Wednesday 20th February 1981

Godric's Hollow, 14:00

"It's only Remus, now," James said, rubbing his hand on his forehead.

Remus was the last person they wanted Peter to tell the secret to. They had wanted some people to still be able to come over, it just had to be a very, very, very select few. Which was easy enough for them to decide but the whole process made them all feel on edge and Peter got twitchier with each one so they were trying to get it over and done with quickly.

"Well tell him as soon as he gets back," Lily said with a nod.

It would be good to get that all out of the way. It would be something done.

"Whenever that is," James said darkly.

"James..." she said warningly.

He wasn't going to do this again. Not now.

"What? The least he could do was tell us something!"

"He can't! You know that!"

Remus was doing a mission for the Order. By himself. Which was pretty normal for Remus because he was usually put on research or following people. But this one was different. This one he was being sent away to do Merlin knows what and probably be at all sorts of risks. Lily didn't like it. She got a sick feeling in her stomach every time she thought of it. Who knew what Dora was even feeling? She hadn't exactly been saying much about it. Granted, she hadn't been saying much at all considering she was always so knackered between looking after Teddy and Auror Training. She'd have to make time to talk with her, catch up and all that. But first she had to catch James up on a certain subject. Tonight.

Godric's Hollow, 20:00

"James?"

James knew that he should be doing more than simply staring at his wife with his jaw hanging open but he didn't exactly have the braincells to make decisions like that at the moment. Mainly because they were all focused on one thing, the news Lily had just given him.

She waved a hand in front of his face.

"James? James!"

He kind of looked right through her, though the movement of her hand did make him blink.

Lily had just told him that she was pregnant. Pregnant with a baby because that's what being pregnant meant. A baby. Their second baby. They were going to have a baby. He's, he was still having trouble wrapping his head around it.

How could this happen? Well, he knew how it happened - and enjoyed the process, thank you very much- but he thought they had been careful. They had wanted to plan their next baby. It didn't seem right to add another child to the mix when the war was even worse than when Harry was born and now, they were in hiding. It was a bad enough life for Harry, was it wrong to add another child? Was it right to?

But a baby. Another tiny, little life. A brother or sister for Harry. Someone to grow up with, to play with. Something James hadn't had when he was growing up.

Then his stomach dropped again. Merlin, this was really an emotional roller coaster. It was another life to bring up. To raise into a tiny human and then a bigger human. And James knew that they still had no idea what they were doing when it came to raising children. They didn't even know if they were raising Harry right and now, they were going to throw another child into the mix?

Lily then gave him a hesitant smile. He then realised that she was just as in shock as he was and even a little bit scared. It was the thought of Lily being scared that snapped him back to reality. He gave her a big smile.

"We're going to have another baby?" He felt like it should be confirmed again.

A shy nod was his response. He didn't even hesitate, now that he'd processed everything, James jumped up to engulf her in a hug.

"Oof, James!"

But there was laughter in her voice and she hugged him back.

They were going to have another baby!

"What do you think of that, Harry?" James asked in a baby voice, turning to his son in his bouncy chair and chucking him under the chin. "You're going to have a baby brother or sister."

"Buh!" He exclaimed excitedly, reacting to his parents' excitement.

"Looks like he wants a brother," James chuckled.

Lily laughed as well and gave Harry a kiss. He made an exaggerated "mwah" noise back at her, much to both of their delight. Harry was so smart.

"We're going to have two of these," Lily said in amazement.

Two children. It was going to be pretty amazing, wasn't it?

Harry chose this moment to start to cry. Loudly. Both of them winced as it went up in volume to a shriek.

Two babies crying wasn't going to be amazing, was it?

Saturday 23rd February 1981

Marauder Flat, 12:00

This was bad. This was very, very bad. Peter could feel the panic well up and threaten to overwhelm him even as he thought about it. And there were a lot of thoughts. Each worse than the last.

No, no, no. This couldn't be happening to him. Not to him. But it had and now he couldn't change it could he?

No. He couldn't and he shouldn't even be thinking of something like that because it was wrong.

He couldn't believe that it had happened. That James and Lily had actually done it. And used him. They trusted him. They believed in him. How about that? Well, technically Sirius believed in him because he had actually suggested him. Which was even more impressive in Peter's books. He always got the impression that Sirius didn't think that highly of him or something.

So, this was a good thing, wasn't it? Even though it was scary and important and he couldn't mess up, it was still a good thing. Yeah. It was really good! He was the one keeping the secret! That was the most important part, wasn't it? It was! Peter puffed up on pride at the thought.

Then he deflated again. It was an awfully big responsibility, wasn't it? A really really big one.

Or was literally the difference between life and death. Of his best friends! There was nothing, nothing bigger than that!

Okay. Peter stopped in his tracks and took deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out. Slowly.

