Chapter Text
Sirius
Padfoot sits up from where he’d been lying in the sun, snout wrinkling. Something is wrong- the forest is being too loud for such a nice Sunday. He stands up all the way, shakes off, and then heads towards where he’s pretty sure the disturbance is coming from- into the woods that Moony has on his land.
Sure enough, soon he comes across Tom. The boy is standing in the middle of a clearing, levitating assorted rocks and logs, before blasting them into pieces and shooting them off into the forest. His face is completely blank, but his eyes are bright and burning. From the look of the clearing, Tom’s been at this a while.
Padfoot whines. Today’s a bad day for Tom, then- Remus had told him that Tom gets those, when Sirius had (half as a subtle attempt to gather information about the kid and half in genuine concern) asked if there was anything he should know about the boy.
There had in fact been a lot of things- most of which were unsurprising, considering Sirius’s suspicions as to who Tom might be related to, magically or otherwise.
According to Remus, Tom bottles everything up- all his rage and his fear and his pain- and then he explodes. It’s just how Tom is. Padfoot gets it- better than Remus does, anyways. Remus has Moony to help him blow off steam- forces him into expressing his emotions in a very literal sense.
But people like Tom, and like Sirius- sometimes you just have to lash out. At least Tom is lashing out at the world around him, and not at himself like Sirius had when he was Tom’s age.
The boy suddenly sinks to his knees, head in his hands. He’s breathing heavily. Then he bites into his own forearm- hard.
Ah- yes, that’s more familiar to Padfoot. Damn.
Padfoot decides that that’s enough of that. It’s extremely stupid, what he’s about to do, but he wasn’t sorted into Gryffindor for nothing.
By the time he gets over to Tom, the boy’s head is back in his hands. His arm is bleeding. “Go away,” Tom mutters.
Padfoot sits, instead. He’s not as good at this as Moony, but he knows enough to be at least pretty sure that Tom shouldn’t be alone right now.
(On the one hand, Sirius cannot believe Remus let what is very possibly a baby version of the Dark Lord Voldemort into his home and family. On the other hand, it’s Remus- and Tom’s a good kid. Funny, smart, and cares in his own way. Just because someone is a psychopath doesn’t mean they aren’t deserving of love or support.
Tom being a baby Voldie is a little harder of a pill to swallow, but Sirius has managed well enough. It helps that, apparently, if Tom hadn’t followed Harry down into the Chamber, Sirius likely never would have met Harry- which is unthinkable.)
“Go away,” Tom says, whipping his head up and baring his teeth. His wand is out and pointed at Padfoot.
And then Sirius has a great idea.
“You’re going to have to make me, kid,” Sirius says, before diving to the side and out of the way of the spell Tom shoots at him. It’s a good thing he’d been anticipating that- the kid is fast.
“This isn’t a game,” Tom spits, all of four minutes and around eighty spells later. “I’m not playing around. I’m trying to hurt you.”
“I- know- that,” Sirius gasps out, clutching at his side. He manages to dodge yet another curse, but just barely. He’s running out of steam, and fast. Maybe provoking Tom hadn’t been such a good idea. “I know- what a- decay- curse- looks like.”
Fortunately, this seems to catch Tom off guard. He lowers his wand, fury in his expression bleeding into confusion. Hell yeah- another point in Tom’s favor. Voldie would never let his guard down like that.
“But you aren’t- fighting back?”
“That would- defeat the purpose,” Sirius says, finally getting his breathing under control. Damn- he’s out of shape.
Tom holds his wand up again, eyes narrowing.“Purpose?”
Sirius shrugs. “Can’t hurt yourself if you’re trying to hurt me, yeah?”
Tom just looks at him, uncomprehendingly.
“James used to do the same thing for me,” Sirius continues. “When it all got too- you know.”
“No?” Tom says. His wand is wavering.
Sirius waves his hands around, as though that does anything to convey what he’s trying to say. Hm. This parenting shit is hard sometimes- but damn if he isn’t going to try his best to explain. “Buzzy. You know. Everything is... wrong.”
Tom’s wand is fully down at his side now. “Oh,” he says, although he still seems a bit confused. He thinks for a moment more. Then, his expression clears and he says, “you and Remus really do belong together.”
Sirius feels a crooked smile spread across his face. Hell yeah. “Yeah,” he says. “Anyways, want me to give you some dueling pointers?”
Tom looks a bit queasy at the idea of ‘pointers’ but then he sighs, shoulders slumping. “Yeah,” he says. “You’d better. I’ve fought you twice now and have only managed to land a hit once.”
Ha, old Voldie had that problem too. Like father like… son?
“I’d be happy to help, assuming we lay off the really dangerous spells,” Sirius says. “Although, can I say? You’re really fucking good, Tom.”
Tom gets a proud little smile on his face that really makes the resemblance between him and Harry stick out. “I am that,” he agrees. Then, he falls into an informal dueling stance.
Sirius smiles to himself as he falls into a dueling stance to mirror Tom’s.
Remus
“Uno,” Theo says in a deadpan before throwing his last card down. “And also, I win.”
