A/N: For all those wonderful readers who've sent me messages wondering where I was and why the chapter was take so long (and all other readers too) - Sorry! I'm so sorry it me so long but I've been so, so busy - my life now is basically studying, going to classes, working and having driving lessons (Exam is coming up! I desperately need that license!). If I can write 500 words a day, it's an achievement... Still, I want to make it clear that I'm determined to go through with this fic right up until the end! No abandonment here! So, as an apology gift and because I haven't had classes yesterday, I've made yet another really big chapter... and started a second Outtake - more on it after the text. Enjoy!
30 July 1997
Days passed quickly and, sooner than everyone realized, July was reaching an end and Harry's birthday was one single day away. Everyone knew what that meant, although it was rarely spoke of for the sake of general mental health – no one wanted to think that after Bill and Fleur's wedding, which would take place in the first day of August, Harry could leave at any moment.
No one was sure if it would be the day after, the week after… only Harry knew when – he wanted his family and friends to be able to honestly say they didn't fully know about his plans to leave (at least not fully) if any questioning came up. Truth was, he knew he had to go, he had to track down the Horcruxes as soon as possible… he just wasn't sure how ready he was to go or to leave his family. Logic told him he should do it right after the wedding – not wait a minute more. But he couldn't help feeling that he wanted to stay. He had a family and, with the constant danger all around, part of him desperately wanted to stick around and make sure they would be alright. He was sure they felt the same about him… Still, he didn't have the luxury of letting that be more than a passing thought. He was the chosen one, whatever that meant. The world rested on his shoulders.
So, the eve of his birthday was passed at the Burrow, either to enjoy those last days – they felt like hours, actually – he had with Ginny before leaving, or to settle the last details of their plans with his future travelling companions as Hermione would be arriving to join him and Ron at any moment. Practically everything was worked out so far: they'd already gathered most of what they needed, trained as much as they could and created what seemed to be the only slightly believable cover stories available – Ron's fictional burst of spattergroit, Hermione's alleged escape to Australia with her parents… They hadn't bothered to make one for him as it would be painfully obvious for everyone that mattered that he'd skipped Hogwarts to go after Voldermort. There would be questions, yes, but he could only hope that his family would manage to work around them.
"What time did Hermione say she was arriving again?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she stepped into the kitchen with a load of towels on her arms.
"She said she'd be at the edge of the wards at eleven sharp," Ginny replied as she sat opposite her boyfriend at the kitchen table. "Did Dad forget the time he was supposed to meet her there again?"
"No, dear, I just thought I'd go pick her up from there myself. Your father's quite busy entertaining Mr. Delacour," she said, looking at the Weasley family clock to check the time. "Have you seen Ronald, Ginny?"
"He's upstairs, showering. Hermione's coming – odds are he doesn't want to seem like a pig around her."
"Ginevra!" her mother said in outrage. "Don't be rude! Honestly, with guests in the house… What impression do you want to give?"
"Harry's used to it. He's basically part of the furniture already…" Ginny observed, smirking at her boyfriend, who smiled a little in return. He smiled less and less these days, she thought.
"I meant the Delacours," Molly said, exasperated, quickly turning to Harry. "Not that we're not happy to have you around, as always, dear."
"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley," he replied sheepishly. "Do you… do you need help with those?" he asked, pointing at the load of towels she was carrying.
"Oh, no, dear. No need – I'm just taking those out to the tables for lunch. I can manage on my own. You two stay here and enjoy your time together." And, with that, she made her way to the back door and exited the house, leaving Harry and Ginny alone in the kitchen.
The latter sighed. "You know what she's doing, right?"
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Concerning what?"
"You know, just leaving like that. Telling us to stay here and 'enjoy our time together' while she fiddles with the towels outside. Isn't it obvious what she's doing?"
Harry frowned. "Trying to keep herself busy so she can have a good reason to avoid Fleur and her mother?"
"No!" Ginny replied before pausing, thoughtful, and shrugging. "Well, yes. That too – hearing them speak in French all day long makes her nervous. But that's not what I was referring to." She sighed before continuing. "I strongly suspect that she's hoping I'll… charm you into not leaving."
Her boyfriend gave her an odd look. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, Mom's not dumb. She knows something's going on with you and Ron and maybe even Hermione. She figured out that you three are planning to leave. She even cornered me the other day and asked me if I was planning to go too – threatened me to send me to Aunt Muriel's for the rest of the Summer if I was, by the way."
Harry raised his eyebrows. "And what did you tell her?"
"The truth," she said. "That I'm not planning to leave as of yet. But you know our deal, Harry – the minute I turn seventeen if you're still out there…"
"You'll join me there. I know. Believe me, I know," he replied sharply. He knew that very well and, although he knew how hard it could be – finding the Horcruxes, destroying them all and then Voldemort – he was determined to have it all over before her seventeenth birthday so she wouldn't join him. Because he knew he wouldn't be able to function, faced with all the danger that she'd be under.
