The sound of their father's voice booms from downstairs. Lily drops her dragon doll to put her hands over her ears, tears in her eyes.
James takes her hands away from her ears gently, and puts on a smile. "Lily! Just listen to me—okay?"
She nods, hiccupping.
"Mum and Dad don't know this, so it's our little secret. Got it?"
She nods again, wiping her eyes with the back of the sleeves on her Holyhead Harpies pajamas.
"I won't make you make an unbreakable vow, but you have to pinky promise," he tells her, holding out his pinky.
She links her pinky finger with his.
James stands up from the floor, walking to his wardrobe. Lily follows, picking back up her dragon doll and dragging it along with her.
"Wanna see too, Al?" asks Lily, looking at her other brother, who is lying on the floor in the corner of the room.
Albus is playing with a toy snitch his parents got him for his birthday last year, releasing it and grasping it over and over again. "No thanks," he mumbles.
"Suit yourself," James says, putting his hands on the doors of his wardrobe. He opens it up dramatically, and then bends down and sits back on the floor. He rummages through the wardrobe for a few moments until he takes out a brown box that says on the top: Property of James Sirius Potter.
Lily glances down at the box excitedly and goes, "Ooh!"
Just then, their mother's voice echoes from downstairs. She looks at the door, nervously. "Ignore them," James tells her. "Come look!"
She obliges and sits down next to her eldest brother.
"Aha!" James cheers when he opens the box and locates his secret. He slowly takes out a small but bulky silver rectangle that fits perfectly in his hand.
"Ooh!" Lily croons again. "What is it?"
"Uncle Ron gave it to me for Christmas in secret," he tells her, smiling. "It's called a cell phone."
"Like the phone we have downstairs?" Lily asks, excitedly.
"Sort of," he says. "But that phone only works in the house. And all it does is call other people. But this! This—does more than that! Well, it used to, anyway."
Al sits up now, peering curiously at his brother and sister.
"What do you mean?" Lily asks.
"Well, Aunt Hermione is muggle-born, so she still likes to use a lot of muggle stuff, and she wanted her and Ron to have these. A cell phone can call people no matter where they are—as long as they have one too—and it can also send messages!"
"Like Monty?" Lily questions animatedly. "Like an owl?"
Harry's muffled shouting temporarily startles James, but he shrugs it off in determination to keep Lily distracted. "Exactly like an owl. Only a cell phone sends messages a lot faster than Monty. And you use the buttons on the phone to write it!"
Lily looks curiously at the phone in James's hand. "I don't see any buttons."
James smirks before he flips open the silver cell phone to reveal its screen and buttons.
"Wow!" Lily shouts excitedly. James extends his hand out to Lily so she can hold the phone. She starts pressing on all the buttons, but nothing happens. "I think it's broken."
"Silly Lily," says James, ruffling her hair. "You have to turn it on! See that big button at the top? Hold that down for five seconds."
Albus starts moving closer to see, too, as Lily holds down on the button. "I thought you didn't want to see," says James, teasingly.
"I changed my mind," Albus dismisses him, sitting behind James and their sister.
"I did it!" Lily pronounces with pride, as the screen turns from black to white. Al peers over Lily's shoulder to see, and James grins widely. "Now what?"
"Well," James starts, taking the phone back from her. "Uncle Ron was able to give this to me because calling stopped working on it, and he had to get a new one. So we can't call or message anyone, but we can take pictures...And best of all…PLAY GAMES!"
Both Harry and Ginny are shouting at the same time, now. Lily covers her ears again, and Al lies back down on the floor, playing with his toy snitch again. "I wish Teddy were here right now instead of with Andromeda. "
"Me too," James admits, losing track of his mission for a bit. "This is their second worst fight ever—after that one when Teddy was here two years ago. And Mum and Dad almost never fight!"
"Why are they fighting?" Al asks, worried.
"Dunno," James replies. "But it must be something bad."
The last and only time Harry and Ginny had a big fight like this that they could remember, Teddy happened to be there, too. They all went up into James's room and Teddy distracted them, telling them all about Hogwarts and all the special things about it. James was ten at the time, so their shouting upset him more back then. Now, at twelve, with the absence of Teddy this time, he took it upon himself to do what they did last time: block it out and hide in James's room.
Lily is still covering her ears, shutting her eyes tight. The sight of it snaps James back to his big brother role, and he puts his hands on hers to remove them from her ears again. "Lil, don't you wanna see the game on the cell phone?"
She opens her eyes and nods, and James presses a few buttons on the phone until he gets where he wants to be. "This game is called Tetris, and it's sort of like a puzzle. The pieces fall down, and you have to figure out where they fit best! I'll play a little to show you, okay?"
Lily nods and watches intriguingly as James plays the game almost perfectly, and Al sits up again to watch as well.
"Wanna try?" he asks her gently.
She takes the phone from him and says, "Thanks, James," and then goes to lie on James's bed to play it.
Al pokes James's shoulder. "What?" he asks.
"James," Al whispers quietly, so that Lily can't hear them. "Are Mum and Dad gonna get a divorce?"
"Are you crazy? Of course not!" James reassures his brother, confidently. "Mum and Dad are too gross to get a divorce. I saw them snogging last night on the couch when I went to go sneak an ice pop from the freezer."
