Leonis

"Do you have our old astronomy textbooks anymore?" James asked Remus as the two of them packed for the Christmas holidays. It was odd, it felt like only yesterday that he was rescuing Narcissa from the Hogs Head after she'd left home.

"Probably, why?"

"No reason," James lied. "I just wanted to check something, and couldn't find mine."

"Didn't you and Sirius burn it during our 'end of owls' party?"

Had he? That had been a messy party, with far too much firewhisky. Now that Remus mentioned it, he did remember Sirius saying something about never needing to study "pointless subjects" again. Of course, Sirius had also classed charms as a pointless subject, and they were both still studying that.

"Possibly. Don't worry I'm not borrowing it to burn it."

"I wasn't worried," Moony replied, practically throwing the book at James' head as he continued to ruffle through the chest at the bottom of his bed. The two of them were the last ones still packing; Remus because he was too methodical, checking he had everything twice over, and James because he had slept in.

Still it wasn't like the train would leave without them. Hopefully.


He found Narcissa in a carriage at the front of the train looking terrified at the prospect of going home. He was as well. He knew full well that his parents would not react any better than Narcissa's, and to be honest, if they weren't both frogmarched down a wedding isle before school started back he would consider it a successful holiday. Still, he was trying not to dwell on it too much.

"Cissa, you alright?"

"I'm fine, just constantly feeling like I'm going to throw up."

"Morning sickness?"

"No, I think this is just stress."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not looking forward to telling my parents either. God, mum is going to kill me."

"Were you going to tell your parents over Christmas?"

"Yeah, probably just before we go back to school, so I don't have to spend the entire break with them angry with me."

Narcissa just put her hands over her face, James wasn't sure if it was the nausea or just the general situation.

"Wait?" He finally realised. "Were you not going to tell your parents over Christmas?" It would really be the only chance they had to tell them in person. And whilst he had considered telling them via owl, he didn't fancy getting a howler back in response.

"No," Narcissa replied, shaking her head. "If I tell them when I'm not in school they won't let me come back. I'll either come down with some "mystery illness" until the baby has been born and foisted upon another married family member, or they'll make me terminate it."

"Well…" He hadn't thought of that possibility. He had just figured they would find out when the baby was due, then tell their parents before term started again. And it wasn't like he could tell his parents if Narcissa didn't tell hers. He was sure his father would be owling the Blacks before the conversation was over, apologising for the whole situation. "So, we don't tell them then?" That came out as slightly more of a question than it was meant to."

"No, I don't want them to know until I'm sure they can't force me into anything. It's not…it's not that they don't love me…" Her voice broke, and tears fell. James hated seeing her like this, his stomach twisting just seeing her this upset. "They do love me, they'll just want to protect me from myself. Being pregnant and unmarried will ruin my reputation. No one will want me."

"I want you!" His head was pounding with all the words he couldn't say. "What you're describing, that's not love. Not really. We'll wait for as long as you want before we tell our parents."

"I suppose we'll probably have to tell them before the baby is born." Narcissa smiled, clearly amused by the possibility of hiding an entire birth from their families.

"Probably," James responded, "At least by the time of the Christening." Suddenly they were both laughing, it was probably the stress getting to them. "What do you think it'll be? Boy or Girl?" James asked finally.

"I don't know. I suppose I should want a boy," all the more valuable to the pureblood families, continuing the family name and all that. Not that James didn't want a son, he could imagine teaching him to fly, and one day giving him his invisibility cloak to cause as much havoc in Hogwarts as he was doing, but a girl would be just as good. Hopefully she would look like Narcissa.

"Should want a boy?"

"I just think with the world the way it is, I would worry more about a son than I would a daughter. And besides, we need girls as much as boys."

"True. Although I'd like to think that when this kid grows up, this war is over and done with." He'd never considered that his children might be conscripted to fight in the same war as him.

"So would I. My only worry is what sort of society it might be growing up in. I have a feeling it will be a boy though."


It had been two days since they had finished school for the Christmas holidays, and James found himself standing at the doorway of the Royal London Hospital, staring out into the pouring rain. He was surprised it wasn't snowing given the piercing wind. He shuffled back again into the shelter of the doorway. All Narcissa had told him was to meet him here. He had no idea how she was getting here, or how she had even managed to book an appointment at a muggle hospital. The girl knew less about the muggle world than he did.

And why was it always him waiting in the bad weather?

After about five minutes a dark car pulled up to the entrance. It hadn't caught James' eye until he spotted the tell-tale flash of blond hair in the back window. As he walked forward another figure emerged from the car.

"Bella..."

"Hello James," came Andromeda Tonks' disapproving voice. He was pretty much sure that Andromeda would never like him now. In many ways he would have preferred Bellatrix.

