The Marauders Era

Harry James Potter

   "Remus get over here now, bring Sirius and Peter!" James shouted and a Patronus soared out of the window. "Get Professor McGonagall." Lily said. "Professor McGonagall, Lily's having the baby, we need you!" James shouted and a second Patronus soared after the first. James couldn't catch his breath, he was doing everything the doctor told him to do but he was still running around, swearing under his breath, sweating and pushing every sort of item towards Lily. "I DON'T NEED A LAMPSHADE JAMES JUST CHILL THE HELL OUT!" Lily shouted. Just then Sirius burst into the room, his face pale. Remus hurried in after him and took Lily's hand. Peter entered next, not sure what to do. He and Sirius simply stood there watching with their eyes wide. Silent tears poured down James' face as he wondered what on earth to do. "JAMES! Get over here and do something useful for once in your life!" Remus shouted and his voice somehow calmed James down. He took a deep breath and sat down beside Lily, taking her other hand. Through the open door came McGonagall, she swept down beside Remus and he backed away. McGonagall took Lily's hand and breathed deeply in time with her. "Oh my God, there's something there!" Sirius said and James immediately fainted and fell backwards off his chair. The boys hurried over to him and fretted over him, shouting at each other. Meanwhile as Remus swore repetitively at Sirius, Lily sighed with relief and took several deep breaths. 

She held her baby boy in her arms. "Shut up you three, look." McGonagall said. Sirius' jaw dropped. Remus simply gazed at the boy. Peter's eyes filled with tears. "What happened?" James yelled, becoming conscious again. Lily passed the baby to McGonagall. "He has his mother's eyes." she said, tears falling from her own. James got slowly to his feet and walked over to McGonagall, blinking rapidly. McGonagall passed the boy to James, who simply stood there looking down into the face of his son. Nobody broke the silence for several minutes then James said "How old does he have to be before I can teach him how to play Quidditch?" everyone laughed, except James, who'd asked it as a serious question. Sirius approached, his face even more handsome than usual as he stared down into his godson's. James handed his son over to Sirius and sat down beside Lily. He smiled at her and she grinned back. Sirius passed the newborn baby on to Remus. The baby smiled up at him and Remus tickled him before handing him over to Peter. "Peter, it's just a baby." Sirius said, standing at Peter's shoulder as he sobbed, looking down at the child in his arms.

"Harry! Uncle Padfoot's got something for you!" Sirius said, bursting through the front door. "So's Uncle Moony!" Remus added, following Sirius inside. "Where's Peter?" Lily asked, glancing outside onto the street as she closed the door behind him. "I dunno, he said he was busy." Sirius said, but he did not stop to ponder this thought, he hurried into the sitting room and snatched Harry out of James' arms. "How'd you like it?" Sirius said, showing Harry a tiny little leather jacket. "Pass him over Sirius." Remus said. Sirius passed Harry to Remus and Harry traced the scars on Lupin's face with his tiny little finger. Remus chuckled and held up a little sweater. "It's adorable Remus." Lily said.

"Harry, who's your favourite?" James asked in a baby voice, lying on the sitting room floor on his stomach. Harry sat up in front of him dribbling allover his new stag teddy. "What are you doing Prongs, Pads is his favourite." Sirius said, flopping down beside James and passing Harry a bearlike teddy. "Seriously? Stags and dogs? They are lame compared to werewolves." Remus said, passing Harry a wolf teddy. Just then Lily entered the room and Harry immediately started crawling towards her. Sirius scowled, Remus' smile faded slightly but James simply got up, picked Harry up and he and Lily hugged him. Remus and Sirius sat on the floor, scowling up at Lily as Harry played with her hair.

"Peter! Good to see you mate! Sirius and Remus are inside." James said, hugging Peter as he entered the house. In the sitting room Sirius was spread out on the couch, his feet resting on Remus' shoulder, pushing him sideways as Remus read Harry a book. "Shove off Padfoot." Remus said, slapping Sirius' feet away. James laughed and gestured for Peter to follow him into the kitchen. James pulled a few bottles of butterbeer out of the cupboard and threw one to Peter. "Cheers." James said, chinking the neck of his bottle against Peters. Peter grinned, James noticed it was a slightly forced smile, he was about to ask him if he was alright when Lily entered. She snatched James' butterbeer from him, took a swig and placed it down on the bench. Lily took hold of James' elbow, patted Peter on the shoulder and led them into the sitting room.

"Don't take your eyes off Harry, he's getting good at crawling." Lily said ignoring the fact that Remus and Sirius were still slapping each other over the couch situation. James picked Harry up from the floor and passed him to Peter. He swept his son's hair out of his face, kissed him on the forehead and clapped Peter on the shoulder. "Sirius let me sit down." Peter said, Sirius scowled again and punched Remus on the shoulder as he shuffled the other way. "Remus I'm counting on you mate." James said. "And Pads, check with Remus before you do anything." James said. Sirius laughed. "Have fun." Remus said. Lily kissed Harry and she and James left. "C'mon Harry, let's get you out of that stupid sweater from Remus and into the leather jacket I gave you." Sirius said, taking Harry from Peter and leaving the room. "You know I would stop him but I doubt he knows how to change a baby." Remus said to Peter, stretching back on the couch. Peter laughed.

Thankfully nothing disastrous happened while Peter, Sirius and Remus were babysitting Harry, and the next day Hagrid stopped by. "Hagrid, we'd like you to meet Harry." Lily said, handing Harry to Hagrid. They thought Hagrid would be a bit rough with Harry, but he held the baby gently and started crying about how proud he was of what Lily and James had done.

The next week James, Lily and Harry went to Diagon Alley. They bought baby clothes and Lily had to drag James away from a toy broomstick in Quality Quidditch Supplies, reminding him that Harry was only a few months old. They went into the ice cream parlour to buy an ice cream and found a kind looking lady holding a baby, around Harry's age, and trying to stop one of her three year old twin boys from stealing the other's ice cream, although they were the exact same. James knelt down next to the little boy. "I think your ice cream is much better, just don't tell your brother." he said with a wink. The boy smiled and tried to wink back, then happily returned to his ice cream. His twin seemed glad and went back to eating his own.

"How did you do that?" the mother asked. "Oh, my friends act a bit like three year olds sometimes." James replied with a laugh. "Thank you, why don't you sit down?" the lady said. "Oh we'd be glad to." Lily replied and she sat down beside the lady and her baby. "This is Ron, and my twin sons Fred and George. I'm Molly." Mrs. Weasley said. "This is Harry. I'm Lily and this is my husband James." Lily said happily. "Imagine if Harry and Ron go to Hogwarts together, wouldn't that be funny." Mrs. Weasley said. "They probably will." James replied.

They sat with Mrs. Weasley for ages, talking about her large family, her three other sons and her husband. Although they were in the middle of a war, Lily and James couldn't help trust her and hugged her goodbye when her twin boys started using magic with meaning to and causing a bit of commotion. As they left Harry stuck out an arm from his pram and mumbled something that sounded like 'Bon'. "What did he say?" James asked. "I think he was trying to say Ron." Lily replied. "He can't even talk yet. Merlin, those two are going to best friends when they go to Hogwarts." James said.