Alrighty, so this is probably gonna seem cliché but you know what, I couldn't help myself haha. I also couldn't care less if it was cliché either XD Not much is said about James family, so, as I think I said/warned earlier, my wild imagination paired with my rabid muse is taking off with this fic.

Also, humongous thanks for all the feedback – I really appreciate it! XD

Read, Review, and Enjoy!

EDIT 6/1/12: For a better reading experience, all review replies and old, unimportant ANs were removed. Any questions, just PM me

Disclaimer:I do not own, nor claim to own, anything pertaining to Inuyasha nor Harry Potter. Just the ideas that pop into my mind ;)

—Settling In... Sorta...—

Kagome would be would be lying if she said her parents weren't, for the lack of better words, filthy rich.

The Ancestral Home of Potter sat on a particularly large lot of land; secluded in a wide tract of forest, acres of land was cleared for the grand manor.

Fixed with not only a large garden but a green house to boot there was a lake to the far left of their land, perfect for swimming; to the right was every male wizards dream – a quidditch pitch with the broom shed only a few paces away. The house itself was three stories high, and let's not even get into on how wide it actually was.

Kagome's first and only words upon seeing it was "Holy. Shit." Whispered of course. It wouldn't do for her parents to hear their four-year-old daughter cursing. Never mind even explaining where she heard that...

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One!" Kagome called out and turned the away from the corner. Walking through the room, she scanned it carefully before moving on to the main hall.

They were way past 'well off', living it up in a nice, gorgeous, extremely large house, filled with more rooms than ever needed.

Despite its elegant décor, it wasn't stuffy or stiff but homey. Pictures littered the home, ranging from 'official' photos to the random and craziest of poses. There were some with just their parents, together and embracing lovingly. The flowers in the various vases were those that Kagome and James helped their mother gather.

And the best part was that it made for some pretty wicked hide and seek games too.

With a place this large, Kagome really should have expected that it would need more hands than her two parents to take care of it, to keep it in such pristine conditions.

But when she expected to see some kind of service, she did not expect it to be what it actually was.

Padding through the hall, she waved, smiled, and greeted some of the family portraits perched along the walls, but otherwise didn't stop in her search to find James.

There were only a couple rules to their game: one, they had to stick to the bottom two floors or else the game would go on forever; and two, no cheating, which included stopping to ask the portraits for help.

After looking through all the rooms as she passed, she turned a corner in the hall only to come face to face with a house elf.

Luckily, she didn't scream. No, she only let out a sharp, frightened and shocked shitless kind of gasp, stumbling back with her hand over her fast beating heart.

All she saw were huge, wide eyes and floppy, bat-like ears.

And then, it started apologizing. "Little miss! Ipsy is so sorry! Ispy was not meaning to startle you!"

Kagome was too busy to capture her breath to really pay close attention, staring at the, er, creature, with wide eyes in shock. It took her a minute, but the flash came to her, prodding her mind. 'An house-elf...' her mind whispered. 'One of the few that work here. She's been her before James and I were even born. A sweet, helpful house-elf, named Ipsy. She's helped baby-sit us before.'

Kagome swallowed thickly, and shook her head at the house-elf, reaching out to give the elf a comforting squeeze of the shoulder. "No, don't wowwy 'bout it Ipsy! I wasn't paying attention," she consoled, offering a toothy grin. "I was busy looking for James!"

Ipsy blinked owlishly – or, maybe it was really normal for her? "Is little master lost?" she asked in a soft kind of worried gasp.

Kagome blinked as well, but bit her lip to stop the smile threatening to come out and shook her head. "No, we're playing hide and go seek again."

Ipsy nodded and quickly sidestepped Kagome. "Ipsy will be getting out of your way then, little miss. Enjoy your game!"

Kagome grinned at Ipsy and waved happily. "Thank you!" she called out, bounding away. As Ipsy walked away, Kagome shook her head ruefully.

It seemed that she had a lot to learn about the wizarding world. House elves, moving pictures, portraits that not only moved from frame to frame but talked as well... what the hell next?

No matter, she had a certain bespectacled, messy haired boy to find.

—o—o—o—o—

She found out the next day over breakfast.

She was tired and hungry and the enticing smell wafting from the kitchen was torturing her.

James sniggering at her as her stomach played the grumbling song wasn't helping much either.

It was times like these that she wished she was her older self. She had no qualms about making her own breakfast. It was just the fact that a four year old using the stove and making breakfast with no trouble at all would seem suspicious.

