Hello my beautiful readers,

It has been a while hasnt it? I cannot apologise enough for making you all wait this long for an update, I only hope that you guys have stuck around! Life has been hectic and i can say that the last few months have allowed me to grow as a person and experience new things. However I never did forget this story and I dont plan to... infact this story is very quickly coming to an end!

I hope you enjoy the chapter and please dont forget to leave a review! (ALSO THANK YOU FOR 300 REVIEWS!)

"It's the children the world almost breaks who grow up to save it." - Frank Warren

Over the next few weeks, their lives went through total upheaval. The most change came to James and Lily who finally moved out of their dingy flat and into a homey cottage in Godrics Hollow, they hired the help of all their friends to help move their copious, sentimental items that they couldn't bring themselves to throw out. Along with this came Christmas which was spent at the Potters, in their small dining room, where they all squeezed as many chairs and presents they could into. Alice's moods continued to worsen and as she moved into her third month, she began to become irritable and tired, which wore everyone down. Much to everyone's surprise, Elizabeth had changed her previously dark brown hair to have honey coloured ends, at the start she hadn't been the biggest fan, but as time went on, it began to grow on her, and Sirius… he had gone crazy over it the moment he'd seen her new look, and then proceeded to ask her why she hadn't done it sooner. Typical.

Then the new year came, and with it came the graduation of the new Auror trainees. Every year, there was a formal ministry ball in honour of the new Aurors. It had been a long time since the group was able to let their hair down and party on, despite all of them disliking dressing up, they had enjoyed the night immensely. After the aforementioned ball, it seemed that the couples were seeing each other less and less as the harsh reality of being on call all day, everyday, seeped in.

However, despite the positives and the celebrations they were able to partake in, outside of their personal lives, the war was still fledging, and they still fought. Two days after the new year Gideon and Fabian Prewett were ambushed outside their homes, it had taken five death eaters to get them down. Those with the responsibility to tell Molly Weasley about the passing of their brothers would never forget the look of devastation that crossed her face, the sheer grief and pain that she felt. Moody, who had been despatched to the scene had caught Karkaroff and gotten him locked up in Azkaban. The Aurors record did not diminish after that act, with the killing of Rosier and Wilkes during an attack in Sussex.

The raging war was the reason why once again, the group was gathered around a dingy table, this time at The potters homey cottage in Godrics Hollow, discussing alliances and the state of affairs of the wizarding world, in a much smaller group than usual.

"We cannot stop it from happening, we can only postpone it." Lily shook her head, rubbing her throbbing temples. "Nothing we do is going to stop the Giants from joining Voldemort-"

She was cut off by flinches and winces around the room and looked up, glaring at them,

"If you lot keep doing that I am going to throw this-" she picked up the orange pepper grinder new to her, gesturing to it by waving it around, "At your heads, and I won't feel guilty about it." She snapped.

"Is it her-?" Sirius muttered under his breath to James, whose eyebrows were furrowed, who muttered back,

"Nah, but shes been a nightmare lately, one-moment shes forcing me to sleep on the couch and the next she wants to go at it in the bathroom like animals!"

Sirius snorted into his Butterbeer and looked at his best friend, and raised an eyebrow, "Theres always a flip side to the coin, as the muggles say."

James turned to him, "I don't think that's correct Sirius."

Lily's green eyes glared at the pair, "Potter shut your gob or you're on the couch tonight;" An incredulous look crossed over James' face, "As I was saying the best thing we can do is send Hagrid and any connections he may have to the giants to negotiate and try to get them to switch sides."

Whilst Lily was speaking James turned to Sirius who was guffawing into his elbow, "See!"

Liz looked across the table at the pair, who both looked towards her guiltily, Sirius winked at her causing her to roll her eyes and flash him a smile that caused his own to widen.

Merlin, he loved her, his love for her was endless. Her smile made him smile, her laugh made him laugh, and her happiness, more than anything, made him happy. He felt whats he felt on a level he never thought he would. She gave him a love that he didn't feel he deserved, a purpose to live; she gave him the life he always said he didn't want, but now that he had it, he wouldn't change it for the world.

