The Family
Sirius Black was asleep next to his sleeping son, Leo; and his wife, Cora. Leo was sprawled on his mother's stomach, and he was drooling terribly.
With a quiet groan, Sirius woke up; shielding his eyes from the sunlight. He fumbled for his wand on the dresser next to him, and pointed it at the curtains, which shut themselves immediately. Sirius gingerly opened his eyes, landing them first on his son, who looked
like he was having a very snug dream.
Next, his eyes landed on his wife, whose mouth was slightly open, and one hand was above her head while the other rested protectively over Leo's back.
A smile rose up to his lips, and he sat up strait, looking at both of them, amused. Leo looked tiny and vulnerable, almost as if he was a breakable value. Sirius swept the hair out of his eyes, and yawned; looking up at the clock hanging on the wall in front of him. It was
half past eight. He groaned again, causing Leo to turn his head towards Sirius, but still sleep like a log.
Sirius rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stood up carefully, so that Cora and Leo were not disturbed. He grabbed his wand and made his way downstairs, slipping on a shirt as it was slightly cold. He collapsed into his comfortable arm chair, neck slumped over the head
and let a big sigh.
He felt very tired, and frowned. Could he skip the Order today? He decided he would, and made himself cosy in his place, preparing for a light snooze before Leo woke up.
However, he was rudely interrupted by a small tapping sound issuing from behind him. Rolling his eyes, he turned around to see Dumbledore softly tapping on the glass of the window, looking important and indignant. He flicked his wand again, letting him in and gesturing him to leave the Prophet on the table.
Dumbledore dropped the news paper where Sirius indicated and turned to look at him expectantly.
Sirius rolled his eyes again, waving his wand for the third time.
Oddly shaped bread appeared out of thin air and fell near Dumbledore with a slight thud. He looked at them in distaste, and gave Sirius a very disapproving stare, and left the room.
"Bloody picky bird" Sirius muttered, vanishing the bread with a quick Evanesco, glaring at the already gone owl.
"MAaaah! Aaaah!" Sirius heard a soft cry from upstairs, and squeezed his eyes shut, biting back a frustrated groan.
"Sirius?" His wife called and he stood up, making his way up the stairs hastily, wanting to provide Cora as much as sleep she could get.
When he reached their bedroom, Leo was sitting on Cora's stomach, bouncing painfully. Cora was trying to get him to stop, but Leo mistook it for encouragement and bounced more firmly.
Cora looked at Sirius, and amused but irritated.
"Get him off of me"
Sirius laughed, which resembled more like a bark and Leo whipped around, in a mid bounce at the sound of his father's laugh. Moments later, a wide grin that matched Sirius' made its way onto the toddler's face and he shrieked.
In his excitement, Sirius morphed into the giant black dog, Padfoot, and leaped onto the bed, giving a joyful bark.
This time, both the mother and son shrieked.
Padfoot carefully lifted his son off of his wife with his teeth, and Leo tumbled on the covers, giggling happily, trying to say,
'Padfoot!'.
The great black dog braced himself over his son, and licked him quite thoroughly, ignoring his wife's threats.
Finally deciding that neither her son nor her husband were in anyway, going to listen to her, Cora pushed the covers away from her body, quickly pulling on a pair of Sirius' shorts, and pulled her loose hair into a bun at the nape of her neck. She walked out of their bedroom, trusting Sirius that he'd not let Leo fall down, intending to make breakfast.
She made her way down the stairs, picking up Leo's toys and the dirty shirts Sirius had just carelessly thrown down while preparing to sleep last night.
It was very tiring to get Leo to sleep, who simply refused to keep his eyes closed even for a few half dozen minutes. He preferred to yell, scream and shout in the nights than simply take a small nap. He never seemed to be tired, even after playing with his father for a long
session of time; in which they'd play everything from fetch thestuffed rabbit with Padfoot to taking dangerous swings on Remus' swing on the chestnut tree outside the house.
Cora sighed as she dropped the clothes in the basket, and began to brush her teeth. She stared at herself in the mirror, lost with her thoughts.
The ministry had just ran a successful raid on the death eaters, and one of them, named Igor Karkaroff was captured.
