True Colors

Prologue: Dreaming of You

Aletha Freeman-Black lay curled up on her side, her arms and legs sheltering her belly, trying to shield her unborn child from the kicks and blows of her attacker.

If he were anyone else, I could fight him... anyone at all besides him...

But, of course, her nightmares wouldn't settle for second best. They had to bring her the worst she could possibly dream, the truth she'd finally seen that morning on a London street, and it hurt her worse than any physical blow ever could.

She cried out as a kick caught her on an already-forming bruise. "Hurts there, does it?" sneered a voice she knew, one she had always loved to hear. "Let me try it again, then." He slammed his foot into her again, harder.

She rolled over, trying to get out of range, but he matched her movements with one easy step. "Stupid bitch," he said gloatingly, giving her a parody of the wicked grin she enjoyed so much. "You thought I really cared about you. You thought that I - the heir of the House of Black - would lower myself enough to love a filthy animal like you. Mother's right. Mudbloods are all fools."

His words struck through all her defenses, leaving her helpless, unable to protect herself. "Sirius, don't," she moaned, scrambling away from him. "Don't... please..."

"That's right, beg." He was keeping up with her, staying just within range to strike her. "Beg a little more, maybe I'll keep you around for some fun every now and again. You're not bad in bed, after all, probably make a good courtesan if you were trained up a bit."

Aletha sobbed. It was what she had always secretly feared - that her husband didn't truly love her, that she was just a diversion for him, that he would one day return to his pureblood roots and leave her behind.

Sirius stepped on her sleeve, trapping her, and stared down at her, his eyes hard and merciless as stone. "But that freakish little hybrid you're carrying. That has to go. No Muggle-born slave blood will ever flow into the Black family line." His horrid smile returned. "Maybe, if she'd lived, you could have given the little brat to your friend Danger. She'd have loved a baby, any baby, since her half-breed husband couldn't give her children..."

The mention of her best friend galvanized Aletha into action. "Shut up!" she screamed, kicking out hard at Sirius' legs, making him jump back. "As if you didn't arrange for it - as if you didn't tell your Death Eater friends where they were going to be! They hadn't even been married four months! You were out that next full moon, working, you said - where were you really, Sirius? Off at some secret hideout, watching one of your best friends rip his wife apart?"

"Actually, yes." Sirius laughed, a thin and grating sound that hurt Aletha's ears. "Amusing, that. She managed to fend him off for longer than we'd thought - I won a few Galleons from Lucius Malfoy, he'd bet she'd only last two minutes, and I bet three. I knew she was fast, so I thought she could stay ahead of him that long, and it seems I was right. But the real fun started at sunrise, when he turned back. It took him a few minutes to figure it out - he hadn't left much identifiable, really..."

Aletha lunged to her feet, knocking Sirius back hard. "Worthless pure-blood scum!" she shouted. "You bastard! They thought you were their friend, and you betrayed them - just like you betrayed James and Lily, and Peter - just like you betrayed all of us!"

Sirius caught her arm and twisted it, forcing her to her knees. "So I did," he agreed, his mirthless smile broadening. "And now they're dead. As dead as that brat you're carrying will be in just a second..."

His wand appeared in his hand, seemingly from nowhere, and he bound her to the ground, arms and legs spread wide, unable to protect herself. "Say goodnight, Letha," he mocked, and drew back his foot to kick her hard in the stomach.

Aletha shrieked, praying she could somehow wake herself from this nightmare, even knowing that reality wasn't much better - at least, in reality, her child would live, though she wasn't sure yet if that was a blessing or a curse -

A snarl answered her cry. Sirius looked up, away from her, and his face changed from gleeful to fearful. He brought his wand up, but it was blasted out of his hand by a jet of flame. A grey wolf leapt at him, knocking him to the ground and pinning him there. It glanced sideways at Aletha, and she was suddenly free of her restraints. She scrambled to her feet and backed away, staring.

