"Calm down."
He felt a soft hand reach up and run fingers through his hair and he took a slow
breath, realising that he had apparently been growling protectively while staring at the front
of the room. The fingers in his hair helped to calm him somewhat, but they felt wrong. He
wanted to lean over to the side and place his head in the witch's lap, but there were two
large problems: one, the witch was not Mia; two, there was no lap to lie on.
Sirius smiled sadly at Lily, grateful for the attention she gave him considering he
was always such a mess. No one else was willing to put up with him these days save for
James, Remus, and Peter. But even then, his fellow Marauders did nothing but enable his
drinking problem or scold him for it. On the other hand, Lily gave him a purpose for the
life he was certain he had all but lost.
His focus drifted to his right hand resting protectively on her expanded abdomen,
where his godson was furiously kicking from the inside.
"He's gonna be a Beater," Sirius said with a small smile.
Lily rolled her eyes. "God help me."
Five Months and One Week Earlier...Despite it being close to Christmas, not a single decoration had been displayed at
either the Diagon Alley flat or Potter Cottage. It was the first time that the family had not
put any thought into the holiday, and most could understand why. Mia's disappearance
created a standstill in their lives. Lily did her best to keep up strength for the rest of them,
but taking care of James through his panic over his missing twin was hard enough, let alone
dealing with a stressed out werewolf and an alcoholic Animagus.
She had been overjoyed when, after months of keeping to himself following Mary's
death, Peter came back to the Marauders following Mia's disappearance. At the time, his
presence seemed helpful, but in the end, all Peter had done was enable Sirius's drinking to
even more unhealthy levels. Not only that, but without Mia there to temper Sirius's
aggression, he was getting out of control, especially with his fellow Aurors and superiors,
who were not putting enough effort into locating Mia.