Authors Note: I was writing a story about Harry, and realized it was going to be more about James Potter then it was about Harry. So I rewrote it, going into the back story I have for James so it can be understood a little better on who everyone is and why they are doing the things they do.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, do you think I would be here writing fanfiction?

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James Potter had graduated Hogwarts at the top of his class and knew exactly what he wanted in life. He was going to marry the love of his life, Lily Evans, become one of the top Aurors, next to his best friend Sirius Black, and have at least 2 children. He had recently married Lily Evans a few months ago, so now he only had two other goals to accomplish. Than he would have the perfect life for himself.

Although, on his way to becoming an Auror, he found one of his goals started changing. This was because, to become an Auror a person had to go through a lot of training, and part of the training was going to each division in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and learning first hand what they do and why. Becoming jack of all trades as his head trainer told them as they started this part of training.

One of the those divisions James had to train in was the Magical Abuse Crimes. This part of the department didn't necessarily deal with dark wizards or dark artifacts, it dealt primarily with magical children or adults who had been abused, either by someone in the magical world or in the muggle world. It wasn't talked about much, in fact, most people in the ministry thought it should be disbanded or should only be for muggle mistreatment of magical children, because no good magical family would ever abuse their children. Even if one did, they were obviously evil and needed to be dealt with by the aurors.

MAC was also looked down upon for using whatever was at their disposal, whether it was a magical or muggle. In there minds, if it helped catch a criminal or helped a victim with the trauma they went through, why not try it? James wanted to know more and while he was training with the head of the division, he got as much information as he could. He knew before his week of training was over that his dream of being an Auror had vanished. It was now replaced with becoming a worker for the MAC.

But before he took such a big leap, he wanted to go home and talk to his new wife about his change in career path. It wouldn't be a very big change, since he would still be, as Lily would say, a cop. But because the world they lived in was always pushing abused victims under the rug and pretending it never happens, they would be talked about, excluded from events, friends would abandon them, they would be essentially outcasts to the wizarding world.

He walked into their new home, and looked around. There were boxes strewn around everywhere. They still had not unpacked all the way, even though they had been in their new house for almost a month now.

Lily wanted to do it the slow way instead of just using magic to put everything away. That way they would know where everything was instead of using their wands for everything. James was skeptical of doing it that way, and even though it was a maze going around the unpacked boxes, he had found it very useful knowing where an item was, whenever he left his wand in the next room.

James shut the door, "Lil's I'm home." He called out as he walked around a box that was half empty, and the contents were strewn around it.

"Shit, why are you home so early?" Lily asked from the kitchen.

"I'm not, it's the same time I come home every day."

"Oh hell, I lost track of time." Lily said as James walked through the kitchen door.

"How did you lose track of…" James didn't finish his sentence.

Before James could say anything more, Lily spoke up. "Don't you dare laugh, James Potter!"

James didn't laugh, but he couldn't keep from smiling. She was covered in flour and so was half the kitchen. "What were you trying to do?" He asked, not moving from the doorway.

"I was trying to make bread, but it caught on fire." She said with a dejected sigh as she showed him the lump of coal on the counter.

James covered his mouth doing everything he could not to laugh at his beautiful wife who looked to be close to tears. He walked closer to the bread, "I'm sure it can be saved," He stated as he broke the bread in half. A giggle came out before he could stop it. "It's fucking raw in the middle." And he couldn't hold back the laughter after that. He bent over and the only thing keeping him from falling on the floor was the counter he clung to for support.

"What the hell!" Lily yelled as she looked at it. She pushed James aside to look at the bread, and sure enough the insides were still raw. "How the fuck did that happen?" She didn't know what to do, but looking at James falling off the counter laughing made a giggle come out of her and soon enough they were both laughing at what had happened.

When they finally collected themselves, James got up wiping tears away from his eyes and decided to make them some spaghetti. Lily, though, just sat down at the table, not wanting to touch another cooking instrument until. "So why the sudden need to bake bread?" He asked as he put water on the stove to boil.

