DISCLAIMER: you know the drill. I wish I did, but I don't, and I'm not claiming to. Don't sue me. Period.

Okay, I am endlessly sorry that I haven't been able to find the time to update…it's been a very long sequence of events, and I am sooooooooo sorry. I promised a week and a half, and it's been a year. I really suck at life.

Anyway, I fear that I've lost a good number of my readers because of the time delay. So that makes me sad, but it's really my own fault. I did make a promise that I would finish this fic, and I do not plan on breaking that promise.

So, after god knows how many months of neglect:

To the Moon and Back—Chapter 12

The curtains of Harry Potter's room in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries were yanked back quickly, flooding the room with rays of morning sunlight. They fell across the face of the man in the only occupied bed, who had until that moment been fast asleep. He rolled over in bed with a groan, his body still unwilling to wake up.

It had been one hell of a week, he thought as he lay there, immobile. Longer, really, but he didn't remember much prior to waking from his comatose state almost seven days before.

"It's strange," he had told Hermione Granger three days ago, as she and Ron Weasley sat at his bedside one afternoon. "One moment, I'm in a secluded location, a park in South America. And I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I guess I lost it then, because the next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and saw my little girl for the first time." His eyes had begun to glisten at that point, and he hurriedly dried them. He didn't think Ron would think anything of it and he was sure that Hermione hadn't noticed at all, as tears were streaming down her cheeks.

James and Lily had stayed more or less at their father's bedside for two days after he had woken up. After much resisting, Hermione had convinced them in the end that the best thing for them would be to go back to Hogwarts and continue with their studies. The two children reluctantly agreed to leave the hospital and their father ("We've only just met him!"), though not without a good bit of protest both of them.

"Hey, don't worry," Harry had told them as he hugged them good-bye. "I'm not going anywhere. We'll see each other again soon, and I will definitely keep writing to you."

"Every week?" Lily asked, reluctantly pulling away from her father's comforting embrace. Harry gave a deep laugh.

"Of course, as long as you two can keep up with me." The twins grinned.

"No problem…I mean, school isn't that hard," James said with a grin. "As it is, we may or may not have taken up the hobby of wandering the castle when we're bored…" Lily nudged him rather painfully with her elbow and gave him a pointed look. Harry grinned.

"Oh, trust me, I did a good bit of wandering myself while I was in school. Most of it, mind you, was with Ron and your mum. Looking back, we were definitely a bunch of mischief-makers. Got away with most of it too," he added with a smirk.

"No way!" James exclaimed.

"Any pointers?" Lily asked with a grin, keeping her voice lowered so that Hermione, who was lingering outside the door, waiting to take them back to school, wouldn't be able to hear.

"Well," Harry said, looking from one to the other, "if Peeves ever gives you any trouble, threaten to set the Bloody Baron on him. And if you ever feel in the mood for an éclair or afternoon tea, you can always go—"

"Down to the kitchens, yeah," James said eagerly, grinning at Lily. Harry glanced from one to the other, looking impressed.

"You've found the kitchens already?" He asked. James waved his hand carelessly in front of his face.

"What, like it's hard?"

"And we met a friend of yours," Lily said. Harry looked at her, interested.

"Who?"

"Dobby the house elf," she laughed. Harry's eyes lit up.

"Really? He still works there?" he asked. "How is he?"

"He seems well. He was absolutely thrilled to meet us," Lily said. "He about wet himself when we told him that Mum was still alive, and that the two of you are our parents." Harry's heart swelled. He loved the sound of that.

"Yeah, and he wouldn't stop offering us tea and sweets," James added, "it was actually kind of cool."

"Don't let your mother hear you say that," Harry laughed.

"Don't let your mother hear what?" Hermione asked as she poked her head into the room, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Well, you two had better be off to school, you don't want to fall behind in your studies." He said all of this very quickly. Their mother was not fooled, and that was evident from the scrutinizing look on her face, but she seemed to decide to let it go, because she simply said—

"Come along, you two, Professor McGonagall is expecting you back." She held out their knapsacks. James and Lily hugged their father, with promises that they'd see each other again soon, took their bags reluctantly out of Hermione's hands, and started off down the corridor. Harry and Hermione exchanged smiles.

