Three months later…
He wakes up to a sunny room after a deep sleep. It takes a while for his eyes to open and he can't seem to suppress the smile warming up his face as he wakes up in a beautiful house perfectly content. He's been on a permanent high for weeks now. He opens his eyes slowly, squinting for a few moments from the sunlight, and stretches his muscles to work out the after sleep cramps. Then he turns over, sees waves of red curls by his side, hears her light breathing he doesn't think he'll ever tire of, and smiles even wider as he wraps his arms around her thin body. He whispers good morning into her hair and kisses her head before closing his eyes again and just rests peacefully next to his wife.
It takes her a few moments to wake up and when she does she turns in the bed and snuggles more into him. It's hard for her, for either of them, to be away from each other. Ever since they reconciled three months ago every moment possible was spent together because too many years were spent apart.
"Good morning." She says. Her voice still heavy with sleep and her eyes still closed.
"Want breakfast?" He asks her playing with strands of her deep red hair.
"Can I have anything?" she asks him eyeing him playfully with bright eyes.
"Anything." He says smiling.
"I want pancakes then. With chocolate chips."
"Okay." He says and gets out of the bed.
He walks down the stairs of their new house. They've been living there for about two months. It's a picturesque little village called Godric's Hollow. It's a nice place for children to grow up, so the real state dealer says. The house is beautiful. Not fancy like the mansions they grew up in or cold and modern looking like their town house in London. It has a very cozy feel. It feels like a place any person would like to call home.
They decided to move about a week after they got back together. They felt as if they needed a makeover, a way to start fresh so that they could leave behind the demons of their past. The house they used to live in was a part of their old life, a place of bad memories and heartbreaking moments. This place offers them a clean slate, a way to forget about the troubles they once dealt with.
Not that they could ever truly forget. It was the hardest day of her life when she walked into Gabriella's room with big cardboard boxes. For so long that room was a shrine of her lost daughter and packing her things into boxes just cemented her death in a way the funeral, the three years without her, never did. Packing away her things felt so wrong. It felt as if Lily was letting Gabriella go. As if she was forgetting Gabriella. It was the first and last time since the reconciliation that she cried because as she folded the bed sheets, touched Gabriella's stuffed bear Brownie, the memories overwhelmed her.
Her stuff is in boxes in the attic. They'll never use it again. They won't allow Gabriella's old belongings to become hand me downs to their next child because it somehow would desecrate her memory. But it's still there as a reminder of their lost daughter, the fascinating daughter who was too prefect, too amazing for this world to be able to keep her.
She goes up to the attic some days while James is at work. She'll sit for a few hours looking at pictures or touching Gabriella's old clothes. She still can't bring herself to let her daughter go, to completely forget the pain that plagued her for years. But, it's more bearable for her now, to live with the knowledge that her only child died because she isn't alone. Before she lived in this dark world she inhabited by herself. She was left with her painful memories of a laughing child and a long fall to the ground from a broom she never wanted Gabriella to have. She was plagued with dreams about silky black hair and the know-it-all arrogance she thought more precious than anything else. She was alone in her grief, in her misery, because she shut the life out of her when she stood before her daughter's uncovered grave.
She isn't alone anymore. His mere presence makes everything so much more bearable. It was like before she forgot she had him, forgot she loved him. It was as if she was stuck in a dark dream for the past three years that he suddenly woke her from. He rescued her after three years of wanting. He rescued her long after she had already given up on him.
After about ten minutes she walks downstairs and meets him in the kitchen, the scent of pancakes filling her nose. She smiles when she enters the room, looks brightly at the back of his messy haired head and sits at their round kitchen table. Everything about this house, this life is new and fresh and… absolutely wonderful in a way she never dreamed was possible.
"Sirius is coming over later today." He says as he turns off the stove and piles the pancakes onto a plate. Her face falls slightly at that, but she still smiles and sighs happily.
"And what will you two kids get yourself into today?" she asks.
"We thought we'd fly. You know how he fancies our backyard. Frank and Alice are coming over today as well if you remember. She's pregnant now, did you know?" he asks sitting in the seat next to her. She blushes and unconsciously touches her stomach.
"I must have forgotten." She said. "I've had so much on my mind."
