Life at number 10
Disclaimer: not mine.
A/N - This is my 3rd time modifying and uploading this story...I'm still noe completely happy with it, but it's better than the first two tries. So Third time lucky. Here it goes.
From the title you're probably expecting an essay full of political jargon about the people who run this country and live at number 10 (Downing Street). Well, it isn't going to happen, because you see, I couldn't give a toss about politics. So, I hear you say, if this isn't about the priminister, then who or what is this about? My family mean the world to me and I think it's only fair that our story gets told.
My name is James Potter and I'm 16. I did live at number 10 White Lion Hill in a renovated terrace house that overlooks the Thames. I go to the City of London School for boys which is just off Upper Thames Street and just down the road from me. I enjoy rugby and archery, though I only did these at my old school, I mean can you really imagine a rugby pitch in the middle of London? I can't personally, but that might just be my imagination, my sister always said it was limited. Well I sure you think that by this I'm just your average boring hormonal teenager, but trust me I'm not!
Let's start again, shall we?
So yes my names James Potter and yes I live at number 10 White Lion Hill. And I go to City of London. And I live in a renovated terrace house. And I like playing rugby and doing archery…but there is so much more to me than that. Shall I tell you? Okay. I'm the eldest of 7.
Me. Dark hair, brown eyes, glasses (damn my dad), 16.
My twin brothers. Red hair, green eyes, 14, there names? Theo and Felix (don't ask about the names…I mean they're nice names and all, it's just they don't really fit into the general theme of the family). I refer to Theo as twin 1 and Felix as twin 2. Though my sister had the most ingenious idea and decided to call them both Fee, it works as well, though it really pisses them off.
Lily. Blond hair (don't ask how she got it, none of us have any idea, apart from that dad, he said he had a grandma with blond hair, though we don't know for sure), green eyes, 11.
Remus and Romulus (another set of twins). Dark hair (like me), brown eyes (yet again, like me), 7. These are referred to as twin 3 and twin 4.
Sirius. Dark hair, green eyes (a carbon copy of dad, though without the glasses, but I'm sure he'll get them soon enough), 3
So there's my family. Though I think the people you really want to know about are my parents. My dad's name is Harry Potter, he's 37 and works in a cold case unit. He's a forensic scientist you see, I don't really understand why. You would have thought that he would have wanted a break from all the killing and dying, but no he had to make a career out of it. But, he's a great dad, if a little absent minded, actually he's a little absent as well, he works really odd hours, so we don't see him much. My mum's a different story entirely, her name's Ginny Potter and she's just turned 36. She's basically a house mum, though she writes a review column for the The Times newspaper, which means she gets early copies of books, gets to see early screenings of films and gets free tickets to musicals. Which is pretty cool. She found this job was the only thing that was humanly possible to do when your pregnant every 2 or 3 years or so. So finally after Sirius they realised that all the different types of contraception really weren't working so she made dad get a vasectomy, I don't think he minded, he doesn't want any more children.
So, enough about my family, this is about the mischief my siblings and I got up to when I was 16. I should explain some things first though. Magic being one of them. We know it exists, and we've all performed some at some point in out lives, for example, only last week Sirius managed to make it rain skittles in the kitchen. Mum and dad have never actually taught us any magic, we do receive letters on our eleventh birthdays, but we ignore them. Lily received hers 2 months ago and she still reads it, she would have loved to go. As far as I know my dad still carries his wand, you know, just in case. Living as a muggle was easy for my dad, for my mum however it was a bit of a trial, he told me once that the first time the telephone rang she screamed. She still doesn't like using the microwave.
My story starts off with my first day back at school, well okay, the afternoon of my first day back at school, if you catch my drift and if you don't then you soon will.
Wednesday, 5:00pm
"Remus, give me back my shoe now! I'm not kidding give it back or I'll bloody well hit you with the other one"
This is the sound that greeted me as I opened the door, after walking home in the rain; the weather was, like me, lamenting the loss of the summer holidays. The sight that greeted me was of my little bother careering down the stairs at high speed clutching a shoe in one hand and my sister in hot pursuit, with the other raised high above her head. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs when she saw me, whilst my brother skidded round the hall and ran straight into the kitchen
"Shit James, you look awful, what you been doing, swimming in your clothes?" She said to me as I shut the front door. Beautiful vocabulary for an 11 year old isn't it? Well I blame Theo and Felix; they swear a load at home, whereas I'm the good boy…and only swear at school.
"I'm fine, thank you for asking"
She gave me the 'eyebrow'. "Well, where have you been?"
"Well unlike some of us, I don't have my own personal chauffeur, so I had to walk home and get wet didn't I?" I answered rather harshly, though I don't think she was offended, hardly anything offends my sister.
