When James came home from the Ministry that afternoon, it was to find Lily in the kitchen, hair a bit frazzled. Utensils, pots, and pans were flying about, and he had to dodge not to be hit in the head by a flying dutch oven as he was finishing off unbuttoning the 28 buttons of the Ministry uniform. "Whoa Evans!" he cried, ducking and only just being missed by the Le Creuset she'd gotten when they'd gone to Paris. "Love, what --?"
"The dogs and Peter are coming to dinner!" she explained hurriedly. "I fell asleep with Sirius earlier and I'm late-late-late starting dinner!" Lily's face was flushed as she hurried to the fridge and pulled out a roast. "Can you grab the veggies from the bottom left please?"
James loped over and bent to grab the things she was indicating as she hurried back to the counter, seasoning bottles and little branches of herbs flying across to where she stood. James carried it all over and lay it down on the counter for her as she waved her wand and stock that had been bubbling on the stove poured to cover the bottom of the cast iron pot. He'd barely put it down when a large knife flew over and started chopping up carrots rather violently. "Oi, careful," James laughed.
"Where's the onion?"
"What onion?"
"The one that was with the other veggies."
"That was all of them."
"No, there's an onion..." she turned quickly with a sigh of frustration, wiping her hands on the apron tied over her torso, pulling the fridge door opened. "Oh Gods!" she exclaimed, "I forgot to get an onion!"
"Ah well, we'll do without," James shrugged.
"No - James - it has to have an onion. That's part of the recipe!" Lily exclaimed.
"I'm sure it's not a big deal if --"
"IT IS A BIG DEAL JAMES! WE ONLY GET TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE ARE PREGNANT FOR THE FIRST TIME ONCE AND IT HAS TO BE PERFECT!" Lily burst.
"Alright! Blimey! I'll run down and get an onion from the market!"
"You will?" She had gone instantly from shouting to doe-eyes looking at him.
"Yes," he answered, "I'll go and fetch the onion. Anything else you need?"
Next thing he knew, he had a whole list of things to get while he was there and he was back in the foyer, hanging up his Ministry issued uniform jacket and grabbing down his own coat as the night air was settling in outside and there was a bit of a breeze fluttering through the trees he could see through the windows. As he was shrugging on, he heard a dish break in the kitchen and he turned around, "Lily? You alright?"
"JUST CLUMSY!" she yelled back.
"Alright, well... I'll be right back."
"Love you!"
"Love you as well," he called, and he was out the door and into the garden, headed for the little fence, hands shoved in his pockets. When he opened the gate, the latch squealed loudly and he muttered, "Gotta fix that," and pulled it closed behind him with a second loud squeal. Lily said she liked it, but really it was an awful noise.
James trotted down Kirkyard Lane toward the market, the light coming from behind the church across the way, casting long shadows over the road and sidewalk. The sky was turning that golden-pink color and he was just going past the cemetery beside it when he paused, glanced back at the house he'd just left, and hesitated for a moment... then he ducked through the gap in the stone wall and walked through the little yard there.
His fingers grazed over the top of the smooth rounded stone with Regulus Black's name etched upon as he passed it, and he dodged 'round til he came to the spot he was looking for.
Fleamont Charlus James Potter II
Brave in Spirit, Strong in Love
15 May 1936 - 24 June 1978
James stood there beside the grave, staring down at it. Dora had been there recently - he could tell. The dust that had settled on many of the other stones had been washed away on Charlus's. Leaning against it was a wreath of flowers she'd likely picked and woven together herself while sitting and talking to him. James had seen her a couple of times when she said she was going to go for a walk, she would turn into the cemetery and sit at the gravestone with her knitting or a book. James squatted down now and brushed away what little bit of dust was still there.
"Hey Dad," he said quietly. "Been a time since I came over. I s'pose it's like that, healing and grieving and such, huh? But also it's on account of how busy we've been. It's been a really hard couple weeks. I reckon you know some of what's on - have you caught up with Gideon and Fabian at all yet? If you see them, please tell them I'm sorry that I couldn't save them that night. Let them know I - I wanted to help, I tried to help - but I... failed." James sighed. "They were - they were sort of like older brothers to me, I felt. Like I looked up to them very much and I never got the chance to tell 'em so. I suppose that's why we ought to say the things we mean and feel when we feel them. You were always really good at that - making sure everyone you loved knew you loved 'em. As the epitaph says... Strong in love."
James paused, as though expecting an answer. None came.
So he continued on, "Lily's pregnant. Can you believe it? We've been trying several months and we've only just achieved it. It's a long story. I wish you'd been here through it all, though. I had a lot of questions I would've asked you that I couldn't ask anybody else. But above all else you and I were friends so I could ask you anything and I always knew that. I hope I can do that for my kids as gracefully as you did it for me."
