Title: Baby Boom! 16/18
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!
16. Summertime
The party had lasted for the whole weekend. All their friends and relatives made themselves familiar with the castle and enjoyed quality time exploring it together. People sat in small groups and chatted, discussed the war or talked about work and everyday life.
Lily had magically tuned the grand piano and had picked up playing it for a bit, trying to remember all of her childhood piano lessons. She was a bit rusty, but decided it would be a good idea to pick it up again since there was this wonderful grand piano and this even more wonderful music room.
Many among their guests were interested in the library. Dumbledore remembered a lot about the Green family. He strolled through the two large rooms. There were many valuable old books, which the Greens had all left behind.
"While I think it is a shame that they are leaving all this behind I am also very glad this stays in Britain," he remarked to Filius Flitwick, who was with him on that discovery tour.
"Absolutely. A shame, really, the Greens were one of our most prominent Ravenclaw families for many centuries."
"Lady Gladys was a Gryffindor though..." objected Dumbledore.
"That's right, but both their sons came to Ravenclaw again, though young Christabel went to Hufflepuff. Good mixture over all."
"After all this library is now owned by a good few people who will like the books as well and probably add a lot more to it," Dumbledore thought aloud.
"At least five of them, that's true. Young Miss Foster had a lot of Quidditch on her mind, but she was an excellent student," Flitwick agreed.
Down in the family room Rose Evans talked with Martha Potter and Venetia Lupin about household things. The two witches told her a lot about how a wizarding household was run. She was still quite in awe about seeing the house-elves. Of course she had learned a lot from Lily over the years. But it was the first time she really had the opportunity to chat with Martha and Venetia since her daughter's wedding and she enjoyed it a lot.
"This castle would probably be lost without the help of some of these delightful little people," Venetia said.
"I think so, too. They would be in real trouble cleaning this huge thing," Martha confirmed.
"Well, at least you are all lucky enough that you wave your wands and these things get done! Imagine you had to clean all this here as we have to!" said Rose and laughed.
"Oh dear! I'm sorry, Rose, but I'd rather not! Not even with a wand, to be quite honest, though that DOES simplify matters a lot!" said Martha.
"Well, you'd be in severe trouble! As it is they won't even have to clean, because they've got all these lovely little helpers," said Venetia.
"They are really lucky! But it's nice to see so many people filling these rooms, this place is so big! I do hope, James and Lily will have a couple of children, I'm so happy about little Harry! It's so nice to watch Sirius and Remus with their four little ones, too."
"Though it came quite as a shock for me, believe me, Rose! I remember when Remus told us that he was in love... not with a girl, but with a boy. That alone didn't shock us very much. To be honest, at first we were quite happy with the situation, because we thought that at least no 'accidents' could happen to them. He said, he was sorry that he wouldn't give us any grandchildren! And now they have given us four of them. I'm very happy about them, too."
"How could that be? I was really curious..." said Rose.
"The boys got together in their fifth year and after he had watched them for a few months at Hogwarts, Dumbledore told them about a ritual that would make them bond-mates for life. Both of them were still virgins, which was a condition. They had to spend a week keeping skin contact and having quite a lot of sex. And they got through it."
"You mean that any wizards and witches could do the same ritual and be changed like them?" Rose asked.
"No, not everyone. But Remus is a werewolf. Wolves are said to mate for life, which isn't entirely true, but of no consequence in this case. Myth had it for ages that werewolves would be mated for life with the first person they had sex. But it takes a bit more than that as Remus and Sirius learned. But once they went through the rituals both of them gained an enormous amount of magical power. In the year after the mating male werewolves and their partners, if they are male as well, go through a subtle change in their bodies, getting the inner female sexual organs in addition to their male ones. They become fully functioning hermaphrodites."
"But how could they conceive? And give birth?"
"No idea about the conception part, but the birth works totally natural. In a reasonable time before the birth the penis is replaced by a vagina and they give very normal birth. On top of that they also develop breasts and they can nurse their children. Which both of them did for all four of their children," Venetia explained patiently, "and I loved to watch them, it's amazing how they both are committed to these children. With the female reproduction organs they probably also got a lot of estrogen, because they softened down a lot, both of them. None of them developed chest hair for example. Practically nothing on their legs and arms either. So much for recognising a werewolf by the amount of hair on the body!"
"That's amazing! You people are just amazing!"
"I didn't say no to these grandchildren! They're all really cute. And the two pregnancies have given Remus a respite from his transformations. Whenever he's pregnant the wolf stays away and he doesn't transform at the full moon. That also means he has a dead sure indicator of a pregnancy and he'll always know that not more than a month can have passed since conception."
"Do you think, they'll have even more children?" asked Martha.
"I think, it will be very tempting for Remus, because what he goes through each month, once into the wolf, once back from the wolf, is such a painful affair that going through giving birth did not faze him much. Took him thirty hours with Polaris and he hardly reacted more than with a couple of moans. The medimidwitch asked him how he put all the pain away so easily and he calmly explained that the whole process taken together would about amount to the pain he felt during a transformation. It was like a walk in the park for him!"
"I've just seen the odd film containing werewolf stuff, but what is it really like to be a werewolf?" Rose wanted to know.
Venetia explained to her what it meant to be a werewolf. Rose shuddered and said:
"But your son is really a wonderful person..."
"That doesn't protect him from a lot of prejudices unfortunately."
And then Venetia told Rose about the many restrictions that weighed down on Remus.
"And they haven't screamed murder that he has children now?"
"Actually that's what they would love to do. Several reasons why they can't. First is that Remus is legally married with Sirius and that makes Sirius his guardian. None of the children shows even the slightest sign of lycanthropy. And finally it's been made clear to them that Remus is a bit of a special case. He and Sirius are now the two most powerful wizards in the country and everyone hopes they can take on Voldemort. We are all quite convinced they can do it, but of course I fear for their lives terribly because of that. I know they're scheming something like a trap. I just hope it will be over soon. Remus and Sirius are some of the few of Voldemort's adversaries who have stood opposite the man and were alive to tell the tale. Though that particular incident was really embarrassing for Voldemort. They actually sent him packing."
In another corner of the library Remus, Ted and Andromeda Tonks discussed the contents of their new library.
"I'm sure you've gone through a lot already... anything special in here?" Ted asked.
"Quite a lot of first editions of many pretty well known books. I've found one of Most Potente Potions! There must be a few ten thousand books in this house. As you've seen there are book cabinets down in the family room and in many of the corridors. Clearly the traces of a Ravenclaw family! Sirius starts going through as soon as he's done at Hogwarts."
"I thought he was done with that?" Andromeda asked.
"The main library. But you might know that there are tons more books around in that place than just the main library. When you took out the stuff of Grimmauld Place you added yet another huge bunch. Siri has gained an amount of book knowledge you wouldn't believe it! He's amazing. And he really picks up fast, too... he used to have such a hard time studying. He did, but it was always a huge piece of work to get him to sit down to study. Now he's going through those books so quickly!"
