I don't own anyone you recognize from JKR's books! Duh! If I did, I would be focusing more of my energy on the actual book I'm trying to write (which, incidentally, will share the title of this fic, so if you ever see one out in the next few years, you knew the author…lol).

Okay, as usual, notes to reviewers are at the bottom, as well as the current house points achieved. But now, we've got a new chapter!

To the Moon and Back—Chapter 7

Her eyes were fixed unbelievingly, and her hand flew over her mouth in shock. Breaking the strangely uncharacteristic silence, she uttered a single, shaky, inquisitive syllable.

"Ron?"

His warm eyes focused on Hermione's face for the first time in over a decade; nearly twelve long years. Ron stood there wanting to go to her, but his feet seemed unable to move. Before she could think, Hermione had darted out of her seat and thrown her arms around him, sobbing into his chest (which James couldn't understand, as this was certainly not something to cry about).

"Hermione," Ron said softly, relieved, hugging her tightly. "Oh, my God. I can't believe it." Hermione pulled back a little, laughing through her tears.

"It's me," she said, voice wobbling slightly. "I didn't think you were going to be here."

"They caught the guy early, there was no point in me staying," he told her as she dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.

"Did you get—"

"Yeah, I cried when I read it, to be honest," he said, ears reddening. Hermione laughed.

"You did? He with the emotionality of a blunt axe?" He shrugged and looked at the floor, and she knew that he wasn't lying. She hugged him again.

"I guess we have a lot of catching up to do, huh?"

"Yeah. Can we sit, though? I'm starving." Hermione nodded, and as though everyone else had heard them (which, she knew, they probably had) one end of the table shifted down a couple of spaces. Before they sat, though, a blur of red hair came flying like a flaming cannonball into Ron's stomach.

"Hey, Kiddo, it's great to see you," he said, hugging the boy tightly. Daniel smiled.

"I'm so glad that you're back! I can't wait to tell you everything that's happened!" Daniel sat next to Ron at the table, across from Hermione, and carried over his plate and tumbler to join him. Hermione could tell that what Ron wanted more than anything was to talk to her, be with her, to hear her story, but she smiled to herself when he shot her a look that said "we have to do this later" and devoted his attention to his child, who was babbling incessantly in good imitation of Ron himself.

The rest of the evening flew by, and before Hermione knew it they were polishing second helping of homemade lemon tarts and the sun had long since set on the horizon. Several bewitched fairy lights (courtesy of Fred and George) fluttered over the long table, illuminating their faces in a warm glow. When little Anastasia's head nearly dropped off into her plate of dessert, Bill and Fleur gathered the rest of their children and bid the others good-bye.

"We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope, 'Ermione," Fleur said, giving her a swift hug as Bill prepared the fireplace for their departure.

"Of course," Hermione assured her, smiling, as she turned to leave.

"See you two later," Isabella told Lily and James, smiling brightly. "I'll see you next week, I hope?"

"If we're invited," Lily smiled.

"Definitely!"

"Of course you will be, your mom was like family and so are you. Bye!"

"Bye," they called after her retreating back. Soon thereafter, Fred and George gathered their own families, and Ginny—giving Hermione, Lily, and James hugs and promises to see them again soon—whisked her own husband and children toward the fireplace.

All that were left were Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, Lily, James, Ron and Daniel, who made their way into the house to the scrubbed wooden table. Mrs. Weasley called the children into the kitchen to help with the dishes, giving Ron and Hermione a chance to talk alone (Mr. Weasley had already retired to bed).

What exactly it was they talked about, Lily never knew, because when the dishes were finished the three children were whisked upstairs to a room on the fourth landing and pushed the door wide open, allowing them to pass. They found themselves in a room that might have once been a bedroom, but was now a sort of playroom. The blue wallpaper was faded, and the walls were lined with shelves and cabinets on which books, games and other things were stacked.

"Yes, we needed to have a place where all of those grandkids could come to stay out of our hair when they came to visit," Mrs. Weasley said with a smile as James walked over to examine the board games; there were strange games that he'd never heard of—the Quidditch board game, catch the Muggle, Dragon Mountain—and ones that he was familiar with, like Life, Trouble, Twister and Clue.

