They all stood quiet, and still. It was not that they had nothing to say, but the whole situation was incredibly awkward and words just were not an option in the shock.
The large group stood, looking as if they were watching a tennis match, their heads moving from the twins to Harry and back again, the resemblance was uncanny.
Harry stood there, having the sudden need to sit down, his legs were held a slight almost unnoticeable shake to them, his breathing was strict, and his eyes seemed to be permanently stuck in their wide residency.
Isabelle's face looked almost impassive, she was one of those people that felt a lot of emotion but had a hard time showing it, she was somewhat like Harry except she was able to pull such an act off.
Brandon's face was screwed up into a thoughtful expression, while his mind was not focusing on anything in particular; it was just a bunch of mush. All he could think was 'whoa'.
Many people were eager to stop the endearing silence, and Mrs. Weasley took it upon herself to try and bring everyone out of their stupor.
"You have a lovely home Lily" she said sweetly.
"Lily shook her head slightly to bring herself from her musings before placing a smile on her face and answering, "thank you Molly, shall we go get started on the lunch then" She said, having the need to do something the silence for her was almost unbearable yet incredibly necessary.
This sudden and quick conversation seemed to alert almost everyone back into reality and people slowly began to slip off to either help in the kitchen or set up outside were they were planning to eat.
Soon enough, James Potter and his three children, along with his best friends and his oldest son's best friends and girlfriend were left in the room.
The silence went on for a few more minutes before James grew tired of it, "so whose up for a game of quidditch" hoping that this would bring everyone else around and get them on their way to becoming good friends.
His plan worked but on the wrong party, "ooh me, pick me" Sirius cried his hand rose as he jumped on the balls of his feet, the sight resembled a 30 year old man who dressed like a 16 year old boy who acted like a 5 year old toddler "Padfoot, that act did not get you on the team back in school and it won't now" James said.
"Well of course it did not get me on the team that was pure raw talent that was" Sirius said smugly.
"Yeah and I'm Merlin" Harry butted in.
"Really?" Sirius said playing dumb or just acting naturally.
Harry rolled his eyes good naturedly before saying, "did I hear you right? Did you say quidditch?"
"Why Harry my boy I believe I did, so how bout it everyone whose up for a good old game of quidditch, adults verse children"
"But we are outnumbered" Sirius whined.
"What your pure raw talent can't beat a couple of kids?" Harry asked.
"Of course it can, you just wait and see" Sirius said.
"I'll wait but no matter how patiently I do I don't think I'll see" Harry bantered back.
Sirius opened his mouth to say something but then scrunched his nose up in confusement before being cut off by Remus, "Padfoot stop before you hurt yourself"
The others just stood their watching the display, Isabelle and Brandon looked in a kind of awe, their father had always been very teasing but had never stretched to these limits but seeing how he interacted with his friends they realized that they had missed part of their fathers personality over the years because it only existed around his friends, the marauders as they would later learn they were called. They found the whole event quite comical and confusing as they had no idea who Padfoot was, as far as they knew that mans name was Sirius, though he did not seem very serious.
"why don't we ask Charlie, Bill, and the twins to play and even out the teams a bit" Ron said, also eager to play quidditch they had not gotten to play since they last years ending quidditch match due to protection issues at the burrow.
"great idea Ron" James said, smiling at the fact that he got to play quidditch again but also now he got to play it with all his children, his friends, and his children's friends, life was great momentarily.
"so are we all in?" Harry asked also excited yet once again nervous about playing with his father, who was said to be a brilliant quidditch player, on the field as well.
"Yes" came a chorused answer.
Hermione looked apprehensive, she was absolutely rubbish at quidditch, heck she could barely ride a broom without struggling.
"Hermione?" Harry asked waiting for her answer.
"How about I play referee and one of the twins can take my spot," she answered hopefully.
They weighed their options and in the end agreed.
"So what do we do for brooms" Ginny asked.
"Well we have 5 brooms here" Brandon cut in.
"Hold on I'll be right back" Remus said, apparating back to Grimmauld place to grab the brooms that there were there.
A few moments later he came back lay down with brooms of different qualities. He passed them out to the group, as Isabelle went upstairs to get the brooms they had.
