Work Text:
Sirius stepped out of the fireplace and into complete chaos.
James and Albie were screaming at each other. Baby Lily was also red-faced and wailing, despite Harry bouncing her in his arms to soothe her. Ginny and Bertie were nowhere in sight, but Sirius thought he could hear the little boy crying from the back of the house.
“Sirius.” Harry gave him a blank look. “What…”
“It’s Remus’s birthday,” Sirius said, fighting back a laugh at the look of complete bewilderment on Harry’s face. “We were coming ‘round for dinner?”
Harry’s eyes widened comically. “Oh, shit.”
“Daddy, that’s a bad word!” Albie piped up. Taking advantage of his distraction, James threw a toy block at him. A quick bit of wandless magic from Sirius, and the block veered away from Albie, who started to cry anyway.
“James Sirius!” Harry barked.
“Here.” Sirius held out his arms, and Harry gratefully transferred the crying baby to him. “What’s she need?”
“A clean nappy and a change of clothes.”
“Right-o. Hello, love,” Sirius said to Lily Luna as Harry went off to mediate whatever fight James and Albie were having. “Let’s get you put to rights, hm?”
There was a diaper bag near the armchair. Sirius spread out a blanket from the bag and settled Lily Luna on it. She kicked and wailed as he carefully worked her out of her onesie.
“I know, darling, I know,” he cooed as he undid the snaps on her outfit. “I’m the worst granddad in the world, aren’t I? Yes, I’m being absolutely terrible to you, I know. My poor darling…”
He murmured nonsense to her while he changed her nappy and put her in a clean onesie, one that was patterned with broomsticks and Snitches. By the time he settled her in his arms again, she was only sniffling, and she stared up at him with tear-filled blue eyes.
“That’s better, isn’t it?” he said, bouncing her in his arms. He used his sleeve to wipe the tears from her cheeks and gave her a bright smile. “Yes, that feels much better, I know it does.”
The flames in the fireplace turned green once again, and Remus stepped through. James and Albie broke free from Harry, who was quietly scolding them, and ran over to him.
“Grandpa!” And suddenly Remus had two crying children in his arms. He shot Harry an alarmed look, and Harry could only shrug helplessly.
“Oh, my dears.” Remus stood, a child on each hip, and Sirius was once again struck by the preternatural strength that lycanthropy gave him. “What’s the matter?”
“Don’t coddle them, Moony, they’ve been right terrors all afternoon,” Harry said in exasperation. He gestured at the stairs. “I should go…”
“Go on,” Sirius said, and Harry took the stairs two at a time, presumably to see how Ginny and Bertie were getting on. “They forgot about dinner.”
Remus huffed. “Of course they forgot. They have three children and a newborn. I’ve got food for all of us ready in my kitchen, I just need help Floo’ing it over.”
“You’re a saint, Moony.”
“Just being practical, Padfoot.” Remus moved over to the sofa. He sat down with the boys on either side of him. They both cuddled up to him, and he kept his arms around them, holding them close. “Now. What’s wrong, you two?”
James and Albie spilled their woes to him. The baby was loud, and she cried all the time, and she smelled, and Mum and Dad were too busy with her and didn’t have time to play anymore--the list went on. Remus conducted a silent conversation with Sirius over Albie’s head, and Sirius nodded.
Ginny came downstairs to whisk Lily Luna off for a feeding. Harry followed a few minutes later with Bertie, who was clutching his hand and determined to master the stairs on his own. He then toddled over to where Sirius was sitting on the floor and collapsed in his lap, and Sirius covered his pudgy cheeks in kisses. Harry then disappeared back upstairs.
“How’s my favorite boy, hm?” Sirius murmured, and Bertie stuck his thumb in his mouth and grinned up at him.
“Hey!” James and Albie protested in unison, and Remus smothered a snort in Albie’s hair.
