Thursday 21st May 1981
Tonks' Home, 10:00
Dora couldn't help but grin as she looked across the table at Remus. She couldn't help it just seeing him over there, actually seeing him, still made her incredibly happy. Positively giddy, in fact. It was ridiculous, considering he had been home for weeks now but still. She was never ever going to take his presence for granted again. Never ever, ever.
"What are you grinning at?" Remus asked her over the newspaper.
"You," she said without shame.
He grinned back at her, making her blush slightly.
"I think you should be looking at our son," he said, nodding towards Teddy.
Who had currently painted his face with his porridge instead of eating it.
Teddy looked at them and then looked down at his bowl.
"No, no, no," Remus said slowly, carefully reaching over to him, going slow so he didn't startle Teddy.
Unfortunately, he was too slow because the next thing they knew, the bowl was on the floor with the contents everywhere.
"I am so sorry," Dora apologised to her parents, who had also been caught in the backlash having just returned to the kitchen with their empty mugs of tea.
Andromeda shook her head, "Nymphadora, we've told you that you don't need to keep apologising for things like this happening. Teddy is a baby, a toddler, he is going to do things like this."
"And it's not like it can't be cleaned up," Ted added.
And he was right. They cleaned it up fairly quickly then all there was to do was clean themselves and Teddy up.
"Do you think we should maybe look for our own place?" Dora asked hesitantly, putting on a fresh set of clothes.
Thank Merlin she hadn't been wearing her training robes.
Remus looked up sharply at that.
"You mean, move in together? All three of us?"
"I'm pretty sure that's what getting our own place means, Remus."
That way she wouldn't be bothering her parents anymore. Oh, they never said that she did. They welcomed her and loved her but that didn't mean that Dora didn't feel like she was taking advantage of them. No, it was time.
"Our? As in... Together?" Remus asked hopefully.
"Yes. Of course. I mean, if you want?"
Dora had just realised that she had made that decision without even asking him. Which was a pretty important thing to do.
"I want to!" He quickly assured, pulling her in for a hug. "I just thought that, well, I haven't-"
"You've more than made up for everything," Dora interrupted, putting a stop to those thoughts of his right now. "And we've worked things out. We're working things out."
And they were doing well. Really well. Yes, he had more than made up for the whole situation regarding Teddy's conception and everything around that. He'd been there for her. For them. They had still manged to be a family. He was a great dad. A great boyfriend. Partner. Whatever. And he had earned her trust back. He really had.
It was time to take another step forwards. Right?
Friday 22nd May 1980
Marauder Flat, 14:00
"Have you completely lost your mind?" Marlene asked in both frustration and in anger.
For a damned good reason and that damned good reason was right in front of her, right next to her stupidly grinning, idiot of a partner. Did she mention that he was an idiot? A massive one. Especially when it came to this damned motorcycle of his. His new one, to be exact. Because his old one had blown up or something? Marlene still wasn't clear on the details there but neither did Sirius. He had been so confused and heartbroken when it happened. Like, he actually mourned for the damn thing. It was all sad a pathetic and Marlene hadn't been able to stand it.
So, she had suggested that he get a new one. A better one. One that was less likely to blow up on him. That would be a good idea.
That wasn't the problem.
The problem wasn't the fact that he got a new motorcycle. It had been her idea, after all. He did look hot in his leather on that bike. No. The problem was what the motorcycle came with.
"Come on, you have to admit that it's a good idea," he coaxed.
She would not be swayed. She was never going to be swayed. Never, ever, ever.
"It is not."
The bright a shiny new motorcycle that Sirius had got looked amazing, even Marlene had to admit that. And Sirius was happy so she was happy. No, the problem was what the motorcycle came with. Which was a sidecar. A tiny sidecar that looked like it was very precariously attached to it.
"Go on, give it a try and see," he tried to convince her. When she refused to make a move, he brought out the puppy eyes. Those that he knew she couldn't resist. Which wasn't fair. "Please?"
With an extremely loud sigh and a roll of her eyes, Marlene sat herself down in the sidecar. She looked a bit awkward getting in but she got in. And immediately felt ridiculous. Her eyes weren't even level with his crotch, she was that low down. And, yes, she was a bit on the short side but this was ridiculous.
"You can't seriously expect anyone to actually sit in here while you're flying." She told him, heizing herself out of it, immediately feeling relief in her cramped legs.
Sirius' face fell at that but only briefly.
"It's not that bad!" He said indignantly.
Marlene gave him a look. "It is."
"You're just grumpy because you don't like it. You, you, motorcycle hater!"
"Real mature," she snorted. "And I do like your motorcycle. I just don't like when you try to put a toddler on it."
"Cassie wanted to."
"And Cassie is one."
"I wasn't going to go that high with her."
"You aren't going to be going anywhere with her in this thing."
Sirius pouted at her but she paid no mind to that and folded her arms. Of course, she would a lot more intimidating if she wasn't sitting down in a silly little sidecar of all things but she got her point across. Sirius let out a sigh.
