James Potter

Jake had popped into the Menagerie to get some cat litter for Simon, his siamese cat and only had to wait a moment while the customer in front of him gathered together everything he had bought. Jake couldn’t help a smile at the sight of someone getting a new pet. He stepped up to the counter and put down the cat litter for the assistant to process. “I’ll take some catnip as well,” he said on a whim and the assistant nodded and turned to take it from the shelf. “And this?” she asked pointing to a box of owl treats on the counter. Jake shook his head slowly. “Not mine. I don’t have an owl.” They seemed to realise what had happened at the same time, and as she rang him up and sorted out his change she told him that the customer before him had only gone in for the owl treats and ended up leaving with a cat. “I’ll see if I can catch him,” Jake said, making sure he had his own purchases before he left with the owl treats in his free hand. It had been a pretty quick transaction and hopefully the man wouldn’t be going anywhere very quickly with a kitten.

“Excuse me!” he called, walking at pace to catch up. “Excuse me,” he repeated. Finally, he got his attention. “I think this is yours?” He held up the owl treats.

James’ gaze flickered down to the owl treats in the other man’s hand, realisation dawning on him; as smart and sharp as he usually was, he was also a bit too easily distracted at times. And the kitten seemed to have garnered all his attention the second he laid eyes on her. “Cheers mate,” he replied as he placed the cat carrier down on the floor so that he could reach his free hand out to take the treats. “My mum would’ve gone mad if I came home without them, her Owl wouldn’t have been too pleased either, I imagine.”

Her desk duty time was almost up, even to the point where she could follow up with some of the reports that had come in. Most were simple but it gave her a chance to leave her desk. She had just finished up going to the Leaky, picking up a few items that people had left. None of it seemed too dangerous so she had sent them back to the Ministry. Since she was there, she needed some ice cream. It was a natural stop. She had just gotten her two scoops when she saw James with what seemed to be a kitten under his arm. “Merlin that’s a cute friend you’ve got there,” she said, not realizing he was talking to himself. Once he did realize, she smiled at him. “It’s okay. I was just asking who this little cute thing you’ve got was.” 

James sent Alice a smile when recognition dawned on him, the friendly face welcome. “This is Minnie; she’s going to be our new flat mate,” he told her, stepping to one side so that they weren’t stood in the middle of the cobbled pathway. “I still need to run her by the boys though, Sirius hates cats so we’ll see how well that one goes, I suppose…” It was then that he realised he hadn’t really seen her since the night of the fundraiser; he’d heard from Sirius that she was recovering well in hospital but he hadn’t had chance to see how she was doing himself. “You’re looking well, Al. Frank taking good care of you?”

Bellatrix was not an animal person, she didn’t like them but she didn’t hate them either, she just ignored them, btut of course, she could not ignore her sister’s cat, Cepheus. Narcissa was in love with the feline, so in love that Bella sometimes joked that she was going to marry that furball instead of Lucius, unless he knew how to turn into a cat. Still, she made a face when Cissy asked her to please a few treats for Cepheus now that she was coming to visit and she couldn’t leave because their parents wanted everything to be perfect before she arrived. She was going to step inside the shop for some cat treats when she saw a familar face, and of course, she could not ressit approaching him. “How’s my cousin?” she asked him but Potter was distracted by another furr ball, one he was carrying. She desmissed the animal and spoke once more. “I asked how my cousin was doing. Last time I saw him he was getting hexed by me, and what a nasty curse it was.” 

James’ eyes darkened when he realised who it was; true to his word, he had kept his promise to Sirius and hadn’t sought his cousin out once he turned up on their door step in such a state. He had wanted to, but he had kept that urge under wraps because he couldn’t break a promise to his best friend. “It takes much more than a psychopath with a superiority complex to take my brother down,” he retorted, the emphasis on the word brother was sharp and pointed. He offered her a smile then and moved to step past. He was honestly amazed at how level-headed he’d managed to remain, it was quite the feat when all he wanted to do was blast her into the wall. “But I’ll let him know that you checked in, I’m sure he’ll be touched to know that you care enough.”

