A/N: This chapter turned out a little longer than I thought it would. Oh
well, life goes on. Oh, and this is to Freda Potter (I forgot to say this
last chapter!!), I'm not a designer. I just watch lots and lots of Trading
Spaces, Changing Rooms, and While You Were Out. Great shows, great shows.
Thanks to my chapter five reviewers:
Erika
Pixyfairy120
Beanie
Darkphoenix
Minerva-severus-dumbledor
Anaxandra
Harry's Sister
^*^*^*^
The next few weeks passed by with the speed of a sloth for James. He would go to Mutt's Domain, fix Sirius's mistakes from the previous night (when he tried to do something himself that he really shouldn't have), listen as they told him about what Draco and Seamus were finding out (the letters came daily), and all the while attempt to quickly finish his work.
He left Remus with specific instructions not to let Sirius do anything. They had finished the kitchen, entry, a few bathrooms, and a den earlier in the week and were currently working on finishing the dining room (the ceiling had to set before they could paint it), the library (the shelves were primed, they just had to paint them), the sun room (the new windows hadn't arrived yet), and a few spare rooms.
So it was no surprise that he was actually excited about working on his cousin's house. He had sent his designs away a week ago and they had been approved almost the same day. So the rest of the week was spent finding everything he would need, between the work on Mutt's Domain, of course.
James arrived at Dudley's house to see a professional painting truck sitting in the drive. 'This is nice.' He also saw a moving company's van on the street in front of the house. 'Even nicer.'
"Ah, James! There you are! I hope you don't mind, but I hired professional painters and movers to help," Dudley said as he crossed towards him.
"I don't mind at all. This is a great help. I might be finished a few days earlier now. Thanks."
"No problem. You also said something about having to make some of the furniture, didn't you?"
"Yes, some of the shelves and tables have to be custom made," answered James, wondering where this was going.
"Oh, good. One of my friends, who happens to be a bloody good carpenter is coming over later today and tomorrow to help. Hope you don't mind."
"Not at all. While I can work the necessary tools, I am not the best."
"Everything you ordered arrived. I'll be at my office if you need me for anything and I'll be back around eight."
"Great. I actually plan on leaving at about seven."
"Well then. I'll leave you to it then?" James nodded. "Oh, and when can you start work on my parents house? I was going to send them to France while it was being worked on."
"I would have said next week, but with all this help, I think I can actually start on Thursday or Friday and finish in the middle of next week."
"Great. I'll stop by their house on the way home then and tell them about the trip. Mum will love it." With that, Dudley got into his car and speed off.
For the first time in two weeks, the day actually passed by quickly. With all the extra help, he was able to get all the painting done in all but two rooms. And those were the two rooms where an extra coat of paint was needed. Other than that, the only thing that was accomplished was that everything for the rooms was in the rooms where they were needed.
But the greatest surprise of the day was waiting for him when he got back to his hotel room. There, sitting on his bed, flipping though the channels on the telly was none other than Draco Malfoy.
"Can I help you?" asked a very surprised James.
"Do you know someone named Lois Westly?" asked a calm Draco.
"Why?"
"Just wondering," was the reply as the changed the channel, yet again.
"She lives across the hall from me. I watch her twins for her every once and a while. Has something happened to her or to Dylan and Nicole?" James was now worried. She was his first friend he had in the states. He was there for the birth of her twins and had watched them grow up. He had to keep telling himself that he didn't love her, only to have it backfire in his face every time he saw her smile. James was broken out of his thoughts by Draco.
"No, their fine. Is she trust worthy?" asked Draco as he stood up and turned off the telly.
"Of course. I would trust her with my life. Does this have anything to do with finding Sirius' godson?"
Draco nodded. "Just following up on some leads. I found some one who has also been lost, well, not really, we knew where she was and everything, but we haven't seen her in six years. Well, I must be off. There is something that Sirius and Remus really need to hear."
