A/N: This chapter is short and I apologize for that, but I wanted to leave it right where I did on purpose. I debated on adding a bit more but I didn't want to add things just to buff up the word-count. I hope that you all like this. Please let me know what you think of James's parents!

…..

Luna was disappointed when she stepped off the Hogwarts Express and James remarked casually, "My parents aren't meeting us here, Sirius and I both have our Apparition licenses so they reckon we can make it there on our own."

Sirius gave her a reassuring smile as he snaked an arm around her waist. Luna turned to Lily and asked, "You'll be there Christmas day and stay for the rest of the holiday?"

"That's the plan. Don't worry, I won't leave you alone with those idiots for too long." Luna pulled out of Sirius's embrace just long enough to hug Lily.

"We'll let you two say your sappy goodbyes, I'll take Luna to the house."

"Alright, I'll just be a minute." James wasn't even looking at Sirius as he spoke, his eyes locked on Lily as she ran her hands up his chest.

Before she even realized what happened Luna found herself standing in front of Potter Manor. They stood a good distance back from the gates and beyond them Luna could see a four story mansion. She couldn't quite place it, but there was something about this castle-sized house that warmed her on the inside. If a house could feel friendly then that's what Luna was feeling.

"It's beautiful," she gave it a broad smile before running full tilt toward the gates with the ornate letter P adorning it. With one of her hands holding tightly to Sirius's, her other hand brushed the metal and it melted away at her touch, turning to smoke and letting them through.

When she passed that barrier she felt an immediate difference. Just outside their property it was a blustery, cold, and snowy day. However inside the gate it felt like spring time.

Even the grounds surrounding the house had a magical feel. Luna could feel it in her bones just like she could feel the magic at The Burrow and Grimauld Place. It was a place that had so many magical inhabitants living in it throughout the years that the magic became part of the physical structure. The landscape was meticulously cared for with some of Luna's favorite flowers growing in intricate patterns.

It wasn't unlike Malfoy Manor, which she'd visited once with her cousin, Rose. Except Malfoy Manor felt darker. It had experienced too much dark magic in it's past to feel this wonderful and pure. A lawn gnome came running by them, wobbling absurdly as it giggled madly. "Is de-gnoming the garden one of James's chores?" she asked as she recalled all of the times she and her cousins had to rid the Burrow of the annoying little creatures.

Sirius snorted in amusement. "Hardly. Charlus, James's father, thinks they're charming and Dorea, James's mother, likes to keep them around because they actually eat weeds."

Luna found herself looking everywhere except up at the house until they reached the stairs leading up to the front door. Then she let her gaze fall upon the front of the house and froze. Before her was a beautiful older witch who was smiling at her in a confused sort of way.

Before Luna could say anything, she found herself letting go of Sirius's hand and lunging at the woman, hugging her fiercely. They were exactly the same height, although Luna was sure that she'd gotten her short stature from her mother's side of the family.

"Hi," she breathed as she released the woman and leaned back to get a better look at her. "I'm Luna P-Granger. Luna Granger. Sirius's girlfriend. I hope that I'm not imposing." The woman had black hair with streaks of gray through it. Lines around her mouth and eyes denoted wrinkles that were caused by smiling a lot. Her eyes were the same hazel color that James's were, but wider, and kinder.

"Not at all," the woman was still looking at her in confusion and Luna felt uncomfortable under her stern gaze. "Charlus and I are glad to have you here."

"I'm very glad to be here, Mrs. Potter."

"Where's James?" Dorea asked Sirius as he came up the steps and hugged her, kissing her cheek respectfully.

"Still on the platform saying goodbye to his girlfriend."

Dorea's eyes widened a bit more as if this news shocked her. "It's so good to have you home." She stretched up to kiss Sirius affectionately on the forehead, which he had to bend over to accommodate.

"It's good to be home, Mum. Did our luggage make it home alright?"

"Yes, Sirius," she said with a chuckle, "your Charms are infallible as always. They arrived in the foyer and I had Tippy take them up to your bedrooms."

"Mum!" At that moment a beaming James Potter came skipping up the path from the gates and engulfed his mother into a hug that lifted her off of her feet. He spun her around twice before setting her down and bestowing a kiss on the top of her head, slightly musing the tight bun her hair was pulled up in.

"James," she gave an exasperated sigh as she greeted him the same way she'd greeted Sirius.

