Disclaimer: I've always wanted to do one of these! Too bad they don't belong to me at all. Only Michelle and Camy came from the thing in my head some people call a brain. Is that really what it is?
Summery: Remus, Sirius and James are hired to baby-sit the Weasley kids for the weekend. Their neighbor's kids are over since their parents went on a long weekend vacation with Arthur and Molly. Chaos ensues…
For the Love of Pete"Yes, everything will be fine. No, I think we'll see you then. Six o'clock, right. Bye," James hung up the phone with a bemused smile. He walked back through the hallway of the flat that he, Remus and Sirius shared. It wasn't very big and it was owned by a muggle, but it "suited their needs" as Remus had put it.
The three of them had moved in shortly after graduation, their parents, or Remus and James' parents to exact, had given them the first six month's rent as their present. It was a lot, but still, it had run out quicker then any of them would have expected and now they needed jobs. Being only nineteen was a downside. They were of age of course, but many places wanted wizards with experience in whatever the subject matter was. Remus had the most difficulty. It was relatively difficult for James or Sirius to snag a job for a short period of time, like filling in for a woman on maternity leave. But soon, the original person would return to work and they would again, be empty walleted.
In any case, they had somehow found that there weren't many babysitters about, and apparently, there was a family where they were needed badly. Which was the same thing, coincidentally, that Sirius said about the flying motorcycle that he "desperately needed."
James walked into the living room, taking in the sight. It may have been nine thirty on a workday, but none of them was currently employed. They needn't be tired. It was an odd sight. Sirius appeared to be watching the small TV that he had found on the side of the road in a muggle neighborhood, but his eyes were drooping and once in a while he would jerk his head back up from the place it was resting. His chest. Remus was obviously asleep. The book he had been reading had slipped slightly from his fingers and his head was resting in the crook of the couch's back and arm. His even breathing could almost be heard over the TV.
He smiled to himself.
"I guess I'll tell them tomorrow,"
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxackoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
James sat at the kitchen table and glanced at the clock. Ten past ten. Sirius should be up quite soon. He always got up at about quarter past. Padfoot had never liked getting up early at Hogwarts. Remus had woken up much earlier than either of them; he had an internal clock that woke him at the same god-forsaken hour of the morning every day. Seven. James sighed. Tonight was the full moon, which meant that they would be out all night. That they would have an early dinner to get to the new "shack" in time. That Remus would go that morning to make sure the protective charms on it had lasted from the last month. That he would be nervous and tired all day. That he would be back momentarily.
Sirius dragged himself out of bed at the same time Remus came in the door. Sirius shook his head at the tiny breath of cold air that arrived with him. It was October and it had gotten abnormally cold the past week.
"Morning, Sirius," Remus said as he took off his gloves.
Sirius made a funny sound.
Remus rolled his eyes.
James smirked at the antics of his flat-mates. They sat at the table, one reaching for the coffee, the other for some hot chocolate that had been pre-made.
Remus took a sip and grinned sheepishly at James. "Did you make this for me?"
"Of course Prongs did, he's the best of the best,"
"You're only saying that because I made you coffee this morning," Sirius didn't deny it.
"Anyway guys, while you two slept like slugs last night, I got a call," James said to them.
"Was it from Flower?" Sirius grinned cheekily.
"No, it wasn't Lily," He gave the black haired boy a thump on the head. "It was the Weasleys. They need a babysitter for this weekend, and I agreed. But they need all of us, we'll be watching a lot of kids. And they're all wizards,"
"Exactly how many is a lot?" Remus looked apprehensive.
"Um… well they have five, but the two youngest ones, the twin two year olds are going to their brother's house," James looked hastily at his friends. Sirius looked relieved, but Remus was looking at him shrewdly.
"But…" He prompted.
"But, they will have their neighbor's kids over, twin girls. Hey, it isn't twin boys at least!" He said in his own defense, holding his hands up.
