Lily nestled the baby boy deeper into the cradle of her arms. His tiny little body, so beautiful in its innocence and helplessness, contrasted against the pale blue blankets she'd knitted for him. Learning to knit had been time consuming, but it was worth it to see the little darling all wrapped up in it and to know that he was warm because of something she'd done.

Holding an infant had become like second nature to her, but she still was filled with a sense of wonder and joy whenever she snuggled him up against her. The sight of his little fingers curled up against his smooth cheek reminded her of the fact that she and James, despite all of the danger and trials they'd faced with their heads held high, were actually getting the chance to experience this beautiful feeling.

"He needs a name," James said, leaning against her to get a better look at the sleeping babe. Even though he'd been home from the hospital for well over a week, the infant still didn't have a name. Personally, Lily thought it was a case of too many cooks in the kitchen; a multi-sided debate raged on as people argued for and against particular names, and nobody had been able to come up with a name that pleased all invested parties. "We can't just keep referring to him as The Baby forever. How weird will that be when he's forty?"

"I'm sure we could come up with a nickname by then," she joked. "We could start calling him Bee now and see if it sticks."

"Like a bumblebee?" James asked, frowning. "But they're yellow and black; that's practically setting him up to go into Hufflepuff."

"There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff," she protested. "Frank was a Hufflepuff, and you like him well enough."

"It's not a bad house," he explained, "but it's not Gryffindor, either. If he's going to be named something that's associated with a particular house, it'll be something like Leon."

"Seriously, James? You want to go with an explicit lion connection?"

"Hey, I'm still all for Elvendork."

Lily sighed as she gently rocked the baby in question. "He is not going to be called Elvendork. I thought you were over that by now."

"You never get over a name like Elvendork," he replied with an impish smirk.

"I agree," she shot back, "because it's too horrible a name to get over."

"I don't insult your name suggestions!"

"Yes, you do. Remember when you said the name Gilbert made you think of a half-eaten fish?"

He scrunched up his face. "Yeah, I still stand by that one."

"And that's where the trouble lies. Besides, don't pretend I don't know Sirius dared you to convince someone to use that name; Remus told me. If you want to win that bet so much, win it with someone else's baby."

"It still would be awesome to see McGonagall's face when she first found out."

Despite her complete hatred of the ridiculous name, Lily couldn't help but snicker at that thought. It really would be amusing to see people's reactions to the name as they struggled to find a way to politely ask what the blazes they'd been thinking when that happened. "We could still fool people into thinking that's his name."

James grinned. "I'll tell them his nickname is Dorky."

Still chortling at the prospect of tricking people into thinking that James had won, they both retreated into their own thoughts. Lily's mind returned to the dilemma of finding a baby name that might possibly satisfy everybody involved. She had plenty of names in mind, but she was, unsurprisingly, struggling to find a good compromise. Everybody just wanted different things. She knew that, at the end of the day, it was his parents' decision, but she couldn't resist getting sucked into the mass of people suggesting and critiquing potential names. Sirius didn't want him to be called anything even remotely traditional; James preferred old-fashioned or meaningful names. Remus wanted the baby to be named after some obscure literary character; Lily, for all that she empathised with that, was scared that an obscure name would just give his future classmates convenient fodder for harassment. And, of course, meanwhile -

"He's perfect, isn't he?" James asked, his breath sending shivers scurrying across her neck.

She loved the way he was still able to make her feel so alive with just a simple gesture. Refusing to turn to look him in the eye, she fought back a smirk and replied saucily, "Of course he is. He looks nothing like you."

"Oi! That hurts." He clutched at his chest in an exaggerated show of pain before returning his attention back to the baby and saying in a tone that implied he was imparting some great bit of wisdom, "A word from one wizard to another: the lady holding you has a sharp tongue that should be avoided at almost all costs."

With a laugh, Lily asked, "Almost?"

"Almost for me, anyway." He winked at her, and a faint blush tinted her face pink.

Quickly regaining her composure, she told the baby, "Don't worry; you'll inherit some wit from me. It'll just be another way you differ from him, my sweet."

Grinning, James bumped his shoulder against hers, careful not to knock her so hard that it would jostle the baby. "Or you might inherit your mother's studiousness."

"Or both. But one thing's for certain; with so many people around to absolutely adore you, you'll have everything you ever need."

"Don't go spoiling him too much," James warned her, but she could tell from the way his expression melted whenever the baby's brown eyes blinked up at him that he wouldn't be able to resist the little one either. "We don't want him to get a big head."

She ran her hand over the little tufts of chocolate brown hair that had already started to emerge from the top of his head. It was hard to make them out against his scalp, but that made finding them feel all the more special. "I don't think there's any chance of that happening. His mother will see to it that it doesn't."

"She is rather forceful when she wants to be," James agreed. "She actually intimidated Sirius into being nice Kreacher the other day, and you know how much he detests that house-elf."

"She's a sweetheart," Lily replied, smiling fondly as her thoughts wandered to her son and daughter-in-law. Despite her reservations at their decision to marry young - it had worked for Lily and James, but she'd initially been worried that her oldest son had just been blindly following in their footsteps rather than finding his own way - she had never doubted the close bond that Harry shared with Hermione. Her as-yet-unnamed grandson wriggled in her arms, and his warm brown eyes opened to stare up at them. "Look, he's awake. Do you want a turn holding him?"

The broad smile on James' face made it quite clear that, yes, he definitely did.