Chapter 2: Of Family and Fire
JamesPOV
Family is one of the most important things to me; I would do anything for them. My mum and dad were some of the best parents anyone would be jealous over. Mum had a temper, but when she wanted, she could easily sit down and play videogames with me, or be one of the most loving and caring people you could ever imagine. My dad, the famous Harry Potter (though I couldn't really see it), was what Aunt Hermione calls a "goof ball", dad could never take anything serious, he was always joking and playing around with my siblings and me, but when needed, he was one of the fiercest people that I knew. Then came my two younger siblings, Albus (who was just about to turn sixteen), and Lily (the baby at fourteen). Albus and me could argue and fight for hours on end, but don't get me wrong, Al and I have a lot in common. We both love Qudditch, anything to do with sports really. Sure, we had that whole house rivalry thing going on during the school year, but I had never truly hated my brother just because he was a snake. Baby Lily was so sweet and happy, that people would underestimate her. Sure Lily hated anything to do with mud or anything to make her break into a sweat, but that girl had an evil mind and was just as mischievous as Uncle George. We used to have family nights together, but that ended once we were all in Hogwarts and mum and dad started working again. Dad was busy at 's taking care of all the sick patients, and mom was usually training with the Harpies almost every day of the summer. We managed though; there was a lot of movie nights, or one on one time. But when I found most of my family busy with their own thing, I had a backup.
At Hogwarts, I had four guys who I actually considered best friends, for lack of a better word. The five of us have been friends ever since our sorting, and happily claimed the top spots in Gryffindor. After playing on the same team for seven years, sharing detentions, and having the same classes every year, all of us were pretty tight. There was Ethan Chance, who was my right hand man, with his dark brown hair, and matching eyes, he was what one would call the jock in our group, he was the most serious about Qudditch then the rest of us, and supposedly he was going to try out for the Bulgarian team this summer. Jayden Thomas was the joker of our group, he was actually working at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, being Uncle George's apprentice, he had light brown hair, and was never seen without a smile. Third there was William Green, at Hogwarts he had been the "player" as Rose dear had bestowed upon him, Will liked dating, but found it incredibly boring after the first week. It was easy for him to get girls with his blonde hair and hazel eyes, Lily said he was hot, and I felt like puking knowing that my little sister was crushing on my best friend. And finally, there was Teddy Lupin, who was like family to me….oh wait….he actually was family, my god-brother actually. Since I could remember Teddy has always been at my house, with his color changing hair, and bright blue eyes, he looked like his parents (well from what I could tell from the photograph that I had seen). Teddy was serious all the time, always the one who would put work before fun. Of course he was a Gryffindor for a reason, and used his deadly smarts to help us plot some of our most ingenious plans ever.
The five of us were always together, well when we could that was. Summer was always a time for us to get together, so it was no surprise when the four of them showed up suddenly in my room at four in the morning, throwing me out of bed and demanding for me to get up so they could go swimming. I only argued about sleep, because I had been wanting to go swimming since the moment I got home yesterday. Still no matter how hard I tried going back to sleep, they were set upon their idea. So that led to sneaking out of the house and trying to keep quiet as we opened the pool and jumped in.
We almost got away with it too, if my mum hadn't had to get up and get ready for the party later on. At about six o'clock she suddenly appeared on the railing above, "What the bloody hell do you boys think you're doing? Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Hey Mrs.P," Jayden waved happily, "Did you sleep well?"
I smacked my palm against my forehead, "Sorry mum!"
"James Sirius Potter! What gives you any idea that this was alright?" Mum screeched, the coffee in her mug sloshed out and went spilling overboard.
"It's our fault ," Ethan scratched the back of his head, moving in the way of Teddy dunking Will underwater, "We came over unannounced and didn't really give J any choice."
Mum shook her head, violently running a hand through her messed up hair, "Fine then," I held in the cheer, "you all can swim, but," oh Merlin, "in an hour I need James to go to Hermione's to go get some things. Deal?"
"Does this deal include food by chance?" I asked off hand.
"Yeah, it sure does!" Mum smiled brightly, I smiled happily up to my mum, "There's some bread in the cupboard, help yourselves."
With that mum left, happily dancing back into the house as we all stood there confused. Teddy's bright yellow hair turned gray as he tried coming to terms with what my mother had just said, "Does she mean we have to make ourselves something?"
