Note: Thanks as ever for all your reviews! One review pointed out that my AU is still very similar to the original story, which I realise and Chamber of Secrets will probably be quite similar too, but Prisoner of Azkaban will be very different – I don't know what I'll do yet, but it will have to be very different to the books for obvious reasons, and I expect my stories will get more and more original as time goes on.
Chapter Eleven
February faded quickly into March, which meant lots of birthdays for the inhabitants of Potter Manor. Remus Lupin's thirty second birthday was ten days into the month, and five days later was Lyra's tenth birthday, which she happened to share with Maia and Sirius. James' birthday was at the end of the month.
Lyra's birthday had always been the focal point of these, and Maia and James had make a big fuss out of her. Maia, Sirius and Remus weren't nearly so bothered about their own birthdays now they were older, but always made sure they treat Lyra like a little princess, and Lyra revelled in it.
When Lyra was asked whether she wanted to go out to celebrate her birthday, or have a meal cooked at home, she chose to go out, so they all dressed up the night before Lyra's birthday, which was a Sunday evening, and went out for a meal to jointly celebrate Remus, Maia, Sirius and Lyra, but really it was all about Lyra.
Regulus, Tonks, Andromeda and Ted accompanied them, and though the Tonks family made nice new additions to the party, it was strange not to have Harry and Neville with them, as they usually were.
A chocolate cake was produced for Lyra at the end of the meal and they all sang to her, which she delighted in, blowing out the candles out with a grin.
After the meal, the three Tonks went home, Nymphadora departing with a big hug for her little cousin and telling her she'd see her very soon. Regulus also departed with a hug for his niece and a friendly goodbye to the others, before his sister could try to ask him about his love life again.
Back at Potter Manor, Lyra was allowed to stay up past her usual bed time and spent that time in the gardens playing with her fanged frisbee, which Maia personally thought ought to be banned – her daughter was lethal and threw it in such a way that it was a wonder anyone had any fingers left.
It was getting late when Maia ducked out of the game to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea to take up to bed. Remus had long since ducked out of the game and gone to read in bed, and even Sirius had decided to call it a night, leaving only James and Lyra playing. It was far as her daughter's bedtime but Maia hadn't had the heart to tell her to go to bed.
As the kettle boiled, Maia watched through the window as her husband and daughter played with the frisbee. James was laughing and grinning, and Lyra was looking as mischievous as ever.
Ever since he'd planted the seed that he might like another child, Maia had started to think about it more and more. It had been 5 months since he'd first brought it up and although he hadn't mentioned it too much since, she knew he was still thinking about it, hoping she'd come around and agree with him.
For the first time, she realised she could probably do it. Harry and Lyra were the best things in her life and she never could imagine not having them, despite the fact that neither of them had been planned. They were always going to have children, of course, and were thrilled with each pregnancy but hadn't actively been trying to get pregnant with either of them. Still, she wouldn't change anything and how could having another child but anything but wonderful? James was a wonderful father, and she knew he'd always wanted a big family – a quidditch team, he told her. They'd considered having a third a few years after Lyra was born, but when it just didn't happen, they'd moved on. Maia thought she couldn't stretch to the 7 James wanted, but a third would be nice.
She'd been thinking about it for months, and pictured herself with another little baby in her arms. Maybe another boy, she thought, with James' lovely hazel eyes this time, or another little girl for them all to fuss over. All her worries about whether she could cope with another baby, whether she needed one, were gone.
He'd done it, she thought. He'd planted the seed in her mind, and now she wanted a baby.
When the tea as made, Maia went back outside to suggest to her daughter that it was time she went to bed. Lyra, predictably, whined about it, but James smiled at her indulgently, ruffling up her hair.
"You have to go to bed, because tomorrow's your birthday," he told her, "and your mum and I have to go to work in the morning, so you need to get up early so we can see you open your presents before we go."
"I suppose," Lyra sighed.
"Good girl," James told her, ushering her inside and locking the back doors behind them, "come on, up to bed."
When Lyra had been put to bed, Maia entered the bedroom she and James shared, with two mugs of tea floating in front of her, setting one down on either side of the bed and starting to get dressed. James was sprawled out on the bed on his back, already in his underwear and when Maia was in her nightclothes, she clambered onto the bed, reaching for her mug.
She shuffled over to James, being careful not to spill any of the liquid, and seeing what she was trying to do, James smiled at her and moved over to her in one swift movement, lifting up one arm and wrapping it around her shoulders. Maia smiled, wrapping both hands around her mug and lifting it to her lips, enjoying the warm feel of James' shirtless body pressed against her.
"How does it feel to be nearly thirty-two?" James asked her, rubbing his hand up and down her arm.
"You tell me," Maia replied, "it's your birthday in two weeks."
"Do you feel old?" James teased, earning himself a glare.
Maia replied, "Surprisingly, I feels exactly the same as I did yesterday."
James chuckled, "That's good to know."
"Can you believe Lyra is already ten?" Maia sighed, "feels like just last week we were sitting in the hospital trying to find the perfect name for her, and now she's been here ten years. She's growing up too quickly."
"I know," James agreed, "they both are. Where did all the time go? You know, when Ly was born I thought it was only a matter of time before Padfoot and Moony found someone and upped and left."
"Me too," Maia replied, "I know it's silly, but when they were little I could never imagine them growing up, and now Harry's at Hogwarts and Lyra's 10. It won't be long before they're both off, and too old to let me cuddle them."
"I'm sure that will never be the case," James told her, "but I might ask them both if they'd consider not growing up for a while."
Maia nodded, taking another sip of her tea and briefly closing her eyes, enjoying James' arm around her and starting to feel very sleepy. She was always sleepy on Sunday evenings, knowing she had to get up and go to work the next morning, but she didn't want to go to sleep. She wanted to stay up for a bit longer to spend time alone with James, and she felt content here.
As they sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, before Maia felt all her feelings about another baby coming to the surface and she thought of how happy James would be if she told him that she'd finally decided.
"Jamie?" she said after a few moments, drawing his name out.
James thought she was about to ask for something, when she said his name in that tone of voice, maybe something related to her birthday, and amused, looking down at her, he asked, "Yes, darling?"
"I've been thinking ..." Maia said, a smile crossing her face as she pictured the look on James' face in a few seconds, "I want a baby."
