Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Beta: DreamStallion33

Chapter XII: Not Intended For a Mother's Ears

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Harry made his way into the kitchen and clutched at his chest whenever he felt the lightning coarse through his body, and the pain often went from stinging to cold chills. Knoby had prepared him a steaming tray of breakfast, complete with scrambled eggs and muffins.

"Knoby, do you know where Luna is?"

The elf bowed deeply to his master, his nose touching his pointed toes. "She has gone out to pick up a few things, or so Knoby has been told, Master Harry."

"Thank you Knoby. You know, we're quite alright today on everything, the house looks great. Could you take the rest of the day and do what you would like to?"

"Knoby lives to serve. I think I will listen to one hour of the Wizard Wireless today, and possibly read over an article in the Prophet."

"That sounds very enjoyable." Harry smiled, Dobby's heir had inherited some of his traits after all.

Harry was crunching through his toast and reading over the paper, and as he had finished he saw James walk into the room, his hair ruffed up like his father's.

"Morning James." Harry smiled, waving his wand and letting his son sit next to him.

'Hi Dad." James said, reaching for a shiny apple resting in the fruit bowl at the center of the table.

The silence that followed lasted longer than Harry liked, and he sensed that his son wanted to talk, but was unsure how to begin. He tried remembering what he felt like at fourteen, when he was talking to Sirius- as it was his only real enough memory of a father. Hmm…no, that doesn't help. "What's up, James?" Harry asked, going for the direct method.

James shrugged. "Are you going to have another kid with…her?"

Harry frowned, he had been sure that James would at least feel comfortable calling her Luna. Harry decided to try and be tactful when it came to this question, however, and silently wished that Luna was here to help him. "Dunno. Would you want another brother or sister?"

James bit into the apple, which with it's yellow skin, reminded Harry of a Snitch. "I think it would be weird. Maybe."

Harry gave an uneasy shrug. "Why do you think that?"

"Well…" he blushed. "it's just that,…we're all pretty…normal's the wrong word…we're all really older than the new baby would be."

Harry didn't need Legilimency to understand something deeper was lying unasked. "And?"

James nearly bit off too much of the apple. "Well…Luna's ..Miss Lovegood…is,…"

"Strange?" Harry offered.

James's eyes bulged out of their sockets and he dropped the apple, which rolled across Knoby's immaculate floors. "You can say that about your girlfriend!?" James' jaw dropped and he picked up the apple and frowned.

"Tergeo." Harry spoke as he cleaned the apple off for his son, smiling as James recovered from Harry's declaration. "I can say that about her, yes. When you find someone you are happy with, you can be perfectly open about them."

"Dad. I don't know if I approve of you and Mum separating." James' red face seemed to show that he regretted his boldness.

Harry looked around the kitchen and nodded. "Muffliato." he said, making sure this conversation was silent.

"Ooh, what's that spell do?" James asked.

"Keeps our conversation private, it was developed by a very wise teacher of mine when I was at Hogwarts."

"Righto."

"Son, do you know why your mum and I became separated?"

"Um…she hasn't told me."

"We separated because it's what had to happen. Your mum and I still care a lot about each other."

"Just not enough to stay together?"

"We're living together, aren't we?"

"But you're not married. You don't even have the last name anymore. Do you know what it's like having to go to school and dealing with people asking me why my parents don't have the same last name? Dad, I don't know how to answer those questions."

Harry placed his hands on his son's shoulders, and looked into his eyes. "James, I don't know what that's like. I'm sorry if you have to go through that because of us."

"I just want my parents to be in love with each other."

"Son, your mom and I are never going to leave you, that is the last thing I would want for any of you."

James didn't say anything, perhaps it was because he didn't know how to reply to what his father was saying.

"Do you know how your mum and I met?"

He stared at the floor, sitting his apple on the table. "Sorta."

"We met on Platform 9 & ¾, nearly three decades ago, she looked so shy, I didn't know what to say to her."

