Remus sighed as Sirius walked by him for what must have been the thousandth time.He had been pacing up and down the hallway for two straight hours now.It was a miracle that the man hadn't worn a hole right through the floor!
"Sirius, please, sit down.If something was wrong we'd know by now."
Sirius turned and started walking down the hallway.Back the way he had just come.He knew Remus was probably right, Remus was always right, but it was taking too long!Just that one thought, that it shouldn't take this long, and his mind had started listing off a million different things that could have gone wrong.Each even worse than the one before it.Something had to be wrong.
"Remus I--"
The door that Sirius had been pacing in front of opened.Sirius froze in his tracks and Remus jumped to his feet.The raven haired man standing in the doorway had a huge smile on his face.His hair was messy, as if it had been subjected to someone running their fingers through it every five minutes, but in all reality it naturally looked that way.His hazel eyes were sparkling behind his glasses.
"It's a boy!"
Three words, three simple words, and yet it caused huge smiles to spread across Remus and Sirius' faces.The raven haired man, James, motioned for them to follow him then moved back into the room.Sirius right behind him and Remus following after Sirius.Both stopped, however, when their eyes fell on the red head beauty propped up in the bed that sat in the middle of the room.Lily looked up, emerald green eyes filled with tears of joy, and smiled at the two men staring at her.
She gestured for them to move closer and they did.Sirius moving to stand right by Lily's right side and Remus standing just a little bit behind Sirius looking over his friend's shoulder.James had moved to stand at Lily's left side and was smiling down at a bundle in the woman's arms.The woman looked over at Sirius then raised the bundle up for him to take, which he did, but not until after his mouth had dropped open and his eyes had gone wide.
As he held the bundle gently in his arms Remus reached a hand around and moved the blanket back a bit.They were met with raven hair, emerald eyes, and a soft smile as the baby stared up at them.After a few moments of silent staring, the baby broke the silence by reaching up and grabbing a lock of Sirius' hair and pulling.This only served to put even bigger smiles on everyone's faces.
"His name's Harry.Harry Potter."
Sirius glanced up to look at Lily, nod, then returned his gaze to the baby in his arms.Harry...his godson.He raised a hand and tickled Harry's stomach gently.Sending Harry into a fit of giggles, Remus to roll his eyes, and Lily and James to look at each other knowingly.
"Well Harry, I'm your Godfather, Sirius Black.Or you could call me Padfoot if you want.That's Remus Lupin, Moony, and your dad is Prongs.The Marauders, something I'll have to tell you all about when you get older, but back to me.You can always come to me if you need to talk, or if you get mad at your Mom and Dad and need somewhere to hide out, or if you just need some advice with pulling off a prank.No matter what it is I'll always be there for you.I promise."
Blue eyes met emerald green and Harry raised his hand.This time, however, he didn't pull on Sirius' hair.No, this time he wrapped his tiny little hand around Sirius' finger and held.As if making sure that Sirius couldn't leave him.Sirius chuckled softly and his eyes, like James and Lily's, began to sparkle.
"I'm not going anywhere Harry.We'll be together forever."
"Padfoot...Sirius...Sirius!SIRIUS!"
Sirius jumped, looked over at Remus, then blinked a few times as if coming out of a daze.It had been a memory, he should have know, James and Lily were gone and Harry was 17.Yet, once again, he found himself pacing up and down a hallway in front of a door, Remus trying to get him to stop pacing and sit down, and him knowing that this was taking way too long.
"They should be here by now."
"Sirius--"
There was a noise in the other room and then people began coming upstairs.Dusting themselves off since they had just gotten out of the fireplace.Arthur and Molly, Charlie, Bill and Fleur, Fred and George, Ginny, and then member after member of the Order moved by Sirius and Remus and went in all different directions.As a woman with bright bubblegum pink hair moved by Remus smiled and followed after her.Leaving Sirius standing in front of the front door alone.He was looking for one person in particular and so far his search had turned up nothing.
"Ron!That's my foot!"
"Sorry!"
Sirius smiled and took off down the stairs and burst into the kitchen.Startling two teenagers as he did so.One, very tall, red haired guy and one, very bushy haired, brunette girl.After getting over their initial shock at Sirius bursting into the kitchen huge smiles spread across their face.
"Sirius!"
Sirius scanned the entire kitchen then frowned slightly.Ron and Hermione were here.So where was Harry!The Golden Trio were always together!Sirius returned his gaze back to the two teenagers and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Where's Harry?"
"Calm down Sirius.He said he was coming with Professor Dumbledore."
Sirius calmed slightly.That is, he did until yet another person stepped out of the fireplace.It was a older man.Dark blue robes, flowing white hair and beard, half-moon spectacles.Professor Dumbledore...and he was alone.
"Professor, please tell me Harry's with you."
"No, Sirius, he is not with me.He is on his own at the moment.He'll be here later on."
After dusting off his robes Professor Dumbledore straightened and smiled at the three people in the room that were gaping at him as if he'd just sprouted another head.His bright blue eyes sparkling as always.He moved gracefully across the room then stopped and turned just before he got to the stairs.
"He has grown in more ways than one in the year that you've been gone.He no longer needs to have someone at his side every second of every day to watch over him.He is quite capable of taking care of himself.Among the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, and Savior they've started calling him Dumbledore's Equal.He will be fine Sirius."
Then he turned and disappeared up the stairs.Leaving Sirius awestruck and Ron and Hermione still worried about their friend.Sirius turned slowly to face the two teenagers and tilted his head to the side slightly.
"Dumbedore's Equal.Harry?"
Hermione nodded then moved off up the stairs to wait by the front door.Ron, who had been chewing on his bottom lip, looked up to see Sirius staring at him expectantly and sighed.
"Yeah, Harry, Dumbledore's Equal.After you fell through the veil, and Dumbledore was 'killed', something inside of him snapped.It was like he'd been holding back his power all along, but all the emotions he felt after he lost both of you, forced him to let go and his power broke free.And Professor Dumbledore said that his power will only grow as he gets older."
Run shrugged and moved over to the stairs.Getting halfway up them, then stopping and mumbling "I'm glad he's on our side", then continued up the stairs and disappeared around the corner.Sirius stood dumbfounded for a moment.Harry was 17 and already Dumbledore's Equal.And his power would only get stronger with age?At this right he'd be stronger than Merlin by 25!He shook his head and was about to sit down and have a drink when he heard something upstairs that caused him to whirl around and go running up the stairs.
"Harry!"
Harry was here.
