BLACK!

(Disclaimer: I own nothing that is HP they all belong to JK Rowling, her brilliant writing and characters.)

(The story begins at the start of Harry's fifth year.)

Chapter One. ~The unexpected Present. ~

A more than welcome light summer rain began to fall, cooling, if only slightly another uncomfortable steamy night. Nearing midnight, most residents of little Whinging Surrey had long since retired to bed for the night, but at number 4 Privet Drive, a dim light was still visible from the second floor window. Harry Potter laid on his bed awaiting the stroke of midnight, a piece of parchment held tightly in his grasp.

Midnight!

"Happy Birthday", he softly uttered to himself in the silence of his room. On his old desk sat a handful of birthday cards. One each from his best friends Ron and Hermione, another a hand made card from Hagrid, also one from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley , and most surprisingly was one from his Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, along with a note which Harry now held in his hand.

Harry got up off his bed and looked out his barred window, into the darkened back-garden. His thoughts trying decipher Dumbledore's obscure message.

i Expect an unexpected present/i

Glancing over the short note again he quickly surmised that surely Professor Dumbledore wouldn't mean it as a warning.

A familiar creaking of the stairs drew Harry's attention away from the note, he was used to the stair, just outside his bedroom door, creaking as his Aunt , uncle and cousin Dudley made their way down stairs, but this was none of them , he could still hear uncle Vernon and Dudley snoring loudly.

Harry reached over grabbing his wand and turning off his lamp, his room lit up as a bright flash appeared through the key hole. He stood ready with his wand pointed towards the door as it slowly opened. In the darkness all he could make out was a shadowy figure as it entered his room.

"Harry?" a soft woman's voice whispered.

"Harry Potter?" she uttered again before lifting her wand and lighting the sparse bedroom.

"Who are you?" Harry hesitantly questioned, as he looked over to the woman, her face obscured by the hood of her dark robe.

"It's alright Harry, I'm not here to harm you" she tried to reassure him as she lowered her wand and sat down on the edge of his messy bed.

"Who are you?" Harry asked again, this time more firmly, still covering her with his wand.

"I'm Jessica, Jessica Black" She softly answered, keeping her voice low so as not to disturb the other occupants of the house. "I'm Sirius's wife, Harry".

"Sirius, is he alright? Is he here?" he said louder than he meant to.

Jessica raised her hand trying to quiet Harry, "Shh, we don't want to wake Petunia or that awful Vernon", she whispered, "But yes, Sirius is alright, I'm here to take you to him, but we need to move quickly and quietly".

Jessica moved off the bed as Harry feeling some what more secure put his wand away and bent down pulling out his trunk, with a flick of her wand, Harry's clothes flew out of his wardrobe and drawers, circling the room before neatly dropping into the opened trunk.

Jessica turned to see Harry pulling up several small floor boards. "What are you doing Harry?" she asked.

"If I don't hide my school things or anything magical Aunt Petunia will throw them out", Harry said as he pulled out his book's quills and ink's.

"Where is your invisibility Cloak" she questioned as she glanced around the room, not sighting it anywhere.

"It's in their room" Harry said raising his eyebrow, "They don't trust me with it".

"Which room is it?" Jessica asked as she moved over towards the door.

Harry pointed to the room across from his, "It's in the trunk at the end of their bed".

"Alright you get changed while I go and get it". She said hurrying from the room.

Jessica crept into Petunia and Vernon's room , at the end of the bed was a large timber trunk with a lock on it , Jessica pulled out her wand, peering over the end of the bed she popped open the lock , catching it in her hand before it hit the floor.

The lid creaked slightly as she lifted open the heavy lid, Harry pulled his jumper over his head as he stood in the corridor watching on nervously as Jessica tried to quietly locate his cloak. Vernon muttered as he rolled over in the large bed, Jessica stopped, her heart pounding in her chest as she looked over cautiously, to see that Vernon hadn't awoken.

