Chapter 15: Looking forward

It was Christmas day in the Potter-Lupin-Black household and Remus was relaxed against the couch, basking in the sounds of laughter and cheering from the three children spread over the rug. Sirius was sitting amongst them, just as entertained by his cousin's antics. They were all facing the armchair where Tonks was perched, reading a storybook and morphing her features to act out every part with a different appearance for each character; a red haired witch, an evil monster, the dashing hero. The boys were amazed by her impressions and so were the adults watching the scene. Alice and Frank had flopped down on another armchair and Moody in one of the straight back kitchen chairs, where they could all see the metamorphmagus and follow the story. Sirius had been laying right next to Remus until he got too excited to stay put, so the werewolf had pushed him out to the floor with the boys.

It was early in the evening and they had enjoyed and amazing day. Tonks had been staying at their house since the night before, what meant that she was able to witness the kids – and the adults – enthusiastically getting out of bed and running downstairs as soon as they woke up to open their presents. They had a brilliant morning playing outside with some of the gifts, Sirius taking advantage of his animagus form to run around madly chasing everyone and rolling in the snow. They eventually went back inside to have some lunch and wait for the Longbottom family to arrive after spending part of the day with Frank's relatives. Half an hour later and Moody was there as well. The old auror had been working, as he always did during the holidays, to let other people spend time with their families. Luckily, there had been no major issues and he could leave to have a celebration of his own.

Of course, it wasn't perfect. Remus couldn't forget about the people absent from the festivities. James, Lily, the grown-up Harry. He knew that Dora was also missing her parents and probably her friends. Additionally, they had all lost other people during the too long war and Christmas time made everyone a little more nostalgic than any other day. Sirius had been bringing Remus back to reality every time he zoned out, reminiscing about the past, and the werewolf was grateful. He tried to return the favor for his friend, but the animagus was in good spirits, only getting a bit sentimental when the kids had opened his first presents of the day. Remus had feared that Sirius' attitude would change as soon as they began to open older Harry's gifts for them, but there he was, laughing his head off. He smiled at the scene and concentrated on hearing the end of the story.

"…people of the village were never the same after the defeat of the evil monster of the mountain. They all had to learn how to live their lives without fear. The warrior of the light eventually married his lady-friend and they had a large family, with four sons and a daughter. Their days were full of adventures till the very end and they shared each and every one with all of their friends, who had been as heroic as the warrior himself. They could always trust that, if a new enemy eventually arise, they would be able to defeat him, working together. The end."

Everyone clapped and whooped. Remus joined, even if he had only listened to part of the story.

"Aunt 'Mione wrote it, but said it was a story Ron made up," informed Teddy proudly. Remus made a mental note to read the tale later. If it was important to his son, it was important to him.

"These are awesome," said Sirius, examining the book he had stolen from Tonks. "Did he make up all of these stories?"

"Not exactly," replied Dora, reading the note that came with the book. With Teddy's excitement over the gift, they had ignored the card until then. "Most of these stories are adaptations from muggle fairytales to fit in the wizarding world and the few original ones are based on their lives, Harry's life. She said the originals are Ron's ideas and the adaptations hers."

"Who is Ron?" asked Alice, curious.

"Aunt 'Mione's boyfriend. He died," said Teddy matter-of-factly, startling Tonks quite a bit and making her drop the note. Her reaction confused Remus, until he realized that the young witch probably knew the Ron Weasley of her time, a ten-year-old kid. Even if they had already listened to several future deaths, it was disturbing to hear about children they care about dying.

"Here is another present!" interjected Sirius gleefully, "it is addressed to Remus and me, from Harry." He opened the package and stared at the old parchment that was inside. He was speechless.

"What is it Sirius?" inquired Frank, peering at the gift. Remus was watching it carefully. Could it be?

