Stepping Into The Light (Hidden Under Darkness Sequel)

Chapter 9

**George’s POV**

“A- A baby?” I ask, shocked. Fairlight nods, her eyes gleaming.

“A baby,” I repeat, “no way.”

“Why not?” she exclaims, “we’re both done with school, you’ll be setting up the joke shop soon and I’ve been working for well over a year now, let’s just do it!”

I stare at her, completely shocked. The thought of a baby had never even occurred to me, but looking at Fairlight now I can see it’s occurred to her, suddenly maybe, but it’s stuck.

“Okay, sit down and we’ll talk about this rationally,” I tell her, sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to me. She sits down and I can’t help but stare at her. She’s glowing. I’ve never seen her so taken with an idea or with anything, really.

“Alright, now let’s think about this,” I say, “babies are loud, messy, expensive and a lot of work. We’re eighteen, neither of us finished school, I don’t have a job, we still live with our parents and-”

“We’ve been dating for over a year, we can handle it financially, we can get our own place,” Fairlight’s eyes are shining and I can’t bring myself to say no.

“Look, let’s plan this a bit,” I say.

“Is that a yes?” she squeals. I’ve never seen her this excited before. She pounces on me, kissing me hard.

“I love you,” she breathes into my ear. I feel a warm tingle run through my body.

“I love you too,” I tell her.

There is no feeling quite like that of hearing someone tell you they love you for the first time.

We don’t say anything more on the baby front until July after the Ministry incident. Fairlight comes up to the flat I’m sharing with Fred above our shop.

“George,” she says, “is it better to have a child and love it with all your heart in dangerous times or to wait to have one and never know if the chance will come?”

I look over at her from where I’m unpacking a box. She’s looking thoughtful, but very unsure. I walk over and take her hands in mine.

“I don’t know,” I tell her honestly, “I don’t know if it’s right to have a baby or not. I don’t know if it’s worth it. I mean, we’re pretty much at war, aren’t we? Who knows what’s going to happen?”

“But then, shouldn’t we be living life to the fullest?” she asks with a sigh, “oh, George, I just don’t know.”

She leans forward, resting her forehead against my chest.

“Let’s just wait a bit,” I suggest, “who knows, maybe we’ll defeat Mouldy-Shorts in a few weeks and everything will be back to normal.”

“Or we could all be dead tomorrow,” she says, “George, I don’t like this. I feel so trapped!”

She pushes past me and runs downstairs. I hear a crack and sigh. Dealing with girls, especially Fairlight, is hard enough without adding PMS into the equation. Yes, I know about PMS. Mum had to explain it to me because I couldn’t understand why Fairlight was acting so affectionately and I started to get a bit scared. That was not a conversation I ever want to think about again.

“Fairlight leave?” Fred asks, walking out from the bathroom.

“Yeah,” I nod, “you know, I think we might need more than one bedroom up here.”

“No, that is not happening in this apartment!” Fred says adamantly, “if you two want to… Well, you know, then go to Grimauld place and do it.”