A/N-The ending parts of this story aren't wonderful. I like the first part better than any of this, but it's done now. Thanks to everybody for reading and reviewing, I really appreciate it. Most of the good parts in part three were co-written by my sister Theresa. She's really good at this. Shameless plug: Everyone should go read and review her story "Not What You'd Expect" which is rather strange, but still very good. Please R/R, and enjoy. Thanks!!!
Part 3
All the fears that I had been describing must have come out as incoherent babbling, because after I calmed down James got a rather panicked look on his face, and the first words out of his mouth were, "Are you okay Lily? Should we take you to a healer? Do you need any special medicine? Shouldn't you be lying down?"
I'd heard before that husbands are usually more worried about their wives than the baby during a pregnancy, but it amazed me that James still fit this mold, even after all the discussions we'd had before and after deciding that we didn't want to have a baby while Voldemort was still gaining power. "James, I'm okay. It's not me I'm worried about, it's our baby, and what Voldemort might to do it."
It was like James had snapped out of a trance. He knew I would be okay, and he say the reality. "You're right Lily. Voldemort's the whole reason we've been to waiting to have children. now that it's happened though, we'll just have to work our way through this, find a way to keep it, and you, safe. There's nothing else we can do." I was amazed, not only had James gone from panic-stricken to sane in seconds, but he had known he was going to be a father for less than ten minutes, and already he was thinking more logically about the situation that I had in almost 10 hours of knowing, and usually *I* was the logical one. 'Darn hormones' I thought.
Throughout all this Remus and Sirius had been standing in the background looking surprised and a little worried. We'd told them about our decision years ago, and I could tell neither of them had considered their best friend being a father. 'Neither have we,' I thought.
Remus, always the practical one, started to speak, "I'll try to find some protection spells for you, and you can talk to Dumbledore. He'll surely be able to think of something you can do. If you just found out, and you keep this quiet, you have several months to prepare before anyone should find out."
Sirius chimed in, trying to be reassuring, "This little one will be a fighter too. The baby of Lily and James Potter, it'll be a very powerful wizard." I smiled for the first time since I'd found out. I was still worried, but other people knew and could help now.
"Okay guys, does anyone know of a nickname for this baby? We can't say 'our baby' out in public, not if we don't want anyone to know, and I can't stand to call it 'It' for the next eight months. Don't make it a real name either, because it might stick, and I don't want a baby who looks like an Elizabeth to be called something like Jane the rest of her life." I thought this was a rather good, and much needed attempt at lightening the mood. We couldn't spend an hour stressing over the situation, because James still needed his rest, and me being upset wouldn't help the baby.
James seemed to think for second. "Snuffles. Remember? That's what the old man in the village used to call you when you were in Padfoot form Sirius."
"Snuffles?? You want me to call our baby Snuffles?"
"But Lily," Sirius input, "You do want your baby to be handsome, cunning, and brave right? You are looking at the epitome of all these traits, and I was called Snuffles."
"Sirius! Cut it out. I just found out my wife's unexpectedly pregnant, and all you can do is brag."
"Wait James, Sirius does have a point," I cut in, while mock cuddling up to Sirius, again trying to lighten the mood. "He is cunning, brave, and beautiful, exactly what I want our baby to be. Anyway, we can't exactly call the baby James, that would get much too confusing, and of course James, I think you're better than Snuffles the first any day of the week."
"Ouch," exclaimed Sirius, acting wounded, at the same time, James was giving me a hug.
"He'll be Snuffles then, you've agreed," stated James.
"But, I was just teasing," I complained.
"Nope. You agreed Lily my sweet."
"Great. Listen Snuffles," Sirius said, addressing my stomach. "You're gonna grow up and be just as great as any of the marauders, or their lovely female counterparts," he grinned mischievously. "More seriously, (no pun intended there folks, I've been whining at JKR because she took a perfectly good adjective and made it a name) it's nine a.m., so why don't Remus and I head to Hogwarts to fill Dumbledore in on last night. We'll see if he can come to Hogsmeade for dinner, so you guys can tell him about Snuffles. The Three Broomsticks at 5? Now lets leave mommy and daddy alone for a bit."
