Chapter 14 – The Potters

Lily had just about finished getting ready the next morning, still somewhat brooding over her sister, when she heard a faint knock on her door. This made her smile, seeing as it was likely James because she didn't think he had told anyone that she was there when they got back late last night. She made her way over, and upon opening it, was surprised to see a rather small house elf waiting in a gold dress with a scarlet apron (the opposite of Reeny's outfit) with the Potter crest easily visible in the lower right corner of her dress. "Umm, hi."

The little house elf curtsied slightly and her big dark brown eyes beamed up at her happily. "I is Penny, Miss. James requested I shows you down to the dining area since yous do not know where it is. Is Miss ready? Penny can wait."

Lily quickly looked herself over. She was in jeans and a dark purple zip up jumper, and she had already made her hair presentable. "Oh, thank you. I'm all ready, and that would be very nice of you."

Penny nodded. "It is Penny's pleasure, Miss. This way if yous please."

Lily was glancing around absently as she followed Penny to the stairs. She was just about to step onto the stairwell when she heard an unfamiliar woman's voice sound from her right, "And just who might you be, dear?"

Lily stumbled, but somehow managed to steady herself using the banister, as she was completely caught off guard by the woman's voice. However, before she even had a chance to reply, she heard a loud sigh from her left and a male voice scolded, "Now look here, Aimee, you've gone and almost caused the girl to fall down the stairs! Couldn't you have been a little less aggressive? There are far more pleasant ways to gain someone's attention."

Lily's head was glancing quickly back and forth as the two portraits that had been sleeping each time she had passed were now wide awake and talking at each other. Both of them looked to be older than Moody was, like in their early forties; the woman had rather long light brown hair and amazing blue eyes; and the man looked to be an older version of James with the distinctly messy dark hair but with dark brown eyes. The woman frowned as she glared back at the other portrait. "I'll do as I please, thank you very much!" She then resumed looking over at Lily, her hard features melting into persuasive inquisitiveness mixed with a kind smile. "Now dear, you were about to let us know all about you, weren't you?"

Lily was slightly uncomfortable at the upfrontness of the female portrait, but she was sure they were both merely James' relatives so there was no reason not to respond. "I'm Lily Evans."

The reaction on the woman's face was absolute delight, and she clapped her hands together. "Surely not the Lily Evans our James has been obsessed with for ages? Do tell us about yourself, dear! You are clearly here on your own accord, correct? James is rather gifted with magic…"

The man guffawed as Lily blushed horrendously. "Aimee! Can't you leave the poor girl alone? You're embarrassing her."

The woman just waved her hand at the man as she chortled quietly. "Oh hush, Harry. You don't know anything about this. Now dear, I don't mean to embarrass you. I, as well as my husband here even though he is trying to hide his interest, just find it incredibly odd that the girl our James has liked for ages suddenly turns up in Potter Manor unannounced."

Lily had no idea what to say. She really wished James was here right now. The female portrait's insane and forceful curiosity was a bit uncomfortable. "Well, it was a last minute thing… I was supposed to be arriving here today anyway, to go back to Hogwarts with James, Sirius, and Lauren."

The man just sighed in exasperation, although Lily saw his eyes were glowing with amusement. "There! Are you going to give the girl some space now? It's her business. James wouldn't like you meddling!"

The woman just brushed off his words, rolling her eyes playfully back at him. "How many times have I told you? I will do as I please! James knows that too."

There was a loud sigh on the stairwell, and all three turned to see James leaning forward slightly with his arms stretched out to hold both banisters. He was looking at the woman in the portrait wearily. "Gran, please tell me you were not giving Lily a hard time before she's had any breakfast?"

The man laughed boisterously at James' words while the woman humphed before replying as if to scold him, "Well, when you don't let any of us know what's going on, I have to find out somehow, don't I?"

James just shook his head before gesturing between everyone. "This is Lily Evans, my girlfriend. Lily, this is my grandmother, Aimee, and my grandfather, Harry. Is that better, Gran?"

Lily hid her smile as the woman glared at James, looking altogether put off. "I suppose your parents know nothing of this either?"

