A/N: Now lovelies, as you all know (hopefully) some questions will be answered by the fic itself. Others... will not. I got a review asking a not-fic-answerable question and I answered but I felt it was too short, so I'll just redirect you all to the page where I DID answer it. But I'll do it at the end, I'll let you all enjoy this chapter first.
Tittle: Promises of forever
Chapter: 14 – Away
Pairing: James Potter & Severus Snape
Summary: James survived that fated Halloween night, now with an infant by his side he has to face adulthood and a world that demands his son. Thank goodness he has Severus Snape on his side.
Warning: Character Death, OOCness, cuteness, AU, Harry's three months old instead of 15 months. Manipulative!Dumbledore, Evil!Tom Riddle
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, written to win the NaNoWriMo challenge. No money is being made from this and no copyright infringement is intended.
Previously: "You're the reason my son doesn't have a mother anymore, why I had to bury my wife. You're the reason why my son was almost left with no parents." He heard James growl.
Staying Away
For a moment he thought the world had tilted on its axis as suddenly he was seeing everything from a new angle, that was... until the pain in his head caught up with him and the floo was activated. The last thing he saw before unconsciousness took over him was James' face twisted in hatred before he vanished in the floo.
When James arrived at the Longbottom State – where he had left Harry while the house elves moved the furniture – his magic was all over the place, his face as white as a vampire's and his mood as snappish as it had ever been.
Frank took one look at him and ordered the house elves to takes the babies upstairs. Neville was still recovering and Harry didn't need to see his father like that.
"What happened?"
"I slept with my wife's murderer." He whispered, wanting to do a nice impression of an ostrich but resisting it.
"You've slept with the Dark Lord? When?"
"Not Him, Snape..." abruptly James stalked out of the house, conjuring a dummy and flaying it with overpowered hexes and curses. He didn't notice the tears until Frank touched his shoulder sometime later.
"Talk to me James..." He urged, not daring to take the wand from the former auror but wanting to do so anyway.
"He did it... he was the one to tell the dark lord the prophecy, he might as well have pointed his wand as us and said the killing curse."
"I thought you said he was Dumbledore's spy?"
"Oh he was... but only after he delivered the prophecy to Voldemort. And I... I..." Suddenly he was on his knees, heaving. His stomach was practically empty, only allowing the former auror to put out his stomach acids.
"You slept with him."
James could only nod.
"Before you knew what happened, while you were fully aware of what you wanted."
James only nodded harder, taking his wand and shooting the legal form of the cruciatus at the dummy, his mind replacing the potato sack with Severus' face.
"Then don't regret it. At that time you wanted, he wanted, there's nothing to be ashamed of, there's nothing to regret."
"But he... my boy will grow up without a mother because of his actions."
"So is mine."
"So why don't you hate him? Why aren't you hunting him down? Merlin knows I want to... I want to hurt him so bad right now."
"Because..." Frank stopped, staring at the bright winter sky. The weather was all wrong today.
"Because he wasn't the one to put a wand against my wife's brain and curse her to insanity. He wasn't the one torturing my son. He was the one to inform us of the attack."
"An attack that never would have happened if not for him!" James screamed.
"You're wrong Potter." His voice just a bit colder than usual, forcing James to pay attention. "They would have attacked us regardless. They were picking up Order members one by one, same with aurors, it was just a matter of time before we were attacked as well."
"I don't think I can forgive him."
"Did he ask for forgiveness?"
"No... he said that... we couldn't continue with our... 'relationship development' unless I knew some things." he snorted.
Frank snorted too, shooting a mild cutting curse on the dummy. Even if he hid it from James, he was angry at Snape, even if he felt he had no right to be.
"At least he got the balls to tell you now instead of later. I guess this proves he's not a DE anymore."
Shooting another mild dark curse at the dummy, and not bothering to turn back to Frank, he tried to hide away the betrayal he was feeling, he felt like a girly teenager mopping after her cheating boyfriend.
"Explain."
