Even Stranger Magic

Sirius yipped loudly, crouched down on his front legs to playfully bark at Sirianna's pup. The little fella growled back and Sirius jumped at him, setting Sirianna off in a peal of laughter that distracted Sirius.

He looked toward her, grinning as much as he could when he was transformed. It - it was everything, being there with his goddaughter and godson. For eleven years, Sirius mourned the life he could have had with them. For almost four years after that, Sirius mourned the lives they never got to live.

And they were alive - alive.

It had been the best two weeks of Sirius's entire life, getting to know his godchildren.

Sirianna was so outgoing, bubbly, bossy. Merlin above, that girl was as bossy as her mother. She had taken to Sirius as easily as she had when she was a baby, laughing at his antics and scowling when he was ‘being a cunt'. She had a mouth on her too, it was hysterical.

Harry was a tougher nut to crack, not as interested in Sirius as Sirianna was. He was quiet, smart as anything though - brilliant, truly. Sirius nearly wet himself when he watched Harry repair a broken home for his mate, Harry commanded magic like nothing Sirius had ever seen before.

They were both brilliant, amazing in their own ways. Sirius had… well, he'd hoped that they'd want to return to England with him, be the family they were always meant to be.

Then Sirius met the little witch they called their sister and knew that they- they made their own family. Which was great, Sirius wanted them to have as big of a family as possible, but it made his place in their life a little unsure.

They had a… Chief Hopper, who didn't like Sirius at all on the notable occasion they met.

"Hopper! Meet Sirius!" Sirianna had been beaming at Sirius, making him feel taller than a giant. Sirianna had been thrilled to discover that she was named after him - after James's two favorite people, Sirius and Lily.

Sirius had offered Hopper his hand and thought maybe he was misreading the gruff seeming man until Sirianna made him positively scowl.

"He escaped prison to look for us!"

Hopper didn't like Sirius one bit, little El did. She was at Steve Harrington's house with Sirianna and Harry and all their mates, laughing while her red-headed friend, Max, tried to play fetch with Sirius and Ziggy. Sirius chased after the tennis ball she had a few times, nearly knocking over someone each time, but he wasn't a young pup anymore and he collapsed by the pool after his fifth fetch.

"Is it hard?" Harry was sitting on the edge of the pool with his legs in the water and a charms textbook open on his lap. He looked at Sirius, who transformed once he realized Harry wanted to talk to him, as if Sirius was meant to know what he was asking.

Was fetch hard? Was it hard to make a group of girls giggle?

"Becoming an animagus?" Sirius guessed getting a nod in reply. He grinned at his own accurate guess and tried to answer Harry honestly. "The process itself is difficult, it's meticulous, more so than almost any potion… the worst bit for me was keeping the Mandrake leaf in my mouth for a month, horrible tasting things, those are."

"You have to put a leaf in your mouth for a month?" Harry asked. He scrunched his nose in disgust, looking much like Lily. "Is there no way around that?"

"Nope!" Sirius kicked his shoes off and rolled up his pants so he could put his feet in the water with Harry. Everyone around them carried on with their games and chatter, their meal prep and laughter. Sirius was grateful for a moment with Harry, a moment to talk with his godson.

"Your father made us restart once," Sirius told him. "We were on day twenty-two - twenty-two - and James thought it would be a great time to ask your mother out. Remus, one of our mates, had told him that Lily wouldn't be impressed by his rancid breath - do you know how hard it is to clean your teeth with a leaf in your mouth? - and so your father tried to charm his teeth clean. The leaf fell out, ruined the entire thing."

"How did yours fall out?"

"Mine?" Sirius shrugged. "It didn't. I took it out so we would finish the process together. Then I summoned the leaf from - from our dormmate's mouth so he had to restart too."

Harry didn't laugh, Sirius rarely heard his laugh, as much as he wanted to. He did smile faintly though before looking back at his book, a win in any manner. Sirius didn't pester him, he remembered Remus's many lectures on bothering a person while they were reading, instead he looked around the yard at the wonderful chaos happening.

There were kids everywhere, just filling the yard. Sirius had been sort of squatting at Steve Harrington's house, unsure if he should find a hotel, unwilling to leave Theo, thrilled to be around his godkids every day… then Sirius realized that there were a bloody lot of people who stayed at Steve's house and it was possible that he hadn't even realized Sirius had sort of nicked a room to sleep in.