She felt him freeze beside her, the arm around her shoulders tensing and the hand that was rubbing up and down her arm stilling. She glanced up at him and he was staring down at her, looking shocked, which he really shouldn't she thought, given he'd started all of this.
He opened his mouth, then closed it and a few seconds opened it again, frowning slightly at her as if trying to work out whether what he'd just heard was right, "Did you just-"
Maia nodded wordlessly, grinning as she watching James crack a huge smile, and feeling like it had all just become very real – they were going to have another baby.
James let out a laugh and then used his free hand to take hold of the mug she was clutching, tugging it from her hands and reaching behind him to set it down on his bedside table. He removed his arm from around her shoulders and quickly shifted his position, grasping both of her hands in his.
"Really?" he asked her, "do you really want another baby?"
Maia smiled, curling her fingers around his and looked into his eyes, "Yes."
James looked overwhelmed with happiness and it was infectious. This decision was incredibly exciting and Maia beamed when he let go of her hands to put both of his hands on her face, tenderly cupping her cheeks.
He leaned in to kiss her, a short, sweet kiss, and when he pulled away, stroked her cheeks lightly with his thumbs. He was looking at her with some kind of awe and he said, "You're sure, aren't you? You're sure this is what you want – you're not just … saying it because I said -"
"Don't be stupid, James," Maia replied happily, "no-one "just says" things like this. I want another child for our family."
"Me too," he said, "this is … the best. It really is."
Neither could contain their excitement and happiness and James could do nothing more than stare into his wife's eyes, caught between wanting to tell her how wonderful all this was and wanting to kiss her senseless.
"Let's not rush it though," Maia said gently, reaching up to take hold of his hands, moving them from her face so she could hold them both in hers, "and let's not force it. We can just … stop using contraception and carry on like we usually do."
James smirked at her – they already had a rather healthy love life, usually having sex three or four times a week, so continuing as they usually did would hardly be a bad thing. Still, he understood what she was trying to say – not becoming consumed by their efforts to have a child.
"Of course," he said.
"And let's not tell anyone," Maia added, squeezing his hands and shuffling closer, "I don't want any pressure. I don't want anyone asking if we're pregnant yet … it can just be … ours."
"Who am I going to tell?" James laughed – his best friends were Sirius and Remus for Merlin's sake. He was hardly going to tell the former about his goal to get the man's sister pregnant – the implication that James frequently had sex with his sister would be enough to make Sirius run from the room with his hands over his ears. He must know anyway, but he could live in ignorant bliss if he didn't hear anything about it. Remus was much the same.
Maia nodded, and couldn't find any more words, looking into his eyes and revelling in his excitement.
"So, we're really doing this?" James asked, wrapping an arm around her waist and guiding her other hand to his shoulder, where she then rested her hand on the back of his neck.
"I think we are," Maia replied with a smile, barely reaching the end of her sentence before James closed the short distance between them and leaned down to press his lips against hers.
His kiss was light at first but she soon felt his tongue against her lower lip begging for entrance. She parted her lips and kissed back with enthusiasm as he drew her in closer, pressing his chest flush against hers. Her hand travelled up into his hair and she realised she was smiling into the kiss – they were going to have a baby and it felt so right.
For those at Hogwarts, March meant that the exams were looming closer. They were actually ten weeks away, but by the way Hermione was revising, anyone would think they were next week. She kept nagging Harry, Ron and Neville to draw up revision time-tables and colour-code their notes, and so far Neville had given in for a quiet life, but Harry and Ron were still holding out.
By the time the Easter holidays came around, they had a mountain of homework and had all taken to accompanying Hermione to the library. It was during one of these library sessions that Hagrid shuffled over to them, looking very out of place in the library and sounding a little shifty.
He very sternly told them that they'd better not be still looking for Nicholas Flamel, and Ron carelessly replied that of course they weren't – they found out who he was ages ago, and they knew Fluffy was guarding the Philosopher's Stone.
Hagrid shushed them loudly and told them to come and visit him later on.
When he'd gone, they spoke about how shifty he'd been acting and Ron hurried off to work out what section Hagrid had just come from, confused as to why he'd been in the library at all.
When he returned a minute later and slammed a book down on the table, he was wide-eyed and whispered, "Dragons! Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look – From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."
"Hagrid has … a dragon?" Harry frowned, "my Dad tell me Hagrid's always been obsessed with dangerous creatures."
"It's illegal though, isn't it?" Neville suggested.
"Yeah," Ron replied, "It'd be hard to stop Muggles noticing if we're keeping dragons in the back garden – anyway, you can't really tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off the wild ones in Romania."
"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" Hermione frowned.
An hour later, the four eleven year olds went down to Hagrid's hut and were surprised to find the curtains closed. Inside the hut there was a blazing fire in the grate and they sat down beside a slobbering Fang, as Hagrid made them all tea.
Hagrid might make terrible sandwiches and cakes but his tea was quite good – not as good as his Mum's, but perfectly acceptable for the palette of one who rarely drank tea anyway.
After they'd exchanged pleasantries – Hagrid particularly asking after Harry's parents and sister and Ron's brother Charlie, whom he was very fond of - Hagrid sighed and waited for them to ask him their questions about the Philosopher's Stone, and Harry was the first to broach the subject, deciding there was no point beating about the bush.
"We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone, apart from Fluffy," Harry said, "the other Professors must have provided some protection too – spells and things."
Hagrid frowned at them all. "O' course I can't! Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know far too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here for a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts – I imagine yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even knew abou' Fluffy!"
"Oh come on Hagrid," Hermione said, in a very warm flattering voice, "you do know everything that goes on around here. We only wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."
Hagrid's chest swelled with these words, and Harry and Ron beamed at Hermione. Neville was less sure, but even he couldn't deny he was curious about the whole tale at this point.
Hagrid was swayed, "Well, I don' suppose I could hurt ter tell yeh that … let's see … he borrowed Fluffy from me, then some o'the teachers did enchantments – Professor Spout – Progessor Flitwick – Professor McGonagall – Professor Quirrell – an' Dumbledore himself did something o' course, and Professor Black. Why didn't you ask him, your uncle, about this? Suppose you thought you'd be in trouble if he found out yeh'd bin snoopin' around. He'd probably tell yer mother, and she'd tell yeh to damned well behave yehself."
