Chapter 5

"How can Harry do that?" Sirius said as he marched into Remus' room. Remus had heard him pacing angrily in his own room for a while. Though he wouldn't admit it but he had actually been waiting for his friend. Decades of friendship with the man had him aware of his antics and his need for an audience when he vent out his anger.

"What have he done?" Remus said putting his copy of Wuthering Heights.

"He said he has to go out for three days. THREE DAYS. Can you believe it? I have not been back for even a month and he wants to go away. Doesn't he love me anymore Moony?" He fell backwards on his bed and looked at his friends with puppy eyes. "Does he not need me now that he is all grown up?"

"Remus picked the book up again trying to hide himself from him. He was well aware that Harry still loved his godfather a lot and how much his return had meant for him. But he had a sinking feeling that he had more pressing responsibilities somewhere. The fact that he had it hidden gave him a bitter feeling. No wonder Sirius would resent hearing that too.

"Moony."

"Hmm?"

"Why the fuck are you holding the book upside down. What are you hiding from me?" Sirius said narrowing his eyes at him. He jumped to sit in front of him.

"Nothing." Remus said holding the book properly. Sirius pulled the book away from his hand.

"Remus John Lupin, speak!"

"Well, Harry has been going to Barnton every week for last two years." He started.

"Why?"

"No one knows." Remus stalled.

"But you know something." Sirius asked impatiently.

"I heard something."

"Gods Remus. Do you want me to spell it. Tell me. T-E-L-L-M-E."

"Everyone thinks he has a girlfriend there. During the first anniversary of the victory,. A healer walked to him and started talking about Juliet and child. He excused them from me and when I asked he said it was a misunderstanding. He looked panicked at that time and I thought it was because of the memories of the war. He had just started his visits and I didn't pay much attention to it. Until the a few months ago when I saw a picture in his desk when I was in his study. It was of a child. I tried to ask him again but he brushed it off" Remus told him. He looked his friend as he took in all he had said for a moment. He gave him his time. Remus himself had months to think of it.

"Fuck." Sirius fell backwards on the bed.

"Yeah Fuck." Remus agreed.

"You think Harry has a child?" He asked looking still unsure.

"I believe so. I cannot think of anything else. He has no other family besides us. And in all our friends Victoire Weasley is the only child."

"Why don't he tell us?" Sirius questioned. "You think it's a guy and he is scared to tell us that we will judge."

"I don't think so Sirius. Harry's boyfriend, if he is, surely can't give birth to a child."

"Yeah, only male sea horses can give birth." Sirius said thoughtfully.

"How is that relevant to this topic." Remus gave his best friend a weird look.

"I don't know, okay" He said irritated." It came to my head and I said it."

Remus shrugged at his friend irritated.

"Harry had a girl pregnant and is hiding her instead of owning her and the child?" Remus could see the disappointment Sirius felt in his godson.

"Don't jump to conclusions Padfoot. We don't know what it is." He said. "Harry is a good man. He won't do anything wrong."

"Oh, I know what we can do." Sirius said after a long silence clapping his hands. He stood up. His eyes gleaming which reminded him too much of their Marauding days.

"And what is that?" Remus asked knowing Sirius had dramatically paused for him to ask.

"We are going to follow him." Sirius exclaimed.

"Padfoot NO." Remus said sternly.

"Come on Moony. Don't you want to know. Don't you want to see Prongs' grandchild. Please."

Sirius gave him the puppy eyes.

Remus resigned, giving in to his own curiosity.

"This is a bad idea." Remus said nervously when they stood outside the small flat in Barnton. The name plate read Juliet Regnarg "Very bad idea."

"Don't be so ridiculous Moony. It is a great idea. Now knock."

"Why should I? You knock." Remus said.

Sirius gave him a playful smack on his shoulder but knocked the door.

"Coming." A familiar voice said from inside.

"Its a bird." Sirius said. "Any chance that we know her. She sounds familiar."

"I don't think we know any Juliet, Padfoot."

Any further conversation stopped as the door opened to reveal a face they all knew to well. The man gasped as they saw the woman in front of it. It was her. The witch many people now considered dead. She looked the same just grown up. Sirius had already heard about the disappearance of Hermione Granger and how many people doubted that she had died. He had felt bad since he had grown close to the bookworm in the fifth year when he spent his days locked inside the hell hole of his house. They had ended locked in the attic one of those days when Molly Weasley had forced them to clean the house and well, you cannot spend a day locked with someone and not become friend. Especially when the witch was so kind and compassionate. He too had mourned the loss of her when he returned from the veil.

"Hermione." Remus said and saw Hermione tear up.

Sirius ignored her look and was so delighted that pulled her in an embrace.

