A/N: Hi there! I'm back! Thanks to all you wonderful folk who've been hanging out for this. I still haven't got a job, but I really couldn't wait any longer to start this. It won't be updated as fast as Births and Deaths, but I'm sure we'll get along just fine. Remember to review, I'm not above putting requests in, as much as possible. Just think, this is only the first day of the holidays. How exciting!

Oh and okay so in my ultimate wisdom [insert eye roll here] I've realised that I've called the bonding between Harry and Minerva the màthairean beannachd which means Mother's Blessing, or there abouts, even though I said that Merlin was the first person to achieve this, ergo, I'm a little bit of an idiot! Please assume that if a guy had done it, it would have been called something else. Please. And ignore the fact that I'm an idiot [insert ANOTHER eye roll here]

BTW if I say 'his mother' I kinda mean Minerva from now on, unless I say otherwise. It's too hard trying to think of different ways to call her so. Of course then I go and put in something about Lily and feel bad…urgh, just work with me okay lol Oh and this will of course span the summer holidays, which used to be (when I was a lass!) bout 6 weeks. Of course Quidditch cup is in the sixth so we have 5 weeks of holiday love to share!

And I would like to love all nearly 50,000 people that have read Births and Deaths! It's massive and I'm completely floored by your love!

Peace out my friends! And welcome to Of New Lives and New Scars and Old Mischief Makers.

Harry opened his eyes and looked around. It took him a second to work out exactly where he was, but he broke into a smile when he looked around. He felt her before he saw her, and his smile widened as she opened the door.

"I knew you were there." He said quietly. She smiled as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"I knew you were awake." She said, performing her customary gesture, running her hands through his hair.

"What's wrong?" he said studying her face. He could feel apprehension and a tiny bit of fear under her love for him. She laughed quietly and kissed his head.

"We are not going to be able to keep much from each other are we?" she said contemplatively as she stared out of the window at the valley.

"Did Albus say anything about that?" he asked quietly, effectively answering her rhetorical question.

"How did you," she asked, her eyebrows shooting to her hairline. Harry picked some imaginary lint off his bed sheets.

"I can feel how much you love him." He said simply, his face going red.

"Oh." She said, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry." She said as Harry shrugged.

"Don't be sorry. I'm happy for you." He said genuinely, "it's just, I'm keeping you," Harry fell back onto his pillows. "I'm stopping you." His face turned as red as his bedroom walls at the thought of the conversation he was having with, well, his mother. "I'm making things difficult for you." He finished with a sigh. Minerva laughed, despite her embarrassment.

"Oh mo chiall [my darling]. You are such an amazing boy." She said gathering him up in her arms and holding him close. "Albus and I are, well let's just say we're used to waiting." She said smiling as Harry groaned. "We are fine, my love. But I am sorry that I have put you through this." She said, regret lacing both her words and feelings, making Harry squirm.

"You regret this." he said quietly, pulling away. Minerva looked horrified.

"No, leanabh, [baby] no." she pulled him back into her arms. "I just, I understand how hard it must be to feel what I am feeling." He snuggled into her shoulder, making her smile gently as he breathed in her scent.

"Well what about you?" he said quietly. "Don't you feel my feelings?" She smiled.

"Yes, I do, however," she started running her hands through his hair again. "I understand that feeling all your old transfiguration professor's feelings would be rather uncomfortable, regardless of our new relationship." Harry shrugged.

"You're not old." He said sheepishly.

"I am my love, old enough to be your grandmother."

"But you're not anymore." He said with a smile, making her laugh.

"No, mo mhac [my son], not anymore."

They sat for a while, just enjoying each other's company until Harry remembered how the conversation started.

"What do you regret?" he said slowly, not willing to pull back from her embrace.

"Oh nothing really, I just, I have a feeling I am going to regret something." She said, smiling at him.

"Why?"

"I think it's time to go and find your Godfather." She said smiling as he looked at her in awe, feeling his excitement.

