Chapter 2
“James, where’s his lunch?”
“In his bag! Have you seen his left shoe? The light up one?”
“Check under the couch! Where’s his backpack?”
“Uh, did you look by the door?”
“Oh, got it!”
Harry was starting preschool, and James and Regulus were both feeling very calm about it. They definitely didn’t stay up half the night crying to each other about how fast he was growing up. It was fine.
“Alright, how you feeling? You ready to go?”
His son showed off the biggest grin he possibly could, giving a wonky thumbs up as he jumped up and down. Harry did not get the memo about not wanting to go to school, apparently. He was buzzing.
“Go see papa, he’ll get you in the car. I’ll be right out. Don’t forget your backpack.”
He was running down the hall before James could finish his sentence, shoes lighting up the whole way. Every day he became more and more like James. It was a bit frightening. Perhaps karma for how he acted as a kid.
No time to think about that, though, because James had another kid to worry about. Amelia was babbling in her crib, giggling and clapping when James lifted her out.
When they got outside Harry was all buckled in, swinging his feet where they dangled from his car seat, and Regulus was trying to take a photo of him from the passenger seat. James watched the exchange as he buckled Amelia in, trying his best not to laugh when Harry’s smile looked insane.
“Alright,” he said as he got behind the wheel, checking his mirrors and triple checking on his kids before turning the car on. “We ready?”
Harry cheered. Regulus nodded. Amelia shrieked.
The whole ride to the school was filled by Harry’s nonstop rambling. It was mostly school related, stuff about his teacher and Ron and new friends, but he was a very easily distracted kid. At one point he started very genuinely explaining to Amelia that he was sad she couldn’t have spaghetti yet.
It was just the four of them that morning. Sirius was very upset by that — he expected to be invited along — but they wanted the experience as their little family, and they also didn’t want to overwhelm Harry on his first day. He was mostly okay when he and Remus got the invite to come for pickup, so James didn’t feel as heartbroken as he would’ve.
Regulus took the day off work. He kept telling James it was just because he didn’t want the other moms to get any ideas when they saw a hot dad alone at drop off, but he was holding Harry’s hand awfully tight for that to be the full truth.
James didn’t work anyways, so he had no issue. The original plan was to leave Amelia with Sirius and Remus, but Harry insisted he wanted her there, so she was resting on James’ hip, tugging at his hair as they walked through the doors.
“Hello hello! Who’s this little guy?”
Harry blinked up at the very enthusiastic woman, and said nothing. He looked up at Regulus and tugged at his hand, his eyes big.
“This is Harry,” Regulus answered for him. Normally they encouraged him to speak for himself, but this was new for all of them. “Harry, can you say hello?”
“Hello,” Harry whispered. James noticed that his hand gripped tighter to Regulus.
“I’m James Potter, this is my partner, Regulus. Harry, can you tell her why we’re here?”
“School.”
Even saying the word seemed to park him up a bit. He stood taller, gave a little smile.
“Oh wow, isn’t that exciting! We have a lot of fun here, Harry. You’re going to love it.” She grinned as she ushered them to a small table. “I have something special for you. Do you know what a name tag is?”
Harry shook his head.
“Oh, well it’s your lucky day. You put this on your shirt and it says your name in nice big letters. See? You’re going to have lots of friends in your class, and this way your teacher knows all your names. Does that sound good?”
Harry nodded again, looking very pleased when the name tag was stuck on his shirt. The woman gave them directions to his classroom next, only a short ways down the hall, and the four of them were able to go in together and check it out.
They were early, so there were only two other kids and their families already inside. Harry’s teacher approached with a big smile and showed them around. Harry had a spot at the red table — he smiled about that, he quite liked red — and he got to pick through all of the toys, choosing to show all his favorites to Amelia.
More kids trickled in as they got closer to the time school was meant to start. Harry didn’t pay much attention, sticking to the toy bins in the corner.
Another kid seemed to have the same idea. He held onto his mothers hand like a lifeline, tear tracks staining his face.
“He’s our first born,” the mother explained as she met James’ eye, smiling weakly as his bottom lip wobbled. “He’s nervous about everything. I’m hoping school will help.”
“Harry’s our first too. I’ve been a wreck but he’s thrilled. Talked our ears off the whole ride here.” He laughed as Harry kept all his focus on the Lego tower he was building, tongue sticking out of his mouth. “I’m James. This is Regulus, my husband.”
“I’m Alice. That oaf over there is my husband, Frank.” She gestured to a very tall man in the opposite corner who was seemingly investigating a tambourine, folded into a child size seat. “This is Neville. Neville, can you say hello?”
