November 6th, 1993

     Sirius took a running leap onto Nikki's bed, the bedsprings groaning as he began to bounce up and down on it.

     "It's Quidditch day!"

     Nikki groaned, rolling over onto her stomach and burying her head under her pillow. "For fuck's sake..."

     "I'm going to see Harryyyy," Sirius drew out the letter obnoxiously, trying to spark a reaction out of his girlfriend. He really didn't care if she snapped at him or laughed.

     (Okay, maybe he did. He had had enough of the women in his life snapping at him, thank you very much.)

     "How do you have this much energy?" Nikki grumbled, ginger locks peeking out from under the pillow. "You were up the entire bloody night - how was the full?"

     She reluctantly pulled her head out from under the pillow and sat up, the sheets pooling around her waist.

     Sirius dropped into a seating position on the bed, legs crossed casually underneath him. "Odd... in a good way, but still odd. Normally Moony's less docile. But he seems in a lot better shape than when we went down to the Willow. Has his mind and everything."

     Nikki hummed softly, running a hand through her hair absentmindedly. "You tired? The match is in..."

     She trailed off, craning her neck to look at the time.

     Nikki stared at Sirius.

     "Sirius."

     "....Yes, my love?"

     "It is five forty seven. In the morning. On a Saturday. The match is at eleven. We have nearly five hours."

     Sirius stayed quiet. He fought against the soft smile threatening to curve across his lips at the way her eyes sparked.

     Nikki sighed, folding forwards and resting her forehead on the bed. Sirius snorted, raising his hand up to her hair and gently beginning to card through it.

     "At least I woke you up before the sunrise," he said softly. "You still have to do the incantation - James almost missed it nearly every morning; slept like the living dead."

     Sirius swore under his breath, squeezing his eyes shut. Damn word choices.

     He reopened his grey eyes, leaning over and pressing a light kiss to the top of her head. "You've ran out of sleep for today, I'm afraid. Up and at 'em; you can eat breakfast or something. It's also supposed to storm - you can become a dog today!"

     "Or something?" Nikki teased, unfolding herself and sitting up straight again. "That sounds like you not sleeping - like, at all - and then crashing the night of the full moon."

     Sirius shifted sheepishly on the bed.

     It was too true.

     He decided to play dumb. A little white lie.

     "I don't know what you're talking about."

     She fixed him with an unimpressed look, raising a skeptical eyebrow as she shifted closer to him. "I know that's a load of dragon shit." Nikki huffed under her breath, adding on, "It's not healthy, Sirius."

     His fingers fiddled with the pleat of the maroon comforter, eyes drawn downwards as if it were the cure to lycanthropy itself.

     Sirius knew the look Nikki was giving him at that moment. It needled at him, tugging on his heartstrings as he struggled to check the burning desire deep within him to do anything to make her smile, to hear her laugh.

     "...Is breakfast a compelling enough argument?" He brushed the worry under the metaphorical rug, changing the topic quickly.

     Nikki's resolve cracked, a small grin peeking out from behind her stern face. "Again, we have five hours. I would have thought you would like to spend more time as a human instead of a dog."

     Sirius raised an eyebrow innocently. "What do you suggest we do with me having two legs instead of four?"

     "Let me shower and brush my teeth first," Nikki teased affectionately, thumb tracing his cheekbone lightly. "Then we can do whatever you want."

     Sirius snorted. "And if I want to do you?"

     "Consider it a late birthday present then, love," Nikki winked as she untangled herself from the blankets, ambling over to the attached bathroom.

     Sirius' eyes followed her as she left the room, unwilling to look away for even a split second.

     He was such a sap.

     'I'm wrapped around her finger...' he thought fondly to himself, 'and I don't even mind it.'

—————————————————————————

     Exactly five hours later, Nicole Weasley wiggled her way through the crowd of roaring Gryffindor fans at the first Gryffindor Quidditch match of the season.

Her head throbbed as she scrunched her nose against the flurry of smells beating their way into her nose. She had finally done it.

Nicole Muriel Weasley was an illegal dog Animagus. Sirius and her looked practically identical, save for a few lighter specks of fur dotting her face. She assumed it represented her freckles.

Sirius immediately started running through a mental list of her Marauder nickname.

     "Bloody Malfoy's," she swore under her breath, rolling her eyes as she spotted the platinum blonde head making up yet another sob story over his hurt arm.

     It's Madam Pomfrey. She could grow back all the bones in your right arm and send you back to your common room the next afternoon. A hippogriff scratch was child's play.