They had just the right amount, Harry was riding his firebolt, which had been returned after the his lifetime ban had been lifted, today was the first time he could ride it since the toad had banned him and he was looking forward to it.
Ron and Ginny sported almost identical clean sweeps, though Ron's was a little older and there fore had lost a little of its original shine.
Remus and Sirius both rode old but fairly good brooms as well, and were currently blowing off the dust.
James, Brandon, and Isabelle each had a nimbus two thousand and two a new brand that had come out last year, though it was not in the same league as Harry's firebolt it was still a highly respectable broom.
And so on and so forth…
The teams were labeled as team one and two.
On team one there was, James, Bill as chasers, Remus as keeper, and Charlie as seeker (A.N. I might have gotten Charlie and bill mixed up but I can't seem to locate the right answer in the books so just switch them if necessary.) And Fred and Sirius as the beaters.
On team two there was Ginny, Isabelle, as chasers, Ron in keeper, Harry as seeker, and George and Brandon as the beater, they were one person short on each team therefore played with only two chasers each.
The potters garden was magically extended into a small quidditch pitch near the woods were they lived; it had taken both Lily's mad charms skills and James' excellent transfiguration skills to get it looking so good.
They all jumped on their brooms, and took off.
Harry felt the thrill that he had not been able to feel for a long while, he circled the pitch a few times gaining speed as he went.
James sat on his broom in the air watching as his son raced around the pitch as fast as a bolt of lightening, he had never seen his son play quidditch but expected from the way he flew that he was great. Brandon and Isabelle were as well fantastic fliers, they had all inherited their dads love for quidditch, though they never really had anyone to play with as they knew no other wizarding kids and were not on a team.
"Good isn't he" Sirius said as he flew up next to him.
"Brilliant"
"It's good to see him on a broom again"
"Again?"
"He had a life ban placed on him last year that was recently lifted." Sirius stated still watching his godson.
"A life ban" James said shocked.
"a story for another time, cause right now I am going to go whip my godsons ass, with you as my right wing man"
"You mean you as my right wing man" James returned.
"Fine have it your way"
The game started up, Ginny and Isabelle worked quite well with one another, both natural in the air. They had a fun time beating scoring goals and the much older Remus Lupin. Though they were having a hard time keeping up with the quality of both Charlie and Harry's father, who were easily great if not fantastic players.
Fred and Sirius worked well together as did Brandon and George, but it was unanimous that the Weasley twins definitely worked better together whilst on the same team, as they kept mistaking their team mates for each other, which added some chaos to the game.
Ron was fairing quite well against, both his older brother and James but he could not save every shot but it was obvious that nobody expected him to.
The real interest of the game came between Harry and Charlie who were both extraordinary players, though Charlie seemed to fly a little less recklessly than Harry, which in turn favored Harry the win.
They both had spotted the snitch at the same time; it was near Harry's teams goals. They both raced off at the same time, with a grin plastered on their faces with excitement.
James had currently been heading towards Ron's goal himself ready to score again for his team, when two blurs shot by him, one slightly taking the lead. He stopped all motion, and watched as his son, and Charlie pelted straight towards the ground in pursuit of the golden snitch.
Harry was in a slight lead to Charlie and threw his hand out, grasping the snitch, before pulling smoothly out of his nosedive.
Isabelle, had stopped moving as well when she saw her older brother racing towards the ultimate quidditch prize and watched as he zoomed up and caught it, before coming elegantly out of his dive, she knew one thing was certain she wanted to get to know her older brother better, with only limited time spent with him she had learnt so little of what seemed to be so much, she hoped to be able to talk with him later.
Brandon sat on his broom, watching his brother with fascination as he soared through the air at an exhilarating rate, if ever he was to have a person to look up to other than dad, his brother would definitely fit that role.
Harry sped to the ground and jumped off his broom, and looked at the golden snitch in his hand and grinned, he won, he'd won more than just a game, and he'd won a family as well. So he saw when they all came towards him to cheer and pat him on the back.
At such a joyous moment at this the next event seemed very out of place…
A.N. Love to all the readers and reviewers
Petroleumjellydotone.
