QL Prophet's Friendly Face. Pride, beater 2.

Written for: CupCakeyyy

Prompt: Baby!Harry

Word Count: 2259

Warnings: Death, grief, mentions of torture.

Beta'ed by: CypressWand, CupCakeyyy.

James felt his breath exit his mouth as he took Harry into his arms for the first time. This little ball of smoosh was not only a symbol of his and Lily's love but a gift of life. Everything about the newborn was perfect in James' eyes and the knowledge that he was a healthy baby boy only proved his thoughts.

A tired hand pulled him towards the bed where he sat next to his wife and ensured that she was able to see Harry. "He's perfect."

Lily smiled and gently caressed Harry's cheek. "For once, James, you're right."

James let out a gentle laugh and turned his attention to Lily. She looked exhausted. "Get some sleep, Lils. I'll be right here."

Hesitantly, Lily let her eyelids close. Though, James pretended to not see them opening and closing for the next five minutes before she let sleep take her.

Once he was sure his wife was catching up on the rest she needed, he once again gave his baby boy all of his attention. James could watch him sleep for hours. Unfortunately, little Harry had different things in mind and only waited 34 minutes - not that James counted - before waking.

His eyes barely opened but James just knew that he had his mother's eyes. That alone made James' smile grow even more.

A few months later, and James' admiration for his son had not faltered once, even when the baby boy decided to scream the house down in the middle of the night. Whenever possible, James and Lily took turns in giving Harry attention but times were dark. James was out on missions at least once a week which left the burden to fall solely onto Lily. Occasionally a friend would drop by, usually one of the Marauders.

However, little Harry was a target for the evil that was trying to take over the Wizarding World; Voldemort. Or as Sirius has taken to calling him; Moldymort.

On a fearful Tuesday evening, when James was out on a mission, somebody tried to break into Potter Manor. A place James had spent his whole life and had thought was safe had ended up putting both his wife and son in danger.

It was decided on Wednesday morning that they would relocate and go into hiding as first advised. However, this meant that nobody should know where they were barring a few. That turned out to be difficult than anticipated, there were so many people that they trusted.

A secret is only a secret if you keep it to yourself.

Thoughts plagued James' mind. He trusted his friends completely but started to doubt Lily's friends. After many lonely days and nights without guests, they came to a compromise: Dumbledore and one other Order member would know the general location of their new dwelling, and two others would know their exact location and be allowed to visit. One chosen by James, and the other by Lily.

It was fair.

James had chosen on impulse - Sirius. They were practically brothers and had lived together for years. Lily took a different approach, she chose Alice Longbottom - the mother of a boy the same age as Harry who had been suspected to be the chosen one. Her reasoning for this was to allow Harry to have a friend to grow up with if they were in hiding for a prolonged amount of time.

LINE

They got word out to Dumbledore first, who agreed that it was a great idea how they decided to do it. James had gone out to meet with him and Alastor Moody - who Dumbledore had suggested to be the second person, seeing as he was a very good Auror.

"Dumbledore, Moody," James greeted with a nod. James' hair was more unruly than it had been in a while, having skipped out on a shower for a few days and the fact that Harry was in his grabbing phrase.

"James, how are you and Lily coping?" Dumbledore inquired, offering a hard-boiled sweet.

Slipping the sweet into his mouth, James nodded. "She hasn't killed me yet!"

"What am I doing here?" Moody interrupted.

No-nonsense. James appreciated that in a weird way. "Due to Voldemort targeting my son and family, we have gone into hiding to ensure our safety and hopefully bring the war to a halt. We are not going to reveal our location to many people; we wish for you to know our general area should anything occur in that location."

The one-eyed man nodded, and James could tell - or imagine - that he was honoured with the responsibility.

The three of them spoke for an hour about all of the integral details, as well as, three different alerts that would go directly to Moody and Dumbledore. One was for a generalised disturbance in the area; the second, a specific disturbance against the Potters, and a third which would reveal their locations to the two as an immediate danger alert.

It made James feel safer to have these options and knew that Lily would appreciate it too.

Eventually, it was time for James to talk to Alice and Sirius. At the current moment, James was the secret keeper, but he and Lily had discussed giving it to a third party if for some reason they both perished. They hadn't decided who and James had learnt quickly to not annoy Lily with a decision this big. Apparently, the clear answer wasn't Sirius.

James' articulate explanation as to why they had chosen Alice didn't come out quite as he had wanted but it was enough to take her through the fireplace to his home. Sirius was immediately pleased and went through the fireplace the second he knew he had permission.

By the time it had gotten to Harry's first birthday, there had been no attempts on their current location, however, Potter Manor had been infiltrated several times and parts had been destroyed. James had taken several days after each attack to get back to normal, though his new normal wasn't always the vibrant man he used to be - he didn't take well to being stuck inside for months on end.

It was even more difficult for him when planning Harry's first birthday party. There would only be five guests, and two of them were his parents. James was ever more pleased with Lily's initial decision when Harry and Neville were playing together happily for the majority of the day.

Alice and Neville left just before dinner and after Sirius had fallen asleep in his dog form with Harry snoozing on him, James took Lily to the side.

