Chapter Ten: Seeing Red

James wanted Lily to tell the ministry about her pregnancy and go on leave as soon as possible, but Lily vetoed his idea almost at once.

"Please," she said sarcastically, "I'm already the weak little mudblood woman who slept her way into this job to most of the Auror Department. All I need now is for everyone to know I've gotten knocked up."

James looked at her sharply.

"Don't use that word," he said, brow furrowed at her use of the term mudblood. "Besides, you're not 'knocked up'. You're pregnant. There's a difference." Lily smiled at him and James hugged her, kissing the top of her head. "You're much too classy to be knocked up, love."

James left for work moments later. Their schedules had been hectic the last couple of weeks. James worked a shift from seven in the morning to four in the afternoon, while Lily worked odd hours, frequently at night. She always snuck quietly into their bedroom when she came home, expecting James to be asleep. After brushing her teeth and changing into her pajamas, Lily snuck into bed, trying as hard as possible not to disturb her husband. But, every night, James rolled over, still half-asleep, and kissed her goodnight, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close.

Lily sighed. She wasn't due in to work for another few hours, but she frequently woke up early to have coffee and breakfast with James before her left. Lily rested her hand over the baby bump barely protruding from her usually flat stomach. Life for them was already so hectic, and she knew that this child would only increase the chaos. They would have to find a magical nursery school once Lily went back to work. As much as Lily hated the idea of having her baby in the hands of strangers, she refused to leave work entirely, especially with the war. Perhaps when the war was over, she would settle down. Perhaps she and James would have more children together, and Lily would get to be a housewife. She found herself smiling at the thought.

James stomped angrily through the Auror office, more pissed off than he'd been in a long time. All of the carefully compiled research he'd gathered over the past month, mostly profiles for missions that would be carried out by the Special Forces Sector, had been "lost".

James had personally put the files in Moody's In-tray before leaving work the day before. Now, they had gone missing, and James was being blamed. He was convinced that someone had stolen the files, but, while Remus tended to think that it was a harmless inter-office prank, James was convinced that something more sinister was going on. There was a spy in the Auror office, and James was determined to find out who it was.

"Hey, Potter," a voice from the cubicle to James' left called. James turned, faced with Marcus Olivers. Olivers was an Auror in the Special Forces Sector. He was a chauvinistic pig, by most accounts, and he'd given Lily a hard time more than once. James was not in the mood to deal with the man.

"Yeah?" he said, trying to keep the anger and frustration out of his voice.

"I heard you got your wife knocked up! She finally gonna learn her place and start staying home with the kiddies?" Olivers snickered.

James was dumbfounded. They'd been very discreet when deciding who to tell about Lily's pregnancy. Only the Mauraders, Emily, Alice and Frank were supposed to know. Before he could really control what was happening, before he realized he was losing control of his temper, which had already been bubbling just before the surface, James saw red. He grabbed Olivers by the collar of his robes.

"What did you just say about my wife?" he growled.

Olivers laughed, enjoying baiting his colleague.

"Just asking if the rumors are true. Didn't realize it was such a touchy subject. I'm guessing it's not your kid, then, eh?" he sniggered.

Before the look of self-satisfaction had completely left Marcus' face, he found himself bodily thrown across the room.

Lily stomped her way upstairs to her bedroom, for once not caring if she woke her husband. She slammed the bedroom door as loudly as she possibly could and lit a lamp overhead, illuminating the entire room.

James blinked slowly, having awoken with a start when the door slammed.

"What's goin' on?" he muttered sleepily.

"Nothing," Lily snapped, opening her dresser drawer and pulling out a long tee-shirt. She removed her outer robes and then peeled off her work clothes, which were sweaty from her workout earlier. She slipped the tee-shirt over her head. It hung just past her thighs.

"Do you know that's one of my favorite sights in the whole universe?" James asked, sitting up and sliding back the covers of the bed. He patted the space next to him, hoping she would join him.

Lily merely glared at him from across the room and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door with another loud band.

James shut his eyes tightly, leaning back against a pillow and letting his head slam against the headboard. She was pissed, obviously, and even more so than he'd expected.

Lily emerged from the bathroom. She shut off the light and slid into bed next to her husband, facing the wall instead of him.

"So, I take it you talked to Moody," James said, wincing as he prepared to the tirade to come. Lily rolled over, sitting up so fast that James backed away slightly in fear.

