I'm really proud about how quickly I got this update out, but I was just feeling really inspired for this chapter. Enjoy!

It didn't take me long to realize that pregnancy was not all fun and games. Clarice's morning sickness continued, and, the first fallacy we encountered was the fact that it doesn't just happen in the morning. Apparently it can happen at any time during the day, and she just had to suck it up and deal with it, cause, get this, apparently, normal potions won't have any effect on morning sickness, it'll just go and pass as it pleases, and pregnant women can't take too many potions because everything they eat goes to the baby, so they have to not only avoid alcohol, but also any type of strong potions. Next fallacy about pregnancy: food cravings don't start until after morning sickness stops. They do. And it sucks.

One night, when she was about three months pregnant, Clarice woke up at 3:00 AM and ran to the bathroom where she emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet. I got up to make sure she was okay, and she turns to me, with a totally straight face, and says, "James, we're out of mint chocolate chip ice cream, would you run out at get some?"

"What?" I sputtered, staring blankly at her.

"I need some mint chocolate ice cream. Please James?"

And how could I refuse her when she was looking at me like that and pregnant, for Christ's sake! I just felt terrible. So, I throw on jeans and a tee shirt and go out and get the ice cream, and I come back and she eats the entire pint! I'd never seen her eat so much ice cream ever. Then she just got back in bed like it was a totally normal thing to do, eating ice cream at three in the morning, and she falls back asleep. And that was only the first time that something like that happened!

Still, despite the fact that it was pretty bad for me, dealing with her when she was irritable or sick or waking up in the middle of the night to get the most random foods, I knew it was probably a thousand times worse for her...Even so, we were still so indescribably excited about the baby. We refused to be like Steven and Em in terms of names, so we both decided to bet on a sex and pick the name for that sex, with the other one's approval, obviously, and then whichever sex it was the name would already be selected.

Clarice was determined to have a boy, but I was just as equally determined to have a girl, though we'd both be endlessly happy with either.

One evening in the middle of her fourth month we were sitting in the living room discussing names.

"I've come up with my name," she announced triumphantly. She was doing the boy name, and had been very secret about what names she was considering.

"Well?" I asked, looking up from my book.

"Tristan James Potter," she said, looking at me expectantly.

I contemplated the name for a moment. It was classy, it gave him options, because he could chose to go by James or Tristan, it sounded great, and my ego rather liked the idea of having my name in there.

"It's perfect," I said, kissing her lightly, "Now, you wanna hear my name?" I'd come up with my name a while ago, but I hadn't wanted to share it with her until she'd gotten her name sorted, which irritated her to no end, I might add.

"No need," she said, rubbing small circles on her growing stomach absentmindedly, "This baby's a boy, so I don't really need to hear your name."

I scowled, "Well, she is very insulted to hear you say that, aren't you princess?" I addressed the last question to her stomach.

She laughed, "Okay, tell me!"

"Madeline Clarice Potter, but we'd call her Maddie."

"Maddie," she whispered, as if getting the feel for the name. I watched her face carefully, hoping to have gained approval, because I was rather fond of the name. She smiled, "It's perfect." I smiled, but then she sighed, and I grew worried, "It's a shame we won't get to use it though..."

I scowled at her, "Hmph, yes we will!"

"We'll see," she said with a mischievous smile, still rubbing small circles around her belly.


"Hey Susan," I said, picking up my baby goddaughter after I arrived at Steven and Em's place. I'd been coming there a lot since I found out that Clarice was pregnant to get a bit of practice with Susan, and to talk to Steven, because I had a lot of worries. Clarice and I hadn't even been married a year and we were expecting a baby...it was so soon, sooner than either of us had expected. We were both obviously thrilled, but it was still a terrifying idea.

"What, do we not matter anymore?" asked Steven as I took Susan out of his arms.

"She's cuter," I said simply.

"What's up?" asked Em, who was, get this, knitting. I'd never have pinned Em as a knitter, but she said it gave her something to do with her hands when she was at home. She preferred to do it the muggle way after Steven's mum gave her a book on it for her birthday. She said it relaxed her, which I found funny, because she would concentrate so hard on it, and if she messed up she would take it out on everyone present, even if they had had nothing to do with it. That had been especially true when she was pregnant...