"That's great. Even if it is an immensely boring job, no one will take all that knowledge away from him!" Andromeda said.
"He knows that. He's found loads of things, much of which Lily and I use as the basis for our new spells."
"Woe to Voldemort then," Ted remarked and grinned.
There was time to play some Quidditch, too. Enough players were found to form three teams and a mini tournament was played with lots of laughter. Some people wondered about the openness of their actions, but James told them not to worry, as the castle looked to the Muggles like a ruin, just like Hogwarts.
"We're also just trying to figure out how to make it unplottable. There's lots of reference to that in the Black library and we're going to look that stuff through for this," Sirius said.
At the end of the party, just before the guests started to leave they picked up the urn with the name propositions. There were only six, but out of them they chose Mischief Palace in an instant.
"So - I guess, you wanted to know what we will name our house now, don't you? It's Mischief Palace and the person to enter the suggestion was Filius Flitwick. Congratulations, Professor, you will be sending an owl as soon as we figured out the best kind of gift for you," Sirius said with a smirk.
"Oooh, I'm sure they will go and do the new name of their home honour, Filius, you're warned!" said Minerva and everyone gasped, because she actually grinned!
With the last goodbye from the last guest the eight young people all dropped into the sofas and armchairs in the family room.
"Phew! That was good!" Sirius said tiredly from Remus' lap where his head currently rested.
"Absolutely great! That was the most fun we had since Hogwarts," Peter confirmed.
He caressed Sabina's belly. She smiled at him and said:
"Soon, dear! I can hardly wait."
"Neither can I! But until then those five little ones make it easier for us to wait..."
"Four of them are now off to bed!" Remus declared and lifted Sirius from his lap to get up and grab a couple of his children.
Sirius grumbled at being dropped so unceremoniously, but he got up and got the remaining two of his children, Alya and Polaris.
"Say goodnight everybody!" Sirius told them.
The children complied and went around for goodnight kisses. James got up and took it on himself to take Harry. The tiny boy got his kisses, too and the three men took their children to bed. The remaining people started to discuss their evening's activities. James returned first, Sirius and Remus had a bit more to do.
Sirius sat on the bed of his older children and read them a bedtime story. Since Vega and Polaris had been used to sharing their big bed at Hogwarts, Sirius and Remus had decided to let them share their bed for a while longer. They thought that at one point they would ask for their own and by then it would be nice for them to have someone to cuddle. In the second room they had so far decorated for the children Alya and Antares shared another big four poster.
"That's it, my little ones, now it's off to sleep for you!" Sirius said, banished the book on the sideboard and got up from the bed.
Both children stood up on the bed to get their good night hug and a couple of kisses from Sirius, who held the duvet open for them to crawl under. Vega grabbed her favourite teddy, Polaris had a monkey and both slipped under the duvet, which Sirius placed around them.
"Goodnight, my loved ones! Sleep well and sweet dreams..."
"Goodnight, daddy," Vega mumbled.
Sirius looked down on them for a few minutes, then he turned and left the room. There was a single candle burning above the door for them, which he left on. He closed the door up to a small opening left open and joined Remus, who was coming out of the other children's room. They held hands, shared a quick kiss and went down to meet the others.
"Well, now that we're among ourselves I think, we should talk about that trap for Voldemort," Lily said.
"We have to take our time in preparing that well. Nothing should go wrong with it..." said Hope.
"But it would be good to do it soon. He's almost deprived of Death Eaters now. I'm quite sure that his other followers will back down, once he's gone," said James.
"Well, how about that then... let's find some not too big house somewhere a bit far off, where we could set up a vacation place. Then we could drop somewhere that this place still has to be covered with wards and give a date when we want to do that. Say, we could meet at Hogwarts and discuss it briefly. I'm quite sure that someone there would take that straight to Voldemort. Through Snape we could find out, if the guy got the bait," Sirius offered.
"That's a lot better than letting anyone of them in here. I was actually thinking, that I didn't want to set up that trap here!" Dari said.
"Quite right. Neither do I. That's why we thought of this," explained Remus.
"It sounds like an easy set-up. And then? How do you think we can play this out?" asked James.
"You guys, the Order and a few Aurors could take on the Death Eaters outside. We'd welcome Voldemort together with Dumbledore on the inside. I'm quite sure he'd not come in with a ton of people, just a few..."
"On the contrary. He'll want to show off in front of his Death Eaters," Hope objected.
"So there we have a problem. How could we get him to come alone? Or almost alone..."
"Well, he doesn't have all that many of his Death Eaters left, now does he?" asked Sabina.
"No, we estimate the remaining crew to about fifty, but about twenty of them are his elite, some of them quite formidable wizards," said James.
"Then we could take them on outside. I do think, we could gather at least four times as many to give them hell, while Sirius and Remus take care of Voldemort," Peter said.
"All in the open? We'd still need something that would lure Voldemort out. That would be Sirius and Remus. He really wants them."
"A rather questionable honour..." mumbled Remus.
"But something to hang him up on. I'm sure, he'd come running for a chance to get rid of Sirius and Remus. Or, maybe he'd come out even faster if he knew that only one of them is there."
"That's a very good idea, James! Because he knows that we have a lot more power when there's two of us. One of us needs to hide then. And Voldemort needs to think there's only one of us around."
"How does it feel to know that someone like Voldemort fears you two?" Peter wanted to know.
"Terrifying none the less, Peter," Remus said, "and it weighs heavy that we are to take such an important role in that play. I would rather see my children grow, you know."
"We have to find a good site, which would bring the advantage of the terrain to us," Lily remarked.
"That is going to take a while. I think, you could look into that, Dari, if you sneak around the country no one will think anything about it, you're a reporter."
"Consider it done. What are we looking for?"
"Some kind of a house, I think it should be surrounded by a bit of forest in the best case. A bit hilly would be good, too. And not too close to any lived in areas..." James ticked off on his fingers.
"Duly noted. I'll look around."
"I've got the place!" Dari called.
It was near the end of August, when Dari came barging into their castle home with the news. But before she could pass her information, Sabina went into labour and that kept the household on edge for the rest of the night. Siri and Remus declared everyone to babysitters and helped Sabina. Peter was ordered to stay with his wife and then the medimidwife was called in through floo. She received a special password and turned up only a short while after the call. Sabina went through a tough time. Peter went through an almost as tough time. He couldn't see her suffer and it took Sirius' and Remus' combined efforts to keep him just calm enough for Sabina to go about her job.
Finally, on the mid-morning of the 26th August, Paula Pettigrew was born. Peter was overwhelmed and Sabina was exhausted, but well enough to take in what had to be done with her daughter. She was quite glad to get Remus' and Sirius' help. The medimidwife had thought it very strange that two men were around Sabina not only to help, but to tell her exactly what to do. Only when there were four little children in the room early in the morning and when she was told that the two had given birth to them and nursed them all four did she understand. James and Lily took them back out again after they had seen that their daddies were still around, just unavailable.
