Just a Harmless Adventure (Kathleen and Sirius)

Becca lay in her bed, her eyes closed tightly. The babysitter had just finished reading her a story and was now flipping off the light. The moment the door was closed, Becca sat up. She wasn't the slightest bit sleepy. She wanted to play. She put a foot out of bed, but quickly pulled it back up again. A dragon named Kevin lived under there. "Kevin, are you down there?" Becca asked.

"No," Kevin said.

"Then who's that talking?"

"It's not Kevin the Dragon. It's a unicorn named... erm... Astoria. Yes, that's it. I'm a unicorn."

Becca wasn't fooled. She knew Kevin was lying to her. She climbed out of bed, pushing her feet as far away from the edge as she could before she put them down so he wouldn't eat her. Then she turned quickly and pulled up the dust ruffle trying to catch a glimpse of Kevin, but he was already hiding. She didn't know how he could be so fast! One day, she was going to catch him, she was sure of it!

Becca looked around the room, not sure what she wanted to do. She'd have to be quiet, she knew. If she made too much noise, the babysitter would come up and she'd have to get back in bed. Nap time was so boring. Her eyes fell on the crown she made for Mummy's friend, King Sirius, last night. Mummy had said they would take it to him tonight, but tonight was a long way off. Becca wanted to take it to him now! Becca picked up the crown. It wouldn't hurt anything, she decided. She'd go through the floo, give him the crown, say hello, and then come back before nap time was even over. That was a great idea! King Sirius was going to love his crown! Becca was excited just thinking about it.

Becca opened the door quietly and tiptoed into the hall. She could be very quiet when she wanted to. She climbed down the stairs, skipping the one stair that creaked. The babysitter was at the dining room table studying. If she caught Becca, Becca would say she had come down for a glass of water. The babysitter was wearing headphones, so Becca wasn't worried. Becca liked headphones. Music came out of them. The first time she heard it, Becca asked if it was magic, but the babysitter laughed and said it was 'letricity. Becca didn't know what that meant, and when she asked, the babysitter took so long explaining it that Becca got bored and wandered off to play outside.

Out of the corner of her eye, Becca saw movement, but when she looked, it was just Gonker, her new pet frog that she had found a few days ago. Mummy still didn't know about him yet. She was going to be very proud of Becca for catching him when Becca remembered to tell her. Becca caught him and put him in the pocket of her dress. She would show him to King Sirius, she decided.

Becca tiptoed to the floo. She heard Mummy say last night that King Sirius was a teacher at Hogwarts. Becca had never been to Hogwarts, but she would go someday. A long time from now when she got to be eleven. She spied her toy wand on the table and grabbed that, too. A person never knew when they'd need a wand. She put that in her other pocket and stepped close to the fireplace. She pulled an end table over to stand on so she could reach the pot of floo powder Mummy kept on the mantel. She grabbed a handful and threw it into the fireplace. Green flames flared up, and she stepped into them. "Sirius Black," she whispered, so the babysitter wouldn't hear. She held her crown tightly while she whirled, and stepped out into an empty office.

Becca looked around, but King Sirius wasn't there. There was a picture of him on the desk, though, so she knew she'd found the right place. She wondered where King Sirius was. She went to the door and opened it, but there was only a very large corridor beyond, with lots of doors. She opened one door, but it led to some stairs. When she went up the stairs, she ended up on top of a high tower. Becca smiled as she looked at the castle. Just like a princess' castle. She wished she could stop to play, but she had to find King Sirius. It was of utmost importance that she did. Becca wasn't really sure what they meant, but she heard the babysitter say it sometimes when she had to study. The babysitter was always studying.

Becca went back down the stairs and opened another door. This one was full of students in Hogwarts robes, and at the front of the class was King Sirius.

"King Sirius! I found you!" Becca ran to him and threw her arms around his legs. She held up the crown. "Look, King Sirius! Look! I maded you a crown!"

Sirius stopped his lecture on the moons of Uranus - with all the requisite jokes - mid-sentence when a very small and very loud person attached herself to his leg. After a tiny moment of surprise, he peeled her off of him. "Becca?"

