☆ 𝟙𝟝 : times a-changing

fifteen times a-changing

🧣

30th January, 1980

'HELLO, PEOPLE WHO don't live here.'

'Hello.'

'Hey!'

'I do live here.'

    'Then act like it, Mr Potter,' Lily scolded, whipping the man with the tea towel in her hand. 'This is meant to be my day to relax, not yours.'

'Couldn't we just wait until Paws and Moony get here?' James whined, sinking in his armchair and sticking his feet up on the footstool.

'No,' Lily said firmly, before pointing to each of the three men in the living room. 'James, I want you to get cutlery ready for lunch, Sirius, feed the kneazle —'

'Oh, do I have to?' Sirius complained. 'Get Wormtail to do it, he never does.'

'Yeah, because she always tries to bite my fingers off,' Peter recalled, knees to his chest as he sat on the sofa, eyeing Minnie suspiciously. The ginger creature mirrored him.

'Get some more wood from the garden for the fire then,' Lily huffed, waving her hand impatiently.

'But it's cold —'

'Sirius, just do something useful for once in your life,' Lily snapped. 'I'm already carrying one child, I didn't expect to have to look after you, too. This isn't a mansion and I'm not a house elf.'

    'Well,' Sirius said, taken aback. Peter suddenly became very occupied with fixing the fold in the curtains by the bay window whilst James left to retrieve the cat food from the kitchen. 'I —'

    'Merlin, Sirius, I'm really sorry,' Lily sighed, shaking her head. 'I don't what's getting over me. I think it must be the hormones or something.'

    'I think you were mean before you were pregnant,' Sirius responded slowly, 'but thank you, anyway.'

A creak in the hallway outside the sitting room was soon followed by a cold rush of wind. Minnie —somehow still alive after the the frequent disasters in the Potter household that ended with her being stood on — went to the front door to investigate.

    'We're here,' a voice sung through the house. 'Happy Birthday, Lily!'

'Sorry we're late, everyone!' Remus shouted as he crossed the threshold into the house. 'We had a bit of a temper-tantrum with the little miss.'

'It's all right, Remus!' Lily called back from the kitchen. 'And thank you, [y/n]! Everyone's in the sitting room — helping!'

'Moony!' Sirius grinned as he stepped into the hallway, grateful for the arrival of his best friend. 'How's my favourite Lupin?'

'Depends who your favourite is today,' Remus sighed, slinging his scarf onto the banister of the stairs.

'Dear Godric, Sirius, move your arse so we can get in,' [y/n] muttered from the door. The baby in her arms squealed.

'Junior! Awh, you'll always be my favourite Lupin!'

'Junior?' [y/n] questioned, passing her daughter over to Sirius so she could take her coat off.

'My new nickname for Charlie,' Sirius announced. 'It was a bit difficult up the Burrow, with Molly's Charlie getting confused by which child we were talking to. So, I settled on Junior. Short for Moony Junior.'

'But she's not a werewolf,' Remus pointed out, swiftly following Sirius as he carried Charlotte into the sitting room.

'And she's not a metamorphmagus either so we have to base it on looks,' Sirius explained throwing the baby in the air.

    'But she's more [y/n]'s child than mine.'

    'But she has your surname.'

'But she's female.'

    'Paws is barely female.'

    'I heard that!'

'Lottie!' James exclaimed, jumping up from his armchair with open arms. 'Come to your favourite uncle! Come to Uncle Prongs!'

'I think you'll find I'm the favourite uncle,' Sirius argued back.

'Actually, I am,' Peter inputted, taking Charlotte from Sirius' arms.

The eight-month-old immediately began crying. At their feet, Minnie hissed.

'All right, point taken,' Peter muttered, handing Charlotte back to Sirius.

    'Come on, Junior, hush hush,' Sirius said uncharacteristically softly, rocking Charlotte in his arms. 'Right, Prongs, your turn.'

    'I don't think it's going to work, mate,' James replied, taking Charlotte but holding her at an arms length as she thrashed around. 'Moony, she's your baby —'

    'You're going to have to get used to it,' Remus told James, holding Charlotte up to his shoulder. 'Lily can't do everything by herself. Hush, hush, Lottie. There, there,' he soothed desperately as the baby's crying continued to fill the air. '[y/n], love, come help!'

