Chapter Eight
After their conversation, Harry and Regulus got noticeably closer, which both concerned and warmed James’ heart. On one hand James was happy that Harry has gotten more adults that he trusts over the past few weeks, but on the other hand it’s Regulus.
As soon as Regulus had finished speaking with Harry he had spoken with the others about what he had learned, which worried them before Regulus had explained to them what he and Harry had discussed to stop him from hurting himself. That had relaxed them a bit. And if any of them noticed any of the others paying a bit more attention to Harry and his habits, no one mentioned anything. They all wanted the same thing, despite how much Regulus may deny his care for Harry.
Harry talking to Regulus had even opened him up enough to get him to invite his friends over for his birthday. James had already planned to have a little party for him, but his friends coming over really helped. Mary and Regulus had made a cake, first attempting to do it the muggle way, but ultimately made it with magic once Regulus got so frustrated, he blew up an egg with his magic. Mary wasn’t that pleased, but it was understandable, baking was hard, and she didn’t wish to waste any more eggs.
In the end, they had made a cake in the shape of a snitch, with the frosting glittering in the light. Of course, the shape was made mostly by magic, though they weren’t going to admit that to anyone else other than themselves.
“Happy birthday to you,” they all sang to Harry as James and Sirius carried the cake to the table in front of where he was sitting. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Harry. Happy birthday to you!”
“Make a wish!” James shouted, making Harry laugh as he blew out his candles.
“Will someone explain to me what the fuck this is?” Regulus whispered to his brother and Mary, making them laugh at him.
“It’s a muggle thing that most muggles do for their birthdays. Lily would do it for her birthday every year, so James continued doing it for Harry,” Sirius explained. Sirius had been doing a lot of that lately. Someone would do something, and Regulus would either look confused or even voice his confusion and Sirius would have to explain what was happening to him. A lot of the stuff they did around the house was done in the muggle way, so he was unfamiliar with it, despite the fact that he had lived as one for over a decade. Sirius didn’t mind explaining stuff though, his heart warmed a bit every time he got to because he hadn’t gotten that opportunity since they were like, 14.
“You’re telling me you’ve never heard anyone sing happy birthday to anyone?” Mary asked in mock horror, making Regulus shake his head. “When’s your birthday?” Sirius and Regulus shared an awkward look. He was hoping they could avoid this.
“July 7,” he replied, making Mary’s jaw drop.
“We missed your birthday? Sirius, why didn’t you tell us?”
“He’s not my biggest fan,” Regulus replied in a dry tone, making Sirius snort his agreement. He’ll never admit how much he had missed having Regulus around, despite the fact that he had thought that he was dead for years.
“Well, at some point we’ll all sing happy birthday to you, don’t you worry,” Mary replied, patting his shoulder.
“Oh joy,” he muttered, making Sirius snort again.
The rest of the summer went by remarkably quickly and before anyone knew it, it was August 31, and the kids were having an end of the summer party. And by party, they meant party. James swore that there weren’t as many kids in his year as there were in Harry’s, which is strange because he couldn’t remember this many witches and wizards having children in the time of war, but it’s whatever.
Harry looked the happiest he had all year, so James wasn’t necessarily going to complain about the amount of kids that were currently partying at the manor that’s been in his family for centuries. He didn’t care. Not at all.
James didn’t even know that Harry was friends with this many kids, but he wasn’t going to ask because that would be rude and he wasn’t rude. He did notice Ginny hanging with a group of girls that weren’t even near Harry, so James suspected that he had invited the other kids’ friends too, so that everyone had someone to talk to. His son was one of the nicest people he’d ever met.
“So,” Mary started, mysteriously appearing next to James out of nowhere. “Your son seems to take after you as one of the most popular kids in school.”
“I don’t think he does,” he responded, shaking his head softly. “Those girls over there,” he said, pointing to where Ginny was sitting. “I don’t think they like him all that much, they’re just friends of Ginny’s. And those guys over there,” he continued, pointing to Fred and George and their little group. “They keep sending him dirty looks while they think Fred and George aren’t looking. Spoiler alert: they know that their friends keep giving Harry dirty looks so I think there’s a prank in their future. Harry invited all of their friends so that none of them are lonely.” Mary stared at James for a moment before laughing and shaking her head in disbelief.
“Goddamn you’re observant.” she chuckled. “So, on a completely different note, do you have any plan for your little idea of going against Dumbledore and Voldemort? Because if you don’t, you may want to start coming up with one now that he won’t be here.” James sighed.
