Later that night, at about eleven o'clock, Harry and Peter went off to bed,
totally exhausted by their previous night time activities. Technically,
they should really have gone at ten, but since when had the Marauders
obeyed the rules? The common room now seemed very quiet, with only the
other three Marauders in it, occupying one of the deserted corners.
"What is it James, you wanted to talk to us?" Remus asked, opening his book in preparation for another long planning session. He'd been to all too many of those.
"Yeah, well I'm sure there's something odd about Harry," James said, sounding puzzled. "But I don't know what, I just can't quite place it. He's a good Marauder, acts normally in lessons, loves Quidditch, but there's something wrong, I just know it."
"Any proof?"
"I asked him about his parents today during detention, and he didn't even tell me their names. The young wretch manipulated me into changing the subject, I only just realized."
"What did he change it to?" Sirius asked curiously, wondering if he could also use it to get around James, usually one of the most alert people he knew.
"He asked me about Lily," replied James sourly. "That's not fair really, you all know how I feel. Well anyway, I know that if I was asked about mine, I'd talk about them, even though they're. they're dead."
"Calm down James," Sirius said, surprisingly comfortingly for his usual callous self. "It wasn't your fault that we were out when You Know Who came. They wouldn't have blamed you at all, they'd be pleased you escaped. But I do know what you mean about Harry, he's weird sometimes."
James's parents had been killed in one of the rapidly increasing Death Eater raids just that summer, while James and Sirius had been out playing one of their many games of Quidditch. James still felt guilty about it, after all, it was a son's duty to be there to defend his parents, wasn't it? Sirius knew for a fact that he still had nightmares about it, and that they had been occurring regularly since the attack happened. It wasn't really a very peaceful dormitory that they slept in, with Potter and Jamieson both having nightmares regularly, and Lupin with his monthly transformations.
James continued talking quickly, blinking away his tears, he hoped before the other two noticed them.
"He never mentions his old school either, except for that one time he said it was somewhere in Cornwall. You'd have thought he'd at least have written to his old friends once, to tell them how he was getting on, but he hasn't sent one piece of mail since he got here. Anyway, I asked Professor McGonagall about it, and she said that there are no other wizarding schools in the whole of Great Britain. We're the only one and there are only two others in Europe - Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, and he's not from either."
"That's it!" Sirius exclaimed, looking disgusted. "He's lying to us, and has been all along."
"Try the Paternus Charm," Remus said absently, looking up from his book.
"What?"
"Pa-ter-nus Charm," he articulated slowly and carefully, grinning at Sirius. "It's a charm that identifies a person's parents and shows them as the person remembers them. It isn't that hard to perform either, I'm fairly sure that I could manage it. All I'd need would be a photograph, it doesn't take anything special like rare potions materials or something like that."
"Will this do?" Sirius asked, pulling a photograph out of his pocket. Remus winced mentally - Sirius never emptied his pockets, that was a well known fact, so you never knew what you might find. The picture was one left over from when they'd been playing with Peter's camera, and Harry's image was pulling faces at them. However, what other things had been in the pocket, he'd rather not know.
"It ought to, I mean, its definitely Harry."
Remus desperately searched his memory, turned up the correct words and cast the charm, focussing with all of his brainpower on Harry and tapping the picture lightly with his wand. The grotesque image blurred and changed. When it set again, the boys stared at it, speechless for once. There was a very long silence. No one knew quite what they should say.
"Er, is that me?" James said at last. "Uh, Remus, you must have got the spell wrong."
"But I'm positive I got it right," Remus protested. "Okay, I suppose I must have made a mistake if it came up with you. I'm sure you can't be Harry's dad, you're too young for one thing. I'll try again, if you want."
"Go on," James said encouragingly. He hadn't been so enthusiastic before, but it was personal now.
Remus wiped the picture with his sleeve, banishing the charm. He tried again, focussing even harder and concentrating with all his might on getting the words exactly right.
"Ah," he said, somewhat surprised, when he looked at it again. "Now I'm sure I did it right that time, there's no way I made a mistake, but how Harry's going to manage to explain this one I really don't know, James."
"Hang on," James said thoughtfully, suddenly realizing something very important. "If he's my son, and I'm still not absolutely sure that you've got this right, and Evans is his mother, then she must have agreed to go out with me!"
"She must have been mad when she agreed to that," Sirius muttered. He continued impatiently, there were far more important things to worry about than his friend's dating success. "Shut up James. I think Harry's got some serious explaining to do."
