Chapter 5

I woke up in a strange room. It took me a moment to remember where I was and what had happened. I sat up from the comfortable double bed I was on and tried to get my bearings. I had travelled to London with James this morning. That's right! I was in his house! This must be one of the bedrooms - maybe even James' bedroom? The late afternoon sun was nearly set outside the window so it was too dark to make much out. I saw a bedside table, maybe a desk?

I got out of bed and stumbled around looking for a lamp, or a light switch. Instead I found a door handle so I opened it. The hallway outside was also in darkness, but a little way along it I could make out two shadowy figures. Muffled shouts echoed from somewhere else in the house.

'Oh you're awake!' said Albus in a loud whisper. He gestured me towards them. Lily took my hand as I reached them.

'I'm going to be an aunt,' she beamed at me.

'Uh yeah,' I replied, caught off guard by her happiness. The shouting, that was now a lot clearer, was more the reaction I had been expecting.

'This is great,' Albus exclaimed. 'Normally we have to use Extendable Ears if we want to know what's going on, but they are so loud today, we can just listen.'

'What happened?' I asked.

'Mum came home and you fainted,' Lily stated bluntly.

'She can have that effect on people,' Albus added.

'She's lovely!' Lily argued, elbowing him.

'YOU CAST A FULL PATRONUS IN FRONT OF A SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD MUGGLE!'

'Normally,' she added, weakly.

'You know now then?' Albus asked me brightly, as the uproar continued. He really seemed to be enjoying the drama. Or perhaps maybe that he wasn't the cause of it? Did James mention something about him going missing last year?

'What?'

'You know that James is a wizard? That we're all wizards.'

'I'm a witch,' interjected Lily.

'Uh yeah,' I stammered. They were so blasé about it. As if it was completely normal. Then again, for them, I suppose it was.

'YOU SNUCK OUT OF SCHOOL AND ILLEGALLY APPARATED ACROSS THE COUNTRY!'

'It must be so strange only finding out what the world is really like when you're your age,' mused Lily. 'What age are you?'

'Sixteen.'

'Same as James then. Dad found out when he was eleven, but we're like mum, we've always known. Who's older? You or James?'

'Uh, James, I think. My birthday is in May and James' birthday is in -'

'February,' she finished for me.

Elsewhere in the house the commotion seemed to be calming down. The voices became less and less distinguishable.

'Damnit,' cursed Albus and took out three flesh coloured strings from his pocket. He chucked one end of each string across the landing, where they just reached the other side of the staircase and the office door I had gone through earlier. He handed the other ends to Lily and me. 'You're going to love magic,' he said, giving me a wink. They both stuck their ends in their ear, so I did the same. The effect was remarkable, almost as if I was standing on the other side of the office door.

'I was trying to prove to her that we were really wizards, Gin. She wasn't believing us at all,' reasoned Harry. 'She thought we were making it up. Having a joke at her expense. I have done this before you know.'

'Really?' snapped James' mother. 'You've explained the Wizarding World to your son's muggle girlfriend before have you?'

'No,' replied Harry coolly. 'But in my line of work I have had to explain to traumatised muggles that the world isn't really what they thought it was. The trick is to do it quickly, even if it is sometimes a bit dramatic. After that you can deal with whatever the problem is. And our problem is…'

'That Laura is pregnant,' finished James.

'Oh James,' sighed his mother. 'Maybe if you just explained? How long have you known her? How did you meet? Maybe this wouldn't seem so completely out of the blue. You've told us about other girls before James. You never even mentioned her.'

Albus tried to give a loud cough to cover up the last statement, but I still heard it. So, James had had girlfriends before me? That was fine, wasn't it? I couldn't blame him for that, could I? However my rapidly plummeting mood said otherwise.

'Laura is not like the other girls.'

'Because she is a muggle?' asked Harry.

'Because she doesn't know who you are!' exploded James. 'You always think my life is so easy compared to what yours was! You think I'm the quidditch star, the school prefect, the one who doesn't give you any bother! Albus isn't the only one who finds it hard being your son, you know!'

'Ok James, that's enough,' said his mother.

'I know it's difficult,' said his dad quietly.

Beside me Lily bristled, then suddenly shoved Albus hard in the ribs.

'What?' yelped Albus.

'Stop blaming dad for all of your problems!' she scolded him.

'This is about James!' he protested.

'And I'll sort him out later!'

Behind the office door James began speaking again, calmer this time, so I hushed them.

'I'm sorry Dad. I didn't mean… It's not as bad as Albus… Sometimes I just get so fed up with everything being so 'easy' for me. I never know whether all these people are my friends, or whether the girls actually like me, or if it's because of you… So, this summer, when I was at the Burrow to practice quidditch, Fred suggested we should go into the village and meet some muggle girls…'

'I should have guessed Fred would be involved,' his mother muttered.

