Summer Fling
Chapter14
James and Scorpius stepped together into the living room and all eyes were on them.
"Hi Teddy! Where is my goddaughter?" James asked determined to ignore the elephant in the room.
"Hey James, Vénus is in her room taking her nap but if you are staying I'm sure will get to see her later," Teddy replied.
"James, please explain to me what the hell is going on here? When did you two start talking without getting into a screaming match after two seconds and what are you doing here anyway?!" Albus burst out, not able to hold back any longer.
"May I take a guess?" Victoire asked before James or Scorpius was able to answer.
James and Scorpius exchanged a worried glance. Would everything come out now? Were they ready to face their families?
"It was James' name you refused to tell us, wasn't it, Scorpius?" Victoire guessed.
"Yes, you are right," Scorpius whispered and looked down onto the floor. He couldn't look at Albus. What would his friend think of him now?
"James? Scorpius? You mean James and Scorpius?" Albus stuttered, obviously barely able to comprehend the fact that his brother and his best friend had been together without his knowledge.
"When? How long? Are you still...?" he asked after he had slightly recovered from the shock.
"During the last summer holidays. Nearly six months. No, we haven't been for a long while now," James answered him.
"So let me get this straight," Teddy said. "James and Scorpius started some sort of relationship during the last summer holidays that lasted nearly six months but kept it a secret from everyone. Then they broke up and now Scorpius is pregnant with James' child although James didn't know because Scorpius didn't tell him?"
"Yep, that about sums it up," James concurred.
"Well then good luck explaining that to Harry and Draco," Teddy said, shaking his head.
Suddenly Albus started to laugh. The whole situation was completely unbelievable and to imagine his father's and Draco's reactions to it was simply too much. He needed a quite some time to calm down again.
"And really no one knew about it?" Victoire asked in disbelieve.
"Well, Fred found out but only after we had already ended it," James admitted.
"Lucas, too. Because of Fred's Valentine's Day prank," Scorpius explained.
"Hold on, that shouldn't even have worked if you weren't together anymore at that point," Albus said confused.
James and Scorpius kept quiet too embarrassed to say anything.
"Unless they still liked each other and broke up for some other reason," Teddy remarked and looked questioningly at the two boys.
"What are you going to do now?" Victoire asked the most important question at the moment.
"The same as before," Scorpius said and shrugged.
"I still need to wrap my head around this but Scorpius allowed me to visit him now and then," James explained.
"Alright, I suggest we sleep on it and continue this conversation on another day," Teddy proposed.
They all nodded in agreement and changed the topic.
"So, how is my goddaughter?" James asked.
"She's fine. She has finally started to sleep through the night," Teddy told them obviously relieved the number of sleepless nights had decreased.
"And she's trying to stick her feet into her mouth now but without success so far. And she's able to roll over onto her stomach on her own now," Victoire added.
The proud parents were interrupted by their screaming daughter.
"Ah, she's woken up from her nap. Do you want to go fetch her?" Teddy asked James.
James nodded and went upstairs to Vénus' room. Vénus was lying in her crib, crying but stopped as soon as James picked her up. She looked at James and her blond hair turned black. Her eyes though stayed as they were – one blue and the other grey. James smiled at her.
"Hello Vénus, did you sleep well?" he asked her while he carried her back into the living room to the others.
When Vénus saw her mother she immediately held her arms out for her and changed her hair back to blond. Victoire laughed and took her daughter from James.
"She probably needs a change," she said and grimaced with pain as Vénus grabbed and tugged on her long blond hair. "I'll be back in a minute," she said and tried to free her hair from the little girl's grasp. "Unless you want to do the honours, James?" she asked innocently.
"No thanks, I think I'll pass," James replied and grimaced in disgust.
Victoire left the room with Vénus and an uncomfortable silence fell around the four young men. Scorpius was sitting on the sofa again, Albus next to him while Teddy and James were standing in the middle of the room. James shifted from one foot to the other, unsure what to do or say.
"Do you know what you want to do after Hogwarts, yet, James?" Teddy broke the uncomfortable silence.
"No, not yet. I wanted to become an auror but that's not going to happen because I didn't get into the N.E.W.T. potions class," James explained.
"And there's nothing else you would like to do?" Teddy asked.
"Well, I'd like to play Quidditch professionally but that's every little boy's dream and hardly anyone really makes it. I don't want to rely on that yet. I want to at least have a plan B," James confided.
"Yes, it's always good to have a plan B. It's not easy to become a professional Quidditch player. First you need to find a team and when you get that far there's always the possibility of sustaining serious injuries," Teddy agreed.
Before silence could fall again, Victoire came back with Vénus and handed her over to James.
"Now your Uncle James can play with you," she said.
Vénus squealed in delight and changed her hair to black again, like James'. James smiled proudly at his little goddaughter and started to tickle her to make her squeal even more.
"So, what shall we play?" James asked her.
James spent the next two hours playing with Vénus. Over and over again it reminded him of his own child he would be playing with in only a few months. He still couldn't quite believe he would soon be a father himself. He just couldn't imagine it.
After two hours of entertaining Vénus, she became crotchety and Victoire announced it was time for her afternoon snack. She mashed an apple and zwieback and gave it to James so he could feed Vénus. James sat his goddaughter into her high chair, took a spoon and started to feed her without complain but it proofed more difficult than he had anticipated. In the end Vénus had eaten only half of it the other half decorated her face and her and James' clothes.
