"Potters, Professor McGonagall needs you." A Hufflepuff interrupted the Charms lesson the Gryffindors were in, making Harry cling to James.
"Go ahead." Professor Flitwick gestured for James and Harry to leave.
James held Harry close with one hand while Sirius helped him collect his things. It was fortunate that the Marauders sat by the door, especially after Harry came, as they were able to make their exit without any more disturbance to the class.
"Don' wanna leave." Harry complained quietly into James' chest as he walked, James' bag hanging loosely off his shoulder, making him walk awkwardly in order to try to stop the bag hitting Harry.
"I know, baby, but it'll be better for you at home, and I'll be home during the holidays. I promise." James was sure that Professor McGonagall would be willing to bend the rules a little to let the two see each other during term time too, but he wasn't about to tell Harry to get the child's hopes up in case he was wrong.
Harry didn't say anything else, but nobody could think he was happy about it. He had been clingier to James since he had told Harry about going with James' parents once they came to Hogwarts, if that was somehow even possible.
"Well, I'm going to go now." The Hufflepuff announced once they reached the door to McGonagall's office, turning and walking away.
"Harry, I promise everything will be fine." James whispered into Harry's hair as he opened the door, his parents and McGonagall looked at the two.
"Now that James is here, can you tell us why we were summoned. I'm sure we already told you that we trust your judgement as far as punishment for anything he does goes. We don't need to be here for a suspension or expulsion." Euphemia turned back to McGonagall before she really took in Harry.
"Euphemia, I assure you that the reason for asking you to the castle has nothing to do with anything James has done." McGonagall smiled at the couple as James also took a seat, Harry hiding in his cloak.
"Then why were we called and without Sirius being here?" Fleamont turned to McGonagall too, also not noticing the larger filling of James' robes that was Harry.
"James, I believe it would be best if you explain." McGonagall gestured towards James, his parents turning to look at him.
"Mum, dad, meet my future kid, Harry." James grinned, unwrapping his cloak to reveal Harry, who was hiding his face.
"'Future' kid?" Euphemia's eyes were softening as she looked at the small child clinging to James' clothes.
"I haven't done the actions required to have a child yet. Harry has very impressive magic and came back in time." James explained to his parents while trying to convince Harry to look at them, but Harry would not move his head out of James' robes.
"So you want us to take Harry in?" Fleamont held his hand out to Harry, who ignored it.
"Please. I know I can't do anything for him while he's home during term time, but I will be doing everything he needs when I'm home. He needs a mind healer and while Mme Pomfrey has done her best he still needs to go to St Mungo's. It's not a good sign, but he is a very well behaved kid." James felt like he was begging his parents to keep a pet, but he knew young children took a lot of work.
"James, do you think you need to persuade us to take in our grandchild?" Euphemia raised an eyebrow at her son who seemed to be struggling to shut up about reasons they should take Harry in. "You're right that you will be involved entirely when you're home, but take advantage of your parents here."
"Right," James nodded, turning all his attention back to Harry. "Baby, please can you look at your grandma and grandpa? They're good people, I promise, not connected to your aunt and uncle."
Harry looked sulky as he turned to look at Euphemia and Fleamont, his face slightly damp from tears he had shed from fear of being separated from James. He did look very like James, and thus about half way between the two adult Potters. His green eyes caught the light in such a way that almost made them look like they were glowing.
"Hello Harry, I'm Euphemia, your grandmother, you can call me whatever you want." She held out a hand to Harry, offering him a relaxed hand that she hoped wouldn't be intimidating for him.
"Hello." Harry mumbled, his knuckles white from how tightly he was clinging on to James' robes.
"Harry loves flying, but you need to be really careful with it because he got a toy broom, but can use it the same as a normal broom. His magic breaks the limits." James thought flying might be good to be able to help the two of them to bond with Harry, but he didn't want them both to get a heart attack when Harry broke the limits like he had.
"I didn't know that was possible." Fleamont said.