Sirius looked at the door, half-expecting Becca's mother to be there. He couldn't quite wrap his mind around the idea that Becca could have come alone, but he couldn't quite believe that Kathleen would have shown up unannounced in the middle of the day, either. That didn't seem like the sort of thing she'd have done, although really, what did he know? She'd been a great friend once, but he hadn't seen her since they were eighteen. She was marching off to the ministry to be an unspeakable and save the world, and he was marching off to war to fight Death Eaters and save the world. Their paths had crossed only rarely after that... until Sirius was arrested and they stopped crossing at all.

Sirius was suddenly very aware that his entire class was staring at him. Students lived for these sorts of interruptions. Not to mention a chance to see one of their professors out of his normal role. "Open your books and begin reading chapter fifteen," he ordered. "I'll be back with you in a moment." There was a flurry of paper as everyone rushed to open their books, but he knew better than to think that anyone but the brown nosers would actually read. The rest of the class would be doing only the poorest of imitations while watching the spectacle before them. The smarter ones would at least think to turn a page every once in awhile, but most of them wouldn't even bother to do that. Sirius didn't really mind; he'd have done the same thing in their place.

Sirius squatted down to look Becca in the eye. He took the paper crown out of her hand and smiled. "This is a lovely crown, Rebecca. Thank you, but where's your mother? How did you get here?"

"I came through the floo, silly," Becca said, giggling. "How else would I get here?" King Sirius was so silly! Becca loved him! "Put on your crown, King Sirius! See if it fits! I maded it just for you last night while Mummy was making supper. We had macaroni cheese. It's my favorite! And guess what else happened, King Sirius! After you left last night, I did magic! I broke the window at the robe shop! It was really fun, but Mummy was maaaaaad."

Becca took the crown out of King Sirius' hand and tried to reach up to put it on his head. He was too tall for her to reach. She looked around for a minute and saw his desk. She clambered into a chair, and from there got on the desk. She could reach his head from here! She was almost as tall as he was! She put the crown on him. "It fits! It fits!" she cried, jumping up and down on the desk as she clapped her hands. "It's perfect! It's the prettiest crown ever! Don't you think it's the prettiest crown ever!"

Becca threw her arms around Sirius' neck and jumped into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist. "Now you're a really real king! You have a crown and everything! Now you have to make me one. When I woke up this morning, the one you gave me yesterday was gone. Mummy said it disappeared because conjurated things can't stay forever. I was sad, but I didn't even cry. This one won't disappear, because I didn't conjure it, I made it. I cut it and colored it and everything just for you. Mummy made the ends stick together, but I did everything else all by myself! Isn't it a good crown?"

"Yes, it's the best crown I've ever seen," Sirius said as he put Becca on the ground and waved his wand to clean up the stacks of papers she'd knocked over. Essays from the fourth-years. Sirius was looking forward to reading Harry's, though he was a little concerned he wouldn't be able to grade the boy fairly. He supposed it couldn't be helped. The essays landed back on his desk in a neat pile. He glanced up at the class and had to suppress a smile at the rustling that went around the room as everyone buried their noses very quickly in their books. At least he knew they respected him enough to pretend to be working. That was a good thing.

Sirius squatted down again and took Becca's shoulders. "Rebecca, listen to me a moment. Where is your mother? Did you come through the floo all by yourself?" Sirius didn't even want to think about how angry Kathleen would be if she had, and he was quite sure she had. Kathleen would be at work this time of day, and he somehow doubted an unspeakable would have much reason to visit Hogwarts. Or bring her child along if she did. Sirius sighed. Yesterday's explosion was still fresh in his mind, and that had only been over wandering in Diagon Alley - a perfectly harmless venture. Using the floo was something completely different; there was no telling where the poor child might have ended up. Kathleen was going to hit the ceiling, and Sirius wasn't sure he blamed her. If a child he was responsible for had done something so dangerous, he might hit the ceiling, too.

"Does anyone know you're here?"