     Sirius, always at her side, let out a snuffle through his snout, craning his ears upwards to take in all the sounds of the match.

     Her wand held up a silvery umbrella over both of them to protect them from the downpour that had befallen the Hogwarts grounds that day.

     "You better not shake out your fur and get my room all wet," she warned in an affectionate undertone, not truly meaning it.

     He nudged his cold nose against her hand, dipping his head so that it leaned further into her palm.

     Nikki snorted to herself, hand running through the dark fur by his ears. "You're such a needy good boy."

     The last two words did it.

     His head snapped up, literal puppy dog eyes trained on her face.

     "Sorry, forgot that 'good boy' was your trigger word."

     He whined. You couldn't just call him a good boy and then say 'sorry.' He was a good boy, dammit!

Nikki laughed softly at the look on his face, his grey eyes mournful at the slight.

     "I'm just kidding, Scruffy," she soothed in a mutter, climbing the stands to the top. "Bloody hell, my ears are ringing... is this normal?"

The dog dipped his chin in a subtle nod.

Adjusting to extreme senses was the worst part of the Animagus transformation. He still remembered the constant headaches and ringing ears.

The match began.

Sirius Black's eyes were drawn immediately to the slightly scrawny Gryffindor seeker, his scarlet Quidditch robes sticking to his body from the torrential rains.

Harry James Potter.

His godson.

Merlin, it was like he had been knocked back to when James and him were on the Quidditch team together. The unruly cowlick sticking straight up in the back of his head...

It was just the Potter curse, cursed with jet-black hair that just would not lay flat, no matter what you did.

Nikki and Sirius stayed silent, tracking Harry with their eyes. Nikki gave a silent fist pump when Fred or George did a quick block of a Hufflepuff chaser due to a well-placed Bludger in their path.

"He's going to get it!" Nikki exclaimed, hands drawn up over her mouth. Growing up in a slightly Quidditch obsessed family - six out of eight children either had played, are playing, or aspire to play Quidditch in school - she had slowly become invested in the sport, especially when her siblings were playing.

Sirius shrunk backwards, letting out a low keen at the cold that threatened to sink its icy fingers deep into his fur.

'HARRY!'

The name ricocheted around Sirius' head, his mind replaying the fall that the thirteen year old had taken off of his broom.

If he were in human form, his face would have been a sickly green color.

Nikki's hand shot down to the rapidly purchased red collar around his neck, used only for the ruse. They both didn't trust that Filch wouldn't kick the dog out of the halls of Hogwarts without a collar on.

"He'll be fine," she whispered, "he'll be fine. It's Poppy; Harry will be just fine around this time tomorrow."

Sirius whimpered, pressing his head against the thick material of her leggings.

—————————————————————————

'He'll be fine. He'll be fine. He'll be fine.'

Three words Sirius chanted to himself. He chanted them through his head even as the spectators trudged back up to the castle, chanted them as he played an idle match of chess with Remus.

As the clock ticked by, passing November 6th, 1993 and quietly shifting into November 7th, the words rang throughout his head.

Every time he closed his eyes, trying desperately to fall asleep, Sirius snapped his eyes open just before he could see Harry hit the ground.

(Harry never actually hit the ground. Sirius' mind kept trying to drag up the worst possible scenarios. It was as if his brain thought there was no better joy in the world than torturing him with his own mental images.)

Sirius rolled over, draping his arm over Nikki's waist as he rested his head against her shoulder. Her breathing was steady.

He wouldn't be able to sleep until he heard Harry's steady breathing as well. It was a fact.

Sirius carefully untwined himself from his girlfriend, sliding out from under the sheets with barely a sound.

He swore under his breath as he stubbed his toe on the dresser, hopping up and down on one foot as he felt his way towards the door.

Barely fifteen minutes later, a dog crept its way into the Hospital Wing, where an oblivious Harry Potter slept.

Sirius shifted back into human form, carefully lowering himself down into the chair at Harry's bedside.

His lips slanted downwards.

Harry was in the Hospital Wing due to dementors. And the dementors were at Hogwarts because of him.

Harry's fall was Sirius' fault.

Harry twisted under the sheets, his breathing picking up its pace.

"Not Harry! Please... have mercy..." the boy murmured in sleep, his eyelashes fluttering as he tossed and turned.

Sirius didn't notice.

Harry shot awake, heart pounding against his rib cage as if it was trying to burst out of him. He rolled over to his side, fumbling for his glasses on the bedside table and then putting them on.

Sirius stared at Harry.

Harry stared at Sirius.

