Title: Baby Boom! 11/18
Author: Mariann
Rating: R
Pairing: Sirius/Remus
Category: Between Fluff, Fun and Fighting
Summary: Sirius and Remus grow up, find love, start a family and fight the Dark Lord
Disclaimer: Belongs to JKR - no money's made from my poor attempts at writing
A/N: AU - The Willow Incident does not happen in this story. Peter is loyal and a spy for Dumbledore. Remus and Sirius are destined to fight Voldemort - will they succeed? A fair amount of children are born in this story - to spite the Death Eaters of course!
11. A Moment of Quiet during the War
The next full moon was at the beginning of November. Remus and Sirius left their children to Lily and James and went to the Shrieking Shack as they did every month. Remus undressed and sat on the bed to await the inevitable, but it didn't happen. He looked down at the black dog residing next to him on the bed and they both guessed what that meant. No transformation - Remus must be pregnant again, too. He hid his face in his hands and shook his head.
"Oh dear."
Sirius transformed back immediately and caressed his mate's still totally flat belly. He beamed.
"I love you, Remus. And you'll enjoy another period of no transformations..."
"I can't keep that up for my whole life, Sirius! Imagine the family we'd create!"
Sirius grinned.
"Well, we don't need to exaggerate. I'm just happy for you that for a few months Moony will be banished into the back of your head. Not that I don't like him."
"Well, I don't! Like Moony, I mean."
"You don't need to like him. How does he respond to the children?"
"Loves them, I think. I don't think I'd attack any of them, but I'm not about to find out."
"No, neither am I."
"Though the wolfsbane potion is supposed to go into final testing next year. I'd have offered to help with the testing, but when I'll be nursing another baby I obviously can't. And I sincerely hope that the contraceptive potion Lily talked about helps better than the spell!"
"Maybe we just did it wrong, Remus. Maybe it has to be recast monthly or so..." Sirius suggested.
"That might be, but again, I'm not about to try and find out, I'll take the safer potion."
Sirius grinned.
"I do want to keep fucking you without fear of having you pregnant again within only a couple of months. And even though you are nursing! That was supposed to keep a new pregnancy at bay, too, you know!" Remus said, looking at Sirius.
Sirius grinned even wider.
"Actually only if you have them at your breast at intervals not longer than five to six hours. Longer than that and the hormonal protection is rather gone."
"Ah. That would explain it."
Remus got up and dressed again. It was rather cold and since he had not sprouted a thick wolf's pelt he started to freeze. Sirius got up, too, and said:
"Well, let's get back to our somewhat more comfortable abode."
"Agreed!"
"And I wouldn't mind a large family. We'll just need a really big house for all of the children!"
Remus chuckled, while they apparated out of the house and walked back to the castle on the surface. It was a very crisp, clear November night and they could see the full moon shining over Hogwarts, almost pushing the stars out of sight. Remus looked up at it and whispered:
"You don't know how this feels, to look at this icy perfection up there with my human eyes! It still amazes me."
"That's good. I know you hated it..."
"I don't hate it anymore. Haven't for a while. Just kind of regretted not to be able to see it just like everybody else does. And of course being governed by it the way I am. It rules my life!"
"More than I ever could. Though the kids rule our lives quite a bit, too. There are so many things ruling our lives that it makes me cringe, Moony! The moon is just one of them. But there are the laws, the Ministry, our parents, our friends, our children, the war, Voldie and his idiots... no reason to moon over just one part of them all... let me take you back home and love you instead!"
"Ruling..." Remus muttered, but he grinned.
When the two of them showed up in their flat, Lily looked up, highly astonished. James was with her as the two of them had promised to baby-sit. Sirius smiled, because they caught their friends short of getting undressed.
"You'd better head over to Lily's!" Sirius bellowed.
"What are you two doing here? Don't tell me, that Moony's got his lunar calendar wrong?" James stuttered, blushing.
"No, I haven't. Me not transforming can only mean one thing..."
"You've done it AGAIN!" James broke out.
"Looks like it. First full moon I haven't transformed, so I can't be pregnant for longer than a month. You two hop over to Lily's and start working on the next Potter generation real quick!"
"No dangerous days right now. But we might have done the deed a week ago..." Lily mentioned with a smile.
"Good luck!" Remus said.
"Same to you, Remus. And good night!"
Poppy of course confirmed the other new pregnancy and was delighted. Secretly she thought, that Remus should have a whole mass of children, if being pregnant spared him a few transformations. When Remus' parents were informed of the new grandchildren in the making her thoughts were mirrored by Richard and Venetia.
"You know, I really don't mind Remus pregnant at all if it means, that he doesn't have to transform," Venetia remarked.
"I think so, too, but that will become a very large family, love. Even if he allows himself a transformation free year only every two or three years."
