2. Sirius gets a new wand
He ran to the living room, where Albus Dumbledore was waiting for him, or better, Albus Dumbledore's head in the fire was waiting for him. He greeted him:
"Good evening, Albus!"
Remus was well aware that he was slightly flushed and that Albus would surely notice it, but he had no time to do anything about it.
"Good evening, Remus. Has Snuffles found his way to you?"
"He's arrived, Albus, thank you… You could have prepared him, though, you know..."
Albus chuckled.
"No, I thought that would only hold him up... was he terribly shocked?"
"Quite. I've been able to set things right, though."
"Is that divorce really inevitable, Remus?"
"It will be better for all of us. We have grown apart and I really love him."
"Well, there seems to be nothing we can do about that. Could you possibly come to Diagon Alley with Snuffles tomorrow?"
"What ever for, Albus?"
"I had a little chat with my good old friend Ollivanders..."
"Oooh, yes, for that I'll gladly bring him! What time?"
"Ten o'clock? I know it's a busy time, but we'll not stay in the front of the shop."
"That's okay. We'll be there."
"I've also arranged with the goblins that you might get to his account again. You haven't made use of it as far as I know, have you? In any case, they are sworn to secrecy."
"Albus, you are a genius. No, I haven't and it would look a bit suspicious if I did all of a sudden. On the other hand, I do go in there on a more or less regular basis, and no one would know which vault I visit if the goblins don't talk."
"Thank you, Remus, you're not half bad yourself. - So how do your delightful children fare?"
"They are fine, Albus. They have taken to Siri like the ducklings to the water. I'm sure he'll get along with them splendidly. Anna is pregnant again, though..."
"Remus!"
"We tried to fix it - one more time - and forgot the charms. She told me today, that she's fifteen weeks gone and that I'm to keep the children once she's out of here."
"You have to see that she's paying something for the children then..."
"She will, she doesn't exactly hate them, even if she doesn't love them as much as I do. She wanted Ronja, Rashid was already too much and she probably won't lose too much emotion over this baby. But she won't let it feel her anger, I'm sure about that. For me it's more than welcome."
"I would think so. You really love them. Minerva has asked after them..."
"Tell her she's welcome to come and visit any time. I know she really likes them..."
"I'll do that. So I'll see you and Snuffles tomorrow."
"Yes, see you tomorrow, Albus. And thank you so much! Good night!"
Remus returned to Sirius, but he found his lover sleeping. Remus smiled, pulled up the duvet and kissed Sirius tenderly on the forehead.
"Love you, my sweet," he whispered and left the room.
He picked up his book, went to his bedroom and undressed, got into bed and read for a while. The children slept soundly, he checked on them once more, before he extinguished the lights in the house. While he went back to his own bedroom he contemplated how lucky he and Anna were when they had found the house. It had been unused for several years and the owners had not been able to sell it for a long time. For Remus it was ideal. It had a huge kitchen and dining room, a rather large living room, a study and a spare room with a smaller bathroom on the first floor and four bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor. It had been a bit rundown, but they had got it cheaply. So they had been able to afford most of the necessary repairs and did a lot magically. But they had built in new central heating, had all the bathrooms redone and had given the house a new roof and new painting outside. The kitchen had to wait for two years, but it had been redone completely too. So at the moment the house was in a good condition. Remus was very glad about that, because he would lose Anna's rather good income soon, and even if she paid something for the children he would have to be more careful of what he spent.
He finally put his book on his nightstand a while after midnight. He woke up when Anna came into the bed at three o'clock in the morning. She had stopped apologising, since she knew his heightened senses made him wake up how ever careful she tried to come to bed.
"Go back to sleep, Remus..." she said.
"Thank you... when do you have your next shift?"
"At one pm."
"Poor you. I'll take the children with me then. Have to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Albus arranged a meeting with Ollivanders for Sirius to get a new wand."
"Oh, good for Sirius… Why are you up here? Wouldn't you rather be with him?"
Remus smiled.
"He fell asleep while I was talking to Albus through the floo."
"I see… Do you want me to trade place with Sirius, Remus? I know you love him. I've had to accept this from the beginning, but I thought I could live with it..."
"I'm sorry, Anna, I'm so sorry it's not worked..."
"Experiences. We were still very young, Remus. We're young enough to start a new life, both of us. I'm sorry to dump the children on you, but I know how much you love them. You'd surely be most miserable without them. And I - well, they don't take to me like they take to you."
"It's not your fault, Anna. None of this is your fault, it's mine... and the damned wolf inside of me..."
