"Hey Harry, you need to drink this potion now, it doesn't taste good, but I grabbed this bacon roll you can eat after." James said, holding a vial of a dark coloured, thick, shimmering potion and a small roll of bread with 2 pieces of bacon in wrapped in a beige napkin.

"Okay." Harry said, reaching a hand out for the vial which James gave to him pretty easily considering the awkwardness of holding two things in the same hand.

James kept a close eye on Harry as he pulled the cork, hoping to make sure that Harry didn't spill any or break anything, but Harry had almost expert level skill. Harry drank it all in one go, which impressed James, while, admittedly, he had never had one of those potions before, but he knew from experience in the Hospital Wing that the only potions she had that tasted remotely good was the sleeping potions, which were always sealed behind her magic until she gave it to a student. Harry tried to keep his face still as he was clearly very aware of the bad taste, and he did not manage to keep his face straight.

"Did it not taste good?" James asked with a small chuckle, handing Harry the bacon roll which Harry grabbed and immediately bit off the end.

"No..." Harry said a little hoarsely, then going back to ripping the bacon roll and eating it as fast as he could.

"Hey now, don't eat too quickly, you'll get indigestion." James said, noticing how quickly Harry was eating.

Harry didn't say anything, but looked at James as his cheeks were still full of food, his head tilted to the side. James struggled not to laugh at how cute Harry's response is.

"It's when you don't chew your food properly and it hurts a lot so your body doesn't digest your food properly." James explained. "Just eat more slowly and you'll be fine."

"Okay." Harry said, his mouth still full, James deciding this wasn't the moment for him to tell him not to talk with his mouth full.

"It's Transfiguration first, the teacher is called Professor McGonagall, she seems strict, and she is, but she's also very nice. Just do your best not to disturb the lesson and you'll be fine." James said, once Harry had finished eating. They had left breakfast early as it was too loud for Harry and he didn't like all the attention.

Harry didn't respond to James though, looking a little pale and squeezing his eyes shut. James was worried, especially as Harry was pushing his head into James' chest. James turned around, hearing small groans from Harry, but there was nobody around them, the rest of the Marauders staying in the Great Hall to eat more.

"Harry, are you okay? How are you feeling?" James whispered, starting to walk a little faster, but heading towards the Hospital Wing this time rather than the Transfiguration classroom.

"It's spinning." Harry whined, clutching the stag close and holding his eyes closed.

"Okay Harry, we're going to Mme Pomfrey, please try to stick with it." James said, trying to keep his voice gentle through his stress and worry, walking as quickly as eh could, trying not to jostle Harry too much as he rushed to get him checked out.

"Mr Potter," Mme Pomfrey said, standing outside the Hospital Wing as though waiting for them. "I realised I forgot to tell you about side effects of the potion I gave you for Harry. It makes the person feel extremely dizzy, and hasn't been changed in years due to it being needed so rarely, there's also no alternative."

"Is there anything you can do to make this easier for him?" James asked, holding Harry as securely as he could, hoping to make it feel a little safer for Harry.

"Unfortunately no, it predates a lot of modern medicinal potions and responds badly to all sleeping or painkilling ones." Mme Pomfrey said, crossing her arms. "All he can do is relax into the dizziness and try to sleep. Harry, you can stay here if you want and sleep on a bed."

"No." Harry said, turning to press his face into James' chest, rather than the side of his head as he had before. "I wanna stay with daddy."

James' breath hitched, it was the first time Harry had called him dad or anything of the sort, and it made him so happy. Of course, it was the worst possible situation to be called daddy for the fist time, his child being ill and scared, but he couldn't help but feel accepted.

"Don't worry, Harry, you can stay with me. I've got you, you're not going to fall. Try to go to sleep." James said gently, kissing Harry on the forehead. In a form of goodbye James looked up at Mme Pomfrey and said, "I need to get going to Transfiguration"

James walked rather quickly in an attempt to stay ahead of most of the people heading to classes, and in hopes to not be late himself, but he was sure Professor McGonagall would accept that he was concerned about Harry as a genuine reason for being late.

"Where were you, Mate?" Sirius laughed when James joined them outside the door to the classroom.

"The potion Harry took has serious side effects Mme Pomfrey forgot to mention so I had to go ask if there was anything that could be done to help." James said with a sigh, noticing that Harry was holding the stag looser than he had before.

"So was he given a sleeping potion then?" Remus asked, looking at Harry's for once relaxed body language, though his face was still hidden in James' robes.

