Severus sighed as he entered his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

"Hard one today?" His husband called from the bed, sitting up against the wooden headboard, the black and gray patterned duvet covering his bottom half.

Severus smiled as he walked towards the bed. "Yeah, he wasn't tired after his story and it took quite a while before he fell asleep." He crawled into the bed and under the covers as James put an arm around his shoulder, resting his head against that arm.

"Oh, so Moony owled. He and Siri are coming over tomorrow." James looked down at his partner, noting the lack of response. "Is that okay?" he asks, hesitant.

Severus hummed, then looked up at James, smiling with an eyebrow raised. "No I don't want the people who have been around Harry over a thousand times to see him again," he deadpanned. "Yes of course I'm fine with it, why ask?"

James raised his other hand, rustling his hair. "I don't know, I mean, you didn't respond. It reminded me of your relationship with them when we first started dating."

Severus looked forward, considering that. It's true that even after Sirius's and Remus's initial apologies, he still hadn't really been comfortable around them.

"Yeah, but they made up for it, didn't they?" He said, smiling up at James.

It was right after Severus and James had moved in together that he had finally forgiven them.

They had been sitting at their then very clean and tidy coffee table that had sadly become more cluttered and stained as a certain toddler came along (and he didn't mean Sirius), waiting for the other marauders to arrive. Severus knew they'd be coming over to see the place, but he still stood, crossing his arms anxiously because it didn't mean he wanted to be cursed with their presence. James was just looking at him with an apologetic expression. They heard a knock at the door and James went to answer it as Severus steeled himself.

James entered, followed by the ever infamous Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. They were chatting amongst themselves, clearly enjoying seeing each other again.

"And this is our living room!" James said with a flourish of his hand.

Remus looked around smiling, clearly impressed. "Wow, you did well for yourself James."

"Yeah, now where's the booze at?"

James smiled, sighing as Remus lightly hit Sirius on the head.

Severus, who couldn't help himself, snickered from the couch. "Sophisticated as always, Black."

Sirius looked over to him, who straightened a little bit on the couch. "Oh yeah, I have something for you, Snape." Severus raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. He reached out hesitantly as the other dug in his bag and pulled out a book that was clearly very old.

As Severus took the book and read the cover, his eyes widened in clear surprise and he gasped, mouth agape. In his very own hands was a copy of The Potioneer's Handbook: Ingredients, Properties, Interactions - Includes Common, Rare and Possibly Fictitious Variants, First edition.

Severus could barely contain his excitement as he shifted around in his seat, resisting the urge to bounce up and down in his seat like a child. Unfortunately he was unable to keep some of that excitement from coming out in his voice. "Where did you get this?!" he exclaimed, in awe and surprise, staring at the book in his hands. "I believe there were only a hundred copies of this version printed, how did you stumble onto this?!"

Sirius looked bewildered, looking back and forth between the others who were equally surprised. "Uh, I got Reggie to steal it from our parents, at the precious Black estate." Sirius shuddered.

Severus's alarm bells rang in his head. "Regulus? You told him to go back there!?"

Sirius immediately shook his hands in front of himself, eyes widened. "No no no no no, I would never shove Reggie back there! There's a house-elf there who's really attached to him so Regulus asked him to fetch it."

Severus looked back down at his (wow it's actually his now!) book. "How did you know this was there?"

Sirius made a face of disgust. "My mum bragged A LOT about all the first editions we had, so when I remembered that, I uh," and here Sirius looked down, hand going through his hair, embarrassed and hesitant. "I thought of you."

Feeling the glare into the side of his head he continued. "I mean! I thought you'd probably like it, with all your potioneering and whatnot, and well, I don't know, I feel like I owe you a lot."

Severus looked over at Sirius thoughtfully. He had already gotten accustomed to he and Remus's first names, and he was surprisingly getting along with them decently. And they had made big efforts to treat him well and get along with him. As well as extra things they thought of, such as this occasion.

Remus then walked forward, making Severus startle a bit, not realizing the other had moved closer to him. He handed over a surprisingly hefty package and Severus opened this one up as well to reveal a book of non wizarding fairy tales and one of wizarding children tales, as well as a small paperweight of a raven.

When Severus looked at Remus, the other sheepishly stated, "I'm not a pureblood like Siri, nor do I have much excess to spend, but I thought that you might like something like this." He seemed downtrodden and embarrassed about this, which Severus didn't understand until he remembered his reaction to Sirius's gift. Specifically about how rare that was.

