AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi there! I just wanted to say thank you to a certain Linkin-Phoenix, who has been giving a lot of good reviews so far! :) You disabled your private messaging, but I wanted to say anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I love reading your reviews!

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The rest of February was being a pretty good month. Word around school was that Harry and Hermione were together. Ron was shocked, mostly because he hadn't suspected anything. There were a few bumps along the way—for example, Harry learned that Snape would be refereeing their next Quidditch match, against Hufflepuff. But Dumbledore had come to the match, and of course Snape wouldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching.

But as they entered March, Harry could tell Sirius had something troubling him. So on Wednesday evening, just as they had finished Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he hung back to ask about it.

"Hi, Sirius," said Harry. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sirius replied, whilst giving every indication that he was not fine. He was still as pale as can be, and he kept compulsively running his hands through his hair, which was never a good sign.

"I don't know, you look kind of peaky," Harry pointed out. "Hmm…it's got something to do with the baby, hasn't it?"

"Shh!" Sirius put his finger to his lips. "You didn't tell anyone, did you?"

"No," said Harry. "But honestly, what's the problem?"

"All right, listen," said Sirius, flopping down into an armchair by the fire. "Barbara officially starts her second trimester on Saturday, and that's around the time when the risk for miscarriage greatly decreases."

"So then why are you worried?" Harry asked.

"Well, I'm going to go home and see her this weekend, so we can visit her doctor together," said Sirius, "and I guess I'm just afraid of what we're going to find out. What if there isn't a heartbeat? Barbara says she can't feel it kicking so…"

Sirius shrugged helplessly.

"But maybe that's just normal," Harry told his godfather, sitting down beside him. "When do babies start kicking?"

"I don't know when they do," said Sirius. "You see? I'm not ready to be a father."

Harry hated seeing Sirius upset, so he said what he could to cheer him up.

"Maybe nobody's ever ready to be a parent, Sirius, did you ever think of that?" he said. "What if nobody knows what they're doing until the baby grows up and moves away? I think what matters is that you both love the baby, and I know you do."

"Of course I do," Sirius said slowly. "Barbara knows I'm afraid the baby won't make it. She's afraid of that, too. But I haven't let on that I'm afraid I won't be able to look after it properly."

"But you will, Sirius," Harry insisted. "You're going to love being a dad. I just wish you would believe that."

"I don't know how I'm going to get through the rest of the week, though," said Sirius. "It all depends on Saturday, it all depends on what the OB-GYN says."

"What's an OB-GYN?" asked Harry.

"Ah. Well…" Sirius ran his hand through his hair again. "It's a doctor who deals with, y'know…female matters, you might say."

"Oh…okay then," said Harry, but Sirius must have seen that he was still confused.

"Part of what they do is work with pregnant women and their babies," Sirius explained, "so that's why Barbara's got one. They deliver babies too. But Barbara's probably going to do it in a Birth Clinic, because that way she can get the anti-pain potion."

"But she's not a witch," Harry pointed out.

"Potiogravida works on Muggles, so I'm sure the anti-pain potion will too," Sirius said confidently.

"No, I mean, she can't know about the Wizarding World until you two are married, I thought."

"It turns out there's actually some clause or restriction or whatever in that law," said Sirius. "If one parent's got a magic gene and the other hasn't, the witch or wizard in question is allowed to reveal their true identity, even if they're not married, because the magic gene is more than likely to be passed on to the baby. You're not allowed to tell until the mother's in the second trimester, though, so that's why I haven't told her yet."

"Maybe you can on Saturday, after you hear the baby's heartbeat and stuff," Harry said hopefully.

Sirius smiled at him. "Yeah, maybe."

"I've seen it on TV," said Harry. "They use this machine to see inside the mother's stomach, and you get to see the baby. It's called an ultrasound. But when you go to the doctor, just try to act like you know what it is."

"Muggle technology is actually amazing, you know that?" Sirius said in wonder. "There's so much stuff technology can do that magic can't."

Sirius leaned back in the chair, and Harry knew he was thinking of things like the TV, phone, and of course the ultrasound machine, with which he would probably be flabbergasted. Since he wasn't speaking, Harry thought he would ask him a certain question that had been buzzing around in the back of his mind ever since he'd found out Barbara was going to have a baby.

"Do you think you can answer a question I've got, Sirius?" Harry asked.

"Probably," said Sirius. "What is it?"

