A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

The maternity waiting room at St Mungo's was particularly busy on the night of July 30. In room thirteen a red-haired young woman sweated profusely as motherhood loomed. Standing dutifully by her bedside, her equally young husband turned redder and redder as his hand was crushed within the vice-like grip of usually gentle fingers. But he didn't complain; he and his wife shared everything - apparently, even pain.

Outside the door, with its frosted glass and distinct lack of soundproofing, several other people waited anxiously. The first, a middle-aged man, sat on the edge of his seat, his head in his hands. With every yell he cringed, not enjoying the reminder that his little girl was no longer a child and that for the first time in her life, he could be of absolutely no assistance. He'd fainted stone cold during his elder daughter's labour, and the younger, now bellowing like an angry rhinoceros, had categorically banned him from the room.

Another, a short, chubby young man cradled his fifth cup of coffee between shaking hands and choked on his biscuits every time the young woman cried out. He had spilled more of the liquid down his front than had so far reached his mouth. To his left sat another young man; this one habitually pushing a sandy fringe from his eyes, completely ignoring the book open on his lap - the pages of which had not been turned for at least three hours. Every now and then he would reach out and tug another person - a tall, boyish figure with thick black hair knotted in a leather thong - back into his seat and order him to stop biting his nails or declare that his pacing was driving him mad. Sometimes, when the fair-haired young man did so, the taller of the two would flop onto his shoulder and groan "What's taking them so long, Moony?" as he buried his face into the crook of his neck. For a moment Moony would turn his attention away from the door he been staring fixedly at, and allow the other man a squeeze and a few words of reassurance that everything was quite alright.

At three thirty-three precisely the four men in the waiting room gave a collective start and sat up, gazing around at each other. There had been a sound that was most certainly not Lily. And while it was uncannily similar to the sort of noise James, her young husband, made when he was playing Quidditch, it was most definitely the sound of the newest Potter coming into the world. All four of them leapt to their feet, clamouring to be the closest to the door, which was rather fortunate, for the moment James flung it open, his hair for once lying completely flat - plastered to his head with sweat - and his eyes wide and shining, he collapsed in an inelegant heap, only to be saved by the close proximity of his friends and father-in-law.

"What is it?" Gerald asked, anxiously, trying to peer over the young men and catch his first glimpse of his new grandchild.

"B-b-boy..." James managed as the others hauled him to his feet, only to be knocked halfway back down again as Sirius, the tall, dark-haired young man, thumped him triumphantly on the shoulder with a whoop of delight.

Moony ducked out of the way and slipped into the room. Lily sat on the metal bed looking very tired and holding in her arms a small, pale yellow bundle of blankets. "It's a boy?" he asked quietly, a tiny, tentative smile on his lips. Lily nodded her head and gently pushed back the cloth to show a pair of unfocused green-blue eyes blinking bewilderedly. "Looks like he's going to have the Evans' eyes," he smiled, reaching out a finger and promptly having it snatched up by the tiny child. Lily raised the blanket a little further to reveal a tuft of jet-black hair.

"And hair like his daddy," she whispered, giving the child a lingering loving look.

"What're you calling him, then, Jimmy-boy?" Sirius's voice demanded as he and the small, plump young man half dragged their friend back into the room. "Here y'are, Pete, let's dump him on the chair."

"Well," Lily began wistfully, "actually, we were expecting a girl - "

"I bloody told you not to listen to Trelawney, Lils!"

"- so we haven't really thought of any boys' names..."

"I reckon you should call him something... I dunno, something cool, mysterious... perhaps you could name him after some celestial giant..."

"You wouldn't perhaps mean something along the lines of... let's see... a star, would you?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Now you're talking, Lilian!" Sirius grinned.

"Yes, she's also now thinking of a name with absolutely nothing to do with space, you arrogant git," Moony muttered, elbowing the other man with amused annoyance.

"What? Sirius is a great name!"

Those gathered politely ignored him.

"Here you go," Lily said suddenly, shifting the newborn Potter into an easier position and holding him out carefully for Moony to take. "You hold him first, Remus."

The fair-haired man stood rigid and stared at her. "Me?" he asked anxiously. Lily nodded, smiling. "No, Lils, I couldn't -"

"Well, I'm not letting James hold him while he's in that state and mum is tending to dad - you take him."

