Maybe Memories

"It's not terrible," Sirius said, wondering around the living room. Aside from the dust and rather ancient furniture, it really wasn't.

Estelle smiled, "I love it. We'll make it better."

The hot July sun was blazing in through the dirty windows. A musky, stale air filled the house.

"Blimey, he's only been dead two years," Sirius said, "this place looks as bad as the shrieking shack."

"Oh, you're exaggerating," Estelle said dropping her trunk on the floor. She stepped into the townhouse and glanced around the living room. A portrait of an old man with dark hair looked quizzically at her.

Sirius let his trunk drop too and stepped past Estelle into the kitchen. "Talk about times to have a house elf," he muttered. "It wasn't this bad last summer." He ran his hand over the counter collecting dust. He dusted his hand off on his jeans. Sirius liked wearing muggle clothes. He liked the idea of still going against what his parents would want.

"Who is this?" Estelle questioned.

Sirius entered the room. She was staring at the portrait.

"HA! The question should be, who are you?" the portrait said, "What are you doing in my house?"

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I am Cygus Black the first," the portrait continued, "son of Phineas Black, a previous headmaster of Hogwarts, father of Pollux, Cassiopeia--"

"That's my great-great grandfather," Sirius interrupted.

"So rude," Cygus said, disgusted, "Well, young Regulus..."

"I'm Sirius."

"That certainly explains it," Cygus tutted, "I hear you're hated by the whole family. I wouldn't stick around here long if I were you. Especially not with that mudblood--"

Sirius grabbed the picture frame in attempt to pull it off the wall.

"It's not going to come off," the portrait said.

Sirius grunted.

"It's fine," Estelle said.

"No it's not," Sirius growled. He stomped out of the room, up the stairs.

Estelle followed him into the musky, dark hall.

"Why is everything green?" Sirius said, "Oh yeah, cause my family's a bunch of bloody, proud Slytherins."

"Sirius it'll be fine," Estelle attempted to assure him.

Sirius crossed his arms. He opened the door and inside the master bedroom was a huge bed with a tall frame. The shades were drawn and only a dresser remained.

"You think his clothes are still in here?" Estelle questioned.

"I don't know, but I can tell you one thing; This bed has to go. I am not sleeping in a dead man's bed. That's just terrible luck."

Sirius insisted on going to buy new bedroom furniture. The rest of the day consisted of cleaning and Sirius rearranging the bedroom more times than necessary.

"Well, this is lovely," Estelle said as they settled down to sleep, in the nice new bed.

"Don't lie," Sirius said.

"No, I'm not! It's not perfect but, it's just fine."

"Am I a contributing factor?"

"You're the only factor."

"Oh really?"

"Just because I can't imagine my life without you."

Sirius smiled and hugged her close.

After sending an owl "bragging" about "how much work" they'd done to the house. James informed them that the rest of the Marauders would be visiting to see.

After a tour of the house, they gathered in the kitchen for a drink.

"Okay," James said, "but first, I need to tell you guys... Lily said yes."

Sirius hugged James, and it turned into a group hug.

"Now, this fire whiskey is entirely necessary," Sirius grinned.

"Yes!" James said.

Estelle snickered, "I've heard of cheers with champagne and wine for such occasions, but never fire whiskey."

"Where have you been?" Sirius questioned. The fire whiskey pured itself into five glasses.

Each with a glass in hand, Sirius announced, "To a wonderful, healthy, happy marriage. With lots of love, laughs, and good sex."

Estelle covered her face with her palm.

"Anyway, I have invitations that will be coming via owl soon, just to be official," James said, "It's more fun for Lily than me, but eh."

"She's not inviting her God-awful sister, is she?" Sirius questioned.

James rolled his eyes, "Unfortunately. It's not likely she'll actually show though."

Hardly a week had passed and as James had said, an invitation did come 'via owl'.

James Potter and Lily Evans

request the pleasure of your company at our wedding.

Saturday, the first of November
Nineteen seventy

Smiling, Estelle ran her thumb along the edge of the paper. For only a moment, she wondered if she and Sirius would ever be sending these out.

"Remember when these two couldn't stand each other?" Sirius asked, chuckling.

"Yeah, those two years ago?" Estelle laughed.

"Who'd have known, eh?" Sirius said.

She smiled, "Well, it's not exactly like we always got along perfectly."

"We still don't."

"And we probably never will."

"That's the fun part," Sirius grinned.

Estelle rolled her eyes, "Oh, so fun."

"Yeah, and it's always so lovely when you roll your eyes at me," he grinned and pulled her into a tight hug. He picked her up and spun her around.

She was laughing ans beating on his back, "Alright! Alright!"

He put her down and kissed her quickly before she could say anything else.

She crossed her arms and pouted.

