Chapter Four: A bit of mischief with James
As the tropical display at the zoo's entrance appeared, Margie let out a raucous squeak and began listing off which animals she would see first, "We must start with the monkeys," she demanded as Ginny helped her from the car, "Then we will move on to the turtles and we can't forget to visit the lions. I must visit the little cub- I've not seen him since he was born a couple years ago," She added to Albus as he was the only one making an effort to listen at the moment.
"Oh yes, Margie," said James, casting his hands over his head in a dramatic fashion, "I bet he just adores it when you come for your annual visits."
"It's a she, by the way James," Margie countered before flouncing up to her mother. James rolled his eyes and instead advanced on Albus.
"Wanna do something fun?" He nudged his younger brother playfully. James, though only two years Albus' elder, was noticeably the larger of the two boys with a mop of curly brown hair on his head and glinting brown eyes that betrayed his quite rambunctious person. He was recently much broader as well, a consequence of making the Gryffindor Quidditch team during his first year. He hung his arm around his brother, tightening it into a playful headlock.
"You are the oldest James?" Lily rolled her eyes, catching the exchange
"Say whatever you want Lil!" then more quietly, " As long as it's not to mum!" James captured his sister's head as well, adding, "Besides, I'm clearly the oldest. The better question is which of you is next!"
Albus was a tiny boy for his age, barely taller than Lily and quite thin. His hair was neither as unruly as his brother's nor as red as his sister's and coupled with his rather reserved presence, one would think a boy like Albus could easily fade into the background of many, more distinctive faces. But Albus had also inherited his father's eyes; striking green, famously green eyes that made both muggles and wizards alike look at this otherwise quite ordinary boy twice.
Lily on the other hand had a lively nature yet personal instances, such as the way she would precisely mimic the quirks of Albus' correct stride or clung to him when she was tired or scared verified the hierarchy of age.
"It's her birthday James," Albus stated, looking up to his brother. It hadn't been scolding or pleading, just a blunt observance as Albus rarely dared to counter James.
"I know but won't it be fun?" James nudged Albus once more, "And I really need your help to make sure Margie buys into my plan." Albus squinted at James, "What exactly does my help include?"
"Oh nothing to detrimental to your health Al, lighten up a bit, would ya?" James tousled his brother's hair, "See, I just need you to lead Margie away from the adults. Then I can have my fun. Seems harmless enough right? Well, for you at least," Albus paused and when James ceased to elaborate, inquired, "And do I get to know your part of this brilliant scheme?"
"Perhaps, but now is not the time to delve into the details" James smirked before strolling off. Albus trotted after him, a sense of mischief and curiosity accumulating inside himself, "Wait, James tell me! I'll do it but I gotta know the plan…"
"What plan?" Albus recoiled a little as Margie's voice slapped him upside his face. He hadn't noticed her wander from their parents, caught in a fairly extensive line for admission, and approach him and James, "What plan?" she repeated.
"uh, nothing" Albus whispered, shrinking visibly under his cousin's glare. "What? Oh speak up would you Al, you are always so quiet," Margie advanced towards the slighter Potter. James however, broke her encroachment, "Oh Margie just butt out, obviously we don't want to tell you about our plan."
"Oh and why not?" Marge turned her robust figure on James who grinned, "Well if we really must tell you, it's about how we can see all the big cats here," he nodded genuinely before continuing, "See, Al here wants to see the tigers first but the leopards, lions, and bobcats are all closer so we're going to visit them first, you know, and save the best for last." Obviously content with his story, James smiled once more.
Margie was not convinced, "And why would you not want to tell me a dumb plan like that, James, unless you're lying." Albus' eyes darted intently to what James would say next.
"Well, Margie I didn't want to tell you this but since you so kindly asked, Al and I don't want the likes of you to come along." This seemed to satisfy (and slightly peeve) Margie, who suddenly snapped her pudgy hand around Albus' wrist and commenced to dragging him towards the adults, saying, "Well, I hope you weren't too set on visiting that tiger because we're going to see the monkeys first, I'm the Birthday girl and I want to see the monkeys-first the little orange ones, then the chimpanzees, we can skip the ugly big ones with the blue snout and…" Albus glowered at his older brother as Margie's plan was articulated, who was still smiling contently, a safe distance out of earshot.
