Living with Danger

Chapter 29: Confrontations

Remus' thoughts came in short bursts as he stared at the scene before him.

Snape. Here. Now.

And he has Neenie.

The girl's hazel eyes were filled with pure terror. Snape had his left arm across her chest, holding her firmly against himself. His right hand, of course, held his wand, pointed straight at Remus.

"I said, drop it," Snape repeated. "And I mean now."

"Or what?" Remus asked, astounded at the calm in his voice.

"Or I Disapparate with her. Straight to the Ministry. She could tell some interesting stories to the Aurors, I'm sure."

Slowly, Remus bent down and placed his wand on the floor. "Jane," he said, looking Hermione in the eye. "You're going to be all right."

Neenie blinked hard, twice. "Yes, Daddy," she said in a trembling voice.

"Daddy," Snape repeated, sounding half-disgusted, half-amused. "You do seem fond of stealing children - first the Potter boy, then the Malfoys' son. Where did you steal this one?"

"She was a gift," Remus replied, masking both his astonishment that Snape knew about Harry and Draco and his elation that Hermione wasn't panicking, was still thinking enough to give him the proper signal for yes and respond to her out-of-den name correctly. We might have a chance. But it all depends on her.

"A gift. How nice. A gift from whom?"

"My wife."

"Your wife? You tricked some poor woman into marrying you?"

"No, she tricked me into marrying her. It's not quite the same."

Hermione's right hand crept up to her mouth. "What are you doing, girl?" Snape demanded.

"She sucks her thumb," Remus said.

"And you encourage her, I'm sure. No doubt because you find it cute." Snape sneered. "I wonder what else you've taught her. Besides disrespect for the law."

"Disrespect, Severus? On the contrary. We hold the law in the highest regard in this house. What law are you obeying by breaking into our home and holding my daughter hostage?"

"I am committing a small crime to prevent a larger one," Snape said loftily. "Looking for a notorious criminal. Where is he, anyway?"

"Who?"

"Don't play stupid with me, Lupin, you know I mean Black. Where are you hiding him?"

"I have no idea where Sirius Black is, Severus." Absolute truth. Depending on traffic, they could be just about anywhere right now. Remus rubbed his left hand, feeling the heat of his wedding band under his fingers. It shouldn't be that hot, should it?

"You always were a terrible liar," Snape said with derision.

"And that, no doubt, is why, through my years at Hogwarts, only one person whom I did not wish to know found out about my, ah, condition."

Snape's face twisted. "I would have realized sooner or later," he hissed. "If Black hadn't tried to kill me by telling me how to follow you."

"I admit that was a foolish thing to do," Remus said, suppressing a highly unethical wish that James Potter hadn't intervened on that night all those years ago. "But he was seventeen years old. Many people do stupid things when they're seventeen. It wasn't very intelligent of you to follow the advice of your known enemy."

"Don't taunt me," Snape said venomously. "One more word from you, and your little Jane goes to the Ministry, and from there to an orphanage, when the Aurors come for you."

Remus inclined his head. "As you like." He allowed his eyes to drift down to Hermione.

Cautiously, the little girl extended the first two fingers of her right hand and rotated her hand in a half-circle horizontally, as if saluting, as much as she could with her thumb still in her mouth. Her eyes never left Remus'.

YES! Good girl! It was the hand-sign for "Tell me what to do".

"Where is your Floo fireplace?" Snape demanded. "Assuming you have one."

"We do. But I won't show it to you."

"You are in no position to be saying what you will and won't do, werewolf."

"You never could grasp that calling me what I am doesn't offend me," Remus said mildly. "This, on the other hand - "

He held up his left hand, one finger upraised.

The ring finger.

Snape stared at it for a moment, then began to laugh. "You can't even insult me correctly!"

Neenie blinked twice and pulled her thumb from her mouth.

"Oh, I think I can," Remus said quietly. "I think I just did, in fact."

Hermione drove her elbow backwards, hard.

Snape's laughter was cut off abruptly.

----------

The ring finger of the left hand upraised is the Marauder hand-signal for "Hurt him. BAD."

----------

Snape doubled over, wheezing. Neenie stamped on his foot and twisted free of his hold, and Remus dove for his wand and shouted "Expelliarmus!"

Snape collapsed on the floor as his wand flew from his hand and into Remus'. He handed it to Neenie and whispered, "Hide." She nodded and dashed down the hall.

Snape snarled, his face still twisted in pain, and started to get up. Remus shot a Stunner at him, but Snape rolled out of the way, snatched a book from the floor, and threw it at his head. Remus ducked it, and Snape moved faster than anyone who'd just been hit where he'd been hit had a right to move, not toward the hall, which Remus was guarding, but through the wall of the front room -

The archway!

Remus took off down the hall, knowing where Snape was headed -

The back yard. Where Neenie went with his wand. I hope she had enough sense to go where he can't follow her...

----------

Snape shoved the pain to the back of his mind. He couldn't let it distract him now. He knew he would pay when he returned to his normal state, but that, like everything else, was pushed aside in the necessity of getting his wand back and beating Lupin.

He crashed out the door into the small green area at the back of the house.

Where did she...

A gasp drew his attention upwards.

The girl was clinging to one of the limbs of the large tree, probably about fifteen feet up or so. She had his wand clutched in one grubby hand.

"Give that back, you horrible little brat," Snape wheezed, glaring at her.

She stuck out her tongue at him. "Come'n'get it, Professor Grumpy."

The other back door burst open and Lupin catapulted into the yard.

Time seemed to slow. Snape found himself thinking in a leisurely manner, I can accomplish nothing now. I must depart before he harms me.

Lupin was starting to say something, but Snape had no fear. I can be gone from here before he completes his spell.

He imagined the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic and commanded his magic to show him where it lay. The backyard dimmed to his sight, and a faint glow arose where the Atrium was. Off to his right, but that didn't matter. It could have been behind him and it wouldn't have mattered.

Lupin had spoken the first two syllables of whatever he was saying.

Connect the two points with a straight line. A radiant line appeared, connecting his feet to the glow of the Ministry.

The third syllable left the werewolf's lips.

