Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to JKR, anything you don't is mine.

A/N: Back to Regulus' POV!

I'm not even going to make excuse for my lateness. Just please, please, accept my sincere, heart-felt apology!

I'm also too lazy to go back to look to see who reviewed, so thanks to EVERYONE for the reviews!

Chapter 26

"I…I'm pregnant."

I felt my breath catch in my throat as I instinctively pulled my hands out of hers. My mind went completely blank.

You'd think I'd be happy, ecstatic. I had told Nicki I wanted several kids. But not yet – definitely not yet. Not only did we have a wedding to plan, but there was the war. And the fact that we were still so young. Nicki might have the mind of someone older, but she was in the body of a sixteen year old – having a baby could ruin her.

Not to mention she was undercover.

Oh shit – she was undercover. There was no way Riddle wouldn't find out eventually, and I knew she wouldn't stop.

How had this happened? We had only had sex once. Or…y'know…several times. But still, she was on the potion, and we had used protection each time.

Unless…

"Is it…is it mine?" I asked hoarsely. I had no idea how long I had been silent. Obviously, it had been a while, because Nick was starting to look worried. Her eyes met mine as she nodded.

"Of…of course!" she exclaimed, looking a little hurt.

I hadn't meant to offend her…

"Who else…who else's would it be?" she asked. I knew she could tell by my face who I was thinking of. She seemed to sigh, whether sadly or angrily I couldn't tell. "Okay, first off, if I got pregnant with his baby I wouldn't bother having it. I'm sorry, but I couldn't bring another one of them into this world. Second off, I haven't been undercover long enough for it to be his." I sighed, feeling absolutely horrible, before asking quietly,

"Are you…are you sure?"

"I swear to you, there's no way it could be anybody else's," she said quickly.

"No," I said quietly, shaking my head. "Are you sure that you're pregnant?" Nick nodded slowly.

"Madam Pomfrey even said so," she said softly, looking down at her hands in her lap. When I saw the horrified, depressed look in her eyes, I knew I had to do something. She looked like she expected me to start yelling or to walk out on her or something. I always knew her to be so strong; I had never seen her look like this before. But I would never, could never, leave her like that.

I shifted so I was sitting directly in front of her on my knees and took her hands in mine, squeezing them lightly. When she continued to look down at her hands, I said gently,

"Hey, look at me." She looked up, her eyes brimming with tears. She blinked slowly, causing tears to overflow from her eyes. I reached up and wiped them away lightly. "I promise you, it's going to be alright, there's nothing to worry or cry about. I know you're scared, I understand, but everything's going to be alright, I swear you."

Nick nodded slowly, as she looked down yet again. "It's just…I'm scared…" She looked back up at me, more tears falling down her cheeks.

"I know," I whispered, leaning forward and setting my forehead against hers. "But I swear to you I'll be there every step of the way." I kissed her briefly before leaning back. "Sirius told me how scared Scarlet was when she first found out she was pregnant with Leah."

"At least they were trying," she said, speaking louder than before, as though she were angry. But I knew she was just terrified, which was making her seem testy. Now this is the Nicki I know. "I had accepted that we would probably eventually have kids, but I don't want one now. I'm only sixteen, and there are so many things going on now that make it so complicated."

She let out a groan before pulling her hands out of mine and burying her face in them. I felt my heart completely break at seeing her about to break break down like that.

For a minute I sat there quietly, partly because I didn't know what to say, partly because I knew that crying would help her get some of her feelings out – I knew she was crying because I could see her shoulders shaking with sobs slightly. But after a moment I sat beside her again and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her against me. She buried her head in my shoulder.

We sat there silently for a while, me holding Nick against me while she cried silently. Only when her shoulders had almost completely stopped shaking did I ask quietly,

"Do you…you don't want an abortion, do you?" She looked up at me, her eyelashes still wet with tears, black makeup smeared down her face, and shook her head.

"I…no, I can't," she said simply. I sighed quietly – I had expected that answer. Even though she didn't want to have kids, she didn't believe in killing an innocent person, and I knew she wouldn't want to give it away.

