James honestly didn't know what to make of the situation he had found himself in and if he thought Sirius was going to be any better, he was definitely wrong. With the woman collapsing to the ground at the sight of blood, her small dog growling as anyone made any attempt to near her body, it was turning into a further mess. However, in the midst of it all, Harry had found a source of amusement as he clapped his hands together and laughed. Perhaps as a toddler, he wasn't picking up on the social cues that it was a stressful situation for everyone involved, but at the same time, James was thrilled that his son wasn't crying or distressed.

Sirius obviously had enough of the small dog barking at him and subdued him with his wand, stunning the dog as it fell over with a yelp. James was about to scold his friend for using magic in the public eye, until he noted that the woman who had collapsed, also had a wand on her person.  She was a witch, one that he had never seen before, even though she didn't appear to be much younger than he or Sirius.

"It's not that bad of a bite," Sirius assessed the situation as he propped the woman's body to sit up in his arms, " nothing more than a scratch. I wonder what made her go down like that?"

"I think it was the blood," James answered as he carried Harry in his arms, "you might want to check the back of her head, see if she hit when she fell. Do you think we should bring her to St Mungo's?"

"What? So they can laugh at us for not being able to mend a simple scratch? Come on, Prongs," Sirius shook his head, " I think we can manage a little dog bite."

Sirius was right, an injury that small was easily fixable, but James found himself just wrapped in a whirl of panic. He didn't know what she was going to make of it all when she finally woke up, it wasn't every day that someone came upon an animagus in the park and certainly, it was rare for a household pet and an animagus to get into a fight of sorts. Before Sirius could mend the side of the woman's face, she began to stir, groaning as she went to lift her hand to the back of her head.

Seeing that her hand was bloody from where she had touched the side of her face, not to mention her bloody cheek, James was fast with his wand, using the Tergeo incantation to clear away all the blood in hopes that she wouldn't faint again. Sirius followed with Episkey to remove any signs of the incident ever happening. With Sirius' help, she was able to remain upright as her eyes fluttered a bit, trying to gain focus of the scene around her.

"Are you alright?" James was the first to ask. "You took a nasty spill there."

"Uh, yes," she replied, looking highly embarrassed to be on the ground, " I, um, I'm fine. Is your son alright?"

The two adults turned their gaze to the happy Harry that was situated in his father's arms and James remembered that he had accused the woman's dog of going after Harry during the chaotic moment.

"He's fine," he told her, " but really, are you-"

"Yes, yes, yes," she waved her hand to dismiss anymore discussion of her injuries. But as she went to stand up, it was clear that she was still a bit wobbly as she nearly fell right over, until Sirius grabbed her by the back of the robes to steady out her balance. One of her hands remained resting on the back of her head, and she truly looked shameful of herself as she stood in front of the two men as if she were a scolded child.

When she looked away from them, red in the face, she spotted the state of her dog before making her way over to it.

Clearing his throat, Sirius took a step forward to explain what had happened. "I had to stun your dog temporarily, just so he wouldn't keep trying to attack when I was helping you. That's a crup pup, isn't it?"

Lifting the dog into her arms, the woman looked over her shoulder at him before nodding her head. "Please, he is really younger and my brother and I are still working on his training. He would never hurt your boy, he is only dog aggressive but I think with socialisation practice, he can grow out of it. And if not, I will never bring him to the park again. I just ask that you do not report him to the Ministry-"

James suddenly felt like he had been hit with the stunning spell himself as it was the last thing to cross his mind about reporting the crup pup to the Ministry. But that seemed to be the main concern of the woman and she looked entirely worried over the situation.

"The bite was not even that bad, " she continued her rambling, " I just have a fear of blood, I either get sick or I faint at the sight of it."

A nervous little laughter escaped from her as she hoped she was easing the tension over the situation. But most of that was forgotten for a few seconds as James and Sirius were just trying to figure out her accent as she obviously was not from their neck of the woods.

