Harry Potter and the Mischief Palace

by Mariann's

Harry is sent back - waaay back! Read what he gets to see! Pairings: HP/HG, RL/SB (slash!) and others. This is some silly fun - Completely AU right from the start and will stay AU!

7. 06 - One Year Later

Chapter 6 - One Year later

Harry enjoyed watching the group of teenagers in the next few months. Between their training, the remaining classes and Quidditch Remus and Sirius were so fully booked that the Hogsmeade weekends were the sole proper reprieve. As time was scarce it flew and for Harry it wasn't any different. He had so much to follow and to see and put to memory it would have filled piles of notebooks! He worried a bit about messing up, but Karli intervened and told him all he needed was a Pensieve - conveniently there would be more than one of these in the joint possession of the Potters and Blacks.

"Karli, normally a child is born with a completely blank brain - won't it do me harm to have a fully formed adult brain in that small head of mine?" Harry wondered.

"At worst it means you'll have to work on making more space, but I wouldn't worry about that either. The more you put in the more space you make. Normally humans don't use more than a fairly small percentage of their brain capacity. You'll have to see about your IQ and have it measured. It should be much higher than in your first life."

"Ah, hadn't thought of that!"

In the course of the past year, Sirius and Remus had both noticed a few minor changes in their bodies. Sirius' developing chest hair vanished again. The hair on his arms was practically gone. Remus never had much body hair in the first place, being fair-skinned and fair-haired meant that his hair was much softer, too. It was now completely gone except for the pubic hair. And both their nipples had changed form, they were now looking slightly puckered, had become much larger and had a very dark surrounding. They had also greatly gained in sensitivity, a fact they quickly learned to exploit in their love-making.

On the morning of their first anniversary they woke up and felt completely changed. At some point in the night to their anniversary their chests had developed female breasts! It came as a complete shock to them when they noticed that in addition to their breasts they now also sported the other female sexual parts. Neither could find any logical explanation other than the one that the bonding must have caused it. It had not been mentioned in the small book they read but it was the only explanation they could put together logically.

They actually thought it was quite funny to experiment around with these additions to their bodies forgetting the minor thing about the female nature of producing fertile eggs.

Harry registered the fact and watched them take the long trek to Dumbledore's office under their feet. The two boys had received an extra password to reach their headmaster and they often did make use of it. Harry wished they weren't quite so trusting but there wasn't much he could do about it but watch. He had to trust Fate sitting inside of Dumbledore to know what she did.

Dumbledore, as could be expected, took the information and sat there, contemplating the new development.

"Both of you changed, you say?" he assured himself of the facts.

"Yes!"

"Well, then that bonding goes beyond anything imaginable it seems. Regard it as an extra gift!"

The boys took it in stride. It was typical for their headmaster anyway, so they went on and simply enjoyed their bodies as they were.

They celebrated their anniversary a few days after the actual event with a dinner for two at Hogsmeade. Both were just as deeply in love with each other as they had been at the start. They both agreed that their feelings for each other had only intensified over the past year. Coming back from their evening out they went straight to their dorm and closed the curtains of Remus' bed for a night of intensive love-making, now including the new 'features'.

In the meantime, Harry had learned to flee from the spot as soon as he noticed the first signs of the two hopping off to the bed together. It amused him to no ends, but he really, really didn't need to witness their sexual interactions. Besides, he reasoned, they had a right that their privacy wasn't breached, even if he was only a spirit. Unfortunately for Harry and his modesty the relationship between his parents had blossomed to their taking every opportunity they got for some snogging time or even more. Lily had absolutely no compunction to visit James in the boys' dormitory, head girl be damned! And Harry had to get out of that dorm all over the place, because even little Peter took his girlfriend there from time to time. Hormonal teenagers were definitely a bit tiresome to watch! On the other hand it had quickly taught him to consciously move from one area to another in haste, which again amused him greatly.

Harry was very happy to see them all finding love. He wondered if Peter's relationship would last, but what he saw of Sabina he liked. Harry thought that she would be capable to keep Peter in line! He was convinced that this was one of the focal points of change. With the girl at his side Peter's courage might hold up much stronger than it did when he was all alone. He now had something to lose rather than something to gain. If this partnership held up Harry saw it as another pivotal change in the timeline that would bring about peace sooner rather than later.

Finally there was another, much more quiet love that blossomed between two of Lily's closest friends. Gryffindor had just won the first match of the season against Slytherin. Dari Sanchez was about to hop off her broom after the game when she was tackled by her friend Hope Foster, who was herself a chaser on the Ravenclaw team. Hope celebrated with the Gryffindors, because everyone beating the Slytherins fair and square deserved to be celebrated, but this time the hug turned into a bit more and the two girls admitted their love for each other.

Lily, who had followed Dari to the ground, grinned and mouthed to James: "Finally!"

Harry included the girls into the group of those he watched.

But as everyone was off either studying, training or snogging he had to find some new interests. One of them came in the shape of Bill Weasley, whom Harry recognised amongst the third years in Gryffindor and his brother Charlie, a proud little first year. Already now the young Bill showed his later qualities: the ability to be studious, curious, chivalrous and brave. Harry found the boy more than just talented, he was the epitome of a Gryffindor, bringing in all the qualities necessary for the house. The adult Bill Harry had known was at the same time a good boy and a cool guy. Harry could easily recognise that he had been like that already in his early years at Hogwarts. He wasn't astonished anymore why all of Bill's younger siblings admired him so much. It pleased him to see that Bill was definitely the heart and soul of his class and great fun.

It was now a year since Remus and Sirius had started their intensive training in many disciplines that went far beyond the Hogwarts education. Times had gone from bad to worse and the Hogwarts staff had become Secret Keepers for many a household of endangered students. Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix members were mostly busy putting systems in place that helped endangered people evacuating their homes in spite of the efforts of the Death Eaters to lock them in their houses. Their means to kill were most often burning the homes of 'undesired' families with the people locked inside of their proper houses. A system with several layers of protection was thus put in place: Filius Flitwick had suggested a widespread use of the Fidelius charm, which led to people vanishing, sometimes right in front of the Death Eaters' eyes. Much to their dismay there were now many people they couldn't find anymore and this did nothing to lift Voldemort's moods. For a while he concentrated his attacks on the Muggles, but now he was making another effort to find those super-powerful young wizards again, of whom he had heard talking more than once. The second layer of defence then constituted of emergency Portkeys, which would work as soon as the house was under the Fidelius. For those who didn't want the Fidelius they made small tunnels out of their houses, which would not be included in any wards the Death Eaters set up. From these underground corridors the people could then flee with their Portkeys.

Remus and Sirius were of course among those who were covered by the Fidelius charm. For the time being their training was a bit less intensive, so they could work more for the preparation for their NEWTS. Both were doing well in their studies. Both were now able to pull considerable magical stunts individually, but even more so when they cast spells together. They knew they were now two of Voldemort's prime targets and that they would have to face him sooner or later.

Dumbledore waited. He had withheld one piece of information from the two young men, one important piece of information. The change in the build of their bodies would have consequences of which he was sure the boys simply wouldn't think. Now, one year after their mating their bodies were ready for the next step, of which Dumbledore had not whispered anything to anyone. He waited. Sooner or later it would happen. Sooner or later they would discover to what degree they were now not only males, but females as well! Sooner or later Poppy would come and inform him of...

Harry almost sensed what the old man was thinking. He held his breath, well, he would have, would he have breathed, but he instinctively felt what it was that Dumbledore awaited.

"Albus, may I have a word with you?"

It was shortly before Easter and it was Poppy who called him through the fire.

"Yes, Poppy, of course. Should I come down to your office?"

"That would be most kind."

He got there only minutes later, expecting to hear what he had been waiting for. She looked very puzzled when she told him:

"Remus has not transformed last night. He went almost crazy, thought that something was wrong with him and it distressed him almost more than his transformations. I have thoroughly examined him and found nothing wrong with him at all, apart from that strange change in his physique. Would you kindly explain why this young man, who clearly has been a young man ever since he has been put in my care, has suddenly developped a complete set of female reproductive organs?"

Dumbledore drew a long breath. Remus it was. And it meant he would not transform for a while.

"Well, you know about their mating, don't you? As you have remarked it has given them a complete set of female reproductive organs and what can females do? I believe he will not transform for a while. You should apply a pregnancy test on him, Poppy."

"Dear me! You think that these reproductive organs are fully functioning?"

"Yes, I do. Remus Lupin is a life-bonded male werewolf. As one of the consequences of werewolves who are life-bonded is the change of their bodies to hermaphrodites male partners in the bond develop ovaries, tubes, an uterus and even a vagina. It is expected to happen within a year after their bonding. I would guess that a pregnancy would be possible at any type. I expect it to happen to Sirius as well, they told me they both changed."

Poppy was floored!

"Oh! And you think that a pregnancy suppresses his transformations until the baby is born?"

"Yes. No baby would survive his transformations, not even in the early stages."

"I would think not. Nature is something very strange sometimes and when magic comes into play it can become even more astonishing. I'll conduct that test immediately, he's still there. Sirius is with him."

"They really love each other, do they not?"

"Absolutely. Sirius is there for Remus all the way! Do you want to wait here for the result?"

"I cannot deny that I am very curious, Poppy. I shall wait."

