PLEASE READ:
I can’t imagine James *not* being a dad, but in saying that, I despise surrogate Lily fics (she deserves sm better than that). So basically, Harry is just a random kid from a random family with no genetic relation to James or Lily. He’s still the unwanted/hated/abused nephew of the Dursleys. But not genetically James or Lilys. My fic my rules. Please just squint and ehhefjkslke your way over this bit of lore. Its shaky at best :)
Also, I briefly googled adoption rules and laws, and you know what. This story is about vampires. If you can believe that, then you can believe my sketchy law bending.
Regulus
Soft music floated through the house as Regulus danced around the kitchen. Piano as he sliced some vegetables. Guitar as he cut up the meat. And violin as he ground up a few herbs and spices. He’d been stumped with writer’s block since waking up and was hoping a little distraction might kickstart his creative spirit. So, he was cooking James dinner.
He still didn’t understand the appeal of anything he was making. Gritty, lumpy chunks of cow carcass, seasoned with ground up dead pants that smelled like dirt. The first few times he’d made it, he’d nearly thrown up. The mere sight of the sloppy texture making his stomach churn. But his husband considered the dish ‘heaven on earth’, so he’d sucked it up and mastered the recipe years ago.
It was six in the evening, and James would be home in an hour or so, right in time to eat it fresh. One of his colleagues was off sick and he’d taken a day shift to help cover the absence. A pain, but hardly the end of the world.
Regulus pulled out a pan and placed it on the stovetop, lighting the flame and adding a splash of oil. He stirred in the spices and just as the air started smelling like dirt…
BEEP BEEP
Regulus frowned. That was the sound for James. Why would be texting now? He was in the middle of a shift… Regulus turned off the flame and shoved his hand in his back pocket, assuming the worst. James is hurt. James needs help. James is in danger.
He pulled out his phone and bit his lip as the screen lit up and he read the message.
Ring me! Its urgent!
Regulus couldn’t have hit the call button any faster if he tried.
The phone was up to his ear and Regulus started pacing back and forth through the kitchen. His mind racing with worry. What did urgent mean? What was urgent? Had he lost his job? Was his car stolen? Was he in a car crash? Had he caught a deadly human virus? Was he-
The phone picked up and Regulus immediately released an anxious stream of questions.
“James!? What’s wrong!? What’s happened!? Why are you-”
“Calm down, it’s alright. I’m okay. I just need to talk to you about something,” interrupted a fast, hushed voice.
Regulus let out a sigh of relief. Ok. James was ok. It was just talking.
“You better have a good reason for scaring me half to death.”
“I do,” James replied, not wasting a single second. “I think I have an opportunity to… to get what we’ve been hoping for…”
Regulus tried to think. What they were hoping for? They were hoping for lots of things. James to get promoted. Reg to finish his new book. The renovation plans to get approved. Effie and Monty to visit for Christmas.
“You’re going to need to be more specific.”
There was a little pause as James took a shaky breath.
“You know… about… about starting a family…?”
Regulus’ eyes widened.
But that…
That wasn’t possible. They’d discussed it more times than Regulus could count. James desperately wanted to be a father. And Regulus wanted that too. He wanted to have a family with James and be the parent Walburga and Orion couldn’t be. But… how could he raise a human child? He couldn’t even go out in the sunlight…
Any child they adopted would be damned to a life of night and darkness with only one alternative, which wasn’t much better. The child and James would live under the sun, while he would hide under the moon. They’d barely see each other. Regulus would never get to see their child grow up. He’d be nothing more than roommate.
They’d never have family trips to the seaside. There would be no family picnics at the park. Regulus would never get to see their child play Saturday soccer. James would always attend parent-teacher meetings alone. With a nightmarish mythical creature as a father, the child would spend their entire life lying or being lied to. Regulus couldn’t parent a human child. That life wasn’t fair to anyone.
Guilt washed over Regulus, the way it always did when he thought about the child James would never have… because of him. He blinked back the sting in his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat. There was no universe where they would ever get the family they dreamed about. Not together…
A bolt of panic surged through him.
Was James going to leave him? To find a new partner? A human partner he could have a child with? Or perhaps he’d already found one? And this was his way of breaking the news from a safe distance… He had said he had an opportunity… not they had an opportunity…
No… James wouldn’t… he couldn’t…
They were married. They had a house. They had a cat. They… they had a life…
But you don’t have a family…
Regulus let a cold drop run down his cheek.