Lily's eyes shot over to James. He was looking at the ceiling, waving a hand through his messy hair; this was an action that used to annoy her, but she now realized he only did it when he was nervous or uncomfortable. That's when Lily realized his parents must have portraits too. No wonder he had looked so sad when he had mentioned them yesterday. James just sighed again. "I was going to introduce her when she made it to the dining room until you decided to stop her."

His grandmother just humphed, muttering something like 'I thought so' before disappearing. His grandfather sighed heavily. "Leave your grandmother to me, James, although your parents will know everything before I pull her away, if you haven't told them already. Best hurry downstairs."

James chuckled at the portrait. "Thanks, Grandpa."

Lily watched as he disappeared from his portrait too before turning toward James with what was sure to be an odd expression on her face. "Well, that was interesting."

James glanced over at her with laughter in his eyes as he smiled sheepishly. "SO SORRY about that. I should have warned you. Penny came down to me immediately when you were stopped by them. Come on, I'll take you downstairs. I regret to inform you that my parents do have portraits in the dining room, but as for questions, you should be safe even with my Gran being the way she is. I already told them about you when we got here for the weekend."

Lily giggled at him and took his offered hand. "That's ok. How do you get used to having your family that way?"

He shrugged as he led her downstairs. "It's weird, I guess. My great-grandparents on my Dad's side also have portraits in the library, but they were the first ones in my family to do so. My grandparents have been nothing more than portraits my whole life, but my parents…" He frowned. "Well, it's weird. I'm still not quite used to them being that way."

Lily nodded, understanding his somewhat reluctance to talk about it, and followed as he led her through a hallway and into the dining room. The room was incredibly large, with windows spanning the entire wall across from the doorway. The table ran parallel to the windows and could easily fit about thirty people comfortably. Sirius was already sitting down eating eggs and bacon snickering to himself, or so she thought. James just gave Sirius a look before sighing wearily and pulling out a seat across from Sirius, gesturing for her to sit down. He then turned his attention down towards the head of the table to the wall. "Mum, Dad, this is Lily. Lily, this is my Mum and Dad."

Lily turned her gaze to where James was indicating, and she got her first glimpse at James' parents. They too appeared rather young, but again older than Moody, like in their early forties like his grandparents had been. James' Dad looked just like his father and James, with what must be the Potter messy, dark hair but instead with his mother's crystal blue eyes. James' Mum had beautiful strawberry blonde hair that fell past her shoulders with James' hazel eyes. His mother was beaming at her. "Why hello, dear. It's wonderful to finally meet you. James and Sirius have probably told us tons of things about you over the last few years. My mother-in-law didn't scare you too much, did she? She's actually very sweet. A bit nosy, yes, but sweet."

James' father was nodding at his wife's words. "Always ask my Dad for help. He's the only one who has some semblance of control of her."

Lily glanced back at both boys; Sirius was still eating quietly although he looked amused at the situation while James sat beside her pulling some food onto a plate for her and himself. She glanced back at the portraits. "It's lovely to meet you both as well."

His mother sighed at her hesitant expression. "Don't worry. We don't plan on giving you the third degree. James actually told us about the two of you when we spoke for the first time, although he must've forgotten to bring it up to his grandparents." She gave her son the equivalent of a glare, although James just smiled innocently down into his food. Her attention was diverted when Sirius made an annoying sound as he ate. The portrait frowned. "Sirius, do eat with your mouth closed please, or James will have to move us elsewhere."

James and Lily laughed at Sirius, who turned red in the face at being singled out. "Sorry, Mrs. Potter."

James' mother frowned. "It's Judy, dear. We've been over this before. Lily, you feel free to call us Judy and Andy as well."

Lily nodded, although she wasn't sure she felt comfortable doing so. A distraction was definitely welcome so Lily was grateful for Lauren's sudden appearance. She obviously must've had no qualms with walking around in her pajamas with messy hair and no make-up around the boys, not that she was unattractive in that state anyway. She was wearing pajama pants and a tight-fitting white camisole with her hair up in a messy bun. Lily was amused as she slumped into the seat across from her next to Sirius and started half-heartedly grabbing some food. Even her voice lacked any luster, "Mornin' everyone."

