Sunday 4th April 1982

Dumbledore's Office, 14:30

"Can you let us visit them at the very least?" Marlene pleaded.

Yes, she was pleading. And no, this wasn't something she usually did. She hated it pleading. It normally meant that you weren't in control. And she wasn't right now. Which she hated. Hence, the pleading. Because reasoning and explaining didn't seem to be doing any good and failure was not an option. Not anymore.

"Do you really think that that's a good idea with everything that's been going on?" Dumbledore countered gently.

"It can't be a bad idea and we'd take suitable protective measures."

Dumbledore still looked doubtful so Marlene decided to go on the offensive. Slightly.

"I am Harry's godmother. I have a right to see him. And Rylli is basically my niece which means I have to see her too. Especially since..." Her words trailed off and she shook her head. "I'm his godmother," she repeated.

That meant something in the Wizarding World. Godmothers. And Godfathers. They held weight. They had power. She knew that. Dumbledore knew that. Everyone knew that. And she hated the fact that it seemed like she was singling out Harry like this but if it got her what she wanted, no, needed, then she Everyone was going to do it. Unashamedly.

"I'm his godmother," she said more firmly, making Dumbledore pause and look at her.

"You are," he agreed.

"Which meant that guardianship should have automatically gone to me."

"And Sirius," he added quietly.

"Yes. I know. And he's why I didn't."

That wasn't even a question, that was just a fact. No matter if it was groundless or not. Having someone look like they might have betrayed someone else kind of put them out of the running for looking after children. And then everything else that was happening afterwards, she would be the first to admit, she would not have been a good guardian. Merlin, she hadn't exactly been a good parent in the weeks that had followed.

"He's not the only reason but yes, Sirius Black's charges against him were a contributing factor to Harry's placement."

"And Rylli."

"Pardon?"

"Rylli too. She's with him, right? They are together?" She demanded.

After everything that had happ3med, they better be. Dumbledore better not have split them up. He wouldn't do that, would he? That would be awful. You didn't split up siblings. You just didn't.

"They are indeed," he said carefully, like he wasn't sure how she would react to that.

Heaving a sigh of relief, she nodded. "Good."

It might be then only good thing about this whole situation. They were together. Good. That was good. It was something. You should never split siblings apart. So, they were together and safe. Good. And now they were going to be able to see them. Hopefully. She wanted more than that, obviously, but just seeing them would be a step in the right direction.

"Visit," Marlene repeated. "Not take to live with. Visit."

"Marlene-"

"They're family. He's my godson. My nephew. She's my niece. They. Are. Family."

She resisted the urge to poke Dumbledore with each word but she felt like she made her point. Though, she did continue to glare at him for good measure. Dumbledore just stared back at her with those blue eyes of his but this was not something that she was going to give up on, surely, he knew that?

It turned out, he did. Thankfully.

"Visits only," Dumbledore gave in.

Marlene felt her heart soar. Yes! It wasn't all that she wanted but it was something. See, she knew it was a good idea for Remus not to be here and be all protective and growly. That wouldn't have gone down well at all and she was pretty sure it would have counted against them, knowing their luck.

"Right, then, where are they?"

Monday 5th April 1982

Potion's Lab, 19:00

Severus held his breath as he raised the pipette over the crystal dish. The dish that held exactly five millilitres of blood. Remus' blood to be exact. He had very, very, very carefully measured it out because he wasn't going to waste any of it. Wasn't going to use even a drop more than he had to.

Yes, he'd asked for even more of Remus' blood. This time he'd actually thought to ask for a vial (or three) the day after the full moon. When, hopefully, the curse in him was still active. Getting it before would also have been a good idea but he had thought of it too late to ask. Maybe next month. If he needed more blood, that was. Which he was kind of hoping he wouldn't. Not until the end when his potion would have to undergo formal testing. But he wasn't anywhere near that stage yet and he was being very sparing when using Remus' samples. He wanted to waste as little as possible. One because he really hated wasting things unnecessarily - Why use a vial of something when half would do and two, because he didn't want to keep asking Remus for blood. It wasn't fair on his friend and he would just start to ask questions. Questions Severus didn't have the answer to yet because he hadn't managed to prove any of his theories. Yes, it was getting annoying.

He wanted to get some from during the full moon but he couldn't think of a way to keep him and Remus safe while doing so. He had still brought the idea up, Remus was supposed to be the smart one, he could probably come up with an idea, but all it got him was a very firm no. Actually, it was a "No way in hell" but it was the same thing. Which meant that he was going to have to think of something. Something that even Remus wouldn't argue about which was going to be difficult but he did like a challenge. He was sure he could wear Remus down eventually. Once he had an idea. He just needed an idea.

