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Sirius took one last look at his rather impressive work in the garden before turning back to the back entrance of the house. He never thought that he would live in the old Black Mansion, that just screamed from every direction ‘We’re sickeningly rich’ thanks to the overwhelming amount of black and silver decorations. In his youth he found all of it rather tasteless and unappealing, it was a house but never a home, so he never expected to actually live here despite that for years he was the heir of the title of Lord Black. But well, after the war he needed a place to stay that would be livable and wasn’t Grimmauld Place and after moving in with Hermione they just never left and somehow they managed to change it into a real home. Still full of expensive and often even priceless things but not so cold and museum-like, like before. And if Sirius was honest with himself, after so many years in Azkaban and on the run, he was for the first time able to appreciate his aunt's taste in home decor, especially because she wasn’t so green obsessed like some other people in his family and she actually seemed to had preferred lighter colours. Sometime Sirius wondered how the woman, who completely rebuilded family mansion because ‘it was supposed to show our power, not cause depression’, was also Belleatrix's mother.
His musing about his screwed family tree came to an end when he reached the spacious kitchen filled with copper pans flying around and preparing Easter breakfast and in the middle of this controlled chaos, his beautiful wife.
“Is it done?” she asked, taking her eyes from her tasks only for a moment to look at him.
"Yup, everything for egg hunt Marauder's style is ready," he smiled proudly and dodged a small pan full of some sauce that was on its way to the stove, while he walked towards his wife.
"I'm not sure if I want to know what you prepared this year." Hermione shook her head but still smiled brightly when he kissed her cheek.
She could roll her eyes as much as she wanted at the amount of preparation he always put into preparing the egg hunt. It became a big deal in their family, a tradition of sorts, not because they were particularly invested in Easter, but rather it was a great occasion to do something fun and memorable for their children. Last year after the egg was found it grew legs and tried to run away forcing the little hunter to chase after them. In Sirius's opinion, this year was even better than the last, with the kids older he could do it even more of a challenge.
"You will learn soon enough." He put his arms around her waist hugging her from behind. "Girls still sleeping?"
"No, I woke them up a few minutes ago. I believe that they're big enough to dress by themselves, and I still have things to do before Remus and Tonks will be here." Hermione leaned a little bit onto him, but didn't stop her work.
"I will check on them in a moment," he promised, but for now he was content to just enjoy a quiet moment only with his wife.
"Oh, Bill and Fleur confirmed that they will join us soon too."
"So no Easter breakfast at Burrow. Fleur must be truly fed up with Molly who will be pissed when she gets to know that they spend the holidays with us," he couldn't help but chuckle.
"Us? I think that you mean 'you'. For her I'm still a poor victim that needs to be saved from you." Hermione didn't even sound angry, just thoroughly done with it.
Sirius groaned at the mere mention of what Molly thought about him, which was absolutely nothing good. Even after so many years she still held against him that he dared to fall for Hermione, no matter that she fully reciprocated his feelings. At first he could understand, after all their relationship was a huge shock to everyone minus Harry and Ron, who were with them during the Horcrux hunt, when they fell in love. However, despite passing years some people still didn't get over the fact, mostly holding their age difference against them, even if twenty years wasn't that much in their world, after all wizards lived longer than Muggles.
"Molly's still hoping that you will get together with Ron?" Sirius asked, even if he could suspect the answer, especially after the last time Hermione met Molly, while visiting Harry and Ginny.
He personally avoided her like fire, that woman hated him and he truly didn't need a repeat performance of her attempt at cursing him. Like she had tried to do after he kissed Hermione right after they won the battle of Hogwart and later when they found out about her pregnancy. He killed Belleatrix, he wasn't afraid of Molly Weasley, but that didn't mean that he enjoyed being treated like a pervert for loving his wife.
"Unfortunately. How long do you think it will take Padma to get fed up with this?" Hermione asked with pity for the other woman in her voice.
"Now, when Ron finally gathered his shit together and proposed? I can bet that we can safely count them for Christmas dinner." Sirius stated confidently and let go of Hermione to not interrupt her work and tasked himself with sending plates and utensils to the dining room.
They worked together for a few moments in a comfortable silence but when Sirius wanted to go to collect their girls he heard Hermione hiss in an obvious pain. He turned around and like he expected she was rubbing her swollen belly and wincing slightly.
"Reggie again bothering you?" he asked softly and came closer to rest his hand on her stomach which immediately earned him a strong kick to his left hand.
"Yes, he is using my kidneys as his punching bags." Hermione grimaced, but still smiled down fondly.
"It's not much longer." Sirius kissed her, while his palms rubbed small circles hoping to calm down his wayward son.
