I don't own Harry Potter or Brokeback Mountain.
A.N. I decided to play with the time line a little so that Jack and Ennis's children are a little younger.
Ennis Del Mar had never been an overly happy person, in fact, he was pretty sure he'd only ever been happy when he was with his daughters or Jack Twist. He was pretty sure he hadn't known what happiness was until he'd met Jack on Brokeback Mountain all those years ago.
He'd grown up dirt poor, which meant his parents couldn't afford to send him, his brother, and sister to magic school. Instead his brother and sister were allowed to go, as his brother was the heir and his sister was expected to make a good match, while Ennis was homeschooled and went to muggle school. While money was almost nonexistent, his parents were still purebloods, and felt they had an image to uphold. If that meant they went without food, so be it. So what if he and his parents went without warm clothing or shoes, as long as his brother and sister looked respectable all was well. What did his family care if he never had a wand and only learned the theory of magic and spells.
Then his parents had died while he was still a teenager and suddenly he was on his own. His brother and sister felt their standing in the wizarding world were too precarious they felt bringing him into their world would do more damage than it, than he, was worth. The most he'd come to expect from them was a couch to crash on should he ever find himself with nowhere to go. It didn't help that he felt such a disconnect with the magic world that he avoided it as much as possible, preferring to live as a muggle.
This was how he ended up on Brokeback Mountain, and eventually in Jack Twist's "bed". It was ironic that he'd been up there to save money for his wedding, but had begun what would turn into years of unfaithfulness to his wife; even if the moments he was unfaithful were sporadic at best.
Even sporadic was enough to end his marriage and limit his time with his daughters to every other weekend. He still thought of the time Jack showed up in his driveway, thinking they could finally be together after hearing about the divorce, only to be turned away.
The look of devastation on the man's face as he drove away, and not for the first time wondered if things could have ended differently if he'd just faced his fears and gone with Jack.
They kept seeing each other two or three times a year until finally the stress and pain of not getting to be together got the best of them, and they fought and said things they didn't mean...well, he hoped Jack hadn't meant what he'd said; he hadn't meant his words.
He went back to his boring life after he'd left Jack that day, but his life didn't stay boring for long. After getting caught by his 13 year old daughter throwing up the entire weekend the girls had spent with him he'd promised to go see a healer. Healers were about the only connection he'd kept with the magical world, as it was too risky to go to a muggle doctor and risk exposure of the magical world; should his magic react poorly with the machines.
It turned out to be a good thing he'd gone to the healer instead of a doctor, as he was told he was pregnant. He didn't know if he wanted to curse Jack or kiss him when he found out, though he was leaning toward curse. Granted, he knew he wouldn't be able to permanently injure Jack, as his magic would not allow him to do permanent damage to his soul mate, which is what Jack had to be. There was no creature blood in his family, and without creature blood, only a wizards soul mate could get them pregnant.
One thing was for certain, he was ready to give that sweet life Jack always talked about a try. After all, he owed it to their baby. That being decided, the first thing he did was quit his job as it was going to be too strenuous while pregnant, and he wasn't going to do anything that would risk his child.
He sent a postcard to Jack, telling him he was free to meet in August after all, and waited for a reply, while looking for work that would be safe for him to do. Then, after weeks of waiting his postcard was returned, the word "Deceased" stamped on it. Just like that, what he thought was going to finally be his happy life was ripped away from him.
He'd called Jack's wife, hoping to find out what had happened, and never once believed that the father of his child was killed because his tire on his truck exploded. No, it was probably more likely that the men with the tire irons finally caught up to him.
He'd made the trip to Lightning Flats, finally making it out to see Jack's parents, offering to take Jack's ashes to Brokeback like he'd wanted, but his daddy had refused, said he was going to be buried in the family plot. The man also told him how Jack had always talked about the two of then moving to the ranch. How they would whip it back into shape. He was surprised to hear and see the resentment in the old man as he spoke. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that to be something the old man had ever wanted. In the end he'd been given permission to look around Jack's room, and had found the shirt he'd thought he'd lost up on Brokeback, hanging on a hanger inside one of Jack's old shirts.
Suddenly it seemed his reason for existing revolved around his girls and unborn child. He guarded the secret of his baby almost obsessively, always making sure to reiterate to the girls the importance of keeping it quiet.
He was still a month from his due date when the stress of losing Jack became too much, and the baby ended up coming early. His son was so tiny, but he announced his arrival into the world very loudly. It was then that he'd known that his little Alexander Jack Twist Del Mar was strong, he was a fighter just like his daddies.
