Troubled Past

Disclaimer: I do not own incredibly much, except for Henry and Elizabeth Potter.

Thank yous: Ginny-and-Draco-fan, Launigsiae, im no muggle, Sarahamanda, Alligator355, iamtherealmaverick, EsScaper, Goddess of Gorgeousness, orlin, redrose2310, the-mpreg-spirit, Beth5572, and Kenji.

EsScaper: Ha yeah, I definitely thought I would try and pan the Lucius/James relationship out more for this story. I was originally going to have Lucius kiss James on the head last chapter but I decided against that, as you could tell.

Kenji: What? There aren't going to be that many chapters.

Oh yeah, I think a little while ago, someone asked me what type of dog James's dog, Butterscotch, was. Butterscotch is a Golden Retriever.

This chapter starts the Tuesday afternoon after James was found by Lucius.

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Chapter 5: Sweet Dreams

"Let that be a lesson to you, you little brat growled Edward Potter, master of the Potter Mansion in Lincolnshire, to his seventeen year old son. He gave the naked, sniffling boy a distasteful look before leaving the dormitory and slamming the door behind him.

James curled up on his side, shivering, naked and bleeding from his father's abuse. He let out a choked sob; he just could not understand how his father had gotten into Hogwarts to do this to him again. All he had ever wanted was for it to stop, the pain to stop, the heartache to stop, and all he needed right now was for someone to help him forget all his horrid memories and to hold him and make it all go away.

That wasn't going to happen to him, he could knew it, but it was his fairy tale ending, if he ever got to have one. Someone nice and caring and loving to settle down with, someone who wouldn't mind helping him take care of his little son.

The boy curled up in the middle of the bed in his special dormitory and burst into tears, he cried and he cried until he thought that he couldn't cry anymore. When he finally started, he just lay there in a sore and naked huddle on the bed, sniffling and hiccuping every few seconds.

James felt completely alone in the world, or at least he did until he felt the bed move and a cool hand on his bare side. He whimpered and curled up as tight as he could, surely his father didn't want another round.

"James…"

James's breath hitched, he recognised that voice. But it couldn't be, could it?

"James, it's all right, you will be ok now," said the man behind him. "You're father was arrested upon leaving this part of the castle, he is going to Azkaban so he can never harm you again."

"P-professor?"

"Call me Lucius."

James sniffled and nodded shakily as he felt a blanket being put over him by his blond professor. He finally turned his head to look at the man who had been so kind to him since school had started, and upon laying his eyes on the handsome face of his professor, he saw the great amount of concern in those silvery grey eyes. "I-is he r-really gone?"

"He is," Lucius helped James sit up, and then he wrapped his arms around the shaking teenager. "Sh, its ok, I'm here now…"

James clutched at the older man's robes and buried his face against the blond's shoulder, he didn't want to let go, the object of his affections' warm body against his own was an extremely pleasant change from his terrible father's. He didn't know who long they stayed like this, though he was glad he didn't have to let go and his professor certainly didn't seem to mind having a miserable, naked teenage boy in his arms. But James finally lifted his head so that he could see the other man's face, "…Thank you…"

Lucius pulled a handkerchief out of one of his robe pockets and used it to dab the tears away from James's tear induced red, puffy eyes, "I'm glad to do it. You're friends saw him enter the grounds on that bloody map of theirs, and they told me, but I couldn't bear the thought of you being hurt again so I told them to inform Dumbledore and I came straight here." He pressed a gentle kiss to James's forehead. "I will not ever let anything happen to you again, I'll protect you with my life if I have to."

James smiled, he could hardly believe this was happening, so much so that he tentatively touched his lips to those of his professor. Upon realising what he was doing he started to pull away but he felt Lucius return the gentle kiss before pulling away a little. "…I-I'm sorry, I-" he was cut off by the blond pressing a finger to his lips.

"Don't be sorry," whispered Lucius, "Its not every day a student that I have really come to like throws himself at me."

James blushed a little; at least he knew his feelings weren't unrequited anymore. Just as Lucius's lips moved back against his…

James Potter was startled awake by the sound of somebody hammering on the door to the private dormitory he had been given to stay in for a while. He rolled over and groaned, so it had all been a dream, if only he could have dreamt the rest of the snog that he felt sure had been about to happen. "Go 'way!"

"But Jamie! We miss you!"

James groaned again, he hadn't seen or spoken to his friends since he had run off on Saturday night, so it wasn't a great shock that they had found out where he was staying at the at last, "Fine, come in." He couldn't be doing with Sirius's whiny voice complaining through the door. He stayed curled up on his side in the centre of the bed as the door opened and in came Remus, Sirius and, much to James's surprise, Lily Evans.

Lily noticed James's surprised look towards her, "I bullied them into telling me, sorry."

James sat up a little and reached for his glasses, "Don't worry about it, you haven't run in the opposite direction yet, so that's good news." He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "How'd you find me?"

Remus smirked and sat down on the bed, "Sirius charmed it out of McGonagall, and then he…flirted with your grandmother until she let us in…"

James wrinkled his nose at the other dark haired boy, "You're sick, you know that?"

Sirius gave James the best innocent look he could conjure up, "Moi?" James nodded. "Well she wouldn't let us in, she thought we were here to taunt you about what happened."

James smiled slightly, "I probably should have warned her, she's just trying to protect me."

"Fair enough," Lily sat down on the bed, "You realise classes have finished for today, don't you?"

James blinked and looked at the clock, "Man, I must've been tired after last night."

"What happened last night?"

James forced himself to sit right up against the headboard, "My grandparents and I were talking with Dumbledore till about three this morning, about what I planned to do now and everything."

Sirius settled down on the bed across James's feet, his head propped on one hand, "And what are you going to do?"

