Three days later, Sirius, Remus and the ghost of James stood around the bed that Harry was resting on, gazing back up at them with the open curiosity. A collection of books on curse scars that Sirius had salvaged from the Black family library were scattered across the bed in various stages of reading.
"That scar is not normal" muttered Sirius as Remus continued to cast diagnostic spells.
"Thank you for pointing out the blindingly obvious" muttered James, scratching his chin absentmindedly as he perused the books that had been left open for him.
Remus sighed, having cast all the spells he knew and a few that he had just researched, sitting carefully on the bed next to Harry, who promptly crawled towards him and giggled as the werewolf picked him up and placed him in his lap and began tickling him. He turned towards his friends.
"Well it's undoubtedly dark, but I just don't know what it is. None of the scar removal or healing spells seem to be having any effect... I'm afraid I'm stumped."
"Huh" was the helpful input from Sirius "what about getting Dumbledore involved? He might know something or someone who can help." The three men thought about it for a moment.
"No." Said James after a moments contemplation. "Not yet anyway, he'll be busy with the post war clean up, and to be honest I think he'd probably try to take control of Harry as some sort of poster child. He doesn't need that at the moment and to be honest I think it's best if we keep our heads down until we know a bit more about what's going on."
Sirius and Remus nodded in agreement and the trio of Marauders lapsed into silence.
"Memory charm on a healer after they've had a look?" suggested Remus.
"I dated a girl who worked at St Mungo's for a bit, she might be willing to help." Sirius saw the skeptical looks he was getting from his friends. "What?"
"We all know how that one ended and there's no way in hell syphilis Sue is coming anywhere near my son" stated James dryly.
"She doesn't have syphilis any more!" came the protest.
"Yeah but she's hardly likely to want to do you any favours as you were the one who gave it to her in the first place" sniggered Remus.
"How many times do I have to say this, SHE GAVE IT TO ME!"
"You're only lying to yourself old boy" said Remus with a smile.
"Me thinks the lady doth protest too much" James responded with a wink at the werewolf, "besides, the answer is still no."
"Fine" huffed his friend, "what's your bright idea."
James opened his mouth to reply before shutting it again resignedly and shrugging. "Dunno. Lets give it a bit and see what happens."
The ghost of the father sat next to his son, still giggling happily in Remus' lap. He reached out a ghostly finger to trace the scar on Harry's forehead and the infant immediately let out an unhappy wail.
"Oh nice one dad" snapped Remus pulling Harry away from James' hand. The hand stayed attached to Harry's forehead "I'd just gotten him happy again. Take your hand off, it's hurting him."
A confused expression passed across James ghostly countenance.
"Errr... I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?" queried Sirius. The ghostly finger had disappeared completely into Harry's forehead and the rest of the hand seemed to be following it.
James' eyes were wide with a combination of shock and horror that was soon reflected on the other two men. Harry continued to scream.
"Oh fuck" whispered James, now up to his wrist "Fuck." Louder this time, almost up to his elbow "Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUUUUUUUU" and he disappeared into his son, sucked in through the scar like a tea-towel up a vacuum cleaner. Harry abruptly stopped crying. Sirius and Remus sat in shocked silence.
"Well..." began Sirius trailing off, at a loss as to what to say. It wasn't every day that you saw the ghost of your best friend sucked into his own son's forehead through the curse scar of the man that had killed you.
"That was unexpected" was the only contribution Remus had.
"Umm" said James. He looked around. Everything was white. Not a white room, no floor, no ceiling, no walls, just white, everywhere.
"James!" The cry caught his attention and he turned.
"Lilly!" He rushed towards his wife who was cradling their son close to her chest. The tall imposing figure standing near her could only be one person.
Voldemort snarled and swung towards him, hand outstretched, pointing a wand directly at the advancing James, spitting out the most feared of all curses.
"Avada Kadavra" nothing.
Everything stopped. He tried again. Again, nothing. Voldemort looked up, confusion a strange expression to see on the snake like visage.
"Huh." he tried again. Still nothing. The most feared Dark Lord of the past century began to look if anything, a little sheepish. "Well this has never happened to me before."
"Apparently it affects up to 20% of all men at some point." Said James, resuming his angry advance.
"What?" Voldemort's confusion continued as he stared at his approaching nemesis before realisation dawned, shortly joined by an expression of distaste. "Oh, a penis joke. How incredibly pueri-" He was cut off as James sank his fist into the Dark Lord's stomach, wind exiting in a sudden rush as the tall figure doubled over. James followed up with a left cross to the side of the head, then a knee to the nose.
