Chapter Two

It was two nights later when James and Nora felt confident enough to make their move. They had laid in their beds quietly waiting for the familiar sounds of their parents going to bed and the house elves finishing up their chores before heading to their quarters in the cellar. It was a few minutes after midnight when Nora heard a light tapping on her door. Flinging off the covers she tiptoed over and cracked the door.

"Why are you still in pajamas?" James whispered. James was already dressed in jeans, t-shirt and jacket. Over his right shoulder was slung a small bag with one of Harold's old quaffles and an old family wand he'd found in the attic. In his left hand he clutched Harold's old Comet 180.

Nora looked down at her floral nightgown and back up at James. " I thought we had to make it look like we were going to bed." She replied.

"Yeah, but I changed back once I said goodnight." James rolled his eyes, "Just get dressed so we can go. We don't have all night."

Nora grumbled as she wriggled into a pair of jeans and put on a t-shirt and jacket while James kept watch outside the door. As she stuck her head outside once again James muttered, "Glad you could join me, Norbert."

"Oh, shut your face, Janey." Nora hissed.

As quietly as a 10 and 6-year-old could be they crept down the hallway, being careful to avoid the boards that creaked or from brushing against the walls. Once they reached the stairs, Nora tugged on James's sleeve. "Maybe this is a bad idea. We could get in a lot of trouble." She whispered.

James huffed. "Well, if you want to go back to bed the go. I'm going to practice and get on a house team so don't be crying to me when come your second year you're too pathetic to make it on a team."

Nora glared and pushed past James on her way down the stairs. She waited for him at the bottom. When James got to the bottom he went to the closet to make sure the decoy broom was still inside. They had found a thick branch near the outskirts of the forest that when buried far enough in the back could remotely pass for their father's broomstick. However, if Harold were to pull it out he would find only a thick oak branch with some leaves sticking out the end. James had even pulled off the smaller branches near the top and sanded it a bit so it would feel like a real broomstick handle if either of his parents were to brush up against it. After a quick glance James saw that it was still in its place. He nodded to Nora and the two of them made for the back kitchen door. Neither of them dare spoke until they were near the edge of the forest a few minutes later.

"How are we supposed to find our way if we can't see?" Nora asked.

"With this." James pulled out the wand. "I found it in the attic when I was looking for dad's old quaffle."

Nora's eyes went wide. "Won't we get caught if you use a wand? The Ministry will send an owl to mum and dad and then we'll really be in for it!"

"Shhh!" James hissed. "I don't think we'll get caught. I mean, it's only a little 'Lumos', right?" Nora took a step back apprehensively as James cleared his throat and held the wand out in front of him. "Lumos." He whispered. Nothing. He glanced at Nora and tried again. "Lumos." He hissed more forcefully.

"Maybe you're a Squib." Nora snickered.

"Maybe you are." James shot back. Nora snapped her mouth shut and glared. James shook the wand, sending purple sparks shooting out the tip.

"Stop it!" Nora hissed loudly. "They'll see us! Oh, let's just go back now before—"

But James wasn't listening to Nora's pleas. He held the wand firm in his left hand and with his eyes fixated on the tip spoke firmly and clearly. "Lumos!" The wand sprang to life as light flooded from the tip spilling out into the open yard and filling the area with its luminance.

"Put it down!" Nora cried. James, still surprised at his own actions, quickly shoved the wand in his bag.

"Well, at least we know I'm not a Squib." He said, jokingly. They edged closer into the forest and made sure they had a good line of trees blocking them from the house view before James dared to pull the wand out again. Holding it in front of himself, James picked their way through the darkness with Nora clinging desperately to the back of his jacket, hoping not to get left behind.

"James," Nora whispered, "What if we lose our way getting back? Do you know where we're going?"

James stopped for a moment. Truthfully, he hadn't thought about it. They'd been to the clearing dozens of times last summer, but stopped when their mother had asked them where they'd run off to so much. They'd always wanted to keep the clearing as their secret, but they'd always been there during the daytime. James started walking again. "Well, we're going straight, aren't we? I think as long as we keep a straight line we'll find our way. We'll bring something next time to mark the path, but for tonight we'll just do some flying practice so we can get back early."