Harry wondered what his mother would say to him but Ron took over, "Quirrell?"
"What's wrong with Quirrell?" Hagrid asked incredulously.
"He's after the stone for some reason!" Harry announced.
Hagrid let out a groan of frustration, "Don' be so ridiculous. Why would Professor Quirrell be after the Stone – he's a Hogwarts Professor, and besides, have yeh seen 'im? Firs' Ron and Hermione here thought Professor Black was up ter somethin', and now Professor Qirrell!"
But Harry knew his friends were thinking the same as him – if Quirrell was involved in protecting the Stone, it would probably be quite easy for him to find out how to get past the other teachers' enchantments. He might know everything – apart from how to get past Fluffy.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you?" Harry asked anxiously, "and you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"
"Not a soul knows except me and Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid insisted.
Moving on, Harry nodded, "Can we have a window open? It's boiling in here!"
Hagrid shook his head, "Can't I'm afraid, sorry."
With that he glanced at the fire secretively, and the others all looked at it properly for the first time too. In the heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, sat a huge, black egg. Hermione and Neville gasped loudly and they all stared in shock.
"Where did you get that?" Ron asked, coming to crouch closer to it, "It must have cost a fortune!"
"Won it," Hagrid replied, "Las' night I was down in the village havin' a few drinks, got into a game o' cards with a stranger and won it."
"What will you do when it's hatched?" Hermione demanded.
"Bin doin' some readin'," Hagrid replied proudly, pulling a big brown book out from under his pillow, "got this outta the library – Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. It says ter keep the egg in the fire 'cause their mothers breath on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here – how ter recognise different eggs – what I got here is a Norwegian Ridgeback. Rare, them."
Hermione pointed out that Hagrid lived in a wooden house, but this didn't seem to phase him.
Harry secretly thought that although this was rather idiotic, having a pet dragon would be incredibly cool, as long as it didn't kill you. He knew everyone at home would think it was cool – Lyra would be incredibly jealous if she knew he'd just seen a real dragon egg, and would probably get to meet a baby dragon.
His dad and Uncle Sirius would think it was very cool, and even his Mum and Uncle Remus – who were supposed to be the more sensible ones – would agree dragons were very cool. His mum would pretend she was the more sensible one all she liked, but he knew she'd been just the same as Sirius and his dad back in their day.
Briefly, he considered including something about Hagrid's dragon egg in his next letter home but then thought better of when he remembered the illegality of the situation. His dad did work for the ministry after all, and even if Hagrid was an old friend of theirs, maybe there was some kind of rule that said he had to report any illegal things he heard. Maybe he'd be in trouble if the ministry found out he'd known and hadn't passed it on. Maybe best to just keep quiet about it, he decided.
A few weeks later, it was the middle of April and life at Potter Manor was progressing very much the way it always did, apart from James and Maia's secretive efforts to conceive.
True to their word, they had kept to their usual habits, trying to not force it, but now they'd begun, it was difficult not to frequently wonder if she was pregnant. It was probably premature she knew – it could take months. She might have fallen pregnant quickly with Harry and Lyra, but it had been over ten years since she last conceived a child and who knew what could have changed since then. Still, it was difficult not to feel hopeful after every time she and James made love.
It was a morning in the middle of the week when Maia woke up half an hour earlier than usual, feeling a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. She frowned and sat up, gently pushing James' arm off her waist and rubbing her forehead with one hand.
The pain was far too familiar and she felt uncomfortable as she forced herself out of the bed and to her feet. Pushing open the door to their bathroom, she tried in her sleepy state to consider what the date was and came to the conclusion that it was about a month or so since her last period.
One trip to the bathroom confirmed that she had indeed gotten her period and once she was finished, she intended to go back to bed for another half an hour or so, but couldn't bring herself to open the door and leave the bathroom.
Instead, she turned around and rested her back against the door, closing her eyes and resting a hand on her stomach gently.
She wasn't pregnant.
Disappointment washed over her, followed by annoyance at herself. She was being silly – she shouldn't have expected to fall pregnant in the first month of trying, but she was new at this trying to conceive, and she'd been naïve. She should have expected this, she thought, but it was still disappointing. It was remarkable how quickly she'd managed to go from not ever thinking about a third child, to desperately wanting the little baby and hating her body for sending her her period.
What if it was like this for months? How long would it take? She hadn't really thought about how long it would take her to get pregnant, but she'd never been the patient type.
Rubbing a hand over her stomach, she frowned, opening her eyes. Ok, she was being silly, she tried to tell herself. She should just go back to bed for a bit, and better luck next month,she thought. Still, she stayed where she was, unable to bring herself to leave the bathroom.
Meanwhile in the bedroom, James woke up to find his bed empty but still warm. Wherever Maia had gone, she hadn't been gone long and he sat up slowly, glancing around.
The bathroom door was shut and he could see the light through the cracks underneath and at the sides of the door, so she must be in there. He couldn't hear any noise coming from there though – no taps running, the shower wasn't on and he couldn't hear her moving around.
Five minutes later, James was still lying in bed looking at the clock and willing himself to wake up and get out of bed for work, and he still hadn't heard any movement from the bathroom but he heard a sniff. Frowning, he sat up, and thought he heard another little sniff, as if she was … crying.
"Maia?" he called out, throwing the duvet back and swinging his legs around, feet landing on the wooden floor. When there was no immediate answer, he added, "Is everything alright?"
"Fine," Maia replied, though James thought her voice sounded off, sort of choked, and only confirmed his suspicions that there was something wrong.
"Well, it's not, is it?" he replied, stepping closer to the bathroom door, "are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Maia replied inside the bathroom, sniffing and wiping away a tear that had fallen, on the back of her hand, and feeling very silly about it really.
James frowned and rested a hand his hand on the doorknob – he wasn't going to go in if she wouldn't let him, but there was clearly something wrong. Maia wasn't often upset, and when she was, she told him all her problems and they worked through it together, so he felt helpless on the other side of the door.
"Maia," he said gently, "you don't sound fine. Let me in."
She heard her sigh on the other side and a second later, the door swung open with a start and he was face to face with his wife. His eyes swept up and down her form and then settled on her face – the skin around her eyes was a little red and she looked on the verge of tears, and he could think of no possible reason for this.
