James watched Harry play with some toys Lily had given him by the fire in the common room. He was obviously the closest to the boy, his magic still not very stable, but as the full moon spent with Professor McGonagall had proven, he didn't need to be with James all the time.
The response from St Mungo's was sat next to him on the table, but he was scared to open it. He had sent them a copy of Harry's drawing asking if it was possibly the ceremony, and if it was what their next move should be. Regardless of the answer James was worried; Harry wasn't the type to draw something like that when asked to draw something important. They liked fulfilling the brief after all.
In the same vein, Harry wouldn't usually refuse to explain when he was asked to. Much less the terrified response McGonagall described, not that Harry showed any sign of it.
"James, you need to open that letter soon." Sirius draped an arm around his unofficial brother's shoulders, and picking the letter up. "Want me to open it for you?"
"No!" James snatched the letter, tracing the sides with his finger, still not able to open it. "Yes."
Sirius took the letter back as James leaned forwards with his head in his hands, stressed. If this was something like exam results then Sirius would be amused, but he knew it was worse than that. He may not be a father, or ever intend to be, but he knew he would be stressed out of his mind if it was Regulus in Harry's place.
"Want me to read it too?" Sirius offered, raising his wand, readying a spell that would block his words to most people.
"No," James leaned back, looking at the ceiling they had all painted together as a house the year before, it was still surprising that Professor McGonagall had organised that for them. "But if you don't then I don't think I'll know what's in there. I need to know. Hit me."
"Dear Mr Potter,
"Thank you for your letter, we are sure this isn't the answer you want, but we do believe this might be the instance that caused your child's unusual magic. We are currently analysing the drawing to figure out the exact ceremony that took place.
"Please keep an eye on what is happening with Harry, and let us know. When their magic is stable, we would appreciate it if you could bring them back so we can do some more in depth checks without their magic being dangerous.
"Kind Regards,
"The hypermagia department,
"St Mungo's."
"Fuck," James' voice couldn't come out as anything louder than a whisper. "What am I supposed to do?"
"It's not your fault, James. Harry is from the future, there's nothing you could have done to prevent it." Sirius couldn't claim he understood what James was going through, but he wasn't about to let him blame himself.
"But we don't know the me of the future didn't allow this." James' voice sounded weak and watery as he covered his eyes with his arm.
"James, if I know anything about you, it's that you would sooner die from the cruciatus curse than let anything like that to happen to any kid, let alone one you care about, let alone your own kid. You didn't let this happen. You were either forced to be unaware, or more likely you were already gone." It was hardly a brighter option, but it would be dishonest not to talk about it.
"Still a shit parent." James muttered.
"Oi, don't talk about my best mate like that." Sirius lightly punched James' arm. He knew what shit parents were like, James wasn't capable of that.
"Fine." James didn't have the energy to argue, but nothing Sirius could say would quell the fire of guilt burning its way through him.
Harry, his child, had had to experience pain he could never truly understand. It was a parent's job to prevent as much of that as possible, and most parents were able to prevent these things from happening. Harry was the first person James had ever met with this condition.
"We'll figure out who did it and kill them 'kay?" Sirius' voice was light and casual, and yet James knew he was completely serious. Harry didn't know, but of course Sirius would be at least one of their godfathers, and he took the job seriously even though he made a mistake upon their first meeting.
"Even if it's Grindelwald?" James raised an eyebrow, he saw no reason for it to be the imprisoned dark wizard, but still.
"It's on sight."
"Voldie?"
"Oh, that's obvious, I'd do that even if he's not the one who did it to Harry. Hark my words I'll be the one to kill him."
"Okay," James tried to think of an unlikely, and powerful person who could have done something to his child, sitting more upright now, a grin starting to appear at the absurdity of Sirius' words. "What if it was Dumbledore."
