaban has been mostly healed, but the mind can only catch up when you return to society and normalcy."

Her words had stuck with Sirius over the next few days and he debated long and hard over whether or not to accept the Greengrass' offer. Remus had already made his thoughts clear, and when Tonks came to see him again on Thursday she gave the family a glowing review from the few times she had met them. Sirius valued her opinion, though he wondered whether her thoughts were too influenced by her cheerful nature to take at full face value.

The Black Madness had definitely, and thankfully, skipped his younger cousin.

But now, during the present, Sirius felt he had come to a decision, though it would hinge entirely on the desires of the person he could hear walking toward his room.

Harry.

"Hi, Sirius," The boy greeted as he walked through the door, the smile on his face being returned tenfold by him.

"Hey, kiddo," Sirius returned, opening his arms. He was overjoyed when his godson stepped forward and embraced him. Once their hug had ended, the two of them ended up sitting beside one another at the table by the window.

"How has your week been?" Sirius questioned as he poured them both some water.

"Good," Harry responded, taking his full glass from him. "Pretty normal actually. Other than, well..." He hesitated for a moment, peering over his glass at Sirius. He tried to make his face as open as he could to encourage the boy to share, and it must have worked for Harry continued. "Dumbledore gave me Voldemort's wand. Pettigrew had it and apparently, because I was the one to defeat him, it was mine by right."

Sirius blinked in shock. After it had passed, he whistled lowly. "What are you going to do with it?"

"I destroyed it," Harry shrugged. "Didn't really want to keep it after all it had done."

Sirius winced as he suddenly remembered what the last spells that wand had cast had been, and who they had been directed toward. "You made the right choice." He grinned at the boy next to him. "You seem to have a knack for doing that, after this and the map."

Harry snorted. "Well, I did promise Daniel and Marie I'd try to be smarter after last year."

"Last year?" He asked curiously.

Fool.

Sirius soon discovered over the next hour, as his godson told the tale of his exploits at Hogwarts so far, that curiosity was almost as fatal to dogs as it allegedly was to cats.

Cerberus.

Voldemort.

Basilisk.

Voldemort again.

Peter.

Snape was a teacher at Hogwarts.

Sirius, who rather suddenly felt twenty years older than he had only an hour before, was certain that he was currently suffering an aneurysm. "How - how - have the Greengrasses not had heart attacks yet?"

Harry shrugged. "I suppose they must have already been prepared for one of their kids to end up in constant near-death situations. They probably just expected it would be Astoria."

Sirius nodded- that made sense. Absently, he lifted his hand to rest it over his heart and found it frantically beating against his chest.

This settled it.

He needed to be close to his boy as much as humanly and caninely possible to ensure Harry made it to the ripe old age of seventeen.

After taking a large gulp of water to steel himself and wishing dearly that it were firewhisky, he fixed the boy with a serious look. "Harry, there's something we need to talk about."

"Is this about whatever Marie said to you after I left last week?"

Sirius stared at him. "You know about that?"

Harry frowned back. "Do you really think we didn't notice that it was only Daniel who flood back to Hogwarts with us?"

"Right. She wanted to talk to me about you and, well, me. She-"

"-threatened to kill you if you ever hurt me, didn't she?" Harry interrupted with a knowing smile.

"Yes, it was impressively sinister." He admitted grudgingly. "Anyway, what she really wanted to talk about was offering to let me live with them - you."

"Oh."

...was that a good oh or a bad oh?

"Oh. Wow. Well, do you want to?" Harry continued.

Sirius lifted his shoulder slightly. "I wasn't sure at first, but the idea has grown on me ever so slightly. And...I'd like to be with you, Harry. I want us to have the relationship we should have had." He said earnestly, receiving a smile from the boy. "Is that alright with you? If it's not, I'll find my own place, and if it is I'll let them know and move in as soon as they're ready. What do you think?"

Harry's smile tightened slightly. "Sirius, I'd love that, but are you sure? Just last week you were convinced that Daniel and Marie were Death Eaters. Are you sure you'd be comfortable living with them?"

Sirius was silent for a moment as he thought how best to explain himself. "I don't think they were Death Eaters anymore, kiddo. Nobody who loves you as clearly as they both do could be one of them. My problem with them is...a little more personal." He paused to smile at his godson. "But I'm certain that it will be fine. They do seem like good people, I'm sure we'll get along well in time."

"Then you've made your decision," Harry shrugged, his smile easy again.

Sirius shook his head. "Only if you're happy with it, kiddo."

"I am, Sirius," Harry assured him. "Did they tell you when you had to decide?"

"No, Gree-Marie just said to let you know to pass along the message."

Harry lifted his chin. "Ah, she knew you'd talk to me about it. Alright, if you write a letter I'll send it with Hedwig - that's Daphne's owl - tonight."

Sirius smiled widely and nodded. Thought it would be through an unconventional method, and a slightly difficult one for him, he was about to get his most fervent wish.

