Hey A/all. Welcome to Chapter one of How it Should Have Been: The Boy Who Lived the first story in what will be my How it Should Have Been series. My first ever fanfic that I wrote was How it Should Have Been: Harry Turns Nine, it was my first foray into fanfic writing and honestly pretty bad. Whilst I liked the idea, James and Lily living and raising Harry, my execution left a lot to be desired to put lightly. I have been toying with re-trying this concept for a while, wondering how to make it work and make it unique and I think I've come up with an interesting take on things. All stories connected to this AU will be under the title of How it Should Have Been. This first story is complete and is a little three shot, updates should be weekly unless something drastic happens.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter all recognisable characters belong to J K Rowling; I just like to use them to do my bidding.
Series Summary: James and Lily live and raise Harry themselves.
Story Summary: What if that fateful Halloween night had gone a little differently and James and Lily survived? How would that come to pass? how did Harry survive without his mother's sacrifice? Warning Character Death. Mentions, but no actual description, of Spanking. JXL FXE.
Warning: This series does contain spanking, not in this particular story, but in future stories there will be spankings, this series will also include OC characters and a future M/M relationship. If any of these things offend you then don't read. Flames will be ignored.
A huge, huge thank you to my amazing Beta Jules Ann who is my constant support, confidant, cheer leader, and sounding board. Whenever I am stuck with something she is always happy to listen and help me figure out what I'm trying to do. Yes, I am trying my hardest to turn her into a Harry Potter Fan. Without her support and guidance, you wouldn't be getting this story as I likely would have just abandoned the idea.
~o~
Lily watched out the window as James and Sirius worked together to try and work off some of Harry's energy. Sirius had shifted into Padfoot and was letting Harry chase him around and clamber all over him when he 'caught' him. They were all going completely stir crazy being stuck in here, but when Severus had informed Albus that Harry was the target, protecting their baby boy became their only priority. Harry however just didn't understand, couldn't understand, and poor Mystique was taking the brunt of Harry's cabin fever. Harry's current favourite game was chase, specifically chasing Mystique and grabbing her tail. He was only fifteen months old, so didn't really know he was doing anything wrong, but still they couldn't allow him to hurt Mystique like that, so distraction was the key. Unfortunately, it just wasn't considered safe enough to leave the house just to take Harry out to the park to burn off some energy anymore, so Sirius, as Padfoot, was the unfortunate substitute. Sirius loved Harry so much that he didn't mind it at all. Before they'd had to hide behind the Fidelius Charm here Sirius had frequently 'kidnapped' Harry; he'd just pop in, scoop up their son and tell them to enjoy some private time, often making some dirty joke involving the making of another mini Prongslet, then disappear.
Lily smiled as Mystique hopped up onto the kitchen counter, bumping her head into her hand. She absently stroked her familiar, her parents had bought the little calico kitten for her after her first year at Hogwarts, and she had been her faithful companion ever since. She had named her Mystique, partly to annoy Petunia, who had hated hearing anything Hogwarts related or magical, but also because she liked the name. "Harry is just feeling cooped up Mystique, we all are, he'll learn soon not to grab at you," she soothed the now purring feline.
Living like this wasn't working for any of them. When Albus had informed them of the obscure Fidelius Charm it had seemed like a much better option than constantly moving from safe house to safe house. Albus had even offered to be their secret keeper himself, but James and Sirius had already come up with the perfect plan to protect them. Despite being completely protected, neither of them could fully relax, they tried to hide the stress and worry they both felt, for Harry's sake, but they couldn't hide it from each other. It was even starting to make her sick, which only added to James' worries as the weirdest things had her running to the bathroom. Being stuck in this small cottage that Albus had found for them was not helping their stress and worry at all. James' parents had offered them Potter Manor, but neither wanted to impose on his aging parents; especially since they had a toddler, and James didn't want to have to move back under his parents' roof. Lily couldn't blame him for not wanting to live with his parents again, she had no desire to live under her parents' roof either.