"But it will give him respite from the pain. Whenever I hear one of my female friends complaining about their monthly pains I'm tempted to tell them how that feels compared to what my son goes through every month. Twice! Rather let them have a monstrous family. It's not like the Blacks are poor and no matter what Sirius' parents want, he's their legal heir. Unless he dies he inherits. Would make for a nice new branch of Blacks, don't you think?"
Richard smirked.
"Leda Black must be seething even more than her husband. He's quite under her regiment I hear. Wouldn't budge if she ordered him to sit still..."
Venetia laughed.
"Serves him right for choosing a woman sixteen years older than him, just because his parents thought there was no other spouse pure-blooded enough for their oh so pure-blooded son."
"As long as she brought the desired heir forth she could be as ugly as the desert Gobi and still be perfect for their ways of thinking. Now she has a son with her own rather strong-minded character who won't practice dark arts and one that's following her wishes, but is more of the small-minded sort like her husband. Strange, how genes work, isn't it? I can't but wonder, how our grand-children turn out."
"Genetics are strong, my love, but the socialising part is just as strong. Remus and Sirius both love their children, enough to be strict with them and dote on them at the same time. Just watch them, they're like mother-hens, both of them! It's so sweet to see. I'm sure that their children will turn out well. If parents are there for their children without overpowering them or become overly protective of them they usually become normal people. Remus and Sirius want them down-to-earth, but fun loving, curious and interested in things to discover. Sirius emphasized the term 'discover' the other day and said, he'd do that to cover up the term 'to learn', which would sound too goody-good to those of their children who would get more of his temperament. I thought that was pretty clever. 'Find out' and 'discover' arouse much more curiosity than 'learn'. Tell them to learn something and they will think it's work. Allow them to discover something and it will be an adventure. Clever son-in-law I have! I hope he succeeds with this tactic. Could almost be a Ravenclaw!"
Richard laughed at that. He thought about it for a moment and then said:
"You know, I think, Sirius is extremely afraid of becoming a bad parent. And he doesn't want to become that. I'm sure he'll do well and Remus is there with him all the way. Their children will have a good part of our son in them, because that wolf inside of Remus makes him damn strong. Very interesting that it doesn't seem to become hereditary, there's not the slightest bit of it in Vega and Polaris."
"No, there isn't. They actually remind me a lot of ours. Vega has something of Julia, don't you think? She'll be a mischievous girl."
The growing family Black-Lupin knew nothing about their grandparents' musings, but the two elder Lupins were very right in all of their assessments. Remus watched over Sirius, because Sirius needed him to until he felt certain that he wouldn't become a parent like his own parents. He knew of the inadequacies of his father's. He knew that his sharp intellect came from his mother, even though she looked awful and totally degenerated. Somehow in her case it did not affect the intellect, only the sanity and the body. Sirius was disgusted whenever he had to get into contact with her. On the other hand he considered himself extremely lucky to have the handsome appearance of his father's and his mother's brain. He often thought it could have turned out the other way.
In between further skirmishes with Death Eaters and researching Lily informed her friends and family that she had caught the 'bug', too and that she would have a baby by the end of July. James was completely out of it and trembled of fear to have this responsibility for a child of their own, but at the same time he was completely thrilled and couldn't wait. Remus and Sirius congratulated them the first and of course promised to let them get more training with their own newly born babies to get some routine in the care of tiny humans.
"You two will be godfathers, won't you?" Lily and James asked their closest friends.
"Of course we will! You don't even have to ask!" Sirius exclaimed.
He looked good, but now he started to show his pregnancy through his robes and was growing rounder. He had passed the stage of the morning sickness and by Christmas he felt perfectly fine. They decided to celebrate it together at the Lupins' fairly large home. Martha and Oliver Potter were invited as well and since all of the other Lupin children were there with their families it was quite an event. Richard and Venetia had acquired a house-elf for the occasion as their Christmas present to each other. A young elf named Billy had taken over the regiment in the Lupin house and they were thrilled how the little creature took off. They were treating her very kindly and within two days around the Lupin grandchildren Billy looked at them as her primary masters and tended to them better than any nanny could. She did all the cooking, but Venetia insisted on doing the few household spells that needed to be done to clean the house, make the beds and so on.
"As soon as Christmas is over and all our guests leave you can take over the house as well, Billy. That will give me more time for other things, since Rupert and Rowland are both still at Hogwarts. We don't think you should be a slave, you're a worthy person of your own. Okay?"
"Mistress commands, I is following her wishes. I is doing the cooking, Madam!"
"Very good. Do you accept some teaching in how I would like the cooking done?"
"Yes, Madam."
Venetia instructed her new house-elf how she liked things done in the kitchen and Billy complied in everything she was told. Within days she was loved by everyone in the house and was happy to serve such a nice family. Not even Rupert or Rowland teased her or had unreasonable demands.