"Muggle games?" Lily asked, examining a box for Monopoly. She nodded.

"Yes, Arthur's fascinated with them all, he used to come across them a lot in his work, unjinx them, and bring them home. I guess he's amassed quite a collection."

"Cool," James said earnestly. A large, circular table with several mismatched chairs sat at the end of the room near the window, and a vase of flowers stood in the center of it.

"Okay, well, I'm going downstairs to tend to some knitting, so I'll leave the three of you to bond. I daresay you'll be seeing a lot of each other from this point forward," she smiled at all of them. "If you need anything, you can come find me. Daniel will help you to get acquainted." With that, she turned her back on them and left the room, door creaking partway closed behind her. Lily turned to Daniel.

"So, what game would you like to play?" she asked kindly. He looked at the floor and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't care," he said.

"Well, which is your favorite?"

"It doesn't matter."

"There must be one—" she began, but he cut her off angrily.

"Look, I know that my grandmother says we're supposed to play together and be all chummy, but no matter how much she forces us all together, she can't make me like you." Lily looked appalled, and James, shocked. Neither knew what to say to him, which turned out not to be a problem, because a moment later he turned his back on them and left the room.

"Um…" James began, unsure of how he was supposed to react to this.

"Yeah," Lily said, sounding insulted as she sank into the nearest chair. She threw her hands up in confusion, looking questioningly at her brother. "I don't get it, what did I do?" James shrugged, wandering over to the nearest shelf and pulling a box off of it.

"You didn't do anything," he said, sitting next to his sister and setting the game onto the tabletop with more force than he usually would have. "He's just being a jerk."

"But why?"

"Beats me," he said. "Wanna play...Match the Mad Muggles?" He read the name off of the box and pulled the lid off.

"Sure," she said halfheartedly.

"Okay," James said, trying to cheer Lily up. She seemed to take Daniel's rudeness to heart, as some sort of personal insult. So the two of them began to play. Half an hour later, according to the clock—it seemed like hours—Mrs. Weasley came up to retrieve them.

"Where's Daniel?" she asked, eyes surveying the small room. James and Lily looked at each other apprehensively.

"We—we don't know," James said. "We think that he might have gotten tired and gone to sleep early or something." Lily looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing. Mrs. Weasley frowned slightly, and looked back at the two of them.

"Well, I'll look for him. Meanwhile, your mother would like to see you in the kitchen. You do remember the way back, don't you?" They nodded and she left the room, her footsteps resounding down the staircase.

"You didn't have to lie to her, James," Lily said, beginning to neatly stack the game cards and arrange them back in the box.

"I didn't lie to her, Lily," he replied, helping her to shove the pieces back into the box and put the lid on before sliding it back onto the shelf where they'd found it. "I just sort of…guessed where he'd be. I didn't say that I knew for sure." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Whatever," she said as they pushed in their chairs and headed down the stairs. As the two of them emerged side-by-side into the kitchen, they saw that their mother and Ron were seated at the scrubbed table across from each other, with large mugs in front of them, as well as several crumpled tissues. Hermione smiled at them; her face was tear-streaked, which didn't surprise Lily at all, but by the look on James' face he couldn't believe how she could possibly be crying again.

"Hey, guys," Hermione said, gesturing them over toward her. "Come sit down for a moment. We'll be leaving soon, and you haven't been introduced to Ron yet."

"Okay, I'm James," James began, giving Ron a smile, "and this is my sister, Lily." She gave Ron a sweet smile, reaching her hand across the table. Ron shook it, looking amused, and moved on to shake James' hand, which he'd put out as an afterthought.

"It's great to meet the two of you," he said, taking a sip of tea from his mug. "But where has my son got to—?" but he needn't have asked, because at that moment, Mrs. Weasley arrived back in the kitchen, the corners of her mouth twitching upward.

"Daniel's fallen asleep in your old room, Ron," she said kindly. "You'll have to wake him before you go back to your house, though." Ron stood, nodding.

"Alright, then," he made his way over to Hermione and they embraced tightly. "It's been—well, I still can't believe it's you. I'm so glad that you're back." And Hermione knew that he meant it more than words could express. They pulled away and she kissed his cheek swiftly.

