Parenting
Harry was currently waiting to go into his fourth year at Hogwarts. He has 3 weeks left until he returns. Before he goes back to school he has some, lets say... difficult questions.He was now 14. He didn't act that way, much like his father James. He had a tendency to pull pranks with his friends and he had disagreements with a horrible slytherin, Also much like his dad. He was sorted into gryffindor because of how much alike he was to his father.
"Hey dad's"
"Heyyyy hazza"
James was still quite childish, even in his 30's. Regulus did try to help him mature but had no luck. Secretly he loves the childishness of his partner.
"Hello Harry, you need to stop waking up at 2 o'clock in the after noon. You won't thank yourself when you go back to school"
"Yeah yeah whatever. What we up to today?"
"Well we don't really have anything planned. Is there anything you want to do?"
"Can I go to uncle Siri's"
"Sure I'll call pads now"
"Ok James, and you're already on the phone"
It didn't take long for sirius to answer. Never does really. He's generally got nothing going on unless it involves his mates. Unfortunately not Peter at the moment as he was off touring Europe after winning tickets for it in a bingo.
"Hello padfoot"
"Yo prongs. You good man?"
"Yeah yeah. Haz wants to come over"
"Of course he wants to come over to see his favourite uncle"
"When's good?"
"Now if you want. Moons cleaned yesterday so it looks nice for once"
"Ok I'll floo him over now"
"Right see ya"
Sirius was quite happy about this. It got sirius away from having to help moony renovate the house. He didn't think it needed it. The house was perfectly fine I'm his eyes. Remus just wanted to clean it up a bit and make it look nicer and more homely.
"Harry, your uncle said you can go now. moony cleaned the house so there house is clean for once."
"nice, ill see yous in a bit. by dads"
"be home by 5"
"will do papa"
Harry has always called regulus papa. When harry was a baby and his dads were trying to choose what name harry would call each of them to separate them, James asked what regulus called his father. Because he and his family often spoke French he ended up calling his father papa. Harry heard that word and from then on related it to regulus.
"hey siri, what do you want to do today?"
"first i need to tell remus youre here then see if wants to do anything"
"ok"
Sirius went through the hallway to go out up to the stairs and try and find remus.
"MOONS"
"yes padfoot"
"oh there you are"
"yes, i told you i was quickly fixing the banister"
"did you? doesnt matter, harrys here"
"what are you guys doing today?"
" i was coming to see if you wanted to come with or do anything specific."
"well i need to go to the garden centre so you can sit in the cafe and have coffee and cake"
"awesome, lets go."
"HAZZA we are going to the garden centre"
"i come here to have fun not go round a garden centre"
"we are going to the cafe, moony is going round the garden centre"
"how can you be in love with someone so boring"
"well he didnt use to be so boring. he used to be the prank master"
"Well something has definitely changed then. Before I go back to school you have to give me some pranks to do. That Draco kid still needs to be humbled massively"
"Wait that's cissy's kid. Of course he's a plonker, he's half black half Malfoy"
"Hey I'm half black"
"I'm full black"
"Touché"
"But remember I'm the good one, I don't associate with it"
"Papa is good"
"Didn't use to be"
"I know"
"Let's go"
"Yes, come on uncle moony let's go"
--------------------
"ill see you two at the cafe in a bit. harry what time do you need to be home?"
"i think papa said 5"
"i knew reggie was going to be the stingy parent"
"Whatever you say siri, see you later"
Much to Harry's disgust remus gave sirius a Kiss goodbye, then left.
"You alright harry?"
"Not after seeing that"
"What's wrong with that?"
"Old people kissing is weird"
"I'm not old"
"You are"
"I'm only in my 30's"
"Yeah old"
"Whatever you say harry, let's go"
They walked to the cafe in the middle of the outside area of the garden centre. Plants and trees were growing around it making it look really pretty. They got in and surprisingly there was no queue.
"ok harry what do you want?"
"can i have uhhhhh, an iced coffee and a donut"
"Aren't you too young for coffee"
"You are my uncle not one of my dads, I'm not too young with you"
"Fair enough, ok two iced coffees, a donut and a brownie please"
"ten pounds please"
"here ya go"
"sit where you want. we'll find you"
"ok thanks"
"which table do you want haz"
"that one"
He picked a table in the corner of the room away from everyone else. they walked over and sat down.
"So harry, how's life?"
"Um I don't know. Good I guess"
"What's up?"
"People at school say things and i keep thinking about it"
harry had an inquisitive look on his face.
"harry whats wrong?"
Whilst Sirius is a childish person he does know when he can't joke around and needs to get serious.
"i have two questions"
"shoot"
"why do people say being gay is bad?"
"honestly i dont know how to answer that question. its a confusing subject. i think most homophobic people are actually gay, its just internalised homophobia. why do you ask? were people at school mean about your dads"
" good theory and well sort of. they think its weird i dont have a mum at home and dont know who my mum is. They say everyone needs a mum and a dad and having two dads is strange. which leads me to my next question. who is my mum?"
"you dont have a mum."
"everyone has a mum"
"not everyone. you dont"
"how?"
