Hello again (: I hope you like this chapter as much as the last! It isn't as long as I had hoped because it only just over 3,600 words but hey ho it's no matter. I have I little important note at the bottom so if you have a moment would you mind reading it I'd thank you. :D
Still don't own or make money from anything or anyone I write about.
P.S. I'm sorry about the lack of spacers on the last chapter, I put them in on word but fanfiction didn't like the! I will go back and add them sometime soon.
Chapter One: Changes In The Wind.
Confusion clouded Harry's mind. Trapped in a dream-like state Harry wondered if the crying baby was part of a dream or maybe a joke from Sirius or any other number of things that wasn't a real life baby in his godfather's home.
Dream or not, Harry woke and the sound continued. Voices soon joined the crying.
"Why won't he stop, Remus?" A sigh. "Please baby boy, stop with the crying." It was Sirius' voice and it sounded tired and stressed to Harry.
An equally tired and stressed voice joined that of his godfather's. "I don't know Sirius, I haven't been around a baby since Harry was little and that was 14 odd years ago." The second voice belonged to his godfather's partner, Remus Lupin.
Slowly Harry became more aware of the things around him. Firstly of the light blinding him through the windows to his left and then of the pain in his neck that came from his odd placement as he had slept. Must be morning, his thoughts were broken by the sound of approaching footsteps.
"Harry? Please tell me you didn't sleep there all of last night!" It was Remus standing over him, with sad eyes and a mouth set into a grimace.
Harry simply looked at him for a moment before replying. "Oh yes, umm I, well I was waiting for you and well I was worried when you didn't get home in time for dinner." Harry was still worried because he didn't like the look on Remus' face. It made all his thoughts from the night before flood back into his mind and then out his mouth.
"Are you okay? Is Sirius? Where were you? Did one of you or someone else get hurt? Its just you don't look well at all. Have you eaten?" Harry held his breath waiting for an answer to all his questions.
"We are fine Harry. Yesterday was a rather rough day but nothing happened to either me or Sirius... No need to worry about us and there was no time for food." There were tears in his eyes and he turned towards the window before wiping them away.
"Was it the Death Eaters? Did you find them?" Harry's heart was beating so hard he was sure that if he didn't have his shirt on then anyone would be able to see his heart beating through his ribs.
"No Harry, no Death Eaters this time. Although we haven't really been the type of place you hear about such things." Remus' reply didn't make him or his heart feel any better and the odd comment about where they had been caused panic to laced throughout his chest.
"Oh okay but Remus I thought I heard something odd just a moment ago but I must be hearing things."
Remus smiled weakly "What did you think you heard Harry?"
"Something crying... like a baby or something. Hearing things right?" Harry tried a joking grin but when one wasn't returned it melted from his face. "Or part of a dream maybe?"
"Well about that... Sirius and I need to see you in the first floor study." After that Remus turned to walk back out the door.
"I'll just do us some breakfast and bring it with me then... That aright?" Harry called after him.
"Sure, so we will see you in about half hour." Were the only words Harry got in return, none of the normal argument over what they would have for breakfast.
Harry thought over what Remus had said both about where he and Sirius had been and where they want to meet him. The first floor study? I don't understand...Sirius hates using his father's old study and doesn't let anyone else in there either because he says there could be dark items or something else what he had said.
What on earth could have happened?
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When Harry got to the kitchen he just stood there, dazed and confused, mind twisting and turning and coming up with horrid ideas as to what Sirius and Remus could need to talk to him about. Especially in a room that hasn't been used it who knows how long.
He removed last nights uneaten dinner from the oven and deposit of it in the rubbish bin and then started on that mornings breakfast all the while still in a daze, as if something or someone else was controlling his body and his mind was just along for the ride.
Bacon...
Or eggs...
What could they...
English Muffins...
I don't understand...
A baby crying?
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As Harry walked towards the disused study with a plate of English muffins with bacon, egg and tomato sauce for Sirius and just egg muffins with brown sauce for Remus his mind continued to spin. For Harry himself there was just a piece of buttered toast as he didn't think that he could eat anything else with the worry eating away at his stomach and appetite.