“Y-Yes…” he stuttered. “I-I remember…”
Regulus felt his heart start to crack and splinter.
“There’s this little boy at the hospital… that I’m treating…”
James… please don’t make me say no…
He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t be a father to an innocent little boy. What if he forgot to eat for a while and lost control? What if he was too heavy handed while holding him? What if, what if, what if.
“His aunt and uncle… I don’t think they treat him well and… they’ve made it clear they don’t want to look after a medically fragile kid…”
“James… we can’t… I can’t…” he muttered as his chest collapsed.
“I know, I know it’s just… the boy… Harry… I think he’s like you…”
Regulus swallowed. He couldn’t possibly mean…
“What do you mean… like me?”
James sucked down a long, deep breath.
“I mean that… Harry has been a normal baby the whole time they’ve had him… but he’s just turned six months old and… he’s suddenly refusing to eat… he’s suddenly started trying to bite people… he’s suddenly cold to touch… he’s suddenly burnt by the sun in seconds… and his heart has suddenly stopped beating…”
He does mean…
Regulus was pretty sure his own non-beating heart just jumpstarted so it could skip a beat for dramatic flair. Because what James was describing… was a baby like he had once been… essentially human until halfway through his first year of life… when his body was triggered into its true nature…
When he started needing blood instead of milk… When his fangs began growing in… When silver first put him to sleep… When the sun decided he was the enemy…
“The food and cold things been happening for a few days and they just assumed it was some sort of flu...” James’ voice stumbled. “But the sun burned him through a window this morning and they figured they should come get him checked out after dark… I lied in his notes about his heart rate…”
Regulus couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A child… like him… in the custody of humans… humans that didn’t even know what he was… it didn’t take a genius to figure out what James was suggesting…
---
James
His shift had started off perfectly normally with perfectly normal patients. A few broken bones. A concussion. A couple of dislocations. A deep splinter. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing overly challenging to treat.
Then he met the Dursleys.
A stout man with a moustache, that looked ready to explode. A thin woman with lips pursed so tightly, they looked like they’d fused together. A round, red faced toddler, crying and kicking in his pram. And an almost statue like sleeping baby beside him, with hair almost as messy as James’ own.
At first, James assumed his patient was the screaming child, but he was wrong.
“He’s been off his formula completely for the last few days and been trying to bite us every chance he gets close. Plus, his temperature has dropped quite low,” the woman, Petunia, explained with a frustrated huff. Like she was more annoyed about the baby was wasting expensive formula than being ill. “And though it clears up quite quickly once in the shade, his skin turns bright red and he cries bloody murder when the sunlight touches him.”
“His parents were nasty low life’s on unemployment benefits,” the man, Vernon, grumbled. “Worried he might be carrying some STD thing, or a heroin induced infection. We don’t want biting our boy Dudley infecting with that nonsense.”
James nodded along, taking note of all Harry’s symptoms and vaguely wondering why it all sounded so familiar. Keeping calm when they fussed more over how much of the treatment would cost than the boy’s health. Holding back rage when the pair started discussing speeding up to process of ‘putting him into a home because he’s too much work’.
“And is there any concerning family history? Diabetes? Asthma?”
Vernon shrugged while Petunia cuddled Dudley in her arms, feeding him snacks far too sweet for a toddler to shut him up.
“Petunia’s sister was crazy until she died in childbirth and the father killed himself a month or so later. Too weak to handle the grief apparently.”
James chose to ignore the last part of the comment and moved forward with the assessment.
Harry looked mostly normal. Messy brown hair a shade or three darker than James’. Eyes a dull green. And brown skin. But there was something pointedly off about him. He was extremely lethargic, his skin looked rather ashy instead of rosy, and he didn’t seem to be breathing very consistently.
He nearly choked on his own breath when he checked the boy’s temperature. Barely twenty-one degrees Celsius. A far cry from the thirty-seven it should have been. He doubled checked again, assuming he’d done it wrong. But the numbers remained the same. The same as numbers as Reg and Sirius…
When he tried to check the baby’s heartrate, Harry woke up and promptly started trying to bite James’ hand. Chewing with his toothless gums like he was trying to break the skin. Then after a solid five minutes of searching and panicking, James ended up excusing himself to the ‘bathroom’… Because it had finally clicked. He knew why it all sounded familiar.