Its tail - its snout - that's not a wolf at all...

Sirius writhed beneath the werewolf's paws, twisting into his Animagus form - the huge black dog was well-equipped to deal with a werewolf, and used to it -

But as the black dog challenged with a growl, the werewolf leapt into the air and was suddenly human, a man surrounded by a halo of fire, who glared at the dog in righteous anger. "Down!" he ordered, and the dog, cowed, obeyed.

Aletha watched in amazement as her savior lashed the dog with fire, making it yelp and whine. "Misbegotten cur!" he snapped. "No true man would treat a lady so - and the man whose shape you take, least of all! Hence, before I smite you again and destroy you utterly!"

The dog slunk away, tail between its legs. The man watched it go, his back to Aletha. She had her hand pressed to her chest, trying to control the hammering of her heart. Calm down now, she willed herself. Calm down. It's over.

But as the flames covering her rescuer disappeared and she saw his light brown hair with its streaks of gray, and then his face as he turned to her, she realized it was just beginning.

"Remus," she said in shock.

"That is my name." Remus Lupin smiled at her. "I'm sorry I couldn't get here earlier. Are you all right?"

"Me? I'm fine, just fine, but you - you're dead!"

Remus frowned, then put two fingers on his neck. "That's odd," he said. "I seem to have a pulse."

Aletha fought briefly with laughter and lost. Remus' style of humor had always appealed to her. He was far more subtle than James or Sirius...

James. Sirius.

Her laughter choked off. She felt bitter tears welling up in her eyes.

One dead. The other a traitor. Both gone forever...

She sank to the ground, fighting the sobs threatening to choke her. An instant later, Remus was there, sitting beside her and holding her, as he might hold a heartbroken sister or cousin. "It's all right," he whispered to her. "It's all right. I'm so sorry."

The combination of gentle touch and caring words undid her. Within a few seconds, she was bawling on his shoulder, sobbing so hard she knew she'd have no voice left tomorrow, but this crying was different than what she'd spent all day doing. That crying had been like trying to climb up a magical staircase oriented for down. You could work at it all you liked, but you ended up exactly where you'd started. This crying was going to get her somewhere. She didn't know where, but anywhere had to be better than where she was.

xXxXx

Sirius Black knelt alone on a flat and featureless plain, his head bowed, tears soaking his robes.

Alone. God, I'm so alone.

Remus and Danger, captured by Death Eaters, missing for two years... I hate having to hope my friends are dead, but that would probably be the best thing that could have happened to them...

And Peter, little Wormtail, the one person we thought we could trust, turning out to be the traitor... that street scene was bloody amazing, how well he set that up. I could almost believe he even orchestrated Letha being there...

He moaned aloud. His wife of two years, a Healer trainee in her final year of study, had been out looking for him all through that fateful night, and finally come across him, with timing worthy of Murphy's Law, just as Wormtail blew the street sky-high.

If I'd known she was there... or if I'd just been smart enough to tell her about the switch beforehand... but no, I listened to Peter tell me that every person who knew was another person who might be the spy, when I should have known Letha would sooner kill herself than betray us...

Frustrated rage flooded through him, making him snarl. And now, because of Wormtail, the world thinks I'm a murderer - Letha thinks I'm a murderer...

Aletha had repudiated him there in the street, screaming abuse at him, accusing him of selling out not only James and Lily but Remus and Danger, inviting him to kill her as well, and finishing up with something which had made his head spin in two directions at once. Her words echoed through his mind now.

"I cannot believe I thought I loved you. I cannot believe I married you. And I cannot believe that I am carrying your child!"

He'd always dreamed of a family with Aletha. They'd hoped for a daughter first, to complement Harry, and then a son of their own, just to piss off his parents by presenting them with a half-blood, dark-skinned heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

And now I'll never know. I'll never know my own child's name, or face, or even if I have a son or a daughter...

