Friday 5th September 1980

Tonks Home, 17:30

"Oh, you're so clever," Dora cooed at Teddy.

Teddy was now three months 0ld and he was so, so, so precious. The most precious baby in the world, in her opinion but of course, she was horrendously biased that way. But that didn't stop her from being right. Teddy was clever. And precious. And adorable. And a whole assortment of other things.

He gave her a big, toothless smile. That was the reason he was so clever today. He was smiling so much now! And not just randomly, in response to her and Remus talking to him! He was just so cute!

What wasn't so cute was the fact that he was now taking swipes at their hair. Thankfully, he didn't have much of a grip yet but still. It definitely made her prefer her short and spiky style. Teddy still tried though. And he wasn't happy with the lack of results.

It was a good thing his screwed up little annoyed face was so cute or his cries would really start to get old.

"And what's going on here?" Remus asked happily as he shrugged his robe off.

He looked tired but happily so. He had managed to find yet another job in the muggle world. In a music shop. Hopefully this one wouldn't make too big a deal of his absences. They all did eventually but hopefully this one wouldn't for a while. Remus was the type of person who needed a job. Needed to be doing something. Teddy had been keeping him busy but with Dora not starting her Auror Training for another few weeks yet - this round of new recruits were starting at the end of September for some reason - it meant that she wanted to be Teddy's primary carer until then. Remus had respected her need to do that while still also upholding his own responsibilities to Teddy - he was still his dad, after all and he loved Teddy very, very much. But, for all of their mental health, Remus got himself this job. Being constantly in each other's presence day in and day out with no reprieve was not healthy for them, trust her.

But now she was happy to see him again and she greeted him with a kiss to the cheek. Just like a proper little housewife. Okay, she had to snort at that thought. She was definitely the furthest thing from a proper, little housewife. But she was his girlfriend, who did love him very much despite everything that had happened and was going on.

"Look! He matches his hair to the colour of whoever is holding him," Dora said proudly, lifting Teddy up more to show him off. This meant that he was no longer touching her so his hair faded from bright pink back to a mousy brown-ish colour. It still wasn't very obvious what colour his hair was, he didn't have much of it. "That makes him doubly clever. Yes, it does! Yes, it does!"

She knew from talking to her parents that that was completely involuntary at this point but still! Teddy was one of the smartest babies ever, in her eyes, and nothing anyone could say would make her think otherwise.

"He is incredibly clever," Remus said, reaching out for him.

Dora handed him over but not before pressing another kiss to Teddy's little face.

As hard as her pregnancy had been - the actual carrying a baby bit and everything else surrounding that particular situation, and as horrible as the whole birth experience had been, she wouldn't change having Teddy for the world now. Did she wish that some things had gone differently? Of course, she did. Especially when she knew that she could have made the changes herself or at least started the ball rolling. But there were also things she couldn't have changed. It wasn't like she could predict what would happen. But that was in the past now and she really needed to keep looking forwards. Get things done.

She was going to start Auror Training soon, her dream job, and she had the perfect little baby (no matter how exhausting he was) and her relationship with Remus was the best it had ever been.

Yes. Dora smiled at Remus who was now making funny faces at Teddy. Everything was going great.

Wednesday 10th September 1980

Marauder Flat, 22:30

"What's the matter?" Marlene asked, startling him as she spoke - he thought that she was sound asleep.

Sirius hadn't realised that she was awake.

"Nothing," he answered automatically only to get a scoffing noise in response.

"You've been tossing and turning for ages now. You either itch something awful or something's up. You haven't been scratching so something's obviously up." She deducted easily.

"You're too clever by half, you know that?" He grumbled.

"I know," she said smugly and then frowned when he didn't give her a response. So, she elbowed him. None to gently! "Hey, seriously, what's up?"

Sirius pondered whether or not he should tell her what he was actually thing or just fob her off. Then again, this was Marlene. He doubted that fobbing her off would actually work. He sighed heavily. No, it wouldn't work. And he knew it. And it would be nice to actually voice his thoughts. Maybe she would be able to make sense of then for him.

"I was just thinking about Regulus," he said finally.

That made Marlene a bit more alert. "Your brother? Did he try and contact you or something?"

Sirius shook his head. "That's just it. He hasn't. I haven't heard a word from him since... sixth year? End of fifth?"

"When you ran away to the Potters."

"Yes," he answered even though it wasn't a question.

Of course, he hadn't seen him since then. He didn't live with him anymore, did he? Obviously, he saw him around school those last two years but that wasn't the same. It wasn't the same at all.

"That's years ago."

Again. Not a question but he nodded anyway. What else was he supposed to do?

When was the last time he had talked to Regulus? Like, actually talked to him. Not just telling him things or how he should be thinking? When he was eleven or twelve? Or was it really before he had started Hogwarts and got sorted into Gryffindor? Coming to Hogwarts had really changed things. A lot of things. But, really? Had it been that long? Almost ten years? And now they didn't talk at all. They did t even see each other...

