His light in the dark.
Chapter 1 – Kisses and Tickles
Sirius POV.
"Daddy!" a high pitched yell rang out through the common room, "Daddy, Daddy"
Sirius Black looked up from the marauders map that he was observing with his two best friends James potter and Remus Lupin, startled by the cry. It took only seconds for the father inside him to take control.
"Charlie" I cried jumping to my feet, James and Remus quickly following suit; after all they thought of the girl as their niece.
Charlotte Francesca Black was the three year old daughter to the infamous Sirius Black. She had been born just before Sirius had turned 15. He had always had a reputation for being the type of guy that slept around a lot but that all stopped when a fourth year Ravenclaw had cornered him and told him she was Pregnant. His friends were shocked to say the least, I mean he had knocked some poor girl up at the age of 14 and was dead set on giving the baby up for adoption.
It was only after 5 months he began to think of his family, the family that never loved him or treated him right, of how by putting HIS baby up for adoption, HIS responsibility, he was turning into them. From that moment on his focus became the little bump, which for months had been led to believe that neither of his/her parents loved it.
On the early hours on the 16th February Charlotte was brought into the world and Sirius couldn't have been happier or more proud than he was when he heard his little girl cry for the first time. After she had been cleaned and wrapped in a pale pink blanket, she was handed to him by the nurse, the minute he looked down into her dark grey eyes; that resembled his own so much, did he know that he would do anything for her, he would protect, love and cherish this baby girl. His baby girl.
Running up to the 7th year Gryffindor boy's dormitory, where Charlie slept when the boys attended school, I looked around frantically to see Charlie but she was no longer in her bed. I could now hear the panting breaths of my mates behind me also looking around but I was already heading towards the lump that seemed to be moving on my bed.
I pulled back the covers to see my baby girl huddled in a ball with her arms tightly locked tightly around her blankie.
"Charlie... baby what's wrong" I asked pulling the shaking three year old into my arms.
She didn't answer and only shook harder.
Remus came and sat down beside her while James sat on the floor by her little legs, both with concerned look on their faces.
"Did you have a bad dream honey" asked Remus or Uncle Moony as Charlie called him.
She sniffed and nodded into my chest so gently that I had to nod my head at the guy's when they thought she had not answered.
"Oh baby girl why didn't you come downstairs and get me, you know you can tell me anything" I said as I looked into her grey eyes, full to the brim with her unshed tears. She hated crying in front of me, well in front of anyone, but especially me and I still had no idea why.
"Cos it's dark daddy and I didn't want to get out of bed, so I called you" She murmured into my tearstained shirt.
I gripped her tighter and James and Remus stood up kissing Charlie's head and went venturing back downstairs, knowing that if at all Charlie was going to talk about, she would only want me to hear.
I kicked off my shoes and laid back on my bed with Charlie on my chest, I gently stroked her hair as she rubbed my arm with her blankie and sucked her thumb.
"What was your dream about Charlie-bear" I used the nickname I had been calling her since she was born.
"A bad man daddy" she whispered, which made me more anxious to know what her dream was about.
"What did the bad man do" I pressed on
"Made a green light on you daddy and you would no wake up, neither did Uncle Prongs or Uncle Moony" She said and I paled she had seen me and her godfathers killed in her dream.
"What did the bad man look like baby" I asked half knowing who it would be but half hoping she wouldn't know about... him.
"I dunno, he had big black coat on with a hood so I no see his face daddy, but I saw his pet snake" She told me more relaxed now that I was lying with her.
I felt the colour from my face completely drain away, it was Voldemort, and she had dreamt that Voldemort had killed me. I held her tighter against my chest.
"Baby I'm never going to leave you okay" I whispered into her hair
I felt her take a handful of my T-shirt, and rub it against her little chubby cheeks. She was a gorgeous little baby, with her tanned complexion, red rosy cheeks, shoulder length curly black hair and her steel grey eyes that constantly twinkled with mischief. I looked down at her pyjama's; which were blue with Little Miss Naughty on the front, all the way down to her tiny bare toes, she was perfect and she was mine, no-one would ever take her from me. Not her mother, not any death eaters not even bloody Voldemort.
She suddenly looked up at me her eyes now clear of tears the only trace she had been crying was the red rim around her eyes.
She leant forward and gave me a sloppy kiss on the cheek
"I love you lots and lots daddy" she smiled "So you get lots and lots of kisses" She then repeatedly began to kiss my cheek until it was covered, she smiled triumphantly putting one last big kiss on my nose and snuggled back up to me.
My heart had just melted at the small but loving gesture that my little girl had just given me, but of course the marauder in me leapt out.
"Thank you baby, but I also love you very much" She pointed to her cheek as if waiting for her kisses.
"Ah ah, daddy has a special way to show you" I grinned before leaning down with my hands and tickling her mercilessly, she shrieked and giggled trying to get away from my hands but was failing miserably. When I withdrew my hands and she regained her breath I looked down at her.
