His Boy
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Family
"Lookit, Moony!" Harry grinned, holding up the family portrait he'd done at school today. He was very proud of it. "See… there's you'n'Paddy'n'Lexie'n'Mummy'n'Daddy in the clouds up top. See?"
Remus smiled, looking in his rear view mirror at the drawing Harry was holding up. It was very cute indeed. "It's awesome, Harry. I love it. I think we should frame it and put it up on the mantle, what about you?"
"Yeah!" Harry laughed, clapping his hands together as they pulled into the driveway. He unbuckled himself and shot out of the car with just his drawing. Remus laughed, grabbing the boy's backpack from the back seat and carrying it into the house after him.
It was Monday, the seventh of January now. Harry had just gone back to school after being on vacation for the winter. He'd been excited to see all of his friends, especially Marny, who had become his favorite friend at school back at the beginning of the year. He was also fond of his other tablemates, Preston and Violet, but Marny was by far the funnest of the three.
"Moony, can'I have a snack?" Harry asked as he took off his boots and chucked them onto the tray beside the door that kept the rest of the hallway from getting wet and slippery.
"You know it's not snack time, Harry. It's lunch time." Remus grinned at him, scooping him up after he'd gotten out of his snow suit. "You head upstairs and change out of your uniform and then lunch will be ready by the time you're done."
"Okay!" Harry nodded and headed up the stairs. He liked this time of the day, when he didn't have to wear his silly school uniform anymore. He wasn't particularly fond of it, especially the tie.
Once he was changed into something better (jeans and a long sleeved, flannel shirt) Harry made his way back downstairs. Moony was standing in front of the fireplace.
"You have to tell him eventually. I mean, he's going to notice sooner or later…"
"I can't I just… Oh, hi Harry!" Harry blinked, peeking around Remus's leg to find Lexie's head sitting in the fireplace. Harry was getting used to seeing this. He'd seen Lexie's head in the fireplace a lot in the past week or so, but he hadn't seen her much at the house.
"Lexie!" He smiled and raced to grab his family picture from where he'd set it down. "Look what I made! Our family!"
"Oooh, Harry, it's wonderful!" Lexie beamed, glad he'd included her in his picture. "Did you have a lovely first day back to school?"
"Mhm. Me'n'Marny made a snowman. Are you gonna come over to dinner?" Harry asked hopefully.
"Oh… I…. I'm sorry, Harry. I can't. I'm very busy at work today, so I'll probably just go back to my place tonight."
"Ooooh… but Lexiiiie…" Harry pouted, heaving a sigh and flopping sadly on the floor. "You always work now."
"I'll come soon, I promise." Lexie swore, giving him a smile. "I've got to be going now. Give Sirius a hug for me, ok Harry?"
"Yeah." Harry nodded. He could do that, he was very, very good at hugs. "I love you, Lexie."
"I love you too, sweetheart. See you, Remus." Lexie head disappeared and Harry sighed.
"Well, c'mon then, mate. Lunchtime." Remus ruffled Harry's hair and they went into the kitchen where there were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with potato chips on the side waiting for them.
"Moony, how come Lexie dun come over no more?" Harry asked as he sipped his apple juice up through a fun straw.
"She's just been busy at work a lot lately, Harry." Remus explained as he took a bite of his sandwich, chewed, and swallowed. "People get sick a lot during the winter, so she has to work more. But I'm sure she'll come over to play again soon, alright?"
"Oookay." Harry sighed, stirring his juice with his straw before sipping at it again. He finished his lunch and slid out of his chair, placing his dishes in the sink like he'd been taught to.
"What've you got for homework today?"
"I gotta find something for show'n'tell." Harry smiled. He loved show'n'tell, making Tuesdays his favorite day of the week to go to school. He always had a blast sharing whatever toy he brought with his friends while getting to play with their's as well.
"What's this week's theme?" Remus asked, knowing it was encouraged, but not required, to bring a show'n'tell related to the week's theme.
"Family." Harry beamed proudly. "Miss Nancy said maybe we should bring pictures to show everyone our families, but that we dun hasta, but I wanna."
"That's awesome, Harry! You can bring pictures from summer, those have lots of family people in them, and of your parents if you want. We've got plenty. There should be some loose ones in the box in the living room."
