"ℐ'𝓋ℯ 𝒢ℴ𝓉 𝒫𝓁ℯ𝓃𝓉𝓎 𝓉ℴ 𝒷ℯ 𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀𝒻𝓊𝓁 ℱℴ𝓇" － ℬ𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒞𝓇ℴ𝓈𝒷𝓎

November 25th, 1993

Nicole Weasley's head pounded with every step she took, the cadence of her footfalls a drumbeat through her eardrums.

     It had been nearly two weeks since she had become an Animagus, and she was running on fumes.

She couldn't escape the sounds, the smells, the pure cacophony of Hogwarts students no matter how hard she tried.

     For Nikki, it was all just too much.

     Sliding into her seat in Potions next to Percy, Nikki's head immediately dropped onto the desk in front of her, arms blocking out the light from the classroom.

"...Are you... okay?" Percy slowly asked, his eyebrows furrowing in concern.

"Migraine," Nikki mumbled through her self-made cocoon. "You're going to have to do most of the work today. Feel like utter dog shit."

Percy frowned sympathetically. "Of course, Nic, you don't even have to ask. Although... I don't think you're going to be very happy... the potion we're learning about is Amortentia."

She lifted her arm the tiniest bit upwards, glancing at Percy out of the corner of her eye. "You're joking."

He shook his head. "We're brewing it now, but I think Professor Snape has a vial of brewed potion for us to smell. It takes around three weeks to make."

Nikki groaned, fingers going up to her temples and trying to relieve the pain that has built up in her head.

Her ears subconsciously craned themselves, picking up a conversation all the way down the corridor in the dungeons.

"You do realize I'm a Ravenclaw, right? And we're by the dungeons?"

"Oh, shove it — it's as much of an abandoned place as I could think of. I have to tell you something, Peggy, considering that our parents... aren't completely engaged in raising us."

Nikki banged her head on her desk, trying to knock the conversation out of her head. She fiddled with the hem of her school skirt, sliding it between her index and middle fingers.

"When a wizard and a witch love each other very much — hell, I can't believe I'm giving the talk to my thirteen year old sister — the wizard sticks his wand-"

A strangled sound rose from the back of Nikki's throat, her left index finger tapping on her thigh to try and focus on something else, anything else.

Percy gave his twin sister an odd look out of the corner of his eye, concerned. "Maybe you should go to the Hospital Wing... how long has this been going on?"

     He added the four drops of rose oil, beginning to stir their Amortentia potion anti-clockwise as the potion instructions demanded.

     "Around two or three w-days..." Nikki lied, her mouth twitching as she fought her internal struggle to always tell the truth.

     She was an absolutely horrendous liar; Sirius constantly teased her by suggesting that she probably couldn't lie to a paper bag.

     It wasn't her fault that her cheeks kept flushing subconsciously whenever she tried to lie, dammit!

     "You really have to go to Madam Pomfrey," Percy groaned as he turned the heat down on the potion, turning to his sister after he covered the cauldron. "We have seven days for this potion to sit; you can't go on like this."

     "Watch me."

     Her nose scrunched as the sudden whiff of cinnamon flooded into her nostrils, overwhelming her senses.

     "Oh my Merlin, I smell Terrence! It's his cologne — sandalwood and lemon!"

     That sounded absolutely disgusting...

     "Why the bloody hell would I smell peppermint? Do I just really fucking love toothpaste or something?!"

     Nikki pinched the bridge of her nose with her index and middle fingers, taking a deep breath and trying to focus solely on cinnamon.

     Sirius constantly smelled like cinnamon; it permeated his skin and clothing until she associated even the spice itself with him.

     She swallowed. Being an Animagus was shit.

     "Ms. Weasley," Professor Snape drawled from behind the two gingers. "Mr. Weasley."

     They turned in unison.

     "Yes, Professor?"

     Percy's lips twitched as they used their connection that had been forged in the womb to speak at the same exact time.

     The twin-speak from them and Fred and George pissed off everyone who wasn't a Weasley or an adopted Weasley.

     "Share with the class what you smell in Amortentia," the dark haired professor ordered, extending the vial out towards them.