His emerald eyes widened.

Sirius slapped a hand over Harry's mouth, careful to keep his grip soft enough where it wouldn't hurt.

"Shit-no, fucking hell-don't bloody scream-I'm not going to kill you-ow!"

His palm fell down off of Harry's mouth.

"...Did you just bite me?!" Sirius said, his voice rising slightly as he looked at Harry incredulously.

Harry retorted sharply, "When there's a criminal at my bedside, yes."

Sirius dragged his other hand down the side of his face, heaving out a deep sigh. "Okay, I get that I have a lot of explaining to do - which I will! After you get better. The day you're dismissed from here, that night, go to Remus' office."

Harry's eyebrows rose into his hairline.

"Remus, myself, and Nikki will explain everything there. I promise, and - again - no, I'm not going to kill you. No, this is not a trap to get you killed."

Harry sputtered, completely dumbfounded. "I-what?! What do Nikki and Professor Lupin have to do with this?"

Sirius groaned to himself, "Merlin, Coley's going to kill me...."

Harry's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to work out just what, exactly, was going on here. He had been asleep only five minutes prior; his brain wasn't exactly functioning at top speed.

     "Who's Coley?!"

     "Again, I'm sorry, I know I have explaining to do, but I promise I'll explain everything, okay, you deserve to know the truth. But... I can't explain it all here and now, just promise me you'll meet in Remus' office after you're dismissed, and tell no one!" Sirius rapidly said in an insistent whisper.

     "...If you do, I can tell you a quick story about your parents before I go."

     Harry froze.

     "Is that a yes? I have a good one," Sirius cracked a hopeful smile.

     Remaining quiet, Harry shifted so that he was openly facing Sirius, patiently awaiting the story.

     "Our sixth year, we had gone on a Muggle Studies field trip to a... oh, I always forget what they're called... an amusement park? I think? Someplace with these big metal courses and food stands," Sirius started, scrunching his nose as he tried to remember the name.

     "Amusement park, yes," Harry clarified.

     Sirius continued, "and Lily told James and I that a Muggle tradition at amusement parks was to eat these fried dough things and then go on some spinny thing - a Tilt-A-Whirl?"

     Harry snorted.

     "It was bad. The incident of the second return of fried dough."

     "Had neither of you ever gone to an amusement park before?" Harry questioned, hungry for any crumble of information about his parents.

     Sirius leaned back in his chair, lifting one of his legs up and crossing it so that his foot rested comfortably against his knee. "We knew nothing about Muggle culture - James was just oblivious while I grew up in..... an anti-Muggle family," he finished lamely.

     He lifted his head, cocking it to the side as he listened. "I have to go. Poppy's coming - remember, the night you're released, go to Remus' office. Everything will be explained there."

—————————————————————————

November 8th, 1993

     ℒℴ𝓋ℯ，

     ℐ'𝓂 ℴ𝒻𝒻 𝓉ℴ 𝒸𝓁𝒶𝓈𝓈．𝒲𝒶𝓃𝓉ℯ𝒹 𝓉ℴ 𝓁ℯ𝓉 𝓎ℴ𝓊 𝓀𝓃ℴ𝓌 𝓈ℴ 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎ℴ𝓊 𝒹ℴ𝓃'𝓉 𝓌ℴ𝓇𝓇𝓎．𝒦ℯℯ𝓅 𝓈𝓁ℯℯ𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 － 𝓎ℴ𝓊 𝓁ℴℴ𝓀 ℯ𝓍𝒽𝒶𝓊𝓈𝓉ℯ𝒹 （𝓃ℴ ℴ𝒻𝒻ℯ𝓃𝓈ℯ）．𝒲ℯ'𝓇ℯ 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓂ℯℯ𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓉 ℳℴℴ𝓃𝓎'𝓈 𝓁𝒶𝓉ℯ𝓇 𝓈ℴ 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌ℯ 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒻ℴ𝓇𝓂 𝒶 𝒷ℯ𝓉𝓉ℯ𝓇 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝓃．

     𝒴ℴ𝓊𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈，

     𝒞ℴ𝓁ℯ𝓎

     𝒫．𝒮． ℱ𝓇ℯ𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒢ℯℴ𝓇𝑔ℯ 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 ℋ𝒶𝓇𝓇𝓎'𝓈 𝓅ℯ𝓇𝒻ℯ𝒸𝓉𝓁𝓎 𝒻𝒾𝓃ℯ － 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒷𝓇ℴℴ𝓂 𝑔ℴ𝓉 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓌ℴ𝓇𝓈𝓉 ℴ𝒻 𝒾𝓉．

      Sirius folded the letter back up neatly, frowning slightly as he wondered what he should do.

