Thanks so much to: laceyowens50 for reviewing!

Author's Note: By the way I am trying to do more of these because they actually do get me refocused on Gray (which I have been working on, don't worry) and are a nice break if I get stuck in a rut, I have a bunch planned but let me know if there's any characters or things you're particularly curious about. No promises as these tend by nature to be expanding on things and characters that weren't important enough for the main series rather than people's favorites but I will consider it, like the last chapter was mostly inspired by someone years ago asking why Maverick went bad, it isn't really answerable in one extra but that was the turning point for him and I felt I could explore it with Abel

Questions:

Is the Daphney girl Daphney Greengrass?
Yes

August 16th 2023, (VII: Chapter 1)

Olivia finished puking her guts out in the toilet, again, it was unfortunately becoming as familiar a part of her morning routine as brushing her teeth or getting dressed. Sighing unhappily, she stood and flushed away her breakfast before going to clean up in the sink. She looked at her tired, sad face in the mirror, finding it hard to believe Vern had been gone a whole month already. She missed him. With another sigh, Olivia dried her hands before exiting the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

"Sick again?"

Olivia jolted in surprise, head shooting up sharply to see her older brother was leaning back against the wall opposite the bathroom, arms folded and expression as indiscernible as usual. Tall and thin, wavy black hair falling around his face as he observed her with his head cocked to one side. She swallowed.

"Yeah, probably just…" Olivia started to answer and hesitated, she was running out of excuses, "Something I ate."

"We eat the same food," Maxie pointed out but she was already on her way back to her room to try cut off the awkward conversation, his footsteps followed after her however.

"My stomach's probably just more sensitive than yours," she attempted to brush it off again as she made it safely back to the threshold of her room.

"We should get it checked out," Maxie continued, clearly unable to take a hint.

"No, I'm fine," Olivia insisted, her stomach doing a summersault at the thought as she went over to sit on her bed, "Now, if you don't mind, I-"

"Are you pregnant?"

She was taken so completely off-guard she managed to trip over her on feet, barely managing to right herself and reach her bed in the gloom the curtains provided. Her heart was suddenly in her mouth, beating frantically and preventing her mouth from functioning. She perched on the edge of her bed and looked up at her brother, hovering in the doorway with a perfectly unreadable expression, he leaned against the frame and patiently waited for an answer. She bit her lip, finding no further reason to lie to him if he already suspected. Her hand went subconsciously to her stomach and her eyes to the picture of Vern on her bedside table, emerald eyes sparkling as he smiled warmly at her.

"I don't know," Olivia admitted finally, tearing her eyes away from her boyfriend and instead going to the maroon carpet scattered with discarded clothes, "Vern and I… we only did it once, during the last weekend at Hogsmeade when we were at Kyle's place. We didn't plan to, it just kind of happened so we weren't careful- I don't regret it."

Olivia added the last line sharply and her eyes snapped to her brother, not sure why she felt that was so important to get across. His expression remained unchanged as he calmly waited for her to continue, sometimes she both hated and envied how good he was at hiding his emotions. Her eyes went back to the floor.

"We knew there was a chance and then I didn't get my period, it wasn't a good sign but it's not uncommon for them to be late. Vern said…" Olivia trailed off, feeling tears bubbling in her eyes as she recalled his kind, comforting face and the warmth of his hands as he took hers gently, "Vern said muggles have a way of testing for pregnancy, you can just buy these tests and find out at home without needing to see a Healer. He was going to buy one once we got back from Hogwarts then we could meet up and find out together, we'd figure out what to do then if it came to it.

"Obviously he didn't get a chance to do that though so I never got to find out, at first I really did just think I was late but I still haven't gotten my period and I've started to feel nauseous all the time… I think now I might be but I really don't know and I'm too scared of what Dad might say if I tried to find out, I'm gonna feel like shit right now whether I'm pregnant or not so I don't know."

"Would you like to find out?" Maxie asked, his voice quiet and her head shot back up in surprise, "I know the spell."

Olivia's jaw dropped open as she considered this for a moment, it'd never really occurred to her he might know the spell even though he did want to be a Healer and volunteered at St Mungo's. She looked down at her hand on her stomach again, heart thundering once again. On one hand she was terrified of knowing, if she didn't know she could just try to ignore the whole thing and continue being lost in her grief but on the other hand… She nodded.

"You'll need to move your hand," Maxie informed her as he approached, pulling out his wand and she obediently moved her hand away. He waved the wand over her stomach, muttering an incantation she didn't recognize. Her heart stopped, "You are pregnant."

"Are you sure?" Olivia breathed and he nodded firmly, lowering his wand.

