Author's note : Let's take a seat back and get to know James a bit more before heading into mayhem!

Thank you GRYFFINDOR123456 for the review on the previous chapter!

Chapter 2 - The Mastermind

James could hear his father snoring in the room down the hallway. The dim breeze of the night was sneaking into the bedroom through the open window and the streets of Godric's Hollow were quiet, as most of the wizards also were on summer break.

When an owl landed on the bed frame, James didn't budge. He was expecting her and had already poured some seeds into a small tin for the bird to rest before flying back home with his reply.

"Hello Sammy," he said patting the owl's head and unlacing the little parchment roll from her claw.

It was Teddy's RSVP. James smiled happily. His friend was coming, so now James had the complete list of the participants and would be able to finish the repartition for the first stage of the tournament.

He torn out a piece of the letter and wrote T.L. on it, then threw it with the others' names into his scholastic-now-retired cauldron siting on the desk. He whisked absently the content of it with his wand while letting out a loud yawn. Picking randomly one paper after the other, he placed them into a neat column. He pouted and moved a few around to better fit his vision. It was perfect! There they were, the teams for the first round: the classic yet unavoidable 'De-gnoming the garden'. It had been the unique requirement and a sine qua none condition from Molly to start the event with this activity.

"Better be useful, dear," she said when James travelled earlier to the Burrow to set major details with the matriarch of the family. "Fleur let the gnomes live freely in the garden. Some species-friendly new approach to homemaking… I think it's absolute rubbish, if you ask me. So, you kids will do me a favour if you get rid of them. They will eat our picnics, hide our wands… gnomes are real pernicious beasts…" His grandma vented again for couple of minutes before Ginny pocked her head through the fireplace to get her son back at the dinner table.

So De-gnoming, it was! The domestic task will be a mise en boucheto warm up the competitors and eliminate the little ones who would not stand a chance during the next games anyway. Cruel but necessary. It was a sport tournament after all, not a camp for pre-schoolers!

Therefor Lily, Hugo, Louis and young Molly will be opposed to Roxanne and Albus.

Dominique and Lucy will be against Rose and Scorpius, though James was pondering about splitting the couple in different teams just to piss them off, so these duos were not set in stones. Things could still change, depending on his mood. He wasn't a control freak like Albus implied numerous times, or was he?

Anyway, they needed to see some real game going on during the first round, so Teddy will affront Fred in a one-to-one, may-the-best-man-win, breath-taking battle to clearing out the garden of the last gnomes.

Parents were not called in for this first task, as they will have to cuddle the little ones after their very predictable defeat.

The only person missing on the desk of James was Victoire, to James' delight. She confirmed her absence weeks ago, and it was for the best now that Teddy was coming. Things might have been weird between the two. The last time James saw them both together, they were 'together', as in sucking each other's faces on Platform 9 ¾. It was four years ago but who knew were they stood now.

Since finishing Hogwarts a few weeks ago, James was left with a void to fill, something to do, somewhere to excel. Graduating with top grades (his NEWTS were only Exceeding Expectations or Outstandings), he could pursuit an Auror career like his father and uncle but he wanted something more fun, more like him, and creating exceptional and worldwide events like the Quidditch World Cup was just enough to satisfy him.

He pushed away his desk to fall over lamely on his mattress, looking to the ceiling and beyond. "Oh please, Uncle Freddie, tell me they will all behave nicely, please!" James took the habit of speaking to his deceased uncle a couple of years ago when his mother told him they would have been best friends. He since considered the man he never knew as his mentor, asking for help when needed. The responses came in different forms, mainly due to James' interpretations of various atmospheric circumstances. Tonight, it came in form of a cold squall busting into the room, but James didn't get the time to think to its meaning because the owl woke up to it and stretched her wings, ready to fly out.

"Wait –" He stopped her. He rushed back to his desk, scribbled down few words, scratched them, scribbled something else, torn the parchment apart, took a fresh roll and wrote: "Happy to see you soon, mate! Say hi to Andromeda from us!" He gave the message to the bird and watched her disappeared into the quiet night sky.

The whole tournament was far from being completely planned but James was tired. Lily, as the good little sister that she was, came after diner to pack his bag, but a quick look inside the luggage confirm that she either refused to touch his underwear or that she thought he would enjoy freeballing for two weeks. Vacation for all after all.

While searching for the book he was reading, still in his unpacked school trunk, he stumbled onto a picture frame he received from his friend Johnny Blake as a goodbye present. On it, were James and fellow friends from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. The Prefect-in-chief pin was shimmering on his chest as he moved slightly to ruffle his mate's hair. He could have invited him to the family summery gathering, but chose not to. Partly because having a friend to entertain might distract him from his goal with Filius, but also because he didn't feel close to his school friends. Good mates during the school year but that's it. He wondered why for a moment. Was it also because of his parents? Was he ashamed in a way? Or afraid that his friends were not genuine?

"I have no friend," realised sadly James, before manning up: "I have cousins, lots of cousins –" It was an understatement. " –who can be considered like forced friends" interjected a little voice in his head.

"Teddy is not related to me, technically." James said to reassure himself. "Dad is his godfather, does that make him my –" He swallowed hard. " –godbrother?" He buried his face into the mattress. "I really have no friend!"

On that sad realisation, he dropped the animated frame back into the trunk and fished out the book The Noble Sport of Warlocks by Quintius Umfraville. He read about two pages before falling deep asleep.

In his dreams, Molly the grandma and Molly the little one were chasing him with a shovel inside a gnome tunnel, as he was burying a chest full of galleons that looked like seashells… And as he turned around, he found himself face to face with a familiar tall ginger man who said: "You don't know the half of it, kid…"