"It's not your fault that you love Sirius, Remus. You loved him long before you knew me. Did you two talk? Or not - and is that why you're in here?"
"We've talked. But once he was sleeping I didn't want to wake him. It's not going to be all roses and easy until we'll really be together again."
"Well, I'd be surprised, if it were. He's got issues, Remus, and he's still working out Azkaban... anyone would."
Remus sighed. He turned to Anna and put his hand on her belly.
"You may not be, but I am happy, Anna. I'll gladly take this baby."
"You're the born father, Remus. I'll watch it well until it's born. For you!"
"I'll never regret getting married to you, Anna. You'll always have my deepest respect and I do love you, you know. And you've saved me from myself and the wolf. I'm very thankful for all you've done and given me."
"We'll have a date with the lawyer at the end of next week, Remus. He says we can do it all outside of the court, if we agree there's no need for a court date, it can be done through a contract."
"We do agree, don't we?"
"Yes, I think, we do. There's no use fighting over it, Remus. The house is yours, I'll let you have the children, I'll give you something each month for them, I think I'll be able to give you 300 Galleons or maybe 400 every month, depending on what I'll have to pay for the flat. I have three flats that I'll see next week. Is there anything else you want?"
He shook his head. Then he said:
"Only something that cannot be written down in a contract, Anna. I don't want to lose your friendship. Please don't alienate yourself from us completely."
"I won't. But you might want to give me a few months to get used to being on my own again..."
"But the baby... I don't want to be a complete stranger to it when it's born..."
"You won't. Just a few months is all I ask."
"Okay..."
Remus pulled her close and kissed her. He wished her a good night and cuddled into his duvet, pulling his pillow close. He was just going back to sleep, when he heard Sirius' cry. He jumped up.
"Shit, he's having nightmares!"
"Go and see him. Warm some milk, that helps."
"Okay."
Remus got up, pulled on his dressing gown while he left the room. He closed the bedroom door and went downstairs, after casting a quick one way silencing charm over the children's rooms.
He opened the door to Sirius' room and found him thrashing in his bed, mumbling incoherent gibberish and pounding his pillow. Remus sat down next to him and shook Sirius' shoulders.
"Sirius, it's just a dream! Siri, calm down, love, come on, wake up!"
It took a while until Remus really brought Sirius back. He pulled him into his arms, held him and when Sirius finally awoke, he stroked his head tenderly, held him to his shoulder and rocked him. He relaxed when he felt Sirius' arms coming up and around him.
"It's okay, love, I've got you. You're not alone anymore."
Sirius said nothing and after a while he relaxed and finally fell asleep again. Remus put him down on his pillow, took the dressing gown off and crawled next to Sirius under the duvet. He scooted closer to his lover and held him tight. Then he finally fell asleep again. They woke up quite late. Sirius had needed the sleep and Remus had not been woken by the children, so when he lifted his head from Sirius' shoulder he was rather groggy. He looked around, but there wasn't any watch in this room. Remus sat up, waking up Sirius, who had become a fairly light sleeper. Being on the run had made him very alert. He jumped out of sleep and only relaxed, when he noticed that it was Remus who sat next to him.
"Morning, love," Remus said and smiled.
"Morning, Remus," Sirius said.
Remus turned around and straddled Sirius' thin thighs. He sat down on Sirius' lap and embraced him.
"Mmmmm," said Sirius.
Remus kissed him. He stroked lightly over Sirius' shoulders while he deepened the kiss. Sirius pulled him closer and both felt their arousal beginning. Remus closed his eyes and revelled in the kiss. Learning to know Sirius again was exciting and the excitement showed in his groin. Remus sighed happily. This was what he had missed for so long. Then he heard Anna talking to the children outside.
"Daddy needs some more sleep, he'll be up soon, it's already half past eight," Anna explained on the way to the kitchen.
Remus woke up completely.
"We don't have any time left, Sirius! That was Albus yesterday, he wanted us to come to the Diagon Alley today, you as Snuffles of course, so we can get a new wand for you. He's talked to Ollivanders. And we can get to your account. You can owl order some things you need..."
"When are we supposed to meet?" Sirius asked, disappointed.
"At ten. We should get up now and get some breakfast… This isn't cancelled, just postponed a while..." he said, grinning and pointing down to their groins, "believe me, I want it as much as you do. Anticipation will make completion that much sweeter!"
"Oh well, you're probably right..."
They got up, Remus put his dressing gown on and fled upstairs to get dressed and Sirius got dressed in his own room. They entered the kitchen a few minutes later. Anna was already busy preparing the breakfast.
