Chapter 45: A Heartfelt Reunion

"You neutered Lucius Malfoy."

He didn't know why that had popped into his mind first after realizing she was alive, but it was a pretty grisly image. It also explained why Lucius had been suspiciously quiet as of late.

"I probably should've just killed him," she said. "Please tell me you're not going to give me a lecture about morality while we could be having a heartfelt reunion."

He shook his head. "I'm well past that after he pummeled Cissy and tried to kill the triplets. The only reason I didn't fully go after him myself is she asked me not to."

"Well, he deserved it and more." Her eyes flashed they looked almost grey for a moment.

"He knew."

He looked at her.

"He didn't tell me about Harry when I agreed to this." She said pointing at who she had become.

Sirius grimaced. "Cissy and I had promised for him to tell you when you were able to handle the news."

She gave him a look, "I was on my death bed, Siri, don't make excuses for that mother fucker."

She was right. A part of him couldn't forgive Lucius for what he did. He had made them think she was dead. Encouraged her to become someone else. The mere fact that she remembered who she was a miracle in itself, or it was the fact that she had been exposed to that wretched potion one to many times.

"I'm not," he said. "He should've told you. I'm just telling you how the snake probably justified it. I still can't believe…well, it's you."

"Is it really that hard to believe?"

"Well, you look nothing like yourself."

"I hate being short," she said. "I don't know why Cissy got to be a bemouth and I'm a dwarf."

"Your average height for a witch," he said rolling his eyes at his wife. He actually liked her new height more than he thought he would. He could easily pick her up now if he wanted to. He knew she enjoyed that aspect of being shorter as well, though she'd never admit it.

"I'm almost seven inches shorter than I was before it's a travesty."

He still couldn't believe it.

Claire was Bella. Bella was alive. It really did make sense though if you thought about it. There was no way a Malfoy would provide for a bastard. He had always thought that was weird. And for her to end up at the same rehab he was at…

Bella shook her head. "And I still can't believe I willingly agreed to be this…he didn't think it was going to happen."

"You being a veela?" He asked.

She nodded, "I wonder if he knew and just…"

"Does it even matter?" He asked.

She shook her head, "Probably not. But I do wonder if he thought it was hilarious considering…well."

He had seen her head. He had seen those memories.

"Bella…"

She shook her head. "You probably don't even want me anymore now. Not that you'd want me anyway with what I did."

"Sweetheart, don't be ridiculous." He said, "Haven't you seen me grieve all these months because of you?"

She frowned. "But….after all of the things I done."

"You weren't in your right state of mind. Neither was I." He said.

"Because of her," Her expression grew dark. "She stole our baby, Sirius. I…."

"Harry is fine," he said looking at her.

"But he wasn't," She said. "She stole him and he grew up with those monsters. I….I killed that Dursley bitch."

"Indeed, you did."

"It almost makes the burns worth it. Almost." She said, "I saw Lucius's memories. I saw that he almost died earlier this year because of the troll, Siri. He…he's still so small."

"But he's doing better. He kicked Draco's ass this afternoon because of you."

She laughed, "I know he's my nephew but like you said earlier the little shit deserved it."

"And I still haven't given you your award you yet for doing that…"

"Award?"

He nodded as he pulled her into a kiss while one hand expertly undid the buttons on her robe. Bella's robe. Her hands were quick to follow with removing his robe as well.

Soon she was lost with him, and he was lost with her. Together they were finally home for the first time in over a decade.

She woke up feeling at peace for the first time as the night came back to her.

He knew. Her Siri knew. They had spent most of the rest of the day making love not wanting to be disturbed.

Oddly enough, no one had bothered them. Probably helped that Remus was giving the kids an Astronomy lecture last night and Sirius had originally had been planning on taking her out to Paris for the evening. Paris, however, did not happen and she did not care.

She had her Siri back. He knew who she was and after everything he still wanted her.

She noticed that there was contraband sitting on the nightstand—a coffee with cinnamon and from Paris no less based on the label on the coffee cup.

"You went to France without me?" She said to her husband who had just entered the room.

Unlike her, he was already dressed. Pity she could've dealt with a repeat performance of last night. She guessed that could easily be fixed though.

"I had to pick up a few things," he said. "It's not like they make a decent coffee here."

She rolled her eyes. "You know you own this unit…"

"Still a patient as are you." He said rolling his eyes, "Besides, I needed to get something for you."

"For me?"

He nodded as he knelt and held out a little box and opened it.

She gasped when she saw what was in the box. It was a rather impressive looking ring. Rather than being a diamond the large oval shape center stone was an amethyst that matched the pendent he gave her earlier surrounding it was a circle of diamonds and onyx and inlaid in platinum.

"Sirius?"

"Marry me again."

A part of her wanted to pull on the ring right now and squeal like she was a teenager again. A far cry from how she reacted when he had proposed the first time.

It really hadn't been much of a proposal when you were more or less cursed into signing a blood contract. How things had changed.

"It's not necessary," she said. "We're already married."

"I know that, and you know that." He said, "But legally you are still Claire Du Pres and I want you be legally my wife no matter whose face you wear or what your name might be. I also want to give you the ring and wedding you never had."

