Questions and Answers

It was the sort of day Al often visited in his dreams. Bright, but not so bright the Snitch would get lost in the sun. Warm. Just the hint of a breeze that carried the sounds of the students' cheers from the Quidditch pitch. He rested his elbows on the parapet of the tower, gazing in the direction of pitch, a wave of jealousy rising in his throat. The final match of the year would start soon, and he wouldn't be in it. Instead, Lily would play Seeker in his stead. He'd stealthily watched their practices, mentally critiquing Lily's attempts to catch the Snitch. She wasn't awful, he would grudgingly admit. She just didn't have his instinctual sense of where the Snitch was. 'Aren't you coming?' Al turned at the sound of Scorpius' voice.

'Nah.' He attempted to sound nonchalant, but couldn't hide the catch in his throat.

Scorpius gingerly scratched his eyebrow, taking care not to smudge the scarlet-and-gold face paint that covered his features. 'It'd be nice if you looked even slightly interested.'

Al shrugged. 'And watch them get creamed? Not bloody likely.'

'Don't be a git,' Scorpius snapped. 'You don't honestly believe they can't survive without you?'

'We'd definitely win if I was playing,' Al shot back.

'If your broom wasn't weighed down by your oversized head,' Scorpius mumbled.

'What was that?'

'Nothing,' Scorpius sighed. He wondered from time to time if Al had perhaps fallen under the influence of some Dark magic, which might explain his burgeoning ego, rather than his own over-inflated sense of worth. 'I'll see you after, yeah? In the common room. For the party,' he couldn't help but add snidely.

Al snorted derisively. 'Yeah. Sure. For the party,' he drawled. Scorpius bit back the retort that rose to his lips in defense of Lily. He satisfied himself with a curt nod, and swept from the tower with the hauteur he'd observed in his father in stressful situations, and occasionally his grandmother. He ran down the endless staircase of the tower, hitting the heavy doors at a run, then pelted toward the pitch. He scrambled into a seat next to Sophie, who perched on the edge of her seat, fairly vibrating with anticipation.

'It's their last game...' she murmured, a smile curving her lips. 'Come September, I finally get to bloody start a game.'

'Your lot's relentless,' Scorpius informed her. 'Do you know that?'

Sophie snorted derisively. 'Please. Those two gits have had a lock on the Beater positions since they were eligible to play. It's time to get some new blood in.' The whistle sounded shrilly, and Madam Pimm released the Snitch.

Scorpius squinted against the bright sunlight. He could see a small figure on a broom rise high above the scarlet-and-gold formations that swiftly appeared and adapted as the conditions changed. 'How was Lily? I didn't see her at breakfast...'

Nicky leaned around Sophie. 'She looked a little green... Alex was afraid she was going to be sick on his boots.'

Peyton twisted around in his seat in front of Scorpius'. 'Yeah, well... We have to win by two hundred points, or Hufflepuff wins the Cup. And Lils knows it rides on her skinny shoulders.' Lily flew by, throwing a glance at them. Scorpius could see the tension on her face under her goggles. She gripped the broom handle tightly. He buried his face in his hands.

'I can't watch,' he said miserably. 'I can't bear to see it if she doesn't catch the Snitch. She's going to feel like she's let the team down. And if she catches it before they score enough goals, she's going to feel like she failed.' Lily could be something of a perfectionist at times, and anything other than seeing the large silver cup festooned with scarlet-and-gold ribbons in their common room until the end of the term would be tantamount to failure for Lily. She would be crushed. Scorpius stuffed his fingers in his ears to block the sound of the whistle and the accompanying commentary.

XxXxXxX

A faint pink line brightened the grey horizon outside the windows of Gryffindor tower. James sprawled in a deep windowsill, head leaning against the stone wall, eyes half-open in weariness. He glanced at Lily, still in her game kit, the jumper askew, stretched out on one of the long sofas, sound asleep. One hand trailed off the edge of sofa, clutching the handle of the Quidditch Cup. She hadn't let it go since he'd placed it in her arms nearly twenty hours ago, even going so far as to carry it into the loo with her. Sophie drowsed in an overstuffed armchair, legs dangling over the arm. Fred and Jacob were still wide-awake, as was Maddie, the three of them clustered around a table, heads together. Rose and Hugo sat on the hearth rug, back to back. Scorpius sat on the floor in front of Lily's sofa, bracing his back against the edge, head resting on a throw pillow, smudges of the face paint still tracing over his pale skin. Nicky and Alex occupied opposite ends of another sofa, occasionally glancing at Maddie, then each other. They were as close as Fred and Jacob, but without their mischievous spark. Owen and Peyton had gone to bed hours ago. Al was nowhere to be found in the common room, but he sat on one of the steps of the spiral staircase just out of sight. He could hear everything everyone had said all night.

James grinned and swung his feet to the floor. 'Wish Mum and Dad could have seen her today,' he murmured, gesturing toward Lily.

