A Day to Remember

There was a ringing, that was all he was dimly aware. Why was there a ringing noise? Remus Lupin turned over in the bed as the ringing stopped. He sighed and was fully ready to fall back asleep when a loud crack disrupted the room. And he was soon on the floor, fully awake.

The angry face of his girlfriend, Harmony Anderson, was not a sight he liked to see at...4 A.M. "Mony, please, it's FOUR in the MORNING? What did I do now?" he asked.

"Didn't answer the phone," Harmony replied, arms crossed. She wasn't dressed in her normal robes, but in jeans, a red shirt and a denim jacket. And she was still angry.

"And is that a crime?" he asked, teasing her—it was too early for his common sense to kick in.

Harmony pulled him up and punched him in the arm. "It is when your best friend is expecting a baby," she said. That woke Remus up immediately.

"Lily's in labor?" he asked. Harmony nodded and started throwing clothes at her boyfriend. He was dressed in a matter of minutes. "Now what?"

"Now, we go get the other person who won't answer their phone," Harmony said, dragging Remus out of his house to the small apartment attached to it.

"But, Mony, I hate waking up Sirius," he whined. Harmony shot him a glance and pushed him inside. "Remind me to tell Sirius to start locking his doors. Oh Merlin, this is going to be even harder."

For Sirius Black was lying on his carpet, passed out. "You think he's drunk?" Remus asked Harmony. She leaned down, sniffed and shook her head. Remus then proceeded to shake his friend with his foot.

"Five more minutes, Remus, five more minutes...save me a seat in the Great Hall," the man said, turning over. "And some breakfast. James, don't eat all of it. What's for breakfast anyway?"

"We're having a warm serving of my fist, followed by the refreshment of the night air and finished with a BABY!" Harmony screamed into Sirius' ear. Remus swore the man jumped 5 feet into the air.

Sirius landed in front of Remus, panting heavily. "Come on, idiot, we have to get to the hospital to support Lily and Prongs," he said, grabbing his friend's arm. Harmony came running behind them.

Lily Potter didn't know the labor was going to be this painful. Sure, her mother had told her it wasn't going to pretty, but this was beyond not pretty. This was pretty painful. And no one in St. Mungo's seemed to care she was screaming at the top of the lungs.

"James Potter, when I am done giving birth to YOUR child, I am going to kill YOU for all this PAIN that YOU have put ME through!" she cried, squeezing a hand.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, Lil, save this for your husband," the hand's owner pleaded. Kristin Wright watched her appendage turn purple from all the pressure her best friend was placing on it. "James, hurry up and check her in before I lose all feeling in my hand!"

"Sorry, Kiki," James Potter said, running up to his wife's gurney. "Good news, Lil, they're moving you to a room and are going to give you a potion to ease the pain." He took his wife's hand, which she immediately squeezed in pain. Kiki could only scowl at James' expression.

The doors to the ward slammed open and Sirius came running down the hall. "We're having a baby!" he cried, passing the nurses. They gave the Potters a weird look and became suddenly standoffish.

"Uh," James said, coming up to explain. "That's my best friend, Sirius Black. You see..."

The head nurse held her hand up. "Say no more. We've dealt with him before," she said. "Now, let's get your wife into a room. She has to dilate some more."

"How much longer will it take?" Lily asked, panting heavily and crushing Sirius' hand now.

The nurse walked up to the woman. "I'm not going to lie and say not much longer. I don't know how long this will take. You're dilating slowly right now, so I don't think you're going to be giving birth within the next hour. I'll check on you afterwards." With that, Lily was being rolled down the hall, James chasing after her and the nurse.

Kiki, Sirius, Harmony and Remus followed shortly behind and took the seats in the waiting room closest to their friend's room. At that moment, Peter Pettigrew showed up, scurrying across the room. "Sorry I'm late...I had a hard time apparating," he explained nervously.

"That's alright, Wormtail, as long as you made it," Sirius said, patting a seat next to him. After two cups of coffee, the man was in a certainly better mood. And jumpy. "I can't believe Lily and James are having a baby! I can't believe Lily and James are having a baby!" he chanted in a sing-song manner.

