Interlude.
That night, Remus went to sleep in another bedroom, as Sirius and he wanted to alternate who was keeping an eye on the pups, so they wouldn’t both be sleep deprived in case they had to deal with a nightmare. As Sirius had noticed, no matter if Harry cried or not when he had a nightmare they were only woken up if his magic acted out or JARVIS woke them up, so he put a charm on Harry that if he woke up, it would wake Sirius.
Sirius was awakened abruptly by the charm around 3 am, he made his way to the crib only to find Harry wailing his heart out, and a silencing charm cast around him in order to not wake Luna who was sleeping peacefully.
Sirius took Harry in his arms, and after he cast a one-way silencing ward around Luna went to sit on the bed to cuddle with his little pup.
“Oh, Pup,” Sirius told him sadly, “don’t hide it when you cry, I want to console you, or heal you if you get hurt.”
He made some comforting sounds as he kept talking to Harry, who wasn’t calming down. Afraid Harry’s magic would start acting out, and not wanting to wake Luna, Sirius moved to the den and paced, cuddling Harry close to him for warmth.
After what felt like an eternity, the other adults came to see what was going on as the cries woke them up.
“Did he have another nightmare,” Remus asked, coming on Sirius’ other side so they could cradle Harry between them.
“I don’t know,” Sirius told him tiredly. “He’s been crying for an hour, I tried everything. I can’t calm him, and I can’t figure out what is wrong. He isn’t hungry, he doesn’t need to be changed, he doesn’t have a tooth coming out. I called Nox, he said he is babbling about being lonely but I don’t know how to fix it other than telling him how much I love him and cuddling with him.”
Tony took a step forward saying “I kn…” but that was the only thing he got out before Clint dragged him back to the far side of the room.
“We know what you want to say, we figured it out too, but we can’t help him,” Severus, who joined them, told him.
“You can’t ask me to let Harry cry his heart out, it’s making me sick,” Tony retorted angrily.
“And you think we don’t care?” Clint snapped at him. “He needs to know Sirius isn’t just going to hand him off to someone else or ignore him as his Aunt and Uncle used to do.”
While they were far away, speaking in hushed voices and Harry was crying loudly, thanks to their canine hearing Remus and Sirius still heard them.
“Oh, my little pup, I would never do that,” Sirius said and kissed the top of the little boy’s head, “I love you very, very much, you are the most precious person in the whole universe to me. Even James couldn’t compete with how much I love you. From the moment Lily said you existed, I swore I would protect you and be a good Paddy for you. Sure, up until now it mainly meant playing with you, or feeding you, but that doesn’t mean I will hand you off to anyone. I wish I could have you in my arms to cuddle with all day, every day, but I know it’s no way for either of us to live and grow, so sometimes you have to play with the others and I have to work, but I never, ever stop thinking about you. You can cry your heart out for hours, or get mad at me, I won’t stop loving you. I want to find a way for you to stop crying, but it’s not because you are keeping everyone awake, or making too much noise, it’s because it breaks my heart to hear you cry and I want to fix whatever hurt you.”
When Sirius stopped talking he realized that not only was everyone looking at him in diverse degrees of fondness but Harry wasn’t crying anymore. The little pup was looking at him, his beautiful green eyes still bright with unshed tears, with so much love and awe.
“‘ove oo,” Harry cooed at him and cuddled in his arms falling asleep almost instantly.
“I wish he could tell us what he was so sad about when he started crying,” Sirius told the assembled group.
“He probably had a nightmare about the future, from what we were told the person he was closest to was Luna, and she died days before the ritual,” Remus said though he stuttered when he had to speak about his daughter’s death. “They said he stopped talking to anybody else years before, though they lived together and fought together it must have been lonely.”
“And even before that,” Tony added. “I might not be a good example of how to deal with loneliness, but not having someone special to love, while everyone around you is dating, marrying, having kids, it will make you feel lonely.”
“Something is going on with the twins too,” Arthur said, “they are acting strange-er than usual, they are obsessed about Harry.”
“Bill might know more about it,” Severus told them, “He saw something when they went to sleep with Harry the night we spent at Gringotts. I forgot to ask what it was.”
“Do you think one of them might be his soulmate,” Clint asked, and as one, everyone turned toward him.
“It would explain a lot,” Severus answered after they all took a minute to think about it.
“Such as,” Phil asked.
“Such as, why Harry’s magic never went out of control in the future,” Severus explained, “We talked about it at Gringotts, someone as powerful as Harry was, is, even with the binds, should have a soulmate(s) or an anchor(s) in their group of friends, but we know he said it wasn’t the case. According to the books, Harry never dated anyone but that Cho girl. While his soulmate is blocked in the future having them around, with the addition of his friends and his deep-rooted desire to never hurt anyone would have kept his magic in check.”
“That would have hurt a lot though,” Remus added without thinking it through, as he yawned, startling everyone.
“What,” Sirius asked holding Harry tightly.
“This much power to keep inside his body at all times, unless he used powerful spells when they had to fight, it would have felt like…” Severus stopped to think about it. “Like when you eat too much and you feel like your stomach is going to explode, but all over your body,” was the best he could explain this early in the morning.
“But he is already that powerful now,” Phil pointed out looking at the little boy worriedly.
“He’s been using far more advanced magic than what he should be capable of at his age, such as apparating to us, or popping the bubbles when Darcy comes for a visit,” Severus assured them.
“Is there a way to know for sure,” Natasha asked.
“And which one it is,” Arthur added.
“Ragnok would know,” Remus told them, before adding with a mischievous grin, “and it’s probably both.”
“Both,” they all cried out, as Remus and Arthur burst out laughing.
When Sirius calmed down he couldn’t help the proud grin that bloomed on his face., “That’s my little pup.”