Chapter Eight
No one spoke about Sunday. Sirius and Remus didn't ask James about what he said and James didn't say anything about what had happened afterwards. However Lily and James took Charlie and Ariel out of classes on Tuesday and left Hogwarts for a few hours then Lily moved out of the family suite on Wednesday morning and now had a set of rooms near her office and classroom.
Before anyone knew it, it was Friday morning and the only ones truly excited to see Harry again were Charlie, Ariel, and James.
"Okay so what about this?" Sirius asked, turning to Remus with his hands out, "Yay or Nay?"
"Sirius for the last time it doesn't matter what you wear." Remus said without looking at his husband.
"Yes it does, Moony now look at me and tell me if it's too much." Remus sighed, but he turned away from the bathroom mirror to look at Sirius only to raise a single brow as he eyed him.
"Are we taking him to a five star restaurant today that I don't know about? Why are you dressed in silk?" Remus asked
"...Because."
"No Sirius. You are not wearing your most expensive robes to meet Harry for the first time."
"These aren't my most- I'll change." Sirius turned and headed back to the closet area only to walk back out, "So...what should I wear then?"
"Are you- You're joking right?"
"I'm nervous Moonpie help me." Remus rolled his eyes as he headed to the closet and grabbed a casual robe in a dark green color, handing it to Sirius, "Just this?"
"Sirius. You still have to teach today and there'll be a day for you to wear your best, today is not that day. Just get dressed and change out of your dress shoes. When that's done do not even think about getting your expensive cologne out of the box."
"But-"
"No." Sirius pouted, but did start removing his dark purple robes, "Remember Harry is only sixteen and is probably just as nervous as you apparently are."
"I'm not nervous." Sirius mumbled under his breath hanging the robe on its hanger, "I'm just...okay I'm a little nervous."
Remus sat on the edge of the bed watching Sirius as he got dressed in more casual robes, "Want to talk about it? Why you're so nervous?"
"It's just after today everything is going to change...and we're meeting our Omega mate. It's...nerve wracking and exciting and I guess...after today I have to share you." Sirius said, looking down at his white shirt as he buttoned it.
"Sirius." Remus spoke softly but Sirius just rolled his eyes.
"I know okay. Believe me I know. But you and him are going to have something I'm not. He's going to need you in ways I don't and he's going to give you things I can't and it's...scary. I know you love me, I know this isn't going to change the important things, but it is going to change things. You're going to change the more Harry is around us. I know you're not going to love him anymore than you love me, I know this. But it's still scary." Sirius told him tucking his shirt into his khaki pants then slipping his arms through the robe Remus picked out.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Remus asked
"No...I don't think so. Like I said I know you love me and I know this won't change that. It'll just take some time to get used to it. It's funny, the first person I ever had to share you with was Harry and here we are years later and I have to share you with him again." Sirius frowned, turning to Remus, "Do you think he somehow knew? Like some sort of instinct perhaps?"
"Did a baby, not even one, know that he was going to one day become an omega and be our mate? No." Remus said amused
"Think about it, Moony. He loved the full moons or he at least knew they were...special. He always wanted to look at the moon, be it the half moon, crescent moon, but he loved the full moon the most. You were his favorite almost as soon as he could have a preference, he adored you as a baby."
"Sirius, he was a baby. He probably just liked me because I was the calmest of the group. If he wanted to play he went to you and James, if he wanted to be fed or cuddled he went to Lily, he wanted quiet or calm he came to me. He couldn't have known."
"I think it's more than just a coincidence." Sirius said as he finished dressing, coming out of the closet to look at Remus fully, "So? Is this better?"
"Yes. At least now we don't have to worry about all of the other students swooning over you again." Sirius rolled his eyes playfully as he walked towards Remus then sat beside him on the edge of the bed. Remus wrapped his arms around Sirius' waist and rested his chin on Sirius' shoulder, "You have nothing to worry about."
"I know."
"I'm scared too, you know. I'm scared and worried and excited. It's a lot to take in and get used to and today is going to be a lot. Not just for you or me or us as a couple, but for everyone. Besides it's not like we're going to be doing anything with him today, we're just meeting him and talking with him about your usual things. We're not taking him out on a date."
"I know." Sirius said, "Come on, we're going to be late for breakfast if we don't leave soon." Sirius pressed a quick kiss to Remus' lips before they stood up and left the room finding James waiting on the couch, "Ready for breakfast?"
"About time I thought you two were never coming out." James said standing up, "Let's go."
