James sunk into the chair next to his friend, face flushed, fists balled in anger as he forced himself to calm down. The front door slammed on the floor below and they all knew that Lily was long gone. When she would be back was anyone's guess, it wasn't the first time.
"What happened, mate?" Sirius asked sympathetically from in front of the fireplace. Three concerned faces stared back at him as he looked around the room.
"I'm not entirely sure she's going to come back this time."
"Oh come on now" Peter tried with false enthusiasm, "You've fought before, she always comes back, she even forgives you for all the stupid things you say."
"Ya well, add another one to that list."
"How bad can it be really? She knows you" Sirius offered reassuringly, "She'll come around. It's just the pregnancy and hormones and things making her crazy and you're an easy target, right?"
James grimaced.
"She says I ought to have told her about the prophecy right from the start, that I was overprotective and this couldn't work if I was going to lie to her..."
He ran his hand through his hair with a sigh, looking up in time to catch Sirius and Remus exchanging a significant look.
"What?" he demanded.
"Well" Remus started slowly, "You know where I stood on this from the beginning Prongs, so I don't have to tell you I agree with her."
"Well gee thanks, that's really helpful right now" he said sarcastically. "But unfortunately that's not the worst of it."
"You said something stupid and insensitive, didn't you?" Remus asked as though he already knew the answer. James nodded.
"Spit it out then" SIrius said.
He sighed and lowered his head into his hands, rubbing them over his face. He felt as though he hadn't slept in days, nothing was going right...
"Basically I told her that she'd be dead by now if it wasn't for me."
Three stony faces as his friends considered the stupidity of his words.
"And what did she say?" Peter asked finally.
"She told me to do something unpleasant with my antlers that I'd rather not repeat."