"I'm honestly dreading it, considering what hard time he is giving me now." Despite complaining she kept smiling. "Girls were much calmer, and look what grew out of them."
Sirius couldn't help but grin proudly at the thought about his two little mischieves. "The new generation of Marauders. But hey, maybe Reggie will be the opposite and grow calmer with time."
Hermione threw him an incredulous look before rolling her eyes at him. "Sirius, he is your son. There is no chance that a child with your blood would be anything but mischievous and I wouldn't have it any other way." She pecked him shortly on the lips, before taking a step back. "Go, check on the girls."
Sirius shot her a grin and leaned closer to her belly. "Reggie, be good for your mum," he said in a stern voice, which earned him a laugh from Hermione, they both knew that she was the parent that enforced the rules.
He knew that he didn't have much time before the Lupins would come, but he still stopped at the door and looked at his wife bussing herself with the last preparation. Maybe he was biassed, but she looked good pregnant, practically glowing and so so happy. On his way to their daughters' room, he couldn't help but compare this one pregnancy to the previous one. It was different in nearly every way.
Well, it was planned… he still remembered the shock when they learned about their first one. It shouldn't be as surprising as it was, considering that they were too busy celebrating that they survived the war to think about casting any contraception spells. They were high on the victory, on finally being able to explore the bond between them, on being able to share more than tentative, chaste touches and forehead kisses. And exploring they did and not even two months later reality poured a bucket of ice water on their heads. Truthfully, it wasn't pretty back then, they weren't sacred, they were terrified. Not about having a child together, maybe it was early but they both knew that the other was the one. Not even about parenthood itself, they didn't even reach that part, not looking so much into the future. No, actually they didn't expect that pregnancy to last and it scared them more than anything. Hermione's body understandably wasn't in the best condition after spending so many months on the run with scarcare resources and with tortures on the hand of Bellatrix. So they expected that she would have lost their child soon.
The months after that were strange. On one hand they did everything possible in order for her to not lose her pregnancy, but on the other, they barely acknowledged it, keeping their hearts away from it. They didn't admire her growing belly nor discussed names nor bought any baby clothes. They didn't wait for her to start showing, for her to not be able to hide it under her clothes, for her to feel the first movement, nor for him to feel them too. They didn't mark any of those milestones, because they feared that it would be the last. For a long time, especially after Hermione's belly became clearly visible, they even avoided others, not wanting anyone to know, which raised many suspicions, mostly people accusing him of isolating his young and vulnerable wife. Literally the only person that had been in the know was their midwife that had been paid handsomely for home visits.
Basically until the middle of the eighth month they hadn't dared to hope, it was only then that they started to make some tentative plans and preparations. Still, they truly believed that everything would be alright only when they held their daughters in their arms. Yes, daughters, because of course they got twins, Hermione still called it their first ever prank. Oh, and the chaos that occurred after they announced their birth. Molly even sent him a howler. Yes, to a house with two newborns. Sirius was sure that Hermione would murder her for that. However it didn't manage to blemish their happiness from the birth of Esperanza and Milagros, hope and miracle in Spanish, because it sounded much better than in English.
Sirius finally reached the door to his daughters' room and knocked, before entering to be greeted by two identical faces and big smiles.
"Hey daddy."
Both girls were sitting on Esper's bed and braiding each other's hair. Thankfully they inherited its texture from him and only the light brown colour from their mother, which made lives of them all much easier. In overall they looked more like him, even having his grey eyes, so now he hoped that Reggie would at least get his wife's gorgeous brown eyes.
"Are you finished yet, Bunnies?"
Both girls nodded after a second when they finished putting hair bands on their braids. For being five years old, they were pretty independent and Sirius just needed to adjust small buttons on the backs of their dresses. It looked like he and his wife shared a mind, considering that both girls were in dresses with moving bunnies on them, a gift from aunt Fleur from her visit in France, a blue for Esper and mint for Mila. Having two daughters definitely taught him to properly name colours.
"So are you ready for Eggs Hunt?"
Their eyes lit up with anticipation and both ran past him with a squeal. He followed them at a much more moderate pace and reached the bottom of the stairs just in time to join his wife and greet Remus, Tonks and their son Teddy.
"Hermione, you look ready to burst," Tonks teased, rubbing her own nearly equally swollen belly. She was only about a month behind the other witch.
"I wish. This one doesn't want to stay still." Hermione laughed as they hugged or rather tried, considering that their bellies stood in the way and then led her to the back of the house.
At the same time Teddy greeted the girls and they were talking excitedly in hushed voices, which was a very bad thing that could mean that they were already plotting something.
