"Oh, my boy!" Euphemia exclaimed, opening her arms only for Sirius to stick his leg out and trip James so he could all but tackle Euphemia in a bear hug.
"Missed you, too, mum," Sirius grinned, kissing her cheek. "Where's dad?"
Euphemia smiled softly and gave Sirius her own kiss on the cheek and James couldn't blame her. Sirius only called them mum and dad when he was being emotional and didn't want to actually show it. James thought the extra hug was a bit much though.
"All right, how about you remember there are two of us?" James suggested to his mother.
Euphemia gave him the same smile she gave Sirius and embraced him in a tight hug. "Has it only been since January? I feel like your hair's grown a mile. We'll have Sprinkle give it a trim, yeah?" she ruffled his hair. "Where's Lily?"
"Mia!" Lily smiled, seemingly coming out of nowhere and dragging her own mum with her. "Mum! This is James' mum, Mia Potter. Mia, this is my mum, Rosie."
"Found her," James joked. "So nice to see you again, Rosie."
"Oh, and you and I must say thank you on Petunia's behalf for the lovely wedding gift. The mirror was simply, well, I've never seen one like it."
"That's because it's goblin made," Mia smiled proudly. "Best of its kind."
Rosie looked at Lily, "Maybe we won't tell Petunia that."
"You gave a muggle a goblin made mirror?" Sirius asked. "What if the goblins go after it?"
"Goblins aren't going to go after my sister in Surrey," Lily protested. "Mum, I can't remember if you've met Sirius."
"Oh, James' best friend, right?"
"Good to know I'm famous."
"Shut up, Padfoot," James said exasperated. "Sorry, he was raised by wolves."
"Literally," Sirius muttered.
"Uh-huh, so, Monty and I were talking the other day and saying how lovely it would be to have you over at our house for dinner sometime!" Euphemia offered and effectively changing the subject from Sirius' parents. "After-all our kids are pretty close, from what Sirius tells me everyone seems to be under the illusion that they're married." Euphemia smirked at the two and James grinned sheepishly, held his hands up and said, "That's really not my fault."
"Oh, don't act like you ever denied it." Lily glared at Sirius as if to say, Black, I'm going to murder you and make it look like an accident, and in James' opinion she was conveying the point just fine.
"Oh, well," Rosie said quite flustered. "That would be lovely!"
"It will be, but after my try-outs," James said, "I don't think I could handle the stress of try-outs and dinner with my parents, Lily's mum and Sirius."
"You act like I'd tell them about how Lily threw you a massive party on the Quidditch pitch and punched Mulciber in the face."
"Because you tell my mother everything," James groaned.
"Since when do you punch people?" Mia pursed her lips at James.
"Right, well this was brill," Lily announced, "But we should really get going, mum."
"Yes, of course … you threw a party? Did the teachers know about it?" Rosie asked her daughter and Lily sent another glare at Sirius.
"Let's go mum," Lily insisted. "Bye, Mia. James," she pulled him in for a quick hug, whispered in his ear that she'd see him soon and then turned to Sirius with a scathing stare and said, "Black."
The three of them watched as the Evans's walked away, the same height, the same red hair though Rosie's was coiled into a knot at the base of her neck and Lily's hung loose down her back.
"It's like Lily takes Polyjuice Potion all year around," Euphemia remarked before turning to her son. "Now, what's this about you punching Dominique Mulciber? I didn't raise you to punch people unless he deserved it. Did he deserve it?"
"He deserved it. He called Lily a whore, mum."
"Oh, well in that case, I hope I taught you to punch hard enough to break his nose."
"Your job as a mother is complete," Sirius declared. "Prongsie here had blood spurting out of the wandless gnomes nose the second his fist collided with his face."
"Wandless gnome, that's a nice one," Euphemia commented.
Sirius shrugged, "My mum called us that if we got less than an 'E'."
At Euphemia's immediate reaction to turn her head ever so casually for the just mentioned woman, James declared, "Let's go home, yeah? I miss the house elves … and dad."
"Oh, why won't you ever let me give that woman a piece of my mind?" Euphemia frowned at her son.
"Come on, mum," James encouraged, "Not here."
Euphemia sighed, but obliged, slipping her arm around Sirius' shoulders and kissing his forehead. "Don't you ever waste your time thinking about anything that came out of the despicable woman's mouth, you hear me? She does not deserve to be your mother."
"It's all right, they gave me a good replacement."
Euphemia smiled at him, squeezing him closer to her. "Let's go home."
"Gee, if only someone else had suggested that just a minute ago."
"Shut up, Potter," Sirius demanded. "I was having a moment with my new mother."
"Quite the upgrade," Euphemia commented with a cheeky smirk and James' mouth dropped in mock disgrace. The three of them mocked and bantered with each other through a pretty summer dinner on the east wing terrace.
