The return

Chapter 4: Conversations and more conversation

Disclaimer: I'm a poor university student therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters if I did I would not have to take students loans.

A/N: Excuses and apologies are at the end. Remember English is not my mother tongue and I have no beta, which means that there are some mistakes. Read if you want but don't complain.

Chapter 4: Conversations and more conversations

James had time to spare before having to aparate to King Cross and for some reason he found himself going towards Severus office. He knew the man was still angry with him; after all he was partly responsible for the mess they were in. That wasn't to say that Severus was innocent, after all they had both done stupid things and it was his hope that they could find a solution that would beneficiate. Or really just Harry, because if he was honest after fourteen years he was willing to lose Severus if it meant that he would be able to keep his child. Which explain why he was walking toward the other man's office. He wanted to talk to the man one last time before leaving the Castle in order to know what he was going to do, as far as he knew he had two choices a) he could start making peace with the man, find a way to work on their differences, and come to some kind of agreement about Harry or b) Annoy the man so much that he wouldn't think twice about giving him full custody of Harry just to get rid of him. Both ideas appealed to him but he would know which path to choose after seeing how this discussion went. Reaching Severus door he knock.

"Enter" came the voice from inside

"What do you want?" asked Severus once he saw who his unexpected visitor was.

"I was wandering if we could talk"

"I believe I said all had to say back at the infirmary"

"Fine, then I will talk and you will listen. If after you hear what I have to say you still want to be angry at me be my guess, but you better stop taking it out on Harry, because if you don't by Merlin Severus you won't like the consequences"

"Fine tell me what it is you came to say and then leave"

"When I left that night I had neither plan nor destination. I ended up at Lily's by chance. Once there I spend the next two hours cursing you before explaining to her what had happened, by the end of the night the only plan we had made was what was going too happened the next day. I was going to kiss her in a public place where you could see us or been seen by any of your friends so that they could tell you. After that we return to her apartment and she made me an offer. Since nobody knew that I was pregnant, and since people always assume that we had a relationship back at school because of all the time we spend together, we would fake getting married and her pregnancy. It would be easy enough not many people knew we were marry and Lils was an expert on charms. At that point I was ready to completely erase you from mine and my son's life. Then a week later Albus comes around and tells us that we have gain spies in better positions that the previous ones, he never mention names but he left enough clues for us to figure out at least who one of the new spies was. Lily wanted me to tell you immediately, but I knew I couldn't at first she thought it was because I was still mad at you, but then I explain to her how the parent's magic was bound to that of their children until they became legal of age or one die. If you didn't know that you were going to be a father, the link between the two of you would lie dormant and therefore it would not put anybody at risk. Lily said that you were talented at occlumency, otherwise you couldn't do what you were doing, but I knew you best and while at the time you were good enough to hide your duplicity, you weren't strong enough to hide a connection like that, so I decided to wait I convince myself that we had time, that I had time, even when we were force to go into hiding. I was still convinced that everything would turn out okay, and that we would get back together and raise Harry, but I guess I was deluding myself, because we both know what happened next". After a pause James said "I never meant to hurt you Severus, but you hurt me two. My marriage to Lily was a lie we never even slept together, and I never filed for a divorce. Can you say the same thing about your marriage to Marie" and with that James left leaving a shock Snape behind.

After a while Severus threw floo powder into the fire and called

"Malfoy Manor, Lucius study" and waited for his friend to appear.

"Severus, what can we do for you?"

"I need to speak with you, may I pass trough?"

"Yes, of course" and with that he step back to wait for his friend

"Lucius, Narcissa'' Severus said once he arrive fallow by "James is alive and Harry Potter is my son"

"Yes Severus we are aware that James is indeed alive, you have to reside inside a cave not to" said Lucius with an air of amusement

"What part of this situation you find amusing Lucius, because in case you forgotten, the man that I believed to have left me for another to later die just came back to life and nobody knows how or why. On top of that the idiot didn't file for divorce which makes my marriage to Mare invalid and illegal. If that wasn't enough the child who's life I have spend making it a living hell for the last four years is my son."

'It's not your situation I find amusing, it's Marie. Finally after all this years we will be able to get rid of her, without consequences. I know you married out of spite but why you have to marry that infernal woman I will never understand."

"You are missing the point"

"Am I? No Severus I think it's you who is missing the point"

"What do you mean?"

"What my husband is trying to say is that you can get your back life, you can rebuild what you once lost."

"I don't think it will be plausible"

"Why not?"

"Because I been an idiot for the last two days. Because I'm still angry at James, and because he practically order me to stay away from Harry until I could treat him like a person and not take my anger out on him."

"Well is easy isn't it" said Narcissa continuing before either man could reply "stop being an idiot, get over whatever issues you have with James, and start seeing Harry for the child that he is and not for who his father is. Besides I hardly think that he forbid you to see Harry, after all you're the one with custody of the boy."

"I have custody?"

