God Bless the Broken Road

Remus and James walked down the street, deep in conversation. As James had pointed out, they had sixteen years to catch up on. Remus had detailed some of Harry's exploits; James was telling Remus about his work as a detective. Remus seemed interested and asked several questions as they headed up Privet Drive towards Number Four.

"It isn't as easy as it sounds," James finally confessed to his old friend. "I had to learn how to handle a gun, how to rely on my mind and not on my wand, and how to properly interrogate and arrest a suspect. And I had to learn how to run in body armour."

"Body armour?"

"Kevlar vest. Bulletproof. You wouldn't believe the number of loonies there are out there."

Remus frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Besides the idiot cops who don't--or won't--wear body armour, there are a bunch of lunatics who run around shooting randomly," James answered. "Especially in America...at least the part of it I was in."

"Have you ever been shot?" Remus asked, looking worried.

"Three times," James confirmed. "Once with a revolver, once with a semi-automatic softnose handgun, and once with a modified machine gun. The revolver didn't do too much damage--it hit me at the thickest point of my vest--and the machine gun was fired at an awkward angle, most of them just glanced off the kevlar. The softnose did the most damage, though."

"How...what...?" Remus said weakly.

James ran a hand through his messy hair. "A softnose bullet, unlike a regular bullet, is designed to explode on impact, sending fragments throughout the immediate area. And actually, I wasn't wearing my vest that day...I'd been off-duty and I'd only just come on. I got called out and ran without putting on my vest. Believe you me, I never did that again. I got lucky, really lucky."

"Where did he hit you? Or should I ask?"

James placed two fingers over the scar on the left side of his chest. "Right here. Only one bullet, fortunately." Seeing the look on Remus's face, he added, "I told you I was lucky...an inch lower and a hair to the right and I'd have been a goner."

Remus shook his head. "And you did this by choice? Harry's had several close shaves, but he doesn't ask for it..."

James shrugged. "It's my job. How is it any different than being an Auror? Matter of fact, I think it's safer. You're more likely to know what you're coming up against when you're dealing with Muggle criminals...they almost all have guns. Some have switchblades. Some just do skin fights. Whatever it is, they're easy to deal with. When you're up against a wizard with a wand, you never know what he's going to pop off with. Will he just Stun you? Will he rip you apart from the inside out? Or will he go straight for the jugular, so to speak, and launch an Unforgivable--kill you instantly? At least you have a shot--pardon the pun--of surviving a gunshot." He got quiet for a moment. "My partner was shot once...I hadn't been his partner long, his old one had just retired. He took a few to the gut...long story. We eventually caught the guy, but we weren't sure my partner was going to pull through. I had a temporary partner for almost three months before he was deemed fit for duty again." He shook his head. "Lieutenant Van Buren--my boss--was royally pissed, I can tell you."

"Did you quit?" Remus asked him, studying him oddly.

James grimaced and shook his head. "Wish I could say yes, but I didn't. I'm on a leave of absence...and since I haven't taken a day off in sixteen years, I had quite a bit stored up. I came back to see you and Sirius...and I fully intended to visit Lily and Harry's graves. But Harry isn't dead and I'm too much of a coward to go into the graveyard."

"Harry's going to be disappointed when you leave," Remus said quietly.

"I fully intend to bring him with me."

"Ah...he might not go."

James stopped dead. "What?"

Remus spread out his hands helplessly. "Voldemort's still out there, James, and your son is determined to finish him off. I think it's starting to get personal now."

"I'm sure a lot of people want Voldemort dead..."

"Yes, but 'a lot of people' haven't been slowly watching their entire family decimated by the Death Eaters, either," Remus said, perhaps a touch bitterly. "It's not just you and Lily, James. It's you and Lily, Cedric Diggory, Sirius, Dumbledore...I think, with Harry, it's partly wanting revenge and partly just wanting to make sure nobody else has to go through the hell he's gone through in the past sixteen years."

James's head was swimming. "Hold it. Who's Cedric Diggory?"

"I'll let Harry tell you about that. I've only got half the story, and I got it from Sirius."

"And...what's this about Dumbledore?"

"He's dead too, James," Remus said quietly. "He was killed last month."

"What? Who killed him?"

"I'm not going into that right now, there's a lot of ambiguity in the circumstances. But trust me, Dumbledore is dead. And Harry is still hurting. It was a fight convincing him to stay with the Order for a while...I'm hoping I can talk him out of going off half-crocked to fight Voldemort himself."

"I can help," James volunteered.

Remus half-chuckled. "James, Harry won't listen to you. For that matter, I don't even think he'll listen to me. He's on the warpath--he wants to get rid of Voldemort once and for all, to stop--"

"To stop anyone else from having to go through what he has," James interrupted. "Yes, Remus, you told me that already." He sighed. "I suppose it's just that he's my son. I didn't get to see him grow up...I wasn't able to be there for him. Now I'm finally meeting him, and I don't exactly want him dead."

"Nor I."

"But," James emphasised, "what he's proposing to do is what I do for a living. It's my job. If he is going to go ahead and hunt down Voldemort...I'm going with him."