The Potter/Black Romance

Disclaimer: I own at least Elizabeth, possibly not so much Harry.

Thank yous: orlin, Miss Anonymous hp, im no muggle, crescomellonnin, Goddess of Gorgeousness, RoschLupin-Black, LiLy MaLfOy13, and Beth5572.

Miss Anonymous hp: Ah, don't matter, its fan fiction.

crescomellonnin: No.


Chapter 19: The One where the Babies Come Home

Sirius was curled up on his side in the hospital bed watching his two little children sleep. Visiting hours were over and even though he didn't want to leave, James was dragged out of the hospital leaving Sirius alone with the twins.

Harry James and Elizabeth Serena Danielle Potter. The new Potter generation. The new generation of rule breakers, mischief-makers. Marauders. Well, that was what Remus had said, he had become a lot more mischievous now they had left school and he wasn't quite as reserved and quiet as he used to be either.

Sirius figured the change in his friend's personality was probably because he was in love, he had found somebody who couldn't care less if he was a werewolf or not and wanted to marry him.

Sirius was still quite sore from the birth, the doctor said it may take a few days for the soreness to completely heal, but with potions it may be quicker. His stomach had shrunk back down now, but it hadn't gone back to its original flatness much to Sirius's disappointment and he still had some excess weight, he had already decided on an exercise regime for when he got out of hospital.

Sirius yawned and snuggled down under the blankets, he soon drifted off to sleep, he had a feeling this would be the last full night's sleep he would be able to get.

When James got home he fell down on the couch and covered his eyes with one arm and let his other hand stroke Max's head when the dog rested his chin on his stomach. He felt like such an ass right now, even after spending a couple of hours with Sirius and the babies he could tell that Sirius wasn't that happy with him.

But it really wasn't his fault, Eston never passed the message on to him and before one of the last classes James had gone to the staffroom for a cup of coffee and Eston was there. The man hadn't said a word to him, except for a few cutting remarks, which James had retaliated.

Even so, he was blaming himself as well, he really wanted to have been there for Sirius through the births, he had promised he would be there with Sirius but he wasn't. James just hoped Sirius would forgive him.

James was going back to the hospital the next morning to pick Sirius and the twins up and take them home. The babies' room was completely finished now, it was warm and it was within easy access from their bedroom.

James pulled himself up, he went to the kitchen to make himself some dinner and feed the dog. After that he went upstairs to bed, knowing this would be the last proper night's sleep he was likely to get for months.


The twins, surprisingly enough, slept through the entire night in so giving Sirius a very restful sleep.

Sirius woke up around 9am the next morning, he yawned and stretched before rolling onto his side and looking through half open eyes at the crib holding the twins. He nearly had a heart attack when he realised there was only one baby in there. Sirius sat up in horror and then his eyes rested on James sitting in an armchair with a baby in his arms, the only little Potter who was awake.

Sirius sighed a breath of relief, "Man, I thought one of them had been kidnapped."

James smiled apologetically, "Sorry, she woke up and I didn't want to wake you up."

Sirius smiled and settled back against the pillows closed his eyes again; "I am still so tired."

James carefully stood up, the little bundle that was his daughter still in his arms, and he went over to the bed and sat down on the side. He pressed a kiss to Sirius's forehead. "When we go home, I can take them to my parents for a little while and let you get some more sleep?"

Sirius cracked open his eyes; he reached a hand up and stroked his thumb over James's cheek. "I know you still feel bad about not being here yesterday but stop it. I'm not angry at you, I know it wasn't your fault."

James frowned slightly, "Are you sure? You seemed pretty upset yesterday."

Sirius smirked, "I had just given birth, Jamie, I was in too much pain to be really happy and I was exhausted." James nodded, he still looked a little unsure. Sirius pulled James' head to his and pressed his lips to James's. The kiss was short but meaningful. When Sirius pulled away, he kept his hands on the sides of James's face. "But, I will take you up on that offer of more sleep."

James smiled; he turned his head to kiss the palm of Sirius's handed the gurgling little girl to him as Harry woke up.

Two hours later, Sirius was dressed and the doctor had just discharged him. He and James took a baby carrier each and left the hospital with their two beautiful new-borns.

Sirius was still quite sore and blatantly told James that he was never going to give birth to a child through his arse ever again. "You know, I think after giving birth, you're never going to have to prepare me before we have sex again."

James snorted with laughter, "Thanks for the visual." He put an arm around Sirius's neck and kissed him on the forehead. "You mean you are willing to sleep with me again, even after this?"

Sirius smiled and nodded, "I'm fine unless I take another fertility potion. Which needless to say, I won't be. You can do it next time if you want anymore kids."

James nodded and kissed him, it was a slow and passionate and short lived because one of the twins started crying and the chain reaction started with the next one causing their parents to grumble and pull apart.