"I spent the day with my mom today." Lily said with a sigh. "She kept telling me how good Petunia was at baking and making meals and I just wanted to make her something and maybe have something that we could do together."

"Don't you two shop all the time?" James asked.

Lily carded her fingers through her hair, trying to put what she wanted to say in words and not sound like a spoiled child, especially since James just lost his parents right after they graduated college to the flu. "We do, but as soon as we go into a store we both go our separate ways until we're ready to go. We don't really talk about much, other than fashion."

James walked forward and held her hand, his thumb rubbing hers in a comforting way.

"Petunia, though, is the perfect daughter. She loves to bake and cook with our mom and goes fishing with our dad all the time. They have all these inside jokes with each other and I feel left out sometimes. I just wanted to do something so I could be a part of the family a little more."

"Maybe we could have a family night, once a week or once a month and bring your mom and dad over and play some games or go out and watch a movie." James offered.

"Maybe we could do that," Lily said and James saw that look in her eye that said she was already planning on what they could do together.

James patted her hand once, got up and put the uncooked pasta in the boiling water and put the pasta sauce in a different pot. They spent the time in silence, Lily thinking about how to get closer to her parents and James was back to thinking about going into the Magical Abuse Crimes and how to bring it up. It wasn't going to be a huge career change, but he wanted his wife's opinion on the matter before he decided to jump head first into anything and regret it later on.

Lily set the table and James served them both before sitting down. "So how was work?" Lily asked as she took a bite.

"It was good." James said.

Lily waited a beat before putting her fork down, "Ok, out with it."

"Out with what?"

"You haven't made a joke since you came in, there hasn't been any of your usual flirting with me and you haven't turned on the radio yet. So I ask once more, what's wrong?"

James didn't realize he had such predictable habits and for a second he wondered if he should change them a little to keep her on her toes before he got back on track to what they were talking about.

"Nothing is wrong per say, but I'm thinking about going into a different division in my department."

"What do you mean? You have been talking about becoming an Auror since before we left school?"

James sighed. "I know, but there is a division in the same department that deals with abuse cases. Specifically children."

Lily leaned forward, "Abused how?"

"Well I have seen them deal with probably all types of abuse. The most common, or the most reported at least, have been physical and sexual."

"And you want to do that, deal with those kinds of people?" Lily asked still leaned forward.

"No," James said shaking his head. "I want to help those children. Most of the wizarding world wants to bury their head in the sand and say only muggles hurt the young. It's not true, and if someone doesn't bring those monsters to justice, it will continue to happen." James banged his fist at the end of his speech. His nervousness about the job had disappeared and had been replaced with determination.

"Do it." Lily said after a beat.

"What?" James asked, he didn't think she would accept the change so easily. "You do understand that if I take this job, our social standing will go down. People honestly think this division is a waste of time and resources and will have no trouble telling you or me that." He didn't want to talk her out of it, but he did want her to be aware of what will happen once he started working there.

"If they think helping the children, or anyone who needs it, is a waste of anything, than I don't think we should be associating ourselves with them anyways." Lily said calmly "Also, you don't usually go on rants unless it's something you truly believe in."

James smiled, he was so happy he couldn't speak, he jumped up and grabbed Lily and started twirling her around. "No matter what happens after I get my transfer, we will be in this together." He said.

"Together." Lily said with a smile on her face as she wrapped her hands around her husbands neck and closed the distance between them and they kissed, forgetting the dinner that was still on the table.

James Potter woke with a start and looked around him without lifting his head off the pillow. He was alone, again. Just like he was every time he woke up now. A tear came out of his eye as he took a few big breathes to keep the wracking depression and anxiety at bay, as he laid there in the casket.

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How did you like the first chapter? there's more to come, more will be unveiled in the coming chapters on what happened to James and why he is where he is. So please stay tuned, and tell me what you think so far.