"Reveal it to the public and then kill him. Look, mate, I love ya and Harry, but I ain't going to Azkaban for ya. I'm too gorgeous for that place." Sirius tossed his hair as if to emphasise his words, hitting Remus in the face, who had sidled up beside their sofa at some point during the conversation.
"You know, I think Dumbledore being the one who did it is unlikely. I mean, what reason does he have? He's a headmaster who protects the magical world, why would he want to use a largely unknown ceremony to increase some random student's child's magic?" Remus stuck his head between James and Sirius', receiving a kiss on his hair smacked cheek by his boyfriend.
"Who knows, maybe Dumbledore is a criminal mastermind making magical slaves and he wanted one more powerful than anything else." Sirius, unable to sit still as he was, couldn't help but gesture dramatically as he spoke, looking rather like a muggle describing a ghost.
"Is that really likely though?" Remus tilted his head, smiling at his boyfriend's display.
"Are you Dumbledore?" Sirius leaned back, looking deep into Remus' eyes. "Because if not you can't know for sure."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Remus shook his head, though his grin didn't fall. "James, I'm just checking you have actually done the Potions homework rather than just watch Harry, right?"
"It will be done by the time it's due." James looked away from Remus, could anyone really blame him? Harry was seriously sick.
Then again, this was Slughorn they were talking about. James was sure there were worse Potions professors, but that didn't really make him good. James and the other students all knew that teachers had their favourites, James was one of Professor McGonagall's, but in general they were treated the same. James wouldn't get any more leniency from Professor McGonagall, she was just a little more concerned that he was alright, but she only really showed it after Harry came. Slughorn, on the other hand, did everything to make his favourites obvious. The Slug Club, higher grades, less homework, less writing, all those things and honestly more that James had already disregarded. It was only made worse by the fact they weren't allowed to talk about what happened in the Slug Club meetings. James was pretty sure there was some magic involved in that.
"James, I want to see you making a start on it. It's due tomorrow." Remus tapped James twice on the shoulder.
James rolled his eyes, calling Harry over to him and heading up to the dorm. Remus wasn't telling him to do his homework for no reason, aside from its close due date, James liked Potions, it was something he would do with his dad since he was young. James needed to calm down, and as much as he might hate Slughorn, focusing on Potions would likely help.
"You completely sure this has nothing to do with Dumbledore?" Sirius looked at Remus as he jumped cleanly over the back of the sofa to take James' old spot.
"I meant what I said that we don't have any real reason to suspect him. If we find any evidence then I'll suspect him, but until then I won't focus on anyone. I mean, for all we know it was Snape. You know he has it out for James." Remus shrugged, tucking the latter James had forgotten into his pocket. "But we want to deal with this sensitively."
-----
"It's the child." The red haired Slytherin Harry had run into the library before was, once again, in front of the mini James after they had both turned the corner too quickly.
"S-sorry." Harry stuttered, holding the base of their top and looking down, they had run ahead of James, but he was still close enough to arrive soon.
"All good, I wasn't hurt or anything, you okay?" The Slytherin smiled, looking inviting, though Harry wasn't looking at them. They crouched down, turning their head in an attempt to look Harry in the eye.
"Baby?" James saw Harry before the Slytherin, a little worried at their clearly scared body language. "Michelle?"
"Potter." The Slytherin nodded at James, their eyes much colder as they looked at the Gryffindor. "Don't worry, I didn't do anything. The kiddo ran into me, I was just making sure they were alright."
"Harry!" At the mention of Harry coming into contact with another being with magic James immediately became concerned, getting on his knees beside Harry. "Are you okay?"
"Jesus Christ, do you really think I'm that likely to hurt a kid? I'm not one of your group." The Slytherin looked between offended and angry, though they tried to stay calm in front of Harry.
"It's..." James sighed, still trying to coax Harry to look up. "A lot more complicated than you think. What?"
"What?" The Slytherin pressed further when James froze, not saying anything else.
"Your magic interacts with Harry like mine does."