She could feel the sweat dripping down her neck from beneath her long hair she had twisted into a terribly messy knot. The heat from the barbeque wafted in through the window followed by the strong scent of the sausages she had set to cook there before practically crawling back into the slightly cooler kitchen where the last of the veggies waited a top the island to be cut. Lily looked delighted as she sung loudly and quite off-tune to one of the ABBA soundtracks she had put into the tiny kitchen cd player earlier in the afternoon when she had been gardening in the backyard, talking between the fence to her elderly neighbor who was doing much the same.
"Think he'll be alright?" Sirius asked, concern still etched into his face as he and James stood at the base of the stair, watching as Harry climbed steadily up, relieved to see his shivering had dwindled.
James nodded. "I think he just needs time to process…everything. He was freaked that you…"
"I really ought to go talk to him," Sirius said as he kicked the foot of the stairs out of spite. "I'll be back…in the meantime tell that dear wife of yours that she needs lessons, and don't forget to ask her if it's alright."
"It's my house too," James complained as Sirius took off, having flung his shoes off in the direction of the mat.
"No it's not," Lily's voice sounded out all too happily from the kitchen, her voice barely audible over ABBA. "How was it?" she asked, turning around to face him the moment he stepped into the humid kitchen, wiping her hands off on a towel that she then promptly threw at him when he went to give her a kiss. "It's too hot," she exclaimed, walking round the counter to put further space between them.
"Yes, you are," he grinned wickedly, faking a step towards her making her shriek before ducking whilst he turned instead towards the fridge that he opened before practically stepping into it. "Have you tried-."
"Don't even suggest, James," she whined, laying on the floor, the coolness of the wood seeping into her skin, a feeling she would later regret when her skin began sticking to the floor. "Could you check on the barbeque?" she begged, pleading with her eyes which he was hopeless against. "Why is Sirius upstairs?" she asked as she flipped onto her stomach, watching as he hesitantly made his way into the beating sun.
"What was that?"
"Why is Sirius upstairs and where is Harry?" she asked again when he came back in, wiping the sweat away from his forehead before sticking his whole head back into the freezer. "What happened now?"
"Why do you always assume-."
"It's hardly assuming if you know-."
"-that something happened. Maybe your wrong-."
"That's likely and you do that thing with your brow-."
"My what?"
"James I did not-."
"You just implied that I had boobs!"
"That is not at all what I said."
"You said bra! You think I've gained weight don't you?"
"Just because I suggested-."
"So it's true-."
"No! It's not! Potter, I swear by Merlin's long beard that if you don't-."
"Guys!"
"If I don't what?"
"Guys!"
"If you don't stop for a second and listen-."
"Oi!"
"What?" both James and Lily exclaimed at one another before turning to see Harry and Sirius in the doorway with mixed expressions of bemusement and embarrassment staring at them.
"I got separated from dad and Sirius," Harry admitted quickly. "That's what dad wasn't saying. But it's fine. Sirius just came upstairs with me to talk about our plans tonight, to go see Ron and Mr. Weasley," he lied easily, before he moved passed his father who despite the yelling still stood half-submerged in the freezer. His mum stood almost frozen in place in the center of the kitchen, even the sweat from her brow stopped in its track. "You already said that it would be ok-."
"What happened?" she asked, her voice quiet and distraught. "How- this is- how?"
"We had to go past Pettigrew," Harry spoke up louder than both his father and godfather who had both made to explain. "He, er, distracted me and by the time I looked up dad and Sirius had been escorted away by the guard who was taking them through and well I guessed as to where they went and-."
Sirius picked up for him. "One of the dementors came round the corner at the same time and Harry here blacked out quite naturally," he said, still patting his godson on the shoulder.
"Harry," Lily sighed.
"Lily," James and Sirius said at once. "Just let him be," Sirius mouthed over Harry's head.
She watched as her son gave her a lopsided grin so like that of his father's before taking off out of the room again. James hand glided gently up and down her arm as she processed it all. "I should-."
"No," they both said adamantly.
"Can you turn off the barbeque?" she asked, turning to James who gave her a curious look before obliging. "You're sure he's alright?" she asked Sirius who nodded.
"Not cancelling dinner on account of that, are you?" he asked, smirking at her as he took off, leaping onto the counter that was in the perfect position to have the cool air radiate out from the fridge each time it was opened as he had learned the previous summer.
"No," she smiled slightly, "I just can't fathom putting anything hot into my- I'm not going to finish that sentence," she corrected herself upon catching sight of his mischievous look that came the moment she said 'into'. "You're a terrible example…for anyone," she sighed.
"What am I supposed to do with these?" James asked, sliding the plate of sausages onto the counter.
"Why don't you feed them to the dog?" she shot, sending a look Sirius' way that made him howl with laughter.
James held the plate up to Sirius who shook it off, but not before mouthing 'doggy-bag' to his mate. The man chuckled as he transfigured a bag, setting it on the counter for later. "So if we're not having those, are we becoming herbivores?" he asked, eying the veggies.
Lily sighed, as she walked to the fridge, throwing open both doors. "This work?" she asked after a long while, turning round with an ice-cream carton in both hands. "Catch!"
Time moved in slow motion then as she tossed a carton to both James and Sirius. The cartons twirled lopsidedly as they flew threw the air towards the men, but both fell short, splattering onto the floor. The heat of the room seemed to almost instantly send the various flavors flowing out like rivers from the damaged boxes.
"Well…spoon anyone?" she offered up meekly, flicking her wrist to send a spoon flying to each of them as they stood round, watching as it melted.
