Chapter 20
Harry and the Weasley's, Potters, and Sirius all gathered in the same area with their plates of food and conjured chairs all in a big circle.
"So, Harry, what do you think of the party so far?" asked Bill.
"So far it's been fun. I can't believe you got the bloody Weird Sisters here to play," he said earning a smack on the back of his head from Hermione.
"Ow, what was that for, Hermione?" he asked rubbing his head.
"It was for swearing. That's the third time tonight I've heard you swear, and I don't like it," she said. Lily and Molly smirked.
"She's right Harry, swearing is a foul habit, better to not get into it early on," replied Molly smartly. Lily grinned.
"If I hear you swear one more time, young man, you're grounded," Lily said. Harry stared at her wide eyed.
"I…what?" he asked stupidly. The others all snickered.
"You heard what I said," she said with a frown. She was trying so hard to not laugh as James had completely lost it beside her.
"Grounded? But…wait! That's so not fair, I'm eighteen! And I…I…I've lived with Ron as a blo—er, a dorm mate for years. I can't help but pick up a few bad habits from him. At least I don't use other people's toothbrushes, or…leave my toenail clippings on other peoples beds," Harry said. If he was going down, better off taking someone down with him.
"Oh ew, Ron that's disgusting!" the others complained. He looked at them sheepishly and then glared at Harry.
"I don't care about Ron's bad habits, those are for Molly and Hermione to take care of. You are," she lowered her voice. "You are my son, and I will not hear any swearing from you. Whether your eighteen or not, I will still ground you," she said with finality. Harry gaped at her while everyone chuckled into their plates. Ron leaned over and muttered to him.
"This is where you say, 'Yes, mum,' all sad like." Harry looked at him and tried to hold back a smirk.
"Yes, mum," he said sadly with puppy dog eyes and a pout. Lily was shocked at how much she wanted to take it all back, once those eyes looked over at her. James laughed loudly.
"Oh, shut up James, he gets that from you, and Wonder Dog over there," she muttered. This caused everyone to laugh loudly.
"Don't worry dear, he's known how to do that since I first saw him. Wandered up to us all at Kings Cross first day of school and asked all politely how to get onto the platform. Those green eyes staring up at me. You just can't fight it," Molly whispered at her.
Lily was now a little worried Harry had heard. If he knew the power he had over them…But she didn't have to worry. Molly had said it quietly enough and Harry was busy picking food off Ginny's plate and she his. They were giggling and paying no notice to the rest of the world.
Lily watched them sadly. Seventeen years she missed out. She didn't remember Harry's first magic, his first sentence, first day of school. Now he was in love, and old enough to work at the Ministry, and have his own house. He was all grown up and didn't need her anymore. The reality of this hit her hard. She had sacrificed herself for him, and he had grown up, and maybe not forgotten her, but had learned to not need her. Why did she do it? she asked herself.
She stood up and walked to the house. Harry, James, and Sirius all noticed and made to follow her, but James turned.
"I think I know what's wrong. Let me go alone, please," he said. They stopped and let him continue alone.
"Sirius? Why—" Harry started.
"Harry, you weren't paying much attention but James and I were. Lily has come to the realization that while she sacrificed herself for you, now she has no memories a mother cherishes of her child growing up. She missed out on a lot of your firsts, and she's upset. She'll get over it I'm sure, just let your dad talk with her, calm her down. Alright?" Sirius said quietly and led Harry back to the group. Harry sat down but had lost his appetite.
When asked what was wrong, he just shook his head. Eventually, Bill leaned over Ginny to talk to him.
"Hey Harry, Charlie and I got a suh—oof." Ginny had elbowed him in the gut and gave him a pointed look at the snakes in her hair. He got the hint. "Er, we have a present for you in that tent over there, want to check it out?" Harry caught the implied word, and raised an eyebrow.
He knew it probably wasn't anything bad, or that would catch him off guard, so he stood up and went with them.
-_- Meanwhile -_-
"Lily?" James called once he was safely inside the house. He didn't hear her on the main floor so he headed up the stairs. Once he found her, in the bathroom, he knocked.
"Sweet heart? Will you let me in?" he asked softly. He heard the click of the lock and he opened the door.
Lily was sitting on the closed toilet holding a bunched up handful of toilet paper to her nose and mouth to stifle the sobs escaping. He shoulders racked with each sob and her eyes were closed and streaming.
James's heart broke as he quickly entered and closed the door. He closed the gap between them in two long strides and knelt in front of her taking her hands away from her face.
"Lily, luv, talk to me. Are you thinking of all we missed out on?" he asked. Her sobs increased but she nodded.
"Sev-eventeen years, James," she whispered. "We mis-issed so much." Her emotion was heartbreaking to him and he found his own eyes watering.
"I know, luv. But he's alive, and so are we. Now we can truly be a family. This is why we did what we did, so that one day we could still be a family. If we hadn't, we wouldn't be here and Harry would be alone."
"But James, he isn't alone. You saw all those people out there, there had to be a hundred people. And he said that only people he knew the face and name too were allowed tonight. The Weasley's are a loving family for him, he's got Ginny and Hermione and Ron and Molly and Arthur," she said sadly.
