2 months later
Lily sighed as she looked into her closet mirror and then to the jeans lying on her bed. There was no way that she would be able to fit into them now that she was 2 ½ months pregnant. She put her hands to her stomach, it wasn't too much bigger, but it was big enough not to fit into her favorite pair of blue jeans. James walked into the room and gave Lily a hug. He had finally gotten used to the fact that he was going to be a father and couldn't wait for the 9 months to be up.
"Do you have Quidditch practice today?" Lily asked.
"No, we haven't started the new season yet. Doesn't seem like we really need to practice anymore after winning every game that we played along with the Quidditch World Cup," James said motioning to the giant gold cup that rested on his dresser.
Lily sighed and leaned into his shoulder. She hadn't gotten any sleep last night. "Any attacks mentioned in the Daily Prophet?" she asked.
"No, thankfully. It looks like Voldemort has decided to lay low for a while," said James.
"There haven't been any attacks since they caught that Harris guy for murdering the McKinnons. Do you remember him from school?"
"Yes, he was always strange and always up to something. I was always surprised that he was in Hufflepuff, if I were the Sorting Hat I would have put him in Slytherin," said Lily.
James laughed. "Yeah, but no one wanted to be in Slytherin back then, and besides, he's not a pure blood," he said.
Lily nodded. It was a well known fact that only pure bloods could get into Slytherin. Lily had luckily been chosen to join Gryffindor and knew that there was no way that she could be landed in Slytherin because she was a mudblood meaning she has non magic parents. Lily strolled over to the bed and flopped down on it, James following be hind her. She reached her hand over to him and grabbed his hand. "What are we going to do, James?" she asked.
"About what?" he asked.
"It is going to be a dangerous time to raise a child," said Lily.
"Lils, with the Order all ready formed we might be able to catch Voldemort before it is born. We've talked about this too many times before. Let's not worry about it," he smiled moving closer to her.
Lily sat up and rested herself on top of the pillows. James pulled himself up and leaned on her shoulder. "I sure hope we stop all of this before the child is born," she sighed.
"Lils, don't live in the future, you'll miss all of the beautiful things happening in the present," he said kissing her on the lips. He wrapped his arms around her waist.
Lily found it hard to lapse into the other world as she usually did while kissing James. She couldn't help but think about the future and who was going to make the front page of the prophet next. James could sense her tenseness and moved one of his hands up to her face lightly stroking her cheek. He felt her relax and he let out a sigh of relief.
A high pitched cackle sounded that night, 200 miles away from the Potter house on Glen Street. There was a flash of green light that reflected throughout the whole block, but everyone was asleep. No one heard the crash as little old Mrs. Redner fell backwards into her china cabinet. There was no time for her to scream as her last breath got caught in her throat. Peter was shaking as he left the house. His first mission had been fulfilled. He had succeeded in punished Mr. Redner for not responding to his master's black mail.
Peter's master was in the process of recruiting followers, or as he called them, Death Eaters. It was his job to make sure that the most powerful wizards were on his side by forcing them to respond to black mail. Peter felt guilty as he walked home that night and once again fell into an uneasy sleep.
The Daily Prophet the next morning reported the death of little old Mrs. Redner. It gave a brief summary of her life and a list of her personal achievements. Mr. Redner had an interview posted about the nights events on page three which cleared up the rumor that one person was killing everyone. Mr. Redner stated that the murderer wasn't alone. His side kick locked Mr. Redner inside of the cellar and he heard a crash and heard voices talking to each other. One sounded worried while the voice that he recognized as the man who locked him up sounded confident.
Lily woke up in the morning to find the bed empty. She looked over at the clock and saw a note on her night stand. She sat up and unfolded it. Of course, it was from James. It read:
Dear Lils (and baby),
I noticed that the fridge was empty so I ran out to the store for a bit. I am stopping by Sirius' on the way home, so I don't know how long I'll be away.
Love always,
James
Lily sighed. It looked like she was going to have to fend for herself for the time being. She dragged her feet across the floor and went into the bathroom to get herself ready for the day. Lily got out of the shower and rubbed off the steamy mirror of her vanity. Realizing that he had forgotten her clothes on top of her dresser she wrapped her towel around herself and went back into her room. She closed her bedroom door, got dressed, and headed back into the bathroom to apply her makeup and style her hair.