And now, follow that straight line. Snape imagined the world blurring backwards past him as he stood still, until he was where he wanted to be...

Lupin completed his spell.

As the backyard faded completely, Snape felt something brush past his face.

How odd.

He staggered slightly as he arrived in the Atrium, and wondered vaguely what on earth he was doing at the Ministry of Magic. He had no business that would take him there.

I should get back to Hogwarts.

He took one step and realized that he had a terrible headache. His right foot also hurt, as well as another portion of his anatomy.

What has happened to me? I am not usually absent-minded, or given to activities that harm me...

He reached into his wand pocket, intending to cast a self-diagnostic spell.

His wand was missing.

This is extremely troubling.

Carefully, he checked in the bag he was carrying, in all his other pockets, even up his sleeves in case he had, for some unknown reason, put it there. His wand was nowhere to be found.

He shook his head, and then wished he hadn't.

I need a dark room, a strong headache potion, and a bag of ice.

Moving gingerly, he maneuvered over to one of the fireplaces.

"Severus Snape's office, Hogwarts," he said, casting Floo powder into the flames.

It wasn't until he fell onto his stone floor, retching painfully, that he remembered that many headaches also induce nausea.

----------

The Memory Charm left a small crater in Hermione's tree. Remus swore under his breath. It didn't hit him. I wasn't fast enough, he got away...!

Then he looked again.

That was a strong spell. Too strong to have left that small a mark.

Could it have taken partial effect? Hit him just as he Disapparated?

In which case...

"Moony?" said a quivering voice.

Remus blinked out of his trance and hurried forward to lift a shaking Hermione down from the tree. "You were wonderful, Kitten," he said to her, holding her close. "You were my brave girl-cub. My warrior princess. Everyone is going to be so proud of you. I'm proud of you. You did exactly what needed to be done."

"I was scared," Neenie whispered, shivering in his arms. "I was so scared."

"And you fought anyway. That's what being brave is all about. Fighting through the fear. Hermione, you were brilliant."

The girl looked shocked. "We're out of den," she said in a hushed voice.

Remus sighed. "That's not going to matter in a few hours, sweetheart, but you're right. Come on, let's get inside."

WHAT is going on there?! My wedding ring feels like it just came out of a furnace and this is the first instant I could take my mind off my driving long enough to talk!

Right on cue. Are you anywhere that you can park?

I can be. Why?

Everyone needs to be home. As in now.

Danger cursed, picking the reason why out of Remus' memories of the last few minutes. We'll be there in two minutes. Have to find somewhere sheltered to Apparate from.

Fine. Neenie and I are both all right. See you in a few minutes.

----------

Danger had overestimated. In exactly one minute, nine seconds, she exploded out of the air in the den room, followed by Aletha with Draco clutching her leg and Sirius with Harry attached to his side and Meghan in his arms.

"Snape," Aletha said almost before she'd fully Apparated.

"Yes."

Sirius swore explosively, making Draco look at him appreciatively.

"Out," Aletha said firmly, making shooing motions toward the door. "All of you, upstairs. Go."

"Wait," Remus said. "Everyone needs to know that if it hadn't been for Hermione, this would have been a lot worse. She deserves some recognition."

Everyone clapped. The boys and Meghan looked as if they couldn't wait to get Neenie upstairs and ask her what had happened.

"Now out," said Aletha, and the cubs scurried out of the room down the hallway.

"So explain," Danger said, sitting down on the sofa. "Snape got in. He saw you. He made it pretty damn clear he knows, or suspects, Sirius is here. And he got away - but you're not worried. Or you're only half-worried. I'm missing something here."

"I tried to Obliviate him just as he was Disapparating. I know the spell didn't hit him fully - there's an impact crater on the tree out there - but I'm also sure that it didn't miss him entirely either."

"So he's been partially Obliviated?" Aletha asked. "What effect will that have?"

"One of three," Remus said. "One, he could forget part of what he saw here. But even one clear memory of me would be enough to get this place thoroughly investigated, and we are not up to that. Luckily, that's the least likely thing to have happened."

Aletha nodded. "Definitely luckily."

"Two, he could half-forget about the whole thing. He'd have vague memories of seeing me and calling me names and threatening Hermione, but it would seem like a dream to him. That would be the best for us, but it's still quite unlikely."

"Too bad," Danger said with a sigh.

"Three, and most likely, he could forget about us entirely for now, and regain his memories over time."

"How much time?" Sirius asked, voicing the question on everyone's minds.

"Anywhere from hours to days. Three hours, minimum, would be my guess."

"So...." Aletha looked out the back door for a moment. "We have three hours to pack and get out. We cannot afford to be here when they come. And they will come. Now that Snape knows we're here, he won't hesitate an instant."

Sirius bit his lip, looking torn. "Letha," he said quietly. "They're not after you. You haven't done anything - well, nothing they can get you for. All they'll have is Snape's word, and that's not enough to make you testify under verification. You don't have to leave. You can stay here, with Meghan, give her security, a stable home - "

"You are dense, Sirius Black," Aletha said in annoyance. "Meghan will get all the security and stability she needs from staying with her Pack. So will I. You think it matters to me where we go, as long as we're together?" She got a look at his face. "You do! You actually thought - hold still!" She launched herself onto his lap and blocked his face from view for the better part of a minute.

"For better or for worse," she said, tapping her wedding ring, when they were able to speak again. "I said it, I meant it. You don't get rid of me that easily!"

"If that's settled," Danger said delicately, "maybe we can discuss where we ought to go."

"I thought we knew that already," Sirius said, his matter-of-fact tone somewhat at odds with the slightly incredulous smile on his face. "America, to visit Letha's aunt."

"And that's another thing," Aletha said, poking Sirius in the shoulder. "How exactly were you planning to visit my aunt without me?"

"Letha, enough," Remus said, briefly invoking Pack-authority. "That's our ultimate destination, but we can't just buy tickets and fly out tonight. We need somewhere to go for one night, maybe two, to make preparations, somewhere they'll never think to look..."

----------

The Pack was ready to go within two hours, mostly due to the fact that the cubs had gone upstairs, not to play, but to pack their things.

