Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. I don’t own the fan art picture that I based this story on. A/N: This is the first time I’ve written a story based on a fan art drawing. If you would like to see the drawing, you should go to the Leaky Cauldron Fan Art. The artist is julvett.
James was walking with Lily, their one year old son between them. Harry was wobbling precariously, clutching their index fingers in his tiny fists. He was giggling as the grass tickled his chin. Lily looked down at her son admirably, his untidy mop of jet black hair, sticking up just like his father’s. Harry looked up at Lily and gave her a toothy grin, his baby teeth were just coming in and he was fussy at night. Lily reached down and lifted Harry into her arms, he giggled madly and threw his little arms around her neck. Lily gently pried his hands away and held him on her hip.
James reached over and took her free hand. She looked up at James and smiled. He leaned over and kissed her gently but pulled away in pain.
“Ow! Harry, let go!” James cried, pulling at his son’s fists in his hair.
“Oh, Harry let go of daddy’s hair.” Lily cried, releasing James’s hand and prying Harry’s hands loose. Harry was laughing and he reached for James’s glasses. He pulled them off and put them in his mouth.
“Harry, not daddy’s glasses!” James cried pulling them out of Harry’s mouth. Lily covered her mouth with her hand trying to stifle her laughter. James pulled out his wand and siphoned the baby drool off his glasses.
“Don’t encourage him, Lily.” James said, taking Lily’s hand again as they began to walk home.
“I’m sorry for laughing, James. I couldn’t help it.” Lily said with a smirk.
“Thanks, Lily. I give you a gorgeous son and you laugh at me because he got the best of me?”
“Of course I did.”
“Well, I won’t argue then seeing as we could all use a laugh before it happens.”
Lily’s emerald eyes grew wide and she stopped dead in her tracks, her hand slipping from James’s. James turned and saw Lily with tears filling her eyes.
“Oh, no.” James whispered running towards her and pulling her into his arms. “Lily, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. We’ve had such a wonderful day and I’ve ruined it by saying that, haven’t I?” He said stroking her long red locks.
“I’m sorry for just loosing control like this.” Lily sniffed pulling back and wiping her eyes.
James cupped her face and kissed her. “Are you going to be okay?”
She gave him a small smile and nodded.
“Ok, let’s get home. I told Dumbledore we would only be out for a couple hours.” James retook her hand.
They walked in silence until they were back inside the range of the Fidelius Charm. James looked over at Lily and noticed that Harry was asleep in her arms. He looked up at the sky and saw how dark it had become. He put his arm around Lily’s waist and unlocked the door with his wand. He pushed it open and watched Lily walk Harry up to his small room. He closed the door and followed her rubbing the back of his neck. He saw Lily bending over Harry’s cot, her head bowed. He walked to her and gripped her shoulders.
She turned towards him and gave him a small smile.
“You okay?” He asked her, rubbing her arms.
She nodded and walked over to the room she and James shared. James sighed and turned towards his small son. Harry was lying curled up underneath the blue blanket Lily had bought and embroidered with Harry’s initials. A small stuffed owl was tucked under his arm and his thumb in his mouth. James leaned down, kissed his son’s forehead and headed downstairs to get a bowl of soup for Lily. He found that when she was upset, soup calmed her. He made it quickly and returned upstairs to his and Lily’s room.
Lily was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the floor. James crossed to her and set the bowl on the nightstand beside her. He noticed that Lily was avoiding his gaze, tears falling down her face. James placed a hand on her back and she took in a shuddering breath. James reached over and tried to turn Lily to face him but she kept her face hidden from him, he could see a stray tear falling down the side of her face.
“Lily, please, look at me. Don't cry, Lily.” James pleaded.
She turned and looked up into his brown eyes. James pulled her into him and held her as she cried out her fears. He held her and rocked back and forth gently, attempting to calm his wife down. After a while, she leaned back and wiped her eyes.
“Sorry.” she whispered.
“Lily, what’s wrong?” James asked wiping her tears away.
“I’m just so scared. What are we going to do if one or both of us die? Who’s going to take care of Harry? James, maybe we should just flee the country.” Lily cried out.
“Lily, you know we can’t. Dumbledore told us we couldn’t. As for who’s going to care for Harry if we die, we already named Sirius godfather, Sirius will look after him. Lily, I’ll do what I can to protect you and Harry, you know that.”
