Sirius groaned and pulled himself out of his chair at the knock at the door. He assumed it was his landlord, come to complain about his slightly late rent payment, so he was surprised when he opened the door to find a very pretty, very anxious redhead standing on the other side, biting her lip.

"Lily!"

"Yep." She pushed past him and he followed her bemusedly into his own kitchen. He lingered in the door frame, eyes narrowing slightly as he watched her take out two glasses from his cupboard and place them on the table along with his bottle of whiskey. She looked up at him expectantly, one hand on her hip, and pointed sternly at one of the mismatched wooden chairs with the other. "Sit."

Amused, and slightly intimidated, he sat down and poured them each a drink as Lily removed her jacket and paced between the counter and table twice before taking a seat herself. She looked down at the glass Sirius had placed in front of her, and pushed it firmly back over the table so that it sat next to his drink. She met his questioning look with a flap of her hand and a quick shake of her head. "They're both for you. You're going to drink for both of us, and trust me, I need one."

He tilted his head, smirking, "Well…"

"I'm pregnant."

Sirius stared at her blankly for a moment, before picking up his glass and downing its contents, following it with Lily's. He slammed the second glass down on the table, eyes wide and a little unhinged as he bellowed, "Why in the name of Merlin's tightest purple pants are you telling me this?!"

Lily's hands had found their way to her hair, where Sirius assumed that buried amidst the mass of red curls, they were tugging at the roots helplessly. "Sort of like a practice run?" she responded weakly. Sirius continued to gape at her, his face, if anything, growing even more horrified. Lily groaned, and her hands moved to cover her face, muffling her words as she continued. "We've never talked about it! Not once! I mean, I've kind of assumed we'd have kids someday, but, you know, not for another billion years or so, until people stopped trying to kill us and James learned how to use a bloody toaster." She removed one hand from her face to wave it vaguely in front of her. "I'm just so fucking scared he'll be upset about it and I can't see that, can't look at his face and know – I just can't take that right now, so I thought I could toughen myself for his reaction by watching yours first." Her elbows dropped to the table as her hands found their way back to her hair, green eyes peering through frizzled tangle of her recent and ill-conceived fringe as she finally met his eyes.

Sirius swallowed, throat dry, and seeing his gaze flicker toward the bottle, Lily moved to refill both glasses. Sirius knew that Lily's eyes were now fixed on him as he reached out to fiddle with one glass of whiskey, and he didn't lift it. He did his best not to let her see how he was fighting off what could only be described as gibbering panic as the nervousness rose off her, not so much in waves as in a steady, searing blast. "Well," he paused to clear his throat as her eyes continued to scald him, "Well, what do you think about it? I mean, what do you think about… about it happening now?"

"It's stupid," she said firmly. She began biting her lip again, her eyes still focused on him. "I know it's just about the most stupid thing we could do right now, and I almost had a heart attack when I figured it out." She paused for a moment, hands pressing against the table as she continued more uncertainly. "I don't think I care, though. I think I want this so badly that it hurts, and I just can't get it out of my head, how fucking amazing it could be, if we could do this right."

They sat in silence, and for the first time since Lily had made her announcement, Sirius noticed the murmur of the radio he had left on in the other room, reading reports of yet another attack. Lily's gaze had finally shifted, and he watched her scrutinize her own hands on the table as he grappled for something to say.

"Here's what I think," he began slowly, and her eyes immediately snapped up to look at him again, her lips pressed together tightly. "I think if anyone can do this, it's you two. You and James will make fucking amazing parents, you really will. And James will be ridiculously, stupidly beside himself with glee when he's had a moment to think it over, but you might have to give him that moment, as I'm pretty sure his more immediate reaction might well be to piss himself."

Lily snorted feebly before taking a shaky breath. "You think?"

"Yeah, I do. And Lily?"

"Mmm?"

"The whiskey's probably a safe bet, too."

She laughed, her body relaxing. "Good to know. How about you toast for the both of us then, yeah?"

"Abso-bloody-lutely."