James Potter was not the type that got nervous very easily. Being a Marauder how could he? On the rare times that he did get nervous however, he had the horrible habit of bouncing his leg. Try has he might, he could not break it. Sometimes it got so bad, that he actually had to grab his leg with his hands and physically stop it from moving. And that was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment; he didn't want to show any sort of sign that might be taken as weakness.
Today was the day that James had his meeting with Umbridge to discuss Harry and his "problem". While Harry was doing his homework and listening to Sirius and James relive some of their more memorable events of school, he past along the note from Umbridge that he had been given a day prior. It was then that the truth behind the scars on Harry's hand came out. Harry had to cast the Body Bind jinx to keep Sirius and James in the room and keep them from jail for harming a Ministry Official.
"This is my battle with her, and you'll just get yourself into trouble," Harry had said.
No matter what James said, Harry remained un-swayed. But, that didn't change the fact that James was his father and that he was going to take a form of action. As soon as Harry left for the night, James set off for Dumbledore's office. After yelling at the headmaster for not knowing what was happening to his son, James demanded advice on what to do.
"She will insist that Harry did it to himself, as that seems to be her plan." Dumbledore said softly after a few pondering moments. "And, I admit it is painful to say, but people will take her side over Harry's at the moment."
Many situations and plans later, a decision of what should be done when James had his meeting with Umbridge was formed. So the next day when he received a letter from the said woman, James was prepared. And that is what he was trying to remind himself as he sat in her painfully pink office to quite his nerves: he is prepared, he is prepared.
"Well Mister Potter, beating around the bush will do us no good." Umbridge said standing behind her desk looking at James who met her gaze.
She's probably enjoying that fact that she can actually look down on me while I'm sitting and she's standing…Short little toad. James thought to himself as he observed her smirk.
"Yes, I quite agree Madam Umbridge." James said evenly.
"I do not know if it has come to your attention yet Mister Potter, but your son has a problem." Umbridge said, sitting down in her chair finally and folding her hands.
"As a matter of fact, yes it has come to my attention." For a moment it seemed as though Umbridge was waiting for James to attack her, something which would play into her plan. James however just bit his tongue and waited to hear what else Umbridge had to say.
"Yes… Well I hope you'll agree with me on the course of action I believe should be taken," Said Umbridge, watching James carefully.
"And what action is that exactly?"
"I, like you I am sure Mister Potter, want what is best for young Mister Potter. Therefore I think he should be sent to St. Mungos for mental evaluation."
Silence rang between them for a few moments. It took all James self control not to take out his wand hand hex Umbridge into next week.
"Mental evaluation?" Questioned James through gritted teeth.
"Why yes. There must be something mentally wrong when someone takes to mutilating their body. Especially with words of self-hatred." Umbridge said with fake concern in her voice.
"And this is based purely on your thoughts and opinion alone? That is what I am lead to believe as none of Harry's other teachers have stepped forward with such a claim in four years."
"Thoughts and opinion alone? No, no Mister Potter. All the evidence I need I saw on the back of young Potters hand. And, come now Mister Potter," Umbridge let out one of her fake girlish giggles. "I am not the first person to question the sanity of your son. Surly you must have been told about-"
"Yes," James cut her off. "I was made aware of the rumors made my Rita Skeeta and I must say that I am shocked that anyone who works at the Ministry of Magic could take anything that women says as fact. Given what she has said about the Ministry while I worked there alone." Umbridge sucked her tongue in disapproval, but James went on before she could speak again.
"I agree with you about there being a, er, problem with my son. What I do not agree with is your method of correcting it. The idea of him being committed is outrageous and I will hear nothing of it. As his father, I would like to wait for another teacher to step forward with such a concern. On there own, without any prompting from you. Then, and only then, will there be discussion of my sons sanity."
"You are willing to allow a problem of self harm to continue?" Umbridge asked sharply. "If, as a parent, you go down that path Mister Potter there are departments within the Ministry to help children without proper adult care."
Completely losing his control, James jumped to his feet.
"The Ministry will not dare try and take my son away from him." James growled.
"You think highly of yourself Mister Potter, for such a young person. Believe me; the Ministry would indeed "dare" to remove a fifteen year old boy from the care of a twenty one year old man. Especially one who will not take the necessary measures to help the boy."
"What in the world does age have to do with it?" James shot, unable to keep a chill of fear from running up his spin. "Even more so as I am, in fact, thirty five."
"Only in numbers Mister Potter. In life experience, you are twenty one." Umbridge simpered at him.
"And I am taking the necessary measures to help my son." James went on, trying to not let Umbridge's words affect him.
"I am waiting for a second opinion to come forward from a teacher whose opinion I trust and value. No one within the Ministry would take my son away from me because I waited for a second opinion because that is what people are encouraged to do." James said to Umbridge, watching for signs of disappointment on her face at the fact that James knew the Ministry laws. To his disappointment, her face remained blank.
"Now, if that is all Madam Umbridge I shall be on my way." And with that James walked out of her office, not waiting for any kind of answer knowing full and well she would have something to say.
A few days after the meeting, James wondered if he was part of the reason Umbridge now seemed determined to flex her muscles. Educational Decree number 23 had been past, making the newest Hogwarts professor the first High Inquisitor to infect the school. According to Harry, she wasted no time before beginning to inspect the other teachers.
"I've never been more proud to have McGonagall has my head of house before." Harry had said to James and Sirius after retelling the events of the inspection of Minerva McGonagall.
The new power Umbridge had required James sitting Harry down and explaining to him how important it was to keep his mouth shut. James had been blunt with Harry about what could happen if Umbridge was crossed, he couldn't risk Harry losing his temper with Umbridge and ruining what was slowly becoming a father-son relationship.