Remus blinks down at the pile as Harry groans loudly in his hands. Merlin licks his cheek in, what Remus assumes, is an attempt at comfort.
“How are you so good at this?” Harry finally asks, looking up from his hands.
“If you think I’m good at this, you should see me play poker,” Theo says, expression and tone still flat.
“Bet I’m better,” Tom says, expression just as flat- although there’s a glint in his eyes at the idea of the competition.
“I’ll take that bet,” Theo responds, shrugging.
“No poker,” Sirius calls from the other room. Then, he comes into the room, brushing flour off of hands onto his shirt. “Not without me, I mean- I’ll sweep the floor with you punks.”
Theo’s expression remains blank. But their hair does go a little blue- Sirius has told Remus that means Theo is happy, and Remus really has no choice but to trust Padfoot on this one.
“Right- I’m going to clean the kitchen,” Remus says, going to stand up. “I’m shit at poker.”
He’s not, really- it’s just that Sirius can’t cast a cleaning charm these days without having something of a mild panic attack. Something about the smell and the feel of it takes him right back to Azkaban.
Sirius leans over and plants a kiss on Remus’s cheek, which is a casual domestic gesture that does not have Remus blushing as he leaves the room, thank you very much.
“How sweet,” Remus hears Theo say, in a deadpan voice.
“Yeah,” Sirius says, sounding happy.
Remus doesn’t know how Sirius has managed to get through to the kid as well as he has- no, that’s not true. Sirius has always been better with kids than Remus has, up to and including figuring them and their moods out.
That said, if Sirius can do it, Remus can too. He just has to work at it.
And he’s more than willing to do just that- in fact, he’d do just about anything for his kids.
“Merlin just decided that all of you are learning parseltongue,” Harry announces, apropos of nothing.
…even if it means doing that.
Theo
Theo sighs as he looks at himself in the mirror, but this time it’s in satisfaction. He gives his hair a tug, letting a small smile slip onto his face as it remains blessedly brown.
He’s only had two ‘lessons’ with Tonks, and already he’s able to change his hair color back to brown. He has to focus to maintain it, but to be honest, any progress at all makes it more than worth spending time with his older cousin.
Of course, Tonk isn’t as bad as he’d thought they’d be- once they’d realized that Theo is a bit… prickly, they’d dialed themselves back a bit, making them much more tolerable.
“You still look like a scoundrel,” the mirror decides.
“Thanks, for that,” Theo says, before turning around and leaving the bathroom.
They’re at Grimmauld, which is… odd. Not bad, not exactly, but still- the last time Theo had been here, he was… not in a great place, mentally.
It looks to be weighing on Sirius as well, who seems a bit manic as he throws assorted objects around the dining room with a flick of his wand. The others are somewhere in the house, too- they’re all trying to clean the place up, for good this time.
Theo, out of the corner of his eye, sees his hair go blue.
And he is happy, is the thing. It’s odd, but true.
Harry and Sirius are getting along really well, despite a bit of a rocky start that had involved a six-way ‘discussion’ (argument) over the decisions Sirius and Remus had both made vis a vis the whole ‘trusting each other’ thing (between Harry, Remus, Theo, Sirius, Tom, and Merlin).
It had started with Harry asking Sirius why he hadn’t trusted Remus enough to tell him about the switch, escalated when Remus had tried to defend Sirius to Harry, then escalated further when Theo had tried to explain to Harry that Remus wasn’t exactly blameless either (that was a turning point, with both Harry and Sirius suddenly finding themselves arguing on the same side).
After that, the atmosphere became less heated and more depressing when Tom had pointed out that Peter had probably manipulated the two into at least some of the distrust. The whole thing finally ended with Merlin suggesting they play a game of Uno. (For someone without hands, Merlin is a big fan of the game.)
After that, things seemed to be much better between everyone- and Theo finally knows what it’s like to have a family that cares about him.
Well, except for the part where Theo is still constantly caught off guard by Sirius and Remus being actually good guardians. There are still days where Theo does something and automatically tenses up, getting ready to be crucioed by Lord Black. Or days where Theo just wants to scream and scream at Remus for being too soft, too forgiving, when clearly Theo doesn’t deserve it.
And then, of course, there’s also the minor issue of Sirius and Remus having accidentally adopted a young Voldemort into the family. Which isn’t exactly ideal.
Theo still doesn’t know how Tom managed the split- but he’s going to figure it out if it kills him. Theo’s pretty sure that Tom doesn’t want Harry (and to a lesser extent, Remus) dead, but he still can’t shake the feeling that the older boy is something of a time-bomb.
Theo moves past the dining room and into the library- where he sees Kreacher sitting on a pile of books.
“Kreacher,” Theo says, cocking his head. “Shouldn’t you be making sure Sirius isn’t getting rid of anything too-”
Kreacher looks over at Theo, and Theo stops, feeling his stomach drop. There’s a glint of something in Kreacher’s eyes- he looks otherworldly, and his teeth are too long. It’s been a long time since Theo has seen Kreacher look so- wrong.
“Kreacher?” Theo asks, feeling suddenly very apprehensive. He begins moving towards the Elf once more.
