December 27th, 1979
"This isn't working!" James exclaimed as he fell backwards across the foot of the bed, giving up on trying to button the black slacks that were part of his work uniform.
"Call Rufus and ask if he'll let you wear sweatpants today?" Lily said from the other side of the room, where she was changing out of her scrubs, into PJs. She had had the nightshift the night before, and would for the rest of the week, then she would have Sunday off, and work the day shift for the next week until Sunday.
"No, he's pretty strict about dress code. Alice actually got into trouble with him the other day for wearing black pants that weren't slacks."
"Really?" Lily asked, moving over to lie on the bed. Alice was noticeably starting to show, there was no way she would be able to comfortably wear normal slacks. She wouldn't have thought that to be a huge problem, considering James and Alice were both on paperwork duty, something that could've been done at least partly from home, meaning they wouldn't even really be in public eye. Then they also had Ministry provided Auror robes over their clothes.
"Yeah."
"Here," Lily said, reaching behind her to grab a hair tie off her nightstand. It would be a temporary solution at best, but it should get him through until they could go to Diagon Alley on Sunday. "Thread it through your buttonhole. Loop it around your button." She explained at his confused look.
December 30th, 1979
Lily made a beeline to the pregnancy section at Madam Malkins, dragging James behind her. "Here! Black slacks and white button up." She exclaimed, holding up the two articles of clothing, barely giving James time to respond, before throwing them over her arm. "And these jeans." She continued, as she grabbed a pair of blue jeans, also throwing them over her arm.
"Lily. We came here for a uniform, nothing else."
"But these clothes grow with you. So they'll fit you the entire pregnancy." Lily argued, moving over to the checkout, grabbing several shirts on the way.
"Lily…" James sighed.
"James." Lily sighed back, slightly mockingly, glancing at him as she set the clothes on the counter.
"I'm… not going to be able to talk you out of buying them, am I?"
"Nope."
January 1st, 1980
"It's hard to believe that we'll have a child by the end of the year."
"Well, you better believe it, Lil, because it's going to happen."
"We'll need to find a bigger place." Lily told him.
"Or, we could move into my parents old place in Godric's Hollow."
"I think we should at least look first." Lily insisted.
January 2nd, 1980
"I don't like it." Lily muttered, looking up at the shack like house in front of them. It was a four bedroom, three bathroom, country house ten miles out of London. Dirty white siding was peeling off the sides, the porch was wooden with several holes in the steps, the large picture window had a crack running down the center of it, the door was obviously old but relatively nice in comparison, with an oval window in the upper half. The lawn was recently cut and weeded, with a stone path leading up to the door. It looked almost as if the house had been abandoned but someone had kept up the lawn.
"Well, the door's nice?" James said, as they looked up at the house from their truck, they had both just gotten off work for the evening and the setting sun did nothing to help the abandoned look of the house.
January 6th, 1980
"This doesn't look half bad." Lily said, as she pulled into the driveway, next to the For Sale sign. The house itself was a rather quaint, two story, yellow brick town house. It had a simple, but elegant wooden door, the windows had obviously just been replaced. The porch and stairs leading up to the porch were cement. There was a step leading into the small, white picket fenced front lawn, the lawn was over grown with a stone path leading from the step to a gate on the other side of the yard.
"Uh, Lily?" James muttered from the passenger's seat, looking up at a window on the second story.
"Yeah?" Lily questioned as she cut the engine.
"Are you sure this is still for sale?"
"Yeah, I mean, the ad was in the paper this morning. And the for sale sign's still up. Why?"
In response, James pointed to the window he had been looking at. Lily looked up at it just in time to see a shadowy figure rush away from it.
"Oh hell no." Lily muttered, turning the car back on and throwing it into reverse.
January 10th, 1980
"…There's a three bedroom, one bathroom trailer?" Lily said from her spot on the couch beside her husband, her legs thrown over the back of the couch, and her dark red hair brushing the floor.
"A trailer?"
"Yes." Lily confirmed.
"Here in London?"
"Yup." Lily once again confirmed, popping the 'p'.
"But still, a trailer?" James asked, "That wouldn't be any better than any of the houses we've looked at, would it?"
"I mean… It looks nicer…" Lily answered, around a yawn. "We could always look at it on Sunday, it's only a thirty minute drive from here."
January 13th, 1980
"Nope." James said immediately upon seeing the rundown trailer.
"We should look at the inside when the landlord gets here. It looked pretty nice in the pictures!" Lily exclaimed, obviously trying to stay upbeat.