"Hermione, everyone said you were gone. Oh my god. Look at you so grown up and beautiful. Wow Mione." Sirius said once he freed her. She gave him a watery chuckle. She freed him and looked at Remus. Remus had to agree Hermione had become beautiful with age. She wasn't that flashy sort of beautiful but beautiful in plain way. Not like the fire crackers that glow in the sky but like the sunset. She hugged him but Remus felt her body trembling and held her tightly for a while.

She pulled back after a while

"Sirius, Remus. It's so good to see you again. I never thought I will see you again." Hermione said to them and hugged them again.

"And we never thought we will see you again." Remus said earnestly. He really was glad to see her again. His student, friend, housemate, and an ally in the war. It was bad to see Harry mourn for her and he now understood, how Harry had so suddenly moved on from her. One day he was doing his best to find her when everyone said she was dead and then all of a sudden he went to an Auror mission and came back happier than anyone had seen him since the war ended. No wonder everyone thought he had found himself a witch. It was true in some way too.

"Do we get to come in?" Sirius said grinning at her.

"Of course." She said pulling the door wide open.

"Who is it, Mione?" They heard Harry from inside.

"Its Sirius and Remus." She called back.

"So, you…?" Remus asked uncomfortably. He had always thought that they thought each other more like siblings. He never thought that they would end together but if this was what made Harry happy. He had no problem with it. He could deal with the fact that it was slightly weird.

"You are alive?" Sirius asked before him. He too wanted to know why Harry was hiding that she was alive and that she had a child.

She shook her head with a smile. "I guess I am afterall. Aren't I?" Both men could hear the sadness in her voice.

Sirius placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her to his side. She smiled at him.

He cleared his throat. "So…um…You and Harry?" He asked.

Hermione laughed and pulled away from him. "Harry is her godfather." She laughed again.

Remus breathed in relief and saw Sirius relax too. Sirius was glad that he hadn't missed his godson's life that much. Remus was simply glad. No reasons.

"Its a she, then." Remus smiled at her and saw her nod her, biting down on her lips nervously.

"It was this moment Harry chose to walk in with a girl in his arms.

"Don't tell me you both followed me." He glared at them.

"His idea." Remus said pushing his friend under the vehicle.

"Oh my god." Sirius shrieked ignorant of his look. "I am a father." He said as he took the girl from her godfather's arms. "I am a father." He said again happily, almost jumping.

Harry's head would have snapped the way he turned to look at his godfather, jaw dropped to the floor.

"You…" he said and turned to his friend. "Hermione?"

"I am sorry Harry. I meant to tell you but..." she shifted on her feet awkwardly. Harry looked like a deer in headlights. But Remus could see the twitch in her lips as she tried to hold her laugh.

Sirius too turned to look at her amused. Harry opened and closed his mouth several times but unable to form a coherent response.

"Hermione!" he frowned when she could no longer hide her amusement.

"Sirius feel through the veil in 1996, Liv was born in 1999, Harry. I couldn't be pregnant for three years." Hermione said shaking her head laughing at him.

Harry breathed in relief.

"So, what is she doing here? You knew about her?" Remus asked once Hermione left the three men and excused herself.

"No. I just found them the day this little lady was born." Harry said looking at Liv who was still with Sirius.

"And her father?" He asked.

"She doesn't talk about him but I have been told he died in the battle." Harry shrugged.

"Don't ask her, you heard Padfoot?" Harry asked his godfather.

"What?" The man in question asked.

"Don't ask Hermione about Liv's father."

"Why will I ask that? I am the father of this beautiful princess." He announced gladly. He was trying to teach her to sad Padfoot but she could only say Paddy. And he seemed happy that it sounded too close to Daddy.

"He was like that when you were born too." Remus told him now walking close to them. As he reached near them, the child extended her hand to go to him. Remus obliged happily.

"Dada." She said.

"I am not your daddy baby." He told her sadly. He wished he were. Hermione had nothing to do with it, he promised himself. It was just this beautiful baby. He wanted a child of his own. He had wanted it for so long. He had often dreamt of an evening in countryside where he sat with his wife as their children played around in the small field in front of their house. But there won't be anyway he will ever let himself marry and have a child. He won't curse someone else with his infliction. Beside no witch could totally accept his lycanthropy. During his failed attempt at dating Tonks, he had seen it. It was true that she had known of his condition and still agreed to be with him but she liked to ignore his lycanthropy altogether. It wasn't acceptance but ignorance. And he knew this was the most he was going to get.

"There you go. It took me a while to make her call me Hawy and not Fawy. She is going to stick to calling you Dada for a while. She is stubborn like that. Thinks she knows better than us." Harry chuckled pulling him out of his depressing thoughts.

"Like her mother." Remus remembered her teenage years and smiled fondly. "What's her name?" He asked once Liv had settled in his arms.

"Silvia Remiel Granger." He told them.

