"Lily's in labor!" Remus cried as he came home one night. "James brought her in right when I got off work! They sent me to get you guys."
Loralei and Sirius jumped up.
"Let's go." Loralei said.
They waited for hours, waiting for news. It wasn't until the morning of July 31st that they were allowed to see the Potter family...and their newest addition. A beautiful baby boy with black hair and pink skin. His eyes weren't open yet, but Loralei knew that the kid had Lily's eyes. Other than that he was a carbon copy of James when he was a baby.
"Oh, my first nephew." Loralei crooned over the baby as her brother handed little Harry to her. "I expect more." She told them. "Yes, I do. Yes, I do." She sighed. "He's perfect."
Lily and James smiled at each other.
"This just makes you want to have one of your own, doesn't it?" Sirius bumped his hip against hers lightly.
She nodded. "Yeah, a little bit." She looked to James and Lily. "I'm an excellent babysitter. Please ask anytime."
"We know, but I think we're going to have enough trouble fighting each other to hold him." James told her, receiving a light elbow to the stomach from Lily.
"That'll wear off." Loralei told them, looking at Lily. "Do you want us to leave you to rest? You must be super tired."
Lily nodded. "Thank you."
Loralei handed the baby to James. "I take it you want to keep the baby."
"They also need to check him out." James agreed, moving the blanket Harry was wrapped in away from his face. "He is perfect, isn't he?"
"He's going to be the best of the both of you." Remus told them.
"Lily's brain definitely." Sirius joked.
"Come on, you two." Loralei pulled on their arms. "Let's let the happy family bond."
Lily smiled appreciatively at Loralei. "Thank you."
"But this will only keep us away for so long." Loralei informed her. "We'll give you guys, what? A day or two?" She looked at the boys for agreement. When they nodded she turned back to the new parents. "We're going to be back, and we're going to want our cuddles with the new baby."
"Cuddles?" James asked.
"Yes, I want to cuddles the baby." Loralei told her brother. "Do not make fun of my word choice. I like my word choice."
"All righty, then."
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The next day Loralei was sitting in St. Mungo's for her annual check for being in the field. They needed to make sure she was all up to date with everything. Make sure she didn't have any long term effects from anything-including the veela's powder that was used on her last winter.
She sat on the examining table with only the gown on, waiting for a healer to come in. She felt uncomfortable in the cold room with barely any clothes on, but she couldn't do anything about it. She rubbed at the goose bumps on her arms.
Her healer, Dominique finally entered. A woman in her thirties with chocolate skin and black hair tied back from her face. She was tall and thin and smiled at Loralei after looking at her chart.
"So far you're all checked out. All we need now is a pregnancy test and we're through." She said.
Loralei sighed. "Okay." She couldn't be pregnant. Loralei had been on the potion since she was fifteen.
"Okay, just lay back and take off your gown and it should just take a few seconds." She told Loralei, pulling out her wand.
Loralei did as she was told, laying back and waiting.
"What are you using for birth control?" Healer Dominique asked.
"The potion." Loralei told her.
"How many partners have you had?" She asked.
"Two." Loralei answered.
"And in the last year?"
"One."
"Have you ever tried to get pregnant?"
"No, never."
She nodded before pausing. Loralei saw her bite her lip.
"What?" Loralei asked.
"You're pregnant, Miss Potter." She said softly. "Not far along. A few weeks at most."
"How is that possible? We've always been safe." Loralei said, her eyebrows furrowing.
"You're part veela, Miss Potter. You have different genetics from humans. It doesn't work the same on you." She told her.
Loralei sighed, taking it in, but not fully believing it. "I'm an auror."
"You still can be, but you can't be in the field."
"I haven't been for a few months now." Loralei sighed, getting on her elbows. "Any other news?"
"Do you want to know the sex of the baby?" She asked.
"You know already?"
"We're not muggles, we get to know right away. Do you want to know?"
Loralei shook her head. "No. I don't want to know." Her hand wandered to her stomach. She was scared. So scared. She wasn't like Lily. She didn't always dream of having children, but she knew she would love this child. More than anything.
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"Sirius, do you want kids?" Loralei asked Sirius that night when they were laying in bed. She was trying to come up with a time to tell him, but she didn't know how. There's no way to really know how someone was going to say or react when they are told. She knew Sirius well enough to know he wouldn't be upset.
"Of course I do." He replied. "With genes like ours? It's a crime not to pass them on to the next generation."
Loralei laughed, that made her feel better. "Well, you know how I went to the doctor today?"
He looked at her, suspecting what was coming next. "Yes?"
"I'm pregnant." She told him.
A smile spread across his face. "Are you serious?" He looked at her stomach. "We have a little baby Black in there?" He touched her stomach softly, like he was scared that he would be able to break her.
Loralei nodded. "Yeah. I mean, it could be a boy or a girl."
"I hope its a boy." Sirius said. "Because when we have a girl we need someone to be the overprotective big brother at Hogwarts with her."
Loralei laughed. "Okay. But we should probably come up with names for both, just in case."
He nodded. "Just in case." He grinned. "Do we know the birth date yet?" He looked like a kid on Christmas morning, almost jumping up and down in the bed.
Loralei shook her head. "I have a follow up visit with a prenatal specialist Monday."
"Can I come?" He asked.
"Do you want to? I think it's mostly going to be about potions and stuff I should be taking."
"Of course I want to come. I can help you with stuff. We can even stop drinking. Both of us." He said. "Um...What's another thing Lily had to do?"
Loralei thought for a second. "I don't really remember."
"That moves on to a different question." Sirius said. "When should we tell the others? Should we get married?"
"Loralei shook her head. "For the first question we should wait a bit, just to make sure everything's in order and we can answer the questions, and for the second... Nothing's changed. I want to wait until the war's over. Baby Black can remember that."
