Monday 14th April 1981

Severus' Flat, 22:00

Severus lay back on his bed, staring at the ceiling but not really seeing anything. This was the first time in the last few days that he had been alone. Like properly alone. He wasn't over with the Potters or hanging around with Sirius and Peter. Chryssie wasn't even bustling around in his kitchen - she was staying with Lily at the minute, which was understandable. She had been living at home, after all. No one expected her to be able to go back just yet. Not that there was much of a home to go back to, what with all the Death Eaters had done.

He couldn't help but gag a little at the thought. He hadn't gone back yet either. Couldn't face it. But he had heard Sirius and Marlene's reports. He really didn't need to know anything else. Anyway, it felt odd and not right to be able to go when Lily couldn't. Or without Chryssie. It was... well, it wasn't right. He didn't think he could go back there anyway. Not now. Not when he would still expect the two of them to appear at the door with their smiling faces. Because they wouldn't be there and Severus didn't think he would be able to stand that.

A gasp left him as all of his emotions and feeling came crashing down on him at once. Grief. Pain. Weariness. Sadness. More grief. Burying his head into a cushion, he tried to muffle the sounds.

He wouldn't have been able to do this if Chryssie was here. There was just no way. He wouldn't have let himself do it. It wouldn't be fair to her. And he couldn't have physically done it anyway. He had wanted to cry. He really had. Just to be able to let go of some of the emotions but the tears wouldn't come. It was like they were all being held back.

The Evans' were dead. Gone. Snuffed out, just like that, because some Death Eaters decided that they weren't allowed to live. Because they weren't good enough. Because of Lily. Because Death Eaters were cruel. Whatever the reason, it wasn't good enough. It was never good enough.

They had been more his parents than his actual parents had been. When was the last time he had seen his mother? Severus certainly couldn't remember. And let's not even talk about Tobias. Even though Eileen Snape could loosely be referred to as a mother, Tobias certainly didn't deserve the title of father. On the other hand, he knew exactly when the last time he saw Rosemary and Gavin. They had welcomed him with smiles, just like they always had for years and years. They were where he felt safe.

And now he didn't have that anymore. Lily didn't have that anymore. Neither did Chryssie.

Finally, he let the tears come.

Thursday 17th April 1981

Tonks' Home, 16:00

With a satisfied noise, Tonks flung herself onto the sofa, sighing in delight and the comfort sort of enveloped her. She closed her eyes and tried to soak in all the peace and softness that as probably going to be all too brief.

It had been a long and draining sort of day. Days, really, but it had all come to a head today.

First, training had been both a waste of time and a huge embarrassment. She had managed to mess up several times, making herself look like an incompetent idiot instead of a Trainee who was finishing up the second third of her time at the Academy. And she was not incompetent. She was just having a bad day. A day that had not been any better when the rest of today's training had been spell casting drills. Endless, long, repetitive spell casting drills. Oh, don't get her wrong, she knew they were important. Improving muscle memory and all that. But still. They were boring and took up so much time.

Speaking of things that took up time, Teddy had not wanted to simply eat breakfast this morning. Oh, no. He had wanted to inspect 3ach bit of banana, squish it between his fingers and then shove his whole hand into his mouth. For. Every. Single. Bite. Do you know how long that took? Really long. And kt was so messy. It had taken her even longer to get Teddy washed and the while place cleaned up. And her mother still found some squished up banana on the floor later.

So, she definitely deserved this rest. Even a half an hour would make her feel somewhat better. And then maybe she would try and squeeze in a shower. Something to make her feel somewhat human. Yes, that was a good plan.

A knocking came from the front door and Tonks couldn't help but groan. Really? It had to happen just as she sat down? Did the universe really hate her that much? Of course, it did. Because the universe sucked like that. Maybe if she ignored it, it would go away.

Of course, the universe didn't work like that.

'Knock knock' went the door again and Tonks' eyes shot open as she groaned again. Teddy had just been put down for a nap (more like had been dumped in his cot and the curtains closed in an effort to get him to sleep) and she had been hoping to get a little bit of rest of her own.

She dragged herself to her feet, grumbling all the while. This was probably going to be someone from the Order and she wasn't going to be in any mood to listen to them. Hopefully it wasn't anything urgent. Because she couldn't do urgent. Not today. Today was not the day to be all urgent and running around like a headless chicken. No thank you.

Another knock.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!"

Yanking the door open, she was about to scold whoever the culprit was but the words died almost immediately in her mouth.

There, standing in the doorway, with a hesitant look on his face was Remus. Remus John Lupin. Her partner. Her love. The father of her child. He was there.

After an extremely stretched put pause, Tonks launched herself at him. Thank Merlin for his quick reflexes and strength or else they would have ended up on the ground, probably with some injuries. And that would not be a good way to get reacquainted with 3ach other.

