Last chapter guys…

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17 Years later…

"Mum?!"

The shout sounded from upstairs and I rolled my eyes as I heard the pounding of stairs before I could even respond.

I raised an eyebrow as I saw the brown haired girl standing on the stairs in nothing but a towel, and soap still in her very wet hair.

"Must you drip all over the house?" I asked impatiently as her outraged eyes met mine.

"Sirius put doubling ears in my shampoo bottle!" She cried out and she pulled her hair away from her face for me to see two ears growing on each side of her head.

So it's going to be one of those days…

I rubbed my temple slowly, "Just finish your shower and then I'll fix it for you."

"What about Sirius?" She demanded.

"I'll deal with your brother later."

She let out an annoyed huff and stomped back up the stairs.

I let out a sigh and went to pour myself a cup of coffee. Then another set of feet came thundering down the stairs, "Mum?!"

"I'm right here." I responded as a redhead came into the kitchen looking frantic.

"I can't find my wand!" She exclaimed, her grey eyes meeting mine desperately.

"Did you look in your trunk?" I asked calmly, "You did pack it in there last year."

She gave me an annoyed look, "No, Teddy hid it in there last year to make me panic, and now I'm about ready to go strangle him to see if he did it again this year!"

"Whatever," I told her dryly, "Just look in your trunk first before killing him."

She also huffed and then travelled back up the stairs. As she disappeared up she passed by a brown haired boy.

"You're a git." I heard her tell him, before continuing back up the stairs.

I leaned against the counter as the boy came into the kitchen with a puzzled look, "What was that all about?"

I ignored his question and gave a pointed look, "Doubling ears in your sister's shampoo?"

He tried to hide his smirk but failed pathetically, "Oh come on Mum, Maggie's been so uptight lately, I couldn't help it. It was like she was crying out desperately to be pranked."

I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest, "Sirius, you're an adult now, and going into your last year at Hogwarts. Can you not find it in your being to act your age?"

He squinted up his eyes as if thinking, "Probably not."

I stared silently at the boy in front of me for a moment. He gave a cheesy smile so much like his Grandfather's.

"I'll let your father deal with you." I decided finally and went back to my coffee.

"Sounds good," He responded quickly and made his way back towards the stairs.

"Get Teddy for me, will you?" I called after him.

"Yeah, yeah."

I sat down at the table and continued drinking from my cup.

"Theodore Remus Lupin!" A person suddenly yelled loudly from upstairs, "Give it back!"

"Get off me, you crazy bint!" A male voice exclaimed.

I groaned and brought my hand back up to my face.

"I don't have it!"

"Then why are you smiling you bloody git?!"

"Get off!"

"Make me!"

Tumble.

Crash.

Groan.

"Please don't let anything be broken." I mumbled under my breath.

"Mum!" Pounding down the stairs, "Another ear grew!"

My gaze flattened, "Sirius!"

"What?!" He demanded from upstairs.

"Get down here!" I ordered and another crash sounded from upstairs.

"Get her off of me!" Teddy yelled.

"Give it back!"

That was it.

"Everybody living and breathing in this household come downstairs now!" I yelled loudly, my voice reaching a deadly tone.

Silence.

"Now!"

One by one I watched the teenagers come down the stairs, all four of them glowering at each other.

I rubbed my temple in annoyance as they came into the kitchen. Maggie was still dripping wet, both Teddy and Aurie were in a dishevelled state, and Sirius was smirking at the three of them.

"The last day." I started slowly before lowering my hand, "The last day you people have together before you leave this house; and you can't let it go by peacefully?"

I raised an eyebrow at them pointedly when I got no response.

Then they all started talking at once.

"He put it in my shampoo!"

"He stole my wand! Again!"

"The bloody psycho tried to kill me!"

"You have to admit it was funny, Mum…"

"I didn't take the blasted wand!"

"How am I supposed to go to Hogwarts with six ears!"

"Liar! Give it!"

"Stop hitting me!"

"Oi!" I interrupted loudly, bringing their bickering to a standstill, "What is wrong with you people?"

"He-"

I raised my hand to cut them off, "That was not meant to be answered!"

One of them huffed out in annoyance and I ignored them, "Now listen up the lot of you, this is how things are going to go: Maggie, you're going to go upstairs right now and finish getting ready. I will deal with your ear problem and your brother later. Sirius, wipe that smug look off your face before I permanently jinx it that way."

His look dropped to a glower.

"Aurie, we will find your wand before tomorrow morning. If Teddy did do something with it we will deal with it later. Until then, you are not allowed to try strangling him for answers. Teddy, you will go back upstairs and fix whatever was broken before I see anything amiss. Then, for the next couple hours before we head to the Burrow, you will not look, talk, or even breathe on each other; you will act like the nice loving family that we are and not attempt to murder one of your siblings in between now and the time we leave."

I took a deep breath, "Are there any questions?"

"What about after we leave?"

My hand came to my face and slid down painfully slow, "I don't care; once we're at the Burrow you are your father's children."

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I sat at the table in the Burrow as all the wives in the family talked together about kids and jobs, all as per usual. And as per usual, I found myself tuning them out in boredom. I looked out the window at all the kids attempting to get a game of Quidditch going in the yard. The younger ones were all lined up, all except for James of course who was following around Sirius with adoring eyes, which concerned me a small amount as my son had taken after his namesake and I usually received over three letters a month from McGonagall during the school year. I shrugged it off though, Harry and Ginny could deal with James, I had my turn raising a Marauder incarnate. Thankfully the prankster had also taken after his dad in quidditch and was captain this year, making me hopefully think he'd be too busy to cause too much trouble.