"Nothing much," I said, flopping down on the sofa, "Did I ever tell you that we chose a name?"

"You what?" asked Steven incredulously, "Already? How did you manage that? How many names were on the notepad, two? I never saw you guys working on it!"

"That would've have been two more than you guys ever managed," I bit back, "And besides, we didn't need a notepad. We, unlike you, managed to pick a name without irritating eachother and everyone within a three mile radius of us."

Steven harrumphed as Em said, "Oh shut up. We ended up with a beautiful name. What's yours?"

"Tristan James for a boy," I started.

"I wonder who came up with that..." muttered Steven sarcastically.

I scowled at him, "Clarice did, you dolt, now shut it!"

"And for a girl?" asked Em, who was ignoring our antics, as she usually did. She claimed that Steven was only immature when I was around, which I found hard to believe, but then again, there was no real way for me to find out...

"Madeline Clarice."

"Those are pretty," said Em pensively, "I liked Tristan James better; I'm not sure how I feel about Madeline Clarice..."

I glared at her, personally offended that she'd rejected my name, "We'd call her Maddie," I added, to clear up any confusion and show her exactly how great the name was.

"Maddie Potter?" she said, "Nah, I don't like it. You better hope that baby's a boy."

"Oh shut up," I said, "I picked that name and Clarice liked it!"

"Wow, she must really be sure it's gonna be a boy if she's letting you pick that," said Steven.

I scowled at him, "You're just jealous that we came up with two beautiful names without killing eachother."

"Suuuuuuuuuuuure," he said, turning back to his work. He was writing up a case report for the auror office. They have to do that after every case so that everything's on file...so much more work than I ever wanted to do. Once we curse-breakers are home we're done working.

I stayed at Steven and Em's for a while, but went home at about 6:00 to help with dinner. I'm rubbish at cooking, mind you, but I set the table, bring everything out and everything, and then after dinner I clear the table. It's only fair, cause Clarice does all the cooking.

When I got home I saw the back of Clarice's and Rose's head on the couch facing the big window and the city. They didn't hear me come in, so I drifted into the kitchen to see if Clarice had started dinner. She hadn't.

"So," Rose was saying, "Are you gonna tell him?"

"Well," Clarice said, and I could tell by her tone of voice that she had a smirk on her face, "I think I'll wait and see if he figures it out. He's been dying for it to happen." I furrowed by eyebrows in concentration. I know eavesdropping is wrong, but I couldn't help it...Were they talking about me? What had I been waiting for? And if they weren't talking about me, then who were they talking about?

"What's it like being pregnant? I mean, I get that morning sickness sucked, but you've finished with that, haven't you?"

"Yeah," Clarice replied, "I'm passed that stage now, thank God. That was miserable, but even during that I loved being pregnant."

I could tell Rose was making a face by her tone of voice, "Ugh...I don't see how."

"It's like having a little bit of James with me all the time," she sighed, "It's wonderful..." It's official. My heart melted. God, I really was a sap...

"Ugh, gross!" said Rose, "That's terrible!" I felt mildly offended, but I was still reflecting over Clarice's comment, so I didn't mind too much.

"That's because he's your cousin. Carrying a bit of Scorpius around sounds repulsive to me, but I'm sure you would like too," said Clarice, sounding self-satisfied.

They sat reflecting, and I decided it'd be best to reveal my presence now before they discovered me. Clarice was getting a bit more of a temper since she became pregnant, and I didn't feel like getting shouted at this evening.

"Hey guys, what's up?" I asked, pretending I'd just come in, and closing the front door loudly.

They both turned around and looked at me.

"Hi James!" said Rose, while Clarice said "How were Steven, Em, and Susan?"

"They were good," I said, "And hello to you too Rose. Where's Scorpius?"

"What, just because we're engaged we now have to do everything together?" she asked, eyebrow raised, "Cause I don't see you and Clarice attached at the hip!"

"Sheesh," I said, rolling my eyes, "Someone's a little high-strung."

