Judas Malfoy was once small enough to fit in the palm of his uncle's hand. James always took the time to remind him of that whenever he'd visit, and it never failed to embarrass the young boy. That being said, it also never failed to bring a smile to his face.
What an awful name for him, though. To be named after Judas Iscariot, and be the son of a Potter, and have red hair is just ridiculous. Anyone that even knows fragments of the Bible would know how unlucky Judas Malfoy was. That was the whole reason James started to call him "Jude", because it was a much nicer name than the one Lily and Scorpius picked out for their son. For the longest time, he did want to tell them off for giving their son a death wish, but that would have been too rude. And in the case of his nephew, James was inclined to be as little rude as possible.
From the beginning, life was never kind to Jude. He was born with a disorder that at first they thought was autism. He wasn't the brightest, or the most coordinated, but God, was he happy. When Scorpius and Lily took Jude to St. Mungo's, they were told it was a case of severe autism, and that they should go to a Muggle doctor if they wanted anything at all done. The diagnosis had hit close to Scorpius especially, as he had first-hand experience with the syndrome. However, when they brought their son to the Muggle physician as suggested, they were more than surprised to learn that it was not autism at all, but a disorder known as Angelman syndrome. Symptoms included delays in development, disturbances in sleep, seizures, jerky movements, constant laughter, and a happy demeanor. It didn't mean death, but it did mean that they would have to treat their son differently from his older brother.
Two years of dealing with Jude's constant chipper attitude, night terrors, and seizures put a strain on Scorpius and Lily's relationship, but the worst was yet to come.
The summer of 2036, just before Jude's 3rd birthday, brought stormy nights and a trip to America. They were fed up with the weather for once, and so the family hightailed it to California, where the sun was shining, and James lived with his second wife. Of course, James was more than happy to show them around the area, and even took them to Yosemite for a camping trip. It was all simple and innocent fun and, perhaps, one of their best memories. Tragedy struck when Jude became violently ill, and they could no longer stay camping.
Immediately, they brought him to the best hospital in the area, and though the doctors did their best, there was only one conclusion possible, and it was something out of mind for everyone. So when they were told Jude had leukaemia, it took all of James's power to hold back Scorpius from hitting the messenger. Lily burst into tears, and instead of Scorpius comforting her, he stormed off, leaving James to hold his sister close. He cried too, for the first time since his first wife left him.
They ended up staying with James, his wife, and their three teenage girls (there were four children when you counted Alan who was Jude's age, and from the previous marriage) for a couple years. In that time, there were many sessions of chemotherapy and once where Sean, Scorpius and Lily's older son, gave a bone marrow transplant to Jude. It was hard watching the boy deteriorate in front of their eyes, but soon, the disease went into remission, and Jude was well again. As well as he could be, that is. By that time, Lily had decided she liked California a lot and wanted to stay. Her husband was back and forth between England where their house was, but he had no intentions of staying in America. Or with Lily, for that matter. However, he kept that decision to himself for another year and a half before his lover decided to make their relationship known.
When questioned about why he was leaving her, Scorpius said simply: "It's because of Judas." Jude, who was six by then, was old enough to understand what those words meant.
James found Jude hiding in the cupboard under the stairs in his house while his wife and kids were out one day.
"Jude," he said as he crouched in the small space. "Why are you in here?" Sniffling, Jude shook his head vigorously. James could see the tears streaking down his little face. So he crawled down on all fours toward where his nephew sat with his arms wrapped around his legs. "Come on, tell me what's wrong." Again, Jude shook his head vigorously. Sighing, James ran his fingers through his fringe. "Jude, you're a very brave boy. What could possibly make you cry?"
"Hey, Jude," whispered James, curling his arm around the boy's shoulders. "Don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better." He lifted up Jude's chin to look into his eyes. James smiled, hoping it would be infectious, but he just turned his head the other way. "Don't carry the world on your shoulders, for well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder."
Pushing up his hands to wipe away the tears, Jude finally did smile. However, it was small, and quite short-lived. "Daddy hates me." He put his head into James's shoulder.
"No, he doesn't, silly," James lifted his nephew into his lap and dried the corners of his eyes. "Your dad loves you."
Jude shook his head. "Nu-uh. He said it's all my fault that he and Mummy are getting a deev- a deevo- a dee-"
"A divorce?" James's eyebrows shot kilometres into the air. No... couldn't be...
To this, Jude nodded. "Yeah. And there's this girl named Bri. Daddy says he's gonna marry her! Mummy's gonna let him do that! She's so stupid!
"Oh, Jude. Don't shut her out, especially now. You need her, just as much as she needs you." James hugged the boy close.
"Remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better."