AN: I do not own the Harry Potter series.

Chapter 4: James

James could be described as many things, some descriptions more polite than others depending on whos' talking about him.

His wife, Lily, would say, "Before seventh year, James was a right and proper toerag. All he did was lust after me and play cruel pranks with his friends. But now, now that we've been through a war and had children together… He's a sweetheart. Practically an angel."

His childhood friend, Sirius, would say, "James is awesome! He was my best friend all through Hogwarts and is practically my brother nowadays. We may have been a bit rude to students while in school, but it was all in good fun and nobody was ever really hurt. And besides, we've both grown up since then."

His coworkers would describe him as, "Real friendly and charismatic, that one. He's as light as they come, wouldn't use that vile dark magic if his life depended on it."

His son would babble about him in as positive a manner as he babbles about unicorns.

His 'daughter' would cough, maybe sniffle, and babble half-heartedly, but when would the opinions of sickly little children who could barely comprehend things be believed? Especially when they're so young.

But the general consensus for which adjectives and stereotypes fit James Potter would all be positive. That's not to say there aren't people who would consider him as less than perfect, just to say the image most people had in their minds of James Potter was one that couldn't be deemed evil no matter how you looked at it.

James himself, though, would likely have the brightest image of himself. While he wasn't a despicable, vile human being in every way possible, he was still arrogant. And at the end of the day, that might not even be the worst thing about his personality.

So, he didn't see any reason to stop being arrogant, or form new opinions as he grew and developed as a person. Which, ultimately, would lead him to get closer and closer to being objectively 'terrible'. The worst thing about that depressing fact is likely that nobody would act on his stagnant and rather harsh personality. Excuses would be made, people would look the other way, there would be justifications for his acting out, and measures would likely be taken to ensure James was left alone or compromises would be made and broken, but the point is that nothing would change.

James would always be viewed as a war hero.

The "Boy-Who-Lived" would be under James' jurisdiction until he came of age.

Nobody could do anything, even if they were inclined to try. James was rising through the auror ranks quickly, had fathered the child which defeated Voldemort, and could afford a lawsuit. Hell, he could probably afford bribery to an extent if he so chose.

And because it would be difficult to oppose him, James got his way. Besides, it's not like he was abusing his power. For the most part.

James was perfectly moral, even if those morals were just a bit shaky sometimes. So, he did his job and put in genuine effort. He loved his family and did all he could for them. Maybe he didn't try quite as hard as he should have to find a cure for his sickly little 'girl', but it was perfectly reasonable because he expected the child to succumb to whatever illness that had affected them and peacefully pass in the night. Who cares if that hadn't happened yet, and the child had been sick for five years? They were going to die soon, he was sure of it, so he couldn't be held responsible for forgetting about them sometimes.

Besides, he was perfectly nice and friendly to everyone else, even strangers. He was full of charm, constantly smiling, and only the slimy slytherins from his school days could make him pick fights. Who cares if school has been over for James for more than half a decade? And anyways, most of those slimy slytherins had become death eaters and death eaters were vile. So, he was perfectly justified for his pretty hatred. Right?

That meant that there was no reason for things to change. It was perfectly alright if James was just a bit more childish than an auror should be, or a bit neglectful to one child, or even just a bit prejudiced against anything that could even come close to being labeled as 'dark'. All dark things were bad anyways, which made his frequent suggestions for surprise raids on Malfoy manor perfectly reasonable.

James was just a perfectly average and nice pureblood man with a perfectly average magical family. If he was just a bit more interested in ministry politics than one would expect, it was perfectly reasonable. There's no reason to find a reason for someone to be interested in politics. All magical children grow up wanting to become the minister of magic anyway, and everyone had realized that James never properly grew out of some childhood behaviors so what's one more display of James being childish?

There was no reason to question why James started getting more ambitious and wanted to be involved more closely with the higher-ups, and if that question did arise it was answered with, "We all know James will be head auror soon, why shouldn't he get involved with people with higher ministry positions?"

Whenever James' behavior wasn't as nice and charming as he thought it was, nobody told him. Maybe Remus and Sirius tried to tell him he was being a bit prejudiced or bigoted once in a while, but that was always met with a fight and pointed questions about creature status and magic affinities. And when he got Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of their time, to agree with him and defend his behavior nobody could argue. After all, Dumbledore knew best and honestly, why were they even arguing anyways?

The entire situation was perfectly reasonable.

James was a perfectly reasonable ministry worker. His behavior was perfectly reasonable for a war hero and parent of the "Boy-Who-Lived". He was just human, and occasionally made mistakes, but that was perfectly reasonable.

Everything was fine. If that was just from James' perspective, who cares? Nothing was making his worldview change so obviously nothing was wrong.

But if you were to ask that sickly little 'girl', everything would not be fine.