Sirianna's 'boyfriend' (and Sirius wasn't sure how he felt about that - seeing Sirianna be besotted and in love when his last memories of her had been in nappies) lived in a guest house on the property. The tall kid with the brilliant hair and excellent taste in music, Eddie Munson, seemed to stay there at least four nights a week even though Sirius had personally witnessed Harry repairing his home.

Sirianna and Harry stayed quite often, Sirianna in the guest house and Harry in the living room with Theo. The younger girls, Billy's sister Max and the twins's ‘sister' El, had stayed the night before.

It was madness, all of them rushing about and putting a meal together. Billy grilled burgers that smelled heavenly with Ron watching over his shoulder, the two of them chattering like old friends. Eddie and El were carrying plates of sweets out of the kitchen to put on the picnic tables set up. Max was still valiantly trying to convince Ziggy to fetch properly while Sirianna flitted between helping her and telling Eddie and Max where to place things on the tables. Theo and Steve were… somewhere, surely…

"Where's Theo and Steve?" Sirius asked Harry curiously when he didn't see either of them anywhere.

"Theo's inside talking to Steve," Harry said without looking away from his book.

Was he? That was interesting. Sirius was quite sure that Theo and Steve were about as friendly toward each other as dementors. The reason why couldn't be more obvious, as he sat beside Sirius obliviously. Both of those boys were about gone on dear sweet Harry.

"Harry? Do you fancy blokes?" Sirius asked. He was sure the answer was yes, but Harry was hard to read.

"I haven't the faintest what that means," Harry murmured distractedly, still reading away.

Sirius grinned again because he was sure Harry wasn't having him on. Sirianna had a smart mouth, his miniature to be certain, but Harry had a consistent genuineness to him.

"Do you have a preference for gender in a partnership?" Sirius clarified, choosing his words carefully. "A romantic partnership."

"What?" Harry lifted his head so quickly that his glasses slipped down his nose. It caused a pang of nostalgia to shoot through Sirius when Harry pushed them up, looking much like James for a moment.

He blushed like James too.

"I - er… why would you ask me that?" Harry asked, getting a little adorably high-pitched in his embarrassment. Sirius waited, sure that Harry would answer him if he gave him time to do so. Harry didn't need to say anything, his eyes flicked toward the garage that connected to the kitchen and told Sirius all he needed to know.

"I do not have a preference." Harry's fingers tightened on his book while his voice went flat and he didn't look Sirius in the eyes. "Is that- is that bad?"

Sirius's heart melted for his godson, the worry that was as normal as it was unneeded.

"Nope." Sirius leaned back, put his hand close to Harry so he could very lightly nudge their shoulders together. He looked at the clear pool water, took the weight off poor Harry. "I've never had a preference on gender either. It's more about personality for me. A pretty face doesn't hurt matters, of course."

Sirius didn't give a damn what the rest of the world thought, never had. It made him feel a bit more connected to his godson to know they had that in common.

Harry nodded shortly and went back to his book, setting off a peaceful silence between them. Sirius felt like a million galleons when Harry very slowly, deliberately, bumped his shoulder against Sirius's.

Harry was a tough nut to crack, but if Sirius had more time to have moments such as those… maybe he'd find a place in the family he and Sirianna built around them.

Sirius began to debate his options while Billy barked at everyone to ‘sit the fuck down and eat' and the chaos condensed to two picnic tables shoved together in the back garden.

There were surely houses for sale in Hawkins, an easily acquired purchase for Sirius. Nobody in England would miss him, even Remus had stopped popping around since the start of the new year. If Sirianna and Harry were staying in Indiana, Sirius wanted to be living where they were. Maybe - maybe they didn't want to move out of their home, but that didn't mean they couldn't have rooms at Sirius's home, places to stay every once in a while?

The problem with that plan was that it was rarely a quick process, purchasing a muggle house. It could take Sirius at least a week to get the funds he needed converted, a bank account established, the purchase made… perhaps he should find a hotel nearby? Or offer Steve some money for him playing constant hide-and-squat in his home?

Theo would surely assist him, arrogant little brat that he was. Sirius hadn't planned on becoming attached to Thaddeus Nott's heir, but the kid grew on him over the years. There was nobody that Sirius loved more than Sirianna and Harry, Theo was a very close second place to them.

