Godfathers
Thursday, 31st July, 1980.
Main bedroom, the Doghouse, Godric's Hollow.
"James, please be careful – oh, watch his head!" Lily cried, hurrying to get a hand under her baby's tiny neck to support his poor head before her husband could damage anything. He was a tiny thing, just a minuscule six pounds, and he had a shock of black fuzz atop his little head that looked to be a more than possible replica of James's messy locks. She almost dreaded having to try and smooth it down in the future – her husband's nest of hair was only stacking up evidence that perhaps Potter hair wasn't meant to be tamed, and her son's? Well, let that be a battle for another day.
"It's okay, Lily, I've got him. I won't let him be hurt," James insisted softly, his voice hushed with an overwhelming thickness that preceded tears. Lily should know, she'd been crying enough in the past few months to know the symptoms.
"I know," she said, smiling a little wryly. James sent her a wry look, but his eyes didn't stay on her for too long, instead switching between the two little bundles – one in his arms, and the other between her knees on the soft bedding. It was such a proud, loving look, she almost wanted to cry herself. "I just don't want to leave anything to chance. They've only just been born after all, and the slightest change in temperature, touch and noise could do so much damage to them. It all seems so impossible now that they're here, in our arms. They're just so..." She paused, pursing her lips in a silent struggle to find a word to describe them. Other than beautiful, adorable, wonderful, delightful, lovely...
"Little?" James offered, smiling that handsome, crooked smile that she just loved seeing on him. Even if it did seem a little exhausted at the moment, it was still warming to her even more tired eyes.
"Little," she agreed, still bathing herself in the warmth of that smile. But then she remembered an important something, and expelled a long, forceful breath that fluttered red strands of hair from her sticky cheeks. "I don't know how we're going to live with two little babies, both so tiny and feeble in a house as chaotic as ours. Sirius'll try something – I just know it, so don't even look at me like that, James Potter, you know what he's like," she said, giving James's indignant expression her own look. When he looked away, rolling his eyes as he did so, she continued. "Peter won't even want to hold them – too small for him, and he fumbleseverything including but not limited to his own fork. But Remus won't be so bad, I think. Well, he's the most mature out of you lot, anyway, so he'll at least know heads from tails. But we'll still have to watch them with the boys. They don't know anything about babies any more than we do."
"Sirius and Peter know not to pick up either of the boys without one or both of us there to help them. I sat them both down and told them when we'd first found out you'd been pregnant," James muttered, still indignant, even if her wariness hadn't been directly aimed at him.
"And Remus?" Lily inquired.
"Doesn't trust himself to handle them alone," James admitted, after finding no reason to keep it from his wife, of course. "But, maybe with a little time, he'll get past it and think about settling down himself. Holding a baby for a time or two can do wonders for responsibility and maturity, you know," he told her, smiling just a little bit too smugly for Lily's liking.
"Ah, yes, of course, how silly of me to forget!" Lily said, raising an eyebrow in what could only be called incredulity. "So you don't want that new broom from Quality Quidditch Supplies? Should I cancel that order? Seeing as you're so mature and responsible, you won't need a new broom to fly around on. You've two newborn babies to look after, and you are a father, after all. Children always come first."
"What?"James exclaimed, and then winced when the baby in his arms gave a startled jolt, and his tiny little face began to scrunch up in that all too scary expression. "Oh, no. No, no, son, don't cry, there's no need to cry," he whispered fervently, beginning an awful rocking motion that looked far too jumpy and awkward to soothe a baby. Much less a Potter baby. James blanched when the first squalling wail came from his son, looking so utterly helpless that Lily couldn't help but take pity.
"Pass him to me," Lily said, laughing lightly as she held her arms out for her poor son, who was turning a bit red in the face. "They're due for a feed now, anyway. I don't think you'd want them latching onto you - as big of a breasts you have. I don't think your masculinity could take it - poor as it is."