He wanted to spend his every moment with her, he wanted what she wanted, he wanted this war to end so he could grant her every wish, and they could live the life he knew they deserved.

"-Sirius what do you think?"

His head snapped up and he saw Liz giggling into her coffee, with wide eyes he turned to Lily,

"I think…That's a great idea." He prayed to every god out there that he was not going to embaress himself whilst simultaneously making everyone in the order hate him. He turned to James who was pinching the bridge of his nose,

"Did I say the wrong thing?" He whispered to James,

"Nah, you're all good." He muttered, "Just voted for trying to align ourselves with the giants."

Sirius let out a sigh of relief, "Merlin, I was worried that I would accidentally sign up to who knows what!"

"I thought she'd stuff you up, or get you to admit to pissing your bed or something." He snorted causing Sirius to nudge him in the side.

Once the short meeting had finished most members of the order vacated the Potters cottage, leaving only the Longbottoms, The marauders and their partners in the dining room. Lily slumped in her chair massaging her temples.

"Are you still unwell Lils?" Elizabeth asked as she rummaged through the stash of muggle softdrinks Lily kept in the fridge,

"Yes!" She exclaimed, before wincing at the loudness of her own voice, "On Tuesday I was perfectly fine, Yesterday I woke up vomiting up my stomach acids and now I'm back to the headaches!"

"Maybe it's spell residue?" Remus added to the conversation, "Have you seen a healer about it?"

She looked at him, a blush rising on her cheeks, "I haven't really had the time, to be honest, with the order and healer training…"

"You're always at Saint Mungos Lil, you literally have no reason." Frank laughed causing Lily to roll her eyes,

"Frank, you try spending fourteen-hour shifts at Saint Mungo's rushing around and tell me you can be stuffed going up and checking your own health!"

Elizabeth let out a low whistle, "That would be hell! I get sick of St Mungos after an hour let alone fourteen!"

"I'm just lucky I'm not on this week, Valentines week you always get the most whack emergencies." She sighed, a giggle bubbling up in her chest,

"What do you mean?" Alice gaped, "its Valentines what in Merlin's name could land people in hospital!"

Lily let out a laugh, "Oh just the usual you know, people swallowing engagement rings, cracked skulls from hitting the headboard, removing foreign objects from crevices…."

"yeah yeah, we get the image!" Frank laughed, sipping on Butterbeer,

"Wouldn't that be the best day to work, you just sit around and laugh at everyone?" Sirius questioned,

"I guess it'd be entertaining, but I could find other ways of entertainment on Valentines." She raised an eyebrow at the man causing him to guffaw, "Besides, they don't want me potentially making their patients even iller!"

Lily stood up from her chair, feeling the room around her spinning as her head was pounding more and more. "Does anyone want anything from the kitchen? I'm just going to get a glass of water."

"nah we're good Lils." Sirius exclaimed causing her to wince, merlin that boy was loud, he breathed loud, spoke loud, laughed loud, every bloody thing he did was loud. With shaky hands she picked a glass and filled it with water, feeling her heart speeding up and her hands clamming, she tried to slow down her breathing but she couldn't, it was as if she lost the ability to control her movements.

A wave of sickness overwhelmed her and as the glass slipped from her hands, crashing to the floor. Panic rushed through her as she felt the world around her blackening.

"LILY!" She heard James's voice in the background, lightly prodding her and placing a cold towel on her forehead.

"James." She was able to utter before the world around her went black.

Her eyes fluttered open, but immediantly shut in response to the blaring white lights of the room, her nose crinkled as the strong scent of antiseptic caused her eyes to water. She culd almost feel the light reflecting off the white walls.

There was only one environment she knew to be this sterile.

Saint Mungos.

Lily burrowed herself deeper into the fairly hard mattress and sighed, she did not want to be spending her first valentines as a married couple in Saint Mungos, instantly regretting not having gone to a healer earlier. She had no clue what was wrong with her, and not only were her extreme shifts a contributing factor to not getting checked out, but she was afraid.

What if there was something wrong, what if… she didn't want to think about what could be wrong with her. And if there was, unless it was treatable she didn't want to know. They didn't need any more bad news. She prayed that this was just some sort of vitamin deficiency, something that wasn't serious.