"Is this how we want to spend the rest of our lives? Locked away in our own home?" he asked her, a variety of emotions running over his face. They had had similar conversations multiple times before.

Lily led him further out of the room and into the kitchen. "James-"

James sighed and sat down on a chair. "I know what you're gonna say. It's safer… but is it really?"

Lily sat opposite him and took his hands in hers. "Yes. For us."

He looked up at her. "But not for everybody else. He's killing and torturing innocents to find us."

"To find Harry."

Another sigh left his lips. "I don't know if I can stand by and just watch it happening out there. I need to help. Our son won't be safe until somebody takes down Voldemort. It's not helping anybody with both of us being in here baking cakes."

Lily nodded and he waited for her logical response which would get him to stand down. "You're right."

"I'm what now?"

"You're right, James." She sighed and looked at him. "One of us should be there helping the Order and protecting those who cannot protect themselves."

James ran his thumb over her hand. "What should we do?"

"You're meeting with Dumbledore and Auror Moody tomorrow." Lily paused. "Tell them that you want to help.

James moved forward and placed a gentle kiss on his wife's lips. "We're going to get through this."

Due to this, they decided to relax how many people knew where they were. Remus and Peter came over and would look after Lily and Harry in James' absence as much as possible, and Lily invited over one of her friends and allowed Neville's dad to also come.

Their secret keeper had been Sirius for a long while, but the Marauders were always joking about changing it.

Less than a week later, James was back on missions. It was uplifting to see how much further they had gotten while he was in hiding for the last eight months. The one thing that he hadn't considered about being back out in the world was how much he would miss spending every second with Lily and Harry. He missed Harry more than anything he could have possibly ever imagined. But this was the right thing to do!

One thing James didn't want was his son to grow up fearing the world.

The missions ended up keeping him away for a few days at a time. It was best to not return home straight after a mission in case he was being followed and he would always go to Hogwarts first and then back to his home. This only increased as nights got longer.

Rumours were flying around that Voldemort was close to winning. Frank Longbottom had been tortured during late October when Alice had been at their house. Guilt filled Lily up for inviting them over - was this her fault?

Over this, Lily, Sirius, James, and Peter all decided to switch the secret keeper. It was obvious that it would be Sirius, but they wouldn't suspect Peter.

Suddenly, it all went down. One dark night. Halloween. James hadn't had any luck locating the death eaters even though their source was solid. It appeared they had left right before they got there. That happened a lot. Was there really a rat in the ranks?

James' blood boiled when he walked into the abandoned house to see clear evidence that this had been used as a hiding location for those on the opposite side of him in the war.

Alastor Moody approached him and handed him a ripped piece of paper. A list.

Lily and James Potter

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

Dumbledore

Mad-Eye Moody

Weasleys

Longbott-

A-

Somebody had written down the Order of the Phoenix members. How did that get into the hands of the death eaters? Who would do that?

James couldn't stop that nagging feeling that he recognised the handwriting but handed it back to Moody. A doe appeared into the room. Lily.

Before James could react, Moody had grabbed his arm and apparated them both to Godric's Hollow.

The disillusion charm was gone.

With absolute horror, James looked up at Potter Cottage, now missing half of its roof and the dark mark floating above it. Had he just lost his whole life?

Without any hesitation, the twenty-one-year-old ran straight into his house. "Lily? Harry?" he called, glancing into each room downstairs - all untouched. He only mildly slowed as he got to the stairs, still considered running as he ascended. "Lily? Harry?"

Almost falling as he got to his son's bedroom, he froze at Lily's lifeless body laying on the floor. Slowly, his eyes moved up, expecting to see the same lifelessness in his son. But Harry was crying. The sound of his cries entered his ears and he wondered how he had missed that originally.

James managed to step forward, tears falling down his own cheeks, as he picked up and cradled Harry. He remained silent though. He couldn't tell his boy that everything would be okay. How could it be okay?

Looking at Moody with tear-filled eyes, James wasn't sure what to do.

The days following the worst night of James' life were a complete blur. He wasn't sure what had actually happened.

All he knew was that his son had defeated Voldemort. Lily had perished. Peter had betrayed them and was now in Azkaban. Many Death Eaters were arrested. And the war was over. Everybody rejoiced and called Harry a hero. The-boy-who-lived. But to James, he was just Harry. A one-year-old mourning the loss of his mother. A baby who didn't understand what had happened.

The funeral was the first thing that James could remember from beginning to end after that fateful night.

It was after that, that the single dad knew he had to stop living on Remus' couch and sort his life out - not for himself, but for his son.

Even though Potter Manor had been vandalised, he was up to the challenge to bring it back to its former glory. It had been a fantastic home for his own childhood and would be again for his son. Besides, James couldn't bear to even think about returning to Potter's Cottage and was so glad when Remus had volunteered to go and collect everything that hadn't been destroyed.

Lily's clothes were put in boxes and got their own room - a place James tried to not visit too much, a place he knew Harry would come to appreciate later in life.

It was clear that it was nearly all of Harry's belongings that had been destroyed. Thankfully, his godfather Sirius was up to that challenge.

By the time Harry's second birthday arrived, things were almost back to normal. Harry had regular play dates and loved to fly on his toy broom. He had a dad and two uncles. And the most important thing was that he was loved.

The End