Author's Note : Enjoy!
Sirius strutted into his classroom, his seventh period class sitting in there, "Surprise everyone! I'm going to blow something up today!"
"You blow something up pretty much everyday," said Harry, sitting at a lab table in the second row with Ron and Hermione.
"Yes," said Sirius, "but this one is really cool, trust me." He reached under the front table and grabbed a flask, zinc, a clear acid, a deflated balloon, and a lighter. He added the zinc to the acid, sitting in the beaker, which ignited a reaction.
"This reaction's product is hydrogen," explained Sirius, pulling the balloon's hole over the opening of the flask. The balloon began to inflate, "now if I were to tie this shut and release it, what would happen to the balloon? Hermione."
"The balloon would float," she explained.
"Exactly. So why do we use helium instead of hydrogen for party balloons, then," asked Sirius as he scanned the room for a volunteer. "Yes, Draco."
"Hydrogen is flammable," he said.
"Correct," said Sirius, removing the now inflated balloon from the flask. He tied it shut and lit the candle that sat on the table. He grabbed the balloon with tongs and held it over the flame, being sure to step back a bit. With a loud bang, the balloon erupted into a ball of fire before being extinguished again. "See," he said, looking around the room at all the shocked expressions. "That would not be very fun at a party, would it?"
"I think it would make parties even better," said Seamus Finnigan.
"Yeah, you're probably right," laughed Sirius. "Imagine singing happy birthday at your grammy's ninetieth and BOOM fire! Anyways, if you have ever seen the movie, The Martian, this reaction is done in order to produce water on Mars. If you look on the table in front of me, there is in fact water. BOOM SCIENCE!"
O
Remus was grabbing his things to leave when Sirius walked in the classroom, "hey Moony."
"Hey Pads," he said, "what do you need?"
"Why do I have to need something," Sirius asked, "why can't I just say hi to you."
"Hello Padfoot."
"Hello Remus, can I take some of your computer paper?"
Remus rolled his eyes but handed him a stack of computer paper.
"Thanks," Sirius said, but he caught eye of a new photo on Remus's desk. It was the most recent ultrasound he had of Teddy. "For someone who was scared out of his mind, you are having a lot of fun with this. You are going to have a fun time being a dad, Moony, trust me."
"Well if raising a kid is just as fun as making it, then I should enjoy it," laughed Remus.
"Just as, maybe even more," said Sirius. He let out a laugh before his eyes went wide, "oh my god! You've been fucking my cousin!"
"I'm aware," said Remus slowly. "I thought you figured that out a while ago. We are married, Pads."
"Yes but- AGH you've been with my cousin. She's- she's been with you too! Please tell me it only happened that once!"
"Pads," started Remus, "we've been together for seven years, take a guess."
Sirius looked horrified, but Remus did not care as he thought his friend was being ridiculous. He grabbed his bag and coat, "I'm going to give you time to process this absolutely shocking revelation of how my son was created. I'll see you tomorrow."
Once Remus arrived home, he did some cleaning around the house before settling on the couch in the living room with some tests that needed to be graded. Soon, the front door opened and Dora stepped in the house with a white take out bag. She held it up above her head, "I got burgers!"
She placed the bag on the coffee table before sitting down next to Remus on the couch. She wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. "How was your day," she asked him.
"Alright, but I did have to explain how babies are made to Sirius," laughed Remus.
"Uh- he has a son," laughed Dora.
"Yes, but it didn't click what we had to do in order to have ours," explained Remus. "He freaked out at the idea of you and I together."
"He's an idiot sometimes," laughed Dora.
"Sometimes?"
"Most times," she said. "I guess it's a Marauder thing."
O
It was around five o'clock in the evening, and Harry was just finishing getting changed in the boys locker room . Despite football being over, they were having team workouts in order to keep in shape for next season. Their championship win brought their captain, Oliver Wood, much excitement as he was a senior and would be graduating that spring. These practices were also proving to their coach who was a good fit to be captain next season, which Harry suspected would go to one, or both, of Ron's older twin brothers, Fred and George.
Harry grabbed his backpack and headed out into the hallway, shocked to see, "Hermione?"
"Did you know your Aunt Dora has a plaque up here," she asked, "Most penalties ever committed by one person in fours seasons. Jeez, how many penalties would you have to get in order to get a plaque engraved?"