"Fitting punishment, I should think," said a mocking voice.

Sirius jerked his head up. "P-Prongs?" he stammered.

James Potter gave him a mirthless smile. "In the flesh, so to speak. What's left of it." He turned, showing Sirius the bleeding gash on the back of his head, identical to the one on James's lifeless body in the ruins of the house at Godric's Hollow...

God, it was last night. Only last night. It feels like years ago.

"It seems somehow right that you'll never know your child, Padfoot." The tone turned the nickname into an insult. "Since what you did means my child will never know himself."

"What?"

"You know where he's gone," said a female voice behind Sirius, making him whip around. Lily Potter, her robes torn and dirty, stared at him with hatred in her green eyes. "You know where Dumbledore sent Harry."

"He... it was... your sister." Sirius struggled to his feet, feeling his breath coming short. "Hagrid said he'd be safe there... the Death Eaters couldn't attack him..."

"But who guards the guardians?" Lily's smile was that of a corpse. "I know my sister, Sirius. I know the hulk she married. Their son will be no different. They hate anything outside their own narrow little worlds. They'll try to stamp out Harry's magic. Keep him as downtrodden as possible."

"They'll hate him for who he is," added James. "And what he is. Something he has no control over. He'll learn that he's worthless, useless, a freak, and that no one ever could or did love him." His lips curled back in a rictus grin to match Lily's. "And don't forget about us, of course."

"We're dead because of you," said Lily, her tone as light as if she discussed the weather. "Dead, Sirius. Dead and never coming back. And we're not the only ones..."

As if they'd Apparated in, two more figures appeared around Sirius, boxing him in. He was unable to repress a moan - they were horrifyingly similar to images that had haunted his nightmares for two years. A sandy-haired man, his face scarred with claw marks and twisted in lines of insane grief, and a woman with a great deal of brown frizzy hair, her clothes in rags, her neck and chest a red ruin, as if a mad dog had torn at her...

Not a dog. A wolf. A werewolf. God, no, please not this...

"You never tried to find us, Sirius," Remus said coldly. "You never really looked. All the time we were praying and hoping you'd come and save us, you were sitting safe in the Auror Office, going through paperwork. You were more interested in your job, in your own advancement - you should have been a Slytherin after all. What were you doing, that first full moon after we disappeared? Sleeping in your comfortable bed next to Letha, thankful that you didn't have to sacrifice any more of your time for your disabled 'friend'?"

Sirius shook his head convulsively. "I tried," he croaked. "I looked, I searched so hard, but there wasn't anything - we didn't have any ideas about where to start, every lead we got was a dead end - we tried, Remus, I swear we tried!"

"Tried and failed," spat Danger. "Look at me, Sirius. Look at me."

Unwillingly, Sirius turned to face her. Her injuries were worse on second look. He swallowed against rising bile, then realized something. Maybe if I can find a chink in this, a way to deny it...

"Danger, this can't have happened to you. You made sure it wouldn't. You became an Animagus - that's the only reason Remus even agreed to date you, was because you'd proven to him that he wouldn't hurt you on full moons - you started coming along with us to the Shack, you were the true wolf to go with the were, there's no way this could have happened to you!"

"And yet it did." Danger took one step closer to him. "They spelled me human, Sirius. They used magic to force me to stay in human form - and they did it where Remus couldn't see them. They knew he thought I'd be safe from him, and I couldn't reach him to tell him I wouldn't." Her lips lifted off her teeth in a parody of a smile. "I died at his fangs and claws that night, and they killed him in the morning, when he saw my body. When he went mad."

Sirius tore his eyes away from her, only to meet the accusing stares of the others - they were closing in on him, leaving him nowhere to run, nowhere to hide - this was torture beyond anything Death Eaters could do, torture of the mind, and only one piece was missing to make it the worst nightmare he could possibly imagine...

"I cannot believe I thought you loved me."

