Disclaimer: If I had a nickel for every time some came up to me and gave me a pat on the back and said, "Hey! Great job with the Harry Potter series! I love it!" I'd be a very, very nickeless lady as I am right now.

These Woven Hands by Dreamer Ella in the Clouds

Chapter One
Unexpected Guests

James Sirius Potter had grown very accustomed to the trips to and fro on the Hogwarts Express. The hustle and bustle of King's Cross station had never been so familiar, and now, looking back, he realized that this winter break during his seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would be one of the last times he was to be getting off at this very station.

His face was sullen, as he'd spent most of the ride in silence instead of chattering about what he'd like for Christmas with his friends. Perhaps it was because of this, this… dullness that made it seem like there was such a striking contrast in seeing him standing next to Lily Luna Potter. Her eyes were full of life as she twirled around in her plaid red skirt and gray sweater, her homemade scarf fluttering in the indoor draft with her third year aura of innocence and purity floating about her. He looked down at himself and frowned at his blandly boring jeans and black fleece jacket. His features creased as they felt the dim monotonous stare his eyes had come to fancy, and the way his glasses sloped down his nose as though they could no longer bear to be on a face as pathetic as his own. James envied his sister sometimes.

The media had stopped somewhere in his third, maybe fourth year. Harry, his father, had never favoured the limelight. He had once described it to him, sometime when he was younger, as a sort of annoying fluorescent bulb that flickered so fast that all you felt was the headache and the pain in your eyes. James Sirius hasn't liked it from the beginning. He'd seen much more of the camera's click then Lily, as the Potters had been a very sought out family well after the second Wizarding war had ended.

Now, instead of a crowd of people they'd only heard about in the wretched Daily Prophet, as Grandfather James had come to call it, there only stood four figures, the younger mirroring the elder. Lily Evans, James Potter Sr., Ginevra (Ginny) Molly Weasley and Harry James Potter all stood, each with their own unique smile, or in James' case, content stare, gazing at the children before them.

James Sirius flinched slightly as Lily Luna immediately sprang forward and into the slightly ajar arms of her Mother. He watched tentatively as Ginny brushed through her daughter's scarlet hair with her long, manicured fingernails. "How have you been, sweetheart?" she asked softly.

"Fine Mum," her daughter breathed into her shoulder. They giggled and reluctantly parted from one another's touch.

His Grandmother, Lily Evans, soon came to the girl and watched as her face lit up with a pleasurable grin before she lost herself in her Grandmother's fine, emerald green robes. "It's been so long," she said fondly, also stroking through the girls' long hair as Ginny had done, "I've missed you, Lily Moon."

James Sirius admired his Grandmother's love. He too would receive his hug in due time, but was still envious at her tangible affections for her Granddaughter. However, the feeling was discarded when his Father jogged over to him and hugged him, Potter tradition.

"Hey," his Dad mumbled wearily. He smelled faintly of firewhiskey, but James ignored this.

"Hi Dad," he whispered back, loving his Father more and more every moment.

They parted quickly, neither having much to say to the other at the moment and enjoying the roar of steam engines in the background.

James eyed James Sr. as he carefully kept his distance from the quintet, not caring to go near his once dearest and once daughter-in-law, of whom would have most certainly not let him near his Granddaughter, not like it would've been much better to be next to the son and Grandson who scorned him so, he was certain. His face was old and worn from years of his job as an Auror and his shoulders sagged from the weight of his winter cloak.

Still, despite what he had become, Lily Luna broke away from the small exchange and strode over to him. James Sirius knew Lily didn't care. When she looked at her Grandfather, she did not see the old and withered man, but saw the fantastic and bright one who had once stood in his very shoes, and whom had stayed hidden in James Sirius' view for a long while now. The same man who had fallen so desperately in love with their Grandmother and made her laugh at the yearly Potter Christmas parties.

At first, James Sr. stood speechless as the girl that was so small compared to he, clung to his chilled bones. James Sirius' and Harry's eyed narrowed warningly, as he tentatively wrapped an arm around her, very aware of the alarmed looks on the other Potter females' faces. Her nose snuggled into him as she felt her Grandfather liven somehow. All of them knew Lily Luna was very good at seeing good in everyone, something she certainly hadn't acquired over night, but still could not comprehend as to why she would still like to hug her Grandfather after the awful things he'd done—especially James Sirius.

