Black as Night (Sirius Black)

Sweet Child O' Mine

Chapter Title from "Sweet Child O'Mine" by Guns N Roses.

TW: attempted assault. Mild.

Still high in their post-holiday bliss, Colleen and Sirius were the first in line to file their marriage notice at the Islington Town Hall once they reopened after Christmas. Luckily Dumbledore's timing with his Christmas present to Sirius had been impeccable — sending him home from the wilderness with a leather pouch filled with documents certifying his identity in the Muggle world, much like he had crafted Rhiannon's identity upon retrieving her from America the year before. The man was a genius at lives— creating them out of thin air, toying with them, giving them purpose, setting them along a desired trajectory— for better or worse. But today, as he and Colleen filled out their stack of papers to officially begin the required waiting period for marriage, Sirius was grateful. They would have up to a year to make everything official after that initial month's wait, so he hoped that upon his return from his next mission, she would be his bride.

Sirius also inquired about the adoption process, learning that they would need to formally reside together six months before the local council would allow him to apply. He changed his address to Colleen's that very day, and made plans to get word to Severus to find a new tenant.

Those simple, tangible steps toward their future together made goodbye a little more tolerable this time, as did the knowledge of how beautiful the reunion could be after such a lengthy separation. Dumbledore intended to meet with Harry at the beginning of Hogwarts' second term, then he and Sirius would return to exploring places and interviewing people from Voldemort's past, as well as hunting for caves to match the vision given by Regulus.

"Have you been managing with Ben all right while I've been gone? With work and all?" Sirius asked Colleen on their final night together. He was asking in a roundabout way about her late nights at the office, hopeful they were no longer a factor to torment him during this upcoming separation. But he'd been disappointed to learn that she was still working on her high profile case, with Ben spending more evenings with Robert's family. Sirius had seen evidence of that fact, subtle ways the boy's magic was growing, so he suspected that Paula had allowed her magical relatives to visit with him on occasion.

Sirius had volunteered to drop Ben off at Paula's on his way to meet Dumbledore, since Colleen needed to return to work, and nursery school hadn't yet resumed. When he arrived on the woman's doorstep with a polite smile and bearing a small Christmas gift from him and Colleen, Sirius was met with an icy stare that seemed to shoot daggers through him once the woman spotted the wedding ring on his finger.

"So it's done then?" Paula asked through a clenched jaw.

"It is." Sirius fudged the truth a bit, but the papers were filed, so it was good enough for him.

Paula pushed Ben inside and promptly shut the door in Sirius's face.

***************

It was a drizzly day in late February, cold enough to be miserable, but not cold enough to snow, so the London streets hovered in dreary gray instead of winter white. Lately Colleen had been more aware of the ever-looming presence of thick, dark clouds in the sky, but with every passing week they seemed more defined— almost like wispy shadow-demons, if she strained her eyes hard enough. She dismissed it as a by-product of her more frequent sessions with Rhiannon. Colleen loved the thrill of the power she was harnessing, but sometimes the feelings it gave her, the connections it seemed to make— frightened her. It was as if she opened portals to things that other Muggles couldn't hope to understand, and probably didn't want to.

The young witch herself was a bright spot in Colleen's life, though, and Colleen relied on her more and more the longer Sirius was absent. Of course she had Hannah and her mum, but she craved a connection with the magical world. It had gotten to where all Colleen had to do was hold her crystals in her hand and let her thoughts drift to the witch, and it seemed Rhiannon would float back into her life within less than a day's time, either with a quick visit or a message sent by owl.