"well, i dont know if your parents will want me to tell you if they havent already"
"will i ever know"
"ask them later, when you go home?"
"ok I will do."
"two iced coffees a donut and a brownie."
"yep thats us, thank you"
"no problem"
"i probably should have ordered moony a cake. oh well"
"he wont be happy, he loves his chocolate cake"
"he can order when he gets here"
"he can"
"so, haz. hows your secret partner? will you ever tell me who they are?"
"well i would but you will probably freak out and tell me in just like dad"
"why would i freak out"
"Because James did the same thing to you and you told me that if I ever did they same thing you would freak out"
It didn't take sirius long to figure it out.
"Wait, oh god you really are like james arent you. You're best friends little sibling. I'm not upset. Just disappointed"
"Oh don't hit me with that line"
"I will hit you with that line"
"Oh godric. Don't get started"
"Fine then, I won't. Anyway, There's remus"
"Hey uncle moony"
"Hello harry. Are you two ready to go or not?"
"No we just got our drinks and food, sorry forgot to get you something"
"It's fine, hurry up and finish your drinks. One of Your dad called said you need to be home at 4 now because you didn't clean your room"
"How long do we have then?"
"Well it takes 15 minutes to get back so you'll get 15 minutes at home before you go. Or we can go straight to your house. That's a 30 minute walk"
"Uhhhhh. Let's just go back to mine"
"Okay finish your drinks now, you can have your donut and brownie on the way back to your house"
So they did down there drinks. Truth be told they were a little scared of remus. When he said something you did it. They were only scared of him because of his height. He was already quite tall in hogwarts, around 6"1. But then he started testosterone, It had to be a special kind since he was a werewolf, and then he grew more making him 6"5. Sirius was 5"9 and harry was 5"8 so it was intimidating.
"Okay let's get going"
"Moons what did you actually buy"
"Nothing, they didn't have what I was looking for"
"So what we're you looking for?"
"I was looking for baby's breath seeds"
"That's such a pretty flower"
"I know, that's why I was looking for them"
"Fair enough"
"Please don't kiss again. You're looking at each other like your going too"
"Aww how sweet, my nephew knows my facial expressions"
They kissed anyway.
"Gross"
"The more you have a reaction the more we will kiss"
Sirius kissed remus on the cheek in protest to Harry's protests.
"Sirius don't make him suffer. I'm sure he sees enough kissing at home"
"Yes I do and let's talk about something else. Remus can you tell me some of the pranks you pulled on the slytherins when you were in school"
"Why do you need to know that?"
"Because sirius said you were good at pranking people and Draco needs to be humbled madly."
"You are aware that he is like, what your second or third cousin"
"I don't care, he talked bad about my dads specifically papa, said he betrayed the family. And keeps calling hermione a horrible name."
"Well, Draco sounds stupid"
"He is. That's not even like a quarter of the things he's done"
"Well, I don't know report him"
"That won't do anything"
"Tell McGonagall. Tell her they were talking bad about your dads, she loved James. She will do something"
"I'll try it, but I need back up options as well. Please tell me one of the pranks you pulled. At least one and how you did it"
"Okay I'll tell you one. Don't mention I told this to your papa. Sirius you can step in and add anything you want. Which prank should I tell him about?"
"How about the first prank we pulled? After finding prongs invisibility cloak and that book on weird spells. You have that harry don't you?"
"I do. Tell me more"
"Fine then. So it was probably the best prank I ever came up with"
"Oh it absolutely was"
"So we were practising a new spell that we had heard about in a book. It was to have a rain cloud over someone's head for a selected amount of time. So we chose our victim and did that. He did not have a great reaction and it isolated him more than he already was. He deserved it. He had to carry round an umbrella everywhere."
"It was so funny"
"We snook into his dorm room one morning with the invisibility cloak and did the spell. Not a fun wake up for him. At least he had a shower for once"
"Who did you do it to?"
"Remus can I tell him"
"Yes but harry you have to promise you can't mention it to him"
"I promise"
"It was Snape"
"Oh my godric that's amazing. Is that why he doesn't like me?"
"Probably"
"But that is a great idea. Im going to have to tell Ron about this"
"Great. Owl me when you do it"
"I will do"
"Harry please be careful, don't want you getting excluded"
"McGonagall loved my dad she won't exclude me"
"Fair point"
They carried on walking Harry's house having conversations along the way about random things. Sirius had gotten hyper from the brownie and harry was a child so he was almost always hyper. They got to the door and knocked on.
"Hello regulus we are here to return your son"
"Thank you remus. You need to go clean your room mister"
"Yes papa"
"Bye harry"
"Bye moony and padfoot"
Harry ran up the stairs to start 'cleaning' his room. In reality he was probably just going to hang out with hedwig. He could do it later.
"James, sirius and remus are here"
"I heard. Hello padfoot, hello moony. What did you guys do today?"
"Me and harry went to the garden centre cafe and remus walked around"
"How did you fall in love with someone so boring?"
"Harry asked the same question"
"Like father like son"
"Very true"
Remus and regulus had started a different conversation at this point leaving James and sirius to catch up for a minute.