'Wish I'd seen her today,' Scorpius grumbled ruefully.

James pulled his knees into his chest and wrapped his arms around them. 'She was good. Not as good as... Well... you know,' he admitted.

'Good enough,' Rose snorted, without opening her eyes. 'She was good enough for the win. That's all we needed.'

'True,' James sighed. Not that he would admit it, but he missed flying with Al. Lily had been adequate, as Rose pointed out, but due to the fact she hadn't spent years playing with the team as a Seeker, the fluidity of the game felt off to him.

Fred, Jacob, and Maddie ceremoniously pushed their chairs back and approached their cousins. 'We've got a few things to tell you,' Jacob intoned, feeling slightly giddy from a lack of sleep.

'First we coaxed Neville into telling us who would be captain next year,' Maddie announced, fishing a shiny badge from the pocket of her trousers. 'We know it's not the usual way to do this, but we thought it could be a nice way of passing on the torch, so to speak, if one of us could inform the lucky person now instead of waiting until you get your booklists this summer.'

'I'm still trying to figure out how this one happened,' Fred scoffed. 'Scrawny git, and all...'

'Shut up, Fred,' Maddie huffed. 'You're ruining a serious moment!' Unable to maintain her serious demeanor, she dissolved into giggles. 'Ah... Okay...' She took several deep breaths, and wandered around the common room, pausing next to Rose, then shook her head. 'Not that I wouldn't like to see the next captain be a girl, but you're still young, Rosie...' She suddenly spun and held the badge out to a surprised-looking James.

'Me?' he spluttered blankly. 'Why?'

'You've matured a great deal, young James,' Fred said in majestic tones. 'You've earned it.'

James held out a slightly shaking hand and Maddie dropped the badge into it. 'Turn it over,' she advised. James dutifully did so, and his eyes widened to see Teddy, Victoire, Isabella, and Maddie's signatures etched into the back. 'We've passed it down, you see,' Maddie said quietly. 'And next May, you'll hand it over to the next captain. Whoever that might be,' she added, glancing significantly at Rose.

James tenderly tucked the badge into the pocket of his trousers. 'Thank you.'

'Before we chivvy you lot off to bed,' Jacob said, 'Fred and I have got something for our baby sister.' He pulled a short, wide package from behind his back. 'We know you've been waiting anxiously for one of us to get eaten by something in the Forbidden Forest - not that we've ever wandered in there... much - so you could finally have a go on the starting side of the team.' He crossed to Sophie's armchair and laid the parcel on her stomach.

'Been saving our pocket money for this,' Fred informed her.

Sophie sat up and gingerly ripped a strip of the brown paper away, revealing a shiny black box. More enthusiastically, she tore the wrappings to shreds and flung the top of the box away, gazing in awe at a brand-new Beater's bat. 'If you activate the spell that's tucked in with it,' Jacob said, 'the grip will mold to your hand every time you use it. It's a new development. And the international Quidditch blokes finally said it wasn't cheating to have it on your bat.'

'So use it well, Sophia. Because your git of a captain's an even bigger git if he doesn't let you start,' Fred said sternly, eyeing James. 'Now off to bed with you. Prefects'll be down here to make sure we've all gone to bed before dawn like we promised.'

'Yeah... Right...' James murmured dreamily, heading for the stairs.

'What about Lily? We're just going to leave her here?' Rose asked.

'I've got it,' Scorpius volunteered, struggling to his feet.

'You know you can't carry her up to her dormitory,' Rose reminded him.

'But I can do this,' he reminded her, waving his wand gently over Lily's sleeping form, and a soft, thick blanket draped softly over her. He settled it over her shoulders and brushed the hair away from her face.

Rose paused to watch his actions. 'Careful,' she whispered. 'Don't want people to think you're a perv, do you?'

Scorpius blushed furiously. 'I'm not! I don't...! Bloody hell, Rosie, she's only thirteen!'

'Almost fourteen,' she chided. 'You're only fifteen yourself.'

'Sixteen at the end of the month,' he said mulishly.

'Still... mind yourself.'

'Nothing to mind. See you at breakfast.' He yawned widely. 'Maybe.' Scorpius swept up the stairs, wondering why Rose had acted the way she had.

XxXxXxX

The late June morning was cool and damp. Harry stood next to Al in the back garden and held out his arm. 'Ready?' he asked coolly.

Al shifted his grip on his broom and clenched his jaw. 'Yeah.'

Harry turned his head to study his youngest son. 'Not for the Apparition. For today.'

'What do you mean?'

'This is going to be one of the hardest days of your life so far,' Harry said quietly.

Al shrugged insolently. 'Been flying with the team for weeks now,' he huffed.

