Previously on What If?

James peeked through the crack at the crib directly in front of them. In the pale light from the hallway, he could see the cub sleeping soundly, cuddled in his blankets. Lily leaned against him, looking through the doorway with him.

"We'll make this work, James. Don't worry," she reassured him.

James sighed. "If you say so."

Lily smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "I do say so."


"WHAAAAAHHHHHOOOO!"

Lily moaned and rolled to her other side in their bed, toward James. She didn't want to get up yet. It was Saturday, so why had James set the alarm?

"AAAAHHHHOOOOOOOO!"

"James, turn that off," said Lily.

"I thought it was yours," mumbled James.

Lily sat up groggily. "Then what is it?"

James was still half-asleep and didn't answer her.

"WHAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Lily's eyes widened as she finally woke all the way up and remembered the previous night's events.

"Oh, my gosh! I forgot about the baby," she said and leaped out of bed, startling James.

"Who? What? What happened?" he asked, shooting to a sitting position.

"The baby, James! We forgot about the baby!" shouted Lily at him as she ran out the door.

"Oh, right. The baby," said James, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Lily sprinted down the short hallway to the guest bedroom and opened the door. Inside, the creature they had picked up the previous night was crying his head off in the crib. He was switching so quickly from his human form to his wolf form that his screams formed a combination of a baby's cry and a wolf's howl. Distantly, Lily noticed that when the baby was in human form, he wore a light blue onesie, but when he switched to wolf form, the onesie disappeared.

Lily smiled, walked over to him and picked him up.

"Shhh. There, there, little one. It's all right," she crooned, rocking him in her arms. She walked out of the room and down the stairs to get him some more milk, talking softly to him. The baby stopped crying in her embrace and his body-switching began to slow down until he finally maintained his human form.

Lily reached the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out another bottle of goat's milk. She realized that, because the baby was in human form, it probably wouldn't drink from a bowl. So, she reached for her wand which had been left on the island from the night before and conjured him a baby bottle. She poured the milk into the bottle and placed it in the microwave. She bounced the baby, who was still sniffling a bit, on her hip while she waited. The microwave timer went off and she tilted the bottle into the baby's mouth. He grasped it and started sucking hungrily at it, staring at Lily all the while.

James walked down the stairs, wrapped in his bathrobe, and leaned against the doorway to the kitchen, arms folded, watching his wife and the baby. Lily looked up and smiled at him. James smiled back.

"We're a family, now," said Lily.

James laughed nervously.

"Not quite," he said.

Lily gave him "the look" and he threw up his hands in defeat.

"I simply meant that we haven't performed this ceremony yet."

Lily walked back upstairs, still holding the baby. James followed a few steps behind her.

"We've got a lot to do today. I need to go to the library and I don't think it'll be a good idea to take him with me, so you'll have to babysit for a while," she said.

James groaned, but Lily ignored him and continued, "I won't take long and then we can go out and get him some more clothes and some proper food."

Lily reached their bedroom and began to open her dresser drawers and pull out some clothes. Once she had everything she wanted out, she walked over to where James was sitting on the bed and held out the baby to him. James took him awkwardly.

"Here, hold him like this. Make sure to support his head," says Lily as she adjusted his hands.

"Uh-huh," says James, struggling with the baby who is still sucking at the bottle although more slowly. Once James got the baby settled in his arms, Lily walked to the bathroom to get dressed.

"Hey, is he supposed to stare at me like this?" called James worriedly.

Lily's laugh floated through the door, "That means he likes you." They were silent for a few moments as James stared at the baby and Lily combed her hair.

"You know, we have to come up with a name for him. We can't keep calling him 'the baby'," she said.

"Have any suggestions?" asked James.

"Hmmm. I had a grandfather named Gerald."

James looked up, surprised. "What? No. Too old fashioned."

Lily laughed. "Okay, what do you suggest?"

"Well, my grandfather's name was Wesley. My other grandfather's name was Phillip and my dad's name was Harry."

"How about Harry, then. I like that name."

"Okay. Harry it is then."

Lily walked out of the bathroom fully dressed and placed her hands on her hips and sighed.

"All right, James. I'm going out now. I'll be back as soon as I can," she said as she walked out of the room and down the stairs. James floundered after her with the baby.

"What am I supposed to do if he starts crying? What if he has an 'accident'? What if—"

"You'll do fine. If he starts crying, check his diaper and if that's clean, give him some more milk. He could also need to be burped. He might need a nap, try that one last," she says, grabbing her purse and keys from the entry table. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Maybe I'll get you a baby book too."

And just like that she was out the door. Harry pulled the bottle from his mouth with a pop and burped.

"Oh, boy," said James.


"Let's see. Where did I see that book? Hmmm. Ah! There it is," says Lily as she pulled a book from one of the library shelves. She flipped through it quickly and found the Blood Adoption Ceremony. She closed the book with a snap.