Peter fell in love with his little daughter on the spot. He beamed, held her on his arms and said:
"I can't believe we have her, Sabina! And she must be about the first girl in a century, usually the Pettigrews just produce boys! I'm so happy!"
"I am, too, Peter. She'll be good for us. Someone to hold on to."
Once mother and daughter had found some sleep the others marched down and listened to Dari's proposition.
"Well, it's an old cottage, needs some repair and is a wizard house. It's been owned by some old codger until seven years ago, when he died without any legal heirs. So it's now fallen into disrepair for a good bit and can be bought for... hold yourselves... six hundred Galleons from the Ministry! As you asked for it's in a rather hilly area and there's a lake nearby. Forest passes on one side, the other is free, but away from the next village by quite a bit. We could work on it a bit more openly than we would if we really wanted to keep that place. Like doing the roof first, painting it the Muggle way and so on..."
"Sounds good, Dari. Really the kind of thing we look for. We'll have to work with Lily and my new invisibility charms for those who are waiting outside. They may only see us working on the house. I'll come and have a look at it with you tomorrow, okay?" Sirius offered.
"Sure!"
"And who knows, maybe the people at the Ministry let us use the house for free... after all, we're trying to get rid of the menace of the world for them. Who is responsible for the sale at the Ministry?"
"Someone in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Do you think, we should contact your dad, Remus?"
"Definitely. He'll pull some strings in the department."
When the next Order meeting took place they brought up their ideas. Snape had some objections, which were of course regarded as important, since he was inside of the Death Eaters and knew about the risks best. But together they figured out how the information could be passed through to Voldemort in a way to make him swallow the bait.
"He's complained that I haven't been able to give him any news for a while, he'll jump on it if you want me to pass this on. I can always tell him that Albus has talked about it to someone else and that I've overheard the story. Just give me your go ahead when you have the okay you need. I'll give you the meeting dates and places for Pettigrew to go and listen in. We have to be absolutely sure about when he plans to attack."
"Good, that is a good start in the right direction then. Richard, I am sure you could do something about the use of that house?"
"No problems. It's one of the lawyers in my department who's handling that sale, I'll call it off for a while. It can be handed to the Aurors for their use for the time being. Inside the Ministry we can always say that they will use it as a training ground. They will leave you free hands there and will be at hand for help. Even Barty will agree to that. Since every Death Eater caught is a menace less for him he should let the Head Auror handle the case."
"No one can go there except for us until we are ready. The Death Eaters will certainly spy on us and we must be seen around the house working on it..." Lily said.
"On the contrary. From on next week there will be twenty Aurors on the premises, together with another twenty Order members and they will all be under your new Invisibility charms. How long does that one last by the way?" Dumbledore said.
"Until it's taken off. It needs a counter-charm. Both will be classified by the Ministry."
"Very good."
"I agree, that there should be Aurors and Order members around. And we have decided that Voldemort only gets to see either Sirius or Remus at all times. We could always talk about how one of them has to stay with the brood or something. They should believe that and that should also lull Voldemort into thinking that there's only one of them around. He'll decide to attack more easily then, don't you think so, Severus? In reality the one who's not to be seen will of course be covered with the Invisibility spell," said James.
"He does seem to have some healthy respect of them as a team," Snape admitted.
"Well, I'll have the Aurors ready. I know that the Invisibility spell will not be out there for everyone to use freely, so I need those of you who can cast it to cover the Aurors," Moody said.
"We'll send you an owl and will be there, as soon as we can start," Lily promised.
Two weeks later, an old house that looked like it was a rather derelict, but lovely cottage, started to buzz with activity. The Aurors and Order members had a boring job the first few days, while the Marauders worked on the cottage, but in their invisible state they were able to see a number of things going on around the cottage. There were lots of Death Eater visits to spy on the Marauders. With every one of those spying visits the Aurors grew more attentive and got themselves ready for the day of the awaited attack. They had prepared a code for the Marauders to go into action as soon as the Death Eaters decided to attack them.
The Death Eaters chose a very early morning, apparating and taking spots around the cottage where they awaited the Marauders for an ambush. One Auror quickly disapparated to the Mischief Palace to inform the Marauders. Lily cast the Invisibility spell on Remus, who apparated alongside them to go about their daily tasks at their normal time, as if nothing was awaiting them there.
The Aurors and the Order Members had stocked up and were ready to apparate on the site as soon as they were informed, too. One Auror apparated home to the Auror Headquarters and informed Moody:
"There are about forty Death Eaters and You-Know-Who is with them, sir."
"Very well. We have another forty Aurors ready to apparate in thirty minutes. We expect to find the battle in full swing already. How many are you there?"
"Thirty, all counted. We should get along quite far already. The Marauders have only just arrived, I suppose the Death Eaters will wait for another few minutes before they attack."
"Very well. Return and tell them we're in a waiting position."
Back at the cottage James, Peter and Lily had started to paint on the outside of the cottage, to get the parts between the beams white again. In the days before they had removed all of the weeds around the house, to free the walls. Now they were happily going up the scaffolds to start on the top and paint the Muggle way, because that seemed to be a lot more fun. Dari and Sirius were on the inside, starting on clearing the rooms of all the debris. Remus was with them, but of course he didn't do very much, because he was supposed to not be there at all. Two invisible Order members, Dumbledore and McGonagall were also on the inside of the cottage, while the older Potters, Venetia and Richard and their daughters were among those who were going to help the Aurors.
Silently the Death Eaters neared the cottage, not even suspecting that the Marauders could be anything but alone. It was a sunny late summer morning and nothing was heard besides the occasional remarks and laughter from those working on the cottage walls. Insects were humming, birds were chirping, but the sudden silence from the birds around them warned the Marauders of the approach. They got their wands ready and whipped around in the same moment that the Death Eaters and Voldemort turned up on the scene.
James had his first stunners out before any Death Eaters were even able to utter a word. That was the signal for the Aurors and Order members to carefully cast one stunner after the other and for Remus to cast the anti-apparition ward. Voldemort tried to vanish on the spot, noticing that this was a set-up, but found himself right back on the ground because of the effective ward. He swore and turned to cast Avada Kedavra curses, but he didn't see anyone but the Marauders on the scaffold. And then he saw Sirius coming out of the cottage. With a grunt he threw another Avada Kedavra curse, but Sirius jumped aside and dodged the green flash of light.
Unbeknownst to Voldemort he had already Dumbledore in his back, together with Minerva and the two started to curse him with Impedimenta and other slowing curses. Then they ducked down on the grass, because a moment later there were hundreds of the sharpest knives flying at Voldemort. He was still unable to move fast and was hit by a whole swarm of those knives, wounded to the death in the midst of his stunned followers. The knives had slaughtered him and blood was flowing in all directions, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, but it didn't save him. With more than relief the defenders of the Light noticed that Voldemort had not been ready to meet death and conquer it just yet. He sank down, the knives still attacking him violently until he was completely and utterly dead. Silence at first as everyone on the spot was out of words, then a scream:
"MAAAAASTER!!!!!!!"