"Awesome!" Harry bolted from the kitchen and into the living room. The box Remus had mentioned was where they kept all of the duplicates of the photos he and Sirius took. They had albums on the bookshelf as well, but since Harry's project required bringing in something, going through the duplicates would be much better than trying to get them out of an album.
Harry spilled the pictures out on the floor in a big pile, sorting through them. There were lots of pictures here from since August. The Christmas ones hadn't been developed yet, but Remus had said he was going to get to it this coming weekend, they'd just been really busy lately.
Harry sorted through the pictures, finding lots that he liked a lot. There were pictures of him and Sirius. Of him and Moony. Of all three of them. Lexie. All of their friends. There were so many! How was he going to choose just one or two? Hmm… maybe Miss Nancy wouldn't mind if he brought a whole bunch of them with him?
"How's it going, Harry?" Moony asked, having done the dishes and deciding to check on Harry.
"Moon, there's too many to pick." Harry frowned, sorting through them all.
"Hmm… well, it looks like you have a picture for each person, so maybe, instead, we should look for one picture that has everyone in it?"
"Oooh… yeah!" Harry nodded excitedly, glad for this idea. It would be much easier then bringing a bunch of pictures of a bunch of people.
In the end though, Harry was able to settle on two pictures. One from shortly after he was born with his Mummy, Daddy, Sirius, Remus, and Lexie, who he hadn't had a name for the first time he'd seen this picture months ago. They were all gathered around Lily's bed, smiling into the camera. The second was from the barbeque over the summer, with all of the Weasleys, and the Lovegoods, and the Longbottoms, who Harry counted even though he didn't see them often.
"Here… Immobulus." Remus tapped the photos with his wand, stilling the people in them from moving.
"Why'd you do that, Moony?" Harry asked curiously with a frown. He liked the moving wizard pictures.
"Well, Harry, you can't take a moving picture to Muggle school. But don't worry. It's just for tomorrow, and then after, I can take the spell off and they'll move again. Remember, no magic in front of Muggles."
"Oh yeah…" Harry nodded, not quite understanding why they couldn't do magic in front of Muggles. He knew it was a rule though, a very important big rule, because Remus and Sirius obeyed it too, so Harry had to as well.
Remus and Harry spent the rest of the afternoon looking through pictures. They kept the two they'd chosen off to the side, out of the mess so as not to lose them.
At around four, Sirius came home early, scooping Harry up from the floor and spinning him around.
"Paddy!" Harry laughed, hugging him around the neck excitedly. Normally when he worked, Sirius didn't get home until six. "It's not even dinner time yet."
"I know. We had an easy day, so they let me come home early to play with you." Sirius grinned at him, hugging him tightly.
"We found pictures for show'n'tell." Harry announced happily.
"Awesome!" Sirius smiled and kissed his cheek before setting him down. "Well, I'm going to go shower and I think maybe we should go out for pizza or something today, what d'you say, Moony?"
"Sounds good." Remus nodded, gathering up the pictures and placing away the ones they'd already looked at into the box. He didn't want them to get ruined.
"Yeah!" Harry jumped up and down, excited at this. Sirius ruffled his hair and then headed upstairs.
"Remus." Harry jumped as Lexie stepped out of the fireplace, clutching something tightly to her chest. She held it out to Remus who rose from the floor and accept it. He blinked, staring down at it.
"Wow, so that's?"
"Yeah. Right there… that little nugget of space…" Lexie pointed, her finger touching the paper gently. Harry tilted his head confusedly before dashing over and attaching himself to Lexie's leg.
"Lexie! You gonna come get pizza with us?" He asked excitedly, staring up at her in her Healer robes, all bright eyes.
"I… well, Harry, I dunno, I've got some more work I've got to get done." Lexie said, picking him up and hugging him. She kissed the top of his head, snuggling him close. Harry leaned forward, eyeing the picture she'd brought. It was black and white and fuzzy.
"Is that outer space!" Harry asked excitedly, his eyes large.
"No, Harry, that's er…" Lexie started but then Remus coughed and she set him back down on the floor. "So, what's with all the pictures, little man?"
"I gotta bring some for show'n'tell tomorrow." Harry explained, distracted from the 'space' picture. He picked the pictures he'd chosen out of the box off of the coffee table and held them up. "Lookit. I'm bringing these."
"Oh, I remember that day." Lexie beamed, sitting down on the couch and Harry climbed up, cuddling against her side as they looked at the picture. "You were about six pounds big and so very pink, Harry. With lots of black hair and big green eyes. I remember perfectly. That was a very busy night."