He would get to live with his godson.


With all the excitement of the Pettigrew situation, it took a week for Harry to remember the reason why they had been looking at the map at all that day.

After his latest visit to Sirius, which he learned from Marie's weekly letter would be the last as they would be picking his godfather up that Thursday to take him home, they had tried to find a good opportunity to speak to the Weasley twins.

They soon discovered that, outside of mealtimes, the twins were not-so-surprisingly difficult to track down.

In the end, Harry, after ducking out of the Potions classroom with Snape's molten-hot glare burning into his back and ignoring Daphne's accusations of abandonment, rushed to catch up with the Weasley in their own year, Ron.

The redhead boy gave him a confused look when he called for him to wait but obligingly did so. "Hello?"

"Hi," Harry started awkwardly. "Err, we were hoping to speak to your brothers - the twins - but we're having trouble finding them alone. Could you pass a message for us?" He asked, thumbing over his shoulder to indicate Daphne who was just now reaching them, still muttering angrily to herself.

"Why do you want to pass a message to my brothers?" Weasley asked, glancing between them both suspiciously.

"I want to thank them," Harry responded, which seemed to surprise the other boy. "They, err, gave something to Professor Dumbledore that my dad made so I could have it. It was a nice thing they did."

"What, did you think we wanted to lure them into a trap so we could cut them up for Potions ingredients?" Daphne asked with a small smirk.

Weasley shook his head. "No, but I've heard the rumours about you. You know, Quirrell going missing last year, killing a form of You-Know-Who this year." He shrugged. "Add Fred and George to whatever you two get up to - it makes a bloke worry, yeah? Hogwarts might not survive that."

Harry found himself grinning. "No, nothing like that. Does that mean you'll pass the message?"

"Sure," Weasley accepted easily.

With their agreement struck, the three of them began to move down the corridor and away from the Potions classroom. When none of them spoke for a minute, Harry turned his head to the taller boy. "So, err, how are you? After Pettigrew, I mean."

Weasley went a little green in the face as he grimaced. "'Oh, terrific. Really great finding out your rat is actually a Death Eater." He glanced past Harry at Daphne then and his eyes widened slightly. "Oh, erm..."

Daphne's glare was so frosty that Harry was certain icicles were about to form on the ceiling above them. "My parents were not Death Eaters, Weasley."

"Sorry," Weasley grunted, his ears reddening. "I, erm, I speak without thinking sometimes. Sorry. I'm trying to get better at not doing that."

Daphne's glare vanished as she and Harry shared an uncomfortable look. The redhead beside them had fallen silent, his haunted face pointed resolutely toward the direction they were heading. They knew why Weasley would be wary about upsetting someone unthinkingly after what had happened to Hermione Granger.

"It's alright," Daphne said into the silence. "You could have said worse, I suppose. But my parents weren't Death Eaters."

Weasley glanced at her briefly, his shoulders loosening slightly when he saw that her glare had disappeared. "Erm, sure. Sorry again." The three of them continued in silence through the winding dungeons, but when they reached the last stretch before the stairwell that would take them back onto the ground floor Weasley turned to Harry. "Listen, Potter. I should thank you for, you know, stopping You-Know-Who. He, ah, he hurt pretty much all of my family this year, other than Perce. So thanks."

Harry and Daphne both turned to stare at him. After a beat, Weasley seemed to realise what he had said and he reddened again, this time in fear. He had said all of the Weasleys, except Percy. The rest of the male siblings had all been attacked, but, as far as the rest of the school knew, the lone female Weasley had not.

Weasley thought that he had just let it slip that Ginny had been involved, but luckily for him, they both already knew and had no intentions of revealing that fact.

"Oh, you don't need to thank me," Harry said, breaking the uneasy silence and meeting Weasley's eyes. "He hurt my sister, too."

Weasley swallowed heavily and nodded. He said nothing more until after they had reached the stairwell and traversed up the steps into the castle proper. Before they went their separate ways, he turned to both of them, his face still red.

"Thanks again, Potter." He said sincerely, before nodding to Daphne. "Greengrass."

"Don't mention it," Harry dismissed.

"We won't," Daphne added quietly, her voice thick with meaning. Weasley stared hard at her for a moment before his face relaxed into a smile. He stepped away from them to head toward the Grand Staircase and called out a final farewell over his shoulder.

"See you around."


Sirius' few meager possessions, namely his new clothing, were all packed up and ready to go as he sat on the side of his bed and looked around the room he had called home for the last fifteen days.

When the clock on the wall struck seven, a knock at his door sounded and Sirius steeled himself, but rather than Daniel or Marie Greengrass it was Madam Farley who walked into the room, closing the door softly behind her.

"Are you all set?" The Matron asked, her eyes dotting around the room to ensure he was not leaving anything behind.

Sirius patted the bag beside him. "All set."