Severus didn't say anything, just looking down at the things in front of him now. He didn't look at them based on financial value. They were both gifts that were well thought out for him. The potions book was more practical for his career, and he was indeed personally interested in it. But the children's stories were bittersweet, as they reminded him of a time he never got to have, as he knew he didn't know most, if any, of them. But he also loved that he had the chance to get to know them now, and it'll give him an interesting new experience from the perspective of an adult. And he loved ravens! Such intelligent, mysterious birds. He honestly didn't see any of the gifts as better than the other ones.

Was it time? Was he ready for this?

Severus sighed. "Listen. I know why you guys have given me these, and why you've been doing things like this for over a year now." Severus held a hand up when he saw Sirius open his mouth, quieting him. "These are great gifts. And surprisingly, they are very thoughtful. Which means you were able to know that I'd appreciate these." He sighed again. "I'll never forgive you for what you did in the past, really I don't think I'd ever be able to. But I am able to see that those moments were in the past, and I am going to overlook it from now on and see you as you are now." He smiled. "Now you can stop piling presents on me."

Sirius and Remus's expressions had relief growing on them during that speech, but at Severus's final line Sirius had to step in. "Come on! You don't like constant gifts?" He said jokingly as they all sat down on the couch, with James next to Severus (of course), who slung an arm around him, and Remus on Severus's other side. Severus didn't respond to Sirius, just raised his eyebrows with the smile still on his face.

Remus and Severus started talking about the non wizarding world fairy tales at a respectable volume while the other two were about to rouse a farm with their chat. Severus was about to remark on the differences between witches and wizards portrayed in non magical media when Remus changed the topic.

"You look good, Severus. There's a lot more color in your cheeks, and you aren't shrinking into yourself. I guess I didn't realize how much you were affected by what had happened to you during Hogwarts."

Severus, not expecting that sudden comment on his appearance, blushed and was at a loss for words. Severus saw Remus look apologetically at him, probably realizing that his words were strange to the Slytherin, but then Remus's expression changed to alarm as he locked eyes with something past Severus. Severus then felt the arm around his neck rush down to his waist and pull him further backwards against a warm body, making him flush even redder.

"What's happening here?" James said brightly, but his stare at Remus made it clear what was truly under the surface of that statement as Remus looked down and was stumbling over his words.

Once Severus caught on to what was happening, he lightly smacked James on his shoulder. "James!"

Breaking that memory of the past, Severus remarked, "You were so mean to Remus. He was just commenting on my appearance!"

James just shook his head but he was smiling too. "No but listen, all the things he mentioned are things that make you look cuter! I don't want other people to think they can take you from me!" James caught himself. "Or I uh, don't want you to fall in love with someone else."

Severus snorted. "James, would I really have a child with someone who I despised for years if I wasn't completely and foolishly in love with them?"

"Merlin." James moved his arm up to hold Severus's head then turned it, closing his eyes and giving him a long, soft kiss on his forehead. Then he moved Severus so they were holding each other's gazes. "Thank you so much for doing that my love," he softly uttered.

Severus smiled, but furrowed his brows in confusion. "Why thank me? I wanted Harry too."

James moved his hand down the middle of Severus's back, letting it rest at his hip once more. "Yeah, but remember all of it? Your labor?"

Severus thought back on it, but he honestly didn't remember it as being too awful.

Severus had been kneeling in front of the toilet, having just thrown up. He closed the lid and flushed, but propped the lid back up. He was still feeling sick and didn't want to chance it.

He wanted to hit his head on the wall. He had thrown up yesterday morning too, but assumed it was food poisoning or a mild stomach bug since he had felt much better later in the day. His body had forced himself up in the early morning and he had to quickly detangle himself from his partner and rush to the bathroom.

Hearing the door creak open next to him, he turned his head towards his concerned husband. James bent and rubbed Severus's back. "Are you okay? Are you feeling better?"

Severus shrugged, frustrated. "I thought this was done yesterday!"

James was silent for a moment. "Do you think," he uttered softly, "that it might be Harry?"

Severus widened his eyes, and mentally slapped himself. He had recently started taking fertility potions, as even though wizards could get pregnant naturally, there was such a small chance of it happening without the aid of a potion that he wanted to increase his odds. How did he not think he could be pregnant?

James reached down under the sink and pulled out a sealed potion in a flask. They had bought a few pregnancy test potions when they had started trying. They had used one previously but it ended up being negative, disappointing both.

