A/N: Thanks for the reviews.

Chapter Four

James sighed as he watched his son drink from the bottle of warm formula, wondering how he could be suckling down the liquid so quickly and not have the urge to burp. When, at last, the bottle was empty, James looked up at Remus expectantly.

"What happens now?" He asked.

"What makes you think I know, Prongs?"

"Well, you knew what to do with the bottle, so why wouldn't you know what happens next? You're the brains after all," James replied. Remus rolled his eyes in annoyance and began to ponder the subject.

James stared down at his son, unable to peal his eyes away from the small infant for more than thirty seconds. The more James gazed at Harry, the more of Lily he saw in him, as well as himself. Harry's eyes were the same shade of emerald, sparkling and beautiful, as his mother's were. James felt a pang of pain in his heart and shook all negative thoughts out of his mind.

Remus sighed heavily, "I could only think of one way,"

James raised a brow, "And what's that?"

"Ask your mother for help," the werewolf suggested wearily.

The former shook his head furiously. "No; no way!"

"Why not?"

"For one, she would completely flip out. Have you ever seen my mum freak out? It's not a pretty sight, trust me! And two, she would call me an idiot and say that it was typical for me to get a woman knocked as and only prove her point that I was, and I quote, promiscuous in my Hogwarts days."

"But," Remus said, furrowing his brow in confusion. "You haven't been at Hogwarts for over 3 years, so unless Harry's got some birth defect, wouldn't your mum know that Lily was the mother?"

"I highly doubt that she would use that much time to figure it out, when she's always trying to convince me that I need to 'settle down'." James exhaled loudly, running a hand through his already ruffled raven locks.

Remus thought he heard his mate muttered darkly under his breath about having tried to go about the 'settling down' business, but it hadn't worked. He felt sympathy for his friend, knowing that Lily's absence and Harry's sudden appearance had sent him into an utter mess of confusion and a mixture of emotions.

"All mothers are like that,"

"Yours and Sirius's aren't." James pointed out, his eyes once again averted to his son, who had a twist look of discomfort on his face.

"Well, my mum knows I have a particular reason for not settling down, and Sirius's mum, well she just--," Remus stopped abruptly as he saw James's eyebrow knitted together in perplexity. "What is it, Prongs?" he asked, walking over to the young father and standing over his shoulder.

"Is it me, or does it look like my son's about to explode?" James questioned.

Remus nodded, "Aye, he does."

To the werewolf's surprise, James began to panic. "Why does he look like that, Moony? Why? What's wrong with him!" He pressed in bewilderment.

"I-I-I-I dunno!" Remus said, throwing his hands up.

"Oh my god, my son is going to spontaneously combust and there's nothing I can do about it. I'm such a bad father." James sulked loudly.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Your son is not going to spontaneously combust, James. Babies don't randomly blow up."

"How would you know that?"

"I was an infant once James, as were you and neither of us sporadically burst into flames," Remus pointed out, noticing how incredibly stupid he sounded.

One of the doors down the hallway opened and Sirius, along with a familiar looking woman with disheveled hair came out into the living room. "What's going on?" Sirius asked, "I was about to fall asleep when I heard Prongsie talking about Harry spontaneously combusting."

"What, and you're here to watch it, I presume?" James asked, slightly startled when his best mate nodded.

"For that last time, James, your son is not going to blow up!" Remus said.

"You have a son, James?" the tousled haired woman asked, her tone of voice showing signs of astonishment. James recognized the voice and whipped around, staring at her.

"Meadows?" He inquired, raising a brow.

The young woman nodded, stifling a yawn. "Potter,"

"Why?"

"Why what?" she asked, slightly confused.

"Why are you in my apartment, wearing nothing but a button up shirt that is presumably Sirius, though it looks oddly like the one I lent him last week? You're not going out with the berk, are you?"

"Hey!" Sirius interjected, "I resent that!"