"See you later, then?"

"Of course," Hermione said. "I'll come back as soon as I've delivered those two back to Hogwarts."

And so she had. Once James and Lily were safely back in Professor McGonagall's care, she had returned to Saint Mungo's and sat at Harry's bedside. They talked and exchanged stories, and Hermione felt the past eleven years spill out of her. She told Harry everything she hadn't been able to write in a letter. Harry was fascinated by every story, wanted to know every detail about the children he barely knew.

She had brought album after album of Muggle photographs back to the hospital, and through them he watched Lily and James grow up. There was Lily as a baby, red-faced and screaming in a tiny pink onesie, James crawling across the floor with a look of triumph in his eyes, the two of them on their first birthday, cake with blue icing covering their faces. There were photos of the twins with their mother at every birthday, their first day of school, a trip to the aquarium, every summer at the beach…

Harry turned the pages slowly, taking each photograph in and allowing Hermione to tell him a story that corresponded with every picture. There were a lot of pictures, he saw, of the twins playing soccer.

"Yes, they've always loved it. And I remember," she said with a laugh, "the year that they signed up, when they turned eight, and they couldn't be on the same team anymore, the leagues started the single-sex teams. They were devastated. But it was fun, because they practiced together a lot in our yard, taking turns shooting goals and being keeper."

"Are they any good?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Of course! After all," she said with a grin, "they are half yours." Harry beamed.

"What positions do they play? Have they ever flown? Maybe they could get onto their House team. Wait—" He stopped suddenly. "I never go the chance to ask what house they are in. They are in the same house, right? It would be a pity if they were separated…"

"Calm down, Harry. Yes, they are in the same house." Harry looked at her expectantly. Hermione pretended she didn't know what he was waiting to hear.

"What house?"

"Gryffindor, of course." Harry beamed.

"Brilliant! So what positions do they play? Football, I mean." It took Hermione a moment to realize what he meant when he said 'football.'

"Both of them are very versatile, but Lily is an excellent goalkeeper, she has your reflexes. James is so fast…he plays forward, usually. They love to play…I think that's the one thing that they'll miss the most about, you know, the Muggle world. Don't get your hopes up too high about them playing Quidditch, though," she said, correctly reading the look on Harry's face. "They haven't learned to fly yet, and I'm not sure how they will feel about that."

And then a minute passed in silence. An expression came over Hermione's face that Harry couldn't quite read. She folded her hands in her lap, staring out the window but not really seeing it, as her pupils slid out of focus. She seemed to be contemplating something, opening her mouth once, as if to say something, and then closing it hastily again.

"What's up, Hermione?" Her eyes didn't quite meet his emerald ones.

"We need to talk," she said simply, exhaling a deep breath. She looked at him with an emotion that he could not identify.

"About James and Lily, right?" Harry said, "because I am 100 prepared to take on whatever I need to so that I can be there for those kids, anything at all—" Hermione gave a soft, nervous laugh.

"I knew you were going to be noble about it. But—" Harry was shocked to see her brown eyes welling with tears in the afternoon sunlight. "I won't—I mean, I can't blame you…if you don't…it's too sudden—if you don't want to…"

"If I don't want to what?" Harry suddenly looked both shocked and slightly miffed.

"I mean to say…well, you didn't exactly choose this, having two children, and I would understand if you wanted—if you didn't want—to be a part of their lives." She said the last bit very quickly and dropped her gaze to her hands, which she had been wringing absentmindedly in her lap. A tear had escaped her eye and was running down her cheek. "I've worried about this, about how you would react, ever since I ran into Ginny that day in Diagon Alley, when I found out that you and Ron were alive.

"Well, I don't see why you were worried," Harry said simply. "Hermione, I have loved those kids since that very first letter, since Ginny told me about them." The thought of their faces burst into his mind and he grinned in spite of himself. "I may not have asked for it, but that doesn't mean that I'm not absolutely elated now."

Hermione had stopped breathing, but was unaware of it.

