Prompt: (object) stocking

The Smallest Stocking

The fact that Sirius hadn't noticed yet was driving Marlene crazy. She'd only found out yesterday and had formulated this perfect way of telling him. All he had to do was notice and ask her about it.

He was reading the Daily Prophet, as he usually did late in the evening, when he finally noticed that something was off. Marlene had been trying to read her book for the last half hour, her heart racing, wondering if she would just have to blurt it out and ruin her clever plan. When she found herself reading the same word for the twentieth time, she closed her book and began pacing in front of the fire. It hung on the mantel, blending in with the rest of the Christmas decorations perfectly, but she knew he would see it eventually.

"Are you alright, Mar?" he asked, looking up from his paper. "You've been pacing for the last five minutes."

"Just restless, I suppose," she answered. This seemed to satisfy him and he went back to his reading. This just wouldn't do. She was going to get too excited and tell him if he didn't figure it out. "Would you come here a minute, love?"

He set the paper down and looked at her suspiciously. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing, I just want to ask you something. And yes, you have to come over here for me to ask you."

When he joined her by the fire, she motioned to the mantel. "I'm thinking I'm missing something in my decorations here," she said innocently. "What do you think?"

"That was your big question?" He looked at her as though she were crazy. "You really want my opinion on that?"

"Yes, please. It's important."

He sighed and looked at the mantel, his eyes passing over the object twice before resting on it, his expression changing from mildly irritated to puzzled. "That wasn't there before. Why is that there?" He pointed at the small stocking she had placed between their two bigger ones earlier that day. It looked exactly like theirs, except that it had no name on it. Not yet, anyway.

She smiled. Finally. "We won't be needing it this year, but I thought we could get used to seeing it there."

"Why would we need a third stocking? It's just the two-" His eyes widened as he realized what she meant. "Are you-?"

"I am. We're going to have a baby." It seemed so strange to say it out loud. Strange and wonderful at the same time.

"We're going to have a baby?" He sounded dumbstruck. "I can't believe it."

The smile dropped from her face. "Please tell me this isn't a problem." They hadn't really discussed the possibility of starting a family before or after they were married. Marlene had always known that she wanted to be a mother, but she didn't know if Sirius felt the same way about being a father.

"No, of course not." He pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. "Please believe me when I say that I couldn't be happier about this. I'm just...nervous, I guess. My father wasn't what I would call the fatherly type. I'm not sure if I know how to do this."

Marlene pulled away to look up at him. "I have no doubt that you'll be great. You'll learn a lot along the way. He may have been a bad example of what a good father is, but that means he was a good example of what a bad one is."

He kissed her lightly on the forehead. "You always know just what to say to reassure me." Looking down, he put a hand on her belly. "I'm going to do my best, so just be patient with me, little one."

Looking over at the three stockings again, Marlene smiled. Christmas was going to be so much fun next year.