Happy Schoolday, Keith Lupin

Happy Schoolday, Keith Lupin

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Chapter 3

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"What do you think McGonagall will say when she sees Keith?" asked Lily, grinning wickedly.

"There's no telling about her," laughed Remus. "Of course, all females this far have been absolutely in love with him, but I just cannot see McGonagall fawning over a baby."

"That we'll see," said Sirius with a cunning expression. "He is, after all, my son. I bet he can turn even McGonagall's head!"

Remus huffed and elbowed his husband, while the others just laughed. They spent the rest of their way to the castle happily chattering and especially guessing every professor's possible reactions to the youngest kid in Hogwarts.

As soon as they stepped to the school grounds, girls started to collect from every direction, chirping and cooing over Keith, who seemed to be absolutely fine as the centre of all attention. "Can't you just leave us in peace for a while?" sighed Remus at last. His werewolf instincts were going crazy with so many people around his tiny family, and even though he could deal with it, after the train, he was pretty tired of it all.

"But he's such a cutie!" exclaimed one of the girls. She was Marilyn Winston from Ravenclaw, and was currently eyeing Keith like she was planning to kidnap him.

"Geez, thank you, Winston," said Sirius with his most charming smile, "it's always good to know that my good looks are appreciated. However, could you please restrain yourself from making my husband jealous with your comments?"

"Oh, shut up, Black," huffed Winston, "I meant of course the baby -- Hey, wait a minute! Did you just say, 'husband'?"

"Yes, I did," said Sirius with a very broad grin. "And the name was wrong, too. I'm Lupin nowadays." He raised his left hand, presenting the engagement and wedding rings in it for everyone to see.

The girls oohed and awwed just like they did when Remus had fed Keith, and the few boys that had been dragged to the place by their girlfriends left quickly under the said girlfriends' calculating gazes. However, this chorus of amazement was soon broken by a loud command.

"Get moving, or you'll be late from the Welcoming Feast," barked Professor Kettleburn. Then he noticed Keith there, and immediately came nearer. "And who's this young fellow?" he asked curiously. "How old is he?"

"Keith Simon Lupin," said Sirius proudly. "A month old."

To their great surprise, Kettleburn turned around. Then he yelled, "The baby's here!" Turning then back towards the students, he said dryly, "All the female professors sent me to check whether or not the baby really was there. When Dumbledore announced it to us, most didn't believe it true."

And true, soon almost every female professor was there. Professors Vector, Sinistra, and Madam Pomfrey were just the beginning of the group. Even Professor Trelawney had come to see the baby, although Remus gave her wary glances all the time.

"Aww, he's so cute!" exclaimed Professor Sinistra like some of the most excited teengirls had in the train. "But why's he in Gryffindor robes? What if he's a Slytherin?"

"Or a Ravenclaw?" added Professor Vector, to which Professor Sprout commented, "He could just as well be in Hufflepuff!" Then, of all things on the earth, they started to argue about whose House Keith belonged to.

"Geez, calm down," sighed Sirius, rolling his eyes. "It's not like we could have Sorted him yet, now is it? We put him in the Gryffindor robes simply because we're ourselves both in Gryffindor!"

"Then get him sorted," said Vector. "I'm absolutely sure he's going to be in Ravenclaw, he looks like a really brilliant baby!"

"But you cannot get Sorted before you're on your first year," said Remus doubtfully. Sirius, however, seemed merely interested at the thought.

"Nonsense," huffed Sinistra. "My parents got me when they were on their seventh year, and I was Sorted when I was just a week old!"

"Maybe we could Sort Keith, then," said Sirius with a mischievous grin. "As long as he doesn't go into Slytherin, of course. Or what do you think, Remus?" he asked then, glancing at his husband, completely ignoring the bitter stare from Sinistra, who was Slytherin's Head of House.