"That's great Dad, I knew that part. What made you fall in love with her?"

Harry seemed to remember the Parseltongue vaguely, and his tongue rested on top of his front teeth, daring him to utter the language that had long since left him. "I saved her from Lord Voldemort."

"No!" James grinned as he leaned into the table and his position on the seat was barely maintained.

"I did. Down in the Chamber of Secrets."

"How did you do it?"

"Well, it was dangerous, but I had a little help from a phoenix."

'Yeah?"

"Mmhmm. You see Voldemort had tried possessing your mum through his old diary."

"A diary?!"

"Haven't I always told you not to make fun of Lily's? I have a reason you know." he smiled.

"So how did you stop him?"

"I stabbed the diary he was using with the fang of his Basilisk."

"Basilisk? No…way."

"Mmm.." Harry smiled. "Killed that beast with the Sword of Gryffindor."

James remained silent for several uneasy seconds, and Harry wondered if his son even believed him. "You're a badass dad."

Harry was the one to blush now. "Don't let your mum hear you saying that, she'll blame me."

James smiled. "Dad?"
"Yes, son?"

"How did you meet Luna?"

Harry was certain that this question would come up eventually, and was ready for it. "Luna and I were part of a secret resistance to Voldemort, course, it wasn't just us. It was your mum, Uncle Ron & Mione, Uncle Neville and of course, Luna and I. George and his twin were in it."

"Percy wasn't was he?" James sounded disgusted at the thought.

"No. He was too busy being a pompous tight arse."

James laughed. "That's believable."

"Anyway, Luna and your mum, after Ron, Hermione & I left school for the war, decided to take the group to whole new levels. Luna and your mum thought up ideas for how to fight against Voldemort from within the schools boundaries."

"Like what?"

"They vandalized the school , and posted all kinds of flyers on how to recognize Death Eaters. There was of course other things as well."

"Mum did what to the school?"

"Well…it was her and Uncle Neville, they eh, spray painted the school. Things like 'Severus Snape is a snot nosed slack jawed git.' and eh, 'Dumbledore's Army', things like that."

"Mum was like,…seriously cool! But wait,…I thought you liked Severus Snape."

"He was the bravest man I ever had the honor to know, things were just uncertain at that time, everyone was confused about him."

"Because of the Dumbledore murder?"

"Exactly, but, Severus Snape had worked with Dumbledore for fourteen years or so. He risked his life on a daily basis, and he constantly had to see Voldemort, and lie to him at every turn."

"Wow." James was awed.

"Anyway, James, to the point. I can't be in love with your mum anymore, but I still love her as if we were married. One day you will understand the why behind, you will understand how it is possible to love people as much as your mum, Draco, Luna and I do."

"I believe you Dad." James said, biting into his apple once again.

"You know not to tell Lily & Albus about any of this right now, don't you? My part in the war is too much for them to know right now."

James face lit up with pride. "I know Dad, and for now, that's enough…knowing what I know."

Harry and his eldest son finished eating their breakfast with minor conversation after that, as everyone else was still asleep; they kept the conversation low. But as Harry was getting up from his seat, he felt something in his upper regions catch on the button of his night shirt.

"Shit!" Harry yelped, and James jumped from the chair as if his pants had caught on fire.

"Dad! What did you do!?" James pointed at his fathers' chest, before he doubled over from realization.

Harry grasped at his shirt, and pried lose the ring from it. Harry panted, his face red and his lungs out of breath. "This too…of course, should be treated with the same secrecy as our war conversation son…"
"Never!" James laughed, delighted, and Harry almost saw a glint of Fred and George in his son's eyes. James ran off throughout the estate, his laughter bouncing off the walls, reminding Harry of Peeves.

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AN: I'm trying to get my updates to an every other day occurrence. We'll see how this goes. Reviews appreciated. Thoughts on the believability of James' thoughts about divorce welcomed especially