"I don't mean to pry, but what?"
"Apparently their beloved godson is a father." Draco noted the widening eyes of the man standing before him before he left with a pop.
The second the blonde left, James collapsed onto his bed. 'Father? What? Huh?' That seemed to be all his brain could accomplish at the moment.
Several hours later, James was still sitting in his stupor when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"James! Great news! You know my godson that I've been looking for?" Without waiting for a reply, the excited animagus continued, "Well, we just found out that he has kids! Them and their mum are moving back to England and we have to make them rooms. So we need to change some of the rooms. I hope this isn't a problem."
"No problem. I'll stop by tomorrow evening to go over the new rooms. Hopefully we can have new designs before midnight."
"Great! Oh, this also means that the house has to be finished by the time they get here, but they won't be here for two months, so I think we'll be fine. I've rounded up some help, so hopefully that helps."
"That should work." Just then there was a knock on the door. "Listen, there's someone at the door and I'm going to be having a busy day tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep."
"Oh, alright, see you tomorrow." Sirius hung up before James could even reply. James stared at the phone before another knock on the door broke him out of his stupor. Getting up, he opened the door to a bellboy holding a letter.
"This just came for you sir."
"Thank you."
James took the letter and immediately ripped it open. It was a letter from Lois. 'That's an amazing coincidence.'
"James, how have you been? It's been really quiet here without you riling up the kids. They send their love, well; rather, I send their love. They just want to know when you'll be back to make them new toys and take them to the zoo like you promised. They are still talking about all the fun you had when you took them to OMSI.
"Well, there is some bad news, or good news, depending on how you want to look at it. I'm moving back to England. I figure that Dylan and Nicole should know their family. Plus I just got a really good job offer. Double the pay. We'll be moving in two months. We might be able to see you in London, or if you're back before then, well, I guess we'll see you at home. Maybe you could get a job transfer to the London office? I know that you travel a lot anyways, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
"I hope you're having a blast in London, getting reunited with your family, or maybe not. I don't really know what happened there, but I just realized that family is everything. They never turn their backs on you, no matter what you did or do. Even if you were to kill someone, they would still forgive you. Love, Lois
"PS, Nicole wants to know if she should wear the green or blue dress for her school pictures. I thought she should wear the green one because it matches her eyes, but she wants your opinion. Also, Dylan wants to know if he should wear the blue shirt or the maroon one. Again, I told him the blue one would work better with his complexion. He looked at me funny and then said he wanted your opinion."
James chuckled (because men NEVER giggle) at the ps and got out some paper to write his response.
"Lois, It was great to hear from you. I was missing home and those monsters you call children. Tell them that next time I see them I'll take them to the zoo. And about OMSI, ask Dylan why he came home in different clothes then he left in. There should be a story about boats and water and falling in the said water to reach the said boats. We almost got kicked out for that. I'm not serious about that by the way, but we did get some glares from other parents whose kids got splashed.
"The bit about you moving to England is actually great news, well, to me at least. See, Bruce just hired someone for my job back in Portland. Apparently I was traveling too much and he wanted someone who was 'more stable.' That means that I got transferred here to the London office because they are the main office and a majority of the people who travel for work are stationed here. So I'm stuck in jolly old England. I was looking for apartments last weekend. I'm in no rush however because I have this hotel room for three months. Oh, and while we're on the topic, I'll be coming back in about three weeks to clean out the apartment and sell things that I really don't need. (I won't be taking the kids to the zoo then. I only have a few days to get everything done.)
"And the part about my family. Well, you'll never believe me when I say this. I'm designing a house for my cousin and my aunt and uncle! My cousin sure has changed. He's actually nice and he's fit! I couldn't believe it! As you can tell, I'm shocked. I've also seen a few of my friends and other family. I think everything might just work out. I've almost gotten to the point where I've forgiven myself for what I did. It has been six years.
