A Cup of Tea

Harry Potter staggered out of the fireplace at a little bit past midnight. He was home. The date was over. He was safe, at least for the moment. He was safe from redheaded girls with roaming hands, soft lips and deceptively mischievous smiles.

Harry walked across the room and fell onto the sofa. He relaxed as he sank into the cushions and let out a sigh of comfort as it slowly sank in that his date was over. As he began to go over the events of the evening in his head, he could feel the beginnings of a grin tugging at his mouth. He couldn’t help it. Ginny Weasley was a great kisser.

“So how was it?” a voice from the darkness asked him.

Harry shot off the sofa and looked for the person the voice belonged to. It was his father.

“Dad!” Harry hissed. “Don’t do that! You gave me a fright!”

His father was laughing now. “Sorry, Harry, but you looked so relaxed, I was afraid the sofa would swallow you whole.”

“Sure, dad, sure,” Harry grumbled.

“So how’d it go?” his father asked him.

Harry sighed. He knew he shouldn’t have come strait home. He still hadn’t fully digested everything that had happened and he certainly wasn’t up for sharing the experience. If Ron could wait until morning, why couldn’t his father?

“Well?” his father repeated.

Harry couldn’t help it. He grinned like a madman. “It was brilliant!”

“Oh was it now?” a second voice inquired.

“Mum!” Harry gave a jump back and felt himself falling back onto the sofa as he realized his father wasn’t the only one who was waiting up.

“Oh relax, Harry. I just wanted to make sure you got home safe. I’ll leave your father to interrogate you and you can tell me all the grisly details in the morning.” Harry heard his mother say and he sighed in relief.

After wishing his mother a good night, he let his father lead him into the kitchen. He sat down at the table and his father poured him a mug of something that looked like tea, but smelled slightly more potent then anything he had ever encountered at breakfast. Harry took a cautious sip and nearly gagged. He looked up at the sound of his father chuckling.

“I put a little bit of fire whiskey in with the tea. I thought it might help you unwind a little bit,” James Potter told his son.

Harry winced and muttered his thanks.

“So?” James asked. “How did it go?”

 “It went well enough at the Weasleys, though it took a while to get out of there,” Harry began, “Mr.Weasley was friendly enough and didn’t give us nearly as hard a time as you guys did, but Mrs.Weasley wouldn’t stop fussing. You’d think I was taking Ginny away and was never going to bring her back the way she was going on.”

“That’s probably how she saw it Harry. I went through the same thing with your mother’s parents when I met them for the first time over Christmas break of our seventh year,” James said. And Harry could see his father’s eyes glaze over for a moment, as if trying to recapture a lost moment.

Harry could remember a time when he would gag at the obvious signs of affection his parents would share with each other. But now that he had gone on an actual date, and it had gone so well, he felt he had a better appreciation for what his parents felt for each other.

“So Ron didn’t give you a hard time for taking his baby sister out on a date?” The sound of his father’s voice asking him a question brought Harry out of his reverie and it took him a moment to register what his father had asked him.

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. He was a little bit upset that I didn’t mention going out with Ginny before tonight and that he heard about it from Fred and George.” Harry knew he should feel ashamed at not at not having let Ron know about his feelings for Ginny, but he figured it would be less painful this way. Besides, his reaction when Harry had stepped out of the fireplace had been priceless.

“And? How did he react?” James inquired. He knew best friends had the tendency to tease each other mercilessly where their love lives were concerned.

“Well, he kept going on about how Ginny and I were sneaking around behind his back and everything. His face turned a nice shade of crimson at one point.” Harry paused momentarily, reliving the memory in his head.

“And then?” James asked, eager to hear what his son did next.

“I tossed him a knut and told him to buy a clue.” Harry grinned at this. “When he didn’t understand, I told him to call Hermione and ask her to explain.”

Harry broke out into hysterical laughter at this, and nearly fell out of his chair. James grinned and joined in the laughter at this. To be honest, he admitted to himself, he was happy to see his son in such a good mood. He was happy that his son had grown up to be such an outstanding young man. To have been born with such a potential burden on his shoulders, as well as everything they had all gone through before Voldemort’s eventual downfall, it was a miracle any of them were alive at all, let alone in any shape to have something akin to a normal life.

He looked over at Harry, and felt an immense amount of pride at how his son had turned out.

“So then what happened? I mean once you left the Burrow?” he prodded Harry.

“Well, it seemed like an eternity before we got out of the Burrow, but we finally got to Diagon Alley, and wandered around for a while. Did you know Ginny wants to go out for the Quidditch team? We must have spent twenty minutes outside of Quality Quidditch Supplies staring in the window.” Harry said excitedly. If there was one thing in the world certain to excite Harry Potter, it was Quidditch. Throw in a pretty girl and he was practically bouncing off the walls.