"Well... if he was a real Death Eater he would have concealed that information from you, wouldn't he? He would make sure you would never even hear a whisper of the prophecy, no matter what Albus said, all the while trying to poison your son." He added with a meaningful look, reminding James of the Lactus charm without meaning to.
"I don't think I'm able to forgive him."
"Then don't."
James briefly turned to him, an astonished look on his face as the bluntness of the other.
"At the risk of sounding girly, did you talk to him? Listened to the whole story?"
"No... I left as soon as I realized what he had done."
"See, that's the problem with you Gryffindors, you want the whole story but you leave in the middle in a bound of righteous anger! No, I'm not saying you shouldn't be angry, I'm saying you should have listened, and then allowed the anger to take over... And, at the risk of sounding even more like a woman than I already am, you should have given him the chance to explain himself, his reasoning."
Somewhat calmer or – Frank thought – with his magic not all over the place, James replied, with an impish grin, even as his eyes burned with barely concealed dislike. Honestly Frank was just glad that look wasn't directed at him.
"You're right, you're sounding more and more like a woman."
Frank just rolled his eyes as he stared at his friend. He knew he was frustrated, had every right to be in fact but the sarcasm was not appreciated. Neither was the mood.
"Whatever James... just make sure you're calm when you come back inside, we don't want the boys scared for life!" he shrugged, walking up to the house. There was nothing else he could have said or done to calm down the Potter Lord.
"Damnit!" he cursed, still cursing and hexing the mud dummy.
"You just had to ruin everything didn't you?" He growled at the dummy, throwing curse after curse.
From inside Frank and Augusta watched the display, the babies amusing themselves with feet and fists and giggles.
"Care to tell me what happened?" Augusta begun, a spare sheet of parchment in front of her as she waved in a new set of runes to be put on the house.
"James got into a lover's spat with Severus over the man's past." The sight of his mother spluttering and gaping at him was definitely worth the tongue lashing Frank would get later.
'It's been a week.' Was the first thought Severus had on that Tuesday morning. He hadn't seen neither hair nor hide of either Potter for the last seven days. Well he had seen them by accident one day, but he wasn't counting that time. And, if he was honest with himself, he didn't expect to see them for a long time yet.
Even if he missed the little tyke.
The purple bruise on his face was starting to fade, in fact it hardly ever bothered him anymore, unlike that uncomfortable tugging on his heart. By chance he had seen James out with Harry one afternoon, and while the father had been too busy talking with someone he assumed was muggle, Harry had sensed his magic, searching for him this way and that until he looked at his general direction and Severus could see the small frown on his face.
He thought, with some fondness, that the boy would have a wonderful pout when he grew up and anyone would be hard pressed to say 'no' to him.
That day James gave no sign that he had seen him, and for that Severus had been grateful. They weren't ready for confrontation and frankly he doubted they would ever be.
Unfortunately his wishes and doubts were thrown out of the window by the angry bellow in his living room and the pounding steps on his stairs.
"Snape! Where the fuck are you?"
He rolled his eyes at the filthy language of his current interest. He would never forgive James if Harry learned that sort of language from him.
Moments later his door banged open and the enraged father stood on his doorway, clutching a piece of parchment on his hand. James stared transfixed at the sight of Severus surrounded by books, an annoyed look on his face, the bruise he left on his face still looked brand new and James wondered for a second at his physical strength. His hand tightened around the parchment, and he was reminded of his reason to be there.
Crossing the room in three strides, he grabbed the former Death Eater by his shirt, bringing him impossibly close to him as he glared at Severus, receiving a glare just as bad in return.
"What is it with you refusing to answer my owls?" he growled.
"What owls Potter? I haven't received any owls from you... ever!" Severus shouted, utterly annoyed at having someone scream at him in his own house and forgetting for a moment how he actually missed both Potters.
"I've been sending you owls for the past two days! They always come back unanswered! Why haven't you answered them? Got tired of me already you arsehole?"
Severus took a moment to just stare at James through narrowed eyes, did he miss the sex? Of course he did... but was the former auror more worried about the loss of sex or the information he had dumped on him merely a week ago?
