Resolutions

By Neurotica

Thirty-Two

A little over two weeks after Mira's kidnapping, Sirius was sitting across from Remus in the Head of Magical Creatures' office during their lunch break. Sirius had been watching his best friend all day long, and was becoming increasingly confused—it was the day of the full moon, and Remus was exhibiting hardly any signs of his coming transformation. He was a tad paler than normal, and his lunch had consisted of a rare roast beef sandwich, but otherwise it seemed like any other day.

"You're starting to scare me, Remus," Sirius finally said.

Remus grinned. "I'm actually enjoying this. I don't remember the last time I felt this well on a full moon."

"Do you think it's something to do with the Wolfsbane?"

The werewolf shrugged as he popped a crisp in his mouth. "Possible, I suppose. More than likely, actually. I never felt this way when I was getting it from St. Mungo's or when Snape was making the potion."

Sirius muttered his usual not-so-nice words about the Hogwarts potions master. Remus frowned. "I'm not fond of him, either, Padfoot, but he has done a lot to help us—mostly of his own free will."

Sirius decided now wasn't a good time to mention the looks of almost longing Snape sent Emmeline nearly every Order meeting. I just can't figure out what the looks mean. Does Snape wish he was the father of Emmeline's twins? He mentally shivered in disgust. That's a disturbing thought, Snape reproducing... And with Emmeline of all people...

His second mental shake of disgust must have been visible on his face. Remus raised a worried eyebrow at him. "Something wrong with your sandwich, Sirius?"

Sirius shook his head and took a reassuring bite of said turkey sandwich. "Sandwich is fine," he said thickly. "Just had a disgusting thought cross my mind."

"Care to share?" Remus asked cautiously.

"You don't want to know," Sirius said empathetically. "Just trust me on that, Moony."

"There you are, Sirius," said a voice from Remus' office door. The Head Auror turned to find his cousin wearing her usual pink spikes. "Davies and I just came back from investigation that old warehouse in Kent—the one you said we might find a clue about where the Death Eaters have gone." Sirius sat up straighter in his chair. He'd gotten a lead from a usually reliable source the afternoon before that it would be in the interest of the Ministry to investigate an old Muggle building. But as always, his bubble was burst quite quickly. "I don't know where you got that lead, but it was a dead one. Nothing there 'cept some old crates, empty crates."

Sirius sighed deeply. For nearly three months now, it'd felt like the war had already ended and Voldemort had surrendered, but the rest of the wizarding world hadn't gotten the memo. Troubling didn't begin to describe the situation. Sirius had thought once the Dark Lord discovered his snake gone he'd be unleashing the unknown terrors everyone had been afraid of over the last few years. But once again (Sirius had lost count long ago on the number of times it'd happened) Voldemort seemed to have taken his Death Eaters on an extended holiday. An image of the Dark Lord sitting in a Paris café sipping a latte came to mind, but he banished it quickly.

"So we're back to square one, then, waiting and wondering," Sirius said heavily, feeling the beginnings of a migraine coming on.

Remus sat back in his chair thoughtfully. "This may be a good thing." Sirius and Tonks looked at him like he was completely mental. "Honestly, look at it this way. All of the Horcruxes have been destroyed. Voldemort must know a few of them, if not all of them, are gone. So he's taken his Death Eaters into hiding to form a new strategy. In the meantime, we strengthen our own defenses, do what needs to be done to destroy them when the time comes. We've got him backed into a corner, exactly where we want him."

Sirius shook his head. "But an animal backed into a corner is far more dangerous. It will attack—that's absolutely certain—and when it does, it won't be pretty."

"Nothing about this war has been pretty, Sirius," Tonks said. "And really, if you think about it, we could have it a lot worse. There've only been a handful of really big attacks."

Remus nodded. "The first war was much worse. Then again, we have to wonder, why hasn't it been so horrible?"

"Because Voldemort's only got one real goal in mind," Sirius said gravely. "To destroy Harry Potter."

Harry Potter yawned hugely and again attempted to focus on his report for Snape on fatal poisons. Harry had expected the potions master to threaten use of one of the poisons on him, but Ron said Dumbledore had probably forbidden it when Snape had made the lesson plans. As though in revenge, Snape had instead given the Gryffindors extra homework, because "they'd been talking while he'd been talking." There'd been a huge uproar when this was announced; not one Gryffindor had made a peep during the lesson unless it was to answer a question from their professor. And Hermione had been the only one who dared attempt an answer.