"Great Padfoot. James, be good." Remus said, punching James' good arm, "And take care of yourself Lily," he said, giving me a hug, and kiss on the cheek. "Alright Padfoot, let's go."
"Lily, Prongs, Snuffles, au revoir," said Sirius, as he disapperated.
Then we were alone. Just James and me, and, uhg, Snuffles.
"So, James, what do you really thin about this baby?"
"Lily, I really am very excited. As long as nothing happens to you, I believe we'll be able to protect Snuffles from Voldemort. We're two of the most powerful wizards in the world, and we'll have many others' powers to help us. Right now I'm mainly worried about you. Don't you need vitamins or bedrest or something?"
I sighed, James always worried about me first. "I already told you honey. I'm fine. Although, with all this mess, I never asked you. How's your arm?"
"It's fine. Moony and Padfoot went a little overboard. It's only a broken collar bone. Had the ministry not x-rayed us for injuries, I never would have known about it."
"Well, even so, I think it's time we all got a little rest."
"Sure Lily." I'm positive James never would have agreed to this, but for the fact that he thought I needed rest, and would never get it until he also agreed to take a nap. He's always like to play the protector, and it had taken me several years during our courtship and marriage to break him of his ludicrous 'male protector' bit. I helped show him we could protect each other, that I was, in fact, a quite powerful wizard, and human, and I didn't need anyone to protect me.
I laid awake listening to the soft even breathing that would tell me he was asleep, then went to sleep myself. We both woke up a few hours later. In time for a late lunch, and to get ready to meet Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore at the Three Broomsticks to discuss what we needed to do.
Part 4
A/N for this part is that in this story Aurors work in groups of three. James Sirius and Remus are in a group, and Lily, and Frank and Diane Longbottom are in a group. For the record, Peter Pettigrew (the RAT!!) was to stupid to become an Auror.
We apparated to the Three Broomsticks at 4:30. As we walked into the crowded tavern I realized something. "James, we can't discuss Snuffles with Dumbledore *here*. It's too crowded. Anyone could hear us." I wasn't quite as scared anymore, and I didn't want to sound paranoid, but I would rather be too overprotective than take chances.
"Okay Lily, you have a point. We'll apparate to the edge of the grounds and then go find them. We can talk inside Dumbledore's office." We apparated and found the office, not hard since we had meetings there once a month. The password that week was 'chocolate frogs,' we got in, and ascended the stairs to his office. I knocked on the door, and James opened it for me after Dumbledore invited us to enter.
Remus and Sirius were standing around the desk, and Dumbledore rose as we came in. "James, Lily, it's good to see you. I'm told you have something to discuss with me." There was something in the way he looked at me when he said it, that made me realize he knew. Not that he'd been told, but that he knew.
"Professor Dumbledore," I still couldn't bring myself to call him Albus, "I'm a month pregnant. We didn't plan this, but it happened, and we were hoping you could help us with some spells to protect the baby from Voldemort." While I had been saying this, Dumbledore had walked around his desk. He shook James' hand, "Congratulations, you'll both make wonderful parents." Then he gave me a hug, whispering, as if to reassure just me, "We'll do everything we can to keep it safe."
"That reminds me Professor," I said when he got back to his seat, "This wonderful friends of mine here have decided that we're going to call the baby Snuffles, so we don't have to call it 'It' and so we can keep the baby a secret when we talk about it in public. We think it will be safer if we keep this a secret as long as we can."
"That's probably good Lily. Snuffles, rather interesting," Dumbledore said with a small laugh. "I guess we have other things to speak of though."
"Yes Professor, we need to find a replacement for her," cut in Sirius.
"She has to stop working," chimed in James.
"It's not safe now that she's pregnant," finished Remus.
I wanted to scream. Before I did, I stopped to think. I was dealing with three men. All of them were only children, two of whom had never even had time for steady girlfriends, and I was their only close woman friend, other than maybe Diane Longbottom, because they all lived for their work. It was a revelation, none of them had ever been around a pregnant woman before.
"Look guys, I'm not going to break! Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I'm in any more danger as an Auror than I ever was. I still have at least five months left to work. We're worried about what Voldemort could do to the baby, not what being pregnant wouldn't do to me." I looked at them and smiled, "Pick you jaw up now Sirius."
