(NOTE: It's a little rushed, and I didn’t really think about how Tonks ends up literally marrying Remus, and how she didn’t seem to have known him before. Oh, well. This is fan FICTION, after all. Enjoy!)
Sunlight streamed through the window, sending a beam straight into the closed eyes of James Potter. He groaned and put up his hand to block the light. What time is it? he wondered. He blinked hard as he sat up and put on his glasses. The room came into focus, and he realized that Lily wasn’t next to him. He wasn’t surprised; by the position of the sun, it was mid-morning, and every since she had become pregnant, James’ wife hadn’t slept past seven in the morning.
As though summoned by his thoughts, the door opened and Lily stepped in. Her dark red hair seemed to glow, and she had a beautiful smile on her face. “Oh, good, you’re awake! Happy birthday, darling!”
Was it already March 27th? James smiled. “I’m even older now.”
“That is how birthdays typically work,” remarked Lily. “Besides, you’re only twenty. Don’t make me feel so old, James,” she teased.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m dying slowly and painfully. James, I’m fine. I’m only five months along.”
“I know,” he laughed.
“You’d better get dressed, we have company,” she said, indicating his bare chest.
James stood quickly. “Who?” he asked, as he moved to take off his pajama bottoms.
“Sirius,” she replied.
“Oh,” James said, stopping. “Nah, it’s not worth it,” he grinned.
“Not worth what?” asked Sirius Black, sticking his head in. His gray eyes were dancing.
“Getting dressed,” he explained. “You know, mate, for a minute, I thought Lily meant someone important was here.”
“What kind of important person would come here?” wondered Sirius. “And if they did, you wouldn’t put on a shirt anyway.”
James grinned. “True,” he admitted. Lily rolled her eyes.
“I swear, James, sometimes I’m not sure if you married me or him,” she laughed.
“Definitely you,” said James.
“Put on a shirt, James,” said Sirius. “More people are coming.”
When James had gotten dressed, he went out into the living room. Lily was sitting on the couch, and Sirius was lying on the rug in front of the fireplace, in dog form. “The boys are coming, and so are Andromeda and Ted,” she said when she saw him.
“Great,” he said, smiling. “They’re bringing Dora, right?”
“Yeah,” said Lily.
The fire turned green, and Remus Lupin appeared. He nearly fell out, and when he did, he narrowly missed the black dog lying on the rug. “Sirius! You’re going to kill someone!”
Sirius barked once in response. Then he stood up, walked over to where James had sat on the couch next to Lily, and stared up at him. “You’re insane, mate,” James said.
Sirius transformed back. “Was that not already established?”
Next came Peter, and then the Tonks family. Andromeda beamed and rushed to hug them all. Ted shook hands. Their eight year old daughter, Nymphadora, bounced over to James, grinning. Her hair was short, spiky, and was the bright shade of bubblegum pink she had adored since she was a baby.
“Wotcher, James!” she said. She had started using the word around a year ago, and it had quickly become her catchphrase.
“Hey, Dora.”
“Happy birthday!” she said.
James smiled. “I’m glad you came, Dora. You’re always fun. You and our kid are going to get along so well!”
Lily smiled, placing a hand on her belly. “That you will,” she laughed.
Andromeda placed a package into Dora’s hands, and led Lily off to talk about pregnancy things. Dora handed it to James eagerly, and Sirius moved over to him. “Open it,” he said. “You’re going to love it, Dora worked so hard on it. It was adorable.”
James raised an eyebrow, slightly concerned. He slowly pulled open the parcel. Inside the brown paper was a drawing, clearly done by a child. It was of a birthday cake, and it said, in handwriting that he knew belonged to Dora, ‘Happy Birthday, James!’ The ‘s’ in James was backwards, and every bubble letter was filled in with red glitter. James smiled widely.
“That is the best drawing I’ve ever seen, Dora. Thank you so much.” She beamed so brightly it made the whole room brighter.
Sirius laughed. Then his face lit up. “Oh! Dora, show everyone that face you can make!”
Ted grinned. “Watch this, boys. Quite entertaining.” Dora screwed up her face, as though she was concentrating, and after a moment, her nose turned into a pig’s snout. James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius burst out laughing.
“You’re brilliant at that, Dora,” said Remus kindly. She gazed up at him with doting eyes.
“Moony, I think someone’s taken a fancy to you,” whispered Sirius so that Dora couldn’t hear. Remus turned bright red.
That night, when everyone but Sirius had gone (because James and Sirius didn’t part that easily), James was sitting on the couch, eyes closed. It made him uneasy, knowing that sweet little kids like Dora were being forced to grow up in a world of fear. That his own baby would be born in a world like this.
Sirius came in. “Hey, James. Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Yeah, just...thinking. I can’t help but wonder…”
“Yes?”
“How many birthdays any of us have left at all,” he admitted, voicing something he hadn’t even told Lily.
Sirius sat down. “Come on, mate, don’t think like that.”
“People are dying every day, Sirius. Even Death Eaters. Look at what happened to-” he paused. “To Regulus,” he finished. Sirius didn’t react, but his eyes flashed with the quickest glimpse of pain. Regulus and Sirius had never gotten along, but Sirius hadn’t been as indifferent about his brother’s death as he liked to think.
“James, look,” he said. “We’re all going to live for a long time. You’ll have, like, great-great grandchildren before you die.”
“Yeah…” he said. “I hope so.”
“And you can name them all Sirius,” he mused.
James laughed. “We’ll see about that.”
James looked out the window at the dark street. In a world of pain, nothing was greater than knowing that no matter what, he would always have these people that had taken over his heart.