TITLE: The Last Link

STATUS/PART: 2/2

RATING: PG

PAIRING: SB/RL

SPOILERS: Just OotP

SUMMARY: Someone was pregnant on that fateful night in the Department of Mysteries, now he has to hope that his last link to the man he lost can survive.

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Harry walked into the N.I.C.U. of the hospital with a heavy heart. Professor Dumbledore had been allowing him to come here for a few hours every night for the past two weeks, ever since Isabella had been born. All the time at the hospital was beginning to take a toll on the young man, but he didn't dare miss a day. Right now the baby needed to be surrounded by as much love as possible and, unfortunately, he was the only one other than her father that was going to see her.

At first he didn't notice anything wrong or out of the ordinary. The room was full of sick babies and their parents, and luckily enough everyone was distracted enough not to notice him there, considering that he didn't belong on the unit. But then when he turned towards the bed he normally spent his evenings at . . .he realized that it was empty. Isabella no longer laid where she had for the past two weeks.

His heart sped up as he looked frantically around the room for her. Surely she was still there, they had just moved her to a new bed. There was no other possible explanation for why she would be gone, except . . . NO! He refused to think that. If anything had happened to her since the night before, Remus would have found a way to get a hold of him. Dumbledore would have been informed and Harry summoned to come to the hospital to be with them.

However, even as he scanned the room it was obvious that she was nowhere to be found. Harry's heart nearly stopped beating and his mouth went completely dry as he tried to figure out what could have happened to the baby.

Finally he gave up searching and approached the nurse's desk tentatively. He really wasn't supposed to be here and he didn't want to draw attention to himself, but he HAD to. If something had happened to Isabella he needed to know.

The women bustling around behind the desk all seemed to be busy and Harry didn't want to interrupt them, so he just stood there bouncing from foot to foot until one of them looked up at him in annoyance.

"You shouldn't be here, young man, you have to be eighteen to be in this unit." One particularly foul looking woman snapped at him. "Did you need something?"

"Y-yes, I was looking for Isabella Black. She used to be here on this unit."

"Are you immediate family?"

"N-no, not really. But . . .I've been coming to see her."

"Well, you shouldn't have been." The lady scoffed. "And I can't tell you anything. I can't give out information on a patient to anyone but immediate family."

"But . . .I need to know where she is! Is she okay? Did anything happen to her?"

"I'm sorry, but I simply can not give out that kind of information. Your best bet would be to go to the mother's room and talk to the parents. They can tell you anything they want."

Harry sighed in frustration and turned away muttering under his breath that there was no mother, and if this woman were a better nurse she'd know things like that about her patients.

For a minute he wondered if Remus would even still have a room in the hospital. He didn't think it was normal for someone to stay in the hospital for more than a few days after giving birth. But then he remembered that while they were talking one night, his former professor had mentioned that he had gotten a room in the hospital's family ward, a place he could stay while Isabella was still here.

Harry wandered towards the unit where the older man was staying, and curse himself for not paying better attention to the room number. When he finally reached the unit where family members of patients stayed he stared blankly at all of the doors, praying that the correct room number would come to him and prevent him from standing here like an idiot all night. Luckily, just when he was about to give up and start knocking on doors randomly, the man he was looking for came out of a room a little bit down the hall.

"Professor Lupin?"

"Harry?" The man looked up at him, a look of surprise coming across his face. "What are you doing down here?"

"I'm looking for you! I went upstairs and Isabella's gone. They wouldn't tell me anything, so I came to find you."

"You went upstairs looking for her? Oh . . .I asked Dumbledore to tell you. I guess my owl didn't reach him before you left."

"Owl? Dumbledore? Tell me what?"

"Come on, Harry. I'll explain on the way." The older man said as he placed an arm gently over Harry's shoulder and guided him down the hallway.

"On the way WHERE? Explain WHAT?" Harry asked in frustration. He had come down here seeking answers and all he was getting were more questions.

"They took Isabella off the respirator this morning," Lupin told him as they stepped onto an elevator. "She-"

"She's okay isn't she? Why didn't you get me earlier? Oh God . . .she's not . . .she didn't . . ."

"No. Nothing like that, Harry. Quite the opposite, in fact. She started breathing on her own."

"Sh-she did?" Harry asked in disbelief. When he had left the night before, the baby had still looked incredibly sick. In fact, she had looked like she was getting sicker, in Harry's opinion.

"Yes, it was like a miracle, Harry," The other man beamed as he guided Harry off the elevator and down another hallway. "At first she kind of faltered, they weren't sure if she was going to be okay. If she hadn't started breathing, we weren't going to put her back on the respirator, we were going to just let her go. A minute or so passed, and I was about to give up on her. But then, she took a breath . . .and then another . . .and another. She's been breathing on her own for almost twelve hours now, and has only had a couple of problems."

"Problems?"

"Well, for the first few hours she would forget to breath sometimes. But, the nurses would just rub her back a little and remind her, then she'd be okay. She hasn't had and episode like that in about seven hours though."

"So . . .where is she?" Harry asked, still confused as to what had happened to the baby.

"She's right there, Harry."

For the first time, Harry realized that they had stopped in front of a large window. As he looked through the glass he saw into a room filled with babies. His eyes scanned the rows of tiny cribs before finally coming to rest . . .there, in a corner, was the tiny black haired baby he had come to see. His heart stopped and his breath caught in his throat as he finally got his first good look at her. This was the first time since she'd been born that Harry had seen her that she didn't have IV's in her little limbs, and tubes to help her breath going down her tiny throat.

Harry looked over at Remus and saw the other man staring at the baby, a huge smile breaking across his face. He never broke his gaze as he began to speak again.

"She looks good, doesn't she? The doctor said if she continues to progress, she'll be able to come home in a few days, a week at the most."

"Th-that's great!"

"Would you like to see her up close, Harry?"

"Can I?"

"Of course you can. You can even hold her if you like." The older man tapped lightly on the glass to catch the attention of a nurse who was attending to the infants, and gestured off to the side. After she had nodded that she'd seen him, Remus took a hold of Harry's arm and gently pulled him toward a door next to the window. "This way, Harry."

They walked through the door and Harry found himself being handed a paper gown, and was explained to that he had to wear it for sterilization reasons if he wanted to hold Isabella. He nodded his understanding and quickly shrugged into the gown. It was barely in place on his body when another door was opened and Isabella's crib was being wheeled into the room.

Harry stood, transfixed, just staring at the sleeping baby, his godfather's baby. Now, seeing her up close and without tubes surrounding her, she looked even more beautiful. In Harry's opinion, she was truly an angel of a baby.

"Go ahead, pick her up." Remus encouraged.

Harry hesitated for a minute before gingerly picking up the baby, scared to death that he might hurt her. Finally, he got her settled into his arms and cuddled the sleeping child against his chest, feeling as if it were the most normal thing in the world. He smiled and cooed softly at her.

"Hi, Bella. I'm Harry. Your other daddy was my godfather, so I guess that kind of makes me like your big brother. Maybe not technically, but as far as I'm concerned, you're my baby sister, and I'm going to help take care of you. Anything you ever need, you can come to me. I'll make sure you have all you want in life, and that nobody ever hurts you."

Isabella just sighed and adjusted herself in Harry's arms so she was snuggled closer against him. Harry ran a finger down her soft, downy cheek and looked up at her father. The two men smiled at each other contentedly, both relieved that the baby in Harry's arms was going to be okay. Sirius might be gone from them, but there was still this baby, one last link to a man they had both cared about deeply.