Chapter 30

"What a sight to wake up to."

Adria rolled her eyes as she turned to her husband lying on their bed. She had just dropped the towel from her shower and stood naked ready to get dressed when she heard his voice, "can it be a sight that you get up to because we have to meet Blair and Remus in an hour."

"Can't we cancel?" he groaned, "I have other things I want to do."

"No, Sirius," she shook her head, "we can't cancel. Blair sounded really excited to see us and I'm not cancelling on them - especially since their finally able to start living more than before. We get to see their new flat, too. Apparently, Remus and Isaac were in charge of decorating because of Blair's fight for her sister and they did a good job!"

"Sounds like a wonderful day we have planned," he grumbled, sitting up and watching her dress herself. It was mesmerizing, almost, to watch her - he watched her slide into the dress she had picked out just after her underwear and thinking of which shoes she could pair her dress with.

March wasn't the warmest month but it was getting warmer and so she had decided not to wear tights with her dress, she would find out if she regretted it when they stepped outside but she was apparating to Remus and Blairs anyway.

"They have news." Adria turned to see him still watching her, and she sighed with a smile...soon walking over to the bed and sitting beside him, "you are so cute when you're grumpy."

She leaned in to kiss him, a smirk on her lips when he attempted to deepen the kiss only to be interupted by their boy shouting from his room, "Addy!"

"You better be up by the time I get back," she warned, wagging a finger in the boy's face and exiting their room. She entered Jude and Mila's room, smiling at the boy who looked rather impatient, "she stole my toy!"

"Jude what have I told you?" Adria sighed. She clocked the toy now in Jude's hand tightly clutched and she was sure it'd be hard for him to let that go and picked up a crying Mila, "you have to share your toys now. Mila shares her toys with you, and you need to do the same. It's only fair."

"Yeah...yeah well!" he huffed, shaking his head, "I'm older!"

"Which makes you more responsible, but it looks like Mila is," Adria tutted, bouncing the girl in her arms, "I'm sure Jackson won't be pleased. He's Mila's friend too and he lets her share."

"But this is my favourite!" he whined.

She moved to sit down, wrapping her arms around Jude's waist and placing Mila in her lap, "what's wrong, baby? You haven't had a problem with sharing toys before?"

He frowned, "why is Lala here?"

"Because we have to look after her," she kissed the boy's cheek, "and you have to look after her too. She's younger, remember? And you have to help her and be the best friend you can be."

He reached out and pressed his hand to Mila's, pouting slightly until she took his hand, sniffled and stopped crying, "I know it's different with Lala here, baby, but you'll both get used to it and you'll have so much fun playing together!"

"Are you sure?" he whispered, frowning.

"Positive!" she pulled him onto her lap too, hugging them both tightly, "now can I go shout at Sirius for staying in bed or are you still keeping your toys from her?"

Jude giggled at that, as though it was the funniest thing in the world to think of Adria shouting at Sirius and shook his head, soon handing Mila the toy, "I have other toys to play with."

"Good!" Adria grinned for him, kissing his forehead and sitting them both back on the floor, "are you excited to see Benny?"

Mila giggled, clapping her hands together excitedly. She loved her uncle more than anything - as well as Arden who adored the little girl. Adria had been curious to know if she could read minds of children, but she was mildly disappointed when Arden said it was the simplest things like wanting to be fed or even just incoherent babbling.

She wasn't exactly sure what she expected if she was honest.

"Adria?" she turned her head slightly at the sound of Sirius' voice, shouting that she was in the kid's room and smiling when he entered, fully dressed and hair in a bun, "it's not right."

He gestured to the bun. It got his growing hair out of his face and as much as Adria loved his hair - she knew that it was time for him to get it cut, or at least trimmed. It was growing out of control.

"I'll fix it in a minute," she laughed softly, pushing herself up and over to him, "thank you for getting up."

He slid his arms around her waist, pressing his lips to her cheek and spoke, "I was only teasing you, Addy. Don't think I'm not planning to leave these two with Benji for an hour longer than we said though."

She rolled her eyes, biting her lip to stop her laughing when a confused Jude said, "why, Pad?!"

"Well..." Sirius trailed off, "Addy and I have to go shopping for sweets and cakes, of course."

"But Addy makes the cakes!" Jude frowned.

"Yeah," Sirius nodded, running over and scooping the boy up, "but we need ingredients to make the cakes, don't we?"

"Oh," Jude said, "does that mean Addy is making cakes tonight?!"

"Way to go, Padfoot," Adria snorted, "looks like we really are going shopping."

He sat down Jude when she turned and left the room and quickly followed after her, slipping his arm around her waist and whispering, "okay...two hours then."

"Hmm," she shook her head, "I don't know, I think I'll just be so tired after all that shopping."

He rolled his eyes, pressing a kiss to her lips and spoke, "you can't resist me, Addy."

She squeezed his hand, turning and softly brushing her lips over his only pulling away when he went to kiss her deeply, and with a wink she spoke, "Oh, I can surely try."

-

"I don't know if I should be surprised to like your house," Adria said as she looked around the room. It was a nice sized living room she was looking around, with a fireplace in the middle and a tv in the corner. Two couches sat against each wall with a wooden coffee table in the middle and when Adria turned, Blair let out a laugh.

"I know," she nodded, "I didn't know what to say when Remus said it was under control. I thought I was coming home to his jumpers covering the wall since that's what he loves most."

Sirius snorted, throwing his arm around Blair to hug her, leaning his head on hers as he spoke, "next to you, of course."

Blair reached up and patted Sirius' hand with a scoff, "thanks for flirting with me for my boyfriend, Sirius...means a lot."

"Well, he's not here."

