Easily one of my favorite chapters. Did I get their reactions right? Leave me a review, let's discuss!

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Ch. 20 - Expecting

Two days later

By the time Remus awoke, Emmeline had already gone to work in Diagon Alley. The quiet combined with the empty spot next to him in bed always elicited a bit of anxiety.

He swung his legs over the side of the mattress and stretched, his perpetually achy bones creaking and crackling like he was ninety, not nineteen. Pushing himself off the bed, he strode to the bathroom to carry out his normal morning routine: brush his teeth, shower, comb his hair, so on. As of late, he'd been shaving more often too.

When he'd finished in the bathroom, he dressed and picked his wand up off the nightstand. He wanted to practice the new spell a bit more, just to be prepared for the next training session. Emmeline was still having trouble with it and was getting frustrated, so Remus thought if he could master his own patronus, he'd be better able to assist her. While she was at work, he spent his mornings practicing the charm.

"Expecto Patronum."

The white wolf materialized. When he'd dissipated, Remus raised his wand again.

"Expecto Patronum."

This time, his wand produced a shapeless silver vapor. He repeated the process a few more times.

He was fairly certain he'd figured out the differences in casting the incorporeal versus the corporeal patronus. The incorporeal was simpler and required a less detailed memory than the corporeal, though the result was not as strong. He ended up selecting two memories to have on hand: the one of his friends from second year for his corporeal, and various memories of Emmeline cutting his hair for the incorporeal. If he could keep those two straight, he could be sure that the wolf remained a secret when he needed it to.

The phone ringing from the ground floor distracted his practice, and he set his wand aside to go take the call. Might be his ever-concerned mum.

"Hello?"

"Moony, hey," Sirius greeted him on the other end of the line. Odd - he didn't often elect to use the telephone Marlene had bought him.

"Alright Padfoot?"

"Me? Yeah, fine. Prongs is...erm...what uh, what are you up to right now?"

It didn't matter what he was up to. If something was wrong with James, he would make himself available no matter what. "Is he there with you?"

"Yes, Wormtail's on his way too. Bit of an impromptu Marauders meeting."

"I'll get dressed and be there in ten minutes. What's this about?"

"Oh, hold on, James wants to talk to you."

Remus heard a faint rustling and some mumbling before James came over the line. "Moony, mate - Emmie around?" This was a bit shouted, and Remus had to yank his ear away from the receiver.

"Merlin-...No, she's got a shift at the bookshop. Why?"

There was more muttering in the background as Sirius informed him that yelling was not necessary. "Just wondering. Lily's a bit...out of sorts. Marlene's gone over to see her, but I just think she'd want Em there too."

"She'll be off this afternoon, I'll leave a note...Are you two okay? You and Lily?"

"Yes, yeah we're...just wanna see our mates is all."

"Should I...er...bring anything over?"

"...You haven't got any booze, have you?"

...

As promised, Remus apparated to Tutshill ten minutes later and had even stopped at the liquor store on his way. In one hand he held a replacement bottle of brandy for Sirius, and in the other he held a bottle of gin. When he entered the kitchen, Peter had already arrived, and James looked far too relieved to see him with the alcohol.

"Saint Moony," he said in lieu of a thank you, rising from the table and hugging him tightly before snatching the brandy from his hand.

"Actually, that one's-"

"Let him have it," Sirius soothed him, taking the gin. "You didn't need to do that, by the way. I would've bought another."

"I know, but...Godric's sake Prongs, it's not even eleven yet," he chastised as James began liberally pouring himself a brandy.

Sirius brought three more glasses down from the cupboard. "Pour four, what the hell. We're celebrating, after all."

Peter stood from his spot at the table. "What are we celebrating, exactly?"

"By the looks of it, the married couple's first row," Remus guessed.

James took a hearty swig of the brandy and winced. "We didn't row." His voice came out quiet and timid.

"Who died?" asked Peter, only half joking. James glared at him over his glass as he took another sip.

Sirius nudged him. "Do you want to tell them, or would you rather I do it?"

Still in her olive green work cloak, Emmeline knocked sheepishly on the Potters' front door. She had walked over as soon as she'd seen Remus' note on the kitchen table. If he was trying to instill panic, "CHECK ON LILY" in all capital letters was definitely one way to raise her cortisol.

