Harry Potter: A Different Sirius

The portkey deposited them at the entrance to the wards of the house. Rachel excused herself to check in with Roy. Two minutes later Harry burst into the house calling, "Beth we're home!"

Moments later they found her in the dining room along with a large spread of food. "I missed you! How was everything? Did you learn a bunch? Are you hungry? I hit the deli on the way home from work." She answered Harry's exuberant hug with one of her own, before practically melting as Sirius kissed her.

Harry ignored Sirius and Beth's reunion in favor of the food on the table. Beth must have stopped at the Greek deli and he dug into spanakopitas, dolmades, greek salad, moussaka, tzatziki and baklava.

Sirius was surprised. Effectively it had only been a month since he'd seen her last but her belly seemed so much bigger. He rubbed his hand over her bump. "You're so beautiful and this has gotten so much bigger."

"I know. Your babies and I missed you, so much. Come sit down, eat. Tell me about everything."

"I want to hold you a moment first, I know for you it's only been a month but for me it's been eleven."

"We have the whole weekend. I politely declined all invitations saying family time after your and Harry's post surgery trip. Mother and Dad insist on seeing you and Harry Tuesday night though. Medi-witch Thompson wants to do a C-section on August 1st."

"Cool, siblings for a belated birthday present." Harry chirped.

"But-"

"She says that it's safer than me going into labor and it's likely I wouldn't last much longer than that anyway with the multiple birth."

"I guess if that's what she said that's the way it is. August 1st it is. Guess that means I need to get a move on in the nursery." Sirius led Beth to a chair and helped her sit and scoot closer to the table.

"Yep, you've got a little under six weeks. So Harry are you ready for your mid-terms?"

"More than. I've been working this material for a year admittedly not highly focused but still a year. I suspect I could do end of term tests and it would be easy. I wish I didn't have to finish this session as a less than full time non-boarding student. But the whole keeping up the fiction bit."

"So what did you like learning the best?"

"Toss up between Defense and Magical theory I think I like the theory because Sirius gave me mum's journals and she has a ton of theories about magic and experiments she was running. It's just really interesting. Mr. Cruz was just really neat, he treated me like a WIS recruit. At first he was really unhappy we were there but when we left he said I should come back. He said I had good instincts. He recommended I learn fencing. We'll have to see if we can bend the rules at Stuart-Cavanaugh, you are supposed to be ten to get on the fencing team."

"If not kiddo we can always go the private lessons route. So Beth where's the mangy cat you got?"

"Sheba isn't mangy! She's probably down in the sunroom. She usually shows up once the sun sets."

"Sheba huh?" Sirius teased.

"Yeah her mom is a first generation Savanah cat and absolutely gorgeous. Melody was told when she got her that Miriah, the mama cat, wasn't likely to have kittens because most first generation Savanahs are infertile. Sheba was the only kitten in the litter. Melody doesn't know what breed the other parent was From the description I thought it might be a kneazle. But we'll have to see if Sheba starts showing kneazle traits when she's older. I went ahead and got her spayed so she's a little put out with me.

"What was the best thing you did?"

"That's hard. Can I give my top ten?"

"Sure."

"Riding a pegasus in Montana. Seeing a North American Frost Dragon up close. Going to the Exploratorium. Doing my vision quest. Going to my first quidditch match. Seeing "Les Miserables" on Broadway. Seeing the view from the World Trade Center. Going to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field. Surfing in Santa Cruz. Holding the wand I made the first time."

"You made your wand?"

"Well, I did about half of it under Ms. Serra's watchful eye." Harry suddenly found himself yawning.

"You're tired kiddo finish your dinner then head to bed."

"You just want alone time with Beth."

"There's that." Sirius said with a smirk. "But you've also had a busy and exhausting trip not to mention you're a growing boy that needs his rest. Finish up."

The twelve week old kitten wandered into the dining room, she looked like a small spotted wildcat with enormous aqua eyes. Upon seeing Sirius her back arched, her fur stood on end and she hissed menacingly. Harry and Beth both busted out laughing. Sirius decided that he would nip this in the bud. He quickly raced over and scooped the kitten up ignoring the menacing growls now emerging from the kitten's throat. He started to rub her gently and offering her bits of lamb from his plate. After a couple of minutes the kitten stopped growling and just looked at Sirius with puzzled eyes.

"I won't hurt you Sheba." It took five more minutes but finally the kitten snatched the bit of lamb he offered and jumped from his grasp. She ran to Beth and wound around her legs purring. Beth and Harry just watched all of the interaction with smiles. After dinner, Harry headed to bed early.

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