Not to mention how she would even reach the stove...

A few minutes passed with James still teasing her when Kagome groaned and plopped her head on the dining room table. "Gah, I'm hungwy," she whined unhappily, her four year old temperament coming out to play.

She froze suddenly as a plate filled with eggs, toast, and a little slice of ham zoomed through the door leading to the kitchen and settled before her, clattering all the way. Kagome gaped.

What the hell?

She quickly shot a glance to her brother, but he was only laughing loudly by now at her display.

Kagome glanced at her mother as she strode through the door carrying two plates of food and her eyes went wide when the woman only tutted. "I know you're hungry dear, but do try to be patient and refrain from using your magic," she said chidingly as came over to place the plates on the table, patting Kagome lovingly on the head. "Once you attend Hogwarts, you will not be allowed to use them whenever you please," she reminded in a sing-song tone as she walked back in the kitchen to get the drinks.

Kagome only blinked.

Oh yeah, she was a witch.

She had to get used to that...

Gleeful snickers were still echoing in the dining room, bringing her out of her train of thought. "Merlin Kaggy, your face!" he gasped out between snickers. "It's like you've never used magic before!"

The four year old girl froze for a milli-second, her face drained of an color. But then she remembered herself, and she scrambled for a way to wave it off.

So she did the next best thing. Twitching, Kagome snatched her fork and stabbed a piece of scrambled egg and promptly flung it at James' face.

His laughs stopped short at record speed.

There was nothing as pleasing as watching your brother's face contort in shock as a piece of egg smacked him squarely in the forehead.

She was reduced to her own side-splitting snickers as he glowered at her, plotting for revenge.

Kagome couldn't find it in herself to care, really. The image of his face firmly planted in her mind was too distracting at the moment.

—o—o—o—o—

"Psst! Psssst!"

Kagome stilled, and rolled her eyes. James' certainly wasn't the one for subtlety. Kagome looked up quickly, stealing a look at her mother. Finding her busy, she looked back down and hissed. "What?"

The two of them were at a table, with a empty seat between them as they took a little quiz.

At first, Kagome was confused to find that education was done a bit differently in Europe, and even more so for wizards and witches.

And Merlin, she didn't even want to go into the etiquette classes... It was pure torture; how to talk, how to eat, how to act in certain situations, how to dance – for the love of Morgana it was confusing and even more so ridiculous.

If she never had another one of those classes, it would be too soon.

Really, the only good thing about it was that they only had to act that way in public. When they were away from prying eyes they were free to go wild. Literally.

Instead of going to school, or what was called Primary school, they were home schooled and given lessons on the basics – math, language arts, speech. What was really different was touching up on magical theory.

Right now, they were doing a set of math equations.

"What's the answer to number eight?"

Kagome squashed down the urge to groan. So she settled with an inconspicuous, withering look in his direction.

"C'mon Mel!" James needled with a slight whine, "Please!"

Kagome twitched and reached to dip her quill in ink – Merlin did she hate quills. Why didn't magical people use pencils? - and turned to flick it at her brother. James flinched as the ink splattered right on his nose. Face screwing up, he swiftly swiped his nose with his sleeve and glared.

"You hush. If Mum catches us, we won't get dessert," she whispered back finally when it was clear.

And they were having her favorite – there was a very delectable, mouth-watering looking double-fudge cake in the kitchen just begging to be eaten.

Kagome rolled her eyes when James snorted. They all knew how deep her sweet tooth ran. He may have had it bad, but she had it so much worse.

—o—o—o—o—

It was natural for a six year old to be curious.

"We're gonna get in trouble, y'know that, right?" Kagome informed halfheartedly.

But when you bring two rather mischievous twins to the mix, it was bound to get out of hand.

James scoffed, and tossed her a grin. "Only if we get caught," he said cheekily.

With their Dad busy at work as an Auror and their Mum taking a nap as she was feeling a hint under the weather, James and Kagome were left to their own devices.

That alone was bad enough.

But then again, they were bored too, which only spelled disaster.

Kagome rolled her eyes, her lips twitching. "If we get caught we're dead," she countered dryly.

"Let's not get caught then, yeah?" James suggested, snickering. "Besides, this was your idea anyways!"

Seeing as they lived in a quaint, quiet community, and were tucked away from the prying eyes of the village surrounded by dense forest, they were given quite a lot of leeway when it came to exploring.

