Disclaimer – I own nothing in the Harry Potter universe, it all belongs to JKR.
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For the Best
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Chapter Nine
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The next few days past rather peacefully, that is as peacefully as they can when you are living with Sirius Black. Since my little blow up about him attempting to tell James I was pregnant, he had been rather careful not to upset me. Although this was probably out of fear that if he pissed me off he would spontaneously combust, rather than a newfound respect for my wishes. We had also come to an arrangement that until I was past the morning sickness stage, and was able to Apparate safely on my own, that is to say without regurgitating what little food I managed to force into my stomach to begin with, I would live at his. I wasn't too fond of this plan, but as Sirius pointed out it was easier for me to make sure he wasn't running off to tell James anything and everything, if I was living with him.
It was about a week and a half after I had originally gone to stay at the mangy mutts that I received an owl from St Mungo's asking me to come in for a check-up. My wonderful new flatmate decided that it was obviously in the room mate agreement contract that he had to accompany me. So the next Saturday morning saw the two of us making our way to the Wizarding Hospital.
Waiting for the healer to call me I saw someone I would rather avoid.
"Crap," I muttered ducking behind Sirius, "You have to hide me."
"What?" he asked confused.
I opened my mouth to reply when, "Sirius is that you?" Damn she'd seen him, but there was still a chance I could sneak away, until, "And Lily dear is that you there too?" Bulls she had seen me, now I would have to speak to her. I straightened up and came out from behind my temporary and rather inefficient hiding place that was Sirius Black.
"Dorea! I haven't seen you in ages!" I said flashing her a smile so fake it would have made a politician proud.
"Mrs P!" Sirius exclaimed bounding forward excitedly, to hug the elder woman. "How you been Mrs P?"
"Oh I can't complain," she replied, "And yourself?" Sirius just shrugged. "How about you Lily dear? James said you had been under the weather lately. All better now I hope."
"Oh yes I'm fine. It wasn't anything serious. You know what James is like, always exaggerating." I tried to keep my voice calm and make it sound casual. But oh how I wished I could just disappear, that the floor would just swallow me up. Of all the people to bump into at St Mungos it would be James' mother. It was only a matter of time before she asked me the dreaded question. Why I broke up with her precious son.
"Well it's good to hear you're all better love." She smiled at me, "When are you and James next coming over for dinner? He was so vague with the owl he sent me the other day."
My eyes widened.
He hadn't told her.
The bloody git hadn't told his mother we had broken up! Now I was standing here, in the middle of St Mungo's outpatients' ward, with said mother standing in front of me innocently asking when I was next going to come over for dinner. The ruddy twat was going to pay! What the hell was I meant to say to her now? "Oh didn't you hear? The other week I just up and left, breaking your only child's heart?" Yeah I'm sure that one would go down well!
Out the corner of my eye I saw Sirius opening his mouth, which I can honestly say from past experience, is never a good sign, even at the best of times. I was about to say something to stop him from metaphorically putting is foot in it, which would lead to me physically putting my foot somewhere, when the Healer came out and called my name.
I started to thank Merlin for sending this angel of a Healer to save me from what I am sure would have been one of the most awkward conversations of my life, when...
"Dorea! I wasn't expecting for you to come along. Although who can blame you? You must be so excited!" How I had managed to forget in that moment, that Healer Grey and Dorea Potter where old school friends, I will never know. All I know for certain is that there is someone up there that definitely hates me with a passion.
"Charlotte, it has been too long!" Mrs Potter answered with a smile. "But I'm not here with Lily. No I was just up helping out a little in the Closed Ward. You know that Emily is up there? Well she was..." She paused, I could almost hear her brain working as she backtracked to process what her friend had said a minute or so earlier. Then it clicked. It was like a light bulb being lit in her head, "OH MY LILY! Are you? Oh my how excited! Oh I should have guessed something funny was going on what with James' cryptic letters about you being under the weather. Oh how lovely! Oh Lily my dear this is the most amazing thing! I'm going to be a grandmother. You're going to be a mother!"
I just wanted to run and hide!
I turned to look at Sirius, but had to quickly turn away. The smug look on his face made me want to punch him. He knew as well as I did that I now had no choice but to tell James. Bloody fantastic! All my trying to stay away from him and protect him was for nothing. Now he was never going to let me leave. He may not want a child but James is not a prick. He wouldn't let me raise this child on my own; he would want to be there.
I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't realises that Dorea's had stopped gushing and now had a ridiculous grin on her face of pure happiness. In fact I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hardly remember anything of the appointment or the journey back to Sirius'. I assumed he told Mrs P some lie to get out of her taking me back to James, or indeed telling James before I got to break the unexpected news to him.
Once the door of Sirius' flat was shut behind us he turned to me with supporting the most arrogant grin I have ever seen. I glared at him.
"So what time should we head over to Prongs' then?" he asked, trying and failing miserably to sound innocent.
"How about never?" I replied, wishing that that was still an option.
He seemed to contemplate my answer. "No I don't think I'm free then. We'll go in about half an hour, when he gets back from work." I scowled at him. "You know Lily I think everything that has happened so far today has been for the best!" Git!
"For the best my arse!" I muttered as I walked past him, purposefully stepping hard on his toes as I passed. I heard him draw in his breath in pain. Serves the smug bastard right!
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Authors Note: Firstly thank you to everyone who reviews. Also massive thanks to Mi High Lover beta-ing this for me. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. In the next chapter the thing a lot of you have been waiting for... Lily has to tell James she's pregnant!
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(Unfortunately I have a couple of Uni essays to write in the next few weeks which are worth a good 30/40% of my grade so I apologise if I am slow in updating.)
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