"Great detective work genius!" William snapped, jumping onto Teddy and holding him under water. My mum's words were soon forgotten as I focused on rescuing my god-brother, only ending in a war with Ethan and the others. Before I knew it, our hour was up, and I only knew this because suddenly all the water in the pool disappeared, and above our words of shock, I could hear my mother's cackles from somewhere upstairs.
So after hurriedly throwing on cargo shorts and a red jersey I ran outside while mum sent a hoard of flying books at me and the guys. It wasn't that far to walk to my Aunt and Uncle's place, just about five miles south of our house, we shared this huge piece of land together, so we had always grown up being around family. My relative's house was the exact replica of my house, except their house had a room dedicated to nothing but books.
"I've never been to Rosie's before," Ethan commented as we wound our way through the trees.
"Nothing there to do," Teddy said, "all they do is read and watch the telly."
"That's all we do," I smirked, "you'll like it there, there's always something blowing up."
"From Rose?" Will asked, jumping over a log.
"Hugo," Teddy and I shared a smile.
"Who?" Ethan, William, and Jayden asked. We chose not to answer any more of their questions as the house finally came into view.
"You guys need to be quiet until we say so," I warned, not knowing the situation of the Weasley house at that moment. All the lights were still off as we entered the house. My aunt and uncle were probably still asleep, and Rose too since they all had this obsession with sleeping in. I slipped my shoes off near the door and padded across the carpeted floor to the kitchen, making sure the others followed what I did.
As I rounded the corner into the giant kitchen, I could hear someone whispering, as we got closer I saw that it was Rose with little Hugo clinging tightly to her as she tried reaching up into a cabinet.
"Morning Rose dear!" I said loudly, causing her to jump.
Hugo screeched happily, covering up Rose's curse, "Seriously! A little warning would be nice!" she snapped as she sat her baby brother down on the counter. Hugo was one of the most adorable babies I had ever seen. He had curly brown hair, bright blue eyes, and was a ball of energy.
"Nah," Teddy fell into one of the island stools before pulling Hugo towards him and started talking child-like to the baby.
"So this is where the great Rose Weasley lives!" Jayden spread his arms wide, causing Will and Ethan to duck, "not too shabby I must say."
Rose gave him a glare before throwing Teddy a cup full of milk for Hugo, "I really can't stand your 'humor' this early."
"It's almost eight," Ethan hopped onto the counter in front of her, pulling on a red strand of hair.
"Yeah! Early!" Rose snapped, throwing her hands in the air.
"Mum said I needed to come get some things for later," I decided to jump in as Rose's stare caught sight of her wand lying on the dining table.
Rose rolled her blue eyes, "Yeah, my mum would totally trust me to know what was needed," laughing she started walking out of the kitchen, "watch Hugo while I go try and find out."
We didn't have a chance to argue as she disappeared. The moment his sister left, Hugo began to wail, throwing his cup to the floor and screaming as loud as his little lungs would allow. I ran forward pulling Hugo into my arms, "There there kid, calm down."
"Oh Merlin! How can something so little be so bloody loud?" Jayden yelled, covering his ears.
Teddy and I tried talking to Hugo, handing him whatever we could get our hands on, we even tried distracting him with magic, making his toy soldiers actually start fighting with each other.
"Give me," Rose suddenly came back into the room, taking Hugo before we even comprehended she was back. The moment that baby was back in her arms, he stopped crying, laughing happily and clapping his hands, "Awe, did the mean ogres scare you?" she cooed as she sat him in his chair at the table.
"Ogres?" Will threw his head back and laughed.
"Yes, or are you suddenly deaf and can't hear?" Rose smirked as she leaned against the counter next to me. I noticed that she had changed out of her pajamas, wearing jean shorts and a Gryffindor shirt (which was mine) that was tied in the back, converse slipped onto her feet. For once Rose's long red hair was left down, flowing down her back, most of the time it was pulled back into a ponytail.
"Ha you kill me with your humor!" Ethan placed a hand over his heart.
"Good, it saves me time so I don't have to decide which Unforgiveable you truly deserve," Rose smiled angelically.
"You look pretty with your hair down," Ethan commented, running his fingers down a lock of the long red hair.
Rose looked at a loss of words at this compliment, for she chose instead to place her brother in a chair at the dining table.