"So—" she began slowly, "you're saying—"

"That I would love nothing more than to be a part of those kids' lives," he finished. "I mean, I'm their father, but I want to be their dad. As long as it's okay with you," he added quickly, peering at her through his glasses, as if awaiting a decision. Hermione beamed.

"Of course! I mean—" she added matter-of-factly, "Now that James and Lily know that you are alive, that you are their father, there's really no point in trying to keep them from you. They tend to have your knack for disregarding rules that they find unnecessary." She rolled her eyes but smiled as Harry gave a guilty shrug and grinned sheepishly at her. She laughed.

"Yes, they did mention to me about doing a bit of wandering to find the kitchens, and there have been one or two nighttime strolls."

"Hey, they are your kids."

"But if I remember correctly, you were usually right beside me most of the time."

"Yeah, hissing in your ear to go back, or worrying about getting caught."

"But there nonetheless."

Harry and Hermione smiled at each other, one of those smiles that only years of close friendship can bring about.

As the days passed, Harry slowly got his strength back and his cuts and bruises began to heal. The time crept by at an agonizingly slow rate, even though Ron, Ginny and Hermione were usually there to keep him company. He'd had other visitors, too: Lupin and Tonks and the Weasleys, among others. Even Professor McGonagall stopped by briefly to wish him a speedy recovery.

And so, one week after he had first woken up, the Healers at St. Mungo's gave him a clean bill of health, with the order to stay at home and not undertake any stressful activity for at least a month.

But Harry suddenly found that he didn't want to go back to his home. After all, he was the only one who lived there. He knew that he would be perfectly welcome with Hermione, Ron or the Weasleys. But at the moment, he had a powerful desire to be with his children. As Ron pointed out, however, this was quite impossible.

"Harry, it was quite enough of a wrench for Hermione to take James and Lily out of school even when we all thought you'd been—" he trailed off.

"Done in?"

"More or less, yeah," he continued. "Anyway, relax for a moment. You aren't going on a mission for a few weeks, why don't you take some time out? Go back to your house, or visit my parents, or better yet, catch up with Hermione. Who knows? You may be able to get a Saturday with the twins out of it." He punched Harry in the shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

"Thanks, Ron," he said as he tied his trainer and tucked his wand into the Muggle clothes he was wearing. "I do need to talk to Hermione…I-I still can't believe that she's back, you know?"

"Yeah, I do," Ron nodded in understanding. "Me, too."

"So you got to see your dad? Wicked!"

Lily, James, and Sirius had pulled their desks close to each other during Transfiguration the next day, where they were attempting to transform cotton balls into clothespins. Professor McGonagall sat at her desk, busy with paperwork, so as long as they weren't being reckless they didn't have to worry too much about being told off for the rest of the class period. This gave the twins the opportunity to catch their friend up on their whereabouts during the past week.

"We got to meet him. For the first time ever!" James said happily, readjusting his cotton ball on the desk and flicking his wand (10½ inches, oak and phoenix feather) at it carelessly. It promptly caught fire, which he quickly put out with a spurt of water from his wand.

"Wow…what's he like?"

"He's a lot like us," Lily shrugged. She set her face in concentration, muttered the incantation and flicked her wand at her cotton ball, which quivered and turned over on the desk. "He's really funny, got a great sense of humor."

"And he's trying to get us to find a few secret passageways, you know, make a little trouble while we're here." Sirius beamed.

"Wicked," he said again. "Did he tell you anything interesting? Give you any tips?"

"No," James shook his head in disappointment.

"I reckon he would have," Lily said, still trying to concentrate on her transfiguration project, "if Mum hadn't been standing in the doorway."

"Why don't we—hey, way to go!" James halted his wand momentarily in midair, looking at the perfectly hinged clothespin now sitting on Lily's desk, which Sirius promptly nicked and fastened to his nose.

"Hey!" Lily cried indignantly as James and Sirius laughed. "Make your own!"

"Fine then," James said as he and Sirius redoubled their efforts. Lily snatched her clothespin off of Sirius' nose, and by the time she had returned with a handful of cotton balls, both boys had a clothespin fixed on one ear. Lily laughed and reaffixed her own to her left ear, distributing the cotton balls among the three of them.