But Snape was the least of Harry's problems right now. It was the last term of the year, which meant N.E.W.T.s were just around the corner. It seemed that most of the Gryffindor seventh years had been watching Hermione's study habits for their entire Hogwarts careers, and had now adopted a few of said study habits, Harry and Ron included. All around the common room, one would find color-coded study tables, and if one of the younger students so much as sneezed they could expect to be yelled at in near-hysterical tones by several seventh years.

Harry looked out the tower window and found the sun was beginning to set. Soon the full moon would rise, and Remus would begin his transformation. Harry had gone to his surrogate godfather for advice on his career dilemma before Christmas holidays had ended, and the werewolf's advice had been quite helpful. Remus had told Harry not to worry about what anyone, including Sirius, thought, that he needed to do what he felt was right for him and his future. Harry finally made a decision on his career on New Year's Eve, and sent in his Ministry application by express owl. Now all he had to do was wait for a reply...

"Harry!" Hermione whispered. Harry jumped and looked quickly from his essay to his best friend. "We have to do rounds."

"Damn," Harry whispered furiously, glancing at his watch. He stuffed his books and essay into his school bag and got up, following Hermione out of the common room. "Isn't it a little early to be doing rounds?" he asked, pinning on his Head Boy badge as they closed the portrait hole.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, but didn't you listen to Dumbledore when we came back from holidays?"

"No," Harry admitted. "Ron and I were having a thumb war, remember?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You and Ron aren't going to get far in the Ministry if you don't listen."

"My dad got on just fine at the Ministry, and he was best friends with Sirius."

"So is Remus."

"True, but Remus made it a habit of listening to what people were telling him to do." Harry grinned at Hermione's look. "So why are we doing rounds so early?"

"Well, Dumbledore didn't outright say why, but Ginny and I were talking to Tonks the other day, and she said Dumbledore is worried about an attack on Hogwarts grounds."

Harry spoke before thinking. "You mean another attack on Hogwarts grounds."

Almost automatically, Hermione's hand flew to her scarred face. She was still quite sensitive about how she looked, and the smallest reference to it made her self-conscious. "Yes, another attack," she muttered.

"Sorry," Harry said quickly, awkwardly putting his arm around Hermione's shoulder.

Hermione sighed and leaned into her best friend's embrace. "It's quite all right," she said with as much dignity as was possible while her voice was catching. "Let's just finish our rounds so we can get back to studying."

Harry nodded and released Hermione. "All right."

Two hours later, only a dozen words had been exchanged between the pair—Harry was worried about sticking his foot in his mouth again and Hermione looked deep in thought. They climbed back through the portrait hole and found not one person seemed to have moved since they'd left. They sat back down at their table with Ron, Neville, and Ginny, who was helping the seventh years prepare, opened their books, and continued studying.

Sirius' final business of the day came in the form of a stack of paperwork. He glared at the stack, then resigned himself to work again. The task at hand was to flip through the Auror applications that had come into the Ministry. He'd tried not to get too excited as he picked up the first; he didn't even know if Harry had submitted one, and he didn't know how he'd react if he reached the bottom and found out he hadn't. Some of the applications came as no surprise to Sirius—Ron Weasley being one of them—but one, in particular, was quite a shock.

Neville Longbottom.

Sirius raised an eyebrow, picked up the application, and sat back in his chair to read through it. He'd been watching the son of Frank and Alice for years, wondering if he would ever follow in his parents' footsteps. The Longbottoms had been excellent Aurors in their day, heroes to the newer generation, Sirius and James included. Sirius often wondered if the lack of parental influence in Neville's life had taken something away from him, something that would have turned Neville into an Auror like his father. Remus had told him once that Neville's confidence in himself was almost non-existent. Neville was a bright boy, but didn't have the reassurance in himself to succeed. It was disappointing to see a boy of such lineage suffering just to get through a quiz.

But as Sirius looked through Neville's application, he found that something seemed to have changed. His school marks were higher than Sirius had expected, particularly in Defense and Transfiguration. His potion grades weren't too shabby either (Sirius had a feeling Neville had had help from Harry and his friends). One of the questions on the application was "why do you want to be an Auror?" Neville's answer wasn't surprising, and Sirius could almost see Neville sitting at a desk, trying to figure out the best way to phrase it. The gist was that Neville did want to follow in his parents' footsteps and wanted to help end the war.