"It's something we made; Harry's dad, Remus and me," Sirius still had trouble mentioning James by name and he seemed to be trying to erase Peter from most of their memories. Remus wasn't sure what to think about that. He focused on the old parchment. It really was the Map, or at least, his friend thought so… He took it from him and pointed his wand at it.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He felt a rush of excitement while he recited the familiar phrase. Thin lines of writing appeared and the sandy haired man grinned as wide as he could. He hadn't thought they would ever see their creation again. Teddy, who had gotten closer to look at what his father was doing, gasped as drawings filled the blank parchment. Harry was on Remus' other side, watching everything with his intense gaze.

"Wow," said Frank amazed. "Is that a map? A map of Hogwarts?" He had stood up and was looking over Remus' shoulder.

"Really?" exclaimed Alice, thrilled. Tonks was observing with interest and even Moody appeared intrigued by it. Remus stroke the paper lovingly and then handed it to Alice. She examined it in wonder, pointing out details to Frank who had returned to his wife's side to study the map with her.

"Does the note say anything else?" asked Remus to the dog animagus, who was getting rather smug at the praises. He did have a reason for it, after all, the Marauders – James, Remus, Sirius and Peter – had made the map when they were barely sixteen.

"It says that the Marauder's Map was extremely helpful to Harry and his friends in every adventure and he wanted to return it to its proper owners."

Moody was inspecting the artefact with a calculating look. "This will be an excellent tool to sneak into the school to deal with that basilisk," he finally declared.

Remus happy bubble almost burst with that comment. He didn't want to think about it. Not yet. He knew that they needed to make plans, but he wanted to enjoy the holidays for a little more time. Both him and Sirius were still adjusting to their new lives and dealing with their own grief, Harry's speech and shyness issues and Teddy's tantrums when he missed the people he had left behind in the future. It wasn't easy.

They were managing though; Harry was already saying their names – his own version of them – and Teddy was beginning to focus more on the present. Sirius had convinced him to take the kids Christmas shopping with them, both the black haired man and boy under heavy glamours to avoid being recognized. They had stayed in the muggle world just in case; Sirius status as a wanted man hadn't changed yet, so they rather not risk Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade for a couple of trinkets. Moody had informed them that Pettigrew's trial would take place before the New Year and the truth would come out then.

"It will be tremendously useful," agreed Frank, "especially if we intend to avoid Dumbledore."

"We do," grumbled Moody. "I've been thinking about it, I believe we should get an ally from Hogwarts, so that they can tell us when the Headmaster leaves the castle."

"That would be great, but who? Mcgonagall?" asked Alice.

"Not a chance. Great witch, but too loyal to Dumbledore," said Moody shaking his head.

"Flitwick?" proposed Sirius. "He wasn't in the Order. He is a clever guy, if we explain the situation, we should be able to convince him. Well, maybe not me, but some of you might." Remus had to agree. Even without the whole mass murderer problem, Sirius was known as a prankster, so it would be difficult for him to get the small professor to take him at his word.

"I can try," offered Alice. "I've always get on rather well with him."

"She does," confirmed Frank.

"All right then, we'll leave that up to you," accepted Moody. "For the rest of us, we all have our own tasks to work on. Frank, you should to talk to your mother and bring her up to speed. Sirius, you need to manage the Skeeter business. I will be handling the prophecy."

"And what do we do?" asked Tonks, pointing at Remus and herself.

"Research, lots of it. To get started, anything that can possibly help us to deal with a basilisk." Tonks grimaced. She was not a fan of research then.

"What's a basilisk?" questioned Teddy puzzled. Remus pulled a face. They shouldn't be talking about it in front of the children…

"A giant snake, very dangerous," he answered vaguely. "And a topic not to be discussed in front of the kids," he chastised Moody, who looked a tad apologetic. Neville was not paying any attention to the conversation, but the other boys had been listening to everything they were saying. How much they understood, he didn't know.