"Ugh, I think we need to go change and wash up," James said to Vénus. He took a facecloth and started to wash her face and hands. Then he took her upstairs and changed her romper. Now clean again he handed her over to her father.
"Hey Teddy, can I borrow some clothes from you? Our little princess unfortunately decorated mine with her snack," James asked.
"Sure. Wait a moment I'll fetch something for you," Teddy said and went to retrieve one of his trousers and a T-shirt.
"Thanks," James said as Teddy gave him an old pair of jeans and a red T-shirt and went into the bathroom to change. When he came back out Teddy, Victoire, Vénus, Albus and Scorpius were nowhere to be seen. He flooed home completely exhausted.
Albus and Scorpius had retreated into Scorpius' room while James had played with Vénus. Scorpius couldn't bear to watch James playing with his goddaughter any longer. James was so good with the little girl and Scorpius felt bad for keeping their child a secret from him for so long. It frightened him how much he hoped to see James play with their child like this one day. He didn't dare hope James would openly claim the child as his. He still feared he would deny every connection to them.
Albus wanted to ask Scorpius a thousand questions but he knew this wasn't the time. So he soon took his leave and flooed back home to his parents who were completely clueless that they would become grandparents very, very soon. I wonder how James will explain that, Albus thought. In any case, I want to see their faces when he does.
"Where have you been all day?" Ginny asked her oldest son at dinner.
"At Teddy's," James answered honestly.
"Oh, how is little Vénus? I haven't seen her in ages," Ginny gushed.
"Mum, you've seen her only last weekend," Albus reminded her.
"So what? Babies grow up so fast," she defended herself. "Look at you, it feels like only yesterday I was holding you in my arms and now you are nearly all grown up."
James and Albus rolled their eyes but wisely kept their mouths shut.
"I hope your mother doesn't get the bright idea to want grandchildren of her own now," Harry murmured quietly to his sons, so Ginny wouldn't hear him.
James, who had been drinking, choked and started to cough violently. Albus also nearly choked and quickly slapped him on the back. Ginny and Harry looked at them curiously.
"What happened?" Lily asked straight out.
"Nothing, nothing. I just choked," James said quickly when he could breathe again.
His parents still looked at him funny but knew questioning him would be no use. Dinner went normally after that and as soon as it was over James retreated to his room. He desperately needed time to think.
Like during the last summer holidays he burrowed his head in his pillows to think in peace. Scorpius was pregnant – a fact he couldn't deny. With his child – also a fact he couldn't simply dismiss. He knew he was the only one Scorpius had ever slept with. Now the question was: should he confess everything to his parents or turn his back on Scorpius and his child?
He was scared to tell his parents but he couldn't just abandon his former lover and his child. It didn't sit right with his Gryffindor pride. His parents always told him how important family was and to never abandon family or friends in time of need. Yes, his parents would probably be angry at him but they would be even angrier if they ever found out he had abandoned his child and Scorpius.
So it was decided. He would confess to his parents they were about to become grandparents at the relatively young age of 40 and 41. Oh joy, he thought sardonically.
There was a knock on his door. Reluctantly he got up and opened the door to see who it was. It was Albus.
"Can I come in?" he asked.
James sighed and stepped aside. "I suppose you want to talk about Malfoy?"
"Yes. Why are you still calling him Malfoy anyway?"
"Old habits die hard." James shrugged.
"Don't you think it's time to get rid of that habit?" Albus hissed.
"I'll try, alright?" James replied.
"Ok. Now tell me how you got the crackbrained idea to have a fling with my best mate who you supposedly hate," Albus demanded.
James sheepishly shifted around on his bed he was sitting on.
"See Al, it's like this," he stuttered. "Last summer, when M-Scorpius was here, I noticed how good he looked and apparently he liked what he saw, too when he saw me in only a towel in the hall. So I thought I would have a bit of fun with him."
At that point Albus whacked James over the head.
"Ow, Al!" James complained.
"You deserved it and you know it," Albus replied remorseless.
"Alright, alright," James said.
"So you sneaked around the house to meet up in secret?" Albus asked.
"Yes," James confirmed.
"And then?" Albus inquired.
"We continued to secretly meet up at Hogwarts. That wasn't really part of the plan but we just couldn't stop. We continued to meet until after the Christmas holidays. We met up one last time after the holidays and that was the end of it," James concluded.
"Why did you end it?" Albus asked.
"Because it wasn't anything serious," James answered quickly.
"Don't lie to me, James," Albus menaced.
"Ok, because I started to like him and I knew he can't stand me," James admitted quietly. "I didn't want him to find out how much I had come to like him."
"You are an idiot, Jamie! You are both idiots! Do you really think he would have slept with you if he couldn't stand you? That he would meet up with you for such a long time in secret if it hadn't meant anything to him? That he would have risked so much for it?" Albus exclaimed exasperatedly.
"Well, no, I thought, I mean," James stuttered. "I thought he wanted to end it because the risk became too much for him."
"You are an idiot!" Albus repeated. "I just hope you are Gryffindor enough to lie in the bed you made for yourself."
"What's that supposed to mean?" James asked confusedly.
"It means I will personally hex you if you leave Scorpius now and don't tell Mum and Dad about your child," Albus growled.
"Of course I won't desert him now! Who do you think I am?" James said indignantly. "I may not be looking forward to tell Mum and Dad but it doesn't mean I won't."
"Good, then we are on the same page," Albus said and left the room.
A/N: Zwieback is a kind of hard bread and usually eaten by small children or when you are sick and can't stomach anything else. It's petty common here in Germany, not sure about other countries though.