"Ok, ready?" Sirius grinned, moving one to the center of his desk. "Get set….GO!"

And they were off in a race to the finish…or, at least, to see who could produce the most clothespins. The more they practiced the spell, the quicker they were getting, and the nicer the clothespins became. By the time the cotton balls had disappeared from their desks (Lily had finished first), the three of them had dissolved into fits of laughter.

"May I inquire, please, what is going on here?" They turned and saw Professor McGonagall leering over them. Lily hastily tugged about six clothespins off of her nose and ears, nearly throwing them down onto her desk. Sirius followed suit, but James merely smiled, his face looking strangely disfigured with the clothespins he had attached to his nose and eyebrows.

"We're practicing our transfiguration, Professor," he said, grinning through the clothespins. Professor McGonagall looked at the three of them for a moment, then unexpectedly reached out and plucked a pin off of James' face ("Ouch!"), examining it.

"Very well," she sighed, replacing the clothespin on James' desk. "Carry on, but please do not raise so much of a ruckus. You're disrupting the rest of the class." And she turned on her heel and left.

"Oh, boo, it was just a bit of fun," Lily said, looking disappointed.

"Well," Sirius said, looking around the room, "she has got a point." And indeed, they were getting stares from a lot of the Hufflepuffs with whom they had Transfiguration, many of whom had still failed to make a difference to their cotton balls.

"It's only a few minutes until the bell, anyway," James pointed out. Lily nodded, and ceased to try to produce any more clothespins ("They're useless, anyway").

"And, the day only gets better, eh?" Sirius said, prodding Lily with his elbow and raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, right!" she said happily, grinning.

"Erm, what's going on this afternoon? I mean, I know that you guys like food, but lunch isn't really going to be that exciting."

"Duh!" Lily exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "Flying lessons!"

"Oh," James said, grinning. "How could I have forgotten that? Who are we learning with? Aren't we with Ravenclaw?" Sirius shook his head.

"I wish," he said, giving a hollow laugh. They rounded a corner to the portrait hole. "Slytherin. They changed it yesterday…I have no idea why."

"Corazon espinado," James said to the Fat Lady, who promptly swung open to admit them. They ditched their book bags in each respective dormitory and recollected themselves for lunch back in the Great Hall. The ceiling showed a cloudy grey sky, but it didn't look as if it was going to rain. They sat down and James stood to take a handful of chips and a half-moon pie as Lily and Sirius poured goblets of pumpkin juice for themselves.

Lunchtime was going rather cheerfully until two unexpected visitors turned up at the table: Eve and Daniel. Lily and James exchanged glances.

"Mind if we…er…sit here?" Daniel asked apprehensively. Lily nodded.

"Go for it," she said pleasantly. Eve and Daniel took seats opposite Sirius and Lily, beside James on the other side of the long table. Eve accepted the jug of juice from Sirius and poured goblets for herself and her cousin.

"Er, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for being such a…such a…" Daniel began.

"Cow?" Eve offered. Daniel hung his head.

"Yeah. Sorry about that," he finished, giving a look to Eve that said quite clearly 'are we done here?'

"Can I ask why?" Lily said kindly. Daniel shrugged.

"I dunno…I guess I was just upset about my dad being gone, and having to start school…I barely get to see him at all as it is…" his voice trailed off and he quickly took a very large forkful of boiled potato and shoved it into his mouth to fill the silence that followed.

"It's alright," James said. "We know how that goes…we only just met our father."

"Yeah, you probably know him way better than we do." Lily sprinkled salt on her potatoes and began to cut them into smaller pieces. "But I can't imagine, before we knew he wasn't dead, I mean, I can't imagine it just being the two of us and our mum, and her being gone most of the time. That must have been difficult."

"Yeah, well," Daniel shrugged. "At least I have a huge family to be with while he's away. I'm sorry…I guess I was being selfish when you two and your mother came 'round for dinner that night."

"It's alright," Lily said kindly. "Apology accepted." And the three of them shook hands, calling a truce.

It was nice to sit there, finally having the burden of Eve and Daniel's coldness toward them lifted. They sat and talked and learned a lot, about how Eve and Daniel had practically grown up together, how Daniel was constantly passed from relative to relative while Ron was away, and how much the search for Hermione, even years later, had affected him.