As always, Sirius was the one to change topics. "So boys, this awesome map shows where everyone is located inside of Hogwarts. Let's see who is spending Christmas in the castle." The three of them got comfortable around Sirius, Harry on his lap, Teddy perched on one side and Neville on the other. The animagus extended the map in front of them and they played "find the dot" for a while, with him naming each person they found and making observations for every individual like, "that's Hagrid, he is a half-giant and looks really strong and mean but he is the gentlest person you can find. That's Minnie, she pretends she doesn't like pranks, but I know she secretly enjoys them. That one is probably a student, sounds like a Ravenclaw… Yes, she is going to the tower." His running commentaries amused the rest of them to no end, and they were soon giggling like crazy people. Even Moody released a loud guffaw at the animagus' mutters about Filch and his horrid cat.

When Sirius had run out of things to say, they decided to move on to another present. They found the biggest of the packages, addressed to all the adults, and opened it.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Frank, astonished. He was not the only one.

Inside the large box were some sort of clothes made of a strange material, greenish and scaled, like the skin of a serpent… They reminded Remus of dragon skin vests, but the garments were more complex than that. Tonks took one of them out of the box and held it high to have a better look at it.

"I believe they are made of basilisk skin," she declared in awe. "But I have never seen anything like it."

"I don't think any of us have seen anything like it," grumbled Moody, taking another. "Basilisks are supposed to be extinct after all."

"As if we needed tangible evidence that Harry actually defeated one of those beasts…" mumbled Frank under his breath. Alice nodded beside him, too stunned to talk, caressing the priceless material.

Remus grabbed one himself and examined it a little more closely. It had, as he had thought, a type of vest as chest protection but it also included a couple of gauntlets each, sturdy boots and more flexible parts to shield legs and arms. It looked like an armor, just missing the helmets. There were six of them, one for each of the adults present. It was strange, because Harry hadn't known that Tonks would be there…

"Those are Harry's costumes," stated Teddy disinterested, not understanding why the grown-ups were wasting time playing with clothes. Remus grinned and put the armor back in the box, hearing Sirius and Dora's chuckles in the background.

"Let's find something more fun. Why don't you three choose the next package?"

"Okay," nodded Teddy eagerly. He was already in the middle of the pile of presents, of course, so he looked around thoughtfully for a while until Neville decided which one he wanted.

"This one" he pointed, determined. It was pretty big as well and covered in a shockingly bright purple and magenta wrap. Teddy appeared doubtful but he agreed and they get Harry over there to help them destroy the outlandishly colored paper. In the front of the box there was a logo with three W interlocked and the name "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes".

Remus and Sirius shared an excited look, remembering what Harry had said about the Weasley twins. The werewolf felt like a teenager again, both wary and enthusiastic about the pranks his friends loved to pull. He was a little concerned though, the products might be dangerous for not even two-year-old boys, but he shouldn't have worried. Inside the big package there were two smaller ones, clearly labelled, the first one with a picture of a toddler and the second one with an old man. He heard Sirius snickering. Remus guessed that they were supposed to be the old men and felt a little offended.

The boys went directly for the kid's box and opened it. Neville took a yellow pack of biscuits that had a drawing of a canary and examined it longingly but Teddy bypassed him with a cry of joy and grabbed a smaller object. It was thin and tall, like a bottle of some kind, and seemed to contain a liquid. Teddy shook it eagerly and then approached his father.

"Daddy, make a really big one!" he said handing him the toy.

The werewolf felt the warm that always filled him when he heard that word being directed at him. He beamed at his son. "A big what, Teddy?" asked Remus, puzzled at the request.

The boy's grin faded a little but then it came back at full force. "It's easy, you just have to blow!" That didn't help to clarify much, but the kid mimicked the action of opening the bottle and taking something out to blow through.

Remus unscrewed the top of the bottle and took out the plastic stick attached to it. As soon as it was out of the vial, the end of the stick expanded until it was a ring of the size of his hand. The sandy haired man then understood what he was supposed to do.

Teddy positioned himself right next to his dad and waited, looking attentively at him. Remus assumed that the boy would run to catch the bubbles, as he had seen muggle kids do, so he pointed towards an empty space in the room and began to blow softly. A bubble began to form, but it didn't come loose, so he kept at it, watching in astonishment as it grew as big as Teddy himself. It finally come free, floating close to the floor. The kid shrieked with delight and jumped in it. Remus expected the bubble to burst and soak him, but the boy went through it and began floating within the bubble, rising to the ceiling.

