Who: Gillian and Miranda
What: Talking about the bun in the oven
Where: Gryffindor Dorms
When: Yesterday afternoon
As soon as Gill shut her journal, she began pacing back and forth in the Girl's dormitory. She hadn't even been up there for too long, since everyone had just come back from Hogsmeade. Her entire time there had been spent with Edgar, obviously, and it was only then that she had been able to break the 'good news' to her parents in the back of the Three Broomsticks. Her mother had nearly fainted, and she was almost positive that she was about to break Edgar's hand with how tightly she had been holding onto it when her father approached the two of them to tell them a half-hearted 'congratulations'. She had told neither of them to say anything, since she didn't want anyone at school knowing, and they had agreed...but the fact that she had to keep her pregnancy a secret upset the both of them. Especially when she told them how far along she was. Her parents were smart, they could do the math. Her mother had given both of them hugs after she regained her composure, and looked genuinely happy for the two of them, but her father, who had been against them even getting married at first, was not too pleased.
She just hoped that she would be able to tell Miranda without her being too upset. If her best friend and her father was upset with her, she didn't know what she would do. Hearing that she had enjoyed their production of Grease had put her in a better mood, but then when she remembered that she still had to break the news to her she got nervous. What if she didn't want to talk to her again or something?! What if she thought she was a big idiot?! Ugh, the thoughts were eating her up, as her arms crossed over her stomach, looking down at it as she sighed. She wondered what was going on in there sometimes, and what the baby looked like and-
God, that still sounded so weird to her. She shook her head to get rid of the thoughts she still wasn't used to having, and turned around as she heard the door open, seeing Miranda appear. A few moments passed before she gave her a smile, her arms tightening around herself. "Hi." Well, that was lame. Clearing her throat she moved over to her bed and sat down on it, cross legged, facing Miranda's bed that was right next to hers. "Wanna sit down?"
Miranda bounded down the stairs of the boys dorm (promising, PROMISING Ralph that she'd be back as soon as she and Gillian talked---boy, she was not going to leave his side for days---) and made a quick turn once she reached the common room to hurry up the girls' stairs. By the time she reached the seventh years' dormitory, Miranda realized that running the entire time was a really, really stupid idea. So---very---stupid. She grinned at Gillian even though she was taking deep, deep breath and followed her best friend to her bed, all but flopping unceremoniously across Gillian's bed.
Now, now Miranda was getting used to bad news. First of all---Ralph and his...his problems with Macnair and...and the death eaters. Things had been quiet for a long time, but still. It was always on her mind when she saw the other boy walking the halls, and that just made her worry more, that he was just walking the halls like nothing had happened. So--so there was that. And then there was catching that bloody virus; Miranda hadn't really had time to lament about it, as it had left her quite delirious and exhausted, but she knew she'd be feeling its affects for a long time coming, especially---because of her brother. Ugh, ugh, she was almost mad at herself for putting her family through what Jamie's illness was making her feel, and she was sending him letters every day to try and make him feel better somehow.
So---so Gillian, who could normally just blab out anything to her anywhere (the journals were so good for gossiping, like, honestlyy), seemed to want to sit and make sure things were taken seriously and---it could only be bad. Good things were shouted from mountain tops, so Miranda caught her breath and sat up, crossing her legs underneath her as she sat on the end of her friend's bed. "So---what's the situation? Who do I have to kill?"
Gill turned to face her now that she knew where she was going to be seated, and smirked as Miranda immediately offered to kill someone because she thought something bad had happened. But, her situation wasn’t bad, right? It shouldn’t be, it should be good, and she hated that she still wasn’t completely sure how she felt about it. She should know by now, right? It had been a couple of weeks since she had found out about her pregnancy, and that should have given her enough time to come to grips with it…or so she thought.