     Nikki pursed her lips, mumbling to herself, "Five Galleons says he smells lilies..."

     Leaning forward slightly, she smelled the potion. "Cinnamon... chocolate... new books... something else, though I'm not sure what."

     It was a bit short of an answer. Her head pounded wildly with every word, her control straining to keep her temper in check.

     (She definitely knew what the 'something else' was. It was the leather jacket that Sirius wore incessantly when she first met him. Nikki didn't exactly want to spread out the depths of her heart for the man who still held a grudge over their duel in class sixteen years ago.)

     He sniffed. "I must ask, rumors have been running amok around the grounds that you have had an encounter with a... rabid dog?"

     Nikki's spine straightened sharply, her chin rising. "Scruffy's not rabid. He's a perfectly good dog."

     Percy shifted awkwardly in his chair as he flicked his eyes from Nikki to Professor Snape.

     ".....I smell... Mum's cooking... shoe polish... and..... something flowery?" Percy interjected, his eyes narrowing slightly behind his horn-rimmed glasses as he tried to place the flower scent.

     Nikki sneezed at the wave of embarrassment that smacked into her from both sides, one from her twin brother and the other from a curly blonde haired Ravenclaw across the room.

     "Merlin kill me now," she moaned, dropping her head on her desk in pure exhaustion and misery. "It's Penelope, isn't it?"

     Professor Snape snapped, "Ms. Weasley, control yourself! Such exclamations are not proper in Potions class."

     Nikki's last strand of sanity snapped clean in two. She had reached the end of her rope.

     And she was about to make it everyone else's problem.

     "You know," Nikki started conversationally as she picked up her bag and stood up from her chair, the legs screeching on the floor. Her voice sharpened. "This is why Lily never bloody loved you."

     You could hear a pin drop in the classroom.

     The professor could barely control his reaction, jaw nearly dropping open in a stunned silence.

     Nikki didn't stay and watch him process her retort. She left the classroom before he could give her detention for it.

     She strode out of the dungeons, turning down a corridor and resting her forehead on the rough stone wall ahead of her.

     "Remus should be done with class by now," she whispered to herself, squeezing her eyes shut as the sounds, smells, and sights of Hogwarts battered against every inch of her skin.

     Remus Lupin wasn't expecting the sharp rap on his office door to be from Nikki, and he definitely wasn't expecting her to slide past him and flop onto the small, scuffed couch in the corner of the room.

     "Nikki...?"

     She pulled a cushion over her head, smothering herself in the fabric. "Please don't, Remus, my head's going to bloody explode."

     Remus cracked a sympathetic smile. "Amortentia lesson?"

     A pitiful sound emitted from under the cushion.

     "Could be worse, at least the full moon wasn't that day."

     Remus went over to his desk, sitting in his chair and pulling out a stack of essays he had to grade for his classes.

     He worked in silence, quill scratching against the parchment as he wrote corrections and comments in the margins of each student's essay with bright red ink.

     Harry and Sirius' laughter mingled as they slid into the office, Sirius' head thrown back to the ceiling as he guffawed.

     "That was one bloody interesting Divination-what the bloody hell happened to you?" Sirius questioned, his eyebrows furrowing as he crossed the room to the couch where Nikki buried herself in three quick strides. He knelt down next to her, his hand resting gently on her back.

     "Amortentia lesson from hell," she grumbled, craning herself into his touch.

     Sirius immediately understood. He winced.

     "Please kill me."

     He barked out a laugh pitched low enough where it wouldn't strain her eardrums.

     "Sorry, love, bit of a mass-murderer drama currently and I wouldn't want to add to that," Sirius joked lightly.

     Her arm stretched out from under the cushion, fumbling in the direction of where she heard Sirius' voice.

     "Need to hyperfocus on cinnamon," she mumbled, peeking her head out from under the cushion and shooting Sirius a look that tugged on his heartstrings.

     He was weak for the puppy dog eyes.

     Sirius ran a hand through his hair. "You're going to have to move a tad. I'm... a foot taller than you, I think?"

     Nikki sneezed three times in rapid succession at the strong wind of incense from Sirius' movement.

