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A Miracle


After Sirius’s session with Dorcas ended, he went down to Charlus Potter’s room. Dora was asleep in the chair beside the bed, her cheek pressed to her husband’s chest as he, too, slept. James sat across a chair, his legs hanging over the arm of it, leaning against the back, staring blankly at the wall.

Sirius cleared his throat quietly and James looked up, first in a bit of panic at Charlus, then at Sirius. He rolled so he was sitting normal in the chair and his eyes flickered to the bag at Sirius’s hip. “You’re off then,” he said.

“Yeah,” Sirius replied. “Veigler and Remus are waiting downstairs for me.”

James nodded, “Well then, I guess this is g’bye for now then, huh?”

Sirius hesitated. “I guess so.”

James said, “I’ll owl you if anything... happens.”

“Alright.” Sirius’s voice was tight. He looked at Charlus and Dora, and he felt his stomach twist uneasily and Achlys shifted in his chest. He drew a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to be -- here.”

James didn’t know how to be there, either.

Sirius took a step forward and he held out a book. “I got this. For your dad.” James took it. It was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. “It’s a muggle book. The back of it says it’s about sciency stuff, like time travel and I dunno aliens or whatever. I know your dad likes that stuff. Maybe you can read it to him.”

“Thanks, Padfoot.”

“Yeah. No problem.” He paused. “You’re okay, yeah?”

James nodded, but Sirius leaned down and gave him a hug about his shoulders anyway. James’s throat ached as hugged Sirius back. “Be safe. Send me loads of owls,” James murmured.

“I’ll send pictures, too,” Sirius said. “I packed the camera.” He smiled.

“I’ll look forward to seeing them,” James said.

Sirius looked over at Dora and Charlus. “Tell mum and dad --” he paused, “Tell your mum and dad I said bye.”

“You were right the first time,” James whispered.

Sirius’s eyes welled up. “I’ll miss you lot.”

“We’ll miss you too.”

“I’ll visit.”

“We’ll be here.”

“Hopefully not. Hopefully you’ll be home soon,” Sirius said. “All three of you.”

James blinked back tears, “Yeah, I’m sure we will be.”

Sirius patted James’s back and ruffled his hair. “I love you, Prongs. Not in a gay way. Just a lot is all.”

“I love you too, Padfoot.”

Sirius turned and started for the door, then stopped and looked back. James was putting the book on the table beside Charlus’s bed and throwing his legs back over the arm of the chair, leaning back into the cushion… Sirius drew a deep breath and turned.




James went home that night to an empty house.

He stood in the doorway after locking it behind himself and kicking off his trainers, just listening to the silence of the big empty house for several long minutes. He walked into the living room and sat in a chair, sighing as he sank into the cushion. On the mantel were various family pictures, mostly different shots of himself at various ages - birthday parties, and on his first broom, dressed as a golden snitch for Halloween, his Dad behind him as a pro Quidditch player. There was a picture of Dora and Charlus on their wedding day and one where they were standing together under a tree and Charlus had his hands on Dora’s pregnant belly, grinning wide as could be, running his palms over the spot where unborn James must have been kicking as Dora laughed.

I knew you’d be a brilliant sportsman then,” Charlus always bragged.

You didn’t know! There’s no kicking in Quidditch,” Dora always argued.

A keeper kicks plenty!” Charlus would reply.

Yes but you always said he’d be a Seeker,” she admonished.

And here he is, a Chaser!” Charlus had smiled last time they’d hashed this tale out.

Charlus and Dora were not young parents.

You are our little miracle,” Dora always told James.

They had tried for years to have a baby, with no luck - mediwizards had told them that Dora couldn’t get pregnant, that they had no hope. But that didn’t stop them. They’d seen natural healers and even a couple muggle doctors, trying - trying - trying all the time… They were much older than most wizarding parents of their generation when they’d finally had James. Charlus spoke often of when he had rushed Dora to St. Mungo’s to deliver James, who had heard the story loads of times…

Charlus had been at work when he got the news that it was Time.

When James was born, Charlus’s position at the Ministry was paid, rather than volunteer work - and he was helping to rethink the Muggle-Born orientation process, how to tell parents their kids were witches and wizards and how to keep the Statute protected… Dumbledore had been made Deputy Headmaster under Armando Dippet, and the rules against Muggle-Born students were finally being lifted… “It was a very exciting time in the wizarding world,” Charlus always reminisced when he told the story. “Dumbledore had defeated Grindelwald and Voldemort was but a whisper, something that the world at large was still unafraid of.”

