The Request by redhead414

Chapter 34

"Bloody hell…that's a lot of stuff!"

Anya laughed at her husband as he poked his head into the now finished nursery. The walls were a pale yellow - a neutral color the two finally managed to agree upon after hours of fighting over the various swatches that had been painted on the walls early on in her pregnancy. They agreed on a zoo theme for the nursery, which Anya was a little unsure of at first, but when they found the crib bedding with the baby animals on it, she thought it was too adorable to pass up on. James, of course, took it upon himself to find his son a soft, stuffed lion which he knew his wife couldn't argue about because lions are always the main attraction at the zoo.

The fact that the lion also happened the Gryffindor mascot was obviously, completely coincidental.

Anya couldn't help but laugh when James explained it. She could care less that there was a stuffed lion in the crib. Just because she was a Slytherin didn't mean she loved snakes. As the long as the room didn't wind up being red and gold, she was fine.

There was a laundry basket full of baby clothes on top of the changing table that Anya was currently organizing and putting away in the closet. She smiled as she felt James approach her from behind, gently squeezing her shoulders. "People have been sending gifts since the Prophet announced I was pregnant, right after you left," she explained. "And then our parents started buying things…and then my dance friends sent over things…and yes. You're right. This is a lot of stuff."

James laughed. "It's a good thing we didn't have a baby shower."

"There are gifts here from people that I don't even know," Anya continued. "But because of your dad, they sent stuff. That large giraffe over there - that came from the French Minister of Magic. His wife also sent some really lovely sleepers." She then turned slightly and pointed to the oversized plush chair with matching ottoman, covered in a light sage green corduroy fabric with a darker sage piping. "That came from Kingsley. Have you sat down in it yet? You'll never want to get up if you do."

She hung up some more clothes in the closet, organizing them by size as James took her up on the chair suggestion. He walked over to the new piece of furniture, plopped down onto the cushion, and ran his hands over the arms while he propped his feet up. "This is nice," he said. "And it rocks!"

"It has one of those glider mechanisms under it," Anya said. "I sat down in it the other day while Hermione and your mum were finishing up the nursery and fell asleep in it. It's going to be nice when the baby wakes up in the night."

"We should just move this into the living room," James said. "Put it right in front of the telly so Jamie and I can watch football together."

Anya laughed. "There's already a recliner out there for that purpose."

"Yes…but this is way more comfortable."

"Then we'll get a new recliner," Anya replied with another chuckle. "I've been thinking about new furniture, anyway. Most of this stuff was here from Hermione, anyway, at least what's in the kitchen and the living room."

James nodded, still content on sitting and not moving from the chair. "We could always look if you're up to it. Dad always says some of the best Muggle sales are after Christmas and around New Year's."

They went to her OB healer at St. Mungo's earlier that morning as she was now on a two week schedule, popping over for a checkup every other Thursday. The bed rest ban was officially lifted much to her delight, and James was able to hear the heartbeat and see the baby with a wizarding version of a sonogram - a complicated charm cast by the healer that showed a projection of what one would see on a Muggle sonogram, but the image hovered right over her abdomen instead of on a computer screen. They took several measurements and decided that they may have overestimated Anya's due date, as they were now predicting that her baby was almost eight pounds. When the Healer wrapped things up and said that if she went into labor between now and January 25th, they wouldn't do anything to stop it, Anya decided that things needed to get put away and organized immediately. Of course, much to James' chagrin, the sex ban was still in place. Just because the healers wouldn't stop Anya if she went into labor right now didn't mean her healer wanted her to test the theory. Once her appointment was over, they walked upstairs to have his cast removed and his arm checked to make sure the Skele-gro mended his bones completely, and they were on their way home.