James looked so utterly concerned that Maia wanted to cry but she swallowed hard and took a deep breath, and she felt the tears that had previously threaten to fall, slowly fading away.
"What's the matter?" James asked, searching her eyes to try and read her emotions.
Maia knew now she was looking at him, she couldn't deny it, but it felt silly to admit all of her feelings, and she replied, "I'm not pregnant."
For a moment, James was confused, "You're not … oh-" he broke off in realisation at what she must mean, and when he realised why she was upset, his expression softened even more, "Oh darling, you're upset because you're not pregnant?"
Maia nodded, looking down and avoiding his gaze, "I know it sounds silly … probably shouldn't have expected it to happen so quickly but … I'm just a bit disappointed."
"It's not silly," James told her, "it's ok to be disappointed."
"I just … I don't know. I hadn't really expected to feel sad about this but ..."
"Come here," James replied with a soft smile, holding his arms open. Maia took a step forwards and walked into his arms, which he swiftly closed around her, enveloping her against his bare chest. She wrapped her arms around him in return and felt a little comfort as she rested her head against his shoulder and he rested his head on hers after pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"Don't be too disappointed, darling," James said, rubbing her back, "we have to give it time."
"Aren't you disappointed?" Maia asked, hoping she wasn't the only one to feel this way.
James replied honestly, "Well, it would have been great if we'd gotten lucky and it happened right away, but no, I'm not too disappointed. We've only been trying for a few weeks – we can't expect it to happen right away."
"What if this goes on for months?" Maia sighed.
James tightened his hold on her, as if trying to give her an even more comforting cuddle, "We're not in a rush, are we? If it takes months, that's fine. It must be normal for it to take a while. We were lucky with Harry and Lyra. If it goes on for months, then it's fine. All the more time to enjoy trying for a baby."
Maia let out a smile, starting to feel a little better.
James added, "Besides, if you were pregnant now, the baby would be born in … January. And everyone knows January birthdays are rubbish – too close to Christmas. You don't get made a fuss of properly … is this helping at all?"
"Sort of," Maia replied honestly.
James chuckled and released her from his arms so he could hold her face in his hands and look into her eyes, "Listen – don't worry. Putting pressure on us isn't going to help."
"It's not us, it's me," Maia sighed, "I'm not pregnant."
James rolled his eyes and replied, "Yes, but I had a lot to do with it, I think. So, no stressing then? It's not helpful for us and we've got plenty of time and we've only just started. Don't be sad – I don't like seeing you like this."
He was stroking her face now and Maia offered him the closest thing to a real smile that she managed to far in the conversation, and said, "I'm probably silly for being disappointed at this stage, aren't I?"
"Not silly," James replied, "if that's how you feel, it's how you feel. Now, have I helped at all?"
"A little," Maia told him.
He smiled and leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead, "Good. I've got a good feeling about next month. Now, come on, I'll do breakfast for us."
Harry, Neville, Ron and Hermione spent the month of April working frantically to keep up with all the work they were being given, trying to keep an ear out for anything more about the Philosopher's Stone, and visiting Hagrid, whose dragon egg was yet to hatch.
Finally, at the end of the month, Hedwig brought Harry a note from Hagrid that bore only two words – It's hatching.
Ron was so excited that he wanted to skip Herbology. Neville, who had come to regard it as his favourite subject, disagreed, as did Hermione who was spending that very breakfast drawing up new revision timetables for them all.
Ron argued, "How many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"
Hermione replied with a snappy reply which included Hagrid's name, prompting Harry to tell them both to shut up, as Malfoy was only a few feet away and had stopped dead to listen in to the conversation. Harry worried what had been overheard – he didn't like the look on his cousin's face at all.
Eventually they agreed to visit Hagrid during morning break and when the bell sounded, the four of them practically ran to Hagrid's hut. He greeted them with excitement and ushered them all inside, where the egg was lying on the table with deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside it and a funny clicking noise came from it.
Before they knew it, the egg split open and a baby dragon flopped onto the table. For a few minutes, they watched Hagrid coo over it, but all at once he went pale as he stared at the window – someone was watching and had seen. Even before he got to the window to see the figure running back to the castle, Harry knew it was Malfoy.
For the next week, Malfoy smirked at them even more than usual every time he saw them, and the four Gryffindors were very nervous.
They were spending most of their free time with Hagrid, trying to reason with him. Hagrid had named his dragon Norbert and refused to let him go or set him free, despite the fact that in one week it grew to three times its original length.
Eventually, the thought struck Harry – Charlie. And with that, they tried to persuade Hagrid to let Ron write to his dragon handling brother, who would be able to take care of him with his own kind, and eventually put him back into the wild, and to their relief, Hagrid agreed and Ron's letter was sent.
In the following week, Ron was bitten by Norbert. They had all thought it was only ever going to be a matter of time before Neville and a dragon in the same place resulted in disaster, so it was a bit of a surprise that Ron got bitten instead.
His hand was bloody and swollen and after that, none of them could wait to get rid of the creature. He had wanted to go to the hospital wing immediately, but they worried whether Madam Pomfrey would recognise a dragon bite and they'd be in trouble.
Neville had even suggested consulting his godmother over what one should do with a dragon bite, but they all agreed it wasn't for the best. They could hardly send Mrs Potter a letter asking "Just wondering, how to you treat a dragon bite?" without her replying to demand to know why they needed to know.
When Charlie's reply came, he asked them to get the dragon to the top of the tallest tower of the castle the following Saturday night, by which point it would be the first week in May.
The first hitch in their plan happened when Ron finally decided to go to the hospital wing for his hand, and whilst there, Malfoy stopped by to borrow a book from him as an excuse to come and laugh at him. It was only after Malfoy had gone that Ron realised his letter from Charlie had been in that very book, but it was too late to contact Charlie and change the plan.
On the night in question, Ron was still in hospital, so Neville, Harry and Hermione crept out under the invisibility cloak, collected Norbert, in a crate, from Hagrid and made their way up to the tower in the middle of the night, long after their curfew. Neville had easily been the most terrified about the plan but he was nothing if not loyal, and decided that he would still go with them.