This was the infuriating thing about inventing things - the research. Well, not exactly. Research could be interesting. Research let you discover things that you didn't think we're possible. Research could tell you the history of certain ingredient combinations which was normally fascinating. No, research was good. It was the seemingly endless research. The time you spent looking things up, comparing them, analysing them, wondering if what you even looked up would work and then the scrapping of work before it even got to the brewing stage because all that research proved that it wouldn't ever be able to work.

Sometimes he really wanted to set fire to his research. The parts of it that proved to be inconclusive or wrong. But he couldn't. Because that was proof, he had done something. And it stopped him from making the same mistakes again. And, perhaps more importantly, he was doing an apprenticeship, he had to keep every scrap of work he did no matter how good or bad it was. There was going to be reports he was going to have to write on it later. Even though technically this research wasn't for his apprenticeship...

Wednesday 7th April 1982

Azkaban, 10:00

"So, you didn't kill him?"

"I didn't cast a spell at him," Sirius insisted. "I didn't get a chance to."

He had definitely wanted to kill the damned rat but no. He didn't. And he had been cursing that fact ever since. Come on. If he was going to end up in Azkaban, he should have had the chance to do something that deserved it. Or, well, deserved it more. Because he failed his best friend. His brother. And even Azkaban wasn't bad enough for that.

But Pet- the rat, the rat had been too fast. Who knew that the rat could be that fast? Not him. Certainly not all those poor muggles.

"Poor muggles?"

Whoops, had he said that out loud? Sirius gave Banbridge a confused look.

"Yeah, poor them. They didn't deserve to die."

The solicitor looked thoughtful for a moment before his brow furrowed.

"If you didn't cast a spell then how did nothing of him except a finger remain?"

"He's still alive!" Sirius insisted.

"He's still alive?" Banbridge asked sceptically. "All we found was a finger of him."

A finger? Sirius blinked for a moment. That was seriously all they had found? Yes, he had seen Peter cut that off but the explosion the rat had caused had been massive, he had honestly thought that most, if not all, of the finger would be gone. Because that's how explosions worked. Right?

Sirius buried his head in his hands and didn't look at him. He had to think and he couldn't do it with eyes on him. A finger. A finger. A finger that didn't explode. Peter gone.

"Remus. I need to talk to Remus."

"Mr Black-"

"I need to talk to Remus," Sirius repeated.

He didn't know what else he could do except talk to Remus. He would know what he was talking about. He would know what to do. Because Severus certainly didn't. He couldn't think straight. Between all these questions and the Dementors, his mind felt like it was going numb. Which scared him but he pushed that thought to the side for now.

"Remus," he said again.

Banbridge's Office, 20:00

"I have it! I got it done!" Banbridge said extremely proudly as he ran into the room.

He had floo-called her mother - the only one available at the time - and had asked for them to come and meet him as soon as possible. Well, as many of them who could come. Because he had news. Only she and her mum were available, tonight was the full moon, Chryssie had the night shift, as did her dad. Marlene should have been finishing her shift but something had gone pear shaped in the last hour because of course it had and Severus had to attend a mandatory talk his Potions Master was giving this evening. Which left them with the two of them and two toddlers. Who, thankfully, were sleeping in their laps. Surprisingly since Banbridge had been so loud coming in.

Dora didn't think that she had ever seen the man smile. Not that he was overly serious or anything (surprising, considering the man's career choice) but he just didn't smile a lot. Though, she supposed that this work that they had given him wasn't exactly something that made you smile.

"You got a trial set?" Dora said excitedly, perking up.

Banbridge's face fell. "Well, no. Not exactly. Well, not at all, actually."

"Well, what were you talking about then?" Andromeda asked impatiently.

"I have the proposal ready to go to the Wizengamot."

He didn't look quite as excited anymore. Whoops. They all groaned at that and relaxed. Banbridge looked incredibly put out at the lack of enthusiasm on their part.

"This is a crucial step," he insisted.

"It is not ready until I have looked it over," Andromeda imperiously informed him, holding her hand out expectantly.

Meekly, he passed the scroll over to her. It was promptly snatched from him which left him checking out his fingers as if they had been removed. Dora would have found it funny if this wasn't so serious.

But it was the next step. That was something. The next step. Was it possible to cross all your fingers and toes?

Saturday 10th April 1982

Marauder Flat, 13:00

"Petunia? He put them with Petunia?" Severus shouted.

