July passed calmly for the Potter family. Everything went exactly as it always had in past years. Evan spent his time rushing to and from the burrow. James split his time between his Family and his duties as a senior Auror. Auror is the occupational title of any witch or wizard serving as a member of an elite unit of highly-trained, specialist officers tasked with upholding the law and protecting the magical communities in their respective countries from large-scale threats and while Lily hated his job as it was so dangerous she still put up with it and spent her spare time tinkering with the creation of new spells and enchantments to distract her. Hermione was visiting while her parents were away at a dentistry conference and per usual was following Lily around like a puppy while asking question after question about her projects. She occasionally managed to bully Evan and Ron into joining her which lead to her abandoning her project to chase the three teens away so she could actually work.

July 31st was rapidly approaching and a huge party was currently being planned for Evan. His birthday party had always been one of the biggest events of the year as it was the only time the public was allowed to enter the home of their beloved Boy-Who-Lived and interact with him without being considered a crazed fan. Not that it ever stopped them from mobbing him anytime he left the manor but it did always help to keep the extreme over done fanfare to a minimum at least.

Lily was in an absolute flurry of anxiety and planning as she always was. There was just so much to do! Caterers, musician, invitations! It always nearly overwhelmed her and she hated planning it every year. It always ended up happening whether she wanted it or not. Her son's birthday parties didn't have to be balls for Merlins sake! But no everyone had to see the boy on his birthday and bow down to him as if he was some kind of god! Lily paused in her wand movements causing several gold streamers to fall to the ground as she'd been levitating them to hang around the ballroom.

The potter family ballroom was large and overly ornate with gold marble covering the floor and a beautiful pattern created with dark green and red marble in the center of the floor. Pillars lined the walls except for the far wall which was floor to ceiling windows with two sets of large french doors leading to a massive balcony bedecked with climbing roses and stone benches so that guests could go onto the balcony after dancing to cool off. Every time she saw the ballroom it made her smile because of the american movie created by Walt Disney named Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney had been an american wizard who had befriended Charlus Potter when he had visited America. Charlus had laughed heartily and told her this when she commented on how much potter manor resembled the castle from the movie if you took away the towers. His old friend had modeled the design for the castle off of his manor. It had amazed Lily that wizards were able to bring magic to the muggle world in such unique ways.

Lily sighed as she shook her head gently. Her thoughts had gotten away from her once again. It had been happening much more often lately. Ever since she had met her eldest son once again actually. She had lived her life in blissful ignorance up until that point. She couldn't even bring herself to be angry anymore at Harry. He hadn't done anything wrong. All he had done was tear open the wounds on her life to reveal the rotting flesh beneath that was slowly poisoning her life. It was never fun when your children point out everything that is wrong in your life but she had no one to blame but herself. She couldn't blame James for anything. He hadn't forced her to give up Hadrian and it had been her choice to spoil Evan and not allow James to teach him the Potter Family traditions that she had called outdated and barbaric when James had spoke to her about lessons when Evan had been five.

With another sigh Lily began once again began decorating the ballroom for Evan's 14th birthday. This year was apparently very special as it marked the day when the Heir, Lily and James had decided to keep the fact that Evan was not the official Heir secret from the wizarding community as a whole, was considered old enough to begin learning and helping with the family business and finances. This was done to prepare the Heir for when they would one day be head of the family. Not that Evan ever would Lily thought ruefully as she finished up the gold streamer and began conjuring gold and ruby fairy lights to float around the high domed ceiling. They weren't needed for actual light as there was a massive crystal and gold chandelier but they did provide beautiful color and entertained the younger children that came when they grew bored with dancing and talking.

It took only a few more wand movements for everything to clean itself up and the ballroom was finished for Evan's birthday party tomorrow night. Golden streamers were falling in gentle waves all across the pillars and dozens of small round tables with ruby and gold centerpieces in the shape of griffins with balloons attached to them. Each table could hold around half a dozen people red and gold fairy lights were flitting serenely around the chandelier and glowing softly. A long table in front of the glass wall leading to the balcony was set for twelve as Molly, Arthur, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione and Sirius would be joining them at the head table which was usually only reserved for blood family members. A crystal and gold plate set with matching goblets was the set being used for this year. James said that this plate setting had been used by the Potter Family for generation on the Heirs 14th and 17th birthdays.