James gave her a scalding look, before shaking his head roughly and leaning his chest over her arms, his crying baby cradled precariously in his. "Babies don't normally cry on me, I swear it. They usually love me!" James swore, and very carefully let Lily's soft hands slide up under the baby's neck and body, and pull him safely into the circle of her arms.
He watched her pull down the neck of her loose shirt and position the baby at her breast, and watched in fascination as the little tyke's bawling slowed to a grizzle at the motion, enough for him to latch onto her pink nipple and begin suckling ferociously, gumming away none too gently on the tender flesh.
Lily grimaced uncomfortably, her toes curling under the thin blankets, and he cringed alongside her in sympathy, unconsciously rubbing at his own chest.
"Does it hurt that badly?" He asked hesitantly, curiously.
Lily huffed a coarse laugh, careful not to dislodge her grumbling baby. "It's fairly unpleasant, but needs are a must. At least until we can get some formula made up for them to drink instead."
James started in surprise, eyebrows flying half-way up his forehead. "You don't want to keep breastfeeding them?" He asked, deflating just a little bit.
"For a little bit, I will. But as soon as we have formula available, I'm weaning them off me," she informed him staunchly, wincing a little as her son gave a vicious pull and gummed away just a little more intently at her sore breast. She was getting Remus to get that formula straight away, regardless of what James said or thought. She'd even have him deliver it in secret if she had to.
"But it's how mothers bond with their children, especially in the Potter line," James protested. "Don't you -"
Their would-be argument was cut off by the soft pop of a House-elf apparating into the room, so quiet they wouldn't have known she was there, if they hadn't seen her. However, that didn't stop the sleeping baby on the bed from squirming and frowning at the disturbance in the air, his pouty little mouth opening in a tired yawn that looked just about to break his jaw.
The House-elf, Mipsy, blinked at the sight of their two children, and a very soft, adoring look began to shape her long face as she hesitantly approached Lily's bed. Her large tennis ball brown eyes glistened with tears when she saw little Harry wriggling away in his swaddling blankets, eyes just beginning to lazily blink open and reveal their inner cornflower blue – which she could see was already darkening and changing slightly at the corners, if one looked close enough.
His magic, although incredibly young, was strong enough to assess his surroundings with that blank curiosity that came before the shaping of a personality. Mipsy seemed completely in awe over the infant, and was practically stupefied with the amazing sight of a waking newborn.
"Mipsy?" James prompted, after Mipsy continued watching Harry's attempted stretch and wriggle, eyes wide and staring wondrously at her. "Was there something you needed?" He asked.
Mipsy blinked, and then flushed a dull red that seemed to travel from her wrinkled neck and up to the highest point of her long ears. "I is apologizing, Master James," she said tremulously, voice tight with emotions that she seemed to be trying to keep squashed down. "Mipsy was looking at the beautiful Potter heirs – Mistress Lily has done well, sir! Very well, indeed!" She babbled.
Lily offered the elf a bright smile, proud in a way she hadn't felt before giving birth to her sons. She'd done very well in giving birth to her twins, indeed. Even if they'd taken almost twenty-four hours to make an appearance, with what felt like years in between the two. Alaric Henry Potter, the eldest twin, happened to share his birthday with Alice's Neville Frank Longbottom on the 30th of July – they had been born just mere hours apart, Neville at eleven in the morning,and Alaric at three in the afternoon. It had been a very close call, one that had made her body tense all throughout the birth, Dumbledore's words of two months before echoing ominously in her mind. It had been so close to being her eldest, that she'd shed tears when he was finally in her arms.
And when her body had prepared to birth Harry in the late hours on the 30th, still hopeful that it was someone else's child to fill the prophecy - nothing had happened. She had struggled to push her other son out into the world, James and herself keeping a furious eye on the clock, but it just hadn't meant to be. Her baby had stubbornly remained within her womb until the clock had well passed twelve and slid into the wee hours of the morning on the 31st.
Harry James Potter was born at one o'clock in the morning on the 31st of July, just a few hours after his brother, Alaric.