     "Why the bloody hell do you smell like you were dropped in a barrel of incense sticks and only just clawed your way out?!"

     Sirius snorted, shrugging. "Guess."

     She sneezed again.

     Remus shook his head fondly. "You're lucky it isn't close to... that time of the month, Pads, otherwise I'd be doing the same."

     Harry cocked his head to the side, confused. "What?"

     "When I said anything for our Moony, I was not expecting debilitating migraines because of stupidly sensitive senses," Nikki grumbled as she pushed herself up to the left side of the couch, kneeling on the cushion.

     Sirius sat down next to her, throwing his arm over her shoulders and pulling her gently against his chest. She rested her head on the curve of his shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut.

     "I know," he murmured, raising his other hand to card gently through her ginger waves. "The first couple months are extremely sensitive, but you get used to it eventually."

     "Fucking Amortentia," she cursed, inhaling deeply. Nikki choked on her breath of air at the stench. "Why incense?! Want cinnamon."

     "Anyone tell you that you sound like a toddler when you're grumpy?" Sirius asked, an affectionate tone to his voice as he dropped his hand down to the pocket of her robes to pull out her wand. "Hopefully this works; I don't particularly care for getting my mouth washed out with soap — tastes vile."

     He pointed the wand at his own chest, muttering "Scourgify" under his breath.

     Nikki cracked a tiny smile. "Better."

     Harry furrowed his eyebrows. "....I'm confused."

     "On what part, Harry?" Sirius asked softly, setting Nikki's wand down on the side table and bringing his hand back to her hair.

     "All of it? What's Amour-Amortentia and why can she smell the incense that strongly? And since when did you smell like cinnamon?!"

     Sirius began to explain quietly. "Because we're Animagi, it heightens our senses. Moony over there is a bit more extreme, though only at specific times. Amortentia is a love potion; it smells like the things or people they love."

     "Cinnamon!" Nikki smiled happily, craning her head into Sirius' touch as she buried her face into his chest. "He's always smelled like cinnamon... you smell off — smug? I think? Something distinctly spicy."

     Sirius coughed, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. "I might have followed Harry around to his classes today, one of which was Divination..."

     Nikki burst into laughter, shoulders shaking. "Percy takes that class; Merlin, I've heard stories."

     "She had seen the Grim in my teacup ever since the first class," Harry shrugged as if it didn't really matter that much. "I'd rather it be you than yet another near-death experience. Honestly, it's getting a bit old."

     Remus' quill stopped moving.

     Sirius' hand faltered from its steady rhythm running through his girlfriend's hair.

     Nikki sneezed once more from the cocktail of confusion-terror-stress-insistence radiating off of Sirius.

     "...Bambi, what exactly do you mean by 'another near-death experience?'" Sirius prodded.

     Harry rocked on the balls of his feet anxiously. "Never mind, forget I said anything!"

     "Too bloody late for that," Sirius scoffed, raising a singular eyebrow expectantly.

     "You know, Nikki," Harry deflected, "I heard from Hermione, who heard from Ginny, who heard from her friend Demelza, who heard from Lavender Brown, who heard from Parvati, who heard from Padma, who heard from Penelope Clearwater, that you told Snape 'this is why Lily never bloody loved you!'"

     Remus coughed, trying to force down his sniggers. Sirius had no qualms about letting loose uproarious laughter, his shoulders shaking.

     "Have I told you how much I love you today?" He snickered, wiping a tear out from the corner of his eye.

     Nikki hummed, the steady beating of his heart a metronome to focus on. "Once more couldn't hurt."

     Harry let out a soft sigh of relief.

     "OWL year sucks utter arse," George groaned as he stepped into the office, ready to collapse.

     Fred wrinkled his nose. "Ew, gross."

     Nikki raised her right hand and flipped her younger brothers off, middle finger raised proudly.

     Sirius rolled his eyes. "I'm currently keeping her focused on one thing so that her head isn't overwhelmed from the Animagus transition. The migraines are no joke."

     "He's right," Remus agreed mildly, quill resuming its scratching on the parchments.

     "You're bloody stubborn, Nic," George huffed. "Someone's bound to have some kind of headache reliever."