"But I still am very angry with you, Albus, it wouldn't have cost you anything to warn them of the possibility and send them to me for the necessary instructions on contraception!"

Albus sat down, Poppy prepared the test potion and took it over to the young men. Sirius looked up.

"Do you know what happened, Madam Pomfrey? I don't dare hoping that he's cured just like that..."

"No, I don't think he is. Remus, could you please go and put some urine into this beaker? We'll have to make a little test."

Remus looked up, blushed, but took the beaker and vanished to the loo. He came back and Poppy put a small amount into the test fluid, the rest she banished back to the toilet.

"Five minutes and we will know what is going on, boys," she said with a smile.

They were five long minutes. Sirius and Remus waited, spent their time caressing each other and kissing and when the little sound came that ended the time they all looked to the vial containing the test. It had turned from yellow to blue.

"Well, that's it. Remus, brace yourself, I have some really important news for you."

He looked at her very anxiously.

"I'm not going to die in the next month, am I?" he asked.

"No, that you certainly won't. But you did not transform because there's something in your belly who would have died. You are going to have a baby."

"What? But... but I'm a guy! How can I have a baby in there? Okay, so I got all this different stuff about me, but…"

"That's what I thought, but Professor Dumbledore explained to me that all mated male werewolves develop the necessary female body parts within a year after their mating. He said that you probably have these, too, Sirius. If you wish I can show it to you..."

"I know I do, I look just the same as Remy now. You can make that visible?" Sirius asked, fascinated, but that made him realise that he was concerned, too. And that his husband was expecting a baby.

"Yes, I can."

Poppy cast a spell that made Sirius practically see-through. Both he and Remus looked at the sight in awe. Poppy looked at him, too and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Sirius, go and give me a sample of your urine, too, please."

"What? You're not telling me I am pregnant, too!" he grinned.

She just summoned a clean beaker and pointed to the toilet. Sirius vanished and she went back to her office to prepare another test.

"Is he?" Albus asked in a low voice.

"Yes, he is, just fresh though. Sirius probably is, too! How could you not tell them about this, Albus? They could have prevented a pregnancy!"

"And they would have. But I actually did not want that. I will be subject to their wrath, but once their babies will be born they will reach the full potential of their power. And then - woe to Voldemort. We need them to get rid of this creature once they are through school. We will go down over short or long without their power, Poppy. I am not as strong as I used to be. Until then we shall cuddle them - and their babies - and I shall teach them as much as I can. And hopefully they will be able to enjoy a long and happy life as a family after that. I'm quite convinced that after the initial shock they will get to love their children."

While Harry was happy for Remus - and probably Sirius - to become a parent he was starking mad at Dumbledore. Only when he reminded himself that Fate sat inside of Dumbledore he halted and thought that if she condoned it then it should probably be fine. He was sure that the two young men would love their child in any case. They would be as mad at the headmaster as Harry was, but it made him grin and think that this baby would be like an older sibling for him! The first one of hopefully many, he thought.

Poppy sighed and couldn't help herself, she glared at him.

"Always using people like chess pieces. Shame on you, Albus. I don't think that was a very nice move. But I suppose we have to live with your fait-accompli."

She went out of her office and put a few drops of Sirius' urine into the test. Another five minutes wait. Sirius stroked over Remus' belly tenderly. He kissed his husband and held him close.

"We'll get through this, love. It's not like I expected to ever have a child, let alone two of them, and if I had known we'd be fully functional men AND women we could have done something to prevent this. But we'll live with it, don't you think?"

Remus nodded.

"Don't know if I can get myself to study especially well while suffering from morning sickness..."

"On the other hand, no transformations until the baby is born, love. "

Remus managed a weak smile. A few months of rest before the monthly pain would be back. Then his face darkened.

"Madam Pomfrey, what do you think, will the baby be a werewolf, too?"

"I don't know, Remus, but I don't think so. So far I haven't heard of even one single case that it has been passed down. Werewolves who are already married and have been able to maintain their relationships can not be excluded from reproduction. Their children might be observed in the first few months, but none has ever emerged to be a werewolf."

Sirius watched the yellow fluid. It turned blue.

"Well. Now we know. Luckily you will be in the second trimester when you will have to sit your NEWTS, that will make that bit a lot easier. With your robes it might even be that no one notices it before school will be over for you. I can imagine that this will not exactly be fun for you if word gets out. Or we'll use simple glamour charms."

Both young men shook their heads. Poppy checked them up and said:

"I'll call the local medimidwife from Hogsmeade over in the next days for a better inspection. She'll be able to give you an approximate date for the birth and examine you more thoroughly. I don't see anything amiss right now. I'll send word to you when she'll be here."

"Okay."

"You might want to catch the Headmaster for a few words..." she called after them as they left the hospital wing.

"We will!"

Dumbledore took their wrath with an even temper and finally explained why he provoked this for them. He could feel that they didn't hate their pregnancies, but they of course resented not to have been informed about this bit of development to be able to make it their own choice if and when to have a child. They returned to the dormitory, calling James, Peter, Dari and Lily to come with them. Once they reached their room they sat down and told their friends:

"Anyone of you in the mood to become godparents?"

The four friends stared at them, then at each other.

"Why do you ask that?" James wanted to know.

"Because Dumbledore neglected to tell us about another consequence of our mating. That both of us would become fully functional hermaphrodites. Everything needed is there and because we didn't know about it we are now both pregnant. That is the reason why Remus didn't transform last night," Sirius explained.

While Peter and James looked at their male friends with open mouths, Dari and Lily started to hoot and congratulated the two on their pregnancies.

"Of course I want to be the godmother of one of your children, Sirius!" Dari cried.

"Me too! I'd love to. I take it you're not going to tell anyone else?" Lily followed suit.

"No. You can let Sabina know, Peter, and we won't mind for Hope to know, but nobody else. We will of course tell my parents and siblings. Not yet though..." Remus said.

"Well, you could just scratch by... you may need a bit wider robes though," Lily said.

"Yes, but we'll see how it goes. We'll be almost five months gone by the time we have to sit NEWTS. So far you see nothing at all, we're both quite tall, so maybe it will take a while before you see anything from the outside."

"Half the term. That's not too bad, really. You could have hit it worse. Like giving birth when you should sit NEWTS," Dari remarked.

"I don't even want to think of it. I'm not mad to be pregnant, but I'm still really mad at Dumbledore who wanted to let this happen. He says that now we will both reach our full potential and our magical power will increase to the maximum."

"And just because he thinks you will have a go at Voldemort he risks to make you so mad that you possibly might rush to the other side?" James was speechless.

"Well, we wouldn't do that, whatever happens. These people are too despicable. But it does hurt quite a bit to be regarded as a secret weapon."

"We'll all be there with you - the whole way through!" Dari promised passionately.

Remus and Sirius regarded her fondly.

"Thanks, Dari! You're really a great friend!"

"Well, that's what friends are for! You guys deserve to have people supporting you if you're already going to be used as a weapon."

"That's true. Dumbledore really singled you out with all that - and building you up as his most dangerous weapon. I think, Dari is right. I'll back you up fully, too!" Lily confirmed.

"Make that three," James said.

"Four," Peter added, "and probably five, once Sabina hears of it."

"Thanks, guys! We really appreciate your loyalty!" Remus said, tears blinking in his eyes.

Harry was shocked! That was now definitely something unexpected. What would this change in regards to Voldemort he wondered. But then he felt happiness wash over him - he would grow up with slightly older cousins! Sirius and Remus would actually have a family of their own! Who would care about the Horcruxes, they'd locate and destroy them while Voldemort would still try to survive possessing animals down in Albania!

The medimidwife showed up the next week, checked them both up and declared the babies were doing just fine and they would be born around the beginning of December. Dumbledore immediately informed the couple that they would receive rooms at Hogwarts where they could go on studying after school and prepare for the birth. They would be perfectly safe here.

"Don't know if my Mum is going to share that opinion if any more such stuff happens," Remus said to Sirius. "She might go into mother lion mode and minimise Dumbledore to half his size when she hears of this."

They decided to write home and ask Richard and Venetia to come and see them at Hogwarts. Nothing like that had ever happened before so they turned up right the next weekend. In the Headmaster's presence the young men explained their conditions to Richard and Venetia. At the end, much to Remus' consternation Richard started to grin and Venetia smiled.

"Wow. So much for not giving us any grandchildren, Remus! So now you're going to give birth almost at the same time...?"

"Mine will probably be first," Sirius said, "seems it's about a week older... we must have caught each other's very first ovulation bang on, because neither of us had a period since our bodies changed."

"Well, that's really cute! But you had better not let it come so far that WE have to become the parents of these two little buttons, just because you're breeding two lethal human weapons, Albus!" Venetia turned to Dumbledore while she said this.

"I do strongly believe that they will enjoy a very nice family life together, Venetia."

"They better! Or I might think about reducing you in size…"

Now Remus grinned. That was more like his mum! Dumbledore shrank a little already when he met her glare.