Alice looked around the platform, looking for her sister. It took her a minute or two but Emmeline was there, just behind the McKinnons, her neck craned and eyes searching the platform for Alice.
"Emmy!" Alice called, running over to her sister, floating her trunk beside her.
"Ally!" Emmeline smiled wide, as Alice gave her a big hug.
Alice stepped back after a moment and then frowned. Emmeline had a scar, similar to Lily's, a thin pink line but instead of running across her neck, it ran across her jawline.
"What happened?" Alice asked, moving her sister head to the side so she could inspect it better. "Why didn't you tell me you'd been hurt?"
"It was nothing. Some sort of slicing charm," Emmeline brushed it aside. "Madam Pomfrey had it sorted within a day."
"You were at Hogwarts?"
"Madam Pomfrey doesn't ask questions and she's loyal to Dumbledore," was all Emmeline said on the matter. "We should get home, dad's waiting with the whole family. We've got a bit of a party going for you."
"Oh, Emmy, I don't know — a party?"
She sighed and turned to her sister. "I know it's hard after mum, but dad … he needed the distraction and throwing you a welcome home party has really kept his mind of things the last week or so. Frank's there, too."
"I — we need to announce something at the party."
"Announce what?" Emmeline asked sharply, eyes glancing down to Alice's stomach. "You're not pregnant, are you?"
Alice scowled, "No, not pregnant, but engaged." Alice held her hand up to show off the ring.
"Holy mother of Merlin," Emmeline muttered, grabbing Alice's hand to inspect the cluster of diamonds on Alice's third finger. "When the hell did he get the chance to propose? You've been at school! And why in Agrippa's name didn't you write me?"
"I wanted to tell you in person."
Emmeline hugged her sister again, "Oh Merlin, I can't believe you're getting married!"
"We don't really know when yet but I assume that's going to change once Frank tells Mrs Longbottom."
"You mean he hasn't told her yet?" Emmeline smirked and Alice nodded. "I'd pay to see her reaction first-hand."
"You can come along to tea if you'd like."
"Only if I can bring an invisibility cloak."
Alice laughed, "Come on. Let's go home."
The party was splendid and perhaps the first truly happy event in her family since her mother died. Frank and her announced their engagement and the champagne and firewhiskey flowed. Frank found her leaning on the railing of the porch late in the night — no one had left yet and Alice was just having a moment to herself.
"Are you all right?" he asked, as he placed his arms on either side of hers against the railing and rested his chin on her shoulder.
"I was just thinking about mum. How she would have loved to be here. There's just so much I want to tell her about NEWTs and my acceptance into the fast tracked program for the Auror Training. And you — us. I always thought mum would be here for all of it."
"Just because you can't see her doesn't mean she's not watching and I know she's mighty proud of you."
Alice smiled, leaning into him. "Thank you, Frank."
"You're welcome, Alice." He kissed her cheek. "You know, we got through the easy part tonight. Mum's going to be a nightmare."
"The things I do for you," she joked. "Have you told her about tea tomorrow?"
"She's changed it to a lunch with Uncle ()."
"Wonderful."
"It'll be fine."
"If she says one thing about babies, you are under strict law to get me out of there."
"Done, in fact, lets have a signal."
"Oh, a signal. I like that. So undercover. What should it be?"
"Do you play with your ring often?"
"No, not really."
"Okay so if you want out just start twisting the ring around your finger and I'll make us an excuse to leave but we have to at least be there until lunch is finished, deal?"
"Deal."
"Okay, first things first, honey, you need some new clothes," Rosie told Mia as they unpacked her trunk into Petunia's old closet.
Lily was quite happy with the way Rosie had embraced Mia into their home, not that she didn't expect that of her mother but it was nice to see that her mum would do her best to make sure Mia felt at home. Lily had warned Mia not to tell Rosie about the war or anything particularly political that was happening in their world and Mia had given her her word.
"I had to leave a lot of it behind," Mia explained.
"Not to worry, I'm sure we have a box with some of Lily's old stuff and if you're willing to do a few chores around the house, I'll give you an allowance."
"Oh, Mrs Evans, you don't have to do that, really. I'll help out, you don't have to pay me."
"Nonsense," Rosie waved off. "We're a home not a sweatshop in India."
"She really won't take no for an answer," Lily chimed as she came into the room, her arms full with clean linen for the bed. "Besides, you'll need to have something to do around the house once my internship starts."
"I would be really grateful for an allowance, Mrs Evans," Mia thanked her, as she placed her school books on Petunia's desk. Lily tried not to imagine Petunia's reaction if she ever knew that Magical Herbs and Fungi was sat on her desk.
"Not to worry and please, call me Rosie," Rosie turned to Lily. "Now, will James be visiting a lot this summer?"
"Does it make a difference?" Lily asked.
"Just wanting to know if I should stock the fridge is all."
Lily nodded, "Don't expect him this week. He'll be training like crazy for his trial next Friday so I'll probably have to go over there and drag him off his broom just to get him to take a break."
