Losing Game/// James Potter

Chapter 81

Elsie didn't believe it. She thought it was impossible to love anyone as much as she loved James. The last ten years of her life were spent with her heart in James' hands, willing him to do whatever he pleased with it. And Elsie knew that's how it always would be; her heart, her mind, her body, her soul, they were all for James Potter.

But here's this boy sitting right on top of her lap with hair almost as messy as his father's and glasses that were almost bigger than his actual face. Here's this boy smiling at her with that tiny, goofy look on his face and two blue eyes that mirrored her own staring up at her. And as the tiny boy jumped up in her lap to place a sloppy kiss on her chin, she knew James wasn't the only Potter that had her heart.

"Mama," a 15 month old Harry shouted while wrapping his small arms around Elsie's neck and resting his head on her chest.

"I love you, my sweet boy," Elsie hugged him back and kissed the top of his head, ruffling his hair at the same time.

Harry jumped out of the hug and continued to bounce on her leg, giggles escaping his lips as Elsie lifted him into her arms and tickled his stomach. His laughter rang out through the air and Elsie stilled for a moment, a smile gracing her face as she basked in the echoing sound. In that moment, Elsie was a hundred percent positive she would do just about anything to hear that sound for the rest of her life. Because it wasn't just Harry's laugh she was hearing. It was pureness, it was innocence, it was light, it was everything the world wasn't these days. It was happiness when there was no happiness to be found, as if Harry was laughing in the face of evil, beating it down and sending it away momentarily.

She stood up from the couch and spun him around in her arms, willing to hear his giggles over and over again for all of eternity. She tossed him lightly in the air and caught him, his glasses slanting on his face while doing so. This time it was Elsie who was laughing as she put him down on his wobbly legs, the boy scarily resembling James when he first transformed into his animagus form.

Her hand lifted to tilt his glasses back into place as he threw his arms in the air, "Up, up."

She chuckled under her breath and picked Harry up once again, playfully mumbling under her breath, "You Potter boys are bloody spoiled."

"Pafoo!" Harry exclaimed while clapping his hands, wiggling around in Elsie's arms as he stared over her shoulder.

"Yes, yes, Uncle Padfoot is a Potter, too," Elsie laughed while explaining to Harry, "Maybe not by blood, but definitely by heart."

Harry seemed to squirm around even more as he shouted again, "Pafoo!"

Elsie readjusted him in her arms as she jokingly rolled her eyes, "Just because your first word was Padfoot doesn't mean-,"

Her sentence was cut off by another shout calling out Padfoot's name, but this time the voice didn't belong to Harry.

"Padfoot!" She whipped her head around to see a half-naked James, who was wet and only wearing a towel on his lower half after getting out of the shower, sprinting towards a chuckling Sirius standing by their kitchen counter.

"Prongs!" Sirius opened his arms knowingly and caught James as he jumped into them, his legs wrapping around his torso while his arms connecting around his neck. And of course, his towel fell off in the process.

Elsie shook her head and chuckled at the sight before her, her husband nakedly clinging onto Sirius.  She put down Harry and walked over to place a welcoming kiss on Sirius' cheek, completely ignoring the embrace going on.

"Butt," Harry mumbled while crawling over and pointing towards James' bare bottom, grabbing onto Sirius' pant leg and standing up before exclaiming again, "Butt."