It was Rodolphus Lestrange's voice that screeched through the air. He threw himself on Voldemort's body, only to become another victim of the knives, before anyone could do anything.
The Death Eaters had been subdued in a matter of minutes. By the time the Aurors under Moody arrived they were just in time to catch the last ones who tried to get away, but couldn't because of the anti-apparition wards. Remus had set those wards specifically that no one could apparate out, but everyone could apparate in. He smirked as Sirius countered his Invisibility spell. Everyone else who was invisible was counter-spelled as well and soon the united Aurors and Order members and a reporter or two who were among them were dancing over the patch of grass that was once a nice lawn. Everyone joined in and all of them were hooting and laughing. Eleven years of precious little reasons to laugh and be happy were coming to an end.
Dumbledore took the initiative as usual:
"Everyone! There will be a better time to celebrate tonight. Today we have to clean this here up. Please take all the suspects back to the Ministry!"
All the masks came off the Death Eaters first. Twenty-eight men and eight women were found and most of them were known to at least one person around them. The most prominent Death Eater was of course, Lucius Malfoy, who was there next to his wife. Sirius grinned, but he really felt sorry for Draco Malfoy who would have to grow up without his parents.
Moody got some order into his Aurors and there were two of them to one Death Eater. Remus lifted the ward again, so that they could apparate their prisoners to the Auror Headquarters. As soon as they were gone Richard left to get the Minister on the scene as a witness.
The remaining people stood around the two bodies, which looked terrifying. The knives had slashed them, cut off limbs, cut deep gashes into every bit of their bodies. Voldemort's face was still recognisable, but Lestrange was completely destroyed. Sirius and Remus had called their knives off, but it had been too quick.
"Nothing we can do about it. He must have been really dedicated to follow his master to the death like this," Dumbledore said.
"You could call it dedicated, I call it fanatic," said Sirius.
"Yes, maybe."
"Wonder, how Bella will react when she hears about it," Sirius went on.
"She has to be told in any case. After all they were married."
Sirius and Remus both sighed. Sirius closed his eyes and admitted:
"Even though we knew that he couldn't live on it's horrible - I've killed. Two people. Their death will be on my hands forever..."
"You're not alone, Sirius, we cast this spell together," Remus reminded him quietly.
"And you did stick out your neck for the whole wizardkind, Sirius!" Peter cried out.
"Yes, but you were with us the whole time, you could have been hit with an Avada Kedavra at any moment," Sirius objected.
At that moment, the Minister appeared on the scene with Richard and several members of the Wizengamot.
"Good day, ladies and gentlemen! Would you care to give us a report of what happened here?" the Minister asked.
"Good morning, Beth. I will sum it up for you, if you will take my statement," Dumbledore said.
"Yes, Albus, please do."
Dumbledore went over everything that had gone on, then the Minister asked a few questions to the others in the crowd and finally nodded with a smile on her face:
"Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, we have much to thank you for. I would be pleased to see you at the Ministry in a week's time to officially thank you. You all have helped to free us from the greatest menace that our kind has known for many centuries. I have been around when Grindelwald was at his worst and Albus will agree with me that it was not half as bad as things have got to be now! I am very old now, but I wanted to see us through this war. The Ministry is in great disarray, too, so we shall have some work to clear it up. Expect news from the Wizengamot in the next weeks!"
Two hours later they were all back to the Mischief Palace, even Dumbledore and McGonagall, who had to go up to Hogwarts. Term had started and Minerva had left her classes unsupervised for the day.
"We'll prepare a celebration tonight. You're welcome to the feast at Hogwarts," she promised.
"Thanks, Professor! We'll be there!"
Hogwarts was brimming with activity and guests that night. By the time the Marauders arrived at the castle the Daily Prophet had already an extra edition out with the news and the whole wizarding world had gone crazy! Everyone and their brothers celebrated on the roads, in Diagon Alley, in Hogsmeade, even in the midst of the Muggles! School had been cancelled for the rest of the week and all the students were allowed free time to celebrate with their families.
The Great Hall had to be enlarged to hold all the guests. Families should be together at such times, Dumbledore had decided and the school owls were busy finding the parents and siblings of the Hogwarts students.
Sirius looked over to the Slytherin table. Its occupants were partly subdued, but Sirius noticed that there was a good number of students and their families who looked relieved. Then he let his glance go over the other tables. Even though the Hall was larger than usual it was apparent that there were fewer students these days. Many families had fled the country and it wasn't sure that they would be coming back.
Before the feast started, Dumbledore stood up to speak a few words:
"I don't have to tell you why we are congregated here like this. You all know already what happened this very morning at a small cottage somewhere in this country. For once I can say that the Daily Prophet has told the story in full accuracy. Our world has been rid of the darkest Dark Wizard of all times. I regret to say that with his death the line of Salazar Slytherin has come to a sad end. He was the last descendant and as far as we know Lord Voldemort does not have any children. So tonight is for us to commemorate all those who have died in the past eleven years. All those who were killed because someone had the nerve to declare who was worth living and who was not.
Let us not forget that many have died following a master that was not a leader, but a slave owner. I do not know how well most of you were aware of the fact that his followers enslaved themselves to him unconditionally. I know of only one single man who was able to get away. I know of at least seven who were killed by their master's own hand for trying to leave his fold.
And finally let us not forget that many have refused to follow Lord Voldemort and have paid for that decision with their lives."
Dumbledore threw a glance to the direction of the Slytherin table, where some students sat with tears in their eyes, because many of them had lost relatives left and right and were only spared when attacks on their families happened while they were at Hogwarts.
"I would like to take this opportunity to once again express my sympathy and condolences for their losses. I would hope that they know that this community will not leave them alone in the world."
On all house tables, heads were turning in the direction of house- and classmates, many in sympathy and accordance with the headmaster's words.
"In remembrance of all who have died - I would like us all to stand and keep a minute of silence."
Everyone got up. Not one remained seated. For a full minute one could have heard a hair dropping on the floor of the Great Hall. When it was over, Dumbledore said:
"Thank you all. Now that we have given our respect to all who left us and all those who are left behind without their loved ones we can move on to the good reason for our feast tonight. We will have peace again. You will all be able to walk without fear again. We will all have a chance to build up our society again and we will have a lot of work to do this. So let us celebrate. Let us celebrate life and the return of peace!"
With these words the food arrived on the tables. There was a lot of applause for Dumbledore's speech. Then the people started to relax and eat and the longer the meal lasted the more relaxed everyone was. Dari was sitting with Hope at the Ravenclaw table. The two of them chatted with some of the seventh years, people they still knew from their own school years.
The rest of the Marauders enjoyed a good time at the Gryffindor table.
Of course the whole of the wizarding world was delirious for weeks.
