Potter Cottage, Godric's Hollow, England
August 3, 1980
James Potter watched his best friend closely as he gently lowered his newborn son, Harry James Potter, into his arms. He was relieved that his best friend was holding Harry in the correct way. He had been nearly terrified the first time he had held Harry. That had only been a few days ago on the last day of July. His lips twitched into a smile as he watched Sirius gently hold and rock Harry in his arms.
"He's beautiful, Prongs." Sirius said softly as he looked down at the baby. The little boy already had tuffs of soft black hair. "Do you know his eye color yet?"
James shook his head. "Lily said that most babies are born blue eyed but that their eye color will change over the first few weeks." James told him. "I think he's going to have Lily's eyes though. His eyes are blue now but they already have a great deal of green in them."
Sirius nodded his head and smiled down at the baby boy. "My God-son, Harry." He said softly and he placed a kiss upon the baby's brow.
James leaned back in his chair and smiled at Sirius. "Another Marauder." James said then causing Sirius to chuckle. "He'll no doubt get up to a great deal of mischief."
"He's your son, no doubt about that." Sirius agreed. "And though Lily likes to pretend to be all straight laced and by the rules we know better."
James laughed then. "Yeah, we'll have to remember to remind Lily of some of her moments of rule breaking at Hogwarts when she blames me for Harry's adventurous streak."
Sirius nodded his head and then stared down at the baby once more. The room grew quiet for several moments and James closed his eyes allowing himself to rest for a few moments. Lily was upstairs having a well-deserved sleep since Harry had been up half the night. James had been up all night, letting Lily, who was still recovering from the birth a few days ago, get as much sleep as she could. Unfortunately, James had not thought to put a silencing charm over the bedroom and Lily had been awake more often than not. James felt himself relaxing further into the chair. He felt at peace for the first time in quite a long while. Lily was safely sleeping upstairs and Sirius was here watching over Harry. Would it really hurt to get a few hours of sleep?
As though reading his mind Sirius whispered. "Just rest for now James." He said. "I am not going anywhere. I will take care of Harry. My God-son and I need to bond anyway."
"Thanks Padfoot." James managed to slur the words before he let himself succumb to sleep.
He awoke with a start a few hours later and he blinked the sleep from his eyes. A swift glance at the clock told him that he had slept a peaceful four hours. He could feel the relief from the sleep he had received and he smiled as he turned his gaze back to the couch wanting to thank Sirius for watching over him and his family. Unfortunately, Sirius was no longer on the couch and Harry was nowhere to be seen.
James frowned as he slowly arose from the chair and stretched. Once he had worked the kink out of his neck from sleeping too long in the chair, he started to search his home for his best friend and his son. He was relieved that they now lived in the cottage that had once belonged to Albus Dumbledore instead of Potter Manor. There would have been far too many rooms for James to search at the Manor. Of course he could just use a point me spell but it seemed completely unnecessary when the cottage did not have that many rooms. It was the only thing he liked about the cottage.
He found Sirius and Harry upstairs in the nursery. James paused at his bedroom door long enough to check on Lily. He smiled at her sleeping form. Her beautiful red hair was spilled over his pillow. 'Sleep well Lily.' He thought before he closed the door quietly. Then he approached the nursery where he could already see Sirius standing over the crib looking down at Harry.
James paused in the doorway, mouth open to give a greeting but he suddenly stopped himself and stared at Sirius. His best friend's hands were gripping the crib so hard that his knuckles had turned white. He was shaking slightly. James had not seen Sirius like this in years but he knew what it meant. Sirius was upset. He was in fact crying.
James gently closed the door behind him and cast a silencing charm on the room. Sirius turned toward him then, his moist blue eyes startled. He swiftly looked away from James. It stung that he looked away but James understood. Sirius had never been comfortable with crying or letting anyone see him cry.
"What's wrong Padfoot?" James asked keeping himself between Sirius and the door. It would not surprise him if Sirius chose to bolt. He rarely did so, but sometimes when a wound was too deep Sirius would flee rather than talk about it. They would talk of it later of course, but it was always too late as far as James was concerned because by then the hurt had been given plenty of time to fester into a deeper wound on his friend's psyche.
