Chapter Fourteen: Two Wizards, a Muggle Woman, and One Bedroom
That night, the question was raised of how sleeping arrangements were going to work. "I suppose we could move Ginny's bed into Sirius and Remus's room," said Mrs. Weasley doubtfully.
Percy looked irritated, probably because "Percy's room" had now become "Sirius and Remus's room".
"Of course we could," said Mr. Weasley. He pointed his wand at Ginny's bed. "Somnus Replacio!"
Sure enough, when I looked in the other room, Ginny's bed was there. "Good night," said Mr. Weasley. He and Mrs. Weasley left.
I collapsed on the bed, exhausted. "Well, this is a fine mess," I said. "God, Sirius, you must really hate me by now. I've interfered with your sex life no less than three times, you have to watch me have morning sickness, we can't leave the house....."
"I don't hate you," said Sirius. "You've been quite a nuisance, I'll admit...."
"Sirius!"
"Well, come on Remus, she has."
"That's not polite!"
"I have to watch her vomit every morning. I've think we've moved past politeness."
Remus wisely decided to change the subject. "What names have you got in mind? For the baby, I mean," he asked.
"Haven't really thought about it yet," I admitted.
"I always liked the name Julius. Or Julia, for a girl. IF I ever had a child, I'd name them that."
"IF," said Sirius.
"Admit it, you know you want them."
It seemed to be an old and repeated argument for them, because each line came from their mouth with no emotion and a well-worn fluidity.
"We can't have any until my name's cleared, anyway."
"After that, then."
"After that, Harry will be living with us. If he isn't grown by then."
"At the rate things are going, he will be." Remus turned to me. "Don't listen to a single thing he says, he wants them. You should have seen him after Harry was born. 'Oh look, he's got James's nose! Look, he's smiling at me! Lily, you must be so tired. Don't argue, of course you are, I'll hold Harry. DON'T ARGUE, YOU KNOW YOU'RE EXHASUTED!"
Sirius laughed the first real laugh I'd heard from him. "All right, Remus is right. I do, but I've got enough stress in my life right now." He lay down on the bed. "Well, good night, Jo."
"Good night."
Sometime in the night, I heard a knocking on the door. It was Hermione. "Are they asleep?" she asked.
"Yeah, they're asleep."
"Harry! Percy!" she called. "You can come in!"
Silently, Harry and Percy slipped in the door. "We thought we'd try to figure out the book a bit more," Hermione said. She opened it and rested it on her lap. "There's got to be something in here about how to defeat Voldemort."
Harry looked over her shoulder. "One of the problems is, nothing's in order. It's all scattered around. See, it predicts Dumbledore's defeat of Grindelwald, and then it predicts the building of the Chamber of Secrets. At least, that what I think it's predicting."
Percy looked at the book too, his eyes alert as Hermione turned the pages. Suddenly, her fingers stopped on one paragraph.
"Well, read it aloud!" I said.
She read, "A citrus fruit shall ward off the Dark Lord."
"Oh great, Voldemort will try the Imperius Curse and we'll whip out a lime to defeat him," said Harry, rolling his eyes. "I think Rowena Ravenclaw had breathed a few too many incense fumes when she thought up that one."
A thought struck me. "Lemon drop," I said.
"What?" asked Percy.
"Lemon drops! Dumbledore's fond of them. He must have known that they had some sort of power. Wonder how."
"But he's still captured," Hermione said.
Good point.