A three year old Lily Potter stood at the top of the stairs, her chubby hands placed defiantly on her hips. She was wearing a pretty little blue dress with a silver sash that Grandma bought for her and a rather unimpressed scowl. She narrowed her eyes menacingly at her father, who stood at the bottom of stairway.

"Lily, sweetie," Harry said, his voice edging on desperation, "We need to go. Teddy's going to be sad if you don't come." Lily didn't say a word but shook her head, dark red pigtails whipping her face.

"For daddy?" Harry asked. His baby girl had him wrapped around her little finger and she knew it. If only the devotion went two ways. The scene in front of Harry was not unfamiliar and Harry silently wondered how he his life had ended up in the hands of a demanding toddler.

"No." she pouted, "I stay here, I not play with Vikki." Bill and Fleur's daughter was starting to lose interest in Lily, as she was no longer a baby and their age difference made it hard for them to play together. And Lily detested her for it. She was no longer getting all the attention, and like her mother, she could hold a grudge.

"Why don't you love me anymore?" Harry asked. Lily's eyes softened but her hands stayed where they were.

"I love you daddy, but I stay with Honey." Lily said. Harry scrubbed his face with his hands. It was Honey's day off, although she would be delighted to watch Lily for the afternoon, as she often spent Sundays deep cleaning the house, stating that her days off were to be used for the things she didn't have time to get to during the week. Honey was one of the first houselves to receive wages and holidays. Much to her horror and Hermione's pleasure. She spent most of her money on birthday presents for the kids; they were her life. She loved them and they loved her.

Harry theatrically hung his head and slumped his shoulders. He sniffed, "OK, I understand. You love Honey more than daddy." Harry said sadly.

"No!" Lily protested, her hands dropped and she stopped glaring, "I love you the mostest, daddy."
"No, it's OK, Lily. You can stay here, you don't love me anymore. I understand" Harry walked to the floo, where his boys were waiting, "Lily." He said turning back to her, "If you decide to love me again, mommy can take you to grandma's house when she's done getting ready." He burried his face in his hands and pretended to sob.
"Harry turned around and stepped into the fireplace, with five year old Al on his hip and holding the hand of seven year old James. They disappeared in a flash of green, leaving the little girl all alone at the top of the stairs.

She gasped; her father had never left without her, he still loved her, right? She had to know.
"Mama!" Lily cried, running into her parent's bedroom. "Mama! I go Teddy's birthday now." She shouted wide eyed from the door frame.

…~*~*…*~*~…

"Hey, Harry!" Hermione greeted with a one armed hug him as he stepped out of the fireplace and let a squirming Al loose.

"Hi." He pecked her cheek and ruffled Hugo's hair. His cheeks were red and inflamed and he turned into his mother's shoulder with a whimper.

"Teething." Hermione said, bouncing him on her hip and gently kissing his forehead.

"Harry chuckled, "Lily wouldn't let me put her down for two weeks. She even slept in our bed." Hermione grimaced in sympathy.

"Harry!" Ron said happily from the kitchen. "It's been too long."

"I know, what's it been a whole," he glanced at the clock, "twenty six hours?" He followed him into the kitchen, where all the adults were.

"Ron waved him off, "ehh," He looked around "Where's Gin and Lily?" The fireplace sounded from around the corner.
"DADDY?" Lily's worried voice called.

"In here, peanut." Lily came running into the kitchen on short stubby legs arms out for balance.

"Daddy!" She ran up to Harry and he knelt down to scoop her in his arms and spun her around in a tight circle. A move they perfected only a month after Lily learned to walk steadily. Her chubby fist grabbed onto his tee shirt and she started crying softly into his chest.
"Ginny motioned for his attention. She waved to his black briefcase. The one that he wasn't supposed to let out of his sight, and set it down by the door. 'Thank you.' Harry lipped to her, as head of the auror department, the department of mysteries had entrusted him with a top secret black briefcase until further notice. They feared there was a double agent in the Ministry, and whatever it was, was too important to fall into the wrong hands. Harry had been in charge of this mystery item for six weeks and there was no word as to when he'd be free.

