A/N: Now with new and improved scene breaks.
James Castle
Chapter 15: Merry Christmas Harry Potter
James was confused when he woke up. He was in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. He cautiously glanced around as he gathered his bearings, noting Hermione still sleeping, holding onto his midsection with a death grip. He frowned as what all happened last night came into his head. "God damn it," he cursed quietly, causing Hermione to stir.
"Don't swear," she murmured as she blinked the sleep from her eyes and looked up at his face. "You're still mad," she noted, biting her lip.
"I think I have a good reason," he grumbled.
"It's Christmas James, cheer up," she poked him in the chest. "Are you going to be okay if I go take a shower, not gonna go out there and do something stupid," she frowned at him.
"I'll be fine Hermione," he sighed, spotting his gun across the room on a dresser.
"No shooting anyone," she followed his gaze, getting out of the bed. She walked over and picked up the gun, tossing it to her boyfriend. "I mean it, no shooting anyone," she stared him down before slipping into the attached bathroom.
Matthew Granger was sitting at the kitchen table in the small, but magically enhanced cabin in the north of Scotland. He glanced up from his newspaper as James entered the room, nodding as the boy helped himself to a cup as well. "No one else awake?" James asked as he examined the magically repaired walls and windows.
"Just you and Frank, he's up in the attic, seeing what he can spot outside," Matthew explained. "The others are all exhausted from yesterday, especially after rebuilding the walls after Hermione took you to bed," he commented. "So, want to talk about it?" he asked, noticing the boy had brought a pistol with him, setting it on the table beside his coffee.
"Not particularly," James grimaced as he drank down the coffee. "But I suppose that is why you are all here, to make me talk it out," he scowled at the older man.
"Actually we were planning on bringing you here for a family Christmas with Hermione before all this madness," Matthew shrugged. "Of course, when word of the upcoming situation reached people, we acted on it as best we could," he admitted. He examined the uncomfortable looking boy who was looking out the windows into the early morning. "Do you love my Granddaughter?" he raised an eyebrow as the boy froze, gripping the coffee cup tightly.
He set the cup down, and rested his head in his hands. "Yeah," he said quietly, gulping as he looked at the old man who smiled at him.
"Good, otherwise I'd have to hurt you for sharing a room with her until you go back to school," he laughed as the boy relaxed a bit.
"I can't go back now, they know," James started shaking until he grabbed his gun. "I can't," he shook his head, calming himself.
"Why not?" Matthew asked.
"I can't be Harry Potter," he shook his head before holding it in his hands again.
The older man sat there watching the distraught young man for a few minutes until Frank came down the stairs from the second floor. Frank nodded at the two of them, pouring himself a cup and relaxing in to a chair beside James. "Time me and you had a talk James," Frank commented, taking a drink of his coffee. "What were you thinking, trying to do this all by yourself?" he scolded the boy. "Hermione told me in her letters what you were doing, running yourself ragged, doing it all yourself, barely sleeping," Frank continued.
"It was my job," James glared at Frank.
"You're a fucking kid, it's not your job," Frank slammed his fist down on the table. "I let you come because it would be good for you to get to know some people your age and to gather some intel on the enemy, not for you to go around killing them yourselves," he lectured as James cringed.
"It's okay son, between Frank, Sirius, and Hermione, everyone got filled in on the current situation after she stunned you," Matthew reached over and grabbed James' hand. "Thank you, for avenging my son," he looked at James who started breathing heavily and panicking.
"James, the point is, you're going to have to face this," Frank said calmly to the boy who was trying to calm himself. "You were born Harry Potter," he looked at the boy whose head snapped up to face him immediately.
"I'm not," James glared back, his face growing red with anger. "He was weak, they beat him down, abused him, they killed him because he was too weak," he gripped the table visibly holding himself back.
"You were a child, you were not weak," Frank glared at the boy. "James, you were Harry Potter, but you aren't any more, you need to accept that," Frank relaxed, patting the boy on the back, calming him.
"They won't accept it, they'll try to pull something, wizards love to meddle," James frowned, going back to staring at his gun. "How did they find out?"
"I was tracking Dmitri, I caught up with him and a wizard called Kakaroff in Chicago," Frank explained. "We had ourselves a nice little Mexican standoff until Sirius showed up to kill Dmitri for the Goblins. Kakaroff shot his mouth off about the Dark Lord so we knocked him out. Once Sirius figured out who Dmitri was and why the Goblins wanted him dead, he stunned him," Frank continued. "Unfortunately, he ran his mouth mentioned how I was there and got you out of the house," Frank frowned. "Even more unfortunately, Kakaroff was awake, heard it, and had a portkey on his person," he finished.
"Wonderful," James pushed away from the table and started making breakfast. He worked alone, gently pushing Hermione away when she tried to help, not so gently pushing Sirius away when he tried the same. "Where are Moony and Tonks?" he asked as he carried the heaping plates of food over to the table that Sirius had expanded.
"Oh, after we all got the cabin put back together, they started fighting again," Shacklebolt told James. "After a minute of yelling, she slapped him, then they started ripping each other's clothes off, nearly going at it like a couple of kids on the table here before they realized the rest of us were here," he knocked on the wood surface.
