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Dying was quicker and easier than falling asleep - the killing curse that hit James caused him no pain. Realizing he was dead wasn't so kind. James could see his Lily facing off against Voldemort, their precious son wrapped in his family invisibility cloak and silenced behind her. His chest was tight, though he didn't need to breathe, and he watched the love of his life trade spells with Voldemort with his heart in his throat. When Lily fell, James felt the magic of their marriage bond flare to life. They were on the same plane again, and though he couldn't see her spirit he assumed she was doing the same thing he was - waiting and watching to see what came next. He tried to stay, to wait until Harry was safe, but he could feel himself passing on. James fought it as long as he could without tethering his spirit, but it wasn't long enough. He only hoped that Lily could stay until Harry was safely with Padfoot and Moony. The view faded from his son's nursery to James' favorite spot on the Potter Manor grounds - a field behind the house where he spent his days flying his broomstick and swimming in the nearby pond. He'd just begun to look around when he heard Lily's voice. It was an echo around him, not the sound of someone by his side, and he knew she wouldn't be joining him just yet."I'm sorry James, but it seems like my work isn't done."Alone, without his wife in the afterlife, and with no way of knowing what it was that Lily felt she still needed to do, James did the only thing he could.He cried. James couldn't begin to guess how long he'd been crying in that field - he'd already determined that time didn't seem to flow right here - when he heard another familiar voice. "My son," whispered the kind voice of Euphemia Potter. "We are so proud of you."James turned, and for the first time in nearly two years he saw the faces of his parents. Without words, he threw himself into his mother's arms, and his father wrapped them both in an embrace.Once he could stop crying, James pulled away. "Are they okay? Why didn't Lily move on?" James asked, scrubbing at his face.Fleamont answered as Euphemia smiled sadly. "You can watch them. You can do anything that you want to here.""How? How do I see them?""Just will it, and it will be so."Immediately, James focused all of his considerable stubbornness on seeing what had become of his family, and the street in front of their Godric's Hollow cottage materialized around him just in time for him to see his spitfire wife, her beautiful red hair and green eyes having been traded in for a silver hue, shouting down Albus Dumbledore."No, he can't send Harry to her sister's. No!""They can't hear you, James. It's the one thing we can't do here."James' shoulders dropped, but he had no more tears for now. He watched Lily reluctantly agree to Albus' arrangement, and a horrible feeling formed in his stomach when he heard the old headmaster's deflection. 'He will be monitored' was not the same thing as 'I will check on him'. James spent as much time as he could manage watching over his family. His parents didn't worry - they had done the same thing until he had died, and this afterlife was eternal. Wasting time wasn't a concern. He watched his son grow, and his wife do her best to give him what his living guardians would not. He'd been crushed to be without her, but now he was glad she'd stayed. Even though she couldn't provide him with food or clothes, she could give him love and his history.When watching Harry struggle to get by living with his uncle and aunt got to be too difficult, James would check in on the other people he'd left behind. Seeing his brother in all but blood waste away in Azkaban was as bad as seeing his son in a cupboard, but he felt he owed Sirius the time even if the man didn't know James was watching. Remus, too, was a frequent subject of what James referred to as his mind's eye. While Moony had the best lot of the (loyal) Marauders, that didn't mean his life was easy. For the first time since he was fifteen, Remus transformed without another living soul nearby to calm the wolf. James stayed the whole night. Between moons, Remus struggled to hold a job. The Potters had left him some money, but he saved it mostly for the potions and medical supplies he needed around the full moon. Often that meant Remus was hungry, most of his limited pay going towards keeping a roof over his head. Sometimes, James needed to be angry. He needed a break from the deep sadness that came from watching his loved ones' lives in shambles. When that happened, he watched one of two people. Peter and Albus. Peter, who had betrayed everything it meant to be a Marauder, and Albus, who had betrayed Lily's trust. The anger as he watched these people living more comfortably than anyone he loved was all-consuming, but its intensity broke through the despair without fail.It was rare for James to take a break from his mind's eye. His parents spent that time with him, watching over their daughter-in-law, their