𝐢. 𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐎𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐂 ; harry j. potter ( UNEDITED )

EXTRA. "It isn't that easy to forget a memory worth a handspan"

"Oh well, nothing can be done unless you choose to —"

"Which I'm not," stated Juniper. "But you know, Lucia," she suddenly leaned forward on the counter to eye the younger woman with a bemuse gaze. "You're exhausted, and there's a reason why you're on maternal leave right now."

Lucia groaned. "Not you too!"

"So, someone already lectured you before me, did they? As they should," Juniper shook her head. "I bet you that Harry will be livid if he gets to know that even while you're on your maternal leave you're still working. Hell, he would even come rushing from work and —"

"Which is exactly why I didn't want to make a fuss about it," said Lucia quietly as she looked down at her stomach; she was in her third trimester of her surprise pregnancy, which meant that the baby who she and Harry had been waiting nervously for was slowly arriving.

She would be lying if she were to say that she was not scared, because she was. This was her first time carrying a life and it felt as if that every action she took, it could shatter the fragile life that she was to take care of. Now that she thought about it, this would be her first child that was not Teddy, hers and Harry's first child that they won't have any other help to raise, for it would all be on them.

Now that she was thinking of that, it made her scared.

But what difference would it make, right? She and Harry already was raising Teddy already... so...

But Teddy is also being raised by his granny. The baby in you is going to be raised by you and Harry entirely...

"Is Harry on another mission?"

As if Juniper had seemingly read her mind, Lucia nodded solemnly.

"He was reluctant to go at first, but I forced him. He's, after all, the leader of the mission and his colleagues needs him. I'm not going hold him back, especially since he worked hard to prove that he deserves where he stands now," mumbled Lucia thoughtfully.

"Well, that doesn't sound all out of the ordinary..." said Juniper.

"I know," stated Lucia. "The problem is that the wizards they're tracking down are the ones that successfully got away in the middle of the war. They're definitely no ordinary dark wizard, Junnie..."

"Oh, don't think that way," Juniper went around the counter and rested her hands upon the young woman who looked ever-so solemn ever since the departure of her beloved husband. "Harry's Harry. People who cross him never live to tell their tale,"

Lucia chuckled. "You make it sound like kills them the moment he meets them," she said.

"Well, maybe he has," said Juniper. "You wouldn't know what the life of an Auror is like,"

"That is true..." trailed the dark-haired woman, though her eyes strayed around the bakery in wonders, thinking thoughtfully of her husband that was somewhere around the world as of currently.

It had been approximately three days since he left to focus on the mission at hand, and although Lucia assured Harry that she would be fine, especially with the watchful and warm embrace of their many mutual friends around her, Lucia still found herself desperately missing her husband's very warmth.

Not even the delightful smile of her son (through the patronage of Harry), Teddy Lupin, could possibly heal the wound in her heart.

But then again, she could just be overanalysing her own feelings and that it was all due to her own pregnancy.

"I am curious though," began Juniper.

"Of what?" quirked Lucia.

"Well, out of people you pick to be with in such a delicate point of your life, why me and George?"