Friday 29th May 1981

Godric's Hollow, 18:30

Okay, Lily couldn't help but giggle a bit. This was far too much fun. It should be illegal, how much fun this was. Okay, maybe not that dramatic but still. This was fun and she felt like she should definitely not be doing it. Of course, this wasn't going to stop her or anything. She really wanted to do it. And she would, as soon as she stopped her shoulders from shaking from laughter so much. For this to work she had to be as quiet as absolutely possible. Not one noise. Not one squeak. And laughter was definitely more than a squeak.

Silent. She had to be absolutely silent. And then she would be able to do it and she would be winning. It was that simple.

It was actually a genius idea of James', though it technically hadn't been an idea, perse. All he had done was given her a jump scare using that damned invisibility cloak of his. She had shrieked so loud that Harry had woken up from his nap upstairs and started wailing. Even her unborn child complained about that, giving her several good kicks at her ribcage. She had been about to go off on her husband but when she whirled around on him the sight before her had made her stop.

The cloak had partially slipped off him, leaving his head and one shoulder free. And he was laughing. Laughing hard. So hard in fact that the cloak slipped on the floor.

"You should see your face!" He had said.

And then, of course, she had started laughing. Because James' laughter was contagious. Always had been. Even way back when they were teenagers and she couldn't stand him, his loud laughter made her laugh. And this time had been no different. She really must have looked funny.

Well, funny or not, of course, she had had to retaliate. It was remarkably easy to grab the cloak. James just left it hanging up in the wardrobe like it was a normal cloak. Which she supposed it was in a way. A normal cloak that made you invisible. Okay, maybe not a normal cloak then.

"You have to keep it down too," she told her stomach.

The baby had been kicking up a storm recently. Which was all well and good, as long it was during the day. Of course, the baby hadn't got that memo but when did babies ever do anything that you wanted them to? Case in point, there went a couple of strong kicks right now.

Was this kind of ridiculous to do? Yes. Was it completely unnecessary? Also, yes. Was either one of those things going to stop her from doing it? Of course not.

She stepped towards the bedroom, frowning at how loud her feet sounded. They probably weren't actually that loud but in the quiet they definitely sounded like it. Maybe a Silencing charm would have been a good idea? Seriously, she was meant to be the one who was best at Charms in this house, how had she not thought to do that? Thank Merlin for silent casting or else this whole thing would have been over before it even began. And that would have just been no fun. Especially since it would have meant that Janes would have won. Which just couldn't happen.

Moving slowly, she carefully got closer to her husband. He was stretched out on the bed, thoroughly engrossed in reading his 'Transfiguration Today' magazine. Sirius had literally just dropped it off for him the other day and he hadn't had a chance to read it until now.

Too bad he wasn't going to be alone to read much more of it. Oh, who was she kidding? She didn't mind at all.

Okay. She was close enough. Any closer and he might detect her. Okay. Deep breath. She could do this. She could do this.

With one quick motion, she pulled the Invisibility cloak off her and shouted 'BOO!'

James let out the loudest, most high-pitched squeal she had ever heard from a man. Actually, he might have some women beat as well.

She had learned her lesson from when James did it and they were not getting a displeased reaction from Harry this time. She had put a mufflato charm around him. He shouldn't be bothered by his father's rather unnatural noise at all.

Not to mention the rather loud thump he made as he fell off the bed. Now, that was a reaction.

"Lily!" He exclaimed.

"Y-yo-your, your face!" She gasped out, pointing at him. "You should, you should see your face!"

That had to be the best thing she had ever seen in her life and she didn't even have a camera! Why hadn't she got a camera? That was just the sort of thing they she wants immortalised. In a photo album. That you left on one of the tables next to the sofa where anyone could pick it up and rifle through it.

James was clutching at his chest and glaring at her, looking thoroughly put out.

Which, let's be honest, made this whole thing even better. So, Lily did the only thing she could do. She laughed even harder.

Sunday 31st May 1981

Tonks' Home, 11:00

'Smack' went the sound of a stack of newspapers hitting the dining room table in front of him.

Remus looked up in amusement as Dora panted, trying to catch her breath.

"Did you get enough newspapers?" He teased.

"I didn't know whether we want to be in the muggle world or the magical world so I got a whole bunch of newspapers from both," she panted out, pulling out a chair to sit down.

"That's actually a good idea."

"I do have them sometimes."

He chuckled at her and she stuck her tongue out at him. Oh, this was already promising to be fun.

