"You're kidding." James looked totally bewildered. "Snape likes a kid?" Remus was enjoying lunch with James, where soon the two friends would wind up back at the Ministry of Magic; James to the Auror's Department, and Remus off to International Affairs, to meet with the Russian Minister of Magic, for translation duty. Remus was fluent in 20 odd languages, including Latin. That made him popular amongst the Ministry officials.
"Yeah, they had this in-depth discussion on potions and ingredients, which react the best together, and which react the worst together. He's a bright kid, James." Remus said, eating the last of his burger, and sipping his butterbeer.
"There is no way my wife's best friend gets along with a kid."
"But James, Severus is a smart man. He loves it when he can find an intelligent man who can talk to him about Potions, or even Dark Arts." Remus countered. "If you want to meet the boy, just come over after dinner."
"Sure, I'm not busy. Should I bring Lily? Jamie can stay at Harry's place for the night." James said, signaling their waiter for their bill. "You know how she loves her nieces and nephews." Remus laughed. Harry and Cho Chang, who had been happily married sense they were eighteen, now had a grand total of four kids; Charlus, Dorea, James, and Lily. They were pretty good kids. Charlus often played with Teddy, along with Sirius' twins, James and Sirius Junior (everybody called him SJ for short). Teddy had spent the night at Harry's home last night, after much begging and pleading from Charlus and Teddy.
"Well, I'll see you round seven then."
"Sure." Remus said. They paid the bill, and bade goodbye, Apparating their separate ways.
Remus came home later, his briefcase in hand, Dora and Amy chatting in the kitchen as Dora cooked. Jason was nowhere to be found. Remus came out into the kitchen.
"Hey, babe." Dora said. Amy turned around, smiling shyly at Remus.
"Hello, ladies." Remus said, walking to Dora and kissing her cheek. "Where is Jason?"
"Severus took him downstairs to teach him Potions." Amy said.
"So I see." Remus said. "Well, if you'll both excuse me, I'm going to work in my office for a little while." Remus went in that general direction. He heard giggling coming from one of the bedrooms. He walked in to find Teddy looking at his favorite picture book. Remus smiled.
"Hi." HE said. The little boy looked up, grinning.
"Daddy!" He said, jumping up and running straight into Remus' arms.
"Did you have fun at Harry's house last night?"
"Yes." He said. "And…and we tricked Harry!"
"Did you really? Well I'll be darned. What did you do?"
"We pretended to sleep, so when he came back from going to the bathroom, he would think we were sleeping." Remus grinned.
"Did he believe you?"
"Yeah, he really thought we were sleeping, Daddy!" Remus laughed, and kissed his son on the top of the head.
"Well, I'm glad you had fun. I'm going to work, okay?"
"Have fun, Daddy!" Remus laughed, tousled Teddy's neon green hair, and went into the office, where he worked until dinner. There, he was fascinated by Jason and Severus, discussing potions ingredients in depth. After politely refusing dinner, he was on his way, heading home for the night. They sat down to eat, chatting lightly, until dinner was over, and James and Lily arrived.
"Remus, man.! It's been so long sense I've seen you!" Remus rolled his eyes at James' corny joke.
"But I thought you two met for lunch?" Lily said, looking confused. James turned to her, smiling.
"We did, love. I was kidding."
"Oh." She said. "Sorry, my brain isn't functioning right now." She hugged Remus, then Dora.
"James, Lily, this is Amy. Amy, this is my best friend James, and his wife Lily. And that's her son, Jason. He's highly fascinated by Charms." The boy was still engrossed in the book, clearly fascinated.
"How old is he?" James asked.
"He's eight." Amy said. "He's very smart."
"I'm sure he is. You think he'll mind someone to talk to?"
"Of course not, he hasn't any friends." Clearly, that bothered James.
"Well, I'll be his friend." Lily smiled as James sat next to the boy. He looked up, a bit startled when he met James' smile.