James watched in interested as Sirius went over to the babies who were in their carriers on the table and cooed over them, after a bit of quiet, gentle talking they stopped crying. James, in all honestly was terrified; he had absolutely no idea what he was meant to do and how to look after them. But Sirius, it had been less than a day since he had given birth and he was acting like a natural at the job.

Sirius looked over his shoulder at James as he got the twins settled down again, "You all right?"

James met Sirius's eyes with his slightly fearful hazel ones, "I-I don't know what to do. I mean, I don't know anything about raising a child, I just-I'm scared."

Sirius smiled, he made sure Harry had gone back to sleep before turning back to James and placed his hands on his shoulders. "I'm scared too and if it's any consolation I have no idea what I'm doing either."

"But you seem so confident."

Sirius squeezed James's shoulders lightly; "It's my paternal instinct. If we both just spend a lot of time around them we'll learn, your parents reassured me that the paternal instinct would set in soon… Don't worry, we're in this together, and we have their grandparents on call if we need help."

James moved forward and rested his head on Sirius's shoulder, with his eyes on the twins. Sirius stroked his hair and hugged him. "I'm still scared I'll screw up, and I don't feel very paternal."

Sirius smirked and kissed James on the neck, "Jamie, its ok. I'm here as well. I mean…look, just take as long as you need to get used to it, there's no rush. I guess it just comes easier to me because I gave birth to them…I'm their mother." He heard James laugh quietly against his neck. "But like I said, don't worry. You'll be great… You'll be a great father, I know you will."

James smiled adoringly. Sirius knew all the right things to say, that was one reason why James loved him so much. "God I hope so."

"I know so," replied Sirius, he pulled away and looked at James. "Are you all right now?"

James nodded, "Yeah, I'm still scared shitless but its nothing I can't handle."

Sirius smiled, "You can stare Aragog down yet babies frighten you? …Interesting."

James pulled a face, "Aragog's a spider…they're…little people. Its different."

Sirius leaned against the table and raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Think of it this way, these two are just going to scream and cry and demand lots of attention, whereas Aragog will talk you into staying in his den and then he'll most likely let his children eat you alive. Tell me honestly, which is scarier?"

James pointed, "Them."

A little while later, Sirius had encouraged James to continue with his plans of taking the twins to his parents for a few hours so Sirius could get some sleep.

Sirius got a glass of water from the kitchen and then headed upstairs to their bedroom, there were clothes strewn all over the floor and the bed was unmade.

"Typical of James," said Sirius to himself. He put his drink on the bedside table and began stripping off his clothes leaving himself completely naked. When he was alone Sirius quite often wandered around the house naked. He yawned and stretched, arching his back as he did so, then he sat down on the bed and climbed under the covers, he took a drink and then settled down on his side curling up slightly.

It still seemed so unreal, he and James had finally gotten together when they were sixteen and now they were both only a few months shy of turning twenty and they already had two gorgeous children and they had still only been together about three years this month.

Sirius smiled, he had a proper family at last, well, he had one when he ran away to the Potters, but James and the twins were his own family – the love of his life and their own flesh and blood.

Sirius closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.


Sixteen year old Sirius groaned in pain as he woke up, he was in a bed and when he opened his eyes he realised he was in an unfamiliar room with a pounding headache. He turned his head to the side and saw a boy with messy black hair fast asleep in the armchair beside the bed.


Suddenly the events that ended him up in this bed came back to him. He remembered being beaten and almost left for dead by his father, all because he refused to be his whore anymore. Sirius had taken his broom that night while his family were eating dinner and took off to the Potters, he remembered knocking on the door and seeing James before everything went dark. He figured he must have fainted.

Sirius looked to the bedroom door when it opened and saw Mrs. Potter come in. "Ah Sirius, you're awake at last."

Sirius nodded, "H-how long have I been out?"

"Coming up to three days," replied Irene, "We were really beginning to worry you wouldn't wake up at all, and this one here," She nodded to James's sleeping form. "Hasn't left your side since you arrived. I think this is the first time he's slept since the other night as well."

Sirius looked back to his sleeping best friend and felt a new wave of affection go out to the boy. He must really care about me.

"He cares a great deal about you, you know?" said Irene, she handed a goblet full of a potion to Sirius and put a glass of water on the bedside table. "Here, drink this, it should help ease some of the pain and then I'll bring some dinner up for you." Sirius nodded. "Just out of curiosity, when was the last time you ate? James mentioned that you look a lot thinner than the last time he saw you."

Sirius rubbed his forehead, "I don't know, maybe a week or so? They stopped letting me eat and they put wards up on the kitchen and pantry so I couldn't sneak down and get something at night."

Irene nodded, "I was worried you might say that. Any requests for food?"