The rules usually were to stay in seeing distance of the house.

Kagome had the decency to look sheepish. "No – my idea was to do some exploring deeper in the woods – where it's closer to home," she shot back.

James snorted derisively. "And more dangerous," he retorted wryly.

But then of course, there came a time even that wasn't enough...

Kagome ignored him and went on as if he didn't say anything. "Sneaking into the village is all your idea. And with a higher chance if we get caught, I might add."

James just sniggered and shrugged. "But we'd get in trouble either way if we got caught, so we might as well go all out. Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"

Kagome shoved him playfully. "Don't jinx it," she muttered under her breath as he continued to laugh. "Still, this is a bad idea," she grumbled as they finally made it to the village.

Regardless of that, even she had a look of natural, childish curiosity as they roamed the village, taking in the houses and other buildings.

"Wish Mum would let us come down here on our own," James complained.

They loved their Mum, and while she did let them get away with a lot of things, if it ever came to something even remotely dangerous, she was like a lioness with her cubs. Their Dad only ever got serious over the really, really big things though.

To be honest, James wasn't sure if their Dad would either lecture them or stare at them 'sternly' before giving them a proud grin when their Mum wasn't looking if he ever found out about their most recent stunt.

"It gets boring at home sometimes," James went on to say.

Kagome shot him a look of mock-hurt even though she silently agreed. "What, I'm not enough to keep you entertained?" she murmured sadly.

James looked at her quick, alarmed, but glared at her when he saw she was joking. "Git," he muttered, even when he hooked an arm around hers.

Kagome snickered. "Anyways, you know Mum thinks we're too young to go out on our own," she reminded him. "Besides, I don't think there's a lot of kids around our age to play with, otherwise she'd take us down here more often," she reasoned.

James huffed. "Still," he muttered.

Kagome rolled her eyes, and nudged him. "At least we get to see Frank, Dorcas, Marlene and everyone else for play dates sometimes."

James couldn't help but grin. "And when Mum gets Molly to baby-sit us," he couldn't help but add.

Kagome giggled. "Yeah, because Fabian and Gideon are almost always there to play with us."

"They're the best!" he cheered. "They have the best ideas!"

Kagome shook her head at him. 'Must be where he got his encouragement from,' she mused thoughtfully.

James eyes widened. "Ooh! C'mon!" James exclaimed, only for Kagome to hiss at him and yank him back into an alley, away from the stares.

She saw some of those adults eying them earlier with suspicion, and could only guess what they were thinking...

What were two kids as young as them doing by themselves?

"Shh!" Kagome whispered at him, glancing back over her shoulder to check if they were alone. "We have to be careful! If we don't watch it, someone might recognize us and make us go home!"

James blinked at her owlishly. "Why would they do something that stupid?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Oh, I dunno, maybe because we're like six? And we're not with Mum or Dad?" She flicked his nose, snickering when he batted her hand, irritated.

James eyes widened, "Oh," he muttered. "Bugger. What are we going to do then? What's the point of sneaking out here if we can't even look around?"

"We just gotta be careful," she told him patiently. "We can't be obvious and attract attention."

Suddenly, they heard a crash nearby, making them jump. Both of them winced out of reflex, and whipped around.

"Blimey - what was that?" James wondered in a whisper, looking towards the building next to them where the sound came from.

Kagome shrugged. "Wanna find out?"

Nodding absentmindedly, James instinctively reached out for Kagome's hand, tugging her along down the alley. They made their way over to the building, where they grabbed a couple of crates and dragged them over to a dirty window.

Wrinkling her nose in distaste, Kagome rubbed at the window with her sleeve to clear up their view.

What they saw confused James but made Kagome mentally snort in amusement.

It was a pub, and they could only guess that the sound came from the overturned table in the place.

James wrinkled his nose this time. "Merlin's beard, adults are weird..." he muttered under his breath.

Kagome snickered. "Nah, they're just smashed," she commented. James shot her a confused look. "You know – drunk? Like when Mum and Dad get when they're celebrating with 'adult drinks'?" she said, rolling her eyes.

It wasn't fair – she thought suddenly. Everyone else got to wait until they were adults to drink. Unlike them, she had to wait double that...

James looked at her weirdly. "They've never danced on the tables," he pointed out blankly.

Kagome sniggered at the image it conjured. Really, their Mum dancing on a table? Their Dad maybe, but definitely not their Mum. "That's because they don't drink that much to do it."

James was still looking at her strangely. "How do you know all of this stuff anyways?"

