For Our Parents Willed So

For Our Parents Willed So

*

Surprises

*

"Lucius?" asked an amused voice from the doorway. "Are you awake, Lucius?"

"Mmm... What?" the blond man said, tearing his eyes at last away from the letter in front of him. He immediately saw the familiar form in the doorway; a tall, darkhaired teen with Quidditch-toned muscles and a self-confident smile.

"I said, are you awake?" repeated Sirius, grinning slightly. Taking a couple of steps further into the new Potions Master's quarters, he pushed a dark lock of hair away from his eyes. His hair was an irritating lenght, just long enough to fall on his eyes but not long enough to stay behind his ears, and Sirius fully insisted on keeping it that way.

"Well, as you see, I am," the man replied dryly, standing up and walking around the desk. "I just received some... surprising... news, that's all."

"Surprising news?" echoed the boy, eyeing him warily as he approached. "And what, pray tell, is that?"

Lucius noticed the boy's slight uneasiness as he walked still nearer; Sirius was not used to be this near him. But he wanted to tell the news this way, for it concerned Sirius as much as himself. It was not a thing he could just shout from the other side of the room.

"Sirius," he said with a serious tone he didn't recall using ever before, "Sirius, my father is dead."

"What?" asked Sirius in disbelief. "Forgive me, Lucius, I thought I heard you saying that your father is dead. Surely that isn't correct?"

"In fact," the blond said, "it is. My father no longer lives. Seemingly he'd got a heart attack, and just dropped dead."

Sirius's eyes showed an interesting mix of emotions as he thought about this - surprise, shock, relief, it all. Then, he said said, "So... Neither of us will have to become Death Eaters?"

"No," confirmed Lucius, and bit his lip silently in order to keep quiet as he saw the look of total relief on Sirius's face. The teen was keeping up so loud and self-assured facade that it was easy to forget that he was still just a child, a child who was afraid of becoming something he feared. Now, however, the child was surfacing in this huge wave of relief and joy, and it unsettled Lucius slightly. Suddenly he wanted to protect this boy, protect him from the dark world he was obviously too young to enter yet.

Then, however, he shook the sudden feeling away. Sirius Black was more than well capable of taking care of himself, that much was clear. In their last meeting the boy had revealed that they were very near a breakthrough in their studies in Animagia, as well as asked whether he could have another registration form filled. This time, it would be for the Lupin boy - it'd be suspicious, Sirius said, if someone checked the registries and found the three of them there, but not Lupin. The werewolf was a clever boy, and good enough in Transfiguration. If it'd taken Pettigrew only two and half years with Potter and Sirius's help to almost complete the transformation, considering his incompetence in anything practical, surely his more skilled fiancé could do it even faster?

"So, was it good news enough?" he therefore asked in a slightly teasing manner, trying to mask his odd emotions. Seemingly he'd managed, for Sirius didn't seem to suspect anything.

"Why do you even ask?" the Gryffindor grinned, flashing a bright smile to him. "Nothing could be better news! You don't realize how happy I am!"

'I think I have a rather good picture of that,' Lucius thought to himself. Aloud he said, "Nothing, eh? Surel you do at least hope that we didn't have to marry?"

At that, Sirius turned a bit more serious, which was a great accomplishment from him. Then he said, "Well... No. I've simply come to live with that fact, I guess. You're not half as bad as some people I could have been engaged to, really, and at least I'll never have to worry about money."

Lucius chuckled. "Always the practical one, I see," he teased. "Besides, you being the oldest heir of Black, I highly doubt you'd ever have any worries about money anyway."

"You never know," Sirius replied, shrugging. "My parents aren't too fond of me, I'm a Gryffindor after all - 'a disgrace to the family,' if I recall my mother's words right. They've always liked Regulus better. The fact that I'm your fiancé is most probably the only reason they don't downright hate me."

"Poor little boy," said Lucius, accompanying his words with a mock-sigh. "Say, have they stolen your teddy bear already?"

"Brat," Sirius murmured. "For your information, I don't have a teddy bear."

"Like you said yourself, 'you never know,' my dearest fiancé," replied the Slytherin casually. "Fancy a match of chess?"

"Oh my, Lucius, on a party mood today?" asked the boy, raising his eyebrow mockingly. "I'd never believed this from you, you always seemed to be such a good little boy."

