"I really thought you might have moved on."

"Oh Harry," Ginny greeted lightly reaching down to kiss him on the cheek. "When will you realize we're going to be together forever?"

Harry shuddered slightly at the chilling sensation of her lips on him.

"You're a bloody ghost!" Sirius exclaimed as his mouth finally caught up to his brain.

Ginny smiled at Sirius and perched herself ethereally on the armrest of Harry's chair. "I'm in the seventh year of my death."

"And you look great," Sirius admitted with a grin.

"Sirius!" Harry groaned. "She doesn't need any encouragement."

Ginny struck a pose and pushed her ghostly chest out. "You can't beat a Killing Curse for preserving beauty and avoiding disfigurement. It's even better than a basilisk stare."

"Hogwarts robes always did it for me," Sirius admitted grinning brightly at her.

"Whoa," Harry stood up quickly. "Back it up there, dirty old man."

"He's so protective of me," Ginny said with a saucy giggle.

"I'm not protective…" Harry stopped and refused to be baited. He turned to glare at the ghost when Sirius suddenly burst out laughing.

"Oh this is priceless!" Sirius snickered.

"I'm glad my life amuses you," Harry grumbled.

"I just realized she's anchored to you! She's going to haunt you for eternity!"

"We're destined to be together," Ginny agreed with a smile.

"This isn't destiny, Ginny. You're dead. I'm alive and attracted to girls with a pulse."

"You'll come around," Ginny nodded with certainty.

"Maybe a necromancer will come around," Harry mumbled.

"Fate has taken us across the boundaries of our world together. We're clearly soul mates."

"We are not soul mates," Harry argued. "I think I would have felt it, if my soul mate had died. Actually wouldn't I die if my soul mate died?"

"No," Sirius cheerfully interjected. "You're Harry Potter."

Harry growled at Sirius.

"The Soul Mate-Who-Lived," Sirius added before slapping a hand over an invisible poking. "Oww! My eye! Dammit Harry, that really hurts."

"You were protected by the magic-less properties of that cell, Harry," Ginny said shaking her head. "We've been over this numerous times and you refuse to see reason."

"You died while he was being held captive?" Sirius asked curiously.

Ginny nodded happily. "I wasn't able to draw on his strength. It's the only explanation for what happened."

"Wait a second," Sirius exclaimed. "I just realized I was right! Ginny's alive and well in this dimension, and here her ghost is. You don't have to be dead there to reach an alternate dimension."

"But she's dead," Harry pointed out jerking his thumb towards the ghost.

"You said they had to be dead in the new dimension, and Ginny is definitely not dead here, last I heard at least." Sirius paused and turned towards the ghost. "Then again you just now showed up. Why is that? Ginny here's not dead, is she?"

Harry sighed and grumbled. "She's a young ghost and wasn't that smart to begin with."

"Hush," Ginny snapped before answering Sirius. "I doubt my counterpart is dead. My afterlife varies depending on my love's mood. Oh! This must be how we're supposed to be together. I'll rejoin my spirit with my counterpart's body so that we can live happily ever after!"

Harry ignored the ghost and argued with Sirius. "It still isn't two matching live people in the same dimension so my theory holds true."

"No," Sirius disagreed. "You said our counterparts had to be dead to get to that dimension. You've just proven that's not true if one of us is dead and even that may not matter at all."

"You really want that Order of Moron First Class, don't you?"

Sirius grinned unrepentantly. He turned to Ginny and tactfully asked, "Hey! Were you pregnant with his kid? Is that why you're anchored to him?"

Ginny looked surprised for a moment and rubbed her ghostly belly. "I… I never thought of that."

"We never had sex!" Harry added, believing this to be relevant information.

Ginny shrugged. "But we kissed a lot."

Harry poured himself a little more firewhiskey having had this conversation many times before.

"So what happened when your soul mate was unable to provide you his strength?" Sirius asked Ginny with a grin, knowing it would rankle Harry.

"Here it comes," Harry mumbled walking towards the kitchen not wanting to hear this story again. "Don't forget your shovel."

