Year Two:
"What's Harry doing?" Lily asked as she snuck up on James, startling him into almost dropping the remote.
"Nothing!" James said quickly, randomly flipping the channel. "He's- nothing!"
Lily narrowed her eyes and tilted her head curiously at the high-pitched tone James got.
"Harry's still in Italy, isn't he?" she asked slowly. "With Juliana Zabini?"
James grimaced as he accidentally landed on the Sirius Channel and saw his friend curled up on a cell floor as Padfoot. He quickly flicked it back to the Harry Channel where his son was having an elocution lesson with Juliana Zabini.
Who, besides Lily of course, was the most stunningly attractive woman James had ever seen.
It was no wonder Harry kept stuttering.
Juliana called Harry 'my marvel', while Blaise was 'my love', and poor Harry went red every time she said it to him.
"He's, uh…" James ran a hand through his hair and gave his wife a sheepish smile while Harry's captioned inner thoughts revealed that he was not immune to Juliana's charms. "He's having a good break, I think."
Lily snorted and watched Juliana closely as she tried to correct Harry's (extremely adorable) unique pattern of speech.
"She's rather attractive, isn't she?" Lily said casually. "Thank God Harry's too young for her, I'd hate for him to be ex-husband number eight."
James didn't say anything, but he privately thought that if it had been up to him, he'd much rather have died at Juliana's hands than Voldemort's.
Don't look at her chest, she's not a fuckin trophy to be stared at.
And it seemed like his son agreed with him.
***
Lily and James had their friends over to celebrate Harry's birthday with them while Harry celebrated in the background.
"What's he gotten from his friends?" Gideon asked, his voice muffled slightly by a mouthful of birthday cake that Elaine very thoughtfully brought over.
"Your sister sent him treacle tarts," James told him. "Well, Ron did, technically, but I'm sure Molly made them. That woman always did have a knack for baking."
"And Neville sent him a little figurine, some sort of pureblood ally bullshit," Lily laughed. "Harry loved it."
"Oh! And Theo sent him an illegal book!" James said. "Harry disguised it as a graphic novel!"
"Hermione sent him a very sensible book on healing," Lily added eagerly. "Aaaand—"
"And Susan sent him a camera," Elaine smiled. "I saw her pick it out the first day of summer, she was so excited."
Not nearly as excited as Lily and James were to see their son get the first birthday gifts he'd received since Sirius bought him a broomstick for his first birthday.
"It was a very thoughtful gift," James told Elaine with a kind smile. "She marked it 'from your best friend'. Harry was smiling like a loon when he opened it."
"And guess what Sev got him?" Lily said to Dorcas, who would appreciate this gift the most. "A Led Zeppelin CD!"
"Ooh, which album?" Dorcas asked, her eyes lighting up to match Lily's enthusiasm.
"Houses of the Holy," said Lily. "And Harry's obsessed with The Crunge."
"A masterpiece," Dorcas sighed. "We used to watch their channel for a while, but it got rather tiresome watching Jimmy Page shag and smoke his way through London."
"Blasphemy!" Fabian cried. "The best part of the afterlife is getting an all-access view to watch Page on the tour bus!"
Elaine went pink while Lily and Dorcas fell over themselves giggling at Fabian.
"Snape gave him an owl too," James told Gideon quietly. "My kid didn't even have an owl."
Gideon clapped his shoulder. "He does now, mate."
Regulus shrieked when Juliana and Blaise present Harry with more gifts and Draco arrived in the middle of breakfast.
"There's my boy! He's been so excited to see Harry!"
Lily smiled indulgently at Regulus while her heart ached for him.
Regulus would have been a wonderful father in another life, a fairer life.
Lily's heart ached more for her baby though when he forced back his tears as he left the Zabini's house and thought of how nice it felt to have a home for a while.
She would have given him the best home ever.
They would have been best friends.
Instead, she had to watch as her son struggled through life through the screen of a telly.
Life was truly unfair.
***
James watched his son while he spent two weeks with the Malfoy's.
He didn't like it- not really.
Lucius was a slimy piece of scum that James had dueled once before. James had been in his Hit Wizard robes and Lucius hid behind a white mask.
It felt a lot like vindication when James' son kicked Lucius' arse in a duel.
Fabian had been thoughtful during their duel, and his brown eyes tracked Lucius closely.
"Lucius aged like a fine wine, didn't he?" Fabian grinned.
James hoped he'd been kidding, but Fabian had also found Tom Riddle to be physically attractive before he began slaughtering muggles for fun, so he thought Fabian probably had some sort of mental deficiencies when it came to attractive blokes.
And… and it wasn't bad, watching Harry fly around the Malfoy's posh quidditch pitch with Draco. In fact, it was one of the best times in James' life (existence?) to see his son's smile and see how much he loved to fly.
"That's my boy," James whispered after Harry caught the quidditch bug and began debating with Draco about different positions and tactics.
Regulus, of course, was a smug bastard about Harry wanting to be a seeker.
