Forks and knives scratched against the plates hungrily in a way that almost made him feel as though he had woken up in the Burrow instead of in the cottage where he had spent a portion of every summer since as far back as he could remember. It sparked something inside of him, though it wasn't a feeling he could claim that he could place as he snook a peak towards the kitchen where his parents were still making their way down the buffet line.

"Do you play football?" Matthew asked Ron what must have been his hundredth question of the day. "I play football!" he announced proudly afterwards. "I cheer for Manchester United. Who do you cheer for? Not the City, do you?"

"That's enough for now, sweetheart," Emily said, cupping her hand playfully over her son's mouth as she sat down next to him, placing her full plate on the table before her. "Ron needs to eat if he is to keep up with your energy at any point during the day," she reminded Matthew who attempted to plead with Ron silently, before his mother brought his attention back to his uneaten plate of food.

"I think he's worse than Dean," Ron whispered to Harry who nodded in agreement.

"Bacon?" James offered, placing a small portion onto the edge of his wife's plate that seemed about ready to overflow with the eggs and fruit he had already piled on for her.

"Have you ever noticed that I am more than capable of being able to serve myself, Mr. Potter?" Lily asked teasingly as she shuffled past him, placing a kiss on his shoulder before grabbing the steaming cup of tea her aunt had made for her.

James laughed, trying to reach for her just as she escaped his grasp. "I'd never taken notice," he exclaimed. "Can you feed yourself as well?" he asked, returning the kiss as he pulled his chair next to hers.

"Surprisingly I can," she said, making a point to show her husband the eggs she had already began chewing, like a child.

"This is why we don't let you out," Hestia said, pointing her fork at her friend, who proceeded to stick her tongue out once more.

"Alright, that's quite enough," James said, grinning as he clamped a hand over his wife's mouth.

"Mmph me mph mej," they could barely make out as Lily attempted to speak before flinging an egg at both her friend and husband.

"I'm only going to- that's disgusting!" James jumped back, wiping his hand frantically on the napkin that had been on his lap.

"Serves you right," she grinned triumphantly.

"She licked me!"

"James, what have we said about talking-," Sirius reminded until he was caught off guard by the glare coming from ever adult member of the Evans' clan. "Sorry," he said, hiding his snicker behind the mug Hestia quickly handed off to him.

"It's all about reading the room," Hestia smiled at him.

"I'll remember that," he nodded in acknowledgement as he dug into the plates of food still warm on the counter.

"Do you have any plans for the day or are we free to monopolize you some more?" Isobel asked warmly, reaching across the table to squeeze her niece's hand, still unable to leave her alone for extended periods of time. "I know this isn't quite what you had expected…"

"It's better," James said, speaking for them both, to which Lily nodded exuberantly.

"We don't usually plan much besides relaxation when we come," Lily explained. "Just an escape from work, before Harry goes back to school and such. Nothing much at all."

"Where is it you go to school?" Emily asked, directing the attention towards the kids who looked like deer in the headlights at the mention of school, Harry and Ron most of all.

"Scotland," Harry choked after a moment and a swift kick from Hermione. "My mum and dad's old school."

Harry watched as his mum and dad continued to alternate their glances between their plates and his aunt and uncle who seemed to become increasingly uncomfortable every moment they were at the table.

"That must be brilliant. Where in Scotland?"

"The highlands," Hestia supplied.

"Did you go there as well?" Emily asked with a contagious grin. She loved meeting new people which may have explained her position as an early years educator.

"We were all in the same house at school," Remus answered this time. "That's where James and Lily met actually," he said with a small grin in their direction, a grin that vanished with their horrified expressions that only became clear to him when Hestia had kicked him under the table and moved her head in the direction of Petunia rather obviously. "Sorry."

Emily glanced at the man curiously for only the slightest of moments before her attention was otherwise diverted to where her elder son was doing something or another to the other boy's meal. "Matthew!" she chastised, rushing over.

"You will have to tell her later," Eva informed James and Lily, "She loves stories."

"Emily actually teaches at a school in London," Sam said proudly. "She just accepted a position at an all boy's school," he said with the largest of grins, gripping her hand in his when she sat down once more.

Lily set her tea cup down on the table's edge. "Oh really? Which one?" she asked, letting her guard down.