"Good," Ginny replied, ignoring his tone. "Anyway, Mum's not happy that you, Ron and Hermione are planning to go at all, which led her to the conclusion that the best way to get you stay is by, well, rubbing me all over you. She's sure that either my constant presence will make you realize you'll miss me too much or that I'll try and change your mind somehow."
"Which you won't," Harry concluded.
She sighed. "We've been through this, Harry. I don't like the fact that you're leaving. I hate it, actually. But I know it's something you have to do and I like to believe I'm above trying to hold you back just for my peace of mind." It might cost her, she thought, it might hurt her and scare her beyond words but getting in Harry's way, keep him from doing the only thing that, as far as she knew, would give him peace was the one thing she was determined to never do. She owed him that much.
Harry just looked at her for a few seconds after she said that. Sometimes he wondered if she was for real, as he sometimes did about most positive aspects of his life… All that darkness, the constant tragedy that followed him often shadowed his ability to enjoy the good things he had in life, such as Ginny or having a family… yes, he did wonder how he would deal without them during his quest, which could take months… years, maybe. "I guess your Mom will be disappointed, then," he mumbled a few seconds later.
"I guess she will," Ginny replied. "But then again she won't if you all come back in one piece, which, I can promise, each one of you will dearly regret if you don't," she said, narrowing her eyes to make a point. It was with satisfaction that she saw Harry's face showing some nerves – he'd better take her seriously. "Now," she said, completely changing her tone to a much lighter one all of a sudden. "How about we skip to less tense matters?"
"What sort of matters?" he asked suspiciously.
"Your birthday tomorrow, of course," she told him, grinning. "What do you want as a present, for instance?"
He seemed to grow uncomfortable with her question, for some reason. "You don't have to worry about that," he replied in a sombre tone.
She raised her eyebrows. "Don't need to worry about what to get you? Right… sorry to be the one to tell you this, Harry, but you're not exactly an easy one to shop for, you know?"
He sighed. "Well, let me solve the problem for you, then," he said, trying to get her to drop the subject. "I don't want anything for my birthday."
She frowned. "Don't want anything for your birthday…"she said slowly.
"That's right," he replied, looking away towards the window, hoping that would settle it. His hopefulness didn't last, though, as he could practically feel Ginny's hard stare drilling into the side of his face. He glanced at her for a second in order to confirm it – yep, there it was. The stare. And he knew his girlfriend well enough to be sure it meant she wasn't buying any of it.
"Alright. Spill it, Potter," she told him.
"There's nothing to spill," he replied, a bit touchy.
"Oh, I'm sure there isn't. Aside from the reason why you're apparently insulting my intelligence by insisting that you don't want anything for your birthday."
"What's wrong with not wanting anything for my birthday?" he asked, a bit annoyed. Did she always have to see right through him? "And why does that have to mean anything more than what it is?"
"Well, it wouldn't mean anything more if you didn't have the look on tour face," she informed him. "You can't fool me with the look."
Harry frowned. "Look? What look?"
"The 'I'm Harry Potter, the self-blaming git' look," she stated. "What's this about, Harry?"
He sighed. "Gin…"
"Drop it," she warned him.
He huffed, then. "I most likely won't be here for your birthday, Gin. Doesn't seem all that fair that I get a birthday present from you when you won't get one from me."
Ginny pursed her lips together. It always came up. No matter how much she tried not to think of how, from in a couple of days on, Harry could leave at any moment, it always came up. She had no idea how to have any sort of communication with him from then on… "So that's what it's about?" she asked. "You think you don't get to have a birthday present because you won't be here to pay me back at mine?"
He sighed. "Let me guess. You think I'm an idiot," he said, trying to break the tension with a little bit of humour.
"Of the sweet sort. Yes," she informed him, her lips curling just a bit. "You don't get it, do you?"
"Get what?"
"You've already given me a present, you git. Look, as far as I know, back when you decided that you had to go and hunt Horcuxes, you were planning to leave just as soon as the clock hit midnight on the day of your birthday."
"Well, maybe not exactly…"
"Details aside, Harry," she indicated dismissively. "The point is that from then on, it was fair game. You could leave as soon as you wanted to. But then I asked you to stay for the wedding and you agreed. You gave us one extra day and, at the rate things are getting darker and darker, more and more dangerous, I'd say that's worth a few dozen birthday presents. And, okay, call me sappy for that. I know it is. But see if I care."
The intense look returned to Harry's face. He seemed somewhat saddened and cheered by her words. They were bittersweet, yes, knowing that things were so bad that they had to be satisfied with the littlest things like having one extra day together… still the fact that Ginny was willing to accept that at all, no complaints or discussions, made him proud. "So, one day? That's your present," he asked, just to be sure.
"One day," she repeated.