“Oh, alright, you are all my favorite boys,” Sirius said. “Now, listen. Can you two be big boys and help Grandpa? He has all the food for our dinner at his house, and he needs help carrying it over. And you’ll need to behave.”
James and Albie exchanged a look. The promise of food was a powerful one, and could mend all rifts, it seemed.
“Yeah, alright.” James hopped off the sofa, and Albie followed. “What did you make for dinner, Grandpa?”
“Broccoli,” Remus said, and James made a face.
“Just broccoli?”
“Just broccoli,” Remus confirmed.
“No, you didn’t!”
“Well, why don’t you come and see?” Remus said, and he reached for the bowl of Floo powder on the mantel.
When they had gone, Sirius allowed himself a few moments to cuddle Bertie, who didn’t complain about it the way that Albie and James now did. Merlin, he loved his grandchildren, and watching them grow was the greatest privilege in the world, but sometimes he wished he could freeze them all at this age, before they declared that they were big now and much too old for snuggles. He missed the days when he could stretch out on the couch with a fast-asleep James or Albie on his chest, his nose buried in their baby-soft hair. Someday soon even Bertie and Lily Luna would be too big for it, so he wanted to treasure these moments when he had them.
Finally, he got to his feet and settled Bertie on his hip. “What do you think your dad’s up to, hm?”
It turned out Harry was in the study upstairs, quickly wrapping some presents. Bertie watched the wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows swirling in the air around his father, eyes wide with undisguised delight.
“Sorry, love, that’s not for you,” Sirius said, catching Bertie’s little fist as he made to grab for one of the colorful bows. He kissed the tiny fingers. “It’s for Grandpa, remember?”
“I am so sorry about this,” Harry said. He looked frazzled, but then, he always looked that way these days. “Completely slipped my mind…”
He ran a hand through his hair, which was already sticking up in every direction. Sirius slung an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in for a quick hug.
“No harm done,” he said. “Remus has food for all of us, and we’ve got the kids well in hand.”
“Yeah, but it’s his birthday. He shouldn’t have had to…” Harry took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He let out a soft huff. “I didn’t know it was even possible to be this tired.”
Sirius dropped a kiss on top of Harry’s head. “Remus doesn’t mind.”
“Ugh, I’m the worst godson.”
“Wo’st,” Bertie agreed solemnly.
“You’re not the worst, pup.” Sirius tightened his hold on Harry. “You’re doing your best.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Harry said, though he still sounded dejected. Well, that certainly wouldn’t do.
“Come on,” Sirius said. He blew a raspberry against Bertie’s cheek, and the toddler squealed. Harry huffed out a laugh. “Let’s get Grandpa’s presents downstairs. He’ll be back any moment.”
Harry levitated the presents down to the kitchen and arranged them on the table. Sirius pulled a small bag out of his pocket and returned it to normal size with a tap of his wand, spilling even more presents onto the wood surface.
“Some of these are for the kids,” he admitted sheepishly to Harry, who rolled his eyes.
“You don’t need to bring them something every time you visit, Padfoot.”
“How else am I supposed to be the favorite granddad? I have a lot of competition, you know!”
Remus, James, and Albie returned then, arms laden with dishes, and Ginny and Lily Luna joined the unfolding chaos in the kitchen. Remus opened his gifts while everyone tucked into the food, and he was especially enthusiastic about the ones the kids had given him. They were too distracted by their own presents from Sirius to pay much attention when he thanked them, and Sirius grinned when Remus shot him an exasperated look.
“You can’t bribe your own grandchildren into liking you, Sirius Black.”
“I can, and I did,” Sirius said smugly.
Remus rolled his eyes and pointedly turned his back on Sirius to talk to Harry and Ginny. The conversation, as it usually did, turned to work. Harry was on a two-year sabbatical from Hogwarts while Ginny wasn’t due to return to Quidditch until next season, but they still kept up with their respective fields as much as they could. Remus had found some freelance work that involved proofing textbooks, and it was admittedly the happiest that Sirius had seen him in years.