"We should have known they'd listen in on us," Aletha said in amusement. "They are Marauders, after all."

"But they're also cubs," Danger said. "Look. No toothbrushes."

"Wishful thinking." Aletha rolled her eyes and Summoned them from the bathroom.

Remus took a moment to write a note to Dumbledore and put it in a box into which he also put Snape's wand. He Flooed to the Hogwarts kitchens and gave the box to Dobby, with instructions to give it to Dumbledore at six o'clock.

When it was time to leave, everyone spent a few minutes just walking around, looking at all the familiar things, saying silent goodbyes. Harry took his last slides on his favorite banisters. Neenie climbed to her favorite place in her tree and hugged the trunk hard. Meghan watered the garden, hoping it would survive the summer. Draco played his favorite song on the piano, which they had to leave behind, since it couldn't be shrunk without disturbing its inner workings.

Good night, my someone, good night, my love,

Sleep tight, my someone, sleep tight, my love...

Aletha blinked back a nostalgic tear as she remembered teaching him that song. Like my father taught it to me when I was little.

"I know how you feel." Sirius had come up behind her at the window to the back yard. "It's been a good Den to us. It's a shame to leave."

Aletha shook her head. "Maybe, but the Den is where the Pack is. We have to remember that." She turned around. "You have to remember it. I will not run out on you when things get tough. I'm here for good."

"I just thought you should have the option..."

"Think again. I'm part of this Pack, same as you, and where we go, we go together. End of story." She hugged Sirius fiercely. "You, Remus, Danger, and the cubs are the only home I need. And you with your talk about stability - how stable would it have been for Meghan if everyone she loves left her?"

"All right, all right, you won already, you don't have to convince me any more," Sirius protested, laughing a little. "Are you ready?"

"Probably as ready as I'll ever be," Aletha sighed.

"Let's go, then."

----------

Danger sneezed as soon as she stepped out of the Floo. And sneezed again. Sirius had told them the Floo hookup was in the basement, so she had expected the darkness. What she hadn't expected, but probably should have, was the dust. Harry, next to her, sneezed too.

She pulled out her wand. "Lumos." The wand-light showed a large table, surrounded by benches and chairs, and a large sideboard in the corner, with a few other odds and ends scattered throughout the room. A thick layer of dust lay on everything, and the whole place felt as if no one had lived there for at least a year.

Because no one has.

Green flames flared behind her, startling Harry and prompting them both to step forward, out of Remus and Draco's way. "Creepy," Draco commented after he finished sneezing.

----------

Somewhere in the house, a being awoke. "Invaders," he muttered to himself. "Invaders in the house."

----------

Remus Disapparated with no more than a nod to Danger. This was part of their plan - he and Sirius would be handling the trunks after Aletha came through with the girls - and Aletha's form was already growing in the fire. Danger knelt down and snagged a girl on each arm as they fell out of the fireplace. "You two just don't have that good of balance," she said ruefully.

"It comes with practice," Aletha said as she stepped neatly out. "And with a little more weight. The fire throws poor Meg around like she's nothing."

"I am not nothing," Meghan said with dignity.

"I didn't say you were, Pearl," Aletha said, stroking her daughter's head.

----------

The being made his way down the first set of stairs. Invaders must be removed. They will disturb the Mistress.

----------

"So this was Padfoot's house?" Harry asked, running his hand along one of the chair backs. "It's dirty."

"It probably wasn't this dirty when he lived here," Aletha said. "But it was probably just this gloomy."

"Why am I very glad we don't have to stay here?" Danger asked rhetorically, turning to the fire in time to catch the end of one of the trunks. Sirius pushed the other end out and Disapparated without bothering to get out of the fire.

"Show-off," Aletha said with a smile.

Draco was looking at the door. "I hear something," he said quietly.

"What do you hear, little fox?" Danger asked affectionately.

Draco scowled. "It's not a game. There's somebody there." He pointed at the door. "He's coming."

----------

The being stopped. The child heard. Clever child, to hear so much. The child... His eyes narrowed, and he sniffed the air. The child is a Master! And one of the others too, one of the girls, she is a Mistress, in the direct line!

Then he scowled as he remembered what that meant. Only one is left in the direct line. This one must be his child. A nasty blood-traitor, to further the line, he should never have done it...

----------

Aletha stepped cautiously toward the door, wand at the ready. "Hello?" she called. "We won't hurt you. You can come out." Draco stepped partly behind her, watching the door, which suddenly opened.

Into the kitchen sidled a house-elf. It was wearing a filthy rag of some sort as a loincloth and looking very hard at Aletha. "Kreacher is hearing voices," he said in his squeaking voice. "Kreacher is coming to see who is in his Mistress' house."

Sirius stepped from the fire behind the second trunk and shook his hair back. "Your Master is in your Mistress' house," he said in a very controlled voice. "Listen carefully, Kreacher. You are to stay in the house, but leave us alone unless we specifically call you. Do not come if the children call. And you are not to tell anyone we are here. Do you understand?"

"Kreacher understands," the house-elf said, edging along the wall, Aletha keeping him in her wand-light beam. "Kreacher wonders who these children are, that two of them are Kreacher's new little Master and Mistress, and where Master has been, that he has been away so long..."

"That's none of your business," said Sirius harshly. "Go on, then, get a move on. Back to wherever it is you hole up."

Kreacher moved back toward the stairs. "Should Kreacher tell Mistress, then, that Master has come back?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked sharply. "My mother's dead."

"Yes, of course, but Master has forgotten his mother's portrait, which hangs in the hallway."

"Oh, hel... p," Sirius finished when Harry and Draco turned to him expectantly. "I did forget. And it probably screams just like she used to."

Aletha watched as an idea dawned in Sirius' face. "What are you thinking?" she asked mischievously as she saw the Marauder rise again from beneath the arrogant pure-blood face he had briefly worn.

"I'm thinking... what would bother my mother more than you?" Sirius held out his hands to Aletha, who laughed and came to him in a run. "Beautiful, talented, the mother of my child - and Muggleborn. She'll have a fit."

"And even though you couldn't do it to her while she was alive..."