Ginny watched him walk away sadly. "He still doesn't know how to cope with my death."

Sirius bit his lip. "I can see that."

"Anyways," Ginny happily segued. "I didn't know it at the time, but Harry had been kidnapped and was being held prisoner by the Dark Lord. He doesn't talk about it much, but I'm sure whatever he may have told you wasn't half as bad as it probably really was."

Sirius nodded. "I'm familiar with my godson's gift for underestimation, though it's nice to see he's grown more confident and even proud of some of his accomplishments."

"And hotter too!" Ginny added.

"He gets that from me."

"You are looking surprisingly good, aren't you?" Ginny said after giving Sirius a brief inspection. "But I only have eyes for my Harry." Ginny sighed happily, looking down the hall into the kitchen.

"Anyways?"

"Right," Ginny recalled where she'd left off. "So it was early March and the first Hogsmeade weekend since the winter holidays. We were all eager to get outside the grounds and may have been a little too lax in our constant vigilance. I was walking to Madam Puddifoot's to ask her where she bought her cherubs—you know, to get a jump on next year's Valentine's Day plans for my sweetie—when we spotted some Death Eaters destroying Dervish and Banges."

Sirius just nodded, thinking Harry probably wished it had been Madam Puddifoot's getting destroyed.

"It was my seventh year, and I was leader of the DA. I sent two students to run back and shepherd everyone to the safety of the castle, while all capable wands were to follow me. I kept asking myself the question, 'What would Harry do?' We couldn't let the Death Eaters destroy Hogsmeade, so we decided to try and keep them busy until reinforcements from the castle could arrive.

"I gathered up all of my Gryffindor courage, strengthened my resolve as the Chosen One's predestined soul mate, and stepped out from behind our cover. That's when we first saw the man from my nightmares walking calmly out of Dervish and Banges just as the structure collapsed. The Dark Lord Voldemort himself was there."

Sirius could hear Harry's mumbling and grumbling from the kitchen and didn't think there would be a happy ending to this tale, particularly considering it was being told by a ghost.

"Tom looked genuinely surprised to see me standing proudly with twelve members of the DA behind me. I remembered how Harry led by example, teaching me not to fear the Dark Lord, and I ordered Voldemort to leave."

Sirius couldn't stop the laugh that escaped from him. He hurriedly covered his mouth at Ginny's angry stare and urged her to continue.

"Seeing as how we didn't react the way the Dark Lord expected, he wasn't sure how to deal with us. He lazily held his wand and asked, 'Do you not fear me?'" Ginny said with her voice deepened and eyes narrowed in concentration, demonstrating her best Voldemort impression.

"Fixed in my convictions, I confidently answered 'No!'" Ginny sighed and admitted softer, "But the effect was lessened by Owen Cauldwell raising his hand and admitting, 'I kind of fear you' at the same time as my declaration.

"Voldemort announced that he'd honor that honest fear with a quick and painless death. Next thing I knew a bright green Killing Curse was headed straight for Owen.

"I was wondering what was taking my sugar-bear so long when I realized what I had to do."

"Oh no," Sirius mumbled under his breath.

"I thought about nothing but my love for Harry and stepped right into the path of the curse. I held my wand firm and just as the death curse was a meter away I shouted 'Love Shield!'"

"Oh no," Sirius muttered staring at the ghost that enjoyed embellishment a little too much.

"Sadly my attempt to reflect the Killing Curse back at the Dark Lord was unsuccessful, though I'm proud to say it did provide my snookums with the necessary protection to defeat the Dark Lord."

"Hey!" Harry exclaimed marching back in from the kitchen. "We had a deal on no more snookums! And there's no such spell as Love Shield. Even if there was, the incantation certainly wouldn't be Love Shield."

"Lovus Shieldus?" Ginny mused aloud.

"Maybe Lovio Shieldium," Sirius suggested.

Harry stared at the ghost and his godfather in exasperation. "You're both purebloods. Don't either of you know Latin at all?"

