January 14th, 1980
April twentieth, they had spoken to the landlord and paid the deposit. They could move on April twentieth. It wouldn't be a hard move, it was just down at the end of the hall.
January 17th, 1980
"Potter!"
James turned to see Rufus waving him over. "Yes sir?" he asked moving over to him.
"Take this down to Arthur Weasley in The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office." Rufus ordered, handing him a white folder.
James nodded once, taking the folder. "Yes sir."
"Dismissed."
xXx
James couldn't help himself as he entered the empty elevator. He flipped open the folder and peeked inside.
And sighed. Of course Arthur Weasley would be getting a warning for charming a car to fly.
xXx
"Potter!"
Lily had been walking toward the entrance of the hospital to head home, but spun around at the sound of her name. To see the matron nurse, Lucy Paine. Lucy was an older, stout woman with dark blonde hair.
"Yes Ma'am?"
"How many times must I tell you to call me Lucy?"
"Yes Lucy?" Lily corrected, smiling slightly.
"I got your request in. Just let me know when the little one's born, and I'll get you a few weeks off."
"Oh, thank you!" Lily breathed. She had told Lucy the truth of how baby Potter would be born. It wasn't breaking the statue of secrecy as the older woman was a squib and already knew of the magical world.
January 20th, 1980
"We're going to have to tell the Order soon." James stated, as he entered the living room from the bedroom.
"What makes you say that?" Lily asked, putting bread in the toaster before turning around to look at him.
James sighed deeply, lifting the hoodie he was wearing. Revealing a small but obvious (even under the t-shirt he was wearing) bump.
"When did that happen?" Lily asked, slightly shocked.
"I honestly don't know!" James chuckled slightly, letting the hoodie fall back over his stomach. "I just noticed it this morning, though."
"I guess we will have to tell them then, won't we? Or-"
"Or you start going to Order meetings alone."
"Yeah…"
January 21st, 1980
Ba-bum. Ba-bum. Ba-bum.
"We've got a strong heartbeat here." Ethan Pomfrey said, grinning slightly, seeing James and Lily's faces light up at the sound. He did ultrasounds more often than others, as he worked with patients with higher miscarriage and still birth rates. Male bearers primarily, but high-risk mothers as well. He wrapped up the ultrasound and left the room to run their blood tests.
"Are you crying?" Lily asked James teasingly, eyes misty herself.
"…No." James sniffled unconvincingly.
xXx
"Well, everything's looking good." Ethan told them, once he had come back into the room. "Do you have any questions?"
"Actually," Lily started, "We wanted to talk to you about the Fidelius charm."
"Are you asking if it would be safe right now?"
"Yes."
"I would advise against it." Ethan told her. "It causes the fetal and parental fatality rate to increase greatly. It would be fine if it's already in place at the time of conception, but I wouldn't recommend casting it while already pregnant."
January 23rd, 1980
"We're going to need a secret keeper after this baby's born, would you want to be that for us?"
"I wouldn't trust your safety with anyone else." Of course he wouldn't, Sirius was like a brother to them. The only others they would've considered after Sirius, would
have been Remus or Peter. However magical creatures, werewolves included, couldn't cast the Fidelius, and Peter was getting more and more flighty as time went on.
January 26th, 1980
"We don't have a spare room to put you in, but you're welcome to the living room or I could book a hotel room for you?"
"James, hon, it's fine. Harrison and I can book our own hotel room."
"Okay, book a hotel room it is, then. I'll get on that."
"James."
"Rosalie."
"You have a baby on the way. You don't need to be paying fo-"
"Lily and I are not hurting for money. We want you here for her birthday, we can easily pay."
"I'm not going to win this one, am I?"
"Glad we can agree on something."
"Or… We can just stay on your couch. It is a pullout, right?"
"…Yes. It is…"
January 30th, 1980
"Happy Birthday, baby!" Rosalie exclaimed when Lily let them into the flat, pulling Lily into a bone crushing hug and swaying slightly side to side. "I can't believe you're twenty already!"
Lily laughed joyfully, hugging back near as tightly. "Come on in, we even cleaned for you." She joked, leading her parents into the flat. She glanced back jumping when she saw Mrs. Thompson standing near her.
"Would you like to join us for dinner Mrs. Thompson?" She asked, holding the door open for her. She had always been told that it never hurt to offer at the very least, especially if you had more than needed.
"Call me Jane." Mrs. Thompson told her, as she slowly stepped into the flat.
"Well then, Jane, you can call me Lily."
xXx
"James." Lily said coming up beside him in the kitchen. "You remember Mrs. Thompson, don't you?"
He froze where he was stirring cake batter (His mother's chocolate cake recipe). "Yes." He responded slowly. "What about her?"
"She's joining us for dinner."
James closed his eyes in resignation, letting the whisk he had been holding rest against the side of the bowl. "I'll go grab my hoodie, then." He just hoped it still hid his stomach as well as it had been before.
"Thank you. I love you…"
"Yeah, Yeah." He responded, walking over to the bedroom, waving his hand dismissively. "Love you too…"
January 31st, 1980
"We should start packing while your father and I are here." Rosalie said, the next morning.
"We're… not moving for three more months." Lily told her.
"So?"
xXx
The rickety old pickup truck pulled up outside the office supply store.
"Do we know what all we're getting?" Lily asked, putting the truck in park.
"We're packing books and nick knacks, right?" Rosalie asked.
"I guess so."
