A Father

Harry, Sirius and Remus appeared, Harry side-long with Sirius, at the Hogwarts gates.

Dumbledore was on the other side of the gates, waiting for them.

He started to undo the locks and then he swung them open a little so that the trio could get through, single file.

"Professor-," Sirius started to question but Dumbledore cut him off.

"There is no time for questions Sirius," Dumbledore said, "I want him back at the house as quickly as possible before anybody sees him," he added, locking the gates back up.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other with confused looks and then they glanced at Harry before they silently agreed that Dumbledore meant Harry.

James wandered around the office until he came to a stop in front of the phoenix.

"Hey Fawkes," James whispered to the phoenix, "How does he know, hey?" he added.

Then there were the sound of footsteps on the stairs and he quickly pulled the hood of his cloak over his head and moved into the shadows behind Dumbledore's desk.

The door opened and Dumbledore entered the office with three people with him.

One of them looked no older than fifteen while the other two looked to be somewhere in their thirties.

The boy had long, that was not quite up to his shoulders like one of the older men, messy jet black hair and vibrant emerald green eyes behind round glasses.

He looked oddly like himself when he was a teenager, except for the boy's eyes, which looked familiar from somewhere.

The older men looked oddly familiar as well.

One of them had neat black hair that came down to his shoulders, warm kind grey eyes and pale skin.

Where as, the other man was wearing shabby patched robes, short scruffy light brown hair that was greyed in places, he had three huge, old scars across his face, his eyes were a vibrant gold-brown colour and he looked considerably ill.

"Hey Fawks," the boy said, walking up to the phoenix and stroking its feathers.

The bird chorused a few notes and then quietened a little.

"I'm sure that you two are fine with Harry's company every hour of the day and night," Dumbledore said to the two older men.

Harry? James thought.

"Don't worry Professor, Moony and I have it under control," Sirius said.

"Yes, especially when you keep on getting him to break the rules that we set for him," Remus said, putting the emphases on the 'we'.

"Well I hope that you all won't be shocked to find out that I need you two to take care of an extra person," Dumbledore said cautiously.

He paused and looked at Harry with a look of concern.

"And who is this extra person?" Remus asked.

Dumbledore sighed but did not reply.

"Harry," he said and Harry looked at him curiously.

"Yes Professor," Harry said.

"You probably won't believe who else is in this office but I assure you that he isn't a Death Eater," Dumbledore said, choosing his works carefully.

Harry's curiosity grew and he clearly showed it in his expressions.

"I'm afraid that I don't understand, Professor," Harry said, frowning.

"I'm not saying that you should understand," Dumbledore reassured the young teenager.

Harry looked around the office as Dumbledore continued the explanation but he couldn't see anyone except for Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore. Then something moved in the shadows and Harry stared at the spot only to find an odd hazel twinkle there.

"Professor I don't understand why you want the picture of James as his stag form," Sirius said and then a stag came out of the shadows, the exact same one that was shown in the photo.

The trio stared at it for a few seconds, gaping at the animal. Sirius was the first to recover and he stepped forward a little towards the brilliant jet black stag.

"Prongs?" Sirius said as he started to stroke the stag's neck. The stag shook its head and made a sneezing sound. "Moony," he added, turning to look at his other best friend. "Its Prongs," he added, grinning broadly.

Remus shook his head and stepped back several paces; "Sirius you know fully well that Prongs is dead."

"Remus is right Sirius," Harry suddenly said. Then the stag started to change slowly into a man who resembled Harry's father.

"Harry," he said, "It's me," he added, spreading his arms out wide to welcome Harry into them. James was hurt that his son would say that when he was standing right in front of him. Harry saw the hurt in the man's eyes, the warm kind hazel eyes that he had long forgotten. Harry stepped backwards, shaking his head. He bumped into Remus who also seemed to not believe what he was seeing either.

"Harry," Sirius said, drawing Harry's attention to him, "This is James, you know that I wouldn't lie to you about this sort of thing," he added.

"Padfoot, I'm starting to think that you've gone completely insane," Remus said. James blow out of the corner of his mouth.

"He's always been insane Moony," James said and Remus stared gapingly at him.

"That's exactly what James would have said," Remus said.

"Exactly," James said. Remus walked around Harry and walked over to stand in front of James. Remus held his hand out to do their secret friendship handshake. "I thought you said that it was too disgusting to do," James said, then Remus grabbed hold of James and they hugged each other like long lost brothers would.

"Moony, it's alright mate," James said, "I'm back and here to stay," he added.

"Moony, let go of him before you squeeze him to death again," Sirius said, dragging Remus off from James. Harry couldn't believe what was happening. Yesterday he was kid who wanted his parents alive more than anything in the world but today he only wanted Remus and Sirius. The older trio grinned and gathered into a friendship circle. Dumbledore watched Harry's reaction closely. The young teenager seemed to be trying to find something else to occupy his mind with, other than his parents. The old Headmaster could tell that this would be a rough road for Harry to follow. He knew that Harry had forgotten every single memory he had spent with his parents because of the prophesy and Voldemort.

"Harry!" James called up the stairs to where he knew his son was playing with the golden snitch that he had gotten for his birthday. He heard the door open and then close, then the sound of footsteps coming down the spiral staircase. Harry stopped at the bottom and looked expectantly at his father.

"Let me guess, Sirius doesn't want to wash the dishes tonight," Harry said thoughtfully.

"No, we're going to Diagon Alley to get your school stuff and we're meeting the Weasley's and Hermione there," James said. Harry groaned.

"We went yesterday," Harry said.

"Please Harry, no complaining, just get some better robes on please," James said and Harry ran up the other set of stairs that led to the bedrooms. James entered the lounge room where Sirius and Remus were waiting.

"You'd think that after a few weeks with you, Harry would settle in with it," Sirius said.

"Not to mention James. He knows that I'm a werewolf and all that and saying he has to stay in his room whenever I transform," Remus said, "It would be helpful if he was doing it with us," he added.

"No," James said, "He's the only thing left of Lily that I have," he added.

"Prongs, he's lived most of his life looking after himself," Sirius said.

"I know! I know!" James replied, his head falling into his hands.

"Harry was born to be free on making his own choices," Sirius said. Then there was a long silence between the three of them.

"How about you let me do the parenting for a little while?" Sirius said after he had thought it through for a little while.

"What?" James and Remus asked, looking at him strangely.

"You know," Sirius said, "Obviously Harry still needs to get used to James being here and we just hurried him into obeying James's every order," Sirius added.

"You know, I think Padfoot's right Prongs," Remus said, "We've hurried the process of Harry settling into the fact that he's got a father now," he added. James looked sadly at his two best friends, and then he nodded slowly.

"You're both right," James said, "Sirius, you better take over the job," he added. Sirius smiled sadly at his best friend and he stood up. He walked over to James and stood in front of him.

"I know that it's upsetting you Prongs, Harry's behaviour, but it happened to me so you're just going to have to wait patiently," Sirius said.

A/N: Sorry it took so long. I just have too many stories on my hands.

Messers Prongs/Lily/Prongs