Lily glanced at the time and checked on the roast in the oven. She moved to the backdoor, opening it and offering her hysterically giggling son a smile, shoving aside her stress and worry for his sake.
Harry shrieked in delight seeing his Mummy and toddled over to her, "Mumma! Mumma! Up" he demanded.
Lily laughed and scooped her son up, peppering his little face with kisses. She did not allow any signs of the stress and strain she felt to show or affect her as she held her precious son in her arms. "I think Daddy or Uncle Padfoot need to give you a bath little man," she laughed. Running around in the garden in late October had Harry rather muddy.
Sirius shifted back to himself and stood up. He loved his little Pup, but Harry was a nightmare for him and James at bath time, so he wasn't going to be volunteering for that duty any time soon.
"Aww come on Lils, you know he only behaves for you during bath time," James grinned. He could freely admit that it was his and Sirius' fault, they'd encouraged Harry to splash about in the water, and had laughed their heads off when he'd escaped them and run around butt naked. Being firm with Harry was definitely more Lily's area of expertise than his, and Sirius was even worse than he was.
Lily popped Harry on her hip and cocked an eyebrow at her husband and his brother in all but blood, "well I could bath him, but then that means you two have to take over dinner."
James hurried over to his wife and plucked Harry from her arms, grinning at the delighted screech this got him from his little bundle of mischief and mayhem, "come on Harry, bath time."
"Dadda! Dadda!" Harry shrieked in glee as he was stolen from his Mummy by Daddy.
Sirius laughed, "I'll give you a hand Prongs." He followed James and Harry back into the cottage and up to the bathroom, surely between the two of them they could get Harry bathed without too many disasters.
Lily shook her head in amusement before she returned to the kitchen to continue making the roast. She'd known James and Sirius would opt to give Harry his bath, rather than take over dinner. James wasn't completely helpless in the kitchen anymore; he could just about manage to make toast without setting things on fire, the same could not be said for Sirius. She felt a little sorry for Remus, having to take on all the cooking for him and Sirius. At the moment Sirius was being looked after by one of the Potter House Elves whenever he wasn't here at the cottage for meals as Remus was off on a mission.
The sounds of happy shrieks of laughter from Harry and barely restrained curses from James and Sirius floated down to Lily as she drained off the part boiled potatoes, salted and floured them, before she tipped them into the preheated fat and slid them into the oven. She glanced up at the clock, they were expecting James' parents over at six for dinner. They'd sent an owl asking if they could come over to talk at the nearest convenience, and as they couldn't even hand out sweets to the local kids trick or treating, they decided today was the best day. As she was checking the time, she felt a pang of grief seeing the pictures on the shelf with the clock.
One picture was of her boys at Graduation, it had only been three years ago, but the war had aged all of them, Remus the worst and the familiar worry twisted her stomach when she thought about Remus. They had no idea where Remus was at the moment, he was deep in the woods, living amongst the werewolf packs sending what little information he could back to Albus. At least she knew where James, Sirius, and Peter were. They were worried about Peter's mother and the stress of her illness was clearly severely affecting him; however Remus' absence and silence was a more constant source of terror.
It was the second picture that still even now caused tears to well up in Lily's eyes, it was of her, Alice, Dorcas, and Marlene at their Graduation, only she and Alice were still alive. Dorcas had been killed whilst she was just out shopping, a random victim, targeted just because she'd been there. Marlene though, she and her whole family had been murdered in their home, and that large manor had gone up in Fiendfyre, rumour was Voldemort himself had been there. She and Alice had previously spent a lot of time together, since that damn prophecy had come out and it seemed likely it was her Harry or Alice's Neville that would be the child of the prophecy. They'd been moved from safe house to safe house sometimes together, other times separately, but once Severus had informed them that it was Harry the insane megalomanic intended to target, Alice and Neville had returned to Longbottom Manor, and Lily, James, and Harry ended up here under the Fidelius Charm.
