It has been over a year since the murder of his wife, Lily, and James Potter wishes every day that it is simply a nightmare that he will wake up from. Unfortunately, it isn't and in the wake of her death, James finds himself as a single parent to th...
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The slow rhythmic breathing of the toddler weighing down slightly on his chest was the only thing that allowed James to enter a dreamless sleep. Harry refused to sleep in any room alone, taking to climbing into his father's bed nearly every night or finding wherever his father was and falling asleep beside him. The night before, Harry had woke up screaming about something in his sleep, possibly a nightmare as James figured it was. When James was finally able to bring him out of the terrified state, Harry latched onto his father with no intention of letting go. It left James awake for hours afterwards, not able to fall asleep with the idea that Harry could suffer through another nightmare during the night.
It also brought James to shed several tears but he wouldn't bring himself to fully cry, in fear that he would wake up Harry. James never allowed himself to cry in front of Harry because he never wanted his son to see him in a sad state. Remus told him on many occasions that it wasn't healthy for James to bottle up his emotions in such a way and that it would maybe be beneficial for Harry to see that even his father crying was an okay thing. But James couldn't do it, Harry had been through enough in his young life and maybe if he didn't remember it later on down the road, James didn't want to expose him to anything else except happiness.
When James did wake up the next morning, it was just as the sun was coming up, leaving the sky a swirl of colours outside of the window. Harry was sound asleep against him, his little fingers still clutching James' shirt slightly. The man didn't dare move, he didn't make a sound, in fear that he would wake Harry up and he just wanted the boy to sleep as much as possible that morning. It was a few hours until noon when he agreed to meet up Sirius at the local park to allow Harry to play, although with how things had ended the previous day, James wasn't sure if that was still going to happen.
As he ran his fingers through the messy black hair that Harry seemed to inherit from him, James thought about the fight that had taken place between Sirius and Remus when he called for the two to gather at the flat. He needed the men to reconcile things, he needed his brothers to act like brothers again. He hoped to have them in the same room that he could have them talk it out and have the two start working on healing their friendship. But no such thing happened that night and James was regretting bringing them together at all as it only led to making things worse apparently.
Remus had arrived first, believing that he was coming over to keep Harry and James company for a couple of hours. He was even willing to watch over Harry while advising James to take a nap because in his words he " looked absolutely dreadful." James hadn't fully disclosed the real reasoning behind why he invited Remus over, although he was happy to see his friend. But as soon as there was another knock on the flat's door, Remus immediately looked over at James in disappointment.
Perhaps he had been suspicious because the man had been encouraging both of them to talk for so long but they didn't bring themselves to do it on their own. It seemed James was becoming desperate to the point where he felt the need to trick them in to talk to one another. As expected, Sirius was at the door and as soon as he spotted Remus inside, the wizard turned to leave but James called for him to come back and stay.