He looked to his left to see Ginny come up next to his Father, both watching with worried expressions as their daughter talked excitedly to her grandfather about the school year's trips to Hogsmeade. For a moment, Ginevra's hand sneaks its way into Harry's, something she'd done out of pure habit, and James knew exactly what his Father was thinking. He was certain that a chill were running down his spine at this very moment as he recalled the wedding band that had once graced his ring finger. James said nothing when Harry uneasily slid his hand away from hers, moving slightly to the right. Ginny looked somewhat hurt, but went back to watching Lily Luna without question.

They'd briskly passed through the busy train station and its hustle and bustle before they'd found a Portkey that could take them home. He had grown used to Portkeys, as well as he'd become accustomed to King's Cross station, but often times did not land on his feet.

James Sirius had been very silent on the walk to Number 12 Grimmauld Place, his Father's hand guiding him most of the way. Even Lily Luna hadn't much to say this time around. They'd all grown a little more and needed time to think. And so did they get their time to think.

Except, in Lily Luna's mind—James was certain of this—thinking wasn't always the best policy. Thoughts were like temptations, teasing her every wit to snatch them up and tear them to shreds, and James knew it. Perhaps, this may have been why he feared it may have been better if she hadn't thought for once, perhaps thought was best restricted in seclusion, but maybe, just maybe, fate had something beyond the challenges to come for a simple thought such as the one that has so surreptitiously snuck its way into her innocent mind at this very moment. Maybe.

James lazily glanced out of the synthetic window in number twelve Grimmauld Place's grand library. It was a relatively new addition to the house, one that was not there when the ancient members of the Black family created it, but still fit with the age old books and dusty shelves in the library.

He marvelled at the way the window was cold and had somehow managed to get blurry from the heat reacting to the cold, or was it the cold reacting to the heat? (He hadn't paid much attention in his Muggle science classes back in primary school to remember which. It was much too long ago to recall with full certainty, anyway.), despite the fact that it was nowhere near the outside. James was amazed at how something not natural to a specific place could fit so perfectly, even if it belonged somewhere else.

"What are you staring at, James?" asked Lily Luna, abruptly shaking him out of his thoughts. She rounded on his chair, seating herself next to him and his Charms homework.

James blinked, still a bit taken away by her suddenness and also a bit bemused as to how she could just sit there with her head propped up on her elbows smiling the day away and said, "Nothing, really," in the exact tone that he knew would get Lily Luna going on just about everything in the world.

Strangely enough, however, she did the exact opposite. Lily simply smiled and shrugged, as though she knew the exact emotions that were running through him right then and there. James Sirius was pretty sure she'd been doing the same sort of thing in her room all morning considering that his Mother was out on a business meeting for the day.

They sat in a still silence, only interrupted by the constant in sync tick, tick, tick of the clocks scattered about the house. Lily's hand waved about the air as her head flopped over to the hand still propped on the table by her elbow. "Do you think Mum was happy yesterday?" she questioned, emerald eyes glazed over with something James didn't see often.

James' furrow crinkled as he thought about it. He pushed the bridge of his glasses up his nose and replied, "I guess so. She didn't seem unhappy or anything of that sort." He was unsure of what she was asking, or why she was asking it for that matter.

Lily eased back in her seat, emerald gems softening from the work of thought. In a calm, barely audible voice she spoke. "Why did they divorce, James? Why?" The grief in those simple words made him shiver slightly.

He stared back at her, dumbfounded by it all. Why? He thought, She was there, she should know wh… something occurred to him and he apologetically glinted back at her. He then straightened up in his chair, the self-taking notebook on his lap sliding down his legs to the floor.

"James?" Lily asked after the both of them had spent a good deal of time in the silence. James had been staring out the window consumed in a wandering mind once again, trying to ignore his little sister's worried facial expression.

James blinked, his eyelids falling slightly. "It's a very long story, Lily."

She stared back at him, scarlet furrows tweaked with curiosity and worriment. "I can manage," she concluded. James watched as a warm smile graced his little sister's features, and he smiled, too. How could he not grin while looking at such bright green eyes and fair skin? He leant back in his chair; his arms warmed by a navy sweater went to rest at the chair's arms, fingers playing with a quill he'd picked up from the table before letting them disappear under the table.