He nodded. "Okay. I'm good with both of those." He bit his lip. "We're going to be parents."
Loralei nodded, smiling with him. "We're going to be parents."
"Harry's going to have a cousin." Sirius said.
Loralei laughed and nodded again. "At least if it's a girl we can have a protective older cousin to help her along."
"He better, and if he doesn't those boys will have to deal with Daddy Sirius." Sirius told her. "No one touches my baby girl."
Loralei smiled. "We're going to have the best family ever."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sirius sat next to the examining table holding Loralei's hand tightly as Healer Jenkins, a woman in her early sixties with graying dark hair and weathered skin examined Loralei, and when she left to go over her findings, neither of them knew if that was good or bad.
"What if it was a false positive?" Loralei asked him as she put back on her clothes.
"Well, you can try to go back into the field, or you can get off the potion and I can guarantee that in three days you will be pregnant." He said, half joking.
Loralei smiled. "You think it would take three whole days?" She teased.
"Think about it this way...long weekend...never leaving our bed..." He kissed her lightly. "We do have vacation days, you know."
"Instead of taking a long lunch break, like today?" Loralei nodded. "If I am pregnant, we should still take our vacation."
"Of course we will, we need to start decorating the nursery." He said as the healer walked in again.
"Well, Miss Potter, your baby is perfectly healthy." She said, making a note in her health records. "The baby's estimated birth date is April twenty-sixth, but that is pretty rough at this early date. We will know more at your next visit in September." She looked up. "We have a potion for you to take every week to keep both baby and mommy strong and developing normally, which will be ready by this afternoon, so if you can stop by on your way from work, that would be good. I will be giving you a list of things you shouldn't do, and since you are an auror it is a big risk to be out in the field, especially with a war going on, and I don't think you want to risk your baby."
Loralei nodded. "Anything else?"
"Nothing that needs explaining, but it would be good to tell your boss as soon as you can." The healer told her. "Some of the things would be to stay active. Keep up a healthy diet, don't eat any raw meat or fish, don't drink alcohol, probably stuff you've heard before."
Loralei nodded. "Thank you so much, Healer Jenkins."
"You are very welcome. Amanda at the front will schedule your next appointment, try to stay as close to one month as possible, but sooner is better than later."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Auntie Lore!" The Weasley children cried as their favorite aunt walked through the door. She was attacked by five ginger children all hugging her legs besides Bill and Charlie, who could both reach her waist.
She looked over them, kissing and hugging them before going to the living room with Molly who was holding a fussy Ronald.
"Sorry for the mess." She apologized.
Loralei gave her a look. Molly should know better than to think Loralei would care. Molly had six children, there was more to worry about then if the toys were put away.
"Sorry." Molly laughed. "Habit."
Loralei had a twin on each knee and Charlie and Bill sitting on each side of her on the couch while Percy snuggled against his mother's side.
"Bill only has two years before going off to Hogwarts, how does it feel?" Loralei asked her.
"I feel like I just had him yesterday, time flies." Molly told her.
Loralei poked the nearly ten year old. "How do you feel? What house do you want to be in?"
He puffed out his chest with pride. "Gryffindor, just like Mum and Dad and you."
Loralei laughed. "And you'd be the best Gryffindor the school had ever seen!" She told him. "You'll get the best grades and be the bravest of them all!"
Bill smiled, happy that Loralei thought he could do those things. "You think so?"
"I know so." Loralei told him. "But if you're in the others, you'd be the best there too."
"But I don't want to be in Slytherin. That's where You-Know-Who was."
"Don't judge a whole house on one person." Loralei told him. "One of my best friends was in Slytherin when we were in school, and now she's an auror with me."
Bill blushed.
Loralei tickled him lightly. "House means nothing. The person means something. You'll get that when you're older."
Bill started squirming and giggling.
"So anything new with you, Lore?" Molly asked.
Loralei nodded. "I wanted to ask you since you've been through it a few times."
"What have I gone through?" She asked.
"I'm pregnant." Loralei told her. "I'd be asking Lily, but she doesn't know what she needs yet since Harry is only a few weeks old."
Molly rushed to Loralei to hug her, careful not to crush her children while doing so. "How far along are you? Is it a boy or girl? How did Sirius take it?"
Loralei laughed, hugging her back. "I'm only a few weeks. I don't know and I don't want to know until the baby comes. Sirius is the most excited father-to-be. We're telling the others tonight since we're all meeting up at the Potters to play with baby Harry."
"Have you guys been thinking of names?" Molly asked, sitting next to Bill on the couch.
Loralei shook her head. "Not really. We're mostly getting used to the idea. I think that it will come naturally at some point."
Molly smiled. "That's a good idea." She paused. "So...my kids are going to have a new friend to play with."
"Two new friends if Lily and James ever put their kid down. Ron can have someone his age around." Loralei told her. "We can have one big play date one day.
"What does 'pregnant' mean?" Fred asked from Loralei's left knee.
"It means there's a baby in my tummy." Loralei told him.
"YOU ATE A BABY?"
A/N: Don't kids say the darnedest things? For all those who guessed Loralei was going to get pregnant, you rock!
Blue Luver5000: Either way, you're lucky! I knew you had to be somewhere where it's usually always warm. Haha. Thank you!
Dauntless14: SO DO I! Well there's a reason behind everything. I love Dumbledore, but he has a knack for not telling everyone everything, I mean, I still love him and all, but I do get frustrated with him sometimes. Looks like you got your wish! She be having a baby. I make no promises on the rest ;D Thank you! I love them too :)
amiko0: Thank you! Wow! That's a lot! I am very impressed and flattered :)
Please review!
Kat