Chapter Four: New Living Spaces

Lily ran through the hallway as fast as she could to go to McGonagall's office. Her and James didn't really have much choice. Although Lily would have been better off looking after Harry, there was no way that McGonagall would believe James if he asked for a request to move living locations. Although James had gotten his act together this year, the two Heads thought that McGonagall might think that James was pulling a prank if he told their transfiguration professor Therefore, Lily was in charge of getting the move approved as quickly as possible and James was in charge of Harry. As scary as that was, they didn't have much choice. Hopefully James was able to occupy Harry long enough. James was worried because he didn't know what to do with Harry, but Lily assured him that she wouldn't be gone for long.

When Lily approached McGonagall's office, she slowed down and lightly knocked on the door as she tried to catch her breath. Professor McGonagall opened the door a few seconds later and let Lily sit down in one of the red, plush chairs in her office. Lily quickly made her way to a seat that she had sat in many times in the past, not because of detentions or anything of the sort, but because of the chats that the Head Girl would have on some occasions with the transfiguration professor.

"Miss Evans, is everything alright, dear? You looked rather, well, flushed," the normally stern transfiguration teacher said with concern in her voice. The professor narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked over the slightly out of breath Head girl whose skin was flushed red. McGonagall grabbed her wand that was in the front pocket of her dark green robes and gave a it a wave; a tray of tea and cups appeared on her desk.

"Uh, yes, everything's fine Professor. I just ran all the way down here to your office," Lily replied. McGonagall's eyebrows rose slowly on her forehead and leaned forward.

"Well, what's the rush dear? Is everything okay? Was there an incident that needs my attention?" asked Professor McGonagall. She pushed a cup toward Lily in hopes to settle the frazzled looking girl.

"There's no incident, Professor. I just ran all the way down here because I didn't want to waste any time during the day. I have a lot of things to get done. Why I came down here was because I wanted to ask for a request," Lily spoke as quickly as she could. She was nervous that McGonagall wasn't going to grant permission of their move because school had already started. Before McGonagall could interrupt, Lily continued. Better to get it out all now, she thought.

"Professor, James and I had a discussion earlier today and…"

"James Potter?" The professor had never heard Lily address Potter with his first name before.

"Yes, professor. Anyway, as I was saying, James and I were having a discussion earlier today and …"

"Lily, dear, before you continue, I just wanted to commiserate you and Potter for putting your differences aside so far this school term and working so well together. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous that this would be disastrous, but I am glad to say that you two have proved me wrong. Well done. I hope that this will continue for the rest of your stay at Hogwarts," McGonagall said with some pride in her voice. Lily was momentarily stunned by the praise that her professor had just given her. She knew that fighting between her and James had significantly decreased, but she didn't know that it had been taken notice by her professors.

"Thank you Professor McGonagall. I really appreciate it and I'm sure that James does, too. Anyway the reason I came down here was to ask for your approval to have James and I move into the Head Quarters," Lily asked as politely as she could muster. This was not what McGonagall was expecting Lily to ask her. When it was decided that Potter and Miss Evans would be the Head Boy and Girl, McGonagall was nervous, but she was pleasantly surprised with her two students so far this year. That being said, she never expected the two to get along so well that they would willingly share living quarters.

"May I ask why Miss Evans? This is an unusual request, especially since the term has already decided," McGonagall stated.

"Originally James and I decided that we would stay in our rooms in Gryffindor tower because it would be easy for us to meet and I couldn't bear the though of living by myself with him. However, we've realized over these couple of weeks that our decision was quite selfish to students that were not in Gryffindor. We want all students to be able to come to us without being uncomfortable being in another House," Lily said. Underneath the desk, out of McGonagall's sight, Lily's hands were clenched into fists. "Plus," Lily added, "after this year, we will be out in the real world. I think it would be a good experience to live somewhere else. And, I have a note from James agreeing with what I just proposed to you. He would have been here as well, but he is busy at the moment." Lily took a piece of parchment out of her robe that James quickly scratched on before she left the unused classroom and handed it to McGonagall. The professor took the parchment out of Lily's hands and quickly read it. After a few moments, McGonagall nodded.