Becca nodded proudly. "Mummy's at work, and the babysitter is studying. She had her headphones on. With the music and the 'letricity. I went through the floo all by myself! Just like a grown-up! It was twirly! I spinned really fast! Like this!"

Becca pulled away from King Sirius and spun as fast as she could, but she couldn't make herself spin as fast as she went in the floo. "It was like that! Only it was even faster!" Becca kept spinning until she fell in a heap on the floor. "Whoa," she said, giggling. "I'm dizzy!"

"I stopped spinning in your office. You have a nice office. Mummy took me to work with her once, and I got to play in her office all day! Yours is bigger than hers. And then I went up to a tower, like a real princess tower! I could see all sorts of things! There was a forest, and a lake, and a town. I even saw people flying! I wanted to stay, but I remembered I had to give you your crown, so I came here and I found you!" Becca wrapped her arms around Sirius' neck and kissed his cheek. Then she took his hand and began pulling him toward the door. "Can we go up to the tower now? I'm not supposed to wake up from my nap until two o'clock. That's a long time to play. Can we go play? Please?"

Sirius didn't budge. He lifted Becca up. "I'm working right now, too, Tiger," he explained. He motioned to the class. "I'm a teacher, and these are my students. I was right in the middle of teaching when you came. But I'll tell you what. I'll make you a crown."

Sirius pulled out his wand and conjured a new tiara for her. This one was silvery and delicate. He placed it on her head. "Now, my class is going to be over in about fifteen minutes. You can play that long, and then we'll have to take you home."

Sirius conjured some crayons and gave her paper. "Why don't you sit at my desk and make a crown for your mother?" Sirius took a moment to settle her before turning back to the class. "You may close your books. Where were we? Ah, yes, Miranda. Miranda is the smallest of the major moons of Uranus. She's a pretty thing. Named after a character in a play written by a muggle called Shakespeare."

Sirius waved his wand and conjured up a spinning likeness of Miranda so that they class could see her. Miranda is split into four geological regions..."

Fifteen minutes later, Sirius was reminding the class to read the chapter on the moons of Neptune as they packed. That was the problem with having the class right before lunch. The students could never wait to leave. Breakfast was a long time ago, after all. Usually Sirius walked with them, talking and joking, but today he'd have to stay and deal with Becca.

"All right, Tiger," Sirius said, lifting her from the chair. He picked up her paper and told her it was lovely. "You should finish it when you get home." He carried her to his office and grabbed a handful of floo powder. If all went well, no one would have noticed she was gone, and no one would notice Sirius bringing her back. He hated to think of her being in trouble over this when no harm had come, though he supposed he should tell her not to do it anymore. It was awfully dangerous, after all. Perhaps he should tell Kathleen. No, then Kathleen would worry needlessly. Maybe he'd tell her in five or six years. "Now, listen to me, Becca, the floo is dangerous, and I don't want you using it by yourself anymore. Princesses never use the floo by themselves; they always have someone to go with them. Okay, now let's get you home. What's your address?"

Becca felt awfully big and important sitting at King Sirius' desk. She colored her crown for Mummy and watched the class and pretended she was a teacher. She liked to play school, but she very quickly decided that this class was boring and went back to coloring. Mummy was going to love her crown! Becca couldn't believe she hadn't thought to make one for her before! She felt of her own crown and thought about how pretty she must look. She was wearing her very favorite purple dress today. King Sirius' chair was almost like a throne. She sat back in it and pretended she was a princess and all the students were her subjects!

By the time King Sirius finished talking, Becca was almost done with Mummy's crown. Maybe King Sirius would make the edges stick together for her. Becca wished all over again she could have her own wand so she didn't have to ask for help so much. But then when King Sirius finished, he came to her and picked her up so quickly she didn't have a chance to ask him.

Before Becca knew it, Sirius was taking her to the floo to be twirly again. She shrugged at his question. "I don't know. Don't you know?" Whenever they took the floo, Mummy always said their address, so Becca never needed to know what it was. "King SIrius, can you make the ends of Mummy's crown stick?"

