"Oh, look at you!" Lily had told herself she was going to be cool and she wasn't going to do anything strange or embarrassing, but being faced with her very grown son, that was all but forgotten.
Lily saw it immediately: how strongly he resembled James, but at the same time how his eyes were her. It was incredible how she could see herself and his father in him so clearly, so much more than she'd been able to when he was just a baby.
Unable to help herself, she reached out now to touch the side of Harry's face. She wanted to hug him, but she stopped short of that. She loved him instantly, just as she had his younger self the moment she'd know she and James were going to be parents. There was so much she wanted to say to him that she didn't know where to start.
"I'm sorry," was what she said a moment later as she forced herself to pull her hand away.