"As long as you drag him off the broom to come to dinner," Rosie said and Lily took it to heart, bringing James and Sirius for dinner during the week. Lily was grateful that James must have put a leash on Sirius because he was relative tame and didn't announce anything that Lily wouldn't particularly want her mother to know like the fact she's joined an organisation that's combating a terrorist group equivalent to the Nazis or that Lily snuck out to London to see Queen.
"I feel like I haven't seen you in ages," Lily murmured to James as she hugged him goodbye.
"It hasn't even been a week."
Lily hummed in agreement but she never knew how nice it was too actually have James right there at all hours of the day. She missed being able to tell him everything as soon as it happened. "How's training going?"
James grinned, "They'd be stupid not to take me. What are you doing Saturday night?"
"Nothing."
"Not anymore," he grinned, "We're going for dinner. Just us two. I'll pick you up at seven and you can tell me all about your internship."
"Are you taking me on a date, James Potter?"
"Someone's got to." He leaned in to kiss her.
She smiled into his lips, "We can celebrate you playing professional Quidditch."
"I won't know yet if they take me on," James pointed out.
"They'd be stupid not to take you," Lily used his own words against him and he kissed her slowly.
"Oh, come on, Prongs!" Sirius whined. "Don't make me watch you two snog for twenty minutes."
Lily flipped him off but released James, "Go. I'll see you tomorrow night." He pecked her lips one last time and was off with a hand through his hair and a grin on his lips.
Miss Amelia Bones showed the group of five interns around the Charms Development lab. Lily had been slightly perplexed to find she was the only girl and the only one picked from Hogwarts. She had, for some reason that wasn't explainable, expected at least one familiar face.
It was exactly as one would expect a lab to be with large wooden tables lined up — six to be exact — all with different groups of people around it and different things on it. The witches and wizards working on projects wore white robes with the Ministry of Magic symbol stitched in black on the left breast.
"You can grab your own lab robe from over there once I finish showing you around," Bones instructed. "We currently have five projects running and you will all be assigned to one. Each project usually has between seven to ten people working on it."
She led the five of them into a corridor off the side, "Here you'll find all the offices — research and development, patents, fund allocation and of course, Dorcas Meadowes' office and for those of you who don't know, she is our department head. Now, over here is our break room though there are other places to eat or grab a coffee in the Ministry — most popular is Time For A Break in the atrium. Lunch is generally taken at one. Any questions?"
The man next to her asked, "Does the ministry pay weekly or fortnightly?"
"Fortnightly."
"Is there a chance for a raise?"
"Not during your internship period. If the department decides to keep you on beyond your internship, there will be a reasonable raise."
"Does the Department usually decide to keep interns on?"
"We're currently in need of two full-time employees and it is most likely that those two positions will be filled by two of you."
Lily suddenly felt very disadvantaged. She was straight out of Hogwarts how could she be expected to compete against people who had clearly had further experience in the field than she did?
"Now, I'll assign you to your project and tell you who you should report to. John West you're on Project Flutter, please report to Julie Mink. George Roberts you're on Project Beehive, please report to Daniel Mathers. Lily Evans, you're on Project Dirigible Plums, please report to Alexina Lovegood. Bob Fuller, you're on Project Keys, please report to Samuel Robins. Gideon Prewett, you're on Project Nifflers, please report to Michael Gray. Good luck everyone on your first day!"
Lily snapped her head over to the last man called out. Gideon Prewett. He was a ginger with freckly skin and honey eyes that crinkled at the corners and she got this feeling in her gut. That feeling someone gets when something is vaguely familiar and he looked so oddly familiar. Lily knew she knew him from somewhere she just couldn't pick where and she didn't have time to think on it as the group dispersed.
Alexina Lovegood turned out to be quite whimsical looking witch. She had soft brown hair that she had tied in a low ponytail and reached the top of her bum. Dangling from her ears were pink strawberries, her wand stuck behind her right ear and a necklace of crystals in different sizes, colours and shapes hung around her neck. Her face was peaceful with calm, silver eyes and thin lips that seemed to naturally smile.
"Hello, you must be Lily Evans! I'm Alexina Lovegood and running this project. If only the nargles would let us make some progress! I'm hoping with your knack at potions and charms, you'll be able to get us out of this rut we're in."
Lily really wanted to ask about the nargles and what they were but she didn't want to seem rude and interrupt so instead she vowed to ask James or Ella about it.
"This is our team," Alexina gestured to the six men around the table and she rattled off a bunch of names that Lily forgot almost instantly. "We have one more on our team but he's out sick today. You'll probably meet him at some point during the week. Oh, I've forgotten to tell you about the project," Alexina laughed lightly and it was like wind chimes. Alexina Lovegood reminded Lily of a pretty summer's day with bees and flowers and babbling streams.
