Harry stared at his mother in pure and blissful awe. Sirius and Remus had told him stories of how beautiful his mother was, but now he saw what they meant. She was beautiful, almost like Ginny. He idly mused what he would've looked like if he had had auburn hair instead of his father's raven hair. His mother, his mother. It was almost too good to be true, he enjoyed getting to know his father but he'd almost forgot that his mother would be there.
"Harry," Remus ripped his attention from staring at his mother much to his annoyance, "This is Lily, she's head girl here and one of my really good friends, say hello harry"
Looking back up to his unaware mother, he decided that he wanted to be held by her. Granted, it was childish, but he had lacked the small things would do for their children since he had grown up with the Dursley's. Plus he'd already been held and fallen asleep on Uncle Moony so being held by his mother should hold not judgement from at the very least him. He wanted the warm embrace that he had so longingly watched the children at Platform 9 ¾ receive, or the children being picked up and dropped off at primary school, or even Dudley. That was all he wanted. A mother. His mother.
Bringing his short arms up in the direction of Lily, he demanded, "Umma, Umma!"
Looking at the expression his mother had- one of shock- Harry wondered if demanding to be held by her was a bad decision. Maybe she didn't really like babies she didn't know, Harry's heart started to race. But his worries were soon put to rest as a smile came onto the red-head's face as she leaned around James and picked Harry up from Remus' lap. Knowing that he wouldn't want to leave his mother's arms for a while, Harry grabbed a treacle tart from in front of James as he was held of James lap for the split second and prepared to make himself comfy.
As Lily sat back down from her half squat position, she placed Harry sideways so he would be able to see the Marauders and her as well. It was surreal, he had his mother, father and his two uncles, all alive, all together all focusing on him at the same time. This is what his life should have been like, receiving the love of his four favourite people with a childhood filled with laughter and pranks and love. He should have had a bedroom and sleepovers with his uncles, instead he had... he didn't even want to think about he. He returned his focus to his new seat.
Right off the bat, Harry knew that he wouldn't want to leave here anytime soon; her arms were warm and comfy, and she smelled of cinnamon and evergreens, which Harry immediately felt comforted by. Whilst growing up he never knew what to imagine when he would picture living with his parents, them hugging him as they read him a bed time story or snuggling together on the sofa watching a movie. This was better than anything he'd ever imagined, it was like being hugged for the first time ever and just now realising what you've been missing all this time.
Turning his attention to her, with big, green emerald eyes, he smiled a cute baby smile for her. He could hear the 'awws' and 'oh, how cute!' from the girls around the Gryffindor table, as well as from other tables. Harry smile dropped slightly, he guessed that no matter where he went, he'd somehow always be part of the spotlight, it was the curse of being the chosen one but he didn't imagine it would happen so much somewhere that no one knew who he was. Somewhere that he didn't even exist.
Coming out of his thoughts, Harry started listening to the thoughts of his parents and the Marauders.
"It's amazing how well he took to you, Lily," Harry heard Remus saying as he continued to eat his dessert which has been halted having one one arm from holding Harry earlier. "Harry must really like you."
"Is that so?" Lily said with a grin and turned to Harry to ask, "Do you like me Harry?"
Harry squealed happily, burrowing in to her stomach. He could feel the laughter coming from his mother, and he smiled happily. Though he wasn't with his friends, Harry was incredibly happy that he could be here with his parents, smiling, laughing and having fun. His friends almost slipped his mind he was enjoying himself so much.
"Oh, come now Sirius," Lily commented, and Harry turned to see his future godfather looking gob smacked. "Is it really so shocking that Harry can like me?"
"Yes, it is," Sirius replied. Then, as mischievous look appeared on his face. "I mean, considering that your hair's brighter than a fire engine, I'm surprised he's not already blind." While this was an exaggeration, it still riled Lily up, and she leaned up against the table to yell at Sirius, forgetting Harry was on her lap.
"Now you listen here..." And so the argument went on, and Harry kept on being squished. It appeared that Remus and James knew that Harry was being squashed, but couldn't get a word in between the two. Finally having enough of being squished, Harry wriggled himself until he was on the bench between Lily and James. Contently he started to crawl over James lap receiving a hair ruffle as he continued over his father. Unsteadily crawling his way over to Remus- Harry was really starting to see the disadvantage of being a baby- he shook the werewolf's leg.
When said werewolf looked down, Harry glanced down at the floor and pulled the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster. After a couple of seconds his lip started to wobble and his eyes filled with tears, Remus immediately put him on the floor before he a tear even slipped from his eyes. Harry crawled out from between Remus' legs under the bench and made his way out the other side narrowly avoiding Sirius' feet standing on him as he rapidly shifted himself to face Lily better.
Once out, Harry recalled that he saw Snape sitting next to other semi-recognisable Death Eaters on the far side of the Slytherin table. He believed them to be Evan Rosier, Regulus Black and Barty Crouch Jr. Knowing that he really didn't know any other people from the past besides Snape and Barty Crouch Jr, Harry decided he would pay them a visit. Who knows, maybe Snape wouldn't be so bitter to him since he didn't know who his father was. Hope filled him when he recognised Regulus Black, it would be nice to get to know Sirius' brother, from what Sirius had said about him he was forced to have the death eater lifestyle.
