Christmas at 12 Grimmauld Place had never looked quite so bleak.

 

Remus and Lyndell, despite everyone’s best efforts, had been missing for just over two months.  The spy within the Order had not yet been found, and Sirius’ mother still would not come off the wall.  The portrait had taken to insulting the now very obviously pregnant Lyria, and Lyria had more than once threatened to slash it apart.  And worst, Voldemort seemed to have gone silent, as if he’d vanished entirely.

 

But on the other hand… some things seemed bright.  The nursery, sage green and cream, was complete and waiting for its tiny inhabitant, and once again Harry and the Weasleys would spend Christmas there.

 

In fact, they were currently walking through the front door.

 

“Hello Harry.” Sirius greeted, almost cheerfully, but there was a certain sadness in his eyes.

 

“They still haven’t found them?”  Harry asked, studiously avoiding the cream-colored paint that streaked his godfather’s hair.

 

“It’s like they were never even there.  They just vanished.”

 

“And Voldemort hasn’t done anything…”  Which gave Harry an unsettling queasiness.  *Why* hadn’t he done something?  He could not forget what had happened the last time the dark lord had gone silent.

 

“As far as we know.” Sirius stated.  “Have you been practicing your Occlumency?”

 

“I hate Snape.”

 

“That doesn’t matter.  Harry, you’ve got to practice.”

 

“I have been.  But I still hate Snape.” Harry paused.  “How are things here?”

 

“Same.  We still haven’t been able to figure out who’s been passing information along, and Lyria and I have been pretty busy.” He said, pointing out the cream-colored paint in his hair.  “Getting ready for the baby and all.”

 

“Do you know what she’s having?”

 

“A girl.  She’s due in February.”

 

“What’s her name, did you pick?”  Harry had at first been rather disturbed by the news that his godfather would be a father, but now… well, it was sort of exciting.  He’d get to play with the baby when he visited Sirius… and Sirius deserved to be happy.

 

“We decided on Catherine.  Lyria wanted to name the baby something…well… unique and fun were her words.”

 

“You compromised.”

 

“She wouldn’t let me name her Spot.”

 

Harry laughed. 

 

“Want to go see Buckbeak? He’s been getting restless, cooped up in my mother’s room. I think he can tell people are coming over.”

 

“Yeah, let’s go up.”  On their way up the stairs they passed the open door of what would be the nursery, where Lyria was staring out the window.  “Hi, Lyria,” Harry greeted.

 

She turned.  “Hello, Harry.  Welcome back.”

 

“Thanks.”  Sirius and Harry continued up to visit the hippogriff, who, as Sirius had said, was rather restless.

 

“Poor guy hasn’t had any company but me in almost two years.”  Sirius commented. 

 

Buckbeak bowed almost before Harry had, he was so eager to see someone.  Harry patted the hippogriff.

 

Sirius handed the hippogriff a rather large dead rat.

 

“Happy Christmas, Buckbeak,” Harry said with a slight smile, ignoring the rat.

 

“Come on Harry, we should probably get back down before everyone gets to the kitchen and there’s nothing left for us.”

 

Harry followed him downstairs, and they were joined by Lyria who seemed to have decided the same thing.  She glanced at Sirius.  “I think there are death eaters patrolling the street.”

 

Sirius frowned.  “Are you sure?  They can’t know where the house is…it’s protected.”

 

“Which means they’re just roaming streetcorners all over the place.  Which isn’t much of a surprise.  Two figures in dark cloaks, Sirius.  And they certainly aren’t dementors.”

 

“Did you tell Moody? He’ll probably want to go out and take care of them.”

 

“I told Dumbledore, who has the presence of mind to keep his head and not charge out wand blazing.”

 

Harry laughed a bit, but it was true.  Moody’d been particularly on edge lately, according to everyone’s reports.

 

“It’d probably be good to tell him though, that way he can be prepared if something happens.” Sirius said.

 

“Last thing we need to do is encourage Alastor Moody to start a battle in the streets.  Come on.  Dumbledore said to just… act as normally as possible.”

 

Sirius seemed to think about this for a moment, if it were Bellatrix or Narcissa or both who were out there…they’d certainly know where the house was, even if they couldn’t get in. 

 

“Don’t second guess Dumbledore, Sirius.  Come on.”  And at that moment the door at the bottom of the stairs opened.

 

“Harry, take Lyria back up stairs.” Sirius said darkly, pulling his wand out.

 

“Don’t second guess Dumbledore, Sirius.  Come on.”  And at that moment the door at the bottom of the stairs opened.

 

“Harry, take Lyria back up stairs.” Sirius said darkly, pulling his wand out.

 

But then the hoods came down, and Remus was helping Lyndell out of the wet from the snow covered cloak she was wearing before taking off his own cloak.

 

“Moony?” Sirius said in disbelief.  “Dell?” He came down the stairs, wand still out.