He'd stayed with his baby in the nursery where only the sickest babies were kept, him and a young couple, both watching over two tiny babies. He didn't remember falling asleep, but he will never forget waking up to the alarms going off around his son. He couldn't take his eyes off the tiny baby as doctors tried to revive him, his heart shattering beyond repair when the healers informed him that his perfect little boy was gone.
He'd honestly thought of taking his own life after that, but those thoughts were forced aside when he started noticing bruises on his daughters arms and legs. It didn't take much to get them to tell him that their stepfather was hitting them. He'd been stopped by Junior when storming out to beat the son of a bitch within an inch of his life, she tried to keep him from doing anything. He instead called in some favors people were always saying the owed him, and ended up with custody of his girls. Now Alma only got to see them if he was close by; he'd already lost one child, I wasn't taking any chances with his other two.
It was now almost four years since he'd lost his lover and little boy, and he was hoping the pain he still felt would numb soon.
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"This had better be good Black." Severus Snape glared at the prisoner sitting across from him, wondering why he'd agreed to this again. Dumbledore had gotten word that Sirius Black had been raving about having information on the Potters while locked up in Azkaban, so had sent him.
"I was hoping for Remus...you'll do...probably better in fact..." The man was clearly insane, and Severus was ready to storm out until something caught his attention, "Not theirs...feel the bond...don't feel the bond."
And that moment the rest of the inmates all started shrieking at once, and the guards all rushed away to see what the problem was, though not before making sure he was ok alone with the man strapped to the chair. "Thought they'd never leave." His head turned so quick he was sure he about gave himself whiplash. Sitting before him was a very lucid looking Sirius Black. "I was hoping to talk to someone about Harry, though I was hoping it would be Remus the old coot would send." He was about ready to storm out, but stopped when his godson was mentioned. "I questioned James when I realized I only felt the Godparent Bond with Harry, and never the uncle bond I felt with Evan. Two weeks later they are attacked and I'm in here." He could see the anger in the man's eyes.
"I was named godfather as well." Though Black was right about only sensing the one bond. It was rather strange considering he was able to sense an uncle bond with James and Lily's other child through his connection to Lily. Harry was different though, the connection to him is strictly a godfather bond, and a very weak one at that. Though he'd always thought that had more to do with the child's poor health, which had been a result of being three weeks premature.
"I've been racking my brains thinking about it, how they never brought him around when Remus was there. Then I stumbled across an obituary, Lily had kept it from the little town in America where Harry had been born. It was for a baby that died there, she had been furious, but also paranoid when she saw me looking at it." He didn't know where the man was going with this, but figured he was more insane than he appeared.
"What is it you want me to do Black?" He couldn't keep the sneer off his face as he spoke, but Black just rolled his eyes.
"I want you to call in some favors and make sure our godson is who they say he is!" The man raged. "He owes you, and would likely do it just because you are his mate." That hurt because his mate had left him, the man had stuck around long enough to complete the bond so that he could live, then went on to fulfill what he considered to be his "duties as a pureblood". "Trust me, it's harder than you'd think to forget a mate."
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"Why exactly am I here again my boy?" Severus looked up from his potion to glare at the old man standing across the table from him. He wasn't sure he appreciated the sick pleasure Albus got out of him heeding the request of Sirius Black, but he told himself he was doing it for Harry. The little boy, his godson, who he hadn't seen in almost three years, since the boy was a just a year old.
"I need someone people will trust to reaffirm that this was all done properly; in the unlikely event that Black is telling the truth." He was pretty sure he was being taught a lesson in futility, but was willing to see it through if it could knock James Potter off his pedestal.
Ever since the oldest Potter brat had defeated the dark lord, the boy's father had walked around like he was Merlin reincarnated. It drove him absolutely mad! If Black was right, and Harry was taken as an infant, well, the man would be a social pariah, and would only avoid jail time if he was lucky.
Severus had done his research as well, he was pretty sure he found the obituary Black had spoken of. It had said that the baby boy of one Ennis Del Mar had passed away in that same hospital just weeks after Harry had been born. It went on to say that the man's soul mate had preceded the child in death, just months before.
"Is it ready then?" Albus asked as Severus pulled out the vial of blood his mate had gotten for him. He nodded as he poured the vial into the cauldron, a mist slowly forming above the cauldron. In the mist was not the face of his best friend, there was no red hair, or green eyes; but there was blond hair and brown eyes. The picture morphed, and this man had manageable black hair and bright blue eyes, not the messy dark brown locks, or hazel eyes.
Looking over the cauldron, he saw the twinkle gone from his mentor's eyes, in fact, the man looked almost sick.