I would just like to make a general statement.
I usually follow cannon fairly closely but this story is a little different.
Just remember that Harry is in a totally different time right now.
And he left before ever starting 6th year or going to the burrow that summer.
And that again, he is in a totally different era.
Also, this was going to end at Valentines day originally.
It is now going to stretch until May…Maybe later which means
My two week finish day is likely not going to happen, though it still could.
I came up with a bit of a twist and it will take some extra chapters to work it in.
I hope that is alright with everyone, sorry for the change.
But it makes it a better story and a longer one so hey.
And because I lied and changed the end date….
I will give you and extra REALLY LONG chapter today :)
Chapter 14
Romeo and The Room of Requirement
"Why are we going this way?" Harry asked, wondering why they weren't using the passage, especially as there was a snow falling.
"Because Harry, we had permission to be here, so there will be no getting trouble and besides that, we my son, have a bet."
Harry turned red when he remembered the terms of said bet but walked on, clutching his bag.
They hadn't made it halfway onto the grounds when Sirius, Remus and Pete came bounding up to them, hitting them with snowballs.
"How went the shopping?" Sirius asked, placing his arm over Harry's shoulders.
"Long and tedious." Harry muttered, feeling like he had just run a marathon.
"Nice coat." Remus said, his eyes sparkling with laughter, knowing that James had a hand in it.
Harry huffed and James smiled.
"Don't let him fool you. He likes it, and we have a bet actually. And it looks like I am just about to win." James said before pulling Sirius off of Harry as a pretty little witch with blonde waves that went right below her shoulders walked up to the five boys.
To Sirius' amusement she passed right over the four marauders and stopped in front of Harry, who halted uncertainly about a foot from her. The other four slowed and stopped as well, waiting for him but close enough to listen.
"Hiya Harry." She said softly.
"Uh, Hi." He replied and tried to continue walking, she fell instep beside him causing James to laugh. Harry glared at him.
"I'm Brooke Prewett. I sit a few tables from you in charms." She said sweetly, Harry blushed.
"I know who you are Brooke, you are in my year, not to mention in Gryffindor." He replied, staring at the way her hair fell down in loose tendrils, the sun made her hair shine with strawberry highlights.
"Right, I figured, but we hadn't really ever talked so I wasn't sure." She said in response, biting her lip. He could almost feel her nerves. He felt almost as bad for her as he did himself. Then again, she had brought this upon herself.
"Anyways I was wondering if you were going to Hogsmede on Saturday?" she said quickly. "I know you missed the first one because you weren't here yet, so I was thinking maybe if you weren't going with anyone I could show you around."
Harry was stunned. "Oh, right, well. I have actually just been to Hogsmede with my dad." He said quickly, pointing at James, who covered his unintentional slight of mouth instantly.
"He met us to get new robes for the minister's New Year's Eve Party."
"Oh, well, we could still go together. I don't have to show you around, we could just have fun." She said hopefully. "Are you going?"
Harry nodded before remembering how to speak "Yeah, I am, but I already agreed to going with Lily Evans."
"You are going to Hogsmede with Lily? The head girl!" she spluttered. The four boys walking ahead shook with silent laughter.
"Yeah, we decided that yesterday." He said.
"Oh, are you, I mean are you dating her?"
With that Harry burst into laughter, he couldn't contain it. "You have to be joking, Jamie would kill me." He said through laughs. "No, I just, I didn't want her to end up going alone because James was too thick to remember to ask her before making other plans. So I am going to take her." He shrugged. James frowned at the explanation. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought to ask her to Hogsmede, damn sleep, he would have been fine without sleep. They had reached their frozen tree and Harry had stopped walking while explaining so they all halted.
"Oh, well that is really sweet of you. Well if I don't see you, I will look for you at the New Year's Ball."
"Oh. Will you be there, then?" Harry asked his mouth going dry, she really was very pretty, he heard the four boys all laugh behind him.
"Of course I will, silly. He is my father." She said before ruffling his hair, making snow fall out of it. "You really have exceptional eyes Harry Potter. I know you said you were busy, but if you are bored Saturday night, come find me in the common room." She said before smiling and walking off.