"Where is he?" Minerva ushered him off the bed and to the window, pointing to a mountain at the far edge of the valley.

"See that mountain? Once upon a time there was a dragon that lived there terrorising the valley. It lived in a small dip at the summit, curved in an archway like this." She made a cupping gesture with her hands. "It's in the shape of a horseshoe."

"I sent Sirius there didn't I?" Harry said looking at her in wonder. "You told me to tell him to come here." She nodded with a smile and Harry jumped into her arms.

"Thank you." He whispered as she held him close.

"You will stay here mo mhac [my son]. I will not have you outside the boundaries." Minerva almost laughed as a myriad of emotions washed over her. "And don't even try and sneak out, I will know and there will be hell to pay leòmhann beag [little lion]." She looked sternly over her glasses, trying to show him just how serious she was. He sighed dejectedly.

"Alright." He conceded, making her smile.

"I will be back before you know it." Nodding as she left the room he changed and went downstairs, feeling a little peckish.

"Taran?" a pop echoed in front of him and his eyebrows nearly jumped of his face when Taran bowed deeply to him.

"Little master?" he said reverently.

"It's Harry remember?" he said with a smile.

"Yes, but I is understanding that Master Harry is now actually Mistress' leanabh [child]." Harry smiled at the elf.

"That doesn't really change anything as far as I'm concerned Taran. It's still Harry." Taran bowed.

"Yes Master Harry." Harry laughed.

"Any chance of some breakfast while màthair [mother] is out?" he said unaware of what he just said.

"You is making Mistress very happy." Taran said, disappearing with a pop. Harry looked at the space where the elf had just been frowning a little as a feeling of panic washed over him.

"Odd." He said to himself as he entered the dining room.

Kenna appeared next to him as he ate his breakfast.

"Oh, Hi Kenna." He said with a smile.

"Master Harry, is being good that you is home."

"It's good to be back." Harry said in between a mouthful of porridge.

"Mistress is out?" Kenna asked, picking the edge of her uniform.

"She is, she's out fetching my godfather." Harry said with a smile.

It would be good to get to know Sirius a little better. He knew that nothing, especially now would ever come between Minerva and himself, but it would be nice to get to know someone closer to his parent's age. Someone who didn't feel like they needed to be a parent to him. Plus it would be good for Minerva to have some adult company. If anything it would take her mind off Albus.

Harry was halfway to his mouth with his last mouthful when a pain shot through his right leg.

"Ahhh." He screamed, falling off his chair.

"Master Harry!" Kenna squealed.

Harry closed his eyes against the pain, recognising briefly that the pain was not his. He got flashes of a steep, but crumbling rock face. He tried to breathe through the pain, but it was so intense he simply writhed on the floor in agony. He looked around, confused as to where the rock face was and what he was doing back in the dining room at McGonagall Manor and the next thing he knew everything went black; he was pressed very hard from all directions; he could not breathe, there were iron bands tightening around his chest; his eyeballs were being forced back into his head; his ear-drums were being pushed deeper into his skull and then he was kneeling, somewhere other than the McGonagall Hall dining room trying not to vomit.

Taking a few calming breaths he stood up and took a look around, wincing a little as he felt the pain in his leg numb. He realised that it looked exceedingly familiar and when he turned completely he saw Minerva lying on a lump of rock, her face screwed up in pain.

"Màthair." He cried, running over to her. He noticed absently that the pain grew as he got closer, but that he wasn't really feeling it. As he crouched next to her he realised that he could feel that he was in pain, while not feeling it as pain. "Màthair." He said, taking her hand in his, startling her out of her obvious pain.

"Mo mhac [my son]?" she whispered, a worried look on her face as she groaned again.

"It's alright, I'm here." He said smiling slightly as the weight of her feelings washed over him. Apprehension, fear, pain, sadness. "Màthair," he said rubbing his chest with the force of the emotions he was picking up from her, "please, it'll be okay."

She lay back on the grey stone and tried to control her breathing. He continued to rub his chest, wincing at the burning sensation on his skin. He groaned as she continued to overload him with his feelings.

