Here is the first chapter of In the Name of Being Honest. I love writing this story so far and I can't wait to see what kind of feedback I get on this, so make sure to leave a review on your way out! For all my readers that have been reading DM/OC stories from me for so long, I am begging you to check this one out! I promise it will be worth your while (even though it isn't DM/OC).

This series will be LONG, considering that it will start at the beginning of the Marauder's seventh year and will end a couple years after the wedding of James and Lily. Oh, sorry if I ruined it…this fic will also be canon.

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Thanks so much, I love my awesome readers!

Read and enjoy!

Sirius Black had never thought he would be trapped in that house…again. He left for a reason those twenty long years ago, vowing to himself and to his family that he would never return. The portrait of his mother hanging at the bottom of the creaky, wooden staircase reminded him of that every single day.

He promised Dumbledore, however, that he would not put himself in danger. He would keep his nose clean, stay in the house, and await further instruction. Even if that meant lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. All day, every day.

A muffled bang issued from a few floors below, followed by a slightly muted scream from the portrait of his mother. He sighed as the horrid woman hurled insults and profanities at the poor souls that happened to wake her.

"Sirius! Sirius, I thought you said you were going to help us!"

A loud knock rattled the wooden door, shaking it in the frame. He knew exactly who it was. Molly Weasley. Though she had a good heart, she would not allow Sirius to sit in his room and sulk for more than a few minutes a day. There were things to do, she explained. They needed to make this house hospitable again. Evidently Kreacher went into a deep, dark depression after the death of his mother, leaving the house full of dark, magical objects to run itself.

They frequently ran into something dangerous. Just a few days ago, Ron Weasley was nearly filleted by a sword enchanted to behead the person that touched it. That was an interesting and rather drawn out dilemma.

Another loud knock rattled the door. Molly was being persistent, not that she wasn't any other time.

"I know you're in there, Sirius Black," she said, her voice stifled through the thick door. "You haven't come out of there in half an hour and I need you to assess a room for me. I don't want to send Ginny, Hermione, and Ron in without any idea of what could be in there."

Sirius sighed again, turning toward a picture that sat on his bedside table. The woman was smiling at him, her blonde curly hair disheveled around her beautiful face. Some of it fell haphazardly into her eyes as she tilted her head back and laughed. Picture-him had his arms wrapped around the woman's waist, his eyes danced with excitement and…love.

"I bet you don't have to worry about this kind of stuff," he mumbled more to himself than anything. It was at this point that he silently wished he was back in the confines of his cave above the small village of Hogsmeade. Even better, his top-security cell in Azkaban.

He shook his head, furrowing his brow. He was out of that prison. He was to be reunited with his godson sooner than Harry thought. He shouldn't be thinking about these things…but he couldn't help it. He gazed down at the picture again before rolling off the bed. His feet planted on the wooden planks as he padded over, throwing open the thick door.

Molly Weasley stood before him, her hands set firmly on her hips. Her deep, brown eyes were narrowed into a glare. He leaned against the doorframe, staring down at the woman with an unimpressed expression on his face.

"Were you planning on coming out anytime soon?"

Sirius shrugged, ignoring the urge to roll his eyes. That may be pushing the limit a little bit.

Molly sighed, lowering her hands from her hips so they settled next to thighs. "Sirius, I know this is hard for you, but she wouldn't want-"

"Don't talk about her," Sirius said sharply, his eyes flashing threateningly. "You have no right to talk about her."

The red-headed woman hastily moved to the side as Sirius shoved past her, storming down the hallway toward the room a few floors below. As he stomped off the staircase and onto the landing where the three Hogwarts students were congregated, their laughter died down quickly at the look on his face.

Hermione's bushy brown hair flew into her face as she nearly threw herself into Ginny Weasley's arms in a quick attempt to get out of Sirius's way. Ginny and Ron glanced at each other and shrugged, not quite sure what set off the ex-prisoner.