Mrs. Potter sighed as she surveyed her niece critically. "Lauren, I thought we taught you to be more of a lady."

James and Sirius snorted under their breaths while Lily just smiled a bit into her hand. James waved at his mother. "Mum, we're at home. Leave her be. You know she's not a morning person."

Sirius nodded as he grinned evilly. "Yeah, and besides, it's good blackmail material."

Lauren swiftly swatted him in the back of his head with energy no one expected her to have. "Watch it, Black, or I'll use a really uncomfortable charm at a most inconvenient time, if you know what I mean."

Sirius immediately quieted while James snickered. Lily thought she was the only one confused, but upon glancing back at James' parents' portraits, it appeared they too had no idea what Lauren was talking about. Lily was somewhat curious. "Do I even want to know?"

Lauren looked over at her mischievously. "Not really. Let's just say I have my own way of blackmailing, especially when you live with these two."

Lily laughed. "Between me and you, I think we can handle Sirius Black fairly well then."

James instantly started laughing while Sirius just blanched. James eventually nudged Lily curiously, "Are you ever going to tell us what you did to scare the pants off of Sirius that day?"

Lily just shrugged, smiling widely to herself. "Oh, a little of this and a little of that. If you say the right words, apparently Black cowers quite efficiently."

Sirius was now an interesting shade of red and grumbling into his food, something about women. As they continued breakfast, Mr. and Mrs. Potter asked questions to Lily about herself and her family. James, Sirius, and Lauren would interject every once in a while answering the questions for her, telling a story or something to make the questions easier to bear. Soon, breakfast was done and Penny came in to clear everything away. The four of them made their way back out into the hallway when James turned to Lily. "Do you want me to give you a tour now?"

Lily nodded, still fascinated with the whole place. It was so different being in a magical home opposed to a muggle one. "Sure."

They left Lauren to go upstairs and change while Sirius merely shrugged, stating he was going to finish packing some stuff for Hogwarts. James took her hand and led her all the way down a long hallway, after turning away from the dining room. He nodded to the end of the hall before they reached it. "Ok, this is the West Wing hallway and at the end here is actually my Dad's study— well, technically, it's mine now, but for all purposes, it still is my Dad's yet. It's heavily guarded though. Only a male with the family name of Potter can get into it."

As they finally reached the end of the hallway, which appeared to be nothing more than a wall, she saw what he meant. As soon as James had come within five feet of the room, a door had appeared. James continued, "The door appears and everything to all Potter relations, but it can't be opened or accessed by all. It's similar to the wall for the Heads' Dorm, but instead of hitting the wall in three spots or something to walk through, only I can walk through it just because of who I am."

Lily had been listening to him carefully and turned to him curiously. "That sounds charm-like, even though it's a ward."

James nodded. "Yeah. It must be pretty old though, seeing as no one has been able to remove it. It's definitely been there since before my great grandparents. Believe me, we've tried. My great-grandfather said a Potter woman has not been in there for generations before him."

He then turned his attention back the way they came, pulling open a door on their right. "Ok, this next room is the potions drawing room, which my parents utilized a lot."

He let her glance around a bit. He knew she loved Potions. Lily was amazed. There were shelves and shelves of ingredients, including rare ingredients; a long table with about ten cauldrons; and then a cupboard with all sorts of labeled potions that had been brewed. "This is just…wow."

James smiled at her and caressed the back of her hand with his thumb. "Remember, my parents were Aurors. They actually made a lot of their own potions for their work so they've made this room to be as great as it is, and it is one of the reasons there is so much stuff here. Well, this is where medicinal potions are too, like pepperups, restoratives, dreamless sleep, etc. I suppose I will have to brew some of those now so the supply doesn't get low. My grandparents were rubbish at Potions. My great-grandparents said they weren't that great at it either."