"Oh shut up," said Rose, before turning to Clarice and saying, "I've gotta go. Scorpius is out with Al, but we're going out tonight, and I've got to get ready."

"See you," she said as Rose stood up, stuck her tongue out at me, which I didn't think was very mature at all, and left, closing the front door with a bang.

"So, how was your afternoon?" I asked, taking Rose's abandoned seat on the couch.

"Good. We went to Diagon Alley and looked at a few cribs and things. I think we should paint the nursery bright yellow. It's gender neutral, and it's a bright, happy color, so it should keep the baby's mood up."

"Whatever you want," I said, before wincing slightly. I had learned during wedding planning that anything I didn't care too much about I still had to appear invested in, because Clarice never just wanted to hear that I wanted whatever she wanted, which I found pretty ridiculous, because we both knew that she cared much more, had probably done more research on the subject of a proper nursery color, and was infinitely more qualified to make this decision, considering I'm rubbish at interior decorating (I let Clarice do our whole house). Plus, we both knew I'd love whatever she picked, and we both knew that she'd probably try to convince me out of whatever my opinion was, if it happened to differ from hers, and in trying to convince me she'd use all of the arguments I've just set forth. Knowing all this, however, she still hates it when I say that, and being pregnant made her moods a lot more fierce, varying, and vicious.

"Oh James, can you at least try to pretend that you're interested in our baby!" she snapped, glaring at me, as I knew she would.

"But I am interested," I placated, trying to stem the flow of her anger with flattery, "I'm so invested in this decision and I'm so anxious that we chose the right color that I want you to pick, regardless of what I might want, because I know that you'll pick a better, more appropriate color than I'd ever think of. I mean, I would never have thought of yellow, I would've picked something like green or some other color that's rubbish for a nursery, so it's better if you just pick."

The only good thing about Clarice's mood swings was that she could become happy again just as quickly as she could get angry, and this was no exception. She laughed and said, "I'm not stupid James!" before picking up a copy of the Daily Prophet and flipping through it.

As she read I picked up the copy of Quiditch Weekly that we'd received that morning. I nearly gagged. Daniel's picture was on the front cover with the title Puddlemere United's Star Keeper is Voted #1 Eligible Bachelor This Year. I gaped at the cover and quickly flipped to the story. It wasn't much a story at all, really, just a list of the top ten, and then a profile of each of the top five. I knew this was gonna go straight to Daniel's head.

I rolled my eyes and threw the magazine aside in disgust, and instead turned to Clarice, who was still absorbed in her paper. She was rubbing small circles on her belly, a habit that she'd developed over the past four months, and I put my hand on her belly too, mildly hoping to feel a kick finally, though I knew there was little chance of that. Therefore, when I felt a light something just under my hand I jumped about a mile.

She laughed, and I gaped, "Did she just-Was that-?"

"A kick?" she said, still laughing, "Yes, it was. They started earlier this afternoon. I was wondering when you'd notice."

"That's brilliant," I whispered, putting my hand back to her stomach and waiting for the next one. It was an enlightening experience, feeling the baby kick. I mean, I knew that she was pregnant, and I fully grasped the idea, and her expanding belly pointed to that, but the idea of a living, breathing baby nestled in her stomach hadn't seemed truly real until that moment. Definite proof that our baby was there, growing inside of her. I mean, I'd felt a baby kick before, when Em was pregnant, but it hadn't seemed like that big of a deal then, and I'd wondered why Steven and Em got so excited about it, but now I was just ecstatic.

"It is brilliant," she said, leaning back and closing her eyes, resting her hands on her stomach. "And I can feel it from the inside too..." She was smiling to herself, and for a brief moment I envied her. I don't mean that I wanted to be a woman or anything, but she was already so connected to our child, and she wasn't even born yet...still, I didn't envy all the mood swings and food cravings, so I guess it was a fair trade off.

"Do you know what I really want," she said suddenly, her eyes snapping open, "I really want some oranges. James, would you please run out and get some?"

I had to resist the urge to groan.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter, I guess I just find pregnancy fun, so drop me a review with your thoughts.

XOXO

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