Teddy had a more studious nature, taking after Remus, and was Head Boy this coming year. Though Dory's personality still showed in him, and he took after his mum and was sorted into Hufflepuff, much to the dismay of Sirius who wanted his brother to be in Gryffindor with him. But the boys still got along, even at school despite the different houses and Sirius claiming that Teddy's girlfriend, Victoire, was an, "insufferable priss".

I found out I was pregnant with the twins a little while after the war and I completely panicked while Oliver was thrilled. Raising four children under the age of 3 during a time of restoration was a bit of a nightmare, but it was also a good distraction for everyone as well. Auriga Zosma was named for the Chara family and inherited my aunt's brilliant dark red hair. From what dad says, she takes after Mum with her observant mind and stubborn opinions. Maggie Nymphadora looked the most like me with her brown hair, but had Oliver's deep brown eyes. She liked to keep to herself at times, but seemed to have a personal vendetta with Sirius just as Sirius did with her. Those two always seemed to be going toe to toe with each other, if this morning's adventures were anything to demonstrate…

But our odd little family somehow worked together. The kids all managed to inherit my sarcasm and wit and Oliver's keen mind, so they were all little smart asses from a young age, at least some of them had the decency to pretend they weren't… The others ended up in detention every so often…

Oliver joined back with Puddlemere after the war, once the wizarding world was able to pull itself back together, and was now coaching the team, which anyone could have guessed would happen. I stayed home with the four children for a bit until they were old enough for Dad to help take care of them and then I worked part time at the Daily Prophet as a fact checker. Apparently the Ministry finally decided they might want to get some facts right every once in a while in the paper so they made the Prophet hire me to do background work, meaning I had to deal with Skeeter's constant whining, but on the whole I liked my job. My entire life I had been trying to solve my history, and found I was quite good at finding the truth.

Now that all the kids were in Hogwarts I was able to work full time and life was simply normal. Though looking around at the mixed match family all gathered at the Burrow, nobody would hardly call us normal…

"Isn't that right, Rigel?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and saw that everyone at the table was looking at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry?"

Molly Weasley gave me an exasperated look, as my tendency to zone out during these things happened often, "I was telling Ginny here that sending your first borns off on the train for the first time is a bit hard, but quite manageable. Now isn't that right?"

I looked blankly at her, "uh… sure. Don't you have another year to wait for James though?"

Being the witch with the oldest children at home meant everybody would often ask for advice, however, I was no conventional mum and my blunt answers usually made others look on in shock.

Honestly, I think I breathed a sigh of relief when Sirius and Teddy first boarded the train, and then nearly threw a party when the twins went a couple years later. I missed them of course, I did love my children, but they were a handful, especially them being so close in age and having differing personalities. Hogwarts kept them busy and gave me a break to explore my own career.

The conversation started up again and I never did hear Ginny's answer so I slowly got up from the table and moved to the back door to catch a break. I leaned against the doorway and simply watched the kids, who now had a game of quidditch going on.

Sirius and Auriga, the two older of the bunch of kids and practically pro quidditch players thanks to Oliver, were captains and were directing the younger ones what to do. I caught a glimpse of Harry and Dad sitting off in the shade on one of Molly's benches, watching the kids with pride. I had thought Dad was excited when I had just Sirius, but he became nearly ecstatic when the other three joined the family. He was a true grandfather through and through.

"Hey love," A familiar voice spoke before a set of arms wrapped around my waist, "Sorry I'm late, practice ran later than usual."

I turned my head slightly up to see Oliver's face above my shoulder, "You missed a rather spectacular battle at home today."

"Oh really?" He asked, as if we were talking about the weather, "Who won?"

I looked back to the playing kids with a snort, "I did, of course."

"Bravo," He chuckled, and I felt his laugh through his chest against my back, "Few more years and we'll have the place all to ourselves again."

"Again?" I asked dryly, we had never the house to ourselves, "And what would we do with that big house all to ourselves?"

"I could think of a few things," He murmured by my ear, causing my face to turn beet red.

I elbowed him lightly, causing him to laugh again. We fell into a companionable silence and I smiled briefly at my surroundings. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close.

I used to be that girl who was known for a dead mother and a murderous father, and now I was here. I was happily married to a gorgeous man, had four beautiful children, a loving father, and more family than I could keep up with. Much had changed since that last year at Hogwarts, and I couldn't help but marvel at it. It was like I had defied logic to become who I was today. But then again, I did have the Black blood in me, we were born to defy reality.

I suppose that was just part of the deal when you're born into the noble, and most ancient, House of Black.

Fin

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I'm literally staring at my computer in shock right now. It's done, the House of Black series is done. I started this series on a whim and fell in love with Rigel and Sirius and Auriga and their intricate story. Zosma came into play much later, but I found myself really pitying her character and she's one of my favourites honestly, maybe one day I'll write her story or Auriga and Sirius', but for now I need to take a break from this storyline. My writing has extremely changed since the Noble House of Black, I almost cringe when I see how undeveloped my first story was honestly…lol

So I'm starting new. I started the first couple chapters of a new story a while back and now that I'm finished this series, I'm going to be dedicating my writing focuses on this new story. It's based on Sirius and a new OC during the marauder era, and it's pretty much a romcom that I have completely planned out, and am really excited for. So it would mean a lot if you guys would check it out, you were all amazing followers and I can't wait to start another story with you guys.

I have hundreds of pages written out of snippets starting from the Noble House all the way to the Ancient House, just of scenes I couldn't fit in, I even have an AU chapter where Sirius did die at the ministry, so I may post some of those at a later time, but for now, I'm going for a bit of a break.

Thank you to all who have joined this series with me, it means so much to have people actually enjoy and root for your characters. So let me know all of your thoughts, favourite scenes from the beginning till now, favourite characters, etc

My new story is called "A Tale of Two Schemers" and can be found on my page.

As always, till the next time,

-Fable