"Project Dirigible Plums is what we're called and you should never talk of projects outside of the lab," she warned. "Now, what we're trying to do is create a charm that can make a potion airborne. Imagine if there were some sort of illness outbreak say in Hogwarts, a flu or a bug, if we can get this charm to work, in theory Madam Pomfrey could make a large vat of Pepper Up, use this charm and the whole thing would spread over Hogwarts, or in theory, any area that you need it for."
"It'd be like the air is healing people," Lily murmured, letting the idea sink in. "That's brilliant!"
"It will be if we can get it to work. We've been working on it for a month now and nothing. We've a test area over here," Alexina pointed to the part of the table with a large mouse cage with four mice running around inside. "We're using fur colour changing potion to test it but as you can see our mice have remained pure white. If we can ever get it to work, all four of them will turn blue."
Alexina spent the rest of the day catching Lily up on all the different equations and methods they've tried but told her it was tricky because the aim of the charm was to work on any potion so it was hard to find a mix that would allow for so many different variables.
By the end of the day, Lily was reeling, her mind exploding with a thousand different ideas on how to make the charm work that she didn't notice the white car sitting out front as she walked up to the door.
"I will not have some freak living in my bedroom!" Petunia's shout could be heard as soon as Lily opened the door.
"Good thing you've moved out and it isn't your bedroom anymore," Lily said stepping into the hallway. Mia was shying away behind Rosie as Petunia stared.
"You!" Petunia growled, whirling around to face Lily. "It's bad enough that you're abnormal but now you're exposing mum to more people like you! You're so selfish!"
"I'm selfish?" Lily laughed. "That's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black! All I've ever done is be me, Petunia and I'm sorry that that offends you but Mia is my friend and she needs a place to stay and mum agreed."
"It isn't safe for anyone to be around people with the likes of you! Why don't you and your friend go stay at that pathetic boy that you call a boyfriend's house?"
"Petunia Evans!" Rosie shouted. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, talking so poorly about your sister and friends of the family! Mia is staying and you can yell about it all you want in your own home but in mine, I will not tolerate it. Apologise to Lily and Mia this instant."
"They aren't friends of my family," Petunia spat before storming out of the house.
Lunch at Mrs Longbottom's was actually all right. Mrs Longbottom was almost to tears out of happiness that her son would be getting married and she seemed thrilled that it was to Alice and someone call Dumbledore because Mrs Longbottom did not mention babies or ask for a wedding date once. Alice thought there were times when Mrs Longbottom was broaching on the subject but then she suddenly changed direction and asked Alice if she had told her family yet. Alice jumped on that going into a very detailed account of the welcome home party her dad had thrown her last night, even telling Mrs Longbottom that Molly Weasley's children were quite like their uncles and had started a mini cake food fight before their mother put an end to it.
At a quarter to four, Alice announced she had to leave because she was helping Adaline pack for her travels, which was completely true and she apparated off the Longbottom's front step and into Adaline's backyard.
"Alice?" she heard Adaline shout from the upstairs window.
"Hi, Della!"
"Come on up! Mum's in the kitchen!"
Alice trudged her way through the slightly overgrown grass and through the back door. Mrs Bennett greeted Alice from her position over the stove, stirring something that smelled delicious.
"You'll stay for dinner, won't you?"
"Of course," Alice assured. "I wouldn't miss out on whatever's smelling so delicious over there."
"That's a girl. Go on, Del's upstairs."
Alice made her through the hallway and up the stairs. She made her way to Adaline's door and entered without knocking and stopped dead when she saw the mess. The mess consisted of everything that Adaline had ever owned, spread across her queen bed and the floor surrounding it. Shirts lay flat across her bed, jeans hung over the end of her desk chair with jackets piled on top of her desk. On the floor were random loose bits, skirts, pyjamas, coats, robes — Merlin the robes, there was a whole mountain of them — scarves, cocks, gloves, beanies. An open bag of make-up lay spilled on the bed along with a bunch of perfumes.
"What the hell," Alice muttered, bravely stepping in and closing the door behind her.
"I've no clue what to pack and what to leave behind," Adaline declared, as she threw more robes onto the pile of robes. "I need help."
"Clearly," Alice said, wandering further into the room and stepping around a pile of bras. "I mean do you really think you're going to need that many robes?"
"I don't know!" Adaline cried, climbing over the mountain of robes to stand in front of Alice. "I need you and your awesome packing skills."
So the two girls sorted through all of Adaline's things, putting everything in either a yes or a no pile. By the time Mrs Bennett called them down for dinner, they'd sorted through everything on the floor, including the mountain of robes and still had left the chair, the desk and the bed.
"You'll stay for a bit after dinner?"
"At this rate I may as well just sleep over."
"I mean you could," Adaline stared at her hopefully.
"I can't, Emmy took the morning off so we could go for breakfast but I'll stay until you're packed."