"Er…hello." He said shyly.
"Hello, Jason. I'm James." He shook his hand out. "Remus tells me you like Charms."
"Yes, sir." He said. "And Potions too. I was talking to Professor Snape about them earlier." James smiled.
"I bet you liked that, didn't you?"
"Of course. He's really smart. And he knows loads too." James laughed.
"Yes he does."
"I'm terribly sorry, but I've got to send him to bed. Severus will be here early tomorrow."
"But, Mum."
"No, it's okay." James said to him. "I'll come visit again tomorrow. How's that?" The boy grinned.
"Oaky. Thanks, mister!" He ran off to his room, still holding the book.
"I know you were just talking, but-"James stopped her.
"It's quite all right. He was yawning anyway. Besides, he looks like he could use a good sleep."
"Of course he could." Amy said. Lily smiled.
"My son's like that. He has a lot of nightmares, according to his wife."
"Does he really?"
"He was part of the last war." Lily said. "He was a major part of it; I'm surprised he's not paranoid."
"I think being an Auror takes away that paranoia for him. According to Kinglsley, it's helped a lot of people cope too, being Auror's before the war, then coming back."
"That would be hard, I would thing. You'd find all these people that had died, and realize that they were never coming through those doors again." James said. They sat in a sad silence for a moment.
"At least we know you two made it alive." Remus said.
"I'm glad our son knows now. It's been finally made public." James replied, scratching his head. Dora asked Lily and Amy to go into the kitchen with her, letting the two best friends talk about the war. Lily wanted to get to know Amy more. If she could hold Severus' interest, then she could definitely be a good person.
"So, how old is Jason?" Lily asked, sitting down.
"He's eight. I'm not sure if you knew, but the story was in the Prophet."
"My son showed me, yeah. " Lily said quietly. Dora nodded.
"Severus asked me if I heard of it. I was like 'yeah, I was at the trial.' Apparently, he forgot that minor detail."
"He doesn't seem like the forgetful type." Amy said, confused.
"I'm not his favorite person." Dora's tone was bitter. This surprised Amy.
"Oh, come on, Dora. He likes you more now than before. Probably because I'm close to you." She said.
"Severus is your best friend, he's probably jealous of our friendship." Lily burst out laughing. Amy looked confused.
"Honey, he is not jealous. Rather annoyed that James is always here or at Sirius', but definitely not jealous."
"Wait, I'm lost. Who is Sirius? Are you talking about Sirius Black?" As if on cue, the man in question Apparated in the room with a pop.
"Sirius, hello." Lily said, standing up to hug him. He smiled and hugged her, then Dora.
"Well, this is a new face. I'm Sirius." He stuck his hand out. "Nice to meet you. If you'll excuse me…" He left. Amy stared after him, a bit weirded out by Sirius. Dora and Lily burst out laughing.
"Sorry Amy. He's a bit eccentric, but he really is sweet." Dora said.
"And he hasn't seen James or Remus in a month." Lily said.
"True."Dora sipped her water.
"You know any weirdo's like that?"
"Well, my brother. Other than that, I don't have any friends. My ex was really strict about that." Lily and Dora both smiled.
"Don't worry Amy." Lily said. "You're not with him anymore. Besides, my friends are your friends." Amy smiled and blushed.
"Thanks. I really appreciate that." She said. "And, if you guys could talk to my son, maybe get him to talk to people rather than just me?"
"Ask James and Sirius." Dora said. "They're the biggest kids on the planet." Amy giggled. "You think I'm joking. I'm not." As if on a second cue, the three men burst out laughing.
"Shut up! It was one time!"
"But you used a spoon!"
"So? So do other people!"
"See what I mean?" Dora said. "Hey, shut up out there, Jason's sleeping."
"Sorry." James and Remus whispered quietly.
"Who?" Sirius asked. The three girls giggled.
