A Grim and His Boy
Prologue
Lily held her wand up against the black haired Black marauder, "Promise me Sirius." She snarled, a wild look in her eyes.
Sirius backed away from the green-eyed goddess of motherhood. "Wait, wait, wait! What did I do? What am I promising?"
Lily's wand twitched with her annoyance, "Promise me that you will not panic. When everything goes to hell in a hand basket, you will NOT panic."
Sirius looked shocked for a few seconds, then pulled out his wand, "I vow…" he didn't get any farther when Lily pulled his wand from his hand.
"That is not good enough. A wizards vow can be broken, and an unbreakable vow just leaves you dead if you fail. No, you are going to Promise." Sirius blanched as Lily said this. And he would have gone whiter still when she pulled out a stuffed black dog. Harry's stuffed black dog. "Promise, Sirius. Promise Padfoot."
"Are…are you sure?" Sirius stuttered. At Lily's grim nod he started reciting in his head, 'he who pranks and runs away,' then out loud, "I promise that I will not panic," again in his head, 'lives to prank another day,' again out loud, "When everything goes to hell in a hand basket, I still will not panic."
At Sirius' pause, Lily growled, "Finish it."
Out loud Sirius finished the marauder oath, while touching the stuffed imitation of his animagus form, "And when the time to prank does call, we'll bring the one to prank them all." The little stuffed toy glowed momentarily under Sirius' hand, and then barked three times, before stilling again.
Lily nodded in satisfaction, "Harry needs his godfather, Sirius. When everything goes pear shaped, he will need you with him. And Sirius," she hugged Sirius tight, "Remember. Remember your ancient ancestors; your other form is true to your ancestor's births. You haven't spent near enough time in that form to recover the abilities however." With that statement, Lily collapsed against Sirius.
"Lily? Lily!" Sirius caught his blood-brother's wife, and eased her down to the floor, "Lily are you okay?"
"Sirius?" Lily mumbled as though waking up, "What am I doing out here? I was in bed with James and then I had this weird dream." She continued mumbling, "Harry was there and this dog and they were howling…he was seventeen, but he was alone. So alone."
Sirius carefully picked Lily up, "Let's get you to bed, Lily-flower. James is probably missing you."
When Sirius gently placed Lily in bed with James, the two men gazed into each others eyes. With Sirius' solemn nod, James nodded in return. "The oath has been called. And it is a true oath. I'll miss you, brother. And you will miss me."
Sirius replied softly, "I'll howl every year for you, brother. All I ask in return is that you make them hurt." Anger sparked in Sirius' eyes for a split second, then returned to their cool grey.
"We'll bring the one to prank them all," Was the only reply that James gave. Sirius grinned, and then quietly left the room.