Who: Frank and Alice Longbottom
What: They're going to have a baby! A Nigel!
Where: Their home
Holy shit, there was a lot of baby-related things flooding their house. Frank couldn't help it, when he had returned to the shower to bring Alice home, he had no idea that meant bringing back enough stuff to house a small baby-sized army along with his pregnant wife. Seriously, how many women had been there? Because he was fairly certain that there was enough ribbon, lace, and blue for fifty or more.
But that wasn't the issue at hand. The issue was that it had just occurred to him that in less than a month there would be a baby in the house. With him being the father of this baby that he thought he had much more time to prepare for. Nigel! "Alice," Frank called in a strained tone, specifically focusing on the blanket in his hands. For the first half an hour, he had been completely fine: Alice explaining what some things were, and where they needed to go was going smoothly. That was, until it actually occurred to him that all of this was for the baby that was going to be here at the end of the month. This month. Alice was rounding out her pregnancy, meaning that they were parents like--- now.
"Alice," Frank continued to call once realization fully hit him. Nigel. Nigel? What was he thinking? This was a lot of stuff all for one baby. Just one! That they were going to have within the next month. This month. It was all happening too quickly, Alice needed to stay pregnant longer, he wasn't ready yet because--- okay, before he knew that this was going to happen, but he didn't really consider how quickly everything would go. Nine months seems like a very long time when you start from the beginning.
"Alice--- Alice," Frank kept on calling from the other room for no reason other than everything was starting to hit him for real. "We're having a baby," he observed dumbly once he finally spotted her.
In hindsight, it should have been very obvious to Alice that Frank had been taking her to her baby shower. She'd basically done the same thing to Lily! Liz had made up some excuse about wanting to treat the two of them to some spa time, and Alice had kept the straightest of faces, right up until Lily had walked into the red and gold decorated room. Last week had been so much fun, and she had wondered and thought about what her shower would be like that entire evening. But did she even suspect that her husband was up to something this afternoon? Nope! The surprise on her face definitely showed on the pictures Liz had immediately developed.
She was sad it was over, but it was exciting to plan and organize all of her gifts. Alice loved getting gifts, even if they weren't technically for her, it was still a thrill to open each gift and ooh and ahh and aww. It had definitely been a good idea to make it girls only; Frank would've banged his head through the wall after the first ten minutes.
Using her wand to move the bookcase Emmeline had given her (which got some razzing from the Gryffindors, but Alice adored the decorations), she finally allowed herself to listen to her husband's calling. Sometimes men just called to bother, you know.
Alice waddled out of the room (she had finally admitted to herself that she looked something like a penguin) and looked down the stairs at Frank. Her eyebrows rose at his statement, and her hands immediately ran along the front of her belly. "Ooh, what tipped you off?"
She didn't understand. Frank looked up at Alice blankly, still caught in a daze. Did she know? Did she fully understand what this all meant and how quickly everything had gone--- it wasn't that he had second thoughts about all this, no no, having a child, a son was great, it was just.... that it had all caught him by surprise. Too quickly, this was way too quick.
Only a little bit. Just a tiny bit.
Nothing that James needed to know about, not only because he was in the same situation, but Frank was getting that damn galleon.
"A Nigel," he repeated, lifting his arm to shake the blanketed hand in her direction. "Now, right now! You could--- he could be here by next week! Or right now---!" Frank cut himself off, suddenly realizing how ridiculous he must seem. The thought that most people he met and knew now thought he was insane anyway, so Alice would definitely not find this spaz of emotion out of the ordinary.
"Aren't you nervous?" Frank asked in a loud voice, still not completely able to control himself as his mind continued to reel.
A Nigel! Alice beamed at the sound of her son's name, and started slowly down the stairs, the thought that one day Nigel would be running up and down these same steps exciting her to no end. "Of course I'm nervous! We'd be crazy not to be nervous."