Farley nodded and bustled over toward him. "Very good. Now, your...friends, are here to escort you. I provided a list of your potions regiment to the woman who has assured me she is more than capable of brewing them for you, though it is your choice whether you continue to take them."

Sirius nodded and smiled at her. "Thank you, Madam Farley. For everything, thank you." He slid off the bed to stand before her, holding out his hand for hers. The woman placed her hand in his with a raised eyebrow, which raised further when he bent over her hand to kiss the back of it softly.

When he straightened her lips twitched upward. "No thanks are needed, Sirius."

"They are," He insisted, before glancing at the clock. "Didn't your shift end at seven?"

Madam Farley followed his gaze to the clock and shrugged delicately. "I wanted to ensure you vacated the premises. I hope you will take my words in good faith when I tell you that I hope never to see you here again."

Sirius snorted. "Likewise, Madam."

"Iris," She corrected, her lips moving into a soft smile.

"Iris," Sirius repeated with a grin. The witch smiled at him for a moment more before she turned, gesturing with her hand toward the door and stepping toward it herself. Sirius followed along behind her and took an apprehensive breath as he prepared to meet the Greengrass couple again, but he had to suddenly halt when Iris stopped abruptly at the door and turned to him.

"Sirius, look after that boy," She said earnestly, though her eyes were softer than he had seen them. "For James."

Sirius frowned in confusion at the woman, knowing that she could only be referring to Harry but wondering why-

Oh. In a flash, he remembered a long-forgotten snippet of information from his time with the Potters.

"Euphemia Farley," He breathed, receiving an answering nod from Iris.

"My grandmother's cousin," She confirmed, her face sad. "I only met her a few times, and James even less. I regret that now." She told him, and Sirius could see the truth of it in her eyes. "Look after his boy, Sirius."

"Of course," Sirius promised. Iris' smile widened fractionally before she nodded and turned back to the door. "Look after Frank and Alice for me."

The Matron turned back to look at him over her shoulder as she opened the door. "That is my job."

Sirius grinned, but it faltered when he glanced past her toward the waiting Greengrass couple by the reception desk. They both walked over to the couple in silence, coming to a stop before them.

Whilst Daniel smiled and nodded a greeting to Sirius, Marie instead turned toward Iris.

"We are allowed to return him if there are any issues, yes? Forgive me, this is our first pet so we are a little unsure."


In an abandoned classroom that their group had commandeered for the night, Harry, rather than practicing like the rest, was instead sitting on the floor against the back wall and reading a book on advanced charms.

Or at least, he was trying to. The sounds of the two ongoing duels were rather effectively causing him to lose his concentration, and he really wanted to get this spell down.

He glanced up from the paragraph he was currently on to the left side of the room, where Luna was nimbly dodging Tracey's attacks. He watched them only long enough to decide that Tracey was going to win before he turned to the right to watch the other much more interesting duel.

Daphne and Astoria were trading curses back and forth, their mouths both pulled into snarls. Harry placed the book down on his lap to watch the duel further, wondering if this time the outcome would be different than it had been in every other duel between the two.

Astoria was quicker and more precise, allowing her to send more frequent and vicious attacks toward her sister, while Daphne had more power and could weather Astoria's storm behind her shield before suddenly going on the offensive and overwhelming her sister when she tired.

It did not take much watching for Harry to see that there would be no new victor tonight.

Indeed, it was only a minute later that Daphne suddenly dropped her shield to instead deflect Astoria's Knockback Jinx toward its caster, a tricky bit of magic that she had worked hard at during these sessions. Astoria, who had been darting too close to the wall in the hopes that she could follow up her attack from a different angle, was unable to dodge any further to the side and had to hastily stop to defend herself. She also deflected the jinx (it had infuriated Daphne that her sister managed to learn it at a younger age than her), sending it to sail away from the duelling pair.

Harry ignored Daphne pressing her advantage to instead watch as the Knockback Jinx that Astoria had deflected shot across the room and-

"OW!"

-hit the unaware Tracey in the ankle, flipping her sideways and resulting in her smashing her head onto the stone floor. Luckily for her, Harry had already cast cushioning charms all over the classroom so her skull remained uncracked, but unluckily Luna took the opportunity to disarm the older girl and win the duel.

"That was fun," Luna declared as she skipped away from her corner toward the older girl to help pull her back to her feet.

"Yeah, fun. I had you." Tracey scowled as she rubbed the side of her head. Once Luna had returned her wand, she stalked over to Harry and sat down beside him with a huff. "Bloody Greengrasses. Which one got me?"

"Technically, both of them," Harry reported as he picked his book back up and tried to find the paragraph he had been reading. When he felt Tracey's glare on the side of his head he sighed. "Astoria."

"I hope Daphne pulverises her," Tracey declared as Luna sat down on her other side. She leaned over to look over his shoulder. "What are you reading?"