"Harry's got the right build for it," Regulus said over drinks that night when they compared the Draco Channel to the Harry Channel. "He could stand to gain some weight, obviously," he drawled, "but he'll be a hell of a seeker. Maybe even better than I was."
"Pft." James flipped his hand and then refilled their drinks. "Draco's not bad either. I think he'll be a damn good chaser."
"Of course he will," Regulus said with his nose in the air. "He is related to me, Jamie."
***
"JAMES!" Lily shrieked on Harry's last night with his friend Draco. "Hurry!"
James ran full speed to the sitting room and grabbed the back of the sofa in a white knuckled grip. "What is it? What happened? Is Harry okay?!"
Lily shushed him and turned up the volume on the telly while her stomach did somersaults.
"I found out why Voldemort went after your family."
"Oh, shit." James nimbly leaped over the back of the sofa to sit on the edge of the seat. "How'd he figure it out?"
Draco answered James before Lily could.
"I asked my father, he was part of Voldemort's inner circle at the time."
Harry looked to be as impatient as Lily was as he waved his hand, gesturing for Draco to go on.
"He said there was a prophecy. All they knew it said was; 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies'. Supposedly there was more, but the spy didn't get to hear it. Some seer told it to Dumbledore though, so he knows the rest."
Harry froze just as Lily and James did.
"He's never going to forgive Snape," James said flatly, a bitter taste in his throat. "I- I didn't even consider Snape's fucking death eater bullshit when he started helping Harry."
"I didn't either," Lily said softly while Harry mentally firmed up a plan on how to get to the ministry to hear the full prophecy. It was easy, when Severus was helping her baby, to forget that it was Severus who sent Voldemort in their direction. "Do you think he already fulfilled it? By vanquishing him when we died?"
James shook his head and reached out for her, placing his warm hand on her shoulder and rubbing it. "Maybe," he said doubtfully, "but the real question is- will Harry forgive Snape or not?"
Lily swiped at her face despite the lack of tears that she should have. "Maybe," she said, her voice just as doubtful as James' had been.
From all she knew about her baby- he didn't forgive and he never forgot.
***
Lily's new BFF Elaine arrived early the next morning, her hair in a single braid and her arms ladened down with a duffel bag and enough food to feed fifty people.
"Lily said we can watch the Susan Channel together while Harry's with Amy," Elaine said brightly as she tossed her duffel bag-
What the hell did she have in there? It wasn't like any of them ever had to shower or brush their teeth or use the loo? They could change their clothes with a snap of their fingers and conjure up any meal they wanted by blinking?
-on the floor by the sofa before carefully arranging the food on the dining table.
Elaine was sweet, kind and thoughtful and quiet, but James could never be as fond of her as he was of Amy and Susan.
Because Amy and Susan were the greatest people in Harry's life, in James' opinion.
Susan was always so observant of Harry, frowning and smiling as she watched Harry edge around Amy and grin about the bedroom Susan assigned him. James was also glad that the girls clicked on the Susan Channel so they could read her thoughts, because that girl was hilarious.
"Susan said you work for the DMLE," Harry told Amelia in the same falsely polite voice that he used on Minnie. "It must be brill, ma'am."
Harry hates the DMLE? What's he- ooh, Susan caught the look Harry sent her. Sneaky Slytherin with his secret plots. He's telling me about it tonight.
"She's very attuned to him," Elaine hummed. "But she never thinks about him romantically."
"Because they're twelve," Lily said primly, loathed to consider her baby growing up in such a way.
James grinned in his drink as he thought of himself at twelve. He'd already been head over arse in love with Lily Evans, so if Harry and Susan weren't having any romantic thoughts of each other, it was because there wasn't any romance in their future.
Which kind of sucked, because Susan Bones was wicked awesome.
James was literally bouncing on the sofa between Lily and Elaine on the day that Amy planned to take Harry and Susan to the ministry so Harry could see the DMLE.
Technically, Harry just wanted to break in to the Hall of Prophecies because he was an awesome little mischief maker, but he'd cleverly found a ruse so Amy would take him there willingly.
"I can't wait!" James cried when the girls laughed at him. "Harry can meet Kingsley, and Blue, and- Oh! Do you think Alastor might pop by? Lily! While they're traveling, switch to Alastor's channel! I want to see what he's doing!!"
Lily laughed, but obliged him with a quick flick through the channels.
"AH!" Elaine shrieked and covered her eyes when they intruded on a very nude Alastor hopping in to a shower on his one good leg. "Turn it off!" she cried. "My eyes!!"
Okay, but… James frowned and patted his own arse… why did Alastor have such a toned arse?
That was kind of unfair.
Lily winked at James, as if she knew what his frown was about, as she clicked back to Susan's channel.
"Kingsley!" James forgot all about his arse when his old friend stepped on the lift that Susan, Harry, and Amy were on. "Talk Harry into being a hit wizard!!"