     Nikki's nose scrunched. "It's got to be the strong shit. Like the hangover potion."

     "Oh, don't remind me," Sirius snorted. "You and your piss-poor alcohol tolerance."

     "...Are alcohol tolerance and traumatic upbringings directly related?" Nikki frowned, thinking. "Because both you and Rem..."

     He tapped her nose with his index finger. "My traumatic upbringing, for your information, gave me the highest score in Divination OWLs in history; I shoved the entirety of 12 Grimmauld Place into that exam. I feel bad for the poor bloke who read it, actually."

     Sirius looked up at Harry, a sly smile dancing across his face. "Make up sad shit; Trelawney will eat it up like it's chocolate. Hurled that childhood at her and got an O every year."

     "Percy's trying to actually interpret his dreams," Nikki mused. "He's complaining because apparently his dreams make absolutely no sense."

     "That's the point," Sirius laughed, his grey eyes light with mirth. "Divination's a bunch of dragon shit anyway; you get to make anything up. The more traumatic, the better. I think I wrote about my bag of dicks mug for my NEWT!"

     Nikki pulled her head away from him slightly, looking up at her boyfriend bewilderedly. "Your... what?"

     "When I was... fifteen I think... maybe sixteen, I'm not completely sure — but before I ran away! — I bought this mug out in Muggle London that had a little floral pattern on it with a very nice and elaborate cursive 'eat a bag of dicks' emblazoned in the center," Sirius said, his lips quirking into a smug smirk. "Then proceeded to drink out of it every day to see how many days it would take before Mother and Father read it. I think it took them... nine days? Ten?"

     Fred and George roared with laughter, tears rolling down their cheeks.

     Nikki winced, burying her head into Sirius' shoulder once more as her hand gathered up the material of his shirt in a tight grasp.

     "Fuck it," Sirius mumbled, voice rising a bit louder so that the twins could hear him. "Could one of you go get Minnie? Mention 'anything for our Moony' and she'll understand."

     Fred nodded, leaving Remus' office without another word. George plopped down next to the couch.

     "Could you do my palm reading?" He asked, an impish grin on his face.

     Sirius' response was to unravel his hand from strands of Nikki's hair, cupping George's hand in his own. He hummed, the sound dragging on loudly.

     The dark haired man cleared his throat, adopting the breathy voice that Professor Sybill Trelawney had coined.

     "Mars is bright tonighttttt... well fuck, sorry George, but your father's going to make you his own personal puppet for the week long extravaganza that is a Black Family wedding!" His voice was laced with bitterness and resentment.

     Harry's head snapped around, his eyebrows slanting downwards as he thought hard. "How does a line on his palm say that?!"

     Sirius dropped George's hand unceremoniously, plastering an innocent grin over his face like everything was perfectly fine and his father did not, in fact, use the Imperius Curse on his eldest son so that he did not cause a commotion at Bellatrix and Narcissa's weddings.

     "Again, traumatic shit. She'll be eating out of the palm of your fucking hand — pun intended — but side note, if your brain ever feels like you've stuffed it with cotton and you haven't gotten piss-drunk do NOT trust the voices in your head," Sirius warned.

     Nikki frowned. "Sirius...."

     'Shit.'

     Sirius planted a soft kiss to her forehead. "Yes, mon amour?"

     "Don't try to distract me with French pet names," Nikki dryly stated, arching an eyebrow. "Did that actually happen to you?"

     Sirius' lips flattened into a thin line.

     "...That was the reason for the parent-student-professor conference of fourth year, wasn't it?" Remus deduced, his brain working rapidly.

     Sirius huffed. "Moons, can we not?"

     Nikki pulled away, turning to face Sirius on the couch. She folded her arms across her chest. "No, no, no, you can't just brush this under the rug like every other trigger you have! It's not healthy!"

     "I do not have triggers!" Sirius said defensively, metaphorical hackles raised.

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

     "....Want me to help you with your Astronomy star chart, Bambi?" Sirius sheepishly deflected, trying to change the subject.

     "Sirius, stop trying to change the subject!" Nikki groaned, shaking her head ruefully.