Harry turned and looked at James, his mouth open in a perfect O. Remus reached over and lifted his chin to close his mouth. "Magic makes snowflakes taste funny." He explained, as James roared with laughter.
"Look at you, little squirt, picking up all the girls." Sirius said.
Harry was still in shock. "Think about it this way. You don't even know whose mum's they become because right now they all have their maiden name." James said, trying not to laugh. And Harry had to admit, he had a point, a very good point, one to seriously consider.
He continued his walk to the castle, thinking about the morality of liking a girl right now, when suddenly he was pulled backwards by his jacket.
He stared, baffled at the bold Gryffindor girl in front of him. "Can I help you?" he asked her.
"I'm Aubrey. I'm in 5th year." She said.
"Ok."
"Are you dating Lily Evans?" she asked.
"Er. No." he replied honestly.
"Oh because I heard this morning that she turned down Ludo, you know the Hufflepuff quidditch captain? Told him she couldn't go with him to Hogsmede, on account that she is going with you."
"Oh, well she is, but as a friend, definitely not like a girlfriend." He replied. "I am pretty sure that my brother owns her on some level." He said, causing James who was standing right beside him to laugh.
"Right." Aubrey said with a smile. "Well I just wondered. You know, if you decide not to go with her, you can always find me. I'd be happy to go with you." She said batting her eyes at him. Harry was just gaping at her, rather confused, had not dealt with girls this bold before. Well, maybe before the yule ball, but not on a normal day.
"You will be waiting in line." Sirius said as he grabbed Harry by the arm of the coat and pulled him away. "Come on Romeo." He said with a chuckle leaving Aubrey standing with a frown. "That's the problem with Gryffindor girls. They are too bold and daring for their own good sometimes."
"Hey Harry!" they heard a feminine voice yell from their left, Harry turned his head slightly, in awe as Sirius pulled him onward to the castle and away from the battle of the opposite sex.
James wrapped both arms around Harry's shoulders from the back, squeezing around his neck. "You just earned me 5 galleons little boy." He said affectionately, before re-ruffling his already mussed up hair. Harry tried in vain to flatten it.
"Hey did you notice that when Brooke messed it up he didn't flatten it back down?" Pete observed, causing James, Sirius, and Remus to spend the entire trek to the 6th year dorms calling out her name and making kissy (and other disturbing) noises.
Harry was doing good ignoring them and blowing them off until they got into the common room, and Brooke was sitting on the sofa and had heard all of everything they had said outside of the portrait hole. Not to mention everything they were saying now that they were in the room. When his eyes found her at a table with her friends his face lit up like a Christmas tree, as did hers, causing the entirety of Gryffindor tower to laugh, as the three boys had not been quiet about their teasing.
He held out his hand for the bag James was holding. "Just give it." He demanded.
"Awe what's wrong little brother?" James said innocently.
"Jamie just give me the stuff." He said firmly.
"Come on Romeo don't be like that." Sirius said.
Harry put his bag down and pulled the jacket off pushing it towards James, his face burning in embarrassment.
James frowned taking the coat. "Awe come on Harry, we were only playing." James called as Harry left his bag on the bottom of the stairs and made his way all the way to the top of the tower where the 6th year dorm was.
Remus turned to Sirius and James who were looking worriedly up the stairs. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he doesn't like to be embarrassed."
0o0o0o0
It was nearing dinner when Harry woke up from his impromptu nap. When he sat up he the first thing he saw were all of the bags of clothing back to their original size and sat neatly in front of and on his trunk, and his jacket that was laying, smoothed out on the bottom of his bed. He picked it up and pulled it closer to him before laying down. In that moment he desperately missed Ron.
They had taken the mickey out of each other, sure, but never to cause public embarrassment. Neither of them would do that to the other. Besides, he couldn't help but feel that he was missing his best friend. Yes he had James and Sirius and Remus but they were each other's friends, they confided in each other, not him. And Fabian and Gideon were great, they had become fabulous friends, but it wasn't the same as Ron. He sat there wallowing when the door opened and Gideon walked in.
"Hey mate, are you coming to dinner?" he asked.
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I guess, I need to put on my uniform slacks and button down at the very least though, hold on." He said, getting out of bed and throwing bags every which way.