"Not that I truly care, but the floor-."
"Washed it this afternoon," she grinned, getting down on her knees.
"Works for us."
"Well just ask to come here instead!"
"Alright," Harry grinned. "We'll be along soon."
"I'll tell dad!"
Harry jumped up excitedly from the fireplace before heading up stairs. He took the stairs two at a time before reaching the bath, turning on the shower before ducking into his room for a moment before shutting the loo door a moment later. The cool water was beyond refreshing after having been perched before the fire for what seemed like ages, discussing the evening plans with Ron who had called just moments after he had departed the kitchen. He practically ran out of the shower to his room, slamming the door shut behind him as he flung the wardrobe doors open and yanked a t-shirt and a pair of shorts off the hangers before darting back to the loo to grab his glasses that he had clumsily forgotten.
"Sirius are you," he had started to shout as he jogged down the stairs and jumped round the knewl post as he headed towards the kitchen, stopping when he caught sight of his parents and godfather before him. "What are you doing?"
His parents both looked over their shoulders at him as the spoons they held just inches away from their mouths, Sirius behind them glancing up only to wink at him before leaning back over the last few scoops of ice cream that had yet to fully melt on the kitchen floor.
"Spoon?" his dad offered, mouth full of frozen cream.
Harry grinned as he grabbed the spoon and stepped past his parents till he was next to his godfather, splitting with him the last of the Rocky Road. "Ron called," he said with his mouth full.
"Yeah?" Sirius asked, intrigued.
"Can we head over there instead?"
Sirius nodded exuberantly, winking as he did.
"Brain freeze," his mum whined, falling back against the floor after finishing the last of her small pile of mint chocolate chip within seconds.
"Count me down too," James said as he slunk against the fridge.
"Victors! Ha!" Sirius exclaimed as both he and Harry jumped up, high fiving as they did.
"He doesn't count," James accused, his hands still holding his head. "You came in ten minutes late!"
"You've been at this all this time?" Harry asked skeptically.
The three adults nodded, all rubbing their stomachs as they slowly began to move.
"Ready to go then, Harry?" Sirius asked, his chipper attitude back within seconds back to making fun of a still floor-ridden James and Lily.
"Where are you going?" Lily asked, still lying on the ground after a lame attempt to stand.
"Weasley's," Sirius offered up, "I could've sworn we just said that. Either way Prongs was supposed to tell you. "
James glared at him just as Lily sent a similar one in her husband's direction.
Sirius shrugged making to follow Harry out of the room. "Have fun cleaning, Prongs, Mrs. Prongs!"
"You get the mop, I'll get the soap," James said, rolling over and propping himself up, offering a hand to Lily for only a moment before heading towards the sink.
"You'll actually let us ride this thing?" Ron asked, jaw dropped as his dad and Sirius took a proud step back from the motorbike.
Arthur Weasley looked to the man at his side and nodded, grinning as he threw the greasy towel over his shoulder. "Just don't tell your mum," he said, leaning towards his son who quickly agreed.
"Or yours," Sirius added with a grin. "Though she's been on it once or twice before herself…"
"Mrs. Potter rode this thing?" Ron asked, flabbergasted, Harry standing beside him, jaw dropped. "Like actually drove it?"
Sirius's head flew back as he cackled with laughter, Mr. Weasley smirking as he backed away, returning the greasy tool in his grasp to the toolkit Sirius has acquired that past fall. The red-headed man flung the grease towel over his shoulder, inadvertently smudging grease on his face as he headed out the garage's side door.
"Have you- have you- would you ever imagine-" Sirius spurted out, as he keeled over.
"Sirius, stop being so dramatic," Harry groaned, shoving his godfather in passing.
"You, my boy, are no fun. That has to change. You in, Ron?"
"In on what?" the red-headed boy asked eagerly, Harry looking more intrigued as the moments passed as Sirius stood before them rocking on his heels.
"Think you can open that door, Ron?" he asked, motioning towards the garage door to which Ron nodded striding towards where his dad had installed a chain that he began tugging on, watching as the door slowly but steadily rose up.
"No way."
Sirius looked up at his godson's gob smacked expression and grinned. "Help me out here and push would you?"
Harry pushed against the small windshield of the side-car whilst Sirius took to the handles of the bike, pushing it forward slowly out the door that Ron quickly closed, slowing it down towards the end as not to alert his mum.
"Should I-."
Harry shrugged, glancing behind them at the Burrow where the lights were on in every window and a mysteriously coloured dust seemed to be wafting from Fred and George's window. "He said an adventure right?" he responded finally, smirking.
"You are your father's son, and I am proud," Sirius said, straddling the bike seat. "Now who's sitting where? Or are you both slipping into the side car as I'm sure your mums would most certainly wish if they were in a parallel dimension where they would actually let you get into or rather onto this contraption, as they would call it…"
"I'll take the sidecar," Ron opted, grinning, taking the helmet Sirius tossed at him from inside the car.
"Can I take the back?" Harry asked, buckling the chinstrap.
"Like I said, adventure," Sirius said, checking both boys helmets before turning the bike on. "Hurry up, and hold tight," he said as they scrambled into their places beside and behind him, Harry squiggling around a bit before getting comfortable and holding onto the two side bars.