"A book Flitwick lent me, it's got a chapter on the Patronus Charm. Sirius told me it was the only way to fight Dementors, and I don't fancy being defenceless if I ever meet one." He told her, moving the book slightly so she could see it better.

"Ah," She answered smartly. "Have you tried it yet?"

Harry sighed and placed his finger to mark where he was on the page before turning to her. "Not yet. Sirius said that it was a really difficult spell, and Flitwick warned that a lot of adults can't cast it."

Tracey gave him a flat look. "Harry, it's you. Try the damn spell."

"It's not as simple as that, Trace. It's not about power, look," He picked the book back up and turned the page. "See here, it says to cast it you have to focus entirely on a memory that fills you completely with happy, positive feelings."

"She's doing well this time," Luna suddenly said from the side, and the two second-year Slytherins glanced up at the duel to see that Astoria had recovered enough to get back into her rhythm.

"So she is," Tracey grumbled as she lifted her hand to rub her head again. Turning back to Harry, she said. "Come on, try it. Think about your happiest memories."

Harry rolled his eyes but pushed himself to his feet nonetheless. He moved away from the wall slightly, though not close enough to the battling sisters to be at imminent risk of having to defend himself, and began to think about all of his happiest memories.

He remembered the first time he had actively used his magic when he had warmed himself in the cupboard under the stairs.

He remembered his Hogwarts letter and Professor McGonagall taking him from Privet Drive.

He remembered meeting Daphne for the first time, and then their first conversation on the Hogwarts Express.

He remembered his first Christmas with the Greengrass family and them offering him a home.

He remembered their holiday to France and his first birthday with a family.

He remembered meeting with Tracey in Diagon Alley and them becoming friends.

He remembered Astoria introducing him to Luna and the little blond girl quickly joining their group.

He remembered Sirius' face when he had first seen him and the joy that had replaced the haunted look in his eyes.

Harry felt the happiness within him and had he been able to look at himself he would see the blinding smile that stretched across his face. Unconsciously, he turned to the one who had inspired almost all of those memories and focused on her determined face as she spat a curse toward her sister, her blue eyes fiery.

Daphne.

The happiness swelled into something more, and Harry knew he could cast the spell.

"Expecto Patronum!"

A blinding blue mist erupted from the tip of his wand. Harry watched as the mist began to take shape and he wondered what form his Patronus would take. Sirius had said the form would be personal to him, and his first thought went to Serana. The Patronus was supposedly the guardian of a person's soul, and Serana had been the guardian of his school as well as his friend. Next, he thought of Fawkes, whose feather comprised the core of his wand that had protected him against Tom Riddle.

The mist took on a solid shape, and when Harry saw a large body and four legs he began to think of Sirius and his father and wondered whether it would be a dog or a stag.

Finally, the mist coalesced, and Harry's Patronus fell onto the floor and instantly began to search around the room for any signs of danger with its large head. Absently, he heard Dapne call a halt to the duel, but Harry's attention was focused on the guardian who, after finding no immediate threats to its caster, turned around toward him.

The tiger stared at Harry, and he stared back.

Slowly, he tore his gaze away to turn to the other occupants of the room, who were all looking back and forth between Harry and the Patronus, but it was one set of eyes above a proud smile that Harry met first.

"Hey Daph, can I change my guess from a panther to a tiger?"

"Absolutely not."


Sirius' night had been, rather surprisingly, perfectly pleasant right up to this moment.

He had been side-along apparated outside the boundaries of a fairly large but not ostentatious house outside of a small town in Cheshire by Marie Greengrass and, after Daniel had gone on ahead and allowed him access, led inside. Their home was nothing like Grimmauld Place had been, and that was one of the highest compliments Sirius could give. Rather than cold, dark decorations the house was warm and bright and littered with pictures of the happy family throughout the years, Harry included.

He had been given a tour, concluding with the newly made room beside Harry's that he was informed was now his, before he had joined the couple for a home-cooked meal. The conversation had been light and airy, and Sirius was unsurprised to find the pair of them much more relaxed in the setting of their own home.

They had then retired to the living room (not sitting room as his mother had called theirs) and, after being told that he had the choice between the middle cushions of Marie's settee (not couch) or the end of Harry and Daphne's, which he took, they had whiled away the hours accompanied by the crackling fire and soft piano music.

Then Marie had ruined it all when she had suddenly jumped up, announced that she was off to make some Dreamless Sleep Potion so it would be available should Sirius ever need it, and left him alone with her husband.

Sirius tried to hide the stiffness in his spine as he sat in uncomfortable silence with the man, and the unconscious flinch of his hand toward his wand when Daniel got to his feet and walked over to a small globe in the corner of the room.

"Drink?" He called when he reached it, turning back to Sirius. "I've got some Ogden's if you'd like some?"

"Yes, thank you."