Harry went to put her down. "No!" she demanded grabbing his shirt again. Harry wordlessly shifted her to his left hip and joined Ron in a conversation about the Cannons latest match. Almost the entire Weasley family, save Charlie, were milling around in the kitchen and too many children were running up and down the stairs and playing outside.

"Daddy?" Lily whispered in his ear.

"Yeah baby?" He looked at her, stopping mid-sentence.

"When we go home," she shyly played with his sleeve. "When we go home, will you play princess wif me?"

"I would love to play princess with you. After Teddy's birthday." Harry told her honestly.

"Wish my girls still played princess with me." Bill muttered into his butterbeer.

"Fleur's laugh chimed, "Zey are too old Bill, zey will still play wid you, only you must find somzing else to play with zem."

"Here comes Teddy and his Grandma. Everybody come here!" Ginny called, "Come on kids! Hide so you can yell surprise!" Ginny ushered the kids into the kitchen bursting with energy, and extinguished the lights with a tight flick of her wand.

"Oh, it doesn't look like anyone's here." Andromeda said with false surprise. "Come on Teddy let's go then I must have gotten the dates mixed up."

"Is this a surprise party?" Teddy asked, "This is where you yell surprise." He said to the blackness, smart kid. Harry put a finger to Lily's lips.

"No I told you it was your birthday party, that wouldn't be much of a surprise now would it." Andromeda said, "I was so sure it was the day after your real birthday."

"But, Gran, today is my real birthday."

"Oh, dear! Teddy I'm so sorry to get you so excited and have you wait a whole other day. Come on. Let's go home and you can have extra ice cream. This poor old brain of mine." She tittered. You could see Teddy's shoulders sag with disappointment through the dark.

"I am so sorry Teddy." They turned to leave, after three steps, multi-coloured balloons sprung from the ground along with streamers, confetti, indoor fireworks, candy, and balloons. All complements of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

"SURPRISE!" Everyone shouted. Al jumped out from behind the couch "Roar! I'm a dinosaur Teddy! Are you surprised, Teddy? Are you surprised that I'm a dinosaur? ROAR!" Harry put his hand on his son's head and sent George a death glare. George had given him candy. He does this everytime.

"No dad! I'm a dinosaur!" He stepped out of his father's reach, "I'm going to eat you Roxanne!" He gave his best dino-call and began to chase after his cousin with outstretched arms. She shrieked and hid behind George's legs.

"No! You can't do that I'm older than you!" She half laughed, half whined.

"I'M A DINOSAUR!"

"Angelina jumped in the way. "To get to baby dinosaur you have to go through mama dinosaur first." She playfully growled.

"Al stopped, looked at Angie and fled in the opposite direction, flapping his arms, resembling a monkey more than anything else. "Can't get me, I'm a flyin' dinosaur." He teased, thinking he outsmarted her. Angelina gave him a two second head start before chasing after him again.

And the party was back on.

Ginny looked at Harry questioningly, "If he's happy, then I'm happy." He shrugged. Al was by far the most energetic kid out of the three. Lily was daddy's girl; she'd be the trouble maker. James was the curious one. He took after his Aunt Hermione more than anyone else he was actually related to, although he did have his Father's uncanny ability to get into trouble through almost no fault of his own. He chuckled to himself as he remembered a particularly eventful summer morning.

...~*~*...*~*~…

James, have you seen dad's big stack of parchments?" Harry asked, he was late for work and could find his report that he'd spent month's working on. "They were right on this coffee table." Harry was rifling through the large sitting room, kicking an obscene amount of toys out of the way as he went. He checked under the couches and the mantle of the red-brick fireplace that stood proudly at the top of the room.

James picked up the red colouring pencil and scribbled on his drawing with his tongue poking out between his lips. "Yeah, they're in the oven." James stated Harry stopped looking and turned around slowly.

Why?" He asked slowly.

I wanted to see what paper pie tasted like it's cooking right now, Honey helped me don't worry, dad, I was safe around the oven. Then you could have some when you get home." Harry ran over to the oven and wrenched open the door. There was a pie with burnt corners of paper sticking out. He pulled it out.

