His Boy

Chapter Thirty-One: Valentine's Day

Remus smiled, dancing about the kitchen as he juggled some eggs in his hands, tossing them, one by one, into the air as Harry clapped his hands, excited and enjoying the show. Remus was baking cookies for Harry's Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow. He had signed up to bring them while some of the other parents had signed up to bring drinks or plates or other treats for the children to enjoy while they handed out their Valentines.

"I found the heart cutter." Lexie brandishes a large heart shaped cookie cutter from one of the kitchen drawers. She hadn't been around as much lately, the hospital being busy and needing as many hands on deck whenever possible. However, once things settled down at St. Mungo's she planned on packing up her apartment and moving into the house with the guys permanently, something Harry was looking forward to greatly because he quite adored having Lexie around. She was silly and fun and she always knew how to make his booboos better.

"Yay!" Harry cheered, raising a crayon in the air. He was working on his Valentine's for all the kids in his class. Lexie had showed him earlier how to cut out hearts, so there were bits of red and pink paper all over the floor and table. Remus had even gotten him some scraps of lace and glitter so the Valentines would be especially pretty.

"This one is gonna be for Marny." Harry announced brightly, holding up one of the prettier hearts he had made. Lexie had shown him how to write on the center of the lacy bit before gluing it to the heart card and adding sparkles so that he didn't have to wait for the glue to dry before he wrote on them. It had been tricky at first, but he'd gotten pretty good at it. "She's my bestest school friend."

"That's wonderful, Harry. I'm sure she'll love it." Lexie smiled back at him.

"And I made some for my not school friends too." Harry announced, pointing to a separate pile of hearts on the table. He had a list of names from school for all the kids in his class so that he didn't forget anyone and spelt their names right, but he had asked to have all of his wizarding friends added to the list so that he could make Valentines for them as well.

As Harry continued writing, gluing, and glittering, Remus mixed up the cookie dough and rolled it out on the opposite side of the table from where Harry's mess was.

"Here, Harry. Let's put these in here for now." Lexie suggested, moving the finished Valentines into a small basket so they didn't get cookie on them. She waved her wand to shift the scraps of paper on the floor and table over into the recycling bin and they pushed the rest of Harry's art supplies off to the side, making sure to clear the glitter up off of the table as well. "How many more do you need to make?"

Harry looked at his list. "Two."

"Alright, well, you'll have plenty of time for that. You can either go finish up in the living room, or after we finish cutting the cookies. Would you like to help?"

"Yeah!" Harry laughed, bouncing up and down and moving from his chair to where Remus was rolling the dough out. He had done this a couple of times at Christmas when they'd baked cookies, so he knew to wait until the dough was all rolled out before he started cutting cookies.

"Here, Harry." Lexie said, offering him a bowl of red liquid. "This is food coloring. Dip the edges of your cutter in that and then cut. It'll make the edges of the cookies pretty, and get on the other dough, so that when we roll it out again, we'll have some pinkish cookies too."

"Oooo…" Harry's eyes widened with delight at that idea. Lexie was usually the best at cooking and crafts, though she wasn't nearly at good as reading stories as Moony was, or at swinging him around like his Padfoot.

Harry dipped the cutter into the dye. It was just deep enough to get the bottom edges of it covered.

"Now hurry, before it drips off!" Lexie said and Harry did as he was told, quickly lifting the cutter from the bowl to the dough. A little of the coloring splattered on the dough where his cookie wasn't going to be.

"Uh oh… I messed it up."

"That's ok, Harry. The other cookies are going to be kinda pink anyway, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Harry smiled, glad he hadn't ruined the cookies. He dipped and cut, dipped and cut, sometimes needing help to get a cookie out of the cutter and onto the floured baking tray.

Once there was no longer any space left for cutting, Remus mashed to dough together again, the coloring mixing in more and shifting to make the dough kind of swirled with pink. They rolled it out and Harry began cutting again, not dipping this time because there was already plenty of color in the dough.