Kagome tensed lightly, knowing he meant all those other times she knew things he didn't know. "Well, if you bothered to read a little more, you would too," she said, brushing him off. "Anyways – let's go before someone see's us spying," she muttered, jumping off the crate before walking off.

She just hoped James never realized you don't read those sort of things in books...

A loud thud and a series of footsteps signaled her brother was following her. "You could've waited, y'know," she heard him mutter.

Kagome only laughed.

They walked along the street, looking at the shops as they passed, commenting on them.

Suddenly, "Oh! Look! The candy shop!" James exclaimed softly, pulling her over to the window display

"Too bad we don't have any money," he mumbled mournfully, gazing at the lollipops enviously. "Our candy is lots better, but muggles still have some good stuff."

Kagome rolled her eyes, though her eyes were drawn to the chocolates, twitching when James poked her teasingly and told her, "Careful, you're drooling."

Kagome stuck her tongue out at him, ignoring his snickers. "A little suspicious if we start asking for an allowance now," she told him glumly. "Maybe in a few years, when we're actually allowed to come down here without sneaking off," she mumbled.

James pouted. "Still," he muttered. Shaking his head, he tugged her along.

They didn't get very far when a pair of hands grabbed their shoulders.

"Now wait a minute you two."

Kagome and James let out surprised gasps as they were forcefully turned.

In front of them stood an older man, maybe around his forties. They recognized him as the owner of the candy shop they were just admiring. "Now what are you two doing here? Aren't you rascals a little too young to be going about all alone?"

Kagome and James shared a look that said 'Busted'.

The man was still talking. "Now, where are yer parents, eh?"

Kagome and James just kept quiet, not really knowing what to say.

The mans' eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward to take a closer look. "'Ey, aren't you the Potter twins? Live down the road from the village, behind the forest? I remember seeing you a couple a times when your folks come shopping."

He blinked suddenly, as a thought came to him. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "How'd the two of you get here?"

"We walked," James muttered sarcastically, as if it was obvious.

Kagome elbowed him, biting her lip so she wouldn't laugh.

The man stared down at them sternly. "You're parents are in the village, right?" he said suspiciously.

"Yeah, of course," James assured the man, pulling out the wide-eyed innocent look they used on their parents.

Kagome followed suit, nodded sweetly. "They were just at the market, y'know? Buying some food."

"Are they?" the man muttered. "Well, we'll just see about that, won't we?"

James and Kagome shared a wide eyed look. "What?" they chorused frantically.

The man scoffed, sending them an amused look. "I run a candy shop kiddies. You can't do that without going through your share of kids trying to pull the wool over your eyes. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you snuck out, huh?"

James and Kagome shared a look, and not seeing a way out, their shoulders dropped and they sulked. "Yeah..." James mumbled.

But to their surprise, the man laughed. "Lookie here, ain't nothing wrong with being curious, but what you two don't know is that you can get hurt going off by yourselves when you're so young. Especially when you live so far away."

The two of them looked to the ground, kicking at the ground with their shoes bashfully. James covertly nudged Kagome, and the girl looked up at the man with wide, sad eyes that looked teary.

"W-we're sorry sir... we just, we've always wanted to come down here and look around the village... it gets pretty lonely at home sometimes, and we wondered if there were any kids here that could play with us..." she said in a sad tone, making sure to sniffle a bit.

It was hook, line, and sinker when the stern look melted off the man's face.

Kagome could see James fighting the grin off his face – as usual – and the snigger as well, if the soft shaking of his shoulders were anything to go by. She had to fight off her laugh, seeing him.

The things she did to get them out of trouble...

The man sighed. "Look, I'll walk you two back home, and maybe I can convince your parents that you're gettin' lonely and just want someone to play with."

Kagome tensed, and felt James do the same beside her. Surprised, she just nodded her head blankly, and shared a frantic look with her brother as the padded after the man, not knowing what to do.

Crap! That wasn't supposed to happen!

"What are we going to do?" James hissed worriedly.

Kagome but her lip, at a loss. "I dunno James! He knows where we live, so it's not like we can give him the slip," she murmured, trying to think of a way to get out this.

James scoffed, "Nosy muggles," he muttered, squeaking when Kagome slapped him across the arm. "Oi!" He glared at her indignantly.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Berk! Any adult with common sense would do this – not just muggles," she chastised him.

James huffed, but had the decency to look properly contrite. "Fine, nosy adults," he corrected.

