Summer pt. 3
(Potter Manor; Aug. 1977)
James glances at the teen as silence reigns in the bed-room. Eventhough the two didnt have anything in common his parents suggested that they could simply read their respective interests beside each other. At first james begrudgingly did but as weeks went by james actually enjoyed the quiet time with Snape compared to Sirius ussual lpud atitude and lilys bossy tone.
It had shocked james to see that snape had such a terrible childhood. Being poor, like with remus, was one thing but to have neglectful parents was another. James couldnt fatham his own parents not caring about him but hearing stories about sirius parents he had an idea of how bad adults/parents could be. He felt sorry for what snape had gone through but mostly james started feeling guit for making the teens life worse at a place he probably felt safe at. James also couldnt fatham dealing with all the insults, pranks and just ruthless humilliation every day for years, only to go back home where his parents pretend he didnt exist at best. Despite not being able to understand james still felt sick to think of snape at his shack-of-a-home and being neglected or hurt by his brutish muggle father.
"Whats wrong with you, potter?", snapes quiestion takes him out of his guitly thoughts.
The teen blinks as tears prick his eyes and his mind imagines a picture of a malnurished snape in a dirty shack, except for his stomach which protruded out but it was smaller probabaly due to the malnurishment. The image angered james and he couldnt help but snap, "Why didnt you stand up to you father, Snape?"
He regrets this almost immediatly as his anger fades and he sees the teens face go from pale in shock to red in anger. "Just because you saw my memories do not mean you know what ive experienced, potter. Now get out."
James inwardly winces at his mistake and agrees; he had never been litteraly pushed into a corner by his taller father or punched in the stomach at the young age of 7 like snape. "I-"
Snape interrupts him and reiterates, "Get out."
James nods as guilt grips him and he quielty takes his quiditch magizine and leaves.
James leaves him alone the rest of the day but by the end the guilt is eating him and he goes to his mother for advice. One would expect james to be closer to his father due to their love of pranks and quiditch and that was true but he was also close to his mother for her comfort amd patience, and she seemed to be more emotional mature then her husband.
James blushs in embarrassment and guilt as he explains what he had done earlier that day. His parents had never punished him before but their were times that his mother softly scolded him when things went to far. And she did the same here, telling him that what he said was wrong even if he was angry and afraid. She also told him that snape, on some level, still cared about his terrible father and wouldnt want to hurt him. James could understand that, he would never think of hurting his father even if the man had his wand pointed at him.
In the end she had an elf get a potions book and told james to give it to snape as an apology gift. The next day he actually gets up early, stupid guit had given him a nightmare, and asked an elf to help him with breakfast. After making sure snape ate the breaksfast he gave him the book. In both cases the teen looks suprised but nods in thanks. After he leafs through a few pages james is comfortable enough to try and apologize again. "Im sorry i yelled at you, Snape, and im sorry your father was terrible. I had a horrible mental image and i got scared."
The taller teen stares at him for a moment; making him uncomfortable, he had opened up to him for the first time and now he was wondering if he said the wrong thing; then snape nods before going back to the book. James smiles and nods as he sits down in a nearby chair.
A few minutes later snape whispers, "Sorry for forcing you out, potter, but you dont know what ive been through."
James nods in agreement, eyes kept on the floor. "And we- i made it worse, didnt i?" Snape just nods. James nods back and mumbles, "Sorry."
Over the rest of the month james tries to spend time with snape, to sirius' anger, every day even if its only half-an-hour. Sirius also tries to get his attention but that is hard to do with james not being able to play quiditch for the rest of summer. Half-way through the month sirius just left one day but not before cursing out Snape and lily, but mostly Snape. James was sad to see his friend go and was worried where sirius would go. Sure he wouldnt go back to his egotistical parents right?
Well, thankfuly, snaoe was friends with sirius' brither, regulus, and james is able to fond out sirius was staying with their uncle Alphard despite his decreasing health. Speaking of friends, its only through conversations with snape and letters from regulus and another slytherin named Joseph Wilkes that James slowly warms up to the two teens. Wilkes even gives james a vial to watch, showing how he was rebellious to his family, like sirius. As for regulus, he tries to tell the potter heir his parents veiws but james refuses to hear it; even if he was barely okay with the younger black being friends with snape, he didnt want to hear about the teens egotistical, blood-pureist parents.
As for lily, she talks to james alot about baby names but james doesnt care to listen alot of the time. And on the rare occasions he says the baby could be a girl lilys temper will show and shell stomp out of the room.