Remus was not looking the happiest he ever had.
"What ages are they? Do you know that?" He asked, putting his head on the table.
Padfoot put a hand on his shoulder, "Do you have a headache Moony?"
Moony shook his head, but contradicted himself, "A little. But really, how old are they James? Padfoot isn't the best diaper changer," James could tell he was smiling into the tablecloth. Only in the spirit of the full moon did Sirius refrain from giving him a smack in the head.
James pulled out a piece of paper. He had been writing the details while he was on the phone with Mrs. Weasley. Name, address, number of kids, where they would be and all that jazz.
"They have a boy named Billy, he's ten. An almost nine year old named Charlie and a four year old named Percy. The twin girls are Michelle and Camille, they're nine," James recited, realizing that the four older kids certainly wouldn't want Percy hanging around with them. One of them would probably have to amuse the young one most of the time so he wouldn't feel left out. He told this to the others and they agreed.
"I think Padfoot should hang out with the little guy, he has the most energy out of us anyway. I'll take the two older boys, Remus you can take the girls," He pointed offhandedly to his youngest friend.
"Should I be insulted by that?"
Sirius gave a rather un-manly giggle. Remus glared at him and he pretended to quail under the intense cold of the look. He leaned so far out of the seat that he nearly fell to the floor.
"Dear Moony, I simply meant that you are much more sensitive than Sirius or I, They would probably flock to you anyway, they tend to do that," James sniggered.
Remus turned red. "That wasn't my fault and you know it," his blush deepened when Sirius burst out laughing at the memory.
"Oh, but Moony, it was so sweet! The way they all kept asking you to dance," He said in a girly voice.
"And you didn't have the heart to tell them "no" that was the best part. How old was the oldest one? She was like, twelve or something?"
"Oh no, James. I think the best one was when that teeny tiny one asked, she must have been about six!"
They roared with laughter and Remus put his head in his hands. That fateful afternoon when James had them all go to one of his family's weddings. His aunt was remarrying and all of James' little cousins practically lined up to dance with him at the reception. It was only after he said yes to the first one that asked shyly if he would dance with her during a slow song. He couldn't refuse their expectant faces. His back hurt at the end of the night from bending over to reach the tiny girls in their dresses, which every single one asked if Remus liked it.
He would go along with it.
"Actually, she was five and three quarters. She told me so as she danced on my feet," Said Remus, returning his head to its proper position.
"Aw, did it hurt?"
"James, she weighed about ten pounds," He remarked smiling a bit.
They sniggered a bit more. But Remus sighed, it was Thursday already and the Weasleys were expecting them for Saturday morning. He would only have one day to recover.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
It was six o' clock. It was six o' clock in the bloody morning, and Sirius was awake. Needless to say, he wasn't happy.
"James, explain to me why we have to be here so bloody early in the bloody morning," groaned Sirius.
James promptly ignored him. He knocked on the door of the Weasley's humble abode. Remus was a bit dead on his feet and was staring blankly at the sign next to the door that read, "the Burrow."
Almost immediately, the door was opened by a young witch who looked a little frazzled to say the least. She was short, pleasant looking and had very red hair. Like Lily's hair. James thought happily.
"Are you the babysitters?" she inquired.
"If not, I wish I had a reason to be up so early…" Sirius grumbled quietly. James spoke over him.
"Yes, I'm James and this is Sirius and Remus,"
"Well, come on in. I'm Molly I'm sorry to have you come at this hour but my husband decided that we should go the Muggle way. I think it's an areo-plean, but I can't remember, anyway, please make yourselves at home. Come on, now would you boys like a cup of tea?" she ushered them into a cozy looking living room. James shook his head, but Sirius took a cup, eagerly sipping at its contents.
Mrs. Weasley looked to Remus, who had removed his hat to be polite. Her eyes flicked to the fresh cut on his temple and her face crunched in concern. He realized what she was looking at and gave his head a little shake as if the movement would make his hair cover the wound.
