3

A petite redheaded woman sat beside a hospital bed, straight out of a muggle World War II movie, gently brushing unruly black hair from the forehead of the young man lying in the bed. "What is it about Potter men and hospital rooms?" Ginny Potter mused.

The patient was her eldest, James Sirius Potter, currently in a deep, potion induced, healing sleep. A soft whirling noise emanated from under the covers tented over his left leg. He had managed to rip, tear, streatch or disconnect every tendon and ligament that attacked the bottom of his leg to his knee.The noise was from a magical cooling blanket wrapped around the area to help reduce swelling.

The magical surgery had lasted 4 hours as the specialists at St. Mungo's carefully reattached and repaired the damage done when he and his brother landed in a heap upon the pitch in Chudley.

Ginny rotated her shoulders, trying to loosen the knot she felt forming between her the blades and checked her watch. 6 pm. If she knew Ron, her big brother and James' godfather, he would be coming through the door soon, cup of strong, sweet milky tea in his hand, a briefcase loaded with either auror trainee evaluations, case files, or both, tucked under his arm, ready to settle in to keep watch over his nephew.

Someone, Ginny suspected her extreamly efficient niece Victorie, had orchestrated the platoon of Weasleys, Lupins and friends so that Ginny and Harry had someone to spell them, make sure they ate and rested. It looked like this would be a long stay.

Harry sat quietly at the head of his youngest son's bed, doing his best to stay out of the way of the medical personnel that were in and out frequently to check the statistics floating just behind and above the head of Albus' hospital bed. The beds and intensive care area were of a much newer era than the ward James was in. His generation had started the reform, dragging Britain's magical world kicking and screaming in to the 21st century. Now their children were improving and incorporating the best of muggle ideas into everyday life.

The magical mobile phone in his pocket, the large flatscreen TV in his front parlor and the wizard's magic tablet he used every day were inventions sparked by muggle products.

Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, his brother in law George's company, had quietly began to branch out from novelties and jokes after Lee Jordon, George's best friend, had first come to him looking for an investor in the Wizarding Cable-less television Network.

WWW had grown so large that Bill Weasley, the oldest of Ginny's brothers, had left Gringotts to become CFO of, what was now, the family company.

"Hey, how is he doing?" Harry was brought out of his thoughts by the softly asked question from his bestfriend/sister in law. He could smell the citrusy scent of the Lady Grey tea Hermione preferred, which was in the large travel mug she held. Like her husband Ron, she had a briefcase tucked under her arm as she entered the one patient cubicle.

"The swelling is going down. Until they wake him we have no idea if there will be any neurological loss. It hit so close to the brain stem. But Dr. Whey says they are hardly having to remind his heart to beat and his lungs to breathe anymore. If he gets to ever play again, the team doctors will surely insist he wear a helmet." Due to the increased broom manuverability, speed, improved equipment and better training and strength of the players, the owners had begun implementation of voluntary helmet laws last season, with the aim to make it mandatory for all players in 4 years. Al had worn a helmet for his games since joining the reserve team last season, but for some reason was not wearing one at practice that morning.

Hermione unknowingly repeated Ginny's gesture from earlier, except she was brushing dark ginger hair off the forehead of her godson, the redheaded doppelganger of his dad. She had experience waiting at bedsids, her husband, best friend/brother in law and adopted nephew were all aurors and had reserved beds waiting here for them. Add to that her sister in law/best female friend had played professional quidditch, and she could tell you which vending machines had the freshest crisps, the visiting hours, what reading material was for sale in the gift shop and to never drink the tea from the urn in the main waiting area, unless you wanted indigestion and diarrhea.

"Ron's with James, Mum left a basket with dinner for you and Ginny. Victorie is in our usual room waiting to badger you into eating every bite. Take a nap and make sure Ginny does too. No arguments! Ron and I are here until midnight. Your boys are safe. Teddy headed up to Hogwarts to tell Lily what happened. Ask Vic, but I think she said Hagrid (Lily Potter's godfather) was seeing about going along. If Neville says it's alright, he was planning on staying with Charlie (Ginny's second oldest brother and successor to Hagrid as magical creatures professor and keeper of the keys) and bringing her down after classes tomorrow for a visit,"

James had missed two games, Al four. Both well enough to eek out a league championship, barely beating their cousins, Domonique and Rose's Harpies.

Al was told, in no uncertain terms, that one more concussion meant the end of quidditch, period. Dr Whey also advised him NOT to follow his da in to a second career with the Aurors.

Freddy played hesitantly, to the determent of the team, in the following 4 games until Al sat him down for a long talk that may, or may not, have included the threat to use a certain infamous bogey hex if he did not resume playing his hardest.

James and Freddy had been terrors, bordering on being bullies, when they were younger. Watching Scorpious Malfoy being seriously abused by hard core bullies when he, Rose and Al were sorted in to Gryffindor, made James pause and take a long hard look at himself. It took a while. But after they reached the part of the history of magic that covered his grandparents, parents, Aunts and Uncles he sat with his da and really listened as Harry, his mum, Aunts and Uncles told him what had happened. It was not a far leap, even for a 13 year old, to compare the bullying he and Fred had engaged in to his father's childhood and his mum's 6th year.

Now he and Al were incredibly close, after all no other person knew exactly what it was like to be the son of the most famous wizard of his, and many other, generation.

With that closeness came a good dose of his da's protective instinct. Teddy Lupine, his godbrother and defacto older sibling, and Victorie, his oldest cousin, had always been protective of the children of the Weasley/Potter clan. James and Fred learned from them.

He had gone through the expected tween negative attitude toward his mum and da, most do. But now he was awed and incredibly proud of all they, his aunts and uncles, their friends and his grandparents, had done. Hell, they saved the whole damn world! And, as if that wasn't enough, they quietly continued to improve things for as many people as they could.

Yes they had large shoes to fill but, all he had to do was look around at any family gathering. Al, Rose, Fred, Dominique and he all knew a quidditch career was relatively short. They all had plans for the future. He was going to own a team, improve the game and keep it relevant going into the future. Al, Hermione's godson through and through, was going to follow her to Oxford and continue her reforms of the magical court system. Lily, the baby and the brightest of the Potter siblings, was going to magical med school.

If their parents had helped drag their world in to the 21st century, his generation were going to push it toward the future.