When Frank Longbottom got home from work on the third day of training on the mordefinite, he was a wreck. He walked up and down the cobblestone street outside a few turns, looking at the water passing under the walking bridge and leaned against the wall of it staring down until he'd cleared his head a bit. His hands were still shaking when he went inside.

To find chaos.

"FRANK HONEY HI!" Alice all but danced over to him, the room's furniture had been magicked to the center and she was speckled with paint, wearing a pair of worn denim overalls she'd tied at the waist with a ribbon. Her hair was up in a knot with a bright pink scarf, and the walls were a myriad of colors splotched about. "I was hoping you'd be home soon to have a look-see and help me choose which color!"

"I - I thought we were painting this weekend?" Frank asked.

"I couldn't wait, darling."

"Oh." Frank looked around, unsure where the couch even was, and awkwardly lowered himself onto the surface of their old steamers from School, feeling supremely heavy. Alice's buoyancy kept her fluttering about the room, not noticing Frank's lack of enthusiasm. "I thought, too, it was only the baby room?"

"I got carried away once I went to look at paints and all I could think is how lovely these colors could ALL look in our home. How cheerful is this one?!"

"It's... very pink."

It looked like the dust that the dummies gave up when they were properly hit with the curse. Frank hated it.

"It is, isn't it?" Alice said. "But we could have a girl..."

"In the living room?"

"Could be anywhere, really!"

Frank nodded.

"Have Lily and James painted yet?"

"Dunno," he murmured.

Alice was flipping through a book of swatches. "What about green, Frank? You love green." She held up a swatch.

Frank nodded, "It's nice."

Alice paused, her eyebrow raising, and she stopped her dancing motions and dropped the book onto a table, making her way over to her husband and tilting her head to one side. "Frank? Baby?" She stepped up to him and her bright, wide eyes stared up at him. "Something's the matter."

He had managed to keep things smoothed the first several training sessions, but today was the first time Frank himself had cast the spell, the first time he had felt the weight of killing magic. And that bloody pink dust that had risen out of the dummie had been, while not realistic, unexpected and very sobering. He had managed to push the thought of what they were training to do until that moment his magic had hit the dummie square on the mark and a great puff of pink had emitted from it's cloth chest. It seemed none of the aurors training were expecting it - McKenna Johnston had screamed.

Frank's voice trembled, "It was a very... very hard day at work," he answered.

"What happened?" she asked. He hadn't even come home this shook the day the Minister had been killed. Upset, sure, but now his palms were clammy and his eyes were profoundly sad. She ran her hand over his chin, cupping his face. "Baby?"

"This new curse they're making us learn," Frank murmured. He didn't dare tread too close to the whole truth. There was no need to divulge the spell itself, of course, which was the punishable bit, but he still wasn't sure how much he could say, how much he wanted her to know. She would worry if she knew. "It's just very hard right now."

"I'm so sorry, Frank," she whispered.

He nodded. She was comforting him, her touch always did, but there were things crawling under his skin he needed to talk to somebody with. "I - we ought to go and talk with the Potters," Frank suggested.

"Now?" Alice asked, looking around the room. "What -"

"I need to talk to James."

Alice nodded, "Alright. We can do this another time."

They disapparated to Godric's Hollow and when they knocked on the door to the Potter's Cottage just a mere fifteen minutes later, it was Sirius Black who opened the door. He immediately started to close it back up when he saw who was there.

"Sirius!" Alice shouted at him and he stopped, holding it barely opened, peering out. "Come now."

"You can come in," Sirius said to her, "But he can stay out here."

"Sirius, bleeding fuck's sake." Frank braced his arm up and pushed the door open so Sirius's sock covered feet slid over the floor inside with very little effort on Frank's part. Sirius looked down at the floor as though it had betrayed him, and Frank stepped into the house. "Oi Potter!"

Sirius leaped across the room then, stepping between Frank and the couch, where Frank could see Remus was talking with another man that Frank did not recognize. James, however, was in the kitchen with his mother, Lily in the dining room with Peter, setting the table with a cloth. Peter looked proud to be assisting and was magicking over the placemats, silverware, dishes and cups. "Shall I set more places?" He asked, seeing Frank and Alice.

