HALCYON ⟶ James Potter

Chapter Twenty-Four

"What? What's wrong?" he asked her as he reached for his glasses off the nightstand. "Are you alright? Is Harry-"

"No, everything is fine, James," she reassured him, " sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up but someone was knocking on the door downstairs. You weren't expecting anyone, were you?"

Still cautious due to his past experiences, James found himself quite alert at the idea of someone showing up announced. Usually, Sirius just let himself in and everyone else made plans in advance if they were coming over unless it was an emergency of some sort. Quickly, he pushed himself up from the bed and grabbed his wand to head downstairs. He told Renata to remain upstairs while he investigated, but she didn't seem to agree with the request.

Instead, she followed him to the stairs and remained halfway up so that she could see who was at the door. Thankfully, Harry was still asleep in his room or he would have been curious to investigate himself.

James approached the door with caution, but when he opened up the two of them were relieved to see that it was Remus, with a sleeping Huxley over his shoulder. However, the relief didn't last very long as Remus didn't seem to be in a very cheerful mood and normally, he would have Huxley home to rest instead of dragging him out of the house.

"Moony," James greeted him as he allowed him inside, " are you alright?"

"I-I'm not sure to be honest," Remus told him as he walked in, " I mean, I think I am, but I don't know."

Renata made the rest of her way down the stairs, offering to take Huxley upstairs so that he could continue sleeping. As he was transferred over, he opened his eyes a bit, only to give Renata a small smile before he snuggled into her shoulder. She was about to head back upstairs when Remus plopped down on the sofa and revealed the real reason as to why he was there.

"Maris left."

She froze just before her foot hit the first step and at the same exact moment James nearly stumbled over his own two feet while was making his way over to sit next to Remus.

"What?!" The two of them replied in unison, only to flinch as they realised that Huxley was still in their company. He remained asleep though and Renata promised she would be right back.

Once Huxley was tucked away in Harry's bed, the two of them latching onto each other, Renata made her way back down to find James attempting his best to console Remus. It didn't seem to be working very well though as Remus seemed to be on the verge of tears. But it wasn't James' fault, Remus was just reaching his breaking point. Just when he believed to find some form of personal happiness, the image of it had shattered.

"Remus," she said in a soft voice as she came to sit on the opposite side of him, "what happened?"

"It's like I told James," he began, " I thought we were fine, you know, happy. Huxley had both of us together again and it was going to be like being back on Lunar Island. But it wasn't, or it was, or I don't know. Regardless, I just wanted her to spend a little bit more time with Huxley and me. I didn't think I was asking her for much, but maybe I was. Basically, she wanted to focus on her work. She said she wasn't ready to be girlfriend, let alone a mother to Huxley."

"Oh," Renata took a moment to process everything, "oh Remus, I'm so sorry."

"And I'm not angry with her, I think," Remus told her, " I just wish I knew sooner and I don't know what to tell Huxley. He was so happy when she came to stay with us again, how can I explain to him that she's not going to be around anymore? We were getting in the way of her work, she wants to keep fighting for the rights of werewolves, I guess she didn't want to live with them."

"Remus, it sounds like you're blaming yourself," she said, "and that's the last thing you should be doing."

"Were we not good enough in her eyes-"

"No," James interjected in a firm voice, " you know that's not true."

All throughout their schooling, James remembered where Remus would constantly put himself down, believing he wasn't good enough because of his lycanthropy. He would find ways to speak about how horrible he was or how he didn't deserve things. And when he, Sirius, and even that traitor bastard Peter had managed to accomplish becoming animagi, James thought he would see how much Remus meant to all of them. That he was good enough and someone people needed in their lives.

"It just sounds like Maris just wasn't ready for all of this," Renata said, " she's at the stage in her life where she's very focused on her career. I think it has to do with proving her father wrong and that is her main priority. That doesn't mean that you and Huxley aren't good enough. You're just at different places in your life."

"So now what?" he questioned the both of them. " I just... I just wanted something close to what you two have. Even if not for me, at least for Huxley's sake."

"And you will have that," Renata told him, " I know this isn't what you want to hear right now but it will happen for you when the time is right. Maris just probably wasn't the one or maybe it's just not the right time. Give it some time and I know that you will find someone who will love you no matter what and will love Huxley just the same. But for now, you should focus on just you and Huxley. He's going to be confused initially and there will be a lot that he doesn't understand because he's so young but at least he has you."

James nodded his head. " Renata is right, and we're here for you...both of you, no matter what. If there is anything you need, all you have to do is just ask."

It grew quiet for a moment as they allowed Remus to mull over everything they had told him. The couple exchanged looks, hoping that he would be okay despite being upset initially.

"Would you like me to pet your head?" Renata asked him, bringing Remus to look over at her in confusion.

"What?"

She quickly turned red in the face as James had to cover his mouth to keep himself from laughing. "Sorry, it's just, whenever Sirius and I are upset, we just pet each other. It works for us, I just thought well..."

Before she said anything else, she simply reached out her hand out her hand and started petting the top of his head. At first, Remus seemed relatively confused by her approach, not thinking it was going to work but just a few minutes later, he did find himself feeling a litle better. He remained completely still after leaning into her and James decided he would leave his fuure wife to pet his best friend.

He probably could never explain the dynamics between all of them, but no one else needed to know as long as it worked for his family.

A/N: The wedding is coming! Are you ready?