"Did you buy out all of muggle London mate?" he said, looking into some of the bags.
"It felt like it, apparently my parents do not approve of my muggle clothes I brought with me from France. James was delegated to take me shopping before we go home for break. We had a pass to go today." He said, pulling on the gray trousers and doing them up.
"Wicked, you got a leather jacket. James has one doesn't he?"
Harry only nodded in response.
"Sirius too, though I think his is brown. Can I wear it down to dinner to take the mickey on James?" Gideon asked, still holding the coat.
"If you want to deal with him, than be my guest." Harry said, throwing his tie around his neck but letting it hang untied and leaving his shirt half untucked.
"You gonna brush your hair down?" Gideon asked, looking at it sticking up all over the place. Between James, Sirius, Brooke and the snow it was a mess.
Harry pushed his hands through it a bit and shrugged. "It's pointless to even try." He sighed.
Gideon laughed happily, "That is too true." He said, as they walked out of the common room.
Harry smiled at him strutting around in the leather jacket, holding a broomstick over his shoulder, trying to look like James. He had even spelled his hair black, though his pale skin, freckles and blue eyes gave him away. "Where is Fabian?" Harry asked.
Gideon shrugged, "Last I heard, he was sneaking into the Hufflepuff dorms with Amelia Bones for some alone time."
Harry almost choked on the breath he was taking. "Amelia Bones?"
"Don't ask me how he does it, I don't get it either, he gets them nearly as hot as Sirius does. We are identical, you would think it would work for both of us." He mumbled.
"Weren't you just snogging Hestia in the dungeons the other night?" Harry asked.
"Oh, right. I guess I was. He just goes through them faster I guess. As I hear it you went through a couple of girls yourself today. My lovely little cousin being one of them."
Harry nearly choked. "Who? Your what?"
Gideon laughed, "Brooke Prewett. She is my cousin. My oldest uncle Michael, he is 10 years older than my dad. She is his daughter, we are only older than her by a few months." He shrugged.
"I don't know why I hadn't connected your last names." Harry said, wondering what in the world could have happened that he hadn't noticed that.
"Well, have you ever even talked to her? I mean you are usually with James and the guys, or me, Fabian, or Frank. I don't think I have even ever seen you talk to a girl."
"I talk to Lily." Harry replied.
"She doesn't count, she might as well already be your sister in law, they are so infatuated with each other it is stupid."
Harry chuckled to himself. "You have no idea."
"Yeah, but I did hear that you asked her out before your brother could, and that she said yes. And now today you have tons of girls falling over themselves because you are taken for the Hogsmede trip."
"It wasn't really like that. Though, that makes me sound a lot cooler than I am." Harry laughed. "James, the dumb arse that he is, made plans with the guys tomorrow morning and didn't even think about asking her to go with him to town, as he is not going at all. I guess after forcing himself not to ask her out over the last year it just didn't occur to him. We were talking and she said she needed some stuff but didn't want to go alone. I knew you two likely had dates and Frank is obviously going with Alice. The guys are all going to be together so I just thought her and I would have fun. As for the other girls, it never occurred to me to ask one of them out. I mean I barely know them, I spent 5 full years getting to know the girls before, now it is like starting all over, I was more worried about making sure I could be friends with my dorm mates and trying not to kill or be killed by Jamie and Siri. Wait a minute…So you are related to the minister of magic?"
Gideon laughed. "So, your father is the head of the Auror office and of the Wizangammot. When you are heirs' to one of the oldest and few remaining lines of purebloods you tend to have connections. I would assume you know that though."
Harry nodded as they reached the double doors, "Right." He said.
Both boys walked into the great hall side by side, and Gideon really started trying to strut his stuff. Stopping and shaking hands with random people saying "James Potter, head boy, quidditch captain." Over and over again. Harry shook his head and stifled his laugh. It wasn't until they made their way up to the Gryffindor table that he noticed James, standing, behind Lily with his arms crossed glaring at Gideon, who sort of cowered under the look.
James held out his hand and gestured for the coat. Gideon immediately gave it up, placing it in James' outstretched hand. "Hey cap, look at that, there's Fabian, I better go see how he is doing. I do hope you have had a good day, what was that, 20 laps beginning of next practice? No problem, later Cap." He said and ran off to the other end of the table to the laughs of the entire student body.
