James did up his twenty-eight buttons with special care Friday morning, and had his mum tie his bow-tie, since Lily was at her class. Dora dusted his shoulders and fussed over his hair. "Tell my baby that if I was feeling better I'd come to his trial, but I don't need to be coughing fire all about the court room," she said, worrying. 

"I'll tell him, mum," James nodded.

Dora sighed and held him out at arm length, looking him over. "And you... Look at you. So handsome." She smiled and leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Thanks mum," James said. He sighed. "I don't know how Dad did stuff like this, these advocacy things... I'm a nervous wreck and I'm not even the actual person advocating, that'll be Mr. Underhill and --"

"Harry will take care of you both," Dora replied.

James looked up. "Harry?"

"Yes," Dora said, "Harry Underhill."

James felt like an idiot. He'd known Mr. Underhill for just about a year now and he hadn't managed to learn that the man's first name was Harry? He scanned his brain - surely Mr. Underhill had said his first name at some point, right? Had James been so thick as to forget what his own boss's actual name was? He felt his face flush. 

Porridge, his brain echoed with Lily's voice.

"I guess I didn't know his name was Harry," James said. 

Dora laughed, "You ought to have done, he was friends with your father." When James still looked confused, she expanded, "Harry helped your father when he was in Azkaban, when everything happened with your Aunt Ottalie. Your father might've been put away for good if Harry hadn't helped him out of a tight spot."

James asked, "Mr. Underhill did?"

Dora nodded. "At the time, Harry was working as one of the guards at Azkaban. This is, of course, when they had wizard guards on site still, before the Dementors were assigned at Azkaban to fully replace the staff. Harry was going in the night your father was booked and he was assigned second watch over the prisoner... Harry said he could just tell that Charlus wasn't guilty. There was an air about the guilty prisoners that Charlus just didn't have. So he talked with him and he got the truth out of him and when your father explained what happened --"

"What did happen, mum?" James asked.

Dora stared into his eyes for several long moments. "James, your great-grandfather was a... follower of Gellert Grindelwald... and your grandfather, while not exactly for him wasn't exactly against him, either. He was nice to your father and Ottalie, but he wasn't... good." She paused. "And your great-uncle... Well. He was... quite involved in the entire... Grindelwald... affair."

James's eyes widened. "They were basically Death Eaters, you're saying?"

"Well - no, not exactly. Grindelwald's followers were not necessarily purists, like the Death Eaters are. Grindelwald had a different flavor to his anti-muggle views than You Know Who. They were more... elitest... wizarding supremacy, I suppose you could say. They believed that the wizarding world should not have to be kept secret, but should be made known to the muggles and that the wizards should rule over the muggles, since the muggles were making such a terrible mess of things. They had been to war so many times and advancing more technologically so that their wars were becoming more and more deadly. Grindelwald's views can be seen as... almost enticing when viewed against a backdrop of gun violence and atomic weaponry that the muggles were creating to fight one another. They'd just come out of World War One and the tensions were pointing toward what would become World War Two, they were murdering each other at alarming rates, you see. And Grindelwald... he wanted to overthrow the muggle powers and stop them from having that capability. He said they would destroy the world, make the entire human race go extinct if allowed to go on as they were... and wizards have the power to stop it, he would say."

James felt sick. He felt sick because he found himself almost understanding.

Dora took a deep breath. "Your father and Ottalie didn't agree, which wasn't such an issue until Ottalie started rallying against Grindelwald with some of her friends..." Dora paused. "Bloody hell, James, you need to go. Sirius is likely waiting for you already! Isn't the trial at half nine?"

"Yeah but --" James looked at the clock up on the mantle and sighed. She was right. He did have to go. He wished he could stop the time and keep on talking about Ottalie. This was the most information he'd gotten out of his mum yet about the whole situation and his heart was thumping loud within his chest with wondering what possibly could have come next in this story. Gellert Grindelwald's beliefs making sense was unsettling as hell to James, too, and he felt almost dirty in his own skin.