Despite the pain he knew it would cause, cause pregnancy is a b*tch, Severus hoped the test would be positive.

James stepped back and let Severus rinse out his mouth, then opened the flask and held it out towards his partner. Severus collected some saliva in his mouth and spit it into the tube. James closed the flash and shook it.

James sighed. "Let's hope it doesn't stay clear this time." And he placed the flask on the desk.

They waited in silence. It was clear to Severus that James wanted to touch him, but he was using enormous restraint because he knew that Severus didn't like much contact when he was feeling sick.

But they both locked eyes with the potion and waited with bated breath as the potion swirled and turned purple.

James released a sigh of relief and smiled. "It's him."

Severus smiled too, before rushing back to the toilet and throwing up again. James winced and walked towards his husband, holding his hair up.

The rest of the pregnancy wasn't great or anything, but it wasn't terrible. Severus despised the motion sickness, which he got hit with full force, but he luckily didn't have many other issues. He did get a strange craving for gherkins with marshmallows, but he delighted in it since he knew how much it disgusted James.

"By Merlin, I loved eating my marshmallow gherkins in front of you," Severus said, laughing.

"I would walk away from you to escape that monstrosity and you'd come right back in front of me!"

"What? You usually love having me in front of you."

"Not when you're holding marshmallow gherkins!"

They both chuckled, then settled down, with the smile still on their faces from the sweet and funny memory. They snuggled into each other even more than before, so their sides were touching.

Severus looked down, hesitating, then looked up at his husband. "Was it really that scary when I was in labor?"

James breathed out slowly and dramatically, eyes wide as he looked into space. "Yes, it really was."

When Severus was in labor James was not in the room. Instead he was waiting in the hallway outside. This was not by choice, as when Severus began his active labor he screamed at James that this was all his fault and he didn't want to see him. So James wisely listened to his pregnant spouse and was waiting outside until the other was comfortable with him being there.

James felt he was calmly sitting on the bench outside, as well as he could be at least. The room was silenced so James couldn't hear anything inside, but he knew that if it wasn't then he'd have given in and rushed into the room. Because hearing Severus's pained yells when the labor first started. That was just. No.

James looked up as he heard footsteps, and he saw Sirius, Remus, and Lily approaching.

"Is he okay? How is he doing?" Lily asked, clear concern on her face.

James sadly smiled. "I don't know, and I won't until the medwitches tell me that my son is born." He gestured to the bench next to him, and the others moved to sit down.

"He should be fine," Lily reassured. "Male labor tends to take only 30 minutes to an hour if there are no complications since it's heavily magic aided." James breathed a sigh of relief. They had been going to Lily for help, since once they told her they were trying, she went crazy reading up on and researching everything about male pregnancy.

3 hours later however, and James was pacing back and forth, biting his hand as he waited.

"What is happening?!" he exclaimed out of concern. He turned on Lily, twisting to face her. "You said it'd only take 30 min!"

"I said that's only if there are no complications!" Lily defended, before her eyes widened at what she said. The ramifications clearly hit James too, as he blanched, and his friends knew better than to stop him when he ran to the door of the room his husband was in and started banging on the door and yelling. Because he was panicked, obsessed with his partner, impulsive, and barely an adult, he didn't think about how this wasn't the best thing to do in a hospital.

"What's going on?! What's happening?! Is he okay?! Tell me! Sev!? Love!? What's wrong?! Sev! Se-"

James was cut off when an irritated medwitch opened the door swiftly and closed it behind her, forcing James to take a step back. Once he got his bearings he started pointing his alarmed questions at her. Though he didn't get to say much.

"Is he-!," he started before the medwitch raised her hand to quiet him. "Your husband will be fine. He fell unconscious near the beginning of the process and we cannot do the spells when that occurs. Once he became conscious we discovered that he was very dehydrated and since it is dangerous to perform the procedure when at that level of dehydration we chose to get the sir fluids before proceeding."

James was breathing heavily, staring at the medwitch. The information hadn't fully settled in, but he understood enough to ask, "When will he be fine?"

In the biggest of coincidences, another medwitch opened the door, to which James heard something that made his heart warm up and a soft, beautiful smile grace his face.

He heard crying. But specifically? A baby crying.

The second medwitch held the door open. "The father may now enter."

