AN: Thanks so much to all my reviewers! I try to leave replies, but if I miss you then know that you are appreciated and loved.

Chapter 5

James still couldn't fathom it. He was going to be someone's father. He stumbled around Sirius' flat, looking for the bloke. But of course, he realized, Sirius was never out of bed before two in the afternoon. He banged on Sirius' bedroom door.

"Oi! Sirius! Get up!" he yelled.

There was a groan from within. "Whadyouwant?" Sirius asked.

James twisted the door handle and found it still locked. He banged on the door again. "Get out here!"

After a few moments, Sirius flung open the door, still rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Well?" he asked. "What is it?"

James decided to just blurt it out. "I'm going to be a dad," he said.

Sirius stared at him in confusion for a few moments, frowning, before a decided grin came over his face. "Well, mate, that's – well. Congratulations. Aren't you excited?" He asked this question as he looked carefully at James' face.

"Of course, I'm excited," James defended himself, following Sirius into the small kitchen where his friend started scrounging about for food. "I'm also terrified. I don't know anything about taking care of babies."

Sirius grinned as he looked around from his cupboard which was nearly bare. "Well, you know what helps terror? Liquid courage." He pulled out a bottle of Firewhiskey.

James managed a grin. "It's noon. A little early for drinking, don't you think?"

"It's never too early," Sirius began looking for his shot glasses. "Let's see – I think Remus left this morning. He lost his job, so must be Order business. But we can fire call Peter over here and we can all get raging drunk. How does that sound?"

"Great," James said, "but what if Peter isn't home?"

Sirius shrugged this off. "It's Peter. Where else would he be?"

It occurred to James that he wasn't exactly acting like someone's father at the moment. "I am happy about the baby, you know," he said.

Sirius looked at him. "I know, mate. Don't worry about it – it is traditional for the father to feel a bit of terror. If it makes you feel better, they can be celebratory drinks."

James rolled his eyes. "Everything is just a big excuse for liquor to you, isn't it?"

--- -- ---

"Who would have ever guessed that I would be the first one of us to be a father?" James asked, in a slightly drunken tone.

Sirius grinned and puffed on his cigar. "I certainly did. I mean, look at the rest of us. I can't stay with a girl for more than two weeks, Remus runs away at the mere sight of a date and Peter … well, look at him."

"Hey!" Peter exclaimed from his place slumped on Sirius' couch.

James laughed and clapped Peter on the back good-naturedly.

"Besides," Sirius went on, "after you and Lily got married, you went at it so much that I knew a baby would come along sooner or later."

James sighed, fondly and closed his eyes. "Yes, I still remember those newlywed days. Not that she's cold, now; why just last night --"

"Can you do that when a woman is pregnant?" Peter blurted.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Of course you can. It isn't like she's nine months or something." Though now that Sirius thought of it, he'd never been with a pregnant girl – maybe they really couldn't do that.

"We were in a celebratory mood," James said, shrugging.

"What are you going to name it if it's --" but Sirius never got to hear James' ideas about baby names, because at that moment, Remus walked in.

Sirius bellowed out a greeting that stopped short when he saw that Remus had a guest – and not a very savory one. The man who followed Remus inside was tall with unkempt hair and long, jagged fingernails. He didn't look terribly clean. His eyes were yellowish and Sirius even fancied that his teeth were sharper than the average person's. In short, he looked like every monstrous depiction of a werewolf in human form that Sirius had ever seen.

"You didn't tell me that there would be people here, Remus," the wolf said and even his voice was like a growl.

"I didn't know that there would be," Remus said. Sirius could well imagine that he didn't. Remus looked at them dubiously. "You're all drunk, aren't you?" he asked.

"No," Sirius said and it was true. James and Peter might have been a small bit tipsy, but somehow they all ended up drinking less than they intended. Sirius, who was always best at holding his liquor, wasn't even a little intoxicated.

"Kendry was hurt," Remus said and Sirius saw that the werewolf had a slashed arm. "I decided to bring him back here to bandage him up. In the bathroom," he said to Kendry, gesturing toward the back of the flat. "Peter, can you come help me with the bandages?"

Peter looked terrified at the suggestion of getting anywhere near Kendry. "I'll help," Sirius said, following them into the bathroom. He wanted to see more of this "Kendry". To figure out why Remus would bring such a person to their flat.

