Baby
What on Earth has James Potter so shook up? A baby, of course! Torn between terror and delight, James can't bring himself to utter a certain word, much to the amusement of his newly pregnant wife.
One Shot.
Lily Potter, newly married and even more newly pregnant, sat at home waiting almost, but not quite, patiently for her husband to return from whatever errand he was running for Professor Dumbledore. It was unlike him to be this late returning home in the past few weeks since she had made her new condition known to him.
As she sat gazing out of their living room window, she let her mind wander back to three weeks before. She had been sitting in very much the same position waiting for him to return home after an evening out with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. When his familiar patronus announced his arrival, her stomach had flip flopped and churned up acid, giving her such bad heart burn that she thought she was going to throw up. She wasn't sure if it was the nerves or the baby.
She stood and greeted him at the door, taking his cloak from him as he entered. He watched her suspiciously as she hung his garment on the designated hook and smiled brightly at him. At least, she had tried to smile brightly. As she thought back on it, though, it was probably more of a grimace.
"Who are you and where is my lovely wife?" James asked, watching her shift her weight from foot to foot and fiddle with her fiery red hair.
She let loose a nervous little giggle and then attempted another smile. "James," she said, but then stopped, frowning slightly. Maybe, she had thought, she should make him sit down first. She didn't want him to get light headed and fall over, cracking his skull on the coffee table on the way down. She cursed her overactive imagination and then said brightly, "Would you like a drink, Love? Sit down, I'll get you something."
He obliged, sitting down in his usual arm chair, still watching her carefully as he politely refused a drink. "No thanks. I've had quite enough for tonight, no thanks to Sirius."
Right. Maybe it was better that he had been drinking. Perhaps it had dulled his senses to the point where he would think it was a dream until he could fully wrap his mind around the enormity of the situation.
Lily stood awkwardly before him, not really sure what to do with herself. She resumed flicking the ends of the hair and shifting her weight around until James was nearly sea sick from watching her sway around in his buzzed state.
"Is something bothering you?" He said it as more of a statement than a question. Once more attempting that brilliant smile, Lily simply shook her head, chickening out of telling him.
Slightly deflated, she took her usual seat in the armchair next to his and engaged in polite conversation with him for a few minutes. She had learned that Sirius was doing well, but that he was going to be going abroad for Dumbledore in a few days. Peter's mother was sick, which explained his absence from their usual meetings. Remus, of course, was overly grateful to James for loaning him some money until he could find himself a decent paying job.
Lily listened politely and then informed him that she had spoken to Marlene McKinnon, who had announced her suspicions that there was someone untrustworthy in their ranks at the Order. James nodded sadly, telling her that it was a shame and that he hoped it wasn't true.
They lapsed into a silence. The silence seemed to be closing in on Lily, suffocating her to the point where she, without warning, spouted out her secret.
"I'm pregnant." Her eyes widened with realization the moment the words were out, slapping a hand over her mouth.
James' head snapped to face her faster than she thought was possible. She was positive that he had broken his neck from the way that his eyes bulged out of their sockets at her. She was certain that he would have had the same reaction if she had told him that she was the Dark Lord.
"I'm sorry. I think I'm quite pissed. Say that again?" He sounded cheerful and asked politely, but Lily couldn't help but notice the whiteness of his face, which made the ugly purple splotches under each of his hazel eyes stand out sharply.
"Erm," she said, not uncovering her mouth, her eyes still unblinking with the shock of what she had done.
When she had made no move to either repeat herself or even try and cover up her actions, James simply gaped at her and asked, "With a child?"
Lily found herself vaguely wondering what else she could possibly be pregnant with, but nodded her head all the same. This conversation was not going nearly as well as it had in her head. Of course, there had also been a version in her mind were James' head exploded, leaving her not only to clean up an enormous mess, but to raise the child alone. She had consoled herself by thinking that the worst had not happened yet.
She waved her hand dismissively and gave him another one of her stunningly bad attempts at a smile. Her power of speech finally returned to her, she said as breezily as she could manage, "Yes, well. We've still got a good six and a half months to sort all this out. We can talk later." She made to stand up, but the look of utter disbelief followed by the biggest smile she could ever remember gracing her husband's face made her stop.
"And to think!" James said, slapping his knee and outright laughing. "Sirius said you were having an affair!"
Lily allowed herself to giggled at the memory, patting her stomach lightly, as though sharing in a private joke with the baby. While James had been pleased with her news (He had proceeded to find reasons to call on all of their friends, even people they weren't really very close to anymore, to have an excuse to them the news, despite it being 11 o'clock at night.), he was still rather uneasy with the whole situation.
Two days after she had told him, he scratched his head and asked her, "Do you think it…hears us?" Lily had smiled fondly at her husband and nodded her head, telling him that yes, babies could hear the world around them. She was expecting him to be happy about this, but he paled and looked nervous, muttering something about watching his language.
Much to her amusement, he said countered with, "Well, has it got ears yet? Maybe it couldn't hear …er…last night."
Lily laughed at her husband. "Oh James. Don't be embarrassed. The baby doesn't know what was going on." She gave him a wink and left him to ponder the development of their child and the possible complex they had given him or her with the actions of the previous night.
Despite his uneasiness, the next day he had shown up in the middle of the day to present her with the smallest set of Quidditch robes, in Gryffindor colors of course, that she had ever seen. The gesture was adorable, and she knew that under all of the nerves and questions, he was truly as excited as she was to be adding to their family.