"Well, calm down," Remus said, leaning back in the chair. "I'm going to catch a short nap. Wake me up if there's any news." With that he closed his eyes and felt Harmony lean her head on his chest. He slung his arm over her shoulders, pressing her closer and fell asleep.

That left Sirius and Kiki to their own devices as Peter decided to take a nap as well. "So, Sirius, how many cups of coffee have you had today?" Kiki asked, making small talk. Sirius only grinned and took another sip. "Merlin, I think you've had enough, Snuffles."

"You can never have too much coffee," Sirius scoffed. "And don't call me Snuffles in public when I'm not in my dog form."

"Not so loud! You're an unregistered animagus, idiot! We don't need the Ministry on yours, Peter's and James' backs. Especially James' now that he's going to be a father," Kiki scolded.

"Good point, but we're the only ones in this waiting room," Sirius pointed out. Kiki responded by punching him. "Ow."

"Well, you deserved it." Kiki said as an owl flew into the room. "Mercury!" she said, recognizing the bird.

A passing nurse picked into the room and made a sound of disapproval. "Miss," she addressed Kiki, "we don't' allow owls in this part of the hospital. I'm afraid you will either have to send it back or step outside with it."

Kiki blushed but quickly took off the letter attached to the owl's leg. She then gave it the signal to fly off, which it promptly did. "That's better," the nurse said. "Thank you."

"What is it?" Sirius grabbed the letter out of Kiki's hand. "Dear Kiki, meet me tonight at eight o'clock. Send your reply with Mercury if you can. Love, Sev."

The atmosphere of the room suddenly grew incredibly dark and Peter scurried away, claiming to have to use the bathroom. Sirius crumbled up the paper, drew out his wand and set fire to the letter. Kiki jumped up enraged.

"How dare you!" she yelled at her friend. "That was MY letter! You had no right to destroy it!"

"I had every right to destroy it! I'm telling you, Kiki, don't get too involved with Snape. He's only trouble," Sirius said, trying to reason with her.

"No, Sirius Black, that title belongs to you," Kiki said, anger seething. "Severus has a rational head on his shoulders."

"You mean a greasy head. I could probably ring out his hair and have enough to grease my motorbike—and then some."

"You take that back right now!" Kiki pointed her wand at Sirius' neck. "Or I'll hex you into kingdom come! You'll be so grateful you're already in St. Mungo's."

"Kiki, put the wand down NOW!" came James' voice. He stood out in the hallway, a bucket of ice in his hand. Kiki lowered her hand and turned to James, questioning him. "Lily wanted ice—they say it helps. And I don't want the day my son or daughter is born to be marred by the fact one of our closest friends killed his/her godfather."

"Kiki, here, come sit by me," Harmony said. She and Remus had woken up in time for the conversation between James and Kiki.

Kiki shook her head. "No, I have to go compose a response to Severus' letter. I have to tell him I can't make it due to personal reasons," she said.

"Don't you dare tell him that Lily's giving birth!" Sirius ordered her.

"I'll do whatever I damn well please, Sirius Black," Kiki spat back out at him. "And if I want to tell him I'm in the hospital waiting for the birth of my first kid, I'll tell him so. And there's nothing you can do to stop me." With that, Kiki turned on her heels and walked out of the room to find the owlery.

Harmony stood up and hugged James. "You better get back to Lily. Her temper right now is worse then these two. Remus and I will handle them—you just focus on getting your wife through this labor," she said. "Where's Peter?"

"Probably left when these two began fighting," James said. "Thanks, Harmony." He turned towards Lily's room and walked down before the ice melted.

Remus stood up and kissed his girlfriend on the cheek. "I'll go find Peter," he said. Sirius stood up and insisted he would—it was partially his fault the man had left anyway. That left the couple together.

"When will he realize why Kiki's dating Snape?" Harmony asked.

Remus could only shake his head and shrug. "Sirius may be clever, but there are some things he's still quite slow about. Especially Kiki's heart. I think she's annoyed him from the beginning because he could never quite read her."

"I think that's what also draws them together."

"That and the fact they have the James-Lily complex."

"What, you mean the fact they are in love so they fight all the time?"

"Exactly," Remus said, sitting back down next to her. "How come we never fight?"