The two boys shut their eyes at the start when Sirius jerked the motorcycle back ready bringing it into the air, but they opened when the cooler air of the summer night hit them making it easier for them to be open than closed as they raced through the skies in a way that could only be beat by flying on the fastest broom in the world. Ron 'whooped' when Sirius made the first turn, taking them far away from Ottery St. Catchpole, The Burrow disappearing in the distance. The stupid grin that was plastered across all three faces couldn't disappear even as rain poured down on them as they flew over Southampton. The wind picked up as they
Sirius' voice barely carried over the gusting winds that blasted them at their sides coming off the channel as he called back to them to 'hold on' as he veered them away from the sea.
"Harry!" Ron screamed.
"What is it? Ron I need you to tell me!" Sirius demanded, unable to see in his peripheral vision as he continued to steer the flying vehicle.
"Sirius! Ron! My hand-."
"Harry slipped! Sirius he-."
"Ron, do you think you can climb onto the back of the bike from where you are?" Sirius asked the boy who was already standing up as steadily as possible in the side car, his body-weight leaning against the motorcycle as it soared.
"Harry? Harry can you hear me?" Ron asked as he took one step at a time, up onto the seat of the car then onto the edge. "Can you reach my hand? Harry!"
"What's going on?" Sirius asked, glancing over quickly. "Ron."
"Harry, grab my hand," Ron hollered, reaching forwards till his sweaty palm felt that of his best mate's latching onto his. "Try to pull yourself up as I pull you back, ok?"
"Ok, ok, got it," Ron said as calmly as he could muster as he heaved his friend back onto his seat as he gradually slipped back into his own.
"What happened to 'hold on'?" Sirius asked, flabbergasted when they landed over forty-five minutes later in London, turning on his godson who immediately rolled his eyes as he in turn helped Ron out of the car he seemed to have somehow gotten stuck in.
"So the big adventure is your house?" the boy asked in retort.
"It beats listening to the explosions go off in Fred and George's room all night while mum and Percy takes turns hollering at them," Ron shrugged as they hopped up the steps after Sirius let them into the enchantment.
"Or listening to mum and dad do whatever it is they do, at least at your house there is always something going on," Harry said.
Ron sighed. "It's not all it's built up to be. I'd give anything to have more than five minutes of peace during the summer- Hestia!" the boy exclaimed when he collided into her on the stairs.
"Hey Ron!" she chimed. "I didn't expect you here tonight, or you Harry," she said, peeping over the boy's head to see Harry next to Sirius on the landing. "Remus has something for you Sirius," she said.
"Oh, where is he?" Sirius asked before taking off bounding up the stairs towards the living room.
"You look like you two have been on quite the wild-," she started before pausing, whipping back around to face the two boys, studying their expressions. "He didn't honestly, did he?"
"He might've."
"You've been told it a thousand times before but oh are you so like your mum and dad. You are the epitome of sass and cheek did you know that? Have been since you were-."
"Hestia!"
"Right, sorry," she said. "Anyways, what's on the agenda for tonight, assuming you are staying round here of course. He's not going to take you to- Nevermind."
"I think we will be here," Ron answered though both he and Harry were more than mildly intrigued by her unfinished sentence.
"Wicked," she grinned. "Want to play darts on Sirius' mum's face upstairs while we wait?" she suggested leading the way before either of them responded.
"Did she actually-?"
"It's brilliant, come on," Harry assured him before they both took off up the stairs two at a time.
"Did you see the owl that dropped this off by chance, Remus?" Sirius asked, collapsing next to his friend on the sofa in the living room, causing many documents to fall from where they had previously been neatly stacked on the cushion.
Remus glared at his friend as he picked his wand up from the table beside him, flicking the documents back into place with one flick of his wrist. "Right," he nodded; appraising the situation, ensuring everything was once more in place. "What did you say, again?"
"This," Sirius said, thrusting the envelope into Remus' hand. "Did you see the owl?"
"No, sorry," Remus said, shrugging as he passed it back, "Looks like you might have to do what everyone else does for once and open it then find out who wrote it."
"Whoever suggested to you that being like everyone else was good was lying to you," Sirius remarked, ripping open the envelope. "What happened to the Remus who used to play pranks on Peeves better than anyone else could? Where's he—that's the guy I invited to-."
"To what? Live here?" Remus asked, hiding his amusement.
"Precisely," Sirius said, giving his friend one last look before diving into the letter.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Whose it from?" Remus asked, giving up on his work for now.
"Hold on," Sirius said, pushing a hand in Remus face as the other man tried to peer over his shoulder. "Read it yourself if you are so interested," he said removing his hand whilst the other one shoved the letter in his face.
"You could just- Andromeda? You told me you contacted her last year!" Remus exclaimed, tossing the letter back.
"I lied."
"Clearly. Well write her back."
Sirius glanced the letter over again. "Just because-."
"Sirius," Remus warned. "Did I hear Harry and Ron earlier with Hestia?"
"Yeah, went off somewhere," Sirius said, waving it off. "Which reminds me, we had plans," he said, hopping up.
"I'll go find them. You. Write her back."
"Yes, mum."
Remus glared at his friend as he slipped out of the room, his expression changing only after he sent a well deserved hex in Sirius' direction before taking off all too quickly up the stairs.
"That one makes me wonder whether she actually feels any pain or whether she is just shrieking because she's insane," he heard Hestia remark as he rounded the stairs to the upper most floor of 12 Grimmauld Place. The house, despite its new, brighter and warmer décor gave him the creeps even if they came only at the memories of Sirius coming back to school from breaks to tell the lot of them the latest news from the Black family nightmare. He shook himself out of it at the sound of Harry's laugh combined with that of Ron's as the three in the room before him 'whooped' and high-fived as Hestia sent a dart flying right into Walburga Black's left eye.