He tightened his hold of her hand and brought it up to his lips to kiss the back of it, his eyes mischievous as he rubbed his hands over hers. "Come on. I think you'll like the library the best. It's one of my favorite places to go in the house."

Lily smiled at him. "Ok."

He pulled her down to a set of double doors on the left, and when he opened them, Lily's mouth fell. It was smaller than Hogwarts' library, but it was undeniably massive. James began explaining about the magic cataloging system while she glanced around in awe. He then led her over to some sections she might be interested in and told her to feel free to borrow anything that interested her if she wanted. They were interrupted briefly by his great-grandparents, but they didn't appear to be as nosy and let them go on their way. They spent a little bit more time there before he led her back to the hallway. "Ok, this door across the hall, next to the Potions room, is the decoy study. It doesn't contain anything of import, but my mother and father used it occasionally."

They walked a bit further down the hall, and he stopped at a blank spot on the wall. Well, she had thought it was nothing more than a blank wall until James pointed to a spot on the floor that had the tiny little P symbol carved into it. He touched the wall, mumbling something, and a stairwell appeared. He didn't start walking down, but instead just remained in the hallway. "This takes you downstairs. It isn't charmed like my Dad's study, but it does have a family ward on it right now. I could take it off and take you down there, but there's really not much there, honestly. There's work-out equipment and a large space for training and dueling— my parent's used it a lot, although so did Sirius, Lauren, and I. I know there are some empty rooms, closets, and such with some stuff in it, but my parents told me that anything of value or family heirlooms was locked away in the Potter vaults."

Lily nodded, although her curiosity had been peaked. "Why do you have all these secret rooms? I don't understand."

James sighed, and Lily thought he looked pained. "It's a long story, best saved for another day. However, I can tell you that when a magical home has been breached in any way, most families tend to be a bit more careful about what is accessible if there were to ever be a repeat performance. Potter Manor has so many protections on it now that the only person that can access everything is me. Lauren and two others can access most things though. If Voldemort wasn't around, it might not be that way for some things, like getting into the house and such."

Lily felt horrible for him and his family. It was clear, although James had not exactly said what happened, that somehow someone must've broke into Potter Manor at some point in history. Now, with Voldemort after his family, it was like the Potter family could never catch a break. "I understand."

James didn't say anything more, and instead led her further down the hallway back near the dining room. As he passed the door, he continued, "So that was the dining room, which you've seen, but now we come to the kitchen."

The kitchen was huge. It had everything a normal muggle kitchen had, but it was clear that it was magical. There was a distinct magical vibe to the room; not to mention, there were little stepping stools, probably for the house elves. It was clear that the Potters decorated the kitchen themselves, considering there was a definite home-like feel to the room, especially with the drapes, figurines, and how the utensils were all placed about. Lily turned to him playfully. "How often do you actually come in here, with the house elves and all?"

James just laughed. "You'd be surprised. Just because I have house elves doesn't mean they do stuff all of the time. In fact, if I'm hungry, I'll usually make stuff myself until they catch me and stop me. Sirius and Lauren too. I suppose they almost always end up doing breakfast and dinner, but lunch and snacks we all try to do ourselves even though they don't like it. I will be the first to admit to being lazy every once in a while and calling for them to ask them for something, but that's not a regular thing."

Lily giggled. She was impressed that he didn't seem to take advantage of the house elves, which she found to be sweet. "What about cleaning?"

James smiled. "They're not allowed to clean any of our rooms without our permission, which I only give if it gets dusty. They like to clean everything else though, even if it looks fine. I've sent three of them to the other properties to give them something to do, now with my parents gone. Reeny is here, as she always tries to be, seeing as she is the head house elf. Penny is here too; she's the youngest and is not ready to be sent off on her own quite yet."

Lily nodded, and she smiled over at him, pulling on his hand. "Come on. Tell me about those tapestries in your living room. There was a bunch of interesting things out there."

James laughed. "I don't know much more than you really. I should really sit down with my great-grandparents and find out."