"Oh, fine. Cassie won't go anywhere near it until she's older."
"Adult older," Marlene insisted.
Sunday 24th May 1981
Severus' Flat, 12:30
"Say it."
Dora visibly jerked out of her thoughts and looked over to her friend.
"Excuse me?"
"I know you really want to tell me something," Chryssie said, without getting up from her prone position on the sofa. "So, go on. Say it. Whatever it is."
Dora opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again, shaking her head.
"It's nothing."
With a sigh, Chryssie pulled herself up so she was actually in a sitting position and rolled her eyes.
"It's obviously not, you been fidgeting and thinking about it the whole time you've been here. That makes it something."
Why was it that Chryssie was always so perceptive? Or was she just being really obvious about it like Chryssie said? And she thought that Chryssie wouldn't be as attentive as she usually was, you know, because she was still processing things. Which was really hard to see because her friend had basically been like a zombie these days. Not that it was her fault or anything though Dora did miss her friend. But honestly? Dora was just glad that Chryssie was now interacting with visitors. Baby steps and all that. Even if it was at her expense.
"Really, it's nothing."
Oh, that was a blatant lie, it was most definitely something. It just felt kind of wrong to talk to Chryssie about such things when, you know. She couldn't even begin to imagine what she and Lily felt. Briefly thinking about it, Dora shuddered. No, she didn't want to think about such things. It was bad enough that she and her parents were "high risk" considering her mum was Bellatrix Lestrange's sister. And that woman was just plain crazy with a side of loving torture. Her thoughts didn't need to go any darker than that. Maybe she should talk about what she wanted to say, just to get away from such negative thoughts.
"MeanRemusaregoingtomoveontogether," she said really quickly, not even pausing to take a breath between words.
Chryssie just blinked at her.
"What?"
Dora took a deep breath and began again.
"Me and Remus, well, were going to move in together."
Chryssie's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Well, we haven't found a place or anything yet but we want to move in together," Dora corrected.
"That's great!"
But Dora could see that there was something behind Chryssie's smile for her.
"Yeah, it is," she said carefully, wondering how she could question her friend.
But it turned out that she didn't need to do anything because Chryssie let everything spill out without any intervention from her.
"What am I supposed to do now?" She asked quietly, burying her face in her hands. "I've never had to live away from home before."
"Hogwarts," Dora pointed out but Chryssie gave her a look at that.
"I meant actually live. Like an adult. Responsible for everything myself."
"It's not as hard as you think," Dora tried to reassure her.
"You're fine," Chryssie said with an eye roll. "You've lived in a flat before."
"With someone," Dora reminded her. "I shared a flat with Marlene."
Until things went sideways and upside-down but that was unrelated to her living away from home and Chryssie didn't need to hear that.
"But still, you know what it's like."
Dora moved so she was sitting next to Chryssie and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"In some ways, it's easier than you think. As long as you actually remember to buy food to feed yourself with."
That actually got her a wet giggle from Chryssie. She hadn't heard that in a while, it was a nice sound.
Wednesday 27th May 1981
Godric's Hollow, 16:00
"Next year I want this whole place filled with flowers," Lily said suddenly, breaking the silence.
They had been sitting in the back garden, taking advantage of the truly gorgeous day.
"Why don't you start now?" James suggested, looking confused.
"It's a bit late to start a garden now," she said, biting her lip.
"Surely there's summer flowers or something you could get..."
"Well, I guess you can get plants that have been started off instead of seeds..."
"See? We can make this happen," James said encouragingly.
Lily looked excited for a moment before her face fell again. James gave her a worried look.
"But we can't go to a garden centre or anything."
"But Sirius or Remus or Chryssie could," James offered up their friends.
Hey, they got them their food and stuff, surely it wouldn't be too difficult to add some plants to that.
"I suppose," Lily said begrudgingly and then sighed. "It won't be the same, though."
"No, kt won't."
Nothing was the same anymore. They knew that. And they'd been in hiding long enough that coming across het another thing they couldn't do anymore wasn't even a surprise or something to get upset about anymore, just an inconvenience.
"Do you think that we'll still be in hiding next Spring?" Lily asked.
James looked at her. Properly looked at her. She looked tired and pale and worried. And he knew that a lot of that was down to her pregnancy but some of it was the normal worry that had been present since they had left Hogwarts and been flung into this world. He wanted to say something hopeful, something funny to make her smile and look forward to something but he couldn't. He couldn't lie like that. It would do none of them any good. Yes, the truth was depressing and they certainly didn't need any more of that but false hope could also be dangerous.
"I don't know," James said honestly.
He didn't know anything these days. It was getting old.
"I hope we are," Lily said suddenly, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Out of hiding next Spring."
James looked around at their currently extremely small world and then down at the faint bump of Lily's and nodded.
"So do I."
Thursday 28th May 1981
Godric's Hollow, 13:00
"I just don't understand," Sirius said with a heavy sigh. "There was this huge movement and then it just fizzled out."