On their way, they passed McGonagall, dragging Malfoy by the ear and screaming at him for being out of bed. Malfoy tried to protest, telling them Harry was also out of bed and had a dragon, but Professor McGonagall only shouted at him further for spreading lies.
This was enough to keep them in good spirits all the way up to the top of the tallest tower, where they were met by Charlie's friends ten minutes later. They were a cheery lot and once Norbert was safely buckled into a harness they'd rigged up, they all shook hands, thanked the dragon-handlers and parted ways. Norbert was gone.
They were all feeling so gleeful that they practically skipped down the staircase but it was all ruined when they reached the bottom of the staircase and found Filch suddenly looming over them out of the darkness.
They'd left the Invisibility Cloak on top of the tower and things could not have been worse.
Dragged up in front of Professor McGonagall, none of them knew what to say to explain themselves, and she was outraged that the three of them were out of bed at 1AM and had also – in her mind – tricked Malfoy into being out of bed.
Drawing her own conclusions, she glared at them, "I've got a pretty good idea of what's been going on. It doesn't take a genius to work out that you've fed Mr Malfoy come cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I'm disgusted! Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing."
Harry felt ashamed but the shouting just continued and continued.
"You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense than this. As for you, Mr Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. All three of you will receive detentions, fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor and I will be writing to your parents."
"Not Gran," Neville whined.
Ron looked crestfallen too and Harry winced – after the incident with the troll, he didn't want to think about what on earth his parents would say to him. It was even worse when it emerged that McGonagall was taking fifty points each from Harry, Neville and Hermione.
They had ruined any chance Gryffindor had at the house cup this year and they could never make up for it. Harry didn't sleep for the rest of the night and he was dreading the outcome of Professor McGonagall's letter home.
Professor McGonagall must have written her letter immediately after reprimanding the young Gryffindors because it arrived at Potter Manor the next morning – or technically the same morning, which was Sunday.
James and Maia had spent longer in bed than usual that morning, as they sometimes did on Sundays, enjoying a lie-in before getting up and starting to prepare the family roast dinner.
When they eventually got up and dressed casually for the day, they left their bedroom pretty happy, after an early round of love-making, and in the kitchen found only Remus sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of tea and the morning's Daily Prophet laid open in front of him.
"Morning," Maia called brightly, immediately flicking her wand to switch the kettle on.
"Morning," he replied pleasantly "a letter arrived for you both about an hour ago. I left it on the window sill."
"Who's it from?" James asked, pulling up a chair at the table and lazily putting his feet up on another chair, watching as Maia picked the envelope up.
"I don't know," Remus replied, though he had a suspicion, as did Maia. They rarely received post addressed to both of them. If anyone from work needed James when he wasn't at work, it was usually urgent, so they'd use the floo network. Regulus addressed his letters to Maia alone, and Harry had only written two days ago, so it couldn't be him.
Maia picked up the envelope to see the very familiar emerald green ink, and the address was as oddly specific as usual. With a heavy sigh, she opened the envelope and read the contents of the letter.
Professor McGonagall was sending a lot more letters home these days than she had in the Marauders' day, but perhaps she'd lost more and more patience over the years. She'd also stopped writing to Maia and Sirius' parents after Mrs Black had sent her a howler saying she didn't want to hear anything about them.
Dear James and Maia,
I am afraid I write to you with disappointing news. In the early hours of this morning, your son was caught out of bed. Mr Filch caught Harry, Mr Longbottom and Miss Granger wandering around at 1 o' clock. Also caught out of bed was Draco Malfoy, whom your son and his friends had fed a ridiculous story about having a dragon, in an attempt to get him out of bed and into trouble.
Of course, this is unacceptable behaviour and points have been taken from Gryffindor house as punishment. Harry will also serve detention later this week.
Hoping you are well,
Minerva McGonagall.
Maia sighed in exasperation and held the letter out to James, saying, "He's in trouble again."
She folded her arms and leant back against the kitchen counter, watching James read the letter. It was news she could really do without – admittedly, she'd been out of bed after curfew in her time, but why was her eleven year old son sneaking around at 1 o clock, and what was all this about telling Malfoy there was a dragon somewhere?
Harry wasn't a liar, and she couldn't imagine him trying to get Malfoy into trouble, even if he didn't like him. But what was the alternative? If no-one had lied to him, was there a chance that there was a dragon involved? Surely not, but after the troll, maybe nothing should surprise her.
James finished reading the letter and then looked up at Maia, handing the letter to Remus.
"Well?" Maia said, raising her eyebrows.
James sighed, leaning back in his chair, "Not ideal, is it?"
"No, it's not," Maia replied firmly, "I told that boy to behave this term! What does he think he's playing at, being out of bed at 1 in the morning? Being out of bed past curfew is one thing, but wandering around at that time and being stupid enough to get caught when he owns an Invisibility Cloak, what's wrong with him?!"
The volume of her voice had quickly risen and James could understand her frustration at their son – they'd explicitly told him to behave this term, and although he didn't begrudge the boy having a bit of fun, he could have at least used the cloak and a bit of common sense.
"And what's all this about a bloody dragon?!" Maia continued.
James sighed again, "I don't know, do I? But I don't see Harry trying to get Malfoy into trouble – Harry's not like that."
"I know," Maia replied, "but does that mean there's a real dragon somewhere? If there's a bloody dragon at that school, I can guarantee Harry would be the first person to tumble across it, after the incident with the fucking troll!"
James and Remus exchanged a glance, and Remus wished he was somewhere else right now, but he could hardly just get up and leave. Maia was easy to rile up when it came to her children, especially if she thought they might be in danger, and when she started swearing, both of them knew it was trouble.
"There's nothing to suggest there's a dragon at the school," James replied, trying to reason with her.
"Assuming that the Malfoy boy didn't pull a story about a dragon out of no-where, and Harry didn't lie about having a dragon to get him in trouble – which really I don't think he will have done – then maybe … somehow … I don't know, but I know our son and I know what he's like. I've got a bad feeling about this and if I find out that boy was involved with an illegal dragon-"
"I think Professor McGonagall's issue was more with the being out of bed," James interrupted.
"Well, that too," Maia said, "I told that boy to stay out of trouble! What was he thinking? This is the third letter home we've had and his first year isn't even over yet!"