As Lily was about to become lost in another train of thought, the luminous patronus galloped through the front door and greeted her. He was finally home. Relived, she stood to meet him at the door, much like she had the night three weeks before.
She threw her arms around his neck and sighed. "I was worried," She said, pulling back just enough to get a look at his face.
He smiled down at her, rubbing her back gently. "I got into a bit of a sticky spot, but Moony showed up." She took his cloak from him and hung it on the hook, ignoring his uncertain stare.
"Lily," He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You're doing it again. This is what you did the night you told me about the…well…that you are pregnant," he said, stammering slightly near the end. Before she could answer, though, his mind had jumped to conclusions and he said, "Oh Merlin. There's two of them, aren't there?"
Lily stared at him for a moment, wondering if she should contact St. Mungo's before assuring him that there was still only one baby. "Baby's don't just spontaneously appear, James. Surely you know that?" she chided lightly.
She led him to the kitchen and asked about his day while he went about making himself a plate from what was left over of dinner. He explained that while he was retrieving something important for Dumbledore from someone in Diagon Alley, he was stopped by ministry officials. The ministry knew about the Order, but they did not really approve. They felt that it undermined what the auror department was already doing. Fortunately, while he was going on about how he was in town to do a little shopping and to get a small present for his wife who was pregnant, by the way, Remus had shown up and helped him talk his way out of an interrogation.
Having been cooped up in the house for far too long, and not being allowed to go on missions anymore, Lily was extremely curious about the mystery item, but James shrugged and said, "I have no idea what it was. He did ask to borrow my invisibility cloak, though. Of course, I handed it over right then and there," he continued to go on about his day, but Lily's mind wandered onto other subjects. Mostly the baby.
She waited for him to pause in his now seemingly endless tirade of speculations about the mystery package and the need for his invisibility cloak, and then she pounced, changing the subject.
"James?" She asked simply to call his attention to her. He grunted a reply, and then realized that she was waiting for a little bit more of an acknowledgment. He smiled encouragingly at her, which she returned while asking, "Do you think the baby is a boy or a girl?"
James thought for a moment and said, "I don't know. I hope that it looks like you, though." He smiled cheekily, clearly thinking that he had dodged the subject.
She wrinkled her nose at him and shook her head. "James," she whined lightly. "Stop calling our baby an 'it!'"
She laughed at he struggled to keep his composure, as he always did when she brought up the baby. Now that she thought about it, she had realized that he had always referred to their unborn child as 'it,' never once saying 'the baby' or even assigning a gender, even though they were unsure.
James noticeably colored when she pointed this out to him and stammered out, "Well…erm…You see, it's simple really. I don't want to give it the wrong gender. We've already done a number on it in the bedroom, you see. I want it to be a normal child."
Lily listened to his nonsense rambling for a minute before interrupting him. "Say baby for me, James."
"What?" His voice was strangled and she watched as he undid the top button on his shirt, clearly uncomfortable.
She nodded encouragingly. "It's only two syllables. Just do say it. You'll feel better, I promise."
He looked at her and said, "I'm not afraid of saying…that."
She smiled patronizingly and said, "Oh of course not. What would people think if James Potter was afraid of a little itty word that represented a harmless little thing..." she trailed off, and when he was no doubt going to defend himself, she cut him off and cried, "Baby!"
She laughed merrily as she watched him squirm in his seat, pushing his unfinished dinner around on the plate in front of him. He scowled at her, but she couldn't help but keep laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.
"James Potter," she said, shaking her head. "You refer to Voldemort by name no matter whose company you're in. Hell, I've heard you practically shout it out in public. A name that people are so terrified of, they begin to tremble and shutter when you say it. You are bold enough to do all that, but you can't say baby…" she trailed off, watching his face darken with embarrassment as he continued to play with the leftover food on his plate.
"That's not true," James said in an attempt to defend himself against her accusations. "I've never shouted it in public," he muttered, not making eye contact with her.
She burst out laughing once again, and patted her stomach lovingly. "Well, James, when it's born, you're going to have go get over this little fear. An actual baby is way scarier than the word."
"Oh Merlin," James said, dropping his fork on his plate with a clatter. "I hadn't even thought about there being an actual…" he trailed off, rubbing his face and finally looking up to meet his wife's gaze.
Lily snickered behind her hand, but then tried to comfort him by patting his arm. "Don't worry James. I'm sure it will love you just the same."
"Yeah, if it doesn't kill me first," he muttered darkly, standing up to put his plate in the sink. "How long do we have, anyway?" he asked, turning back to face her. "I'll need to make sure I draft a will."
Lily rolled her eyes and then walked towards her husband. "About six months," she answered, lacing her arms around his neck and playing with the ends of his hair.
"Come on," she said winking at him, "Let's go to bed."
He flushed red and scolded her. "Lily! Not in front of the…you-know-what!"
She grabbed his hand anyway and led him to the stairs despite his feeble protests. He would come around eventually.
A/N: Hello :) I had this idea rattling around in my head for a few days. I, myself, have a phobia of small children, so I can relate to poor James. Because I've been lacking some inspiration to finish Camping (which I will do! I promise!) I decided to indulge myself and write this lovely little one shot :)
Hope you enjoyed!