Sirius slept later than he meant to, but that was to be expected after the long night he'd had waiting up for Harry and Aurora.

He left Theo sleeping in his room and walked down to Harry's room. He was surprised to find his room empty and his bed made. He remembered the room being in a bit of disarray, but maybe that was because of Ron and Neville. Maybe Harry woke up every day and made his bed.

Sirius was pretty certain that this wasn't the case and walked down to Aurora's room. Her door was ajar so he poked his head inside. He wasn't at all surprised to see Harry, still in his clothes, lying on top of the blankets beside Aurora.

He almost said something. He almost woke them. But what would be the point? It was clear they'd fallen asleep talking. Harry still had his trainers on. They'd left the door open. Sirius remembered the summer before his sixth year; they'd given an inch with Theo, and he'd take a mile. Eventually, he ran away from home and spent most of his time with James and Theo.

Sirius Black had never been a shoes-on, on-top-of-the-blankets-with-the-door-open kind of boyfriend. He had to give Harry and Aurora some credit.

He tiptoed away from the door and went to the kitchen. He'd just finished making coffee Theo joined him.

"Kids still sleeping?" she asked with a yawn.

"Yes," Sirius said grabbing a mug for her. "Can I ask you something about them?"

"What?" Theo asked.

"Do they remind you of us?" he asked.

Theo chuckled. "I don't know Harry well enough to say, but she does."

"Do you mean that positively or negatively?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know," she said filling her mug with coffee. "Did she do something that concerned you?"

Sirius shook his head. "I just wonder, and Remus has mentioned also if they're too serious."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Theo said. "I think part of our problem was that we didn't have good homes. Well, I mostly did, but after Levi moved out and my grandfather died, you were my family. When bad things happened, I talked to you about it. I didn't have anyone else and I didn't really want anyone else. Aurora and Harry have a support system outside of each other. She and Harry think you and Remus are the coolest people alive."

"Because we are," Sirius said with a nod of approval.

"Doesn't your neck hurt from holding up that big head of yours?" Theo asked.

"Sometimes, but I do what I can," Sirius said without missing a beat.

Theo rolled her eyes. "Aurora said that they were a pretty boring couple and I think, outside forces aside, they kind of are. I'm sure there are plenty of couples out there worth more concern than those two."

Sirius scoffed. That was true. "Remus and Tonks for example." Theo sighed and shook her head. "I know what you're going to say."

"That this is typical Remus Lupin behavior?" Theo asked.

"You haven't gotten to see how much he's changed since school," Sirius said.

"Turning the other way as soon as he gets close with someone sounds a lot like he hasn't changed at all," Theo said. "Remember Marlene—."

"He wasn't in love with Marlene," Sirius said. "Not by a long shot. I mean, you've seen the two of them together, haven't you? Do you know how often I have to remind them I'm still in the room with them sometimes?"

"Aside from Marlene, the closest thing Remus ever had to a relationship with anyone was with you, and that's probably because there were no stakes involved."

They walked up to the dining room and Aurora and Harry were there.

"Good morning," Theo said. "I thought you two might sleep in later. You had quite a long night."

"After I got up, I forced Harry out of bed," Rory said.

"I am definitely awake under duress," Harry said.

Sirius supposed it was hard to sleep in when your girlfriend woke up early if you slept in her bed. He did appreciate that Harry had bothered to change into pajamas to make it look like he'd just gotten out of bed. Sirius wasn't sure he'd put in the effort.

But he should still have a chat with Harry. He'd told Remus he would after all. Probably should have had the chat with him before he slept in his girlfriend's bed, but nothing to do about that now.

They had breakfast and Sirius watched Harry and Aurora. It was nice to see them back together. The last time they'd been here together, they'd been broken up. Mostly they spent the whole break fighting with each other. And then pretending not to be in love.

It was nice to see them in love. Sirius only wished that James was there to see them together. They'd joked that their kids would grow up and get married, and of course, they never would because Aurora was like Theo and didn't believe in such things.

But they might still be together. And that made Sirius happy. Seeing them happy together made him happy.

The door to the dining room opened and Remus walked in.

"Morning, Dad," Aurora said.

