As they appeared on the dark and quiet playground, Remus and Sirius follow an enraged James towards Privet Drive. Sirius was the first one to notice the icy, clammy tension in the air. Whirling around with wand in hand, he realized with mounting horror that there was not only two Dementors in the park with them, but that there was also a very small teenager. The teen was trying to cast a patronus, but the silver mist was feeble and seemed to flicker out almost instantly.
Pulling Remus, who has also paused along with him, and crying out to James, he raced towards the teen as the dementor nearest him closed in on him and lowered his hood, preparing for the dreaded Kiss. The three men all cast the patronus at the same time and watched with bated breath, all praying that they had been in time to save the teen. The silver stag, dog, and wolf all charged the two dementors, who glided away from the boy and out of the park.
"James, we have to get that kid to St. Mungo's. I know you want to get to Harry, but this can't wait. I promise we can come back as soon as we are sure that the kid is ok," Remus said.
James didn't answer, but he headed over to the teen with his two friends in tow. Sirius gasped and James looked at him questioningly.
"James-that's Harry!"
James's heart lurched as he raced over to his son. Harry looked much too small in his large baggy clothes, and there was a nasty black eye blossoming on the left side. His glasses where missing, but after a quick look around James found them along with his wand and his trunk.
"What happened to him Padfoot? Why is he so tiny? And what is he doing out here in the middle of the night with all of his school stuff?"
"I don't really know James," Sirius whispered, "but I do know that we need to get him out of here, and quickly. Moony, is it safe to apperate with him?"
"I don't think we have a choice, Padfoot. He needs care as soon as possible, and there isn't a floo nearby that isn't somehow connected to Dumbledore and with everything that's happened it's probably best that we stay under the radar, for now at least." Remus seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before speaking up again, "we probably should also avoid St. Mungo's and Grimmauld Place for the same reasons, although this may be more than we can handle alone. Let's get him back to my place and then we can figure out our options."
With a look of grim determination on his face, James scooped up the unconscious Harry bridal-style and apperated away. With a wary look at Sirius, Remus grabbed Harry's trunk and they both disappeared into the night.
After several hours of grueling and panicked healing spells and potions, Harry was finally stabilized and had been moved to the guest bedroom on the first floor. Remus was passed out at the kitchen table, exhausted due to the large amount of magic he used to heal Harry and the impending full moon. James and Sirius also sat at the table, sitting across from each other with barely-touched cups of tea, discussing the day fiercely in hushed tones.
Sirius was nearly growling in his frustration at James. "I don't know what you want me to say, I know about as much as you do in this situation!"
"Why? Why don't you know more? You're supposed to be his godfather! You should have been there for him instead of running off on that suicide mission chasing Peter!"
"Don't! Don't you throw that in my face! I had to pay for my mistake everyday for twelve years in the presence of those damned Dementors, hell, I'm still paying for my mistakes now! I can't even stay fully sober without feeling their effects on me! I know I should have been there for Harry, trust me I know. I've regretted not being there for him every single day since that night, and doubly so now that I am around. If you had a clue about the things be and his friends have gotten up to in the last four years you'd be astonished. The sad thing is I'm sure I don't even know the half of it."
"What he's gotten up to? What in Merlin's name are you talking about Padfoot?"
"James, I need you to promise to remain calm about this, ok? Harry doesn't need you to freak out on him; he needs your support."
"You're making him sound like a delinquent, Sirius, what in the world did he do to make you talk like that? Surely he can't have been as bad as us, hmm?"
"A delinquent? Ha! That I could handle. I'm afraid I'm way out of my depth with this though. Just promise me, Prongs."
"Alright, alright, I promise."
"Oh, and you have to let me finish everything I have to say before you respond ok? I need to get all of this out."
"Alright, sheesh Padfoot, get on with it!"
"Well, as far as I know, Harry has met Voldemort three times since he began Hogwarts- no interruptions!- the most recent encounter being this past year. I know that he faced him the first time as a first year, although I'm very fuzzy on the details. Something about protecting the Philosopher's stone and Voldemort possessing a teacher. In his second year he faced him again, this tine to rescue Ginny Weasley, although it was apparently some sort of memory that had been trapped in a diary. In his third year he didn't face Voldemort, but that is the year I escaped, and the whole truth about the secret-keepers was revealed to Harry and Remus. Can you believe that rat was posing as a pet in the Weasley household all that time?! Anyway, those were his first three years. Any questions so far?"
"Only about a thousand! But none that you probably know the answer to from the sound of it. I have a feeling Harry and I will be having a very long conversation about his life-preservation instincts, or lack thereof."
"Good luck, I know Hermione has tried drilling the danger of his 'saving people thing' for years."
"Hermione?"
"Oh! Right! She's one of Harry's best friends, along with Ron Weasley. There are his partners-in-crime, so to speak."