Once they had cut out as many cookies from all of the dough that they could and they only had scraps of it left, Harry was allowed to make his own cookie out of the scraps, forming it on the table and squishing it all together before placing it on the pan. It was a rather misshapen flower, but then, he was four. It wasn't going to be perfect.

Sirius came home just as Lexie was pulling the cookies out of the oven. Harry had finished all of his Valentines and his homework by then and was upstairs in his room with Remus, picking out an outfit for tomorrow. Not only was it Valentines day, but it was also picture day. The school liked to do it more towards the middle of the year, on a day when the children would want to dress up anyway. It was going to be so exciting… Valentines Day and picture day all together! Harry couldn't wait!

"Mmm, something sure smells good." Sirius commented as he entered the kitchen, smiling as he saw Lexie pulling the cookies from the over and moving them over to a cooling rack so as to keep them good before they frosted them and added sprinkles. She would cool them a little more magically later, that way they could finish them before Harry had to go to bed.

"We've been working hard." Lexie smiled back. "Though, it's going to be peanut butter and jelly for dinner I think. And sauerkraut. Ooo, and maybe some kippers."

"Maybe for you." Sirius laughed, hugging her from behind and placing his hands down on her midsection with a smile. Her stomach was beginning to protrude a tiny bit, but it wouldn't have been noticeable to anyone unless they had known what her tummy had felt like before it had started doing that. She was nearly into to the end of the first trimester, the baby being due sometime in early August.

"Paddy!" Harry ran into the kitchen and attached himself to Sirius's leg. "Paddy, I made Valentines and cut cookies and picked clothes for tomorrow!"

"That's awesome, Harry!" Sirius beamed, scooping Harry up and hugging him tightly,. He kissed his head, very happy to see him after a long day at work.

"D'you think Hedwig can carry Valentines to my not school friends? Even all the way to Hermione and Neville?" Harry asked after a moment. The snowy owl was very good at looking after herself, the window above the kitchen sink always open for her. Remus had placed a special spell on it to keep the cold from coming in, a sort of barrier. She liked to chase after Harry though, running about the house or out in the yard.

"Of course. She's good and strong." Sirius smiled, reaching to gather up the special Valentines that had been set aside from Harry's wizarding friends. "Come here and help me pack them… we'll make sure they get there safely."

Sirius helped Harry put each valentine into a separate envelope and print the name and address of his friends upon it. They even got out the address book to do Neville and Hermione's cards, no knowing the addresses off of the top of their heads. Once the envelopes were all sealed up safely, Sirius bound them together with a bit of brown string.

"There. Now we just need to wait for Hedwig to return from hunting and she can fly them out."

Before long, Hedwig flew in through the kitchen window and landed on Harry's shoulder. She hooted playfully and nipped at his ear gently. She was quite affectionate when it came to the little boy.

"Hedwig, I have Valentines for my friends. Can you bring them to them?" Harry asked, holding up the packet of letters.

Hedwig hopped down from his shoulder to the table and held one leg out, standing very still. Sirius held up the letters. "Now Hedwig, these can mostly go all directly to the recipients, but this last one here, Hermione's needs to be placed through the mail slot so her parents don't get suspicious. They're Muggles and can't know about owl post."

Hedwig hooted confirmation. She was a specially trained post owl of course. She always knew, somehow, which letter went where and the terms mail slot and Muggles. Sirius had always believed post owls to be smarter than some wizards gave them credit for, and Hedwig was definitely no exception to that belief. She always seemed to know just what he or Harry meant when it came to sending letter.

"Good girl." Sirius tied the packet of letters onto Hedwig's leg and Harry gave her a kiss.

"Be safe, Hedwig." He said, stroking her feathers. She gave a hoot and reassuring pet on the tip of his nose, almost as though she were kissing him back, and then swept out the kitchen window.

"That is one brilliant owl." Lexie commented as she placed a plate full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches down on the table.

