A/N: Hello everyone! Thanks for the great reviews for the last chapter! Keep it up! And if you have a new story you want me to check out just tell me in your review and I will do so! This chapter is going to be a little bit different. Mostly dialogue, one long scene, and very AU, so remember that. Hope you like!
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"Can I help you?" Neville looked worried as the woman looked half-frozen and quickly ushered her into the foyer. He gingerly took her threadbare jacket and she stood in her simple grey dress. He couldn't help but notice she was very beautiful when he took a closer look, and she had a slightly familiar demeanor, although he was positive he had never seen her before in his life.
"Is Monsieur Black here? I was told this was his address?"
"Is he expecting you?" Neville questioned, leading her into the sitting room where she took a seat on the small white chair by the window. She looked oddly comfortable in the large manor but yet nervous at the same time. Neville got the sinking feeling she had been there before and judging by her age, which seemed in-line with Monsieur Black's, she was probably a former lover.
"No, I am sure this will be quite the surprise," she gave a small smile up at Neville and arranged her slightly damp dark red hair around her shoulders and straightened her dress.
"I'll let him know Madam, and I'll have some tea brought out straightaway," Neville nodded, rushing back to the servant's quarters and the kitchen, where Fleur was eagerly awaiting news of who was at the door.
"Well?" she snapped, a tea tray all ready.
"Someone from Sirius' past I am guessing. Hermione is not going to like this…I hardly want to go and tell him, judging from the erm…sounds…from upstairs, they might not be in the mood for company!" Neville groaned, dreading what he was going to face. He had already walked in on them once after all…
"Fine, you little chatte!" Fleur rolled her eyes and playfully hit him on the arm. He was always slightly scared of Monsieur Black and she had no problems calling him out on it, "I'll go. Bring her the tea please."
Neville nodded thankfully, despite the insult, and fled with the tray as Fleur took off her apron and marched determinedly upstairs.
She saw Hermione's door open and a multitude of sounds coming from the room but instead knocked cautiously on Monsieur Black's door. He opened it a second later with a just a robe on, his black hair slightly messier than usual, and a rather disappointed look on his face when he saw it was only Fleur.
"So, I hear you made up?" her eyes glinted mischievously and although Sirius broke into a happy grin, he tried to sound stern as he admonished her.
"Don't be cheeky Mademoiselle Delacour. Now, can you go and help my darling pack?"
"Pack for what?" she asked, although his endearment for Hermione made Fleur happy that they were back to loving and not fighting.
"We are going to sneak away to the country for a few days," he said vaguely and Fleur's face fell. He caught her hesitation, "Is something wrong?"
"Well, you aren't leaving now…you have a visitor in the sitting room who wishes to speak to you. We've never seen her before…" Fleur told him apologetically. Sirius' face went from relaxed to nearly apoplectic. All he wanted was for one thing to go right, and he seemed to be getting thrown obstacles left and right.
"Well, tell her I will see her in a moment, and briefly, and then we are leaving, so have Neville get the car ready," Sirius finished and Fleur nodded, hurrying back down the stairs to the woman who was quietly and contentedly sipping tea and waiting.
When Sirius came down a few moments later, clad casually in grey trousers and a white pressed shirt, he was instantly struck and bewildered by the presence in his sitting room and could barely comprehend a thought as he approached her from behind.
"Lily…Evans?" he nearly gasped as she turned her striking green eyes up towards him.
"In the flesh…my, you have changed quite a bit since I last saw you…" she replied and he took a seat opposite her, still reeling at her presence.
"So have you," he gulped quietly. Although he had no romantic feelings for her anymore, he was praying that Hermione would continue ripping her bedroom apart in her packing spree and not decide to come downstairs.
"What's it been? 17 years or so? I was just a young thing," Lily said softly. Her face was a little worn and tired, and her hair lacking the vibrant red color of her youth, but she was still the calm, graceful Lily Evans he once had loved, right before he had met Marlene.