James excitement died quickly as Susan took note of Harry's sudden terror of Kingsley. Harry had backed away from him and had his back in the corner and his hand in his pocket.
"I trained with your father, you know."
Harry looked startled by that and James' excitement was crushed rather completely at the sight.
"I'm- I'm going to go see Gid," James told Lily with a quick kiss to her cheek. He didn't want to see his son look so terribly disappointed in him.
He'd always, since the moment Lily said she was pregnant, wanted to be a man that his son could be proud of. He wanted to be a good role model, a strong parent, and someone that Harry would smile when he said: "That's my dad."
Instead, James left his son alone in a cruel world and now Harry didn't look like he liked James much at all.
"I'll tell you what happens," Lily said with an understanding smile. "Hey," she yelled at James as he walked to the door with slumped shoulder, "Harry loves you."
James nodded and tried to give his wife a grateful smile, but he wasn't feeling all that confident about his son loving him just then.
You should have made Sirius the secret keeper, he thought as he made his way to the elaborate mansion the twins shared. Maybe then he could have stayed alive long enough to make his son proud of him.
***
Lily and Elaine watched the Amelia Channel as much as they did the Susan Channel while Harry stayed at Bones Cottage.
Elaine was miserable, seeing her sister and her daughter laugh and joke and connect with each other while she was stuck in the afterlife. But Lily only had to see Harry's confusion over their relationship, his twitches when Amelia got to close to him, and his hollow eyes when Amelia was affectionate with Susan to know that it could be worse for Elaine.
Much worse.
Amelia was smart though- her keen eyes didn't miss a single bit of Lily's son's peculiar behavior. She wrote letters to Severus and Albus at night, asking about Harry's current guardianship.
Severus wrote her back, told her that Petunia Dursley carried Harry's guardianship 'much to his disdain'.
Albus ignored her letters.
And Lily mentally plotted Albus' death in her mind.
One night, a week after Harry secured the prophecy that made him an orphan, Amelia talked with him about his career aspirations.
And Harry, Lily's son, wanted to be the Minister of Magic.
"He'd be excellent at it," James said proudly. "Think about it, Lils, our baby- Minister Potter."
Lily liked the sound of that nearly as much as she was saddened by the changes Harry wanted to make:
"I'd set up a way to find muggleborns sooner, and move them to our world before they're 11."
"Why?"
"Muggles are dangerous, yeah?"
"Yeah," Lily agreed quietly, thinking over the many ways that muggles hurt her son in his short life. "But they can be wonderful too, baby."
Lily, Elaine, Dorcas, and Marlene shared wine while Amelia decided that Harry deserves a true vacation.
They laughed at how easily Amelia broke her own laws by confunding muggles and charming the children with spells to keep anyone from touching them.
Lily felt wistful at the adoration and respect that shone in her son's eyes when he looked up at Amelia and told her that the spells she taught him are 'brill'.
"Amy is brill," Dorcas laughed. "Look how happy the kids are! I've never seen Harry smile so much!"
Lily hugged Elaine since she couldn't hug Amelia and whispered how grateful she was for their family.
Because she had never seen Harry smile so much either and Lily could never repay Amelia for what she did for her baby.
***
"Place your bets, mates!" Gideon cried on the first night of Harry's second year at Hogwarts. "Will our little Harry be challenged our challenge someone?"
"He'll be challenged," Regulus said confidently. "The Lestrange boy wasn't happy with him last year, was he?"
James laughed as he thought of the way Harry scarred that kid's face. "Fuck him," he said firmly. "I hope Harry scars the other side of his face."
The guys all high fived each other when little Susan Bones ever so politely told Snape that it wasn't against the rules for her to sit at the Slytherin table for the feast.
James smirked just as his son did, pleased to see the spark of life and mischief in his eyes. They'd be dull and hopeless for far too long.
"Five points from all four houses for annoying me before the sorting has even started. And one extra point from Slytherin for Potter's tie being crooked."
It should have been annoying, but it wasn't. It was… it was kind of funny, Snape's snark.
"Why's old Sprout peeking over at them?" Marlene asked curiously. "Swap to Snape's channel!"
Since Harry was just listening to his friends talk about their summer, James did.
"They would be a very sweet couple in a few years though, wouldn't they? They remind me quite a bit of James and Lily."
"Awww," Lily gave James a sweet smile followed by a long kiss. "Sprout's trying to marry our son off, love."
James blushed, embarrassed by the twins' catcalls and pleased by Lily's kiss. "Well—"
"I am sure there is nothing a young man wishes for more than to find a partner who resembles his deceased mother."
James didn't want to laugh. He wanted to remember that Snape was the death eater scum that told Voldemort the prophecy and made his son an orphan. But, as his friends and wife all laughed, so did James.
Snape is a snarky bastard.
James laughed again, that night, after Snape gave his speech to the Slytherin's. Harry asked Snape if he could ask him for a favor and Snape squinted suspiciously at Harry.
It's probably something illegal.