Kreacher disappears, and then reappears, closer to Theo- but this time he’s perched on top of a bookshelf.
“Broken,” Kreacher says, as though he’s remarking on the weather. He’s not looking at Theo- in fact, he almost seems to be ignoring him.
“What’s-”
“Kreacher would like to kill Broken.”
Theo stops in his tracks once more, swallowing. Something about the way Kreacher said that- well.
Elves can be a bit… violent, but there’s never been a recorded incident where one has actually killed someone. Even expressing the desire to do so is nearly unheard of, as far as Theo knows. Kreacher must really hate whoever ‘Broken’ is.
“And yet. Kreacher cannot interfere,” Kreacher sighs, still looking out the window. “It goes against terms.”
“Against what terms?” Theo tries, even though he’s pretty sure he’s not going to be getting an answer out of Kreacher. Not when he’s acting like this.
“And yet,” Kreacher says again, cocking his head. “Regulus Black.”
“Kreacher, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Theo says, although the fact that this is somehow about Regulus Black isn’t actually that much of a surprise.
Kreacher disappears again, and Theo rolls his eyes.
Then there’s a thumping sort of sound as a book falls out of nowhere and onto the hardwood floor in front of him.
Theo bends down and picks it up, hesitating only briefly. It doesn’t seem to be cursed- but it is dusty. And very old. Theo gently brushes away some of the dust, then peels the ancient cover open with a crackling sort of sound.
He turns to what seems to be a table of contents, of some kind. Most of the words are faded away, or illegible. But there’s one that seems to stand out on the page.
“Horcrux,” Theo reads aloud. It might just be him, but the stuffy air in the library seems suddenly several degrees cooler.
Then, before Theo can examine the book further, there’s another sound- sort of a metallic little click- and Theo looks up in time to see the other object that’s appeared out of nowhere bounce once more against the hard floor before falling still.
It’s a locket.
Tom
Tom looks down at the letter he’d received, just staring sightlessly. He’s not actually reading the words, since by now he’s essentially gotten them memorized. It’s been hours since the letter has arrived, hours since he’d sat down at his desk. The letter has clearly sent Tom into a bit of an existential spiral.
He hadn’t known what to think when he’d gotten a letter bearing the official Hogwarts crest, but then he’d decided it must be a pay stub of some kind for his work as an assistant teacher, or potentially a last-minute adjustment to his final grades.
What he hadn’t anticipated was a job offer.
Tom sighs, then pushes his chair back. It’s no use. He needs an outsider opinion.
Tom walks quietly down the hall, hesitating for only the briefest of moments before knocking on the door to Remus’s (and now Sirius’s) room with the hand not clutching the letter. There’s the sound of quiet shuffling, then the door cracks open.
“Tom?” Remus asks quietly, eyes bleary and hair sticking out. He’s very clearly just been woken up. “Is everything alright?”
“I’m sorry to wake you,” Tom lies. “I didn’t realize how late it was.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Remus whispers, slipping out from his room and closing the door quietly behind him. “Let’s go talk in the kitchen- I’ll make us some cocoa.”
Tom nods and follows Remus down the hall and into the kitchen, where he sits at the table as Remus waves a hand to get the hot chocolate started.
“What’s going on?” Remus asks, turning to Tom and sitting at the table as well.
Tom sighs, then slides the letter over to Remus. The finished mugs of cocoa position themselves in front of Tom and Remus, and Tom sips at it as he waits for Remus to read the letter.
Remus reads it, eyebrows going higher and higher with every word. Then, evidently having finished reading, looks up at Tom with a big smile on his face.
“Wow, Tom- congratulations.”
“I don’t know if I’m taking it yet,” Tom says.
“Still- being offered an official position at Hogwarts, at your age? That’s a huge accomplishment. I’m proud of you.”
Tom sighs again, pushing aside the odd feeling conjured by Remus’s words. “I just don’t know what to think. I’d like to think Dumbledore is offering me the position because of my merits, but I worry it’s less that and more to keep me from entering the political sphere.”
Remus shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s it- Hogwarts is incredibly prestigious. If you accept the job, you’d have all sorts of opportunities available to you when you decide to leave the school. This can only help your political aspirations.”
“It’s not like I’d be a Professor,” Tom points out.
“Tom,” Remus starts, looking at Tom with a disgustingly warm, sincere expression on his face. “I guarantee to you that the only reason they’re offering you a teaching assistant job and not the job of Defense Professor itself is because of your age.”
“Or the curse,” Tom says.
“And maybe the curse,” Remus laughs. “But that’s even better- that means, when they realized they have a shot at consistency in the Defense department, they turned to you.”
Tom is quiet for a moment.
Despite Remus’s words, a big part of him is sure that Dumbledore is only offering Tom the job to keep him close. Keep your friends close and enemies closer, and all that rot.
Then again, it’s not like Remus is wrong either. Dumbledore’s motives may be less-than pure, but he’s still offering Tom a lot of influence and power- assuming Tom can stick it out long enough to become relevant. There’s a chance the curse is on the entire department, and not just the Professor position.
“I’ll write back and ask for further details,” Tom decides.
Remus smiles. “I think that’s a great idea.”