• Growing up Harry •

• beautiful boy •

April 17, 1981

James released a wide yawn and glanced to his side where Lily had passed out peacefully, the long day of taking care of their high maintenance son had caught up to both of them

He glanced at his watch and felt pathetic to see it was only six o'clock and Lily and himself were already completely spent

He sadly thought back to the days where he would go out late into the night with his friends, indulging in heathy amounts of firewhisky. It was bittersweet to realize that he was now a dad and those types of activities were likely to be rare occasions

He gently cuddled closer to his wife, placing a soft kiss to her cheek ... he felt immense love and admiration for her, he didn't know how she'd learned to be such a great mother in such a short time

He wished she could give him a lesson on how to be a great father, he always seemed to freeze up when Harry cried in his arms ... meanwhile Lily seemed to always know exactly what to do to calm their son's distresses

Speaking of the little devil, the sound of their son's whining suddenly filled his ears, James reluctantly stood up making sure not to wake Lily and carefully crept into their son's room

Luckily Harry no longer cried and screamed to the degree he had before, it was now more of whines and whimpers which did a fair better job of pulling at James' heartstrings than the previous wailing

"What are you still doing up munchkin! It's past your bedtime I think" James easily lifted Harry into his arms and bounced him lightly, he enjoyed how tiny Harry was, it made it easy to pick him up and cuddle him silly

James often found his son so adorable he wanted nothing more than to squeeze him as tight as he could  ... of course he never did that, but the impulse was always there whenever he saw his son's sweet and innocent little face 

James continued the gentle bouncing of his son, hoping it'd soothe Harry's unhappiness. Unfortunately, his hopes didn't come through as Harry made it quite clear he was in no mood for his Daddy's weak attempts at calming him

Harry began to push against James' chest and squirm dangerously around in his father's arms, kicking his little feet in his desperation

A lightbulb seemed to flip on in James' head as he realized perhaps his son was due for a nappy change

The realization made James roll his eyes, he was in no mood to change a nappy

"Alright there kiddo let's get you cleaned up" he said quietly pulling out his wand and quickly changing his son with the use of magic. He tried to be as quick and quiet as possible, knowing full well if his wife found out he'd be in deep trouble

Once Harry was cleaned up James smiled down at his son. Harry let out a small giggle and grabbed his feet subtly rocking as he stared up at his father's face

James covered his face with his hands for a quick moment before pulling them away from his face, "peekaboo!"

Harry squealed in delight and clapped his hands. Harry put his own hands over his face and pulled them away, "beebaboo!"

"Yeah baby that's right!" James smiled happily and attacked his son's soft cheeks with kisses which caused Harry to roll around letting out the most adorable giggles