We Didn't Sign Up For Both
James wasn’t sure the time he felt little feet pass his head, he could hear tears and sniffling and almost got up for a moment before he heard Sirius at Lily and chose not to move.
“Lily. Lily please.” Sirius sounded broken as he heard Lily stir in her sleep.
“Hi baby, why are you crying? Come here.” Sirius backed away before Lily could grab him.
“No.”
“No? Baby it’s late, did you have a bad dream?” Lily sat up now, James heard a very faint “lumos” and her wand lit up.
“I’m sorry.” Lily got out of bed now and grabbed him before he could run. James stayed silent listening to everything.
“Oh baby, nothing to ever say sorry about. Let’s get you cleaned up. How about a warm bath? That always helps.” James picked up what was going on as soft sobs escaped his friends lips.
“Hey Siri.” James stood up and striding over to him got on the level of Sirius. His breathing hitched in response. “No, no tears. Come on you’re okay. All okay. I know it’s scary.” James unfortunately knew this moment for his friend, tears always came after it happened.
“Don’t jump up and scare him then.” Lily muttered, rocking slightly.
“We won’t hit you Sirius. We don’t when you’re big either.” James smile at him trying to get him to calm down.
“Why would we hit him?”
“His mum does when it happens. Took a lot of convincing from my mum for him to believe her when he moved in. He was distraught almost an hour before he let her hug him.”
“This is a problem when he’s older too?”
“Yeah.”
“You never thought to mention that?”
“No. My mum knows.” Lily sighed, knowing this four hours ago would have been helpful.
“James, you can be so damn dense. Okay Sirius let’s get a quick bath. James will bring you some clothes and me a new tee shirt.” Sirius was silent, he was waiting and accepting his punishment already.
“No.”
“Love bug. It is almost one in the morning, what do you mean by no?”
“I’m bad.” These short responses were going to kill Lily at this hour.
“You are the furthest thing from bad or naughty Sirius.” Lily was trying to undo his pajama buttons.
“Mama says I’m bad.” Lily looked at him with a broken heart, for merlins sake he was three at three you’re naughty for sneaking cookies, but not bad.
“Well mama is wrong. You’re good, you’re so good. You’re smart, and funny, and such a joy to be around. Now let’s get changed and ready to go back to sleep. Doesn’t a bath sound nice?”
“No hitting?”
“None. Not ever. Pinkie swear.” She wasn’t going to mention all the smacks to the head he got when he made raunchy jokes or the time she punched him by accident, he didn’t need to know that right now.
“Okay.” He stood in front of her again as she finished undressing him to get him in the tub.
“I bet James will be in soon.” Lily commented beginning to wash the boy she once loathed. He didn’t splash around, didn’t seem engaged, let Lily wash him with no complaints. She felt terrible, the boy who was filled with laughter, whom she knew had a rough home life, truly never was happy at home. Even at this size, before he became what his mother didn’t want. James slipped in the bathroom holding a new shirt for Lily and pajamas for Sirius.
“Hey how you doing?” He asked Lily as she began draining the tub to pick him out with the fluffy towel James brought them.
“Say, we’re a bit worn out, but it’s okay.” Lily tried to bounce him a bit before going to redress him. The child made no move to help and Lily wasn’t shocked.
“Can I sleep with you?” Sirius finally said something since confession he believed he was bad.
“Of course you can.” She responded, finishing getting him dressed before wiping her mid section with the flannel rapidly and changing her shirt facing the tub so the boys wouldn’t see. “Let’s go to bed.”
“Do you want another story?” James questioned.
“No. Sleep now.”
“Sleep now sounds like a brilliant plan.” Lily agreed with Sirius and he nodded again, leaning further into her. She has brought him into bed with her before she closed the curtains some in an attempt to block out the harsh morning light that would be appearing in four hours. James laid in Sirius’ bed this time, noting Lily still preferred his bed over Sirius’. He went to say something, but he was met with a finger to her lips as a “be quiet” signal. Soon enough she noticed him asleep and decided that was a good enough hint for her to do the same.
It was around four in the afternoon the next time when James noticed a very stern looking Lucius come walking their way in the library. He had Regulus behind him, he wasn’t looking up at all. Sirius was currently listening to Lily read her textbook out loud as the two laid on some pillows.
“Potter. I need to speak to you.” His voice was dark, lace with annoyance and disgust to top it off. He noticed the two he was with didn’t move at all, just stayed together Sirius didn’t move or even notice James was getting up.
“What?” James had this moment of pure annoyance before attempting to smile down, Regulus may hate them on a daily basis, but he had to be considerate.
“While Mcgonagall may feel this is appropriate to just leave a child with me, I do not.”
“Don’t like him as a child? He can’t do your bidding right now?”
“I don’t like children.” He rolled his eyes.
“Sirius has been an absolute delight so I’m not sure what your problem is.” Lucius didn’t need to know getting him dressed was hell, he yanked Lily’s hair hard this morning, or the fact he literally screeched when he cried. It was an absolute delight as far as James was concerned.
“Don’t lie Potter.”
“I’m not. Now what’s your problem?”
“Take him for a while.”
“Why?”
“Maybe he misses his blood traitor brother.”
“Don’t call Sirius that and if Regulus is going to call him that he isn’t welcome.”
“He’s incapable of being reasonable at the moment. I need a break.”
“You had him twenty four hours. A single damn day.”
“For the evening. He isn’t reasonable, he is acting like a child.” James wanted to pitch a fight, he wanted to be annoyed, but part of him couldn’t. Sirius would be appalled if James denied him his brother. He was also beyond annoyed with Malfoy, obviously he was acting like a child, he was one.
“Fine.”