"Andromeda," he responded, as a large umbrella erupted from the same car. "I didn't realise you would be here."

He glanced under the umbrella, to see Narcissa's apologetic face. "I'm sorry, I had no one else to ask."

"I could have organised it." Possibly, although he had to admit he didn't know much about muggles either. Muggle studies had never really appealed to him.

"Really? Because I figured you would know about as much as I do. Except for when frequenting muggle bars."

"I have people I could have asked for help -"

"Well so did I, and I knew Andromeda wouldn't tell anyone." For starters she didn't speak to anyone else that they both knew.

"Enough, I think we're this way," Andromeda instructed them, striding towards the main entrance.

"She hates me, doesn't she?" He whispered to Narcissa, as they followed Andromeda through an endless series of corridors. The whole place was bustling with people, constantly milling around with voices and crashes all around him. It was deafening.

"At least you didn't have to listen to a twenty-minute lecture on how I have potentially ruined my life." Ouch. Although he was sure that lecture would be coming his way next.

"I didn't mean to lecture you Cissa, but you are too young to have to be dealing with this. This is why I said you should have waited." Andromeda interrupted, turning around to correct her younger sister.

"Well I didn't! And there's not much point in saying all this after the fact."

"I said all this before, you just didn't listen!"

James did not want to get in the middle of this. "Ladies, perhaps we should leave this discussion until later. Andromeda where are we going?"

"Don't even! Do not act like none of this is your fault." Andromeda snapped before suddenly realising where they were. "It's this way." She said, double doors swinging in her wake.

Suddenly the sterile walls seemed to morph into warmer colours, and the sense of urgency faded away. A large sign on the wall talking about healthy pregnancies indicated that they had finally reached the right place.

Narcissa leaned into him as her sister spoke to the nurse at the desk. "Don't mind Andromeda, she's actually been really supportive. I think she's just worried about me."

"I thought she wanted you to leave home, didn't she offer you a spare room?"

"Yes, but I don't think that offer extended to a newborn baby."

"Narcissa Black?" A nurse announced, looking at Narcissa expectantly. James didn't know why he was surprised that Andromeda had used the correct name. It was probably because he was so used to having to use fake IDs in the muggle world, still he wondered what Muggles would think of a name like Narcissa. Or Andromeda.

"Yes. That's me, thanks."

There was an awkward pause, as they looked at one another.

"And you are…?"

"James Potter." He introduced himself, determined to act like he knew what was going on.

That didn't seem to be the answer the nurse was looking for.

"He's the baby's father." Narcissa responded for him, rolling her eyes in his direction. "I would like him to come in, if that's okay."

"Of course, is everyone coming in?" She looked expectantly at Andromeda, who seemed to be waiting for Narcissa to say something.

"I'll wait outside." Came the eventual response, clearly reading into her sister's silence.

"No, Andromeda, you're family. You should come in."

"No, James, it's okay. I'll wait."

Into another room, and honestly James had never seen so many pastels. What was it with muggles and such monotonous colours. The nurse was explaining things to Narcissa, as James continued to survey the room. Huh, so this poster was saying they would hear the heartbeat…he wasn't sure how that worked without magic.

"James," Narcissa hissed at him, as an odd metal thing was rolled over her stomach.

"Sorry," he rushed to sit down next to her. "Apparently we should be able to hear the heartbeat."

"Yes, I know. The nurse just explained that it depends on how far along I am though." Oh. James really should have paid more attention. This seemed to be an ongoing theme in his life.

A strange beating noise, came from the black and white screen in front of them.

"Can you see this shape here?" The nurse said, smiling at them both.

"Yes." The both replied. Neither had really admitted that they had no idea what was really going on. He could only assume that muggles had a better understanding of this process.

"That's your baby. And the noise you hear is its heart beat."

"That's it?" Narcissa asked. A note of scepticism in her voice. He agreed. He had though it would look…bigger maybe? More clear that he was seeing a baby and not one of berties every flavour beans.

"That's it, at this stage it is still small. But you look to be around ten or eleven weeks pregnant."

"It suddenly seems very real doesn't it." Narcissa finally spoke. They had both seemed somewhat shocked, as if all this hadn't been real until they came face to face with their child. He was going to be a father. And suddenly, he didn't feel uncertain about anything.

"How about Leonis?"

"What?"

"For the baby's name, if it's a boy." James said. "It's a constellation, and we can shorten it to Leo so it's a relatively normal name." Leo Potter…it had a good ring to it.

"Leo…I like it. And Lyra for a girl?"

"Yeah…maybe," he had been planning on looking through Remus' astrology textbook to find a slightly more normal astrological name for a girl as well.

"Sirius as a middle name?" Narcissa asked, half laughing. He could already imagine Sirius' pride to be included in the name.

"We can talk about that later."