Remus opened the front door, and walked in, looking around at the still-dark apartment as Sirius followed behind him. He looked around the room, feeling disconnected from everything that was going on, like he was watching it all from somewhere else, somewhere calm and far away. Only Harry's sudden crying made him snap out of it and turn on the lights.
Sirius stared at the crying child in his arms with a panicked expression.
"Remus, Harry's crying, and I don't know anything about infant care, what am I supposed to do, and the last time he cried I couldn't make him stop and Lily hit me on the head and told me to stop taking him on rides on Moonshadow because that will give a child nightmares but now I don't know what to do and he's still crying and Remus what do I do?! Does he need food? Harry, do you need food? Remus, do we have any food? What do you feed a baby?"
"I'm pretty sure we still have some Cheerios here somewhere… He likes those, he ate them last time we babysat…Wait, let me get them. Sirius, for God's sake, don't just stare at Harry. Give him a hug or walk him around or something! He won't explode." Remus rummaged around Sirius' cupboard while Sirius paced around the flat with Harry, trying to think of a way to calm him down .
"Remus, does Harry like music? Would that help? Can either of us sing? It might be worth a shot, but I can't sing, so I should probably just not do that…"
"Just sing, Sirius. The neighbors will complain if he doesn't stop crying, and I'm not getting you kicked out of another apartment, you just got this one."
"Right then, er, here goes nothing…" While still walking around the flat, at a much less panicked speed, Sirius quietly half hummed and half sang. Muggle rock songs, of course, and only the best of them.
Remus stopped for a second, his back still turned, arms up to his elbows in the cupboard, to listen to Sirius.
Harry's crying quieted some, as he tried to listen to the soft sound. Sirius looked over to Remus, not daring to stop singing yet.
Remus finally gave up on the cereal. He walked towards them, looking at Harry, who seemed calmer. "I bet he's exhausted."
"Where should we put him for a nap? Just in the bedroom?" Sirius looked around the flat, which was a bit lacking in furniture, let alone a place for a baby to sleep safely.
"I guess. One of us could sleep on the couch, and the other one could take care of him. Or something."
"I'll keep an eye on him. I won't be sleeping anytime soon as it is. You should try to get some rest, if you can." Remus laughed once, dryly. "You're crazy if you think I'm going to sleep and leave you all by yourself all night." He got closer to Sirius and peered at Harry. "Shh. I think he's asleep." Sirius looked down at Harry in surprise and whispered to Remus, "Suppose we should put him to bed then? Is there anything we have to do?" He looked back up at Remus. "Merlin's pants, we have no idea what we're doing, do we?"
"None whatsoever" He looked at the peacefully sleeping Harry again. "Yeah, I think we should put him to bed before he wakes up again. "I can put on some coffee if you want."
"That would be great. I'll go try to get him settled in." Sirius grabbed a pillow from the living room couch, only able to hold one while carrying Harry, and walked back into the other room.
When Sirius returned, Remus was already sitting down on the old couch, drinking out of an overly large green mug. Sirius flopped down on the couch, sprawling across Remus's lap. "I set up one of the monitor spells, so we'll be able to hear anything if there's a problem." He took the extra mug Remus brought. "Thanks much for the coffee. That'll help."
Remus sipped his coffee, not answering. After a while, he sighed. "Sirius...what are we going to do?"
"The best we can. It's all we can do. I have no idea how we're going to pull this off. Honestly, we don't have the money, supplies, or experience, but we're going to just have to make it work." Sirius finished the last of his coffee and slouched back into the couch cushions.
"I don't mean Harry. What are we going to do without James, Sirius? Without Lily, and without James. How can we... I mean, Lily and James are... were... Oh God, Sirius. What are we going to do?"
"I dont have any idea what we're going to do. I don't... I'm not...I can't...I don't know what to do. It's James and Lily. They can't be."
"And... I mean, how could... Sirius, what are we going to do without James?" Remus cried out, forgetting to be quiet so as not to wake Harry.
"Shh, shh, be careful, Harry is sleeping."
After looking over frantically at the bedroom, Sirius turned back to Remus. "We're going to do exactly what James would do if it were us. Only one person knew where they were. It could only have been him, and I'm sure of it."
Remus sighed. "Peter".
"Peter. I don't understand how he could do it. We're all family. I can't understand how he could even think of doing something like that." Sirius was staring out the window, where city life seemed to have slowed, almost as if even the Muggles knew subconsciously that something had happened.
Remus looked over the city as well, still gripping his mug. "I just don't understand how he could do it Sirius. I mean, I know that we've drifted apart some since graduation, with him moving across the city for that new job of his, and with us practically living together, and with Ja-..."
Remus winced, but continued. "And with James getting married. But I could never imagine he would do something like this. How could I have imagined it? He was family. We were planning on spending Christmas together, Sirius! Christmas, for God's sake. "
"I never would have thought-" Suddenly, the sound of Harry crying and the quiet chiming of the monitoring spell rang through the flat. Sirius stood up quickly. "Hold on, I'll go make sure he's alright." With that, he nearly ran back to the bedroom, where, soon, the sound of crying was replaced with the sound of the old turntable playing quietly.
Remus stood up and walked to the window, drinking the last of his (now cold) coffee. He smiled as he heard the turntable. It had been James' idea for them to buy it for Sirius' sixteenth birthday. They had saved up for it all year (Peter and himself working during the summer, James tutoring some first years in Potions, and all of their combined efforts to clean out the Potter's ridiculously cluttered attic) just to buy the old thing, but it had been worth it, seeing Sirius' reaction.
Yes, the Marauders had had some bad times: first finding out about Remus' lycanthropy, James and Lily's first big fight, the whole mess with Snape in sixth year (which had caused Sirius and Remus' first big fight)...but they never imagined it would end up like this.
After a while, Remus realized that he hadn't heard any noise coming from the bedroom in a while. He put his mug on the sink, making a mental note to wash it later (Sirius was notoriously bad at remembering to wash the dishes).
He walked to the bedroom, and pushed the door open slowly, trying to be as quiet as possible. He smiled at what he found inside. Harry had fallen asleep all right, but so had Sirius. They were both curled up on the bed, fast asleep, with one of Harry's tiny hands swallowed up in one of Sirius' big ones.
Remus smiled, and pulled a blanket out from the closet and over both of them.
They would get through this, he suddenly knew. It would be hard, harder than anything any of them had ever had to face before, but they would. They had to.
He turned of the lights, and quietly walked out of the room, softly closing the door behind him.