Harry sighed. There were problems, though… One of the few perks of them having been virtually isolated from the world all that summer had been not having to pretend they weren't a couple anymore as they had both agreed that their families were trustworthy enough to keep their secret relationship quiet – unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case during the wedding. "You do know that, through that day, we won't be able to actually go to the wedding as a couple, not only because we're officially not a couple anymore but also because of Mad-Eye's plan for me to only go to the wedding disguised with polijuice as some fake cousin of yours, right?" He groaned internally at that for the millionth time since Mad-Eye had exposed the plan to him. Polijuice… well, that was another bummer of being Harry Potter, he thought. Plenty of people were coming to the wedding – all supposedly trustworthy but, according to the old Auror, not enough to allow Harry Potter to walk around them in the open with practically no protection. Therefore, the plan was for him, as far as the other guests knew, 'come down' with a bad case of food poisoning which would leave him allegedly unable to attend the wedding. Instead, he'd have to show up impersonating a fictional member of the Weasley family through a heavy dose of Polijuice Potion.
"Well, I don't think anyone will lift a problem over me dancing with a cousin, would they? Provided we don't… take liberties, so to speak."
"Yes, that might be a bit… disturbing from an outsider's point of view."
"Definitely," she agreed. "I assure you, though, that I'd much rather do it with you looking like… well, you. I suppose I'll just have to wait for the next wedding for that," she declared, making an effort to look positive.
"I suppose," Harry agreed, although he didn't sound half as confident.
"Anyway, have you come up with a fake name already? I need to know what to refer you as then – calling you 'cousin' all day long would just be plain weird."
"Tell me about it," Harry mumbled. "But, no, no name yet. Though Fred and George were quick with suggestions…. starting with a quite interesting one: Randy Gitt-Weasley – note it's spelled with double t in 'Gitt'."
Ginny unsuccessfully tried to keep herself from bursting into laughter at that, making her boyfriend simply raise his eyebrows at her in a slightly annoyed fashion.
Aright, so it was a good one – he'd give her that much… "Glad to see you find this amusing, Gin."
She just kept on laughing for several more seconds, only stopping when her eyes were already filling with tears. "You know, I think you should use it. You should definitely use it – it has a nice ring to it."
"Yes, a bloody fantastic one," Harry mumbled moodily. "Can we change the subject now?"
"Sure… Randy," she agreed, fighting hard not to laugh some more. "Sorry, just trying it out."
Harry glared. "Don't keep your hopes up that you'll use it much at the wedding."
She just grinned in return. "We'll see about that… Now, since you want so much to change the subject, you still haven't given me a decent idea of a present to give you. Honestly, your birthday's tomorrow – it's not like I have a lot of time to come up with something… I've already put it off long enough, don't you think? So just go ahead and name something you could use, would you?"
Harry sighed. "I don't know, Gin… The one thing that comes to my mind is luck, maybe. Yeah, I could use some luck. Do you figure they sell it by the ounce at Diagon Alley?"
Ginny shrugged. "Maybe by the pint at Knockturn Alley – Fred and George told me they sell Felix Felicis in every corner over there since it's supposedly forbidden to sell in licensed shops. But then again, I suppose the odds of those being either fake or poorly brewed are higher than not – I wouldn't want to be the one behind you ending up poisoned. It leaves quite a loony cloud on you, attempting to kill an alleged ex-boyfriend and everything."
"Yes, it does give quite a lunatic impression," he agreed with a grin.
"It's a reputation-ruiner," she added dramatically. "Anyway, I'd offer to brew some Felix Felicis myself but it would probably lead to the same results. Maybe Fred and George could give it a try…"
"Forget it, Gin, I was just joking. Or, well, speaking about luck in general, not in liquid form," Harry informed her. "I don't want Felix Felicis."
"Why not? In a more serious note, Felix Felicis is one of the things you, Ron and Hermione could probably use during your quest."
Harry shook his head. "It's too risky, Gin. We've talked about this – Ron, Hermione and I. Did you know that Felix Felicis can be addictive? I didn't. According to what Hermione read, if you take more than two full doses in a month, you have an eighty percent chance of getting addicted to it, which leads to the obvious consequences of taking too much Felix Felicis, starting with it reversing its effects and causing you bad luck and ending with death. I think we'd rather take our chances than risking that, Gin."
She seemed quite alarmed, looking at him. "Merlin, Harry…"
"I know. It would all be so much easier if we could just take a dose of Felix every morning without any bad consequences, would it?" he asked.
She nodded. "I guess this proves than when things seem too good to be true, they usually are…"
"Hard to deny that," he agreed.
"So, no Felix Felicis for your birthday, then…"
"No potions in general – Hermione's been brewing all the ones we'll need at home, so don't worry about that," he assured her.
She huffed. "You're making this gift-shopping thing even harder for me, Potter. Just name something already before I go mad and punch you."
He huffed as well. Birthday presents were simply the farthest thing away from his mind – honestly, with everything that was going on, he didn't really feel like he was one day away from turning seventeen… It didn't feel like his birthday at all, so he couldn't say he was inspired for gift-listing… But then, it hit him – the perfect present in more than one way. "I suppose one day would also be a good present for me."
She frowned. "Hey – the extra-day is my present already. I'm sorry to tell you that I don't like to share my presents," Ginny told him, mostly joking.
"No, not that day," he told her. "Another one."
"So you'll stay two extra days?" Ginny asked, hopeful.