"How could you be so stupid?" She asked, still glaring.

"Will you at least give me a chance to explain myself?" James asked, reaching and picking up his glasses from the bedside table so he could see her clearly.

"I've had a long day of cleaning up your messes, James, and I really don't want to talk to you right now," Lily snapped, rolling back over again.

James waved his wand at the overhead light.

"Hey," he said, grabbing his wife and turning her to face him. "We don't do this. We talk things out. We don't go to bed angry," he said fiercely. Something about the determination in his eyes softened his wife.

"Fine," she said. "Talk."

"Okay," James replied. "Clearly, you haven't heard the whole story-" Lily cut him off.

"The 'whole story'? What 'whole story' are you referring to, exactly? The part about you punching Olivers' lights out or the part about you being on probation and being docked a month of salary? We can't afford that, James!"

"Would you just let me explain?" James shouted in frustration.

Lily blew out a fast breath through her nose, crossing her arms and waiting for him to speak.

"Thank you," James replied. "I was having a hell of a day already, which I'll tell you about later, but it had already gotten me in a pretty shitty mood. Then the blighter goes and starts baiting me, trying to pick a fight. He knew that you were pregnant and he said-" James broke off, not wanting to repeat Marcus' distasteful words.

"So, what, you were defending my honor?" Lily asked, calming down a bit.

"Well, yeah," James replied, hoping it didn't sound as corny as it felt.

"I suppose that's sort of sweet," Lily admitted. "Barbaric and stupid," she added, glaring up at him again. Then she smiled. "But sweet."

"I know it was stupid," James said, pleased that the arguing phase of the discussion seemed to be over as she settled into his arms, leaning back against his chest. "I just sort of snapped, though. I literally saw red, Lil."

Lily sighed, shaking her head.

"I thought you'd gotten past the idea that it was okay to curse people just because they said something stupid or mean about some you care for," she said.

"I didn't curse him," James muttered.

"No," Lily replied with a slight laugh. "You just threw him across the Auror office. Dawlish was not pleased. All of his neatly stacked paperwork was spread all over the floor. I had to help him re-alphabetize it."

James chuckled, kissing her shoulder.

"Sorry about that," he muttered. "Anyway, I can't come in to work the rest of this week. After that I'm on probation for another month. And," he added, cringing with the thought, "if anything like this happens again, Moody wants me to see an anger management counselor."

Lily couldn't repress the laugh the spilled from her lips.

"It's not funny!" James groaned.

"No, it really is," Lily replied.

James sighed.

"Listen, as far as the money goes…." He let the sentence trail off. Money was often a touchy subject in their household.

Lily sighed, too.

"We'll manage, somehow," she replied.

"We can ask Mum for help if we need it," James added.

"I'll try to work some more overtime."

"No, I don't want you doing that," James relied. "You don't need to be wearing yourself too thin with the baby on the way." Lily sighed again.

"We'll see," she said. "Now, I'm exhausted, so I'm going to try to get some sleep. It was a long day."

"Sorry," James said. "Really, I am sorry. For everything." Lily nodded, kissing him lightly, then rolled over on her side. James waved his wand to shut the light back off, set his glasses back on the table, then draped his arm over her waist, pulling her close.

Lily woke only a couple of hours later. A thunderstorm was raging outside the window, and her parents' death was haunting her dreams again. Her thrashing and cries woke James, as well, and he roused her out of the nightmare, holding her afterwards as she cried.

When she had calmed down a bit, James conjured two mugs of cocoa.

"Thanks," Lily sniffled, taking the mug he offered. James smiled warmly.

"Of course." They sipped their cocoa in silence for several long minutes, then Lily spoke again.

"I don't want to die, James," she said softly. He looked at her sharply, brow furrowed, but remained silent, letting her speak. "I don't want us to die and leave our baby alone." There were tears glittering in her eyes again.

James took her mug and set it with his on the nightstand, gathering her into his arms. He couldn't think of any response to her words, so he just held her, letting her cry out her worries and fears on his shoulder again.

A/N: As promised, chapter ten is up before I leave tomorrow! You should all be very proud of me. This chapter was originally much darker, but I was in the mood to change it around a bit and give you a bit of argument/fluff.

Please review, whether you just say "Cute Story. I like it." or "Bad story. I hate it." I prefer the first option, but let me know what you think!

Love from

Lyny Angell