"Damn her, bringing her up like that," Sirius mumbled as he shoveled through the belongings, kicking aside a bowtruckle that rose up from one of the boxes. It slammed with a sickening crunch into the opposite wall, falling to the floor unmoving. Hermione widened her eyes, skirting into the room cautiously. She glared back at Ron, who gently pushed her forward, not wanting to be the one to receive the brunt of Sirius's anger.

"I…erm…Sirius?" Hermione said hesitantly, stepping over a small box that was covered with a thin, black sheet. "Is- erm- is everything okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be okay?" he murmured acidly, pushing boxes aside at top speed. They slid across the slick, wooden floor, slamming into each other. "Let's just get this room cleaned, shall we? Forget the small talk."

Hermione turned, silently gesturing for Ron and Ginny to come into the room. Ginny shoved past her brother, who was still loitering near the thick door. He teetered on the balls of his feet for a moment before lurching forward into the dimly lit room. The two girls dug into boxes that sat against the wall, paint chips scattered across the tops of the cardboard.

The small redhead blew off the chips, coughing loudly as she accidently inhaled a large amount of dust. The other girl moved past her, cautiously digging through the box, using her fingers as small pinchers so she could withdraw her hand quickly if something dangerous popped up. She learned this a few days earlier when she was bitten by a rather confused doxie.

"What is this?" she whispered to Ginny as her hand felt a large book covered in black velvet. She brushed off the thick dust that sat on the cover, wrinkling her eyebrows together as she turned to show it to Ginny.

Ginny took the book from her, using the palm of her hand to brush off any excess dust. She quickly whipped her hand on the leg of her sweatpants, leaving a line of dirt that shown bright against the dark fabric. As the dust cleared, she noticed a few words were carved into the plastic.

Haley Brams and Sirius Black
Eternal Love

The two girls glanced over their shoulders before Ginny opened the book. It was filled front-to-back with pictures of an obviously younger Sirius, James and Lily Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, and a few girls that neither Ginny nor Hermione recognized. As they delved through the book, they noticed that Sirius became increasingly closer to one girl in particular…a pretty, slim girl with blonde, curly hair and bright brown eyes.

They were kissing, hugging, smiling, and laughing at the camera. Hermione realized that she had never seen Sirius this happy. He had bouts of laughter now, where the smile covered his face, but didn't quite reach his eyes. She could tell the haunting, emaciated look of Azkaban still hid in his mind. But here, in these pictures, this was the Sirius Black that everyone had told her about. The Sirius Black that was alive, that was a jokester that rivaled the Weasley twins.

They flipped toward the end of the book, where a few pictures were obviously from a hospital room. The girl appeared exhausted as she sat on the bed, smiling widely at the camera as she rocked a small baby in her arms. The baby's head was covered with a tiny, pink cap. The woman was pointing to the camera, trying to get the newborn to look in that direction. A second later, Sirius jumped into the picture, placing a passionate kiss on the woman's lips before gently kissing the top of the baby's head.

Just underneath the picture was a small snippet scrawled quickly in black ink.

Sirius Black and Haley Brams with Nora Ann Black, born August 3rd, 1980

Joy and elation were prominent on his face, happiness jumped from his eyes. Hermione couldn't help but smile at the picture of her best friend's mentor. Then she realized…Sirius never mentioned having a child. He never mentioned being in love. Actually, the more she thought about it, he never mentioned much at all.

"You ask," Ginny said as she shoved the book into Hermione's hands. Hermione nearly dropped the book, but managed to fumble it in her hands before it hit the floor.

"I don't want to ask!" she hissed back, trying to shove the photo album back into the redhead's hands. "You saw exactly how thrilled he was with-"

"What do you have, Hermione?"

The voice behind them made both girls jump. The album fell from Hermione's hands, landing with a thud on the wooden floor. Dust flew up around them, nearly sending Ginny into another coughing fit. She got control of it, however, just as Sirius bent down to pick up the photo album. Hermione shifted uncomfortably on her feet, her skin prickling at the thought that Sirius had caught them snooping through his things.