It always amazed just how easy it was for Ethan to get Rose shocked, there was some weird obsession with him complimenting her, and I had to tell myself it was because he was her friend. I, of course being the older cousin to Rose, thought that it had to end. And when I confronted Ethan he merely told me to calm down and not worry. Well that was at the beginning of our last year and it still hadn't stopped. I was distracted from my thoughts as my uncle came into the room.
Uncle Ron didn't even look at us as he sat down at the kitchen table, putting his head in his arms, not even stirring when Hugo threw a block at him.
"What's with your dad?" Teddy whispered, poking Rose in the side.
"Long night, mum didn't come home till late and he tried staying up until she got home," my cousin answered quietly.
Aunt Hermione was one of the best Auror's out there, and Uncle Ron, along with my dad, worried about her a lot when she was out on missions. "How is she?" I asked.
Rose shrugged as she made her way over to her dad, "Dad, um…morning?"
"Go. Away," Ron growled.
Rose didn't need to be told twice as she started pushing us downstairs to the game room. Quietly closing the door she flopped down on the couch, only to be tackled by Will, who laughed as she kicked him off.
"Mum said she'll get up in a little bit to go and get the stuff," Rose said offhand as I turned the TV on and began flipping through the channels. We all got comfortable as a movie started. I sat next to my favorite cousin, asking a few questions here and there. Ethan was laying nest to her, his head in her lap as he kept the others off. Jayden was making some stupid joke about the movie, and Will and Teddy were playing Exploding Snap.
"Did you know that Malfoy Junior is staying at my house?" I asked, turning the channel.
Rose groaned, "Yes, and I already tried talking Al out of it."
"He can't be that bad," Ethan commented.
Rose stopped scratching his head to cover to him with a pillow, "I swear, if he says one thing to me, I'll punch him in the face, this time I won't miss."
"This time?" Jayden asked curiously, turning to look up at us.
"Oh that's right, didn't he call your mum a mudblood and you punched him?" I asked and she nodded.
"But you forget," Teddy smirked, "he grabbed her and they went flying over the railing and into the courtyard." We roared with laughter as Rose scowled.
"That's beside the point!" She snapped, "the point is, I will Avada him is he says one word. Or maybe Cruciatus would be more enjoyable."
"You are one Satanic girl," Ethan shook his head.
"And yet you love me," Rose smiled, while smacking him lightly over the head.
I spent most of the day at Rose's, choosing to allow my Aunt and Uncle to go over early, knowing that my mum was probably on a war path. This seemed to be the smart choice, because just a little after noon, Albus showed up suddenly, dragging a reluctant Scorpius behind him. I literally could feel the level of hate rolling off of Rose as she stormed out of the room, leaving a very confused brother of mine. He ran after Rose after his level of shock wore off, leaving the Slytherin Prince (well second prince) alone with us. H stood warily near the doorway, obviously ready for a quick escape, the guys and I ignored him. Scorpius actually wasn't that bad, yeah he was vile and could be stuck up and prejudice, but he was funny (at times) and last night he had actually engaged in a real conversation with me, not a battle of who could wound the others pride the most conversation, just a normal civilized conversation between two people.
It still blew my mind, just how much Rose hated Scorpius Malfoy. The funny part was, they were exactly alike. Hard headed, fierce, but both equally cared for the others around them. I remember one time Scorpius and Rosie got into this huge argument; it was so bad not even the professors wanted to break them up. I'm not too sure what Scorpius said, but suddenly Rose got real quiet and walked away, the guys and I had found her crying (and Rose NEVER cries) in the far end of the library. No matter what we tried to say, Rose wouldn't move from there. So we left, but not before we saw something very interesting. Scorpius walked over to Rose and kneeled in front of her, whispering something to her that clearly had Rose shocked. She smiled when he held his hand out and helped her up, and they went their separate ways. When I asked Rose about what I had seen, all she said was that Scorpius had actually apologized and she was as shocked as I was.
Albus couldn't get anything out of Rose, for he stayed upstairs until we were needed back home. Rose put herself between me and Ethan the whole time as we walked, catching Scorpius' gaze only to have both of them glare, and then turn away. The walk lasted a millennium it seemed, no one dared speak a word, even Jayden knew that one word could lead to a possible explosion. The moment we entered the house Rose darted to where ever my sister and Stella were, not saying a word. Scorpius dragged Al downstairs, and we were left alone.
"I have a feeling that something is going to go wrong," Teddy sighed as he massaged his temple.