They were crazy without the addition of a baby, but Alice liked to think that if no one had bothered to commit either of them (or any of the Order, for that matter) that they were only crazy in their own minds. Which might mean they were really crazy, but at least not officially. It was strange how often these thoughts ran through her head, but Alice put it out of her mind as she reached the bottom, examining the rest of the gifts that Frank had ceremoniously stopped moving. She wasn't blinded enough by the joy of having a baby and all these new presents to completely ignore her husband's and her own anxiety, so she leaned into Frank's shoulder, gazing at the pile of baby things.
"I'm scared I'll put on his diapers backwards, or he won't like my singing voice, or---" Alice shrugged, "Or that he'll like your mother better than me." Alice blushed as she revealed her fear, but honestly! With the way Augusta went on about how she was going to help raise her first grandson, it was almost as if Alice was going to be a spectator in her own son's life! She wasn't going to sit around and watch Nigel grow up under Augusta's influence, that was for sure!
But the woman was pretty good at getting things to go her way...
"He's a good thing, Frank," Alice said with a happy sigh, straightening up at the sight of the giant penguin Gleny had brought. That would go perfectly with his animal themed play room. "Shouldn't we be glad we're having a good thing come into our lives?"
Frank looked at her tentatively, one eye raised higher than the other: she hadn't been looking very nervous if you asked him. Actually, he was fairly sure Alice was loving every minute of this, so there was no way that she was actually the kind of nervous he was talking about. The kind of nervous that Frank was referring to was the kind also known as panic, with a slice of uneasiness. For reasons more than he was just being stupid and effectively forgot to acknowledge passing time.
How could he not worry? For the most part during the last few months, Frank (and Alice for that matter), had been very good at ignoring the looming cross over their heads. So much that Frank sometimes found himself believing that this prophecy was something he himself had cooked up in a bad dream. Because--- when did things like your unborn child being foretold to-- and not only your son, but it could possibly your best friend's instead, who, incidentally, seemed to have just as shitty luck as you did because it all seemed to be centered around them.
Why? Frank had no idea, he had never seen himself as being an important figure, though others obviously thought otherwise since now it seemed like every witch and wizard he saw knew who he and Alice were. Which didn't really help with the whole laying low scheme, but that was something different.
"Yes..." Frank finally replied in a far-off tone. He looked down at the blanket again, then back up at Alice. "Just--- what Dumbledore said," he said, his face contorting for a second. He and Alice had managed to avoid this conversation for a long time now, so... Frank supposed it was only fitting that it would come up in his baby-craze attack.
She didn't want to think about what Dumbledore had said, and pouted greatly at the fact that her husband had caused her to do so. Alice bowed her head lightly as she twisted her fingers, and it seemed like Nigel could feel her trepidation because he pushed hard into her side, almost like a comfort nudge. He was still there, they were all still here right now, so why should they be forced to think about what could be? It was stupid, she knew it was incredibly stupid to try and ignore the fact that Voldemort wanted her son or---well---
Had he chosen, already? Alice hated to think of it, but ever since Lily had been taken, she and Frank hadn't been bothered at all. Not to say that the Potters had, both couples had been living quite calmly in their nearly constantly frantic state, but it just seemed like...the death eaters could have easily trapped Alice that day, but they hadn't. Did they think Lily was the better choice? What could have made them jump to that conclusion? She was a muggleborn, did Voldemort think of it as a punishment? To Alice, the betrayal of a pureblooded wizard and witch would seem more hurtful than that of a muggleborn so...she didn't know, but somewhere in her eternally optimistic heart, she felt that Voldemort was no longer after Nigel.
Of course, the moment she said that out loud, a death eater parade would burst through their front door.
So she continued to look down, unable to see her feet and finding that she was less amused by the fact each and every day. Frank would think she was crazy if she said that she wasn't worried about Voldemort anymore, because even if he wasn't after Nigel, he still was after the Order, and the Longbottoms had been the top of his hit-list for a very long time.