"Well, I think Lily took care of the replacement issue," Dumbledore said, with a twinkle in his eye. "We'll worry about that when we come to it. For now we need protection spells. Protecao desutef is an old, but powerful spell. It should keep the baby safe until it's born. It's not hard to perform, I'll do it if you can come back some time tomorrow."
"I found a potion earlier, Madre sicuro, I'm not quite good enough to perform it, never was very good at potions, but it's not too difficult, I think you two could manage it. One batch is supposed to last the entire nine months, you just have to take a spoonful once a week," Remus explained.
Finally, Sirius told us what he found, "This spell only keeps the baby as safe as any mortal person can be. It's not the philosopher's stone. An old spell called Phasenbabie is performed exactly one week after birth, and keeps the baby safe from anyone trying to do it malicious harm for the first two years. It works because of a mother's will to keep their child safe before it's born."
"If we add some basic protection spells to these, they should keep you and Snuffles as safe as most children and expectant mothers. Nothing is fail-safe, but this should certainly even the odds," Dumbledore paused, and there was a knock on the door, "Come in."
To my surprise, in walked Diane and Frank Longbottom, the couple who grouped with me, formed Auror Cell Group 12, Sirius, Remus, and James were Group 11. We'd all gone to Hogwarts together, Frank was a year ahead of us, and joined Dumbledore's group just after graduation.
The look on Diane's face scared me. We had faced a lot of things together, and gone on many dangerous missions, but I had never seen her face so full of fear and worry. Diane was a sweet, very outgoing person, who enjoyed being in the thick of things, even if it was dangerous. She rarely looked anything but calm. Frank looked rather concerned too, he walked in with on hand holding hers, and the other wrapped around her shoulders.
To describe Frank and Diane a bit more, Frank is more serious than most people, but he likes to have fun. He's brilliant, studious, and has a library at his house that almost rivals the one at Hogwarts. He's also a good dark arts fighter when the need arises. Diane is smart, but she doesn't much like books. She's outgoing and funny, and skilled at fighting and capturing Death Eaters. If she comes upon a muggle, wizard, or Auror in danger, she's likely to step in and help, even if she doesn't know much about the situation, just because she has an instinct to help. She also has an affinity for magical plants.
They seemed like they should be completely wrong for each other, but their strengths and weaknesses complemented the others perfectly, and it was like together they made a complete person. Our cell group worked in tandem with James', with us doing most of the research and potions making, and James' taking the missions that required a lot of brute strength in addition to skill, because with two of our team standing at about 170cm tall, we couldn't provide much physical force.
Anyway, in Dumbledore's office, they stopped near James and I in front of the desk. "Uh, Professor, we've got a bit of unexpected news. Lily should probably hear this too," Diane spoke slowly and carefully.
"Diane is," Frank had started talking, and he paused as if he didn't believe what he was saying, "pregnant."
I gasped. They too had been biding their time to have children until Voldemort was out of power.
"Hmm, yes. Stunning coincidence, yes," Dumbledore muttered to himself. "Congratulations," he said out loud, and there was a repeat of the scene that had played out when James and I made our announcement.
Suddenly Diane's face became thoughtful. "Did you say coincidence Professor?... Lily...?" I nodded.
I leaned in and hugged her. "We're in this together,' I whispered.
Dumbledore started to speak, and he described to the all the protection charms that had been explained to me. When he was done, Remus spoke up, "Pardon me, Professor, I hate to be the voice of doom, but two of the most powerful Aurors in this group, neither of whom are trying to become pregnant, get pregnant within the same week. Do you really think it's a coincidence?"
"I don't know Remus. I wondered that too, but even if someone intended for this to happen, we can't do anything about it other than what we are.
We stood in the office for a few more minutes, when Dumbledore announced that he as needed at dinner in the Great Hall. We followed him out of the office, and then silently accompanied each other to the edge of the grounds, where we disapperated our separate ways.
Part 5
The next six months passed by rather quickly. We got all the protection spells and potions into place, and nothing came after us. No one but close friends and family even knew about Snuffles until I was six months along, and Diane was five months pregnant before anyone knew about her. The two of us gradually started taking on more than our normal research and less than normal amount of missions. We decided that for the last few months Frank would join the marauders in their missions, and Diane and I would stay back at the Longbottom's, with their extensive library, and research as much as we could. By the time both of us were about six months pregnant, it was all we were doing.