Feeling my own headache coming on, I couldn't have agreed more.
ScorpiusPOV
You know that feeling you get in your gut, the one that is screaming that something BIG is about to happen, and you're not going to like it? Yeah, I was feeling that right now. Currently my gut was yelling at me to get the hell away from the Potter household, even if it meant getting in trouble, or even suffering humiliation of the cowardice nature. Surely nothing that bad could happen, right? Wrong, the moment I set eyes on that Weasley girl, and automatically felt her full force glare, I knew something was going to happen. If we had been at Hogwarts, I would have been taunting her the moment I caught the gaze, but considering I was staying at a house full of Gryffindor's (and two Ravenclaws) I didn't feel the urge to commit my own suicide mission.
Instead I decided the best thing to do was avoid Rose, pushing all thought of the flaming red head into the farthest recesses of my mind as Al and I started a game of Wizards Chess. Just as I was getting into the mood, we were interrupted with the announcement that my father had just arrived. Albus started laughing the moment Harry left the room with a scowl on his face; obviously Al thought this was going to be a show. I just hoped that my dad wouldn't do anything to disrespect our family.
So Al and I crept up the stairs as slowly as possible, I even tried stalling all the way into the kitchen. I prepared for the sight of my dad and locked in a fist fight, with Mr. Weasley trying to hold dad still, but what I saw truly floored me. All three men were sitting on the overhang at a table, sipping out of plastic red cups, Harry laughing at something my dad had said. Ron smirked, his posture stiff whereas Harry's was completely relaxed. What truly surprised me was when my dad started laughing at something Harry said. Surely I must be in an alternate universe.
"Mum, did you poison them?" Albus whispered to Ginny.
"No we did not," my mum snapped playfully, waving her wand so that some knives could begin chopping so vegetable. She placed a hand on my head.
"First your brother and sister accuse me of slipping them lot out there something, and then my own niece asks if I've confunded anyone," shook her head, "you all have no faith in me."
"Can you blame them Gin?" Hermione asked, smiling as she stirred something in a pot, "I mean, those three did fight like cats and dogs all through their Hogwarts years."
"Coming from the woman who broke Draco's nose?" Mrs. Potter laughed loudly as Mrs. Weasley smirked.
"You broke my dad's nose?" I asked, stealing a bite from the table with Al.
"Sure did," Hermione smiled broadly, "it was one of my fondest memories of your father."
"And I can assure you, it wasn't one of my own," dad walked in, leaving Harry and Ron on the porch outside. He leaned against the counter, grabbing a chip and taking off a bite, "trust me Granger, if you weren't a girl, I would have hit you back."
"Mmhhmm, that's it alright," Hermione laughed rolling her eyes, "you just don't want to look like a loser in front of your own kid ferret."
"And the name sparring begins!" Dad thrust his arms in the arm dramatically, causing me to choke on my pumpkin juice.
"Let's leave before I see any other weird sides of my dad I didn't know he had," I grabbed Albus' sleeve, but he pulled away. By now everyone was in the kitchen watching as Hermione battled my dad in a game of wits. I gave up on my attempt of getting Albus to leave, so I wandered outside, walking along the pool as Lily and Stella dove underwater, laughing when I kicked everything in. It got old soon though and I wound up taking some hidden stairs up to a smaller gated yard. Opening the white paint peeled iron; I brushed some ivy out of the way. There was a play set made of wood built magically into a tree. The swings were held together with what looked like vines.
My stomach clenched as I saw none other than Rose Weasley sitting on one of those said swings. But that wasn't the reason why my stomach was clenching; it was of because of what she was doing. Standing in front of her was James' friend Ethan Chance, leaning down and doing something that had my head racing, and my stomach twisting into fiery knots. He was kissing Rose Weasley, and for some reason, I found the urge to storm over and punch him in the face.
A/N: Yes, yes I did just end that in a cliff hanger, and you are welcome :) Well guys I haven't been able to get in touch with Angel, so I decided to write this however I wanted. Don't get mad about the Ethan thing, I promise I'm going somewhere with that. Just chill, k? And please review since you all are amazing, right? Of course you are! ;) Until next time!
xoxoMax
PostScript: ONLY 6 MORE DAYS TIL HP PT. 2 COMES OUT! :D
Post Post Script: And I did in fact write this chapter to Justin Bieber Pandora Radio Station :) Don't judge, it gave you an update, right?