'He dated one of Laura's friends for a while and I met Laura,' James continued. 'It was great. She was great. And when it came to when I was meant to come back to London with Fred…'

'You got Roxanne to pretend she wanted extra quidditch lessons with you so you could stay,' his mother surmised. 'This is why you've been so withdrawn at school this term James? Why you've barely written to us? Because Laura was pregnant?'

'I didn't know she was pregnant.'

'So why did you escape into Hogsmeade last night and illegally apparate across the country? You could have splinched yourself James.' Both Lily and Albus shuddered at this statement so I knew it couldn't be good.

'I missed her,' stated James simply.

'When did you find out about the baby?'

'Last night, when I showed up at her door. I thought I would surprise her. Spend a few hours at her house and then head back to school. Nobody would even know that I was gone.

'Then she told me she was pregnant.

'Her mum said I could be involved or not, but I had to decide now. She said it wouldn't be fair on the baby otherwise and I get that. Laura's dad left her when she was little and it was horrible for her. She doesn't see him at all now. She dropped out of the school she was in, because she has to work in their shop, because they - her mum and her - they need all the money for the baby. She's the same age as me and she can't go to school anymore...

'I didn't know what to do. I just thought if I brought her here, then you would know what to do and you could help me. Which is pathetic. I'm about to be a father and I still need my own parents to sort everything out for me.'

'James, you are only sixteen,' said his mother softly. 'You can ask for help.'

'I'll be seventeen by the time the baby arrives. I'll be an adult.'

'I'm proud of you James,' interrupted his father. He hadn't spoken in so long I had almost forgotten he was in the room.

'What?' breathed James.

'You could have run last night. You could have gone straight back to Hogwarts. You could have chosen not to tell anyone a thing and we never would have found out.'

'I… I never thought… I would never do that,' James spluttered.

'I know. That's why I'm proud of you.' There was the sound of a chair being pulled back and footsteps. James' father was out of his seat. 'Do you want to be a part of this child's life?'

'Of course!'

'Then we will support you.'

'What do I do?'

'Well first, we are all going to have something to eat,' said James' mother.

'Yes, we can tell Albus and Lily over dinner, and get to know Laura,' agreed his dad.

'Oh, they'll already know. They'll have been listening at the door,' said James' mother flippantly. 'We forgot to cast an Imperturbable Charm.'

'That's our cue,' said Albus suddenly, yanking the three strings back from the door. Lily quickly gave hers back to him, so I did the same. The two of them scampered down the hallway and out of sight, leaving me alone in the darkness.

Suddenly the office door opened. I squinted my eyes as they adjusted to pool of light now thrown into the corridor. Someone mumbled a word I didn't recognise and abruptly the whole passage was lit.

'Oh Laura, you're up!' exclaimed James' mother. 'You must be so disoriented.' She hurried quickly over to me. 'I'm Ginny. I'm James' mum,' she said, shaking my hand. She was shorter than James, with thick, red hair that fell just past her shoulders.

'I'm Laura,' I replied inanely, given that she had just called me by my name. She was polite enough to not to point this out.

'Harry and I would like you to have some dinner with us, and then we thought you could maybe stay here for the night? That way we could drive you back to Ottery in the morning. It's a long drive, and the weather is awful tonight.' She was somewhat forcing her cheeriness but I appreciated it nonetheless.

'That would be nice. Thank you. I just need to call my mum.' I pulled my mobile out of my pocket but it still had no signal.

'Those things won't work in this house. We have a proper phone in the office.' She waved a hand towards the door. 'Harry has muggle relatives,' she added as explanation. 'You go on in and use it. Harry and James are still in there. I'll see you at dinner.'

She turned away from me to walk down the stairs. As she did so I noticed her shoulders slump ever so slightly. I understood why. I was the girl who was going to make her son a father at sixteen. The son that, from what I could gather, had been pretty near to perfect up until this point. Being nice to me was going to take a bit of effort at the moment. Maybe it always would do.

'Mrs Potter,' I called after her. Her shoulders lifted and she turned back. 'I'm sorry.' It was the least I could do.

'We've been through worse,' she said with a small smile.

She didn't ask me to call her Ginny.

The conversation with my mum was brief. I think she had been expecting me to stay over. I didn't tell her anything else. It wasn't the sort of thing you did over the phone. Besides Harry had assured me, Mrs Potter and he would break it to her gently tomorrow.

Afterwards I followed James back down into the kitchen where his parents were already preparing dinner. I tried not to stare at the self-stirring pots, or jump when jars when zooming across the counter and into their hands, seemingly of their own accord.

'Albus, Lily,' their mother called as we took a seat. 'Could you set the table?'

Albus and Lily, who were already seated comfortably before we came in, gave a groan but still got up and started to place knives and forks on the table by hand.