He led her back to the living room and looked around quickly to see if there was anything he could tell her about. He pointed at one of the tapestries with the P symbol. "Well, you know this one is the Potter crest. However, this one is a lot bigger so you can make out what it actually is. It's the P obviously, but then it's got the lion, the stag, the phoenix, and the unicorn on the four corners, with two wands crossing into an X behind the P. According to my Dad, the four animals are represented throughout our family line."

Lily looked thoughtful. "You're a stag."

James nodded. "Yep. My parents weren't animagi, but my Dad had a lion for a patronus while my Mum had a lioness. Hers changed when she married my Dad; it used to be a horse, I think. Apparently, that doesn't always happen, but it can."

Lily glanced at him curiously. "Can you do a patronus too? Isn't that beyond NEWT level Charms? I tried it once by myself, but I don't think I understood the reading properly. I only got a mist."

James sighed. "Mine is a stag. You're doing it correctly, but maybe your memory needs to be stronger. The stronger the memory, the more clear the form. However, it could take a few times before you produce the corporeal image. My parents taught us how to do it this past summer, just in case. You can use them to send messages much faster so if there was a problem at school, Lauren, Sirius, and I could send them a patronus with a message and it would reach them quicker than an owl. I realize now that they did that because they were worried about all of the threats I told you about. Sirius' is a large black dog, like his animagus form, and Lauren's is a thestral. We were all a little confused over hers for a while, but it…suits her somehow."

Lily frowned. "Can she see thestrals…because of before?"

James nodded, his brow furrowed. "It was a long time ago, but yes, she saw it happen."

Lily just nodded silently, not wishing to bring it up. James pulled her along gently. "The other tapestries and knick knacks have been in the family forever, but I never really learned much about them. I'm sure information is written down somewhere, like in my Dad's study or in the Potter vaults. If we go to the East Wing hallway, there are some more rooms I could show you."

Lily followed as he took her towards the East Wing. The first door was a rather large bathroom, which James explained was the only one that was accessible by itself in the house, seeing as everyone had their own attached to the bedrooms. Then there were a couple of now empty rooms. James had explained that these rooms used to be playrooms for Lauren and himself when they were younger. The final room at the end of the hall was locked tightly with a lion symbol covering the front door. He stopped there, but didn't attempt to open it. "This is a huge secret, even to me just yet. My Dad hasn't fully explained it to me so I couldn't even open it if I wanted to. He said it would take some time to explain so I will have to postpone knowing about it for now, being in school and all."

Lily was still reeling over everything she had seen so far, and this was just the first floor. "The house is beautiful. It would have been amazing growing up in a magical household."

James smiled at her. "It was different, I guess. The underage restriction was, I think, the biggest difference I can think of. In a magical household, the ministry could never tell specifically if I was doing the magic. I probably got away with more than I should have. Lauren too. Sirius was over some, but he also grew up in a magical house. I started to control my accidental magic pretty early as a result, like age seven."

Lily shook her head, grinning wickedly. "I was horrible. Accidental magic all the time... I didn't know what it was, obviously, but I recognized that if I wanted something to happen, I could make it happen, probably about age nine or so. Professor Dumbledore came to give me my Hogwarts letter personally, and told my parents, after he had explained about magic, that he had come mainly to see the girl in person who was giving the Ministry of Magic a fair bit of grief."

James laughed. "That doesn't surprise me at all. I knew you were secretly devious! Come on, there's just one other room I wanted to show you, but it's upstairs. The rooms in both wings, besides the masters' suites, you've seen already since all of the rooms are pretty similar, just with different decorations."

Lily followed him as he led her up the right set of stairs leading to the West Wing, but instead of stopping where his grandparents' portraits were, he continued up to the third floor. He gestured around down to the East Wing side, which she could walk over to on this floor, unlike on the second floor. "Any rooms up here are mainly used for storage; the rooms are all angled with the roof and there aren't any bathrooms attached. It's kind of like an attic. I'm sure the whole floor could be renovated, but since it was just the five of us and now it's just the three of us, it's not really a pressing concern. Maybe if my family was huge and we had lots of visiting relatives, but history has made the family very small."

He continued down the West Wing side, gesturing to a couple of rooms they were passing. "Sirius and I used to camp out up here when we were kids. Where I want to take you, however, is to this place."