It was Vega's and Polaris' second Christmas, but the last time they had been so tiny they hadn't noticed anything of it. Now though they noticed that a lot of preparations were going on and had to be kept away from the big Christmas tree, which their fathers were decorating magically with their sisters and brothers-in-law. Roxanne's twins were getting in the way, too, which made them all laugh, but it was a bit aggravating, so Sirius drew a magical line on the floor that the children were unable to cross. It amused the adults greatly how the little ones tried to come closer and hit on a cushioned barrier that wouldn't let them pass. Vega was so frustrated that she stopped crawling, sat on her behind and started bawling so loud that everyone else in the house came running to see what was wrong.
"Why is that child screaming at the top of her voice?" Venetia asked sternly.
Sirius calmly crouched down and lifted his little daughter up. He sat down with her, held her tightly and kissed her, soothed her, and once she stopped crying he said:
"I'm really sorry, my little darling, but see that tree is a bit dangerous to you, Polaris and your cousins. You don't want it to fall on top of you, love. That's why you must stay out. Tomorrow morning you can get closer again."
There were still a few sobs from Vega, but the little one slowly calmed down. Finally she stopped trying to get to the people inside of the ring around the tree. Venetia retreated to the kitchen with a smile. 'Sirius has his children well in his hands,' she thought contentedly.
Remus was happy, too. Sirius was still up on the barricades in a matter of seconds if something irked him, but so far he had kept the nerves when the something that irked him were his children. He gave Sirius a quick kiss on the cheek and smiled. They soon finished the decorations in the living room and went on to decorate the hall and staircase up to the other floors. And finally they added special little wreaths, wrapped in red and green ribbons and filled with a thick red candle on the bedside tables in all the rooms.
Every single room would be occupied. All young parents took their children into their own rooms to free enough space for the guests to sleep over on Christmas Eve and onto Boxing Day. Sirius had done some amazing transfigurations to have enough beds ready. The guests, Lily and James, Martha and Oliver and all the remaining older Lupin children arrived in the course of the afternoon of Christmas Eve. They were welcomed with an aperitif for the adults, sweets and hot chocolate for the children.
With the wards securely in place they were able to enjoy a few days of absolute peace and since there were no Death Eater attacks in the outside world either, the dark times were left outside. Owls with gifts to family and friends not with them had been sent a few days ago and lots of them had shown up at the kitchen window where the Lupins usually received their mail. There was a huge pile of colourfully wrapped gifts under the tree, which glimmered in silver and white baubles, tinsel, fairy lights and even the candles were silver and white. Remus' part were little silvery stars all over the tree and Rupert had been allowed to add the top. It was a silver fairy with wonderful fragile wings and silver hair.
With five children between one and four years it was a lively Christmas celebration. Luckily the children didn't get out of their beds earlier than usual, so their parents got up normally and assembled the family in the living room again, where the candles were burning on the tree and otherwise the light had been turned off. They opened their gifts. Sirius sat on the floor, his two toddlers next to him and handed them each a gift. The children needed help to do that, which he provided, but they discovered then and there that opening gifts brought forward exciting surprises. There were gifts from their fathers, their grandparents, their godparents, aunts and uncles. What surprised Sirius most was that there was something for the children from his mother. Even though he wasn't entirely happy with her choice of sending them something typically Black: small pure silver spoons with the Black family crest. He sighed. It wasn't like his mother didn't know that his mate was a werewolf and couldn't touch those spoons, because he was allergic to silver. He wondered about his mother's motivation to do that.
"I bet she's had Kreacher pack up the gift and send it," he muttered.
Remus sat close to him, legs crossed, Polaris on his lap. The boy still had the spoon in his hands and Remus said to him:
"I'll have to put this away for a while, Polaris, because I can't touch it."
As soon as the boy lost interest and dropped the spoon, Sirius picked it up and banished the two spoons to the kitchen. He wasn't really angry, it was more than a surprise his mother had even thought of her grandchildren. After all she didn't have to, he hadn't even told her about them; she had been informed about their existance by Regulus. Sirius had received a Howler for that but hadn't really cared. He had considered of returning with another Howler to complain about hers waking and terrifying his children, but had not done so. Remus had been glad about that, because he didn't want his Sirius dropping down to the same level as his mother. That was the motivation for Sirius to just let it go.
After the larger part of the guests had left the Lupin home they returned all the rooms to what they had been before Christmas. Sirius and Remus stayed for another few days until after the start of the new year. On New Year's Day they both thought about the events of the past year and remembered what had been important for them.
"Hope and James becoming Aurors," Remus said.
"Dari becoming a journalist for the Daily Prophet," Sirius contributed.
"That's a good one, I hope she will be able to report things that are actually true," Remus said.
"So do I. But she's a tough girl, she's doing the right things."
"All of our friends joining the Order. The weddings. Peter doing well in his job."
