Remus' POV
Our cub tenses the instant James comes in the room.
I purr softly to reassure him and he presses his head under my chin.
"Oh," James spots him. "I… err… want to tell me what's going on, Padfoot?"
"This is our cub," Padfoot tells him. "I'll tell you all about it in a second."
My Mate walks to us, and runs his fingers through the boy's hair,
"S'ok," he tells the boy. "Prongs… err, I mean James, is a member of your new Pack. He won't hurt you either."
"Prongs," the boy repeats, smiling now.
"Yeah," James moves over as well. "Nice to meet you," he offers a charming grin.
"Big Pack," the boy informs James gravely.
"I guess so," he agrees.
"Moony," Sirius smiles, "why don't you get our cub here something to eat. I'll tell Prongs here what's going on."
"Ok," I agree.
"Food?" the boy looks up at me as I carry him to the kitchen.
"Yes," I smile. "I'm not sure what we have at the moment; I haven't been shopping for a few days."
I place him on one of the benches,
"Ok. Do you like milk?" I root through the fridge to find some. I pour him some into a beaker, then start to make some ham sandwiches.
"White," he informs me.
I glance at him. He is studying the beaker as if he has never seen one before.
"Drink it up," I encourage him.
He scowls slightly, then tries to scoop the milk up with his hand.
"No, no," I move back over to him and he flinches away.
How do you explain how to use a beaker to an illiterate toddler?
"Shh," I reassure him. "You aren't in trouble. Here, watch me."
I demonstrate how to drink from the beaker. He seems to understand so I hand him back the beaker.
He glances at me nervously, then tips the beaker a little. He gets a little down his chin, but most seems to end up in his mouth. He puts to beaker down and looks up at me, smiling nervously.
"Good boy," I praise him as I wipe his chin, "very good."
He beams happily.
James' POV
"Right…" I am not ashamed to admit that this has all come as a bit of a shock.
Padfoot actually looks nervous,
"You're ok with this?" he asks.
"What?" I look at him blankly. "Well, yeah, of course I'm ok with this. It's just a bit of a surprise. Yesterday we were talking puppies, today you have a son!"
He laughs,
"Thanks Prongs. You're a good friend."
"I'm the best," I tell him instantly. "Why did you think I'd…" I pause and gesture randomly.
"It's one thing to accept that me a Moony are together, it's another to accept that we are going to raise a child," he gets a rather far away happy look on his face.
"I should tell Lily," I snap him out of it. "If I wait until I get home I'll have to come all the way back here."
Padfoot laughs easily,
"Sure. Use the fire in the kitchen if you want, and tell here she can tell everyone to come over if they want."
"I will," I grin and head for the door. I pause and turn back to him, "hey, am I meant to congratulate you on becoming a father?" I repeat the words he said to me when Harry was born.
He shakes his head, grinning,
"Nah, you're meant to commiserate with me," he repeats my answer.
I pass Moony and the boy on the way to the kitchen, and pull silly faces at the boy as they walk past. The boy giggles happily and Moony shakes his head in amusement.
I floo the Burrow and my head appears in their kitchen.
"Heeeeeelllllllooooooooo?" I call out.
"James?" Harry appears before me.
"Hullo," I grin. "Can you get Mummy for me?"
He rolls his eyes but does as asked.
They both come back after a minute,
"James?"
"Hello, oh flower of my heart!" I gush.
She just laughs at me,
"What do you want?"
"I come bearing news," I grin. "Padfoot and Moony have adopted an abandoned werewolf cub, and have invited us all over for something to eat."
"A baby!" Lily drops to her knees before me. "Oh! What does he look like? What's his name? Are we going to be Godparents?"
I blink in surprise, what is it about babies…?
"Err… He has short light brown hair and hazel eyes, like Moony. Pale complexion, but not overly unhealthy. He's on the small side; I don't think the Ministry fed him properly. He doesn't have a name right now, so the guys will probably want some help. I have no idea if we are going to be Godparents, but I would imagine so."
"How old is he? Should we buy a present on the way over? Who is invited?" Lily shoots out more questions excitedly.
"He's three-and-a-half; four in April," I tell her. "You can get something small if you like, but be careful not to overwhelm him. Padfoot just said to invite anyone who wants to come."
Harry is now watching his mother carefully, as if debating whether or not she has gone insane.
"Most people are at work," she tells me. "But Molly, Harry, and I will come!"