With that promise in mind, Alice didn't leave until a quarter to midnight only to receive an earful from her father about travelling alone so late at night and, "There's a curfew for a reason!" Alice's logic that apparating out of Adaline's backyard and to the gates of the Vance house didn't really count as travelling, didn't fly with her dad.
"Next time, if you're going to stay at someone's house this late just owl me and stay the night there. It's just safer."
Alice hugged her dad and agreed even if she didn't actually agree, she'd do it for her dad because she didn't want him to worry about her.
Ella entered the Ministry the way the letter had told her and her eyes were wide as she took everything in. The atrium was huge with the Fountain of Magical Brethren in the middle and now that she'd seen it first hand, she hadn't a clue how the Marauders had done such a good parody of it. Witches and wizards in dark coloured robes bustled about and Ella lost herself in the crowd, trying to search for a with by the name of Delilah Weatherby.
It was quite hard considering Ella had no idea what this woman looked like but Ella waited by the side of the fountain as she was told to do and eventually a witch came up to her.
"Ella Dearborn?"
"Yes," Ella nodded, "Delilah Weatherby?"
"Yes, come along. We haven't got all day. Crouch is in a meeting until eleven and I've a list of things I need you to do before then."
Weatherby was a pretty witch with thick, dark hair and brown eyes. Her robe was custom tailored for her, Ella could tell by the way they just missed the floor and the pretty cut that still showed the dress and stockings she wore underneath and the unusual clasping, three gold buttons just under her bust that made her robe outline her shape more than ordinary robes would allow.
Her heels clicked against the floor as Ella followed her to security. Ella was assigned an identification card that had a photo of Ella, as well as her name, height and wand specifications and Weatherby told her she must always have it when coming into work. Ella clipped the card to her robes like some other employees had, Weatherby wore hers around her neck on a black lanyard.
"This way," Weatherby dictated, gesturing to the golden lifts. "We're on level two."
The elevator ride was anything but smooth and Ella was rightly glad when the doors opened, the voice announcing "Level Two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services."
Weatherby breezed out and Ella followed quickly as they passed a number of doors in a corridor. Weatherby stopped just as they were about to reach huge oak doors that read 'Auror Headquarters' on a brass plate and opened a door that led to a large room that had twenty cubicles. Behind the twenty cubicles were two desks that faced each other with a door in between.
"This is your desk," Weatherby told Ella gesturing to the desk to the right of the door. "You're junior assistant and I'm senior assistant to Mr Crouch, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Before anyone speaks or contacts Mr Crouch, they talk to us. All his owls are directed to us and we pass along important ones to him. We both must know his schedule and one of us must accompany him to all public events though until we decide you're not a complete nimwit it will be me. Your job, is to keep these offices running smoothly."
What Weatherby meant by that was Ella Dearborn would be responsible for anything and everything from tea runs to picking up Mr Crouch's dry cleaning from the house elves on the fourth floor to personally delivering memos because the owl got lost the last time. By lunch time, Ella was physically exhausted. She didn't think anyone had run all over one building as much as she'd ran across the Ministry and it was a relief when Ella finally got to sink into her chair behind the desk she didn't really know why she needed.
"Good, you're back," Weatherby said, "I'm going for lunch. I'll be back in an hour. Do not leave your desk." With that, she grabbed her purse and left Ella to man the desks.
James felt the wind rush through his hair, closing his eyes and stared down the seven other players. The quaffle was under his left arm and he had one goal, to score. He braced his grip before laying flat on his broom, charging at the players, zigzagging around them. The first player, then the second, then the third, then the fourth, then the — damn it! James shouted in frustration as the player he'd just flew through withered into dust.
He had recreated the most memorable goal of Quidditch history. Nathaniel Gambers had scored against all seven players of the opposing team who had been strategically flying not five meters apart from each other only ten meters in front of the hoops ensuring that Gambers would collide with one of them but he hadn't. He'd been able to move around every single player at full speed and scored the winning goal. James could get around the first four and then he hit someone.
It just wasn't good enough. He had to be ready for try-outs. He had to be better than the last guy they saw. He had to prove that he deserved to be on that field with those star players. He had to prove that he could be a star player.
A loud crack pooched interest from Quidditch. James turned his head towards it, squinting at what looked like a person with some sort of large contraption. James vanished his floating players and flew down several feet until he could make out that the person was Sirius, though he wasn't totally surprised.
"What the hell are you doing?" James hollared, as Sirius rolled a motorbike into Euphemia's greenhouse and James descended until he was flying next to Sirius.
"I'm going to make it fly," Sirius said, matter of factly as though making muggle objects fly was a common occurrence not to mention legal.
The bike was a huge thing with fat wheels and shiny, black handles. A huge engine behind the front wheel that scared James because he had no idea how such a thing was supposed to work and a shiny, chrome tube stuck out from the engine to the back of the bike.
"Mum's not going to be happy you're using the greenhouse. What if we fly it up onto the terrace? Mum never goes up there."