James looked at Harry nervously and held the coat out to him, Harry instead placed 5 gold galleons on the table and walked away, leaving the coat with James who looked crestfallen.
He watched him walk down and sit across from the Prewetts, beside Frank, after pointing his wand at Gideon and turning his hair back to its normal red.
"Mate, I think we pissed him off." Sirius said, looking down the table.
"I think you hurt his feelings." Lily said, sitting beside the empty place that would be James' once he quit staring at Harry.
"How do you figure that one out?" Sirius said, to the eye rolls of Remus and Lily. James took his place between them as she started talking.
"Think about it, first he is stuck in a totally different place than he is used to." She said, trying to talk in code. "He has to be stressed about everything he has to remember. And he is without his friends. Then you four go and embarrass him in front of all of Gryffindor. Including the girl that had just pretty much laid her heart on the line. My feelings would be hurt too." She said, shrugging her shoulders.
"He has friends, we are here. And he has those two dunderheads, and Frank." James said.
"Prongs, you aren't his friend. At least not in his eyes. He doesn't see you as that, no matter how close you get to him, you will never be his friend. And he doesn't want you to be his friend." Remus said, looking down the table at Harry, who seemed to be eating very little and not talking at all. "And as much as we all love the kid, he sees us as- well, as his big brother's friends. Think about it. He doesn't really confide in us. Well excluding Sirius. And he gets along great with his roommates but how often do you see them hanging out when they aren't in class, between class, or eating? He had best friends at his old school, and he left them all behind because he missed you."
"I didn't mean anything by it, we were just teasing." James said, trying to reason it out.
"I didn't say you did mean anything by it, and it is all of our fault. We need to talk to him. After all, he could go home at any moment you know." Remus said.
James and Sirius looked at each other feeling even lower than they had when Harry had walked up the stairs alone. They felt even worse as after only being at dinner for 15 minutes or so Harry got up and walked down the table to leave. James couldn't just let him leave alone. He glanced at his friends before jumping up and calling out to him.
"Oi, Potter!" he yelled.
Harry turned to his name naturally, raising his eyebrows. James tossed him the coat, which having great quidditch skills, Harry caught. He looked at it in his hand, back at James, folded it over his arm and walked out silently.
"You know what is funny?" Sirius said. His companions all looked at him in question.
"The kid obviously has no idea how to go about girls, and I think he might be a bit afraid of them to be very honest. But yet he walks down here, shirt untucked, tie all untied, and hair a mess and pulls off the best I've just been shagged look ever. Prongs he has got you and your look beat by a long shot. And I don't think he knows he is doing it. Shit he has me beat. Look at those girls!" he said gesturing to the other tables.
And he wasn't wrong, there were several pairs of eyes following the youngest Potter from the hall. James laughed and shook his head before turning to Sirius, we are the ones that did this, come on Godfather dearest." He said, grabbing Sirius by the tie and jerking him from his seat.
"But I wasn't done eating." Sirius yelled grabbing at any food he could reach as James ran after Harry yelling, and dragging Sirius behind him.
"Harry! Harry!" he called. By the time they got out of the hall he was gone. "Damn it. Do you have the map?"
It took Sirius a good four minutes to find the map amongst his things before James could look at it properly, thanking Merlin that they had finally gotten it to work last month right after the full moon. They searched it quickly, which was made easier as the majority of the school was in the Great Hall right now. They found him on the third floor and took off through a set of passageways to get to him quickly.
They were following him as closely as they could but he had a map too and was taking the same short cuts they themselves knew. They were on the 5th floor when they noticed him standing still on the 7th floor. They pelted after him, hoping to catch him while they had the chance. When they arrived at the huge Tapestry Harry was walking back and forth in front of it, over and over. Suddenly on his third time a small door appeared. He pushed it open with one hand and turned to them.
"Come on, I saw you coming on the map, I waited for you, get in here." Without hesitation they did what he said, even if they had no clue what they were getting themselves into.
When the boys entered the other side at first it took James a minute to understand that the walls were not on fire, they were just covered with hundreds of Chudley Cannon posters. He looked around the untidey room in awe.