"Probably so," Fabian laughed. "Harry's a little rebel, isn't he?"
"Is he a rebel without a cause or with a cause?" Dorcas asked.
James thought of Harry's life spent simply trying to survive and frowned. "With, definitely."
"I forgot to ask, did you decide on a name for that mad creature?" Snape asked Harry as Harry's new little owl fluttered on Harry's shoulder and hooted quietly.
"Yeah." Harry stroked his owl with more affection than James had ever seen him show anything in his life thus far. "Sevvie here ain't as much of a demon as you made him sound."
I will never again give Potter a gift.
"Yes he will," Marlene snickered. "Harry's got him wrapped around his devious little finger."
Marlene no more than said that before Snape corrected his own previous thought.
Or, at least, never again something that requires a name.
"I hope you are challenged this evening and someone slices your impertinent tongue from your mouth."
"Not likely sir, but you can cross your fingers, yeah?"
James laughed so hard that he spilled his lager on the floor.
Snape had no business being so damn funny.
"IT'S STARTING!" Lily shushed everyone and conjured up sweets and popcorn after she switched back to the Harry Channel. "Beat some arse, baby!"
James and Lily didn't used to be so violent, so eager to see their son be violent. But then they watched a sweet boy get beaten by Lily's disgusting relatives. They watched their son cry himself to sleep for years. They watched as their bright, happy, innocent son was defiled, scarred, abused, beaten, and (on some of the worst nights of James' life) used by men who wanted to further sully Harry's tiny and young body.
And now they wanted to see the world burn and they wanted to see their son spill all the blood they couldn't do on their behalf.
James held his breath as Harry's prefect called for the first challenger.
"Knew it," Regulus whispered when the Lestrange boy stepped forward, his scarred face twisted in anger.
"I challenge Ronald Weasley."
Regulus hissed, the girls booed, and the twins were irate.
"Oi! What'd Ronnie ever do to you?!" Gideon demanded, tossing a handful of sweets at the telly. "James! Make your kid help my kid!"
"I called dibs on Ronnie," Fabian says with a cuff to his brothers head.
"You can have Fred," Gideon laughs. "In fact, you take Fred and George and I'll take Ron."
"Dibs on Hermione," Marlene grinned.
"I want Frank Junior!" Dorcas laughed.
"SHUT IT!" James yelled. "Harry's going to be his second!!"
Harry leaned toward Ron and whispered in his ear. "Crucio him, yeah? Fuckin make him regret this."
"They're all destined for Azkaban," Gideon laughed. "Harry must have missed the 'unforgivable' part of those curses, eh?"
"Our son is not going to Azkaban," Lily said hotly. "In case you forgot, Gideon Prewett, that little arse tried to cruico my baby last year." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and stuck her nose up in the air. "I hope Ron kills him."
Ron did not kill him.
Ron got his arse handed to him while Harry paced and stressed and pulled his hair and growled and generally looked terrifyingly feral.
It wasn't entirely a fair thought to have, but James was pleased to see such a show of strong loyalty from Harry to his friend. After Harry was willing to sacrifice him on a chessboard last year, James had worried that Harry didn't care as much for his friends cared for him.
At some point, Harry heard his friend Theo tell someone that Lestrange didn't challenge him directly because he was 'completely mad and wicked powerful'.
I didn't even think Theo liked me much.
"He would be complimented by that," Regulus laughed fondly.
Harry tried to get Ron to drop out of the duel, but Ron refused and Harry scowled.
"Ron's got that Prewett stubbornness," Fabian grinned.
"Stupid git," Gideon laughed.
Lestrange won the duel after he sliced Ron's chest open. Harry healed his friend and immediately challenged Lestrange to continue the duel with him, as Ron's second.
"I decline."
"Then I challenge Zachariah Dolohov."
"Harry's going to kill those boys," Dorcas laughed. "Go, Potter, go!"
James' eyes were wide when Harry decided to forgo his dramatics in favor of causing Dolohov as much pain as he could.
"How long can someone stand a crucio before they lose their minds?"
"Eight minutes."
"Shame. I'm tired and don't want to do this that long."
"He's the best," Lily laughed.
James was too busy admiring his son's outrageous power to speak, but yeah. Harry was the best.
"You can thank Lestrange for this. Bleed."
Everyone held their breath, waiting for the spell to cause Dolohov to spurt red, but he only screamed and collapsed instead.
"Did it not work?" Dorcas asked curiously.
"I don't- oh, shit." Lily laughed and pointed at the girl that went rushing to Dolohov after they declared Harry the winner. "Internal. Harry's causing internal bleeding."
Harry got mildly distracted when Ron's little sister, Ginny, began crying and someone called for Snape to heal Dolohov.
Harry asked Ron if Snape was on his way, and Ron nodded nervously.
"Yeah, should be back any minute. Wanna head to the dorms?"
"Yeah, hold on, get ready to go. Hey Lestrange!"