"It's four hundred pounds!"
"It's called a levitation charm."
"Let me get my broom."
With not much difficulty the two boys floated the motorbike up onto the terrace that connected to the attic and Sirius summoned a bunch of books from his room. James picked one up, a manual for the bike — what all the different knobs and buttons meant.
"Are you gonna help?" Sirius asked.
"I should train." He really shouldn't.
"You've been training all day." Sirius made a good point.
"Do you even know how to make it fly?" He still really shouldn't.
"I've been reading up on the charms used on brooms. It seems simple enough."
"Then you don't need my help." See, he really, really shouldn't.
"Ah, come on, you're better at charms than I am." Sirius could fail and fall and die. James didn't want Sirius to die.
"So call Lily. She's literally in Charms Development." There. Sirius could do this without him.
"I like my balls attached thanks." Who was he kidding? James was in the minute he saw Sirius hauling the stupid thing into the greenhouse. It'd be fun … like the map. James could use a project.
James sniggered. "Fine, fine. I'll help you. You really going to move out after the summer?"
Sirius nodded. "Ella and I are going apartment hunting."
"It'll be weird without you," James noted.
"So move to London with Lils."
"Nah, I think she wants to spend a bit of time with her mum, you know Petunia's gone so it's just the two of them-"
"And Mia Slag."
"You need to stop calling her that," James frowned.
"Marls came up with it."
"You shouldn't encourage it."
"What can I say? I'm an encourager of bad behaviour. Besides, you can't be really happy that she's living with Lily and her mum."
James frowned, "What do you mean?"
"Oh come on, Prongs. You don't really think she broke up with Lemaire do you?"
"That's what she's told Lily. You don't think she has?"
"I think that Lily is her only friend and Lemaire is her boyfriend. What do you do when your only friend doesn't like your boyfriend? You stage a break-up."
"That's diabolical."
"That's life," Sirius corrected. "You know what else is life? Moving out of your parents house."
James sighed. "I know but just, I don't know, not yet. It won't be so bad. I mean, we can apparate and we've got the mirrors. We'll probably still see each other every day."
"The girls might get jealous."
"They work in the same place," James pointed out.
"Damn, maybe I'm jealous." Sirius kicked the bike tyre, "Let's get started, yeah?"
Marlene's brain hurt and she was only three days into her training. There was so many things to learn and Marlene didn't know how they expected her brain to hold that much information. She already had two readings and a set of twenty questions to complete by the end of the week, along with three new spells to learn.
"Do you regret it then?" Nate asked as they sat on her back verandah eating dinner.
She thought about it for a moment. "Too soon to know for sure," she admitted, "But I don't think so. How's Ollivander?"
"He's a weird dude but brilliant. Sort of like how people say Dumbledore's brilliant but they also say he's as mad as a bag of cats except Ollivander's brilliance starts and ends with wands."
Marlene laughed. "It's weird to think you'll be making wands one day."
"It's weird to think you'll be saving lives one day."
"Oh, there you two are!" Faith walked into the verandah. "Marls, I need your help with the seating chart. It's absolutely driving me mad and my mother will drive me to Avada myself."
"Can't Aria help you?" Nate asked. "We're eating."
"No one asked you," Faith said to Nate before turning pleading eyes on Marlene, "Please."
Marlene sighed as Nate said, "Come on, Faith. She's busy, she's got a lot of work to do for her training."
"No, no, it's okay, I'll be over in thirty."
"Thank Merlin!" Faith breathed, "You're the best and I owe you big time."
"You don't have to do that," Nate frowned.
"I know but it's Faith and she's the closest thing I have to a sister and it's her wedding and it's only a month away."
"Oh, only a month," Nate said sarcastically.
"Boys," she rolled her eyes. "A month is not a lot of time."
"Sure it is. I bet you could plan a whole wedding in a month and she's had a year."
Marlene shook her head. "You've no idea."
"If we ever get married, I think I should be in charge of planning."
"Absolutely not. I've been planning my wedding since I was three, I will not have you ruining it. Faith's wedding will be great. It's been a while since I've been to a big white wedding."
Nate smiled, "It'll be nice when it's finally over."
Marlene hummed in agreement and changed the topic. "Do you know if anyone's heard from Dumbledore?"
Nate shook his head, "You?"
"Haven't heard from anyone. Not even Ella."
"She at her brothers?"
"Yeah. Her and Sirius will start apartment hunting soon though but she wants to wait to move until the end of summer."
"Nathaniel!" Kate McKinnon's voice rung from over the fence. "Nate! Come home! Your father needs help clearing out the garage!"
Nate sighed. "At school it was friends and here it's mothers and sisters."
"Go on, I'll see you later," she promised with a kiss to his lips. She stood collecting their empty plates and leaving Nate on the verandah.
