Late Night Chats

The end of the summer break for those returning to Hogwarts was fast approaching. Tomorrow they would get on the train back to Hogwarts. Not much had really been going on other than the regular order meetings. Skyler was trying to treat the whole pregnancy as a casual thing, though with the morning sickness and weird cravings it was getting harder. Fred was trying to be supportive but she was slowly pushing him away. Sirius could tell, but had a feeling Fred was just chalking it up to hormones.

That night after their dinner and everyone had went to bed Sirius found himself unable to sleep. He made his way into the kitchen to find and found Skyler with a very disgusting looking bowl of food.

"Sheesh, and I thought your mother had weird cravings when she was pregnant with you," he commented as he grabbed some cereal. Skyler smiled.

"What can I say? I think this kid might be a bigger eater than me," she joked.

"That's a scary thought," he said, shaking his head.

"Tell me about it," she said, nodding in agreement.

"So, you gonna tell me what's bothering you?" Sirius asked as he joined her at the table.

"Nothing's bothering me."

"You're a shitty liar."

"I am not!"

"OK, fine. I don't buy that crap though." Sirius was looking her in the eyes.

"Fine," Skyler sighed. Sometimes it sucked having a dad who could always tell when you were lying. "It's just..."

"Fred?" Sirius guessed.

"How'd you know?" He gave her a grin.

"You've got that look in your eyes."

"What look?" He rolled his eyes.

"You know what look Sky," he told her. Skyler let out an exasperated sigh. "He likes you. A lot."

"I know," she said. "I like him too. It's just..."

"You're pregnant and don't want him to get attached and start playing daddy?" Skyler just looked at her dad.

"You know that whole finishing my sentences thing is getting annoying." Sirius smiled.

"Would things be different if you weren't pregnant?" he asked her. Skyler looked a little taken aback by the question.

"Probably," she answered honestly, looking down.

"How? Skyler, you and I both know you'd still be pushing him away," he told her bluntly. She looked back up at him. "You get that whole commitment issue thing from me. You'd be trying to keep your distance whether you're pregnant or not. Being pregnant just gives you an excuse."

"No, being pregnant gives me a reason to break it off sooner than I normally would," Skyler told him defensively. Sirius stared at her for a minute.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Hasn't stopped you yet."

"Ha ha."

"Fine, ask."

"If you weren't pregnant with Jake's baby would you give Fred a chance?" Skyler looked confused so Sirius explained. "You said you really like Jake." Skyler nodded. "Coming here helped you forget about him, and you moved on to Fred." She rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Well, if you didn't have this connection to Jake would you still be trying to pull away from Fred?" She took a deep breath.

"OK, probably not. But I don't want him to be the rebound guy that gets hurt because he didn't listen to me when I said I just do casual," she added quickly. Sirius smiled. "What?"

"You like him."

"I wouldn't have slept with him if I didn't like him a little," she retorted.

"No, you really like him," he teased.

"Do not!"

"Do so!"

"Do not!"

"Oh yes you do Skyler. If you're going through this much to deny it, you must really like the guy."

Skyler opened her mouth to protest, but she realized her dad was right. She was falling for Fred, and that scared her.

Holy shit I'm falling for the idiot!

"Oh God! What am I going to do?" she panicked. Sirius watched. "Oh Jesus, what the hell am I doing? I can't fall for him!" She stood and started pacing.

Sirius stood and walked over to her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. When he released her he held on to her shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

"Listen to me, you should know by now that we don't always get to choose who we fall for. I'm not gonna tell you what to do here. I know this is a complicated situation. I just have one piece of advice...listen to your instincts. They've never been wrong before have they?" Skyler shook her head. "So trust them."