"Look, it's not going to be the end of the world," I said. "Yes, it's going to be tough. But we'll get through it. We can work it out, okay? We've survived worse, haven't we? At least we know that something happy will come of this. At the end, we're going to have a beautiful baby, like Leah and Parker. We're going to be parents."

And that's when it really hit me.

We're going to be parents. Nick's going to have a baby.

For a second, I started freaking out. There were so many things that could go wrong with being pregnant and having a baby at sixteen. So many problems could be caused that could be semi or completely permanent, that could harm or even kill Nick. And then the fact that she was undercover…

"But, er….how is this going to work?" I asked after a minute, my eyes wide, trying not to freak out so that she wouldn't freak out even more. "With…y'know…you being undercover and all."

"That's why I'm scared," Nick whispered. "I'm not even worried about having a baby, or raising it. I've babysat Leah and Parker enough times to understand how to take care of kids. I know it's not the same…but…I think we could do it…But, with the undercover thing…I just…I don't…I have no idea. No fucking idea. And I – I –"

I could tell that she was getting worked up again, so I started massaging her shoulders gently, causing her to calm down greatly and completely stop talking.

"Look," I said quietly. "We'll figure this out, alright? We shouldn't worry right now; we just need to…to sort our lives out before we worry about Riddle's, okay?" Nick nodded, blinking. "So…er…does anybody else know?"

"Well…yeah, a few."

"Who?"

"Madam Pomfrey, Lily, James, Harry, and…oh yeah, Remus and Sirius were there…" She suddenly stopped, biting her bottom lip.

"What…?" I asked, a little worried. She mumbled something I didn't understand, looking down at her hands. "What? Does somebody else now?"

"No," she said quickly – so quickly I knew she was lying.

"Don't lie to me," I said quietly. "Who else knows?" She mumbled something I didn't understand, looking down at her hands. "Who?"

"Riddle," she said quietly before she looked back up at me quickly. "I didn't mean to tell him, it just slipped out! I didn't want him to know, not now, not ever, especially not before you, but –!"

"W-W-Why…why would you tell him?" I had a feeling there was something she wasn't telling me.

"I didn't want to, I swear!" she said, shaking her head. "I'm so sorry, Reg, it slipped out! At least now we don't have to worry about him finding out some other way," she added quietly, shrugging slightly. I stared at her blankly. Now I knew there was something she wasn't telling me.

"You didn't answer my question," I pointed out, starting to get slightly worried. What could Riddle have done that made her tell him something that personal and important? "Why did you tell him? Did he…hurt you, or – or force it out of you, or something?"

"No!" she said quickly. "He just…he made me mad, is all, and I just…let it slip." Even though she was supposed to be such a great liar, I could tell something was wrong.

"You know I love you, right?" I asked. Her eyes met mine and she nodded.

"I –" she started, but she stopped, looking confused, when I shook my head.

"And you can trust me with anything, right?" She nodded again.

"Of course," she said. "Why?" I paused for a moment before looking her straight in the eye and saying,

"Then you know you can tell me what, exactly, he did to make you tell him, right?" Nick sighed and paused for a few moments.

"Trust me," she said, shaking her head. "You don't want to know." I blinked, and I could tell she knew that I still wanted to know. "Or, maybe, you do," she muttered. "Well, he just made me mad, like always, and it slipped out, alright?" I gave her a look that clearly said I didn't believe her. She sighed. "Look, I don't even want to think about it, let alone talk about it."

"Nicki, please, tell me," I said. "I want to know. I can tell he must've really made you mad." She was silent. "Please?"

"Okay, fine," she said. "After I found out the note that Riddle sent you – which was a total lie, by the way, I wasn't there at all," she added quickly. "Anyways, I went to Malfoy Manor and I found Riddle and started yelling at him. But, er, he started threatening you, so –"

"Is that why you told him?" I asked, confused. Nicki was used to Riddle threatening me, if that's all he had done, why had she told him? She shook her head slowly.

"No, no, that's not all," she said. "He was being really creepy and next thing I knew he put me under a Sleeping Charm."

I didn't like where this was going…

"And…when I woke up, I…er…"

"What?"

"He…uh…he tried to…tried to…tried to have sex with me."

