Meeting his mum was a nice distraction but now that everything has calmed down, Harry is too busy watching the newspapers and incoming mail like a hawk, waiting for Voldemort to come and kill him and his parents now that Tom is out so he notices a bit too late.

Harry isn't sure if they had an argument or not but James doesn't even look at Remus or Sirius anymore and he's hanging out with Lily and her friends instead when Harry is with the other two.

Harry asks Remus and Sirius what happened and neither can quite look him in the eye.

"I think James just needs some time," Remus offers.

"Did you guys fight?" Harry asks. "What was it about…if you don't mind me asking."

Sirius shrugs vaguely. "Just…got too rough."

Harry can clearly tell they don't want to talk about it. "Oh, okay. If you need me to mediate, I'm up for it."

"We'll probably wait until James calms down first, before we try to talk," Remus muses.

Harry pauses. "Just, you know, it's better to make up than stay angry and let it drag out. There's…less time that you think."

Sirius lets out a breath like Harry sucker punched him in the face and Remus winces.

"I mean-" Sirius begins. "Yeah, yeah. You're right."

Two very long weeks go by where James sleeps in Harry's bed instead and he doesn't sit next to Remus or Sirius in class, and pretends they don't exists in favour of hanging out with Lily and her friends rather pointedly.

Remus and Sirius keep popping around anyway, leaving snacks and such out for James, passing him notes from class, giving him sad puppy dog eyes in the halls.

Harry bounces between the two groups awkwardly but spends more time with James because if Harry doesn't, James runs off to go spend time with Lily and his smiles gets more and more fake.

No one will tell Harry what happened but this is getting to be a bit much. James will even tell Harry, to tell Sirius, orders during quidditch practice. After James actually misses the night of a full with Moony, and it was in the chamber of secrets that James had been so excited about before, Harry decides he needs to step in.

"James," Harry says, catching the other Potter just before lunch. "Can we talk?"

"Sure," James says with a smile and turns to Lily with a grin. "Sorry, Potter stuff."

"I'll save you a seat," Lily says, eyes darting towards Harry, and their hands slip out from one another as she continues down the hallway with her two friends.

Harry leads James into the nearest empty classroom and sets up a silencing spell before turning on the other. "What happened between you guys? If you tell me, maybe I'll know how to fix it?"

"You can't really fix being an asshole," James says mildly. "I don't know, I think I've grown out of them. Ready to move on, you know?"

Harry pauses. "Was it…something I did?"

"What? No, of course not."

Harry grimaces. "Because, I mean you're still friends in my time so it must have been me, right?"

"No, no," James says quickly, putting his hands on Harry's shoulders to reassure him. "No, they just…were being mean. They ganged up on me and said mean things, then chased me around – and…what's up with that face, Harry?"

"I'm having a hard time imagining it," Harry admits. "What did they say?"

"Just…" James pulls away to vaguely flail his hands. "Mean things, about my love for Lily."

"That you're doing it out of obligation?" Harry clarifies.

James pauses. "You – do you think that too?"

"Well, every time you talk about her with me, you always mention us being a family and such." Harry shrugs. "It just sounds like you're doing it for me – which I really appreciate but it's your life and I want you to do everything at your pace. It kind of seems like you're rushing."

James says nothing for a long moment. "I don't think I like Lily, not more than I love you. You're just always more important than her, and she's already noticed that I drop everything to hang out with you when you're free so…it might be unfair to her."

"It's all about balance. If you want to make it work, we can try to even it up a bit," Harry offers.

"I don't know," James admits. "Her friends are kind of boring. And Lily doesn't like the things I do so conversations kind of die off unless I…fake it." He grimaces. "It was funny at first but it's starting to be really not good for my mental health."

"You're sixteen, it'd okay if you're not ready to marry someone you've been dating for a month now," Harry tries to joke. "If it works then it works. If it doesn't, I don't mind."

"Never get a girlfriend, Harry," James demands. "Live with me for the rest of your life. Adopt kids so I can have grandbabies."

Harry laughs. "Okay, whatever you want."

James smiles before the expression drops. "I still don't like Remus and Sirius."

"Have they apologised?"

James rolls his eyes. "Nothing that wasn't empty words. They still think they're in the right, and I just need to 'calm down' like they didn't fucking pin me down and talk shit about my bad personality." James tenses. "Not-not that I was fighting back with my full strength, you know, your dad is super strong, I would have hurt them."

"You're very strong," Harry agrees immediately and then frowns. "And I love everything about your personality. Don't worry, I'll make them apologise."

James looks away with a pout. "No, don't bother. They…were maybe right. About one or two things."

"They were still mean to you," Harry argues. "Doesn't matter what they said, it's about how they said it."

"Yeah!" James cries, bouncing back. "How dare they! What, they can't have a normal bloody conversation? And they spilled snacks all over my bed!"

"Exactly!" Harry says. "Let's go give them a piece of our mind!"

"Yeah!" James snaps and storms out of the classroom, Harry trotting along behind and feeling particularly accomplished.

"You were so mean!" James snaps, coming to a stop in the dorm room with his arms crossed.

Harry ushers out a lone Gryffindor boy and closes the door after him, spelling it shut because no one is leaving before they sort this out.

"I was very mean," Sirius agrees immediately. "And I'm sorry, I'm an idiot."

"You're only saying that because you didn't think I'd hold out this long," James sneers. "Well guess what, I don't want to be your friend anymore."

"Jamie," Remus tries

"I'm breaking up this friendship," James declares. "You don't get to be mean and have me forgive you. You can keep the map on alternating weeks and for Moony, but otherwise I get it-"

"You can't split up the Marauder's stuff like that," Sirius complains, standing from his bed.

"Well you can't talk to me like that and expect to get away with it," James retorts. "Right, Harry?"

"I actually still don't know what you said to each other," Harry admits. "But – I do know you two shoved James around."

"They weren't-" James splutters. "I was winning that fight, Harry. No, I let them win."

"We barely touched him!" Sirius cries, ignoring James. "Oh, come on, we do worse during a full."

"No," Harry cuts in firmly. "You are not excusing attacking James."

"We didn't hit him," Sirius scoffs. "We grabbed him once or twice, there were no bruises."

"I wanted to leave, you knob jockey," James snaps. "You chased me and started talking about putting me in the bloody chamber of secrets!"

Harry's expression is slowly getting darker.

Remus slips out of his bed, hands up calmingly. "What we did was wrong, in every way, and we're very sorry, James. We shouldn't have gotten physical like that and made you cry."

"I wasn't-" James darts a glance to Harry. "I wasn't crying, there was dust in my eyes because you shoved my face into the bed! Like a bad friend!"

Sirius rakes a hand through his hair. "Okay, I am genuinely sorry for what happened that night – not because I take back my words but because it upset you and I went too far."

James crosses his arms, chest puffed out. "I'm going to be upset at you for a long time but fine, we can stay friends." He glares. "You are on thin ice, though. I expect grovelling for another month."