     Was Harry out of the Hospital Wing yet? Was he actually going to come to get an explanation, or was he going to go straight to Dumbledore?

     His teeth tugged on his bottom lip, unsure.

     He could always just go to Moony's... and Nikki had Lily's old mirror that he and James had charmed once they started dating so if something happened it would be easy for her to contact him...

     Decision made, he transformed into his dog form - Scruffy - and padded his way out of the common room.

     Sirius trotted through the halls of Hogwarts, his thoughts running through his head as if they were sped up to double their normal time.

     Arriving at Remus' office, he whined in a pitch just loud enough for Remus to hear, even with his advanced hearing that sharply grew as the moon approached full.

     "You're lucky I don't have class this period," Remus sighed after he opened the door, running his hand through his just-barely-starting-to-grey light brown hair. "Did you know that Severus made the entire school write essays on how to kill me?"

     Sirius transformed back to himself the millisecond the door closed. "Prick," he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Still not over our childhood squabbles."

     Remus grimaced. "I don't think the war was a childhood squabble."

     "It was fought mostly with teenagers... childhood squabble," Sirius said simply as he stepped closer to the desk. "Hey, I helped her write this one!"

     He sat on top of the desk, parchment crinkling underneath him as he unearthed Nikki's submission from under a pile.

     Sirius cleared his throat dramatically.

     "'How To Identify a Werewolf: A Numbered List. By Nicole Weasley.'"

     Remus cracked a minuscule smile. "It's not funny."

     "That's not what you said after OWL's - now hush and let me read." Sirius held the parchment in front of him like it had the meaning of life inscribed on it.

     "'One: he's the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year. Two: his nickname is Moony. Three: he's a bookworm. Four: he has self-deprecation issues.'"

     Remus gave Sirius a pointed glance. "Pot meet kettle."

     "Stop interrupting me, Moons, I'm on a roll here," Sirius innocently brushed over his friend's interjection. "'Five: he's sitting in Remus Lupin's chair. Six: he has the most ironic name for a werewolf ever.'"

     "Says Dog Black the black dog."

     Sirius shrugged. "Mummy and Daddy dearests hit the nail on the bloody head with that one... also the S.O.B part."

     He continued his dramatic reading. "'Seven: his name's Remus John Lupin. Eight: he's my bloody friend.'"

     Sirius dropped the parchment with a flourish, putting his hands behind him on the desk. "Oh, and a smiley face was drawn!"

     He leaned back, shifting his weight to his palms to hold him up.

"You're going to destroy the parchment, Sirius," Remus said dryly. "Also, I had the third years right after breakfast. And I'm happy to report that Harry looked to be completely fine after his... fall."

Sirius ran his hand through his hair, grimacing as it caught in the tangles. He hated how long it was - he usually preferred shoulder length, not however long this was.

Remus noticed his expression, the younger man shaking his head ruefully. "You do need to get it cut eventually. Preferably not by yourself, either, I remember you were curled in the fetal position for three bloody hours the first summer you lived with the Potters."

"I can do it, Moony," Sirius replied, huffing. "I'm not a child. I don't need anyone to cut my hair for me."

(He could feel the cutting curse against the back of his neck slicing through hair and nicking the tan skin underneath, crimson blood welling up.)

Sirius grumbled to himself in an undertone, "bloody parents."

Remus sighed under his breath. "You can stay here while I teach my other classes. Just... don't destroy my office?"

"No promises."

It took an hour after Remus left for Sirius to fall asleep once more, sprawled out on the couch in Remus' office. His body demanded sleep; it craved to catch up from the sleep deprivation Sirius had inflicted upon himself.

He didn't even budge when Remus shook his shoulder gently after his classes were over for the day.

Remus sat at his desk, working on grading essays in silence.

As the clock struck eleven at night, an uncertain knock rapped against the door.

Remus glanced up.

"Professor Lupin...?" Harry Potter's voice floated through the door. "I was told to come here for an explanation."

'Dammit, Sirius...'

Remus stood up, joints cracking in protest. He still wasn't completely recovered after the full moon on Friday. He ambled over to the door, opening it to...

Nothing.

His lips curved into a wry grin. "You have James' Cloak."

Harry's head appeared out of nowhere. "How'd you know?!"

"I knew your father well," Remus explained briefly, ushering Harry inside and closing the door behind him. "Who promised you an explanation?"

"Sirius Black."