"Mate, these were dad's special papers. I need them, but when I get home I can help you make whatever kind of pie you want. Alright?" He grabbed the stack of paper through the pie crust and tried to brush the fruit bits off. He burnt his fingers terribly and the writing was barely legible as every sheet was covered in sticky fruit mess.

"Any kind?"

"Yup. Think about that today and tell me when I get home around six thirty, OK?"

"YA! Maybe we can make pencil pie or – or hair pie!" James exclaimed. Harry grimaced.

"Potter! Why is this procedure report burnt and sticky?" His boss, Cali Pitcher yelled at him. Harry smiled, he was just about to go home, a little late, but James would still be up by seven.

"My son tried to bake me paper pie this morning. I'll re-write it tomorrow if it's a problem."

"Yes! Yes, it's a problem! You'll rewrite it now! I need to present this tomorrow, Harry!" She said, exasperated. Cali had always let her workers put their family first, to an extent, but they were in the middle of revolutionizing the way spies were handled, Britain needed a win on the Global scale.

My kids aren't going to be up by the time I'm done." Harry protested.

"I'll give you next Friday afternoon off, but I really need this to be presentable, I'm passing it around to the North American's tomorrow, it can't have chunks of apple on it." She flicked more crust off the section on protected aliases. She sighed, looking at his face, "I can stay until ten, but my mother in law's coming tomorrow and I have to get the apartment cleaned."

"By the time Harry got home, it was eleven. A very pregnant Ginny was waiting for him. "James stayed up until nine thirty before I could get him to bed." She folded her arms, unimpressed.

"I'm sorry, Gin. I didn't have a choice." Harry dropped his jacket on the chair.

"Don't apologize to me. James was heartbroken Harry. Something about making some sort of spaghetti pie with you." She followed him into the kitchen. He banged around in the bottom cupboard bringing out several mixing bowls and whisks. "Harry! What are you doing, you'll wake the boys!" Ginny hissed.

"Making pie."

"James?" Harry knocked on his son's door. He mumbled and rolled over.

"Oh. Hi dad. I'm happy you're home." James said rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"I made you something." Harry pulled two forks and a plate of pie from behind his back.

"What kind is it?" James asked excitedly.

"Pancake." Harry smiled.

"What?" James asked. "Really, you cooked something and then put in in here and cooked it again?" It's amazing what can fascinate a young mind.

"No, I put pancake mix, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries in it. And guess what else?"

"What?" James looked at his dad.

"Syrup."

"Syrup!" He laughed. "In pie! That's mad, dad."

"Mum says it's good." Harry took a bite, it wasn't half bad.

"Mum likes pickles and peanut butter on her chicken." He made a face.

"That she does. Just try it." James made room for his dad and they shared the pie until James fell asleep in Harry's lap.

Ginny woke up later that night alone. Hmm she said she was upset at Harry, but she didn't mean go sleep on the couch. She padded her way down the stairs. He wasn't there either; however there was a huge mess in the kitchen. Prickling, she waddled back upstairs to grab her wand.

Passing James's room, she was able to see through the crack in the door. The scene before her was adorable. Harry was sprawled out his back, glasses askew, still in his work robes. James was snuggled against his side and Harry had one arm wrapped around the boy's small shoulders. Both had identical smiles on their face. She quickly went back to her room across the hall and grabbed the camera.

…~*~*...*~*~…

As the party wore on, the children got more and more bored. Most of the adults were drinking fire whiskey and had kicked them outside to play, but it was starting to get dark and cold. They wandered around the familiar home, listening to booming laughs from the living room. Teddy's birthday always fell on a long weekend in the summer, one time where the whole family was together and it was an excuse for them to get together once a year and have a few drinks and catch up.

Teddy of course loved this, and even encouraged it. He was always able to escape the watchful eye of his grandmother, even if she never did drink. Al had finally settled down and was sitting in Charlie's old room with James and Lily. "I'm bored." James said.

"Look!" Lily said, standing up clumsily. "It is daddy's purse!" she wobbled over to Harry's mysterious briefcase.

"It's not a purse Lily. It holds his work stuffs." Al wrinkled his nose and rubbed his eyes. His sugar rush had turned into a sugar crash and he was getting irritable.

