Chapter 13:

A Pea in the Pod

"Miss Ellie Potter, I welcome you to Grimmauld Place, ancestral home of the Noble House of Black," Sirius said with a flourish as he opened the front door. Daddy had let me floo to the Ministry this morning, and Sirius came to meet me there and walk me over to his house. We were leaving in a few days to go out to the Summer House, Sirius was coming with us and then his family would follow the week after. Sirius bowed to me and let me pass.

"Why thank you, kind sir, I do hope that I can live up to your regal home," I said in my most proper accent. I knew how to use the formal manners of an aristocratic family, even if my parents didn't make me. I walked past him and into the grand stairwell. Within three steps, I was ready to walk back out. Sirius house was nothing like mine.

While the Potter's had money, lots of money, my Mum and Daddy never sought to flaunt it. We lived in a fair sized house, but we didn't have any servants or elves. The house was decorated comfortably, and most of the furniture had been hand made by either local craftspeople or by Wizarding ones. My father believed in the quality of things that were made by hand. There were family portraits on the walls, and paintings of important places that the family had been or lived, our house was inviting and comfortable. Sirius house reminded me of a spooky museum.

The walls were covered from floor to ceiling in portraits, and many of the people had horrible hooked noses that obscured their top lips. They were all dressed in black and looked like their clothes were too tight for them. Behind the portraits hung atrocious green and silver wallpaper that was blinding to the eye when the light hit it, so all of the lighting was kept dim. Whereas my house was full of natural light, gentle colors and soft fabrics, everything here was dark, dim and dismal. I wanted to leave.

"Your house is...homier? Come on, let's go tell Mum we're here and then I'll take you to my bedroom and the yard and then we'll leave, okay? I won't make you stay here," Sirius promised, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tight to him.

"It's just, Sirius was it always like this?" I asked him, suddenly feeling very badly for the way that my boyfriend had grown up.

"Um, well, yeah," he said sadly. "That's why I always like it when I get to come over to your house."

"Oh, Sirius," I said as I pulled him closer to me and hugged him. He was making my heart break.

"Sirius Orion Black, what are you doing in the Hallway," a deep, haughty and none too friendly voice reverberated through the hall entryway. Sirius pulled away from me and turned to the voice, keeping my hand firmly inside of his.

"Hello, Mother, I brought someone for you to meet. Eleanor Hightower Potter, please meet my mother, Mrs. Walburga Black," he said formally. I knew that this was a woman who would want me to act my part. I curtsied for her, and then dipped my head.

"Mrs. Black, it is my honor to be presented in your home. I am Eleanor Potter, daughter of Quinlan Potter and Margaret Hightower Potter, and it is my humble pleasure to be within your walls."

"Eleanor Potter, little Ellie? Haven't we met before?" she questioned, but I knew not to rise and look at her until she told me to. "Stand up girl, and answer me."

"Yes, Ma'am. We own a house on the Isle, and we summer there every year," I explained.

"No, that's not it. You've been in my house, you were crying here and making quite a fuss," she said, and I took a shuttering breath, remembering the day.

"Yes, ma'am. I was a little girl then. I'm so very sorry for the disruption that I caused that day." I could hear Sirius going to say something, but his mother silenced her.

"Child, you were a guest in my home, and you were screaming and howling like a banshee in my house. You embarrassed me," she said.

"I am quite sorry, Mrs. Black, it's just, there was, and he was..." I dropped my head down not wanting to look at her. The only person who ever knew what had upset me so that day was my Mum.

"Those are not adequate answers, Eleanor. You're an embarrassment to the pure blood

aristocracy, what with all that screaming and yelling. You should be ashamed of yourself..."

"Stop it Mother," Sirius yelled at her, and the woman looked appalled that her son would speak to her that way. "Eleanor is my guest in our home, and you can't speak to her that way."

"Really, that is what you think Sirius?" I watched as Mrs. Black drew her wand from within her robes and pointed it at her son.