Nora nodded, still clinging to James's jacket. Although Nora would never admit to James, she was terrified of woods at night. If the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts was once a part of this wood then there was no telling what kinds of creatures would be out there. If James thought she was really afraid he'd make her stay behind and keep the broom all to himself. Still, the prospect of being one of the youngest girls ever to play on a house team outweighed her sheer terror and she plowed on.

After about 15 minutes the trees began to thin and eventually give way to a giant grassy clearing. The children looked up at the vast empty sky and gazed in awe. Nora wasn't allowed to stay up very late, but James had on several occasions and had stargazed with his father from the rooftop of the manor. He could still pick of a few constellations, but James had more pressing matters at hand. Specifically, the left hand.

As they neared the center of the clearing, which was no more than a hundred yards wide and about fifty long, James set his bag down and whispered 'Nox' to extinguish the wand. Their eyes had adjusted to the light and with a full moon overhead the lighting in the field was perfect.

"All right." James said in a determined tone as he straddled the broom.

"When do I get a turn?" Nora asked.

"When I'm done, of course." James replied, with a grin.

"James Potter, that's not—" but James didn't even hear his sister's rebuttal as he kicked off from the ground and shot upward. He shot up about 50 feet before he felt the rush of panic and instinctively dug his heels down. The broom stopped immediately and James sat panting for a moment as he tried to regroup. He hadn't thought he'd raise quite that quickly. The last time he'd been on a broom with his father he'd only gone up a couple feet. Then again, last time his father had also charmed the broom so it couldn't go any higher than 15 feet.

"Hey! Are you going to sit there all night?" Nora called up. "I want a turn, too!"

James looked down at his sister and gulped. He was higher than he had imagined. Looking forward he leaned slightly and zipped forward on the broom. He moved left and right with agility he didn't realize he had. He zoomed past the clearing and further along the top of the forest before swinging around and circling back. He dove up and down before settling down in the clearing a few feet away from Nora. His hair was swept back, his face pink with excitement and chill, and grinning ear to ear.

"That was bloody fantastic! Did you see that, Nora! Did you?" James cried as Nora came sprinting over. James was practically panting with sheer joy. "I didn't even think I could fly like that! Did you see me?"

"Yes, you were very fancy. Now can I go?" Nora reached impatiently for the broomstick, but James jerked it away. "Hey! No fair!"

"Who said you was going up?" James looked at Nora irritatingly. "I've been flying a lot longer than you have. Besides, every time you've been on a broom it's only ever gone higher than 10 feet because Dad charms it that way. Mum would tie you to a tree if she could."

Nora glared and set her hands on her hips. "Now you look here, James Potter. You said we'd both be coming out to practice. I'm not just going to sit out here and toss the quaffle up to you while I have to stay on the ground. I'm going to get my chance to practice too and if you don't let me I'll go straight to dad and tell him you took his broom."

"You wouldn't." James scoffed. " You'd be in just as much trouble as I would."

Nora sneered, crossed her arms, and suddenly put on an innocent face with sad, overdramatic puppy dog eyes. "But daddy," she said mockingly, "I just wanted to help James get on the house team next year. He said he couldn't get hurt. Please daddy!" James's overconfident expression vanished. He knew she could pull it off if she really wanted to. She'd be in trouble, but nowhere near as much as he'd be if Nora had anything to do with it.

"Fine." James grumbled. "But with one condition. I have to fly with you the first couple times."

"What!" Nora cried.

"That's the rules. You've never been up before. Besides that, you're lighter than I am. If you shot up as fast as I did you'd be twice as high." In all truthfulness James was only halfway going about things for his sister's personal safety. He also wanted to stay on the broom as long as possible. "If we're both on it won't go as high. I can show you how to move and everything. Look, dad did the same thing with me when I first got on a broom." He watched Nora's face as she carefully weighed the options. She finally sighed.

"All right, but you have to really teach me. I don't want to be up there and you get to do everything." Nora stated.

