Crouching down to let his flowers fall onto the caskets, James bowed his head briefly as a last sign of respect, seeing Frank do the same from the corner of his eyes before they rose in unison to join the line to give their condolences.
Turning, James watched Alice rest her head on his brother's shoulder and Sirius wrap an arm around her in return as they took longer to pay their respects, eventually separating to link hands as they placed their flowers down and joined them, Lily right behind them.
She reached out to tap her fingers against the small of Sirius' back in silent communication once they stopped and his free hand reached back to squeeze her fingers.
Taking that as permission to approach, Lily slipped her arms around his waist at the same time Alice shifted slightly to make room for her, his brother giving a startled squeak as she rested her chin on his shoulder and blew into his ear.
Meeting Frank's amused eyes, James couldn't quite suppress a smile even as he startled briefly as a looming presence appeared behind him before realising it was just Aberforth.
He and a few other Order members were helping the Aurors patrol the area to ensure they could have the funerals in peace, but now the elderly man stepped between James and Frank to briefly rest his hand on both Sirius and Alice' shoulders, lightly rocking them back against him.
No word was spoken as the two leaned into his semi embrace before the man pulled back, returning back to the shadows where Moody was keeping an eye out.
As it was their turn, he shifted sides with Frank so that he could stand with his wife while he himself could silently support his brother, ignoring the furious gaze burning into him as he shook hands with the twin's father, quietly offering his condolences while their mother pulled first Alice and then Sirius into an embrace.
"Thank you both for coming," she squeezed their hands.
"Of course, we're sorry for your loss," Alice replied as she tightened her hold momentarily before pulling back and Sirius echoed her condolences.
Her face was drawn by grief, yet she smiled as she tightened her hold on Sirius' hands when he tried to pull back, too. "I know you said you didn't want to stand with us here, but will you please come join us at the table? Both of you?"
"I..." Sirius faltered as Alice looked to him for guidance. "We wouldn't want to impose."
"Nonsense and your families are more than welcome, too. James, Lily, Frank, I would like it very much if you would all join us."
"If that is what you wish," James decided as Sirius gave him a slightly panicked look, resting a hand on the small of his back as it didn't look like Mrs. Prewett was going to let him go without a confirming answer.
"It is," Mr. Prewett confirmed even as their daughter let out a furious hiss, but the man ignored her as he rested a hand on Sirius' and Alice' shoulders. "We insist."
"Then we would be honoured," Alice spoke and Sirius nodded, too, Mrs. Prewett finally letting go so they could move further down the line.
If looks could kill then Sirius would've died right then and there, but Molly clearly didn't dare speak up under her parents' watchful eyes as they nodded to her as she refused to shake hands but her husband eagerly stepped forward to do so in her stead.
"Thank you for coming, Sirius, James. I have heard so much about you," Arthur sounded friendly but formal and it was clear he didn't want his wife to know of their involvement so they echoed the formal greeting like they barely knew the man before continuing on to Bilius.
"You're joining us, right?" He asked quietly as he too, briefly pulled both Alice and Sirius into an embrace.
"Yeah, are you sure it's all right?"
"Absolutely, you were Fabian's family and as such, so are the others by extension," Bilius took Frank's hand, swallowing thickly as he met his best friend's eyes before the two embraced.
"I'm truly sorry about the twins, Bili," he said as they pulled back.
"They knew the risks when they joined the office and the Order," the redhead let out a shaky breath. "I take pride and comfort in knowing they died for the cause, fighting for freedom."
"They were heroes," Frank nodded. "Fought like lions."
"They were Gryffindors to their very bones," Bilius gave a faint smile as he glanced at the people left in the line. "Arthur, would you be so kind as to show them to the family area in the back?"
"Of course," the thin man hurried forward and indicating they should follow him, they did so quietly until they reached the building and Arthur sagged, slowing down.
"I honestly was beginning to expect we'd not be able to steal you away for a moment," he pushed his glasses up a little as he guided them into a different hallway than the one James knew they were supposed to go to.
"What did you want to steal us for?" Alice asked.
"Well, technically just Sirius, but the rest of you is welcome, too."
"Why me?"
"For this," green eyes met theirs as he opened the door to reveal an adult redhead and four red-haired children; the four little heads immediately turning to the door.
"I…." Sirius' eyes lit up as he crouched down to catch the two youngest throwing themselves into his arms with dual cries of greeting.