"Well, it's just…I know a lot about how babies are born because of stuff I've seen on TV," Harry began. "Like on that Love and Lust program, the characters are always having babies. But the thing is, what they never really explain is…"

"How the babies get in there in the first place?" Sirius finished, looking a bit unsettled.

"Yeah," said Harry. "I figured you'd know…since you're the baby's father."

"I do know." Sirius coughed, then looked over at Harry. "But you really don't?"

"How would I know?"

"Well, I figured you heard it from other kids at school or something, I guess," said Sirius.

"The other kids didn't like to talk to me, remember?" Harry reminded him. "Maybe they were talking about it, but there was no way they'd include me. I'm pretty sure they teach it at Stonewall High, but as you know, I came to school here instead."

"Wait, they teach you that in school?" Sirius asked in shock. "Well, shit."

"What do you mean?" said Harry, frowning.

"Harry, if you grew up in an aristocratic, traditional family in the early 1960's, you wouldn't bring that subject up in public, and especially not to an adult," Sirius explained. "Everything was all about being proper and well-mannered."

"But your mother hitting you isn't proper or well-mannered," Harry pointed out.

"Well, you'll find that what happens behind closed doors is often very different than the image you present to the public," Sirius said simply.

Harry nodded. He knew this was true because it was the same thing the Dursleys thought. They never wanted anyone to see the way they treated Harry. Aunt Petunia, paranoid that everyone was gossiping about her, was always obsessing over what the neighbors would say or think, even as she spied on them for signs of anything unusual. The Malfoys seemed that way to Harry, too, the way they wanted to hide their Death Eater past.

"But you're doing it now too, Sirius," Harry told him. "You're not telling me. There must be some missing link here, because I don't know what's improper about a baby being created."

"Well, that wasn't what made people uncomfortable," said Sirius. "It was the fact that you have to be really intimate with a woman to make her pregnant. And you'll find that if you're not comfortable with yourself, if you were taught that this sort of thing is sick and wrong, it's quite hard to be comfortable with anyone else."

"Well, is it sick and wrong? Or are you going to tell me in this lifetime?"

"Fine," said Sirius. "Do you remember a few weeks ago when that foul upperclassman said girls only want boys for what's in their pants?"

"Sure I do," Harry replied. "But didn't he specify he was talking about what's in the back of the boy's pants? You know, his wallet?"

"Well, yeah, but that wasn't the joke," said Sirius. "You were supposed to think he was talking about something else."

"There was only one other thing it could possibly mean, though," Harry told him, "and I don't see why girls would find that attractive, or what it's got to do with babies."

"God, I hate to be the one to destroy your innocence," said Sirius. "But I'll tell you, because I don't need you finding out from some idiot classmate who doesn't know what he's talking about. Just keep in mind, I want you to understand that this is for reference only. I don't want you doing any of this stuff until you're older. Do you promise?"

"I promise," Harry said eagerly.

"Okay, good," said Sirius, and he started to explain, but was soon interrupted by Harry, whose expression of interest had quickly morphed into one of absolute horror.

"You put it where?!" he cried.

"Come on now—you know girls are built differently, don't you?"

"I guess so," Harry told him. "But…but why would I do that?!"

"You won't be doing it, for now," said Sirius. "But when you get older, well, you might change your mind."

"I'm not doing that, ever!" Harry said, feeling a little panicked. "And my parents didn't, either!"

"Sure they did," Sirius told him. "How did you think you got here, then? Owl post?"

"I guess I just never really thought about it before now…"

"It's the same place the baby comes out, you know," said Sirius. "The same way it got in."

"How is a whole baby supposed to get through there?" Harry demanded.

"Well, you'll find it's actually quite flexible—but anyway, that's not the point," Sirius said. "The point is, that's what it means to be intimate with someone. Pregnancy doesn't always happen, but when it does…that's how."

"So you really did that with Barbara over Christmas vacation?" said Harry. "Why—why did you do it if you weren't ready to have a baby?"

"Because it's awfully hard not to, when you've abstained all September, October, November and most of December out of loyalty to her, and then suddenly you're in a bed together…" Sirius sighed. "She just said, 'You want to shag, don't you?' and I said, 'Hell yeah'."

"And that's the story of how your baby's life began," Harry said grouchily. All of a sudden, the Miracle of Life seemed a lot less miraculous. He wouldn't have believed it, except he knew Sirius had no reason not to tell him the truth—although to be honest, he wished he hadn't asked.

"Look, you don't have to worry," Sirius said. "If you don't want to do it, don't."

"What if some girl asks me to?"