The third picture was a newer one, taken less than two years ago, but it still caused a ripple of pain and this time longing to shoot through Lily. It was a picture of her and Pandora, Merlin did she miss the woman who'd quickly become like a sister to her, but protecting Harry came before everything. She allowed herself a small smile as she thought about the circumstances that had led to them becoming so close.
Flashback
Lily always thought she knew exactly what she wanted to do once she graduated Hogwarts, however discussing her plans with James and Sirius during the Christmas of their seventh year had led to her discovering that her goals were apparently incredibly dangerous. Considering that it was her fiancé and his best friend, who were notoriously reckless and spent every full moon running around with a werewolf, telling her that her plans were, in their exact words, insanely dangerous, Lily decided listening was probably in her best interest. It hadn't taken much research to confirm that spell crafting alone was indeed highly hazardous which left her suddenly not having a clue what she wanted to do.
Lily's friends all seemed to have their futures figured out, Dorcas wanted to be a reporter for the daily profit, Alice planned on joining the Auror program along with her now fiancé Frank, and Marlene was set on becoming a quidditch player. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were no help either. James had missed the first couple days of school last September because he'd been trying out for the Montrose Magpies, much to everyone's surprise. It was not so much that James was trying out for a quidditch team that was the surprise, it was more which team he was trying out for that was the surprise. After all, the Potter Family owned Puddlemere United, if James tried out for that team, he was practically guaranteed a position. Lily had been filled with pride for her fiancé when he'd confessed to her that it was for that exact reason that he had refused to try out for Puddlemere United, he wanted to earn his position on a team just like everyone else had to. Sirius was just like Lily in that he didn't know what he was going to do, but unlike Lily he didn't care that he didn't have a plan, in fact he was horrified by the mere idea of having a plan. Remus planned on looking for work in the muggle world, it was almost impossible for a werewolf to find respectable employment in the British Wizarding World, even disreputable employment was rare to find due to the discrimination against Werewolves. Peter planned on joining the Ministry, any position he could get, his mother insisted that it was a good, stable, and safe career.
Lily still had no idea what she wanted to do now she was a fresh Hogwarts Graduate, but after many meetings with her old Head of House she'd come up with a back-up plan of gaining a Mastery. She still felt a pang of sadness when she recalled that Severus had once wanted to gain a Potions Mastery and their plans of joining the Hogwarts Mastery program together, but she pushed that away. Her one-time best friend had made his choices years ago and although it had taken him calling her that awful name for her to see it, in retrospect she knew she should had seen it long before that; their friendship was doomed from the start. What kind of Mastery she wanted she hadn't settled on, but Hogwarts offered Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Astronomy, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Herbology, Muggle Studies, and Care of Magical Creatures Masteries. She had narrowed her options down to Charms, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and maybe Transfiguration, or Potions. She wasn't sure about Potions because that had always been Severus' plan and so she didn't know if she could face it, and she was only keeping Transfiguration as an option because she knew she'd be Apprenticing under Minerva McGonagall and she loved her old Head of House. Getting a Mastery, or maybe several Masteries, gave her the extra time she so needed to figure out exactly what she wanted to do.
Lily was not all that surprised to be the first one to sign in for the Mastery interviews and she felt her cheeks heat up at the feeling of the second year Mastery student's eyes on the back of her head as she walked into the room and checked the interview times for five Mastery subjects. She was relieved to see that none of her interviews clashed and she even had some good breaks between them. Out of curiosity she checked out a few other names, she did recognise a couple, but there were more names she didn't recognise at all, one name stuck out to her, Pandora Lovegood. She had known Pandora, she had been a Ravenclaw in her year, they hadn't been friends exactly, but they certainly hadn't been enemies by any stretch. The main reason she really even knew Pandora as anyone beyond someone she had shared some classes with was the huge stir the witch had caused at the start of their sixth year.
