A/N: A gift-fic for Megan, for the Fic Exchange of Epic Proportions. I was tempted to do a Muggle AU, but then I figured Next-gen would have a better incorporation of Muggle and Magical world than trio-era. :D I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Also written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge, year 1 charms, with the prompt: method, understanding, ooroblem, knowledge, power ability, love, literature, library, and internet.

Some Points of Inspiration

James loved hearing stories about his grandfather, even if he sounded more like a character out of a picture book than anything real. That was probably owing to the fact that neither of his parents knew his father's parents well – seeing as his father had been a year old when they'd died. But most of the stories were the stuff of pixie dust and dreams, and even before he'd picked up a wand he knew he wanted to be just like the original James Potter.

…with a few adjustments. He'd probably be hung in the Hogwarts Dungeons by his nails if he even thought about making fun of a fellow student the way James Potter had to Severus Snape.

'As much as I love my dad,' Harry would say, 'that part of his life was…' He'd stop here, fishing for words.

'…appalling,' Ginny would finish off. 'If you have a problem with someone, making their life a living hell, particularly for such petty reasons, is appalling.'

And Harry would recover his ability to form coherent sentences, and continue. 'And I definitely do not want you to be inheriting that.'

It was bad enough James had inherited a head for pranks. And Transfiguration. And Charms.

Harry was okay at Charms, but not great, and he could only show his son a fraction of his namesake's power. Ginny was worse; her talent lay in hexes and other fighting spells, and flying – just like the man she'd married. Hermione was a little better; she lacked the creativity of the Marauders, but she was far more proficient in the subject than the rest of their relatives – except Bill, but Bill at this point couldn't help that fell outside curse-breaking.

James tried to learn from books, but he didn't have a head for books. Albus was better, but Albus lacked the passion for Charms his elder brother head. He lacked the interest in Transfiguration as well – but both parents had sworn to turn them into beetles and shut them in a jar if they so much as tried Transfiguration before they were properly taught. And that had succeeded in scaring the children off.

They'd relented in some other areas of magic though. Simple potions that didn't involve any dangerous chemicals or reactions upon mishaps. Simple Charms like the Hovering Charm. Sparks in case they were ever in danger. Simple hexes to escape less troublesome situations. Little harmless pranks that their Uncle George could get away with entertaining them with – and could be convinced by an excited James to share the secrets of.

Hexes were good for pranking Albus when their parents weren't watching, but somehow hearing about how to change the colour of hair or turn water into apple juice seemed so much more interesting than hearing about someone losing their head.

Lily disagreed; she found the latter gross, but fascinating. Albus…really, James thought he wasn't like either of his parents. Interested in Potions of all things, something Harry had plenty of stories to tell, but not too much talent to show.

James first Charms lesson was memorable. Flitwick still taught it, pouring passion and understanding into each and every lesson. He kept it exciting for everyone: those interested in the intellectual challenge, and interested in the results as well. His parents said it sounded as though the man had gained a new passion after the second war, a new love – and possibly he had, because his knowledge, his methods, his prowess and above all else the passion and soul he put into his teaching, was something to inspire towards. Particularly when he told of the spells he had created, the things he could put his own name towards and watch as they spread like a circle of fire.

James hadn't thought much about aspirations; sure, he wanted to aspire towards his grandfather's prowess in Charms, but that was a difficult goal. Intangible. He only knew little occurrences, like how he'd charmed all the food in the Great Hall to change colour depending on the personality of the person. Hermione had mentioned something about a Muggle ring that worked similarly, even sent him one when he'd been curious about it. Naturally, James had hid it at the bottom of his trunk; he had nothing against Muggle things, with a half-blood father and a muggle-born aunt, as well as his mother's father having the passion he did for the Muggle world… But a ring was still a girl thing after all, even if it was interesting to try and find out how it worked.

He thought about little projects, little things he could do. Sometimes pranks, sometimes harmless nonsense, but always intellectual exercises. He checked the Hogwarts Library and the Muggle one near their home, going through anything from new journal articles to literature, and asking whoever he could when it went over his head. Professor Flitwick was more than happy to help, particularly since James had managed to defy expectations and wind up in Ravenclaw. It had seemed strange, at the beginning, but his parents hadn't seemed concerned…and, eventually, James found himself coming into that thirst for knowledge and experimentation.

Harry sometimes told the story of Severus Snape, though always when Albus was around to see it. Once, he told it to James alone, emphasising particularly in the era of the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry's own experiences with it. James had wondered why, for a bit, before he realised the accomplishments of Severus Snape weren't limited to what the rest of the world knew. He too had created an array of spells, though spells centred around the Dark Arts, and defence thereof.

'Is that important now?' Harry asked him, when James pointed that out.

James thought about it. 'I…guess not,' he said in the end. It wasn't the subjects that mattered so much, after all. The point was the inspiration.

Then Harry had chucked and commented that his namesake would be rolling in his grave in horror at the thought of someone of Potter blood taking inspiration from Severus Snape.

'But you respected him, Dad, didn't you?'

Harry had replied in the affirmative…after a fashion.

In the end, he got ten OWLS, with his only O being in Charms. His other teachers grumbled, saying if only he committed himself to his other subjects he could do more than achieve the bare minimum, but James didn't really care. He passed his NEWTs in a similar fashion, and a few years down the track came away with his Mastery and published his first paper on a variation of the Fidelius Charm – one that removed the necessity of absolute trust in a single person.

When asked what inspired the paper, he said his grandfather: James Potter. His passion, and the reason he'd died – for putting his trust in the wrong person. But there was more to it than that; without a teacher like Flitwick, he thought his interest would have remained just that, like how his father's interest in Quidditch had never taken him to the professional level. But it was more than that as well: it was an accumulation of many things. His maternal grandfather's love for digging into the Muggle world and his aunt Hermione's knowledge of said world. The advancement of modern society, where searching for papers did not mean physically removing them from a box, but rather typing a few integral words into a computer connected to the world and fortified to withstand high concentrations of magic. The stories of great people that hadn't been remembered for all the achievements they'd done, hadn't even been considered – and those other people that had pushed him on towards the end.