Defending Heart

Chapter 6: Potions Class

"So you're getting a divorce?"

Harry and Hermione sit side-by-side in the Great Hall, on a particularly sunny Sunday afternoon when it's quiet and most students are outside. Across the table James stares, eyes narrowed in irritation, masking his shock as he processes their ridiculous explanation. The rest of The Marauders stand by the doorway, eavesdropping through a recording device James charmed into his wand before the conversation. No secrets between them, despite his parents' insistence they speak alone. He isn't sure how to respond other than complete impassion, knowing how loving his parents are, there has always been tension. Especially when it comes to his mother and her 'betrayal' an ambiguous term they use as they tell him, filtered in place of what they actually mean to say.

James expects it has something to do with his father's odd reaction to his student record.

"Not exactly..." Hermione sighs, rubbing the back of her neck as she exchanges worried glances with Harry. Both feel sympathy for their son, having sprung this upon him without warning or preparation, a shock that could topple his entire self. Everything they've tried to give him over the years by doting on him possibly destroyed. "We're taking a break. Separating, living in different places for a while. We're still married, just not together,"

"But you're staying married cause you still might get together?" His voice is monotone, no hope behind it. Defeated.

"Well, yes,"

James stares at them both, chin lifted in arrogance as if staring at Severus. He admits, his parents are more immature than he thought, and whatever respect he had for them has been replaced by disapproval at their egregious, childish behaviour. "You're both cowards. You know that right?"

"James-" Harry protests, but is silenced as his son raising a hand.

"No, don't defend yourselves. I get it, if you need to take time apart then do it. But don't act like you're just going to take a 'break' and that'll fix whatever's wrong. I don't know everything, since you won't tell me, but I know enough that you don't need a breather, you need to move the Hell on," he stands up, pushing his chair in, wooden legs screeching against the stone floor. "People don't come back stronger from a break. It pushes them further apart - you'd both know this if you didn't marry your high school sweethearts at 20. You've never been in love - you're just misplaced friends!"

He glares at them, turning on his heel and briskly walking from the room, flinching at every noise in case it's their pitiful objections. Mentally preparing himself to never look back, not to his old life of the relationship he observed as doomed from the start. His parents got together at 17, of course in their mid thirties they drift apart, no longer reliant on clinging to what bonded them. Battling and ultimately defeating Voldemort, a bond so strong created from that with an intensity mistaken for love. Best friends stuffed into ill-fitting roles they didn't know better than to accept. James is just baffled it didn't end sooner.

"I can't believe how insightful our son is," Hermione whispers in disbelief. Harry shakes his head.

"I can. Remember the wolf boy?"

"Hm, you're right,"

*

James steps from the Great Hall into the silence of the corridor. He rests his palm against the cool stone, calmed by the refreshing tingle it sends through his hand, like soothing ice water when hot. The remaining Marauders stay silent, watching him and waiting for a reaction, shocked speechless by what they've heard. Until Sirius, who's closest to James, wraps his arm around the Potter's shoulders. "C'mon, we'll be late to detention,"

Each member of The Marauders had gotten detention for skipping Potions, so of course their detention is with Professor Slughorn in his potions class, catching up on the missed work while the Advanced students practice.