    'Come here, Charlie,' [y/n] cooed, sticking her hands out for the bawling baby. 'Oh, Moony, she's teething. She's about to bite your shoulder off.'

    Once Charlotte was in [y/n]'s grasp, holding onto her tiny blue blanket and biting the edges of it, the baby immediately calmed down. She looked up at source of her mother's soothing voice with big brown eyes that were a replica of her father's.

    'You're magic,' Peter gasped as Charlotte quietly hiccoughed. Everyone in the room looked at him. 'All right, yeah, poor observation. I know she's a witch, but how do you do that?'

    'I have no idea,' [y/n] chuckled. 'I'm making this up as I go along.'

    'And so far, we've had no disasters,' Remus added, walking around [y/n] to peer at Charlotte from behind a shoulder.

    [y/n] shuffled Charlotte further up her hip and more securely onto her shoulder, blowing the small tuft of sandy blonde hair on the top of her head. Remus rubbed his nose against Charlotte's with an endearing look on his face.

    'How in hell do you two have a kid?' Sirius remarked bewilderedly, shaking his head. 'Moony, you're not even twenty yet —'

    'Neither's Prongs,' Moony retorted, 'and he's married.'

    Sirius rolled his eyes. 'I'm just saying.'

    'Just because you don't want to settle down,' [y/n] said back, raising an eyebrow.

    'All right, let's not argue about what age we're reaching milestones,' Peter interrupted, sticking his hands up. 'We're already fighting one war.'

    'There'll be another one going on in here if none of you boys help with lunch,' Lily spoke disapprovingly, her face softening as she tickled Charlotte's chin. 'Apart from you, Remus.'

    Sirius, James and Peter each roared in outrage at how Remus got away with everything because of little Charlotte Delphinus, but Lily was determined that the man, like [y/n], deserved a rest after everything he did in their own home. Yet the three men were still furious and followed Lily into the kitchen where she was making sandwiches, still complaining at their treatment.

'Did you bring Lily's present in by any chance?' [y/n] asked Remus, who was still tickling Charlotte's chin.

    'It's at the front door, but I think she's planning on opening them after lunch,' Remus replied, grinning widely as Charlotte grabbed hold of his finger. 'Tell you what — I'll go and help sort out the food while you get Lottie to occupy Wormy, Pads and Prongs so Lily can actually have a breather on her birthday.'

    'Awh,' [y/n] sung, placing a kiss on Remus' lip. Charlotte tugged at his moustache playfully. 'You're such a sweetheart, Moony.'

''Course I am,' Remus joked, pinching his girls on the nose and wandering to the kitchen. 'I make up for how horrible you are.'

    [y/n] gasped offendedly and furrowed her eyebrows when Remus turned back with a grin. [y/n] covered Charlotte's eyes and mouthed, 'Fuck you.'

    'Gladly,' Remus mouthed back, disappearing into the kitchen before [y/n] could express her appall.

    Remus successfully kicked Sirius, James and Peter out of the kitchen and, with some convincing, Lily too. The three men sat in a triangle on the floor as Charlotte played in the middle of them, sticking their legs out and joining their feet to create a boundary for the baby to play in. [y/n] and Lily sat together on the sofa, curling their socked feet under them as they discussed motherhood, Muggle politics and birthday celebrations in years gone past.

    Lily's birthday lunch was the best meal [y/n] had since the Order's Christmas party at the Weasley's Burrow. There were towers of sandwiches, packets upon packets of crisps in every flavour, stacks of pumpkin pasties, rows of crusty bread for the bowls of soup and a seemingly never-ending supply of sweets and treats, from Bertie Bott's to chocolate frogs. James had, to the best of his abilities, attempted to bake Lily a chocolate birthday cake which, although slight askew with melting frosting sliding off the side under the heat of the twenty candles, tasted wonderful.

    As the day grew darker at around four o'clock in the evening, after Lily had opened all her presents and Charlotte's second temper tantrum of the day died down, the family found themselves gathered in the living room surrounded by a calm, unusual for them considering, but pleasant nonetheless.

    'Does anyone have any news, then?' Lily asked, stroking Minnie's fur under her cup of tea. 'We haven't seen each other properly since the new year.'

    'I fixed up my motorbike,' Sirius said, wide eyed. 'It flies now.'

    James' eyes lit up in Lily's direction and the woman scowled.

    'I'm not letting our baby anywhere near that death-trap, so don't be getting any ideas, Mr Potter.'