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!
16. Summertime
The party had lasted for the whole weekend. All their friends and relatives made themselves familiar with the castle and enjoyed quality time exploring it together. People sat in small groups and chatted, discussed the war or talked about work and everyday life.
Lily had magically tuned the grand piano and had picked up playing it for a bit, trying to remember all of her childhood piano lessons. She was a bit rusty, but decided it would be a good idea to pick it up again since there was this wonderful grand piano and this even more wonderful music room.
Many among their guests were interested in the library. Dumbledore remembered a lot about the Green family. He strolled through the two large rooms. There were many valuable old books, which the Greens had all left behind.
"While I think it is a shame that they are leaving all this behind I am also very glad this stays in Britain," he remarked to Filius Flitwick, who was with him on that discovery tour.
"Absolutely. A shame, really, the Greens were one of our most prominent Ravenclaw families for many centuries."
"Lady Gladys was a Gryffindor though..." objected Dumbledore.
"That's right, but both their sons came to Ravenclaw again, though young Christabel went to Hufflepuff. Good mixture over all."
"After all this library is now owned by a good few people who will like the books as well and probably add a lot more to it," Dumbledore thought aloud.
"At least five of them, that's true. Young Miss Foster had a lot of Quidditch on her mind, but she was an excellent student," Flitwick agreed.
Down in the family room Rose Evans talked with Martha Potter and Venetia Lupin about household things. The two witches told her a lot about how a wizarding household was run. She was still quite in awe about seeing the house-elves. Of course she had learned a lot from Lily over the years. But it was the first time she really had the opportunity to chat with Martha and Venetia since her daughter's wedding and she enjoyed it a lot.
"This castle would probably be lost without the help of some of these delightful little people," Venetia said.
"I think so, too. They would be in real trouble cleaning this huge thing," Martha confirmed.
"Well, at least you are all lucky enough that you wave your wands and these things get done! Imagine you had to clean all this here as we have to!" said Rose and laughed.
"Oh dear! I'm sorry, Rose, but I'd rather not! Not even with a wand, to be quite honest, though that DOES simplify matters a lot!" said Martha.
"Well, you'd be in severe trouble! As it is they won't even have to clean, because they've got all these lovely little helpers," said Venetia.
"They are really lucky! But it's nice to see so many people filling these rooms, this place is so big! I do hope, James and Lily will have a couple of children, I'm so happy about little Harry! It's so nice to watch Sirius and Remus with their four little ones, too."
"Though it came quite as a shock for me, believe me, Rose! I remember when Remus told us that he was in love... not with a girl, but with a boy. That alone didn't shock us very much. To be honest, at first we were quite happy with the situation, because we thought that at least no 'accidents' could happen to them. He said, he was sorry that he wouldn't give us any grandchildren! And now they have given us four of them. I'm very happy about them, too."
"How could that be? I was really curious..." said Rose.
"The boys got together in their fifth year and after he had watched them for a few months at Hogwarts, Dumbledore told them about a ritual that would make them bond-mates for life. Both of them were still virgins, which was a condition. They had to spend a week keeping skin contact and having quite a lot of sex. And they got through it."
"You mean that any wizards and witches could do the same ritual and be changed like them?" Rose asked.
"No, not everyone. But Remus is a werewolf. Wolves are said to mate for life, which isn't entirely true, but of no consequence in this case. Myth had it for ages that werewolves would be mated for life with the first person they had sex. But it takes a bit more than that as Remus and Sirius learned. But once they went through the rituals both of them gained an enormous amount of magical power. In the year after the mating male werewolves and their partners, if they are male as well, go through a subtle change in their bodies, getting the inner female sexual organs in addition to their male ones. They become fully functioning hermaphrodites."
"But how could they conceive? And give birth?"
"No idea about the conception part, but the birth works totally natural. In a reasonable time before the birth the penis is replaced by a vagina and they give very normal birth. On top of that they also develop breasts and they can nurse their children. Which both of them did for all four of their children," Venetia explained patiently, "and I loved to watch them, it's amazing how they both are committed to these children. With the female reproduction organs they probably also got a lot of estrogen, because they softened down a lot, both of them. None of them developed chest hair for example. Practically nothing on their legs and arms either. So much for recognising a werewolf by the amount of hair on the body!"
"That's amazing! You people are just amazing!"
"I didn't say no to these grandchildren! They're all really cute. And the two pregnancies have given Remus a respite from his transformations. Whenever he's pregnant the wolf stays away and he doesn't transform at the full moon. That also means he has a dead sure indicator of a pregnancy and he'll always know that not more than a month can have passed since conception."
"Do you think, they'll have even more children?" asked Martha.
"I think, it will be very tempting for Remus, because what he goes through each month, once into the wolf, once back from the wolf, is such a painful affair that going through giving birth did not faze him much. Took him thirty hours with Polaris and he hardly reacted more than with a couple of moans. The medimidwitch asked him how he put all the pain away so easily and he calmly explained that the whole process taken together would about amount to the pain he felt during a transformation. It was like a walk in the park for him!"
"I've just seen the odd film containing werewolf stuff, but what is it really like to be a werewolf?" Rose wanted to know.
Venetia explained to her what it meant to be a werewolf. Rose shuddered and said:
"But your son is really a wonderful person..."
"That doesn't protect him from a lot of prejudices unfortunately."
And then Venetia told Rose about the many restrictions that weighed down on Remus.
"And they haven't screamed murder that he has children now?"
"Actually that's what they would love to do. Several reasons why they can't. First is that Remus is legally married with Sirius and that makes Sirius his guardian. None of the children shows even the slightest sign of lycanthropy. And finally it's been made clear to them that Remus is a bit of a special case. He and Sirius are now the two most powerful wizards in the country and everyone hopes they can take on Voldemort. We are all quite convinced they can do it, but of course I fear for their lives terribly because of that. I know they're scheming something like a trap. I just hope it will be over soon. Remus and Sirius are some of the few of Voldemort's adversaries who have stood opposite the man and were alive to tell the tale. Though that particular incident was really embarrassing for Voldemort. They actually sent him packing."
In another corner of the library Remus, Ted and Andromeda Tonks discussed the contents of their new library.
"I'm sure you've gone through a lot already... anything special in here?" Ted asked.
"Quite a lot of first editions of many pretty well known books. I've found one of Most Potente Potions! There must be a few ten thousand books in this house. As you've seen there are book cabinets down in the family room and in many of the corridors. Clearly the traces of a Ravenclaw family! Sirius starts going through as soon as he's done at Hogwarts."
"I thought he was done with that?" Andromeda asked.
"The main library. But you might know that there are tons more books around in that place than just the main library. When you took out the stuff of Grimmauld Place you added yet another huge bunch. Siri has gained an amount of book knowledge you wouldn't believe it! He's amazing. And he really picks up fast, too... he used to have such a hard time studying. He did, but it was always a huge piece of work to get him to sit down to study. Now he's going through those books so quickly!"