"Ah! A name chosen by the brightest witch." Remus said fondly as Liv measured his face with her tiny hands.

"Moony. She has both our initials Si and Re." Sirius exclaimed who had been pouting when Liv had chosen Remus over him.

"I bet Hermione was thinking about us while naming her." Remus said sarcastically but the sarcasm was lost on Sirius.

"I actually was." She said as she returned to the room with tea and some chocolate cookies. They smelled delicious. "Of course, I like the name more for its meaning. But Sirius was gone and I respect the two of you too much." She set the tray down as everyone took their sit. Harry and Remus took the chairs while Sirius sat with Hermione on the couch not ready to be away from Liv who was now in her mother's arms.

"If I had a son, it would have been after Harry though." Harry choked on his tea but he looked touched.

"Thanks Mione."

She was now rocking her in her arms.

"She will have the room next to mine. So that I can always be near her." Sirius announced.

Remus saw Hermione tense as she stopped moving. He felt her protest before she opened her mouth.

"I am not going back Sirius. I didn't run away to go back."

"But you don't have to stay away from everyone. If it is the questions you are afraid of, we will tell anyone to not ask you anything."

Hermione looked down, not meeting any of their eyes. Harry was quiet, not speaking from anyone's side. Sirius decided it was him who had to coax her since Remus was too much of a gentleman to pressure her into doing anything.

"It's not about questions." She mumbled in a low voice. "I don't want to face all of that. All those memories." She closed her eyes, everyone knew, to stop the tears that threatened to fall.

"Love, you can't run away from your bad memories. It isn't healthy. Come home. We all love you a lot. We will help you move on from whatever it is." Sirius pressed a finger to her lips as she tried to protest. "You can't raise her alone Hermione. She will need a family. A father figure to look up to. Uncles and Aunts to spoil her. Cousins and friends to be with her. You know Molly will dote on her and she will be an honorary Weasley. The twins will try to teach her pranks. Even you need your family with you. Admit it you need us."

Remus was surprised to hear his friend speak such things. But he knew Sirius can be fiercely protective and compassionate of those he loved. He stood and took Liv back from her mother's arm who was now sleeping. Hermione looked like she would start crying any moment.

Harry decided it was time for him to speak as he got up from him chair and knelt down in front of her. "Mione, Listen to Sirius. He is right. I know you know that. You asked me to give you time and I did what you asked of me. I never asked you to come back. But it has been two years."

"I still love him." Hermione broke down. She covered her face in her hand as she started sobbing. "How can I go back to place where everything reminds me so painfully of the time I spent with him. Don't ask this of me. I can't do it." She begged Harry and turned to look at Sirius and finally stopped at Remus.

Remus took a step towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder, holding Liv with his other. He squeezed her shoulder as fresh tears fell down her eyes.

"Hermione, we can never forget those we have loved. Love isn't like us. It is transient. As long as you are alive, your love will live too and beyond that in her." He said looking toward Liv who was sleeping peacefully unaware of the gloom that spread in the house.

"It hurts, Remus." She cried. "To love and to lose. It hurts to think that I can never see the love that used to be there for me. I saw how amazing being loved can feel like and then I lost it. It hurts and I can't make the pain go away."

Remus looked pitifully at her. He felt very bad for her. He had never loved fallen in love and cannot understand her pain.

"The pain never goes away. Neither will it lessen with time. If that is what you are aiming for by staying away. Hermione, the only way to deal with pain is to let your heart to feel it. The pain you feel will always stay the same but with time you will learn to live with it. The pain will make a place for it in your life. And we all want to be there to help you go through it. Let us. Please. We never saw Harry growing up, let us see Liv grow up in front of us. Love her, pamper her. That is all we are asking of you."

Hermione stared at him with tear filled eyes as Sirius and Harry waited holding their breathe. Slowly, she nodded her head and Harry pulled her in an embrace.

"Thank you, Mione." His words full of sincerity.

Sirius looked up at Remus, a huge grin on his face. It was clear to anyone looking at them that the three men already doted on the little girl and cared immensely for her mother. For the men, little Liv was a chance to have back what they have lost. For Harry, he wanted to see a child grow up since he never had a childhood to begin with. He saw her as the first normal thing in all his years in wizarding world. For Sirius, it was the opportunity to fulfil all his fantasies of spoiling the child like he had wanted to do with Harry and lost his opportunity when he was thrown in Azkaban. He wanted to play with her in his Animagus form and give her piggyback rides, he would braid her hair when she grows up and teach her to stay away from boys who weren't like Uncle Moony. And for Remus, it was a chance to raise a child since he won't ever have a child of his own. Unbeknownst to the three men, each of them made a promise to protect the girl with their lives. They had no idea what they had dragged themselves into when they made the promise to the sleeping girl.

A/n : Read and review please.