Sirius sighed and put Becca down again. "You don't know how to get home?" This was bad. This was very bad. Because now he had no choice but to contact Kathleen. And then she would run in, and Sirius' palms would sweat how they had last night, and his heart would beat far too loudly, and his mouth would dry out, and then she'd run right out again because why shouldn't she? Sirius was just an old friend she happened to run into one evening.

She'd moved on with her life while he was locked away. They all had. All his old friends. Even Remus, to a degree. Sirius felt as though he was having to completely remake his life. Make new friends. Build his reputation from scratch. Kathleen probably wouldn't care about seeing him again, but for Sirius, every encounter with someone from his past felt like it made him a little more alive. Made it a little easier to remember that there had been life before Azkaban.

Sirius smiled at Becca, hoping she wouldn't be too upset over the idea that she was probably about to be in lots of trouble. "Well, we'll just have to call your mother, then. Have you ever seen a patronus before?" Sirius pulled up a happy memory. Seeing Harry for the first time as a free man and knowing he was coming to live with him. "Expecto Patronum!"

Sirius' patronus was a shaggy dog, just like his animagus form. He thought for a moment and gave the patronus his message. "This is Sirius Black. Becca is safe at Hogwarts. I'll watch her until you can come fetch her." There, that should do it. He wished patronuses could carry longer messages. He was sure Kathleen would have a thousand questions about that. The patronus stayed for a moment, looking delightfully doggish, before it sped off toward London. Kathleen would have the message in a matter of minutes.

Sirius sat Becca on the desk. "Here, I'll finish your crown for you." He said the incantation for a sticking charm and held the ends of the crown together. "Your mother will love it," he said, handing it back to her. He left a note for Kathleen and took Becca's hand. "Come on. Let's go up to the tower. I'll show you how to use a telescope."

Becca skipped up the stairs with King Sirius. She had never used a telescope before! She looked through it. Everything was so close! She almost couldn't believe it! She turned the knobs, and everything went all fuzzy, like being under water. Becca turned them some more and pretended she was swimming. She wished she could go swimming right now. Maybe King Sirius would let her go swimming in the lake when she was done playing with the telescopes. She turned the knob some more and everything became clear again. Becca decided she liked telescopes. She wished she could have one of her own.

Becca moved the telescope to look at different things. The sky. The town. The lake. She looked at the lake for a long time and pretended she was a pirate sailing on the sea, trying to find a place to bury her treasure. She said "Argh!" and "Ahoy!" and other piratey things before she swabbed the deck of her pirate ship. She didn't really know what it meant to swab the deck, but she thought it was kind of like sailing, so she held out her arms and pretended to be sailing and ran in circles around King Sirius. "Help me swab the deck, King Sirius!" she called. "You can be a pirate with me! We can sail the seven seas!"

Becca stopped running in circles when she saw Mummy in the doorway. Mummy was so pretty! She was the prettiest lady ever! When Becca grew up, she was going to be just as pretty as Mummy. Becca ran to Mummy and hugged her. "Mummy, come play pirates with us. We're swabbing the deck. I'm the pirate princess. Look! King Sirius gave me a new crown, and he's the King Pirate because he has a crown, too, and you can be the Queen pirate. Look, I made you a crown! King Sirius stuck the ends together, but I colored it all by myself just for you. Here." Becca gave Mummy the crown she had made. It would look so pretty when Mummy put it on!

"And guess what, Mummy! I went through the floo all by myself! It was so much fun! Come on, Mummy! Come play with us."

Sirius stopped short when Kathleen appeared on the tower. His lips were still poofed out as the whooshing sounds he'd been making to simulate wind and waves stopped abruptly. He dropped his arms and stopped running in circles. He'd been having great fun running with Becca and pretending to swab the deck, though he was quite sure what they were doing was nothing like actually swabbing a deck. He'd always though that was sort of like mopping, though what did he know? He wasn't a sailor.