Just as the seventh month died,she thought, and had to bite back a grimace so as not to alarm her husband to her thinking. The thought had a been a very dark one, and it'd left a foul taste in her mouth. Much like the others when she'd still been pregnant and stressing about the issue of the prophecy.And my sweet Harry might very well be the Chosen One, destined to fight Voldemort. But he's so little, even littler than Alaric, and he was already so tiny. How can such a tiny person be destined to defeat something so great and terrible? It's impossible. Such a colossal fate shouldn't rest on such tiny shoulders - the shoulders of my youngest son.
"Thank you, Mipsy," Lily said, making sure that her smile stayed fixed firmly in place. When the elf showed no sign of worry or concern, she thought she'd succeeded in hiding her fears, and pressed on eagerly. "Was there anything else?"
Mipsy bobbed her head up and down, ears flopping wildly and slapping against her blushing cheeks like one of those ridiculous wizard hats circulating the fashion arena lately. "Oh, yes, Mistress Lily! Sirs Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail is being in the formal sitting room. They is bringing Wizard liquor and presents for baby Potters, Mistress Lily and Master James. They is being very impatient with Mipsy and the other House-elves."
Lily slowly turned to look up at James, where he was perched on the side of her bed - decisively not looking at her, but rather at the wall as if it was the most fantastic thing he'd ever seen. He likely had guilt written all over his face, and didn't want to give Lily the satisfaction of catching him out on one of his lies. "I didn't know we had a fireplace in our bathroom, James," she said wryly, eyes narrowed into slits. "Warm in there, was it?"
James ducked his head so he didn't have to meet her knowing gaze. "I was running on two hours sleep, Lils. And you can hardly blame me for wanting to tell my best mates that our children had been born," he said sheepishly, cheeks flushing a delicate pink. "Besides, I didn't want you to crush my hand any further than you already had. I can't even feel my thumb as it is, and it's been hours since they've been born!"
"Why you snotty little toerag!" Lily exclaimed, a bubble of surprised laughter passing her lips. "I can't have been squeezing your hand that hard. You're such a little pansy! My God, you must be more delicate than you like any of us to think!" She snorted, snickering loudly.
James scowled and held up his right hand for her to see, where sprawling bruises in the form of tiny finger marks were already blooming where she'd obviously gripped him too tight. Lily didn't so much as blink at them, but she did smile sweetly up at her husband.
"You're like a bloody python when you want to be," he grumbled. "Did I show you these bloody bruises? Because I don't know if you actually saw them - you're still laughing at me!" He exclaimed, feigning exasperation and annoyance, although the upward twitching of the corner of his lips and the glimmer of mirth in his eyes assured her he didn't mean anything by it.
"Well, why don't you try pushing out two bowling balls in two days, then we'll see how many bruises we'll end up with," she replied in kind, grinning up at him.
Suddenly, the suckling at her breast slowed to an abrupt stop, and little Alaric languidly blinked open his cornflower blue eyes, a tiny yawn stretching his even tinier mouth wide. Lily carefully, if a bit stiffly, positioned his body until he was sitting up on her knee, with her hand holding him up from drooping forward and supporting his head from under his chin. Those little eyes rolled around the room, as if he was trying to look at everything at once, but was too tired to do so.
Lily grinned, and slowly rubbed his tiny back, patting gently every second or so to get any wind up. She was a bit stiff and cack-handed, afraid she might hurt him or damage something, but eventually she was slowly able to build up a nice rhythm, beginning to relax when Alaric didn't so much as cry.
"Here, don't want him to sick up on our Harry," James murmured, tucking the little red and gold burping rag they'd bought before they went into hiding, over her hand like a little apron.
Lily shot him a smile when, after a few more thumps, Alaric gave a garbled burp and a small spindle of undigested milk spilled out from his lips and on the top of where her hand was, buried under the rag. She swiped his face clean with the rag, then set it down, away from Harry and off the clean sheets. Mipsy had only changed them an hour or two ago, and she really didn't want to bother the little elf with repeating tasks.
