Priori Incantatem [HARRY POTTER FANFICTION]

Chapter 51: Life and Death

Chapter 51: Life and Death

March 1980

Now five months pregnant, Lily was finally beginning to feel better. The nausea returned only when she stood up too fast, and she'd regained her energy. In fact, Lily had never felt more energetic in her life. She felt the sudden, unprecedented urge to clean the flat and spent hours at work and on Order assignments.

All of this newfound energy was a source of great concern to James, who didn't think Lily should lift things or move about too much. He was also worried about Lily's lack of weight gain; the bulge in her abdomen was relatively small as of yet. So James and Sirius (who refused to admit that he was excited about the baby but had practically moved into Lily and James' flat and read their baby books when he thought no one was looking) spent most of their free time persuading Lily to lie down and eat things. Fortunately, they had all but given up on the bananas, which continued to make Lily nauseous.

It was a distinct relief to Lily to escape from the pair of them at work, although even there things weren't precisely normal; the other people in her office refused to allow Lily to participate in the more strenuous parts of charm experimentation. And it seemed like every witch Lily encountered in the entire Ministry of Magic had some sort of pregnancy wisdom to impart.

Feeling stifled, Lily strongly suggested that James spend the coming Saturday night at Sirius' flat. She was shocked at how readily James agreed, but not one to look a gift hippogriff in the mouth, Lily promptly invited Kathleen, Dorcas, Alice, and Morwenna to their flat for a bit of much-needed female company.

Alice was the first to arrive round seven, and was soon followed by Morwenna and Dorcas and finally by Kathleen at eight. What with one thing and another, it had been quite some time since they'd all been together without any of the wizards around, so the witches had loads of catching up to do. Feeling very much as though they were back in their dormitory in Gryffindor Tower, the five settled in Lily's sitting room with an enormous amount of sweets and ice cream and proceeded to catch up.

They heard all about Dorcas' possible interest in Sturgis Podmore and Morwenna's decision to try writing a book, but when asked about her job at the Daily Prophet, Kathleen was surprisingly noncommittal. Alice and Morwenna exchanged a puzzled glance; Kathleen's life was generally an open book, why this sudden secrecy? Morwenna opened her mouth to ask.

"So – what sort of book do you want to write, Morwenna?" Lily cut in hastily, referring to their earlier conversation.

"What? Oh, probably a History of Magic textbook," Morwenna replied, frowning slightly. "The ones we had at Hogwarts were always so boring, and History of Magic is actually quite interesting."

"If you say so," Dorcas raised a sceptical brow in Morwenna's direction.

"Why is it that YOU can eat all you want and you're hardly even showing?" Alice asked Lily grumpily.

"Er –"Lily paused in the act of putting a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth, clearly blindsided.

"I'm loads bigger than you are," Alice eyed Lily's midriff enviously, and Lily fought the urge to fold her arms over her bump protectively.

"You're also an entire month further along than Lily is," Kathleen pointed out reasonably.

Alice just glared at Kathleen. "I'm getting tired of this whole pregnancy bit," she groused. "The only things I seem to do all day long are eat and go to the loo. And to add insult to injury, I went to see my Healer earlier today and she gave me these paper knickers –"Alice began rummaging in her handbag and produced the knickers for her friends' inspection.