It's been a while. I'd like to thank Nats for being my beta and giving this fic so much support!

Enjoy!

Chapter 7- Jest:

"Give him back!"

"I've only had him for five minutes, give me more time, you're always the one who gets to keep him for longer."

"Stop being so selfish, James!"

"Aren't you meant to be in recovery, honeybunch? Why don't you take a little nap?"

"You know, technically, I have a right to claim, since-"

"Don't say he's more yours just because he came out of you." James paused, the mischievous look on his face told Lily at once that he was about so say or do something silly. "Though technically, he did come out of ME first, so..."

"That so does not count!"

"Why does it not count?"

"I carried him for nine months!"

"I carried him for twenty years!"

"I got fat!"

"Well, so did I. When I was about eight, my mum had to take me to a healer, and that's when she found out that Sirius and I had been sneaking off to Diagon Alley to buy sweets while she was at work, and then I was grounded for a month and Sirius's mum put a curse on him that gave him an itch in the-"

"Alright, alright, alright! I don't want to know! Just give him back when you're done gaping like and idiot."

James looked very triumphant. Lily couldn't help but feel slightly amused; he always managed to talk his way into getting what he wanted. She sometimes found that she would do anything to just get him to stop talking nonsense.

Harry shifted and then began making noises that, his parents knew by now, could only mean he was about to start crying. James stood up and began walking around rocking baby in his arms. At that moment the same healer to whom James had so frantically asked questions to the day before came into the room carrying a tray with potions for Lily.

"You two have visitors, can I let them in?" She asked Lily, who nodded.

Harry started screaming at the top of his lungs. The healer turned to James.

"The baby needs his mother now."

Lily smiled at James and motioned him toward her, but he hesitated, giving the healer a resentful look and turning to Lily.

"I'm his father, I can solve anything for him."

"He's hungry." Said the healer

Lily's smile widened "Are you going to breast-feed now, James?"

James laughed, blushing slightly. "Now that, honey, is all you." And deliberately ignoring the healer he crossed the room and handed Harry back to Lily.

The healer gave James a very repressive look and left, returning moments later with Remus, Sirius and Peter. Sirius greeted James cheerfully and then approached Lily, but doubled back his face scarlet.

"Heh, ok then! Uh -Lily is busy... and so apparently, is Harry. I'll just sit here and wait until they're finished, ok?"

And he sat down, looking purposefully at the ceiling with such a disconcerted expression on his face that Lily was overcome with a fit of hysterical laughter, which caused Harry to stop feeding for a moment and glance up at his mother in what she could have sworn was an alarmed expression on his little face.

Peter and Remus, deciding not to make the same mistake as Sirius, acknowledged Lily from afar and sat next to their friend, both with expressions of amusement identical to the one worn by James. They chatted for a while, and after about fifteen minutes James turned to Lily.

"Time to change sides!" and then he smirked at Sirius "Hey, Padfoot, could you help her with that? I'm a little fatigued..."He stretched his legs lazily.

Sirius made a gesture that would have earned a very disapproving look from Lily if she had been looking, but he otherwise ignored James' taunt and continued the subject they had been discussing.

"So, I guess there's not much hope for the Cannons, they are dropping more and more every year! Didn't even last an hour against the Wasps yesterday, shame really!"

"Would have been different if James here had joined the team." Peter smirked. James rolled his eyes. Peter could always be counted upon to blurt out the wrong thing at the wrong time. He, James, generally avoided talk about his Quidditch career. He had of course, been invited to play by a few teams, but one could not get married, be an active member of the Order of the Phoenix, get a job and be an international Quidditch player all at once. So he had had to give up Quidditch. It was either that or to give up on marrying Lily, the choice had been surprisingly easy to make. Still, he did not love the subject very much and Lily liked it even less, it made her feel slightly guilty and generally led to very uncomfortable discussions, almost all of which ended up with them going to bed in bad terms.