Remus grinned. “Exactly. We can’t have me passing out from sugar deprivation.” It wasn’t a suggestion he would actually make to Mrs Potter, though. The truth was Remus had tried to have a meal of just sweets once, his first meal back in the Great Hall after that very first transformation in first year and quickly discovered just why his mam never let him do that at home. He had felt awfully sick afterwards, even more so than usual for a post-Moon, and then woke up in the middle of the night starving for all the nutrients and meat and carbohydrates he had skipped. The moment had been enough, however, to solidify the image of Remus as a pudding fiend to all of Gryffindor House.

Infiltrating was different to tailing and a large part of the reasoning was to get a feel for where the allegiances of the wolf packs lay, not because of an assumption they had already joined Voldemort. He gave a slight shake of his head before he remembered that he wasn’t really supposed to be confirming or denying anything. James wasn’t even supposed to know it was happening but, of course, when Dumbledore had said as much he had no idea that Remus spent Full Moons with his friends and so couldn’t just use that as his excuse. He held his cup of tea close to his body, letting the heat of it warm him. He knew James could get this and now the possibility of him knowing was dangling in front of him he needed his friend to know. “Is that the best guess you’ve got?”

James watched Remus carefully as he seemed to be considering his guess, looking as if James was almost there but not quite, and at his best friends goading response all he could do was bite back an amused smile as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m only getting started mate, don’t rule me out just yet,” he responded; he knew that Remus wasn’t going to give him any further hints—that little head shake was the most he was going to get, he was sure of it—because that would seem too much like he was breaking the promise he’d made to Dumbledore.

He suspected the full moon must have some sort of relevance, otherwise why would Dumbledore have chosen now to send Remus away, when he knew all about his lycanthropy? That didn’t make an awful lot of sense. Unless…

An unpleasant feeling settling in his gut, he raised an eyebrow at Remus, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer, “Does he have you keeping an eye on other werewolves?”

         evelyn nodded at james’ words, ❝i’m just hoping the ministry feels the pressure and actually starts an investigation, everyone seems awfully calm for the chaos that we lived through…❞ she bit her lip. politics were never where she wanted to be, but she had not been strong enough to defy her parents and go for the hit-witch training. ❝keeping busy was probably a good idea, don’t let the thoughts take over❞ she shrugged. ❝they should be used to it, you know loved ones hovering a little too much❞ she teased. ❝so i- uh i saw remus the other day, he said you guys were looking for a place, for the four of you, i just thought that was so cool. but i gotta admit i was surprised i thought you and lily were heading in the moving in together direction❞ she wiggled her eyebrows. 

James felt the heat creep up the back of his neck at her latter comment, and he offered her a smile which was somewhere between shy and embarrassed; James Potter was not the shy type, but the one thing that had the ability to turn him into a nervous wreck was Lily. “I’d thought about it, but—” But we’ve barely been out of school two months, he had to remind himself, the same way he always did, to slow down. He was in it for the long haul with Lily and he knew that they had plenty of time for all that grown up stuff, not that it had helped matters when his mum had offered him the family ring the night of the ball. “I know that she wants to move in with Marls and Mary for now, and to be honest, I’ve missed living with the lads. You’ll have to come round and see it once we settle on somewhere.”

moodboard ; james & the marauders [1/?]

“Please, we both know Sirius is her favourite,” he joked back. “But if she’s willing to pretend for long enough that we can have chocolate cake for dinner, I won’t complain.” She was more likely to go for something heavy on the meat, probably the sort of meal that was decidedly more expensive than anything Remus would have at his own home, where chicken and boiled potatoes were staple, but still with the warmth of homemade cooking. Still, a guy could hope for pudding for dinner.

