Sitting On The Baby By HPOD sufferer
Date: Thursday, 25th May, 8:09PM
Rating: K+ (Scary and Supernatural themes may scare young children, includes character death), sexual implications (very minor) and bad language- won't corrupt the kids though, probably.
Summary: Sirius bounded into the compartment, making to sink into the seat next to Lily. The seat in which a sleeping baby...well, slept.Eyes popping, James grabbed his friend's wrists, stopping him from sitting. Sirius Black was frozen in a strange, half-sitting, half-standing position. Lily grabbed the baby quickly, and James released his friend."You know," said Lily " Baby sitting doesn't usually consist of actually sitting on the baby."
A baby has appeared. Where from? Why? Who does the baby belong to? Harry travels to Marauder Era. AS A BABY! Something went seriously wrong on that Halloween night.
Chapter 6: Bump In The Night
They look at me with pity, I can see it...
Can't you see I really don't care, can't you quit?
They haven't really gone, they're still by my side,
As long as I love them, they haven't really died.
I know I'm not perfect, neither were they;
But we're together now, forever we'll stay.
Later that evening James pulled on his pyjamas and turned to Harry, who was curled up on the bed. "Hey little guy..." He said softly, barely above a whisper.
He didn't notice his friends pause at the tenderness in his voice.
James sat on the bed, pulling Quiddich Through The Ages from his bedside table. Harry sat peacefully between his outstretched legs.
"James, you alright mate?" Sirius called. He was looking concernedly at his friend like James had been replaced by an alien. James was acting so out of character.
James looked up at Sirius. "Yeah..." He looked at a loss for words. "Yeah, I'm ok..."
Remus walked over. "What's on your mind?" he probed. "Was it something McGonagall or Dumbledore said?"
James picked at the sheets. "H-Harry's an orphan!" he blurted out at last.
Something passed through Remus's eyes. "Oh..." he replied awkwardly. "Wanna talk 'bout it?" Remus sat lightly on the edge of the large bed-Peter and Sirius joined them. They didn't seem to mind the crowdedness.
"When Dumbledore did that...spell, remember? Well, he was looking at Harry's memories or something like that," James took a couple of deep, heaving breaths. "H-Harry remembers h-his parents b-being murdered." He closed his eyes as if to spare himself from the horror of watching his friend's faces. "-by V-Voldemort"
The effect was immediate- Peter shuddered, Sirius looked stunned that James had said the name, and Remus's face washed with pain.
But James wasn't finished. "Harry's dad-" his voice broke, yet James regained it. "-Harry's dad tried to fight Him off-he told his wife to run with Harry. Then V-Voldemort, after he killed Harry's dad, went after his mum..."
Sirius's face was pale, with a slight greenish tinge.
"Harry's mum begged for Him to leave. She begged for Him to spare Harry's life. Voldemort only wanted Harry...he woulda spared her if she stepped aside. He only wanted Harry..." James puzzled over this fact for a minute "Then He killed her."
Something wet dropped onto his hand. James was crying, without realising it. Embarrassed, he wiped his eyes-only to see Remus was crying too.
"Why?" Sirius croaked. "Why does he do this...how can he get a kick out of this type of stuff? How can he hurt so many families?"
If it had been a light-hearted situation, Remus may have dared to roll his eyes. He didn't. "Same reason he got Greyback to bite me when I was nine-it's just what he does," Remus whispered.
The three other boys turned sharply to him. He had never told them who had bitten-or when he was bitten.
"I wanna have him gone," James growled. "I want him dead!" He looked at Harry. "I betcha want him gone too."
A small pair of arms reached around his waist. "Daddy no get angwy," Harry ordered James, peering up with those luminous green eyes. "Hawwy is happy here. Bad man gone now." Harry put a hand to his mouth in thought. "Mummy say daddy ok. Hawwy say daddy ok. Daddy say daddy ok?"
James held the little boy, resting his chin on the soft ebony curls so like his own. "Yeah Harry, your daddy will be ok. Once the bad man's gone, everything will be alright. Nobody's gonna hurt you here...you're safe."
Harry breathed softly for a moment. "Does dat mean Pwongs can come bwack?"
He said this last statement so quietly no one heard him.
James forgot to put Harry in his cot that night. The tow hugged each other as they slept. In the middle of the night, James was jerked from his sleep by Harry kicking gently.
Harry whimpered, his eyes shut tight and snuggled closer to James, shaking.
James shook his puny shoulder. "Wake up," he said in a low voice as to not wake up his dorm mates, "it's only a dream."
Harry continued to shake and jerk. His arms started to beat James on the chest weakly, and his feet thrashed madly.
He kicked James where it really hurts.
"HOOOOOOOOOLLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTT!"
The only upside to his yelling was that Harry awoke-and thus stopped abusing James's nether regions.
Figures emerged from the bed in the dark like grotesque mud monsters from horror films. They groaned sleepily-some fell back when they saw it was only James. Not really important, not much.
"OOOOOOOOOOOWWWW, OOOW, OWWWWWWWWWWWEEEE! SWEET MERLIN!"
"James, can you please save it and practise cussing in DAYLIGHT HOURS." This voice sounded like a very scratchy version of Remus.
"Ye-ooooo-ah, go to sleep..." Yawned the figure to the left, and snoring came a second later from what was known as Peter's bed.
Harry patted James's groin, apparently unperturbed by the commotion. "Dere, dere. It's ok."
James swore long and loud at Harry, who dived under the duvet in fright.
"James, how could you. Not in front of the children!" came the holier-than-thou voice of Sirius.
"Piss off!"
