Yes, I know that Harry's 32nd birthday was yesterday, but I didn't get time to post this so I'm posting it today. This is the product of being awake at one in the morning while eating ice cream. Hope you like it. :)
Lily Potter was miserable. Her husband had abandoned her to go get more milk with Sirius (all right, she sent him to get more milk). It was ninety seven degrees out, her back was killing her and to top it off she was eight months, two weeks and four days pregnant. She sat at the wooden kitchen table at their Godric's Hollow home eating ice cream. Every so often there would be a little twinge coming from her swollen tummy and she would glance down. She was incredibly tired, because for the past few weeks she hadn't been sleeping well. The baby thought it would be fun to perform a series of flips and kicks every time she lay down for a nap. Or, if it wasn't doing that, it decided to use her bladder as a trampoline, sending her to the bathroom, what seemed like, every forty five seconds.
So yes, Lily Potter was miserable.
There was another jerk from her stomach and she glared down at it.
"If I had any doubts of whom the father might have been they're clear now," she muttered, getting up to throw the ice cream container in the bin. "Only James's child would lack the ability to stay still for more than five seconds."
The baby kicked again, though this one sent Lily gasping as a shudder ran through her body. She gripped the counter for support.
"What the bloody hell was that?" she asked her stomach angrily. "Are you trying to kill me?"
There was chuckle from the doorway. Lily's head snapped up.
"Talking to yourself now love? Shame; good wives are so hard to come across these days."
Leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed against his chest with his characteristic smirk decorating his face in all his messy haired glory was James Potter.
Lily switched her glare from her stomach to him.
"Oh don't just stand there and smirk," she snapped irritably. "Where's Padfoot? And my milk?"
"Padfoot has your milk. He told me that he'd be back here in a minute or so, after he's finished chatting up the pretty girl working the cash register.
"Glad to know he has his priorities in order," Lily grumbled. "Chatting up some ditzy blonde with my milk in his hands while I'm here practically dying. Very good friends we have."
"She wasn't blonde; she was a brunette."
Lily growled.
James ignored the fact that the little redhead probably wanted to castrate him at the moment and came up to give her a hug. He kissed the top of her head.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Oh just fine," she said sarcastically. "My back is killing me, it's so goddamned hot in here and your child can't stay one place so that I can actually get some rest. Not to mention that we're out of chocolate ice cream now, I haven't slept properly in weeks, my hair looks like some sort of rodent crawled up there and died and all my clothes are so uncomfortable that I might start walking around naked! Yep! Everything's just dandy!"
James laughed and gave her a chaste kiss.
"We can go up to the bedroom and I'll cast a cooling charm and give you a back massage. And since when is it my child?" James asked, his lips twitching as he tried to hold in his laughter.
"Because I know that any child of mine would be a well behaved little angel," Lily shot back as she attempted to cross her arms and look scary. It didn't really work as James was a more than a head taller than her and Lily was just wear her knickers and James's old Gryffindor practice t shirt.
"Sorry to say darling but any child with Potter genes will be misbehaved," James informed her, still smirking.
"Bugger," she swore. "Well, I hope you fine with only one child Potter. Because I'm not going through this again."
"We'll see. And what's this about ice cream? I brought more just yesterday."
"You brought strawberry."
"But you like strawberry."
"I like strawberry; your child doesn't."
James chuckled again.
"I'm so glad you fine my misery entertaining," Lily said acidly as she made move to go up to the bedroom.
"Oh it is," James confirmed. She swung at his chest, but he just held it her hand there. "Let's see, what else were you complaining about? I told you that if you wanted to sleep so badly you could just take a swig of the sleeping draught. Your hair isn't even close to mine and by all means go ahead and walk around naked. I'm not stopping you; hell, I'll probably even join you."
Lily gave him an exasperated look, but her slight smile ruined it.
"Glad to- ow!"
She doubled over in pain, one hand grabbing her stomach while the other hand clenched around James'.
"Lily?" James asked frantically. "Lils, are you okay? Is it time? Is the baby coming? Oh Merlin, we need to get to the hospital. I need to-"
"You need to shut up," Lily said as she leant against the counter.
"Lils…"
"I'm fine," she said, standing straight up again once the wave of pain subsided. "I've been like this since morning."
"And you're now telling me this because…?" James cocked an eyebrow.
"Because it doesn't matter. I'm fine." she went back into the kitchen. "I'm not going in to labour; I still have two weeks left. Now go upstairs, cast about a hundred cooling charms in that bedroom and get ready to give me my massage. I'll be there in a moment."
James gave her one more wary look before turning around and heading upstairs to their bedroom, muttering all the way about stubborn birds.
However, just as he stepped in to the bedroom, he heard something fall downstairs followed by a cry of "James!" from Lily.