"Where did you find this?" he asked in awe as he collapsed on the nearest box, the old wood groaning underneath his thin frame. He flipped quickly through the album, his jaw open in disbelief. "I thought I had lost it years ago."

Hermione gestured toward the nearly empty box that her and Ginny had been rifling through. "It was- erm- it was in there." She paused to take a deep breath, assessing the situation before her. Ginny stared at her, widening her eyes as a hint for Hermione to speak up. Hermione shrugged slightly as Sirius stopped at the picture they had been looking at a moment before.

The picture of the woman and Sirius with the newborn baby in her arms. It was then that Hermione knew she could no longer hold back the questions.

"Sirius, I-" She began, but stopped to take another deep breath. "Who is that woman? And the baby?"

Sirius froze, momentarily thrown by the question. How was he supposed to answer? He certainly didn't want these three to know his past, especially considering that they were Harry Potter's closest friends. He sighed, slamming the book shut. "It doesn't matter," he murmured, shoving the book under his arm. "Just an album of old photos, that's all."

Ginny stepped forward, the outgoing girl not allowing Sirius to shrug away an explanation. "That is not just an old album filled with old photos. Who was that woman?" she demanded, a hardened look in her eyes, "Who was that baby? Sirius, we want to know."

The man sighed looking through his mangled black hair to stare up at the young girl. "You are too much like your mother with that persistency. Not a good trait to have." He stood up from his perch on the box, pacing the room for a few minutes. No one spoke, but by this time Ron had made his way through the throngs of moldy cardboard boxes to see what was going on.

"I had to threaten the entire Order with a memory charm so they wouldn't tell the younger people about this," he started, running his hands through his black hair. It fell back it place around his grey eyes. "So far it had worked just fine." He collapsed onto a stool, sending dust flying into the air around him. He covered his eyes for a moment, pressing his palms into the sockets as a way to clear the headache that had surfaced. "If I tell you this, if I tell you about that woman, you cannot tell Harry-"

"But, why?" Hermione interrupted, "We've already kept so much from him-"

"Because the woman in that picture was his godmother," he sneered, not so much at Hermione, but at the world in general, "Because that child, my child, was the closest thing to a childhood best friend that he was ever going to have."

He opened the book back up and continued to flip past the photo of the woman and the newborn, where Hermione and Ginny hadn't quite gotten yet. Photos of an infant Harry and the newborn baby were on the next page. Photos of the two playing together, crawling together, walking together. Photos of Lily and the woman with their babies, photos of James Potter lying on the floor with the two. It was all there.

"What happened?" Ginny nudged, taking a seat on a box next to Sirius. "Tell us, please. We promise we won't tell Harry. Not a word." She made a motion that she was locking her lips with a key before she threw it over her shoulder.

Sirius took a deep breath, running a rugged hand over the smooth pages. "I met her while I was at Hogwarts, really I owe it to this piece of parchment right here." He stopped to smooth out a wrinkled piece of parchment that was slightly burned in the corner and obviously old. On it was written a thirty statement list, with a signature and check mark after each number. "We graduated together, both of us Gryffindors. I had no idea she even existed until our seventh year together and, she never told me this, but I had a feeling that she thought I was a toe-rag." He snorted, laughing at himself as if telling an inside joke. "And I really was. I was arrogant, a prankster, I couldn't keep a girlfriend to save my life. Not that I wanted to at the time- I liked to keep my options open. I thought I was going to be a bachelor forever." He paused again, sighing longingly. "She was beautiful and perfect. She brought me back down to Earth. She was the love of my life."

Hermione and Ginny sighed adoringly, both of them in the mood to hear a love story.

"If I tell you this, I don't want to hear it mentioned again. I don't want Harry to know, ever." He stopped, glaring at each of them. "Do you understand?"

The three nodded vigorously. Hermione and Ron both took seats next to Sirius and Ginny respectively.

"Good," he continued, taking yet another deep breath, this time running his hand over the stubble on his jaw line. "The year was 1977 and I thought I had the world in the palm of my hand…"