A/N - I own nothing.
Thanks for all the reviews. I enjoy reading them, and I'm happy that you're all enjoying the story. Sorry about the long wait (yet again), I want the chapters to be perfect.
I do realise that there is a lot of WolfStar in this story, and I'm sorry, I can't help it, I love my WolfStar :D Hermione WILL be making an appearance 2 chapters away, so WolfStar will take more of a backseat to Hermione and James. I just can't help myself writing WolfStar which is my OTP.
When I first started writing, my chapters were around 2k words, and now when I write they tend to be closer to 5k!
I have to give a bit of credit to Lorna Potter, who described Remus as a Sneaky Little Shit in school, and I just loved it, so decided to use it.
The next morning James woke up, exhausted. He still struggled to sleep alone, and he knew that would take a bit of time to change. He would manage again one day. He didn't bother looking at the clock, he knew he wouldn't be able to go back asleep no matter the time, and instead, slowly climbed out of bed, pulling the covers tidy after him, and jumped in the shower.
He took his time, wanting to look his best for the people who looked after his son, when Harry's own family clearly weren't capable, and he felt his anger at the Durleys grow again. Once he had this dinner and the upcoming full moon done with, he'd be taking a closer look at the people who made his sons life hell.
He'd deal with them. No-one gets away with treating his son like this. Sirius would agree. Harry was clearly too nice... Remus had obviously influenced his son, and Harry needed a bit more of James and Sirius' wildness.
On reflection, Harry was soon to become a father, maybe he was fine the way he was, James would deal with the crap that Harry had grown up with himself. His eyes fell on the documents that he brought back from Gringotts.
He would deal with that too, he thought, grimly.
He read through the documents again, marking with a quill the important bits, until he heard someone in the hallway heading downstairs. He packed his stuff up and followed, to find Remus cooking breakfast.
"We only make something light on a Sunday, because Molly will give us about 3 Peoples worth of food at lunch in hopes of fattening us all up," Remus explained, as he passed James some toast, and put some on for himself. "She'll love feeding you, you're still pretty thin."
Sirius walked into the kitchen in a pair of pyjama bottoms and James' gaze moved to his chest, that was covered in tattoos.
"I'm sorry James, he's taken," came Remus' voice, and James snapped out of it.
"When did you get those?"
"Azkaban," Sirius said, grimacing. "But I do have one of a wolf, do you want to see it?"
James nodded, and immediately regretted his decision as Sirius turned around, and started pulling down his pyjama bottoms.
"Uh, on second thoughts, I'll just take your word that it's a nice tattoo," James said, ignoring Remus' chuckle.
"Why does everyone say that," Sirius complained, pulling his bottoms up again.
"Is Sirius showing you his arse?" came Harry's voice from the doorway.
"I was just trying to show him my tattoo," Sirius sighed, slumping in his seat, with his arms crossed.
"He does that to everyone. He doesn't realise not everyone wants to see his arse," Harry said. "I think he got a bit brave after Ginny complimented him on it, but let me tell you, Molly was far from impressed."
"It could be worse, you could have shown it to McGonagall, or Augusta Longbottom," James said, laughing. He took in the looks on Harry and Remus' faces, and turned back to an innocent looking Sirius Black.
"Are you insane, you showed Minnie your arse?"
"In all fairness, Augusta stared at it for longer than necessary," Sirius pointed out.
"Dirty old bird," Remus mumbled, shaking his head.
"Professor McGonagall hexed him," Harry added.
"You never change, do you?" James said, shaking his head at his friend.
"What? Did he used to make a habit of showing people his arse?" Harry asked.
James nodded. "I've seen his arse more times the I should. He never learnt to lock the shower door. I knew it was because he hoped Remus would walk in on him, and take a liking to it," James told Harry.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Harry asked, grinning at him.
"If I remember correctly, Remus was the one who, without fail, would walk in by accident every single morning, blush, apologise and rush out again," Sirius said, winking at Remus.