She looked up as she heard the door creak open and a female healer walk in with James trailing behind her, worry etched onto his handsome face. Lily flashed him a smile as he wrapped his muscular arms around her thin frame.

"Lils, you scared the life out of me!"

She buried her face into his chest, inhaling his fresh scent,, feeling safe in his embrace,

"I'm sorry." She whispered he tightened his grip around her, never wanting to let her go incase of losing her.

"Don't worry about it, you'll be fine." He whispered back causing the doctor behind the pair to smile,

"That she will be Mr Potter, that she will be." Both their heads swivelled to where the doctor was standing, a kind smile across her face, giving them both the impression that she was a kind lady.

"Now Mrs Potter-"

"Lily please."

The lady nodded her head in acknowledgment, flashing her warm smile, "Lily, we ran afew blood tests and cast some monitoring spells and the results were quite suprising."

Lily felt dread pool in the pit of her stomach, turning to James she saw his face pale.

"Good surprise, or bad suprse?" she reluctantly asked,

"I'll let you decide that for yourself." She winked at the pair, and Lily swore that she did not want to be the type of healer that teased her patients like this lady did, "Now, your blood pressure dropped quite quickly as a result of your pregnancy but other than that you are fine."

"Oh well that's great but wh-"

Holy shizzle

Wait, what did the lady say?

"Excuse me, my what?" She exclaimed, colour fading from her cheeks, The lady looked at the pair worried as she saw the looks on their faces,

"You are pregnant, you're going to have a baby!" The lady flashed them a large smile before dropping it when she didn't get a response. "I will send an obstretition up whilst you guys erm…process the news."

The healer backed out of the room slowly, "Congratulations!" she gave them a thumbs up before walking out.

Lily turned to James, her entire body trembling, and her heart dancing in her chest.

"I'm pregnant." She whispered, placing her trembling hand onto her flat stomach, James's eyes dragged down and his larger hand lay over hers, as though touching her stomach was tangible proof of their baby.

"You're pregnant." He whispered, "A baby…us." He pointed to the each of them, as though it was finally hitting them,

"We're having a baby…me and you." He let out a little laugh and leaned forward, pressed a kiss on her lips and wrapped his arms around her trembling body. He slowly let go of her as he felt his shirt dampening.

"Hey." He whispered, placing the pad of his thumb under her chin, "Are you not-"

"No…no these- Merlin this is amazing." She whispered, smiling through her tears, "but James… how are we-" she cut herself off, "We're kids!" she whispered, "And Voldemort and the war...how do we bring a child into this?"

He ran his hand through her hair, pushing it away from her face and hiding the worry on his face. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it but for now…"

"We're having a baby" she whispered, a laugh escaping her and she lept up and wrapped her arms around him, "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!" She squealed, James let out a laugh and wrapped his hands around her waist,

"Shouldn't I be the one saying Thank you" he whispered, before placing his hand over her stomach, "We're going to be parents."

"Merlin…I cant believe this." He laughed, pressing a kiss to her lips before leaning down, with his hands on either side of her stomach, love shining in his eyes, "Hello erm…baby." Lily let out a snort causing James to throw her a dirty look and tears sprung to her eyes as she watched James, "I'm your daddy and we love you so so much and cant wait to meet you."

Lily let out a mini sob and laughed herself at him, pressing kisses on his face, "I love you endlessly!"

The pair turned as they heard a throat clearing from the side, and both flushed as they saw a younger girl in white robes, her blonde hair pulled into a low bun and her dark blue eyes shining. Her petite stature making her seem younger than she probably was.

"Mr and Mrs Potter, hello, I'm Dr Rosa Logan and I will be taking care of you and the baby over the next few months." She nodded at the pair who extended their hands and shook hers.

"Oh please, James and Lily."

"Very well then James and Lily, I am excited to be apart of this journey, and help you guys throughout it."

She went over to Lily's file and flipped through the information, "Okay so we're going to do a simple scan today to find out how far along you are, I'm guessing you're maybe a month since you didn't know yet, but we knew know until we check. So we'll take an ultrasound and try to listen to the heartbeat. And then we'll see how we go."