"Keep the kids in line and give them hugs and kisses for me. Love, James
"PS, tell Nicole that she should wear the green dress. If it's the one I'm thinking of, she should also put her hair in a braid. And tell Dylan that he should think about the black shirt I got for him a while ago. It would go well with his red hair and green eyes, hence the reason I bought it!"
James went down to the front desk to get his letter in the mail tomorrow and then went back upstairs to fall into a dreamless sleep.
^*^*^*^*
It was around eight o'clock when James finally arrived at Mutt's Domain. Inside the newly finished kitchen (which was getting fantastic reviews, the design, not the food) was the entire Weasley clan and their respective spouses and children.
"James!" shouted Sirius when he noticed the designer standing the doorway, looking like he wasn't sure if he wanted to run or fade into nothingness. Especially since now everyone was looking at him.
"You wanted to go over the new designs?" James asked quietly.
"Right. Remus darling," Sirius said as he gave his mate a kiss on the cheek. "Wanna come?"
"Its my house too, Paddy."
"Of course."
"May Ron and I come as well?"
"Of course."
The five of them went into the also newly finished den and settled in.
"Which rooms did you want to change?" asked James as he got out a sketchpad and his binder.
"A few of the spare rooms. The ones that really didn't have any thing going for them. Do you know which room's I'm talking about?" asked Remus.
"I think so. The ones that are just a color. Like the blue room, the green room, and that weird one that I really don't know what I was thinking."
"Yeah. Except we like the last one you mentioned."
"I still can't believe you guys like that room. It looks like a jungle!" exclaimed Ron.
"Maybe that's why they like it," Hermione patiently said to her husband.
"It's a room that I don't think you can ever grow tired of. It looks really busy. Plus, by the looks of things, it will be a great room to play hide-and-seek," explained Sirius.
"I think while I was designing that room, I was babysitting the kids across the hall and they were playing hide-and-seek with each other. There aren't many good places to hide in my apartment. They were kind of angry with me for that. That might have been the reasoning behind that. Every kid should have a room to play hide-and-seek."
"Hm, sounds good. Anyways. The green room and the blue room, those are the two rooms that we want redesigned for the kids," said Remus.
"Ages? Male/female?"
"Twins age six. One boy, one girl," Ron said.
"That should be easy. I know a pair of twins that are six. Do you know what the kids are like?"
"Uh, considering the fact that we just found out they exist yesterday, I'm gonna go with no."
"Well then. I'll just go by what my neighbors would like in a room. Does that sound alright?"
"Sounds great. Well, we've gotta get back to the party."
"I'll come in when I'm done and see what you think," said James as he started to get to work. He didn't even notice when they left for he was too involved in his design and what he thought Dylan and Nicole would like.
When he finished two hours later, he was pretty impressed with himself. For the boy's room, he had pale blue walls with a full mural of the ocean on one wall. The bed was a rich maple captain's bed with blue and white- stripped bedding. The light hanging from the ceiling was a lighthouse that was upside down. There was a bookcase made of the same maple as the bed that looked like the bow of a boat and a play area that had a boat with oars attached. The dresser, also made of maple, was decorated with animals that you would find in the tide pools: sea urchins, starfish, clams, and barnacles. It was meant to capture the spirit of the ocean and that's exactly what it did. 'To bad Lois would never let me do this for Dylan, he would love this.' (The four of them were always going to the ocean because of the six year olds fascination for it.)
The girl's room didn't give you the impression that it was for a girl, but if you were to look at the details, there would be no doubt what gender this room was meant for. The walls were several shades darker than the other room, making it more of a sky blue. Near the top of the walls, there were clouds all around and in one corner; there was the impression of sunlight streaming from behind the clouds. The bed was a pale birch four half poster (where the posts didn't go to the ceiling) with bedding that was the same color as the walls and also had clouds. The shelf in the room was made of the same birch as the bed and the top had the same 'saw- toothed' appearance that is so common on castles. The dresser, also made of birch, had dragons, phoenixes, flying horses, and other fanciful flying creatures (and some regular birds that looked quite nice). A 'castle' wall that had shelves on the inside of the wall and a small table designated the play area. 'I hope Lois will let me design their rooms when the move back to England. This is perfect for Nicole.'