"Though it couldn't be farther from the truth," Remus commented.

"Shut up," Sirius muttered, jabbing the former in the rib with an elbow, "nobody asked you."

"Yes, Potter, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I am going out with Sirius, though he's not too bad," Dorcas replied, winking in Sirius's direction, who smirked knowingly back.

"Ew," Prongs and Moony said in unison.

"So this is your son, James?" Dorcas asked, moving to get a better look at the little infant.

James nodded. He shuffled around so it would be easier for his fellow Auror and friend to look at his son.

"Awwww, isn't he adorable?" cooed Dorcas, sending a glance over her shoulder at Sirius, who held up his hands and said, "Don't even think about it." Dorcas laughed and peered up at James.

"Could I hold him?"

"Sure, I guess, but for some reason, he doesn't look too comfortable," James said, carefully, and gently, along with a bit of hesitation, handed Harry over to the young woman.

She positioned Harry in her arms with what appeared to be expertise precision. At the young mens' curious looks, she said, "What? My mum popped out a baby practically every year since I was eight; I know what I'm doing," and she turned her gaze down to Harry.

"Do you know what's wrong with him?" James asked, "I mean, why does he look like he's going to explode?"

Dorcas chuckled, apparently finding it amusing that James had no idea what was happening. "He's not going to explode, you moron; he needs to be burped."

James flushed a deep shade of crimson and felt completely idiotic. "Oh," he muttered sheepishly. "I knew he couldn't drink that much and not need to belch!" The stag exclaimed suddenly.

Remus and Sirius laughed loudly whilst Dorcas giggled. "Here," she started, "would you like me to show you?"

James nodded profusely and Dorcas beckoned him over to the couch, seating herself. She cautiously handed Harry over to his father and instructed the latter how to burp the baby and told him the it was necessary for him to do it after every time he fed him. James seemed to be taking it all in, making a series of mental notes, and Dorcas couldn't help but smile.

"So, Lils' the mummy, right?"

James bobbed his head, "Yeah, she is," he muttered under his breath. He ruffled his hair and smiled tightly back.

"What's his name?"

"Harry--Harry James Potter," He answered, stifling a yawn.

"Awww, I can already see so much of the both of you in him; where is Reds anyway?"

James paled, "Oh, ummm, you see….er, she's not….erm," He glanced pleadingly up at his best mates, who clearly got the message while the animagus ran a hand through his hair again.

"You see, Dorcas," Remus said, taking a seat in one of the armchairs; Sirius followed suit, sitting directly across from him. "James found Harry on the front doorstep this morning. He had no idea Harry existed until this morning," He glanced down at his watch, "Actually, he just found out about three hours ago."

Dorcas's smiled vanished immediately and her eyes flickered to James, studying him intensely. She placed a hand on her friend's arm and sighed, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that something happened to Lily."

"Oh," James said, "Nothing happened to her. No, she just dropped him on the doorstep; here's the letter she left," he added, handing it to her. Dorcas read over it quickly while James patted his son on the back, waiting for him to burp, though nothing happened yet.

Every so often, Dorcas glanced at James then at Sirius, who peered at Remus in return, whose eyes would drop to James, who was completely enraptured by his son; all four smiled. Dorcas wordlessly handed the letter back to James and stood, stretching her limbs over her head.

"I think I ought to be going," she muttered, making her way back down the hall. Sirius leapt up from his seat, the uncomfortable silence piercing through him like a knife.

"I'll see that you get home safely; Remus, you coming?" Sirius asked. The werewolf glanced uneasily at James.

"You can go ahead and leave, Moony." James said, hardly paying his friend an ounce of attention.

"You sure?"

"Positive," James replied and Harry promptly threw up on him. He stared at his son for a prolonged moment before letting out a loud laugh, which was joined by a chorus of others.

"Well, Prongs, we know one thing he got from you,"

"What's that?"

"No one can be as charming as that whilst regurgitating."