CHASING PAVEMENTS ⇒ wolfstar

TWENTY EIGHT

Two hours later and Sirius' family leave him to his own devices.

However, not before he and Regulus had managed to have a very long over due conversation.

"How's Lupin doing?" Regulus had asked. Sirius had half chuckled as he had watched Regulus watch Elliot within his elder brothers cradled arms.

Sirius could easily tell his brother was itching to hold the small baby. But Sirius had a strange protectiveness for Elliot. He can not bare the thought of letting her go, even though he is sure Regulus would take gentle care of her while she is in his clutches.

Another part of Sirius wants Remus to be the next person to hold her.

Sirius nods. "He's been given some kind of deep sleep potion, I haven't seen him since Elliot was quite literally fifty seconds old,"

Regulus nodded slowly. "I'm sorry to have sprung Narcissa on you. Andromeda had mentioned your daughter in passing to her-"

"Narcissa still slips away to see Andy?"

"Yes. More often than before now. She loves Nymphadora. Ted and Andromeda told her what she should do, what I should do too; they said if we want to leave then we can go live with them. We don't have a Potter, y'know," Regulus had said slowly.

"Do it, Regulus. Do it before you're too sucked in. You still have time to make something of yourself, be something other than a Black,"

Regulus had hesitated before replying. "We don't all have something to be better for," After this, he had stood before nodding curtly at his niece. "If I never see Elliot again, tell her that I thought she was amazing," Regulus had said, in an ominously sad tone. "Tell Lupin-" He paused. "Tell Lupin he did great,"

And thus, Sirius has been alone with Elliot ever since; in that same damn arm chair with Elliot snuggled against his chest. As if noticing her lack of audience, Elliot began too whimper, which soon turned itself into loud cries that echoed the room.

Sirius shakes his head, frustrated. "Oh come on, darling. You've been so good for me all afternoon, please dotn start roaring now that you've figured out you can,"

In truth, her cries made Sirius so refreshingly aware that she was alive, that her lungs were indeed working now.

Sirius gently rocks her, attempting to quieten her before Emelia or Sylvester could enter the scene to tell him how he could stop her. This was something he wanted to fix himself. She was his daughter and he was sure he was perfectly capable of helping her.

"I took my love, I took it down, I climbed a mountain and I turned around," Sirius starts softly. "And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills, 'till the landslide brought me down"

Ted had introduced Andromeda to that muggle band, the band's front woman, Sirius found, could evidently pass for a witch herself. She was enchanting, her voice mellow and soft, almost scratchy.

"Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?" Sirius holds Elliot close to him, her roars overpowering his soft humming.

"Well, I've been afraid of changing 'cause I've built my life around you, but time makes you bolder, even children get older," Elliot seems to revert to a shy hiccuping as Sirius whispers while staring down at her, shushing her gently. "And I'm getting older too,"

It's true. He is getting older. Although he's only seventeen, since Elliot's birth, he feels he has aged. Already, she has thought him so much.