Then she fired a curse at him. I was in shock, my parents had never...

Sirius shoved me toward the door and quickly we were back out on the street. He pulled me to the little park in the square and sat me down on a bench. I was crying by them.

"Ellie, did she hurt you?" he asked all gentle and caring. I shook my head no.

"Was she always like that?"

"Well, um, she didn't usually try to curse people, Ellie. That's only been in recent years. I'm sorry that she was so mean to you. I really did want you to see my room," I nodded, still trying to understand what it must have felt like to have your Mother be that...awful.

"Come on, do you think that you can make it to the Ministry? We can floo to your house from there," he said while standing and offering me his hand. We walked back the few blocks from his house to the Ministry, he was talking away, about anything except what we'd just seen. I was silent. Sirius produced the note that my father had given us, so that we could pass into the Atrium and use the floo network. There was only one person that I wanted to see right now.

"Mummy," I yelled, sitting up, feeling my heart racing and the sweat pouring down my face. I wasn't sure where I was, but I knew that there was something wrong. Then I turned, and and older Sirius was sitting next to me, his arms around my waist, his hands very protective of my belly.

"Shh, there Lolly, you're okay. I've got you, and we're all safe," he whispered. I tried to look around, but things weren't making sense.

"Where are we?"

"We're at Hogwarts, all of us. Amelia brought us here because she knew that we couldn't be followed. We're up in the Headmaster's quarters, calm down, Lolly. You're okay," he was talking so slowly to me, his thumbs tracing patterns on my belly.

The memories flooded back, screaming, curses, him kissing me, the

"Sirius the baby, is the baby..."

"Our little pea is just fine, look, you're still glowing," he said and he picked up my shirt and showed me the beautiful sunny glow.

"What happened?"

"I'm still trying to put that together," Amelia said. "Professor Dumbledore and I are looking at the contracts right now, but it would seem that the part of the curse involving the Caterwauling charm was broken by that little one there. That's why you were able to kiss. Oh, and as your friend, damn that was one fine kiss."

I bowed my head and blushed, comments like that were even more embarrassing coming from Amelia than they were from Grace. I looked around and didn't see Grace, but I didn't see Remus either, so I figured that they must be together somewhere. I did find all three children playing on the floor with Professors McGonagall and Vector.

"However, the Locator Charm seems to be tied to something else, we have a suspicion what it might be, but I'm not prepared to say for certain. Therefore, we brought you here, where you can't be attacked.," Amelia went on, and I could tell that she was being intentionally vague.

"Why Hogwarts?" I asked, and I watched as Sirius, Amelia and Professor Dumbledore all let something pass between them. "Tell me."

"Ellie, we needed to be somewhere that the wards were strong and...where there was proper medical attention," Sirius said slowly. I looked over and I could see another curse burn healing on the forearm of his left side. I gently touched the wrap that was around it. "Oh, Ellie, not me. This is nothing, I doubt it will scar," he quickly corrected me.

"Who?"

"Grace pushed you down, and then covered you. Rosemund got her back, she's down in the Hospital Wing, letting Madame Pomfrey look at her," he explained and I started crying.

"Oh, Gracie, she...why did she do that?" Sirius wrapped me up in his arms, trying to calm me as I heard Amelia start speaking again.

"We were all taken by surprise. As soon as Walburga, Rosemund and Raleigh apparated in, the Aurors that were protecting you moved in, but your glowing belly was still evident. Sirius had his arm around you, Grace was on the step below you. When Rosemund saw it, she went...Ellie wild is an understatement. She was screaming and well, almost howling and firing curses off left and right."

"One of the Aurors helped me get Remus and the children into the house, and then I gave them a portkey to have them get safely here, but by that time, Rosemund had sent a Cutting Curse right at Grace's back. It was a bad one too, there was blood...we brought her here so that she'd be with the rest of you. Walburga and Rosemund were able to get away, but we caught Raleigh," she concluded.