"Of course I'm going to approve! How could I not, after my two lions wish to help out all students in Hogwarts! You two are truly growing into selfless young adults and I hope this behavior does continue and I wish the two of you the best of luck with the students in the other houses," McGonagall said, puffing with pride for her two students. Lily had difficulty meeting her professor's eyes. Although that was a good motivation for their move, Lily and James really just wanted a place to keep an eye on little Harry.

"So, how soon can we move?" Lily asked. She wanted to get this done as soon as possible. Hopefully James was okay!

"Let's go now and set it up. You can find James later and let him know the details."

With that, Lily followed McGonagall out of her office in the direction of the Quarters of Head Boy and Head Girl.

Green eyes stared into hazel eyes. It was a contest of wills. The last to remain would surely be known as the strongest man in the room. Unfortunately, the hazel eyes didn't want to remain open.

"Oh for fu-, I mean, for merlin's sake! I lost again!" James shouted. He stomped his feet threw his arms around his chest. Harry giggled from the chair he was sitting in that James conjured up for just his size. It had been the third time in a row that James had lost to Harry in a staring contest. "Well, now what?" It had taken James several moments settle Harry after Lily had left the classroom. The boy didn't realize she was gone because he was playing with James, but once he noticed that she was gone, he began to scream. Now, the boy was giggling at the fake anger James was giving for losing the staring contest, again.

"Too bad we can't leave the classroom right now, we could totally play Quidditch!" James says with much enthusiasm and without any regard for lack of safety that would be. "I do have a good replacement though!" With that, James pulled a golden ball out of his robe pocket. "This, Harry, is a snitch. When the seeker catches it, the game is over. I don't play seeker, but my Dad gave me this as a gift one Christmas. Here, try to catch it!" James let go of the snitch, but knew that it was unlikely that Harry would catch it. The snitch fluttered in front of Harry and then began to shoot into another direction. Before it could get too far, two small hands captured the snitch.

"Yay!" Harry exclaimed. He looked comfortable with the snitch in his hand. "Dadda, go!" Harry let go of the snitch and James caught it before it could get too far away. James was uncomfortable with Harry calling him 'Dadda', especially because he was not a dad. But he was very impressed with Harry's seeker skills.

"We'll have to get you on a broom soon! You're a natural seeker with those hands!"

"James Potter! Please tell me you're kidding!" Lily said as she walked in the room from the hallway. "Harry cannot go on a broom! He's too young and would fall off!"

"Momma!" Harry waved his hands in Lily's direction.

"Hi Harry. Were you good for James while I was gone? Clearly he was not being good for you," Lily said with a smirk on her face. She ran her hand through his dark, messy hair that was somewhat familiar to her, but she couldn't place where she had seen in. "Well, do you want to go see where we're going to live now? I have to admit, it's pretty awesome," Lily said. James nodded enthusiastically, which put Harry into giggles. James put his hands out and grabbed Harry to pick him up. It was a little awkward on James part, as he had never held a child before, but Harry seemed to know what to do and snuggled his face into James' chest. James was surprised about Harry's action, but a small smile appeared on his face. He looked up to see Lily smiling as well.

Before James could ask what they were going to do with Harry, Lily asked "Do you want me to place charms on the two of you so we can quickly get to our rooms without any problems?" James nodded and Lily raised her wand to the two boys. Without a word spoken, Harry's babbling went quiet and they disappeared from Lily's sight. Then, Lily left the classroom on the fourth floor and made her way towards the staircase that lead to the Great Hall. When she got to the second floor, she made a left at the staircase and walked not too far down the hallway.

