I was deeply afflicted by the news of the death of one of my favorite writers of all times – Robert Jordan. May his memory live forever!

Yes, yes, I know that this story was supposed to be completed. I thought it was, I swear! I just had the idea about an hour ago and well, I couldn't resist it.

Disclaimer: Who do you think I am? J. K. Rowling? Sorry, but I am not her and I own nothing except for my own imagination.

Thanks to those who reviewed the three previous chapters: Padfoot's Sidekick, SOR 4, JetGriffins89, Jackline, PadfootStripQuidditch, beware of trips, and Earthsangel01. I rely on you!

Chapter 4

A few hours later…

"Lily?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I've just reached a decision."

She did not look away from her magazine, though her lips twitched. "Did you, love?"

"We aren't having children."

Lily tried very hard to hide her smile. Since she had come at James' place two hours ago, she had enjoyed a very pathetic sight – James Potter, a babysitter. Cane wanted to be carried in someone's arms. To be precise, he wanted to be carried in James' arms. And he did not want to sleep. Each time James tried to leave him on the sofa, he started trying to deafen them with his wailing, so James had to take him in his arms again. Lily had tried to help, but it seemed that Cane did not share James' liking of red-heads – he had seized a lock of her hair and had tried to pull it by the roots.

"Sirius is dead."

Lily grinned. "Is he?"

"Oh, yes. I'll kill him."

Cane gurgled and James grinned evilly. "See? Even his own son approves of the idea. I'll want the deed for the flat before I kill him!"

His fiancée nodded seriously. "Oh?"

"In remuneration for making me experience the most traumatic moment in my life," James explained. "Besides losing my time. You see I don't have a free minute to rest during this – indescribable obligation!"

Lily did not answer. Instead, she took Cane in her arms and the baby, as unreliable as his father, quickly revised his disliking of her and started sucking at her hair. James scowled.

"I'll keep him interested for a while," Lily said, "so you can have some rest. You must be dying to read your Quidditch magazine at last."

"You can see clearly that Cane prefers playing with me!" He shook his head angrily. "I'm bearing the responsibility for him now, never mind the way his parents foisted him on me."

Lily raised her eyebrows and James' faces turned the color of her hair. "I haven't asked them to leave him with me!" he said angrily. "I haven't asked for him!"

"Of course you haven't, love."

He gave her a suspicious look. "Are you laughing at me?"

"Yes."

James growled.

The dinner was another ordeal. Cane refused to be left on the sofa, so Lily had to keep him in her lap. That should mean that they'd be all safe this way, but no. Cane succeeded to land himself in trouble even from this position. If the two adults haven't been so quick and skilful, he would have poured the hot coffee over himself, to pull the tablecloth from the table, to burn himself on the candle, or to taste his first cognac. They did not have a quiet moment!

Finally, James sighed and sat on the table with the baby in his arms. "He wants me to feed him," he stated and Cane gurgled. "Alright, where is his bottle?"

Lily handed it to him. "Sirius is dead," he said again and kept saying it for the next ten minutes, when Cane finally looked at him and meowed, indicating that he'd had enough. James' face contorted in horror when he realized what he should do next. "How am I going to turn him over?"

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Three hours later…

"Hello, how was your dinner?"

"Great," Angela smiled. "How was your evening alone with Cane?"

"It was – interesting, to say the least," Lily answered tactfully, and Sirius laughed out loud.

"Did he drain you to the last drop?"

"And then some," she nodded.

"Thanks for coming here, Lily," Sirius said. "If you hadn't agreed to watch over them, Angela would not have agreed to go out with me. She seems to be suffering from the idea that men – and James in particular – are not trustworthy enough to leave Cane with them."

Angela's reply died on her lips when she saw the grin that Lily could not keep any longer. "What's going on?" she asked suspiciously.

Still refusing to let the giggles leave her mouth, Lily led them both to the bedroom where Angela gasped and Sirius goggled. It was the reality itself. James Potter was sprawled on the bed, sleeping. Cane was lying on his stomach. And also sleeping.

"I don't believe it!" Sirius said, shaking his head.

"It's true!" Lily finally let herself giggle. "You should have seen them when James was trying to lull them to sleep. I had no idea he knew so many lullabies. Even so, they were not enough and he reorientated to marches. Cane fell asleep only when James switched over to Christmas carols without turning a hair."

"No way!" Sirius said in disbelief.

"It's true!" Lily squealed, "I swear it's true. I saw it with my eyes."

"I can't believe I missed that!" Angela exclaimed. "Why do I always miss the interesting bits?"

