"Oh shit!" Remus nearly fell out of the suitcase he climbed so quickly up. He caught himself only just barely from landing face-first in the couch by grabbing onto Sirius's shoulders. Sirius righted him up. "We've got to get her to Mungo's!" He looked at Sirius and then at Lily - both were in a right state, Lily near to catatonic staring at Dorcas and Sirius in a frenzy. "Bloody hell," murmured Remus, and he realized that combined the pair of them would be about as much help as nothing. "Alright, alright," he muttered, thinking. 

Disapparation was out, and he wasn't sure how the Floo would be with a pregnant mum in labor (what if the baby fell out or something? he thought rather illogically), so there was one clear answer and he absolutely hated the thought of it.

But the sound of Dorcas's cries drowned out the worry about their transportation.

"Sirius, you're not going to be able to go with us anyway --"

"Why not!"

"House arrest, Padfoot!"

"FUCK HOUSE ARREST, I --"

"Stop right there. I'm not having this argument with you. Go help Bradley finish feeding the Moon Calves. Tell him what's on and that I'll be back to do the kelpies and the erumpet later. DO NOT let him try to feed them himself, he can't do it. I need you to also send a patronus to Gideon and tell him to get to Mungo's."

Sirius stared at Remus, "But -"

"Sirius. I need you do to listen to me and do that, alright? Thank you," he added without waiting for the agreement. He glanced at his watch as Dorcas's wailing quieted slightly, her face red and eyes wide, noting the time. "Lily, you and I will get her downstairs and -- Lily? LILY!"

She snapped out of her trance. She looked at Dorcas, then at Remus, and back to Dorcas, "I'm sorry, I --"

"Behold your future," cackled Dorcas, sweaty and in tears. 

"Oh - oh my stars," she gasped. 

"Come on, help me, Lily," Remus said, and he reached for Dorcas's elbow. Lily followed suit and between the pair of them, they managed at getting Dorcas up from the chair. She grunted as the weight settled on her feet. "Up you come," Remus said in a reassuring voice. "It's alright," he added when she started crying all the harder. She fell into him and he clapped her palms on her back, hugging her to keep her upright.

Lily ducked under one arm, pulling Dorcas into her, and Remus held onto her elbow as Sirius pranced around them nervously, like a dog doing laps about his owner, as they walked slowly toward the door of the flat. "Seriously. STAY," Remus said when they got to the door and Sirius had opened it up for them. Sirius stared at him with pleading eyes, "I mean it. The last thing we need is you being whipped back off to the Ministry holding cells. I simply can't deal with that and this at the same time, you understand?"

Sirius nodded. "Keep me updated, though, alright? Please?"

"Of course," Remus paused briefly to kiss Sirius on the forehead, then ducked out, clutching Dorcas's elbow as they descended the stairs to the alleyway.

They were nearly to the bottom when Dorcas gasped and let out another wailing cry, nearly doubling over. Lily was nearly knocked off her feet, and caught the railing only just in time. Luckily, Dorcas's main lean was toward Remus, who somehow managed to brace her up. She clung onto Lily's forearm and Lily winced at the vice-grip that Dorcas's fingers set on her, so tight she was forcibly reminded of the time James said that Charlus had fractured a bit of his hand.

"Oh God," Dorcas gasped, tears pouring over her cheeks. "Fuck me. Fuck these stairs, fuck my husband, fuck my life, fuck everything --"

"It's alright," Lily gasped, "You've got to breathe, Dorcas darling," she pleaded, remembering all the films she'd seen of women giving birth and how they'd had to practice breathing through contractions and she imitated the breathing she remembered them doing.

Dorcas nodded, "Yeah, yeah, breathe, right," she gasped, and she started doing the exercises the mediwitches had taught her and Gideon when they'd gone to appointments.

"In and out," Lily nodded, pleased she'd thought of it.

Remus and Lily worked together to get Dorcas across the alleyway and out to the main road, a slow and arduous process that seemed to take days. Remus kept waiting the whole way up the alley for Gideon Prewett to appear, but they'd made it to the road and no sign of the Baby Daddy had come. THey were at the curb next to the curry shop now, facing the park, and people were walking by, barely sparing a glance, even as Dorcas Meadows gasped and grunted, practically having a baby on the pavement.

"How are we getting to Mungo's?" Lily asked, panicked. 

Remus hesitated, "There's only one way I can think of --" and he held out his wand arm.

"Oh gods, not the Knight Bus," Lily groaned.

"Oh gods," Dorcas echoed.

The violently purple bus arrived, the door opened, and Ernie's greeting came from just inside, "Welcome to the Knight bus, the transport for the stranded witch or wizaaa-aaaH! What is happening!?" he looked shocked through his thick glasses as Remus and Lily brought the wailing Dorcas Meadows onboard.

"Ern, I'm fresh out of coins at the moment, but I'll tell you what, I'll owe you three extra fares which I'll flag you for tomorrow if you just get us to St. Mungo's before it's four fares that I'm owing you, huh?"

Ernie looked at Remus, then at Dorcas and her round-round-round belly as she let out a fresh round of screams.

"No charge!" Ernie cried. Then he grabbed the little hand held microphone and his voice was magically magnified throughout all three decks of the bus, "Uuhhhh slight delay to everyone's stops, we've an emergency fare to Mungo's hospital on board - hold onto your seats, lads and lasses, we're in for a bumpy ride!"