It wasn't an insult either. Sirius had tried to help Theo as much as he could while he went through similar trials and tribulations of Sirius's own youth, but he knew they had become something like family only through their connection to the twins. Theo had helped Sirius clear his name, become a free man. They had exchanged monthly letters, Sirius helped Theo sort his affairs when Thaddeus finally died over the spring.

Theo was a good boy, a smart boy who grew up with an aching heart. If Sirius bought a home in Hawkins, he would make sure Theo had a place within it. Theo would scoff, call Sirius sentimental and demented, then he would take it anyway.

Sirius was grinning at the image while he helped himself to one of the cold bottles of beer that the twins's muggle friends preferred. The kids had all scampered quickly to the table for food as soon as the dishes were all added and Sirius was happy to settle on the end, beside Max.

It soothed a deep wound inside of Sirius to see with his own eyes how beloved his godchildren were. Sirius's worst fear had been that Sirianna and Harry were being tortured, tormented, trapped… and he hadn't been off-base, had he? For them to deal with years of pain… Sirius hated it. It tore at him that he had been out-smarted, out-tricked, by the American Department of Mysteries.

Sirius wasn't surprised that it was a government agency that abused his family and treated them like experiments without feelings or pains, but it broke him in half to imagine them all alone through it all. They had each other, a very small mercy, but they always deserved to have what they did then —

A table full of people who smiled at them, laughed with them, cared about them, and loved them.

They were the damned strangest group of kids that Sirius had ever seen, stranger than even a Weasley and Nott befriending one another, but they made the twins happy.

Sirius was content to plot out his move to the States and soak in the cheerful ambiance and sunshine surrounding him through a bloody fantastic meal, until Steve cleared his throat and looked across the table to Sirius.

"So… are you going home when Ron does?" he asked, rather bluntly.

Sirius winced internally, he hadn't meant to be a nuisance to the boy. Sure, he had sort of been living in his house, but Sirius tried to make himself scarce, helpful - it wasn't as if any of the teenagers running rampant had stopped to charm the loo clean or polish the kitchen floors. Sirius was a grown man imposing on a child, it was embarrassing - he withstood it only for the golden lining of spending as much time around his godkids as possible.

"I was actually thinking of purchasing a home here," Sirius said, looking past Max and Ron to see how Sirianna reacted to the news. That girl wore her emotions on her sleeve, as transparent as Harry was opaque.

"Really?" she breathed, her green eyes lighting up in what Sirius was relieved to see as pleasure. "You're staying? For good?"

Sirius glanced across from Sirianna to her brother and took the lack of malice on Harry's blank face as an equally encouraging sign.

"You two are my family," Sirius said, a bit thickly. "I'd like to be here, if it's not a bother."

Don't let it be a bother… please…

"YES!" Sirianna jumped up and nearly knocked Ron off the bench so she could rush to Sirius. He only turned in his seat just in time to catch Sirianna in his arms as she hugged him fiercely. She would never know what it meant to Sirius, to be so easily accepted by the girl who had Sirius wrapped around her pinky from the second she was born… it was indescribable, every bit of a pure love as James described having for his kids.

"I'm so happy," Sirianna whispered while she hugged Sirius tightly. "Please don't be joking."

Sirius hugged her back just as tightly, wishing they had a lifetime of moments like that.

"Of course not," Sirius said truthfully. "I've - I've just found you kids, I'm not letting go anytime soon."

If it meant sharing them with their strange new family, if it meant taking a smaller role in their lives than he wanted… it was all worth it.

"So… are you going to like rent a hotel until then?" Steve asked a few minutes later, after Sirianna had sat back down and Sirius had nearly forgotten what started the conversation. Steve looked pointedly from Sirius to Theo and Theo smirked very lightly at Sirius.

"Yes, of course," Sirius said, abashed once more to have been mooching off a child. "Theo and I can find a place to stay."

"Not tonight!" Ron cried. "Surely we can all have one more night together before I leave in the morning?"

"Or you could fake your death and stay," Theo said, his argument since Molly sent her package; sweaters for the twins, baked goods for Sirius, and a portkey for her son to return home after two weeks. Hogwarts would be resuming in another two weeks, Ron had no leg to stand on for independent study - not like Theo had.

Theo had applied for a license to study his NEWTS independently the day after Sirius arrived in the States. Theo was a Lord in his own right, he held a seat on the Wizengamot, and he had eleven OWLS to boot. Sirius had been sure his license would be accepted and he received the approval only a few days ago.