Sirius laughed out loud and reached to take his son. James woke up immediately and smiled sleepily. "Oh, it's you," he said. "He's in one piece, see?"

Angela laughed. Cane, on the other hand, took the need to leave his comfortable bed extremely bad – he opened his little mouth and gave a piercing cry.

"Here, here, Cane," Sirius said, trying to calm him. "You're going home now, with Mummy and Daddy, do you understand?"

Cane did not. He grabbed James' hair and continued crying.

"I can't believe this," Angela said breathlessly. "What on earth did you do, James, took the moon and the stars down just for him?

James shook his head helplessly. "I – I don't know – "

Sirius rocked Cane back and forth, but the baby kept crying.

"He doesn't want to leave," James said, his confusion quickly replaced by smugness. "He likes me."

"No, Sirius corrected him, "he just thinks you makes a comfortable cradle, am I right, Cane?"

"No," James said confidently, "he likes me. He likes me better than you, in fact."

Sirius shrank him with a look. "Don't worry, we won't bother you to be a babysitter anytime soon," he said.

"Sirius is jealous!" Lily snickered.

"I am not jealous!"

"Yes, you bloody well are," James confirmed.

"I am not!" Sirius yelled and Cane, who did not want to let anyone else have the last cry, gave a deafening yell.

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An hour later…

"Angela!"

No reaction.

"Angela!"

Still no response. Cane was starting to squirm nervously in his arms. Sirius shook her and was finally rewarded with a groan and a bleary look. "What's going on?"

She was very pale and sounded utterly exhausted – exhausted, Sirius knew, not by their late dinner, but by the blood loss and lacerates, caused by the difficult childbirth. She had not fully recovered yet and despite his best efforts to help her with the baby, she still overtiring herself, especially with the night breastfeeding.

"Nothing, Angela. Go to sleep."

She was so tired that she could not even wake up enough to remember about the nursing. Her eyes closed immediately. Cane started crying and Sirius arranged him better in the crook of his arm, paying attention on holding his head upright. He is not a rag-doll, after all.

Sirius expected that Angela would wake up – Cane was crying in full force now. She did not wake up. I'll have to do it, then. I'll wake her up. But why can't he suck without her being awake? Her breasts were bare and she was lying on her side. Could Cane do it by his own?

Sirius placed the baby close to Angela but nothing happened. Sirius sat on the bed and frowned. Why the devil wouldn't it work? Didn't babies possess some kind of instinct? He turned the little face toward her until the baby's cheek brushed against her nipple. But the little head turned away again, and Cane continued crying.

Exasperated, Sirius lay down behind Cane and turned him onto his side, guiding the little mouth to the nipple. Sirius held the boy in place until at last the nipple was found and Cane began to suck.

Sirius smiled, pleased with himself and the baby. With his hand covering the back of the baby's head, holding him firmly to his source of food, Sirius was able to lie there and watch mother and child at his leisure. Every new father ought to be so lucky, he told himself.

He nearly chuckled aloud at his own cleverness. He was feeling damned proud. This was his son and he had helped to feed him. Well, he had brought the baby to his food, anyway. It was nearly the same thing. He could understand a little of what Angela must feel each time she fed him. It was a marvelous feeling. How could I have ever thought that I would not love him?

He felt even more proud when he finally placed Cane in his cradle. He had even managed to turn both mother and child over so that Angela's other breast, quite swollen with milk, could be drained as well. And all without waking her. One of the brightest students in my year, he thought smugly.

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The next morning…

"I can't believe it!"

"Macy, it might be just a dog – "

"Does it look like a dog to you?"

"Well, no."

"Good. Because it isn't one. It is a wolf! Really, do these young people have any idea how to raise a child? First, she comes with the baby and a giant dog, then he arrives here with a wolf!"

Sirius pretended not to hear the disapproving murmur of the old ladies and continued pushing the baby-carriage with one arm, holding Empress' leash with the other. They avoided each other's looks, because if they looked at each other, they would burst into laughter and a laughing she-wolf would be a very strange sight in the local park. Sirius briefly wondered what would the old ladies say if they knew that the white she-wolf had actually nursed Cane before accepting the leash. That gives an entirely knew meaning of all those myths of babies who were nursed by she-wolves, he thought and told her that. She gave him her wolfish laughter.

"When we go back home," he whispered in her ear under the amazed stares of all passers-by, who expected that he would be torn into pieces in a moment, "I'll be the one sucking."

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A. N. Leave me a review? Please?

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