The past week had been very hectic. Mum and Dad had been running from place to place, working on adopting Sirius and Regulus. I had been roped into babysitting them- Mum had said, "You're almost an adult Jamie, I think you can take care of two teenagers."

Yeah, sure. Maybe if the two teenagers weren't bloody terrors.

"Regulus!" I shouted. "It is not good to ride the ceiling fan- Sirius! Get away from the knives!"

Sometimes I felt like I was babysitting toddlers.

"I'm not doing anything!" Sirius spluttered. "Just looking for my sword!"

"No," I said, before turning my attention to Regulus, who was hanging from the ceiling fan squealing happily, much like a young child. "Regulus, get down from there!"

"Nuh-uh!" he replied childishly. "It's fun!"

"It dangerous," I retorted.

"No, it's not," said Regulus.

"Yes, it is."

"Is not!"

"Is too."

"Not!"

"It is."

Suddenly, there was a crash, cutting off our argument, followed by a yelp and a few other crashes. "James! I'm stuck!"

I groaned, and glanced at Regulus: "You better be down when I get back."

Then, I ran out of the room to find Sirius hanging from the curtains around his bed, and the rest of the room an absolute mess. I stared, gobsmacked. "How'd you get up there?"

"I, er," he turned red. "I tripped on a pillow?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You tripped on a pillow and managed to get yourself tangled in curtains?"

"No," said Sirius. "I tripped on a pillow, and then slid into the wall and stumbled backwards into my bed, which seems to hate me and flung me forward, except I got caught by the curtains, and, while trying to detangle myself, got stuck."

I groaned and face-palmed. "How 'bout you stay here?"

"What?" Sirius yelped.

"I have to deal with Reggie," I said. "And you couldn't possibly cause yourself any harm stuck like that."

Sirius looked like he wanted to argue, but I rushed out of the room before he got the chance, just as Regulus went flying into the wall. He rebounded quickly, rubbing his head. "Ow. Okay. You win."

"Thought so," I said smugly. "Alright, now that your down, I can go take care of Sirius."

"What's he done?"

I chuckled. "He tripped on a pillow and somehow got stuck in his bed curtains."

Regulus gave me a very dumbfounded look as I left the room.


"Kids! We're home!"

I skidded into the entry hall, hugging my parents very tight. "'Save me, save me, save me!"

"Wha- James!" exclaimed Mum in surprise.

"Don't make me babysit again, please," I said. "They're evil! Both of them!"

"We aren't evil," said Regulus, floating in the room with his brother. Mum's mouth fell open and Dad started laughing. "What?"

I knew why they were surprised. Both of them had red paint all over their faces.

"I tried to keep them away from the paint," I said. "But they wouldn't listen."

"We'll clean up," said Sirius. "Although I hope you don't mind that we got paint on the couch."

Mum seemed to regain her wits. "James, weren't you watching them?"

"Yes," I said, very exasperated. "Mum, I told you. They're evil. First Reggie was hanging from the ceiling fan, but then Sirius tripped on a pillow and got stuck, but I couldn't help him 'cause Reg went flying into the wall. But once I got him situated, I had to go help Sirius who had nearly strangled himself and while I was helping him, Regulus got into the paint, and as soon as we got in there Sirius joined him and they started a paint war and I couldn't do anything!"

Mum and Dad stared at me.

"He's telling the truth," Sirius said helpfully. "We bound and gagged him."

Regulus nodded happily.

"Yes," said Mum faintly. "I think it'd be just cruel to make you babysit them again. At any rate, James, we talked to the Minister today about your... predicament... and he agreed that, while you will not be completely emancipated, you will be able to use magic out of school and Apparate."

"Yes!" I exclaimed, pumping my fist. "Firewhiskey, too?"

"No," Mum said, narrowing her eyes.

I pouted, but quickly regained my eagerness. "So, will I be taking classes with the sixth years for Apparation next year?"

"Yep," said Dad.

"Lucky," said Sirius wistfully. "I wanna Apparate."

