Sirius, James and Harry, Minerva and Poppy.
“Alright, James?” Sirius answered the phone, balancing it on one shoulder while carrying his laptop and several folders, heading upstairs carefully. “What’s going on, mate?”
“Pads… I’m worried about Harry.” James’s shaky voice came from the other end of the phone.
Sirius immediately set the laptop and folders down on the stairs and sat down. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“Look, I know that losing his mum was going to be hard. The hardest thing ever. And he was gloomy in her last few months, naturally. But he’s just holed up in his room all the time now. I was prepared for this level of withdrawal when he’s a teenager, but he’s ten. What the fuck is he even doing in there? What if he’s injecting heroin into his eyeballs?”
“At the age of ten?”
“Well, maybe not his eyeballs then, maybe just his veins. But he’s just blasting music and binge-watching Mike Schur shows and he always pauses it when I poke my head in his room like he doesn’t want me to share in anything that reminds him of his mum. I love The Office too! I just don't know-”
“Ok, you need to take a breath.” Sirius said, “What does he say when you talk to him about it?”
“Well, I don’t want to push him… It was always Lily who did the feelings stuff, and I don’t know, I don’t know how to talk to him now. I don't know what to say. Every time I think about talking to him, I just cry.”
“Prongs! You’ve still got to be his dad, mate. He needs stability right now. He needs to know you’re there no matter what. Is he sleeping? Eating? Staying hydrated?”
“Not eating much at all. He just wants crisps, and we ran out of crisps yesterday.” James sighed. “I really thought I was a better dad than this.” Sirius could hear the tears in his voice. The shaky timbre was not unfamiliar as of late. “I just… thought I’d be better.”
“Listen to me. You are a fucking incredible dad, and Harry loves you so much. You’re going through the worst right now, nobody is expecting you to be super dad, or expecting him to be his usual self. It’ll come in time, but it won’t be the same. It will be better than it is now, though. The first thing you need to do is talk to him. Go into his room, open the windows and talk to him. Tell him you’ve got him, no matter what. It doesn't matter if you cry. It's good for him to see you feel your feelings, you know. Look, I’ll do an UberEats of some snacks for you both, and pizza or something. You both need to eat, and I can’t be there to cook for you—”
“Because you’re literally running the bloody country.” James laughed shakily. “I’m so sorry for adding to your burden.”
“No, take that back right now. You and Harry could never be a burden to me. You’re my family. Please don’t think that you can’t lean on me anymore, James. I’m still here for you.” Sirius looked up as he heard footsteps and saw Remus approach the bottom of the stairs. He moved his laptop out of the way.
“Yeah, I know. I know. I’m just… I don’t know if I’m coming or going right now, and I’m trying so hard to keep it all together for Harry. He’s going back to school tomorrow though. Something about the Christmas show, he wants to go, which is great but I’m feeling reluctant to let him out of my sight.”
“That’s understandable. But you have to let him try. Just… let him go and maybe he’ll get to play the baby Jesus or something.” Sirius grinned, “No, just… let him know that if he needs you to come and get him, you will. That you’ll be there. You'll drop everything and come and get him right away, if that's what he needs. Be his safety net, not his straight jacket. And... maybe check his room for needles.”
Remus raised an eyebrow as he approached Sirius on the stairs, and smiled. “I’m not even going to ask.” He said quietly as he passed him.
Sirius smiled and turned his head to watch Remus climb the remaining stairs, definitely not admiring how nice his bum looked in those trousers.
“…Sirius? Are you still there?” James asked.
“Shit, yes. What? Yes of course I’m still here.” Sirius spluttered, not missing a chuckle from Remus as he walked away.”What did you say?”
“So your boy toy just walked past then?” James said, amused.
“First of all, not that term, never that term. Jesus, Jamie. And secondly, it’s not like that! You can’t… fucking hell.” Sirius groaned. “It’s not… No.”
“So, yes, he did.” James laughed, “Can’t wait to inevitably meet him.”
“Not a chance. Not ever. You know that can’t— Just— Go talk to your kid!”
James hung up the phone and sighed. He knew Sirius was right. He couldn’t just let Harry fester in his room. He headed to the kitchen. When he was a child and sick,oor having a hard time, his mum would make Shahi Paneer, so that’s what he would do. Actually, focusing on what his parents would do generally wouldn’t be a bad idea, and Euphemia Potter would definitely be in the kitchen under these circumstances.
A while later, he knocked on Harry’s door. “Harry…” No response. “Beta, it’s dinner time. I made—”
“I’m not hungry.” Harry’s voice came from behind the door.
“You need to eat. Just come down and—”
“Read the sign!”
James pulled away from the door and looked at the whiteboard attached to Harry’s door. On it, in Harry’s spidery handwriting was written, ‘I said I’m not hungry’. James sighed.
“Harry…”
🌙✨🎄✨🌙
“Good afternoon, Instagram… people,” Minerva said, squinting into the camera of her phone. “I am so pleased to announce that my single ‘Christmas is All Around’ is out now, on all streaming services, as well as a video on YouTube that you may find interesting!”
She paused to look at the comments popping up on the bottom of her livestream.
PizzaChess92
no offence but who asked for this?
“None taken. Nobody did. Maybe my accountant. Blame him.”
MinervaStan
This is the best day of my liiiiiiiiiiiife
“That’s very sweet, but is your keyboard broken?” She chuckled.
SSnape
Why should we stream your stupid fucking song? Just paying for you to get drunk and make a twat of yourself.
Again
“Oh, well aren’t you the charmer?” Her face was suddenly serious as many more comments like that popped up, “Well what can I do as an incentive for you to stream it? I'm going on Graham Norton next week?”
Albus123
get naked
“Get…” She looked up at Poppy on the other side of the phone who was shaking her head furiously. “Well, if that’s what the people want…”
“Minerva.” Poppy hissed. “Stop. You absolutely cannot do that. No.”
MinervaStan
Yessssss girl do ittttt!
“I am quite concerned for your keyboard, dear.” She paused as more comments in support of full-frontal nudity came flooding in. “How about this? If my song is number one for Christmas, on Christmas Eve, I will perform my song live on Instagram in the scuddie?”
The comment section exploded. While there were many messages expressing disgust at seeing an older woman naked, how she should be ashamed of herself, body shaming her… there were a hell of a lot more that were in full support.
“Alright then. It’s settled. You know what to do.” She winked at her phone before ending the livestream and looking up to see Poppy’s look of despair. “Come on, Poptart. It’ll never actually happen, it’s just to boost sales, or streams or whatever.”
“You better hope you’re right,” Poppy mumbled. “Fucking hell. You are absolutely going to get banned on Instagram..."