Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to J. K. Rowling. Tilia is mine.

Twelve: Harry Potter

Harry found himself once again in the Lupins' kitchen. It was cozier this time, and looked more lived in. Harry assumed that some time had passed since the last memory he had seen.

Tilia was sitting at the table, looking slightly melancholy, a mug of tea cradled in her hands. She was apparently fascinated by the grain of the table. Lily sat across from her, looking nervous. She was fiddling with the edge of the placemat in front of her, and was in imminent danger of spilling her own mug.

"How are you?" Lily asked, but Harry didn't think the redhead was simply there to inquire after Tilia's health.

Tilia shrugged, then gave Lily a small, reassuring smile. "I just had a bad day. The potion didn't quite turn out."

"Didn't quite turn out," Lily repeated. "How bad was it?"

"It turned puke-colored and exploded, and Lydia stepped in it," Tilia said. Suddenly, she grinned. "Burned a hole in her expensive high heels."

Lily winced. "Just because Lydia insults you all the time…"

"Doesn't mean that I should take petty and vindictive pleasure in accidentally causing her to shriek like a banshee, I know," Tilia said with a sigh.

"But how does that make it a bad day?" Lily asked, wondering how it could be bad. The other woman insulted Tilia every chance she got. Unintentionally reciprocating Lydia's malice should have been a good thing. "Do you have a deadline, or something?"

"No, this is personal. I just thought—but I shouldn't get my hopes up. It's supposed to be impossible." She shrugged again. "So, what's up?" she asked Lily, trying to be cheerful.

Lily gave Tilia a nervous smile. "Well," she began, "James and I—we—well, I—"

Tilia raised her eyebrows.

"We're going to—to have a baby."

Tilia looked down, knowing she should have been ready for this, fighting her mixed emotions until she could give her friend a genuine smile, because she really did mean it when she said, "That's wonderful, Lily."

"Isn't it?" Lily sighed, her expression only a little dreamy. Tilia could forgive her for it. She'd once felt that way herself. Lily looked suddenly more serious. "You will be godmother, right?"

Tilia shook her head sadly. "The Ministry made it quite clear—they would never allow—"

"But surely you could?" Lily exclaimed. "It's not like we're asking Remus directly—"

"The key word there is 'directly.' Whether I am named the godparent or not, you still want to place your child in the care of a werewolf. And the Ministry will never let that happen," Tilia said. "No, don't argue," she cut off her friend's protests, smiling slightly at Lily's indignation on their behalf. "We will promise you to look out for your child, however, and make sure Sirius doesn't botch anything up too badly."

Lily tilted her head in confusion. "How did you know that Sirius was going to be godfather?"

Tilia rolled her eyes. "Please, Lily. Who else would James choose? Sirius was—his best man after all."

Sirius was going to be godfather for my child, as you were to be godmother. Tilia had stopped herself from saying it, but the words hung unspoken between the two young women. Lily bit her lip nervously again; Tilia noticed, and smiled. It almost reached her eyes.

"You'll be fine, Lily. I won't let anything happen to you."

Lily's sad smile said that she desperately wanted to believe Tilia, but with the threat of war, they both knew that promises, however sincere, were empty.

The scene swirled away and was replaced with a waiting room at St. Mungo's. All four Marauders were there, as was Tilia, and they were exhibiting various states of nervousness. James was pacing, running a hand through his hair, and apparently unable to sit still. Sirius was following James in a vain attempt to calm him down. Peter was sitting, scuffing his feet on the tile floor, and fidgeting. Remus and Tilia sat, their gazes far away, seemingly unaffected by James' nerves.

Harry glanced around at the dark window, through which he could glimpse, high overhead, the waning moon. He was suddenly very sure that they were waiting for his own birth, and it felt slightly surreal, despite the fact that he knew he wasn't really there.

A healer called James into the room. Sirius gave him a grin and a little push to the door before taking a seat to wait. Tilia and Remus sat up straighter, their eyes focusing on the present, and gave James reassuring smiles as well. Peter, conversely, shrank back into his chair, and offered only a weak smile of his own. James didn't smile back. He took a deep breath and entered the room, shaking as though an executioner awaited him instead of Lily.

Soon after, he reappeared, holding a blanket-wrapped baby.

"Should you be out here already?" Tilia asked, even as they all crowded around James.

"The healer said this was more practical, since there are so many of you. He only wants two of you guys to come see Lily at a time, but we thought it wouldn't be fair if the other two had to wait to see him." James nodded to the baby in his arms, grinning like a lunatic. "Isn't he wonderful?"

The teasing he expected never came. His four friends were silent, watching the quiet baby in his arms. Sirius, predictably, broke the silence.

"So, what's his name?"

James blinked sheepishly. "Harry. Harry James." He blushed as his friends sniggered. "It was Lily's idea," he said defensively.

"'Course it was," Sirius said, grinning. And then the healer asked James to bring the poor baby back to his mother. By unspoken agreement, Sirius and Peter went to see Lily first.

Once alone, Tilia sat heavily, the smile sliding from her face. Remus sat beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders and hugging her as close as the chair arms would permit. "Are you all right?"

"Of course," Tilia said. "I just—" she paused. "We have to protect them, Remus. We can't let anything happen to them. They're so happy, and he's so innocent. Just look at this world. It's a mess. He shouldn't have to grow up to all of this."

Remus nodded. "I know, Til. We'll try."

"I promised Lily everything would be okay. That even if we couldn't really be godparents, that we would look out for him."

"And we will try, Til. We will."

As they stood to change places with Sirius and Peter, the scene began to change as well. Harry suddenly understood why the Lupins felt they had failed him. He also knew that he could not blame them. They had wanted to protect the Potters, spare their friends the pain they had felt. Harry couldn't help but think that it was so like Remus and Tilia to blame themselves for something they had no control over.

He was grateful, though, for everything they had done for him, and the effort they had gone to to make amends. He had wondered why they had gone to so much effort for their best friends' son. But remembering the looks on their faces when they saw the baby that was Harry Potter, Harry realized that they had loved the baby merely because he was a Potter. What had changed, the reason they had done everything they could to help him, was that they loved the boy, now a young man, because he was Harry.

A/N: There is some very subtle foreshadowing in this chapter about Tilia's work. And I post this chapter with a toast--to more frequent updates!