“No, you don’t have to kill anyone…” Taking a deep breath, she began to play with her shoe laces, biting at the side of her bottom lip as she twirled her fingers around the white fabric. “I, uh…well, I was at Mungo’s a little while ago. April first.” Her eyes shot back to hers. “I don’t have the virus or anything, I don’t want you thinking that that’s what it was about.” Once that was out of the way, she cleared her throat and focused back on her shoes. “Well, do you remember how I was feeling really sick? And you thought it was just wedding jitters?” She glanced to her friend out of the corner of her eyes, still playing with her laces because it gave her something to do.
Ohhhhh, hell. She went to Mungo's. She went to Mungo's and...it wasn't the virus? Okay. Okay! So that was good! That was really good, actually! Super good, even! Miranda let out a sigh of relief, only to have her relaxed expression quickly be replaced by one of deep concern. Okay, if she'd gone to St. Mungo's and...and her feeling sick wasn't wedding jitters, then...
Well, let's try to figure this out, Dodderidge. Gillian wouldn't be telling you about some stupid cold she had, yeah? So whatever the healers had told her, it was much more serious than a cold. But it wasn't the virus. What was more serious than a cold, but not as bad as the virus? What the hell did people go to St. Mungo's for if they weren't sick? There were creature induced injuries, but Gillian didn't seem to be missing any limbs or have any weird bite marks...there was artifact accidents, but her friend didn't have a candlestick going through her neck or anything strange like that...what else could you go to St. Mungo's for, well---there was the maternity ward, but---
Oh.
Miranda's brows furrowed, because Gillian couldn't be pregnant, not yet! "Yeah...?" she said, hoping that her jumbled conclusion wasn't the right one.
Ugh, this was so harrrrd. How she had even managed to tell her parents was a surprise to her. Then again she had Edgar there, so there was support, but right now she was alone. It wasn’t that hard to tell Eliza, and Ingrid, and any of her other close friends, because well…first of all, she hadn’t done it in front of them she had written it out in a journal, and second of all they weren’t her best friends! Miranda was and she couldn’t just tell her in a journal. She had to tell her.
“Well, I-…it wasn’t wedding jitters…” Once again she started nibbling at her bottom lip, feeling tears start to well up in her eyes. Her hands rose to wipe underneath them as she stared down at the mattress beneath her. “It was-…I’m pregnant…” She swallowed roughly after she quickly spit the news out, and turned to look at Miranda. “I’m 2 months along…2 months and 5 days to be more specific…” Ugh, she had to look away, because she was just waiting for Miranda to react badly and call her a horrible names or something, because she was 18 and pregnant. But it was a baby she was having with her husband so it should have been great news, and she wanted to be happy but…
She was 18.
Miranda's hands flew to her face and she let out a groan, because--well, Gillian didn't look too happy about it, so she shouldn't be jumping around for joy, yeah? But, but---this was a baby! A baby. Her best friend was pregnant with a baby! Ohmygoshthatwas. Miranda didn't know what it was, but even though Gillian looked crestfallen and upset, she couldn't help the excited, bubbling feeling going on in her own gut.
"A baby!" she cried out, hands pressing harder to her cheeks and tears stinging her eyes. "Oh my God, Gillian! Like--like! When and---I mean---is it---is Edgar okay with all of this and---and I mean----Oh my God, you're---" She pointed to her friend's stomach, hand shaking, "There's a---person! In---in your tummy!"
Oh, she felt so dumb for her rambling and she scooted forward to put her hands on the side of Gilly's arms, "Are you okay? I mean---I mean, you don't---you don't look okay."
Gillian blinked before she raised her brows, following Miranda’s hand as she pointed to her stomach, causing her to wrap her arms around herself again. She wasn’t even forming complete sentences! But, at least her fragmented bursts of random statements and questions weren’t anything negative, so she was thankful for that.