"Well dad was at work so I didn't have one today either, I had to take the bus" She replied loftily, and then sauntered off to find the animal that stole her shoe. You probably think by now that my sisters a real bitch, but sometimes she just gets in bad moods, especially when little brothers steal her shoes which happens quite often, except when dad's here. Don't get me wrong we all listen to mum, it's just she can't always control the little monsters, whereas dad can, he has this quiet air about him that commends authority. I followed her into the kitchen (squelching all the way) to find myself a cup of tea and found my mum also making herself a cup.
"Hello James dear, want one?" she asked quietly. Oh dear, what's dad done now? You see you can always tell when she's a little upset about something (and that something is usually dad) because she gets all quiet
"If you wouldn't mind" I say. I find it's best not to talk when she's like this, if she wants to talk then she will. I watched her make the tea and for the first time I can remember she looks like a woman who's had 7 kids, who's bore the strain of abandoning her family, and who has to deal with an occasionally difficult husband (which is the reason for her quietness). Your probably wondering what I mean about her abandoning her family, well when she was 20 she became pregnant with me. There was a big falling out between her and her mum and between dad and Uncle Ron. She left. Hasn't spoken to them since, apart from a few tense phone calls that always ended in misery. She never told me this, dad had to because I kept asking what was wrong and he didn't really want to tell me but she was crying one day and I got really worried so I asked him and he had to tell me, I mean I am the eldest.
She handed me my cup of tea and sat down opposite me at the kitchen table. She took a slow sip and didn't say anything, after a few minutes the silence got unbearable (well it wasn't that silent what with the thumping from the twin 1 bedroom above us and the shouts of a triumphant Lily, who had just gained a shoe, but it was quiet for our house).
"What did he do now" I asked finally (no beating about the bush with me is there?), referring of course to our dear father (the sarcasm was not intended, it just popped out. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not a heartless son, it's just that mum tries so hard and he just doesn't seem to notice it.)
"He wants to stay at the penthouse for the rest of the week" she stated calmly, then stood up, dumped her cup in the sink and left the room. I heard her climbing the stairs to her and dads room at the very top of the house, she'll be shut in there for the rest of the day now.
Maybe I should explain the relationship between my parents. It's very hard to explain but I will try my best for your sake. After the war my dad was very unstable, hardly fit to raise a child, but mum stuck with him because 1) she loves him and 2) he would have got worse is she had left. So yeah. Now you're also probably wondering what the penthouse is, well dad works over in Ayres Street, which is quite far from our house. Well not really far, but when your driving home at 2 o'clock in the morning when you've been studying crime scenes, it isn't the safest thing in the world. So he brought a penthouse in the street just off Ayres and he stays there occasionally, unless something big is happening at work then he stays there for a week or so, but it really does get mum down. Sometimes she just wants to talk to him and when he stays at the penthouse we don't actually see him, so she goes and visits him to make him eat, but she can't do that all the time because she does have work too.
"Something up with mum?" Asked twin 1 or 2, I couldn't be bothered to work it out.
"What is up with people today, don't I even get a hello anymore?" I said slurping the rest of my tea up.
"Hello" exclaimed the other one cheerfully as he bounced in. I glared at him. Then I realised something, so far this afternoon I had seen Lily, twin 1, 2, 3 and 4 was probably hiding more of Lily's shoes somewhere, but I hadn't seen Sirius.
"Guy's?"
"Yup" answered one of them.
"Whose turn was it to pick Sirius up from reception?"
Dead silence.
"Oh bugger" said twin 1, it was his turn.
"Shit, guys how could you be so stupid, you were meant to pick him up at 4:30" I hissed. Maybe your wondering why I hissed, you see mum would go apeshit on us if she found out.
"Well are you going to get him, or are you just gonna leave him there and tell mum you forgot to him" I said, astounded that he was still in the kitchen and not half way down the road already.
"Hell no am I explaining to her" he replied, completely terrified.
"Then get goin' if you don't want me to tell her"
Just then there was the scraping of keys in the lock.
"THEO" I voice yelled from the front door
"Ahhh crap" said Theo and slunk out the door, me and Felix, sorry Felix and I jostling to get through the door after him to see what was going to happen. You seeing the yelling was coming from the head of the family himself; Mr Harry James Potter.
"Would you like to explain to me why I just had a phone call from Mrs. Simmons, asking why nobody had picked Sirius up yet" asked dad through gritted teeth, obviously trying not to yell so loud so as not to cause the snivelling Sirius hanging of his arm to start crying again.
"I forgot" Theo explained plainly. You see we've learnt by now that it's impossible to lie to dad, however good you are usually it just doesn't work with him. Except if Lily lies. She's an exceptional liar, but he still manages to sees straight through her, he just never says anything about it.
"You forgot! You do know that I had to leave work right in the middle something important," he sound tired, worn out. Mum and him definitely had a big argument, or maybe it's just work? I dunno.
"You're grounded" he started "for three weeks"
"Right" said my brother calmly accepting his punishment. Dad will properly forget about it soon, he always does.
"Er…dad?" I started slowly, trying to gage whether he'd blow up at me.
