The Dog and the Duckling//Blackinnon

Winter Hols 1980

Sirius, having arrived at Platform 9 ¾ embarrassingly early, spotted a band of giant haired badgers arriving to wait on the Hogwarts Express. It was set to pull into the platform any minute now for the start of winter break. Sirius decided to go stand with them. It was a little uncomfortable, as his place in Marlene's life was still a giant question mark to him, but for lack of other people to wait with, there he stood.

The McKinnons all knew about Sirius to greater or lesser degrees. Grace and Lucan in particular had a good laugh at Marlene's expense when she informed them of her exceedingly close friendship with Sirius Black. They hadn't actually believed her in the slightest.

Lucan and Grace shot looks of utter shock at each other when they saw him approaching to wait with them. They were on the same page and it was a major plot twist in the saga of their baby sister and her ridiculous crush on Sirius Black.

The eldest of the McKinnon siblings, Elaine, was probably the least surprised to see Sirius there. Although there was a vast 11 years between them, she was the sibling to whom Marlene had always been closest.

Sirius had never actually met Elaine before it was easy to spot her. The hair and light brown skin were dead giveaways as to her relation to the rest of the group. She looked more like Mr. McKinnon than the rest of her siblings, though all five Mckinnon siblings resembled both of their parents to some degree. Elaine was a whole head taller than her mother, with her father's prominent eyebrows and freckles. The freckles made her other little similarities to Marlene stand out in Sirius's mind. They both had their mother's heart shaped face.

"You'd be Elaine McKinnon, right? We haven't formally met but I'm Sirius. Marlene's told me all about you and your little ones."

"Elaine Bones, but yes. That's me. It's lovely to finally meet you."

"Of course, sorry. That would mean you're married to Edgar Bones? Somehow I missed that detail. He's legend! Why didn't Marlene tell me that her brother-in-law is a bad-ass Auror? Is it true that he was there when Mad Eye Moody lost his original eye?"

"I will neither confirm nor deny my husband's involvement in that particular mission, but you may rest assured that he is not to be trifled with. My baby sister clearly likes you a lot. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt for that reason. If you make me regret it, I will make sure you lose more than an eye."

Sirius hadn't expected that sort of protective threat from Elaine. Upon consideration, it made sense. She was probably half a mother to Marlene because of their age difference. He found himself surprisingly intimidated by Marlene's family. They were all utterly devoted to each other. On one hand, he was so glad that Marlene had that in her life because she deserved it. On the other hand, he felt apprehensive about the likelihood they'd deem him unsatisfactory and unworthy of Marlene's companionship.

"Wow. Your family is really challenging all my preconceived notions about Hufflepuffs. You're a lot more terrifying than I'd expected. Marlene included. So... yeah. Don't worry."

"Good. Loyalty and work ethic doesn't mean that we aren't terrifying. In fact it probably makes us more so, in a certain light. We're just less showy than the other houses. Mad Eye himself was a Hufflepuff you know!"

"He was? I didn't know that. Huh. You learn something new every day. ...makes sense. You'd need a lot of work ethic to still be at it after that many maimings."

He was attempting to get a count of how many body parts Mad-Eye Moody had parted with when the train came to a stop.

Sirius's puppy-like excitement was noted by all the McKinnons, though he thought he was doing his best to maintain composure. Grace and Lucan locked eyes to confirm their mutual bafflement. Gawain, who was nearer in age to Elaine than to Grace, got in on the action, mouthing "what the hell?" to his father. Subtlety was not Sirius's strongest suit.