"If it's not in a family motto," Sirius admitted with a shrug. "Although I think I should know the Latin word for love…"

"I never had any interest in learning Latin," Ginny commented. "Hermione would probably know."

"Spermatozoa!" Sirius declared triumphantly. "That's Latin for love. Or something close to it. I think."

Harry slumped back in his chair, not even caring that he just swung his arm straight through Ginny's incorporeal body. He rubbed the bridge of his nose thinking that there were some things best left as mysteries.

Sirius watched Ginny staring at Harry all googly-eyed. "So no luck on reflecting that Killing Curse? Or surviving it?"

Ginny shook her head. "It hit me and then it all went black. I found out the rest later when I appeared by my very sad little Harry bear."

"What was the rest?" Sirius asked curiously. "Or do I not want to know?"

Ginny glanced at Harry and silently requested permission.

"He probably doesn't want to know but go ahead," Harry said nodding at Ginny.

"Obviously we don't have first hand information," Ginny explained. "But Voldemort killed the twelve other members of the DA."

Sirius winced.

"Oh it gets better," Harry said with a weak laugh.

"Voldemort then animated their corpses and they marched the path back to Hogwarts," Ginny continued.

Sirius winced again.

"Headmistress McGonagall saw them in the distance and thought they were alive and being escorted to safety by some inhabitants of the Forbidden Forest." Ginny paused to make a face of disgust. "It was just some thestrals chewing on a couple of fifth years and licking up the blood trailing the group."

Sirius winced but was reminded they'd missed lunch.

"And so who does just about everyone blame for this tragedy?" Harry ruefully grinned. "Obviously it's the fault of the kidnapping victim, who at this time was still locked in a magic-less cell."

"Well it certainly doesn't sound like you did anything to help them," Sirius pointed out.

"I didn't know it was happening and I kinda had my own problems to deal with."

Ginny softly frowned. "The vast majority of parents did make Harry into a bit of a scapegoat."

"Vast majority," Harry grumbled. "They all did. Your parents included."

"They lost their baby girl," Ginny argued with a pout. "And I think they were jealous that I chose to spend eternity with the love of my life rather than my family."

"The Weasleys blamed you?" Sirius asked skeptically.

Harry shook his head. "Not outright or anything. They defended me from all the editorials calling me dangerous and a bad influence, but… it was a lot more awkward the few times I'd visit the Burrow, especially when ghost girl here came out to play."

"How did the Prophet and its collectively minded readership make this little leap of logic?"

Harry shrugged. "I told the DA not to fear his name. That he was just a wizard who went about as bad as one can go. And despite the fact that it had been a year and a half since I'd even been to a DA meeting, according to the public I'm the one who convinced students they were soldiers, told them that they were old enough to stand up to Death Eaters, and I'm the one who led them to a slaughter."

"I said I was sorry," Ginny mumbled looking ashamed.

"I know," Harry admitted. "I should have been a bit clearer in that fearing a made-up name is silly, but fearing an extremely powerful ruthless dark wizard is just common sense."

"Ahh," Sirius nodded. "Wizards aren't too good with that stuff."

Harry looked at Sirius in confusion.

"Common sense, I mean," Sirius added. "Your mother always told me that instead of common sense, wizards got magic. Which actually explained quite a bit," Sirius said thinking of the people that got the most magic including various Dark Lords and Albus Dumbledore.

A loud crack from by the front door announced an arrival by apparition.

"Moony?" Sirius called out curiously.

"I tell you, Padfoot," Remus called back. "Some muggles get so worked up and angry at me. Like it's my fault they can't…" Remus stopped as he entered his living room and spotted the ghost of Ginny Weasley, a young man he couldn't quite place, and Sirius grinning at him, clearly a little inebriated.

Remus closed his eyes and counted to ten. When he opened them all three people were still there, smiling and waving at him.

"Please tell me you didn't kill Miss Weasley," Remus begged of his houseguest.

"Remus," Sirius proudly introduced. "I would like you to meet my godson, Harry Potter."

Remus turned to look at Harry closer. "Bugger me. He's even got that scar you talked about."

"Sirius," Harry whined turning towards his godfather.

