"Rose! You made it." said James as he let her in.
Rose laughed. "Don't you have any faith in me?"
"Of course. But seriously, how'd you do it?"
"Long story. We would have been okay, but then Tayden heard Lily and me discussing it and tipped off Professor Vector. We had to alter the plan quite a bit after that. We ended up taking a page out of your Dad's book and using Polyjuice." explained Rose.
"You seriously made six copies of yourself?! Is that even safe?"
Rose nodded. "We used some of my hair from before I got pregnant and gave everyone stomach padding."
"Okay, I want to hear the whole story." said James. "Have a seat."
"Then don't interrupt. First, Lily and Olivia Harbottle went down and tried to open the gate. Mr. Oliver followed them. They met Professor Vector just after she caught Roxanne and your dormmate Jordan trying to escape through the Floo in her office. Albus and Lucy's friend Valerie should have been discovered next. We found out the head boy likes to sneak off to Honeydukes, so they waited by the passage, and that took care of him. It was the head girl's night to patrol the grounds, so Fred and Marley got caught at the Whomping Willow to get her inside. Hugo even agreed to help, and met Neville outside the room of requirement with Harriet Green. Then Lucy and my friend Amber let Hagrid think they were trying to escape on a Thestral. With the grounds cleared, Brett and Liam distracted everyone with a fireworks display, so I could fly away in the opposite direction." she finished.
"Olivia helped? And the guys?"
Rose nodded.
"But Rose, that was so dangerous. Lucy and Amber could have been hurt. And you! Riding a broom when you're pregnant. Only a really good flyer could get out of the grounds and come all the way out here. Wait... did you say Harriet Green? Kyle's girlfriend?" asked James.
"Yes. He flew me here."
"Huh. I guess I should try to be a little nicer to him." decided James.
"You should. Shall we go to bed?"
"Are you tired?" asked James.
"No." replied Rose "Shall we go to bed?"
It clicked. "I would like that." said James politely. "If you want to."
"I want to."
Neither of them got much sleep that night. Rose didn't have class in the morning, but she wanted to be back fairly early. Might as well get her punishment over with. So James set an alarm for 5:00am, since there was a lot they needed to talk over.
"Is this bad?" asked Rose, as she lay comfortably against James' shoulder.
"What?" asked James. "You mean incest?"
"Well, sort of. It's not illegal to marry your cousin, so technically this isn't incest." replied Rose.
"Good to know." said James.
Rose laughed. "What I meant was, do we love each other?"
James considered. "Well, you're family, so of course I love you. But I love you more than I would love a cousin. More like, how I would love a sister. Of course, if you were my sister, the thought of doing anything like this would be completely repulsive. And you're carrying my children, so that's pretty important also."
"But is this love? Like a couple." persisted Rose.
"I love you like family and I love you sexually and I want to stay with you and support you, so yes." said James. "I think this is love."
"Why do you want to stay with me and support me?" asked Rose.
"Well, for the kids mostly." admitted James. "But even if something... happened to them, we're in this together. Forever. I wouldn't leave you."
"Thank you." said Rose. "Because if anything happens to the kids I'll need you."
"Er, we haven't really talked about that. Have you thought about it?" said James carefully.
Rose sighed. "Yes. But there's not much we can do. Hopefully our daughter gets to live a long and happy life with us. If she doesn't, we'll deal with that when it happens."
"You're being very stoic." said James. "It's really sad."
"I know." replied Rose "I'm telling myself that I need to be prepared. But I can't quite wrap my head around it."
"Okay." said James softly. "We won't talk about that then. Not yet."
"How will we live?" asked Rose. "Where will you work?"
"At the restaurant for now. It will be enough. I make about fifty galleons a week." explained James.
"What do you think our expenses will be like?" asked Rose.
"I dunno, maybe around fifteen? We shouldn't need much." said James.
Rose smiled. "This is so unlike you, all this research and preparation."
James shifted. "Well, I feel kinda bad for dropping the ball earlier. And it's actually interesting to find out all the best options and see what we'll need and figure out how I can provide it. All the pieces have to fit."
"Shouldn't we be doing it together though?" asked Rose.
"You're taking care of our babies. I feel bad that I can't be there to help you." replied James. "Are you doing okay Rosie?"
"It's not so bad. I don't like feeling fat, but it's a lot better than it was in the beginning, and better than it's going to be in the third trimester. Ugh, I just can't wait to have cravings and no bladder control and back pain." Rose rolled her eyes.
"What's it like now?" asked James curiously.
She grinned. "Mostly I'm just horny."
"Well that I can help with. Do we have time?" said James.
"We'll make time."
James had to work in the morning, so Rose walked up to the Hogwarts gates alone. She knew she would be in a lot of trouble, but she had needed to see James. After Tayden had tattled, Professor Vector had warned Rose not to sneak out and encouraged her to do the right thing. Which had made Rose angry, because wasn't it right for her to spend time with the father of her children? So Rose and Lily had concocted a plan to ensure Rose would have a night with James. That would be her only defense against Professor Vector's lecturing, but really now that it was over she was ready to accept her consequences.
Mr. Oliver met her at the gate and escorted her to the Headmistresses office.
"Well Rose, that was quite a performance last night." said Professor Vector.
"I'm sorry." said Rose sincerely.
"I let your friends off with a warning. Twenty points from anyone caught breaking curfew. Which puts Gryffindor at the bottom of the House standings." Professor Vector informed Rose.
"I'm sorry about that as well." said Rose.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" asked the headmistress.
"I felt my actions were appropriate, if illegal." said Rose. "I regret that they had to be so, and I accept my punishment."
"Hmmm. Well then, I think a week's worth of detentions in the Hospital Wing. Madam Longbottom has been kind enough to help you out, now you can return the favour." decided Professor Vector. "If you're well enough to escape, you're well enough to work. Go on, now."