"Hey boys," his brother's voice was shaky as he hugged the little twins close, shifting them to one side just in time to be able to catch Charlie as the wild boy crashed into him as well.
"Uncle Siri, you came!" The eight year old threw his little arms around Sirius' neck, nearly sending them all flying back as Sirius unbalanced but he recovered himself by letting himself drop into a kneeling position instead as Bill joined the pile.
"Thank you," James managed to bring out, not even bothering to hide his tears as he watched the older two pull back to immediately begin talking all over each other as they tried to tell Sirius everything he'd missed since they'd last seen him while the twins babbled along in their own little language.
"My parents are watching the children as Molly didn't want them present at the service, but her parents, Bilius and I didn't think it was right that they couldn't say goodbye so they brought them by earlier. But then Louis and Cordelia mentioned how nice it would be if the boys could see Sirius and I tried to arrange for it to happen."
Nodding to his words, James watched his brother; having no idea if Sirius could actually follow anything of what the children were saying, but he didn't seem to care as his eyes drank in the sight of them, keeping a steady arm around the twins as they leaned against him, eyeing the rest of the group shyly. It occurred to him that he had no idea how Arthur even knew Sirius knew the children and voiced as much.
"I've always known Fabian and Gideon often took them to see him while they were babysitting, not to mention the no doubt numerous occasions in which they brought Charlie to him for treatment after one of his little adventures."
"How…"
"Charlie and a single day without injuries?" The redhead laughed. "Impossible as he's always climbing onto things or petting things that really shouldn't be pet. Yet he's never returned from their house with any injuries, happily babbling about spending time with Uncle Siri. It really wasn't hard to put two and two together when you know Sirius is a Healer and close friend of theirs."
"And they thought they were being so sneaky," huffing out a laugh, he watched Alice join Sirius on the ground, gaining Bill's attention as he stared up to her in awe. "Does your wife know?"
"Merlin's beard no," a horrified look crossed over the man's face. "And she should never find out either as I've placed a tongue-tying curse on all four to prevent them from ever speaking his name to her."
"Let's hope that curse holds, or we'd never regain our hearing ever again," the man sitting patiently on a chair commented.
"It will, I released it from the older two as they got old enough to understand the need for secrecy, but I plan to keep it on the twins for a few years longer."
"A wise idea," the man smiled. "My apologies for not getting to my feet, but the twins stuck my feet to the ground and I've not yet been able to undo their work."
"I'm sorry, we didn't even greet you," stepping forward, Lily held out her hand. "Lily Potter."
"Percival Weasley, Arthur's older brother," the man smiled as they all exchanged greetings and Sirius and Alice waved. "I kidnapped these four from father's care for a little while to supposedly grabbing an ice cream."
Slipping his wand out of his sleeve, Sirius gestured towards Percival's feet and the man blinked as they immediately came loose.
"How did you do that?"
"They used Epoximise, one of Fabian's favourite prank spells. Probably picked it up from him using it on Gideon," he explained quietly as he slipped his wand back into his sleeve.
"Coooool," identical brown eyes stared up to him and he smiled, tickling their stomachs gently to make them squeal in delight.
"Can't we hire you as a full-time nanny?" Percival breathed out relieved as he wiggled his toes to regain feeling in his feet.
"I'm kind of occupied with other things," letting go of the twins, Sirius smiled as the two immediately scurried off to avoid his tickles and began to pester their older brothers.
"Now you might be, but after the war ends?"
"After the war...yeah," something complicated crossed over the handsome features as grey eyes tightened momentarily and James automatically reached out to place a hand on his brother's shoulders.
"As unimaginable as it may seem, there will be an after the war," he softly tried to reassure him.
"It's hard to imagine when it's been ongoing for so long already," giving him a faint smile, Sirius reached up to squeeze his hand.
"And even if the war ends, will things truly change?" Percival asked.
"What do you mean?" Frank looked at him.
"Well, even if You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters are taken out of play, there are still countless others who share the same beliefs that they do, so would anything truly change?"
"It would stop the killing, right?" Arthur spoke up.
"For how long?" Rising to his feet, Sirius met his eyes. "What's stopping our world from diving straight into a second war? The only reason he rose into power in the first place is because so many others indeed share his beliefs and it's unlikely we'll be able to flush all of them out."
He turned to look at the children playing just a little away from them. "Just ending the war isn't enough if we truly want to prevent the same thing from happening all over again. We will need to change the workings of the world if we truly want to ensure our children will grow up in a better world than the one we've lived in so far."