He smiled for a moment, picturing it... a dopey grin on his face as he did... until --
His eyes flashed, focused - though with a hint of panic rising up in him. "Oh my God," he stammered suddenly, "We're having a baby. Dad, we're having a baby. An actual 'nother human that's going to rely on us!- on - on - on me! Can't be right, can it? The universe isn't that cruel to somebody to subject some poor tosser to me as a father!" James scoffed, his eyes widening. "Bloody hell, though, the universe really is horrid, isn't it? Poor kid doesn't have a chance..." James looked down at the grave stone, brows furrowed. "And there's a bleedin' war on, isn't there?" he said nervously. "We're idiots to have been trying, aren't we?" Suddenly his mind was flooding, filling up like dense smoke with anxiety. "Oh my God, Dad. What am I going to do?"
"You're going to do what Dad always did," came a voice from behind James, startling him so that he turned around quickly to see Sirius carefully winding his way 'round the gravestones - not sparing even a glance at the one for Regulus as he passed by it - and came to a stop beside James at Charlus's plot. "You're going to be a fucking incredible father."
James smiled crookedly at Sirius.
Sirius turned to the stone and waved, "Hey Dad. Long time no see."
"You really think I'll be a good father?" James asked Sirius.
"I wouldn't say it if I didn't think you would be," Sirius answered sincerely. He threw an arm about James's shoulder, pulling him into his chest, knocking his glasses askew. "Mum and Dad taught you everything you need to know and if nothing else you've had some brilliant practice while keeping me functioning for the past eight years, haven't you?"
"You have been a rather grand challenge," James laughed. They stood staring at Charlus's headstone for several moments, then James asked, "How'd you find me?"
"Lilith said you'd gone to the market and I came after you. I was in dog form, I planned to give the cashier at the market a proper fright running in there, but I smelled you'd come this way. Changed back."
"You ought to have stayed in your dog form, you're much more pleasant."
"Everyone loves dogs."
"I've always preferred cats, but you're alright."
"Speaking of, I meant to file a complaint with you..."
"A complaint?" James asked, and he turned, slowly leading Sirius away from Charlus's plot.
Sirius waved bye to Charlus's stone, then trotted along after James. "Yes. A formal complaint against Roger. He scratched my nose the other day when I was in my dog form with his big stupid claws and hissed - hissed, mind! - at me. Could've scratched my eyes out and then what? Then what, I ask?"
"What were you doing to provoke him?" James asked as they stepped through the kirkyard gate and turned toward town. "He never hisses or scratches for no reason."
"Positively nothing!"
"Uh-huh."
"There I was, minding my own doggy business --"
"I'm sure."
"-- and he comes along, slick as could be, tail flicking and twitching about --"
"And what was he flicking and twitching over?"
"-- couldn't share his food --"
"Gods - disgusting, tell me you weren't eating cat food?"
"I was hungry."
"So turn back and make a bloody sandwich, you imbecile."
"As a dog, the cat food is quite a great snack."
"It smells like a dirty fish tank, why would you even want to eat it?"
"It doesn't - when you're a dog --"
"Also stealing his food counts as provoking him."
"See you're very diplomatic already," Sirius said, "One day when the Prongsletfetus has been duplicated and there's two Prongslets running about you'll be very good at resolving their arguments. And let me tell you - brothers have arguments like you wouldn't believe. It's constant. The younger one is always being a little sodcake to the older and getting into trouble so the older always has to help him out of scraps."
"Gods Sirius, I can barely comprehend having the one - can't we take things one at a time and see what happens?" James begged. "Nervous enough without discussing there being two babies. Dunno how Jasper Odair handled that."
"He already had five," Sirius answered. "What's two more when you already have five?"
"Five grown," James said. "Barely any work involved. Can't mess up what's already grown - not too much anyway."
Sirius laughed. "You'll be fine. The kids will be alright."
James shook his head.
They'd reached the market and James started in, grabbing a hand basket as Sirius paused at the door. "You coming?" James asked, "Or are you staying out here to have a smoke?"
"I've quit," Sirius answered.
James blinked in surprise. "You quit?"
"Yep. No more cigarettes from Sirius Black - per the mandate set in place by your wifey."
"Very impressive."
"I know I am."
James rolled his eyes. "Well come on, then."
"You go ahead."
James raised his eyebrow.
Sirius grinned wickedly, "I'll catch you up, don't worry."
James glanced over his shoulder at the cashier at her register. "You're positively evil..." he muttered, turning into the market, putting the basket over his arm and shaking open Lily's list.
He knew when Sirius was on the way when there was a loud commotion in the front of the store and a great flurry of excited barking.
"It smells so good!" Peter said, kicking his feet excitedly as they hung from the high barstool seats on one side of the island counter in the Potter kitchen. He breathed deeply of the smells.
"It would smell a lot better if my husband would hurry back from the market," Lily lamented.
"He would probably be back by now if you hadn't let my husband go after him," Remus pointed out. "Those two alone together at the market, they're bound to take ages. And they'll come back with loads of unnecessary things." Remus was meticulously peeling potatoes with his wand, leaning against the counter. "Last time I let those two go alone when James was still living at the flat, they came back with three bags - none of which had been on the list Sirius had - including a bag full of tiny plastic barnyard animals. I'm still finding plastic cows and pigs all over the living room."
