Author's Note – Hey Guys! I'm baack! I'm officially on holidays!!! Well, that was since the 19th of November… And I'm sorry I didn't write earlier but there…I have a fresh, LONG, new chapter for you! It's at least eight pages long!!! So I hope you'll like it! This one isn't really funny… we're going further into the 'romance' and 'seriousness' part of the story… I'm sorry about those who wanted more humour but I just went through exams (like maths, additional maths, economics, and blah blah blah) and I have to admit my sense of humour system ain't really looking that good. Anyway… on with it. I won't keep you long!
I won't be able to do individual thank you' s to you cause if I do, I'd spend another day writing it and it will be another day that you'll have to wait…
JUST A GREAT BIG HUMONGOUS ENORMOUS THANK YOU FOR ALL THOSE WHO REVIEWED AND READ AND WAITED!!!
Disclaimer – I own nothing…
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Early Sunday morning, Lily woke up to the bawling of Dumbie. She sighed and sat up in her bed. All night long, all he had done was cry…cry…and cry.
I think I'm starting to understand why Potter insisted on me keeping him for the night, she thought rubbing her tired eyes.
"Lily," Lennie moaned from under her pillow. "Make him shut up."
Lily looked around at the dorm and saw that almost every one of her roommates was sleeping with her head under her pillow.
Lily threw the covers off her and sat on her bed for a few more minutes, trying to find the courage to get up and care for Dumbie.
Why should I care for someone who doesn't care if I don't get enough sleep? She thought grumpily.
She got up and walked to the crib she had conjured and she cast a dark glare at another crib: a pink one at the other end of the room.
Cleo's lucky to have one kid who doesn't wail all night long, she thought. She's lucky not to be married to Potter. Okay, she's lucky full stop.
She lifted Dumbie in the air. "What is it now?" she asked softly. "Don't you ever sleep, huh?"
It continued to cry and Lily closed her eyes, took in a deep breath and let it out. Alright, cool, calm and composed… She took in another deep breath. Cool, calm and composed, she thought as she let out the breath.
She snapped open her eyes and smiled at the doll sweetly. "Now I don't want to hurt you okay?" she said. "Stop crying… please?"
The crying started to subdue and Lily's eyes started lit up with victory. "Ahh, that's better!" she said.
But just as the words made it out of her mouth, Dumbie started crying all over again.
Lily trembled with contained frustration and closed her eyes again. Cool, calmed and controlled. Dumbie doubled the volume. Cool…Calm…and con-trolled, Lily continued to repeat in her head. Cool, calm and – Dumbie tripled the crying.
"I can't take it anymore!" she shouted. "Shut up! Shut up please!"
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"Ah! I slept like a baby last night!" James said as he let himself fall on the grass next to Lily.
Lily glared at him from her slumped position while patting Dumbie. "Glad you did," she muttered. "If only Dumbie could sleep like a baby!"
James smirked. "Had a 'good' night Lily?"
She gave him a forced smile and thumbs up. "Great!" she said sarcastically.
James ignored her sarcasm and peered at Dumbie into the basket. "Hey little one!" he coaxed. "How are you? Did Naughty Mommy torture you much?"
Lily snorted. "Stop corrupting it Potter! We both know I'm the better parent of us two!"
"Excuse me, but I'm not the one –"
"- who spent the whole night taking care of it!" Lily interrupted. "Now, are you, Potter?"
James glared at her. "We came here to talk about his Christening, not to argue, right?"
Lily shrugged. "Nice attempt at a change of subject."
"Who is the Godmother?" James asked pointedly.
"Lennie."
"Oh, great surprise," James said.
"Potter, keep your stupid comments to yourself, thank you very much." Lily said. "Who's the Godfather?"
"Well," James started. "It was a pretty hard choice. Peter said he didn't want to though so that left me with Sirius and Remus. I had to do these 'for and against' lists, you know? Sirius is always so carefree and fun loving. Harry would really have great fun with him… But then again, even though I trust him, he is pretty irresponsible and acts before thinking… Remus on the other hand is really trustworthy. He is calm, gentle and sensible. He would really know how to take care of Harry… But then again, he has this –"
"Potter!!" Lily hissed. "I only asked you for the name if the Godfather! Not for the account of how, when and where you ended up with deciding who the Godfather will be!!"
"Sirius."
Lily nodded. "That's really all I wanted to know."
There were a few minutes of silence only interrupted by Dumbie' s occasional gurgling. The two teens were sitting near the lake. Many students were strolling enjoying their free Sunday.
"Where are we doing it?" Lily asked.
James smirked at her. "It?"
"My mind doesn't work the twisted way yours does," Lily said. "The Christening. Where?"
"Well…I know this place…" James started after a few seconds.
"I'm listening."
James got up as Lily watched him with a frown. "Where are you going?" she asked.