Sirius ran his fingers through his hair, chewing on his lower lip. "...Oh, Minnie's coming — rain check?"

He didn't give anyone a moment to object, changing into his dog form and draping himself over Nikki's lap.

Nikki sighed, running her fingers through the thick fur on the nape of his neck.

     "You need to talk about it eventually, Sirius," she murmured, scratching behind his ears.

     Fred and Professor McGonagall entered the room, the stern Transfiguration professor carrying a vial of headache reliever potion.

     "Before you say anything," Remus inserted immediately, "she did it even though I swore that it wasn't necessary!"

     "C'mon Moonyyy," Nikki dragged out the last syllable, burying her nose in the dog's fur. "Also, to be fair, when I said anything for our Moony I was not expecting my sensory shi-stuff to go haywire."

     Minerva McGonagall let out a long suffering, drawn-out sigh. "Mr. Black, if you could please move off of Ms. Weasley so that I could give the Animagus-grade headache reliever to her?"

     The reactions were instantaneous.

     Sirius fell off the couch, landing in a sprawled heap on the floor.

     Remus' quill dragged through one of the lines of his fourth year Hufflepuffs' essay.

     Fred, George, and Harry's jaws dropped nearly wide enough to unhinge.

     Nikki tried to bullshit her way out of it. "...What did you just call Scruffy?"

     "Do you take me for a fool, Ms. Weasley?"

     ".....No...."

     "Good," the professor replied in a clipped, professional tone. "Then do you really believe that I wouldn't find out about four of my students in the last twenty or so years becoming Animagi, when I am one myself? And that I wouldn't be able to figure out their forms — really, Prongs? Padfoot? Moony? Wormtail? A bit more subtlety, if you please — Mr. Black, I can see you panicking; if I haven't told anyone yet, what makes you think that I will now?"

     She paused. "I'm not sure if I should be proud that four of my students figured out the Animagus process all by themselves or exasperated because they're all illegal Animagi and did it solely by themselves."

     Sirius shifted back into his human form, sprawled out on his back with his head propped up against the couch. ".....Minnie!" He cheered sheepishly. "You haven't aged a day!"

Nikki buried her head in her hands in mortification.

"Yes, but I can see that you clearly have," McGonagall said primly, trying to ease the tension and relieve the stress that permeated the room from Harry Potter.

"Bloody hell," Sirius swore, propping himself up on his elbows. "Again, there was no spa day with Jerry!"

"Can you stop mentioning Jerry?" Nikki huffed, dropping her hands to fix Sirius with an unimpressed look.

"Who's Jerry?"

Remus groaned dryly. "A dementor."

Sirius gave a mock pout in response. "Come on, you both know full well that I deflect shit with dark humor... black humor, if you will."

"Mr. Black," Minerva sighed.

His grey eyes darkened at his last name. "Minnie, you've taught me for seven years — I seriously prefer Sirius."

"Not that joke again..." Remus muttered.

"Sirius," the Transfiguration professor continued, adapting easily, "I understand that you have your own ways of dealing with things, but if you could at least refrain from joking about your time in Azkaban with Mr. Potter present?"

Sirius' mouth snapped shut. He frowned, mulling it over.

"...For Bambi..... fine."

"You still need to talk about it," Nikki mumbled.

"You, of all people, should know that I can hear you," Sirius dryly retorted.

She smirked. "That was the point."

He rolled his eyes. "I really don't think you want to learn about how dearest Mother and Father pitted little nine year old me against nineteen year old Bellatrix during Christmas holidays in the annual duels for chocolate tournament; she knew some pretty shitty spells, like the cruc — fuck."

Silence reigned.

"What?" Nikki snapped out, her voice hard.

Sirius swallowed. "...Nothing!"

Remus facepalmed, the smack of his hand against his forehead ringing throughout the room. "Apparently the Black Family Mausoleum is a wizarding monument. James was furious when he found that out after the DADA Disaster of Fifth Year."

"Remus!" Sirius exclaimed, shooting his best friend a glare. "Don't!"

