Three weeks after Remus and Lyndell had left for their honeymoon, a gray owl appeared in the window of Lyria's room.

Lyria discovered it when she emerged from the bathroom after her daily bout of morning sickness. She took the letter, though she didn't recognize the owl. "Sirius!" She yelled after a minute.

"What?" Sirius asked. "What's wrong? Is it the baby?"

"No... Lyndell and Remus are gone..."

"What? What do you mean gone?" Sirius demanded, suddenly realizing that it had been a while since they'd left...

"The owner of the hotel owled... they just up and vanished. Haven't been seen in a few days..."

"And they're owling us *NOW*?"

"Apparently so..."

"What the..." Sirius stopped. "We've got to tell the others...we've got to send some out to go look for them."

"I'll go, I'll bring Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt, we'll be back in no time --"

"No." Sirius said firmly. "No."

"Why not?!?" She demanded.

"Because."

"Because *why?!*"

"Because my sister and my best friend have vanished, I'm not going to let anything happen to you or the baby."

"Sirius, I'm an Auror. I can handle myself."

 

“I don’t care, Lyria.  I don’t want you to take the chance.”

 

“There’s no chance!  We’ll find them, we’ll be back, it’s not a big deal,” she told him, hands coming to rest almost protectively over her stomach.

 

“Please, Lyri.  We don’t know what happened to them.  I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

 

“Sirius… this is what I know how to do…”

 

“I know but I don’t care.  I don’t want you to put yourself in any unnecessary danger.”

 

“It’s a war!  There’s not much good in waiting around to get killed anyway!”

 

“That doesn’t mean you have to go looking for someone to kill you!”

 

“No one’s going to die!”

 

“Please, Lyri, just…we’ll send some others…. I don’t want you to go.”

 

“You’re trying to coop me up here just because you’re stuck.”

 

“That’s not fair.  I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

 

“You’re just painfully aware now that I’m pregnant.  So of course you have to keep me holed up until you’re sure the kid’s safely out!”

 

“That’s not what I’m doing!!! I don’t want to lose you!”

 

“You want me stuck here with you!”

 

Sirius’ mother had woken up downstairs due to the screaming.

 

“YES!! Okay? Are you happy? Yes, I want you here with me!! At least then I’ll know you’re safe! Forgive me for caring.”

 

“You just want company!”

 

“YES! After all, misery loves company right?!? And we all know how miserable I make you!” He snapped.

 

She took a step backwards, not having expected that.

 

“Lyria…” Sirius reached out and took her hand. 

 

She was shaken.  “You don’t make me miserable.”

 

“Well you aren’t really buckets of sunshine.”

 

“I’ve never been buckets of sunshine, and now I’m pregnant.  Which makes me twice as much fun.”

 

“I don’t want to keep you cooped up just because I am, I just want you to be safe.”

 

“I know… I just… I feel like I can’t do anything, Sirius!”

 

“Well you have another person to think about before you go rushing off into battle.”

 

“I know I do.”  She sighed.  “And it’s starting to show a bit.”

 

“And if anyone else sees that, they could use it to hurt you…to hurt us.  Bellatrix already knows, who knows who else might.”

 

“I’m sure she’s told her little friends already.”

 

“Which is even more of a reason you need to be a bit more careful.”

 

“But there’s only one way they could have found out, Sirius.”  Lyria sat down on the bed. “Someone within the Order’s passing on information.  And, well… we know what happened last time there was a spy.”

 

Sirius sighed.  “Yeah…I know.”  He sat down next to her.

 

“I don’t like showing,” she said, sounding a bit grumpy.

 

“But that means you’re closer to having the baby.” He kissed the side of her head.

 

“And I’m sure *that’s* just going to be barrels of fun.”

 

“Come on, Lyri… we’re gonna have a little baby.” Sirius said, trying to get her mind off the rescue mission.

 

“What do you think it is, a boy or a girl?”

 

“Not quite sure…but maybe we should pick names for both just in case.”

 

“Yeah… I guess we should.  Something… unique, something fun.”

 

“How about something normal? My family doesn’t seem to have a very good track record with ‘fun’ names.”

 

“My family has different names and we turned up fine.”

 

“Lyria…all your brothers are dead.”

 

“And they died honorably for a noble cause, which is more than can be said for *your* family’s ‘fun names.’”

 

“Exactly, which is why I couldn’t be happier if we named our kids Dick, Jane, and Spot.”

 

“Okay.  First, I will not let you name a kid as if it were a puppy.  Second, those are incredibly boring names.  Besides, *we* both have fun names and *we* turned out fine.”

 

“Boring can be fun.”

 

“I’d just like to point out that you don’t make any sense at all.  What about… Ariel or Cadence or something?”