If it was possible to get closer than we had in the seven years of living together and being best fiends at Hogwarts, we did. We spend a lot of time together, between the research during the day, and the time I spent at the Longbottom house when Frank and James were on a mission together.
A lot of the nights we would spend the entire time talking. Most of it was normal 'what pregnant women talk about when they get together' type chatter, but we also discussed other things. We talked about how worried we were about having babies with Voldemort on the loose, and what Snuffles and Snoopy (what they had decided to call Diane's baby) would be like, and how they would go to Hogwarts together, as well as about world events and what was going on in the ministry.
It was one night when we were both eight and a half months, that disaster struck. We were having a particularly rousing discussion, or at least as rousing a discussion as two people who were self described as a beached whale (me), and a water buffalo (Diane) could have, about the ethics of using house elves without paying them, not that either of us had house-elves.
There was a pounding on the door, and Diane and I both reached for our wands as quickly as we could, given our size. The door was broken down by four men in black hooded cloaks. Two of them instantly yelled, "Expelliarmus" and our wands flew from our hands. The next thing I heard, was "Stupefidius," which is a form of 'Stupefy' that involves knocking the person out particularly brutally, by slamming them to the floor, and after that I don't remember anything.
I awoke to a spasm of pain about 2 hours later. I was at St. Mungo's and James was standing over me, Sirius next to him. James was holding my hand. It took me a few seconds before I figured out where I was. "Where's Diane? Is she okay?!?" I stopped questioning when another wave of pain swept through me.
"Everyone's okay Lily. Frank and the rest of us got back before anything happened. The doctor's think your fall sent you into premature labor. You're okay though, you're in the hospital and doctors are looking after you. They said it should only be a few more hours."
I didn't quite trust what he was saying, because I could see Sirius in the background with a panicked expression on his face, and James looked a little more worried than I thought a normal father-to-be should. I didn't get a chance to ask questions though, because a nurse came in and made me take some kind of medicine, and soon after a magical anesthesiologist came in to put me on some kind of local anesthetic. People were coming in and out and I didn't have a chance to talk to James and Sirius privately.
For the next four hours I alternated between waves of pain and doctors coming in and James trying to shove ice chips down my throat. Finally the whole thing was over. "It's a boy!" cried the doctor. I could hear my son screaming.
"It's Harry," said James, smiling at me. They let me hold my son for a few minutes, before they took him to the nursery and wheeled me down to another room, where I slept for a few more hours.
When I awoke again, James was still there, sitting in a chair beside my bed. Remus was with him this time. "Is Harry okay? And how's Diane? I don't believe what you were telling me earlier." I sat up in bed, and James stood up and put pillows behind me to keep me up. He looked at me, his eyes searching for something. I think he must have been trying to decide if I was ready to hear what he had to say, and I must have passed muster, because he began to speak.
"Harry's okay. I promise, I'm not lying about that. This is what happened today though. We got back to the Longbottom's around midnight. We opened the door, and there were four Death Eaters there. You were just lying on the floor next to the chair, I don't think they had gotten to you yet. They were standing over Diane, they had," he stopped as his voice cracked, "They had put the Cruciatus Curse on her. We stopped them, and took their wands away. They must not have been at it very long, because she wasn't too badly off after we stopped them, a little dazed. We got help to come and take the Death Eaters away, and we brought you both here. I don't know how Diane is now, I've been with you all night."
Remus stepped up, "I've been with her, Sirius and I just traded places. They've got her a little drugged up, but she's okay. They don't know how the baby took it. They think it might have some brain damage, but it's probably mild at least, they think we got there before she'd been under the curse too long."
"Poor Diane," I said under my breath. I couldn't decide if I was happy because they hadn't hurt Harry, or guilty because Diane and Snoopy had borne the brunt of the damage. I just sat back on my bed, my head swimming with thoughts of guilt and relief. "Somebody has to stop him, Voldemort can't keep doing this."
A/N-Last one! I promise! I'm leaving it there, because it seems like the more of this series I write the more feeble my attempts become. So that's the end of it. I wanted to account for Neville's ineptness when he had such brilliant parents. About his parents, did JKR ever tell us his mother's name? I couldn't find it in the book (I checked the whole thing because I thought I remembered her being called Anne) so I made up a name, if it's wrong, I'm sorry. Thanks to everyone who stuck through this whole story. Please review it, I beg.