He pushed himself up out of his propped up position, leaning against the couch as he sat under Nikki. "Moving on," he stressed the words, articulating them clearly and firmly, "how long have you known? Both about me being in the castle and... the whole falsely-accused thing?"

"Not to interrupt or anything..." Nikki mentioned hopefully, "but could we maybe discuss this after my head stops pounding? It's really not fun."

"Of course," Professor Minerva McGonagall declared, handing the potion over.

Nikki downed it without thinking, throwing it back until she had drained it all. Her nose scrunched. "Eurgh, tastes bloody vile like the Hangover Potion.... which I have definitely never had to drink because I am a wonderful role model for the younger years...?"

Sirius Black's will to keep his laughter inside himself broke cleanly into two pieces, snickering at the look on her face.

Professor McGonagall shook her head, unamused. "Of course not. Honestly, you're almost as bad as Mr. Potter — not you, Harry, it's your father I'm referring to."

"Hey, you can't talk!" Nikki objected, nudging Sirius' shoulder with her foot.

George sat next to his older sister on the couch, his face straining to maintain a calm expression even as he internally burst with laughter. "You better then, Nic?"

"Still adjusting... but hey, my head's not pounding anymore!" Nikki replied.

Sirius' lips spread into a small smile, hand reaching up over his head and gently rubbing his thumb against the skin of her ankle. "You're halfway through the shitty first month. Honestly, you're too bloody stubborn for your own good."

"Coming from you?" Remus scoffed, raising an eyebrow. "You're the king of doing everything by yourself."

"Rude," Sirius declared, his eyes flicking up to his old Transfiguration professor. "How long have you known?"

"The first Transfiguration class you attended under the disguise of your Animagus form... Scruffy, was it?" Minerva said innocently.

Sirius gave an overdramatic shudder at the name.

"Drama queen," Nikki teased, sitting up on the couch and folding her legs under her. "It's not even a bad name; you are a bit scruffy."

"I despise the beard with all of my heart and soul," Sirius replied, craning his neck backwards so that he could look up at Nikki. "And Padfoot was right there!"

Remus choked on a snort. "You would have been easily caught — Severus would have no qualms about turning you in."

Nikki wrinkled her nose at the name. "He mentioned something about my 'encounter with a rabid dog.'"

Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes. "He knows more about rabid dogs than I do given who he was palling about with during the war."

"Secondly," Minerva spoke over Sirius, her lips thinning. "Albus and I — well, we never believed that you were guilty of the crimes you were accused of."

Sirius choked on the breath of air he had just inhaled. He coughed, sputtering.

"That's..." he forced out, lungs still rebelling, "a lot more comforting than I expected this conversation to go."

Fred interjected, "We have a new member of our club! Would you like to be secretary or treasurer, Professor?"

"I'm president, apparently," Nikki joked, resting her chin on top of Sirius' head.

Remus raised his hand over by his desk. "Vice president, here."

Harry's emerald green eyes narrowed as he thought. "I think I'm... the encouragement?"

Fred and George finished in unison, "and we're the morale boosters!"

Sirius smacked his thigh with his hand, remembering something he wanted to say. "Oh, you lot, don't eat dinner tonight — Moons and I have a surprise planned."

"What for?" Harry questioned, his eyes brightening behind his glasses.

Remus' lips quirked into a mischievous smile before smoothing back out.

"A surprise means a surprise. It's for our little resident time traveler here."

Nikki's eyebrows furrowed. "What...? It's... just a random Thursday?"

"Not to you, lovely American that you are," Sirius teased. "It's a very special Thursday in November."

"....I hate you both."

"Happy Thanksgiving!" Sirius and Remus chorused with identical cherub grins on their faces.

Minerva McGonagall merely shook her head affectionately. "I wish you luck with your... celebration. Albus wrote a letter to be given to one of you three at the earliest convenience so that we could all have a meeting about... all this."

Harry sheepishly mentioned, "...Professor Dumbledore is probably going to be hearing from Professor Trelawney about the Grim showing up during her lesson..."

"He already did," McGonagall dryly stated. "And had a very infuriated Professor Snape storming into his office earlier."

Nikki said nothing, avoiding eye contact. "...I wonder what for?"

