The next two days went by slow and fast at the same time. Rose and Harry spent every waking second with their son, but they also had to share time with their large family. Mrs. Weasley had cried for an hour when she met Jamie, and she had also been kind enough to teach them how to swaddle the baby.
In order to decide who would be the favorite grandfather, the Mauraders would be the first to comfort Jamie when he cried and they even changed his diapers for Rose and Harry. Marlene and Lily were also always there, often bringing Sebastian and Arabella. Any hesitancy that Arabella might have had about Rose having a baby went away the second she saw Jamie. She babbled to him while he slept in his crib, crying when she had to leave. Sebastian and Teddy could care less, although they were quite jealous when Jamie and Victoire met for the first time, taking all the attention off of them. Sebastian had thrown a fit and Teddy had whined until Tonks played with him.
Draco was surprisingly emotional. When he first held Jamie, Rose could swear that he was crying, but he vehemently denied that. He did, however, remind Rose of when they were told to have a child, although he regretted it when it caused the air to become awkward. He changed the subject as quick as he could, and Rose tried not to think of what her life might look like if that had happened.
Ron was a surprisingly good godfather. He learned how to change a diaper, and he would sometimes calm Jamie down if he started to cry. Hermione looked proud of Ron, and she had broken down into happy tears multiple times.
"We haven't been alone in so long," Harry murmered in Rose's ear as they both watched Sirius walking around the room with Jamie.
"We're about to go home where we'll be wishing that they're all here," Rose murmered back. They were finally being released from the hospital since Rose was fully healed. She didn't realize that her belly would still look pregnant after she gave birth, but she didn't care what her body looked like. It brought her son into the world, and that made it perfect.
"I hope he likes his room," Harry said worriedly, causing Rose to snort.
"He's barely three days old," Rose said. "The only thing he likes is my boob and his bed."
Harry rolled his eyes but gave her a quick kiss anyways. A knock on the door ended their conversation and they all smiled as Willa entered.
"Hello little Jamie," Willa cooed even though the baby was asleep. "How are you feeling, Rose?"
"I'm good," Rose replied, a bright smile on her face. "Better than I've felt in months, if I'm being honest."
"That's always good to hear," Willa said. "If you're all ready, then you can leave."
Rose and Harry were out of the hospital as soon as they could, wanting to go back home with their son. Willa recieved lots of thanks from everyone and Rose and Harry made a mental note to send her a thank you gift.
The ride home was long. Hermione was driving them home, and she followed the speed limits exactly, so it took them much longer to get home than it had to get to the hospital. Luckily for everyone, Jamie stayed asleep the whole time.
"I bet Tillie will love him," Rose said softly as they pulled into the driveway. "And Potato will try to play with him."
"If Tillie scratches him, she's out," Harry warned.
"I don't know if you remember, but I have these super cool healing powers," Rose said. "So he'll be perfectly fine."
Harry just mimicked what she said overdramatically.
"Are you guys excited to finally be alone with Jamie?" Hermione asked as she helped them grab their hospital bags.
"I'm kinda scared," Rose admitted, a small frown on her face. "I haven't even changed his diaper yet cause you guys have been so amazing."
"We'll be over as much as we can," Hermione assured them.
"I have to be the favorite Weasley, so I'll be here too," Ron said. Rose rolled her eyes at how competitive everyone was being. Ron had bought them a carseat that doubled as a carrier, so Rose got out of the car and carried Jamie in his seat. He had woken up and was squinting his emerald eyes at the bright sun.
"Welcome home, Jamie," Rose whispered as she opened the door to their home.
"It feels like forever since we've been here," Harry noted.
"There you guys are!" Ginny said as she came out from the kitchen, Cedric not far behind.
"Hey guys!" Rose said happily. "Thank you so much for watching the kids and the house for us."
"It was no problem," Cedric said, a smile on his face as Ginny cooed at Jamie.
"Where is the demon?" Harry asked, a grimace on his face as he looked for Tillie. Rose rolled her eyes at her husband. As if she knew that they were talking about her, Tillie came down the steps.
"Potato is doing her business outside right now," Cedric informed them. Rose nodded and sat down on the floor, placing the carrier down next to her. Tillie slowly made her way up to Rose first, purring and bumping against her. She hissed at Harry before making her way to sniff at Jamie, who was watching the cat as much as a three day old baby could.
"This is your little brother, Jamie," Rose said to Tillie. The cat let out a loud purr and climbed into the carrier, laying partly on Jamie and partly on the seat.
"She loves him already," Hermione said.
"Looks like you have to keep the cat after all," Ron said to Harry.
"Aww, she's putting him back to sleep," Rose said. Jamie's eyes were closing again as Tillie purred loudly.
"Who wants to bet that Potato will run in here and wake them both up?" Ginny asked.
"There's a 100% chance that that will happen," Harry said. Sure enough, Tillie came bounding into the house, barking to greet her parents. Rose laughed as Tillie jumped on her, covering her with kisses. Tillie hissed loudly, gaining the attention of Potato, who whipped around. Harry leaned over and picked up Tillie, immediately handing her to Hermione.