It was Theo who Steve seemed most reluctant to allow to stay, lightening Sirius's guilt for imposing. Steve didn't care for that boy at all; if it weren't terribly amusing, Sirius would have been bothered by the dirty looks he sent Theo.

Steve looked toward Billy, who Sirius thought must have been his James in a way, and received a subtle shrug while Ron huffed at Theo for the absurd recommendation once more.

"Yeah, one more night," Steve said, his smile as fake as anything Sirius had seen before. "I guess."

"Yes!" Eddie threw one fist in the air triumphantly, easing the tension that had started to descend on the previously cheerful group. "One final quest for the wizards and bards who brave the deadly domain!"

Sirius quirked his head curiously at the very strange mixture of words from Eddie - did someone tell him about magic? If so, Sirius was sure it had been Harry.

Or… had he seen Sirius transform? Did all the muggles in Hawkins, Indiana know about magic? What all exactly did his godchildren do before Sirius arrived?

"It's a game," Max explained to Sirius while she ripped off a piece of her burger to feed little Ziggy. "Dungeons and Dragons. It's nerdy and stupid and pretty fun."

Sirius liked things that were stupid and fun.

"Can I play?"

"The more the merrier!" Eddie declared with a dramatic flair. Sirius truly did like that boy. "You'll have to create a character, it's not all rolling dice and defying death…"

As the others picked back up their conversations and jokes, Sirius dug into his food and listened carefully to everything Eddie explained to him about Dungeons & Dragons. It sounded like a less interesting version of Wands & Wyrms, though Sirius hadn't played that game since his fourth or fifth year at Hogwarts.

It might be fun to play, certainly interesting to play with muggles anyway.

It wasn't, because Eddie was a bloody muggle who didn't understand the constraints of real magic.

"YOU CAN'T JUST THROW A DRAGON AT US!" Sirius yelled, gripping his drink to keep from flipping the damned table. It was late, most of the kids had long since fallen asleep. El and Max were still wide-awake, playing the damned game with Sirius and Eddie. Sirius had been vexed a time or two, frustrated with the rules that continued to cripple his advancement through the field that Eddie had created.

It wasn't until a dragon ‘suddenly appeared' that Sirius lost the plot entirely.

"There were caves and treasures, you had to answer a riddle to enter this cavern!" Eddie said, his eyes glittering with his sadistic glee at Sirius's predicament. "How did you not see this coming? It's not even my crown jewel of twists yet!"

"Because riddles to enter a warded area aren't exactly unique," Sirius snapped irritably. "And a dragon wouldn't sneak up on me, I'd hear it coming. Have you any idea how large those beasts can get? Dragons aren't sneaky, kid, the small ones are as big as this house."

"You're mad because your dice roll won't save you and you know it," Eddie said, stubborn as an arse. "Don't blame me for your bad decisions, man. Dragons happen, a man must be prepared."

"‘A man must be…' bugger off." Sirius shoved himself away from the table, ignoring the girls giggling at him. "I hope the dragon eats you, Munson."

It was late, damned late. Sirius should have gone to sleep hours ago, but he'd been interested in the magical game and story that Eddie had woven together up until then. So much of it had been as close to truth as it could be, Sirius assumed that Eddie was a rather well-educated muggle. Until the dragon, it was ignorant and uninformed to have a fully grown dragon ‘sneak up' on Sirius's party of witches.

"This is my world now, Sirius!" Eddie called, laughing at Sirius's back when he decided to go check on his godkids. "Come back when you're ready to fight fire with magic!"

Sirius would show him magic and fire.

He shook his head and crept quietly through the main floor of the house, just wanting to see if Sirianna and Harry were asleep. The kids had rearranged the living room, shoving around the sofa and adding inflatable mattresses to the floor.

Sirius smiled to see Sirianna curled up in Billy's arms, both of them sound asleep on the inflatable mattress with only the telly light illuminating their young faces. Even if she was just a baby, so young, Sirius could see so much of her father in Sirianna. James had only ever been in love once, Sirius almost hoped that Billy - who stared at Sirius's goddaughter like she made the galaxy itself move - would be her one true love.

Harry slept on an inflatable mattress on his own, his glasses crooked and threatening to fall when he rolled on his side. Sirius walked softly over to him, carefully took his glasses off and pulled the blanket more securely over him. Harry's face was slack, peaceful in his sleep. It made him look younger, like the boy he might have been if he didn't learn too early what evil and terror looked like.