"Shouldn't you be… doing… something…?" I ask Harry.
"If you mean, 'should I be at training?', then no," he replies. "I don't have to go to most of the classes."
"Fair enough," I grin. "Shall I tell Padfoot to expect three then?"
"Yeah! We'll be there shortly," Lily beams.
I nod then pull my head out of the fire.
Sirius' POV
"Hey," I greet my Mate and our cub. "Did you eat?"
"Sandwich," he tells me. "Ham."
"I see," I nod. "Did you like it?"
"Ham," he nods happily.
"Moony, I've told Prongs he can invite the others over for a bite to eat."
Moony grins,
"That's a good idea. Any idea who will come?"
"Lily, Harry and Molly," Prongs replies as he enters the room. "The others are at work or doing… whatever…"
I laugh,
"That's great."
"Pack?" the boy pipes up.
"Some of them, yes," Moony tells him. "It'll be Prongs' Mate, and their cub, and an older friend of ours. They'll all love you, don't worry."
"Pack," he smiles happily and nuzzles my Mate.
Moony pets him gently.
"Sit down, Moony," I tell him and gesture for him to join me on the sofa.
Prongs pauses for a second, then joins us on the sofa.
The boy sits on Moony's lap for a bit, then crawls over to sit on mine. He watches Prongs carefully, the finally decides to crawl to him instead.
"Hey," Prongs greets him as he slips onto his lap.
Moony snuggles up beside me, watching the boy carefully. I hug him tightly and kiss his temple.
"Prongs," the boy taps Prongs' chest gently.
"Yeah, that's me," Prongs agrees.
"Cub?" he indicates himself.
"I…" Prongs looks over at us questioningly.
"No," I answer for him. "You aren't Cub. You don't have a name just yet, we are still thinking of one."
"No name?"
"You don't have a name yet, no," Moony replies holding out his arm. "But you will do, don't worry. We love you; you're safe."
The boy beams happily and crawls back over to us. He climbs onto my lap and Moony hugs him to us.
I see Prongs grinning,
"Lily is going to love this," he tells me.
I roll my eyes.
Later, Remus' POV
I hear the doorbell. Our cub stiffens and looks up at my Mate questioningly.
"That sound means the others have arrived," Sirius smiles.
"I'll get it," James offers.
"Thanks, man," Sirius nods.
After a minute Lily and Harry come in.
"Hey," Lily smiles as she joins me on the sofa.
"Prongs' Mate?" he looks up at me.
"Yes, this is Lily," I tell him.
"Lily," he repeats and smiles at her.
"Aren't you adorable!" she beams at him.
James and Sirius come in and stand either side of a rather bemused looking Harry.
"Molly couldn't come," Harry tells me. "She had already invited some old friends over. She says that we are all welcome to come to hers tomorrow, or the day after, instead."
"That would be nice," I smile.
"You could go during the day," Sirius offers. "I could join you after work."
"I brought you something," Lily smiles to the boy.
He looks surprised, and looks up at me for reassurance. I smile at him.
She pushes a small box towards him,
"Here you go."
He smiles again,
"Mine?"
"Yes," she grins. "All yours."
I help him open the toy train, then show him how to play with it.
Lily has a very maternal look in her eyes as she watches him playing on the carpet.
I see that Sirius is just about to join him, but Harry beats him to it.
"Cub?" our son asks.
"I'm… Prongs' cub, yeah," Harry looks bemused. "My name's Harry."
"Harry," he repeats then points to the toy. "Train. My train."
"Yes," Harry agrees. "Your train."
I can hear Lily making 'aww'ing noises.
Later
"He's asleep," Sirius reports as he comes back down into the living room.
"Which room did you put him in?" I ask.
"Regulus'" he tells me. "It's a good size, and close to the bathroom."
"That's two floors below ours," I scowl.
"Yeah," he agrees. "But, Moony, not to put too fine a point on it, you're a werewolf. He could sleep at the end of the garden and you'd still hear him if he cried."
I laugh easily,
"True."
"What are you going to call him?" Lily asks.
At precisely the same time Harry asks,
"What are you going to do to the people who treated him like that?"
"We don't know, and I'm not sure there is anything we can do," I notice that my voice gets quieter towards the end of the sentence.
"There must be…" Harry starts.
"The Law just isn't set up that way," I look down.