At the back of Grimmauld Place past the business parlour was Orion Black's study, the door a dark green that may have onceSlytherin in tone but had now faded to a more pukeish colour. The door handle didn't make the thing anymore inviting but then again anything shaped like a greyhound's head snarling with wicked teeth wouldn't scream 'Come in with a smile!' but more likely bring thoughts of death and punishment and Harry once again felt a spike of sympathy and empathy for Sirius having to grow up in such a dim and miserable place.
As Harry stood outside that wretched green door, with the plate of food in one hand and the other ready to knock, he stopped and took a deep breath and then another and another in the vain hope to squash down the feelings of panic and just knocked.
"Come on in Harry." He couldn't tell if it had been Sirius or Remus who had answered his knock so he simply opened the door to an unsurprisingly dark room. At first Harry didn't look at the two men in the room and just looked at the room itself, it was an odd looking room and Harry couldn't really tell the colour of the walls apart from the fact that they were something in between green and grey and brown. It was quite a large room but had very little to fill it with, only the desk, a few bookcases and what looked like a spirits cabinet.
Finally Harry searched the room for his godfather and the werewolf. Harry's eyes found Sirius sitting behind the desk with what looked like a tonne of paperwork in front of him and a frown upon his weary face. Remus was a little harder to spot with his back to the door and looking out of the only window in the room. It wasn't a very big window, only the size of a small fireplace and it seemed to have no particularly good view for Remus to be gazing so rigidly out of.
"Harry, please take a seat." His godfather tried to smile at him but it came off as more of a grimace. "I'll be with you in a minute." Harry sat on the worn looking chair in front of the desk but not before placing the breakfast plate on the desk and tried to hold in a sigh.
After a few minute of what would be silence if it hadn't been for the scratching of Sirius' quill the man in question looked up, first towards Remus who hadn't moved away from the window and then towards Harry sitting on the other side of the desk. Sirius sighed before placing the paper work in a draw and locking it.
"I don't understand, am I in trouble or something?" Harry couldn't help but ask, holding his breath, hoping that he wasn't. He knew that he would never have to go back to the Dursleys but old fears never really go away and Harry had plenty of those.
Sirius looked confused for a moment before stammering out, "What? Why of course not silly! How could you think that?"
"Well this is a little odd Sirius; I mean where on earth were you yesterday? I got so worried when you weren't home for dinner and I thought the worst." It felt like Harry had no control over what he was saying; it was just tumbling out of his mouth like water from a river in flood.
If anything Sirius' face became even grimmer. Harry already knew that Death Eaters hadn't been the reason for their delay home and neither of them seemed to be hurt in anyway, just cheerless. Harry's mind flickered names and faces of others he cared about before his eyes and one by one he dismissed them. It wouldn't be a Weasley because it would have been him that was called for, not his godfathers. Same with the Dursleys or Hermione or any of his other Hogwarts friends; it would be him by their side not Remus or Sirius. It could have nothing to do with Harry; it could in fact be a problem with one of his godfather's family or even Remus'. If he has any, I don't really know much about Remus or his background apart from the fact he's a werewolf and was one of my father's best friends when he was alive. Harry had always wondered about Remus' life for he knew there had to be more behind the calm front that the man put up for everyone outside of family.
It seemed to take Sirius a long time to speak and every word looked like they would taste of the vilest things.
Sirius took a deep breath but before he could speak there was a sound, like the crying from before but clearer and stronger and coming from Remus' direction. Harry's eyes shot straight towards the noise. What the hell, it sounds just like a...
Remus turned and in his arms was a blanket and curled in that blanket was a crying, red faced baby. Harry's mind went blank at the sight and his brain couldn't think of anything to say because he'd never really been around babies that much in his life, only those that belong to the families that came to dinner parties at the Dursleys and the babies on the birthing channel on the telly his Aunt had liked to watch and even then it had been from afar. All he knew about babies was that they cried a lot and if they smelt off then not to go near them.