"Lils?" he said as he ran back down the stairs. He pushed open the door to the kitchen and saw Lily gaping at a puddle of water at her feet. One hand was clutching at the counter while the other rested on her tummy. A bottle of juice, which was closed, was lying on its side on the counter.
"Lils? What happened? Did you spill water or something?"
"I- I think my water just broke."
It took James an entire minute to understand what she was saying.
"WHAT?" He yelled, his gaze shifting from the puddle to Lily then back to puddle where he just stared at it, unmoving.
"Hey Lilybean! I'm home!" Sirius yelled from the front of the house. "And I have your milk!"
When Sirius got no answer, he went in to the kitchen, only to find Lily and James gawking at a puddle of water.
"What's going on here?"
That was all it took to snap James out of his shock and have him muttering a string of expletives under his breath as he ran a shaky hand through his hair. Lily was still staring at the puddle.
"Padfoot," James said seriously as he turned on his heel to head back upstairs. "Watch Lily; I'll be right back." And with that he left Sirius with the stunned redhead.
"Er- Lils? Are you okay?" Sirius asked.
No answer.
"Lily? Lily Potter?" Finally giving up, he yelled, "Oi! Evans!"
"It's Potter to you!" she snapped.
"Yeah, well you weren't responding to anything else," Sirius countered. "Now will someone tell me what the hell is going on here?"
"My water broke," she blurted out.
Sirius blinked.
"And you're standing here staring at it? Merlin woman! You have to get to the hospital!"
"Yes, hospital," Lily murmured as she started to head up the stairs. Just as she placed her foot on the second stair, James came running down with a bag slung on his shoulder.
"Alright, I think there's everything in here; I mean you did pack it about a- hey! Where're you going?"
"I'm going upstairs to change so we could go to the hospital," Lily replied simply as she continued up the staircase.
"Wha- Lils! We have to get to the hospital now! There's no time to change!"
Lily glared at him. "Listen Potter, I'm a severely hormonal witch who happens to be gong through labour and has a wand. Do not test me unless you want to be turned into a slug."
"Sirius, tell her we have to go now," James said, stepping behind him.
"Listen, er Lils, Prongs has a point-"
"Do you think I'm going to go to a hospital wearing one of your old Quidditch shirts and wet knickers?" Lily asked James, completely ignoring Sirius.
Despite being an eight month two week and four days pregnant woman Lily still managed to look scary as she glared at both boys.
When neither one responded, Lily continued up the stairs and came back down five minutes later wearing a pair of drawstring cotton pants and blue t shirt with her hair bundled up in to a neat pony.
"Can we go now?" James asked, rolling his eyes.
Lily didn't respond. Instead, she walked right past both men and headed straight to the fire place which was already burning green. James and Sirius followed her and shouted 'Saint Mungo's!'
Once in Saint Mungo's Maternity ward, a young blonde witch led them down the hall. It was mostly empty, save for one or two people milling around here and there. The witch told Sirius that he could sit and wait or he could go back home as this was probably going to be a long and drawn out process. Sirius replied to that with a snort and asked the witch if she needed to be escorted back to mental ward if she thought he wasn't going to stay and witness the birth of his godchild.
"I'm sorry Mr. Potter. You can't go in there at the moment. They're currently getting Mrs. Potter ready," the blonde witch, whom James decided to call Blondie, informed him.
"What? Why not? She's my wife. I've seen everything before. How do you think she got pregnant in the first place?"
Blondie turned red and stuttered out something about it being protocol. James didn't care. He was too busy trying to get in to the room.
"Oh- I- You can't go in! Just wait until Healer Jacobs says you could!"
"Listen Blondie, my wife and unborn child is in there. You better let me in, or else I'm-"
"James?" a voice called out.
James glimpsed over his shoulder, only to find fellow Order member, Frank Longbottom standing there with Sirius.
"Oh, hi Frank," he said, though most of his attention was focused on trying to sidestep Blondie and get in to the room to see his Lily.
"Lily's in labour?"
He just nodded, passing a hand through his hair.
Suddenly, a hand clamped down on his shoulder. He looked behind him only to find Frank looking at him with amusement shining in his eyes and a smirk playing around his lips.
"It's no use mate. I tried that yesterday with Alice. No matter what you do they won't let you in. In fact, they threatened to send me to the spell damage ward to get checked."
James chuckled. "Alice is in labour too?"
Frank beamed. "She was."
"Congrats mate," Sirius said, slapping his back. James did the same.
"Boy or girl?"
"Boy; he has Alice's hair and my eyes. His name's Neville."
"Good for you. I'm sure you'll be a great dad," Sirius said.
"Thanks mate. Now what's going on with Lily? I thought she told Alice that she was due in mid August or something."
"Yeah; she still had about two weeks."
Frank nodded. "I hope everything works out. I need to go. I'll come back later to see how Lily's doing."
After parting ways, James continued to try and get in to the ward. When Blondie refused to budge, he began pacing back and forth while muttering to himself, much to Sirius's amusement.