Sirius wondered if revenge was part of Neville's motive to become an Auror as well. Death Eaters had tortured his parents into insanity, and later killed them. Sirius would want revenge if it'd been his family (his real family, not his blood family) that'd been the victims...

He placed Neville's application into one of the three piles he'd made — denied due to school marks, further consideration needed, and show to Remus for a good laugh. The last had only one application in the pile: Stan Shunpike, the conductor of the Knight Bus. Stan had submitted an application for the Auror squads for the last five years. Every year, Sirius sent Stan a letter back, thanking him for his interest, but informing him in the nicest way possible his services to the Ministry weren't needed at the present time.

Neville's application was placed neatly on the "further consideration needed" pile.

An hour later, Sirius reached the last two applications, and finally the last. He smiled widely at the name on the application, and placed Harry's application in the same pile as Neville's and Ron's.

The full moon night began normally in Number Twelve. Remus was practically forced to eat three helpings of dinner, served by Molly, then he and Sirius said good night to their wives and headed up to the library. Sirius went to the window and looked out at the rising moon while Remus took off his robes and wrapped himself in a blanket.

"Guess what I found today at work," Sirius said, nearly bursting with excitement.

Remus turned to him from the sofa. "Hmm," he said, looking thoughtful. "Harry's Auror application, perhaps?"

Sirius looked very putout. "How'd you know?" he demanded.

Remus chuckled. "Harry and I had a conversation before he went back to Hogwarts about his possible career choices. He was having doubts about the Auror squads. And I knew you were supposed to be going through them today."

"I thought as much," Sirius said with a sigh. "What'd you tell him?"

"That he needed to do what he thought was right, what was in his heart. I told him he needed to disregard all pressure from you and everyone else to become an Auror. And I told him if he decided not to become an Auror, you'd still love him and support his decision."

Sirius nodded. "Good advice," he muttered. "I'd been meaning to talk to him, but I suppose I was afraid he'd tell me he didn't want to be an Auror. James and I always talked about him following in our footsteps—James had his heart set on it."

"And how would you have reacted if he'd told you he didn't want to follow in your and James' footsteps?" Remus asked.

"I don't know," Sirius said honestly. "I probably would have been upset, but I would have supported him in whatever he chose to do."

Remus nodded. "I know you want Harry to follow in James' footsteps, but you have to remember Harry is not James. Let me finish," he added calmly when Sirius made to interrupt. "James was your best friend, I know. And having Harry in your life makes you think you've got James back. There are things that Harry does every day that remind me of James and I've got to stop myself every time and remind myself that James is gone."

The friends shared a moment's sad smile, then Remus continued. "No matter how much he looks like his father, Harry is his own person. I miss James as much as you do. But Harry is going to live his own life. He may have a few tendencies that remind us of James, but he's so far different than James. He's got a lot more responsibility than James could have wrapped his head around. James was a great person and an incredible wizard, but I don't think he would have been able to deal with what Harry has had to deal with in his life."

"James was too focused on having fun," Sirius mused. "But keep in mind, Remus, that he and Lily escaped Voldemort three bloody times. That's got to count for something, right?"

"It does," Remus agreed, beginning to lose his energy as the moon rose higher. "Remember, though, James never had to worry about how he was going to kill Voldemort. James was a strict Auror, but I don't think he would have been able to kill anybody, Voldemort or anyone else."

Sirius hesitated. He'd promised James he would never tell anybody what happened when a Death Eater had cornered an eight-month pregnant Lily. "You're wrong," he said quietly, turning away from Remus and looking back outside. "James used the killing curse on a Death Eater."

Remus' mouth dropped open; Sirius could see his face mirrored in the window.

"This Death Eater was about to kill Lily. She was very pregnant at the time, and James didn't know what else to do. He was protecting his family. I would have done the same if it'd been Naomi and I know you would have done the same with Emmeline."

"Why didn't I ever know about this?" Remus whispered, still in shock by Sirius' revelation.

Sirius gulped and put off his answer by casting the protection charms around the library, including one that would let sound in, but not out. Remus wasn't much of a danger with the Wolfsbane potion, but Sirius was adamant about the charms; he didn't want another accident like what happened on Harry's birthday.