He stopped in front of the last door, which when he opened, Lily noticed there was yet another stairwell. As soon as Lily reached the top of the stairs, her mouth dropped. They were in a circular room with nothing but bay windows all of the way around. She could see for miles as she gazed out; not to mention the grounds that the house was on. She had never been outside here. James sat down on the window ledge and pulled her onto his lap. "This is where I always came to be alone, read, or whatever. It's amazing, isn't it?"

Lily was still looking around, completely in love with the view. "This is incredible."

He pulled her back against his chest, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Now, the house is under an Unplottable charm that was recast after my parents' funeral, seeing as the whereabouts of the house needed to be obliterated from the other pure-blood families' memories. There are muggle-repelling charms on the place as well; they all see nothing but ruins, and the muggles who get too close trying to investigate suddenly remember needing to be elsewhere. Since I shouldn't take you outside because it's safer inside, all the way in the distance is the Potter crypt; there is a reasonably sized quidditch pitch over there to the left; and if you look back towards the front of the house, there is a large stone fountain in the middle of the yard. The gates are probably about a hundred feet or so in front of the fountain. There are flowers upon flowers planted all over the grounds. My Mum loved gardening and helped the house elves to make the place look just as she wanted it. Now that it's winter, you can't really tell, but it's really colorful in the spring time. You'll have to see it from this room during that time to really know what I mean."

Lily turned on his lap so she could look into his eyes. He looked completely comfortable and happy with everything just then. "I really like it up here."

James grinned at her while he toyed with a few strands of her hair. "I'm glad."

Lily leaned over and kissed him, lingering slightly. One of his hands slid into her hair, essentially pulling her closer, while the other rested on her hip fingering the material of her shirt. Lily's hands ran across his chest softly. She had no idea how long they kissed like that. It wasn't a crazy passionate kiss, but it was incredibly romantic. He teased her with his tongue and kept the kiss tantalizingly slow and deliberate. After what seemed like years, he pulled back a bit, whispering against her lips, "We should get back. We're supposed to be going back to Hogwarts anytime now."

Lily nodded and kissed him on his cheek before wrapping her arms around his neck. "I'm glad I shrunk all of my Christmas presents and put them in my satchel right away in the afternoon otherwise I would have to go back home to get them before we left."

James tightened his arms around her and lifted them both up so they were standing. He nuzzled her neck with a sigh. "That would have been interesting."

They made their way downstairs and to the bedrooms. Lily grabbed her things and waited while James grabbed stuff from around his room. She was looking around curiously as she sat on the edge of his bed. "How in the world does your dorm room look exactly like this room?"

James laughed. "I have no idea. Dumbledore obviously has been here many times, but I was just as surprised that first night at Hogwarts as you are right now."

Once he was ready, he grabbed her things with his, before stopping at both Lauren's and Sirius' rooms, and after a few minutes, all four of them were making their way into the living room. They were not surprised to see Alastor Moody waiting for them on the couch. "All set then? Good. You're going by floo to Dumbledore's office so James, if you please."

James nodded and waved his wand in a pattern silently. Within a minute or so, a magical roll of parchment appeared in front of him, hanging in mid-air. He waved his wand a few more times at the parchment, saying names each time, "Alastor Moody, Lily Evans, and Sirius Black."

Then, he repeated the names once more before turning his attention to them, the magical parchment still open. "You can all go ahead. Apparition is sealed to just the family, but you three were added for flooing. Moody you can floo to wherever you need to. You guys all go ahead so I can seal the house once again before going through myself."

Moody nodded. "You four behave yourselves. I'm sure I'll see you all again at some point."

Everyone thanked him for being around for the weekend before he flooed to the ministry. Sirius, Lauren, and Lily then followed, but went to the Headmaster's Office. James looked around the house carefully before repeating the three names, effectively taking them off of the list for flooing. He then repeated the intricate pattern with his wand to hide the magical parchment once more. He sighed before throwing down some floo powder, saying clearly, "Headmaster's Office at Hogwarts."