A bird was singing outside of the window. Lily ran over to the window, mystified at what type of bird would be out singing two weeks before Christmas. She grinned when she saw a beautiful gold finch perched on her window sill. She opened the window, held out her finger to the bird, and brought it inside. The gold finch began to glow and turned into Lily's friend Amy. "So nice of you to fly by," Lily said.
Amy got up off of the ground and dusted herself off. "That was a long cold flight, but I had to see you," said Amy.
"What's up, Amy?" Lily asked.
"Well I heard that someone was expecting," she giggled.
Lily blushed. "You heard correctly."
Amy squealed. "Oh my gosh! I thought that Gloria was pulling my leg!"
"Since when has Gloria been known to lie?" Lily laughed.
"Well I don't know, it's just the fact that we are all so young," said Amy flopping on Lily's bed.
Lily hadn't thought of this before. She was only 18. "I hadn't thought of that before," she said frowning.
Amy smiled a fake smile, "Come on, you can handle it. At least you are married to someone who, unbelievably, has common sense."
"So, do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?" Amy asked after a minute.
"Well, we only found out about 3 months ago, so not yet," said Lily.
"Well you have to think of names for it!" said Amy sitting up on the bed rolling her eyes at her.
"James and I haven't talked about names yet," Lily said.
"So, you have known for three months and haven't told anyone yet?" she asked.
"Well, we didn't want very many people to know just incase something happened," said Lily.
"Did you at least tell your parents?"
"No, they would totally flip out! But James' parents know. Well you know James, he couldn't keep a secret from his parents if his life depended on it."
"You are going to have to tell your parents eventually."
"I know I just don't want to tell them yet."
"Can you imagine the look on your sister's face when she finds out?" laughed Amy.
Lily smirked. "Petunia would be furious and maybe even a little jealous on the inside. She and Vernon have been trying for the longest time to have a child, but they haven't succeeded yet, although this jealousy would be covered up with crude remarks."
Amy put on her best Petunia voice and said, "Can't wait to see what this child is going to look like."
Lily laughed. It did sound like something Petunia would say. "Oh I can't wait to see what some of her children are going to look like; especially if it has Vernon's eating habits!"
Amy laughed and clutched her stomach. "Better make sure to stock up on food when they come to visit," she said between laughs.
"They'll never come here, especially if we have a young witch or wizard in the house!" said Lily.
James walked into the house and heard giggling coming from over head. He shook his head, Amy must be over. He would know that laugh anywhere. It had haunted him all through his days at Hogwarts, but it did come in handy. Amy's laugh was the signal to jump out of the way to avoid one of Lily's hexes.
He walked up the stairs and into his room to find Amy and Lily sitting on the bed laughing. "Not talking about me, are you?" James laughed walking over to the bed, sitting next to Lily.
"Of course not sweetie, we are talking about my sister," said Lily.
"Usually when you talk about your sister you have tears of rage pouring out of your eyes," James teased.
Lily playfully hit him. "We are making fun of her, thinking about what her children will look like," she said.
James wrinkled his nose. "I think that we should make it illegal for her to have children. They would be able to give this new dark power a run for its money; it would be able to kill with just one look. Our world is doomed."
Amy laughed even harder and fell over on the bed. James slipped his arm around Lily's waist and pulled her close. She leaned against him and heard Amy's laughs becoming distant as she breathed in his aroma of the outside air.
Lily awoke abruptly as a pillow came crashing down onto her face. She opened her eyes and saw James sitting up in bed holding a pillow. In one swift movement she pulled the pillow out from behind her head and whipped it at James. He laughed and hit her back. "James…you…are…so…immature…" Lily said separating each word by hitting James with a pillow.
James laughed and began to walk out of the room still holding his pillow. She heard him walking down the stairs. Lily followed still clutching onto her pillow. Once she reached the last step she again got hit with a pillow. "James! What is the big idea!" she screamed.
"Merry Christmas to you too, Lils," he laughed running towards the Christmas tree.
Lily gasped when she saw the huge pile of presents sitting under the gleaming Christmas tree. "What time is it?" she asked.
"About four in the morning," James laughed.
"James!" Lily cried.
"Hey, come on tell me you weren't excited about today," he said.