    'So, you don't want our child to be happy?'

    'I would die for this baby before you could put it in that.'

    'Ever the Gryffindor, Evans,' Sirius chuckled.

    'Anyone else?' Lily asked in response. 'Literally, anything so this doesn't escalate to murder.'

    Remus nudged [y/n] gently and said, 'Paws has some news.'

    'Ooh, do tell,' Peter said excitedly, gulping his tea.

    'It's not really news,' [y/n] attempted to deflect. 'Nothing might come of it —'

    'Spill it,' James pushed impatiently, lightly kicking her shins.

    'Right, well,' [y/n] started. 'I might be going back to Hogwarts.'

    'That could mean anything, Bear-Star,' Sirius sighed, rotating his hand to encourage his sister to keep the story rolling. 'Keep it coming. We're adults now, this is the most exciting thing to happen since we redecorated your house.'

    'A teaching post may be coming up. For Muggle Studies.'

'Godric, Paws!' James exclaimed. 'Well done!'

'Dumbledore asked me personally,' [y/n] explained. 'Apparently, Quirrell's planning on teaching until his O.W.L. students graduate then he might be leaving to take some time abroad.'

    'Whatever for?' Lily asked.

    'Rumour has it he's volunteered to join the queue for the Defence position, so he wants to do some research in Albania. Something about Vampires ...' [y/n] explained, taking a sip of her tea to have a pause. 'Not many students are taking Muggle Studies these days, and the smaller classes are boring for him apparently.'

    'That's a shame,' Lily frowned. 'What do you think about having smaller class sizes?'

    'Well, here's the thing,' [y/n] replied, moving forward to the edge of her seat. 'Minnie mentioned that Dumbledore is thinking about creating a Defence monitor. Y'know, to maintain some sort of flow for the students with the new replacements they end up having every year.'

    'Because he can't keep an eye on it himself?' Sirius scoffed, tickling their kneazle's chin after she jumped off Lily's lap and into his.

    'No, but it works out well for me,' [y/n] said excitedly. 'Both Minnie and Flitwick wanted to go for it, but because they teach core subjects, they wouldn't have the time. Plus, Slughorn's retiring soon so they don't want to give him an extra workload and Professor Sprout's spare time is taken up by looking after the greenhouses. So, Minnie suggested that I should go for it, seeing as I have a good background.'

    'And Dad said he'd update you on the theoretical stuff if ever you need help,' Remus added.

    'I still think he could've gone for the job,' [y/n] said. 'Or you.'

    'Imagine the two of you teaching there,' James winked.

    'It'd be chaos!' Peter cried.

    'McGonagall has enough on her plate with prankster students, let alone the teachers,' Lily added with a laugh. 'But that's wonderful news, [y/n].'

'What does Mad-Eye think?' Sirius asked. 'Y'know, with you being his little secretary or whatever it is you won't tell us that you do.'

'Well, you know what Alastor's like,' [y/n] replied. 'He thinks it's perfect, reckons I can help him catch the Death Eaters before they even graduate. I still have a few years to think about it though, so we'll see what happens.'

    'No matter what Moody thinks, I personally believe it would be the perfect penance for all the havoc you caused,' James noted. 'You could deal with your own little shits.'

    'Particularly this little shit,' Peter reinforced, lifting a giggling Charlotte up in the air.

    Minnie hissed at Peter and jumped off Sirius' lap, lunging towards the former. Out of fear of what the creature would do, Peter handed the child to her uncle and tried to escape from the kneazle's claws. Sirius held Charlotte in the air at an arm's length, smiling widely at the happy baby.

    'Uncle Padfoot will keep you safe,' he grinned. 'Godric knows why that thing hates you, Wormtail. She used to love you.'

    'I don't know, either,' Peter cowered, trying to hide behind the sofa [y/n] and Remus were sat on.

    'Bring Lottie here, Padfoot,' Remus said. 'She's probably getting tired.'

    'No, she wants her favourite uncle,' Sirius said, cooing to the baby and rubbing noses with her.

    'Sirius, my child,' [y/n] instructed, holding her arms out. 'Padfoot!'

'I'm her favourite uncle, Padfoot!' James exclaimed chasing Minnie around the room as she ran after Peter.

    'You're not by blood, though,' Sirius pouted, holding Charlotte close to his shoulder. 'Different role entirely.'

