Chapter Two: Lily's Big News
Lily sat on the edge of the chair, waiting for her doctor to come back. He's been gone at least ten minutes, she thought grumpily to herself, what could possibly be taking him this long? She sighed and picked up one of the childrens' books that was laying on a table beside the chairs. She grinned and amused herself for several minutes by reading it. The door opened and Lily dropped the book in surprise. When she saw the doctor, she jumped up.
"Well? Do you know why I've been so sick lately?" Lily asked.
"As a matter of fact I do, Mrs. Potter. Congratulations. You're pregnant," he said, smiling at her. Lily blinked and stared at him.
"Pregnant?" she asked.
"Yes. You're about two months along," he said. Reaching over to the far side of the counter, he pulled three pamphlets from a display. "Go home and read these, and I'll see you in a month."
"Uh, ok," Lily said, blinking. She slowly walked out the door. Once she got to the Apparation point in the lobby, Lily Apparated to the Apparation point at the Ministry of Magic. James came hurrying towards her.
"Lils!" He called out and hugged her. "What'd the doctor say? Are you all right? Why are you crying?" Silent tears and started falling from her eyes. James conjured a tissue for her.
"Thanks," she said, and wiped her eyes. "Can we go to one of our cubicles to discuss this?"
"If you want to," James said, leading her to the lift. "Is it bad?" The worry was evident in his voice. Lily shook her head. Once they were settled in James's cubicle, Lily began to talk.
"I'm…pregnant," she said. James looked stunned, but his face soon broke out in a grin. "Oh James. It is wonderful and everything…but can you imagine bringing a baby into a world like this? That's why I was crying. I don't know if I could think of a worse time to have a child." Lily started crying softly. James got off the desk where he'd been sitting and hugged Lily. He couldn't think of anything to say because there was nothing.
"Hey James, have you seen-" started Sirius when he walked into the cubicle, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Lily crying. "Is everything all right?" Lily looked up at him with her red face and puffy, blood shot eyes.
"Looks like you're going to be a godfather, Padfoot," she smiled. Sirius broke out in a grin and jumped up and down.
"Are you starting to regret deciding that he was a good choice for godfather?" James asked, laughing, as Sirius pulled him up and started making him jump up and down. Lily grinned.
"As long as he doesn't do that to me, I'm not." The fire in the small fireplace in the cubicle turned green and Frank Longbottom's face appeared in fire. He looked very tried.
"Hello, Frank," James said. Lily got up from his chair.
"I'm going to head back to my own cubicle," she said, giving him a quick kiss.
"You might as well stay, Lily. You, too, Sirius. That way I won't have to tell you two later. It's just easier for me," Frank said. James conjured up two more chairs and they sat down.
"What's up, Frank?" James said. He reached over and took Lily's hand in his own.
"Turns out the wards had been activated. Some Muggles that lived around there said that they'd seen the house briefly glow," Frank said grimly.
"So that means that he knew how to take them off?" Sirius said. Frank nodded.
"We have no idea how. Only…certain people…know how to activate and take off the wards," he sighed. "I've just talked to Fabian Prewett and he doesn't know how Voldemort could know unless there's a traitor. Everyone was tested for loyalty, though, so I don't know how there could be one. I've got to be going. I've been using the fireplace at the McKinnons, and Mad-Eye is telling me it's time to get going. I'll see you three later. Take care," Frank said.
"You, too, Frank," Lily said. The other two agreed and Frank's head disappeared from the fire. Lily sighed and James gave her a hug. The three sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking about everything Frank had told them. Sirius stood up.
"I need to be going. I've still got lots of paper work to do before tonight," he said. He hugged Lily. "Congratulations, again, Lils."
"Thanks," Lily smiled as he left the cubicle. She turned back to James and smiled at him. "Can you believe you're going to be a father?" James grinned broadly.
"Not in the least. But I'm so happy, Lily," he said. He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her.
"Hey, no snogging while a duty," a voice called, laughter evidence in his voice. James looked up and, upon seeing that it was just Remus, rudely gestured at him.
"Remus!" Lily squealed and jumped out of her chair. She hugged him. "Guess what! I'm going to have a baby!"
"Congratulations," Remus grinned, then added, "Oh dear, a mini Prongs running around. That will be interesting." James mock glared at him.
"Hey, a mini Prongs is better than a full sized Padfoot," he said. Remus paused for a moment, pretending to think.
"Very true. Let's be glad we don't have another one of those," he laughed.
"I HEARD THAT!" called a voice from across the room. James stood on his chair and saw that Sirius, whose cubicle was on the other side of the room, had done the same. James grinned at him.
"Hey, we said another. We never said anything about regretting the one we have!"
"POTTER! BLACK!" a voice growled at the doorway. James and Sirius turned to see Mad-Eye Moody standing in the doorway.
"Sorry!" they called out to him, and got off their chairs. Lily giggled. She kissed James on the cheek.
"I'm going over to my own cubicle," she said and walked out of the cubicle, still giggling. Lily walked over to her cubicle and sat down at the desk. There was a knock on the side of the opening and she turned. Alice Longbottom, who had the cubicle between James and Lily, was standing there.
"I heard your big news, Lily. Congrats," she said, hugging the younger woman warmly.
"Thanks, Alice," Lily said, smiling. "How's your mother doing? Is she still ill?" Alice sighed and leaned on the edge of Lily's desk.
"She's not doing really great. The doctor's aren't expecting her to last more than a week or so."
"I'm so sorry!" Lily exclaimed and hugged Alice.
"It's all right. It will be good to see her not suffering anymore. Frank should be back soon, so I'm going to wait for him." Alice left the office and Lily sat back down at her desk. She pulled a picture off the wall in front of her. It had been taken her Seventh Year at Hogwarts. She and James (Head Girl and Boy) Sirius, Remus, and Peter were all sitting squashed together on one of the couches in Gryffindor Commonroom, and all were laughing. Picture James kept alternating between mussing his hair up with his hand and kissing Picture Lily on the cheek. Picture Lily would blush and give Picture James a half hug. Picture Sirius kept putting bunny ears up on an unaware Picture James. Picture Remus kept tickling Picture Sirius and Picture Peter just smiled, looking happy. Lily smiled at the picture and put it back on the wall. There was another knock on the cubicle and Lily turned around. James was standing in the doorway.
"C'mon, Lils, it's quitting time," he said, holding out his hand to help her up. She took his hand and the left the office together, after waving good bye to Sirius, who had another hour of work left.
Disclaimer: none of the characters, places, events, and etc. belong to me. They belong to JKR, Warner Brothers, Scholastic Books and other people, I'm sure.
Author's Note: and so ends chapter two. Coming in Chapter Three: The first Order of the Phoenix meeting without Marlene, Lily's Big News is announced, and, oh dear, another death. Thanks a bunch for reading. Please review.