“Really? What spot?” James asked, feigning interest. Maybe it was his age or the late hour, but so far he was not terribly impressed with his son’s first date so far.

“Chaser. Now that Angelina and Alicia are gone, there are two spots open and Ginny’s going to try and get one.” Harry said, his eyes dancing with excitement that James decided to play with for a bit of fun.

“Don’t you think that will complicate matters? Being on the same team with your girlfriend?” he asked his son with a strait face.

“Dad! She’s not my…” Harry’s voice quickly trailed off into a whisper.

“She’s not your what? Not your glasses? Not your favorite pair of socks? Not your girlfriend?” James interjected with excitement. Things had suddenly become interesting.

“I was going to say she’s not my girlfriend,” Harry grumbled.

“But she is, isn’t she? Or you want her to be. Don’t you?” James said with all the seriousness he could muster despite the wide grin on his face.

Harry merely nodded his agreement, his faze frozen in a strange mix of fear, awe and desire.

“You like her, don’t you?” James asked Harry.

Harry nodded again. Quite vigorously James noted.

“You like her as a friend? Or do you want to be more then her friend?” James inquired.

Harry began to nod once more, but James held up his hand.

“Before you prove once and for all that you’re mute, would care to try and say even one word?” James was teasing now, but he knew Harry had to put a voice to at least some of his feelings to realize they were there.

“Dad, she was so beautiful tonight. You know how pretty mom is when you get dressed up for those formal things you have to go to?” Harry said, an almost desperate tone on his voice.

“Your mother is always beautiful to me Harry.” James said with a knowing look, but he knew what Harry meant. There were moments when Lily simply had to tilt her head a certain way and it took his breath away. James savored every one of these moments as if they were happening for the first time.

Harry nodded at what his father had said, and continued, “That was what Ginny looked like tonight, Dad. It was almost like I’d never seen her before. She was just…”

“Breathtaking?” James asked; supplying the word he suspected his son was searching for.

“Yeah.” Harry paused, and took in a deep breath, “Merlin, am I supposed to be this sappy?”

“Only when you’re in love,” James said calmly, waiting for the explosion of denials to spring up from his son.

Harry didn’t disappoint him, his eyes widened at this revelation and his jaw fell slack, hanging wide open. It took him a moment to recover and James made sure to memorize his features while this happened. It wasn’t often Harry was left completely speechless.

“Love?” Harry asked with a hint of awe and healthy dose of anxiety.

“Well, what would you call what you’re feeling?” James asked him, looking him square in the eyes as he said this.

Harry sat and pondered this for a moment, unsure what to say.

James took his silence for what it was and continued, “Look, Harry, I’m not saying the two of you are going to run off tomorrow and get married, I think your mother would kill me if that happened, and Ginny’s mum wouldn’t be far behind her. But, I know if this were just a casual thing you did tonight, you wouldn’t have had a problem telling your mother or me about it.”

“You aren’t upset I didn’t tell you before. Are you?” Harry asked timidly.

“I’m more disappointed you got caught then the fact that you tried sneaking out of the house,” James said with a smile. “I did my fair share of sneaking about when I was your age. It’d be a bit hypocritical of me to be upset over your doing the same.”

Harry exhaled, obviously relieved.

“However, I do have to remind you about what might have happened tonight if something had gone wrong,” James said in as neutral a tone of voice as he could muster. He knew Harry wouldn’t be happy with what he was about to tell him.

“I know dad, I know. Wait, what do you mean if something went wrong? You never talk like that unless it’s about work.” Harry was clearly indignant now and it showed.

“I know, I know, it’s your life and why can’t I let you live it. Did I come close to the mark?” James asked with a faint smile.

Harry grumbled something and shifted in his chair.

Taking this for a yes, James continued. “Harry, I don’t like setting a guard on you, but it was for your own good and mine as well. If something had happened to you, your mother would have killed me.”

Sighing, Harry put his hands on the table, surrounding his mug of rapidly cooling tea. “So when did you make the call?”

“Right after you left to pick up Ginny,” James told him.

“Do I want to know who it was that was watching over us?” Harry asked wearily.

“As a matter of fact, it was Tonks,” James replied with a chuckle. “Apparently, she’s a bit of a Weird Sisters fanatic herself. It wasn’t that hard to convince her to take a short notice assignment.”

Harry leaned back in his chair and his eyes lost their focus. It was obvious he was trying to figure out who it was that Tonks had changed into for her surveillance.

“So,” James continued, breaking Harry out of his reverie, “what happened after the Quidditch shop?”

