For Our Parents Willed So

For Our Parents Willed So

*

Achievements

*

It was a fine morning, Sirius noticed as he sat up on the bed he and Lucius shared. A few rays of sunlight came in through the high windows, and he could hear birds chirping outside. All in all, it was almost annoyingly bright and cheerful. Chuckling slightly, he got up and walked to the wardrobe.

Following Lucius's advice from their wedding day, he had truly bought himself about any clothes he might like. After a lifetime of being forced to look like a true Pureblood by his family, it was a relief to be able to walk around in Muggle clothing. So, putting on jeans and his favourite sweatshirt, he then went to the dressing table to brush his hair. Before, it had been half-long, always falling to his eyes, but during the last year or so he'd let it grow. It was still far from the length of Lucius's platinum waterfall of hair, but it did reach his shoulders now, and was a lot easier to keep away from his eyes that way. After getting his hair brushed, he then pulled it back onto a short ponytail and tied it with a blue ribbon. Yes, very good.

"Sirius?" asked a quiet voice. Turning around, he saw Lucius sitting on the edge of the bed. "You wouldn't care to help, would you?" asked the blond. He hated being helped, but really, there were no options.

And so, Sirius walked to his husband, like he did every morning. Pushing the wheelchair nearer to the bed, he watched as Lucius lifted himself into it, then followed the blond to the wardrobe. After Lucius had picked his clothing of the day -- a dark green robe -- Sirius helped him to get dressed. Then he watched as Lucius brushed his own long hair, which nowadays fell down to his mid-back.

"Very well," Lucius said at last. "Shall we yet again face the world and the beasts you call your friends, then?" He raised an eyebrow with an amused smirk, and Sirius replied it with a grin. Even though Lucius would probably never admit it on anybody's part but Severus's, they both knew that he was actually enjoying the presence of all the teenagers in the Malfoy Manor. Well, it certainly did bring a chance from his usual lonely life with only his mother with him in the Manor. This far everything had managed without problems, and Sirius didn't think they would meet any in the future, either.

However, breakfast already brought the first problem. Sirius had just noticed how tired and weary Remus looked, wondering briefly what was bothering his friend, when the smallest teen spoke up. "Lucius?" he asked quietly, not raising his eyes from his plate. "Is there any place in the Manor where you could lock me up tonight? I mean, sure, Peter, James, and Sirius can be with me without being in any danger, but the wolf has no reason to avoid attacking you others."

So that was it. It was the day of full moon. How had he ever managed to forget that? Most probably he was just too used to the fact that the other Marauders, being Animagi, were safe from Moony.

"I do think so, yes," Lucius said seriously, meeting steadily the amber gaze of the werewolf with his own silver eyes. "I take it would be the best if there weren't any recent traces of humans in the room to enrage the wolf, right?" As Remus nodded, he continued, "Well, there should be more than enough sufficient rooms in the dungeons of the Manor. However, I don't think many of those would be comfortable enough."

"I don't care about uncomfortableness," Remus said tiredly. "The transformation no more pains me, as I can turn into Moony well before the Moon is up. And, as I don't remember anything from the time the wolf's mind is in control, it doesn't matter how comfortable or uncomfortable the room is. The only thing that matters is that I cannot get out of there to harm you, Lily, Severus, or Junila."

For a moment, everybody was quiet. Then Lucius said simply, "I'm sure that can be arranged."

And that was all they talked about it during the breakfast.

*

Later, Severus caught Remus just as the werewolf was going to follow the other teens to the garden of the Manor. "Stay behind for a moment, will you?" he asked. "I have something to tell you."

Remus, of course, complied, following him into an empty sitting room. However, before Severus could even open his mouth to tell what he was going to tell, the werewolf spoke up.

"I know you are pregnant, Severus." That was all that Remus said, his voice as calm as his face.

The blind teenager was startled. "What?" he asked. "How'd you know?"

