A/N: Hey everyone. I decided to try to write this a little quicker. I hope you're all enjoying this so far! I've already gotten more reviews than I had planned on receiving. More would be nice, though... :P lol.. Hehe. Oh...and I hope the dates haven't gotten confusing. They're just in chronological order. So, if any problems or comments, please review and put it in there.

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, you know the drill!

Chapter 4: Gifted Child

Mid January...

Harry smiled up at James as he held him in his arms, rocking him back and forth as Harry drank his formula from the bottle. He was almost six months old now and very handsome for the little baby he was. Harry was very well behaved, and hardly ever gave his parents any trouble. Also, he was slightly advanced for such a young boy. Starting at five months old, he slept through most of the night, only waking up a bit earlier than usual. He smiled early, and got some teeth in. Everyone figured that soon he would be speaking and walking.

Sirius and Remus spent much of their time around him trying to turn him into a very young Marauder. Most of the time though, all they succeeded in doing was causing him to laugh.

"Good morning, you two," said Lily as she walked downstairs and entered the living room where James was seated on the sofa with the baby in his arms. Lily was dressed in her flowered night gown, which came down to her ankles, just above her light blue slippers. Her hair was put up but not combed yet; it was still early.

James looked up at her and smiled, "Good morning, Lily." He shifted his arms, but Harry continued to drink, almost finishing his bottle. "Did you sleep well? We tried not to wake you this morning." At that point, Harry had finished his bottle, so James lifted him up and held him upright for a few seconds.

"Yeah, I did." She grinned and looked down at her son, who was now over James' shoulder, being burped. "He's quite the charmer, isn't he?" she asked mockingly as Harry let out a very prominent burp. James then smiled at his son and nodded. Lily put out her hands motioning for James to hand Harry to her. "I'll take him," she said.

Glad to have gotten his weight out of his arms, he handed him over. "Thanks," he said with a warm smile. "So, are we going to be seeing anybody today?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that Sirius and Remus will be over. Which means that Alysha and Holly will be here, too. Is Peter coming?"

"I don't know. He said he was gonna be really busy this week, but I hope he makes it. Linz isn't coming?"

"No," Lily said with a trace of sadness in her voice. "Her grandmother's very ill and she's been in the hospital, so Lindsay is visiting with her."

"Oh, that's too bad. I hope she gets better."

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell had rung, and when James opened the door, he was suddenly covered in feathers. He let out a shrill battle cry and ran out of his front door. Sirius and Remus, who had been standing there, dashed off away from James. Eventually, though, he caught up with them and wrestled with both of them. When they finished, they started walking back towards the house.

"Sorry, we were both hoping that Harry would open the door. He has to get some jokes in at a young age!" Sirius explained to James.

"Siri...he's not even six months old yet. How in the bloody world is he going to open that door?"

"Well, he might have!" he said pointedly, and James and Remus laughed. "Has he talked yet? I mean, we haven't been over in a week, he could have made some major developments."

"Nope. Nothing of that sort. Though sometimes I'd reckon he was trying to speak," James answered while walking up the stairs towards the front door of his home and opening it. "Lily, we're all here now."

Lily walked into the foyer and stopped short when she saw her husband standing there, covered in white feathers. "Um, James, why are you covered in feathers?" But she already knew the answer to this question, as Sirius and Remus were now chuckling softly, but trying to keep it to a minimum. They weren't able to contain their laughter any longer when one feather flew off of James and onto Lily. She huffed and took it off, trying to set the example and not laugh. James took his wand and said 'malius clisus' and the feathers disappeared out of sight. Just then, they heard something that none of them could explain.

"Mummy! Daddy!" After hearing this, the four sprinted towards where the noise had come from. It was Harry's playpen.

Gasping and out of breath, James gaped at his son. "Harry, did you just...?"

"Daddy!" Harry cried, with a triumphant look on his face. He smiled and looked at his mother, "Mummy!"

Sirius sat down on the couch; Remus was too astounded to think to sit down. Lily and James gathered Harry in their arms and smothered him with kisses and hugs. ("What a big boy!"; "You talked!")

"Wow...he's really advanced. Six months old, and already began talking. You know, I reckon he's going to be a very powerful wizard one day!" Remus said, smiling broadly and a look of pride radiating off of his young face. "Hey, Siri, maybe next he'll say our names!" With that, Sirius let out a laugh and nodded in agreement. But before Harry had a chance to amaze them any further, the doorbell rang again.

"Holly! Alysha!" exclaimed Lily, seizing the two girls' arms, and pulling them towards the family room. "Harry just spoke! He said 'mummy' and 'daddy'! Can you believe it?" she breathed out, obviously having been shaken up in a good way by all of this. When they got to the playpen, everyone just stared at Harry as though he was a spectacle in a zoo. He seemed to be very unnerved by this and his lip trembled.

"No, don't cry, Harry, sorry." Sirius apologized, though he knew Harry couldn't understand. But Harry did seem to calm down and returned to beaming up at the adults around him.

"Well, is anyone else coming, Padfoot?" asked James, returning to his normal state, no longer with a fixed look of shock there.

They all spoke through the night, reminiscing on their school days, and enjoying themselves. Peter showed up, and at one point Lindsay did, too, but she had to leave quickly to get back to her grandmother. Before departing, they all spoke about their next possible gathering and couldn't wait for it to come. Slightly sad, they all left, but were comforted by the memory of seeing all of each other soon. Though Sirius and Remus were always around James and Lily, and each with their respective significant other, they enjoyed being together.

"Bye, then. See you soon..." James called into the night after everyone left. He turned back to Lily. "Well, it's just us for a while now. I'm going to go up to sleep. I'll see you soon, love." He walked upstairs and that night was officially over.



A/N: Meep. Hope you all liked it...Review!! :-D