The little boy pushed his face into his mothers leg. She flushed pink. “He’s shy. I’m sorry.”
“That’s alright. Harry is shy sometimes too.” That wasn’t entirely true, but James figured Neville wouldn’t call his bluff. Alice seemed comforted, anyways. He directed the next bit back to her. “He also picks his nose and eats play dough. Can’t win ‘em all.”
“Oh,” she laughed, more tension bleeding out of her shoulders. “Kids are so gross. Neville has a pet toad named Trevor. I have to buy live bugs for him to eat.”
James opened his mouth to respond, but the teacher clapped her hands, earning the attention of the room. She welcomed them all to her class and gave out basic information, which Regulus scribbled down even though it was all online, and then announced that it was time for the parents to go. Harry looked at them, confused.
“We have to go home now, Harry. Are you alright?”
“Can I play a little longer?”
He didn’t understand. James and Regulus shared a look. James took the next bit. “You get to stay here, remember? You’ll make friends and learn, and then we’ll be back to pick you up at the end of the day.”
He stood up abruptly, Lego tower crashing behind him. “You don’t stay?”
“No, buddy, we already went to preschool. We have to go do boring things like work, and change diapers.”
Much to their horror, Harry’s eyes filled with tears. He looked around the room, a familiar look of panic on his face, and hugged both of their legs. “Don’t leave me here. Don’t go. Please. I wanna go home. I don’t want to go to school anymore. Please. I won’t put anything up my nose, I promise. I won’t put stickers on Ame.”
With that, James was crying too. He wiped his face — his tears surely wouldn’t make Harry feel any better — and patted his son's back. “I know. It can be really scary to try something new. We’ll miss you very much while you’re here, but we’ll be back before you know it, okay? You can tell us everything you did.”
“But — but Ron isn’t here.”
“He might be in another class, love. You’ll see him at lunch and recess, though, I promise.” Regulus replied. He appeared calm, but James knew it was a very carefully crafted mask. “You’ll meet lots of new friends, though. Did you see Neville before? He has a toad as a pet, and I think he likes legos too.”
Harry sniffed, peeking over his shoulder at the other boy, who was sobbing into his dads jeans. “He does?”
“I think so, you’ll have to ask him.”
“I don’t want you to go,” he repeated, staring down at his hands. Did he have to keep breaking James’ heart? This was awful.
“I know. You’re being very very brave. It will only feel scary for a little bit, and then you’ll love it. I promise.” James was trying very hard to not sound like he was crying as he spoke. Amelia was dozing on his shoulder. He was pretty sure her hair was wet from his tears. Regulus placed a gentle hand on his back.
“You know, Ron’s brothers go to school here too. That means you have friends all over the place.” Regulus made this sound very intriguing. Harry blinked as the gears turned in his little head. “That makes you very cool, Harry, not everyone has big kid friends like you do.”
“Oh. Does Neville have big kid friends?”
“I don’t think so. He doesn’t know anyone at school yet, what do you think about that, love?”
“Hm.” Harry furrowed his brows, looking very conflicted between remaining attached to his parents and investigating his classmate. “I think I should make him feel better, then.”
“That’s a great idea, Harry.”
“Okay.” He nodded, taking a big deep breath before he marched over to Neville. His steps slowed as he got closer, getting shy, but he started talking eventually. James and Regulus watched as he tentatively took the other boy’s hand and then walked to their table, where they were conveniently seated next to each other, with nothing more than a thumbs up from Harry.
So, that was it. They were supposed to leave. A lot of the other parents were already gone. Harry didn’t even hug them goodbye. That was — it was okay. James would see him in a few hours, and it would be fine. Regulus guided him to the door.
They were nearly in the hall when something barreled into their legs, one arm for each parent. Both of them crouched without needing to check who it was, accepting the arms that wrapped around their necks. Harry was still sniffling, but no more tears, at least.
“We love you so much, Harry. Have so much fun today,” James whispered. He didn’t want to let go. Being a parent was terrible.
“I love you daddy, I love you papa. Do you promise you’ll come back?”
“We promise. Nothing could ever make us forget you. We’ll do something fun after school, okay? We’ll get something nice for you.”
Typical Regulus, spoiling him rotten. James figured it was okay in this particular moment.
They really had to leave after that. Harry let his teacher guide him back to his seat and they hurried away before he could get upset again.
Once they were outside Regulus leaned into James’ chest, shoulders shaking as he cried. James shifted Amelia on his hip so he would wrap an arm around him, holding him tight.
“This is so stupid. It’s just preschool, he isn’t going to war.”