"Oh, that was because I would always ask him to check if the shower was empty," James grinned. "Although he never refused to check. Always seemed a bit eager to go peeking in the bathroom. Sirius even managed to walk in on Remus once."
"That can't have ended well," Harry said.
"If I recall, he panicked, and walked into the door frame... and that was after complimenting Remus on his amazing body. Poor Remus wouldn't stop blushing for a week."
"I just never understood at the time why he would say that, when he's seen me after transformations, I didn't look much different."
"Ah, but you didn't have bandages on... and you were all wet, and your arse, it -"
"And thus concludes the story of Remus and Sirius checking each other out in the shower. Now what time is this thing happening?" James interrupted.
"Once you're all dressed. I was sent to get you," Harry said.
James nodded, and stood up. "Alright, let's go get ready."
...oOo...
Almost an hour later, they all walked to the fireplace. Sirius and Harry went through first, and James took a few deep breaths.
"I've spoken to Molly, saying you might get overwhelmed by all the people. If you do, just head back here for a few minutes, or head up to one of the bedrooms for a moment to yourself," Remus told him.
James nodded, and watched Remus go through the floo.
He waited about 30 seconds, before stepping in, and throwing down the floo powder.
"The Burrow."
...oOo...
James stepped out of the floo, and saw that only Sirius, Harry and Remus were waiting for him.
"They didn't want to overwhelm you, mate," Sirius explained.
James pulled his hand through his hair, concerned it was flat. Satisfied that it wasn't, he followed Harry from the room, and into the kitchen.
The first person he saw was Ginny, and she came over and he gave her a hug. "How's my daughter-in-law?" He asked, grinning at her. She returned the grin.
"I'm great, the baby is great too," she said, answering the question James was about to ask.
"Brilliant. When do you find out if it's a boy or a girl?" James asked.
"A couple of weeks. You're welcome to come to the appointment, my parents are coming too," Ginny said, stepping away, allowing James into the kitchen properly.
"Molly?" James said, noticing a woman hovering by the table. "Wow, I'd never have guessed 20 years have passed. Still as beautiful as ever," he winked at her.
"James Potter, still as charming as ever. I bet you've been saying that to all the witches," Molly laughed.
"Yes, but you're the only one that I mean it with," he replied, as she pulled him into a hug.
"I'm so glad you're awake, Harry was so happy when he popped in earlier, he needs his dad -"
"Well, you and Arthur have done a great job looking after him, so thank you for that," he replied, softly. "I've not heard much, just a few bits so far, as they're worried about overwhelming me with information, but I can tell that he was very well taken care of."
"Oh nothing you wouldn't have done for my children," she replied, letting go.
Arthur stepped forward. "James," he said, and shook his hand.
"Arthur, I'm sorry, the compliments are reserved for the ladies, I'm afraid. If you're after one, you'll have to speak to Sirius."
Arthur let out a chuckle.
"Seriously though, thanks for looking after my boy."
"It was no trouble, he's one of the family," Arthur replied, and James beamed at him.
"Everyone is waiting outside," Molly said, and James nodded, before turning and leading the way outside, with Remus and Harry, Sirius choosing to help himself to some of the food, as Molly half-heartedly slapped his hands away from the plates.
As they walked out, James wondered if they were having a party in his honour, that or this was the biggest family he had ever seen in his life. No wonder they took Harry in, they possibly just assumed he was one of theirs that they had forgotten about.
Harry guided him over to the table, and took a seat, James sitting on the next one.
Harry proceeded to introduce him to everyone around the table. Ron, Lavender, Percy, Bill, and Fleur, and some others that he quickly lost track of.
"It's nice to meet you, Mr Potter," Bill said, putting his hand out to shake James'.
"Not Mr Potter, just James," James corrected him, shaking his hand, and shaking hands with everyone around the table, including the suspicious looking twins, who he had seen the day before.