"Hey," Sirius defended himself. "It's pretty damn hard to talk about our dimension without that story coming up. And Moony, before you freak out this is the Ginny Weasley of my original dimension, who is bound for eternity to her soul mate, Harry."

Ginny curtsied towards Remus, while Harry just groaned.

"I didn't think one soul bonded could die and the other live," Remus stated.

"Thank you," Harry boisterously agreed. "It's because she's not my soul mate. Most of the time I can barely tolerate her."

"Of course I didn't think you could get hit with a Killing Curse and live either," Remus added grinning like a Marauder. He walked over towards Harry extended his hand to shake, "Pleased to meet you."

Harry forced a fake smile and shook Remus' hand. "You're a barrel of laughs already."

Remus nodded towards Ginny. "I thought you looked a bit younger, though your counterpart here could easily still fit into her school robes."

Remus brushed Sirius' feet off the couch and poured himself a drink settling down in the cleared space on the couch. "So are we celebrating or mourning or both?"

"As it turns out," Sirius happily explained while Harry seemed a little put out at the lack of reaction from Remus. "Harry, here, began working on the veil back in our dimension just a few months back. He's the one that triggered it to spit me out when it did."

"Really?" Remus grinned, sipping his firewhiskey. "And now you're here to clean up your litter?"

"We've decided we're going to stay," Ginny announced gleefully.

Harry saw Remus looked worried that he might be running out of couches and guest beds real soon and explained, "I still don't know exactly how I triggered it two months ago, but the Exit changed significantly on our side. I find it hard to believe that it's merely coincidence Sirius got spit out on this side the same day."

"And you?"

"Yes well," Harry fidgeted a little. "I've been working on the Exit and had a little accident yesterday."

"You just got here yesterday?" Remus inquired. "Sirius was healing for several weeks."

"I could've located this lunkhead sooner, but it was quite tiring crossing dimensions and then escaping from the Unspeakables."

"You what?" Sirius yelped unaware his godson was a fugitive.

Harry smirked. "Not all of us are so helpless and willing to submit to memory charms and veritaserum."

"Wouldn't they know you're here and be looking for you?" Remus asked curiously.

Harry shrugged. "I'm hoping not, but it's definitely possible."

Another crack from the entryway indicated another arrival. Tonks' voice carried into the living room. "Sirius? You here?"

"Yup, in here," Sirius called back.

"Pretend I just subtly inquired about a blonde veela-like woman associated with Lucius Malfoy," Tonks yelled back, still out of view. "The Department of Mysteries is in a right tizzy because they think she came from the veil yesterday."

Harry grinned brightly at Remus and Sirius inquiring looks.

"A blonde woman?" Sirius repeated.

"Yeah," Tonks called back. "Apparently she took out three Unspeakables but did a crap job of memory charming them." Tonks walked into the living room just as she finished and stopped curiously. "Err… hello?"

"Tonks," Sirius waved at the stupidly grinning young man. "I'd like you to meet my godson, Harry."

"Hi," Harry grinned at her.

"Bugger me," Tonks whispered doing a double take at all the smiling faces. She only now noticed the ghost hovering behind Harry. "Ginny!"

"Hi Tonks," Ginny said with a small wave.

"It's not this dimension's Ginny," Remus assured her. "It's theirs."

"What the hell did you do, Harry?" Sirius asked curiously. "Come through the veil polyjuiced as a hooker?"

Harry shook his head and gave Tonks a long look. "You're not going to arrest me, are you?"

"Doubtful considering the way those two boys are smiling," Tonks answered pointing to the two Marauders on the couch.

Harry nodded. "I only had about forty-five seconds so I did a pretty slick memory alteration, substituting my presence for a large-breasted blonde woman, and my questions about Sirius for questions about Malfoy."

"Veela-like my arse," Tonks grumbled.

"I followed it up with a clumsy brute force memory modification," Harry explained. "I didn't have time to check what sort of alarms I triggered, and I figured that the mess of trying to clean out the second memory charms would further hide the first ones. Especially since the first ones were only alterations leaving no blanks."

