1-The night they first met Harry

February and the appalling climate appeared jointly at Godric's Hollow that year. January had been a calm and quite sunny month, whereas the following one had started very shaken – rough wind, unbeatable rain and icy coldness that did not soften at nightfall. So it was reasonably normal to see the streets completely clear on that Saturday 16th. No one noticed then, when nearly five minutes to six o'clock in the evening at the precise entrance of the village graveyard and after a gentlepop, a hooded figure materialized out of thin air.

The elegant tall shape moved in the darkness towards the light of the village lampposts and away from the gates of the graveyard where he had just Apparated. He left the main street behind and turned left to face a new street full of cottages on both sides. The figure walked until he had reached the last cottage on the left, and as he faced the house, he took off his cover revealing a handsome young black-haired man.

He then opened the porthole and walked to reach the entrance door. He knocked on the door with his free hand. After several seconds the door was opened by a woman wearing an elegant maroon cloak. Her long dark red hair was falling on her shoulders and she had a mistrustful look upon her green eyes while she placed her hand on her quite sizeable stomach.

'Sirius' that was not a proper sentence; it was much more like a question.

'I am, indeed. Nice to see you, Lily. I've brought an Icy-sugar Mongoose Chocolates box, quite similar to the one James gave you for your sixteen birthday right before he tried to kiss you and so you –'

'– all right, all right. No need reminding…' a man had appeared beside the young woman, who was laughing while she opened the door wider so the guest could come in. He was wearing glasses and his black hair was as untidy as it had always been. 'You know, Sirius, you don't really need to humiliate me every time you come.'

'If I didn't do so, my friend' said the visitor while he climbed through the steps and into the hall 'I would be a boring Death Eater who had impersonated the amazing Sirius Black' he hold up a hand so the other man could shake it 'It's good to see you too, Prongs'

James Potter shook Sirius' hand while he rested his arm around his friend's shoulders. Sirius then turned to face Lily and as he did so, the young woman jumped into his arms and hugged him tightly. She then stepped forwards a little bit, still holding Sirius by his hips, and looked at him closely.

'Oh, Lily, please –!' mocked Sirius.

'You shut up!' cut off the woman 'I don't like the way you look, honestly. You're too thin. Extremely thin. How long has it been since your last proper meal?'

Sirius' expression changed. He was not exactly gloomy, but he was not wearing his broadly smile anymore. 'Don't worry, Lily. I'm not going to die –'

'I know but –'

'Lily honestly, forget it. And you know' he smiled innocently 'I've come here so you can feed me correctly'

The girl seemed to lose her attempt to argue back and so she took her hands off Sirius' hips and aimed to turn to the kitchen right before her husband sympathetically said 'Lily, don't worry, I'll prepare the dinner, you don't need to do much effort –'

'I'm pregnant but I can still use my feet to walk and my hands to carry things. I don't need your help.' Then, maybe realizing that she was being rather harsh, added 'Thank you, darling, but I don't need you'

James looked at his wife while she directed herself to the kitchen. Before guiding Sirius to the living room, he whispered 'I don't really know if I have to worry but… she's been a bit bad-tempered for a few weeks. I guess it's because of the baby –'

They entered the living room and when Sirius sat down – after he had helped James to summon plates, knives and forks – Minus, the Potter's cat, jumped to his lap.

James and Sirius started to talk about non-important matters such as Quidditch or their childish mischief at Hogwarts. Because though they hadn't said it, they both had the feeling that they should wait for Lily to join them to start to discuss truly important matters. And that happened the moment Lily and the flying food she was magically carrying – soup and a vegetable pie – came in.

'So, how are things round here?' asked Sirius before the others could speak. He was starving and he did not want to postpone his dinner because of his presumably long speech. 'What have you been doing?'

James and Lily exchanged dark looks. The first one, who had tried and failed to ask that same question to Sirius, turned to his friend. 'Do you remember Professor Ophidian?'

Sirius hesitated 'Ophidian? You mean Wenoah Ophidian, the Divination teacher? The one who kept saying I was going to spend most of my adulthood stuck on a room?' his smile faded away as he saw that neither Lily nor James were laughing or grinning. 'What happened to her?'

'She's dead. We found her body a month ago.' Lily made a little pause to sit down 'Dumbledore was worried because she had not returned from Christmas holidays. The term had started and there was no Divination teacher. She had asked to leave her safety at Hogwarts to visit her ill sister, but the second of January she wasn't there. So after a couple of days, Albus sent several Order members to look for her.'

'And that was Dedalus, Lily and I'

'We went to her house and there she was –' Lily stopped talking and wiped her tearful eyes.