"Moony…" Sirius murmurs my name as he sits close beside me on the sofa.
"I'll talk to Hermione," Harry tells me. "I'm sure she'll think of something. You can't believe that they should be allowed to do that to… to a child. I mean, his childhood so far has been worse than mine."
Everyone but Harry flinches. I guess we all feel rather guilty about that.
Harry notices,
"Sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"You're sorry!" James splutters. "If I had my way…"
"James!" Lily stops that train of thought.
"Sorry, Love," James tells her. "But when I think of that…"
"Shush!" she snaps.
"I agree with you, Harry," Sirius pulls the conversation back on track. "I'm going to look into the feelings of that sort of thing amongst the other Aurors at work tomorrow."
"We'll sort that out later," Lily waves her hand impatiently. "What are we going to call him?"
"We?" Sirius and James announce, amused.
"Well," Lily smiles. "We must be the Godparents, so we get input into the name!"
"We didn't get input into Harry's name!" Sirius argues.
"Remus did!" Lily tells him. "We just disregarded everything you said because you weren't being serious."
"There is nothing wrong with Fluffy!" Sirius grins.
"You wanted to call me 'Fluffy'!" Harry objects.
Sirius grins evilly,
"I was going to get the Healer who handled your birth certificate drunk and encourage him to…"
"Sirius!" I shut him up quickly.
James is laughing,
"That…"
"Will you boys stop changing the subject?" Lily moans.
"Sorry Lily," I smile. "Do you have any ideas?"
She beams at me,
"Thank you, Remus. As a mater of fact I do. I was thinking that you could name him after someone we used to know. I think that would be nice."
Sirius wrinkles his nose,
"I'm against naming kids after old friends."
"Why?" she looks slightly offended.
"All our friends have dumb names," he moans, then grins at having wound Lily up.
"Behave!" she laughs despite herself.
"Name him after Snape!" Harry grins. "I know how much you guys love him!"
Sirius and James fall about laughing,
"I haven't seen him since we came back," Sirius admits.
"Me neither," James nods. "We should drop in on him sometime."
"No!" Lily and I object instantly.
"Spoil sport," Sirius pulls me into a one armed hug.
"Well," Lily thinks some more, "your family is into star names, Sirius."
"That just about gives me every reason to give him a name nothing to do with the stars," Sirius replies.
"Whose surname will he take?" James asks suddenly.
Sirius looks at me, and I look at him.
"I don't know," Sirius replies.
"Yours," I tell him, after a second.
"Why?" Sirius asks.
"I like your name more than mine."
"My family hates werewolves."
"So does mine."
There is a long pause.
"I thought you said your parents tried everything to cure you," Harry says quietly.
"They did," I agree. "But when it finally filtered into their heads that I would not be cured… They moved away from me."
James shrugs,
"Black it is then."
"Huh? Why?" Sirius looks up surprised.
"Your family abandoned you because they didn't like your personality. Moony's left him because they were stupid enough to let him get bitten," James replies easily.
Sirius nods,
"Ok."
"Now a first name?" Lily's mind is working overtime.
"It has to go with Black," I state, thinking carefully.
I sense Sirius grin suddenly.
"No Sirius."
"I haven't said anything!"
"Yet! You were going to suggest something stupid."
"You can't know that."
"I'm your Mate. I know you."
He laughs,
"I was only going to suggest Romulus!"
I roll my eyes,
"Sirius! Please!"
"Just being helpful…"
"You're doing it again!" Lily complains. "He needs a name now, guys. He feels left out because he doesn't have one."
"Sorry Lily," I apologise again.
"It could mean something…" Sirius ponders.
"Cole!" James grins.
"Cole Black?" Harry looks over at him. "Are you insane?"
"Thank you, Harry," Lily smiles as we snigger quietly.
"Gareth means gentle," I muse aloud. "Darren."
"Well, Darren is ok," Sirius tells me. "Lyall means wolf." He grins again. "Connor is something like lover of dogs!"
"Sirius, this isn't helpful."
"Glen means Valley," Lily has scarily produced a baby name book from somewhere.
"Where'd you get that?" James asks.
"I bought it on the way here, when I bought the train."
"The shop assistant thought we were together…" Harry moans suddenly.
"Mark," Lily opens the book at random. "Amon, Alvin…"
"Amon is fertility," Harry looks over her shoulder, "so don't go with that."