"Maybe we should write to him and tell him to keep his head down," James suggested, "and hopefully he won't do it again."
"Hopefully?" Maia repeated, "when he's finished reading my letter, he won't put another toe out of line."
"You're not going to send him a Howler, are you?" James asked warily.
"No," Maia replied, "but he can be sure that if he misbehaves again, I will do. And what about you – what do you think about all of this?"
"I think we should tell him we're disappointed in him and encourage him to behave himself," James said, "the school are already punishing him, so that'll do, won't it?"
"You're soft on him," Maia sighed, feeling some of the anger towards her son leave her – he was being punished at school after all. Harry was loyal, and he'd be sad to have lost his house points, and Hogwarts detentions were creative, so that would probably be enough.
"We were young and mischievous once," James replied, standing up and taking over making them both of cup of tea, as the kettle had boiled but Maia was ignoring it, "if being caught out of bed is the worst he does, so be it. Merlin knows we were much worse – we were just cleverer about our use of the cloak."
"We can't ignore everything he does wrong just because we weren't always well-behaved when we were his age," Maia reasoned, taking his empty seat and crossing her legs under the table, "we're his parents and it's our job to discipline him. We're not teenagers anymore, we've got responsibilities, and disciplining our children is one of them."
"Well, the school have done it for us this time," James said, "but we'll write to him and tell him we're unimpressed and we don't want another letter home."
"And the dragon?"
"We don't know there is a dragon," James replied, though he had to admit he was curious, and he amended his statement, "but maybe we could ask him in the letter why the Malfoy kid said that to McGonagall."
"Will you be less soft on him if there is a dragon involved?" Maia asked, though she knew the answer. James was probably always going to be the good parent, soft and forgiving, and she was always going to look like the bad guy. She could imagine this grating on her as time progressed, if Harry got into trouble frequently every year.
James sensed her frustration and turned to look at her, walking over and setting a mug of tea down in front of her, then taking one of the seats at the table. It was just difficult to know how to deal with things like this, especially when he'd been exactly the same.
Looking at his wife, he replied, "If Harry has somehow been involved with a dragon, when it's illegal to keep a dragon in this country, I will be very disappointed in him. Unless he has a very good reason, I suppose." Maia narrowed her eyes at him, and he quickly added, "I just mean, with the mountain troll, he'd only gone after it to save his friend."
"Fine," Maia replied, thinking of how James and Sirius and had become animagi for help Remus.
It all came out when they were betrayed by Peter on Hallowe'en – they'd had to tell Dumbledore about it so Peter couldn't escape from Azkaban as a rat, and in light of everything that had happened, James and Sirius were forgiven by both Dumbledore and the ministry, and became registered.
"What are we going to do with him?" Maia sighed, running a hand through her hair and picking up her mug with her other hand.
"He could be much worse, you know," Remus tried to reason, interjecting into the conversation for the first time, "he's a good kid."
"I know," Maia replied, "he's just frustrating."
"It's probably good practise for when Lyra goes," James said.
Maia groaned, "She's going to be a nightmare."
When Regulus arrived a while later for dinner, he brought with him an extended version of the events of the previous night. It was their first topic of conversation after Regulus has greeted them all and they were all seated in the living room, while dinner cooked in the kitchen.
"So she took fifty points from Gryffindor," Regulus said, after recounting what he had heard from McGonagall at breakfast that morning.
"Fifty?" Maia and Sirius chorused.
"Each."
"Each?" the twins demanded, as James almost choked on his drink. Harry might have done wrong, but to lose 150 house points in one night, and have them taken away by your own Head of House had to be unheard of. They'd had some punishments in their time, but none like that. Harry would be devastated, Maia knew. It was more than punishment enough.
It took them some time to get over this news. Sirius ranted about how horrible and unfair it was, and Regulus admitted that 150 points taken was more of a punishment than even he would have given out of bed students. He was also disappointed to have lost 50 house points from Slytherin, because of Draco Malfoy.
"Have you seen the Malfoy boy about this?" Maia asked with a frown, "because McGonagall's letter said he was out of bed too, and something to do with a dragon."
"I called him to my office this morning and he was given a severe talking to," Regulus replied, "as for the dragon, Malfoy claims that none of it was his fault. He claims to have found a note in a book he borrowed from the Weasley boy. From this, he knew Harry and his friends were going to be on the top of the Astronomy tower at midnight last night, meeting people who would take a dragon off their hands. Obviously it sounds like a load of rubbish but it's a strange lie to make up, so McGonagall assumed Harry had fed Malfoy a story about a dragon. Doesn't really explain the note though, but I don't think he told her about that. "
Maia sighed. Ron Weasley's brother was a dragon-handler. If Malfoy had indeed found this note in Ron's textbook, the fact that Ron had a dragon-handling brother certainly wasn't doing anything to dispel her suspicions that there actually was a dragon involved.
"He's got a dragon," she groaned, shaking her head.
Regulus shrugged, "I don't know. I must say, I didn't think Harry would be spreading lies, but the punishment for spreading lies is easier to take than the punishment for keeping a pet dragon, so ..."
"Where would he even have gotten a dragon?" James asked in confusion.
"I don't know but I'll find out," Maia replied.
"Technically it sounds like he doesn't have a dragon any more anyway," Sirius pointed out, "even if he did have one, he got rid of it at the top of the Astronomy tower last night. And speaking of Astronomy … how is the lovely Astronomy Professor?"
Regulus turned his gaze on his older brother and narrowed his eyes slightly, "Professor Sinistra is very well, thank you."
"Are you two-"
"It's none of your business," Regulus interrupted, keeping a straight face, though his pale cheeks flushed slightly, giving away the answer.
"When are you going to bring her around to meet us?" Sirius asked with a grin.
"Never."
"Oh come on," Maia joined in, always loving to tease her little brother.
"You've already met her anyway," Regulus pointed out, "and that was enough."
At Hogwarts word quickly started to spread about what had happened the previous night and the Gryffindors were outraged when they found out that little Harry Potter, their quidditch hero had lost them all those points – him and a few stupid friends. Everyone had turned on him about from his closest friends – even the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, who had wanted to see Slytherin finally lost the House Cup.