'Apparently' continued her husband 'the Death Eaters had tried to get Dumbledore information out of her, but she refused to say anything, so – we couldn't have done anything for her, though'

'But the problem was' added Lily, this time her eyes were not filled with tears but irritation and hate. 'that no other but Voldemort himself was there. Maybe he was so foolish to think that Dumbledore in person would have gone there. Or maybe because he thought that we would be more easily persuadable than poor Ophidian. Anyway, he was also escorted by several of his followers, and we hadn't expected him, we were not prepared –' and now she was not wearing any sign of sorrow at all. Her defiant look showed a powerful desire of revenge but also, weakness 'I hate it, Sirius. I really hate to be forced to escape over and over again. I would have loved to fight, to do my best to stop him, but instead we are always obliged to –'

'We'll beat him, darling. We'll do' James was patting his wife's hand kindly.

'So' asked Sirius 'there's no Divination teacher at Hogwarts right now?'

'Yes, there is a substitute, at least until June. But I think Dumbledore is considering the possibility of getting rid of the subject, he has never liked it, you know.' James, still showing affection for Lily, stared at his friend 'So now, Sirius, it's your turn. What have you been up to?'

'That's right, we haven't seen you since Christmas Eve.' Lily had a disappointed look on her face 'You didn't even come for my birthday. I loved your present, but still, you would have been so much better for a present…'

'I'm sorry, Lily, I couldn't. I was quite far away to come here. I've been travelling all this time, I just came back two days ago' he made a little pause to finish his soup so he could help himself with a piece of pie. Then he looked up, his grey eyes met the green and then the brown 'I've been traveling through Europe.'

Lily let out a gasp of excitement. 'Europe! That's amazing! Have you been to Greece? Did you visit the Parthenon? I've heard the Ancient Muggle Greek ruins are so wonderful –'

Sirius laughed, though it sounded more like a bark 'I wasn't on holidays, Lily. I was working for the Order. I didn't have time to stop and visit many things. I wasn't in Greece, anyway.' Lily seemed disappointed, though now all her attention was focused on her friend. Sirius smiled at her and went on 'I was sent to France, Spain and Portugal, though I didn't have time enough to stop at the last one.'

'But what did you exactly need to do in the south of Europe?' Lily, who had finished eating, was patting Minus absentmindedly.

'Dumbledore had decided that the rest of Europe should be analyzed' continued Sirius 'to see if we could count on them to fight Voldemort. He first wanted to know how much they know and how much they care, so he sent several of us to different destinations. I know, for instance, that Mary McDonald had to cover Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. So, first we all had to investigate how the Europeans see our fight against Voldemort.

I started with France and I guess it was easier than I thought. For some reason, France has always been well connected to the UK and that helps us when it comes to doing favors. Of course I don't have their government's word, or their promise that they would prepare their weapons, but I could feel they were quite concerned about our problem. I'm talking about the wizarding community, of course, because our instructions from Dumbledore about the Muggles were simply to be informed about what they know or what they suspect. And I'm totally convinced that the European Muggles know and suspect nothing at all.

And then, I travelled to Spain.' Sirius stopped to drink his butterbeer 'I had no idea that they've just come out from a horrible 40 years dictatorship. And that turned out to be a big problem. They've entered the democracy barely five years ago and I could sense a lot of anxiety. I could tell that even the wizards and witches were more concerned about having freedom and rights – the same as Muggles – rather than being worried for the British problem. I understand their point of view, so I couldn't build up a way to convince them.

And thus I explained to Dumbledore yesterday.'

After a little moment in which James and Lily both remained expectant, the first one cleared his throat and spoke. 'But… why you? Why did Dumbledore choose you? I mean… I didn't know you spoke French or Spanish –'

'No, definitely I can't speak French or Spanish, though now I know some very useful words…' Sirius was grinning absentmindedly. 'Anyway, the thing is, I live on my own, I don't really have family to take care of, and nobody would notice my two months absence –'

'We did!' replied Lily a bit upset.

'Well, yeah, but still, you had each other. And now somebody else to look after.' said Sirius indicating Lily's stomach. 'And don't forget that I can be a charming peaceful dog that can hear conversations without being noticed while I pretend to be a lost animal.'

'But wait a moment…' asked Lily after a little time 'Dumbledore does not know you are an animagus, does he?'

'Nop' replied Sirius tasting his last piece of pie. 'This pie's great, by the way, Lily!'

'Thanks. So,' continued the girl who was definitely willing to know more 'how come you were involved in that trip if you couldn't speak those languages and Dumbledore was not aware of you being an animagus?'

Sirius normally broadly smile became even wider before he let out the noisiest and most natural laughter he had given off in quite a long time. 'Dumbledore reckons… beauty can be as persuasive – or even more – as any good potion. He is right in thinking that potion can be searched whereas natural splendor can't. So he thought that I could kindly influence and convince women into telling me the information I needed.'

'Did you do that?' James asked while he roared with laughter.

'Of course he didn't!' answered Lily crossly before Sirius could came up with a reply 'You didn't do it, right?' Lily had turned to look at Sirius in such a worried way that it actually looked as though she was begging 'You didn't flirt to get information – right? You used your dog appearance, didn't you?'