"Pass me one of those would you?" he asked, startling the group. Harry passed him the five darts he had grasped in his left hand with a smirk.
"Not thinking of trying to beat that, are you?" he challenged.
"He wished he had the talent," Hestia scoffed, winking at her friend.
"Fighting words," Remus mused, rubbing his slightly rough chin. "Challenge accepted, Jones. I hope you know what you are in for…"
"Let me remind you," Hestia said with a raise of her hand, "Of what happened during the Gryffindor party in fifth year, my friend."
Remus howled with laughter. "I'm not scared, still, but oh how could I have let that memory slip? That was the most brilliant thing I'd ever seen from one of you girls-."
"You're not incinerating that the girls-."
Remus held up his hands. "Wouldn't dream of it. You and Lily would hex me into next week, the lot of us really, you'd assume Prongs and Padfoot were involved even though Paddy is two floors away…All I was saying is that before that year we didn't really mix as smoothly-."
"Blame the hooligans you still call friends," she laughed. "Marlene detested the ground Sirius and James walked on till fourth year at least and even then she was weary of your antics."
"Good times, good times," Sirius chuckled, striding in.
"Far from me to doubt your abilities, but since when have you ever written a letter in that short of time?"
Sirius glared. "So you start a party up here and all of a sudden I'm in-."
"Sirius!" Hestia and Remus groaned.
"Are you going to let them do this to me, Harry? Your own godfather?"
"Sirius, just hurry up, would you?" Harry said before throwing another dart, just missing the woman's hand that she had thrown up to cover her already too-targeted face.
"I'm going," Sirius grumbled, stomping out of the room.
"So still in the fight, Remmy?"
"If I wasn't before, I am now," he said rather darkly, having shuttered at the mention of that horrid nickname.
"Wicked."
"Absolutely not."
Harry grumbled incoherently as he jumped off the counter, almost stomping out of the room. "It's just one class! Come on!"
"Harry!" his mum exclaimed rolling her eyes as she did. "It's rubbish. There are very few seer's in the world and I just don't think that you need another-"
"Another what?"
"Never mind that," she said quickly, "The answer is no. Pick another class."
"But if it's just one class then it should be easy right?" he retorted, "And if it's easy then Ron and I can get through it and have time to focus more on our other classes."
"Now whose being funny?" she smirked, her arms still folded across her chest as they had been for the last thirty-minutes as their conversation had raged on, her having found his selected course list in the living room earlier that afternoon.
"Mum!"
"Harry!"
"Hestia!" the girl grinned, popping her head in the room much to Harry's relief.
"Hestia, tell mum to let me take Divination with Ron," he begged.
Hestia glanced between the two, shrinking a little at her friend's glare. "Care of Magical Creatur- I mean Ancient Runes was my favourite class up until sixth year," she told him before hopping up on the counter beside her friend who smiled welcomingly at her. "Why not Care of Magical Creatures?" she asked in a low whisper to Lily who simply mouthed back 'already picked it' before focusing her eyes on her son who was pacing the other side of the room.
"I bet Dad would have been fine with me taking it," Harry grumbled.
"What would I have been fine with?" James asked, tossing his briefcase loudly onto the kitchen table as he came in the room behind Harry.
"Can I take Divination with Ron?"
"It's a useless course, Harry," James remarked, running his hand through his hair. "Take muggle studies if you want an easier elective, or Arithmancy was pretty interesting too…is Professor Aldridge still there?"
Harry shrugged. "It's just the one class though-," he began reasoning with his dad who shook his head all the while.
"Think he's given up yet?" Hestia whispered to Lily.
Lily laughed. "Not even close…this will go on until he has to send it in in a couple of weeks. He'll wait till Ron or Hermione are over to continue convincing us, or he'll target James on his own…"
"Smart kid," Hestia snickered. "You're not against it just because…you know what…"
"What's 'you know what?'" Harry asked turning towards them suddenly.
"Harry!"
"Fine! I'm going to Ron's," he said, dejected, before taking off out the room.
"Bye?"
"So did Sirius send you here to make sure we were still coming out?" James asked, hoping up on the island across from the other two.
Hestia nodded exuberantly. "Although why he couldn't have just asked you at work twenty minutes ago is beyond me," she remarked.
"And she gave you no reason for it?"
Harry shook his head, reaching for another of the cookies that Mrs. Weasley had put out for the kids on the kitchen table at which he and Ron were currently sat. The Burrow was one of Harry's favourite places to be, always so much happening and always so many people compared to his own home on Trevor Square where it was always just him and mum and dad, not that he didn't love them, it just got lonely and boring especially during the hot summer days when they were at work.
"The Potter's are right, Ron," Percy spoke up without even glancing up from his piles of books he had stacked on the ottoman before him.
Harry couldn't help but snicker at Ron's exasperated expression and mocking he did with his back still turned towards his third eldest brother.
"I mean it," Percy said again, getting up to nab a cookie or two. "Trelawney is complete phony. Not worth your time. It'd be a much better use of your time and your brain to take another elective. I personally found Arithmancy to be thrilling, but Ancient Runes had quite a few good reviews from my fellow classmates as well. It's wise to start thinking about your O.W.L's now rather than later. Preparation is key, just ask Fred and George…or rather, ask myself or Bill."
"Bill's never home, Perc," Ron reminded.
"He's coming home next week," Ginny announced, as she passed by and took off up the stairs.
"No one ever tells me anything," Ron grumbled, "Besides, won't we be gone next week, Harry?"
