Tuesday 8th April 1980

Marauder Flat, 16:00

"Guys, come on! I'm fine. Seriously. James!"

The call for help was what got James' attention but not in the way his best friend wanted.

"Yes, Padfoot?" He asked lazily from his position on the sofa.

It was nice to just laze about with his feet kicked up on the furniture like this. He still couldn't do it back at Potter Manor, despite it being his now. It just seemed wrong to do it. And he wouldn't put it past his House Elves to scold him for it.

"Help!"

James looked up to see Remus plump up the pillow Sirius had been pushed against and basically pin him down with a blanket tucked into every crevice of the chair. It looked like he couldn't move and that Remus wasn't intending of letting him do so.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Remus has gone crazy!"

"I'm making sure you rest," Remus corrected. "You know, like the Healer said?"

"I've been resting. All I've been doing is resting."

"And you're going to rest some more!"

"James!" Sirius pleaded.

James shook his head and folded his arms. "I'm on Remus' side here. You need to rest."

"But-"

"Rest."

Sirius sighed and sunk back into the chair. James shook his head. Really? Did Sirius really think that he would say something different? They always teased him about being the mother hen of the group, there was no way he was going to disagree with Remus. Especially after what had happened to Sirius.

"This sucks so much," he complained.

"You almost died, Sirius," Remus scolded, still fussing around him.

James flinched at that reminder. He still couldn't believe that he hadn't been there for all of that. And that Sirius and Remus failed to tell him until two days later. He should have been told immediately! Who cared that je and Lily had been looking at houses of all things? That didn't matter! Sirius was the one that mattered!

"But I'm not dead so I'm fine!"

"You aren't fine," Peter piped up, looking uncommonly stern. "You wobbled when you tried to make yourself some toast earlier."

That made James and Remus' heads snap back to Sirius. Neither of them had been aware of that.

"It was just the blood rushing to my head," Sirius tried to dismiss. "Seriously, it's nothing."

"Chryssie had to give him two blood replenishers," Remus told them. "Full doses. And she said that they weren't nearly as effective as they should have been. They didn't work."

Remus had gone pale just recounting that. James didn't blame him. He felt sick just thinking about Sirius bleeding out in the flat.

They had still had to bring him to St. Mungo's after all of that. Chryssie had explained to them, in the hospital waiting room, that her blood replenishers - literally brewed that morning as a part of an assignment - had been just to get Sirius stable enough that they could get him to St Mungo's without killing him.

And he'd needed a lot of work there. Apparently there had been a curse which affected how his blood clotted and caused a lot of pain. So, they had to deal with that as well as more blood replenishers. But the Healers sorted him out and sent him home after a few days. Mostly because of the sheer number of blood replenishers needed - they had been scared that his body was going to go into shock. That could happen with blood replenishers according to Chryssie. James hadn't known that. You would think that That would be a vital piece of information to know. Though, realistically, the average person in a normal life wouldn't need to know that. But they were hardly average and this was not a normal way of living.

Sirius was looking between them with a frustrated look on his face.

"Yeah, all that happened but I'm fine now. I'm fine! Actually, I'm good. Better than good."

"Sirius, you can't lift up the teapot without your arm trembling."

"You filled it right to the brim!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Then why did I spill all that water?"

"Because your muscles are still weak!" Remus said, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.

Sirius made an annoyed noise, and crossed his arms, burying himself into his cocoon of blankets so he didn't have to look at any of them.

"Thank Merlin you were there," James muttered to Remus as Sirius huffed and tried to fling all the blankets off him.

He really didn't want to think about what would have happened if Sirius had turned up in the flat all alone with no one to look after him and heal him. He was so, so, lucky that Remus had been there at all - they had all been so busy recently that they were more likely to not be at home than be at home.

James shook his head, trying to rid himself of the thought of what would have happened if Remus hadn't been at home. No. That wasn't worth thinking about. Like Sirius said; he was here, he was alive and he was fine. Sirius was right here in front of them all in one piece.

I know," Remus said

There was an intensity in his voice that would shock people who only thought of him as the "mild-mannered Marauder" but James knew Remus better than most people. Knew that he felt emotions stronger than the rest of them. Was loyal and protective, just like the wolf part of him.

The only good thing that had come out of this was that Sirius and Remus were getting along again. Oh, he understood why Sirius had been pissed off at Remus but it had still been uncomfortable for James to have two of his best friends fighting. He hadn't really experienced it before and he didn't like it.

Thankfully, Remus had stepped up with Dora. And although there didn't seem to be wedding bells there any time soon, those two had seemingly resolved their issues with each other. Which meant that Sirius could begrudgingly forgive Remus. Of course, Remus basically saving his life (along with Chryssie) also rather helped that whole process.