He hesitated for a moment but it was such a relief to think James might be able to know what was going on without him breaking his word to Dumbledore. “Nobody said anything about you not being able to make guesses. Obviously I can’t tell you if you’ve guessed right, but…” But James would always be able to tell. Remus might have spent years working on his poker face and learned Occlumency out of fear of someone being able to pluck the secret of his being a werewolf out of his head but he wasn’t about to close himself off to James. “No clues, either. You have to guess it all on your own.”

James snorted at that; the likelihood of his mum serving dessert for dinner was slim and he knew it, though he was sure she would be more agreeable if she knew it was Remus’ suggestion. His mum had honestly spent years getting James, who had been quite a fussy eater once upon a time, to eat properly; the only exception she had made was when he had his tonsils out at seven years old and had practically lived on jelly and ice cream for two weeks. He was sure most of her worries about him moving out stemmed from the fear he would starve to death. “Well I mean it’s a possibility? If we tell her you’ve not had your daily chocolate intake yet she may say yes just to ensure you don’t self-destruct,” he teased.

The kettle screeched and he spun round to lift it off of the stove, diminishing the flame with another quick wave of his wand, before he poured the boiling water into a cup for Remus and set the kettle back down. “That’s alright, allowing me a clue would ruin the fun,” he added lightly, hoping that if they could make it into a bit of a game and a joke it would take away some of the heavy tension that had settled in the room moments earlier. James knew that whatever this was, he probably wasn’t going to like it; if it wasn’t something serious he doubted Dumbledore would have forbidden Remus talk about it with those so close to him. He chewed the inside of his cheek lightly and handed Remus his tea once he’d finished making it, “Well he’s sending you away for some reason or other, that much you’ve said… He’s not got you tailing some of you-know-who’s lot, has he?”

“To be fair to him, I do have a bit of an advantage when it comes to catching him.” Not only did he know about the Invisibility cloak and have a lot of experience in Potters sneaking around under it, but his senses of hearing and smell were both sharper than the average human and neither were hindered by the cloak.

Remus lit up when James said he had gone to see Carys. As much as James was happy to know Remus was looking out for Harry, the same was true in the reverse, and especially so as the months between Full Moons felt long with the knowledge it was the first time he and Carys had been separated for any significant time since he adopted her. Yet, as James rightly said, she was almost at the age where she would be off to school herself. “I know, I can’t believe it, either.” He couldn’t help a smile when he thought about his daughter at Hogwarts, and especially at the fact that it went without saying that she would go. Remus had never thought it was possible for him but ever since the day Carys first showed accidental magic none of them had questioned that Hogwarts would educate another werewolf. “She seems to have decided all by herself that her dormmates are going to become Animagi for her so she might be worse than Harry.” He tried to give James a stern stare because it was fairly obvious why she had that idea but it fell flat. It was still his Patronus-worthy memory. “I just have to hope she and Maggie get sorted into the same place so I know there’ll be a voice of reason.”

moodboard ; james & lily [1/?]

“Unless he eventually decided that the real prank was us imagining him trying to figure out what was so special about a blank piece of parchment,” Remus pointed out, and it was true that they had laughed about the idea when he first got his hands on it. Still, he couldn’t help but grin at the fact that Filch was a natural hoarder and that somehow their legacy had made its way into the hands of its rightful owner. “It will do him some good. Not getting caught is an important life lesson.” One he doubted his fellow teachers would agree with but Remus was just glad the majority of his students were able to be normal teenagers, with none of the worries that had hung over the heads of his own generation.

“Sure, I’ll have a tipple. I’m not needed back any time soon. In fact, I might send a message to Minerva and spend the night at home. It’ll be a nice surprise for Carys in the morning and dad can have some time off from the school run.” Remus was kidding himself if he thought his daughter was already in bed to not see him tonight but he liked to pretend he had managed to raise her with some degree of discipline. Lyall might have some better luck, but in the years of father and son attempting to mend their relationship for Carys’ sake, Remus had opened up about how restrictive it had been, not able to be a child and break a few rules because of the fear of being more trouble for his parents than he already felt he was. He and Lyall both were determined for Carys to grow up with more sense of freedom.