You know what? It was going to be fine. Really. Sirius had confidence in him. James had confidence in him. Lily had confidence in him. He just had to have confidence in himself and all would be fine. Really.

And he could do that. He really could. Because he was good. He could keep secrets and this was no different to any other secret, right?

Sunday 24th February 1981

Godric's Hollow, 11:00

"I was right, wasn't I?" Marlene said shrewdly as Lily twisted her hands together in front of her.

Lily nodded mutely, biting her lip.

"I told you."

She frowned at her friend. That was the last thing that she needed to hear, thank you very much. Not that Marlene looked particularly sorry for doing so.

"Oh, be quiet," she grumbled, pulling her knees up to her chest and leaning her forehead on them.

Marlene just chuckled at her, which was also not appreciated by the way. Why didn't she have a better best friend?

"So, how are you feeling about it?" Marlene asked, breaking the weird silence that had settled between them.

"I, I don't know."

Lily actually felt helpless, of she was being honest with herself. Which she wasn't right now in an attempt to realise the situation she had managed to get herself into.

Two babies. Two babies under the age of two. While they were in hiding. While there was a war on. While they had targets on their backs.

"Well, surely you're feeling something."

Harry interrupted them with a happy squeal, suddenly zooming about the floor on his toy brroms5ick. A squeal also came from Cassie, though thus one was an unhappy one as she reached for Harry. Apparently, she wanted a go as well.

Lily couldn't help but laugh at his an5ics as she stood up to grab him. Marlene was just glad that she wasn't looking so sad and worried anymore.

"Where did you get that, huh?" Lily cooed, placing him on her hip.

Harry did not look eased with this and reached down for the broomstick that was at her feet. The broomstick that Cassie was now crawling towards, determined to get to. Unfortunately for her daughter, Marlene grabbed her. That earned her a loud cry.

"I could have sworn I put that away," Lily said in exasperation, shaking her head. "He always seems to find it."

"Cassie's the same," Marlene said with a laugh. "It makes Sirius so smug. Tells me that that proves he was right getting her one for Christmas. He'll be glad that Harry's doing the same with his. He and James will probably never stop talking about a Marauder Quidditch Team now."

Lily groaned playfully at that while Marlene grinned. Somehow Lily thought that Marlene would be equally as bad. She loved quidditch as well, after all.

"He's not even walking properly yet," she complained.

"He might not need to if he can fly," Marlene said with a laugh.

Lily sent her a glare, she wasn't helping. Harry currently could pull himself up on pretty much a piece of furniture but he hadn't got anywhere further than that. He just stood there, looking around him with interest at this new perspective until he forgot to keep a hold of whatever he had pulled himself up with a fell back on his backside. It was like he had absolutely no interest in walking. Shouldn't he be at least trying to do that right now? Cassie did! She did this weird shuffle while holding onto the edge of the sofa with both hands. Neville even tried to walk the other day, according to Alice. Why wasn't Harry doing any of that yet?

Of course, Teddy was already walking but he was older so that was to be expected.

"You're going to have two getting into mischief." Marlene chuckled.

Lily groaned at that. "Don't remind me. Harry already puts everything in his mouth. Imagine that with him walking and then another baby at this stage."

"You are so screwed."

"You could at least try to be a little supportive." She said reproachfully.

"Oh, this is me being supportive," Marlene assured her.

"What about you, do you want another one?" Lily asked.

"No." Marlene said without hesitation which made Lily raise an eyebrow.

"Don't get me wrong, I love Cassie but there's no way I want to go through being pregnant again. It was horrible. "

Lily looked down at her still somewhat flat stomach (hey, Harry wasn't a hear old yet!) and bit her lip at the memory of her last pregnancy. Remembering the nausea and the dizziness and the feeling like a big bloated, floating thing.

"It was, wasn't it?" She said quietly, almost to herself.

"Look," Marleen said, standing up to sot herself right next to Lily. "You've got this, trust me. If I had to pick anyone to do this it would be you. You're going to be fine."

Monday 25th February 1981

Auror Office, 10:00

"No, no, no, no, no!" Kingsley said frantically as he rummaged through his desk.

Bits of parchment and broken quills went everywhere as he did so. Which wasn't on purpose, it wasn't like he was chucking things around but it's kind of just happened as he was looking around rather urgently.

"Argh!" He reached across his desk and grabbed the ink bottle that had spun dangerously.

It, having no lid (obviously), splattered him and some of the parchment with ink before he caught it. Of course, he caught the bottle on its side so that the rest of the ink spilled out into a puddle on the only bare spot on his desk. That was going to stain. Great. Just great. It wasn't like he needed any more problems.

"You know, this wouldn't happen if you kept your desk tidy," Sirius pointed out, sounding far too amused.

"My desk isn't that messy," Kingsley said indignantly, only to be thoroughly disproved almost immediately as a haphazardly stacked pile of parchment slide sideways and onto the floor. "And I suppose you have a system?"