Part 3
All the fears that I had been describing must have come out as incoherent babbling, because after I calmed down James got a rather panicked look on his face, and the first words out of his mouth were, "Are you okay Lily? Should we take you to a healer? Do you need any special medicine? Shouldn't you be lying down?"
I'd heard before that husbands are usually more worried about their wives than the baby during a pregnancy, but it amazed me that James still fit this mold, even after all the discussions we'd had before and after deciding that we didn't want to have a baby while Voldemort was still gaining power. "James, I'm okay. It's not me I'm worried about, it's our baby, and what Voldemort might to do it."
It was like James had snapped out of a trance. He knew I would be okay, and he say the reality. "You're right Lily. Voldemort's the whole reason we've been to waiting to have children. now that it's happened though, we'll just have to work our way through this, find a way to keep it, and you, safe. There's nothing else we can do." I was amazed, not only had James gone from panic-stricken to sane in seconds, but he had known he was going to be a father for less than ten minutes, and already he was thinking more logically about the situation that I had in almost 10 hours of knowing, and usually *I* was the logical one. 'Darn hormones' I thought.
Throughout all this Remus and Sirius had been standing in the background looking surprised and a little worried. We'd told them about our decision years ago, and I could tell neither of them had considered their best friend being a father. 'Neither have we,' I thought.
Remus, always the practical one, started to speak, "I'll try to find some protection spells for you, and you can talk to Dumbledore. He'll surely be able to think of something you can do. If you just found out, and you keep this quiet, you have several months to prepare before anyone should find out."
Sirius chimed in, trying to be reassuring, "This little one will be a fighter too. The baby of Lily and James Potter, it'll be a very powerful wizard." I smiled for the first time since I'd found out. I was still worried, but other people knew and could help now.
"Okay guys, does anyone know of a nickname for this baby? We can't say 'our baby' out in public, not if we don't want anyone to know, and I can't stand to call it 'It' for the next eight months. Don't make it a real name either, because it might stick, and I don't want a baby who looks like an Elizabeth to be called something like Jane the rest of her life." I thought this was a rather good, and much needed attempt at lightening the mood. We couldn't spend an hour stressing over the situation, because James still needed his rest, and me being upset wouldn't help the baby.
James seemed to think for second. "Snuffles. Remember? That's what the old man in the village used to call you when you were in Padfoot form Sirius."
"Snuffles?? You want me to call our baby Snuffles?"
"But Lily," Sirius input, "You do want your baby to be handsome, cunning, and brave right? You are looking at the epitome of all these traits, and I was called Snuffles."
"Sirius! Cut it out. I just found out my wife's unexpectedly pregnant, and all you can do is brag."
"Wait James, Sirius does have a point," I cut in, while mock cuddling up to Sirius, again trying to lighten the mood. "He is cunning, brave, and beautiful, exactly what I want our baby to be. Anyway, we can't exactly call the baby James, that would get much too confusing, and of course James, I think you're better than Snuffles the first any day of the week."
"Ouch," exclaimed Sirius, acting wounded, at the same time, James was giving me a hug.
"He'll be Snuffles then, you've agreed," stated James.
"But, I was just teasing," I complained.
"Nope. You agreed Lily my sweet."
"Great. Listen Snuffles," Sirius said, addressing my stomach. "You're gonna grow up and be just as great as any of the marauders, or their lovely female counterparts," he grinned mischievously. "More seriously, (no pun intended there folks, I've been whining at JKR because she took a perfectly good adjective and made it a name) it's nine a.m., so why don't Remus and I head to Hogwarts to fill Dumbledore in on last night. We'll see if he can come to Hogsmeade for dinner, so you guys can tell him about Snuffles. The Three Broomsticks at 5? Now lets leave mommy and daddy alone for a bit."
"Great Padfoot. James, be good." Remus said, punching James' good arm, "And take care of yourself Lily," he said, giving me a hug, and kiss on the cheek. "Alright Padfoot, let's go."
"Lily, Prongs, Snuffles, au revoir," said Sirius, as he disapperated.