"You did that in forty-five seconds?"

Harry nodded pleased with the apparent success of his ploy.

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed. "This is perfect! Tonks can be hunting you down the same way Kingsley 'hunted' me."

Tonks had heard about Sirius' escape and life on the run and was considering the idea.

"We can feed you whatever clues we want to make up," Sirius continued.

Tonks agreed the idea had merit. "It does get me out of work anytime I want to just be in public with you," she said looking at Sirius, "under the guise of you being uniquely suited to spotting someone from your dimension."

"That doesn't sound very responsible," Remus commented with a frown.

"Oh get off your high horse," Tonks scolded pouring herself a drink. "These are the same idiots who won't even let you get in a job in the wizarding world."

"Yeah, what do you do?" Harry asked curiously looking at Remus. "You said muggles get worked up and angry at you."

Remus saw Sirius was going to laugh and immediately defended himself. "They give me three days off every full moon, and it's easy work."

Sirius was still snickering.

"It pays for this place," Remus said with a clear undertone reminding Sirius that he had no home or money in this dimension.

Harry saw Tonks was rolling her eyes seated across from Remus and Sirius. "What is it?"

"Are you familiar with computers?" Remus asked looking at Harry.

"Vaguely," Harry said having sat in front of one for about an hour at a muggle library.

"I'm a senior consultant in client relations for technical assistance," Remus explained. He saw Harry didn't follow that at all. "Tech support on the phone," Remus clarified.

"Oh," Harry caught on. "I had no idea you knew so much about computers."

"Padfoot," Remus scolded noticing Sirius was about to burst.

"He doesn't," Sirius exclaimed mirthfully. "He doesn't know anything about computers."

Harry watched Remus smother a very Marauder-like smile.

"I know about computers," Remus countered. "I just don't know anything about fixing them, per se."

"So what do you do?"

"Tell people to reboot," Remus shrugged. "And if that doesn't work, they have to cover shipping costs to mail it back to us."

"That's it!" Sirius chuckled. "That's all he does."

"No," Tonks jumped in. "He plays a lot of computer games too."

"Careful there, young lady," Remus warned with a smile. "I'm not above breaking out some very incriminating photos."

Tonks knew exactly which ones he was talking about. "You wouldn't."

"That's right," Sirius jumped in and looked over at Remus. "You mentioned something about a spanking?"

"I don't want to hear this," Harry interrupted, while Ginny smiled next to him. "I kind of do."

"And you were trying to make me feel guilty about responsibility," Tonks grumbled.

"There's no honor in the work I do," Remus said looking at Tonks. "You took an oath and wanted a career where you could help people, where you can do the right thing. Your responsibility is-"

"Whatever Dad," Tonks grumbled and stuck out her tongue.

Harry wondered how close this dimension's Tonks and Remus were, because when Harry left Tonks was still constantly wanting to be near Remus and holding his hand. These two seemed to have a much more blasé dynamic and Harry wondered when the honeymoon had ended. "So Tonks, how long have you been Auror Tonks-Lupin here?"

Tonks was counting in her head. "Umm…I've been an Auror fourteen years now."

Harry shook his head. "I meant how long have you had the Lupin tacked on to the end of your last name?"

Tonks looked at Harry in confusion. "Since I was eight."

Harry gasped and snapped his head over at to look at Remus' proud smile in abject horror.

Sirius saw Harry's pained face and explained, "Her parents and godparents were killed the same night we were, Halloween 1981. Guardianship then would have gone to me as the only relative her parents acknowledged. I left everything to Remus, so rather than risk her being sent to the Lestranges or Malfoys, Moony here got custody legally through the muggle system and raised her on his own."

Tonks shrugged seeing Harry looked struck speechless. "I remember my real parents, but I liked calling Moony my Daddy and took his last name. Most people think Tonks is my first name which suits me just fine. Sirius already told us that my parents lived in your world. Why?"

The ghostly Ginny was staring open-mouthed at Tonks and Remus completely speechless while Harry fell to the floor unable to breathe he was laughing so hard. Every moment Harry looked up to begin speaking, he would collapse again and slap his hand on the floor.