grandson, and the boys they had loved like sons as closely as James did and supporting their son through the tumult that came with being unable to help. When James did take a break, the three spent the time together in afterlife replicas their favorite places in life. This time was usually spent quietly - there was no need for catching up, or for mindless small talk - but it was an incredible comfort to all of them to be together. James witnessed all of the most important events in his son's childhood, thanks to the distortion of time in the afterlife. Whenever he checked in on someone else, when he returned his mind's eye to Harry and Lily it was as if no time had passed. James witnessed Harry's first accidental magic, and he witnessed all of the lessons and stories Lily passed on to their child. He also witnessed the abuse, and the helplessness Lily went through while trapped in the muggle world. Because James saw what seemed like everything, he also saw the first time Harry spoke Parseltongue.His jaw dropped when Harry began hissing to the snake. His first reaction was horror, much to his shame once he'd processed things. Following horror was confusion and worry, wondering how Harry could be a Parselmouth when the Potters had no connection to the Slytherin line. Despite this oddity, he didn't doubt for a second that Harry was his son. Not only would Lily never break their marriage vows, but the little boy looked more and more like James every day.Later, when Lily was explaining what she knew about the magical language to their son, James finally processed things to the point of acceptance while he watched his little boy worry about turning Dark. He knew, were he alive, it would have taken much longer for him to be okay with this. Death gave a person a new perspective. When the summer of 1991 finally rolled around and Harry got his Hogwarts letter at last, James rejoiced as Lily convinced Hagrid to allow her and Harry to stay in Diagon Alley until September first. If Lily hadn't essentially been raising Harry alone for a decade already, he would have worried about her ability to keep their boy safe without a corporeal form. As it was, however, he knew Harry couldn't be worse off at the Leaky Cauldron than he was at the Dursleys.
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Harry's sorting into Slytherin sent a shock through James as he watched. But he saw the smug look Lily got when she correctly predicted something - though she tried to keep it in check, and did an admirable job of it, he knew her too well. Next, he saw the calm acceptance of his mum and dad, and he wondered if he was just unobservant.James thought back to the years of life he'd watched Harry live, and thought that 'willfully blind' might be a better descriptor. This wasn't like Harry's parseltongue, however. James wasn't going to let it bother him, even for a second. So what if Harry was the first Potter to be sorted into Slytherin in- he didn't even know how long. James knew his family tree as well as any pureblood, and he couldn't think of a single Slytherin Potter. But it didn't matter to him. He loved that kid so fiercely, he hadn't let it bother him when his son could speak to snakes, wearing green wasn't going to change anything. James looked to his dad with a lopsided grin."Do we have to cheer for Slytherin Quidditch now, or wait until Harry's on the team?" James wasn't even mad at Snivellus during Harry's first potions lesson. Not properly, anyway. There was no need to be mad, because he knew- he wasn't sure if Snivellus didn't realize how closely Lily was tethered to Harry, or if he was just stupid, but even with only her words Lily was a fierce one and she had a decade's worth of pent up anger. Snivellus was going to regret every harsh word and deriding look he gave to Harry, so James only waited in anticipation.It was every bit as beautiful as he'd hoped. Lily made a crack about ghosts and James howled with laughter. Honestly, he could have watched that confrontation go on forever, but it was true that Harry had another class to get to. Besides, Lily had always had a talent for conciseness when putting someone in their place.Lily's confrontation with Albus later didn't give James the same glee - as rightfully furious as he was with the old man, he'd liked Albus while he'd been alive. Not like Snivellus. So it was satisfying - gratifying, even - to see Lily eviscerate him and leave him with his tail between his legs, but it wasn't pleasing in the same way. What was pleasing about that confrontation was the progress promised for the future - a new home for his son and a trial for his brother.After seeing Harry safely in his bed, James looked in on Padfoot. Desperately, he wished he could say just a single word to him. Soon, he wanted to say. Instead, he could only wait and hope that the news made its way to Azkaban quickly. Albus, he knew wouldn't dare delay after facing the fury personified that was Lily Potter. Everything seemed to be improving, and James couldn't be more