My Vacation in 1977

Chapter Fourteen: A Wolfman's Word One Hundred Percent

James shifted his weight from foot to foot anxiously.

"Remus! What a pleasant surprise!" James tried to smile but it came out rather crooked and painful.

Remus ignored him completely, eyes going from Harry to James then back again. Now that someone pointed it out for him, they really did look quite similar. Not many wizarding families had hair like the Potters, it stuck out every which way and it was as black as the night sky. Remus had always secretly suspected that the family had roots from someplace other than Europe but he'd never mentioned it to James. Sirius had also noticed the similarities when Harry had first been introduced to the school but Remus had assumed it was Sirius being Sirius. Damn, if Sirius ever found out about this he'd never be able to live it down.

"James, what is going on here exactly?" Remus stood hesitantly, keeping a good distance from both James and Harry. You knew there was trouble when a situation occurred that didn't make sense even with magic. "And why did you just call Harry a Potter? Only you and your parents are left, you know that."

James stepped forward but looked sad when Remus continued to back away, it was hard enough to get Remus to be friends with him in the first place and now the trust issue was coming up again. He looked pleadingly at Harry; he really, really wanted Remus to still be comfortable with him.

Harry looked at Remus' now pale and shaking features, he looked far too much like the future Remus. He nodded to James and sat back down; brining his bag up to his lap to dig around for a butterbeer he'd hidden in here not too long ago. It didn't contain much alcohol but it was better than nothing, he didn't have any ice-cream or treacle tart with him but at least he had butterbeer and lemon drops. That was a start.

"Well Remus…err it's a long story and I really doubt you'll believe me but…" He took an offered lemon drop from Harry without pause, comfort food always helped. "Harry's not exactly from around here."

Remus snorted, "No really James? And the fact that he moved here wasn't any indication of that? But what I want to know why you called him Potter?! Not to mention you brought up Lily as your future wife, which isn't so unusual for you but this time you seemed eerily certain." Remus pursed his lips, hands clenching and unclenching. "Please tell me you haven't done something stupid…"

"What?! It's all Harry's fault and I still get the blame?!" He swallowed the half diminished lemon drop with a gulp and turned back to Harry with a whiny voice. "Why does everyone like you better than me? I was here first!"

Harry shrugged, "I got your looks and mum's eyes, what's not to like?"

"Point."

Remus looked at the exchange and he relaxed a little, with James joking around like this it made the situation more normal and less unusual, jokes he was used to, seriousness he was not. It was the Marauder way to deal with everything with a smile on your face and a laugh in your belly. Only when something was terribly wrong did the smiles go away. He could deal with this.

Remus cleared his throat, "Back on topic, if you please gentlemen…"

Harry snorted, "There's nothing gentle about this oaf. He probably dropped me on my head when I was a baby, I blame you dad, I blame you! I'm probably so messed up because you were a bad parent."

James pouted, "You can't prove that without telling me more of the future!" He stuck his tongue out, "Ha! I can still believe I'll be a good parent now."

Remus looked at the two, "…Is there something you aren't telling me James?"

James flushed, "It's not like that!"

"Oh, that is to say that you didn't go out and knock some girl up when you were a baby? That's a minor relief." Remus made an exaggerated sigh, wiping his brow dramatically, "I'd hate to think about the mechanics of that."

James scowled, "You can be a bastard sometimes Remus. No, I did not 'knock up' some girl. Harry here is a bit more complicated and I can gather a guess that you already can tell he's my son. Did I not mention the wordfuture in my speech sometime earlier?"

Remus and Harry stared at him, "Good Merlin James you're growing up."

James took a step back, eyes wide, "Don't say it!" He covered his ears.

Walking to him, Remus swatted away James' hands and pushed him down into a chair.

"It's only a temporary problem James; now just explain the story from the beginning."

James looked over at Harry who shook his head vigorously, which he ignored, and pushed Harry over to make room for himself on the chair. Harry glared venomously at first but eventually contented himself to a grumble every now and then.

James scooped up another few candies from Harry and crossed his legs comfortably.

"Well Remus let's start at the beginning of the school year. Harry came; the bet was made yada, yada, yada. And then I see something rather suspicious on the Map. You know what I saw?"

Remus gave him a blank gaze, "No, but I bet you're going to tell me."

"That's right! TWO Sirius Blacks! Two! One is bad enough, though another Padfoot wouldn't be too bad; he has a rather good disposition as a dog…"

"James!" Remus motioned to Harry frantically. Said boy only snorted.

"Don't panic Moony; I know where you four go out every full moon. Wait until you hear the rest of the story."

Remus frowned but settled against his chair again. But this was all suddenly interrupted by a chattering snicker. Harry's eyes widened as he remembered the jarvey…oops.

"Ooooh look what we have here! A no good foul mouthed tattletale!"

James' paled, looking down over his hands to where the jarvey tattoo had moved. The creature seemed to grin gleefully back at him, little paws tapping together in amusement.

"Well, I know whatI would do to tattler! Especially one as ugly and repugnant as you, you can only hope to compare with the Snape boy on the scale of hideous body features. That hair! Ugg, honestly, hair gel please! I'd rather not poke an eye out!"

James looked affronted, "Hey! I'll have you know that I am the envy of all the boys at this school!"

The jarvey merely chuckled, "Ooooh and he's arrogant too! I think if I had to give you an award it'd be for the Feeblest Minded Insignificant Fool on the Face of the Planet! And you know what? You'd win first prize!"

"Why you–"

"Oh my! Don't tell me you actually understood all that!? Why that's simply amazing! You've evolved past a monkey! I almost couldn't tell, you know, with that nest of flees all over your head and face. I had simply thought you just did a lot of waxing, my bad." The jarvey giggled, swaying back and forth gleefully.