Sirius shook. He clenched his hands into fists and trembled with the effort it took not to break down and cry. "James." He said simply.
James did not know if Sirius was trying to warn him to stop but he took one long look into the other man's eyes and knew that he could not stop. He had a feeling that whatever was eating Sirius up was too terrible and if left alone it would consume him.
"Tell me Sirius." James pushed.
Sirius took a ragged breath and then another. "I…I have a son." He got out and then he seemed to collapse to his knees and curl in on himself. The sobs came then and James immediately cast a silencing charm over Harry's cradle and then dropped to his knees before Sirius. His arms instantly went around the man who was the brother of his heart and soul.
"A son." James whispered to Sirius. "How? With whom?" He asked even as he rocked Sirius slightly offering him comfort.
Sirius clung to James and let him be his rock. They had often done this for each other. "Olivia." He said shortly after he could get some of the sobs under control. "She discovered she was pregnant after I pushed her away."
"Oh Siri." James said and hugged his best friend, his brother tighter. He didn't tell Sirius that he had warned him not to push her away. Instead he offered Sirius all the comfort he could give.
"She took the child, a little boy, my son." Sirius rambled finding that once he had started to tell James he could not quite stop himself. "She took him to my Great-Aunt Cassiopeia Black. She struck a deal that Walburga was to never be alone with the child and would never have a hand in raising him. She insisted that Cassiopeia would be his physical guardian."
James smiled gently at Sirius. "That is good then at least that your poisonous mother cannot touch him." He said trying to comfort Sirius with at least a small good piece of news in the whole mess of what Olivia had done to him.
Sirius nodded miserably. "Yes. I admit that is a good thing." He said and then his eyes welled with tears again. "But James, I have tried contacting Ivy Hall and was denied the right to talk with Cassiopeia. I went to see Lord Black." He spat out the word Lord with disgust. "I demanded to have the right to see my son and he refused me." He said bitterly as fresh tears spilled down his cheeks. "He was born last December, Prongs. I didn't know. I didn't know and I have not gotten to hold him." He broke down into more sobs then and James held him close and let him cry.
"There must be something we can do." James murmured gently trying to encourage Sirius.
Sirius shook his head. "I don't think that I have much hope this time James." He admitted. "I, he said that because I disowned myself from the family, that no court would give me care and custody of my son. I even told Lord Black that I would not demand custody but that I wanted visitation. I am an unwed Auror, so I understand that I cannot provide a stable environment for him. I think I could even trust Cassiopeia maybe or at least I could learn to trust her."
"And despite that he said no?" James asked incredulous.
Sirius sighed. "He told me that if I foreswore my oaths to Dumbledore and returned to the Black family fold that he would give me complete access to my son so that I could see him whenever I pleased."
James groaned then. "But you told him no, didn't you?" He asked.
Sirius nodded. "I cannot trust the Black's." Sirius told him. "The lot of them may not be Death Eaters, but that doesn't mean that they are the good guys either. If Voldemort's followers had not killed my father you can bet that Lord Black would not involve himself much in what the Dark Lord is doing. He'd wait and watch and let things play out. He would let members of his family choose to join Voldemort."
James had to agree with Sirius there. While some members of the Black family seemed to be happy to be against Voldemort others had clearly joined willingly. Bellatrix was a marked Death Eater. It was something that James had not forgotten. Not since Narcissa had told them and had made her plea for Sirius to end Bella's life if he found himself in a duel with her. It was such a waste. Bellatrix had once been a gifted and clever witch. It was too bad she had thrown her lot in with those disgusting wastes of human flesh.
