The weeks past. The whole household's spirits had risen because of the newest member of the house.

Sirius and James spent countless hours with Harry, holding him, and playing with him. Remus

would sit and read as they did but secretly he would be looking over his book to watch the two

grown men acting like children.

Peter had disappeared not long after Harry was born, he said he wanted to do some more traveling

and visit his mother for a while. The other Marauders were too tied up in Harry to notice that one of

their number was missing.

Dumbledore had given the Marauders time off to be with Harry and get use to a child in the house.

He told them with so much death in the world, and birth should be celebrated to its fullest. The

Marauders told Dumbledore they would be back in action in two weeks. They couldn't let the

Death Eaters have too much fun without them.

In the middle of August they were back at work, when the portrait of Jonathon Potter alerted them of

an attack. He told them that Dumbledore had sent him since something was wrong with their

fireplace and he couldn't get through. James ignored this for the moment.

"I'm coming with you," Lily grabbed her cloak. She looked in her husband's eyes, "for nine months

I watched you go off without knowing if you would return. I sat around knowing I couldn't do

anything, well not any more."

James nodded and didn't try and stop her, "I wasn't planning on stopping you, I learned my lesson."

They got past the gates and disapparated. They apparated to a wizarding village, one of the few left.

They split up upon their arrival, Lily went with James, and Sirius took Remus with him. They took

off with their wands out and a determined look on their faces.

As usual the Death Eaters roamed the streets killing and torturing at will. James and Lily stopped

one Death Eater from torturing two children while another Death Eater held their mother who was

forced to watch. Lily held the smallest child close to her while James led the woman trying to find

the safe place. For both of them every child, every innocent victim reminded them of Harry, it was

difficult to keep going when you saw innocent victims being hurt.

They had just left the woman when Lily directed his attention to a group of Death Eaters. It was a

sight that would haunt James until his death. Two fellow Order members were surrounded by Death

Eaters, and James recognized them as Gideon and Fabien Prewett. They both had shields up and

they were blocking and sending off curses left and right. A few of the Death Eaters fell but they were

revived by their friends. James felt a lump in his throat watching, and they were fighting for their

lives, they knew they were out numbered, they knew there was no hope but still they fought like

animals. They were the only two left of the great Prewett family, and the family was one of the old

pure blood wizarding families like the Potters.

James started to run, he needed to help them, they couldn't do this on their own. He was still a

distance away when he heard, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" He stopped and watched as Gideon

stumbled but did not fall. His shield was destroyed but he continued fighting. James watched in awe,

he had just had the Killing Curse sent at him but still he fought. Fabien did not look to see if he was

all right, he couldn't, he couldn't take his eyes off the Death Eaters. They both kept fighting, waiting

for help.

James realized he was standing still and he continued to run, hold on, he thought. I'm coming, he

needed some way to communicate with the brothers, they were getting closer.

"AVADA KEDAVRA !" James heard it again but this time from more than one person. Every

Death Eater in the group had shouted the curse at the brothers, and they both fell.

"NOOOOOOOO!" James put his wand in front of him and yelled the Stunning Curse. The Death

Eaters had heard his cry but were too busy celebrating over the death of the Prewett brothers to

notice him come up behind them. With Lily's help all the Death Eaters were stunned. James kicked

some of them as he fought to get to the brothers. He knelt, "Gideon! Gideon!"

"He's dead," Sirius had not been far when he heard James' cry. Fearing something had happened to

him or Lily, he and Remus had come as fast as they could.

"Gideon! Gideon! Fabien!" James shouted.

"They were heroes James," Remus sighed looking at the Death Eaters that they had been up against.

Gideon had been a Ravenclaw in their year and to the Marauders always a decent guy. Fabien had

been older than them and they never been at school together.

"Lets get these Death Eaters locked up," Sirius said and he and Remus took them away.

Lily nodded to Sirius. She left James for a moment and came back with Alastor Moody. Alastor

swore when he saw Gideon and Fabien.

"They'll get a proper funeral," Alastor promised to the Potters.

"It took 5 Death Eaters to kill them," James muttered. "Five."

"I'll let Albus know," Alastor shook his head.

"Five," James repeated.

Gideon and Fabien's funeral was two days later. James and Lily went there leaving Harry with

Rosy. They had promised to bring Harry to an Order meeting so everyone could see him but this

was not the time.

Dumbledore gave the eulogy. He spoke of their life, their time at school and their death. He spoke of

their final fight, he got the details from other Order members. Everyone bowed their heads when

they heard it took five Death Eaters to bring them down, and they were heroes in the eyes of

everyone present. James kept seeing them die in his head as Dumbledore spoke. Gideon stumbled

but kept fighting. He was always strong. He put an arm around Lily and she moved closer to him.

To anyone else it would seem that James was giving Lily support but Sirius and Remus who stood

next to them knew it was the other way around.