"That's great. Even if it is an immensely boring job, no one will take all that knowledge away from him!" Andromeda said.
"He knows that. He's found loads of things, much of which Lily and I use as the basis for our new spells."
"Woe to Voldemort then," Ted remarked and grinned.
There was time to play some Quidditch, too. Enough players were found to form three teams and a mini tournament was played with lots of laughter. Some people wondered about the openness of their actions, but James told them not to worry, as the castle looked to the Muggles like a ruin, just like Hogwarts.
"We're also just trying to figure out how to make it unplottable. There's lots of reference to that in the Black library and we're going to look that stuff through for this," Sirius said.
At the end of the party, just before the guests started to leave they picked up the urn with the name propositions. There were only six, but out of them they chose Mischief Palace in an instant.
"So - I guess, you wanted to know what we will name our house now, don't you? It's Mischief Palace and the person to enter the suggestion was Filius Flitwick. Congratulations, Professor, you will be sending an owl as soon as we figured out the best kind of gift for you," Sirius said with a smirk.
"Oooh, I'm sure they will go and do the new name of their home honour, Filius, you're warned!" said Minerva and everyone gasped, because she actually grinned!
With the last goodbye from the last guest the eight young people all dropped into the sofas and armchairs in the family room.
"Phew! That was good!" Sirius said tiredly from Remus' lap where his head currently rested.
"Absolutely great! That was the most fun we had since Hogwarts," Peter confirmed.
He caressed Sabina's belly. She smiled at him and said:
"Soon, dear! I can hardly wait."
"Neither can I! But until then those five little ones make it easier for us to wait..."
"Four of them are now off to bed!" Remus declared and lifted Sirius from his lap to get up and grab a couple of his children.
Sirius grumbled at being dropped so unceremoniously, but he got up and got the remaining two of his children, Alya and Polaris.
"Say goodnight everybody!" Sirius told them.
The children complied and went around for goodnight kisses. James got up and took it on himself to take Harry. The tiny boy got his kisses, too and the three men took their children to bed. The remaining people started to discuss their evening's activities. James returned first, Sirius and Remus had a bit more to do.
Sirius sat on the bed of his older children and read them a bedtime story. Since Vega and Polaris had been used to sharing their big bed at Hogwarts, Sirius and Remus had decided to let them share their bed for a while longer. They thought that at one point they would ask for their own and by then it would be nice for them to have someone to cuddle. In the second room they had so far decorated for the children Alya and Antares shared another big four poster.
"That's it, my little ones, now it's off to sleep for you!" Sirius said, banished the book on the sideboard and got up from the bed.
Both children stood up on the bed to get their good night hug and a couple of kisses from Sirius, who held the duvet open for them to crawl under. Vega grabbed her favourite teddy, Polaris had a monkey and both slipped under the duvet, which Sirius placed around them.
"Goodnight, my loved ones! Sleep well and sweet dreams..."
"Goodnight, daddy," Vega mumbled.
Sirius looked down on them for a few minutes, then he turned and left the room. There was a single candle burning above the door for them, which he left on. He closed the door up to a small opening left open and joined Remus, who was coming out of the other children's room. They held hands, shared a quick kiss and went down to meet the others.
"Well, now that we're among ourselves I think, we should talk about that trap for Voldemort," Lily said.
"We have to take our time in preparing that well. Nothing should go wrong with it..." said Hope.
"But it would be good to do it soon. He's almost deprived of Death Eaters now. I'm quite sure that his other followers will back down, once he's gone," said James.
"Well, how about that then... let's find some not too big house somewhere a bit far off, where we could set up a vacation place. Then we could drop somewhere that this place still has to be covered with wards and give a date when we want to do that. Say, we could meet at Hogwarts and discuss it briefly. I'm quite sure that someone there would take that straight to Voldemort. Through Snape we could find out, if the guy got the bait," Sirius offered.
"That's a lot better than letting anyone of them in here. I was actually thinking, that I didn't want to set up that trap here!" Dari said.
"Quite right. Neither do I. That's why we thought of this," explained Remus.
"It sounds like an easy set-up. And then? How do you think we can play this out?" asked James.
"You guys, the Order and a few Aurors could take on the Death Eaters outside. We'd welcome Voldemort together with Dumbledore on the inside. I'm quite sure he'd not come in with a ton of people, just a few..."
"On the contrary. He'll want to show off in front of his Death Eaters," Hope objected.
"So there we have a problem. How could we get him to come alone? Or almost alone..."
"Well, he doesn't have all that many of his Death Eaters left, now does he?" asked Sabina.
"No, we estimate the remaining crew to about fifty, but about twenty of them are his elite, some of them quite formidable wizards," said James.
"Then we could take them on outside. I do think, we could gather at least four times as many to give them hell, while Sirius and Remus take care of Voldemort," Peter said.
"All in the open? We'd still need something that would lure Voldemort out. That would be Sirius and Remus. He really wants them."
"A rather questionable honour..." mumbled Remus.
"But something to hang him up on. I'm sure, he'd come running for a chance to get rid of Sirius and Remus. Or, maybe he'd come out even faster if he knew that only one of them is there."
"That's a very good idea, James! Because he knows that we have a lot more power when there's two of us. One of us needs to hide then. And Voldemort needs to think there's only one of us around."
"How does it feel to know that someone like Voldemort fears you two?" Peter wanted to know.
"Terrifying none the less, Peter," Remus said, "and it weighs heavy that we are to take such an important role in that play. I would rather see my children grow, you know."
"We have to find a good site, which would bring the advantage of the terrain to us," Lily remarked.
"That is going to take a while. I think, you could look into that, Dari, if you sneak around the country no one will think anything about it, you're a reporter."
"Consider it done. What are we looking for?"
"Some kind of a house, I think it should be surrounded by a bit of forest in the best case. A bit hilly would be good, too. And not too close to any lived in areas..." James ticked off on his fingers.
"Duly noted. I'll look around."
"I've got the place!" Dari called.
It was near the end of August, when Dari came barging into their castle home with the news. But before she could pass her information, Sabina went into labour and that kept the household on edge for the rest of the night. Siri and Remus declared everyone to babysitters and helped Sabina. Peter was ordered to stay with his wife and then the medimidwife was called in through floo. She received a special password and turned up only a short while after the call. Sabina went through a tough time. Peter went through an almost as tough time. He couldn't see her suffer and it took Sirius' and Remus' combined efforts to keep him just calm enough for Sabina to go about her job.
Finally, on the mid-morning of the 26th August, Paula Pettigrew was born. Peter was overwhelmed and Sabina was exhausted, but well enough to take in what had to be done with her daughter. She was quite glad to get Remus' and Sirius' help. The medimidwife had thought it very strange that two men were around Sabina not only to help, but to tell her exactly what to do. Only when there were four little children in the room early in the morning and when she was told that the two had given birth to them and nursed them all four did she understand. James and Lily took them back out again after they had seen that their daddies were still around, just unavailable.
