Protection: The Sword and the Shield

Trials

...Black Manor, Grimmauld Commons, London, England, UK

Before his illegal incarceration, Sirius Black had planned to be a bachelor his entire life. The only woman he thought he would ever love was Lily Evans and she had married his best friend. He was not unhappy with the situation as the power Lily had over him because of his love for her was not something he was always comfortable with.

His time since being freed had been spent under the care of multiple mental health professionals, muggle and magical, as well as multiple beautiful women. Somewhere along the line he found enough healing from his childhood traumas and the tortures of his incarceration to accept love in his life and he had been inundated with it. Under the wellspring of love he was receiving he learned how to trust it and eventually how to give it.

Once Sirius Black discovered the joys of giving and receiving love, he found himself truly understanding James' adoration of Lily. His love for his only female friend was true but he finally saw how immature it truly was in the face of his feeling for his wives and concubines. Like James he truly adores his women. Each in a different way but he loved each of them completely.

Now he found himself with two new loves that had, in no way, been part of the plans of the 18 year old him. Cassiopeia "Cassie" Black was born April 19, 1993 to Camille and on the same day Katakana "Kata" Blackburn was born to Sharon. The "Twins" as everyone called them were both gorgeous and had captured Sirius's heart immediately and all the women in the house watched him with fondness as he doted on the two new Black princesses.

News of the birth of two new members of the House of Black hit the papers with gusto. The question everyone wanted the answer to was "do the babies have magic." Anyone bold enough to ask a celebratory Sirius that question found themselves blacklisted from the Grimmauld Commons until they issued a public apology. It only took three instances for the question to drop from the continuous coverage.

It normally took from 6 months to a year to be able to detect weather a baby had magical potential and all of Sirius' core girls were secretly anxious about finding out. None of them brought their concerns up to Sirius who had become fiercely protective of his two daughters, but old hurts and fears had started to bubbly up.

Eventually it was one of the Valkyries that confronted the wives and concubines and reminded them that the two girls had been born into a world and a family where it would not matter. And that Sirius had not only adopted all of them but had also built a school to guarantee the future of any newly born squib.

Properly chastised, the women were able to let go of their fear and just enjoy the two happy girls and their even happier father. With the stress of their own fear and insecurity relieved, they joined the rest of the house giggling at Sirius' antics. None of the other Valkyries developed any higher feelings of love for Sirius but the standard of man that they would accept for themselves went up quite a bit.

Before Justine's arrest, Harry Potter and his girlfriends and friends spent a lot of time at Black Manor cooing over the cute babies. He and Ron ended up making a bet about how many of the many women they knew would be pregnant by the beginning of the next school year. Hermione overheard them and made the shocking prediction that Professor McGonagall would be on that list.

...Longbottom Manor, Durham

Neville Longbottom was in a meeting with his family. It wasn't an official meeting in any regard, but was simply a large family enjoying each other's company while discussing interesting things. The most discussed topic was the happenings of the Potter group. The second term had been a rollercoaster ride of political maneuvering and intrigue and the general agreement was surprise that Albus Dumbledore would be willing to go so far.