"Just tell her you're saving yourself until marriage." Sirius shrugged. "Be like my parents, and convince yourself there's no purpose for sex other than to make babies."

"What about you, then?" Harry asked. "If you never talked about it with your parents, and you never learned about it in school, how did you learn about it?"

Sirius pulled a face.

"Well, I guess it started when I was about five," he said. "Our house-elf, Kreacher, was taking the trash out to the curb, and I was a real escape artist then, I took every opportunity to try and dart outside when the door was open. So before my mum could grab me, I ran outside as fast as my little five-year-old legs could carry me, and I noticed a couple of dogs going at it in the neighbor's yard."

"Come on, really?" Harry said, laughing a little in spite of himself.

"Really," said Sirius. "Well, I didn't know, so I asked what they were doing, and my mum just said, 'They're having sex', then grabbed me, took me back inside, and slammed the door. I didn't broach the subject again, because I could tell it was off-limits, and it seemed a little strange to me. So I didn't really think much of it again until I was I think seven, when my Uncle Cygnus and his family were visiting."

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Well, they visited often, and what we would do back in the old days is, the adults would eat in our basement kitchen, while Kreacher would serve us kids dinner in the drawing room upstairs," Sirius explained. "When we were older, we were allowed to eat with the adults. So that one time, my cousins Bellatrix and Narcissa were eating in the kitchen with the adults, and my favorite cousin Andromeda and I were in charge of watching Reg, who was about five. I remember he was wearing this green playsuit with the Black family crest on it, and he was playing with his toys while Andromeda and I sat on the couch. She was about nine then, and we were just discussing normal stuff and keeping an eye on Reg, when she told me her older sister Bellatrix told her a secret and she asked if I wanted to hear it, and of course I told her I wanted to hear it."

"And it was about the Miracle of Life, wasn't it?"

"Look, you can call it 'shagging', but yeah," said Sirius. "She told me what she knew, which wasn't really that much in retrospect, and she told me she thought maybe Bellatrix was making it up to scare her because she was always doing stuff like that, and I said no, it was true, that I'd seen dogs doing it a couple years ago, and then her eyes got all wide and she told me puppies would be coming out of the mummy dog when that happened. Then she told me the rest of what Bellatrix had told her, and I just remember being really shocked. Remember, she had only sisters and I only had a brother, so we weren't really all too familiar with the opposite sex. But that was when my mum came in the room to fetch Regulus and we had to follow her, so we didn't talk about it anymore after that.

"Your dad's parents were a lot less traditional and tight-lipped than mine, as you know," Sirius continued, "so he'd had this talk with his parents, and when the topic would come up between us, I was able to get a lot of my basic facts straight. And the rest of it…the rest of it I learned behind the broomsheds, you could say. When I was fifteen, I told Reg everything I knew."

"You mean, like with Bellatrix and Andromeda?"

"No," said Sirius indignantly. "Bellatrix was an underclassman at Hogwarts by then, and I'm guessing she picked it up from one of the girls in her dorm. She was probably just showing off the fact that she knew something Andromeda didn't, and trying to scare her, too. I was Regulus's source of information because, like with you, I didn't want him getting the particulars from the wrong source. I felt it was my duty as older brother to make sure he got the right information. By the end of fourth year I'd lost my own virginity, so it wasn't that difficult."

"Fourth year?!" Harry said. "That's awfully early, isn't it?"

"I was fifteen, so not really," Sirius told him. "Especially since it was the seventies and the Sex Revolution was going on and a lot of teenagers were experimenting. Merlin knows I got around. It was pretty crazy. But perhaps you'll be glad to know James insisted on saving himself for Lily."

That did make Harry feel a little better. It was a little horrifying to think that his parents had done that at all, but at least his father had been able to stay with just one woman. He knew his parents had been in the same situation as Sirius and Barbara were now—they hadn't been planning to have a baby.

"And I can tell you something else now, as an adult with a steady girlfriend," Sirius said abruptly. "Something I couldn't have told you when I was younger."

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"I laughed at him at the time, but now I realize your dad was right," Sirius replied. "It's certainly nice to have a romp in the sack with some random girl who smells nice, but it's just so much better to do it with somebody special, someone you really love. If you take one thing away from this conversation, I want it to be that."

"I'll remember," said Harry. "Especially if it was something my dad would have said."

They didn't speak again until Sirius yawned and said he should probably be getting to bed. Harry told him goodnight and went up to his dorm, too, but he didn't sleep for a long time. For a while now he had been anxious about growing up, but he didn't know if this new information should make him more or less worried.