They didn't do anything big for James' funeral. They sent an owl home to Minerva McGonagall stating his death along with Peter's and Marlene's without going into much detail. His parents had passed away four months after James had graduated, and the closest thing to another parent was McGonagall. They did hold a small funeral a couple days later, just the three of them. They also buried him there, as they couldn't exactly bring him back to his home.

As for Peter and Marlene, they did the same, except Marlene was only buried and not wished a farewell. Despite Peter being a traitorous asshole, they included him in the small funeral. Remus cried the most, Lily was a close second because she only cried for James. Remus cried for all of them, he was responsible for their deaths. He cried for his best friend and the first person to accept him for who he was. He cried for his friend who respected him and praised him, the one who brought him chocolate after the full moons.

And he cried for the girl he once hated, the girl he'd envied for having Sirius's attraction and attention at a time he didn't. The girl who, once upon a time, was young and full of ideas and dreams, the one who grew up and traveled down the wrong path. He had bitten her and given her a curse to endure every full moon for the rest of her (short) life. No one deserved that, not even someone like Marlene.

He also cried for himself and everyone else these deaths affected because it was his fault, he knew. But he didn't let Sirius and Lily know he thought this, they were so dead set on assuring him it wasn't his fault and it was just a series of coincidences. Despite not wanting to say anything, being married to someone whose new goal was to make sure everything was okay definitely made it hard to keep secrets. No one was handling it well, no one was happy, but Remus knew Sirius suspected something more going on with him.

And of course, Sirius would find out eventually. And, of course, he did. It was after they went home, since there were now only three they kept the small house they had lived in with James and Peter, but it now felt much bigger and melancholy. Lily returned to her room she'd shared with James, and Remus and Sirius went to the room they had shared with Peter. Now the one bathroom felt fine, the small kitchen fitted, and they were all sad.

It was late one night, as all sad things and confessions seemed to be, they were on the floor and Remus was held close to Sirius's chest while the older boy ran his finger's through Remus's hair. They were sharing a room with a sobbing Lily who didn't want to be alone, who was currently sleeping soundly on the bed. Remus felt like he was going to start crying, he didn't deserve Sirius's comfort, he was the reason James was dead in the first place.

Nothing would've been said if Remus hadn't actually started crying.

He always was a silent and discrete crier, so Sirius probably wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't felt warm tears on his chest as his husband cried. Sirius didn't say anything at first, he only pulled Remus closer and placed a kiss on the top of his head, burying his nose into the mop of brown hair. Remus only pushed away at the gesture.

"It's my fault," Remus murmured, scooting back from Sirius. "My fucking fault." Sirius didn't let him get far, he stretched out his arms and pulled Remus pack into his arms, Remus wasn't happy about it and continued to fight him through his tears. "Fuck off, Sirius, I'll just hurt you too!" Remus whimpered, finally managing to get away from Sirius, who looked like a wounded puppy.

"No, you won't!" Sirius insisted, scrambling to his feet after Remus, following him into the kitchen. Remus spun around and glared at Sirius. Both were frightened by the other, both were sad and both needed comfort only the other could give. Remus let out a shaky sigh, and for a moment Sirius thought maybe he had convinced him.

"I'm leaving, Siri," Remus whispered. "You're supposed to hate me now. You're supposed to want me to go. Please don't make this harder than it has to be."

"You're..."

"Leaving, yes. Now hate me, yell at me, tell me to get the fuck out of your house." Sirius sighed and took a step towards Remus, who took two steps back. "I've been planning this for a while, ever since we got home. I had no intentions to tell you, but I'm not as cruel as you are. I can't leave without telling you goodbye."

"Don't go," Sirius begged. "Say anything you want. Hit me, yell at me, do anything you want to me, just don't leave!" Sirius was crying now, making Remus's heart ache, but he stood his ground. He wouldn't let Sirius influence this decision, it was to keep him safe, to keep him away from harm.

"I don't want to hurt you," Remus told him.

"This is hurting me! I love you!" Sirius fell to the floor, back against the cupboards, cheeks wet with tears. "Don't go."

