Ginny didn't even give her friend time to sit her bags down before she was dragging her into what would be their shared bedroom for the summer and shutting the door. It was early in the morning when her mother dropped her off with Mrs. Weasley, and the Weasley boys were still asleep, so Ginny knew it was her best opportunity to speak with her friend uninterrupted. Hermione Granger laughed at her friend and the excitement that she was simply buzzing with as the door closed behind them.
"What on Earth has gotten you so worked up?" Hermione teased.
"I have been waiting for someone to talk to about what is simply the best gossip for the last three days. I wish you could've came sooner." Ginny replied.
"Well, I do have to spend a little time with my parents, you know." Hermione shrugged. "What gossip do you mean?"
"Hermione." Ginny said, eyes wide. "You are not going to believe me when I tell you."
"Tell me...?" Hermione waited as Ginny drug her over to sit down.
"So earlier this week Sirius was playing cards with my brothers, right? Professor Lupin comes in out of nowhere with literally no warning and just... BAM! Sirius takes a hit to the jaw, hes on the floor. Professor Lupin standing over him looking like he wants to kill." Ginny explained, retelling the story exactly how her brothers had recounted it to her.
"Why?" Hermione ask, now invested with the story Ginny had to tell.
"That's the part you're never going to believe. Professor Lupin has a little sister... I think mum said they're like... nine or ten years apart. Her name is Ramona. Turns out- get this- Sirius has been sleeping with her." Ginny whispered, though they were still the only two in the room.
"His best friend's baby sister?" Hermione's eyes widened. "I mean- good for her, but-"
"I know, right?" Ginny giggled at the thought, her cheeks bright pink. She and Hermione had previously had multiple conversations about Sirius' good looks.
"But yeah, I can see why that might make Professor Lupin upset." Hermione reasoned.
"Oh no, that isn't it." Ginny leaned in. "Turns out- she's pregnant."
"Oh. My. God." Hermione exclaimed. "That is why Professor Lupin was so mad."
"Indeed." Ginny nodded. "And we were all just so like... shaken... by this news. I mean..." Ginny gestured wildly with her arms in the air.
"Seriously." Hermione agreed.
"Ron said he'd never seen anyone look so murderous in his life... Not even the night when you guys saw him... change." Ginny whispered again. "Said they really thought the Professor was going to kill Sirius with his bare hands."
"So what is this Ramona like?" Hermione moved to sit criss-cross on the bed, facing Ginny.
"She's really pretty, and really funny. She actually looks quite a bit like the Professor, so you'll know her when you see her. Same hair, same eyes, same smile... Did you meet Tonks yet?" Ginny ask.
"Who?"
"You'd know." Ginny laughed. "She's Sirius' cousin, but she's also Ramona's best friend. Shes a Metamorphmagi, so she always has fun colored hair and she wears these big combat boots."
"Haven't had the pleasure yet." Hermione confirmed.
"Well- Mum was talking to dad and she seems to think Tonks has a little crush on the Professor, right?" Ginny leaned forward. "So its like this whole tangled up mess."
"Wait, okay." Hermione held up her hands to stop Ginny from elaborating. "Sirius is with Ramona Lupin, and Sirius' cousin is Ramona's best friend, who has a crush on Professor Lupin, who is Sirius' best friend."
"Yes." Ginny confirmed. "You've got the gist of it."
"That really is a tangle." Hermione laughed.
"It continues to get more tangled every day. Apparently," Ginny sat forward and lowered her voice again, "Before she got pregnant, Ramona and Sirius weren't really "together", just sorta... you know..."
"Having casual sex?" Hermione finished, picking up on Ginny's embarrassment at the word.
"Something like that, sure." Ginny nodded, her face once again bright pink.
"So- Sirius Black has a baby on the way- Do you know if he's told Harry?" Hermione wondered.
"No, wants to tell him in person." Ginny said, shaking her head.
"I suppose that's fair." Hermione sighed. "So tell me what is going on with this house..."