'Are they doing that because I'm here?' I whispered to James. He looked at me quizzically. 'Doing it by hand?'

He shook his head.

'We can't use magic outside of school until we're seventeen. It's the law.'

'But you said you used magic to get to my house.'

He shook his head to silence me, eyeballing his parents backs.

'Later,' he mouthed.

Illegally. That's the word his dad had used earlier. He had used magic illegally to get to me. A thousand more questions burned in my head as I tried to process that information, but this wasn't the place to ask them. I would ask James alone later. I looked down at my bump – maybe we wouldn't be allowed to be alone later.

My reverie was broken by another colourful entrance of the blue haired man from before.

'Oh, are you having dinner?' he asked nonchalantly.

'As well timed as ever Ted,' replied Harry.

'Victoire with you?' inquired Mrs Potter.

'No, she's gone to the Burrow to debrief the troops.' He saluted at James. 'Mission complete. Stand down and all that.'

'And there was no food at the Burrow for you?' asked Albus pointedly.

'Too many people to share it with, 'Bus, too many people,' he replied, tapping him patronisingly on the head, before turning his attention to me. 'Besides, I needed to find out why she rushed me away from the muggle so quickly, earlier.'

'She didn't tell you?' asked Albus.

'She didn't tell me,' confirmed Teddy, not taking his gaze from mine. 'So, muggle, tell me, why wouldn't my girlfriend let me stay in the same room as you earlier? Are you, perchance, a seductress?'

The casual mood of the room plummeted swiftly with his ill-timed joke.

'What?' he asked, sensing the change. Each of the Potters shifted awkwardly, but said nothing. I glanced down at my bump again, feeling like a very literal elephant in the room.

'I'm pregnant,' I said bluntly, putting the poor fellow out of his misery.

'Is it… is it mine?' he asked, the ghost of his cocky grin still on his lips.

'Teddy!' Mrs Potter admonished him.

He raised his hands apologetically and turned towards James.

'You're having a baby?'

James nodded, taking my hand.

Teddy exhaled slowly.

'Well that's new. Even for this family, that is new. Teenage pregnancy. I don't think we've done that one before,' he mused.

'Teddy, be quiet and eat,' Harry said, placing his dinner before him.

Dinner went as well as could be expected after that. The Potters had impeccable table manners. They each took turns asking me polite questions about my life, and seemed genuinely interested when I told them about the mundane ins and outs of running a quiet, local newsagent.

Teddy on the other hand was more than happy to entertain me over dinner with stories about himself. It turned out he was not blood related to the Potters at all. This came as a relief, as he appeared to have been in a relationship with James' cousin Victoire for quite a few years. Teddy was Harry's godson, and lived with his grandmother, but from what I could understand spent a lot of time in this house, especially as Harry and he worked together.

'Well… for…' Teddy corrected himself. 'Well… in the same department. I'm training to be an Auror, you see.'

'A what?'

'An Auror. A dark wizard catcher,' Teddy explained. 'Sort of like your muggle policeman, but much cooler.' He winked at me.

'There are dark wizards? Bad wizards?'

'Well there's bad muggles aren't there?'

'And you're an Auror as well?' I asked Harry. He nodded, and took a forkful of his spaghetti.

'He's the Head Auror,' said Lily proudly.

'In London?'

'In Great Britain,' said James. 'My dad is quite good at defeating dark wizards,' he added with a slight grin. Harry shrugged and continued eating his dinner.

'Brilliant,' said Albus, slapping the table. 'Just brilliant. She didn't get that at all. She has no idea. Amazing!'

'Get what?'

'Outstanding!'

'It's nothing,' James tried to assure me.

'Oh well it's hardly nothing,' interjected Teddy.

'The girl having Harry Potter's grandchild, has no idea who Harry Potter is,' grinned Albus.

A memory from my coach ride with James this morning flashed through my head. Was that only this morning? It seemed like I had lived seven lifetimes since then.

'Are you famous?'

Harry paused, his next mouthful balancing on the fork. His forehead crinkled slightly as he surveyed me and for the first time I noticed a faint scar there.

'Right has everybody finished?' asked Mrs Potter purposely.

Immediately the table was a blur of movement as plates and cutlery went flying into the sinks at the side of the room. In the hubbub, James gently took my hand, and before I knew it I was on my feet.

'Come on,' he whispered, as he began to usher me out of the kitchen.

'Thank you for dinner,' I called as the heavy oak door closed behind us.

James led me up the stairs and down a landing I hadn't seen before. Opening another heavy door, he guided me into a large room with a spacious king-size bed in the middle. The walls were covered in posters and pictures and pennants. Against one wall was a sizable writing desk, whilst against the other was a wardrobe that wouldn't look out of place in a CS Lewis novel. There was a lot of red and gold, but it looked just like any other teenager's bedroom.