They all looked down as they considered his words and James sighed.
"Well, then we will just have to keep on fighting in a different way."
"Yeah, it may not cause an immediate change, but we can work on making the world a better place," Alice agreed. "If we start by cleaning ship within the Ministry, we can already change a lot."
"True, many of our colleagues are exactly like Sirius said and although most are not supporters of You-Know-Who, they still think he's right in many of his beliefs."
"Then cleaning ship is what we will do," squeezing his brother's shoulder, James looked at them all. "It might take years and a lot of effort, but between all of us we have enough political power behind us to enforce a change."
"We should first actually win the war, though," his wife dryly commented.
"That is what we're trying to do," getting to his feet, Percival shook out the last remainders of cramp from his legs. "But as much as I hate to cut this short, we really should put an end to this visit or risk Molly finding out about it."
"We wouldn't want that," seemingly sensing it was time to say goodbye, all four children hurried back to throw themselves at Sirius again.
"When will we see you again?"
"I don't know Charlie bear," a sad smile crossed over Sirius' features as he held the little boy close. "I'll try to come and see you soon."
"I will try to bring them out for ice cream every so often so you can see them without Molly knowing."
"Could probably arrange for a play date when our parents or I are babysitting, too," Percival added to his brother's words and Charlie pulled back to look at his uncle.
"When?"
"Tell you what," Sirius smiled as Percival faltered. "It is Halloween in three days, how about I try to sneak by for a little visit while you're celebrating it at your grandparents as usual, huh?"
"Yeah!" The older two boys beamed excited while the little ones cheered despite obviously having no clue what they were talking about.
"Now you've done it," chuckling, Percival glanced at his watch. "We should really go now."
"Yeah," pulling the sniffling twins close, Sirius dropped a kiss into their hair. "See you soon again, all right."
"All right," almost in unison Charlie and Bill lined up on opposite sides of the twins and took their little hands in theirs, keeping the little boys in between them as Percival led them out of the back entrance.
Stepping to his brother's side, James wrapped an arm around his shoulder even as Sirius turned to give Arthur a heartfelt thank you.
"No problem," the smile on Arthur's face dimmed a little as they heard voices in the distance. "We should go to the gathering and before I forget, Dumbledore asked to pass on the message that he urgently needs to speak to you four after the funeral. Said it couldn't wait any longer than that."
"I wonder what he need to speak to us about," frowning, Lily met his eyes and shrugging, he guided Sirius to follow Arthur back out of the room.
"Guess we'll find out after the funeral."
"Want to go straight there when we leave?"
"Probably wise."
"I'll pick the kids up at Pan's and keep them with me until you're done," Sirius said as they entered the still mostly empty room.
"Your house or theirs?" Alice asked as they nodded to the various guests scattered around the room.
"Theirs, I have diapers and clothes at my place but I don't know if Remus will have left on his mission yet."
"You're avoiding him?"
"What? No," huffing out a laugh, Sirius took a seat on the far end of the couch. "I've long since given up arguing with him about his missions, but he's leaving on another one today and I don't want to unsettle him by bringing two toddlers into his space right before it."
They all took seats as well, soon joined by the family and although Molly remained hostile and ignored them, they simply ignored her completely in favour of speaking with Mrs. and Mr. Prewett and Bilius as well as the few other Prewett relatives scattered around the area.
Alice and Sirius seemed to know most of them as they conversed freely with them until eventually nearly everyone began to leave and as Arthur and his wife took off, they all sighed in relief.
"What do you think she's hoping to accomplish by being so hostile?" Lily asked quietly when Mr. Prewett leaned close to Sirius to say something.
"Maybe she's hoping we'll burst into flames?" Frank offered as he watched Sirius rise to follow the man out of the room. "Where…."
"My husband asked him if he would be willing to help him gather the flowers," Mrs. Prewett informed them. "And if I know my Louis then he is probably also asking him if he's absolutely sure about what he wants to do with his inheritance."
"Inheritance? Oh, of course," face palming, Frank swallowed. "So I take it the engagement was considered legal?"
"Yes, but even if that was not the case then Fabian still listed him as his primary heir so he would've inherited everything anyway."
"All of Fabian's possessions, you mean?"
"No, everything," the elderly woman pulled off her black hat and placed it on her lap. "Both my boys set up Wills after graduation, leaving everything to each other should something happen to them. But they also set up a secondary Will in the event they would both pass away and Fabian listen Sirius as his heir in that."