"Why would they?" I still couldn't wrap my mind around how rotten to the core Sirius family was, even after all of this time. "Can I see Grace?"

"I don't see why not, Miss Potter," Dumbledore responded. "But I think that you should first say hello to your godson. He's been quite worried about you." I nodded.

"Hey, sport, Aunt Ellie's awake. Want to come and see her?" Sirius yelled over to the spot on the floor that the toddlers were playing in and Harry immediately popped up on his cubby little legs and ran over. Ron followed while Professor McGonagall lifted Ginny and carried her over.

"Ehwwie, Ehwwie, you okay?" Harry asked as he scrambled up onto the sofa that I had been laid out on.

"I'm fine sweetheart, I'm sorry that your birthday trip was ruined."

"Naw, me and Ron and Inny having fun here too. Got to see a weanix," he told me and I couldn't quite figure out what a weanix was.

"Phoenix, Ellie. They saw Dumbledore's phoenix," Sirius whispered in my ear and I moved in my head that I got his little interpretation of Harry's language.

"That's good, they're really rare. We're gonna have to take Ron and Ginny home in a little while, their Mummy must be really worried about them," I told Harry, hoping that he'd understand that their fun trip was going to be cut short. It was appear that until we understood what was going on, we were all safer within the strong wards that surrounded our home.

"Mrs. Weawey," his way of saying Weasley, "making us all dinner tonight," Harry told me and I started to shake my head.

"Ellie," Sirius stopped me. "She insisted. Harry's birthday is tomorrow, and she was happy to do it." Amelia leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I had one of the Aurors go back and get all of his presents as well. I know it wasn't the birthday party you were hoping for, but he will be happy with it as well."

"We will keep the children occupied here," Professor McGonagall told me, "so that you can relax, Ellie. That was quite an ordeal you've been through."

"Thank you, Ma'am."

"Ehwwie, your belly, it's...did you eat too many wemmons?" Harry asked me and I looked down and sure enough my shirt was still hiked up and you could see the yellow glow of my skin, right over where the baby was.

"No Harry, I didn't eat too many lemons," I corrected him, unable to suppress the smile that was on my face. I looked at Sirius, we hadn't even discussed how we were going to tell Harry about the baby, but it seemed like now was as good of a time as any. Sirius nodded, and reached over to ruffle his really sloppy hair, and lift his chin.

"Little guy, guess what's in there?" Harry shook his head. "It's a little baby, Ellie and Doggy's baby. That glowing there, that lets all of us know that it's growing okay."

"Is it a boy?" Harry asked and the adults all chuckled.

"We don't know, Harry. We aren't going to know until the baby wants to come out and meet us, when they're ready. Okay? It's a surprise," I explained and he nodded.

"Am I the big brother?" Sirius ruffled his hair again.

"Yes you are sport."

"Yeah! Hear that Won, I'm going to be the big brother. If it's a girl, you can kiss her like I kiss Inny," Harry announced and then reached for Ginny who gave her his hand and she kissed it.

"Yuck!" Ron replied. "I don't want to kiss any girls. I can't figure out why you kiss my sister. None of my brothers want to kiss girls."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Mr. Weasley," Professor McGonagall replied, and by the look on her face, I was certain that she had caught the oldest Weasley boy snogging a girl.

"Come on, children," Professor Vector said, "we have a game of 'Finding the Unicorn' to finish," as she herded the children back to where they were playing.

"I always loved that game when I was little. Learned all of my magical creatures that way," I sighed. My father would play for hours with Jamie and I.

"I'm going to call Poppy up here, just to check you over again, and then would you like to see Grace?" Professor Dumbledore asked and I nodded. I watched as he slipped from his offices and I turned back go Amelia.

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Ellie, Rosemund, she was...we've requested that you have full time protection, at least until we can arrest her; but even then, I think that it would be better if..." Amelia paused and started looking at Sirius.

"Someone tell me," I demanded.