Daniel nodded and poured the drinks, tapping both glasses with his wand to chill them and floating Sirius' toward him as he walked his own back to his armchair, taking the bottle with him. Sirius took a healthy sip of the firewhisky and enjoyed the pleasant burning against his throat as he swallowed it down.

Perhaps this wouldn't be too bad.

"So, correct me if I'm wrong, but when you look at me you see my brother, don't you?"

Perhaps not.

He turned to regard the other man, who was gazing back at him with an inquisitive look on his face as he relaxed in his seat. Sirius debated skirting around the upcoming topic, but, after another affirming sip of his drink, decided to get it over with.

"Partly. Mostly, I see the man who murdered the woman I loved."

Daniel's head tilted to the side. "Marlene?" When Sirius nodded firmly he blew out a breath of air. "So it was you she'd started seeing. She never did get around to telling us your name."

"We hadn't been together long," Sirius replied. "We...we wanted to wait until the war was over, but when things kept amping up..."

"You decided not to wait, just in case," Daniel finished in a quiet voice.

"And 'just in case' happened." Sirius accused in a low snarl as he leaned forward to stare hard at the other man. "Because you killed her."

Daniel stared back at him impassively. "And you killed my brother."

Sirius pulled back slightly and looked down at the half-filled tumbler in his hand. As he gazed into the amber liquid, his voice came out soft and dangerous. "You know my family's reputation, don't you?" He glanced up momentarily to see Daniel's answering nod. "Of course you do, you were her best friend at school. Well, it's a well-earned reputation. If you ever found yourself fighting a Black, you'd better have your affairs in order because they'll stop at nothing to kill you." Sirius paused to shake his head and saw that Daniel was still looking relaxed.

"I wanted to be nothing like my family," He continued. "When the war started I knew what side they'd fall on, and they did, all of them but Andi, but even she just stayed out of it. I was the only one who fought him, even against my own blood. If I could help it, I tried not to kill, but sometimes I had no choice. That day, the day I met your brother in the Alley," Sirius lifted his head to fully face Daniel Greengrass, face contorting with rage. "That was the first time I fought someone and wanted to kill them. I tore your brother apart because I thought he was you."

Sirius' explanation ended with his body shaking and his breathing heavy, but Daniel was seemingly calm as he inclined his head toward him. "Jonathan and I always did look like each other."

Sirius sighed and tried to control his temper. "Harry wouldn't trust you, he wouldn't argue and insist you weren't a Death Eater if there wasn't more to the story. Tell me what happened, tell me why you killed Marlene."

"Do you think I wanted to?" Daniel suddenly snapped. "Do you think I've not hated myself ever since?" The man shook his head angrily to stop himself and downed the rest of his glass of firewhisky. After he had finished breathing smoke through his nose, he refilled his glass and, after glancing at Sirius and receiving a nod, floated it over to him.

Whilst Sirius topped up his own glass, Daniel began to speak. "Moody was my mentor when I joined the Aurors, and you know how he is. Goes above and beyond the call of duty always - and that includes teaching his recruits how to resist the Imperius Curse. I could resist it, Moody's curse, and a few Death Eaters tried it against me during the war. None of them managed it, until my own brother cast it on me." The man shook his head again, his eyes distant as he stared into the fire opposite him. "Like you said, the war was amping up back then and I had a lot on my mind. I didn't know Occlumency then either. They're both reasons why the curse might have been more effective, but I know they're not it. I recognised Jonathan's voice when he cast it, and I was horrified. The curse took hold in my surprise, and I heard own my brother telling me to go and slaughter my wife and her family."

"I did. Gerald, Josie...Marlene," Daniel's voice hitched with pain as he remembered what he had done. "I remember their faces when I arrived at their home. They were happy and smiling, and then I lifted my wand to them, and before I killed them I could see the shock, and the terror, and the betrayal on their faces." He closed his eyes, as if that would block out the memories from his mind's eye too. "I tried, I tried so hard to fight the curse, but I couldn't. I turned my wand to my wife, to the love of my life, and our unborn child."

"Daphne?" Sirius asked quietly, receiving a soft nod from the man.

"Daphne. Maybe, if Marie hadn't been pregnant, I would have killed her before she could fight back. She'd just seen her family murdered by her husband, and she was in shock, but she had our baby within her, and it's that, I think, that allowed her to fight back when I turned my wand to her. She had to protect our child." He paused as he sat back into his armchair, lifting his head to stare up at the ceiling above him. "I don't know how she ever managed to forgive me. She beat me, and was going to kill me, but she saw my eyes and took me to St. Mungo's instead. When I was freed from the curse, I expected her to leave me, but she didn't. She understood that I hadn't had a choice, and when the Ministry came for me she explained what had happened and stood at my trial for me."