"Okay, but why would he inherit Gideon's share of their possessions then?" Lily asked confused.
"Because Gideon deferred his possessions to an heir of Fabian's choosing and that is Sirius," she explained. "Aside from the trust funds, everything will go to Sirius. Well, it was supposed to."
"He mentioned that he wanted both of you to pick anything you wanted to have," James softly spoke up.
"Yes, he did. He only asked to have a few copies of photographs he really liked, but he didn't want anything else," her eyes were bright as her fingers plucked at the hat in her lap. "And when I told him we weren't ready to go through any of their things, he simply gave us the deed to their house so that we can do so whenever we are."
"That does sound like him," smiling, Alice reached out to take the woman's hand and stop her from destroying her hat. "But that's not something Louis would want to talk to Sirius about, is it?"
"No, that's about his decision to add to the trust fund the boys set up for their nephews and niece upon their births," her smile turned watery. "My daughter and her husband aren't exactly wealthy so the boys set up a trust fund for each of the children with five hundred Galleons in it so they can go through Hogwarts without causing a financial strain. But Sirius took all the money they left to him to make an additional trust fund for them, to be released to them upon their graduation so that they'll have a buffer to start life."
"He did the same for Harry, Neville and Luna when they were born," biting back a laugh as Frank and Lily looked to him in surprise, James shrugged.
"I didn't….how much?"
"Five thousand Galleons for all three and an additional thousand Galleons for Fred, George, Charlie and Bill," glancing at Mrs. Prewett he elaborated. "He didn't feel comfortable setting up a fund for the other children as he doesn't know them and knew the twins had set up those trust funds already."
"He put five thousand Galleons in a trust fund for Neville?" Frank exclaimed shocked. "That's an insane amount of money, why?"
"Because he wants to take care of his family," Alice shrugged. "He asked my permission after Neville was born and I gave it as I knew he'd otherwise set it up behind my back anyway. It's war and we never know what might happen so he wanted to ensure the children were all taken care of no matter what."
Tears gathered in Mrs. Prewett's eyes. "He left the children everything my sons ever saved up, setting it aside for their future so that they will never have to fight to make their way through life like my daughter does."
"I didn't know she was so badly off? I mean, she received the contents of her trust fund upon coming of age, didn't she?"
"She did," Bilius sighed. "But Molly's never been good with money and although Arthur's brought in his own trust fund upon their marriage, she's still spending more than he can bring in and he doesn't exactly have the backbone to stop her."
"My husband and I helped out several times, but our finances aren't everlasting since we are both retired. We are truly blessed Sirius insisted on paying for the funerals or I don't know what we'd have done."
"Is there anything..."
"Don't you dare," Bilius cut Frank off. "I already told Dad he's not allowed to help her out any more. None of us has eternal life….and the murders of my brothers brought home just how easily life can be cut short."
He swallowed thickly. "When Dad told me what my brothers and later Sirius had done, I decided it's time to cut her off. We'll make sure the boys get clothing and toys for their birthdays and holidays and that they won't be lacking in anything they might need, but we're not helping Molly any further."
"If you're sure?"
"I am," squeezing Frank's shoulder, Bilius took a shuddering breath. "It's beyond time she's learned to stand on her own two feet."
"All right," accepting his best friend's answer, Frank nodded and Bilius sat back in his seat moments before Sirius and Mr. Prewett returned.
Sirius' eyes were bright as he settled down beside James again and automatically he wrapped an arm around his brother even as Lily slipped a hand in his from his other side.
"All right?" he whispered softly, receiving a small nod in return as Sirius leaned into him for a long moment.
"Yeah, he asked me to take some of the flowers home with me so we sorted through them," he answered softly, indicating to the bag he'd placed near the entrance.
They spend a little while longer just talking until Frank eventually spoke up.
"We should get going soon if we still have to drop by Dumbledore's office," he said and nodding in agreement, they said their goodbyes to the Prewetts.
Mrs. Prewett pulled all of them into hugs, once more thanking them for having been there before taking Alice and Sirius' hands to remind them that they would always be welcome at their house.
Promising to stop by soon, they made their way outside and sighing, James let go of his brother's hand. "Let's hope he'll not have another boring lecture waiting for us."
"You rather than me," chuckling Sirius separated from them. "See you in a little while."
Waving, they watched him Disapparate before they Apparated to Hogwarts themselves, wondering what the old man would want this time.