"What James?" He replied whilst crouching down to Sirius' level to help him take of his coat and shoes.
"Are you staying?" I asked hopefully
"No, I've got to get back to work, why?"
"Well mum disappeared upstairs and I think it's because of you" I said quickly.
He sighed "Okay, I'll come back in and hour to cook supper for you," I looked at him pleadingly. "And I'll talk to your mother" he added.
I grinned at him.
"Lily" he called.
"Yes daddy dear?" she said bounding into the hall carry a shoe.
"Can you look after Sirius?"
"Er…sure, why?" She asked, completely mystified.
"Because his dear brother forgot to pick him up"
"Theo, you are so mean" She said whilst picking him. This said she flounced out of the hall and into the living room.
"Okay kids, I will see you in approximately 56 minutes and 28 seconds"
"Bye dad" several voices yelled from various parts of the house as the door slammed shut.
Yeah, so after that not much happened, I could tell you but I think I might fill you in on the background of our completely normal family for the next hour instead of boring you with details like how many grains of sugar Felix put in his tea or what Bob the Builder said to Pilchard in the sad little programme Sirius was watching.
Right, well after mum left her parents house when they had that big argument over me she went to dad's place, well Uncle Remus' which was where dad was staying whilst he looked for a place of his own. They had already had me and Theo and Felix were well on their way when dad decided that he didn't want to sit at home all day, so he went to night classes to study for his GCSE's and A levels. Then he applied to university for forensic science. Whereas mum wanted a job which could be done at home so she started writing. Well that didn't take as long as I thought so I'm gonna go upstairs and take mum another cup of tea.
I clambered up the stairs with cup of tea. I'll explain the rest of the house to you. There are 5 floors, the basement, ground floor, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. In the basement there is the utility room, equipped with a state of the art washing facilities for both clothes and people. Ground floor is the kitchen and living room, with a big front hall that has a huge staircase against the wall. On the 2nd floor there is my room, Lily's and Theo and Felix's (they share) and also a bathroom. On the 3rd is Remus and Romulus's bedroom and Sirius's, also a spare bedroom and a bathroom. And on the final floor is the master bedroom for mum and dad, connected of course with a bathroom. Next to that is a study which mum and dad both use, though mum more than dad.
I reached the top of the stairs, walked up to the bedroom door (which was slightly ajar) and knocked lightly. There was no answer. I knocked again, a little louder this time and opened the door.
"Mum?" I called
She was asleep, lying propped up against the pillows. A pad of paper and a pen lying next to her, she had obviously been trying to work.
"Mum," I shook her a little and she stirred.
"James?" she murmured drowsily
"Yeah mum it's me; I just bought you some tea."
"Hmm…thanks honey" she said whilst struggling to sit up against the great mound of pillows.
"I'll be downstairs"
"Sure" she said and groped for the tea cup.
I walked out the room, shutting the door behind me. I meandered down the stairs until I got to my floor and then walked into my room, deciding to start on the ridiculous amount of homework I had got on my first day.
"I'm home" I heard from the front door. Thankful for the break, I set down my pen and ran down the stairs.
"Okay" my father shouted "I need all hands on deck. Lily you set the table, Remus, Romulus fetch me the pasta from the basement, Theo, find Felix and empty the dishwasher, James grab the big pasta saucepan and fill it with water. Come one everybody, the more you help, the quicker supper will be ready"
And so the kitchen and the downstairs floor in general became a hive of activity. Everybody was helping, apart from little Sirius who was getting under everybody's feet until dad sat him down at the table and showed him how to hover a piece of pasta using a straw. Soon everything was done and without any mishaps, unless you count that Lily had to put her slippers somewhere to dry because Remus had poured water on them.
"Okay everybody grab a plate and form an orderly line, I said orderly Felix, which means that you're not allowed to push your sister out."
So we stood in a queue waiting for dad to doll the right amount for us and Sirius. He didn't put any out for himself though. We watched him curiously whilst he moved purposefully around the kitchen. First he got a tray, then a big bowl, and by the time he got to the wineglasses we knew what he was doing. Making peace with mum. He staggered out the kitchen, balancing the tray in one hand and a bottle of red wine in the other.
"You kids behave and don't mess up the kitchen…oh and do the washing up would you," he said, before disappearing out the door. You could hear his footsteps climbing the stairs all the way to the top.
"Do you think it will work?" Lily asked me as she scooped some salad onto her plate.
"Of course" I answered.
"How can you be so sure?" she queried.
"What, you mean that a bottle of red wine, a bowl of dads carbonara and dad himself, won't make mum forgive him?"
"Hmm…good point" she answered and returned to her pasta with more enthusiasm than before.
Later on I cautiously peeked in on mum and dad. They were curled up together against the headboard, the television on mute playing a cheesy quiz show. I guess I'll be putting the rest to bed tonight, and jogged down the stairs, searching for my little brothers on the way.
So read and review, constructive criticism only please. No flames.