"Daddy forgot his purse in Uncle Char-lee's room." Lily tried to pick it up to bring it back to her father stumbling under its weight

"No! Lily! We're not supposed to touch that! Dad said!" James knocked it to the ground, out of her way. Like any seven year old, he liked being in charge and he like being right. If it wasn't his idea, it was stupid.

"Jamie!" Lily said. "You scratched it. Daddy's gonna be mad when he sees it." James looked down; indeed there was a four centimeter nick in the leather. It wasn't horrific, but it was noticeable.

"When Teddy entered the room he heard the Potter kids fighting. "Hey! What's the matter?"

"Jamie broke Daddy's purse!"

"Teddy let me see your wand, please!" James begged. He didn't want to get in trouble with his dad. He hated that. He never yelled but the disappointment on his face was crushing.

"No I can't let you use magic." Teddy said.

"But my dad! He'll be so mad." said James; eyes as wide as an owl's.

"Then you do it." Al spoke up.

"Please Teddy?" begged James.

"I don't know… I'm not supposed to use magic outside of school. You guys know that"

"Teddy, please. Dad was going to get me a broom this summer and there'll be no way that happens if he sees this." Teddy sighed and took out his wand. His charm didn't work, it rebounded right off the case. James grabbed the wand out of his hand, he tried too. Nothing worked. They even let Al have a go. The charm kept rebounding off the case. James went again, saying the exact same thing as Teddy had. No change. He tried it once more and put the wand down.

Lily picked it up, but they paid no attention to her, she was just a baby and hadn't even shown signs of being magic yet.
James was dreading telling his dad. He walked over to the other side of the room. "Teddy. I can't do it. Can you go get my dad please?" Teddy nodded, poor kid. Harry really had the guilt thing down pat, even he had fallen victim a few times. He left to go get Harry. James tried to wipe quiet tears from his face. He knew how special this case was and he didn't know just how much trouble he was in but he did know that it was more trouble than he'd ever been in his life.

James kicked the briefcase in frustration. "Don't kick daddy's purse!" James looked at Lily and deliberately kicked it again. Lily had gotten angry before, but never with a wand in her hand. She pointed it at him, like she'd seen her mother and father do teasingly.

"Lily, put that down!" Al made a grab for the wand. But Lily moved back and fell down. She started crawling away from Al, wand in hand, giggling. He grabbed at the wand awkwardly.

"NO! Mine!" she screamed. Al fell on top of her and she was trapped underneath her heavy brother. She couldn't breathe and started to panic. There were silver and red sparks coming out of Teddy's wand. A direct stream hit the briefcase and the top of the case melted revealing a fist size hourglass encases in a transparent orb.

"Whoa." James picked Al off his baby sister and grabbed the glass examining the tiny crystal blue polyhedrons inside the hour glass. He shook it gently causing the orb to tinkle merrily. When he turned the orb in his hands, the hour glass remained upright, while the crystals moved against gravity. No matter which way he twisted or turned it, the hour glass didn't move relative to space, however the crystals seemed to flow as if it did.

"Hey. What's all the ruckus in here?" Harry knocked on the door. The sound of his father's voice frightened James and he dropped the orb. Thousands of crystals exploded over the floor and a cloud of glass shards rose from the orb and enveloped the three Potter children.

Harry flung open the door open at the sound of breaking glass just in time for him and Teddy to see his children starting to becoming transparent.

"Daddy!" Lily made a grab for her dad, terrified. He held her hand and grabbed his boys as well.

"Wait! Wait! Ginny! Ginny!" Harry cried. He kneeled painfully on the crystals, trying to grasp and hold onto his children. The harder he tried to hold them, the faster they slipped away.

"Dad? I'm so sorry! I didn't meant to touch it!" James cried, feeling fainter. Harry tried to hold them closer, but they were becoming non-existent and his hands were able to move through their bodys as if they were only made of water.

By the time Ginny had bolted up the single flight of stairs, Harry was kneeling in broken glass and crystal.

Alone.

…~*~*…*~*~…

AN:/ This is a repost of some of my old work. I wrote this in 2011? and lost access to my account before I could finish. I'm editing as I go along, but the story won't change.