"Of course, James was declare dead, which means that custody went to you automatically, since you never gave it to the Dursley. You are Harry Potter legal guardian, something that you could use to your advantage" said Lucius

"No he will not" said Narcissa "I will not stand by and see how you two play with the poor child while you get over your childish differences. Yes he hurt you I'm not denying that, but you also had a hand in creating him and this mess, and before you had the excuse that you were young but now you don't. That poor boy had gone through enough, so think long and hard before you act, or I promise you won't like the consequences" and with that she left

"You know that's the second time in so many hours that I been threaten with bodily harm should I do anything to the boy. I'm starting to think that is safer to stay away."

"It's that what you want?"

"I don't know" and with that both men sat in silence.

XxXxXxX

James wandered around for some time after his conversation with Severus; the man hadn't showed any reactions to what James was telling him, which left him at a loss on how to proceed. Deciding to worry about that later he aparated to king cross, after all he had a muggle to terrorize.

When he got there he had to stop for a moment. Whatever he had been expecting the normal looking house wasn't it. He knew it was silly but he figure that the house would reflect the abusive people that reside inside, of course the house did not. Instead it stood there clean, expensive and well cared for he would even go as far as saying that on the outside the house looked inviting. Of course the real problem wasn't the house, the real problem where the monster that lived inside, monsters that in his opinion where equally if not more dangerous than Tom Riddle. Maybe if someone had help the young boy back then, when it was still early enough to do something, all the deaths and the war could have been avoided, but alas no one had cared, no one had looked into that situation, just as no one had looked to close as how his child lived as long as the boy didn't make a fuss and was capable of doing what was expected of him, something that Harry excelled at doing. Taking a deep breath and shaking the somewhat dark and melancholic thoughts he walked forward and knocks on the door.

A few minutes later a fat man resembling a whale opens the door.

"Hello Vernon long time no see." He said in that spoiled rich voice that he knew annoyed Sverus, and by the looks of it the man before him also.

"You!" "We were told you were dead."

"Well as you can see you were misinformed. Now I would like to speak with you and your wife about my son so if you could kindly step back and let me trough all the better."

"If you think I'm letting you inside my house, you are wrong freak"

"And if you think that I'm leaving without having this conversation you are wrong" said James in the same tone of voice that made criminals shake before him, back when he was an auror, letting go of his playboy persona. In a higher voice he continued "Or perhaps you want to have this conversation outside were everybody can hear. I'm sure that your neighbors would just love to know how you and your family abused the innocent child that was left on your care."

Looking around and a bit panicky Vermon finally relented and allowed James to come inside, but did keep his distance from the man. Vermon open his mouth to speak but before he could say anything James cast a silencing spell over him.

"Now I'm sure that they are a billion and one excuses that you can give me for how you treaded my son. Let just tell you that I'm not interested in them. Now you be quiet and stay there, there something that I have to do before we have our little conversation." With that James turn his back on Vermon and cast a spell that he had hope he would never need to cast for his son. The spell would record all the memories, of the house. Specifically it would record the memories of any child abuse or neglect that had happened inside the house, and transmit then to the caster's mind, while at the same time saving them in the memory orb that James had with him.

An hour later he had seen more that he had ever wanted to see. In that hour he had seen all that his son had suffer at the hands of his so called family and for the first time he came to truly regretting never telling Severus the truth. Putting his feelings aside he turned back to the man and said

"As much as I would love to kill you and your family, I can't. Not because I'm being merciful but because my son needs the protection that the wards around this house give him. Now my son is going to spend the next two weeks here, and this is what's going too happened. You will leave my child alone, you will not enter his room, you will not put a hand on him in fact you will not even talk to him. The same goes to your wife. While he is here me or one of my friends will come by and check on him daily, and you better hope that the only thing we find is a bored Harry, because otherwise I will kill you. As for his feeding and care don't bother, not that you have done so before but I will be fixing his room so that he has everything he needs for the next two weeks in there. That should make it easier for you and your family to stay away." With that he turned to leave before he did something that could get him in jailed or worse hurt his chance of keeping Harry. Once he got to the door and without turning back he said

"You should be thankful that I can't do anything right now because of the protection, but don't think for a moment that I won't be coming back once Harry is out of here for good." With that he aparated back to the school, where after making a copy of the memory ball and leaving it on Severus office he went to sit with his child where he watch him sleep all night under the influence of a sleeping potion.

~*~

Hours later Severus came back to his office and saw the glowing ball with a piece of paper attach to it. Picking the paper he reads the single line that was written on it, and even thought there was no signature he knew that handwriting better than he knew his own. The orb was from James.

Let's see if you still think he's a spoiled brat.

But before he could open the orb the dark mark stars burning, and with no second thoughts he resumes the role that so many years ago had cost him everything. After all even if he did not want to admit it he still had people to protect.

A/N: 1)Sorry for not writing anything for this story for two years, back then it was when I started writing and I must admit that I did not even the smallest idea of what I was doing or where this fic was going now I do. I mean have an idea where I want this fic to go, still have no idea of what I'm doing. This means that I won't disappear for two years again. Can't promise to update weekly because I have a heavy course load, but yeas to a couple of monthly updates.

2) For those who wonder why I didn't write what James saw, I will go into detail of the abuse as the story progress. As for him going easy on Vermont let's remember that Harry still has to go back, and pissing Vermon of would not help anybody.

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