"Be nice, Potato," Rose said softly. Potato stepped up to Jamie, who had somehow stayed asleep even with all her barking. After a few sniffs, Potato licked Jamie's cheek before running off to play with some toys.
"That wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be," Harry said as he picked Jamie up from his carrier, gently shushing the baby when he woke up and let out a cry.
"Bloody hell, you two have a baby," Ron said breathlessly. "I always knew that you two would be together, but I somehow never imagined a baby."
"It doesn't feel like we're old enough to have kids," Hermione said.
"We're not," Rose said with a small chuckle. "But that doesn't matter."
"I'm just dreading the article Rita Skeeter will write," Harry said with a grimace, gently rocking his arms as Jamie slept.
"You won't have to worry about that," Ginny said with a smirk.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"Let's just say that the ministry got an anonymous tip about illegal animuguses," Ginny said proudly.
"She's in Azkaban?" Rose gasped.
"No, but she lost her job and owes the ministry quite a bit of money," Ginny said.
"That's the best news I've heard all week," Ron said. Everyone turned to look at him with raised eyebrows.
"I pushed a seven pound tumor out of me, but that's the best news you've heard all week?" Rose asked.
"Other than Jamie, of course," Ron said quickly.
"I know that you two are probably dying to have some alone time with him, so we're gonna go ahead and leave," Hermione said.
"Thank you for everything," Rose said as she gave Hermione a tight hug.
"We'll be over here soon," Hermione promised. Rose and Harry said their goodbyes to their friends and then went to the kitchen for some snacks.
"It's really weird how quiet it is," Rose noted.
"It's almost unnerving," Harry agreed.
"I have a feeling that the little man won't let it stay quiet for long," Rose said with a small chuckle as she ate some chips. "It's almost time for him to eat."
"It's kinda scary," Harry admitted. "Being here all alone with him. I feel like we shouldn't be allowed to do that."
"Yeah, but we could have everyone here in seconds if we needed to," Rose said. "Plus, as everyone always reminds us, at this age we just have to make sure that his tummy is full and diaper is empty."
"Do you think he'll let us sleep through the night?" Harry asked, smiling down at the sleeping baby in his arms.
"Definitely not," Rose said with a small laugh.
"Is it weird to you too? Having a baby?" Harry asked. "I know that we had nine months to prepare, but it still is weird to me."
"Me too," Rose admitted. "I feel like those nine months went by way too quickly. And I never thought that I'd be married to and have a baby with the dorky boy who passed out on the train ride."
"Oi! I wasn't dorky!" Harry argued.
"Yes you were," Rose told him.
"Well, you passed out too, in case you forgot," Harry replied.
"I didn't forget," Rose said. "I still hate dementors."
"Me too," Harry said. As if realizing that his parents were drifting into a sad conversation, Jamie let out a loud wail.
"Poor baby is hungy," Rose cooed in a baby voice. Jamie continued to scream as Harry hurriedly placed him in Rose's arms so he could eat. Jamie wasted no time in latching on to satisfy his hunger.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to that feeling," Rose said, a small grimace on her face.
"I kinda want to know what it feels like," Harry admitted.
"I read somewhere that men can produce milk too, it just takes more work," Rose said. "So start squeezing and you can know."
"I'm good," Harry said. Rose just shrugged.
The next few hours were spent showing Jamie the whole house and yard, despite the fact that he stayed asleep most of the time.
"I wish I could sleep like this," Rose sighed as she and Harry laid down on their bed with Jamie in between them. They were both laying on their side and proping themselves up with their elbows to watch their son. Rose gently trailed her finger over Jamie's face with a small smile.
"I doubt we'll be getting much sleep in the next few months," Harry said, but he didn't sound upset about it. Jamie seemed to want to prove Harry's point as he slowly woke up, blinking around before wailing at the top of his lungs. Tillie hurried out of the room and Potato whined, shoving her head under the dog bed.
"He's not hungry," Rose said when Jamie didn't start eating.
"Maybe he needs a diaper change," Harry suggested.
"Nose goes!" Rose said quickly, immediately putting her finger on her nose. Harry rolled his eyes and scooped Jamie up to put him on the changing table they had placed in their bedroom. As soon as the diaper was opened, Harry got a face full of pee. Rose burst out laughing at the look on Harry's face.
"Dad did warn you to be careful," Rose said, giggling as she used her wand to clean Harry from all the pee.
"Jamie, we're gonna have problems if you do that again," Harry said sternly as he put a new diaper on. Rose was still chuckling to herself when Harry finally brought Jamie back over to the bed.
"Love, the diaper is on backwards," Rose said with a giggle.
"No! It's on-"
Harry cut himself off when he realized that the diaper wasn't on right. He blushed and sheepishly fixed the diaper, making sure to not get a face full of pee again. Since his old onesie had gotten messed up, Harry put another onesie on him. Sirius had gotten them this onesie, and it had a large black dog on the front of it.