There it is.

Sirius had to turn to face her, that voice compelled him even as it repulsed. Aletha was sneering at him. "You're just like all the others. All those cold, heartless purebloods, making their status marriages. You married me because a Muggleborn wife would give your little light side act some credence. I should have seen it coming. I should have known you'd return to the way you grew up. Like a dog returns to its vomit."

That is about to be far too apt a simile. Sirius didn't know how much longer he could keep himself from being violently sick. "Letha, please... it wasn't me..."

"Of course it wasn't. Of course. Just like it wasn't you who sold out Danger's parents."

"What?" Danger gasped, staring at Aletha.

"Oh, you didn't know. I'm so sorry. Yes, I'm afraid your parents are dead as well. Death Eaters, you know, they don't like Muggles much. And your sister..."

"What sister?"

"That's right, you wouldn't have known about her. Neenie, we called her, such a sweet little girl. She'd be a bit over a year old now. If she weren't missing." Aletha hissed the last word into Sirius's face. "We think the Death Eaters took her, but of course we don't know for sure. Just like we don't know if she's dead. But we can always hope."

The thought of the bright-faced little girl who had just begun to call him "Pa-fuh" hit Sirius like a physical blow. He dropped to his knees again, transformed into Padfoot, and howled in grief and despair. Deep inside, he knew that not even this would stop his torment - that nothing would ever stop it again - that he would be reliving this scene, or variations on it, for the rest of his life -

Another howl joined his, but this howl was one of anger and defiance. A long-furred wolf materialized at his side, snarling at his tormentors, who dodged back, their expressions unsure, even fearful. Sirius had barely time to register that the strange wolf's tail was tufted, her snout too blunt for her to be a true wolf, before she reared onto her hind legs and took human shape.

If a human shape could be sculpted of fire, that was.

"Depart, foul specters!" she cried, her fiery body shining like a torch in the endless night of the dream world. "Your lies have no more power here - be gone, before I destroy you!"

The figures, overwhelmed, melted away into the fog surrounding them, until Sirius stood alone with his unknown defender by his side. Tentatively, he took human form and stood up. "Thank you," he said to her back. "That's not nearly enough, but it's all I know how to say..."

The flames flickered and died, leaving Sirius looking at the back of an ordinary-seeming woman. He stiffened as he noticed her mass of brown hair in its wild curls. Oh, God, no, it's starting again...

"All you know how to say?" said a teasing voice. "Well, that's going to make your conversation pretty boring. So let's do this nonverbally. Gimme a hug, you mangy mutt, I've missed you."

"Danger - great Merlin-" Sirius obliged her, hugging her so tightly she squeaked. "We've all thought you were dead!"

Danger hugged him back. "Who's to say I'm not?" she asked lightly.

"So does that make you my guardian angel?" Sirius knuckle-rubbed her scalp, dodging her kick to his shin.

She looked thoughtful as he let her go. "I suppose you could say that. No wings, though. And no halo."

"You don't deserve one anyway."

She shook her head cheerfully. "Never have. Now come on, there's places we have to be and people we have to see. One person in particular you have to see. You owe her an explanation, I think."

Sirius' heart leapt. There was only one "her" he owed an explanation to. "Letha," he breathed.

"That's right. The real one, this time. And I think we can keep her from attacking you long enough for you to explain."

"We?"

Danger grinned at him impishly. "You'll see. Come on."

Sirius let her drag him away, feeling better than he had in days. This might be just a dream, but it was turning out to be a pretty good one.

xXxXx

Remus didn't try to say or do anything until the worst of Aletha's crying fit was over. He just held her and let her get it all out. But he wasn't ignoring her, far from it; just about the time when she lifted her head and started looking for a handkerchief, one appeared level with her nose, and when she took it and sat up to use it, Remus adjusted his own position to compensate, moving back on the couch on which they were now sitting. It had materialized, in the strange fashion of dreams, at some point while she was crying, Aletha thought, blowing her nose.