"It's best we not test just how strong she really is, Harry. You could be taken out of my care and placed in some ward at Mungos. I know it's gonna be hard, but you really have to bite your tongue in her class from now on." James had explained, and to his relief Harry didn't put up a fight and since their talk hadn't done anything to anger Umbridge. Though most days Harry had some kind of contact with Umbridge ended with him going to James' living quarters and screaming his frustrations to his father.
The first time Harry did this, he was worried that he went to far and it would annoy James but to his surprise all James did was wait for him to get it all out, smile softly, ask "Got it all out?", then changed the topic. Harry was extremely grateful for the constant understanding James showed which led to him spending more and more time with James. Most evenings found Harry, accompanied by Ron and Hermione, in James' living quarters. Awkwardness between the two of them was almost nonexistent now and Harry was finding himself looking forward to the time he spent with James more each day.
But even with all this progress, Harry had yet to call James 'Dad.' Most of the time Harry was able to pull off not having to address James by any sort of name, but some times it was necessary and in those times it was always 'James.' Harry knew it hurt James, it could easily be seen in his father's eyes…but Harry just wasn't there yet. And he didn't want to mess things up by forcing it, especially when things were going so good.
"How long were you an Auror, James?" Hermione asked one evening as the teens sat on the floor of the quarters doing homework.
"About four years. Five if you count the one year of training," Answered James from his place on the couch.
"One year of training?" Ron said looking up at James startled. "I thought you had to train for three years or something before you became a full fledge Auror."
"Yeah, it is supposed to be three years. But when I applied it was a time of war. A war in which Aurors were dying meaning they needed more forces, so they made the training time only two years."
"And yet you were done in one?" Asked Harry, to which James smiled.
"If you were really good, they made it an even shorter amount of time: one year." James said smiling.
"That doesn't seem wise," Hermione said. "Rushing people out of training like that."
"Thinking back, it probably wasn't," James answered scratching his head. "But they needed us, and we were good. And they hardly ever did that. I think there were only three people that got through that quickly."
"You, Paige, and that bloke Caradoc Dearborn, right?" Sirius said coming from the kitchen with a butterbeer in hand.
"Yep, just the three of us." James said smiling proudly. "And don't pretend to not know Dearborn, mate." The smile James wore now turned to a smirk as he watched Sirius take a seat.
"I'll pretend to not remember that bugger all I want." Sirius said stiffly.
"He was in the Order." Said Harry suddenly, remembering the old photograph Moody had shown him over the summer. "He went missing…" Harry said looking from James, who lost his smirk, to Sirius who looked slightly guilty at speaking ill of the dead.
"Yes…he was and he did. Damn good Auror and very helpful in the Order, so naturally he was a target on the Death Eaters list." James said carefully. By some stroke of luck, the first war didn't come up in conversation with Harry most of the time. And those times when it did come up the conversation didn't last long. James had a feeling this conversation might not follow that same pattern.
"Why didn't you like him Sirius?" Ron asked looking at the older man who was examining his butterbeer bottle as though it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen.
"Well… Let's just say we had similar taste in women." Sirius said.
"And by 'women' he means 'woman.'" James explained to the teenagers.
"That Summers woman?" Hermione questioned innocently, though when Sirius looked up at her she looked like she wished she hadn't asked.
"One in the same," Sirius said curtly with a nod. "And even though he was a good Wizard he wasn't his best when she was around. Nerves I guess. But that presented quite a problem, didn't it? Aurors can't ever be off their game. Nearly got her killed a few times."
"Though in the end it was all for the best, because she became my partner and we worked wonderfully together," James cut in, seeing a hunted look cross over Sirius features as thoughts of all the times Paige could have been killed crossed his mind.
"She wasn't in the picture Moody showed me." Harry said, interested in the woman that seemed to have some sort of hold over his godfather.
"I believe she was mission when that picture was taken," James said, recalling her complaints at missing the photo.
"Yeah, she was," said Sirius. There was a few moments silence, the teens unsure if it was alright to continue with this conversation and Sirius and James lost in thoughts of the past.
"Do you think you'll go back to a defensive type of job, James?"
At Hermione's question, James looked over at her getting the feeling there was some kind of reasoning behind her questions.
"I don't know, maybe I will. Why do you ask?" Before Hermione answered, she glanced at Harry silently asking him to do this for her.
"Hermione had this idea, and she wanted to know what you thought of it." Harry said.
"Yeah?" James asked interestedly.
"Yeah…see, we're worried about how we're not learning anything in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Cause you know we have O.W.L.s at the end of the year, and of course everything going on with Voldemort." Harry explained. "And we think that we should take matters into our own hands and learn real Defense. You know, to prepare ourselves. But the thing is…" Harry trailed off, looking at Hermione who gave a nod of encouragement.
"We're past the stage where we can just learn things from books. We need a teacher."
There was silence again for a few moments.
"What exactly are you saying?" James asked his son and his friends slowly. Sirius let out his bark like laugh.
"Isn't it obvious James?" At James' look of confusion, Sirius explained with a smile,
"They want you to teach them real Defense Against the Dark Arts."
A.N- I'm a senior who had to apply to college, is captain of a varsity sport, and who is taking four AP classes. Can I be forgiven for being a horrible updater? I don't blame you if you say 'no' to that question.
I can't, and wont, drop this story. Thank you for sticking with it, it means the world to me…Really.
Please review and share your thoughts. (What do you think about James being the one asked to lead a DADA 'study group'?) Nothing gets me writing like reviews.
Till Next time. Which I promise wont be as long.
P.S. Blackie-San: This chapter is thanks to you. I got you're review today while home from school sick, and it really kicked me in the butt to get writing. You were the final straw on the guilt-camels back. So, thank you.