Hi guys please don't kill me! I'm so sorry for leaving you all on in a cliffhanger like that but I've had a bad case of writer's block and it has been really hard to get this chapter complete.
Also, i think this story is coming to the end as it is focusing on harry and Dudley reuniting which has pretty much happened by the end of this chapter.
so maybe just one more to round it off :(
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me (i know I've been a nightmare at updating!) and thanks so much for all the reviews!
OooooooOOOOOOooooooo
James was having a lot of fun. He was hovering three metres in the air with the entire garden laid out below him like a huge knitted cushion. Lots of his cousins were standing below him, laughing themselves silly as he waved down at them from his vantage point in the sky. Suddenly, a black haired man, glasses askew, came darting out of the large country farmhouse that was the Potter's home. James knew that man. He also knew the look on his face. It was a look his father donned far too often for his liking. In fact, his mother often said that Daddy would look 40 before his 30th birthday. James wasn't quite sure what that meant but he assumed by the flick on her nose his father usually followed that statement with, it was a fact he wasn't too pleased about.
"James Sirius Potter! What did we say about THAT tree?"
Awoken from his musings, James had the decency to look guilty as he stared down at his father. Although he seemed angry, James could see that his dad was really just very worried. After all, he had told his son MANY times that the tree in the garden with the Billywig hive in it was NOT to be climbed. Little did he know however, that this, translated in James speak, meant "Climb that tree as soon as you can". And now, here he was, floating about like a hot air balloon, as the crowd of confused yet concerned adults (let it be noted here that one certain red head male may have been seen splitting his sides with laughter as he remembered a very similar incident from his own childhood) grew below him.
oooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo
Harry felt sweat begin to bead on his head as he watched his son floating 3 m in the air. Why did James Sirius have to take after his mother and her side of the family so much? It was all he could do not to glare as George doubled over in the corner of his Vision, breathless with laughter. The two were made for each other, James and George. Harry shook his head as he thought of how proud both his father and Fred would have been to see the mischief his first born child got up to. Tearing himself away from his musings, Harry turned his mind to the immediate task: How to get James down. It seemed that James had climbed the tree, the forbidden tree, and had as a result, been stung by the Billywigs nesting there. Whilst not life threatening, the side effects of hours of floating promised to be quite irritating and inconvenient, especially considering the numerous amount of guests that had all turned up to celebrate said floating child's birthday. To make matters worse, Harry knew that he had just run out of the antidote. With a sigh he turned towards the house again in search of the one person who might be able to help him: Hermione Granger. As he pushed through the crowd of onlookers, searching for a familiar bush of mousy Brown hair, he began to panic. What if James had an adverse reaction to the stings? Merlin please no. He quickened his pace as he entered the kitchen to match that of his rapidly rising heart beat, frantically scanning the throng of guests in search of his best friend. She had to be here somewhere! Just as his panic levels threatened to reach a dangerous high, he felt a warm hand Grace his shoulder. Already strung out, Harry had reached for his wand before he had fully registered the witch that owned said hand.
"Hermione?"
Harry lowered his wand as relief coursed through him.
"Yes you idiot, it's me." The brightest witch of her age and soon-to-be minister for magic have harry a very thorough and very disapproving glances over as she took in his pallid skin and sweaty brow. Harry winced.
"Ron said that he had seen you and that you were working yourself into a tizzy over James' latest escapade. Honestly Harry, you fought You-Know-Who at eleven, a basilisk at twelve and dementors at thirteen but you can't handle this?!"
She sighed, shaking her head. "You Know, the rate you're going, you're going to put everyone off having children!"
This time it was harry's turn to sigh as he accepted his friend had a point. But the fact that Hermione was right didn't make him panic any less whenever James managed to invent a new form of potentially dangerous play. His son was going to be the death of him, succeeding where even Voldemort had failed. Who knew that parenting could be so hard?
ooooooooOOOOOOOooooooooo
Dudley could not believe his eyes. Violet hadn't been lying when she had claimed James could fly. He had just hadn't expected it to be like this. The toddler was cackling was bobbing around above everyone's heads and by the look on Harry's face Dudley suspected this wasn't usual Wizarding behaviour. However by the exasperated sigh that his cousin let out, Dudley also suspected that this wasn't exactly unusual behaviour for the young child, either.
