Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Quick AN: Longer AN at the end as well as an idea for you guys to chime in on. Additionally this story may have developed a plot. Huh. Well yes I won't keep you guys waiting.

Once again comments, questions, suggestions are always welcome. Like my other stories, this work is unbeta'd. All errors are my own.

~~~Previously~~~

"You are correct Lucius. As always thank you for your hospitality. I'll be on my way." The air of amusement was back and Lucius simply inclined his head in acknowledgement. When James was out the door, the blonde's chuckle followed him out.

"My pleasure indeed."

~~~Chapter 3~~~

Harry was debating wether to risk moving before the pain potions' recommended time was up when Teppy popped in and announced "Master Draco Malfoy calling!" then popped out as Draco walked into the bedroom.

"What brings The Malfoy scion to my room during this festive holiday season and so early too? I didn't know you knew what anything before 10 am was." Harry smirked at the roll of eyes the prim and proper Malfoy heir gave as he flopped on Harry's bed.

"I still would not know what it meant if your father had any decency whatsoever!" Harry's eyes widened and eyebrows rose at that. He was silent otherwise much to Draco's annoyance.

"Can we not dispense of politics during the holidays? I'd like to know whether Theìos caved." Draco had gotten in the habit of calling James Potter 'Uncle' in Greek since the Malfoy's had run into the Potters during the holidays in Greece a few years back. A waitress at a cafe had commented on such 'beautiful family on vacation (cousins no?)'. James' profuse denial had Draco asking, "Why do you deny me uncle?" And the joke had stuck since just to irritate the elder Gryffindor.

"I'm of two minds" Harry tossed Draco the missive and waited.

"Bloody Gryffindor! You have him Harry he knows you do else he would have come himself! And what is this? A Gryffindor announcing his cowardice! Unheard of!" Draco was practically cackling. The fact that Harry suspected the same made it all the more gleeful for the blonde. The plan had been Draco's idea to begin with.

When Draco dragged out the reason behind Harry's foul mood on the train back to school he had come up with a plan to get the Potter head to finally succum to his son. When subtle misbehavior was ignored or written off as "teenage antics" by either the teachers or James Potter Harry had had enough. Harry began to be as viscous as any Slytherin could with as much Gryffindor idiocy and foolishness as possible. The final straw was when Harry purposefully defaced his own fathers Quidditch plaques and trophies in the trophy room at school.

Harry had saved that last trick for just before the holidays. If that didn't work in getting his fathers attention then nothing else would. Harry was expecting his father to go barmy and shout at him then demand what he was thinking at which point Harry would deliver his message: Continue with the Sangpur tradition or else Harry would continue to act out. Not a perfect or foolproof plan especially when dealing with Gryffindors. They were unpredictable and one never knew which route they would decide to take. Desperate times called for desperate measures and with Harry it was doubly so. When he got desperate his Gryffindor blood began to bubble up to the surface and smothered his Slytherin if only momentarily but just enough to cause havoc.

No one expected James Potter to reply in a most Slytherin fashion. Harry expected shouting when he got to the headmasters office instead he heard his father sigh and saw the end of his father wand before he was out until he came too hanging in the nude in the playroom.