    'Padfoot,' Remus warned.

'Nope.'

'Padfoot.'

    'My daughter!'

    'Padfoot!'

    'Pa'foo'!'

    It's like time stood still in the room. James dangled Minnie in the air to stop her from attacking Peter, who had ceased crawling across the floor. Lily's teacup hovered halfway between the saucer and her mouth and [y/n]'s jaw was dropped open. Remus and Sirius were staring at each other. Charlotte blew a raspberry.

'I think she said Papa,' Sirius attempted to recover. 'You know, like, baby talk. Pa'foo' — Pa-poo — Papa? No?'

'It definitely sounded like Padfoot, mate,' Peter contributed.

'Zip it, Wormtail,' Sirius muttered as Charlotte played with his hair.

[y/n] was the first adult in the room to move.

'Well, fuck you, Potter,' [y/n] said, reaching a hand into her pockets.

'I believe that's two Galleons, five Sickles and —' A very smug Lily paused for effect. '— Nine knuts.'

'Excuse me?' James asked, watching the exchange between his wife and best friend.

'Are you telling me you had a bet?' Remus enquired, finally looking away from Sirius.

'Yeah,' [y/n] muttered bitterly. 'And the first time I lose one is to Lily-bloody-Potter.'

Lily chuckled, 'Oh, to be proven right. What a wonderful feeling. Well done, Lottie, I always knew you'd have my back.'

'My wife,' James gasped, taking Charlotte into his arms so Sirius could free his black locks from her tiny fists, 'a gambler?'

'A good one, too,' [y/n] remarked before pointing at Lily. 'And if your child's first word isn't Moony then I'm never talking to you ever again.'

'A bet,' Remus kept muttering under his breath. 'On our child's first word.'

    'I don't know why you expected any different, Moony,' Sirius scoffed. 'Some things never change.'

    'I wish they would,' Lily murmured without much thought to the comment.

    A stillness settled around the room which let Lily's words ricochet off the walls. James placed Charlotte on his hip and before walked behind Lily in her armchair before wrapping her in a one-armed hug. Sirius tentatively took a seat on the floor and Minnie leapt into his arms.

    'So, you've all heard about Alice and Frank, right?' Peter spoke into the silence. He ran his finger around the rim of his teacup.

    'Oh, yes, the baby!' [y/n] exclaimed excitedly. 'Did you know, Lils? Alice is due around the same time as you!'

    'I know!' Lily beamed. 'And Molly has another coming in the next few months.'

    'I reckon they'll be best friends with your little one,' [y/n] remarked. 'You'll have to set up playdates for them, like we do for Lottie and the twins.'

    'It's so exciting,' Lily exhaled.

    James and Remus shared a look. James' expression questioned the excitement about Charlotte and the twins latching on to each other considering the havoc the three of them brought. Remus' blank-faced nod confirmed his fear that he had a lifetime of mischief ahead of him.

'By the time they all start school, they'll already have one big Hogwarts family,' [y/n] declared ecstatically. 'Just like us!'

The six people in the house looked around the room. It felt quite empty, considering almost half the usual lodgers were missing from the party. Alice and Frank were out on a hunt with Sturgis Podmore and Alastor Moody, whilst Mary had been forced to go into hiding after Death Eaters were able to locate her and her Muggle family. Dorcas and Marlene had been sent on a mission of their own under direct orders from Moody and Dumbledore; the reason why was a complete secret to the members of the Order, with the exception of [y/n]. No one knew [y/n] knew. She was sworn to secrecy by an Unbreakable Vow between herself and Moody, her brilliant — although slightly unorthodox — mentor.

'It'll all be over soon,' Lily proclaimed as the atmosphere turned sombre. 'Everything'll go back to normal.'

Sirius cleared his throat and stood up, raising his coffee mug above his head.

'To better times,' he announced. 'Hang on, be tough and stick together — we'll be out of this in one piece in no time.'

'Cheers,' everyone chorused slightly solemnly, before taking a sip of their drinks.

Charlotte was oblivious to the words that left her uncle's mouth, but she mimicked the adults' actions from James' lap — at least she had the right spirit.

    There was a light tap at the window which drew everyone's attention away from the conversation in hand. Lily walked over to the window and opened the curtains to be greeted by a barn owl with a letter tied to its leg.

    'Ooh, owl post,' she said, opening the window to let the bird in.

