Sunshine.

He feels it even before he opens his eyes. Warm sunshine on his skin, his face. He’s lying on his back, and its warm and comfortable, and there’s grass all around him. He doesn’t have to look to know that. He can feel its blades tickling his arms and legs, can hear bees buzzing around him and something rustling lightly in the breeze. Maybe a tree. Maybe he’s back in the Forbidden Forest with Professor Snape. They’ve finished their harvest and are sitting down to eat the picnic they brought. Harry’s lying in the grass, and Professor Snape is sitting on a picnic blanket, eating a sandwich and looking very out of place in his long dark robes.

He smiles at the image in his mind, and opens his eyes. He doesn’t see Professor Snape on a picnic blanket, but everything else is there; the grass, the bees, the tree, the sunshine. Even flowers, though Harry didn’t imagine them. And they’re nothing like the geraniums Aunt Petunia grows in her front garden. They’re wild flowers that grow in meadows and forests, flowers he’s seen in his Herbology book. Wizard flowers. It’s a wizard place.

Harry sits up, slightly surprised when he finds that nothing hurts. He has a vague idea that something should be hurting, that he was hurting very badly not so long ago. But here in this wizard place, it doesn’t seem so important. The sun is warm on his face, and he feels like jumping up and running around, maybe see if he can find a broom to fly on. He has a feeling that he could find one very easily, if he looked. It’s a wizard place, after all.

Someone’s crying, though. Crying as if they were hurting very badly, and Harry decides not to go looking for a broom right away. The crying seems to come from a very little kid, maybe even a baby, and it sounds very lonely. Maybe he can help.

He gets up. He doesn’t have any shoes on, only a t-shirt and shorts, which is nice because he can walk barefoot through the grass. It tickles his feet and he smiles. He likes this place, and he’d very much like to show it to Professor Snape and ask him all kinds of questions about the flowers and the potions you can put them in. But Professor Snape isn’t there; the little kid’s the only other person around, and he’s still crying. Or she. Harry can’t tell just from the voice.

The sound seems to be coming from the large tree close by, and if Harry squints, he can see something white lying in the grass by its trunk. He walks a bit faster. Poor kid, he must be crying for his mum. But Harry is the only one around; there are no adults in sight. If the kid’s all alone, someone should better have a look.

Harry’s close enough now to see that the kid’s really very little, only a baby. It’s a he – Harry can see that because the baby has no clothes on, not even a nappy – and there are fat tears rolling down his thin little face. It’s a very thin baby, Harry notices as he crouches down next to him; very thin and kind of poorly-looking. And very unhappy.

Harry hesitates for a moment; after all, he’s never picked up a baby before. Then he pushes one hand under the small head, another one under the baby’s body, and lifts him into his arms. The kid’s very light and skinny; Harry can feel the knobs of his spine digging into his arm. He isn’t sure this thin little baby should be out here all naked, even though the sun’s shining and it’s warm. Aunt Petunia is forever going on about Dudley catching a draft, and if Dudley could get sick from a draft, it would probably kill this kid.

Looking down, he spies a blanket lying by his foot; it wasn’t there a moment ago, but Harry doesn’t think too much about it as he lays the baby down on it, tucks him in and picks up the little bundle.

The baby seems to be a bit happier, wrapped in the blanket and held in Harry’s arms; the loud bawling turns into hiccuppy sobs, and as Harry begins to walk back and forth, humming a song and gently rocking the kid, it finally stops altogether. Harry can see now that the baby has grey eyes; grey eyes that are watching him as if trying to figure out who this big kid is and where he suddenly came from. Harry smiles and blows gently into the fine dark hair.

“Hey. I’m Harry, but I guess you’re too little to remember names.”

The baby just looks at him. Harry sits down in the grass under the tree; it’s more comfortable that way to hold the baby on his lap.

“I bet your mum’s looking for you. I’m sure she’ll be here soon.”

The baby gurgles, almost as if he’s trying to say something.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay with you until she comes,” Harry says. “Professor Snape would say she’s a dunderhead for leaving you here all alone.”

“He would, wouldn’t he?”

The voice startles Harry so much that he very nearly lets go of the baby. He didn’t see anyone coming. Looking up, he finds that they’re standing right next to him; three people who weren’t there a second ago. Three people, two of whom look very familiar, even though he’s never seen them before.

The woman with the quiet voice, with red hair and green eyes just like his own, sits down next to him in the grass and puts an arm around him.

“My Harry,” she says, and the man with dark hair and glasses sits down on his other side, and they don’t say anything for a very long time. The other woman leans against the tree, watching them. She’s quite thin and pale, and Harry sees her looking at the baby with a strange expression on her face; as if she’d like to hold him and is afraid to at the same time.

“He needs his mum,” Harry finally says to the red-haired woman, who he knows is his mum, Lily Potter.

Stroking his hair with one hand, Lily looks down at the baby and nods. “He does.”

Harry looks up at the other woman. “Are you…”

The woman nods. “Yes,” she says very softly. “That’s my son. My baby.”

Lily looks back and forth between the thin little baby and his mum, and then she gets to her feet.

“Come here.” She takes the baby from Harry, cradling him carefully in her arms, and carries him over to the woman leaning against the tree. “Here. He’s a beautiful boy,” she says quietly.