To Emmeline's surprise, Marlene answered the door holding a glass of wine. "Finally," she griped, yanking Emmeline in and shutting the door behind her.

"Merlin's sake, I had work. What's the matter? Where's-..."

And just then, she spotted Lily. She was curled up on the couch, clutching a pillow to herself with a half-eaten block of cheese and a box of savory biscuits next to her. The wine and cheese suggested a celebration, but Lily looked rather contemplative.

"I'll get you a glass," Marlene offered, disappearing briefly into the kitchen.

Emmeline hung up her cloak, then crept towards where Lily was sitting and knelt at her feet. "Hi," she said with an anticipatory tone of sympathy.

"Hi," Lily murmured, smiling half-heartedly. "I'm really glad you're here."

Now that she could see her up close, Emmeline realized she'd been crying. She began putting two and two together: Remus gone, James gone, Sirius and Peter probably with them, the note - they must've fought. James and Lily had always bickered, even more so before they were a couple, but to Emmeline's knowledge they'd never had a fight that had ended in tears. She reached up and clutched Lily's hand tightly. "What's he done?"

Oddly, Lily responded with a weak chuckle.

Marlene returned and handed Emmeline a glass of merlot before taking a seat in the adjacent armchair. "What's the occasion?" asked Emmeline, about to sip from her glass. She noticed that Lily did not appear to have a glass of her own. "And where's yours?"

"...I can't have any."

Emmeline puzzled at her; then, her eyes widened.

"...Are you…?"

Lily nodded unenthusiastically as another tear rolled down her cheek.

Emmeline felt her chest constrict. She set down her wine, then shifted the plate of cheese and biscuits over so that she could sit next to Lily and take both of her hands rather than just the one. "Congratulations," she said with a heartfelt smile, though her bottom lip began to quiver. She bit down hard on it. Right now was not the time for her own tears.

"This should feel like something I want to be congratulated for, but I'm really...I'm really…"

"...Scared." Emmeline finished her sentence for her.

"I missed my monthly again maybe a week and a half ago, but I only thought I'd skipped last month from all the wedding stress. Yesterday after the lesson I finally whipped up a potion to check and...James watched the color change with me, he's…" she trailed off.

"...Was he upset?"

"No, he was really good about it, actually. He was in shock, though. We both were. He just held me and told me it was gonna be okay, all night long...I'm glad it's him by my side." Lily smiled through her tears. "He went over to tell Sirius this morning, but I think it turned into a bit of an event with the boys...I just think he's really nervous."

"And you?"

Lily drew in a shuddering breath. "I want to be happy but it's such bad timing. With everything; the Order, the war..."

"I thought you might be able to offer a good perspective on all this Em," Marlene added, having already heard Lily's anxieties.

Lily squeezed Emmeline's hands. "You know how you told me everything last week? Well, I understand why you ran away. I didn't get it before, but I get it now. And I-"

"Lily, honey, I want you to listen to me." Emmeline took Lily's splotchy face in her hands. "This is different. You're going to be different."

"How can you know that?"

"Because you took the test with James and you told your friends," she replied matter-of-factly. "Because you didn't make the mistake of thinking you had to do this all by yourself. You don't have to do this by yourself. Me, Mar, the boys - we're all here for you and James." She released her face and took her hands again. "And because you, Lily Jane Evans-Potter, are going to be the best mother there ever was."

"Well said," blubbered Marlene.

Lily tipped forward into Emmeline's embrace, pillow and all. "I love you both, you know that?"

"We know," they said together.

After a few moments, Marlene pushed herself up off the floor. "I refuse to let us mope all day. Today, we are disregarding whatever is outside these walls, and celebrating." She walked over to the turntable and selected a Celestina Wabbeck vinyl, sipped her wine as she set it up, then got the other two off the couch to dance.

Meanwhile:

"Moony here was almost a daddy too," Sirius remembered, pointing his glass towards Remus. He squinted to stare through it as if it were a magnifying glass, chuckling intoxicatedly. "Absolutely mental."