"What's for dinner? I'm starving!" He led the way into the house. "Dad!" he called.

"James! Sirius!" An older man entered the room and Luna appraised him the same way she had his wife. He wasn't handsome in the tradition sense yet there was still something striking about his features. He was tall, with just a little bit of excess weight around his middle. He wore a casual suit, waistcoat, and Luna could see the chain of a pocket watch around one of the buttons on his vest.

His hair was silver so she couldn't be sure what his natural shade had once been. His eyes were a sparkling blue. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Potter, thank you so much for having me."

"The pleasure is all ours, my dear," he said with a smile as he reached for her hand and kissed it politely. No wonder James was such a charmer. He had an old fashioned gentleman for a father and a doting mother. Neither of which, she realized belatedly, were wearing wizard's robes. Dorea was in a casual skirt that reached her ankles and a plain blue blouse.

"You have a beautiful home," said Luna sincerely.

"James and Sirius haven't even given you the tour yet!" Charlus enthused as he motioned for the two of them to lead the way further into the house.

"Quick tour then dinner," said James.

James wasn't jokingly about it being a quick tour. He practically ran through the house, shouting out random rooms. "Lavatory! Spare bedroom! Another spare bedroom! Study! Library! Kitchen! Parlor!" and so on.

When they reached Sirius's bedroom Luna wanted to linger and look around some more, but James rushed them on, obviously anxious to reach the dining room. What startled her the most, however, was that her things were in Sirius's bedroom. "Your parents are okay with that?" she asked incredulously.

"Oh yeah. Mum knows Sirius wouldn't bring a girl home unless she was special. She assumes you two are shagging anyway. She'd rather just accept it than have you two sneaking into each other's bedrooms behind her back at night."

Luna blushed but didn't comment. It wasn't like her to feel embarrassed about anything, but she wanted Dorea and Charlus Potter to think highly of her. The last thing she wanted was for them to think she was a tramp.

When they mercifully reached the dining room, Sirius pulled out a chair for Luna before taking a seat himself. Two house elves served the meal, who were addressed by the family as 'Tilly' and 'Tippy.'

"Excuse me, dear," said Dorea politely but with a scrutinizing look at Luna. "It's not that it matters to us at all, but would it be inappropriate of me to inquire as to your blood status?"

"Mum," Sirius grumbled in an embarrassed way.

"It's fine," Luna assured him as she set her spoon back into her bowl of soup. "I'm a half-blood, Mrs. Potter."

"Please, call me Dorea. Now James and Sirius told me that your parents were recently killed?" Luna nodded. "Were they both magical?" Again, she nodded. "Would you mind very much if I asked about your wizard heritage? Are you, perchance, related to the Burkes?"

"I only very recently became interested in genealogy," she answered truthfully as she dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a napkin. "My mother was a Weasley and her mother was a Prewett."

Charlus gave a low whistle. "Good families, the Weasleys and the Prewetts."

"Blood traitors, you mean," Sirius acknowledged with a tip of his wineglass. He turned to Luna and explained quietly, "The Potters are well known blood traitors. They hold the families in highest esteem who are also blood traitors. If you had been a Burke she might have kicked you out."

"Nonsense," Dorea bristled. "I wouldn't have kicked the poor child out! You, of all people, should know that, Sirius Black."

"I'm just teasing, Mum."

"Cheeky git," she said with affection. "Both of you," she added with a glance at James.

"Was your father a muggleborn then?" Charlus asked conversationally as he continued to sip at his soup.

"Er, no, not exactly. He was a half-blood. His father was a pureblood and his mother was a muggleborn."

"Fascinating," said Charlus.

"You'll have to forgive my husband," Dorea chided, "He's very interested in genealogy. He's actually doing important research now on muggleborns." Nobody missed the pride in her voice.

"That sounds very interesting."

"Oh it is! Did you know that the more we study muggleborn's ancestors we're discovering that somewhere down the line there is a Squib? Perhaps when we have enough evidence to prove our theory, the so-called 'pureblood' society will accept the fact that those of muggle parentage are not inferior."

"I must admit; even though I am not biased, I am nervous about meeting this Lily girl you're dating, James." She gave her son a stern look. "I've never been around muggles at all, and have only spent very little time around muggleborns."

"You must have had dorm mates who had muggle parents while you were at Hogwarts," suggested Luna.