Sirius snorted. "Who do you take me for? Remus? No. No system for me. But that doesn't mean that my desk isn't tidy!"

Kingsley looked over to Sirius' desk and noticed that the slightly younger man was right. There didn't seem to be and rhyme or reason to the stack of parchment on his desk but it was neat. Namely, there was a blank space at the front where Sirius could write something without being on top of something else and the parchment was in stacks that weren't threatening to fall over. How did he manage that? Kingsley found that his parchment never wanted to stay stacked, hence why it was normally all spread out over his desk.

"Yeah, well, I'm not like you," Kingsley said in a disgruntled tone.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "That much is obvious."

"Oh, shut up."

"What are you doing anyway?" Sirius asked. "You never answered."

"Looking for a report," he replied sheepishly. "It's done! It's just... gone walkies."

Sirius' lips twitched. "Gone walkies?"

"Yeah."

"You do realise how ridiculous you sound, right?"

"Have you seen it, Sirius?"

Sirius shook his head. "I haven't. Why is it suddenly so urgent that you need it?"

"Moody wanted it yesterday," Kingsley admitted.

"Oh, yeah. You're dead," Sirius said immediately.

Longbottom Manor, 15:00

"Neville, Neville! Oh, where are you?"

Alice made an exasperated noise. All she had done was set Neville on the floor for one minute. One minute was the time kt took her to close the parlour door and to put up the ward that stopped Neville getting at the bottom shelves of anything in here. One minute was all it took for Neville to vanish.

Neville had learned how to crawl. And crawl fast. Very fast. Now, Neville's ability to do something well would normally be a matter of pride for Alice but not this time. Because this particular skill was not something for her to be happy about. Not like when he had pulled himself up and tried to take a step. Which he had failed at but she was still extremely happy about that. Walking was far different than this speed crawling. Walking didn't mean that her child got lost under something before she could grab him!

A happy gurgle came from somewhere near her feet and she frowned. That sounded close. There it was again! Dropping to her knees, she put her head to the floor so she could look under things. Neville always ended up hiding under something. There were just too many places that were the perfect size for babies to squirm their way into.

Nope, not under the table. Another gurgle and then babbling for his "ba-bo-bo" which Alice knew was for his bottle. He was hungry. You would think that he wouldn't go and hide from her if he was hungry. But he did because he thought it was great fun, even if it made her anxious every time kt happened.

Oh, she knew that she was being silly and she wouldn't actually lose him hut the fear was still there.

Because right now she couldn't find him. At all. She was going to have to ask the Elves. To find her own son. Yes, that was more than a little bit humiliating.

"Da, la, mama!"

Alice froze and listened.

"Mama! Do, lo, mo, toe."

That was Neville! He was over there! She scrambled across the room, pushing a chair and a little footstool out of the way but not caring because right there, behind the sofa, was Neville!

"There you are," she said in relief, swopping him up into her arms. She wasn't going to have to get the Elves to get him after all. That would just be embarrassing. "What we're you doing?"

Of course, Neville didn't understand her and just giggled, finding this whole situation hilarious.

Wednesday 27th February 1981

Tonks' Home, 03:00

Dora woke up with a gasp, drenched in a cold sweat. That was the third time this week and it was only Wednesday! Well, Thursday now. She checked the time with a quick tempus. Three am. Yep, it was Thursday. Three am before getting woken up by nightmares was pretty good for her these days. So that was some improvement.

What wasn't an improvement was the racing heart and the awful thoughts swirling around her head.

She was okay. Teddy was okay. She heard her dad snore down the hall. Her parents were okay. Remus was okay.

Well, actually, she didn't know about Remus. That was the problem. He might not be okay and she wouldn't know anything about it.

It was the not knowing that was bothering her. More than bothering her, it was causing her pain. Actual pain. What of there was something wrong with Remus and no one knew? What was going to happ3n on the full moon? Remus had never not been restrained or without company on the full moon. What if he hurt himself? Or someone else. Oh, Merlin, he'd never be able to cope of he hurt someone.

No, she'd know, wouldn't she? She'd be able to feel it or something. Or Dumbledore would know. Yeah. And Dumbledore did t seem worried, nor had he brought Remus up in any of the meetings. Yeah. Kt was all going okay. Right?

With a heavy sigh, she threw herself back against her pillows. At least her heart rate had slowed down now. Her body was no longer in fight or flight mode. Which was good because she probably should be getting to sleep. Casting a quick tempus, Tonks groaned. She had to be up in two hours to go to work. And the Auror Academy was something you definitely needed to be well rested for.

It was definitely getting tougher and she'd thought that those first few months had been bad. Tonks snorted and punched her pillow back into shape in an effort to get settled. Those first months looks so easy in hindsight. If only training now could be what it was like back then.