“What about you, Padfoot?” Harry teased. He had his chin propped on his fist and the shadows under his eyes were prominent under the bright kitchen lights, but he was doing his best to rally. Poor kid. Sirius wished he could shoo him off to bed the way he’d been able to when Harry was fifteen and living under his roof. “Found any gainful employment yet?”
“Hold your tongue, child,” Sirius said, feigning outrage. Ginny snickered. “I’ve never done a day’s honest work in my life and I’m not about to start now.”
“Still waiting for someone to make you their trophy husband, then?” she asked.
“What’s a trophy husband?” James asked, and all four adults dissolved into helpless laughter.
“Sorry you had to cook your own birthday dinner, Moony,” Harry said once they had composed themselves. The three boys had gone off to play with their blocks and trains in the other room. “We didn’t even get you a cake!”
“Yes, you did,” Sirius said. He went over to the cold cupboard, opening it to reveal a large, chocolate cake.
“How did you do that?” Harry demanded.
“Magic,” Sirius deadpanned, and Harry threw a dinner roll at his head.
The boys scrambled back into the kitchen for slices of cake, which they finished in thirty seconds flat, and then James and Albie were off again. Bertie was content to sit on Remus’s lap and watch as Remus produced colorful bubbles from the end of his wand. Sirius had Lily Luna again. She was fast asleep now, her tiny pink mouth slightly open, and Sirius didn’t ever want to put her down.
“Why don’t you two go to bed?” Remus said finally to the two parents, who looked like they were about to nod off at the table.
Harry blinked at him. “What?”
“We’ll take care of the kids,” Sirius jumped in, and Remus nodded. “They just need baths, yeah? We’ll put them to bed and kip on the couch downstairs tonight. We can keep the baby with us for any nighttime feedings.”
Ginny looked like she might cry. “We couldn’t ask you to do that, really, it’s too much--”
Sirius lifted an eyebrow at her. “Are you denying me time with my grandchildren?”
“If you’re sure you don’t mind…” Harry said.
“Not at all,” Remus said. “The two of you need some sleep.”
It didn’t take much more persuasion than that. Harry and Ginny said goodnight to the kids, told them to be on their best behavior for their grandparents, and went upstairs to their room.
“I thought Ginny was going to fall asleep in her slice of cake,” Remus said. Bertie squirmed on his lap, and Remus set him down so he could run off to join his brothers.
“We should come over more often,” Sirius said, even though he was already here at least once a week. “Give them some more help, at least until this one isn’t quite so dependent on them.”
As though she sensed they were talking about her, Lily Luna woke herself up with a tremendous yawn and blinked up at Sirius with wide, blue eyes.
“Hello, my love.” Remus put a hand on Sirius’s shoulder and leaned down to kiss Lily Luna on her plump cheek. “Is Granddad monopolizing you? Yes, he is.”
“Oh, shove off,” Sirius muttered, but it was without any heat. He pushed the baby--gently--into Remus’s arms. “There you are, she’s all yours.”
Remus sniffed. “Oh, and just in time for a nappy change, too. Thank you, Sirius, how very kind.”
Sirius stuck his tongue out at him and went to check on the boys. They were busy laying down tracks in the living room for the enchanted train set they had been given for Christmas.
“Don’t think that’s going to work, mate,” he said as Albie balanced a length of track perilously on the arm of the couch. “Here, let’s try this instead.”
By the time Remus joined them, they had constructed an elaborate train track that looped through the whole living room and climbed the wall around the mantel. A model of the Hogwarts Express chugged along the track, white puffs of smoke billowing from its stack. Sirius collapsed dramatically on the couch next to Remus and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Good birthday?”
“Yes, it was wonderful,” Remus said. Lily Luna was asleep again, cradled in the crook of his arm and tucked between them. Sirius bent to drop a kiss on top of her head. She didn’t even stir. “Have you ever thought about having one?”