As the next school year gets closer james rushes to get the summer homework done but that was nothing new. He was used to procrastinating. What was new was that he did his homework quietly with snape rather then alone or with sirius like ussual. Lily tried to get james to help her with Transfiguration in exchange for charms and he agreed because he knew his parents wanted his babies parents to get good grades, however, he quickly got tired of lily bossy and supperior attitude about teaching him charms and just asked snape instead. This, again, angered lily.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Euphemia potter of course was excited to have 3 grandchildren but contrarily to sterotypical grandparents she didnt always want to talk about the babies or names or things. And, unfortunately, her sons girlfriend always wanted too. She tried to get the girl to talk about school, her grandchilds "mither" had to be smart and get good grades. Miss Evans did have a talent for charms but nothing else and even then she seemed to think she knew more about charms then euphemia.
The woman tries to help the girl with other subjects like her favrite, DA, but the girl outright refused the first few times euphemia suggested, claiming thelat the DA were evil and that only Slytherins used such "evil" spells. After a while euphemia was able to convince the girl to duel with her a few times but she had a short temper and hated that euphemia knew more then her.
To make thing worse the girl tended to rush into duels, like her hisbands and son, however this was worse for the red-head because she was pregnant and then would have a child to protect. Euphemia was the youngest of her siblings but she loved donting on her neices and nephews and could never imagine ignoreing james' safty to rush an opponent. Unfortunately Euphemia wasnt able to explain such an important thing to the girl and more often then not they ended up parting ways after just one practice duel.
Over the last month of summer Euphemia is both happy and sad to see her surrgate son, sirius, leave and she knows fleamont felt the same. The boy had a good soul but he seemed blinded by his hatred of slytherin and it was detramental right now with one of their grandchildrens "mother's" being a "slimey, ugly snake" as Sirius called him. Euphemia didnt quiet understand why sense the tall teen had cleaned up nicely now that he was away from his terrible muggle father. The teens skin wasnt as pale and he wore the best maternity robes euphemia could find. The teens hair was also better but the teen would have to shower every day or his natuarly oily hair would get oily again.
Euphemia and fleamont had sat james and sirus down after seeing mr. Snapes 1st year memories and tried to explain what they had done to the poverty-stricken boy was wrong. The couple knew the boys had a friend who was also poor so it confused the couple as to why theyd make fun of another student for also being poor. They soon figured out that james was just jelious of mr. Snapes previous friendship with miss evans. James thankfuly understood alittle and was able to show embarrassment but sirius didnt seem to understand or show remorse which strained the couples relationship with him. The teen's hatred of his family seemed to expand to all slytherins, no matter the age as it was obvious that just being the child of a slytherin already made sirius hate the twins. That may have been the teen breaking point sense he had left just days later. It was sading to see their surggate child leave and she worried hed end up on the streets but luckily mr. Snape was friends with his brother and told the small family that sirius was living with his uncle. Despite knowing shed miss the cheery teen she knew it was a good idea not to have the teen stressing either mr. Snape or miss evans out. And shed always choose her immediate family over a surggate evn if it hurt her.
Eventhough euphemia was glad her son was starting to understand it was wrong to look down on those less fortunate she was worroed about what else she'd see in the boys memories.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/(Platform 9 3/4; Sept. 1st)
Euphemia goes with fleamont to see james and miss. Evans off to hogwarts, leaving mr. Snape, whos still on bed-rest, in the care of the house-elves. Before the two board the train, miss evans gives james a big kiss on the cheek ehile rubbing her now bigger belly, both were 27 weeks along. Euphemia sniles for her sons sake eventhough she didnt really like the aragont girl. James, himself, also strained a smile as he shook fleamonts hand and gave euphemia a hug. Then the two finally boarded. As they do she hears fleamont whisper, "Well, Dear, do you think she'll make a good daughter-in-law?"
Euphemia pauses in thought; the girl was defiantly more than willing but "willing" and "able" were very diffrent things. This could be biased on her part but at this point eupheima thought mr. Snape would make a better in-law then miss evans. The elderly woman waits until they're back in the privatcy of their own home until she answers with, "Right now, i dont think so. Unfortunately we might not have a choice." Early on in their relationship theyd agreed that they wouldnt arrange a marriage for any children they had and fleamont always tried to keep his promises even if it was now to their detrement.
The man nods also seeming to understand that the promise in their younger years was comming back to bite them like a dragon.