DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 8: Perfection Incarnate

January 1, 1980:

Lily closed her eyes, enjoying having the comforting warmth of James surrounding her. She'd missed him terribly this week, while he was away on business for the Ministry. It'd been so lonely, coming home to nobody and sleeping alone. And seeing Frank and Alice so excited about their pregnancy just reminded her that it wasn't happening for her. She had ached for James to come home and cuddle her and remind her that none of her visions had been wrong yet. It wasn't as though a time-stamp had been in her vision; who knew when it would happen?

She laughed happily when James kissed her neck again. "James!" she scolded teasingly as he started to pull off her robes. "I'm not entirely sure that's appropriate, Mr. Potter."

"Oh, really?" James replied with a grin, kissing her shoulder. "Well, I won't tell if you don't, Mrs. Potter," he murmured into her skin. Merlin, she was gorgeous…

James awoke for no particular reason, carefully detangling himself from his slumbering wife.

Merlin, she was gorgeous. Every little bit of her, feminine perfection incarnate. Soft, supple body, with those telltale potioneer's hands – smooth, unblemished, slender. Long, luscious red hair (Merlin, he loved her hair…) that tumbled over her peaceful face. Skin like china – no, lily-white. Like her name. Eyes that glittered like the highest-grade emeralds. She was a goddess… his goddess. She was his precious angel, his dearest Lily. There wasn't an inch of her that he didn't know, that he didn't yearn to take and love every minute of every day.

James leaned over and kissed her softly, the taste of her lips and her skin sweeter than honey. Merlin, he wanted her so badly right now, he needed her; he was addicted. Smiling softly, he nudged her neck gently with his nose, breathing in the intoxicating scent of her skin mixed with soap and whatever potion ingredients she had been using yesterday. He could almost see her rubbing her neck wearily at work, the potion ingredients on her hands transferring themselves to her neck. "Lily," he murmured, nudging her again and gently tracing her contours, making her moan and shift. "Lily."

"What?" she asked sleepily, batting his hands away clumsily.

Kissing her again, he whispered, "I love you."

"That's all you woke me up for?" Lily grumbled drowsily, though she smiled.

"Well, no, not all," James amended. He let out a soft groan of longing as she brushed herself against him. He pinned her down lightly. "I missed you like air," he whispered into her ear.

"James," she whispered, a slight tremor in her voice, "go ahead, but don't hold me down like that."

Immediately, he released her. "I'm sorry, angel," he murmured, kissing her.

"It's all right," Lily replied. "It just… it still scares me."

February 10, 1980:

"Merlin, if I've said no once, I've said it a thousand times," James fumed to Sirius at about six o'clock in the evening as he finished reading a request from the Russian Department of Magical Sports and Recreation for a trade of players. "But do they listen to me? No…"

"Listen to you, you sound like Lily," Sirius laughed, looking up from a report.

"Lily!" James exclaimed, smacking himself in the forehead with a file folder. "Damn it, I was supposed to be home two hours ago!"

Sirius snickered. "Jay, when are you going to learn? You've been married for what, almost three years, and you still can't get home on time?"

"Shut up, I'm going to torment you mercilessly when you get married," James said, quickly grabbing things that needed to go different places (Merlin, she was going to kill him, fifth time in a fortnight…). "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you," Sirius said distractedly, still holding back a snicker or two.

James Apparated in front of the house, certain he was dead the moment he walked in the door. Lily had been temperamental lately and nearly ripped his head off last time he pulled unintentional overtime.

"Lily?" he called cautiously, coming inside. "Lily, I'm sorry I'm late again…"

"Oh, are you?" Lily asked cheerfully from the sitting room.

This had to be some sort of cruel build-up to the shrieking, James thought warily, catching her as she threw herself at him. "What's going on?" he asked. "I'm two hours late."

"Yes, I know, and normally I would be shrieking at you," Lily said, eyes sparkling, "but I just can't seem to work up the anger today."

"Why?" James asked suspiciously.

"How do you feel about being called 'Daddy'?" Lily asked, laughing as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"What?" James asked, a little shocked and then delighted. "You're pregnant?"

"Finally, James!" she said happily, laughing again as James picked her up and whirled her around. "Finally!"

"Angel, that's wonderful!" he exclaimed, kissing her. "When?"

"Well," she said slyly, "one cold January night…"

"I know that," James growled good-naturedly, rubbing his nose against hers. "When are you due?"

