𝓟𝓮𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓻

Chapter Two - The Lovesick Puppies Learn The Truth

October 16th 1979 - Godrics Hollow

James had invited his partners in crime, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, over. He would have invited Peter Pettigrew but the lad couldn't keep a secret to save his life so they had decided that telling him something so important wasn't the best idea. "Are you sure this is the best idea?" he had asked for the umpteenth time. It wasn't that he didn't trust them, no, he trusted them with his life, but no one can blame him for his worry- his daughters safety was his main priority. Lily sighed and got up from her armchair, walked over to him, and grabbed his face making him unable to talk, "James Fleamont Potter. You trust these two with your life, correct?" he nodded, "Then we can tell them the truth! They're your best friends, you've known them for 8 years and they've never let you down, so have some faith in them, okay?" James nodded again, and made a note to never mention the Snape Incident to Lily.

Shortly afterwards, the fireplace lit up a bright acidic green and out stepped padfoot and moony. Neither Lily nor James questioned why they arrived together because recently the oblivious pair had taken to spending as much time as they could together because, in Sirius' words, they hadn't spent a lot of time together since Hogwarts (which was an outright lie, the marauders had met up at least four times a week for months after graduating) and they needed to make up for it. The brunette had eventually figured out that padfoot was crushing on their resident werewolf, and by the looks of the near constant blush on the scarred man's face, the feeling was mutual.

"So you two, what's the big, important news you needed to tell us? Lily's not having twins right? James? Can you even tell this early? Mate please tell me she isn't having twins-" and before the blackette could spiral anymore James laughed and reassured him that there's only one baby. "Well, if it isn't twins," Remus said, throwing an amused look to his "friend", "what is it?" The faux couple looked at eachother, nodded, and in sync said "everything we told you the other day wasn't true."
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"...what?" They sighed, this might take a while.

"So... Lily isn't pregnant?", the redhead in question gave a small chuckle and shook her head no. "If Lily isn't the mother then who is?" questioned the sandy haired man, furrowing his brows. "Well...it's not a woman...it's a man but," he took a deep, shaky breath and Lily grabbed the bespectacled man's hand in a firm grip in an attempt to reassure him. Giving her a thankful smile, he continued, "He's gone. He's- he's dead." After that, the silence was deafening. Remus and Sirius stared at their fellow marauder in shock, unable to find the right words to say, their minds racing to fully process the information they were just told. "I- i'm so sorry mate..." Sirius uttered a few moments later, still in shock, and Remus just looked at him, unable to convey how he felt for his friend, the boy who constantly protected him from bullies as children, the man who went out of his way to make sure he always felt safe around them, he couldn't comprehend how to react. "Who is Adhara's father if you don't mind me asking?". James looked at padfoot, taking a sharp breath as he saw his eyes. They reminded him of his Reg's eyes, except less guarded... less haunted. "Sorry but- i don't think anyone but me and Lily should know until after the war is over, people might try to go after Adhara, and my main priority is to keep her safe." He anxiously looked over at the two across from him, and much to his relief he saw understanding wash over their faces.

Changing the topic, Remus asked the questions that had been nagging at the back of his mind since he had learnt the truth: "If you and Lily aren't together and your daughter has another father...when did you two meet? And when did you stop liking Lily?". Lily and James looked at eachother and and a laugh escaped both their mouths, much to the confusion of their company. "I stopped liking Lily in third year, when I started spending more time with Adhara's father. It actually took me a while to realise i liked him romantically," he chuckled remembering how stupid he had acted around Regulus when he had first realised he liked him, "i didn't know who to tell and one day i- uh-" Lily gave a loud snort as he started turning red, "Lilyyyyy! It's not funny!" that, naturally, made her howl even more, and because of their childish friend's embarrassment the resident canines joined in.

"I beg to differ!" she chuckled, "We were both in the common room late at night one time, and out of nowhere- we weren't even talking to each other, he said 'I like redacted' and obviously didn't know how to react so I just stared at him! Then he started panicking and to calm him down i came out to him as aroace, i firgured it out when i was pretty young so i didn't mind and I trusted James, especially since at that moment i realised i had an ally in the closeted community." The brunette looked over at his two friends and laughed at their faces- they looked completely dumbfounded, and he knew it was because they'd thought he had a crush on Lily throughout all seven years at hogwarts. He continued the story, "after that i introduced him and Lily and they hit it off, and a few years later after we started dating the three of us came up with a plan to protect us all. Me and him would date in secret, I would pretend to be obsessed with Lily, and Lily would eventually pretend to like me back. It was crazy, but it kept us all safe."

Sirius then opened his mouth, looking slightly hurt, and asked "how come you didn't tell us...". James winced, he was afraid they'd ask this, "it's not that i don't trust you! I do, I definitely do! It's just that I was afraid of how you'd react... you guys and Pete are my best friends, my brothers, and I didn't want to lose you over something like that."

Padfoot and moony looked at eachother, and then back at James, and the grim animagus looked the Potter lord in the eye and told him the words he knew he needed to say, "if you lost us over something like that, then we were never good enough to be your friends, nevermind your brothers." That caused a watery grin to spread across the hazel eyed man's face, and him to leap up and crush his friends in a warm embrace, all while Lily took a polaroid of the three, collapsed on the floor laughing and in tears.

That was an amazing moment, finally telling his brothers the truth. It would be one of the moments that flash before his eyes, as he falls to the floor and his spirit leaves his body forever.

~1193 words~ how did you guys like this chapter?? Don't forget to vote and comment and have a great day :))