The baby in Remus' arms sure knew how to cry and Harry didn't want to get close enough to learn if it smelt bad or not, in fact he just wanted to turn around and dart away. And what would the wizarding world think then? Their 'Hero' running away from a crying baby as if it were more evil and frightening than Voldemort himself. Okay so a baby wasn't more frightening than Voldemort but Harry could understand Voldemort, understand the evil and hate but a baby on the other hand... Why was it crying? Did it want food? Or a nappy change or something? Did they even use nappies in the wizarding world?
Why on earth am I worried about that!? I should be wondering where the thing came from and why is it here?!
The baby stopped crying and looked straight at Harry and Harry found he couldn't call the strange looking baby a thing anymore. It may have looked like a cross between an old mans face and a bright red ball but it was an oddly loveable face and a bizarre sensation crept up his chest, it was a mix of a need to care for and a feeling of kinship, like looking at a younger brother for the first time.
Harry looked back towards Sirius just as the man's gaze rested back on him. There was an odd little smile on his face, a face that still held sadness but also calmer than his expressions before.
"Well Harry, I'd like you to meet Silas. Silas Octavius Black." Sirius gestured for Remus to join Harry on the other side of the desk and Remus sat on the only free chair in the room which brought both him and the baby, Silas, into Harry's touching range. He could just reach out his arm and his finger would be on the baby's smooth skin.
"I'm sorry but I still don't understand. A Black? Where did he come from? Did you adopt him or something like that?" To say Harry was confused was an understatement; he was confused not just about where the baby might have come from but also his feelings towards it.
At the word 'Adopt' Remus let lose a sob which caused Silas' little face to scrunch up into what Harry was willing to start calling his 'Crying Face' but before the baby could start howling his displeasure Remus ran the tip of his finger over the baby's cheek and mouth and it seemed to have the right effect on him.
"Yes Silas is a Black but by blood not adoption. He was born late last night. And no, I'm not his blood father but I will take on the role and care for him anyway I can." By now Harry knew his godfather's determined face and knew that Sirius had spoken nothing but the truth. Harry had wondered since finding out the truth about his godfather what it would have been like to live with him and not the Dursleys growing up and what it would have been like to have him as a father figure; he now knew something of it and was happy, if not a bit jealousy of Silas growing up with his godfather in a way he never could, that the tiny boy would have at least a good start to life.
Sirius continued with glazed eyes. "Do you remember Tonks? The girl in Auror training that could change her hair into lots of different colours?" Pain seemed to fill his expression and his voice. "She is, was, my cousin or her mother is and I honestly can't for the life of me remember what that made Tonks to me."
Harry thought for a moment before an image of a bright pink haired and brightly smiling girl came forward in his mind. He had only met her twice, once at Hogwarts after the death of Voldemort and then again here at Grimmauld Place about two weeks ago. She had seemed nice and friendly but hadn't really given him the time of day when he had asked about Auror training, she had been too busy talking to Sirius and Remus. "Yeah, I remember her. She smiled a lot right? And her hair was pink when she came here." The connection between Silas and the fact Tonks was a Black was slowly making its way into his mind.
"Tonks was Silas' mother." The words came from Remus on his left and those four words appeared to cause Remus a large amount of pain. The word was finally made itself know in Harry's head and he realized that it most likely meant that Tonks, the bright, smiley and friendly young woman, was dead and Harry felt more of that bizarre sensation in his chest.
No mother, just like me. Lucky he'll have Sirius and Remus to care for him. Harry wasn't bitter at all, just glad that the adorable little boy would have the loving family he never did and better yet, Harry himself could be apart of that family.
"You mean she's... Dead?" Harry really didn't want to say the bitter word but could think of no other way of saying it. It felt like a sting in his mouth and his eyes flicked from Sirius' face, to Remus' face and finally to Silas' face where tears had formed at the corner of his eyes. "What happened and what about his blood father? Not that I don't want him here or anything like that!" Harry felt tongue tied and his face flushed with colour, hoping he hadn't said anything wrong. Harry also thought that Tonks hadn't really looked pregnant when he had seen her but then he didn't know everything about the wizarding world and there was surely some way to hide a pregnancy if a lady didn't want anyone to know. She must not have wanted anyone to know but why wouldn't she want her family to know she was pregnant? They could have helped her and just maybe... This wouldn't have happened.