'It's not just flying,' Harry began, but Al deliberately turned his head away. 'Oh, never mind. You'll find out. Come on.' Al dutifully took Harry's arm and in moments he stood on the edge of the pitch in Exmoor. Harry led him to the captain. 'I'll be back for him at four.'

'Very well, Mr. Potter,' Justin Frye muttered. He resentfully watched Harry Disapparate, then turned to Al. 'Is he always like that?'

'Like what?'

'Acts like everyone's one of his bloody Aurors?'

Al's mouth twisted. 'Sometimes.'

'Wanker,' Justin breathed. 'Well, go put your broom in the broom shed and get to the pitch.'

'Why?'

'We don't fly until after lunch. We do conditioning and stamina training in the morning.'

'How much?' Al asked, feeling the press of trepidation under his sternum.

'Depends on your position. Three-mile run for everybody first off. Keepers and Seekers do some Muggle thing called yoga. Lots of stretching involved. It looks easy, but it's a hell of a lot harder than it looks. Supposed to be good for your flexibility and balance. Some weight training to build up your muscle. You'll get extra training to help with your muscles here and here,' Justin said, lightly touching Al's lower back and stomach. 'So you can fly without holding the handle and not fall off for extended periods of time. Legs, of course. And you'll spend some time working on your reflexes. They'll throw small objects at you and see how fast you can catch it.'

'Yeah. All right,' Al said with far more confidence than he felt. He stowed his broom in the large broom shed and jogged lightly to the edge of the pitch where the other members of the team waited.

'Save some of that for later!' joked Adrian Bartlett, the starting Keeper. 'Don't want to get worn out first thing.'

Nathan Fells, a Beater, chuckled and clapped Al on the back. 'Lad's only sixteen, Adrian. Remember the practices at Hogwarts? End of four hours of flying, and he still looked fresh as a daisy.' Al stood a little straighter. He was going to be fine. They were just trying to scare him, his first day of practice with the team and all. He was in excellent shape. That's what that girl from Hufflepuff had told him on the train last week when she playfully squeezed his arm, cooing over the wiry muscles. And she had just finished her seventh year, so wouldn't she know? Al just wished he could remember her name just now.

Justin joined the team and without a word set off on a brisk jog around the edge of the pitch. Al managed to keep up without too much trouble. He actually enjoyed running, and was disappointed when the three miles were at an end. Justin motioned him over and pointed to a small, older woman, standing just under the goals at the opposite end of the pitch. 'That'll be Mena. She's the yoga instructor. Just do what she does.'

'That ought to be easy,' Al said under his breath, as he ran down the pitch. He skidded to a stop in front of the Mena. 'I'm Al. The Reserve Seeker.'

'I thought at much,' Mena laughed. 'You're the only new one here.' She handed him a thin, slightly squishy, rolled-up mat. 'Find a spot and unroll that. And take your shoes and socks off.'

'Why?' Al glanced doubtfully at his feet, certain they were well on their way to smelly.

'You need to be barefoot for this,' Mena said evenly, used to new players questioning her ways. She quickly jabbed her wand at Al's feet. 'And you shouldn't worry about offending anyone,' she added with a pointed glance at his shoes.

'Erm. All right...' Al toed off his trainers and stood on one foot to peel off first one sock, then the other, draping them over the tops of his shoes to air them out. He peeked unobtrusively at the Seeker, Melanie Styles -- a diminutive woman in her early thirties -- Adrian, and Malcolm, the Reserve Keeper. The three of them casually removed both trainers and socks, unrolled their own mats and stood in the middle, expectantly waiting for Mena to begin.

Mena waved her wand and a large mirror floated in front of them, allowing the small group to see themselves clearly. She began to give instructions in a soft, soothing voice that made Al relax slightly. This isn't going to be so bad, he thought. That was his last conscious thought for the next hour. Mena was probably older than Ginny, Al reckoned, but the woman was practically made of rubber. She could position her body in ways Al didn't think were anatomically possible. He felt nothing more than absolutely ridiculous. The other three had varying degrees of flexibility, and Mena continually reminded them to only do what they could without hurting themselves. He could barely put his fingertips on the mat for a forward bend, and had to bend his knees to do even that much. Melanie's hands were flat on the mat, her legs straight, like Mena's. Adrian and Malcolm were somewhere in between. It was all Al could do not to compare himself to them and feel like a failure. Mena would move among them from time to time, gently touching a spot on their arm or hand to coax the body into the pose. Al didn't feel relaxed. He felt even more tension in his muscles from trying to keep up with the others.

He felt Mena run light fingertips over his side, as he bent and twisted to one side in something she called a triangle pose. 'Breathe,' she reminded him. 'Come up a bit. You're going to fall over trying to go this far.' Reluctantly, Al slid his right hand higher up his shin, keeping his left arm extended in the air. He hated to not be good at something that involved Quidditch. Even if they weren't in the air. The last five minutes were the worst. Mena made them lie back on their mats, and admonished them to empty their minds, to quiet the voice in their heads. As much as Al tried, he couldn't quite manage. He relived every pose in his mind. The mirror had mocked him, revealing his limitations. Anything athletic had always come naturally to him, like breathing. When Mena let them sit up, then stand, she helped Al to his feet. 'You don't have to work so hard,' she told him. 'You don't want to injure yourself, which you will do if you keep trying to force the pose. Go as far as you can without it hurting. Things like this take time.'