"Lolly, until they've got her in custody, they'd like it if you were to stay in the house with Harry," he told me and I started shaking my head.

"No, I just got back to work, and my potion is so close, I know that I have it figured out this time," I tried to plead with them.

"I know that, sweetheart, but..." Sirius tried to calm me down.

"But What!"

"Ellie, Rosemund's father is a Death Eater. He hasn't been imprisoned, but we know that he was one of them. He's like Lucius Malfoy, he keeps slipping through our fingers. We know that Harry is still hunted by them, it wouldn't be so hard to believe that given the circumstances, that she wouldn't go to him. Ellie, our contacts in that world, and others among the practicers of the 'old ways', they'd be none to happy with you or that baby. Please, Ellie, we're fearful of your safety."

I looked between Amelia and then Sirius and then over to little Harry playing on the floor. We'd been able to keep him safe thus far.

"So, we'd be, like continuing to live like we have been. We can stay in the little cottage and just..." I asked.

"I think so, I hope so. There's a lot that we don't understand, but, it will be better if all of you keep a really low profile. The only people who can find you are the ones that Professor Dumbledore told, and that's only about ten of us. It should be okay, we just need to you and that glowy belly of yours safe," Sirius told me and I nodded.

"So much for my potion, huh? Maybe Prentiss can finish the brew that is going now, and then bring me the finish product so that I can see if it worked?" I suggested and Amelia nodded.

"I'll talk with him, but it will be me cleaning out your office and bringing you your things, okay. The more people we tell, the more possible leaks there could be," she explained and I nodded, sadly.

"What about Sirius' new job?"

"His partner, for the time being, is going to be an Auror working undercover. He should be fine. Rosemund wasn't aiming at him, she was after you," Amelia explained.

"Yeah, but good old Mummy," he said rather sarcastically. He never called his Mum anything other than Mother, unless he was being revolted by her. "She went right for the goods didn't she. Love that I was once again cursed by my own Mother." I reached over and touched the bandage on his arm and started crying.

"I'm so sorry," I stammered out. He put his arms around me, and kissed my forehead.

"I know you are, love. I know that you are."

Madame Pomfrey swept into the offices, and knelt down in front of me, pulling her wand out. "Let me have a look at that little one there," she said as she did an intricate pattern above me. "Well, everything looks fine there. Now, I know that you want to see your friend, but dearie, I don't want you passing out again. You've got a nasty bump on your head. Let that young man of yours hold onto you."

"Yes, ma'am," I smiled at the old matron. She really was a little like a medical version of my grandmum Potter.

"Stay for just a few minutes, she's still quite sore. Mr. Lupin knows all about how to apply the salve to her, so he's down there with her," she explained and Sirius slid out from behind me and helped me stand. I was still a little dizzy. We made our way downstairs, and I remembered the last time that I was at the Medical Ward visiting Grace. It wasn't a good visit.

"I can't believe that she went down there, when she knew what it was that she'd find," Lily remarked.

"I don't think that she really believed it, Lil. I think that she was hoping the whole thing was a hoax," I responded.

"He never told her? James had told me, sometime last year."

"I know. Sirius and Jamie didn't tell me, I sort of figured it out on my own. I just...I kept trying to get him to tell her himself, but he was so afraid."

We walked into the hospital ward, and Grace was sitting on a bed, alone by herself in a corner. Her shoulder was out of her blouse, and we could see where there were three scars healing there. Lily and I walked over and sat on either side of her.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her and she just looked at me, sadly.

"I can't believe he didn't trust me enough to tell me himself. I had to find out from Snape that my boyfriend is a..." she started crying again. She didn't say anything else for the rest of the afternoon. Lily and I climbed up on the bed and held her, careful of her shoulder. I found out later from Jamie that she'd gone searching for them in the woods last night, a full moon; hoping that the gossip that she'd heard was wrong. Remus had gotten close to her, close enough that he could swipe at her. Sirius had knocked him away before he could do any more damage and chased him deep into the woods. Jamie had brought her back up here for treatment.

