Chapter 49 Something in the Water
October 1979
Lily took a glass of champagne from the floating tray that was circulating the room and stepped back a bit, taking the opportunity to step out of the spotlight and observe the party guests unnoticed for a few minutes.
Kathleen was saying something earnestly to Mad Eye Moody in one corner, her hands gesticulating animatedly while Moody nodded, a slight frown visible on his scarred face. Remus was talking with Peter and Sturgis Podmore nearby, although Peter seemed more inclined to eavesdrop on Kathleen and Moody than to follow his own conversation. Lily grinned a bit; how very like Peter.
Across the room, Lily could see her parents with Mr. and Mrs. Potter, talking about Petunia's coming baby, Lily had no doubt. Mr. and Mrs. Evans rarely talked about anything else anymore. Her grin faded into a grimace at the thought; Lily was still extremely squeamish about the whole situation.
Nearby, Frank and Alice were talking to Frank's parents and Griselda Marchbanks. Lily did a double take when she saw Alice, who was positively radiant. She'd never seen Alice look happy while in the presence of her mother in law, but happy Alice undoubtedly was. In fact, she positively glowed with it. Could it be that Mrs. Longbottom had finally said something nice to her?
Before Lily could expand upon her curiosity, a familiar laugh caught her attention. Turning, Lily spotted James and Sirius, together as usual, teasing Morwenna near the refreshments. Whatever remark had made James laugh had obviously been at Sirius' expense; he was glowering at James and a smug Morwenna.
Catching Lily's eye, James grinned at her and motioned for her to come over. Without hesitation, Lily abandoned her corner and moved toward them, weaving through the crowd and stopping occasionally to greet someone or respond to a remark.
In honour of James and Lily's one year anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Potter had thrown them a party. It wasn't anything grand; large parties were extremely rare in the wizarding world these days, but a few people had gathered at the Potters' for hors d'ouevres and to congratulate Lily and James.
For their actual anniversary, Lily and James had gone on a minibreak to Rome, where they'd spent half their time getting lost and the other half arguing over whether or not it would be all right for James to enchant the moped they had rented to fly. They'd come back, brown from the sun and relaxed, just in time for the party.
"Congratulations, Lils," Morwenna said to Lily as she reached them, kissing her cheek in greeting. "You now qualify for sainthood, having been married to this git for a year."
Lily giggled, only to turn her laughter into a tactful coughing fit a moment later after observing James' scowl and Sirius' grin. Apparently it would be wiser not to comment.
"Sirius and I have decided that we should all go to the Leaky Cauldron after," Morwenna continued, hastily changing the subject. "You can tell us all about Rome and everything then."
"Sure," Lily replied, her coughing having miraculously ceased. "That'll be fun."
"Maybe we can turn in your application for sainthood on the way," Sirius cracked.
"There's Professor Dumbledore, Lily," James said pointedly, steering her toward him. "Let's go and say hello." He practically dragged her away from Sirius and Morwenna, who were sniggering in earnest. Lily grinned back at them over her shoulder, but as she caught James' eye, decided to have another coughing fit instead.
"Coming down with something, St Lily?" James stared her down with his version of the Prefect Glare of Death.
"I do feel a bit ill suddenly," Lily fluttered her lashes at James innocently and put a hand to her forehead.
James snorted. "Why is it everyone thinks you suffer so much being married to me?" he demanded.
"I have no idea, dear," Lily returned facetiously.
Several hours later, Lily and James, accompanied by Sirius, Remus, Kathleen, Peter, Alice, Morwenna, Frank, and Dorcas, arrived at the Leaky Cauldron to catch up on each other's lives over a night cap. What with one thing and another, it had been quite a while since all of them were together.
As soon as they were settled in their usual corner table and had ordered, Morwenna and Alice demanded to hear all about Lily and James' trip to Rome.
"It was brilliant," Lily began.
"It would've been a lot more brilliant a lot sooner if you'd let me put a spell on the moped straight away," James muttered.
"What's this?" Peter glanced from Lily to James expectantly.