She handed one over to Remus and she took one for herself. Oh, a muggle one. She'd have to look at the comic strip at some point.

About an hour or so passed before Dora found herself flinging away what had to be her seventh newspaper away from her in disgust.

Okay, it turned out it wasn't quite as fun to do as he thought it was going to be. Mainly because trying to find a flat even vaguely in London that suited their needs was proving to be almost pretty damn impossible.

There were the number of rooms to consider and apparently wanting two bedrooms complicated things because that type of flat either didn't exist or was stupidly expensive. Kt was only one extra room! Why on earth did it up the price that much?

"We are never going to get this sorted," she groaned, burying her face in her hands.

Longbottom Manor, 14:30

Frank sighed as Alice left the room, this unreadable look on her face. It was the look that she got when she needed to get away and just be alone. It had been happening a lot recently. She would get annoyed at something or at him and then she would just leave.

He supposed it was better than her arguing with him but he wasn't actually sire about that. Surely arguing would get it all out in the open?

All these silences and leaving the room to be by herself was really starting to worry him. And annoy him. He could feel both things at once, couldn't he?

He tried to read the newspaper but found that he didn't even know what he had just read, the words were all blurring together. He couldn't concentrate. Not when he knew that Alice was feeling upset. Oh, she would say that she wasn't upset but Frank knew she was. It wasn't difficult to figure that out. No, what was difficult to figure out was why she was upset. Or annoyed. Or angry. He really couldn't tell anymore. And he was her husband. Shouldn't he be able to tell?

But ne couldn't and Frank wasn't coping well with it. He should know this. He should know his wife. This shouldn't be a problem.

But the problem was that she just wouldn't talk about it, choosing instead to bury her feelings and try and push on. That wasn't going to work. It wasn't working. That much was obvious. And was it wrong to say that it was starting to get on his nerves? Because, yes, she was hurting. Yes, she was sad. And mad. And annoyed. And all of the negative emotions. But, well, he sometimes felt sad. Maybe it wasn't depression but still! You had to talk about these things.

And she wasn't! She wasn't even trying! Frank felt like he could be more understanding if she just tried! It couldn't be that hard.

It just couldn't.

Monday 1st June 1981

Auror Department, 11:00

"Oi!" Marlene greeted, sticking her head into Kingsley and Sirius' cubicle.

It was still weird to see Kingsley in there with Sirius instead of James. Oh, she knew it had been a few months now but it just wasn't natural. Sirius without James was a strange sight indeed. And Marlene was pretty sure that she didn't like it. Merlin, she was ready for this war to be over and for James to come back to work and for everything to be balanced again.

But that wasn't going to happen anytime soon so she was just going to have to get used to it being Kingsley and Sirius. Which wouldn't be too bad because Kingsley was dead on.

"Hey," Kingsley said, a look of realisation on his face. "You're both here."

Marlene looked at Sirius who shrugged.

"Yes," she said slowly. "We both work here."

"I know that," he said with an eye roll. "I meant you're both here. At the same time."

"That's what having the same shift means," Sirius said, raising an eyebrow.

Marlene frowned at the other man and then looked over to Sirius in question. Should she be concerned about this? Was this weird or suspicious behaviour from him? Unfortunately, Sirius just shrugged in confusion. Fantastic.

"Don't you have a kid?" He blurted put making them both stare at him.

Yes, they had a child. A child that they had announced the birth to the the Order and had actually brought along to meetings every now and then. Meetings Marlene was pretty sure that Kingsley had been present in.

"Are you just realising this now?" Marlene asked in amusement.

Now, she knew from stories Frank told them that Kingsley had been a bit airheaded and oblivious in school but she thought that he'd grown out of it. Apparently not.

"Wait," Sirius said with a frown. "Did you think we just abandoned our child at home or something?"

"Well, when you say it like that..." Kingsley said sheepishly.

"Kingsley!" They both shouted.

Why on earth did he think that for? Did he really think that they were bad parents or something?

"I don't know what I thought, okay?" He exclaimed.

Sirius and Marlene looked at each other, both of them had frowns on their faces. Did people really think that they were crappy parents or was it just Kingsley? Or was he just being oblivious as usual.

"We either leave her with Dora Tonks or Chryssie Evans," Marlene told him in exasperation.

"Chryssie Evans," Kingsley said thoughtfully, frowning. "Why does that name seem familiar?"

"Maybe because she was in Ravenclaw with you?" Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh. Really?"

"Two years below you," Marlene confirmed when he looked over at her.