Lily was just walking to the head table to make sure she hadn't made any mistakes with the placement or design when the massive double doors of the ballroom were thrown open making her spin around in shock before loud shrieking filled the air along with obnoxious laughter. Ron and Evan were running into the center of the ball room with Hermione following after them screaming at the top of her lungs. Lily took one look at the girl and knew immediately what had set her off. Her long brown hair had been cut into a short pageboy hairstyle and it was obvious that she did not appreciate it one bit.

"Evan! Ron! Just what did you do?" Lily called loudly which had the two boys freeze mid-run as they turned their eyes to her. Hermione however didn't seem to have heard her at all because she tackled the two boys with a snarl that would have made any wildcat proud. As soon as she had the boys down she began shrilly berating them while beating her fists on the both of their chests.

Lily let out a groan before she separated Hermione from the boy with a flick. This action caused Hermione to finally notice her presence she stared at Lily for a minute before promptly bursting out in tears and running from the room. Lily took the time to attach a simple tracking charm to the girl before turning a frosty glare onto the two boys who were currently picking themselves off of the floor.

"I hope you're proud of yourself." Was all Lily said before she turned on her heel and followed the pale blue light that emerged from her wand at a murmured incantation so that she could find where Hermione had run off to.

*Mikage Shrine*

Preparation for Hadrian's birthday were much simpler than those for Evans. Birthdays were not nearly as big of a deal in Japan as they are in western culture. Tomoe had arranged for a fruit tart from Madame Cee's bakery as it was Hadrian's favorite sweet and he also purchased him a small gift in the form of a log silver chain with a beautiful sapphire teardrop jewel hanging from it. Hadrian wasn't too concerned with his birthday either. He was looking forward to going to England on the third to irritate his parents and brother. Speaking of that...

"Hadrian, why exactly are we going to England? Didn't you fiddle with them enough when they came here?" Tomoe questioned as he turned away from the fried rice he was cooking to face Hadrian who was laying on the bed reading a scroll written in ancient Parseltongue. Hadrian had been five when Tomoe had found the child speaking to a garden snake. Parseltongue is the language of serpents (as well as other magical serpent-based creatures, like the Runespoor and Basilisk) and those who can converse with them. An individual who can speak parseltongue is known as a Parselmouth. It is a very uncommon skill, and is typically hereditary. Tomoe and Mikage had no clue how Harry had the skill because as far as they knew there were none in his family that could speak the language.

Harry looked up from the scroll and smiled at Tomoe before he stood up from the bed and made his way over to him while smiling charmingly. Tomoe gave him a flat look. He wouldn't trust that smile in a thousand years. It meant Hadrian had something planned and it wasn't going to be pleasant for whoever was on the receiving end.

"I figured it would be fun to fan the flames a bit since that headmaster of theirs is planning another way to force me back there. They're going to run crying to him that I was in Diagon Alley and he'll come running to capture me in broad daylight. He'll look completely insane and lose a lot of his standing especially as I'll be a special guest of the ministry of magic on top of that." Harry explained his innocent and sweet smile never leaving his face.

"You're absolutely devious, koishii. Did you know that?" Tomoe teased with a smile as he turned back to dinner with Hadrian cuddled up to his side. The only answer to his question was a sweet smile and Hadrian leaning up on his toes to give him a kiss on the cheek while one of his hands reached up to tweak his ears. 'Very devious' Tomoe thought his smile transforming into a smirk at the amount of chaos he and Hadrian were about to cause and with hardly no effort on their part. A leisurely visit and a day of shopping. This was going to be fun.

*Headmaster's Office*

Back in England Albus Dumbledore was finalizing the plans for the triwizard tournament when a chill ran down his spine. It was not unlike the feeling of someone walking over your grave. He paused for a moment in his paperwork before shrugging the feeling away. It was most likely a draft from the empty fireplace. Without giving it one more thought he returned to the spell he was working on to allow Harry's name to be placed in the Goblet of Fire.