"Màthair, please." He groaned, "try thinking of something else. A box, or a wall or something." He groaned again. "Anything." He said through gritted teeth as he felt his chest get hot for a moment.

Just as Minerva was getting her breathing back under control the rocks above them shifted, sending a cascade of shale all around them. His chest felt like it was on fire as a rock landed on Minerva already damaged leg just as he jumped on top of her to prevent any from hitting her, wishing only that he could fix her leg so they could get out of this place. She screamed in agony as the rocks landed on her leg and he cried out to her as he felt his chest explode.

"Màthair."

The world was suddenly still as everything around them stopped. There was a bright light expanding out from Harry's chest, just where his heart was and in exactly the place that he had been rubbing just moments before. Minerva watched in awe as the light shone out of Harry, and then from her, in exactly the same place. Harry had her hand in a vice grip as the light seemed to burn through his skin, Minerva winced just as much as the light she was emitting burned through her. Their breathing harmonised, their hearts following as a bubble of bright light engulfed them both, preventing any more rocks from falling on them.

When Harry woke up he felt tired. He cuddled into his mother's arms, wincing slightly as bumped his chest on her arm.

"Harry? Harry wake up." He heard through the ringing in his ears and the slight burning in his chest. He cracked his eyes open and looked around, thoroughly confused as to what he was doing outside. "Harry?" he heard again and looked up, finding the smiling, but pale face of his new mother.

"Màthair." He sighed, jumping into her arms, yelping as a sharp pain lanced his chest. "Ow." He said pulling back. He looked down at his chest to see a hole in his shirt. "What the," he started, inspecting the skin underneath the hole. It was red and burnt in some sort of pattern that looked vaguely familiar to Harry, but he wasn't sure where he'd seen it. He looked to Minerva, who was inspecting hers, before looking at Harry's. They both gasped a little as the two wounds both shone brightly for a moment, before healing, leaving perfectly formed matching scars.

"Goodness gracious." Minerva said as she traced her finger over the top of hers. Harry swayed a little as he felt Minerva's feelings wash over him, but when she stretched out her arm, the feelings disappeared.

"Whoa, do that again?" Harry said enthusiastically. Minerva placed her hand over the scar and Harry smiled, feeling everything she was feeling.

"What? What is it?" she said a little worried. Harry just smiled brighter.

"What am I feeling?" he asked her. She took a deep breath and frowned.

"I, I don't know." She said a little sadly. He placed his hand over his scar and her face lit up with amazement. Harry laughed. "Looks like we solved that problem." He said cheerfully. Minerva laughed and wrapped him up in a hug, both of them noticing that they could feel each other's feelings again as soon as Minerva's hand came to rest on Harry's.

"This definitely needs studying." Minerva said absently as she tested out her leg, which had healed during their 'moment'. She looked at Harry, as if she was suddenly realising where they were. "Wait, Harry, what on Earth are you doing here?" she asked forcefully. Harry flinched at her tone, feeling his newest scar prickle a little with the volume of feeling.

"I honestly have no idea, but I really don't want to try it again. One minute I was in the dining room eating my porridge and the next I was writhing in agony on the floor. I think maybe I blacked out of something, because I could see this place," he said waving his arms around him, "and then I was being ripped apart by something and I ended up here." Minerva frowned.

"You apparated?" She said, her eyebrows disappearing in her uncharacteristically messy hair. Harry shrugged.

"I have no idea, but please don't make me do it again." Minerva smiled gently and ran her hand through his slightly dusty hair.

"Well, seeing as you are here, we might as well go and find Sirius." She said, accepting a hand up from Harry, loving the way his love engulfed her as she took his hand.

"Tha gaol agam ort, leanabh [I love you baby]." She said gently as she hugged him. He just smiled as they stood there for a moment, enjoying their connection while they were touching. "Come on." She said after a while tugging his hand.