Before their sixth year Pandora Lovegood had been known as Pandora Toke but before the train had even arrived at Hogsmeade station the Hogwarts rumour mill was working to churn out a new one. When Lily had first heard that one of their classmates had gotten married over the summer she'd scoffed at Dorcas, insisting she was being ridiculous. Pandora had only been sixteen and according to Dorcas her husband was in his late thirties, over twenty years older than her. Lily had taken this rumour with a pinch of salt, the Hogwarts rumour mill was known for making dragons out of doxy eggs, so she assumed it was just some sort of early engagement rather than a marriage. It had been Marlene saying that she'd known Pandora and Xenophilius were Betrothed but she had thought the age gap was sixteen years rather than twenty plus that had added a worrying level of credence to the rumour.
It wasn't until Dorcas had shoved the old copy of the Daily Prophet into her face and Lily had read the small announcement of the Lovegood wedding that she'd been forced to accept that one of her classmates was somehow married at just sixteen. The small picture of the pair of them highlighted the clear age difference between them, but they did seem happy; well Pandora did at least, Lily didn't know Xenophilius Lovegood at all to make any kind of judgement on whether he appeared happy or not.
The Hogwarts rumour mill had run wild with tales of Pandora being pregnant and Xenophilius only marrying her to prevent her having a bastard child, or Pandora having done something to be cast out of her family and Xenophilius taking pity on her and marrying her to prevent her becoming Nameless. There was not a single kind 'reason' for the marriage and Lily had felt rather sorry for her, especially in the beginning of term when their professors would stumble over her name, calling her Miss Toke before they had to correct themselves and call her Mrs Lovegood. The rumours lasted until just after Christmas when Pandora returned after the Christmas break still showing no signs of pregnancy and still being allowed to attend Potions. This was taken as proof she wasn't pregnant, as the previous year Lucy Kipplestein from Hufflepuff had been pregnant and she'd had to drop Potions, because the fumes were dangerous to a developing unborn baby. Lucy hadn't come back this year, and as far as Lily knew she hadn't gotten married either. Lily had been curious about why this wasn't as big of a scandal as Pandora being married at just sixteen. Marlene had just rolled her eyes and stated disgustedly that, unfortunately. because Lucy was a muggleborn, the Purebloods didn't care. Pandora was a pureblood, the last member of the Toke family, the line was extant only in the female line now, unless Pandora had two male children and Xenophilius allowed her to name one a Toke to continue on the Toke line. This meant the scandal of Pandora getting married at just sixteen and possibly being already pregnant was of great importance to the Purebloods.
Lily was pulled from her musing by the very girl she was thinking about sitting next to her, to her surprise she found several people had entered the room whilst she'd been lost in thought.
"Congratulations on your engagement Evans," Pandora murmured as she sat down. "Potter has always known how to put on a show," she mused lightly.
Lily glanced down at her engagement ring, James popping the question during their graduation had been a surprise and rather embarrassing, but he'd done it for good reason. "Thank you, and please call me Lily. My parents passed last Easter and I was completely dreading having to live with my sister and her husband until I could save up for a place of my own, James proposing meant we could live together without a scandal. He says it was always his plan to propose, but he did it sooner to protect me," she explained softly. "I um, I hope married life is treating you well," she offered slightly awkwardly.
Pandora smiled, "thank you Lily, please call me Pandora. That is rather sweet of James, but then he's always had a good heart, and it's similar to why Xeno married me. My mother and his mother had always been friends, that's why we were betrothed after his first betrothal failed when the girl he was betrothed to slept with another man and got pregnant by him. Xeno might have married her still, but his father wouldn't allow it, I was only two at the time and Xeno eighteen, but his father agreed to the betrothal under the agreement that I stay pure. When my mother died my father had fallen out with Xeno's father and wanted to marry me off to one of his business partners who was the same age as my father. Xeno married me to stop me having to marry someone already in his late sixties. He's been a wonderfully kind, caring, and attentive husband, and I'm very fortunate to have him."
