Note from Nikki

I'd like to thank everyone for reviewing (the whole two of you). I'm in a MAJOR hurry now so I can't do reviewer notes this time! I hope that you enjoy this chapter! Thanks!

Nikki

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"JAMES!" Lily screamed.

Dorcas paled and repeated her friends plea for help. "JAMES!"

"What?" James cried, skidding into the room, nearly tripping over a pair of robes. "What's going on?"

Lily screamed very loudly again and grabbed onto her swollen belly, breathing very deeply and looking rather red in the face.

"SHE'S GOING INTO PREGNANCY!" Dorcas screamed. She flew around the room, carelessly throwing robes and various other objects into a black bag.

"WHAT?" James yelled, looking momentarily stunned.

Dorcas paused what she was doing and knocked James on the forehead. "ARE YOU DEAF? LILY'S HAVING CONTRACTIONS!"

"Now?!" James cried.

"YES NOW YOU IDIOT!" Lily managed to shriek in between deep breaths of what sounded to Dorcas, obvious pain.

"Stop yelling!" James yelled. He ran over to Lily and gripped her very tightly, helping her stand to her feet.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked, yawning boredly.

Lily happened to scream at this very moment and James nearly dropped her to the floor when he leaped back in shock.

"Uh. . ." Sirius looked very confused. He looked from Dorcas, who was still throwing things into a bag, to James who was searching for his wand, to Lily who looked like she was about to pass out. It slowly seemed to dawn on him until he yelped and dashed to Lily's side.

This was obviously a very bad choice as Lily happened to fling her head back rather violently at this precise moment with another scream of pain. Sirius clutched his head and was momentarily dizzied, even though Lily had obviously not felt a thing.

"What I do? What I do?" Sirius yelled.

"WHAT DO I DO?" James yelled back.

"Disapparate!" Dorcas screamed. This seemed to be the only logical thing to do, in her opinion at least. "Can you do it Lily?"

Before Lily even responded, she was gone and James was gripping air. James, looking rather flushed, disappeared next.

"Come on Sirius!" Dorcas said, trying to calm herself.

"This is insane," Sirius replied, still looking a little shocked.

"Did you think the kid was going to stay in there forever?" Dorcas asked, rolling her eyes while she attempted to zip the bag up, despite the fact that her hands were shaking.

"No!" Sirius said irritably, "Alice just went into labor too!"

Dorcas slipped and fell with a thud to the ground. "SHE WHAT?"

Sirius, obviously thinking that Dorcas had lost her hearing due to Lily's screaming, yelled back, "ALICE WENT INTO LABOR TOO!"

"OH MY GOD!" Dorcas screamed.

Before Sirius could say anything in response, Dorcas had Disapparated. Sirius shrugged and vanished alongside her, obviously not caring that his hair was not combed and that his robes were wrinkled, having just woken up.

--

Dorcas dashed immediately to the third floor where she could hear extremely loud screams booming from two separate rooms.

"Where do we go?" Dorcas demanded of Sirius who had followed her up.

"Uuh. . .well. . .Alice started first?"

This was all Dorcas needed so she dashed immediately to the room on the left. There Alice was already giving labor, gripping Franks hand. Dorcas couldn't tell who was in more pain, Frank or Alice.

"GET IT OUT!" Alice screamed.

"GET IT OUT OF HER!" Frank yelled.

Sirius, apparently very curious, looked to where the doctor was patiently waiting. He paled and flew backward, nearly killing Dorcas by hurtling her into the wall.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" he asked, mortified.

"Of course it is!" Dorcas snapped, peaking between Alice's legs but feeling rather queasy after doing so. "Or at least I think so. . ."

"You're supposed to know!" Sirius shouted over another one of Alice's screams. "You're a woman!"

"I have never seen nor given birth before, thank you very much," Dorcas said matter-of-factly. "And after seeing this, I have absolutely no intention of ever doing so!"

Both people turned their focus back to Alice who gave one final heave and then rested her head back in sudden relaxation. Sirius and Dorcas thought something had gone wrong before they heard the shrill cries of a baby.

Dorcas froze, looking upon the small child, not sure if she was supposed to say it was cute or recoil in horror.

