The woman opened the back door and yelled as the Potters made their way into the sitting room. Ginny hoisted Lily onto her lap and Albus sat smushed between his parents on the tiny, burgundy sofa. James leaned on the arm of the couch, trying to scuttle his seat onto it, which earned him a sharp glance from his mother.

"Okay, okay, girls. We're done. Go wash up."

A large man walked into the sitting room, two young girls hanging onto his arms. He pried them off and they ran past the sofa and upstairs, bouncing curls and giggling voices. The man wiped his hands on his pantlegs and held one out to Harry. "Good to see you lot. How've you been?"

"We've been fine. You?" Harry replied as Dudley shook his hand vigorously.

"Wonderful," Dudley laughed. He passed his eyes over the children gathered on the sofa and goggled. "Good Lord, they're huge!"

He took James' face gently in his hand to get a good look at him, and the surprise on his face was more than noticeable.

"Gracious, you look just like your father."

James stuck his tongue out at Dudley and made a loud raspberry. Ginny popped him on the back of the head.

"No, no, it's alright. 'Spose I wouldn't want some strange bloke grabbing at my face, either." Dudley sat down in the armchair across the coffee table. "They are getting big, though."

"Well, yours aren't exactly small, are they?" Harry said, taking a tea cup from the woman. She handed a cup over to Ginny and perched on Dudley's chair. Harry took a sip from the pale blue china and tried to hide his expression. He put the cup down, hoping she wouldn't offer any of that tea to his kids, lest they ask her what was this, badger piss?. He took a biscuit off the plate instead. "How old are the girls now?"

"Six," Dudley groaned. "They've gotten to where they do this thing. They'll pretend to be the other-"

"-Like Abigail will pretend to be Annabelle, and vice versa-"

"-Marianne can always tell them apart, but I can't."

"Birthmarks," Ginny said suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Birthmarks," Ginny repeated, adjusting Lily on her lap. "I had twin brothers, and they did the same thing. Dad could tell the difference because George had a mole on his ear. So if the girls have any differentiating moles or birthmarks, that can help."

"You know," Marianne started, taking two biscuits from the tray, "Abby does have that freckle above her eyebrow."

"The one I thought was dirt?"

Marianne nodded.

"That could work. Easy enough to remember."

The conversation was interrupted by the loud clamboring of two girls barreling down the stairs.

"They are stairs! Not a damned jungle gym!" Dudley boomed at the girls. He turned to Harry. "Do you have this problem at your house, or is it just us?"

"We don't have stairs, mate."

"No. No, I guess you wouldn't," he said awkwardly.

Harry stared at him quizzically. "What do you mean by-"

"Girls, why don't you take these three upstairs?" Marianne interjected. "They look positively bored to tears."

At the word 'play', James came alive and dashed up the stairs. Albus took a little coaxing, but when Ginny was able to convince him, he took Lily's hand and together they climbed upstairs, the sandy-headed twins chattering lively behind them.

Once out of earshot, his eyes following the group upstairs, Dudley turned to Harry. "When do you know?"

"Know? Know what?"

"Know if…you know."

"No, I'm afraid I don't."

Dudley's voice was barely above a whisper. Harry was unsure if his cousin was quiet out of fear or habit. "Magic."

"Oh," Harry muttered.

Dudley with magical children—the thought had never occured to him, and even if it had, he'd have assumed Vernon's genes would have squashed out the Evans'. He nearly choked on his biscuit.

"Well," Ginny offered, setting her saucer down on the coffee table and giving Harry a few good whacks between the shoulder blades, "Usually about this age is when you see it. Allie—excuse me, Al. I have to get used to saying that.—just started getting regular about it earlier this year."

"How though?" Marianne asked, her eyes both worried and curious.

"It's hard to say. Just sort of unexplained, unusual things. Mainly when they get angry or provoked."

-xxxxx-

"Hold hands!"

Albus grabbed his brother's hand.

"Not us, you git! Them!" James nodded to Abby and Annie. "Hold hands, you two."

The two girls, exchanging confused glances, cautiously grasped each other's hands. "Now what?"

"Now say 'come play with us'."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

As they recited their line, James fell to the floor, howling with laughter. Lily looked up from her toy in the corner and started laughing, too, if only because her big brother did so first.

"Why is that so funny?" Annie scoffed, yanking her hand away and looking curiously at the dark-headed boy on the floor.

"He saw it in a Muggle movie we weren't 'posed to watch," Albus said, in a moment of dictional clarity.

"What's Muggle?"

James sat up and smirked at his cousins. "You. You lot are Muggles."

Abby, still unsure what the word meant, obviously understood it to be unpleasant. "Well, what are you?" she fired back. "Besides a prat?"

James rolled his head back and chuckled with light-hearted menace. "Oh, ho, ho. Good one. No, I am a wizard."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Where's your magic wand then?"

"Don't have one yet," James drawled. "I'll get one in a few years, though."

"Well, I don't think you're a wizard," Annie added matter-of-factly. "I think you're lying."

"Well, I'm not."

"Prove it then!"

Abby stood with her hip out, her arms crossed, sure she had ended the duel. But James rose and defiantly grinned. He closed his eyes, tight, and scrunched up his face. A rattling noise began to bounce around the room, and the two girls looked around for its source as Al joined his sister in the corner, his eyes mashed closed and his hands over his ears. James remained still, a slightly smug look plastered on his concentrated face.

"There!" Annie yelled. "The pan!"

The little, plastic yellow pan on the play stove was shaking and smoking, steam rising from it. Abby walked to it carefully and peered over at it. She gasped. "It's boiling! The water is boiling!"

"Daddy said no, James! He said!" Albus piped from the corner.

"Oh, alright, you babies." James relaxed his face and the rattling ceased immediately. "Better now?"

Annie and Abby looked at James in awe. "How did you do that?"

"Toldja I'm a wizard," he said. He grabbed a crayola from the table. "Watch this."