Lestrange stood up from where he'd smugly been propped against the wall. "Sorry Potter, I'm not interested in a rematch and the rules say we only duel on the first night."
"And he's leaving this year," Regulus snarled. "He knew he'd get away with hurting Harry without having to face him again."
"Coward!" Gideon yelled.
Harry, clearly, didn't give a damn about the rules for the duels. "Yeah? Fuck the rules and fuck you."
"Now you have a matched set," Harry laughed coldly when the left side of Lestrange's face split from his hairline to his chin.
"Fuck," James breathed. He looked around at his friends. "Did you see that?"
The twins nodded silently and Regulus' lips slowly curled up into a smile.
"Harry's such a dick," Regulus said cheerfully. "Champagne, anyone?"
James accepted the champagne and they all toasted to Harry's cut-throat tactics while Snape healed Dolohov and muttered a lot about 'dangerous brats and their lack of decorum'.
James laughed so hard when Snape told Harry he wasn't allowed to carry his pocket knife anymore. For someone that James was beginning to see was rather intelligent, Snape was certainly an idiot.
***
Lily frowned that week when Harry began using dramatic evasive tactics to dodge the new defense professor, Gilderoy, a Ravenclaw four years below Lily and James.
Harry didn't like him, he didn't trust him. And every time Gilderoy winked at Harry, Harry felt sick to his stomach.
Which, in turn, made Lily sick to her stomach.
Lily did smile though when Harry took a shining to a little first year girl with stringy blonde hair and pretty silver eyes. The poor girl had been ganged up on by a couple of Gryffindor boys and Harry walked by, casual as could be, and flung them in the wall.
Lily sent a pointed look at James who had the grace to grimace.
The little girl looked at Lily's son like he was a hero, and James chuckled as he threw an arm around Lily's shoulders.
"Susan might have some competition, eh?"
Lily squinted hard at the girl, but Harry just rolled his eyes and stalked off with his little posse.
Lily didn't think Susan had any competition for anything, but she did think that little Blaise took as much of a shining to her son as the blonde Ravenclaw girl had.
When Gilderoy broke up a boiling fight between Harry and the little brat that called him a 'loser little orphan' last year, Harry went pale when Lockhart told Harry to walk with him to class.
And who stepped up immediately? Blaise.
Harry turned down his help, but Blaise stuck his hands and his pockets and sauntered behind Harry and Gilderoy anyway, keeping a safe distance.
And Lily wanted to laugh, she wanted to laugh so hard, when Harry looked Gilderoy dead in the eyes and said:
"I'd bet my vault that more people know me now than will ever know you. Did you defeat a evil murderer as a baby? No? I didn't think so."
He was so outwardly arrogant, but Lily couldn't laugh because his internal monologue was terrified.
He's going to hurt me. He's going to hurt me. Why can't I ever shut the fuck up?
"If he even tries, you go straight to Snape," James told Harry. "Snape'll take care of that moron for you, son."
Lily smirked at James, but he didn't see it as he watched Harry's defense lesson.
Gilderoy was obviously a fame hungry idiot, and Lily desperately hoped that Regulus wasn't watching the Harry Channel because Harry had an obscene interest in inferi and thought about how cool it would be if they were the deadly creatures Gilderoy claimed to have brought to class.
Only her baby would be thinking of how to weaponize inferi.
"Pixies?" Draco laughed by Harry and Susan's side. "Well, they're not — they're not very — dangerous, are they? I mean, Harry before coffee is scarier than pixies."
Bullshit. I'm scary after coffee.
Lily and James giggled at their son and then laughed so loudly that they couldn't hear the volume when a Hufflepuff boy said just that and Harry puffed his thin chest out proudly with a smug smirk.
Their laughter only increased when Gilderoy released the pixies and pandemonium broke out. Gilderoy saw Harry's silent shield he had up, protecting his friends from any debris or destruction that pixies were causing, and told Harry to take care of it before he all but ran from his classroom when the bell rang.
"Not a fuckin chance," Harry snorted, much to their amusement.
"I'm with Ron," James chuckled. "10 sickles says Harry gets rid of that moron by the end of the year."
***
"I'm so nervous."
"You're also an idiot."
"Shut up! This is the biggest day of Harry's life!"
"Is it?" Gideon raised a brow from his posh maroon recliner. "Not, oh I dunno, the day he gets married?"
James scowled as he got cozy on the twins' sofa. "Making the quidditch team is much more important than a wedding."
The twins both stared at James until he realized what he said.
"Er… don't tell Lily I said that…"
Regulus, who understood James' excitement and anxiety for the day, nodded sagely by his side. "Women come and go, quidditch cups are eternal."
"Says the bloke who died a virgin," Fabian grinned.
Regulus spared a quick look from Harry and Draco to stare nonplussed at Fabian. "When you go see your mother next time, do ask her if I died a virgin or not."
James grinned a little at Fabian and Gideon's sudden look of horror (Regulus had sarcasm down to a bloody recipe), but then Harry and Draco joined the quidditch team hopefuls and James yelled for silence.