"You were what? 16 barely? I had just turned 18…how time flies," Sirius said in barely a whisper. He really didn't know what to do. Things had ended rather badly with the pair of them and he couldn't for the life of him figure out why she was in his house after such a long time.
"It does," she said vaguely. They stared at each other in an awkward silence for a moment and Sirius tapped his foot nervously. "Is this a bad time Sirius?"
"Actually. It is. Lily why are you here? After all this time? Why now?" he asked, the only thing comforting him was the muffled sounds of Hermione upstairs.
"I am really sorry this is a bad time, but we really do have a lot to talk about. I moved to England and I am here visiting and I do need a place to stay…"
"No. No no, absolutely not. Lily I am terribly sorry but you can't just come here after 17 years and expect me to set you up with a room. I am in the middle of something…I'm about to leave and I just cannot do whatever it is you want me to do for you right now alright? I have no money to offer you…I just…" Sirius was beside himself. His history with Lily had been so tumultuous that he wasn't even sure if he wanted to hear what she had to say.
"Please just give me an hour and I will be out of your hair…I don't even have to stay here, anywhere is fine…just please. I came all this way…"
"Why didn't you write?"
"You would have said no. I know you. I had to do an ambush," Lily laughed apologetically. She shrugged her shoulders hopefully as he contemplated it.
"Oh…damn it all Lily, fine. FLEUR! NEVILLE!" he shouted as an afterthought and within moments, both of them raced into the sitting room, breathless and curious, "Fleur, take Hermione to Madame Maxime's shop…get her a few new dresses for the country and put it on my credit line there, and Neville please make a visit to Monsieur Lupins' and convince him to make space for a visitor. Return in time for supper but not before. Understood?"
They nodded and went off. Sirius helped Lily up and they moved through to the drawing room, where he knew they would not be seen by Hermione as she left the house with Fleur. When they sat down again, Sirius looked more strained and nervous that Lily felt inside.
"Who is Hermione? Another conquest of the moment?" Lily asked wryly, and with a slight hint of bitterness.
"Soon to be wife," he answered with a biting edge and she nodded, "Now Lily, please tell me what you have come all this way to say".
"Do you remember when I was pregnant?" she asked.
Of course Sirius remembered. It was one of the hardest times of his young life. Seventeen years ago he had met Lily Evans. She was a wealthy young debutante from a wealthy family and they had met at a fête in the Tuilleries. They had flirted and then Sirius started to court her. His parents had instilled on him that he needed to be a gentleman and find a proper wife early, and Sirius had had his sights set on Lily.
She was beautiful, but a slight tease, and Sirius had found the chase more than adequate to occupy his time. One night about six months into their courtship, Sirius snuck out from his family's manor and walked through the Paris streets to where Lily lived, not but a mile away. Lily's sister Petunia was the spoiled one in the family, so she got the large room and Lily had the small room near the window on the second floor. She was rarely ever checked on, and Sirius had been able to sneak in. They made love all night and he had snuck out before dawn. It was apparent to both Lily and Sirius that he was falling hard for her but she hadn't had the heart to tell him that she was falling harder for a boy that worked in a factory down the road. When she had taken a long walk with her girlfriends towards the poorer part of town (to purposefully defy her parents) she had met James Potter, a lanky, bespectacled boy that caught her attention.
A month later, after avoiding Sirius the best she could, Lily had announced to him that she was pregnant by some man named James and they were running away together. Sirius hadn't known what to say. Here was this young, gorgeous girl whom he thought he would be marrying, whom he'd lost his virginity to, and she was running away with a man who was a stranger to all of them.
He had heard rumors about her for a few years, but he had been happily engaged to sweet Marlene at the time, the tiny, unassuming but pretty blonde friend of Lily's who was kind and gentle to him and hadn't led him on.
And then, a few years later, Marlene had died so suddenly and Sirius fell into a tailspin. He blamed Lily and he blamed the mysterious James. He distanced himself from his family for a while and started drinking heavily and fucking every decent looking woman that crossed his path.