"Fair enough." James replied. Scooting back on the broomstick he gave Nora just enough room to get in front of him. "Now, keep your feet flat on the ground."

"Like this?" Nora asked as she planted her feet firmly.

"Yeah, that's good. Now, when I say go you need to kick off the ground—not too hard, but not too soft, okay? One…two…thr—" But before James could finish his countdown Nora had already kicked off hard, sending them skyrocketing upward. "Heels down! Heels down!" James cried. The broom jerked to a halt slightly lower than before, but still fairly high. "I said to wait!"

"I know!" Nora said. She tightened her grip on the handle and James could feel her entire body tense up.

"Relax, Norbert. You're not going to be able to do anything if you're stiff as a board." James said. He sighed and took a more reassuring tone. "Don't be scared. I won't let you fall."

"I'm not scared." Nora said defiantly, but with a slight quiver to her voice. "So now what?"

"Lean forward just…just a little bit. Not too much!" James warned. "And we'll go forward." Nora barely leaned forward and the broom lurched forward so quickly that Nora leaned back into James to stop it from moving.

"Do you want to go down yet?" He asked.

"No." Nora said, "I want to learn how to fly." James rolled his eyes at his sister's stubbornness, but was taken aback when she leaned forward again and this time didn't flinch back. They zoomed forward at a considerably slower speed before Nora jerked the handle to the left and they turned. She pulled the handle up and they went higher, this time clearing the forest canopy and coasting over the treetops. Nora laughed as she leaned forward so they could pick up speed.

"This is so cool!" Nora screamed over the wind whipping around them.

"All right, now set it down back in the clearing." James said in his 'I'm-the-big-brother-so-do-what-I-say' voice.

"No! You got to stay up here longer than this!" Nora turned the handle again to make a full circle.

"But we have to get back to the house before the sun starts to come up!" James argued. He put his hands just ahead of Nora's on the broomstick and tried to take over steering. "You'll get another turn tomorrow."

"No!" Nora shot back. They struggled for control of the broomstick and became completely oblivious to the world below them that it wasn't until a disgruntled James looked up and shouted "TREE!" that they both dropped their arms and went head first into a trunk of a very large pine.

They both lay still on the ground for a moment before James got up. Thankfully, they hadn't been more than about 10 feet up when they had stuck the tree, but it didn't take any of the stings out of the fall. James winced as he walked forward towards the broom, limping slightly from what would later turn out to be a sprained ankle. His stomach dropped and skin went cold and clammy as he gazed down at his father's broomstick. His father's very broken broomstick. The shaft had split straight down the center with the top part already shattered. Twigs stuck out at every which angle from the end. James began to understand the meaning of the phrase 'seeing your life flash before your eyes'. Harold was going to kill them.

James's cold fear was disturbed by the sound of moaning coming several feet away. Rushing towards the sound he found Nora lying in a heap holding her left arm and rolling on the ground.

"Nora? Nora? What's wrong?" James cried out in a panic. He rolled his sister over to her back and saw her wincing in pain.

"I broke my sodding arm, that's what!" She screamed. "James, it hurts!" He could see her trying to force tears back.

"Stay right here, I'm going to get mum and dad." James jumped up to leave, but Nora pulled him back with her good arm.

"No! Are you mad? They'll kill us if they find out!" Nora cried.

"Kill us or not, you've got a broken arm. We're not likely to hide that at breakfast tomorrow." James said. "You just wait right here and don't move. I'll be right back." James leapt up once more and sprinted towards the edge of the clearing where they'd come in. He picked his way through the fallen trees and branches back towards the house, his mind racing. He didn't know which he would be in trouble for more—stealing the broomstick, flying the broomstick, breaking the broomstick, or nearly killing his sister with the broomstick. It was a nice broom, but James had a feeling his parents would be more put out at the prospect of losing a child than losing an old broom.

James was so preoccupied with his own thoughts that it seemed to take half the time as before to get back to the house. Tearing through the back kitchen door he took the stairs two at a time and burst into his parents' bedroom. Harold shot up straight out of bed, wand at the ready, while Eleanor screamed and reached for her own wand by the nightstand. "WHO IS THAT!" Harold boomed.