Peter fell in love with his little daughter on the spot. He beamed, held her on his arms and said:
"I can't believe we have her, Sabina! And she must be about the first girl in a century, usually the Pettigrews just produce boys! I'm so happy!"
"I am, too, Peter. She'll be good for us. Someone to hold on to."
Once mother and daughter had found some sleep the others marched down and listened to Dari's proposition.
"Well, it's an old cottage, needs some repair and is a wizard house. It's been owned by some old codger until seven years ago, when he died without any legal heirs. So it's now fallen into disrepair for a good bit and can be bought for... hold yourselves... six hundred Galleons from the Ministry! As you asked for it's in a rather hilly area and there's a lake nearby. Forest passes on one side, the other is free, but away from the next village by quite a bit. We could work on it a bit more openly than we would if we really wanted to keep that place. Like doing the roof first, painting it the Muggle way and so on..."
"Sounds good, Dari. Really the kind of thing we look for. We'll have to work with Lily and my new invisibility charms for those who are waiting outside. They may only see us working on the house. I'll come and have a look at it with you tomorrow, okay?" Sirius offered.
"Sure!"
"And who knows, maybe the people at the Ministry let us use the house for free... after all, we're trying to get rid of the menace of the world for them. Who is responsible for the sale at the Ministry?"
"Someone in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Do you think, we should contact your dad, Remus?"
"Definitely. He'll pull some strings in the department."
When the next Order meeting took place they brought up their ideas. Snape had some objections, which were of course regarded as important, since he was inside of the Death Eaters and knew about the risks best. But together they figured out how the information could be passed through to Voldemort in a way to make him swallow the bait.
"He's complained that I haven't been able to give him any news for a while, he'll jump on it if you want me to pass this on. I can always tell him that Albus has talked about it to someone else and that I've overheard the story. Just give me your go ahead when you have the okay you need. I'll give you the meeting dates and places for Pettigrew to go and listen in. We have to be absolutely sure about when he plans to attack."
"Good, that is a good start in the right direction then. Richard, I am sure you could do something about the use of that house?"
"No problems. It's one of the lawyers in my department who's handling that sale, I'll call it off for a while. It can be handed to the Aurors for their use for the time being. Inside the Ministry we can always say that they will use it as a training ground. They will leave you free hands there and will be at hand for help. Even Barty will agree to that. Since every Death Eater caught is a menace less for him he should let the Head Auror handle the case."
"No one can go there except for us until we are ready. The Death Eaters will certainly spy on us and we must be seen around the house working on it..." Lily said.
"On the contrary. From on next week there will be twenty Aurors on the premises, together with another twenty Order members and they will all be under your new Invisibility charms. How long does that one last by the way?" Dumbledore said.
"Until it's taken off. It needs a counter-charm. Both will be classified by the Ministry."
"Very good."
"I agree, that there should be Aurors and Order members around. And we have decided that Voldemort only gets to see either Sirius or Remus at all times. We could always talk about how one of them has to stay with the brood or something. They should believe that and that should also lull Voldemort into thinking that there's only one of them around. He'll decide to attack more easily then, don't you think so, Severus? In reality the one who's not to be seen will of course be covered with the Invisibility spell," said James.
"He does seem to have some healthy respect of them as a team," Snape admitted.
"Well, I'll have the Aurors ready. I know that the Invisibility spell will not be out there for everyone to use freely, so I need those of you who can cast it to cover the Aurors," Moody said.
"We'll send you an owl and will be there, as soon as we can start," Lily promised.
Two weeks later, an old house that looked like it was a rather derelict, but lovely cottage, started to buzz with activity. The Aurors and Order members had a boring job the first few days, while the Marauders worked on the cottage, but in their invisible state they were able to see a number of things going on around the cottage. There were lots of Death Eater visits to spy on the Marauders. With every one of those spying visits the Aurors grew more attentive and got themselves ready for the day of the awaited attack. They had prepared a code for the Marauders to go into action as soon as the Death Eaters decided to attack them.
The Death Eaters chose a very early morning, apparating and taking spots around the cottage where they awaited the Marauders for an ambush. One Auror quickly disapparated to the Mischief Palace to inform the Marauders. Lily cast the Invisibility spell on Remus, who apparated alongside them to go about their daily tasks at their normal time, as if nothing was awaiting them there.
The Aurors and the Order Members had stocked up and were ready to apparate on the site as soon as they were informed, too. One Auror apparated home to the Auror Headquarters and informed Moody:
"There are about forty Death Eaters and You-Know-Who is with them, sir."
"Very well. We have another forty Aurors ready to apparate in thirty minutes. We expect to find the battle in full swing already. How many are you there?"
"Thirty, all counted. We should get along quite far already. The Marauders have only just arrived, I suppose the Death Eaters will wait for another few minutes before they attack."
"Very well. Return and tell them we're in a waiting position."
Back at the cottage James, Peter and Lily had started to paint on the outside of the cottage, to get the parts between the beams white again. In the days before they had removed all of the weeds around the house, to free the walls. Now they were happily going up the scaffolds to start on the top and paint the Muggle way, because that seemed to be a lot more fun. Dari and Sirius were on the inside, starting on clearing the rooms of all the debris. Remus was with them, but of course he didn't do very much, because he was supposed to not be there at all. Two invisible Order members, Dumbledore and McGonagall were also on the inside of the cottage, while the older Potters, Venetia and Richard and their daughters were among those who were going to help the Aurors.
Silently the Death Eaters neared the cottage, not even suspecting that the Marauders could be anything but alone. It was a sunny late summer morning and nothing was heard besides the occasional remarks and laughter from those working on the cottage walls. Insects were humming, birds were chirping, but the sudden silence from the birds around them warned the Marauders of the approach. They got their wands ready and whipped around in the same moment that the Death Eaters and Voldemort turned up on the scene.
James had his first stunners out before any Death Eaters were even able to utter a word. That was the signal for the Aurors and Order members to carefully cast one stunner after the other and for Remus to cast the anti-apparition ward. Voldemort tried to vanish on the spot, noticing that this was a set-up, but found himself right back on the ground because of the effective ward. He swore and turned to cast Avada Kedavra curses, but he didn't see anyone but the Marauders on the scaffold. And then he saw Sirius coming out of the cottage. With a grunt he threw another Avada Kedavra curse, but Sirius jumped aside and dodged the green flash of light.
Unbeknownst to Voldemort he had already Dumbledore in his back, together with Minerva and the two started to curse him with Impedimenta and other slowing curses. Then they ducked down on the grass, because a moment later there were hundreds of the sharpest knives flying at Voldemort. He was still unable to move fast and was hit by a whole swarm of those knives, wounded to the death in the midst of his stunned followers. The knives had slaughtered him and blood was flowing in all directions, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, but it didn't save him. With more than relief the defenders of the Light noticed that Voldemort had not been ready to meet death and conquer it just yet. He sank down, the knives still attacking him violently until he was completely and utterly dead. Silence at first as everyone on the spot was out of words, then a scream:
"MAAAAASTER!!!!!!!"