But none of that mattered because they were hugging and kissing and squeezing each other. Unable to get enough of each other. Oh, Remus was here! He was back!

"You don't need to knock," she chided once they'd broken apart. "This is your home as well."

Well, it was her parents'. But it was hers too. And that made kt Remus'. In her mind, anyway. She should probably check with her parents on that. But how did you even ask that sort of question? Wait, what was she even thinking? Why was she thinking about that when Remus was right here in front of her?

"I didn't want to just burst in," he murmured against her lips.

She couldn't help herself; she gave him another kiss. Hey, he'd been gone for weeks. That was a lot of kisses to make up for.

Though, it probably was a good thing he didn't just walk in. She had gotten awfully jumpy lately, they all had. And Auror Training wasn't helping that. Nor were the constant reports on fights and injuries and fatalities. Everyone was on edge these days. She didn't think anyone knew any different anymore.

"Doesn't matter. You're back!"

"I'm back."

She looked up into his eyes. "For good?"

Had he got everything he needed from the werewolves? That would be the only reason je would be back, right?

Her heart sunk as he hesitated slightly.

"Well-"

A wail came over the baby monitoring charm and Tonks couldn't help but chuckle. Was it bad that she had nearly forgotten about Teddy? To be fair, she had a good excuse.

"Want to go get him?" She asked, very willing to fob off a grumpy Teddy onto someone else.

Hey, Remus had missed out on all this, hadn't he? Merlin, he looked eager to go get him. He was gone before she even fi is bed her sentence.

"Hi, cub," she heard him coo.

Saturday 19th April 1981

Order Meeting, 10:00

"Muggle baiting and general torture of sport seems to be on the rise," Kingsley read from his report and then looked up. "The Auror Office has definitely been getting more reports on it."

Peter couldn't help but startle at that news, knocking over his glass of water in front of him.

"Clumsy, clumsy, Wormtail," James said with a laugh, but waved his wand and all the water disappeared.

Why didn't he think of that. He looked down at the soggy lump of tissues in his hand.

"Here," Lily said kindly, summoning a bin to her hand.

"Thank you, " he said gratefully as he threw it out.

At least someone was being nice to him. Hmpf. She put a finger to her lips and nodded over to Kingsley, who had paused his report as they all sorted themselves out. Peter coloured up, realising that he had interrupted the meeting.

He completely tuned out the rest of Kingsley's report. Not wanting to hear about Muggles getting tricked and then tortured. It all sounded funny until the pain and death bit, you know?

Because he had zoned out, it took him a second to realise that Kingsley had finished talking and the meeting was over. It was just one embarrassment after another, wasn't it?

"It's awful, isn't it?" Remus said tiredly, falling into step with him as they left the meeting.

Peter jumped, not having heard Remus coming up from behind him. It was weird to have Remus around again. In a good way, of course. It was Remus, after all. But he had been away for so long that his presence was taking a little bit to get used to again. That and he was just so quiet. Had he always been that quiet? It was a bit freaky.

"Sorry?"

"The muggle baiting," Remus explained, gesturing back at the meeting room.

"Oh, yes." Peter nodded vigorously. "Yes. It's awful. Really awful. So awful. In fact-"

Remus held up a hand to stop him, a small smile on his face.

"I think we can all agree that it is awful."

Peter made as if to say something again but figured that he'd probably just end up sounding like an idiot and decided not to say anything, nodding vigorously instead.

Then it was like there was nothing else to say. Was it awful to admit that he didn't know what to say to Remus anymore? He hadn't been gone that long but it had been long enough. And he got this brooding look on his face every so often which was a bit unnerving. It was like he was completely zoned out and seeing something that wasn't there. See? Unnerving. And Peter didn't know how to take it.

"So," Remus said, rubbing a hand through his longer than usual hair, finally breaking the silence. "How have you been, recently?"

Peter couldn't help but be surprised at that question. No one had asked him that in a while. Actually, he couldn't remember the last time someone asked him that. Lily, maybe?

"Alright, I guess," he said slowly. "You?"

Remus shrugged. "Getting back into it."

Tuesday 22nd April 1981

Godric's Hollow, 16:00

Lily put a hand on her stomach and couldn't help but smile. There was another life in there. Another little baby. Harry's little sibling. A brother? A sister? She didn't know. What she did know that he or she (she still didn't like referring to their baby as an it) was growing nicely and that they were very active, even now.

It would be nice to have one of each, she supposed but at the end of the day it didn't matter. Not really. Just a nice, little, healthy baby. That's all she wasted. Surely that wasn't asking for too much?