"Do you think Harry's hungry, too?" James asked, grappling with the swaddling blankets around their youngest son to get him free. He'd begun to redden in the face and tense every few seconds, which could only mean one thing, and it was not something Lily or James were looking forward to.
"He'll let us know when he wants a feed," Lily assured him, smiling softly as she gently tipped Alaric back into her arms and cuddled him to her chest, tucking herself back into her shirt. He was already fast asleep, and adorably so, lips pursed and paper-thin eyelids fluttering delicately. She didn't think she'd ever get over finally seeing her baby boys, having them in her arms after so long waiting. It really was her dream come true, honestly.
Even if one of them could die.
"Come on, let us in already! We want to see the new generation of Marauders, the prodigal sons! Don't start hogging them on us now, uncles have first priority for that kind of thing!"A very familiar voice barked through the door to their room, and Lily thought she could hear excited whispers even when James was snickering quietly beside her.
Obviously they'd been too impatient to wait for them, not that Lily had expected them to wait as long as they had in the first place. She'd known they'd barge in sooner or later, their excitement having gotten the best of them, and she was just glad that she'd been allowed to return herself to her modest state. Having a breast bared through the neck of a shirt wasn't something she was used to, after all, and it would have been an incredibly awkward situation if Sirius or anyone else had burst in while she was indisposed.
There'd been enough of that kind of pranking in their heyday at Hogwarts.
"Come on! You've already had them for nine months! Give over, it's time for the uncles to spoil their nephews!"Sirius shouted through the door, voice muffled by the excited murmuring of Remus and Peter, and the sturdy wood between them.
It wouldn't keep them out for long. Doors rarely ever did, and the girls in Gryffindor Tower couldn't count the times Sirius had been found sneaking in and out of the Girl's dorm after curfew, a broom tucked under an arm and a mischievous grin on his face, on all the hands in their half of the year group put together. It was part of their charm for being called the Marauders. Nothing stood in their way, not even the intricately spelled furniture.
James turned to stare at the door incredulously, a squirming and half naked Harry tucked awkwardly in his arms. Lily only just noticed the poor boy scowling up at his father, wriggling furiously to get comfortable and looking so close to crying from sheer frustration.
"And you wanted those three to celebrate the birth of your sons," said Lily, snorting.
James groaned pathetically. "Yeah, but why today? Why couldn't they come tomorrow at the very least? I told them to wait!"
"Oh, stop whinging and just open the door, before they break it down on us and we have to go shopping for a new one," Lily said, smiling with amusement. "And for God's sake, help the poor boy into a more comfortable position. He looks like he's going to cry!"
"Yes, dearest," James mumbled, and, awkwardly fumbling Harry more comfortably into the crook of his elbow, opened the door barely beating back the other Marauders.
Sirius practically pranced into the room, his eyes barely looking at James and instead going straight to the little boy in James's arms. He seemed to swoon at the sight. "Oh, he's got my cheeks!" He cried, gently poking at Harry's smooth, baby-soft round cheeks, and then feeling his own as if to compare them. "And my lips, and my nose, and my hair... Bloody hell! The kid's gonna grow up the spitting image of me! He's going to have a tough time beating the ladies and gents back with such a handsome face as this, I can just imagine it! I'll have to teach him the spells I used, nothing can keep them away otherwise."
James rolled his eyes good-naturedly and moved away from the door, ignoring Sirius as he dogged his steps, and allowing poor Remus and Peter space to sidle into the crowded room. Peter hung awkwardly at the doorway though, a crooked smile playing on his plump face as he observed the wriggling and sleeping babies. He seemed unsure to be there, but no one paid attention to him, as they'd always done. Not with such new arrivals in their midst, anyway.
