Everybody had found out right after Lou had started showing. One of the boys he'd bet his life on had given him the potion, had made a comment and it had spread like wildfire. Although the father had never been found out, it had not been welcome news and over the seven months, the couple had spent more and more time together.
It had been when they'd been having dinner in Felix's quarters that Lou had gone into labour and instead of going to Professor Koin, Felix had merely got up, packed a small bag, picked Louis up and carried him to a muggle car outside the building. It had been a shock that after five hours of driving, tired, sweaty and the baby ready to come any minute, that Felix had proposed and, even more surprisingly, Louis had accepted.
Another hour later and barely into a little clinic on the outskirts of Ireland, Quillian Felix Kirton had been born.
They stood now nearly two years later on the Black's doorstep. Felix looked over to his ex-student proudly. They hadn't realised the potion's effects had been permanent and so here his spouse stood, his body once again swollen with child and their beautiful little boy on his hip.
The door opened and Sirius ushered them in.
"Come in, come in, Harry's just finishing off dinner." He said, leading them to the sitting room before going to the kitchen and finding Harry rushing around to stir or chop different things.
"They're here. Is it ready?" Harry shook his head. "Why not? You said seven."
"If you could tell time, Sirius, you would see that it's not even half past six yet. But if you help, I can get it done much faster."
"No, I've got to keep them entertained. Just try to hurry and not burn anything too much." He said and rushed out back into the living room. "Dinner's going to be a little later than expected."
"It's no problem for me. You think you can stand it love?" Louis smiled at his husband and nodded before a weird look came over his face.
"Can I use your bathroom?" He said, a distinct blush in his cheeks.
"Straight down the hall, third door on the left. You can't miss it." Felix helped him up and watched him waddle off, the dreamy expression on his face giving him the look of a lovesick teenager. He made sure Louis was out of earshot before he spoke.
"I love him and all, but I can't wait for this pregnancy to be over. Not just for the baby, but it takes so much energy out of him. I'm sure you must go the same thing with Harry, backaches, swollen ankles, everything."
"No, not really."
"He hasn't said anything to you?" Sirius shrugged. "Try getting him to open up a bit. Offer him a backrub sometime, it works wonders." Sirius merely nodded once before changing the subject.
Louis finished in the bathroom and sighed in relief, rubbing his side as the baby aimed a kick at his ribs. His happy moment was spoiled by a cry of distress coming from the room he was passing. Looking through the door, he saw a young man who looked about seventeen rushing towards a smoking pot, crying out in anguish.
His curiosity awakened, he cautiously entered the smoky kitchen…
Feeling a pair of eyes on him as he searched through his rack, Harry looked up and noticed the person across the room staring curiously at him.
"Did you find it?" The assistant asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. He quickly skimmed through them and handed them the clothes. He looked back to where the blonde had been standing, but they were gone. He dropped it from his mind as he continued searching through his rack of designs…
"Aye, he's my little cub. That's what Quillan means in Irish." Felix said affectionately as he tickled the baby's stomach. His blue eyes widened and the dummy fell out of his mouth as he laughed and squirmed away from his father's hand. Louis picked it up, did a sterilizing charm and popped it back into his mouth. Felix laughed and kissed his forehead, rubbing a hand through the light brown hair.
Sirius watched this all with a sad smile and Harry came in a moment later holding a sleepy-looking Crosby over his shoulder. He seemed quite reluctant to do it, but didn't say anything as he handed him over to Felix, who was soon playing with him like his own child.
"So, did you two date a long time before getting married?" Felix asked curiously and Sirius was about to lie when Harry spoke.
"No, just a couple of months." Sirius put a hand on his thigh warningly and Harry glared at him as he pushed it off. Felix wisely dropped the subject and silence followed. Eventually, the oldest of the four tried again.
"Is there any family besides yourselves?"
"Yes, my parents and brother, but we're not in contact with them."
"Oh? Why not?"
"The age difference too much for them?"
"No, it's because h-"
"Harry…" For a moment Sirius thought he'd listened until he said bluntly:
"Because he's my Godfather." The only sound was of the utensils dropping back down onto the table.
"Come on Harry, he was only kidding!"
"How long were you in labour for before you named him Crosby? I'm sorry, but I don't consider it funny."
"Well, I'm thinking it must have been a lot worse for Louis to call theirs 'Quill'. But you never did say what Crosby means…" Harry shrugged.