"Why on earth --?" Lily looked up from the Le Creuset.
"Your guess is as good as mine, but they had a jolly time of it while I went back to the market to get the actual list items."
"Well, he better come home with an onion or I'll turn him into a plastic barnyard animal," Lily muttered.
Remus smirked, eyes sparkling with amusement at the thought of it. He waved his wand and all the cut up potatoes went flying into the pot to be boiled. "You and Sirius both are very... on-edge this week," Remus commented delicately. "He quit smoking, you know."
"I know, he told me today," Lily said.
"Dunno why the sudden health kick on his part, but whatever makes him happy, I suppose," Remus mused, shrugging, "Though at the moment it's made him very grouchy. I must warn you. I would not be offended should you choose to cancel dinner invitations."
Peter nodded vigorously. "He threatened to turn me into a toadstool if I didn't relinquish the toilet this morning. I was in the shower and all!"
"Yeah, I don't reckon he's feeling well," Remus said, turning to the carrots next.
Lily stared fixedly into the pot, stirring and not saying anything.
"Where's Mrs. P?" Peter asked suddenly.
"She went to McGonagall's," Lily said, "She'll be back in time for dinner, she said."
Remus said, "I'm surprised she didn't want to help with cooking."
"I asked her if she wanted to but she said she didn't want to step on my toes," Lily said, smiling. "She's very thoughtful. Though, she probably wouldn't have forgotten the onion." She paused, hearing the squeak of the gate opening. "Speaking of the onion --"
Suddenly the front door busted open and Sirius came in, arms spread wide, "Hello, my adoring public, I've returned!"
James elbowed his way into the room behind him, shoving Sirius forward, "And I'm here, too."
"And do we have an onion or just plastic barnyard animals again?" Remus asked, looking over.
"We buy plastic sheep ONE TIME," Sirius said, looking at James, "And does the man ever let us live it down - no. Never."
James grinned and stepped 'round Sirius to the kitchen, kissing Lily on the face, reaching into the bag and revealing a perfect yellow onion. "I got everything on the list like a good boy," he promised.
Sirius said, "If any of us here is a good boy, it's me." He slouched up and wrapped an arm over Peter's shoulders. "Hullo Wormtail."
"Hi," Peter stammered, surprised by Sirius's affection. He squirmed slightly, feeling the crackling of love magic on the tips of Sirius's fingers. Sirius grinned at him.
"You? A good boy? After all the hell you've just raised at the market?" James demanded, shaking his head.
Sirius grinned, eyes sparkling with mischief.
Lily unbagged all the things she'd asked for quickly with a wave of her wand. Indeed, everything was accounted for, as well as a copy of the Daily Prophet and a box of dog biscuits which Sirius snapped up, shouting, "You blighter, you really did buy them!"
"You want to be a good boy, you have to learn to like biscuits."
"You could've at least sprang for the good brand!" Sirius said, slamming the box back down. Though even as he pitched his fit, if he was being honest, he was feeling a bit of a craving in the pit of his stomach that had him wanting to open up the box and tear the biscuits apart. He pushed them away.
Remus raised an eyebrow. "There's a good brand?"
Sirius reached for the box again and shook them at Remus, "This is this shop brand. Off brand. Knock off biscuits." Sirius put them back down with a thump and said, "Prongs is getting cheap in his old age! Penny pinching for baby."
There was a long pause.
"Fuck." Sirius muttered, smacking his forehead.
Lily's eyes were wide.
Peter looked up from where he'd been staring at the counter and Remus's wand slipped, making the vegetable peeler slice the tip of his finger. His eyes were wide, too, as she stared at Lily, finger bleeding, too stunned to even feel it.
James jumped into action, "Moony! Your finger!"
"You're PREGNANT?" Remus asked, whirling to look at Lily. "Are you really?"
Peter's jaw dropped and he put his hands on his chubby cheeks with eager dismay. "Are you?!"
Lily looked at James, eyes watery with excitement that gave them the answer.
"Surprise!" James said.
Remus let out a shriek that had nothing to do with the still bleeding finger as he launched at Lily to hug her and James waved his wand, the gauze flying after Remus like a streamer as it tried to wrap his finger up and managed only just before he wrapped Lily up in a hug. Peter shrieked too, coming 'round the island counter and rushing for James, thumping into his chest with a great shout and wrapping his arm around James's broad torso as Sirius magicked confetti with his wand Lily laughed as James grinned and plucked Peter right up off the floor in a spinning hug as Peter hooted and hollered with excitement.
"Oh my God! We're having a baby!" Remus cried out, and Sirius laughed - his eyes meeting James.
Funny how the same words can sound scared and celebratory at the same time, isn't it? Sirius thought, and he hurried to join the mess of hugs and cheers.