"I, personally, think that whether or not we want to Sort Keith, we should be getting to the Welcoming Feast and soon," the werewolf said dryly. At the professor's slightly disappointed expressions, he added quickly, "Also, anybody wanting to hold Keith could carry him a bit on our way there."

To that, the professors all agreed -- there were only females present, as Kettleburn had long ago disappeared as soon as he'd got his "duty" of checking whether Keith was there done. So, their way to the castle was full of even more cooing and arguments about who had got to hold the baby for the longest time. Seemingly even professors could be pretty childish at times, at least when there was a baby around.

At last they got to the Great Hall, however. The young fathers saw at least three professors going immediately to the Headmaster and whispering franticly to him, while Madam Pomfrey went to mutter to Professor McGonagall, who was already in the middle of Sorting the first-years. Seeing this, they knew that the decision whether or not get Keith Sorted had been taken from them.

All girls in the Hall seemed to be staring at Keith. They went even so far that Professor McGonagall had to call one first-year girl's name three times before she even realized that she'd been called. Sirius was clearly enjoying the fact that his little baby boy was so interesting. Remus, however, was merely wary, especially when the nearest Gryffindor girls from all years came begging for a permission to hold Keith for even the briefest moment. Also, his eyes scanned the Great Hall all the time.

At some point he noticed that both Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy were eyeing them, and especially Keith, oddly. The two Slytherins sat side by side, just like they did usually, and were both staring at the three Lupins. Malfoy was merely watchful, but Snape looked almost... sad. At least if it could be said that Snape looked sad -- rather, he was just a tad less nasty-looking than usually.

'Odd,' thought Remus to himself. 'I have to look to that again later.'

However, Snape and Malfoy were both very effectively cleaned from his head when McGonagall got to the end of the list of first-years. Dumbledore stood up, and, instead of giving them his usual welcoming speech, said, "Now, like I'm sure most of you have already noticed, we have a child much younger than you students at Hogwarts this year. Many professors have told that they'd like to get the little one Sorted immediately. So, could Mister Sirius Lupin please bring his son to be Sorted?"

Sirius stood up immediately, snatching Keith from whomever girl had been just holding him. Then the teenboy tucked Keith into his carrying cloth and started to walk towards Professor McGonagall. "Keith Simon Lupin," called the Professor out just before Sirius got there.

Sirius then took Keith from the cloth and held him out to McGonagall. Instead of putting the Sorting Hat on Keith's head -- it would have probably hid the tiny baby wholly -- the Deputy Headmistress merely held it around his head.

After a moment, the Hat opened its mouth. Everybody was strained to hear what it was going to say. What badge would little Keith be carrying?

It seemed that the Hat was enjoying the excitement. Instead of calling the House's name out immediately, like it usually did, it took its time before finally shrieking the House.

"RAVENCLAW!" And at that, the whole Ravenclaw House Table broke into a chorus of hooraying. In the Head table, Professor Vector gave a triumphant grin to both Sprout and Sinistra -- she was in fact very near to sticking out her tongue.

"It seems that little Keith has the wrong badge, then," murmured McGonagall dryly as she removed the Hat. "Well, that can be easily helped." She tapped the tiny Gryffindor badge with her wand. Immediately it turned into a miniature Ravenclaw badge.

Sulking all the time to his usual place in the Gryffindor Table, Sirius did not look happy at the Sorting Hat's decision. "Calm down, Siri," Remus said to his husband, rolling his eyes. "It's just a House. What does it matter? Besides, what about if he'd run around as a Gryffindor for the first eleven years and then been Sorted to Ravenclaw? That would have been bad."

"This doesn't mean that Ravenclaw girls will be in priority when it comes to holding Keith, does it?" asked Lily worriedly.

"Of course not," sighed Sirius. "You are, if anyone. Merlin knows you helped me enough during my pregnancy to grant you at least a year of holding time."

"Fine," said Lily. "I'll start now, then." And while Sirius shrieked in surprise and anger and the others laughed, she snatched Keith from him.