Harry should have known that his father had some kind of Slytherin in him after all Harry himself ended up in Slytherin. In hindsight, he should have expected what he got instead of being over confident. Now it seemed that James Potter was going to give Harry what he wanted and Harry was looking forward it.

~~~MFS~~~

"James!" Remus exclaimed at his old friends worn visage. It had been a while since the last time the Potter head had come calling so early and by his appearance it was not a social call never mind the time.

"Remus" James walked in at Remus' urging and followed him to the kitchen where tea was a guarantee.

"So what has Harry done this time?" Remus knew the Potter duo well and James almost exclusively went to Remus and Sirius when Harry was being especially hard to deal with. According to Sirius, it was mostly when Harry was being a Slytherin that they saw James anymore.

"The usual- mischief and mayhem." James took the proffered cup of tea but only played with the cup on the saucer.

"No the reason I am here is because I wanted to tell you before you found out from anyone else," Remus shot James a lot and mentally exchanged 'anyone' with Malfoy or Snape "that I've decided to go ahead and invoke Sangpur." James avoided eye contact as Remus choked on his tea across the table.

"James!" Remus was scandalized as James knew and feared he would be. Fortunately, Sirius was not present, more than likely still sleeping of his latest escapade into the muggle world of booze and women. This at least meant that James would only have to face one friend at a time even if it was the one he had been dreading facing the most. Both Sirius and Remus had been behind him 100% when he had declared to not follow the Sangpur tradition when Harry came of age. That the father would teach his son about carnal pleasures during his adolescent years was expected, but the invocation of the tradition at 17 was optional - to the more forward thinking families - and a duty to the more traditional families. The more forward thinking families were mostly 50/50 when it came to magical and muggle/squib children so they were more lax on the tradition. They also usually frowned upon incest in any form and had their children couple for "love" even if it meant a squib/muggle/only child.

The Potters had been traditional until James' grandfather Gerald Potter eschewed the tradition calling it "unclean." No one knew why but it was suspected that Gerald may have been too in love with his son Edwin and wanted no part of the torture the Sangpur tradition would bring. After all it was frowned upon to continue after the son/grandson was born. Edwin Potter, James father, decided to forgo the tradition when he and his wife Penelope had trouble conceiving. James was born miraculously late in the Potters' lives and Edwin saw the tradition as being James' choice since Edwin did not want to risk Penelope for another child. James would receive no additional benefit for having gone through it other than a sibling that James would also be the father of. Upon conferring with James, Edwin found that his son was in love and wanted to marry out of school so James also decided to forgo Sangpur. Edwin warned James and Lilly about Lilly's chances of surviving since she was not a pureblood but the couple believed Lilly was strong enough to carry a magical child to term and survive so Edwin gave his blessing despite his misgivings and let them marry.

James had no passed down qualms about the tradition from his father or mother but his friendship with Sirius, whose family took the tradition too far by breeding further within the siblings and Remus, whose family was strictly against it due to his muggle mother gave James enough pause as to deny Harry. James knew Sirius and Remus would disapprove but he hoped they would still call him friend hence his current predicament. He knew if he didn't come straight to them Lucius would send an owl directly with the news just to antagonize them.

The pair of Gryffindors couldn't understand how James was able to cultivate a friendship with the Slytherins. For James Harry easily explained the quasi-friendship. His son's friendship with the Malfoy scion put to bed most of James' more vitriolic tirades as "Because I say so" or "because!" Did not cut it with a Slytherin child whose favorite question was "why?" thus the tenuous parent camaraderie grew.

Snape was a family friend of the Malfoy's and as such took great pleasure in being present at the manor when James was due to drop-off or pick-up Harry from a play date. The slightly scathing encounters became entertaining and thus Severus Snape was now a "friendly" acquaintance.

"It - who - James, why?" Had this not been a serious topic James would have made fun of Remus' loss for words. This time however he knew the seriousness of the conversation and decided to explain.

"Remus beside the fact that Harry wants it-"

"Of course he's going to want it he is a hormonal teenager James!"

"Please Remus that fact has not escaped me." James looked worn out but continued.

"If I do this then it also means that I can move on with my life and not have to worry about being single, marrying a pureblood, or becoming a widow for the second time." Remus' gaze softened a bit but still his disapproval was palpable.

"James did you ever think that if you do go on with this the partners available to you may only be purebloods? I don't know many half blood or muggle born women who agree with this tradition and would be fine marrying into a family where one of her stepsons would also be her "son-in-law" and another of her stepsons a step grandson."

James looked down into his cooling cup of tea and took a deep breath.

"I'm not looking for a woman for a partner Moony." To say that was a shock would be like saying lycanthropy was a simple flu that can be cured by medication.

"James..." Remus was speechless. Not many same sex couples were permitted in their world but what James was proposing was the most legitimate way to go about it. It was not done often because not many half blood or muggle borns were willing to marry into a family where they were essentially a broodmare and then sent to die. To try to go about this secretly was frowned upon and ultimately transparent, as the husband would have little to no warm regard for their future "wife". To legitimately pull this off would mean that the husband was truly bisexual, sexually experimenting, or having some kind of life crisis. Remus could not see James as anything other than heterosexual if his love and devotion for Lilly was any indication, he didn't seem confused and it was too early in James' life for a crisis.

"Have your always been?Lilly?" Remus questioned cautiously. He wanted to be sensitive to the situation and really, James looked about ready to bolt in his nervousness.

"Yes but not in such explicit terms. Love is love Remus. You know for me it hasn't really mattered from who or to whom love is directed." James' gaze firmly planted on his cup finally looked up and locked on Remus' curious one. "Lilly … I loved – love Lilly with all of my heart. She was my everything and she gave me Harry. It has been sixteen years now and I'm finally letting go. It has been pointed out that she would want me to move on." A flicker of a smile passed over both Remus and James. Every adult in James' life had said exactly that at one point or another once Harry turned 10. Even Harry himself had mentioned that James never dated. No, James' love for Lilly was never in question, but it had to be asked.

Remus' eyes locked on James' and tried to decipher the emotions clambering in the returning gaze. Fear was chief among them as well as nervousness resignation and longing. Remus didn't know what to make of it all. James was nervous of course and scared of divulging this information and sure, he was resigning himself to the fact that he had now let out a big piece of himself but where did longing fit?

"James you know this changes nothing right? I'm still here for you no matter what" hope joined the other emotions now.

"I'll always be here and so will Sirius. We are your best friends and we will never abandon you." Remus watched as the hope drained out as disappointment washed over his visage. James' head bent down again and spoke to his tea.

"Yeah I know Remus. Thank you for that." He looked up quickly but looked way once again. Remus saw a hint of devastation in that quick glimpse and his internal alarm was going off. Something is wrong. That is what Remus assessed as James set the tea down and got up intent on leaving.

Remus' chances to fix whatever just happened or at least try to figure out what made his friend do a complete turn around were about to walk out the door. Remus rose, took a step toward the retreating James and called on to him.

"James please." James stopped but didn't turn around. Instead, James addressed the door in a solemn tone.

"Remus please don't tell Sirius what we spoke about. You can tell him about Sangpur even why I am doing it but the rest leave it. I'll speak with him personally later on." Before his departure, James took a shot in the dark and tried once again.

"Remus for being so intelligent and observant sometimes you can be quite thick and blind." James glanced back at a flummoxed and slightly hurt Remus as he stepped out of the house and made his way past the wards to apparate home. He had a son to confront.

AN: Where do I begin? Well an apology of course for the length of time it has taken me to update. I won't promise updates with time frames because we all know how well that worked out. Unfortunately, real life took over and here we are. I will however endeavor to try to get my muse and my RL to get along but I can't make any promises. I just came out of a harrowing semester just in time to jump into another. I usually do two semesters a year because a full time job leaves little if any time left for academics much less anything else, but I've decided to try and get as much of my schooling done and so this year I am doing three consecutive semesters. One down two to go.

An idea? Only if you guys actually want it otherwise the status quo remains. I realize that I only ever communicate with you - my readers - in AN's before or after my chapters. If you guys want me to I'll create a group/(Merlin forbid) twitter/tumblr etc. to communicate between posting. Let me know and if you guys want it I'll post the info on my bio.