This idea just came to me and I simply had to put it down on paper (so to speak) right away. It's a short and simple little story that takes place this year (2020), but without the world having gone to bits. (And I'm still working on completing "Mrs Miller's New Neighbours" bonus chapter, so don't worry, as well as the story to come after that.)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to anything recognisable. I also don't make any money doing this.

Casting the tempus charm for what could only be the hundredth time that evening, Sirius Black not only sighed, but lifted one hand and dragged it slowly down his face while he completed another turn around the foyer. The carpet that used to lay there had been moved when it had shown signs of wear and tear after he had started pacing there on numerous occasions, such as this, starting a few years back.

This was not, in a million years, how he had imagined his life would end up like. Eternal waiting. His time in Azkaban felt like a pleasant afternoon spent laying in the shade of a large tree on a sunny day compared to this. He shuddered to think what it all would look like if he could not afford such a large house. A house with so many bathrooms and so many mirrors. It was simply unfathomable. A deep pit of despair he adamantly refused to approach, or he knew he would risk his sanity. What little of it was left, that is.

Another tempus charm revealed only a minute had passed since the last one and he decided to request the Department of Mysteries take a closer look at the concept of time first thing on Monday morning. Surely his home had some kind of abnormal time magic hidden away in it to slow everything down when one was about to leave. Maybe it was secretly more nefarious than Grimmauld Place, wishing to keep its occupants sealed inside forever?

A slight reprieve manifested itself when he heard steps on the stairs and looked up to see the most beautiful person in the world. His wife.

"Thought I'd find you here" Hermione Black said with an amused smile while she took the last few steps down to the floor.

"Where else?" he replied in a suffering voice, receiving nothing but rolled eyes in return.

Sweeping his gaze over his wife, Sirius ended up looking into those amazing brown eyes that always made him think of firewhiskey. Both for their rich and warm colour, but also for the spark in them. He could also see his love for her reflected there and smiled as he came to a stop in front of her.

Then his eyes travelled up a little bit and landed on the bane on his existence. Not that he did not love her hair. He truly did. The unruly curls had a life of their own, going static with magic when she was angry and were always so inviting to his hands when he held her to him in a passionate kiss. To top it off, he thought of them as a permanent bedhead, often sending his thoughts in a very happy direction. No, it was not her curls that were the problem.

"Please tell me you at least helped them?" he begged, his eyes continuing their upward journey and landing on the ceiling.

"I offered, but you know what they're like."

"I do" he said with a weary sigh. "Just as I know we'll be late. Again."

"Everyone will understand."

Even if he knew it was true, he still scoffed. It had got to the point that he did not even make excuses for them any longer. Everyone knew what he would have said anyway.

"At least I have you, Reg" he said and turned around to look at his son, who sat ready in his finest clothes, that still allowed for playing in them, on the sofa in the foyer.

The boy, who was almost a copy of himself at that age, looked up and smiled at him before once more looking down and continuing to read his book. If only he had not been the only one to inherit his mother's calm and studious nature.

Speaking of.

A door slammed open upstairs, the impact it made when it smashed into the wall reverberating throughout the house. But it was the shrill voice that followed it that made him shiver.

"Mum! I can't find my new pink lip gloss! Have you seen it?!"

"Have you looked on your bedside table, dear?!" Hermione responded in a calmer voice, that still carried in that way only a mother's seemed able to do.

Some hurried steps were heard before the same voice was heard again, but a bit muffled; "Found it! Thanks mum!"

His wife's eyes sparkled with amusement when she looked back at him. They both knew what was to come.

"Who do you think will be next?" she asked, just as another door slammed open.

"Mum! Where's my yellow dress aunt Luna gave me for my birthday?! I put it in the laundry like ages ago!"

"On a hanger on your bathroom door, honey! I put it there since I thought you'd want to wear it tonight!"

"Oh, I see it! Thanks mum!"

Another amused glace was directed at him, though some wryness was mixed in. Hermione might have an angel's patience when compared to him, but it was not entirely limitless. At least with two down, that only left…

"Mum! The Sleekeazy's not working properly!" a near hysterical voice was heard from above.

"Oh dear. I better get up there for this one, or we'll miss Harry's birthday party entirely" Hermione commented, but took the time to give him a kiss on the cheek before turning around and hurrying back up the stairs.

"That's it. I give up. Got room for me on there, mate?" Sirius said and plopped down next to his son.

"Don't worry dad. You know mum always wins."

"Only because she's had so many years to practice, son. That demon hair is a mighty foe."

Regulus sniggered and looked up at him.

"At least you have the blessed Black locks. Hardly need a comb pulled through them to look amazing" Sirius commented as he ruffled his son's black hair, only for it to fall back into looking as effortless as always.

"But dad. I'm a boy. I'm never going to spend so much time in front of a mirror" Regulus, in his infinite seven-year-old wisdom, proclaimed.

"You better not. I don't think my poor nerves would survive a fourth bathroom dweller in the family."

"I prefer books" Regulus said and promptly returned to the one in his hands again.

"Yeah, I'm well aware. My killer looks and your mother's killer brains. You'll grow up to be unstoppable, you know. Unlike your big sisters. My vanity combined with your mother's hair." He shuddered. "It's a deadly combination, I tell you."

"Don't be silly dad. We all know you love us" his son said and leaned against him, though not taking his eyes off the apparently riveting book.

"More than life itself" Sirius whispered and placed an arm around his son, pulling him even closer as they settled down to wait for the four most important women in their lives.

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