THC - Bonus - Interhouse

Prompt 1 - [Location] Bathroom/Toilet

Prompt 2 - [Dialogue] "I never imagined you to be this stupid."

VanillaAshes - Slytherin - HoH

Ash Juillet - Gryffindor - DADA

Word Count: 2511 words

Betaed by: Butterflies765, Bea, Aya

Uncertain Happiness During War

Lily stared blankly at the little white stick lying on the porcelain sink. Hundreds of feelings flowed through her. Most of them were positive. She sat down on the edge of the bathtub and thought of all the possibilities of what might follow this discovery.

"What's going on?" Marlene called out from outside the bathroom, her tone worried. "Lily, are you alright? You've been in there for a long time…"

Lily looked up at the door. She had forgotten she had brought Marlene with her. The smile on her face increased as she thought about telling her news to somebody. "Yeah, I'm fine." She pushed herself up from the bathtub and unlocked the door. Taking a breath, she opened it. "Come in."

Marlene walked inside, a frown maring her face. She looked around the bathroom and her eyes landed on the little stick on the edge of the bathtub. Without hesitation, she stormed towards it and bent down to peek at it. "What's this?"

Lily noticed her expression but that didn't deter her from leaning forward gleefully. "I'm pregnant," she whispered. Not wanting any other occupants of the house to hear her. After all, she should be telling James first, but she had been friends with Marlene for years. "Can you believe it? Actually pregnant!"

"You're what? Lily, I never imagined you to be this stupid…" Marlene's brow was furrowed with disappointment. "How could you get pregnant in the middle of a war?"

Lily blinked in confusion. "Excuse me?" she asked, confusion filling her emotions too. Why shouldn't she get pregnant now? "I… why is that stupid?"

"We're Order members, Lily. We are in the thick of things at all times… Do you know how stupid it is to get pregnant right now? How are you going to bring up a child at this time? You'll have to sit out any fights we have against the Death Eaters, too! We can't lose your skill just because you decided to get knocked up!"

"I don't see it as that! I see it as welcoming a new life!" Lily huffed. This wasn't the conversation she had expected to have when she told Marlene. Her confidence was starting to dissipate. "I'm not going to let the war dictate my life, Marlene!"

"I think you're being unreasonable and selfish. It's selfish of you to bring a child into this life at this point in time," Marlene said, her shoulders visibly straightening. She shook her head and pushed her brown strands of hair behind her ear. Taking a step back, she said, "You're barely twenty-one! You've got your whole life ahead of you, but no… you want to give birth to a child when we're not even sure if we're going to survive this. What do you think will happen if either you or James dies? Did you think about that?"

Lily let all of the words of her best friend enter her mind. Stupid. Selfish. Unreasonable. It was all becoming too much. It wasn't as if James and her specifically set out to get pregnant, but they hadn't ensured that they wouldn't, either. It had just happened. But she shouldn't feel ashamed about this. Lily cleared her throat and stood up tall; this was her house and it was her decision. "Then Sirius will raise him," she said confidently. There was no doubt in her voice. "And I think it's time that you leave. If you don't support this, then you don't support me."

"Fine. If that's how it's going to be, I'm leaving," Marlene said, pivoting on her heels and making her way towards the bathroom door. She paused for a moment and turned her head to look at Lily over her shoulder. "I still think this is a huge mistake. I just don't want you to throw your life away like this."

With that being said, she walked out the door.

Lily remained standing strong until the second the door closed and she was alone again. A breath left her as the tears began to rapidly fall down her cheeks. She grabbed the pregnancy test and threw it against the wall, letting her legs bend beneath her and slid down the wall to the floor.

Couldn't having a baby just be a happy occasion regardless of what else was going on?

Lily didn't know how much time had gone by as she sat on the bathroom floor, her arms around her legs, and her eyes red and puffy. She had stopped crying a few moments ago when she heard somebody walking towards her—well, the bathroom. James and she only had one bathroom in their cosy little cottage.

