Baby Harry

Part 1

James and Lily Potter picked their way down Diagon Alley, happy to be out of the house. They both felt as if they hadn't been out in years. Lately one thing had seemed to come right after another. James had been ill and had given it to Harry. Almost immediately after they were better, Lily's mother Violet had taken a turn for the worse. She had been residing in a Muggle home for the aged. The Potters spent several days with her in the hospital before they got wind that Petunia and her great lump of a husband planned on visiting. James and Harry left as Lily said her final good-byes to her mother. Several hours later, the only phone in their house rang – a nurse to inform Lily that her mother had passed away.

She had been able to pull herself together and make herself smile until Harry was in bed. Then she curled up on the master bed and began weeping as she never had before. James let her be for as long as he could stand it, then went to comfort her. His own parents had passed on just a few years before. Now neither of them had any family at all. James sat next to her huddled form and rubbed her back. He couldn't think of anything to say, but the fact that her sobbing began to ease gave him the relief that at least his presence was helping.

Finally, she sat up and threw her arms around her husband. James held her tightly and kissed her forehead. He led her to a large, plush armchair and put her on his lap. He ran his hands gently through her hair and rocked her. They sat like this for several hours until she finally stopped crying and took in a long shaky breath.

"You know," James said finally. "She was alright all the time we were there. Then that great toad Dursley comes, and I expect she died of boredom."

"OH James!" Lily scolded angrily, hitting his chest. Then, quite unexpectedly, she burst into laughter. "That's very nearly what she told me she would do, too!"

It was hard for her to hide her depression, so Harry had been picking up on it. He cried at first, then became very irritable. He banged his spoon on his highchair tray, shouting "NO" all through dinner. He took a defiant pee on his changing table, which he'd not done for months. He attempted to bite the cat and threw all of his toys out of crib. His tantrums escalated for two days until, one morning, when James came down to breakfast, he was promptly hit. in the face with a bowl of oatmeal.

"That does it!" he exclaimed angrily.

"Please don't be cross with him," Lily pleaded. "He's only a baby, he can't control it. His magic just explodes."

"I'm not angry at him, really... but we've been cooped up for too long! With everything that's happened, we haven't been out for weeks, and it's even starting to wear on the baby. We just need to get out of this house!"

"James," Lily laughed. "James, clean your glasses off, love. You've no idea how hard it is to have a conversation with someone who can't see. You've been talking to the cupboard."

His glasses had become caked with the oatmeal that Harry had thrown, but he could have sworn he'd seen Lily standing in front of him. Embarrassed, he removed them, leaving to big round spots around his eyes while the rest of his face was still covered in glop.

Lily bit her lip, trying not to laugh even harder. Harry, however, had no problem giggling at his father. He squealed and clapped his hands.

"Think that's funny, do you?" James said, trying to pretend he was mad. "Look what you've done to poor old daddy!" He lifted Harry out of his highchair. "Look at this mess. Eh? What do you have to say for yourself?"

Harry made another happy sound then began to suck on James' cheek, cleaning the oatmeal off.

"Aw!" Lily crooned. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss James on the other cheek. "Harry has the right idea, you're delicious!"

After he had gotten cleaned up, Lily ad agreed that they all needed an outing. They gathered up all they would need for the day and apparated over to Diagon Alley. James stopped at Gringotts to take out some gold for the day. They decided to start at that end and make their way down the shops.

Their first stop was the junk shop, which Lily always had fun browsing. Despite its name, some stuff was quite new and other things were quite antique. They said hello to Mr. Ollivlander and bought a toy, teething wand for Harry. James couldn't resist Gambol and Japes. He always came out with a large bag of which Lily dreaded to look in. This particular day, he came out with two samples, one that he stealthily fed to Harry while Lily's attention was elsewhere. By the time she noticed what he'd done, both he and Harry had bright blue hair. Lily just pinched the bridge of her nose as though she had a headache and muttered 'oh good Godric, why me?'

They stopped in the magical menagerie, where Harry took great interested in the Puffskeins. Lily showed him the cats and Harry ran his fingers through a large ginger tom called Crookshanks, who purred noisily. There were several dogs whose kisses made Harry squeal happily, but James reminded Lily that they already had a dog called Padfoot. There were so many creatures to show him – things in tanks, things in nests, and many in cages of all sizes. Lily set Harry down to reach a new collar for their cat. It only took her a few seconds, but when she looked down, Harry was gone. He had scooted off to the Puffskein nests again. Harry seized one by the fluff. It must have been heavier then he expected, because he promptly fell over onto his backside, the puff still in his tiny fist. He looked down at it, a wide, drooley grin on his face. The Puffskein obviously wasn't bothered. It stuck out its long pink tongue, found Harry's nose and began to investigate inside of it. Harry screamed and laughed, kicking both of his feet. He hugged it tight, making the Puffskein hum contentedly.

"What have you got there, diaper butt?" James asked, kneeling on the floor. "Have you found a new mate?"