The Slytherin captain, an ugly rat faced boy shaped like a troll, curled his lip up at Harry and shook a beaters bat at him. "No way, Potter, run along now. Unless you're trying out to be a bludger."
Harry's facial expression didn't change, but his thoughts became melancholy.
Yeah, that sounds about right. I should have known better. Just because my dad played, doesn't mean I can… would have been brill…
It wasn't appropriate, given the fact that Harry was so bitterly disappointed to not even be given a chance to tryout, but James' heart soared.
His son wanted to be like him.
"Harry's going to kill him," Gideon said, shaking his head at the captain. "Won't even give him a shot."
"Draco's handling it," Regulus smirked as Draco stepped forward with a cocky look on his face.
"Wanna make a bet?"
"What kind of bet?"
"If you let Harry tryout and don't immediately put him on the team, I'll buy you a Nimbus 2001."
"Well that's daft," Fabian scoffed. "Now he's going to say no just so Draco has to buy him a broom."
"Unless Harry's so good that he would rather have an excellent seeker than a new broom," Regulus said.
"He'd have to be pretty damn good," said Gideon.
"He is," James grinned. He watched his son kick off in the air with two other Slytherin boys, all three set to tryout for seeker, and Harry outshone them like the sun does the stars.
James loved to see Harry fly. Not just because it was something they both loved, a thin connection between them, but because Harry looked so free when he was flying through the air.
And all James wanted was his son to be free.
James cheered as loud as ever when the captain, Flint, apparently, begrudgingly spat out that Harry was the new seeker.
"GO HARRY!" James yelled. He wished that his son could know how proud he was of him. "I love you!"
"Hush now." Regulus swatted James thigh as he leaned forward. "It's Draco's turn."
James didn't want to hurt Regulus' feelings, but Harry and James were thinking the same thing as Draco tried out with the other hopefuls; Draco wasn't a bad flier, but he wasn't excellent just yet. And he'd just pissed the captain off on Harry's behalf.
But what did Harry do?
He bought Draco's spot on the team by bribing Flint with new brooms for the whole team.
And, as James considered how Draco bought Harry his first broomstick and introduced his son to the game that James once loved, James couldn't think of a better way for Harry to waste hundreds and hundreds of galleons from his vault.
***
Lily was on edge Sunday morning as she squeezed James' hand and watched the Severus Channel, waiting for her son to go ask for the favor he wanted on the first night.
"What do you think it'll be?" Lily asked James.
James chuckled and let go of Lily's hand to wrap his arm over her shoulder. "Something horrible and illegal, probably."
Probably.
But Harry didn't really like to ask for things, so Lily was as wary as Severus was when he opened his office door and saw Harry smiling so charmingly up at him.
James laughed at the way Harry loped so casually to a seat in front of Severus' desk and asked Severus if he drank coffee.
"I had it in Italy, it's brill. D'you want some?"
After Severus agreed, Harry grinned and said he had a neat trick then he bellowed for the little young elf he bought off Lucius over the summer.
Severus sighed and rubbed his forehead slowly as Harry ordered coffee and pastries for breakfast.
"Potter, students cannot call on the Hogwarts House-Elves."
"Right."
"So you cannot call Mavis to bring you coffee and food."
"Yes I can."
James and Lily laughed while Severus grimaced at Harry.
"Why? Because you're the famous Harry Potter?"
Harry clearly didn't appreciate Severus' disdainful comment, because he narrowed his eyes and informed Severus about how he'd come to have an 'acquaintance elf'.
"Severus just can't admit that he adores him," Lily laughed.
"Who wouldn't adore him?" James grinned, proud as a peacock of Harry as he explained how he wanted to free house-elves and give them all wands. "He's brilliant, Lils."
"You mean brill," Lily winked.
Severus looked down at the pastries Harry ordered them, and his thoughts went temporarily soft.
How did the brat know that I love these?
"Because he watches you as much as you watch him," Lily told Sev happily. "Oh, James, I really think that they could be so good for each other."
"If Snape doesn't fuck it up, yeah, maybe," James said slowly. "I don't like the prophecy hanging over their heads."
Lily didn't like it either.
They got quiet though after Harry and Severus finished eating and Severus asked Harry what favor he wanted. Harry, of course, wanted to know what Severus wanted in exchange first.
"I require nothing for you to ask me the favor. Depending on what the favor is- I reserve the right to request something in return for fulfilling it. Which I shall inform you of beforehand."
"He understands him," James muttered. "If Harry wasn't so good at occlumency, I'd think Snape was just reading his mind on the spot."
"They're remarkably similar," Lily said quietly, quite proud of her old friend. "Ooh, here it comes!"
"I need to use a pensieve."
No.
"No," James breathed. "Fuck. God damnit. Son of a bitch! No!"
Lily's face crumpled as Severus' thoughts spiraled when Harry told Severus, so eagerly, about getting the prophecy from the ministry over the summer.
