From the Files of Dr. Dumbledore:

The Case of Harry P., Week 3:

But perhaps Lily is not the only one with a secret to hide. The more I learn about James P., the more I begin to suspect that there is more to this quiet, respectable family man than meets the eye. Harry's delusions are rich in symbolic father figures, and they add up to a rather disturbing picture.

Hogwarts is guarded by the terrifying dementors, sinister creatures who cause humans to re-live their worst memories. The mad murderer Sirius Black has escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban, and Harry learns that Black, his godfather, was a close friend of Lily and James. But Sirius betrayed Lily and James to Voldemort, murdered their friend Peter Pettigrew, and a number of innocent bystanders as well. A new teacher, Remus Lupin, befriends Harry and teaches him the Patronus charm, which will protect him against the dread of the dementors. Harry's patronus, his personal protector, is a stag, like his father's. Harry, Ron, and Hermione discover the escaped convict Sirius Black in the haunted Shrieking Shack; Black is an animagus who has been concealing himself as a dog. But Sirius Black is innocent; Peter Pettigrew was the betrayer, living among them in the form of a rat, and he is still alive. They discover that Lupin is a werewolf, and he transforms into a monster at full moon, threatening to attack Harry and his friends. Pettigrew escapes, and Black is captured. Black is awaiting the terrifying punishment of the dementors: they will perform a "kiss" that will suck his soul out of his body. But Dumbledore tells Hermione to use her "time turner" to travel back in time with Harry, and they are able to help Sirius Black escape.

Harry's hallucinations are increasingly dominated by his uneasy relationship with his father. His ambivalent feelings towards his father are reflected in his splitting of the father figure into four distinct personas: The ideal dead father James, the ambiguous werewolf Lupin (both mentor and monster in one), the innocently accused criminal Sirius, and Peter, the betrayer. Together, they form a deeply ambivalent figure: the father as traitor and protector, criminal and guiltless, victim and murderer in one…

This four-fold father figure is capable of fantastic transformations: All the four Marauders (as he calls them) can change their forms at will, from animal to man, and from man to animal. Lupin's terrifying transformation from mild-mannered mentor into murderous monster is perhaps the most striking of all. Remus Lupin… Named, no doubt after Remus, the mythical founder of Rome, who was killed by his own brother Romulus, just as Remus Lupin is overcome by his own shadow side…

Do you have a shadow side, too, James? You, the father, the protector – what sinister transformations are you capable of?

But James' patronus is a stag… An ancient Christ symbol, and surely not a symbol of evil. The patronus – a lovely representation of the psyche's ability to draw strength from its happiest moments and fend off dark thoughts.

But one cannot help but notice, of course, that the patronus has erotic undertones as well, especially paired with the obvious phallic symbolism of the wand: Something silver erupted from his wand… Not an uncommon experience in adolescent boys who are contemplating their "happiest memories"… Ahem. But in this case, Harry's patronus assumes the same form as his father's, which is both odd and a little disturbing…Some underlying oedipal rivalry here, no doubt… His father, his protector, his rival…

I am fascinated by the time-turner, the device that helps Harry re-live and amend the past. Significantly, I am the one who suggests to Hermione, his lucid intellect, that she travel back in time. Yes, that is what we are doing, Harry, we are traveling back in time through our sessions together, to discover what wrongs were committed in the past that need to be set right…

The dementors represent, of course, the depression that overwhelms Harry from time to time. His depression forces him to relive his darkest moments, and it is only by drawing on his happiest memories that he is able to dispel them – a most convincing symbolic representation of depression, if I may say so. The dementors are yet another example of how his inner feelings are reified in his hallucinations, represented as distinct characters.

It is sometimes difficult for me to determine when the characters in Harry's delusions are mere symbolic manifestations of his thoughts and fears and when they represent actual persons from his life. I decided that James P. would be the man to turn to for some answers.

As he has been the one to bring Harry to his appointments with me this week (Lily seems to be avoiding me, I have noticed), it was easy enough to schedule a visit with the enigmatic James. The helpful Miss McGonagall was, as always, willing to engage Harry in conversation about Quidditch in the meantime. Very willing. I was somewhat amused to find some sketches on her desk last week depicting a sportsman on a broomstick apparently plunging to his untimely death, with the caption: "A Better Strategy: The Wronski Feint". Who this unfortunate Wronski is, or why he is hell-bent on his own destruction, is a complete mystery to me. But it all made sense to Harry, apparently, for when Miss McGonagall shared her sketch with him, he declared her to be brilliant. I hope she is just playing along for Harry's sake, but there was a glint of mania in her eyes I definitely need to observe closely in the future…

"So, what can I do for you, doctor?" James asked as soon as my office door closed behind us. He sat down in one of the chairs, but comfortably, not on the edge like Lily. "Is there anything at all I can do to help? You are our last hope; we have seen countless doctors, and Harry just seems to be getting worse, more hopelessly lost in his own delusions."