"It's nothing, really," she blushed.

Sam shook his head at her. "She's modest," he said affectionately, "Though I'm not sure it's worth mentioning the name seeing as it would probably go straight over your head, having lived in the country for so long," he teased Lily. "How is that small village of yours holding up anyways?" he asked, chuckling at himself for the most part.

Lily glared.

"I though it sounded charming when you wrote," Isobel cut in, giving her son a look as she did.

"She knows I think more of it-."

"Still," Isobel said adamantly. "Lily's been to London often enough. I'm sure she's heard of it, Emily."

They all turned their attention once more to the dark haired woman who grew increasingly uncomfortable in light of the attention. "I was brought on as a teacher at the Sussex School- are you alright?"

Harry nearly choked on his eggs. "Fine," he said once he took a large gulp of water. "I went there, that's all," he said with a soft smile. "Er," he muttered, trying to break the silence that fell upon the room in those quick few seconds it took for him to mutter those words.

She could feel their eyes upon her as she tried to go on eating her breakfast as though nothing monumental had been said. It hadn't crossed her mind their proximity to a place she had spent many happy moments of her childhood with her cousins. In all their years in London, it never came to her. It never occurred.

"You are in London?" Isobel asked carefully as if she was afraid that if she spoke them too quickly they might disappear. That she might disappear.

She watched as her niece moved food around on her plate like the little girl she used to know. There was so much in her, so many battles fought she would never know about, yet at the same time an innocence existed, a naivety that had been passed over in the midst of a war, a childlike innocence that would likely never fully mature. She watched as her niece's husband reached for her hand like he had probably done countless times before in a way that too made him seem so much older yet so much younger at the same time.

"Lily," Anderson pressed, leaning forward. His elbows resting on the table's edge, he hid his mouth behind his clasped hands that were held in such a fashion he could have been mistaken for praying, though Isobel knew that in many ways that that was just what he was doing. "You've been in London all this time?" he asked with the same cautiousness as his wife before him.

They let out a breath of air they did not know they had been holding when with the slightest nod of her head, her dark auburn locks falling in her face as she did, she gave them their answer.

"Why don't we head outside for a bit," Charlie said almost immediately to the younger ones at the table, all of whom, besides the youngest boys, had been glued to the other end of the table till that moment. "Harry," he prompted.

"Alright," the boy said rather slowly, pushing away from the table in an odd display of synchronization with his two mates and cousin who followed suit immediately.

"I'll fill you in," Sam told his brother who gave him one last look as he reached for his infant daughter from his brother's lap.

"Sam," Anderson said eerily quietly. "You as well."

"No," Sam argued. "She is as much my family as she is yours. Charlie and I both deserve to be here, and since he has graciously stepped out, I will stay."

Lily looked a little taken a back by the fierceness of her cousins speech to stay, a speech that left his own mum and dad look at him slightly differently. "You should…stay I mean," she said softly.

"Lily," Sam said, his voice cracking. "I can't speak for mum or dad but know that as shocked as I think we are all by this…you have been so close all this time," he shuddered at the thought, "I am not angry with you…either of you."

"You can be," she said.

"I know," he said with the faintest of grins.

Anderson watched the interaction between his youngest son and niece with half-interest, not fully able to share the feelings of his son as hard as he tried. He let his fingers dig into his temple against which his hands had been placed as he continuously tried to register the shock that fell upon him. It didn't make sense. Why?

"There is a lot I couldn't tell you about what was going on with the war," his niece said, staring him straight in the eye. "You said it aloud," she whispered when he seemed shocked once more by her answer.

"Start from the very beginning," Isobel requested.

Lily took a deep breath at the same time James looked at her, asking with his eyes if she needed him to help, a question she shook off. He slid his arm around her waist, letting his forearm rest on the chair behind her comfortably.

"Voldemort had been a presence in our world since I got to Hogwarts, but he wasn't on the radar as much as he was towards the end, as much as he was when you were all brought into this all. Except Tuney that is," she said, glancing quickly at her sister who seemed to be observing her with a vacant expression. "He was…"

"Voldemort wanted blood purity," Sirius spat.

"He wanted the Wizarding World to purge itself of any dirty blood," Hestia explained further. "He believed, like one of the founders of Hogwarts, that only Wizards of pure blood, only witches and wizards who had come from other wizards were deserving of magic. He was…"

"Indescribable, really," Remus said, shivering at the thought of the snake-like man.