"Well---" she started, unsure of what to say. Alice unfortunately had not mastered the skill of controlling her emotions, even this far into the pregnancy. She was now turning her uncertainty into what she should say into anxiety and hysteria. Her lip began to wobble greatly and she sucked in a deep breath that turned into a squeak, as her eyes watered immediately,
"I j-j-just want t-to be his mummy, Frank!"
Except that he had stupidly not taken into account that this was pregnant, emotional Alice he was talking to, not the calm and collected Alice Frank had been use to before nine months prior. How stupid, really stupid. Frank's face went blank for a few moments as he awkwardly watched his wife begin to fall apart. He hadn't meant--- it was just that--- holy shit, this was what he got for opening his mouth! Thinking before you spoke was instructed for a reason!
"That's not what I---" Frank rushed toward her, his body finally unlocking itself from his shocked pose. He attempted to wrap his arms around her front on for a second, then quickly shifted to her side. While Alice liked her pregnant belly, Frank decided he could do without it sometimes. Wrapping his arms around her shoulders, he pulled her tight.
"Don't cry! I didn't mean--- of course he's going to get born!" Frank started, desperate to quiet Alice down. As much as it disgusted him to think that he was a cliche for thinking this, Frank would do anything to stop Alice from crying. "You'll be his mother--- your his mother now! I didn't mean to say--- I'm just--- worried, that's all. And I thought--- nevermind."
He let go of her to look at her face. Frank wanted to say 'Just forget I said it,' but he couldn't quite bring himself to say that.
"I--I just don't..." Alice pouted greatly, taking in deep breaths to calm herself down. She really did hate crying, no matter how good she was at it. She lifted her hands up to wipe furiously at her eyes and she leaned into Frank as much as possible. It wasn't that she didn't think Nigel was going to get here (God, just the thought----), it was more than that. "Why...why can't we just----"
She swallowed, knowing it was stupid, what she was about to say. It was what she wanted, though, what she really and truly wanted, and believed that they could actually do.
"Can't we live like...like he isn't some...some chosen child?" Alice looked up at Frank with desperation seeping from her eyes along with her tears. Why couldn't they do that? They could have the wards up, they could be careful, but why did every move they make have to be concise and worrisome and---unnatural?
Alice didn't want to base her life around what-ifs. She didn't deal with what if Frank died tomorrow on the job, or what if she was attacked tomorrow and killed. She refused to, because that was the only way she could plan for their future. If she stood there and thought about all of the possible ways that this could go wrong, and the chances of those things happening...she wouldn't want to leave her room. Nigel wouldn't have a life outside of the manor, outside of his nursery, and even then they couldn't be 100% safe.
So no what ifs. Nigel was going to have a happy life for as long as she and Frank could give him one. Alice grabbed onto Frank's sleeve, "We're pretty good at--at faking being normal, right?" a solemn smile tugged on her lips and she shrugged.
How could they not? How could they not act on the fact that Nigel had been picked out, a potential prophecy had been foretold about him because of them. So no, Frank was sure he would never be able to act like his son was just like everyone else's children, because he wasn't. He wasn't at the slightest from birth, so trying to treat him otherwise would be wrong.
But that wasn't something to tell Alice now, no. That conversation would be for later, after the baby was here and she was able to think without being plagued with uncontrollable emotions.
"He's special," Frank nodded at Alice, dipping his chin low to look at her. He forced a smile on his lips for her, knowing it was best, for now. Perhaps she was right, and he was getting too ahead of himself. Taking one thing at a time was much more important (not to mention less stressful), than jumping ahead to ten steps forward.
Like now. Just unpacking and placing everything where it needed to go was an important first step.
"Yes, we are very good at that," he chuckled, readjusting his grip on her for a more looser hold. "A trait that will hopefully not passed down through him, since he won't need it."