"Somewhere in September," Lily answered. "Oh, James, can you imagine?" she breathed.

"So I'm off the hook for being late?" James asked.

"Yes, yes, for this time," Lily replied with a wave of her hand. "Don't make a habit of it, now."

"So?" Sirius asked the next morning as James came into their joint office. "How long did she shriek at you?"

"Didn't shriek at me at all," James replied cheerfully. "Oh, did I forget to reply to that Russian guy yesterday? Blimey, he's one persistent bugger…"

Sirius eyed him suspiciously. "All right, what'd you take?"

"Nothing," James said, grinning at his best friend.

"Why're you so cheerful?" Sirius asked. "It's 7:30 in the morning."

"I know," James said. "It's always 7:30 when we get here."

"Come on, spit it out, Jay, you can't hide anything from me."

"All right, you don't have to wrench it out of me," James laughed. "Lily's pregnant."

"What?" Sirius asked, choking on his coffee. "Pregnant, like, baby?"

"What else?" James laughed.

"Somebody's cheery in here," greeted Roland Dudovic as he popped his head in. "James, the Russian bloke is really getting annoying, can you please get him off my back? And what's got you so cheerful, any way? It's 7:30 in the morning."

"He's got a bad case of pregnancy," Sirius grinned. "Well, not him, obviously, but…"

James nodded. "Yep, my wife's pregnant," he told Roland. "I'll get right on that Russian guy."

"Thanks, James, and congratulations."

"So?" Sirius asked expectantly. "When?"

"September," James answered.

"Oh, good, after the Cup." Sirius grinned and ducked when James chucked a stapler at him.

July 30, 1980:

Lily shifted uncomfortably on her chair and shot a pleading glance at James across the table. She was so exhausted, couldn't they just skip out on the rest of the meeting? James returned her glance with an apologetic one of his own. Nope. Had to stay for the whole thing. He was exhausted too, she'd been tossing and turning all night for the last week, keeping not only her, but him as well, awake. And with the Quidditch World Cup coming up in a fortnight, he was working overtime at the office. Not to mention she'd been having sharp little shooting pains all day.

"So I believe that's it, unless somebody's got something else?" Dumbledore said with finality.

Moody spoke up in his growling voice. "Longbottoms just wanted me to let you know they had a boy this morning."

"Didn't say what his name was, Moody, just 'boy'?" Arabella Figg asked pointedly.

"Neville Ross," Dumbledore said pleasantly. "I happened to have been in the Hogwarts records room at the moment of his birth. Class of 1998. If that's all, have a good night, everybody."

Before anybody else could hold up the evening, James collected his wife and bid his goodbyes.

"Ow… Lily, stop it," James grumbled as she kicked him unintentionally and woke him up yet again.

Lily groaned in frustration. "Oh, go sleep on the couch if you're that desperate," she replied snappishly. "It hurts no matter how I lay."

"Don't tempt me, woman," James muttered. "Where does it hurt?" he finally relented with a sigh, sitting up and scrubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Lower back," Lily said pitifully, a brief whimper escaping as a stronger flash of pain came. When she tried to sit up, a vague sense of a flood escaping made her groan. "James?"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"James, I think I'm in labour," she said, the last part coming in a gasp because the strongest wave of pain yet arrived.

"Lily, angel, you're not due for two months…" James said, though he suddenly became more alert, grabbing his glasses.

"I know, James!" she snapped.

"No!" Lily exclaimed weakly, clinging to James' hand. "Please, can't he stay?" she begged the Healer, who shook her head resolutely.

"Why not?" James asked, squeezing Lily's hand reassuringly.

"I'm sorry, sir, ma'am, it's policy. More often than not, men are far more hindrance than help in here, and particularly in high-risk cases like this. Mr. Potter, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Please, James, don't leave me," Lily whimpered, as James reluctantly released her hand. Bending over, James kissed her softly. "Please, James…"

"I promise, I'll be right outside the door here," James said. "Hang in there, angel. I love you." He brushed one last kiss against her lips and left. A little irritated, the Healer closed the door behind him.

James sank into a chair, shaking. She was so pale, even more paler than normal – like bleached bone china, as if somebody had sucked all the colour out of her. She was trembling, as if in a constant cold. She was bleeding, which, according to the Healer, was never a good sign and particularly not when the mother still has two months to go. But her water was broken. Baby was coming whether they were ready or not.