Sirius almost startled, and for a tiny second, he thought he'd never breathe again. Kathleen was so beautiful. Had she been this beautiful when they were young? Had she been this beautiful last night? Sirius wondered if this was what people meant when they said their heart skipped a beat. Something had certainly happened that left Sirius feeling strange and silly and unsure. Why hadn't he felt this way before? Maybe it had something to do with how he'd been thinking about her all night and the way her eyes had flashed and sparkled when she laughed. He'd never noticed that before. Neither had he noticed the highlights in her hair that shone in the sun. Or the way her skin almost seemed to glow. How had he never noticed those things before? Perhaps he had. He'd always thought she was beautiful, but he never thought of her before in a romantic way. Perhaps he had valued her friendship too much. But now his hands were sweating and his mouth had gone suddenly dry. Maybe now that he was meeting her anew, he could see her with fresh eyes.

A faintly sweet smell met Sirius' nostrils. A smell he remembered vaguely from last night, though he hadn't noticed it quite so much then. Kathleen's perfume. It must have been. Sirius smiled, wondering briefly what it would be like to kiss her, but Becca was already there, chattering nonstop, being a little bit everywhere. She seemed to do that a lot from what Sirius could tell. She was great fun for an afternoon, but Sirius would probably be exhausted if he had to deal with her all the time. If Kathleen wasn't too cross with Becca, maybe he'd ask her out. Maybe he could even get Harry to babysit. But for now, he couldn't seem to make his mouth form words. All his brainpower seemed to have gone to his eyes as they drank her in.

Kathleen had gotten an owl from the babysitter at her office in the Department of Ministries and she had to admit that words would never be able to describe how livid she had been. But after an hour of blowing up dueling dummies she had managed to burn off her frustration. So now when she went to see Sirius and retrieve Becca she would be completely calm and in control. Kathleen had a real temper on her, and try as she might she was not always able to control it. After apparating to Hogwarts (she was an Unspeakable, she could do things like that). She made her way up to the Astronomy and knocked once before entering. Her eyes sparkled when they saw Sirius. He looked as handsome as he ever did and it almost took her breath away to be in the same room as him...but quickly gaining her composure she went over to her daughter and pulled her up into her arms.

"Yes," she said as Becca talked and talked. "Now hush Becca...I need to speak with Sirius."

She turned to her friend and sighed, her body slouching a bit with exhaustion. She knew that Becca must have given Sirius a run for his money. Her daughter had a habit of doing that without really realizing she was doing it.

"Thank you Sirius," she smiled gently. "I am so sorry she just burst in like that... did she interrupt your class? Becca...you owe Professor Black an apology. You know better than to leave home without telling me!"

Her tone rose a bit, but Kathleen was quick to lower it. She did not want to go off on Becca in front of Sirius...not when she knew that her friend did not value that kind of treatment when it came to children. But Kathleen could not blame him, she did not value it either.

Sirius gave a single nod in acknowledgement of Kathleen's thanks. He'd had fun spending the afternoon with Becca, after all, and now he got to see his friend again. And maybe, if things went well, he'd be seeing a lot more of her before the day was done.

Sirius smiled his old charming smile, remembering how this sort of thing was done. His old confidence was coming back, flooding in, filling him. This wasn't so hard. He didn't know what he'd been so flustered about only a few moments ago. "She was no trouble, Kathleen. I enjoyed having her. She sat quietly and colored your crown while I finished my class, and then I brought her up here and taught her all about telescopes. She's going to be a fantastic astronomer when she grows up." Sirius spared a small wink for Becca before turning his attentions back to Kathleen. "She was perfectly behaved. You would have been very proud." Sirius' smile widened. He hoped his words would be enough to at least mitigate Becca's punishment. He was sure he couldn't get her out of trouble altogether, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. She'd done a potentially dangerous thing, after all. Still, Sirius hated the thought of her being upset. She was such a sweet little thing.

