Remus felt the need to put a leash on one of his oldest friends for the first time in his life. Usually, he didn't mind the rather reckless attitude of Sirius Black, but right now it was grating on his usually so gentle nerves. They were going to Potter Manor; they needed to see James. Remus himself was genuinely worried for his friend, but Sirius was practically frantic.
He wasn't sure what was going through Sirius' head, but he knew it wasn't good. James had always been Sirius' best friend, and Sirius had always been James', it was the way it had always been. When he had met them they had already been really close; he hadn't thought he would ever be as close to them as he had become, and he definitely hadn't seen their acceptance of his condition coming. That was the one thing that had really convinced Remus of their friendship, they hadn't run and told everyone the second they found out; they had sought him out and asked him about it, and then they had asked what they could do to help him. No one had ever done that before.
Peter, on the other hand, had seemed afraid from the moment he had found out; Remus had always been able to smell the fear on him. Not that he had blamed him at all; really he had been surprised that he couldn't smell fear on the other two. Just thinking of Peter and what he had done had the wolf clawing to get out and find the traitor and tear him to pieces. That was the part of himself that he had never been able to accept; the part that wanted to claw and kill people that attacked and wronged his pack.
That was one of the main things he did like about being a werewolf, the sense of Pack he had. He had formed connections with his friends, and they had become very much like family to him; he could feel them when they were far away if he focused and he could tell when one of them was in danger and where they were. He had felt the attack the minute it had started, he had felt the spike of fear in two of his most precious people and the wolf had howled at him to move, to get to them, but he hadn't reacted. He had never fully trusted the werewolf instincts, but he would never knowingly ignore those instincts again.
Sirius gazed up at the Manor, it truly was a magnificent house; it was three stories high, with arched windows and balconies. Rose bushes framed the house and the stairs leading up to the front door was lined in various colours of them. Sirius smiled, but fought back tears, those had been Lily's idea; it had been the first thing she did when they had moved here. He remembered her kneeling in the dirt, James standing on the front steps laughing at her and telling her she could do it with magic and Lily laughing right back that it was more fulfilling if she used her hands.
He closed his eyes, the tears were coming and he couldn't stop them. Remus caught up to him then; he took one look at his friend, looked at the roses and gathered him in his arms, tears in his eyes too. Lily had been large part of all their lives since they were eleven and they she and James had started dating and she had become part of their family, and now she was gone.
"Come on Sirius, James is going to need us." Remus' voice was sad; it was hard to drag Sirius up the stairs, as he was transfixed on the roses. The door to the manor was large, and just as grand as it always had been. If he was being perfectly honest, it bothered him that everything was so normal, that it was raining as though the world was mourning, that there weren't any visible cracks in the universe to show that something terrible had happened, but he guessed that was how the world kept turning; it acted like nothing had happened.
"Yeah, he will. You remember how he fell apart when his grandfather died?" Remus winced. Yeah, he remembered alright; James had gotten the news half way through their fifth year, and he had gone into complete shock. It was like he went into a dream world where he hadn't died, and he got letters every few days and he could pretend everything was okay. It hadn't been healthy; Madame Pompfrey had had to take him into the Hospital Wing for observation until he had gotten over it.
"Dear lord, I hope it isn't that bad again." But they both knew it would be; it was his wife this time. The woman he had loved since he was twelve; there was no one he was handling it well. The real question was; how well was he hiding it? "Come on Padfoot."
The inside of the manor was just like they remembered, but they didn't have long to admire it; Selwa, a lovely little house elf that had snuck them cookies when they visited over the holidays as kids, appeared almost as soon as the door was opened. She looked incredibly embarrassed that she hadn't been there to open the door for them.
"Selwa is sorry sirs; Selwa has been awful busy with young master Harry." Remus looked at the poor elf; she had clearly been run off her feet.
"That's perfectly alright Selwa, where is James?" Selwa had helped raise James, and he had always made sure to take good care of her, make sure she didn't work herself to hard; so where was he? Remus felt dread settle in his stomach.
"Master James be in bed, sirs, he not be feeling very well." She looked as though she would have rather not answer the question.