"I don't think my parents dying is really all that funny," Tonks added feeling a bit annoyed.

"What's your problem, Harry?" Sirius asked. Seeing Harry was still no help, Sirius looked towards the ghost and asked, "Ginny?"

Ginny licked her ghostly lips and calmly explained, "Your name is Tonks-Lupin in our world too."

Sirius furrowed his brow. "What do you…" He quickly spun around to stare straight at Remus and sharply pointed an accusing finger. "You!"

Harry was nearly unintelligible but in between his racks of laughter he added, "I think you call him Daddy there too."

Remus looked just as confused before he realized exactly what the addition of his last name implied. He snarled angrily, "That filthy pedophile!"

Tonks was horribly lost now and looked towards her father. "Who?"

"Me!" Remus exclaimed poking himself in the chest.

"What?" Tonks asked again, unable to even consider the cruel truth staring her right in the face. "What does that have to do with my name?"

"You're my victim!" Remus explained far louder than necessary.

Harry was still snickering but composed himself enough to add, "I believe the term we've been using is wife, but that works too."

"Oh god," Tonks wheezed turning green without using any metamorphmagus skill. "That's disgusting!"

"I know!" Remus said struggling to even look his daughter in the eye.

Sirius was clearly just as amused as Harry. "When did this happen?"

"Less than a year after your accidental pirouette," Harry answered. "But they didn't get married until after Voldemort was gone."

"That's- that's- that's so wrong," Tonks mumbled fearfully. "I mean, Moony's my dad!"

"Less than a year?" Remus repeated with a pained face. "That's practically cradle robbing. Don't I even know the age rule?"

"I know you do," Sirius stated. "You taught it to me when that third year grew those huge-"

"Vera Helbig!" Remus agreed. "Same thing happened here."

"And you asked me about the rule," Sirius exclaimed spinning around to point at the queasy looking Tonks. "Just a couple months before I left. Merlin, I thought you had the hots for Harry. That's why I encouraged special circumstances."

"Really?" Harry inquired waggling his eyebrows at Tonks.

"No offense Harry," Sirius explained. "But life expectancy for you was more often measured in weeks than years."

"Would someone care to explain this age rule to me?" Ginny interjected curiously.

"Half your age, plus seven," Sirius and Remus said in unison repeating the universally accepted measuring stick dividing healthy and unhealthy relationships.

Remus continued, "Rounding up for good measure. Meaning when I was 36, no wait, 37, the youngest I should date is 25, or 26 if you round up. That's why Tonks at 23 should've been off limits."

"There are a few other reasons I should've been off limits, Dad," Tonks added with a shiver.

"I need a drink," Remus said, shaking his head.

"Me too," Sirius agreed pouring large glasses for everyone.

"I need a memory charm," Tonks added, only half joking.

"Me too," Remus seconded.

"If it makes you feel any better," Harry said waiting until the other three were taking drinks. "Tonks was pregnant when I left."

Sirius spurted up his firewhiskey in laughter while Remus and Tonks both painfully swallowed the liquid in their mouths.

"Why would that make us feel better?" Remus asked giving Harry a dirty look.

Harry shrugged. "Well it made me feel a little better to tell you."

Tonks just rubbed her temples. "You know until that, I'd managed to convince myself our counterparts may never have…" She stopped herself from saying anything more.

"Of course you have," Ginny helpfully added. "Why even before my death, Tonks was telling me all about the benefits of werewolf strength and how frisky he'd get, the closer to the full moon it was. Hell, you guys even managed to synchronize your cycles."

Sirius and Harry found themselves briefly as horrified as Tonks and Remus were, before catching each other's eyes and cracking up.

Ginny as the calmest one in the room continued. "Something about the wolf being able to smell-"

"Stop!" Remus yelled. "Stop! For the love of Merlin, stop!"

All four people and a single ghost descended in silence, broken only by the occasional snicker or shudder.