The next few weeks of school were not quite easy for either of the pregnant young men, because they found themselves plagued with a bit of morning sickness and with raging hormones, but they managed and were even able to study. By the time exam week started they were as prepared as they could be. Their bellies had grown considerably in the meantime in spite of their tall bodies, but only their dorm-mates, Lily, Sabina and Dari had seen them. Their breasts had started to develop even further. Minerva McGonagall covered them with a glamour that hid all these visible changes from view. She felt grandmotherly and watched over her boys, checked that they ate healthy and that they were fine. Their pranks had stopped completely in the past year and since they grew up quickly she respected them as young adults. Sirius and James had hardly spent any time in detention for over a year.

The exams started. There were tests every day, but for Remus and Sirius the practical tests were just a bit of an exercise. They both did some of their required spells wandless and with their wands, so they got some extra points.

And once the NEWTS were over it was only a matter of days until their time at Hogwarts came to an end. They returned home to the Lupins' place and discussed plans for their lives. Sirius was wealthy enough for them to afford their own house, but how long could they go with two children to be born soon without earning money on their own?

"You know that you are both welcome to stay here until you have jobs of your own?" Venetia reminded them.

"Dumbledore says the same of Hogwarts, but we didn't want that. Not before he has some real plans what we should do to help about Voldemort. Obviously that can't be before the babies are born. Your offer is much more welcome, we'll need a home," Sirius said.

"Good. You can help around the house and do those studies you still want to do."

So they spent their summer in the garden and around the house, doing a lot of reading and regularly visited their friends or had them over at their place. Once Rupert and Rowland were both at Hogwarts it was very quiet and they enjoyed their time with Venetia and Richard. They went to see a medimidwife regularly and prepared for the birth.

"Those boobs are huge," Sirius muttered.

"Well, you do want to feed your little one, don't you?" Remus asked tenderly.

"Yes, I guess so... but I think I would not have been able to get around big breasts, just look at all the women in my family. They've all got these big boobs. I don't suppose we can avoid the genetics of our respective families."

Lily and James had both found jobs at the Ministry. Lily worked at the Department of Experimental Charms and James had been chosen as an Auror trainee. Peter had found work at a wizarding shop in Diagon Alley. Sabina still had a year at Hogwarts. Since the Lupins lived in Wales they weren't all too far away from the others who had all moved to London. Sirius was quite glad not to live in the city. He liked to go there but he had grown very accustomed to life in the country. He could always apparate to where he wanted to go anyway.

Sleeping together became a bit of a difficult thing. They now had to sleep back to back, so that their bellies wouldn't get in the way. One day Venetia snuck into their room to take a picture of them sleeping this way.

Finally the waiting found an end. Sirius' baby wanted out. It was the fifth of December when he realised that the slight pain he felt was the beginning of the birth. After a few hours and a fretting Remus who had to be soothed all the time the medimidwife was called in and together with Venetia she helped Sirius giving birth to a healthy baby girl who was named Vega Black-Lupin. Sirius was very exhausted, but so happy he cried when he held his little girl in his arms. She was just bundled up in a blanket and her face was still crunched up and red, but she was a lovely little girl with Remus' brown eyes and Sirius' black hair. He kissed her on the nose and looked up to his husband.

Harry was extremely impressed. He never knew more than the pure technical side of reproduction, whatever he had snapped up in the course of his young life, but seeing a baby being born had already impressed him when he saw Remus come to the world. So, his first cousin was a little girl.

"She's beautiful, Remus, don't you think?" the new father whispered.

"Yes, Siri, she is."

"And she's hungry, Sirius, let her suckle..." Venetia said softly from the other side.

She helped her son-in-law who still felt quite awkward about it all. But that didn't faze the mother of seven who had all the routine needed to help him. After a few minutes Vega consumed her first meal and was then allowed to go on her papa's arms.

"Hello, love! Welcome! You're one lovely little girl and it's an amazing feeling to finally meet you. You'll meet your little sibling in a few days, sweetheart."

Remus held the baby tightly and then gave her back to Sirius who had been cleaned up in the meantime and was ready to go to sleep and rest up.

They had barely seven days time to get used to their daughter when it was Remus' time. It took long and he had a harder time of it than Sirius, but at the end of thirty hours Remus gave birth to a healthy boy. Polaris was quite a strong child who looked like Sirius. He was thoroughly checked, but there was no evidence that he had inherited Remus' werewolf.

"The next full moon will be in eight days, we can't but wait and see what happens. I don't think we'll need more than a solid ward around his cot, even if he does transform, he's still so small," Richard said.

Remus thought it would be horrible if his little boy would have to go through what he had to endure every month. He knew that in only a week he'd go through that horrible transformation again.

The full moon night came up and Sirius went down into the cellar with Remus. The babies would be fed with the bottle that night. Richard and Venetia anxiously watched the warded crib in which their grandson lay. The moon came up, they could hear Remus down in the cellar, but the little boy did not transform. He just slept peacefully and never noticed when Richard took down the ward and left the room with the representative from the Werewolf Registry.

"Well, that takes a heavy load off my shoulders," Richard admitted, when he had closed the door.

"He doesn't show the least bit of a sign that he inherited the werewolf. I do suggest that you should watch him closely for a couple of full moons though."

"We will certainly do that. It's bad enough that Remus has to go through this every month. It would have been tragic if he'd passed it on and he would hate himself for it. He'll be more than relieved. Since Polaris' birth he's been very anxious."

"The way I have learned to know your son he must have been. He is a very special werewolf. I have never met anyone quite like him."

"He is a special person. He'll always have a special place in our hearts, Masterson."

"He's your son after all. Other parents have just chucked their children out when they were turned. I tend to deeply respect all those who stick to their children. Or spouses. These werewolves are much less of a menace and none of them are known to pass the curse on."

"Thank you. And thanks for your visit and witnessing. We're very happy about these two children."

"You're welcome. Good night, Lupin. Goodbye, Mrs Lupin!" he called to Venetia and left through the front door from where he disapparated.

The first thing Remus asked when he saw his mother in the morning was whether Polaris was okay.

"Yes, love, he hasn't transformed. He's perfectly fine. You can relax, sweetheart."

"I'm so glad..."

Remus was out of it for most of the day. They woke him to feed Polaris, but he did it only half awake. That was enough for the baby though and after the next night they were both getting better.

Sirius fared quite well with Vega. His little daughter was as strong as her brother and suckled eagerly every time he offered her the nipple. It still hurt him a bit, but after the two weeks since her birth things started to get regular and he felt better.

Once they had a certain rhythm Sirius and Remus exchanged the baby they nursed every other time. They needed to get close to both their children and with them being only a week apart they could swap without any problems.

Harry sighed. So, this was where it all started. He would just take a seat and watch all the things that would happen. Of course he'd sensed differences to his original timeline already in that the Order was much more present around the houses of Muggle-borns and halfbloods, as well as those of the purebloods who were against Voldemort and thus just as endangered. It had become a very fractured society, but the threads were held together by a specially formed Ministry department which had its seat at Hogwarts. These Ministry workers never even left their new home and wouldn't do so until the danger was over. Their sole purpose was to keep all the members of the society informed about developments outside of their Fidelius charm hiding places.

At the same time the Death Eaters hardly found any potential victims anymore. They also ran afoul with the Goblins at Gringotts. These had no compunctions to simply relieve the attacking Death Eaters of their heads and seize their vaults. That happened to two prominent Death Eaters who also had seats on the Wizengamot. Others in that body tried to wage a war against the Goblins, but they didn't have a majority (yet), so it was turned down massively. At that point Dumbledore brought in a bill through Bartemius Crouch, which allowed absentee voting in the Wizengamot. Dumbledore expected the next campaign of the Death Eaters would be eliminating the Light faction within the chamber to get a better chance on voting for their topics. The last session of the Wizengamot with full membership in place voted for the bill and thus the next meeting was with a greatly reduced number of voters, but with the necessary documentation to vote as proxy holders for other members. The Death Eaters now found that they were outsmarted at every corner, because the members turned up to some meetings but not to others. When there were bills brought forth by the Death Eater representatives there often wasn't a quorum of voters, because the proxy voters would not vote for the members they represented and without them present the quorum wasn't reached, which would have invalidated any vote. The only one who never seemed to be fazed about anything was Dumbledore. He was the sturdy head of the Wizengamot and not even Voldemort himself seemed to have been able to attack the old Chief Warlock.

Harry's own parents were also covered with a Fidelius. But they still went out to work every day, only at the end of their work they immediately left the premises and vanished back under their protection. Their Secret Keeper was, as he was it for so many others, Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore held up easily. He only left Hogwarts for the Wizengamot sessions and his meetings with the Minister, now also covered within the Ministry. In fact the whole Ministry had now been declared a zone in danger and had been put under war lockdown for the first time in its existence. Lily and her department had developed the necessary spells partly from the properties of the Fidelius charm, partly by their own developments and partly by other charms. Every Ministry employee could enter and exit, but no one else. It was not possible to enter a 'guest' for the time being and the public could not enter at all. All communication between Ministry personnel and private persons passed via Hogwarts. Albus was happy to provide the room for secure floo traffic and the Ministry and Hogwarts house elves were excellent at popping where they needed to go to deliver mail and goods. Many privately owned house elves had also been put in the service of the war efforts.