Marlene hushed him quickly but it was too late. Cassie woke up with a whimper. Sending him a dark look, she went into her bedroom, hoping she could settle her again. She could not because Cassie had decided that she needed to be incredibly clingy and just sort of held onto her while making all sorts of pathetic sad noises. Great. Just great. An upset Cassie and an upset Severus. Well, she was going to focus on the one who could hopefully be cheered up the quickest.

"Bad dream?" She cooed.

She shook her head, tiny curls flying everywhere. Her hair seemed to be getting curlier as she got older, not straightening even a little bit. In fact, her hair seemed to be getting curlier, like Andromeda's. And - No, she wasn't going to think about the other Black woman with curls. Nope. Not going there.

Severus huffed but thankfully decided that angering her and making Cassie more upset was something he didn't want to do and promptly stomped into the nearest room. Which was technically a spare room now. Not Peter's old room. Remus'. That was the safest room to go into. Less memories. And yes, she still hadn't moved yet. It was a process, okay? She was working and doing this single mum thing. She needed time that she just didn't have. And a lot more processing space which she also didn't have.

"Big noise," Cassie whimpered, pointing at the door.

"That was just Uncle Sev."

"He loud."

"He is."

"Don' like it."

"Yeah," she sighed, rubbing her back soothingly, "me neither."

"Make him stop."

"He's stopped," Marlene assured the toddler. "No more big noises."

Cassie gave her a suspicious look that she would have found adorable if she wasn't so tired. She just wanted to go to bed. Between work and everything she hadn't been getting enough sleep and then what sleep she did get was restless. And this newest news wasn't exactly helping.

Because she couldn't help but agree with Severus.

Petunia?

Monday 12th April 1982

Auror Department, 10:30

"I don't think o could do it, you know," Roberts was saying conversationally.

Wait, was he supposed to be listening to him? He had been kind of tuning him out, he'd gotten distracted by the memos that fluttered to and fro. Not that any of them were for him, it was just, they were all one shape. Was that the only way they worked or could you fold them up on different ways? It would be pretty cool to send a swan memo. Imagine seeing that flying last, all graceful and awesome looking. And then it would swirl around and land on your desk. It would be so cool.

But Roberts. Right. He was talking to him. Unfortunately. He really didn't like the man that much. Too loud. Liked the sound of his own voice too much and didn't seem to hear anyone else. He also thought that anyone who wasn't like him was weird. He liked calling Kingsley weird. Strange enough, Kingsley didn't like that. But the man was talking to him and he had to be polite. To get away from him quicker, if anything.

"What couldn't you do?" Kingsley asked in exasperation.

He found this man a right bore and the only reason he didn't get up and walk away was because the man had somehow managed to trap him in a corner in order to have a conversation.

"Come into work and pretend everything's okay."

That really didn't clear anything up for him.

"What are you talking about?"

"McKinnon!"

"What about her?"

"She's going around pretending that nothing's happened and everything's normal!"

The man sounded almost indignant at this. Like she couldn't act like that? Why did it bother him so much?

"Things are starting to be normal again," Kingsley pointed out.

Sure, it was a new normal but it was normal. Routine even. Which was kind of nice. They needed normal again and they were getting there. They just had to round up Death Eaters and then... well, then there would be another new normal.

"Like anything that going on with her is normal," he scoffed.

Kingsley gave him a blank look, not understanding what he was trying to get at.

"You know!"

"I don't."

"Black," the man said in exasperation.

Kingsley was tempted to ask what about him but he held his tongue. He didn't need to be disciplined for being part of a workplace brawl. Roberts was very quick with his fists. Too quick, in his opinion. Hence the whole staying quiet.

"I mean," Roberts continued, apparently not needing a response from Kingsley, "how can she show her face when she was involved with Black?"

She was more than involved with Black but even Kingsley knew to hold his tongue on that.

"Maybe because she isn't Black," he pointed out instead.

"Yeah, but who knows what he made her do. Or what she got involved in. You know what those Blacks are like."

Actually, he didn't. A downfall, or was it a park, or being a muggleborn. Oh, of course he knew of the family. He knew they were wealthy and influential and had Dark Leanings (Merlin help you if you said they were Dark). Oh, and they were powerful. That was about it. He thought that that was all that he needed to know about them. Not that he really gave them much thought in the first place.

Apparently, Roberts didn't expect him to answer or anything because he was nodding along in agreement to his own words.

"Don't they have a kid together or something?"

Kingsley decided that he wasn't going to answer that. They didn't need that confirmed. That little girl had gone through enough, she didn't need people like Roberts talking nonsense about her.

"That kid's going to be no good, mark my words," Roberts said darkly. "With a father like Black..."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Bad blood will out," he said simply, as if that was supposed to explain everything.