"What does he mean he's never met his mother?" Lily asked into the heavy silence as she turned a horrified gaze onto her husband. "James! Why doesn't he know me?"

James reached his arm over her shoulder and around her neck pulling her toward his chest. He had no answers and all he could do was comfort his wife. He turned toward the headmaster his expression begging for answers.

The headmaster cleared his throat before speaking quietly to the distraught couple. "Lily, Harry comes from a world that is very different than our own, but it's not the opposite. Just because our world seems bleak does not mean that his is perfect. There will be differences - vast differences - and I think you need to be very careful as to how you approach and react to his experiences. Imagine, for a moment, that you are in his shoes and that your parents in another timeline were horrified to learn that you had married James." Lilly stared at him, understanding creeping into her expression as well as dismay. "The both of you are going to need to be open with him about what is occurring in this world to understand what is different in his. Judging by his proclamation I would say that he is still trying to overcome a lot of what he's been through, whatever that may be. Having his parents tell him that they would never be happy about what he's done would probably make it harder for him to bare."

"We understand," James nodded and then with a subtle weary glance at his wife he added, "Will you be introducing him to the Order?"

Lily snapped her attention to her husband betrayal written across her features along with a hint of anger. "In a few day's I will discuss it with him," Albus affirmed.

"He's just a boy," Lily snapped.

"Lily," James warned. "What did we just finish discussing? Harry is not our child, no matter how much we want him to be. He is an adult, no matter how much you would like him to be the little baby we lost. We will respect his upbringing. I want to be his father as much as you want to be his mother, but we aren't going to do that by saying whatever our other selves did was wrong. If he was raised by someone else, we will respect how they raised him. If that means shutting our mouth over something like joining the Order, I will do it. Take it slow. Lets build a relationship instead of forcing it on him, alright?"

Lily studied James for a moment, wondering how he had suddenly become the smart one, before nodding. "I don't like it, but I suppose you make a point," she sighed.

"Excellent," Albus cried clapping his hands together. "I will have the house elves prepare a room for him and you are more than welcome to visit him here anytime...

"No," Lily said forcefully. "He is my son and I don't care what Lily gave birth to him he will stay at home."

"On this I have to agree, Albus. I don't know what his situation is, but I will not allow him to think he is unwelcome in his own home," James argued siding with his wife.

The headmaster tipped his head in acknowledgement. "I will not stop him from staying with you. That is between you three. However, if for whatever reason, he is uncomfortable staying with you, assure him that he is most welcome here."

"Thank you," James said as he stood up. He turned to his wife a look of understanding and love on his face as he addressed her. Even after nearly twenty-one years of marriage, he still found himself irrevocably in love with her and to see her with so much hope and pain reflected in her eyes tore him apart. "Why don't you go home and set up the heir's suite for Harry and we can put Teddy in the nursery. Meanwhile I'll go talk to Harry."

Lily nodded and kissed James on the cheek before turning to Dumbledore to ask if she could make use of his floo. James squeezed his wife's hand in comfort and then left the office to make his way down to the hospital wing.

He opened the door quietly so not to disturb Teddy if he was sleeping. Harry was looking out the windows to the courtyard below. His hands were in his pockets, his shoulders slumped, the picture of a relaxed individual thinking through their day. James glanced around the wing, looking for Teddy and found him sleeping on a bed with pillows on either side of him to keep him from falling off. Quietly he entered the room and made his way over to stand beside his son. He looked out the window but saw nothing that could possibly be holding his sons interest.

"What are you looking at?" he asked staring down at the courtyard watching the sun play with plants.

Harry's answer was quiet but forceful, "Ghosts."

"Ghosts?"

Harry turned to him an unreadable look on his face, but the pain in his eyes was unmistakable. "Ghosts, shadows, wisps of memories," he clarified. James didn't find this to be anymore enlightening but his sons tired look kept him from asking more. He sighed and turned to sit down on the bed next to him.