"Better?" he asked politely when she had wiped her eyes as well.

"Yes." Aletha took a deep breath, feeling the shudders which were still shaking her begin to subside. "Yes. Much."

"Then may I dare to congratulate you?" His eyes flickered down to her midriff, then back to her face.

Aletha sighed. "I don't know, Remus. I just don't know. What kind of life will I be able to offer this child? And will I ever be able to look at her, him, whatever, without seeing Sirius?"

Remus sat up a little straighter, and Aletha sensed a change in his demeanor. "Yes. About Sirius. I'd hoped you might want to talk about him."

"What's to talk about?" Aletha knew she sounded bitter, and didn't care - she was. "He never was what I thought he was. What any of us thought he was. He was probably chosen for the role as a baby, trained up to act the part of the brave rebel, the one who dared to be good, so that we'd all like him and trust him. I was a prop, the undesirable Muggleborn girlfriend and wife, to make it even more plausible. And then, when his master said the word, he came running home. And he took James and Lily, and Peter and a bunch of Muggles, with him."

"And your heart."

"Yes. And my heart."

Remus looked away, then back at Aletha. He seemed to be getting ready to speak, but he didn't. It was as if -

"Do you know something I don't?"

"Yes."

"Tell me. Please."

Remus held up a hand. "Hear me out first?"

Aletha nodded, hope suddenly reawakened against all odds.

"I shouldn't just tell you what I know. It's very hard to believe, and there's no proof for it. Besides, it would be a bad idea for other reasons that I'm afraid I can't tell you about. But there is another way."

"Twenty Questions?"

"Something like that. I'll give you all the help I can, but there are some leaps you're going to have to make on your own."

"All right. Is what you know about Sirius?"

"Yes. Very much."

All the bitterness and pain she'd been feeling all day spilled into her words. "Why did he do it?"

"Wrong question."

"What?" Aletha stared at Remus, confused. "Why?"

"You're starting from an incorrect assumption."

"An incorrect assumption," Aletha repeated. "All right, let me think."

What am I assuming when I ask why Sirius did it?

Well, for one thing...

"Did Sirius do it?"

"Do what?"

Aletha clamped down on her irritation, reminding herself that Remus wouldn't do this just to annoy her, that there had to be a reason - ghosts, or angels, or whatever he was probably couldn't tell people things directly...

"Did Sirius betray James and Lily to Voldemort?"

"No."

Well, that was direct.

And VERY nice to hear.

But impossible.

"Then why are they dead?"

"Because they were betrayed."

"But you just said Sirius didn't betray them!"

"Yes, I did."

All right. They were betrayed, we knew that already, but Sirius didn't betray them. She repeated it in her mind like a mantra. Betrayed, but not by Sirius. Not by Sirius...

Then by whom?

She looked back at Remus eagerly. "Who betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort?"

"Their Secret-Keeper."

"But Sirius was their Secret-Keeper!"

Remus looked away and whistled a few notes of something melancholy-sounding.

"Wasn't he?"

"Is that a question?"

"Yes."

"No."

It took Aletha a moment to sort through the conversation and figure out what Remus was answering. "Sirius wasn't their Secret-Keeper?"

"I hate questions like that," said Remus with a half-smile. "I never know whether to say yes or no."

Aletha interpreted this as a request to rephrase the question. "Was Sirius the Potters' Secret-Keeper?"

"No, he was not."

"Then who was?"

Remus shot her an apologetic look.

"All right. But it wasn't Sirius."

"No, it wasn't Sirius."

Aletha felt muscles she hadn't even known were tense relax. She wanted to cry for joy, but she was still too worn out from her monster crying jag of a few minutes before. It would have to wait.

Besides, there's still more things I need to ask about.

"Why did Sirius kill Peter? And all those Muggles?"

Remus looked apologetic again. "Er, this could be a problem."