"He wanted to get rid of people like Lily, and-."

"Emme, if you remember her, Sam," Lily said, addressing her cousin once more.

"I remember."

"So this Voldemort…" Anderson muttered.

"James and I joined the resistance along with Remus and Sirius when we were out of Hogwarts…Hestia's parents moved her out of the country as soon as they could. They didn't want her to die like so many others around us were," Lily said, quickly summarizing Hestia's absence. "That part really isn't important much though," she sighed. "I don't know where I am going with this anymore."

"What it comes down to," James picked up immediately, "Is that what we were doing was dangerous but it was nothing we felt we could not do. It was the only choice if we wanted all we knew to remain-."

"Merlin you make it sound so drama- ow!"

"Shut it," Hestia grumbled at Sirius. "Sorry, proceed."

"When your mum and dad died," James was talking solely to Lily this time. "When they died, as you know well, she shut down and none of us left here thought she was going to come back. It hurt you immeasurably," he said to his wife, "and you," he said, looking at his wife's family, "You were all she had left of her family. Lily came to me just before the wedding-."

"You dragged me to the couch," Lily interrupted grumpily.

"You're not good at communicating when you're stressed," he reminded her.

"Ha," Sam chuckled.

"Like your father," Anderson said with a small grin.

"I couldn't lose you too," Lily said, finally letting all the tears flow.

James pulled her chair as close to him as he could, pulling her onto his lap and gently caressing her cheek, brushing her hair out of her tear tracks.

"You wouldn't have-."

"Uncle Anderson!" Lily said more angrily than she meant it to sound, "It was a war. People were dying. Innocent muggles, people like you were being killed mercilessly without a chance to even defend themselves. Many who had any association to anyone who fought with us. One of my best friend's was murdered with her entire family and she was one of the best in our class at Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was dead!"

"Shhh, breathe Lils," James whispered softly.

"Marlene died?" Sam asked solemnly, breaking the silence.

They all nodded.

"When I saw you all at the wedding it made me realize how much I couldn't afford to have your deaths of all people on my hands," she said, speaking once more in her usual controlled tone. "So I slipped away. I needed to push you away. All of you," she said, looking at her uncle once more, "Because I could not and cannot lose you. I can't have my world hurt you."

"It got worse after that too," Sirius prompted.

"How?" Isobel asked, incredibly nervous as she wiped tears from her cheeks.

"Lily and James, during the battles encountered Voldemort himself."

"But you're here," Sam interrupted, "So it can't have been too bad. Could it?"

The silence was all he needed.

"Oh."

"After Harry was born there was a-."

"Remus, no," James said quickly, his friend giving him a questioning look as a result. "You've forgotten that the lot of them are notorious eves droppers."

"Just the first part," she whispered to her husband who nodded in agreement. "Voldemort wanted to kill Harry."

"Why?" everyone seemed to ask at once.

"There was a prophecy- Sam!"

"I'm sorry, it just seems so- sorry, go on," he corrected himself.

"There was a prophecy," she said again, "That said that the one who would have the power to vanquish Voldemort would be born as the seventh month dies…"

"Harry was born on the 31st of July," James explained.

"And that the one to vanquish him would be born to those who had thrice defied him," she finished.

"Which you did," Anderson and Isobel concluded at once.

"One. Two. Three times," Sirius remarked.

"I think they got that, Sirius."

"Right."

"James and I had to make the choice to go into hiding with the help of a spell that would make our home disappear. Make us disappear."

"It requires a secret-keeper, someone who will be the sole person who knows the location of your home. Someone whom you would trust with your life," James practically growled.

"I can tell them the rest if you want to go find Harry," Lily suggested, but he shook off the thought. "We asked Sirius," she said, guiltily looking at Sirius who nodded before proceeding.

"I was more than willing to help," Sirius said, "But-."

"Oh I do not like where this is going," Isobel sighed.

"But anyone who had ever known James or I, even seen us in passing knew how close we were. They would know it was me. So I suggested that-."

"Peter."

"That he be the secret-keeper instead. They wouldn't suspect him."

"They didn't have to," Hestia grumbled.

