Disclaimer: Repetition is good for little kids...which I hope you're not. Seeing as little kids shouldn't be reading Harry Potter fanfiction at this hour...Especially in the USA. Anyhoo. J.K. Rowling lives in England...IN A BLOODY MANSION! I'm living in an Australian rental house...Get the picture? No ownie. Please don't sue me. I spent all my money sponsoring people for the 40 hour famine and on chips in the canteen.

On to the story, in which we deal with inquisitive four-year-olds, a crying Lily, and an emotional James with a lot of paperwork.

Chapter One: Life Goes On, Even in the Stickiest Situations

Two Years Later

"Mummy, who that?" a four-year-old, dyed-brown-haired Natalie (she was truly raven-haired, just like her father) asked Lily, pointing to the picture of baby Harry, his pregnant aunt Meghan—James's deceased younger sister—and Meghan's husband Sirius in the photo album on the Healer's lap. Amanda, anticipating a story, came and sat on the couch next to her mother.

"That's your Uncle Padfoot, your Auntie Meghan, and your brother Harry, sweetheart," Lily told Natalie, who looked curiously up at her mother.

"I have a brother?" she asked, confused. "Where's he? Anna has a big sister, and she lives at her house. I never met Harry." She spoke of one of their good friends, Anna Spinnet, the younger sister of Alicia Spinnet.

"Oh, your brother had to go away to live with your auntie. I'm not sure what to tell you now, but when you're older, you'll understand."

"Wanna know now!" Natalie and Amanda complained together.

Lily looked helplessly at a watching James. He shrugged, which Lily interpreted as a "go ahead" shrug. "Okay, Nat, Amanda, before you two were born, when Mummy and Daddy were still young, we figured out that we loved each other and got married."

"Married?" the little girls chorused.

"When you get all dressed up in your fancy robes and kiss your favorite person in the whole world," James offered. "I married your mum, and she married me—it happened at the same time since we loved each other and were all excited about it. You two and your brother are my other favorite people, but I'm not going to marry you."

"Thank you. Now, when we got married, there was this big bad wizard that was coming after us. He called himself Lord Voldemort—"

"That's a funny name," Natalie laughed. Amanda laughed too.

"It is, isn't it?" Lily said, laughing along with Natalie and Amanda. "His name's really Tom. And he was out to get all the people whose parents were Muggles, like Mummy—their parents weren't witches and wizards. And then, a funny lady who wears too much jewelry said that he was going to come for our little baby. The little baby was born in the middle of the summer. So we went and hid from the bad wizard, so he couldn't find us and get the baby. We named the baby Harry, because it was a boy. So later, Harry turned one and we had a party for his birthday, like we do on yours every year. Then Uncle Albus—you know Uncle Albus, he's the one with the long beard—said he didn't want us to get in Voldemort's way, and told us we'd have to find someone who liked Harry to watch him for some nights. Two nice people volunteered. If you ever see them after you die, call them Aunt Mary and Uncle Matt. When Voldemort came to visit, he decided he didn't want to be nice and k-killed Mary and Matt—" Lily was crying. James sat next to her on the couch and slipped an arm around her shoulders, soothing her and hugging her one-armed.

"You see," James picked up when everyone was calm again, although Amanda (the more sensitive one) had spent a few minutes asking her mother if she was all right, "we were very good friends with Mary and Matt—they went to school with us and grew up with Daddy. We miss them now.

"But we were sitting in the basement, and we heard Voldemort attack. I didn't want your mum in danger, so I made her stay there with me. But he killed Aunt Mary and Uncle Matt. Harry survived somehow, and he got bundled off to your Aunt Petunia's—even though we tried to get Uncle Albus to let him come here with us.

"So now he's growing up with your Aunt Petunia, your Uncle Vernon, and your cousin Dudley. What do you think of that, girls, hmm?" Natalie looked simply pensive for a few moments. Amanda looked back at the picture as if to see her brother, who looked almost exactly like her in her own pictures.

"Oh. What happened to him? Uncle Padfoot?" she asked. James shook his head vehemently, determined to let Lily do this one.