James and Lily found out quite a lot about Harry as well. They learned that he had a snowy owl called Hedwig that had been with him since his first year at Hogwarts, and that he also took care of a phoenix that had once belonged to Professor Dumbledore, who had been headmaster when their parents had gone to school. His family knew Sirius because all of their parents had been a part of something called the Order of the Phoenix.

"Oh yeah, our mum told us about that!" James said. "We've got some kind of old photo from when she and Harry and Ron were members." Eve nodded.

"Yes, my mum has one too, and that's where I recognized your mum from. My dad wasn't in it, as he's a Muggle, but both of Dan's parents, and Sirius' folks, and all of my uncles and grandparents were as well."

"What about your family, Watson?" came a cold sneer from behind Lily. She turned in her seat to face him, narrowing her eyes at Malfoy and his cronies. "Because we were just talking about your muggle father and blood-traitor of a mother." Eve's cheeks went scarlet, but she kept her eyes on Malfoy. "Oh, and I almost forgot about the Weasel," he continued in a loud voice, speaking over Sirius. "Your mother was a bit of a loon, wasn't she? Well, it looks as if that trait has been passed on…"

"Not like Wolfboy here's much better," he drawled on, "I mean, your mother had a shot at being a decent witch once, but no, she had to turn it down for a riffraff half-breed—" Sirius made an angry move towards Malfoy, but Lily and James held him back.

"Watch your mouth," he spat angrily. "Now you're talking about a teacher, and the lovely folks up at the High Table wouldn't like that too much. Besides, at least my mother doesn't look like a pug with a bad haircut."

"Shove off, Malfoy," Lily said coolly. "As if you can talk about riffraff…at least our fathers and grandfathers aren't scum enough to be in Azkaban. It's only a matter of time before you're carted off as well." His cheeks turned pink and Rookwood and Nott scowled, cracking their knuckles threateningly.

"I don't remember asking your opinion," Malfoy sneered. "At least my mother's not a filthy, cowardly, good-for-nothing mudblood who bears a striking resemblance to—"

But what Hermione resembled, they never found out. Because as James clenched his teeth and fists and made an angry move to get at Malfoy (though he failed because Eve grabbed his arm and held him back), Lily had whipped out her wand, pointing it angrily at Malfoy's stomach.

"Eat slugs, Malfoy!" she said angrily, muttering a few well-chosen words. A jet of green light hit him square in the stomach and he reeled back onto the floor of the Great Hall. Everybody stared in spite of themselves, Lily stowing her wand back in her robes.. Rookwood and Nott looked as if they weren't sure whether to try to help or get as far away from Lily as possible, but they seemed frozen as Malfoy, looking like he was going to be sick, gave a great belch, holding his hand over his mouth. A few people laughed, and he brought his hand away in disbelief, holding three large, slimy slugs in it. Malfoy's muffled cries were causing a few people from the nearby Hufflepuff table to stare.

Most unluckily, Professor Lupin had chosen that precise moment, as Lily was tucking her wand away, to enter the Great Hall. He approached the table quickly, his robes billowing out behind him, looking with a keen eye from Malfoy to Lily, who spotted him and tried to arrange her face from a look of satisfaction to one of what she hoped was innocent curiosity. Malfoy gave another great belch, another two slugs trickling into his lap.

"Mr. Malfoy," he said calmly. "Please report to Madam Pomfrey and have her make sure that the after-effects of Miss Granger's curse are cleared out of your system. Nott and Rookwood, kindly assist him. Miss Granger," Lupin said, rounding on Lily, "I'm disappointed in your actions. You will serve a double detention, and I am going to take ten points from Gryffindor for your assault on a fellow student. Yes, Mr. Lupin, from my own House. Be thankful it isn't more," he added as both James and Sirius opened their mouths in protest.

"That," Sirius said after Professor Lupin had taken his place at the High Table, "was brilliant."

"And you shouldn't have done it!" James said, "What's Mum going to say?"

"I don't care," Lily said bitterly, helping herself to a chicken leg. "He deserved it, and that's worth a double detention to me."