"Congratulations, Lily," said Remus softly, leaning down to press an affectionate kiss to Lily's cheek. He handed her a small bouquet of yellow Chrysanthemums, to her surprise, as she hadn't noticed them when he'd come in. "They're absolutely perfect and healthy, the spitting image of James and yourself."
Alaric stirred in her arms as she grasped the bouquet and brought it to her face to examine them, sniffing at them delicately with a soft, touched smile on her face. "These are absolutely beautiful, Remi, thank you! It's been a long time since I've gotten flowers from any one of you," she mused happily, placing them on the table beside her bed, well within reach and sight, so Sirius wouldn't transfigure them without her knowing it. "And those transfigured fish heads don't count," she said pointedly, spotting said man opening his mouth as if to correct her.
Remus grinned, looking decidedly handsome and young with his delighted, lightly tanned face - despite the scars lingering from his previous 'Furry' changes, he looked completely at ease. "Well, you always did say you loved the way fish looked - elegant, I believe you said. So what do you expect to happen when you say something like that in front of Sirius?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow. "And besides, that was ages ago -"
"Only a year!" Lily protested.
"- so you shouldn't keep going back to it and trying to keep punishing all of us over something that happened in the past. Aren't you the one that keeps telling us to forgive and forget?" Remus prodded, a hint of mischief sparkling in his pale green eyes.
Lily scowled up at him, though the twitching of her lips belied her anger. "Well, yes," she conceded reluctantly. "But he really scarred me for life, I hope you know. I can't even look at red roses the same way without cringing, and they were my favorite kind of flower! Now all I see are gaping Codfish heads in their places."
"I don't think that's quite normal, Lily-flower. Think someone's been at the pain potions a little too much," said Sirius humorously, giving a harsh barking laugh that warmed Lily's smile significantly, despite his trickery in the past years she'd had to put up with him. He nudged James's side with his elbow at seeing Lily's smile, feigning shock. "D'you see that, Prongs? Lily-flower's smiling - at me! Ye Gods! What have I done to have deserved such a beautiful sight? Doth mine eyes truly deceive me? For surely this is some trickery designed to entrap me in some wicked spell!" He cried dramatically, flinging a hand to his forehead dramatically.
James rolled his eyes, although Lily was pleased to see that he was grinning. "Shut your gob, Padfoot, it's not that rare," he said good-naturedly, before he visually calmed himself and gave them serious looks. "Anyway, Lily and I have something we need to tell you. You and Remus both, actually, and it's very important," he admitted quietly. Harry cooed gently in his arms, but was happy to just lie there and blink lazily around the room, only focusing on his father every once in a while.
Remus's smile turned down so fast Lily thought she'd imagined him smiling just before, and his eyebrows creased up in concern. "What is it?" He asked worriedly, his concerned personality juxtaposed by Sirius's grinning, shining face beside him. "Is something the matter? I've already scented the boys, they're incredibly healthy - are they falling ill? Is it Lily? What is it, James?" He implored.
James barely noticed poor Peter Pettigrew lingering at the doorway, his attention so inwardly fixed on his and Lily's decision that, if he'd paused and finally noticed the rat Animagus, he would have known that it would've sparked something hazardous within the man to ignore him so thoroughly. Something severely detrimental to the health of their little family. But alas, his foresight wasn't as great as Albus Dumbledore's, and therefore, his mind wasn't as plagued by as many possibilities as the wise old man.
"Lily and I have thought about this for a long time," said James, glancing from his smirking wife, to his two best friends, with a slightly nervous smile. Realization seemed to be dawning in Sirius's eyes, although Remus wasn't far behind in the assumption either. "And we'd finally come to the decision that... Well, Sirius, Remus, we'd like you both to be -"
"YES!" Sirius shouted before James could even hope to finish, bodily throwing himself at his friend with tears of happiness in his sparkling grey eyes. He grabbed at James's biceps desperately, being careful of the frowning baby Harry cradled at his elbow, so utterly happy that his face seemed forever stretched into a grin. "You have no idea how happy you've made me, James - and you, Lily, you as well! Not only am I an uncle, but now I'm a Godfather, too! I promise you I'll protect them with my life, I swear it to you, James, I won't let anything happen to them! They'll both be spoiled bloody rotten, like the little princes they are!"