"Thank you for the wonderful image Auror Shacklebolt," James stabbed a piece of sausage violently before eating it.
"I'm not an Auror anymore, neither is Tonks, just so you know," Kingsley shrugged. "We were fired after that last house you took care of," he explained between bites.
"Sorry about that," James sighed, looking down at his plate.
"No worries, we were both getting tired of working for people who are on Voldemort's payroll," the man smiled. "Besides, we got new jobs offers once this whole news about you hit the papers," he pulled a letter from his pocket. "I'm the new Head of Security at Hogwarts," he smiled, flashing the seal on the letter from Dumbledore. "I get to pick my own team to cover the school," he laughed.
"How did you get people to agree to that?" James asked.
"Dumbledore has two big bargaining chips right now, one, the students, mostly Slytherin, are terrified that the Punisher is going to come for them, so their parents are raising all sorts of trouble at the Ministry. And the other reason, is you," he noticed the boy's face grow dark as Hermione gave his hand a squeeze. "It's going to be a circus," Kingsley admitted.
"You haven't told Dumbledore I'm the Punisher?" James asked suddenly.
"Don't know what you're talking about, the only fellow I've ever seen calling himself the Punisher looked him," he winked pointing at Frank. "I didn't let them know when I worked for the Ministry, I'm not going to start now," he calmed James. "Besides, with my crack team, you should not have much trouble with your little project."
"Who else?" James frowned as most of the short list of people he trusted somewhat were at the table eating with him already.
"Myself, Tonks, a pair of Marauders, and a squib from the states that Sirius picked up on his way back," Kingsley grinned.
"The paperwork for you will be here before New Year's Frank, we're even after this," Max frowned.
"Are you insane, Dumbledore, Snape, Moody, god knows who else in that castle will kill you on sight Frank," James glared at his friend.
"You're not the only one with polyjuice James," Frank laughed. "And Max has graciously agreed to shave his head for the cause," everyone burst out laughing as Max touched his head from reflex, regretting agreeing to this plan.
Hermione drug James into the living room after breakfast where the other had set up a Christmas tree the day before they picked her and James up from the train. She forced him to sit down on the loveseat with her as everyone else trickled in and Lupin and Tonks finally joined the rest of the household, to their embarrassment.
Hermione laughed as Tonks chased Sirius from the room, threatening to make him a dog permanently. She relaxed, leaning into James who she could tell was still very angry about the situation. "You gonna make it?" she whispered, tilting her head back so she could see his face.
"I don't know," he replied, resting his own head on hers. "I've been pushing it aside, hiding it, ignoring it for so long, what's going to happen now that people know," he breathed deep and slid down so that Hermione was resting almost completely on top of him. "You'll stay with me, right?" he grabbed her tightly, not caring that the rest of the room was watching them quietly.
"Of course I will James," she cried a little as she comforted him. "I'm girlfriend, I'm not leaving you," she relaxed, pulling him into a sitting position. "Now, it was a little sudden, us gathering like this, but we have some presents we managed to get together," she smiled and pointed him at the tree.
"I didn't have time to get anyone anything," he frowned.
"It's okay James, there will be time for that when this is all over," Hermione grabbed his hand. "I want you to open the one from Grandma, Grandpa, and me first," she explained as he tried to slump down in the seat, but she held him up.
"Here," Hermione's Grandmother wiped away some tears as she handed a box to Hermione.
"Go ahead, open it," she pushed the box into his hands after checking the color on the paper. He pulled the paper apart carefully, revealing something wrapped in tissue paper. He slowly unwrapped it, revealing a small plate of metal on a chain.
"That's one of my dog tags, from World War II," Matthew explained as the boy just stared at it. "I want you to wear it, and remember something that my commanding officer told me to help me get through the war," he got up and walked over to the boy. "We fight because other can't," he took the chain from James and placed it around the boy's neck. "We fight because they don't have the power to," he continued. "We fight, so those we love don't have to," he watched as the boy shuddered.
"Thank you," James replied, looking up, smiling at the older man. "You're all so set on coming with me to Hogwarts," he fingered the tag and tucked it under his shirt. "You can help, but we're going to do it my way," he sighed like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.
A/N: Last bit of setup really, rest of story is going to be non-stop blood, gore, death, destruction, and the like. Anyway, back to Hogwarts next, time to see how things go with the rest of the wizarding world knowing Harry Potter is alive.
In regards to the next story, it looks to be about 70/30 Iron Man/Captain America. Only problem is, I want to do Cap. more. So the way I'm gonna do it, once this story is done is to write the two of them concurrently, alternating one then the other. Means slower updates, but I think will improve the quality and keep everyone happy. Anyway, gonna go relax, might get another chapter up tomorrow or Monday, but don't know for sure. Sneak peak on the Cap/Iron stories, the preliminary titles are: Project: Super Soldier, and Unified Theory.
P.S. Yeah, I know this was short and little mushy. I'm done with mush for the story from here on out for the most part.