"No, no potions can combine with the one he was given to help recover his magic, he just had to deal with it. He wanted to stay with me rather than stay in a bed in the Hospital Wing." James said, looking down at Harry and smiling slightly. "And he called me Daddy."

"Oh Daddy!" Sirius said with a smirk, leaning on James' shoulder making James shake him off with a disgusted face.

"Yeah, it's not nice to hear it from you." James said, standing so Peter was between him and Sirius to try to stop it happening again. "You're not a small child."

Sirius just laughed as they were all let into the classroom. James was slower about getting into the classroom than most of the others as he was trying to be careful with Harry, he definitely seemed to be asleep, and James wanted to try his best to not wake him up or have him fall into an uncomfortable position.

It was far from easy to keep an eye on Harry and take notes at the same time, and even if he didn't try to pay attention to what position Harry was in it was more awkward to write with a person on his lap who would often lean on his arms, even if James adjusted him to sleep resting against his chest. That being said, James was glad it was only a theory lesson, he definitely didn't want Harry to get hit accidentally by a Transfiguration spell gone wrong.

"Your notes were messier than normal." Remus said, his tone only half annoyed as they left, the class splitting in two, the Gryffindors heading to the dungeons for Potions and the Hufflepuffs heading outside for Herbology.

"You try writing neatly with a small child sleeping on your lap." James said, rolling his eyes.

"You could have put him next to you." Peter suggested, seeming glad that James was walking slower because of Harry, because usually he was trailing behind the others due to having shorter legs than the others, and Remus always walking like he was in a hurry.

"Absolutely not, there's not much room, and besides he would still have to be leaning on my arm." James said, sticking his nose in the air.

Harry let out a small groan as he started to wake up, his eyes seeming oddly bright as he opened his eyes sleepily. He looked around a little confused, holding onto the front of James' robes.

"Hey baby, you feeling better?" James asked, kissing the top of Harry's head gently.

"Mhm." Harry nodded, burying his face in James' robes as people looked at them as they walked past. "Not spinny anymore."

"That's good baby. It's Potions next, then we have a break." James said with a smile, playing with Harry's hair, loving how soft it was.

"Okay." Harry said, with a small nod, moving his head to look up at James' face.

"Depending on what we're doing you may not get to be next to me because the potions can be dangerous, but I'll make sure I can be near you." James promised, feeling a little guilty about not being able to keep Harry close to him given how obvious it was he wanted to be.

Harry made a small upset noise, leaning his head against James again. He wasn't arguing with what he was told, but it was obvious that he didn't like the idea of having to be away from James. But if it was a dangerous potion then students couldn't sit down so they could easily get away if the potion goes wrong, and Harry wouldn't be able to see if he wasn't on a stool and James wasn't sure he would be able to pick Harry up in time if something went wrong.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but it's for your own safety." James said, giving Harry another small kiss on the top of his head.

A piece of paper folded up into a paper plane hit James on the side of the head. James feeling slight magic flowing through it, an ability he didn't have consistently, and Sirius would never believe he had. Unfolding it he saw it was a note from Professor McGonagall telling him to bring Harry to her office during the break, and to not worry, they weren't in trouble.

"Hey, Harry, after Potions we need to go see Professor McGonagall, she has something to talk about with us." James said, still holding the letter as he wrapped that arm around Harry again.

"Looks like someone got themself in trouble." A Slytherin who at least seemed to be friends with Severus Snape said, smirking at James as they leant against the wall looking like they wanted to come across as uncaring, but they couldn't stop giving softer glances at Harry.

"Thanks for worrying about us," James said sarcastically, deciding it was the best to act like he thought it was genuine concern rather than being offended or bite back and make Harry uncomfortable, who was already mostly hiding behind James' robes that he was pulling forward so he could still see the blond haired Slytherin. "But it's nothing like that, I think she has something for Harry."

"Typical Gryffindors, playing favourites like always." Snape said, waving his hands around like he wanted to be part of a muggle drama club.

"Hark who's talking, Snivillus!" Sirius spat, glaring at Snape. "You'll never give anyone who isn't a Slytherin a chance, unless you stalk them since they're seven."

"What do you know about me?" Snape growled, loosing his cool immediately.

"Padfoot, not in front of Harry. And, for your information, Harry hasn't been sorted, so there's no Gryffindor favouritism, only affection for a young child." James said with a rather forced smile.