He reached into his coat and pulled out two envelopes.

"OWL results and Hogwarts letters got in this morning," Remus said handing them to the children.

Aurora and Harry opened them immediately. Aurora read them over immediately, but Harry held off.

"You go first. Yours are sure to be better than mine," he said.

"Shit," Aurora said with a frown. "I got an E."

"An E? You got an E? In what?" Harry asked.

"Ancient Runes," Aurora frowned.

"Oh," Harry said, relaxing in his seat. "That's not so bad then."

"Harry, I've never gotten below-average grades on anything," she said.

"Rory, for starters, E is still above average, secondly, you didn't even take Ancient Runes and still sat the OWL for it and got an E on the exam. And lastly…I don't even have a final point, Fish. Ron is right, you're a psychopath," he said. "Did you get O's on everything else?"

Aurora paused. "Yes, but I missed—."

"But you missed the nuances you might have gotten if you'd actually taken the class, but you decided to take divination instead even though you didn't need to," Harry said. "I know, Fish. You have explained it all to me. And you did excellently. You literally exceeded expectations."

Harry held up his envelope. "Let's see how I did."

He opened it and groaned. "Oh, no."

"Can't be that bad," Sirius said.

"Got a D in History of Magic. P in Divination," Harry said.

"Did you even try?" Aurora asked.

"I only passed that class because of you," Harry said. "I think I only kept taking that class because of you. I should've switched to Ancient Runes."

"So you could get a D in two classes?" Aurora asked.

Harry frowned and looked back to his letter. "I got an A in Astronomy. Probably also because of you. And E's in Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Herbology, Transfigurations… And Potions. Only Got an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Aurora frowned. "I'm sorry, Lovey."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Theo said.

"Snape won't take students for NEWT level potions unless they got O's," Aurora said. "And you need potions to qualify for the Auror exams."

Harry's head dropped down onto the table.

"You got an E in potions and Snape won't let you take the class?" Theo asked.

"Severus has always had high standards," Remus said.

"I think he's just a dick," Sirius said.

"Me too," Harry groaned as he sat up. "Well, always have a backup plan, I guess."

"It's crazy to me to think that you of all people would be disqualified from being an auror," Theo said, she almost laughed. "I mean, I saw you at the ministry."

"Well, if you can talk Snape into taking me, by all means, feel free to do so," Harry said.

"What was your backup plan?" Remus asked.

Harry's cheeks flushed red.

"Actually, after all that stuff I did for the DA, it was a lot of fun. And I got most of what I did from you… I thought I might like to teach like you did," Harry said.

"Oh," Remus said. "I didn't know that."

"Harry was an excellent teacher," Aurora said, smiling at him. "Yes, it was an illegal club, but we learned lots because Harry was a very good teacher."

"Thank you, Rory," Harry said, clearly seeming so embarrassed that he might combust. "But yeah. Teaching."

"I think you'd be good at that," Remus said, seeming similarly embarrassed.

"I hope so. Seems like that'll be my path since I can't keep taking potions," Harry said.

"Which is pretty surprising considering who your grandfather was," Theo said.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Sorry?"

Aurora gasped. "You don't know about your grandfather?"

"Rory, you know I don't know anything," he said. "What about him?"

"Sleakeazy's Hair Potion," she said.

"That hair stuff Hermione uses?" Harry asked.

"That hair stuff that everyone uses?" Aurora said. "Your grandfather invented it. Founded a potion-making company and everything."

Harry was shocked. "I had no idea. None." He sat back in his chair. "I keep feeling like I finally know everything, and then I realize I don't know anything."

"If it makes you feel better, I didn't even know about this guy until three years ago," Aurora said pointing to Sirius.

They opened their Hogwarts letters and thumbed through them.

"Oh no!" Aurora exclaimed. "Professor McGonagall isn't going to be teaching alchemy this term. Professor Slughorn is and he wants more than two students."

She looked over to Harry.

"Absolutely not," he said. "I love you. But no. Ask Hermione to take it."

She huffed and sat back in her seat.

"I didn't know you you'd be interested in alchemy," Sirius said.