Remus facepalmed, reaching for his wand stored in the pocket of his robe.

"Accio mirror," he mumbled, catching the small oval mirror as it came hurtling at him from out of Sirius' shirt pocket. "Nicole Weasley."

A wrinkle formed on Harry's forehead as he scrunched it, perplexed.

"We'll explain," Remus promised. "But Sirius gets pouty like a petulant child if Nikki's not there when he wakes up. And, honestly, the man needs bloody sleep."

Harry snorted out a tiny laugh at his professor swearing in front of him.

"Sirius," Nikki's faint voice came out of the mirror, "you know that I have classes tomorrow - you're not Sirius."

"I'm not," Remus agreed amicably.

Nikki groaned quietly to herself. "What did he do? I'll be there soon - at the library."

"Harry Potter knocked on my office door asking for 'an explanation' that Sirius apparently promised him."

Nikki swore, dropping her quill on the table. "I'll get Fred and George. We'll be ten minutes or so."

Ten minutes later, the trio of gingers slipped into the office. Nikki bent over at the waist, puffing out breaths of air.

"He's going to be the death of me, I swear to Merlin," she groaned, brushing flyaway strands of hair away from her face. "We ran here."

"Ollie's Quidditch reign of terror was worth something!" George cheered.

Remus shook his head. "Don't let him hear you say that. You know how badly that would go."

Nikki frowned slightly, her face brightening as she thought of an idea. "I'm gonna do it."

Remus couldn't finish the words "do what?" before Nikki had transformed into her Animagus form and launched herself onto the couch, landing right on top of Sirius.

"BLOODY HELL!"

He jolted awake, eyes popping open.

"Don't do that!"

Nikki hopped off the couch, tail wagging smugly.

"H-how did she do that?!" Harry added.

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "She's an Animagus. Well, now she is, at least. Which she didn't need to do."

Nikki shifted back into her human form, lightly declaring, "and she can hear every word you're saying. And, now that we're all here and awake - though I do feel bad, you have a shit sleep schedule - why is Bambi here for an explanation?"

Harry cocked his head to the side. Was he Bambi? Why would his nickname be a baby deer from a movie?

"Welllll..." Sirius drew out the sound, buying himself time as he tried to think of a decent enough explanation. "When Harry was in the Hospital Wing, I visited him at night in secret because I had to see if he was alright for myself..... and I might have been a bit of an idiot and stayed in human form, and he might have woken up and seen me..."

Nikki buried her head in her hands.

"...and I said that we'd explain if he didn't call for Poppy...?"

George and Fred burst into laughter as Remus smacked his head with the palm of his hand.

"It's a bloody miracle McGonagall was able to control your frenetic energy for an entire class period," Nikki mumbled into her hands.

Sirius shrugged. "Well, in my defense, what the hell was I supposed to do?! And if anyone else deserves to know what's going on, it's Harry. You both know that."

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Harry burst out, completely and utterly lost.

The rest of the room turned to him.

"George," Fred started, "set up the puppet show."

"....What's a puppet show?" Sirius whispered to Remus, his eyebrows slanting as he thought.

Remus muttered back, "A performance with little sock-like things that you control with either strings or your hand."

"Nikki, we're going to need you to take the role of Lily Potter," George insisted as he busily flicked his wand, setting up the backdrop. "...And yourself. But that's the second and third acts."

Sirius, Remus, and Harry all sat down on the couch as Nikki reluctantly joined her younger brothers.

"...Why am I sticking my hand up the arse of either puppet me or puppet Lily?"

Fred huffed. "Because they're hand puppets, Nikki, we don't know how to make marionettes!"

"And you're the only girl here soooo... no! That's puppet you - see the freckles? - you need puppet Lily now," George bluntly stated.

"Not. A. Word. Sirius." Nikki's eyes flicked up to the aforementioned man as he opened his mouth, snapping it shut with a faint click.

"I called the role of You-Know-Who," Fred chimed cheerfully as he flicked his wand, dimming the lights in the office.

"Shit..." Sirius mumbled to himself.

"October 31st, 1981," George said, his voice booming due to the hasty sonorous charm he placed on himself.

Fred and George controlled their puppets - Lord Voldemort and James Potter, respectively - into their best imitation of a karate fight.

Harry was confused.

"W-why are my dad and Voldemort having a karate fight?"

Sirius slowly asked, "What's karate?"

"A Muggle fighting technique," Remus muttered back.

"Nic, lift your middle finger in the puppet," Fred whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

Puppet Lily did the same to the puppet version of Voldemort.