"Lily, really, I-"

"Moony, take the kid, will you, I want my turn some time before day break!"

Hesitantly, the fair-haired young man brushed his hair out of his eyes one last time and held out his hands for the gurgling bundle. The newborn made a small choking cry and wriggled slightly. "Take him back," Remus said quickly, "he doesn't like me. Children know things adults-"

"Shush!" Lily scolded gently, "Just be patient."

Grimacing, slightly, Remus took a deep breath and shifted the little bundle into a more comfortable position. The tiny pink baby blinked at him again, before closing his eyes and snuggling down into his arms. Sirius, leaning over his shoulder to look, gave a grin and murmured, "Somehow, Moo, I think he quite likes you. I reckon he smiled."

"Newborn babies don't smile, Sirius, because they can't."

"Ah, rubbish! That sprog's going to spend half his life laughing, seeing as he's the start of the Marauders MkII and everything. He's got to start early, hasn't he?"

"Oh no no - you four aren't turning my son into a little tearaway!" Lily told them, a false scowl on her face.

"Of course we won't," Remus replied softly, stroking the newborn's cheek with a gentle finger. He gazed down at him in silence for a few lengthy moments, before suddenly handing him to the dark-haired young man behind him and leaving the room.

Sirius cringed at the slamming of the door and gave the child one last regretful look before sighing and carefully handing him back to his mother. "PMT," he muttered, "back in a bit. And Pete - try not to drop him, eh?"

It took nearly a quarter of an hour for him to find Remus. He finally spotted him on an ugly stone balcony from a window two stories above. With a sharp pop he apparated down to where the other young man stood.

"Pre-Moon Tension?" he teased, wrapping an arm around his waist and planting a soft kiss on the side of the sandy head. Remus gave a sigh and shrugged.

"Perhaps."

"Bit early this time, isn't it? There's still nearly a week before the full..."

"I know."

"So what's the matter, Moo?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"You reckon?"

"No. You probably wouldn't..."

"Bollocks! I'm a pillar of compassion!"

Remus merely gave a weary sigh and shook his head.

"Alright," Sirius challenged, "let me guess." He mused for a moment before declaring, "Got it."

"Have you?" Remus muttered doubtfully.

"Yeah. You had a bet with Pete that it was going to be a girl."

"That's not the point!"

"So what is the point, eh, Moo? You've started acting stroppy - like Lily was before she had the baby, getting upset over nothing!" He paused and pretended to look horrified, "Re - you're not pregnant, are you?" To his surpise he did not coax a smile from the other man, just a small shake of the head. Worried, he pulled him into a proper hug and asked softly, "Hey you, what's the matter? We're all supposed to be happy! We've got the next generation Marauders starting there!"

Remus gave another heavy sigh and asked, "Would you think I was a bad person if I said I was jealous?"

"Jealous?" Sirius echoed, before giving a sudden chuckle. "Oh Moony, don't be a sap! James may be a little family man, now, but he's still going to have time for us lot! He knows we'd kidnap him and tie him naked to a lamp post in Azerbaijan if he didn't! Little James MkII isn't going to take him from us."

There was a lengthy pause before Remus said, "I'm not jealous of the baby, Siri. I'm jealous of Lily and James." He pulled away and moved to lean on the balcony wall, looking rather ashamed.

For several moments Sirius scrambled through his brain to think of how to respond to that particular revelation. They had barely been a couple for a year, despite having known each other half of their lives. Sirius was far from sure that he was ready to settle down. He still lived at home with his parents, for pity's sake! Remus had no family to live with, it was true, but he was even younger than Sirius and Sirius was not sure that he was ready for something like that, either. Before he could find anything to say, the other young man spoke again.

"I'll never be able to have that..."

"Re..."

"I won't. Even if I were straight - if I were likely to settle down with a woman - I would never be allowed to... to breed." He gave a dark snort of laughter. "That is what they consider it, you know - breeding."

The Department for the Regulation of Sub & Part-Human Entities. Sirius hated them. It was not something he would have passed a second thought about, had he not grown up with a werewolf; but he had. He grew up and fell in love with one and knew, perhaps better than anyone else, just why their treatment as beasts - dark creatures lacking in wit or morals - was wrong. Remus was the sweetest, most highly intelligent and respectable person Sirius had ever met. He deserved better.