He shook his head. "Not now, Gin. After. You get your day now, before I go. A little ahead of time, yes, considering your birthday's still a couple of weeks away, but I owe it to you. As for me, I'll get mine when I come back." Provided I do come back, he thought. "Just the two of us, away from all the madness – well, mostly the two of us, at least. So I have something to look forward to."
"You have plenty to look forward," Ginny said, a bit annoyed by the way he'd used his words. Something to look forward to. "You're seventeen – there's still a lot you haven't experienced yet. A lot neither of us have."
"Good – we can start working on it that day," he said, settling it.
"So, a day for you as well," she concluded. "No date settled yet?"
He shook his head – how could he possibly set a date when he wasn't even sure how long it would be before he saw her again after his quest begun? "I'll leave it for you to surprise me."
"Okay. I can work with that. A day. And you'd better expect one hell of a day. But I have one condition."
"Name it."
"If this thing takes long – the horcrux hunt – and we have to put this off further than your birthday next year, this day becomes a week," she declared.
He raised his eyebrows. "I'm starting to think this is more of a present for you than it is for me."
She grinned, leaning further onto the table so she was a few inches closer to Harry across the table. "I knew you were a smart bloke. And if it takes another year after your birthday next year, it becomes a month."
"Greedy, aren't you?" he asked, leaning a bit closer as well
She ignored him. "Another year and it becomes a month. Then another and it becomes a year as well… you can follow my train of thought to guess what's next."
"A decade and a century," he concluded. Strangely, maybe, hearing her saying that made him… happy. Because he could read between the lines – this was her way of telling him she'd wait for him no matter how long it took. She was planning to join him, yes, but she was promising she wouldn't give up if she had to wait either. "Funny thing, now I'm wondering if I should make this last a while just to get that century…"
"Maybe if you get back sooner than one year from now, you'll get that day with much more than a century on the side," she suggested, shifting on her chair so she was kneeling on it, which allowed her to reach further across the table – luckily, it wasn't too wide, which allowed her face to remain rather close to Harry's, close enough to allow her to kiss him easily if she wanted to.
He grinned more widely than he'd grinned for a long time. "I'll aim for the day, then, and hope for that extra."
"Wise choice not to keep me waiting," she informed him, leaning further millimetre by millimetre.
Only, when it seemed she was just about to kiss him, they heard the kitchen door bursting open, followed by a highly exaggerated disgust remark. "Ugh, Ginny, we eat at that table!" Ron's voice came.
She looked at him, murderous glare in her eyes as Harry blushed in embarrassment. "Tell me, Ron, just tell me how the hell us kissing over the table, barely even touching it is going to affect the quality of the food we eat on it in any way!"
"Maybe not the food but my appetite for sure! How can I eat there picturing you two snogging on the table?"
"Over the table. Over it, not on it," Harry remarked urgently. "And I don't think anything can affect your appetite, mate. No offence."
"Yes, offence," Ginny mumbled under her breath.
Ron tried to ignore that, approaching the window and looking through it. "Is Hermione here yet?"
"No," Harry and Ginny chorused.
"Isn't it eleven already?" he asked, a bit too anxiously and being terrible at hiding it.
Harry rolled his eyes. "She'll be here in no time, Ron."
"Yeah, Ron, don't get your knickers in a twist," Ginny mocked. "Your girlfriend won't blow you off."
"She's not my girlfriend!" he barked back, blushing.
"She'd be if you hadn't been such an idiot last year with Lavender," his sister pointed out.
"Shut up!"
"You shut up!" Ginny yelled just as the door leading to the outside opened, allowing her mother to step in.
"… and as you can see," Mrs. Weasley was saying, "nothing has changed when it comes to my children acting like barbarians."
"I can see that," Hermione observed, stepping into the kitchen as well and raising her eyebrows at the scene as she carried a trunk along. "Nothing has changed at all," she repeated as she approached her friends, giving each a hung.
"Merlin, Hermione, you've just got here and you're scolding us already?" Ron said as he got his turn at sharing a rather awkward hug with Hermione.
"The girl just knows you too well to have to deal with pleasantries, Ronald," his mother remarked, giving Hermione a look of approval, before she walked to the nearest cupboard in order to fetch some plates. "And at least try to pretend you have some manners and take her trunk upstairs, would you?"
"Mom…"
"It's alright, Mrs. Weasley – it's not too heavy," Hermione assured her before turning to the others and sitting down as the older woman stepped out with the plates. "So, I take it everything is well… or as well as it's possible. Where's Izzy?"
"She stayed back at Grimmauld Place," Harry told her. "Plotting for my birthday, I imagine – she and aunt Mia seemed pretty eager to see me out."
"And you looked surprised by me being interested in your birthday," Ginny mumbled under her breath.
Harry ignored his girlfriend's remark. "Anyway, Izzy told me she'd show up later. Shouldn't take long."
"Well, tell you what," Ginny started, "why don't the three of you go have some trio time while I stay here and wait for Izzy?"
"Trio time?" Hermione asked, confused.
"Plot against evil, make mad plans, figure the world out," she specified. "You'd better get going while Mom's out – somehow I don't think she'll be too happy about seeing you doing that plotting, especially if it concerns your plans to leave."