Did he want to see Regulus? Sirius frowned at that thought and found that he really didn't know. Was that a bad thing? Did he want to see a Death Eater? Even if that Death Eater was Regulus? Not even to talk. Just to see. Maybe even from a distance. It didn't have to be up close. Just a glimpse.

Now he couldn't get his brother out of his head. How on earth was he supposed to catch a glimpse of him? Had he seen him and not even realised it? Death Eaters did wear masks after all, Sirius never knew who he was giggling unless the mask got taken off. His heart thunder at the thought of fighting or duelling with Regulus and not even knowing. It just seemed... wrong. Even though they were on opposite sides. Very clearly on opposite sides.

There was just nothing clear about this whole situation. It wasn't as simple as Sirius being on the right side and Regulus being on the wrong.

"Maybe I should try and contact him," he mused.

"Isn't he a Death Eater?"

"Almost definitely."

"And you're an Auror."

Sirius stared at her, not seeing the point. She made an exasperated noise.

"Aurors shouldn't be going around casually talking to Death Eaters!"

Oh. Yes. That. Yes. He really shouldn't be doing that, should he? Not even if the Death Eater in question was his very, very estranged brother. No, that was not a good idea. It was definitely not a good idea. He was a Death Eater. One of the most horrible types of people in the world. Of course, he shouldn't try to contact him.

Though, Moody would probably approve. Even if it was only because it would be a chance to capture a Death Eater and interrogate him. They hadn't been having much luck in doing that recently. Certainly not any Death Eater of importance.

"Sirius!" Marlene said sharply when he didn't respond to her. "You know you can't just contact him. It's not that simple."

He sighed heavily. "I know, Marlene."

It had all been a hypothetical sort of situation anyway. He settled himself back down and pulled the covers up him.

"So, what are you going to do?" She pressed.

"I can't do anything," he said, suddenly feeling tired. "So, nothing."

He was doing nothing.

Sunday 14th September 1980

Godric's Hollow, 21:00

James pulled the covers over him as he lay back on the bed. He couldn't help but sigh.

Lily propped herself up on her elbow. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just been a long day."

"Then you came back home to a frazzled wife and a crying child," she said guiltily.

Oh no, he was going to nip that in the bud right now. Yes, it had been a long, hard day to be an Auror - a whole team of Aurors had been killed outright. Granted, teams were now small (four people) because of the sheer lack of Aurors these days but still. That was four people who weren't going home tonight. Or ever. But Lily had also had a rough day. It was just a different sort of rough day to his. The whole house was a mess because they had been trying to get used to this whole parent thing and then he had to go to work and there was only so much Lily could do by herself. They had tried to do a little bit each day and maintain the tidiness but it didn't seem to work that way. Why were there always dishes in the sink no matter how many times they washed them? And he swore that dirty socks were out to get them. And today everything just seemed to hit their breaking point. A dish-washing charm had been mistimed and the kitchen turned into a sopping mess on Lily. So, she had to clean that up and people) because remake breakfast for herself because it got wet. Then a sock had fallen from a cupboard (how had it even got up there?) and then she couldn't find its pair. The house seemed impossible dirty and she hadn't known what to tackle first so she did a bit in each room but hadn't been able to finish any of them. And, to top it all off, Harry wouldn't settle and then he wouldn't start crying and finally shrieking and Lily couldn't calm him down. That's what James had walked in on when he had finished work.

"Yes, I did," he said, not denying that at all. "Because they had just as bad a day as me."

"There's no way that my bad day compares to an Auror's bad day," she scoffed.

"No," James admitted freely. "It wouldn't. But that doesn't make it any less than mine. Just different."

Lily shook her head in amazement. James didn't know why. Her day had sounded pretty horrible to him as well.

"But everything's better now," he said, sending her a grin.

And he knew that he had won when she gave him a smile in return. See? The day was looking up! Even though it was nearly over.

"It is," she agreed.

The house wasn't exactly the tidiest, neither of them particularly looked put together a d they were still tired. But Harry was now sleeping, they were going to go to sleep (what little they could grab) and they were together and somehow everything felt right in their little world.

They basked in that feeling for a few minutes. They deserved at least that much.

James found his thoughts not turning to his little son or his beautiful wife - both very pleasant thoughts indeed - but instead to the more worrying ones. Why did the good thoughts always fade to the background?

"Do you think that Dumbledore has been watching us, recently?"

"More like watching Harry," Lily said with a fond smile. "He loves babies. Remember what he was like with Teddy when he was born?"

