Chapter Text
“Remus! James! Lily!” Sirius Black hammered his fist into the door of the small flat. “Come on! I know I’m late but open the damn door, we need to talk!”
“What is happening?” Lily Evans said, throwing the door open and leaping out of the way as Sirius rushed inside. “Sirius? Are you alright?”
“Where’s the fire, Pads?” James Potter asked, his brown eyes twinkling as he watched his dearest friend sprint into the dining room.
“You did miss dinner,” Remus Lupin teased. He nodded at the apple crumble in the center of the table. “But I suppose you could have that for dinner.”
“No time for eating, I need your help.”
Everyone glanced at each other as his three friends settled back into their seats. “What’s the emergency, Sirius?” Lily asked gently, dishing up some apple crumble onto a small plate and pushing it towards where Sirius was pacing anxiously back and forth.
“So… It’s war, right?”
“Uh oh,” Remus whispered.
“What reckless thing did you do this time?” James laughed.
“Ha. Ha,” Sirius said dryly. “I mean… Well, it was reckless but.” He groaned. “Listen, you guys remember that muggle girl I was with? At the Weasley’s summer celebration dinner, and then our little party afterwards? I’ve been… Not at all dating her but seeing her for a little while now?”
They all nodded. “Susan, right?” Lily asked.
“Mmhm. So. She just sent a letter.” Sirius held out a crumpled piece of paper. “And now I need to figure out what the fuck to do with, well, that. ”
Lily accepted the paper, carefully read it over, then let out a surprised, excited shriek. “Oh my god! Is she serious?”
“What’s going on?” Remus asked, standing to read over James’ shoulder as James snatched the letter from his fiancee’s hand. “ Pregnant? ”
“I’m fucked,” Sirius groaned, clutching his black hair tightly with both hands. “Totally and completely fucked, right? What else could come from this but disaster?”
“She’s said she doesn’t want to marry you,” James said. “That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?”
“We didn’t really have a connection , or whatever you might call it,” Sirius muttered. “I don’t know what she wants from me. She just sent the letter, told me there was a little parasite on the way, and that was that.”
“But she clearly wants you to be a part of your child’s life, right?” Lily asked, skimming the letter. “I mean, why else would she send the letter if she didn’t want you to be involved? There was no connection, I assumed you haven’t talked since.” Sirius nodded. “Then, considering she isn’t interested in marriage, that could be the only possible explanation.”
“Wasn’t there loads of magic at that party?” Remus said suddenly. “How is this not a Statute of Secrecy breach?”
“We may have had a bit more than alcohol,” Sirius said, barely containing a mischievous grin.
“You’re terrible,” Lily said.
“Hey! I just… You know, we had hooked up before that. And- And then she wanted to spend time together now that I was done with school, I wanted a quick shag since I already knew she was good in the sack, and I wanted to go to the party! She doesn’t think magic exists, she just thinks she was a wee bit higher than I was.” He shook his head and waved his hand through the air. “I’m sorry, I feel like we’re getting a bit off topic here.”
“Hmm. Well, you’re going to have to tell her now that you have a kid on the way,” James said. “I mean, the kid will be a half-blood. Obviously, the chances of them being a witch or wizard is very high.”
“Fuck, I didn’t even think about that.” Sirius tugged on his hair again. “One of you know the process, ministry wise, to include a muggle in the wizarding world?”
“You care about jumping through ministry hoops now?” Remus said with a slightly forced grin.
“I mean, if it affects my kid, then yeah. Fuck. My kid. ” He collapsed into the nearest chair and let out a long, shaky breath. “How is this happening?”
“Well, Sirius, when a man and woman love each other very much,” James started, but Lily nudged him hard in the ribs, effectively silencing him.
“So, just so I understand it, she was pregnant when she was at the party?” Remus asked.
“Yeah.”
“It says in the letter she was kind of just… Ignoring it?” Lily said with a small, slightly judgemental sigh.
“Ignoring it for months ?” Remus said. “That is pretty heavy denial.”
“And you didn’t notice when you…?” James asked Sirius, who merely rolled his eyes but didn’t respond.
Lily frowned, silently counting in her head.. “So you’ll have a baby by the end of the summer! That’s amazing!” she said excitedly. Her smile vanished when she finally focused on Sirius again. “Hey, it’s going to be alright.” She stood and walked around the table to squeeze his shoulder. “We’ll help in whatever way you might need us, alright? First off, let’s meet this woman.”
“I mean, you already met,” Sirius muttered.
“Meet her sober, then,” Lily amended.
“Yeah, it’s going to be alright, Pads,” Remus said, walking around to squeeze his other shoulder. “You’re going to be a great dad.”
“I’m going to be a mess, but thanks, Moony.”
“Eh, your family was crap and you turned out great,” James said. “You’ll be fine.”
“So as far as standards for parenting go, um, there are none?” Sirius laughed.
“Yeah, well...” James grinned. “Maybe.”
“You’re no help at all!” Lily cried, shooting him an irritable look. “Sirius, I promise, everything is going to be okay. We’re here. We’ll support you. And I’ll make sure my future husband doesn’t corrupt your child.”