Quickly, she pulled herself up and turned the tap on. Watching the water flow for a few seconds to calm herself down, she cupped her hands and splashed her face with water. Hopefully, that would hide the fact that she had just been crying.

She was still busy scrubbing at her face when there was a knock on the bathroom door. She didn't notice James peeking inside, his hazel-brown eyes wide with concern.

"Is there a reason McKinnon stormed out of here like she was about to face You-Know-Who himself?" he asked, walking up behind her. He bent down to wrap his arms around her and dropped his chin onto her shoulder, meeting her red-rimmed eyes in the mirror.

A sigh left Lily, perhaps she had acted too rashly. "I kicked her out," she told him simply.

"Any reason why?" James frowned at her reply. Lily knew why; she and Marlene rarely fought.

Lily bit her lip gently and stepped out of James' embrace. She couldn't tell him. Not yet. Especially if he might call her stupid and selfish like Marlene had. She didn't have it in her. "She wasn't being supportive."

"Okay, if you want to talk about it, I'm here to listen. If not, then it's fine, too. I'm sure you'll tell me when you're ready." James smiled and bent down to kiss Lily's forehead. He then turned around and was about to leave when he noticed the small stick lying on the floor.

He walked over and crouched down to pick it up. "What's this little thing?" he asked, turning it over and over in his hands. Lily presumed that he had never seen a Muggle pregnancy test before.

"Just put it in the bin, James. It's not very sanitary," she spoke, her eyes scanning his face for any realisation of what it might mean. But there was none there. It's likely that the only way he'd find out about her current impediment was if she told him—or if Marlene did.

"Why is it wet? Did you pee on it?" James teased, grinning at her cheekily in an obvious attempt to make her laugh.

Holding back her expression, Lily looked at him dead in the eyes and uttered a simple, "yes."

James let out a loud shriek of terror and threw the stick as far away as possible. A pained whimper left him as he began rubbing his hands on his thighs, gagging and sobbing. "Why would you do that? Why, Lily, why? That's absolutely disgusting!" he wailed, hurrying over to the wash basin and turning on the tap. He continued to make disgusted sounds as he scrubbed at his hands as hard as possible. "I never thought you'd do something so… weird. Do you like peeing on sticks?"

Lily watched in utter amusement, a small smile on her face. There were times that she really enjoyed his theatrics and this was one of them. Though, she was also sure this was the most thorough he had ever washed his hands. "It does give interesting results," she teased, enjoying his reaction more than anything.

"You're evil. I love you, but you're evil. You should have told me before we got married that you like such interesting things," James grumbled, still scrubbing his hands. He pulled out his wand from his pocket and cast a strong Scourgify on his clothes—and then, another just in case. "And what do you mean by interesting results?"

The laughter finally left Lily. It had just been too much to handle—in a good way, of course. How was it that James always made her feel better, regardless of what was going on? "It's Muggle," she explained briefly, shaking her head. There was still so much that he didn't know.

"Muggles like these things? Why?" James' eyebrows almost reached his hairline as he stared at her. He pouted and whined, "Lily, tell me!"

Taking a deep breath, Lily looked at James straight in the eyes. "It's a Muggle pregnancy test, James." She was going to stop there but decided to just get it over with. If he reacted badly, then so be it. There was no point hiding it from him. "I'm pregnant."

There was a loud thud as James suddenly hit the ground. He rubbed the back of his head as he pushed himself up to a seated position. "What? You're pregnant? How? Wow, are you serious? Wait, don't answer that! You're Lily—not Sirius!"

A huge grin began to form on his lips as he scrambled to his feet. He grabbed Lily's hands and bent down to look straight into her eyes. "You're pregnant? We're having a baby now?"

She nodded, her lips turning upwards into a smile. "I am. We are."

James let out a loud whoop that echoed through the bathroom. He yanked Lily into his arms and twirled her around, his excitement visible in his every action. "We're going to be parents! I'm gonna be a father! Ooh, do you think we'll have a boy or a girl? What do you want, Lily? I think we should have twins! One of each! Or maybe triplets! We could start our own Quidditch team once the war is over!"

