September 1st, 1993

The Weasley's, Hermione, and Harry raced through King's Cross Station, rushing against the clock to make it on the Hogwarts Express in time.

"Every bloody year!" Nikki panted, hand clutching the stitch in her side.

Molly Weasley reprimanded over her shoulder as she ushered Ginny forwards, "Language, Nicole!"

Nikki smiled innocently as she stepped onto the Hogwarts Express, calling out the window, "I'll make sure everyone owls you and Dad at least twice a month!"

The eight children piled onto the train, chests heaving from exertion.

"Never a dull moment with our family," Nikki teased as she stretched her arm up to ruffle George's hair. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a dark shape slink onto the train, skulking down the hall.

     'He didn't,' she thought to herself.

Fred snickered. "At least Ron is on the train this year."

He ducked under Ron's smack to his shoulder.

"I'll meet you at the Prefect's compartment later," Nikki said quietly to her twin brother, "just have to talk to Fred and George first."

     Percy, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny split off from the middle Weasley children.

     "So what's up?" George asked casually, clasping his hands behind his back as he tilted his head to the side.

     She murmured in an undertone just loud enough for her younger twin brothers to hear her.

     "...I think he's here..."

     Fred's jaw nearly dropped to the floor before he composed himself and smoothed out his facial expression, poker face firmly in place. George fared little better.

     "What?"

     Nikki continued talking, almost as if to herself. "But there's no way he's that much of an idiot - wait he might be it's S.O.B we're talking about."

     Her lips curved into a fond smile, careful to use Sirius' initials.

     Sirius used his initials every chance he got. He signed every letter with them, which usually meant the rest of the Marauders and Nikki were in stitches laughing at how Orion and Walburga Black unknowingly gave their eldest son initials that represented the acronym for "son of a bitch."

     "You want us to be doggy daycare?" Fred joked, trying to resort to humor to distract his sister from the stress that continued to pile on her.

     Nikki pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation at the entire situation. "Just... keep an eye out okay? I've got Head Girl shit to do. If you see him, get me. Big black dog, grey eyes; kinda looks like the Grim."

     "Hopefully Trelawney doesn't see him first..." George trailed off, snorting as he pictured the disaster that the encounter would be.

     "I swear to Merlin, if he actually just trotted onto the train, I'm going to lose it."

     Nikki pulled Fred and George into a hug, cracking a small smile as she headed off for the prefect's compartment.

—————————————————————————

     "Shit, shit, shit, shit," Nikki rambled as she barreled down the train, peeking into each and every compartment to find her younger siblings.

     Dementors on the bloody Hogwarts Express!

     Coming towards the end of the train, she swallowed anxiously. "Dumbledore's going to have a bloody cow..."

     Her hand reached out to the compartment door, yanking it to the side as she stepped into the room.

     "Oh thank fucking Merlin I found you lot!" She exclaimed, relieved. "You all okay - oh hell."

     Nicole Weasley stared at Remus Lupin.

     He stared back at her.

     It was silent.

     Remus looked at her like a dream within a dream, which was understandable given that it's been nearly two decades since they last saw each other and she looked like she hadn't aged a day.

     She swallowed hard.

     Fuck.

     Sirius Black, curled in a ball on the bench of a compartment towards the front of the train, was not expecting the door to his hiding place to be opened. He planned to sleep the train ride away.

     "Gred," one of the ginger boys started slowly, "I think we found him."

     Sirius' ears pressed flat against the top of his head.

     Was he seeing double? Last he checked, he didn't have a concussion...

     "Fred and George Weasley!" The other boy exclaimed, smile stretching widely across his face. "It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Padfoot!"

     The dog pressed itself against the wall, giving off a silent warning of "don't come closer."

     'Wait a minute... how do they know Padfoot?'

     His tail wagged cautiously, head cocking to the side.

     George swore under his breath. Which Sirius heard.

     He was a bloody dog, for Merlin's sake, his hearing was many times better than the average human.

     "I'm assuming you're wondering how we know your nickname?" George tentatively questioned. "Hell, it's weird having a conversation with a dog."

     Fred shrugged. "Nikki told us."

     The response was instantaneous.

     Sirius Orion Black fell head over heels - head over paws? - off the bench, landing on the floor of the train compartment in a heap.

     Fred and George burst into laughter.