“But, what if we both die. Sirius will be so distraught, how will he care for Harry?”
“You don’t trust Sirius?” James frowned.
“Of course I trust, Sirius!” Lily said quickly. “James, you can’t deny you haven’t thought of this too?”
James sighed and took Lily’s hand in his. “Lily, I have thought of this. We need to just live our lives as we would if we weren’t being tracked. We need to stay strong for Harry, we’re all he’s got. He’s to little to understand what is going on, I doubt he ever will understand what is going on. Please, believe me on this when I say I have thought of this.”
“I believe you, James.” Lily murmured leaning into James. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. They sat in silence, listening to their even breathing. Lily and James leaned against the headboard of their bed and resumed their positions. Slowly, James began to drift into sleep until a cry jerked him awake. He looked down and saw Lily clutching his shirt, sleeping, her red hair splayed out around her. He gently unraveled her fingers from his shirt and laid her down in the bed. He pulled back the blankets and tucked her in as Harry continued to cry. He walked out of the room running his hands through his hair and blinked sleep out of his eyes.
He walked into the nursery and saw Harry standing up in his crib, clutching the bars, his face bright red, tears glistening on his face.
“Alright, Harry. It’s ok.” James said lifting Harry out of his crib and cradled him in his arms. James reached down inside and grabbed Harry’s blanket and pacifier. James carried him to the rocking chair in the corner. He sat down and began to rock Harry, the blanket wrapped around him, the pacifier in his mouth. Harry continued to sniffle as his father rocked him. Harry’s bright, green eyes blinked up at James taking in his father’s gruff appearance. Slowly Harry began to fall back asleep, James continued to rock him until Harry had fallen asleep again. James stood and gently placed Harry back in his crib.
James walked back into his room and saw Lily sitting up in bed on the pretense of climbing out.
“Where were you?” Lily asked scared.
“In Harry’s room. Harry had woken up and I was putting him back down. Why?”
“I woke up and you weren’t there. I got scared.” Lily said crossing over to James.
“Alright. I’m fine. Nothing is going to happen.” James said pulling Lily into an embrace.
“You don’t know that.” Lily whispered, looking up at James.
“Of course I don’t know that. But I’m allowed to hope right?”
Lily giggled and kissed James.
“Maybe I’m over-reacting.”
“Not you! Not Lily Potter!” James gasped mockingly.
“Hey, it’s my job now.” Lily said lightly hitting James on the chest.
“And it wasn’t when we were in school?”
“No.” Lily said pulling away and walking back to bed.
“Aw, c’mon, Lils. You know you over-reacted a little in school.” James said changing and climbing in beside her.
“Ok, maybe I did a little.” She said with a smile and rolling to face him.
James kissed her quickly and brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face.
“I love you, Lily.”
“I love you, too, James. If I didn’t, why did I let you get me pregnant and have Harry?”
“Because I talked you into it?” James said smirking.
“And I agreed so of course I love you.”
“Would you let me do it again?” James asked hopeful.
Lily laughed and kissed him. “When Harry’s older.”
“But he’s already one, how old do you want him to be?” James asked incredulously.
“I don’t know. Why not when he’s older and can understand that he’ll be a big brother?”
“Lily, I don’t mean to bring it up again and make you scared but how long are we going to be around? If we want Harry to be a big brother, shouldn’t it be sooner rather than later?”
Lily stayed silent taking in what James had said. She had to admit, it mad sense.
“Fine. We’ll try for another baby.”
James kissed her hard and pulled back whispering, “Thank you. You won’t regret it. I love you!”
“I love you, too, James. Now let’s get some sleep.”
James waved his wand and the lights went out around them. He took off his glasses and set them on his bedside table with his wand. He rolled back over and wrapped his arms around Lily before drifting off to sleep. They slept peacefully never knowing that they would never have another child, not knowing that Lily’s worst fear would be coming true in a matter of months, not knowing that Harry would grow up without his parents and without love for eleven years, not knowing that Harry would have no way to remember this life before everything would be taken away in a high pitched laugh and a flash of green light.
A/N: Well there you have it, an extremely short story from before the series. I hope you liked it so please, please, please, r/r!! :)
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