"What did you plan for this year's hunt?" Remus asked, looking at their kids with the same apprehension on his face that Sirius himself felt.
"I…" he stopped, noticing that the rugrats suddenly quieted and were obviously listening. "You will learn soon," he looked pointendly at their kids.
"Sirius Orion Black!" Hermione's yell reached them from somewhere in the back of the house.
Immediately Remus looked at him suspiciously. "What did you do?"
"Nothing to guarantee this." Sirius shrugged and hurried into the direction of the door to the garden.
"Yes, Kitten?" he asked innocently, despite having a really good idea what was the reason.
His wife, like he predicted, was standing in the doorway, facing the garden. "Sirius! What the hell is that?"
He hugged her from behind and looked over her shoulder at his handiwork. "Bunnies," he replied, trying to not sound too smug.
"I see that, but why did they take over my garden?!"
Yeah, it was a good way to put it, considering that the entire lawn was nearly completely covered by fluffy bodies of different sizes and colours, some even had flapped ears or long fur. His daughters would love it, he had no doubts.
"Don't worry, they're magical and will disappear before tomorrow," he explained, but still earned himself a glare from Hermione even if she sighed in relief. "They also don't eat, so don't worry about plants."
"You know that after this, girls will want real bunnies on their own?" She asked, turning her head and looking at him with disapproval.
He had to admit that it was a very valid point, as their daughters had been asking about a pet for a few months already but well maybe it was the right moment to get them one. For example to distract them from a new baby in their family.
"I'm confident in the fact that they want a puppy more." Dogs were better after all, right? "Maybe we should finally get them one."
"And how will you feel about not being the only dog in the family?" Tonks teased when she came up behind him.
"Great, I would have somebody to play tug war with." Sirius smiled sincerely at the idea, which seemed to render everyone speechless.
The silence didn't last even a minute when Sirius felt three small bodies run past him with an absolutely deafening scream of delight.
"Well at least they definitely like it," Hermione sighed.
They gave their kids a few minutes to get over the initial excitement, knowing well that trying to take them now to breakfast would be not only pointless but impossible. And soon another one in a matching pink dress joined them.
"Oh, it seems that Bill and Fleur are here," Hermione stated while looking at their girls welcoming their best friend Victoire. "Kids, the Egg's hunt is after breakfast, so we all are going to the dining room," she ordered in a stern voice, one that Sirius definitely shouldn't find hot.
"Can we take bunnies with us?" Esper, as the usual representative of the mischievous bunch, asked with wide hopefully eyes.
Sirius even felt that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to agree to this compromise, but he knew better and let his wife handle it.
"No, darling. Bunnies don't belong in the dining room." It caused Sirius and Remus to snicker, but Hermione either didn't hear them or simply ignored them and continued. "The quicker you eat your breakfast, the quicker we all will come back to the garden."
In Sirius's opinion his wife's voice was real magic considering that all the children pouted but dutifully put the bunnies down and walked to the house. All the adults followed after them and back to the hall where Fleur and Bill with little Dominique in his arms waited for them. However to a big surprise of probably everyone, and definitely Sirius, they weren't alone but rather accompanied by Ron and his fiancée, Padme.
"I hope that you don't begrudge us our presence, but we had to escape my mother," Ron said sheepishly with an apologetic smile.
"Yeah, Mrs. Weasley was in a foul mood because Charlie didn't visit with his boyfriend," Padma added with a wince.
"No wonder after last Christmas, when she spent the entire time calling Alex his 'friend' ." Bill rolled his eyes at his own mother.
"Exactly, then it turned out that Bill and Fleur will be here so Mrs. Weasley started lamenting about your terrible fate and what a shame that Ron didn't manage to save you. Right in front of me," Padma fumed.
"Don't worry, we accept all the refugees from the Burrow," Sirius chuckled and earned himself smack to the arm from his wife.
"Sirius wanted to say that we have enough food to feed an army so you're more than welcomed," Hermione corrected with a small glare in his direction. "We're just waiting for Andy to start."
"Speak of the devil," Sirius murmured, when the fireplace in the hall roared to life and his cousin stepped from it.
Like summoned, his and Remus' kids appeared from the dining room and threw themselves at the newest guest with a shout "Granny!"
Despite the fact that Andromeda was his cousin, which made her girls' aunt of some sort, they took to calling her Grandma, just like Teddy did. Thankfully she didn't mind and happily accepted the position, which was fortunate, considering that his mother was dead (luckily), and Hermione's still lived in Australia and didn't visit often.
Hearing his daughters babbling about bunnies, he couldn't stop a fond smile. His family, so imperfectly perfect, he just couldn't wait for the chaos of the Egg hunt.