"I haven't decided," replied James looking down at his lap. "I don't know whether to stay or to go home. Mainly, I want to stay because I missed you guys before, and I want to go because its not easy being away from your kid for the first time in over a year."

Lily smiled, "Can we meet him?"

It took a moment for it to click in on James's brain about what she meant, but once he understood he nodded and got out of bed, "I'll be back in a minute." With that, he left the room and went in search of his son.

"He seems pretty normal at the moment, don't you think?" said Sirius after James had left.

"He could just be trying to mask his feelings," suggested Remus as he gazed around the private dormitory.

Lily nodded in agreement, "Or he could just be too tired to bother with it all at the moment."

James soon returned holding a giggling little boy on his hip, "God you're heavy, what have they been feeding you, eh?" he asked his son as he plonked the little boy down on the bed. "Sirius, Remus, Lily, meet Harry."

"Heddo!" Harry reached a hand out and waved it at the other three teenagers, and he squealed when he was pulled onto his dad's lap.

Lily shook the still outstretched hand of the little tyke, "Hey Harry. How are you?"

Harry giggled before he pressed his face against James's chest.

"He's a little shy," said James affectionately as he held his son close. "And Sirius is probably scaring him."

Sirius opened his mouth in offense; "I am not. It's probably your hair."

James smirked, "He's seen me looking worse than this, haven't you, Har?" Harry clutched at James's T-shirt and cuddled into his teenager father's body. "So…what's the gossip?" he immediately noticed his friends were looking anywhere but at him. "Come on, tell me, it can't be any worse than what I've already thought up."

Remus sighed, "Well, good news is, the Slytherins have taken a vow silence on the matter, ever since their charming little banner was taken down on Saturday night."

"And the bad news?"

"The bad news," started Lily, "Is that there are plentiful variations of the truth, all of which have been taken from the banner and what people have heard the Slytherins saying to you since school started."

"Oh, lovely…" James sighed and hugged Harry, who seemed pretty set on stayin on his lap for the rest of the day.

Sirius thought for a moment before looking back to James, "Where did Malfoy take you Sunday night?"

James raised his eyebrows slightly, "To his quarters so I could dry off. But after he left to go and tell Dumbledore I was back, I fell asleep on his couch and didn't wake up again until yesterday afternoon."

"And he didn't kick you out?"

James shook his head, "No, he was fine with it. He's not as bad as you think he is, you know?"

Sirius huffed, "I grew up around the Malfoys, none of them were ever nice to me."

James rolled his eyes, ever since he had first met Sirius, the other boy had been going on about how evil the Malfoy family was and how the Head Boy in their first year was an absolute prick. "Suit yourself."

"I will."

Remus and Lily shared a long-suffering look.

………

James was curled up in an armchair in the common room of the tower his grandparents were staying in while they were watching over him, he had Harry tucked between himself and an arm of the chair and he was reading his son a story.

"Jamie, sweetie, eat something," said Elizabeth looking over her book at her grandson.

"Not hungry," mumbled James, as he pointed out a picture to Harry. "Can you say that, Harry? Chicken."

Elizabeth sighed, her grandson could be so stubborn sometimes, and though it sickened her to think about the man, James's stubborn ways did remind her of her son, Edward. "James, you have not eaten since Saturday lunchtime. I don't want to have to use brute strength but I will force it down your throat if you don't eat something now."

James scowled at his grandmother, "I said I'm not hungry… I can't stomach anything…"

Henry sighed, James was only like this when he was upset or he had just had a nightmare, "Did you have a nightmare?"

James chewed his bottom lip and nodded meekly; "Yeah…well…it started out horrible but it brightened up right when my friends woke me up."

Elizabeth frowned, "Even so, you need to eat. You'll make yourself ill if you don't, and I do not want a repeat of last year."

James flinched a little. Last year he had been too depressed to do much after Harry had been born, including eat, which had resulted in him collapsing after a fortnight of hardly eating and he had ended up in an Irish hospital. "I'll eat tomorrow…just don't want anything right now…" he deliberately avoided looking in his grandparents' direction, and instead he looked down at his son who was starting to yawn. "You tired, little man? Come on." He got up and picked Harry up. "Say goodnight, Har."

"Nigh' nigh'." Harry yawned again and rested his little head on his dad's shoulder as he was carried to his makeshift nursery.

After he had put his son down to sleep, tucking him in and giving him a goodnight kiss on the head, James headed back to his temporary dorm and fell down on the bed. He curled up on his side and gazed out of the window just across from the bed, wondering about the dream he had had earlier today before his friends had woken him up.

What did it mean? Did it really mean that he had fallen for his Professor? Or did he just feel this way because Lucius was one of the only people that had been that kind to him without a question about his past?

That was something else that bothered the teenager, all his other teacher since he had restarted school had kept him behind after class on several occasions to ask him how he was and how he was getting on. Where as Professor Malfoy, whose couch he had passed out on the other night, hadn't questioned anything about him, he hadn't even vaguely hinted about his past other than the night he had rescued James from the Slytherins. James wasn't stupid, he knew full well that Dumbledore had informed the staff of what had happened to him, and they were all curious, even the ones that hadn't been too fond of him when he was at Hogwarts the last time. But Malfoy was different, he seemed to share a silent understanding with James, or at least, that's how the young Gryffindor found it. Perhaps his professor knew that he would prefer not to be reminded.

Or perhaps James had more in common with his professor than he thought…

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A/N: Um, abrupt ending, I know, but I couldn't think of what else to put. Sorry! Oh, and I know Harry didn't really feature much, but he will in the Christmas chapter, which will probably be Chapter 7.

Next Chapter: James gets to know his blond professor better.