In the bathroom, Kendry seated himself on the ledge of the tub. When he pulled his hand away from his arm, it had blood on it. "Don't touch him," Remus said, sharply, "just find a towel, wet it and hand it to me." This confirmed Sirius' suspicions – Remus wouldn't be so cautious about Kendry's blood if Kendry weren't a werewolf. Not that a person could be completely turned from contamination when the wolf was human, but Sirius knew that certain wolfish traits could be developed.

Kendry was silent as Remus bandaged him and Sirius could feel malice, directed at himself, not at Remus rolling off him. He couldn't wait to get this person away from him, so much so that as soon as Remus finished he said; "Well, I guess that you'll be wanting to leave now."

"I guess I will," Kendry said, giving Remus a look that seemed to say "I told you so".

Remus glared at Sirius. "You should stay," he said to Kendry. "At least until you can catch your breath."

"No, no," Kendry said, "you friend has made it very clear that he doesn't want me here." He licked his lips and bared his teeth.

Sirius was not impressed. "Bye, then," he said, waving in a sarcastic manner. It wasn't as though he had told the werewolf that he had to leave – he had merely suggested it.

Remus went to see Kendry to the door. Sirius waited in the bathroom and eventually Remus came back in to clean up.

"What were you thinking, bringing someone like that here?" Sirius demanded, taking Remus by the arm. "He looks like a slavering monster!"

Remus drew back, alarmed. "He is a werewolf, that's true enough." Sirius could tell that his friend was trying hard to keep anger out of his voice. "I didn't think you'd have a problem with that."

Sirius tapped his fingers against the sink. "He's not like you, if that's what you're suggesting. Just look at him. He's one of those werewolves that lives in the forest or in the slums and hates regular witches and wizards. He probably doesn't care who he bites."

Sirius noticed that Remus did not directly deny these accusations. "He's in the Order, Sirius. I've been working with him. I wouldn't have brought him here under normal circumstances, but he was hurt. I didn't know James and Peter would be here."

Sirius crossed his arms. "They work for Voldemort, Remus. That's not just me being prejudiced. When have you ever known me to be prejudiced? Aren't I the one who still stays with you every month when you turn? But the cold, hard fact is that the werewolves have gone to Voldemort. I know you haven't," Sirius said, when he saw Remus about to protest, "but you don't live with the rest of them. You don't run in their packs. You've seen the bite victims just the same as I have – can't you see why I'm cautious?"

Sirius had been sure that Remus would listen to this well-reasoned argument as Remus was usually one for well-reasoned arguments, so he was surprised when his friend's face reddened in anger. "What I can see is that you think every werewolf who isn't wearing dress robes is suspect. I told you that Kendry is in the Order. Why do you need anymore proof of his good intentions than that? Yes, he lives with other werewolves – he doesn't exactly have a choice, you know. He was bitten when he was fourteen and his parents turned him out of the house. There aren't exactly a huge number of job opportunities for fourteen-year-old werewolves."

Sirius shook his head. Maybe Remus was right and he was just being paranoid and prejudiced. But he couldn't shake the bad feeling that had come over him when he'd first seen Kendry. Maybe it had nothing to do with Kendry being a werewolf and it was Sirius' instincts taking over. "Look," he said, "maybe you're right. For all I know, Kendry may be a wonderful person. But with the war – you know they put all this stuff out about not opening your house to strangers because it interferes with the wards, can give them access, even later. And I'm afraid that we've just opened our place to a – a --"

"A werewolf?" Remus suggested. He leaned back and shook his head. "You've changed Sirius. You used to give everyone but Slytherins a chance and all the more so if they were someone that society would find scary or distasteful."

Sirius shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, though he didn't feel it. "War can do that," he said. "And he's not like you," he felt this was the hundredth time that he'd said this.

"You don't know what I'm like," said Remus.

--- -- ---

Something was wrong. As Severus stepped from the circle to meet the Dark Lord, there was that indefinable air of expectation from the other Death Eaters. Severus wondered, uneasily, what had excited them so. Had he done something to displease the Dark Lord? Mentally, he went over everything he'd done in the last few months. There were some things that could get him killed several times over – he was a traitor to their cause.

He forced himself to stop thinking these thoughts. Often, the Dark Lord would become angry with a Death Eater over some trifle and punish him before all the others. Severus thought that he liked to demonstrate his power thusly. He hoped that it was no more than this.