As they walked up a slightly longer, but ultimately safer path to the top of Beinn a' Bheithir Minerva pointed out the edges of her land, their land now. He smiled as he heard her correct herself. He was amazed at just how extensive her lands were. He felt himself tiring as they neared the top and she held his hand, trying to give him the strength to make it to the top. Feeling her trying to help him certainly did give him the strength to carry on and soon they were rounding the top of the mountain, only to be thrown back by a rather angry Hippogriff. Minerva nearly got sliced by the creatures massive claws, but Harry managed to get in front of her and called for Buckbeak to calm down. Seeing someone that was vaguely familiar the Hippogriff looked at Harry for a while and Harry calmly bowed, praying that Buckbeak would remember who it was that helped rescue him. The much calmer Hippogriff bowed back and nuzzled Harry's shoulder.

"Hey beaky, how are you?" he said gently as he scratched the creature's neck.

"Màthair, this is Buckbeak." He said presenting Minerva to Buckbeak, who eyed her warily, "Buckbeak, this is Minerva, my mother." He added shyly, making her smile. Minerva bowed regally and the Hippogriff followed shortly after, clearly impressed with the deep bow she performed in his honour. "Where's Sirius?" Harry asked the animal after he got a scratch on the shoulder from Minerva, who was quite at home around the large animal.

Buckbeak reared up a little and trotted back towards an overhang where a sorry looking bundle of rags were piled up at the back. Minerva placed a hand on Harry, clearly telling him, without words that he was to stay back. Minerva had a feeling that Sirius may not be fully aware when he woke up, so she stood in between Harry and the pile of rags, deliberately, and called to the innocent man.

"Sirius? Sirius, it's Minerva." She edged closer, slowly and Harry watched in fascination, leaning on Buckbeak's neck. "Sirius." She called a little louder pausing as the rags shifted a little. Finally losing patience she stood up to her full height and Harry smirked as he saw the Professor McGonagall persona resume its position over her features. "Sirius Black you will wake up this instant." Sirius shot up like a bullet from a gun, yelping loudly as he hit his head on the overhang.

"Ow, bloody hell Minerva." He said rubbing his head and grimacing. Minerva bit her cheek trying not to laugh.

"Sorry Sirius." She said in a voice that didn't really sound apologetic. Harry laughed as he watched and Sirius leaned around Minerva to see his godson leaning against his only friend.

"Harry." He said, rushing towards him and sweeping into a bear hug, swinging him around in the air, laughing with Harry.

Minerva sat regally on a little rock and watched them interact. She loved the light Sirius got back in his eyes as he interacted with Harry, just like she was sure she had as well. Albus had only yesterday commented at how beautiful her eyes had looked. She blushed a little as she thought about what else he had thought was beautiful.

"What's this?" Minerva jerked out of her memories and blushed even deeper as the two boys looked at her. "Professor McGonagall blushing." Sirius turned to Harry who was giggling madly. "I thought I had seen it all." Minerva rolled her eyes and got off the rock, stretching her legs as she did.

"Oh shut up Sirius." She said playfully.

"So who's the lucky wizard?" Sirius said draping a friendly arm around her shoulders. Harry laughed loudly.

"You'll never guess." He said, turning it into a game, laughing at the exasperated sigh his new mother gave.

"Gosh, let me see." Sirius said, winking at Harry. He had a fair idea as to who it was, but couldn't resist his Marauder ways, still firmly ingrained in his character. "Flitwick?" Minerva snorted in an unladylike fashion, sending Sirius and Harry into fits of laughter and despite the fact that the laughter was at her expense, she smiled as she watched them laugh with each other. All the previous misgivings she had been having, inviting Sirius to her home vanished as she felt the new scar above her heart heat up gently. She knew Harry was happy, and that made her smile even wider. "Hahaha, no, no wait, is it Filch." Even Minerva laughed at this, shaking her head as she listened to the two of them screaming in hysterical laughter.