This all amazed Harry. The chaos that had been described to him of the first war wasn't to be recognised here. Most of the people were trying their best to lead fairly normal lives and do their work. The Death Eaters didn't raid much in Diagon Alley, because they, too, needed to buy most of their supplies there. The Aurors were often able to capture Death Eaters under their disguises and they did good work under the strict and gruff, but caring lead of Head Auror Alastor Moody. Harry would have constantly shaken his head if he had one. Was this the well nigh senseless magical world he had come to know? No, this was a strong effort to get rid of the problem. It showed effects, after the first year of this strict enforcement of lockdowns and protections there were many Death Eaters who had found a sad end. Voldemort definitely had to begin to feel the lack of possible new members of his club.

Of course the babies' godparents, James and Lily for Polaris, Peter and Sabina for Vega, came to see them ever so often. By Christmas both babies had smiled at their fathers for the first time. After the new year started, Sirius and Remus returned to Hogwarts for a while to get a better grip at their latest power surge. It had set in a few weeks after the babies were born. They arrived at the school with the children and their considerable paraphernalia. Minerva showed them to a suite of rooms looking out on the south of the castle. They could see Hagrid's cabin and the lake. The suite was on the fourth floor near the hospital wing. In fact, Poppy Pomfrey was their neighbour.

Most of the teachers oohed and aahed over the children. Venetia had made a lot of baby clothes for them, sewn and knitted. Sirius and Remus took them with them wherever they went in the castle. They spent a good amount of time in the library, where they had taken residence in a spot near a window at the back of the library. They read a lot of things they had never treated in class.

After a week Sirius had his first encounter with his brother since he was back at Hogwarts. He had Vega on his breast and read at the same time when Regulus spotted him.

"I don't believe this!" Regulus cried, "Look at that, Stan, will you!"

Rabastan Lestrange, just a couple of steps behind Regulus, stared open-mouthed at Sirius. They went closer immediately.

"Sirius? What's that supposed to mean?" Regulus demanded.

Sirius looked up and frowned. He had always had a fairly good relationship with his younger brother, but it seemed that he had finally succumbed to their mother's and the junior Death Eaters' views. It was a sad discovery, because Sirius never thought his brother had it in him to be vile. It was just time to shift Vega to the other breast, so he gently pushed a small finger into her mouth to make her let go. She mumbled something and he switched her to the other side and encouraged her tenderly to continue suckling.

"There you go, love... - Hello, Regulus. You didn't expect me to send you a card with her birth announcement, now did you? You can tell Mum that she's become the grandmother of a girl and a boy. This is Vega."

"What? You're not going to tell me that YOU gave birth to twins?" Regulus shouted.

"Could you possibly lower your voice? If not for her then for the sake of this being a library. I gave birth to her, Remus had our son, Polaris."

Regulus sputtered something about blood traitors and abominations, but he'd done it too loud, because Madam Pince turned up on the scene and asked Sirius:

"Is there a problem, Mr. Black?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle, Madam Pince. Only my brother here has been a bit out of sorts, maybe he should go and see the nurse..."

Madam Pince only needed to nod away from the spot and the two Slytherin sixth years moved away. Sirius snickered in a low voice after they had vanished. He looked down on Vega.

"That was a good one, love. Wonder what my dear old Mum will have to say to that! She must have been outraged when she learned that she couldn't disinherit me. Now most of her precious Black stuff will still be left to me and not her precious Regulus. Wonder if he already knows that? I bet he's already a Death Eater or at least on the way there."

The baby suckled on, hearing her father's soft voice but not understanding what he said. He was glad for that and he hoped fervently that she would never have to meet his mother. He took the time to reminisce about his feelings during the pregnancy. Once he had started to feel comfortable with it he had learned to listen deep inside of himself. Feel his baby. He had often talked to the unborn baby in his belly. Had just sat in a window seat and caressed her through his belly.

Harry watched and felt happiness welling up in him. Having seen more than one horrid day of Baby Sirius' life he couldn't but smile at the difference. Seeing Sirius and Remus with their babies he couldn't wait for his own life to start again now! He knew that he wouldn't be able to be that close to the two young men anymore, but he was sure he would see them often!

"You are my little wonder, Vega. You and Polaris, too, of course. You don't really know yet, but I love you more than my life..."

Sirius hadn't noticed that Remus was standing next to the nearest bookshelf listening in to him and smiling. He carried Polaris on his arm. The baby was already asleep, having finished his meal. Remus also carried a thick baby blanket, which he spread on the rug next to the armchair in which he wanted to sit. Sirius noticed him.

"Hey! Have you been eavesdropping?"

"Just a bit. I love you! What are you reading?"

"I was reading up on the Unforgivables. I'm doing some research for Lily. She's doing her bit at the Ministry and I'm going through everything that I can find here. She's getting a dispense from the Ministry to cast the curse on inanimate things. There's quite a lot to read."

"To possibly develop counter curses?"

"Yeah, mostly. Though it's nowhere said that we'll succeed. We'd like to find something that can put a stopper on Avada Kedavra. Like putting a spell on people that would make them 'immune' against it. Most people wouldn't stand a chance to cast a counter curse, time's just too short, but if we can use our ideas on a slab of granite then we can see if we can get something to immunize people. - And what are you after?"

"Dark creatures for one. And then the latest news is that there are rumours that the Death Eaters are carrying some kind of a mark branded in their forearm. All the ones that were captured had the same thing. We believe it's some means of communication. The Aurors are now trying to get out of them what the purpose of this tattoo is."

Vega was through suckling. Sirius marked the book on the table next to him to tend to her fully. She looked at him and smiled. He pulled her up to his shoulder and waited for the little belch. Then he wiped the milk off her little mouth and put her down to sleep on the blanket next to her brother.

"Here you go, love! Have a nice nap!" he whispered and waited until the little girl fell asleep.

Then he sat up in the armchair again and picked up his book. Soon both young men were immersed in the books and took extensive notes.

That's how Dumbledore found them a short while later. He conjured another armchair and some tea for them.

"Hello, Professor!" Remus said.

"A very good afternoon to you, too, Remus! And Sirius. I see you have made yourselves quite comfortable here..."

"We'll have a couple of thousand books to work through, we thought it was appropriate," Sirius grinned.

"Absolutely. I trust that Irma has nothing against it?"

"No, in fact she's been the greatest of support, I think she's quite taken with the research. She trusts us not to hurt her books. Thanks to her we've already uncovered a few rare beauties."

Dumbledore looked down on the sleeping children.

"And your children are well, too?"

"At least they don't seem to mind the not so bright room..." Remus replied, looking down on them.

"I was actually coming down for something else, but I have an idea. It might be better if you worked a bit more in secret, so how about I show you one of the rooms close to here that you could have for yourselves? You would be completely undisturbed there."

"That would be great. I've just been hit on by Regulus and the little Lestrange. Nasty piece of work that one. If we'd have a room for ourselves we could set up a crib for the children, that would be better than having them sleep on the blanket," Sirius said.

"I would expect that your brother was a bit surprised? Or have you informed your family about the newest addition to the Black family tree?"

"Don't even want to think about it! I've certainly been blasted off like my mother burned off Andromeda's name. So I suppose the children will not show up there."

"You would know that better than I. Anyway, if one of you wants to come along I'll show you the rooms I have in mind."

Remus got up and nodded. He followed Dumbledore to one of the side rooms of the library. Dumbledore studied the shelves for a moment and then pointed to a book.

Harry made haste to follow them, most curious to discover an area of Hogwarts he'd obviously never seen before. It was clear that the same went for Remus who looked as curious as Harry felt.

"This is Nicolas Flamel's first work on the Philosopher's Stone. He noted down a lot of things about it, never actually talks about the methods in the book, so from reading it no one could make one, which is why the book is still here and out in the open. Quite inconspicuous, I do not think many students lose themselves in this wing of the library anyway. - Actually, Remus, if you do want to hide something important, you might consider of putting it out in the open among other things of maybe a similar nature. I grant you that only people who are desperate to find it and really look for it, will do so. Anyway, there is a secret entrance behind this book. The password is 'Ollivander's wands'. I suggest to keep the door hidden you'd best take a few books out of the shelf. That will make it harder to deduct the one you're actually using. Then stick the book in different places. Madam Pince is aware of the fact that the book travels on the shelf."

Harry took good note of that one. He definitely hoped to find out for himself if these rooms could be useful one day. In his time the Room of Requirement became a bit too well known after they held their sessions there, so this might be a great place to withdraw from time to time. A certain brown-eyed, bushy-haired girl came to his mind…

Remus took the book, whispered the password and watched as the shelf swung forward, revealing a nice door. Behind the door was a corridor. As soon as Albus had passed the door, the magical candles in the hallway flickered to light and they walked through the corridor and turned to the right into an adjacent corridor. They passed several doors on the way and Albus stopped at the last door just before the end of the corridor and opened it.

"This is a fairly old part of the castle. These chambers are hardly used these days. It's a wing that saw most of its use in the 18th century, and not for students, but for teachers and guests. There are several individual, but interconnected rooms on this side of the corridor. Since the teachers' wing has been added and modernised elsewhere this has gone to disuse. They might still be a bit dusty, but I will send some house-elves to clean them up. Here you are..."

Remus looked around. He had entered into a very nice large sitting room, furnished with antique sofas and armchairs, which were grouped around a coffee table of considerable size. There was a larger round table in a corner with several chairs. The ground was covered with beautiful carpets. The walls opposite the windows were covered with old bookcases behind glass doors. There was a fireplace in the middle of the wall between two of the four windows. Nothing was really dusty, so Remus thought that the house-elves must have cared for the wing in spite of its disuse. On each of the short walls was a large door, leading to further rooms. Remus nodded.

