Time After Time by Marauder4Life
Chapter Notes: Wow, I got this written fast! I'm actually done with the next chapter too. They were originally going to be one chapter together, but I decided it was too long, so I split it in half.
“James!” Remus grabbed Lily by the arm and pulled her behind the tree he was hidden behind. James and Sirius had launched an attack of leaves on Lily and Remus.
“They’re twelve years old!” Lily threw her hands up, frustrated. She sighed and pulled a bright yellow leaf out of her hair.
“Well, you married James.” Remus laughed.
“Don’t remind me…” Lily smiled and cautiously looked around the tree. “We can only hope that Harry won’t cause trouble like this when he grows up.”
Remus laughed. “With James as his father and Sirius as his godfather? No bloody chance.” He nodded seriously and grinned.
“Yea, well…RUN!” It was too late. A sheet of red, yellow and orange leaves came crashing down on top of them. They screamed and covered their heads with their arms.
“Sirius! James!” Lily fought her way through the rainstorm of leaves. She reached out blindly and caught Sirius by the shirt. “Sirius, you git!” Sirius let out a bark-like laugh.
“Come on Lily! Have a little fun!” Lily sighed; she knew there was no such thing as saying no to Sirius and James.
She cracked a small smile and laughed as she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her tiny waist. James nuzzled his face in her long, red hair. She could feel him smiling into her neck and giggled.
“Prongs, not in public please, mate.” James laughed and looked up.
“How about you boys fix this lovely storm?” She gestured to the masses of leaves that were flying around them. She could hardly see Sirius and James and she knew that they would never find Remus in the storm.
“What do you think Padfoot?”
“I don’t know, Prongs.”
“We probably should, but…”
“But that goes against our marauding ways.”
“She is my wife.”
“Hullo! The wife is still here! Now fix this!” Both men nodded, pulled out their wands and muttered the counter-spell in unison.
“Oi! Moony!” Remus appeared from behind his tree and was pulling leaves out of his graying hair.
“You need to watch out! This is a muggle park, you know.” He gestured around them and smiled.
“What?” James gestured to his muggle attire. “We dressed the part!” Remus merely smiled and turned to walk with the group.
James had his arm wrapped around Lily and Sirius had his hands buried in his pockets and was gazing around at the environment, walking on James’ right.
“Shame Wormtail wouldn’t join us.” Remus turned to see what the others would say. Sirius shrugged his shoulders and James followed suit. Remus sighed peacefully and turned back to looking at his surroundings.
“I hope Harry’s okay.” Lily had a worried look on her face. James squeezed her closer to him and Sirius just rolled his eyes.
“Harry is fine with dear old Bathilda. I think he’s perfectly alright there. After all, he is my godson.”
Lily laughed and playfully hit him in the stomach. James laughed and looked down at the ground. “Hey, what’s that?” Remus and Sirius looked down at what James was pointing to. A golden pendent necklace was resting on top of a bright red leaf.
Lily bent down and reached to grab it. The next thing that the foursome remembered was the world around them going black.
Harry smiled and took in a deep breath of air. He had an arm wrapped around Ginny, who was struggling to keep her tight hold on James. Various muggles were playing in the park with their friends and family.
“Mumee! Mumee! Look, leez! Leez!” James was swinging his arms forward, dying to chase after the thousands of leaves that were flying through the air.
Harry laughed. “I think he’s talking about the leaves.” Ginny looked up and grinned at her husband.
“I don’t know, are there any other translations of ‘leez’?”
“Perhaps.” Harry shrugged his shoulders and his eyes found a large pile of leaves beneath a large oak tree. “Hey…” He motioned over to the pile and then to the bench that was sitting about ten feet away from the pile.
Ginny seemed apprehensive, but she still nodded and walked over to the pile.
“Okay James, now mummy and daddy will be right over there, okay? You can play in the leaves for a while.” She placed James on the ground and he immediately squealed in delight and scrambled over to the pile.
“Look at that!” Harry laughed at his son’s merriment. “Kid hasn’t been walking for more than five months and he’s already racing around.”
“I’m almost concerned that he will christen himself a marauder.” Harry smiled and sat down on the bench beside Ginny, with his arm firmly wrapped around her.
“That wouldn’t be such a bad thing!” She snuggled up closer to him and kept her eyes on James, who was thoroughly enjoying himself. She sighed and Harry looked down at her.
“Are you sure that you’re okay?”
“Harry, I’m fine! I just don’t feel too great.” She turned to look up at him. He sighed and kissed her. He could feel her smiling beneath his lips and he returned the smile. They broke apart and he looked back over at James, who had managed to jump high enough to grab onto a low branch of the tree and was swinging himself back and forth.
“I don’t think we’re ready for him.” Harry stated plainly, completely unconcerned about James hurting himself.
Ginny let out a sigh. “I hope he’s being careful.” She craned her neck trying to see him as clearly as possible. James suddenly let go of the tree branch and flew into the pile of leaves. Harry could hear Ginny’s sharp intake of breath.
“Hi, Dada!” James’ head popped up from the mass of leaves and waved frantically.
“His vocabulary amazes me.” Ginny nodded in agreement.
“He will be a smart boy when he goes to school.”
“Not too smart though; I don’t think I could handle a miniature Hermione.” Ginny laughed and looked around and the park.
“So, Godric’s Hollow isn’t too far from here.” Harry’s smile faded and he looked down into Ginny’s deep brown eyes.
“I know.”
“Is that why you chose this particular park?”
“Maybe.”
“You can tell me Harry, we’ve been married for over five years. I think you can tell me.” Harry couldn’t help but smile at her comment. He had always told Ginny everything.
“I guess, I just like to think that they came here, you know? That this was a place they might’ve taken me to as a baby. Makes me feel closer to them; does that make sense?”
Ginny smiled a placed her hand on his cheek. Harry still got chills when she touched him.
“Perfect sense, Harry.” She leaned up and kissed him again. They became lost in each others arms, completely unaware that they were being watched.