"It was like they just lost all interest." James added.
"Maybe they just weren't that organised and missed something?" Remus suggested. "And that's why it couldn't go through."
Sirius shook his head.
"Trust me, they had everything in place but apparently kt was just pulled out of the Wizangamot Proceedings. It just doesn't make any sense!"
Peter froze as the rest of his friends discussed away. The sandwich je was eating suddenly tasted like sand and he carefully put the remaining half back on his plate, swallowing heavily. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice his rather odd behaviour. They were too busy discussing the seemingly weird turn of events.
But it wasn't that weird to Peter because he knew exactly why the Muggleborn Activists had suddenly seemed to have dissolved despite a strong presence in Wizangamot debates and open sessions over the last few months.
Those people he'd briefly been involved with were at it again. With actual, visible results this time.
He didn't think that it was really all that fair that he kept on being reminded about the one time in his life he did something incredibly stupid. Oh, sure, technically he couldn't blame his friends for bringing it up, it wasn't like they knew anything about it (and it was going to stay that way) but still. It wasn't fair. He didn't do that sort of thing anymore so he shouldn't have to be kept being reminded of it.
They were still talking about it, he realised. Well, sort of. They were starting to move on, thankfully. Though, it still wasn't a topic he was comfortable with. Great. Just great.
"It can't go back in for another twelve months, right?" Remus checked, referencing the law the group had wanted to push through.
It was James who answered this time, a frown on his face. "No, eighteen months now. They upped in to, apparently, stop frivolous notions being passed through but that's a load of nonsense. The traditionalist set just wanted to give themselves more time to counter or block things they don't like."
"You can't even blame Dark-aligned families for that," Sirius said bitterly. "Traditionalists come from everywhere, unfortunately."
"I'm all for tradition," James opined. "But some of the stuff that lot talks about is just insane."
"Surely they can't be any worse than Dark-aligned families," Remus tried to be encouraging.
James gave him a look.
"Moony, they actually want to be inbred."
"And that's different from some of the more Conservative purebloods, how?"
Sirius snorted with laughter at that
"No, not between like-minded and equal status families. Actual inbreeding," James stressed.
"What?"
"Yeah, they actually encourage it. Says it's the best way to concentrate the magic."
"Doesn't it have the opposite effect and cause all sorts of problems? Well documented problems."
"Apparently those are all made up."
"Well, that's just stupid."
Remus looked thoroughly disgusted as he said that, which would normally have been amusing to Peter. But not when it was about this sort of topic.
"Can we talk about something happier?" He asked plaintively, thoroughly uncomfortable with his thoughts.
Thankfully, Sirius agreed.
"Yeah," he said, stretching his arms out with a 'crack'. "This is downright depressing."
Peter had never felt more relief for a subject change.
They had decided to have Teddy's first birthday party at James and Lily's house, because, you know, they couldn't exactly leave and Remus and Dora hadn't wanted them to miss out. And, let's be honest, it wasn't like Teddy knew any other babies except for Harry and Cassie.
So, they got a whole bunch of balloons, banners, Lily even made a cake (which was a little lopsided because she forgot to turn it in the oven halfway through cooking) and, of course, there were presents. It was a small sort of gathering but it was what everyone wanted and it was the best they could do, considering.
Teddy just looked thoroughly confused with all of the attention. He looked around with big eyes, the colour flickering between the one he used when he was frightened and the one, he used when he was excited. Remus held his breath and he heard the sharp exhale of Dora doing the same thing. Please don't let this end up with him wailing. Oh, please don't.
Thankfully, Teddy decoded that he rather liked all these people staring at him adoringly and gave that shrieky laugh of his. Remus winced; it was quite shrill after all but he couldn't help but smile as well. Teddy's laughter was contagious.
"Oh, he is just so precious!" Lily cooed, giving the newly minted one year old and big kiss. "You have to show me where you got that shirt with the little bow tie!"
Teddy soon grew impatient with all of the being passed around and started to wiggle, wanting to be put down. There was plenty of things to explore and get into, after all! Things that were far more important to a busy toddler than kisses.
He busily toddled from person to person, all of them incredibly happy to give him hugs and kisses which he just loved again now that he could move around. That boy just thrived off attention. It was the most hilarious thing ever. Especially since he was almost the opposite of Harry who currently pulled the trick of covering his face with his hands when someone went to kiss him.
And when he got bored of that, there were plenty of other things for him to do. It turned out that Teddy was now completely enthralled with Cassie and Harry, always running over to them and shaking their toys at them. Not that they were always interested but it was still cute to watch. As long as he didn't hit them by accident or something. Which he was liable to do because he wasn't exactly aware of the concept of touching someone gently. And his little pokes and prods could be sore to an adult, never mind other babies. It was like je was trying to figure out what exactly they were. Which was adorable but not exactly a good thing because of the aforementioned not being able to do 'gentle touching' just yet. So, he had to be distracted. Which meant...
"Look, Teddy!" Dora said in an excited voice, holding up a parcel. "Presents!"