Marlene didn't know if she expected life to be like this after Hogwarts. She couldn't say if her expectations were met or if they were sorely wrong and if they were wrong, she didn't know if it was better or worse. She knew she was content with the feeling like something greater was coming. Maybe it was the wedding coming up or maybe it was just the knowledge that her life was finally going to start. Of course, it could have nothing to do with any of that but Marlene remained optimistic in the notion that life would only get better from here.
In some ways, she was so very right but in other ways she was so very wrong.
It was dazzling walking out onto that pitch for the first time. James would never forget the way the lights lit up every blade of grass just as easily as it lit up all twenty thousand seats in the stands. He wondered what it would be like when all the seats had a person in them, his biggest fantasy could come true, the one he's had since he was old enough to remember what Quidditch was and it could all come true if he played the best he'd ever played in his life.
The A-league team played against the reserve team and James watched, stars in his eyes, as they whizzed around, the quaffle a mere blur in the sky and he was mesmerised. It was phenomenal, what was even more phenomenal was playing with them.
"Lily, it was absolutely brilliant!" James gushed for the tenth time. His head in her lap and her fingers in his hair, he recounted everything — not a detail was left behind and to be sure of it he went over every detail twice. "They're amazing, almost like they're apparating on brooms! And Merlin, Lils, I was flying, Quaffle under my arm, I feinted around Geggins, flew over Mullins and scored right through the middle hoop — the hardest hoop to score in — against Elchar! I scored a goal against Jenny freaking Elchar! Her save rate is ninety-four percent and I scored against her!"
Lily grinned at him, "I wish I could've seen you play. It sounds amazing!"
"It was, Merlin, Lils, it was like fire!"
He'd never had such a high and it had nowhere to go and James knew that nothing in the world could make him feel that high, that buzz. Playing with those players, James knew. He knew there was nothing else he'd rather do and nothing else that would be satisfying. He was meant to be there.
"Imagine how you'll be when you play a real game," Lily smirked.
It terrified James slightly because there was a chance he wouldn't make it. "Don't even say that, you'll jinx it."
Lily bent down to kiss his lips, "No, I won't. You're too talented for something like superstition to matter."
"Seriously, you're gonna jinx it."
Lily frowned, studying him for a minute. "Are you honestly worried about this?"
"I just," he sighed. "I don't know if I have what it takes to play how they play. What if I'm not? What if I'm not as good as I think I am?"
"Hmm, this is serious," she decided. "You never doubt yourself at anything much less Quidditch. You're Hogwarts star player."
"Yeah, but, that's Hogwarts. This is professional Quidditch."
"You do realise this is about Quidditch. Sirius is convinced you've been breathing Quidditch since you were in diapers and you know, your mum has the photographic evidence to prove it. And you think you don't have what it takes. "
James shrugged helplessly, running his hand through his hair only to tangle his fingers in Lily's.
"Well, if you want my two cents that's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard come out of your mouth and I've heard a lot of crap come out of your mouth."
"Hey!"
"Well it is!" Lily argued. "After your accident, you trained every day for weeks until you could play and not only could you play, you played better than you could before. So if anyone has what it takes to play professional Quidditch it's you, James Potter."
"You really think so?"
"I'm usually right, aren't I?"
"Always."
"Then prove me right on this. Your name belongs on a Quidditch jersey, Potter."
Ella Dearborn had never seen anything quite as hectic as a press release day. She'd had to come into the office at seven a.m a whole two hours early because all the reporters were due in at ten and Ella was in charge of hosting them until Mr Crouch was ready. Ella was also in charge of picking up Mr Crouch's robes from dry cleaning, revising his speech and setting up the room and the feeling of satisfactory she felt when she had everything finished before Weatherby came in at nine was worth it all.
The nature of the press release shocked her though and she said so to Weatherby who stopped in her tracks.
"What's your point?"
"Well, isn't You-Know-Who trying to get the Dementors on his side?"
"Let me make something clear to you," Weatherby said. "It doesn't matter what your opinion is on any of Mr Crouch's policies. He says, you do. That's the job. You don't have to like it but you have to do it."
"But I'm just saying, it doesn't seem smart to put his supporters in the hands of creatures that could and probably will turn on us."
"What did I just say?"
"I know what you just said but-"
"No buts," Weatherby interjected. "Crouch wants to double the dementor guard, the dementor guard is being doubled. It's our job to inform the public and deal with the back lash. What's not our job is inserting our opinions where they don't belong. Clear?"
"Perfectly."
Mr Crouch announced his plan to double the dementor guard at Azkaban at ten and by eleven owls were flooding in. Some were praising Mr Crouch others weren't and some were just downright nasty like the one with a bat-bogey hex in it that Ella only narrowly avoided.
"Don't even bother," Weatherby said, "Just toss them into the fire. Mr Crouch isn't going to change his plans just because some housewife from the midlands thinks it's a terrible idea."