He ran his hair through his messy dark hair. "For God's sake - you have to help my son, doctor!"

The concerned father. Very touching. But I'm an old man, and I have seen more than most. The darkest secrets can hide behind the most innocent of faces…

"I was wondering if you could tell me more about Mr. Black," I said.

James sat very still for a moment. Then he sighed and messed his hair up again.

"Black. Yes, I thought he might enter into this somehow."

I leaned forward. "So there is a real Sirius Black, then?"

"Sirius-?" James sounded puzzled. "No. Never heard that name, but Reggie Black…"

Reggie? All right, let's hear about Reggie.

He sighed deeply. "Reggie Black was one of my best friends. He is Harry's godfather, actually…"

Is he, now?

"We knew each other from school, Reggie and I. We were quite inseparable, actually. We got into quite a bit of trouble together…" A faraway smile lit up James' handsome, serious face for a minute.

He continued, dreamily: "And then, later, one would have thought that we would have gone our separate ways, since our lifestyles were so different. But we remained the best of friends, even after he became a minor rock star and I became a mundane attorney…"

A minor rock star? Ah, Sirius! The star Sirius. There we go…

"He used to come over quite a bit. I was quite flattered that he still preferred my company now that he was something of a celebrity. He used to come over almost every evening for dinner. He played with Harry, who adored him. He was… he was like a second father to Harry…"

Like a second father…

James went on: 'Harry loved and admired Reggie with all his heart. Reggie was, well, exciting, in a way I could never be… Reggie was so terribly handsome, with his wild dark curls and his ready smile…"

James smiled a little.

"And of course, he was a rock star, and there were all these girls who were swooning over him…" James' voice grew harsher. "I thought it was a little odd, you know, that Reggie never seemed at all interested in any of them. He seemed to prefer coming over to spend quiet evenings with us instead, with his old school friend and his family…"

He paused for a moment. Then he said, very quietly. "I was a complete fool, Dr. Dumbledore. I never suspected a thing. I thought, all along, that Reggie came over because of me, and for Harry's sake, of course. And then…"

He swallowed.

"And then one evening, I caught him kissing Lily…."

Ah, the lovely Lily… Why am I not surprised?

"Of course it wasn't her fault. Not her fault at all. He… he simply accosted her one evening while I had to return to work, and if I hadn't happened to walk in at that precise moment, who knows what he would have done to her…"

Yes. Who knows-?

"I kicked him out of the house, of course. Told him that he was never to set foot in my home again. He.. he was a traitor, a Judas… All this time, I thought he was my friend… "

Ah, the Judas kiss. The dementor's kiss…

James' voice trembled. "It was hard on Harry, of course. Desperately hard on Harry. He adored Reggie, thought the world of him… and we could never explain to him why Reggie had suddenly disappeared from our lives. I'm afraid that I… I told Harry that Reggie had run into some trouble with the law and had to go into hiding for a while. He seemed to believe me; it wouldn't have been the first time, you know… Reggie already had some minor drug charges on his record… Although God knows what Harry overheard in the aftermath of this incident…"

He looked at me, helplessly. "Do you really think that this could have caused Harry's illness, Doctor? The sudden loss of his godfather?"

I shook my head, slowly. "Oh, no, I think there would have had to be more than that…"

"Really?" James looked relieved. "I felt so bad for Harry, but what could I do, Doctor? I could not allow Reggie back into my house after… after what he did. He could have had any woman he wanted, anyone at all. But not Lily. Lily is mine, Dr. Dumbledore…"

Lily is mine. There was something about the way he said those simple words that made me think, suddenly, that James is a very dangerous man indeed…

Most interesting…

"Just one more question, Mr. P."

"Yes?"

"Do you happen to recall how exactly Harry got his scar?"

James was prepared for the question. He answered readily. "His scar? Yes, of course, he fell down when he was a baby. Lily and I both felt horrible about not being able to catch him in time. He hit his head on the corner of the sofa table as he fell. Poor little baby…"

James' voice was full of tenderness, of caring.

A good man, a loving father.

Curious, though, what he said about Harry hitting his head on the sofa table as a baby. I could have sworn Lily said it was the fireplace…