The four marauders were in their dorm room. Normally, this would be a time of rowdy fun, where the four would play exploding snap, or discuss the next big prank that they'd pull.
However, the four at this time were silent, frustrations rising high. James, Sirius, and Peter were seated at the main table. Sirius was glaring at the parchment in front of him, rubbing his head as James furiously scribbled onto his parchment, handwriting positively atrocious. Peter simply sat, confusion clear in his expression as his blank parchment clearly showed his lack of understanding.
Remus, who had been smart enough to not procrastinate on the transfiguration essay, simply sat on his bed with a book in hand, silently immersed in his novel. Occasionally he would peer over the book at his friends and raise an eyebrow at them, before returning to his task.
The four were interrupted from their terrible habits when they heard their door slam open. Normally this wouldn't bother them, but the force of the door opening drew all their attention, high on alert.
What, or who they saw rather, made Peter and Remus share shocked glances, while Sirius just stared, brows furrowed. James relaxed, running a hand through his hair and smirking, but even he was surprised by who it was. After all, everyone knew of Lily Evans' hatred for James Potter.
Lily entered the room, which thankfully was quite clean for a group of four boys, and approached James. James just smiled broader, thankful for the distraction from his horrid essay.
"Hey, Evans! Never thought you would approach me here of all places, but I knew you'd give in to my advances eventually." he said, in what he clearly felt was a charming way. Lily just paused.
"I'm not here for whatever it is your empty head thinks I'm here for. I'm here-"
"To save me from this awful mess of an essay? Preferably with your dear attention?" James interrupted, playing damsel in distress before smiling at Lily again. She bristled, irritated at being interrupted.
Lily paused, about to verbally lash out at James, before remembering. She crossed her arms and smirked, knowing full well that what she'd say would cause a reaction.
"No. Rather, I am here to take you to Severus's room. Harry wants to be with you, but he won't leave Sev alone."
Lily was right; her words did spark a reaction from all people present. James's smirk was wiped off his face as he moved back from her, alarm in his expression. Just past him, Sirius scrunched his face in clear disgust. Peter frowned deeply, disgust also present in his face. Remus placed his book down on the bed, but didn't move. Clearly the action out here was better than the action in there.
James snorted in disbelief, eyebrow raised. He exaggerated bringing a hand up to his ear, sticking a finger in and rotating it, as if the buildup of earwax had manipulated the words coming out of the redhead's mouth. "Um, excuse me, Miss Evans, but I think I misheard you. You see, I apparently heard that you want me to go to Sniv- Snape's room, but that can't-"
"You are right, Potter." Lily confirmed smirking, happy to interrupt the egotistical Gryffindor.
"But why?" James whined, an expression of deep pain on his face.
"I already told you why," Lily enunciated, annoyed. "Harry wants to be with you. You know, your future son?"
This phrasing brought a reaction from the rest of the room who had previously been frozen, silently watching. Peter moved back, face scrunched into a sneer of disgust. Remus swung his legs off the edge of his bed, but stayed sitting, wanting to be ready in case of, well, anything. They both stayed silent, not wanting to interrupt the discussion.
Sirius, on the other hand, had no such qualms, and leaned back with an expression of suffering on his face. "Come on, you can't be serious."
"Because you're 'Sirius'," Peter uttered. He let out a squeak when Sirius glared at him, shrinking into his seat. Sirius just shook his head and returned his attention to the rest of the room. Usually the joke would be well received, but right now was not the time.
"As I was saying, you can't seriously expect Prongs to-"
"I'll go," James, who had been silently pondering with a serious expression very uncommon for the Gryffindor, interrupted, facing Lily. He ignored Sirius's squawk of outrage.
"Oh," Lily blurted out, eyes widened at her disbelief. She may have asked, but she didn't believe that Potter would actually agree. "Okay. I'll need to take you, since there's a password. Shall we leave?"
"Evans," Sirius proclaimed, also very urgent, again very uncommon. "Do you think you can wait in the common room." His eyes swivelled over his dormmates. "I think the four of us have things to discuss."
"Alright, but hurry, Potter. Harry is a sweet child, and I want to keep him happy." Lily commanded, before swerving and exiting briskly. The door swung shut behind her, and for a moment, there was only silence in the room. Just for a moment though.
"What the f*ck, Prongs?! What do you mean, you'll go and see Snivellus's spawn? Why would you even want to be in the same room as him?" Sirius yelled, angered.
"Shut the hell up, Siri, before I cast a f*cking silencing spell on you," James replied, glaring at his best friend. Sirius just stared, not used to the serious manner from the other. Especially not due to Snivellus.