"Sirius, I-"

"I can't lose you too, Rem. James was my brother, Peter was such a good friend despite being a traitorous piece of shit, and you... Merlin, are you trying to rip me apart? Is that your goal? Love me and make me feel so whole before abandoning me in the time I need you most? That's a sick thing to do, Remus," Sirius whispered, looking up at Remus. He didn't look upset, he didn't look particularly sad, either, just exhausted and tired.

"Sirius..."

"Go, Remus. If that's what you really want I won't stop you, I love you too much to force you to stay here with me when you clearly don't want to be. What's the point, right? After all this time, everything I've done to you, perhaps the last thing I do is to make sure you're happy, right?" Remus stood there and stared down at his husband. He looked properly broken, and it was all Remus's fault.

"I don't want to leave you," Remus said, kneeling down next to Sirius.

"Then don't," he begged. Remus sighed and sat down properly, pulling the half-naked Sirius into his lap in an attempt to comfort him.

"I don't want to hurt Lily," Remus admitted finally. "She's the most vulnerable, I can't... and she can't be alone."

"Then-" They were cut off by a loud cry coming from the bedroom. The shared a glance and both stumbled to their feet, rushing into the bedroom where Lily sat up, hand on her swollen stomach. "Fuck," Sirius uttered, eye's wide.

"I'll go call someone," Remus announced, rushing into the living room so he could make a floo call. Sirius made his way over to Lily and sat on the bed next to her, rubbing her back in a way he hoped was soothing and comforting. She was crying, cheeks as red as her hair, whimpering small words.

"Breathe," Sirius told her, inhaling with her, and then exhaling. "It'll all be over before you know it."

"I want James," she choked out. "I want..." Sirius felt another pang of guilt. He should've done something more to save his best friend, he shouldn't have been so distracted if only he'd... "Thank you for being here." Sirius forced a smile and kissed her forehead.

"It's what James would have wanted". She smiled back and doubled over in pain again. Remus came rushing back in at that point.

"There's a healer on the way, it'll be easier to give a home birth at this point," Remus explained. Lily nodded wordlessly and caught her breath. "Are you okay? It's usually not this bad." Sirius shot Remus a dirty look, but he only shrugged in return.

"I'm fine!" Lily snapped. "Just... in pain."

When the healer arrived, she shooed Sirius and Remus into the other room, where Remus was shoving some clothes into a bag. "Remus no, not now," Sirius pleaded.

"Sirius I can't hurt the baby!"

"You know what? Fine, if you want to go, fine, just... at least meet him first." Remus stopped shoving clothes into his bag and hesitated, just for a moment. "It's nowhere near the full moon, how much harm can you possibly do to a baby in one meeting?" And so, Remus agreed.

They waited in their bedroom for many hours, tangled with each other on the floor, listening to a record playing softly. Quiet "I love you"s were whispered, along with "I miss you"s, but Sirius had given up trying to convince Remus to stay, he figured his time was much better spent enjoying his last few hours with Remus.

So they laid on the floor, Remus's head resting on Sirius's chest as they listen to a Beatles album (Remus's idea of course, and Sirius couldn't say no to him now). Sirius kept running his finger's through Remus's hair, enjoying the silence that the cool night air held onto, despite the music. "This is why I fell in love with you," Sirius told him. "You're calm and quiet and so spontaneous, I never know what to expect with you, and I like someone who can keep up with me and keep me in check, those kinds of people are hard to come by."

"You're such an idiot," Remus murmured. "I fell in love with you like this too. Just us on quiet nights, maybe music, maybe silence. The comfort you always brought with you, yet also loud and obnoxious, but not always in a bad way because most of the time you were just being yourself and I couldn't have asked for anything more." Sirius smiled and kissed the top of Remus's head for what felt like the millionth time that night.

"Are you sure you have to go, Rem? That kid will grow up one day and you and I will be able to travel the world, we're not tethered down, we're free and adventurous, especially you. Remember how you told me in our second year that you wanted to go to France? Let's do it, for our honeymoon, just the two of us. Help Lily settle down and start off, then go. Or we can wait until the child is older and he isn't so helpless and little, please, Rem." Sirius sounded so, so excited at the prospect, Remus almost said yes. He always gave in to a happy, excited Sirius, but he couldn't this time.

