Canon? Where we're going we don't need canon!

Perhaps James had something against letting Voldemort have a dramatic death battle? Was he trying to deny this creature entrance to Valhalla? That didn't really make sense, but James allowed those thoughts to distract him from what he did. Neither the fact that the target more than deserved it, nor that he already experienced it before, made him comfortable with killing.

Handling those emotions as Dumbledore was easier. He was older then, and he had seen the horrors of war, the faces of the people that suffered great losses, yet were determined to remain strong, to continue fighting. James did not experience that personally, he only had memories of experiencing it, and that was not the same. He intellectually knew that he was doing the right thing, but a child was not meant to experience something like this.

On one hand, having partial mentality of a child helped him connect to his peers. On the other, crying over killing Voldemort was not something he wanted. It took him several long moments before he was able to push those emotions behind the Occlumency barriers. Normally, suppressing emotions wasn't healthy, even with Occlumency. It lead to unresolved issues… Emotions locked behind Occlumency remained in stasis. Perhaps Snape was unable to let go of his grudges for this reason? James knew that those feelings will simply go away with time as his heart realigned with his mind, so instead of locking them fully, he imagined a valve that was slightly open. He will be somewhat sullen for a while, but over time he'll be able to move on.

Onto Voldemort matters – teleporting to him and taking him out was a simple affair. Feeling whimsical, James used a brick. Then he was devoured. James used the remains of Tom's soul to feel the connection to the other anchors and called them to him. His immense magical power allowed him to rip out the soul pieces out of the items without needing to sacrifice the artifacts themselves, and since James had already studied the enchantments, he would simply present these to Hogwarts once he was older and could have a reasonable explanation to obtaining them.

Considering how many times Voldemort monologued, nearly every time he had confronted Harry really, James felt an odd sense of satisfaction from denying Voldemort any fanfare.

James was satisfied with how things were going currently. While things for Muggleborn weren't getting better at the moment, they weren't getting worse either, so he was fine with waiting to see what happens once he is at Hogwarts and Lily has a chance to interact with other magicals – not counting Snape.

James did ensure that he got rid of Voldemort after the latest DADA professor retired. The curse that Voldemort placed on the job seemed to grow as time went on and wasn't as bad now as it would've been in the future, so the current professors left the job for benign reasons. The latest one was rather mediocre, so James wanted them to retire while he himself found a competent teacher and encouraged them to take the job. It was manipulative, but with the curse removed he didn't want a bad teacher to take it, and the person that he chose was looking for such work regardless.

Over the last pre-Hogwarts year, his relationship with Narcissa didn't significantly improve one way or another, but they did have fun together. On the other hand, his relationship with Amelia and Lily did change. His engagement to Narcissa didn't come up often, but it was mentioned, and both girls seem affected by the news. There was a glint of determination in their eyes, but they were both young and innocent, so the extent of it was mostly that they tried to be the focus of his attention as best they could, be it games or lessons, and their hugs were more eager than they used to.

James wasn't suffering from dense protagonist syndrome and noticed their feelings towards him were growing. He had no intention of rejecting them, he liked the girls well enough, but they were too young for him to actively encourage them either. While he returned their innocent displays of affection, he decided to take a passive approach to their relationship so that at the moment, it would be up to them. He'd rather wait for them to be older before acting.

One day James found himself in the forest alone with Petunia. Lily had several more encounters with Snape, who did not seem to give up on getting her away from Petunia. Not telling him that Petunia had magic was probably for the best. She was obviously not a normal witch, already past the time that one would've normally received the Hogwarts letter, and they didn't know what would the Ministry do if they found out about her, but it was unlikely to be for her benefit.

Lily decided to spend the day with Severus. Unfortunately for the boy, in recent months she was rather dedicated to learning healing magic, so spending the day with him really meant beating him up and leaving no evidence, aside from mental trauma. He was getting on her nerves, and anyone who would claim that Lily had a gentle soul was a fool.

The fact that James found that quite attractive was something he found alarming. He wasn't an M, but seeing the fierceness did something to him… Maybe waking up to Bellatrix on top of him in the Potter Manor last Easter did something to him?

"Hello Bella, what are you doing here?" He remembered asking. He didn't fear Bellatrix, regardless of how intense she could get.