"We rented this moped thing to get round the city," James explained. "But we kept getting lost, so I wanted to – er - put a small enchantment on the moped to make finding our way a bit easier."
"Small?!" Lily scoffed. "You call a flying spell small?"
"Well, it would've made it loads easier to find the Coliseum," James pointed out.
"I wanted to use Floo powder and those tourist Portkeys to get round the city, but no, you insisted on the moped," Lily shot back. "Don't blame me if you kept getting lost; I wasn't the one who wanted an excuse to drive."
James flushed amid the amused glances of their mates. "I was trying to absorb local culture," he muttered. Lily snorted derisively, but made no further comment.
Soon everyone was taking part in the Great Flying Moped Debate; Sirius, Peter, and Dorcas were all for James' view, while Remus, Kathleen, Morwenna, Alice, and Frank supported Lily's claim that a flying moped would most definitely have attracted unwanted attention from the Roman Muggles. Not to mention the little matter of violating several wizarding laws and the threat of being thrown into jail in a foreign country.
"It doesn't really matter what you think about it anyway," Alice snapped at Sirius after a while. "The point is that Lily won the argument and they didn't ride a flying moped round the city in plain view of all the Muggles. Right, Lily?"
"Er, well, not exactly....." It was Lily's turn to flush.
"What do you mean?" Alice gawped. "You can't really be telling me that you let James do it?!"
"Yes she did," James smirked triumphantly. "Lily finally gave in on our last night there."
Everyone turned in unison to stare at Lily, a few mouths hanging open.
"Well, it was dark out," Lily muttered defensively. "And we drove really fast." Alice merely shook her head, looking rather betrayed.
"She didn't cave in until the very end," James said comfortingly to Alice. "And I can be very persuasive, you know."
Everyone except Lily snorted into their drinks in wry agreement with James, who opened his mouth indignantly.
"So that's it, then, in the way of news?" Remus asked Lily hastily, cutting James off.
"Yeah, pretty much," Lily replied, flashing Remus a grateful look. "Oh – there's one other thing. My sister's pregnant."
"Eurgh!" exclaimed Dorcas, Morwenna, and Kathleen in unison.
"Everyone seems to say that," Lily said absently to herself.
"What's so bad about that?" Frank wanted to know.
"Yeah," Peter piped up.
"Isn't that good news?" Remus added uncertainly. Everyone else at the table, all of whom had heard stories about or had actually met Petunia, shot the unenlightened trio pitying glances.
"It is most definitely NOT good news," James said decidedly. "Lily's sister – who looks like a deranged horse – is having a baby with a rampaging hippopotamus. How can that be good news?"
"Hey!" Lily exclaimed. "That's my sister you're talking about, James!"
"And which part of my description would you disagree with?" James asked innocently.
"Good point," Lily conceded after a moment.
"There're going to be loads of babies next year," Peter commented. "Mrs. Weasley's pregnant, and Edgar Bones' sister in law, and now Lily's sister. Must be something in the water."
"Hate to break it to you, mate," Sirius commented, "but water's got nothing to do with it."
This comment was largely ignored, however, as the conversation blazed ahead without him.
"Mrs. Lovegood at the Prophet is pregnant too," Kathleen chimed in.
"And Narcissa Malfoy," Morwenna added, grimacing in distaste.
"And – "Alice glanced swiftly at Frank, who nodded almost imperceptibly. "um, me," she finished nervously.
"WHAT?!" James and Sirius shouted in unison.
"Congratulations!" Kathleen squealed, jumping out of her chair to hug Alice. Lily, Morwenna, and Dorcas immediately followed her, all of them gathering round Alice in a happy, squealing mass.
The five wizards were left facing each other, feeling more than a bit odd about both the witches' reaction and the entire subject of pregnancy in general.
James cleared his throat. "Congratulations, mate," he said gruffly, slapping Frank on the back.
"Really happy for you," Sirius punched Frank, who was by now a brilliant shade of crimson, in the arm.
"It's great news," Remus said, wincing a bit as the squealing went up an octave.
"Yeah," Peter echoed uncertainly. "Er – well done?"