"Knowing her, probably a lot," said Harry.
"She's also on like three others with her teammates because the team won the championship," Hermione told him.
"Yeah the team was really good while she was here," said Harry. He looked at her puzzled, "what are you still doing here? School ended two and a half hours ago." Then again, if anyone would stay after hours from school just because, it would be Hermione.
"I had play rehearsal for Beauty and the Beast, but it ended about ten minutes ago, so I thought I would wait for you," she explained.
"Oh," said Harry, "has that weird chick stop bothering you for getting Belle or..?"
"Who Myrtle? No, she's been crying in the bathrooms about it since the cast list came out," said Hermione.
"Was she the one was rumored to be pregnant last year," asked Harry, "everyone called her fertile Myrtle."
"Yeah," said Hermione with a sigh, "she gets on my nerves a lot, but she did not deserve that. Listen, I have a question for you."
"Ask away."
"Why has Ron been ignoring me," she asked.
"I haven't noticed anything," shrugged Harry.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "of course you didn't, you never do. He's been brushing me off and blowing off plans since homecoming. You seriously haven't noticed?"
Harry began to think back, and he realized they have had a separation between them. He had been too caught up in his disastrous relationship with Cho to realize anything was going on between the two. Then, he remembered Ron's disgust at Hermione dancing with Viktor at homecoming. "I think he was upset you were dating Viktor."
Hermione huffed, "I never dated Viktor, I only went to homecoming with him!"
"Yeah, but um- I don't think he was too happy about that."
"Well he should've asked me then," she exclaimed.
"Would you have said yes?"
Hermione went quiet, "well if he was mad about the dance, he's going to be outraged by who is playing the Beast." She sped up, moving with faster speed than Harry had the energy to match, down the hallway towards the exit.
O
James sat in Remus's basement on a Friday night drinking beer and playing cards with Remus and Sirius. "So, let me get this right. Regulus has not talked to you in what, almost fours years, and now he wants you to be best man at his wedding?"
"I know," exclaimed Sirius, crushing his empty can of beer and throwing it in the trashcan. He opened another can, "at least send a Christmas card, or text me every once and a while before asking."
"What did you say after he asked," Remus asked.
"I asked him if he was sure he wanted me to be best man," explained Sirius. "He said yes, so I said fine, and now Marlene and I have a lunch with him and his fiancé when he's back in town in a few weeks to discuss some things."
"Such as," asked Remus.
"Such as, who the hell is the fiancé, where the hell is this taking place and when," said Sirius.
"Where does Regulus even live," asked James.
"Philadelphia," said Sirius before taking a drink from his beer. "He got a job there at some architect firm a year after Marlene and I got married."
"How the hell did he get back here so quickly the day Ted passed," asked Remus.
"He happened to be here for a work conference, the timing was perfect," said Sirius. "Well...I guess not for Ted-but you know what I mean."
"Yeah I got it," laughed Remus. "You know, they do call it the city of brotherly love."
"Yeah, great," said Sirius, "we're going to ruin the entire reputation of a city in the matter of a few days."
O
Harry was laying in his bed, attempting to write an essay for English that was due in about two hours, but he had barely started it. He had been making decent progress, until he received a snapchat from Ron.
Ron: "What did you tell hermione? now she's pissed at me."
Harry: "about what?"
Ron: "apparently I was pissed at her but now she's pissed at me and lavender said that parvati said that you told her something so what is it?"
Harry: "you have been pushing her away since homecoming and she wanted to know why so i told her you didn't like her and viktor together."
Ron: "why would you do that!?"
Harry: "i wasn't going to lie to her."
Ron: "it wouldn't have been a lie!"
Harry: "did you like her an viktor together?"
Ron: "NO"
Harry: "see i'm not wrong"
Ron: "who would be happy to see them together."
Harry: "she's my friend so if she's happy then i'm happy, besides you aren't dating her."
Ron had left him on read. Harry rolled his eyes before setting his phone down and picking up his laptop to continue his essay. About ten minutes later, Hermione facetimed him, "why did Ron block me on snapchat?"
"You barely use snapchat," Harry pointed out to her.
"Yes, but he does, so why did he block me?"
"He texted me why you were mad at him, so I told him about the you and Viktor thing. He got mad at that, so here we are."