“I’ll collect him at breakfast.”
“We don’t have any of his stuff.”
“He’ll be fine. Stay with them.” Lucius stalked off before James could mutter anymore words, leaving Regulus to finally look up at him. He had those same big hurt eyes Sirius was currently sporting.
“Hey Reg.” James got to his level, smiling warmly, hoping for any reaction out of the kid. “Not much of a talker? That’s okay, your brother talks loads. He’s reading with Lily right now, do you want to join them?” No response, just staring at the ground. “I bet she would even read any story book you pick out, do you want to come look at some of the books with me?”
“James, who are you talking too?” Lily’s voice came through to the area he was talking to Regulus in.
“Um, we have a little visitor.”
“We have a what? Don’t make us get up.”
“James?” It was Sirius’ small voice.
“Siri!” Regulus finally spoke, running over to his brother who was getting up off of Lily, he didn’t leave Lily’s chest though James noticed.
“We’re reading Reggie. Come read, Lily he can come?”
“Of course Regulus can join us, want to join the cuddle pile?” Lily offered, smiling up from their pile of pillows.
“We’re reading ‘bout magic.”
“We are, it’s the history of magic text book, but we can get a story.” Lily offered the small boy who wasn’t moving at all. Lily noticed he didn’t crawl up the way Sirius did immediately even though they had met yesterday.
“Not little.”
“It’s a text book Reg. Just like grown up you reads.”
“Siri not allowed.”
“Lily said yes. I asked.”
“Lily says yes a lot to anything. I bet you could even have extra dessert if you asked nicely.” James was on his knees with him, trying to get a more positive reaction from the boy.
“Or we could go play for a while before dinner?” Lily offered, Regulus looked at her unsure.
“Can we?” Sirius asked fully interested in the concept.
“You know what, yeah, let’s go.” Lily signaled James to get Sirius off of her so she could get up. He squealed with laughter making Lily smile. She guessed that homework could always be done later, this was more important.
“I vote we go chase Minnie. I bet she’d be a cat.”
“James no we are not chasing a professor.”
“Absolutely no fun Lily.” He kissed her as she stood.
“Hi sweetheart, can I carry you?” Regulus nodded to the question as Lily picked him up. She noticed he winced a bit, also he had a particular smell to him he was lacking yesterday. He smelt of urine, she looked at Sirius remembering how severe his freak out was in the early hours, she was concerned about Regulus currently.
“What game should we play?” James asked, as they entered the grassy area. Lily sat down with Remus watching Sirius and James run about, she held him as she sat.
“Can we talk there big guy?” He looked at her.
“I’ve been bad?”
“No. No of course not.”
“No. I bad.”
“No. You certainly are not bad. What did you and Lucius do last night? How’d you sleep? You seem sleepy.” She was running her fingers through his hair.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“I was bad. Don’t tell mama.”
“Why were you bad? I can assure you, you weren’t.”
“Don’t wanna say.”
“You don’t have too baby. Just, you can always talk to me.”
“Why?”
“Incase there’s something on your mind. Siri and I talk all the time.”
“That’s why he doesn’t like Siri.”
“Because we’re friends?”
“He’s bad.”
“Well, you’re very good and so is Sirius, I promise you.” Regulus seemed to accept this fact, by nodding. “Do you want to go play? I know they’d love an extra player.” He hesitated.
“I stay here.”
“Okay sweetheart, you stay here.” She was picking at the small flowers in the grass making a flower crown out of little white weeds, but she felt they were close enough for flowers.
“Can Siri have one?” Lily smiled at the question.
“Of course he can, do you want one? I bet James would too, let’s not forget Remus and Peter. Can you help me find enough flowers?” He nodded vigorously at her, finally running off to find the flowers for Lily. She worked diligently, watching James attempt to burn off some of Sirius’ energy.
“How do you make ‘em?” Regulus sat down with Lily, attention focused on her.
“It’s real easy, my best friend growing up and I made them all the time. His mom taught us when we were small. Okay, so it might be hard because your fingers are a bit small yet, but we just twist them together.” Regulus decided to stand back up and sit on Lily’s lap to help her instead of doing his own. She finished his and placed it on his head.
“Am I pretty like you?” His smile had teeth showing, much different than the Regulus who only glared at her.
“Of course you are.” She smiled back, thinking about how their mother crushed that toothy grin out of him. How sad Sirius was the first few weeks their first year because he was scared due to his family. This wasn’t going to change him long term, but short term? She would do anything possible to make him happy. Make both of them happy. They finished up two others and she sat back with him, he was leaned into her with the sun hitting them.
“Can I have a cookie with dinner? I know it’s not holiday time, but you said I was good.” She was consistently amazed by their grammar, but none the less she didn’t let it show.
“Of course you can have a cookie. Are we ready to eat an early dinner? Siri didn’t nap today so I bet you didn’t nap either.” He shook his head no in response. Lily tried not to show annoyance, she threw a fit when Sirius didn’t lay down today, but Regulus was so much smaller. “Boys! Boys come on in.” Lily yelled out for James to grab Sirius and run over.
“Yes my flower?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Yes Lily?”
“We’re thinking we go get dinner early. What do you think? Getting sleepy Sirius?” She was hopeful, it was nearing six and the sun was beginning to set.
“Can I have a crown?” Lily smile at his question, giving him the crown she had made him, his face was in a huge smile.
“Dashing, all of you. I agree with Lily who wants to eat?”
“Sun is setting. We aren’t ‘lowed to eat now.” Regulus informed them.
“They said we could Reggie. Right?”
“Right. Come on, up we all get.” Lily smiled down as Sirius ran ahead, but noticed only far ahead enough that he could see them perfectly as they walked.