"Yet you know we cannot really trust Dumbledore either." James pointed out to Sirius because both of them had felt the sharp sting of betrayal over Dumbledore's actions. Dumbledore had kept the Prophecy secret for months. Had Narcissa not already told James and then also told Callidora Longbottom nee Black who told Frank Longbottom, then their families would have continued on unprotected. As it was James was still angry with Dumbledore for how he had cornered Lily and told her first about the Prophecy and then convinced her that Potter Manor could never be a safe place for them to hide as it was too obvious. Dumbledore was right about it being obvious but centuries of Potter family magic and blood wards would be strong enough to keep out their enemies. Their wards had never before been breached. By the time that James had gotten home from work Lily was completely convinced that only the cottage in Godric's Hollow would do as a hiding place. James had not been able to persuade her otherwise. So adamant was she that Lily had threatened to go to the cottage and live there without him. James had caved then and as ever he followed where Lily led him.
Sirius frowned at the reminder of Dumbledore's betrayal. "I know." He said bitterly. "But of the two, Dumbledore is more trustworthy." He told James. "If I were to return to the Black's then I would be expected to be the perfect Pure-blood Heir. They would groom me to take over when Arcturus dies."
"And you would have your son." James reminded him.
Sirius exhaled shakily. "Give up honor for my son." He whispered to James. "What would you do?"
James shook his head then. "It's not a fair question Padfoot." He told his friend. "You know that I have never lived your life. I might be Lord Potter now, and raised to be so, but my parents' expectations were far different from those of your parents." He frowned then. "Do you even know what your grandfather would want of you? By your own admission over the years you barely know Arcturus."
Sirius sighed. "Arcturus lives in France, he preferred being there even when I was little. I saw him maybe once a year at the family Christmas Parties." He frowned then. "I remember that my father was afraid of him. He feared disappointing him. My Uncle Cygnus feared him too. Cassiopeia never showed fear of him though."
James smirked. "Aunt Cassie doesn't fear anyone or anything." He said. "She'll spit on Death when he finally comes to claim her."
Sirius chuckled at that pronouncement. "I want to see my son James." He said softly. "I want to hold him. I want to be able to know him." He shook his head then. "But I worked hard to escape from my family and it feels… it feels like to go back would be to give up my very soul to a Dementor." He whispered. "And I am terrified of what they are doing to him? They told me he's magically sensitive. They said he was like Regulus in that and I had not even known that when Reggie was a first year he was diagnosed as magically sensitive."
James winced. "If he's magically sensitive then he'll be a very strong Wizard one day."
Sirius nodded. "Yes, but it also means he is very fragile now and will be for some time. Exposing him to too many different magical signatures at once can be terrible for him."
"So that is why Regulus passed out his first week at Hogwarts?" James asked of him.
Sirius looked at him quizzically.
"It was the day after the sorting feast when he sorted into Slytherin. He passed out at breakfast." He reminded Sirius.
Sirius nodded as his mind slowly remembered. "Yeah, I had thought he was the butt of some prank. That one of the upper year Slytherin's wanted to test him since the Black's are practically Slytherin House Royalty." He frowned. "It was actually not a prank. He was there a week and it was because he had overloaded." He shivered at the thought. "I don't want that to happen to my son."
"Cassiopeia will take care of him for now and we will work on a way for you to see him." James promised Sirius. "There has to be a way. I know that Arcturus said the courts would be against you so maybe you just have to do it another way."
Sirius's lips curved into a sad smile. "The House-Elves have been warned against me." He told James.
James smirked at the thought of House-Elves beating at Sirius with tea towels to get him to leave Ivy Hall. He chuckled. "Yes, they have been warned against Sirius Black. But not against Padfoot the Dog."
Sirius stared at James for several long moments before he threw back his head and laughed. "James, that is…that's brilliant." He said.
"It's so simple it just might work." James pointed out. "They don't know that you are an animagus." He reminded his best friend.
Sirius smiled as he began to think about going to Ivy Hall in his animagus form. "It just might work." He agreed with James.
James smiled, pleased that he had been able to help Sirius mood. "Siri, what's your little boy's name?"
Sirius smiled a genuine heartfelt smile as he answered "Leonis."
James smiled. "A strong name. At least they chose a name meant for lion since they had to choose a constellation name."
Sirius nodded his head in agreement. He hoped he would finally see his little lion soon.