"You can only be Godfather to one child, Sirius," said Lily pointedly, before allowing her lips to pull up into a kind grin. "And we've made you Harry's Godfather, and Remus is Alaric's," she said, a large, warm smile on her beatific face as she watched Sirius practically bounce on the balls of his feet in ecstatic happiness. Remus was stunned into silence. "You two are the people we trust the most to take care of our babies if we aren't here anymore, and there aren't any other two people in the world strong enough to deal with any Potter tantrums. We trust you both, we love you, and you both deserve to be their Godfathers. If for no other reasons, then because you're our family," she said softly.
Tears glimmered in Remus's eyes, and before Lily knew it, she - and subsequently Alaric, too - were pulled into the circle of the Werewolf's strong arms, and words of gratitude were being whispered fervently into her ear. It was hard for her not to snap at him for thinking that they'd disregard him so completely just for his condition. Remus was practically the reason Lily had even survived in the Marauders circle- he had warned her when they were planning on pranking others, or herself, and was always there to help her out of a problem the other two had caused if she couldn't find the counter-curse or solution.
He was the wise friend, aside from Alice, that Lily had always gone to when she needed to just talk and for someone to listen. And there wasn't a better person to comfort either of her sons when they needed it, because she knew that she had a short temper and was incredibly impatient, and they needed someone with a cool head to explain certain things to them. She could only do so much.
Remus was that person. Because for all she knew, if she ended up dying in some way with James surviving, her husband would botch up the simplest of things with their children without her there to prevent it. She didn't even want to think about her husband explaining sex to her children. It just made her cringe to think of all the outdated, crappy advice James would give them to pick up girls, and then her sons going out to deploy those crappy pick-up lines and moves on poor girls.
No, Remus was the best choice for being a Godfather.
And Sirius... Sirius was the best choice for relating to her sons on a more playful, childish level. Every child needs that every once in a while to remain sane, especially since she didn't know how long the war around them would go on for, and happiness and innocence was rarely a thing that lasted long in such a thing. Too much blood, death and torture, and especially in the war with Voldemort.
The words of the prophecy ran around in her mind, and her sons' names trailed it.
"There's nothing to thank me for," she whispered, all at once coming back to herself. Remus finally fell silent, but she could sense that he was still crying. "The boys'll need you when things get rough. Especially if James and I have another one of our arguments," she muttered wryly.
Remus pulled back, and a watery smile fixed itself onto his weary face. "Sometimes I think you two will end up tearing each others heads off, but then you end up hugging each other and talking sweetly like neither of you hadn't just been thinking of murder. You both go from one extreme to the next in mere seconds," he said, sniffling lightly and forcefully blinking away his tears. "It's been years since you've gotten together, and I still don't know how you manage to lie next to each other at night."
"Or on top of each other," said Sirius coyly, winking from his spot in front of James, hands briefly forgotten in their outstretched position to pick a squirming Harry up. "Lils is probably a wildcat in bed, all that red hair and fiery temper. A riot between the sheets, I'd think! Am I right Jamesy-? Oi!" he exclaimed, rubbing at his arm indelicately as he gawked up at his friend. "Why the bloody hell did you go and do that? That hurt!"
"Stop talking about my wife like that and I'll stop," James retorted heatedly, a scowl slowly darkening his face. But then he managed a suspiciously inconspicuous nod in Sirius's direction that made Lily think that perhaps James had said as much, anyway. The exasperated look on Remus's face said as much, anyway.
"I've got to go," snarled Peter suddenly, an ugly expression twisting his mottled red face viciously as he abruptly spun his hefty weight around and disappeared from the doorway, stomping an angry path down the stairs that made the floorboards wobble underneath their feet ominously.