"Mum! Dad! Come quick—" James gasped for breath. "Nora's hurt!"

"Bloody hell, James!" Harold exhaled as he dropped his wand. "I could've blown you halfway across the room." Ellie was already out of bed and throwing on a robe.

"What do you mean 'Nora's hurt'? Did she fall out of bed?" Ellie was starting down the hallway and threw open Nora's bedroom door.

"No…she's out in the forest." James explained, trailing behind her. By now, Harold had joined them in the hallway and had thrown on a pair of trousers and his red-checked robe.

"What? Where's Nora?" Harold asked as he strode into the middle of her room. Her covers had been haphazardly thrown aside and her teddy bear lay randomly near the window painting a rather frightening picture.

"Ellie—Floo the Ministry! I want Aurors here now!" Harold shouted.

"NO!" James screamed. Ellie and Harold both spun to face their son. "She's in the forest. She's hurt." James took a deep breath and stared down at the floor. "We took the broom from the closet so we could practice quidditch in the field in the forest we found last summer. She—we crashed the broom into a tree and now she's broken her arm and she's out there all by herself and—" Harold and Ellie were out the door before James had even finished.

"Of all the stupid, idiotic, reckless things you two could possibly do this is the worst!" Ellie scolded as they made their way to the kitchen. James leaned against the doorframe and watched with overwhelming sense of guilt as his mother sifted through vials and ingredients in the cupboards. "Stealing a broom! Flying without supervision! How in Merlin's name did you get all the way into the middle of the forest—at night—without a—" she stopped sifting to face James. "James Potter did you use a wand?" James's face flushed and he started hard at the floor. Ellie closed her eyes. "James you know it's illegal for underage wizards—"

"—To use wands or any kind of magic. I know, I know." James raised his eyes slightly. "I'm not going to get in trouble with the Ministry, am I?"

"You mean are they going to throw you into Azkaban?" Ellie asked. She glared down at James who had lowered his gaze once more to the floor. It was obvious that James was torturing himself enough. "The Ministry has more important matters at hand than worrying about two reckless children doing a simple 'Lumos'" Ellie replied in a softer tone. "No, you won't hear anything from the Ministry. They'll probably assume it was your father or I."

James nodded and slinked over to the small table and chairs set off to the side. He buried his head in his arms, but Ellie brought him a glass of water. "Don't worry about Nora. She'll be fine. Merlin knows I've mended plenty of broken bones in my day—most of them yours." James took a drink and set the glass back.

"I just wanted to get good enough to get on a house team." He explained. "I thought that if I could get some practice in that I'd get on a team my first year. Nora was going to help throw the quaffle around. I just let her on the broom for a minute…and I was riding with her the whole time. We started fighting and…" James broke off as his voice began to waiver and he took another gulp of water.

Ellie sat her vials and bandages on the table and faced James. "James, you'll have lots of chances to fly and play quidditch and do lots of other magic. Once you're at Hogwarts. Do you know why underage wizards aren't allowed to do any magic?" James shook his head and wiped his nose with his jacket sleeve. "Because it's dangerous and you could get hurt. What if your 'Lumos' didn't work and you set something on fire? What if you blew something—or worse, someone—up? Part of the reason you go to a magic school is to learn how to do magic right."

"I'm sorry." James said in a whisper. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and tried to hide the fact that he was crying. Ellie leaned towards her son and hugged him.

"I love you, but that doesn't mean you're off the hook. I'm just glad neither one of you were killed!" Ellie held James back at arms length and smiled. "God, you're so much like your father."

It was at that time that Harold came through the back door with Nora cradled in his arms. Nora was sniffling as Harold set her in a chair next to James.

" Hi mum." Nora said as she settled herself in the chair.

"Hi mum, indeed. Out at night by yourselves flying around like idiots!" Ellie scolded. "Drink this." She handed Nora a vile full of a purple liquid and Nora drank it in one gulp. She made a face. "Oh, get used to it. You've got another one coming." Ellie handed her daughter another vial and this time Nora held her nose as she drank it.

"Do I have to drink more?" Nora made another face. "That stuff is so gross."