Sirius licked his lips. "I know..." he said, "I mean, on a serious note... I know this war makes everything seem like a 'now or never' kind of thing, but I'm not trying to be that way." He looked into her eyes, "You know I love you, right?"

"Well, of course," she replied, "and I love you too."

"Good," he grinned and kissed her again.

It was a room Sirius was well aware existed within Hogwarts. On the third floor, a staircase from the Entrance Hall led there, a room existed that was usually empty. There were tables and chairs, few portraits. Today, it was far from empty. Along with the Marauders, there were quite a few they recognized from their year, along with older wizards, and some that had been out of school a very long time.

Professor McGonagall was talking to a a tall, thin man with bright red hair.

"I'm afraid Molly couldn't make it today," he was saying, "She feels to guilty leaving the twins with anyone, even family. They've become a bit of a handful. Percy's always on their trail, tattling..."

A large, gruff looking man was standing back with his arms crossed. When he turned to look towards Sirius, he could see that he was missing part of his nose.

"I don't think you want to get on his bad side," Estelle muttered.

Sirius nodded.

The remaining members of the Bones family were present, Jasper included. He was playing with the edge of his robe sleeve. He looked up and saw Estelle. He flashed a quick smile, then averted his eyes.

"Oi, Jasper," Sirius said.

Estelle eyes Sirius wearily.

Jasper approached, "Hi."

"Yeah, um well," Sirius sighed, "I know I was a jerk to you in school for no reason. It was childish, and since we're all adults here, and fighting for something together, I was hoping we could forget it."

Jasper looked surprised, "Blimey, Sirius. Well, of course we can. Much more important matter are at hand now anyway, know?"

"That's right."

The two shook hands.

Estelle was too shocked to speak.

"Hey Sirius...Jasper..?" James said approaching.

"Prongs," Sirius said.

"You doing alright, then?" Estelle said towards Jasper.

He smiled a weak smile, "Alright. I've got fight for what I lost, don't I?"

"Right," Estelle said.

Dumbledore tapped a glass with a spoon, much like he did prior to his speeches in the Great Hall. The room silenced. "Good evening," Dumbledore began, "I have an unfortunate announcement to make. The body of Caradoc Dearborn is yet to be found. Although, it has been over three weeks since he was declared missing. He is presumed dead, due to the nature of the mission in which he was attending. To commemorate his bravery, I would like a short moment of silence."

Sirius held onto Estelle's hand. It was a very, very sobering factor to be speaking of death on the day of his first meeting.

A number of unsurprising names came up in discussion. Avery, Dolohov, Lestrange, Mulciber, and Rosier were among them. Dumbledore believed these to be some of the most fearless of Voldemort's servants.

"Lestrange. Not a doubt in my mind," Sirius scoffed. The name left a disgusting taste in his mouth.

"Didn't a cousin of yours marry a Lestrange, Black?" the man who was missing part of his nose said. He spoke roughly, suspiciously.

"How do you know me?" Sirius questioned.

The man laughed, a sort of demented laugh, "How don't I know your name? You're a Black. I've been watching your type for a long, long time. I'm Alastor Moody, auror."

"Well, I'm Sirius Black," Sirius said, "Bellatrix Black. Yeah, she married Rodolphus Lestrange. They're both death eaters."

"You're telling me that your family serves You-Know-Who and you're here."

"I don't consider them family, sir."

"That why you're here?"

"I'm here to stop Vold--"

"Why do you keep saying his name?"

"Fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself," Sirius replied.

"Enough," Dumbledore said, "If I did not trust Sirius, he would not be here. If you doubt my judgement, please, feel free to leave, and that goes for anyone."

Everyone seemed to look around a little.

"Sirius, may I ask you a few questions?" Dumbledore said.

"Yes, sir," Sirius replied, "of course."

"Your cousin Bellatrix, you do believe she's a death eater?" Dumbledore questioned.

"I do, sir."

"What has lead you to believe such things?"

"It's been drilled into the heads of my family for centuries to hate non-purebloods," Sirius began, "As far as I go, I refused to listen. Bellatrix --I've always accused her of being not quite right in the head. She took such an interest in my beliefs and my friends. She enjoyed seeing me punished for opposing the family. Sometimes, she took the liberty in doing it herself, hexes and such. Once, she did an unforgivable curse on me. She uses awful names to describe non-pure bloods... I can just tell, sir. It's just that vibe she gives off."

"Have you ever seen her left arm?"

"No, I don't think so?" Sirius said.

Dumbledore nodded, "Do you believe any other members of your family are death eaters?"

Sirius looked down, "My brother."

"Regulus?"

"If he isn't one, he will be. To impress mum and dad..." Sirius tried to hide the sadness in his voice.

"I have something very important for you to do."