She needn't have worried too long because at that moment she heard another scream, several rooms down. Muttering a quick, "Congratulations!" Sirius and Dorcas dashed off down the hall to the other room, wondering just how much of this they could take.

"NO I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Lily screamed as Dorcas and Sirius entered the room. "I NEED A PAIN KILLER!"

"Lily," James said meekly. "They don't have those here."

"WELL THAN THERE HAS TO BE A SPELL OR SOMETHING!"

"We can't do that either," the healer said firmly. "Magic interferes with the birthing process. The child could come out with defects or become a squib."

"I DON'T CARE!"

"Lily!" James cried. "JUST PUSH ALREADY!"

"DON'T TELL ME TO PUSH," she screamed, somehow managing to cuff James on the back of the head. "YOU AREN'T THE ONE SHOVING A BLOODY ROCK OUT OF YOUR-"

"LILY PUSH!" Sirius called out encouragingly.

He nudged Dorcas rather painfully in the ribs and she raised her eyes before saying, "Uh. . .yeah! You can do it, Lily!"

"PETUNIA IS GOING TO GET DRUGS!" Lily wailed. "AAAAAAAAARRRRRGH!"

Sirius dashed to her side and grabbed a hold of her other hand, immediately regretting this, after Lily nearly pulled it off.

James shook his head sadly when he saw Sirius fall and then remerge seconds later. "I can't even feel it anymore."

"One more good push, Lily," the healer said encouragingly.

Dorcas watched as Lily took a deep breath and heaved with all her effort. Dorcas recoiled in disgust but leaned forward again in fascination as the child burst from her womb. He was covered in blood but that didn't conceal the mass of matted black hair. The boy began crying immediately and the healer smiled satisfactorily.

"Congratulations," he said smiling.

"Oh my God," Dorcas whispered, taking a few tentative steps forward.

The healer turned around and counted the baby's toes, fingers, and finding out various other things by whispering small spells. Next the healer cleaned the baby up and wrapped him delicately in a blanket and presented him proudly to James, Lily, and a somewhat dizzied looking Sirius who was nursing his wrist painfully.

"He's beautiful," Lily choked out, tears of joy streaming down her face.

"You were calling him a rock only a few minutes ago," Dorcas joked, grabbing onto Lily's hand.

"I was not!" Lily defended herself angrily.

"Hey James," Sirius said, having finally seemed to recover. "He already has your hair."

"He does?" James asked, patting the baby awkwardly on the head.

Lily laughed and carefully handed the child over to James who looked as if he had never been so happy in his entire life. Happier than what Dorcas had seen him at his wedding day.

"He looks like a Harry, doesn't he?" James asked, holding the child protectively.

"He really does," Lily agreed.

The couple looked up at a beaming Sirius and Dorcas. "What do you guys think?"

"He's a very handsome kid," Dorcas said.

"Yeah, his eyes are green like yours Lily," Sirius added.

"Definitely Harry."

"Definitely."

James and Lily exchanged significant looks. "Should we tell them now?"

"Yeah!" James said, smiling happily.

"Tell us what?" Sirius asked.

"We've named you Godparents," Lily announced importantly.

"ME?" Dorcas cried. She suddenly felt so happy, she had no idea what to do with it all. She hadn't felt this way since her wedding night with Gideon.

"Yes, of course, who do you think we were talking to? The wall?" James muttered sarcastically.

Sirius and Dorcas did a happy dance before stopping mid-step. They looked at one another, eyebrows furrowed in obvious confusion. "What is a Godparent anyway?" Sirius asked.

James sighed impatiently. "If anything were to happen to Lily or I, it would be your duty to take care of Harry. You're like his second set of parents in the event of our death."

"Oh. . ." Dorcas said, suddenly not feeling so happy.

"Well, we don't have to worry about that," Sirius said uncomfortably.

"Meet Neville!" Frank said happily as he entered the room. He broke the awkward silence and everyone dashed over to see the baby while James went over to show Harry to Alice.

"They're going to be the best of friends, I just know it," Lily said proudly.

Everyone was so happy on this day and yet none of them could possibly understand what would happen a little over a year from now.