He stepped up to bow to the Dark Lord who was seated at a rather overly dramatic throne. "Rise and take off your mask, Severus," he said.

Severus did so. He didn't know why they even bothered with the masks for meetings like this – they were a good disguise when the Death Eaters went out to do their harms, but here they all knew one another.

"How is your brewing progressing?" the Dark Lord asked in what was for him a pleasant voice.

Severus was a bit thrown off by this line of questioning – it wasn't what he'd expected. But he wasn't fooled. He knew that no matter what answer he gave, the Dark Lord was going to find fault with it.

"As well as can be expected under the circumstances, my lord. I've managed to make the Flamebelly colorless, but the odor is such that it would prevent even a muggle from drinking it."

"I see. There haven't been any distractions, have there?"

"My lord?" Severus didn't know what he could be getting at, unless by distractions he meant Severus' new work for the Order in which case Severus would be dead very soon.

The Dark Lord tapped his fingers on the arm of his throne. "I'm afraid that your brewing hasn't been progressing quite as quickly as I'd like, Severus. Perhaps you need an assistant. Maybe a pretty little redheaded thing?"

Severus' heart flipped over in his chest. "I work best alone, my lord," he managed to say in a calm voice.

The Dark Lord snapped his fingers and a Death Eater stepped forward to place a black file into his hands. It looked oddly out of place in this outdoor setting with the eerie magical light and the wind whipping Severus' hair. The Dark Lord took out what appeared to be several photographs and handed them to Severus.

Severus looked down and saw himself talking to Lily at the muggle playground. The photos were from an odd angle – the photographer must have been behind some of the bushes – but it was clear that it was them. "Can you tell me who that is, Severus?"

"Lily Evans Potter," Severus said after only a moment's hesitation. They would have already told him who it was, of course. "A mudblood," he didn't hesitate over the word – none of the Death Eaters would have.

"And would you like to explain to me why exactly you were talking to a mudblood in a muggle park, Severus?" the Dark Lord asked.

"I knew her from Hogwarts," Severus hoped that the Dark Lord couldn't see him sweat. "She kept pestering me to meet her. I hardly wanted to, but it got to the point that to not do so would have been suspicious. She implied that she had knowledge of some of my … activities. It turns out that I need not have worried. She knew nothing about my involvement here. I believe that she merely wanted a romantic affair of some sort. Apparently, she's been having trouble in her marriage."

There were murmurs at this last statement from the gathered Death Eaters. Severus knew he shouldn't have said it – muggleborns breeding with other wizards was what the Death Eaters feared most. "I declined, of course," he said. "I wouldn't touch mudblood scum."

"I see," the Dark Lord said and his demeanor was still calm. "Some of my Death Eaters have told me that you used to be close with this Lily Evans when you were in school."

Severus swallowed. "I wouldn't say 'close', my lord. I sometimes spoke with her during my early years in school. Before my friends in Slytherin properly educated me on how filthy mudbloods could be."

"Ah. And did you know that our dear Mrs. Potter is a member of the Order of the Phoenix?"

"No, my lord. I never would have guessed it."

"Crucio." Severus didn't have time to prepare himself before the hit came. Every inch of his body was wracked with pain. But Severus had endured the Cruciatus curse before and knew that he must keep his wits about him. He could feel the Dark Lord looking into his mind, sifting through his memories. Severus wound his pain into a tight ball and pushed it to the back of his consciousness.

He managed to show the Dark Lord a small part of the personal part of his argument with Lily at the playground without revealing his involvement in the Order. After he viewed this, the Dark Lord sat back on his throne, regarding Severus coldly. Severus no longer felt his mind being probed, but the pain remained. The Dark Lord was enjoying his suffering. There was a part of Severus that wanted to go down on his knees and beg for mercy, but he knew that that would only increase the Dark Lord's enjoyment. Deferential but not groveling was the best approach with Lord Voldemort.

After watching him for a while, the Dark Lord waved his hand and the pain was gone. Severus stood up straighter. "Perhaps you can tell us where the mudblood resides, Severus?"

Severus sucked in a breath. "I am sorry, my lord, she did not tell me."

The Dark Lord waved a hand dismissively. "No matter, we already know anyway. There is to be raid tonight, Severus."