"You weren't even a week old when you died. You weren't even a day," James said softly as he looked over to where Teddy laid. He felt his sons eyes watching him closely, but he didn't dare to look back. He didn't want to see the expression on his child's face when he learned that his father had failed him so early in life. "You were ...I don't know how to express it. The world shifted that afternoon Harry. It no longer revolved around Lily, or our friends, or even the Order. It was you. Suddenly, every decision I was making was all in regards to how it would affect you and damn was I excited to have that responsibility. I couldn't wait to teach you how to throw a quaffle, ride a broom, or any of those many other things a father teaches their son. I couldn't wait to have those little 'don't tell your mother' secrets that only father's and son's share. To help you get in to trouble as often as I got after you for it. I couldn't wait to start that new chapter in my life and neither could Lily. She cursed you and me every moment of her pregnancy, but when she held you for the first time... I've never seen her more beautiful. All she could do was stare at you. And when the healer came and took you from her she glared at the woman the whole time watching her like a hawk. She had to stay at the hospital that night. You were in another room, being monitored to make certain their were no complications. It was standard procedure. I kissed Lily good night and went home. I couldn't sleep. Sirius and Remus followed me home with some fire whiskey to celebrate and they fell asleep on the couch. I was up in the nursery, sitting in the rocking chair and staring at your crib and trying to imagine you in it. Everyone talked about how we would be regretting having a child once you started waking us up at all hours, but I couldn't imagine being anything less than happy that I had a son. It was about two in the morning when I got the floo call from St. Mungo's. The shift change was at twelve and the nurse said that Lily had just fed you. The new nurse wasn't expecting you to be needing her anytime soon, but when two hours went by and you hadn't cried out, she became concerned and went to check on you. It was too late to save you. You were already gone," James finished quietly. He didn't look up to see what his sons reaction was. He didn't want to know if it was bad. He heard Harry shift on the bed opposite him. He hadn't noticed when his son had sat down.

"Did Professor Dumbledore ever tell you why I died?" Harry asked.

"You stopped breathing," James said, now turning to look at his son curiously. "Why would Albus tell us and not the nurses?"

Harry stared at him with a dubious expression. He sighed and turned to the window, "It's an alternate timeline. Things like choices are affected, but death by natural causes is fate. No one can control that. Everyone's body has an expiration date. A point in time that you can not live past, but that isn't to say you can't die sooner from unnatural causes. I believe that expiration date is the same in every timeline. There has to be some common factor, some rule that is constant in all worlds. So much is left up to our own decisions, but I think certain things have to be unavoidable. So it doesn't make since for me to have died of natural causes in one timeline when, as far as I am aware, I was a perfectly healthy child."

"I suppose that makes a certain sort of sense," James acknowledged. "But how else would you have died?"

"Had I lived, I'm certain you would have become aware of a few things," Harry murmured still looking out the window. "On Halloween of 81' I lost both you and mom. We were in hiding and Voldemort found us. He wasn't there for you though. He was there for me."

James stared at him anxiously, "Why?"

Harry looked at him then, his expression apprehensive. "I'm not sure if I should tell you that bit, I don't know how it affects your world, or what that knowledge could do to you. Please, just let me talk to Professor Dumbledore first."

James studied him trying to understand. What did Harry know about his own death that he, his father, did not? What did Albus know, for that matter? Harry's logic did make sense in a way. Why was he alive and healthy in one world and dead in another, when seemingly, his death was by natural causes? He wanted to know. Yet, there was something in Harry's expression, that kept him from simply demanding the answer. Was it fear? James didn't think that was it, Harry didn't seem the type to easily be persuaded by fear. Maybe it was the look of pain in his gaze that spoke of something far more torturous than any physical agony could inspire. Whatever it was, he decided to bow to Harry's request for the moment.

"How did we die then?" James asked.

