Chapter 10 – Jorja's Charity

"Sirius, can I have a word?" James called as Sirius walked off the pitch. It was the end of another wonderfully cheery Quidditch practice. (Note the heavily applied sarcasm.) Sirius turned to his best friend and James led him into the shadow of the stands.

"Why did we join up for this team?" Sirius asked. "We're utter crap. It's a miracle Bagman chose any of us to play!"

"Sirius, don't a be a pessimist – we joined because they'd have us, remember? Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk – " James began, but Sirius spoke over him.

"I mean, us two and Yasmin are the only people on the entire team who're any good!"

"Yes, Sirius, I agree, but – "

"Well then. Why do we stay? Why don't we just quit? The only reason I'm staying is because it beings in money and because I don't want to get out of practice!"

"Sirius, shut up!" James hissed, glancing around anxiously. Sirius sensed his anxiety and asked him what the matter was. James sighed. "It's just … Peter told me and Lil when we got married … he said … he said Voldemort wanted us dead."

Sirius' mouth dropped open. He was speechless for a moment and then hissed, "Why? And how the hell does he know anyway? Prongs, have you told Dumbledore?"

"Yeah … he said Peter may have been right and he's asked Snape to ask around," James answered, looking around nervously. Sirius smiled reassuringly, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Then again, Wormtail might just be being his paranoid self – you know how he was at school; always terrified of things going wrong. He had more good-luck charms than my dad! He's probably just being obsessive, James. Don't worry about it – until Snape gets back with news that Dumbledore believes in."

James smiled. "Yeah, you're probably right. Look, I'm going to go straight home without getting changed. See you, Sirius."

Sirius smiled and walked back towards the changing rooms as his best friend apparated behind him.

Once in the changing rooms, Sirius shrugged off the bright orange Chudley Cannons Quidditch robes he wore over his other clothes and started to take off his boots. When he looked up again, Jorja Hawk was standing right in front of him. He yelped, "You're not allowed in here!"

"Why not?"

"This is the men's changing room!" Sirius replied heatedly. Jorja smiled soothingly, holding up a hand to stop his from saying anything more. She pushed him down onto the bench and sat beside him.

"There's no one left but you – the rest of them have gone home. Besides, I'm only here because you asked me to be," Jorja replied indignantly. She reached into her bag and pulled out some papers. "You asked me to bring this for you at Lilly and James' wedding."

Suddenly, Jorja's mother and Sirius' fellow beater, Yasmin, popped her head around the door. She had short iron-grey hair and pale, bright blue eyes. Usually she was smiling, but right now she looked livid. "Jorja, hurry up! You said you'd be two minutes and you've been ten! I have better things to do than sit in the car all afternoon!"

Jorja scrambled to her feet. "Sorry, mum. Got to go, Sirius. See you round."

She left Sirius alone. He picked up one of the leaflets and flicked through it. It was about a wizarding organisation – set up just a few years ago but with an enormous success rate – that helped wizards and witches who were otherwise incapable of having children to have them.

Sirius read through the first page and then pushed the leaflets into his backpack while he got changed and walked outside to apparate home.

He opened the front door and shouted, "Remus, I'm home. Where are you?"

Remus replied he was in the lounge, at least attempting to watch something on TV. Sirius smiled and walked into the lounge, slumping down on the sofa next to Remus. He opened his bag and pulled out the papers Jorja had given him.

"If you can possibly drag your eyes off whoever-she-is for a moment and take a look at this, I'd be very appreciative," Sirius grinned. Remus turned and gave him a shove, scowling. Then he saw what Sirius had brought home. He picked one of the leaflets up and read it cover to cover. Sirius sat and watched his face for a long time.

Finally, Remus looked up, swallowing hard. "Sirius, do you really want to … try this? I mean … there are so many things to go wrong, and …"

"And if they don't we could be sitting here in under a year with a baby that belongs to us. Both of us," Sirius replied quietly. "Remus, I – I'm not saying we should do this now, but … it would be good one day to … to try it. I mean, you said yourself you wanted children … and to tell the absolute truth, so do I."

Remus looked up into Sirius face and smiled. "It says it can take months for an application to get through …"

"Yeah …"

"Shall we … read through all this before we decide to do anything?"

"OK," Sirius replied, reaching for one of the leaflets. Before he could take one, Remus grabbed his hand, making him look back up into his eyes. "Then when we've read through them we'll write them a letter and you can go and post it."