"I can still do it to her now," Sirius finished, grinning. "Care to come?" he asked Remus and Danger, who had finished getting the trunks out of the fire.

"Depends," Remus said. "Can the cubs hear this?"

"Only if they don't mind being half-deaf."

"I mean language-wise."

Sirius sighed. "They won't hear anything from her they won't hear from pure-bloods everywhere. Not too much actual swearing, I don't think."

"In that case, certainly," Remus said, offering his arm to Danger, who took it.

"Come on, cubs," Sirius said, taking Draco by the hand. "We're going to meet your mean grandmother."

Kreacher scuttled up the stairs before them, muttering to himself.

----------

"How dare you come back," the portrait snapped as soon as it realized who was in front of it. "After betraying the best hope of wizardkind, the only one who truly realized the crisis our people are in, how dare you reenter this house?"

"Because it's my house now," Sirius said. "Don't worry, we're not staying. We'll only be here a day or two. Then it'll just be you and the mad elf again."

"He's better company by far than you ever were. The shame of my flesh, that's all you are."

"Now, is that any way to talk to your only son?" Sirius said in a coaxing tone. "And after I brought my family to meet you. My wife, my son, my daughter..."

"Wife? Son? Daughter?" Mrs. Black was wide awake now. "You, you who were disowned, you dared to have children, you dared to pass on our family name?"

"Well, one child," Sirius said. "We adopted the other one. But he's a Black, all right. You remember Narcissa, don't you?"

"Of course I remember Narcissa, don't be a fool," Mrs. Black said curtly. "And I remember how she died. Stupid woman."

"Don't call my mother names," Draco said angrily. Mrs. Black's painted eyes oriented on him.

"So you're Narcissa's boy, are you?" she said with a bit less rancor. "Well, you have your father's looks, no getting around it. But your blood is pure, and it's Black. That's what matters."

"Yes, ma'am." Draco was obviously trying not to laugh.

"Now, where's this wife of yours?" Mrs. Black asked, looking at her son with perhaps a touch of favor.

"Here she is," Sirius said, gesturing to Aletha, who stepped forward and waved. "And here's our little one. Meghan Lily."

"Why, she's actually pretty," said Mrs. Black, peering at Meghan, who hid her face in Sirius' robes. "Come on, girl, show some spirit, you're a Black, after all. And what's your name?" she asked Aletha abruptly.

"Aletha Freeman, ma'am. Well, Freeman-Black now, of course."

"Freeman," Mrs. Black mused. "I don't recall any Freeman family in Britain."

"My father was American, ma'am."

"Oh, thank heaven. For a moment, I thought you were going to say he was a half-blood."

"No, ma'am. He was a Muggle."

A shocked silence fell. The cubs looked at each other and plugged their ears.

"My mother too," Aletha added helpfully.

"You..." Mrs. Black was having trouble finding words. "You... YOU ABOMINATION, YOU BLOOD TRAITOR! YOU MARRIED, YOU SLEPT WITH, YOU FATHERED CHILDREN ON A MUGGLEBORN!"

"Guilty as charged," Sirius said with a grin. "And I think that's about enough of that, so I'm going to say something I always wanted to say. Shut up, you horrible old hag."

He and Remus pulled the velvet curtains shut over the portrait, cutting off another incipient howl.

"That was fun," Aletha said with a chuckle.

----------

Severus Snape was lying in his bed, curtains drawn, with one cold cloth on his forehead and another one on a different part of him, when he heard someone come in.

Who could that be? Only the other Heads of House and the Headmaster knew his password, and they usually firecalled ahead to see if he was able to receive company...

Which I am not. He was about to say something to that effect when the bedcurtains were swept aside.

"Hello, Severus," said Albus Dumbledore very politely. "I wish to speak with you."

Snape squinted painfully at the light which flooded in. "Headmaster, I really am not well..."

Dumbledore flicked his wand. Most of Snape's headache vanished, along with a great deal of the pain in other places. "Better?"

"Yes. Thank you." Snape got up and moved over to the softer of the chairs he kept in his room. Politeness dictates I offer the better seat to the guest, but prudence dictates that I keep it for myself today.

"You seem to have been injured," Dumbledore noted, watching him move. "And to have lost your wand. And yet you have no idea of how these events occurred..."

Snape put his hand to his forehead. "No. No idea." But he did have an idea, he realized as soon as he had spoken. A rather hazy idea, involving several impossible things and a very painful experience, but an idea nonetheless...

"Allow me to clarify," Dumbledore said. He pointed his wand at Severus and spoke an incantation.

It was as if someone had lit a torch inside his brain. The events of the day flooded back. Spying on Lupin, taking the girl hostage, his hideously painful defeat...

Dumbledore watched, his face impassive, as Snape assimilated the fact that he had been successfully Obliviated, and had returned merrily to Hogwarts, while Lupin and the girl remained at large, to sound the alarm to their band of outlaws...

"Let me tell you," Dumbledore said very calmly, "exactly what you have done, Severus, and what those actions mean."

Snape winced. That was not a promising beginning.

I have a feeling I will indeed remember this day for a long time.

Merely not in the way I had hoped.

----------

Chapter 30: It's a Nice Place to Visit

On July 6, 1987, two men, two women, and four children passed through customs and security at Heathrow Airport in London. Their papers were all in order for a visit to the United States, and it didn't seem to bother anyone that all eight of them had the same last name. After all, there were plenty of Blacks around.

No one noticed, either, that there seemed to be a lot of duplication on the dates of birth on the passports - the two men had the same stated date of birth, as did the larger three of the children. If anyone had noticed, they would have been quickly reassured that the gentlemen were fraternal twins and the children fraternal triplets, and this explanation probably would have satisfied them.

And so Patrick Black, his wife Carrie, and their daughter Meghan, and John Black, his wife Gertrude, and their children Harry, Drake, and Hermione boarded a plane for America with as little fuss as anyone traveling internationally with children.

Which is to say, a great deal.

----------

"Quit poking me," Hermione said irritably.

"I'm not poking you," Harry said.

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you - "

"Stop it," Aletha said wearily from beside Harry.

"But he's poking me!"

"I am not!"

