James POV
"Evening," I chirped at Freddie and Sam as I all but skipped down The Great Hall to join them at the Gryffindor table for tea.
"'Ereuben?" my charming cousin garbled over a mouthful of potatoes.
"What my distinguished friend here is trying to say is 'Whatever have you been up to, old boy?'" Sam filled in giving me a look through his silly interpretation of Freddie.
"'Eah!"
"Oh I..." I tried to think of something plausible to say as I reached over and started to fill my plate up. "Between us, I went with Landon to her healer's appointment."
"Oh aye!" Freddie swallowed his mouthful. "What did you do that for? Not like it's your kid." Sam started coughing as he choked on his drink and I was glad I hadn't put the carrot I was about to in my mouth already or I'd have done the same. "Wait." His eyes flashed wide and he leaned over dropped his voice as he said; "It's not, it is?"
"Not guilty." I hissed at him.
"Good, good." He nodded sitting back. Sam was watching me closely.
"Why did you go?" He eventually said.
"She's lonely." I shrugged. That wasn't the whole reason, but it's all they needed.
"Whose lonely?" came a voice from next to me. Molly had appeared and was sitting herself down on one side of me.
"Landon."
"Well 'duh'?" Came a voice from the other side of me - Rose.
"Yeah," Molly nodded. "This whole mess has made her a bit of a social pariah."
"What have we missed anyway?" Rose smiled.
"James went to the healers with Landon." Freddie threw me right under that knight bus didn't he. The girls would never drop this one.
"Oh!" Molly sat up straighter. "Details!"
"What?" It was my turn to choke on food.
"She's being cagey." Molly reasoned. "And if she is due in January, she'll know what it is now."
"We want to pick her up a bit of something over half term." Rose nodded. Bull. They were being nosy. But in the off chance they might be telling the truth, I felt my mouth open and words spill out.
"It's a girl." I felt the smile pulling on my face. "She's healthy, cute and doing well. The healer called her a 'v-day baby', whatever that one means."
"Lily was right then..." Rose said cryptically.
"What?" Sam jumped in.
"Lily swears blind that she saw Briar sneaking off with another student on the night of the Victory Ball." Rose filled us in.
"What?" My turn now. "Did she see his face?"
"If she saw who - she's not telling."
I'd finished my tea in relative silence, answering just enough that no one seemed suspicious. Or at least I didn't think they were. Then I made my way to the library for some space.
My mind was spending far too much time running through the night of the Victory Ball. The robes Mum had sent and insisted I wore. The argument I had with Polly for wearing said robes where she'd stormed off declaring us 'broken up'. The hours spend sitting and laughing with friends, and drinking a bit too much perhaps. The dragging someone, a certain curly haired blonde, onto the dance floor. I'd woken up alone the next morning in the old tower. Thinking on it now, that actually isn't an unusual arrangement for whenever me and Briar have managed a full night together. She's a bit of an early bird - or so she says- but she'd usually leave me with a note, or a lipstick smear. That morning there'd been nothing.
No. I can't even be considering this. We used the spell and Landon's been on the potion for as long as we've been fooling around.
Aunt Hermione's voice sprang up in the back of my mind. A sitting down and telling off she'd given us all one new year when Teddy had been found in a compromising position with his date in a bathroom at our house.
'They won't protect you! That spell fails 2.8% of the time and the potion is more of a liability than a contraceptive!'
I need to find Briar.
Fast.
Briar POV
I was still riding cloud nine. Everything was fine. She was safe and healthy. And a she! I was so caught up in my thoughts of pink blankets and baby clothes - that I couldn't really afford - that I didn't hear James coming up behind me in the corridor.
He grabbed my arm and began dragging me back down the corridor and towards the stairs. I was confused. And my questioning was met with grunts and silence. Frankly, I was scared and by the time we made it to the seventh floor corridor and through a small door that opened into a little sitting room. I didn't have much time to look around as James roughly let go of my arm and gestured for me to sit in one of the large sofas. He sat across from me. Not once did he look up. His knee bounced as his head was in his hands.
After what felt like a lifetime, James finally took a large intake of air and slide his hands into his hair. His dark eyes bore into mine.
"I need you to be honest with me, Briar." his voice was hauntingly low.
"About what?" I was so confused. He breathed a humourless laugh.
"Briar." He took a steadying breath. "Who's the father?"
Fuck.