James smiled at her. Really smiled. Lily watched him, suddenly mesmerized. A soft wind was blowing through his unruly sun-kissed black hair and his eyes were shining from the whitish-silvery light reflecting from the lake's surface.
He held out a hand to her. "Come. I'll show you this place," he said.
Lily couldn't do anything else other than reach out her small hand and take his. "Okay, as long as it's nowhere illegal…"
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James led her to someplace she had never, ever been before. I didn't even know this place existed! Lily thought as she looked around, her eyes wide with wonder at the gorgeous sight unfolding before her eyes.
It was farther down the lake, quite away from the castle. There was a river flowing into the lake. They went upstream following the twists and turns of the river.
"Wow," Lily let out. She gently placed Dumbie's basket on a stone carved like a round table and looked around.
They were in a place surrounded by trees and bushes and plants. There were some flowers from which shimmering and bright colourful sparks occasionally spurted out of the flowers. The thing that made this place so calm and enchanted was the waterfall tumbling down. The sound was not of loud splashing water, but harmonious.
"This is… beautiful," Lily whispered.
"I know," she heard James say from behind her.
She jumped – she had almost forgotten that he was there – and turned around only to find him staring at her. She blushed slightly and hoped he couldn't see that. Not taking chances, she turned around again.
"So this is how you 'wow' them all?"
James frowned. "I don't understand."
"You're numerous girlfriends. This is how you enthrall them?" Lily asked, still not turning around.
A minute's silence followed her question.
"You're the first girl that I've brought here." James finally said.
Lily turned around, surprised and stared at James with wide eyes. Surprised, yes, but pleasantly surprised. "Really?"
James nodded as he took a wary step towards her. "Really."
Lily shook her head and looked at the ground. "You're kidding me. Bet you tell that to everyone."
James reached out and lifted her chin up to make her look at him. "I'm damn serious here Lily."
Lily's breath caught in her chest. She had never known that James had so beautiful eyes. They were not plain brown, like she thought they were. Around the pupil, there was a thin ring of dark chocolate brown with a sort of uneven edge… then most of his eye was a lighter brown, with a really, really thin ring of dark brown around it.
Come to think of it, nothing was actually plain about James Potter.
Lily jerked away at these thoughts and ran a hand through her flame red hair.
"How do you know this place?" she asked with the most casual voice she could muster up as she pretended to be really, really interested with the works on Dumbie' s basket.
"Oh… I have connections…"
"I'm your…'wife'." Lily said. "You can tell me!"
James smiled. "Thought you didn't want to be my wife."
"But I am for a week," Lily said, granting him a small smile.
Might not be as bad as I thought it would to be his wife, she thought suddenly. Then she shook her head. Am I okay? Must be this place. Yes, this place is making think of weird things!
She decided turn back to 'normal mode' again – or at least tried to.
"Uhm… so we'll christen Dumbie here?" she asked.
"If you want to."
Lily looked around. "When?"
"Tuesday?" James suggested. "I have Quidditch practice tomorrow."
Lily nodded. "Tuesday is great. Around four?"
James agreed.
"Okay, so we'll meet here at four on Tuesday with your friends and Lenny," Lily recapped. "We'll do our sort of 'ceremony' and everything will be alright."
James nodded. "So I keep Harry for tonight?"
Lily blinked. "Who's – " Then she remembered that Dumbie was in fact 'Harry'. She handed him the basket. "Yeah of course. I'll have it tomorrow afternoon so that you can practice for Quidditch then."
"That's cool." James said.
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The day of the Christening soon arrived… and it was quite chaotic. Lily didn't know why, but it was.
Maybe because she was very impatient about Dumbie's christening. Okay, and also because of these silly thoughts I'm having about James! I mean Potter She rectified. Whatever…
The thing was, this place James had shown her was pretty much was most enchanting scene she'd ever seen! And also, the fact that she was the first girl he had brought to there… it touched her.
Oh well, I'm his wife, she thought. Maybe it's his way of thanking me to put up with him! And also for giving him a beautiful baby boy! Oh gosh, I'm scaring myself now…
She had woken up very early and had conjured several little outfits for Dumbie. She placed them carefully on her bed and then stood before them, trying to make up her mind about what it should be wearing.
Munching on her lips, she glanced at each outfit.
Then taking a deep breath, she marched across the room to Lennie's bed. Then she poked the latter's shoulder. "Lennie!" she whispered.
She waited for a second, but nothing.
She poked her shoulder harder and said louder, "Lennie! Wake up!"
But Lennie merely turned around in her bed and brought the covers higher up over her head.
Lily sighed. "Fine," she said walking away. Then she abruptly whirled around and jumped on her friend's bed. "Lennie wake up! There's fire!"
Her friend gave a squeal and threw the covers off her and rushing out of bed. Then she found Lily laughing.
"That's very funny," Lennie groaned.
