Author Note: No expectation of scheduled updates as I write when I can in my free evenings (rare) and publish when I can (even rarer). No beta or additional editing so mistakes are the fault of autocorrect because I know what I wrote originally. Language warning at the end.

0-0-0-0

Part Two

0-0-0-0

Henry Potter, as delightful a man as he was, had the tiniest bit of edge to him. Tremble when a good man goes to war as the saying goes, and his son Charles had only ever once seen his father go to war. It had initially been resistance to Dot's change in living conditions, with her rapidly declining condition in the hospital, and his inability to care for her in their home, he initially wanted full-time in home care. He had deflated when he had realised it was cost prohibitive but then he had made the unswerving call for them both to had to an assisted living facility. Only the best would do, and so Shrivencrafts was the only place not scratched off the list in Henry's fit of justice for his wife. It would become his home too, he had announced. Where Dot went is where he went.

Charles had been unsettled when he noticed how easily his parents settled into the home, their sleeping quarters set slightly apart from other residents to accommodate their married status, but he got over his initial concerns when his mother stopping declining, and the various therapies seemed to help her fragile brain hold on to its threads for a little longer.

A weekly visit, he had declared to everyone, would help settle his nerves in seeing his parents situated so, and Saturday lunch times seemed to be the most reasonable for all involved. A decade had passed and whilst Dot was no longer able to recall her son was a grown man, at least she knew she had a son, even if there was many a time she believed it to be the weighted baby doll she held for most of her day. Charles was at least relieved that his own son would at least have the opportunity to know his grandparents, even if they weren't able to share in some of the activities like travelling.

James himself always looked forward to the weekly visits, he would snuggle up to his grandmother as she tunelessly hummed a soft lullaby to him and the doll, then his grandfather would teach him how to play Cribbage and they would use a handful of sweets as a prize. Every few weeks or so the chess board would be out, but set up with draughts and they would play a few rounds of that, competing to see who could win with the most pieces left at the end of the round.

Charles had run late that morning, arriving at the home with James just after the clock ticked over to one in the afternoon. There was a sense of excitement in the air, like they had missed a special visiting choir, or perhaps there had been a fire alarm. They headed to the small lounge space the elder Potters were usually in, finding them both eating the last of their lunch. There were the draughts board still set up on the nearby table, but Charles noted it had not been reset, as if the game had been won, and then walked away from.

James snuck a chip from his grandfather's plate after pulling Henry in for a tight hug, cheekily grinning as Henry swatted at him playfully.

"So," Henry declared to his family, after Dot had been walked off to their rooms for a nap, "I've decided I'm declaring war."

A pause, a trading of confused looks and an exhale of disbelief was the only response that followed.

"What in God's name are you talking about dad?"

"One of the residents here has decided to get all self-righteous about things and I've decided it's high time that she be reminded that she's not the Queen, she's just a fussy old bag who sticks her nose in things when it's not wanted. There's a lovely young lass who comes 'ere each week with her own dad to visit her and the poor girl spends half the time listening to her own grandmother tell her absolute nonsense about how when things don't go your way you just have to complain to the boss. I taught that girl draughts when she was but a little'un and now she's off trying to learn how to navigate this new world and she can't learn how to do that with that old gasbag tellin' her the rubbish she's been spewing. Poor girl was in near tears this morning, after the grandmother told her that her shoes, of all things, sent out the wrong message."

Henry paused in his passionate monologue to take a breath,

"And on top of all that absolute garbage, Ol' Merinda has decided that I'm some sort of deviant, and had tried to ban Lily from having any time playing draughts with me. Absolute rubbish. HAH!"

Henry paused again as the smirk grew on his face,

"Seems the old bag tried to get her claws back into the girl when she finished saying hello to us and she snapped. The nurses raced over thinking it was Maude forgetting to take her tablets again, but instead Jackie told me when she brought lunch over that Lily had lost her cool at here grandmother and gave her a right telling off!"

Henry beamed as he imagined what Merinda's face would have looked like as Lily tore into her.

Charles, however, was still mulling over his father's first comment,

"Okay, that sounds like an incredibly excitement-filled morning, but what do you actually mean when you say you're declaring war on this woman?"

Henry could only let his beaming smile slide into a mischievous smirk. Charles and James shared another look, they both knew that smirk - the Potter smirk - the one they had both inherited.

What Charles couldn't have anticipated, prior to his weekly visit, was that his father, in the space of perhaps an hour to two had laid out a long-term plan to wreak absolute havoc on the seemingly poor woman he was arming himself against. He had always known his father to be passionate, but this was another thing entirely, the gleam in his eye indicating he was going to have some fun with it all. James on the other hand was delighted, having been on the receiving end when it came to sourcing ideas to deal with the boy in his year at school who had been making not so subtle comments about being linked to one of the local drug gangs, trying to pressure others to come try it out for themselves. James was amused to see this part of his grandfather come back to life. A strong sense of justice rang in their souls, and if his grandpa was willing to cause absolute chaos for this Merinda woman, then she probably deserved it.

Charlies excused himself to privately forewarn the staff, who in turn amusedly said they would keen an eye out, leaving James and his grandfather to play a quick game of draughts.

"You know Jimmy, I've been wondering what you know about Merinda's family, her last name's Evans - that ring any bells? That lovely grand-daughter of hers is about your age."

Henry, without any preamble, strode straight into the unmentioned second step of his master plan to Ruining Merinda's Week- knowing full well that the two of them were the same age, and had attended the Hogwarts High School in the same year.

James, who had turned the slightest bit rosy at the mention of "Evans" had thrown his hand into his hair, sweeping back the mop of curls, choosing to compose himself fully before replying. A nervous tic his grandfather picked up on immediately.

"I-uh, went to school with a Lily Evans if that's who you're talking about? She took out top marks in my physics and chemistry courses. She's pretty smart. "

"That's her! She was in all a flutter after those exams last year, convinced she'd failed in life after not getting into her chosen university- I won every round of draughts for weeks! I was beginning to think she'd gotten her brain all fried up but she decided to come back down to earth when she got that job in Morrison's cafe. Got her to realised life isn't all about studying. She's young enough to go out and make mistakes and still be smart enough to come home afterward."

James stayed silent listening to his grandfathers impassioned speech, silently agreeing with just how great Lily was, the same girl he'd harboured quite the crush on for years, though he did try to not let on to it.

James' plan to keep silent, however, was rudely interrupted by his overtly bold grandparent who had seemingly lost his "socially acceptable conversational topics" filter by adding

"It would be the absolute icing on the cake if my grandson and Merinda Evans' grand-daughter were to be a couple. I would pay to see that. She would squirm like a newborn!"

James' reaction was tempered only by the return of his father, who walked in to hear his still-teenaged son say "What the fuck, Grandad?!"

0-0-0-0

please review.