James sighed, seeing the affronted expression on his best friends face. "Look, you know that I really value family, and that child-"
"That child is not your son, Prongs!" Sirius barked, leaning forward in his seat. James gritted his teeth.
"How do you know?" spat out the prospective father in question. Sirius just looked at him like he was insane.
"Because you'd never shack up with Snivellus."
"But then why would that child call me Daddy?! And have my names? Since Snape is taking care of him right now, Snape is clearly his other father." Plus, he has his name too, the Gryffindor thought.
Sirius just leaned back in his chair, propping his legs onto the table, completely relaxed. He was not concerned in the slightest that he could be wrong. "That slimeball probably just wanted to marry a rich pureblood to make his life so much easi-"
"Snape isn't that kind of person! He'd shack up with a hippogriff well before he'd ever even consider shacking up with me." In the back of his mind, James secretly thought about how it used to be the same for him in regards to Snape. Until that moment in the Great Hall.
"At this point," Sirius said, lips twisting into a wicked grin as the words came out, "I'd gather that Snivellus has learned from our 'lessons' that being a snake isn't a good thing, but he's dug himself too deep in slime to get out! He's using you to get out of the sludge. He got the child to claim you're his father-"
James just gestured in front of him, heavily exasperated. And not in a good way. "Fine, let's say that somehow for the ever loving pants of Merlin, Snape thought to try to have a child pretend to be mine. How would the child even know how to do that?! He's a tyke! Even if Snape told him to say that, which I seriously doubt, as I've told you, that child won't be able to follow along. He doesn't understand how to act!"
And, James thought, the reaction of the child, the pure joy in his eyes as he looked at the Gryffindor, was just too genuine to be fake. It just couldn't be.
"I think you should go, Prongs," a calm voice called over from the bed. The other three swerved their heads towards Remus. Sirius made a choked sound in the back of his throat.
"Moony!" Sirius howled, betrayed by his favorite werewolf. He opened his mouth again to yell, but Remus held up a hand towards him, halting the dog's incoming anger.
"No, listen to me, Padfoot. If he goes, he can figure out if the child truly is his or not."
This stopped Sirius straight in his tracks. As he thought about what Remus had said, a grin slowly made his way onto his face.
He turned to James, who had just been confusingly looking at Sirius, not sure why this sentence had stopped his incoming barrage.
"Yeah, mate!" Sirius barked out, excited at having found a solution for his mate. "Just go and prove that the child isn't yours, and then you're scot free to pursue Evans again!" James just sat agape at this, stammering in shock.
"But, but that's not-" James started, then paused, sighing deeply as he recognized that Sirius would not understand his motives for him wanting to go and meet the child (and Severus). Unfortunately for James, who had been hoping Sirius would be his normal dense self, Sirius picked up on his hesitance, and called him out on it.
"What, Prongs?!" Sirius called out, hostile. He just couldn't understand what was wrong with his best mate. Why all this for Snivellus? "Why are you wavering? Snivellus is a slimy scumbag! Just accept that he probably stole that child and tortured him into thinking you're his father. Maybe even brainwashed him with those god-awful potions of hi-"
"He f*cking yelled, Sirius!" James roared into the room, silencing any other words from Sirius. James's expression went from furious to resigned, hand going up to rub his forehead, as he took a deep breath in regards to Sirius's belligerent, yet befuddled expression.
"We've been tormenting Snape for the better part of six years, Siri." James stated, tone sounding fatigued, which was not becoming of the sixth year Gryffindor seeker. "In that entire time, he hasn't yelled once. He's sneered, he's hexed us back, he's spat out scathing insults, but he's never yelled like that. Not in that way."
"What way?" Peter asked, clearly repulsed by the subject matter.
"It was raw," James enlightened, showing the smallest bit of awe at it. "Full of emotion. Especially paired with his expression, when I tried to approach his child." James paused, eyes moving across the other inhabitants of the room.
"He was terrified. Absolutely bloody terrified." James leaned forward in his chair, gazing intensely at Sirius, unyielding in his stare as he reached his conclusion.
"He had absolutely no bloody clue I was the other father. And he absolutely loathed that piece of information."
And with that, James stood up and left the room, slamming the door behind him, leaving the rest of his dormmates in shocked (and on Remus's part, contemplative) silence.
James's line of sight drifted around as he walked to the common room, until he spotted a fiery red head of hair poking out from the top of the couch. As he approached her, she noticed him, shutting her book and looking up at him.
"Ready to go?" she asked, still somewhat disbelieving of his willingness to go with her.
James paused for a split second, hesitation on his face, before he steeled his expression and made eye contact, nodding at her.
"Let's go," he uttered, knowing he was not prepared to be in a room with either the child, or the father.