"Okay, so some of you I remember from years ago, it's really strange meeting you all again to find you're all older than me... no, I mean older than I was." He frowned for a moment. "I mean it's strange that you're twenty years older than I remember you," he explained. "So clearly a lot has happened, fill me in? What do you all do?"
Bill was the first to speak. "I work for Gringotts, I met my wife Fleur during Harry's Triwizard Tournament."
James stared at him. "Triwizard Tournament?" He asked, slowly looking at his son.
"Yeah, when I was fourteen, I -"
"Fourteen," James repeated, his head falling into his hands.
"It wasn't my fault, Barty Crouch put my name in," Harry tried to explain.
"The man who tortured Alice and Frank was at Hogwarts and put your name into the Goblet?" James muttered. "How the hell are you still alive, with Dragons, and Death Eaters in your school?"
"He was Polyjuiced as Mad-eye Moody," Harry added, helpfully.
James stared at him, and slowly turned to look at Remus.
"Here I was worried that you were too much of an influence on him, now I'm starting to wonder if it's Sirius that was the problem," he said, before turning back to Harry. "We're going to talk about this, you're clearly insane with all these things you've been getting involved in."
Harry just grinned at him.
"Yeah, keep that up. It clearly makes you look more sane," James muttered, sarcastically.
...oOo...
James, Remus," came a breathy voice, and the men looked at each other in exasperation.
"Hey Nymphadora," they both replied, with a slight smirk.
She frowned slightly, as she walked towards them.
"You're more than welcome to call me Tonks," she answered, looking around for an empty seat. There were none.
"Oh, there's nowhere to sit," she pouted.
James registered that one of the twins girlfriends had seconds before, taken the last seat and wondered if Tonks had timed it that way.
"Oh well, you can have mine." He made to stand up.
"No, sit down, James. I'll just share," she said.
"If you even try to sit on Remus' lap, I'll make sure you spend the rest of the family dinner in St Mungo's, Sirius snapped.
Tonks stopped walking in their direction, and moved quickly around the table towards James, who quickly moved his chair closer into the table.
"James, your lap looks pretty empty, do you mind if -"
"Oh I would... but... I'm... still recovering and need to keep stretching my legs, and..."
"For fuck sake, Tonks, he doesn't want you sitting on his lap."
Tonks glared at Sirius.
"Here, take my seat, I'll get another one from inside," James said, jumping up and rushing away.
Remus covered a grin with his hand. He felt cruel, but now he could see why everyone laughed at his reaction to Tonks, plus he realised that with James around, he might get a break from the menacing Metamorphmagus.
That was until Tonks turned around from the seat next to him and fixed him with what he assumed was supposed to be an alluring look. She did pull it off well, but he had no interest in her. Instead he felt Sirius shift closer, and take his hand, and saw Sirius glare at her.
He loved that even after all these years, Sirius was still possessive over him. It didn't stop Tonks' hand reach for his knee though, but Sirius soon stopped that, as every time Tonks tried to touch Remus, she'd get an electric shock.
When James returned to the table, he put his chair in the tiny gap between Ron and Harry, feeling secure that there wasn't space for another chair, so Tonks wouldn't follow him.
"Okay, so tell me about your friendship with Harry," James said, shooting nervous glances in Tonks direction. She in return, winked at him.
"Well, we met on the platform when Harry was on his way to Hogwarts, shared a compartment and can you believe Harry never knew what a chocolate frog was?"
James' smile flickered slightly, but he didn't comment.
"So it was great, Harry was always there for me, even when I wasn't such a good friend -"
"As long as your loyal in the end, that's all that matters," James said, and Sirius and Remus both nodded in agreement.
"So... first year?" James pushed.
"Well, I guess it was your pretty basic first year, you know, except for Harry almost being killed, Hermione setting Professor Snape on fire, and us almost getting crushed by plants on the way to stop Voldemort stealing the Philosophers Stone -"
James stared at him.