Lily was floored by this information, none of the previous rumours had come close to guessing the reason Pandora had been married. The old-fashioned attitudes of Purebloods rankled her for a moment, and she had to bite back her fury at the idea of anyone marrying off their daughter to someone their own age. "I'm glad he treats you well," she eventually managed to force out. She'd learnt long ago there was no point ranting about Pureblood practices to other Purebloods.
Pandora gave Lily a knowing smile almost as if she could read her mind, "he treats me wonderfully, we have a lovely house with acres of land. I love being out in our garden, planting and growing things," she enthused.
Lily jumped on the chance to get off the topic of Betrothals and daughters being sold off like cattle, "are you interviewing for a Herbology Mastery then?"
"Oh no, I enjoy gardening, but that's just a hobby. Truthfully, I'm not sure what Mastery I want, or if I really want a Mastery at all. Before my marriage I was planning on going into spell crafting with a few friends, but after my marriage they decided they no longer wanted to be my friends, more interested in the rumours about why I'd gotten married than asking me. I decided then that I couldn't trust them and so never bothered to enlighten them to the truth, even when they finally realised that I couldn't possibly be pregnant and actually bothered to ask," Pandora rolled her eyes. "I've put myself down for interviews for Transfiguration, Charms, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy, depending on how they go I suppose I shall pick two or maybe three of them to do," she shrugged.
Lily gasped, "I've put myself down for the same and Potions too, I never thought of doing multiple Masteries at the same time can you really do that? I wanted to go into spell crafting too, only I had no idea it could be so dangerous to do alone, not until James and Sirius of all people told me. I'm sorry your friends showed themselves not to be very good friends, may I ask why you decided to tell me?"
Pandora looked at Lily with an almost piercing look, like she was looking into Lily's very soul. "I told you because you wanted to know, and not just for gossip reasons, but because you were genuinely interested and concerned about me." Her intense look faded from her face, and she looked at the door curiously for a moment when another person came in, "Fenwick, it's not surprising to see him here," she murmured. "Yes, you can do multiple Masteries, it's not for everyone as it's more work than most can cope with, but if anyone can do it, you can. You sat every NEWT exam except Divination, and you must have received Outstanding in Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy at least as Hogwarts won't accept Mastery students who earn less than an Outstanding. Not even Purebloods can get in unless they get an Outstanding, much to the Ministry's disgust, but Hogwarts has always been firmly independent of the Ministry."
Lily was surprised that Pandora knew that much about her, "well yes, I got Outstanding in everything, but I self-studied for Muggle Studies. Clementine Erving, the Head Girl from our second year, told me as a Muggleborn I would know more about Muggle studies than the teacher and should just ask Professor McGonagall to enter me into the Muggle Studies exam as it would be an easy OWL for me. I just decided to do the same during my NEWTs with Muggle Studies and History of Magic, neither of them added much to my workload."
Pandora nodded, "yes, any Ravenclaw with muggle relatives does the same for Muggle Studies during their OWLs and most of us do the same for History of Magic. Twelve NEWTs including Alchemy at Outstanding is a very impressive achievement."
Lily blushed faintly, unsure how she was supposed to respond to that.
Flashback over
They hadn't become instant best friends, but after the interviews they'd both picked three Masteries, Lily had picked Charms, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, and Pandora had picked Transfiguration, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes. This led to them spending so much time together that they'd forged a close friendship that had blossomed into a sisterhood. In the very little spare time, they'd had they had started planning a spell crafting business, they had considered dropping their Masteries to pursue the spell crafting business full time, but they were both too academic to do that.
Lily was so grateful that Albus had gone out of his way to assist her, and that Professor Vector and Professor Babbling were allowing her to continue her Arithmancy and Ancient Runes Masteries via correspondence, even though it meant extra work for them. Charms just could not be done via correspondence due to the need to perform active magic, but she'd had to take a break from that when she'd entered the third trimester of her pregnancy. During a witch's third trimester her unborn child could use her magic at random moments, but especially when the witch was experiencing a strong emotion, which during pregnancy was just about always. Professor Flitwick had promised her she could come back and that he was keeping her place for her. Lily had assumed this would change when she'd had to go into hiding a month before she gave birth when the Prophecy was announced, but Professor Flitwick had assured her that her place was hers and would stay that way until she could come back, he wasn't going to allow You-Know-Who to steal her dreams from her.