"Remind me later," Dora said.

James nodded.

"Now go free my baby boy."

"Yes mum." James felt dizzy, and he didn't know how he managed it, but he pulled himself away, grabbing the floo powder from beside the clock. He glanced back at her. "Mum?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Gramps wasn't.... he wasn't evil, was he?" James could barely remember his grandfather, but what he could remember was like warm butterscotch in his mind and he hated the idea that Grampa Potter could be anything but that sunshine-toasty memory.

"I'll tell you the whole story later, Jamesy," she promised. 

James nodded, his stomach twisting.

Was that a yes?

And he stepped through the floo and into the flat in East London feeling confused and conflicted, and somehow maybe just a little bit less like the person that he believed himself to be.

 The unsettled feeling was extinguished fairly near to immediately, however, as he was immediately engulfed in the arms of Sirius Black. "PRONGS! GOOD MORNING! I'M GOING OUTSIDE!"

"Good morning," James grunted, the ever loving life being squeezed out of him by Sirius.

Remus said, "And if you aren't good you're not going to be invited back in."

"Oh I'll be invited back in when you're hot and bothered and in need of a good f---"

"Good morning James!" Remus cut across Sirius and pulled him off James, "Stop you'll wrinkle his uniform, Sirius, not to mention your own clothes."

James looked Sirius over, "Very classy, Padfoot."

"Shut the fuck up." 

In an effort to look like an upstanding young gentleman, Remus had insisted that Sirius wear some of his more presentable clothing, rather than the usual fare. It had been quite a discussion - very near to another fight as Remus had looked up from the morning Prophet and said, "Oh absolutely not" when Sirius came waltzing into the kitchen wearing a tshirt that said NO AUTHORITY BUT YOURSELF. "You look like you're petitioning for more time in jail, not the other way around, you bleedin' ---" and Remus had proceeded to dress Sirius, neatening him up and forcing his hair into a low ponytail to keep it out of his face, wiping away eyeliner and nail polish, and putting him in a tie - and not the fancy little pistachio green one that Sirius so favored, but a left over one from Hogwarts in Gryffindor stripes. The problem being that Remus's stuff was for someone several inches taller than Sirius, and so he'd used magic to shorten the pants and the sleeves were too long.

"How do you dress like this everyday, Moony, I swear, I feel absolutely boring!" Sirius tugged at the collar of the button-down shirt as Remus grabbed at the wrist and started neatly folding the sleeves up.

"I'm boring?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow, finishing one cuff just above Sirius's elbow and beginning work on the second one.

"Not at all. You somehow resist the dork-factor of these ridiculous clothes."

"I'm just glad you're not wearing torn up jeans and a shirt that says Doggy Style or something."

"How about No Authority But Yourself?"

"Oi mate --"

"Remus thinks the Ministry shouldn't know that they're fucking losers."

"Maybe not today at least," James conceded.

Remus straightened Sirius's tie for the fifth time. "I'm just saying I'd prefer you came home tonight."

"Oh stop fretting about it.... of course I'm coming home tonight," Sirius said, waving his palm.

"That's right you are, after a nice long walk in the park," James said.

"THE PARK!" Sirius sighed lovingly. "Those damned pigeons are probably right full of themselves thinking they've won the battle but I'll tell them what --"

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Alright, pigeon-killer... come along," James grinned. "It's bring your dog to work day."

Sirius grinned back, which helped make him look a lot more like himself, despite the punk-free look of his clothing.

James grabbed the floo powder and held some out for Sirius and just as Sirius was about to grab some, Remus grabbed hold of him and pulled him close. "I really do mean it about you coming home tonight," he muttered as he clung onto Sirius, closing his eyes. "I joke about you going away but I never mean it."

"I know that, Moonshine," Sirius said back and he pressed his face into Remus's neck.