     Sirius scrambled up to his four paws, cocking his head to the side while dialing up the puppy dog eyes. He whined.

     His tail wagged just the slightest bit faster.

     "You want us to take you to her, I'm guessing?" George said innocently, snickering. "Well, lucky for you, she told us to let her know if we found you."

     Padfoot's tail wagged as fast and as hard as a helicopter propeller.

     Fred cleared his throat dramatically as he stepped to the side, gesturing towards the door with his arm. "After you, Mr. Padfoot."

     He didn't stop to think.

     Sirius just bolted off like his paws were on fire.

     Pressing his snout to the floor, he sniffed at the air, trying to track Nikki.

     He could never forget the intoxicating smell of coconut and chocolate - something distinctly Nikki.

     'COCONUT!'

     He was already halfway down the train by the time Fred and George processed the fact that he had streaked out of there so fast that he looked like a black-furred blur.

     "SHIT SHIT SHIT!" George and Fred yelled in unison as they began to sprint after the dog-but-human. "OUT OF THE WAY FOLKS! WE'VE LOST OUR SISTER'S... DOG!"

     Nikki turned to Ginny, smoothing her baby sister's hair down affectionately. "It's all in your head; you're not back there."

     She raised her eyebrow at the rest of the kids in the compartment. "Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny. Eat the bloody chocolate provided to you by Re-Professor Lupin before-"

     Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the big black mass of fur that took the corner into their compartment so sharply that he nearly slid around the edge of the door, paws scrabbling on the floor for purchase.

     Fred and George skidded up to the door, gasping for air.

     "Doggy daycare duties complete - never fucking again."

     It was silent. Everyone stared at the dog.

     Sirius gave zero fucks about the attention placed upon him in that moment. The only thing he cared about was Nikki.

     He bounded forwards, winding his way through her legs and around her side. His tail thumped against the baby gingers' knees.

     Ron broke the silence. "....Before what?"

     Nikki could barely form a coherent sentence in her shock. "....Before... errr... I force feed you the chocolate. It actually does help."

     Her hand reached down to scratch behind the ears of the dog currently pressing itself against her side so tightly that she was half surprised that he hadn't knocked her over yet.

     "Bloody hell..." Remus muttered to himself, squeezing his eyes shut and then reopening them.

     The dog was still there. Tongue lolling out in response to the ear scratches. Looking like it had died and gone to heaven.

     'Fuck me.'

     And there it was.

     The "who me?" look that Sirius Black had perfected in both human and Animagus form.

     Harry took a slow bite of his chocolate. Sure, this was weird, but was it really that weird in comparison to when he was eleven and his first Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had Voldemort on the back of his head?

     "Why is Scabbers acting like he's losing his shit?" Ginny asked quietly as she unwrapped her chocolate bar and took a large bite from it.

     Sirius froze. He breathed in.

     Peter. Bloody. Pettigrew.

     His lips drew back from his teeth as he snarled.

     Remus frowned deeply. He had absolutely no idea what was going on. Time to resort to desperate measures.

     He pinned the dog with the "don't you bloody dare" look that was whipped out every time James Fleamont Potter or Sirius Orion Black declared that they had an idea.

     "So... I'm going to go check on the other students..." Nikki gave a feeble excuse as she backed out of the compartment, hand resting on the fur of the dog's head. "Come on.... S...Scruffy."

     Remus nearly choked at the name. Sirius batted at Nikki's shoe with his paw.

     He did not approve.

     "Oh, and eat the damn chocolate," Nikki said as she closed the door behind her. "Fucking hell, I said come get me, not set him loose!"

     George shrugged. "Same difference."

     "Stop berating us and focus on the dog-not-dog."

     Three identical pairs of brown eyes darted down to the dog, who stared innocently back up at them.

     Sirius trotted off innocently, tail continuing to wag as he searched for an empty compartment. Pausing, he glanced over his shoulder, shooting the puppy dog eyes again.

     "You're going to be the death of me," Nikki mumbled to herself, lips curving into a grin despite herself as she followed.

     Fred and George closed and locked the door behind them, drawing the shades down as Nikki waved her wand through the air, silencing the compartment.

     She turned, singular eyebrow raised as she crossed her arms in front of her chest casually. "Mind telling me what the bloody fuck you're doing here?"

