Theo arrived at Grimmauld Place that evening with Mari, the Hirashis, and a house-elf wearing a peridot green dress and white apron. Mr. Hirashi had a slight frown on his face, while Mrs. Hirashi looked more visibly upset, despite her attempt to hide it. It wasn't until the adults went to the Order meeting and Theo, with the help of the house-elf, was getting settled in to the bedroom he was going to share with Ron, that James found out what was the matter.
"Do you know what that f- -king b- -t- -d did?" demanded Mari, so upset that she was actually swearing. "He tried to get Theo back!"
James realized that she was referring to Mr. Nott. "He what? But how did that happen?"
"He sent a letter, or rather a blank piece of parchment, that had been turned into a Portkey, to Theo. If Theo had touched it, he would have been taken back to that horrible son of a bitch and - well, you can imagine what likely would have happened. Thank Merlin that Theo was a little wary about the letter and Aunt Yuki agreed with him about being careful. Professor Dumbledore was there when the 'letter' arrived, and decided to touch it himself when Uncle Tomi did the spell that shows if something has been spelled or not. The only good thing was that the b-t-d got a horrible shock when Dumbledore appeared and informed him that his little plot had failed and Theo wasn't ever coming back. The idiot -" and here Mari used a rude term in Japanese - "threw a fit and then had Dumbledore tell Theo that he was disowned from the Nott family."
James silently cursed Mr. Nott before saying out loud, "So how is Theo taking all this?"
"He's quite happy about being disowned, and said that after everything that had happened yesterday, he'd already stopped acknowledging the guy as his father. Then he summoned Peridot the house-elf and freed her so that she no longer has to work for that horrible Death Eater. She was only loyal to Theo and his mother in the first place. Apparently Peri was a wedding present from Mrs. Nott's parents. Anyway, she's now free and has decided to work for Unity like Dobby does, though her main loyalty is to Theo, of course. She is willing to continue wearing clothes, but she refuses to take wages of any sort and it took a great deal of persuasion to get her to accept having Christmas off."
"Most house-elves wouldn't," said James with a shrug. "And even Dobby prefers work and is perfectly happy to be paid only one Galleon a week. Well, I'm going to see if Theo wants to talk with me, since he can't exactly talk to Blaise or Mandy right now. No offense, Mari, but he'd probably feel more comfortable talking to another guy at the moment."
Theo, however, insisted that he was fine and that his best friend and girlfriend had cheered him up with the stuff they had written to him, so there was no need of a talk. He added that the painting of his mother had a long conversation with him and also helped him feel better. "And Peri has been very soothing also," he finished, smiling down at the house-elf.
Two weeks later, James was busy sorting out his things, for Kyle was due to arrive in a couple of hours and they would be sharing rooms, since with the house fuctioning as headquarters for the Order, there were more people residing there. He paused upon opening a small box in his trunk. Inside was the present from Mari and Kyle for his seventh birthday, which was a picture frame they had made out of ice lolly sticks that was painted green with his name in red, and a picture they had drawn of the three of them fighting a dragon, that was pasted to the frame. Since the two weren't the greatest artists at the age of seven, the dragon had looked more like a fat snake with legs and arms and breathed fire.
James smiled fondly as he gazed down at the picture. It had been a gift he had cherished greatly, hanging it on the wall above his bed in the orphanage until he'd started Hogwarts. At that point he had put it in a box and brought it with him, taking it out every so often to just look at it. After a moment, he realized that it could also be representive of what had occured during Voldemort's rebirth. After all, the dragon looked more like a snake, except for the arms and legs, and Riddle himself had a snake fetish. The trio had fought him, just like the picture of them fighting the dragon. James sighed and then took out his wand and did a protection spell on the picture before hanging it up. He looked at it once more before returning to cleaning up his room.
An hour later, his room was reasonably neat, and he had cleared out a drawer and some space in the wardrobe for Kyle to put his things in. James then looked around the room, which now looked a bit crowded since a second bed had been added. Satisfied that he had done all he could, he asked Dobby to just dust and hoover the carpet before leaving to find the rest of his friends that were staying at Grimmauld place.
His friends were in the drawing room. Ron and Hermione were arguing, as usual, and James shook his head and thought that they really were like an old married couple at times. In fact, they seemed better off when they were quarreling, and the one time when Tai had gotten a bit fed up with it all and asked if they ever stopped arguing, the two had given him surprised looks. Ginny, Neville, Mari, and the Weasley twins were playing a game of Exploding Snap, and Mandy and Theo were in a corner, talking about something or other.
James sighed and wished that Luna was there, for Theo and Mandy together made him miss his girlfriend. The two had been inseparable ever since the Brocklehursts had arrived at Grimmauld Place. After Mandy had made it very clear that nothing was keeping her apart from Theo, Mr. Brocklehurst had given in and only gave Theo the obligatory "don't ever hurt my daughter" speech that fathers usually gave their daughters' boyfriends.
Speaking of couples, Dobby and Peridot were getting along very well. In fact, Neville had noticed that Dobby might be showing some attraction to Peridot, though whether or not she returned those feelings still remained to be seen. In addition, at least half of Unity had paired off ever since the Yule Ball. Other than Mari and Kyle, it was uncertain if those relationships would last, but at least Unity's bond was too strong for any friendships to be shattered if any of the couples broke up.
James joined in the Exploding Snap game, which came to a halt when Kyle arrived. Mari jumped to her feet when he appeared in the drawing room and ran to him. He blinked in surprise, but hugged her tightly, and returned her kiss until Ginny giggled loudly and the Weasley twins told them to 'get a room'.
"Oh grow up, you two," snapped Mari. "Come on Kyle, James and I will help you unpack and get settled."
James followed his friends upstairs, wishing even more that Luna was there. He decided to ask Sirius if she could visit for the rest of the summer. She was a very understanding person, and didn't mind at all that he wasn't ready to do more than hold hands and exchange chaste kisses. Besides Kyle and Mari, Luna was the one person that knew him best and could make him feel better quickly.
With the help of his friends, Kyle put most of his clothes away in the wardrobe and his toothbrush and other toiletries in the bathroom. He then took a small box out of his pocket and handed it to Mari. "Here, Mari. I saved up my pocket money and took some out the account my parents set up for me to get a proper ring for you."
"Kyle, you didn't have to," said Mari. "I was perfectly happy with the ring you transfigured from a button." She opened the box to find a silver ring set with a garnet. "How much did this cost?"
"Twenty Galleons," answered Kyle. "I owl-ordered it from a jewelry store in Diagon Alley. I wanted to get a nicer ring, but if I had withdrawn more than fifty pounds from my bank account, my parents would have asked questions, and I didn't want to have to tell them that you and I are engaged."
"I love the ring, and it doesn't matter to me how expensive it is. I honestly would have been happy with a six-pence tinsel ring that came out of a cracker, so long as I have you."
At this point, James made a face at all the mushiness and went downstairs to ask Sirius if Luna could visit.
Author's Note: Sorry that I hadn't updated for the past couple of weeks. I was busy with other things. This chapter is more of a filler, but I promise that the next one will be more interesting. I will also be starting a new fic, based on a dream I had in which a family of wizarding Gypsies took in Harry Potter and raised him while they were traveling around in the United States until it was time for him to attend Hogwarts. I will have to adapt it, since in my dream the Gypsy family was traveling around in a horse-drawn caravan like Gypsies did hundreds of years ago, which isn't practical in the current era, where most people have cars.