"As much as I love James and his spirit, sometimes I do think it would be nice to have had a well behaved child. Like Violet. Y'Know?"
Dudley, lost in the ramblings of his mind, started at the voice that appeared beside him. Turning, he saw the owner of said voice, a certain fiery redhead that happened to be his sister in law, standing and gazing up at the wayward boy above. Ginny's expression was a mixture of love, worry and something else…. Was that…. Sadness? Almost as if recalling some long forgotten and painful memory, his sister in law's eyes had glazed over as she took in the scene. Dudley decided not to ask - indeed every time he encountered a mishap around the potters more memories of his own childhood flooded back, namely the Times harry had managed to leave his parents in a state of blind fury - and instead merely continued to watch the floating child. After a time, Ginny shifted beside him and he drew his attention away from his nephew to follow her gaze. His cousin had emerged from the farmhouse with a bushy brown witch that he remembered as Hermione Granger.
oooooooooOOOOOOOoooooo
As Hermione and harry made their way across the slightly less crowded garden (many guests had dispersed in favour of another butterbeer or a pumpkin pasty) she couldn't help but be impressed at her friend's youngest son. The dramatics that occurred around said small boy were unprecedented save for those the weasley twins had pulled off back in the hogwarts days. She shook her head in admiration at her mother in law. Only now was she beginning to appreciate just how amazing that woman had been. She could only hope that Rose didn't follow in her cousin or uncles footsteps.
A loud cackle cut through her thoughts and she turned her mind to the task at hand as her nephew bobbed over her head. How was she going to get him down? Despite her extensive knowledge of most things magical, she had never before heard of an anti spell for billywig stings. And with the antidote taking six months to brew…..
Racking her brains to no avail, she turned to her best friend. It pained her to see him so concerned but she supposed that with the parenting (or lack of parenting) he had had as a child it was natural for him to be so concerned. Just as she opened her mouth to confess her lack of ideas, However, a blonde headed witch, maybe a head smaller than herself appeared as if by magic (let's point out here that this was highly probable!) Beside harry.
"Luna!"
Hermione couldn't help the grin that spread across her face at the sight of her friend, not having seen her for nearly two years.
"Oh hello Hermione, Harry," she nodded in her usual dreamy manner. "I hope I'm not late for the party?"
"Not at all Luna! But as you might have noticed-" Hermione pointed at James who was now throwing water balloons (where had he got those from?) At his cousin's below.
Luna's eyes grew wide as she took in the scene. She turned towards Hermione with a serious look in her eyes:
"I've been studying Bilywigs y'know. Their stings are supposed to be very beneficial."
Hermione smiled at her quirky friend, remembering a similar statement made at Bill and fleurs wedding several years previously. However it seemed as if harry barely registered what luna was saying, so fixated was he on his son. Noticing his troubled gaze Luna frowned.
"do you want to get him down?"
Hatry started and turned towards her.
"Of course! But how?"
In reply Luna simply waved her wand and slowly the floating boy began to sink like a punctured balloon, accompanied by groans from his fan club below.
Harry turned to his old friend, speechless, before remembering that Luna had been travelling and studying magical beasts for the last eighteen months so of course she would be the one to know an antispell. Then he remembered that he had once more a son within his reach, and said son was in need of a firm telling off.
With a heartfelt thanks, the boy who lived turned away to search out his son and let him know exactly how worried he had been.
From across the garden, Ginny watched her husband with a smile. Poor James! She only hoped, for the sake of Harry's sanity, that Albus would grow up with slightly more appreciation for rules. Then again, she mused, being a child of a potter and a weasley, it seemed as unlikely as Cornelius fudge ever becoming minister for magic again.