Maybe he should was the inherent thought that Ella couldn't help but think so Ella didn't throw out the letter but instead stowed them into her bag to read at home. People at least deserved the right to be heard even if they weren't going to be listened to.
Ella swung the door open to Caradoc's apartment an hour later than she usually did and grimaced at her brother who was stirring something over the stove.
"You're late," he observed.
"You're cooking."
"I am. Thought you could use something nice for dinner."
"That sounds suspicious."
Caradoc shrugged. "It may also be a bribe to reconsider your plan to move out at the end of the summer."
Ella laughed. "Oh, Doc."
"Come on, Black's a dick. Would he make you dinner?"
"I guess I'll find out when I go live with him. Now please tell me you've got a bottle of firewhiskey around somewhere because I am in desperate need."
"Cupboard over the fridge," he directed. "Pour us a glass and tell me about your day."
So she did.
"I feel like us gingers have to stick together," Gideon Prewett joked with Lily.
"Too bad we're on separate groups."
"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."
"Isn't that against the rules?" Lily raised her eyebrow.
"I trust you," Gideon shrugged.
"Nice try," Lily laughed, "But you just met me."
"You have a trustworthy face," he tried and Lily laughed again.
"You just want to know what we're up to."
"You caught me," he sighed, "I'm a charms whore. I want to know all the new cool stuff."
Gideon, despite the oddly familiar name and face, had quickly become one of Lily's closet friends within the department and on the days that Lily didn't lunch with Ella or Alice, she lunched with Gideon. He was one of the younger ones in the department and he always had wicked stories about his sister and nephews. They often milled around at the beginning of the day together, each with a cup of tea as they waited for the rest of their teams to show up.
"You can go right ahead and ask Lovegood then."
"She's off with the fairies that one. Believing in the likes of nargles."
Lily smiled. "She's brilliant with charms though."
"Brilliant people always seem to have a bit of mad in them. I think you'll be brilliant one day."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Are you calling me mad?"
"Just a bit."
"Oh, well if it's only a bit," Lily conceded as Lovegood walked into the room. Lily slipped off her chair. "I'll catch you at the Tea Party."
"There's a party?" he asked.
"Muggle reference. Alice in Wonderland. You should read it. It's just a bit mad."
"Well, now I'll have to," he promised.
Lily walked on over to her bench where Lovegood was already pulling out her notes.
"Hello, Lily."
"Good morning," Lily greeted.
"We've finally got a full team today so I'm hoping we can make a little more progress," Lovegood commented and Lily's eyes fell on the unfamiliar member, only for her to freeze and for her brain to go into overdrive.
James and Sirius were on the attic terrace with the bike. They'd made progress, the thing now levitated when turned on but they had yet to make it fly forwards.
"Okay, me and Lily hanging off a cliff, who do you save?"
James thought about it for a moment and then without hesitating, "Lily."
Sirius looked at him, affronted. "I thought we were friends — no, brothers!"
James raised an eyebrow, "Come on, are you telling me that if it was out of me and Ella you'd pick me?"
"Bloody oath I would!"
James waved him off. "You haven't reached the 'I love you' stage yet. You'll be eating your words soon enough."
"Okay you love Lily. So what you love me too."
"Yeah but it's different."
"Different how?"
"You're my brother, Sirius, and I'd die for you. I honestly would but Lily, I couldn't live without Lily."
"So what if she dies first?"
James shivered at the thought. "That's not going to happen."
"Okay but what if it does?"
"It's not," James said stubbornly. "You'd seriously save me over Ella?"
Sirius shrugged. "You've always been there for me. Gave me a second chance." Sirius looked over James' shoulder and grinned, "Hey, Mrs P!"
James froze for a second before turning around to see his mother standing at the doors to the terrace with her hands on her hips.
"And what in Godric's name are you two doing?"
"It's all Sirius' idea," James said with no hesitation, then, "Why are you up here?"
"You have a visitor," Euphemia announced. "And this better not be anything illegal happening under my roof."
"A visitor?" James asked.
"Technically, it's on your roof," Sirius pointed out and Euphemia shook her head hopelessly before answering James' question.
"No, it's Vincent Hellcot."
James dropped the wrench he was holding and straightened. "Seriously?"
"Yes, dear."
James started fidgeting, smoothing down his grease stained shirt and pulling the dirty rag out of his pocket. Vincent Hellcot. Coach to the Puddlemere United Quidditch team was in his house.
"I've set up tea in the living room. You should probably change," Euphemia suggested.
James followed his mother's advice, slipping into a nice pair of navy robes before making his way down to the living room where sure enough Vincent Hellcot was waiting. This was it. James had either made it or he hadn't and the anticipation would surely kill him so he stepped in, making his presence known.
"Good afternoon, Mr Hellcot."
Author's Note: Hello everyone! Thank you for reading and remember reviews are better than bees (a tall order considering bees are my favourite thing at the moment).
-Natalie xx