Lifes Lessons

Jessica Dawn

Lifes Lessons, as learned by James Sirius Potter

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He may have only been an infant, but he knew that for the longest time, Mummy's belly was very comfy. Soft and squishy, just like the stuffed toy in his cot. James loved that bear. That bear went with him everywhere, whether he was crawling or struggling with his first few steps. Whether he clutched it tightly in his hand, or dragged it by his own mouth. His adoration of the stuffed animal was rather cute.

But James had noticed that laying on Mummy's belly was like laying on his bear. Except sometimes, Mummy's belly kicked him. It was on these occasions that James would turn and lookup at his Mummy. Mummy would laugh at him, pat his head, and try to soothe him back to sleep once more. She'd murmur silly words like "Thats just your baby brother." As she ran her fingers through his hair.

But James didn't understand those words. No. James understood that Mummy's belly was big and squishy, and very comfy. James liked Mummy's belly. But not as much as he liked his bear.

And then there came a day that Daddy had quickly picked James up, and his overnight bag, and moved to the fireplace. James knew that the fireplace meant he was going somewhere, but Daddy wasn't grabbing his bear! James reached out with his chubby arms and wiggled his fingers at the toy, had cried until he let out the word "Buh!"

Daddy understood Buh to be the name of the bear, and quickly realized his mistake, returning to the crib from the fireplace to retrieve the bear, which James squeezed tightly once it was within his grasp. Quickly, the green light that was already so familiar to the infant circled around them, and then, they were somewhere James only vaguely recognized.

He did; however, know when his Aunt Hermione had stumbled into the room, looking not as pretty as she often did, and rubbing at her eyes. "What're you doing here, Harry?" She'd asked, and James didn't understand, but he was content to try and go back to sleep on his father's shoulder, Buh clutched tightly in the hand that hadn't gone to his mouth.

"Ginny's about to have the baby." Ginny, James understood, was what Daddy called Mummy, and Harry, was what everybody called Daddy.

"C'mon then Jimmy..." Hermione had said, holding her arms out and reaching for him. James certainly wasn't going to get back to sleep at this rate... But Aunt Hermione had a big, squishy, comfy belly just like Mummy did. Maybe it would be easier than he thought.

Daddy had leaned over then, and kissed his forehead. "Daddy has to go for a while, James, but I'll see you later today, alright buddy?"

James' only response was to stick his thumb in his mouth, and tuck his head into the crook of Hermione's neck, his bear dangling from his free hand. He watched with dropping eyes as Daddy stepped back into the fireplace and made the green light show up again and then Daddy was gone.

The whole next day, James had played with Aunt Hermione, while Uncle Ron had disappeared. He'd gone like Daddy had, into the green light in the fireplace. But Daddy had come back before Uncle Ron had, and James had even abandoned Buh for Daddy. He'd crawled over as fast as he could, and then pulled himself up to his feet using Daddy's clothes. He reached up, and promptly fell back onto his bum, but Daddy had picked him up anyways.

They'd gone back home then, and Mummy was there, and she was holding... Something. It was much smaller than James, and smaller than Buh... But it was very loud, and Mummy seemed to pay a lot of attention to it. Daddy had taken him over to the big bed, and had sat down on it beside Mummy. James had then left Daddy and crawled over to get a better look at Something.

Something had eyes like he did, and arms and fingers and toes and even hair. "That's your little brother Albus, James." And so James had learned that Something was Albus... After several reminders when he'd looked from Something to Daddy, or Something to Mummy, and they'd told him again, that is.

It was only after a few minutes that James had needed to find out more, and his first interaction with Albus had been to quickly grab a hank of his hair and pull.