"Wait? What?" He said. "Start from the beginning."
"Oh right, well, what did Harry tell you?"
"That he stopped Voldemort in the first year, pretty basic really. He seemed to focus more on becoming the youngest seeker more than anything, and something about defeating Voldemort at the end, but he was quite vague on the details."
"Well, Professor Quirrell had Voldemort on the back of his head -"
"Remember how we hexed those snowballs to hit him in the back of the head, Forge?"
"And all along, Mouldy Voldy was there. Does that mean we hit Voldemort in the face with snowballs, Gred?"
"I think it does," Ginny giggled.
The twins looked proud of themselves.
"What I really want to know is about Snape on fire," James asked, and the twins snickered.
It was Ron who answered. "Well, we thought that Snape was hexing Harry, and Hermione's solution was to set his robes on fire. It was amazing," he grinned.
James laughed. "I'm starting to like the sound of this girl."
"Well, Hermione is quite impressive," Bill stated.
"She worked out what was in the Chamber of Secrets and she made Polyjuice potion so we could sneak into the Slytherin dorms in the second year."
"Third year she helped me escape," Sirius said.
"She worked out I was a werewolf, and kept my secret, in her third year," Remus said.
"Forth year, she helped me with the Triwizard Tournament."
"Fifth year she was the one that talked Harry into starting our secret Defence club..."
"And tricked Umbridge into going into the forbidden forest, with the sole intention of getting the Centaurs to take her away."
"She made friends with Hagrid's brother, Grawp the giant."
"Lets not even get started on SPEW."
"She punched Draco Malfoy in the face."
"Can we mention again that she set Snape's robes on fire!"
"She was tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange and Greyback."
"Even with the torture, she didn't give in, she kept telling Bellatrix that the sword was a fake, which it wasn't. She managed to work out where the next horcrux was through what Bellatrix was saying."
"Dated Viktor Krum, famous Quidditch player -"
"Trapped Rita Skeeter in a jar, oh, and blackmailed Rita Skeeter."
"If I had listened to her, Sirius wouldn't have had to rescue us and wouldn't have fallen through the veil in the first place. She said it might not be real, it was most likely a trap, and she was right."
"Those gold coins to do the meetings for the DA, all Hermione's work."
"Marietta Edgecombe had sneak written across her face for months."
"She got mouthy to Trelawney and walked out of Divination."
"It was her suggestion we ride a dragon out of Gringotts."
"She used Polyjuice to pretend to be Bellatrix Lestrange to get into Gringotts."
"Downright Kinky in bed..."
Everyone paused, and looked over at Fred.
"Well, she looks the type," he added, his eyes nervously on Sirius' hand, which he was now twirling his wand in.
"Okay, stop. First, this girl doesn't sound real, I don't believe she exists," James declared. "No-one could be that smart, and basically that awesome sounding. Second, If she does exist, she might have to become a Marauder. Anyone who decides to ride a dragon out of a bank, and polyjuice into that nutter is worthy of the Marauder title, and third, How many detentions did she rack up at Hogwarts?"
"Four."
"Four? Are you kidding me? How?"
"Well, she was a prefect, and then went on to being head girl."
James nodded with a smile. "Ah I get it, that's why you get on so well with her," he said to Remus. "You were always a sneaky sly little shit in school, helping us come up with the pranks, researching the spells, and then letting us get in trouble for them, whilst you sat there with your big eyes and the whole poor Remus the werewolf routine that made the teachers think you were innocent, and we were bad influences on you."
"You were bad influences on me," Remus said, mildly.
"So this girl pulled a Remus, and let you two get in trouble, right?"
"No, in fact we seemed to be given house points randomly. Dumbledore really played favourites with Harry," Ron grinned.
James laughed.
"Right, well I'll meet her when I meet Neville and ummm, Luna?" He asked, and Harry nodded.