"It fits though," Remus said contemplatively. "His surname, Jamieson, I hadn't noticed before! Jamieson - James's son! Then his eyes - Lily's if ever I saw them, the looks, well they speak for themselves."
"Yeah," Sirius added, getting excited himself now. "Have you seen the way his hair sticks up at the back? It's just like James's!"
"The next thing," Remus continued, "Is do we tell Harry what we think, or Peter?"
"Not a chance am I telling Peter," Sirius said dismissively. "Course, he's a nice enough guy, but he'd be sure to blurt it out. He couldn't keep a secret to save his life, or James's, which is probably more important to him. I dunno about Harry though. Personally, I reckon we should try to find some other proof before we confront him with it. We'll look real dunces if we say something about James being his dad and it turns out that they aren't even related."
"Do you still have the Map, James?" Remus asked, startling James out of his pleasant daydreams about the one, the only, the marvelous Lily Evans.
"The Marauders' Map? Yeah, it's somewhere upstairs at any rate. I mean, we haven't needed it for years. I'll have a look for it tomorrow morning."
"Can we go to bed now, then?" Remus asked hopefully.
"Sure, but just think Padfoot. Lily Evans is going to marry me, despite what you said!"
The next morning, after a rather short night's sleep, Remus and Sirius took Peter and Harry off to breakfast, leaving James to find the Map without them knowing. He removed it carefully from its hiding place in his bedpost, and scanned it. He'd known for definite where it was all along, but he'd wanted a good chance to look at it himself before he showed the others. After all, it was him that they thought was Harry's dad, so he did have a perfect right to confront him first.
He used a basic charm to focus the Map, and to highlight any boys called Harry. There he was, in the Great Hall, at the Gryffindor table. Harry Potter - there was no mistaking it. Then James had a sudden shocking thought. Harry had said that his parents - i.e. him and Lily - had died when Harry was a baby, and had then not elaborated. James didn't want to die young, probably, he guessed, killed by You Know Who or his followers.
That evening, having told the other Marauders that he was still looking for the precious Map, James put a hand on Harry's shoulder as they left their last lesson. They stopped, and James waved the others to go on ahead.
"Harry," he said nervously. "Can I talk to you for a moment, up in the dormitory?"
"Yeah, okay," Harry replied, not at all suspicious, since he hadn't know about their nighttime discussion.
As James had anticipated, the dormitory was totally deserted at this time of day. They sat down together on James's bed, which happened to be nearest the door.
"Harry," James said bluntly, not entirely sure what a tactful way to begin would have been. "Your name isn't Harry Jamieson, is it? It's Potter." Harry looked at him very apprehensively, and James pulled the Marauders' Map from his pocket and handed it over. 'Harry Potter' was clearly shown. The real Harry winced as he saw it written so clearly on the parchment.
"The Marauders' Map," he said, sounding resigned to it all coming out. "I should have known."
"How do you know about it?" James asked, startled. He'd forgotten for the moment that Harry was supposedly his son, and had gone back to thinking of him as just another student.
"How much do you know already? I mean, I can't tell you things you don't know. Dumbledore's forbidden it in case it changes the future. Do you know who my parents are?"
"Me and . . . and Evans."
"Yeah," Harry said, not sounding entirely comfortable about this situation himself. "Well, Fred and George, who are the main pranksters in my time, stole the Map from Filch and passed it on to me."
"Filch had the Map!"
"I guess you dropped it or something. I'm here at the moment because it's too dangerous for me in my own time, but I'm afraid I can't say more than that. I'm sorry I didn't tell you straight off or go sometime else, but . . . but I had to get to know you," he said impulsively, his voice quavering. James looked at him and saw tears starting to trickle down his cheeks. "Because I wouldn't have otherwise, and I wanted to know my Mum and Dad just like everyone else."
James awkwardly put an arm clumsily around Harry's shaking shoulders while he cried himself out. He reminded himself, just to calm himself down, that he would do this for any of his friends, and he wasn't just growing up and acting fatherly. He wondered what had happened to Harry to disturb him so much. After all, he was only sixteen years old. There couldn't have been that much pain in his life so far.
When Harry had calmed down enough, he asked quietly,
"Who else knows?"
"Sirius and Remus. We talked about it last night when you and Peter were asleep, and Remus suggested a charm we could use to find out who you were."