"Harry came back in time using his own magic. Don't assume that normal rules apply to Harry." Euphemia rolled her eyes affectionately at her husband.
-----
It had already been a week since Harry had gone to the Potter house, but James would still get a mini heart attack when he passively noticed that Harry wasn't anywhere to be seen. He also wasn't sleeping very well due to the absence of Harry, but he was coping.
James was just worrying about Harry. If James was struggling so much without Harry, he couldn't imagine how much Harry was struggling when the child was so attached to him. Yes, now Harry could get a mind healer which should do a world of good for him, but that wasn't a cure all. James wrote him lots of letters, and McGonagall had agreed to a weekly fire call, but that doesn't change the fact they were separated until the end of the year.
"Prongs, you good?" Sirius asked as James flinched for the 5th time that day when not being able to see Harry before remembering.
"I'm fine. I just want to be with Harry again, you know. He's a little bundle of joy." James rubbed his hand down his face, tired.
"Sure, everyone knows how much you love him. You're going to call him this evening, though, right?" Remus leaned over the back of James' chair.
"Not enough time with him." James shook his head, he wanted to be able to hug and pick up Harry, not simply talk to him via the fire.
"Sure, sure. Maybe you should work extra hard to be able to end the year early." Sirius rolled his eyes at James, lightly tapping his head with the empty scroll that was supposed to be his homework that he was not doing.
"You know that doesn't happen." James swiped his scroll from Sirius. Of course, if it did he would be thrilled, but there was no point in getting his hopes up for the impossible.
"Could though." Sirius shrugged.
"Nico Michelle isn't even boosted forwards a year even though they teach more of the higher level stuff than the teachers. If they do that and can't finish the year early I have no chance." James' eyes flicked towards the bulletin board that had a poster for the tutoring sessions in the Ravenclaw common room.
"But they only have non-official children and Professor Slughorn, and you have Harry and Professor McGonagall who can make anything happen." Sirius seemed a little too invested in the idea he came up with.
"Look, mate, drop it. It's not happening and we all know it. I can barely focus on the actual tested content as it is." James didn't know how he did so well on tests when the only things that really sank in were things he learnt for himself, though he guessed the processing of all things magical came naturally to him in a way Sirius would never believe.
"If you never ask you'll never know." Sirius sat back on his chair with a shrug.
James just gave Sirius a look.
Peter had stayed quiet throughout the whole conversation, but it wasn't unusual. He had started doing that in second year, and after a lot of prodding from the others he snapped at them that sometimes he just wanted to be around them rather than involved, and sometimes he just wanted to be alone. It may be a little odd given how much of a stink he raised when they didn't actively choose to talk to him every sentence in first year, but they accepted it. It did mean they got to talk to their other dorm mates more, there was Kingsley Adson, who was quiet and a half blood. His hair was in corn rows and usually covered in something the Marauders didn't know the name of, that seemed to be made of silk. Their other dorm mate was called Aharon Levy who was Jewish and wouldn't talk to them when Peter was around and was extremely uncomfortable with the Death Eater infestation that seemed to be going around. From what they had heard he was still looking into other schools to attend.
Kingsley had dark skin and tended to wear bold colours, typically reds and greens. He clearly had plenty of friends, though, as he seemed to almost always be sending letters to people back home. He was a nice person too, though seemed a little odd around the Marauders.
Aharon had floppy, brown hair in soft curls, tanned skin, a rather large nose, and strong cheek bones. He was attractive, and seemed popular, when he left he was sure to be leaving behind many broken hearts even if he didn't notice the loving eyes following him. He tended to wear baggy t-shirts and jeans.
"Whatever, shut up I'm working now." James rolled his eyes and tried to focus on his homework.
((A/N: Sorry for doing this at the end, I hate doing Author's notes, but I just wanted to say that I deliberately changed Kingsley's surname because who in their right mind gives a black man a surname like that? Let me know if there are any other characters with problematic names that you know of so that I can do what I can to fix the situation while I will still do my best to keep the name recognisable like here or with Cho in the Mute series.))