"I don't care who's poking who, or who isn't. Both of you be quiet, right now."

"Or what?" Harry said.

He must be tired. He's sassing back. Aletha lowered her voice. "Or I will take you to the restroom and put you to sleep, and keep you asleep until tomorrow morning. You'll miss the airplane landing, and customs, and baggage claim, and everything else fun that we get to do. And that goes for all of you."

"But I didn't do anything," Draco protested from beyond Hermione.

"I know you too well, little fox. It's only a matter of time. Now, I do have some short-term Sleeping Potions with me. Four hours, which means you'd wake up in time for landing. Who wants to take a nap?"

"What do they taste like?" Hermione asked.

"Let me check." Aletha pulled out a vial. "This batch looks like orange. Who wants one?"

Draco and Hermione raised their hands, and Harry followed suit after a brief moment. Meghan, in the seat on Aletha's other side, was already asleep and had been for the two hours they'd been on the plane - she was still small enough to carry easily and not big enough to make her own decision, so she'd been dosed before they started. The older three, though, had insisted they could handle the eight-hour flight, had assured their Pack-parents they would behave.

We should have known better.

Or maybe we just shouldn't have put them all on the same row...

Oh well. We did what we did. And no harm done, either way.

Aletha handed the potions down the row. The cubs drank them off quickly and handed the empty vials back. By the time Aletha had put them away in her bag, Hermione and Draco were already asleep. Harry yawned. "Sorry I was bad," he murmured to her, squirming into a more comfortable position.

"It's all right, Greeneyes," Aletha told him. She stroked her cheek with two fingers, from just in front of her ear down to the corner of her mouth, then touched Harry's cheek lightly, making him smile as his eyes closed. It was the Pack's gesture of greeting and farewell, a sort of ritual scent-sharing. Unlike most of the Pack traditions, this one had been begun by the cubs. The adults had picked up on it, and now it was as standard a part of going out or coming home as a hug and kiss.

Maybe someday we should ask them how they came up with it. But it's probably been so long that they don't even remember anymore.

It was convenient, as well. One could scent-touch in places where one couldn't kiss. Such as here. Aletha brushed her fingers down her face again, then leaned forward and slid her hand around the side of the seat in front of her, to touch the face she knew was there.

"Mmm," said Sirius' voice. "Letha?"

"Right here."

"Are we there yet?"

Danger laughed quietly beside him. "You're worse than the cubs, Padfoot."

"I wouldn't know," Sirius said. "I didn't draw the losing straw. And I was asleep. So if you don't mind..."

"Sorry to wake you," Aletha said with humorous tartness in her voice. Losing straw indeed. I volunteered for this seat... the more fool I. But she understood perfectly. In fact, since the cubs were sleeping, she might just take a nap herself...

The airplane might be a bit cramped and noisy, but it was still a nicer place to sleep than Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. They had camped out in the kitchen, since Remus and Sirius' one expedition upstairs to the bedrooms had convinced them that the basement was the safest place to be. They'd conjured mattresses and slept den-style, both for warmth (even in the middle of the summer, it was cold in there) and for comfort.

Damn house-elf didn't help. I'm glad we got married Muggle-style, without a magical ceremony too - that would have tied the thing to me, and quite frankly, I don't want to be any closer to it than I have to.

Even normal house-elves gave Aletha a small fit of the creeps. (She had met them in the Hogwarts kitchens a few times, when Sirius had asked her to meet him there - it was a good place for rendezvousing, since not many students knew where it was, but it wasn't off limits per se.) Kreacher simply magnified her usual reaction beyond all reasonable bounds. Put bluntly, he frightened her, with a primal fear she couldn't quite understand.

Oh well. If I'm lucky, I never have to see him again. And if I'm not...

Burn that bridge when we come to it, as they don't say.

Aletha let her eyes drift shut and dreamed of a Den in the country, with a music room for her and a kitchen for Danger, with a library for Remus and a writing room for Sirius, with fields for the cubs to run in and other children for them to play with, and no need to run away or hide or be afraid, ever again...

----------

The airport was large and complicated, but the signs were fairly easy to follow, and Amy Freeman was waiting for them at the arrivals gate, an intercontinental phone call having been part of the Pack's preparations. Aletha hugged her aunt and introduced her husband and daughter, and her husband's "brother" and his wife and children.

Danger liked Amy Freeman on sight. She was a distinguished looking woman, her white hair contrasting strikingly with her dark skin, and her face with more laugh lines than frown wrinkles. "Come on, you're all tired, and we don't want to stand around here all day," she said after the introductions were complete. "Let's get going."

The formalities of entering the United States were duly completed, the baggage was claimed, and they took taxis to a hotel Amy had recommended to them as being decent both in room quality and price. They paid for three rooms, each with two double beds, and stowed their luggage there - Remus and Danger in one, Sirius and Letha in another, and the cubs in the third. Then Amy gave directions to the cab drivers, and they were soon at her apartment, small but pleasant and sun-filled.

"I'm not used to cooking for so many," Amy said, slicing mushrooms, "so you'll have to tell me how much is enough."

"I'm very used to it," Danger said, rolling her eyes. "And some of these people eat like you wouldn't believe. Want some help?"

"Certainly. Knives are right over there."

Sirius, to Amy's obvious surprise, found himself an apron and started washing the dishes that collected as the two women prepared the food. "Goes faster this way," he said in response to her questioning look. "And if I don't do it myself, I get dragged into it. I prefer making a choice."

"You have him trained well," Amy said with an approving look at Aletha, who was relaxing at the kitchen table with a glass of something brown and fizzy.

Amy wanted to know all about them, how they lived, where they worked, where the children went to school. She somehow didn't seem surprised to hear that they were homeschooled. "Mass education sometimes hurts more than it helps," she said. "Kids need to be with other kids, certainly, but they don't need to be cut off from everyone except their very own age."

"Ours are a little cut off as it is," Remus said, watching the cubs play in the living room. "We tend to stay close to home, and there weren't many other children in our neighborhood, so they're better friends with each other than they are with anyone else. At least they didn't have any good friends they had to say goodbye to when we left."