James entered and shielded his eyes from the more "medical" part of the room. He wasn't squeamish about that kind of thing normally. Rather, it'd be accurate to say that he's only squeamish about it when it's related to his loved ones. Especially the extremely tired one, sitting up against a pillow, holding a little bundle against his chest.

James's heart soared as he approached and took a look at the little squish of being on his husband's chest. Severus was breathing heavily, but smiled as he picked Harry up and carefully transferred him to James's arms. James couldn't speak, only look at the child in his arms, and then he turned to look at Severus.

"He's here, love. He's really here."

The medwitches came and took Harry, as they needed to check his health and fill out his birth certificate, but that left James and Severus alone to talk.

James turned towards his spouse and took the other's hand in his own. "How was it, love?"

Severus sighed deeply. "A lot. I'm sorry I shoved you out of the room."

James smiled softly. "I understand. You were in a lot of pain and needed someone to take it out on. Plus I am kind of the person who put you in this situation."

Severus looked at James apologetically. "It wasn't just that actually. I had a feeling that you would be freaking out when I was in labor and I knew if that were the case that I'd be even more stressed."

James just stared at him, not saying anything.

A smile slowly grew on Severus's face. "And I was right."

"You heard that?"

"Of course I did, it just happened." Severus sniggered. "I was in tons of pain but still rolled my eyes when I heard it."

"Wow," James said, not truly offended. "Here I was concerned for you and yet you're just a brat."

Severus laughed, but then winced. "Ow."

James was immediately in concerned partner mode. "Are you okay?"

"As well as I can be, Potter," Severus deadpanned, looking at his husband with a pointed stare.

"Potter?!" And Severus just laughed.

After hearing James explain that, Severus hummed. "I don't remember it being bad really. Maybe it's a rosy retrospective because we got Harry from it?"

James raised an eyebrow, confused. "What's a rosy retrospective?"

"It's looking into past memories, remembering a brighter image of what it actually was."

Thinking back to when this all began, when he first met Harry, and when he first found out James was going to be the father, Severus sighed.

Taking a deep breath in, Severus revealed something he never thought he ever would to his husband. "You know, when I first found out you were Harry's father, I thought you might have, well, forced it on me."

James was confused, not understanding what that meant, until the realization hit him like a truck. "You really thought that could happen? That I would do that?"

Severus looked at James apologetically, understanding his position but also not backing down. "What was I supposed to think realistically? Not to mention you asking out Lily again and again, it made me think you didn't have the best understanding of consent. And with our dynamic at the time…" Severus trailed off, but the implication lingered in the air.

James sighed too. "Well, thankfully that's not what happened."

Severus smiled. "Yes, but honestly, who knew this," and he gestured to the two of them, "would happen?"

James chuckled. "Certainly not me."

James's tongue traced his teeth as he smirked. "But maybe I would've, had I known what you were hiding under your clothes." And James then turned towards Severus, pushing him down onto the bed so he was flat on his back with James hovering over him.

Severus smiled playfully, and wrapped his arms around James's neck. Then he said something that made his husband's smirk fall and his eyes widen in shock.

"What do you think about another one?"

James stared. "Another… kid?" Severus nodded.

James very maturely responded by shoving his lips against his partner's, kissing him passionately as he slid one hand into Severus's dark strands and the other to his hips. That hand soon started crawling up under Severus's pajama top, and oh James was looking forward to this.

"Papa?"

James immediately rushed off Severus to be sitting up next to him, as Severus also sat up. Standing in the doorway was Harry, who was rubbing his eyes with his other hand still on the door knob.

Severus reacted first, smiling. "Yes, Harry?"

Harry started sniffling as he teared up. "I had a nightmawe," he uttered, his words becoming distorted as he remembered it.

James tutted. "Aww, it's all okay Harry." And he made a move to get out of the bed to get Harry to sleep in his bed again, but halted in confusion followed by quick comprehension as the child ran towards the bed and climbed onto it, crawling to the middle between his parents and snuggling under the duvet.

Severus and James just looked at each other, before smiling at the situation. Severus took his hand and started running his fingers through Harry's head as they both moved under the covers to sleep on either side of Harry. James put his arm out so it was circling both Harry and Severus, resting on the latter's hip.

Severus looked down and stifled a giggle, as it seemed that Harry was already asleep. And judging by the slow breaths and closed eyes of his partner, it seemed like James wasn't too far behind. Severus laid his head down and closed his eyes too.

He didn't think for the life of him he'd be here, with his son next to him, married to his childhood bully. But he wouldn't change it for the world.