A quick turn to the side showed her growing baby bump in the mirror. Her stomach was quite round and noticeably pregnant. She didn't think that she was showing this much with Harry. But then again, her body hadn't exactly got back to its pre-pregnancy state before she had gotten pregnant again. Was her mum like this when she was pregnant with her? Or Chryssie? Did this mean that the pregnancy was going to be a bit easier?

She turned to her phone and was about to dial a well-used number when she stopped. There was no one there to answer that number anymore. In fact, there wasn't even a house there. It had basically been destroyed in the attack.

There was no one there.

She sniffed and was basically ready to have a good cry when something collided with her legs. Looking down, she saw Harry clinging to them, looking up at her with a small fist firmly in his mouth.

Reaching down to pull his fist free, she cooed at her son.

"Did you walk all the way over to mummy?"

Obviously, she knew he didn't. He wasn't even that steady standing upright just yet - you know, having just pulled himself to his feet a week or so ago. Oh, he could now sort of shuffle around the room, holding onto things but the walking wasn't there yet. She was surprised she hadn't heard him do that, he usually made a lot of adorable little noises as he cursed the furniture. Not to mention the noise from him knocking things to the floor.

"Da!" Harry pointed across the room.

James gave her a guilty sort of grin and she rolled her eyes with a sigh. Of course, it had been James.

"Need to teach him that je doesn't give away his partner," James said half-seriously. "But you looked like you needed a hug."

"So, you sent our son?"

"Of course." Then he looked at her carefully. "You, okay?"

The tenderness in his voice nearly made her burst into tears. But she wasn't going to give into them. Not this time. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she smiled at him. Or tried to.

"I will be."

Friday 25th April 1981

Marauder Flat, 15:00

He held her in front of him as he walked along his beloved motorcycle, making sure she took in every inch. And she did look like she was pretty entranced by it but that might have been because of all the shiny surfaces. She did love looking at herself in anything that reflected her recently. Marlene liked to joke that that was proof that Cassie was definitely his child.

"What do you think of this beauty, Cassie-girl?" He asked her. "It's Daddy's motorcycle."

"Ike," Cassie repeated solemnly.

Well, as solemnly as a nearly one year old could sound but Sirius would take it.

"Exactly," he said proudly. "Daddy's motorcycle is very important to him and kts a lot of fun."

She looked over to it again and reached out both of her hands. He leaned forwards and let her touch the seat. She rubbed her hands all over it and it was only then that Sirius realised that her hands were wet from saliva. Wincing, he noticed that there were wet streaks all across the seat.

"And it will be a lot of fun for you too," he continued. "Me and you will never be causing the streets together before you know it."

"She is never, ever getting in that motorcycle, Sirius," Marlene informed him, leaning against the wall.

Where had she come from? He thought she was inside.

"Maybe when she's older," Sirius trued to compromise.

After all, she couldn't even fit into the sidecar properly! Even he knew that!

"No. Not at all."

"Oh, come on, Marlene, it's basically her birth right."

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"Ike!" Cassie said happily, clapping her hands together.

Sirius sent Marlene a smug look which she groaned at.

"Now look what you've done."

"You can't blame our daughter for having good taste."

Marlene rolled her eyes.

"Come on, let's go and get dinner before I eat that bike of yours."

"You wouldn't dare."

He took every threat against his beloved motorcycle quite seriously. She just smirked at him.

"Iiiiike!" She wailed forlornly as they turned to go back into the flat.

She even reached her hands out like she was trying to touch it again.

"Later," Sirius whispered in her ear, bouncing her a bit in an effort to make her giggle.

"Don't you dare encourage her," Marlene warned and then turned to Cassie. "Come on, Cass, you hungry? Want some yummy potatoes?"

Now there was the golden word for her. Cassie immediately turned to her mother with wide eyes.

"Yummy!" She squealed.

"Can I just say that I'm glad that she's finally showing an interest in food?" Marlene said as they walked back into the flat. "No more having to wait for the bottle to warm when it's dinner time."

Healers had advised that they introduce foods at the six-month mark, still letting Cassie have milk as she needed. The reasoning being that she'd slowly increase the food she ate while needing less milk. However, Cassie hadn't cottoned on to this concept and hadn't really shown an interest in food until recently. Like last week. Yet Harry was quite happy to munch on these purees and soft cooked vegetables.

"It is more of a mess, though," Sirius pointed out.

Because although Cassie hadn't shown am interest in eating food, she certainly enjoyed playing with it. Particularly, she enjoying playing that she was a painter and dabbing it on every surface in sight. Which included her soft, baby curls. Did you know that it was incredibly difficult to wash a baby's head that was full of gravy? Especially when said baby did not like having her head scrubbed. There were tears. A lot of them. From more than one person. And let's not even mention the state of the floors and walls, okay? All Sirius knew was that the next time they had gravy they were putting her high chair in the middle of the kitchen. With nothing else near it.