"...And now the puppet version of my mum is flipping Voldemort off?" Harry questioned rapidly.

Nikki shrugged. "Okay.... This is more likely to have happened than the karate fight."

Harry shook his head. "I thought this was supposed to make things easier to understand! This is just making me more confused!"

"Cut!" Remus exclaimed, flicking his wand and raising the lights back to their normal brightness. "A better explanation: Sirius was never a Death Eater, and there was a spell called the Fidelius that would hide you and your parents from Voldemort with a secret keeper. Everyone thought the secret keeper was Sirius when it was actually our other friend, Peter Pettigrew. Peter sold your parents out to Voldemort and, when Sirius went after Peter, he blew up the street, cut off his own finger, and then turned into his rat animagus to fake his own death. And, as we only recently found out, Peter is in the Gryffindor common room disguised as someone's pet."

"That was in the second act!" George groaned.

"...That makes more sense..." Harry admitted slowly, still trying to wrap his head around the story. "But how is Nikki involved? Weren't you and Percy born August 1976?"

Sirius shuddered, his face screwing itself into an expression of disgust.

"That was also in the second act," Fred crossed his arms, the Voldemort puppet still on his right hand.

"Because I accidentally time traveled last year into 1976 and met both your parents, Sirius, Remus, and Peter there," Nikki summed up succinctly. "Welcome to our cult, Bambi."

"The How The Fuck Do We Harbor an Escaped Falsely Accused Convict Cult!" Fred and George chorused in unison.

"Why are you all calling me Bambi?"

"Because your dad was a stag animagus and Lily made us watch a movie about a baby deer," Sirius explained easily. "A depressing story - he had a mother who gave a damn and she got ripped away from him."

"Sirius..." Nikki said carefully, frowning.

His mouth snapped shut.

Nikki raised an eyebrow, looking intently at Sirius.

Sirius shifted on the couch, pressing his lips together. He was going to resist the silent pull to tell her.

"...Fred, George?" Harry quietly wondered. "What's with the tension?"

George snorted. "Oh, that's the easiest question you've asked all night."

"Because you see, Harry, your godfather Sirius and Nikki are dating because they were a thing in the 1970s...." Fred trailed off innocently.

"Maybe we focus more on damage control than my mummy issues?" Sirius posed, smiling sweetly.

Remus groaned.

"I...." Harry started, trying to think of the right words. "...there is a lot to unpack in that sentence."

"Oh give him puppy dog eyes!" Nikki exclaimed. "He can't resist them."

"No, no, no," Sirius retorted. "Nobody has to worry about my mental health but me."

"Can I at least cut your hair then?" Nikki dryly suggested. "It's to your elbows; that can't be healthy."

"Yeah, well, spa days with Jerry the Dementor weren't exactly regular events," Sirius scoffed, a sarcastic air to every syllable.

Harry, oblivious to the sarcasm, slowly replied, "...The dementors have names?"

Sirius snorted. "It was a joke."

"I'm not joking though; you really do need a haircut."

Sirius froze.

She can't do it. Nobody could do it except him. The scar Death Buddy One gave him could be felt through his hair if you brushed it exactly the right way; he couldn't let her know.

"You're such a drama queen," she teased affectionately, sitting down next to him on the couch and squeezing his hand.

"I know," he shrugged, "but I can brush and cut my own hair."

"No, no you can't," Remus refuted immediately. "Fetal position. Three hours."

"...You're clamming up, aren't you?" Nikki surmised quickly. "You only get this defensive and clam up when you're in one of your moods."

His eyebrow arched. "I don't get moods," he defended, his voice rising sharply.

Nikki and Remus replied in one united voice, "Yes, you do."

"If it helps," Nikki suggested easily as she waved her wand and summoned a chair over to her, "you could always tell Bambi stories about James and Lily - oh, tell him about how we all went through Muggle London!"

Remus sighed. "And how you two and James had no bloody clue that England was run by a queen?"

"I still think it would be better if the band Queen lived in Buckingham," Sirius huffed, face visibly torn. "...Fine..."

He paused, just about to sit in the chair. "Just don't make it too short, or I'd look like Father."

Sirius spat out the last word, utter revulsion and disgust painting every letter of the word as he seemed to drop into the seat.

Nikki bent over the chair, kissing him gently on the cheek. "How short do you want it?"

Sirius chewed on the inside of his cheek, thinking. "Shoulder length, maybe?"

Pointing her wand at a spare quill, she transfigured it into a hairbrush. "I don't know how to use that Muggle device to cut things, so I'll have to use the cutting curse," she warned gently. "I solemnly swear to you that I'll be careful."