“Me? Mate, I’m sixty-one!”
“James’s parents had him at fifty,” Remus pointed out.
“True,” Sirius conceded. “But what do I need one for? I’ve got Harry and these four terrors.”
“You didn’t exactly get to raise Harry, though,” Remus said quietly. Sirius swallowed.
“I know,” he said. “But I’m happy with the way things are. Aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Remus said, but there was an odd quality to his voice. He wasn’t lying--Sirius was accustomed to his tells by now--but there was something Sirius was missing. He didn’t get a chance to probe further, though.
“Granddad?”
Even after six years, Sirius still got a little thrill every time he was called that. “Yeah, Jamie?”
“How come you and Grandpa don’t live together?”
“Ah, well...Grandpa has his cottage and I’ve got my house,” Sirius said, floundering slightly.
“But Grandmum Molly and Granddad Arthur live together,” James pointed out reasonably.
“And they kiss!” Albie piped up.
Sirius didn’t dare look at Remus. “Well, the thing is--”
“I think it’s time for their baths, Sirius,” Remus said, effectively distracting the boys, who gave groans of protest. “And then we’ll have a story after that.”
The boys brightened a bit at that. Grandpa read stories the best, after all, especially when he had Granddad with him to help do the voices.
They all ended up in James’s bed, which Sirius discreetly used an enlarging charm on, so that it could fit the two adults and three children. Lily Luna was fast asleep in her crib beside the bed, which Remus had levitated into the room.
Remus said that he would only read one story and then they all had to go to bed, so of course he got talked into reading three. By the end of the third, though, Bertie and Albie were fast asleep, and James was fading quickly even though he tried to hang on his grandpa’s every word.
They tucked James into bed, and then carried Albie and Bertie off to their rooms. Sirius then fetched Lily Luna and her crib while Remus built up a fire in the fireplace downstairs.
“She really is an angel,” Remus said as Sirius settled her crib next to the couch.
“Think she’s the last?”
“Given how utterly shattered her parents looked?” Remus laughed. “Yeah, I think she’s the last.”
“I dunno how Molly and Arthur managed seven,” Sirius said. Straightening, he placed his hands on his lower back and stretched, wincing as several vertebrae popped. “I’m exhausted, and they’re not even my kids.”
“You’re over here often enough they might as well be,” Remus teased.
Sirius liberated a bottle of wine from the Potters’ stash and poured them both glasses. He handed one to Remus and settled next to him on the couch. Remus huffed, but he sipped the wine anyway.
“I don’t think Harry will appreciate you nicking his wine.”
“He’ll get over it. He still owes me for that incident after his fifth year.”
Remus laughed. Harry’s one act of teenage rebellion--him and his friends drinking their way through most of Grimmauld Place’s firewhiskey one night late in the summer. The kids had all been so sick for the rest of the weekend that Sirius and the Weasleys determined that that was punishment enough, and the incident had never been mentioned again.
“So,” Sirius said, leaning back and taking a long swallow of wine, “how’s Xenophilius?”
“Fine, I suppose,” Remus said with a shrug. “He’s a grandfather now, too, did you know?”
“Oh, really? Who did Luna marry, again?”
“The Scamander boy.”
“Right.” Sirius frowned at him. “What do you mean, you suppose? Shouldn’t you know whether your boyfriend is doing well or not?”
Remus rolled his eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend, Sirius, and he never was.”
“Well, what else would you call...whatever it was you two were doing?”
Remus gave him a flat look. “Sex.”
“Oi, there are tiny ears here!” Even though Lily Luna was deeply asleep, and hadn’t so much as twitched during her grandparents’ hushed conversation.
“Don’t be such a prude, Padfoot,” Remus said, grinning. “How many times did I walk in on you with someone during sixth year?”
“You should have knocked!”