Harry blinked for a moment. “Huh? Oh, well, we wandered around Diagon Alley for a bit more, then snuck past Fred and George’s shop. We reckon they’d gone home by then, but no sense taking chances with those two.”

“I agree, those two take far too much fun in pranking.” James said this with such a straight face that Harry had to pause for a moment before realizing his father was pulling his leg.

“Anyway, we got to the dance hall a little early so we stayed outside for a bit and just talked about,” Harry paused here, trying to figure out what word to use, “stuff. You know, O.W.L.’s, Quidditch, when Ron and Hermione will finally admit their feelings, those kinds of things. I don’t mind telling you, she was a bit upset I was so late getting to the Burrow to collect her.”

“I know, but I’m sure she understood once you,” James paused and threw his son a winning smile, “explained things to her?”

Harry grinned. “Yeah. I had to tell her about mum threatening Sirius, but she forgave me in the end. Oh, I told her about Sirius and Julia’s engagement. Do you think they’ll mind?”

James didn’t even blink to think this over. “I think Sirius would be more disappointed if you didn’t. I think you can expect Sirius to lean on you to make sure Ginny is part of the wedding party.”

Harry nodded and grinned. “Cool. It’ll be nice to see her all dressed up again.”

“Oh really?” James said, smirking at his son as he said this.

Harry didn’t disappoint and promptly blushed a bright red. “You know what I mean.”

“I know, Harry, I know,” James laughed, “believe me, I know. Why do you think I drag your mother to so many of those boring Ministry functions? It isn’t for the monotonously dull conversation.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “Dad? Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course you can. Why do you think I waited up for you to get home?” was the casual response, as if it were obvious.

“How long did it take you to realize what you felt for mum?” Harry asked.

“Well, I knew early on how special she was, but had known each other a bit longer then you and Ginny have before I started getting really serious about her,” James answered, making extra sure to carefully choose his words in how he replied.

James was certain that Harry had heard the story from Sirius, Remus and Peter, of his pursuit of the cool and aloof Lily Evans all through Hogwarts and decided not to repeat the tale. He was sure he saw the same depth of emotion in his son’s eye when it came to Ginny Weasley, and he was happy for both of them. From what Molly had told his wife, he was certain the girl would be a good match for his son. However, he decided to temper his enthusiasm with a degree of caution.

“Harry, listen, I’m glad you had a good time tonight. It sounds like it went better then you expected it to. And I stand by what I said earlier about Potter men and redheads.” James regretted sounding so solemn, but he thought it best to have this conversation now, lest his teenaged son get any teenaged ideas.

“But?” Harry asked. He knew there was always ‘a but’ in these conversations.

James smiled. “But, take it slowly. I have a good idea of what you’re feeling right now. I felt the same way when your mother and I first started out, and I feel the same way now. But you have the rest of your lives in front of you, and there’s no need…”

“There’s no need to do something foolish, or reckless, or stupid that could jeopardize our futures.” Harry finished for him.

“You’ve heard it have you?” James asked with surprise.

“Sirius told me when I asked him to get the tickets for us,” Harry said casually.

“Ah. Good. Glad to see he’s taking his duties as your godfather seriously,” James sniggered.

 “Sirius be serious?” Harry said with a laugh that his father matched with equal fervor.

Harry was still grinning at this when he was overcome with the obvious urge to stifle a yawn. He failed miserably.

“Alright young man, I think it’s time for bed or your mother will have both our hides for my keeping you up all night,” James told his son, entering parental mode. “You can tell me about the rest of your date tomorrow.”

“Right dad. See you in the morning,” Harry said, and got up from his seat and made his way to the kitchen table so he could go upstairs. As he got to the doorway, he paused and looked over his shoulder, “Dad?”

“Yeah, Harry?” James asked, surprised at the quietness of his son’s voice.

“Thanks for the talk,” Harry said with a warm smile.

“Anytime, Harry. Anytime,” James said with a warm smile. “Oh, I almost forgot, did you snog her?”

All of a sudden, Harry blanched and said, “That’s just it dad, she snogged me!”

James grinned and felt a surge of pride for his son, “Well of course she did! You’re a Potter!”

Harry shook his head as if he thought James didn’t understand. “No, dad, I mean, she snogged me first!”

James just stood there grinning, “Like I said, of course she did. You’re a Potter.” He watched as Harry threw up his arms in exasperation and then turn to go up to bed without saying another word.

He stayed downstairs for several minutes, and finished up his tea. He then extinguished the lights in the kitchen and made his own way up to bed. As he climbed in next to his wife, he heard her mumble a question about Harry.

“I don’t think you and Molly should rush out to start planning the wedding,” James told her, “but I think they’re going to be alright.”