Sirius sees the house up ahead as he lands on the field, he's not quite sure how Harry and Hermione pulled it off- he was minutes away from being killed and they saved him. Got him a ride to freedom too, Remus was the one who told him where to go before he transformed. It had been a long night.
He didn't know what to do. The house was right there, but it had been twelve years. All the excitement and anticipation of seeing her again had gone. He was dreading it instead. How much can one person change in twelve years? He certainly didn't look the same. He wasn't twenty anymore, he had started to get fine lines and wrinkles. He also had to accept the fact that twelve years is a long time, she could've moved on for all he knows.
Sirius continues to stare at the house, his feet unmoving and his heart racing. She was so close. This is the closest they had been in years. He wanted to see her but he wasn't ready for reality just yet. He had imagined the moment he reunited with the love of his life repeatedly during his sentence, it kept him going and kept him from fully losing his mind. He had never had a thought of her having someone else until this very moment.
He ducks low as the front door opens, a big dog bounces out of the house. He trips over his own feet as he wags his tail excitedly. Kate follows behind. Sirius' heart stops, she looks the same. She hadn't changed much. She looked a little older. Her blonde hair was significantly shorter, she had a shoulder length cut- that's the first thing he noticed. She held the dog lead in her hand, swinging it aimlessly as she watched the dumb dog.
"BOWIE!" She calls as he runs to far ahead, "Chill out!"
Sirius heart drops at the dogs name. They had planned this together. She had remembered. He looks around at the empty field, no people for miles- just them. Bowie starts running straight towards him, Sirius can't move fast enough as the heavy German shepherd jumps on top of him and growls down at him.
"Bowie!" Kate rushes forward, tugging at the dogs collar. She stops in realisation, "Sirius?"
Sirius stiffens, "Y-yeah..hi."
"Hi." She says back, staring down at him.
Bowie continues growling, getting Kates attention as she pulls the dog, "Bowie!"
The dog relents with a strop, marching off towards the house. Kate holds out her hand and pulls Sirius to his feet, he's nervous and twitchy. He brushes down his ripped filthy Azkaban uniform like being trampled on by a dog had caused it.
"Erm I have some clothes in the house." Kate says with uncertainly, "They're R- they should fit you."
"Thanks." Sirius mumbles, following her.
When they step inside, it feels like home. Kate feels like home, Bowie the dog feels like home and seeing his kids stuff everywhere feels like home. He looks at the fridge door, numerous drawings cover the fridge and he takes his time admiring them. There's several of the dog, some when Bowie was a puppy and some more recent ones. There's one of Kate too and Nix with his friends- Sirius recognises Harry immediately and smiles to himself.
"Nix is a little artist." Kate smiles, "He spends hours painting to get the details right." She opens a drawer and takes more drawings out, "He paints and draws Harry a lot."
Sirius hesitates taking a closer look at one of the more recent ones, "He looks like James."
"Yeah.. they're identical. He has Lily's eyes though."
"Got James prescription though." Sirius smirks, putting the drawings back, "What about Zion, what does he like?"
"Pranks." Kate rolls her eyes, "Him and his friends remind me of a certain group of boys I went to school with."
Sirius smiles softly, "I saw them both. When I was at Hogwarts. Nix was with Harry, I didn't get a good view because I was hiding in the shack but I knew it was him. I was much closer to Zion, I don't think he saw me but he wasn't happy.."
"Why don't you jump in the shower? I'll put the clothes on the bed." Kate says kindly, quickly changing the subject.
Sirius nods. It had been far too long since he had a warm shower. Kate leads the way, showing his how to use the shower and putting shampoo,conditioner and body wash on the side for him. The warm water feels good against his dirty rough skin. He generously lathers himself with the body wash, desperate to clean the years of hell off his body. He takes his time, after all, he had lots of it now. A forty minute shower was heaven, something he would never take for granted again.
Once he's finished, he struggles to turn the shower off but eventually figures it out and wraps the fluffy grey towel around himself. He leaves his prison uniform on the bathroom tiles in a heap, praying he'd never have to step in them again.
He walks out into the small hallway, there's four other doors. He doesn't know which one Kate left the clothes in so decides to go to the closest room, just go one by one until he found the right one.
He realises immediately that it's his sons bedroom, they share. He takes a moment to learn a little about them both. The two boys have a bunk bed, the beds have been freshly made but the rest is frankly a shit tip. It reminds him of his dorm room at Hogwarts with all the shit him and his friends left laying around everywhere. Various posters cover the walls, some are musical artist- some Sirius recognises which makes him beam with pride. Others he had never heard of before, he trusted his sons had good taste. There was also half naked girls, on the wall next to the top bunk,similar to the ones he had in his room at 12 Grimmauld place. He had missed out on so much, yet pieces of him were in his two boys regardless. They were still his sons.
He exists the room and heads to the one across.He glances around in confusion at the pink walls, yellow flower wall decals and unicorn teddies on the end of a single bed.He notices a broomstick leant against the wardrobe, it's got enchanted fairy lights twisted around it for decoration. He doesn't know how to process the fact that Kate obviously has a daughter. It feels like his heart has been ripped out of his chest because he hadn't prepared for that. He hadn't imagined anything beyond his two sons and Kate. He staggers backwards, bumping into Kate on the stairs.
She looks up at him with an apologetic sadness on her face, "Sirius.. I was going to tell you downstairs."
"It's okay." He mumbles, not able to keep eye contact with her.
Kate grabs his face and forces him to look at her, "She is your daughter, Sirius."
He blinks in confusion, his heart dropping further into his stomach, "What?"
"You heard me. She is yours." Kate smiles, nodding towards the last bedroom, "Now get dressed and I'll tell you all about all three of our children."
