Chapter 2: James' Discovery

In Harry's room a few minutes later,

"Stay here." Harry instructed. "Feel free to look around, but don't make any noise. I'll be back in about 30 minutes at most."

"Okay…what was your name again?"

"I never told you." Harry said with a laugh. "But it's Harry."

Harry left a stunned James.

"Harry's a common name." James told himself. "There is NO way my Harry could have survived the attack. Not when I saw Lily's grave next to mine with the same death date."

But then again, he HADN'T seen his son's grave.

Then AGAIN, this kid was too old to be his son.

Not knowing what else to do, James looked around the small room. There was barely enough room for a teenager. The desk looked worse than a table at the Shrieking Shack when James went to explore it his first year after the full moon.

James looked at the pile of books on the desk. He saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, the Monster Book of Monsters, Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broomcare, and a blank one.

James picked up the blank one that was on top and flipped through it. He was shocked to see pictures of himself and his family in it. His insides were starting to contract.

He looked back at the desk and nearly dropped the photo album when he saw who owned the Fantastic Beasts book:

Property of: Harry Potter

James sat the album down and the pages flipped to the picture of himself holding a baby Harry with Lily helping Harry wave at the camera. He didn't pay much attention. He was looking at the other book, hands shaking.

He opened up the book and saw notes scribbled in the margins. On the title page seemed to be an argument between someone named Ron and someone else named Hermione over sharing the book and buying dungbombs. On the flip side of the next page was a hangman game, a tick-tack-toe game, and someone writing how Harry loves Moaning Myrtle. Moaning Myrtle had been crossed out.

"I can explain," Harry's voice came from the doorway.

James turned around to see Harry watching him setting a plate of food down on the dresser.

"Please do." James said with a tiny hint of a threat.

"It was Halloween of 1981." Harry began. "Voldemort attacked us. We were under the Fidelius Charm, so only Peter Pettigrew knew where we were. He gave our position to Voldemort. You told Mum to take me an run. Voldemort killed you. Then he went after Mum and me. There hadn't been enough time. He told Mum to move aside. She could have been spared, but she would rather die than to see me killed. He killed her. Then he turned his wand to me. Because of Mum's sacrifice, I was spared with nothing but this scar and some abilities."

He lifted his bangs to reveal his famed lightning-bolt shaped scar.

"The curse rebounded off me and hit Voldemort." He continued. "Leaving him nothing but a bodiless spirit. Sirius appeared after the attack and tried to take me, but Hagrid showed up on Dumbledore's orders. Sirius gave Hagrid me and the motorcycle while he went after Pettigrew. Hagrid took me to Dumbledore who placed me on Aunt Petunia's doorstep because Aunt Petunia's blood relationship with Mum keeps me safe from Voldemort who came back last month."

Suddenly, everything made sense for James. There was too much proof. This kid WAS…IS his son.

"Harry?" James asked with tears forming in his eyes.

Harry nodded.

The father pulled his son into an embrace for the first time in almost fifteen years.

"Oh Harry." James said as he laid a hand on Harry's head that was on his shoulder.

"Dad!" Harry cried as he returned the hug. "I missed you so much."

"It's okay." James told his son as he stroked Harry's head. "Everything will be just fine. I'm sorry."

"It. okay. Um. How are we going to explain this?" Harry asked a few minutes later while pulling out of the hug, but not taking his hands off of James' shoulders.

"You can't keep a Potter down over….how long has it been?"

"Almost 15 years." Harry confirmed.

"Fif…teen?" James asked. "Wow. I missed a lot of Christmas' and Birthdays."

"Don't worry about it." Harry said hugging his father again. "This makes up for everything."

"I can just see Moony's face." James laughed.

"Me too." Harry said. "I can tell you right now what Hermione would do."

"What?"

"She'd run to the library."

James laughed before asking, "Who's Hermione?"

"One of my best friends." Harry explained. "From what I've heard, she's like the "Remus" in my group."

"And Ron is your "Padfoot"?" James asked looking at the Fantastic Beasts book.

"Right. Right now though, we have a bigger problem."

"What's that?"

"I don't think Aunt Petunia will find it funny I'm harboring a dead man in my room." Harry told him.

James thought about it with a laugh.

"I have it." James said snapping his fingers. "Get your things."

As Harry packed his trunk, James went over to the window.

"Okay. Plan B." James said.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"The original plan was to sneak out the window and make a break for it. But, Dumbledore has the place guarded with Order Members."

"Again?" Harry sighed as he went towards the window.

He was stopped when James held out a hand towards him.

"Try to stay away from the window. I don't think Moody will be fooled if he sees two Potters." James told him. "We'll have to use a portkey."

"How? Magic can be detected. I've already gotten in trouble for using magic outside of school. I was nearly EXPELLED last year."

"Don't you worry about that." James said touching the wall and muttering something. A small flash appeared from his hand and faded into the wall.

"There." James said. "NOW you will be able to use magic."

"Huh?"

"I put up a silent ward to where magic can NOT be detected. There's a similar one where you can't tell if UNDERAGE magic is performed."

"Cool." Harry said as James walked over to his trunk and used a shrinking spell on it. Harry watched for the owls from the Ministry. When nothing appeared, he was fully impressed.

"C'mon." James said taking one of Harry's old shoes and pocketing the trunk. "Portus."

The shoe glowed and faded.

"Harry. Touch the shoe. Now."

Harry placed a hand on the shoe and felt the familiar tug.

Petunia Dursley opened the door to inform Harry that Marge was going to come over the next day, only to see her nephew and a man that looked like her brother-in-law disappear. As she screamed, Mad-Eye Moody came rushing into the house much to Vernon's disapproval.

"The boy….just…disappeared!" Petunia told him. "And a man who looked JUST like him went with him."

"Expecto Patronus!" Moody conjured. A panther appeared.

"Potter's been kidnapped." He told the panther.

TBC