She took a step closer to him, and another, like her parenting urge was overruling her better judgment to leave the boy alone. It won. The witch sat on the couch next to Remus and brushed his bangs to the side carefully.
"Are you alright? This looks nasty dear, would you like me to heal it? I'm usually quite good at that sort of thing, you know. Did you try to heal it yourself?" She was regarding him like he had just been adopted into her family.
Remus looked a little panicky, he sent a pleading look to his friends for assistance but they both had passive faces. They were trying to think quickly.
"Um, well I don't know. I don't think that it's really that serious."
"Nonsense dear, I'll fix it in a jiffy." She took her wand from the end table and came back next to him.
She said the right words, made the correct wand movements and had done the spell a hundred times before. Never had it not worked on someone. Never. Molly Weasley looked at Remus with a confused expression. She wasn't thinking about werewolf wounds. They couldn't be cured by magic.
"Why didn't that work? It always does. Should I try again, Remus?" Molly was giving her wand a stern look as if it had misbehaved.
"No," he said to his lap "I don't think it will work, it usually doesn't."
Molly looked to James and Sirius but they said nothing. She shrugged and walked into the kitchen, though her mind seemed to be somewhere else.
"Anyway, the kids should be down around nine, or at least the older ones will be. Percy usually gets up earlier than the rest of them. Camille and Michelle will be here in about a half an hour. That's when we leave at least. Breakfast is in the refrigerator, that box thing in the kitchen, Arther demands that we have one. I'm not sure it's necessary, oh well."
"Excuse me, Mrs. Weasley?" Remus asked. He was taking over the situation, like he always did. They would come together, but Remus would handle the parents. He sounded the most polite. Whenever Sirius opened his mouth the parents usually had a lower opinion of him afterwards. And with James, his questions always tended to end up as long winded stories about absolutely nothing that they would care about.
"Yes?"
"I was just wondering. The twins, are they identical?"
She laughed, "Down to the last freckle, but don't worry, the two of them are quite well behaved,"
There was a set of footsteps heard coming down the stairs and a man appeared holding a suitcase. He smiled at the boys.
"Molly are these the ones from the ad?" He said pleasantly.
They stood up to be polite.
"Yes, boys, this is my husband Arther, and Arther, this is James, Remus and Sirius. Could you excuse us for a moment, boys?"
They nodded. James watched as they receded into another room and let out a breath.
" I think we're doing alright, no big mess-ups yet."
"Speak for yourself, James I thought I was going to have a heart attack."
"We're fine Remy, and they'll be gone soon and we'll have no problems with the kids. At least I hope we won't have any problems."
They sat quietly until the Weasleys came back into the room.
"Alright, it would take a long time to give you all a tour of the house, so you two, Molly will show you around the basement, then downstairs and where everything is in the kitchen. You," Arther said, gesturing to Remus, "get to come with me and I'll show you where all of the kid's bedrooms are and where you three can stay at night. We'll skip the attic, I think that a ghoul just moved in up there. Okay?"
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxupstairsoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Remus followed Mr. Weasley up the stairs to the first landing.
"Okay, so we have the second floor of our wonderful abode. The first door is a closet, the second is Charlie's room and that one is Percy's room over there." They went up another set of stairs. "This is our room, you can sleep in there, we set up three beds instead of our bed for you. The middle room is the bathroom, there's also one downstairs. That other one is the twins' room, but they are coming with us so the girls will be in there. Upstairs is Bill's room, I'd take you up there but he's a light sleeper and I don't want to wake him now. Got everything?"
Remus looked at him, "I think so..."
Arther laughed quietly, "So, you and those two think you can handle the kids? Well, they probably have there own plans about that, but I think the girls will be good for you. Ha ha. They are our pride and joy, all five of them. It's up to you to protect them from the world out there. We are at war, Remus, can you three keep them safe for us?"
