Prompt: Birth/Lily Potter & James Potter
Requested by: pornography 

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When her water had broken, James had sort of had a panic attack. Lily had been the one with her head screwed on straight. "Oh Godric," he'd said, pacing the room. "What do we do. What do we do. Should we clean it up? Should I take a picture? Is that weird, taking a picture? I don't think my parents took a picture. Did your parents take a picture?"

"Of the water?" Lily had asked, incredulously.

"Right. Stupid. No picture. Okay. But I should have one on hand, right. Because you know. Just in case. A camera, I mean, not a picture of the water."

Lily had given him a look--a look that said 'I can't believe I'm the calm one right now.'--and had told him to call St Mungo's and Floo them both there. Right! Of course! Because they couldn't exactly have the baby on their couch in the middle of their apartment. Although that would have been sort of cool...

But she'd effectively pushed all thoughts of pranking Sirius into sitting on the couch afterwards with a serious, "James Potter, are you going to miss your child's birth, or are you coming along?"

Yes, in those first few moments, Lily had certainly been the calm one.

Now, though, Lily  was grabbing onto his hand so hard that James thought that maybe, they might need to do some sort of dual process and amputate his dead fingers while helping his wife give birth.

"My fingers," he said, before being silenced by a cry as she contracted again--that was the term, right, contracted. He'd studied all the books like crazy but the nervousness was making him forget.

"Why are you not in pain?" she cried, face contorted. "Gu-ahhhhhhhhghhh. JAMES. FUCKING. POTTER." More squeezing. It felt like she was trying to give birth to his hand with hers. "WHY ARE YOU NOT IN PAIN. YOU ARE JUST AS MUCH A PART OF THIS AS ME. AND." She took several deep breaths, like the ones they'd learned in that lazy-mass class they'd taken. That was a good sign. "And. I. Am very angry at you. For turning me into a cliche." He had no idea what she was talking about, but he nodded.

"Oh, I'm in pain, Lils," he said, wincing slightly as she squeezed his hand again.

"You have no idea, James." she said, glowering at him so fiercely for even daring to make a comparison that he ducked his head slightly. The mediwitches seemed very amused by this conversation. Didn't they realize that this was no ordinary mother, that she was incredible and amazingly talented and would probably leave their child fatherless by the end of the day?? Had they no souls?

Obviously not, because they made no move to stop her when Lily threatened to cut off a certain anatomical part of James' body that was decidedly vital for making babies. He would have been inclined to take offense, if she hadn't also threatened to cut off Dumbledore's same anatomical parts for putting them together as Head Girl and Head Boy and leading to this mess in the first place.

Sixteen hours later, Lily looked so worn out--more so that he'd ever seen her before. She was sweaty, and there were bags under her eyes, and her voice was hoarse--from yelling at him--and her complexion was pale and clammy.

He'd never seen a more beautiful being in his entire life.

And there was his baby boy, all wrapped up in her arms, his baby boy, with her gorgeous green eyes. He could tell already that the kid would have his hair. Poor miscreant. He'd have to teach him all the ways to fix it so it looked like the messiness was on purpose instead of so awfully cowlicked that there was no other way to do his hair.  He'd have to teach him how to run his hand through it too, but not too much because people would start to suspect that it wasn't a natural, casual thing.

Godric. He'd have to teach him so much. Pass on all his best pranks. The invisibility cloak his father had given him. The Marauder's Map. Sirius would be so incredibly stoked to have a kid to play fetch and rough-house with. Remus and Lily would fill his head with silly things like intelligence and an education. Peter...well, Peter would probably just do his best not to kill the kid, which was saying enough.

With reverent hands, he bent down to touch the child, pressing a kiss to Lily's forehead.

"Do you want to hold him?" the nurse asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course," he said, still in awe. Carefully she picked him up from Lily's arms and handed him to James.

"Wow." He was so tiny. It was hard to imagine he'd ever be adult sized. And yet here he was, all ready for James to just watch and wonder as he grew and stretched and probably ate their entire month's salaries worth of food, once he got to be a teenager. A small smile crept onto James' face, filled with awe and love. "Wow."

The most brilliant day of his life. Ever. Bar none. His eyes met Lily's, and he suddenly felt himself tearing up. He sat down and rolled the chair next to her, suddenly feeling like they'd never be close enough to satisfy him, this little Harry kid and his wife and himself. He was crying now, stupid as it was, and Lily looked like she might burst into tears at any second.

"He's our son!" he said, still shocked.

"I know!" she replied, voice slightly tremulous.

"Look--look at his hair! And his eyes! And I swear that's my mom's nose!"

"I know!" She said again, looking happier than he'd ever, ever, ever seen her before.

"I--Lils, I love him so much already."

"Me too."

Their eyes met again. "And you too. I love you. Always, always have and always will."

She smiled back at him. "Me too, darling. Always."

She leaned in and kissed him, and his life was perfect, abso-fucking-lutely perfect. He pulled back, a thought coming to him. "I have to floo Sirius. He's going to shit a brick when he sees him!"