Sirius would have spent a lifetime in Azkaban to keep Harry and Sirianna from learning that humans were the worst creatures there could be. They could be wonderful, Sirius knew it and the twins surely did as well, but they could be cruel too, cruel in ways that ‘beasts' never were.

And speaking of beasts…

Ziggy had been snuggled up by Sirianna and Billy's feet and his head popped up when he saw Sirius. He whined quietly and Sirius patted his leg for him.

"Come on then, I'll have a smoke and you can take a leak," Sirius whispered. "Don't wake them up, or I'll erase all your bloody spots."

Ziggy seemed to understand Sirius, he padded carefully off the bed where Sirianna and Billy slept, then he carelessly climbed on top of Ron's face to get past him to follow Sirius toward the front door.

People could be cruel; dogs were surely the gift given by the Gods to balance the world - the good against all the evil. It made Sirius chuckle to watch Ziggy step right on Ron's face anyway, another bright spot in a time that Sirius would describe as nearly perfect.

The warm summer air was another sign of apology from the world, Sirius was sure of it. He breathed in deeply when he stepped out on the front porch, leaning on the rail to look up to the sky. It was a nice view, Sirius would never tire of having an unimpeded view of the stars.

"Oh. Hey." Steve had been outside, sitting on the steps of the porch. He seemed to have been lost in his thoughts until Ziggy zipped past him to get to the yard, then he noticed Sirius and hastily stood up.

Sirius studied him subtly, just from the corner of his eyes. Steve seemed to be a good kid - kind and friendly, but there was something about him that tugged in Sirius's chest too. It was the bags under his eyes, the invisible weight that seemed to push down on his shoulders.

It didn't seem likely to just be a crush on Sirius's godson that bothered him, though Sirius would admit that he hadn't spent much time getting to know him. Which was an oversight, obviously, as Steve seemed to be quite important to Sirianna and Harry both.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Sirius asked him, quietly and casually. He watched Ziggy on the lawn, he didn't react when Steve leaned against the railing not far from him.

"Not tonight," Steve said, probably aiming for a light-hearted tone and landing about a quidditch field away from it. He ruffled his hair, leaned his elbows on the rail so he could look out in the dark lawn as well. "It's - uh… it's my dad's birthday."

Ah. Sirius hadn't wanted to pry, but he wondered how Steve had the ability to house so many people without anyone asking any questions.

"How long has he been gone?" Sirius asked, sympathizing even if he couldn't exactly empathize.

"A few - oh, no, he's not dead." Steve laughed briefly and it made Sirius want to cringe, it was breathless and embarrassed and self-conscious in the way that children simply were sometimes.

"He's uh - working?" Steve said. He began thrumming his fingers on the wood. "Or not. I don't know. I haven't talked to either of my parents for a few months."

They… hm. Sirius had presumed that Steve's parents had passed, though it wasn't an issue he spent much time truly pondering before. But that was a strange thing for a muggle family to do, not talk to their children for months. It wasn't as if Steve were off at school, he was at home.

"Don't you have a telephone?" Sirius asked, breaking his view of Ziggy to glance at Steve curiously. It was worse, seeing Steve from the side with the moonlight coming in behind him, it added deep shadows to his face, made the poor boy truly look wretched.

"Yeah, I call them. I called him today, three times," Steve said. He moved all his muscles in the right position for a smile, it might as well have been a sob. "They don't answer my calls anymore, I'm - uh… I guess an embarrassment now."

Oh. Well Sirius did have some experience in that field, didn't he?

"What'd you do?" Sirius asked, starting to grin as he listed his own crimes against his pureblooded and traditional partners. "Get a tattoo? A piercing? Buy a motorbike and leather jacket?"

"I told them I'm gay."

Sirius's grin faltered and he felt a sudden understanding with the boy standing beside him. Steve Harrington didn't resemble Sirius a bit, but Sirius could suddenly look at him and see himself, many years ago.

"Ah, well… I suppose that trumps a tattoo then, doesn't it?" Sirius said evenly.

Steve didn't laugh, Sirius didn't expect him to. He continued to look out in the yard while his eyes glistened.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Sirius patted his trousers down for a moment, seeking out the pack of smokes he had swiped from Theo earlier that day. When he didn't feel them anywhere, he figured the brat had summoned them back when Sirius hadn't noticed. It was simple to summon one, Theo must have been relatively nearby as the cigarette flew to Sirius's hand within a few seconds.

