It takes two | Sirius Black

44.

A huge grey owl lands at the window, making Bowie bark crazily. Kate reaches forward and unties the letter attached to the owls foot and he wastes no time flying away from the insane dog. Kate opens it and her eyes scan across the letter, her eyes widening as she hands it to Remus immediately.

Remus stares at the letter, his hands shaking as he rereads it over and over.

Remus,
I've found her. Come quickly.
-Tate x

Kate rests her hand on his shoulder, "I'll come with you."

Remus nods slowly, standing to his feet and stumbling for the door. He leaves the letter in the middle of the table, Sirius reaches for it and reads it, realising what it meant. He hands it to Reg, who looks at it with confusion. Sirius stands and peers out of the window, watching as Kate and Remus apparate, leaving him and his brother alone.

He kneels down and strokes the dog, they were on much better terms now. Bowie hadn't tried to attack him for two days so far, they were making solid progress. Regulus stares at his older brother as Sirius scratches behind the dogs ears.

"The kids return from Hogwarts next week.."Reg speaks up, "Are you excited?"

"No." Sirius snorts, "They're teenagers. Last time I saw Zion he was shitting in the house on purpose and Nix had only just figured out how to walk.. I missed out on everything. I don't know anything about any of them."

Reg sighs, "You have time now. You can get to know them. It won't be easy, especially with Zion but you're still their Dad."

"Thanks for looking after them." Sirius whispers sincerely, "Thanks for being there."

"They mean the world to me." Reg responds with a shrug, "They're the family we never had when we were kids."

"Yeah.. I felt the same." Sirius smiles, "When Zion was born, it felt like I could finally be happy."

Reg nods, "Me too, except I couldn't be there the way I wanted to be.. I got another chance when I found out about Marlie. I promised I'd never let them down again, I think I did alright."

"What are they like?" Sirius asks, abandoning Bowie to sit with his brother.

"Zion reminds everyone of you. He hates the worlds, he's always fighting at school especially with Lucius' boy. He pulls insane pranks with his friends." Reg smirks, "Oh! And he had three girlfriends at the same time..I never did find out if they got revenge on him or not. He's exceptional at Quidditch, he's on the Gryffindor team. He's a chaser. He's fiercely protective of his family and friends, much like you."

Sirius smiles as Regulus lights up talking about the kids. He has an ache in his heart that he'd missed everything but he's also happy that Reg had been there. He was grateful that they had his brother and that his brother genuinely loved and cared for them all.

"Phoenix is an artist, his drawings and paintings are so realistic- they're almost to real- like photos. He does a lot of them from memory, it's kind of scary how he does that. He can play Quidditch, he's decent at flying but he doesn't care for it like Zion does. He prefers playing wizards chess and keeping his head down, a lot of Zions fights are from him defending Nix but if Nix has an outburst, be prepared to fucking run. "

"Marlie is a badass. You'd be so proud of her, Sirius. She's a trickster, pulls the wool over everyone's eyes with her innocent little sister act but her and Zion are a double act. She's always getting him out of his detentions.." He pauses for a moment, looking at his older brother and hesitates, "We really didn't think she would make it."

"What do you mean?"

"She was so healthy when she was born. Came after her due date, the first of them not to be premature. Then as time went on, we started to notice her breathing wasn't right." He stares down at his feet, "She was so little and became so poorly, I remember begging god to take me instead. I don't even believe in god. She's fine now, she just has to be careful. Really really careful."