Feeling her hands on her arms, she turned back to her and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know? I didn’t plan for this, you know? It just…neither of us were expecting this to happen so soon, but Edgar seems…I don’t know how he is either, he seems alright, I guess, he isn’t mad, and he’s…I think he’s happy? He seems more optimistic about this than I am at the moment, and…the healers said the due date is November 7th, but that’s just…you know, estimated, so it could be a few days before or after, and…yeah, there’s a person in my tummy…” She looked down at what they were talking about, twisting her mouth to the side. “I thought it was just a bug…I thought I was just having a lot of stomach aches, and-…and we were always so careful and-…”
Her shoulders sagged as she looked defeated turning to Miranda, still a little teary eyed. “I wanted to tell you, I did, I wanted you to know but you weren’t here and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do…I don’t know what I’m going to do, and Edgar isn’t even here and you weren’t here and we share everything and I couldn’t tell you and it sucked, but it wasn’t your fault because you were sick, and I found out what you had and it scared me so much...” By now she had already started crying, wiping at her eyes with the sleeves of her hoodie.
Miranda pouted greatly and wasted no time in wrapping her arms around Gilly to pull her into a tight embrace, or as good of an embrace that you could while sitting cross-legged on the bed. Ohhh, hell. This didn't make much sense at all, but they were going to have to go through with it, yeah? Gillian wasn't talking as if she was going to get rid of the baby (oh, that sounded so bad of her to say it that way, but what else---), so she was definitely going to go through with this! She..she was going to have a baby. A real life, kicking and screaming baby, and that was bloody---bloody remarkable
"Don't cry, Gill--" she said, feeling her own eyes well up; boy, this had been a super emotional day, hadn't it? First crying about Grease, then crying at Grease, and now crying tears of joy and concern for her friend. "You're gonna be a mummy! That's---that's the best thing in the world, right?"
She hummed a little bit, kind of the way Ralph did when he was trying to console her, and she rocked them funnily from side to side, "Just--just think. You're going to have a permanent little piece of you and Edgar to love and---and to hold, and...in lots of years, you'll...you'll be able to tell her stories about Hogwarts and how you and..and her daddy fell in love, and how her auntie Miranda made sure that her mummy didn't freak out before the wedding and how awesome she is..."
Miranda pulled back and smiled at Gillian, though it was wobbly cause of the tears, "It's going to be great, okay?"
Gillian shut her eyes as her arms went around Miranda, still able to wipe at her eyes when more tears fell. They didn’t fall for much longer as she started to rock back and forth, putting everything into perspective. It even made her laugh a little bit, nodding her head in response to what she was saying. It was so great to have Miranda there, and she knew she was going to need her best friend more than she ever had in the past. Maybe it was a little unfair, because Miranda had her own problems and her own life to deal with, but she really did need her to be her support through all of this.
Pulling back she nodded her head again and wiped her eyes for the last time, able to smile. “It’s going to be great…” She repeated these words, almost to get herself to fully believe it. Her smile got larger as she looked down at her stomach one more time and then turned back to Miranda. “Do you remember when we were little, and we said that our kids would be best friends?” She gave a laugh at the memory, tucking some hair behind her ear. “Well, I guess mine is going to be a little bit older…that doesn’t change anything though, since I will make them be best friends.” She shifted her position on the bed and stared down at her laces that she had been playing with a few minutes ago, still smiling a little bit before she looked up to Miranda. “I’m having a girl, by the way.”
Everything was looking a lot brighter now. She was still freaked out about being pregnant, but maybe if she kept talking about all of the good things that would come from this, it would make things so much easier. And there were a lot of good things. A whole hell of a lot, actually.
"A girl! Oh! Oh see, I didn't even---yes!" Miranda squealed, hugging Gillian again. Oh, see, it was looking brighter already! Miranda had a lot of experience dealing with boys, but girls were so much easier to get along with, so that was the best thing that could've happened. "And of course our kids will be best friends, I mean---"
Miranda sat back, smiling brightly. Well! Okay! They only had a few months left of school, and...and it wasn't like Gillian's life was over. She had a husband, and family who loved her, and lots of friends to help out, so! So no, she could be a lot worse off than she was. So...so yeah! Yeah, things were going to be fine. More than fine, they were going to be GREAT!
"I'm not going anywhere, so! And Ralph'll be here and...and it'll work." She slid off the bed and dove over to hers, pulling out her journal and ripping out a few pages. Miranda jumped back onto Gillian's bed with a grin, "Let's start thinking of names for our little Bones Baby."