Becca put Mummy's crown on top of her head and then wriggled down to see how it looked. Becca liked to be held sometimes, but right now she wanted to run and play. She listened to King Sirius tell about their afternoon. They'd had so much fun playing teacher and pirates and looking through the telescopes. King Sirius winked at her, and she tried to wink back, but she didn't know how, so she ended up blinking. She tried a few more times, but couldn't quite get the hang of it, so she gave up. Maybe King Sirius would teach her how. She ran to him and hugged him. She loved him so much! He was so nice! And they had so much fun playing!

Becca looked at Mummy. Her crown was perfect! Now she looked like a really real queen! "Doesn't Mummy's crown look pretty, King Sirius! Now we all three have crowns! Isn't Mummy the prettiest queen in the whole wide world?" Becca grabbed King Sirius' hand and tried to climb up him. She climbed and climbed until he was holding her. She hugged his neck. "You make a good pirate king! I wish I could live at Hogwarts all the time, but I'm going to come when I turn eleven because I can do magic, even though I can only do it by accident. When I come to Hogwarts, we can play every day! I'm going to have my own wand and everything because I'm going to be the best witch! Look, I already have a toy one! Look what I can do!" Becca reached into her pocket and pulled out Gonker. "Uh-oh. That's my pet frog. Here, Mummy, you hold him." Becca held up a warning finger as she thrust Gonker toward Mummy. "Be very careful. Don't let him get away. He lives under the sink in the kitchen. We have to take him back to his home, or he'll be sad."

Becca reached in the other pocket and found what she was looking for. It was her toy wand. "Look, King Sirius! I can do magic!" Becca waved the wand and the glittery butterflies shot out the end. "We can chase them and catch them, or just watch them fly around." Becca hugged King Sirius again. "I love you so much." Becca held her arms out as wide as they'd go and stretched them. "This much!" She had a sudden thought. It was a great thought! She threw hew arms around King Sirius' neck again. "King Sirius, will you marry me?" It was such a good idea. She could marry King Sirius, and she and Mummy could move to Hogwarts, and then Becca and Mummy and King Sirius would play every single day. Becca couldn't wait!

Sirius couldn't help chuckling as he listened to Becca talk, nodding politely as though everything she said was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard. It was surprisingly interesting, actually, getting a glimpse into such a very different worldview. Excepting the fixation on princesses, she sort of reminded Sirius of himself. While he'd never quite shared her sense of wonder or excitement, he'd certainly had a similar sense of adventure. He still did, in many ways. And looking forward to Hogwarts was something he could easily relate to, although in his case it was because he wanted to escape his family and his reputation, while in hers it seemed to be because she thought students and professors did nothing but play all day. She'd be in for a rude awakening on that front.

Sirius laughed outright as she pulled a frog out of her dress pocket and thrust the unfortunate animal at Kathleen. That was definitely something he'd have done. He caught a snake once at Uncle Alphards at showed it to his mother proudly when she came to collect him. He'd never known his mother could scream so much, and he ended up chasing her around the yard with it until Uncle Alphard mercifully intervened and told him sternly to be nice to his mother. Thinking back on it now, Sirius couldn't believe some of the things his parents let him get away with. Of course, having to take the time to stop him would have interfered with their social lives.

Sirius' own parenting and teaching style was very hands-off, but he couldn't imagine neglecting Harry the way his parents had neglected him. He loved that kid far too much. Perhaps that was the difference. For his mother and father, parenting had been a duty, a burden. For Sirius, it was a joy.

Sirius watched Becca shoot butterflies out of her wand. She was obviously very talented to have produced so many and for them to be so clear and crisply defined. It was a weak sort of conjuration that toy wands allowed. Most of them were charmed to draw on the magic of the user and produce one spell and one only. The strength of the results depended upon the strength of the witch or wizard using the wand. Becca's magic was very strong indeed. He locked eyes with Kathleen over Becca's head, wondering if she had realized what a talented little witch she had on her hands. Probably. Parents usually noticed that sort of thing, proud of anything that make their children special. The second he looked into her eyes, something jolted inside him again and he found himself turning on his charming grin.