Sirius jumped in, much to Remus' disapproval.
"Can we see him?" He was bouncing around like a two year old on a sugar rush.
"O-oh course sirs." She looked uncertain "He be in the room across from young master Harry's nursery, he's been getting up when he cries, even though he ain't feeling good." She looked proud and worried all at once as she said it; honestly Remus was worried too, clearly James wasn't handling things very well, but he was still determined to be there for his son.
Sirius nodded, almost to himself.
"He was always a good father." Then he sped off up the stairs; leaving Remus to run after him, shouting for him to calm down in case he frightened Harry. Obviously, the thought of scaring his beloved godson has Sirius sliding to a stop in the middle of the hall; causing Remus to run straight into him.
They stayed there, in a heap of limbs, attempting to get up for several minutes; the moment was broken when they heard a soft giggle from behind them.
Sirius glanced up from beneath his fringe, and from between a leg and an arm that he couldn't tell where his or not, and stared into a pair of deep green eyes. Harry sat on the floor between the half open door and the hallway, keeping the door open with his little body. His eyes were as wide and green as Sirius remembered, and his mouth was quirked into an adorable little grin. Sirius grinned, and pulled himself on the arm he had been looking through, which had in fact turned out to be his.
"Hey buddy, where did you come from?" Remus, who struggled up from the floor beside him, was still amazed at Sirius' attitude change whenever Harry was around; sure he was still loud and playful, but he was more serious and controlled and mindful of his actions.
"Got out bed." Harry was really very talkative for his age, it had surprised Remus when he had first heard him speak; he had only been a few months old after all. Remus thought, that with the right upbringing Harry could turn out to be quite the powerful, and intelligent, young man.
"I see that you got out of bed, but how did you do that?" Remus was quite surprised at the question from Sirius, usually he wouldn't care, he would just be happy that he was seeing Harry. The tense situation they found themselves in was changing them all, he supposed.
Harry clambered to his feet, reaching up to take Sirius large hand in his tiny one, only managing to grip two of his fingers, and led him into his nursery.
Remus followed, and the sight that met them both was both heartbreaking and endearing at the same time. Harry's nursery wasn't as big as most children raised in Pureblood families were, but it was big enough to hold his crib, a dresser, a sofa and rocking chair; it was the sofa that currently grabbed their attention.
James was sprawled across it, his hair was untidy and he looked as though he hadn't changed his clothes in a few days or so, there were several bottles of butterbeer, and they suspected that if James hadn't had Harry to worry about their would be bottles of firewhisky instead, and he just looked tired.
Harry's bed was unmade, indicating that the boy had somehow managed to get out of the crib himself when he had heard them in the hall. Sirius walked over to James, quietly and carefully assessing the man's health.
Remus crouched down in front of Harry, smiling softly at him.
"Harry, can you tell me how you got out of your crib?" Harry blinked at him, and then looked over at the crib "Yes, how did you get out?" Remus was surprised when Harry toddled back over to the crib, and then squeezed his eyes shut. But what really shocked him was when Harry started to rise off the floor and into his crib.
"Sirius!" He was quiet so as not to wake James, but the urgency in his voice had Sirius turning around so fast he nearly spilt himself all over the floor.
"Holy Merlin! He isn't supposed to be able to do that at his age!" Remus could have slapped him.
"No, he isn't, but well done stating the obvious."
Sirius was about to reply when they heard a groan from behind them.
"Dada!" Harry's happy squeal was soft, but still easily heard.
"Yeah buddy, daddy's here." Sirius and Remus were both worried about their friend, but the smile that lit up James' face when he looked at Harry told them both that everything was going to be okay eventually.
Sorry about the long wait guys, I had Uni and it got a little crazy :) But I am now off for the next 2 weeks and I hope to get some writing done. This chapter is shorter than others I think, but it is an important one I feel, there are little bits of clues about Harry in it; I know it might seem as the story goes that I make Harry too Awesome (which isn't really possible) but it is just how I think he would have developed in a loving environment, so no flames for it! :)
Enjoy, and as always, please review and tell me what you think :)