"He betrayed them to Voldemort in October, 1981," Remus said quickly. "And then he got Sirius sent to prison."

"He found you?" Anderson asked.

Lily and James nodded. "He did, just as we were going to go out."

"I had just taken off up the stairs to grab something I can't even recall now when I heard Lily scream. She had had Harry downstairs by the door."

"James came running with his wand out but Voldemort was too fast. He knocked James out. He fell over the railing, right at my feet. I thought he was dead," she cried, pulling his arms tighter around her waist as though she could never be close enough for true comfort. "He told me to step aside, for reasons I don't think I'll ever know, but I couldn't."

"Of course not," Isobel sided.

"He-he-."

"He sent the killing curse at Harry or Lily, or both," James said, jumbled. "We don't know who it was intended for, we just know it didn't work. It rebounded and killed him instead."

"Voldemort died and I-I dragged James and Harry to outside, out of the crumble that our cottage was quickly becoming. We went to mum and dad's," she said with a faint smile. "Our headmaster found us there eerily quickly. He asked what happened and once we explained he told us he had everything in place for when we were ready."

"Ready for what?" Anderson asked.

"Ready to go back to the world. We had been in hiding for a little more than a year," she explained. "He wanted us to go to a heavily populated area. He found us a house, and jobs and everything we needed."

"He brought us to Knightsbridge," James concluded.

"And you're still there?" Isobel asked, the hope coming back into her voice.

Lily nodded.

"So your son went to the Sussex School?" Vernon piped in, finally finding his voice.

"Until he was eleven," Lily said quietly, ignoring her brother-in-law's gaze, focusing intently on her sister.

"And then he went-."

"Yes," she said, cutting him off before the name would set Petunia off.

"I-."

"Vernon," Anderson said more sternly than Lily had ever recalled hearing him.

His sons and nieces, his nephew-in-law and their friends sat back in their chairs as if they were the children being disciplined. He was surprised to see his eldest niece focusing her attention onto her own brother-in-law.

"There is no quick fix for any of this," he said softly, his voice strong despite this. "But there are kids out there on the beach you have all loved your whole lives. Claire and Jonathan would have loved nothing more than to be grandparents to Dudley and Harry, but since they can't be here were going to make both of those boys, and our grandkids, feel as if they were. I don't want to hear another word about any of these petty fights," he said, fixating his stare on his nieces, "We all know it's not as worth it as you might think."

"Now go get changed," Isobel said, ushering them with a smile once more. "I think I heard Matthew mention a football game on the beach earlier."

It took a moment before any of them made to move, even Vernon who seemed taken aback by the words that had been spoken to them; the instructions set out. Slowly the scraping of wooden chair legs and benches against the old floorboards of the cottage echoed throughout, dishes piling on top of one another before the tell-tale sound of them hitting the metal of the sink. Lily held tightly to her husband's hand as they gathered with their friends towards the more secluded area of the kitchen, near the door that would lead them to their own cottage.

"Lily, James, hold on a moment," Anderson called, reaching for her hand.

"We weren't going anywhere fast," she assured him. "We will meet you back there," she told the others.

"Thanks for that," he said, bringing them to the vacant living room, indicating for them to sit down on the couch opposite from him, the one Harry had been lounging on much earlier that morning. "I-uh-."

"Is this about what just-."

Anderson shook his head, but then changed his mind, nodding slightly. He smiled a little at his own nervousness. "You and I sweetheart," he said, reaching for his niece's hand. "This shouldn't be that hard…"

"I didn't say it and I should have," Lily fretted, gripping his hand tightly. "I never wanted to hurt you, or Aunt Isobel…anyone. I thought I was doing the right thing-."

"Don't you dare for a minute apologize for protecting your family, Lily."

"I didn't realize that it could hurt you," she went on anyways, "I-I though that if you were just safe from it all. If no one could see any connection to me then you would be safe from hurt. But it happened anyways…"

"Lily, Lily, Lily," Anderson sighed. "You can't go through life without getting hurt."

"But-."

"You and I, Lily, have dealt with a lot, climbed mountains even, literally," he chuckled at the memories that no longer pained him of the months following the burial of his brother and sister. "I wanted to talk to you because even though we haven't had time yet, we will get to it though," he smiled as did she, "To understand what your life is now, what is happening in your world, I need you to promise me something.

