A head of dark hair appeared, with brown eyes getting used to the light that was flooding into his room.

"HAPPY SEVENTEENTH!" Lily and Albus yelled in unison, right into James' ear. Startled, he just about fell out of bed which was a bit ironic. It was half past eight on James' birthday, and their parents were already cooking downstairs. Molly and Arthur Weasley had arrived the previous afternoon, and Molly was now helping to cook for Merlin knows how many people.

"Could the pair of you just shut u..." he started muttering, before his eyes widened and he slowly sat up. "Hang on." He said, rubbing his cheek. "Seventeen. Yep." The sparkle in his eye got twice as clear and he jumped out of bed and started running around in the room.

"Wand, wand, wand, wand…" he chanted. Lily grinned at Albus. James caught it and narrowed his eyes at his baby sister. "Hand it over." Both the younger Potter's put on an innocent face, staring it him.

"What are you talking about?" came from Lily.

"Seriously, it isn't funny." James snapped, putting on a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

"You want it?" Albus said, teasingly.

"Yes, of course I do!"

"Well then you'll have to find it."

"Daaad!" James whined. Seventeen?, Lily thought sceptically. "Please, where's my wand? I can tell you know." Harry smirked, and threw a plastic bag in the bin.

"If you've lost it, then I'm terribly sorry, but as you're an adult you'll have to buy another on yourself." Harry said calmly, winking at Lily, who was sitting on the floor in the living room, leaning against the wall. She wanted to be outside in the garden, but she'd just be in the way. People had been arriving all day and it was crowded everywhere, especially with the huge table and the amount of chairs out there. For the billionth time that day, the door bell ringed.

"Lily, be a darling…" Harry started, and his daughters sighed, and before he could complete the sentence she was on her way to the door. The turned the handle, and opened the door wide.

"Hagrid!" she said in surprise. Why am I surprised?

"Hello Lily!" he said with a jolly voice. "Where's yer brother?"

"Oh, he's inside. Erm, hang on a second." She ran around the house, looking for either of her parents. Eventually, she found her mother in the garden, counting the chairs.

"Mum?" Ginny looked up, smiling at her daughter.

"What's up?"

"You see, Hagrid is here."

"Aha…" Ginny said. "Well, we knew we'd have to face this… problem." She giggled slightly. "Just tell him to come around on the outside. There's no way he'll fit through our door. We really ought to get a bigger door; he should be able to come around…" She said the last sentence mostly to herself, so Lily left to lead Hagrid into the garden from the back.

"Sorry about that. Come on, you can come through the back."

"… and thank you so much. We'll see you at Christmas if not before." Teddy said, hugging Ginny and shaking hands with Harry and James. "Happy birthday." He grinned once again at James, before taking Victoire by the hand and leaving for a safe place to apparate from. Teddy was the last to leave, and it was now just before eight o'clock. It wasn't even dark yet, but everyone was exhausted. Except James, who had just found his wand (which was actually on his desk all along, which Lily found highly amusing) and was now saying spell after hex after jinx.

"James, for Heavens sake, would you put that blasted stick down for two seconds?" Ginny said just as James made the shoes in the hall fly around, dancing in mid-air.

"I'm an adult now, so you can't tell me what to do." He sang, making the shoes do a neat pirouette.

"You're living in my house, and if you don't stop, I'll kick you out." The shoes fell to the ground.

"Tidy it up." She continued. "Without magic." She added as he raised his wand. James groaned.

"Oh, come on! What's fun with being seventeen if I'm still not aloud to use magic?"

"Just do it." Harry sighed and chuckled as James started muttering under his breath, putting all the shoes back. "Well, let's tidy up then. Are you heading out, James?" He grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah. I thought I'd apparate to Hogsmeade, I'm meeting Michael and a few other guys there." Harry shrugged.

"Do what you please." James raised his eyebrows and headed up to his room, now that all the shoes were in place.

"What are you two going to do then?" Harry asked his daughter and youngest son, who were sitting on the couch, looking thoroughly bored.

"I dunno." Albus said drowsily.

"Sleep, perhaps?" their father suggested. Lily sat up.

"Hell no. Damn, it's just eight o'clock. If I go to bed now I'll wake up like four in the morning." Harry snorted and left for the kitchen, helping Ginny to tidy up the mess.

The platform was crowded with families, all bidding their children goodbye as the students of Hogwarts boarded the train heading back to school.

James groaned loudly as Harry gave him his trunk.

"Seventh year means NEWTS! I've barely recovered from my OWLs, this is so unfair!" Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"It's hardly unfair, everyone has to do them. And please do better than you did on your OWLs." James narrowed his eyes at his father.

"You didn't do NEWTS."

"No, but frankly, I think my case is just a tad different than yours. Come on; get your backside on the train now, and for the love of God stay out of trouble." James snorted, but turned around and jumped onto the steaming train. Albus had been first to get on the train, eager to see to his duties as prefect. Lily now stood alone with her parents (well, not completely alone, as there were hundreds of people on the platform, but you get the picture) feeling sad, happy and awkward, which really was a strange mix of emotions.

"Fourth year then." Harry said, sounding awkward. Why Lily didn't know, he had no reason to feel like that. "I remember my fourth year…"

"Spare me the story, Daddy." Lily said, sounding dramatic. Harry grinned.

"Hopefully you won't have to fight a dragon and watch the darkest wizard of all times return to life." The sarcasm was dripping off his voice. Lily giggled.

"I think I'll live, thanks." Ginny, who'd been silent for a while, beamed at her youngest.

"Well, have a good time. Perhaps you'll be able to not rearrange your brother's face this term." Lily grinned.

"I'll try, promise." They all chuckled, and Lily hugged her mother.

"I'll see you at Christmas." Lily nodded, and then fell into her father's waiting embrace. He kissed the top of her head.

"Hope you have a great time, lovely." He said, smiling at her, his greens eyes piercing hers.

"Stop with the eye thing already!" she whined, looking away. Harry hugged her tight again, just as a young man blew a whistle.

"You'd better get on then." He said, kissing his daughter once again.

"Come on, Dad, let me go." He laughed, and she jumped onto the train, closing the door just as they started rolling. Pressing her head against the window, she waved to her parents until they were not visible anymore.

Hellooo!
CHapter 21, wohoo!
I had quite fun writing it, so I hope everyone enjoys it :)
Bit short, but I've got stuff to do, heh ^^'
R&R!

Maya xxx.