Harry gulped uneasily as he met his father's gaze before taking a deep breath and beginning the story. "We thought we were safe. You were blowing colorful puffs of smoke that made shapes for me on the couch. Mom came in laughing while trying to scold you for keeping me up so late. You tossed your wand on the couch, picked me up, and through me in the air before handing me over to her. We were heading upstairs when he broke in. You told mom to run that you would hold him off. She was trapped on the stairs so she ran up to the nursery. He didn't waste any time talking. You didn't have your wand. You didn't stand a chance. Mom tried to barricade us into the nursery, but he blew up the door. He gave mom the chance to live. She didn't have to die, but she wouldn't let him get to me. That was when he tried to kill me."

"Tried?" James interrupted.

Harry nodded and ran his fingers over a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. "I'm not sure how it works exactly, but like I said; mom didn't have to die. He would have walked away leaving her alive. She sacrificed herself to save me and it gave me some protection against him. When he tried to kill me, the curse rebounded and hit him. He was left as nothing more than mist and vapor and I was left with this."

James nodded and then bent his head to stare at the floor as he tried to control the moisture that was gathering in his eyes. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect your mother," he stated softly, when he thought he wasn't going to choke. "But if there was a way I'd want to die, that would have been it. I'd have preferred to have a wand in my hand and taken a chunk out of the bastard before I died, but so long as I was attempting to protect you and Lily, then I'm satisfied."

Harry stared at him incredulously and then broke out in laughter. James smiled as he listened. When Harry quieted down he spoke up, "You have Lily's laugh."

"That's nice to know," Harry smiled a hungry look in his eyes. "Most everyone spends their time telling me how much alike you and I are. I don't know that I've ever been compared to mum, except that I have her eyes."

"And her ears," James added as his expression became more scrutinizing. "You have her smile too, and her hands," James observed as her reached forward and took one in his. "You have a lot of her in you, I think."

Harry smiled at his father and both were content to simply sit across from the other taking each other in. It was James that broke there silent truce and stood up stretching. "Dumbledore has offered you rooms here at Hogwarts for you to stay in," James announced. He was surprised at the slight disappointment he saw in Harry's expression. He had been afraid that he would have to tell Lily that Harry had wanted to keep his distance. "However, Lily and I would really like it if you and Teddy would stay with us."

"I don't want to intrude," Harry said hesitantly.

"It's no intrusion," James assured him. "We would be happy to have you. You may not be the son I specifically helped create, but somewhere in this universe, you are my son. Even if that isn't a relationship you want to have, I would love to get to know you. I've spent the last seventeen years wondering what you would have been like, how you would have turned out. I know it's not exactly the same, but just like there must be some similarities between the timelines, there must be a fundamental you that every Harry in every timeline exhibits, right?"

He could see Harry relaxing as he spoke and was pleased when Harry agreed with him. Harry stepped over to Teddy's makeshift bed and picked up some of the potions on the night table. Once he had secured the vials in his pockets he turned to gently pick up his godson.

"Harry about earlier in the office," James began hesitantly and mentally cursed himself when he saw him stiffen. "I don't want to talk about it, I just want to ask you to not be to hard on Lily. Imagine Teddy coming home and telling you he was in a duel with the most dangerous person alive."

Harry was hesitant for a moment before sighing in defeat, "I'd ask what the fuck he was thinking? Then I'd probably kill him myself."

James chuckled and clapped him on the back. "Being a parent sucks, but worth every damn minute of it," he said as he led Harry out of the hospital wing. "There are a thousand and one questions that I want to ask you right now, but I'm sure Lily will want to hear the answers as much as I do. So instead why don't you ask me stuff?"

Harry nodded and shifted a gurgling Teddy to his hip as he contemplated the questions he wanted to ask. "Do I have any siblings?"

James look saddened at this question and he shook his head, "Not for a lack of trying. Your mother and I wanted three children. We were never able to conceive again though. Lily is infertile. You apparently were our little miracle child."

Harry gave his father a weak smile, not certain how to reply to his announcement. He was pleased that his parents seemed to think so much of him, but saddened that they had never been able to experience being parents. In the few weeks that he had gained full custody of Teddy he had been thrilled. Nothing compared to seeing Teddy with a smile on his face.