Pandora was also taking a break from her Transfiguration Mastery, her pregnancy with Luna had been very hard on her and with the war amping up the way it was she was choosing to stay home with her daughter, until Luna was a little older at least. As good as a husband as Xeno was, he was a little bit helpless as a father, he adored, almost to the point of worship, Luna, but he was a little bit useless with a baby. Professors Vector and Babbling had allowed her to continue her Masteries in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes via correspondence as well, so she hadn't given up everything.
The bangs, splashes, and shrieks of delight coming from her son floated downstairs to Lily, along with James and Sirius's laughter and frantic cries of 'Harry no' or 'Harry wait' and she couldn't help but smile in amusement picturing the scene. She'd given her rambunctious son enough baths to know almost exactly what was happening up there.
"Dada out!" Harry demanded as he slapped the bathroom door that wouldn't open for him.
James, almost as wet as his dripping wet and completely naked son, gave Sirius a grateful smile for him remembering to lock the door. He crossed the room and finally wrapped the slippery and wriggling toddler in the warm fluffy towel. "Gotcha Snidget. I really have to remember to lock that door when it's bath time," he shook his head.
Sirius smirked and unlocked the door, "I figured I'd save you having to chase the little Prongslet around the cottage this time," he grinned.
James snorted, "yeah, only because Lily would blame you too. If she hadn't made you help, you'd have just sat back and watched laughing at me," he quipped.
"Well duh, no one crosses Lily," Sirius returned.
James laughed and threw Harry over his shoulder as he carried him to his room grabbing some pyjamas out of Harry's little wardrobe. He made quick work of redressing his son in a fresh nappy and clean pyjamas. Harry wouldn't normally be put in his pyjamas before dinner, but they were having dinner slightly later today because his parents were coming over. He handed Harry over to Sirius, "hold him whilst I find his hairbrush."
Sirius took his godson easily throwing the little tyke up into the air and catching him, indulging him when he shrieked to be thrown again.
James gave up looking around the room and just summoned the brush, shaking his head when it wriggled out from under Harry's bookcase, "how did it get there?" He did his best to tame Harry's hair at least a little, but Harry had been gifted with the Potter hair that wouldn't sit flat unless plastered with a whole container of sleekeazys and he was just not going to subject his son to that. "Alright that's the best I can do," he sighed.
Sirius bounced Harry on his hip, "come on Mischief, let's see if Mummy is nearly done with dinner." He carried the tot downstairs, letting him down once they were beyond the stair ward, smiling as Harry 'ran' over to Lily. "One bathed little Pup for you Lily," he announced.
Lily beamed at her son and scooped him up as Mystique leapt up to the top of the kitchen cabinets to get out of Harry's reach. "Did you have a good bath time baby?" She asked indulgently.
"Dada an Unca Pa'foo ahbaba ana do Mumma," Harry babbled in his unique baby language gesturing towards the stairs with a frustrated look on his face.
"Did Daddy and Uncle Padfoot lock the bathroom door so you couldn't run around naked? That's because you're not supposed to run around naked after your bath Wingnut," Lily reminded her son gently.
James came down from having cleaned up the flood zone that his son had turned the bathroom into. "I still have no idea how you can understand his baby talk," he complained.
Lily chuckled and set Harry on the floor, urging him out of the kitchen, "I don't, not fully, but he's clearly unhappy with you and we know how much he likes making us chase him around after his bath. It's more just educated guesses," she insisted.
"You say that, but somehow you always figure out exactly what he's trying to say, I think you've just got the gift Lils," Sirius declared grabbing Harry back up and flopping down on the sofa, "when is dinner? I'm starved."
Harry shrieked in delight at the unexpected motion, giggling happily as he landed on his Uncle Padfoot's chest.