“I’ve been a bit preoccupied with Harry and all that,” he said, shaking his head. “Don’t get me wrong, I still won’t join Dumbledore, and I obviously won’t join Voldemort, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here.”
“Well,” she started. “We get Harry to school, make sure that he’s safe and feels settled back in, and then we go from there. Rome wasn’t built in one day James, you don’t need to have everything figured out at once.”
“Muggle sayings are so funny,” he laughed, shaking his head. “But alright, I guess I can do that.”
So, they did just that. They got Harry to school safely. Well, about as safely as they possibly could. While they were walking into King’s Cross James noticed the looks that strangers would send Harry when he wasn’t looking and it made him nervous. James knew that not everyone would believe Harry when he said that Voldemort was suddenly resurrected– and he’ll admit that to outsiders who have no idea what’s been happening at Hogwarts the last couple of years, he understands why they think it’s so absurd– but he hadn’t been expecting nearly everyone to think that.
People also gave James dirty looks, probably because he ‘supported his son’s delusions’ as he heard someone whisper to someone else as they walked past them. It took everything in him not to start cursing them out, because as much as he may want to, that would make their whole situation much, much worse. And Harry didn’t need that. And to be honest, neither did James.
“Try to have a good year,” James started to say as soon as they got to the train. “I know sometimes shit happens, and everything just starts to fail miserably, but once that starts to happen, write to me so I know what’s going on, okay?” Harry nodded and looked around quickly before hugging James.
“I don’t want to go back there,” he whispered, pulling back from the hug to look James in the eyes. When he looked into his son’s eyes he found that there were tears welling in them. Fuck. James didn’t want to make Harry do anything he didn’t want to, but this was school, he was required by law to go, and there was nothing that he could do about that.
“I know you don’t Bambi,” he said, pulling him back into another fierce hug. “But unfortunately, you have to. If you’re truly struggling, talk to Minnie and she’ll let you firecall me and maybe even let you come home for the weekend or something. Alright? And I’ll always respond to your letters as quickly as I can. Oh, and you have that mirror I gave you, right?”
“Yeah,” Harry replied, sounding confused. Fuck, James had forgot to explain it. Of course, he did. He was currently a shitshow. But Harry didn’t know that, and he didn’t need to know that, so he kept it to himself. Well, to himself and all of the adults.
“It’s a two-way mirror. If you say my name, one of us at the house will answer it. Use it whenever you want to, okay?” Harry nodded and let go of James. “Try to have a fun year, yeah?”
“Yeah. I love you,” he said, turning to where Ron and Hermione had started calling his name from.
“I love you. Now go find your friends,” he laughed, shooing him off. Harry gave him one last quick hug before running off to go find where his friends were still calling his name from.
James would never admit it to Harry, but he was worried about what this year was going to bring. Harry hadn’t had the best track record when it came to having a stress-free year. The first year there was his run-in with Quirrel who was somehow hiding a weird version of Voldemort under his hair (which turned out to be a wig), second year there was the whole chamber of secrets thing (that James still got shaky when thinking about), third year the dementors when Barty Crouch Jr escaped from Azkaban and the whole encounter with Peter in the Whomping Willow (James still thanks Remus for that to this day), and of course, the whole of Harry’s fourth year was something of a traumatising year. So yes, James may be a bit worried about what the year ahead of his son holds.
“So,” Sirius said, sitting at the head of the table. This group they had assembled was a strange little one, but they had become something of a family over the past few months. Remus was sitting to the right of Sirius, Mary to the left of him, Regulus was sitting at the other end of the table with Andromeda next to him. James was the person merging these two little groups at the table, with him sitting in between Remus and Andromeda. “Do any of us have any idea where to start with this whole thing?” There was a moment of silence before Regulus started talking.
“Before Halloween happened, he created these items called horcruxes. They, if any of you are unaware, essentially hold a piece of the owner’s soul. It’s a very old, very dark way of attempting immortality. The last time I was a part of the Death Eaters he had managed to make at least 6, but it isn’t impossible for there to be more. This means a few things. One, if we directly kill him, he won’t completely die. That’s what happened on Halloween,” Regulus directed this to James, who was sitting stoic faced. “He died from the rebound of the curse he performed on Harry, except his soul, the pieces in the horcruxes, was still intact. Well, as intact as it can be. So, to kill him, we need to kill the pieces of his soul as well.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Andromeda muttered, shaking her head.
“What else does it mean,” Sirius said, nudging him on.
