2.

It was a Saturday morning and James Potter had been quietly eating his toast while his wife labored away in the garden when a beautiful and majestic owl landed on their windowsill. With one talon, it knocked on the glass and waited patiently for James to let him in. The Head Auror did so with some confusion. None of his friends used owls as obviously expensive as this one and no one from the ministry would ever justify the expense of having one for official business. With all that said, he wondered just who it could be. Quickly, he detached the letter from the owl and turned to look at the front of the envelope, his eyes widening as he recognized it for what it was.

A courtship letter…from Lord Thomas Riddle.

Personally, James didn't know much about the illustrious Thomas except for what his daughter had told him. In her words, he was apparently "drop-dad gorgeous", rich – "Heir of a founder!" and powerful magically speaking. He was the most eligible bachelor in the whole school. Rose had been crushing on him ever since he had accidently bumped in to her and helped her gather up her books. "A true gentleman," she had gushed. James resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the memory. Merlin save them all from teenage girls and their "crushes."

"Oh Merlin," James muttered to himself as he regarded the letter, "She's going to be insufferable when I tell her that her crush has sent her an official courtship letter." Despite being more then a little happy for his precious princess, James couldn't help but wonder why now of all times. Rose had already passed 16 for some time and it was usually then courtship letters were sent out.

"James?"

James was torn from his contemplations when his wife entered the room, hands still dirty from her previous activity.

"Courtship letter," James told her with a big smile, "From Thomas Riddle."

Lily squealed uncharacteristically as she came over, grabbing the letter from James' hand. The Auror actually tried to push himself away from the table when he noticed the almost manic look in the usually calm woman's eyes.

"Rose will be so delighted," she said happily, "Come, let us inform Sirius and Remus. We'll also inform Dumbledore so that he can let the children come home tomorrow. We will open this letter together!"

"That's a wonderful idea Lily," James told her as he made his way towards the floo. "Wonderful."

"Oh my sweet princess is growing up," Lily cooed, twirling around the room like a little girl, "18 and about to get engaged."

"You know," James said, gathering up a handful of floo powder, "She can still say no."

"Of course she won't," Lily replied with a roll of her eyes, "She had confessed to me that she had been dreaming about marrying the boy for some time now."

"If you say so," James said, and threw the powder in to the fireplace followed by the call of Sirius' name.

It took about 5 seconds before his best friend's face appeared amidst the flames.

"James?" Sirius sounded alarmed, "Is something wrong?"

"You know that Riddle kid that Rosey had been crushing on? Well, he just sent over a courtship letter for her?"

Sirius' eyes widened in surprise.

"That's wonderful," he said sincerely before grabbing someone by the arm and pulling him over, "Remus! Rosey got a courtship letter!"

"Really?" Remus said with a big smile, face appearing next to Sirius', "What does the letter say?"

"We haven't opened it yet," James admitted, "We were planning to get everyone – the children included – together so we can open it tomorrow."

"If you haven't opened it yet," Remus started slowly, "Then how do you know it's for Rose?"

"It's addressed to us, and we only have one child eligible for marriage."

"But Harry just turned 16," Remus pressed, "He's eligible too."

That gave James pause.

"No way," he finally decided, laughing a little, "Only Rosey is magically talented enough to attract this boy's attention. Don't be silly Remus. Come over tomorrow and you'll see."

But little did they know, things won't go exactly as planned.

"Hmm, that's strange," Harry said, turning the letter he had just received from his parents in his hands, "Mom wants me to go home tomorrow."

"Did something happen?" Hermione asked worriedly as she peered at the content of the letter over Harry's shoulder. It was short and to the point, offering no further information than the time the portkey would activate and where to go to access it.

"I hope everything's alright," Hermione said softly, glancing over to where Rose was sat, also looking confusingly down at her letter.

"She doesn't sound frantic," Harry shrugged, putting the missive out of his mind for the moment, "I'm sure everything will be fine. In the main time, why don't you show me what we have to do for Potions."

That was enough to distract Hermione from the topic of the letter.

"Harry! Don't you ever listen in class?"

Harry laughed as Hermione started to berate him about all the things he should be doing.

TBC.

A/N: I'm sorry for the late update. Thank you all for the wonderful response. I hope this chapter amuses you as much as it did me. The next chapter will be longer and we will see the consequence of the Potter's "presumptions."

See you there.