fatal love

chapter 163

1ST JANUARY 1980

" THREE... TWO... ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

They all cheered, and Sirius pulled Remus down to kiss him. Remus held him by the waist, keeping him close even when Sirius leant back, and smiled.

"Happy new year, Pads," he said softly.

"1980," Sirius sighed. "Can't be any worse than 1979, can it?"

Remus chuckled, knocking their foreheads together. "Nah. We'll make it a good one, you'll see."

The moment was broken when James leapt on top of Sirius, ruffling his hair. "Are we excited?!" he crowed joyfully. "Are we going to make this the best year ever?!"

"Get off me, you git," Sirius laughed, pushing James away.

"Oi, Lily!" Remus yelled. "Come and sort James out, he's too excited!"

Lily rolled her eyes, wandering over with Pete. "Alright, Potter," she said patiently, "don't worry, everyone's suitably happy."

"Dunno if you are, Evans," Sirius said. "What's up with you, you haven't had a drink all night. Not in a partying mood?"

"What?" Evans tittered nervously. "Oh, I'm just, uh... trying to drink less. You know; new year, new me and all that."

Sirius frowned. "We're in the middle of a war, and you pick now to give up booze?" he asked sceptically.

Evans and James glanced at each other, both looking shifty.

"Oh, Merlin, no, " Remus groaned, putting the pieces together first. "Lily, you aren't!"

Lily smiled, shrugging guiltily. "Oh... fuck it. Well, we weren't planning on telling everyone so soon, but... yeah. I am."

"Lily!" Remus exclaimed.

"Prongs?" Sirius demanded.

"...Oh Merlin," Pete said faintly. "Evans, are you pregnant?"

"Okay, okay!" James said. "We know, alright! We know! And we don't need you telling us how stupid this is, we've had that conversation with each other a hundred times already."

"Lils..." Remus said slowly. "What's the plan here? Are you keeping it?"

Sirius watched Lily as she nodded.

"I... look, it's not like this was what we were thinking of," she said, "but it's happened, and James and I talked about it, and we think we can make it work. We'll cut back on Order stuff if we have to, and we have all the money James' parents left him, and Tuney is actually pregnant too, so I'm going to try and make up with her, and we can trade off babysitting duties..."

"Holy fuck," Sirius murmured, his eyes lighting up in disbelief. "You two are going to have a baby! This is incredible!"

"It is?" James asked.

"Yes! And fuck off Evans, don't go crawling back to your sister, you've got us! We'll be here anytime you need! Right, lads?"

Remus and Peter both nodded quickly.

"Yeah, course," Pete said.

"Absolutely," Remus said firmly. "Day or night."

Evans smiled and shook her head. "You lot don't have any responsibility," she said. "This isn't yours to deal with."

Sirius turned to look at James. "I hope you know your wife is talking out of her arse," he said bluntly.

James gave him a look of immense gratitude. "Thank you," he said. "Just... thank you."