He catches a glimpse at himself in the mirror, he's bony and bruised. He looks weak. He looks sick and grey. He slips on the clothes, they're too big for his frame but he makes it work. He tucks the black top into the black jeans, throwing on a mens black cardigan for extra warmth and comfort. He feels as if he's disassociating, that all of this is some weird dream. Maybe he'd wake up and be in his Azkaban cell, or still being held at Hogwarts waiting for the dementors kiss. As he walks down the stairs, he over hears Kate talking to someone in low heated voices. He tries not to eavesdrop but it's hard, he hates being kept in the dark.
"And does he know about me?" The male voice asks sternly.
Sirius closes his eyes as he feels his heart hurting, he wants to head back up the stairs but he's already half way down. They might hear him if he moves, so he stands still.
"Not yet but he's just got here!" Kate says with a sigh, "He's only just learnt he has a daughter!"
The male voice groans, "Yeah but he's not exactly my biggest fan is he?"
"It'll be fine." Kate insists.
Sirius steps into the room, he looks at Kate and then puts a face to the male voice he'd just heard. He swallows uncomfortably, he rubs his eyes and blinks, trying to connect the dots in his mind.
"I thought you were dead?" He manages to ask as he stares at his younger brother.
Reg sighs, "I am dead. On the inside."
Kate elbows him harshly, "Not the time, Reg."
"I'm so confused." Sirius says frustratedly, "I can't tell what's real and what's fake anymore."
"That's okay." Kate whispers, rubbing his arm. He snatches it back, he doesn't want to be touched right now.
"I faked my death. Kate found me hiding at 12 Grimmauld place. I helped her give birth to Marlie and helped raise the boys, whilst we tried to destroy these Horcruxes to ensure Voldemort dies. We failed. Repeatedly."Reg thinks, "I think that sums it up..."
"Her name is Marlie?" Sirius smiles thinking of Marlene, his heart hurting in his chest, "Does she have two middle names too?"
"Marlie Pandora Lily." Regulus says, "I agree that they're stupid."
"You fought to have Pandora as her middle name." Kate points out.
Regulus sighs, "Alright and? You're the one who gave in."
"Horcruxes?" Sirius ponders, "That's impossible."
"Voldemort made it possible." Reg says with a shrug, "Had to take my death to get away from them and destroy the fucking things. I can't do it though. We've tried for twelve years. The prophecy speaks of Harry being his match, killing Voldemort and if we can make it easier when that time comes..then we need to try."
"Right.."Sirius says, still as confused as before.
Reg rolls his eyes, "I wasn't on their side."
"You got the mark."
"Because I was a scared shitless kid. Half of us were scared kids." Reg snorts, "I didn't have a choice. I was signing my life away either way."
Remus walks in to the house at that moment, he looks exhausted and worn out. He has his briefcase in one hand and his trunk floating behind him.
"Snape told everyone my furry secret. I am officially no longer a teacher." He shrugs, "Sorry for turning up here, I wanted to make sure Pads got here fine."
"I'm so sorry." Kate says sympathetically.
"I'm not." Remus shrugs, "Dumbledore didn't give me much say. I never wanted to be a bloody Professor. He's not the nice old man you all think he is."
"Finally." Regulus mutters, "Only took you twelve years to come to that realisation."
Remus shakes his head, "I came to that realisation when I returned from a mission he sent me on and he locked me in a silver cage because I didn't have the answers he wanted to hear."
"What?" Kate stares at Remus in disgust.
"Yeah, he only let me go the day of Effy and Monty's funeral after a Veritaserum interrogation." Remus shrugs, "I thought I should be grateful I got to say goodbye to them and thank them, but there was always an alternative motive with him."
Reg scoffs, "I went to him for help." Sirius stares at his little brother, his heart sinking into the pit of his stomach, "He offered me protection if I spied for him. He asked me to risk my life providing him with Voldemort and death eater secrets, he wanted me to sell out the only friends I had. It was never about the Order, so I walked away and got the mark."
"I didn't know that." Sirius mumbles guiltily.
"Why would you?" Reg shrugs, "I didn't exactly advertise it."
"I just thought you wanted to be on the dark side."
Reg looks down, "The dark side was more appealing because at least they were honest about their intentions."
"I asked him for visitation. He said no. I asked him to tell you about Marlie and he said no." Kate whispers, "When I shouted about your innocence,he wouldn't listen."
"That night at Godrics Hollow.." Sirius says, "He believed me, but said he had no proof and I had no choice but to go to Azkaban."
"Bastard." Kate mutters angrily.
"It's like he's playing a game of chess and we're all just pieces in his game." Remus growls angrily, "We can't let our children fight for this man."
"We have to finish what we started." Reg nods, "We destroy Voldemort like we failed to do in the first war."
"Where is Peter?" Kate asks suddenly, "If he's alive where did he go?"
"He got away." Remus says, "Dumbledore can't prove Sirius' innocence without Peter."
"So what do we do?" Kate frowns, "We can't do things Dumbledores way anymore."
"We remain in the Order." Remus says confidently. "But our mission is to find and destroy the Horcruxes."
"We have two to destroy already." Reg nods, "How do we destroy them then?"
"We keep researching until we figure it out." Remus smiles, "We have time."
Sirius nods, staring at the people around the table one by one. He had things to fix with each of them, apologies to make and time to make up for, but that was the thing. They had time. For the first time in years, he had time and he was going to take every second freedom allowed.
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A/N: if you're part of the 'We hate Dumbledore club say I'.
Honestly only answer for why he didn't just use veritaserum to prove Sirius' innocence or use it on all members of the order to find the spy is bc he lived for the drama x