Author's Note: Thank you all for the love you show this story. I have something important to ask you, the question will be at the end of the chapter. I hope this finds you all well, and I want to thank all of you for your support. You all rock! For those who celebrate, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Happy Reading!
~DMM

There are times that being a werewolf is actually useful, and Remus had learned this most as he worked in teaching. While his students thought he was either a seer or way too good at his job, he was able to hear mischief before he saw it, cutting student plans for any sort of trouble before they could get to it. Then, of course, he knew which sort of students to look for, being very guilty of that sort of behavior himself. Then there were times like this morning, when Remus would give anything to have a normal set of human ears, ones that didn't hear through his closed oak bedroom door, down the stairs and through the living room where there was a tapping on the door. He was reluctant to even open his eyes, let alone pry himself out of Ivy's vice grip and the warmth of their bed to see who might be at their door this early in the morning. The light in the room was grey, where the sun wasn't quite up yet but the light of day was reflecting off the snow brightly.

Realizing whatever guest they had must be getting very cold out on the porch, Remus struggled against Ivy as she tried to snuggle him back down to her. After a minute of easily moving away inch by inch, he finally managed to get up without waking his wife. The wood floors were cold on his bare feet, causing him to move faster to the carpet on the stairs. He made it in record time to the front door for how awake he'd managed to get, and saw through the peep hole that April and who he had to assume was Thomas was standing on the porch. A bit relieved, Remus pulled the door open, the cold air hitting his chest and reminding him he'd forgotten to grab a shirt in his drowsy stupor. April gave him a not-so-subtle look up and down as she and her husband stepped in.

"You two forget to tell me something?" April said impatiently. Her serious face didn't last and turned to a humored smile, as Remus looked baffled, and knew he was probably a mess in pajama bottoms and his hair fluffed wildly from sleep.

"I'm sorry. She asked me to come home, and my priority was making her happy. She's..." He remembered Ivy asking him not to tell April, probably to prevent her from being upset during her pregnancy. "She's still pretty weak and recovering. It's been rough." He finished. Thomas, a rather skinny young man with dark hair and a matching close cut beard, stood awkwardly by, looking around the room while April and Remus talked. Remus looked toward him and knew how he felt, being a bit out of place, so he offered a hand. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude. I'm Remus." The other man shook his hand.

"Thomas." he said quietly, Remus gave him a nod.

"I'm going to get dressed, see if Ivy feels up for company. Feel free to make yourselves at home." With that, he disappeared up the stairs. April looked around the room at things were starting to look equal parts Ivy with Remus, and she smiled.

"He seems to really care about her." Thomas said, sitting on the edge of a chair waiting for April to get done looking around.

"He does." she replied, smiling at the photo of her family on the wall beside the kitchen. "I want a house like this." April said, turning to Thomas with a hand on her bulging stomach.

Upstairs, Remus crept into the bedroom quietly, so that he could wake Ivy up gently and not cause her to jerk and hurt herself. He sat down on her side of the bed and ran his fingers through her hair, waiting for her face to appear from the pillow she'd buried it in. "Ivy?" he said lightly.

"Hmmm." she groaned, the sound muffled by her pillow.

"How do you feel baby?" he asked, waiting patiently for an answer.

"I'm okay." she said reluctantly, like she was lying a bit. "I like when you call me that, by the way." she said, snuggling deeper into the pillow.

"April and Thomas are down stairs, do you feel like going to see them?" He kept stroking her hair as she turned over and opened her eyes, visibly annoyed to be woken up.

"Not really." she huffed, pulling one of his pillows over and covering her head. "What time is it?"

"A quarter after eight. Do you want me to ask them to come back?" he asked, trying not to laugh. Ivy rolled her eyes.

"No. You wouldn't survive that." she struggled to push herself up, and Remus wrapped his arms under hers and pulled her up. "What do you think of Thomas?" she said, humor in her voice.

"He's- awkward." he said with a laugh. Ivy nodded.