Carefully, Sirius approached the young man and wrapped his arms around him comfortingly. "Maybe they'll change the law, Moo... you're still really young - you've got plenty of time for that."

"I have?" Remus asked softly. "No, Siri, the Ministry can change the laws but they can't change basic biology."

"Then, maybe you'll be allowed to adopt-"

"You seem rather reluctant to imply that you would be part of that, Sirius... Do you have any specific plans that in which I don't feature, or are they all general?"

Sirius gave an exasperated sigh and gave the other young man an uncomfortably tight squeeze. "Don't be a misery, Remus - I just... well neither of us know what's going to happen in the next month, let alone the next ten years! You could be sick of me this time next year, anyway..."

"I haven't in the past ten, have I?" Remus replied, a small smile playing on reluctant lips.

Sirius relaxed his grip and gave him a gentle kiss on the top of his head. "I'm just... not ready to do a James, Moony..."

"I know you're not. And I don't think I would be yet, even if I could... But one day... I would have liked to. And I think that knowing I can't makes it worse."

They stood in silence for a while, staring out over the City of London from a vantage point unseen to the rest of the world. Lights shone for miles around, a tiny, twisted galaxy of its own. At the start of their adult lives and yet so few options open to them. Their families were being picked off one by one as the War grew in pace. Sirius knew that above anything Remus treasured family. Now that his parents were both gone he had no one - except his friends. And the tiny baby in the room across the hospital.

"Re," Sirius began tentatively, "I know that things... that we couldn't have our own kids even if we wanted to - and that's not to say we don't or anything, but-"

"It's okay, Siri - there's no need to walk on eggshells... I know the truth... it just makes me sad, that's all."

"Re, we're going to have James and Lily's baby, aren't we? We can look after him and spoil him and never have to tell him off, so we'll be - we'll be the good guys, won't we? We can babysit and buy him dangerous Christmas presents that Lily'll try and confiscate and we can teach him Quidditch - well, alright, James and I can teach him Quidditch - but you could read to him and things..."

Remus began to smile at his boyfriend's sudden, irrepressible enthusiasm. He'd pretended to be annoyed that James was giving them up "for a woman and a sprog" for months, but had secretly admitted that he really wanted to be a godfather, then denied ever doing so. He was far too proud for his own good, some times.

Remus turned around and wrapped his own arms around the taller youth. Sirius meant everything to him, as long as he had Siri he could get through anything - anything at all. He stretched up and gave him a kiss. "Come on," he said, "let's go and see if Peter's dropped the baby, yet..."

"He'd better bloody not have!"

When the pair meekly pushed open the door of the delivery room they found Lily and James sitting together on the bed, James holding his newborn son. The others had disappeared.

"Sorry - are we interrupting?" Remus asked carefully, starting to leave.

"No - no, not at all. Come in - we wanted to tell you something," James grinned.

"Where are the others?" Sirius asked, closing the door.

"They've gone for some coffee in the hope that Pete can finally get some in his mouth instead of down his shirt!"

"Oh James, leave him alone - it's nice that he was so concerned!"

"Er - what did you want to tell us?"

"Oh, that - yes, we've thought of a name."

"Have you?"

"Yes. We're going to name him after Moony."

Remus blanched. "You can't! You can't possibly the poor boy Remus - it's a dreadful name!"

"It's alright, Re - we aren't calling him that," James grinned.

"No? Well, what then?"

"Well," Lily began, grinning, "you can actually that Peter for it. He bought Harry a fluffy sheep-"

"-and when we asked him why he said-"

"'I thought he's best off being more like Remus than any of us-'"

"And we said, 'What?'"

"And he told us that last time you all went for a run under the moon-"

"-you two were harrying sheep!"

"Of course, he meant 'worrying', but we've decided that we're going to call him-"

"Harry!"

Remus looked at Sirius whose eyebrows twitched for a moment and they both burst out laughing.

"Harry..." Remus said slowly, trying out the word and leaning over to look at the baby. "I think Harry suits him, don't you?"

Sirius grinned, "Absolutely. When can we train him up to transform, Prongs?"