They all watched in wonder as Teddy bounced around the room, but soon both Neville and Harry were asking for their own bubbles. Remus was happy to oblige, and the place was filled with laughter once again.

"How big do you think you can make one?" asked Frank good-humoredly to him. "I want to do it as well!"

"Me too," sighed Sirius beside them, deeply disappointed. "But I don't think there is enough space for us in here."

"We can clear a room at my house and try it some other day," proposed Frank excited. Alice and Tonks immediately said they were in and Remus agreed a few seconds later. It really seemed fun. Moody just shook his head and grumbled something about overgrown kids, but the werewolf was sure that he had seen his mouth twitching the tiniest bit upwards.

After the bouncing bubbles, they continue sorting through the rest of the WWW products. There were headless hats that you put on and made your head invisible; canary creams – the biscuits Neville had grabbed - turned you into a giant canary for five minutes; trick wands that dye everything they touch in different colors and an assortment of other tricks and toys. They were all incredibly entertained and they hadn't even begun to look into the "old men" stuff. They decided to leave that for the time being, to be able to go over it without the kids there.

The rest of the evening was spend opening the remaining gifts. There was a mixture of emotional and useful objects, like a collection of charmed galleons to communicate with each other inconspicuously and a series of defense books that puzzled them all until they read the dedication that was written on the first page, from Remus and Sirius future selves to Harry.

All in all, the day was a resounding success and everyone had a good time. Remus couldn't believe that it was happening, that he had been able to climb back from the pit of despair he had been in and actually enjoy his life. It was more or less the feeling he had experienced when he had become friends with James, Sirius and Peter. Sometimes he still thought that he didn't deserve that much happiness, but then he looked at the way is friends treated him, how his son searched for his approval and little Harry trusted him with all his heart and he couldn't deny that, werewolf or not, he was accepted as a part of that small family and that exceptional group of people.

He was looking forward to spending the rest of his life with them.

Sirius was having the time of his life. He had always loved playing with Harry and having three little kids to mess around with was great. The Longbottoms were awesome as well, caring, with a fantastic sense of humor and always up for trying new things. Dora was just as he remembered her as a kid, witty and mischievous. Furthermore, she possessed such a strength and determination that made it difficult for her to fail in anything she set her mind to do. Moody acted as a grumpy old man most of the time, but he was as curious as any of them and didn't back down from any challenge. Sirius was glad to have him as an ally.

The dog animagus knew that he might be trying to overcompensate the grief that he had been feeling not so long ago with so much cheerfulness, but he was bent on making Harry and Teddy experience the greatest Christmas he could give them. He had done his best to keep Remus from brooding too much and he had pushed all negative thoughts out of his mind, at least for the day.

After ample amounts of excitement, the kids had fallen asleep easily. They had fed the boys an early dinner and ushered them to bed when they were about to fall from their chairs. The adults were taking advantage of the quiet to have their own celebration, with plenty of food and drinks.

"Dora?" probed Sirius hesitantly when there was a lull in the conversation. "When are you going to contact your parents?"

She sighed wearily and her hair flash to a dark blue. "I'm thinking of waiting until little me is off to Hogwarts."

"All right, that's probably a good idea. I might see them sooner though," he warned her, twiddling with his fork. "I'm sure that Andy will try to contact me as soon as my name is cleared."

"Knowing my mum, she most certainly will," agreed the metamorphmagus smiling.

"Are you going to tell them the truth about you?" asked Alice, who had been listening to their talk.

"Yes, definitely. There is no way that I could trick them, they both could see through my morphing since I was five."

Sirius snickered, remembering some of Andromeda's stories about Dora as a baby. He had actually met her when she was about four, since Sirius's parents hadn't let him had any contact with the Tonks. As soon as he escaped from them, Andy had reached out to him. That was how he knew she would do so again.