"Actually, no, I didn't. Even though the occasional muggleborn was placed in Sltyerhin, it was far from common."

"You were a Slytherin?" Luna asked with a gasp. Wait until her brothers heard this! Especially James! "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you…"

"Not at all," she gave an airy wave of her hand. "The houses were not as divided then as they are now. Back when Charlus and I were at Hogwarts there was still an avid rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin but we were much friendlier with each other. It's all the fault of that awful Voldemort man."

"Now, Mum, you know you don't have to worry about him. We'll have him and his followers stamped out soon," James's confident air made Luna's heart hurt. He truly did believe it would be an easy fight.

"I wish that Charlus and I were young enough to join that Order Dumbledore is forming."

"Now, Dor, we both know that if it came down to it you wouldn't be able to fight and possibly kill your family." Charlus said with a sad smile as he patted her hand.

"Oh I would! My parents disowned my brother, my niece disowned Sirius, my cousin was disowned for marrying a Weasley! I'm shocked that my name hasn't been blotted out from the family tree for marrying you!"

"Your…niece disowned Sirius?" asked Luna. Oh the twisted interlacing roots of pureblood family trees.

"Walburga, Sirius's mum, is my first cousin," James said softly. "Maybe later I'll show the family tree that my mum is obviously so fond of."

With a snicker Luna continued eating. "So how did the two of you end up together if Dorea is a Slytherin and Charlus is a Gryffindor?"

Dorea laughed and covered her mouth with her hand sounding years younger as she remembered when she first noticed Charlus Potter. "I was walking down the hall at Hogwarts when my bag tore open. Everything spilled out. A few Slytherin boys laughed and kept walking. Then Charlus knelt down and picked everything up. I was shocked because not only had we never spoken before, but he'd picked up my items by hand even though he could have easily Summoned them. That was when I realized that perhaps having enough chivalry and bravery to be in Gryffindor wasn't a bad thing."

"For me it was before that. I noticed Dorea because she wasn't like the rest of her family. I already knew that I wasn't like the rest of mine. You see, even though my family would never have gone as far as killing muggles and muggleborns the way Voldemort has, they still thought themselves above them. They still thought that Hogwarts shouldn't admit those types. When I saw her bag split open I seized my chance, struck up a conversation with her, and we went from there."

"It took years for him to convince me to marry him," Dorea Potter was lost in memories as she gazed at her husband. "I was afraid of being disowned by my family the way they disowned Cedrella for marrying Septimus. But apparently Charlus Potter was better than Septimus Weasley." She gave a dramatic roll of her eyes.

Luna knew she was treading on thin ice. Dorea obviously knew her family tree very well along with the family trees of other notable pureblood families. Would she figure out that Luna was lying? Perhaps there was no union between a Prewett and a Weasley that could possibly be her grandparents.

"The soup was wonderful but I'm afraid that I am exhausted. I really would like to get some sleep if you don't mind," she threw her napkin down beside her empty bowl and stood.

"Of course," Dorea shook herself from her memories as Charlus, James, and Sirius all stood respectfully when Luna stood. With an inward snort she noted that James and Sirius didn't act this way at school.

"I think it's time that Sirius and I retire as well. Goodnight, Mum, Dad," James nodded to each of them, as did Sirius, and the three of them climbed the grand staircase all the way up to the third floor.

"This is the second biggest bedroom in the house," Sirius told her as he waved his wand at the window and it creaked open enough to let in a gentle breeze. Luna was about to protest when she remembered that the outside air felt like spring instead of winter. Must be part of the magic of the house.

"The second biggest?"

"Yes, the master suite is, of course, occupied by Charlus and Dorea. When James was a child his parents let him choose his bedroom and he picked the one closest to theirs, which is smaller than this one but still has it's own lavatory attached to the room like this one."

"And those rooms were on the second floor, right? In the….east wing?"

"Close," he smirked at her, "second floor, west wing."

With a giggle Luna slid into an oversized t-shirt that belonged to Sirius, a pair of red shorts, and climbed into bed. Sirius joined her and extinguished the torches in the room with a wave of his wand.

"Goodnight, Luna."

"Goodnight, Sirius. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Luna quickly fell into the best night of sleep she had had since she arrived in the year 1977.

…..