Lily and I looked at each other over Grace's head. We knew that they weren't ever going to be a couple after this.

I wasn't at all surprised by what I saw before me, in fact it made me so very happy. Grace was lying on a bed, on her stomach, with her back bare and just the fine linens of a Murtlap wrap over the angry red wounds underneath them. Remus was sitting in a chair, up near Grace's head, talking with her, and stoking her cheek. He was smiling down at her in such a beautiful way.

"I think that some old wounds might have been forgiven," I suggested to Sirius in a soft tone.

"I think that they both realized that they'd been better with each other, than they ever were apart," Sirius went on to add, and I looked up at him.

"Since when have you been such a romantic fool?"

"Since I got back my best girl, and the little pea that's going to make us a family." Remus caught sight of us and smiled, and then leaned down to whisper something to Grace. She turned her head and looked at us and gave me a warm smile.

"Well, will you look who finally decided to wake up from her afternoon nap? Guess that it must be nice to be able to sleep the afternoon away, huh Remus? Perhaps Mr. A wore her out, or was that you Sirius?" Grace questioned and I squeaked at her insinuation.

"Grace, so glad to see that you're quite fine there," Sirius mused and we walked over. Sirius summoned a chair for the other side of the bed, and practically pushed me down into it.

"Thank you," I told her, brushing the hair away from her eyes. "You didn't have to push me away."

"Yeah, I did, old psycho Rosebud and Mama dearest were freaking out when they saw that you were glowing from the pregnancy. My godesses, you'd think that they'd never seen a detection spell before. You sure do know how to pick 'em there Sirius. Is Ellie the only sane woman in your life?"

"I guess so, 'cause you're still floating around," he teased her, and I swatted his leg as he sat on the bed behind me.

"Really, Gracie, thank you. You saved the pea here," I told her, with my hand on my belly.

"You'd just better let me do her hair and teach her how to pick up boys, because if I leave all that to her, let's just say...well one of you that plain is enough in the world," she teased and I dropped my head and blushed.

We talked for a little while and it was fun and comfortable, and I liked that Grace would reach out and hold Remus hand every once in a while. He was sweet and attentive to her, and every now and then I would catch him looking at her like she wasn't real. It was quite endearing.

It was decided that she needed to stay overnight tonight, but then she would be coming to our house to finish convalescing, since there would be someone around to put the salve on her back to heal her curse burns. Remus seemed overjoyed that she was going to be in the house, and so was I.

Just before dinner, we flooed over to the Weasley's house and I couldn't believe the spread that she had prepared for Harry's birthday, but best of all, in the middle of the table was a great birthday cake, all done in greens with a little dragon made of sugar on the top. His two year old eyes nearly bugged out of his head at it.

"Molly, how did you do all this, in just a few hours," I asked, simply amazed.

"After six boys, it's quite easy to throw together a birthday cake for one. Don't tell Charlie, but that's the same sugar dragon that I made for his sixth birthday. I was so proud of it, I saved it and kept it in a canister on the top shelf of the pantry, behind the toads feet," she explained. I guess if I were going to keep something I didn't want my kids eating, I'd put it behind the toads feet too.

We sat out in the garden, on furniture that was mismatched and pulled from all over the house, but I thought that I had never seen a more lovely place. Arthur had gone and gotten a squishy loveseat for me to sit on, saying that I needed to be pampered to day.

"How did you know?" I asked him.

"I'm married to a woman who was pregnant six times, after the first few, you get to know the glow. Congratulations you two, or at least, I assume that it's his?" he said with a glint in his eye. I wasn't sure how much Arthur knew about the contracts or the curses placed upon them, but I suspect a fair amount.

"It is, oh, and you'll be happy to know this, it was the Muggles who helped us get pregnant," I told him, knowing of his love of all things Muggle.

"Really, how?" he asked excitedly.