"Bloody all the time." Ivy agreed. "He's that way in his own home. He suits April, she's so bossy." Remus had to chuckle as Ivy complained. "He's gonna go home and cry if you went down there shirtless." Ivy said giggling.

"Remus raised an eyebrow. "Why?" he said curiously.

"He's a pale little twin of a bloke. Scroungy, really. And you, well even his wife called you hot." Remus shook his head and left her sitting up against the head board and moved to get proper clothes on. Ivy watched him move around the room, then come back to her. "I don't have to change out of these do I?" she asked, tugging at her fluffy pink pajamas with snowflakes patterned across them. Remus shrugged.

"Be comfortable." he said, moving the quilt back. "Ready?" he asked, bending down to pick her up. Ivy let out a puff of air harshly from her nose.

"I suppose I have to be." she said, wrapping an arm around Remus' neck as she was hoisted up. He carried her slowly down the hall, taking even more time to be careful on the stairs. Ivy still felt limp in his arms, her strength not returning as quickly as either of them would like. He settled her on the cushion she'd spent the day prior on, propping her injured leg up on a pillow. April settled down next to her on the edge of the couch.

"Good morning sunshine." April said cheerily. Ivy gave her half a smile.

"You're getting fat." she said, meaning to tease but Remus noted the bitterness underlying in her tone that went unnoticed by her sister. April giggled.

"Double occupation makes you fatter faster." She told her sister with a grin. Ivy was suddenly thankful she was so weak that she could use it to cover her pain. She wanted to be happy for her sister, and that did mean double Aunt status for her, but it was too fresh a wound for that sort of news to not be like salt going in. Ivy fluttered her eyes closed and then forced a smile.

"Twins?" She asked quietly. April and Thomas both nodded.

"Congratulations." Remus' voice sounded, saving Ivy from having to respond. Ivy looked toward where her husband was propped on the wall and smiled thankfully. He looked sad, but nodded in response. "Why don't I fetch tea while you ladies visit?" Remus said, not waiting for a response to exit for the kitchen. Ivy sighed, not wanting to deal with this right now.

"Sorry we forgot to let you know we came home." Ivy said, her voice still weak when she spoke. April shrugged.

"It's alright. I found you. I'm really jealous of this house." she said, looking around the room. "It's gorgeous." Ivy grinned.

"Thank you. It was Remus' grandparent's, then his mother inherited it. He grew up here." she informed them. Remus came back with a large try of tea and food, and made Ivy's tea first, handing her a cup and plate as April and Thomas fixed their own. He then made his and propped back against the wall, opposite the window nearest the piano. After a few minutes Thomas announced he had to leave, so Remus unlocked the floo for him and let him use it rather than walk back through the snow to the apparition point. He was just settled on the sidelines listening to the sisters talk about how Ivy always did her holiday shopping in November because it was easier, when a thought occurred to him.

"Ivy, would you be alright with April for a while if I ran to town?" He asked hopefully, realizing he'd yet to Christmas shop at all yet. It had been several years since he'd actually needed to buy anything for anyone that he just remembered. He felt awful about it, and knew exactly where he wanted to go. Ivy looked a bit confused, if not scared to be alone with April, but she agreed. Remus bundled up against the cold and walked out the apparition point and disappeared with a 'pop'. With Remus exit, April's attitude changed. she moved a bit so that she and Ivy could be face to face.

"Madam Pomfrey wanted me to make sure you're not getting depressed when we dropped by the school looking for you. Want to tell me about it?" she asked seriously, her face stern and motherly. April shrugged.

"I can't walk right now. I'm not going to be much help patching Remus up in a couple days..." April shook her head, cutting Ivy off.

"Don't lie to me." April said sharply. Ivy sighed.

"I don't want to talk about it." She said quietly, looking past April and out the window to the falling snow.

"Please?" April said gently, taking hold of her sister's hand. "You can always talk to me, sweetheart." Her voice sounded so much like their mother's when she talked like that, it made Ivy sad, but it also wore her down. She could feel tears pushing hard on the back of her eyes.