James smiled at the thought and went to go show off his designs that he was quite proud of. They were both a hit. In fact, Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Ron and Hermione (who wanted to anyways) all wanted James to design a few rooms in their house. He gave them the number to his office and said, "Just to let you know, I refuse to design a room around the color orange" with a look at Ron.
Everyone laughed at Ron's 'innocent' face. "What? I never said anything about orange."
"But we know you were thinking it. Good think Hermione is there or else every room in your house would be a shrine to the Chuddly Cannons," said Charlie with a grin.
"Okay, you got me. I was so close to having James' room orange too! But then I came home to a yellow room."
"Yellows pretty close to orange," reminded James.
"Yeah, I know. But at least it wasn't green," Ron said with a shudder.
"Green is a perfectly good color. There is nothing wrong with green. I'll have you know it's my favorite color," James said with indignation.
"Green is the Slythern color!" whined Ron.
James was trying not to laugh with the rest of the family, but he couldn't keep the amused look off his face. Which, unfortunately, Hermione noticed.
"James, I thought you didn't go to Hogwarts," Hermione said.
"Huh?"
"You seem to know about Slythern and the house feuds."
"Hermione, you can know all about that without going to Hogwarts. After all, there is 'Hogwarts, a History.' And he could have known someone who went there and told him about the feud," said Remus.
James just smiled. He could tell that Hermione really didn't believe that he didn't go to Hogwarts. But she couldn't think of who he would be if he did. He seemed to be her age, but then there was the fact that he didn't look like anyone she knew.
"I have to get going. I'm working on the finishing touches on another house tomorrow and that's always stressful." James said his goodbyes to everyone and quickly drove back to the hotel.
He fell asleep that night dreaming of all the great times that he had with the Weasleys.
A/N: I did decide to add the plot twist. Any guesses on what it is? Hehe.
Thanks to my chapter five reviewers:
Erika
Pixyfairy120
Beanie
Darkphoenix
Minerva-severus-dumbledor
Anaxandra
Harry's Sister
^*^*^*^
The next few weeks passed by with the speed of a sloth for James. He would go to Mutt's Domain, fix Sirius's mistakes from the previous night (when he tried to do something himself that he really shouldn't have), listen as they told him about what Draco and Seamus were finding out (the letters came daily), and all the while attempt to quickly finish his work.
He left Remus with specific instructions not to let Sirius do anything. They had finished the kitchen, entry, a few bathrooms, and a den earlier in the week and were currently working on finishing the dining room (the ceiling had to set before they could paint it), the library (the shelves were primed, they just had to paint them), the sun room (the new windows hadn't arrived yet), and a few spare rooms.
So it was no surprise that he was actually excited about working on his cousin's house. He had sent his designs away a week ago and they had been approved almost the same day. So the rest of the week was spent finding everything he would need, between the work on Mutt's Domain, of course.
James arrived at Dudley's house to see a professional painting truck sitting in the drive. 'This is nice.' He also saw a moving company's van on the street in front of the house. 'Even nicer.'
"Ah, James! There you are! I hope you don't mind, but I hired professional painters and movers to help," Dudley said as he crossed towards him.
"I don't mind at all. This is a great help. I might be finished a few days earlier now. Thanks."
"No problem. You also said something about having to make some of the furniture, didn't you?"
"Yes, some of the shelves and tables have to be custom made," answered James, wondering where this was going.
"Oh, good. One of my friends, who happens to be a bloody good carpenter is coming over later today and tomorrow to help. Hope you don't mind."
"Not at all. While I can work the necessary tools, I am not the best."
"Everything you ordered arrived. I'll be at my office if you need me for anything and I'll be back around eight."