However, their victory was short lived, since he escaped hours later, shouting that the dark side was going to prevail. Cora had suggested that it could be the work of a spy; how else could he have escaped the heavy enchantments that surrounded the anti- apparition area?
She looked at the foam in her mouth thoughtfully before spitting it out and rinsing her mouth.
The brush returned to her mouth, moving to and fro over her teeth as she tried to figure out who could be the spy.
All her colleagues were normal witches and wizards who seemed too normal and sensitive to become a death eater, much less, a spy for the death eaters.
'That's the problem. Everyone is almost the same, it'sso hard to identify the odd one out' she thought, glaring at herself.
Her thoughts blocked out the happy giggles from her son and loud barks from her husband, even though both of them combined were a great deal loud, and almost made a racket one night.
She frowned.
Her first thought fell on Rebecca Spinnet, who was a pure-blooded witch, who liked to bloat about her blood status, and be quite nasty to people she didn't like. But it couldn't be her. She was the head of the department of Regulation of Magic- and would be in constant work load, which would mean that she couldn't have the time to spy for Voldermort and his followers.
Her next thought moved onto Lucius Malfoy, who was a 'good friend' of the Minister of Magic, but the thought was eliminated from her mind when she remembered that he wasn't anywhere near the ministry at the time of the Igor Karkroff's escape.
'But...' she thought, 'He couldbe wearing an invisibility cloak, or had made himself invisible...orhad done some kind of dark magic and gotten away with it'
She spit out the foam again, rinsing her mouth and washed her face, leaving the bathroom, and moving down stairs, still deep in thought.
She silently cursed the ministry for letting the death eater reside in an unattended room, because it was 'spell-proof'.
She absentmindedly pulled out a pan and placed a few sausages, some bacon in it and flicked on the flame.
'It could be Malfoy, but I've no proof' she thought miserably, poking the cooking breakfast with her wand. She bit her lip, finally coming to a decision that it was indeed, Malfoy, but since she lacked evidence, they'd better go on another raid and try to catch another death eater.
Oblivious to all of the war- related thoughts his wife was having, Sirius, in Padfoot from, was having the time of his life.
He and Leo were chasing each other, and he snapped at his son playfully, licking him every now then.
Leo was crawling around on the bed sheets, trying to catch the giant dog, but every time he reached out, he fell flat on his face with an adorable 'oomph!', but got up again to resume the game, having the time of his life.
The smell of cooking sausages reached Padfoot, and his nose twitched in response, and he stopped clambering on the bed, which now looked as if it had been in a wind storm.
Suddenly his stomach seemed empty and he looked at Leo, who was crawling with all his might towards him, red in face, determination written across his features. He smiled (or tried to, since he was still Padfoot), and let his son grasp his fur in his tiny fists, and watched him scream with triumph.
He morphed back into Sirius, with Leo now clutching his waist, and lifted him into his arms, laughing.
"Well caught, Puppy" he muttered, wiggling Leo in the air; holding him by his arm pits. Leo giggled in delight, eyes big and shining.
Sirius couldn't still wrap his mind around the fact that he was a father to this creature full of life, always ready to play, always ready to get into trouble along with him. Sirius stood up, holding Leo securely in his arms; and made his way downstairs for breakfast.
'Mmmm... Sausages' he thought. Anything seemed delicious to him at this point.
Leo was looking ahead of himself, twisting around in Sirius' arms, taking in his familiar surroundings.
Leo turned at his father suddenly and grinned, and his front two teeth made him look like an amusing bunny.
Sirius smiled at him and Leo bounced in his arms, indicating him to move faster.
Sirius chuckled slightly and obliged, jumping down the last three stairs, holding Leo a little tighter when he was about to leap. His son giggled, turning away to look ahead.
Sirius placed him on the table, giving him a serving spoon to play with, and walked over to the kitchen.
Cora was already placing the breakfast on two plates, waving her wand to extinguish the flame.
"Sirius?!" She called, oblivious to him standing right behind her."Get down here!"
"I'm right here, love" Cora's husband responded cheekily, leaning against the counter. She jumped, and turned to look at him, surprised.