Either way, they were getting on again and things were sort of back to normal. The teasing and friendly bickering had returned anyway. James wasn't sure what they were like when he went home but when they were all together things were good.

And that's all he could really ask for right now.

Friday 11th April 1980

Flitwick's Office, Hogwarts, 13:30

Lily tried not to sigh too heavily at Flitwick. Sure, she wouldn't get scolded like a silly schoolgirl anymore but she didn't want to be rude. She did respect the man, after all. Even if he was telling her things that she didn't agree with. Well, didn't want to agree with to be exact.

"You can't be a part of the practical lessons anymore," Flitwick was telling her, much to Lily's displeasure.

"But-"

He wasn't having it.

"No, it's not worth the risk," he said adamantly. "You know what Charms lessons are like. Spells and flying objects everywhere. You don't want something happening to your baby."

Lily sighed but didn't argue. She knew he was right. It just sucked, that was all. And put her behind. She needed a certain amount of teaching hours for her Charms Mastery, it was one of the targets she had to meet. And she wasn't going to get them if she couldn't actually teach!

Flitwick was giving her a sympathetic look. She didn't need sympathetic looks, she needed teaching hours! Oh, sure, she could do more theory lessons but those were nowhere near as fun as the Practicals. Just like how the reading and research she had to do for the Department of Mysteries was in no way an adequate substitution for potion experimentation (which had been off the table for a long while now, stupid fumes that could affect the baby).

It just wasn't fair! She crossed her arms and pouted at him, which just made Flitwick chuckle at her.

It wasn't fair! Nothing was fair. Fumes being damaging to the baby at least made sense, she understood why she had to stop brewing all but the most basic potions (though she still wasn't happy about that but she understood). But not being able to demonstrate charms properly? Flitwick was just being overly cautious. It just wasn't necessary in her opinion. Not that she could get him to change his mind. It was all very infuriating.

What had also been infuriating was that her boss had actually made her put her wand out of reach at the Department of Mysteries because apparently when she got to a bit of her research that just made sense, she couldn't help but reach for her wand.

She should still be allowed to try some things. Not all of her research carried risk. Okay, maybe some of it did but she wouldn't be trying those parts, she wasn't stupid.

But no, everyone was stopping her from doing anything remotely interesting. It wasn't fair! Her capabilities in the Department of Mysteries weren't important right now. The important thing was to try and persuade Professor Flitwick that she wasn't a danger unto herself or to others.

"I'll be really careful," she tried but he shook his head.

"It's not worth the risk."

Lily made an annoyed noise. Pregnancy was really more bother than what it was worth.

No. Wait. That wasn't quite right. It would be more than worth it when she would get her sweet baby in her arms in a few months. That they still didn't know then gender of because their baby had apparently inherited both of their stubbornness and had refused to acquiesce to any scans of the appropriate region. Sirius had laughed so hard at that, saying that their child was going to be a prude. Whatever. It wasn't like Lily and James really cared what they got. They just wanted their baby. Though knowing would make getting clothes and such a while lot easier. There really weren't a lot of nice clothes that weren't geared towards either gender. And Lily was pretty sick of yellow clothes at this point.

"Lily," Flitwick prompted.

She sighed.

"Oh, alright," she acquiesced.

There was no point in arguing with him. She knew she wasn't going to change his mind. Not when it came to this anyway.

At least she was better off than Marlene. Lily actually enjoyed the theory part of her research and lesson plans and theory of Charms were interesting enough. Not as interesting as practical demonstrations but still. Marlene, on the other hand, despised paperwork and that was literally all she was allowed to do. No active duty whatsoever, not even restricted. It was just too dangerous and Marlene hated it.

Now, she was a person who definitely needed to be doing something, something active to boot. Lily could at least bury herself in her research, to an extent. Marlene hated stuff like that. She had to be physically active. Running around. Casting spells. Preferably both of those things together. And she couldn't do either of those things right now. Which was driving her and everyone else around her crazy. Apparently, she had made two brand new Trainees cry on their very first day. And she had nearly hexed Moody. Alastor Moody. Quite frankly, Lily was just amazed that her best friend was still alive after that one.

"Good!" Filius said happily. "I'm glad you understand."

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled.

There was one thing she and Marlene could agree on. Being pregnant sucked.

Monday 14th April 1980

Marauder Flat, 17:30

"Hi!" Peter greeted, putting his bag he brought to work down in the loving area and then immediately turned back towards the door. "Bye!"

James, Sirius and Remus looked at each other and then back at Peter in confusion.

"Uh, Wormtail?" James asked. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, I'm just meeting up with a few people from work. Oh, and Reginald," he said dismissively, checking his pockets. "I'll be back late, probably."

"Okay," Remus said, frowning. "Don't be too late. I don't know about them but you have work tomorrow."