"Boxes. Tape. Paper." Rosalie counted on her fingers.
February 3rd, 1980
"Sirius finally asked me to be his girlfriend!" Marlene squealed at the first girl's night since they graduated. It consisted of Marlene, Lily, Alice, Dorcus, and Mary.
"What? When!?" Lily exclaimed; this was the first she was hearing of this. The five of them were sitting around a table at some muggle bar. Alice being designated driver due to not being able to drink due to being four months pregnant. To be fair, though Lily wasn't drinking either, she just didn't feel right drinking while she and James were expecting. Even if she wasn't the pregnant one.
"Just last night!"
"Impressive." Dorcus drawled, "I was honestly expecting you to have to ask him."
"Why didn't you?" Mary asked, "Ask him to be your boyfriend that is."
"Maybe I'm a traditionalist." Marlene asked in a faux haughty tone.
The four others looked at each other. "Pfft." Before bursting into laughter. Marlene's lips twitched.
"Yeah, right!" Lily teased.
"I asked Lupin on a date." Dorcus snorted, sipping her whiskey (because she 'didn't want any of that fruity crap'), "Think he 'bout pissed himself."
Lily huffed, smiling slightly, "That sounds about right."
"Reginald got me a promise ring." Mary spoke up showing off the small heart ring.
"Awe. Congratulations!" Alice squealed.
"Reginald? As in Reginald Cattermole?" Marlene asked, shocked, "That guy two years above us in Hufflepuff? ThatReginald?"
"Yes. That Reginald." Mary answered, slightly frosty.
"Girl!" Marlene exclaimed, "He may not have been my first choice, but damn… Is he… nice."
Marlene winced when Lily jabbed her in the side with her elbow, hissing, "Have some tact."
"You two are adorable together." Lily said, turning to Mary, who brightened considerably.
"Thank you!"
"We finally decided on names." Alice told them, "Christine Alice for a girl and Neville Frank if we have a boy."
"My mother was a Christine." Dorcus muttered wistfully.
"So," Marlene prompted, nudging Lily after a beat of silence.
"So?" Lily asked.
"What's been up with you? It's been over a year since we got to sit down and talk."
Lily couldn't help the grin that slowly spread on her face.
"What's that grin for?" Alice asked, nudging Lily from her other side.
"Yeah, what's that grin for, huh?" Mary prodded.
"James is pregnant."
"Wait… He's a male bearer?" Marlene asked a bit too loudly, drawing attention from the muggles surrounding them.
"Obviously." Dorcus smirked, "Or. There's something else big we don't know about him."
"Yes, he's a bearer." Lily answered. "I would have thought Sirius would have told you."
"When is he due?" Alice asked, practically vibrating.
"July twenty-seventh."
"That's only a week after I'm due!" Alice screeched, before blushing when it drew even more attention towards them again. "Our children are probably going to be born within a week of each other!" Alice continued in a whisper-shout. "They'll grow up together!"
February 7th, 1980
"They need this." Sirius said, as he, Remus and Peter, walked down Diagon Alley.
"Who needs what?" Remus asked, as he turned around to look at Sirius, only to start grinning when he saw the small stuffed stag Sirius was holding.
"You're right." Peter agreed, looking at the stuffed animals the small street side vendor had displayed. "But they need the whole set. They even have a werewolf!" Grabbing a werewolf, rat, and black dog stuffed animals, turning to show the other two marauders.
"Where are they even going to put them?" Remus asked, thinking of James and Lily's tiny flat they currently lived in.
"I can hold on to them until they move." Sirius said, as he paid the vendor. He continued, turning around to leave, "In fact, maybe we'll wait until Prongslet is born."
Remus watched, shaking his head as his two friends walked away. "Isn't that a… weird combination of stuffed animals for you to have?" Remus asked, turning to the young vendor.
"I saw them in my dreams." The young woman answered, staring at him with wide silver eyes.
"…okay. Well, thank you."
The young woman hummed, nodding once, black hair swishing around her face, intelligent silver eyes never leaving Remus even as he walked away.
February 10th, 1980
"When are you due?" Dumbledore asked, when James and Lily had announced their pregnancy to the Order at the next meeting.
"July twenty-seventh." Lily answered resigned.
Dumbledore's face paled. Born at the end of July. Thrice defied him. He didn't think Lily and James would fit the prophecy quite as well as Alice and Frank. Lily and James may be a muggleborn and 'blood traitor' respectively, but the Potter family was still a Gray family, well respected by most of both sides of the Wizengamot. They may be a Healer and Auror, but Lily worked as a muggle in the muggle world, and James was more everyday law enforcement, than Dark Wizard Hunter. Sure, there was the Wool's Orphanage incident, where Voldemort had tried to recruit them, but the same had happened with Alice and Frank.
Meanwhile, Alice and Frank were both purebloods, the type of followers Voldemort really wanted, but firmly Light. They were both Dark Wizard Hunters. And they had turned Voldemort down when he tried to recruit them. He would bet money, that if Alice and Frank have a boy, it would be him. But still, on the chance he could be wrong, "You should go into hidi-"
"No." James spoke up.
"James, my bo-"
"We have wards on our flat already." Lily interrupted, "No one that doesn't know where to look, will be able to find us." And they would have Sirius as a secret keeper after the baby was born.
"We're not going to let Voldemort scare us into total isolation." At least not yet, if it came down to it, after he gave birth, they would. But that'd be an absolute last resort.
Dumbledore swore those two defied him more than Voldemort.