Harrison Potter was a very busy man, and though he loved his family dearly, he didn't have as much time to spend with them, especially his young son James, as he would have liked. But on this fresh spring day James and his father were walking briskly down a dirt road on their annual fishing trip.

James thoroughly enjoyed fishing, though the first time his father explained, he wondered why Harrison didn't just 'accio' the fish and save them huge amounts of time. Now that he was a mature 7-year-old young man, James understood that this trip was about the quality time rather than the fish.

Father and son had just settled down and were discussing the most recent trick that James and Sirius had played on Narcissa. Harrison didn't exactly encourage such things, but as long as nobody got hurt he let it slide. Just as James got to the good part, he was interrupted by the screeching of the front gate. They both turned and James stared, surprised, at a red headed girl and her father. He had gotten it into his head that this was the Potter's private spot, and had never seen another person here.

Harrison, however, remembered his manners and invited the pair, who they learned were named Lily and Derek Evans, muggles, from London, on their annual fishing trip, to join them. James thought that it was a very good thing they hadn't been 'accioing' fish when the Evans's walked up.

Being seven years, James and Lily were not extremely fond of girls and boys respectively, and though they became fast friends, they also got on each other's nerves. James pulled one of Lily's braids; Lily put worms in James' perfect (in his opinion) hair. They almost got in a food fight when James accidentally flicked a glob of dressing from his carrot onto Lily's nose, Lilly did not double up laughing as the guys did, and did not see this as an accident. Their father's however, didn't want any waste of the hard caught and hauled food. Lily had to suffice with throwing a small piece of mud, which hit James in the center of his forehead. This caused a mud fight, in which the fathers did not object (it wasn't as if they were wasting mud), and after they had covered the food, Harrison and Derek joined in. The four of them ended up in the stream, wet, dirty, and laughing hysterically, thinking of what their wives and mothers would say.

As James and Harrison walked back down the road that evening James was unusually quiet.

"Is something the matter son?"

"Do- do you think that I'll ever see Lily again Dad?" replied James, a little nervously

"It's possible", came the gentle answer.

"Could I owl her a letter when we get home?" James was hopeful now.

"Lilly's a muggle James, they don't send letters by owl", Harrison told his son as kindly as possible.

"Oh", came the crestfallen answer, followed only by the sounds of dusk and their footsteps.

"Dad?" James asked quietly.

"Yes son"

"Do you think that m-maybe I could marry Lily someday?"

"Its possible, but James, you need to remember, she's a muggle and you're a wizard."

"So, the Potters don't think that they're better than muggles…or, Dad, do you think she might be a witch, but just not know it yet?"

"That's possible."

"Sweet!"

"But, James," Harrison said slowly, "It's not likely. There are a lot of girls in the world, maybe it seems right now that Lily is the best one, but, it might be best if you didn't contact her too much." Harrison refrained for interjecting that they were only 7 after all, knowing that to James that it A) wouldn't matter and B) it might be insulting.

"You're not going to stop me from being friends with her are you dad? Anybody would be better than her." James thought of Sirius, who wouldn't be happy to hear that, and wondered if he meant that to include him as well.

Harrison, surprised at the declaration, decided to test his son's convictions.

"Even Remus?"

"Yeah" James said dejectedly.

"Peter?"

"Definitely"

"Sirius?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask that, I don't know about Sirius, he's like my brother"

"I know son, don't worry, I'm not going to be taking anybody away"

"All right!" James had been getting worried there. Life without Sirius. Life without Lily…both terrible options, but he thought, in his seven year old mind, that the former would be worse.