But before he was able to speak, a medi-witch rushed into the room with a bundle of blankets. Both men instantly sat up to see what was going on, and the witch handed the bundle of blankets to Sirius. "What's going on?" Remus asked. The witch gave him a small, sad smile.

"Apparently she was pregnant with twins," The witch began, but before she could continue she was cut off by Sirius.

"What?" Sirius gasped. "How? We did so many tests, and..." The medi-witch sighed and glanced back at the door.

"The boy was much stronger than the girl, but we're still unsure as to why. We're not sure if she'll make it, but we're certainly going to try." Sirius was looking down at the baby in his arms with awe, as if he couldn't believe it.

"Is she magical?" Remus wondered. "Some of the tests said they wouldn't work if the child wasn't magical." The witch looked slightly surprised.

"The boy isn't," She told them. "But she is."

"Transferring magic is a thing, right? Some mothers do it unconsciously with their babies if they're going to be squibs, could two babies do it? To save the other?" Remus looked so positively sure of himself, even Sirius was slightly surprised. "I read about it, Merlin, I can't remember where."

"Well, I suppose there have been documented cases, but Mr. Lupin that is incredibly rare," The witch informed him.

"Can you check?"

"I... I suppose so," The witch stammered, still slightly confused. "But why is this such an important thing to you?"

"I... I'm not sure." Remus, who was so convinced and sure of himself just mere moments before, deflated. "I think I find the idea that magic is more fluid than we all thought fascinating."

"That is quite a subject," The witch agreed. "I must return to the mother..." She gave them both one last smile and rushed away.

"Why'd she give me the baby?" Sirius whispered, mostly to himself. "She doesn't know us."

"The infamous Marauders?" Remus teased, settling back down on the floor next to Sirius. "James Potter, Sirius Black? Sirius Black, the black sheep, or dare I say white sheep, of the family, sorted into Gryffindor, disowned by the age of sixteen, and for what? Everyone knows Sirius Black and James Potter, your name is in place of godmother, I'm his godfather."

"He's so small," Sirius whispered. "So frail, he can barely open his eyes. Remus look, he's so... small. Eyes just like his mothers." Remus peered over Sirius's shoulder and saw the wiggly baby, eyes barely cracked open but clearly green. "Shouldn't he be with his mother?"

"She's still in labor, and there are two witches here. We were the best bet, Siri," Remus murmured in return.

"I love him already." Sirius's eyes were filled with tears, as were Remus's. It was incredible to see such a small human being that looked so much like their friends, their friends made this. Even with growing up in a magic household, Sirius was convinced that the most impressive piece of magic was how people came into this world, it baffled him.

"Harry James Potter," Remus whispered, resting his chin on Sirius's shoulder.

"Our godson," Sirius continued, letting a couple of those stray tears slip onto his cheek. This heartwarming moment, as all others seemed to be, was interrupted by a rather frantic witch, the same one they had spoken to earlier.

"She's lost too much blood," The witch informed them with watery eyes.

"What?" Remus was the one who gasped this time.

"She'd like to say goodbye to her children." That's when Remus, truly, fully, lost it. All but falling away from Sirius with a loud, harsh sob. Sirius doubled over and held the baby closer to his chest. A moment later he managed to his feet and let the witch lead him into Lily's room, where she lay holding one of the babies in her arms.

"Lily," Sirius croaked. She looked up at him and managed one of her infamous Lily smiles, motioning for him to come over.

"Take care of them, Sirius," Lily whispered. "You and Remus... you'll be wonderful parents." She reached out an planted a kill on top of Harry's head, then the little girl's who had yet to have a name. "Neve," She told Sirius. "Neve Azalea, to carry on our flower tradition." Sirius smiled down at her and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"I'm going to miss you," Sirius murmured.

"You're bound too. I'll be with you and my children all the time, and Remus. So will James. I'll miss you all so much, my children most of all, but I know they're in good hands with you and Remus. Wherever I go, there will be people I love and love me in return. I trust you both, I love you both. Take care," Lily whispered and smiled again, letting her head fall back against the pillow.

One last breath, and then her chest stilled.