Harry and Lalia were going to be best friends even if they weren't aware of it. When their fathers found out they would be having children within a month of each other, they were ecstatic.
They began planning crazy antics for their "boys" to get into. The stories became wilder as their children grew within their imagination.
However, one day when James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew charmed a necklace to check the sex of the babies- for what was what seemed their hundredth attempt- it worked.
Lily and Alissa were finally far enough into their pregnancy for the charm to work. As the ring in Remus's hand swung side to side over Lily's belly, James grin widened.
When Remus switched the ring to hang out Alissa's stomach, the pattern changed. It began swinging softly in a circular motion.
The room became deadly quiet and everyone turned to face a silent Sirius.
He sat still for a while, before a small smile graced his face as he stared at Alissa's belly.
"We're gonna have a daughter," he said softly, reaching to rub her stomach and grabbing Remus's hand in his other.
This news did change James and Sirius plans some, but then Remus reminded Sirius that any child of his would be up for shenanigans. And suddenly the scheming continued, with Sirius pointing at Lily's belly stating, "You better keep her safe," multiple times.
The parents knew the kids would be friends, what they didn't expect was how quickly they would latch onto each other. Shortly after Lalia Black was born, the Potters visited the Black household as well as the other Marauder. Alissa was settled on the couch while Sirius first let in the family, who quickly made their way to the little girl, but as soon as Sirius walked away from the door another knock sounded causing him to return to see Peter there. When the adults entered the room, Remus was sitting on the couch next to Alissa playing with Lalia's toes. Sirius plopped himself down on the opposite side of Alissa.
The content sleeping Lalia woke up to the adults cooing over her. She trailed her eyes over everyone there including the tuft of black hair in the blanket in Lily's arms.
Peter leaned a little closer to Lalia and whispered a soft hello. He had blocked her view of the majority of the room. There was a pause as she opened her mouth. Lalia began crying frantically, causing all the adults but her parents who rested on the couch with her to pull away.
Her parents quickly filtered through everything that could be upsetting her. They checked her diaper, if she was hungry, they adjusted her position, they tried singing or bouncing her. Nothing worked.
Lily quickly passed Harry to Sirius and asked to try and calm Lalia. Once, Harry was next to Lalia, she calmed down and stared at him.
Everyone relaxed and Lily reached to pull Harry back to her. Once Harry's face was out of Lalia's sight, her cries began again.
Everyone frowned, Lily putting Harry back in Sirius's arms and reaching toward the girl to pick her up. The screams ended until Lalia found herself moved. She began crying and kicking in Lily's arms out of frustration.
"You don't think...," Remus died off.
"I do," James replied. "Lily give her back to Alissa."
Once Lalia had been returned to her position she quieted down. They all glanced at young Harry, who smiled a toothless grin at the little girl beside him.
James had stepped towards his son and pulled him away from Lalia, testing their theory. Her screams returned and James noticed Harry's smile disappear and brow furrowed. James quickly returned the boy to Sirius's lap where Harry's smile returned and Lalia calmly stared at the boy.
"Well, would you look at that," Sirius muttered, incredulously.
It was a ray of light in the world which had become dark right before Harry's birth. Dumbledore had informed them that Harry was one of two children that fit a prophecy against He Who Shall Not Be Named.
In that moment, with two new members to their family, everything seemed like it would work out.
Sirius had pulled aside Remus later that day to talk to him.
"Let's ask her and him now," he said excitedly, reminding Remus of their days back at Hogwarts.
Grabbing Sirius hand and rubbing his knuckles with his thumb, Remus nodded.
"James, we want you to be -," Sirius had started when the three of them were alone in the hallway.
"Oh, thank god! I was scared you wouldn't ask me!" He said, hugging both his friends tightly.
Rolling his eyes, Remus spoke up, "So I assume that means yes."
James was practically sobbing on them.
Later once everyone had left the three adults in their house, the boys had asked Alissa what they had been waiting to.
"We know it's kind of a weird situation since you're our surrogate and therefore Lalia's mother, but we want you to be her godmother," Remus said softly to the woman who had given him and Sirius so much.
"Oh..." she gasped. "I would love that, thank you." Tears were collecting in her eyes as she hugged them both.
However, once news of a spy in the Order had been common knowledge and the Potters were placed on house arrest, things shifted. Sirius was putting all effort into his family and the Order to protect his best friend's family. He knew there were whispers about him being the spy due to his family, but James and Lily's trust in him was all he needed to reassure himself.
Sirius and Remus were finding their time together stretched thin. Remus and Sirius always gone on a mission or due to the full moon. Alissa was the one left with Lalia.
Sirius and James however were often together due to their kids. They even began betting on their first words. They hoped to be their own kid's, as well as their friend's kid's, first words. Sirius practically screaming daddy and Padfoot at Lalia and Harry, and James, no better, singing daddy and Prongs at Harry and Lalia.
What they didn't expect was for Harry to be an early developer with only one word that he knew the meaning of at 9 months old.
When Lalia had been crawling after the boy, she placed her knee on an extremely pointy toy and shouted in pain. Her cries echoed through the house to where their parents were gathered, but by the time they had reached the kids, Lalia was curled into Harry's arms as he rubbed her hair and whispered, "Lia, shh," repeatedly.
They focused in on getting Harry to say their names but it seemed that would be the only phrase he said until he was almost one.