"Where are we? Has this always been here?" he asked, looking at the single sized bed and the camp bed set up against the wall. Sirius was examining a fat frog that was sitting on what appeared to be a window sill that looked out over a very overgrown garden.
"Uhm Harry." James said slowly, watching Harry sit on the camp bed and scoot to the very top corner before pulling his knees to his chest.
"Yeah" he mumbled to his knees.
"Are you going to tell us what this room is and why it only opens for you?" he said.
Harry shrugged. "This is the room of requirement, it is always here for whoever needs it, you walk three times infront of it, thinking exactly what you need and it will give it to you, just be careful with your wording, if you want no one to find you, tell it that and no one can get in. And right now I wanted my best friend so it took me to Ron's room at The Burrow."
Sirius had quit poking the frog and turned to look at him. "You miss home." He said gently.
Harry shrugged in response, while breathing into his knees and staring at his jacket that was sitting at the bottom of his bed. James took that as his cue and walked over, picking up the coat and hanging it over a chair, taking its spot at Harry's feet. He turned his head to watch a poster flit around.
"Harry please look at me." Harry obliged.
"I thought we had a lot of fun today." He said, confused and a tad hurt.
"We did." Harry said simply.
Sirius stepped in and instead of sitting at the bottom by James to give Harry space, he sat directly beside him, leaning his shoulder against his. Harry looked back to his knees. "We were only joking about Brooke." He said softly.
Harry offered another shrug.
"We didn't mean to upset you or hurt your feelings. We joke with each other like that all the time. It is how we rile each other up, how we goof off." Sirius explained.
"It isn't how I goof off with my friends. I don't like it." Harry said.
"So we gathered." James replied.
Harry didn't look up, instead he lifted his hand and silently summoned the leather jacket to his hands, a feat that had both James and Sirius staring in awe. He ran his fingers over the soft leather before laying his face down onto it. "You don't get it." He said softly.
Sirius put his hand on the back of his head, flipping his hair around gently. "We don't, you are right. So explain it to us squirt."
Harry took in a deep breath, looking up at Sirius when he spoke, "I don't like to be embarrassed, I don't like it when people look at me. I just want to be invisible, that is it, just, for no one to see me unless I am on the quidditch pitch. I want to have a couple of friends and be happy and healthy and normal and that's it. But it can't be that way. And you guys just make it worse. My whole life my cousin was allowed to torment me and hurt me and call me names. He would make others laugh at me and hate me. I had no friends. Then I go to Hogwarts and not only do Slytherins to the same thing but adults to it to me too, Death Eaters, and reporters, and Voldemort, and students stupid parents that believe the reporters, and the bloody Ministry of Magic and other students. And all I want is for people to just be normal with me and they can't. Not even you can be normal with me, you have to make people stare at me. My friends and I don't do that to each other. I miss my friends." He said sadly, running his hand over the jacket.
It was James who spoke. "But Harry, that was us being normal with you. We are like that with each other on a minute by minute basis. It is how we are. We were playing with you, we didn't mean to hurt you. You have to remember that we didn't see you grow up and we don't know all of the things that are going to upset you or that you don't like. But we have to remember that as much as we just want to plop you into the middle of the marauders and say ok Harry you are officially our friend we will just act like you are one of us…to you we aren't your friends." Harry looked up, a little astounded as James continued. "Remus was right in what he told us, no matter how close we get, no matter how much fun we have, I will always be your father, you will never view me as a friend."
"And no matter how much you feel like you can tell me things, deep inside it is because you feel like you are telling the Sirius that is already your Godfather, the one that you lost. We aren't Ron. And we understand that. But you have to understand the only way to get that back is for you to want to go home."
"That is the problem." Harry muttered.
"What's the problem?" James asked
Harry shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Why not?" Sirius asked.
"Because you two are 17 and 18 year old pranksters who will just laugh about it, you won't understand it."
James frowned. "Don't think of me as your 17 year old fake brother right now. What if we are just your father and Godfather for the moment?"
"It really doesn't work that way, I am looking right at you." Harry said.