Ron shivered. "Yes, it might be a good idea for us to make a run for it while she's outside, then…" he had to agree.
"Are you sure you don't want to come too?" Harry asked his girlfriend.
She shook her head. "Trio time. Not quartet time. Don't worry about me – I'm sure Mom will have plenty of shores for me to do once she realizes I'm no longer trying to trap you with my charms."
He raised his eyebrows at her but stood up anyway. "Alright, then," he agreed as Ron was already reaching for Hermione's trunk to carry it upstairs.
They'd been lucky to have exited the room at that exact moment, Ginny thought about ten seconds later as she saw her mother stepping back into the kitchen only to find her all alone in it. Molly frowned immediately at that.
"Where did the others go?"
"Upstairs – I imagine they must be helping Hermione unpacking…"
Molly's frown deepened. "Somehow I find that hard to believe." And, with that, she started making her way to the stairs.
"Wait, Mom," Ginny said before she reached them, making her mother turn around. "You can say all you want, try all you can but that won't keep them from leaving. Tomorrow all three of them will be off age, you know? So, do you really think the right thing to do now is keeping them from doing the planning they need to do and that will hopefully bring them back the same way they went?"
Molly's lips pursed together as she stared at her daughter. She knew her daughter – she could tell that underneath that apparently calm exterior Ginny was struggling with the notion of those three, mainly Harry, going away to Merlin-knew-where. That was why her words hit her so deeply. They wouldn't change their minds, so the only thing left to do now was allowing them to do what they could to make it through… Part of her wanted to go upstairs anyway, dictate shores and hope that keeping Ron, Harry and Hermione apart would hold them off, even if temporarily. Still, she didn't.
"Go get the table started outside, Ginny," she told her daughter, moving towards the counter without looking at her.
Behind her, Ginny did something she rarely went along with: getting up and doing what her mother had told her to do without a sound of protest. She supposed her mom deserved that much after the step they'd just taken.
And then, left alone in that kitchen, Molly did the only thing that, she realized at that moment, she could do from then on. Wait and hope for the best.
Later that day
Bored, Sirius thought. He was actually bored, he thought, half in disbelief… Izzy and Harry were at the Burrow, Mia had gone to Lulu's with little Mary for some 'girly' time – his mother-in-law had made it rather clear that no males were allowed in whatever they were doing, to the point of pushing a bunch of errands on Gabe to basically kick him out of his own home – and Alex was, well, he thought, glancing at his son's sleeping form beside him on the sofa, pretty much passed out for the rest of the afternoon, having exhausted himself running all over the house like a barbarian.
Huffing, Sirius couldn't help feeling a bit embarrassed by his own boredom. What could he say? He'd gotten used to always having something to do, someone to entertain and, unless he was willing to go challenge Kreacher for a game of chess – not bloody likely! – that didn't seem to be an option at the moment. Honestly, he'd be the first one to admit that that had been pretty much the last day when he'd expected to be bored – the eve of Harry's birthday, only days before he was supposed to leave… It was supposed to be a hectic day with last-chance training and packing driving everyone mad – no space for boredom.
Somehow, that hadn't been the case, though, and they'd end up sending Harry to the Burrow so he could spend some time with his friends and girlfriend while he, Mia and Izzy could busy themselves with the details for his birthday – he supposed Mia was mostly looking at the party as a farewell one, though not the permanent sort. A moment of happiness and celebration before their kid had to leave on his mission that only Merlin knew where would lead or how long would last…
He shook his head, willingly censoring himself and turning his attention to the Muggle telly opposite him – Harry's mission was definitely not what he wanted to be mulling over until someone came to distract him or Alex decided to wake up. That would be plain depressing.
He grabbed what he thought of as the 'telly-wand thing' and used it to flip though the channels, looking for something that would grab his attention. After changing channel after channel, skipping from program after program, he ended up settling with what seemed to be a transmission of a Muggle football game, which seemed interesting enough…
It was about ten minutes later, right about the time when he was getting bored again, that the answer to his prays came when that he realized he wasn't alone in the room anymore since someone other than Kreacher spoke.
"I simply can't understand the Muggles' fascination with that thing," the voice said from the doorway.
Recognizing the voice immediately, Sirius didn't bother to turn around to check who it was. "That's what I've been thinking for the past ten minutes, Moony. No brooms, no bludgers… it's like they throw away all the fun. What's the point of just watching a silly little ball rolling around the field as s bunch of blokes chase after it? Honestly…"
"I did mean television in general but, well, I suppose that may also be an issue too," Remus pointed out as he approached his friend, sitting down on an armchair by the sofa Sirius lounged on. He had to raise his eyebrows when he noticed his godson's sleeping form by Sirius's side on the sofa, all wrapped around his constantly present stuffed dog. "Shouldn't you take him to bed? Alex?"