"You should take some backup when you explain the situation to them," advised Moody, sniffing his drink and taking a large gulp. "You don't know how they will react to the news. They may not believe you at first."

"I know, you said so the first time," said Tonks with a long-suffering sigh.

"That's right, he was still the Head on you time wasn't he?" inquired Frank, curious.

"I shouldn't have told you that… Yeah he was, I was in training though so I only really met him twice before the time-travel mission started."

"Are you going to start training right away?" questioned Alice, a thoughtful look on her face. Sirius couldn't fathom why. As far as he knew, neither Frank or her were involved in auror training, as they had only finished their own a few years ago.

"That was my intention. What about you, Sirius? Do you want to resume your healer training?"

The animagus face lighted up. "Yes, I would like that. I've been thinking about being a healer since I was fifteen."

"Really? So young? I always assumed you decided to do it because of the war…" mentioned Frank, surprised.

"No, I saw some of my friends getting severely hurt when I was at school and it felt wrong not being able to help… So I decided to learn how," he glanced surreptitiously at Remus, but nobody except the werewolf noticed it. Well, maybe Moody but he wouldn't mention it.

"Having a healer will be useful to deal with the accidental horcrux situation," said Remus, changing the subject. "That way we don't have to risk finding someone else willing to keep the secret."

"Yeah, well, we should look for another healer even so. The sooner we can get it out the better and I have at least three years of training left," grumbled Sirius unhappily.

"Don't forget we still don't know much about it; it may very well take us three years to find out how to deal with it," sighed Frank dejectedly.

"I know, I know. We need to do some research…" the animagus groaned tragically. "Between that and my training my head will explode." He hit his head on the table and got mashed potatoes on his hair, causing everyone to snigger. He looked up, confused and pouting, and only provoked them further, getting chortles in return until Alice took pity on him and cleaned him up with a napkin.

"So, that means we are all going to be pretty busy in the next few months," summed up Frank once the laughs had ceased. "The auror office will be dealing with the free death eaters, that would take most of our time." He said the last part looking particularly at his coworkers. Moody nodded in return.

"The information Potter left us about confirmed and suspected death eaters will be vital at this point," declared the old auror, a hint of satisfaction coloring his tone. "The only issue will be justifying some of those arrests, but we'll manage."

"Considering what we had to do to prepare and that the next few months will be hectic for everyone, when do you think we'll be ready to face the basilisk?" asked Alice.

Remus cleared his throat, grabbing everyone's attention. "At the very least, we should wait until the term is over; that means we'll have the summer holidays to access the castle and deal with the problem."

"I agree, the fewer people at Hogwarts the better," nodded Frank. "We don't know how this will go, we shouldn't risk kids being around."

Sirius was pleased that everyone accepted to wait. That would give them enough time to get used to their new lives. It wasn't sharing a house with Remus what worried him, he had known the guy since he was eleven and lived with him for seven of those years; it was sharing the responsibility of being parents to those two boys. Sirius was an amazing godfather – as he often declared to anyone who was willing to listen and many who weren't – but he was new to the job of being a parent. Being the main caretaker of a toddler was not the same as visiting twice a week, babysitting a few nights and buying huge amounts of expensive gifts. His role in Harry's life had drastically changed and he needed the time to figure it out.

Through all his uncertainty, there was one thought that sustained him; he was not alone in this. Looking at the people gathered at his house, chatting with them, laughing at bad jokes, planning to defeat the darkest wizard of the age like it was as easy as playing another prank on unsuspecting students; it gave Sirius the strength he needed to keep going. With their help, he would move forwards and work for a better tomorrow.

He had to hand it to his godson, he had truly put together an amazing team. He wouldn't have picked better partners himself.

THE END.

Author's note: And that's it for now! I want to thank everyone who reviewed the story, I welcome all the encouragement and feedback you give me.
I've already started working on Tonks' side of the time-travelling story. It was supossed to be a one-shot, but it might be longer, we'll see...
About a sequel, I have some ideas, and some of those appeared on the last two chapters, like including some new allies for the group. What do you think? Should they risk it?