"I don't know if I hope Sev doesn't tell him, or if I hope he does," Lily whispered.
James shook his head, conflicted as well.
It didn't matter though. Because Harry had instincts sharpened by a lifetime worth of horrible experiences.
"Was it you?"
Do not let him know, please. God, please.
"It was! You were the spy!"
"There goes that," James sighed. He slumped into Lily's side and she could sense the disappointment radiating from him. "The first person to give a damn about our baby, and it's ruined before he even found Harry a suitable home."
Lily couldn't even speak, she was so disappointed. She just watched with watery eyes as Harry jumped from his seat and backed away from Severus quickly.
If Lily and James were disappointed and devastated, it was nothing compared to the agony on Harry's face or the guilt twisting Severus' thoughts.
He wasn't guilty on Lily's behalf, he felt guilty on Harry's behalf. Which only made Lily's devastation for her son grow.
Severus crowded Harry, desperate to discover who told him about the prophecy, looking for a target to push his self-hatred on, and Harry raised a hand defensively in front of himself.
"I'll hurt you. I'm going to hurt you."
"Do it. Do you think I wouldn't deserve it? Do it."
They were both so hurt; it was like Lily herself was being stabbed seeing Harry's devastated eyes clash with Severus' desperate ones.
"I think he could have been good for Harry," James said sadly as Harry took off from Severus' office and Severus knocked over a bookshelf. "Harry seemed to really like him."
Lily swallowed the swell of grief in her throat as she read Severus' miserable thoughts.
He'll never trust me again. In fact, he might try and kill me.
I'd deserve it.
It would be fitting for Lily's son to kill me as I killed her.
"What's the use in holding a grudge when Snape hates himself enough for fifty people?" James said gruffly.
"No point at all," Lily said quietly. "I hate this."
Apparently Severus did too.
I will regain his trust if it's the last thing I do. And I'll start with the damn owl.
"Come along owl, let us return you to the owlery," Severus called up to cute little Sevvie.
"It'll never work," Lily said. "Harry's more stubborn than I am." She looked up at James and shared a look of misery. "Maybe Amelia will offer to take him in this summer? He seemed to like her, he even gave her a hug."
"Yeah, but Snape's a snarky bastard," James said. "Harry likes him more." He snagged the remote and flipped the channel to Harry's channel, wanting to check on his son. "And he— hey! Babe! Harry's in the owlery!"
Oh shit.
Harry was in the owlery. He was curled up in himself against the wall, his face buried in his knees and his hands tugging harshly in his hair.
And, after a brief minute while Lily's heart broke for the hundredth time for her baby, Severus stepped in.
"Let's see if Snape really wants to earn his trust back," James mumbled.
Harry mumbled in his legs, asking Severus if he followed him after Severus called out to him softly.
"No, I... I- I have your owl."
"Gonna take him from me too?"
"Oh, baby." Lily let James hold her tightly as they saw Harry look up and glare at Severus. "'Too', he said."
"I heard him," James said. He put the knuckles on his free hand against his mouth and stared so hard at the telly that the afterlife could crash on earth and Lily doubted if James would have looked away.
Harry looked back down at his knees and Severus hesitated by the door.
"Would you like me to fetch Miss Bones? Or one of your other friends?"
"I thought you were my friend."
Stupid thing to think. Why would he be my friend? Fucking idiot. Fucking moron. Stupid—
Harry's horrible inner thoughts were momentarily silenced as Severus spoke softly.
"I do not believe that I have the words to express to you how truly sorry I am. I... I have wished for a way to reverse time since the moment I shared the prophecy. I told you once that joining the Death Eaters was the worst mistake I ever made but I lied. Sharing the prophecy with the Dark Lord is the worst thing I have ever done."
"Oh." Lily groaned at the solemn sadness in Severus' voice and James moaned quietly as their son picked his head up and his lips were quivering and his eyes were watery.
Lily would give up anything, do anything, just to hold him in that moment.
"You can't get things you want just by wishing for them. It's better to not want things, then it never hurts."
"I hate that he thinks that way," James said. "I hate that I have more naivety and hope in me at twenty-one than our baby does at twelve."
Lily hated it too. And she hated every god damned person who made her son think that wishes were useless.
But she loved Severus for sitting down on the floor in front of Harry, right in the middle of the straw and mice bones and owl droppings, and spoke to him so calmly and so surprisingly openly.
"Regrets are a part of life. I believe my regrets are much worse than most and will haunt me through to the afterlife."
"I have regrets too. And they'll never go away, will they? They'll just be here forever, just like yours."
"What's Harry have to regret?" James murmured as Harry's inner thoughts were indecipherable and miserable. "He's never done anything wrong."
"I believe that your regrets, while possibly many, will fade with time. You have lived a life no child should be expected to and found a way to survive. You should feel proud, not regretful."
"You tell him," Lily muttered anxiously as her baby looked so bloody heartbroke. "We're all so proud of you, Harry."