She said the last part so fast that I almost didn't understand what she said at first, but then it hit me.

At first, I felt rage, and I wanted to go find Riddle and murder him on the spot – but who knew if he had any Horcruxes made yet, and I would probably end up getting myself killed instead. Then, I realized that this must've traumatized Nick – obviously it had to the point that she had to tell him she was pregnant to get him to stop – and I couldn't leave her alone like that.

But then rage came over me again…

"What?" I asked through gritted teeth, clenching my fists and standing up quickly.

"Where are you going?" Nick asked, startled, as she shifted to sit on her knees.

"What do you think? I'm going to fucking murder him." I snarled, starting for the door.

"No – Regulus – please, stay with me – please –" I unlocked the door. "Don't leave me alone, please." I was on the verge of walking out when she said it. It normally wouldn't have bothered me, but I could hear the quiet desperation in her voice and knew I couldn't just abandon her like that when she had just had that huge of a traumatic incident.

I sighed and closed the door lightly behind me before dropping to my knees right in front of Nick, taking her hands in mine. She seemed to be looking anywhere but at me, so I said gently,

"Hey." She still didn't look. "Hey, look at me." She looked up slowly, a look of either impending doom or terror in her eyes. "Tell me what happened."

"I just did," she said, confused.

"No," I said, shaking my head slightly. "Tell me everything that happened." She sniffed and paused for a few seconds.

"Look, I don't want to talk about it right now," she replied quietly. "Can we just go…I don't know, talk to everybody downstairs? I haven't talked to them in a while." I sighed, and, reluctantly, helped her up and started for the door.

"Can you promise me something?" she asked suddenly right before I had opened the door.

"Sure," I said, stopping and turning to face her.

"Please don't tell anybody about the…the whole almost rape thing, please? I just…I don't want people to make it a bigger deal than it is." It is a pretty big deal, I thought, but didn't say for fear she would get upset, and instead merely said,

"I promise, alright?" The corners of her lips twitched up slightly.

"Thanks, Reg."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

(A/N: Back to Nicole's POV. I hope all the changes in POV aren't too confusing, but there should only be a few more to come!)

The next day, I had literally nothing to do. I was off for the day but, because it was a Wednesday, almost everybody else had to go to work or school. The only people left in Grimmauld place were Mad-Eye, Mrs. Weasley, Lily, Scarlet, and the three children who were too young for Hogwarts yet.

I couldn't stand it there. Lily kept giving me these weird looks, obviously wondering how I was doing with the whole pregnancy issue, and nobody else had anything interesting to say at all.

So, even though Lily had warned me not to, I snuck out while "using the loo." Somehow, Mad-Eye was the only one who seemed to suspect something – however, he must not have told them, because they didn't come searching for me and I knew he would be able to see me leave.

At first, I had no idea where to go. It was the middle of the day on a Wednesday. First I thought of swinging by The Three Broomsticks for a drink, but then I realized that I couldn't drink anymore, since I was pregnant, so I decided just to visit all four of the twins at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

When I passed through the Leaky Cauldron, Tom, the bartender, kept asking me what I wanted – I think I told him I was just passing through at least fifteen times. Finally, I shook him off and walked quickly to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

I could tell the stress of the war was starting to reach the entire wizarding population, even if they didn't all know that Voldemort was back – I suppose the stress of knowing there was 23 escaped convicts on the loose didn't calm anybody. There were posters for nearly every escaped or missing Death Eater covering the fronts of shops, so much you could hardly see into them, and many shops had already been shut down and boarded up.

I could tell it was only going to get worse as the war went on.

I just hoped it didn't get as bad as it had been in my fourth year – Harry's sixth – in my other time. That was dreadful. But as I headed toward Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, I could tell it was going to be that bad soon. Shoppers were already rushing around with nervous looks on their faces, brushing off any of the wizards and witches selling things at the stalls in the middle of the alley without even looking to see what they were.

I slipped into the nearly empty shop without worry and found all four of them in the back, testing some new items to sell.

"Nicki!" Gideon said suddenly when he saw me. The other three all turned to face me. "Long time no see."