He turned his attention back to Becca just in time to hear a marriage proposal. He worked to suppress his smile. It would never do to laugh at something so serious. "Well, tiger, if you were a little older or if I was a little younger, I think I'd marry you in a heartbeat, but as it is I think I'm a little bit too old for you. My heart is broken, but there you are. You're going to find yourself a nice boy your own age to marry someday, but in the meantime, we can still play lots of games. What do you think of that?"

Becca was deep in thought. She reached up to scratch her chin and look very, very thoughtful so everyone would know that she was deep in thought. Living at Hogwarts would be so much fun! She could play with King Sirius and learn all the magic spells, and then she could do real magic, not just butterflies. She could learn how to make potions and learn how to ride a real broomstick and go really high -all the way up to the moon! She could learn how to cast charms and how to turn Mummy's teacups into frog friends for Gonker, and she might even learn how bees make honey! Becca couldn't wait to go to school and learn everything! She would be as smart as Mummy when she went to school, and Mummy knew everything!

Becca thought some more. She would be all grown up one day, so maybe she and King Sirius could get married then. But that meant she'd have to wait to move to Hogwarts and see King Sirius every day. "I know!" she said when the idea came. Becca loved it when she got new ideas. They made her so happy. "You can marry Mummy! And I can be the flower girl!" Becca hopped down and pulled King Sirius over to where Mummy was standing. She took King Sirius' hand in one hand and Mummy's hand in the other and bounced in place, she was so happy! She looked up at King Sirius. "King Sirius, will you marry my mummy?" Then she looked up at Mummy. "Mummy, don't you want to marry King Sirius?"

Kathleen thought that she might throw up. Why did children have to be so brutally honest? Looking up at Sirius she felt her cheeks turn dark red. She hoped that this would not make their friendship awkward...well...awkward for her. Kathleen knew that she loved Sirius, but she wasn't ready for Sirius to know that yet. Gently she stroked her daughter's nose and chuckled.

"Don't children say the most adorable things?"

Kathleen didn't know what else to say. She was so flustered at the present moment that words could not even describe it. Looking down she sighed once more and tried to regroup from what her baby girl had just said. Only nothing came to mind, except her wondering what was going through Sirius's head. She wanted to know if he could feel the same way about her. But Kathleen would never ask such a thing. It was too soon and they had both just walked into one another's life.

"So..." she said gently. "How has your day been going, Sirius? Will I meet that lovely god-son of yours today?"

Kathleen had caught glimpses of Harry in the paper every now and again and she could not believe how much the young lad looked like his father. It was absolutely uncanny...but now that she thought on it; she saw a lot of Sirius in him as well.

Sirius pretended not to notice that Kathleen was blushing. He smiled again, a small smile this time, enigmatic. He looked into her eyes and remembered the last time he'd thought about asking her out, as they trudged to Hogsmeade through the snow. She looked so beautiful with snowflakes in her hair. Sirius was making a fool of himself, trying to show off and catch them on his tongue. Then James threw a snowball at them, and Sirius pulled her down with him behind a snow bank.

They'd had a tiny moment, a special moment, when the whole world seemed to go strangely dim and blindingly white all at once. A moment when the air seemed to crackle with energy. A moment when everything was good and beautiful and true and right, but the moment passed. Maybe it passed on its own. Maybe Sirius let it pass. Maybe it was never really there at all, or it was all in his head and Kathleen never felt it. He wasn't sure. But another snowball came their way, and then Sirius was distracted by making them and throwing them back, and then his girlfriend showed up, wanting nothing to do with snowball fights, which really should have been his first clue that she wasn't the girl for him, but she was so pretty he didn't much care. He couldn't even remember her name now.

As he headed off, swearing loudly at James when a snowball hit him in the ear, he thought about staying, about ducking back behind the snow bank and telling Kathleen that she was going to help him teach James a thing or two about throwing snowballs and then go to the Yule Ball with him, Sirius. But he didn't. He went with what's-her-name instead, and he took what's-her-name to the Yule Ball, and they had a good time, he supposed, but now he found himself wondering what might have happened if he'd stayed.

