among other dark things {hp}

chapter one.

With a grin, Hollis Black leaped out of her bed. It was the middle of July, her birthday was coming up, and her Hogwarts letter would be arriving any day now.

For the past week, she had been obsessively checking the post, waiting for her invitation to school, and every day had been a disappointment. But not today.

Hollis had a good feeling about today.

She dressed quickly in the combination of muggle and wizarding clothing that she was used to, something she inherited from her dads. Pulling on her dragon hid boots, she ran down the stairs of Number 12, Grimmauld Place into the kitchen.

Sirius and Remus were both waiting for her, and she slumped. She had been hoping to be the first up, but somehow they were always there first.

"Good morning, cub," Remus said, ruffling her short hair as she passed him. Hollis scowled a little, ducking out of his range and straightening her black strands. She had just gotten it how she liked it.

"Morning Moony, Pads," she said, sitting down at the table. She had always called them by their nicknames, rather "dad" or anything similar. She rather liked it - it was different, and she knew that Sirius and Remus liked it, too. After all, none of them had what would be called a normal relationship with their birth parents.

Practically vibrating in her seat, Hollis had barely thanked Kreacher and taken a bite of her eggs when a barn owl flew through the open kitchen window, dropped a letter on her toast, and flew away again.

Without ceremony, Hollis dropped her fork and ripped open the letter, not even bothering to look at the address.

Dear Ms. Potter, it began, and she frowned, immediately disappointed.

"It's got the wrong name," she complained to Sirius and Remus. "It's calling me Ms. Potter."

Remus tugged the letter out of her hands and looked it over, while Sirius rolled his eyes.

"It's that old coot's doing, no doubt," he said, as Remus handed her back her letter, looking displeased. "Dumbledore is very big on the meaning of blood family. He's never accepted your adoption."

Hollis shook her head. She had never met Albus Dumbledore, at least not that she remembered, but she didn't think she liked him very much. Sirius and Remus were always complaining that he stuck his nose where it wasn't wanted. Besides, she was perfectly aware that he wanted her to go to those muggles, instead of Padfoot and Moony.

"Can I change it?" she asked. "I don't want the professors calling me Potter all the time."

"I'll write to the deputy headmistress," Remus said, buttering his toast. "Minerva has always been more reasonable than Dumbledore."

"Good old Minnie," Sirius added. "She's always liked me."

Remus snorted.

"If McGonagall knew that you called her Minnie behind her back, you'd be sporting a dog's tail, or worse," he said fondly. "I think she's still mad you became an animagus under her nose."

"Oh, yeah." Sirius sounded rather dejected by this reminder, and Hollis laughed, suitably distracted from the mistake in the letter.

She didn't like being reminded of her birth parents, instead preferring to imagine that she had been born to Sirius and Remus, somehow. Part of her knew such denial wasn't healthy, but it was better than having to think about how she was related to the bloody Boy-Who-Lived.

How her parents had given her up, because she wasn't him.

But she didn't want to think about that right now. Her Hogwarts letter had finally arrived, after all.