James Potter looked over the files that had been sent over from the Auror office that morning. While he didn’t hold a regular position with the Aurors, he often consulted on cases. He had inherited enough money from his parents, who had both died by the time that he had married Lily that he didn’t have to work at all. The consulting he did with the Aurors was just enough to keep him from getting bored without having the regular hours of a normal job.

His current case was one that he had been working on for three years, when Tom Riddle, Headmaster at Hogwarts, had asked him to take it over after the other consultant on the case had had a nervous breakdown. Headmaster Riddle had taken a personal interest in the case because the Dark wizard they were hunting was his former mentor.

When Tom Riddle, a half-blood raised by his Muggle father and grandfather after the death of his witch mother, had first come to Hogwarts, then Deputy Headmaster Albus Dumbledore had seen great potential and magical strength in the boy who was the last heir of Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin. He had taken the boy under his wing and personally trained him to defeat the man who was one of the darkest wizards that the Wizarding world had ever seen: Gellert Grindelwald.

What Dumbledore had not told young Tom was that Grindelwald had once been a very close friend of his. As young men, Grindelwald and Dumbledore had plotted to overthrow the government and rule the Wizarding world like the monarchs of old had ruled. They had believed that a single strong ruler could keep the Wizarding world together better than the various Ministries which would often take forever to decide upon an issue and frequently worked against each other and there was much division within the individual Ministries themselves. Grindelwald would become the Grand Archmagus and Dumbledore would be his heir and second in command. But Dumbledore had loved and trusted his friend, whom he considered his older brother, and had failed to notice just how twisted his views had become.

Only after Grindelwald had ordered that Dumbledore banish his Squib sister Ariana and put her into a home for such children, because Albus would be tainted by her if she stayed, did Dumbledore finally see Grindelwald for what he truly was and the two quarreled and parted ways. But for many long years Dumbledore had secretly longed to return to the man and convince him of the error of his ways. He wanted young Tom to defeat Grindelwald so that he would have a chance to speak to his old friend again.

The plan had been for Tom to simply defeat Grindelwald and place him in a wizard prison, but when they had dueled shortly after Tom’s graduation from Hogwarts, Tom had accidentally killed the Dark wizard. When Tom had killed Grindelwald it ruined Dumbledore’s last chance at reconciliation or anything else. The death of the man, whom he had still considered his brother, drove him over the edge. Dumbledore had considered Tom’s mistake as a deliberate betrayal and he turned on his apprentice, nearly killing him, before disappearing and taking over where Grindelwald had left off in their old quest.

Shouts of laughter from outside called James from the files and he stood, moving to the window to watch his son playing with a large, black dog. That dog, called Padfoot, was the Animagus form of his best friend and James’ choice for Harry’s godfather: Sirius Black. Harry didn’t seem to enjoy being around Sirius much, unless Sirius took him flying, but Harry thoroughly enjoyed playing with Padfoot. Probably because Lily and Sev wouldn’t let him have a dog of his own.

--

"How was your week?" James asked his son as they sat down to eat their dinner that evening. Since he only saw his son every other weekend, he tried to take advantage of the time he had with his only child. That and he was always looking for dirt on the boy's stepfather, Severus Snape.

Harry shrugged. "It was alright." He didn't really like staying with his
dad. Especially when his dad's friends, Sirius and Peter, came over because they tended to forget that Harry was even there and spent a lot of time saying bad things about his Da.

"Did something happen, Sport?"

"I got in trouble," he said with another shrug, picking at his food.

"Trouble for what?"

Harry took a deep breath before answering. "I took Mum's wand while she was putting Eric and Rosie down for a nap."

James made a face at the mention of Harry's half-siblings. "You know better than that, son."

"I know, Dad. Da already punished me for it."

"He did what?! Why?" He demanded, pulling his son over to stand in front of him.

"Da punished me. 'Cause I took Mum's wand into his lab and started a fire under a cauldron and it 'xploded."

"Punished you? How?"

Harry shrugged again. "He spanked me."

"Spanked you?"

Harry nodded.

He finally had some dirt on Snape. This was just what he needed to get custody of his son. "Harry...I need you to tell me exactly what he did to you."

The boy nodded. "Alright, Dad. He sent me to my room to wait. Then he came and gave me a lecture. I hate those. And then he spanked me."

"But how did he spank you, Sport?" he asked, drawing his son up to sit on his knee.

Harry gave him a 'don't you know anything' look. "He pulled my pants down and turned me over his knee and spanked me."

"How many times? Just your pants?"

"No, he spanked my bare bottom. But he’s never done that before. He said it was ‘cause I was so naughty," the six-year-old told him. "And he gave me six swats."

"He's done this before?!"

"Sometimes," Harry told him with yet another shrug.

"Why didn't you tell me that he was hurting you?"

"It only hurts for a few minutes, Dad. And he only does it when I've done something bad."

James put Harry down and walked over to the Floo. "Your mother and I are going to have a talk."

"Why? Did I do something wrong?"

“You haven’t done anything wrong, but Snape sure has.” He tossed some Floo powder down and stuck his head into the green flames. A moment later he pulled back and Lily stepped through.

“Mummy,” Harry cried, running to wrap his little arms around Lily’s waist. He only called her ‘Mummy’ when he was hurt, scared, or upset and his dad was scaring him a little with all his questions.

She sat down and lifted Harry to sit on her lap, cuddling him close. “What is so important that you had to discuss it now, James?”

“You married a child abuser, Lil,” James told her.

“Sev is no such thing.”

“He’s beating our son!”

Lily gave him a look. “He gave Harry a spanking, but he is not beating Harry.”

“You’re blind, Lil, if you can’t see it.”

She rolled her eyes. “I was standing in the hall, James. Sev gave him six swats and it didn’t even leave a mark.”

“That man has no business touching my son!” James yelled.

Lily looked down at Harry, who was clinging to her, tears in his bright green eyes. She kissed his forehead. “Why don’t I take you home real quick, alright?” He nodded against her shoulder, looking over at his dad. “We’ll finish this in a minute, James,” she told her ex-husband, before stepping through the Floo with Harry.

At the Snape house, she set him down and sent him to find his da before going back to finish her argument with James. “Now you listen here, James Potter, I am sick and tired of you bad-mouthing Sev. Especially in front of Harry. Severus is just as much his father as you are. He’s been there for Harry more than you have.”

“You’re the one that left me, Lil.”

“I may have physically walked out on you, James, but you had left our marriage long before that. Did you really expect me to stay after I found out that you had been cheating on me? AGAIN!?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head. “You are still an arrogant toerag, Potter.”

“I don’t want my son spanked. My parents never spanked me.”

Lily put her hands on her hips. “Maybe you should have been. Then you might have ended up an improvement over the bastard that you are.”

“Snape is brainwashing you! And ruining my son!”

“No, James, you are doing that yourself! If you keep trying to make Harry hate Sev, I will get a court order barring you from seeing Harry. Ever! You are the one ruining Harry and you’re trying to ruin my marriage too!” With that she turned and stepped through the Floo again.