James and Sirius babysit for the first time...

Just a few months after Harry was born, Lily decided that she could leave her son with her husband and his best friend. James had taken care of Harry alone before, but not with the distraction of his best mate as well.

"I've left out everything you could possibly need and you know what to do of course. Don't leave him alone with Sirius for a second! Make sure you stick to the schedule, it's very important-"

"Don't worry Lils, everything will be alright," James cut her off before she got carried away. "I know what to do."

He kissed her goodbye and waved from the door with Harry balanced on his hip. Just as Lily apparated to go and meet her friends, there was a crash from the living room.

"Prongs! I'm here! Has Lily left yet?" Padfoots voice was heard as he emerged from the fire place.

"Yeah she just left, but don't get too excited we're only babysitting," James was quite tired and wasn't feeling too keen to joke around today.

Harry grinned as he saw Sirius sitting on the sofa. Sirius swept Harry into his arms and bounced him up and down so James could sit down.

The two friends chatted whilst Sirius kept Harry entertained. But after awhile James realised it was past the time to feed Harry. He jumped up and rushed into the kitchen to heat up a bottle. He was sleepy and trying to be fast so he could catch up with the time but ended up knocking the sterilised bottles off the counter top which only slowed him down.

Sirius heard the crash and carried his godson into the kitchen and passed him to James. "Take Harry into the living room and I will sort this out."

James was so grateful and went to sit down with Harry playing on his baby mat.

Sirius calmly sorted everything out in under 10 minutes and took the bottle through to Harry. He glanced around the room and saw James fast asleep on the sofa and no Harry in sight.

He put the bottle down and started searching for Harry. James looked exhausted and so peaceful that he let him sleep. He reminded Sirius of a much younger James he would stumble into their dorm after a long quidditch practice the day after the full moon. He knew from experience that it was better to leave him to sleep.

"Harry...Harry..." Sirius quietly called out his name whilst crawling around the house. But the baby was nowhere to be seen. Glancing at the clock on the wall he saw that Lily would be home in under an hour and Harry should be napping when she arrived! Panic started to settle in as Sirius wondered how angry she would be, he might not be allowed to babysit ever again!

"Heheh pa'foo!" He heard Harry giggling from somewhere in the nursery, but no matter where he looked he couldn't see the infant. James' cloak. The invisibility cloak. James was always leaving it lying around. Uh oh.

He slowly stretched his arms out and started looking for the baby. After a few minutes he felt the cloak near the floor and pulled it off, Harry was sitting down smiling proudly up at Sirius, his chin covered in dribble.

"Harry! You scared me!" Sirius hugged him so tight, relieved to have Harry back. He never wanted his godson to be all alone again. He placed Harry into his cot and pulled the blankets around him, he turned the nightlight on and silently left the room so Harry could nap.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Lily walking towards the door. James was sleeping on the sofa, and Harry had never had his bottle! Sirius ran downstairs as fast as he could. "James! Lily's back! Get up fast!"

He ran past James who was slowly stirring and grabbed the bottle, he ran back upstairs and placed it in Harrys cot, like Lily did whenever Harry didn't finish it. He went back downstairs and sat calmly next to James.

"I'm home, how was everything? Where's Harry? Is he okay? What went wrong? Is he sleeping? What did you do when I was gone?" Lily's stream of questions started instantly.

"Lily everything in fine, Harry is in his cot fast asleep. We didn't do that much, it was quite dull really. You should trust us more," Sirius replied calmly as James was still bleary eyed next to him.

Sirius was quite proud of his parenting skills, Lily didn't need to know all the details.