"Daddy doesn't like to talk about this one. Uncle Padfoot is his best friend. People thought that Uncle Padfoot told Voldemort how to find us…that he tattled on us. But he couldn't tell Voldemort where we lived because of a charm. The only person who could was a man named Wormtail, who was one of our friends at one point. He told Voldemort how to find us. And your Uncle Padfoot was mad and tried to fight Wormtail. But somehow, he ended up killing Wormtail and the rest of the people on the street. So now he's in a really long time-out with some mean things watching him. He's not going to get out."

"So is Uncle Padfoot mean?" Natalie asked, with simple toddler logic. "Do you want him to be in time-out?"

"No, Uncle Padfoot just made some mistakes," James said. "Just like Mummy and Daddy make mistakes sometimes. I don't think he really killed Wormtail. But don't tell anyone that, because they all don't like Uncle Padfoot."

Amanda cocked her head in the time-honored gesture of a confused toddler. "But Daddy, why don't they like him? He's being so nice to my big brother Harry here." She looked at her mother. "Why don't they see he's nice?"

"They don't know him very well, sweetheart. If they did, they wouldn't put him in time-out, they'd let him explain first." Lily tried to explain Crouch's mistake to the four-year-old.

"Oh. And who's Auntie Meghan?" Natalie asked. Amanda nodded, interested.

"Auntie Meghan was Daddy's sister," James explained, trying to keep his trembling voice from cracking. "Auntie Meghan grew up with Daddy and Uncle Padfoot, and she was Mummy's best friend. She was really smart and she liked to play with Harry after he was born. She loved Uncle Sirius, and Uncle Sirius and Auntie Meghan were married. They had a little girl named Ashley two months before Aunt Mary and Uncle Matt died. And then they thought Mummy and Daddy died, so Meghan—Meghan, she—Meghan fought—" James couldn't say it.

"Meghan fought a really mean person, but that person was feeling better than her, so they beat Auntie Meghan." Lily slipped an arm around James's shoulders, giving him a half-hug. "They killed your Auntie Meghan, girls, and your cousin Ashley. You're never going to meet her…she would have loved you two. Your Auntie Meghan is watching over us right now."

"And I bet she's smiling," James said.

"That's good," Amanda said matter-of-factly. "Will we ever see Uncle Padfoot and Harry again? I think I might like them," she said simply. "I think I might have liked Auntie Meghan, too."

"I'm sure you would have, Amanda," James said, smiling, as he patted his daughter's head. "I'm sure you would have."

Lily just yawned to mask the tears in her eyes. "I'm sure it's time for little girls to be in bed."

"No!" Natalie yelled. "Not bedtime, Mummy! Five more minutes!"

"Come on, Natalie, Mandy, we just had a bedtime story, now it's time for bed," James said with a shooing motion toward the stairs. "Go before the Daddy monster has to come get you and take you there."

The little girls squealed and ran up the stairs. "I'm going, I'm going, Daddy! No monster today, Daddy!" Amanda called down the stairs.

"Good girls," said James. As soon as Natalie and Amanda disappeared into their bedroom at the top of the stairs, he headed for the kitchen. "Merlin, I need a cup of coffee. I've got all that paperwork to look at before tomorrow."

Soon after, Lily came down the stairs. "Homework, Prongs?" she teased at the sight of him looking over piles of papers.

"Kingsley will absolutely kill me if I don't get all this filled out by tomorrow. He gave some of it to me Friday last week. I don't have any more excuses. Not good ones anyway." He wrote something down on a page, turned it over, and continued to work. He would stop every once in a while to take a drink. Lily pretended she couldn't hear him sniffling.

Lily sighed and pulled out her own stack of papers. "What's in the bag for this weekend? Oh, Nat and Amanda's wizarding kindergarten immunization cards, papers for that patient with the teapot attached to his nose…what else, what else? Papers from the preschool, they're doing great as always…ah well. Nothing really important otherwise. Oh, and James?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm on call next weekend. If something comes up, you'll have to look after Nat and Mandy. It hasn't been my turn for a few weeks now, and Nadine's getting tired of being on call."