Harry was impressed by the beauty of this rococo style room. The colours were predominantly white and gold, the curtains all a deep red velvet with gold tresses. He thought that there must be conservation charms of some sort on these rooms, because things looked almost perfect.

"That's brilliant. It's bright with the light from the outside and spacious enough to do research comfortably. Just a bit of polish on the furniture needed," Remus said.

"Splendid. You are both doing enormously important work right now. You should do it in comfort. Lily will join you here for a good part of the week soon. She is still held up being trained at the Department of Experimental Charms, but in a month or so she should be ready and bring along quite a lot of obscure things to work through. While you two are still being trained it will occupy you nicely. She'll have the rooms to this side while you can take over the rooms on this side of this living room."

When they returned to the corridor, Dumbledore pointed to the end of it:

"Instead of turning left at the next corridor you can follow this one and it will lead you to the main hallway to the library. The door is behind a painting. If you open it from this side you can look at it and remember it. The password is the same. You can cover this door with your own password. Also from this side you can see through it to avoid other passers-by, then this place will remain a secret location."

Remus nodded, then they both returned to the library. They sat down again. Remus poured another cup of tea, which had been kept warm and warmed himself up.

"To show you an extra room was not the real reason I was coming here. I would like to invite the two of you into the Order of the Phoenix."

Sirius and Remus looked at him.

"We know what that is, but could you explain a little more in detail what you do?" Sirius asked.

"It's a not very large group of people who work tirelessly against the Death Eaters. Alastor and his Aurors are really doing a fine job, but they are too out in the open. There are a few older Aurors who are already a member of this Order, as well as some professionals from all sorts of branches. Many people are not aware about how much they can actually contribute, but they usually quickly learn in the Order."

"How do we join?" Remus asked.

"You just join upon invitation. That's what I'm giving you now. All that's asked of you is to regularly show up at the meetings."

"Where are the meetings held?" Sirius wanted to know.

The gleam in Sirius' eyes told Dumbledore that Sirius was quite keen on fighting Voldemort.

"Mostly here at Hogwarts. We are still building up a headquarter in another unused wing, which can be reached directly from the outside if you know how. You will be called for the meetings as we do not hold them regularly. It is easier to remain a secret society if you do not meet all too regularly. People cannot watch you so easily."

"Yes, we will both join the Order," Sirius said, throwing a glance at his husband who nodded.

"Very well. Some members of your family have already joined, Remus, we count on all of your older siblings as well as your mother and father. It is important for us to have a good base within the Ministry. We are their eyes and ears. I would like to thank you both for not losing your trust in me. I admit that I have not always been too forthcoming with information. But I am still glad that I have never told you a lie either."

"We've long since forgiven you for that. We love the children more than our lives," Remus said, looking at his children with so much love in his eyes.

Dumbledore recognised the sentiment in his former student.

"That is wonderful, Remus. I am happy that the two of you are happy with your family."

"I never knew what it meant to have a loving family, Professor. You know my parents. The atmosphere at Grimmauld Place would not allow for any form of tenderness even though I tried to be close to Regulus. I do intend to give my children all the love I never got. Because I find it's easy to love. Uncle Alphard, James, his parents and then Remus taught me that first and then Richard and Venetia gave freely what my parents denied me," Sirius said.

"Good. That is excellent. I do think you deserve it, Sirius. Now I shall send the house-elves to make that room perfect for you. There are a number of bedrooms as well behind that large room. If you should prefer to move in fully you are welcome, too, by the way. Actually I think, it would be a good idea, because you'd be out of the main school this way and we could place Lily on the other side of the corridor. Better for the secrecy of your research..."

"Thank you, Professor. I think, we will. It's quite a lovely place," Remus confirmed.

Dumbledore left them and they turned back to their work.

As Harry watched them going about their work he thought how much Hermione would love to join them in that reading frenzy. She'd be doing a great job, too, he thought.

They continued to read until their children woke from their naps and wanted to be fed. Remus took care of Vega, Sirius picked Polaris up. They made themselves comfortable and let the children suckle.

"Being both equipped like that has its advantages - we can feed them at once," Remus said and chuckled.

"Yes, that's a lucky bit. We'd have had a lot less sleep otherwise."

After the feeding Remus and Sirius conjured a large trolley to place the books and their parchments and took everything including the children to the new room. Remus pulled out a couple of books, silently showing Sirius the one he needed, then they whispered the password to the shelf. They passed through the door, closed it and Remus showed Sirius the way to the rooms Dumbledore had given them. He covered the door with another password and opened it. They pushed the trolley through.

The house-elves were still busy with the bedrooms. Even though there wasn't a lot of dust to be removed, everything still needed to be cleaned and made fully habitable for a young family. While Sirius and Remus were off to their current chambers to pick up their things the house-elves gave their rooms a lovely squashy Gryffindor tower feel. They returned and found a series of perfect rooms.

It started with the large sitting room with the huge fireplace. A lovely fire crackled on the grate now, giving the room a cosy warm feeling. The stone walls were covered with thick tapestries to keep the warmth in and the hardwood floor was mostly covered with thick oriental rugs. But in the space of an hour or two it had been given a fresh polish, as had all the wooden furniture in the room.

Sirius held Polaris on his arm and walked on to see the other rooms. The door led to a smaller room, which had already been decorated as a nursery. Two cribs waited for their new inhabitants. They looked ancient, but really beautiful. They were both fitted with light blue bedclothes. Two dressers with a changing table on top and two rocking chairs with footstools completed the furniture. There was another door to the right, which led to a large bathroom. The tub was big enough for the whole family, white enamel with gold fittings. The same colours were used for the sinks and the toilet. The bathroom cabinets were of brass and glass, filled with the usual fluffy Hogwarts towels. The whole room was fitted with white porcelaine tiles. There was a second door to the bathroom from what they expected to be their bedroom. Then they got to the next room, which was to be their bedroom. It was an oblong large room, which had windows on two sides, thus showing that it was in the corner of this part of the castle. It didn't surprise them that it contained a huge four poster fitted with red velvet hangings. There was a chaise-longue pushed to one wall, a sofa and two armchairs with a small coffee table stood close to the fireplace and here, too, the walls were covered in thick tapestries. There was a high mirror between the door through which they had just entered and the door to the bathroom. At the end of the room another door to the right led through a boudoir to a further room. It was furnished as another bedroom. The boudoir was filled with large cupboards and shelves for clothes. There was a dressing table and a few chairs around a tiny round tea table.

"This is amazing! You guys have done a sensational job!" Sirius said to the house-elves, who took the compliments with beaming faces.

"We is very happy to have you back, sirs! You have always been the kindest sirs with us house-elves! We is happy to do everything for you!" one of them said.

As Remus and Sirius knew all of these house-elves by their names and never treated them badly, thus their visits down in the kitchens were always welcome.

"Thank you, Kliby, you have always been most helpful! Now that's all for the moment, but would you mind to bring us dinner at six thirty?" Remus asked.

"Yes sir, I is doing this!" one of the house-elves said and they all vanished with a crack.

Until then Remus and Sirius took turns in getting their things from the other rooms to this flat. When they finally sat down to eat their dinner from the finest porcelain, Sirius said:

"Well, that's something! Much better than what we had up to now. I could make a home of this here..."

Remus grinned. He liked the place, too. It had a very antique feeling and he guessed that the furniture must have been crafted around the mid eighteenth century. There were a few beautiful sideboards and some lovely cabinets in the sitting room. The room also contained a writing desk and secretary. And of course they had to look through all the books in the floor to ceiling bookcases, too. Curious they also went to have a look at the rooms on the other side of the living room. They passed a bathroom first, fitted the same as their own, followed by three more interconnected bedrooms. All had doors to the corridor as well, which meant they could all be used for either several persons or individually.

"I suppose we'll be here for a while. The really good thing is that it is safe for the children. I'm so worried about my nieces. Voldemort is out there and he's looking for us. He can guess that we're still in training, so he wants us gone sooner rather than later. And that means my family is in as much danger as we are."

Sirius frowned. He didn't often admit it, but he was terrified, too.

"Some Gryffindors we are. Terrified of a stupid Dark Lord," he muttered.

"I think it is good to fear him – we won't ever underestimate him, love," said Remus. "And truly, I know that Roxanne and the girls are well covered with the necessary protections, but it's still harsh."

A rap on one of the windows drew their attention to an owl who wanted in. Remus opened the window and the owl dropped a letter on the table and flew to join Sirius' Silas on his perch.

"It's James' Libby. I bet that she's quite taken with Silas, she's always staying much longer than she's supposed to..." Sirius said with a grin.

Remus opened the letter and read it. He grinned and passed it to Sirius who read it, too.

"She's waiting for a reply."

"He's popped the question!" Sirius exclaimed. "Now that's great, Remus! They're going to get married, how nice. Well done, mate."

Harry popped away, having seen enough here for a while. He found himself in the small flat, which James and Lily inhabited together for the time being. They were both beginners at the Ministry and didn't earn very much money yet. James didn't want to simply sit on his dad's pocket, so the two rented the small two-bedroom apartment in Kentish Town in London. It was in a converted Victorian terrace at the start of the road. It was a furnished flat without much comfort and they had only moved in a few weeks before. Harry had not spent too much time around his parents; they were being a bit too intimate again for his liking. He guessed that one day he'd share that love for the love with them when he himself would be old enough but for the moment it wasn't what he was keen to see.