"I think we can move past all of this, no harm was done," Sirius said, " well, unless we count your cheek, but we won't count that if you don't. Right, James?"

All the attention fell on him at that moment, even Harry had turned his head to await his father's answer. He couldn't even figure out what the question that had been asked of him as he looked around with a clueless expression. As he looked over at Sirius, his friend gave him a look that told him to hurry up and answer, with an encouraging nod.

"Uh, yes?"

"Oh, fantastic!" She clapped her hands together, looking very happy with the agreement. As she clapped her hands together, Harry looked directly at her, with a bright smile before clapping his hands.

"Again?" he prompted her. "Again? Clap!"

James didn't even know the woman's name and yet, within seconds of Harry's request, she had a bright smile on her face and after adjusting the dog in her arms, she started clapping her hands. Harry was beyond thrilled as he clapped his hands and kept chanting "again" over and over to keep her going. Within moments, the two of them were absolutely hysterical with laughter and Sirius and James suddenly didn't exist. Suddenly, Harry lifted out his arms, his way of requesting that he wanted to be in the woman's company.

For a moment, the laughter and clapping died down as the woman looked at James as she didn't know what to say or do.

"I'm sorry," he said with a shake of his head, " I never got your name."

Her hand shot out, nearly hitting him in the face as she went to introduce herself. "Renata Abate, it is nice to meet you..." Her voice trailed off as she didn't know his name.

"James," he answered, reaching one of his hands out as he shifted Harry into one arm, " James Potter, and this is my son, Harry. And my best friend, Sirius Black."

He watched the confusion wash over her face for a few moments, her eyes trailing back and forth between him and Harry, occasionally over in the direction of Sirius. He was about to ask her once more if she was alright when her eyes suddenly widened and she clapped her hands over her mouth, only to drop the dog from her arms to the ground. That seemed to be the little boost the dog needed to come out of his stunned state as it yelped and was back on all fours.

It was then that James saw her gaze trail right over to Harry's scar that was exposed. "Oh, I did not realise, it is very nice to meet you. Actually, it is an honour, I...I am sorry, I do not wish to make things weird, I have just heard so many things, great things about Harry."

He knew he should have been used it to by then, after all, wherever James went in public, people praised his son, he was the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry wasn't even three years old and people wanted to come up to him and shake his hand, they wanted to see the scar on his forehead, they wanted to see the boy that held the title of being the one to defeat Lord Voldemort.

"But," Renata continued, " I am so sorry for your loss."

Things grew even quieter and Sirius had a worried look on his face as he didn't know how to react or how James was going to react at that moment. Since the evening it happened, James didn't talk about Lily, at least, not out loud to anyone. They knew he cried, they knew there was a lack of sleep, but he wouldn't talk about her.

However, no one understood how much Renata's words meant to James because no one besides the members of the Order had ever come up to him and told them they were sorry for his loss. They were all too wrapped up in the idea of Harry being the Boy-Who-Lived, they didn't understand that while he lived, his mother had been killed in the process. A wife, mother, and friend were all lost on the same night and people seemed to neglect that completely.

"Thank you," James responded in a genuine tone of gratitude, " thank you so much."

Harry had just about enough of the conversation as he simply wanted to continue the game of his clapping as he placed one hand over his father's mouth and looked at Renata.

"Again?"

After James gave the two permission, he sat on the bench with Sirius, with Renata sitting in the grass right before them with Harry and the dog, Enzo, right next to her. They were happily clapping their hands and Harry was practically red in the face laughing so hard as the woman paired her clapping with making faces at the boy. 

"Your son is a complete flirt," Sirius grinned, " look at him go."

It was a little weird, James had to admit, to have a woman they had just met playing with his son, but for Harry, James would do everything to make him happy. So if Harry wanted to sit in the grass and clap his hands with Renata, who seemed friendly enough, he was going to permit it. Since the dog, Enzon had come to, he had remained mostly still and quietly, only silently observing from Renata's side as she played with the child before her.