“He’s growing up, we’ve never been away from him for long. It’s normal to be emotional about it.”
“Do you think he’ll be okay?”
“He’ll love it. We might have to buy his teacher something nice for the holidays, though, I can’t imagine he’ll make her job easy.”
“He’s such a little shit,” Regulus laughed through his tears, wiping at his face with the heel of his hand. “I miss him already. Is that bad? I want to go back in and tell them we’re homeschooling him.”
“Me too. I’d be a shit teacher though, and you have a job. Do you think Remus would quit and be Harry’s teacher full time?”
“Wouldn’t hurt to ask.”
They fell into silence, then, holding each other. James could tell they both didn’t want to leave school grounds. That was too real.
“Why don’t we go shopping and buy him a bunch of shit he doesn’t need while we wait.”
“Oh.” Regulus pulled away from James’ chest, pushing up on his top toes to connect their lips. “That was the hottest thing you’ve ever said to me. I love you.”
“Knew you’d like that. I love you too, even if our kids are going to be horribly spoiled.”
“Nothing wrong with a bit of fun, baby.” He grinned, knowing full well how to get exactly what he wanted out of James. One pet name and he might as well be on a leash. “We should go before I actually go back in.”
They went then, and spent the whole rest of the day shopping for Harry. He really was so spoiled. It was worth it, though, when he ran out of class to his whole family waiting, a huge smile on his face.
Sirius cried the whole day, and declared himself dried up by the time they actually got to the school. Remus, who had been making fun of the rest of them for the whole week, even cried when Harry ran out and half climbed up his leg, babbling about Trevor the toad and worms. Even Pandora and baby Luna were there, the baby sleeping peacefully in Barty Crouch’s arms, of all people.
They all went back to the Potter house after and Harry was ecstatic with all the attention on him, running around between adults faster than they could keep up. They had excessive amounts of sugar and gave Harry an excessive amount of gifts — he first and foremost explained to Amelia that they were his toys, but she could play with them if he said so.
At Harry’s bed time he said goodnight to everyone and bounded up the stairs, picked out a few books, and passed out halfway through the first one. Regulus and James slipped out after watching him sleep for a totally normal amount of time; it was their first moment of peace in the whole day, James realized. It was too horrible when Harry was at school, and the guests downstairs had been with them since pickup.
“We did it,” Regulus whispered into the dark, pressing their foreheads together.
“We did it,” James echoed, unable to help the way the corners of his mouth quirked up. “One more to go.”
“Don’t remind me, I can’t even think about it.”
James shook his head, gently, so they didn’t break apart. “If you think I was a mess today…Amelia is going to be something else.”
“We’ll have to lie to Sirius, he can never find out. He’ll be crushed.”
“He really loves her, huh?”
“Mhm. I think it killed him a little when Harry didn’t favor him over Remus.”
“He loves them equally.”
“We know that, but Sirius doesn’t. He wanted to be the favorite.”
“Moony’s too charming. Harry falls for it hook line and sinker.”
“Mhm. Sounds like his dad.”
“Does it? I was under the impression that I charmed you.”
“Maybe in your dreams, baby.”
James pouted, and Regulus kissed it off his face. They got maybe a bit carried away — they were parents who got very little alone time, plus it was a rough day for them — and were interrupted by a throat clearing.
“Your daughter’s fallen asleep on my husband, and — despite the early morning meeting he has tomorrow — he refuses to leave unless one of you pry her off of him.”
Regulus turned to glare over from shoulder, arms still secured around James’ neck. “Keep her. Leave us alone.”
“Reg.” James fixed him with a look, and Regulus sighed.
“If you keep her I’ll kill you,” he corrected, “we’ll be down in a second.”
“Might take more than a second to fix your hair, Regulus, but I’ll see you down there.” He disappeared back down the stairs and Regulus groaned, leaning back in for one more kiss before they had to be responsible.
“I never thought I’d be one of those people, but I’m making out with my hot husband, and I miss our kids. When did I become this person?”
“You love them.” James shrugged. He felt it too, the tug in his heart when they were out of his sight. “Shall we?”
They did end up having to pry Amelia off Sirius’ chest; nobody could tell who was more upset about it. Sirius pouted and protested but Amelia wailed so loud it must’ve hurt.
It was a good day, James thought, no matter how bittersweet. Maybe he wasn’t as young as he once was, or even doing what most people did in their mid twenties. It was okay with him, if this was the life he got instead.
The love of his life was asleep with his head in James’ lap, his baby girl was asleep on his chest, and the boy who made him a dad was asleep just above him, officially a preschooler.
It wasn’t so bad.