[James Potter]

Friday, August 8, 1980

Dear Harry,

Hey, son! This is my first entry into your wizarding book. You're only a week old, but you've done your first prank! I mean, you probably didn't mean to, and you won't remember it, but still, great job. I should probably write it down, so you know exactly what you did.

So Sirius came over yesterday, and Lily had just finished feeding you. Sirius wanted to hold you, and Lily said it was okay, as long as he would burp you. Sirius was slightly terrified at the idea, but he gave it a try. So he picked you up, put you on his shoulder... And you puked on him! It went down his back, and into his wallet! It was hilarious, Lily and I laughed so hard. Sirius got a panic-y look on his face, and tried to hand you over to Moony. Priceless!

Ha. Okay, so after that's all written down, I feel that I need to explain something vital to you about your wizarding book. Now when I told Lily about what she should write, I might have said "a thousand words". Now, that does not mean, EXACTLY A THOUSAND WORDS. But your mother is too literal. If you go back to the first entry in this book (it's not a diary!), and you count from "dear Harry" to the signature at the end, it's exactly a thousand words! Merlin, Harry, your mum's a bit mental! (But also still hormonal, so don't tell her I said that, yeah?)

In this book, some entries will be longer than others. And I am not a perfectionist (like your mother), so however long this will be, it won't be exactly a thousand words. Because that is crazy. The idea, not your mother. Harry, never, ever, call your mother crazy, never.

Now entries will probably be less than one Lily wrote last week, but some may be longer. Not sure yet. Moony'll probably write a novel each time, but I would be surprised if Sirius wrote more than a couple of paragraphs.

Remus and Peter will be gone for a little while. They're on business for Dumbledore, but both said they're glad they were here for your birth. Lily said I freaked out last week, but that's not true. She's the one who was screaming and yelling and panicking. Obviously, she had good reason to be, giving birth and all, but she didn't need to make it look like I was the one going crazy.

Man, writing this is harder than mum and dad made it out to be! No wonder Lily was upset when I explained it to her... Um... You're a week old, Harry. You're the most awesome baby ever, of course. But to be honest, you don't do much yet. You sleep. You wake up every two hours. You're pretty good at that. You yell, you cry, you eat. That's about it. I mean, I suppose it's not difficult to be a baby, but for what it's worth, you're acing it.

Sirius wants to know when you'll start talking. He's convinced that your first word will be "Padfoot". He's started saying it over and over to you, like you're a parrot, and maybe if you hear it enough, you'll start to repeat it. You've started to cry when that happens. You only seem to like Lily's voice, and that's only sometimes. The rest of the time, you just wail your tiny head off.

Sometimes you turn towards me when I talk to you, but mostly I think that's a coincidence. You have Lily's beautiful green eyes, and my awesome hair. Oh, when you're in school, Harry, remember to push it back with your hand. Girls love that. Except Lily didn't... You'll probably end up falling in love with a fiery redhead, Harry. It happened to my father, and to me. It's a Potter weakness.

There was an order meeting that we missed the other day. Peter filled us in. The war continues, but it seems so far from our living room when we're playing with you Harry. You really seem to like sucking on that toy dragon Remus got you. It's covered in drool. Sirius has actually refused to pick it up. Which is totally ridiculous, because when he's Padfoot, he puts all sorts of disgusting stuff in his mouth, and he gets dog drool everywhere. But he's afraid of a little human spit (or, rather, quite a lot of human spit).

Well, I honestly can't think of what else I could write. I think I'm going to go back to my wizarding book, see what mum and dad wrote, and maybe get some ideas for next time... Bye for now, Harry!

-James