Chapter 5: Dawn breaks

James was having a whale of a time.

"Get it? A whale of a time?" he said to his friends, lifting his cupped hands where a tiny fish flip-flopped restlessly. He guffawed at his own bad pun.

He'd found the fish stuck in branches halfway up a stream and decided to lend a helping hand.

"A whale isn't a fish, James," Remus said patiently, but James chose to ignore him. Trust Remus to be the voice of reason – even in dreams.

Instead of answering, James daintily threw the fish back into the pond, where several other fishes already swam. It made a funny, wet noise as it landed.

"Dad," said the fish, poking its head out of the water, but James ignored it too and threw a handful of feed into the pond.

Splash went the feed. "Dad," said the fish.

Splash-splosh. "Dad-dad."

Splash! "Dad! Wake up, Dad!"

James cracked open one eyelid. All visions of friends and fishes regretfully faded, making way for his darkened bedroom. The barest hint of dawn was colouring the edge of the curtains.

James groaned and flipped over onto his stomach, burying his face in his pillow.

"Dad!"

James gave a startled yelp and sat up so fast it made his head spin.

"Sam!" he breathed, spotting the small figure lurking by the side of his bed. "Merlin, you gave me a shock." Though really, he should be used to this after so many years of being a parent…

"Dad…" Sam was doing a guilty little dance by his bedside.

James sighed and sunk back against his pillows. "What could you possibly have done already?" he asked in a long-suffering voice.

"Well…" Sam said, his voice contrite. "I've been having these dreams…"

Haltingly at first, Sam told him about meeting a boy, and the conversations he'd had with him over the past few weeks. Somewhere along the way, James had patted the bed next to him and Sam had launched himself at him, snuggling deep under the covers and against James's chest.

Funny, James thought while listening to Sam with one ear, how his son was the cuddly one in the family. Neither Violet nor Anna liked to be hugged or kissed, whereas Sam would happily spend the day on James or Lily's lap if they let him.

"They're just dreams Sammy," James said, running a hand through the little boy's tangled hair. "Just have a little sleep here. I'm sure you'll feel better in a couple of hours."

His own eyes were shut already, and he felt just about ready to drift off to his fish dreams when Sam stirred against him.

"But Dad – he's really here."

"Mmh-hmm," James mumbled. "I'm sure he is."

"So it's ok that Harry's in my room?"

"Sure," James said – and then paused. "Wait. What was that, Sam?"

"He's in my room."

James sat up. "There's someone in your room?"

"Yeah. Harry." From Sam's tone, it was clear that he felt that James was being quite obtuse about this. James's heart gave a thud. "He's sleeping now, so I thought if I told you before he wakes up you might not be so mad…?" Sam carried on.

Of course, this had to be the night Lily was away on a research trip, James thought wearily.

He'd left Sam upstairs in their bed and now stood, wand in hand, facing his son's bedroom door. With a nudge of his foot, he opened it slightly – and all hopes that Sam had in fact been imagining the whole thing were dashed by the sight of the two big feet, a threadbare sock dangling from the left one, that protruded from his son's small bed.

James's heart was in his mouth. He pushed the door open further and, before he could think better of it, he stepped into the room.

On the bed, lay a young man – barely more than a boy really – fast asleep. His mouth was slightly open, his breathing soft and his glasses askew, revealing dark smudges under his eyes. In his right hand, a wand was gripped in a white-knuckled grasp. The bagginess of his clothes didn't quite hide the fact that he was only skin and bones.

James had to force himself to breathe evenly. Feeling as if he were in a dream, he stepped further into the room, closed the door and cleared his throat.

The sound had been barely loud enough to be heard, yet the boy's eyes flew open and he sat up with a big gasp, breathing as if he'd been under water. There was a moment of confusion. The boy blinked once – and then he was out of the bed, eyes hard, wand aimed straight for James's heart.

Slowly James raised his hands.

The boy took his first look at James's face and grew, if possible, even paler. He swayed on his feet. James saw his fingers relaxing their grasp on the wand a split second before the boy crumpled to the floor.

A/N: And here we are, it looks like Harry and Sam's wish did come true - but will it all work out as they're hoping...? More on that next chapter! Thank you all for reading :)