This was written for Mother's Day, 'write about a mother learning she's pregnant'. This is also the start of a collection of Harry&Lily moments.

Word count: 1140

Baby Makes Three

Even before she knows she is pregnant, Lily knows. It's really nothing obvious, but she feels a little different. She smiles more, for one, and when you're fighting a war that's the kind of thing people notice.

James is, quite obviously, the first to take note of it, though he doesn't say anything. He smiles more too, and his eyes are a little more relieved. Lily knows that it's because this – this war they're fighting – is never what he wanted for her, for the family they're trying to build, and because James can't help but worry, sometimes.

Everyone smiles more around her, actually, a light-hearted atmosphere that is so very welcome in those dark times. It makes the Order feels a bit more like a family and a bit less of a group of vigilantes stuck together by war.

And then there's the way her hands keep drifting to her stomach. She doesn't even notice at first, not until Alice points it out. Alice, who has the same mannerism and just learned she's pregnant.

Alice is actually the one who gets Lily to truly notice that something is different with her, to bring forth the thoughts that had thus far been sitting at the back of her mind.

"How far along are you?" Alice asks one evening, as they're leaving an Order meeting. James is talking to Sirius a few steps ahead, so Lily turns toward Alice.

Lily startles, heart skipping a beat in her chest. "I'm sorry?"

"Come on Lily, you're glowing," Alice continues, rolling her eyes fondly. "If you're trying to hide it, it's fine, but you're doing a terrible job of it. But don't worry," she adds, winking, "I can keep a secret."

"But I'm not pregnant?" Lily replies, confused.

Alice just stares, eyebrow raised. "Are you sure?"

"I-" The thing is, Lily isn't sure. Thinking back on this conversation, and on her behavior in the last couple of weeks, she realizes that something was different. "I have to go," she blurts out, eyes open wide in surprise. Her heart is pounding in her chest, mind whispering maybe, maybe, maybe.

She blows right past a concerned James, not hearing his words nor Alice's. As she focuses her mind on where she wants to Apparate, she tries to remember the last time she had her period – it's never really been regular, so it's nothing unusual for it to happen a few days, or even a week, after she expected it to. Besides, she's been so busy in those past few months she hasn't been keeping track of things like she should have, like she used to.

Did she take her potion? She thinks she did, but Merlin, what if she didn't? There had been that one time, after James and she had come back from a battle where she could have sworn she had seen him be hit by a dark curse, where for a few heart-wrenching seconds she had thought she had lost him… After, had she thought of her potion?

The memory is blurry with relief and adrenaline, and she can't be sure. She has to be sure, has to know (but she already knows, doesn't she? This would explain everything).

Potions take too much time to give a proper result, and she can't wait right now. Apparating to the muggle world and purchasing the pregnancy test she needs is much faster. Soon, her mind chants as she takes herself home. Soon you'll be sure.

She is not surprised by the result. She is excited, anxious and a little bit terrified, but she is not surprised. She isn't alone for long: outside, a sharp crack resonates through the empty air, a sign that James is back too, and soon after Lily hears the front door swing open and bang shut.

"We're gonna be parents," Lily breathes out when James finds her, awkwardly in the living-room's entryway. "We're gonna be parents," she repeats, still stunned but this time looking up from the little plastic stick that told her the news.

Had Lily been anything but overwhelmed right now, she'd have laughed at the face James pulls at her words. He looks like someone smacked him across the face and he isn't sure how to respond yet, mouth slack and eyes open wide and unblinking.

"What?" James croaks out. He looks like he's about to faint.

"I'm pregnant," she replies, and James takes one step forward, and then another and another, until he just kind of crumples in front of her, kneeling. Lily grabs his hand like it's her lifeline, holds it tight until the world feels real again.

"Wow."

"Yeah," Lily smiles, and she tastes tears she didn't know she had been shedding on her lips. "James, what are we going to do?"

"What are we-What are we going to do? Lily, we're having a baby?" The sheer wonder on his face at his own words steals Lily's breath away. "This is the best thing that could possibly happen to us!"

Lily smiles again, a little wobbly. "But the war…" She points out hesitantly.

"Screw the war!" James curses, eyes burning. "Lils, we can't just let the war dictate our lives – we've got to live in the now too, or else You-Know-Who and his cronies have already won!"

It feels weird, to have James throw back her own words at her like this, but they're just as right now as they had been then. It makes her smile, and so, so glad that James is here with her, that he's the one she chose.

This time, when she smiles she's no longer crying. "So you won't worry?" she teases.

James jerks back in mock-hurt. "Me? Worry? Lies and blasphemy, I can't-Lily, come on, we both know that I never worry," he sounds so offended, a hand over his heart like she's just dealt him a death blow, that she can't help but laugh.

"Right, of course, please forgive me," she drawls, eyebrow raised as high as she can. "I never meant to imply that you would ever worry, about anything."

James scoffs, scowling. "You'd better," he replies sternly – or tries to, as his scowl trembles and turns into a smile, and then into a laugh.

Lily can't help but join in, and by the time they stop their cheeks are flushed and their eyes bright, and Lily has never felt so in love or so happy.

"Mummy loves you," she whispers to her unborn child, heart already feeling too big for her chest. James is already making faces at her stomach, and he looks happier than she's seen him in a long time, and it eases her worry, at least for now.

James and our baby, she thinks fondly as she eyes her husband's antics. This is all I need - all I will ever need.