Sirius swallowed. "When...when I heard what had happened...I didn't believe a word of your story. I used to sort of look up to you, you know?" Daniel dropped his head to look at him and Sirius shrugged. "I wasn't a true Auror, I was one of the emergency ones who got the crash course, but you were. You'd been one for years by time I joined after school, and you were one of the best. You, and your wife, you beat and captured more Death Eaters than anyone. Well, maybe not Moody, but he's Moody."

He sighed heavily through his nostrils. "But when I heard what you'd done, when I heard Marlene was gone, my world went dark. All I could think about was finding you and killing you. I heard the outcome of the trial, how you'd been found innocent, and I didn't believe a word of it. So when I saw who I thought was you that day...your brother never stood a chance." He took a sip of the firewhisky and barely felt the burn against his throat. "It didn't help. I was still raging inside constantly, still mourning her constantly. It wasn't until James and Lily told me they were expecting Harry that colour came back into my world." He turned to Daniel, who was nodding along. "I looked for you, you know. When we were called to a battle, I'd look for you, whether standing on our side or theirs, but you weren't there after that day."

"I was here," Daniel answered, waving his free hand in the air around him. "How could I go out again, after what I'd done? What if it happened again, and this time I killed my wife and baby." Sirius watched as the man took a large gulp of his drink, his face not reacting to the heat at all. "I couldn't risk it. Daphne was born not long after, and we were busy as new parents. About a year later, Marie admitted to me that she'd considered going back to fight, but a few weeks after we found that she was pregnant with Astoria and that was that. We've been here ever since."

Sirius was silent for a minute or so after that, which the other man seemed happy with, but he couldn't help but ask. "When did things change? As far as I remember people believed you when you were acquitted."

Daniel smiled humourlessly. "Harry beat him, and then Malfoy, Nott, Avery and all the rest, they got off because they claimed the Imperius."

Sirius nodded, understanding instantly what had happened. "So, you've hidden away here ever since?"

"We do leave sometimes," Daniel snorted. "More often when the girls were small, but we found that people's hateful glares toward my wife and I were also given to our daughters, even when they were toddlers, and we couldn't subject them to that."

"It sounds like you were a prisoner just as much as me," Sirius said softly. "Here, and in your own mind."

Daniel shrugged. "If that's to be my penance for what I've done, so be it. I just wish it hadn't extended to my family. None of them deserve it, not like I do. Sirius, my wife is a wonderful woman. She is kind, and generous, and if she cares about you she'll defend you to the ends of the earth. Please, hate me all you want, but give her a chance. If not for me, try for Harry. He adores Marie as much as she does him."

Sirius sighed and busied himself with refilling his glass. He floated the bottle once he was done back over to Daniel, who gave him a grateful nod. "I know he does. I could see that clear as day. He adores you too, you know. I was beyond jealous." He found himself smiling at the man. "And I don't think I can hate you after hearing why. I don't know if I can ever forgive you, it's not really in my nature, but you deserve a chance, too. I'll try."

Daniel returned his smile with a relieved nod. "Thank you,"

"Do you miss him?" Sirius asked after a short period of silence, receiving a confused frown from the other man. "Jonathan," He clarified.

Daniel snorted and shook his head. "No. What he became, what he did...no. When I heard what you'd done to him, I was shocked, because there weren't many who could have done that to him, but I was glad he was gone. No, I don't miss Jonathan...but I do miss my big brother Johnny." The man smiled to himself. "We were so close growing up. I don't know when it changed, sometime around his fourth year maybe, but growing up we did everything together. He was the one who taught me to fly, you know? He loved Quidditch, Johnny. He'd pester our parents to take us to every game they could, and I ended up loving it as much as him. I've never taken my own kids to a game, because I know that I couldn't watch the players, or hear the roar of the crowd, without thinking of him. No, I don't miss Jonathan Greengrass or what he became, but the brother I had as a child? I've missed him for over twenty years."

Sirius nodded, a frown upon his own face. "I wish I could say the same. Regulus and I were never close," Sirius explained when Daniel looked at him curiously. "Even as a child I was different from the rest of my family, but Reg wanted nothing more than to be like them. I'd try to play with him, get into mischief, but he'd look down his nose at me, even though he was two years younger, and he'd tell our mother and I'd be punished. I ended up resenting my brother, and when I heard he'd joined the Death Eaters I wasn't surprised. And when he died, I was too busy mourning Marlene to care."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Daniel offered kindly. "Was there nobody you got along with? Not even Andromeda?"

Sirius turned to face away from the man toward the fire, his eyes growing distant. "My parents weren't what you'd call caregivers. As soon as I was old enough to be left alone I was, and if any care was needed it was Kreacher, our house-elf, who was ordered to provide it. Every few weeks, the Blacks would gather at my Grandfather's house for meals, or a ball of some kind, and while the adults would congratulate each other on ruling the world, the children would be put in a room and told not to make a nuisance of ourselves." He chuckled lowly. "It's funny, of my cousins, it was Andi who was the only one not to join him, or marry someone who did, but when I was a kid, it was Bella who I loved most."

