Chapter 4:

James sat on the kitchen counter, his legs swinging idly beneath him as he sipped his banana and orange smoothie. Today was, in his internal calendar, his birthday but technically it was the middle of January.

James was 11.

His dad had stuck him in the kitchen with a large grin, shut the door with a loud click before running off shouting something about a surprise? James wasn't too sure. Taking another sip of his smoothie James slipped off the counter and walked over to the toaster, grabbing a slice of bread and the butter he made himself a snack, not because he was hungry though, no, because he was bored and food was occupying- with the amount of food he and his dad ate it was a miracle they weren't fat!

'Can I come out now?' James called through the door as he started to nibble on his toast.

'One second- aaaaand- YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!' his dad's excited voice rang out through the TARDIS. With a beaming smile, James finished his toast and jogged out the kitchen and to the main control room where his dad was; the Doctor stood in the middle of the room with two large bunches of multicoloured wire in his hands as he proudly stared at the door, 'open it,' he nudged James towards the door with a small smile.

Anxious yet excitedly, James stepped towards the door before pulling it slowly open, behind it was a sight he'd never thought he'd see:

The Untempered Schism.

The noise! All the noise buzzing around his head; screaming knowledge and power at him. Drums pounded inside his head. James became completely aware of himself, his two hearts, his regenerations, his being; and yet t the same time: time, it's flow, it's ongoing struggle. War; love; aliens; monsters. The pain was almost unbearable, like someone was stabbing hundreds of knives and needles into his skin at the same time; the pain grew and grew until he couldn't bear it any longer.

'MY HEAD!' James screamed from the door as he fell to his knees; his eyes still locked on the Schism. The Doctor stared at his son in worry, and yet at the same time, acceptance: his son had to do this, his son had to go through what every other Time Lord had to.

He Was Not Alone.

'You can do it, come on Jamie, come on son,' the Doctor almost silently urged from where he stood, 'Come on, you can do this-'

With one last scream of anguish, James fell to the floor before standing up and swivelling around to face his dad.

'Dad?' his voice was low though it held a certain richness to it, a pleasant feel, 'Dad? What's happened to my voice?' James grabbed his throat with his hands and massaged it, as if that would revert it to normal.

'What's happened to you would be a better question, answer: You've gone through Time Lord puberty,' the Doctor grinned whilst lounging on one of the sofas near the control panel.

'Puberty? But I'm- I'm- how old am I?' James asked, his eyebrows knitted in concentration.

'Well, by the looks of things: at least 16, maybe 17,' the Doctor shrugged non-committedly.

'WHAT?!'

'Well, when we Time Lords look into the Schism, we unlock our Time Lord-liness that makes us adults otherwise we'd all be 10 still. It happens in a big moment so as not to drive you mad from wanting to know more and also, So you looked into it and you know that massive pain and screaming fit you had?' James nodded slowly, 'You aged at least 5 years during that,'

'But why did I just change, why not just grow older gradually?' James asked confused.

'You were eleven-ish physically when I found you, right? And have you aged at all since then? No, so logically, you weren't not ageing. Why? Because you weren't a Time Lord. It's all to do with our survival: we can't have little Time Lords running about the place, who knows what would happen; they're so small they could be trodden on by a dinosaur! And we also can't have kids staying kids for too long, they get bored and start developing weaponry, take the master for example. He was a nice kid, but something got mucked up when he looked into the Schism and BOOM! we have a nutter.' the Doctor effervesced, he had a certain knack for accompanying things with wild hand gestures, now being a great example: he had made a massive explosion movement with his hands followed by a thumbs up- it made no sense to James, his dad's worst enemy to him was a thumbs up. How did that even work?!

'Riiiiight-' James rolled his eyes before finding a mirror to see what he looked like, 'I'm damn sexy!' he cried before turning back to his dad.

'Okay, whatever floats your boat-' the Doctor gave James a strange look before trying to fix a perricombobulator which had broken earlier that day.

'Seriously though- I'm actually quite good looking: messy brown hair, tanned skin, green eyes and I'm tall! I'm tall! Dad, I'm tall! I thought I was going to be a midget for the rest of my life! Aha!' James cried happily before running off to his room to work out what else was happening apart from his face.