"I love them. Really." Lily looked at Amy. "And I think you'll really like them too." Amy smiled, and hesitantly nodded.
"I think so too. Especially…" She blushed. Lily laughed.
"Severus? I'll warn you now, it can be really hard to warm him up to you, but he'll let you in if you're the right kind of person. I'd know, we've been best friends' sense we were like ten."
"He seems to like your son, anyway." Dora said.
"Severus was in a similar situation as a kid." Lily said. "Accept it was both his parents, not just his dad." Amy looked surprised.
"It doesn't seem like it."
"Wait until you get on his bad side." Dora said. "All heck breaks loose." Lily burst out laughing.
"I will agree there, he can be a right git when he's in a bad mood. But he can also be sweet." Lily laughed again. "Especially if he's got a crush on the girl." Amy blushed.
"You don't think that…"
"No, at least not yet, anyway. If he falls for a girl, he falls hard and fast." Lily said. "He's a hopeless romantic, and he takes forever to get over girls."
"Like you?" Lily blushed.
"Yeah. But that was a long time ago. He claims he's moved on."
"You don't sound convinced." Amy said.
"I'm not so sure. I'm thinking maybe you'll be good for him. He'll need a good friend." Amy blushed a bit. Lily laughed. "He knows it'll be too soon for you."
"I hope so. Two guys hit on me at the Leaky Cauldron even though they knew." Amy said. Dora rolled her eyes.
"Pigs hang out there. Keep Jason away at night." Dora said. "Seriously, I can't tell you how many perverts we picked up there." Suddenly, Sirius came back into the room.
"Hello." Dora said.
"Hey baby cousin." He said, sitting next to her. "I've got a question for you ladies."
"Shoot." Lily said.
"Go for it." Dora said. Amy looked at him shyly.
"When you pick out a ring, what attracts you?" Dora, Lily, and Amy looked confused. Sirius sighed. "All right, I'll just tell you…. Scarlet and my third anniversary is coming up. And sense I never got her a decent ring for our wedding, I thought I could get her a better wedding ring."
"That's so sweet!" Lily said. Dora hugged him. Amy was thinking.
"What are you thinking about?" Sirius asked. She looked at him.
"What if you recreate the night you got engaged? Using the ring as a present, of course." Amy said. "My brother always considered doing that, but then she left him." The gears were turning in Sirius' head. He suddenly stood up, turning towards the living room.
"Oi, Moony, Prongs, I'm going to need your help." Lily rolled her eyes.
"That won't be good. You get the Marauder's together, they don't stop." Amy looked puzzled. These people confused her.
"They were the school troublemakers at Hogwarts." Dora said. "I was too young to have been with them at the time, but my mum tells me stories all the time."
"Michael tells me all kinds of stuff too, from when he was a kid. I guess James pulled so many pranks on his parents."
"Who's Michael?"
"James' brother." Lily said. "He's a Healer at St. Mungos."
"Michael Potter?"
"The very same."
"He was my Healer." Amy said.
"Well, that's a coincidence." Dora said. They giggled. James came into the room.
"Whichever one of you gave Sirius the brilliant idea to recreate his engagement, I am really not happy. He's dragging me into this." He said. Amy blushed.
"Sorry." She said. He laughed.
"It's fine. It's actually not a huge deal. He never gets so excited about…anything, really." James said.
"Your brother was Amy's Healer."
"Was he now?" James asked her. She nodded. "Well I'll be. Oh, speaking of my brother, he wants to come over tomorrow, because Harry's brining the kids."
"Okay." Lily said. "That's fine. I haven't seen Michelle in ages."
"Me either, and she's my sister-in-law." James replied, walking away. Suddenly, Remus yelped out and said "That was NOT funny! What thirty-five year old man gives wet willies anymore anyway?" The girls laughed.
"Lily, I think you were right." Amy suddenly said. "I think I will like your firneds." Lily and Dora smiled.