"Well, not unless you want to wake up in pain in the middle of the night." Ellie fished out another potion. "This is a mild pain-relief potion to help you sleep tonight. Any cuts or scrapes that need a wound-cleaning potion?" Nora shook her head vigorously, wanting to avoid the putrid, smoking potion at any cost. She drank the pain-relief potion and slumped back in the chair. In a moment she was out cold and Harold began to carry her up to her room.

"James, stay here. You and I need to have a serious discussion." Harold said. There was nothing reassuring about the tone.

Ellie pulled her robe tighter around her and set about putting the potions back where they belonged. James sat in silence and ran his fingers up and down the water glass. What would his father have to say? By the sound of his voice he was borderline furious. Would his father ground him? Spank him? Wasn't he a little old to be spanked? As different forms of corporal punishment—each more terrifying than the next—flashed before his eyes, Harold came back to the kitchen and pulled up a chair across from his son. Ellie stood behind him. James suddenly knew what it felt like standing trial in front of the Wizengamot.

" All right, James, why are we here?" Harold asked calmly. Harold had always been of the mind that screaming at a child who already knew they were in trouble never did any good. As Harold's own father had done, he preferred to sit down with his children and have discussions about their behavior. It had a much more serious impact on future actions.

James took a deep breath and went back to the conversation he and Nora had had two days ago. Once he had finished with the story again he looked from the glass up to his father. Harold's expression was impossible to read—he looked somewhere between wanting to yell or just sigh. Harold folded his hands. "James, I am extremely disappointed in you." James hung his head again. "I'm not angry about crashing the broom. Merlin knows I never use it anyways. I'm not even angry that you snuck out of the house, because although I do not condone it by any means, I did myself as a child. Do you know why I'm disappointed?"

James shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Because I lied and stole." He replied.

"Look at me, James." Harold said, firmly. James faced his father. "Because you knowingly and deliberately stole from me is only half of it. You put yourself and your sister in serious danger tonight. You have done more than just disappoint me…you have abused my trust." James swallowed back his tears. He knew he had this coming. "I should whip you within an inch of your life!" Harold's voice grew and James shrunk back in his chair. "But…I have never laid a hand on you or your sister in anger and I'm not about to. You are grounded to this house for the next three weeks. You will study. You will have meals. You will assist Gingy and Bax in house chores. You will stay in this house. Do you understand?"

James nodded. "Yes, sir."

Ellie looked down at her son. "We want a solemn promise from you that you will never do anything so thoughtless and reckless again."

"I won't." James said. "May I please be excused?"

"Go to bed." Harold said gruffly. As James slid out of his chair and inched towards the door Harold reached out and grabbed his son. James hugged his father tightly. "I love you, James."

"I love you too, dad." James replied. He hugged and kissed his mother before making his way up the stairs and to his room.

Harold sighed and flopped back into his chair as Ellie waved her wand to set two cups of tea in front of them.

"Well?" Ellie asked as she took a seat across from her husband. "Go ahead. I know you've been dying to say something for the last twenty minutes."

"You should've heard the way Nora described it, El." Harold grinned. "James on the broom. He's a natural! He's getting a broom for his birthday." He said, matter-of-factly.

"You'll do no such thing, Harold Potter!" Ellie exclaimed. "What kind of message is that? Ground him for stealing your broom and crashing it then rewarding him by giving him one of his own?"

"Flying lessons, at the very least." Harold insisted. "The boy has a gift for flight, no doubt about it. Takes after his old man." He winked.

"I seem to recall something about 'his old man' falling flat on his arse the first time he got on a school broom." Ellie said sarcastically as she cocked an eyebrow.

"Those rickety old things? No! No son of mine is going to win the house cup on a Moontrimmer." Harold said, taking a swig of tea.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Men and their broomsticks. You know what they say."

"No, El, please enlighten me once again with your insightful observations about men and their overcompensation for—" Harold began.

"All right, all right." Ellie waved a hand. "Let's just go to bed. You can begin to overcompensate for your fool-headed children." She winked and walked towards the open door.

Harold down the last of his tea and followed quickly behind.