Amy worked for a small bank, it developed, one in the business of staying small in an age of large corporations. "We haven't been bought out, merged with, or bankrupted so far," was the way she put it. "And our customers keep trusting us with their money. So we manage." She enjoyed Remus' stories about the grocery store, Danger's about the booksellers, and Aletha's carefully edited anecdotes about her middle-level bureaucracy job.

Her reaction when Sirius told her what he did for a living was a bit unexpected. "Under a female pen name?" Amy repeated, putting down her knife. "Do tell."

"Valentina Jett," Sirius said. "Romance novels, but clean ones, stuff we can read to the children - I started with period short stories, but I found I liked contemporary once I tried it."

"You're Valentina Jett?" Amy erupted into whoops of laughter. "Oh, that's priceless. One of my secretaries is crazy about you! Claims she's never found any other writer who understands a woman's heart and soul like you!"

"Yes, the press back home said much the same thing," Aletha said, grinning at her husband. " 'The truth of being a woman', wasn't it, love?"

"Oh, lay off," Sirius said, flicking water at Aletha. "Or come over here and do a few of these yourself."

"Why should I? You do such a good job."

"Do they do this often?" Amy asked Remus and Danger over Sirius and Aletha's good-natured wrangling.

"Only every day," Remus said with a long-suffering sigh.

"As if you don't," Aletha shot in his direction, then turned back to Sirius without missing a beat. "And I do not hog the bathroom."

They talked all through dinner and into the evening, and said good night reluctantly. Amy had work the next day, but she had given them a list of places they might want to take the children, and had promised to take them to a baseball game herself on Thursday evening.

"And this weekend begins my vacation time," she said. "There's a little town a couple hours north of here where I usually go for my two weeks. It's very restful, with some nice beaches and such. You're welcome to come."

"We'd love to," Aletha said.

----------

They went to the city's amusement park the next day. There were lots of old-fashioned rides, including some nice old wooden roller coasters, and the cubs loved it. Their favorite was the one that had two roller coasters that raced against each other, so that you could ride in one and your friend in the other, and no one ever really knew which train would win. They rode that one six times (the Pack having wisely paid for all-day passes) before they got tired of it.

The day after that was the zoo. Before they went in, Remus had some last-minute instructions for the children, partially sparked by the previous day's occurrences. "Harry, if you talk to the snakes, do it quietly, when no one else is around. Hermione, you may read the information on the signs, but not aloud. Draco, no comments on other people's clothing. Meghan, stay with us, no running ahead. Everyone understand?"

Four heads nodded eagerly.

"Then off we go," Danger said with a smile. "Four adults, four children, please."

Harry did talk to the snakes, but as per orders, he kept it quiet. "Zoo snakes are usually boring anyways," he told the other cubs later. "Either they want out, or they want to talk about how long it's been since they ate last, and what they had. They think humans look funny - they think we're here for them to look at, instead of the other way around."

"I guess we are, kind of," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Capybara," Danger read from a sign in front of one exhibit. "Native to South America. World's Largest Rodent."

"So it's a really big rat?" Sirius said lazily, looking at the tawny thing as it gnawed a piece of wood.

Remus choked on his lemonade. "What?" Sirius said.

"World's Biggest Rat," Remus got out once he'd recovered. "Peter."

Sirius cracked up.

----------

They stayed in the next day, sleeping late, swimming in the hotel's pool, letting the cubs watch television in their own room. The adults found other things to do.

"After all, it is a vacation," Aletha said lazily, trailing her fingers through Sirius' hair.

"Mm-hmm." Sirius reached up and caught her hand. "Never thought I'd be grateful to Snape, but if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here."

"I still don't want to be grateful to him," Aletha said a little more forcefully than she had intended. "Greasy bastard. Sneaking into our Den, scaring Neenie like that. Hope his parts still hurt."

"Oh, they will, if she hit him as hard as Remus says she did. But let's not think about him any more." Sirius turned his head toward his wife. "Let's think about us..."

----------

"So, go over this one more time," Sirius said as they sat in their seats at the baseball park. "The man at bat has three tries to hit the ball. Right?"

"Not exactly. He has three strikes - pitches that he should have been able to hit - or four balls - pitches he probably couldn't have hit."

"And the umpire decides if a particular pitch is a strike or a ball," Danger put in.

"Yes. Now, when a man's at bat, three things can happen. Three strikes mean he's out. Four balls means he gets a free walk to first base. Or he can hit the ball. If it's caught in the air, or if someone on the other team gets the ball and touches the base the batter is heading for, then the batter's out. If he gets to the base before either of those things happen, he's safe."

"And the batter's objective is to get around the bases and score by touching home plate," Remus said. "The team in the field wants to stop that from happening by getting three outs as quickly as possible."

"That's right."

"And three outs from each team makes an inning," Aletha concluded. "And nine innings, if the score isn't tied, makes a game."

"You've got it," Amy said triumphantly. "That's baseball in a nutshell. There's other things that can happen, but we'll get to those if they happen."

"It's worse than Quidditch," Danger said quietly to Aletha.

"I'm sorry?" Amy had sharp ears for an older woman.

"Nothing."

"All right. Would anyone care to learn how to keep box-score?"

Remus volunteered, and he and Amy soon had their heads together over a large piece of paper with a bunch of incomprehensible markings on it.

The American national anthem, with its rather ridiculous tune, was shrieked by a large woman in an amazingly ugly sequined gown, and the umpire shouted, "Play ball!"

"If you think baseball is hard to understand, don't ever try American football," Amy advised them between innings. "I once heard it described as a combination of the two worst facets of American culture: violence and committee meetings."

Danger laughed so hard that her pop went up her nose. "I needed my sinuses washed out anyway," she commented after she got done sneezing into a napkin.

At the seventh inning stretch, Amy taught them all how to do the YMCA dance, and when the home team pulled ahead with a two-run homer in the eighth and hung on to their lead for a win, the Pack cheered as loud as anyone.

Meghan slept through it all, having drifted off in her seat sometime in the fifth inning. Draco joined her in the cab back to the hotel, and Hermione and Harry didn't take long to fall asleep once they got into bed.

That was nice, Danger said as she turned off the shower. Did you have fun?