He glanced over to the other man, who had a sad smile on his face, and continued. "Andi was the oldest, but she wasn't interested in playing babysitter to her new cousin. Narcissa was the youngest and the closest in age to me, but she was only a toddler herself and much too focused on being the perfect little girl to associate herself with her loud, troublesome baby cousin. But Bella? It was Bella who played with me, taught me how to read, passed on whatever she had learned from her tutors. I remember getting bored once and deciding to crash the adults' party, and I was cursed by my mother for it and thrown back into the kids' room. Bella had warned me not to go and I'd ignored her, but when I came back in crying and hurt she comforted me, hugged me close and told me it would be alright. I loved Bella, and she loved me."

Sirius' smile turned wistful. "When she went off to Hogwarts, she'd come back every holiday and tell me all about it. She'd tell me what she had learned, what the classes were like, the teachers, where the secret passages she'd found were. And she'd tell me about her best friend, who was kind and funny and understood her. And then Andi ran away, and after Bella's fifth year she changed." He turned to focus fully on the other man, who was still smiling sadly. "I've never been able to ask Andi, I know better than to mention our family to her, but can you tell me what happened? You were her best friend."

Daniel sighed, downed his glass and then refilled it once more. "I was. We were so close, Bella and me. We met on the train and we became friends instantly, we sat together in every class, did everything together. Neither of us much liked our other housemates - we weren't at odds with them, but we kept to ourselves. I thought we'd be friends forever," Daniel chuckled without cheer. "Maybe it's because I was an oblivious teenage boy, maybe she hid it too well, but Bella wanted more. I didn't realise it until she told me, but she'd fallen in love with me."

Sirius' mouth was open as he nodded, remembering his cousin's stories and how Daniel Greengrass had been present in all of them. "What happened?"

"Her sister running away started it," Daniel shrugged. "She was supposed to marry Lestrange, wasn't she? I thought it was disgusting, what your family did. Marriage contracts were outlawed for a reason, but your family still forced its children to marry who they wanted anyway, lest they be cast out. Andromeda didn't care though, and she ran away with that Tonks boy and abandoned Bella without so much as a letter. I know why she did it, I don't blame her, but when she never tried to get in touch, she broke her sister's heart." He sighed bitterly. "And then so did I."

"Your family gave her an ultimatum: she would either marry Rodolphus Lestrange in her sister's place, or she had that year at Hogwarts to find someone more worthy. And Bella, torn up inside as she was at losing her sister, thought it was perfect. She already loved me for who I was, but with the surname Greengrass? Oh yes, I'd have been more worthy of a Black than a Lestrange. The problem was, I'd fallen in love too, and not with her."

"Marie?" Sirius questioned, receiving a nod from the man.

"Yes. I'd always thought she was beautiful, and I fancied her a bit, but late in fourth year old Slughorn decided to mix the houses for a few classes. We were put together, spoke properly for the first time and I was hooked. During the summer, we exchanged letters back and forth, and when we saw each other again on the train back to school I asked her to go on a date with me on the first Hogsmeade weekend, all proper and courteous, and she just rolled her eyes and kissed me." The smile on Daniel's face had grown warm as he spoke about how he and his eventual wife had begun their relationship, but it saddened again when he continued. "I hadn't told Bella about Marie, I was too worried that it would all blow back in my face, but when she agreed to date me I wanted to tell the whole world. But Bella got there first, and confessed that she loved me, and she asked if I would marry her. I couldn't believe it, my mind couldn't process it, and then she kissed me."

"She kissed you?" Sirius blurted. "Don't tell me it was-"

"Her first kiss, yes," Daniel answered. "I assume you were all raised with the same belief about first kisses as us?" When Sirius nodded, Daniel smiled bitterly. "I thought it was all nonsense, all that about who you give your first kiss to being important, but Marie was mine, and I was hers, and we've been together ever since, so perhaps there is some truth to it."

"James and Lily were each other's first kiss, and me and Marlene," Sirius provided.

"Really?" Daniel asked, looking interested. "Harry and Daphne have kissed already."

"They have?" Sirius questioned, receiving a nod from the man. "Did you tell your daughter about first kisses?"

Daniel smiled wryly. "I did, and she went and kissed him in their first year, a real kiss." He glanced over at Sirius' curious face and waved him off. "I'll tell you about it later. Anyway, Bella believed in it, and when she kissed me, she thought that would be it. We were already so close, inseparable, and she knew she was beautiful, every boy in Hogwarts fancied her. But not me, because Marie was the only girl I ever had eyes for. And when I told her that...after her sister, and the pressure she was under, she couldn't handle rejection from me. I thought she was going to curse me, but she told me she never wanted to speak to me again and left. She was crying. I'd never seen Bella cry before that."