James made an odd noise in the back of his throat, reminiscent to a challenged grunt of a stag deer, and made to go charging after their plump friend with all the ignited temper of a Potter, face creased in concern and not a little amount of anger. "Peter, get your hairy arse back here, you slippery little rat!" he yelled.
They heard the front door of their cottage open and slam shut.
Sirius, scatter-brained as he was before his newborn Godson, fortunately managed to grab a tight hold of James's arm before he could dart after the heavy blonde and show him what a really mad Potter could do. "Calm down, James! He's not in his right mind - he doesn't know what he's doing! Calm yourself!" he bellowed, yanking him even further back when the man attempted to slip out of his hold. James turned to him furiously. "Your wife's just given birth to your children, and mynewborn Godson's in your bloody arms - they don't need your melodramatic shite right now!"
"What is he playing at? What right does he have to run out on us at a time like this?" James demanded lividly, looking almost gigantic in comparison to his tiny son laying uncomfortably in his arms. "His nephews just came into this world, and the first thing he does is run out on them at a little bit of favoritism? The little worm!"
"He's having a tough time with his mum, Mate," Sirius said sympathetically. "His head hasn't been on right for weeks, ever since she'd been admitted there with chest problems. She's been in St. Mungos for nearly two months now, and the Healers keep saying her condition's getting worse. Each time he visits her, he keeps coming back more and more upset. Just give him some time to sort things through, then you can go blasting down his door for answers. You know what he's like when he's angry - like squeezing blood out of a fucking rock, he is, despite how gullible and - well, stupid, he is."
James teetered on the edge of running after the rat Animagus, looking ready to bolt even with Harry in his arms. But then he deflated, and nodded in reluctant acceptance, an edge of bitterness in his hazel eyes. "Yeah, you're probably right, Pads. But that still doesn't excuse his behavior," he muttered darkly. After a briefly tense silence, he let out a sharp sigh and shook his head roughly, wild brown curls flying around here and there around his glasses. "Can you hold Harry while I go sort us out something in the kitchen? I don't know about you three, but I'm feeling a little hungry and could do with a good, strong cuppa - or three. Watching Lily birth the twins nearly twenty four hours straight took a lot out of me," he said, laughing a little hollowly.
Sirius's face immediately expanded in a wide grin and he rushed to hold out his arms - a little bit too big of a cradling position for a baby - the precise size to let Harry plummet straight through to the floor, to be exact. James awkwardly and painstakingly positioned them in a bit closer to his chest and showed him how to hold Harry before he could drop him. It was like teaching a spider to tap-dance, but then, the spider would have had more of an idea than Sirius.
"Oh, give the Godfather his Godson already! Merlin's saggy bollocks, you've already been hogging him for nine months, let me have my Godson for at least a little bit!" Sirius growled playfully, sporting a suspiciously wide and manic grin that made Lily feel a little nervous to see. When a quietly grumbling Harry was deposited in Sirius's arms, and quickly huddled to his chest protectively, James took off out of the room at an alarming speed.
For one gut-clenching moment, Lily almost thought that he was going to go after Peter, but when the front door didn't slam open and then shut like it did with Peter, and the Floo network didn't activate, she knew James had been truthful. He was in the kitchen, most likely eating all the leftover chocolate cake Mipsy had made near two days before. The House-elf was always leaving them lovely little treats like that.
Suddenly, Sirius sniffed at the air around his head, though the waft of food couldn't have already climbed the stairs to them, as James wouldn't have started cooking - the man couldn't cook to save his life, after all, and Mipsy was busy at the Potter Manor readying the rooms for their arrivals at a later date. After a long moment, Lily had to hide a grin when Sirius's nose led him to the source of the smell, and she finally realized what it was; her darling little Harry.