But of course that was James' and Lily's new private life; they were both now young professionals who worked hard already. They enjoyed their work training at the Ministry and both were happy that they seemed to have chosen the right professions for their talents and interests. James already had to accompany more seasoned Aurors on the job, which meant that he already worked the odd night shift. He was currently taught how to hold himself back from rushing into dangerous situations!

Lily put together the list of people she wanted to invite to her engagement party. It couldn't be too long, because many of her old school friends were now living under concealments to which she wasn't privy, but their most important friends were of course going to be there. She was at least privy to the living arrangements of Dari and Hope, Peter and Sabina and a few others.

James' letter invited Remus and Sirius to their engagement party on the next Saturday at the Potter family residence. Sirius picked up his quill and quickly jotted down a 'Yes!' as an answer and called Libby over.

"Come on, sweetie, you're going to take that nice short letter back to your daddy!" he said and fixed it on her leg.

Remus gave her an owl treat, opened the window again and the owl took off.

"We'll have to take the children along or someone has to feed them bottles that evening..." Remus said.

"I'm just thinking about that. We could take them to your parents' place and apparate to check on them."

"We could do that. Mum and Dad should be willing to help..."

Sirius wrote a quick note to Richard and Venetia, asking them to watch over the children on that Saturday. He sent it off with Silas.

"Done. So. We have some free time, love, what are we going to do with it?"

"How about some chess?"

"I'm in."

They spent the time between the next feedings of their children playing chess and went to bed early. They knew they would have to get up at least once during the night.

On Saturday they walked to the gates of Hogwarts, their children held close to them in slings, and apparated to the Lupins' home, where they gave the two little ones to their grandparents. Venetia and Richard loved to have them and give Remus and Sirius a free evening.

"I heard you've been working very hard," Richard remarked.

"We've already gone through quite a pile of books," Remus confirmed.

"And the training of your powerful magic?"

"Is going well, too. We have moved into a very nice antique suite of rooms, close to the library," Sirius said.

"You should come visit us there once. It's really beautiful!" Remus added.

"Yes, why not? Dinner sometime next week?"

"That's a deal! Just tell us which day. We'll see to it that Rupert and Rowland can join us for the meal."

"So you're not eating at the Great Hall?"

"No, rarely."

"I suppose you met your brother, Sirius?"

"Yes, once or twice. And I suppose that Voldemort is aware of our children now."

"We have already cast the "Sanguis familia" spell on this house, Sirius, he will not be able to harm them in here. It covers all our children and children's children. Dumbledore has given us the spell and it's been cast successfully just after you gave birth to them. Because we knew we couldn't keep you inside forever. You need to go out and have some fun, you're so young!"

"We will, mum, but first we need to get rid of Voldemort," Remus said with a grim expression. "And we're fairly confident we won't fail!"

Then they left for the engagement party for James and Lily, which was held at James' parents' house. There were dozens of people mingling around, mostly friends from Hogwarts, relatives of James' and some of Lily's relatives as well.

"Hey, there's my best man and his best man!" James screamed when he spotted their arrival.

"Hey there! Methinks, it's the groom!"

They all exchanged greetings and then Sirius and Remus were introduced to the people they didn't know. There were colleagues of James' and Lily's from the Ministry, some of his relatives and her relatives. Lily introduced her parents:

"These are my parents, Mum, Dad, these are Sirius and Remus Black-Lupin. They're a married couple and they have the two cutest little babies which I suppose are waiting back at Remus' parents' home. I'm actually the godmother of one of them."

"Right in one. We'll have to apparate over once or twice to check on them," Sirius said, beaming.

Mr. Evans looked slightly confused. He could see that both, Sirius and Remus were built rather like women, so he asked Lily:

"Tell me, how does that work? They sound like they have male names, but they look rather like... err... females..."

Lily grinned and explained:

"That's magic, dad. They are actually both. Due to certain circumstances, which I cannot explain to you right now because that explanation would take an hour or so, they have developed all the female parts necessary for reproduction, though they didn't fully realise at the time, that's why they were trapped into being pregnant so early. The children were born within a week from each other last December."

"Wow... so they are actually two gay men?" Mr. Evans was really interested.

"Bingo!"

"Crazy! You people are totally crazy! I love it!"

Lily grinned. She had not been aware that her sister Petunia and her fiancé Vernon Dursley had been behind them, but their snort of disgust made their presence known.

"Oh, and these are my sister Petunia and Vernon Dursley, her fiancé. They're due for the altar in May. These are Sirius and Remus Black-Lupin. You may remember that they were both James' and Peter's best friends at Hogwarts."

Petunia gave them both a glare and the coldest and shortest handshake Sirius and Remus could remember.

"Nice to meet you, Petunia," Remus said with his usual kind way.

"You lot are not exactly what I want to have around me..." Petunia hissed.

"Now why would you say something so ugly?" Sirius piped up cheerfully, "We're such nice and fun people."

"Two men becoming pregnant sounds like a violation of nature," she replied.

"Oh, that disturbs you. Well, we wouldn't have chosen it quite yet, but someone held back the fact that we could, in fact, fall pregnant, so we didn't do anything about it. But even after only barely two months we wouldn't want to miss our little ones. We have a boy and a girl. You'll probably see for yourself over short or long, that having a baby is the most special thing you can experience and we're very happy that as men we actually can!" Sirius told her.

But neither he nor Remus lingered. They had taken an immediate dislike of Vernon Dursley, which pleased Lily very much, because she hated the man with a passion. (Harry snorted and thought that it was really easy to see the Dursleys for what they were once one started to talk to them. No brains between them at all, but arrogance by the bucket load.) When they were together with Peter, James and Dari later on she told them:

"I'm dead sure he's made her even worse than she was before! She always hated that I'm a witch, but she was mostly jealous because people didn't notice her much when I was around. Since she's been with him and he knew she's gone from bad to worse. Don't know what she sees in him!"

"Forget it, Lily! You look so happy now!" Remus said.

"I am! We are! You know the feeling... of course we won't be able to life-bond like you, I wish we could though. I'll come to Hogwarts in two weeks by the way. Will spend most of my time with you guys, which is just fine, because James will be out in the field. We'll keep the flat in London as a pied-à-terre."

They enjoyed an evening of talking and laughing together like they did in their school days. Remus turned to Peter:

"I'm to send all the best and all her love from Sabina! I saw her in the library today. She's toiling for the NEWTS. Can't wait to get out of there, because she misses you!"

"That's only a fraction of how I miss her! But it's less than half a year now. She intends to join her Dad in his apothecary at Diagon Alley."

"Good for you, that won't be far away."

"No, it won't. And she won't have to look for a job."

Peter looked down on the floor for a moment and then turned back to the others, announcing:

"And then I'm going to ask her to marry me..."

"Woohoo, Go Peter!" James hooted and all of their friends followed suit.

"You're doing great, man! Give us lots of nice little Peters after that, will you?" Sirius said and smiled.

"You can talk, now that you know all about it," Peter teased back.

Sirius' smile became softer.

"You don't know how great the feeling is to have a tiny human in your arms! Just you wait, Peter, once you'll know you will also know how much there is you want to defend! Sod Voldemort and his idiots! Really! I'd gladly give my life for Vega and Polaris."

"Yes, well, that's you and your super-human powers... you can easily say that," Peter replied sombrely.

"No, Peter, the motivation in this case is love," Remus said, "Have you never noticed that your love for Sabina has unleashed more power in you? Remember when you did much better in your NEWTS than in your OWLS? You were driven by the positive feelings inside of you, you are happy with Sabina, you know we're your friends, that helped you get stronger. Her love gave you self-confidence we could never build up in you. As much as Voldemort goes on about how only power counts, he hasn't got the slightest idea of the power of love! This bond has given it to us. It will give at least some of it to you! Actually I think it already has done."

Peter looked puzzled for a moment, but then James started to grin and exclaimed: "Yes, that's true! Once you were together with Sabina our work in boosting your self-confidence seemed like a piece of cake!"

And Peter had to admit that this was true. He looked a bit sad though.

"Still... I'm no good. It's through others that it was done."

"Again you're putting yourself down too much, Peter. We could only unleash what was already in you, we couldn't add anything to you. When you got better at school that was your own potential. You were just a late bloomer," Remus again countered with a smile.

"Thanks, guys! And in that case thanks for putting up with me for so long. You really did help me stand on my own feet..." Peter mumbled.

"What do you mean? You had some of the most brilliant ideas for pranks ever, Pete!" Sirius yelled, "there's no reason to thank us for something that was no big deal when you participated in it!"

And they all laughed and wished Peter luck popping the question to Sabina.

Sirius apparated to Wales to see how the little ones did. Both slept quite soundly, but he decided to pick them up one by one and feed them both. Since they were both asleep he woke up Polaris softly and took him down to the living room. He sat down and conjured a cushion to be comfortable nursing his son. Polaris, once awake, gladly took the offered food. Venetia, watching her son-in-law, chuckled and said:

"You're gaining routine at this, don't you?"