Yes. Box scoring is very interesting - describing an entire game with just a few numbers and symbols. Have to see if it can be adapted for Quidditch.

Probably not. Baseball has clearly defined parts of play, so there's time to keep the score, whereas Quidditch is a continuous play game. You'd have to have something that could keep up...

Like a magical score sheet? Remus suggested. I bet it could be done.

You and Sirius can discuss it to death tomorrow. Right now, I'm tired and I want to go to bed...

I'll see you there.

----------

The Pack spent Friday at an interactive science center, which had lots of hands-on exhibits which the cubs could touch, play with, run around in, climb on, and investigate to their hearts' content. The floors were connected by huge ramps, which occupied Meghan for an hour to the exclusion of all else while she ran up and down, up and down, up and down. The Pack gave up trying to follow her and just stationed adults at each floor to watch her as she went by.

Amy had rented a nine-person van to drive everyone north, and Friday evening saw the Pack loading their suitcases into the back of it. They had decided that they would stay only a week with Amy at her vacation spot before starting their own tour of America, so it made more sense to check out of their hotel in Amy's home city.

"Where do you think we should start?" Aletha asked her aunt as they lay on the beach Saturday morning, watching the older cubs play in the water. Danger reclined on a towel, keeping an eye on Meghan as she built a sandcastle with two little girls about a year younger than she was, whose mothers had introduced them as Sarah and Jen. Remus and Sirius were both asleep in the sun, and Aletha hoped Sirius had remembered his sunscreen, because she didn't want to be treating him for sunburn for the next week.

"How long do you plan to stay?" Amy answered.

"Probably until around Christmas time."

"Then I'd say start up north. It's more bearable up there this time of year. Go to Canada for a while. See Niagara Falls, certainly. It's not too far from here."

"Should they be drinking that?" Aletha interrupted, pointing at Harry, who was tasting the water in his bucket.

"It shouldn't hurt them. It is fresh, after all, and clean enough to swim in. I'd imagine they won't like it very much, though. Now, where were we?"

"You were telling me where we should go."

"Yes. I'd recommend the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains at this time of year as well. Then when fall comes, go to New England. Lovely area of the country. I went to school in Massachusetts, you know."

"No, I didn't."

"Now you do. Make sure to see the leaves turn, though if you travel there in the fall you can't miss it. And then winter's the time to travel in the South. The heat is more bearable then. What are those children doing?"

"Making trouble," Aletha said, watching Harry, Draco, and Hermione coming up the beach, each carrying a full bucket of water. "They excel at it."

"I wonder what they plan to do with those," Amy said, a slight smile on her face. "Let's watch, shall we?"

----------

A shadow fell across Sirius. "Don't even think about it," he said without opening his eyes.

"Awww," said three disappointed voices in unison.

Okay, what did I just foil? Sirius opened his eyes and surveyed the scene. Hmm, cubs, water, and me asleep... I have an idea.

"Moony's still sleeping, you know," he said casually.

Wicked grins blossomed on the three faces. Ever so carefully, they walked over to Remus and positioned themselves.

----------

Wake up, dear, you're about to have a shower.

Wha... Remus opened his eyes.

And quickly closed them again as three buckets of cold lake water drenched him.

Squeals of glee rang in his ears as he wiped his face.

So you want to play rough, do you?

"Of course you know, this means war," he said, and grabbed Draco.

Harry and Hermione attacked him repeatedly as he hauled the yelling boy down the beach, but they couldn't take him down. He tossed Draco into the water and grabbed Hermione to do the same, when a hand yanked at one of his ankles. Taken by surprise, Remus went down hard, and the cubs swarmed him, splashing him and pushing him under as he did the same to them.

----------

"Boys," said Aletha with a sigh.

"And one girl," her aunt rejoined. "A bit of a tomboy, isn't she?"

"Occasionally. What she is, is a full-time bookworm."

"Good. Intelligent, strong, and not afraid to challenge the boys on their own ground. Very good."

"I'll be sure to tell John and Danger that you approve," Aletha said with a light laugh.

----------

"Aunt Amy, why're we here?" Hermione asked as the cubs climbed the stairs to the front entrance of the brick building.

"Your parents need a day off from you, and I need a day with you," Aunt Amy answered. "So I'm taking you to one of my favorite places." She showed a small card to the man at the door.

"What is this place?" asked Draco, looking around. There were people in shorts and T-shirts using all different kinds of machines in the lobby.

"A gymnasium. People come here to get stronger."

"Do we need to be stronger?" Harry asked.

"No, I don't think so." Aunt Amy laughed. "I come here for another reason."

She led them down a hall at the back and turned left, opening a glass door.

"Oooh," was the reaction from the cubs as the room was revealed.

It had a wooden floor and three mirrored walls. The wall that wasn't a mirror had a wooden bar attached to it at about adult waist-height. There was a cabinet in the corner with some kind of machinery in it. Aunt Amy went over to it and started pressing buttons. "Take your shoes off," she said over her shoulder. "This floor needs either special shoes or bare feet."

Draco loved going barefoot. He kicked his shoes off eagerly and wiggled his toes. "What do we do here?" he asked.

A blast of music surprised everyone. "We dance," Aunt Amy said, turning away from the stereo. "What else?"

"We don't know how," Harry said.

"This isn't a formal dance with steps. It's something you do on your own. Like this."

Aunt Amy began to move. First she swayed standing still, then she took small steps, then suddenly she leaped into the air. It didn't look like anything Draco had ever seen.

It was pretty, though. He liked it.

He started trying to move with the music. It was harder than it looked. Sometimes the music did things he wasn't expecting, and he had to fix what he was doing to match it.

Harry took running leaps, twirling wildly around. Once, he fell to the floor right at Aunt Amy's feet. She leaned down and pulled him up, brushing his hair back from his eyes and laughing.

Hermione was taking small, stiff steps. "Be loose, Neenie," Aunt Amy called. "Be loose and let the music tell you what to do."

Draco got a silly impulse. He bowed to Hermione. "Madam, may I have this dance?"