'I haven't got time,' Al sighed.

Mena flicked her wand at the mirror and it disappeared. 'You won't lose your position if you can't do a full bridge pose,' she said genially. 'Melanie's been doing this for years, and she's quite flexible anyway. Adrian just got to where he can put his hands on the ground in a forward bend. It's taken Malcolm two years of doing this daily to be able to touch his toes on the sitting forward bend and get his nose anywhere near his knees. Melanie and Adrian of them have played for England for a long time. This is their second World Cup. It's Malcolm's first Cup, too. And in all the years I've worked with the English team, nobody was released from their contract because they couldn't put their heels down in a downward-facing dog.'

Al yanked his socks over his feet and shoved them into his trainers. 'I suppose.'

Mena laid a hand between his shoulder blades and pushed Al toward a long, low building he hadn't noticed in the excitement of his first full day with England. 'I'll see you tomorrow.'

Al went through the rest of the morning in a daze of unfamiliar exercises and tasks he'd never heard of before. By the time they reached the lunch break, his arms trembled and tiny muscles in his thighs he didn't know existed were making their presence known. He was grateful to eat his lunch, strictly because it was familiar. The afternoon was slightly better. At least he was on his broom. However, it had little resemblance to the practices at Hogwarts. Those had been graceful displays of aerial acrobatics. This had more in common with his family's Sunday afternoon games. It was just short of the brutal lesson he'd been dealt two years ago at the hands of his uncles. The difference this time lay in its purpose. Nobody was trying to teach him a lesson, other than how to play at an international level. By the time the whistle blew at four in the afternoon, he was more exhausted than he'd ever been in his life - both physically and mentally. Harry waited at the edge of the pitch, face set in an expressionless mask. Al bid his teammates a weary goodbye and stalked to Harry. Harry gave Justin a curt nod and held his arm out to Al, who took it with a humiliated blush on his face. He resented being escorted to and from the pitch like a child. Harry took a few experimental sniffs and his nose wrinkled. 'Dinner won't be ready until six,' he murmured. 'You could have a wash and a kip before if you want.'

'Fine,' Al replied shortly. He wasn't in a mood to argue and after making sure Harry wasn't watching, gave his shirt a cautious sniff. He did need a bath, if nothing else. Harry turned and Al closed his eyes against the sensation of Apparating. 'I'll see you at dinner,' he said, dropping Harry's arm like it burned the skin of his palm. Al trudged into the house and headed upstairs hoping the bathroom was available. He dropped his sweat-sodden clothing in a heap and took the quickest shower of his teenage years. He managed to pull on a clean pair of boxers before collapsing to the edge of his bed and falling backward, promising to just shut his eyes for a few moments.

He never knew Harry and Ginny had gently repositioned him on the bed, so his legs weren't dangling over the side, then covered him with a blanket. He knew nothing until the next morning, when he sat up with a muffled groan. A vial sat on the bed side table. He gratefully snatched it up, not caring who left it for him, and drank it, then prepared to repeat the previous day.

XxXxXxX

Maya pushed open the gate that led to the Potters' back garden. James was sprawled in a hammock strung between two elm trees near a somewhat ramshackle tool shed. One of his bare feet brushed the grass as he swayed, his eyes focused on the book propped on his chest. 'Doing your summer homework?' she asked, keeping one hand on the gate, as if it would create a shield between the two of them.

James glanced up over the top of the book and smiled. 'I didn't hear you Apparate,' he said.

'That's because unlike some people, who shall remain nameless, I practice so it doesn't sound like an explosion,' she retorted tartly. She glanced at the house. 'It's awfully quiet. Where's everybody else?'

James sat up, swinging both feet the grass. 'Al is at practice with the English squad. Lily is in the village for the afternoon for some barmy class she's taking at the comprehensive school. And Mum and Dad are at work, so I've got the whole place to myself...' He indicated the house. 'Do you want to go inside?'

Maya ran her hands down the sides of her skirt. 'Erm... all right...' she replied faintly. Except for the few times they'd been out for a date, they'd never been completely alone. For some reason, it made her... Nervous...

'I'll show you the photograph they took of the English team. Al looks like he's twelve next to all the other players. I think the next youngest one is at least twenty-three.' James opened the back door and gestured for Maya to precede him inside. He closed the door behind him, and set his Charms textbook on the kitchen table, and took Maya's hand. 'It's upstairs in his room.' He led Maya to the staircase and towed her to the first floor.