Sirius grimaced in distaste, face awash with a paleness only a man could have when confronted with a soiled nappy. "Oi! James! Come change your bloody baby! He reeks!" He hollered, sticking his head out the doorway while holding Harry just a little away from his body so nothing . . . ickywould get on his new top grade Auror robes. Spell damage and blood was one thing, but knowing that baby feces had touched it - even if it was his Godson's, still made him want to set fire to everything and anything. Nothing would stop him from burning something with baby poo on it - even if he'd have to burn the only fastest racing broom in the world. Nothing was worth salvaging after... that had gotten on it.
"What?"They barely heard James holler back over the toss and tumble of utensils and plates downstairs.
"I said come change your baby, you silly doe-eyed buzzard!" Sirius shouted back, looking a little awkward and uncertain with Harry writhing in his arms like a wriggling worm, clearly uncomfortable with having something so disgusting on his bum. Little uncomfortable noises escaped him every so often.
"Sorry, can't hear you!" sang James's voice through the floorboards, and both Lily and Remus had to pinch themselves to stop their laughter from exploding out of them. Sirius could get terribly offended at times, and then explosively defensive, especially if someone close to him laughed at something he deemed as horrible and was totally out of line. Jokes and fun aside, Sirius could be quite sensitive.
Sirius growled, sounding more like Padfoot than ever in that moment, and looked down at Harry with sparkling grey eyes and a smirk to match it. "Well, Pup, looks like we're already going to be spending some quality time together," he said, slowly beginning to not look so put out anymore. Harry cooed up at him quietly, cornflower blue eyes blinking heavily and lazily as he tried to lookup at Sirius - as if to figure out if the man was his father or not.
Sirius gave his little nose a tap, and his smirk widened at the tiny doe-eyed look that focused on his finger. "But just know that when you're old enough to understand things, I'm going to make sure that this memory haunts you 'til you're old and grey. I can't wait until your seventeenth birthday, I'll show every embarrassing memory I have of you then. This one's first though," he teased, and walked nimbly out into the hallway, no doubt in search of the nursery, still murmuring teasingly to little Harry.
"Are you sure you should let him go by himself?" Remus queried worriedly.
Lily opened her mouth to reassure him that Sirius was fine, when a suspicious crashing sound came from the nursery - sounding much too violent for comfort. "Go!" She urged him, and Remus flew out of the room as if the hounds of Hell were biting at his feet, rocketing through the doorway and down the hallway in search of the cause of the crash.
Lily's heart pounded frantically in her chest, and she had to shush Alaric when he made a startled noise and wriggled on her chest, seeming to think her heart was pumping a bit too fast for his liking. "Hush, Love," she whispered into his soft fuzz of hair, pressing a loving kiss to his soft forehead as she waited impatiently. "Mummy needs to hear Uncle Remi."
"Just a few books and a lamp - they fell from the cupboard when he slipped on Harry's nappy! Nothing to worry about, Lily-flower! I've got it all from here!" She heard Remus yell not a minute later, and forced herself to relax into the pillows at her back, little Alaric finally settling in her arms and slowly falling back to sleep.
Nothing else suspiciously dangerous sounded from the nursery after that, and James was busy banging away downstairs in the kitchen, the shrieking of the kettle loud even from upstairs in their bedroom. She was finally left with peace after nearly two days of unbearable pain, her two precious babies in different rooms of the house and no longer inside her. It was an immense relief, but also not an altogether welcome one.
She expelled a long breath and shut her eyes tight. "We're going to need help, we can't do this alone," she whispered to herself. Especially with the prophecy looming over us all, she thought despondently, and as if the world had heard her, an unexpected flash of lightning lit up her room, and a deep, rumbling clap of thunder sounded immediately from above. Rain built up from a slow drizzle, and began pouring down not a few seconds later, bringing with it the meditative sound of rain falling on the tin roof above her. She slowly relaxed further into her pillows, bringing baby Alaric with her, and turned her emerald gaze to the window to watch the rain fall.
Who knew how long it would be before Voldemort found them?
Not long enough, she thought, and finally allowed her tired eyes to drift shut into a much needed rest.