“It’s not James I’m worried about,” Sirius said, staring at his reflection in the goblet in front of him.
-
“So… You’re a wizard,” Susan said very matter-of-factly. “And you’re pretty sure our child will be either a witch or a wizard when they’re born because they’ll be. Erm.”
“A half-blood, yeah.” Sirius twisted his hands together in his lap. “My family’s pretty powerful so… Kid’s bound to be, too.”
“And if we don’t get married, I can’t be included in the wizarding world?”
“Uh, that I’m not entirely certain about. My friend, Lily, she’s doing some research on it. But, see, we’re a bit busy at the moment ‘cause there’s a whole war on and-”
“Wait, what?”
“Yeah. There’s this terrible wizard, he goes by ‘Voldemort’, and he’s trying to take over the entire world, starting with the wizarding world. He thinks wizards should rule and muggles, like you, should be serving us.”
“But you disagree, correct?”
“Of course,” Sirius said, slightly offended. “Muggles aren’t less than us just because you don’t have magic.”
“Hmm.” She nodded, running her hands slowly over her now very prominent baby bump. “And… And our child should grow up in the wizarding world, correct?”
“I think it would be the best thing for them.”
“Okay.” She slowly stood from his couch and started pacing the room. “Well, that is… A lot to take in.”
“Mm.”
“Can you prove it?”
“Um, I can’t do magic in front of you because the ministry will probably know somehow; honestly, it's a bit of a miracle I haven't been caught breaking that particular rule before. But I have magical items.” He stood and rushed over to the stand where his record player sat, grabbing a small mirror sitting beside it. “Oi! Prongs! You there?”
“Here, Pads. How’d the talk go?” James’s bespectacled face appeared in the mirror.
“Still going. Had to prove the whole magic thing, really should have seen that coming. Say hello!” He held the mirror up so Susan could see as well.
“Oh, my god,” she breathed.
“Uh, hello. I’m James. Best mate of Sirius since we started school. Really thought we’d be meeting at a lovely little brunch or something but I suppose this works too.” James waved awkwardly, looking anxiously at Sirius. “Uh, congratulations, by the way.”
“Mm. No. Uh-uh. This is too much.” Susan snatched up her purse and made for the door.
“Shit, one second, Prongs.” Sirius carefully set the mirror on the couch, then rushed after Susan. “Wait! Does this mean you don’t want me involved?”
“It means I only want you involved,” Susan replied, panic evident in her voice. She fiddled desperately with the lock on Sirius’ front door.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Look, I have no idea if it would even be possible to get rid of this unnatural thing by now.” She gestured furiously at her bump. “But if there’s any chance she is going to end up a magical weirdo like you and your friends, I don’t want any part of it. I will make sure she is brought safely into this world but after that, I want nothing to do with any of this.” She finally managed to undo the deadbolt, then froze. “Wait, the party. All those floating glasses and bunches of flowers that seemed like they were singing. That was all real, wasn’t it?”
“Uh… Well…” Sirius rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah?”
“No. No thank you. I will give you your child and then I never, ever want to hear from you again.”
“Susan-”
“I already didn’t want a child. This just… This just makes it easier to let her go.”
“You keep saying ‘her’,” he said softly.
“I just have a hunch. I don’t really know,” she answered. “I’ll send a letter when she’s born. You’ll come collect her at once and then you will never speak to me again, do you understand?”
“But I-”
“It’s that or the orphanage.”
Sirius frowned, remembering the description of a muggle orphanage that was in Lily’s hometown. “I’ll take her,” he said immediately. “I’m not letting her grow up all alone.”
She nodded curtly. “Look for my letter.”
“Will do.” He unlocked the sticky lock on the doorknob and held the door open for her. “Thanks for giving me a chance, I guess.”
“I just don’t want the thing myself. This is the best option.” She shrugged. “We had fun. We’re done.”
Sirius watched her stomp down the street, then shut and locked the door behind her. He fell against it, letting his head thunk back against the dark wood. “Fuck,” he murmured.
“Padfoot!” James’s voice shouted from the living room. “What’s happening!”
Sirius straightened back up and walked slowly to the living room to retrieve the mirror. “Well, that went about as terribly as I could imagine. Worse, actually.”
“Oh, Sirius, I’m so sorry,” Lily said, squeezing in beside James. “What happened?”
“She wants nothing to do with me, or our child. She said if I don’t take her, she’s headed for an orphanage the second she’s born.”
“She?” Lily said softly.
“Oh, Susan used it. Said she had a feeling.” Sirius let out a long sigh. “I… I don’t know about this.”
“Why don’t you reach out to Andromeda?” Lily suggested. “She’s had a child, she might be able to help. And you’d get to see little Dora again!”
“I do love that weird little kid.” Sirius nodded. “Okay, I’ll send an owl to her now.”
“Want us to stay in the mirror with you for a while?” Lily asked.
“No, I’ll be alright.” He glanced around his flat. “I think I should probably start rearranging some of the more… Pointy objects in here.” He groaned. “I am in way over my head.”
“To put it mildly,” James said, laughing harder than ever.