Harry Potter: A Different Beginning

Chapter II - The Prophecy

31st July, 1980 ...

Lily stood in front of the stove in the kitchen at Godric's Hollow carefully stirring the pasta sauce that she was making for dinner. Her back ached and her feet ached and her entire body was aching really. She was also getting small cramps in her stomach, every twenty minutes or so. They had been coming and going all day. She had wondered briefly if maybe she was going into labour but had decided to wait a bit and see as the pain hadn't really been that intense yet. She didn't want to alarm James, in case it was a false alarm.

She smiled at Sirius as he stepped into the kitchen. "Hey, Handsome. Are you here to try to mooch some dinner?"

Sirius grinned. "Aw, Lily-Love, you know that I only come here to see you! You are the one true love of my life."

She laughed and kissed his cheek. "Liar. So how's Arlene?"

"Arlene?" Sirius asked as if puzzled for a moment.

Lily nodded. "Yeah Arlene, that pretty brunette that you were dating last week?"

Sirius grinned. "Ohhh Arlene... she's good I guess. Now I'm with Monica."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Do you ever change?"

He grinned. "Why would I want to tie myself down like Prongs did? Come now, Lily-Love, I'm not the commitment type."

"So I noticed. How many hearts have you broken in the last month?"

"I don't break hearts, don't even bruise them!" Sirius replied.

"Uh-huh, well let's see... in the last month alone I recall you being with Beth, Louisa, Janet, Dana, Jessica, Arlene, and now Monica. You break hearts, Sirius." Lily replied, patting him on the cheek.

He grinned. "Nah, I'm very careful about it. And you forgot about Diana."

Lily sighed as she shook her head at him. He was never going to change. He had always been a player, and she wondered how long it would be until he met the woman that he could stand for longer then a week. "Yeah, so how was your day?"

He shrugged. "Same old, same old. Alastor had us practice some hunting thing today. You know, if we are hot on the trail of a Death Eater, we know how to track them. It was pretty dull."

Lily smiled. "Sounds like it might have been interesting." She placed a hand on her stomach as another cramp shot through her. "Sirius, where's James at?"

"He was just going upstairs to change. You see, one of the programs was that we were in a forested area where we were practicing defensive shields and ways to communicate with each other from a distance before we worked a bit on some hand-to-hand fighting and with all the rain we've had lately it was little muddy. Prongs fell in the mud a bit... okay, I might have pushed him but it was all in good fun." Sirius replied with a grin. "Why?"

She gulped. "Well, because I think I might be — God!" She exclaimed as she felt the liquid pour down her legs.

Sirius paled considerably. "Oh, um... er... that's not good."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I didn't wet myself, you prat! My water just broke!"

"Oh... is that good?"

Lily smacked his arm. "I'm going into labour!" When he continued to stare at her dumbfounded she slapped his arm. "I'm having the baby!"

Sirius' jaw dropped open. "Now?"

"Not this very second but I need to get to St. Mungo's!"

"Well, I — okay... JAMES!" He yelled as he hurried to the kitchen doorway.