What if they lost Harry? It would kill Lily – she'd been so excited, so happy. It would kill him, too – he, too, had been waiting three years for this baby.

What if he lost Lily? His little boy would grow up without a mother. There'd never be another woman like Lily, never. She was the only love in his life, the only love he'd ever have.

What if he lost both of them – Lily and Harry? He didn't think he could live through that. He'd be destroyed.

"James?" came Remus' soft voice on his left, a gentle hand on his shoulder. "James, we're here."

"We'll get you through this, Jay," Sirius' voice came on his right, a brief grip on his arm. "No matter what happens," he added, a slight tremor in his voice and in his grip as Remus tightened his grip on James' shoulder. So Sirius and Remus had been thinking the same thing – running through all the possible scenarios, dreading each of them equally. It was unspoken and understood that Remus was going to hold just as much importance as Sirius when it came to Harry – Sirius might be the official godfather, but Remus would still be an unofficial godfather. They both wanted Lily and Harry to pull through just as much as James did.

"How's Lily?" Remus asked softly.

"I don't know," James said helplessly. "They won't let me in, they won't tell me anything…"

"Potter, isn't it?" came the pleasant voice of Frank Longbottom. James looked up briefly. They weren't supposed to know each other too well, so despite being quite familiar with each other through the Order, outside they had keep up the 'I think I know you from somewhere' façade. "Magical Sports and Recreation?"

James nodded slightly, seeing the questions in Frank's eyes. "Longbottom, right? Aurors Department?"

"That's me. Well, okay, that's my wife, too. Just had our first yesterday morning." Frank's eyes said what he was really thinking. "Lily's not supposed to be in here yet. What's wrong?"

Sirius answered for James, who was still too upset to speak beyond the niceties. "Congratulations. Apparently his kid doesn't want to wait another two months."

"Obviously takes after his mother and not his father, who arrived late to his own wedding," Remus said with a small smile. James shoved him halfheartedly.

"I was only five minutes late," he said softly.

"Ah, but hear Lily tell it, you might as well have been five hours late," Sirius countered.

"Well, I hope everything goes all right," Frank said, before he headed back down the hall. He was probably going to go tell Alice – she and Lily were close, being the only two young women in the Order. All of the other women, what few there were, were much older.

It was the longest night of his life. With every hour that dragged by, James grew more and more worried, nearly going hysterical when the sun rose and he still hadn't heard anything.

"Jay, calm down!" Sirius exclaimed, yanking him back into his seat. "You're not doing anybody any good by panicking."

"How much longer is this going to take?" James asked, mussing his hair in anxiety. It was almost hopelessly mussed by now, he'd been frantically going at his hair every few minutes ever since he'd gotten here.

"Do I look like a Healer?" Remus asked, in mild irritation. "I don't know."

"I'm sorry, Remus, I didn't mean to snap at you," James said dully.

Remus sighed and relented. "I know, it's all right. We can't do anything else, James, except wait. I know it's frustrating."

"Frustrating, I wish. It's way beyond frustrating," James muttered, mussing his hair again.

The rest of the day was spent in the same way, James occasionally lashing out at Sirius and Remus and promptly apologizing.

Frank and Alice briefly stopped by before they left in late afternoon. "Don't worry about the meeting tonight," Frank said under his breath. "We'll make your explanations."

Sirius and Remus nodded for James, who was back into his motionless state of terrified vigilance. "Thanks," Sirius said quietly. Then he looked over James at Remus. How long was this going to take – if Frank and Alice were in and out within two days (most of which was spent in recovery), surely the fact they'd been here almost a full day and the baby wasn't even born yet wasn't a good sign? Remus' return look voiced the same concern, with a warning of 'Don't tell James that'.

James himself nearly had to be taken to hospital at about 11:30, when a flurry of activity started from within Lily's room, numerous Healers dashing back and forth from the room.

"James, sit down!" Sirius ordered, yanking his best friend down again. Remus got up and started meandering over to the registration desk to see if there was any calming potions available for overstrained fathers.

"Don't you tell me to sit down!" James snapped at him angrily.