"Lots of good things actually..." Sirius summarised.
"Yes, amazing, isn't it? We're in the middle of a war and still life goes on as it always has..." Remus mused.
"That's a bit how it was through World War Two and the Grindelwald Dark Days," Richard threw in.
"I can imagine. Luckily there's not another huge Muggle war going on interfering with ours!" Sirius said.
"There's enough of them going on. I mean, look what happened in Iran. Those Muggle hostages held in Teheran..." Venetia said.
"And there's the conflict between China and Vietnam, too," Sirius demonstrated his knowledge about the Muggle news.
"On the other hand there's the treaty signed between Israel and Egypt," Remus remarked.
"But still plenty going on, just far enough that it doesn't really concern us here," Richard said.
"All in all it wasn't such a bad year, now was it?" Sirius asked.
"No, for us it wasn't. We didn't earn very much money, but there was no real need..."
"But still. You finally have your own Gringotts vault and it isn't empty. That's something. And I don't mind to live at Hogwarts for a while."
Remus quieted and looked at his children napping near them on a thick blanket. Then he said passionately:
"I still hate it that so many decisions concerning our lives we ought to make now have to wait until we get rid of Voldemort! That war is ruling our lives even worse than the bloody full moon!"
It didn't happen often that Remus showed such despair. Sirius pulled him close. Remus turned and sat in his mate's lap, embraced him and rested his face on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius stroked over his head and soothed him:
"One day soon, love! We have annoyed him a pretty bit by now, he'll have to come forth soon or he'll lose more of his Death Eaters. I believe that the Death Eaters without their master will be rather easy to handle. He's the whole problem, he's hiding out and that's what is making this so difficult. We've been able to beat them so often the past year. And you know how much the two of us have contributed to that. Even the Aurors are glad to profit from our research."
Remus nodded, but still remained where he was. Richard and Venetia watched their two beloved sons and Richard added:
"It's very true what you say, Sirius. Barty comes up with ideas to allow the Aurors to use Unforgivables, but I prefer your clever schemes in using altered and new or very ancient spells much better. I know he heads the Auror Division, but I do have some influence there, too, being the head of the complete department. It's hard to show Barty that he's lowering us down to the ways of the Death Eaters. On the other hand we have much that should keep our hopes up. There are the reports of the many people with your wards on their houses, Remus. They can at least sleep at night with much less fear. And that alone is worth a lot, because by daylight they are ready to pick up their lives and the fight again. Voldemort tries to invoke fear wherever he can and he succeeds with many people. But that's for a good part because of the surprise attacks on unsuspecting people at night. That's why he's so mad at you two. You have often warded off houses he has planned to attack. Thanks to Peter for a good part, too. He's done very good work."
And they continued to do good work. Dumbledore had several spies, one of them he never mentioned by name even to Sirius and Remus, but that spy only told Dumbledore of the secret meetings of Voldemort's inner circle and that was when Peter came to play. He could get into any warded off area simply by transforming into the rat. And by now he was far beyond the state of being afraid of discovery. He was cunning enough in his rat form and the only thing slightly unusual about him was that he always carried along a small piece of wood of some sort, which was enchanted with the recording spell. If he didn't find a good enough spot to hide he dropped the wood and later on simply placed his memories of the event in Dumbledore's Pensieve.
Almost every scheme Voldemort brought up in such meetings was thus known to Dumbledore. Voldemort repeatedly questioned his Death Eaters whether they had revealed anything to the Ministry or the Order of the Phoenix, but he couldn't find out anything, because none of them had given any secrets away. His methods of questiong became more and more violent. He was getting angrier every day. Magical artefacts or books he was after vanished right under his nose or people he planned to eliminate, were protected so well that it was impossible to get to them.
In February he finally booked a bit of a 'success' again and that was killing a group of very seasoned Aurors, the Bones and Prewetts. The Bones family mourned the loss of three siblings, two brothers and a sister, who had all been Aurors and had been very successful in bringing down many Death Eaters in the past three years. All three of them were already grandparents. The Prewetts were two brothers, who had been working as a team with the Bones siblings for six years. They were a bit younger, but both had been Aurors since shortly after Grindelwald's downfall. Both left a wife, children and grandchildren.
The magical community mourned them and sadly this event allowed Barty Crouch to finally get the Wizengamot's vote to allow certain Aurors to use Imperius and Avada Kedavra if nothing else worked against the Death Eaters.
But several minor Death Eaters were caught and tried in the next months. Moody had to finally break down and use Avada Kedavra when he tried to bring down Evan Rosier, one of Snape's old class mates. He kept a very ugly reminder in his face of that fight. And he hated himself for having to kill the man. Alastor Moody always tried to bring in suspects to be tried and sent to Azkaban instead of killing them. He was glad that Cruciatus had been completely banned and was not allowed under any circumstances.