     Sirius shifted seamlessly from Padfoot into Sirius, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Yeah, I could ask you the same thing."

     "Wish we had popcorn," George whispered to Fred out of the corner of his mouth.

     "I can hear you," Sirius flicked his eyes up to the ginger twins. "Comes with the Animagus territory."

     "Scruffy," Nikki snorted.

     He rolled his eyes. "Really, of all names you picked Scruffy?!"

     "I'm a shit liar! You know this," she defended.

     "What the hell is going on?" Sirius asked dryly, fingers twitching as if to reach out and make sure Nikki was real instead of a hallucination. "I last saw you sixteen years, seven months, one week, and three days ago. And you barely look different."

     He knew hallucinations intimately.

     "....Well this'll be fun... so I'm in my seventh year at Hogwarts because I accidentally touched my dormmate's broken Time Turner..." Nikki explained sheepishly, running an anxious hand through her hair. "That's Fred and George, my twin brothers. And... you kept track down to the day?"

     Sirius swore lowly under his breath, eyes wide.

     "It's a lot to take in," Fred chirped innocently. "We know from experience."

     "Out of everything that I could have guessed, that was the last thing I expected to come out of your mouth," Sirius sighed softly. "And of course I did; I lost you!"

     The tension crackled between them.

     "Fuck it," Nikki muttered, taking rapid steps forwards and throwing her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in his chest.

     Sirius' arms hesitantly wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer until she was flush against him. He nestled his head into the crook of her neck, closing his eyes and breathing in deeply.

     "You still smell like coconut," he said softly.

     Nikki laughed weakly, wiping her eyes. "And you just stink."

     "Well I'm sorry," Sirius rolled his eyes, "but Jerry the dementor doesn't really approve of cinnamon scented bubble bath."

     "Bloody dark humor."

     "Black humor," he corrected, lips curving into a small smile.

     He had to say it.

     Sirius Orion Black had waited for sixteen years, seven months, one week, and three days to tell her. And he couldn't possibly bear waiting one more bloody second.

     "Bloody hell I love you," Sirius exclaimed in an undertone, only Nikki able to hear him. "I love you so damn much. Being without you was torture."

     "I wanted to tell you," she said sheepishly, hand resting against his on her hip.

     He unraveled one of his hands from around her waist and brought it up to her lips, pressing his index finger against them. "Not your fault. Don't blame yourself for something that's not your fault."

     Remus Lupin stepped into the compartment, wand held out in front of him cautiously.

     "...Shit," Sirius swore to himself, jokingly whispering to Nikki, "you think if I pretend I don't see Moony he'll just walk away?"

     "No, that won't work," Remus said flatly, eyes narrowed in contemplation. "Five seconds. Talk."

     "Peter! Not me! Secret Keeper - thought you spy - fucking traitor rat." Sirius said rapidly, trying to get the explanation in under five seconds.

     Remus dropped his wand in shock.

     Nikki snorted.

     "Hey, the 'How The Fuck Do We Harbor An Escaped Falsely Incarcerated Convict Club' has a nice ring to it!" Fred innocently chimed in.

     George nodded mischievously. "Nikki president, Professor Moony vice president?"

     "And we're the moral boosters!" They chorused in unison, high-fiving each other.

     Sirius' shoulders shook as he laughed at the club name.

     "Scruffy. There's our answer," Nikki suggested casually. "You make a realistic dog."

     Sirius pulled back from Nikki ever-so-slightly, hands resting gently on her hips. "Scruffy? Really? That's the best you could come up with?"

     "Again, shit liar, wanted something that started with the same letter, and it has a nice ring to it!"

     "You're a little shit, you know?" Sirius breathed out. The smell of coconut and chocolate intoxicated and invigorated him at the same time.

     He swallowed, eyes flicking down to her lips and then back up at her eyes.

     She brought her index finger up to his mouth, pressing against his lips gently. "No kisses until you shower," she teased lightly.

     Fred and George groaned over dramatically. "Uhh, hi, twin brothers still here!"

     "You're going to be the death of me, woman," Sirius murmured into her hair, planting a soft kiss to the ginger strands.

     'This should be one interesting year...' Remus Lupin thought to himself dryly as he mentally prepared himself for the chaos that would result from Sirius Black posing as an innocent stray dog.

     He had little hope for Hogwarts to continue standing.

Word Count: 2,408