******
Harry had heard many things about Hogwarts not only from his Papa, but from the students at his school. Harry had a lot of expectations of the school, some were good while others were not so good. He fully expected some type of creature alarm to go off the moment he had set foot into the wards, but it didn't happen.
Harry used the point-me spell to find his way to James' knocking on the closed door before opening it and sticking his head in finding the office to be empty. He hesitated for a moment, but then shrugged and stepped into the room leaving the office door open behind him as he walked towards the large desk that had a few stacked piles of parchment on it.
Pulling his leather messenger bag off he set it on one of the chairs in the office then he rounded James' desk and picked up one of the many picture frames sitting on the long shelf behind his desk. It held a picture of James holding Charlie at age five or six on a child sized broom about five feet off the ground. Setting it down he saw the other pictures were of Charlie, Ariel, a red haired woman, James, and two other men Harry assumed were his mates.
"Oh James I need to speak to you about- you're not James." Harry turned towards the door to see one of the men from the pictures on the shelf. It took only a second for the scent to hit Harry, making him shift on his feet.
The man wasn't your typical alpha werewolf you would find in packs with long hair and a strong build, he was muscular sure, but it was normal muscle that came with being fit and a werewolf. His hair was shorter compared to other werewolves, especially alphas, but it wasn't too short.
He had a faded scar over the bridge of his nose, a normal scar for werewolves who had tough transformations due to young age or a lack of a pack. Harry had only seen a handful of werewolves who didn't have scars on their face or neck. However most werewolves wore a full beard and mustache to cover them, this man did not. He was clean shaven if you didn't count the very light stubble on his face.
"I am not." Harry said staying where he was behind the desk, "I'm Harry." The man pressed his lips together then looked into the hall before he stepped further into the room.
"Remus." He said, stopping a few feet from the desk, "Does James know you're here?"
"No, I just got here a few minutes ago. I figured I'd just wait here for him."
"Well James has back to back classes until the end of the school day now. He won't be here until probably just before dinner. I was hoping to catch him before he headed to the classroom, but apparently he went there early. I can take you to the family suite? You can get settled in there."
"Yeah okay. I have classwork I need to do anyway since I'm skipping classes today." Harry rounded the desk and grabbed his bag from the chair pulling it over his head so the strap rested against his chest.
"James said you're going to be taking some NEWTs in April."
"Yeah at least five, but I'm hoping to add more so I don't have that many in May. It'll also free up some time to study for the harder ones." Harry told him falling into step beside him in the hall.
"How many classes are you taking?"
"Twenty classes. Eight mandatory classes, nine elective classes, and three OWL Education classes."
"That's a lot of classes. Any specific reason for that many?"
"I just like learning new things." Harry told him, "And my Papa told me as long as none of my grades fell below an Acceptable and I took all my mandatory classes to NEWT level that I could take as many extra classes as I wanted so I figured why not."
"What's your favorite?" Remus asked
"Dueling."
"Of course it is. That's everyone's favorite. Charlie's favorite too."
"Well I'm sure my dueling class and his dueling class are very different."
"Probably. The family suite is this door here." Remus said, stopping at a door beside a portrait of a long table that was empty except for one lone person sitting at the table, "That table represents who is in the room at the moment since we all stay together. If someone is gone the painting of the person goes to the painting near their office if they are in there or the classroom. If they're not in either of those positions the person sort of just disappears, no one really knows where they go."
"Got it." Remus opened the door letting Harry enter the room first to a sitting room of red and tan and a fireplace with more pictures on the mantle and a bookcase on either side of the fireplace.
"This room is Ariel's, Charlie's, mine and Sirius', Yours appeared this morning, and then that's James' room. Hogwarts put your room between ours probably for the scents to help you feel more comfortable." Remus told him pointing to each closed door, the first two doors had an 'A' and a 'C' hanging on the door.
"Okay." Harry said, stepping deeper into the room looking around just now noticing the man laying on the couch frowning at a book he was holding above his face.
"This is Sirius." Remus said, making the man look away from the book towards them. The man stared at them for a second before it seemed to register in his head and he rolled off the bed hurriedly, fixing his shirt as he stood up.
"Sirius Black." The man said, running his hands over his shirt nervously.
Sirius was a little shorter than Remus, but he was more muscular and had a naturally attractive face. He was your typical hot guy, blue-gray eyes, shoulder length curly hair, just enough stubble to be intentional, and muscles that made his shirts a little snug around the chest and biceps.
"Harry." He said looking around the room as he set his bag on the chair near the unlit fireplace.
