Critical ~ S. Black

𝒞𝐻𝒜𝒫𝒯𝐸𝑅 𝐸𝐼𝒢𝐻𝒯𝐸𝐸𝒩

*LEXI*

When I came to, I was in an all too familiar room. I sat up carefully, startling Sirius.

"You're awake. Good." He smiled. I nodded, smiling back.

"How long was I out?"

"Only a day." I sighed in relief and frowned.

"I don't get why I passed out though. Maybe I was exhausted?" He shook his head, suddenly looking a bit pale.

"Lex... You're pregnant," Sirius muttered, nervously. My face lit up.

"Really?!" I responded, excitedly.

"Yeah." I squealed and hugged him tightly. He hugged back, kissing me softly. When we pulled away, both of us had uncontrollable smiles on our faces.

When I was released, which was pretty much as soon as the healers were alerted that I was awake, Sirius and I went back home. Riley was sitting on the couch, reading a book.

"We have something to tell you," Sirius stated, making her jump.

"What is it?" She looked between the two of us, worried.

"Riley, you're going to have a younger sibling!" I told her, unable to stop smiling. Her face turned to one of shock.

"Really?" She questioned. When we nodded, she grinned. "Yay!"

After that, we spent the rest of the night celebrating, all of us with smiles on our faces.

That night, as Sirius and I were laying in bed, I looked at him.

"Siri...?" I asked softly. He turned to me, noticing the worry that was evident on my face.

"What's wrong Lex?" He asked, cupping my cheek.

"I'm scared... With Voldemort rising to power, what will it be like to raise a child?" He sighed and rested his forehead against mine.

"Don't you worry about that Lex. It'll all be okay." I nodded, cuddling into him.

I heard him fall asleep quickly. It took me longer to fall asleep though, my mind racing. I eventually did fall asleep though.

The next morning, I was in the living room, writing a letter to Remus to let him know the good news, after breakfast. I was brought out of my thoughts though by Riley.

"Mom! My Hogwarts letter arrived!" Riley called from the kitchen.

"That's great sweetie!" I called back. She appeared in the doorway, holding the letter I recognized so easily.

"When can we go to Diagon Alley?" She looked hopeful. I smiled.

"We can go tomorrow. I want to say hi to some old friends anyways." Nodding, she ran  off to who knows where.

That next morning, I was up and ready by 11 am. We need to leave early if we want to get there before the crowds appear from people taking their children after work.

"Riley, wake up! We need to leave in an hour if you want to go to Diagon Alley!" I called from the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm up I'm up!" She grumbled, walking downstairs, rubbing her eyes. I smiled.

"Breakfast is on the table."

We ate breakfast and Riley went upstairs to shower and get ready. I kissed Sirius's cheek when Riley walked downstairs again, grabbing my bag.

"We'll be back later today Siri." He nodded and Riley and I stepped outside of our home. I grabbed her arm once we were out of range of the protective enchantments that I put up around the house, and apparated us to Diagon Alley.

"Here." I handed Riley a bag of coins. "You can go shop on your own, but meet me at the Leaky Cauldron by 2:30, okay?" Two and a half hours should be plenty of time for her to get her shopping done, and for her to catch up with any friends she might meet here.

Once Riley left, I went to go visit an old friend.

Walking into the oh so familiar shop, I looked around at the shelves full of boxes of wands.

"Ms. Potter," Olivander greeted as he came out from behind the shelves, "It's good to see you alive and well." I nodded in response.

"It's good to be alive and well," I responded, in my usual sarcastic tone. He chuckled, setting the rag he was using to wipe his glasses down.

"What brings you to my shop today?" I smiled.

"Just wanted to catch up with some old friends." He nodded, looking at me with curious eyes.

"Well, it's lovely to see you again, Ms. Potter, or should I say Black." Now it's my turn to laugh slightly.

"It's lovely to see you too." I glanced around while saying that and spotted a familiar dent in the wall. "I remember when I accidentally did that while trying to find my wand."

"Ah yes. That was one of the more amusing wand buying experiences that's happened for me." I raised an eyebrow, surprised.

"Really? And you've been running this shop for how long now?" He's had the shop for quite a while, so the experiences must've been quite boring overall.

"Since 382 B.C." He smiled, making me smile.

"And people are still buying your wands. You've got quite the talent."

"Thank you, Ms. Black." As he said that, a family walked in with two little kids. I nodded to them in greeting before turning back to Ollivander.

"I must be going now. But it was wonderful to see you."

"I'll see you again, I'm sure." I chuckled and waved, walking out.

I walked around Diagon Alley for a little bit before I came upon the familiar smell of ice cream. I still remember the first time I ever came here, James and I begged our parents to let us get ice cream.

I walked in, listening to the doorbell jingle as the door shut closed. I looked around, taking in the place which hasn't changed a bit since I was there. I smiled as I listened to the muggle radio that Florean always kept playing.

"Now you seem familiar. You wouldn't happen to be a Potter, would you?" I turned around as I heard his sweet voice. Smiling, I shook my head.

"Not anymore Florean," I held up my hand, which had the ring. He must not have heard when Sirius and I got married during the first war. I mean, it was hard to communicate so I can't blame him. "It's Black now."

He chuckled and shook his head.

"Forgive me. The last time I saw you, you were 16 and arguing over which ice cream flavor was better with your brother." I smiled at the memory and nodded.

"A lot has changed since then, but I can see that this place clearly hasn't. Still a place of joy, in dark times."

"Well, I do my best. I'm sure you haven't heard, but now I've got competition for the cheeriest place in Diagon Alley. Those Weasley twins opened up their own joke shop, and it's quite successful." I nodded.

"I heard, but I haven't been there. Thought the stories I've heard are just amazing. My daughter's been quite a few times."

Florean smiled and handed me a free ice cream cone, while we talked and caught up on what we've both missed.

When I went to bed that night, for once I was able to fall asleep peacefully, instead of my mind racing all night.

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Thanks for reading!

So, as I haven't really been feeling like writing lately, I am going to put this book on a month long Hiatus to gather my thoughts and deal with everything. I'll do my best to write during that Hiatus, but I won't update until December (so technically a little over a month).

So I'm going to do a double update now and I'll try to do a double update when I come back.

Hope y'all are staying safe and healthy!

Happy Vibes.

<3 Riley