"Sirius." Remus was looking at him expectantly. "You're not going to hurt my feelings with whatever it is that you're very obviously afraid to tell me."

Sirius sighed. "Fine." He turned back to his best friend. "It was the beginning of the investigations of the spy in the Order. I didn't want to tell you anything that happened, because I was starting to believe you were the spy."

Remus took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I thought as much," he said quietly. "I'm not upset, Padfoot. And I'm not going to attack you when I transform."

"That's comforting," Sirius said sarcastically with a grin. "Okay, enough talk about the darkest days of our lives. Are you ready for the transformation?"

"I am," Remus replied, his voice growing hoarse. Sirius came to sit beside him. "You may not want to sit next to me for the next few minutes."

"Why, are you going to fart?"

Remus glared at him as he chuckled. "Git."

"And proud of it." Sirius stood and moved behind the sofa as Remus slid down to the floor. Sirius could see the muscles in his best friend's back begin to tighten. He turned away as the transformation began. Blocking out the screams of pain was a hard job. They weren't as bad as they had been when Snape made the potion, but Sirius still didn't like hearing his brother crying and screaming in agony.

Finally it was over, and Sirius transformed into Padfoot before going to lie down beside Moony until the werewolf got some of his strength back.

There's nothing better than the full moon nights, when just the two of us can spend time together without the rest of the family around. Not that I don't love the others, but without Remus, I'd be broken in Azkaban. I could have even died in there...

Padfoot shook himself a bit to get those thoughts out of his head. That's not what I need to be thinking about. Right now, it's time for the Marauders to have some fun.

Not long after Remus and Sirius went up to the library, Molly and Naomi decided it was time for Emmeline to go to bed—she'd been losing energy quickly lately. Naomi had been coming home with Mira every night after her classes had ended to spend time with her family, and she hadn't mentioned it to anyone, but Emmeline seemed to be showing more signs of Remus' coming transformation than Remus was. Emmeline was chalk-white, weak, and exhausted.

Remus had, of course, noticed his wife was growing weaker than she had throughout her entire pregnancy, but he was blaming it on her going to the grand opening of Fred and George's joke shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, on New Year's Eve. That, however, had been two weeks before and Emmeline had been fine up until about two days ago, as far as Naomi could tell.

"I'm fine," Emmeline said as Naomi and Molly helped her up the stairs. "I'm not completely incompetent, you know. I can make it up the stairs."

"Yes, I'm sure you can," Naomi said patiently as though she was speaking to a child. Or to Sirius. "But Remus would never forgive me if I let you attempt to go upstairs on your own and you fell, no matter how well you say you feel."

Once Emmeline was in bed, Molly pulled Naomi aside. "Perhaps we should call her Healer. It's Sirius' cousin, right?"

Naomi shook her head. "Sirius' cousin's husband. Close enough, though." She looked over at Emmeline, who was selecting a book she hadn't read yet. "For now, I think she'll be all right. If something happens, he's only a firecall away."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say Emmeline is showing signs of a transformation. I've watched Remus before full moons for the last eight years, and she's looking exactly as he did," Molly said, more than a tad worriedly.

The other witch sighed. "I've noticed that, too. And I think Remus has, but he's in denial. Maybe it has something to do with the babies?"

"I never felt like that, even with Fred and George," Molly said. "I was put on bed rest for the last month or two during the pregnancy with them, just as Emmeline was, and I was up cleaning every day after Arthur left. When he came home and found the house cleaner than when he left, he would ask me, and I would tell him Bill and Charlie had been put to work."

Naomi chuckled. "Did Arthur believe you?"

"Of course not, but he never said so." Molly smiled. "Even if he had, I would have denied it. If he'd asked the boys, I'm sure they would have told him I'd done it, which was why he never did. He knew I was happier when my home was clean, and I was the one making sure it was so."

"Arthur was a good man," Naomi said quietly.

Molly's eyes began to shine. "He was," she agreed hoarsely, then cleared her throat. "But that's not the issue at the moment. What should we do about Emmeline?"

Naomi turned to the witch in question. "Em, do you think we should call Ted? And don't tell me you feel fine, because I know otherwise."