"You'd splinch yourself on your first try," I retorted. "And, Reg, don't even ask."

Regulus, who had opened his mouth (undoubtedly to ask), snapped it shut sheepishly. I chuckled slightly, in a much better mood. "I've got to tell Lily! She'll love this!"

Dad smiled. "You can Floo her now."

"You bet I will," I exclaimed, running out of the room to the fireplace in the living room. I grabbed a handful of Floo Powder and stepped in, yelling, "Lily's Place!"

Moments later, the green fire that had erupted faded and I stumbled out into Lily's living room. Mr. Evans was sitting there, and he looked startled to see me. "James Potter?"

"That's me, sir," I said, slightly awkward. "I need to talk to Lily. Is she here?"

"Up in her room," he said. "Watch out, though, she's in a foul mood today. Petunia's boyfriend is over, but perhaps you can cheer her up."

"Oh, the news I have will definitely cheer her up," I replied, grinning almost evilly and running to Lily's room. I knocked. "Hey, Lils! Guess who?"

"James!" she exclaimed, ripping her door open, grabbing my arm, and pulling my inside. She then proceeded to hug me very tightly.

"Lils- can't breathe!" I wheezed. She let go quickly. "Vermin bothering you?"

"Yes," she said irately. "Thank goodness you're here, James."

"Good to see you, too, love," I said, kissing her forehead. "Have I got news for you- and I think you're gonna like it."

"What?" she asked, pulling back.

"Dad and Mum talked to the Minister today- and we are almost completely emancipated!" I beamed. Her jaw dropped. "We'll be learning to Apparate and we can use magic out of school- so you can hex Vermin!"

Lily's face split into a grin. "Yes!"

"And, next time Mum leaves me to babysit Sirius and Regulus, I can actually use magic to keep them in line!" I added.

Lily laughed. "You have to babysit them?"

"And they're evil!" I exclaimed. "You try babysitting them! Leaving them to their own devices would result in their deaths, but leaving them with me is bound to result in mine!"

"Oh, Jamie," chuckled Lily. "It can't be that bad."

"They painted the entire living room red," I deadpanned. "In the span of ten minutes."

Lily mouthed a very shocked, 'Oh.'

"Yeah. Oh," I said. "If there's ever an apocalypse, I have a feeling it will be their fault."

"Well, you can stay here for the rest of today, okay?" suggested Lily, making it sound as though this were to help me, though I knew she didn't want to be alone with Petunia and Vernon.

"I think I will," I agreed, laughing slightly and sitting down on her bed. "Wow, your bed is soft."

She chuckled and sat next to me. "Not as soft as the Gryffindor beds."

"I don't think there's a bed in the world softer than the ones in Gryffindor Tower," I said, shaking my head. "Those house elves really do try their best."

We were both silent for a moment.

"You're worried, aren't you?" she asked.

"A bit," I admitted. "What if I can't save him?"

"James," said Lily seriously. "We've changed a lot. The Attack on Hogsmeade might not even happen this time. Yes, we have to be careful. Yes, Voldemort is a huge threat. But I don't think we can rely on our future knowledge anymore."

"You're just now realising this?" I quipped. "After last year? Yeah, I think our future knowledge is useless. Last time I checked, Sirius never had white hair and Regulus never floated."

Lily paused. "I think there's actually something wrong with him."

"Which one?" I asked, raising an amused eyebrow. "Oh, you mean Reg. He's just a bit... different, that's all."

"He was never like this in our time!" Lily fretted.

"Yeah," I said. "But... well, I don't know... when did he start acting like this? Probably after several times of Sirius almost dying, right? He was probably traumatised or something... maybe that stunted his mental development?"

Lily frowned. "Maybe. You do have a point. Kind of like PTSD?"

"I guess," I said. "I'm no Healer, though. I'm just taking a guess."

"Bloody good guess," she snorted. "You should be a Healer."

"I wanted to be an Auror," I said. "Although, after all this, I might reconsider and do something unexciting."