"I don't really..." Ivy started to say, but paused. April tilted her head.

"Anything." she repeated encouragingly. "Because it's obvious you are getting depressed." Ivy sighed.

"I-" she took a deep breath, letting the tears she'd been fighting fall. "I can't have kids now, probably." she said quietly. April dropped Ivy's hand and used the hand that had been holding Ivy's to cover her mouth. April sat stunned for a moment, and Ivy looked away. "I told you I didn't want to talk about it." she whispered.

"Ivy, Merlin I am so sorry." she said, taking her hand back and gripping her tightly. Ivy shrugged.

"It doesn't matter." she said back, still watching out the window. April shook her head.

"Can't you two adopt or-" April started to say, but Ivy interrupted her.

"Adoption, artificial insemination and surrogacy are all illegal under the same set of laws that laid my marriage into place. If someone that's not human can't have kids, the Ministry doesn't feel they need help. Population control of sorts they claim." Ivy pulled her sleeve over the heel of her hand and wiped her eyes. April didn't say anything for a while, feeling deeply guilty in that moment that she was being given two of her own and Ivy was dealing with this. "Don't look like that. There was a reason I didn't want to tell you." April shrugged.

"What did Remus say?" April asked when she finally spoke. Ivy smiled slightly through her tears.

"He told me he loves me, actually." she said back. April smiled too.

"That's good then." she said, not sure what to say otherwise.

"He never wanted kids to begin with, I don't think." Ivy said, slightly bitterly. April pulled her into a hug.

"I'm so sorry things keep happening to you." She said quietly, squeezing her tighter.

Sirius Black sat against the wall of the Shrieking Shack, for the second day in a row trying to figure out what had happened in the woods. Remus was so angry, more that Sirius had ever seen in the ten years of friendship they'd shared before his incarceration. He knew the woman- or rather wolf had injured her ankle, and that she was bleeding, but something else must have happened to her for Remus to be on the hunt as homicidally as Sirius had found him. Remus was always so in control before, never letting the wolf that lived below the surface show to the world.

"He must really love her." he said to nobody in particular, the emptiness of the cold shack giving no answer. Of course he does, she's married to him. Sirius thought, having no way of knowing the marriage was arranged, forced and that Ivy was so much younger. He couldn't help but worry for her, 'Ivy', Remus had called her. It was nice to have a name for her face. She'd be so unnecessarily kind to him, offering breakfast to his animagus form with no other reason than that he looked hungry and alone. He hoped she was okay, he wanted Remus to be happy.

Sirius turned the rabbit that he had roasting on a spit in the old fireplace of the shack, waiting for the meat to be thoroughly cooked so that he could eat. His stomach growled as he thought about his next few steps in his plan to prove his innocence and save his godson from the murderous trader living in the boy's dorm. He looked to the corner of the room where he'd propped the new broom, a Firebolt. He'd been watching on the hill helplessly when Harry Potter fell from his broom and it blew into the Whomping Willow, smashing it to unrepairable bits. He felt badly about stealing this broom, but he fully intended to send payment on it as soon as he had access to his accounts at Gringotts. It was a small gesture he couldn't even assign his name to, but he hoped it made Harry's Christmas better all the same.

The rabbit was fully cooked, so he removed it from the heat and waved it through the air a few times, trying to cool it enough to eat. He carefully took his first bite, and deeming it edible he devoured the rest of the animal quickly, not even bothering to get a good taste of the meat as he gobbled it down. Starvation was starting to get to him, and he knew he'd need to hunt for a few more before he'd feel better, but he closed his eyes exhaustedly, rubbing the bruises left on his neck by the only friend he had left, wondering just what stopped Remus from killing him when he had the chance.

HI! How was the chapter? (That's not the important question)

If I kept this going through HBP, would you guys keep reading?! Let me know the answer to this AND how the chapter was by pushing the review button and leaving some love!