"We love you, son," James added.
Harry couldn't hear them, but it helped sometimes to cheer him on and encourage him aloud.
Lily and James froze when Harry very softly admitted to Severus in a whisper:
"I killed someone once. Should I feel proud of that?"
"Yes!" James yelled, on his feet in an instant. "It was self-defense, son! You did good!"
"Don't ever regret it," Lily chimed in, saddened by her son's regret. "You probably saved other kids from that same fate!"
Lily just wished someone had saved Harry before it happened to him.
"What- who-" Severus' face was as shocked as Lily had ever seen it. "Will you tell me what happened?"
If Harry did, then their relationship could be patched up. But Harry didn't tell Severus what happened, he showed him.
Lily and James were silent as they watched Severus dive in to Harry's mind. Neither of them switched the channel; neither of them wanted to watch the day that Harry killed a young man again.
The first time had been horrifying enough.
James held Lily. Lily held James. They both watched tears trickle out of the corner of their son's eyes as he let Severus watch the memory.
When Severus pulled out of the memory, Harry cringed against the wall and pulled at his hair, looking half-mad with needless misery.
"How can I hate you for sharing a prophecy with your master when I... when I did that? I don't want to hate you... You were the first person who was ever nice to me just because. Now we're even, I know the worst thing you ever did and you know mine."
"Baby," Lily reached out for her son, hating that the cold telly screen would never let her know what his soft and sweet face felt like beneath her fingers, "That wasn't the worst thing you did."
"I didn't know he felt like that," James whispered around the knuckles he was biting harshly. "I- I was so proud of him."
Severus told Harry that he had used a similar spell in self-defense before, but Harry only shook his head.
"It wasn't self-defense. I'm a monster."
Lily thought she knew pain. She thought that she'd seen so many horrible things in Harry's life that nothing could ever hurt her so badly than his past did. Then Harry called himself a monster and Lily sobbed in James' side while Severus stared at her son so terribly sadly.
"Quit pulling at your hair, child." Severus said. He slowly put his palm on Harry's fist, undoubtedly trying to address the one thing that he could in that moment. "Let go."
And suddenly, just as James held Lily against his chest while she cried- Severus was holding Harry in a warm embrace while their son sobbed in his chest.
Which only made Lily and James cry that much harder as their son's tears soaked Severus' shirt and their sobs were dry.
"I can't believe he told him," James said brokenly as he cried just as hard, if not harder, than Lily did. "I- I can't believe it."
"Shh." Severus stroked their son's hair on screen just as Lily had always dreamt of doing. "You are no monster."
"I'm so proud of them both," Lily sobbed. She couldn't look away from where Severus was comforting her son.
She wished it was her.
"'M sorry," Harry said softly after he pulled himself together and inched away from Severus' arms. "I can fix it."
Severus and James both snorted after Harry flicked his wrist and dried the proof of his feelings from Severus' shirt.
"You would make an excellent house-elf."
"The Dursley's thought I was a house elf, but I wouldn't ever make Mavis live in a cupboard."
"Petunia always was an insufferable moron."
"Do you think Snape'll kill your sister?" James asked, his voice soft and curious with a little hopeful lilt to it.
"Fingers crossed," Lily said harshly.
If she couldn't do it, she hoped Severus would.
He wouldn't pull any punches- he would make Petunia suffer for what she did to Harry.
Lily was lost to a temporary vision of Petunia bleeding to death- slowly, painfully- and almost missed the deal being enacted on the screen.
"I will allow you to use my pensieve under two conditions. One, I would like to hear the full prophecy with you—"
"Change it to his channel," Lily instructed James quickly. "Hurry."
"— as you are no doubt aware, I only heard part of it."
And there, in bold captions at the bottom of the screen, Lily and James read exactly what she suspected (hoped) Severus had been thinking in that moment:
I cannot protect the boy if I don't know what fate has in store for him.
"He… damn," James swore. "He makes it hard to hate him, doesn't he?"
"Yeah," Lily breathed, nodding her head slowly. "He sure does."
Severus made it all the harder for James to hate him when he tacked on the second half of his request to Harry.
"And I would like to tell you a story and I would appreciate you listening before deciding whether you believe I am a worthwhile friend and ally to you."
"What story?" James said nervously. "What do you think he's going to tell Harry?"
"My father was a muggle, my mother an accomplished witch…"
Everything.
Severus sat on the dirty floor of the owlery and told Harry his entire life story. He spared no detail, he withheld no secret. He bared his soul to their baby so that Harry could judge him fairly.
And, as Lily rested her head on James' shoulder, Harry slowly rested his head on Severus' shoulder.
In the end, when Severus had finished his tale of tragedy, of abuse, of loneliness, of his triumphs and his failures, James was trembling with heartache for his old enemy, and Harry looked up at Severus so solemnly.
"Everyone deserves a second chance," he said right before he gave Severus a quick hug.
"Yeah." James nodded and held his wife tight. "You tell him, son."