    After struggling with the owl to let go of the letter, it was James who finally pried it off. He handed Charlotte back to Peter and made a trade with the owl with some bird food he grabbed from the kitchen.

    'It's for you two,' he announced, handing the letter to Sirius.

    'Miss and Mr Black,' Sirius read and let out a one syllable laugh. 'Any guesses who it's from?'

    He turned the envelope to [y/n] and she grimaced at the sight of the perfectly curled handwriting which reminded her of the person the letter was likely from.

    'Shall we just write back without reading?' Sirius exhaled, moving to the fireplace. 'Signed Mr Black and the future Mrs Lupin.'

'Oh, don't go marrying me off yet, Dog-Star,' [y/n] chuckled, sending a wink over her brother's shoulder in Remus' direction. 'This one hasn't even asked me yet.'

'The more you keep going on about it the longer I'm going to make you wait,' Remus remarked with a shrug.

    'When will you get married though?' James whined. 'You already made us wait seven years before you got together, don't make us wait that long for a wedding.'

    'Well, Lottie's turning one in May, so maybe then?' [y/n] proposed, pointedly looking at Remus.

    'I always imagined you two having a summer wedding,' Lily said wistfully, sitting on James' lap carefully.

    'And this one —' [y/n] pointed at Lily's stomach. '— should be out by the end of July, so I wouldn't have to worry about getting my bridesmaid a maternity dress.'

    Everyone in the room looked to Remus to watch his reaction — except Charlotte, who was trying with all her might to crawl from Peter's grasp in order to grab hold of Minnie's bushy tail.

    Remus raised his cup of tea to his smirking lips.

    'We'll see.'

    'I'm telling you, he's got something planned,' [y/n] speculated, pointing at Remus as she turned to the others. 'He's planned something and he won't tell anyone.'

    'I don't see the fuss about weddings,' Sirius muttered. 'They're all big and grand and fancy and stuffed full of people.'

    'Hey!' James pouted. 'Our wedding was lovely.'

    'That's an exception,' Sirius said.

    'Ours won't be grand and full of people,' [y/n] countered. 'We have basically no one to invite. The only people from my side of the family we'd be asking is you lot, Andy and Ted.'

    'And Dora,' Lily added.

    'And Dora,' [y/n] confirmed.

    'What about Lion-Star?' Sirius asked apprehensively.

    [y/n] sighed solemnly. 'I don't know. Honestly, I don't want to risk the whole family finding out to keep Moony and Lottie safe.' She squirmed in her spot on the floor uncomfortably. 'As much as I'd love dear Mother to know that I chose who I love, I just can't bear the thought of what could happen with the world as it is.'

    'Does anyone know about Lottie, then?' Lily asked. 'You said you might write.'

    'Only Regulus,' Remus explained. 'He came by for a flying visit a week after she was born, actually.'

    Peter covered Charlotte's tiny ears. 'He's a Death Eater,' he whispered harshly.

    'He's also barely eighteen,' [y/n] retorted. 'He doesn't know what he's doing.'

    'All the same, Mother is a wanker,' Sirius proclaimed, about to drop the letter into the fire.

    'It might be important, Sirius,' [y/n] snapped, trying to save the letter from being caught up in the flames. 'Give it here.'

    'Do what you want, but I'm not reading it,' said Sirius. He handed [y/n] the envelope.

She ran a thumb over the glittering, deep emerald wax seal, the crest of the Most Noble House of Black imprinted on the seams. She went to pop the seal, but looked up apprehensively at the six pairs of peering eyes. [y/n] shook her head, and opened the letter.

    Dear Mrs Black, the letter read. But [y/n] wasn't Mrs Black, and Sirius certainly wasn't either. The only Mrs Black was her mother, but if she had sent the twins a letter addressed to her, who was the message actually from? The words were typewritten, too, so unless things had changed drastically in the two years she and Sirius had been there, the letter was definitely not from their horrific mother.

    In the top right-hand corner of the parchment which [y/n] had missed in her anticipation to read the letter was an address:

Ministry of Magic,Scotland Place,Whitehall,Below London

November 27th, 1979

    In a panic, [y/n] scanned the contents of the letter; what had that awful woman done now and why had she passed the information on to Sirius and herself?