The elder professor let out a weary sigh. "It is a miracle that your detention record does not match the amount of trouble you get yourself into, Ms. Weasley."

"Because I can always talk myself out of it," Nikki innocently answered.

"Behave, all of you," Professor McGonagall implored. "And have a good night."

She left without another word, robes trailing behind her.

"....Sirius..." Nikki slowly asked, sliding off the couch and onto the floor next to him. "This question is going to sound really, really odd."

Sirius snorted, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as if it were second nature. "Love, you've explained the whole time travel situation. I don't think anything you say could sound odd anymore."

"...Did you have to give Regulus the talk?"

"And I was just proved wrong," Sirius responded, cocking his head to the side in abject bewilderment. "No...?? We both got the pureblood mandated talk and that's it?"

Remus idly interrupted from where he was grading essays, "you know, Sirius, the pureblood mandated talk barely counts."

"Yeah, no shit, Remus," Sirius snorted in disgust. "It was all of two minutes — the logistics, no fun allowed, male heirs only, if you have an affair you better be able to cover it up, and get out of my face." He rolled his eyes, derision palpable with every syllable.

"Where did that question even come from?!"

"I overheard an older sibling give their younger sibling the talk because they had emotionally absent parents!" Nikki groaned, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Ehh, Father definitely was, Mother.... probably was a bit too emotional with her parenting," Sirius said, his tone blasé. "Effie and Monty had to step in for the true talk... bloody hell, that was embarrassing."

"God, Sirius, you can't keep bottling everything up; you've got to talk to somebody," Nikki sighed, her thumb absentmindedly running against the black tattoo ink on his wrist. "Please."

"Yeah, well, nobody knew the full extent of the dysfunctional shitshow that is the Black Family: not Remus, not you, not James, not Effie and Monty, not even bloody REGULUS and he lived there!" Sirius snapped, eyes darkening.

Nikki frowned.

"Didn't mean to snap at you," he mumbled, his thumb tracing small circles onto Nikki's shoulder through the fabric of her robes. "Sorry."

Sirius let out a sigh, his breath moving strands of her ginger hair on the top of her head. "Couldn't even escape them in sleep."

He froze.

"Uhh... don't dwell on that..."

"I don't think you know me that well if you think I won't try to figure out what that meant," Nikki replied, voice a bit too casual.

George snorted. "She once wrangled us into a — I don't even know how long we suffered in the library — half a year long dive into the old Daily Prophets to figure out what happened during the war to you lot."

"Like a dog with a bone," Fred joked.

"Are you excited to celebrate Thanksgiving?" Sirius teased his girlfriend innocently, shifting so that he was facing her more openly. He brushed his childhood under the metaphorical rug, using the out of the American holiday.

Nikki rolled her eyes. "You're both insufferable — you know Dumbledore bloody insisted on the American accent!"

"Yes, however you said you were an American," Remus responded slyly, "so this is us respecting your culture!"

Nikki raised her middle finger in the direction of Remus Lupin.

"There's pumpkin pie though," Sirius revealed, "the house elves are more than willing — they practically adore us. Also, there's a bit of an odd duck there — Dobby, I think he said his name was? — that wants to branch out from the traditional British foods."

"Dobby," Harry groaned, shaking his head ruefully.

Sirius poked Nikki's cheek, an impish gleam in his eyes. "Are you really going to just destroy Dobby's dream like that?"

"You're such an idiot," Nikki snorted, "but you're my idiot. And you know how to convince me — with food."

The first Hogwarts Thanksgiving consisted of six people: Sirius, Remus, Nikki, Harry, Fred, and George. They were all very lucky that the next day, as it was a Friday, was a lighter schedule for them.

The meal had started at eleven at night and went well into the third hour of the day. But, they spent it together. And that was all that they needed.

(Nikki still had mental notes for ways that she could get payback on Remus and Sirius for planning an elaborate Thanksgiving holiday meal knowing full well that it was not her idea to use an American accent!)

Word Count: 5,175

The bag of dicks mug is actually a real thing that I saw at an oddities exposition while out with my friends and I immediately thought it was Sirius Black coded.