Sudorific: causing sweat.

May 7, 2025

There was a baby screaming somewhere. James groaned and pulled the pillow over his ringing head. Couldn't somebody shove a bottle in the kid's mouth or cast a silencing charm on him or call bloody child services already? His whole body throbbed and he couldn't for the life of him recall why at the moment. There was pounding coming from somewhere and it took James a moment to realize it wasn't inside his own skull.

"Teddy, door!" He recognized Victoire's harried voice and felt stupid for not figuring he was in their flat. Who else did he know with a baby?

James groaned again and blearily opened his eyes, hissing when light creeping around the windows stabbed like daggers into his retinas. He sat up and gagged a little at the stench rolling off his clothes. Although alcohol, cigars, and the wharf were excellent things of an evening, they did not keep well in your clothes overnight, and there was something else mixed in there he'd rather not identify. He took a breath through his mouth and looked around.

He was in John's nursery, tangled in a heap of sheets on the floor. Stars winked down at him from the ceiling, the alphabet swam around him on the soft, blue wallpaper, and a herd of stuffed animals watched him from the dresser with wide, innocent eyes. He squinted in confusion.

"Teddy!" Victoire yelled as the pounding on the door came again, louder, more urgent. John shrieked with renewed fervor.

"I'm coming," he heard Teddy's voice grumble, then the sound of the front door opening.

"Where is he?"

James's insides seemed to freeze solid. That was his father's voice, panicked now, but it wouldn't be for long. Memory of the night before came crashing down on him in a confused jumble, too light, too dark, like a horror strip he couldn't look away from. He broke out into a cold sweat. Merlin, his father was going to kill him.

"He's fine," Teddy was saying reassuringly. "I picked him up at around three this morning. He'd just had a bit too much to drink and he was smart enough not to try to apparate like that. We looked after him and put him in the baby's room to sleep it off. I just checked on him and I expect he'll be dead to the world for quite a bit longer, but he's fine."

James closed his eyes, sending a silent praryer of thanks that he had Teddy as a godbrother.

"And the vandalism at Singer's Port?" Harry asked, proving he'd earned the gold title on his door at the Auror office. James's stomach sank right through the floor. Valiant run, Ted, but best get off this ship before it goes down flaming.

"Oh, that? Heard about it, did you? I was coming back from that when I got James's patronus. A couple of drunken idiots. Disappeared when they saw me, but the bar made reckons one of them was her ex. I'll look into it first thing Monday morning."

"Are you sure one of those drunken idiots wasn't my son?" Harry was right outside the door now. James could practically feel his disbelief and ire seeping through the seam. The doorknob turned and James hit the pillow, drawing the blankets right up over his head as if they were his brother's invisibility cloak.

"Of course I'm sure," Teddy said hastily, and the doorknob stopped turning. "What grudge has James got with Singer's Port? And anyway, if I'd found him at a crime scene, I'd be so pissed off, I'd drag him to your doorstep by the ear."

The door cracked open enough for a strip of light to fall across the rug. James lay very still, a cowering rabbit playing dead to win a few more minutes of peace.

"Don't tell me you never got a little more pissed than you meant to when you were twenty," Teddy said softly.

The door shut and James let out his breath in a whoosh.

"S'pose I should go let Fred know everything's okay," Harry said in a gentler voice. "He was in a right state when James wasn't back at the flat this morning. I'll be back for him after that, awake or not. He deserves a rude awakening for not at least sending a message."

There were footsteps, some more mumbled words, then the door. James focused on breathing very slowly. He could not believe he'd come that close to the chopping block and gotten away without a scratch. This was probably going to cost him six months of babysitting, but he'd take it over whatever would've happened to him if Teddy hadn't been on call last night.

The door to the nursery flew open and James jerked upright, groaning as his head swam. Teddy gave an unsympathetic chuckle. He let the door slam behind him with a noise that echoed painfully off James's eardrums. James curled into a ball and pulled the sheets back over his head. Teddy gave him a shove with his foot.

"Come on, get up. I want to talk to you."

Very reluctantly, James dragged himself into a sitting position and leaned against John's cot. He looked up at Teddy with baleful eyes. Teddy crossed his arms and stared back, an unimpressed look on his face.

"I owe you," James told him meekly.

"Damn right, you owe me," Teddy growled. "James, I bent the law so far for you, it might actually have broken. If either of those blokes get hauled in and name you, I could get in serious trouble. I could lose my job!"

James hung his head. "'m sorry."

"Goddamnit, James!" Teddy slammed his hand down on the dresser, making James wince. "That was stupid. That was the stupidest thing you've ever done, and that's saying something!"

James flinched. That last one was a low blow, but Teddy wasn't done.

"Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?" he demanded, stepping forward and stooping to a knee so that he was right in James's face. "Getting sodding drunk and going off with a couple of strangers – for Merlin's sake, they could have killed you for all you knew! You're Harry Potter's son. What the hell were you thinking?"

His hand came up to grip James's collar, force him to meet his gaze. The pub, the two young men he'd met riling themselves up for a fight, the wharf, it all was blurring together in a haze that left a bitter, sick taste in his mouth. He pushed Teddy's hands away.

Teddy stood and began pacing the small room from window to door.

"That's not to mention the legal trouble you could have been in. Some lucky star must have been shining down on you last night for what reason I really can't see. You could've ended up in Azkaban for twenty-one days awaiting a hearing. How's your dad supposed to come into work and lead an investigation when he can't even keep his own son in line? I just – ughgh, what if you'd wandered off the docks in a drunken stupor and drowned? What if some Muggle lowlife had come at you with a knife? Anything could have happened to you, Jamie!"

It was the use of that nickname that brought home exactly what he'd done. James could get over people being disappointed in him. He could get over being in hot water for pushing the envelope just a little too far. And now he understood why Teddy hadn't thrown him straight to his dad. James had scared him, badly, and he was sparing Harry and Ginny from that. And causing that kind of fear James wasn't sure he could get over so easily.

A/N: This is connected to something slightly bigger than James just being a wild child. He has his reasons. No one ever said they were good reasons, he's got them. Long to make up for my recent short ones. Hope you enjoyed and thank you for all your suggestions! I always like to hear what you like to read. Love you all!