'Are you sure it's all right to go in there?' Maya asked. Bedrooms - her bedroom, at any rate - were sacrosanct. It was the only place at her parents' pub that she could call her own.

'It's fine. I don't think he's left anything on the floor.' James opened the door and peered into Al's bedroom. 'Yeah, it's fine.' He pushed the door open the rest of the way and pointed to a large photograph on Al's desk. 'See? He looks like an ickle firstie.'

'Oh, poor Al,' Maya murmured sympathetically. She was extremely conscious of James standing behind her, with his hand splayed over one of her hips.

'Please,' James scoffed. 'Poor Al is making a nice bit of gold for his efforts this summer. Not to mention the notice he'll get from the professional teams.'

Maya turned to face him. 'You're not jealous, are you?'

James shook his head. 'Me? Jealous of Albus?' He made a dismissive motion with a hand. 'Not bloody likely.'

'Mmm-hmmm. Tell me another one.'

James sighed and headed toward his bedroom. He flopped over his neatly made bed, feet dangling over the edge. 'Maybe a little,' he admitted grudgingly. 'But if you say anything, I'll deny it!' he exclaimed, sitting up.

Maya perched on the foot of the bed, a little nervously. She'd been in James' bedroom before, but that was with the rest of the family at home, with the door open, and only for a few minutes. 'Your secret's safe with me,' she assured him, only slightly breathlessly. She jumped when James touched her arm.

'You all right?' His brow furrowed. 'You're like a Kneazle in a room full of rocking chairs...'

'It's just you... and me...' Maya's hand swept toward the door. 'Alone,' she added significantly.

'Ah...' James nodded. 'Nothing's going to happen,' he said. 'Not if you don't want it to.'

Maya laughed shakily. 'But I do. Therein lies the problem.'

'I don't understand,' James said slowly.

'You and your cousins... You talk. About everything,' she told him. 'And girls in Slytherin...' Maya shrugged. 'We don't have the best reputation. Even if we've never so much as kissed a boy in the library.'

'Oh.' James fiddled with the edge of his pillowcase. 'I won't divulge details. I don't anyway. ' He set the pillow down and reached for Maya's hand. 'We don't have to stay up here. We can go downstairs and back into the garden or watch a film.'

'Or we can stay up here,' Maya added softly, not looking at James. 'If you want to...'

James cupped the side of Maya's face and tilted her head back a little. His thumb gently traced over her lips before he kissed her in reply.

XxXxXxX

James' eyes were tightly shut and his fingers curled into the sheet under his body. 'Bloody hell, woman,' he breathed. Maya's fingers lightly danced down the line of hair that swirled around his navel and hesitated at the waistband of his boxers, before they slid inside. James gasped, his back arching. 'You are evil,' he groaned. 'Evil.'

Maya's throaty laugh tickled his ears. 'I'm not evil,' she corrected. 'I'm a Slytherin. Two entirely different things.'

James' pent-up breath hissed through clenched teeth. 'Whatever you are, could you just... like...' He wrapped his hand around hers. 'Like that... Oh God, yes...'

'Is that all right?' Maya asked.

'Nrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg.'

'I'll take that as a yes.'

'Stop... talking... Almost...' James bit his lip and his body jerked. He cracked open an eye to see Maya's face hovering over his, one hand held aloft over his stomach. 'Erm... Sorry about that,' he muttered, his face flushing. 'I'll just...' He patted blindly on the floor next to his bed for his discarded shirt and hastily swiped it over her fingers. He turned on his side away from her and quickly put himself to rights. Presentable once more, James rolled over to face Maya. 'Sorry...'

'It's not like I didn't know that would happen,' Maya said dryly.

'Your turn,' James said archly. He tugged at the hem of Maya's shirt. 'Off,' he demanded.

Maya's arms crossed over her chest. 'Do you want to be knocked unconscious?' she huffed self-consciously.

'Not particularly.' James gently pried her arms away. 'You don't have anything to be embarrassed about,' he told her, nuzzling the line of her collarbone.

'There's just so much there,' Maya protested. James propped himself up on an elbow, his free hand flicking open the buttons of her shirt. She made no move to stop him, so he spread the edges apart. It was true Maya had rather generous breasts for such a petite girl. She was the only person James knew that actually kept her school robes on over her uniform when the weather was warm. Her robes were a little large for her and they tended to envelop her small frame. 'People - boys - keep staring...'

James' finger traced the skin next to the edge of the pale pink bra. 'I don't like you for your breasts,' he said somberly. 'They could be the size of satsumas for all I care.'

Maya gasped, then giggled. She tucked her chin in a bit to look down her body. 'Rather like melons, really.'

'I do... love... you... Maya...' James whispered.

'You're just telling me that to get into my knickers,' Maya teased, arching her back to allow James' fingers access to the clasp of her bra. When he fumbled with it, she sighed and sat up, unhooking it expertly with one hand and flung the offending garment across the room.