"Our wedding was a bit of a disaster," she said with a smirk still remember that God awful dress she had been forced to wear and the Black family rings. She wondered what happened to them.

"A bit," he said. "I'm surprised you remember any of it with how you were clearly under the Imperius curse for the duration of it."

"As were you. I don't think…."

Neither of them would've touched each other or agreed to the vows otherwise.

"I'm glad they're dead." He said.

"I didn't know our parents died."

"Mine did at least." He said, "I don't know about yours. Cissy and Andi hadn't had contact with them in years though

"I'm not surprised." She said shaking her head. "They were the worst. We really shouldn't be talking to them when you're proposing to me again. It ruins the mood."

"That it does." He said, "So back to the question will you do me the honor of becoming a Black again."

"Yes," she said. "Yes, Siri. I will."

Lily was surprised when an owl visited her. Of course it was addressed to Lucius. This was his house after all, but she was surprised it was from his son of all people.

Or bastard since Draco was technically declared illegitimate by his father. Big mistake now given…well, his current ability to reproduce.

She smirked as she thought of her patient who was currently unconscious in the other room. He would likely live despite the fact the had lost a lot of blood when he as for lesser terms castrated.

She was still debating about whether or not to try to brew an experimental potion she had been working on to regrow his manhood. She had been working on it for James all those years ago after he had been hit by that curse. He never wanted to try it out though said he was fine since they had Harry—the sap obvious didn't realize that his anatomy was fried and that Harry wasn't exactly conceived naturally. And unlike Lucius, he still had his equipment even if parts of it were withered and didn't want to exactly experience the removal phase that would be necessary to restore it.

It depended on what route she wanted to go. She hated the bastard but there would be some benefits to having his child and a part of her desperately wanted another baby.

She frowned as she thought of her poor baby. Dead because of Dumbledore's negligence. It took everything in her to remain in control when he had contacted her or should she say Severus and offered him the deputy headmaster job.

She took it. She figured she could figure out what she was going to do with her life and collect the money. Being in the school would allowed her to figure out what was going on in the wizarding word at least while she decided what she was going to do with Lucius.

Severus was on borrowed time. She forced fed him drought of the living dead not that long ago and had already put him in the trunk she'd would have returning with her to the school. She needed her most important potion ingredient after all. However, once she was done with the school, she'd be getting rid of him. Maybe she would do what Lucius's enemy had done to him.

That wasn't that bad of an idea considering she wanted to make sure her experimental potion worked first before feeding it to Lucius. It was a very temperamental potion, a mistake or two could have Lucius easily become Lucinda and she did not want that to happen even though that would be sort of hilarious.

Speaking of Lucius, since he and the bitch had their marriage annulled, she thought about maybe modifying her looks a bit and claiming herself to be a new bride on the continent or something.

Funny, the bitch had dropped out of site since the annulment. From the brief recollections of Lucius she had been able to get when he was conscious he had no idea where she was well that could be potentially useful if Narcissa was gone it potentially could allow her to take over her life.

And if she did pop up…well, she had no problems with disposing the Blacks. Just look at what she had done to her sister.

Lily looked at the letter that Lucius had received. It was from his son. Draco was in desperate need of seeing his father and it seemed his mother had abandoned him. He mentioned a coven. A coven that was in a village that Lily was very familiar with. Well, maybe, just maybe, she could work with this.

Taking one last glance at Lucius she got up to get busy. She had some potions to brew and a letter to write back to dear Draco. She might also have to go visit a certain village soon as well.

Hermione frowned when an owl came to drop off her school letter. She wasn't the only one the boys had got one too. Draco seemed to just shrug it off and was annoyed that his final grades had finally came. She figured he'd likely be complaining about Transfiguration again. Harry seemed perplexed.

"I'm not even enrolled in Hogwarts."

"Neither am I," She said, "Not anymore."

She frowned as she picked at her eggs. There was no way in hell she was going back to that school.

"I take it you don't want to go."

She nodded. "I'm sure you heard about what happened."

"You could say that."

She noticed the boy had given her strange looks from time to time like he was searching for something. She thought about asking him about it, but she never knew how to bring it up.

"How much do you know?"

He sighed heavily as he looked to see if his cousin was paying attention to them.

She could've told him he wasn't. Draco had already left the room after he saw his grades. He probably didn't want to have a conversation about it with Sirius if she was to guess.

Who knew Harry's father would've been such a disciplinarian. Harry it seemed hardly got yelled at. Though to be fair, Harry didn't insult people like Draco did. Draco seemed to hate Uncle Remus for some asinine reason and he hadn't been exactly the nicest to Harry.

She thought it was because he was jealous of him. Harry was better in most of their studies than Draco was. Probably because he put some effort into it unlike Draco and he seemed annoyed that she had been friendly with Harry.

Well, he was nicer than Draco was for the most part and he didn't stare at her chest all the time.

She was surprised a bit when Harry muttered something that sounded like a privacy charm before handing her something. His letter.

Her jaw about dropped when she saw who it was addressed to.

"Harry Potter? But he's…"

"Me." He told her.