This one sided conversation wasn't going where Remus hoped it would.
"My wife told me how she couldn't heal that cut of yours, Remus. And I think it had nothing to do with her abilities." He was keeping his voice light, but all the same...
Remus turned red, he was not liking this conversation at all. Arther turned and looked at him, he took him in, all of him. Remus's light brown, yet a tiny bit gray hair, tired appearance, cut forehead and nervous tugging on his shirt.
"Remus, there are only two things, or should I say, there are only two types of wounds that can't be healed with the spell my wife used. They are cursed wounds either way. You were either hit by a very powerful spell or the wound was caused by a werewolf,"
His voice was still light, as though he was talking about what he had for lunch yesterday. But he was looking at Remus in all seriousness. Remus could feel himself shaking and hoped that Mr. Weasley was oblivious to it. He had heard that Arther Weasley was from the Ministry. He didn't know which department, but if it was anything like the Department of Control of Magical Creatures, Remus would not be in a good place.
"I don't think that you were hit by a spell, Remus, so here's the question. Are you a werewolf?"
Remus paled visibly and swallowed, his mind was racing. After a very tense few moments, he spoke, his voice shaking as much as he was.
"I-I can leave if you want,"
That wasn't the answer that Mr. Weasley was expecting apparently, because his eyes widened and he didn't say anything for a minute. He just stared at the boy in front of him, backed against the wall, pale and shaking like he was being condemned. Arther didn't want that reaction to what he said from anyone.
His eyebrows knit and he softened his voice as he addressed the shorter boy. "Remus, I'm not threatening you, I just wanted to know before I left for the weekend who I was really leaving my children with."
Remus didn't relax, but looked away, "Really, I don't mind. I can leave if you don't trust a-a someone like me with your kids."
Arther paused, maybe he shouldn't have said anything in the first place. This kid had probably been through a lot if he was reacting like this. There was a lot of prejudice against werewolves these days, especially since many of them had joined Voldemort. He took a step closer to Remus.
"I don't want you to leave, Remus. Really. I'm not prejudiced against anyone that way." He put a hand on his shoulder. "In fact I want you to babysit, my kids need to get over the fear of silly things like that. And we don't have to tell them, I just have to tell Molly. But don't worry, she's already taking a liking to you. She wanted me to take you aside and make sure you were okay seeing as she reckoned you looked ill."
Remus was shocked. Yet another person was okay with him being the way he was? How was it possible? He just looked at the older man blankly.
"Really?"
"Really, Remus. You seem like a fine young man, whatever the case may be, now come on downstairs, the girls should be here any minute."
When they arrived in the living room again, the others were just coming out of the kitchen. Sirius looked mind boggled. When they came together he whispered to Remus, "I never knew there were so many different ways to cook food..."
They were vaguely aware that four people apparated a few feet in front of them, a woman and a man, each holding a small sleeping girl wearing fuzzy pj's. Their hair was dark brown and down to their waists.
The three teens stood a bit apart to let the adults talk.
"Remus, what's wrong?" James whispered hurriedly, noticing how pale his friend was.
"Yeah, Remy you look terrible. What happened?" Sirius put a hand to Remus' forehead to check for a fever.
"They know," He said horsely when he found his voice. "They know about me,"
They gaped at him, "How?"
"He said they don't care."
"What do you mean, they don't care? You mean they know you're a- and they like you anyway?"
He nodded slowly.
Sirius and James broke into huge smiles and hugged him tightly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Remus swore he saw Arther wink at him.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
finally! It's done. HOLY CRAP you don't know how hard it was to write that. I had nothing to work off of. And i am really sorry if Arther seemed a bit OOC. But we don't know what he was like during the first war. So i don't have a clue when i am going to have time to update again. The other chapters probably won't be this long, but they will be much funnier. I just wanted to get some fun Remus angst in there while i had the opportunity.
Luvs!byebye!