Sirius smiled. They both knew that despite anything it said in the leaflets that letter would be on its way to the organisation in the post the next morning. Sirius moved around onto Remus' other side so he could snuggle up to his lover and therefore be more comfortable. They chose a leaflet each and began to read.

After a while, they had both read through all the leaflets. Remus looked down at Sirius, whose head was resting on his knee. /Still think we should do this?/

Sirius was silent. He didn't meet Remus' gaze. Remus touched his cheek and Sirius looked up. His eyes were full of doubt. /What's the matter?/

/I'm … I'm scared I'll be a really rubbish parent. I mean, you're all right; you're the perfect parent – responsible; reliable; dependable … I'm none of those things. They'd never ever let me be a father to anyone …/

/They will, Sirius. You'll be a wonderful father. You will./ Remus replied softly, stroking Sirius' hair. /You'll be better than me – you need lots of energy to be a parent apparently and you always seem to have bags to spare, so you'll be brilliant./

Sirius smiled, sitting up. "Your writing's neater than mine, so you'll have to write it. Where do you put the paper?"

"Where you left it."

"Where did I leave it?"

Remus sighed. "You mean we don't even know where the paper is now? Dear Jesus, we're more disorganised than James!"

Sirius grinned, standing up. "I'll check upstairs, you check down here. Call when you find it."

They went in search of paper and eventually Sirius found it on the floor, lurking under a pile of Remus' books in their bedroom. Remus came upstairs and they lay on the bed attempting to compose the letter.

Finally it was finished. Sirius apparated to the nearest Owl-Post Office, posted the letter and walked outside again. The evening air was cool, and the first stars were just beginning to appear. He turned to face the right direction, searching the sky for his personal favourite star: Sirius, the Dog Star. He found it, as bright as ever. He smiled, wondering if Remus could see it from their house, and apparated back home.

The moment he was back inside, Remus asked, "You posted it?"

"No, I went all the way out to the post office for the hell of it and came back with the letter. Of course I bloody well posted it! What sort of idiot do you think I am?"

Remus sighed, smiling. "I don't think you're any sort of idiot. Now I suppose all we can do is wait to see what they say."

Sirius smiled and kissed Remus. "We may as well wait somewhere comfy – like upstairs, on our bed."

The werewolf's smiled widened and he almost laughed. "You're hopeless."

Sirius grinned and pulled Remus into a hug. "I know. That's why you love me."

Remus had to smile. He said, "I'm tired, Sirius. Can we just go to bed?"

The animagus picked his lover up and replied, "If you're tired, I'm going to carry you."

"Sirius, put me down!" Remus protested, grabbing Sirius around the neck. Sirius laughed, starting up the stairs. "I won't drop you, Remus – at least, I won't if you stop squirming like that."

Remus froze and let Sirius carry him up the rest of the stairs. He was put down gently on the bed. He glared at Sirius. "Why did you do that?"

"You said you were tired," Sirius replied simply, lying down beside him. Remus sighed resignedly and snuggled up to his mate. He muttered a quiet thank you, shutting his eyes. Sirius put his arms around him and watched Remus until he fell asleep. Then he snuggled down beside him until he could hear the werewolf's heartbeat. Only then did he close his own eyes and go to sleep.

The next morning, the Muggle postman dropped three letters through their letterbox. Sirius went to fetch them. One was a bill; the second was a bank statement and the third … the third was written in green ink on heavy parchment.

"Remus! Come here!" Sirius shouted. Remus walked from the kitchen and saw the envelope in Sirius hands. He walked over and took it. /You want me to open it?/

Sirius nodded. Remus ripped open the envelope and read it quickly. Even in Sirius' head, Remus' voice was a whisper; /There's a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix in two week's time. It's about Lilly and James./

(A/N: Sinister … Sorry it's really short and boring! I'm really sorry! Really and truly! Sorry! I added this chappie at the last second because it didn't fit anywhere else and it's incredibly bad ... sorry ... Also, I'm just going to mention that the title is going to become relevant soon! Sorry it's taking forever!

Oh, and BTW: Yes, they do have a Muggle bank account, that's why they came by the Muggle postie. (And the Order's letter came that way because it's less conspicuous.) Not all wizards/witches can live in wizarding communities, so they would need Muggle money to buy things like food, drink, takeaways etc. Please Review now.)