“It was my dorm room, too! You could’ve locked the door. Or at least drawn your curtains and used a silencing charm.” Remus cocked his head. “What’ve you got against Xenophilius, anyway? You’ve never liked him.”
“I never said that!” Sirius sputtered. “He’s fine, it’s just…”
“Just what?”
“Well, you could do better, that’s all. He’s a nutter.”
Remus laughed. “You’re a nutter for thinking that. Be reasonable. Who else would have me?”
“I would.” Sirius clapped a hand over his mouth. Merlin and Godric. He had only had one glass of wine. How had that managed to loosen his tongue so much?
Remus’s smile froze on his face. With what sounded like forced lightness, he said, “Don’t be silly, Padfoot.”
“It’s not silly,” Sirius said. Unable to stop himself, he added, “You’re a catch. Anyone with eyes can see that.”
Shut up shut up shut up, his brain screamed at him.
“That’s kind of you to say, truly, but--”
“I’m not being kind!” Sirius said heatedly. “I’m just saying the truth. You’re brilliant, and you’re gorgeous--”
“Sirius.”
“--and you’re wonderful, and anyone who has you and lets you go is a fool. Xenophilius is an idiot.”
“No, he isn’t.” Remus frowned at him. “Sirius...are you jealous?”
“What?” Sirius gaped at him. “No! Of course not. Why would I be?”
Remus tilted his head to the side, considering him.
“Put down your glass,” he said as he leaned over to set his on the low table by the couch.
“Why?” Sirius asked, though he did as he was told, setting his on the floor.
“I want to try something.” Remus turned to face him. He bit his bottom lip, thinking, and Sirius was so distracted by how adorable it looked that he didn’t react when Remus grabbed his face and kissed him.
Sirius’s brain short-circuited. Kissing. Remus was kissing him.
Remus was kissing him.
It was like Sirius had forgotten everything he knew about kissing. He couldn’t figure out where to put his hands, and at the first tentative brush of tongue against his lower lip, he jerked back, startled. Remus quickly dropped his hands.
“Er--sorry, I just...”
“Do it again,” Sirius demanded. Remus gave him an uncertain look.
“Don’t worry about it, Pads, I wasn’t thinking--”
Sirius surged forward and pressed his mouth to Remus’s. Remus made a startled noise in the back of his throat, but he responded beautifully, opening immediately for Sirius. When Sirius next came back to himself, he was half on top of Remus and his shirt had been rucked up around his middle. Remus’s lips were red and kiss-swollen, and he looked slightly dazed.
“Erm.” Sirius cleared his throat. “Right. Well. Maybe I was jealous, after all.”
Remus grabbed a fistful of his shirt and yanked him down for another kiss. Some indeterminate amount of time later, Sirius drew back, slightly breathless, and said, “You know, Harry also owes me for that one time I walked in on him and Ginny--”
“No.” Remus swatted his shoulder. “Not in our godson’s living room, and not with the baby right there.”
“Spoilsport.” But Sirius shifted off of Remus so that he could reach his wand, and with a flick, he transfigured the couch into a relatively comfortable bed. “I can at least hold you, yeah?”
“I’ll be rather cross with you if you don’t.” They stripped down to t-shirts and pants and crawled under the blankets. It was awkward at first, trying to arrange arms and legs in comfortable positions, but eventually Remus settled on his side with his back to Sirius’s chest and Sirius’s arm looped around his waist. Remus laced their fingers together. “How long have you wanted to do that, exactly?”
Sirius considered lying, but the darkness compelled him. There was something about confessing secrets in the night that made it feel safe. “Since fifth year, probably.”
“Mm. Me, too.”
“So we could have been doing this for the past forty-six years?”
“We truly are idiots, aren’t we?”
“Indeed we are. Happy birthday, old man.” Sirius pressed his nose to the back of Remus’s neck, and felt the rumble of Remus’s laugh in his own chest.
“Thanks for making it the best one yet, Pads.”