Emmeline sighed. "I'm just a little tired right now. Maybe I did too much today—"

"You went from here to the kitchen once. And that was a few hours ago. You've been looking like this for two days," Naomi said.

"I'm—" Emmeline cut herself off as she suddenly moved her hand to her rather large stomach. "Oh," she said, wincing in pain. "That was interesting."

"What?" Naomi asked, her heart beating faster than usual.

"I don't really know how to explain it," Emmeline went on. "It was a sharp pain..."

Molly gasped and both the witches looked at her as she began to smile widely.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"Naomi, I think it's time Ted was called," Molly said, ignoring the younger witches' confusion.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Emmeline asked.

Molly sat beside Emmeline on the bed and took her hand. "You, my dear, are going into labor."

Moony and Padfoot were enjoying their usual full moon activities of chasing one another around and wrestling. Padfoot had accidentally knocked a chair into a Black family display case that'd been emptied of all the dark objects his parents had and filled with Remus' knickknacks. One of the objects was a world globe that he'd received for Christmas from his wife. All one had to do was tell the globe what part of the world they wanted to see and the globe would turn automatically and stop on the particular part, then it would magnify the area until the user was satisfied. Remus had been playing with it almost nonstop since he received it.

Luckily, Padfoot hadn't damaged the globe; the chair only broke the glass and cracked the frame on a photo of Remus and his parents during fifth year. Moony glared as best he could at his friend and Padfoot tired to look as apologetic as he could manage, but ended up grinning.

Moony rolled his eyes and got down on the floor, his tail in the air. Padfoot wasn't prepared for his friend's attack, and when Moony lunged at him, both canines fell to the floor with a thud and rolled across the floor before hitting the wall under the window. Padfoot managed to push the werewolf away from him and prepared his own attack. Before he could, however, the two heard a scream down the hall. The attacks were halted and the pair looked at each other with wide eyes. There was the sound of running footsteps, then a knock on the door and Padfoot transformed back to his human form.

"Stay back, Moony," he said as the werewolf made to follow. A rule had been made that during the full moon when there were others in Number Twelve, Moony would have to stay in the library, no matter the circumstances.

"Sirius! I need to talk to you!" Naomi called through the door.

Moony whined, but lay down on the floor. Sirius crossed quickly to the door and pulled it open enough for him to slip out and meet his wife. "What is it? And who screamed?"

"It's Emmeline," Naomi said. "She's going into labor. Ted's on his way, but I think you should be there, too."

Sirius' jaw dropped. "She's going into labor now?" he whispered, quite aware that Moony had excellent hearing. "She can't! Remus is supposed to be with her!"

"Yeah, well, that's not happening right now, is it?" Naomi said a bit irritably.

"This is starting to be tradition, isn't it? The Marauders always have reasons they can't be with their wives during births. First, no one could get a hold of James while he was taking his Auror qualification tests, then I'm stuck on a cliff with Malfoy, now Remus is a bloody werewolf and isn't allowed to be there." Sirius ran a hand through his hair. "You realize he isn't going to be happy about this, right?"

Naomi nodded, looking very sympathetic. "I know, but there's nothing we can do..."

Sighing heavily, Sirius nodded. "All right," he said. "Let me go tell him what's happening, though he probably already knows, and I'll be in there when I can. You go back and stay with Emmeline."

Naomi gave one more look to the closed library door before she went back down the hall to Emmeline and Remus' room.

Again, Sirius ran a hand through his hair and entered the library door. Moony backed up so Sirius could get in and close the door. "You heard everything?" he asked the werewolf.

Moony nodded. He moved past Sirius and tried to open the door with his paw.

"Don't even try it," Sirius said. "I charmed it so that you have to be human to open the door."

Moony growled in frustration and began pacing around the room, whining every few steps.

"Do you want me to stay here or go see how Emmeline is?"

The werewolf came to Sirius and nudged him towards the door.

"Okay," he said. "I'll come back later and let you know what's going on."

Moony looked close to tears as he continued to whine.

"Sorry, mate," Sirius said sympathetically. He turned back to the door and left the library.

When he entered Emmeline's room, he found Emmeline had just begun her contractions again. Sirius winced at the screams and put silencing charms around the room. He didn't think Remus needed to hear that at the moment. It looked as though Ted had just arrived; he was opening his Healer's bag to get what he needed for the birth of the Lupin twins. Andromeda had come with him. Sirius went to stand beside his favorite cousin.