"Shush! Do you want everybody in Godric's Hollow to hear you?" she reprimanded lightly. "I don't know, I'm only…" she drifted off. She didn't know how far along she was. In fact, she wasn't even sure if the test was accurate. Maybe she should have been more thorough, to begin with. However, that didn't matter now. Though, the idea of creating a whole Quidditch Team wasn't tempting, that would be a lot of kids. "I've just found out. There's a lot we need to figure out. And point number one is to agree to not tell anybody yet, not until we know for sure."

"Aww!" James pouted as he placed Lily down on the ground carefully. "I was already planning on sending an owl to the boys. Sirius will freak when he finds out we're having a baby. Back in fifth year, he already made me promise him that he'd be the godfather to our first child. We'll make Remus the godmother! He's pretty feminine, isn't he? Peter will be our second child's godfather and—"

Lily took his hands in hers and took a deep breath. "How about we officially check with a doctor—well, Healer—to see if I'm actually pregnant? Then we can determine who will be Godparents; such as Marlene and Alice. You forget I have friends, too."

"Aww, fine. But Sirius will be godfather. That's final, right?" James asked her, his eyes shining with excitement. "I promise you he'll be the best godfather ever! He'll take our baby on bike rides and teach them to play Quidditch and even play with them when he's Padfoot! Can you imagine how cute they'll look together?" Tears glistened in James' eyes and he let out a soft sniffle.

Lily grinned at the exciting booming from her husband. How he shared her thoughts and dreams was absolutely incredible. However, Marlene's words were still ringing in her ear and she couldn't quite get them out. It didn't matter that James seemed fully supportive of her pregnancy; could they really ignore the fact that they were in the middle of a war? That bringing a child into the world now could bring more grief instead of joy. Were they stupid for celebrating?

"So," she started hesitantly, her emotions flying all over the place, "you don't think it's a mistake to have a baby now with everything that's going on?"

"Why would it be a mistake? We're having a baby—my mum always says that babies are miracles we should cherish. Any baby we have couldn't be a mistake—they're going to be perfect! They'll be half of you and half of me," James said, his tone soft and full of love. He genuinely seemed delighted at the thought of having a child with her. "Honestly, Lily, this is the most precious gift you've ever given me… I can't bear to think this is a mistake."

Lily nodded along to his words. That had been her first reaction. "Even with the war going on?" she questioned. Turning away from him, her mind flooded with everything that could go wrong. Their baby would be born into a world of hostility and uncertainty, it could lose either of them, both of them. It could grow up in an orphanage. It might not even survive. "What if something happens to one of us? Or both of us? We're in a war, James. Is this really the time to celebrate having a baby?"

James placed his hands on her shoulders and said, "Lily, listen to me. If anything happens to either of us—or both of us, even—our baby will be fine. He'll have Sirius and Remus and Peter and Alice and Marlene and… Wait… Did Marlene say something to you? Is this why you're so stressed? Did she hurt you? Tell me and I'll go get Alice to deal with her right now."

Lily waved her hand dismissively. "It's fine," she muttered and opened the bathroom door. She didn't want to talk badly of her best friend. Marlene had raised some valid concerns and they weren't ones that could be easily dismissed. "I'm just overly emotional, I'm sure." She looked back at him. "Let's go and make sure that Sirius hasn't wrecked the place in our absence."

"This conversation isn't over, Lily," James said pointedly, but he followed her. "Still, I'll try to show you that this is the best thing that's ever happened to us. You'll see."

A cheeky laugh left Lily as she walked down the hallway. James' excitement had reminded her of her initial feelings of her pregnancy. That was what she wanted to hold on to, what she would hold onto. However, Marlene's opinion mattered to her as well. And though she didn't want to think about the prospect of something bad happening, it was their reality.

It was difficult to not allow James' enthusiasm from rubbing off on her, especially when he only lasted three minutes before she heard him whisper the news to Sirius, who let out an excited squeal and threw himself into James' arms. It was like they were the ones having the baby.

This was one secret that he just couldn't hold in.