It seemed as though something about Lily's cursing Malfoy had at least gotten him to shut his mouth for a little while, because he was definitely more subdued than usual during their first flying lesson that afternoon. Madam Pomfrey couldn't cure his slug problem, much to Lily's delight, and instead had given him a pail to tote to his lessons in case he had another belching fit. Learning to fly turned out to be a wonderful diversion for Lily, who was beginning to feel a nagging of guilt at her stomach for what she'd done.

At the instructor's whistle, the students all kicked off without incident, flew a few feet above the ground, and landed twenty feet from where they'd started—Sirius toppled off of his broom when he landed. Madam Pommedur was a very short, thin witch with very short, violet hair and piercing, inky black eyes. After teaching them a few of the basics, she allowed them all a bit of time to become acquainted with flying on their own. James shot Lily a mischievous glance.

"Race you to that tree and back," he muttered under his breath. Lily gauged the distance and gripped her broom.

"You're on." They mounted their brooms and aligned their toes. And a moment later, James was kicking off, racing his sister to the apple tree a hundred and fifty feet in front of them. Lily was gaining speed, but James leaned forward, egging the broom on. They zoomed past the tree, making the leaves rustle. Both were laughing, and neither really knew who won the race. But it didn't seem to matter. Lily readjusted her glasses to be sure that they wouldn't fall off. James swooped down to the apple tree and snatched a green piece of fruit from it.

"Lily," he called to his sister, "catch!" He tossed the apple to her and she caught it easily. She tossed it back, and he returned the throw, sending the fruit straight toward the ground. Lily went into a shallow dive and her fingers closed around the apple. Leveling herself with James, she grinned.

"Try this one!" she challenged, chucking the apple as hard as she could straight up into the air. In a swift motion, James shot ten, twenty feet into the air, arm outstretched. But as he went higher, his broomstick started to vibrate dangerously. The apple fell to the ground with a splat, but neither noticed it, because the vibrating broom had all but shaken James off of it. He was hanging off of it, dangling in midair a good thirty feet from the ground.

"James!" Lily screamed. She shot her broomstick toward her twin as fast as she could, helping him back onto his broom.

"I reckon that's enough for now," James said. Lily nodded, both pale from the incident. They lowered themselves to the ground, where they were met by a stern look from Madam Pommedur.

"Professor, the broomstick, I think it's cursed," James said, holding out the old Cleansweep for her to see.

"Not cursed, Mr. Granger, the broomsticks are enchanted to not allow such a high altitude in beginning students. I have, however, never seen a broom shake so violently. I will check this one out." She looked around at the class, which was scattered between sky and ground. One shrill scream of her whistle and they had all returned to the ground, dismissed for the day.

"That was wonderful!" Lily said excitedly. "Except for that part where you almost died," she added quickly, peering over at James.

"I think I prefer the ground," Sirius said, looking slightly ashen-faced from the experience. "Anyway, it's too bad you two were busy racing, you completely missed Malfoy…he actually fell off of his broom while he was showing off midair!" James looked around at Malfoy, who was muttering something under his breath and looking sour, still toting a small cauldron that was three-quarters full of slimy, writhing slugs. He laughed suddenly.

"What?" his twin asked as they came into the entrance hall and began to ascend the marble staircase toward Gryffindor tower.

"I wish I could see the look on Mum's face when she hears about this." Lily bit her lip.

"Yeah, about that…maybe we should not tell her about my, er—"

"Anger management issue? Not a chance," Sirius laughed, "Remember, my dad is the one who gave you that double detention. I guarantee that she's already been sent an owl." Lily groaned.

But, of course, Sirius had been right. This was confirmed with the delivery of a bright red envelope to Lily the next morning. Lily untied the letter from Isis's outstretched leg and gave her a bit of bacon before she flew off to the Owlery again. James peered over at the envelope.

"Who's that from?"

"It's from our mother," Lily said apprehensively. "But I don't get the red."

"You will soon," Eve said quietly. "That's a Howler." She, Daniel, and Sirius were looking at the envelope as though it was about to explode.

"Go ahead, get it over with," Sirius moaned, jamming his fingers into his ears. Lily slit open the envelope.