Then we were alone. Just James and me, and, uhg, Snuffles.
"So, James, what do you really thin about this baby?"
"Lily, I really am very excited. As long as nothing happens to you, I believe we'll be able to protect Snuffles from Voldemort. We're two of the most powerful wizards in the world, and we'll have many others' powers to help us. Right now I'm mainly worried about you. Don't you need vitamins or bedrest or something?"
I sighed, James always worried about me first. "I already told you honey. I'm fine. Although, with all this mess, I never asked you. How's your arm?"
"It's fine. Moony and Padfoot went a little overboard. It's only a broken collar bone. Had the ministry not x-rayed us for injuries, I never would have known about it."
"Well, even so, I think it's time we all got a little rest."
"Sure Lily." I'm positive James never would have agreed to this, but for the fact that he thought I needed rest, and would never get it until he also agreed to take a nap. He's always like to play the protector, and it had taken me several years during our courtship and marriage to break him of his ludicrous 'male protector' bit. I helped show him we could protect each other, that I was, in fact, a quite powerful wizard, and human, and I didn't need anyone to protect me.
I laid awake listening to the soft even breathing that would tell me he was asleep, then went to sleep myself. We both woke up a few hours later. In time for a late lunch, and to get ready to meet Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore at the Three Broomsticks to discuss what we needed to do.
Part 4
A/N for this part is that in this story Aurors work in groups of three. James Sirius and Remus are in a group, and Lily, and Frank and Diane Longbottom are in a group. For the record, Peter Pettigrew (the RAT!!) was to stupid to become an Auror.
We apparated to the Three Broomsticks at 4:30. As we walked into the crowded tavern I realized something. "James, we can't discuss Snuffles with Dumbledore *here*. It's too crowded. Anyone could hear us." I wasn't quite as scared anymore, and I didn't want to sound paranoid, but I would rather be too overprotective than take chances.
"Okay Lily, you have a point. We'll apparate to the edge of the grounds and then go find them. We can talk inside Dumbledore's office." We apparated and found the office, not hard since we had meetings there once a month. The password that week was 'chocolate frogs,' we got in, and ascended the stairs to his office. I knocked on the door, and James opened it for me after Dumbledore invited us to enter.
Remus and Sirius were standing around the desk, and Dumbledore rose as we came in. "James, Lily, it's good to see you. I'm told you have something to discuss with me." There was something in the way he looked at me when he said it, that made me realize he knew. Not that he'd been told, but that he knew.
"Professor Dumbledore," I still couldn't bring myself to call him Albus, "I'm a month pregnant. We didn't plan this, but it happened, and we were hoping you could help us with some spells to protect the baby from Voldemort." While I had been saying this, Dumbledore had walked around his desk. He shook James' hand, "Congratulations, you'll both make wonderful parents." Then he gave me a hug, whispering, as if to reassure just me, "We'll do everything we can to keep it safe."
"That reminds me Professor," I said when he got back to his seat, "This wonderful friends of mine here have decided that we're going to call the baby Snuffles, so we don't have to call it 'It' and so we can keep the baby a secret when we talk about it in public. We think it will be safer if we keep this a secret as long as we can."
"That's probably good Lily. Snuffles, rather interesting," Dumbledore said with a small laugh. "I guess we have other things to speak of though."
"Yes Professor, we need to find a replacement for her," cut in Sirius.
"She has to stop working," chimed in James.
"It's not safe now that she's pregnant," finished Remus.
I wanted to scream. Before I did, I stopped to think. I was dealing with three men. All of them were only children, two of whom had never even had time for steady girlfriends, and I was their only close woman friend, other than maybe Diane Longbottom, because they all lived for their work. It was a revelation, none of them had ever been around a pregnant woman before.
"Look guys, I'm not going to break! Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I'm in any more danger as an Auror than I ever was. I still have at least five months left to work. We're worried about what Voldemort could do to the baby, not what being pregnant wouldn't do to me." I looked at them and smiled, "Pick you jaw up now Sirius."
"Well, I think Lily took care of the replacement issue," Dumbledore said, with a twinkle in his eye. "We'll worry about that when we come to it. For now we need protection spells. Protecao desutef is an old, but powerful spell. It should keep the baby safe until it's born. It's not hard to perform, I'll do it if you can come back some time tomorrow."