James made to swat it but abruptly the tattoo disappeared leaving James to glower at where it had been.

Harry coughed gently, "Sorry."

James glared, "You are definitely my son…Merlin sometimes I hate my gorgeous features and wonderful personality. It was all passed down to you."

Remus stared on in amusement, and then the word struck him. "Son?" It only really hit him now, before he'd sort of just let the father son banter roll off him, it impacted now that Harry was James' son, James who was seventeen…It was more than a little creepy.

James glared at Harry but settled back down. "Yes, son. Well after I saw two Sirius' on the Marauder's Map I naturally went to investigate, and then I saw a Harry Potter on the map, which couldn't possibly be right. Or so I thought." He eyed Harry, "And then one night I snuck out to go see what was really going on and what do I find? Good old Padfoot and Harry talking and all I had to do was listen for a bit to realize Harry's not only my son, he's from the future and he brought his mutt godfather along. Merlin knows why we didn't realize it was him in the first place; Harry not only looks like me and Lily, ProfessorWhite? Sirius always likes to play off that muggle saying, you know, the one about the black sheep, he's always saying he's the white sheep of the Black family and Merlin he's taken it too far! Calling himself Professor White." At this point James had stood up and was pacing, making erratic hand gestures all the while. He suddenly turned to face Remus, an almost manic look on his face.

"And you know why they went through all this trouble?! For a VACATION!" James' breathing was uneven and his hair was more mussed than usual.

The werewolf looked at James half shocked and Harry took a swig of his butterbeer then looked at James.

"Well if it makes you feel better, this has been a horrible vacation so far."

James gave him a withering glare to which Harry shrugged.

Remus leaned back into his chair, rhythmically tapping his fingers against the arm. This…was a little hard to take in and from James' explanation he'd guessed despite being more familiar with the situation than he was, was still a little freaked out at the entire situation. But as usual he blew it out of proportion. He turned to Harry.

"Who else knows?"

"My godfatherProfessor White, the headmaster, James, and now you. Though by now I'm guessing just about all the portraits know, all those headmasters and headmistresses having nothing to do all day but gossip. Basically anything that goes in and out of the headmaster's office on a regular basis."

"So our age Sirius doesn't know?"

"Nothing, of course now all Padfoot talks about it how I'm such a terrible evil child because I manipulated his younger self into a date, though apparently we just turn out good friends. Long distance relationships hardly ever work and I think having a boyfriend from the past falls into that category so…You get it." Harry trailed off, examining his nails a little uneasily at the talk of relationships. Sure he was having fun with Sirius and all that jazz but he'd never really had much luck with real relationships in the past. Take Cho for example, which was a disaster and he'd dated Ginny briefly in sixth year but at least they'd ended on mutual terms. They still hung out occasionally to team up and prank the rest of her brothers, seeing as he was her "brother from another mother" and therefore could be trusted seeing as he didn't have any embarrassing childhood stories he could whip out…Saving her from a giant snake was just an added bonus. He wondered if that thing here right now…below his very feet. He looked down and gulped a little. He'd leave that up to his twelve year old self. He only wanted to see that thing once.

"Harry?" He looked up.

"Yes?"

James snapped his fingers rapidly, "A little attention here boy-o."

Harry paid him little mind and brushed away James' waving hand. "Yeah, yeah, did you have any other questions Remus?"

"Yes actually."

"Fire away."

"How exactly are you getting back?"

Harry opened his mouth to reply but froze…how was he getting back? The ring of flowers? He'd burned that sucker the day he got here. So that was out…He bet Albus had something planned, he always did. It never ceased to amaze him how much trouble the man could get into for his constant spying and paranoia (Almost as great as Moody's, why else would he have the desire to know everything in the castle?) yet he still meddled. But he was getting on in years…and it was either this or golfing, Albus wasn't so eager to go into ten-pin bowling again since the last time he went and got his fingers stuck in the ball, breaking them in the process. Traumatic really.

"I have no idea."

"That's wonderful Harry, really brilliant." James muttered.

Harry threw a lemon drop at him, "Oh shut up, I'm not the one who blabbed and got us into this mess in the first place, speaking of which. Remus I'd rather you not mention this to anyone." Harry smiled at him and Remus returned it.

"Of course Harry, I'm not so crass as to think I can go blabbing about people from the future. And I know better than to ask about what's going to be. It's bad enough Prongs knows he has a kid, and with Lily. Please tell you're obliviating him before you go?"

Harry spread his fingers apart marginally, "Just a little, maybe."

"Wait, how come you believe that he won't tell yet I get a jarvey tattoo that goes and insults me if I try to say something?! And I thought we were family!" James threw back his head dramatically, placing a hand on his forehead. "Woe is me."

"And that is exactly the reason why I gave you the tattoo, drama queen."

Harry turned back to Remus, "So we have a deal then? You'll keep my secret?"

"It'll be a pleasure."

They shook hands briefly and Harry throw himself back on his chair, grabbing James and pulling him down with him.

"Soooo…Who's up for sneaking into the kitchens and getting treacle tart?"

LBH: I swear, all Harry ever talks about in my stories is food…I am rather hungry at the moment. Well sorry this wasn't up as soon as I'd liked, nor as long (I was planning a whole ten page long chapter rather than my usual six…I tried) but I had exams and one day while waiting for a ride I got bored, wandered off and found myself kidnapped by the theatre club (To which I must visit for five hours everyday), where I am now a slave to a man who takes the stereotypical actor personality too far. But on the bright side today I made fake eggs! With glue! Try it sometime. And thanks to everyone who helped on my Harley question…although I got various answers.