InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I care about him"

James "Prongs" Potter (_cervus_) wrote in hogwarts_dawn,
@ 2021-06-06 19:41:00

Entry tags:

character: james potter, character: peter pettigrew

RP: Peter & James
Who: Peter & James
What: Friends that fight monsters together..?
Where: Seventh floor corridors
When: 6th June, afternoon

it had been another bright day. Cooler than some of the days before, but still easily warm enough to spend the day outside. James had spent most of his Sunday under the old tree by the lake. The same spot where he and his friends, and later on Lily, had often spent sunny free periods and evenings. Only without the homework, thankfully. Old habits and all that.

Still, he'd fancied a fly before dinner and so had popped inside to grab his broom from Gryffindor tower. James was just on his way there, stepping out from behind a tapestry depicting a particularly disgusting case of splattergroit, when he all but walked straight into Peter.

"Bloody hell. Sorry Wormtail."

Obviously it would be him. He doubted many other people here knew that passageway existed. Still, it wasn't exactly ideal. James hesitated, rocking on his heels for a moment as he searched for something to say.... 'Nice weather we're having' was apparently all his idiot brain could come up with, and he would sooner snog Snape than stoop that low.

James sighed, "Pete, I don't really have-" And then he stopped. There was a noise coming from the far end of the corridor, heavy and low, but repetitive. Like rumbling footsteps. Definitely not a normal corridor type noise, even for Hogwarts.

"Do you hear that?" He asked, some forgotten, Order-ish part of him kicking in so that his wand was suddenly in his hand. Instinctively, James took a few steps closer to Peter so they were shoulder to shoulder, peering down the hallway.

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p__pettigrew
2021-06-07 01:13 am UTC (link)

Peter was enjoying his Sunday. Normally, he'd be bored out of his mind, but the past few weeks had been so busy that he today he had done... nothing. The realization had sunk in sometime in the afternoon and he decided that he should go for a walk before dinner. Maybe even check on Marlene and see how she was doing. Of course, things never went the way he meant to.

"Prongs-" He wanted to reassure his friend that it was already, but then the noise started and he got out his wand. "Of course I hear that. I'd have to be deaf not to."

He didn't like this one bit. The noise was getting louder, but they were definitely footsteps, since they were too precise to be anything else. "Not human." He smiled a little, because at least it wasn't a Death Eater. "Come on, let's go see what it is."

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_cervus_
2021-06-07 07:48 am UTC (link)

James frowned, but the Gryffindor side of him (which was pretty much his only side) would never allow him to do anything else. He nodded tersely, his wand still held steady in his hand. There was something wrong here, he felt it in the sudden churning in his gut, or the hairs that were suddenly standing up on the back of his neck.

Carefully, he walked with Peter along the hallway. The rumbling footsteps were almost on top of them when they reached the bend. Peering round the corner, James froze. It was twelve feet tall, with shoulders as wide as the corridor itself and a slightly baffled look, as if it had no idea what it was doing on the seventh floor. James could relate.

He pulled his head back sharply to stare at Peter, all awkwardness suddenly forgotten in the face of (it had a to be said) this rather strong-smelling encounter.

"Who the hell let a fucking troll in?"

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p__pettigrew
2021-06-07 06:10 pm UTC (link)

Walking together seemed so very familiar. It predated the war. How many times had they done it, hidden under the invisibility cloak. It had gotten tight as they grew older and then it was just easier for James and Sirius to use it, while Remus was a prefect and he could turn into a rat. However, that wasn't that important.

"How the hell did it get here?" Peter asked at the same time, while he started to think about what they had learned about trolls. "It's a mountain troll, eats people, most aggressive, did I mention that he eats people, also why is he not in a mountain?"

The troll finally seemed to register their presence and began to run toward them, steps echoing against the stone walls. Peter moved in front of James, thinking about the right spell. He knew a simple spell wouldn't do it and then he remembered what to use. "Ebublio!" The troll became engulfed in a very large bubble that could not be popped by physical force. The troll screamed in frustration, while Peter turned to look at James. "What do we do with this now?"

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_cervus_
2021-06-07 06:34 pm UTC (link)

There was a sudden roar, and then the whole tonne of troll was barrelling towards them, the flagstones literally bouncing beneath its feet. James raised his wand, but then, out of nowhere, Peter's familiar head was blocking his line of fire. There was a flash, another very angry-sounding roar, and then the troll suddenly resembled some kind of bizarre, oversized Christmas decoration.