"I know," I replied, pulling up a chair around their table and sitting between Fabian and George. "I was starting to miss you guys."

"Well what brings you to Diagon Alley today?" Fred asked lightheartedly.

"Nothing, I was just bored and decided to come visit you guys." I paused and lowered my voice a little. "It's really depressing out there, you'd think they all know that Voldemort's back." They all nodded.

"I know," George said. "I think the only way we keep going when everybody else is slowly loosing business and shutting down is because people need a laugh these days."

"I agree," I said.

"You alright?" Fabian said suddenly. "You seem a little…off." I nodded, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied quietly. "I'm just…a little worried, I suppose. Everything's happening so fast, and I'm getting overwhelmed and nervous."

"You? Nervous?" Fred laughed, sounding disbelieving.

"What are you nervous about?" Gideon asked, ignoring his less mature nephew. I shrugged.

"I just…it's hard to explain. I'm just…getting freaked out. I think I'm finally starting to be terrified of Voldemort just like everybody else."

"Look," Fabian said, "You're the bravest person I know."

"Look what you've been through!" George agreed.

"And look how strong and brave you still are after all of that!" Fred finished for his twin, finally done laughing at me.

"You don't have to think that you're the only person that can kill Voldemort, because we're all in this together, you're not alone," Gideon continued.

"You've got so many people behind you," Fabian said, patting me lightly on the back. "You have reason to be afraid, yes, because Voldemort is ruthless and is capable of so much, but you don't have to worry too much, because you have so many people that love you and will help you."

"But it's not like you need much help anyways," Fred and George said at the same time.

"But if you do, you have so many people behind you that will gladly lend a hand," Gideon finished.

They left me not only flattered but feeling better than I had in a while, like I could do anything, even conquer the world if I wanted to. I smiled at them all.

"Leave it to you guys to be the ones to make me feel better," I said, still smiling. "Who knew you could be serious if you had to be?"

"Well if we need to be Sirius, all we have to do is take Polyjuice Potion," Fred said with a complete straight face. I hit his shoulder lightly.

"Oh, shut up," I muttered. "You were doing so well!" I paused. "Okay, now you have to show me the new stuff you're working on."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I think I spent over two hours talking to them, joking and just having fun for the first time in a while. At one point they broke out some alcohol and didn't understand why I wouldn't take it, but decided they werejust going to drink it even if I refused to.

On my way back out of the alley, most of the people at the stalls set up down it either seemed to recognize me as the girl who had killed Voldemort in the seventies or just didn't bother approaching me, but one brave soul, a scraggly looking wizard with a long black beard, did. He was selling necklaces that apparently blocked not only all Dark Magic but also worked against werewolves, Dementors, and Inferi.

"How about one for you, madam?" he asked in an annoying voice to me as I passed by. "Protect your pretty little neck?" I merely ignored him, but he started following me down the alley a bit, making most of the people walking by stop to watch, wondering how I would react. "Don't want to hurt yourself out there; it's getting more and more dangerous. Don't you want to be protected?" Annoyed, I spun around to face him.

"I'm sorry sir, but do you have a license to be selling these?" He stared at me blankly.

"Huh?" he asked after a minute.

"It's illegal to set up shops in the alley unless you have a license from the Ministry of Magic, and I, as an Auror, have the right to shut you down…next time I'm on duty…if I please."

"You're not an Auror," he said, sneering at me. "You're just a child."

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said rather rudely. "But I kinda am." I pulled my Auror badge out of my pocket and showed it to him, as we were required to have it on us at all times even when not on duty. The man started backing away slowly.

"And even if I wasn't an Auror," I continued. "I wouldn't need your phony necklaces anyway. I'm smart enough to know that you're all scams and your necklace probably wouldn't help me against anything at all."

"Well, well, well," a sudden, familiar voice behind me said. "Miss Nicole Potter. I didn't know you had it in you."

I turned around slowly, hoping to Merlin it wasn't who it sounded like, to find myself face-to-face with none other than Bellatrix Lestrange.

A/N: Like it? Love it? Hate it? Leave me a review to tell me your opinions! Constructive criticism is appreciated! You can even tell me what you'd like to see happen later in the story if you want.