"It's great to have you back as well," she said. She gathered up Lily and James, who smiled at Ron, before the three of them made their way over to the fireplace.

"Goodbye for now, Ron," Hermione told him. He beamed at her and waved, retreating up the staircase to find his own son. Mrs. Weasley gave each of them a tight, warm hug before taking the pot of glittering powder off of the mantle and offering it to them.

"Thank you for everything, Mrs. Weasley," James said, taking a pinch of the powder, throwing it into the fireplace and disappearing into the flames.

"Yes, thank you very much for your hospitality. Everything was excellent, and I had a lot of fun." Lily also took a bit of the powder and disappeared into the emerald fire after her brother.

"It's been wonderful to see everyone again, Mrs. Weasley, thank you so much for everything."

"It's been a pleasure, really, dear. I'm so glad that you've come back to us," she said, her eyes beginning to tear. She wrapped Hermione in one last hug before she, too, had called out "Hampton Place," and disappeared from the Burrow.

Hermione opened her front door and looked up and down the street. She could see no sign of her children on this late summer's afternoon. It was dinnertime, and the golden rays of sunset blanketed the neighborhood as children's laughter resounded in the distance. Resisting the urge to send sparks into the air with her wand, Hermione stuck two fingers into her mouth and whistled loudly.

Ever since they'd been in England, she had encouraged James and Lily to make some friends and play with the other kids in the area so that they could become better acquainted with them. Besides, as Hermione had said, just because they were magical didn't mean that they had to stop playing with muggle children; after all, all of their friends (to their knowledge) had been muggles for the majority of their lives. So they had taken to the idea and met a lively lot of children their age, where they had been getting together during the warm summer afternoons and goofing off, determined to get enough playtime in before school started up again and they had to resort to seriousness and studying.

Up the street, Lily and James heard their mother's whistle and looked up with a start, shocked that the day had flown by so fast. James quickly flipped off of the jungle gym bars from which he'd been hanging, and Lily began to climb down from the tree she'd been sitting in.

"We have to go," she said quickly to her neighborhood friends Sita and Jessalyn as she dropped to the ground.

"See you later, Lily," they called. She frowned.

"I doubt it, until next summer," she told them. "I leave for school tomorrow, and I won't be back until Christmas, and after that until the summer starts again." The two other girls dropped to the ground, Sita's long, black hair flipping into her face.

"That's right," Jessalyn said. "I forgot, my school starts again tomorrow, and Sita's. Where'd you say you were going, again?"

"The Chesapeake Academy," she replied quickly. She and James had decided that this is what they'd tell any muggles that they met, including their newfound friends. "It's in the United States."

"Oh," Sita said, looking disappointed. "I start at Reynolds, in Scotland, and Jess is going to be at Casterton School."

"At least your schools are co-ed," Jess said, making a face. "Casterton's all-girls. I don't know what I'm going to do!" Lily laughed.

"I'm sure that you'll live," she said. "Anyway, I have to go. Make sure you write me, all you have to do is give the letter to my mother, and she'll get it to me." They hugged, bidding their good-byes, and Lily left the park to find James leaning against an oak tree and waiting for her.

"That took a while," he observed, pushing himself up and walking with his sister back to their own home. "What did you do, exchange recipes or something?" Lily rolled her eyes and punched him playfully in the arm.

"No, of course not. But what about Jerry, Will and Clyde? Didn't you say good-bye to them before we leave?"

"Actually, no, I didn't remember," he replied with frown on his face.

"How could you not remember? We've been anticipating this since July!" James shrugged as they walked up the driveway and into the house, where the smell of homemade pasta greeted them.

"Hey, you two," Hermione said happily as the kids slipped their shoes off and made their way into the kitchen, where the table had already been set. The three of them sat down together, and Hermione began to dole spaghetti onto three plates. "How was the park?"

"It was fun, we mostly just goofed off a lot." James said this and began to shovel food into his mouth.

"It is kind of depressing to know that we won't see them until next year, though," Lily said, now drizzling dressing onto her dish of salad. Hermione smiled.

