“I hate to say this, Padfoot, but you were right. We have no more information now than we had before Abby met with your parents,” James said.
“No, we don’t. Abby took a huge risk and for what? We still don’t know a damn thing,” Sirius answered. Standing, he went over to the cupboard and opening it, reached up to take the bottle of Firewhisky out. His hand hesitated on the bottle.
Sighing heavily, he left the bottle where it was and slammed the cabinet door closed. Turning, he saw James’ raised eyebrows.
“Don’t give me that look,” he said as he sat back down at the table. “I’m just not in the mood to go a round with Lily over it.”
Laughing, James asked, “Are you afraid of my wife?”
“Of course not,” said Sirius quickly, a little bit too quickly to be believable. “No sense in upsetting her when I’m hoping she’ll make me dinner.”
Both men looked up as Remus walked into the kitchen.
“What’s wrong, Moony?” asked James as he saw the look on his friend’s face.
Remus glanced at Sirius as he sat down. “Heard a few rumours,” he began, “about Regulus.”
Sirius straightened in his chair. “What rumours?” he asked.
“The latest rumour circulating is your brother wanted to leave the Death Eaters-”
“No one leaves,” said James.
“Not alive anyway,” said Sirus.
Remus nodded. “The rumour is Voldemort either killed him himself, or had someone do it.” Seeing the look of resignation and sadness cross Sirius’s face, he rushed to explain. “There is no concrete proof of this. The only thing I was able to find out is he was acting strange for about a week or two before he disappeared.”
James looked thoughtful. “What could have happened?” he asked.
“I was told Voldemort had Regulus do something for him. A couple days later, Regulus started acting very strange. Next thing anyone knew, Regulus is gone and no one dares question it.”
“How did you get this information?” asked Sirius.
Remus smiled bitterly. “Sometimes my ‘condition’ comes in handy. I’ve made a few useful contacts over the past few months who pass information on to me.”
“Only Death Eaters would know this. You’ve been hanging out with Death Eaters?” Sirius asked suspiciously.
“No, but with others of my kind. Some of which are friendly with Greyback so they hear things,” Remus said defensively.
James could sense something in Sirius’ voice and attitude towards Remus. He knew the frustration over Regulus was taking its toll on him.
“Are Lily and Abby still talking in the sitting room?” James asked Remus to try to diffuse what could turn into a fight.
“No, when Lily let me in, they were on their way upstairs. It looked like Abby had been crying,” Remus answered.
Sirius growled and pushed back from the table. James reached over and grabbed his arm, shaking his head. “No, let Lily handle it. She will make sure Abby is okay.”
Sirius shook James’ hand off and stood. He looked towards the doorway into the sitting room and turned away towards the cupboard. This time there was no hesitation as he pulled out the bottle of Firewhisky and three glasses. He poured a generous amount in each and set one in front of James and Remus. He picked his up and downed the amber liquid in one shot and then refilled his glass. He grabbed the bottle and sat back down at the table.
“Not worried anymore about Lily feeding you?” asked James jokingly.
“Nope,” said Sirius, “she is probably going to kick me out of the house when she finds out what I did to Abby last night.”
“What did you do?” asked James.
“Before or after I threw her on the floor and kissed her?” asked Sirius.
Both James and Remus looked at Sirius with shocked looks. “Just tell me you didn’t throw her down just to kiss her,” said James.
Sirius laughed ruefully. “No, I can honestly say when I threw her down, kissing her was the last thing on my mind. That sort of just happened.” He looked at his friends and smiled before saluting each of them and downing his drink.
James reached over and grabbed the bottle of Firewhisky before Sirius could refill his glass again. ‘Ogden’s is supposed to be enjoyed not gulped down like pumpkin juice,” he told him.
Sirius shrugged and grabbed Remus’ glass, downing it before they could stop him. Remus looked at Sirius. “Well, Prongs, guess we should have seen this coming,” he said, humour lacing his voice.
Nodding his head, James began to chuckle. “Yeah, eventually it had to happen.”
“What are you two going on about?” Sirius asked, his words starting to slur slightly.
“I just never expected it to happen so fast, though maybe with his past, it is judgement coming back to bite him,” said Remus.
“Could be,” answered James.
“’Ello, I am sitting right here,” Sirius said, waving his hand in front of them. “Care to enlighten me why I am the butt of this joke?”
Laughing, both men looked at him and then at each other. Remus shrugged his shoulders at James.
“Padfoot, my old friend, you have finally fallen in love,” James said. Seeing the look on Sirius’s face, he burst out laughing again.
It was at that moment, with Remus and James both laughing hysterically and Sirius looking totally bewildered that Lily walked into the kitchen. She quickly spotted the bottle on the table and her anger spiked.