"How's Remus taking this?" she asked quietly.

"Not too well," Sirius said. "He's pacing around the library, probably trying to find a way out."

"Can he get out?"

"Not with the charms and wards I put around that library," Sirius said. "Though he wants to. For a moment, I thought I might have to stun him just to keep him in the library. But even that wouldn't have held him for long..."

Andromeda sighed. "It's a shame he can't be here."

"It is, but regardless of the potion he's using, and regardless that Ted made it perfectly and even better than that, it'd be a risk to let him in here. Anything can happen, and I'm not taking the chances."

"Understandable."

The cousins turned to Emmeline and Ted. "Okay, Emmeline, I need you to relax," Ted said after his initial exam of the witch. "You're not ready; I'd give you a few hours yet."

Emmeline nodded and laid her head back down on the pillow, wincing. Molly sat next to her and held her hand.

"Ted, can I talk to you?" Naomi said when the Healer made his way over to them. "Sirius, you might want to hear this, too."

The Auror raised an eyebrow at his wife, and shrugged his shoulders at Ted, but followed the pair out of the room.

Once the door was closed, Naomi began. "I've been watching Emmeline for the last few days, and I've noticed that she's shown signs of a full moon transformation." Sirius looked at her in surprise. "I know what a person looks like when they're about to turn into a werewolf. I've spent enough time with Remus over the last twenty years to know for certain. And Emmeline has definitely been showing the signs."

The Healer bit his lip. "I've been watching her as well. Every time she and Remus came in for an exam, I've taken dozens of tests to check the chances of the twins being werewolves—every test has come back negative. Now, they do hold the werewolf gene; therefore, they may have symptoms of a coming transformation as they grow up, but they will never actually transform. The symptoms Emmeline is exhibiting may be caused by that, but I'm honestly not concerned that she or the twins will be hurt."

"You're positively certain about that?" Sirius asked.

"No one can be positively certain about anything, but I'm confident about it," Ted replied sincerely.

The Blacks nodded. "I should get back in there and see if she needs anything," Naomi said, leaving the wizards alone.

"Walk with me, Sirius," Ted said. The pair walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. "I've never had a patient in the same situation as Emmeline. Most of the pregnant women I deal with are quite normal—sometimes they have symptoms of their babies being rather powerful wizards already, but it's nothing too serious."

"So you really don't know what's going on with Emmeline," Sirius said, summoning two butterbeers and passing one to Ted.

Ted opened the bottle and took a sip. "I wasn't lying when I said I was confident that Emmeline and the twins will be just fine. What I am worried about is Emmeline's energy level and whether or not she'll be able to..." Ted paused to try to find a delicate way to say what he needed to say.

"To push the kids out?" Sirius said with a small grin.

Ted chuckled and nodded. "Exactly," he said. "There are spells to finish births when the witch can't help, but I'm slightly worried that if I use one of the spells, it may hurt the babies—as I said, they are a special case."

Sirius' smile faded with a sigh. "So basically, you need to keep Emmeline's energy level up," he said. "What about a Pepper-Up potion?"

"Perhaps a weak one. I don't want to give her too many potions; I'm considering a painkilling potion for her later on, and it mixes badly with other potions."

"Probably a good choice," Sirius said. Then his sympathy for his best friend took over. "What would you think of having a werewolf in the room during the birth?"

Ted looked at him in shock. "You're kidding, right?" Sirius shook his head. "Look, I understand Remus wants to be there for his wife, but having a werewolf in his transformed state in a room during a birth isn't something Healers are too fond of."

Sirius grinned at him. "Oh, come on, Teddy, haven't you learned by now that we thrive on doing things that other people would never do in their wildest dreams? And you're the one who made his potion. Aren't you confident in your ability as a potions master?"

Ted did his best to glare at Sirius, though he was smiling. "Tell you what, Sirius, it wouldn't be a good idea right now, but in a few hours, as long as Remus is calm enough, you can bring him in. I'd rather he wasn't too involved; I don't want him in the way while I'm examining Emmeline," he said blatantly. "But I'll allow him in the room."

"I'm sure he'll be quite pleased with that," Sirius said, smiling widely. "Thanks, Ted."

"Anything for family," Ted replied with a wink. "Let's get back upstairs and check on the patient."