Which was probably why he didn't remember her. Marlene knew that she certainly couldn't remember many people from different years from her in Gryffindor.

"Black! Shacklebolt! McKinnon!" Moody barked, suddenly appearing and making them all jump. "What the hell are you three still doing here?"

"Oh yeah," Marlene said in realisation. "We're supposed to be checking out a lead on the Carrow case."

"Get moving!"

And the man was gone again, apparently trusting that they would do as they were told.

"I blame Kingsley," Marlene told him.

Sirius nodded in agreement. "I do too."

"Hey!"

Laughing at Kingsley's expense, the three of them got up and left the office to actually do their jobs.

Wednesday 3rd June 1981

Severus' Flat, 10:00

"You're cute, you know," Chryssie said to the small baby that was currently on her lap.

It was Cassie. Her sort-of niece. Because, you know, Lily considered Marlene to be another sister and James definitely considered Sirius to be his brother which made Cassie their niece ergo Cassie was also her niece.

Hey, she didn't make the rules.

"Ba, Ca, ca, sa."

"Yes, I know I'm looking after you today. Because I'm the only one free."

Yeah, she was actually back at work now, not being able to stand b3ing off on bereavement leave for any longer. She just couldn't sit around with her thoughts all day. They went to some pretty scary places that she just didn't want to think about. St Mungo's had been good to her when she had needed the time off. Most places of work were these days. It was either be nice about people grieving (and there were unfortunately a lot of people grieving) and eventually get them back or not be nice and for someone to have a breakdown. And breakdowns weren't exactly advised when you were working in a hospital.

But today was her day off. Which most people would spend relaxing and doing nothing but she was childminding. Because of the whole aforementioned dark thoughts if she was left alone to her own devices for too long. And she liked babies. They were cute and squishy and untouched by everything that was horrible and nasty about this word. At that thought, she squeezed Cassie close to her, breathing in her scent. She didn't quite have that pure baby smell anymore but she still smelled like talcum powder and baby shampoo. It was very soothing. Chryssie breathed deeply, just letting Cassie's innocence wash over her. And then she sneezed as some baby fine hairs tickled her nose.

Cassie's hair was really starting to fill in now and she had these tiny little curls along the back of her head, especially along the nape of her neck. They were adorable.

Was it selfish of her to wish that she could be the one moving into a flat with her best friend and not Remus? Oh, she was glad that they had sorted things out and were taking a step forward and all that. Of course, she was. She was Dora's best friend; she was glad things were getting easier for her. She had had it hard there for the longest time and now there was a light at the end of the tunnel for her. So of course, Chryssie was happy for her. Extremely. But that didn't stop her from being unhappy with herself.

She couldn't just bum off Sev forever. It didn't matter that they were nuanced, they weren't married at it wasn't quite right for them to be sharing a tiny, little flat like this. Especially when there was only one bedroom and Severus invited on being the one who slept on the sofa. Was it old fashioned of her? Yes. Did it matter that Sirius and Marlene and Dora and Remus were living together without getting married? No, it did not. The whole idea about not living together before they were married was hers and Severus' choice, no one else's. And she certainly wasn't going to judge other people's choices just because they were different. Anyone, it looked like it worked for those two pairs.

And it wasn't like there was anything really wrong with it. It was just that that's how Chryssie and Lily (and Petunia, she supposed) had been expected to behave so they did. Lily hadn't lived with James before they got married, after all. And yes, technically her parents were dead and therefore not Golding her to those standards but that didn't mean that Chryssie didn't herself. Did that make any sense?

Cassie let out an extremely frustrated noise, snapping Chryssie's attention back to her.

"Oh, sorry," she cooed, bouncing her up and down a bit. "Was I ignoring you? You didn't like that, did you? No, you didn't. That's right!"

Cassie was soon babbling happily again, now that all of the available attention was now properly focused back on her. Of there was ever any doubt then this w as more than proof that Cassie was Sirius' child.

You know what? All these what ifs and worries weren't important. Not right now anyway. And she could figure out a plan for getting a flat of her own. Maybe even ask someone for help. Yeah, that would be a good idea. Asking for help was always good, wasn't it? That's what people were always telling you to do. You weren't going to get help of you didn't ask.

That's what she was going to do. Yeah. Suddenly lying he was being an awful lot more confident in herself. Yeah. She was going to get this done and sorted and she was going to be just fine. Yeah, fine.

So, putting all that out of her way, she brought her attention fully back onto Cassie.