It takes two | Sirius Black

9.

"When's the baby due, Potter?" Marlene asks as she, Lily and Mary join the Marauders at the table in the Great Hall.

James swallows his juice, "7 weeks and 4 days."

"Counting down? Are you excited?" Lily asks nervously.

"Yeah! Can't wait! Going to teach him Quidditch before he can even walk."

Remus and Sirius smirk at eachother, as James talks lovingly about his nephew, not realising that the girls fully think he's the Father. He was probably the most excited out of them all, including Sirius. Nerves, nightmares and fear had started to replace Sirius' excitement the closer the due date came.

"You're going to be a great Dad, James!" Mary smiles, sipping her drink.

Marlene swallows some toast, "Yeah definitely!"

James eyes widen suddenly, he stares at the three girls his mouth hanging open in shock. Lily looks away to the floor. Remus, Pete and Sirius start laughing uncontrollably.

"So that's why you've been so off with me!" James realises, face palming loudly, "I'm not the Dad, Lily! I'm the cool uncle."

"Oh.."Lily says casually, her flushing face betraying her relief at the news.

Marlene glances at the three other Mauraders across the table, "Well it's not Pete."

"Hey!" James says, "He has just as much chance at getting a girl pregnant as the rest of us."

"He's a virgin, Potter." Marlene mutters, "Something also tells me he would've run away to Durmstrang if it was.."

Lily nods, "It's obviously Remus.."

"You thought it was me until five minutes ago!"

"Yes because you're the one who keeps carrying her bags and scaring people to move in the corridors for her." Lily rolls her eyes, "Most of the school thought it was you.."

James frowns,"Why? Because I'm a gentleman?"

"It's definitely Remus." Lily decides, "Gryffindor Casanova. He's always been close with Kate- maybe they were more than friends after all. Plus we saw him cuddling her after the match when Sirius fell."

"Yeah they looked so cosy!" Marlene comments, agreeing with Lily.

Sirius raises his eyebrow at Remus, who holds his hands up in surrender.

Mary shakes her head, "No."

"No?" Marlene and Lily question at the same time, frowning at eachother.

"It's Sirius." She glances at Sirius and then to James, "Isn't it?"

None of the boys confirm it, but they don't jump to deny it either. The girls understand, Sirius is the Father, they just can't say the words out loud. The four boys look at eachother awkwardly, waiting for the moment to pass.

The humiliation of not realising sooner that Sirius Black was the Dad sent Mary into shock. They'd been seeing eachother for ages and he never said anything. She had been waiting for the moment he finally asked her to be his girlfriend, meanwhile another girl was carrying his baby. He'd been acting funny for ages and she still didn't manage to put two and two together.

It dawned on Mary that it had always been there, she just chose to ignore it. She recollected all the times Sirius' eyes had wandered over to Kate when she was across the room from them. She thought about how uncomfortable he acted with her whenever Kate was nearby. There was also the time they had sex and he moaned a name other than hers, she couldn't make it out in the heat of the moment but she realises it now. He had always been weird with Kate, but after the Christmas break it was even more off. Everyone noticed something was wrong with Sirius, but it seemed only Mary recognised when his mood would actually shift.