"You can't answer, I understand."

"No, it's not that. I'd tell you if I knew. I honestly don't know at the moment. But I know who does know."

"Who?"

Instead of answering, Remus looked away into the mist surrounding them. "Here they come now," he said.

"They? Who's they?"

A figure appeared from the mist, female and slender, with long and somewhat disorderly hair -

"Danger!" Aletha was on her feet, running to greet her friend. "I should have known," she said, hugging Danger tightly. "You and Remus are never far apart."

"True enough." Danger returned the embrace wholeheartedly. "How have you been?"

Aletha smiled ironically. "As of the other day, or as of right now?"

"Never mind, it was a tactless question. But there's someone here you need to talk to, Letha. As in now."

Over her friend's shoulder, Aletha saw the silhouette in the mist, and knew who it was instantly, from the set of his shoulders, the way he moved, everything about him.

She released Danger as Sirius stepped forward into the clear area where the four of them now stood. Her eyes sought his and found them, and held them for a long moment. She wanted desperately to believe in the love and longing she saw there, but there were questions she had to ask first...

xXxXx

Tell the truth without fear, Sirius told himself. You have nothing to fear from honesty.

But somehow, the knowledge of Aletha as the first female Beater at Hogwarts in ten years, rather than his partner and wife, kept intruding on his thoughts as they stared into one another's eyes.

She broke the silence first. "Were you James and Lily's Secret-Keeper?"

"No."

"Who was, then?"

"Peter."

Her lips formed the name silently. "When did you change?"

"At the last minute. Barely a day before Lily did the charm."

"Did you tell anyone?"

"No."

"WHY THE HELL NOT?"

The shout caught him entirely by surprise, and actually made him take a step backwards.

Aletha's face showed an odd mixture of amusement, amazement, and anger. "Do you have any idea how much grief you could have saved everyone, including yourself, if you had just seen fit to tell one other person about this? Someone like me, maybe, since I'm your bloody wife?"

What the hell. Might as well play it up a little. Sirius hung his head. "I didn't want you to get hurt," he confessed in a mumble. "If you didn't know, you couldn't tell anyone, so they wouldn't hurt you."

"You thought they wouldn't torture me because I didn't know anything?" Aletha had her hands on her hips. "It's never stopped them before. And your brilliant little plan so that I wouldn't get hurt just caused me to have the worst day of my life, so thank you very much for that."

"Hey, I'm not exactly on a picnic here, either!" protested Sirius, stung. "I'm in effing Azkaban!"

"And it's your own fault, too! You could have told me - you could have told Dumbledore what you were going to do, and then maybe James and Lily would still be dead, but you wouldn't be in prison with no way to get out!"

"Thank you for reminding me, you're so supportive."

"A-hem."

They both looked around. Danger was sitting on the corner of the couch, arms crossed, with just a hint of a sardonic smile on her face. "If you're both quite finished," she drawled, "I think there's an explanation coming, about this morning..."

"Yes, what the hell was that?" Aletha's voice pulled Sirius' attention back to her. "Even if Peter was a traitor, that's no reason to kill a lot of innocent Muggles and laugh about it!"

"I wasn't laughing because of that!"

"Then why were you laughing?"

"Because Peter's not dead!"

Three seconds of silence.

"Are you telling me you missed?" said Aletha in a tone of total disbelief.

Sirius couldn't help himself. He cracked up, and couldn't stop laughing until a jet of fire hit him on the side of the head, making a noise like water on hot metal.

"Enough," said Remus when he looked around. "Just tell us what happened." But his friend had a trace of a smile on his face. The funny side of even the worst situation was seldom lost on Remus.

Sirius took a few deep breaths, calming himself down. "I'd been looking for Peter all night," he began. "I'd just found him. But he was ready for me. He had his wand behind his back, must have had it stuck under his belt or something - you remember, Letha, he had his hands behind his back..."