"Fine." Sirius said, pointing his wand at Harry and blindfolding him. Harry struggled with the self- restraining piece of fabric. In the meantime Sirius pointed his wand at both himself and James, casting a temporary aging charm, aging them both 15 years, and then released Harry. When he looked at them he was shocked. "Alright, Godson of mine, this should be closer to how you remember me. And what James should look like. We aren't immature little prats. Talk, what is the problem?"
Looking at Sirius the way Sirius should have looked had he not gone to Azkaban was haunting, he looked happy and carefree but he was still his Sirius. Harry gripped his jacket to his chest and leaned into Sirius' arms, feeling him wrap them around his shoulders. "I want to go home to my friends, I am so lonely and I miss them. But I can't go home. I just can't." he mumbled.
"Why can't you, we won't be upset with you if you want to go Harry." James said, sliding further up the bed towards his son, who looked much younger when Sirius looked aged as he did.
"I can't go because I don't want to leave you. I don't want to leave and never see you again. I need you more than I need them, and I want to be part of you." He said, feeling his cheeks warm with color. As much as he wanted to confide in them he was embarrassed to tell them this.
Sirius let go of Harry and allowed James to pull him into his own hug, laying his head ontop of his messy hair. "Harry James, no matter what the future may hold for any of us, you will always be a part of us. Even if these become memories and they are all you have, you will always, always be a part of us. Just as you will always be a part of me. And I will always, always, always be a part of you."
For the first time in his life he looked up into the face of the father he was supposed to have, the one that shouldn't have died. James smiled and instead of ruffling the hair like always, he flattened it down…well as flat as it would go anyways.
"I don't want you to die. I don't want to grow up alone. If-if I just stay here until that night, I am the chosen one right? I can kill him before he gets to you, and then you will live and Sirius will live, and Fabian and Gideon will live and Frank and Alice won't be locked in a damn hospital. And mum will live. I can't go home because I have to stop him here. I have to stop him now." He said, pulling himself away from James and gripping the coat in his hands.
James looked down at his son, again he couldn't fathom how he had created such an incredible person. And in that moment it didn't matter that he was only 17 years old, it didn't matter that he had never seen him be born, or that he didn't raise him. I didn't matter that he had no idea how to be a real father to anyone, let alone a war damaged teen. In that moment, he was this boy's father. "Oh my son, and what if you die instead? What if you stay and you fight him here and he wins? What then? I cannot let you die in front of me Harry. I won't do it, even if it means all of the terrible things that once came to pass, happen again. You are going to go home, I don't know how. I don't know when. But you are going to and I will stay and fight and I will try my damnedest to stay alive for you but if it means me or you, anyone and you, I will always, always choose you."
"You would rather me live my life alone?" Harry asked, shocked.
"I would rather you live son, I just want you to live. Harry you are not alone, not anymore, maybe as a child yes but not now, do you still fail to see it? Even without Remus or Sirius you have your friends and you do need them, just as much as the world needs you. Molly Weasley loves you as her own son. That much is obvious. For the short time you have him, Sirius adores you. For which I am forever grateful. Remus cannot stay away from you, you are everything he wants to know and be a part of. Dumbledore is by your side every single step of the way while still letting you make your own path. And Ron and Hermione are your version of my Sirius and Remus and Pete. You are not alone, just open your eyes and you will see that. And even though we are gone, I know that somewhere, Lily and I will always be there too." James said softly.
Harry stared at the two men sitting in front of him, knowing that this was how his life was supposed to be, these are the men that were robbed from him. He didn't respond to James and they all three knew why.
James looked over his son's head at Sirius. "Remind me when he is born to teach him to listen to his parents this time around."
"I'll try mate, but I bet those eyes on a baby face, and a pouty lip…we'll all be goners."
"Somehow I think that is what started his disobedient streak in the first place." James said shaking his head and staring into his son's eyes, into Lily's eyes.
"Somehow I think being born as James Potter's firstborn son started my disobedient streak." Harry chided, causing Sirius to break into laughter.
He watched as both men morphed back into the teens that they actually were. James smiled when Sirius turned back into the Sirius that he recognized. "You have a date with Lily tomorrow." Sirius sang with a lighthearted grin.
James' face drained of all color. "What if it doesn't go well?" he muttered fearfully.
Harry looked at him hard. "For my sake, you bloody well make it go perfect!" he said seriously.