Sirius shrugged. "He seems pretty fine to me down here – little bugger exhausted himself into a stupor running all over the house." He chuckled and reached to absently rub his son's dark, soft hair. The little boy didn't react or move an inch, so deep he was engulfed in his sleep. "Sleeps like a rock wherever he ends up falling. Though I can't say that was the case in that rather interesting first year of his life." He turned to Remus and grinned even though he did note his friend seemed quite down. Any other day, the fact that Moony looked more tired and greyer than usual would have been a reason to worry – nevertheless, being that night full moon, Sirius honestly had to admit his friend didn't seem all that bad, bearing in mind the circumstances. More than once, he'd seen Remus much worse in that occasion and, knowing there was nothing he could do about his friend's pitiful state, Sirius chose to simply go on with that banter, hoping that would cheer him up, even if just a little. "I've got to say I'm looking forward to see your sorry, sleep-deprived arse a few months from now."
Remus gave him a blank look. "I'm sure I won't look much worse than I do now."
"If you're expecting me to compliment your appearance out of pity, then forget it," he said dryly. "So, what do I owe to this oh so early visit? I thought we were meeting at the cottage later for our 'monthly bloke time', so to speak."
His friend sighed tiredly. "Well, Fred and George kicked me out of the shop under threat of firing me if I step a toe back in it before the day after tomorrow. As they do every month, of course, though I'm not fully sure about how committed they are to that threat… Anyway, I thought I'd come by and do some defence practicing with Harry since I have the time."
His friend gave him a 'you're joking' sort of look before he snorted. "I'm sorry to be the one breaking the news to you, mate, but you look like you could be knocked out by a tickling charm, so if you think I'm about to let you face the kid's pretty mean stunners, you're out of your mind."
"Sirius…" the other man started, huffing.
"Not to mention that he's at the Burrow at the moment, which makes him quite unavailable to wipe the floor with you. But, since you're here, you can work on keeping me entertained. So, tell me, Moony, how's my favourite pregnant cousin doing?"
Remus sighed. "Dora's just fine, thank you for asking, although I don't imagine she's too happy with me at the moment…"
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Merlin… just what did you do this time?"
The other man huffed and sunk back against the armchair. "Nothing that bad. I just suggested that… well, that auror-related work is a job a bit too… straining, not to mention risky for a woman in her condition."
Huffing, Sirius rolled his eyes. What was he doing? "Merlin, Moony, don't you know a thing about pregnant women?"
"Well, it's not like I've had to deal with one much before. Besides, you're one to talk – didn't Mia kick you out plenty of times when she was pregnant?"
"That's exactly why I'm the perfect person to talk to," Sirius told him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "First lesson on how to deal with your pregnant spouse – don't tell her what she should or shouldn't do. Those pregnancy hormones are like a bomb just waiting to explode right on your face."
Remus sighed. "She's far too early on to be throwing hormonal fits."
"Oh, you go on thinking of that," Sirius told him with a laugh. "You'd better get used to the feeling of sleeping on the sofa, though…"
"I'm already sleeping on the sofa – she's still holding a grudge about my… reaction to her being pregnant. Not that I blame her for it at all."
Sirius bit his lower lip to keep himself from laughing. "Well, if she's like that already, you're in for a bunch of fun months, Moony."
Remus sighed. "Tell me about it," he mumbled.
That had Sirius laughing. "I see you're still getting used to the idea of having a little one on the way," he observed.
"I think I won't get used to it at all until that baby is born," the other man replied. "I owled Elizabeth, by the way… About the baby, I mean. I wanted to see what she had to say about the chances of it being… like me. Curse-wise."
Sirius furrowed his brows. "And what did she say?"
"Well, she called me a bunch of names at first – apparently, she's heard of my… reaction to the pregnancy," Remus admitted, his tone rather low.
"Well, that does sound like something she'd do," Sirius observed, chuckling. "And?"
"And then she proceeded to point out that werewolves are made, not born, and that if, by any chance, the bay was a werewolf, it probably wouldn't have made it through the first full moon, one month ago – the transformation would have been too much for a… embryo that small," Remus explained, looking a bit pained with the bare idea. "She strongly advised me to get a hobby other than worrying – I'm not sure how to feel about that advice."
"Embrace it, what else? She's a smart one, that Elizabeth. And you know it – if she says it probably hasn't a furry little problem, then it doesn't," Sirius pointed out, grinning. "Look, mate, so far things are good. Just worry about keeping Tonks happy while she's carrying that kid, living through her mood swing and, well, leaning how to change diapers because, trust me, you'll need it badly. The rest will solve itself – honestly, this having a kid thing is like everything: there are a million things that can go wrong, werewolf parent or not, but most of the time they don't. If you obsess over them… well, you'll probably be a nutcase before the little one's even born. So, sit back and enjoy… and maybe pray the kid will be a calm little soldier like you and not a hyperactive bomb like Mommy or else you won't have a full night of sleep for a while."
Remus took a breath and smiled just little. "I wouldn't mind the hyperactive bomb."
"Aw, look at that, Alex," Sirius mocked, turning to his completely oblivious sleeping son. "Isn't your uncle Moony adorable? In love and everything… Wonder if he sings too. Love songs and all that cra…"
"Shut up, Padfoot," his friend interrupted him with a mumble.