Feeling her way around the bottom of the trunk, she recognized the soft silky material in her grasp, with a gentle tug, she lifted out Harry's invisibility, both of them heaving a sigh of relief.

Silently closing the lid, she made her way out to Harry in the corridor; another flick of her wand saw Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage lift off the floor floating effortlessly towards the stairs.

Quietly they made there way down the stairs and out the door into the dark deserted street, "Put the cloak on," Jessica requested as she loosely held onto the trunk and Hedwig's cage as they floated alongside her.

Down the end of Privet drive Harry could see a well-known large black shaggy dog , as they got nearer the dog started wagging it long scrappy tail as it ran up the road towards them to them, Harry bent down lifting his cloak he hugged the dog in a friendly embrace.

"Ahem" Jessica looked down at the odd sight of a dog held by a half visible person. Harry quickly covered up and stood, uttering a 'sorry'.

"That's alright Harry" she said before turning on the disobedient dog, "I thought I told you to wait at home!", Jessica scolded, as she continued walking down along the street.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as they turned out of Privet drive.

"It's not far, to our house".

Harry watched as Jessica walked a few paces ahead of him, to his stunned amazement she turned into a street he knew well.

"You live in Magnolia crescent?" questioned Harry.

"Yes, actually we live right next to Arabella Figg" she said, "I'm sure you know Arabella".

Jessica stopped in front of a large two story house with several trees scattered around the front yard.

"Welcome to your new home, well for the next couple of weeks anyway", she proudly announced.

Harry smiled to himself as he looked up at the very normal house, a sense of relief filled; he was out of the Dursleys for another year at least, even if it was only a few streets away.

Opening the door ,Jessica ushered Harry inside, quickly followed by the dog, the first thing he noticed was how warm and inviting the place felt, not stuffy or exceedingly tidy, like his Aunt and Uncles.

"You go into the kitchen Harry and help yourself to something to eat and drink, I'm sure Sirius will show you the way", Jessica said as she followed Harry's things up the staircase.

Harry stood back watching as the dog grew larger and larger, constantly changing colour and shape till his familiar godfather stood smirking back at him.

Sirius pushed his long shaggy black hair out of his face "You've grown since the last time I seen you Harry", he remarked as he put his hand around Harry's shoulder, leading him into what Harry considered, a modern Muggle kitchen, not exactly what he expected from Sirius.

Harry looked on as Sirius pulled a plate out of the cupboard, and then went over to the fridge loading it up with a variety food.

"I hadn't heard from you in so long, that I was starting to worry that something had happened", said Harry, as Sirius handed him the laden plate, them both walking over to a long glass table in the small dining room.

"Yeh, sorry about that Harry, I've been busy keeping out of the Ministries way and helping Remus to warn people about Voldemort's return, well the ones that would trust us anyway", Sirius said with slightly shrugging his shoulders as he relaxed back into the chair.

Glancing into the lounge room, he watched as Jessica walked in from upstairs, for the first time Harry could clearly see the woman who had crept into his room.

She appeared shorter to Harry than he had first thought she was, with long wavy brown hair, she walked over towards them wearing a tatty old pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt which revealed her slight build, her smile warm and welcoming as Harry smile back at her.

"Would you like a drink Harry?" she asked, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Yes please", he said as he continued to watch her walk into the kitchen. She was so unlike a witch, he thought to himself, no old out dated clothes or crested hats, even her mannerisms gave no hint of who she really was.

Coming back over to the table she handed him a can of coke, then moved over standing next to where Sirius was comfortably sitting, he put his arm around her waist.

"How is it that you never told me you had a wife?" Harry suddenly asked.

Sirius looked up at Jessica and smiled pulling her down onto his lap, "Well that's sort of a long story and one that I really haven't had a chance, before now to tell you", Sirius tried to explain, "Things being the way they are at the moment we really don't get time to see much of each other".

To Harry this was a whole new side of Sirius, that he had never seen before, and one he was keen to know more about.