"Great. I actually plan on leaving at about seven."
"Well then. I'll leave you to it then?" James nodded. "Oh, and when can you start work on my parents house? I was going to send them to France while it was being worked on."
"I would have said next week, but with all this help, I think I can actually start on Thursday or Friday and finish in the middle of next week."
"Great. I'll stop by their house on the way home then and tell them about the trip. Mum will love it." With that, Dudley got into his car and speed off.
For the first time in two weeks, the day actually passed by quickly. With all the extra help, he was able to get all the painting done in all but two rooms. And those were the two rooms where an extra coat of paint was needed. Other than that, the only thing that was accomplished was that everything for the rooms was in the rooms where they were needed.
But the greatest surprise of the day was waiting for him when he got back to his hotel room. There, sitting on his bed, flipping though the channels on the telly was none other than Draco Malfoy.
"Can I help you?" asked a very surprised James.
"Do you know someone named Lois Westly?" asked a calm Draco.
"Why?"
"Just wondering," was the reply as the changed the channel, yet again.
"She lives across the hall from me. I watch her twins for her every once and a while. Has something happened to her or to Dylan and Nicole?" James was now worried. She was his first friend he had in the states. He was there for the birth of her twins and had watched them grow up. He had to keep telling himself that he didn't love her, only to have it backfire in his face every time he saw her smile. James was broken out of his thoughts by Draco.
"No, their fine. Is she trust worthy?" asked Draco as he stood up and turned off the telly.
"Of course. I would trust her with my life. Does this have anything to do with finding Sirius' godson?"
Draco nodded. "Just following up on some leads. I found some one who has also been lost, well, not really, we knew where she was and everything, but we haven't seen her in six years. Well, I must be off. There is something that Sirius and Remus really need to hear."
"I don't mean to pry, but what?"
"Apparently their beloved godson is a father." Draco noted the widening eyes of the man standing before him before he left with a pop.
The second the blonde left, James collapsed onto his bed. 'Father? What? Huh?' That seemed to be all his brain could accomplish at the moment.
Several hours later, James was still sitting in his stupor when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"James! Great news! You know my godson that I've been looking for?" Without waiting for a reply, the excited animagus continued, "Well, we just found out that he has kids! Them and their mum are moving back to England and we have to make them rooms. So we need to change some of the rooms. I hope this isn't a problem."
"No problem. I'll stop by tomorrow evening to go over the new rooms. Hopefully we can have new designs before midnight."
"Great! Oh, this also means that the house has to be finished by the time they get here, but they won't be here for two months, so I think we'll be fine. I've rounded up some help, so hopefully that helps."
"That should work." Just then there was a knock on the door. "Listen, there's someone at the door and I'm going to be having a busy day tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep."
"Oh, alright, see you tomorrow." Sirius hung up before James could even reply. James stared at the phone before another knock on the door broke him out of his stupor. Getting up, he opened the door to a bellboy holding a letter.
"This just came for you sir."
"Thank you."
James took the letter and immediately ripped it open. It was a letter from Lois. 'That's an amazing coincidence.'
"James, how have you been? It's been really quiet here without you riling up the kids. They send their love, well; rather, I send their love. They just want to know when you'll be back to make them new toys and take them to the zoo like you promised. They are still talking about all the fun you had when you took them to OMSI.
"Well, there is some bad news, or good news, depending on how you want to look at it. I'm moving back to England. I figure that Dylan and Nicole should know their family. Plus I just got a really good job offer. Double the pay. We'll be moving in two months. We might be able to see you in London, or if you're back before then, well, I guess we'll see you at home. Maybe you could get a job transfer to the London office? I know that you travel a lot anyways, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
"I hope you're having a blast in London, getting reunited with your family, or maybe not. I don't really know what happened there, but I just realized that family is everything. They never turn their backs on you, no matter what you did or do. Even if you were to kill someone, they would still forgive you. Love, Lois
"PS, Nicole wants to know if she should wear the green or blue dress for her school pictures. I thought she should wear the green one because it matches her eyes, but she wants your opinion. Also, Dylan wants to know if he should wear the blue shirt or the maroon one. Again, I told him the blue one would work better with his complexion. He looked at me funny and then said he wanted your opinion."