"Found him in James' office so I brought him here so he could do his classwork." Remus said
"James mentioned you're taking a lot of classes. Can't imagine that's easy."
"Twenty and it's easy considering we have five and seven day school weeks as well as twelve hour days. Besides, Kreasiara Institute is more of an academic focused school so there isn't really much else to do except classes and clubs related to classes." Harry explained sitting on the edge of the chair.
"Twelve hour days? That's insane." Harry shrugged, he was used to the reaction that as much as he was used to the twelve hour days being normal to him, "And you started at ten?"
"I did."
"Was your adoptive father under the assumption you were older than what you were?" The question came from Remus as he walked towards the little kitchenette where he began to heat up a kettle.
"Oh no, well we celebrated my birthday when I was adopted until I turned thirteen, but no, the many healers my Papa took me to recommended I start school early." Harry said
"Why would healers suggest that? More frequent accidental magic near one's eleventh birthday is common."
"My Magical Core is unstable. It began growing at a faster rate than it should have at my age and it continued to grow and just a few weeks after I was scratched I couldn't control it any longer. It reacted with every mood swing, every unspoken want, it became dangerous and even life threatening when I got older. WHen Papa adopted me he bought me a small stabilizing stone and we had to upsize it every year or more until they got to ridiculous size and stopped working altogether. The Healers finally said I needed to learn how to control it and get into school as soon as possible. I had private tutors before then to try to help, but most of them quit when I didn't make progress. I still carry a small stone in my pocket just in case, but I can usually control it and when I can't I know to go to my room or somewhere where I won't hurt someone."
"You were always a little more powerful than Charlie as a baby, but it was never out of control. Actually most of the time whenever your magic acted out it...it wasn't intentional, not at that age, but it was as if it knew what you wanted it to do." Sirius said, looking over at Remus briefly before looking at Harry, "Have they said why it is unstable?"
"No but my last scan was before I knew who my birth family was so maybe the attack with Voldemort had something to do with it."
"That could explain it actually." Remus said, "No one has ever survived the killing curse before, no one knows how it could have affected you because you were taken that night."
"Well didn't the orphanage give you a health scan?" Harry shook his head
"I was taken to a Muggle Orphanage March of '82."
"March? Where were you before then?" Harry shrugged, "Does your adoptive father know?"
"I don't think so. According to him which is according to the orphanage mother, I arrived on the 27th. I guess a man knocked on the door and told her he found me outside of the front door and wanted to make sure I got inside since he didn't know how long I'd been there and it had been a cold night. They called the police, but no one came forward and about a few weeks later I was put up for adoption. Papa adopted me a few months later just before Halloween. I wasn't there very long."
"Maybe we should talk about something else." Remus said carrying a tray with the steaming kettle, three mismatched mugs, and a spinning rack of tea bags on it.
"Right of course. Sorry this must be a weird topic for you."
"No, not really, but Papa and I have an open door policy when it comes to talking about things. We talk about anything and everything that I want to. Most of it was because I'm an Omega and he wanted me to know certain things, but even before then we had open communication. But we can definitely change the conversation, I'm sure it's still a little weird for you two."
"It's not weird in a way you're probably thinking. It's more like we are trying to be mindful about James and let him adjust to everything first." Remus told him, giving him one of the mugs and moving the rack closer to him, "James likes to have options so we never just make one type of tea."
Harry nodded as he grabbed his tea bag then poured the water into the mug before sitting back against the chair and sitting crossed legged.
"I know the last time I spoke to James he said no one else knew...is that still true?"
"We told Lily recently, but we haven't told Charlie and Ariel yet." Sirius set the kettle beside Remus then blew on his mug before taking a small sip of his drink.
"And it's not because we're ashamed or anything like that Harry. It's just we practically helped raise Charlie and Ariel. We moved in together not long after you were taken, we're not just their crazy fun uncles like we planned to be, we're more than that." Remus told him
"No, I know. It's weird and will be weird for everyone for a while."
"Yeah and we're new to this. Sirius especially, he doesn't have the sort of instincts I have when it comes to mates. With Sirius it was easy, we were the same age, we had known each other for so long, he was always a bit more physically needy and affectionate so if he needed a hug or a touch he'd just take it as did I. We can't exactly do that with you so if you need anything just tell us or give us some sort of sign. James be damned."
Harry nodded looking down at his mug for a second before looking at them, seeing the sincerity in Remus' face.
"I'll let you know if I need anything, but I'll be fine."
****
A few hours later the door opened again and Harry turned to see James entering the room. He had his robe over an arm and was carrying a satchel that probably held his papers like Remus' and Sirius' own did.