"I'm not a child, Remus," was all the response he got.

"Hey, Remus had to wake you up the other day because you were out late," Sirius said, coming to Remus' defence.

Peter rolled his eyes at them. "Whatever."

Sirius couldn't help but frown. Since when did Peter regress into a teenager? Before he could say anything, Peter said another "Bye" and left them.

"Who is this Reginald guy, anyway?" James asked, frowning. "Does anyone know who he is?"

They all shook their heads.

"I don't recognise him," Severus said.

"Never heard of him," Sirius replied.

"Really?" James asked, surprised.

Sirius pretty much knew everyone in the pureblood circles. Or at least knew of them.

"I don't know his surname." Sirius said with a shrug, though he also looked concerned. "So, I really couldn't tell you anything."

Which sucked. Sirius was used to knowing people. As annoying as it was, being a reminder of his childhood and whatnot, but it did come in useful at time. Just, not right now. It was just so weird how this Reginald person appeared and Peter got completely enamoured with him. Sirius didn't like it. Especially since it meant that he spent less time with them, even blowing events off to meet with this guy. Be wouldn't even bring him over to the fact or anything where they could all hang out together. Surely if Peter liked him, they would all like him, right? Sirius just kind of missed his friend.

Peter had been around more in recent days, a nice change from him disappearing in the evenings with his work mates. Which was all well and good but they were his friends too! Better friends! They were his best friends! But now he was back to just hanging out with those work friends. Just abandoning them, the Marauders. And now he was apparently back at it. Which just wasn't fair!

"Have you noticed that he's been acting all jumpy recently as well?" James asked. "Like something's about to attack him or something."

Remus and Sirius nodded at that.

"Surely that's just because of all those attacks recently?" Sirius said dismissively.

Peter wasn't a strong fighter, after all. Not like any of them. It was normal to feel nervous about being able to protect yourself in times like these. Sirius couldn't fault him for that.

It's still weird, though," James insisted.

"Who's acting weird?" Marlene asked, arriving with some bags over her shoulders.

Sirius quickly leapt up to take them from her (she really shouldn't be carrying anything in her pregnant state) and they exchanged a quick kiss.

"Peter is," he replied. "And what's all this?"

"Food," she said. "Chinese, to be exact."

"I love you," Sirius said immediately as the delicious aroma of the food wafted around them.

"I would hope so!"

That got her another kiss.

James chuckled at their antics. Not that je was one to talk, he was even goofier with Lily, what with the soppy looks and the constant holding of each other's hands. He and Marlene were cool. The coolest, in fact. None of this silly domestic nonsense. And sure, yeah, they were going to be moving in together but that was only logical; they had a baby on the way and Sirius was going to be a proper dad to it (and yes, Marlene refused to get the gender confirmed). Which meant he had to be present and around the baby. Of course, he also wanted to be around Marlene and not just for baby related things, if you know what he means.

"I'll go get Lily," James said, standing up.

"Is she not here?" Marlene asked, looking around and only just realising that her only friend wasn't there.

"She found a book that would help with her research," James explained.

"And she hasn't taken her nose put of it since," Marlene finished for him with a knowing look.

"Exactly. She wouldn't have eaten if I hadn't literally stuffed a sandwich in her mouth."

"What sandwich was it this time?" Sirius asked.

"Why do you want to know about her sandwich?" Remus asked in confusion.

"Because she's been having really weird cravings."

"Ah."

"It was brown sauce, chicken and orange segments this time," James said.

They all screwed up their faces at that. That was just disgusting. Sirius counted himself lucky that the most horrible thing Marlene had craved was English mustard. Just straight like that.

"I better go wake Dora," Remus said, heading towards his room. "She didn't get much sleep last night but she needs to eat. I don't think she had lunch."

"Yeah, that's not good," James agreed.

They needed to look after all these pregnant women in their lives right now. They were doing enough work, growing a whole other baby in Sirius' opinion. The least the men could do was make sure they ate.

"So, who's being weird?" Marlene asked, pulling all of the takeout containers out.

Sirius kicked his lips. Seriously, the best muggle thing Lily had introduced them to was take-out. And Chinese was definitely the best in his opinion.

"Peter."

"He's always a bit squirrelly," Marlene said. "What's making him weirder?"

"Just all this stuff with that Reginald bloke he hangs out with. No one knows who he is."

Marlene peered into a container. "That's James' chow mein. And seriously, none of you know who he is?"

Sirius shook his head.

"Maybe he's dating him and doesn't want to tell you yet?" Marlene suggested.

"Peter isn't gay," Sirius snorted. "He's even straighter than James is."

And James had never shown any interest in the same sex. Trust him on this one.

Marlene shrugged. "If, you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"Then I don't know then."

Sirius huffed. Well, that hadn't been helpful.