Time: Early December, 1979

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"Adrienne, why in the world are you doing those by hand?" Sirius asked, incredulous as he carried some more dishes into the kitchen from the dining room.

"Because I felt like it," she responded. "It makes me feel all domestic and stuff."

James followed Sirius into the room. "Why? My mother never washed a dish by hand in her life, I'm sure."

"Well ours did," added Lily, entering with yet more dishes. "So let us do this the Muggle way, and you two can go amuse yourselves in some wizard fashion." The pair went into the other room as Lily picked up a dish towel and started drying what Adrienne had already washed.

It was the Potters' turn to hold the weekly meal the couples shared. Normally they all had a very good time, forgetting for even a few hours about the sate of the world they were living in, but tonight something had seemed a bit off. James had seemed more rambunctious than usual whereas Lily was rather subdued. As Adrienne turned to hand her a plate, she saw tears on her best friend's face. "What's wrong, hunny?" she asked, concerned.

Lily sighed and simply said, "I'm pregnant."

Having not expected that particular response, Adrienne was taken aback. Not knowing what else to say, she filled in the silence by saying awkwardly, "I didn't know you and James were trying."

That was the wrong thing to say. "We weren't," and then she dissolved into tears. With a wave of her wand, Adrienne set the dishes washing themselves and another brought a pot of water to boil as she guided the now sobbing Lily to a seat at the kitchen table. She poured each of them a cup of tea and then sat facing Lily and waited for her to regain control. "We weren't trying," she repeated more calmly, though her voice was still a bit shaky. "It was an accident. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to have a baby. I've always wanted to be a mother since I was little, you know that. But it's not the right time to bring a child into the world. It's too dangerous."

"It'll be ok, Lily," Adrienne tried to reassure her. "Everything will be ok."

"You say that, but you don't know," she answered bitterly. "People are dying left and right. No, don't argue, it's true. And it's known we're part of the Order. Not to mention that there's quite a few Deatheaters who just don't like us to begin with."

Adrienne didn't know what to say. It was true of course. She already lived in constant fear for her friends' lives. She tried to imagine being a mother herself. It wouldn't just be one more person to look after and worry about; it would also mean actually worrying about herself, if only for the baby's sake.

"Will you be the godmother?" Lily asked in a small voice. "James of course wants Sirius for godfather."

"Of course," Adrienne replied with a smile, hoping now she'd be able to cheer Lily up by talking about the fun parts of having a kid. "You know that me and Sirius will do anything for you guys, and the baby too."

Suddenly Lily grasped Adrienne's hand across the table and looked her straight in the eye with a ferocious intensity. "Adrienne, I want you to promise me that if anything happens to me and James, that you'll take care of the baby."

Uncomfortable with the question, Adrienne just said, "Nothing's going to happen to you. I won't let it."

"Stop it! Something could happen. And if it does, swear to me that you'll take care of my baby!"

Adrienne looked at Lily. She was so distraught. Adrienne didn't want to imagine anything happening to Lily and James. Other than Sirius, they were the most important people in the world to her, the only people left to her that she could trust one hundred percent of the time. The baby would be like a niece or nephew to her, as well as a godchild, just as the woman sitting across the table was the sister she had never had. And right now what her lifelong friend needed was a simple promise Adrienne hoped she would never have to fulfill. "I will do anything for your child, Lily. If something happens to you and James, Sirius and I will take care of him or her as if they were our own."

It worked. Lily smiled as the tears finally stopped, and she dried her face. As the two girls were standing up, James and Sirius came back in the room. "Oh, I see how it is," James said, laughing, "you just wanted us to think you were actually doing housework." Adrienne threw a sponge at his face and the rest of the night passed normally, Lily back to her usual self.

Later that night, after Sirius and Adrienne had returned to their own home, Sirius paused in the middle of getting ready for bed and turned to Adrienne in the bathroom. "Is it just me, or did something seem a little off with the two of them tonight?"

Adrienne used the excuse of rinsing her face to avoid his eyes while answering him with a question. "What do you mean?"

"I dunno," Sirius muttered. "James just was acting weird, and Lily was all quiet at first, but I guess she got back to normal..."

"Hmmm," Adrienne muttered, turning her back on him to head back into the bedroom. After pulling her nightgown over her head she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"Do you think they're having problems? Like, you know, with their marriage?"

Try as she might, Adrienne couldn't ignore the note of concern in his voice. "No, that's not it..."

"Well what do you think it is?"

She plopped down on the bed, buried her face in a pillow, and groaned, "Lily's pregnant."

She felt Sirius sit down beside her. "No, I don't think that's it. They don't want kids yet, James was even saying to me tonight it was a dangerous time—"

"Exactly," interjected Adrienne, rolling over to stare at the ceiling.

"Oh," said Sirius simply.

After a few moments, Adrienne said, "Lily made me promise we'd take care of the baby if something happened to them."

"Nothing's going to happen to them," he spouted off automatically.

"That's what I said," she raised herself to her elbows to look at him, "but, Sirius, what if something does?"

"James is the brother I never had." Adrienne decided that this was not the time to point out that Sirius actually did have a brother. "I would never let anything happen to them."