"Come back here before you go after the pigeons so Bradley and I can go for a walk with you, too," Remus said.

"I will," Sirius answered.

"God and please just - just keep your mouth in check, will you? Please?" Remus begged, and he kissed Sirius's jaw about a hundred times. 

"I'll do my best," Sirius said.

Remus drew a shaking breath, "Alright. Alright I'll see you soon." He nodded and reluctantly let go to Sirius, taking a couple steps backward.

"I'll try and steal the handcuffs," whispered Sirius and he gave Remus a quick kiss on the face and a wink and stepped through the floo, disappearing.

"Bleeding hell," Remus muttered.

"I won't let him steal the handcuffs," James said, "Unless you want him to." He grinned. 

Remus shook his head as James disappeared, too.

Despite his goofing about at home, Sirius was really quite nervous. In addition, he was feeling some of the nerves James was feeling which made him extra serious feeling and less Sirius feeling and he quieted after they left the flat and his need to distract Remus was ended. He followed James through the auror training center, sticking close and looking around at the place James came every day for work. 

The auror training center wasn't exactly boring, either, with portraits of famous aurors from centuries past, solving crimes and putting their bounty into jail cells. There were posters of wanted wizards - basically a gallery of death eaters and You Know Who on moving wanted posters declaring various sums of money and instructions about what to do if the criminal was encountered. There were also posters of different recommended practices and wand handling techniques, encouraging pictures of bowtruckles that said things like Be-LEAVE in Yourself! and other nonsense. 

The office where James and Mr. Underhill worked was on the very bottom floor about as far back into the depths of the training center as one could go and Sirius muttered, "Ninety percent of your commute is this dram trek."

"Tell me about it," James lamented.

Mr. Underhill wasn't in yet when James and Sirius stepped into the office, and Sirius stood awkwardly between the two desks, looking around. There were several owls jostling about on a perch coated with droppings, little messages tied about their legs as they hooted in excitement, trying to get James to check his messages. James flipped through the inbox on his desk a moment and found a couple documents Mr. Underhill had left notes requesting copies be made. James checked the owls and sent them back to their departments, sorting through the memos they'd delivered - all for Mr. Underhill, none urgent - and he tossed them onto Underhill's desk.

Sirius watched as James gathered up the papers for copying, bent over his desk with concentration. A smirk was crawling across his face.

"Look at you."

James looked up, "What?"

"Being a real adult, doing work things."

James glanced at the case files he was preparing then looked back up at Sirius. "I know, weird, isn't it?"

"Extremely."

When he'd completed getting the files prepped, James waved for Sirius to follow him. "C'mon, we've got to get these copied."

"Oooh it's like a proper holiday. An adventure! Another long trek!"

"Terribly long," James said, and he opened the office door, shooshed Sirius into the hall, took the two steps across the hall to Sean Buckner's office door and announced, "Alright. We've arrived."

Sirius, who hadn't even moved, said, dripping sarcasm, "Damn your sidealong apparition skills have gotten very good."

"Sorry to disappoint you," James said. He reached for the door and wrenched it open, then motioned for Sirius to step ahead in.

Sirius fake curtsied and stepped around James into the office and was greeted by a shrill, "Oh!" and a thump. There was a flash of blonde hair and the clicking of heels on the tile, the scrape of a chair, and Sirius found himself face to face with Annalee McKinnon. He blinked in surprise. So did she. Her face was all red and the lip stick on her mouth was smudged, her hair a bit disheveled. 

"Sirius Black?"

"Bananalee!" Sirius cried out and his mouth twisted into a grin. "Hullo. It's been positively ages."

"Hullo Sirius," she said, bristling at the old nickname.

James looked over Sirius's shoulder at Annalee, smirking, too. "Hullo Annalee. Good day for a long walk again, 'ey?" 

Annalee sniffed, "He's the most efficient copier in the Ministry... worth the walk..." and she hurried 'round them and out the door, clutching a sheaf of papers. to her chest. She paused in the door frame, then said to Sean, "See you later, then," and hurried away.

