Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 33: A Very Potter Holiday

After the unpleasantness at the Leaky Cauldron, the rest of the holiday break was more subdued. Jim spent most of his time alone in his room, although Neville succeeded in coaxing Jim and Harry into flying with him on the morning of Christmas Eve. It quickly became apparent that Lily and James now had separate rooms, a fact of which Lady Augusta oddly approved.

"Every Lady should have her own rooms separate from the Lord's," she'd said sagely. "It keeps everyone from taking things too personally."

On the afternoon of the 24th, James invited Harry into his private office, where he spent three hours going over the family's assets with his Heir, including details concerning the Potter Charitable Trust. Much of it was over Harry's head, but he did come away with the definite impression that Pettigrew's offer of two-million galleons to step aside as Heir was small potatoes. He also did his best to absorb every detail with an eye towards sending Artie a pensieve memory as soon as he was back at school. When the two were done discussing the family business, Harry thought it was time to lead the conversation in the direction of other matters.

"Thanks for telling me all this ... Dad," Harry said with a smile. He'd been practicing his fake smile a lot since he knew he'd be spending the holidays with the Potters. And he was rewarded when James grinned warmly and almost affectionately at his use of the word "dad" no matter how forced it might have been. "We still have some time before dinner. I was wondering..." He hesitated for what he thought was the right length of time to project bashful sincerity. "If you don't mind, could we talk a little about, well, other family matters."

James crooked his head. "Like what?"

"Well ... what was Hogwarts like for you when you were my age? How did you and ... Mum get together? What was it like during the War? That sort of thing."

James adopted a wistful expression. "Well, I hate to say it, but when I was your age – and for a few years after – I was a complete prat!"

Exercising incredible willpower, Harry made no comments about James's current personality. The man continued.

"I had three close friends: Peter, Remus ... and Sirius. We were inseparable. And we are all obnoxious arrogant little gits. 'Toe Rag' was your mother's favorite name for me for pretty much our first five years in school together, and it wasn't a term of endearment. We called ourselves the Marauders and considered ourselves 'merry pranksters.' A lot of other people would have described us as bullies, and it took me a long time to realize that they might have had a point. That's one reason why I'm so glad that you and Jim both count Neville as a friend. I didn't even start to grow out of that childishness until the end of Fifth Year when Frank Longbottom pretty much kicked my arse over a particular bit of school yard cruelty. Between that and some other things that happened the following year, I grew up, stopped with the pranking – mostly – and focused on getting my grades into shape. To my great amazement, my newfound maturity actually impressed Lily enough to the point that she finally agreed to go out on a date with her. And when that date went well, we went on another ... and another. One thing led to another, and we got married right out of school."

"That seems... anticlimactic."

James shrugged. "Growing up frequently is."

Harry nodded as he took that in. "You say one of your Marauder friends was someone named Remus? Is that where my middle name came from? I'd assumed that Jim's middle name was Romulus and you called us that because we were twins."

James laughed. "No, no. Although if my mother had lived to see your birth, she'd have thought twin names like that would have been adorable. No, Remus Lupin was part of our little four-man band. He was both a very good friend and the brains of our quartet. Unfortunately, he suffered from a medical condition that made it impossible for him to serve as godfather to a child and especially one from an Ancient and Noble family, so we decided to honor him instead by naming both you and Jim after him. Your full wizarding name is Hadrian Remus Potter, Hadrian being the wizarding name of your great-great-grandfather who was Minister of Magic around the turn of the century."