A few objects, however, were an indication that this was not just any teenager's bedroom. At the foot of the bed was an oversized wooden trunk, with the letters J.S.P written on the side in gold, and in the corner, was a bird cage with an owl in it. An owl. An actual owl.

'Heeey,' James called to it as we entered. He hadn't said a word to me since we left the kitchen. 'Did you follow me here buddy?' He dropped my hand and walked over to the cage, leaving me standing aimlessly beside the door.

'You have an owl?'

'This is Nix. He's a Strix owl. Nix, this is Laura.'

The owl gave a long 'hooooo'.

'Did he just hoot at me?'

James grinned and scratched him on the head.

'They've picked up my stuff from school,' he nodded towards the trunk. 'I wonder if there's any food in it, mate?'

'Maybe,' I replied.

'I was talking to the owl.'

'Oh. Of course.'

I continued to stand awkwardly, as James rummaged in the trunk for several minutes. I got the feeling he was buying time. Neither of us had any idea what to say to the other. Eventually he stood up empty handed.

'I'm sorry,' we said in unison.

'What are you sorry for?' asked James.

'I think I annoyed your parents at the end of dinner.'

'That wasn't you. That was Albus stirring it. He shouldn't have mentioned any of that yet.'

'Any of what?'

'Laura you've had a lot to take in today. We should focus on that first.'

'What? That you're a wizard?'

'Exactly.' He looked at me expectantly.

'What?'

'You're not reacting like I thought you would.'

'Well you didn't exactly react like I thought you would when I told you I was pregnant,' I countered, indignant. 'I mean, I have been planning that conversation for months, and never did any of the scenarios end with you telling me you were magical being… A wizard… A wizard, James… You're a wizard!'

'See, that's how I thought you would react.'

'And your family!' I continued, ignoring him. 'You have a wizard family! And they all seem completely normal! And they have dinner normally! Except they're wizards! And can do magic! And your dad did magic! And you can do magic! And I need to sit down.'

'Here.' James lifted a well-worn cuddly lion off the bed, and I sat down in its place.

'Magic is real?'

'Yes,' said James, sitting down beside me.

'Are vampires real?'

'Yes.'

'Dragons?'

'Yes.'

'Werewolves?'

'Yes. Laura please don't cry.'

'The world was a scary enough place before. I am going to have a baby in a world were werewolves are real. And vampires. And goodness knows what else?'

I collapsed backwards on the bed, throwing my arms over my face.

'Laura, come on,' James lay down beside me. 'Teddy's dad was a werewolf and he was one of the greatest wizards my parents ever knew.'

'So, werewolves are good?' I peeked out from between my arms.

'Well… Remus was… but…'

I let out a squeal and threw my arms up again.

'Laura look at it this way. The world isn't any more dangerous than it was before. You just know about it now. All that stuff was always there. You just didn't notice it.'

'Notice it? Notice it? I think if I had ever seen a bloody dragon I would have noticed it!'

'Well they use enchantments and spells of course but…'

'But?'

'Muggles are particularly unobservant,' concluded James apologetically.

'Nobody's that unobservant James.'

'Ok. Without taking your hands off your eyes. What are the posters of on my walls?'

'There are men and women on broomsticks,' I said proudly.

'Uh huh and anything else?'

'They are wearing blue.'

'Good. And did you notice they are moving?'

I sat up quickly, my eyes frantically scanning every picture. He was talking nonsense of course. How could pictures m-

'Oh my God!'

'Muggles' brains tend to try and explain away anything they see that doesn't make sense. You see its always been here. You just didn't see it before.'

There was a short rap at the door and Albus entered.

'Mum says Laura can stay in here but you have to sleep in my room tonight,' he said flatly.

'Fine,' said James, not taking his eyes off me.

'I think she meant now James.'

'Fine. I'll be there in a minute.'

'Right now, James.'

'Laura is upset. I will be there in a minute,' replied James firmly, turning to look at his brother for the first time.

'Don't shoot the messenger!' Albus acquiesced. 'Personally, I think it's a case of locking the gate after the hippogriff has bolted, but whatever.'

James glared at him until he left.

'You should go.'

'Do you want me to?'

'I don't want to upset your mother anymore today.'

'Do you want me to stay?'

'Yes.'

'Then I'll stay.'

'But your mum…'

'It's fine. I'll just say you were in shock and I didn't want to leave you. I'll sleep fully clothed, on top of the covers. Besides Albus is right – how much more trouble can we get into?'

I instinctively rubbed my bump.

'Do you have anything I could sleep in? Like an old t-shirt?' This had been one of the longest days of my life and I was suddenly dog-tired.

'I'll find you something. And then I have a bedtime story for you.'

'Oh yeah? Is it a good one?'

'The best.'

'What's it called?'

'The Boy Who Lived.'