Author: Mariann
Rating: R
Pairing: Sirius/Remus
Category: Between Fluff, Fun and Fighting
Summary: Sirius and Remus grow up, find love, start a family and fight the Dark Lord
Disclaimer: Belongs to JKR - no money's made from my poor attempts at writing
A/N: AU - The Willow Incident does not happen in this story. Peter is loyal and a spy for Dumbledore. Remus and Sirius are destined to fight Voldemort - will they succeed? A fair amount of children are born in this story - to spite the Death Eaters of course!
11. A Moment of Quiet during the War
The next full moon was at the beginning of November. Remus and Sirius left their children to Lily and James and went to the Shrieking Shack as they did every month. Remus undressed and sat on the bed to await the inevitable, but it didn't happen. He looked down at the black dog residing next to him on the bed and they both guessed what that meant. No transformation - Remus must be pregnant again, too. He hid his face in his hands and shook his head.
"Oh dear."
Sirius transformed back immediately and caressed his mate's still totally flat belly. He beamed.
"I love you, Remus. And you'll enjoy another period of no transformations..."
"I can't keep that up for my whole life, Sirius! Imagine the family we'd create!"
Sirius grinned.
"Well, we don't need to exaggerate. I'm just happy for you that for a few months Moony will be banished into the back of your head. Not that I don't like him."
"Well, I don't! Like Moony, I mean."
"You don't need to like him. How does he respond to the children?"
"Loves them, I think. I don't think I'd attack any of them, but I'm not about to find out."
"No, neither am I."
"Though the wolfsbane potion is supposed to go into final testing next year. I'd have offered to help with the testing, but when I'll be nursing another baby I obviously can't. And I sincerely hope that the contraceptive potion Lily talked about helps better than the spell!"
"Maybe we just did it wrong, Remus. Maybe it has to be recast monthly or so..." Sirius suggested.
"That might be, but again, I'm not about to try and find out, I'll take the safer potion."
Sirius grinned.
"I do want to keep fucking you without fear of having you pregnant again within only a couple of months. And even though you are nursing! That was supposed to keep a new pregnancy at bay, too, you know!" Remus said, looking at Sirius.
Sirius grinned even wider.
"Actually only if you have them at your breast at intervals not longer than five to six hours. Longer than that and the hormonal protection is rather gone."
"Ah. That would explain it."
Remus got up and dressed again. It was rather cold and since he had not sprouted a thick wolf's pelt he started to freeze. Sirius got up, too, and said:
"Well, let's get back to our somewhat more comfortable abode."
"Agreed!"
"And I wouldn't mind a large family. We'll just need a really big house for all of the children!"
Remus chuckled, while they apparated out of the house and walked back to the castle on the surface. It was a very crisp, clear November night and they could see the full moon shining over Hogwarts, almost pushing the stars out of sight. Remus looked up at it and whispered:
"You don't know how this feels, to look at this icy perfection up there with my human eyes! It still amazes me."
"That's good. I know you hated it..."
"I don't hate it anymore. Haven't for a while. Just kind of regretted not to be able to see it just like everybody else does. And of course being governed by it the way I am. It rules my life!"
"More than I ever could. Though the kids rule our lives quite a bit, too. There are so many things ruling our lives that it makes me cringe, Moony! The moon is just one of them. But there are the laws, the Ministry, our parents, our friends, our children, the war, Voldie and his idiots... no reason to moon over just one part of them all... let me take you back home and love you instead!"
"Ruling..." Remus muttered, but he grinned.
When the two of them showed up in their flat, Lily looked up, highly astonished. James was with her as the two of them had promised to baby-sit. Sirius smiled, because they caught their friends short of getting undressed.
"You'd better head over to Lily's!" Sirius bellowed.
"What are you two doing here? Don't tell me, that Moony's got his lunar calendar wrong?" James stuttered, blushing.
"No, I haven't. Me not transforming can only mean one thing..."
"You've done it AGAIN!" James broke out.
"Looks like it. First full moon I haven't transformed, so I can't be pregnant for longer than a month. You two hop over to Lily's and start working on the next Potter generation real quick!"
"No dangerous days right now. But we might have done the deed a week ago..." Lily mentioned with a smile.
"Good luck!" Remus said.
"Same to you, Remus. And good night!"
Poppy of course confirmed the other new pregnancy and was delighted. Secretly she thought, that Remus should have a whole mass of children, if being pregnant spared him a few transformations. When Remus' parents were informed of the new grandchildren in the making her thoughts were mirrored by Richard and Venetia.
"You know, I really don't mind Remus pregnant at all if it means, that he doesn't have to transform," Venetia remarked.
"I think so, too, but that will become a very large family, love. Even if he allows himself a transformation free year only every two or three years."