Whimpers of pain and protest came from Voldemort as the Potter father continued with the beating, unleashing all the rage and hurt at losing his wife and his life in a brutal display of violence against their murderer. In the back ground Lilly looked on with a savage expression of triumph even as she cooed platitudes to the son cradled in her arms.
"It's ok sweetheart, Daddy's beating the snot out of the bad man."
Voldemort was now on the floor, James raining kicks into the prostrate form, occasionally pulling him up by the scruff of his robes to punch him in the face while screaming near incoherent abuse. The Dark Lord's limp arms had flailed uselessly against the attack, so used to having magic that by the time he had remembered that he could use physical power as well it was too late and then they dropped limply by his side. The body began to fade, slowly at first, becoming almost see through, the disappearing quickening as the beating progressed. Finally James stood, raising his foot and stamping down hard on Voldemort's head. His foot went straight through, leaving him standing, breathing deeply, anger still showing on his face as the figure of Voldemort disappeared for good.
James turned towards his wife and son. The anger disappeared in a flash as he ran a hand through his hair, stamping his trade-mark grin across his face.
"Hi honey!" he strode towards them, wrapping his arms around them both, kissing his wife before gazing down at his son. The scar was still present here, wherever here was, but it looked less... angry than it had before.
Lilly stared up at him, an uncertain expression on her face
"What happens now?" she asked.
Sirius and Remus were on the far side of the room from the bed Harry was still resting on. Shortly after James had disappeared, Harry's silence had been broken with lung bursting wailing that put their combined silencing charms to the test, writhing in Remus' arms to such an extent that he could no longer be held. They had placed him on the bed and watched helplessly as the twisting and turning continued.
Their concern turned to horror and they began to back away as the screams became something more, heard on a level that made the glass in the room vibrate and set their teeth on edge, at once both high pitched and so low that it was below the normal level of hearing. Harry began to rise off the bed, twisting and turning with snake like movements and then dark smoke began to leak out of the scar. It started slowly, getting faster and thicker. The two men struggled against a wind that was pushing them back away from the toddler, desperate to help and powerless to do anything.
The smoke thickened, darkening the whole room, bringing with it the same stench that Sirius recognised from Godric's Hollow and the Black family home after his cousin's had been playing a particularly heavy session of 'fun with the dark arts'. He reached out a hand, grabbing hold of Remus to keep track of him even as they lost sight of one another, the darkness so total that he couldn't tell when his eyes were open or closed.
Just as suddenly, it was gone.
Remus and Sirius stared across the room. The ghost of James was stood next to the bed, one arm around his wife, both of them smiling down at their now peaceful son. Lilly glanced across at them and smiled at their open mouths and wondrous expressions.
"Would you two like a moment?" She asked. Their expressions turned to confusion as they looked at each other and then down to where their hands were still tightly clasped together before snatching them back to their sides.
"Er... what..." asked Sirius.
"Er... how..." queried Remus. Lilly grinned at them, before turning back to her son who smiled anf waved a chubby arm up at her.
"Well, you remember the Horcruxes that Dumbledore mentioned? The keep a part of the soul tethered here to prevent death?" Confusion remained on Sirius' face even as a Remus' became more thoughtful.
"No"
"Yes" they replied at the same time. James rolled his eyes and gave them a simplified explanation.
"Killing me allowed Volde-balls to make another Horcrux and place it in Harry's head even though his body was destroyed. Lilly here" he gave his wife a squeeze "was somehow caught up in it and was able to protect Harry for the last couple of days while he was trying to get control of Harry."
Remus and Sirius wore similarly horrified expressions as the story went on.
"When I touched his scar, that same connection pulled me in and allowed me to fight snake-eyes-McTwat-face and when he was beaten, he was gone but so was the connection tying me and Lils into Harry's mind."
"Shit" came the awed whisper from Sirius and Remus.
"Shit" agreed Lilly.
"Shit" confirmed James. They all gathered around the bed, pausing and gazing down at Harry, the scar now the normal, healthy pink of fresh skin. A loud banging at the door interrupted them.
"Shiiiiit" they said in unison.
"So" began Lilly, sat at the table of a new hotel room, slightly larger and more importantly a long way from the angry owner of the last one who had had to be obliviated after complaining about the overly loud noises coming from their room "what are you two going to do now?"