Their friend Jorgan Malone, who was their neighbor then, had come running into Charlus’s office. “My wife’s just sent an owl, Potter!” he shouted, “You’ve got to go! Your wife’s having the baby!”

Charlus had been so excited he’d put his cap on backwards and his coat on inside out and Dora had laughed when he arrived, breathlessly falling through the floo. They’d rushed to St. Mungo’s and a mediwitch named Gossamer Jones had delivered James - a healthy seven pound baby with thick black hair and a tiny pink nose - and he’d cried and cried as babies do, until he was laid in his mum’s arms and Charlus had leaned over to see… There was a photo of that moment, too. The first proper Potter family photo, and Charlus’s eyes danced as James’s tiny limbs writhed about in a blue blanket covered in golden snitches.

Charlus always smiled and remembered how he had shared cigars in the lobby with Jorgan Malone, telling him it’s a boy, it’s a boy with tears in his eyes for a boy was exactly what Charlus Potter had prayed for every night.

James was so, so loved and so, so spoiled as a kid - it’s hard not to be when you’re a miracle.

James stared at a photo of Charlus scooping him up off a little toy broom and hugging him so very tight - the pride clear on his face as he held James tight. He ran his fingers over the edge of the frame and his throat tightened up and he knew he wasn’t going to get any rest that night… so he went and got his broomstick and the invisibility cloak and let himself out the backdoor, into the field to fly laps about the trees, anxiously. He felt closer to Charlus the moment he kicked off from the ground.





Dear Lily,
Hope you’re not in a whole lot of trouble from the adventure in the sky. I’m sorry you got in any at all. Thanks for helping Moony though. And James. You were brilliant! And now you can tell people you’re a pilot, yeah? You’ve flown a vehicle in the sky, that technically makes your car an aeroplane, doesn’t it?
Anyway I wanted to thank you because you were brilliant and you helped me and Moony a great deal. I’m going away to Iceland to spend the rest of summer with him there with Ned Veigler. Ned’s starting a school and he’s bought a big castle and I guess I’m going to help Remus in fixing it up with him. The important part is that Remus is there.
Well I wanted to write you because I have a favor to ask of you.
Another one, yes, I’m sorry.
See, while I’m away, James is going to be at home alone most of the time since Mrs. P is staying at Mungo’s with Mr. P (long story). I was hoping you might check on him now and then when you’re bored and maybe just let me know if he’s alright?
Enclosed is a bit of parchment that will help you get there. Destroy it as soon as you’ve looked at it please. I could get in a good deal of trouble sending this to you if it ends up in the wrong hands.
Thanks in advance.
Your friend - and all that sentimental rubbish...
Sirius Black. XXX.





Lily got the owl two days later. It had taken that long to fly from Iceland to the Evans house. She let the funny white owl in her bedroom window and given it a couple knuts since she had no owl nuts, and it had flown away. She’d sat on the bed to read the neat script of Sirius Black’s handwriting on the envelope - so refined a handwriting for such a reckless soul as Sirius Black - opened the seal and pulled the letter out.

When she opened it a little bit of parchment fluttered out in a spinning spiral and landed on her knee.

It was an address. Nothing more was written on the parchment, just the address. The handwriting on that bit of parchment was different than Sirius’s - tight block letters, not script at all, narrow and dark, as though written with a heavy hand. She wondered what it was, and slid the little bit of parchment into her pocket.

She stared at the parchment, reading the words Sirius had written. Once again that guilty feeling of having failed to be there for James filled her up… after all he’d done for her last holiday... She didn’t know exactly what was wrong with Mr. Potter, but there was something… and whatever it was, it hurt her heart to remember how hopeless she had felt when he showed up.

She looked at the little snowglobe on her night stand. Through the flicks of snow that tumbled through it, the stag inside was staring out at her.

Lily took the bit of parchment out of her pocket and stared at it for a long moment.

She went downstairs.

Mrs. Evans had fallen asleep watching a game show on the telly. Petunia was out with Vernon Dursley. Lily could hear the game show host prattling on about all the quid to be won if only the contestants could answer these questions… and Lily snuck past the living room doorway and into the kitchen, where she made hot coffee, with nutmeg stirred in, as quietly as she could. She filled up a thermos and took two mugs from the cupboard. She snuck into the hallway and took up the keys to the Mini Morris from the table. She glanced in at her mum, and ducked, nearly silent, out of the house, running across the yard with her coffee and mugs and the tiny bit of parchment that Sirius Black had sent.