"I don't kno-"
"Bullshit." He yelled. His eyes flashed with an anger I'd never seen before. My hands flew to my belly and I felt my heart begin to race. "Is..." he took a steadying breath, his leg still bouncing and his hands flexing. "Is she mine?"
"James, I-"
"Don't you dare lie to me again," James spat as he quickly stood, his hands now in fists at his sides.
"Yes." I look down at my hands on my belly, unable to see James in this state anymore. I did this to him. I hurt him and lied to him. "She's yours." Hot tears stung my eyes as they flowed like lava down my face. I heard him moving around the room, I assumed to the door to leave me alone again. So when his hands reached for mine, my heart all but stopped.
"Where you ever going to tell me?" his voice was quiet now, just above a whisper and a massive contrast to the yelling he'd been doing minutes ago.
"If I'd told you," tears flowed more than freely down my face and my voice wobbled along with them. "you'd have dropped everything. Your extra classes, your training, your recruiter sessions, I'd have taken everything away from you because I messed up and I couldn't see you throw it all away. You're worth too much."
"B," he pulled my hands closer to his face. "you were keeping the most important things in the world from me though. No amount of quidditch or 'life' would make up for that." I sobbed hard. "Hey!" He readjusted himself and I felt the sofa sink next to me with his weight. His arms wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest. Why was he being so nice? He was a raging bull not so long ago.
We stayed like that for a long time, James just rubbing my back and holding me tight. There was something intimate about the way he would drop little kisses on my head and give me a few seconds of tighter pressure. It was new for us. Just like the sitting around and talking or studying together had been over the last few weeks.
"I couldn't just ruin your life like that." I mumbled, eventually. James chuckled and gave me another kiss on the top of my head as my face was still pressed into his jumper.
"B, what are your plans for after Hogwarts?"
"What?" I sniffed. I mean, it's a bit of a stupid question for a 24 week pregnant teenager isn't it?
"What do you want to do with your life?" James's hand cupped my cheek turning me to face him. I didn't have plans. Well apart from somehow keeping baby safe, warm and happy. When I didn't respond, James smiled softly and gave me a small kiss on my lips. "You're willing to give up everything, but won't accept my help just because together we'd both have to rethink a couple of things?" I sniffed.
Breaking the silence between us, the baby hit out. Hard. I winced. James's eyes widened, his hand leaving my face and resting on my belly which was rippling visibly under my school blouse.
"She's getting strong," James chuckled. A smile lit up his face as he rubbed his hand over the bump, gently pressing back wherever the baby pushed out. A guilt washed over me as I watched and felt them playing together, bonding the way they should have been for months. I sobbed again, tears rolling from my eyes - because apparently, I still had some still left in me if that was even possible. James pulled me in tighter, my head fell against his chest and the tears rolled from my cheek onto his shirt, leaving an ugly damp patch. His dropped his head against mine. "Whats in that head of yours?" He muttered, still rubbing his hand over the bump.
"I'm sorry," He shushed me. "I took everything away from yo-"
"It doesn't matter now, B." his voice was low and soft. "All that matters now is our family." My heart skipped a little at his words.
"So you're okay with this?" He laughed.
"That first night I came to you, when I first found out," he started, shuffling himself on the sofa to create some space between us, he then wrapped my hands in his large quidditch calloused ones. "I badly wanted you to say she was mine. The idea of another man touching you just -" his voice shook and his eyes shut.
"Jamie," I knew what some people thought of me, what they'd been told. "You're the only one."
"What?" He looked at me. "But Dick said-"
"Richard says a lot of things," I sighed. "But he's never been inside of me." James's face told me he wasn't so sure of that. "He just likes to dry hump." James snorted.
"Little bastard." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Though makes sense."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Little Miss 'innocent'," He leaned back into the sofa and smiled smugly at me. " I'm pretty sure that you aren't into feet." I groaned. "and -" His smug grin widened. "- I know for fact, that you always swallow."
I threw a pillow at him. Not that he cared. He just laughed it off and then pulled me down onto him. We stayed like this for a while, long enough that I could feel sleep starting to creep up on me. James either felt the same, or could feel me dropping and guided me over to a bed I hadn't noticed before. He got me comfortable before he slid in behind me. It felt awkward with all of our clothes in the way, so I wriggled out of my skirt and blouse. James took this as permission to do the same. Leaving us both in just our underwear. James lead himself on his back and pulled me into his chest. I obliged and lay there listening to his heart beat while I drifted off to sleep.