"I can't wait to tell the guys you're here," James chuckled when his son failed to respond. "Padfoot's face will be priceless. I'll have to invite them over tomorrow night for dinner so they can meet you."

Harry eyed him wearily and shifted Teddy in his arms. "When you say the guys…?" he trailed off as he was sure his father knew what he was asking.

"Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew of course," James smirked. It took several paces before he realized that his son had come to complete stop. He turned to see an expression of fury on his son's face and he looked at him in confusion. "Harry are you alright?"

"I don't want to see the rat," Harry snarled. His father visibly flinched at his anger and at the look of confusion on his face Harry tried to bring his rage under control. The best he could manage was resentment. "For his safety, I don't want to be in the same room as him. He may be different here, but his counter part is someone...let's just say I don't think I could restrain myself from returning a few gifts to the man. I owe him a lot of pain. I'm not sure I can differentiate between your Peter and my Peter, and I would rather not try it."

"What did he do?" James asked cautiously. By the look on his son's face, he wasn't certain that he wanted to know.

"That's one answer I won't give," Harry shook his head. "I won't be responsible for driving a wedge between you two when this Peter has done nothing wrong. I just can't be around him right now. Not in close proximity anyway."

James nodded hesitantly, but the confusion on his face told Harry that he clearly didn't understand.

"Look, I know you trust Pettigrew, but I don't," Harry sighed, his expression guilty as he looked at his father. "I know your going to want to tell them who I am. I don't mind if you tell Sirius and Remus, but please keep the information from Peter until I know that he is in fact different from the rat I'm familiar with."

"I really don't like keeping secrets from them, Harry," James said, but the desperation in his son's eyes won him over. "I'll try and I'll tell Padfoot and Moony to keep it quite as well."

"Thanks," Harry smiled. "Now how are we getting out of here?"

James smiled, "Albus has offered up his floo."

"How kind of him," Harry drawled and James thought he could hear just a faint hint of annoyance at the old man, but thought better of actually saying anything.

James led the way to Professor Dumbledore's office watching as his son played with Teddy. The little boy would squeal and clap his hands at the goofy faces his son was making. It was quite shocking when Teddy decided to play along. One minute Teddy's hair had been a vibrant blue and the next it was black like his, but with Harry's bright green eyes. As Harry made a face, Teddy would try to copy it , sometimes succeeding, but most of the time looking sillier than his guardian.

"He's a metamorphmagus?" James asked as he watched the little boy go cross-eyed.

"Just like mummy, huh cub?" Harry chuckled as he tickled the little boys side. Teddy laughed and clapped his hands. James laughed at the little boy and Teddy turned to look at the new sound. He smiled at the older man and then looked at Harry before gazing back at James. He raised his chubby little hand and pointed at James and then pointed at Harry while speaking in a language only babies understood, before giggling and clapping. He repeated the process once more before leaning away from Harry and reaching for James.

"Yes, Teddy," Harry chuckled. "That's Uncle Prongs. You want to go see Uncle Prongs?"

Teddy continued to reach and James smiled as he took the little boy in his arms after a quick glance at Harry for approval. Teddy reached up and latched onto James glasses and ripped them off before James knew what the little tyke was up to. The world had gone blurry. He heard Harry laughing somewhere off to the side as he tried to wrestler his glasses from a giggling baby. Once he had his glasses back on his face he scowled over at his son who was still brimming with amusement.

"Traitor," he muttered at the younger man.

Harry pouted, but the smile was back after just a moment. "I do believe I just pranked a marauder," he smirked. "Whatever will Padfoot say? I do believe your getting old Prongs."

James scowl darkened and he stomped off down the corridor, "don't listen to him Ted. I'll show you what a real marauder can do and the we'll see who is laughing, huh?"

Teddy gurgled his approval, his hair turning back to it's electric blue as he bounced around in James arms.