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Remus had sincerely hoped that by the Friday of Harry’s first week of school, Sirius would have calmed enough to arrive at the preschool at the appropriate pickup time but alas, here they were waiting by the gate nearly twenty minutes before the children would be released. It was at least marginally better than a few days earlier when Sirius had dragged him to school nearly an hour before the doors would open. Remus could practically feel him vibrating with excitement next to him. Harry was only attending the preschool in their neighborhood for a few hours each day but from the moment they dropped him off until the second school ended, Sirius was absolutely insufferable. He spend Monday moping into their couch, agonizing over each minute Harry spent away from them.
“But Moony, he’s just a baby!”
“He’s nearly five, we have to send him to school at some point. He probably should have started last year.” Sirius sighed and threw himself dramatically onto their couch.
“Come now, you knew this day was coming. It’s only a couple of hours and then he’ll be home all afternoon and evening with us,” Remus said as he sat next to Sirius.
“Sure now it’s just the morning. Next thing you know you’ll be wanting me to send him to school all day. All day! It’s madness!” Remus rolled his eyes as he pulled Sirius into his lap.
“You really are insufferable sometimes.”
By Wednesday Sirius had taken to pacing through their home like a madman on a rampage. Anything and everything in the wake of his warpath was liable to be destroyed.
Remus watched with increasing anxiety from his overstuffed armchair. The book he’d been reading lay forgotten on the floor. A loud crashed sounded from the kitchen.
“Buggering fuck!”
Remus sighed. It had barely been forty-five minutes since they’d left Harry. If this continued for the full three hours then there wasn’t going to be much of a house for Harry to come back to. Remus padded into the kitchen where he found Sirius glaring at the tin cups he’d knocked to the ground. Remus grabbed hold of Sirius’ wrist and started tugging him toward the door.
“Come on now the cups haven’t done anything to you.”
“Where are we going?” Sirius asked when Remus shoved his shoes at him.
“To the park. I suspect Padfoot needs to run around for a good while.”
Today though. Today was the worst. Only minutes after arriving back home their telephone had begun to ring. They had only gotten one so that the school would have a way of contacting them in the event of an emergency. Remus had approximately one second of a head start in order to beat Sirius to the telephone.
Remus reached the corded phone with just enough time to press the receiver to his ear while clapping his other hand over Sirius’ mouth. Remus felt rather than heard Sirius’ indignant squawk against his palm.
“Hello?... err, yes-no-um the other one... yes... yes... okay we’ll see you then.” Remus made sure the receiver was securely back in the cradle before releasing the hold on Sirius’ mouth.
“Is he okay? Is he sick? Hurt? Bored? Do we need to go get him?”
“Nothing of the sort Padfoot. His teacher just wants a word with us when we pick him up later.”
“Oh.”
The unfortunate incident with the telephone just left Sirius even further on edge all morning. Even still, they had made it to the end of the week. If Remus was honest with himself he’d not imagined them making it to today. At least not with his sanity and their house intact. But somehow Remus had made it through with only a few more grey hairs to show for it and everything that’d been broken was easily fixed with a simple reparo . In the quiet moments in between Sirius’ whinging and destruction of every artifact, book, and decoration in their house, Remus had to admit it was a little unsettling to not have Harry’s laughter filling the air. Harry had never been away from both of them for more than a hour or two here or there and when he had, it had always been with a trusted member of the original Order. McGonagall had even stepped in to help out on more than one occasion. From the moment Sirius had shown up at their apartment with baby Harry swaddled in his arms on Halloween night, they vowed never to let him out of their sight. James and Lily died protecting their boy and as such the torch had been passed to them.
As Sirius practically vibrated with excitement next to him as they waited outside the school, he couldn’t help but feel more than a little thrilled at the prospect of two entire days with Harry to themselves. The moment 11:30 rolled around, Sirius was tugging at the door handle, practically marching to Harry’s classroom.