"So, the things you were telling me, I think I need these in some sort of order. Now lets start with the first year. I want what really happened, no crap about Quidditch and adding on Voldemort onto the end, as though not much happened."
Harry went into a pensive mode, uncertain where to start, so Ron started the story.
"Well, James, what happened was we met on the platform, we had a falling out with Malfoy, and I was a bit nasty to Hermione. She went and had a cry in the toilets, and we heard there was a troll in the castle. We went to find Hermione, because she didn't know, having skipped dinner, and we spot the troll going into the girls bathroom."
"The same one?" James asked, and Ron nodded.
"So we done what any other Gryffindor would do, we ran in there and Harry jumped on its back and shoved his wand up the trolls nose, trying to distract it from Hermione, and I knocked it out with its own club."
James stared at Ron for a long time, before he started chuckling. "Are you serious - my son jumped on a trolls back?"
"It was wicked," Ron said, grinning. "That was the start of our friendship with Hermione."
"Right, what else happened that year?"
"We wanted to find the Philosophers stone, because Quirrell, our defence against the dark arts teacher, wanted to use it to help Voldemort. It can be used to make the Elixir of life, which would make the drinker immortal."
"Right. So where was it hidden?"
"In the school."
"Naturally, because that's clearly the best place to hide it," James said, rolling his eyes.
"There were obstacles. Fluffy, the three-headed dog, for a start."
"Can I take a guess that the groundskeeper had a hand in that... Hagrid, is it?" James asked.
"Yup, Devils snare, I thought it was going to kill me, but Hermione tried to set me straight on that. Should have listened to her. Giant Wizards chess-"
"Which Ron directed, we won. He's brilliant at Chess," Harry interjected.
"What else... oh right, the flying keys. Harry had to go after them on a broom and hundreds of other keys all chased him, attacking him.. Good thing he's skilled on a broom. Then there was a sleeping mountain troll," Ron said.
"After that, there were some potions with a riddle, which Hermione worked out, but only enough for one of us to pass through. Hermione went to get help." I went through and the mirror of Erised was there," Harry told him.
"What did you see in the mirror," James asked.
"Well, I first found it at Christmas, and I saw you and mum standing with me," Harry mumbled, and James put an arm around his shoulders. It felt strange that his son was the same age as he... well, as he last was.
"Then this time, I saw myself holding the stone, and slip it into my pocket, and there the stone was. Voldemort knew, but he tried to kill me, but he couldn't touch my skin. I woke up in the hospital wing."
James nodded, taking some of his drink.
"Right I got it. Second year?"
Harry and Ron, with help from the rest of the table, told the stories, none of them went into detail over Hermione's role, just sticking to the basics. Hermione would tell her stories when she got back. They were her scars to talk about and her achievements to explain.
"Dinner is ready," came Molly's voice, and James let out a sigh of relief as they stood up to go inside.
"Is that everything?"
"Pretty much. Well, as much as I can think of right now," Harry said. "If you have any questions or want me to elaborate on anything, let me know."
James nodded.
...oOo...
After dinner was finished, James went back home, and came back with his packages. One broom was wrapped nicely with red and gold paper, and he found everyone in the garden.
He handed Sirius' own package to him.
"So Harry, it seems like I've missed about 20 birthdays and Christmas, Easters, and pretty much everything of importance, so I thought this could go a bit of the way to make up for it."
He put the package on the table in front of Harry.
"You didn't have to..." Harry began, before grabbing the package, and quickly opening it.
"Fuck, you didn't..." he said, as the paper fell away, and the broom was revealed.
"Bloody hell, it's a Golden Phoenix 5000."
"We're having a game. I got one, Sirius has one, and Remus has one, although I don't know why. He never bothered much with flying, although I never had an issue with that, he'd drag Lily to the Quidditch games, so I could impress her with my moves."
"You call falling off your broom a move? I was the one with the skills!"
James snorted. "Not a chance," he said, arrogantly. "I was captain, mate."