"She's the best owl." Harry nodded, reaching for a sandwich.

…...

The next morning when Harry got to school he discovered that the whole room had been decorated with shiny tinsel hearts and streamers, making it look like a real good party in the making.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Harry!" Miss Nancy beamed as Harry placed his boots away beside the door and was left in just his wool socks. That how most of the kids ran around the classroom during the winter. It was a bit of a hassle to change from boots, to sneakers, and then back into boots for recess, and then back to sneakers for playtime, and then boots again for going home, especially when you were only four or five. So the kids were allowed to just run about so long as they had socks on and spares in their backpack.

"Miss Nancy, I've got Valentines!" Harry announced happily once he had bid Sirius goodbye, holding up the paper bag he had brought them in.

"That's wonderful, Harry!" Miss Nancy beamed. "Why don't you place them away with your backpack in your cubby for now though? We'll exchange them before picture time and open them at snack time."

"Okay." Harry beamed and placed away his snow suit on it's hook, and his backpack and paper bag in his cubby. He was especially excited today because he was allowed to wear something besides his usual school uniform. Remus had helped him pick out a bright red polo shirt with long sleeves to wear today with his black school pants. The other boys were dressed similarly, in different colors of polos or dress shirts, some with ties, some without while the girls wore either skirts and blouses or, most commonly, dresses. Miss Nancy had said, that even though it was Valentine's Day, they should wear whatever color they liked best instead of just red or pink.

Harry liked seeing all the different colors on his classmates instead of the usual school uniform. It was a lot of fun.

They started out the day by hearing a story about St. Valentine and how it had come about, followed by a couple of silly songs that involved a lot of funny dance moves and hugging. Harry quite enjoyed this part of the day, liking to be able to get up and move. He was allowed to sit next to whoever he wanted today to at circle time, instead of having to be in alphabetical order like usual.

After song time, they went to their respective tables that had all been placed into a big square around the room so they could all see one another and worked on making Valentines for their mummies and daddies and anyone else they wanted to make one for. It was quite noisy, kids coloring and cutting. Glitter was everywhere, sticking to surfaces, clothes, skin, and hair as though that were it's sole purpose. Glue was spilled now and then, tears shed over seemingly ruined projects that were quickly cheered when a teacher came to help start it over, and make it even better than it had been before.

By the time art time was over, Harry had created three Valentines. One each for Sirius, Remus, and Lexie.

Miss Nancy and the other two teachers placed the Valentines away on a shelf to keep them safe and then began passing out the mail boxes the children had made the day before while the kids cleaned up their spaces. They were simply cereal boxes cut in half and covered in paper that the kids had colored, but they were perfect for holding the Valentines. Each one was taped to the back of each child's respective chair with their name on it.

"Alright everyone. I want you to remain in your seats until I tell you it's okay to get up." Miss Nancy began, standing where everyone could see her. "It's time to exchange our Valentines. What you're going to do, is I will tell each table when it's their turn, and they can go to their cubbies and get their Valentines. Once you've gotten them, you can walk around the chairs and put each Valentine into the right post box. Each one has a name for you to match with, but if you get confused about who one of your cards is supposed to go to, just ask and adult and we will help you find the right box. Does everyone understand?"

After a chorusing of yeses, Miss Nancy said that the blue crayon table could get up and begin putting their Valentines into the proper boxes. Once they had gotten them from their cubbies, she said the red crayon table to could get and get their's as well.

Harry cheered and got up, heading over to his cubby and grabbing the paper bag full of Valentines for his school friends. He went back to the tables and began going around the chairs, stopping at each box to find the right Valentine to go into it. He even had one for each of his teachers that he put in the boxes they'd placed on the art easels.

"Once you have finished handing out your Valentines, you may head over to the reading area to have your school picture taken." Miss Nancy called over the noise of chattering children. They seemed to have heard her, because they did as she said, not returning to their seats, but rather, moving over to sit in the reading area where a man was waiting with some cool looking equipment. There was a light and a sheildy thingy, a blue sheet, and a fancy looking camera all surrounding a tall stool.