James chuckled (because men NEVER giggle) at the ps and got out some paper to write his response.
"Lois, It was great to hear from you. I was missing home and those monsters you call children. Tell them that next time I see them I'll take them to the zoo. And about OMSI, ask Dylan why he came home in different clothes then he left in. There should be a story about boats and water and falling in the said water to reach the said boats. We almost got kicked out for that. I'm not serious about that by the way, but we did get some glares from other parents whose kids got splashed.
"The bit about you moving to England is actually great news, well, to me at least. See, Bruce just hired someone for my job back in Portland. Apparently I was traveling too much and he wanted someone who was 'more stable.' That means that I got transferred here to the London office because they are the main office and a majority of the people who travel for work are stationed here. So I'm stuck in jolly old England. I was looking for apartments last weekend. I'm in no rush however because I have this hotel room for three months. Oh, and while we're on the topic, I'll be coming back in about three weeks to clean out the apartment and sell things that I really don't need. (I won't be taking the kids to the zoo then. I only have a few days to get everything done.)
"And the part about my family. Well, you'll never believe me when I say this. I'm designing a house for my cousin and my aunt and uncle! My cousin sure has changed. He's actually nice and he's fit! I couldn't believe it! As you can tell, I'm shocked. I've also seen a few of my friends and other family. I think everything might just work out. I've almost gotten to the point where I've forgiven myself for what I did. It has been six years.
"Keep the kids in line and give them hugs and kisses for me. Love, James
"PS, tell Nicole that she should wear the green dress. If it's the one I'm thinking of, she should also put her hair in a braid. And tell Dylan that he should think about the black shirt I got for him a while ago. It would go well with his red hair and green eyes, hence the reason I bought it!"
James went down to the front desk to get his letter in the mail tomorrow and then went back upstairs to fall into a dreamless sleep.
^*^*^*^*
It was around eight o'clock when James finally arrived at Mutt's Domain. Inside the newly finished kitchen (which was getting fantastic reviews, the design, not the food) was the entire Weasley clan and their respective spouses and children.
"James!" shouted Sirius when he noticed the designer standing the doorway, looking like he wasn't sure if he wanted to run or fade into nothingness. Especially since now everyone was looking at him.
"You wanted to go over the new designs?" James asked quietly.
"Right. Remus darling," Sirius said as he gave his mate a kiss on the cheek. "Wanna come?"
"Its my house too, Paddy."
"Of course."
"May Ron and I come as well?"
"Of course."
The five of them went into the also newly finished den and settled in.
"Which rooms did you want to change?" asked James as he got out a sketchpad and his binder.
"A few of the spare rooms. The ones that really didn't have any thing going for them. Do you know which room's I'm talking about?" asked Remus.
"I think so. The ones that are just a color. Like the blue room, the green room, and that weird one that I really don't know what I was thinking."
"Yeah. Except we like the last one you mentioned."
"I still can't believe you guys like that room. It looks like a jungle!" exclaimed Ron.
"Maybe that's why they like it," Hermione patiently said to her husband.
"It's a room that I don't think you can ever grow tired of. It looks really busy. Plus, by the looks of things, it will be a great room to play hide-and-seek," explained Sirius.
"I think while I was designing that room, I was babysitting the kids across the hall and they were playing hide-and-seek with each other. There aren't many good places to hide in my apartment. They were kind of angry with me for that. That might have been the reasoning behind that. Every kid should have a room to play hide-and-seek."
"Hm, sounds good. Anyways. The green room and the blue room, those are the two rooms that we want redesigned for the kids," said Remus.