“That he’s completely, and utterly batshit insane. This man’s soul is in pieces, and willingly. He doesn’t have a single completely sane thought, or plane. He’s intelligent, yes. And good strategically. But there’s always a flaw in his plan. All we need to do is find it.”
“I feel as though that’s easier said than done,” James muttered.
James ended up being correct. It had been a month or so since that conversation and they still had no idea as to how they should approach this entire thing.
Bill and Charlie Weasley had both agreed to be something of spies for them with the Order, so they knew everything the Order did, and more, as they had a former death eater who was pretty high in his ranks with them. The Order was currently protecting something in the Department of Mysteries, and no one in the Order outside of those protecting it really knew what that something was.
“I know what they’re guarding,” James sighed. Bill and Charlie had just left, having updated them all on what was happening. They had revealed that the Order had begun changing the shifts of who was guarding it and when. This confirmed what James had been thinking. Voldemort knew about this now too, so he thought it only fair that his little group knew as well.
“What is it?” Regulus asked, insanely curious. James really didn’t want to tell anyone about this, mostly because it just depressed him and generally anyone around him, but he knew that he needed to.
“A year or so before Harry was born, Sybil Trelawny spoke of a prophecy,” he began.
“No fucking way,” Andromeda breathed out, already in shock.
“What did it say?” Regulus urged James to continue.
“Basically, it prophesied that the one with the ability to kill Voldemort was soon approaching.
“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…” James recited. He had it long memorised, as he and Lily had poured over it when it was first recited to them, a week after Harry had been born. They had spent weeks attempting to analyse it, with no luck other than what they really didn’t want to know– Harry was either going to have to kill him or he was going to be killed by him.
“Oh my god,” Remus whispered.
“Wait,” Andromeda said, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. “What exactly does that mean?”
“Harry’s either going to be killed by Voldemort or he must kill Voldemort. I’m hoping we can somehow help Harry with that, because you know, I don’t exactly fancy my son being murdered by a mad man, much less one as stupid as Voldemort,” James said, making Sirius snort into his hand.
“‘Thrice defied him’?” Regulus asked, confused. “You and Lily defied him three times?”
“More or less,” James admitted. “The first time was when Lily was offered a place in his ranks as a potioneer–”
“Wasn’t she a muggleborn?” Regulus asked, receiving death glares from Mary and Sirius. “What? I’m asking a question, because you know, his whole brand is killing all of them?”
“He was… willing to overlook that,” James amended. “She was brilliant at potions.”
“I’m sure she was,” he agreed. “I’m just saying it’s strange that he offered a muggleborn a place. It was just an observation; I wasn’t saying I agreed with the fact that he hated muggleborns.”
“Anyway,” James continued. “She obviously refused to join and that probably made him quite a bit mad. The second time must have been when I was, I want to say 20, we were on a mission for the Order, and he showed up. I duelled him, and obviously I got away. And I’m assuming the third time is when Lily died but ended up protecting Harry with her love? I’m not entirely sure about that though.”
“That’s not what it's referring to,” Mary spoke up, a pained look on her face. James furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
“What?” he asked. What else could the prophecy be referring to?
“The summer before our seventh year,” she started. “Right around when you and her first started dating, she was walking over to my house when she ran into death eaters.”
“Oh fuck,” Regulus whispered, seemingly already knowing where this is going. Based on Mary’s face, she knew as well. “Oh fuck me.” Regulus had hated himself for what was about to be shared with the group, and he’s hated himself for it for years.
“They duelled her. It wasn’t really a fair fight, seeing as she was in a muggle town, and they weren’t expecting her to have her wand on her. Except she did. And James, Sirius, Remus, you all know, she was an exceptional duelling partner. She was winning, holding her own against two death eaters–”
“Three,” Regulus interrupted her, his voice quiet. “Lucius, Bellatrix, and me.” Sirius whipped his head around to stare at him. James was just glaring at the table, a pained expression on his face while Andromeda had her hand over her mouth in disbelief and what could quite possibly be disgust. “I give credit where credit is due. He sent his three best duellers because he knew her skill.”
“Three death eaters,” Mary amended. “So, then someone called Voldemort through the mark and he showed up. She just managed to get away, but not before stunning him.”
“Lily stunned Voldemort?” Andromeda asked, her voice coated in awe. James had never seen the woman have so much respect for someone so evident on her face before. Pride swelled in his chest when he reminded himself that that respect was directed towards Lily. She deserved it so much.
“My wife was pretty cool,” James said, his voice weak.
“Yes,” Mary agreed, nodding. “She was. But yeah, that was the third time, not Halloween.”