"Don't tell Peter, please. I'd rather just carry on like before, it's more fun and probably more comfortable for both of us. I'm kind of glad that you know though."
"What is it James, you wanted to talk to us?" Remus asked, opening his book in preparation for another long planning session. He'd been to all too many of those.
"Yeah, well I'm sure there's something odd about Harry," James said, sounding puzzled. "But I don't know what, I just can't quite place it. He's a good Marauder, acts normally in lessons, loves Quidditch, but there's something wrong, I just know it."
"Any proof?"
"I asked him about his parents today during detention, and he didn't even tell me their names. The young wretch manipulated me into changing the subject, I only just realized."
"What did he change it to?" Sirius asked curiously, wondering if he could also use it to get around James, usually one of the most alert people he knew.
"He asked me about Lily," replied James sourly. "That's not fair really, you all know how I feel. Well anyway, I know that if I was asked about mine, I'd talk about them, even though they're. they're dead."
"Calm down James," Sirius said, surprisingly comfortingly for his usual callous self. "It wasn't your fault that we were out when You Know Who came. They wouldn't have blamed you at all, they'd be pleased you escaped. But I do know what you mean about Harry, he's weird sometimes."
James's parents had been killed in one of the rapidly increasing Death Eater raids just that summer, while James and Sirius had been out playing one of their many games of Quidditch. James still felt guilty about it, after all, it was a son's duty to be there to defend his parents, wasn't it? Sirius knew for a fact that he still had nightmares about it, and that they had been occurring regularly since the attack happened. It wasn't really a very peaceful dormitory that they slept in, with Potter and Jamieson both having nightmares regularly, and Lupin with his monthly transformations.
James continued talking quickly, blinking away his tears, he hoped before the other two noticed them.
"He never mentions his old school either, except for that one time he said it was somewhere in Cornwall. You'd have thought he'd at least have written to his old friends once, to tell them how he was getting on, but he hasn't sent one piece of mail since he got here. Anyway, I asked Professor McGonagall about it, and she said that there are no other wizarding schools in the whole of Great Britain. We're the only one and there are only two others in Europe - Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, and he's not from either."
"That's it!" Sirius exclaimed, looking disgusted. "He's lying to us, and has been all along."
"Try the Paternus Charm," Remus said absently, looking up from his book.
"What?"
"Pa-ter-nus Charm," he articulated slowly and carefully, grinning at Sirius. "It's a charm that identifies a person's parents and shows them as the person remembers them. It isn't that hard to perform either, I'm fairly sure that I could manage it. All I'd need would be a photograph, it doesn't take anything special like rare potions materials or something like that."
"Will this do?" Sirius asked, pulling a photograph out of his pocket. Remus winced mentally - Sirius never emptied his pockets, that was a well known fact, so you never knew what you might find. The picture was one left over from when they'd been playing with Peter's camera, and Harry's image was pulling faces at them. However, what other things had been in the pocket, he'd rather not know.
"It ought to, I mean, its definitely Harry."
Remus desperately searched his memory, turned up the correct words and cast the charm, focussing with all of his brainpower on Harry and tapping the picture lightly with his wand. The grotesque image blurred and changed. When it set again, the boys stared at it, speechless for once. There was a very long silence. No one knew quite what they should say.
"Er, is that me?" James said at last. "Uh, Remus, you must have got the spell wrong."
"But I'm positive I got it right," Remus protested. "Okay, I suppose I must have made a mistake if it came up with you. I'm sure you can't be Harry's dad, you're too young for one thing. I'll try again, if you want."
"Go on," James said encouragingly. He hadn't been so enthusiastic before, but it was personal now.
Remus wiped the picture with his sleeve, banishing the charm. He tried again, focussing even harder and concentrating with all his might on getting the words exactly right.
"Ah," he said, somewhat surprised, when he looked at it again. "Now I'm sure I did it right that time, there's no way I made a mistake, but how Harry's going to manage to explain this one I really don't know, James."
"Hang on," James said thoughtfully, suddenly realizing something very important. "If he's my son, and I'm still not absolutely sure that you've got this right, and Evans is his mother, then she must have agreed to go out with me!"
"She must have been mad when she agreed to that," Sirius muttered. He continued impatiently, there were far more important things to worry about than his friend's dating success. "Shut up James. I think Harry's got some serious explaining to do."