Harry was a vampire. Just like Regulus.
“I think I can pull some strings,” James muttered quickly, aware he was running out of time before he had to get back to the Dursleys. “But I’m leaving this up to you… it’s your call…”
There was a very long stretch of silence. Nothing but his own breathing and the static of the phone. He didn’t believe in any god, but he was praying for Regulus to take this chance. It was clear how much he wanted a child, just like James. He deserved to have this. This was an opportunity they would never get again.
“I…” James held his breath. “I want to do it.” James sighed with relief.
“Get the house ready…” he grinned before hanging up, running out of the bathroom and preparing to commit a severe case medical malpractice. He had a plan.
James apologised for his absence and backspaced every symptom he had written. Deleting Harry’s entire file. Erasing his visit from time.
“I just wanted to make sure that I understood correctly before we proceed,” James took a deep breath. He could do this. “You intend to have Harry placed into the system? Is that correct?”
Vernon nodded gruffly. “We said we’d give it a few months and he’s getting more and more difficult by the day. Our house isn’t the place for him.”
“Yes, I imagine such a sickly child would put a horrible strain on a lovely family like yours,” James lied through his teeth. “Would you consider private adoption? If it was faster? And if the other family paid all the fees?”
Petunia nodded immediately.
“Anything to get the boy off our hands. My little sister and her good for nothing husband left us with him, I never asked for this.”
“Well…” James said quietly. “I have a proposition…”
An hour later, James was driving home with a baby in his backseat. He’d given Vernon and Petunia his phone number and set of instructions on who to contact, what to say and what to do. Harry would officially be with the Dursleys, while he settled in as a Potter. Then they would all meet with a solicitor, pretend to have known each other for years, complete the necessary paperwork and jump through some legal hoops so Harry would legally be theirs.
---
James pulled up inside the garage and took a deep breath as he put the car into park and shut off the engine. Glancing in the rearview mirror, his eyes roamed over Harry. With his tanned skin and dark messy hair, he almost looked like James. Of course there were noticeable differences, his eyes were a green and much less round. His nose was sharper and his chin a touch more pointed. His hair was at least three shades darker than James’ and his calm nature was worlds apart from the devious little brat James had already been at that age.
He looks a little like Reg with all that stuff…
Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but James really did believe that.
James jumped out of the car and hurried around to the side opening the door and grinning as he unbuckled his new son… Harry immediately started trying to chew on his fingers as he lifted him up. Swapping to nibble at his neck when James shifted the boy onto his hip and shoulder. But James didn’t mind.
He must be starving…
James closed the car door, and began walking toward the house door, but before he could even make it two steps, Regulus appeared out of thin air. His eyes were glossy with a little red and he was smiling just like he had at their wedding as he carefully looked down at Harry, and Harry curiously looked back. He even stopped trying to bite James and stared at Regulus with his eyes wide and jaw dropped.
“I honestly thought you were pulling my leg…” Regulus muttered as he reached forward and gently stroked Harry’s cheek with the tips of his fingers. Harry’s shocked face brightened into a sweet little smile, and he relaxed into the touch until Reg was cupping his cheek. Not making a single attempt to try bite him.
I was right…
Regulus grinned up at James, his cheeks faintly red with blush and a few small tears of blood.
“Is this really real? I’m not dreaming? They just let us have him?”
James just nodded, feeling his own throat tighten and tears falling down his face. He had accepted this wasn’t going to happen. He’d wanted it so much, but he wanted it with Regulus. And if he couldn’t have a family with Regulus, then he didn’t want one. But now…
“Do we have any blood bags left?” he managed to choke out. “He keeps trying to bite me, but he hasn’t got any teeth so he can’t get anything…”
Regulus nodded without taking his eyes off Harry.
“Theres still some a little left over in the fridge from when you were visiting your parents.”
That’s perfect.
“Theres a bottle in the car we can use, I managed to snatch it from the maternity ward… Do you want to hold him while I get it ready?”
Regulus’ head titled back and forth, his smile widening as he reached forward and wrapped his arms around the curious little child. Harry happily fell into his arms and leaned into his body like a moth to a flame. Eyes big and happy.
