Jily Oneshots (pt2)

The Magic Number

by HecateA

James woke up and realized that his arm wasn't slung around Lily. When he tried to rectify the situation, he realized that it was because Harry was now in bed, slumped against Lily's chest. His cheek was squashed against her as he slept and one of his little hands tangled in her hair.

He mumbled something to himself and then fell back on the pillows. Lily muttered something back nonsensically and her eyes fluttered open.

"No, shh, it's alright," James said. "It's alright, don't mind me, love."

"Mmkay," Lily said. Still, she opened her eyes to check on the baby while she was awake. She pushed back a few stray black locks tumbling across the baby's eyes and smiled at him from her vantage point.

"I didn't even hear you go up to get him," James said. "You're so talented."

Lily's tired huff may have been a twilight equivalent of laughter.

"I heard him babbling before he actually cried out," Lily said. "Pudge fell out from between the crib bars and you know how he is when he loses Pudge in the night."

"Yeah," James said. Curse Sirius for getting the baby so attached to such a stupid stuffed dog toy—and being so proud of it too.

"It was just easier to bring him here," Lily said.

"Thanks for grabbing him," James said. He reached out more strategically this time and managed to put a hand on her hip bone. That way, he could pull her towards him.

"You got him the time before," Lily said. She yawned as she finished her thought. "And he's here now so we may actually get through the rest of the night."

"That's good," James muttered. His head was definitely sinking into the pillow some more and he didn't mind. It was just so, so soft.

"He's getting so big," Lily said. "Remember when you'd pick him up and he'd fit in the crook of your arm?"

"Yeah," James said. "He was so tiny it was a little scary."

"I don't think it'd be as scary if we had another now that we know that they're not as breakable as we thought," Lily said.

"Maybe," James said. "We can talk more about it after the war."

"About Harry?" Lily mumbled. "I don't think we can wait that long, he's going to want breakfast."

"I meant talking about another baby," James said. Lily turned her head so that she was facing him instead of looking up at the ceiling.

"Yeah?" Lily asked softly. Her hands curled around Harry as she did. The gesture was so soft that James suspected she hadn't meant to.

"Yeah," James said again. "I mean, Harry was a surprise but we'd talked before about having a bigger family."

They'd settled once upon a time long ago, on a night where they were wine drunk and recently engaged, on three kids. They figured it was the perfect number, even if it meant that they would be outnumbered by children. James didn't want to have only one child, since being a single child could get lonely. Besides, after the experience of burying both his parents in a three month span, he would never in a million years want to leave one of his kids alone without any other family to lean on (although he liked to imagine that this would only come into play a long, very long, time from now). Lily had responded that it could be just as lonely in a family of two, if the pair of siblings didn't get along, and she had just as much lived experience and factual evidence on that end. So they had landed on three. It wasn't a magic number or anything like that, but it felt like magic to James when he thought about it.

"Three babies," Lily mused. She remembered too. James couldn't help but smile a bit, jittery and happy feelings boiling in his stomach like they still sometimes did when he remembered that Lily Maria Evans (now Lily Maria Evans Potter) liked him. She even liked him enough to remember drunken conversations they'd had while under the stars, planning for a future together.

Of course, there had been times where James had been sleepless enough to cry and was astonishingly getting his arse absolutely handed to him by a needy, living, breathing human baby. On some of those times James had told himself that he couldn't handle double this trouble. But the bed was warm now, with the exception of Lily's perpetually cold feet leeching heat off of him, and the blankets were soft and Harry looked like an angel as he slept.

"Think you could still make two more?" James asked, snuggling towards her so that his chin rested on top of her head. She wiggled into him too.

"Now that we know what wonders raspberry leaf tea can do to morning sickness, I think so," Lily said. "But… not yet. Keeping Harry safe is so… so difficult and so important. I don't want to bring a baby into this world until I'm sure I can do it safely."

"Agreed," James said. He buried her nose in her hair, which smelled like wildflowers even if he knew for a fact she hadn't washed it in days. "Do you think you could make a girl next?"

"You know I can't control that," Lily said though she smiled.

"I know, I know," James said. "But if we start wishing for it now, by the time Voldemort finally gets taken down maybe we'll have thought about it enough to will it into being."

"What makes you think I don't want an army of little boys that look just like you?" Lily asked.

"I figure we have a few more months of war and hiding at the least, and by that time Harry will be walking and getting into trouble," James said. "You'll be able to experience parts of my genetic baggage other than my striking good looks."

Lily burst out laughing at that and James had to stop himself from laughing and shush her so that the baby stayed asleep.

"It doesn't matter, I suppose," James said. "What, with gender being a construct and all. I do like that he has your eyes."

"Hmm," Lily said. "Keep saying nice things James Potter and you might get another before the war ends."