"It fits though," Remus said contemplatively. "His surname, Jamieson, I hadn't noticed before! Jamieson - James's son! Then his eyes - Lily's if ever I saw them, the looks, well they speak for themselves."
"Yeah," Sirius added, getting excited himself now. "Have you seen the way his hair sticks up at the back? It's just like James's!"
"The next thing," Remus continued, "Is do we tell Harry what we think, or Peter?"
"Not a chance am I telling Peter," Sirius said dismissively. "Course, he's a nice enough guy, but he'd be sure to blurt it out. He couldn't keep a secret to save his life, or James's, which is probably more important to him. I dunno about Harry though. Personally, I reckon we should try to find some other proof before we confront him with it. We'll look real dunces if we say something about James being his dad and it turns out that they aren't even related."
"Do you still have the Map, James?" Remus asked, startling James out of his pleasant daydreams about the one, the only, the marvelous Lily Evans.
"The Marauders' Map? Yeah, it's somewhere upstairs at any rate. I mean, we haven't needed it for years. I'll have a look for it tomorrow morning."
"Can we go to bed now, then?" Remus asked hopefully.
"Sure, but just think Padfoot. Lily Evans is going to marry me, despite what you said!"
The next morning, after a rather short night's sleep, Remus and Sirius took Peter and Harry off to breakfast, leaving James to find the Map without them knowing. He removed it carefully from its hiding place in his bedpost, and scanned it. He'd known for definite where it was all along, but he'd wanted a good chance to look at it himself before he showed the others. After all, it was him that they thought was Harry's dad, so he did have a perfect right to confront him first.
He used a basic charm to focus the Map, and to highlight any boys called Harry. There he was, in the Great Hall, at the Gryffindor table. Harry Potter - there was no mistaking it. Then James had a sudden shocking thought. Harry had said that his parents - i.e. him and Lily - had died when Harry was a baby, and had then not elaborated. James didn't want to die young, probably, he guessed, killed by You Know Who or his followers.
That evening, having told the other Marauders that he was still looking for the precious Map, James put a hand on Harry's shoulder as they left their last lesson. They stopped, and James waved the others to go on ahead.
"Harry," he said nervously. "Can I talk to you for a moment, up in the dormitory?"
"Yeah, okay," Harry replied, not at all suspicious, since he hadn't know about their nighttime discussion.
As James had anticipated, the dormitory was totally deserted at this time of day. They sat down together on James's bed, which happened to be nearest the door.
"Harry," James said bluntly, not entirely sure what a tactful way to begin would have been. "Your name isn't Harry Jamieson, is it? It's Potter." Harry looked at him very apprehensively, and James pulled the Marauders' Map from his pocket and handed it over. 'Harry Potter' was clearly shown. The real Harry winced as he saw it written so clearly on the parchment.
"The Marauders' Map," he said, sounding resigned to it all coming out. "I should have known."
"How do you know about it?" James asked, startled. He'd forgotten for the moment that Harry was supposedly his son, and had gone back to thinking of him as just another student.
"How much do you know already? I mean, I can't tell you things you don't know. Dumbledore's forbidden it in case it changes the future. Do you know who my parents are?"
"Me and . . . and Evans."
"Yeah," Harry said, not sounding entirely comfortable about this situation himself. "Well, Fred and George, who are the main pranksters in my time, stole the Map from Filch and passed it on to me."
"Filch had the Map!"
"I guess you dropped it or something. I'm here at the moment because it's too dangerous for me in my own time, but I'm afraid I can't say more than that. I'm sorry I didn't tell you straight off or go sometime else, but . . . but I had to get to know you," he said impulsively, his voice quavering. James looked at him and saw tears starting to trickle down his cheeks. "Because I wouldn't have otherwise, and I wanted to know my Mum and Dad just like everyone else."
James awkwardly put an arm clumsily around Harry's shaking shoulders while he cried himself out. He reminded himself, just to calm himself down, that he would do this for any of his friends, and he wasn't just growing up and acting fatherly. He wondered what had happened to Harry to disturb him so much. After all, he was only sixteen years old. There couldn't have been that much pain in his life so far.
When Harry had calmed down enough, he asked quietly,
"Who else knows?"
"Sirius and Remus. We talked about it last night when you and Peter were asleep, and Remus suggested a charm we could use to find out who you were."
"Don't tell Peter, please. I'd rather just carry on like before, it's more fun and probably more comfortable for both of us. I'm kind of glad that you know though."