England's Bloody Rose

Flashbacks Chapter #17

"The second was my own name," Lydia explains, "and while I think Lydia is a beautiful name, I mean it quite literally means beautiful, I don't think it will suit my Iolanthe. Also, it feels really weird naming my child after myself. I'm still alive and kicking."

"That didn't last long," Lydia laughed, "what a sense of humor I have."

"So the third option," Regulus looks at Lydia, "what is it?"

"Serene," Lydia smiles softly, "I want that for my girl. I wish for her to live a life of serenity. I wish for her life to be as peaceful as mine was chaotic."

"And it's similar sounding to Sirius," Regulus shakes his head, "I should have known."

"And it's similar to Sirius," Lydia blushed at being so easily caught, "Sirius is my everything. My anchor. My lifeline. Also, Sirius and I swore to name our firstborns after each other."

"You two are really something, " Regulus laughed, "Iolanthe Serene Potter. It sounds beautiful."

"Just as she'll be," Lydia agrees, before a desperate knocking is heard at the door, "who is that?"

"I have a bad feeling," Remus could feel it in his gut. This was not going to end well.

"Would you like me to get the door?" Regulus asks Lydia, who is struggling to get off the floor.

"No," Lydia grunts, "just give me a hand." The two walk to the door, and open it to find Alice and Frank extremely worried.

"Get in," Frank pushes Alice before him, "we need to be careful."

"What in Merlin's name is going on?" Lydia asked Alice, as all four hurry into the house.

"We just got some information from Remus," Frank, out of breath, says choppily, "and it's really not looking good for us."

"What's wrong?" Regulus asks, waving his wand. Cups filled with water appeared from the kitchen, and Alice and Frank accepted them gratefully.

"Lily's in St. Mungo's," Frank began, "she lost the baby. Someone poisoned her."

"So they're going to find out about the prophecy," Augusta noted sadly, "the timeline is slowly approaching the inevitable."

"Merlin's beard!" Lydia gasped in horror, "do they know who?"

"Dumbledore knew," Alice speaks, and her voice is not it's usually kind tone, "he wouldn't tell Lily and Remus. Not until Remus really pushed. It was Severus Snape."

All the people who's previous anger at the boy had simmered down, suddenly felt it spark up again.  The boy had nothing to say for himself. Since he found out, he'd been rather quiet. He didn't want to risk being cursed by Potter's creepy magic.

"That little slug," Lydia growled, "I knew I should have ended his miserable existence back then. Stupid morals."

"Potter had a chance to kill him," Lily whispered to herself, "and chose not to. And Sev likes to pretend he's the good person here. I know Sev would never have held back from that. What has he become?"

"This doesn't make sense," Regulus voices, "Snape was annoyingly obsessed with Lily all throughout his school years. The upper years would harass him about it all the time. Despite calling her a mudblood, hating her kind, and being extremely violent, he still loved her. He never stopped. It was highly concerning and borderline obsessive. So why would he poison her?"

Marlene and Mary both wanted to use this to prove to Lily that Snape was bad news. They've been telling her that for years. But Lily wasn't in a state where they could. She was heartbroken and terrified. All they should be doing is comforting their friend. And so they did.

"Because he overheard a prophecy," Frank sighed, "The time for one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the third month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark as his equal, but will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives..."

"Huh?" Regulus asks, "what does this have to do with anything?"

"Lily's due date was March 29th," Frank sighed, "two days away from the end of the month. Snape was, according to Dumbledore, worried that you-know-who would target her. So he poisoned her, killing her daughter. Now her child can't be the child of the prophecy."

"And the only other women who have fought you-know-who three times are us," Alice adds, "and I'm due March 30th."

"But I'm due April 8th," Lydia protests, "do you think I'm still a target?"

"It's not as if early births are uncommon," Frank defends his worries, "we thought you should know this. You-know-who is on the prowl. He's looking for both of us."

"I think we should move into the Godric's Hollow house," Lydia finally speaks, "it's not as well-known as Potter Manor."

"Good idea," Fleamont agrees, "it has extremely strong protections. It's where Iolanthe and Hardwin lived their lives. It has old protection spells."

"I'll help you pack up," Regulus offers, "is there anything you two need?"

"No," Alice declines, "we'll be alright. We're going to go under the fidelius charm."

"That's risky," Lydia warns, "are you sure of that?"

"We are," Frank reassures Lydia, "and we want you to do the same. It's the most powerful protection spell you can use."

"I'm not sure," Lydia says, "we'll consider it."

The scene switches to Sirius, Regulus, and Lydia hanging out in the park.

"This is nice," Lydia sighs as she leans back, "it's been awhile since we've left the house, eh Regulus."

"So it seems that they did go into hiding," Dorcas notes, "good."

"It is," Regulus agrees, "why'd you ask us to come Sirius though? We normally have our meet ups in the Manor."

"I just needed some advice from our lovely Lydia," Sirius smirked, but seemed rather nervous about something.

"What's up Pads?" Lydia asked, "did you and Moony have a rough night?"

"No," Sirius responds, "it's not that. It's more personal." Sirius rubs his neck sheepishly.

"Spit it out already," Regulus rolls his eyes, "you're not going to get anything done without asking."

"How do you ask a girl to marry you?" Sirius blurt out, "because I have no idea."

"He went to Lydia for advice," Nico cooed, "that's so cute. Wonder why he didn't ask Frank, Bart, or I. Not that it matters, but Lydia never asked someone to marry her before."

"While I'm flattered," Lydia turns her attention to her brother, "why didn't you ask Frank or Bart? I'm sure they would have been able to answer a lot better than I could."

"Because I wanted to ask my sister," Sirius answered, "and I wanted Regulus to be there. This was just the best time."

"Aww," Lydia cooed at a blushing Sirius, "well-" Lydia suddenly froze.

"Lydia?" Regulus slowly asks, seeing how her face froze up.

"I'm glad Regulus has learnt to care for people," Andromeda smiles, "it makes my heart burst."

"We need to get to St. Mungo's," Lydia tells the two men with her, "it seems little Iolanthe is as impatient and unpredictable as her mother. She does what she wants, and what she wants right now is out."

"So she's going into labour," Tina shakes her head, "poor Lydia. Labour is not very fun."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Augusta shakes her head, "why do you think I only had one child?"

"This is not going well," Lydia puts her head in her hands, "poor future me."