"McGonagall said I'd like the challenge, but I guess we'll never know," she replied.

"Sirius took Alchemy," Remus said.

"I did too, but only sixth year," Theo said.

"Slughorn wasn't so bad," Sirius said. "The class was quite hard. Maybe you would have liked it."

"Going to have to do a lot of independent studying then," Aurora said. She looked over to Harry who was looking with surprise at a letter of his own.

"What's that?" Aurora asked.

"From McGonagall," Harry said. His jaw dropped. "I… I… What?"

"What is it?" Aurora repeated.

"She… She made me captain," Harry said, his voice just above a whisper. Aurora lit up and snatched the letter away from him.

"Captain of the Quidditch team?" she exclaimed. "Harry, that's incredible!"

"I don't believe it," Harry said taking the letter back.

"Statistically," Aurora started, "even with Ginny's exceptional performance this past season, your average in the three seasons you played still outshines her by far. Katie comes close and I honestly thought she'd take captain since she's a 7th year, but I know she's not interested in being captain. Her stats as a chaser skew towards the high end, but—."

"I love you, but I promise no one else at this table aside from me cares about the stats of the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Harry said.

Sirius let out a relieved sigh. He wished there'd been someone around to tell James to shut up about Quidditch.

"You should go get dressed. We'll need to get going soon," Remus said.

"You too, Harry," Sirius said. "I thought I'd show you the house today."

Harry nodded and they both stood from the table.

"You should let me help you with strategy," Aurora said as they walked from the room.

Harry scoffed. "No."

"Why?"

"Because you'll be a nightmare."

"I'm already a nightmare."

"And you think I want to make it worse?"

The door closed behind them and Remus shook his head.

"They're sweet," Theo said. "Remus it's hard for me to imagine you being annoyed with him dating Aurora."

"He was a bit of an idiot there for a while," Sirius said. "I think he'll be fine now."

"That's what Aurora assures me. But I told her I would stay out of it," Remus said. He looked to Sirius. "But you will have a chat with Harry?"

"Yes, I'll chat with him," Sirius said. "Not sure how necessary it will be since he's terrified of you."

"He's not terrified of me," Remus said.

"He thinks you don't like him," Sirius said.

"I like Harry just fine," Remus said. "Perhaps I do have some lingering reservations about their relationship—."

"Might help if you didn't scowl every single time Aurora talked to Harry in the mirror," Theo interjected. "It might give the impression that you don't like her talking to him."

"I just think maybe they were chatting a little excessively," Remus said. "But it's fine. I will make an effort to scowl less."

The door creaked open and Aurora leaned her head into the room.

"Everything okay?" Remus asked.

"Yes. I'm fine," Aurora said. "I was just wondering, Theo, could I borrow you?"

"Oh. Yeah. Sure," Theo said, seeming surprised. Sirius was surprised too. Theo walked out the door and closed it behind her.

"That's promising," Sirius said. "Be good for Theo for them to have a relationship."

"I agree," Remus said. "How is she doing?"

"Theo? She's doing alright," Sirius said. "Working on finding out what her relationship with Aurora is. This helps."

Remus nodded. "And how are things with you and Theo?"

Sirius chuckled. "They are… Complicated. Probably warrants a serious conversation neither of us is ready to have, but you know how it is when things are complicated."

"Do I?" Remus asked.

Sirius sat up a little straighter in his chair.

"Tonks came by last night," he said.

"Ah." Remus sighed. "I'm assuming she came by after she came to see me since you're mentioning it."

"She did in fact," Sirius said. "She spared us the more intimate details of what happened, but gave us the gist—."

"Sirius—."

"Once she stopped crying that is," Sirius said. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen her cry before. She was inconsolable when she got here. Took forever to get her settled."

Remus shook his head. "I don't want to—."

"You can't just tell someone you're in love with them and take it back," Sirius said.

"I didn't take it back," Remus said firmly. "I never would."

"So you do love her," Sirius said.

"Of course I do," Remus said.

"Then what—?"

"I'm not having this conversation with you," Remus said shaking his head.

"I'm just confused. You're in love with her. You told her that you're in love with her," Sirius said. "You slept with her."

"Sirius—."