Sirius laughed at that. "Come on – embrace the feeling, mate. I mean, look at us: all married and having kids… grown up, you know? Prongs would be proud of us – he was always the family bloke out of all of us."
Remus couldn't deny that was true. He missed his friends, he thought, James and Lily. They should have been the ones with the big family. Sometimes, he just felt like his future child was a misplaced miracle…
"Now, what you have to do is to go and court your wife and get her to forget that tiff of yours," Sirius instructed him. "Tell her you're an idiot and give her those poor 'it's full moon tonight, so give me a break' eyes – I know for a fact she has a soft spot for them. Get some flowers too, maybe. And chocolate – yeah, she's bound to have cravings of chocolate with you as her kid's father…"
"Should I start taking notes?" Remus asked dryly.
"No. What you should do was getting your sorry arse out of that chair and into the ministry in order to pick your wife up from work and get started with the courting. You've got…" he paused, checking his watch "… four hours before the moon rise. Use them wisely and then don't forget to tell the story – provided it doesn't get kinky."
His friend stared at him. "You're not serious."
Sirius grinned. "Of course I am – even in name."
"Not the Sirius/serious jokes," Remus mumbled, huffing in disgust. "I thought we'd agreed early in our friendship that you were not to use that kind of joke – it's just too easy and way below you. James even made you put that in writing."
"It was just too tempting this time – couldn't resist," he said, smirking. "Now, get a move on, Moony. Use your cards well and you might just go back to sleeping in your bed after tonight."
Remus rolled his eyes at his friend as he got up. "You're impossible, Padfoot," he said, heading to the door
"You're welcome," Sirius replied, grinning as his friend walked out. "And tell Tonks I'm still waiting for an answer on my naming request."
"We're not calling it Sirius!" Remus shouted back from outside the room.
He snorted at that – no need to say he wasn't actually hoping the kid would be his namesake… Shaking his head, Sirius turned to his son, still sleeping despite the noise, although he seemed to have shifted his position at some point, now sucking on his thumb. "Merlin, you could sleep right through a bloody earthquake, couldn't you?" he asked the little boy, not expecting an answer.
Seeing himself alone again with his sleeping kid and the football game on the telly, Sirius almost regretted not keeping Moony around a little longer to take the piss out of him some more – but sending him away was for a good cause, after all. He and Tonks were good together – no need for them to waste time with little fights, especially hormone-induced ones. Plus, he supposed Mia should be coming back at any moment…
He didn't have the time to finish that thought, though, as it was interrupted by the sound of voices outside the room, seemingly coming from the lower floors, announcing someone else's arrival at the house.
"… simply can't believe you didn't bother to give it another look in this month and a half you've spent at home since you got it! Honestly, Harry!" Sirius heard a feminine voice he quickly identified as Hermione's saying from the stairs outside the room.
"Looks like the kids are back," Sirius mumbled to himself, glancing at the door.
"Lay off him, Hermione. That bloody thing only brings him bad memories – if it were me, I wouldn't want to look at it either," another voice, seemingly Ginny's, added.
"But we could have researched…"
"Researched what? Who wrote it?" Harry finally spoke. "You did it yourself when we checked Hogwarts's list of former students. There are hundreds of witches and wizards in Britain with R.A.D. as initials!"
The note, he thought, motioning to get up. They were talking about the note inside the fake Horcrux, the one Harry had last mentioned weeks ago, signed with a bunch of initials belonging to some bloke who'd stolen the real Horcrux that was supposed to have been in the cave Harry and Dumbledore had visited in the last day of the latter's life. Merlin, hadn't he been meaning to ask the kid about it for weeks? He suddenly recalled.
"I think it was R.A.V.," Ron mumbled.
"R.A.B.!" Hermione shouted. "It was R.A.B., not D or V! Honestly, was I the only one who bothered to look at that note with the slightest bit of attention?"
Izzy was the next one to speak. "Well, B, D and V do sound a bit alike, don't they?" she pointed out, her tone slightly absent like she was thinking of something else entirely.
"Still. We have that locket, we have that note – they're bound to be what will lead us to the stolen Horcux. We need to study it, Harry," Hermione declared as the voices got closer and Sirius started to make his way to the door.
"Well, what do you think I'm doing taking you upstairs, then? It's in my trunk." Sirius heard Harry saying just he stepped into the corridor. The kid was quick on his feet – by the time he stepped out, his godson had already beaten him upstairs, Sirius noted, and was halfway through climbing the last flight of stairs leading up to his bedroom's floor, followed closely by Ron and Hermione. Ginny and Izzy seemed to be several steps behind, though.
"What's going on?" Sirius asked the girls.
"Hermione's back and already getting those two to dot their i's and cross their t's," Ginny explained as Izzy remained quiet.
"Starting with that locket situation, I see – I completely forgot about it myself," Sirius admitted.
Ginny nodded. "You're not the only one, apparently. But she's pretty shocked Harry didn't bother to investigate the locket or the note. Honestly, I don't think it would have made a difference – can you imagine? Searching for a bunch of initials would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack."
"I take it she'll take doing that upon herself, though," Sirius guessed easily.
