"You'll be back in a year, right?" Lily Potter asked as she straightened the jacket her husband wore.

"A year," James replied, taking her hands and squeezing them in her own.

They sat a moment in silence in the doorway of their small cottage, pondering quietly the mission James was being sent on with the Prewett brothers. He was meant to go to Germany for a year to round up any and all runaway Death Eaters that attempted to escape England. There had been rumors a great majority of them had ended up in Hamburg. Lily wanted to go with him, but she had been part of the task force to take down at least 50 Death Eaters in Liverpool, and was required to be present at most of their trials.

"See you next November." James promised before kissing Lily gently. "Call Sirius or Remus or Peter if you need anything-"

"I know, James," Lily cut him off.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay with Alice?" He asked for the second time that day. "You've been sick recently."

"I'm an adult, love." She kissed him again, a sad sort of smile gracing her face. James felt his heart breaking a little more to leave her. It was only a year, but it didn't have to be, right? He could come home early. There couldn't be that many Death Eaters in Hamburg. Something told him there would be.

"I love you," He promised.

"I love you too," She smiled mischievously. "Although, if you aren't home in one year on the dot, my interests may wander."

"Don't you dare."

"I love you, James." She kissed him once more. "Good bye."

"Bye, Lils."

It was snowing on the street James had left a year previously. Everything looked the same, but he knew it wasn't. Or maybe he wasn't. Germany had been a hell hole of dark wizards and witches. James had spent every night thinking about Lily and cursing the fact they couldn't write each other. He knew he still loved her, but at some point in his eleven and a half months a seed of doubt had taken place in his mind. He wondered if she still loved him. Merlin knew he'd been the one to chase her for most of the times-even though she insisted she'd had a hefty crush on him for a good bit of time as well. He couldn't help the fear.

So now he hesitated on the step to their cottage in Godric's Hollow. Desperately wanting to see her apparently wasn't enough for him to swallow his idiotic fears and open the door. Luckily, he didn't have to make the choice, when a familiar face appeared in the doorway.

Sirius' face broke into a pleasant enough grin, but James could see the underlying nervousness. "Lils," He called. "You'll never guess who's arrived early for dinner."

"Is it Pete?" James heard her voice float down the hall from the kitchen. "I don't see how that's a surprise, he's always early-" She stopped after entering the hall and finding James standing in the doorway.

At first, all he could focus on was how the same she looked. Her hair was still the same red, her eyes the same green. She still had freckles all over high cheekbones and nose. Her smile still showcased her slightly crooked teeth, and still pulled widely across her face. She wasn't any taller or any shorter, but there was an important difference from the Lily of a year ago. This Lily, this New Lily, had a child resting on her hip. Her eyes held the fatigue of raising said child, and there were telltale toys lying about the living room-or what James could see of it.

James took in the boy's similarities to Lily: first and foremost, the eyes, which held the shape and color of his mother; next, he recognized his timid expression as he hid in Lily's hair; finally, his ears-which may seem odd to notice-were of the same petiteness of his Lily. It felt like someone had slashed him in the heart. The rational part of his brain was protesting, but the irrational side-the side his fears dwelled-shouted about how Lily hadn't been able to wait. Sirius was there, and with the side-by-side it was easy for James to see the resembling hair color. He could be sick.

"Is... I wasn't-did you and... the kid, i-is he-" James stuttered.

Lily and Sirius both seemed to catch on, and they looked at each other in the same moment. Then both balked with equal expressions of disgust.

Then Lily laughed.

"James," Lily said softly, stepping towards him. "I want you to meet Harry James Potter. Your son." That's when James' knees buckled. Sirius caught him on his way down, and helped him to the couch. Lily shut the door and followed her boys into the living room.

"My son?" He echoed. His arms reached out to take him from Lily, and she let him. She placed Harry in his father's arms for the first time.

"I found out I was pregnant a few days after you left." Lily explained, her eyes trained on her family. James nodded absently, the rational part of his brain finally allowing him to take in the similarities to himself. Harry had his messy dark hair, which had always been relatively close to Sirius's color; his nose resembled James' very closely. The cheekbones, the jaw, and the shape of Harry's mouth were all there as well. He wondered how he didn't immediately figure it out.

"My son." James said, smiling without realizing he was. "Harry."

Lily sat next to her husband. She tickled Harry gently, eliciting high pitched baby laughter. James noted Harry's smile was already the crooked smile he'd had his whole life. Lily laid her head on James' shoulder. "Sirius was a big help the whole way through."

At the mention of Sirius' name, Harry perked up and wriggled to look at him. "Pafo!"

"Yeah, kid, I'm here." Sirius ruffled Harry's hair. "Your dad's here too, look!"

Harry turned back to look at James. He frowned the only way a baby could. He was clearly very wary of this strange man who he'd never met before. After a moment of very close consideration, he turned to look at his mum. Lily however wasn't looking at Harry; she was staring at the strange man. And the strange man was looking at his mum. Somewhere Harry's mind recognized their expressions as the one he saw when Lily looked at him. Extremely loving. Harry looked back to James.

"Da?" Harry asked. James and Lily both turned to Harry, mirror smiles gracing their faces.

"Yes, Harry, good." Lily cooed.

"That's it, kid." Sirius praised.

James' reaction was much quieter, and the only one Harry really heard.

"Yeah, Harry, I'm your dad."

James couldn't believe he was a father.

Harry's father.

A/N- Hey guys so I fudged up the time line a tad up there, and didn't really realize it til after posting (because somewhere in my mind I was thinking "oh Harry's like one." No Olivia, no). But then I figured most of you would write it off, or not notice anyway, until a lovely reviewer-and I don't mean that sarcastically-pointed it out and I thought it best to mention it here.

Harry is somewhere near the tail-end of 4 months old when this particular bit takes place, so it's conceivable he could say/babble 'da' but not really 'pafo' as the f sound is a bit complex.

HOWEVER i would like to clear up the Harry's POV paragraph: Harry recognizes the positive look on Lily's face, I embellished the rest of the language for the reader soley. Though, his grasp of what it meant afterwards is much too advanced.

Apologies for the error. I'd fix it, but it's very late where I am (hence why the errors occurred) and would require a total rewrite. (maybe someday)