"We have a lot to learn, don't we?" Harry asked softly as Rose cuddled into his side, Jamie held snuggly in her arms. He was blinking up at his parents with wide eyes.
"We do," Rose replied, letting Jamie hold her finger in his fist and shake it around. "But we're gonna do great."
"He's never gonna feel unloved," Harry said quietly, his voice shaking some. "And he's never gonna wonder anything about us. He's going to constantly be surrounded by family."
"We'll tell him anything he wants to know," Rose agreed. "And we're going to love him no matter what."
"No matter what," Harry repeated, placing a small kiss on Jamie's forehead. "He's not gonna grow up not knowing what it's like to be hugged by a parent. And he's always going to have meals on the table and new clothes."
"He'll have anything he wants," Rose agreed. Harry was almost crying as he talked.
"Is it bad that I'm still mad at the Dursley's?" Harry whispered. "I haven't seen them in years and Dudley even apologized somewhat, but I'm still so mad. They deprived me of everything growing up, even love. But I feel like I should have forgiven them by now, right?"
"You can go your whole life without forgiving them, and that'll be perfectly fine," Rose replied. "No one will judge you if you never forgive them, and no one will judge you if you do forgive them and form a relationship with them. But I can't promise them that I won't hex them if I see them."
Harry let out a small chuckle of agreement.
"We're gonna raise Jamie the exact opposite of how I was raised," Harry said.
"But not like Dudley," Rose said.
"Not like Dudley," Harry agreed, a small smile on his face.
"He's going to be so smart," Rose said. "He's going to go to muggle school until he's eleven, so he won't be useless at math and everything. And he'll go to Hogwarts and be top of the class."
"Mcgonagall will probably retire when she sees his name," Harry said, an amused grin on his face.
"Probably," Rose agreed. Tillie came back into the room and jumped up on the bed, curling onto Rose's lap so she could be near Jamie.
"Are you sure that we can't get rid of the demon?" Harry asked.
"Tillie stays," Rose said. "But we should probably get another owl."
"Probably," Harry said. "Especially now that we have Jamie. We can't always send patronuses."
Harry and Rose talked for another few hours, mostly about Jamie. The boy slept for most of the time, barely waking up when he was placed down in his own crib. He immediately splayed out in the crib, but he grabbed onto Harry's finger and refused to let go.
"Looks like that's where you're staying," Rose said as she wrapped her arms around Harry's middle.
"He's so cute," Harry said softly, barely paying attention to the uncomfortable position he was in. "If anything happened to him, I'd kill everyone and then myself."
"A little extreme, but I agree," Rose said. She gently rubbed the back of Jamie's hand and he slowly released Harry's finger, clutching his hand back into a fist anyways.
"First night home," Harry said.
"I need a bath and then sleep," Rose said.
"Can I join?" Harry asked cheekily.
"I don't know if you remember, but I just shoved that thing out of me," Rose said, pointing at Jamie. "So I know what would happen if we took a bath, and that's not happening for a while."
"I'll have you know that I just wanted to save water," Harry lied. Rose raised an eyebrow at him as he grinned at her.
"Make sure nothing happens to Jamie. I'll be out soon," Rose said. She had never taken a quicker bath, wanting to get back to her son. When she left the bathroom, Harry had turned on a random movie on the TV, but had the volume down low. He had changed into pajamas and had set up the bed for Rose already.
"Your cat refuses to move," Harry said. Rose awed when she saw that Tillie had jumped into the crib and was laying at Jamie's feet, both of them sound asleep.
"She's not doing anything wrong," Rose said, leaning down to pet Tillie a little and squeeze Jamie's tiny toes before crawling next to Harry, leaning into his side.
"So, who gets Jamie duty first?" Rose asked.
"I got it," Harry said. "You're doing the majority of the work, so I can get up."
"You're the best," Rose said. "I love you."
"I love you more," Harry said, connecting their lips in a short kiss. Rose sighed happily and cuddled under the covers, her eyelids drooping in tiredness. Harry, who usually stayed up later than Rose anyways, started gently petting her hair as he continued to watch the TV. Rose went to sleep within minutes.
Rose was woken up halfway through a dream about Jamie turning into a giant by the sound of his wails. She could feel the bed shift as Harry got up and walked to her side where the crib was located.
"Hey, Jamie," Harry whispered. Rose kept her eyes closed but she could hear Harry sit down in the rocking chair. Jamie was slowly settling down. "You gotta be quiet so you don't wake your mum. You don't really understand it now, but she's doing a lot for you, but she doesn't care because she loves you so much. We all do."
Rose had to fight not to smile and let Harry know that she was awake. Jamie's cries were gently turning into sniffles and the occasional whines as Harry gave him a bottle.
"It's crazy how much I love you," Harry continued. "I know that I wanted to wait a few years before having kids, but the second I found out that your mum was pregnant that changed. And as I'm holding you in my arms right now, I can't believe that I ever wanted to wait. I know that I'm going to make a million mistakes, but I'm always going to be here for you. Always."
Rose fell back to sleep, a smile on her face as she dreamed of her always.