"She's gotten to be like a sister to me, Remus. Forgive me for being the slightest bit peeved that she showed up at my house at midnight crying her eyes out because of my 'piece of shit friend' as she put it," Sirius said. Remus sighed again. "Mate, what happened?"

Remus shook his head. "It was a mistake. I would ruin her life."

"You wouldn't—"

"I would. It's nothing short of a miracle that I was able to even bring Aurora home this summer. Tonks is an auror in the prime of her career, which would be derailed almost immediately by being involved with me," Remus said.

"Let her decide that for herself," Sirius said. "She's an adult. She's an Auror like you said. She loves you. She knows exactly who you are and she doesn't care—."

"She doesn't understand—."

Sirius groaned and threw his hands up in exasperation. "I don't understand you. I don't."

"You don't have to understand. You don't have to live like I do," Remus said. "You don't know—."

Sirius shook his head. "Your daughter, our daughter, told me she thinks you're afraid to be happy."

"I am happy," Remus said.

"You're happy?" Sirius asked. "A woman you're in love with showed up at my house last night telling me you didn't want her, crying her eyes out, and you're happy? This is the outcome that would make you happy?"

"I'm fine with how things are," Remus said.

Sirius frowned and remembered something else Aurora had told him.

"You should shoot for better than just fine," Sirius said. "Something else she said to me."

"Aurora said this to you? When?" Remus asked.

"At Easter when she asked if you and Tonks were seeing each other," Sirius said.

This was clearly news to Remus who looked as though he'd been smacked in the face. "And what did you tell her?"

"I told her the truth. That Tonks thought she was making it all up and that you were an idiot," Sirius said.

"You had no right," Remus said. "This is nothing she needs to be concerned about."

"I don't know if you've noticed but that girl spends half her life being concerned about you," Sirius said. "The first real conversation I got to have with her was when she told me that she was worried that you might decide you weren't good enough to be her dad and walk away from her."

"How could she ever think—."

"She could think that because she also thinks you're afraid to be happy. And if you're happy with her how could she not be afraid you would leave?" Sirius asked. He was on his feet now. It occurred to him now that he'd been upset about Tonks, but now they were arguing about Aurora. And Sirius never tried to butt his head in where Aurora was concerned. But when it came down to it, Aurora was his daughter. His chance to raise her had been taken away from Sirius, but he loved her all the same.

Sometimes Aurora talked to Sirius like they were friends. Sometimes she complained to him like she knew he'd be able to get Harry in line. And sometimes she cried because she loved Sirius and she loved Remus and somehow she felt like loving them both would make Remus feel loved less.

Sirius would not apologize for how close he'd become with his own daughter. He would never discourage the love she had for Remus and how she valued that relationship more than she valued the relationship she had with Sirius.

"So what exactly are you saying right now?" Remus asked.

Sirius shrugged. "Maybe you don't give her enough credit. It's not just that she's a seer that's the reason he knows things."

"Be that as it may, it's not a good enough reason to just give her the answer to every single thing she asks of you," Remus said.

"How on earth do you expect her to keep being honest with us if we just lie to her?" Sirius asked. "I don't know if you remember this, but I recall her constantly reminding us that we were lying to her."

"This is not the same thing at all," Remus said.

"Unfortunately, her underdeveloped 16-year-old brain cannot distinguish the difference. Especially, considering it was the whole of the order lying to her and Harry that got her kidnapped by Voldemort a few weeks ago. I don't imagine she's going to be very forgiving about lying to something she feels is trivial in comparison," Sirius said.

"You think this is a trivial matter?" Remus asked. "This is her life—."

"Can you stop pretending that you're afraid of hurting her when it's obvious to all of us that you're the one who's afraid?" Sirius asked.

"Hello," Aurora said walking into the room, Harry in tow. Her eyes darted between the two of them. "Everything cool?"

Remus nodded. "Yes. Everything's fine."

Aurora nodded, but he could see the concern in her eyes. This was just what he'd wanted.

"Are you ready to go?" Remus asked.

"Yep," Rory said. She kissed Harry on the cheek and then walked over and hugged Sirius. "Thanks for breakfast."