When Peter turned, James was looking at him with a rather strange expression etched on his face. It was like stepping back in time. All of a sudden it was like seeing the old Peter, the one he'd unflinchingly trusted with his and his family's lives. James had rather resigned himself to the fact that that relationship was dead in the water, but maybe....

Well, the fact was Peter hadn't let him get smushed under a troll foot, which James appreciated. Lily would have murdered him if he'd let himself be pancaked around now.

"Cheers," he finally said, offering Peter a familiar crooked smile. James stepped around his friend, reaching out and giving his arm a squeeze as he passed.

"I dunno," he pushed his glasses up his nose as he approached the floating bubble for a closer look. The troll thrashed around furiously, somehow ending up upside-down and glaring at James. "I guess we need to find somewhere to keep it while we let the others know."

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p__pettigrew
2021-06-07 07:31 pm UTC (link)

Peter started to laugh, because it was so ridiculous that he didn't know what else to do. "There's a bloody mountain troll in the freaking school. I think that needs to be reiterating." Not that they could forget. The bubble kept him prisoner, but it didn't stop the screaming, which got louder as he tried to get out.

"We could leave him right here, and go find Remus. I mean, it's his thing, yes? Department of Magical beasts and whatever the new name is." Peter couldn't keep track of all the name changes and in the end, he didn't think names were as important as politicians assumed they were. People didn't care about the names, but what you did.

"We could send a patronus to Harry and Ron, let them know." This was going to be a major problem. Not so much stopping the troll, because they were pretty stupid and the bubble would hold, but because they had no idea what to do with it. "I wonder what's happened to all the different troll communities with no wizards to train them. Are there any self sufficient ones? This really seems like a Remus question."

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_cervus_
2021-06-07 09:39 pm UTC (link)

James turned back to Peter from where he'd been peering at the bellowing troll, his face cracking into another boyish grin at his laughter. It was infectious - or perhaps it was just a delayed rush of adrenaline - but pretty soon James was chuckling too. "I mean," he snorted, "I'm pretty sure the schools seen stupider."

"Okay," James agreed, having swallowed the last of his merriment. "We should ward the corridor though, before he gives some poor sod an aneurism." He was partly thinking of Lily, hoping she didn't wonder why he was taking so long and come up to find him. His wife may argue, but with their recent development, James found himself feeling even more protective than usual.

"Merlin knows," he shrugged, stepping away from the bubble and heading back to Peter's side. "It's almost like I wasn't listening in that class. Here..." He waved his wand and a large, silver stag erupted from the end, landing silently on the stone floor and turning its antlered head towards the two men. "Find Harry," James told it. "There's a troll on the seventh floor, by the splattergroit tapestry. Its contained, but we're going to find Moony."

The patronus inclined it's head slightly, then disappeared down the corridor. James watched it go, his hand in his hair, before turning back to Peter. "You don't have the map on you, do you?"

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p__pettigrew
2021-06-07 09:58 pm UTC (link)

James was right. This was Hogwarts and there was no limit to the insanity that the school had seen in the past millennium. "That's- Merlin, Prongs, if this is from the past, who knows what we can get. Can you imagine how crazy things must have been when it was founded, before the Statute? Dragons? No problem, have a few."

He nodded. "It's the least we can do, although if the screams aren't enough to warn people, then they are too stupid to survive." If things were starting to pop up from the past, then everyone would need to develop a strong sense of survival.

Peter snorted. "Some things never change, do they? Is it weird that we're now not listening to your son who's in charge?" He took out his wand and sent a similar message to Ron, the little rat running through the corridor to find Ron.

He shook his head. "I didn't think I should keep it, with- well, with everything. I think Sirius might have it. He's probably somewhere on the seventh floor, working with Regulus. It's... weird how they both geek out over books and newspapers."

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_cervus_
2021-06-07 10:32 pm UTC (link)

James stared at Peter for a moment, the wheels in his head turning in a way that was almost visible. He was right. This castle had always been a beacon for all things completely mental. As much as he wanted to hope that the troll had simply wandered in from Hogsmeade for a delicious snack, it didn't seem particularly plausible. He frowned, his wand twirling at his side. "Godric, I hope not," he finally said. "What about all the stuff that came after us? Harry basically had a fresh dark creature every year."