The pair nodded, and Lily squeezed James hand as she layed back,

"Just lift your top up sweets, I'm going to put a gel on which will be cold at first, and then We'll start."

Despite the warning Lily still involuntarily shuddered at the feel of the gel, her heart was racing in her chest as she queezed James's hand.

Dr Logan cast a spell and a gasp escaped both of them as an image popped up next to them, Lily's spare hung flew to her mouth as she wathed in amazement. When a sound filled the room she felt tears spring to her eyes,

"Is that?"

Dr logan nodded, "That's your babies heart beat."

It was the strangest thing, to know that there was a human being within her, that had been residing within her without her knowing. It was real, they were having a baby. She turned to James and flashed him a watery smile, which he reciprocated as he wiped tears from his own eyes.

"And this little blob, right there, that's your baby."

"Its so small." James whispered, "How?"

"Well you are further along then expected, you're actually 11 weeks already, so according to the sono, you are due on approximately August the second."

"August the second." James nodded and pressed a kiss on Lilys cheek, "We're going to be parents."

She nodded, a tear s lipping from her green orbs,

"We're going to be parents."

It was little less then two hours later when the couple got home to a group of worried friends.

"WHAT HAPPENED!"

"ARE YOU OKAY?"

"YOURE NOT DYING ARE YOU!"

"Give the girl some space!" Liz exclaimed, pushing through the group and flinging herself into Lily's arms, "are you okay?" she whispered into her ear,

"Better than okay." Lily whispered back, her smile not dropping, untangling herself from the embrace.

"You look too happy to be someone who just came out of the hospital." Sirius stated, giving Lily the flowers he'd conjured, "Are you sure you guys didn't just go for a quickie and back."

James guffawed, throwing his head back and laughing, "Even better!" he looked down at Lily whom nodded, "We're having a baby!"

"YOU'RE PREGNANT!" Alice squealed and jumped into Lily's arms, as everyone else patted them on the back and congratulated them, "WE'RE GONNA HAVE BABIES TOGETHER!"

"MERLINS SAGGY LEFT TESTICAL! A BABY! CONGRATS LILS!" Elizabeth squealedrapping her arms around the two pregnant girls, "YOU HAVE HUMANS INSIDE YOU WHAT THE HELL!"

"Congratulations Mate, we gotta deal with em together!" Frank laughed whilst handing James a butterbeer, "Hopefully Lils can fix Alices mood."

"Bless her soul if she can." Remus snorted, "You'll be a great dad James."

"Thanks man." He said whilst picking up a greasy chip from the box on the table, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that they will need to learn how to cook proper foods for the baby.

"Good job Prongs." Peter nodded causing them all to snort,

"I like to think so too Wormy." He laughed before Sirius interjected

"I'm going to have a godchild!" Sirius exclaimed, a sile plastered over his face, "The second generation of Marauders! Prongs junior!"

James took a swing of his Butterbeer, laughing at Sirius patted him on the back over and over, "Who says you're going to be godfather?"

Sirius paused mid pat and turned to him, "Excuse me."

James bit his lip to hide his smile, and winked at the boys, "Yeah, I think Remus is far more responsible."

"James Charlus Potter." Sirius raised a brow, looking uncannily like his mother.

"I'm joking Pads, you gotta speak to the boss." Nodding over to Lily who was still surrounded by the three girls. Sirius flashed him a smirk.

"Oh trust me Prongs, I will." He laughed, "not now because I don't want to get in the middle of that, but I will."

Elizabeth and Sirius fell back onto their orange couch sighing with relief, it had been an agonising order meeting.

"Thank merlin for today being over." Sirius muttered, wrapping his arm around Elizabeth,

Elizabeth snorted,

"You don't have it that bad, Ive had to deal with Lily asking me every five minutes if she looks pregnant and then I have old hags like Mrs Longbottom asking when we're settling down. The only good thing is that Alice is a lot more cheerful!"

"Bless James for knocking Lily up, otherwise we'd have to deal with a snape-like Alice for 9 months."

Elizabeth grimaced, "Just the thought-"

"Eurgh."