"Supposed to be," he shrugged. "They're being awfully vague recently. All over the place-"
"Not to mention completely unreasonable," Ron chided to Harry's agreement.
"Honestly, you've got to start preparing-"
"Got it," his mate said rather shortly. Ron looked to make sure Percy was well gone before he leaned it. "So…how was it?"
"Cold."
"Cold?"
"The Dementors that guard the prisoners…they make everything cold."
"How'd you get there? Is there some sort of secret route for Auror's?"
Harry shook his head. "An apparation point, that's all. Then there's a boat that takes you out there. It rises out of the sea so suddenly you don't really have time to process where it is you're going to until the boat stops and you have to get out."
"Woah."
"You have to visit the guard station first, it's about the only warm place in there, and only place the Dementors can't get to."
"Your dad and Sirius didn't make you stay there did they?"
"No," Harry said, "Though mum wished they had once we got back and told her what happened."
"What happened where?" Ginny asked, sliding into the seat at the end of the table between the two of them.
"Go away, Ginny," Ron whispered harshly, trying to avoid the ear of his mother.
"It's alright, she can hear it," Harry piped in after what seemed like ages with Ron and Ginny in the stare off of the century. Ginny stuck her tongue out triumphantly at her brother before turning her attention wholeheartedly towards him. "I was just telling Ron about Azkaban…"
"Wicked."
"Anyways, dad, Sirius and I went to do rounds with a guard, they had to get a prisoner's story or something. There were rats everywhere in that place as we went round, dad ended up giving me his jacket I was shivering so bad-"
"Did you see-?"
"Pettigrew?" Harry asked, before nodding. "Yeah. He's under intense guard though because of his ability. Should have heard him when he actually set eyes on dad and Sirius again though, sounded utterly mad."
"Probably was," Ginny and Ron concluded at once.
"I would have thought they'd have given him the kiss though, for what he did," Ron stated.
He shrugged. "Dad said they probably would, after he had been forced to serve the sentence like Sirius did."
"Was Sirius alright…with being there again?" Ginny questioned.
"Dad was watching him closely, but they've had to do this before. Apparently the head of the Auror office tries to keep Sirius away the best he can, only sending him with dad if he has to go, but he's tense there. More so than anyone else…"
"Can you blame him?" Ron exclaimed.
"No, especially not after being there," Harry shuttered.
"So what did happen exactly?"
"I don't know how it all happened exactly but it happened after we had been at Pettigrew's cell. Dad and Sirius had gone on ahead with the guard, and I was following but Pettigrew caught me off guard, begging me. I went to try and find them again but ended up going down the wrong hall. The prisoners there went crazy, especially this one she was cackling like mad, looked right mad too. Next thing I knew after seeing her was seeing one of them floating towards me and then it all went black. Woke up on the boat with a load of blankets wrapped round my shoulders and dad fretting about what mum would say once she heard."
"You fainted?" Ron snickered.
"Ron!" Ginny exclaimed, hitting his arm.
"Just wait till you have to deal with one," Harry muttered.
"Will you be staying for supper, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked as with a flick of her wand she started filling a pot with water to boil whilst with another she had potatoes peeling themselves. Harry glanced at Ron who nodded excessively before accepting the invitation. Mrs. Weasley grinned widely at the boy before shooing the three of them away, claiming their previously occupied spot as prep space for dinner just as Mr. Weasley came bustling through the door.
"Has your dad gotten back to you about that match?"
"The Cannons versus United?"
"Yeah!"
"He said he'd get some for just before we head back to Hogwarts."
"I still can't believe he got us tickets for the last match."
"I sort of begged him to go to a few before summer's over," Harry admitted.
"Have you ever seen the Harpies play, Harry?" Ginny asked, right on their tales as they climbed the stairs to the top of the Burrow.
"Not yet, no."
"I'd die to watch them," Ginny sighed. "Their captain is phenomenal. Should've heard them talk about her during the last match."
"Who'd they play?"
"The Tornadoes."
Harry and Ron both made a face.
"As if either of you should talk," she mocked, "Cannons are bloody awful."
"Ginevra Weasley!"
"Ears like a bat, I tell you," Ron whispered before the three of them took off up the last few steps and closed the door firmly behind them.
"This is-"
"Something. It is something," Hestia nodded in agreement, snatching the list out of Remus' hands.
"You're joking right?" Sirius snickered, reading the list over the dark haired girl's shoulders. He chuckled to himself, patting James on the back as he passed before slumping into his oversized chair.
Lily glanced nervously between her husband and their friends as they sat around the living room in Grimmauld Place, where they all sat slumped lazily on to the furniture, exhausted from the heat that didn't seem to die down even with all the cooling charms they had placed.
"What are we missing?" James questioned, his voice cautious even as he voiced it, eyeing them all in the process.
Sirius, Hestia, and Remus all glanced at one another.
"He's turning thirteen, not eight," Hestia admitted, losing the rock-paper-scissors competition that ensued between the lot of them. "This is really, really nice, but he's going to be a teenager, I'm not sure-"
"But it's not just for him," Lily tried in vain to argue, throwing her hands up in defeat when she caught their stares. "It's two days away," she said, her head knocking against her husband's shoulder as she slumped in the chair next to him.
"If you are all so brilliant, you fix it," James suggested, crumpling his and Lily's thoughts written in her neat script on the page into the tightest of balls before flicking it at his mates.
"Gladly," Hestia said, rising with a grin. "Sirius, you do it," she spoke again, sitting down and bringing her drink with her.