She put both her hands over her stomach, she'd spent the past two months trying not to even let herself entertain the possibility. She was only sixteen, she feared her dad's reaction, her boyfriend had died, it was so much more convenient for her if she was not pregnant and yet… she found herself smiling as the tears starting to roll down her cheeks. She and Vern were going to have a baby, it was the very last piece of him left in the entire world, the last piece that was alive.

"I'm guessing you'll want to keep it?" Maxie asked, his arms crossed once more as he stood expressionless in front of her.

"Of course I'll keep it, its Vern's child."

"You'll need to tell Dad then."

"Why?" Olivia wondered stupidly, trying to wipe at her eyes and feeling her heart clench with fear at the thought of trying to bring this up to her father.

"Because if you want your baby to be healthy you have to see a Healer, that's what they're there for. They need to monitor your progress, make sure you and the baby are doing okay, treat any complications then obviously you'll need them to deliver the baby when it comes to it. You're still a minor so they'll want parental permission to treat you, at best they'd give you a check-up then be obligated to tell Dad regardless," Maxie explained like he was reciting from a textbook before his tone softened, slightly, "I know it isn't easy to talk to Dad about… anything but the sooner you see a Healer the better it is for you and the baby, the nausea you have could be normal morning sickness or a symptom of a more severe issue but either way you need treatment."

"Oh," Olivia muttered, losing her smile and looking worryingly at her stomach, "I guess I'm just scared of how he'll react, I half expect him to just… just throw me out and disown me."

Maxie swallowed.

"He might," Maxie admitted and her eyes shot back up fearfully as she'd just expected reassurance, he'd unfolded his arms and there was maybe a hint of concern breaking through his usual mask of stoicism, "But we'll deal with that if it comes to it, Kyle might help us and if not I am of age- it's only a few weeks until we're back at Hogwarts anyway."

"Help us? You really don't need to drag yourself down with me, I'm the one who got myself into this situation," Olivia pointed out, feeling guilt at the thought of screwing up his life too just for helping. Maxie gave a derisive snort however, folding his arms as his words and looking away.

"I can drag myself down perfectly fine without your help, thank you very much, Dad's already mad at me," Maxie scoffed through a scowl, the words steeped in bitterness. He wasn't wrong, their dad had been trying unsuccessfully all summer to get him to agree to an arranged marriage as it was a respectable pureblood match. Still, she didn't think their dad would disown him over it, Kyle had managed to successfully talk him out of it without causing a rift, "Besides, you'll need all the help you can get with that kid and the kid needs all the family it can get. You may have to be a single mother but you don't have to do it all alone."

"Thanks, Maxie," Olivia sniffed, tears glistening in her eyes again as she felt her heart swell again.

"It'll be alright, Liv," Maxie offered gently, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder and meeting her eyes, "I promise."

Olivia nodded once and he moved his hand away, leaving her alone- she knew he had to get going to St Mungo's, he'd been volunteering pretty much any non-Hogwarts time he had since he'd come age- with her thoughts.

She picked up the photograph of Vern from the bedside table and curled up onto her be with it, gazing into his eyes and trying to fathom how he would react if he was here. Would he be happy? Would he be sad? Would he be shocked? Would he be scared? Probably, he'd probably be just as terrified of how the Potters would react as she was about her father but she was sure he'd stick by her regardless- she knew he would. Though she supposed if he was here she may feel differently too, would she feel the same hope growing inside her if this baby wasn't the last living fragment of him left? She didn't know, but she did know she cared now.

As she watched him smiling and waving from the photo, she allowed her mind to entertain thoughts of what their child was going to be like. Was it going to be a boy or a girl? Would she have his bright emerald eyes? Or her blue ones? Would he have Vern's stringy brown hair? Or would it be straighter and darker like hers? Would she have his smile? Would he inherit his talent for potions? Or prefer spellwork like she did? Would she enjoy playing Quidditch just like him? Would he be a Hufflepuff like him? Or a Slytherin like her? Or another house entirely? Would she have his kind heart? Very suddenly she wished pregnancies didn't take so long, she wanted to meet their baby now. That was another thing, what day was going to become their child's birthday?

If she made it that far. Maxie's words about the benefits of seeing a healer returned to her, she was going to need to tell her dad at some point. She didn't expect it to go well. She thought she'd be better off telling Kyle first and seeing his reaction so she'd know whether to expect his support or not if it went poorly with her dad, or maybe it would just be better off to announce it to the whole family that weekend? Or was this weekend too far away and she should owl Kyle to meet up to tell him sooner? She decided she'd ask Maxie about it when he got back, he'd have a better understanding how urgent it was she see a healer at least.