Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of this work of fiction and I am making no profit, monetary or otherwise, through the writing of this.

A/N: Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry assignment number 2, Philosophy: Hedonism and its Paradox, Task Three: "Write about someone facing negative consequences for overindulgence."

Warning: mentions of vomit for those who find that triggering, and perhaps people may take offense to the assignation of 'mother' based upon a characters actions.

"Mama, my tummy hurts." Harry held his arms up to Severus. His bottom lip trembled and tears threatened to roll down his cheeks.

"I thought we'd talked about this," Severus said, eyebrow arched, even as he reached down to pick the three and a half year old up and cradle him in his lap. His words were for James, his actions, for the little boy with the aching tummy.

James' lips twitched in amusement when Harry reached up to twine his fingers through Severus' long hair as he often did whenever he sought comfort. He never seemed to go to James for anything involving aches and pains, those Harry reserved solely for Severus. Calling Severus, mama, was, however, a rather new phenomenon. One that James had no inclination to discourage, if only to hear Severus' grousing over it.

"It's hardly my fault that Harry calls you mama," James said. "Besides, I think it's -"

"If you say, cute, James Potter, I will hex you," Severus said, glaring at his husband.

Pursing his lips to keep from laughing, James cleared his throat before saying, "As I was going to say, it's only natural for Harry to call you mama. After all, you are the one that he goes to whenever he needs one of his cuts or scrapes kissed well."

Severus ran his hand over Harry's stomach, rocking the little boy to help soothe the child's tummy ache. Severus had a churlish look on his face that James knew well. It meant that he was thinking over James' words and not liking where his thoughts were leading him.

Instead of addressing James' words, Severus turned his attention to the ailing little boy sitting on his lap. "Did you perchance eat some of Mrs. Weasley's cake this afternoon?"

Harry nodded, wide eyes filling with tears as he let out a little moan of discomfort. Thumb in his mouth, he rested his head against Severus' chest.

"And how many pieces of cake did you have?" Severus questioned, frowning down at Harry.

James often thought that Severus would make a good Auror, though he didn't doubt that his ability to garner truth through questioning served him well as a professor at Hogwarts. Now that the war was over and Voldemort was defeated, Severus had quit the spy business and James was more than a little grateful for it. He didn't miss the worrying that went along with his husband being out on the frontlines, nevermind that he, too had been on the frontlines as an Auror on the side of the light.

Harry held up one finger, and when Severus raised an eyebrow, he held up two fingers, and then bit his bottom lip as he, one by one, held up all of his fingers, save for the one tucked safely in his mouth. He dropped his gaze to his lap and inched away from Severus' chest.

"10 pieces of cake?" Severus asked, a touch of shock in his voice.

James felt a little shocky himself at the thought of Harry eating 10 pieces of cake. Despite the size of her family, Molly Weasley was not known to lack generosity in her portioning of food. Even he'd had to pace himself to finish a single slice of the generously portioned cake.

Harry shook his head, and James let out a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding, relief immediate.

"No, mama," Harry said in the most pathetic sounding voice their three and a half year old had ever adopted. "All pieces."

Blinking at his son's confession, Severus looked to James, but James had no idea what to do. The remainder of the cake that Molly Weasley had encouraged them to take home after her youngest's, Ronald's, birthday party had been, in a word, enormous. The thought that Harry had eaten all of it made him feel sick himself.

"Whatever were you thinking, child?" Severus asked.

Harry sniffed and buried his face in his hands. "It was good and I was hungry and I wanted cake," Harry said miserably.

Shaking his head a their son's antics, Severus gently pulled Harry to himself and continued to rub the boy's stomach. "That was a foolish thing to do," he said in a gentle voice. "You've made yourself sick."

Harry nodded and whimpered and clutched at Severus. "But it was sooo good," he said. "How can something so good make my tummy so angry?"

"Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing," Severus said, pressing a kiss to the top of Harry's head. "James, go fetch a calming draught and the stomach elixir for Harry, would you?"

"Of course," James said, envying, for a brief moment, Severus' status as 'mama' in their son's life. That is, until Harry turned decidedly green and, before either of them could so much as twitch a muscle, vomited all over himself and Severus.

"Don't just sit there," Severus growled at James as Harry wept openly now.

Spurred into action by the sounds of distress coming from his son and the look of revulsion on his husband's face, James jumped up from the couch and rushed to the pantry where they kept the potions. From the look on Severus' face, his husband was fairly close to losing the contents of his stomach as well.

By the time that James returned with the elixir and calming draught, Harry's heaving had ceased and his crying had died down to whimpers that tore at his heart. It was hard to believe that leftover birthday cake could lead to so much pain, but James recalled a time when he'd done something similar in his youth, except it involved firewhiskey and a dare. He'd been sick for days afterward, and hoped that Harry's dabble with overindulgence would not last as long.

"Took you long enough," Severus growled at him as he yanked the elixir from James' grip and administered it to Harry whose face had grown a sickly pale green in color once again. Thankfully the quick acting elixir seemed to do the trick and Harry's whimpering tapered off into a great sigh of relief.

"Sorry," James said, sitting down on the edge of the armchair and coaxing Harry into drinking the calming draught. "It wasn't where I thought it was."

Severus said nothing in return, though he did glare at James and then at the mess that Harry had made of the both of them, and blushing in apology, James uttered a charm, removing the vomit from Harry and Severus.

"That's better now, isn't it, Harry?" Severus asked, looking down at the little boy who once again had a fistful of Severus' hair.

Thumb once more locked securely in his mouth, Harry nodded and snuggled against his father's chest. Eyes at half-mast, Harry smiled and, before falling into an exhausted sleep, murmured, "Love you, mama."

With the crisis past, James rested his head on Severus' and wrapped an arm around the man that he loved. Severus may have had his doubts about being a good father, but there were no doubts in James' mind whatsoever.

"What is it?" Severus snapped, keeping his voice low so as not to wake the peacefully slumbering little boy on his lap. "I can feel the weight of your thoughts."

Chuckling, James kissed Severus' cheek and grinned. "I think I know why Harry calls you mama," he said.

"Because you think it's cute and have indulged him in this nonsense," Severus said. "It is clear that he gets this inclination towards indulgence in rash behavior from you."

James shook his head. "No, it's because you make him feel safe, like Molly Weasley does with Ron. And like all the other mamas Harry is familiar with, you are the one who chases away the boogeyman at night and cuts up his food for him to eat. You perform all of the duties that Harry sees mothers do. It's only natural for him to think of you as his mother, especially when all of his friends have both a mother and a father."

After a pause, James added, "And...I may have overheard Ronald Weasley call you Harry's mother, because you were cutting up Harry's food and fussing over him, and because you had long hair...whereas I..."

"Because of your short, if unruly hair, were dubbed as Harry's father," Severus said dryly.

Nodding, James placed another kiss on Severus' cheek, and one on Harry's forehead. "Don't worry, love. I'm sure he'll outgrow it in a few years."

It was, much to Severus' chagrin and James' delight, more than a few years before Harry outgrew calling Severus, mama. That Harry did so just to get a certain half smile from his rather dour father from time to time when he was much, much older, was just icing on the cake.