August 31st came. Sirius had decided to lighten everyone's hearts by throwing Harry a one month

birthday party. He thought it was his duty as godfather. First he got Harry out of his crib and put a

Muggle party hat on him. Remus and Sirius had ventured into the Muggle world for a few things for

the celebration. He had a party hat on his head too. He had noise makers too, and he took one out of

the bag and put it to his lips. He blew as hard as he could.

James yelled and Lily screamed and both had their wands in their hands in seconds. Sirius then

started a round of Happy Birthday Harry and then tossed Harry high into the air and caught a

laughing Harry.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! PUT HIM DOWN!" Lily yelled. She still had her wand in her hand so

Sirius quickly put Harry back on the bed. He started to sing again and Remus and Peter came in

running hear Lily's screams.

James who had been sitting up, now fell back on the bed. "Lily I think we are done having kids.

Four children are enough I think."

Harry was now in Lily's arms and he clapped his small hands together.

"PRESENT TIME!" Sirius yelled and ran from the room. He came back in a second later with his

arms full of Stink Pellets, Dungbombs and candy. "All for you Harry."

"Sirius, he's a month old," Lily reminded him.

"Oh right," Sirius hit his head with his hand. "Well I'll just keep these Dungbombs, Stink Pellets,

well practically the whole store and the candy until you are old enough to appreciate it and you have

your own room so you can hide them, so you can have by Christmas."

Remus rolled his eyes and James hit himself with a pillow. Lily was looking daggers at Sirius. "OH!

One more present! One ride with yours truly, on my motorcycle!"

"NO! I forbid that!" Lily said very seriously.

"Lily, he wants to though," Sirius begged. "Look at him, he's clapping and he really wants to say,

Yes, Padfoot please take me for a ride on your wonderful motorcycle!"

"He's a month old!" argued Lily.

"Can I take him out when he's six months old?" asked Sirius.

"Lily, he'll be safe with Sirius, let him go when he's six months old." James said from under the

pillow.

Sirius got Harry from Lily's grip and they marched him downstairs for breakfast. They had a cake

and they sang multiply rounds of Happy Birthday Harry to him. They spent the morning playing

with Harry celebrating his month old birthday.

By noon Harry was worn out and had fallen asleep in Sirius' strong arms. Sirius smiled and walked

around with him rocking him and singing softly. He sang a song that his grandmother use to sing.

He told James, "It was the only good thing about her. She was like my mother, but she could sing."

**

A few weeks later James woke in the morning with the sun coming into the room practically

blinding him. He rolled over to find Lily not there. He sighed and then yawned. He looked at the

clock to find it 7:00am. Muttering about how Lily should just let the house elves take care of Harry

in the mornings he got up, showered and dressed.

Lily was in the dining room feeding Harry, who had woken her up. She thought that Sirius, James

and Remus all must have Silencing Charms around them since none of them woke to hear Harry's

screams. The house elves had come running but Lily took care of him herself. About 8:00am James

came into the dining room still yawning. Rosy came out with his usual cup of tea and James nodded

that he would like breakfast.

"Why don't you let the house elves take care of him in the morning?" James asked.

"I can handle it," she told him, "I think it's awful for mothers not to take care of their children."

James shrugged knowing, and it was a losing battle. Lily forever would hold on to her Muggle ways

of doing things. He instead changed the subject, "I'm surprised Remus isn't up. Next thing you know

Sirius will be up."

"He might have stayed up late reading," Lily now finished feeding Harry sat down to eat herself.

"What are you three doing today?"

"Nothing right now. I could take Harry flying," James shrugged again.

"You will not," Lily stiffed up.

"I was just kidding," James laughed. He stopped at the look on Lily's face. "I wonder where the

Daily Prophet is?" James got up and went in search of the paper. He found it on the doorstep. He

picked it up and opened it.

"YOU-KNOW-WHO RECRUITING DARK CREATURES?"

James gasped and quickly scanned the article. A number of vampires and werewolves had been

spotted attacking villages. James closed the paper, and every once in a while Voldemort recruited

Dark Creatures. Remus had never been touched before, he had been safe at Hogwarts but if

Voldemort found out he was a werewolf.

"Remus." He had to talk with him and Sirius right away. He went to the stairs and was surprised to

see Sirius stumbling down them, rubbing his left eye and yawning.

"Voldemort is recruiting Dark Creatures again!" James told him.

Sirius was awake, "Remus! Where is he?"

"Still sleeping," James told him.

"I'm up before Remus?" Sirius asked. The two looked at each other and then up the stairs. They

raced up the stairs to Remus' room. Remus was always up first. Always. Ever after the full moon.

They got to his room and knocked. No response. James opened the door.

The room looked like a hurricane had come through there. Books were all over the place, the curtain

was torn, and the sheets were off the bed. The curtains around the bed were ripped. There was one

thing for certain though, Remus wasn't there.