A/N:  Sorry this took me so long.  I'm not very good at writing plot and dramatic stuff.  I'm used to writing random insane comedy.  Oh and I had the song "The November Rain" by Guns-n-Roses stuck in my head when I was writing this, so yeah.

Disclaimer:  Not mine.  L  Wahhhhhhhhh….

Chapter 2:  Making Amends

            Later that day, while Harry was spending the afternoon with "Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus", James had a little time to think.

            For the past year James had been ignoring Lily, not really knowing what to say.  They had both seen so much tragedy… but the previous year had been more horrific than they ever could have imagined.  And that… all too real… dream he had the night before made him see the man he wanted to be… the man he should have been.  The life he could have had.  It was like the popular Muggle movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."

            Lily walked into the den and he looked over at her and smiled weakly.  She sat down in the chair across from him and sighed.

            "What is there to smile about?" she asked.

            "Well… we're together…"he answered.

            "Together?  You call this 'marriage" *together*?  We're married to ourselves, not each other," she spat back.

            James walked over and took her hands in his.

            "That can all change.  I want it to change," he said.

            "What's the point?  Voldemort will have us soon anyway.  We don't have time to change," she said through her tears and ran through the halls until she was out the back door.

            James followed her, pleading, "Please Lily… we should savor what little time we may have left…"

"What good would that serve?" she yelled.

"I don't want to die not knowing if you ever really knew how much I love you.  I don't want to die with Harry seeing us argue all the time.  And I don't want to die without putting up a fight," James replied quietly.

Lily walked over to him, cupped his face in her hands, and said, "He'll get us eventually."

"Yes he will.  But we can't give up hope.  We have to try.  For Harry.  For us.  We're Gryffindors, Lily.  Let's act like it," he replied and kissed her softly.

"You know… Harry is going to be with Sirius and Remus all day…" Lily said with a goofy grin.

"Race you to the bedroom?" James asked, and they ran into the house.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

James looked around himself, confused.  He was sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by Lily, a ten-year-old (almost eleven) spitting image of himself sporting Lily's eyes, and a strikingly beautiful nine-year-old girl, whom he knew to be Harry and his daughter Violet.

Lily had given birth to Violet in June of 1981.  Violet was aptly named, for she had exquisite amethyst eyes and Lily's long auburn hair.

//Had they survived the Dark Lord's wrath?// he wondered.

  No wait… when were they threatened by Voldemort?  He had been done away with during James' second year at Hogwarts.  James sighed; he was just getting more confused all the time.

He remembered everything from the past ten years, but it didn't quite feel like he had actually been there.  It was as if it had all been a dream…

//That's it!// he thought.  //I'm back in the dream…//

James looked up as the mail came in.

"Mum!  Dad!  I got my Hogwarts letter!  Can we owl Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus?  Can we invite them and Dru over for dinner?" Harry was exclaiming excitedly.

Dru was the daughter that Sirius had carried for Remus.  Though Druantia was roughly the same age as Violet, she had always been closer to Harry.  The two were inseparable whenever she was around.

"Of course we can, dear!  Though I'm quite sure they already knew that your letter had been sent, what with Uncle Remus being the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Lily answered.  "Violet, dear, *please* eat your oatmeal!"

After Dru had been born, Remus had decided that teaching was a better profession for him than marketing.  Dru and Sirius lived with him at Hogwarts.  They were the last of the Marauders in Britain, for Peter had moved to America several years back to study herbology.

To prove Lily right, Remus burst through the door while James was thinking, Sirius and Dru in tow.

"I expect Harry got his letter this morning," Remus remarked, walking into the kitchen.

"Yes he did, we were just about to owl you with an invitation for dinner," Lily replied with a smile.

James sighed.  If these switches kept happening, he would go absolutely insane.

Harry and Dru went outside to play and Remus turned to James.

"So, James old chap, when are you taking him to Diagon Alley to get his school supplies?  I have a few things I need, and we're going tomorrow if you want to join us," he said.

"Of course we'll join you.  We'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron, say ten in the morning" James asked, forcing a smile.

He didn't know why he found it so hard to smile.  After all, in this Parallel, he and Lily had never encountered Voldemort's threats.  Harry had lived to receive his Hogwarts letter, and would be eleven in a week.  The daughter that he knew without a doubt had been conceived September 3, 1980 had gotten the chance to grow into a wonderful young girl.  Sirius and Remus were married with a lovely daughter.  Peter may have been a bachelor, but he was happy in America.  Why should he be unable to smile?

James knew the answer all too well.  He could not be happy in this world because he knew that this wasn't reality.  He knew that as soon as he woke up, he would be back in the world where everything had gone wrong.

James walked over to the sliding glass of the back door and looked out.  Violet had gone out to play with Harry and Dru.

Harry and Dru, however,  were trying to stay as far away from Violet as possible.

She was taunting them, singing, "Harry and Dru sitting in a tree… S-N-O-G-G-I-N-G… wait, that doesn't work.  Harry and Dru sitting in a tree… K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

James opened the door and yelled, "Violet Amelie Potter!  Don't taunt your brother and Dru! Besides, it seems to me that they are neither sitting in a tree, *or* snogging.  Or even kissing, if you will.  And that better not give them any ideas!"

He then closed the door and sat back down where his wife and two friends were smirking at him.

"Come now James, do you *truly* think that a nine year old and ten year old would take to snogging?" Remus asked.

"In a tree?" Sirius added.  "I'm sure they could find much better places for a game of tongue quidditch than in a *tree*."

"Really James, they're nine and ten.  They probably still think that members of the opposite sex have cooties," Lily put in.

James glared at them and said indignantly, "You never know with kids these days."

The other s just laughed and went back to their previous conversation.  James settled in and tried to enjoy it while it lasted.

A/N:   Ah… yes, the chapter is done.  Surprisingly, my muse has become organized and all set for this fic.  I have it all planned out already.  I even have the ending written.  That's really strange for me… I hardly ever have a fic all planned out.  I'll have certain things in mind that I want to happen, and I'll have the basic plotline in mind… but other than that I just go by whatever the crazy penguins decide to deal me with.  But this is already set in stone.  It's quite strange.  And now cookies for the reviewer… it's singular *sniffle*

QuackingFrog:  First reviewer!  Only reviewer!  *Extra* big cookie for you!  Thank!  The idea just wouldn't leave me alone. (To think that my muse was actually an episode of Seinfeld…)  I did mean it to be creepy.  Especially since it's not AU (except for James' dream world.).  Is scary good or bad?  Because it's gonna get freakier and sadder… Thanks again and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!