Rolling his eyes, he took James by the collar, throwing him on the ground in one swift move he had been forced to learn, before kneeling before him his knee on the other's stomach, making it hard for James to breath.
"I haven't received any owls you little shit... now why are you here?" he growled and snarled, showing his yellowed teeth.
"I came to talk to you! You haven't answered any of my letters!"
"So talk!"
"I want to hear the rest... everything."
"You're not ready for 'everything' Potter." He sneered.
"Try me you branded bastard." James hissed.
Severus took a deep breath to keep from hitting James with one of his invented curses, casting his memory back to their conversation – not that it had ever been away from the forefront of his mind – he had stopped at the prophecy.
Shit.
"I went to Dumbledore because I found out the Dark Lord would be hunting all of you from the moment the snake-faced bastard had figured out what the lines I had given him meant. Albus was annoyed at first, my request had been for Lily. Only Lily."
He stared meaningfully at the former auror before sitting on the floor besides him and James couldn't help but see that the mark he left was a horrible contrast on the pale man. Wincing a bit he sat in front of Snape waiting for the rest, knowing that Snape had not cared for their lives before James had forcefully put Harry and himself into Severus' life.
"He said he would do it, and that I had two choices. The first was a five year period in Azkaban. The second was that I would become his spy, I agreed, for as long as he kept Lily safe I would be his spy. That was our contract."
"But he didn't."
"No, he didn't. Despite being a magical contract, I don't think Dumbledore realized that there was actually a chance that she would die. My guess is, he probably thought the Dark Lord would go after the Longbottoms."
James snorted, looking at the pale man with something akin to shame and self loathing.
"I think Lily was about to die anyway. I realized that a few days ago, either it'd be by the Dark Lord's wand or of her own doing. I found out that she wasn't eating as she should and had been on self medication for a while, she refused to seek professional help, saying she should be happy with what she had and that she shouldn't be moping around. You know what that can do to a person."
"Did he know that?"
"Dumbledore? I don't think so, we kept it in the family... if he did he would have bound you much, much tighter than he did." James said trying to reign in his temper. It would do no good now. He still refused to outright believe that Dumbledore would, or could, possibly take his only living relative away, but he knew the man had a darker side and that he would do whatever it took to defeat the Dark Lord.
He just hoped that, now that the war was over, he would stop meddling in people's lives.
"Anyway, what happened then?"
"The Dark Lord happened Potter, and I was released from my contract with Dumbledore. I have my suspicions that he might be trying to get me into a new one."
James nodded, before an idea occurred to him. Abruptly James took his wand and sent a spell at Severus, hitting the man squarely on the chest and getting a blueish green light in return.
Just as abruptly he was on the floor, again, Severus on top of him and his hands on his neck, and James could literally see the restrain Severus was under trying not to kill him outright.
"What was that Potter?" He glared at the hazel eyed man, his fingers twitching and trying to clench around that neck.
"Spell... to see if you're forbidden to get in contact with people."
"And what did it show you?" He hissed, getting uncomfortably close to James' face, and not in a way James particularly wanted him to.
"Nothing."
"Fucking moron!" Severus hissed, releasing James and pacing up and down his room. His wand emitting dark green and blue sparks which disappeared before they could touch the floor.
James had never seen him that angry before, not even in school that day after OWLS. He thought about letting Snape cast the same spell on him but that would be just like inviting disaster. Or letting the devil in.
As it was he needn't even think about inviting disaster. Severus just turned around and cast the same spell on him, along with the meanest stinging hex James had ever experienced. The results as well were all wrong. James got a disgusting puce colour before it shoot straight at Severus. For the heck of it the potions apprentice shot another spell at James, to see who had cursed him, getting a greyish blue light.
He saw his... lover? Acquaintance? Fuck buddy? Turn a pale green before he pointed his wand at himself, trying to cancel the hex.
"I'm going to fucking murder Sirius."
A/N: Hi, remember the 1st AN? here's a handy link for you curious people: http://kuro. insanejournal. com/11032. html