Sirius answered as steadily as he could. "We don't know what happened, we didn't even know she was pregnant until we got the call from her mother yesterday telling us. She said that Tonks had been in labour for a while already and she was asking for us. I didn't understand at first but then she forced us to sit with her and listen to what she had to say to help her daughter. We got to see Tonks but she looked like she was in horrid pain. Then after a few more hours the healers said there was something really wrong, I don't remember what, and that if mother and babe were to have a chance then they would have to... Have to..." Sirius stopped and held his breath for a moment and Remus covered one of Sirius' hands with the one that wasn't holding Silas.
Sirius took a deep breath and started again. "Before they gave her the sleeping potion she said that she had to talk to us, something which only we could hear and that even her mother had to leave the room or she would say nothing. After everyone but us had left we each took one of her hands but she would hear nothing from us. Tonks' told us that we were to look after the baby if anything happen to her but I couldn't understand why and nor could Remus." Here he paused to look at Remus and give him a watery smile, with tears falling from his eyes. Remus nodded in return with his own teary eyes and took up the tale from Sirius.
"I couldn't help but ask her why us and not her mother and Sirius didn't seem to have anymore understanding than me. She said that, that she... Oh why is it so hard to say?" Remus took his hand away from Sirius and curled it around the sleeping baby, holding it tight to his chest. Having the child so close to him seemed to give Remus the will to carry on. "She said she loved me."
"Loved you? Like more than family love? But you like men and are with Sirius."
Remus sighed and shrugged. "But that doesn't mean that Tonks couldn't and didn't love me. She wanted me to be happy but in her heart she still wished that it was her making me happy instead of Sirius, that it was her I professed my love to. She whispered to us that she had slept with other men she thought were like me, Wizard, Muggle and Werewolf alike. She told me that she didn't have any genuine idea who the father was but just in case it was the werewolf she thought it best I was there to care for the baby. There have been very few babies born to werewolf fathers and no one really knows how it affects the children as they grow and I think Tonks was right it that Silas' father was the werewolf, he smells earthy and like the midnight air."
Sirius had calmed enough to take over again but his voice still alleged to lot of pain. "She died of blood loss after they had taken the baby out of her womb. The healers tried to save her but she was to far gone. Even little Silas wasn't breathing at first but it turned out to be just a little fluid in the lungs. We waited till morning and both Remus and I were shocked to find that we could take Silas home already; we just had to name him. I knew that Tonks would have wanted something different but not embarrassing. There were baby name books in the waiting room. It took a while but we found Octavius first and knew that it was the perfect middle name and then in the next book we found Silas. I had remembered Andromeda reading a book when we were little and she just loved the character Silas who was the smart little hero wizard. I hope that Tonks would love the name as much as her mother before her." Sirius seemed proud of the names he had given the baby but Harry knew that his godfather was worried that maybe Tonks somehow wouldn't approve of them.
Harry couldn't help but say. "I may have not known Tonks as well as I would have like but I know from the little I've seen of her that she would love the names you have picked and love you for agreeing to take care of her baby son." Harry smiled as brightly as he could at his godfathers and in return Sirius and Remus, carful of the baby in his arms, stood, pulled Harry to standing and hugged him as tightly as they dared. The food forgotten and baby Silas sleeping deeply, with not a care in the world.
It's all change from now on.
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Thank you for reading this far and I hope you stay with me on this freaky journey.
Now for my important little note. I hate 90% of what I write and I will sometimes delete whole chapters or sometimes just little bits and pieces but I will try and update at least once a week but sometimes it will be less often and I'm sorry for that.
Oh and if you ever want to message me don't call me my full profile name or even Conquered-King, just call me G.
Please review with any comments, questions and anything you think is wrong.
Love the Conquered-King (Who really is a girl!)