With a snort of laughter, James wandered a little way down the hall to set some wards, trusting Peter to do the same at his end. It was strange, how quickly they'd suddenly fallen back into old ways. James was vaguely aware that if he thought about it too much, he'd probably ruin it. So he didn't, because if he was honest with himself, he was quite enjoying having Wormtail next to him again. Even if it was just for half an hour of troll-based mayhem.

"I'm listening," James insisted, shaking his thoughts away and heading back with a skewed smile. Beyond the still-complaining troll, his wards hung in the air for a second before fading. "I listen to every word. Diligently. But you know how it gets. Sometimes things escalate."

"That whole bloody thing is weird," James muttered, finally stowing his wand back in his pocket. Peter, like many people, knew James' opinions on Regulus Black. As much as he tried to maintain the 'indifferent' promise he'd made to Moony, there was still a rather large part of James who would quite enjoy a chance to hex the younger Black all kinds of interesting colours.

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p__pettigrew
2021-06-08 02:03 am UTC (link)

The amusement was gone in a heartbeat. "I'm not even worried about that. Creatures we can deal with. Dementors, vampires, dragons, those are things we can take. People scare me more. Death Eaters." He put his wand in his pocket. "There was something that I wanted to talk to you and Sirius about, something that Marlene brought up: legilimency." He had avoid thinking about, too busy with other research, but he had looked into it a bit.

"I didn't know it was something wizards could do, not until she said it a couple of weeks ago. I think that's what Bella did. I kept thinking to myself that maybe it wasn't my fault. She never really asked me anything she didn't really know. There had to be someone else," he said, frowning. "I was so sure that I never gave them anything, not until- I must have told them that, because of how the Fidelius works, but I always figured that I hadn't really done any damage, but if she took it from my head?" He sighed. "I'm not even sure what I'm saying. That bitch could have gotten the information without threatening my family, without me even knowing, but she wanted me to know. She enjoyed it." God, if she ever came back, he'd kill her in the most painful way.

He smiled at little. "It's ... I like him, Harry I mean. Despite Petunia and her awful husband, despite everything that happened to him, he's a good man. He's good because of you and Lily. You must be really proud of him. Even if we don't pay attention at times," he added, with a chuckle.

Peter cast spells on both sides of the corridor to ensure that no one would accidentally walk by. "Come on, let's go find Remus," he said, putting his wand away. "He's happy, though. The way he talks about Regulus- He's happy, and I want him to be happy."

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_cervus_
2021-06-08 10:15 am UTC (link)

James chewed on that piece of information for a moment, suddenly unsettled. It wasn't the first time that the possibility of some more troubling people arriving had occured to him, but with the troll currently trying to deafen them both, it all seemed a little closer to home. James' stomach turned uncomfortably as he thought of Lily. Lily and the new baby. They couldn't do it like that again, he wasn't sure he had the strength in him. But maybe he was getting ahead of himself...

"Hm?" he looked up at Peter, trying to catch the tail end of the conversation. Legilimency? "What about it?"

He listened silently, his own worries shoved safely to the back of his head for now. A part of James wished they didn't have to talk about this. He'd been enjoying spending time with Wormtail and not thinking about any of that stuff, but here they were again. He sighed, shoving an annoying few strands of dark hair away from his forehead. "I wouldn't be surprised. I heard You-Know-Who was pretty good at it, so makes sense that Bellatrix would have picked it up somewhere. I don't know how good at it she was, though - maybe she needed you close by to do it, so the stuff with your family was more to keep you in line. Or maybe she's a psychotic hag. Perhaps both." He scuffed his shoe absently against the flagstones, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Either way, you couldn't have known what she was pulling out of your head."

James couldn't help but straighten up slightly at the mention of Harry, like the idea of his weirdly adult son inflated him a little. Could you blame him? It was hard not to turn into a smug prat every time his boy was mentioned, really. He grinned, finding the smile came readily with the change of subject. "Well... Not to sound too up myself, but he's probably the best thing I've ever done," James admitted, then shrugged easily and shot the other man an easy smile. "Well, top three, at any rate."

James watched Peter finish off the spells, a deep line etching itself between his eyebrows as he frowned. "Obviously," he sighed, falling into step beside Peter as they started off down the corridor. "But why couldn't he be happy with someone who isn't a complete tosser?"