"But it will give him respite from the pain. Whenever I hear one of my female friends complaining about their monthly pains I'm tempted to tell them how that feels compared to what my son goes through every month. Twice! Rather let them have a monstrous family. It's not like the Blacks are poor and no matter what Sirius' parents want, he's their legal heir. Unless he dies he inherits. Would make for a nice new branch of Blacks, don't you think?"
Richard smirked.
"Leda Black must be seething even more than her husband. He's quite under her regiment I hear. Wouldn't budge if she ordered him to sit still..."
Venetia laughed.
"Serves him right for choosing a woman sixteen years older than him, just because his parents thought there was no other spouse pure-blooded enough for their oh so pure-blooded son."
"As long as she brought the desired heir forth she could be as ugly as the desert Gobi and still be perfect for their ways of thinking. Now she has a son with her own rather strong-minded character who won't practice dark arts and one that's following her wishes, but is more of the small-minded sort like her husband. Strange, how genes work, isn't it? I can't but wonder, how our grand-children turn out."
"Genetics are strong, my love, but the socialising part is just as strong. Remus and Sirius both love their children, enough to be strict with them and dote on them at the same time. Just watch them, they're like mother-hens, both of them! It's so sweet to see. I'm sure that their children will turn out well. If parents are there for their children without overpowering them or become overly protective of them they usually become normal people. Remus and Sirius want them down-to-earth, but fun loving, curious and interested in things to discover. Sirius emphasized the term 'discover' the other day and said, he'd do that to cover up the term 'to learn', which would sound too goody-good to those of their children who would get more of his temperament. I thought that was pretty clever. 'Find out' and 'discover' arouse much more curiosity than 'learn'. Tell them to learn something and they will think it's work. Allow them to discover something and it will be an adventure. Clever son-in-law I have! I hope he succeeds with this tactic. Could almost be a Ravenclaw!"
Richard laughed at that. He thought about it for a moment and then said:
"You know, I think, Sirius is extremely afraid of becoming a bad parent. And he doesn't want to become that. I'm sure he'll do well and Remus is there with him all the way. Their children will have a good part of our son in them, because that wolf inside of Remus makes him damn strong. Very interesting that it doesn't seem to become hereditary, there's not the slightest bit of it in Vega and Polaris."
"No, there isn't. They actually remind me a lot of ours. Vega has something of Julia, don't you think? She'll be a mischievous girl."
The growing family Black-Lupin knew nothing about their grandparents' musings, but the two elder Lupins were very right in all of their assessments. Remus watched over Sirius, because Sirius needed him to until he felt certain that he wouldn't become a parent like his own parents. He knew of the inadequacies of his father's. He knew that his sharp intellect came from his mother, even though she looked awful and totally degenerated. Somehow in her case it did not affect the intellect, only the sanity and the body. Sirius was disgusted whenever he had to get into contact with her. On the other hand he considered himself extremely lucky to have the handsome appearance of his father's and his mother's brain. He often thought it could have turned out the other way.
In between further skirmishes with Death Eaters and researching Lily informed her friends and family that she had caught the 'bug', too and that she would have a baby by the end of July. James was completely out of it and trembled of fear to have this responsibility for a child of their own, but at the same time he was completely thrilled and couldn't wait. Remus and Sirius congratulated them the first and of course promised to let them get more training with their own newly born babies to get some routine in the care of tiny humans.
"You two will be godfathers, won't you?" Lily and James asked their closest friends.
"Of course we will! You don't even have to ask!" Sirius exclaimed.
He looked good, but now he started to show his pregnancy through his robes and was growing rounder. He had passed the stage of the morning sickness and by Christmas he felt perfectly fine. They decided to celebrate it together at the Lupins' fairly large home. Martha and Oliver Potter were invited as well and since all of the other Lupin children were there with their families it was quite an event. Richard and Venetia had acquired a house-elf for the occasion as their Christmas present to each other. A young elf named Billy had taken over the regiment in the Lupin house and they were thrilled how the little creature took off. They were treating her very kindly and within two days around the Lupin grandchildren Billy looked at them as her primary masters and tended to them better than any nanny could. She did all the cooking, but Venetia insisted on doing the few household spells that needed to be done to clean the house, make the beds and so on.
"As soon as Christmas is over and all our guests leave you can take over the house as well, Billy. That will give me more time for other things, since Rupert and Rowland are both still at Hogwarts. We don't think you should be a slave, you're a worthy person of your own. Okay?"
"Mistress commands, I is following her wishes. I is doing the cooking, Madam!"
"Very good. Do you accept some teaching in how I would like the cooking done?"
"Yes, Madam."
Venetia instructed her new house-elf how she liked things done in the kitchen and Billy complied in everything she was told. Within days she was loved by everyone in the house and was happy to serve such a nice family. Not even Rupert or Rowland teased her or had unreasonable demands.