At this, the five wizards looked at each other and began to snigger, resembling nothing so much as the randy bunch of sewer-minded thirteen-year-olds they'd used to be.
"No, I don't feel sick at all!" Alice was saying in response to Morwenna's inquiry. "I mean, I only found out about a week and a half ago, so there's still time, but I really think it isn't going to be too bad!"
"It might not be," Kathleen said consideringly. "My cousin was pregnant a couple of years ago, and she said she wasn't sick for a single day."
"Does your sister feel sick, Lils?" Alice wanted to know
"I don't know," Lily replied.. "I haven't spoken with her since I found out about it."
"Oh right," Alice seemed to be recalling what Lily's sister was like. "Well, it's different for everyone anyway."
The rest of the evening was given over to talk about pregnancy and babies, everyone doing their best to offer tips, advice, or even just observations about the whole subject. Alice listened to everyone, shouted at a couple (Sirius and James), blushed a lot, and kept exchanging blissful glances with Frank, who seemed almost as happy as Alice was.
Finally, Peter rose to go round eleven-thirty, explaining that his mum would be upset if he came in much later than this.
"Congratulations again," Peter said to Alice and Frank, stooping to hug Alice and slap Frank on the back. "See you lot later."
"Peter seems different somehow," Alice said speculatively to Lily, watching Peter leave the pub.
"I know what you mean," Lily replied, taking a sip of her drink and turning to watch Peter as well.
"I can't quite put my finger on it though," Alice mused. "He seems somehow more –"
"Self-confident?" Lily suggested.
"That's what it is!" Alice agreed. "He seems more self-confident."
"I wonder what's happened to make him feel so much better about himself," Lily frowned at the door again, though Peter was long gone.
"Who knows?" Alice shrugged. "Whatever it is, I'm sure we'll find out eventually. Peter has his good points, but keeping a secret is not one of them."
"Yeah," Lily echoed, still thoughtful. "We'll find out eventually."
Peter walked briskly away from the Leaky Cauldron, his hands crammed in his cloak pockets against the harsh October wind. Now a little distance away, he pulled out his wand and Disapparated as quickly as he dared. He could not be late tonight of all nights.
Peter had already stayed longer than he'd meant to at the Leaky Cauldron, but he couldn't have left sooner than he had, not after hearing Frank and Alice's news; it would've looked highly suspicious. Peter smiled to himself as he thought of it; he was happy for them. It was clear how happy Alice and Frank were and how excited Alice was. Peter didn't even pretend to understand it, but Alice had always been nice to him, and if the baby made her happy, then he was glad for her. Peter felt a tiny twinge of guilt at the thought that Frank and Alice and their baby could be in danger because of him, but he quickly stifled it. What was done was done, and Peter hadn't had a choice in the matter. Plus, it wasn't as though he meant any harm to Frank and Alice personally any more than he had to any of his other friends.
Reaching his destination, Peter stepped quickly into the shadows, then rapped the signal knock on the front door.
"Pettigrew," Avery greeted him, standing aside so Peter could step into the entrance hall. "You're early."
"I didn't want to be l-late," Peter explained nervously, his excitement twisting his stomach into knots.
"This way," Avery said, and Peter followed him into a cavernous room lit with only a few candles. The dim light cast heavy shadows over everything, but the room had been prepared for a ceremony. Peter felt another little thrill of anticipation. All of this was for him, and he'd never felt quite so excited and powerful and alive in his entire life.
A door opened on the other side of the room, and the Dark Lord entered, flanked by two Death Eaters, one of them with a robe draped over their arm. Their heads were hooded, and the shadows made it impossible for Peter to see their faces.
Peter waited apprehensively as more and more Death Eaters entered, all cloaked in identical black hooded robes, their hoods drawn up and their faces in shadow. None of them spoke; each new arrival moved wordlessly into place in the quickly-filling circle that had formed round Peter and the Dark Lord.
Like Peter, Voldemort's face remained uncovered. He stood with his followers around him, wand clutched in his hand, alert and ready for his part of the ceremony. The feeling of power he emanated was palpable, radiating across the room and through each and every one of the assembled Death Eaters. Peter shivered involuntarily, both excited and scared to become a part of that power.