Sirius shook his head; "I could eat just about anything right now."

Irene nodded, "OK." She headed towards the door. "Oh yes, when James wakes up, tell him to have a shower, he hasn't seen a bathroom for the last few days either."

Sirius laughed. After Irene left, Sirius looked at the goblet he was holding and sniffed the potion, it smelt awful but he quickly gulped it down and took a big drink of water before settling back down on his side facing James.

He already had a massive crush on his best friend, he had done for the best part of half a year, but now, knowing just how worried James had been for him, Sirius could feel something more. Was it love? Sirius figured it could very well be, he already loved James as a friend but now he loved him as more, but he didn't think he would ever be able to say that to the handsome Gryffindor.

Sirius soon became aware of the hazel eyes looking back at him, he saw James smile.

"Hey, you're awake at last," said James sitting up in his chair properly and stretching. "How are you?"

Sirius smiled, "I'm fine…I heard you haven't left my side since I got here."

James nodded, "Its true …I was worried about you, mate, I mean, when you turned up you were covered in blood and bruises and then you just collapsed… What happened?"

Sirius curled up, still facing James but he moved his gaze away from that gorgeous face and sighed deeply, "…My dad beat me up…"


Sirius knew he couldn't tell James the real reason so he just lied a little, "Well, you know my family, they hate me…I guess I must have pissed him off somehow."

James reached out and tentatively pushed Sirius's fringe out of his eyes, "Well, you look much better for wear now, and mum and dad said you could stay here as long as you want."

Sirius looked back to his best friend, "Really?"

James smiled and nodded, "Yeah, they like you Padfoot and so do I funnily enough. We want you to stay and my parents want to make sure you're out of harm's way."

"I knew I befriended you for a reason," said Sirius grinning slightly.

James rolled his eyes, "No, no, I befriended you cause you looked scared and weedy back in first year." Sirius grabbed a pillow and whacked James in the face with it. "Ow…"

"I was not weedy," grumbled Sirius failing to hide a smile. "Oh by the way, your mum told me to tell you to have a shower when you wake up cause…yeah just go have one, you can come back when you smell pleasant."

James huffed, "That's all the thanks I get for catching you when you fainted? I'll be sure to keep your gratitude in mind." He stood up and headed to the door and then looked back to Sirius. "I'm glad you're ok now. You had me really worried there for a while." That said, James left the room and headed presumably to his own for a shower.

Sirius settled onto his back again and rested his hands on his stomach and stared up at the ceiling, he suddenly felt quite lonely, and he wanted James to come back and talk to him.

End Dream/Flashback

"James, support his head. It could break his neck if you don't," said Irene noticing how her son was holding his son.

James did just that and pulled a face, "I'm a horrible parent…"

Irene shook her head while she was holding her granddaughter, "Honey, you've been a father for less than twenty four hours, you still have a lot to learn, you'll be fine. Although, I think you should read the books I gave Sirius, you shouldn't be completely unprepared."

James smiled, "I will then…Tell me honestly, should I be more scared of raising kids than I am of spiders?"

Michael raised his eyebrows, "I've had nineteen years to get used to it and I'm still scared."

"Shut up," said Irene shaking her head. "It's perfectly normal, you're allowed to be afraid. Now, you've been here a while, don't you think you ought to get back to Sirius now?"

James furrowed his brow; "You want to get rid of me?"

Michael sighed, "What I think your mother means is, your favourite aunt is coming around soon and you ought to leave before she gets here to save the insults."

James looked a little let down, "Oh, ok." He stood up and carefully put Harry back into one of the baby carriers, while his mum did the same with Elizabeth. "But don't you want to see her reaction when she finds out I have kids?"

"It would be amusing but perhaps not today. Wait until those two are old enough to tell her themselves," replied Michael nonchalantly.

James smirked, "Maybe we will." He picked up the twins' carriers. "See you later."

When James got back home he decided to put the twins down to sleep in their cribs. While he was at his parents he had learnt how to tell whether the milk was too warm or not, both twins seemed to like it warm, his parents told him it wasn't necessary to warm it up but most babies prefer it. After that, they had shown him how to burp the babies and then bathe them.

After tucking them into their cribs and making sure they stayed asleep, he turned on the musical mobile above the cribs and then headed out the room and down the hall to see if Sirius was awake. He had seen his husband's sleeping form when he was walking down the hallway to take the twins to bed.

Sirius murmured something in his sleep and turned onto his back when James entered. James crawled onto the bed and pressed a soft kiss to Sirius's slightly parted lips, when he pulled away a pair of slightly confused blue eyes were looking back at him.

"How long have you been gone?" asked Sirius rubbing his eyes.

James looked at the alarm clock, "About three and a half hours and I feel much more confident now."