"You need to teach me! The others are wasting your gifts, wanting to play or protect others when they should be giving their all to true power! To you…" She growled, leaning close to him, breathing in his scent. At fifteen, she was definitely becoming a woman, her dress hugging her growing mounds, barely hugging her curves. Had it not shown weakness to her, had she not seemed so ready to pounce at the prepubescent boy, James would've raised his hands to grab at her-

"They're my friends, not servants. I teach them because I want to, it's fun. Why would I teach you?" He asked, though he had an idea where this was going. Bellatrix loved feeling in control, but there was something very fragile beneath the mask, and discovering that vulnerability made him regret the one time he did scan her mind. She would only feel safe knowing there is someone who is stronger than her that can control her. She practiced the Dark Arts when she was too young to understand, and now she was afraid of her own mind.

"You need someone you can completely trust, someone like me. You'll never have to fear betrayal from me… Didn't you see how I was able to sneak on you easily? You need this just as much as I need you…" She whispered the last part, but with the distance between them, it was pointless. If she was so broken when he got involved with the Blacks early, no wonder the path she found herself on without his involvement.

"With our wards and house elves, you really think you managed to sneak into my room unnoticed?" James asked curiously. "The only reason you succeeded is standing outside the room and giggling while repeating "grandbabies" to herself. I'm ten, I don't know what mother thinks is happening in here, but it's not that!"

James sighed as he heard the sound of escaping footsteps. He is already engaged to Narcissa, there are talks of a potential agreement between him and Amelia, and she still wants more… Perhaps he should tell her about Lily? Will it make things better or worse…

There were no confessions of love and making out sessions in his bed that day, but he did agree to teach Bellatrix as well. It wasn't as though he rejected her before then, it was just her being dramatic. James considered loosening his morals regarding mind reading people that were close to him, perhaps it would make it easier to understand how they think. He was sure that even with mind reading, that would still be confusing sometimes.

He didn't plan on seducing Bellatrix. She was five years older than him, and he was sure that either she or her family will find someone suitable for her before the idea of the two of them being in a relationship will stop being creepy. From how things were progressing, lacking plans wouldn't be hindering him regardless.

James shook off those memories and focused on the meditating Petunia. She was far more reserved than Lily when it came to shows of affection, but she did not shy away from the occasional hug. James wasn't going to pry into her mind to figure out if her feelings towards him were purely platonic or not. If he notices negativity from her that can be explain as lack of confidence or jealousy, then it was a maybe, but she seemed fine at the moment, so he wasn't going to push any boundaries just to determine if the girl was hoping for something to develop between them.

Druidic magic fascinated James. Unlike witches and wizards, Petunia did not have magic of her own. The world's magic was flowing through her, and she was using her will to give it orders, to shape nature to do her bidding. She had to open herself to the voice of nature before it would listen to her own.

James had to experiment with aura viewing spells for a while before he was able to see the kind of magic that was answering Petunia's call. It was far calmer than the magic wizards used. What Petunia could do was at a far larger scale than what a normal wizard was able to do at a similar level of competency, but she had greater restrictions too. The world answered to her requests, not demands, meaning that she could also be ignored. Nature was quite whimsical, so she always had to listen to something that remained out of James' grasp, something private only meant for her, in order to know exactly what and how to make her requests.

James blinked. "You're a squirrel."

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James frowned as he stared at Fawkes. "You still haven't figured alternative looks and name, you know? I thought you'll be joining me at Hogwarts sometimes…"

At the bird's trilling reply, James eyes widened and he nearly choked on nothing. "Why would you want to do that?!"

"Seduce this world's version of yourself?! You perverted bird!"

"Never should've allowed you access to my memories… Stop watching my hentai! Naruto using shadow clones and henge is not the same as dimensional crossing gender bender self-cest!"

"Maybe, yeah, if your species purifies your genes so that any potential genetic imperfects are impossible, incest isn't a taboo, but that's not really the point I'm trying to make!"

"Naruto's idea is more of a bizarre form of masturbation, they are the same person. You and your dimensional counterpart are not. We'd need to do testing to even figure out if you are genetically identical, and even then it's not the same."

"… Yes, that would make it more acceptable. I still think you're weird."

"No, I get why you would be curious about experiencing female pleasure, I saw your memories so I know full well you're just a pervert as the rest of them, but why does it have to be with your counterpart?"

"Because you could just use my abilities, travel back in time and literally screw yourself! With your counterpart you'll need to go full romance route, unless you're going to be forceful about it… You're not a dolphin, mate."

"Sorry, that was uncalled for."

(A/N: First lemon scene in the book, hot bird sex?!)