Hide and Seek

The Potter and Weasley children, along with the Scamander kids were playing the most magnificent game of hide and seek on a lovely autumn afternoon. James was seeking, he searched high and low and found all his cousins and siblings, well except for Lily and Hugo; those two were the masters of hiding. Often when the children played this game Lily and Hugo were only found after at least an hour of vigorous searching.

"Teddy! Victoire! You guys are going to have to help us find Lily and Hugo!" James shouted from the backyard into the house. Instead of Teddy and Victoire coming out, James' mother Ginny Potter exited the house.

"You still haven't found them yet?" Ginny asked, clearly disapproving of the children's game, "I've always told you how much I don't like you children playing this game, especially outside with the young ones." She chided her eldest son. "Albus," She called out, "Go look by the pond with Rose. Lorcan and Lysander, go check in the backfield. Dominique and Louis, go search the front yard. Fred and Roxanne, go look down the road. Lucy and Molly go search the by the old stable. James, you and I will go look in the forest." Ginny handed out jobs in an orderly fashion, as soon as she waved her hand the search parties broke apart and headed their separate ways.

"Why aren't Teddy and Victoire helping?" James whined.

"Because Victoire is very pregnant and very uncomfortable so Teddy needs to stay inside and help her." Ginny stated simply, she actually thought Victoire was milking the pregnancy for all it was worth, making Teddy do whatever she wanted him to do, he was basically her servant. Well, like mother like daughter suppose Ginny thought sullenly. The pair finally reached the forest and then preceded to split up, Ginny took the outskirts, and James began wandering the trails inside where the children were frequently allowed to play on. James kept a sharp eye out, looking for anything that may be out of place. He perked his ears up as he heard an unmistakable giggle; well then, that's not a normal forest noise.

James followed his ears until he found the source, he could see a bush quivering, from underneath he could see two pairs of trainers, the giggling continued.

"Oh I wonder where Lily and Hugo could be?" James asked no one in particular. The bush was suddenly silent and still.

Suddenly a large "Shhh" came from the still bush, "Ow, Hugo, that's my foot!" James heard a harsh whisper, bless his baby sister for being so loud. He smirked and crept up to the bush.

"RAAHHHH!" James yelled as he shook the bush. Two frightened children came screaming and running out, they ran as fast as their short little legs could, but James caught up quickly and scooped the two kids up in each arm.

"Now, what have we discussed about hiding so far away from the house?" James asked the two sternly.

Both children's lips were trembling and their eyes brimmed with tears. "You told us not to." Lily sniffed.

"Exactly. Now mum is mad at us." James pouted, this was going to be all his fault, he could just tell.

"We're sorry James," Hugo snuffled. "It was all Lily's idea." He tattled.

"Hugo!" Lily gasped, "It was NOT all my idea! You said we should go by the forest!"

"But, you said we should go INTO the forest!" Hugo countered.

"I did not!" Lily shouted, her face was turning as red as her hair, she had a temper that rivaled their mother's.

"You did to!" Hugo hollered

"I didn't!" Lily shrieked, "James, it wasn't my fault!" She was close to crying.

"I know, I know, it's alright squirt. It was neither of your faults, most likely the result of some rogue wrackspurt." James laughed as the two children nodded in agreement, most definitely the wrackspurt who planted that idea in their head. "You two really had us going though! Merlin we thought we had lost you. Then mum AND Aunty Hermione would have killed us."

"Why would Hermione and I have killed you, James?" Ginny asked coming up behind him, "Oh, thank Merlin you two are alright!" She exclaimed when she saw Lily and Hugo safely in James' arms. She relieved him of one child and then the started walking back to the house.

When they reached the backyard they were swarmed. The search parties had returned already and had been anxiously waiting their return. All the cousins and family friends swamped Lily and Hugo, giving them hugs and kisses and reprimanding them for being such good hiders.

"It wasn't our idea." Lily and Hugo stood at the center of the crowd, "James agrees, it was probably a wrackspurt that gave us the idea." The two children stood there with innocent smiles plastered across their faces, they beamed up at James, who sputtered and looked around with wide eyes.

The whole family laughed as their Aunty Luna came up to James and started asking him about the supposed wrackspurt that had corrupted the children into thinking hiding in the woods was the most spectacular hiding spot.

Nevertheless, the children couldn't help but laugh and tease James whenever they went to play in the forest's trails, "Watch out for wrackspurts, James!" They would scream with delight as they ran away from him.

A/N: Hey all! I hope you enjoyed that little story. It just popped into my head one day and it wouldn't leave until I wrote it down. I think James would be the best big brother ever :)

Please review, thanks :)