"I only saw her cry once," Sirius added when the man fell silent. "At her wedding to Lestrange. She'd stopped smiling by then, had stopped playing with me or telling me stories, and when I'd pester her to pay attention to me she'd get angry and irritated quickly. I didn't understand what I had done, why she had changed, but at her wedding, just before we left, she hugged me for the first time in three years and I felt her crying." He finished with a sad shake of his head.

"She was angry, after all that," Daniel picked back up. "She distanced herself from me completely, refused to forgive me. She became crueler, started hanging around with Rookwood and Nott and the others, and I overheard her expressing how much she hated muggleborns. She'd never been like that before, but I suspect she blamed her sister's husband for stealing her away and forcing Bella into a marriage she didn't want. But most of all, she blamed me, and she never did speak to me again."

Sirius nodded and refilled his glass from the rapidly depleting bottle before sending it back to Daniel. "Did you ever see her again? During the war?"

Daniel's face was pained and he gripped the bottle of Ogden's tightly as he poured it into his glass. "Yes. I fought her, and she was as brilliant as she's always been. I never could beat her, but for whatever reason, she didn't try to kill me. She'd fight me, and she looked as if she wanted to tear my innards out, but she never seemed like she was really trying to. Unless Marie was with me, then she would try to kill us both."

"She didn't try to kill me either," Sirius provided. "I didn't fight her often, but when I did it was almost as if we were children playing again. Come to think of it, it's surprising that Andi survived the war, too. She was everything the Death Eaters hated, the pureblood girl who had run off the sully herself with a mudblood, but she came out of the war completely fine."

Daniel inclined his head toward him. "Even after all that happened, and what she became, she still couldn't bring herself to try and kill people she once loved."

"Thank Merlin for that, otherwise neither of us would be here now," Sirius joked darkly, to which Daniel chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"Well, if she had she'd have had Marie Greengrass out for her head, and I don't think even Bella would survive that," Daniel returned, receiving a smile from Sirius.

He didn't doubt it.

And it was Marie Greengrass who found the two men laughing together some hours later, an empty bottle of Ogden's on the table and another being passed back and forth merrily. She rolled her eyes and, after setting off a klaxon with her wand, helped (dragged) both men to their respective beds.


Sirius awoke the next morning in an unfamiliar room to the smell of bacon and sausages assaulting his senses.

He dropped out of the bed and onto the floor, wondered how that had happened, and then stumbled like an Inferius down the stairs and toward the kitchen, following the smell of the meat.

When he arrived, he found a plate already set out for him at the end of the table beside Marie and opposite Daniel and he fell into it with a groan.

"Morning, Sirius," Marie greeted much too loudly, grinning as she set a bowl of bacon and sausage in the middle of the table. "Sleep well?"

"I want to die."

"Die?" She repeated, her voice echoing off the walls and the inside of Sirius' skull. "A bit dramatic, don't you think?"

"Stop torturing us," Daniel whimpered from his own seat where he held his head in his hands.

"Very well," Marie sighed, sounding very put out as she sat down. "You two are lucky I planned ahead and brewed these." Both men turned to find the woman holding two vials in her hands. "Hangover Potion, gentleman?"

The pleading looks she received made her feel like a mother bird with two hungry baby chicks. She passed the vials to both men, watching as they downed the contents and instantly recovered.

"Thanks, dear,"

"Thank you, Marie."

"You're welcome," She responded as she began to butter some bread for herself. "Oh, Sirius, you have a letter." She nodded with her head toward the side of his plate and Sirius glanced down at the envelope he had until now completely missed, though the front of it was unsigned.

"How do you know it's for me?" He asked the woman, who merely grinned at him. Shrugging, he picked up the letter and found it much heavier than it should have been.

But when Sirius ripped open the top and upturned the envelope, he watched as a bright red dog collar slid out onto his empty plate. After staring in bemusement at it for a moment, he pulled out the short note that accompanied it and began to read.

'Welcome to the family,

Love from Astoria.'


MorphCross wins the prize as the only one of you to guess a tiger.

This one came a little easier than the last few, mainly because I wasn't locked into a single part of the story I needed to tell and I was free to jump around as and when I wanted.

Ron make a little appearance here, I hope he seemed in character but obviously trying harder to be more mature after Hermione's death. I don't think he's going to be in the story much, but I wanted him to at least interact with them once.

Bellatrix and Daniel being friends was hinted at earlier in the story but I forgive my loyal reviewers for not noticing because it wasn't glaring.

And yes, I know I changed Bellatrix and Andromeda's birth order from the established Bellatrix-Andromeda-Narcissa order, but I only consider what's in the seven books canon, and their ages weren't ever mentioned in them. Anything revealed afterward by JK isn't canon so I'll pick and choose what I'd like to keep - ergo, Bellatrix is now the middle child.

Thanks again to all of you who review without fail, I look forward to your names and grin like a loon when I get the notification that you've commented. Keep 'em coming!

Hope you all enjoyed this one, let me know what you think.

Enjoy!