Harry received a letter from home on Monday morning and almost dreaded opening it, but he was just thankful that it wasn't a Howler and he knew he had to open it sooner or later, and he was greeted by his mum's curvy handwriting.
Harry,
Professor McGonagall wrote to tell us all about Saturday night, so we know all about you being out of bed past your curfew. Didn't we tell you to stay out of trouble, for Merlin's sake? Please stop getting into trouble – we don't want any more letters home about you, so just keep your head down from now on.
Uncle Regulus told us you three lost 150 house points and you'll have detention so that's punishment enough we think but from now on STAY OUT OF TROUBLE. And honestly, if you were going to wander around in the middle of the night, couldn't you have at least used the Invisibility Cloak?
So, was there, or was there not, a real dragon involved in all of this? And you might as well tell us the truth because we'll probably find out if you don't. Dad promises not to report you to the ministry, if you're worried about that.
Hope you're ok, and revision is going well (if you've started it). Stay out of trouble now.
Love Mum and Dad.
Harry thought the letter from home could have been much worse and he wondered if he should tell them about the dragon. He might as well just tell them, he thought.
After sending a reply home, the rest of Harry's week was quite unremarkable.
In fact the next few weeks were rather unremarkable, and everything seemed to be building up to their exams. The most exciting thing that happened in the weeks leading up to the exams, happened when Harry was walking past an empty classroom.
There he heard two voices – one belonging to Professor Quirrell, and another he couldn't quite make out. Quirrell was sobbing – begging someone to leave him alone, and finally ended "alright, alright," and swept out of the room, almost walking into Harry, straightening his turban as he left. Harry peeked into the classroom when he'd gone, and found it empty. He could think of no explanation for this, and tried to forget about it, but ended up telling Neville, Ron and Hermione all about it.
"Something's going on," Harry told them, "he was in there, sobbing to himself, but no-one else was in the room. I suppose they could have been hiding but where? Maybe they could have apparated-"
"Not inside the castle!" Hermione replied.
"Well, what was it then?" Harry frowned, "something's happened? What if he's going to go after the Philosopher's Stone?"
"He can't have figured out how to get past Fluffy, surely?" Neville piped up.
"Maybe we should go to Dumbledore," suggested Hermione, "we should have done it ages ago. If we try anything ourselves, we'll all get thrown out, and we've been in enough trouble this year."
"But we don't have any proof!" Harry pointed out.
"Maybe Professor Black could back us up," Ron suggested, "you heard him warning Quirrell off!"
"Maybe," Harry pondered, "but then it could come down to Quirrell's word against Regulus'. All we have to go on is knowing about the stone – which we only know about from Hagrid really – and the overheard conversation between Quirrell and Regulus. We're not supposed to know about Fluffy or the stone. It'll take a lot of explaining."
"Maybe we could just do a bit of poking around-" Ron started.
Harry interrupted, "We've done enough poking around. We can't."
"Maybe you could try talking to Professor Black instead then," Hermione suggested. Harry thought this actually wasn't a terrible idea. Maybe if he told his uncle, he'd go and scare Quirrell away from the stone, and he'd take it to Dumbledore himself. Maybe he could skip over how he knew everything, and convince him not to tell his mum and dad anything about it.
The next morning, when Harry was still contemplating going to talk to his uncle about all of his worries, notes were delivered at breakfast to Harry, Hermione and Neville. They were all the same and contained details of their detention, which was to take place at 11 o clock that night, and for which they would be meeting Filch in the Entrance Hall.
The detention was a nightmare.
Filch took them to the grounds, along with Malfoy, where they met Hagrid – their detention was to be helping Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest.
Once in the Forest, Hagrid showed them a silvery substance – unicorn blood. He told them something was killing the unicorns and they needed to find the unicorn whose blood this was, since it might be too hurt and needed "putting out of it's misery" as he said.
They split up – Harry, Hermione and Hagrid, and Neville, Malfoy and Fang the dog.
Harry had his first encounter with a centaur whilst they were walking through the forest. The centaur, Ronan, was polite enough but unhelpful, and they were approached by a second, Bane, who was not polite.
They had to swap over halfway through because Malfoy had scared Neville and made him send warning sparks up into the air, so Harry and Neville were forced to swap.
Whilst with Malfoy, Harry stumbled across the dead unicorn they were looking for. It was beautiful and sad but before they'd had chance to send up sparks to notify Hagrid, out of nowhere swooped down a hooded, cloaked figure, which lowered its head over the unicorn's open wound and began to drink its blood.
Malfoy ran from the scene and Harry felt a searing pain in his scar, which he had never ever felt before and he stumbled around half blind, clutching at his forehead. Eventually he fell to his knees in pain and he was found by another Centaur, who introduced himself as Firenze.
Firenze allowed him to ride on his back, offering to return him to Hagrid. On the way, the centaur asked him if he knew the uses of unicorn blood and proceeded to tell him that unicorn blood would keep alive even a person an inch from death, but drinking it resulted in a cursed life.
Even more, he asked him if he knew what was hidden in the castle. Harry did. Firenze asked him if he knew of anyone who had waited years to return to power, desperate to return.
Harry's blood ran cold as he thought of Lord Voldemort. His parents had told him all he needed to know about the dark wizard, and had warned him that they thought Voldemort would one day return.
Firenze implied that the creature they'd just seen, drinking the unicorn's blood, was Voldemort and Harry had never heard anything so terrifying. Firenze left him safely with Hagrid, and Harry desperately wanted to talk about it all but Malfoy was with them until they got back to the castle, where Filch met them and walked them to Gryffindor tower.
In the common room, they found Ron asleep on the sofa, clearly waiting for them, and Harry shook him roughly to wake him up and then started pacing up and down the living room as his three friends watched him in confusion.
"Quirrell wants the stone for Voldemort," he said urgently, "Voldemort's waiting in the forest. Bane, one of the centaurs, was angry at Firenze for saving me. He said Firenze was interfering … he wanted Firenze to leave me for Voldemort to attack! Quirrell is going to resurrect Voldemort, and then he's going to come after me and finish me off!"
"Don't say the name," Ron hissed.
Harry had never thought much to saying the name – his parents and uncles said it, so it seemed silly not to. This was it, Quirrell was after the stone for Voldemort – it was difficult to imagine Quirrell working with Voldemort, pathetic as he seemed, but what it all fitted together, it all made sense!