"I don't know the whole story," he began, "but I do know a lot of it. We can ask Teddy, Victoire, Lysander, Sirius, and maybe even Draco and Astoria, for all the things I can't fill in," he said thoughtfully, giving his head a quick bob up and down just to reassure himself that his idea was genuine. Lily Luna gave a tentative nod as well. "I think it started in the summer. July 25th; on their wedding anniversary…"

Lily Luna had been very fussy because of the heat that morning. She'd whined and sobbed in protest when Mum insisted she should wear the frilly white dress made up with lots of fabric Grandma Lily had given her. I wasn't very happy either in what most would have considered a winter set of dress robes over a muggle's business suit, but I knew how to keep my complaints to a minimum.

The mass of people that came over for the anniversary dinner didn't help much. There were to many people crowding the downstairs and some of the upstairs of the house for the cooling charms set on the house of Black to take decent effect. I didn't even know half the people that crowded number twelve Grimmauld place that day, but I did know that Mum was not happy. For some strange reason, Mum was very uneasy and not her usual kind, motherly self and she made me sit in the family room, on the couch while Lily Luna got to stand at her side as guests of all shapes and sizes entered. I watched as all the women cooed at my sister's antics. She was four years old but she was so tiny she could have been a two-year-old if not for the fact that she could talk and walk about like any four-year-old could.

I was very relieved when someone my own age came to give me company. Well, Teddy Lupin wasn't exactly my own age, but he was close enough. His parents, Remus and Tonks, were one of the first to come and straight away, Teddy sprang towards me and winked. After I said my hellos to Remus and Nymphadora, who scolded me for calling her that, the both of us ran up to my room.

"It's so hot in here," he complained once we arrived at my tidy room. The cooling charms were better up here, but I noticed Teddy shortening his hair some and turning it green instead of its usual blue to keep himself refreshed.

He looked through my room at first, commenting on my Quidditch posters ("Their Seeker is terrible, but Mum says they've got the best beaters since Ireland.") and the Gryffindor scarf my Dad had given to me ("Is that a real Gryffindor scarf?"). I was pleased with myself for cleaning my room like my Mother had ordered me to do "the muggle way" because it seemed to impress Teddy, even though he'd seen it dozens of times prier to that day. It meant a lot of impress someone four years older than you to me.

I smiled before remembering something I had in my drawer that I'd wanted to show him. "Hey, Teddy?"

"Hm?"

"You know, you were there at Mum and Dad's wedding? I was there, too."

"Really?" He perked up some as I went to grab the picture I'd "borrowed" from my parent's room.

It was a beautiful summer wedding, somewhere off in a garden where the flowers sang wedding ballets to the bride and groom. They swayed in the background of the magical picture at the same pace as Mum's white wedding robes. Dad was standing next to her in fine emerald robes, one arm looped in hers and the other tickling me, in Ginny, my Mother's arms. Almost everyone from my parent's stories was there and Teddy and I could pick out most of the people in the picture ("Look! There's Luna!" "Hey, Teddy, that's your Dad! He looks so weird!" "Did you see yours by any chance?"), but there were some Teddy didn't even know.

"Look," I said, my finger coming to a beautiful woman; one I might have even thought as pretty as my Mother. She had bushy brown hair and soft caramel eyes and she was standing next to a very tall red head with broad shoulders and an arm around her waist, a little baby wrapped in a bundle in her arms. "Who's that?"

Teddy squinted his eyes, which he'd made purple for the occasion, and said, "I don't know." I looked at him in shocked horror. Teddy always knew everything, or at least, it seemed that way to me.

There was a loud thunk of a knock at my bedroom door and both of us toppled over each other to try and reach its knob first. Teddy won, and there in the doorway were most of my cousins.

"Hi James!" said Victoire. She was the oldest of my cousins, being only a year younger than Teddy. After her there were Dominique and Molly, who were three years older than I. Lucy was a year older than me and Louis a year younger, but he acted like one of us older kids so we didn't mind having him around. Mum had said that Roxanne and Fred couldn't make it because they'd gotten a bad case of something that makes your skin go purple and be able to hiccup strange things.

I quickly went to showing them the picture and asking all of them if they knew who the mysterious woman was. At first, all of the girls hovered over the picture like me and Teddy had done before and giggled about the girl's pretty dress robes ("I like her dress!" "I think aunt Ginny's is prettiest, though." "Have you seen the yellow one?"), and how hansom all the boys looked ("Uncle Harry looks great!" "Look at Teddy's Dad! He got old fast because there he looks like a Prince."). Louise, Teddy and I waited for them to finish before bringing up the matter at hand. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to know the answer either, but we did get some promising leads.