Finally, Voldemort raised his arms and began to speak in a hissing dialect Peter vaguely recognized as Parseltongue, moving slowly toward him. Peter felt his heart crawl up into his throat and lodge there as the Dark Lord stretched his wand toward him, the Death Eaters chanting all around them.....
As though in a trance, Peter extended his left forearm, everything else fading away as the most searing pain he'd ever experienced shattered his consciousness.
November 1979
"Is it time yet?"
Sirius consulted his wristwatch. "Three more minutes."
"THREE minutes?! It's been at least four already," Lily protested.
"No, it's only been two. It's just that you ask every ten bloody seconds," Sirius replied in a would-be-patient voice.
Lily sighed and sat down again. In the end, she was glad that she wasn't doing this alone.
She hadn't felt that way at first, though. In fact, she'd felt just the opposite. Lily had gone out on her lunch hour to "run some errands," as she'd told the other people in her department. After a quick stop in a Muggle chemist's, Lily had made her way to a potions shop in Diagon Alley. She'd been quite pleased with the way she'd slipped in the door and moved unobtrusively toward the potions she needed. So far, so good; she hadn't even seen anyone she knew.
Lily had been trying to decide between Madam Meddler's Enlightening Elixir and Tattersall's Telling Tonic when she heard a familiar voice. "Oy, Lily!" Lily started violently and spun round to face Sirius Black, the very last person she wanted to see at that particular moment, the two incriminating vials still clutched in her hands.
Sirius' eyes grew round as he read the labels on the bottles Lily was holding. He opened his mouth, but Lily beat him to it. "Yes, I think I am," Lily cut him off. She could feel her face turning a spectacular shade of scarlet. "But I'm not sure." She added in a rather small voice.
Something he saw in Lily's face (and Lily was willing to bet it was terror) made Sirius close his mouth. "We'll get them both," he said firmly, taking the vials from Lily. "And this one's good as well," Sirius added with suspicious familiarity, grabbing another bottle from the shelf. Lily could only stare at Sirius bewilderedly.
"How much time do you have until you have to be back in the office?" Sirius asked, handling this situation with more sensitivity than she'd ever seen from him, and suddenly Lily was very glad that she and Sirius had happened to be in the same potions shop.
"About forty-five minutes," Lily squeaked, talking around the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. It's the hormones, a little voice in Lily's head whispered.
"Plenty of time," Sirius said decidedly. He made his way to the front of the shop. "Shall we go to your house or mine?"
They'd gone to Lily and James' flat, and now Lily sat waiting, feeling slightly sick, for the results of her first wizarding pregnancy test.
"It's time," Sirius said finally, and he and Lily raced over to the small portable cauldron containing half of the Enlightening Elixir. They'd boiled the solution in the cauldron according to the instructions, Lily had drunk the other half, and now, according to the little pink bottle, they were supposed to check the contents of the cauldron to find out the results.
"Here goes," Lily said, and, taking a deep breath, looked down into the cauldron that was going to tell her the most important news she'd ever hear in her life.
It was still pink.
"It didn't change," Lily said. She glanced at Sirius. "Does that mean I'm not pregnant?"
"Erm," Sirius consulted the bottle. "No, green means you're not pregnant. Pink means it's still 'searching your body for presence of the miracle of life.'" He wrinkled his nose. "The 'miracle of life?'"
"But it's supposed to take it five minutes to find the sodding miracle!" Lily exclaimed. She glared at Madame Meddler's image on the bottle, which was beaming up at her in blissful ignorance.
"Wait, I think it's changing!" Sirius peered down at the cauldron once more.
The solution was now a bright shade of blue.
"Good Godric," Lily whispered, sinking into a chair. "I'm pregnant."
"Is that – good news?" Sirius asked carefully, clutching the vial of potion a bit tighter as Lily remained silent.
"Yeah," Lily decided at last. "Yeah, I think it is." She grinned suddenly at Sirius. "I'm going to have a baby!"