"That's all right, you know, you're both going to make so many good friends at Hogwarts. You already know Arthur and Isabella—"

"Who are both way older than us," James said softly.

"—and of course Daniel and Eve—"

"Who hardly count as friends," Lily butted in. "Come on, Mom, don't you remember that day at Diagon Alley?" Hermione's face fell slightly. She did remember.

After their children had been introduced and acquainted at two of the Weasley dinners, Ron and Ginny had insisted that Hermione come with Lily and James with the two of them, Daniel and Eve to do the remainder of their school shopping. She had obliged, and Lily and James had endured a rather difficult day.

Though they got on well with Ron and Ginny, who treated both of them like old friends, their children had treated them to silence for the entire day. Neither spoke a word to James or Lily, and Daniel even shot them a contemptuous glance (which James saw when he thought that Daniel was sure no one had been looking). Both of them suspected that Eve had by now overcome her painfully shy disposition towards them and had shown signs of wanting to talk to them, but every time she tried, something stopped her.

Needless to say, it wasn't as if James and Lily hadn't tried to be friendly all day. James had asked Daniel during their robe fittings at Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions (they had been placed onto adjacent stools) about which quidditch teams were good to support, but he'd been answered only by silence.

"Well, maybe they just need a little bit of time to come around," she told them sympathetically. "You two just sort of came into their lives without warning, and maybe all of the sudden change is too much for them for now. Besides, Ginny tells me that the both of them can be shy around people that they don't know—" James snorted into his glass of milk. Shy was definitely an underestimate in describing Daniel's behavior.

"Anyway," Hermione continued loudly over the sniggers from James. "The point is that at least there will be a few familiar faces. It won't be like when I went. For the first couple of months, I really didn't have any friends at all."

"Yeah," James smirked. "Ron's told us that that's because you were a bossy know-it-all." Lily tried to hide back a smirk of her own—she'd heard about the way that Hermione used to act, and found the stories about her school days amusing.

"Okay, so that's something that Ron would say," she retaliated, cheeks reddening in spite of herself. She put a bite of pasta into her mouth to save her from having to say anything else. She swallowed. "Are you all packed and ready to go?"

"Yep," Lily said confidently. "I've even got my clothes for tomorrow laid out." James nodded beside her.

"Me, too," he said, sounding excited. "I can't wait for the train, I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight," he grinned at his sister, who grinned back.

"Try to, please," Hermione advised him. "Really. If you don't you won't be able to stay awake for the events of tomorrow." Her eyes twinkled. She didn't tell the children exactly how they sailed across the lake in tiny boats, or were sorted into their houses, or about the fantastic Welcome Feast.

"For the thousandth time, please tell us what happens!" James exclaimed from his seat, teetering on the edge of it.

"And for the thousandth time, no way," Hermione said, forking lettuce into her mouth. "It's a surprise, that's how it's always been. Even Daniel and Eve don't know, because it's no fun when you already know what happens." James stuck the last of his spaghetti into his mouth and cleared his plate from the table.

Hours later, he lie in his bed, turning nervously under the blankets and staring up at the darkened ceiling. He couldn't sleep. His heart was pounding too fast and too hard for him to rest even for a moment. Throwing the scarlet blanket off, he rolled out of his bed, put on his slippers, and crept across the hall to his twin's room. If he wasn't asleep, then the chances were that she would be awake as well.

Listening through the crack of the door that was slightly ajar, he knew that he was right; her breathing was much too quick for her to be sleeping. He pushed open the door and stepped into the darkened room.

"James?" came her voice through the dark in a whisper. She could make out the edges of his blurry silhouette from where she lay.

"Couldn't sleep either?"

"Nah, it's hopeless right now. Too much adrenaline," she said quietly back, curling her legs under her and sitting up so that James could sit on the bed, his back against the wall. Lily grabbed her glasses from the night table and flipped on her lamp so that she could see him properly. She drew her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them.

"Thinking about tomorrow?"

"Yeah," he said, absentmindedly plucking bits of lint from Lily's blue bedspread. "What else?"

"I know what you mean," she said sympathetically.

"It's crazy, though, I mean, a month ago we were, well, normal." Lily couldn't resist smirking at him.

"James, you were never normal."