Never had joy and sorrow fought so hard for dominance in Lily before. Joy because they were finally free. They had spent so long cooped up in these four walls, and while she would have done it forever to keep her family safe, there was a relief in knowing it was no longer necessary. There was joy because the war was over and the terror they had all suffered for so long would finally end, people were safe. She could see her friends and family, people who she had only been able to speak to through letters, she would be able to hug and hold them once more. She was so incredibly happy to hear that the war was over and her little boy was safe. He wasn’t being hunted anymore. They didn’t have to hide.

That was the joy. That was the happiness for the good times to come. Unfortunately, the joy was tinted with huge sorrow.

Their joy had come at much to high a cost. Peter was dead. Peter who had always been kind to her and made her laugh. Who she loved so fiercely, and who had been a better sibling to her than her own sister. Now he was gone, dead - and he had done so protecting them. Because that was the worst part really. Peter hadn’t just died because of the war, he had died because he was their secret keeper, he had died so Harry could live. That feeling, the guilt in her stomach, hurt like hell. But she imagined that was ever she was feeling was even worse for James, who had loved Peter long and truly been like a brother to him, and she wanted to do whatever she could to help him. 

Even so, she lets James pull her into his side, her eyes shutting tightly for a moment as she just breathed in his smell, embracing the comfort and safety she always felt in his arms. She nodded, and wiped the tears from her cheeks that had more or less been flowing since they heard the news. “Okay,” she replied softly, squeezing his free hand before she took Harry, putting a smile on her face for him.

Harry was all giggles for his mum as James handed him over; the sight of it was enough to draw another smile from James, even if it didn’t quite reach his eyes the way a smile usually would. Despite everything, he had to be grateful that Harry was seemingly unaffected by what had been going on, he had to be thankful that the boy was young enough that he hopefully wouldn’t remember this part of his life. He pressed another kiss to Lily’s temple and stepped away from the two so that he could head through to the kitchen, his body acting on auto-pilot as he lifted the kettle and filled it with water before he set it on the stove and used his wand to light the fire under it.

He felt lost as he leaned back against the kitchen counter and let out a slow breath, it was a futile attempt to try and ease the tightness which had settled in his chest upon Dumbledore’s arrival that evening, but still, it remained.

What was supposed to happen now? Were they supposed to return to normal, pick up where they left off before they were thrust into hiding and just move on? If he was being completely honest, he had begun to forget what normal even felt like.

Marlene had been relieved to get Maxine and Maggie minded by her mother, the only other surviving member of the McKinnon Family. It was tough, they had a frayed relationship prior to her father and brother’s death, nevertheless the grieving process had been a tough adjustment period for the both of them. Often, Marlene blamed herself for not being at her childhood home in order to help protect her father and brothers. For a while, Marlene felt guilty for not dying alongside them, she was the one who put them into the firing line by joining the Order. However, after this Marlene began to communicate with her mum, something that hadn’t been an easy task before hand. After Marlene had both of her daughters, their relationship just grew stronger and being a single parent, the blonde relied on her mother for help and support a lot of the time. Marlene had headed to Diagon Alley in pursuit of some dress-robes for work, she had learnt from experience that Madame Malkins made the best robes for Aurors. As Marlene glanced in the window, she caught glance of a familiar gleeful toddler in the window, her nephew, Harry. A bright smile engulfing her face as she turned to meet the toddler’s hug. “Harry, love…” She spoke warmly, reaching down to ruffle the little boy’s hair. Hair that resembled that of his father, James, who was in his process of catching up with the energetic boy.  A soft laugh falling from her lips at James’ comment, “he’s gonna be able to run rings around us all in a year. You’ll finally get to experience how both our parents felt when we ran off.” She laughed.  Pinching Harry’s cheek as James scooped him up into his arms.  “I’m doing great,” With Maxine being 3 and Maggie almost one, she hadn’t had a lot of time on her hands. But she still tried to visit her friends around once a week. After all, they were her family. “Things seem to have finally settled for a while.” She admitted with a raise of her eyebrow, “How are you? This one being a torture?” Marlene joked, smiling at Harry.