The pair cherished the comfortable silence between them as they wallowed in their own thoughts. Thinking over the day, it was unfortunate that a majority of their friend group had suddenly decided to get hitched and have kids early, because now they were stuck having to explain their lack of adulting.

"Do you-" Sirius broke the silence, but Elizabeth interjected,

"I need wine for this conversation."

Sirius snorted, "Firewhiskeys stronger."

"True!" she laughed, "But I need to be coherent, I need a lot more than wine to get myself smashed." She summoned two glasses and a bottle and poured it in anticipation of their conversation.

"This is literally a depiction of our immaturity!" she let out a laugh, passing Sirius his drink, "We need to talk about this with alcohol!"

"So…." Sirius began, hiding his laughter under the guise of maturity, "I need to know what you think"

"About what?" Elizabeth took a sip of wine, flashing him a cheeky grin and wink,

"I dunno, the future, adulating, our friends lives, do you want it?"

Elizabeth leant back into his embrace, her short hair falling around her face and sighed, "Of course I want it, eventually. As great as having kids may be, I don't want to be a 20 year old mother. Lily and James will be what…31 when their kid goes to Hogwarts, if it follows them they'll be grandparents at like... 41."

Sirius choked on his wine, his brows furrowing, "I never thought of it like that."

"Its rare that wizards ever do think. Magic allows them a leeway with things like this."

He let out a bark of laughter, "So no kids for a while in order to prevent being a 40 year old grandparent, what about…erm…marriage?"

"Before that what is your opinion on children?"

"You know mine, I told you months ago."

" if I love you more than life itself, I cant imagine how much I'd love a child that was half me and half you. I don't think I could live with myself knowing that I left you both because I was afraid, I don't know if I could live my life without you in it- I'd sooner take a life sentence in Azkaban than live without you."

She let out a choked up laugh,

"As long as I'm around you wont be spending a day in Azkaban let alone a life sentence!" She quipped through her tears.

He clasped his hand in hers, and gazed into her beautiful eyes, having missed her piercing blue orbs, "I will spend every day of my life showing you both how much I love you and how much you both mean to me."

She nodded, remembering that day, and the awful argument they had prior to that conversation.

"Now your opinion on marriage hun."

She rolled her eyes and turned to him, taking his larger hands into her smaller hands, "I know you know that I want it, I want that white picket fence life, safe and boring. Not now, but one day. However, if you were to ask me tomorrow, to marry you; I would say yes."

A small smile spread across his face, he placed a hand on the side of her face, stokring her cheek with his thumb.

"I know you don't think much of marriage, and think it's a piece of paper; but to me, that marriage certificate means the world. I guess that if you view marriage as a pointless piece of paper it shouldn't matter whether you have it or not."

She was right, he mused, she always was. Lately, thoughts of the future had plagued him as he watched his friends take steps to grow up and find their place in the world. It wasn't a conscious decision, to spend his life with her. He'd known from the start that she was the one for him. She was the true love of his life.

His uncle Alphard, the wise chap, had told him years ago, before he had run away from home, that over the course of your life you will have three loves, your first love, your true love and your last love; and that some were lucky enough to have all three be one in the same person.

His first love was Marlene, who he had spent years loving, he had spent years with. And whilst they had never officially been together, he had loved her, and knew that she loved him. Elizabeth, he knew, was to be his true love, and if he was lucky, she would be his last.

He loved her, he would always love her; and despite his disbelief in marriage, he knew she wanted it, and he would give her anything to make her happy, and for her dreams to come true.

"I will you know." He told her, and his smile grew as her blue eyes danced with joy,

"What?" she asked, hope blooming in her chest.

"I will ask you, not today, certainly not tomorrow, but one day, I promise, we will be husband and wife."

She got on her knees and leant up to press a kiss on his lips, relishing the feel of him against her,

"I like the sound of that."

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I know it was short, but I can say that this became one chapter with several chapters content mashed into it. Next chapter though, that is one you dont want to miss hehe!

Please leave a review below and favourite and follow! Bless your souls and I hope you're all having an amazing week!

Goodnight lovelies!

Ruby xo