"Hey!" he exclaimed. Lily giggled as a pillow flew at her head. She caught it and swung it at him playfully before stuffing it behind her back and out of reach.

"I know what you mean, though," she said seriously. "What if we aren't good at magic?" James had been worrying about this, too, and he gave a small frown of concern.

"You don't have anything to worry about there," he told his sister.

"How can you say that? We haven't even been there yet—"

"You've read half the spellbooks!"

"So have you!"

"That's true," James said, glad that at least the two of them were on equal footing. "But still, this isn't just a different school, it's a whole different world."

"No kidding," Lily said, wrapping her arms around her knees. "What if we aren't supposed to be there at all?"

"I was worried about that too," he admitted, looking sadly nervous. "It's cool, about the magical world and all, just what if we get there and we can't do a bit of it?"

"That's ridiculous," Lily said, beaming. "We can already do magic, we've done it about a dozen times. Remember at camp? And many times before that?"

"Yeah, but I've got a weird feeling that something's wrong…" his voice trailed off and Lily frowned in thought.

"Yeah, same with me…it all still seems so surreal, all of it, since our birthdays in July." They were both silent for a moment, lost in their own thoughts, until Lily caught sight of the small, glowing clock on the nightstand.

"It's late," she said. "We really should try to sleep." James rolled his eyes.

"I guess you're right. We're supposed to be up at seven tomorrow to get ready to go to the station." He hopped off of Lily's bed as she removed her glasses once more and flipped out the lamp.

"Night, James," she said, slipping under the blankets.

"Night," he returned, making his way toward the door. He hung back there for a moment. "Hey, Lily," he said quietly, voice carrying through the now-dark room.

"What?"

"I'm really glad that you decided to come to Hogwarts, too." Lily smiled, and she was sure that he could sense it even if he couldn't see her.

"Me too."

End of Chapter 7

The next chapter will be Platform 9 ¾ and the very beginning of the arrival at Hogwarts. The Sorting, however, will take place in Chapter 9.

Which leaves these questions:

Who do you think will be the first person at Hogwarts who recognizes who James and Lily are?

Points also to whoever guesses (correctly) the first friend that the two of them make on the train—the first two people, leave your first and last names and I will create a character for you.

And finally, the last question: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Haha…jk.

To my reviewers:

kendall-paige-charity—ummm….not exactly…this really doesn't have anything to do with Harry, but you're awesome and for that, I award 5 points to Gryffindor.

Lilah lee—Not quite, the reasons are different, like I said, and Dan's runs a lot deeper than Eve's reason does. But you're close, and you're a great reviewer, so you get 5 points to Gryffindor.

LADY DANIELLE—Umm, all I can say about this is ew, gross, no way. The twins are definitely Harry's, and I loathe Malfoy, but I'll explain where he is later. Thanks a lot for your review!

Elkat—here you go! Thanks a lot for your review.

Angelof flight1516—Awww…thank you! That means a lot to me! So you get five points. And your answer for Eve is close, but again, not quite that complicated, so you can have 5 more points for that. Review again and tell me what House, or I'll just find another house to give the points to.

Random person you don't know—you're quite right, I don't know you…haha. Anyways, the answer for Daniel is an interesting guess, but not right. Your guess for Eve is sort of close, so you can have 5 points for the guesses to Gryffindor.

Angewoman-13—Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm really glad that you like it. I'll definitely keep writing…keep on reading!

Goku-lover21—That's okay, keep reading and enjoying the story! Here's your update…maybe you'll have better luck with these questions. Thank you so much for reviewing!

Monk of the Neko—thank you thank you, I'm glad it's up to par. Thanks for sticking with it.

James'nsiriusfan—haha, I hope you liked this part! You're an awesome reviewer, thanks a lot for sticking with me!

Which brings me to the current standings—

Gryffindor: 25

Ravenclaw: 0

Hufflepuff: 0

Slytherin: 0

And there are still outstanding, unclaimed points from Angelofflight1516 and Hermione-Potter-52036, and I think that if they go unclaimed, I'm giving the points to Ravenclaw (Hufflepuff can have the next batch).

Thanks a lot, you guys!

Hasta luego!

Callista Rose