Standing in line next to her father, Penny briefly twitched her head in the direction of an oncoming onslaught of chatter from her younger sister approaching with a very miserable-looking Albus tightly in tow. Judging that the younger boy was tormented enough, she glanced at James. As his cocky smirk registered, a look of annoyance spread through her features. To remedy the cause of her irritation, Penny subtly extended her leg under James as he lounged past, effectively causing him to crash into Duncan. The tiny boy was already at his wits end with James from his treatment in the car and made sure to make a fuss as James picked him up from the concrete.
"Oh brush it off Dun, go cry to Penny, she's the one who tripped me. Gosh you're a sissy…" though he quieted quickly as Ginny fixed him with a stern gaze, "James. Here. Now." beckoning towards her far side. James took a moment to stick his tongue out at Penny before making his way over to his mother.
Albus usually enjoyed witnessing James' acts of immaturity, but sadly, Margie had spoiled this episode with her insistent mouth. Obviously inspired by James' "plan", his cousin had named animals to visit that Albus was certain did not reside in the zoo. When the families finally passed through the zoo's entrance, Albus was numbly resigned to bear the burden of Margie's constant talking. "The Monkey's Daddy, let's go!" Margie screamed at her father and waddled towards the cages with surprising agility.
Dudley beamed as he watched her go, "Precious tyke," he cooed and turned to Harry, "They really are enjoyable at this age, so innocent and easy to please."
"Of course," Harry muttered, eyeing Albus being unmercifully yanked, "Little Margie is, err, quite something to be reckoned with eh?"
"Oh yes," Dudley crooned, "Reminds me a lot of myself you know." Harry could not disagree.
The day was passing in rapid controlled chaos. Margie was unimpressed with the sleepy monkeys, rattled on their wired cage, and was promptly told to move on by a sweaty, haggard zookeeper. They then visited the penguins where Duncan and Lily were unceremoniously squished into the glass separation as Margie and Preston battled for the prime view and James managed to place a fat black beetle on Penny's ponytail without her noticing. Then a small ice-cream snack was called for. Albus was disappointed when Margie ordered the last Sundae Supreme cone and even more disappointed when she decided the Supreme was not enough to fulfill her hunger and shared Albus' vanilla cone as well. Margie then led the party towards the lion den and threw a fit when the keeper there informed her that the cub had been shipped to a zoo in Winchester and Penny collapsed in a puddle of mud near the giraffes when James' beetle found its way down her forehead.
Now Albus, Margie, Lily, Preston, Duncan, and James sat crowded on a bench, none of whom were happy at the moment except James who thought he had suitably exacted his revenge. Watching a raging Penny get hosed down, the elder Potter grinned and stood from his seat, glancing at Al significantly as he passed. Al followed his brother a short distance away near a temporary domed structure that looked like a greenhouse.
James chuckled again to himself, "Well this has been a wonderful day after all!"
Despite his better angels, Al couldn't help but laugh at his contentedness. James turned to him, "Just think Al, in a month's time we'll be doing this at Hogwarts. There's loads more people to rile up than this lot." He nodded his head toward the bench of glowering cousins, "It's more fun doing it with magic too." He added.
"I think I want to make friends before enemies James," Al countered, and James nodded good-naturedly, "Sure sure Al, and I can help with that too. But onto the plan!"
He suddenly pivoted back to face Al completely, tapping Al's pocket, "Do ya still have it?"
Al remembered the object he'd dropped in earlier and retrieved a small stringy bundle, tangled slightly from it's travels. James took the mess and began carefully unraveling the string, which was curling slightly around his finger, "I thought we'd have some fun considering the neighbors always have that yappy dog out," James explained, "But the zoo is so much better!"
The bundled mass was another product of George Weasley's joke shop, a permutation of the extendable ear, this object allowed the user to make rudimentary animal sounds which made the person sound ridiculous and usually offended an intelligent enough animal.
"Now she won't let me near her..."
"I can't imagine why,"
"But you'll have to sneak this on her at some point without her noticing." James continued, only acknowledging Al's input with a good-natured smirk, "Time it with something worthwhile too, cause you know she's going to make a fuss once she figures it out. It's too bad we've already seen the elephants..."
He placed the untangled ear covertly into Al's palm. Al gripped it and returned it to his pocket, thinking quickly. The plan was harmless enough and he would cherish a memory of his cousin rapidly turning her chattering into the roars or squeaks of some ridiculous animal.
The absence of the two boys had peaked Margie's paranoia and she sped over to where they stood, looking keen, "Well what are we talking about here?" she looked between the two rapidly and Al automatically pressed down the lump in his pocket. Thankfully, Margie had been distracted.