"Us?" asked Sirius indicating himself and Remus "Surely you mean 'us'" he said and waved an arm to encompass the two ghosts as well.
James shook his head sadly.
"We talked about this last night while you guys were asleep. As much as we'd love to stay, the hold on the two of us left when we got Voldemort out of Harry and we can feel..." he searched for the right words before giving up "whatever's next pulling at us." Lilly nodded sadly in agreement.
"Oh" said Remus.
"Shit" began Sirius.
"Not that again" interrupted Lilly before the word was all the way out of his mouth, resulting in the wounded expression of a kicked puppy being plastered across Sirius' face.
They sat for a moment in silence.
"For now I think it would be best if you stayed in hiding" Began James. His friends nodded dejectedly. "There's just too much risk with going out in public at the moment and we don't know what the remaining Death Eaters are up to."
"Do you want us to let Dumbledore know what we're up to?" asked Remus. Lilly and James shared looks before a slight shake of Lilly's head gave the answer.
"No" she replied "let him know that you'll be going in to hiding and that you intend to stay that way until you can be certain that it's safe. We'll leave you to make the decision when Harry is a little older as to when or if you go back to the wizarding world."
"Wait, what?!" interrupted Sirius. "What do you mean 'if'?!"
"Sirius" pointed out Remus gently "Harry is the only person ever to have survived a killing curse and the result of that was that the strongest Dark Lord in nearly a hundred years was defeated. What do you think will happen when he goes out in public?" Sirius mouth moved up and down, trying to form arguments before realisation dawned.
"Oh."
"Yep" agreed James "not exactly how we see our son being raised. We still expect you to teach him about magic and we can't imagine two better people to teach him as he grows up, but... it may be worth keeping him out of the limelight for as long as possible, or at least limiting his exposure as much as possible."
They all nodded in agreement.
"I can point you in the right direction for a few charms that will help you hide from trackers and finders too." Said Lilly. "They'll keep any followers of the Dark Dickhead guessing, but they'll probably interfere with Dumbledore's trackers as well. Which isn't necessarily too bad." She added as an after thought.
As the day wore on, plans were formed and discarded, Lilly and James laying out guidelines for how they hoped their son would be raised, help coming mostly from Remus, with the occasional, usually soon to be discarded suggestion from Sirius. By the time the sky was darkening in the window, the plans were complete and the spectres of James and Lilly were fading.
Tears both living and dead trickled down cheeks, James earning a sharp dig in the ribs from his wife after making another comment about his friend's femininity, twinned with the observation that his cheeks were also damp. She gazed down at her son, tracing a careful finger along his cheek, the sad expression on her face showing that she wished she could hold him one last time.
"Take care of them for me Harry, they're idiots but they're good men under it all." Sirius sniffed loudly, brushing away more tears and choking out a half-hearted protest. Lilly turned to them and wagged a now near non-existent finger at them "and you two" she warned in a dangerous tone "you take care of my son, because I swear to all that's holy and everything that's magical, if you fuck this up, I will come back and haunt the ever-loving shit out of you." They gulped and nodded their understanding. Her expression changed so fast it was almost impossible to believe as she gifted them with one last smile. "Take care boys. All of you." and slowly faded into nothing.
James wasn't much more substantial and he raised a hand in a final wave to the friends that had stood by him for so long.
"What she said. Doubled." They smiled weakly back at him and again nodded in understanding. "See you..." James' voice trailed off as he too disappeared, leaving the two friends alone with Harry who had pushed himself into a sitting position and was rocking slowly while holding onto his feet, a cherubic smile on his face.
"Shit" sighed Sirius softly, sinking onto the bed opposite Harry's, staring at the boy, elbow on knee and hand cupping his face as he contemplated his new future.
"Shit" agreed Remus as he sat next to his friend, mimicking his pose.
"Shit" burbled baby Harry, uttering his first word. The colour drained from the two grown men's faces as they stared at the cursing toddler before their heads snapped around the room in panic, checking for the reappearance of an angry mother ghost. Their eyes met again, matching expressions of horror.
"Shit" they both said.
"Shit" agreed a happy baby Harry.
A/N: So I've taken the last part out of this chapter as it makes more sense to have it at the start of the next one. I loaded this one in a bit of a rush before I went away from the weekend and I've just gone through to re-check for mistakes though as I'm working without a beta there are probably still a few in there. Any one wanting to volunteer for the post, PM me.
Cheers for reading and please review! Next chapter hopefully up this afternoon/end of the week latest.