"Congratulations, Lils," Sirius beamed back at her. "D'you still want to do these others?" he asked, indicating the two other magical tests and the three Muggle ones that remained on the table.
"Yeah, might as well be sure about it," Lily continued to grin like a simpleton. "Hand me the Telling Tonic."
Two wizarding tests and three Muggle ones later, Lily was as certain as she could be without actually seeing a doctor. She and James were going to have a baby.
The thought of James caused Lily's grin to fade a bit. How was she going to tell him? More importantly than that, was he going to be happy about it? Would this baby change everything about their relationship?
"You're not thinking about taking another one of those idiotic Muggle tests are you?" Sirius asked, noticing Lily's thoughtful expression. He'd been trying to find a way to feed the test to Lily until she'd explained to him how it worked. Sirius had been horrified and had gone on about it for five minutes until Lily threatened to feed it to HIM if he didn't shut up about it. That had quieted Sirius in a right hurry, but he'd gone about with a thoroughly disgusted expression on his face ever since.
"No, I was just thinking about what I'm going to say to James," Lily explained. "And how he's going to take the news."
Sirius and Lily winced in perfect unison at the thought. "He'll run completely mad at first," Sirius said matter of factly. "But after he calms down a bit, he'll be overjoyed."
"I hope so," Lily twisted a lock of her hair round her finger anxiously.
"You've got nothing to worry about," Sirius said, putting a hand on Lily's shoulder. "I know James better than anyone, and I promise you, he'll be happy about this."
A few short hours later, Lily wasn't so sure. It was now eight o' clock, and James still wasn't home. All of the confidence Sirius had managed to inspire Lily with had completely drained away round five-thirty, and now she was just terrified.
Maybe Sirius told James about it and he ran off, Lily speculated, lying on her bed and staring at nothing. Hell, maybe Sirius had told James and he'd died. Expired on the spot. Typical James, to die of shock and leave her to be a single mother. Or maybe he fainted and hit his head and was now lying in a coma at St Mungo's.....
Fortunately, before this train of thought could progress much further, Lily heard the front door open and James' voice calling her name frantically. Lily jumped off the bed and went into the main room to find James, his hair standing on end and clearly frantic with worry.
"Thank Merlin you're all right!" James exclaimed, squeezing her hard enough to crack ribs in his relief.
"I'm fine; why wouldn't I be?" Lily asked warily, pulling back a bit so she could look James in the eye.
"You didn't come to the emergency Order meeting Dumbledore called at five!" James explained, still more than a bit tense. "When I didn't see you there I asked Gideon Prewett if he knew where you were, and he said you sent some excuse about not feeling well and didn't come back after lunch. I thought you were in some sort of trouble or something! What's going on? And what were you doing with this cauldron?" James picked the cauldron up and examined it, frowning at the potion remnants at the bottom.
"I'm not in any trouble or anything," Lily replied, trying to decide the best way to break the news."Why don't we sit down?"
"No, I think I'll stand." It was James' turn to be wary.
"Are you sure?" Lily twirled her hair round her finger. James nodded, clutching the cauldron tighter.
Lily took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant," she said quietly and clearly.
THUNG.
"OWWWW!!!" James had dropped the cauldron on his foot.
"Are you okay?" Lily rushed forward to help him, crouching down on the floor next to where James sat, clutching his squashed foot.
"Are you sure?" James ignored her question, staring at Lily wide-eyed.
"Almost positive," Lily verified. "I'm going to St Mungo's tomorrow just to confirm."
"But you're sure?"
"I took six tests, and they were all positive," Lily was beginning to feel a bit defensive. "Plus, I'm – late, and I'm never late."
"So you're sure?"
"Believe it or not, James, I CAN read directions and piss on a stick," Lily snapped, goaded.
"Piss on a stick?" James wrinkled his nose. "What has that got to do with anything? And why would anybody do that anyway?"
"Never mind," Lily waved the question aside impatiently. "Can you stand up?"
James shook his head. "Just now I think I'd fall right back over." He closed his eyes for a moment.
"So – what do you think?" Lily glanced at James apprehensively.
"Dunno," James replied, opening his eyes again. "I think that just may be the scariest thing I've ever heard in my life."