James took a moment from his worries to chuckle at that particular memory. Who would have thought that the Great Albus Dumbledore, Leader of the Light and Defeater of Grindelwald, could coo over babies. Like, actually coo over them. In a way than was worse than a baby's own mother. The man had actually led the Order meeting with Teddy safely ensconced in his arms. It had been odd. Lily maintained that it was adorable but whatever.

"That's still weird," he said, scrunching up his nose.

Lily smacked him in the chest. "It was not! It was cute!"

"Sure, sure," James dismissed, not wanting to ever think of Dumbledore as "cute". That was just wrong. "I still say he's been looking at us."

The change in tone of his voice made Lily set Harry down and look at him.

"Really?"

James nodded slowly. Yes, Dumbledore had definitely been looking at them. Watching them. And hadn't been saying anything. It made James' hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. It wasn't a comfortable feeling at all. It couldn't be a good thing that Dumbledore was watching them, could it?

"Huh," she said thoughtfully.

"That doesn't seem weird to you?"

"It certainly isn't the weirdest thing he's done," she said with a shrug. "But yeah. Why would he be watching us?"

"Maybe we did something to annoy him?" James suggested.

"I think you mean you," she teased.

James rolled his eyes and pulled a face. Okay, maybe she had a point there.

They lapsed into silence, each thinking of what Dumbledore watching them might mean.

"You know what you should do?" Lily said.

He looked at her eagerly, Lily always came up with good ideas. It was why she was the smart one of the two of them.

"What?"

"Ask him."

He blinked at her. Ask him? Ask Albus Dumbledore why he was watching them?

Could he do that?

Tuesday 16th September 1980

Godric's Hollow, 18:00

Sirius swung into the living room with a big grin on his face. A grin that everyone present had long since learned to distrust. So, obviously, everyone was immediately on edge. Lily even held Harry closer to her, as if that would protect her from any insanity that was about to spew forth.

"Look what I got!" He announced without any preamble and tipped the bag he was holding upside-down so its contents spilled onto the floor.

It was an awful lot of some sort of shiny, black material. They all leaned their heads over it in curiosity.

"What are they?" Dora asked, hiding Teddy in a way that he got to see too - he had been very interested in his surrounding recently, always wanting to look everywhere.

"Leather jackets!" He said happily, unable to wait for anyone to guess.

"They're really small, leather jackets," Severus said suspiciously. "You aren't planning to shrink us, are you?"

"What?" Sirius spluttered. "No, they're for the babies. I got all the right sizes with a little bit of room to grow too!"

He was quite proud of that. He handed them out to each baby, knowing who's was who's because he had their names embroidered on them.

"Oh, he looks like a little man," Dora cooed at Teddy when he was dressed in his.

Lily couldn't help but chuckle at Harry who looked completely bemused by the whole experience.

Cassie, his sweet little daughter, looked right at home in hers. She looked the best, in his very biased opinion, just like her daddy.

"They're going to be their own gang even before they're a year old," Sirius said proudly.

"My child is not going to be a part of a motorcycle gang," Lily said vehemently, bringing Harry closer to her again. "He is not going to be some sort of... some sort of hoodlum!"

"Does that make me a hoodlum?" Sirius asked teasingly.

"Yes."

Marlene had to choke back a laugh at that. There had been absolutely no hesitation on Lily's part there. Not even a little bit. Sirius pouted and then grinned. He was proud to be a hoodlum. That was the furthest thing you could possibly be from being a black.

"Yep, I'm a hoodlum. A motorcycle-driving hoodlum who wears ripped jeans and leather jackets."

Though, the rip in his jeans hadn't exactly been deliberate. Well, not deliberate on his part. The Death Eater... well, let's just say that the Death Eater had wanted to rip more than his jeans.

"A motorcycle-driving, leather jackets wearing hoodlum who actually tried to bring his daughter for a ride on said motorcycle," Marlene said in exasperation.

"She would have been safe!" Sirius said defensively. "I put like a dozen protection Charms on her!"

"You are never putting my daughter on a motorcycle."

"She's my daughter too!"

"No. Motorcycle."

"Aw, come on! It's her birth right!"

"You know, it is a bad idea," Remus mused out loud, chuckling as Teddy gummed on this new material on his arm.

"See!" Marlene said.

"At least until she has proper neck control."

Marlene fired a glare in his direction.

"You are supposed to be one of the good ones, Remus Lupin," she accused.

"You don't really think that it's okay to put our babies on a motorcycle, do you?" Lily demanded.

"If there were the proper precautions in place..."

"No. Just, no."

"Sirius wouldn't let any harm to come to them..."

Sirius nodded vigorously at that. Or should he be shaking his head? Either way, he agreed with Remus, he wouldn't let any harm come to any of these teeny, tiny babies.

They were still getting incredulous looks from everyone except for Severus who looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Just one loop around the street," he tried to persuade them. "I won't even make it fly."

"Your motorcycle flies?"