"It was?" Harry asked curiously, smiling at the picture.
"Yep. You can't see her, but your mummy and mine's other best friend, Alice, was in the same room. She'd just had her little baby too."
"Cool!" Harry laughed, smiling. "Is Alice nice, too?"
"Yes. She was very, very nice. But now she's really, really sick. But you know her baby."
"I do?" Harry blinked, staring at her in shock.
"Mhm. Neville's Alice's little boy. You guys almost have the same birthday. Neville's is the day before your's.."
"Oh yeah!" Harry blinked, nodding in understanding now. He had met Neville shortly after his last birthday and they had become fast friends stacking blocks. He hadn't known they had such close birthdays though, that was really neat! "I like Neville. He's nice."
"Yes, he is, Harry. Maybe we should have him over for a playdate soon?" Remus suggest, still holding Lexie's picture.
"Yeah!" Harry nodded excitedly, bouncing up and down on the couch. He would love to play more with one of his friends. He didn't play with Neville very much, but he knew they would have fun if he came over.
"Lexie?" Sirius blinked, coming into the room. He had changed out of his work clothes and was drying his hair with his wand, running a comb through it. He'd had it trimmed since Azkaban, so it wasn't horrendously long anymore, but it still skimmed his shoulders the way he liked it best. "I didn't know you were coming over."
"Sirius!" Lexie shot up from the couch, sidestepping to stand in front of Remus who shoved the picture up his long sleeve as fast as he possibly could. "I… er… I didn't know you were home already."
"Yeah… I got off early. Did you not want to see me?" Sirius blinked, looking confused. "What've you got there, Moony?"
"Nothing." Remus shook his head after glancing at Lexie who shook her head at him, brown eyes wide.
"No, I just, wasn't expecting you, that's all. It's a nice surprise!" Lexie smiled, stepping forward to hug him.
"Lexie was telling me about Neville, Paddy." Harry informed him excitedly, holding up his picture. "We have almost the same birthday! You never told me that."
"Oh yeah, that's right. You guys do have birthdays next to eachother, I'd forgotten." Sirius smiled, letting go of Lexie and scooping Harry up off of the couch to give him a proper snuggling.
"She has a picture too. Of outer space!" Harry nodded, hugging Sirius around the neck and giggling as his hair tickled his face.
"Really? That's cool! Can'I see it, Harry?"
"Mhm." Harry nodded, wriggling to be put down and he ran over to Remus, tugging at his sleeve. "Moony, show Paddy the outer space picture. You have it."
"Er… well…" Remus sighed and looked at Lexie who fell into the armchair and put her face in her hands. Taking that to be a 'yes', he removed the picture from his sleeve, handed it to Harry. Harry held it up to Sirius, over his head, ever so proud.
"See Paddy! Outer space!" Harry beamed, proud to be able to show his Padfoot the beautiful outer space picture. "Innit pretty?"
"Er… yeah, Harry, it's great." Sirius blinked, taking the picture from his godson and staring at it, flummoxed. This was no picture of outer space. He'd seen something like this before, not too long before Harry had been born in fact.
"Hey, Harry, wanna come get dressed so we can go out for pizza?" Remus asked, heading for the hallway.
"Okay!" Harry darted after Moony, excited for pizza, leaving Sirius and Lexie alone in the living room.
"Lexie?" Sirius blinked, his eyes glued to the picture in front of him. "Harry said this is your picture?"
"Yeah…" Lexie nodded, biting her lip and raising her face from his hands. She looked insanely nervous. "D'you um… see the little blip there? Towards the right side?"
"Yeah?" Sirius gulped, his eyes moving to stare at the little blip as she called it.
"That part is yours too…"
Sirius heard her. His eyes were glued to the blip… no. It wasn't just a blip… it was a… Sirius felt his eyes roll back into his head, but he didn't feel the flump of the carpet beneath him as he fell backwards.
"Sirius!"
"Paddy!" Harry ran into the room, his snowsuit half on, holding it up around his waist. He screamed as he spotted Padfoot sprawled out on the floor, picture in his hand. "Paddy!"
Lexie shot out of her chair as Remus came in, completely having expected this particular fainting spell to happen once Sirius figured out what the picture actually was. Lexie sat down, kneeling next to Sirius and patting his cheeks until his eyes opened.