He smiled. "Yes, we do. But it's a great feeling..."

"I know that very well, Sirius."

"Of course. Having had seven of them."

"Will you want more?"

"I don't know. Not just now, that's for sure, but one day... I hope we can get Voldemort out of the picture before that. But yes, I could see us have a few more. At the moment we'll try to avoid it though. Of course we were mad at Dumbledore for holding back that information just because he wants us even more powerful, but to have them… he knew we'd forgive him because we love our babies so much."

Sirius caressed the baby as it suckled. Polaris pedalled lightly with his legs and arms, but he gripped Sirius' index finger with his tiny hands. He smiled down at the nursing child with a look so tender it almost brought tears to Venetia's eyes. She wondered if Richard had felt the same kind of emotions back when he watched her nursing. Sirius seemed wrapped up in it just the way she used to be.

"You know it's quite amazing to share such typical female things with one's son and son-in-law. You seem to be happy."

"Right now I could burst with happiness, it's just pouring out. It's so easy to love the little buttons. And Remus! – But sometimes it frightens me a bit, too. It's given us both even more magical power, Venetia! Sometimes that's scary. I mean, both of us would never misuse that power, but what if it becomes known again and Voldemort starts creating werewolves left and right to do what we just did?"

"He doesn't know that Remus is a werewolf, does he?" Venetia asked, fear in her eyes.

"As far as we know he doesn't. It'd be horrible..."

"Well, he'd need to have a werewolf attacking a young child and that child would have to mate with someone the way you did. Always provided that child would survive in the first place."

"He'd not worry about that. He'd just abduct any child. Hell, he'd even MAKE children just for that purpose. Or would put his Death Eaters behind it. I'm quite sure some of his female followers would even offer to carry such a child. And if it didn't take years until the child would be old enough he'd do it tomorrow..."

"On the other hand, don't forget that love is part of the bond. Without it the bond would probably never happen, so you can't just put two individuals together and tell them to get bonded the way you and Remus are..."

"And according to Dumbledore Voldemort has no concept of love at all... neither have most of the Death Eaters. That's true! Voldemort would never believe that something that involves love could be that powerful."

Polaris let go of the nipple. Sirius gently helped him catch it again. The baby suckled a few sips more, then let go.

"Is that it, love? No more? Well, then let's get you back to bed and take on your sister..."

Sirius closed the bra he wore and pulled up his robe, then he took Polaris back to his crib and picked up and brought Vega, as soon as Polaris was asleep again.

"I love how you love to sleep, child," he whispered to his son.

He took Vega along and as she started suckling Venetia asked:

"Does it make any difference for you whether you nurse Vega or Polaris?"

"None at all. Just a little mouth sucking milk actually. Yep, that's you, little lady. You and your brother... we're doing this at times, one of us feeding both of them, especially at night. Though in the morning it feels like our breasts are exploding when they haven't suckled during the night. It's happened last week that Remus had slept the night through and then let Vega suckle. She's a bit more eager than Polaris. Grabbed the nipple and the milk spurted out at her! I had to clean her face before she could give it another try! Both of us laughing our behinds off, naturally."

Venetia laughed.

"You don't stop producing milk that quickly. But it's good that there's enough for them in both of you."

"But Remus didn't like the feeling much! It can become painful. Also we've decided that we switch them. I'm usually nursing Vega two times, then Polaris two times. We do that so that they get used to both breasts, not only one side."

Once Vega had been fed everything in Sirius' breast he let her suckle what was left on the side Polaris had used a while before. She still found a few sips and let go of the nipple, yawning.

"No wonder you're tired, little one. You've been suckling like a milking machine. Now you're going back to sleep? That's my girl..."

Vega slept again by the time he reached the children's room and laid her back down in her crib. He said goodbye to Venetia and returned to the party at the Potters. There were now only his friends left, the rest of the party had vanished, including Dorea and Charlus.

"Everything okay?" Remus asked.

"Yep. Both fed and sleeping again."

"You're nursing them both?" Lily asked, astonished.

"Sure. There's enough in here, believe me. Remus will suffer a bit, because he'll almost burst with milk..." Sirius replied with a smirk.

"And that hurts pretty badly. But I'll have them both next time around."

"I'm still wondering, how you could even give birth to them," Hope Foster, Dari's new girlfriend asked.

Remus blushed. Sirius blushed, too, though much less.

"Do you really want to know? - I guess, you're a former Ravenclaw after all."

Hope grinned.

"Just like every other woman, Hope – it's all there in place, right behind the male parts."

Hope and Dari grinned even wider.

"Our two gay boys are turning hetero! Isn't that just too funny?" they hooted.

Peter and James shook with laughter. Remus blushed even more, but Sirius said:

"I can tell you that it adds a whole new dimension to the sex we had before. We can now enjoy it any which way we please!"

The others laughed even more. But they came back down and after a while started discussing other things. Lily told them she'd be coming to Hogwarts soon and that she was looking forward to it. Remus and Sirius invited their friends for a dinner at their new flat. It became very late, but finally Remus and Sirius returned to Wales and got a few short hours of sleep.

Remus woke early. His breasts hurt him and milk oozed out of them. He grabbed a towel and put it underneath himself to catch the drops. Sirius woke up next to him, stretched a bit and touched Remus' nipples. Remus hissed.

"Pain?" Sirius asked, worried.

"No... I wouldn't call it pain... went right down to where it feels best is what I'd call it."

"Really?"

Sirius turned to Remus and started to lick the nipples, then suck them into his mouth and when he started to suckle Remus almost screamed.

"Oh! Wow, that feels good..."

Sirius took a small amount of the milk. It tasted sweet, he thought.

"No wonder the kids like that stuff so much. Give it a try yourself, love!" he said and turned on his back.

"What! You want me to suckle on your tits?"

"Yeah! Get out some of the milk. Tastes great! You're the sweet tooth among us anyway! You should like it."

Remus leaned in and gave it a try. Sirius responded quite the same way as he had done.

"You're right, this feels great! Come on, just a bit more..."

Remus caught some of the milk and liked it. He licked Sirius' nipples and suckled on them until they were dark red. Sirius sighed and moaned softly.

Vega and Polaris fetched them from their well-being. They cried for breakfast and got it as quick as Remus and Sirius were able to get up. Both found a breast and the milk in it and looked content immediately.

Once they were up they got dressed and went downstairs to raid the kitchen for some breakfast of their own. Both of them emptied a large glass of water before they started eating. Having to produce all that milk made them thirsty. Then they ate a well sized breakfast. Venetia came down and watched them tuck in.

"You have a healthy appetite..."

"Seems that producing milk for the babies is pretty demanding... we're constantly hungry and still have lost all the weight from the pregnancy already," Sirius explained.

"Yes, I know the feeling. Are you going back to Hogwarts today?"

"Yes. We'd like to go on with our work..."

They left right after breakfast, apparated their babies to the gates of Hogwarts and rode their brooms up to the castle.

Deep in his own mind Harry watched them happily. He mused that he had by now filled up with so much in terms of positive feelings not even having to return to the Dursleys's care- and loveless home would be able to ruin that. He felt excited, because his parents' marriage and his own conception drew nearer. He was open to some change and ready for activity now and looked forward to it.

Remus and Sirius attended their first meeting of the Order of the Phoenix at Hogwarts only a few days after James and Lily's engagement party. They found a motley crew of quite special people in the room where the Order met and noticed that James, Lily, Peter, Dari and Hope were among the newcomers, too. They were introduced to the older members and took part in the discussions of tasks already on the go or planned. People who had assigned missions reported on them, ideas were collected to help them on if they were stuck somewhere, the material they brought was analysed and new tasks were handed out.

None of the elder Weasleys were present as Harry noticed. It occurred to him though that most of the tasks were in connection to protective spell crafting and he wondered if that had been a main focus the first time around, too.

"It started out that way, but it stopped soon and by the end they were about as efficient as you saw them in your fifth, sixth and seventh year, Harry," said Karli in his head.

It startled Harry. He'd not heard Karli often over the years, but sometimes the DP came through with some sound information like this one.

"But this time they seem to be successful in their endeavours."

"They are. Because Fate feeds Dumbledore some sense."

Harry laughed.

"That'd be a good reason. He's been the same type I've known him, but I couldn't sense any other motives than helpful ones."

"That's because there aren't. Fate certainly has a very strong hold of him. He wouldn't even have the first idea that he's actually 'possessed' – in a peaceful way, of course. I like the justice in the manipulator being manipulated very much."

"What do you think? Would he be able to get this out of me once we meet? He does have a tendency to use Legilimency on everyone. At the very least he scans surface thoughts…"

"He wouldn't. I don't expect him to see anything special in you, because you won't be 'the boy-who-lived', much rather you'll be 'just Harry'. Which is what Hermione sees in you, dear boy."

Harry laughed softly. He began to understand the many splendored approaches to affection, love, understanding and compassion much better now that he'd seen it in so many facets. He was actually quite impatient to meet Hermione again as soon as he could.

"Patience is a virtue, young friend," said Karli and vanished from Harry's conscious.

Harry sighed. He knew, but it was getting harder. And in the meantime he would have close friends in Vega and Polaris, he just knew that already. They'd be the 'big ones' for a while and then would become close playmates. Would he get any siblings, he wondered? He wanted siblings. He wanted younger sisters and brothers, so he could look out for them and be their beloved big brother, just like Bill Weasley was for his siblings.