Lalia, a month away from being a year old, returned the favor. Her father had been chasing her around in his animagus form when she slipped on the rug. Her hands caught the majority of her body, but her forehead continued towards the ground, making contact.
Screams filled the room. When a now human Sirius ran to his daughter, he was shoved away as she screamed what sounded like, "Owie."
"I know it's an owie, love. Let me see it," he cooed gently.
"-Awy! -Awy! -Awy!" she screamed, fighting her father's hold as he picked her up and placed her on his waist.
Sirius, finally realizing what she was screaming, apparated to his best friend's home.
Lily and James had been cuddled on the couch, watching Harry play with a train set on the ground. At the Blacks appearance, all of them turned their attention to the screaming girl.
"She's calling for Harry," Sirius explained, worriedly.
Harry waddled over to his godfather. He pulled on Sirius's pant leg.
"Pafoo-," he waved the man down with his hand.
When Sirius knelt beside Harry with his crying daughter in his arms, Harry shoved aside his arms to wrap his own around Lalia.
"-Lia, shhh. Shhh, Lia."
The adults watched as the girl calmed down, hiccuping, and then being dragged away and distracted with Harry's trains.
"They're gonna get married," James said with a wide grin on his face.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "That's completely up to her," he muttered.
He jokingly glared at his godson.
Sirius couldn't deny that at the very least they would be best friends. Whenever the two had play dates, they slept cuddled together during any naps. There was never much distance between the two as they were attached at the hip. What the adults were unaware of was how connected Lalia was to Harry and this connection would go unknown for years.
Whenever Remus jointly babysat Harry, in attempts to give his stressed parents some well needed rest, he supplied them with a nice cup of hot chocolate. The two would sip on their warm drinks, which had cooled drastically past hot to be safe, and cuddle on the side of their uncle and father as he began to read them a story.
It was one of their favorite things to do, and it always ended with them taking a nap together. It quickly turned in to their favorite drink as well.
On the night that changed all of their lives, Alissa and Remus were having tea after they had taken Lalia around the area to trick or treat for some time.
Sirius had been gone from the home for a few days due to business with the Order. His absence left the house cold and empty for the other two adults, especially when her daughter was asleep. The many missions Sirius had been on left Remus feeling as if he didn't know the man he had once loved.
October 31st was passing for the two as they simply enjoyed one another's company. Both having felt extremely lonely; both recognizing Sirius's absence. The two had no idea what was happening to their loved ones. As the killing curse was sent at Harry, Lalia woke up screaming and crying. Both adults ran to the room, shocked by the peaceful child waking up so suddenly.
They dedicated their night trying to calm the sleeping toddler back to bed, but even the promise of hot chocolate could not soothe the girl.
Alissa and Remus were at a lost. Lalia's cries for her best friend were ignored as neither had access to the Potter home and believed only Sirius did.
Well into the next morning, short hours away from sunrise, Lalia had finally cried herself to sleep.
Remus kissed his daughter goodbye and hugged Alissa before going to an Order meeting.
Alissa was asleep on the couch, having fallen asleep there waiting for one of the men to return, when one of the said men busted into the room.
The sound of the door waking her up quickly and in a panic.
"Sirius, dear, what's wrong?" She asked the shaking man.
"They're gone. They're gone. I was just at James's and him and Lily are gone. Hagrid's taken Harry for Dumbledore, but they're gone, Alissa." He ranted at her without a breath.
"But... How... No one knew the password except for you..." Alissa mumbled, reaching out to her her friend who shrugged her off.
Sirius ran up the stairs to his daughter's room, Alissa following him behind as quickly as she could.
He picked up the little girl in his arms, waking her up slightly.
"I'll fix this for you, I swear I will." He kissed her forehead before gently placing her back in her crib. "I have to go."
"But you just got here! Sirius, please you aren't making sense! Talk to me!"
"I will. I will. After I make things right," he said, he hugged Alissa and whispered in her ear, "Tell him I love him," before stepping back and apparating away.
Alissa collapsed to her knees in worry for her best friend and in grief for the friends she lost. She tried to hold in her cries, but lost the battle, crying out in agony on the floor of her daughter's bedroom. She desperately wished she could go back just a day or even a few minutes to better make sense of what she was now going through.
Sirius never did make it home to her or his daughter. He was arrested for killing Peter Pettigrew and thirteen muggles.
Alissa never did believe he was guilty, remembering Sirius's disbelief and and the light of revenge in his eyes on that day, but no one, not even the one who loved Sirius the most, Remus, would listen to her. He had felt distanced from Sirius ever since they joined the Order and Sirius acting without waiting for him had only hurt Remus even more, tainting his views. She had been banned from visiting the man in Azkaban, so she raised her child with only one of her fathers, desperately wanting the truth.
At first, Remus pulled away, lost in his grief as he felt he lost everything dear to him. However, Alissa refused to let him off this easy. She cornered him one day and demanded that he remember that he was her daughter's father too and her best friend and that he better start acting like it. Remus had been opposed to being around the two originally, but every few seconds he spent with them reminded him that he hadn't completely lost everything that Halloween day. He still acted in little ways to push them away, like changing his daughter's official name from Lalia Abril Black Lupin to Lalia Abril Black.
And so is the world Lalia Black grew up in. Without one of her fathers, who she received mixed stories about, without mention of her lost best friend, or his parents long gone from this world. She grew up isolated with her mother and father as the only people who were there for her daily. Unaware of the battles her mother went through to keep her in her small, safe world or the self destruction her father put himself through.