The woman stands there for a moment, not moving. Then she raises her arms and slowly, very slowly takes the baby. Harry can see that her hands are shaking. He glances up at his dad, who puts an arm around Harry’s shoulders and pulls him close.

“It’s okay, son.”

The woman holds the baby very tightly to her chest, as if she’s afraid someone will snatch him away and hurt him.

“Tom,” she whispers, and the baby gurgles. “Tom.”

She seems to have forgotten that Harry and his mum and dad are there, and cries and laughs as she talks to her son.

“That was a very good thing you did there, Harry,” his dad says.

“I didn’t do anything,” Harry says, confused, and James laughs.

“Yes you did.”

They sit in silence for a while again, then Harry asks: “Do I get to stay here with you?”

Lily smiles at him. “Would you like that?”

It seems strange, that he would have to think about his answer. Yes, he would like to stay here, with his mum and dad. It’s a wizard place where he can fly and play in the sun, who wouldn’t want to stay?

“Professor Snape’s going to be worried,” he says, not sure where the words came from. “And Draco and Hermione...”

He sneaks a look at his mum, afraid she’s going to be disappointed, but Lily just smiles. “You like Professor Snape, huh?”

Harry nods. “He’s my Head of House.” Remembering something, he looks up at his dad. “Are you mad that I’m in Slytherin? Ron said it’s only for evil wizards and witches…”

James glances at Lily, and there’s something in his eyes that Harry doesn’t understand. He puts an arm around Harry’s shoulders. “Sounds like Ron’s a bit of a prat, eh?”

“James!” Lily says, but Harry can tell that she’s not really angry.

“I’m not mad, son,” James continues. “I’m glad you have friends at Hogwarts. It doesn’t matter what House you’re in, as long as you’re happy where you are. I think in a few years Ron’s going to understand that, too.”

He looks back at Lily, and again Harry feels as if there’s something going on between them that they’re not saying aloud.

“Do you like Hogwarts, then?” Lily asks.

Harry nods. “I like sleeping in the dorms with Draco and the others, and eating in the Great Hall. Draco said I could come to his place for his birthday, and Hermione’s invited, too.” He leans against his dad, and thinks that it feels very nice, sitting here with his parents in this wizard place. “Are they going to come here, too, do you think?”

Lily runs a hand through his hair, and that feels nice, too. “Not for a while.”

Harry nods; he thought as much. “What about the baby?” he asks, glancing over at Tom and his mum. She is sitting in the grass singing a soft song to her son, her back to Harry and his parents.

It’s his dad who answers this time. “I think he’s happy here.”

“Yeah,” Harry says. “I think he should stay with his mum.”

Lily nods. “I think so, too.”

And Harry understands something, something he kind of knew all along. “But if he does, I’ve got to go back, right? Only one of us can stay here.”

“Yes,” James says. “One of you has to go back.”

Harry watches Tom and his mum. The baby seems to be falling asleep, listening to his mum’s lullaby. He probably wore himself out, crying so much before Harry came.

“I don’t think he has anyone back there,” Harry says, and the words kind of hurt in his chest, although he doesn’t really know why. “He’s too little to be all alone.”

“I think he is,” Lily says.

Harry nods. “I’ve got friends, though… I’ve got Draco and Hermione. And Professor Snape’s looking out for me…” He is silent for a while. “Will you be sad if I go back?”

James’ arm tightens around his shoulders. “We’ll miss you, son, but you won’t be gone. We’ll always be there with you.”

Harry doesn’t really understand this, but his dad seems to know what he’s talking about. Lily ruffles his hair again.

“I think there’s a lot you still need to do, and you shouldn’t miss out on it.” She smiles at him. “Severus has been looking out for you?”

Harry is confused for a moment, before he remembers that Professor Snape’s first name is Severus. “Yeah. He gave me a room of my own, and all. And he took us to Hogsmeade… Draco and Hermione and me, I mean. He stayed with me when I was in the hospital wing, too.”

Lily nods slowly, and her smile turns kind of sad, as if she remembered something. “Tell him… tell Severus I said thank you. For everything.”

“Okay.”

“Old Snape had better take good care of you,” his dad says, and Harry smiles, thinking that it’s going to be okay.

“Yeah, but I won’t tell him you said that.”

“No,” James laughs. “You’d better not.”

Harry looks over at Tom’s mum. She has gotten to her feet, her son in her arms, and is slowly walking away from the tree. A light breeze tugs at the baby blanket and her dress, and Harry sees that she, too, has no shoes on, walking barefoot through the grass just like he did.

“Where’s she going?”

“Home,” Lily says.

Harry nods, watching the woman as she walks away. He knows he’s not going to see her and Tom again.

“Do you think they’ll be okay?”

James watches her become smaller in the distance. “I hope they’ll be.”

Harry leans back against his dad, letting his mum tousle his hair so that it sticks up all over the place. It feels very nice, just like everything does in this place.

He’s going to sit here with his parents, just for a while, just so he can remember what it felt like. This is his, his to keep and never give away, no matter what. He’s going to leave, but not really, not where it counts, and it’s perfectly okay that he doesn’t really understand any of this.

It’s a wizard place, after all.