"Good morning, dears!" Remus said and kissed both his children and then his wife.
"Good morning, Daddy. You are late!" declared Ronja.
"I am. I apologise, my little one. I have a surprise though, we'll be going to Diagon Alley."
"With us?" Ronja asked excitedly.
"You will come along, because Mum will go back to work today at noon. We will probably be longer than that..."
Sirius was next to come in and he wished everyone a good morning. He wore a pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt. Even though the clothes were still fairly loose on him, he looked a lot better than the day before when he had still worn his old tattered robe. His hair looked nice, too, after Remus had given it a good trim the day before. All in all he was quite happy with his looks. He still intended to do something to his yellow teeth though, but that would not take long, once he had a new wand.
"So tell me, Sirius, who knows about you being innocent and believes it?" Anna asked, sitting down again after having given Sirius a plate full of eggs, bacon and sausages.
"Apart from Dumbledore and you all there's Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, then part of the old crowd, Mundungus Fletcher and Arabella Figg and finally Molly, Arthur and Bill Weasley. That's all for now. Oh, and Mr Ollivanders..."
"Not exactly many people..."
"No, not really. We really need to catch the rat, before I can prove my innocence."
Sirius had emptied his plate in no time and proceeded to eat several pieces of toast. Remus kept passing him more food. Until Sirius noticed and smiled.
"Be careful, Moony, I do want to gain some weight, but you don't want me fat, do you?"
"I'll keep a watch on that, Siri, but for the moment you need to eat."
"I won't need to be force fed, believe me! Everything tastes so wonderful... when you have lost most of your senses, everything comes in strong once you get them back. Almost anything I eat tastes great."
"I don't even want to begin to imagine what those Dementors are like," Anna said with a shudder.
"No, you don't. I also don't want any Boggarts around me! The bloody Dementors still terrify me! I'm not sure if I can even cast a Patronus anymore," Sirius said.
"You'll learn again. As soon as we get back home tonight we'll start practising again, spells, curses, shields, counter-curses, anything you'll need. You'll get back to where you once were and more, Sirius," Remus promised.
"Thank you, Moony. I'll have to practise. And I really need a wand again."
"I'm glad the Dementors have not been able to squash the magic out of you."
Shortly after nine o'clock Remus took them to the fireplace, where he started and went to the Leaky Cauldron with Rashid on his arms, then Anna helped Ronja through and finally Sirius took a handful of the powder.
"Remus should have cast a concealment charm over the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron by now, you can go like this and have to transform the moment you get there, okay?" Anna said.
"Yes, okay. I'm gone then, see you tonight..."
"Fairly late. Have a good day, Sirius!"
Sirius threw the floo powder into the flames, stepped inside and said:
"The Leaky Cauldron!"
He was gone in a swirl and landed at his destination only a short time later and transformed immediately. Remus smiled and ended the concealment charm stealthily. He directed his children and Padfoot through the pub. Tom greeted him cheerfully.
"Hello there, Professor Lupin!"
"Hello, Tom."
"Are you doing well, sir? Are these two your children?"
"Yes, I'm very well, thank you. And yes, they are mine, this is Ronja and the little one here is Rashid."
"You both look like really fine children! Have a pleasant day!" Tom wished them.
"Thank you! You too!"
After that short conversation they headed out to the alley. Sirius felt some trepidation being back in Diagon Alley after so many years, even in his guise as a dog. He was glad that only a very suspicious person would think about the dog possibly being an Animagus. And to change an Animagus back into a human it took a special spell which one had to know. They went to Gringott's first, where Remus presented his key for Sirius' account and they were ushered to his vault without any questions. The goblin took Remus' key, put it in the hole and they went inside. Ronja gasped when she saw the mounds of galleons. Remus filled a bag with gold. Padfoot nudged him.
"We don't need more, Snuffles! The wand won't cost a fortune after all..."
They returned to the surface and walked to Ollivanders'. When they entered the shop, the old man came looking who it was, smiled at them and said:
"Ah, Mr Lupin! How nice to see you again! Would you all like to come with me? We'll proceed to the back of the shop."
The Open sign on the door turned to Closed and they followed Ollivanders to his back office where Albus already waited. He sat in a chair next to a small table and sipped on a cup of tea. He put the cup down, stood up and shook hands with Remus, then asked Sirius to show himself. Sirius transformed.