Sirius blinked rapidly and sat up, rubbing at his head. He looked around, his eyes drifting until he caught sight of Harry's tearful face. "Oh, Prongslet. It's ok, I'm fine." He reached out, hugging Harry top him and drying the little boy's face with his shirt.
Harry hiccupped, sniffling. "I thought you died." He said, clinging onto Sirius tightly. He'd been very very frightened when he'd seen Sirius lying so still on the floor. He didn't ever want to lose his Padfoot like he'd lost his parents. He didn't think he'd ever be happy again if that were to happen.
"Harry, I'd never, ever leave you. I love you too much to do that." Sirius hugged him tighter, rocking him gently back and forth in his lap, knowing how Harry got sometimes when he was upset about losing someone. "As long as there are stars in the sky, we'll be together."
Harry nodded, cuddling up to him. He was glad that his Padfoot wasn't going anywhere. "I like you better alive."
"Me too. Let's keep it that way, shall we?"
"Yeah." Harry laughed, hugging around his neck again as Sirius rose from the floor with him. "Why'd you do that scary thing anyway?"
"Well, Harry. That was called fainting, and it happens sometimes when a person has low blood sugar or gets shocked by something they weren't expecting." Sirius explained, kissing his cheek to keep him reassured.
"Low blood sugar?"
"When you haven't eaten in a long time and get dizzy. But that wasn't the reason why."
"You were shocked?" Harry blinked, looking shocked himself. His Padfoot? Shocked? Wow! He'd never have believed that to be possible. His Padfoot was the strongest, most un-shockable person there ever was! It must be something super shocking in order for Padfoot to have been shocked.
"Well, Harry…" Sirius sighed, running a hand through his hair and not really knowing how to put it. He picked the picture he'd dropped up off of the floor.
"Outer space shocked you?" Harry asked with a laugh, admiring the picture again. It was a very good one of outer space, he thought.
"Harry, this isn't outer space." Sirius shook his head, sitting down on the nearby couch. "This is a picture of the inside of Lexie's tummy."
Harry blinked, staring for a moment before laughing out loud, hard. "Paddy! You can't take pictures inside! It's too dark… and it's inside!"
"Oh, no, this is a special picture made by a special magic screen that can look on the inside to see if anything is wrong with you. Like how they see broken bones. The screen can see inside Lexie's tummy."
"Is something wrong with Lexie's tummy? Is she sick?" Harry asked concernedly, turning to look over at Lexie with a worried expression on his face. He didn't like it when the people he loved were sick or hurt, even if he did get to play doctor when they were.
"No, Harry. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Lexie's tummy."
Harry stared, confused now. Why would they have a picture of Lexie's tummy on the inside if there was nothing wrong with her? "But…why…"
"Harry…" Lexie smiled and sat down next to them, reaching out a gentle hand to stroke his hair back.
"Because, you see this spot right here?" Sirius said, pointing to the blip on the picture.
"Mhm." Harry nodded, admiring the blip. He'd thought it was just a space that lacked stars.
"Well, Harry. That's a baby."
"That dun look like a baby, Paddy." Harry shook his head, making a face and patting his godfather's cheek gently. "I think he hitted his head, Lexie."
"Well, Harry. That's pretty much how babies look when they start out. Just a tiny little blip in the picture, but they grow and grow until they're big enough." Lexie explained with a laugh at his confusion.
"But… how did the baby get in you?" Harry asked confused more still. "Did it crawl down your mouth when you were sleeping?"
"Oh, goodness no, Harry." Lexie laughed. "You see…"
"It's magic." Sirius quickly shot out. "Special magic that I'll tell you more about how to do when you're older, because it's a special, very complicated spell."
"Ooooh." Harry nodded. Well, that made more sense than anything else he'd ever heard about babies. He'd heard of the stork of course, but that seemed silly now too, since he knew owls were usually the only birds that carried mail, at least, as fast as he knew. "When will it come out?"
"In August and then you'll be a big brother." Sirius beamed, hugging Harry to him and leaning over to give Lexie a kiss on the cheek, finally having had a chance to turn this over in his head. He was quite happy, even though he'd been shocked at first.