"Ages? Male/female?"
"Twins age six. One boy, one girl," Ron said.
"That should be easy. I know a pair of twins that are six. Do you know what the kids are like?"
"Uh, considering the fact that we just found out they exist yesterday, I'm gonna go with no."
"Well then. I'll just go by what my neighbors would like in a room. Does that sound alright?"
"Sounds great. Well, we've gotta get back to the party."
"I'll come in when I'm done and see what you think," said James as he started to get to work. He didn't even notice when they left for he was too involved in his design and what he thought Dylan and Nicole would like.
When he finished two hours later, he was pretty impressed with himself. For the boy's room, he had pale blue walls with a full mural of the ocean on one wall. The bed was a rich maple captain's bed with blue and white- stripped bedding. The light hanging from the ceiling was a lighthouse that was upside down. There was a bookcase made of the same maple as the bed that looked like the bow of a boat and a play area that had a boat with oars attached. The dresser, also made of maple, was decorated with animals that you would find in the tide pools: sea urchins, starfish, clams, and barnacles. It was meant to capture the spirit of the ocean and that's exactly what it did. 'To bad Lois would never let me do this for Dylan, he would love this.' (The four of them were always going to the ocean because of the six year olds fascination for it.)
The girl's room didn't give you the impression that it was for a girl, but if you were to look at the details, there would be no doubt what gender this room was meant for. The walls were several shades darker than the other room, making it more of a sky blue. Near the top of the walls, there were clouds all around and in one corner; there was the impression of sunlight streaming from behind the clouds. The bed was a pale birch four half poster (where the posts didn't go to the ceiling) with bedding that was the same color as the walls and also had clouds. The shelf in the room was made of the same birch as the bed and the top had the same 'saw- toothed' appearance that is so common on castles. The dresser, also made of birch, had dragons, phoenixes, flying horses, and other fanciful flying creatures (and some regular birds that looked quite nice). A 'castle' wall that had shelves on the inside of the wall and a small table designated the play area. 'I hope Lois will let me design their rooms when the move back to England. This is perfect for Nicole.'
James smiled at the thought and went to go show off his designs that he was quite proud of. They were both a hit. In fact, Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Ron and Hermione (who wanted to anyways) all wanted James to design a few rooms in their house. He gave them the number to his office and said, "Just to let you know, I refuse to design a room around the color orange" with a look at Ron.
Everyone laughed at Ron's 'innocent' face. "What? I never said anything about orange."
"But we know you were thinking it. Good think Hermione is there or else every room in your house would be a shrine to the Chuddly Cannons," said Charlie with a grin.
"Okay, you got me. I was so close to having James' room orange too! But then I came home to a yellow room."
"Yellows pretty close to orange," reminded James.
"Yeah, I know. But at least it wasn't green," Ron said with a shudder.
"Green is a perfectly good color. There is nothing wrong with green. I'll have you know it's my favorite color," James said with indignation.
"Green is the Slythern color!" whined Ron.
James was trying not to laugh with the rest of the family, but he couldn't keep the amused look off his face. Which, unfortunately, Hermione noticed.
"James, I thought you didn't go to Hogwarts," Hermione said.
"Huh?"
"You seem to know about Slythern and the house feuds."
"Hermione, you can know all about that without going to Hogwarts. After all, there is 'Hogwarts, a History.' And he could have known someone who went there and told him about the feud," said Remus.
James just smiled. He could tell that Hermione really didn't believe that he didn't go to Hogwarts. But she couldn't think of who he would be if he did. He seemed to be her age, but then there was the fact that he didn't look like anyone she knew.
"I have to get going. I'm working on the finishing touches on another house tomorrow and that's always stressful." James said his goodbyes to everyone and quickly drove back to the hotel.
He fell asleep that night dreaming of all the great times that he had with the Weasleys.
A/N: I did decide to add the plot twist. Any guesses on what it is? Hehe.