Aletha nodded slowly.

"He cut off his own finger, to leave it for them to find, and to leave blood on his robes. He blew the street up behind him. And then he transformed. Somewhere in England, there is a rat with a missing toe on its front paw and a lot of deaths to answer for."

Aletha's face contorted, and she swore under her breath. "-snivelling little rat-bastard," she finished. "And they'll never even know to look for him, because he's not registered, will they?"

"Not unless you tell them," said Remus. "And unfortunately, they're unlikely to take you seriously now, because of what happened yesterday."

"Best case scenario," said Danger, "is he gets an attack of conscience and turns himself in."

"What about worst case?" asked Aletha.

"You wake up," said Remus. "And spend a long time wondering if this dream was true or not."

"And I wake up," said Sirius grimly. "In Azkaban."

"And without Peter, there's no good way to prove you didn't do it." Aletha hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry for what I said this morning," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"It's all right. I was stupid not to tell you." Sirius returned her hug, then, feeling bold, brought one hand around to her front, to run it over her belly. "Boy or girl, d'you think?"

"I don't know. But whichever it is, he or she is going to have a father, do you understand me, Sirius Black? I am not raising this child alone!"

"Yes, ma'am." Sirius saluted.

"Don't you give me lip." Aletha pulled his head down to hers and kissed him hard.

"No, she wants both of them," said Remus, chuckling. "Welcome to the club, brother. We're whipped and proud of it."

Danger smacked him.

"See?"

Sirius sighed contentedly after breaking off the kiss. "Now what?" he said.

"Now, we indulge in an archaic pastime known as 'hanging around,'" said Remus, and let loose a shrill whistle. Sirius and Aletha both jumped as walls formed around them, creating a comfortable, living-room-style space. "While you catch us up on everything from the past two years that hasn't been in those letters of yours."

"Our letters?" Aletha asked. "You've been getting our letters?"

Danger nodded. "Mine are from you. Sirius writes to Remus."

"It's very nice of you, by the way," added Remus. "Nearly as good as being there ourselves."

"Yes - but how are you getting them?" Sirius frowned, confused. "We always burn them after we write them."

"That's a bit of a long story," said Danger. "And not one we should waste tonight on, because I'm not sure we'll be able to do this again. So, why don't we get the little ones in here and have a good old-fashioned family-and-friends type evening?"

"Little ones?" asked Aletha.

Remus waved a hand at the far wall, and a door appeared that hadn't been there before. "Go on, Sirius," he said, motioning to it. "He's yours now, isn't he?"

Sirius made it across the room in three strides and was kneeling in the doorway, holding Harry Potter in his arms. "Hi there, Greeneyes," he said, picking the boy up and willing his voice not to shake. "Good to see you."

"Pa-fuh," said Harry happily, hugging him.

"Pa-fuh!" squealed another voice. "Leeta!"

"Neenie!" Aletha dropped to one knee to embrace the little girl. "Look at you, you're so big!"

Over Harry's shoulder, Sirius looked at the other little boy in the room, who was regarding these new adults curiously. He chuckled. With that hair and those eyes, there was no doubt whom the boy belonged to.

I guess what you can't have in life, you get when you go to heaven...

xXxXx

Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was less than pleased to receive a visit from Albus Dumbledore the next morning.

He was even less pleased to hear what Dumbledore wanted.

"Question Black? What's to question? More than fifty eyewitnesses, including Black's own wife - whom we can't find at the moment, but will soon enough..."

"When did you try to contact her?" asked Dumbledore politely.

"One of our people firecalled her home around noon yesterday, but there was no answer."

"Had it occurred to you that Mrs. Black might be in some distress, and either unable or unwilling to answer her Floo?"

"Perhaps, perhaps, but that's why we were going to try again later... besides, it doesn't matter, really, does it? Not now that the war's over. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is gone, we're rounding up his followers without too much trouble - some of the higher-ranked ones may give some difficulty, of course, at least Black came quietly."