During the meeting Dumbledore talked with Peter:

"Your unique ability to turn into a rat could be invaluable to us, Peter. Does anyone know that you can do this outside of your friends and the few adults who know about it?"

"Not to my knowledge. Not even my parents know."

"Good. If you are willing and ready we can take you to places where we know the Death Eaters to congregate and you can listen in on them. The perfect inconspicuous spy... sometimes tiny is a great advantage, that's why some life forms have chosen to evolve in that direction."

Peter's eyes gleamed. He had done that a number of times when he spied for the Marauders; he'd been around Hogwarts like no other student before him had been able to do. And finally he was unique in something and that uniqueness would be of value for an important cause. At first he had been ashamed at his tiny Animagus form, but now he would prove himself without the assistance of his friends.

"I am, sir," he said.

James, Remus and Sirius all beamed at him. Sirius piped up:

"We're so proud of you, Peter, you'll be great at this and you'll help us a lot!"

---

Peter's first chance to spy came soon. One of the older Order members took him to a clearing in a forest where a small circle of Death Eaters were to congregate around their Lord. Instantly the little rat had found a spot to hide and scurried out of sight. He watched as they all arrived, but no one paid him any mind. He would stay there until everyone left and then find his way back to the Order.

Voldemort looked his Death Eaters over, with a deep frown on his ugly flat face.

"What do you mean you couldn't get to the house, Lucius? Wards can be brought down! Now they're back in that blasted castle where we really cannot harm them. And what's more I heard they have reproduced!" he hissed.

"I don't know how to get close to them, my Lord. I have tried everything. Unless we can plant a spy among them we see no way of getting close to them. They seem to have grown antennas to feel us."

"That is no excuse! I must get my hands on these two men! There is something about them that makes them powerful and I must know what it is... they must be eliminated and I must know what they did so that I, too can get that extra power!"

"If you'd allow me to propose something, my Lord..." Rodolphus Lestrange said.

"What, Rodolphus?"

"A spy among them wouldn't be such a bad idea. It should be fairly easy to scare Peter Pettigrew into spying on them and giving us the information we need..."

Voldemort looked pleased.

"Ah yes! The weakest link, so to speak. But who should approach him?" he asked.

"I think Augustus Rookwood has connections to the Pettigrews."

"An excellent idea. And very inconspicuous, too. I shall contact Augustus. We shall see how much we can get out of him and should he be useless we can still eliminate him. I commend you, young Rodolphus."

Peter was hidden underneath a pile of leaves from the last fall. His first time out as a spy and he had to hear that he was to be recruited as a spy for Voldemort. He shuddered at the mere thought of such a horror. After the Death Eaters vanished, he scuttled away from the scene and met up with the other order members only minutes later at the meeting point.

"Did you find anything out?" Alastor Moody asked.

"Oh yes, you could say I did! What am I going to do? They want to recruit me to spy on all of my friends. Mainly to find out why Remus and Sirius are so powerful!"

"Oh dear! Let's take you back to Albus and see what he thinks..."

Dumbledore offered them some tea and after Peter had drunk the first few sips he looked up and said:

"I'm supposed to be recruited as a spy for them! But I don't want to do that, sir! What can I do?"

Dumbledore thought for a moment, then he asked:

"Did Voldemort mention who was to approach you?"

Peter thought for a moment. Then he nodded.

"Yes! Someone called Augustus Rookwood. He seems to be some acquaintance of my parents. I personally don't know him."

"Augustus Rookwood? Are you sure?" Alastor asked.

"Yes. Yes, I'm sure that this was the name. This seems to be a surprise for you?"

Dumbledore and Moody exchanged glances and nodded. Then Dumbledore said:

"Well, I do not know about you, Alastor, but the only Augustus Rookwood I know is an Unspeakable and would have never been suspected to be a Death Eater..."

"I think you'll likely be contacted in the very next days, Pettigrew. We have several options now. Capturing Rookwood immediately would mean that Voldemort gets suspicious that someone in his own ranks is a spy. He'll know that only the people around him tonight would know about the plan... what do you think, Albus, should we thwart it?" Moody growled.

"I think Voldemort would still approach Peter - through someone else. But you are right, if something like this was leaking AND if we could have a trial where the reason to snatch Rookwood was that he was trying to recruit a spy FOR the Death Eaters it would mean trouble for those in Voldemort's inner circle. And that would at least be very entertaining to see for the rest of us. It would also compromise the intention of using Peter thus they would most probably stop the course of action."

"Crouch will not easily allow us to arrest an Unspeakable..." Alastor said.

"I think he will consent. I am quite convinced that Augustus must have the Mark on his wrist if Voldemort can casually make use of his services, which is quite a clear sign for one of them. Also you might get Richard Lupin's assistance; Crouch cannot work against his superior."

"Let's hope for the best. Barty will jump to the ceiling at first, that much is clear."

Harry was deeply impressed – firstly by Peter's courage. Even if he had the perfect disguise it still took masses of courage to sit himself right in the middle of the Death Eaters. And then hearing about himself in the discussion must have been a hellish experience. Harry didn't doubt the Sorting Hat's decision of placing Peter in Gryffindor anymore as he had done so often in the past. He was looking forward to see what would happen now.

Two days later Augustus Rookwood was interrogated in a holding cell at the Ministry, after the Mark had been found on his arm. He played quite the blasé nobleman, but as soon as he was taken to court a few weeks later and Veritaserum came to play he spilled his beans quite nicely.

Veritaserum had only been developed very recently in one of the Ministry's lesser known departments and the effect had stunned everyone. Someone who obviously tried to tell a lie was compelled to speak the truth. Every single test person had shown the same typical signs when under the influence of the truth potion. They spoke in a monotonous tone and they spoke the truth. People had been asked to tell a very slight lie. Something that was very close to the truth and as soon as they had the truth potion they told their stories slightly different.

And now for the first time they had brought this new potion to the light in court. The Ministry kept the strictest control over the potion's recipe. It was guarded day and night and only the most trusted Aurors were guarding it. Rookwood's main order from Voldemort for the time being had actually been to get his fingers on the recipe or at least on a sample of the potion, very subtly of course, to pass it on to Voldemort's potions masters to find out its contents. Ironically he was now the first Death Eater to actually taste it in court. In spite of his abilities he had not been able to get even close to it.

The only thing he didn't tell was of course who ratted him out. Because he didn't know. Voldemort seethed in his hide-out. He raged, punished his Death Eaters, but he couldn't find the leak. Three of the most distrusted Death Eaters were actually killed by the number of Cruciatus curses the Dark Lord had used on them. Not that he cared. Rookwood had been Voldemort's only source in the Department of Mysteries and he had to be very subtle lest Croaker would have been suspicious.

Harry watched how Rookwood's arrest shook many in the Ministry awake. After that trial Crouch and Moody started to comb through department for department at the Ministry using the new truth serum. They found a fair number of marked Death Eaters who were sentenced through express trials straight on to Azkaban. It wasn't difficult to have them spill the beans on their uses of Unforgivables. The Wizengamot also voted on a bill brought in by Arthur Weasley, which put wearing the Dark Mark and belonging to the Death Eaters under the criminal code with a punishment of no less than twenty years in Azkaban. Not a single Azkaban inmate had ever lived there beyond twenty years, no one expected any of them to survive their sentence. Harry thought that was an excellent idea – the Death Eaters certainly deserved the punishment for all the anguish they sowed.

He had the opportunity to see the panic in many of the Wizengamot members. There were a good number of them who were actually marked and they had, of course voted against the bill, but this time the full proxy votes in favour of the bill were about three times the number of those against it. Dumbledore soon passed the voting record to Crouch who subsequently sent out Aurors to the respective Wizengamot members.

Harry grinned inwardly. Since these Death Eaters in the Wizengamot presented themselves as worthy members of the society they felt themselves rather safe, and only three of them took it as a sign of the change in the war. So far they had gone from strength to strength, the Death Eaters terrorising the land at their pleasure chasing at least a third of the population into hiding, but now the Ministry had finally had the initiative to actively fight the people who plagued them all, because slowly they weren't just faceless monsters anymore. They had names and could be traced.

The three Death Eaters who understood the message left their homes before the Ministry Aurors could knock on their door. They did have to run though and thus couldn't bother much beyond taking whatever cash they had with them and flee to South America. As they also had to fear their former associates now they did have to hide themselves very well. One of them didn't even take his family and left children behind at Hogwarts.

"Eight weeks old... she's getting cuter every day, love," Remus said one morning, watching his daughter suckle on her Daddy's breast.

Sirius leaned in and kissed his mate on the cheek. Remus turned and kissed Sirius fully on the lips.

"Can't wait to have you back inside of me, love! But today I'll have three books to go through..."

"Well, that matches the three or four I'm looking forward to," Sirius countered with a grin.

"And there's our regular training, not to forget..."

Sirius grinned more, because he really enjoyed that training. They were regularly stretching their magical abilities. They were made to duel with each other and with very strong Aurors for hours on end to train not only their powers but also their physical condition.

Lily arrived at Hogwarts and took residence in a similar apartment as Sirius and Remus on the other side of the corridor. She worked alongside of the boys and even attended some of their training sessions.