"No one ever asked, everyone just said 'nice name' or 'ooh,'" Harry sounded rather annoyed and disgruntled. "It's parseltongue."
"What?"
"It's parseltongue. It means beautiful one. That's why when you asked me, I said 'This one's a Crosby.'" Sirius looked at the child in Harry's arms and reached out a hand, touching his cheek. Crosby took the thumb of the hand that seemed so huge next to his, in his fist and held it tightly.
"This one's a beautiful one." Sirius said softly and kissed Crosby's forehead.
Harry was shaken awake later that night. He opened his eyes and looked up at his husband's face, a distant, cold expression of anger on his face. A look Harry had only seen when they'd argued over the past few weeks.
"Wha-"
Sirius grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet roughly. He realised what was happened and tried to pull away desperately.
"No, Sirius don't! Please don't!" He was silenced with a slap across his face and a hard kick to his shin. He fell back onto the floor and a kick was aimed at his chest. He whimpered and curled up, his arms protectively around his stomach, crying and trying his best to protect his children from their father
.
"Hey Harry." Harry looked up as Louis approached him, trying his best not to waddle and not drop Quillian. Harry smiled back weakly. "Sorry about last night."
"It's ok. It was partly my fault anyway… Sirius just got a little bit, ticked off." He blushed and Louis saw the hand-shaped bruise on his cheek
"Do you want to talk about it, maybe go for coffee somewhere? Decaff of course…" Once outside, Louis raised his wand arm and instead of the knightbus like Harry usually got, a bright green car appeared next to them and the four of them piled in.
They soon regretted it as they started turning corners roughly, getting thrown about and getting as distressed as the children hanging onto them from dear life. Louis found himself thrown against Harry, an elbow hitting his arm and making him scream. Louis grabbed it and pulled up his sleeve, gasping as he did so.
"Stop this car!" He instructed the driver, who stopped suddenly. Louis examined the bruise marks carefully as Harry continued struggling.
"Did he…" Harry didn't answer, giving it away as he blushed.
"Are we going to move soon?" The driver asked gruffly and Louis threw him a few coins before ushering a sobbing Harry out.
Watching his coffee swirling around in the bottom of his mug, Harry wondered if he'd done the right thing. Louis seemed to think so, but he wasn't too sure about all of this. It wasn't Sirius's fault, he was just… angry.
"Don't worry, it'll be ok." Louis said and Harry looked up to see him holding a thick book under his arm. Harry nodded slowly and stood up. They went into the bathroom and looked at the tiny cubicle unsurely.
"You're kidding right? You'll end up blowing my ear off!"
"Well what do you propose we do?" Harry looked around, eyeing out the corner toilet. "No way! We're not disabled." Harry shot him a look as he carried Crosby towards the stall.
"We can't tie our shoes without help at the moment. We can use the disabled toilet." Lou shook his head but followed him anyway.
It took a bit of coaxing, but Harry eventually started taking off his robe and Louis gasped, not for the first time that day, at the extent of the damage.
"You can't go through this Harry, what if he harms them. Or if he gets bored and hurts Crosby when you're unable to do anything." He said shaking his head. "We have to tell someone." Harry was up dangerously quickly and grabbed his arm, squeezing it tightly as he pulled him down to meet his eye and gritted his teeth.
"You tell one person about this and I'll kill you. I may not be able to do many spells right now, but I can promise you that you and your entire family suffer." It wasn't much of a threat, but the tone of his voice and look in his eyes scared Louis more than anything in his entire life. He nodded and Harry let him go and pushed him away before sinking onto the floor quietly.
Crosby gave a whimper and when Harry didn't respond, Louis went over and picked him up off the table. He was promptly beaten over the head repeatedly with a stuffed plushie.
Well, it was clear whose child this was.
"Crosby, stop it." Harry said and the boy promptly stopped and Louis put him back down, giving him a bottle from Harry's bag.
Louis turned to Harry worriedly. "I'm sorry. You're trying to help, and I threaten you. What kind of person am I?" He asked and put his head down on his knees. Louis sat down next to him.
"It's not your fault, you've been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours and I know how those mood swings get." Harry laughed. It took a long time to heal all the cuts and bruises, especially the ones around his stomach, but two hours later, they left the cubicle, considerably closer than when they'd entered….
This is posted about an hour after I sat myself down and forced myself tofinish writing it. The rest of the chapters are done, so updates will be frequent!
Review please.