"Shut up, or I'll give you a detention," chuckled Lucius, then went to fetch the chess board.

*

As Sirius walked to the Gryffindor Common Room, all his friends were sitting in a circle in one of the corners of the room.

"You seem rather happy, Sirus," observed Remus from his comfortable position on Peter's lap. "What's the matter?"

Slumping down on an armchair, Sirius let out a sigh of pure relief. "His father is dead," he said quietly. "Lucius's father is dead and can no longer force him to anything."

At this, Remus, Peter, James, and Lily all smiled brightly. They knew all too well how fearful Sirius was about the fact that his fiancé might be forced to become a Death Eater. The Black Beater did not want to be like his younger brother Regulus, a joy to their parents' hearts, and therefore he kept as clear of Dark Arts as possible.

"And the other thing?" asked Peter readily. "The one you were supposed to ask about the last time? Did he say anything about it?"

To this, Sirius grinned, patting the pocket of his robe. "Everything's clear and well," he said cheerfully. "We have nothing to worry about."

"What are yo talking about?" Remus asked curiously and a bit suspiciously. "If it's anything dangerous, illegal, or against school rules, Peter shall have nothing to do with it. It's bad enough that you three spent the last Hogsmeade weekend in a detention, I'm not letting that happen again!" He turned halfly around, giving his fiancé a stern glance, one which was responded with a sheepish grin.

"Dangerous? Yeah, but not more than we can handle," James said cheerfully. "Illegal it's not, at least not anymore. And as for about school rules... Well, I think the Ministry's still above the school governors, right?"

Remus didn't say anything, but gave the bespectacled boy a glance that told clearly that he wasn't buying a word.

Sighing exaggeratedly, Sirius drew his wand, creating a silencing wall around the corner. Lily knew everything about their Animagia explorations, there was no need to shut her out of the conversation. Then he took the parchment scroll from his pocket, waving it in the air. "Would you like to become an Animagus, Remus?" he asked without any further talking.

Not a word was said. Remus just stared at him like he' lost his senses.

"Sirius is serious, dear, or at least as serious as he ever is," Peter said. "No pun intended, of course. What he has in his hand is your permission from the Ministry to start studying Animagia."

"What - how - why - who?" stammered the werewolf, unrolling the parchment as soon as Sirius tossed it to him. His golden eyes darted over the lines almost hungrily.

"You see, I, Peter, and James have almost completed the transformation," Sirius said. "It was originally Peter's idea - we thought that the wolf would not hurt animals." At this, he nodded slightly to Peter, who merely grinned in response. "Lucius helped us get registered - it'd be easier than cleaning the family's name if I was later put to Azkaban, he said. We didn't think you'd approve, so we didn't tell you, until now. If somebody checked the registers and found us three there, but no mentions of you, they'd become suspicious."

"You've done this - for me?" asked Remus, still disbelieving. He looked at first at Sirius, then at James, and finally at Peter, his eyes wide with astonishment and surprise.

"Anything for you, love," Peter said softly, kissing him on the forehead. "Thank Sirius and James, really. I'd never got this far without their help."

"But - you've got just a couple of years, three at most. How have you managed?" demanded the werewolf, now again staring at the parchment.

"Very well, actually," Sirius grinned. "I and Jamie have had rather little difficulties, and even Petey has done fine. I'm sure you'll complete the transformation in no time with three as brilliant teachers as we are!"

"I'm not sure whether I can do it at all," Remus said, now losing all his good mood. "Nobody can know what happens when I transform. What if the wolf takes control?"

"That won't happen," James assured him. "We've checked everything. There has been a couple of werewolf Animagi. Their animal form has been a wolf, yes, but the wolf side only takes control at full moon. Also, it'll be painless - if you're already in your wolf form when the moon comes up, you won't transform, you just can't turn back to human until the moonset."

"This is amazing," Remus whispered, tiny tears appearing into the corners of his eyes. "How can I ever thank you enough?"

"I think the boys would consider it quite enough if you helped them with their latest DADA assignments," Lily said dryly, now participating to the conversation for the first time. "From what I've gathered, none of them has written a single word yet, and they are due next Tuesday."

"Not done your homework, eh?" said Remus with a mock-strict tone, very much spoiling the effect by wiping away his tears. "Very well, maybe we should take a look at it then..."