"Next in line." The man called with a bright smile. He had been doing this for years. Harry watched as Marny climbed up onto the stool, looking quite pretty with her dark hair pulled back in ringlets and her yellow dress. "Alright sweetheart, put your hands in your lap… there you go… and now shift your knees that way a little bit and smile real big. There you go!" He clicked a few shots, smiling. "Alright, now give me the silliest face you can!"

Marny laughed and stuck her thumbs in her ears, sticking her tongue out and crossing her eyes. The man clicked again. "Perfect job, sweetheart. You're all set. You can go back to your seat now. Next?"

Harry got up and went to sit on the stool. He did as the man told him to, putting his hands in his lap, moving his knees and smiling. He liked having his picture taken with the fancy camera! When the man told him to make a funny face to, he raised his arms up above his hand, fingers spread wide and sucked in his cheeks like a fishy, making his eyes a big as he could. Sirius always laughed the hardest when he did this goofy face. So did the man taking his picture.

"Awesome face! Alright, you're all set. You can head on back over to your table."

Harry laughed and hopped down from the stool. He went back to his seat, sitting down and coloring the pretty picture Miss Nancy had placed at every seat. He had to match the numbers inside a bunch of lines with the colors listed on top. He had done these before, so he knew how to and it was always a lot of fun to see what the picture turned out to be once it was finished.

When everyone had had their individual pictures taken, the kids were all gathered up in the circle area, standing in two staggering lines of seven by height, the teachers behind them. Harry stood next to Marny and she took his hand, glad to be next to her best friend. The picture man had them all smile, and then make goofy faces again, just like he had when he'd been taking individual pictures.

And then, it was time for the part all of the kids had been waiting for. They went table by table to get snacks from the special part table that had been set out off to the side. There were the cookies Harry had helped make, and punch with soda in it, and candy hearts, and chips, and fruit that had been cut into hearts as well as cheese and crackers.

Everyone was allowed to take some of what they wanted and then returned to the table. Once they had their food, they were allowed to remove their mail boxes from the backs of their chairs and see all of the Valentines they had received.

Harry beamed, munching away at a piece of heart shaped apple as he picked up one Valentine and then another. Some children were shouting their thanks to others as they went through them, and it was all very noisy.

"Ooooh, Harry! I love it!" Marny laughed, holding up her super glittery heart that he had made her.

"I like yours too!" Harry said, holding up the square shaped card Marny had made him, covered with drawings of hearts on white paper. He thought it was very pretty. "Oh wow, look at this one!" he held up the one he'd gotten from James, another little boy who sat at the yellow crayon table. It had a Dalmatian on it.

"Cool!" Marny beamed, searching through hers and finding a similar card, only hers had a kitty on it.

Once snack was over and valentines were placed back into mail boxes and put in cubbies to be taken home safely, the kids stayed instead to play a few games instead of going out into the chilly snowy world today.

They played Hot Potato with a balloon and musical chairs to a tape of goofy songs that the kids who got out danced about to while watching to see who won. Lastly, they all gathered around the circle rug and read a poem about family and love.

Harry was sad to see the party end, but he was excited to give his Valentines to his Padfoot, Moony, and Lexie.

When it was time to get ready to go, Harry tugged on his snow suit and boots, hat and mittens. He had to have a little help from Marny to get his backpack on over the bulk of his suit. His Valentines were safely inside.

"Did you have a good day?" Remus asked when he scooped Harry up, waving goodbye to Miss Nancy and heading out into the parking lot. As they headed for the car, a black car drove up in front of them, stopping.

"Remus Lupin?" A woman wearing a black suit asked as she rolled down the window. Remus frowned, hugging Harry closer to him and looking quite apprehensive.

"Yes?"