"What are you getting at, luv? You wish we hadn't done it?" he asked. He knew what the answer would be, but he figured she needed to hear herself say it.
"No, I…I don't regret choosing life, over death. I'm just saying, does he need us as much as we need him?" she asked. James thought for a moment.
"Normally, I would say a grown man doesn't need his parents as much as he would have as a child, but…then I remember how hard Harry grabbed me when I asked for a hug. He lunged for me, dear. Sobbed like a toddler on my shoulders, and on yours. He needs us, more than I think we realize," James said sadly.
"But Molly and Arthur," Lily began. James interrupted her.
"Molly and Arthur have been awesome surrogate parents for him for the last seven years, but I think Harry treats them more like his best mates parents than anything. He feels like a guest in their home, rather than one who lives there. I have no doubt Molly would reprimand him but when Hermione smacked him on the head and scolded him, Molly's response was more of a disappointed teacher, or a best mates mother. I think I heard almost the same response from my mother to Sirius when he swore in front of her once. He took it harder than Harry did, but I'm sure that he's heard it before.
"What I'm trying to say, dear, is this: Harry does need us, even if it's for someone to talk to about what's going on in his life at the moment. He'll tell us about his life tomorrow, or tonight, and we'll come to understand him more over the coming weeks. He knows we love him, we know he loves us. That's all we need right now. Harry doesn't need to see his mum run off in tears after hearing something about his past that she missed, because, lets face it, we missed almost everything. We can't go back and fix it, all we can do is content ourselves with the fact that we had only twenty four hours to make our final decision and we made what we thought was, and I still think, was the best decision.
"We're alive, so is our son. The next several weeks are going to be hard, getting to know our Harry again, but we can do it. Okay?" James' mini speech was hard for her to hear, but Lily nodded.
He wiped the last few tears away and kissed her nose, then her lips. They shared a sweet loving kiss for the first time in seventeen years. When they parted he looked into her eyes.
"I am going to ravish you tonight," he whispered causing her to laugh. They left the bathroom and headed downstairs and outside.
-_- Back Outside -_-
Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Sirius, Luna, and Neville plus all the other Weasleys in attendance followed Bill and Charlie to a large white tent off to the side of the yard. Bill canceled a spell on the front flap of the tent and pulled it aside. They all wandered inside and Harry was amazed.
It was a Muggle Arcade.
So many different arcade games were lining the 20 x 15 foot party tent, with a large snooker table and air hockey table in the middle. There was a corner with a Playstation, Nintendo, and Sega game consoles and a large screen TV with speakers and bean bag chairs. Between the two game tables in the middle of the room was a giant game that flashed and played Techno music. It had a platform with arrows in front of it with some kind of guard rail behind them.
"How…all of this is Muggle, how did you get it to work here?" asked Harry in awe of the wonder. Everyone was staring and grinning at the sight before them.
"Actually, the only real places you can't get Muggle things to work in are Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, the Ministry, and directly inside some fully Wizarding homes. Dad's shed, which is almost right behind the tent, is completely Muggle-ized. I remember you saying that you never really got any Muggle experiences as a child with those relatives of yours, so Charlie and I scoured London for several Arcades, got some ideas, then we went out and rented all of this. Didn't cost much either, just the Dance machine over there," he pointed to the flashing machine with the platforms.
"That one hasn't been released in Muggle stores yet, this one is specifically a floor model. That one cost a pretty Knut, but we get it almost all back once we return it unharmed." Bill and Charlie were looking awfully proud that they had gotten Harry such a great present.
"How much did this all cost you two?" Harry asked, worried that they spent all their hard earned money on one night for him.
"Like he said, we spent a small base fee, and the rest we get when it's returned. We won't tell you how much the base fee was, you aren't supposed to know what your present cost," Charlie replied. Arthur was bouncing from foot to foot, wanting to try everything and learn how it worked.
"Dad, no experimenting on anything. You can play with it all, just don't take anything apart or break it. We have copies of all the manual's for you, but don't break anything," Bill said to his boy-ish father. Arthur nodded distractedly and wandered over to the snooker table. He picked up one of the balls and rolled it into a corner pocket and did a happy dance.
"Well, guys, feel free to roam about and try things. If you want to have a quick pick up game before it gets dark, we should do it now. Then we can spend all night in here and dancing at the party. Okay?" Charlie said. Everyone nodded. Just then James and Lily walked up.
"Pick up game? Of Quidditch? Count me in, that is if you have a broom for me," James said with a smile.
a/n: OMG this site can be so stupid sometimes! i couldn't login for 2 days! and i'm still having issues reviewing stories. Anyways, don't worry i used the two days of no posting to my advantage...i kept writing. So what do you think of the tent gift? anyone have this in mind? Just wait...we have a few more chapters before they actually are playing games in the tent, we still have Quidditch to go! Tell me if this is going too fast, please, i just finished a story that had about 70 chapters, each ws about the same length as these, but it was so full of plot holes and misstakes... Please REVIEW! and if you can't like me, come back later and review, or go to my homepage, and PM me!