Harry realized this was the sort of cruel joke that was going to last a lifetime and felt pity on the two Lupins for now. "Moving forward, what's the plan for tonight?"

"I don't know," Sirius said as Tonks and Remus seemed to be a little shell-shocked still. "Tonks? Any luck?"

"What?" Tonks asked.

"Any luck on locating us a Lord?"

"Oh sorry," Tonks said. "Actually yeah, the head of the Zabini family is willing to hear from you."

"And as far as we know, they're not Death Eaters, right?"

"They've almost always stayed neutral on the divisive issues," Tonks explained. "Chris is the only one I know at all and he's a nice enough bloke."

"Why are you looking for a Lord like Zabini?" Harry asked curiously.

"Trying to get the old house back and maybe a couple galleons too," Sirius explained.

"And Zabini has the house keys?"

"It's old family politics," Sirius explained. "But basically when the Sirius of this world died at the same time you did, you were his designated heir, and you, as a one year old, hadn't designated anyone so the Black family as a whole, was headless."

"The Black family?" Harry asked curiously.

"It's how a lot of the old pureblood families operate," Sirius explained. "There's a family vault, which in families as competitive and heartless as mine, doesn't usually have much money. It does have some family heirlooms though, including the magical deed to the family manor."

"Grimmauld Place?" Harry clarified.

Sirius nodded. "When the family's headless, the vault and manor seal up. And the family ring goes back inside the family vault. It's a bunch of outdated mularky, but if I can get another Lord to vouch that I'm the new Lord Black, the goblins can get me in the vault for the purposes of seeing if the ring will accept me."

"No sacrifices or bathing in blood?" Harry grinned before adding, "And you know Grimmauld Place isn't all that sealed up. It's where I crashed last night. Dusty as hell and Kreacher's even further off his rocker in this dimension."

"You've been there?" Sirius asked in surprise.

Harry nodded. "Though it looked like I was the first one in a long time."

"I didn't think you'd have been able to even get near it without the Black family ring," Sirius said seeing Tonks and Remus looked as clueless as him.

Harry twisted a ring on his finger making it visible. "This one?"

Sirius' eyes widened. "Bloody hell, Harry! You're Lord Black."

"Umm… I think I would've remembered something like that."

"No," Tonks agreed. "You are."

"Harry," Sirius explained, rubbing his forehead. "If that ring didn't accept you as Lord Black, it could've killed you. Or at least really hurt."

Harry huffed. "That miserable little bastard. Kreacher gave it to me and told me it would make the wards I was trying to put up actually work."

"Well, yes," Sirius agreed. "It would do that, but knowing Kreacher I think he was hoping it would kill you."

"He was," Harry agreed. "He went from smiling to frowning as soon as it flashed when I put it on. So this is why I was able to get into Grimmauld Place."

"Well I guess we don't need Lord Zabini for anything," Sirius told Tonks. He turned to Harry, "And we're not homeless anymore."

Harry smirked. "Oh, so now you're crashing on your Lord's couch?"

"Couch?" Sirius grinned. "I've got seniority. The Master bedroom is mine."

"Why don't we let the ring decide?" Harry offered twisting it back into invisibility.

"That's brilliant!" Sirius agreed. "That's the ring from our dimension. This dimension's ring might still be in the vault."

"Two Lord Blacks?" Remus asked. "Is that even possible?"

"I got Harry involved, so we got a decent shot," Sirius explained.

"Well then you still need a Lord Zabini or someone to vouch for you," Tonks pointed out.

"We got a Lord Black right here," Sirius said pointing to Harry. "He can vouch for me, but he can probably open the vault just fine himself."

"Lady Black," Ginny said, trying the name out. "It suits me."

Harry sighed and thought back to a certain portrait. "Well I always did think of Mrs. Black as a long-dead insanely annoying harpy."

Ginny scowled at Harry punching her fist through him, giving him a literal cold shoulder.

"Aww good old Mum," Sirius recollected. "Thank Merlin she didn't love me the way a father loves his daughter."

Complete, dead silence followed as everyone stared at Sirius. He couldn't take it and cracked up. "This is going to be great."