The woman climbed out of the car. "My name is Julia Giness, I'm with the Department for the Protection of Magical Children." She said this, glancing around to make sure they weren't being watched, but most of the kids were either walked home or had left already. There were only a few people still in the parking lot, and most of them were down out of earshot, too busy paying attention to their kids to pay any mind to what was going on further down in the lot.

"Hello Mr. Lupin!" Mr. Troit stated from the driver's seat. "Hello Harry! It's nice to see you again."

"Mr. Lupin, the Ministry has deemed Mr. Black, and yourself, to be unfit parents for a child. We are required, by law, to remove the child from your custody until further notice."

"On what grounds?" Remus asked, angling his body and gripping Harry tighter as the little boy looked completely, and utterly confused as to what was going on. Remus looked at Mr. Troit. "You said you didn't see there being any problems when you came!"

"It's out of my hands, Mr. Lupin. My superiors seem to think otherwise and I…"

"You can't do this! He is legally Sirius's child! You can't just remove a child from his home without a legitimate reason and there is absolutely no legitimate reason for this at all." Remus said, his hands grasping tighter around Harry now.

"Mr. Black can take that up with the Ministry. For now, it is my duty to take the child in question to a safe environment. This can either go the easy way, or I can call for backup. However, know that, if you resist, you will be sent to Azkaban and charged with child abuse."

"I can assure you he will be perfectly safe, Mr. Lupin." Mr. Troit said after a moment as Remus visibly held Harry tighter to himself.

"How do I know you're not Death Eaters in disguise?"

"You're welcome to come along to the Ministry with us." Mr. Troit suggested.

Remus gulped. It was either go with Harry, and risk his safety, or have him taken from him and be sent to Azkaban. Deciding the former was the better option, just so he could protect Harry if he needed to, Remus got into the back of the car, holding the little boy safely on his lap.

Miss Giness returned to the car, locking it from the inside and they drove off.

"Where're we going, Moony?" Harry asked nervously. He didn't like the looks of that lady who had spoken so meanly to Remus.

"To the Ministry, Harry. It'll be alright. Don't you worry. I'm here."

"Okay." Harry nodded. So long as his Moony was with him, he'd be safe, that much he knew.

They Flooed to the Ministry from a fireplace hidden in what looked like an abandoned home's shed. They landed in the black marble Atrium and Miss Giness led them all for a lift at the end.

They headed downwards, deep into the bowels of the Ministry, Harry holding tightly onto Remus as they did so.

The Department for the Protection of Magical Children was large. A big door led into a colorful sitting room of sorts, full of toys while other doors led off of it. A couple had names on then, indicating they were the offices of higher ups in the departments, while the last, an open doorway, led into what looked like a large room full of cubicles.

As soon as they got to the waiting room, Remus spoke up again. "I would like to speak to Tricia Lovegood."

"Lovegood was switched to the Department of Experimental Magic two weeks ago." Mr. Troit informed him, and Remus blinked. Tricia hadn't said she'd been switched, but then, they had all been so busy lately they hadn't really had time to get in touch with her or the Weasleys. With Harry in school, Sirius working, and Remus looking into ways they could add another room onto the second floor of the house, it was all pretty busy as of lately.

"Oh, I'm sure she's very happy there." Remus frowned, not so sure that was the case. Had Tricia been switch on purpose?

"It was what she wanted for years." Miss Giness said and then moved along into one of the offices. She pulled out a file. "Have a seat Mr. Lupin."

Remus sat down, keeping Harry on his lap as Mr. Troit shut the door behind them.

"So, what are your reasons for all of this?"

"I am not allowed to discuss such in front of the child in question, however, I can tell you that there will be further investigation into both Mr. Black and yourself as proper guardians. Until further notice, the child must be placed with a foster family, for his own safety."

"You're kidding." Remus stared at her, but she stared back, just as hard.