Sirius looked at James, eyebrows raised, as James laughed and turned to the flustered Sean Buckner, who sat behind his desk, shuffling papers about, grinning down at the desk.

Sirius glanced at Sean, then back to James, eyebrows raised, amused.

James dropped his papers on Sean's desk. "Sooo... Sean, does the snogging come standard with the copies or is it like a bonus program like you copy nine, get a snogging free? Is there a punch card I need to collect on?"

Sirius laughed.

Sean looked up at James, his face red and a bit of Annalee's smudged lipstick still hung onto the side of his mouth. "Sorry," he said, "Fresh out of the punch cards, I'm afraid."

James grinned and motioned at the corner of his mouth, indicating for Sean to wipe his. "You've got something, just --" 

Sean hurriedly used the sleeve of his jumper to buff at the side of his mouth.

James nodded when he'd gotten the smudges off of his face. "There you go, buddy."

 "Working at the Ministry is such fun!" Sirius said. "I never once got snogged at Gomer's!"

"The gnomes just wouldn't have it, would they?" James teased.

Sirius shoved James, then turned on Sean Buckner with interest. "Soooo, who are you and what are you doing snogging Bananalee McKinnon?"

Sean said, "Sean Buckner." He held out his hand to shake Sirius's and shook firmly. "And she was snogging me, I'll have you to know, and although I haven't an idea of what's turned her head, I'll not be askin' too many questions about it and just accept me fate." Then, Sean took James copying up. "Just one?"

"That'll do," James nodded. 

Sean got to work undoing the clips and prepping. James asked, "Seems things are going well with Annalee, then, for real?" James pressed.

"Very well, thank you." Sean never paused his copying, his hands flying over the paperwork, the copies stacking up beside the fluttering sheets. He really was the most efficient copier in the Ministry, after all. "We've been on dates and all... Grandmum's already threatenin' to buy a hat."

James grinned, "I'm happy for you both."

Sean looked up and his eyes shone. "I'm happy for us, too."

"And how's the house coming?"

"Nearly finished with it now," Sean replied. He'd hired out to rebuild the house in Dunlewey. He motioned to the portal picture up on his wall and James turned to look. Sean smiled, "Decided I'd have it set where I could see it this time."

Sure enough, there was a the house, nearly finished, the earth 'round it fresh turned. A couple sheep  wandered about and James saw one of the giant footprints in the earth had been filled with water, creating a little pond, making the scene even more picturesque, if that were possible. 

"We'll be able to be goin' home in no time," Sean said. "Grandmum's overjoyed."

"It looks grand, mate," James said. "Good on you."

In the hallway after Sean had finished the copies, Sirius turned to James. "He doesn't seem like Annalee's old type."

"No, but Annalee doesn't seem much like the old Annalee herself these days, honestly." James smiled, "They're a good match."

Sirius smiled, too, "That makes me quite happy, actually."

"Me, too," James replied. "Sean's a good bloke... and galleons in that they're married before the year's out."

"That gobsmacked, are they?"

"I've a feeling," James nodded.

When they stepped into the office, they found Mr. Underhill had arrived and was just shrugging off his suit jacket to hang up on the hook by the door. He looked up as James and Sirius entered and James held up the paperwork. "Got those copies you asked for, sir. There's a couple owls on your desk as well."

"Thank you, Potter." Underhill looked Sirius over and said, "Good morning Sirius."

"Good morning Harry."

James did a double take, looking at Sirius in surprise.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing," James lied. Even Sirius had known Underhill's name? James wondered how he'd been so thick to miss it if even Sirius knew it. 

"Have a seat, Sirius, there's some things I'd like to go over before we head upstairs to the courtroom." Mr. Underhill looked at his watch and flicked a wrist to make a chair appear. "We want to be sure we're all on the same page and that we get you in and out of there as quickly as possible."