Lily looked at him and smiled. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's open up those presents!" she said.
James grabbed her hand and led her over to the tree, sat down on the floor and dragged Lily onto his lap. Lily felt like a little child again, waking up early on Christmas morning, starring in awe at all of the beautifully wrapped presents. "It's our first Christmas together, James," said Lily leaning her head against his shoulder.
"I have already realized that," he whispered in reply.
Lily sighed and closed her eyes trying to find a way to save the memory forever. A few short seconds later she felt a package being stuffed into her hands. She pried open her eyes and looked up at James who gave her a kiss on the forehead. "You really know how to ruin a moment," Lily laughed.
"What, that kiss didn't help any?" he smiled giving her a pair of puppy dog eyes.
Lily rolled her eyes and looked down at the present she was holding. Without even looking at the gift tag she could tell it was from her mother. Lily had gone through 18 birthdays getting gifts from her mother and could recognize the pristine wrapping anywhere. She carefully picked at one of the pieces of tape taking as long as humanly possible to open the first fold. James' hands were still around her waist, but Lily could tell that he was resisting the temptation of ripping the paper on the package to shreds.
"We are going to be here for a week if you continue on at this rate," he joked.
"Well we have the time," Lily smiled as she started to pick at another corner of the paper.
"Come on Lils, you are killing me here."
"No one said that you couldn't open a present as well."
"I want to see what you got."
"Liar."
James smiled and grabbed the present out of her hands and stood up. Lily swung her arms around in the air. She shot him a death stare and he slowly backed up into the stairs. Lily got to her feet and took a step forward. James spun around and began to run up the stairs. Lily rolled her eyes and flicked her wand at the gifts under the tree and the followed her up the stairs. She went into her room and saw James lying on the bed with the present in his hands.
"Real funny James," said Lily placing a hand on her hip. She heard a rush of air behind her and moved out of the way just in time for the presents to come pelting into the room and landed at the foot of the bed.
"Come on, we have a present to unwrap," James said grinning. He grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the bed.
Before flopping onto it he pulled a hand up to her cheek and pulled her into a kiss. Lily's hands automatically moved up his arms and around his neck. She felt James place his hand around her waist and pull her closer to him. His tongue brushed against her lips and Lily allowed it into her mouth. There were no words to describe the kiss. Some would call it perfect, but to Lily it went way past the definition of perfect.
James pulled away and was glad that Lily protested at the idea of ending their kiss. He sat on the bed and handed her the present that he ran up the stairs with. Lily laughed and opened it. Inside was a pair of gold hoop earrings. They were beautiful. Lily's mother had exceptional taste.
They kept unwrapping presents until they were swimming in a pile of bows and wrapping paper. Underneath all of the wrappings were various gifts including some baby essentials (from James' parents, Gloria, and Amy), cards, galleons, a brochure on man-eating garbage cans (from Moody), Fillibuster fireworks (from Sirius), chocolate (from Remus), a hand knitted sweater for each of them (from Molly Weasley), and an assortment of different wizard candies (from Dumbledore). James slipped off of the bed and walked over to his dresser. Lily could hear him rummaging around in his top drawer.
Lily leaned back nonchalantly on the pile of pillows and flicked her wand watching as the wrapping paper disappeared. She heard James close the drawer and begin to walk over to her. He flopped down on the bed and crawled over to Lily holding a small gift box. "What's this?" she asked.
"Did you really think that I was just going to get you that lame wizarding recipe book? Come on Lils," James said shaking his head.
Lily laughed and reached out for the gift box. James pulled it out of her grasp. "Tell me how much you love me!"
Lily sighed. "I love you James."
"I love you to Lils," said James smiling.
A/N- Nothing really exciting going on here, no real changes present…please read and review.
Ok well this was an update test i guess to try out my email list...so if any of you didn't receive an email from me containing this chapter and would like to receive chapters in the future, let me know by sending me an email..don't leave your email in a reivew as it will be cut off unless you put it in the email section. I am putting everyone on the same update list just to let you know, more than one update list would drive me crazy. I am hoping to update all of my stories soon with this same note in it to let everyone know, kind of as a last call sort of thing. ok bye!
I don't think i am going to be removed anytime soon, so I'll just continue posting like normal then. bye!