Lily looked up at the clock, "it's nearly ready, your parents should be here any minute." She checked on everything she had in the oven, giving the tray of seasoned vegetables a shake. "Can one of you set the table please?"
Sirius couldn't help but smile when Lily referred to James' parents as his, sharing a look with James to silently convey how much he adored his brother in all but blood's wife. Lily's acceptance of his and James' relationship meant the world to him and cemented her place in his heart.
James shared a smile with Sirius, knowing how much his best friend come brother in all but blood loved it when people treated them like brothers and considered his parents to be theirs. "I've got the table," he answered his wife.
Just as James finished laying the table the Floo chimed and flared green. Even though he knew there were only a handful of people keyed into the cottage's Floo it still sent a jolt of tension through him until his parents stepped through. "Mum, Dad, it's good to see you," he greeted. He crossed over to give his Mum a hug and kiss on the cheek and to hug his Dad.
"Gan'ma! Gan'da!" Harry screeched in greeting.
Sirius chuckled and released the squirming, wriggling little worm his godson had turned into, getting up from the sofa to greet the couple that had become better parents to him than his own had ever been during his Hogwarts years.
Fi hugged her son and kissed his cheek before she laughed and bent down to pick up her little grandson, "oh look at you, my handsome little man, you're getting so big now!" She cooed delighted.
Sirius reached Fi and Monty and just as James had he hugged Fi and kissed her cheek, "good to see you Mum," he greeted.
Fi hugged Sirius back and kissed his cheek as she had James, both these brilliant young men were her boys and she proudly told anyone that.
Monty hugged both his son and the boy who might as well be, "it's good to see you both too boys," he greeted. He turned his attention to the toddler in his wife's arms, "and who is this, this can't be our little Harry, he's far too big," he grinned as he mussed up the little rascal's hair.
Fi laughed and handed her grandson over to her husband as Lily came over and she hugged her daughter-in-law tightly. Both her boys and her daughter-in-law were all looking a little worse for the wear, this prophecy hanging over them was an absolute nightmare for them all.
After greeting each other Lily quickly had dinner on the table and served, "dig in everyone," she encouraged.
Fi took a few bites and beamed at Lily, "you are an excellent cook Lily, James is very fortunate to have you. I did try and teach him to cook when he was younger, but it was utter chaos with him in the kitchen and I'm afraid I gave up rather quickly," she confessed.
James laughed, recalling some of the times his mother had attempted to teach him.
"It was that or let him burn down the kitchen Dear," Monty assured his wife. "My wife has the right of it though Lily sweetness, your cooking is fantastic. Don't tell him I told you this, but it is even better than old Hibby's," he stage whispered.
Lily blushed at the praise, "thank you, it's nothing really," she insisted.
"Dad's right Lils, this beats even Hogwarts fantastic fair, there's a reason I come round for dinner as often as I can," Sirius grinned.
"Yeah, because you'd kill yourself if you tried to cook for yourself," James teased.
"Nip is still looking after you isn't he Sirius?" Fi asked concerned.
"Yes Mum, Nip takes great care of me, I promise. It's like he thinks I can't take care of myself at all," Sirius assured her knowing she would worry if he didn't.
"Well, you can't blame him for that, you can't take care of yourself," James laughed.
"James! You shouldn't tease your brother like that; besides you'd be just as helpless without our Lily here," Fi teased her son.
Everyone burst into laughter, Harry joining in because everyone else was laughing.
Dinner was filled with laughter and tales of James before Hogwarts and James and Sirius after their first year at Hogwarts.
Lily's sides were hurting from laughing so much, as they always were when she spent time with her In-Laws, it was more than clear to see where James got his fun-loving nature from. Monty was the bigger jokester, but as much as Fi lamented that her husband and sons never grew up, she was far from slow with a joke, and she had taught James most of the pranks he knew before he got to Hogwarts.
~o~
There you go, that was chapter one, drop a review and let me know what you thought. I hope I will see you all next week for chapter two.