It was Rodolphus Lestrange's voice that screeched through the air. He threw himself on Voldemort's body, only to become another victim of the knives, before anyone could do anything.
The Death Eaters had been subdued in a matter of minutes. By the time the Aurors under Moody arrived they were just in time to catch the last ones who tried to get away, but couldn't because of the anti-apparition wards. Remus had set those wards specifically that no one could apparate out, but everyone could apparate in. He smirked as Sirius countered his Invisibility spell. Everyone else who was invisible was counter-spelled as well and soon the united Aurors and Order members and a reporter or two who were among them were dancing over the patch of grass that was once a nice lawn. Everyone joined in and all of them were hooting and laughing. Eleven years of precious little reasons to laugh and be happy were coming to an end.
Dumbledore took the initiative as usual:
"Everyone! There will be a better time to celebrate tonight. Today we have to clean this here up. Please take all the suspects back to the Ministry!"
All the masks came off the Death Eaters first. Twenty-eight men and eight women were found and most of them were known to at least one person around them. The most prominent Death Eater was of course, Lucius Malfoy, who was there next to his wife. Sirius grinned, but he really felt sorry for Draco Malfoy who would have to grow up without his parents.
Moody got some order into his Aurors and there were two of them to one Death Eater. Remus lifted the ward again, so that they could apparate their prisoners to the Auror Headquarters. As soon as they were gone Richard left to get the Minister on the scene as a witness.
The remaining people stood around the two bodies, which looked terrifying. The knives had slashed them, cut off limbs, cut deep gashes into every bit of their bodies. Voldemort's face was still recognisable, but Lestrange was completely destroyed. Sirius and Remus had called their knives off, but it had been too quick.
"Nothing we can do about it. He must have been really dedicated to follow his master to the death like this," Dumbledore said.
"You could call it dedicated, I call it fanatic," said Sirius.
"Yes, maybe."
"Wonder, how Bella will react when she hears about it," Sirius went on.
"She has to be told in any case. After all they were married."
Sirius and Remus both sighed. Sirius closed his eyes and admitted:
"Even though we knew that he couldn't live on it's horrible - I've killed. Two people. Their death will be on my hands forever..."
"You're not alone, Sirius, we cast this spell together," Remus reminded him quietly.
"And you did stick out your neck for the whole wizardkind, Sirius!" Peter cried out.
"Yes, but you were with us the whole time, you could have been hit with an Avada Kedavra at any moment," Sirius objected.
At that moment, the Minister appeared on the scene with Richard and several members of the Wizengamot.
"Good day, ladies and gentlemen! Would you care to give us a report of what happened here?" the Minister asked.
"Good morning, Beth. I will sum it up for you, if you will take my statement," Dumbledore said.
"Yes, Albus, please do."
Dumbledore went over everything that had gone on, then the Minister asked a few questions to the others in the crowd and finally nodded with a smile on her face:
"Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, we have much to thank you for. I would be pleased to see you at the Ministry in a week's time to officially thank you. You all have helped to free us from the greatest menace that our kind has known for many centuries. I have been around when Grindelwald was at his worst and Albus will agree with me that it was not half as bad as things have got to be now! I am very old now, but I wanted to see us through this war. The Ministry is in great disarray, too, so we shall have some work to clear it up. Expect news from the Wizengamot in the next weeks!"
Two hours later they were all back to the Mischief Palace, even Dumbledore and McGonagall, who had to go up to Hogwarts. Term had started and Minerva had left her classes unsupervised for the day.
"We'll prepare a celebration tonight. You're welcome to the feast at Hogwarts," she promised.
"Thanks, Professor! We'll be there!"
Hogwarts was brimming with activity and guests that night. By the time the Marauders arrived at the castle the Daily Prophet had already an extra edition out with the news and the whole wizarding world had gone crazy! Everyone and their brothers celebrated on the roads, in Diagon Alley, in Hogsmeade, even in the midst of the Muggles! School had been cancelled for the rest of the week and all the students were allowed free time to celebrate with their families.
The Great Hall had to be enlarged to hold all the guests. Families should be together at such times, Dumbledore had decided and the school owls were busy finding the parents and siblings of the Hogwarts students.
Sirius looked over to the Slytherin table. Its occupants were partly subdued, but Sirius noticed that there was a good number of students and their families who looked relieved. Then he let his glance go over the other tables. Even though the Hall was larger than usual it was apparent that there were fewer students these days. Many families had fled the country and it wasn't sure that they would be coming back.
Before the feast started, Dumbledore stood up to speak a few words:
"I don't have to tell you why we are congregated here like this. You all know already what happened this very morning at a small cottage somewhere in this country. For once I can say that the Daily Prophet has told the story in full accuracy. Our world has been rid of the darkest Dark Wizard of all times. I regret to say that with his death the line of Salazar Slytherin has come to a sad end. He was the last descendant and as far as we know Lord Voldemort does not have any children. So tonight is for us to commemorate all those who have died in the past eleven years. All those who were killed because someone had the nerve to declare who was worth living and who was not.
Let us not forget that many have died following a master that was not a leader, but a slave owner. I do not know how well most of you were aware of the fact that his followers enslaved themselves to him unconditionally. I know of only one single man who was able to get away. I know of at least seven who were killed by their master's own hand for trying to leave his fold.
And finally let us not forget that many have refused to follow Lord Voldemort and have paid for that decision with their lives."
Dumbledore threw a glance to the direction of the Slytherin table, where some students sat with tears in their eyes, because many of them had lost relatives left and right and were only spared when attacks on their families happened while they were at Hogwarts.
"I would like to take this opportunity to once again express my sympathy and condolences for their losses. I would hope that they know that this community will not leave them alone in the world."
On all house tables, heads were turning in the direction of house- and classmates, many in sympathy and accordance with the headmaster's words.
"In remembrance of all who have died - I would like us all to stand and keep a minute of silence."
Everyone got up. Not one remained seated. For a full minute one could have heard a hair dropping on the floor of the Great Hall. When it was over, Dumbledore said:
"Thank you all. Now that we have given our respect to all who left us and all those who are left behind without their loved ones we can move on to the good reason for our feast tonight. We will have peace again. You will all be able to walk without fear again. We will all have a chance to build up our society again and we will have a lot of work to do this. So let us celebrate. Let us celebrate life and the return of peace!"
With these words the food arrived on the tables. There was a lot of applause for Dumbledore's speech. Then the people started to relax and eat and the longer the meal lasted the more relaxed everyone was. Dari was sitting with Hope at the Ravenclaw table. The two of them chatted with some of the seventh years, people they still knew from their own school years.
The rest of the Marauders enjoyed a good time at the Gryffindor table.
Of course the whole of the wizarding world was delirious for weeks.