'Too late for that,' James murmured, his lips grazing over the slope of her breast.

'True...' Maya threaded her fingers through James' messy hair. 'I...' she began. Words didn't always come easily to her. 'I love you,' she murmured, the words catching in her throat.

XxXxXxX

'Where did you learn how to do that?' Maya asked, a hint of suspicion coloring her already breathless voice. 'I mean, I know how to do that, but that was... Really... really good.'

James chuckled lazily. 'Mum has this rather extensive collection of Muggle novels that she thinks are oh-so-cleverly hidden in the linen cupboard. Some are more descriptive than others. Dad caught me reading one once and just told me not to let Mum see me reading it.' He reached over Maya and pulled a well-thumbed book from the space between his bed and the wall. It fell open to a page and James scanned it before he handed it to her. 'Yeah... that's it...'

Maya frowned and began to read, her eyebrows rising higher and higher. 'Oh...' She sat up higher against the headboard. 'My...' She blushed rosily and shoved the book back at James. 'That is certainly... Educational.' She tilted the book toward her a little and broke into giggles at the lurid embossed cover. 'Is it just me or does that make snogging on a rocky beach look like something you'd want to do?'

'Not so much,' James laughed. 'Teddy said when he and Vic went on holiday last summer and tried to snog on a beach there was sand everywhere.' James paused thoughtfully. 'Actually, I think they might have tried to do more than snog... Teddy's hair changed colors... Goes orange when he's embarrassed about something.'

Maya replaced the book and shook her head. 'Never nearly as good as in the books, eh?'

'I'm going to have to guess on that one,' James said ruefully. 'But this...' He pulled the quilt over them and slid down so his head rested next to Maya's on the pillow. 'This was better than a book. Much, much better,' he yawned, pressing a kiss to her bare shoulder, and draping an arm over her waist before falling asleep.

XxXxXxX

'James!' Ginny's voice rang from the kitchen.

James sat up with a snort, rubbing his face. 'Oh Merlin!' he breathed. He looked at the alarm clock, and to his horror, realized they'd been asleep for more than an hour. He bounded out of the bed, grabbed Maya's clothing and shoved them at her. 'Quick! The bathroom!' She darted out of the door, and skidded into the bathroom, closing the door just as Ginny appeared on the landing. James was lying casually on his bed, his hastily donned clothing slightly askew. 'Hi, Mum!' he said brightly.

Ginny's eyes narrowed. 'Have a kip?' she asked, feigning nonchalance, as she scanned his bedroom.

'Erm, yeah...' James glanced around the room, then felt his heart stop. He stole a peek at his mother, feeling his mouth go dry. Please don't let her see it... he begged silently.

Ginny's eyes lit on Maya's discarded bra in the corner of the room. All right, Weasley, don't panic... It's probably nothing. Oh please, you know exactly what it is... What the hell was he thinking? She took a deep breath. 'Is Maya coming over tonight?'

'Yeah. She got here earlier. She's in the loo...' James flinched as he watched the mottled flush creep up his mother's neck, visible only because her hair was coiled on the back of her head, leaving her neck and ears exposed.

Ginny's hands clenched behind her back. 'All right.' She turned to leave, then stopped at the sight of Maya standing in the corridor, her arms crossed protectively over her chest. Ginny inhaled slowly. 'Jemmy, why don't the two of you go set up the tables outside? Your uncles left some extra ones in the tool shed.' James paled. Ginny's voice was so quiet, he had to strain to hear her. That, more than anything else, was an indication of just how angry she was. She stalked down the stairs and James snatched up Maya's bra and handed it to her once Ginny was safely out of earshot. 'Bloody...'

'Hell,' Maya finished.

XxXxXxX

Al trailed wearily after Harry, his broom nearly dragging the ground behind him. 'I must be insane,' he murmured.

'I tried to tell you,' Harry said stonily. 'But, oh no... You knew what you're capable of...' He held the garden gate open for Al. 'Why don't you go lie down a bit before the party?' Harry suggested. 'Won't start until seven.' His nose wrinkled as he caught a whiff of his younger son. 'Erm, maybe you could have a bit of a wash before.' When Al glared at him, then suspiciously sniffed his armpit, Harry quickly added, 'Might help you sleep better.' The sound of slamming cupboard doors met them through the open kitchen windows. Harry and Al exchanged a look in an increasingly rare moment of amicability. 'Right,' Harry sighed. 'When you go inside, just say, "Hi, Mum," and run.'

'Good plan,' Al agreed. 'Is that what they teach you to do in the Aurors?' he added in an undertone.

Harry's jaw clenched. 'Mind the cheek,' he growled. 'And yes. They do.'

Al did as he was told for once that summer, scampering up the stairs, giving a cursory glance at Maya and James sitting next to each other on his bed, looking more than a little worried. Shrugging, he made it as far as his own bed, before collapsing across it face down.