"Hey Siri we need to get going."
"Yeah yeah."
They turned to walk away when sirius remembered the conversation earlier with Harry.
"Oh uh reggie"
"Don't call me reggie"
"Whatever, Harry asked me something today and he's going to ask you soon. I'm just warning you"
Regulus and James shared a concerned look.
"What did he ask?"
"Well he asked who his mum is."
"What did you say?"
"I said that he didn't have one so he replied everyone has a mum. I told him not everyone does and to ask you guys about it later. I didn't want to out you to him or anything"
"I knew this conversation would happen sooner or later. Thanks sirius"
"No problem. See you later"
"Bye pads, bye moony"
They walked away and James and regulus closed the door. Moony liked to walk close to a full moon so they didn't asked for floo power.
"Reg it'll be okay."
"What do I tell him?"
"The truth"
"Yeah, I need to start cooking. You go do whatever. I need to think"
"Okay. It'll be okay reg don't worry"
He kissed regulus on the head. That's how James showed comfort. It started because that's how his mother euphemia showed comfort. It just carried on to him.
James went to the living room to watch whatever was on the TV for around 45 minutes until regulus yelled for him and harry.
"JAMES, HARRY FOOD IS READY"
Harry started running down the stairs into the kitchen. James started running from the lounge.
"Harry stop running down the stairs"
"Yes papa"
"Don't be sarcastic with me"
"Haha I don't have to stop Running"
"James you too"
They both rolled their eyes at regulus.
"No fun"
It was a simple dinner. It was spaghetti Bolognese, in regulus' word 'done the right way'. The regular British way included stock and some other disgusting think but regulus used herbs and proper tomato sauce.
"Harry have you actually been cleaning your room?"
"Yeah yeah, I have"
"You aren't good at lying"
"I tried, Dad pass me the cheese"
They carried on like a normal dinner, small talk and eating, Regulus telling the other two boys not to talk with their mouthful. They loved there little family.
They started to clean up and wash the dishes.
"So what did you do with your uncles."
"Well remus walked around the garden centre looking for something and sirius and I sat in the cafe until we had to go"
"Did you get anything from the cafe?"
"Yeah we get drinks and a treat"
"Nice, sounds like a good afternoon"
"Yeah. I uhhh. I have a question"
"Do you want dad here too or do you want to talk to me?"
"I'll just talk to you"
"Ok so what's your question?"
"Well. Um people at school say it's strange that I have two dads. They say I should have a mum. Who is my mum?"
"Harry you don't have a mother. Two dads"
"Ok I understand and fully register that you two are my parents. I know I have two dads. I mean like who is my mum. Who birthed me?"
"Harry. I birthed you."
"How? Your not a girl"
"Well, I used to be a girl. Have you ever heard of something called transgender?"
"Yeah I have, I saw it online."
"Well I am transgender. That's why you have never seen child photos of me."
"Oh okay"
"Are you upset? Disappointed?"
"Kinda, I thought it would be cool to have some awesome and emotional journey to finding my mother but turns out I already know my birth-giver"
Regulus was glad they could laugh about it. He was nervous for his sons reaction but thankfully it was a good one. He was happy. Finally happy. No more secrets or lies.
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As James and regulus headed upstairs to go to bed they nicked on Harry's door to say goodnight.
"Night harry"
"Night papa, night dad"
"Make sure you clean your room."
"Sure thing papa"
"You know he's not going to do it right?"
"Yeah I know. I'll whip around in there tomorrow"
"Ok then reg"
They got inside and starting changing there clothes.
"Potter I can feel your eyes on me. One day you will be deemed a perv"
"Sure thing reg."
"You are still staring"
"And you are very very very pretty"
"And you are very very very handsome"
"I know"
James has always had so much pride in himself. He knows how handsome he is, how funny he is, how lively he is. But he made sure everyone believes in themselves too. He always makes that regulus knew how pretty is and how stunning he and how kind he is and always reassured him that he is man, will always be a man. For this regulus is very grateful.
"How did the conversation with Harry go?"
"It went really well. It was funny actually"
"How?"
"He said he was disappointed he couldn't go on a long emotional journey to find his mother because he already knows his birth-giver"
"I told you it would go well"
"Thanks"
"For what"
"Being here. I don't know what I would've done with myself if harry reacted badly"
"It's ok. I'm always here for you. I love you"
"I love you too"
"Good"
"How did we land on the name harry? I have no recollection of it"
"Probably because you were very high. After giving birth the doctors out you on pain meds and they gave you a bit much. The doctors name was harry and you said something like that man is a hero the name will be harry"
"That's so embarrassing"
"I think it was cute"
"Of course you did"
"Good night reg"
"Night James"
"I love you"
"I love you too"
They exchanged a kiss before turning the bedside lamps off and tucking into bed. Today was a good day for all of them. Harry got his answers, regulus didn't have to lie anymore, sirius got to spend an afternoon with his godson/nephew and he managed to avoid an awkward question and James got an afternoon to himself. Well it didn't work out for remus, he didn't get his seeds.