Al grimaces, and so does James.
"I know," James tells him, agreeing with his unpleasant facial expression. "It's disgusting. But it means they love each other a lot. So don't worry."
Al appreciates his brother tremendously in this moment, which is a nice change of pace from their usual bickering. "Thanks."
James stops whispering when he says, "I think they've stopped yelling."
Lily is too focused on the muggle game on the cell phone to take notice. Al perks up, and the both of them go put their ears to the door to see if they can hear anything. For a few moments, neither of them hear a thing. Suddenly, they hear loud footsteps.
"Someone's coming up the stairs!" James whispers nervously. He takes the phone from Lily (who shouts "hey!" in protest), closes it, puts it in his box, and shoves it under his bed as quickly as he could.
Al sits back down on the floor, retrieving his toy snitch. James hops on the bed with Lily's doll, and gives it to her. "Mum and Dad can't know about the phone. Remember? We have to pretend we were playing with your doll."
Lily nods in agreement, hugging the doll close to her.
"Guys," Harry's voice says loud but gently from the other side of the door. "You in here?"
"Yeah, Dad!" responds James.
Harry slowly opens the door to see his three children all acting suspiciously innocent. "You guys good in here?"
"Oh yeah, we're great," answers James again. "How about you? And Mum? You guys having a good night?"
Harry can't help but laugh at his son's implicit sarcasm. "I'm sorry," he apologizes sincerely. "You know Mum and I hate fighting. It just has to happen sometimes. But everything's better now…At least, I think."
"So you're not getting a divorce?" Al asks from the ground, unable to stop the question from leaving his mouth.
"Al," James groans.
Harry bends on his knees to be at a better level with Albus. "Of course not, Al."
"That's what I told him," James sighs, but with a hint of pride.
Harry gives his eldest son a knowing look before turning back to Albus. "Just because Mum and I had a fight doesn't mean we're getting a divorce. We love each other! Sometimes it's better to fight than to not talk at all. You shouldn't ever have to worry about your mum and I splitting up. Okay?"
Albus nods. "Okay," he says, and Harry kisses his head. "Why don't you and your sister go to your own rooms and get ready for bed. It's pretty late."
"But Daddy!" cries Lily, as Harry gets up and goes over to her, his arms outstretched for her to come to him. "I was playing with James!"
Lily walks into her father's arms, anyway, and he lifts her up to carry her into her room. "C'mon, Al. Say goodnight to your brother, guys."
"Night, James!" Lily says happily, waving to him.
"Goodnight," says Al, quickly flashing a smile of appreciation towards James before leaving the room.
Harry is about to follow Albus out of the room when he tells James, "I'll be back in a few minutes to talk to you, okay?"
"Am I in trouble?" James automatically asks. "I didn't even do anything!"
Harry rolls his eyes, chuckling. "No, you're not in trouble—this time. Just wait up a few minutes."
Harry tucks Lily into bed, and then stops into Al's room to ease his worries one last time. After he says goodnight to his younger son, he walks out to the hallway and bumps into Ginny.
She smiles wearily at him, and he draws her in for a hug. "Sorry," he says, again, knowing it's worth it to keep apologizing and keep the peace.
"Me too," she responds against him. "Are they okay?"
They let go of each other. "Yeah, I think so. James had them both in his room trying to distract them or something. I was just going to go back into his room and talk to him, if you'd like to come with me."
She agrees, and she takes his hand as they walk back to James's room together. They enter, and James is reading a book about Quidditch his parents gave him long ago.
"Hey Mum," James greets Ginny. She goes over to him and sits on his bed beside him.
Harry stays standing by the doorway, but he smiles at his son and wife. "James, you were a really great brother tonight," he tells him.
"Just tonight? Not every night?" he says.
"You are such a smart-Alec," Ginny says, rolling her eyes at her son.
"Alec? Al's name is Albus, not Alec. I mean, really. And I'm James."
"It's an expression," Harry tells him, stifling his laughter.
James rolls his eyes. "Duh, I know that. But Mum usually doesn't say smart-Alec, she says smart-arse—"
"Okay, okay," Ginny says, interrupting him. She can't help but laugh. "You are such a Weasley."
"Anyway," Harry says, smirking. "Yes, you're a great brother every night. But you were extra great tonight."
"Well," James shrugs, shyly. "It was nothing."
"We're proud of you," Ginny tells him, kissing his cheek. She stands up to go join her husband. "Not so proud of your language, though."
"Hey, I get my language from you!" James retorts, shining his best smile at his parents, playing innocent.
Just in that moment, there is a beeping noise sounding from under James's bed, which he recognizes as the low battery warning on Ron's old cell phone.
"What was that?" Ginny asks.
James jumps out of his bed and hurries towards the door, attempting to shove his parents out of his room. "It's-nothing-goodnight!"
"James Sirius Potter," Ginny warns. "Stop shoving us right now."
James put his hands up in surrender, looking up at his dad for help, who just raises a questioning eyebrow at him.
Ginny locates the source of the beeping noise and pulls out a box from under James's bed. She opens the box, picks up the cell phone in her hands, and inspects it—putting two and two together.
"Oh, I'm going to kill your uncle."