One morning after being thrown out of a very seedy brothel in a bad part of town, Sirius had gotten into a terrible fist fight with the owner of the brothel; someone Sirius remembered to be named Peter, and hurt him badly. Sirius was carted off to prison for the assault and for being inebriated in public, although he was sure he wouldn't do much time.
When his parents had done nothing, and not even informed his cousins, Sirius spent 6 months in prison. 6 months longer than he had anticipated, and his tattoo would always be a reminder of that.
He then had to come home, start a life away from his parents and brother, and move on knowing Marlene was dead and Lily had preferred some other to him. He then started to write, started to get notoriety from it, and started taking mistresses to fill his time.
So yes, Sirius remembered very much when Lily became pregnant.
"How is James by the way?" Sirius asked, coming back to the reality of Lily sitting in front of him, "How is the baby? Was it a boy or a girl? They must be about 18 now, yes?"
"He was a boy. And yes, I guess he would be. You see, James died very suddenly. He had an accident at the factory and suddenly I was left alone with a baby boy and no money. I had given up everything. My family disowned me because I ran away, so I couldn't go back to them…so I gave him up. I don't know where he is, and maybe you can help me with that. That is all I ask Sirius, please." Lily had tears in her eyes. It had been hard for her to let that little baby go, to be raised as an orphan for all intents and purposes. But she couldn't give him the life he deserved.
"Why on earth would I help you find your baby with that man?" Sirius asked, highly offended. The more he heard, the more he wished he and Hermione would have left an hour earlier.
"Well, that is why I am here. Sirius…I didn't get pregnant by James. He and I weren't intimate at that time. The baby was yours. But I didn't want to be with you and James was my escape. I am so terribly sorry. But you have a son. And it is time you knew it," she relayed in barely a whisper.
Sirius was silent for a moment. Millions of thoughts were racing through his head. He knew it was a possibility, but he also knew that she could very well be looking for money at the same time.
"If this is your sick, twisted way of trying to bleed my pockets, then you are very mistaken Lily. I am in love now, I am trying to be a better man, and I will not fall for your games," he replied to her sternly, his grey eyes looking her face over for signs that she was lying.
"I swear to you Sirius I am not here for you. I am here because I was cruel to you and I knew you were in love with me and yet I flouted that and ran off. You deserve to know you have a child, and heir to your fortune…and I am expecting no payment in return or part of your life. I simply want to see how he is doing if we can find him and then I will be returning back to England and you will not see me again. I promise." She said, and she sounded truthful.
Sirius put his head in his hands, then proceeded to rake his fingers through his messy black hair, "Oh God I have a child. Oh God," he repeated over and over. He was practically bankrupt and couldn't support his staff nor his love, let alone a mysterious 18 year old boy. It was all too much.
"I know this is a shock but…."
"A SHOCK? A shock, ha! How rich coming from you! Keeping this from me and then dropping it upon me at the most inconvenient time of my life? Well yes, Lily, it is a shock. Of course I wanted children…but ONE DAY. I want children with Hermione…." He admitted out loud, "And of course I wanted an heir-a boy-but …"
"Sirius if you don't want to have anything to do with him…then I understand. I wanted to be honest with you. But if nothing more can you please help me find him? I know you have connections. And I will tell him his father was named James and he is dead."
"Well I can't just abandon my child now that I know about him, can I?" Sirius sighed. He knew it was only right to make himself known to whatever poor orphan this boy was, and try and help him when he once again had the funds to. It was only right, and he knew it. He just hoped Hermione wouldn't be so angry she left him-although considering everything else he had put her through, he knew this would probably be the final touch to her disappointment.
"Thank you," Lily said lightly, her tone now more grateful.
"I suppose I should know what you Christened him then?"
"James' surname was Potter, so we named him Harry James Potter."
A/N: Oh wow! Major development there! What do you think? Tell me all about it! Back to our favorite pairings in the next chapter!