'Well… actually it was kind of hard to make a living of rats – I can't deny that I did use my influences on women to subsist a bit better…'

'SIRIUS!' Lily looked astonished, perplex, breathless. 'but that's… that's horrible! That's the kind of stuff the Death Eaters do to take out information!'

'No, it is not. I didn't poison them, Lily, I didn't hex anyone. I was just… gentle and charming. That's not bad for anyone.'

'But yet you abandoned them the moment they had told you everything you needed, didn't you?' Lily didn't want to be convinced so easily.

'Come on, Lily, don't be so severe, Sirius was just following Dumbledore's orders.' James then directed his words to Sirius 'so, how are the European girls? Are they attractive –'

'Oh, for Merlin's sake!' Lily didn't let her husband finish 'Men, they're all the same.' Then she looked down at her stomach and continued in a whisper, though audible enough for James and Sirius 'Harry, I hope you'll never be this way'

Suddenly the men stopped laughing and making any kind of noise or movement. They were both looking at Lily, their mouths wide open.

'HARRY?' they both asked.

Sirius turned to look at his friend as though he had never seen him properly before 'How come you don't know your son's name?' and then he turned to Lily 'And how come you KNOW it's a boy?'

'I… we… I don't know… didn't… LILY!' mumbled James.

'Oh, James, I'm so sorry! I promise I was going to tell you,' Lily looked rather embarrassed now 'I was just… you know, waiting for the right moment –'

'Oh, did you!?' James had lost his grin and was looking harshly at Lily 'And when was it going to be? When the boy got married!?'

'No, darling… I'm sorry! I wanted to tell you, at least before everyone else…'

'Ok, since I'm kind of "everyone else" I think it's time for you to tell your husband –'

'So, how come you know?' asked James, ignoring Sirius observations.

Lily took a moment to look for the right words 'Well, the wizarding world let us do several things Muggles can't even dream of. But when it comes to pregnancy, I think Muggles are quite more developed. The witch mother has to wait to give birth to know if she's having a boy or a girl, whereas Muggle women can find it out first. So last week I decided to do an ultrasound scan –'

'An ultrasound?' cut off James 'What for? What did you need to hear?'

'An ultrasound scan, mate' explained Sirius in a calm and soft voice 'is what pregnant Muggle women do to see if their baby is growing OK, if it's in good health… and also to know its sex.'

Lily stared at him 'you really amaze me, Padfoot. You definitely know a lot of things about Muggles.'

'You always keep forgetting that I fancy Muggle girls. I have to know the basic things in a Muggle common life. And, well, this thing about the ultrasound scan, I got related to it some time ago when I –'

'WHAT!? An ultrasound scan… What!? Sirius! I didn't know –' Lily was, once again, exasperated.

'Hey hey! No! Lily, it's not that way!' Sirius was grinning while he watched his friend thinking the wrong thing 'I'm sure you've misunderstood me! I didn't mean –. It's not that, don't worry. It's just that some time ago, I used to go out with a girl – woman, actually, cause she was quite older than me – and she was a doctor. She was, in fact, a gynecologist –'

'She was a guy what?' James understood nothing at all.

'Gynecologist, James, the doctor – healer, who cares about women –'

'Well, anyway' James turned back to Lily. He seemed a bit bored about that Muggle stuff 'I just want to know how come you know about my son…'

Lily sighed before answer 'The thing is that I went there last week because I felt a bit heavy and so I thought there could be twins… it's just one, though, and the doctor said it's perfectly healthy… and a boy.' She glanced at his husband 'And Harry… well, I've been thinking about it for a few days and I thought it's the best name. You know, after my father…' she then fixed her green eyes upon her husband, looking for approval.

'Nice.' said James, and Lily smiled, relieved 'Harry Potter…' he said, as though tasting the name on his lips 'Harry Potter… Harry James Potter…'

'Wait a moment, Harry James?' Lily was not so sure about that last bit.

'Well, it's quite obvious, isn't it? The boy needs a second name. A second name after his father.'

But –'

'Well, I think you wouldn't like the boy to be fatherless, would you?'

'No, of course, but –'

'So, there's no better name.' the father was smiling proudly 'Harry James Potter, after his father, James Potter. The same as I am James CharlusPotter, after my father, Charlus. And the same as here our friend Sirius is –'

But James' grin faded away as he realized that they had never talk about second names, that he had never really asked his best friend what his middle name was.

Sirius, who had become aware of the same thing, laughed 'Orion, mate. I'm Sirius Orion Black.'

'And I assume it is after Orion Black, your father?'

Sirius nodded.

James looked at Lily as though he had just won a battle 'See that, Lily? The boy has to beHarry James!'

'All right, all right… Harry James Potter…' she then smiled kindly.

Sirius instinctively raised his butterbeer and his friends did the same. 'Cheers for the future'

'Cheers' answered both Lily and James.

The war was unavoidable; the time to fight was to come. But even then they would have, not only someone to fight for, but a little person to live for and to have fun with in those dreadful hard times.