A/N: I had this ready yesterday, but today's like July 31st so I decided to release it in memory of Harry 's birthday.
GIF: alayne on Tumblr
Votes, Comments, & Feedback appreciated!
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"Where is she?"
Emma heard someone ask. Eyes still closed, she focused on the dull throbbing pain in her forehead. This sensation was familiar once again. She couldn't place where she was. It smelled like a hospital.
St. Mungos? Thinking to herself she opened her eyes to the high ceiling of the Hogwarts infirmary directly above her instead. She propped herself on her elbows and got up. Her eyes scanned the room and fell on the entrance where Madame Pomfrey stood talking to a shaggy looking man in hushed whispers.
The man looked even messier now as dirt coated his robes.
And exhausted.
The rest of the beds were occupied by other witches and wizards who had been injured more seriously in the war. She could only imagine what the Great Hall looked like with the rest tending to minor injuries.
Which confused her since wondered what was wrong with her. Apart from the stitches, she felt in her head she did not appear to have any other grave injuries.
Poppy glanced over at Emma in the middle of their conversation making Remus turn and look at her as well. She seemed to be explaining something to him. Their eyes connected and she saw him grin and rush over.
"Be gentle now Remus, she's delicate." Poppy followed him to stand on the other side of her stretcher bed.
"How are you feeling?" he asked Emma caressing her face and placing a kiss on her forehead followed by a soft kiss on her lips. Relieved to see him uninjured, Emma kissed back eagerly. She held his hand in hers and kept it there for a few moments, hesitating to let go before shifting to accommodate him.
"Better," she admitted.
"Miss Warrington, I have a good mind to scold you for such reckless endangerment. You gave me a fright when I assessed your condition on the battlefield." The nurse looked angry, yet she had the soft maternal look in her eyes.
"What condition?" Emma gave them both a confused look making them share a look between them.
"Oh dear," she heard Poppy mutter at this revelation.
"Perhaps you should leave Remus, it's a private matter."
"No. It's our private matter," Remus told her. A look of realisation dawned on the nurse's face. She shooed Remus to get off the bed to give Emma more space instead which he did.
With a nervous sigh she took Emma's hand in hers and broke the news.
"You're with child my dear."
Emma stilled in silence trying to process the words. No that couldn't be possible.
"That-that's impossible," she denied nervously snatching her hand back. She was about to refute further when the nurse gave her a stern look indicating how sure she was about the assessment that shut her up.
"We used protection every time," she tried to reason a few moments later. She threw a glance at Remus who looked warily at her. The gears started turning in her head.
"It must have been one of the times I sneaked into your bunk," he tried to explain.
"You mean one of the many times you sneaked in to wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am me?" she accused him with a glare remembering her original tiff with her lover. Her fondness dissipated into worry over the news. She hadn't the first clue about doing this.
"Miss Warrington!" Madame Pomfrey chided.
"Now dear, I'm sure you must be in shock. You're not far along only three months," she said softly as if to soothe her. It had the opposite effect. Emma's eyes practically bulged out of her sockets and panic started bubbling.
How had she spent three months without noticing this? Apart from puking the one time, she had not shown symptoms otherwise...unless you counted her sluggishness that started a month ago.
You were in the middle of a war, she thought. Remember the part where you thought it was stress? She did.
"Three you say?" Remus said. His arms were folded with a small smile on his face thinking over the realness of the situation. He wanted to soothe her but he held back, currently under the impression that she was still figuring out what this meant for her.
"No. No. This isn't happening." Emma wasn't talking to them. She was talking to herself. She hastily got up from the bed and stumbled a little on shaky legs.
"I'm certain you will have this lover's quarrel sorted out in no time," the nurse tried to calm down the distraught woman. She tried to reach out but Emma stepped back instead with a hand on her stomach as if to shield it.
"Miss Warrington please you are disturbing the other patients," she tried to reason.
"Emma please sit down and listen," Remus pleaded. She shook her head. "For the baby."
It's not just me anymore, Emma considered. She slowly nodded and sat back down.
Lost in thought, she chewed her lower lip as Madame Pomfrey explained that despite her reckless behaviour of partaking in the Battle of Hogwarts, she only came out with a minor cut on her head. She had been put in the hospital when the nurse had found out through an initial on-field diagnostic spell that she was expecting for her and the baby's safety.
She was going to be a mother, she thought.
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Remus looked at her. Love and care shone in his eyes as he watched her process everything. While he should be scared, he was the opposite. Once appalled at the thought of bringing a child with his genes into the world, he was now elated. Elated because it was with the most perfect woman. The one he loved. That and Sirius had spent the months after Emma's departure showing him newspaper clippings from the Prophet about children born to werewolf parents.
He was brimming with nothing short of admiration.
He was going to be a father.
If only she accepted him now.
"I'm here for you. For us," he looked at her softly. Remus sat down on the bed and pulled her into a hug, one hand resting on her hips the other smoothing over her tummy. She let him hold her putting her arms around his waist. She needed to grip herself to reality to make sure she wasn't dreaming this. Having him hold her, feeling like home, still soaking in the news.
It was Bill's scratched up face she had seen at the shore by the cottage. Since ending up at their hideout, she had done nothing but worry. That and send letters to Sirius hoping Remus was reading them too.
A few days ago, heck even the last 24 hours before they had been in the middle of a full-fledged battle. Scenes from the last twenty-four hours came to her in bits and pieces. She had gotten a glimpse of Remus at one point but she had to stop herself from following him to help out other Order members. The last thing she remembered was fending off some Death Eaters while Ron and Hermione made a break for the second-floor girl's bathroom.