"Ugh. Why is he so dramatic about this?"
"I don't know. It's not like you're his girlfriend."
"Exactly! I don't see his problem! I'll talk to him on Monday at school. Bye Harry."
"Bye 'Mione."
Harry checked the clock to see he had less than an hour to complete this essay, so he got back to work.
O
Several weeks later, James and Lily had planned a short weekend away, so the three kids were staying at the Lupin's house until their parents returned. Harry had originally planned to stay at the Weasley's, but those plans had fell through. "Is there a reason why you didn't stay with Ron this weekend," Remus asked Harry while they sat alone together in the kitchen following dinner. He had been noticing the distance between the pair, as well as Hermione, while they were at school.
Harry shrugged, "plans didn't work out, that's it."
"Harry," began Remus, "I have seen the three of you around school, I know there is something going on."
"Ron's just acting weird."
"Is there anything that could've sparked that," Remus asked.
"I don't know," began Harry, "he's been kind of cold to Hermione since homecoming, since she took Viktor Krum, you know the soccer player. Ron didn't like them together, so he began acting weird around her, so when Hermione asked why I told her that. Ron asked me why I told her that, I said because he didn't like them being together, and that he is not her boyfriend so he doesn't have a say in it. He didn't like that, apparently, so he left me on read and has barely talked to me since."
"When did all of this start," Remus asked.
"I don't know, maybe three, four weeks ago," replied Harry. "Well, it really started at homecoming, but the actual fight began a few weeks ago."
"And it all started because of their dates, even though homecoming was months ago," Remus verified.
"Yep," confirmed Harry, "and it's only going to get worse, since Krum is Beast in the school play while Hermione is Belle. Ron is going to flip when they do the kissing scene if this is how he is going to react to this!"
"Viktor Krum, the kid who is on two travel soccer teams, on top of the one he plays for school, is in the school play? That's interesting," said Remus slowly.
"Didn't you play hockey while also being in the school plays as well," Harry asked.
"I did," confirmed Remus, "but when people looked at me, they saw a theater kid who happened to play hockey. When they see him, they see someone who is going to play in the Olympics one day."
"True," said Harry with a shrug, "it's kind of like a Disney move, isn't it? Anyways, what should I do about this Ron and Hermione thing?"
"Honestly, the only thing you really can do is try to make up with Ron and hope that your friendship with each of them fills the gap."
"With them? That's a lot harder than it sounds, Uncle Remus."
O
Sirius and Marlene sat in their favorite local café with Regulus and his fiancé, Adam. Barely any words had been spoken between Sirius and his brother, with the conversation being kept alive by Marlene and Adam, who despite the awkwardness of the table, was trying his best to get to know his future brother-in-law. Sirius looked between Adam and Regulus, "how long have you two been together?"
"A little over three years," answered Adam.
"Okay, so when and where is the wedding," Sirius asked.
"November in a winery in downtown Philadelphia," explained Regulus.
"Alright," began Sirius, "why did you pick me to be your best man when we haven't spoken in almost four years?"
"Look," said Regulus, "I know we haven't had the greatest relationship in the past, but I would like to try and fix that. We were pretty close before the family shit went down, and I don't want to have the family put a rift between us. You're my brother, you will always be my brother, and no matter what, you always had my back when we were kids. I would like to have that again."
Sirius was taken aback, "yes, that's all good, but at the end of the day, we aren't kids anymore are we?"
"Sirius," said Marlene, giving him a disgusted look.
"I think we are done here," said Sirius, standing up to grab his coat off of the back of his chair. He put it on before grabbing Christian out of the booster seat the restaurant provided. Marlene threw and apologetic look at the couple before following Sirius out of the café.
"What the hell, Sirius," she exclaimed once they were in the car.
"Did you hear his speech in there? Sure, I had his back throughout our childhood, but he never once had mine. I'm tired of this one way shit. He didn't have my back when I was being berated by my parents, for things he did! He didn't even have it when I was disowned for fucks sake! I didn't get an apology back there, and I'm not speaking to him again until I do!"
"or you could try being the bigger person!"
"No, I've done that my entire life with my family, I am not doing it anymore," he shouted before beginning to drive home, a drive that was in complete silence.
I hope you enjoyed!