"I trust you," he murmured, hand reaching up over his head and squeezing hers lightly before dropping his hand back down.

"Oh, speaking of," George said out of the blue, reaching into his bag, "you don't have your Hogsmeade permission slip, right?"

Harry shook his head, a disgruntled expression on his face. "Uncle Vernon wouldn't sign it... and then I accidentally blew up Aunt Marge."

"You live with the Dursleys?" Sirius spoke, his disdain palpable. "Also nice one, there's a lot of aunts I would have wanted to do that to when I was thirteen."

Fred grinned. "We have an early Christmas present for you. The Marauder's Map!"

"Two of the four Marauders are here in this very room," George said in a mysterious voice as he pulled the old piece of parchment out of his bag. "One is your dad."

"We don't talk about the fourth," Nikki added immediately as she busily began to wet Sirius' hair with the Aguamenti charm after dividing it into equal sections.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" came the chorus of five voices in unison as the map unveiled itself.

"This is a map of-" Harry started, barely able to believe it.

Nikki interrupted, "Everyone."

"Everyone?"

"Where they are," George told, beginning the explanation.

Fred added, "What they're doing,"

"Every minute," Sirius grinned, looking years younger with his smile.

Remus finished, "Of every day. We made it when we were at school."

"So that really is..." Harry's eyes landed on a specific name, little footsteps with a scroll that had the person's name scrawled in the center of it.

"Dumbledore," Fred responded, "in his study, pacing."

George informed, "He does that a lot."

"It's nearly midnight; maybe you should be worried about Dumbledore's sleep schedule instead of mine," Sirius innocently stated.

"You mean your lack of a sleep schedule?" Nikki rolled her eyes, starting to brush out a section of his hair.

"Ow-fuck-I have a sleep schedule!"

Remus snorted dryly. "One or two hours of sleep and then crashing isn't a sleep schedule, Sirius."

"You're not the mum friend, Remus, stop trying to act like one," Sirius prodded, "it's sickening."

He tensed, feeling the brush against his hair. She was getting closer...

"You know I can feel you tensing up, right?" Nikki murmured, bringing her brush back up to the top of his head.

Sirius sucked in a sharp breath. "...I'm fine."

"Love," she sighed, quiet enough where Sirius was the only one who heard her. "I know you're lying to me. I know your tells; you know mine. What is it?"

He exhaled, reluctantly muttering back, "...I suppose you were going to find out anyway... look closer."

"Why do I get the feeling that I am not going to like this?" Nikki mumbled, peering closer. She breathed out, "andddd I was right..."

She swallowed. "Mind telling me what happened?"

Sirius tapped the back of his hand with his index finger as he softly began to explain. "About the sixth year, I think? Some Death Buddy guy was pissed at me - think I sent him to Azkaban, actually, when James and I were Aurors - and left that scar in the fight.... You should have seen the other guy, though."

Nikki didn't understand. "When the fuck were you even fighting anyone?!"

"Bloody Bellatrix," Sirius answered, upper lip curling at her name, "said that I had said something about some random death eater, which pissed him off - I actually kept my mouth shut this time, very surprising for me actually - which led to that happening... he caught me off guard in yard time."

"In... what?" Nikki asked, perplexed.

"Recreational yard time," Sirius explained. "One of the few times we weren't in isolation. I'm almost certain Bella was just pissy because I took her pudding after beating her in Exploding Snap, when that was the bloody deal we had made."

Remus' head snapped over to Sirius. "You and Bellatrix Lestrange, your absolute least favorite cousin, played Exploding Snap. Together. While in Azkaban. For pudding?" He questioned, partially hysterical.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well we had nothing better to do! It was either that or Gobstones, and only the bottom of the barrel in Azkaban played Gobstones. And Merlin forbid we actually-" he shuddered over dramatically, "-talked to each other about our fucking feelings."

"The incest probably messed with her brain," Nikki mentioned easily, reaching the ends of his hair with the brush. "You know, it's a bloody miracle you came out looking like you do when you are your own third cousin."

"WHAT?!" Harry burst out, which prompted Fred and George to start snickering uncontrollably.

Sirius groaned. "Dammit, Coley... but yes, it's true - I'm my own third cousin, and I played Bellatrix for Exploding Snap for pudding; the Blacks are chocoholics... and we despise talks about our feelings," he responded, answering both questions at once. The last seven words were heard by no one but himself.

"Merlin... it's bloody Shawshank Redemption... you're Andy Dufresne!" Remus blurted, the dots connecting in his head.