"I certainly am not. As the mother of two young children myself, I never joke about safety. Mr. Black and yourself have a fairly good report so far, there are just a few flaws which need to be adjusted before we can even think about returning the child to Mr. Black's custody. Rest assured though, we will be placing him into the home of someone you can trust to look after him to the best of their ability. She should be arriving within the next half hour to retrieve him."

"Who is it?" Remus asked, hoping it was Lexie or Tricia or Molly Weasley. At least then they would know for sure that Harry was in good hands.

"Minerva McGonagall. However, while he is in her custody, you and Mr. Black will be unable to visit him. We will have to question him again, without any possible chance of him having been influenced to answers questions a certain way."

"Moony, what's going on?" Harry asked, getting a little more nervous now. The grown ups were talking about a lot of things that he couldn't understand, but he knew something wasn't right.

"It's alright, Harry. Miss Giness is just saying you have to go and stay for a little bit of time with Professor McGonagall for a while." Remus said, feeling relieved that at least Harry wouldn't be with a complete stranger. Minerva McGonagall may be strict, but she had a good heart.

"Why?" Harry frowned. He liked the Professor very much, especially that time she had fixed his lion for him, but he didn't see why he had to stay with her when he had two perfectly good grown ups to stay with.

"Well, because Miss Giness and Mr. Troit say so. But it'll be alright, Harry. It won't be for long, just a little while?"

"But why do they say I have to? Moony I don't want to. I wanna stay with you and Paddy. Paddy promised forever, remember?"

"I'm sorry, Harry. You have to." Remus was near tears, holding them back the best he could. He wasn't sure why this was happening. What could the Ministry have found that would make them take Harry away from Sirius?

"NO!" Harry shouted, hugging his arms around Remus's neck. He stayed like that, crying all the while Remus tried to reassure him to the best of his ability.

McGonagall came knocking fifteen minutes later, wearing a look of confusion. She entered the office and stood tall. "Regarding the letter you sent me, Giness, I have absolutely no reason to believe that this boy should be separated from his parental figures."

"Your opinion on the matter will be taken at a later date, Professor." Giness said, waving her off. "We need you to take custody of the boy until further notice."

"This is absolutely ridiculous. I may not have been the easiest on Black when he was at school, but I do not believe it is right to remove Potter from his home based upon whatever silly little thing you're assuming is going on. He may be immature, but Black has a good heart and takes care of Potter very well. I will take him if I must, but it is against my better judgment." McGonagall stated rather angrily.

Remus rose, hugging Harry tightly and kissing his face. "It'll be alright, mate. Professor McGonagall lives at Hogwarts. That'll be exciting won't it? You'll get to see Bill, Charlie, Hagrid, and Dumbledore. I expect maybe even Hogsmeade if you're lucky."

"But Moony…" Harry frowned. He did like the idea of going to Hogwarts with Professor McGonagall, but not the idea of doing it without Sirius or Remus.

Remus took a deep breath, staving off the tears as he handed Harry over to McGonagall. "It'll be just fine, Harry. I promise, we'll see you very soon. I'll send some of his things over when I get home, Professor."

McGonagall nodded and shifted Harry onto a hip. He was quite a bit lighter than she had been expecting. "Well, Potter, let's go along then."

"No!" Harry screamed, kicking and crying as he watched with wide eyes, reaching for Remus as he did so. He didn't want to leave him. Something wasn't right here. Moony would never leave him, he never had, not except for full moons, and even then Harry still got to stay in his own house. This was different, this was scary. Even though he knew Professor McGonagall, and that he was going to see other people he knew and be at Hogwarts, right now he just wanted the comfort of his guardians.

Remus let the tears flow as soon as Harry was out of sight.

Oh my goodness, what is this? Another chapter? Did I really manage to do that? To be honest, I am quite astonished that I did, indeed, finish another chapter to give you today. Seriously, once I got over that evil hump of writer's block, this is going along a little more smoothly. YAY! I hope you enjoyed it and please let me know what you thought, I always love hearing from you.

Later alligators, love you,

S.Q.O.