"Still, Bartemius, I should like a few words with Sirius. If that can be arranged."

Crouch heaved a sigh. "Well, seeing that it's you, Dumbledore..."

xXxXx

"The war has been more or less declared over," Dumbledore told Aletha as they ascended the spiral staircase to his office that afternoon. "Some of the Death Eaters are surrendering. Others are claiming they were put under Imperius. Still others have fled, and may be hard to find. However, since there seems to be no more likelihood of mass attacks at the moment, I am disbanding the Order of the Phoenix until and unless reestablishing it seems necessary."

"Because you don't think he's dead."

"Precisely. You realize, of course, Aletha, that this ends any power I might have had over you. I am no longer in any position to give you orders."

Aletha looked sidewise at Dumbledore as he seated himself behind his desk. "But there's something you want me to do," she said. "Isn't there?"

"Astute as ever. And I believe this task may not be altogether distasteful to you. I hesitate to bring up what may be a painful topic, but you were designated the heir of Danger's parents, were you not, as their elder daughter's best living friend?"

"That's right."

"They left you everything they owned. Including custody of their younger daughter - sadly, no longer an issue - but also their house, number seventeen, Privet Drive, in Little Whinging in Surrey."

Aletha nodded.

"I do not believe I have yet mentioned to you where Harry Potter has gone."

Aletha frowned. "He went to Lily's sister, didn't he? Petunia, and her husband, whatever his name is?"

"Yes, but I believe you are unaware of their direction. Vernon and Petunia Dursley live at number four, Privet Drive."

Aletha smiled, suddenly seeing where this was going. "In Little Whinging, in Surrey?"

"Indeed."

"And you feel it might be prudent to have someone nearby. Someone to keep an eye on things, just to make sure that nothing gets out of hand."

"Precisely. A young widow, left pregnant by her recently deceased husband, would fit the bill nicely, I think. But suburban life can be dangerous. So I would advise this young widow to acquire some form of protection. Perhaps a dog."

Aletha chuckled. "Yes, I think I'd like to have a dog. But wait - how..." She couldn't think of how to phrase it.

"How shall you acquire the type of dog you wish?" Dumbledore finished for her, sighing dramatically. "Aletha, I am afraid I was terribly careless today. I shall be roundly castigated for it, I'm sure, but such is the price of carelessness. The Prophet, of course, was delighted to hear of it." He slid a copy of the Evening Prophet across his desk to her. "Only because I am sure you will not laugh at an old man's folly."

Aletha thought her eyebrows ought to be paying her hair rent as she scrutinized the front page.

SIRIUS BLACK ESCAPES!

Overpowers Albus Dumbledore, Aurors

Public urged to be on their guard

"Sirius did not overpower you," she said surely, lowering the paper. "I don't think anyone could."

"Ah, but he did," lamented Dumbledore, in such a serious tone that anyone who couldn't see his eyes, twinkling more than usual, would have thought he meant it. "I looked into his eyes, scrutinized his thoughts most carefully, and discovered the awful truth about his wickedness. Unfortunately, use of Legilimency weakened me momentarily, and Sirius took advantage of this, and of the fact that I had brought his wand with me to our session together, in order to break through his lies by demonstrating that he had cast the curses, you see. He knocked me to the floor, Stunned me with my own wand, took his from my possession, and left the room, Stunning both Aurors who were guarding us."

Aletha's expression might have been interpreted by that same oblivious observer as pained, but that was only because she was trying so very hard not to laugh. "And you have no idea where he went, of course," she was able to say after a few moments.

"None whatsoever." Dumbledore's expression was nicely bland. "However, if the young widow we were speaking of a few moments ago will present herself at the Little Whinging chapter of Animal Control in a day or two, which time will likely be needed for her to move into her new home, I believe she will find quite what she is looking for there."