"I thought you were still playing with Leo" she said, turning back to the arranged plates and taking them in her hands.
"We just came down. I smelled sausages"
She handed him both the plates, and conjured up two glasses of orange juice out of thin air.
Together, they made their way out of the kitchen, and Sirius placed the plates a little distance away from his son, who flung away the spoon he was chewing and crawled over to the breakfast, an excited and curious expression on his face.
Cora sat down, looking down at her food. Two sausages, an egg, bacon,some fried mushrooms, and toast.
She watched her husband feeding their son tiny bits of his breakfast idly, and picked at her own food, not in the mood to eat.
Sirius was laughing, watching Leo spit out his sausage in distaste.
"Cora, look Leo just spit...heyy... Are you alright, Cor?"
Cora shrugged, not looking at Sirius as she stuffed the entire bacon in her mouth and began chewing it.
"The death eater we captured yesterday escaped. The room he was placed in was entirely spell proof. There was no way he could've apparated..., communicated with his colleagues, or... performed any kind of magic...I'm thinking it was the work of a spy..."
She looked up at him for his opinion.
Sirius pulled his plate away from his son's insistent fingers, and looked over at his wife.
"And the death eater is...?"
"Igor Karkaroff. It is a rumor that he is in the inner circle of Voldermort, so we thought he would be a great asset, and caught him in Diagon Alley. He was in that shop, Borgin and Burkes, trying to sell a severed goblin hand"
"Do you want the Order looking out for him? We could get him captured, again" Sirius said, stopping Leo with his forearm.
"He'll be careful now, and won't slip. It would be difficult, and a waste of time. It'll be better if you just proceed with your plans"
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Perfectly, Sirius. You just focus on the Order. The ministry doesn't need that much help. I'll ask if something comes up again, okay?"
Sirius nodded, returning his attention to Leo, who was grunting with the effort of trying reach past his father's hand to get to the delicious looking breakfast.
Sirius rolled his eyes and let go of his son, who ignored him and crawled to his mother, pawing at her chest when she pulled him into her lap.
Cora smiled and sighed, walking to Sirius' arm chair and sinking into it. She pulled a few buttons open, uncovering her swollen breast.
Leo immediately latched on to its tip, sucking happily and looking up at his mother with wide eyes.
She smiled, glancing at her husband.
Sirius reached for the camera on the mantel piece and snapped a picture, startling Cora.
"Sirius! You cannot take a picture like that!" she cried, shocked.
"Relax, love. It's just between you and me. You both look beautiful" the animangus said, resting his elbows on the table and looking at the sight before him dreamily.
Cora rolled her eyes, sure that she'd never win an argument with him.
"Hey" he said after a few moments, looking curiously at her chest. "Ever wondered what it tastes like?"
"What?" She muttered, looking down at her Leo.
"The milk, woman" he said, grinning, getting up from the chair.
Cora shrugged. "It's just like water" she mumbled, brushing Leo's hair off his forehead, and cooing to him.
"Can I have a go at it?" Sirius asked, kneeling next to his wife and son, placing a hand on her knee.
"If you want. But fair warning..."
Sirius grinned, and brought his mouth closer to her chest, finally landing his warm and soft lips around her nipple. Leo kicked his father's jaw indignantly, afraid he would become competition, but Cora sushed him.
Sirius sucked lightly and tentatively, and his mouth was immediately filled with a warm liquid.
He swallowed it all eagerly, recalling how Leo loved his mother's milk, but soon regretted it.
The taste was awful, for the lack of a better word.
Sirius face screwed up in disgust and he almost threw up.
"He drinks that?" Sirius cried in disgust, hanging his tongue out, hoping to get rid of the taste.
"Afraid so. Accio orange juice" she said, biting back a snort.
He greatfully emptied the glass, relived when the taste of nothingness left his mouth.
"I pity you, pup" he told his son mournfully.
Leo ignored him, however, and happily continued to suck.
After a few moments of exaggerated gagging, Sirius finally stopped and looked up at the scene before him.
His heart swelled as his eyes landed on his family.
'Mine' he thought happily, kissing Leo's soft feet.
Leo kicked his father promptly in response.