Each time Ramona moved to get out of bed, Sirius gently pulled her back into his embrace.
"I have to go to work." She'd protested, for what felt like the thousandth time, but was more likely the fourth or fifth.
"You really don't." Sirius assured her.
"Yes, I do." Ramona argued. "I have to go and do my job so the healers can do theirs."
"You're not the only potion master that hospital has, take the day." Sirius whined. He nuzzled his face into the nape of her neck. His hands slid from where he'd wrapped his arms around her ribs to hold her down, gently laying both hands flatly against her lower abdomen, just below her navel.
"Why?" Ramona ask, trying to sound annoyed with him, and silently thankful that he could not see her smile from behind her.
"Because I'm holding my baby, and I don't think its very fair that you always get to take them with you." Sirius pouted.
"Give it time, when the baby is here and screaming and crying and just won't stop- it'll be daddy time all the time." Ramona joked.
"Yeah, that is not nearly the threat you think it is." Sirius smiled into her hair, and he placed a soft kiss on top of her head. "I always helped Lily when Harry had colic. I'm actually really good with angry infants."
That is actually really comforting, considering I have been around exactly zero new babies." Ramona confessed. She stretched slightly and laid one hand over Sirius' on her belly.
"It'll come to you." Sirius promised. "So what do you say?"
"I say I took three sick days in a row when I found out because I was freaking out, Sirius. I don't need to miss again." Ramona replied firmly.
"Why not?" Sirius pressed. "You out of sick days?"
"No..." Ramona sighed. "I can't afford to miss."
Sirius gingerly moved and turned Ramona to face him.
"Its a money thing?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. Ramona nodded, looking at him as if it was crazy he'd even ask.
"Yeah, I have to work, Sirius. If I'm not working, the price I have to pay to get things to make my brother's potion is outrageous because I don't get the discount, and I have so much to do. We have to get things for a nursery and-"
"And you're knocked up by a millionaire." Sirius interrupted, shrugging off her concerns.
"Say what now?" Ramona sat up, still looking at Sirius as if he'd grown another head out the side of his neck.
"How has that not came up already?" Sirius pondered. "Yeah, doll. I'm rich. And whats mine..." Sirius touched his heart, then moved and pressed his hand over her heart, "Is yours."
Ramona blinked rapidly at him for a brief moment.
"How am I just now finding this out?" Ramona ask.
"You know, I don't know. I used to use it to pick up women... Somehow I got you to bed without mentioning money." Sirius joked.
"I don't really see how you'd need to use money to pick up women?" Ramona laughed. "Have you seen you?"
Sirius laughed hard for a moment, then came to rest forehead to forehead with Ramona.
"I also can't believe you didn't work out the whole 'rich' thing from the house? You've seen it, right? The one we're in now?" Sirius quipped.
"Yes, have you seen it? Its ready made for Halloween." She replied before pulling away to better see his face.
"So fix it." Sirius challenged. "When Remus met up with me, after we stashed Buckbeak, he was telling me all about how you'd remodeled your mum's house. Well- he started telling me about it, then it converted into him bitching about you being bitchy and boss... but it ended in a brag on how well you'd done and how nice it is now. And he was right- I'd been there before, when we were kids- it was nice then, but it needed modernizing and repairs. Looks amazing now. Imagine what you could do with a mansion and a basically endless budget. Quit your job, fix our house. Make potions on the side to sell, if you want. Black family trust has owning shares in a few businesses, so it's still just collecting money."
"Our house." Ramona repeated the phrase he'd just said so casually. She swallowed hard and pulled away, nearly to the edge of the bed.
"Well, yeah. I mean- its a bit more than we need room wise, but our family." Sirius gestured between them, "You and I, our little one, Harry, Moony- and Tonks, of course."
"Right, yeah." She nodded, her face pale. "Can I-" She took a deep breath and slowly blew it out her nose. "Can I think about it?"