It was Vega's and Polaris' second Christmas, but the last time they had been so tiny they hadn't noticed anything of it. Now though they noticed that a lot of preparations were going on and had to be kept away from the big Christmas tree, which their fathers were decorating magically with their sisters and brothers-in-law. Roxanne's twins were getting in the way, too, which made them all laugh, but it was a bit aggravating, so Sirius drew a magical line on the floor that the children were unable to cross. It amused the adults greatly how the little ones tried to come closer and hit on a cushioned barrier that wouldn't let them pass. Vega was so frustrated that she stopped crawling, sat on her behind and started bawling so loud that everyone else in the house came running to see what was wrong.
"Why is that child screaming at the top of her voice?" Venetia asked sternly.
Sirius calmly crouched down and lifted his little daughter up. He sat down with her, held her tightly and kissed her, soothed her, and once she stopped crying he said:
"I'm really sorry, my little darling, but see that tree is a bit dangerous to you, Polaris and your cousins. You don't want it to fall on top of you, love. That's why you must stay out. Tomorrow morning you can get closer again."
There were still a few sobs from Vega, but the little one slowly calmed down. Finally she stopped trying to get to the people inside of the ring around the tree. Venetia retreated to the kitchen with a smile. 'Sirius has his children well in his hands,' she thought contentedly.
Remus was happy, too. Sirius was still up on the barricades in a matter of seconds if something irked him, but so far he had kept the nerves when the something that irked him were his children. He gave Sirius a quick kiss on the cheek and smiled. They soon finished the decorations in the living room and went on to decorate the hall and staircase up to the other floors. And finally they added special little wreaths, wrapped in red and green ribbons and filled with a thick red candle on the bedside tables in all the rooms.
Every single room would be occupied. All young parents took their children into their own rooms to free enough space for the guests to sleep over on Christmas Eve and onto Boxing Day. Sirius had done some amazing transfigurations to have enough beds ready. The guests, Lily and James, Martha and Oliver and all the remaining older Lupin children arrived in the course of the afternoon of Christmas Eve. They were welcomed with an aperitif for the adults, sweets and hot chocolate for the children.
With the wards securely in place they were able to enjoy a few days of absolute peace and since there were no Death Eater attacks in the outside world either, the dark times were left outside. Owls with gifts to family and friends not with them had been sent a few days ago and lots of them had shown up at the kitchen window where the Lupins usually received their mail. There was a huge pile of colourfully wrapped gifts under the tree, which glimmered in silver and white baubles, tinsel, fairy lights and even the candles were silver and white. Remus' part were little silvery stars all over the tree and Rupert had been allowed to add the top. It was a silver fairy with wonderful fragile wings and silver hair.
With five children between one and four years it was a lively Christmas celebration. Luckily the children didn't get out of their beds earlier than usual, so their parents got up normally and assembled the family in the living room again, where the candles were burning on the tree and otherwise the light had been turned off. They opened their gifts. Sirius sat on the floor, his two toddlers next to him and handed them each a gift. The children needed help to do that, which he provided, but they discovered then and there that opening gifts brought forward exciting surprises. There were gifts from their fathers, their grandparents, their godparents, aunts and uncles. What surprised Sirius most was that there was something for the children from his mother. Even though he wasn't entirely happy with her choice of sending them something typically Black: small pure silver spoons with the Black family crest. He sighed. It wasn't like his mother didn't know that his mate was a werewolf and couldn't touch those spoons, because he was allergic to silver. He wondered about his mother's motivation to do that.
"I bet she's had Kreacher pack up the gift and send it," he muttered.
Remus sat close to him, legs crossed, Polaris on his lap. The boy still had the spoon in his hands and Remus said to him:
"I'll have to put this away for a while, Polaris, because I can't touch it."
As soon as the boy lost interest and dropped the spoon, Sirius picked it up and banished the two spoons to the kitchen. He wasn't really angry, it was more than a surprise his mother had even thought of her grandchildren. After all she didn't have to, he hadn't even told her about them; she had been informed about their existance by Regulus. Sirius had received a Howler for that but hadn't really cared. He had considered of returning with another Howler to complain about hers waking and terrifying his children, but had not done so. Remus had been glad about that, because he didn't want his Sirius dropping down to the same level as his mother. That was the motivation for Sirius to just let it go.
After the larger part of the guests had left the Lupin home they returned all the rooms to what they had been before Christmas. Sirius and Remus stayed for another few days until after the start of the new year. On New Year's Day they both thought about the events of the past year and remembered what had been important for them.
"Hope and James becoming Aurors," Remus said.
"Dari becoming a journalist for the Daily Prophet," Sirius contributed.
"That's a good one, I hope she will be able to report things that are actually true," Remus said.
"So do I. But she's a tough girl, she's doing the right things."
"All of our friends joining the Order. The weddings. Peter doing well in his job."