Kagome allowed herself a quick, cheeky grin. "Good."

James rolled his hazel eyes and after a few minutes of silently walking what seemed to be their march of doom, pouted. "If only we could get our hands on a wand and cast a notice-me-not charm," he remarked sullenly, casting a quick look to the man in front of him to make sure he was heard.

Kagome shot him a dry look, smiling slightly. "Do you even know how to cast that?" she challenged quietly.

James huffed. "No," he admitted sheepishly. "But we can learn. I'm sure it's in a book somewhere in the library," he said with confidence.

Kagome's smile widened. 'It is, but I rather you not get any ideas...' she thought wryly. Merlin only knew what would happen if James got his paws on a wand this young.

Kagome snorted to herself. 'The world would end, most likely,' she mused amusedly. "Mum and Dad would kill us if they found out. That's like, one of the most important rules," she reminded him.

James' face screwed up, "Never take another's wand and use it – you could seriously hurt yourselves and others," he mimicked in a horrible imitation of their Dad's voice. He sounded much too high-pitched.

Kagome snorted.

Suddenly, halfway there, the pair of them walked into something hard and solid. Letting out a pair of startled yelps, the two of them stumbled back to catch themselves.

"What the-?" James exclaimed as he rubbed his forehead, Kagome doing the same with the side of her head.

They watched with astonishment as the Candy shop man turned, blinking fast. He looked down at them dazedly. "I just remembered – I have an appointment," he mumbled bemusedly. "I have to meet someone – someone soon..."

Kagome blinked dumbly. "Wha-?

"Wait!" James whispered suddenly, grabbing her arm, stopping her. His eyes widened suddenly with glee and he looked at her. "The wards!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Kagome's eyes widened in understanding.

James took it from here. "That's alright, sir. We can manage from here," he told him with the utmost politeness.

The man blinked at him, as if he just realized he was there, before nodding absently. "Right, well then..."

And with that, he just walked off.

Kagome blinked as well, stunned. Suddenly, the urge to laugh came over her, to laugh at the absurdity of it all, before silently chiding herself – she should be used to this, really... She let out a breath of relief. "Well, thank Merlin for Muggle Repelling wards..." she muttered.

"I forgot all about those!" James sniggered and grabbed onto her wrist. "Well, since we're here – let's go explore the forest!"

Kagome couldn't help the excited grin on her face, and she instantly shoved away the niggling thought that said this was a bad idea. "Sure!" she chirped.

Getting caught was a sad hiccup in their adventure, sure, but it didn't matter. If anything, it just taught them to be more careful.

It also set the precedent.

Sneaking out became quite a habit over time. They would tell their mother they would be out in the forest, playing.

It wasn't an outright lie of course. Just a little... twist of the truth. You know what they always say - what Mum didn't know, wouldn't hurt her.

If anything, it would hurt them when she found out anyways...

Words- 4,150

So? What do you think?

As you can see, there's going to be some time skipping for the next few chapters.

If you're confused, the first two scenes – the 'Hide and Go Seek' and 'Magic at Breakfast' scenes is when James and Kagome are still four.

The 'Home-schooled' scene is when they're five. And speaking of which, I haven't the slightest clue what the school system is like in Britain lol. If it's totally wrong, my bad and no offense lol.

And the 'Sneaking into the Village' scene is when they're six.

Hope you all enjoyed it! ^^ I know I did when I wrote I, hehe!

Oh, and a huge thanks to my lovely, awesome beta ArmyWife22079. I'm pretty sure the idea of the egg flinging scene was from you lol. That, and the pair getting caught by a muggle and escorted back home on their first time sneaking out haha!

Till laters!

RainLily^^

A big huge honking thanks to all those who read, alerted, and fav'd this fic, and to these awesome reviewers!

Magykrider, SasoLOVE111, Azure-x-Roze, Shirahime Jade Silverstone, Interested Reader, cheerfreak2, InfiniteWhiplash, MoonPrincess1989, coolgirl0147852, Ice Vixen X, ladyyuuki16, ObsidianFrost, darksilvercloud, Midlina, kakashixangela, InuTrickster, TheIcecreamGeek, lady sesshomaru-sama, maxeyn, CrescentMelody, ArmyWife22079, Venas, Nameless Fable, TsukiyoTenshi, UnstableFable, Bunny.W.K, Valleygoat, Clowesia, ShiTsukisama, Bishonen'sFoxyMiko