"Wh-...what? Really?" hiccuped Peter, his mouth full of crisps. He turned to Remus, who was draped across the armchair in a very creative fashion.

"I'd really rather not talk about that," he objected, his half-full glass pressed to his forehead. He was drinking much slower than the others after his episode last month. "And for the love of Merlin, never use any of my monikers in the same sentence as the word 'daddy' ever again."

Sirius would've had a clever comeback, had he not been distracted by the sniffling coming from James' general direction.

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, and Padfoot looked to Prongs, who sat on the floor with his back up against the couch and his palm over his eyes.

"James?" Sirius muttered worriedly, coming down off the couch to put his arm around him.

James kept his hand clasped over his face to hide his tears. "How am I supposed to protect them?" he whispered as he wept.

Remus felt as though he were looking into some alternate reality in which he'd known about Emmeline's pregnancy, and he guessed he might've said the exact same thing. He got down on the floor and sat across from James in solidarity. Peter followed suit.

Sirius gently removed James' hand from his face so that he could look into his watery eyes. "The real question is, how are we going to make the world safer for your family?"

"I can't possibly," he began, gasping. But he never finished his thought. The world was just too big, full of too many terrible things, and he was just one man. A sense of helpless insignificance was a frightening new feeling that James had never had to reckon with before.

"...Not alone you can't," Sirius continued. "But the four of us don't do much of anything without each other, so I don't see why this should be any different."

"I'm going to fail as a father," he whimpered.

"Nonsense," Remus challenged him. "You've already had years of practice with Peter."

The other three sat gobsmacked in utter disbelief of his quick wit before busting out laughing.

James chortled through his tears. "Nice one, Moony."

"You're a git, Remus," Peter complained, though he was laughing too.

When the laughs had subsided, Sirius tugged on James' shoulder. "James, look at me. You can do this."

"And you couldn't've possibly picked a better person to do it with," Remus added.

Just then, James straightened up. "...Lily. Good Godric, what am I doing here?!" he wondered aloud, suddenly in hysterics.

"What do you mean?" asked Sirius.

"My wife's at- my pregnant wife's at home!"

Remus didn't understand his agitation. "She's fine, Emmeline and and Mar-"

"I'm her husband, I ought to...I need to go home. I need to be there."

Sirius shook him gently. "Calm down-"

But before any of them could stop him, he had lunged out of the huddle and disapparated.

"JAMES, NO-" Remus dove after him.

"OH SH-" Sirius' hands flew up to his mouth.

"How drunk was he?!" asked Peter.

"Other than his wedding, have you ever seen him cry sober?!"

"This is sort of a special circumstance though, don't you think-"

"What if he hurt himself?!" Remus cut in, jumping up off the floor.

"Well I'm in no fit condition to apparate after him right now! Wormtail?!"

"I'm pissed Pad, sorry."

"Both of you, hold on," Remus directed them, holding out his arms.

"I've got a cauldron of hot strong love,

It's a recipe so rare

There's no potion or elixir that

Could ever quite compare!"

The girls had dried their tears, and were now singing at the top of their lungs as they danced around like idiots. Without warning, James apparated gracelessly into the middle of the room and tumbled to the ground.

"HOLY-...James?" Lily crouched to make sure he was okay.

"Not my best idea," he groaned, peeling himself off the floor.

The strong scent of alcohol on his breath assaulted Lily's nostrils. "Did-...did you apparate drunk?"

"Like I said, not my best idea."

"Where are-" Marlene began to ask, but James was already rising to his knees and preparing to go off on his tangent.

"Lily, love, I should have been here-"

"James, it's okay-"

"No no no, it's not okay. I vowed to give you the very best of myself, and leaving to get pissed with my friends is not the best of myself-"

"Darling-"

"But I'm going to do better, Lily, I am, because I want to be a good father. I really, really, want to be the best dad, 'cause I already know you're going to be the best mum-"

"Potter!"

He finally took a breath. "Y-...yes?"

"...Relax. I love you."

"I love you so much," he declared, hugging her with all his might. Marlene and Emmeline watched elated from the sidelines.

And then there were seven. Suddenly the rest of the Marauders landed a few feet from where James had, all twisted together like a great three-piece pretzel.

