Author's Note: My beta, Arnel, calls this the chapter where grown-ups act like teenagers. You can tell me if it's true. MNF

Chapter 6:

Tea

"Is Uncle Sirius a good kisser?" Rosie Potter asked her godmother as they had their weekly tea a day late because her godmother was on a date with her older brother's godfather the day before.

"Rose Euphemia Potter, that is an impertinent question, and I'm not going to answer it!" Junie was shocked she'd asked it. The girl's mother might have gotten away with asking such a thing, but her sixteen-year-old goddaughter, no. Rosie was a good mix of her parents, unlike her older brother, Harry, who was all James or Eddie, who was the perfect likeness to his mother. It was strange to see him hanging out with the Weasley brothers at Harry and Ginny's wedding since he looked like he could fit right in. Rosie had red hair, but it was deeper than her mum's, and her eyes were a beautiful hazel-green. They seemed to change colours based on what she was wearing.

Rosie was fairly tall already, only an inch or two shorter than Junie, who stood a very respectable five-foot-nine. Harry towered over her, which didn't surprise her since his parents were both tall, James at six-two and Lily at five-ten. Rosie was going through another growth spurt, as she'd gained at least two inches during the first term of school. Unlike her brothers, though, Rosie was uninterested in Quidditch and wasn't athletic at all. She was much more of a Gobstones player, asking her godmother for trips and tricks from when she'd played for her house team. They often played each other in Wizard chess when they had their weekly get together. James had been teaching his daughter his best moves.

"The fact that you didn't deny even knowing how Uncle Sirius kissed means that you did kiss him. I bet his moustache tickles, I know Robbie Martin's did, and Robbie's wasn't nearly as full as Uncle Sirius'," Rosie giggled.

"Don't let you dad hear that you've been off snogging Robbie Martin," Junie teased back. "He thinks you're too young for boys."

"Harry and Ginny were dating younger than I am!"

"Ginny isn't his daughter. I know it's not fair, but you are your daddy's little girl, and that means you can't grow up." Rosie crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "Don't pout, just don't tell you dad you're snogging or dating or whatever. Oh, and make sure I don't come upon you either. I don't want to have to break you apart or worse, take points."

"Harry gave me the map when he was done," she said. "We've agreed that the eldest of the second generation of the Marauders gets to be the keeper of the map," Junie remembered the damn map from her school days. James would hunt Lily down by using it before they were a couple.

"I did not hear that, and I know nothing about any map."

"You're the best Auntie Junie," Rosie gushed.

The two spent the next hour talking about her classes, who she was really going with – and it wasn't Robbie Martin – and other vital things Rosie needed to speak with someone about and was repulsed by the idea her mother might actually know something about being a teenaged girl.

After close to an hour, Rosie left to meet her friends for dinner. Junie was debating eating in her rooms, as she didn't want to miss her Floo-call with Sirius. "You're acting like a sixteen-year-old girl," Junie whispered to the air before deciding she would be eating in the Great Hall, if for no other reason than to tell Minerva she might be right.

Having nearly an hour before she'd need to walk across the castle, Junie decided her third-year's book reports might be entertaining. Some of the students seemed to struggle with the idea of reading a Muggle penned novel and then creating an accounting of the plot and characters. It made her think magical children needed a better-quality educational system before attending Hogwarts. She added it to the mental list she was keeping of things to talk with Sirius about. Topics on the list ranged from finding out what his favourite dessert was to what cologne he wore (because it made him smell excellent) to what he thought about the growing poverty problem among those who were not magically strong or worse, Squibs.

Meanwhile, in London, Sirius was taking tea in the DMLE offices with his best friend. James could have gone home already, but when Sirius came in looking as if he had been attacked by doxies nesting in his hair, he chose to stay. James brewed some less than stellar tea, dug out a sleeve of possibly old biscuits from the bottom of his desk, and shut the door to his office to find out what was wrong with Padfoot. Part of him hoped it was whatever had happened between him and Junie. He couldn't think of a couple simultaneously less suited and perfect for one another.

"What is going on with you?" he asked once Sirius had stopped pacing around his office, burning off frenetic energy. In days past, this is when Sirius would have changed into a dog and run around the house. Instead, the man sat down and took a big gulp of tea.

"Shite, that's hot!" he yelled, but his tongue was hanging out, so it sounded more like "Shy das haw!"

"Of course, it is," James said while he pulled his wand to heal his friend's tongue. "I just made it. Tell me what you crazed?"

"Take your pick; the Wizengamot vote tomorrow, the battle over changing the make-up of said body, or my…I don't even know what word works for what Junie is. Not that we've discussed a name for whatever you call this relationship. I can't call her my girlfriend; we're forty, for Merlin's sake. We don't know if we're going to get married, so I can't call her my intended, but she's much more than just someone I've had two dates with. Hell, I can't call her my friend because I was such a prat in my first year, I nearly made her leave Hogwarts."