 

“Miss us?” Lyndell asked.  “You can put your wand away now, Sirius, we did bring you a present.”

 

It was Remus who suddenly put together that something was wrong.  Lyria on the stairs, obviously showing, Harry home when he should have been at Hogwarts… the fact that it was snowing.  “Lyndell… I think he might be entitled to be a little wary.”  And then he saw the Father Christmas hats on the house elf’s heads and paled visibly.

 

“We’ve only been gone two weeks, Remus.” Lyndell looked around.  “What is going on?”

 

“I think, Dell,” Remus said quietly, “That we’ve been gone much, much longer than that.”

 

“Yeah, try four months!” Sirius bellowed.  “What the hell happened to the two of you? You got married in August!  And you just show up the day before Christmas and act like you’ve been gone two WEEKS?”  By now, the three of them had attracted a bit of an audience from the kitchen.

 

“Sirius, calm down.  As far as we can remember, we *have* been gone for two weeks…”  All of the possible memory charms made Remus feel slightly sick.  Where *had* they been?  Last he remembered they were on the way back…

 

“Calm down? You two just vanished into thin air!  We’ve been looking for you for months and now you just appear! What the hell happened?” He demanded.

 

“Sirius, shut up, you’re going to wake up—“ Lyndell never got to finish the sentence.

 

“WHORE!!” The portrait screamed, catching sight of Lyria on the stairs.  “VILE CREATURE, CARRYING A BLOOD TRAITOR—“

 

“Oh, *I’m* a vile creature?  Look at yourself,” Lyria muttered.  “Least I don’t keep jars of blood on the mantel.”

 

Remus had charged to the portrait and was pulling the curtains closed.  “That’s what we’re telling you, Sirius, we don’t *know* what happened,” Remus said as he finally got the curtains shut and the screaming died away.

 

“We have to leave.” Lyndell said quietly.  “We don’t know what happened…what if…we can’t stay if something happened and Voldemort or somebody is trying to follow us.”

 

Remus nodded.  “We’ll keep in contact, but for now, I think you’re right.”  And after a quick drying spell, he helped her with her cloak once more, and the two took off.

 

“Where are we supposed to go?” Lyndell asked, once they’d gotten back out into the snow.

 

Sirius shut the door and turned to look at the group in the hallway.

 

Lyria’s face suddenly took on a peculiar expression.  “Sirius… maybe you’d better get the healer.”

 

“My house.  It’s not much but we’ll be able to stay there as long as we want… until we determine if we’re safe…”

 

“Why?” Sirius rushed to keep Lyria from falling down the stairs.  “Let’s get you up first.  Harry, go get the healer and tell him Lyria’s having the baby.” He picked her up and carried her to their room.

 

With a small pop, the two of them apparated to the front lawn of Remus’s dark house.  “It looks…cozy.” Lyndell said after a second.

 

“It’s a dung heap, but it didn’t matter so much when I was the only one there.  Come on, at least it’s warmer in there.”  He pushed open the door and quickly started a fire in the fireplace with his wand.

 

Harry charged down the stairs to get the healer.

 

“It’s too early, Sirius… what if something’s wrong?”  Lyria asked, then cried out in pain.

 

“Shh.  Catherine just decided she wanted to come for Christmas.” Sirius held her hand and kissed her forehead.

 

“It’s not that bad.” Lyndell said, looking around the main floor of the house.

 

“It’s not exactly your house, either.”  Lights went on as they entered.  “But it’ll do for now.”

 

The healer came upstairs as Lyria gripped his hand tightly.

 

 “Well, no screaming portraits.  That’s a big improvement.” Lyndell noted.  “We could fix it up.”

 

After a few minutes, the healer looked up at her.  “The baby is turned the wrong way.”

 

“And what do you propose to do, reach in and turn it around?”  Lyria stopped as she realized that was *exactly* what he proposed to do.  “Then… get it done with.”

 

“We could… wait… you’re talking about it as if you’d want to live here…”

 

“I need some scotch.” The healer said. 

 

“Now is *NOT* the time to get drunk!” Sirius yelled.

 

“Not for that!  Just…forget it.” the healer shook his head and got to work.  “Okay, he’s facing the right direction, you’ve got to push.”

 

 Lyria was certain she was delirious.  As if contractions weren’t bad enough… But she pushed.  The sooner it was over, the better…

 

“Wait…did he say he’s facing the right direction? What happened to the girl?” He demanded.

 

“Well… she’s a boy, apparently.” The healer replied dryly.

 

“Well…it’s something to consider…” Lyndell trailed off.

 

Remus smiled.  “I imagine you could make it pretty livable.” 

 

“I don’t care what the hell it is, get it out!”  Lyria yelped.

 

The healer held up a very small crying baby.  “He’s fine.  He’s small, but breathing on his own and seems almost fully developed.”