In the kitchen, Harry perched in one of the deep windowsills. Ginny was savagely chopping mushrooms. 'What did the mushrooms do to you?' he asked genially. Ginny slammed the knife on the counter and whipped around.

'Do you know what your son did today?' she barked.

'Which one?'

Ginny exhaled strongly through her nose. 'James.'

'I'm going to assume it wasn't good...'

'Maya's here. In his room! Bra on the floor! Both rumpled!' Harry's lips twitched. When Ginny was in full cry, she was reduced to phrases, like Molly. 'It's not funny! Don't sound like Mum.'

'So you think they...?' Harry asked. 'You know...?'

Ginny dropped into the windowsill next to Harry. 'I don't know. I just know she came out of the bathroom, and her bra was on the floor and James' bed was made when we left this morning and now it's not.' Her mouth clamped shut at the sound of tentative footsteps on the other side of the kitchen door. Maya and James appeared looking more than a little apprehensive. James gulped and Maya's gaze was locked on the floor. They fled to the back garden without a word to either Harry or Ginny.

Harry glanced over his shoulder out the window. James and Maya were directing tables out of the tool shed with their wands, lining them up down one side of the garden. 'We're going to have to talk to him, aren't we?'

Ginny shook her head. 'No. You will talk to him. I'm so mad at him, that if you leave him alone with me, so help me, I will bury him, and you'll have to arrest me. I can't even look at him right now.'

XxXxXxX

Scorpius balanced two full plates in either hand, picking his way through the crowd in the Potters' back garden. 'Lily?'

'Here!' Lily waved a hand between Alex and Nicky, and Scorpius shouldered his way through to the blanket Lily had spread under a tree strung with fairy lights.

'I just put a little of everything on the plate,' he told her, handing one of the plates to her. 'There wasn't anything out there that you don't like...'

'Perfect.' Lily folded herself into a cross-legged position and balanced the plate on her crossed shins. 'I brought back pumpkin juice, butterbeer, and lemonade.' She gestured to an ice-filled bowl, bottles protruding from their nest.

Scorpius handed her a set of cutlery. 'Thank you...' He blindly reached for a bottle of lemonade, paying more attention to Lily than his task at hand, starting guiltily when he saw Harry walk by the area where the children clustered under the trees at the edge of the garden.

Harry carried two bottles of beer, one of them coated with a light fuzz of frost to a tall, rangy man sprawled in a chair. 'Here,' he said to Carter. 'Just the way you like it.' He handed the icy bottle to his friend.

'What's goin' on with young James?' Carter asked, taking a swig from the bottle. 'He's a mite jumpy around you an' Gin.'

Harry sighed gustily and sat in the chair next to Carter. 'Ginny came home from work and found him with his girlfriend.' He gestured with his beer. 'See the girl next to him?'

'The one with all the dark hair?'

'Yeah.'

'First, second, third base, or home run?' Carter asked.

'Huh?'

'You know baseball?'

'Vaguely. I've heard of it.'

'Same concept, but with teenagers and how far they've gone. With kids, first base is like kissin'. Second is, oh, hands under the shirt. Third is usually below the belt, and a home run is all the...'

'I get the picture,' Harry interrupted. He studied James and Maya for a moment. 'I'd wager it was either second or third. More likely third...'

'No home run, huh?'

'Can't say,' Harry grunted.

Carter raised his beer to his lips. 'Helluva way to celebrate your birthday, kid.'

'Tell me about it.'

'What are you goin' to do with the other two?'

'Fortunately, Al doesn't notice anything unless it's gold and sliver and has wings. So I think we're safe for now. Lily...' Harry groaned softly. 'She's not dating until she's thirty.'

'Good luck with that,' Carter snickered. 'Looks like that blonde kid's pretty smitten with her.'

'Scorpius?' Harry said blankly. 'Nah. They're just friends. She's known him since he and Al started school.'

Carter smirked. 'You just keep tellin' yourself that, kid.'

XxXxXxX

Harry waited until Al and Lily had gone to bed, then slipped into James' bedroom. James was in the process of straightening the sheets on his bed, the quilt in a crumpled heap next to his feet. 'Can I have a word?' Harry asked.

James nodded stiffly and stooped to pick up the quilt, shaking it a little before he tossed it over the bed, pulling and tugging until it draped neatly over it. 'It's about Maya, isn't it?'

'Yeah.'

James sat on the bed and grabbed his pillow. It still smelled faintly of Maya's shampoo. 'Mum's pretty angry, isn't she?'

'Yeah.' Harry turned James' desk chair around and straddled it, his arms resting across the back. 'We trusted you, James,' he began. 'We trusted you to be here alone, and...' James' irate growl cut him off. Harry was taken aback by the blaze of anger that flashed over his son's face. James grabbed his wand from the windowsill and wordlessly jabbed it at the door. It slammed shut and another swipe of his wand deadened the sounds coming from the rest of the house. Harry took a moment to be impressed with James' nonverbal spell-casting skills before James released an onslaught of verbiage over his father.