"I am now!" Adria grinned at the sight of Remus coming through the door and hurried over to hug him tightly, her arms around his waist and his around her shoulders, "and I'm not your boyfriend, Blair, Merlin - I'm your Fiancé!"

Blair smirked, giggling when she caught sight of Adria's wide eyes and spoke, "my mistakes."

"Let me see!" Adria screeched, hurrying over to Blair and grabbing her hand - she gasped at the ring on her finger, covering her hand over her mouth.

"Look what you did, Moony!" Sirius exclaimed, "you made her cry!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Remus laughed softly, pulling on Adria and hugging her tightly, "are you happy?"

"So happy," Adria squeaked, "my Moony is getting married! You're getting married!" she buried her head into his chest, clinging to him for dear life whilst he laughed softly, kissing her head.

"There's another...surprise," Remus spoke quietly, guiding Adria to sit down. Sirius moved to sit down with her, the couple watching Blair move to Remus side.

"We didn't want to tell you at first," Blair whispered, taking a deep breath, "but you're our best friends - we didn't want you to find out from anyone else. The only other person to know is Isaac and that's because he was with me when I found out...I mean, I think I would have told him first anyway but besides that..."

Remus squeezed her hand, smiling reassuringly at the girl who smiled for him, "on the night of your wedding...we were heartbroken and sad and...and just shocked about everything...especially after such a beautiful day."

Adria already knew what was coming, she could sense it as soon as she walked in - actually, as soon as Blair told her they had big news, she figured it out without having to try and so in order to help them out, she asked, "is this like a graphic story of your sex life?"

Sirius snorted, and Blair's shoulders evidently slumped, "it seems so. Basically, that happened and uh...well, I hadn't been taking any sort of birth control or anything because before then, our relationship was hardly romantic - so I didn't think to take it, I didn't need to take it. On that night, I forgot about it...about needing it because I just wanted Remus...so-"

"You're pregnant," Adria announced for them, forcing a smile on her lips for the couple. She was human, and she was happy for her friends even though the timing was terrible, just like her pregnancy was - it was a terrible time.

But other than the happiness...Adria knew that the jealousy and the pain bubbling in her stomach would be justified by Sirius when he made sure she knew it was normal to feel that way - especially after what happened to her, to them but she couldn't let that show.

They were excited it seemed, terrified, of course, but excited and Adria would never try and take that away from them. So, she stood up, and Sirius was quick to follow as she threw her arms tightly around them.

"I'm so happy for you," she whispered. She caught eyes with Remus, who had frowned at the sight of her, and soon did he announce, "I need to talk to Adria...alone."

She frowned, and squeezed Sirius' hand as she followed Remus through the flat, soon falling onto the bed as he closed the door to his room, "do you think I'm stupid or something?"

"Remus-"

"We expected you to be mad, Addy," he sighed, taking a seat beside her and watching her pull her legs up to sit crossed legged, "we expected you to be angry, and mad and silent. You think we don't know you like you can hide your emotions clearly written across your face, but we can see it."

"I'm happy for you."

"Yes, but you're also sad. You're sad, and jealous, and angry, and hurt because we have what you had - and you think you have to be happy all the time! You think you have to be this smiling bundle of happiness but you're not and that's okay. You lost something so fucking precious and you were terrified to be a mother, but you were ready to do it and excited to do it, and excluding Lily, I was your first friend, okay?

I know you better than anyone else - and I don't care what Finn or Milo, or James or Peter, or hell even Blair says! You're my best friend, and I know you, and I want you to be able to share how you feel with me. Good Godric, Addy, I've known you since third year - you should be able to trust me with how you feel"

"I do trust you, Remus!" she exclaimed, soon standing. Her fists were clenched and her stomach swirling with nausea, "I do trust you. I trust you with my fucking life - I trust you with everything, but did you not take one second to realise that it's actually easier for me to cope when I pretend everything's alright?

Maybe, in the long run, I can fully fucking grieve but I can't do that right now - because other people are going to die, and I can't think of it, I can't think of the fact that my brothers gone, and my fucking child is gone too, my child didn't even see the world because some arse decided to kill it inside me!

I tried to mourn for a full month - if you remember that because I fucking do! but I couldn't because I felt numb, and I still feel numb and I am happy for you, okay? I'm happy that you get to have what I didn't - and I hope you have the big white wedding, but I sure as hell fucking hope that Blair's sister doesn't drop fucking dead at the party!

You're getting your life together now, maybe you can't work in a wizarding job but I'm glad that you're not drained every night - I'm glad you're not exhausted and unable to love your now fiancée. I'm glad you're having a child, Remus, and I'm glad that you're getting married but don't try and turn this into some sort of life lesson for me!

I know that you know me better than I know my fucking self, but you aren't the one that had your child full on fucking obliterated when you were just trying to fight for your family! You aren't the one that had to witness your brother drop dead and his wife! You aren't the legal guardian of two kids who have lost their parents!

I am. I know that side of me because it's the side I'm fucking living and I have to stay strong for them - I don't have time to have a meltdown about it. I don't have time to grieve or to mourn the loss.

Maybe if you just drop dead then I'll cry then!" she shook her head, running a frustrated hand through her hair, "I trust you with my life. But you don't get to decide how I feel and when I feel it."

"Addy-"

She shook her head, opening the door to the hallway and hurrying out. She was gnawing on her lip, forcing back the tears she wasn't going to allow to spill and grabbed her things, throwing a look at Sirius who knew exactly what to do as he stood, and smiled at Blair.

"Congratulations, Blair," Adria forced a smile for the girl, unable to meet her eyes or she'd know she was ready to cry, "I'm really happy for you."

And with that, she took Sirius' hand and apparated out of the twos flat.

Blair turned when she heard the floor creak slightly, and with a deep breath, she whispered, "I told you not to say anything about it."