Disclaimer: (Which I totally did not forget to do last chapter!) The characters belong to J.K Rowling, along with the Potter-verse. My mind belongs to myself, and therefore so does this story. Yay!

Very quickly, I'd like to say I still don't have a beta so please excuse any mistakes. Again.

"Morning Lily."

James Potter. My mind went blank, reeling at the possible reasons why James I-can't-stop-ruffling-my-own-hair-like-a-moron Potter would be stood on my doorstep and making my mother laugh. Speaking of which… Mom was glaring at me, so I gathered I had exceeded the limit of time I was allowed for replying. Merlin's pants! He hadn't even introduced himself to her and already she was smitten.

"Po…Why… You… What?" Another glare. Okay, so that hadn't been the most coherent or grammatically correct sentence I had ever uttered, but considering the time and situation, it was the best I could.

"Lily, are you going to introduce us?" Mom asked frostily, before sending another dazzling smile at Potter. Why couldn't she see that beneath the handsome exterior, Potter was as rotten and disgusting as they come?

When I didn't reply, he seemed to decide it was his duty to answer for me as he extended a hand to my mother. "Hello Mrs Evans, I'm James Potter. A friend of Lily's from Hogwarts." Friend? What kind of sick, parallel universe did he drop in from? James Potter was definitely not my friend.

"Oh how wonderful! Lily dear, you didn't tell us how polite your little friends are," Mom gushed, beaming at the devil stood on my doorstep. Taking his hand, she shook it with a schoolgirl giggle, flushing a light pink. A stream of profanities both muggle and wizarding ran through my mind, furious that she was so taken in by his nice boy exterior. Stupid Potter… "Come in, come in, out of the sun. And please, it's Rose," she smiled. Why didn't she just get a room with him already? Oh gross, images of my mother and Potter were suddenly doing the conga through my poor poor mind.

Begrudgingly, I stepped aside so Potter could get in the house and followed them to the lounge, trying to drown out the endless compliments that boy was dishing out about the house, while my mother simpered and giggled and lapped them up like a little lost puppy starved of affection. Why oh why were all adults in love with James Potter? Did he have some shield around him that only I could see past?

"Well Lily?"

Oh boy, droning out worked a little too efficiently. I'd lost track of the conversation and had somehow ended up sat on the sofa beside Potter of all people. The question was, what had my mother asked for my opinion on, and why was Potter looking all puppy eyed at me. Answer? I have no idea. About the first that is, I knew perfectly well why Potter would be doing the lovesick expression. Okay, time for the back up plan. Nod along and pretend you know what's going on while silently begging for that to be the right answer.

"Excellent, so you and James can baby-sit the Caddens while I go to work, and he'll stay for supper with the family!"

Bad answer, very very bad answer, stupid back-up plan! Before I had chance to argue over this new arrangement however, mother had fled out the door. Great. Why not just throw me into the lions den without a wand and get it over with, minus the torture? In fact, I'd rather face a Hungarian Horntail then have to spend a day with Potter, but I couldn't kick him out with being grounded for the rest of the summer. I could not risk getting grounded.

See, every summer my family take me and Petunia caravanning. A truly horrifying experience I'll have you know, that has been dreaded by myself and Tuney for the last ten years. However, this year the caravan decided to die -with or without a little assistance from yours truly- and we were going to a rather fancy hotel in Spain. SPAIN! Sun, sea and sand. The only downside of this trip was that Tuney was taking Vernon, the beached whale she had yet to return to the local aquarium, but still!

With a holiday in Spain at stake, I'd put up with Potter. Just this once.

Fingers snapped in front of my face, causing me to flinch and then glare at Potter, who had the decency to look a little embarrassed. "Sorry lily, but you've been zoned out muttering about whales for the last ten minutes, and the door just went." Fan-bloody-tastic. Potter and the babies? Spain better be amazing…

Standing, I ignored the surprised look on Potter's face from my sudden movement and answered the door, giving the Cadden parents my best I-love-little-kids expression that I could manage. Five minutes later, we had carried out the terrifying transaction of children from adults to teenager and I was left stood there as they ran away, clutching a baby in each arm and with three toddlers clinging to my legs. Um, yeah, I was stuck. "POTTER!"

The roar had the triplets covering their ears, good. The roar had the twins woken up from their slumber and screaming bloody murder, bad. All in all, there was no doubt today would be a fun experience.

The dark haired boy came ambling into the hall like he hadn't a care in the world, carelessly gathering a triplet in each arm and the final one slinging his arms around his neck so they could return to the lounge. By the time I had settled the twins enough to move and had reached the lounge myself, Potter was engaged in a game of hide and seek with the little brats. Having agreed to count to fifty, Potter smiled at me, and I was so taken aback by his parenting skills I almost smiled back. Almost.

After the boys had run from the room to find a hiding place -no doubt the attic after getting the ladder and breaking their necks trying to climb it- Potter took one of the twins from me and smiled again. "They're sweet," he chuckled, pulling faces and making her grin while I wrestled with the other to keep her still. "So are you going to tell me their names or do I have to call them twin 1, twin 2, and triplets 1, 2 and 3?"

With a sigh I rearranged myself in my seat, resigned to the fact we would have to talk about what the hell he was doing here while the kids slept. "They're colour co-ordinated." All three boys were in stripy t-shirts, dungarees and bare feet, while the twins were dressed in identical sleepers. "Alex is in red stripes, Ben is in blue stripes, Caleb is in green stripes. Alex is allergic to peanuts so don't let him eat anything without checking it with me, Ben refuses to get dirty so don't take him outside, Caleb is fond of acting like a cat so if he starts meowing just ignore him." Okay, Potter looked rather more nervous than he had done when he met them, meaning he wasn't a natural as I had first thought. Yes! I had found something Potter truly sucked at.

"As for the twins, they sleep whenever you can get them to and eat an hour before their brothers." That wasn't something specified by the Caddens by the way, that was just because feeding five kids at once was impossible, and the boys took hours to eat unless blackmailed, so it was safer feeding the girls first. "Both twins are girls. Isabella is the one you're holding, she has the gold band around her wrist. I have Erin, she has a birthmark on her right hand that you can't miss."

So Potter had just sat through babysitter 101 and looked a little like the bloody baron, minus the chains. Brilliant, if this was all it took to shut him up I couldn't wait to see how he handled changing the twins!

"So um, what if-" Potter's query was cut off by a loud shriek from upstairs, that was accompanied by a lot of screaming. I'd only been kidding about the ladder, but from the sound of things… "The first aid kit is in the kitchen under the sink!" I yelled over my shoulder, charging upstairs and leaving Potter holding the twins.

Ah sweet vengeance. The horrified expression would be something to make me smile whenever I felt sad now… The joys of messing with James Potter. Now I just had to pray there was no need for a trip to A&E with the triplets, particularly since they had been in my care all of… well, ten minutes if that.

Amy's note: An earlier updated than I had planned but muse struck me at 3 this morning, so I had no choice! Again quite a short chapter, but the next one is already dancing through my mind and wants writing so may be up tomorrow! Yay! Thanks to Jo, Book worm forever 88 and poptartjuice for reviewing, I really appreciate it! All credit for this chapter being up already goes to them XD. Also, thanks to everyone who's added this to their favourites and alerts (as well as the author which makes me very happy!) you have no idea how much that means to me. Well, time for me to quit the rambling! Ooh, for the record, the Spain trip was never originally planned for this story but made me start brainstorming possibilities, so it may very well be included.