"Of course." Sirius replied, a bit deflated. "No rush."
Ramona slipped the rest of the way from the bed and grabbed the uniform she'd had hanging on the coat rack near the en suite bathroom. She moved into the bathroom quickly and shut the door. Sirius waited until he could hear water running and flung himself backward with a groan, the heels of his hands pushing into his eyes.
"Fuck." He mumbled to himself. He knew he'd scared her.
The Lupin family had a shared trait of what Lily Evans Potter had lovingly called 'being a flight risk'. It had most likely stemmed from their father, who was far too nervous around both his children to get close to them. Remus had been scared of letting people in to love him his entire life, and Ramona was just as bad to build walls when someone wanted to get close. Remus had told Sirius that Ramona also had some really bad relationships in the past that had left her scared and scarred, but as Ramona had not told him this herself, he had not invaded her privacy by prying.
But he wanted her. A family. Their family. That was something he'd never gotten, and being trapped in the house he'd grown up in, and such a cold place it had been- it only made him want to make it happy and healthy and whole all the more.
Sirius knew he'd made a misstep with this, though.
He and Ramona had not even exchanged the first 'I love you's yet- though he did, in fact, love her. He'd told Remus that, the evening they made up after Remus had slugged him in the jaw. Remus had advised him to be careful in saying it to Ramona too soon, because he knew his sister well enough to know she'd not believe him, and would think it was just because of the baby.
So why, Sirius screamed at himself, had he thought offering her his money and free reign of remodeling a mansion to her liking, would be any better.
He was lucky enough she was spending the nights over with him. Admittedly, Sirius was a bit too nervous to try and start anything sexual with her- he was not sure what was safe with the baby- but he loved just feeling her in his arms. He'd lost himself in his thoughts, so he jumped a bit when the bathroom door swung open and Ramona stepped out, her uniform, makeup and hair perfectly in place. She wore it like armor, to hide what she was feeling.
"I'll see you later, yeah?" She called, moving quickly past him and out the bedroom door.
"Be safe!" He yelled after her, noticing as she left her overnight bag was on her shoulder. He quickly moved over and peaked into the bathroom, finding all her cosmetics and toiletries had been taken with her.
"Fucking hell." He spat, roughly running a hand through his hair.
He was right.
She had, in fact, run.
Tonks had nearly dozed off at her desk.
The Ministry was in what she and the other four Aurors in the Order liked to call 'Denial Mode', so there was actually very little they would allow aurors to be called out to investigate. It did not mean there was no crime, it simply meant that the Ministry, in an effort to make everything publicly look safe and sound, was pretending nothing was happening at all- whether it could be related to Voldemort or not.
It also meant a lot of the slack would have to be picked up by the Order. Suddenly a quick communication notice which had been folded neatly into a paper crane settled itself on her desk and unfolded. Tonks loved these, it was one of her favorite ways to communicate with her friends in school- and She and Ramona still used them when at charm on the paper the makes the two link only lasts half an hour, so it has to be taken care of fairly quickly, when received. Today, given how slow things were, this was no problem.
Tonks recognized the handwriting immediately.
We're hiding out at mine tonight. I'll bring the take away, you pick a dessert. -RAL
She re-read the note a couple times before replying.
Why are we hiding out? And what kind of dessert? -NYT
Tonks knew better than to protest when Ramona needed her. She'd been through a lot, and Tonks had seen her through it.
Dealer's choice, and too long, I'll explain in person. -RAL
Tonks simply drew a heart in reply and then watched as the paper burned from the middle out, indicating that Ramona had burned the charmholder copy on her end. She sighed and stood up from her desk, deciding to stretch her legs, maybe volunteer for a 'patrol' of the streets so she could window shop the bakeries for what she'd get after her shift. After all, she knew that it needed to be a good one for something that had Ramona hiding out like this.
Thanks for reading- if you're enjoying things so far be sure to follow for updates!
Reviews are also always appreciated!