He thought about himself at fourteen while he lit the cigarette, a few years younger than Steve and more terrified by far. It had been worse than a death sentence at the time, realizing that he thought about snogging Remus Lupin at least as often as he did Marlene McKinnon.

"You know," Sirius started quietly, understandingly, "I was younger than you when I knew I was bisexual, though I didn't know what it was called at the time. I thought it would be better if I died, less of a risk of my parents ever finding out."

Steve turned his head some while Sirius paused to smoke and Sirius felt a sort of responsibility when there was something desperate on Steve's face, a need to hear that Sirius had gotten past whatever dark place he found himself in.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah." Sirius blew the smoke out in the yard, thought about his own parents for the first time in a long time. Walburga and Orion Black were impossible to please, Sirius hadn't tried as long or as hard as his brother had. It had still felt like carrying around the darkest of secrets - worse than being a blood-traitor or follower of Dumbledore by far.

"I never had the courage to tell them, though I think they heard gossip about a boy I had been with for a time," Sirius said, blinking to stay in the present, away from the grim time he spoke of. "We had a fight, they accused me of exactly what I was, I lied. I still left though, I left at sixteen and never spoke to them again."

"Mine don't answer," Steve said bleakly, the wetness in his eyes threatening to fall every time he blinked. "I keep calling, they never answer."

"Steve," Sirius turned to face him, leaning on the rail with only his left arm. He kept his gaze steady, hoped that Steve couldn't see the pity filling his eyes. "Why would you want them to?" he asked gently. "If they don't accept who you are, if their love is conditional, why give them your effort and love when it isn't being returned?"

Steve swallowed and his eyes dropped to his hands just before Sirius saw a single heart-breaking tear fall and blot into the wood, soaking in to remain a testament to another boy broken by parents who didn't care enough.

"It sucks," he muttered. "That's all."

"It never stops," Sirius assured him. He reached out to pay Steve's shoulder, offer him a truth that Sirius knew from his own experience. "It gets better, you've already got so much. You're surrounded by people who care about you, who care unconditionally. They're the ones who deserve your effort and love, they're the ones who will answer when you call."

Sirius had that, he had it with James. Steve had it too, Sirius had seen it. The group of kids were strange - a mismatch of personalities more diverse than any other group - but Sirius had seen how much they all cared for one another. It was something Sirius could never try to take the twins from, he would never want to.

They were all as much of a family as James had been to Sirius, and for a long time that had been all that kept Sirius going.

"Thanks." Steve wiped his face and Sirius politely turned away, he watched Ziggy sniff around the large oak tree where small smoke clouds flew away from.

It explained why Sirius had gotten a cigarette so quickly, he should have known that Theo would be outside. That boy didn't sleep worth a damn when he was sober, it was going to be a rocky road for him to travel.

"Hey, I - uh… I'm sorry, about earlier," Steve said, pushing himself upright from the rail and shifting from side to side. "I was being a dick. This place is huge and you're like the only one who remembers to clean the bathroom. If you want to stay until you get a place, you can."

Sirius hadn't been angling for an invitation when he talked to Steve, he had only seen a young man struggling with the realization that parents weren't always the heroes that kids saw them as. It was well appreciated though, and Sirius told him so.

"Yeah, no problem. I guess Theo can stay too, if you two are a package deal or whatever," Steve said with only a small twitch of his eyelid.

Sirius grinned some, amused once again by the silly jealousy he saw coming from both of the boys sniffing around his godson.

"Did that hurt?" Sirius asked with mock seriousness.

Steve exhaled heavily and nodded, returning Sirius's smile with the first real one Sirius had seen from him so far. "You've got no freaking idea," he said.

Sirius laughed, he hoped Theo could hear them. He was sure he did, nosy thing, he would have said something by then to give himself away if not.

"You know, if you and Theo could stop competing for Harry's attention, I think you'd be the best of friends," Sirius said brightly. "Think of how happy Harry would be, seeing his two friends getting along so well. Who knows? Maybe you'd even forget about your crush on my godson once you do."

Steve sputtered and blushed a dark red, Sirius was sure he heard Theo cough on an inhale.

With his capacity of good advice reached for the night and an official invitation to stay at Steve's house offered, Sirius whistled for Ziggy and wished both boys a good night.

"Night, Steve. Goodnight, Theo."

Sirius felt as if he had barely began scratching the surface on the peculiar family that surrounded his twins, but it was an excellent start.