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“You have to be fucking kidding me, Si,” James yells, angrily. He’d only been back alive and reunited with Sirius for probably an hour, but he’d spent most of that hour about to lose his mind.
He had demanded to know why Harry was only just brought over from the Dursleys (as James refused to enter the house without him) and why Sirius hadn’t been the one to raise him. The explanation of what happened (and Sirius’ fugitive status) had been outlined vaguely enough that James got the gist, and he was angry. Well, angry was a misnomer. Pissed off was a better and more accurate description.
“How could Dumbledore do this to you – both of you, either of you – who gave him the right?” James demands.
“Dumbledore only did what was right – if you should blame anyone, you should blame Sirius,” the redheaded woman that James couldn’t be bothered to remember her name says. “And you need to calm down, you’re scaring the children.”
“Stay out of this lady – if you honestly think what Dumbledore’s done to my son and husband is okay or acceptable in any way, you’re part of the problem,” James retorts, not taking his eyes off Sirius and Harry.
Sirius flinches and Harry looks confused.
“Husband?” Harry questions. “You – what?”
It’s that innocent and confused question that actually calms him. Harry deserved better than this from his father’s first return.
James takes a deep breath. “I guess you didn’t tell him.”
“There was never a right time – you can’t say something like that in a letter and I wanted it to be a conversation we had when it was just the two of us,” Sirius says, looking around pointedly. Unfortunately, they both know the group around them has no intention of leaving. Sirius looks at Harry, “James and Lily never married. James and I married. Lily was our surrogate. We had a small wedding and there were very few people in attendance. When Lily got pregnant for us, everyone assumed that she was a Potter, and we didn’t correct them. I was already a big target because of most of my family. And I didn’t want to risk that endangering James, Lily or you, when you came along. So, we pretended that it was James and Lily that married rather me and James.”
Harry seems to search his eyes for a second, as if trying to determine if he’s telling the truth before looking at James. “I guess that explains some things.”
“I know it was a bad decision, now, to have you during the war, but we just wanted to some happiness hold onto and you – you were the best thing about the war.” James gives him a small smile. “I am sorry that you didn’t get to find out under better circumstances.”
“Story of my life,” Harry jokes. “Still, that does explain why I had no problem seeing Sirius – er – dad – Pads – as a father figure.”
Sirius grins, “I liked knowing that that bond was still there.”
“And now, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but first, I’m getting my husband freed.”
Sirius laughs, “Good Luck with that.”