'Where were we supposed to go?' he roared. 'The tool shed? The woods? Maybe the pond would have made it all better, because we weren't sullying the house?' James threw his pillow against the wall. 'Nothing happened!'

'I'd hardly call it nothing,' Harry snarled pointedly.

'You don't even know what happened!' James exclaimed. 'You're just taking Mum's word for it!' James began to pace around his bedroom. 'At least I wasn't acting like Albus and sneaking around!' he raged. 'You knew where we'd been all day!'

Harry raised his hands, trying to placate James. 'All right... Would you mind telling me, then, just what happened?'

James' mouth worked soundlessly. 'She... uh... I...'

Harry seized on something Carter had told him. 'First, second, third base, or a home run?' he asked desperately.

'What?' James stood in front of him, panting.

'Snogging is first, hands under shirts is second, third is, I suppose in your pants, and a home run is an all out shag,' Harry blurted.

James stood motionless for a moment, his eyes focused on something that wasn't his father. 'Third base,' he murmured painfully. He blinked and gazed at Harry. 'Dad, I promise, before anything beyond that happens, I'll talk to you.' His knees seemed to give way as his anger dissipated. 'I promised Maya,' he admitted, 'that we wouldn't do anything we weren't ready to do. And I can't say for sure about her, but as much as I want to - and sweet Merlin, I really, really want to - it ought to be more than just a shag...' James drew in a shaky breath and toyed with the hems of his jeans. 'I didn't mean for Mum to find us like she did. We just fell asleep...'

'Fair enough,' Harry said, slightly stunned. 'I'll, erm... see you in the morning. Good night.'

'Night, Dad...'

Harry gently touched James' shoulder and left the room. In a few moments, Al leaned against the door frame. 'What did you do?' he snickered.

James threw him an annoyed scowl. 'Nothing.'

'Had to have done something,' Al drawled. 'Or else Mum wouldn't have been slamming around the kitchen and Dad wouldn't have come in here to have a nice chat with you.'

James stared at Al. 'None of your damn business,' he said quietly. 'Because I was at least honest with Dad about what I did. You ought to try it every so often.' James slid off the bed and stalked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

In their bathroom, Harry leaned over the sink and spit a mouthful of toothpaste into it. 'Gin... I don't like it any more than you do, but he's got a point. And maybe we'll have to charm the upstairs while we're gone and he's here by himself. I don't know... But we've done out best to make sure he knows everything he needs to know to keep the both of them safe.' Ginny nodded wearily, her own initial sense of anger long since vanished. 'I think you ought to talk to him in the morning.'

'Why?'

'Because he needs to know you're not going to hex him while he's buttering his toast or that you're not going to slip something into his cereal.'

'I wouldn't do that!' Ginny objected.

Harry joined Ginny on the edge of the bathtub. 'I know that. You know that. But he probably thinks he's about to be treated like he's four years old and has to spend the day with Molly.' He slid his arm around her waist. 'If they hadn't fallen asleep, you'd have never been the wiser.'

'That makes me feel so much better,' Ginny hooted sarcastically.

'At least he was honest with us,' Harry reminded her. 'Could have lied about it. Or tried to deny exactly what happened.'

'It's just...' Ginny took in a deep breath. 'He's my baby... When he sleeps, I still see the baby in my arms the night he was born. I don't want him to grow up so quickly.'

'Neither do I.' Harry hunched miserably. 'Speaking of growing up too quickly...' he sighed. 'I'll need you to take Albus to practice in the morning.'

'Something wrong at work?'

Harry shook his head. 'No. It's just...' Harry's hand clenched into a fist. 'If he cheeks me one more time, I'm going to hex him so badly, it will take the entire staff at St. Mungo's to remove them.'

Ginny blew out a gusty sigh. 'Understood.' She slumped into Harry a little. 'This parent thing is total rubbish.'

'Is it too late to give them back?' Harry wondered. 'Just the boys. We can keep the girl for now.'

'Probably.'

'Damn.'

'God, were we this bad?' Ginny groaned. 'All the sneaking around, lying, cheekiness...'

Harry's eyes drifted shut. 'Yes. Yes, we were. Formed an illicit student organization. Forced our way into a teacher's office. Broke into the Ministry, if I recall. Destroyed quite a bit of property in the process. Sent a teacher to be mauled by centaurs. The usual.'

'Well, when you put it that way,' Ginny said. 'I'll talk to James when I get back from dropping Al off at Exmoor. I'm not sure what to do about Al, though.'

'Why do I feel like it's going to get worse before it gets better?' Harry mumbled, pushing himself to his feet.

'Because it's probably going to be,' Ginny said sadly.