"LILY ANNE GRANGER, WHAT ON EARTH WAS RUNNING THROUGH YOUR HEAD?" boomed Hermione's voice shrilly, the volume magnified so that a bit of dust shook loose from the great, enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall. "…COULD HAVE GOTTEN THAT POOR BOY KILLED...COULD HAVE BEEN EXPELLED AND IT'S ONLY YOUR SIXTH WEEK! ONE MORE STUNT LIKE THIS AND IT'S STRAIGHT BACK TO THE MUGGLE WORLD!"

The hall fell silent, a few people laughed. Lily's ears were still buzzing from the sheer volume of her mother's angry shouts. It was the first time in a while that she had heard her mother shout, and she felt a few angry tears threatening to spring to her eyes.

"Oh, cheer up, Lils," James said, prodding her gently with his finger. "Once she hears the whole story, I'm sure she'll be much more sympathetic. Go on, eat something and you'll feel better."

Hermione Granger wasn't entirely surprised to see Isis, Lily's owl, flutter into Ginny's kitchen window carrying a piece of parchment. Ron, Ginny, and Harry looked curiously at the owl as Hermione rose to retrieve Lily's letter. The four of them had been in the middle of a lunch at Ginny's place, giving them all some much-needed catch up time with each other.

"Nice owl…yours?" Harry asked. Hermione shook her head, carrying the parchment back to the table and sat with the other three.

"No, it's Lily's. She's just written back in response to something I sent this morning…" her voice trailed off as she skimmed the letter. Her face fell. "Oh, no!" she moaned, handing the letter to Ginny for a closer look. "I'm a horrid mother," she cried, burying her face in her hands. Ron and Harry leaned forward to see the letter Ginny now clutched in her hands, and read:

Mother,

The reason why I cursed Abraxan Malfoy is that he was making nasty comments about everyone…he called Ginny a blood traitor, Sirius Lupin "Wolfboy," and he said that you were a filthy, cowardly Mudblood. At which point I almost stuck my wand up his nose, but cursed him instead.

I am sorry that I got caught. But it was worth the double detention.

Love always,

Lily

"Hermione, what happened?"

"Exactly what it says," Hermione began, taking a sip of her tea. "Lily cursed that boy during lunch yesterday, Remus spotted her and gave her double detention…he wrote to me right after it happened to tell me."

"Sounds like he deserved it, the little slimeball," Ginny muttered.

"Which curse?" Harry asked, trying not to sound too interested.

"The same one that made Ron belch slugs in our second year." Ron winced sympathetically midway through a bite of steak and kidney pie.

Just moments later, Ramses, James' owl, came to the window, also with a scrap of parchment. After his leg was relieved of the burden, he ruffled his plumage and went to perch beside Isis. The note that he carried was much shorter than the one Lily had written:

Dear Mother,

The red, exploding thing that you sent Lily this morning made her cry. She had a good reason for what she did. I would have jumped on the evil git, but she got there first.

James

Ginny, Ron and Harry all laughed at the bluntness of the statement, but Hermione was looking utterly shocked and depressed.

"Well, that seals it," Hermione said. "I'm a horrid person!" she exclaimed.

"You sent her a Howler?" Ron said incredulously.

"Yes," she said miserably. "I shouldn't have…"

"But you didn't know," Ginny said soothingly, patting her on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Lily will be fine." Hermione nodded.

"It's ok…it's like all of the other kids. They are learning, growing, toeing lines, and if they land in detention once or twice, it's not that big of a deal," Harry said, taking a swig of tea.

"Yeah, come to think of it, we did quite a lot of that while we were at Hogwarts," Ron put in. The four of them grinned.

"I hope that our lovely little offspring are having as much fun as we did," Ginny said.

"Cheers!" said Harry and Ron as the four of them continued to eat and chatter, with the Three Knarls struck up a rock ballad on the radio.

Yeah…sorry again about the length of time for the update. I hope to have the next chapter up by the end of August…I am writing the story in a notebook, as I won't have access to a computer until August 13. But there are ideas, so that's a start!

I apologize again to all of my once-reviewers…

Until next time,

Callista Rose