"Well, well, well, this is quite impressive! That wand I sold you when you were eleven years old was good for transfiguration, you seemed to have made good use of it, Mr Black!" Ollivanders said with an amused expression.
"It did become one of my best subjects. I also did reasonably well in Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts," Sirius replied.
"We'll see what will fit you now, Mr Black. It might take a while, until we find something, it usually does for adults."
"Well, in this case I do suggest I will take your two little ones, Remus, and we'll go and have some ice cream. How about that?" asked Dumbledore.
Ronja found that was a very good idea and even Rashid was pleased.
"Albus, are you sure you want to burden yourself with those two? They might be a bit exhausting," Remus warned.
"Do you tell me in a nice way that I'm too old to be entrusted with two little children? I'm hurt, Remus..." Albus teased, held out his two hands and the two children immediately took one each.
"We'll take a stroll to Flourish & Blotts and then to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, so whoever gets there first waits for the others, is that alright?"
"Yes, Albus, that is fine. We'll see you there! Do behave, children!"
"Daddy! We know how to behave!" said Ronja.
After Dumbledore and the children had left the shop, Ollivanders turned to Remus and remarked:
"They are delightful children, Mr Lupin. I suppose I'll see the girl soon?"
"Give that five years. If that's soon for you... Ronja will be six next week, Rashid is three in November. And we'll have a third one at the end of the year," Remus replied with a smile.
"Lovely… Now let's find a wand for you, Mr Black. You must miss yours sorely!"
"Very! It was a difficult time these past two years. But I'm very happy that I can get a new one now."
"You're an Animagus. Hm. That's interesting, let us start with something very unconventional, I think, I know..."
Ollivanders had to bring a lot of boxes from the shelves and after trying about fifty or more wands, Sirius finally hit gold. Ollivanders gave him a very light one. Sirius took it and warmth bubbled in his hand and spread through his right arm. He started to smile.
"Looks like this is it," he whispered and moved the wand.
"Yes! That really is it! We're still quite unconventional, Mr Black! That's maple wood and a unicorn hair, eleven inches. It's both strong for charm work and defence. Should also do well with transfigurations."
"Finally! I thought I'd have to go through hundreds of them..." Sirius said, relieved.
"Spare me, Padfoot!" Remus grinned.
They paid for the wand, Sirius put it in the back pocket of his jeans, thanked Mr Ollivanders and transformed back into the dog. Remus led him to the door and when they passed, the sign turned to Open again. They walked to Florean's ice cream parlour where they found Albus, telling the children a story. They listened very attentively. Remus was quite pleased to see that they seemed to be enjoying themselves and not tearing on Albus' nerves. He closed up to them and said:
"Well, it took a while! I'm sorry to keep you so long, Albus."
"That's perfectly fine, Remus. Ronja and Rashid have been very good indeed."
"Professor Dumbledore gave me a book, Daddy," said Ronja.
"Did you say thank you?"
"She did… Have you been successful then?" Albus asked.
"Yes, I have! It took some time though. And it's not the same core as the first wand."
"Interesting. It's rare that people get a different core that matches... usually it's the same core in a similar wood if one has to buy a new wand."
"I expected that, but it's a unicorn's hair now. And maple wood."
"Oh - now that's entirely different, how interesting."
"Ollivanders thought so, too, he called it unconventional."
"Well, then I suppose we are done. I'll gladly bring Minerva for a cup of tea one of the next days."
"You'll tell her about Snuffles?"
"Yes, I'll warn her, don't worry."
Albus smiled, scratched Snuffles behind his ears and bid them goodbye. Remus and the children ate some more ice cream and then they took some home, charmed so it wouldn't melt, so Sirius would get his as well. They returned to the Leaky Cauldron and Remus cast the concealment charm again, within which Sirius could transform and get back to the Lupin's house undetected. He was followed by Ronja and then Remus brought Rashid. Remus left them, to quickly go and shop for some groceries and when he returned, Sirius had devoured his ice cream.
Remus went to the kitchen to stow his groceries away.
"Ready to start practicing, Siri?" he called while he neatly stowed the eggs in the fridge.
"You bet!"
Sirius came to the kitchen door and stood in the frame, grinning and looking very happy.
"I think I start feeling like a wizard again."
"That's good. I'm really glad you're finding your way back now, Sirius. - We'll catch The Rat yet!"
"I hope so, Remus. He's going to be seen sooner or later, that's my first hope. One of these days there must be someone who will see him out in the open."
Sirius sighed. Remus came to him and embraced him.
"I love you, sweetheart. We'll work it out. Albus will help and the Order will help as well."