"OW!"

"Get your sodding foot off my-"

"I thought you said you were sober!"

"I said I was the most sober!"

"Did I splinch my- I CAN'T FIND MY HAND!"

"It's RIGHT HERE you numpty-"

"They're all pished, aren't they?" Marlene speculated.

"Plastered," James affirmed.

Remus was the first to stagger to his feet. "Prongs! Thank God. Did you make it back with all your limbs?"

James released Lily and looked down at himself to check. "...I think so."

Sirius was the next to rise. "Wow, that's...Color me impressed." He had to lean against Remus to get the room to stop spinning.

"Look what you've d-done, you've g-given Padfoot ideas," hiccupped Peter. He'd given up on trying to get off the ground.

"Is that wine?" Sirius asked, pointing to Marlene's glass. "Is there more?"

"I think you halfwits are all forgetting something," Marlene informed them, cocking her head towards the ground where Lily and James were still kneeling.

"Oh sweet Merlin you're right. Congratulations, Lily-flower!"

"Congratulations!" everyone cheered.

Lily turned adoringly to her husband. "We're having a baby," she giggled.

"We're having a baby," he repeated, finally able to delight in this fact. "LILY EVANS IS HAVING MY BABY!" James stood, scooped his wife up into his arms, and spun her around.

"Merlin James, she's not a bloody broomstick, be gentle," Emmeline chided, but neither of them were paying attention.

Having just remembered his girlfriend, Remus left Sirius to his own devices so that he could check up on Emmeline. He moseyed over to her amid the merrymaking and meant to ask her how all this baby business was making her feel. "Are you-"

"Not now," she pleaded quietly. "Please...later."

Remus nodded and swallowed his question.

...

The celebration went on until long after the sun had set. Sirius eventually started griping about the Warbeck vinyl ("geezer music" as he called it), and commandeered the turntable to play Lily's collection of muggle rock music instead. The dulcet tones of The Who's "Pinball Wizard" accompanied a rather silly air guitar act that Sirius was performing, and Lily even got up to join him on lead vocals. Peter found this incredibly amusing, and waved his arms about as if he were at a concert.

"Don't encourage him," Marlene begged from the couch.

"Ah, leave them be," James laughed, enjoying the production from his spot on the floor next to the turntable. "What, he doesn't do this at home?"

"I don't let him do this at home."

"Criminy is that the time?" exclaimed Emmeline, her lips stained with wine. "I have work in six hours."

Sirius paused his show-stopping performance to offer a sage piece of wisdom: "Work shmork," he slurred.

"Some of us don't have vaults full of gold, you know."

"Then somefffus should pro'lly be gettin' their arse to bed, eh Vance?" Bedtime was a construct reserved for the middle class, apparently.

Emmeline flashed Sirius an unfriendly finger gesture before rising from the armchair and turning to Remus. "You can stay if you like, I don't mind."

"I won't have you walking back by yourself at this hour."

"We live in Godric's Hollow, not Glasgow," James teased him.

Marlene, the resident Scot in the room, shot him a dirty look. "Watch it, Potter."

"Buh-bye!" Peter waved as Remus put Emmeline's cloak on for her.

Before they turned to go, Lily approached and grabbed Emmeline's arm. "Remus, hug your mates before you leave. I want a word with Em."

"Yes ma'am," he complied, walking to James and lugging him off the floor to congratulate him once more. Lily led Emmeline out the front door and closed it behind them.

"It's cold, dear."

"This will only take a moment," she assured her, putting her hands on Emmeline's shoulders. She smiled warmly, and said: "I wanted to tell you that I think you would've made a brilliant mother."

Nope. No. Today was for Lily. Emmeline had gone the whole evening without letting her defenses crumble, and she had to hold on for just a bit longer. "Thank you," she whispered. Any more volume and she would've begun to sob.

"And I'm certain you're going to make a brilliant auntie." Lily wrapped her in a tight embrace and kissed her cheek. "Thank you for today. Thank you for being my friend."

God, Lily was making this really hard. One more word and Emmeline would lose it. Lily was not naive, so she said nothing more.

Remus came back out the door with perfect timing, and they walked home.