She shook her head. "No. you're not, don't be ridiculous this is simply addressed to the wrong Harry. Harry died last year because of me."

"I died," he said looking at her. "But they brought me back, Hermione."

She shook her head, "You don't look anything like Harry Potter. Your tall and you don't have the scar."

He was also a lot better looking than Harry Potter she thought though she didn't mention that to him. She knew he didn't think about those sorts of things yet. Or if he did he wasn't as apparent as Draco had been about it. The way the blonde had been staring at her boobs lately was a little disgusting.

"That's because things were done to me as a baby to make me look like I was the Potters' son."

She gave him a weird look. "I don't…"

"I wouldn't expect you to understand." He said, "I still don't most of the time."

"And everyone thought you were dead because?"

"Would you want to be famous for something you didn't remember doing, Hermione?"

She grimaced thinking about all the articles in the paper that were about her. She knew her uncle tried to hide them but occasionally she'd see a headline about

"Rat Gate" of all things. It was one of many reasons she did not want to go back to that school. Being here this summer, she actually got to learn magic with none of the bullshit. It was refreshing.

She looked at him and said, "You study more than him."

"People change when they're almost killed by a mountain troll," He said looking at her. "You of all people should know."

"But…but you acted like I was a stranger?"

"Because I don't remember anything," He said. "At least when I was at Hogwarts. I don't remember the boy that I got killed."

"You…you didn't kill Ronald, Harry, I did." She said shocked that he blamed herself for the same thing she did.

He shook his head. "He didn't want to go. I don't remember a lot, but I'm pretty sure.."

"He wouldn't," she said. "We weren't exactly friends.

"And you and me?"

"Acquaintances," She said with a small smile. "I wanted to be your friend, but I'm not exactly the easy type to be friends with."

He gave her an odd look.

"I can be or I could be bossy," She said. "I….I'm different than I was a year ago too, Harry."

"What about if we be friends now," He said.

"I'd…I'd like that."

"A Hogwarts letter?" His father said when she showed him the letter. "Are you serious?"

Harry gave him a look, " I am not even going to address that horrible pun. It's addressed to Harry Potter."

Sirius grimaced. "It's probably sent out automatically. Though do you want to go…"

He shook his head vehemently. "I prefer what we're doing now if that's alright. I still can't get over the fact that I almost died there. Hermione doesn't want to go either."

"I can only imagine."

"We talked," Harry said. "About what happened after I 'died'."

His father winced. Clearly, he knew what had happened to Hermione.

"I'm surprised she confide in you."

"I may…I may have told her about my past too."

Sirius just raised an eyebrow,

"I'm surprised you're not yelling at me for telling her the truth. I just thought she deserved it. The guilt seems to have been eating her all summer and she doesn't deserve that. Or any of the crap that happened to her."

"Like her, don't you?"

He gave his father a look and blushed. "You know I'm only twelve…"

She was admittedly pretty though. And nice. And smart. He felt bad that people at that school had called her ugly.

"A bloody nightmare."

The voice had sounded so clear he didn't recognize it though.

"I'm just teasing you, Harry." He said, "I don't fault you at telling her who you are. I don' t think you have to worry about her. Unlike some people."

He knew he meant Cousin Draco. He had tried to be friendly to the boy, but he knew his cousin did not like him. He also knew why Aunt Cissy had been so reluctant for the two of them to meet, Draco was a bit of an ass. He felt bad for Aunt Cissy having to deal with him. Merlin, he missed his aunt it had only been a few weeks but it had felt like she had been gone for a lot longer.

Claire occasionally checked up on her. Not that there was really much to check up on. Aunt Cissy was a harpy and would be one until she gave birth. He knew everyone was afraid about how the birthing process would go. He had read the book that Draco threw on the floor. He had heard his cousin rant about how he thought the veela thing was total bullshit.

There was a reason he usually stayed out of Draco's way.

"He hasn't been bothering you, has he?" Dad asked him.

"Not since we dueled."

"When you kicked his ass," Dad grinned.

It really hadn't been much of a duel. Not what had occurred between him and Claire. He had so many questions about it, but his father and Claire had disappeared pretty quickly after the duel and hadn't reappeared until the next day where they seemed ridiculously happy.

He didn't understand what had happened and didn't want to. He did notice though that Claire was wearing something on her finger though the next day. A huge amethyst ring. Apparently, they had gotten engaged. He was happy for them but…well, he still thought about his mum.

Sirius looked at him, "You didn't really say anything about the engagement the other day."

Harry sighed, "It just seems a little soon."

"There are reasons…" His dad said.

"Is she pregnant?" He asked.

His father almost spit up the hot chocolate he had been drinking. "What on Earth would give you that idea?"

"Well, it seems sort of sudden." Harry said. "You two have only been dating for a few months."

"It's complicated, Harry."

"No, it's really not. Mum hasn't even been dead for a year."

His father got a weird look on his face. "Harry…"

He just shook his head. He needed some space.

Chapter 46 Preview: Currently, I have Bella visiting Narcissa and I may have Draco talk to Sirius. I am thinking of changing up a few things though so it's a very "loose" preview at the moment.