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Harry’s child does not call him Mother or Mum or any derivative of the word. Jamie calls him Harry, like everyone else. Then again, Jamie ends up raised by an entire village of people that act like mother and father both to him just as much as Harry does. He isn’t sure who actually sired him because Harry has never said and he’s close to several people, and sometimes that bothers Jamie but most of the time it doesn’t, just like the fact that Harry is a girl but isn’t a girl and is actually a boy most of the time, except when he isn’t either. (Jamie has always accepted this at least because that’s the way it is and he doesn’t really like spending time thinking about what ifs when there’s grass to run on and Quidditch to watch.)
Sometimes it bothers him because maybe he’d like to know who sired him but mostly because people keep asking him like it’s a big deal. When he was really little, it never seemed to be, but then again, he hadn’t been around strangers much. Jamie doesn’t mind strangers as long as they don’t ask him stupid things like who his father is. He has plenty of fathers to choose from when he has need of one and he likes that because sometimes one is better than another for whatever he needs them for.
Jamie would never ask Draco to go on a nature walk with him, but Draco is the best father for reading dusty old plays with because of his commentary. George is the best father for doing pranks and sneaky stuff, but Jamie would never have him help with his studies. Ron fixes things the best and goes sputtering when Jamie asks him about girls.
Even Harry is the best father for some things. Jamie likes it this way because no matter what the problem is, he has a father to find a solution. The thing is, he also has mothers that fulfill their own roles. (Harry isn’t so good at this side of it, but he’s the best mother when it comes to nightmares and hiding from thunderstorms, even if he can’t bake a cookie to save his life.) No one asks Jamie about who his real mother is, even though he has lots of them and they’re all real to him, and sometimes maybe he’s a little offended by that.
When he was very little, someone tried to tell him that these other mothers and fathers were supposed to be aunts and uncles and family friends and all these other things, but Jamie knew better. He still knows better now and maybe he doesn’t call any of them mother or father or anything like it anymore, but he knows that’s what they are.
Sometimes, though, he does wonder which of them actually sired him. Who gave him his brown eyes and the dimples in his cheeks that Harry doesn’t have… He’s asked the question so much now that he’s starting to get afraid for what might happen when he starts school. Will the other kids ask him, too? Will they tease him about not knowing?
Will they call Harry names in hushed voices the way the adults do when they think he can’t hear it?
Jamie resolves that if they do, his fists are going to get a lot of use in.
It’s not until Al starts crying that Jamie realizes the questions bother more than just him.
They’re out with Draco to pick birthday presents for Harry and Jamie has been trying to decide between two differently patterned pairs of socks because Harry had been fond of them for as long as Jamie could remember. A woman he doesn’t know abruptly appears before them. Al jerks with surprise and slides behind Jamie, peeking at her as Jamie looks her straight in the face. The woman says hello in a cheerful way Jamie has learned is fake and then asks him a lot of questions that seemed really, really pointless, the ones about his family and his home life and all his parents. Jamie answers them politely because Ginny would be mad if he didn’t, and then the woman asks about his father.
Jamie opens his mouth to give the same answer he always does and then he feels Al’s hands start to shake against his back, curled in his shirt. He looks back and Al is red faced and his eyes are wet and suddenly Jamie hates this woman so much. So much!
“It’s okay, Al-” he starts and then woman interrupts him.
“Are you upset because you know who he is or because you don’t?”
Jamie wants to hit her but that seems to be the last straw for Al. He bursts into tears and Jamie’s too busy trying to soothe him to think about the woman, but he doesn’t need to because that’s when Draco gets back from talking to a sales girl about something or other. Draco is furious about how upset the woman made Al and Jamie listens to the way he cuts her down with relish. By the time he lets up, she’s seething and upset and Jamie wishes Draco had done so much worse than just snarl at her.
She leaves with a parting shot about freedom of the press and deserving answers. Draco gathers Al up gently in his arms and lets him tunnel up under his chin. He straightens and takes Jamie’s hand and they go to the register. They buy both pairs of socks and a pinch of caramel candy for each of them. Draco doesn’t say anything for a long time but Jamie isn’t worried. That’s just how this father is. By the time he does, Al has cried himself out and naps fitfully in his arms.
“I want you to promise me something,” Draco says finally and Jamie looks up at the serious tone. “The next time some fool bothers you like that, call out to us. They have no right to speak to you like that or ask you such personal things. You do not have to talk to them or be polite. Treat them like you would treat any other stranger.”
Jamie nods. He’s pretty sure he can handle them just fine, but there’s a certain reassurance in Draco’s words. Almost enough to make him forget… Jamie stops walking. He furrows his brows tight and tries to hold it in, but when Draco turns back to him, he can’t stop it from coming out.
“You know, don’t you? Who they’re asking for.”
Not “who his father is” because Draco is one of his fathers and Jamie would never say anything to imply he wasn’t. (He did, once. It was horrible.)
Draco sighs a little. “No. I don’t. I think I prefer it that way.”
Something unwinds in James’ belly that he isn’t the only one who’s not sure. He squeeze’s Draco’s hand and Draco takes them for ice cream before they go home.
That should be the end of it. It isn’t. The next morning, before Harry can stuff it in the trash, Jamie sees a picture of he and Harry in the paper and a headline that reads “SON OF POTTER: CHILD OF ASSAULT?”
He doesn’t know what it means but it makes Harry so upset that he burns everything he tries to cook for breakfast and has to let Ron take over. Then Harry goes to his study and closes the door. Jamie goes to fish out the paper and see what the story is about but Ron shoos him away and asks him to get the other kids up.