"My pleasure," said Neenie, curtsying, like Danger did when Moony bowed to her that way. They put their arms around each other and tried to imitate their Pack-parents' dancing. Harry stopped what he was doing to laugh, and after the fourth time they'd stepped on each other's toes, Draco and Hermione were laughing too.

Harry looked past them and stopped laughing. "Look at Meghan," he said quietly.

Draco turned around. Meghan was dancing by herself in the middle of the floor with a funny look on her face. It was a look Draco had seen before, but never on his little sister. He had seen it on Harry, while he was flying, and on Neenie, while she sat in her tree and read. Letha said he looked that way when he sang.

"She's a natural," Aunt Amy said softly. "She's got the gift. She's beautiful."

Watching Meghan sway perfectly in time with the music, Draco agreed.

----------

On their last night with Amy, she insisted on treating them all to a bottle of champagne. The cubs each took a tiny sip and made a face, though Draco wanted to try it again. The adults laughed and put their glasses aside until the cubs had gone to bed.

"There is something I've been wanting to ask you," Amy said, running her finger around the rim of her glass and making it ring.

"Go ahead," Sirius said, putting his arm around Aletha's shoulders.

"Are you aware that my boss is approximately three and a half feet tall and named Landog?"

"Er, no, we weren't," Danger said, exchanging puzzled looks with Sirius and Aletha. Should this mean something?

Yes. "You're a witch," Remus said bluntly. "Aren't you?"

"Yes." Amy lifted her glass. "Well done, sir."

"And you work for the American equivalent of Gringotts," Remus said, nodding. "Wizard/Muggle relations are a little different in America, if I understand correctly. It's harder to find places Muggles can't go. So most wizarding businesses look like Muggle ones, at least on the surface - do I have this right?"

"You do indeed," Amy said approvingly.

"They have to be able to handle the accidental Muggle coming in off the street. So they need human tellers. And I'd imagine, over the years, humans have worked their way up in the hierarchy..."

"I am the highest-ranked human currently working at Noxet Bank," Amy said in a bland tone, but Danger noticed that she had transferred her glass into her left hand, and her right was working its way into her pocket.

Watch her, she may have a wand, she warned Remus.

"That gives me certain privileges the other employees do not have. Such as the right to examine the bank's records, even request - and receive - records from other banks."

"Goblins don't show their records to anyone, not even the Ministry of Magic," Sirius said. "They take pride in it."

"Landog trusts me," Amy said. "As I trusted you, until the other day when your Harry fell down in front of me, and I helped him up and got a good look at his face."

Sirius casually slid his hand into his own pocket.

"An interesting scar on his forehead. So interesting, it made me Apparate back to headquarters and do some research into recent British history. I found the name Harry Potter - hardly an unknown name in the United States, or anywhere else in the world, I should think - linked with one Sirius Black, who resembles my niece's husband quite closely, and who is supposed to have betrayed the child's parents, killed a dozen or so people, broken jail, stolen the boy, and vanished."

Amy's eyes fell on Sirius. "How surprised I was, then, to find frequent withdrawal notices from his personal vault, including quite a large one within the last two weeks, with a note that the woman doing the withdrawing - whose description matches my niece quite well - had wanted it changed into Muggle money."

"You say he was 'supposed to have' done all those things," Remus mentioned, drawing Amy's attention. "Do you disbelieve what the newspapers have to say?"

"Shall we say, I give Aletha credit for having better sense than to marry the man the newspapers depicted," Amy answered calmly. "And you certainly don't act like a mass murderer," she said to Sirius. "But I have a feeling there is a story here I would simply adore hearing."

Well, there's one good thing, Danger said privately to Remus. By the time we can actually come out of hiding, we'll be used to telling this story.

I don't think I'll ever get used to this story, and I lived the damn thing.

"You told me you went to school in Massachusetts," Aletha was saying. "You meant the Salem Witches' Institute."

"I did. Lovely place, Salem. Shame about the history. I must admit, you piqued my curiosity at the baseball game, when I heard you mention Quidditch," she said to Danger. "I assume all of you went to Hogwarts."

"Not Danger," Sirius said. "But that's part of the story."

"Tell on, then." Amy inclined her head. "If you would be so kind. The night is young and the bottle is still mostly full."

"This story will remedy both conditions," Remus said dryly. "I suppose I should start. It began on 15 March, 1982, in a park in a place called Little Whinging..."

----------

"I have some recommendations for your reestablishment," Amy said the next morning over breakfast. "Had you considered claiming a Canadian alma mater? It would explain why no one knows you from Hogwarts."

"That's a good idea," Aletha said. "Any suggestions?"

"Yes. The Vancouver Magical Academy, or VMA for short. It's an excellent school, if a bit on the small side - some of the students who might go there go to Golden Gate in San Francisco instead. You can visit it on your trip and get to know the campus, just in case you run into someone who's actually been there."

"That makes sense," said Remus, catching Meghan as she threatened to fall out of her chair. "Anything else?"

"Hide that damn scar, obviously," Amy said feelingly. "Anyone could see it the way it is. Harry, come here."

Harry came around the table, a little nervously. "This won't hurt," Amy told him. "Just hold still."

She waved her wand around his head. His skin went several tones darker than its normal color, as if he had just got an extreme suntan.

"And a small additional charm on the forehead," Amy said half to herself, "and there!"

Harry looked down at his chocolate-brown hands with wide eyes.

"Now he's yours, Aletha, Sirius," Amy said. "Harry Black, Meghan's older brother, Draco and Hermione's cousin. And that takes care of your other problem, which is three children the same age, who look nothing alike, in one family. Someone's going to suspect something. Your story about triplets won't hold up."

"But twins and a same-age cousin aren't nearly so rare," Danger said in satisfaction. "It's perfect."

"And we should start today," Remus said. "Show me how to do that again."

"I'll work on altering our papers," Aletha said.

"I'll help," Sirius said quickly.

"And I get stuck with the dishes," Danger muttered, but without any real anger. "Come on, Hermione, Draco, let's get this done."

"I help too," Meghan said, picking up a plate.

"Yes, of course, Meg. You help too."

Meghan danced as she carried dishes to the tiny sink in the hotel suite's kitchenette.