Lily waited, hardly daring to breathe.
"I should be panicking right about now," James continued thoughtfully. "But for some reason I'm really, really excited instead."
Lily sighed in relief; trust James to describe what she herself was feeling so perfectly. "So you're happy about it?"
"Of course I'm happy about it!" James replied promptly. "I'm a million things right now, and happy is definitely one of them." An enormous grin spread across James' face. "We're having a baby!"
"Yeah, we are!" An answering smile stretched across Lily's face.
Lily and James sat there beaming fatuously at each other for quite a while before they remembered where they were and why they were there. They made their way to the couch, where they immediately collapsed and ordered a takeaway, James telling Lily in a rare burst of culinary adventurousness to order anything she fancied. As it happened, Lily did have a craving for fish and chips, which James consented were edible after an initial period of skepticism.
"Weird to think of us being parents," James mused, toying idly with a chip.
"Yeah, it is, actually," Lily wrinkled her nose wryly at the thought.
"We'll have to be responsible," James continued. "Good Godric, we'll have to start eating healthy food!"
"We do eat healthy food," Lily protested indignantly, stubbornly refusing to look down at the greasy fish and chips.
"We'll have to buy vegetables!" James couldn't seem to stop. "Worse, we'll have to eat them!"
"We have vegetables," Lily felt the need to defend their eating habits.
"Name one vegetable that's in this flat right now," James challenged.
"Good point," Lily said at last. "So we'll buy vegetables. It's not like we didn't eat them before."
"True," James brightened at the thought. "Weird to think we'll have to make someone else eat them."
"Yeah," Lily was beginning to be a bit worried herself. "What if we can't? What if we aren't good parents?"
"We'll be great," James said, trying to be convincing. "You'll be a brilliant mum and hopefully you'll rub off on me."
"What makes you think I'm going to be a brilliant mum?" Lily wanted to know.
"Well..." James stopped to consider. "Well, because girls always seem to know about babies," he finished at last.
"I don't know anything about them," Lily was the one on the verge of panic now. "I've never been anywhere near one, or a pregnant woman either, for that matter."
"It'll be all right," James was completely unequipped to deal with this situation. "Those things – come naturally, you know."
"And how do you know that?" Lily appeared unconvinced, to say nothing of uncomforted. "Have you ever been around babies or pregnant women?"
"I saw a pregnant woman once," James recalled. "My mum's friend was pregnant when she came to visit when I was twelve."
"What was she like?" Lily leaned forward eagerly.
"Erm...." James tried to recall something useful. "I dunno," he said at last.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Lily asked, the hint of panic back in her voice. "You can't remember anything about her?"
"Well, Sirius and I were at my house for Easter holidays," James explained. "And we, er, were usually too busy laughing at her to notice much."
"Laughing at her?" Lily stared.
"Well, we thought it was funny," James defended himself rather lamely. "She was big and round and – "he broke off, seeing Lily's face.
"So you're going to laugh at me?" Lily's voice quavered dangerously, her eyes suspiciously bright.
"Of course not!" James exclaimed, aghast. "It was funny when I was twelve, but not anymore!"
Lily snorted to express her doubt on that point. "It's not exactly comforting to think that our child will have a mother who doesn't know anything about children and a father who's probably less mature than they are," she observed scathingly.
"We'll figure something out," James said with a smirk, putting his arm round Lily and leaning back against the sofa. "Don't we always?"
Lily just rolled her eyes at James' arrogance, comforted in spite of herself.
Author's Note:
Finally, I managed to write a lighter chapter! I've missed writing this sort of thing, because it's the most fun for me to write, but I just seemed to have one sad plot point after the next. Enjoy the lightness while it lasts, everyone.
Also, I want to thank everyone for their supportive comments about my portrayal of Peter. I have a very difficult time writing him, and I'm glad to know that people think I'm doing an adequate job; it's very encouraging.
Thanks as always to everyone who reviewed. I'd thank people individually, but it's ridiculously late, and I'm very, very tired. So I'll just say again, thanks.
Till next week! Enjoy!