'Don't forget your- oh screw it, he's not gonna pay attention anyway,' the Doctor grumbled before promptly picking up a screwdriver and poking and prodding a black and silver box with a couple of purple wires sticking out.

The Doctor let out a yawn as he flopped onto his bean bag next to the pool, he had just come back from visiting a lone planet called 'Refizah-kanish' and was absolutely exhausted, James had been a massive help as usual and had got him out of many a situation.

James was- a character.

He was funny, amusing and held intelligent conversation but the Doctor couldn't help but feel that he should be doing something more, something more parent-y. It was all very well advising him to 'not fall off the cliff' and 'hold my hand when crossing the moon-passage' but he couldn't help but feel rather inadequate, not that he'd ever admit that.

For example, last week, James had come into the control room and asked what would he do if he got a girlfriend; firstly, he wasn't sure how to respond as it wasn't like his relationships with people lasted more than 3 years unless they died and secondly, how was he supposed to answer that?! 'I would chase her with a pitchfork?'

He had ended up stuttering out a response about 'it would be a new stage in our family and he would make sure that he was nice and friendly and not too weird' when actually he wanted to run and hide in a corner at the possibility.

And then there was the time when James ran in when he first found him saying that he had grazed his knee.

'Daddy, I fell off the swing and I cut my knee- and- and I couldn't f-f-f-fix it,' James burst in, a lone tear running down his tanned cheeks.

'Ah, Jamie, you don't need to fix it! Let me see,' he crooned as he pulled out a small plaster from his pocket inventory. James pulled up his trouser to reveal a large gash running all the way from his lower thigh to mid calf.

'Ah.' the Doctor bit his lip before jogging to get Her healing salves.

'Daddy, am I gonna die?'

'No, what? No! Of course not! Where did that come from? You lived in the woods by yourself for two years, you're fine!' he said as he applied as creamy white paste to the cut, as it touched the skin it fizzled slightly and the skin meshed back together. Thank You! he silently said to Her.

'Is it okay?'

'Yeah it's fine, why don't we- watch a film or play a game?'

'Dad?'

'Yes?' the Doctor raised an eyebrow, he knew that tone, it was always followed shortly after by puppy eyes.

'Can we play TARDIS: adventures in space?' the Doctor laughed and scooped up James onto his back, he'd invented the game one rainy day to amuse James and himself. It was basically piggyback but you had to find thing around the TARDIS in different rooms and you couldn't go until you found it. Normally, it lasted about half an hour, but one day, it went on from lunch til 4am.

'First on the list: Lost, Season 3!'

The Doctor smiled a small smile, his James was growing up, fast. Next thing he'd know and he'd be off with some girl around the universe.

'Dad, are we supposed to get letters in space?' James said as he walked into the kitchen, a yellowed envelope in his hand- one with a crest pressed into red wax and green lettering on the front. He massaged his newly stubbly chin as he threw it down on the table- he quite liked his stubble, as soon as he realised he could grow a beard he did, after a bit of growth it got annoying so he stuck to stubble (which if anything, was better looking).

'No,' the Doctor's head shot up and he glared at the letter, 'No we shouldn't and that- that is not normal!'. The Doctor grabbed his sonic screwdriver and prodded the letter as if to see if it was explosive; sadly for James, it wasn't and if anything it was rather dull, all the screwdriver did was let out a bunch of barely audible whirs saying it was human in origin.

'Since when has normal been good? Shall I use my 'special powers' to work out what it is?' James joked as he poured himself an Orange Juice. Ever since he was six he had had the ability to do things with his mind, things that no one else could- he could move things, change things, create things; he could control people, see what they were thinking, their memories- when his dad found out about the last one he freaked and said that 'on no account are you to do that to me or anyone who travels with us unless you ask me first, EVER!'. It wasn't that he meant to do it really, I mean, yes he could now control it whenever he wanted to and he could basically bend anything to his will, animate or not, but when he was six, it was more a matter of 'what are they thinking?'.