The dark haired man rolled his eyes, flattening out the crumpled ball, transfiguring a god-awful figurine on the table to his side that Hestia has insisted on keeping when they were unpacking the attic. "There," he grinned like a mad man, sending it flying back the Potter's way.
"I think that'll do nicely," Remus remarked, reading over their shoulders.
"But-"
"You told us to fix it and I did," Sirius shot back before the words had a chance to escape James' lips. "I am beginning to think that older parents throw the better gatherings," he chucked, ruffling Lily's hair as he passed on his way to the liquor, holding up the bottle to the rest and bringing it with him, filling their glasses along the way.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Lily protested after a sip.
"It's an insult to our parenting-"
"I knew as much," she cut James off, causing the man to roll his eyes before chugging down what Sirius had given, reaching out for more. "I-"
"Just look at Mia and Monty, James," Hestia cut in, "Their parties, and not to mention your birthday's before Hogwarts were lovely. Absolutely superb and a child's dream land, though now that I think of it I think that may have been one of your themes—wasn't there a princess tiara-"
"Alright that's enough right there," James said loudly, glaring at the witch who smiled innocently in return. Hestia winked at Lily once James' head had turned away, back to Sirius who was further explaining his logic. Lily watched on in amusement as Hestia, with a flick of her wand, transfigured a cocktail napkin into a tiara, quickly whisking it across the room before carefully lowering it onto the mop of black hair.
"Brilliant," Lily mouthed to her friend, wiping the smirk of her face as she turned her attention once more to Sirius as he worked to weasel his way out of his hole.
"-saying that your age is great for a number of things, not this. It's harder for you to remember what you wanted at that age-"
"That doesn't make any sense, Padfoot!" James groaned, his hand slapping his forehead, narrowly missing the tiara. He glanced curiously at his wife and Hestia when he heard their gasps, but both shrugged before launching back into a conversation he suspected had only just begun.
"Prongs, he's thirteen," Remus reasoned, "Give him a Quidditch match and whatever present you and Lily were planning on giving him, let him hang with his friends and eat pudding and anything else that Molly Weasley can cook up and he'll be more than thrilled. Surprising him a few days earlier when he's not expecting it will be enough shock value without adding pin the tail on the-"
"Dumbledore," Sirius suggested, "Ooo now that is an idea—let me, Moony!" he whined as the sandy-haired man held vanished the paper. "The lot of you, I tell you, no vision," he grumbled.
"Do any of the kids know?" Hestia asked, leaning forward.
James and Lily both shook their heads. "Not to our knowledge at least, but James has bribed Hedwig to bring him Harry's mail first-"
"So you've both jumped straight into it have you?" Remus chuckled from where he stood near the window.
"What now?" Lily asked, exasperated. "Is there anything we do right?"
Hestia sighed, leading Lily towards her. "We never said you did anything wrong-"
"Except for the whole party thing, oh and the babysitting- kids way too old for that," Remus remarked, turning away when Hestia sent a jinx his way.
"Ignore them all," she grumbled, "Go home, both of you," she said, looking at both James and Lily, "We will see you on in two days and you will come and enjoy the party. We have got it under control, or we will once you leave that is. I will contact Molly and I'll give you a letter to send to Emma, is that it?"
"Yes, Emma," Lily laughed, as she and James were led out of the room.
"Wha-" James exclaimed, tossing the tiara's broken pieces at the two women, him having spotted it in one of the mirrors along the stairway.
Hestia giggled, tugging Lily by the arm as they ran to the foyer, "Should have disillusioned it for him," she admitted.
"I almost forgot!" Sirius said as he came round into view alongside James.
Lily shook her head prematurely, registering that awful grin of his as he threw an arm round her shoulders. "I heard a rumor, and when I say rumor, Hest told me," he said, holding her tightly, "That you and Prongs-y here were living it up the other night," he said with a suggestive wriggle of his eyebrows.
"And this involves you, how?" James said, pushing his mate away from his wife, whose hand he snatched up almost instantly, making her smile up at him as she leaned into him, waiting for Sirius to continue on his ridiculous side of the conversation.
"I just wanted to know," he said, nudging Remus who was chuckling at the whole thing. "If it's possible to be a godfather to two kids, or more," he winked at Lily, "if you are already one. You know from the same family, I need to know in case I have to run against this guy again," he pushed it further.
Hestia watched on in amusement as both James and Lily's faces fell slightly, her friend holding her husband's hand tightly enough that her veins popped ever so much.
"Harry should be home soon, so we really must go before he worries," her friend muttered, turning to open the door. James followed closely behind after he reached forward to plant a kiss on her cheek, followed by nods at Remus and Sirius, the latter who marched forward, dependent on an answer.
"He's going to be thirteen, I don't think that he is going to worry if his parents aren't home," he hollered after them.
Harry blinked rapidly as a sliver of the bright morning sun barreled in through his second floor window, blinding him more than he already was without his glasses, not that it would make much of a difference he knows. He pulled his sheet over his head, groaning into it as he thought of the nothingness that laid ahead for him that day.
The summer seemed to be going by slower than it ever had, even that summer in year two at Sussex when he had broken his elbow after being pushed off the top level of the playground by one of the year sixes who'd been hiding up there when his class had been let out just before the end of the day. That summer he'd been stuck inside in the sweltering heat, only having comic books to read and the dull novels his mum read religiously (thought she'd disagreed with that assessment), because his parents didn't want him bruising his tail bone any more than it had been from the fall, and partly because they didn't trust that he wouldn't get overly excited and break his arm more than it had been. He laughed a little at the thought as he rolled out of bed, landing on the floor after having tangled himself in his sheets.