"Like what? Unpacking? Lily, Red, we've been done for weeks." She looks at him and smiles, knowing that he doesn't know, that she shouldn't keep this from him. But knowing our scary it would be to tell him the she may be, is with child again.
It's hard. The last pregnancy was met with high prospects and ended in failure. She's afraid of same thing happening again, of giving her heart to this child growing inside of her and then suddenly its gone and she's mourning for another baby. But then there's that side of her that feel this time will be different. The side of her that knows, just knows, this is the beginning of the rest of their lives. The past three years, what was that anyhow? It was nothing, a sadistic joke, that's all.
"When are our guests coming over?"
"A few hours. Two I guess." She shakes her head.
"James, you prat. Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she says her eyes filled with that old steam of her childhood.
"You were sleeping, honey. Besides, it's refreshing for you to be angry with me."
She softens at that and laughs.
"You'll always be a boy, won't you James? You'll always be like a child." She says looking past James and into their grand backyard, her hands still on her belly because she never wants to let it go.
Two Hours Later
They're sitting in the backyard on a large cushioned chair. Her head leans on his shoulder and his arms are protectively wound around her body. A comfortable silence surrounds them.
"Frank and Alive should be here soon." Lily says quietly breaking through their silence.
He stays quiet for a little and then quietly speaks, "I know. I sort of wish they wouldn't come." She looks up at him slightly,
"I think it's great about Alice, you know? A baby. It's marvelous, isn't it?" She asks him looking closely at his facial futures.
He tenses up a bit and looks sad, "Of course it's marvelous. Any one would think so." He says smiling slightly and resting his shin on the top of her coppery head.
"You as well?" She asks
He stays silent for a few moments before he speaks, "I can't think of anything I would want more."
"That's good because I need to tell you something." She mumbles out. "I think… No I know that well, I'm pregnant."
"You're pregnant?" he whispers to her his face temporarily frozen in shock as he stares over their large back yard. "We're going to have a baby?" he whispers more to himself than anyone else and for a moment she's afraid that he won't want this baby, that his fear is too great.
He just begins to smile all of a sudden. A huge, quirky smile breaks out on his face and she chuckles slightly as she thinks that he looks seventeen again, looks like he just won the Quidditch cup for Gryffindor.
"This is the best news." He says. "I've been hoping that maybe…"
"Hey Potters" A loud voice calls.
Of course it's Sirius coming to interrupt their perfect moment. Of course next time they're able to be alone in the kitchen just ten minutes later Frank and Alice arrive with a loud crack in their kitchen. Of course, of course, they don't have a chance to be alone together for the rest of the day too busy they are entertaining their guests: the guys flying while the girls speak about motherhood below. Of course, when they finally are alone, they fall right to sleep without a word but a quick I love you. But that's life at Godric's Hollow, free and alive. It was the fine print in their reconciliation: no melancholy allowed in the walls of Godric's Hollow. It's all part of their new life.
It truly was a fun day for them. Eating out by the lake in their backyard. Opening a bubbly apple cider to celebrate the pregnancies of Alice and Lily. Just them two, Lily and James, sitting close together and whispering in each other ears, acting as they did when they were children in the Gryffindor common room was enough to make the world seem… amazingly perfect.
She stares at her stomach a lot each day, likes to see how the baby is growing inside of her, likes to dream up different names to call the baby and the different clothes she'll make it wear. She imagines their future, imagines standing with James and a eleven year old child at platform 9 ¾ and imagines a wedding in the distant future, a graduation from Hogwarts, head boy or girl maybe.
James loves touching her stomach. He plays her muggle radio near her saying he wants the baby to hear. She laughs before yelling at him to get the bloody ruckus away from her. He's always doing those small things, like talking in gibberish to her belly, petting her as if she's some dog, and she can't stand it. He's so bloody annoying and she… she loves him so much more for that.
It's just the mere fact that they both love this child so much that makes all his antics okay. This baby slowly growing inside of her, their future child, saved their dying relationship and helped rekindle a love that was almost lost. This child is their rescuer. It gave Lily James and James Lily. It gave them life and for that they can never repay it. But they'll spend their lives trying.
END
I hope you enjoyed the story!