    Dear Mrs Black, we regret to inform you that, upon the request of Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore ( O.M. (First Class), Grand Sorc., D. Wiz., X.J. (sorc.), S. of Mag.Q.) to submit a missing persons report, our search for your son, Mr Regulus Arcturus Black, has been unsuccessful. We have no option, given the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and the length of time that has lapsed since the report was first made on 12th June, 1979, but to declare your son deceased. You will have the option ...

    But [y/n] didn't care about what options there were. Her eyesight went blurry and her tears fell in blotches on to the paper. She clasped her hand over her mouth as a stray sob escaped.

'Oh, Paws. What has that banshee said about you now?'

'Sirius, I —' [y/n] stopped and steadied herself. 'I really think you should read this.'

'I'm not reading anything from that fu—'

'It's not from her, not really,' [y/n] sniffed. 'She's forwarded us something. It's from the Ministry.'

'What?'

'You should probably have a look at it if it's from the Ministry, mate,' James pushed.

'You all right, love?' Remus asked quietly, halting bouncing Charlotte on his knee.

[y/n] nodded her head solemnly, clenching her jaw to fight back her tears. She held the letter out in the air.

'I promise, there's not a word in there she's written,' [y/n] told Sirius pointedly. 'She probably only sent it to us to rub in our faces how noble we could have been to the fam—'

    'What do you mean?' Sirius panicked. The worry grew in his eyes; the mischievous glint was extinguished.

    'Just read the letter, Sirius!' [y/n] cried, desperately holding out the letter to him with a stretched arm.

    'I don't want to read a bloody letter! Just tell us!'

    'Maybe you should go into the kitch—'

    'No, Evans, it's fine,' Sirius interrupted Lily. 'We're all family. We should all know.'

    'Read it!' [y/n] screeched before sobbing again.

    'Come here,' Remus said, holding out his arms from the sofa for [y/n] to join him. The woman fell to the seat and took a deep breath, the shock and realisation slowly settling in. She could feel the world crumbling around her.

Sirius snatched the letter and hurriedly read its contents, his expression dropping with every word. He seemed to reach the same point where [y/n]'s breath hitched in her throat, before he dropped the parchment and went to leave the room.

'I'm going outside for a bit,' he said stoically, grabbing his leather jacket from the coat hanger on the back of the living room door. 'I need a smoke.'

Sirius was gone without another word, the slamming of the front door behind him echoing through the stunned silence he left his family in.

'Shit,' James muttered. 'Must be bad, Paws.'

[y/n] squeaked a very timid, 'Yeah,' from her foetal position on the sofa next to Remus. Her head was next to his lap and Charlotte was playing with her hair softly, not completely oblivious to what was going on amongst the adults, but certainly unaware at the severity of the situation.

'Should we go after him?' Peter asked, still watching the doorframe Sirius disappeared through.

'Give him some space for a minute,' James said.

'Do you want another cup of tea, [y/n]?' Lily offered, studying the heartbroken woman with concerned eyes.

'We can go home if you need to,' Remus whispered, grabbing [y/n]'s hand and intertwining their fingers. He brought them up to his lips and placed a kiss on her knuckles. 'You know you can talk about things in your own time.'

But everyone else in the room seemed to be waiting with baited breath for [y/n] to spill the contents of the letter. Although, it wasn't them knowing that was behind her reluctantly to speak the truth into existence.

    'He's dead.' [y/n] struggled to spit out the words but as soon as she did, they all came at once. 'It's Reggie ... Regulus ... He's been missing since last June ... Th-they've finally pronounced him d-dead two months ago. My baby brother ... Oh, Godric ...'

    'It's all right, love,' Remus whispered softly, handing Charlotte to James so he could rock [y/n] in his lap. 'It'll be all right ... let it all out.'

    Lily's hand rested over her mouth limply and she turned to James who mirrored her shocked sadness on his face as he cradled Charlotte to sleep in his arms. Peter sat by the fire without uttering so much as a word.

    [y/n] lost control of her sobbing and she muffled her wails into Remus' jumper.

    'It's all going wrong, Moony ... it's all gone so wrong ...'

ohhh boy

it does not get any better from here

but yes!! meet baby charlotte delphinus lupin! i imagine her to be the cutest little cherub on earth until she grows up and you'll definitely get to see why very soon ;)

(side note: remus genuinely liked the name charlotte, [y/n] just chose it to piss james off after their breakfast discussion in chapter 12)

one final chapter to go ...