“He and the Weasley boy nearly burnt a cauldron our last class because of it,” Severus ran his hand through his hair. It had been incredibly stressful at the time but recalling the two’s alarmed looks nearly left him chuckling. “He did offer to stay after to clean up though so I can’t really hold it against him. It’s more than most of the other students would have done.”

Remus let out a sigh, desperately relaying the conversation with Dumbledore in his head, searching for the loopholes the Headmaster had known to cover. “I… went to Hogwarts,” he started. That was safe. Perhaps a bit of a bending of the rule not to mention his meeting with Dumbledore to anybody but he had told Marlene as much as well and technically he wasn’t saying he was there for a meeting, only at the school. “And now there is… something… I have to do.” Also neither a lie nor an explanation. He had to tell them enough not to think he had disappeared off the face of the Earth. “But I cannot tell anybody what it is or where I’m going and… well, I might not be back in time.” He definitely wouldn’t be back in time for the Full Moon, unless something went horribly wrong and the pack Dumbledore had tracked down didn’t allow him to transform with them.

It hurt not to open up more to James. James had always been so blessedly forthcoming in a way Remus hadn’t been used to before they were friends and it had been a long time now since he kept secrets from his three closest friends. The last one out the bag had been his sexuality back in fifth year and even then he had given it up much easier to them than he would to anybody else. Remus had to attribute some of his comfortable candour around the Marauders to James. They made him think one day he might be able to open up to others. Marlene and Evelyn, in particular. But for the moment lies still came easily to them if it meant keeping his secrets and only now was Remus realising that it was no longer easy to do so with James. “Please don’t ask,” he said in a quiet voice because he knew if James asked, Remus would break his promise to Dumbledore in a heartbeat.

He cleared his throat and looked down at his hands, his fingers twisting together worriedly. “Dinner would be nice.”

James’ brows furrowed as he listened to his friend, the concern etched so deeply into his forehead that it would be a miracle it didn’t end up stuck like that. He had known Remus for 8 years now and he knew him well, he knew how to spot when he was lying or when he was uncomfortable or when he wasn’t feeling well, and he could easily spot the pain in his eyes during their current conversation. It almost seemed as if he wanted him to know something, as if he wanted James to know but Dumbledore had forbidden it.

But James could also see how uncomfortable Remus was with the fact he had to keep it to himself; he would never ask Remus to betray the trust that Dumbledore had placed in him—after all, what sort of mate would he be if he put Remus in that position?—because he knew Remus had far too much respect for their former headmaster to even entertain the idea of doing so. But still, the idea of Remus being away for the full moon didn’t sit right with him one bit.

“Mum will probably cook your favourite if she finds out you’re here—after all you are her favourite, more so than her own son sometimes,” he teased, and offered his friend a reassuring smile. “I won’t ask.” A promise, and one he would keep. “But I can hazard a guess or five, can’t I? Would that be breaking any rules?”

Severus raised an eyebrow when James almost slipped up. The idea of goading him had briefly come to mind but he wasn’t in the mood for risking his morning beginning with a disagreement. He offered a shrug then narrowed his eyes. “Right, what’s the problem then Potter?”

A low chuckled escaped when James spoke and he shook his head. “Oh certainly,” He sighed and took on a bored tone. “I assure you I wouldn’t do anything that would risk your wife needing to come in. Her temper is far more terrifying than yours.” Severus shook his head after that. “Your son doesn’t appear to have inherited Lily’s potion skills and has a habit of talking when I’m instructing.”