Every minute spent without Harry was worth it though to hear his excited squeal when the two of them walked through the door. “Moony! Padfoot! Look! Look at what I made!” Harry was holding something dangling from a string that looked suspiciously like a pine cone dipped into peanut butter. “It’s got nuts and seeds and raisins and all sorts of stuff that birds like! Did you know that there are almost a million birds in our neighborhood? At least that’s what Michael said. So we made bird feeders! Can we hang it outside? Can we?” Sirius and Remus had both crouched down to his level as they attempted to keep up with the excited ramblings of an overstimulated four year old.
“Of course Harry! We’ll hang it wherever you like!” Sirius said once Harry had stopped to take a breath. “Go grab your coat and we’ll be off once we’ve had a little chat with your teacher” Harry beamed and ran off toward the coat cubbies.
“And here I was thinking a few hours at school might tire him out enough for nap,” said Remus.
Sirius threw his head back and laughed. “Nap? Our Harry? The boy hasn’t taken a nap in nearly two years. He’s Prong’s son, he’s not going to be running out of energy for at least the next fifteen.”
“It was worth hoping for,” Remus said shrugging. “Come on Padfoot, no sense in putting off the inevitable. Time to talk to the teacher.” Together they found themselves facing the short, plump woman they’d met only days ago on Harry’s first day.
“Ah, you’re Harry’s fathers,” she said as she shook their hands.
“Godfathers and legal guardians,” said Sirius.
“Ah yes, my apologies. If I can just have a moment to discuss some issues we’ve been having, it won’t take long.”
Remus didn’t like the sound of this and judging from the frankly murderous look on Sirius’ face, he didn’t either. But nonetheless Remus answered with a resounding “of course.”
“I’m sure you are both aware of what a bright boy Harry is. Already can write nearly all his letters and we’re just barely through the first week.” Of course they knew Harry was bright. He was the son of the two brightest minds Hogwarts had seen in decades and being raised by two others of equal esteem. “My co-teacher and I aren’t at all worried about that. We’ve no doubt that he will continue to excel and more than likely surpass the great majority of his classmates by the end of the year.”
“No surprise there. Harry has always been advanced for his age,” said Sirius none too kindly. Remus resisted the urge to kick him in the shin.
“Right well, it’s everything else that we’re struggling with.”
“Everything else?” Remus sputtered. “What do you mean?”
“At recess Harry has repeatedly thrown himself off the highest point on the playground claiming if he’d done it at home he would be flying and not face down in the dirt. We found him shoving dirt down another boy’s pants. When we asked him about it, he said the boy was being mean to someone but refused to tell us anything more. Toys Harry had been playing with just moments before up and disappear and we still haven’t been able to find any of them,” beside him, Remus could hear Sirius fighting laughter. This time, he did kick him in the shin. “He’s colored on nearly every wall in the classroom despite there being not a single crayon or marker not locked up in the art cabinet. When we have quiet time, Harry refuses to stay on his mat and instead tells stories about something called Babbity Rabbity to all the children who should be resting. If I didn’t know any better I’d say the boy was raised by wolves.”
All it took was one glance from Remus for Sirius to burst out laughing. And then both of them were cackling and doubled over with laughter. “Raised by wolves,” Sirius said between giggles.
“Yes, that does sound like our Harry,” said Remus. “So sorry Miss Brown,” Remus said as he tried to stop laughing. “That’s not the first time we’ve heard such a sentiment. We’ll be sure to work on his behavior over the weekend. Thank you.”
“Hey what’s so funny Padfoot?” Harry asked.
“Nothing. Nothing. All ready to go then Harry?” said Sirius. Harry nodded. “Well then, have a nice weekend Miss Brown. When they cleared the classroom Sirius swung Harry up onto his shoulders. “What do you say to ice cream for lunch Harry?”
“Yes!”
“Ice cream for lunch? Really Padfoot?”
“We’ve got to celebrate! Four years old and already living up to the Marauder legacy. He’s raised by wolves, Moony! Prongs would be so proud of that parent teacher conference.”
Remus smiled. “How does Florean’s sound to you, Harry?”