"How were classes?" Remus asked without looking up from his own grading
"If I never have to tell a first year to hold their wand tighter again I'll be a happy man." James said setting his bag and robe on the opposite chair
"You say that every year." Sirius said
"And I mean it every year. My eyeball almost got stabbed today because some first year didn't have a firm grip on his wand."
"I offer to teach your classes every year." Remus said
"I don't want to teach fifth and up. That means tests and test prep and no. That's your job."
"At least my students know how to hold their wands." Remus mumbled
"You leave my firsties alone, Remus Lupin."
"Black. Remus Lupin-Black." Sirius said, earning a throw pillow to his head by James, "Do you see this Harry? Do you see the way he treats us?" James spun around and grinned when he saw Harry.
"Harry! When did you get here?"
"A little after lunch. I've been here doing school work."
"I found him in your office and brought him here so he had space to work." Remus told him
"And..you three have been here...alone?" James said looking between them, "James." Remus hissed, Harry looked between James and Remus, "Really?"
"Sorry." James said sitting in the chair looking between them still, "So...everything's okay?"
"So they ravaged me against the fireplace." Harry said, making Sirius laugh and Jame's eyes to widen before he shook his head.
"Not funny." Remus said looking at Harry
"It was pretty funny." Sirius said, earning a glare from Remus, "What? Oh come on. James had no reason to ask that and you know the saying in this family. If you ask a stupid question you'll get a stupid answer. It's not my fault Harry said it."
"Okay, point taken. I'm sorry." James said looking at Harry, "But the fireplace? Really?"
"I know, can you imagine the back pain from the brick? Ouch. Savages they are. Just total dogs." Harry couldn't hold in the laugh that time especially when Sirius started to laugh.
"Okay moving on." James said shaking his head
"Don't look at me you started this conversation." Remus said when James had given him a look.
"I'll stop. But next time it'll be much worse. So keep that in mind for when you want to insinuate something else."
"Lesson learned." James mumbled, "So what are you working on?"
"Literature project worth half of my final grade."
"You take Literature?" James asked
"Yeah we had to pick a classic novel and write an essay, do a storyboard, do chapter summaries, and other things. We started it in January. I'm on Chapter seventy two of a ninety five chapter novel."
"And you have time to do your other work with that looming over your head?" James asked surprised
"It's not so bad really. What really got to me was from chapter forty-three to chapter sixty it was completely filler and it could have been reduced to five maybe seven chapters maximum instead of the seventeen chapters that it was. It had completely pointless dialogue, the plot for each chapter was completely lost and honestly I had to take a break from it which is why I'm so far back. It really was terrible." Harry told him
"Oh I read a book like that three years ago. It was The World In The Eye Of Them, terrible middle."
"That's what I'm reading." Harry said
"Really? Do you like it?"
"I do. It's a good book if you can get through the seventeen chapters of nothingness."
"It gets so much better in the end and I think the slow pace of the middle is sort of understandable when you read it and process what just happened."
"Really?"
"Yeah it's easily one of my favorites after I was able to reread the last five chapters and really process it."
"Are you as lost as I am?" James asked looking to Sirius who nodded
"Yeah though if it's the book I'm thinking it is, Remus read it religiously then like midway through he stopped it sat on our bedside table for two months before he picked it up again."
"That's the one." Remus said. "It's about a wizard who lived beside muggles who knew about magic during the beginning of the witch trials. It's written in an anti-muggle view. I won't say more since Harry is still reading it, but it's really good."
"Was it the same book that made you sit in the chair in the library looking into the fireplace for an entire day?" James asked
"Yes."
"And you consider that to be a good book?"
"If a book that is labeled as a classic doesn't make me question everything I know...then it wasn't worth it." Harry said
"Exactly. See Harry understand." Remus said looking at James who shook his head.
"You both are insane." James decided
"James thinks a book about a cat in a top hat is classic literature." Remus told Harry
"I blame my son reading classics on you, Moony. You read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to a baby."
"I love that book. It was one of the first big chapter books I read. Papa got it for me one year for Christmas."
"See Moony. Your fault." James said
"Or maybe Harry had a different childhood and grew up to like reading all on his own and when he got older took a class that was primarily reading classic literature." Remus said
"...No it was entirely your fault." James said after a slight pause.
Harry chuckled, shaking his head as he went back to writing the summary of the last chapter. James started grading his papers and Remus and Sirius went back to grading as well, the room falling into a silence that was only interrupted by the scratching of quills or the shuffling of paper.