"That must be her husband." Victorie's pretty finger pointed to the tall red head. She had the biggest influence of Aunt Fleur's Veela blood in her. "He looks a little bit like Uncle Charlie, don't you think?"

"He must be a Weasley!" Molly declared instantly, glasses jumping slight in being eager to please. She had square glasses like uncle Percy used to wear and straight caramel brown hair like Aunt Audrey has.

Dominique shook her head, red bangs falling slightly over her blue eyes. "Don't be so full of yourself, Molly! Just because he looks a little like Uncle Charlie doesn't mean he's related to us."

"Dominique," Victoire warned, "remember what Mum said." The younger girl scowled some, but said nothing. I knew that she and Molly didn't get along very well. Their mothers were like that too, Audrey and Fleur, and even Mum talked about how everyone in the family is usually annoyed with Percy. I feel bad for my Uncle and his family sometimes; they don't visit very often.

Teddy thought for a moment. "Why don't you just ask them, James?"

"No!" everyone, including me but excluding Teddy, howled at once. I knew that with the mood Mum was in now that she wouldn't answer me, and that, if anything, I'd most likely get in trouble for stealing the picture. Dad was too busy saying hello to all the guests with Sirius for either of them to answer, even though they'd try to anyway, suddenly being dragged away by Mum.

"It's a real mystery!" Louis said excitedly. I thought he'd been too busy playing with a loose brick in the wall to hear. "I want to solve it!" He held his pale-skinned hand out and I gave him the picture. He looked at it closely. "Too hard." He said, and gave it to Victoire before going downstairs to be with his dad. Molly, after waiting until the boy left, rolled her eyes and sighed. Lucy, upon seeing her older sister do this, rolled her eyes and sighed as well.

"Well," Victoire began, "suppose he really was a Weasley." I saw Dominique scowl while Molly and her freckles smiled as she spoke. "And suppose he was that lady's husband." The rest of us, after a hesitant pause, nodded in understanding. "Than wouldn't that make that baby our cousin?"

Teddy's hair turned purple and he stood up; I noticed he looked taller than usual. "She's right! So, saying he was your cousin, he'd have to be about James' age, since the both of them are babies in this picture."

I watched as Molly chewed on the tip of a quill she'd brought with her. "That would be true, but for all we know, they could be dead, or have gotten lost in the floo network or something."

Again, there was a loud knocking at the door. Victoire and I scrambled to shove the picture back in the drawer as Teddy opened the door. My Grandmother Lily was there, holding Lily Luna with one hand and fixing the collar of my Dad's velvety emerald green dress robes with the other. She smiled over at us kids and laughed when she saw the last of Victoire and me's scramble, her red hair fluttering in a faint breeze that always seemed to rush through the House of Black.

"What have you two got to hide?" she joked, making Lily Luna giggle. At least she didn't look to be complaining about the dress anymore.

"Nothing!" I said franticly. My palms were getting sweaty and I was trying hard to keep a frightened look off of my face without much success.

Dad laughed and picked me up in his arms, swinging me around some. "You hungry?" he asked, pushing the bridge of my glasses up my pale nose. I grinned from ear to ear and nodded, letting him put me back on the ground. He turned to the others. "Come on now, dinner's ready."

Everyone bounded downstairs in a single file line because the hallways at Grimmauld Place are old and too narrow for us to walk in the mob that always seems to form when you're walking with family. I didn't mind though, because my Dad held my hand all the way down. He told me I was really scrawny like he was as a boy and tells me I should eat more.

They'd expanded the dinning room and its table temporarily for the party. Wand arranged bouquets of roses and Lilies as white as snow were hung on the walls, silky white sheets draped to make a banner form one to another fluttered in the house's invisible breeze. The ceiling was charmed to look like a flower garden from the sky especially for the occasion and I herd the girl's gasps of delight at the amazing sight ("Look Lucy! See the flowers on the ceiling?" "They're so beautiful."), and the walls that were full of picture frames with photos that moved from my parents wedding. I could see the brown-haired women in the background of a few of them; sometimes with the red head and sometimes just with the bundle. There was even one where her arm was lopped with my Dad's, the other arm being lopped by Luna Scamander; one of Mum's good friends.