Lily stopped in front of a painting of a meadow filled with flowers and some animals. She pressed her hand to the middle of the painting and a golden light appeared under her hand on the painting. Then, the frame swung backwards and served as an entrance of the Head's common room. After several seconds, the frame gently closed by itself. Inside the common room was a large fireplace on the right side wall with two large, comfy chairs in front of it. There was a small table place in between the chairs and a fuzzy rug in front of the fireplace where a small fire was lit. On the left side were two L-shaped couches that loosely formed a square shape. There was a large, square table that was low to the ground in the middle of the couches. On the wall where the entrance was, there were floor to ceiling bookshelves that went across the entire wall.

"Remus is going to be so jealous when he sees all of these books," a voice said right behind Lily. She jumped fright. Clearly, James had undone the spells on Harry and himself. And James was right; Remus was going to be jealous. There were more chairs scattered around the common room. It was a lot larger than what seemed necessary for two people. However, they were the Head Boy and Head Girl, so Lily thought they did deserve it. On the far side of the room, there were several steps that lead to a platform. At this platform were three doors: the left labeled "Head Girl", the middle nothing, and the right labeled "Head Boy".

Lily reached for her door handle and opened the door. As she opened it, the knob had glowed as it did when she placed her hand on entrance to the common room. Inside were a large four-post bed, a desk, a dresser, a closet and a door that looked like it led to a bathroom. When she came out of her room, James was standing in front of the door that was in the middle of the platform. Harry was on his hip, tugging on James' dark hair. James put his hand on the knob, and entered the room as it glowed. Inside, was a nursery for Harry. There was a crib, a soft rug, a rocking chair, tons of toys, a closet and a bathroom that had a large bath inside of it.

"Look Harry! This is going to be your room, how fun!" James said in an excited voice for Harry. The little boy looked amazed at everything in the room. James placed him on the ground near the pile of toys in the corner and Harry picked up a fuzzy green dragon. "I figured that we could make better use of this room for Harry instead of as a study room. I hope that's okay," James said to Lily.

"Absolutely. James you did a wonderful job with this room."

"Thank you, Lily."

Lily and James simply stood and watched Harry play with his dragon for a few moments. Harry started to crawl to reach the other toys. He grabbed a plush broomstick and started to wave it around in the air.

"Ahhh. Weeee. Woooah!" Harry mumbled in a soft voice, as if he was the one flying a broomstick. James smiled as he watched the little boy pretend to fly the broomstick through the air.

"Don't you think it's strange that Harry is crawling? Shouldn't he be walking by now?" Lily asked.

"You're really asking me? I've never even held a baby until Harry came along. I have no idea," James replied.

"I just feel like he's at the age where he should be walking around, but we really should get to the bottom of how he came about. Do you have time now to start finding out what happened?" Lily asked. James really wanted to go see his friends. He told them that he had some Head Boy stuff to do when he was helping Lily out earlier with transfiguration and would meet up with them later, but since it was kind of his fault Harry was here, there really wasn't much choice.

"The sooner, the better, right?"

"Right."

"Okay, you grab Harry and whatever he will need to keep him occupied for awhile and I'll grab some food. I'll meet you in the common room in a few minutes," James said as he walked out of Harry's room. Lily turned around and saw Harry sitting on the floor, playing with his toys quietly. She squatted down in front of him and ran her hands through dark, soft hair.

"Harry, we're going to go downstairs and-UGH! Harry, is that you?" A terrible smell hit Lily's nose. She leaned in closer to Harry and the smell got stronger. Lily drew her wand from her pocket and placed a few cleaning charms on Harry to clean him up and the smell went away. "Much better. Let's go downstairs, okay buddy?" Lily picked Harry up and placed him on her hip. She then grabbed a few more toys and a soft, dark blue blanket that was in the crib and headed downstairs.

James was looking through the bookshelves trying to find the right books to start research. A tray of food was on the table in front of the large couch. Lily sat down on the couch and placed harry on the floor to play with his toys.

James placed five large books on the table and said, "Alright, let's get going. I want to find out where little Harry came from."

A giggle was heard from the floor where Harry was playing, as if he knew something that James and Lily did not.