"Never fight?" Harmony laughed. "I believe we've had our deal of fights. It's just that with us, not every little thing becomes an argument. We don't have such explosive personalities."

"Alright. But still why Snape? And she's very defensive of him, too. Is that part of the act?"

"No, that's her guilt. She knows she's going to hurt him later so she prevents everybody else from. She would probably offer to be tortured by Voldemort instead of him."

"That's another problem—what if Voldemort finds out about Kiki and uses her to get Severus to do his bidding?"

"That's the risk she's taking. Merlin, Sirius better appreciate everything Kiki's doing for his love when he realizes it. If not, I'll hurt him after Severus is done," Harmony said as Kiki came back.

"Well, I sent him a response," she said. "I told him Lily's giving birth, but not to come down to the hospital. The last person she wants to see, after Sirius, is Severus right now."

"Speaking of owls, did anyone tell the Ministry five of its Aurors aren't going to be in?" Remus asked.

"And someone has to tell Dumbledore and the Order!" Harmony chimed in, getting up. "I'll go owl them."

"Just owl the ministry, I'm sure Severus will pass on the information to Albus." Kiki smiled at her friend as Harmony left.

Two hours later...

"WHY WON'T THIS BABY COME YET?"

"Lily, darling, please stay calm."

"Stay calm? Stay calm? James, you try to stay calm when you're in INCRUSIATING PAIN!"

Sirius awoke slightly. "Lily hasn't had baby yet?" he asked, slurring his words.

"No, Sirius," Remus replied. "Lily hasn't had the baby yet."

"Lily, my hand is turning purple."

"Aww, poor baby. Sorry if I don't seem sympathetic enough to YOUR pain when MY pain is worse.

Four hours later...

"Right hand red."

"Left foot blue."

"Well, this is certainly an interesting choice of waiting for a baby to come," Albus Dumbledore said, coming upon his former students and current Order members. Peter held the Twister spinner while the other five were tangled up.

"Left hand green," Peter read while everyone groaned and moaned to reach the new spot.

Sirius was able to get his head free from inside the group. "Maybe we should get Lily out here...they say movement helps induce labor, maybe it will also speed it up." The others, including Dumbledore, had a good laugh. But not everyone.

"SIRIUS BLACK, THAT WAS THE DUMBEST PLAN EVER! IF I WASN'T IN SO MUCH PAIN, I'D KILL YOU!"

Five hours later...

"Has it come yet?"

"No?"

"Now?"

"No."

Pause. "How about now?"

"Sirius, go get us something to drink from the cafeteria."

"Aw, but it's so far away, Kiki."

"Precisely."

Six hours later...

"I'm going out to get something to eat. Anyone want anything?"

"I'll have ham and cheese."

"Bologna."

"Make that two bolognas."

"I'll have ham, cheese, bologna, pepperoni, and turkey."

"Uh, I'll just have ham."

"Anything else?"

"Yes, I want my BABY!"

Seven hours later...

"With all the magical advancements of recent years, you would think that they would discover a way to magic the baby out without so much PAIN!"

"Just keep breathing, Lil."

"Oh, can it, Potter. I should've married Snape. Then I wouldn't be in so much pain."

"Uh, nurse?"

"Oh, that's just the pain, mixed in with the mild painkilling potion."

"Mild? Did you say MILD? STEP ME UP!"

"No, dear, you're doing fine."

"Does this look FINE to you?"

James stuck his head out into the waiting room. "Sirius, Remus, can you come in here and help subdue my wife?" he asked, sheepishly.

Eight hours later...

"Got any eights?"

"Go fish."

"Damn." Kiki picked up a card from the pile. "Your turn, Harmony."

Eight hours and fifteen minutes later...

"I am the king of this game. All must hail me, Sirius Black, king of the..."

"Rummy."

"Game...Hey!"

"Sorry, your majesty. Looks like Remus is the new king."

"Aw, Moony, I'll wrestle you for it."

"No thanks, Snuffles."

Eight and a half hours later...

Silence reigned supreme in the waiting room. One of the maternity ward nurses, afraid the group succeeded in killing each other, peeked. She had to hold back a laugh. Well, you would too if you saw five grown wizards and witches sitting around passing a card, each one sticking their tongue out.