 

“Well…we could.  It wouldn’t really be too hard.” Lyndell looked around the room.  “Just clean a few walls…”

 

“And the basement’s set up for full moons,” Remus commented.

 

Lyria gazed down at the child the healer had placed in her arms after cleaning him up.  “Sirius, he’s perfect…”

 

“But…he’s so small…” Sirius looked down at the little boy in her arms.

 

“We’d be all set.” Lyndell said.  “That is…if you *want* to.”

 

“I think… well that’d be nice.  It’d be a sight quieter than living with Sirius and Lyria and the clan they’re well on their way to starting.”

 

Lyria nodded, kissing the baby’s forehead gently.  “Baby Connor, instead of baby Catherine.”

 

"Good, because I really couldn't do anything if you didn't want to...this is *your* house." Lyndell kissed him softly.

"We'll have to get my baby clothes out of the attic." Sirius said.

"Our house," Remus corrected.

"Yeah... let's..." Lyria began

"Not so fast, you need to stay in bed, Miss Strider." The healer said firmly.

"Ours." Lyndell smiled.

"Alright, fine, I'll go in the morning. We've got some green things he could wear in the meantime, Sirius, in the top drawer of the dresser in the nursery," Lyria said.

Remus hugged her. "Come on... you haven't seen the second floor yet."

"You don't understand. I'm confining you to six weeks bed rest. You have to let yourself heal so you don't bleed to death."

"You expect me to stay in bed for six weeks?? Sirius, this man is crazy," Lyria said.

"The second floor?"

"Yeah. It's just two bedrooms, nothing grand."

"If you don't, you're going to start bleeding, and once you start, it's extremely hard, almost impossible to stop the bleeding before you die."

"Well let's go have a look."

"Bah, I've heard that I'm going to die before and so far I'm still breathing."

Remus led her upstairs.

"Well this time you will if you get up before your body heals." The healer turned to Sirius. "This isn't some kind of joke. She has to stay in bed."

"Don't tell me that." Sirius said.

"Wow...these rooms are huge." Lyndell opened both doors at the top of the landing.

Lyria cradled the baby close.

"Well maybe someday there'll be a pair of kids who have to share one." He said with a slight smile.

"That'd be nice."

Sirius sat down on the bed next to Lyria. "Well...look at it this way, baby, you get to be waited on hand and foot, for six weeks and then we get to...play..." He smiled.

Lyria smiled appreciatively.

"If she's confined to six weeks bed rest, she won't be doing any playing for at least two months." The healer spoke up again.

"Any kids we have will be perfect," Remus assured her.

"Yeah..." Lyndell smiled wistfully at the empty room.

"Yeah, hi, I'm sitting right here," Lyria said with exasperation.

"As soon or as far away as you want, Lyndell."

"Well you won't be doing anything for two months." The healer told her.

"I don't want us to go away."

"I know..."

Lyria was about to say something but Connor scrunched up his little face and began to cry.

Lyndell kissed him again. "What...what if something happened...when we were missing? And neither of us remembers it?"

"It's okay, buddy." Sirius practically cooed, leaning over her.

"I know... I'm going to owl Dumbledore. And we'll try to figure out what happened."

She nodded. "Okay."

"I think he's hungry." Lyria gave the healer a "go away" look.

Remus hastily scrawled a letter and sent it off.

"Then...how do we do this? Get him a bottle or something?"

"First the healer goes the hell away."

Lyndell sighed. "I'm so tired..."

"Come on, then. We'll sleep." Remus brought her into the other upstairs room.

The healer nodded. "Remember what I said." He left the room.

Lyria cuddled the baby close and began to feed him.

"You have a nice room, Remus." She told him.

"Thank you, Dell."

"Does...does it hurt?" Sirius asked her after a minute.

Lyndell smiled and kissed him again.

"No. It's... a little weird, but it doesn't hurt. You can sit next to me if you want."

He picked her up and deposited her on the bed. "Here. Sleep."

"Okay." Sirius sat down on the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb their feeding son.

"Are you going to sleep too?"

"Yes, I'm planning to."

Connor was sucking away greedily. "Your son seems to be hungry," Lyria commented, watching the baby.

"Good." Lyndell moved over on the bed.

"That's my boy."

Remus stretched out next to her and pulled her close.

Lyndell yawned a little and closed her eyes.

Lyria smiled and kissed her husband softly before her attention returned to the little boy. "Can... can we move the bassinet in here so I can watch him? And some of his things?"

Remus fell asleep quickly with her by his side.

"Yeah." Sirius replied.

"You want to burp him?"

"He burps?"

"He needs to be burped or he'll have gas and then he'll cry. A lot."

"Maybe you should do it, and I'll move the bassinet."

"Alright." Lyria rested the baby against her shoulder, careful to still hold his head, and began to gently pat his back.

 

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