"It is, you should have seen your face!" Lily laughed, but then grimaced as her other roommates 'shhhh'ed her.
"Lily, it's still five. Let me sleep, will you?" Lennie sighed as she dropped her head against her pillow again.
But Lily grabbed her hands and pulled her out.
"You've got to help me," she said.
"Help you what?"
"Help me choose."
"Help you choose what?" Lennie asked.
"Choose an outfit for Dumbie," Lily said, dragging her to her bed.
"Lily, it's just a doll," Lennie told her. "You tore me from my wonderful dream to play dress up with your doll?"
"The doll that's supposed to be my son, Lennie," Lily pointed out. "The son that will make me get a good grade."
Lennie nodded and glanced at the bed. "Holly crap!" she let out. "Lily, you're crazy."
"So, you are to help me choose from these," Lily said gestured to the clothes. "I conjured them up, aren't they cute? Problem is I don't know which one is the best."
"Of course you won't know, there are dozens of them," Lennie said. "You know, he's still small, he won't know what he's wearing and I doubt he cares."
"Maybe, but I want it to be the best-looking doll - boy around," Lily said.
Lennie smirked. "Like his father?"
Lily nodded. "Like his f– wait a second," she playfully pushed Lennie. "No."
"Whatever," Lennie smiled.
Then the two of them spent the next minutes choosing an outfit for the baby. It was not easy.
After thirty minutes…
"This one is cute," Lennie said.
"Too red," Lily replied.
"How about this one?"
"Too frilly."
"And this one?'"
"But this one's cute too," Lily said pointing to another one.
"Okay," Lennie dropped the outfit she was holding in her hand and grabbed the one Lily was pointing at. "How about…this one?"
"Now that I'm thinking about it, this one too… it's too…sort of girly. It's a boy after all."
Lennie sighed and plopped on the bed. "Okay, I give up."
"Hey you're sitting on the clothes!" Lily hissed. "Get up!"
Lennie got up and took the outfit in her hands. "Hey…this one's good!"
Lily looked at it. It was a white overall with a baby blue shirt on the inside. "Hey, yeah, I didn't notice it."
"Well, that's because –"
"Don't need your comments, Len," Lily said snatching the outfit out of Lennie's hands.
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That afternoon, after double Arithmancy-version-History of Magic, Lily ran to meet Lennie with little Dumbie in her arms.
Lily would have to go there with Lennie and James and the others would meet them there.
Lennie was already waiting for her near the lake. "Still excited?"
Lily nodded. "You'll never actually believe what you're seeing when you see the place James brought me to."
"You've stopped first-naming him now?" Lennie teased.
Lily rolled her eyes at her and quickly changed the subject. "Look at Dumbie! Cute, huh?"
Lennie glanced at him. "Aww… That outfit really does fit him!"
…
…
…
A few moments later, Lennie was standing mouth hanging open as she stared around at the Magical Place. "Wow!" Lennie said.
"I know. That's all I could think for about an eternity when I first saw this!"
They heard the soft rustle of leaves behind them and whirled around to find Sirius, Peter and Remus arrive – without James.
"Where's James?" Lily asked.
"No idea," Sirius shrugged, his hands in his robe's pocket. "Got different classes in the afternoon."
"Oh, maybe there's something retarding him then," Lennie said to Lily.
Sirius smiled. "Hey Lennie, I'm the Godfather," he said. "I presume you're the feminine version of me."
Lennie smiled. "Yeah, if Godmother's what you call 'feminine version of you'."
Thirty minutes later…
…And still no James.
"Where is he for God's sake?' Lily asked to no one in particular.
Sirius was leaning against a tree, Remus was lying on the grass alongside Peter and Lennie was sitting with the baby in front of her as she watched Lily pace.
"I think he's sleeping," Lennie said.
"Oh, let me go wake him up and he won't be able to sleep, for like, a whole month, let alone lie down!!" Lily scoffed.
"Huh?" Lennie frowned. "Oh, no! Not James. Dumbie, I think he's sleeping."
Lily approached the basket and leaned over. Sure enough, an even breathing was emanating from it. Dumbie had fallen asleep.
"Here's my theory about James though," Lennie said. "Maybe he got lost."
"Lost?" Sirius said. "Ha! James Potter is the one who discovered this place! He can't be lost!"
Lily straightened up. "Well, we've waited. You can't say we didn't. So let's Christen Dumbie and get this over with."
Sirius stood up in his full height. "But the father is not there!"
"The father did not bother to come, did he?" Lily snapped.
Silence.
"That's what I thought," Lily said.
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Author's Note – OMG, where is James??????? What happened to him? Hmm… I guess you'll find out in the next chapter…hihi…
Anyway, I've just read this again… to think that you've waited for more than a month for this piece of… crap. I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed that that's all I can give you after all this waiting… I'm really sorry for the lack of humour. Really. Really.