Lily, however, had either not paid much attention to the conversation or chosen to ignore it. She was still busying herself with Harry, looking rather transfixed.

As James turned around to get himself another mug of Butterbeer, Sirius slapped Peter on the back of the head. Then he lifted his own mug of butterbeer.

"To Harry, likely to be the most stubborn child ever born!"

"Hear, Hear!" said Remus cheerfully

"And powerful too." Said Peter "Fifty bucks says he'll be fighting Voldemort before any other child born this year!"

Oh Great! From bad to worse. Now all James needed was for Sirius to let slip something about the prophecy and the light atmosphere present since Harry's birth would be smothered. He looked over at Lily and felt his stomach sink several inches, this time she had been listening. Her eyes had completely lost their brightness.

He exchanged a nervous glance with Sirius and then gave his friends meaningful looks. Both Sirius and Remus caught on. They stood up simultaneously.

"Best be off," said Sirius.

"You guys must be exhausted!" Said Remus. "Have some rest, we'll be back tomorrow, c'mon Wormtail." Peter was wearing and expression that looked oddly like comprehension to James, but it was gone before he could really make out what it meant. Peter waved goodbye to Lily and James and left the room with Remus and Sirius.

James moved toward Lily, getting ready to comfort her. Firstly he took the now sleeping Harry from her arms. He walked cautiously to the small crib on the foot of Lily's bed and placed the baby gently inside it. He turned back and sat on the bed next to Lily, pulling her toward him. Minutes passed in silence, and then she spoke.

"Do you think Dumbledore is certain, that..." She took a deep breath. "That he is after our baby?" Her voice shook slightly as she said this, she looked up at him and he knew at once that she wanted re-assurance. He wanted to give it to her... but he was not going to lie.

"Dumbledore doesn't waste words. If he told us that, then there must be a very good reason."

Lily lay her head on his shoulder.

"James..." She whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Jest"

James stared. "S-Sorry?"

"Jest." She repeated. "Make a joke, any joke. Just say something funny!"

"What?" He asked, utterly perplexed. "Why?"

"Because I want to laugh!"

"Ok, so do I. But that doesn't explain why you're suddenly wanting me to be bad-time wag. You're always saying I should take things less lightly, so why do you want me to laugh now?"

"Because- I don't want to cry anymore." She wrapped her arms around him. "I don't want to cry today!"

"Hey." He said gently, running his fingers through her hair. "Don't think about it, okay?"

She nodded but didn't look very apt to complying with what he'd said, so he added. "Dumbledore is just being precautious, we were always capable of looking after ourselves. Don't worry just now. We don't even know enough to worry about it properly, anyway!" He finished bitterly.

She looked up at him. "Ok, now don't you start with that again!"

"I didn't start anything. You're the one who's worrying about it!"

"I wouldn't be if I hadn't been reminded of it!"

"Yeah, I know. Peter always does that kind of thing." James suddenly sounded irritated. Lily raised her eyebrows.

"He really annoys you, doesn't he?"

"Well." James sighed. "It's just... He's my friend, of course, but would it kill him to just think before he spoke? He always does that, it ticks me off!"

"It's not his fault though, he doesn't know."

James nodded. "Well, when it comes to that, we don't nei-"

"Drop it!"

He raised his hands in resignation "Look, I was just saying..."

"...Well don't say, the last thing we need is more meddling in stuff we don't need to mess with."

He felt a surge of irritation, but decided to drop it for the sake of the situation. "Fine then." He moved his arms around her waste. "I'll drop my stubbornness about my problems of knowledge and you..." He moved his face very close to hers. " You are officially forbidden from having any forms of fretting. Deal?"

Lily smiled and bit her lip. "Deal!"

They lay there in silence, and James contemplated on his promise, it was irking him more then he could have expected. They knew nothing, nothing to make them worry much at the moment, but privately, James decided that it was high time for him to find out.