'Yes, but be careful, no dying,' the Doctor warned him but it held no real bite.

'Of course, as you know, I'm always dying aren't I?' James laughed quietly, it was a running joke in the family that James had a knack of dying- where it had come from, who knew, it was only three times and he was 11- er- 16. Actually, thinking about it, he could see where it came from.

'Yeah yeah, whatever, just get on with it!'

James threw his mind and 'power' into the object, trying to work out what it was, how it got there, who it was-

'Hogwarts, Scotland, Earth; letter to Mr. James Potter. But that makes no sense, I'm not a 'Potter' I'm your son!' James cocked his head slightly and looked at his dad who had lost all colour and had started to sink lower and lower into his chair, 'Dad?'

'Son, I haven't been entirely honest with you and-' he rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the floor, 'Well, your mother and I, we loved each other a lot but- one day when I came home, I found out she was married to someone else, not just me-'

'SHE IS NO MOTHER OF MINE! How could she do that? How could she leave her husband for some- some-' James was cut off mid-rant by his dad who laid a calming hand on his shoulder.

'Jamie, when I found her she was dead,' the Doctor whispered sadly to James who was on he verge of tears.

'Are you definitely my dad? Or am I this bloke's son?'

'You are my son, you're a Time Lord, are you not? After all humanity-'

'Is recessive, I know dad,' James rolled his eyes as the phrase that had been drilled into his head ever since meeting his dad.

'So, there is no chance you are his son, the Potter part, where did that one come from?'

'His last name, they got married, renamed me 'cause she wanted to make him think I was his son!' James' faced lit up but was then thrown into an even deeper look of concentration, 'Wait a sec, if she had long enough to trick him into thinking that, how long were you gone?'

'It was war! I wasn't able to find her! She just disappeared one day and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find neither hide nor tail of her!'

'That's an emotional response, what's the figure?'

'2 years.'

'NO WONDER SHE REMARRIED! YOU LEFT HER!' James shouted, shoving the chair back, 'YOU LEFT MY MUM!'

'She went MISSING! I couldn't find her!'

'You did the same to me! Why did you stop looking?!'

'I didn't know you were alive!'

'Well that's okay then, isn't it? "I thought you were dead so I gave up" sounds stupid now, doesn't it?'

'You're 16, what would you know?' the Doctor snapped at his son, his hands clenched into fists.

'That I lived in an orphanage for most of my childhood, in an orphanage being abused by the rest because I was different whilst you galavanted across the universe!'

'That is completely different! She just disappeared and never came back!'

'Well, I'll find her then!' James grabbed his screwdriver and jacket and stormed out the kitchen with a final shout of, 'I'm jumping and there's nothing you can do about it!'

The Doctor sighed; he'd majorly screwed up on that one and all because of one letter. With a weary sigh, he picked up the letter and opened it:

'31st July, 1970,

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are please to inform you that you have qualified for a place at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry...'

James woke up to see a bunch of guys looking down at him as he lay on what felt like nails. One of them poked the one next to him with long black hair and whispered something.

'Hello?' James peered up at them as he tried to see through the sun's glare.

'Ah, our mystery friend has woken up! My name is Sirius Black, his name his Peter Pettigrew and this fine looking gentlemen is-' said the black haired one, he didn't look older than 12; he had happy but tired grey eyes, his mouth formed a heart shape and his clothes were in pristine condition. Peter Petti- Petti-loo? was a rather rat like boy with large ears and a pointed nose, his eyes were watery and he smelt, well he could do with a bath to put it lightly.

'I'm Remus Lupin, and you are?' said the boy who had prodded Sirius, he had short mousy brown hair with blonde highlights, not unlike James himself, his face, however, was more tired and he was sporting a rather sore looking cut along the nape of his neck.

'James Potter,' James smirked before getting up and shaking their hands.

'James, I think you are what we've been looking for!'

A/N: WOW! An argument, time travel and the Marauders? That was unexpected! The more reviews, the happier I am, 10 reviews and I'll update!ALSO I AM LOOKING FOR A BETA, REVIEW ME IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

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