“Well, isn’t this just cosy?” she asked. “Abby is upstairs crying her eyes out over not being able to help Sirius and you three are down here getting drunk.”
She walked over and grabbed the bottle from James. Opening the cupboard, she took out two glasses. “I think Abby needs this more than any of you do.” She turned and marched out of the kitchen.
Sirius reached out and grabbed James’ glass and drank the contents. He looked at both of them. “I am not falling in love with Abby…” he said and then he put his head down on the table and began snoring.
“Never could hold his liquor,” said James, shaking his head.
“Always was good at denial,” added Remus.
*****
Upstairs, Lily took a deep breath before opening her bedroom door. She had to calm down if she was going to ever find out why Abby was so upset. She knew it was more than just the fact she hadn’t gotten any useful information from the Blacks.
“I think,” she said as she walked into the bedroom, “you need some of this.” She held up the bottle. “I liberated it from the idiots downstairs.”
She poured a bit into each glass and handed one to Abby. She watched Abby take a sip and sighed. Sitting down next to her, she looked into Abby’s eyes.
“Now, tell me what is really bothering you,” she said gently.
Abby looked down at her glass. Lifting it to her lips, she drank the entire contents much as Sirius had done downstairs. “Sirius kissed me,” she said.
Lily had to fight to hold back the smile. She had a feeling this was what was bothering Abby. However, if she found out Sirius had been callus with Abby’s feelings, she would make that man’s life hell.
“Tell me what happened,” she coaxed.
Abby took a deep breath and told Lily everything. “…And then, he just gets up and walks out the door as if nothing had happened. Lily, what am I going to do? I am in love with Sirius Black.” Abby began crying again.
Lily put her arms around her friend. She didn’t know what how to feel about this. On one hand, Sirius and Abby were made for each other; anyone could see that. On the other… On the other she didn’t know if either was good enough for the other.
“I can’t be in love,” said Abby. “Love doesn’t happen just like that. I, mean, we have only spent at best a couple hours together? No, no, it is just…” Abby’s voice trailed off.
Lily didn’t say anything. She knew love could happen that fast. Once she stopped pushing James away, hadn’t love filled her heart almost instantly? Of course, maybe she had always loved him and her fighting him off was a defence mechanism.
“How could this happen? I don’t even know him. Lily, do you remember in school every time he was around, what happened?” Abby asked.
Lily thought back to their days at Hogwarts. “You were never around him much, that I remember,” she said.
“No, I wasn’t. I avoided him as much as possible. James, Peter, and even Remus, I was fine being around. But whenever Sirius came around, I always did something stupid,” Abby said. “Do you remember the Potions class where I spilt the entire contents of our cauldron just after he walked by and said hi to me?”
Lily laughed. “Yes, I do. Professor Slughorn was very understanding about us not turning in our assignment on time,” she said.
“Or the class where we were turning animals into teapots then back again. He merely walked by us on his way out of class, and I knocked my teapot onto the floor trying to transfigure it back into a mouse,” Abby said. She sighed heavily and looked down into her empty glass.
“I can’t believe I haven’t done anything stupid in these past few days. Unless you count losing my temper and hexing him a stupid act,” she said. She looked up at Lily.
“The reason I think you haven’t done anything stupid now is because you are not the same shy, timid girl you were in school. You’ve grown up, Abby. We all have,” Lily told her.
“He always made me nervous. He still does, but now, it’s different. I don’t know how to explain it. And now, I really want to help him, help him find out what happened to his brother,” she said.
Lily reached over and patted Abby’s hand. “We all want to help him. You are the one who is in the position to help him the most. James, Remus and Peter would help, they would go to the ends of the earth to help him, but they are needed for other things. I can’t take off to help him…not now…” Lily let her voice trail off, a soft smile on her face.
Abby looked at Lily. Perhaps it was just a woman’s intuition, but she knew instantly what Lily wasn’t saying. She looked down at the untouched glass of Firewhisky in Lily’s hand and then back at her face.
“Lily, you’re pregnant!” she exclaimed.
“Shh,” Lily said, a look of guilt crossing her face. “James doesn’t know. I haven’t had the nerve to tell him, yet.”
“How long have you known?” asked Abby.
“Almost a week,” Lily answered. “I know, I know, I have to tell him. Maybe I’ll tell him tonight.”
“I think you should. Let’s go tell him, now,” said Abby.
“No, I don’t think this is a good time,” said Lily. “I’ll tell him later.”
Love Beyond Forever by mudbloodproud
Chapter Notes: I wish to thank my friend and beta, Alyssa (harry4lif).
Everything you recogise belongs to J.K. Rowling. I am just thankful to be able to play in her world for a little while.