"I can't see you doing anything unexciting," snickered Lily.

I paused. "Yeah, I can't see it either, but it's nice to dream."

Just then, the door opened, and in walked Lily's sister, Petunia. She eyed me nastily. "You! What are you doing here?"

"Visiting my girlfriend," I said slowly. "Is there a problem, Petunia?"

Petunia turned an ugly puce colour and stomped out of the room. As soon as she was gone, Lily burst out laughing. "Did you see her face!? She looked like she swallowed a lemon!"

"Lily, that's not nice," I chided, or at least, I tried to, because I was trying not to laugh as hard as she was. "At least Vermin didn't come in here- is he the same size he was in our timeline?"

"I think he's bigger," Lily said in a conspiratorial whisper. I stopped trying not to laugh.

"How is that even possible?" I asked after reigning in my laughter.

Lily shrugged, grinning. "Maybe it's our fault."

"Whoops," I said.


I spent the rest of the day with Lily. Normally I'd feel a bit guilty at leaving my parents with Sirius and Regulus (AKA the twin terrors, as I'd mentally dubbed them), but I wasn't right now since I'd babysat them several times recently.

Of course, by the time I was going to leave, it was dinnertime. And I've quickly Mrs. Evans is very like my mother. Very, very like my mother.

"You're leaving already, Jamie?" she asked, whilst setting the table. "Do you need to get home right away?"

"Well, no," I admitted. She smiled and set down another plate. Mentally, I counted the plates. There were five plates. I blinked, and recounted. Yup. Five. But... there were only four people in the Evans family...

"Would you like to stay for dinner, dear? It's no trouble," Mrs. Evans said, but her face clearly said: let me feed you or die. Kind of the same way my mum would get with visitors.

I gulped.

"Er, sure, Mrs. Evans," I said.

This was going to be very awkward.

The rest of the Evans family came down for dinner. We all took our seats. I fidgeted awkwardly in mine as Mr. Evans stared (or glared, maybe) at me.

"So, James," said Mr. Evans. "What do you plan to do when you grow up?"

"Er, I'd like to do something calm, maybe a healer," I said. Lily smiled, and I realised, yup, I had changed my mind. "My mum is a healer, actually, and I learned a lot of healing magic just recently. Plus, Sirius is pretty disaster-prone."

Mr. Evans nodded slowly. Petunia scrunched up her nose and pointedly ignored me.

"Sirius, that's one of your brothers, right?" asked Mrs. Evans.

"Yeah," I said, wondering whether or not Lily had told them that the twin terrors (see? I'm so calling them that now!) weren't really my brothers. Yet. "And Regulus is the other one."

"Odd names," said Mr. Evans.

They didn't seem that odd to me, but I nodded anyway, not wanting to get on my girlfriend's father's bad side.

"So," said Petunia snottily. "I heard there's a war going on with your kind."

Apparently Lily had not told her parents this, because they both looked at her sharply. I sighed inaudibly and cut in to try to smooth everything over.

"Okay, yes, there's a war," I admitted. "And we might be right in the middle of it. But Lily's the brightest witch of her age. She'll be fine- besides, I'd never let anything happen to her."

"Overprotective, hmm?" said Lily fondly. "Don't worry, Mum, Dad. James is really powerful. He can protect me."

"I wouldn't say I'm really powerful," I said, turning red. "I'm just as powerful as you."

Lily raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything more. Mr. and Mrs. Evans seemed appeased for now, though, and they backed down.

The rest of dinner wasn't nearly as tense. We talked about school and compared Quidditch to soccer and other trivial things. Honestly, it was nice to talk about something normal. Not that my life would ever be normal.

But I can dream, right?

A/N: I am alive, which you probably already knew. XD Chapter 51 is up, though! Yay! Hope you guys enjoyed! :D Big thanks to Lady Loophole, jeremiah123, N. E. Person, and sk8boards4ever for reviewing and everyone who is still sticking with this extremely long story. You guys are the best!

I don't own Harry Potter.