The redhead let out a little chuckle. "Well, it's Hermione, isn't it?" That said it all.
Chuckling too, he turned to his daughter. "What's with you, Izzybel? You're awfully quiet."
"Don't want to talk about it," she said through her teeth.
"She's still wondering how she went along with Fleur's sudden idea to make her a last-minute bridesmaid. One of the initial ones got ill," Ginny explained.
"A bridesmaid?" Sirius asked, almost amused. "Where did that come from?"
"Don't. Want. To talk. About it," she murmured in a rather intense fashion.
"It's George's fault, really," the redhead provided.
Turning slowly, Izzy gave her best friend a glare that could kill – she didn't even need to say a word for both Ginny and her father to know it was time to drop it. A story for another time, Sirius imagined.
"Well, I don't know about you but I think it's time I lay my eyes in the famous fake Horcrux," Sirius said before taking a step back into the living room in order to glance at his son, noting he was still asleep. Just in case, he summoned Kreacher to keep an eye on the boy before making his way upstairs, Ginny and Izzy following him as well.
When they got to Harry's room – what many would dramatically think of as the chosen one's quarters – it seemed like a hurricane has passed through it. Harry appeared to be kneeling on the floor, elbow deep in the trunk resting in front of his bed, throwing everything from the old newspapers to the dirty socks he found in there all over the room as he tried to dig out the locket.
"Merlin, Harry, when was the last time you bothered to tidy up that trunk even just a little?" Hermione said, looking around at the chaos he'd created in a matter of seconds in shock.
"He throws everything in there," Izzy mumbled. "He knows Mom will yell if she sees his room messy, so he just hides most of it into the trunk. Slob."
"Well, excuse me if I haven't had much time to worry about cleaning," Harry mumbled, removing what seemed to be a bag of owl treats from the trunk.
"Isn't Kreacher the one in charge of cleaning the house? He's the house-elf," Ron mumbled, opening a box of chocolate frogs Harry had dug up as Hermione glared at him over his blunt disrespect of house elves.
"Mia has them in charge of their own rooms when they're home from school," Sirius informed him. "She thinks it builds character."
"She's right about that," Hermione said in approval. "Any sign of the locket yet, Harry?"
"I think I see something sparkling down there," Ginny, who'd joined her boyfriend's digging at some point, declared.
"Wait let me just…" Harry mumbled, interrupting himself as he reached further into the mess. Seconds later, his arm finally came up, holding the heavy gold locket in his hand. "Found it," he said, his tone low as he seemed to make an effort not to look at the object.
"Let me see that," Sirius told him, reaching forward with his hand.
Harry passed it without a fuss as he got up and joined Ron and Ginny, now sitting on the bed.
Sirius observed the locket closely, raising an eyebrow at it – it was truly a horrid piece of jewellery. Seemed like something his mother would wear in her worst day. "You sure this isn't really a Horcrux? Seems creepy enough to be one."
Harry shook his head. "It isn't – I'm sure of it. If it was, there would be a really… heavy feeling – not the physical sort, just a feeling in your head – when you held it. Like there was something dark in it."
Ginny nodded. "I felt that with the diary," she said sombrely.
"Plus, there's the note," Hermione stated, turning to Harry. "Where is it?"
"Inside the locket," Harry told her. "I left it there, I think. You can open it," he informed his godfather. "There's this thing on the side…"
"I see it," Sirius said, touching the seam and popping it open. Inside, there was a little piece of parchment, which he removed from there before passing the locket to Hermione, who seemed eager to get her hands on it.
He unfolded the note carefully as the parchment seemed damaged by the time and, as soon as it was open in front of him, he froze.
It wasn't the content of the note or the initials that made his bare foundations shake – it was the handwriting. He didn't need more than a second to recognize it. Slightly different from how he remembered it, yes – more flourished maybe – but still so familiar and so similar to his own. Why similar, one would ask… maybe because the first letters of the alphabet its owner had ever written had been with Sirius coaching him through it – showing off the fact that he could finally write… sharing that new skill with the best friend he had at the time. R.A.B. – suddenly it all made sense… All pieces clicked.
"What?" Harry asked, noticing the change on his godfather's face. "Does that note ring a bell to you?"
Sirius looked up, still dumb-stuck and barely registering the five teenagers staring at him. "I know who wrote this," he mumbled, his voice tinted with disbelief.
The reaction was immediate. What? Who? How? All questions came at the same time in tones nearly as stunned as his.
"You know who R.A.B. is?" Hermione asked for the second or third time, finally getting his attention.
"Yes," Sirius said. "He's Regulus Arcturus Black. My brother."
A/N: So, the plot is finally advancing - Sirius has discovered RAB! This will continue next chapter.
Now, as for the outtake - some of you may be wondering about the Bridesmaid thing Izzy and Ginny mentioned - well, it will be devoloped in my second outtake 'Ten Steps to Unwillingly Become a Bridesmaid' - the format is rather different from my usual one, let me warn you. I suppose I should also mention the main characters are Izzy and a certain redheaded twin... This outtake should be posted sometime in the next week - depending on my workload then...
That said, feedback is welcome! Review!