"A big brother!" Harry launched up, bouncing from the couch and jumping up and down around the room. "A big brother! I'm gonna be a big brother!" He laughed, so very happy at this news. He'd never been a big brother before. Sure, he had his Luna-sissy, but she wasn't really his sister. She was just his make believe sister, but this baby… he would be it's real big brother because it was going to be his Padfoot's baby… "Oh…"
Harry suddenly stopped his bouncing, eyeing Sirius with a frown. "But, Paddy… if you has a new baby, then what about me?"
"Harry, my heart has enough love in it for you and a new baby. Don't you ever worry about that. You are my boy, understood?" Sirius said, getting down off the couch and reaching his arms out. Harry ran to him, wrapping around his neck and hugging onto him tightly. "You will always be my boy. Even if I'm not your real daddy, you're my son. Forever and ever and nothing will ever change that."
Harry beamed, glad to hear that. Paddy had never really said it aloud before, that Harry was his kid, but he knew it for certain now. It was a forever kind of thing. Forever and ever.
"Is it a boy or a girl?" Harry asked after a minute, turning his attention to look at Lexie questioningly.
"Well, we won't know that for a while yet. It's too little to see if it's a boy or girl. What d'you think, Harry?"
"A boy. Cause I wanna brother." Harry nodded happily at the idea of it. He liked girls well enough, but he did have a lot of fun playing with boys too. And Ronnie had all of those brothers… he'd like a brother too.
"Well, we'll see what happens then." Sirius laughed, swooping Harry up into the air and tossing him high before catching him gently as he came back down.
"How long til August?" Harry asked now, curious as to how long it would be until he was a big brother. "Is he gonna sleep in my room too?"
"A while. About eight months, but you know, it won't seem like very long once we get there. And no, I think we'll add a bedroom for him."
"Or her." Remus added from where he stood in the doorway, watching with a smile on his face. "You could always take my bedroom and change the guest room into a nursery though, instead of adding another room."
"Nah." Sirius shook his head. "In want to always be on the same floor as my boy. Right, Harry?"
"Right!" Harry laughed.
"Well, what about the playroom then? We could move it up to the guest room and make that the nursery. Though, it might be a bit far from the rest of us if he's up playing on the third floor…"
"We'll figure it out, Moony." Sirius nodded and kissed Harry's cheek gently, brushing his bangs back. "What d'you think Harry?"
"Can'I have that picture?" Harry asked, eying it, completely ignoring the talk of rooms while he was busy staring down at the picture now on the coffee table.
…...
"This is my Mummy and Daddy. My Padfoot, and Moony. And Lexie and me, when I was little." Harry announced as he stood before the class, holding up his picture so everyone could see. "My Mummy and Daddy aren't here anymore, so I live with my Paddy and Moony, and Lexie too." He handed the photo to Miss Nancy and then picked up his next one.
"This is the Weasleys. Mr. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley. Bill'n'Charlie'n'Percy'n'Fred'n'George'n'Ronnie'n'Ginny. This is the Lovegoods. Miss Tricia, Mr. Xeno, and my Luna-sissy, cept she's not my real sissy, just my make-believe one. And that's Mrs. Lovegood and Neville, we have the same birthday and my Mummy knew his mummy and they knew my Lexie." Harry smiled, pointing to each person in turn. "And that's my 'mione. She likes to read." He pointed to the last person in the picture and then sent it down to Miss Nancy as well before grabbing up his last picture.
"And that.." He pointed to the blip. "Is my baby brother or sister. It's still growing inside Lexie, so it won't be here til August, but then I'll be a real big brother."
"Oh Harry! That's wonderful. You have a great big, beautiful family." Miss Nancy smiled and the class clapped, liking Harry's show'n'tell. Harry smiled and picked up all of his pictures, going to take his seat. He was proud of his show'n'tell. He was even more proud of what a lovely family he had.
Well, there you have it! I would like to point out, that even though Sirius has finally found out about the secret, that there is still a plethora of Harry action in this. Normally he gets shunted to the side once the chick gets preggers in fics like this, but alas, unfortunetly for you lot, you'll have to deal with more adorable little Harryness (being totally sarcastic since we all love little Harry). :3 I quite enjoyed writing this chapter. Please let me know what you thought, I love hearing from you and getting an idea of what your opinions are regauring what's happening.
Also, if any of you remember the beach chapter where Lexie first appeared, she told Harry a story about his mother. If you'd like to read that story in it's completeness, I've written it as a companion piece. It's called 'Dirty Spaghetti.' :3
As always, with love,
S.Q.O.
