Chapter 8

"Come meet the Potters"

A few minutes after James came down, Marcus and the 3 fifteen year olds went outside. The French door that led to the back yard was located in between the kitchen and the entertainment center. Once they stepped outside, Lily could hear all the sounds of delight that she heard when they were out front. The back yard was expansive; a large portion of grass controlled the center, while a wide sidewalk ran around the edges. Interrupting the concrete was several flower beds and what looked like a pool. Running around on the lawn, playing what looked like some sort of tag, was 6 little kids, ranging from toddlers to wizards obviously of age.

"Come on Lily, Come meet the Potters" Gemma said, pulling her along "Don't worry, James is the worst one"

"Hey!" James pretended to be offended, pushed her affectionately in the arm. "I'm not that bad"

"Keep telling yourself that buddy, maybe it will come true"

They all laughed at this as they walked along the path to a 21 or so year old girl who was stretched out on a lawn chair next to the pool. When Lily was brought closer, she realized just how beautiful the girl was.

She had long, straight, raven black hair that tumbled past her hips. Her skin was that tan color most girls would kill for, when she opened her eyes at their approach, Lily looked into deep hazel eyes that reminded her of all the happiest times in her life.

"Well, would you look what the griffin brought in" she sat up, smoothing out her long legs before draping them over the side of the chair before standing up.

"Something a bit better than the usual rats, except for in James's case of course." Gemma said hugging the girl.

"Why do you hate me so much today?" James asked, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"I don't, I totally love you, and you're just really fun to tease." Gemma smiled and ducked, but not fast enough to dodge the nudge James did on her head.

The girl rolled her eyes at the two before looking at Lily and extending a hand.

"Hi, I'm Ashley Potter; you must be a friend of my idiotic brother and my awesome cousin."

"Exactly. Lily Evans at your service." She said laughing.

"Oh so you're the infamous Lily we hear so much about." She said smiling and nodding her head slightly, causing waves to ripple down her back.

"Err, yeah," Did everyone here know her? "I'm a little scared of exactly what you've heard of me." At this Ashley laughed, and understanding look in her eye.

"Yeah I understand the fear, but between Gemma and James, they've protected you fairly well. All we heard was your absolute best moments."

"It can't have been much, seeing how my 'absolute best moments' are rather numbered."

"Well then we must have heard the long story, which I doubt, considering the fact you're as pretty as they described."

Before Lily could come up with a proper response, James was back, leaving Gemma to fix her hair with the pools reflection.

"What did I miss?" he asked, running a hand through his, messy scalp to disarray it further.

"We were just discussing the suspected amount of chromosomes in the average 3rd generation 5 legged rhino-gooses before and after movement." Ashley responded without a moment's hesitation. James face remained blank for only a second before turning smug and excited.

"I know that know!" he said waving his hand, Ashley's calm face broke. "I asked our Care of Magical Creatures professor, he said that they have 14 before and 15 after. The muscle movement destroys one."

"You can't just lose a chromosome. " Lily said indignantly. James shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Can if you're a rhino- swan"

"Rhino-goose"

"Exactly."

Just then, A little 5 year old girl with springing dark brown hair came up to James. She waited until he turned around to face Lily to hit him in the back and scream "your it!" before jumping back. James lowly turned around to look at her, an annoyed and skeptical look in his eyes.

"Excuse me?" he asked indignantly.

The little girl looked taken aback and a little bit frightened. She rubbed her legs together. "Your it, were playing tag."

"Um not, I believe" His broke into a gin and he lunged after her. "Your It." His arms reached out to grab her and throw her in the air. He caught her and deposited her on the ground before running with the others while the little girl caught a 10 year old boy.

"He awfully good with kids, isn't he?" Lily turned at the new voice to watch a male that was easily 6 feet come up. He was also about 21, with light brown hair that dusted his white forehead and fell over his sapphire blue eyes.

"I'm Michael," he said reaching out to shake her hand "Michael Johnson, You must be Lily."

"Um, yeah, that would be me. Johnson?" Her eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, technically I'm not related, Nate and Izzie are my Godparents, took me in when I was about 9."

"That seems like them."

"It is, they're all very good people." He said nodding and dropping her hand. "Do you know all the people here yet?"

"No, I don't" She said a little embarrassed. He laughed, sitting down on the chair next to Ashley.

"OK, that little girl that came up to James? Her name is Joanna Collins. She's about 5." He looked around the lawn for a moment before pointing "That's Tyler, he's also one of Izzie and Nate's kids, he's 19, I think" The boy that Michael pointed to was tall and lanky. He had a mop top of blond hair and laughing brown eyes. "Over there is Morllie and Tommy, there about 9 or 10, real close, less like cousins and more like siblings, and then you already know James and Gemma, and the new little guy in the house is yet to be named, so there you have it. The Collins and the Potters."

Lily nodded, thankful, finally putting names to the people she saw. About 5 yards away to their left, Morllie, Tommy and Joanna were finally wrestling James to the ground. They pinned him down and sat on him, trying to make him stay. With a grunt James started to rise, crawling to his hands and knees. "Tyler! Tyler! He's getting away!" They all shouted, Tyler, who was starting to walk back to the house, turned around and started running towards them. "To the pool! To the pool! Don't let the prisoner get away!" he yelled at them. The kids on James back got off and started rolling him towards the pool, James struggled trying to get a hold on something, but the grass came out and the sidewalk was slippery. Finally giving up, he put a foot forward and started crawling with his head down. With yells of victory, the kids jumped back onto his back, steering him forward to his watery punishment.

Not that James was giving up that easily.

When they were a few feet away. James stopped, and did a front roll that caused the three kids to slide off his back and into the water. He landed on his back, his knees hanging over the pool, laughing evilly. But they weren't giving up that easily. Surfacing, they grabbed his legs and yanked him into the water. His grin was washed clean off his face as his legs; chest and shoulders disappeared into the water. Tyler walked up right before his arms went under; James waved them frantically before grabbing his ankle and wiping his grin off as they all plunged under.

Lily Laughed, watching James sputtering face and disbelieving eyes. Ashley was grinning hugely and Michael was pointing into Tyler's face and laughing as loud as possible. Tyler glared, meeting the eyes of Joanna, Morllie, and Tommy before jumping out of the pool to capture Michael and shove him violently into the pool. While Lily was distracted by this, James reached up, grabbed her arm, and pulled her violently in.

They tumbled under, hitting the bottom and then springing up, joined by Tyler, Tommy, Morllie, Joanna, and Michael. Ashley and Gemma sprayed water into their face by creating a huge cannon ball. They all stayed in the pool and laughed and shoved and pushed each other, soon Marcus and Nate came out and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs on the BBQ. They all ate and played on the grass again, doing wizarding games Lily had never heard off but loved. Back home, with her mom and dad and sister, Lily had always felt slightly out of place. Here, where you had to watch your back to make sure you didn't get an unexpected swim. Here, when the sun went down, they brought out piles of blankets, throwing them around in senseless piles and eventually collapsing in strange positions. Here, under the stars, with Joanna across her feet, Tyler's foot on her stomach and James sprawled above her head. Here, Lily finally felt at home.

Kind of weird, but yeah, please review!

Peace

LIZIES