"Lots of good things actually..." Sirius summarised.
"Yes, amazing, isn't it? We're in the middle of a war and still life goes on as it always has..." Remus mused.
"That's a bit how it was through World War Two and the Grindelwald Dark Days," Richard threw in.
"I can imagine. Luckily there's not another huge Muggle war going on interfering with ours!" Sirius said.
"There's enough of them going on. I mean, look what happened in Iran. Those Muggle hostages held in Teheran..." Venetia said.
"And there's the conflict between China and Vietnam, too," Sirius demonstrated his knowledge about the Muggle news.
"On the other hand there's the treaty signed between Israel and Egypt," Remus remarked.
"But still plenty going on, just far enough that it doesn't really concern us here," Richard said.
"All in all it wasn't such a bad year, now was it?" Sirius asked.
"No, for us it wasn't. We didn't earn very much money, but there was no real need..."
"But still. You finally have your own Gringotts vault and it isn't empty. That's something. And I don't mind to live at Hogwarts for a while."
Remus quieted and looked at his children napping near them on a thick blanket. Then he said passionately:
"I still hate it that so many decisions concerning our lives we ought to make now have to wait until we get rid of Voldemort! That war is ruling our lives even worse than the bloody full moon!"
It didn't happen often that Remus showed such despair. Sirius pulled him close. Remus turned and sat in his mate's lap, embraced him and rested his face on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius stroked over his head and soothed him:
"One day soon, love! We have annoyed him a pretty bit by now, he'll have to come forth soon or he'll lose more of his Death Eaters. I believe that the Death Eaters without their master will be rather easy to handle. He's the whole problem, he's hiding out and that's what is making this so difficult. We've been able to beat them so often the past year. And you know how much the two of us have contributed to that. Even the Aurors are glad to profit from our research."
Remus nodded, but still remained where he was. Richard and Venetia watched their two beloved sons and Richard added:
"It's very true what you say, Sirius. Barty comes up with ideas to allow the Aurors to use Unforgivables, but I prefer your clever schemes in using altered and new or very ancient spells much better. I know he heads the Auror Division, but I do have some influence there, too, being the head of the complete department. It's hard to show Barty that he's lowering us down to the ways of the Death Eaters. On the other hand we have much that should keep our hopes up. There are the reports of the many people with your wards on their houses, Remus. They can at least sleep at night with much less fear. And that alone is worth a lot, because by daylight they are ready to pick up their lives and the fight again. Voldemort tries to invoke fear wherever he can and he succeeds with many people. But that's for a good part because of the surprise attacks on unsuspecting people at night. That's why he's so mad at you two. You have often warded off houses he has planned to attack. Thanks to Peter for a good part, too. He's done very good work."
And they continued to do good work. Dumbledore had several spies, one of them he never mentioned by name even to Sirius and Remus, but that spy only told Dumbledore of the secret meetings of Voldemort's inner circle and that was when Peter came to play. He could get into any warded off area simply by transforming into the rat. And by now he was far beyond the state of being afraid of discovery. He was cunning enough in his rat form and the only thing slightly unusual about him was that he always carried along a small piece of wood of some sort, which was enchanted with the recording spell. If he didn't find a good enough spot to hide he dropped the wood and later on simply placed his memories of the event in Dumbledore's Pensieve.
Almost every scheme Voldemort brought up in such meetings was thus known to Dumbledore. Voldemort repeatedly questioned his Death Eaters whether they had revealed anything to the Ministry or the Order of the Phoenix, but he couldn't find out anything, because none of them had given any secrets away. His methods of questiong became more and more violent. He was getting angrier every day. Magical artefacts or books he was after vanished right under his nose or people he planned to eliminate, were protected so well that it was impossible to get to them.
In February he finally booked a bit of a 'success' again and that was killing a group of very seasoned Aurors, the Bones and Prewetts. The Bones family mourned the loss of three siblings, two brothers and a sister, who had all been Aurors and had been very successful in bringing down many Death Eaters in the past three years. All three of them were already grandparents. The Prewetts were two brothers, who had been working as a team with the Bones siblings for six years. They were a bit younger, but both had been Aurors since shortly after Grindelwald's downfall. Both left a wife, children and grandchildren.
The magical community mourned them and sadly this event allowed Barty Crouch to finally get the Wizengamot's vote to allow certain Aurors to use Imperius and Avada Kedavra if nothing else worked against the Death Eaters.
But several minor Death Eaters were caught and tried in the next months. Moody had to finally break down and use Avada Kedavra when he tried to bring down Evan Rosier, one of Snape's old class mates. He kept a very ugly reminder in his face of that fight. And he hated himself for having to kill the man. Alastor Moody always tried to bring in suspects to be tried and sent to Azkaban instead of killing them. He was glad that Cruciatus had been completely banned and was not allowed under any circumstances.