pleased. Harry didn't have any close friends in his house, yet, but he was doing well enough as he settled in. Moony was writing to Harry, and Sirius was being seen by a Mind Healer, and Lily finally looked like she felt useful. Sirius had his trial, and it went as well as James knew it would. There was no denying testimony from Lily, Regulus, and Sirius himself under Veritaserum. The fact that the arresting auror pointed out the lack of any spellcasting on Sirus' part was surprising - but James was grateful for it. Any detail that could help his brother was a good one at that point. James watched as Harry continued to excel in school and make connections with other people, and as Sirius healed. He was unspeakably relieved when Poppy was able to provide the filtering amulet - too many headache potions really weren't good for a person. One thing James refrained from was reading his son's letters to the living Marauders. He easily could - he could see anything he wanted, an up close view of the letters included. Sometimes he read the papers, to get an idea of what was going on. But this he would allow his son to have privately. He could tell they were developing a positive relationship, and that was enough for him. When Harry and Theodore Nott confided in each other over Christmas holidays, James felt like he could curse Nott Senior for his actions. It surprised him. Not the fact that he wanted to curse a Death Eater - who wouldn't? - but that he felt protective over a Death Eater's kid. Seeing Harry grow up afraid, though, and knowing what Sirius had gone through when they were kids, he had a strong sense of empathy in this particular area. James noticed the motherly demeanor Lily took on with the Nott kid in the following weeks, and knew he wasn't the only one. A dragon. Merlin, this was almost as bad as the baby nundu Hagrid had adopted in '74. Luckily a nundu's toxic breath wasn't fully matured until they were several years old, so no one had died when it got loose on the lawn. Hagrid was- a good person. James knew how much he cared, and always wanted to do what was right. He was just, maybe, not quite the right kind of responsible to work at a school. James hated it a little bit that parenthood had made him care about responsibility so much. "Leave the Philosopher's Stone alone, Harry," James said aloud when he watched his son tell the other Slytherins about its suspected presence in the school. He was grateful that Lily was there to provide the reasonable adult input, even if telling a professor was the last thing he and his friends would have done in school. What was that saying, about a parent's best revenge being watching their kid raise a child like them? James felt it in his soul. James' heart was in his throat, watching Harry fearfully tread into the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid really didn't have a proper understanding of danger, and if Harry suffered for it, James was going to have to find some way to get back to the world of the living just to shout at him about it. Or he'd wait until the man died to have words with him, which would probably be easier since time wasn't real in the afterlife. He could not believe that after Harry had raised his concerns about Quirrell he hadn't looked in on the man. There was a threat to his son in the school, and he'd done absolutely nothing! If Harry hadn't had the filtering amulet from Poppy, if facing that monster while he drank unicorn's blood had put him in as much pain as seeing a bone-breaker cast, then Harry could be dead right now. The likelihood that anything in the forest would have stopped it was slim - centaurs were the closest thing to friendly the Forbidden Forest could claim to host, and the extent of their good opinion of humans was that they didn't hurt children.Thank Merlin that Lily was able to back Harry up telling that story. It did sound fantastical, if you hadn't witnessed it, and James almost didn't blame Snivellus for being skeptical. James, unfortunately, already knew that the possessed Quirrell had escaped. It was a bloody nightmare. The only thing worse than Quirrell escaping, in James' opinion, was finding out that his son would spend the summer in Snivellus' home.
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Okay, that was- okay. James was okay. "I'm okay," he said aloud to his parents, as though saying it would make it true."James," his mum said knowingly.James pouted childishly. "I don't want Harry to like Snivellus!""Would you rather he be as uncomfortable in the man's presence as he as all summer?" James's dad asked pointedly."No, of course not," James shot back. And it wasn't like he wanted his son to have a difficult relationship for the next seven years, either, but- "But it's Snivellus!"And now Lily was forgiving him. This just got better and better.Except, James had to admit (on pain of something worse than death) (because really, once you got used to it death wasn't all that bad) that Snivellus was... doing good things for Harry? Urgh. As he