His parents seemed to be preoccupied these days he noted as he wandered into the kitchen, pulling his t-shirt over his head as he reached into the cupboard to grab a bowl which he promptly poured the last of the cereal into, only to realize when he poured the milk that it had gone sour.
"Brilliant," he groaned, sliding the bowl to the back of the counter. "Dad! Mum!" he called once, and then twice more.
He glanced around the kitchen groggily till his eyes landed on the note sloppily stuck to the fridge.
Gone to work, won't be back till late. Your mum is working till noon, and then sleeping before her night shift. Don't wake her and please be quiet if you're home.
Dad
p.s. can you pick up some groceries? Don't forget to make sure Ron and Hermione both have the all clear to go to the coast next week!
Harry's eyes glanced over the "if you're home" again. "As if it's likely I'll be anywhere, dad," Harry remarked.
His parent's absence made him thankful that the floo network allowed him to escape the city almost daily to Ron's, whose Quidditch game was improving immensely to a point that not even Fred and George could deny, despite their best efforts.
Harry loved the consistent high-energy that seemed to exist in the Burrow, not to mention Mrs. Weasley's phenomenal baking that he was certain would have made him as large as his uncle the whale had it not been for the constant Quidditch that they seemed to be doing while they were there. Hermione and Neville also found themselves in Devon far more than they ever had before that July, forced onto brooms by Harry and Ron along with James and Sirius who were called into coach when they had the chance to escape from the chaos that had taken over the Ministry after Alastor Moody had been forced to retire. Harry had laughed long and hard at that story when his dad came home in tears, telling him, his mum, and Hestia who'd been there at the time the story how it had all gone down.
...
James couldn't help but think that one of the only useful things that the Ministry had ever done was to build underground, making the offices cool and protected from the sweltering summer heat that was affecting his home and the rest of London. Half the office had taken off for the next few days at least, trying to get in their vacation days while the office was in its latest lull. Across the office from him, flirting with one of the receptionists from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes was Sirius, taking his sweet time to avoid the mess that the assistant head of the department had thrown at his mate first thing that morning. Sirius winked at him as he sauntered back to his seat, not even flinching at the shattering sound that had become less unusual as the morning wore on. Moody's yells rang out, reverberating off the tiled walls of the Ministry, making them wonder how loud it must have been in that office if it sounded like Moody's regular tone he used when addressing any of this employees.
"I wouldn't have pegged a worker from the D. M. A. C. as your go to," he remarked, not looking up from the files on his desk, half of which were irrelevant from not having been properly sorted through since the war.
"You'd be surprised," Sirius said with a grin, sliding his chair to the edge of James' own desk, knocking over the picture of Harry and Katie Bell on the shoulder's of their team mate's after their end of the year win. James reached forward, putting it back in place just as Sirius reached for another, this time of him and Lily in seventh year. "She was telling me there is a takeover happening in there, a direct order from the man himself," Sirius continued after glancing at the picture for a few moments, setting it back down when he was done.
James gave him a quizzical look.
"Go ask her yourself," Sirius said defensively, "But I'm telling you, the whole ministry is buzzing-."
"-YOU THINK THAT THIS SPINELESS PRICK HAS EVEN HALF-."
James went wide-eyed, just as Sirius gave out a low whistle.
"Who in the world are they planning on replacing him with?"
Sirius shrugged, shaking his head. "You don't think it would be-."
"WHAT? WHAT? HAVE YOU BEEN UNDERCOVER THIS ENTIRE TIME YOU SPINELESS-," Alastor Moody hollered as the assistant head of the Auror Department, Rufus Scrimgeour, flung open the door, hastily backing up till his own back was against the back of one of the department's secretaries cubicles. Moody's wand was out, pointed at the man's throat as he hobbled angrily, his eye as wide and psychotic as the mechanical one he wore. "FILTHY TRAITOR! YOU WERE LUCK TO EVEN HAVE A JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE! THE ONLY REASON YOU ARE EVEN IN THIS POSITION IS BECAUSE THE LAST BLOODY WAR TOOK ALL OF THOSE WORTHY OF THIS OFFICE! YOU WERE THE SCRAPS! I WOULDN'T HAVE EVEN HIRED YOU HAD THEY NOT SAID YOU WERE NECESSARY! YOU SHY-."
James and Sirius, along with those Auror's that remained, jumped up, the two of them grabbing a hold of Moody's arms after Sirius caught the wand of their now disarmed department head.
"Alastor," James huffed as the man fought tooth and nail to get out of his restraint.
"Let go, Potter-," the man growled.
"Moody, I'm afraid I must insist-."
"WHY DON'T YOU BLAST-."
"I'd move if I were you, Fudge, or I might just let him," James warned, sending daggers in the minister's direction and watching with satisfaction as the man shook his head and retreated.
"LET GO POTTER! BLACK! LET GO OR I'LL HEX YOU INTO THE NEXT CENTURY! BLACK! POTTER!" the man barked repeatedly. "THIS DEPARTMENT WILL CEASE TO EXIST, YOU MARK MY WORDS!"
"Is that a threat, Alastor?" Fudge asked, dismayed.
"I would say so," Sirius snickered.
"YOU BLOODY BELIEVE THAT ALL THOSE DARK WIZARDS YOU AND YOUR PHONY MINISTRY HAVE LET GO WILL SEE THIS AND CHEER!"
"He has a point, you know," Sirius whispered to him behind Moody's back.