“Hi Harry…” Regulus cooed, softly rubbing his back. “I’m your new Papa…”
James grinned. I guess that leaves me with dad. James turned around pulled out the little bag of baby things he’d hastily nicked from downstairs. A bottle. A dummy. A teddy bear. A towel. A box of nappies. He didn’t actually know if that last one was necessary, but he supposed he’d find out.
James followed Regulus inside, unable to take his eyes off Harry. He buzzed around the kitchen, pulling out containers and the blood from the fridge. Filling up the baby bottle and tossing it into the microwave. He was used to the smell now. Working in a hospital and having a vampire partner got you pretty accustomed to the unusual metallic scent.
Harry noticed it too.
Regulus had sat down on the lounge, still whispering to the boy and trying to make him babble. But a few seconds after the microwave had started, the boys little head snapped toward the kitchen. Mouth wide and eyes a little redder than before. Very faint shadows creeping down his cheeks.
“That got his attention,” James chuckled, and Regulus laughed too.
“I don’t blame him…” he murmured, as red ringed his pupils and similar (albeit much darker and more defined) shadows crept down Regulus’ own face. “This is probably going to be his first time...”
The microwaved buzzed and James took out the bottle, happy to find it lukewarm, right at the temperature Regulus always said was the best.
“You’re in charge I suppose,” he said as settled himself on the lounge beside Regulus and Harry, holding out the bottle as the baby eyed it, already squirming and flailing his arms for it.
“I guess so…” Regulus said, as he took it out of James’ hand. Then he raised it and took a quick sip. James raised an eyebrow.
“Thought that was for Harry?”
Regulus smirked and shrugged innocently.
“Just testing to make sure it’s not too hot…”
“Sureee,” James just rolled his eyes and gave him a quick peck on the forehead. “Come on then. Let’s see how much I should fear our infant.”
Regulus laughed.
“You’ll be fine till he’s about four, but you’ll probably want to keep your silver watch handy after that.”
“I’ll mark it in the calendar,” James sighed, not at all looking forward to the day his four-year-old son would start getting strong enough to challenge him. But still rather pleased he would have a four-year-old one day at all.
Regulus chuckled softly again, but this time brought the bottle down. Adjusting Harry and brining it up the boy’s mouth. Harry all but pounced on the bottle, latching his mouth to the spout and drinking. James watched in fascination (and mild queasiness) as the red liquid in the bottle was drained. Its level dropping at a faster pace than James had ever seen a six-month old drink.
“I guess he’s hungry…” James said as the bottle was already reaching halfway. Harry’s ashy skin gaining a little warmth and colour. His whole demeanour brightening as his eyes returned to their previous green. That shadows in his face receding and all round looking much more human.
For a moment, James worried he might need to get up and grab a little more, but as the bottle neared empty Harry started slowing down. His sips getting weaker and weaker until he actually pulled his mouth off the spout and cuddled into Regulus.
His eyes flicking shut as he yawned, a little blood dribbling down his chin. James probably should have found it creepy, but considering what his best friend and husband were, he was comfortable. If anything, he thought it was rather cute.
It wasn’t long before the baby was still again, breathing weakly. Sleeping.
“He’s just like you after eating…” James teased as Regulus combed his fingers through Harry’s hair. James snuggled in closer, putting one arm around Regulus and the other around Harry. Regulus let harry sink into James a little more and rested his own head on James’ shoulder.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this…” Regulus whispered nervously. “I feel like I’m about to wake up from a dream…”
“Me too…” James whispered back. “The whole drive home I kept turning around, expecting him to disappear.”
“And you’re sure the family won’t fight this? That they’re alright with us taking him?”
James nodded, holding his family a bit tighter.
“I’m certain. The only reason they haven’t abandoned him in some forest is because they were worried about what might happen to Dudley if they were discovered.”
“I think it could partially be because of what Harry is… like they can sense that he’s dangerous somehow…” Regulus sighed.
“Well, I don’t feel that way,” James reassured him. “I love him already and I love you just as much.”
Regulus put all of his weight onto James and relaxed into his warmth. James relaxed into his coolness. Both of his boy’s coolness.
“Do you think you could run down to the shops in the morning? Grab some supplies so we can spend the day turning the office into his room?”
James grinned.
“I will do anything you want me to do.”