Comfort
The next morning came around and breakfast was in full swing, the table was full of lively conversations about the happenings of the previous night. Discussions about the protections on the Stone could be heard from the Slytherins, the Weasley children were talking about what they would do if they had the Stone, and other various conversations were going on as well. Overall, breakfast was a noisy affair. Everyone was enjoying the food that Molly had graciously prepared, eating until they had their fill, everyone except, the Potters.
In the Potter room, Lily and James were fully dressed for the day and lounging on the couch across from the king sized bed that they had shared the night before. They had been trying to get Harry up for half an hour now, but he still wouldn’t budge. James was trying his best to not get annoyed by the antics of his future child, but he was hungry and Harry was making no move to get up. He was just lying flat on his back, covers pulled up to his neck as he stared at the ceiling blankly.
“Harry, you’re not even asleep,” James sighed, “You might as well get out of bed.”
“Don’t wanna.”
“You need to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Lily and James looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do. They had never been in a situation like this before. In his frustration, James kept running a hand through his hair, making his already messy hair a complete disaster of tangles, the scraggly pieces all sticking up in different directions.
Lily moved to sit beside Harry on the bed. “Harry, honey, what’s going on?” She asked softly as she gently ran her hands through his hair. “Are you okay?”
As soon as the last question left Lily’s mouth, Harry burst into tears. He curled up into himself, his whole body wracking with heavy sobs. James, who was not expecting this turn of events, quickly lept out of his seat, all previous traces of irritation gone. He moved to sit next to Harry and started to slowly rub circles on his back.
“It’s okay, Prongslet. Let it all out.”
They stayed in this position for a while, Lily running her hands through Harry’s hair while James continued to rub circles on his back, alst the while murmuring words of love and encouragement. When Harry had finally managed to calm down, the first move he made was to cover his face with the blanket to hide his embarrassment.
“Love, there’s nothing wrong with crying,” Lily reassured, gently pulling the blanket away from his face.
Harry had never felt more comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time in his life. He couldn’t remember ever being comforted by the Dursleys, not even when he was a small child. It was a strange feeling to have people that cared. This thought alone almost started up the water works again, his already red rimmed eyes once again filling with tears.
James picked up his too small child and placed him in his lap, wrapping his strong arms around the emotional boy.
“Harry, we’re here for you. Do you want to tell us what’s wrong?”
A shake of his head was the only response James got.
“We want to help you, but we can’t if we don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours.”
Silence.
“We don’t have to talk about it if you’re not ready to,” James conceded after having let the silence ring out for a minute. “Why don’t we go join the others to continue reading? It will be a good distraction for you.”
“No!” Harry cried, shaking his head more violently.
James shared a quizzical look with Lily, trying to understand what was going on with their son.
A sharp knock on the door pulled James from his thoughts.
“Come in,” Lily called out.
The door opened to reveal an irate Snape in the doorway, holding three potions in his hands.
“I didn’t spend my free time making these potions to have you revert back to your original state from not eating and stopping treatment,” Snape drawled looking down at the concoctions in his hands. “You should be more gratefu-'' He stopped abruptly, finally looking up to see the scene in front of him. I didn’t take a spy to know that the Potter child was going through an emotional crisis of sorts.
“My apologies,” Snape said evenly. He placed the vials on the dresser that was beside the door. “Emotional breakdown or not, I expect you to take these Potter. It wouldn’t do to have you keel over as soon as we return back to present time.” With his last dry remark out of the way, he swiftly closed the door, once again leaving the Potter family alone.
As soon as the door closed Harry scrambled out of his fathers lap, loud sobs once again shaking his frail body as he ran to the closet inside the Potter suite.
“I’m going to kill Snape, taunting Harry while he’s in this state,” James ranted quietly, briskly walking to the closet to retrieve his son.
Lily frowned, “I don’t think it was meant as a taunt, James. For Severus, that’s almost saying that he cares.”
“I don’t care, you think he could be a little more sensitive.”
James pulled open the closet door and saw Harry curled into a ball in the corner, half covered by the various hanging garments.
“Harry, it’s okay, you’re okay,” he comforted softly. “Don’t listen to Snape, one missed meal isn’t going to stop all the progress you have made.”
“He’s always been dramatic, you’re not going to drop dead the moment we leave here.” Lily lightly joked, hoping to get a light laugh or small smile from the distraught child.
James had always prided himself on how observant he was, it’s part of what made him such a good auror. So when he saw Harry tense at Lily’s mention of them leaving there, everything clicked into place.
“Oh, Harry,” he breathed, “You don’t want to read because you don’t want to leave here, do you?”
The dramatic increase in Harry’s trembling told James that he had hit the nail on the head, so he continued.
“Here, you have a family,” James said softly, heart breaking at the life that his child led.
“Why can’t we stay here forever?” Harry stuttered out from between his tears. “I don’t want to go back. I - I want to be with you.”
“I wish it worked like that, son. But that’s the reason we’re here right?” James continued, “To change the future, to change your future. I can’t say what will happen once we leave this place, but I promise you that you will never be alone again.”
Harry flung his arms around his fathers neck and cried, but this time it wasn’t tears of hopelessness, but instead of happiness.
As James held his crying child, he tried not to think of the promise he made. He didn’t know what the person that sent the letter had in store, but there was one feeling that he couldn’t shake. Why was he there? The consequences of changing the future isn’t something James had thought much about before being brought here, but he had the feeling that something as important as their deaths couldn’t be stopped. It was a bit cruel really, to send him and Lily there for the readings to be with Harry, when their deaths were likely inevitable.