Soon All the Suns Will Rise

A Devil to Help Me Get Things Right

Chapter Title from "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters
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"How about this one, Daddy?" Ben pointed to his Knight and looked back to Sirius for confirmation before directing it to its intended square. It was a cloudy Saturday morning, and they were enjoying a game of chess while Colleen took Remus and Tonks out to the village to begin looking at nursery possibilities. The couple had wanted a distraction from the risks they were about to take that evening, and Colleen had quickly stepped in to help.

Sirius glanced across the table at Severus, but the man was unreadable as always, elbows on the table, hands folded in front of his face, black eyes darting between the silver pieces.

"I don't know, Benji," Sirius mused aloud. "If we move there that puts your Queen at risk, see? We need to keep her protected. Let's move this one instead." Sirius held Ben's hand over a Bishop and moved it to take one of Severus's black-crested pawns.

"Got 'em!" Ben said with a grin. Sirius ruffled the boy's light brown hair affectionately as Severus still swooped in to take the white-crested Queen, sacrificing his Rook to Ben and Sirius's Knight.

"Come on, now, Severus, he's not even five!" Sirius protested.

"Yes, but you are, and you should have known I would take the Queen," Snape remarked triumphantly.

Sirius sighed and moved the Knight to take out Severus's Rook rather anti-climatically.

"We'll go after his Queen next," Sirius muttered in Ben's ear.

Right about that time Rhiannon entered into the parlor, slapping The Daily Prophet down beside the chess board before taking a seat on the piano bench. It was an old, dusty relic that had come with the house, woefully out of tune, and since Severus was the only one who could even begin to play it, it continued to be a mere perch for chess match observers. Rhiannon had thrown on one of Colleen's Muggle concert t-shirts instead of her usual flowing gowns, having just awakened from a late slumber. Professor Burbage's death had hit her hard. She'd spent a lot of time asleep lately and was noticeably subdued even when awake.

"It appears your time for bragging has come to an end, Sirius," Rhiannon said, pointing to the bottom left corner of the back page. "We've both been bested for that Number One spot."

"The Life and Times of Albus Dumbledore," Sirius read aloud. "By...ugh. Rita Skeeter. I bet that's quite the load of rubbish."

"Probably should get Lupin to pick up a copy for us nonetheless," Snape suggested. "We need to know all the 'facts' that may be circulating out there, no matter how preposterous." He stood from the chess table and gave Ben a stiff pat on the back.

"Nice game thus far, Benjamin Black. We'll finish tomorrow, all right?"

"Yes, Professor Snape," Ben replied. Colleen had insisted he address the Snapes formally in preparation for his future Hogwarts years. She didn't want their unconventional living arrangement to make him a target at school down the road.

Colleen already worried enough about Ben being Muggleborn, the attention that would inevitably come with being adopted by the notorious Sirius Black, and snide comments that may come from Ben's extended family on his biological father's side. Ben himself was descended from the squib daughter of the Middlesworth family, who remained a threat in their lives. His grandmother had used the boy to reconnect with her magical relatives late last winter and had attempted to take him from Colleen once she'd learned of her engagement to Sirius. Having been off with Dumbledore hunting Horcruxes at the time, Sirius was unable to rescue him, so Severus had stepped in at Rhiannon's request. But the Middlesworths had a son that had joined the Dark Lord's ranks, and the hush money Sirius had been forced to pay them did little to guarantee the Middlesworths' silence and the Blacks' security. The situation was going to require constant vigilance, as Mad-Eye Moody liked to say.