She became aware of the greenhouse-like building behind them and confusion graced her suspicious features, "What's this place? Is it new?"
A zookeeper was standing near a zippered door. Margie hurried up to him, her commanding voice edging through even polite words, "Excuse me sir but what is this building and when did it get here. It wasn't here last year."
The zookeeper smiled, evidently mistaking Margie's general distain for unknown things as unguarded inquisitiveness, "Ah Miss! It's a butterfly tent! Exhibt's only open until the end of August!"
Margie's judgement vanished and was replaced by new insistence as she bellowed, "Mum! Dad!"
The prospect of a butterfly garden was enough to brighten even the slightly damp Penny. Lily gave James and Al an appraising stare, "So what's the secret I can't know?"
James tousled her hair again, "Not personal Lil, Margie would have suspected something sooner if I dragged you both over. You did good!"
The tent was filled with fluttering colors as butterflies large and small dappled the inside of the dome like a living kaleidoscope. Al didn't even mind as Margie snatched his wrist once more and pointed out the ones she thought were most intriguing. As she pulled him along, he imagined letting the magical ear crawl onto her wrist, adorned with several tight neon bracelets. She likely wouldn't notice the additional piece.
"And this one- oh look!" Margie suddenly let go of Al and advanced on her sister, "Penny look, on your shoulder!"
While the sight of the butterflies were no problem, the idea of any insect crawling their way onto her was more than Penny could handle. A large blue butterfly lay furled and unfurled its wings near her neck. Al was impressed when it didn't alight at the sound of his cousin's shriek.
"James I swear...oh sweetie it's just a butterfly," Ginny's voice melted gently as the adults neared the recognizable sound of Penny in distress.
"Get it off! Get the grubby thing off me!" Penny was nearing a second meltdown of the day.
"I'll take it Penny!" Margie had actually looked jealous as the blue butterfly lay contently on her frazzled sister, "Here!"
She stuck out a chubby finger near the insect, but received little reaction. Snorting in frustration and flustered by Penny's mounting cries, Margie pinched the blue wings and placed the butterfly in her palm, eliciting cries from several of the party.
"Oh sweetie you can't, their wings are fragile." Camille came over to inspect the creature.
The butterfly now lay on its side, the blue iridescence punctured by colorless patched the size of Margie's thumbs. It stirred feebly. It took a second for Margie to realize the consequence. Then, she too looked ominously on the brink of tears as well, turning her hand downward and tossing the butterfly like a used wrapper, as if ridding herself of her wrongdoing.
"Oh pumpkin, it's alright," Dudley now appeared by his wife to placate their most explosive child, "He was probably injured before, that's why he wasn't flying away on Penny. You didn't do anything wrong. Please, look at that one there- don't you like yellow?"
Penny gave a gasp that turned attention back to her and then to where she was staring. The butterfly had landed close to Lily's feet and she now knelt near the ground clasping the stirring thing tightly in her hands.
"You're going to squish it!" Penny cried.
But when Lily opened her palm again, the ugly marks on the wings were gone. She closed and opened her hand once more and the butterfly bolted into the air with frantic energy, climbing higher towards the top of the dome.
If anything, this upset Penny even more, "That's, that's not right..."
"Well neither is grasping butterflies by their wings," James swooped defensively by Lily's side, "I mean how do you not know that..."
"That's enough," Camille snapped tersely at James, "Ginny get your son away for a sec while we calm down,"
Ginny briskly whisked the trio away, but when the Potter's were distanced from their company, gave James a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "Just don't push them," She murmured.
Harry was comforting Lily, who looked taken aback by Penny's reaction. Though a game sport to see the Dursley's pranked, she rarely was one make anyone directly upset. They walked up a middle path obscured by ferns and Lily knelt low to the ground once more, another fluttering butterfly ascending above her a few seconds later. Harry wore an expression of awe as butterfly after butterfly rose from his daughter's hands.
"You'd think he couldn't do magic like that himself," James muttered, vocalizing Al's precise thoughts. Ginny glanced over at her husband and smiled, her cheeks blushing rosy as Harry pointed out more butterflies injured on the path and clapped encouragingly as each recovered in flight.
"You know James, when you see your child do magic, its more exciting than figuring it out yourself."
James gagged slightly, "Oi Mum, don't you start crying too."
The Dursleys thought it prudent to leave the tent as soon as possible and when the Potter's emerged a few minutes later, Lily was happily skipping and Harry looked cheerful, if not slightly surprised as Ginny warmly snuggled to him. The day just might end well, he thought.