"Never mind Arthur," Molly called, "I suspect that it would make your ears turn red." I giggled at the relationship between the two of them, and hoped that Sirius and I were like them one day.

We opened Harry's presents, and he was very excited. I had gotten him a pair of very small gloves to wear when he was flying on his broom, and Sirius had somehow found a tiny, tiny leather jacket. He explained that it was for when he took Harry out to ride with him on his enchanted motorbike.

"You are out of your bleeding mind if you think that I am going to let you take a two year old out on that damned thing," I said in terse, clipped words through my teeth.

"Ellie, I already do," he smirked and I was so angry at him. I didn't care if we'd figured out that we could kiss again today, I had no intention of letting his lips anywhere near me.

Molly had made Harry a sweet little jumper with a golden snitch on it, and had gotten him some new swim trunks, so that he could go into the pond behind the Burrow with the children when he came to visit, and not have to wear Ron's castoffs. Bill had even promised to teach Harry to swim this summer.

Remus wasn't there, but he'd gotten Harry a little apron and his own pots and pans. I knew that Harry liked to "cook" in the kitchen with Remus while I was away at work. I guess I would be home to cook with them now, too. Grace and Amelia had gone in together, and bought a play area for our backyard, one that once you took it out of the box, it would expand and anchor itself to the ground. It had swings and a slide and a club house with a look out telescope. I could see Sirius spying it, and I knew what he was thinking.

"You can teach him about the stars, just like your Uncle Alaphard did. How Hercules holds up the sky and Lyra brings you heavenly music," I whispered.

I handed Harry the last package, I knew that it was going to make me cry to watch him open it, but it was something that I had found when I was going through the Potter House, and given where it was hidden, Lily had gotten it for him; most likely as a Christmas gift last year. I wanted him to have it now. Harry carefully unwrapped the package, and took out the old tattered book, and I started crying. Sirius recognized it too.

"Ellie, Doggy, it's an old book?"

"That's not just any book, sport. That is the official record book of the "We Can Do Anything Club". Your Daddy, Ellie and I were the members when we were little, and we wrote down all of our adventures in here. See, it's a story book of Jamie Stories, just like Ellie tells you every night," Sirius explained, having trouble with his emotions as well.

"Really?" the toddler said, his eyes wide.

"Really, bring it here, and I'll show you," I called to him, and he climbed up in my lap and I opened the book gingerly, and I saw Jamie's messy chicken scratch, Sirius somewhat neat handwriting, and my flowery script on the pages. We'd often each tell our part of the adventure on the same page. "See, here's the one from the day that we first made our club. We were eight..."

"You were seven," Sirius corrected me.

"I was almost eight, and we'd gone looking for a wood to build our club house. I was truly a wordsmith then, listen to what I wrote. Went looking for sticks. It was hard. They're heavy. Jamie got stung by a bee, but I told him not to pick at it," I finished the entry and looked at Harry. "Not much of a story, huh?"

Little Harry was looking at the book, and I could tell that he was excited by it. "It was great," he sighed and then yawned.

"You look like you're getting tired there, sport. Five more minutes, and then we'll head home and get ready for bed," Sirius said and Harry nodded his head and scooted off the seat to go and play with his friends. I watched Harry toddle off, and my heart was again filled with guilt, that I was here with him, and my brother wasn't. "Lolly, my lovely Lolly, you made sure that they were here with him today, just like you do everyday. He won't forget them, and neither will our pea."

"Oh, Arthur look, it's her first steps," I heard Molly call and sure enough, a few feet away on the lawn, Ginny was walking by herself; and it wasn't a surprise to anyone, that she was walking into the open arms of Harry who was waiting for her. He hugged her tightly when she got to him, and then lifted his hand and kissed the palm. When he was done, Ginny leaned over and kissed him, right on the mouth. Harry smiled brightly at her.

"I think that might have been his best birthday gift," I sighed and Sirius nodded.