James paused, needing to process all of this new information. After a moment, he slowly turned his attention back to Sirius, "so that's twice, but you failed to tell me a third time, or anything about his fourth year for that matter."
Sirius cringed and seemed to steel himself. "Prongs, this next bit isn't going to be easy for you to hear. Harry's year was horrific, and I don't want you to feel guilty about it, because there is nothing you could have done, even if you had been here, got it?
James blanched, but nodded, needing to know the truth.
"This is the year I know the most about, since this is the year I've been in contact with him. The Triwizard Tournament was brought back to Hogwarts."
"What? Why?"
"I don't actually know the reasoning, but it was. And James, somebody entered Harry into the tournament. He had to compete as the fourth champion"
"How did I know things weren't going to go right for him for once?"
"Because they rarely seem to? Trust me, I was so angry when I found out. He did do remarkably well though. He had to face this huge Hungarian Horntail-"
"WHAT?!"
"-but he just summoned his broom and got past him. He just had to get an egg from underneath the dragon-"
"He had to face a nesting Hungarian Horntail?!"
"Unfortunately, although he did a marvelous job, he was barely scathed. And the second task was getting Ron out of the lake from the merpeople."
"...merpeople? As in, the merpeople who live at the bottom of the lake?!"
"Er- yes, those merpeople. And James, he just runs in there and eats gillyweed and gets there in no time! Mind you, he was the last one back because he's too noble for his own good, and he had to make sure all of the other hostages were safe too. He still ended up tied with the other Hogwarts champion by the end of this task though, because the judges decided that he showed strong moral fiber and all that."
"Of course he did." James sighed, still trying to process how much of a trouble-magnet his son seemed to be. And amazing when he stopped to consider it. Many grown wizards hadn't faced half of what he had, and it sounded like he faced everything head on and bravely. James felt pride well up in his chest for Harry, before it slowly deflated when he realized Sirius had still avoided telling him about Harry's latest encounter with Voldemort. The longer Sirius was taking to tell him about it the more apprehensive he felt about it. Never one to beat around the bush, James decided it was time to steer the conversation in that direction again. "What happened Sirius? How did he face Voldemort again?"
"I'm getting there James, this is all important. The third task was this ginormous maze that covered the Quidditch pitch. He and Cedric, the other champion entered the maze at the same time, because of their tie. It was actually really hard to see what was going on in the maze. I was hidden in my dog form near Hagrid's, so I could hear the commentary, but apparently even front the stands there wasn't much to see. From what I can gather, Cedric and Harry reached the cup at the same time, and decided to grab the cup, sharing a Hogwarts victory. But the cup didn't send up sparks like it was supposed to. It was a portkey." Sirius stopped to let this sink in with James, who was looking rather like he was the one who needed a firewiskey. After a moment he seemed to collect his thoughts and nodded for Sirius to continue. "Both the boys were transported to a graveyard far from Hogwarts. Peter was there; he had Voldemort, who ordered him to kill Cedric." James inhaled sharply at this, and blanched even further, but he just nodded Sirius on. "After that they did some sort of ritual to give him a body again, although I'm not really sure how that worked. I know it had something to do with Harry, but that's all I could gather from what Harry was able to explain. He called all of his Death Eaters to him, and he and Harry dueled, an somehow Harry managed to escape. There was more, but I think he should be the one to tell you the rest when he's ready."
As the seconds grew into minutes that James still hasn't moved to respond to Sirius's explanation, Sirius became more an more concerned. What if he had said too much, too soon? The man had just learned his son was even alive mere hours ago, why if he couldn't handle the extra shock? Sirius was on the verge of waving hi hand in front of James's face for a response or waking up Remus when James suddenly jumped to his feet, almost causing Sirius to jump out of his seat. He headed straight to the liquor cabinet and took two shots of firewiskey in quick succession before Sirius caught onto what was going on and tried prying the bottle out of his hands.
"No, James! Harry needs you! He needs a sober you! You can't lose yourself right now, we have to take care of Harry!" After a few minutes struggle, James finally relented his grip on the bottle and slumped to the floor.
Sirius calmly placed the bottle in the cupboard and the sat cross-legged on the floor in front of James. "Deep breaths, Jamie. If you need to transform into Prongs, it helps. Trust me, no one would judge you."
James nodded, but before he woke up there was a resounding crash from upstairs.
It seemed their youngest house guest was awake at last.
A/N I know, I know; I have no excuse for how long that took for me to update. But in my defense, I've had three papers due, gotten the flu, and had midterms, all in the past few weeks. So maybe you could not crucify me for taking so long to update this? Yes? Maybe?
Anyway, I'm not super thrilled with this chapter. It's an awfully lot of dialogue, but I really needed to get all of this all out of the way. But don't worry, there is a Harry/James reunion in y'all's futures. ;)