Chapter Text
A small, chubby baby toddled over to him, red onesie stained with splotches of baby food, and dribble on the corner of his mouth. James smiled, opening his arms wide as his precious baby boy fell into his embrace. His little Harry giggled and babbled brightly, green eyes glittering.
James ran his fingers through his baby’s short black girls, peppering kisses on his forehead and his entire face. In the background, his lovely wife, Lily, leaned on the doorframe of their back garden door, her long red hair tied back.
James stood, gathering Harry in his arms, allowing his baby to chew on his shirt. He walked over to his wife, kissing her lightly on the lips.
Lily gently took Harry out of James’ arms, cooing at her baby boy. His heart fluttered at the image the two most important people in his life painted. He loved them so much.
‘I have to go to work.’ He said to Lily, before facing Harry, putting on a higher voice. ‘Is baby gonna miss dada? Mhm?’
Baby Harry grabbed onto James’ nose, little baby fingers sticky on his skin, but it was just too cute for him. He kissed Harry on his big fat cheeks, before he headed out to his work.
—
The house was in utter chaos.
Numbly, James walked through the rubble of what once was his home. Aurors surrounded the area, but he barely heard them over the buzzing in his head.
Over there, just under a beam, was a pool of red hair. Red hair that was matted with red blood. James’ breathing stuttered, his heart hurt, his face stone cold. He took one step, two steps, and then he was broken into a run, collapsing onto the floor, ignoring how the rubble dug into his knees and shins.
His throat was drier than the Sahara desert as he ran his fingers through the hair peaking out, his Lily’s blood latching onto the skin of his fingers. He swallowed around a great bout of bile.
He shot up, his glasses fogging up as he searched even more valiantly. Harry, where was Harry? He used his bare hands to turn up stone and brick, forgoing his wand completely, the hum in his mind overwhelming his senses as his actions became more erratic.
He flinched when a hand landed on his shoulder, pulling him out of his frenzy. With wide eyes, he looked at the face of a hardened Auror, yet the woman’s eyes held a teaspoon of pity.
‘Sir, your wife is…’
James cut her off, unable to hear a word of what had become of his beautiful, fierce, loving Lily. ‘Where’s my son?’
The Auror’s face did an odd thing, a twistment of confusion. ‘There was only one person in the house.’
James shook his head. That couldn’t be. He remembered leaving both Harry and Lily at home as he went to sort things out at one of the warehouses. An enemy organisation had attacked the night before, causing a whole supply of weapons to go to waste.
James suddenly caught onto something, a malicious magical signature, one that he had just dealt with an hour ago. All the blood inside of him went still, his thoughts went still, except for one.
Harry had been taken.
—
It had now been 16 years since that horrific accident that ruined James’ life. After it, he had devoted all his time to his organisation, pursuing it with an iron grip. Not one of his men stepped out of line.
He was lucky he had his best friends with him, or he didn’t know what path he would’ve gone down. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were like angels to him, guiding him through his depression and helping him through his drinking problem.
He looked at his friends fondly as they sat once more in Riddle’s sitting room. It was nearing midnight, the allotted appointment time, and they were all antsy to see what Riddle had been speaking of.
They had thought up many theories. The mentioning of an organisation that did experiments did ring a bell in James’ mind, but the one organisation he knew of had gone out of business years ago.
The door opened, and Riddle stood tall in the doorway. His snake wasn’t on his shoulders this time, the eye catching snake's absence highlighted the unease in the group.
What had Riddle said? The snake was not really a snake?
They walked in unison down corridors, coming further away from the room they had occupied for their meeting just hours ago, now turning towards what James thought was private quarters.
They stopped in front of a door, the aura around it heavier than steel. Riddle looked back at them, his eyes glinting, before he pushed the door open.
It was a snake’s bedroom alright. The room was enlarged to be bigger than it would’ve been, the floor was grass, and the ceiling showed the night sky, the moon hiding. Trees and bushes and many rocks tied the image together. Riddle’s snake was on one of those rocks.
James blinked, unsure what was going to happen. Sirius muttered a question in Riddle’s direction, but James was unable to hear it, as something deep inside of him coiled.
The next moment, Riddle’s snake transformed into a young man. The change looked painless, but the way the boy’s face contorted told otherwise. He slumped forward, legs shakier than a baby deer.
Riddle gathered him up in his arms, holding him up.
‘This is what I was talking about, Gentlemen. Harry here was experimented on by—‘
The rest of Riddle’s words melted away. James' eyes latched onto every feature of the snake turned boy in front of him. To the pale skin that had blood red almost black streaks as if added by a brush stroke on his skin. To the way his naked body was hidden inside of Riddle’s robe, the messy dark hair on top of his head.
It wasn’t until he stared straight into those green, hurtfully green eyes, that stared back at him with just as much longing, that he lost his resolve.
Tears streamed down his face as he took a small step forward, almost childishly, his foot stumbling as it landed on the grass. Riddle had stopped speaking, now staring at him with a bland expression.
‘H—Harry?’ James’ voice broke, overcome with emotion.
Sirius wheezed beside him, Remus gasped, and Peter blubbered. All the while, Harry was staring at him as if seeing a ghost, his hands clutching onto Riddle even tighter.
Here was his baby boy, all grown up, finally with him, and he was inflicted with a terrible curse. His resolve strengthened as he stared into his child’s eyes, finding only heartbreak and a lifetime of pain in the lack of light in those wonderful eyes.
‘We’ll help you, Riddle. Anything you want, just say the word.’ James said, his voice steadier than he felt.