"Of course!" chimed Lily at the same time Sirius said, "Only one!" Lily gave Sirius The Look and Sirius shrugged, leaning against the couch, effectively blocking Remus and Spencer from view, glaring in Frank's direction.

Lily went over and wrapped her arms around Alice, air-kissing by her cheeks as she did the same in return, then turned to Frank and gave him a hug.

Frank gave her a quick one then ducked 'round to the kitchen. "Mrs. P," he said, nodding to Dora, who smiled, though a bit tight-lipped, with a glance toward Sirius. Frank turned to James. "Can I talk to you, Potter?"

"Yeah," James nodded, and he shook potholders off his hands. "What's up?"

"Alone?" Frank pressed.

"Oh." James glanced at Sirius, who was vehemently shaking his head no in James's direction, then looked back to Frank, "C'mon, we'll, er, go out back."

Frank looked back at Sirius, too, then followed James out the back door to the Potter's garden.

The moment the back door closed, Sirius launched himself from the arm of the couch, rushing over to the kitchen window that overlooked the garden, pulling back the curtain to stare out. He was ducking back and forth in front of the sink, tilting his head and sighing and whining as he tried to find the best angle to see what Frank and James were up to.

"Sirius," Lily called, "Let them be, will you?"

Sirius didn't shift his eyes even a mite. "We can't let him arrest James," Sirius argued.

"Arrest James?" laughed Alice, "He isn't going to arrest James."

"We wouldn't have thought he'd arrest me, either, once upon a time!" Sirius answered.

"Okay yes, but - you also did something to earn it when he did," Remus said from the couch, leaning his head back against the cushion to stare over at Sirius. "Remember?"

Sirius shook his head, still holding the curtain, "Doesn't matter, you don't arrest your mates." He squinted at the garden, trying at reading Frank's lips as he talked with James. "Gods damned sun going down, making it hard to see..." he muttered.

"Sirius, sweetie, come help mummy lift this roast out of the oven," Dora called, and she grabbed the potholders James had been wearing before he went outside and shook them in Sirius's direction.

Sirius frowned at the window, then glanced at Dora - back at the window - back at Dora - clearly torn before very reluctantly tearing himself away from the window and letting Dora slide the potholders onto his hands and going for the roast.

Dora winked at Lily, Alice, and Remus, who all nodded knowingly.

Alice danced 'round to the table and helped Peter at setting the places, then, including added ones for herself and Frank, and Lily collected a basket of warming dinner rolls wrapped in a tea towel to keep warm, bending over to put it on the table. Sirius was just coming 'round the kitchen island counter carrying Dora's roast with his potholders on, which he put down on the table - but when he stood upright and turned 'round he stopped, eyes landing on the bread basket on the table - and then going to Alice.

The back door opened then and James and Frank came back inside, James looking very somber and thoughtful, and Frank right along with him, though Frank looked more nervous than James did.

"Everything alright?" Alice asked, looking at the boys. Lily looked up, too, but her eyes went to Sirius.

"Yeah everything's alright, I reckon I just needed a --- UMPH!" Frank's breath was lost as suddenly, without any warning at all, Sirius slammed into his chest, wrapping his arms around Frank as fierce and tight as ever. Frank's arms flailed up, Sirius tangled around his torso, his eyes wide with surprise, glancing at Lily and Alice, "What the hell?" he asked.

Sirius squeezed all the tighter, "You fucker!" he hooted, then he drew back and grabbed Alice a bit more gently, pulling her into a side hug with Frank under his other arm, "You bleeding arsehole!"

Frank looked 'round, "Is he hitting on me?" he joked, then flushed when Dora made a disapproving cluck from behind him in the kitchen.

"NoI'mNotHittingOnYou," Sirius said all in one breath, then he drew back and looked from one to the other. "When the fuck were you going to tell me?"

Alice's eyes were shining and Frank looked at Sirius in dismay, "How --?"

Lily let out a shriek, "WAIT, ARE YOU --?"

James's eyebrows shot up, "You lot got your results?"