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p__pettigrew
2021-06-08 02:44 pm UTC (link)

Peter sighed. "Apparently she was good, that's what I've been told. Even taught it to Draco. I know what logic says about this. I almost wished that you and Sirius could tell me that Marlene was wrong. The bitch did it for no reason, just to fuck with me," he said, shaking his head. "Or maybe because she wanted to kill a few extra Muggles for the hell of it." He looked at James. "If she arrives, I hope no one has a problem with me killing her." He wasn't sure that he could. He'd always defended himself, but he couldn't imagine killing someone in cold blood. Or couldn't have before coming here, but the more he found out about the situation, the more he thought that he just might.

He chuckled at James' reaction. "I'm not sure you should mention that there are other things that come before your son, but top three is a pretty good placement." He looked at James as they walked. "I see a lot of you and Lily in him. The kindness is definitely Lily," he teased. "I'm sorry you didn't see him grow up. I'm sorry that I let Bella push me into that decision and how it snowballed. I never wanted to see you hurt and I'm glad that I died saving Harry. At least I made things a little better in the end. I know you have no reason to believe me now, but I'll do everything to make sure he's all right now, even if he's older than us."

He huffed at the last comment. "James, we don't know Regulus and he can't be that much of a tosser if Remus likes him. Why do we even think he's a tosser? Other than being a Slytherin?" And unlike the new generations, that was a pretty important factor in their books, but Peter knew that they had to move past it for Remus' sake.

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_cervus_
2021-06-08 03:11 pm UTC (link)

James tugged absently on his hair, the frown still very much in place. The bellowing of the troll was starting to die back as they moved further away, which made thinking a little easier. "I'll help you dump the body in the lake," he finally replied. "Its probably been ages since the giant squid had a snack." It was easier to joke about it, even if the levity didn't quite meet his eyes. The idea of Bellatrix Lestrange arriving here wasn't one he wanted to entertain too long. "But you'll drive yourself mental if you try and work out what her reasons were, Pete. She's insane, and she's the one who we should be chucking in the lake. You were just... caught out."

"Not above," James chuckled diplomatically. "Maybe equal. I'm a very accomplished bloke, I'll have you know." His smile remained, dimming only somewhat as he glanced across at Peter, watching the familiar profile as they walked together. He almost told Peter it was fine, that they shouldn't worry about it - it was just a knee jerk reaction to seeing that expression on his old friend's face. But it wasn't fine, as much as he wished it. It was better, but it wasn't fine. The second part of his speech, however... well, that he could work with that. "Thanks Wormtail," he replied, his tone soft but genuine.

James hesitated, unsure about whether to answer that or just wave it off. It would be easy to do - this whatever-it-was between him and Pete was new, but it was fragile. He didn't think either of them wanted to push it. But then who could he talk to about it? Not Sirius - it was still too raw for that, even years later. Not Remus any more and definitely not Lily. He was very aware that, like Snape, Regulus Black bought out a side of him that his wife probably wouldn't appreciate. So who did that leave?

"You didn't see him," he finally said, gruffly. "That night Sirius ran away, when he turned up in our hallway. He was..." He shook his head, making a conscious effort to relax his jaw where it had set in a harsh, angle line. There was a sudden tension stretching across his shoulders, winding him tight. Maybe they could go back and fight that troll after all. "I've never seen him like that. He was bleeding. They fucked him up, Pete. That whole bloody family treated him like absolute shit and Regulus is his brother. Where was he? He didn't bloody stop it, so where was he? Up in his room, pretending not to hear? Fucking watching?"

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p__pettigrew
2021-06-08 05:16 pm UTC (link)

"Good," he said, with a grin. "Great way to destroy all evidence too." He had a feeling that some other people might object, the people who hadn't seen the war, the very same people who were very welcoming, but Peter knew that they had accepted him, because they hadn't lived through the war. He had more of a problem accepting himself than they did. "I guess so, but we got here and so much was thrown at us, and I'm trying to make sense of it all, because I don't know, for the life of me, why I'd have wanted the Dark Lord back. Did I got crazy? What the hell happened to me?"

He chuckled. "I know you are. Everyone knew you were. People looked at you and Sirius and knew how much you could do." Peter had lived of reflected light, trying to keep up. He knew he had the brains, but not the charm. "Wait to thank me until I show you. I'm not fucking up this time. Whatever happened, whatever drove me mad isn't happening again."