"H-Harry?" she asked hoping everyone was fine.
"We won. It's over," he murmured in her ears.
Only now did tears finally pour down Emma's face as she cried softly. The war was over. Her baby was going to be born in a kinder world.
A safer world.
"Rest up dear. I'll check up with you in a few hours," she heard Madame Pomfrey say and leave shortly after. Pulling away she saw the nurse walking up to the other patients and talking to them.
"What happened?" she asked Remus whose hand was still resting on her belly lightly caressing it in awe. "Where is everyone else?"
"In the Great Hall. There have been," he paused for a bit looking unsure how to break it to her. "..a few casualties on our end. I'll fill you in when you're better rested." Emma went to protest but she shushed her instead, laying her on her back on the bed with a light shove.
"Our roles have reversed," he said with a small chuckle. "It was just yesterday that you were the one who would force me down on a couch whenever I tried to get up after my transformations."
"You're not angry?" she asked nervously. She didn't know what she was supposed to do.
"I'm the opposite."
"You said you never wanted this," she looked down at her belly.
"It's hard to explain. But we're here now. Together. We can have a small ceremony when you feel up for it. Be a proper family," he leaned down to nuzzle her face.
"No," Emma remembered her dream. The one that had woken her up in the basement at the Malfoy Manor. The little hand tugging on her hand had been a child. Her child. 'He'll never accept us.' The haunting words echoed in the back of her as she looked at Remus.
She needed him to convince her that he wasn't lying to her or hiding his dismay. Something Remus would be completely capable of doing.
"What changed?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" He could almost sense that she was about to fight him on this too.
"A year ago.." she sat up straighter and snatched her hand away from his "..you said that you never wanted this. That we couldn't do this," she pointed between them.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, he had read in muggle literature once.
"Emma I never meant it like that. You have no idea how much it killed me to not be with you."
"Not enough to-" she choked before clearing her throat to continue, "You didn't want me then. You made it clear."
"Love, no I want this. I want you," he held her face in his hands again wiping away the tears that were falling. He almost bit back a smile wondering if these were the crazy pregnancy hormones women often discussed.
"Like I said we can have a little wedding ceremony whenever you want- as soon as you feel better."
Emma scoffed.
"You want the baby, not me. The one you said we could never have." He tried interjecting but she continued, "You don't have to burden yourself with this. With us. You made it clear last year. It was almost to the date today wasn't it?" she laughed in disbelief at her luck.
Marrying someone out of a sense of propriety was also a very Remus thing to do.
Remus paused. He couldn't explain it. He just knew that the last year had only reminded him how much precious time he had lost out with her. Their not-so-secret secret trysts that had led them here had been filled with nothing short of his hungry gazes and her moans. He knew she loved him.
Turns out he was a selfish man who wanted everything with her. If only he could find the right words to express the same.
"If the last few months have taught me anything, it is that I do. With you. I was a fool to think otherwise. Please just- just marry me," he took her hand in his. She kept shaking her head.
He was just doing it out of a sense of duty.
"You have to believe me. I want to be there for this child. Our child Emma," he sounded exasperated. He couldn't have them taken away from him again.
"You really hurt her," Sirius' words came to him. It had been after she was taken by the Snatchers when Remus had been in one of his moods again. He had been busy making comments at Sirius about how if he hadn't been busy canoodling up to her, maybe Padfoot would have sniffed out the intruders.
"She wants you back. It's obvious. But you need to give her more time. You can't expect her to jump back in. No matter how many lovebites you both leave on each other."
Remus had to sit there and listen to Hogwarts' once-notorious heartbreaker explain to him why he had been an idiot once again in matters of the heart.
Emma looked at him. He sounded sincere. If there is anything she knew about him, it's that he wouldn't be half-hearted with their child. She almost wanted to accept him completely. What if they got together for the baby and it didn't work out? A child deserved to be raised in a happy home.
She knew that in her heart, she was already his..but what if he resented her one day for 'baby-trapping' him? It was all too much at once. She decided on the next best thing she could think of.
"Fine. I can accept that. Our child should have his or her father in their life," she said. With a smile, Remus went to hold her hand again but she pulled it back.
"But I'll be damned if you think I'm marrying you just because I'm pregnant," she looked at him.
"Emma," he started to say with a stern look when a small ruckus announced the arrival of a very rowdy Sirius at the entrance. Pausing their squabble, they turned to look at him. He sported a small cast on his arm yet managed to strut over as if he owned the place. Taking his time, he stopped every few beds to greet someone.
"Fine. But this conversation is far from over. You've only seen a sliver of how persuasive I can be," Remus quickly whispered in her ear, his breath sending shivers down her spine. He would concede for now.
"Although I've heard that pregnancy can make women really hot and bothered." His fingers grazed her hips the way that drove her crazy with need. Attention back on the man in front of her, Emma leaned into him, momentarily enjoying his touch that somehow set her skin on fire.
Damn him for being right on that.
Remus looked at Sirius behind her who had stopped to flirt with a witch in a stretcher be, thankful for his current distraction.
"You'll be begging me to make you mine forever by the time we're through, love," he nibbled her ear.
"Is that a threat?" Her voice was staggered and breathy. She tried to sound as if she was going to stand her ground but it didn't sound too convincing.
"It's a promise."