Sirius smiled and tapped his face, "I knew you'd come around." He yawned and stretched, arching his back as he did so. "God, I feel even more tired, maybe I shouldn't've gone to sleep."

James shrugged, "It doesn't matter, they've been fed, burped, bathed and put to sleep." He saw Sirius raise his eyebrows. "Mum insisted on showing me the more simple points and I found out I'm allergic to baby soap." He held his left arm out at Sirius's skeptical look and showed him the red patch on the inside of his forearm. "It might not be all baby soap, just the one my mum conjured."

Sirius nodded, "Oh, ok." He felt a bit useless now. "What are we going to do until they wake up?"

James shrugged and tucked one leg under himself, "I don't know…we could watch a movie or something."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, "Wow, you didn't even suggest a blow job, I'm impressed, Jamie." He ruffled James' hair and had his hand batted away. "I'm up for watching a movie…um, can we bring the TV and everything up here? Its just, I don't want to be too far away from them."

James nodded, "Yeah sure, I'll go bring it all up."

One Month Later

It was 3am and James was sitting in the rocking chair in Harry and Elizabeth's room in just his boxers as he tried to get Elizabeth back to sleep. She was dry, he had offered her milk and she had refused to drink it, he figured it must just be one of those times they wanted to cry for no reason at all.

James rocked on the chair gently, "Sh, come on baby, please go back to sleep, daddy needs to rest as well." He was getting desperate.

There had been times in the last month where James and Sirius got absolutely no sleep at all, those were the nights where they had resulted in calling James's parents for help. Other nights they had gotten about six hours of sleep between them. The babies were waking up and wailing for food, a nappy change, a cuddle and sometimes nothing at all. Their nineteen-year-old parents were dead on their feet; they were falling asleep all over the place and being jolted awake by wailing.

This lifestyle was fine, in short bursts, but when either James or Sirius thought about the fact that they had to raise these kids for the next eighteen years, they nearly cried. Especially knowing these late night/early morning wake up calls were going to last for a long time.

"You know," said James in the most soothing voice he could muster to his sniffling baby daughter, "If you keep this up, Uncle Moony and Auntie Dani are going to have to baby-sit you again so mummy and daddy can get some sleep. Now you know how they feel about babies."

A few days ago, Dani had volunteered for her and Remus to baby-sit the twins for a few hours while James and Sirius got some sleep. But when they got the twins back, Dani mentioned wanting to get her tubes tied before she had a chance to get pregnant because she didn't want to have to suffer this torture, if her and Remus decided to start a family. James and Sirius had tried telling them it wasn't quite as awful as it seemed.

"It's not that bad really," said Sirius stifling a yawn. "I mean, sure, you hardly get any sleep and you have to change their dirty diapers every few hours and feed them at the worst times of the night and of course, their crying wakes you up all the time…but it is worth it. I mean, just knowing you created them is such an incredible feeling, it really is. I wouldn't change this for the world."

Dani was nearly convinced until James spoke grumpily.

"He's that sleep deprived, he actually believes what he's saying," he said yawning.

Sirius glared at him, "Ignore him."

James continued to rock the chair talking soothingly to Elizabeth or Lizzie, as she had become known as.

The sleep deprivation had definitely strained their relationship a bit, they found themselves snapping at each other and bickering far more than they used to. If this was what happened after one month of having babies, he wasn't sure he wanted to know what could happen between now and the twins leaving home.

James lifted up Elizabeth's little arm and admired her teeny, tiny fingers as she started to quieten down, he felt her little hand curl around his thumb as she started to slip back into sleep. James smiled, "There's a good girl, Lizzie." He whispered as he carefully stood up trying not to startle her and wake her up again, he gently kissed her on her nearly bald head and then placed her carefully in the crib next to her brother's. "Night Lizzie."

Before leaving the room James checked to make sure Harry was still fast asleep, he was, thankfully. "Night Harry."

James turned and left the room to head back to bed, he crawled back under the covers next to Sirius, he flicked off the bedside lamp and slumped onto his stomach.

"What was wrong?" mumbled the voice next to his ear.

James wiggled about to get comfortable, "She just wanted a cuddle, I think." He felt Sirius's arm move and rest over his bare back


"For what?"

Sirius sniffed, "For snapping at you so much."

James turned his head so he could just make out Sirius's silhouette in the half moon lit room, "Don't be. I've been doing it as well." He kissed Sirius on the forehead, or what he thought was his forehead. "Let's just blame it on the lack of sleep, yeah?" Sirius mumbled an affirmative. "Night Siri."


The two lovers had nearly fallen back to sleep when…


"Oh fuck it. I went last time."

Sirius grumbled and rolled out of bed and cursed all the way to the twins' room.


A/N: I hope that wasn't too tedious…

Please Read AND Review