Hermione and Neville were the most terrified, Ron was incredibly confused, and Harry didn't know what to do. Hermione tried to reason, "You-Know-Who is scared of Dumbledore. While Dumbledore's in the school, You-Know-Who wouldn't do anything. And don't Centaurs tell fortunes and things? Professor McGonagall says its a very imprecise branch of magic. Everything will be fine. Maybe you really should talk to your uncle about all of this, you know."
Harry went to bed wishing he was tucked up safely at him with his professional dark wizard fighter father and uncle, and his mother and Remus, who were also very capable and spent the war fighting Voldemort. As it was, he closed the drapes around him and debated whether he should go to see Uncle Regulus in the morning.
Meanwhile at Potter Manor, life went on as usual.
Maia had hardly been able to believe it when they received a letter from Harry confessing that there had in fact been a dragon. She was furious when she first read that, but Harry's letter went on to explain that it had been Hagrid's dragon, and they'd just got caught up in it, and really, they were the ones who'd convinced Hagrid to get rid of it.
Maia had been unable to reprimand Harry too strongly faced with this evidence, and though she sent him a letter back telling him to avoid getting involved with illegal dragons in the future, even if it was to help Hagrid, she let the dragon situation go.
Now able to talk about it all without being told he was too soft on their son, James pointed out that watching a dragon being born was incredibly cool, and Maia couldn't help but agree.
Lyra was beside herself with jealousy, and Sirius tried to pacify her by offering her a ride on his flying motorbike, which Maia allowed as long as they were very very careful.
Harry's next couple of letters home contained no signs of trouble – it sounded like he was busy preparing for his exams, mainly because Hermione was nagging them all to. She sounded like a good influence, Maia thought. Merlin knew she and James and Sirius didn't start revising so soon when they were that age, but Remus would have been trying to encourage them to do so.
In the middle of May, while Harry was bogged down in revision and a week before his detention, Maia came home from work after a late shift, arriving in the fire-place at 9pm and feeling very tired.
The house was very quiet and wandering through the house, she found Remus and Sirius engaged in a game of chess in the living room, and when she inquired about James, they told her he was in his office doing paperwork.
Maia went up to see him, but instead by passed his office to go up to Lyra's room. Lyra was in bed reading – she wasn't a big reader, but Remus had bought her a collection of books about magical beasts for her birthday and she was still working her way through them. She sat on her daughter's bed and chatted for a bit, asking her about her day and running a brush through her daughter's curly hair as they spoke.
When she left the room, after hugging her daughter and reminding her not to stay up too late, Maia walked back down the stairs to the second floor and pushed open the door to the room that had long since been converted into an office for James.
James was sitting behind his desk, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, glasses slightly askew on his face and his hair extremely messy. He was leaning back in his chair, feet up on his desk, chewing on a quill. His desk was littered with parchment and although he wasn't doing anything, it looked very much like he had work to do.
"Evening," he grinned as she closed the door behind her and stepped into the room, throwing his quill onto his desk.
"Hi," Maia smiled, walking slowly across the room and stopping in front of his desk, "busy day?"
James lifted his feet from the desk and leaned forwards to tidy his desk up a bit, trying to clear space for Maia to sit down on it, "Quite busy," he replied, "apprehended a muggle attacker. Bit of a nasty fight – Dawlish is in St Mungo's. He'll be fine though. He wouldn't have gotten hurt if he'd listened to me … but, anyway, got a pile of paperwork to do. I shouldn't still be doing it, but I kept putting it off. How was your day?"
"It was ok," Maia replied, sitting down on his desk, facing him. She crossed her ankles and swung her legs backwards and forwards lightly, eyes raking over her husband. "Come here," she said, frowning at him.
James raised his eyebrows at her but said nothing and shuffled his chair forwards. Maia leaned forwards and gently took hold of the frames of his glasses, and straightened them on his face. She then lifted a hand to his hair and gently tried to flatten some of it down. She succeeded with a small amount, but not much, and soon gave up.
James took hold of one of her hands as she withdrew them from his hair, and lifted it to his lips, kissing the back of her hand gently and then letting go of her.
Maia closed her eyes as he kissed her hand and as he let go of her and she rested both of her hands in her lap, she said, "I'm not pregnant."
Her statement was met by silence and after a few seconds she opened her eyes to look at James. She must have looked upset, because James' expression was soft and concerned, just as he had been last month and he reached out to take hold of her hand. Maia had been a bit tetchy for the last few days, and James knew it was because she was expecting her time of the month, and hoping it wouldn't come, so he had sort of been prepared for this moment this time, if not prepared for the pang of disappointment in his chest.
"I'm sorry darling," he said softly, "how do you feel?"
Maia sighed, "Disappointed. Again."
"I know," he replied, squeezing her hand, "next month, eh?"
"Don't say that," she replied, shaking her head, "it might not be next month."
James knew she was right but he just wasn't sure what the right words were so instead he pushed his desk chair further away from his desk and patted his thighs, "Come here," he said. Maia silently slid off the desk and sat in his lap and he folded his arms around her, tucking her up safely and holding her.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, both contemplating, and after a few minutes, James said, "It's-"
"Still early days, I know," Maia interrupted.
"Well, it is," James pointed out, "we've got plenty of time and you can't force these things. We've already got two beautiful children, so surely it can't be long before it happens."
Maia felt comforted by this position, tucked up in James' arms, and after a few more minutes of comfortable silence, she started to feel a bit better and asked, "What do you want, this time?"
"The baby, you mean?" James asked.
Maia nodded. She wasn't sure what she wanted – in fact, she didn't think she'd mind either way. She hadn't minded with Harry, and although she'd wanted a girl at some point, she wouldn't have minded if Lyra had been a boy. If Lyra had been a boy, she'd probably have tried more for a third child after Lyra was born, to get a girl. Now she had one of each, she really didn't mind.
"So, what do you want?" Maia asked curiously.
She felt James huff in amusement and then he replied, "Twins."
Maia scoffed, "Twins? I don't think so, James Potter. That was not the agreement."
James chuckled and kissed the top of her head, "Only joking," he said, though secretly he couldn't help but think that twins would be very fun, and it would be closer to that big family that he wanted.