"What do you think you're going to do, huh?" Sirius snapped back. "You can't go in, James, and I doubt you could get in there any way, as many people are in there now! Healers are right, you'd be more hindrance than help! Merlin's beard, James…"

"I can't take this anymore," James said brokenly as Remus returned with Calming Draught. Without speaking, he swallowed it in one gulp, slowly calming. "I'm sorry for snapping, Sirius," he finally mumbled.

"Aw, don't worry about it," Sirius said. "You're stressed."

"How much longer…" James moaned again, putting his head into his hands. Remus cast a glance at the clock: 11:59. They'd been here over twenty-four hours. Then all three men jumped when a baby's cry pierced the air – a feeble cry, but a cry still the same. James sagged in relief, and Sirius and Remus had to pull him back up before he melted onto the floor.

"There you go, see?" Sirius told him in a shaky voice. "Just had to be patient."

Albus Dumbledore sat in the dark, dusty records room at Hogwarts School, watching the registry of students with an intense look. In his mind, he replayed the prophecy that Sybil Trelawney had told him, only just a few weeks before. Certainly, Neville Longbottom fit the prophecy, but if Voldemort – Tom – had to 'mark him as his equal', didn't that imply that there would be another child? And the couple that had escaped him three times before was rare. Albus himself only knew of two: Frank and Alice Longbottom, and James and Lily Potter. But the Potters' baby wasn't due until September. Was there perhaps another family, somebody of whom he was unaware – a Muggle family, perhaps, who had been extremely lucky three times?

As the clock hand ticked steadily towards midnight on the night of July 31, Albus watched, as he watched every night for the last week. Quietly counting names, trying to create the list of families to watch carefully. Tonight, he had even excused himself from the Order meeting, to keep vigil over the records book.

Sighing as he saw that it was one minute to midnight, Albus got up and turned to leave, when he heard the scratch of the quill registering another student. Immediately, he whipped around. Who? Who was it, who had just barely squeaked into July 31?

There it was, in glistening blue ink, directly below Ernest Harold MacMillan, May 3; Draco Arphaxias Malfoy, June 25; Neville Ross Longbottom, July 30…

Harry James Potter, July 31.

To James' dismay, it was still a long time – almost a full hour – before a Healer came out carrying what might've been the tiniest little bundle he had ever seen in his life. Wordlessly, he held out his arms to take his son – he didn't even need to hear the Healer tell him it was a boy. As soon as Harry had been transferred securely to James' arms, the Healer disappeared back inside Lily's room.

He couldn't have been any more than four pounds soaking wet, letting out feeble cries of protest at the light and trying weakly to free his arms from the warm blankets bundled around him. He had a little bit of wet black hair plastered against his head, his eyes tightly shut and hiding his eye colour.

James could tell that he wasn't as healthy as he ought to have been – likely the reason there had been such a long delay in bringing Harry out – but he could also see that Harry was a fighter. That little boy of his was going to fight every step of the way to live.

With a small smile, he passed Harry to Sirius, swiping the wateriness out of his eyes self-consciously. And Sirius had just passed Harry to Remus when James heard Lily's hysterical screaming inside the room. Giving Remus an apologetic 'later, I promise' smile, he took Harry back just as an exasperated Healer stepped outside and said, "You can come in. But only for a minute, mind!"

Lily was reclined on the bed, in tears and pleading hysterically with one of the Healers trying desperately to treat her, "Please, where's my baby?"

"Lily, angel, I have him right here," James whispered into her ear, sitting on a free spot on her bed, and sliding his free arm around her waist. Kissing her lightly, frightened at how cold she was, he repeated, "I have him right here, Lily. Calm down."

Lily turned around frantically. "James, James, is he all right?" she begged, catching the front of his robes. Her grip was clumsy, weak, trembling. She wasn't doing very well, and she wasn't going to lie back and let the Healers work on her until she'd seen Harry.

"He's perfect, Lily, he's perfect," James reassured her, kissing her again. "Calm down. Calm down." Once she'd calmed down, he carefully handed Harry to her, helping her weak arms support him.

"I was so scared, James," she whispered, tears filling her eyes, "I didn't hear him crying, I thought…"

"You passed out, Mrs. Potter," one Healer said quietly. "Passed out and then woke up screaming for him."

"You did good, angel," James murmured into her ear. "You did good. Now, please, let the Healers take care of you. Harry and I will be right outside. All right?"

Finally, Lily nodded and let James take the baby back.

"I love you," he whispered to her, kissing her one last time. Then the Healer who had called him in the first time shooed him out again.