"Ah, here you are," Fudge fretted, ushering in the Ministry's guards. "Take him out and restrict his access as you do," he said, pointing at Moody whose mechanical eye was whizzing around unlike James and Sirius had ever seen.
"If you think you can just take me you have something else coming, Minister," Alastor growled as he sent James and Sirius flying with one flick of his wand, another sending the ceiling falling down, separating himself from the minister and the rest.
"ALASTOR!" Fudge screeched.
"Watch your backs."
"Is there any reason in particular as to why you both are running round like mad?" Harry asked, leaning against the doorframe to his dad's office, watching as his dad hastily shuffled through his papers, pacing behind the desk. "Not that it is all that different from your daily routine, mind you," he snickered, earning him a disapproving glare from his father as he bustled past him out to the living room where his mother was once again unpacking the old trunk in the corner of the room.
"So that plan where we usually go to the coast, that can go away at any point, Harry, just so you know," his mum warned, not even bothering to turn though he knew the exact expression she wore from the tone in her voice as she sorted through a few old school books. "Not to mention the- never mind," she said all too quickly.
"What were you going to say?"
"Sweetheart, can you lend me a hand," his mum said, slightly distracted as she patted around grabbing one of his dad's old Quidditch sweaters, folding it neatly in her lap. "Can you find a blue text in that pile over there?"
Harry slid off the armchair that he had flopped into whilst watching the hilarity of his dad nearly trip every step of the way up the stairs, too distracted by his own thoughts and the documents in his hands to pay much attention.
"James, you're going to get hurt," his mum called, teasingly, wincing when it caused him to turn and fall down a couple of steps. "Harry, the book."
"It really means a lot to me that you switch so easily from being concerned then back to organizing that bloody trunk for no reason at all, putting everything back exactly as it was when you started," James grumbled as he picked himself up before resuming his climb. "That's true love right there, Harry, take notes," he hollered back, causing his son to laugh, stifling it when he caught his mother's glare.
He reached for the book the moment he spotted it half hidden amongst the others some of whose names he recognized from school and Flourish and Blotts the previous summer. The binding was fragile he could tell, tugging it carefully out of the stack, looking quickly up at his mum whose attention was elsewhere before flipping open the cover.
L. M. Evans
He read, tracing his finger over the inscription that had been carefully written, in blue ink, his mum's recognizable script. The pages were worn, each seem to be filled with scribbles of ink, sometimes even written over where the instructions already lay upon the page.
Lily turned to see her son leaning against the French doors as he carefully flipped through the pages of her beloved text. "Find something interesting?" she asked him teasingly, pulling herself up next to him. She watched as he continuously let his fingers trail over her markings, the little notes she had written and the random splatters from potions or ingredients, she wasn't quite sure anymore.
He nodded, closing the book carefully and handing it back to her. "How do you know how to do…well, I mean it's- your…brilliant."
She smiled, crawling back over to the chest to place it in, pulling out another copy of the same book though it seemed much newer. "Take a look at your dad's," she said softly, "I think you'll find it interesting, or intriguing, I'm not quite sure."
Harry flipped through the book after taking a moment once more to memorize his dad's script inside the front flap, his messy handwriting that wrote out:
J. F. Potter
Where the 'F' was circled a line coming out of it that looped it down to where, in big letters someone else had written the word, Fleamont. It was amidst a stream of doodles and small scribbled conversations between his dad and who he guessed was Sirius, though it may very well have been Remus, he didn't know. "Fleamont?" he snickered. "You and dad never told me that his middle name was Fleamont," he managed to say before doubling over in laughter.
"What could have possibly made it seem like it was a good idea to get that out?" he heard his dad say at some point as he ripped the text out of his hands.
"It's your grandfather, Harry," Lily said to him as she tried to escape the advances of his dad whose menacing expression seemed to have scared her out of her wits that she would normally have employed in such an instance. "I'm sorry!" she shrieked as he dived at her, landing face first into the couch cushions.
"I thought you said his name was Monty?" Harry asked, still baffled. "Grandma's name is still Mia right, no surprises there?"
"No," James answered as he tackled his wife into the couch, an expression of content splashed across his face as he sat on her stomach, preventing her from both escaping and reaching for her wand. "Your grandmother's full name is Euphemia, champ."
"Euphemia? No wonder she went by Mia," Harry chuckled, grabbing the Potions book again to once more flip through its pages. "I thought Remus said you were terrible at Potions, dad…"
"He didn't say terrible," his mum reminded him as she attempted to squirm her way out from beneath her husband. "James, I- Can't- Breathe!"
"Well maybe next time you decide to divulge information about my personal—."
"Personal my arse. What happened to all the what yours is mine?" she hassled him, whacking him with a pillow now that her hands were free.
"I never-."
"You are a complete berk, James Potter!"
"Fond memories," he responded wistfully. "Can I have that back now?" he asked, motioning towards the book Harry still held in his hands.
"Rather not, thanks."
"Cheeky bugger," James grumbled as his head swiveled between his wife's squirming form beneath him and his son's retreating figure.
"Harry, run!" his mother shrieked when she regained her breath from the sudden absence of her husband's arse on her abdomen.
A/N: I am so sorry. Again. I'm hoping one day to stop apologizing for doing this and then doing it again. Crossing my fingers.
Anyways I really am sorry and thank-you for your patience. I also apologize that this chapter is a mess. I don't feel great about it till somewhere near the end, but I hope the next chapter excites you as the idea makes me really happy. Just know there will be a few new things and the return of a few other...things... I'm going to stop now.