"Perhaps. I try not to bother Harry much unless he comes to me. Don't want to hover, you know. Usually I see him at lunch, but today I didn't make it." He looked at Becca and winked at her. "Perhaps you can meet him tonight. I can ask him to stay with the tiger here while I take you out on a date."

Kathleen blushed and she felt her heart skip about twenty beats. Had her dreams come true? By some miraculous twist of fate had Sirius Black asked her out on a date? No...it just couldn't be...she felt her mouth open slightly but she quickly closed it again. Should she say yes? Would that be the right thing to do? Could she abandon her past love? Was it too soon? So many questions were running through her head and she wasn't sure she would be able to find the right one in time. Of course she had always had a deep interest in Sirius...she had even fallen in love with him once. But had he really changed so much that he wasn't the same Maurauder she had known? Was he still NOT the dating time? Kathleen knew that it was just one date...but she didn't want to get involved in something that turned out to be an illusion in the long run.

Looking into his dark eyes she almost felt herself wandering among their memories. All of those nights Sirius and her had just spent talking...well he talked...sometimes Kathleen was much batter at listening. They had fights as friends, make ups, spoke about parents, spoke about school, spoke about...well everything that ever crossed their minds. And then like that...it had all vanished. But now, maybe they could find that again. Maybe they could salvage what they had lost so many years ago. But she needed to be brave and take that first step.

"I would love to Sirius," she said, smiling gently. "I however...still need a sitter for Becca."

Sirius smiled as he felt an odd swoop in his stomach. She'd said yes! He knew she would, of course, though he supposed there was always the chance. Sirius didn't think he'd ever been turned down, but things were different now. He was no longer the adolescent adonis, gracing the girls of Hogwarts with his presence. He was older now, wiser now, sadder now. And he looked it, though he was better than he was. Coming back to himself and all of that business.

Sirius felt his body relax as his brain started racing forward of its own accord to think about tonight. They'd go to dinner, he decided. Seafood. He wondered briefly if Kathleen liked Seafood. If she didn't, maybe she could order chicken or steak or something. Then they'd go to a show. The symphony, yes, that was it. He'd call the ministry and get tickets. They'd be an arm and a leg at the last minute like this, but it didn't matter. He had more gold in his vault than Harry's great-grandchildren would ever be able to spend, and they wouldn't even need it what with all James' gold. Seemed a shame not to spend some of it. Maybe they could take a portkey to Paris and eat their meal there. No, Sirius decided, that was too much for a first date. Seafood and the symphony would be good. He'd save Paris for their second date.

"You don't have to worry about a thing," Sirius said. "I'll get Harry to babysit, and if he's not available, I'll ask one of my students. I'm sure there are plenty who would be glad to do it. Maybe I'll even bribe them with some house points or extra credit. All you have to worry about is being ready for me to pick you up at six."

Becca clapped her hands. Hooray! She and Mummy and King Sirius were going on a date! She was going to wear her prettiest purple dress and make her hair curly and order antelope. And she was going to wear Mummy's pearl necklace and her favorite pink bracelet that Lexi gave her and King Sirius' grown. She was even going to wear black shoes and maybe Mummy would let her push the straps back like a big girl. Maybe Mummy would even let her paint her nails and put on make-up! And earrings! She was going to look so pretty for their date with King Sirius! They were going to have so much fun!

"Yay!" Becca cried. She bounced over to King Sirius and hugged him, and then she bounced over to Mummy and hugged her, and the she bounced back to King Sirius and hugged him again. "We can eat antelope, King Sirius! And we can't hunt the waiter and be tigers! It'll be so much fun! Mummy can be a tiger, too! We can all eat antelope! And we can wear our crowns!" Maybe she needed an orange dress, Becca thought. Or a tiger costume. She didn't have one. Maybe she could get one! Or maybe she could be a white tiger. She had lots of white dresses. "We can be tiger kings and queens and princesses. Or maybe we should be lions instead!" Becca had lots of yellow dresses, too! She bounced over to Mummy again. "We can all be lions! We're going to have so much fun! Won't it be fun, Mummy!"