Lily Evans entered her home with a sigh. Despite her hopes, her parents hadn't been there on the platform to welcome her home. But that was okay. They didn't belong in the magical world and it was a dangerous place for muggles to be at the moment.

"Lily!" Her mother squealed as they hugged each other tightly.

"Where's dad?"

"In the garage. You know him, always tinkering with something mechanical. Your sister is upstairs if you'd like to see her. I think she's on the phone with Vernon." Lily could tell by her mother's pursed lips exactly what she thought of Vernon Dursley.

"Erm, no thanks, I'll go say 'hi' to Dad."

Before Lily could exit the sitting room, her sister appeared at the top of the stairs. Petunia Evans was tall, blonde, and skinny, but not very pretty in Lily's opinion. She had a horse-like face and a rather long neck. The first thing Lily noticed was that Petunia was in fact wearing the skirt she'd been looking for the day before.

"Oh dear," said Petunia scathingly. "You're home. At least it's only for a few days until a few more of your kind come to take you away."

"Now Petunia," began Mrs. Evans but Lily interrupted.

"Oh, Petunia!" she gushed with fake dread. "You didn't get that skirt out of my bedroom, did you? That skirt is cleverly enchanted to make you look three times your actual size. I was going to give it to Mary as a gag gift!"

Petunia paled considerably. "What?"

"You haven't been wearing that out in public, have you?" Lily continued with wide eyes.

"You bint!" Petunia screamed as she reached for the zipper and tugged it down, shimmying out of the skirt as quickly as she could. "I told you she would be nothing but trouble!" she screeched at their mother.

With an angry yell, Petunia flung the skirt at Lily and turned back toward her bedroom showing off her pink knickers to her mother and sister as the skirt was no longer covering her. "That wasn't nice, Lily," said her mother but there was a hint of a grin on her face.

"She wouldn't have given it back to me otherwise," Lily grumbled as she fingered the delicate flower pattern of the skirt.

Her mother laughed and hugged her. "I am so glad to have you home."

…

"James? Can we talk to you for a minute, Son?" Charlus and Dorea came into James's rooms after he excused himself from dinner.

"Sure, what do you need?" James was unpacking his trunk haphazardly; throwing the contents of his trunk around the room randomly.

"There's something a bit off about that Luna girl," said Dorea with worry as she wrung her hands together.

"What do you mean?"

"You weren't with Sirius and Luna when they arrived, but they came right up to the front door."

"You mean you didn't meet them at the gate to let them in?" James asked with a frown. It was a little-known fact that nobody but a Potter could get into their house without being accompanied by a member of the family. The gate was there for more than just looks; it was a magical barrier that neither Sirius nor Luna should have been able to penetrate.

"I was on my way to but they were already at the door!" she hissed.

"Perhaps Sirius is closely enough related to us…" James winced even as he said it, knowing it wasn't possible. Sirius wouldn't know about this Charm as every time he'd ever entered the gate he was with James.

Both of his parents were shaking their heads. "You don't understand," said Charlus, "the Charm on the gate is more powerful than just being a relative. The person entering the gate has to actually have the surname Potter and be a direct descendent of our family."

"That's impossible," scoffed James. "Maybe the Charm is wearing off and needs to be reinforced."

"The gate is made of goblin-wrought metal. The spells placed upon it cannot wear off over time like most spells can." Dorea corrected.

"Then what are you trying to say? That Luna is some Dark Magic user who somehow managed to circumvent our Charms and get into our house?" James immediately jumped onto the defense.

"No," said Charlus quietly, "We are saying that we think she is lying about her surname. She mentioned that her father's father was a pureblood. That means her surname, Granger, should be a pureblood name, but it isn't. As a matter of fact I've never heard of any wizard, pureblood or otherwise, having that name."

"Maybe she was adopted," said James angrily.

"Actually…that's what we're suspecting," said Dorea quietly. "We like the girl, James, we really do, and we know that she is important to both you and Sirius."

Charlus began talking when his wife stopped, "I have a brother, your uncle Castor, and it's quite possible he had a child with a woman and never knew it. The woman could have easily raised the child with another man or put it up for adoption."

"That's impossible," said James curtly. "Luna said her father's father was a pureblood and his surname was Granger. Why would she lie about that?"

"We don't know, darling, but something about her story isn't adding up."

"And no matter what, the fact of the matter is that she is, whether she's aware of it or not, a Potter."