"She told you that story, huh? I was mortified when she talked with me about it. At least she and Lily and Marlene became friends because of it."

"Yeah, but I didn't even remember that I'd said it. How many other times did I do actual harm to someone and don't remember it?"

"Sirius, I think you need to cut yourself some slack; we were eleven, and you've more than made up for it in the years since," James said, and Sirius shrugged. He then took the biscuit and dipped it into his tea.

"So, dinner went well last night?" That was all Lily was willing to share with him when two-thirds of a Bread and Butter Pudding and a long letter arrived by owl this morning. She'd told him he had to speak with his friend because she wasn't betraying hers.

"It was amazing," Sirius said with an over-emphasis on the last word worthy of his not quite seven-year-old son. "Did you know she can cook?"

"I did; we go to her house for Easter dinner every year. Tell me about the Bread and Butter pudding."

"How did you know about that?"

"Junie sent the remainder of it to Lily this morning with an exceptionally long letter. Yesterday, Lily spent most of the afternoon at Junie's place, leaving me to order curry for dinner."

"You didn't order pizza?"

"Eddie wanted the curry more than he wanted pizza."

"He's showing signs of developing some tastebuds."

"Apparently, Ginny made one for him, and she coaxed him into eating it, and now he loves it. He even ate the vegetables in it."

"Is he too old to be a changeling?" Sirius asked, referring to the myth that elves took human babies and left elf ones in their places.

"Yes, and even if the elves somehow captured Eddie, they'd send him home once he started talking about his brother's Quidditch stats," James countered.

"He is impressive," Sirius said. "I knew that the first time I put him on a broom."

"For which Lily nearly murdered you."

"Too true. Thanks for calming me down." Sirius took another biscuit and let it soak in the tea until it was at the perfect wetness level.

"You want to tell me about it?" James asked.

Sirius had to swallow before he could talk. He then sighed and ran his hands through his hair, although this time it was tamed a bit. "You were in there today; we need to make the Wizengamot represent all the people of the magical UK, rather than just those who are pure, although I might be the purest only because my parents were cousins. That damned Sacred twenty-eight needs to be thrown out.

"Then there is the election tomorrow. James, I'm afraid they're going to elect me. I know I can do the job, but with this change in my life, I don't know that I want to."

"Wow. You've always loved politics."

"I know. I just…Junie isn't what I expected. She's sweet and funny and warm, and when I kissed her, it was like…it was like I'd never kissed another woman in my life. I spent the better part of two hours snogging her last night. I didn't need to take it further. I didn't want to sleep with her, well, I wanted to, but I wasn't in a rush to have sex and leave, which is about what my dating life has been like for a decade. I just wanted to kiss her."

"Wow," James said, impressed. "You've never spoken about a woman that way. You've respected women, you've been attracted to women, but I'm not sure it's ever been the same woman."

"Do you need to rub that in? I suddenly feel rather ashamed of some of my past paramours."

"Well, you call them paramours, so you went into those relationships knowing they were just for sex."

"True, but it doesn't mean I can't feel that just scratching an itch and then leaving was rather…I don't know, immature?" Sirius drank some more of his tea, now that it was a decent temperature.

"The political issue will work itself out, and you know it. Most of us are with you, and the few holdouts won't matter. We will be a better reflection even if we need to drag some of the old folks kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century." James watched Sirius, knowing it wasn't the politics that was upsetting him.

"Padfoot, we've been friends forever, quite literally, as mum put you in my cot when I was like a month old. Be honest with me, what do you want with Junie? Imagine you can have anything in the world, what would it be?"

Sirius stared into his teacup for a long moment. He spoke without looking up at his friend. "I'd want to live in Hogsmeade right now, so I could walk up the castle on the nights she wasn't needed to patrol, or she could come down to my house. I want to spend enough time with her to convince her I'm not the prat I was while we were in school. I want to move to a point where I could marry her and maybe start a family with her. I want what you, Remus, and Pete have."

"That's the most honest you've been with me in a LONG time, Pads."

"Yeah, I know. We just don't discuss stuff like this. We are not like Lily, Marlene, and Junie."

"No, we never have been. There are days I think Lily can't get dressed without talking with one or both. They need to coordinate or not clash when we're all together."

"Women."

"Yeah, but without Lily…I try not to think about what it would be like without her."

"I'm beginning to understand. I'm going home; I need to make a Floo-call or maybe Floo there. She's attached Grimmauld to her Floo in the castle."

"Sounds like a plan, Padfoot. Just remember she'll be in the Great Hall until seven. Eat your dinner, maybe change out of the suit you're wearing under your robes. Comb your head because it looks like something nested in it, then make your call. I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early."

"Meet me for breakfast in the canteen?" Sirius asked.

"No, just come to our house. Lily makes better eggs and bacon."