Harry was no longer sitting as he pushed himself up and made his way over to lean against Renata's shoulder as she had picked up several dandelion flowers and started blowing them. He seemed mesmerised by the sight of the seeds of the flower flying away aided by her breath. He would keep leaning in until she turned to face him.

"Do you want to try it, Harry?" she asked, holding up a flower towards the little boy's face. He eagerly nodded his head and attempted to blow the flower seeds away, only to end up mostly spitting all over Renata's hand. She didn't seem bothered though as she started laughing and held up another flower for Harry to try again. It went on and on and he continued to fail at it miserably.

But it was great entertainment for the adults as they couldn't help but laugh at Harry's attempts.  Even Sirius was surprised by the amount of laughter that was coming from James' end as it had been a long time since he had heard James laugh in such a way.

The laughter grew for both Potters when Renata grabbed one of the dandelions to give Harry a demonstration, but as she went to take a deep breath to blow, she ended up inhaling some of the seeds causing her to make a choking sound. While James thought she was just playing, Harry didn't know the difference and it had both of them laughing. Fortunately, for Renata, it was Sirius who noticed that the woman wasn't really playing as he offered the woman some water.

It was bittersweet to watch the interaction between Harry and Renata because while Harry had always been a friendly child, it seemed that he had really attached himself to the woman he had just met and James figured there had to be more to it. Lily had really been the only woman present in Harry's life, especially since they had gone into hiding and there wasn't really another one that had been present since her passing. Harry had his father and his uncles, but not even an aunt to turn to.

He did have one biological aunt by the name of Petunia, she was Lily's sister, and she was also a wretched cow. Before Harry was born, Lily and Petunia had their falling out which had been stemmed back from their childhood. It started far back when the Evans family had discovered that the youngest was a witch. It had led the sisters to become distant and as the years went on the relationship between the two had just become completely strained. When Petunia ended up dating a man by the name of Vernon Dursley, Lily had tried to smooth things over with a dinner but even that hadn't gone well.

James blamed himself for a lot of it as Vernon and he had just ended ruining the whole evening with their arguing, which ended with Petunia storming off and Lily crying for the rest of the night. She didn't come out and say that it was his fault that the night had ended on such a note, but it was the look she had given him when they arrived home before leaving to the bedroom and closing the door for the rest of the night. She didn't bring it up but James promised her from the other side of the door that he would try harder next time.

Once again, things didn't go the way they were supposed to and the next time they saw Petunia and Vernon, it was at Dursley wedding where Lily wasn't even invited to a bridesmaid. James carried too much guilt that evening, knowing that she hadn't been part of the wedding party because of him. A wedding was supposed to be a happy occasion, but there was nothing happy about that wedding night when they returned home.

And after Lily had passed away, it was another incident that James' mind dwelt on. If she had ended up with someone else, would they have made a better impression? Would they have helped mend the relationship between Lily and her sister? That would have brought Lily happiness, James was sure of it, and it only left him with the idea again that he couldn't bring Lily the happiness she deserved when she was alive.

So wrapped up in the thoughts of his late wife, James wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings until Sirius nudged his side. When he looked up, he followed where Sirius was pointing, only to see that Harry had fallen asleep in Renata's lap, his head resting against her chest as he had made himself completely comfortable.

"I think he winded himself," Renata whispered in his direction, " too many flowers and clapping. It's a lot for a little boy."

James opened his mouth to respond but at the same time, he couldn't bring himself to speak right away as he watched Harry's hand holding onto Renata's hair and all he could see in that moment was Harry reaching out to play with Lily's hair shortly after her passing because he didn't understand what had happened to his mother at the time.

Before anyone could say or do anything, James picked himself up and moved away after excusing himself for a moment, telling Sirius to stay behind and just remain with Renata and Harry.

He needed a moment to gather himself.