All but one. "Hey, no fair! I wasn't looking!" Kiki cried.

"Too bad. That's how you play pig. You now have a P," Sirius said.

Nine hours later...

"Poke."

"Stop that."

"Poke."

"Stop!"

"Poke."

"Sirius, do you want to find yourself in a jar?" Kiki asked sweetly. Sirius got up and moved next to Remus.

"Poke." Remus only growled in response, so Sirius moved to Peter. The man head underneath a row of chairs. Sirius sighed and plopped next to Harmony.

"Poke."

"Kick."

"WILL YOU TWO CUT IT OUT OUT THERE? I'M TRYING TO GIVE BIRTH HERE!"

"Sorry, Lil," the two said, suddenly six inches tall.

"Hey, Sirius, enjoy that height?" Kiki asked.

Ten hours later...

"We've officially hit rock bottom," Kiki said, hanging upside down on the chair.

And it was true. Sirius had finally wasted all of his energy and was napping. Remus was reading a book Dumbledore brought him with the deck of cards. Harmony and Peter were using their wands to doodle on Sirius' face.

"It appears, love, that you are right," came a cold, slimy voice that would strike fear into any student's heart. Kiki jumped up, grabbed the voice's owner and ran out of the waiting room.

"I told you not to come down here!" she yelled at her boyfriend. Severus Snape could only smirk in response. "Tell me why you're here!"

"Quit your whining. I'm here because you've been here for ten hours," he said, rubbing her arm. "I thought you might like some time away from that imbecile and spend it with a real intellect."

"Well, Remus is reading a book right now and I've already spent time with him. Now would you please go?"

Severus pushed Kiki against the wall and kissed her passionately. "Can Remus do that?" he asked as she licked her lips. He took that as a "no, do it some more" and a make-out session began.

"Kiki, are you mad? Sirius is about to wake up. Lose the git," they heard Harmony whisper. The two pulled away, flushed and panting. "And you do this in the waiting room of a maternity ward? Haven't you been listening?"

"We are NEVER having sex AGAIN! You hear me, James? NEVER!" Lily came in just at the right minute.

Kiki looked at Severus. "You better go," she told him. He grabbed her arm in defiance.

"Sirius Black can't make me go," he said.

"Do I need to put you in a jar and owl you to Lucius Malfoy?" Kiki asked.

"Sirius Black can't make me go," he repeated.

"Is that a certain GIT I hear out here? Besides Padfoot, he's the LAST person I want to see. James, go and KILL him for me. After all I'm having YOUR child," Lily's voice came. Severus wisely decided to run away.

Eleven hours later...

"When will this child be born? I can't wait anymore! This is killing me!"

"I totally concur with that, Sirius."

"Wow, Lil, you just agreed with Sirius. Nurse, I think she's had enough painkilling potion now."

"Just in time. She's fully dilated. We'll take her into the birthing room now."

Eleven hours and twenty minutes later...

"It's a boy!" James cried, running out later. "I'm a father and I have a son!"

"I have a godson!" Sirius cried. The two men rushed and hugged each other, chanting, "We have a son!" over and over.

"Well, while you two celebrate, we're going to go visit Lily," Kiki said, locking arms with Harmony, who was holding Remus' hand. They pushed their way into their friend's room.

Lily sat in a hospital bed, looking sweaty and tired, but happy. She was holding a small white and blue bundle. "Oh, Lil," Kiki and Harmony cooed together. "What's his name?"

"Harry. Harry James Potter," Lily replied. Harry stuck a tiny fist out of his blankets and waved it around. Remus stroked the tiny fist, which soon encircled around his finger. "Isn't he cute?"

"Adorable," Remus said, hugging Harmony closer. James, Sirius and Peter came in and sat around Lily's bed, James sitting right next to her.

"Can I hold him? Sirius asked.

"No, you'll drop him," Lily stated, sweetly. "Besides, I'm still holding him."

"I'm his father, can I hold him?"

"No, you'll drop Harry, too."

"You're lucky you just gave birth to my son."

"Thanks, but you're still not holding him. You'll still drop him."