After five more minutes, Healer Jacobs came out and saw James. She laughed when she saw that his hand was practically glued to his head and he seemed intent upon wearing a hole into the ground from all his pacing.
"James?" she said softly, trying not to laugh when he immediately turned around and nearly tripped over his feet to get to her. "You can come in now."
Not needing to be told twice, James quickly walked passed the blonde witch and Healer Jacobs in to the room.
Lily was lying in a hospital bed, wearing one of those hospital robes. Her things were deposited on to a nearby chair. There were numerous symbols hovering above her and James had no idea what any one of them meant. She clenched the sheets in her fists as another contraction wracked her body. James hated to see her in so much pain, and was almost about to ask Healer Jacobs if there was an easier way to do this, when Lily looked up.
"Hi," she said quietly, giving him a strained smile.
"Hey," he murmured as he came to her bed. He sat down next to her taking one of her hands up and held it, making little circles on the back of her hand with his thumb.
"Next time you're doing this."
James laughed and kissed her head. "Of course love."
Just then, Healer Jacobs came back in, wearing muggle scrubs and gloves. When she saw James's inquiring brow, she smiled and said, "Some things are best done the muggle way. Robes can just get in the way and make things incredibly messy."
James nodded and continued making little circles on her skin.
"Okay Lily," she said, facing the redhead. "It's time to start pushing."
And so it began, for the next couple of hours Lily switched between pushing and gasping with breath when she was allowed to rest. During all that though, she was continuously insulting James.
"As soon as we're done here Potter, you better start running because I am going to kill you for having sex with me."
"I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you."
"Touch me ever again James Potter, and I swear to God I'll Avada your arse."
"Ow! This is all your fault, you son of bitch!"
She said those among many, many other things. James figured that she picked up all this language from him and Sirius, but he was surprised to hear her curse so much in public. When it first began, he looked at Healer Jacobs and the other nurses in shock, an apology on the tip of his tongue for Lily's language, but she just shook her head and laughed at his expression.
"Believe me, they all say that. Women going through labour can and probably will make a sailor cringe."
So he just sat there, trying not wince as Lily gripped his hand tightly and muttered 'I know. I know,' over and over into her ear as if just saying the words would make her feel better. Now, six hours later, his hand was numb and Lily was flat out cussing him. They had allowed Sirius to come in a bit earlier to tell them that Remus, Peter, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Marlene McKinnon and other Order members had come to see them and Alice, but when Lily turned and started flinging insults at him for persuading James to get her pregnant, James suggested that he leave.
"I see a head!" Healer Jacobs said eagerly. "Come on Lily, push!"
The redhead continued, and a few minutes later, the sound of crying pierced the air. Healer Jacobs had a little baby in her hands. She smiled at them and said, "Congratulations. You've given birth to a healthy baby boy."
Lily smiled wearily and slumped against James's chest. He brushed her hair out of her face and kissed her softly. "You did it. You're a mum." She just sighed contentedly in response.
One of the assistants came over and swaddled the baby in a blue blanket before handing him over to Lily and James.
James knew that he was probably being stupid, but he was afraid to hold the baby. He looked so tiny and breakable, as if one stiff wind could blow him in to a million pieces.
"Do you all have a name for him?"
Lily smiled and looked at James. "Harry," she whispered.
James gave her a small smirk. "Are you sure you don't want to him Wilberforce? Or Elvendork?"
Lily smacked his arm lightly, as she stifled a yawn. "Behave you toerag. We were having a perfectly good moment and now you've gone and ruined it."
James laughed and looked at the little baby in Lily's hands properly for the first time. Harry had inherited James's jet black hair, but, even though there wasn't much as yet, he could already see that it was going to be just like his: messy and untameable.
"Oh Merlin," Lily sighed, also realizing that, "Poor kid. He has your hair."
"His eyes are the same shape as yours," James said quietly. "But they're more of a…blue green colour?" He looked at the Healer in confusion.
"Baby's are usually born like that," Healer Jacobs said. "His eyes will turn in to their proper colour a little later on."
"They're going to be green, aren't they?" James said, smiling.
"Most likely."
"Harry James Potter," Lily cooed as the baby wrapped his tiny hand around her finger.
James was smiling like an idiot. Even after they whisked Harry away to clean him up, he was still beaming like a loon.
"We're parents," he said.
"Glad you've finally noticed."
"I can't believe I'm a dad."
Lily smiled at him. "You're going to be a wonderful father."
"And you'll be an excellent mother."
The young couple kissed, forgetting about the outside world and the war just for the time being. Right now there was no one except each other and baby Harry.
~Fin~
Hope you guys liked it! I have a question for you all though. How do you include line breaks when you're using Microsoft Word? Because I put them in on the document but they never show up when I publish it. If someone can tell me how to get it to show up when it's published I'll love you forever.
Review please!
~twilightstargazer
:)