I need you to promise me that whatever the state of your world or ours, that you will…that you won't go again."

"Uncle A," Lily pleaded softly.

"I'm speaking for myself-."

"And myself as well," Isobel said, rushing out of the kitchen in such a flurry the three of them couldn't help but giggle.

"We are speaking for us alone," he said, holding his wife, "If it's bad, your cousins, their families…they can stay out of it. But you are ours, and we want you to- we need to be a part of your world, Lily. We need…want so desperately, to be allowed to be part of your life, your family," he said with a smile to James, "Unconditionally."

"Think fast!"

Was all he heard before the football nearly collided with his face, his book quickly dropping to the floor at his feet effectively losing him his page. He adjusted his glasses ever so slightly on the bridge of his nose.

"What in Merlin's name-."

"What a peculiar phrase," Anderson noted as he chuckled and picked up the ball that had rolled it's way back to his feet. "Not going to sit there all day, are you, son?"

James chuckled, shaking his head as he heaved himself out of the comfortable chair, tossing his book back into the still forming cushions — what he believed to be the soul of a good chair.

"Would not dare, now would he when his wife's-," Charlie teased mercilessly as he sprinted down the stairs in his swim trunks, towel draped over his shoulder and sunglasses already in place.

"Your cousin, need I remind you," Anderson said as he shoved the man in passing. "Right as he may be," he added with a wink to James, a man who needed no further convincing once Lily came into play.

"I'll be there in two shakes of a lamb's tale," he called after.

"Of course you will," Eva giggled, her accent still present in her voice as she tried in vain to catch up with her youngest son who was off running to the beach with nothing but a nappy on.

"Reminds me of Harry here when he was younger," James said fondly before skipping the steps and taking off to the accommodations where they had set up camp.

He came back out within moments, emerging onto the beach just down from the small deck. The entire entourage had taken over the sandy shore that overlooked the channel. A few umbrellas were dug into the sand, though quite a ways apart as he noticed that yet again his dear sister-in-law and her husband separated themselves, though not far away enough that they couldn't carefully observe the teenagers who were gathered with the few who could claim to be younger than them and his wife's cousins and uncle.

"Where are your two goons, mate?" Sam questioned as he very nearly tackled James into the sand the moment he saw the man.

"Probably being smart and hiding from the lot of you," he said as he shoved the man away from him.

"I don't think that you quite understand the significance of this match," Charlie accused him.

James stared at him blankly before glancing over the man's shoulder to where his wife and Hestia were walking back towards them along the beach. "No probably not," he agreed, "But you were right about my wife," he said with a wink before playfully pushing the man into the dune just as he had done before he ran at top-speed towards his wife who seemed torn between running for her life in the opposite direction of her husband or giving up in a fit of giggles.

"James Potter!" she screeched as she took off towards the water in a last minute decision to choose the former.

"Did you ever actually return from your honeymoon?" Hestia called after them, grinning still at the sight of her best-friend and her husband who were still helplessly in love.

"Are you joining in Jones?" Charlie called to her, challenging her with every word he uttered.

"You don't think I'd let them beat you without me, now did you?" she teased, catching the ball with ease when he chucked it at her.

"Who said they were on a team together?" Charlie questioned.

"Oh well I assumed that you would rather like the chance to take back the victory you lost so many years ago," she said simply, shoving the ball back into his arms as she went to stand by Eva who couldn't help herself as she laughed at her husband's conflicting expressions.

"Hestia, you know we haven't really…well at least Ron hasn't ever played football before, right?" Harry said to her in a low voice, hoping no one else can hear.

"Well if that's the case, dear nephew," Charlie said loudly, having been eves dropping quite proudly, "Then a rematch is exactly what I came here for."

"You realize your completely outnumbered, right?" Ron commented.

Charlie took another glance at the group assembled before him. Emily and Eva, the former with his daughter bouncing in her arms, were standing next to Hestia, Remus and Sirius. 3-2, not bad, he weighed in his head. He looked at his brother's sons and shook his head, they'd be too young. That left Harry, Dudley, Ron and Hermione.

He turned to Ron with a wicked glimmer in his eye.

"This can't be good," Eva said, shaking her head.

"If I recall correctly-."

"That's unlikely," Remus and Sirius both snickered.