"Are you two quite finished? I am under no illusion that you know exactly who I was thinking about." she said haughtily, keeping an eye on the surrounds, acutely aware of the fact that she was standing on the top of a mountain with Harry Potter and Sirius Black, together. "We really need to get back to the Manor." She said impatiently. Sirius smiled at her warmly and taking them both by surprise engulfed the woman in a huge hug.

"Thanks Minerva." He whispered. Momentarily shocked she mentally shook her head and hugged the man back.

"You're most welcome." She said back as they separated. "but you really need to bathe."

Sirius looked a little indignant.

"So would you if someone had told you to wait on the top of a mountain and then not arrived for a week." Minerva laughed as Harry watched the bantering go on, wondering if this was what it used to be like when his, well, his mother, Lily and his father were alive. Sirius looked Minerva over, smiling as he saw how well she looked. "You look wonderful Minerva." He said genuinely, making her blush a little and swat his arm.

"And you have lost none of your charm Mr Black." She said, her lips pursed, but amusement shining through her eyes.

"Was it like this the whole time?" Harry asked from his seat on Buckbeak's leg.

"Worse." Minerva said with a smile. "Combine him with your father and Remus and you have yourself a recipe for disaster." She said merrily.

"We got into so much trouble, sometimes more here and at school." Sirius said laughing as a few memories rolled through his head. "I'll tell you later." He said winking at Harry. Minerva raised an eyebrow.

"You certainly will not." She said indignantly, "no corrupting my son, Mr Black." Sirius faltered when he heard that and Minerva closed her eyes for a moment, cursing herself for her callousness. "Sirius, let's get back to the manor and then we'll explain." She said gently, letting out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding when he nodded his acceptance.

"Has this got something to do with the very new and very un-Minerva-like tattoos you are both sporting?" he said sullenly. Minerva placed a gentle hand on his arm and nodded.

"At home Sirius." She said with the finality that Sirius knew well. He nodded once more and motioned for her to continue. "Right, both of you take my arm and I shall apparate back to the front gates, considering that Sirius cannot get in the gates yet. Buckbeak can come to us later if he likes." She said turning towards the noble creature, bowing her head as Buckbeak seemed to agree before rubbing Sirius' shoulder, and then doing the same to Harry.

"See-ya later Buckbeak." Harry said gently, as he heard Minerva whisper.

"Till dhachaidh [return home]." He didn't even have time to smile before he got squished into nothing again. He ended up on his knees again right in front of the gates and this time he did vomit. "Urgh." He groaned.

"Hey, easy mo mhac." She said gently, rubbing his back as he emptied his stomach. "Tha gu seo [I am here]." Harry leant into her willing the nausea to stop and after a few minutes felt a little better, especially when the black dog that had suddenly appeared nuzzled his hand, getting a scratch behind the ears for good measure. "Clamar a tha thu? [How are you?]." she said finally standing from her kneeling position next to Harry. He nodded and smiled weakly at her.

"Foirfe [perfect]." He said, irony dripping off his words, making Minerva laugh loudly. She kissed his head and stood up before the gates, waving her hand over the locks and turning to the dog.

"You'll need to change back to get it." She said before turning back to the gate, before a hand on her arm stopped her.

"It's the same." Harry said pointing to the gate designs, especially the one that effectively locked the gates. Minerva smiled and nodded.

"It's a shield knot. I'll explain inside, let's get your godfather and you inside the boundaries shall we?" she said with a small smile, opening the gates.

Sirius walked through the gates taking a deep breath. He did always love being back here, especially when he had run away from his place. James's place was great, but it was nothing to the manor they spent their older holidays at, especially in summer.

"Home sweet home." He muttered, making Minerva smile.

"It certainly is," she said placing a guiding hand around Harry's shoulder and ushering them inside.

A/N: The Shield Knot is a well know Celtic protection symbol, but I've put a few up on my blog site if you want to have a geez. The one's I'll put up there are the ones I had in mind for their scars, I'm pretty sure they're identical scars, but I only really had a general design in mind, then narrowed it down a little the more I looked. To get there go to my profile and click on the homepage link. Thanks peeps.