"I'm a werewolf, Severus, remember?" the smaller boy said with a tired chuckle. "I smelled it on you, and I heard the conversation between Cedric, Junila and Amanda. And, of course, I noticed your unusual sleepiness and all that. It is quite obvious, in fact. I wonder how everybody has managed to miss it."

"Well, I'm doing my best to hide it," said Severus, shrugging. "Lucius is brewing me a potion to keep the morning sickness at bay, as well as other potions to both protect the baby and keep it from developing further. I'll let the pregnancy go on once we've graduated." And then, sternly, he continued, "But that is not what I wanted to tell you. The true thing is this." And he drew a phial from the pocket of his robe.

"What is it?" asked Remus curiously. "I do not think I can recognize that."

"Well, I'd be very surprised if you could," Severus said. "We, Lucius and I, have both been doing research over the summer. Now, we've decided to try this. I have no idea whether it will work, but in theory, it should." Before Remus could ask anything, he continued, "If it does work, then it should make you able to control the wolf's mind during the transformation. But remember, that's only if it works like supposed."

For a moment, Remus was completely speechless. Then he said, "You -- you've found a way to control the wolf? But -- that should be impossible!"

"Oh, no," Severus said. "In theory, it should work just fine. However, it's the practical part we're worried about." With a sigh, he added, "So, I'm afraid you'll still have to be locked up, just to be sure."

"But if you lock me up," Remus said, "then how can you be sure that I would be harmless?"

"Easy," the Slytherin replied. "I'll just tell James to watch you, and if you look more peaceful than usually, he can transform into a human. Peter wouldn't do, as he is your mate, and that might interfere with it," he continued, "and Sirius might not be able to transform back in time if need be; James is much faster."

"I don't like that," Remus said, frowning. "You're asking me to endanger my friends!"

"No, I'm not," Severus replied calmly. "In case you've forgotten, we're talking about my fiancé here. I'd think that I'm risking more with this. And, like I said, James is well able to transform back if need be."

After a moment, Remus nodded, then, as Severus couldn't see that, said, "Okay. I will try it."

"Excellent." Severus now gave him a broad, rather uncharacteristic smile. "Now, just drink this. And be ware," he added as the Gryffindor raised the phial to his lips, "it tastes horrible."

Remus, who had just noticed it himself, grimaced. However, he forced himself to finish the potion. "I truly think this will work," he said then, giving the empty phial back to Severus.

The blind boy nodded. "As do I," he said quietly. Then he said, "Now, shall we go find the others?"

"Of course." Remus offered him his arm, and Severus grasped on it. Then, the werewolf led him outside.

*

Sirius quickly transformed into a dog, then followed his friends into the rather large room in the dungeons of the Manor. He hardly knew this part of his new home, and, seeing all the gloomy, dark dungeons and shadowed corridors, decided that he didn't even want to. Through his dog eyes, he saw Lucius nodding a bit in goodbye from the corridor, then close the door and charm it locked. Not seeing his husband anymore, he now turned towards the other Marauders to observe them.

They were all in animal form now, not wanting to leave any human scent to the air to unnerve the wolf. Wormtail was rather calmly sitting on top of Moony's head, and the wolf looked wary and careful. Prongs looked a bit nervous at being in a closed space, his antlers almost hitting the ceiling of the low dungeon room, but he still stayed on his place to help Moony calm down.

Padfoot himself started to walk around the room, wanting to get to know it. He merely walked, not running around like he normally would have -- Padfoot was not in any better condition than his human counterpart. They'd often run in the garden of the Manor as animals, but he often found himself completely out of breath after only a moment of running. Lucius kept saying that he shouldn't exhaust himself like that, and that it'd be better if he just watched from the side, but Sirius knew that he had to run to stay in shape. And as a dog, he actually could run, which was a miracle in itself. In his human form, he couldn't run a couple of feet before his lungs started to feel like they were burning. Not really a feeling he liked, that one.

Just then, he noticed how Moony tensed up. Wormtail jumped away from the top of his head, making small, concerned noises as he rubbed his tiny nose on his mate's fur. With a last whimper, Moony suffered through the change as the moon came up. Then, however, he stood up.