"No more good excuses for you either, Lily flower?" James asked, now halfway through his mound of paper. "Never letting my work accumulate again, even if my daughters are starting to get a handle on their magic, their speech, and their story. Kingsley's sent me three urgent memos this week…seems we've got a crazy one on the loose."

"What's he doing?"

"She. Don't know what's wrong with this woman, but she's Vanishing all the Muggle telephone booths she can find after she broke into the Ministry and nearly got arrested for attacking Fudge. Her excuse was his bad ideals."

"She has a point," Lily muttered. "Let's see…'affliction of patient'—what do you think this is about, idiots? The man had a bloody teapot attached to his nose! Although how he managed to do that, I'll never know."

After half an hour of steadfast work, Lily was finished. "All done, love."

"Good for you. Can you stay down here a minute? I want to talk to you." Lily, about to get up, settled back down.

"What is it, James?" she asked, a little worried. "Is something wrong? Is it the girls? Work? Voldemort?"

"No, none of that. Don't you think, though, that it's a little odd that Meghan would—would lose? Don't you remember her at school? I know I saw her in the field. No Dark Lord wannabe would beat her…I don't know what to think anymore. But I really don't think she was that easily beaten. Not Meghan."

Lily put her hand over James's. "James, I know. Any minute Meghan wasn't reading, she was practicing her dueling. You remember that dueling club we had under Blackthorne? She won almost every match. Against you and Remus, it was always a draw. I think she lost to Sirius on purpose, but she never lost to anyone else. Sometimes I wonder. I wonder if she's not wandering around somewhere, her memory wiped and her clothes all torn up, maybe even with little Ashley. She would have died for her. I wonder if they're not alive. She could be anywhere."

"I know. I'd give anything to figure out if they have her body somewhere. They didn't have it for the funeral. We were there." James looked up, tears in his eyes. "I know it's been five years, but goddamn it, Lily, she wouldn't up and die on me! I know she probably thought Sirius was lower than scum at that point, and she thought we were dead, but you know she wouldn't give up! She never gave up. She was the one that pulled Sirius out of giving up that one summer. Never! You know my sister. Any hope—any hope at all. Remus is still alive out there somewhere. She wouldn't let him be the only one. This isn't right! Something's wrong here, Lily, and I'm going to figure out what it is, damn it!"

"James. James, love, I know what you're feeling. I know. I remember when—when we heard that Jane's entire family was mur—murdered. I remember what it feels like. I remember when—when Meghan and Ashley died. I remember, James. I know. I know there's something wrong. I know she's got to be out there somewhere. If we're still here, she's still here. You hold on to that, because I'm holding on to it too. If we believe in it, it will work. You've got to pull this together, love. Come on." She patted his hand, knowing he didn't want her to soothe the tears that were running thick and fast down his face. She didn't realize the same was happening to her. She swallowed and tried to smile. "Need anything before I go up to bed? Long day tomorrow."

"Um, yes," he tried to recover, wiping away his tears with the back of his hand and straightening. "Hand me the coffeepot and my wand. I'll be up a while yet. Curse this bloody paperwork. I want to retire sooner rather than later if it requires less paperwork."

"Hmm, what should I do to it…Jelly Legs, Tarantallegra—or how about Rictusempra? Yeah, that sounds like a good one."

"Lily, I think I'm rubbing off on you."

"So? Who cares? There you are, love. 'Night." They kissed and she headed up the stairs. James sighed heavily, swallowed his tears and chalked down another signature on the dotted line. Meghan, I know you're out there. Don't leave us here all alone, little sister. We can't do this if you can't be here. Miss you, and I hope you can find us.

A/N: this refuses to do those tidy little lines. You'll have to pick out the author notes for yourself. Meghan is not lost forever, do not fret. She loves you all.

M: Shut up. I can talk for myself. And quite frankly, I think you should all nose out. Don't believe everything the government says. It's good advice.

LP: Right. Well, anyway, now that she's finished. Next update will be up momentarily. Luv ya all,

LysPotter