"What?" Sirius replied blankly.

Nikki warned gently, "I'm going to start cutting it now... shoulder length and I'll keep the point of my wand away from you."

"Mmm... I trust you," Sirius told her, craning his head into her touch as he waited for Remus' explanation.

"It's a Muggle book about Andy Dufresne, a man who was framed and then sent to prison, and how he broke out of jail," Remus gave the brief summary. "They're apparently making a movie about it; comes out next year."

Fred snorted. "Maybe you should read the book and give the author some critiques."

Nikki held Sirius' hair out at an angle, her wand pointed at the hair but careful to not be pointed at the back of his neck too.

"Diffindo," she muttered, the hair in her grasp falling to the floor as if its marionette strings had been severed.

George grinned. "Hey, already better than when Mum saw Bill's ponytail when we went to Egypt."

"You're lucky your dad won that lottery; I wouldn't have broken out otherwise," Sirius added absentmindedly. "And Peter would be free."

Nikki's hand stilled on his head.

"...Bloody buggering fuck."

Sirius ran his palm down his face. "Dammit."

"Scabbers is Peter, isn't he?" Nikki asked simply, eyes narrowing in fury for her baby brother. "Also don't move, I don't want to mess up."

Sirius swallowed. "He doesn't have a right index finger. Peter cut it off."

Fred swore viciously.

"We need to plan," Remus said softly. "Peter is undeniable evidence that you are innocent, Sirius. We need him."

Sirius let out an animalistic growl. "He killed them, Remus!"

Harry flinched.

"Sirius," Nikki tried to soothe him as she continued to cut his hair. "You can't be impulsive now. We need to plan things before jumping headlong into problematic situations."

She bent down, getting the ends of his hair at eye level. "Anddd... voilà!"

"Hey! And Sirius isn't in a fetal position after trying to cut his own hair," Remus teased affectionately.

Sirius, being the mature, responsible adult that he was, decided to raise his middle finger and flip Remus the bird.

"Eventually you have to find a razor or something," Nikki mentioned, "it's kinda eerie."

"How much I look like my shit father?" Sirius dully clarified. "Orion's hunting dog, remember?"

"Sirius." Nikki's voice was firm. "You are so much more than the constellation you're named after. And you are nothing like Orion."

"...Who?" Harry's nose wrinkled, confused about the random name thrown out there.

"Let's just say his parents make Vernon and Petunia Dursley win parents of the year," Nikki fumed. "I swear to bloody Merlin, if they weren't already dead I would apparate to 12 Grimmauld the first Hogsmeade trip and done the Wizarding world a bloody favor."

"Can we stop talking about my childhood?" Sirius snapped. "Apparently I only unleash my trauma when plastered. I kind of like it that way; let's keep the trend going."

"You need to stop bottling things up, Sirius," Nikki coaxed, coming around the chair and kneeling in front of him.

"I like it more when you're-" Sirius started innocently, smirking.

She fixed him with an unamused look.

He quailed. "...Never mind?"

Nikki softly encouraged, "You can talk to us. Me and Remus, we're here for you."

He let out a deep breath, practically slumping in the chair. "Neither of you will understand just how shit my former parents were. I don't want to be a burden on-"

"You are not, and will never be, a burden!" Nikki cut him off sharply.

Harry shifted awkwardly. "If Mum and Dad made you my godfather, you're not a burden. I'm assuming they were smart people and made the right decision."

"...Are we going to have a group hug now?" Fred broke the tension innocently.

Sirius pursed his lips gently. "...Could we possibly go to the kitchens for a midnight snack? I don't think I've eaten today..."

Nikki shook her head fondly. "You're like a bloody toddler."

She planted a soft kiss on the top of his head and stepped back.

"...Last one there doesn't get any chocolate!" Nikki blurted, transforming into her Animagus and bolting out of the office as fast as her four paws could carry her.

"OI!" Sirius shouted after her, shifting into his dog form and pealing off after her.

Remus yelled at the two rapidly moving dogs, "THAT'S UNFAIR!"

Fred shrugged. "I want chocolate, sorry," he scrambled after his older sister.

"Perfect break from OWL work!" George cheered, sprinting to the kitchens.

"I'm still getting chocolate anyway," Remus muttered to himself. "Are you going to join us, Harry? We could tell you more about James and Lily if you'd like."

Harry's face split into a blinding smile. "Yeah... yeah, I'd like that."

None of them got to bed that night until three thirty in the morning.

Word Count: 6,518