James was livid with Sirius, how could he not be? He had sent Severus Snape, the person who was constantly harassing them since goodness knows when, the person who was always trying to tell everyone Remus was a werewolf, how to get past the Whomping Willow and into the Shrieking Shack when Remus was transformed. James had managed to stop anything too bad from happening, but unfortunately, Remus had caught his cheek with his claws while getting Snape out. If there was anything to be thankful about it was that there was no other injuries, Snape didn't see Remus and couldn't claim it wasn't a tree root that got his cheek like that, and Remus would never know.

Of course James knew that Sirius was still struggling with being disowned by his parents, and that the Black family were all for disposing of their enemies however suited them, but as Remus' boyfriend Sirius had to think about more than just how to get rid of Snape. After being the one to beg his parents to take Sirius in, of course without Sirius knowing, James knew it was his jo to punish Sirius for his actions, and do it in a way that wouldn't tell Remus about what happened.

James was already getting odd looks from Remus and Peter for not being there last night and for being in the Hospital Wing when they came back, the scar of a werewolf claw, while not as bad as a werewolf bite, not something that can be easily healed, and Mme Pomfrey not letting people who come to her with proper ailments go back when it's at night. Sirius had to learn that this wasn't something he should ever have done, and he should be the one to take all the fault and responsibility.

In the end, James didn't need to be the one to corner Sirius in private, as Sirius did it himself to get angry at James for saving Snape, it took a lot of restraint to not yell at Sirius, knowing it would do the opposite of help, and if he was unlucky then it would lead to his new brother shutting down around him.

Thankfully, the look on Sirius' face made it clear that James had managed to get through to him, and James' impression of his mother was too good for Sirius to be able to argue against the punishments he was given.

Then they turned the corner.

Sitting on the windowsill was a small looking child.

Now, it wasn't actually too odd to see young children at Hogwarts, but they were usually much younger than this child looked, as they were the children had by students. For those children where there were no relatives other than the Hogwarts student to look after them there were different quarters, but it wasn't impossible for one to get out. What was odd about this child was how they looked.

Other than their vibrant green eyes that seemed to be dulled by fatigue and clouded by fear, and the fact their skin was a little lighter, they looked like a clone of James that had been shrunk. James didn't have any siblings, and he certainly would remember if he had had that kind of a relationship with someone who could give birth in any capacity, so he was sure this couldn't be his kid.

At least not from now.

"Hey, who are you?" James asked, taking a small step closer, the anger he had been feeling at Sirius' immature and dangerous actions swiftly slipping away to be replaced with concern for the small child precariously placed on the windowsill that was low enough for many of the students to lounge against, but far too tall for this child to have climbed up onto and certainly high enough to hurt them if they fell.

Unfortunately, James' worry for the child seemed to be coming true, as the child didn't seem to know the true dimensions of their environment, and fell.

"Careful!" James said, rather louder than he meant to, his eyes widening as he took large, fast steps to close the distance, catching the child before they hit the floor.

Even though they should be fine, they were acting oddly, and their eyes were closing. In addition, now that James was closer he could see that the child had a bloody lip and some other injuries. He was already planning to take them to the Hospital Wing, as Mme Pomfrey would know who the parent was, but now he had to.

"Kid, are you okay?" James asked, trying to make his voice sound calm, or at least not intimidating as he saw and felt the kid collapse in his arms, shaking them slightly, but it didn't seem to do anything. James just hoped it wasn't a sign of something too serious.

"Prongs, what are you doing?" Sirius asked, grabbing James' shoulder as he rushed past him back to the Hospital Wing.

"I'm taking this kid to Mme Pomfrey, they obviously need help." James said, shaking Sirius' hand off while trying to keep the child as still as he could.

"Really? Don't you think you would know if there was a child who looked like you here, and why would a child this old be in Hogwarts still and never have gotten out before?" Sirius said, worried about his friend's safety with an unknown person.

"What are you implying? Like you said, I honestly doubt someone like this would exist without me knowing, but that makes it impossible to be polyjuice potion, and glamours can't hide weight, so this is definitely a child." James said, continuing to walk tot he Hospital Wing. "Either way the Hospital Wing is the best place for them."

"Best place for who?" Remus asked, making Sirius jump, as he popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, but from his face it seemed like he hadn't heard the conversation the two had had earlier.

"This kid we found. They're at least a little injured and I want Mme Pomfrey to check them over, but Pads is suspicious of them." James said, rolling his eyes.

"Where did you get that scar?" Remus asked, his eyebrows knitting together as he inspected James' cheek.

"Last night I bumped into a Ravenclaw with some plant that messes with a lot of magical cures, so after Mme Pomfrey healed it I got a scar, I'm fine though, just need to get this one to the Hospital Wing." James lied expertly.

"What kind of plant was it?" Remus asked, James could tell he was trying to think of how he could get rid of James' scar.

"I don't know. But it's fine, scars are cool after all." James said, finally reaching the doors to the Hospital Wing, opening the doors and going in.

"What brings you back so soon?" Mme Pomfrey asked, sounding irritated.

"Come on, Poppy, you love us!" Sirius said with a bright, cheeky grin, posing dramatically in the doorway.

"Hey Sirius," James said with a smile only slightly different from his usual one as he looked at Sirius, but his tone making it obvious he wasn't really making a suggestion. "Why don't you go take Moony back to bed?"

Nobody seemed to pick up on the lack of nickname used for Sirius, and one look at Remus' face made it clear that he did need to get more rest as he was much paler than normal. Thankfully the lack of Prongs last night didn't lead to any serious injuries that would make him stay in the Hospital Wing, but it had still been a full moon.

"Fine, let's go Moony." Sirius said, rolling his eyes at James before smiling lovingly at Remus, taking his arm as they walked to Gryffindor tower.

"And I ask again, what brought you here, Potter." Mme Pomfrey said, her voice not holding a questioning note though.

"I found this kid just down the hallway, I assume they're from the children's wing and got lost, but they look hurt so I figured I should take them to you." James said, not mentioning how he thought he might be related to the child, as if he was then Mme Pomfrey would surely know and would likely tell him unless there was good reason for him not to know.

"There's no way for them to be from the children's wing, it's no longer used for that purpose and Dumbledore decided to close it down after a fire started there. Thankfully only one person got hurt and it was mild. Now if students have children and their parents won't take the child they either need to give them up for adoption or take them with them to lessons." Mme Pomfrey said, gesturing at a bed for James to put the child on.

"Do you know if it was accidental magic or arson?" James asked, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. Sure, wizarding families were far less cold towards babies their teen children decided to keep because of the war, but many muggle families didn't even know there was a war. The whole reason for the children's wing was taking a baby to class was an unreasonable ask, but people may still want to keep their children.

"The headmaster decided it didn't need investigating." Mme Pomfrey said in a bit of a huff, her face and tone making excruciatingly obvious that she disapproved of Dumbledore's decision and James had to agree.

"So this child isn't the child of anyone at Hogwarts?" James checked, looking at them, the looked ill and scared even in their sleep.

"I've never seen them before, but I'll test if you're the father." Mme Pomfrey said, looking at James with an unimpressed look, making it clear that he wasn't being subtle.

"Thanks." James said, looking down.