Jamie doesn’t want to, but Ron gives him a stern look and he stomps on to go wake everyone. The paper isn’t in the bin when he gets back. He’s still fuming when Grandma Molly gets there to watch them for the day. Jamie tries to ask her about the paper, but Grandma Molly gently tells him to wait and talk to his parents about it. He grumbles but leaves it so he can concentrate on his pre-school lessons. Somehow, the numbers get away from him and he just feels madder about it because Rose is two years younger and doing the same stuff he is without trouble.
When he shouts at her, Grandma Molly tells him he’s too old for outbursts and he better not act this way at Hogwarts next year and sends him to his room to think about it. He kicks the end of his bed and then flops onto it, glaring at the ceiling. Everything is so unfair. He’s almost eleven, almost a big kid, and they still won’t tell him anything.
Jamie thinks about the paper and how much he wants to know why the article upset Harry so badly, what the words really mean. He peeks out the door and everyone is still busy with lessons and Grandma Molly isn’t paying attention. Jamie sneaks out and goes around the house to the bin. Bingo, the paper is wedged in on top, crumpled in a ball. Jamie tugs it out and smooths the wrinkles out so he can read.
He doesn’t really understand even after reading through it twice. He knows that the article is trying to say something bad about his sire, that his sire could be the kind of person to hurt someone, specifically Harry, and he knows it has something to do with sex because he knows where babies come from (how could he not with five siblings?) and this is all about where he came from and maybe the rest of them, but he doesn’t really get why Harry was so angry. The article uses words he doesn’t know and he can’t ask about them without someone knowing he read it.
Jamie bites the inside of his cheek. He tucks the paper back into bin and goes inside, sneaking into his room until Grandma Molly comes to fetch him. He spends the rest of the afternoon staring critically at his siblings and cousin Roxanne (her parents work as much as his do), trying to see the little things that mark them as one parent’s blood or another. Roxanne is easy even if Jamie didn’t already know, looks just like her mother except for the red sheen to her dark hair, and some of the others are too. Scorp’s sire is Draco because only Draco has hair that fair, but Jamie doesn’t know who had him. Rose and Lily’s red hair is a giveaway to Ron or Ginny, but Jamie’s never been quite sure which (for some reason, his mothers tend to all get pregnant at roughly the same time and then it’s always confusing to tell who had who after.) Even he and Al look enough like Harry to tell that side.
He just wishes he could tell more. Jamie’s never much cared which of his parents made them all up but now that he’s read the article, there’s a sick pit in his stomach. What if his sire isn’t there among his parents, like the article implied? What if his sire was a bad person that hurt people in ways Jamie didn’t understand, hurt Harry that way?
The questions boil and hurt inside him. He decides tonight is the night. He’s going to make Harry tell him and then they’ll laugh because he’s worrying for nothing and it’ll be over and he won’t have to think about it anymore.
Harry gets home late, later than anyone else, and Draco is with him. Draco is the only parent that doesn’t live with them and Jamie’s never known why, but at least he stays over a lot. After goodnight kisses and tuck in, Jamie crawls out of bed and goes after them before they can disappear into Harry and Ginny’s bedroom. Draco sees him and stops, looking concerned, and at a soft word Harry turns as well.
“Jamie? Why aren’t you in bed?”
He curls his fingers on the stitching down the side of his pants, working up his courage. “Can… Can we talk?”
“Of course we can.”
He follows them to the kitchen and they all sit down. Now that they’re here, Jamie doesn’t know how to ask, what to say. He stares at his hands on the edge of the table, scratching his nails against the wood.
“Who’s my-” He stops because that’s not the right word, he is not saying father when they can hear him, he’s not. “About the-… Can you just… I read-”
“Oh god,” Harry says in a very small voice. Jamie jerks his head up and stares at him. Harry looks suckered punched. He blinks his eyes a couple times. “You read the article.”
Jamie doesn’t know why but suddenly he feels embarrassed. Especially the way Draco’s face goes dark and controlled, the way it always does when he’s mad. Jamie drops his eyes and his shoulders hunch as he curls his hands in his lap instead.
“Yeah,” he admits. “But I don’t… There were weird words in it and… Can you just tell me? Why can’t I know?”
Harry sighs softly and Jamie sees Draco’s arm move a bit, to catch Harry’s hand.
“The article is pure bunk,” Harry growls finally, steel under his voice. “And the accusations they make… Just… Forget about it. None of it’s true.”
A tightness in Jamie’s chest uncoils. He’s able to look at Harry again and his gaze is steady.
“All of us love you very much,” Harry tells him, like that’s the most important thing he could ever hear.
“No, I know that-”
“All of us.”
“I didn’t say you didn’t-”
“And nothing will ever change that-”
“WHY CAN’T I JUST KNOW?! FOR ME?!”
He didn’t mean to yell. His heartbeat is pounding loud in his ears and his face is flushed and he didn’t mean to do this, but… but…
Draco rests a hand on both their shoulders. Jamie glares at him just as much as Harry, even though he knows Draco doesn’t know either. Harry looks away, brows furrowed tight enough to form a line between them.
“Why?” he asks.
Jamie starts puffing up with offense. “Because I want to. And I don’t want to tell anyone, especially not people who will lie in the paper about it. I just want to know for me.”
Harry nods a little.
“Should I go?” Draco asks and it’s then that Jamie realizes he really doesn’t know, that Draco has let Harry keep the secret and will continue to if that’s what Harry wants. Harry swallows a little and shakes his head so Draco lets go of them and waits.
Harry tells them. Draco doesn’t seem surprised. Jamie doesn’t feel any different.
He still sleeps between them in their room even though he’s too old for that and wishes Ginny weren’t off at a game so he could cuddle with her, too.