Peter hadn't been there, another moment between Sirius and James, but he could have guessed. "James, we were kids. All of us, we were kids, but that means that Regulus was even younger than us. Do you know if he knew for sure? Have you asked Sirius? Have you talked to Regulus? I just- I know Remus is truly smitten and I can't imagine that he would if Regulus were that awful. I trust Remus."

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_cervus_
2021-06-09 11:59 am UTC (link)

"I don't know, Pete," James replied a little hopelessly. "The whole thing came a bit out of the blue for me, you know that. None of it fits in with what I know about you, anyway. Knew about you, I guess. That's why it's all such a mess." A part of James wondered if the guilt of what he had done had made an impact on Peter, and Merlin knew over a decade as a rat couldn't have helped matters. It all seemed so bloody ridiculous that it might even have been funny if it wasn't so terrible.

"It helped that we basically shoved it down everyone's throats seven days a week," he grinned, with a slightly self-deprecating laugh. Still, it had been easy back then. Head Boy, Quidditch Captain, all of that - it belonged to a much simpler time. One when his friends didn't have to 'show him' anything for him to know he could rely on them. James cast Peter another sideways look, words curling on the edge of his tongue before he swallowed them down and satisfied himself with a mute nod.

Merlin, how had they got onto this?

"Exactly. We were kids too, and you can't tell me any of us would have just let Sirius be torn apart like that." James' Father had had to go to quite some lengths to keep his son from barreling over there that very night. "And I do trust Remus," he insisted, doing his very best not to roll his eyes. "I just don't trust Black with Remus. I wouldn't trust Black with a flobberworm." James scowled at his feet, digging his hands a little deeper into his pockets. "And you really don't want me talking to him, anyway. Believe me, he hates me as much as I hate him. We're quite happy on our two way street, thanks."

It did vaguely occur to James that Remus might not be so happy with the street in question, but what could he do? He'd already promised him indifference, even if his current urge to punch a troll was probably not quite filling that brief. Satisfying himself with glowering at a ghost that whipped across their path, James forced himself to unwind a little. "Look, can we just drop it, please? It's killing my troll-buzz."

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p__pettigrew
2021-06-09 06:01 pm UTC (link)

"If it helps, I can't figure out half of what happened and I should know myself." He had justified a lot of things with the fact that they had threatened his family, but he had no idea why he would have ever gotten Voldemort back. He even cut his own hand to do that. It sounded absolutely insane. "I wish I could give you a better answer, but I think I need to just give up trying to come up with a justification or I'll go crazy again."

James and Sirius had been so obvious about everything, extroverts to the extreme. They didn't have to try hard, because they just had that charm that got people to notice them. "You didn't have to do a lot of shoving. People just loved you. McGonagall and Dumbledore had a soft spot and everyone else followed suit."

Peter wanted to argue, but instead he sighed. "We had each other and our families. Who did he have? Still, I'm not saying to become his best mate. I'm not interested in being his best mate either, but if I can ask to be forgiven, I guess I have to be able to forgive, especially if Sirius wants to mend things for him."

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_cervus_
2021-06-09 09:37 pm UTC (link)

James' smile was vague, although not embarrassed. "Not everyone else," he pointed out, half heartedly. There had definitely been a handful who had thought he and the rest of his friends, Sirius especially, had been Grade A arses. It was just his bad luck that a couple of them happened to be stuck in the castle now.

He was glad that the Regulus conversation seemed to be coming to a close. Even if Peter was the only one he felt he could really run his mouth off to, he still got the feeling that it could turn into a 'thing'. James didn't have the patience for yet another 'thing' right now. Merlin knew he had enough going on.

Anyway, it turned out that maybe, possibly, potentially forgiving Peter was a lot easier than the mere idea of rethinking his opinion on Regulus. Perhaps that was what ten years of friendship earned you, even if it did make it even more painful when things went wrong.

"Well, I'll have that chat with Sirius or Remus when if it comes to it," he decided shortly, turning down another corridor. "I doubt Black is losing much sleep over me in the meantime."

Speaking of... they were almost at the research rooms now. James sighed, then stepped back a bit, allowing Peter to take the lead through the door. "Go on, you better go in first. In case the Tosser-in-Chief is there and I accidentally turn him into a piglet or something."

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