There was a rustle of sheets, a groan of bedsprings, a thump an exclamation of pain and footsteps. Sirius's form loomed over James, who was clutching his family jewels. "I'm crippled!" James whimpered, his eyes large and round with unshed tears. He let out a whimper akin to a puppy.
Harry continued to pat the place he'd harmed unknowingly. He seemed to know exactly what had happened to James however-and how he should remedy it. It wasn't exactly helping…
"Daddy neber gets used to it," Harry shook his head sadly. "Hawwy do it lots, but Daddy stwill cwies. Mummy say Daddy is a bwaby."
The semi-awake Black asked stupidly "Who's your daddy?"
Harry knew Pafof liked to joke, but seriously (no pun intended) they got worse every time!
"Dat's Hawwy's dad!" Hawwy hit James's pride to accentuate his point-James howled with pain. Sirius smirked widely- boy, had this kid's parents got in early to explain things! "Pafof is vewy siwwy. Daddy no winkly no more."
James had somewhat recovered enough to hear this last part. "Hey, I'm not wrinkly!" He clutched his face, running his hand over his cheeks. "I think." He paused, as if to think over a highly important matter-depending on which way you look at it, it was-and then blinked. "and I'm not your daddy's either!"
If Harry could control his eye muscles enough, he would have rolled them. Same thing with his eyebrow muscles-he would have raised one. Sadly, he was only two and did not have enough control to do these things. So he gave Sirius a look that clearly said: Daddy's lost it. Not that you didn't know that ages ago, but could you give me directions to St Mungos?
"I'll leave you two alone to play, shall I?" Sirius suggested, backing slowly towards his bed in the hopes of not being noticed.
Harry slept in his cot for the rest of the night.
Lily looked up from her book to see James Potter, git extraordinaire hobbling over to her across the common room. She frowned when she saw he was holding a book in front of his...you-know-what. Usually he left it in view (ok, so he always wore clothes, but it's not like he didn't know girls liked to check out his bum...excluding Lily of course-on the ass checking front, not him knowing it...she honestly doesn't know where you people get these things from) but it was weird-more people seemed to notice it with it covered. Of course, the best way to be noticed is to not be there...yes, that was surely it. James Potter had discovered reverse phycology.
The end of the world as we know it had come.
He dumped the boy in her arms, looking glad and relieved.
"How is he?" she asked quickly.
"Fine."
"How are you?"
"Fine."
"Any problems?"
"It's all fine."
Flicking a tiny purple sock onto the top of the pile of Harry's possessions, James turned abruptly and headed for the portrait hole.
Lily was very confused. Usually he hanged around to talk, with his fixation with her and all. Yet this morning he had been annoyingly short with her. She hated reverse phycology.
She gazed after him, wondering if he would turn around, cocky grin in place and ask her out. She would reply negative of course, but that wasn't the point. Lily was a creature of habit- and her habits had been thrown out the window along with everyone else's.
Suddenly, with one foot in the hole, James called over his shoulder. Lily listened (purely out of habit, mind you), expecting a marriage proposal. Yawn.
"Oh yeah Evans, you better be nice to Harry. He's an orphan." James said clearly. Many people turned, looking towards the orphan with pitying eyes.
Sirius sidled up to her friend a minute later. "You know, pretending to be one of those deep-sea fish with big jaws that can't close isn't very you."
She looked at him, her mouth still opened. Her hands gestured to the exit in silent question. "I'm scared of him," Sirius explained.
Lily could relate to that. For the first time in her life, she had something in common with Sirius Black. Being a Gryffindor seventh year wasn't included.
"He said WHAT?" Alice choked, spitting out half of her pumpkin juice onto the table, soaking a recently landed owl. The snowy shook his now orange feathers in a peeved off manner and hopped further down the table towards a first year. The kid's eyes popped wide and he shuffled away from it. The bird gave an indignant hoot and took off, landing on the staff table.
Lily nodded glumly, pushing her lunch around her plate. Harry swallowed his mashed pear.
"Juice?" Lily offered Harry. He gulped greedily.
Alice watched the pair critically. "Does it really bother you?"
Lily glared. "I thought you were my friend! You're supposed to agree with me on EVERYTHING!"
"Yes well, what's done is done," Alice said gravely.
"Yes, true, but you don't just go shouting those things in public!" Lily cried hysterically.
"Lily, it happens all the time, it's a part of life...for now at least."
Harry patted Lily consoling on the shoulder. "Hawwy dun cware if mummy's fwat."
Lily burst into tears.
STOP. REWIND.
Lily wasn't crying over Harry's orphan status. She'd hugged the boy and whisked him away to a hearty breakfast. It couldn't be true, not if Potter said it. She would ask Dumbledore whether he'd had any progress finding the parents later. Potter liked to joke- why would now be different?
No, the reason she was behaving as if doomsday had arrived was because someone had passed around a note in class. Well, not exactly a note.
A picture.
Somehow they had super-imposed Lily's head onto the body of some renaissance-type woman's body, rolling naked on a velvet bedspread. Lily was utterly mortified.
The laughter. The leers. The smirks. The boys checking her out. Snape drawling "My, my, what do we have here?" when it entered his grasp during charms.
A shadow fell over Lily. She twisted around, and her blood ran cold.
A/N: Put your hands up if you love suspense! (Oh, me! Pick me!) Yes, it was sad. I know. I feel for you readers... I'm looking forward to some regurgitation in future. Guys, I'm sorry, but I'm a girl so I have no idea whether I over/under played the "Oww, My nuts!" thingy. Tell me...
I'm amusing myslef at the moment by drawing little cartoons of all Harry Potter characters as babies...I love Luna Lovegood and Neville. And of course, Albus Dumbledore hasn't lost the beard, even in infancy. LOL.