"Lily-"
"Oh look!" Lily exclaimed, pointedly, opening her door. "There he is now."
xXx
"We are not raising our child here." James said, as Lily started the truck once again. The entire trailer park was run down. Not just run down, but run down in the way that attracted the wrong sort of people. The trailer itself had its fair share of problems. Heating, plumbing, the roof.
"James, this is what's within what I'd be comfortable spending."
"We don't need to worry about that. We both have well paying jobs on top of the Potter fortune."
"We don't need a mansion." Lily snapped back.
"I'm not saying that."
"You're thinking it."
"I'm saying and thinking, that we could easily do better than this."
"I've lived in a trailer park before. They're not that bad." Lily huffed, as they drove away from the park.
"I'm not saying they all are."
"I happen to have some pretty great memories from that place." Lily sighed, eyes glazing slightly in memory.
James crossed his arms over his chest, turning to look out his window. "We have the means to give our child a nice, safe hom-"
"We were perfectly safe." Lily snapped again, side eyeing James, as she signaled to make a left hand turn.
"Lily. We drove by a drug deal." James hissed, "In broad daylight."
"What?" Lily asked doubtfully. "When? Where?"
"Literally as soon as we entered the trailer park. They were right by the gate!"
"Oh." Lily whispered in realization, "So that's what they were doing…"
"Are you kidding me right now?"
"What?"
"How did you not notice what was happening?"
There was a beat of silence, before she said, slightly smug, "Because the trailer park I lived in, didn't have that."
James blinked several times in quick succession, reaching up to wipe at his eyes. Why was he crying over something like this?
"Are you crying?" Lily asked slightly panicked, she had seen her husband cry a total of four times: In seventh year, when Euphemia and Fleamont were hospitalized for dragon pox, before being placed in the nursing home. At their wedding. When they found out he was pregnant. And after they learned the due date. "Please, don't cry… It'll be okay. We'll be okay. We'll keep this little one safe wherever we live, we can put up some wards, get a secret keeper-"
"Lily, ju- just stop. Okay? Just don't."
xXx
Lily looked at the clock as she heard the bedroom door shut behind James. 9:03 P.M. Sighing, she stood from the couch and moved to the phone, dialing her parents' number.
The phone rang several times before, "Hello?"
"Mum."
"Lily-Flower!" Rosalie exclaimed, Lily could practically hear the smile in her voice. "How have you been lately?"
"I think I may have messed up?" She said, going on to explain what had happened between her and James that afternoon.
"Well," Rosalie started, Lily having fallen silent. "It sounds like you were just stating your opinion. There is nothing wrong with that. Though, Lily, while its nice to hear you have good early childhood memories, I would have given anything to be able to give you and Petunia a nice home from the beginning. But that had been the best your father and I could afford at the time."
"Mum…"
"Now I'm not necessarily saying you need to buy a manor in Oxford or anything, it doesn't sound like either of you want that. But is there a way you could meet in the middle?" there was a silence before Rosalie prompted, "Lily?"
Lily sighed, "There is a flat in our complex that we both had liked when we first moved."
"And what about it?"
"The family that swooped in and got it before we could, is now moving."
"Uh-huh."
"But it won't be available again until April."
"Is April a bad time?" Rosalie asked, curiously.
"You mean other than the fact that James will be six months pregnant by that point?"
"Honey, you have several able-bodied friends and family members that I'm sure would love to help you two. There's your father and I, I'm sure James friends would be willing, then you have Marlene, Mary, and Dorcus."
"…yeah."
"Have you talked to James about the flat?"
"No, not yet."
"Well? What are you waiting for? Go talk to him!"
xXx
"You remember the flat we looked at before this one?" Lily asked, climbing into the bed beside her husband.
"Yeah, what about it?" James questioned; eyes closed.
"It's going to be available again in April."
James eyes snapped open to look at Lily, "Wait. Really?" They had both loved the flat, it was a rather spacious two bedroom, one bathroom, with a small old fashioned kitchen, the dining room was part of the living room, there was a hall with a bedroom on either side and the bathroom at the end.
"Yeah. It won't be available until late April, though."
"So?" James asked, "We have until July."
"You'll be six months pregnant, though. I can't imagine it would be very fun to move into a new place!"
"Do you want to live there?"
"Well yes, but-"
"But nothing, you don't need to worry about me or this baby. We actually found a place we can agree on, we'll make it work." James sighed. "We'll call the landlord in the morning, okay?"
"…okay." She couldn't help but worry about her husband and their unborn child constantly, though.