"Okay, that's one book down. Now let's find one about magical creatures." Lily scanned the shelves for her favorite book of magical creatures, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She ended up having to ask the librarian where it was, but she finally got her hands on it and set it down on one of the reading tables.

"Let's see. I suppose I'll start with werewolves," she mused and flipped through the book to the entry on werewolves.

It read something like this, "Werewolves are dangerous creatures that should be handled with care. Although the werewolf in human form may turn out to be a kindly old man, he becomes rabid beasts under a full moon. Some werewolves are able to transform at will, regardless of the moon. Wizards are turned into werewolves when they are bitten by a werewolf. It is not known how the first werewolf came to be, but it is speculated to have been a self-transfiguration spell gone wrong."

Lily shifted her gaze to the footnote at the bottom. The words were so tiny it was a miracle she saw it at all. She used a magnification spell and read the paragraph.

"Finius Picklbrook once speculated that some muggle wolves were able to glamour themselves into human form, but this theory is widely ostracized as the ravings of a madman. Picklbrook was admitted to St Mungo's Hospital and diagnosed with severe paranoia two years after proposing this hypothesis."

Lily flipped through the book some more, but saw no more entries that hinted at what creature Harry might have been. She closed the book, returned it to its place, and continued her search through at least six more magical-beast books, but found nothing.

'I hope James will still go through with the adoption,' she thought as she began to look for a book about baby care.


"James! I'm home!" called Lily as she closed the front door behind her and put her bag on the entry table. James came running out of the study.

"SHHHH!" he said, dramatically putting a finger to his lips. "I only just got him to go to sleep."

Lily giggled at him. "How did it go?"

James gives her a dull stare.

"Not good, huh? Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it."

James flopped onto the couch and sighed. He rubbed his face with his hands and said, "I don't know if I'm ready for this, Lily."

Lily kneeled down on the couch beside him and gave him a peck on the cheek, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Don't I keep telling you that you'll do fine? You already got him to take a nap. That's the hardest thing to do at this age," she reassured him.

"I just don't want to do a shoddy job of it," he said.

"You won't."

"If you say so."

"I do say so. Now, I know you must have worked very hard to get him to sleep, but we still need to perform the blood adoption and go shopping," she said as she stood up. James groaned.

"Alright," he said. "I'll go get him." Lily smiled at him and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you," she said. She walked into the kitchen, placed the ritual book on the island, and took out one of her mother's heirloom wine cups. She placed it on the island, then reached for one of her kitchen knives and sets it down next to the glass.

James walked into the kitchen, holding Harry. The baby was still a bit bleary eyed from sleep and was nodding off onto James's shoulder. James stared at the equipment on the island.

"Are you sure you're doing this right?" he asked.

"Yes, James. It's very easy. I just needed the words to the spell," she replied. Lily flipped through her book to find the lines she needed.

"Okay, James. Are you ready?" she asked him.

"I don't know. Depends on what I have to do," he replied.

"You don't have to do anything. I'll take care of it all."

"All right, then. Let's get started."

Lily picked up the knife and cup and began to speak in Latin.

"Supplices rogamus puer addee familia natum atque ipsum esse censemus." (we humbly request to add this child to our family, that he may be our son and we his parents.)

Lily lifted the knife to her finger and let a few drops of blood drip into the cup, then did the same to James and Harry. The baby began to scream at the pain and James attempted to quiet him while Lily finished. She swirled the blood around the cup to mix it.

"Haec oblate nobis sanguine venis et quo nos currere currat nostra." (May this offered blood mix so that ours may run in his veins and his may run in ours.)

Lily waved her wand over the cup as she said this last line. When she is finished speaking, she set down the cup and her wand and looks at Harry. James looked with her and, before their eyes, Harry's pale skin gained a pink tinge and his eyes changed to a deep green, just like Lily's. His hair, as well, turns a shade lighter to match James's.

"Okay. Now that that's finished, why don't we go shopping?" said Lily, clapping her hands together for emphasis. James looked at her.

"You mean that's it.? That's all we have to do?" he asked.

"That's all. Let's hurry and get to the store so that Harry can finish his nap."


What did you think? I tried to catch all of the mistakes I made, but I'm not perfect. Please tell me if you notice something; I hate looking like a fool in grammar. I can't remember if I told you guys, but I when I first wrote this part of the story (the part with James and Lily), I wrote it in present tense. I did my best to change all of the tenses. So if you see a verb tense that doesn't match up with the rest of the story, that's why.

I got the Latin from Google Translate, so obviously it's not perfect, but I don't know Latin. If you do, don't hesitate to show off by telling me the proper translation. :)

Don't forget to Favorite, Follow, and Review! And a huge thank you to all who have already done so!

-GH

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