"Now that was a lot of tickles, and each one is how much I love you" I smiled
I was trying to be serious (no pun intended) but her three year old brain had taken over and she jumped onto me and pushed me down into the mattress, starting up one of our play fights.
After 10 minutes of fighting and my rather- if I may say so myself- impressive death, we laid back onto the bed, smiles covering our faces, the nightmare for Charlie forgotten and even for me pushed back deep into my brain, both of us far too happy for any type of negativity.
I rolled her off me and began to tuck her in.
"Daddy, what you doing" she asked innocently
"Its bed time now baby, it's very late for you to be up"
"But I'm a big girl" She said more to herself then out loud, never the less I heard her.
"Yes you are, but it's late even daddy's coming to bed now" I told her honestly.
"But I want you to stay with me daddy." She looked up at me with her puppy dog eyes.
"Well you can sleep in my bed tonight okay" I told her
She smiled and ran over to my bed getting comfy and taking up most of the room. I shook my head laughing and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
As I came back out, I saw that my little Charlie was already asleep sprawled out on the bed. I walked over and gently lifted her to one side as I got in, I pulled her close to me, fulfilling her wish of her wanting to stay with me, I kissed her head and closed my eyes whispering,
"I love you Charlie"
James POV
After gently closing the door of the dormitory, Remus and I headed back down to the common room, not even worried about the fact that we had left the marauders map wide open on the coffee table for anyone to see, Charlie was far more important.
Remus sat back down in the arm chair, picked up the map and muttered a quiet mischief managed, just as my lovely Lily walked in through the portrait hole.
"Evening Lily" I said while putting on my best charming smile.
"Hi Remus" She said ignoring me and sitting next to Remus on the other chair, obviously quite aware of the large space next to me as of Padfoot's absence.
"Hi Lily, how are you?" Remus replied, folding up the map and putting it in his back pocket, not rushing due to the fact that Lily already knew about the map, we showed her in third year just after she found out that Remus was a werewolf, which she of course being her completely accepted, but then again being who she was, did not hesitate in bringing up the fact the we should give the map to McGonagall, which was a flat out no from all of us, even Remus.
"I'm good thanks Remus, where's Sirius?" She questioned
"Upstairs with Charlie, she had a nightmare I think Sirius is trying to get it out of her, she looked terrified." Remus answered.
"Ah, poor baby" She said throwing a concerned look towards the staircase. Lily absolutely adored Charlie and as Sirius often said on many occasions, Lily was the mother figure in Charlie's life. Sirius and Lily had grown extremely close after the arrival of Charlie. Before she just saw him as the playboy of the school that had got a girl pregnant, but it was only after he had come to her on the verge of tears, because he felt as though he could not give his baby girl the life she deserves, when asked why he simply answered he did not know how to tie the ribbon in her hair. From that point onwards Lily knew that Sirius would do anything for his baby and she gladly helped him, of course when she saw the baby she almost instantly fell in love, placed under the Charlie charm just like all of us were.
I looked at her, her green eyes sparkling at the mention on Charlie, her pink lips moving so effortlessly while talking to Remus the lips that I so longed to move against mine and her long flowing red hair that is the perfect contrast to her bright green eyes, a perfect forest scene, with her snow coloured skin so smooth. She caught my eye obviously looking at her and to my surprise she blushed, a beautiful crimson, highlighted perfectly on her pale skin, she looked down and away looking at her hands knotted in her lap. An uncomfortable silence drifted over us, me thinking, Lily blushing and Remus deep in thought.
The silence was momentarily broken by the sound of shrieking laughter and before we knew it we all had big teeth showing smiles on our face, even though we all knew it would happen it just proved that Sirius Black can do anything to make his daughter happy.
After a while the laughing- both Sirius and Charlie- and the banging stopped. We stayed downstairs talking for what seemed like hours until Lily stood up saying she was going to bed, I had completely forgotten that we had classes tomorrow, oh well at least it's Friday and then on Saturday we were taking Charlie to Hogsmede. Lily walked over to the girls staircase and looked back,
"Goodnight Remus, night James" She blushed again, my mouth dropped open at her calling me by my name and not some insulting made up nickname, which had been bestowed upon me since 1st year.
As Remus and I headed upstairs and opened the door, we saw Sirius asleep with his arms protectively around a sleeping Charlie. Both looking happy and content, as I laid down on my bed drawing my curtains around me, I Thought about Lily and only when I did drift off to sleep were my thoughts filled with a red haired, green eyed girl.
Lily POV
Running up the stairs to the dormitory, quietly shutting the door to avoid waking my roommates; Alice Bates, Kayla Scott, Maddie Jones and Rhiannon Pierce. I crawled on to my bed not even bothering with pyjamas and thought about the boy I once hated, No Lily you still hate him... or do I... Yes... No... Maybe, well he wasn't as bad anymore. Oh stop thinking about it and go to sleep but as I lost consciousness a black haired boy riding a broomstick flooded the darkness.