"I found a potion earlier, Madre sicuro, I'm not quite good enough to perform it, never was very good at potions, but it's not too difficult, I think you two could manage it. One batch is supposed to last the entire nine months, you just have to take a spoonful once a week," Remus explained.
Finally, Sirius told us what he found, "This spell only keeps the baby as safe as any mortal person can be. It's not the philosopher's stone. An old spell called Phasenbabie is performed exactly one week after birth, and keeps the baby safe from anyone trying to do it malicious harm for the first two years. It works because of a mother's will to keep their child safe before it's born."
"If we add some basic protection spells to these, they should keep you and Snuffles as safe as most children and expectant mothers. Nothing is fail-safe, but this should certainly even the odds," Dumbledore paused, and there was a knock on the door, "Come in."
To my surprise, in walked Diane and Frank Longbottom, the couple who grouped with me, formed Auror Cell Group 12, Sirius, Remus, and James were Group 11. We'd all gone to Hogwarts together, Frank was a year ahead of us, and joined Dumbledore's group just after graduation.
The look on Diane's face scared me. We had faced a lot of things together, and gone on many dangerous missions, but I had never seen her face so full of fear and worry. Diane was a sweet, very outgoing person, who enjoyed being in the thick of things, even if it was dangerous. She rarely looked anything but calm. Frank looked rather concerned too, he walked in with on hand holding hers, and the other wrapped around her shoulders.
To describe Frank and Diane a bit more, Frank is more serious than most people, but he likes to have fun. He's brilliant, studious, and has a library at his house that almost rivals the one at Hogwarts. He's also a good dark arts fighter when the need arises. Diane is smart, but she doesn't much like books. She's outgoing and funny, and skilled at fighting and capturing Death Eaters. If she comes upon a muggle, wizard, or Auror in danger, she's likely to step in and help, even if she doesn't know much about the situation, just because she has an instinct to help. She also has an affinity for magical plants.
They seemed like they should be completely wrong for each other, but their strengths and weaknesses complemented the others perfectly, and it was like together they made a complete person. Our cell group worked in tandem with James', with us doing most of the research and potions making, and James' taking the missions that required a lot of brute strength in addition to skill, because with two of our team standing at about 170cm tall, we couldn't provide much physical force.
Anyway, in Dumbledore's office, they stopped near James and I in front of the desk. "Uh, Professor, we've got a bit of unexpected news. Lily should probably hear this too," Diane spoke slowly and carefully.
"Diane is," Frank had started talking, and he paused as if he didn't believe what he was saying, "pregnant."
I gasped. They too had been biding their time to have children until Voldemort was out of power.
"Hmm, yes. Stunning coincidence, yes," Dumbledore muttered to himself. "Congratulations," he said out loud, and there was a repeat of the scene that had played out when James and I made our announcement.
Suddenly Diane's face became thoughtful. "Did you say coincidence Professor?... Lily...?" I nodded.
I leaned in and hugged her. "We're in this together,' I whispered.
Dumbledore started to speak, and he described to the all the protection charms that had been explained to me. When he was done, Remus spoke up, "Pardon me, Professor, I hate to be the voice of doom, but two of the most powerful Aurors in this group, neither of whom are trying to become pregnant, get pregnant within the same week. Do you really think it's a coincidence?"
"I don't know Remus. I wondered that too, but even if someone intended for this to happen, we can't do anything about it other than what we are.
We stood in the office for a few more minutes, when Dumbledore announced that he as needed at dinner in the Great Hall. We followed him out of the office, and then silently accompanied each other to the edge of the grounds, where we disapperated our separate ways.
Part 5
The next six months passed by rather quickly. We got all the protection spells and potions into place, and nothing came after us. No one but close friends and family even knew about Snuffles until I was six months along, and Diane was five months pregnant before anyone knew about her. The two of us gradually started taking on more than our normal research and less than normal amount of missions. We decided that for the last few months Frank would join the marauders in their missions, and Diane and I would stay back at the Longbottom's, with their extensive library, and research as much as we could. By the time both of us were about six months pregnant, it was all we were doing.
If it was possible to get closer than we had in the seven years of living together and being best fiends at Hogwarts, we did. We spend a lot of time together, between the research during the day, and the time I spent at the Longbottom house when Frank and James were on a mission together.