"I'M PREGNANT!" Alice screamed and the room exploded as Lily, Dora, Peter, Sirius, Remus, James and even Spencer all reacted, though Spencer rather awkwardly compared to the shrieking pile of hugs the others became within seconds.

There were a great deal of tears and pats on the backs and more hugs and a shouted, "You should name the Franklet Elevendork! It's unisex, you know!"

"I am not naming anything - not even a bleeding hamster - Elvendork," Alice replied.

"Well a hamster maybe," Frank ceded, and when Alice raised an eyebrow at him, he shrugged, "What? Could be cute for a Hammy."

Suddenly Lily let out a shriek of excitement, "We get to be pregnant together!!!" she cried.

"AND ME TOO!" Sirius added.

"What?" Frank looked confused.

"You don't want to know," Remus replied, shaking his head.

That night, Remus was making the bed before they could get into it for the night and Sirius was perched on the window sill, watching, head tilted as Remus bent over the mattress trying to smooth the sheet out. A grin played on Sirius's lips and one eyebrow raised. Then, as if out of no where, he said, "I'm so excited for Frank and Alice, aren't you?"

"I am," Remus replied, turning to corner the bottom edge of the mattress's sheet.

"To think they weren't even going to tell us yet!" Sirius rolled his eyes. "If I hadn't of smelled it, we wouldn't even have known! Why d'you reckon Frank wasn't going to tell us for?"

"Maybe it had something to do with you being mad at him for the last six months?" Remus suggested.

"Mad at him!" Sirius scoffed, "Please. I haven't been mad at him."

"No?" Remus said, raising an eyebrow, standing upright after finishing the first of the two corners. He went 'round the other side. "This from the man who just last week listed off an idea for date night being Plot the Murder of Frank Longbottom?" 

Sirius mimed a scandalous gasp.

"Immediately followed by the second suggestion of Carry Out the Plans to Murder Frank Longbottom?" 

Sirius grinned, "Well, you can't do one without the other and I thought it would make a lovely duo of activities."

Remus rolled his eyes and set on folding the second side.

Sirius slid off the window sill and went over to Remus, sliding his arms 'round Remus's chest from behind. "Moony," he groaned, "Aren't you done making those corners yet? You're killing me making me watch you bend over like this." 

Remus shook his head, but he also pressed backward against Sirius a little bit, relishing the warmth and firmness of him. "Down... bad dog," Remus murmured.

"How bad?" Sirius asked.

Remus turned around, pulling Sirius into him, "You tell me."

Sirius grinned. "This is gonna be sooooo bad for those corners, Moony," he said, reaching for Remus's pyjama buttons.

"What did Frank want?" Lily asked. She was brushing her hair, sitting up in her spot in the bed, while James was just crawling in beside her. 

James sighed, "He's been training with the other Aurors at that new killing curse at the Ministry," he said, frowning.

"Oh," Lily frowned. "Is it difficult?"

"He's... not liking the training very much," James admitted. "Mr. Underhill's gone and created some fairly realistic targets and Frank didn't much like the feel of the spell, you could say."

Lily lowered her hair brush. "Oh."

"Yeah." James sighed and kicked his feet under the covers, sliding down until he was on his back between the sheets, looking up at her, the blankets 'round his stomach, his broad chest on display.

Lily's eyes moved over his chest and then back up to his eyes. 

"He mentioned that he's uncomfortable with the idea of the killing curse at all," James said slowly. He looked over at Lily. "He said he might consider leaving the Ministry after the baby is born."

Lily ran her palm over her stomach softly. 

James watched her fingers.

"Could you do it?" he asked her, "You know. If you had to?"

Lily looked up. "Do what?"

"Aim to kill."

They stared at one another, thinking, weighing the question in their hearts and minds.

"I don't know," Lily's voice shook slightly.

James's eyes watched her fingers, still gently running over her stomach. "I'd like to think - to think I could if it were to save you or our baby," James murmured.

Lily's eyes locked his.

"But I dunno if I could do it when it really came down to it." James frowned.

Lily could feel the tension in him... building. She put her hair brush down and turned 'round to him again, slipping between the covers, too, and resting her cheek against his chest. "Luckily," she said, nestling into him, "You'll never need to make that choice."

James nodded and wrapped his arms around her.