"Alright, well when they dragged me off to Azkaban, assuming that I had killed Peter and betrayed your parents, many in the Ministry believed that Jess was in on it and had also sold Lily and James out to Voldermort".

"Many in the wizard community also believed this to be the case, when Jess came to see me in Azkaban I told her to take Nicole and go into hiding and never to come and see me again". "You have to understand Harry, the Ministry was on a 'witch hunt' so to speak, throwing anyone that they thought had colluded with Voldemort into Azkaban, without even so much as a hearing, so that was the last time I had seen them".

Sirius stopped as Jessica got up and went out to the kitchen to make a cup of tea for Sirius and herself. Smiling to himself, Sirius watched her as she move around the kitchen, then turned his attentions back to Harry again, "All I ever knew was that they had moved up north somewhere".

"Who is Nicole?" Harry questioned, with a slight puzzling frown.

Sirius laughed rubbing his chin as he looked at Harry, "Ah that's something else I neglected to tell you, I also have a daughter", he said proudly, but slightly embarrassed that he had neglected to tell Harry any of this.

"You have met her before Harry, but I doubt that you'd remember, as you were only just over one year old", Jessica said as she handed Sirius his cup of tea.

Placing her cup down on a placemat Jessica went back upstairs, Harry could hear her talking as she came back down the stairs. He watched as she walked back through the lounge room with her daughter, Harry courteously stood up as Sirius introduced him to their daughter, Nicole.

"It's nice to finally meet you", she said as she shook Harry's hand, "Mum and dad have told me so much about you, I feel like I already know you".

Harry smiled as he looked at her, so much like her mother, warm blue eyes, a slender figure and a warm contagious smile.

"Ah, it's nice to meet you too, but I feel at a slight disadvantage", Harry said as he looked over to Sirius, "Tonight was the first time I found out that Sirius had a wife and daughter".

Nicole frowned at her father, "Yeah that would be right, dad always leaves out the important parts of the story". She teasingly joked.

Everyone settled themselves down at the table as Sirius continued his story to Harry.

" When I escaped from Azkaban, I made my way here to Arabella's, that was the night you seen me, I knew it was you from moment I laid eyes on you and I would have grabbed you right there and then if that damn knight bus hadn't come along".

Harry looked somewhat baffled. "But what does Arabella Figg have to do with it?" He asked.

"Besides Jess, Arabella was the only other person who knew I wasn't Lily and James's final secret keeper and more importantly believed in my innocence; she realized that Peter had set me up, so I came to her knowing I could trust her".

Pausing for a moment, he glanced over to Jessica.

" When I made it to Arabella's that night, she was acting very odd, well more bizarre than is normal for Arabella, she made me sit down as she ran out of the house, at first I thought she was going to give me up to the Ministry, but when she came back she had this huge grin on her face, standing behind her was Jess, I couldn't believe my eyes, for 12 years I had lived with the regret of telling her not to come and see me again ".

Breaking off from his story again, he looked at Jessica as she smiled at him, taking his hand in hers.

"I didn't get the chance to see Nicole that night, what with Dementors and Ministry after me, I couldn't risk staying there too long, so that's when I headed for Hogwarts and took up residence, as you now know, at the shrieking shack", Sirius said as glanced down at his watch.

"Look, there's some things that you need to understand but it's getting late, so I think we should leave the rest until morning".

Jessica cleared away Harry's empty plate and drink as they said their 'goodnights', then Nicole showed Harry to his room up stairs.

"Here you go Harry, this is your room", she turned the light on for him, he walked in looking over the large deep blue room with two single beds and a more than generous desk under the opened window, Hedwig's cage stood empty on a stand near the window.

Harry said "goodnight" to Nicole as she closed the door to his room, he changed his clothes and lay down on his freshly made up bed, placing his glasses on his bedside cupboard, he whispered to himself, "Please don't let me be dreaming", before he closed his eyes.

(End)

R&R.

Nik