Harry smiled brightly up at his dad and giggled. James picked him up and gave him a big kiss.

"I suppose he has to come home with us, eh?" He felt a particularly wet spot on the Puffskein. "I don't think they'll take it back, anyway. I don't think they accept things little boys have been sucking on!"

They paid for the Puffskein, as well as a nest and a cage for it and left the shop. They went inside Enchanted Enfants which was a dual store with Charmed Children. They came out with so many new bags that James had to apparate home and back for their little trolley just so they could continue. After stuffing everything in the basket, they moved over to a bench to sit down. Lily fished through one of the bags and took out a packaged wrap sporting a blue print with white polka dots. She took the paper out of it and carefully began to wrap it around herself. She kept muttering things like "no, that way", and "hm, not like that" and "oops, wait, no, the other way". Finally she sighed frustratedly and decided to start over. This time she went more slowly and decided she had it ready in a few minutes.

"Ta-da!" She said, twirling for James.

"Er-sexy?" James tried, confused.

Lily laughed. "Not really, no. Here, let me have Harry, then it should be obvious."

She picked Harry up and carefully poked Harry's legs through two gaps in the wrap by her hips. She sat Harry down, on her stomach and pulled his arms through two holes by her chest. Holding her breath, she let go. It was a success. The wrap did its job, holding Harry snug against her.

"Yes!" Lily cheered. "I'm a hands-free mummy!"

"Clever girl," James said. "I don't think I understand though. You moaned all through the last months of your pregnancy because he was so heavy. You just couldn't wait until he was born. Now you've strapped him back on!"

Lily glared at him. "You've totally spoiled this now, you know?"

The two of them laughed and continued down the street. They made a quick stop into Madame Malkin's robes, then Lily spent half an hour in Flourish and Blotts. Lily loved looking at the new potions books. Harry liked to taste them. Several times, he tossed down books faster then she could magic them back onto the shelves. She ended up tucking his hands into the wrap, to his great disappointment. James spent the same amount of time in the Quidditch supply store, showing Harry all sorts of new equipment. He gently tossed a small plastic Quaffle to Harry, whose head it bounced off of. Harry gurgled indignantly then blew a raspberry at him. When James gave it to him and asked Harry to toss it back, he threw it right into an end cap of beater clubs, toppling all of them over. Lily tried to pretend she didn't know either of them. He ended up buying a golden snitch that Harry would be able to catch, as it merely hovered lazily for beginners. Lily made her way into the Apothecary for new potions supplies, blushing furiously as she came out.

She linked her arms into James' and pulled him along. "Come on then love, I'm getting a bit hungry. The lunch rush should be out of the Florean's soon. If we still want to look at the owls, we'd better get a move on. Besides, I think it looks like rain, don't you?"

James was instantly suspicious. She was talking unusually fast and tugging him as if she were eager to get out of the area. He also noticed she had pulled her long robes on. He went along with it, but he couldn't help peeking behind them. He felt a small surge of anger. Severus Snape, his old school rival, was watching them out of the Apothecary window.

"Oy! Did that git..."

"Oh, I knew you'd look," she moaned. "It's nothing James. Nothing. He didn't... I mean, I didn't... well, how was I supposed to know he'd got chemicals, I couldn't see his hands!"

"What happened?" he demanded.

Lily sighed. "I was just leaving the shop when he said hello to me, so I said hello back. He asked me where my insignificant other was, and I was about to tell him off. I expect a scarab beetle found it's way out of the jars because there was one crawling Harry. He shrieked and I suppose Snape didn't see Harry because it startled him. I don't know what he was mixing, but he dropped it, it sort of splashed everywhere and..." She pulled aside her robe slightly allowing him to look inside of it. A large piece of fabric had burned right through her trousers and pants, exposing her butt. "I don't know what happened after that, I got out of there as quick as I could!"

If James had been laughing before, it was nothing compared to his hysterics when he turned around again. Snape standing in the doorway with large plumes of white smoke pouring from his knees. He snuck his hand under Lily's robe to pinch her bare cheek, then put his arm around her, his other hand wiping away tears form laughing so hard. Lily was scolding him ("It's not funny James! We could've been hurt!"), and checking Harry for any burns. James insisted that she look, and stopped with an exasperated sigh. She could see clearly what was going on behind her in a shop window, while pretending to browse the display.

Snape was still standing there, glaring at the couple, when his shoes suddenly burst into flame. He darted across the street and hopped into a small cauldron that had been collecting rain water. He climbed out after a few seconds, shaking the water off. He glared at them one last time, then picked his way across the street again, walking only on his heels, as the toes of his shoes had been totally melted away, exposing half of his foot.

James was roaring with laughter.

Lily gave him a small whack on the arm. "James! Stop that! It's... it's not... pffft..." was all she could manage before she gave in to her own giggles.

"Ah, Harry! I love you so much son," James finally sighed, giving Harry a big, congratulatory kiss on the head.

((Part 2 is coming soon! Let me know who you'd like to see next :) ))