Sean Buckner was working at copying an absolutely monolithic report send down to him from the Department of Interspecies Liaison Offices - research, mostly numbers and statistics, loads of graphs and diagrams that made Sean's eyes swim - when he heard a funny sound something like a a deep vibration or booming. He paused in ruffling the papers, splitting the stack where he was stopping to keep his place, and got up, opening his office door and sticking his head out to peer down the corridor. 

Empty.

He looked 'round the other way but that, too, was empty.

What's more, he couldn't hear the sound anymore.

His brows knit together and he shrugged and ducked back into his office, shutting the door again and returning to his desk. He hadn't even gotten the papers picked back up when he heard the sound again.

The thing it reminded him off, funny enough, was the time on the Hogwarts Express, on the way to his fourth year. Someone - James Potter - had lit off a dragon bomb in the corridor and shattered all the damned windows and Sean had been one of the unlucky blokes that had leaned out the compartment to see what was on and had his eyebrows singed off.

And James Potter had tried at introducing himself the other day, as though anyone their age at Hogwarts didn't know exactly who the bloody hell he was after that incident!

Sean reached for his papers again, when he heard the sound yet another time. He looked up toward the door, but to his surprise the crash that followed was not from the direction of the door... but the picture frame of the Poison Glen, falling to the floor, having shaken itself right off the wall. Sean got up and hurried over, lifting the frame from the wall with a grunt (he always forgot how heavy the bloody thing was 'til he had to lift it up). 

He stared into the glen in the frame with wide eyes and lay it down on his desk, and turned about, quickly spinning on the ball of his toes, and hurried across the hallway.

James Potter was working on reading through some of the auror's training handbook - working at memorizing bits of policy and law and how things ought to properly be handled that was required knowledge for aurors. Across the room, Underhill was pouring over the witness reports for Sirius Black's case, preparing for the upcoming trial.

Suddenly the office door burst open and Sean Buckner came in, breathless.

James and Underhill both looked up in surprise.

"Giant - giant -" gasped Sean, "Me picture portal - there's - I heard it, and didn't realize - but then the picture done fell off the bleedin' wall - an' there it was, plain as day, I wouldn't believe it 'cept I'd seen it with me own eyes - and in Donegal!"

"Come again?" James asked, confused.

Underhill's brows stitched with concern.

"The picture in my office!" Sean said, "Come see it yourself!" He turned and hurried out of the office.

James looked to Underhill and was surprised to find his boss had already gotten up and grabbed his wand, hurrying after Buckner out the door. James started to follow, then stopped, skid back to his desk, snatched his wand out of the sheath in his auror's coat and rushed after Underhill. Underhill was already in Sean's office, leaning over his desk, and looking at the picture when James came across the hallway and ducked into the copier room. Underhill turned, and James saw nervousness in his eyes as he rushed back toward the door. "Potter, go up to the interspecies department, get Chase Volsung immediately, tell him we need the big irons." He rushed out the door.

"What's --?" James looked helplessly, then his eye caught Sean's picture.

The center of the glen in the photo was void of sheep now and there were broken trees in the background. Where the little brook had been last time he'd looked at the framed image there was what looked like an absolutely huge foot print.

A literal giant foot print.

James's eyes widened, "How --?"

"It's a picture portal," Sean said, "Actual window into the place, like a live feed, isn't it?"

"That's - right now?"

"Aye, and I've just seen the foot what's made it traipse by!" Sean said, a bit panicked, "It's near to my own house!" he paused, "Oh bleeding Janey Mac, I've got to get home - my grandmum -"

James nodded, "Alright. Alright, c'mon. We'll go talk to this Volsung guy like Underhill's said and then we'll go and get your grandmum."

"IT'S ALL HANDS ON!" Mad-Eye Moody was shouting, stomping his wooden foot loudly as he set off the alarms in the department, his voice bellowed through the halls, banging on doors of offices. He came to the Prewett's office, where they were both sitting, gabbing on as though the alarms were not sounding overhead. "THIS IS NOT A DRILL, LADS, GET OFF YER ARSES!" 

"I mean we have so many, you could understand our confusion," Fabian said, leaping up.

"What's happening?" Gideon asked, grabbing his coat from the back of his chair and flinging it about his shoulders.

"Giants in Ireland!"

"Aren't there always?" laughed Fabian.

Mad-Eye snapped, "Not in the villages there ain't!" and he stomped off.

Fabian and Gideon's eyes met as Fabian flicked his wand to do up the twenty-eight buttons of his vest and the twins rushed into the hallway, joining a stream of aurors that were running after Moody and Underhill, who were leading the way toward the disapparation chambers.

The lights in the department flashed, strobing with the sound of the alarm system.

"It's rainin' out," complained Frank Longbottom, "Why can't he at least schedule these things for sunny days when we want to be outside?"

"Apparently this one isn't a drill," Gideon said, clapping Frank on the back, "Hope you're up to it today."

"Bloody hell," Frank groaned. "What's happening then?"

"Giants, apparently."

"Attacking a village, Moody says."

At the front of the forray, Underhill was talking hurriedly, voice low and rough, "Coming out of Glenveagh most likely - could be headin' south to Donegal or east toward Letterkenny. The angle was hard to see to get a trajectory --"

"We'll split," Moody grumbled, stomping along, "Take half with you to Donegal and I'll take half with me to Letterkenny."

"I've got Potter alerting the liaison office to get the irons," Underhill said. He paused, "Been awhile since we've faced a giant together, 'ey Alastor?"

"Could've gone a few more decades without it," grumbled Mad Eye.