Trinity Day wrote this part. Chapter 8.

When James woke up the next morning, much to his surprise, his wife was not in the bed beside him. After experiencing one panicked-filled moment, he sat up straight and reached for his glasses, and realized his fear for his Lily's safety was unnecessary.

Lily was sitting in the corner, her back to James, and she was clutching something very tightly to her chest. Since Harry's crib was empty, James assumed it was their son that she was holding. Gradually (he was still quite sleepy) he realized that her body was racking with sobs.

The fear that he had felt when he first awoke rushed back to him and he rushed to his wife, belatedly wondering if it might have been faster if he hadn't crawled over the bed since he had tripped and fallen after being tangled in the sheets. The thud of his body hitting the floor startled Lily, but didn't wake Harry.

James looked up at Lily from his spot on the floor. "What's wrong?"

"I can't - I can't do this," Lily sobbed.

"Do what?" James asked.

"I can't send my baby away! What if we never see him again?"

James softened. "Lily . . ." He started to get up, then stopped and had to untangle the sheets from around his feet. Then he went over to his wife and put a comforting arm around her. She buried her face into his shoulder. "Shhh," he murmured, stroking her hair. "You were all for the idea last night. What brought this on?"

Her head buried, Lily's voice was a little muffled, but James could still make out the words. "I was thinking about last night. If we sent Harry to Rose, how long before we saw him again? It could be years, if ever! I don't want to lose my baby, James."

"We aren't going to lose him, Lil. It will only be for a few months, at the most. Then it'll be safe for us to be with Harry again."

"And what if it isn't?" Lily demanded. "That's what they said when they originally placed the Ministry brats into safehouses. That was over five years ago. Some of those kids haven't seen their parents in five years! Who's to say that won't happen to Harry?"

"That's why we wouldn't let them put Harry in a safehouse, remember?" James said.

"Then why are we going to let them take our baby away now?" Lily sobbed, being set off again.

"No one's going to take our baby away without our permission," James said firmly.

"But - but - " Lily stuttered incoherently.

"Lily, Harry is our baby, and no one can make us give him up, even if it might be safer for him."

"I'm so selfish," Lily wailed. "I just don't want to give up my baby."

"You're not selfish," James assured her. "We don't know for sure that Harry would be safer away from us. Voldemort's after him, too, remember. And he's been known to find safehouses."

Lily half-sobbed, "That's not helping, James."

"Sorry," James quickly rescinded. "But Harry can stay with us for as long as you want. If worst comes to worst, we can just stay here at Hogwarts for a while. At least it's safe here, and I'm sure Dumbledore won't mind."

Sniffing a couple of times, Lily began to settle down. "Are you sure? You don't hate me because I don't want to send Harry away to safety?"

"Of course not!" James exclaimed, shocked. "Firstly, I can never hate you. Secondly, it's perfectly reasonable as a mother not to want to send your baby away for God knows how long. Thirdly," he hesitated briefly, "I agree with you."

Lily looked up at him. "You do?" she asked, surprise filling her voice. "But why did you agree with me last night then?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I was just caught up in the moment. We've discussed this before and we always agreed that it was only letting Voldemort win if we give up our basic freedoms and hid away. But I decided that if you were brave enough to send Harry away, I would be too."

"James!" Lily chastised. "We're a family! Both of us are supposed to be making the decisions."

"Okay, from now on we will. Have we decided to keep Harry here with us then?"

"Yes," Lily said decisively. It was obvious that she was not going to change her mind again.

"Good." Smiling, James cupped Lily's face with his hands and then kissed her gently on the lips, making sure not to crush the sleeping Harry, whom Lily was still cradling in her arms. Some nights, a pin couldn't drop without Harry waking up, others a war could break out in his nursery without the baby waking up; this seemed to be one of the latter times.

There was a knock at the door, but before they could break apart to ask who it was, Sirius came bursting in, followed closely behind by Remus.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything," Sirius said, although he didn't sound like he would be particularly worried if he were interrupting. But then again, he had caught them in much more compromising situations. Many times.

James rolled his eyes then turned around to face his best friend. "We were just about to have wild passionate sex here on the floor."

"I should hope not!" Sirius exclaimed in a much stronger reaction than expected from him. James raised his eyebrows quizzically.

"You're going to emotionally scar your child for life!" Sirius explained. "I'm all for you and Lily having wild passionate sex, just tell me beforehand so I can take Harry away."

"You know, Sirius, I can't decide whether it's the voyeur in you that wants to know when and where James and I are having wild, passionate sex, or whether you just want to monopolize Harry's time, who is sleeping, by the way, so keep your voices down."

Sirius leered at her. "Both. Besides, it's my right as Harry's godfather."

Rolling her eyes, Lily turned to the other man in the room. "So, Remus, what are you doing here? What made you brave this den of insanity?"

"That's common name for places Sirius frequents," Remus commented.

"Hey!" Sirius protested while James and Lily laughed.

"I heard about what happened, and - well, you're okay, right? All of you?"

Lily shifted Harry in her arms a little uneasily. "We're fine. It was a little too close for comfort, but we all made it."

James, however, was thinking of something else. "Does everyone know, then?" he asked suddenly. "Lily and I were discussing it last night, and we thought it might be an idea if we pretending we were dead and lay low for awhile. But that won't work if everyone knows the truth." He pinned Remus with an intense gaze. "So - are we dead?"