"Only because I turned the position down," Sirius retorted.
"Lets say The Potters versus the dogs?"
Sirius' raised eyebrow turned into a full-blown grin. "You're on. Pick your team."
James turned to the group.
"Stand up if you're in," he said, and he watched half the group stand up.
"Okay, I have no idea of any of your Quidditch skills, so I'll divide you all up and hope for the best."
He took a quick count. "There's only twelve of us, we need two more. Doesn't matter if you've never played before.
Lavender slowly stood up, after looking around, and Fleur followed her.
"The Twins and Ron with us, also we need some ladies... Fleur and Nymphy."
"Bill, Charlie, Angelina, Lavender, and who else is in? Katie? Right. You lot with Sirius and Remus. I think that's the teams sorted. Now go sort out your positions. Tell me, who here actually plays Quidditch?"
"Everyone except Lavender and Fleur have been part of the Quidditch teams, well, and Remus," Ron said.
"So we're equally matched?" James asked, and Sirius nodded.
James led them across the garden, so he was out of Remus' hearing range.
"Harry, you're seeker, I'll be chaser. What positions do the rest of you play?"
"We're beaters," the twins said.
"Keeper," Ron offered.
"So that makes Fleur and Nymphy chasers too. You sure about this, Fleur."
She tossed her hair over her shoulder.
"My husband, he is always bragging about his Quidditch skills. I wish to take him down a peg."
"Just what I like to hear," James grinned. "What do we know about the other team?"
"Charlie was a seeker, Angelina and Katie were chasers."
"Sirius was also a chaser, we worked well together, but he made a good beater too. I think he'll be a beater with Remus, and please stop me before I make an inappropriate joke," he smirked.
"So that leaves Chaser and Keeper. If Lavender hasn't played much, they won't trust her on the hoops, so she'll be a chaser, which leaves Bill as the Keeper," James added.
"That sounds about right," Harry said, looking over at the other team.
"Go get your stuff, get your brooms. Harry, could you get your old broom and give it to someone to use? We'll wait to see what everyone else has first."
Harry went to get his old broom, and half an hour later, everyone had their brooms, and were ready to play, and Ginny walked over to the green, with the balls.
"Can't see why you wouldn't let me play," she shouted, looking at James and Harry.
"Sorry love, can't risk a pregnant women. If you were playing, everyone would be staying out of your way, scared to hurt you, and hovering nearby in case you fell, and that'd just piss you off in the end. How about once you've had the baby, healed up, we'll let you be captain?"
Ginny smiled and nodded. "Fine."
"What made you pick this team?" Fleur asked, as they waited for everyone else to take their seats near the field.
"Simple. I was planning this game since I arrived. The first thought was the Marauders, Harry, Ron and the twins against anyone else, but Sirius was asking for it. I chose the twins, because of how in sync they are, and I've seen the shop. They're creative, they're quick to think. You are very graceful, I was hoping that would work on brooms too, that's why Harry gave you his old broom to use. You lack the experience, so you can have the additional speed. Ron, well he just seemed more confident whenever the conversation turned to Quidditch, so I knew it was a strength. With Tonks, I thought best to keep her away from Sirius and Remus. I split up couples, with the exception of Sirius and Remus, because people work harder to have bragging rights with their other halves."
Ginny was waving to see if they were ready.
"Sirius, next week I think we should play Marauders, Twins, Harry and Ron, against the rest?" James suggested.
Sirius grinned. "Switch it up every week?"
"Done," James said, before nodding at Ginny, who blew the whistle to start.
Reviews please :D - let me know which team you think will win. :)
Okay so I WANT to write the Quidditch game, but I'm pretty rubbish at that sort of thing. I might just write the ending of the game, unless anyone wants to help me out?
It'll be sharing the next chapter with the rest of dinner and the full moon. Hopefully. After that, Hermione will be making an appearance. So that should be 2 chapters :D