 

“Are those boys names or girls names?”

 

“Girls.”

 

“How about Mary and Jane?”

 

She made a face.  “Lydia or Riana or maybe Zecharas for a boy?”

 

“How about Bob?”

 

“You’re stupider than I thought if you think my son’s gonna be Bob.  Something… theatrical?  Enjolras or Eponine?”

 

“How about names I can actually spell, nevermind pronounce.”

 

“Marius.  Dorcas.”

 

“No and no.”

 

“Then *YOU* think of something!”

 

“Fine!  Joe and Sally.”

 

“No.  How about…”  She tried to think of a compromise.  Something… dignified and yet… simple, but not too boring.  “Cody?  Connor?  Catherine?  Caitrin?”

 

Sirius paused and thought about those names for a second.  Those were reasonable names, names he could see his kids as having.  “Yeah.”

 

“Well you’re only getting one kid at the moment, so we have to pick one of each.”

 

“Connor and Catherine.”

 

“Connor or Catherine…”  Lyria turned the names over in her head.  “I like those.”

 

“So do I.” Sirius smiled.  “How much longer do we have to wait for Connor or Catherine to come out?”

 

“It’s October.  The baby’s due in February.”

 

“That’s a long time.”

 

“It’s four months, baby.  Not *that* long.”

 

“But I wanna play with the baby *now,*” He whined playfully.

 

“Well you’re just going to have to wait.  About all you can do now is talk to the baby.”

 

“I can talk to the baby? And it’ll hear me?”

 

“Presumably.  They’re supposed to be affected by music I’m listening to or whatever, who’s to say if the baby can hear you?”

 

“You should sing to him.”

 

“Or her.”

 

“Him.  I like his name better.”

 

“I bet the healer could probably tell us now.  If the baby’s cooperative.”

 

“That’s a good idea. I’ll go get him,” Sirius jumped up and went downstairs.

 

On his way down he noticed Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Tonks on their way out.

 

After a moment he returned to the room with the healer to find Lyria was lying down.  She *hated* medical personnel of all sorts.

 

“Alright, how are you doing today, Miss Strider?” The healer closed the door behind them and sat down in front of her.  “I understand you want to know if this baby’ll be a boy or a girl.”

 

“Yeah… and I feel fine.  Just exactly like I did last time, except rather fatter.”

 

“Well that’s usually what happens as you get closer to the birth.” He tapped his wand against Lyria’s stomach and muttered a spell.  “We should know any second now.”

 

Sirius stood close by Lyria and glared at the healer who had his hands on her stomach.

 

“So protective,” Lyria teased Sirius with a smile. 

 

“It’s a girl,” the healer told them cheerfully.  “A perfectly healthy baby girl.”  He smiled at Lyria.

 

“Catherine,” Lyria said, also smiling.  “We’re going to have a daughter, Sirius…”

 

“Yeah.  You can stop touching her now!” Sirius barked at the healer.

 

The healer let go and backed away, rather alarmed.

 

“Thank you.” Sirius held the door open for him and slammed it once the healer had gotten to the other side.  “We’re having a girl.”

 

“That we are.  And she’s healthy.”

 

“And she’s going to be just as beautiful as her mother.”

 

Lyria smiled at him.  “That was sweet… come say hello to her.”

 

Sirius climbed onto the bed and settled himself next to Lyria’s stomach.  “Hello baby Catherine…I’m your daddy…”

 

“She’s going to be a little angel.”

 

“Who’s side is she going to get that from?”

 

“Mine.”

 

Sirius snorted.  “Right.”

 

Lyria gently tugged on a piece of his hair.  “Be nice, your baby might be listening.”

 

“All she’ll hear is her father lovingly tease her mother.”

 

Lyria smiled.  “Four more months, and we’ll have a baby girl.”

 

“We should set up a little room for her.”

 

“We should… oh God, she’s going to need everything… a crib and a changing table and toys and clothes and diapers…”

 

“Well I’m sure there’s still some of that around here somewhere, and I’m positive all of Dell’s baby clothes are in some trunks in the attic…and if there’s anything we don’t have we can buy.”

 

“Not to mention my mother has kept *everything* I’ve ever owned.  And had it been a boy we’d have about four times what he needed.”

 

“She’s going to be a spoiled little princess.”

 

Lyria smiled.  “Her daddy’s going to spoil her rotten, isn’t he?”

 

“Yes I am.”

 

“She’s not having a pink room.”

 

“Well we can make it…white.”

 

“Or soft greens or pastel blue or maybe even purple.”

 

“Yeah…”

 

“We’ll have to start soon before I get too fat to help.”

 

“You won’t get too fat to do anything.”

 

“Let’s hope.”

 

 

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