When he reached the Slytherin table, he looked back to the table to see that his mother and godfather were still arguing and mentally sighed. He wondered how long it would take for them to notice him missing, seeing as how the Headmaster had already seen him crawling towards Slytherin table, smiling with that discernible and familiar twinkle in his eye.
'I wonder how he does that,' Harry thought to himself before he came to the backs of Regulus and Snape. Looking up, he realised he was not able to reach them to get their attention and squealing would just result in altering the marauders he'd gone on an adventure, He reached for a draping edge of Regulus' Slytherin robes. Tugging it lightly, Harry soon garnered the attention of his godfathers brother. Regulus had turned to see what had caught on his robes to find a baby. The baby everyone had mentioned, it suddenly dawned on Regulus that the baby the entire student population had been talking about wasn't in fact a badly spread rumour.
Raising an eyebrow, Regulus asked in an aristocratic tone, "Why are you holding onto my robes?" He almost looked amused at the small child clinging onto his robes still.
Harry, for lack of a better explanation, simply grinned at him, and started with the baby talk. This caught the attention of Evan and Barty, turns out Severus was miserably scribbling in the potions book he would find in years to come. They both craned their necks and grinned at the baby still gripping onto Regulus' robes.
Regulus blinked while his two friends started snickering quietly trying clearly to not wind up Regulus too much. Shaking his head slightly, "Is that, erm.. right?" He clearly didn't have much experience with babies, but then again Sirius had always said that Regulus was the baby until Tonks came along and even then she was blacked from the family tree.
Harry thought about it. Was he going to let an opportunity like this go by? No, he didn't think he was. So he did what babies did best:
He held his arms up and started to squeal.
Going from a somewhat annoyed expression to a slightly panicked expression, Regulus examined the child in front of him. If the rumours were to be believed, the boy was brought in by Lupin to dinner. But what was he doing here at Slytherin table of all places?
"Go on Reg, pick him up, you'll have half the school staring at you at this rate," Barty teased. Regulus shot death glares at him.
Harry started to squeal louder. Luckily the dining hall had grown louder and drowned out his squealing somewhat but it was still growing the attention of nearby students. Deciding he would rather do what the boy clearly wanted than students continue to stare at him, regulus sighed deeply and reached down and lifted the boy, bringing him to his lap so that he was facing the table. After staring at the now quiet child, Regulus decided to ask the boy who he was and why he decided to venture to the Slytherin table of all places.
"If I may ask, is there a reason that you're over here rather than with my brother and his friends? As far as I'm aware Lupin hasn't got anyone pregnant so whose offspring are you?" Regulus asked the boy, who looked up at him as the question was heard.
Harry glanced over at the Gryffindor table and grimaced at the two continuing to argue. Regulus smirked realising he was indicating to the marauders.
"Has Werewolf McWerewolf finally got someone up the duff?" Barty asked not waiting for Harry to answer the original question. Harry garbled a response.
"Really, Bartemius," Evan said in a teasing voice, "whose your dad? Is it Remus?" He cooed. Harry shook his head, moving and stretching his tongue about his mouth, dribbles pooling down his chin.
"Sirius?" Regulus blurted out in a panic. Harry remains unfazed and started playing with the napkin that was in front of Regulus.
"Is it James?" Barty's eyes lit up. Harry smiled and garbled out something that corresponded to "Dada," and giggled.
The three slithering paused and Harry noticed Snape still before continuing his scribbling. "Blimey, I never noticed Evans being pregnant, s'pose theirs always glamours but I would have thought someone woulda noticed. Unless he's finally stopped mooning over her" Barty theorised.
"Barty, stop speculating, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough anyways let's be honest here. Anyways, it's time dear brother and I had a catch up anyways," Regulus smirked. "How about we go and give you back then?"
Before Harry could even protest, Regulus was up and stepping over the bench with Harry in his arms. As they made their way across the hall, to the Gryffindor table, Harry spotted Lilys hair was in hot pink spikes that went straight down the middle of her head, the tips being painted in neon blue. While this was amusing, the sight of Sirius was even more amusing to Harry; Padfoots's hair was up in pig-tails, which were now a banana yellow with tips of orange.
An amused smirk came upon Regulus' face as he watched the two Gryffindors freak out over their new hair styles. Looking down to Harry, he noticed the baby was smiling and giggling lightly, apparently thinking it was funny as well. Regulus noted that he had seen neither raise their wands before their new hairstyles had appeared, he glanced down at Harry and noted the mischievous glimmer in his eyes. This was more than just accidental magic that usually happens in wizarding children, that was intentional wandless magic, Regulus made sure to make a mental note to talk to Sirius about it at a later date.
"I believe this is yours Potter," Regulus said swiftly dropping Harry into James' lap, who gave a rapid look to Remus' lap "I love the new hair style brother. So who does the spawn belong to then, care to share Sirius?"
"Harry," James emphasised, "Isn't any of ours child, he just kind of-"
"We're looking after him for a while." Remus interrupted.
"Fine, keep your secrets." Regulus turned to leave, "Oh, Sirius, we need to talk later, good bye Harry. Sirius."