A lot of the nights we would spend the entire time talking. Most of it was normal 'what pregnant women talk about when they get together' type chatter, but we also discussed other things. We talked about how worried we were about having babies with Voldemort on the loose, and what Snuffles and Snoopy (what they had decided to call Diane's baby) would be like, and how they would go to Hogwarts together, as well as about world events and what was going on in the ministry.
It was one night when we were both eight and a half months, that disaster struck. We were having a particularly rousing discussion, or at least as rousing a discussion as two people who were self described as a beached whale (me), and a water buffalo (Diane) could have, about the ethics of using house elves without paying them, not that either of us had house-elves.
There was a pounding on the door, and Diane and I both reached for our wands as quickly as we could, given our size. The door was broken down by four men in black hooded cloaks. Two of them instantly yelled, "Expelliarmus" and our wands flew from our hands. The next thing I heard, was "Stupefidius," which is a form of 'Stupefy' that involves knocking the person out particularly brutally, by slamming them to the floor, and after that I don't remember anything.
I awoke to a spasm of pain about 2 hours later. I was at St. Mungo's and James was standing over me, Sirius next to him. James was holding my hand. It took me a few seconds before I figured out where I was. "Where's Diane? Is she okay?!?" I stopped questioning when another wave of pain swept through me.
"Everyone's okay Lily. Frank and the rest of us got back before anything happened. The doctor's think your fall sent you into premature labor. You're okay though, you're in the hospital and doctors are looking after you. They said it should only be a few more hours."
I didn't quite trust what he was saying, because I could see Sirius in the background with a panicked expression on his face, and James looked a little more worried than I thought a normal father-to-be should. I didn't get a chance to ask questions though, because a nurse came in and made me take some kind of medicine, and soon after a magical anesthesiologist came in to put me on some kind of local anesthetic. People were coming in and out and I didn't have a chance to talk to James and Sirius privately.
For the next four hours I alternated between waves of pain and doctors coming in and James trying to shove ice chips down my throat. Finally the whole thing was over. "It's a boy!" cried the doctor. I could hear my son screaming.
"It's Harry," said James, smiling at me. They let me hold my son for a few minutes, before they took him to the nursery and wheeled me down to another room, where I slept for a few more hours.
When I awoke again, James was still there, sitting in a chair beside my bed. Remus was with him this time. "Is Harry okay? And how's Diane? I don't believe what you were telling me earlier." I sat up in bed, and James stood up and put pillows behind me to keep me up. He looked at me, his eyes searching for something. I think he must have been trying to decide if I was ready to hear what he had to say, and I must have passed muster, because he began to speak.
"Harry's okay. I promise, I'm not lying about that. This is what happened today though. We got back to the Longbottom's around midnight. We opened the door, and there were four Death Eaters there. You were just lying on the floor next to the chair, I don't think they had gotten to you yet. They were standing over Diane, they had," he stopped as his voice cracked, "They had put the Cruciatus Curse on her. We stopped them, and took their wands away. They must not have been at it very long, because she wasn't too badly off after we stopped them, a little dazed. We got help to come and take the Death Eaters away, and we brought you both here. I don't know how Diane is now, I've been with you all night."
Remus stepped up, "I've been with her, Sirius and I just traded places. They've got her a little drugged up, but she's okay. They don't know how the baby took it. They think it might have some brain damage, but it's probably mild at least, they think we got there before she'd been under the curse too long."
"Poor Diane," I said under my breath. I couldn't decide if I was happy because they hadn't hurt Harry, or guilty because Diane and Snoopy had borne the brunt of the damage. I just sat back on my bed, my head swimming with thoughts of guilt and relief. "Somebody has to stop him, Voldemort can't keep doing this."
A/N-Last one! I promise! I'm leaving it there, because it seems like the more of this series I write the more feeble my attempts become. So that's the end of it. I wanted to account for Neville's ineptness when he had such brilliant parents. About his parents, did JKR ever tell us his mother's name? I couldn't find it in the book (I checked the whole thing because I thought I remembered her being called Anne) so I made up a name, if it's wrong, I'm sorry. Thanks to everyone who stuck through this whole story. Please review it, I beg.