watched Harry settle into Snape's house, and Lily work on her ritual with the man, James warred with himself."I don't like him," he adamantly told his parents."We know," they chorused."But maybe- Maybe he's changed. Maybe this Snape isn't the Snivellus I knew."James still wished he could throw up, watching Sirius apologize to the man. James thought about watching his son's mind healing sessions, but ultimately if Lily thought Harry should have them alone... well, he only peeked a little bit. Just enough to make sure this Agim Shabani could be trusted, is all. The opening of the Chamber of Secrets made James's blood run cold, and he wanted to kick Filch into next Tuesday for giving Harry a panic attack.Watching Harry move from person to person in the aftermath, providing comfort and support, James thought (not unkindly) that his son could have done well in Hufflepuff.James was excited to watch his son's first quidditch game, until it all went wrong. Even as a cursed bludger pursued Harry, James couldn't help but admire his boy's broom skills. The panic attack at altitude was less exciting, but James had fallen from his broom before so while he didn't like seeing his son fall he wasn't terribly worried that the school staff would fail to to their jobs and protect him. Until, of course, Lockhart arrived. James had seen the disasters the man caused in classes and the corridors, as he'd felt the need to check up on the man's intentions with his son following the debacle last year with Quirrell. Lockhart wasn't malicious - just a bleeding idiot with an ego the size of the castle. It didn't stop James wanting to see him suffer for breaking Harry's arm worse. The dueling club was... well. James had gotten over the fact that his son was a parselmouth and the Heir of Slytherin a long time ago, but he would have preferred, for Harry's sake, if it never became widely known. At least not while Harry was still in school. Kids were mean. James knew that, of course, having been somewhat mean himself as a kid. He was grown up enough to admit that by now.The aftermath of that reveal was as difficult as James had worried, but he was ultimately pleased with how Harry and his friends decided to handle it. That brought him up short when he processed it. James was proud of his son, of course, he always was, but was he... proud of Harry's Slytherin friends? For scheming?That was new. In his mind's eye, James could see the Dark magic radiating off the diary from the first moment Harry found it."That's soul magic," his dad said quietly, horrified. "That's the only thing we'd be able to see like that is soul magic. This is not good." James had a brief reprieve from his worry to laugh at his son's expense on Valentine's Day. Unlike his wife, he didn't have to hide his mirth and laughed uproariously. Whatever little girl or boy had sent that Valentine had a way with words, he thought! "Oh, if only I'd had such an opportunity with Lils," he chuckled as he wiped away a single tear. James's blood ran ice cold when Harry started writing in the diary. He did not like this. He didn't like it one bit. It wasn't often that he wished fervently to be able to impact the living world, it wasn't the nature of the afterlife to want such a thing. But as he watched Harry become more and more entranced by this piece of Dark soul magic, he'd have given anything to reach into the living world and snatch it out of his son's hands. And when Harry went inside the diary, if James wasn't already dead he'd have had a heart attack.Thank every being James could think of that Harry's friends had sense. He didn't even mind Snape being involved if it meant getting that diary away from Harry.Although when Snape proceeded to lose the diary, James thought a hex for old time's sake wouldn't go amiss. Especially since it cost Harry the company of his closest friend. Seeing Harry settle into Blackwood Hall with Sirius settled something in James that he hadn't even realized was stirred up. Sirius was, after all, Harry's godfather. This was how Harry was meant to live, what he and Lily had specified in their wills - it was right, and it was good. And Sirius, Harry and Lily were all happy, which was something James once could only dream of. Things at Hogwarts went from bad to worse to downright awful as James watched Dumbledore and Hagrid removed, and then poor little Ginny Weasley went missing.He was torn between terror and pride when he watched Harry rescue her.On one hand, James had agreed entirely with Lily's assessment that Harry should stay away from the ancient basilisk that apparently lived in the bowels of the school. Very sensible, Lily was. But on the other hand - it was chivalrous and brave of Harry to stand up for Ginny Weasley when no one else could and he did it with a sense of cunning that James had to admit was very impressive for a kid. All the same, he sagged in relief when the diary was destroyed and it was all over.It was over, and everyone made it out of the Chamber.And surely, things had to get easier from here.