It was then that I was forced to endure all the hair rustling, cheek pinching, back patting, and a wide variety of comments from all of my relatives. At least I didn't have to get picked up and tickled by all of them like tiny little Lily Luna did. I was very happy when I got to take my seat at the right of Dad at the table. However, I wasn't so happy at who was sitting to the left of me at the table; my Grandfather James.

He had the same unruly ebony black hair that refused to be brushed or jelled as my Father and I. Grandfather James slumped back in his seat, a glazed over and distant look, as though he were always caught in a memory, in his eyes. Whenever he was over, Dad tensed up and got angry easily. I was wary of him because it wasn't often he came over. Especially when Grandma Lily was here.

The only thing he said for a while as the others at the table who chattered excitedly about how long my parents have been married and such was a low, and almost sober request of, "Lily, can you please pass the bottle of red wine?"

I took in a breath of air and stopped eating because that's what Dad was doing at that moment and watched intently.

Grandma Lily frowned—she had never approved of drinking—and with much haste, seized the bottle from the table and into Grandfather James' slightly ajar hand. He held her fingers in his for longer than he should've, I was sure of that, but Grandma Lily swiftly slid them away once she'd noticed. Grandfather James' eyes stayed fixed on the bottle, occasionally turning it in his hand, until he decided it'd be best to pour himself a glass.

I looked over at Dad and saw the he too frowned. I once heard Mum say something about, "Harry doesn't fancy his father's fondness of alcoholic beverages," and wondered if my Dad would get angry.

"Dad, you don't have to drink the whole bottle," he said quietly, in a low, almost dangerous tone while watching my Grandfather filling the clear wine glass almost to the rim. It made me shiver.

We'd been so caught up with our own little exchange that we didn't notice that someone was at the door until I looked over at Mum whose eyes were glued on the front door. I watched silently as her hand went to my stern Father's shoulder, giving a light tug at his robe's fabric. The fear in her deep brown eyes was evident, as Dad looked her way, but I couldn't understand why.

Everyone at the table had taken to either watching my parents or keeping their ears and eyes pealed at the door for it shook occasionally and every now and then a sound that mocked human speech came from it's direction, although it was impossible to be certain since the heavy door was a whole narrow hallway away and most of the people about the table were lucky to get a partial view of it. Some were switching back and forth as not to miss any of the action like my Grandfather James.

My Dad got up, and I got up with him, but he only glinted over at me before continuing. I knew he wouldn't have told me to sit down already and Mum was in to much of a stunned horror to do anything but pierce through my back with her eyes as me and my father began to pass the long row of people at the table, of whom which all turned their heads when we passed; Grandma Lily, Sirius, Luna, Lorcan, Lysander, Rolf, Lavender, Dean, Remus, Nymphadora, Teddy, Uncle Bill, Uncle Charlie… The list went on and on and made me all that more uncomfortable with each step. I felt the intense heat coming to me once more and I wished badly that I could just walk forward in a slow, constant pace with a broad and determined face as my Dad was doing at that moment.

After what seemed like hours of intense pressure and brutal heat did my Father and I reach the door. I hadn't seen it stir for a while and was beginning to think that they'd left, but suddenly, there was a faint tapping of a wand. It tapped on the center of the door and continued to do so until it stopped after the third stroke; each time a radiant blue light comparable to the sparks an expecto patronum casting gave off. It was the customary knock for Order meetings. Although they weren't held often, I knew the code well, but I also knew that something such as this was never used for a simple get together. I herd my Dad's breath catch in his throat as he peered out of the one-way peephole. With a steady hand, he opened the door.

There she was. There standing in the slim doorway was the beautiful women who had been my focus in my parent's old wedding picture. The broad shouldered red head was next to her once more and I was almost certain he was a Weasley upon seeing his freckles and height in person. However, this time there was not a little bundle of joy in her arms. This time there was a boy my age taller than me by about four inches with the Weasley red hair and freckles and square glasses like Molly and Uncle Percy, except now he had a sister. A sister with bushy brown hair and buck teeth who looked to be about six, having no freckles and fairly pale skin at the moment.

"It's nice to see you again, Mate."

A Note From the Author: PHEW! That took dreadfully long to write, you know! So you folks out there review and tell me what you think! 3Ella

Please notice: this story has been beta edited by the lovely XTimeGirlX. Thank you, and please credit her in your reviews if you are going to praise for the story's grammar or proper spellings.