The other Marauders watched in fascination as the wolf walked around a bit, getting to know to his surroundings. Usually it didn't take even this long from Moony to start biting and clawing himself. Fuck the transformations, the wolf was what always hurt Remus most, no matter what the werewolf himself said.

Suddenly Padfoot let out a yelp of fear as he smelled human. Prongs had suddenly transformed back into a human, and now James stood there, watching calmly as Moony came nearer. Sirius barked sharply, trying to tell his momentarily insane friend to just transform back and soon, but James didn't seem to notice. His eyes stayed locked at the approaching wolf, his nervousness gone now.

Then, to both Padfoot and Wormtail's great astonishment, the wolf reached James's side. And, instead of attacking him, it merely licked his hand. James grinned, then said, "You can transform back now, guys. It seems that the potion Severus and Lucius wanted to try has worked." At hearing this, Moony nodded.

So, Peter and Sirius immediately stood there as humans, although Sirius was still a bit wary. Peter, however, immediately ran to hug his wolf-formed fiancé. "Poor Remus," he said. "You can't transform back, can you? But at least the wolf's no more controlling you. That's a good thing."

James turned towards Sirius as Peter continued to coo at the werewolf. "Go to the door and open it," he said. "Lucius left it so that a human can open it from inside. I'm sure he and Severus would like to see their achievement." Bewildered, Sirius did so. When he opened the door, he saw the four other current occupants of the Manor all standing there, as if waiting for him to do just that.

"I take it our potion worked, then," Lucius said, raising an eyebrow. From a happy bark from the room they all heard that yes, the potion had worked. So, the four humans all came to the room, although Lily and Junila were more wary than the two Slytherins, who both trusted their own potion completely.

Barking happily and waving his tail, Moony now came to them and licked all their hands enthusiastically. Lily giggled as the wolf's long tongue gave her a wet swipe all over the face. Severus petted the wolf carefully, wanting to feel for himself that it truly was Moony, while Lucius and Junila just smiled both.

And Moony, well, Moony had the happiest full moon night ever since he'd been five.

*

"Sirius?" asked Lucius as they later lay in their bed. "Sirius, what is wrong with you?"

He didn't get any reply, like he hadn't got any reply even before. Sighing, the blond sat up, then reached his hand towards the other half of their bed. Meeting a warm body there, he frowned as Sirius merely rolled away from him, still not saying a word. Now, this was definitely unusual.

"Come on, Sirius," Lucius said. "I know you're mad at me. It'd be nice to know why you're that." Then, seeing a pair of pale eyes shining at him from the darkness, he added, "And if you're going to be a dog, then you will not sleep in this bed. Honestly, what have I done now? You're like some sulky woman!"

"I'm not!" argued Sirius, immediately changing back. As he noticed that he'd been tricked into talking, he grumbled lowly under his breath. Then he glared at his husband. "I would have wanted to know about that potion beforehand," he said sulkily. "Honestly, I almost died of fright when I saw James turning into a human! I thought that Moony was going to kill him at the same second! It was horrible, Lucius!"

Now, the Slytherin frowned. "If that's so, then I'm sorry," he said. "We, Severus and I, didn't think it'd be necessary to inform you others. It was bad enough we had to let Remus and James hope, even though there was a chance that it didn't work. We didn't want to give you false hope." He tried to reach out again, but Sirius still lay just out of his reach. Sighing, Lucius lay back. "I understand that you're mad at me, and at Severus," he said quietly. "But we didn't want to risk disappointing you."

For a moment, there was a complete silence. Then, just as Lucius was about to speak up again, he felt a hand grasping his own. "I'm sorry," Sirius muttered. "Of course you just didn't want me to get disappointed. I should have known that you wouldn't want to scare me just for fun."

"Never would I do that, my dear." Relieved, Lucius now leant in to place a gentle kiss on his husband's lips. "Now, we can sleep -- or do whatever we want instead of sleep."

It appeared that Sirius had something entirely else than just sleep in his mind. Well, Lucius didn't protest.