"Blaise…" she continues.
"Blaise Black?" James looks amused.
"Colin?" she looks up.
Sirius shrugs and turns to me,
"Do you want to take my name?"
"Pardon?" I stare at him.
"You heard me. Do you want to change your name to mine?"
"I…"
"Zebedee?"
"No!" James just laughs.
"Ross, Warren…" she pauses. "I like Warren."
James looks at her oddly,
"I can't see these two having a son called Warren."
"Liam? That's nice too…"
"Well, isn't that short for William?" Harry offers.
"Irish form of," Lily agrees.
"Rama," James peers at the book too. "Means black," he smirks and dodges a cousin from Sirius.
"Well?" Sirius nudges me gently.
"Really?" I ask before thinking.
He laughs,
"Moony, you are more than welcome to my name if you want it. I just always thought you didn't want to go for the whole happily married thing…"
"Cheney is from the Oak Forest…" Lily continues oblivious to our conversation.
"No, I don't want to get married," I agree. "We are bonded in a much stronger way, but I guess our son would feel we were more of a family if we have the same name…"
"You want it?" he asks again. "Don't say this if you will hate it."
"Remus Black sounds just fine to me," I smile at him.
He grins,
"Excellent. I'll pick up the paperwork tomorrow?"
I nods happily and lay my head back against his shoulder.
"I like Cheney," I add to the other conversation.
"Really?" Lily beams happily. "Cheney Black, Cheney… yes, it does sound nice."
"I agree with Moony," my Mate chimes in instantly, sensing that this would be a good time to get back into the conversation. Basically before we name our son without him.
"Darrion?" James offers.
"I knew I guy called Devlin…" Sirius adds.
"I like Devlin too," I tell them. "What does it mean?"
"Brave," Lily tells us after a minute.
"Devlin Black…" Harry tries it out for us.
"Does he get a middle name?" James asks.
Sirius laughs,
"At this rate no!"
James sniggers and I swat my Mate on the arm.
"Delvin Cheney Black," Harry lounges back against the sofa.
"Brave of the Oak Forest?" Sirius translates.
"I like it," I smile up at him.
"Excellent!" Sirius grins as he jumps to his feet. "So, who's up for some tea or coffee?"
Later, Sirius' POV
"Devlin… last chance to back out, Love," I offer my Mate.
"I like it," he murmurs.
Shortly after the others had left our new bed arrived. Fortunately we know how to shrink things; so we were able to get the bed up to are new room without waking our son.
"It's really big," Moony murmurs as we snuggle.
"Yeah," I laugh. "So why are we still curled around each other?"
Moony laughs,
"We didn't buy it so that we have more room while sleeping."
"We didn't?" I laugh.
"Nope. We need more room when we're… err… you know."
"Having sex?"
I think I can feel him blush as he nods.
I feel him tense suddenly, then shift to face the door over my chest.
"What is it?"
"Padfoot," I hear Devlin pad into the room. "Cold."
I roll over to look at him,
"Aww, I'm sorry. I should have gotten more blankets."
I had forgotten that werewolves have a tendency to feel the cold, and this old house is probably a lot colder than the Ministry.
He holds his arms out to me and I pull him up onto the bed.
"Do you want to sleep with us tonight?" Moony offers.
Devlin grins widely and nods,
"Warm, Moony."
"Hey," I catch his attention. "We thought up a name for you. Do you want to hear it?"
He nods again.
"Devlin Cheney Black," Moony tells him. "Do you like it?"
He grins and points to himself,
"Devlin?"
"Yes," Moony nods. "You're Devlin."
Moony settles back down against me and beckons Devlin. Soon I find myself being used as a pillow by two werewolves, and find that I really wouldn't wish it another way.
Author Notes:
Wow… long chapter… I guess the story possessed me again…
NixiNox- If you have a baby book it is an old method were by you press the pin into the book at random, then open it to the page the pin points to, to choose the name.
Kynny- Thanks for your link, and for your name suggestion. I would have loved to use it, but Ben Black has too many B's…
Shadow Cat17- Thanks for your suggestions. I'm sorry I didn't use them, maybe next time… ;)
Thanks to all my reviewers. I honestly am always surprised when I get such good feedback… I'm told by my flat mate it's because I have 'Abandoned Child Syndrome', which, apparently, means I find it hard to accept praise… Dunno why I told you that, but hey!
Thanks again.
