First Year: Classes and Christmas

Rose was bored. It was her third week at Hogwarts, and she had already mastered what petty spells her teachers made her learn. They were in Charms class now, writing down the correct way to perform a fanning charm. Rose had already attempted this particular spell, and was quite pleased when the curtains in the Gryffindor Common room had rustled.
"Why do the make us do this?" Verity asked from beside her. Verity, like Rose, was mastering her classes with ease. They both dragged their hands across the page sadly and only stopped complaining when the Hufflepuff sitting behind them told them to shut up because, apparently, it wasn't as easy for the rest of the class. Verity huffed and glared over her new red and gold scarf at the Hufflepuff, but sighed in defeat.
When Rose had finished copying it down, she started fiddling with her tie. It was red and gold, like a lot of her presents that her parents had sent over, and was already fraying at the bottom because she played with it so much. She started to get hungry and wanted this lesson to end fast, but as soon as she thought that, Professor Mason who taught charms started babbling on again about the incantation. Verity snorted from beside her and played with her braids. The Hufflepuff behind them kicked Rose's chair and she almost turned and cursed him into oblivion. But she didn't, because she was in control and not her father. But, then again, she thought, as the Hufflepuff kicked her chair again, Albus had said that the offspring of Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley was like a new species of dragon. And dragons were destructive.
Rose jolted forward again and her chair was bumped, but she grabbed her wand from the table and, checking the teacher wasn't watching, whirled around and practically shoved her wand up the Hufflepuff's nose. "Kick my chair again," Rose growled, Verity letting off a quiet whistle from her seat, "And I will curse you so much your mother won't recognize your pretty face." For good measure she tapped his nose with her wand so sparks flew out, and then she sat down, noticing that the whole class was staring at her, opened-mouthed.
Professor Mason didn't notice a thing.

---

"Hey Al!" Rose smiled when she saw Albus waiting for her beside the doors to the Great Hall. "Eating outside again, are we?" she asked. He nodded shyly, but she just smiled. "Let me just grab some food and I'll be right out." he nodded again and went to wait by the wall. This was the only way to eat with each other without James glaring at them when Al came to the Gryffindor table or Rose sitting uncomfortably with all the Slytherin's who she knew hated her guts. For example, Samuel Nott.
It was the second time Rose had quietly slipped onto the seat beside Albus and Scorpius to eat breakfast with them. She had just received a Gryffindor scarf and she was showing it to Albus, who took interest in anything she told him. Just when she was putting it back on, a fork-full of scrambled eggs hit her new scarf and her hand. She stared at the eggs, confused, and then a loud guffaw, followed by most of the table laughing, was heard.
She looked up and saw Samuel Nott with his fork still raised. And then one of his friends, Max Avery, commented, "Nice scarf, Weasley." They were only in second year, but just when she was considering bringing out her wand, Scorpius and Albus both took her arms and steered her up and away from the table.
The next day she only glanced over to the Slytherin table, but she saw Nott and Avery both had matching black eyes. But she couldn't quite fathom what had happened until she saw the bandage around James's hand and his guarded expression as he told her that Quidditch trials were yesterday and that she had missed them.
"Here we go," she said and she settled in Hagrid's pumpkin patch. He always got Professor Longbottom to use a heating charm to keep the plants ready that the ground was at least dry. "Sorry Verity couldn't make it, but she had Transfiguration homework to catch up on. I told her to do it last night, but she wouldn't listen and instead fawned over Brent's new broom." Brent was one of James's friends and always got presents from his parents. Seeing as it was his birthday, he had gotten a new broom, amongst other gifts.
"No, it's okay. Scorpius said he was coming but he lost points from Neville today, so I guess he's moping up in the dorm." Albus replied, keeping up the idle chit-chat. Ever since he had been sorted into Slytherin, Albus had become even more secluded, only talking openly when it was just Rose. And now, it was just Rose.
"Do you…" he started. She knew where it was going but she didn't pressure him. "Do you think James will… be normal soon?" Al asked tentatively. His big green eyes looked sad, and she immediately felt sorry for him. It was hard for him, when his big brother had left him to fend for himself amongst this new world of Hogwarts. Rose had stepped up to the challenged of the older sibling to help him, but, seeing as she hardly knew more than him, it was difficult.
"Oh, Al," she said, shaking her head, "Don't you see? He is being normal. James always over-reacts. Do you remember that time James got the wrong broom for Christmas. Poor Aunt Ginny almost got her eardrums burst with all his yelling and he didn't talk properly to Uncle Harry until he went and exchanged to broom for the right one." That made Albus smile at her, and she scooted closer to him, looping her arm around his shoulders. "He'll get over it. Everything will be fine, Al." she smiled and he took a bite of his sandwich.
"Hey," someone called from the edge of the pumpkin patch. Rose glanced over and saw Scorpius with a plate full of food. "Sorry I'm late," he smiled weakly and crossed over to them. Al hastily coughed and scrubbed his eyes, but Rose and Scorpius pretended not to notice.
"Where were you?" Rose asked sternly.
"Oh, Vanessa had some questions about the herbology homework." He said casually. She bristled at the mention of Vanessa Alferdale's name, but she had no real evidence that Vanessa hated her. Albus though she was paranoid when Rose swore Vanessa was glaring at her whenever she entered the Great Hall. Apparently Vanessa was really nice, and complaining about her to Vanessa's obvious friend Scorpius would only end in a tiff.
"Ah, um, we were just talking about Quidditch tryouts." Albus blurted out, obviously trying to avoid an argument. Scorpius's eyes gleamed with snarky amusement, but he just looked away from Rose to Al.
"Ah yeah. Did you tell Rose you tried out?" Al sucked in a big breath of air, obviously a plain enough answer for Scorpius. He grimaced. "Whoops, sorry Al." he muttered. Rose looked at Al pointedly, but he just grinned sheepishly at her.
"I was going to tell you. Just… after I'd gotten the results back." He looked flustered, and Rose fought her surprised anger down. It wasn't his fault and he was having a tough time lately. She smiled and murmured congratulations, all the while sulking in her head. Rose and Albus had been inseparable in the years before Hogwarts, but now Al was in Slytherin (and, she faced it, now that Scorpius was here) she felt like the third wheel sometimes. She felt her mouth pull down at the corners and fought to keep it up. She would not be sad, and no fights could seriously happen until James had forgiven Al, at least.
"I forgot my bag in the common room." Rose said suddenly. She didn't know why, but she was feeling very sad by this minor betrayal. "I'll see you later, Al, Scorpius," She nodded to them and picked up her plate and glass, sculling her pumpkin juice on the way back up to the castle.

---

"Bye Verity, I'll see you in a few weeks." Rose smiled and hugged Verity goodbye. They were in the Entrance Hall with their trunks and pets. Rose was going home for Christmas with Al and James, but Verity was staying at Hogwarts. Verity smiled. "Look for my present under the tree," Rose added.
"I will. Enjoy your holiday, Rose," she said, then moved on and hugged Al goodbye. Rose walked to Scorpius, who was wrapped in a Slytherin scarf and had pink cheeks because of the open doors.
"Bye, Scorpius," She said, and hugged him. He was staying at Hogwarts too. He hadn't told her why, but Al had whispered that it was because his family was visiting Azkaban this year; visiting Scorpius's grandfather these holidays. Apparently Lucius Malfoy was quite the angry man after all his years in prison. Dementors no longer guarded the prison, only the best Aurors and Rose's uncle Harry had been there a few times himself. To Guard or to reconcile, being head of the Auror Office was a challenging task, but Uncle Harry was the best.
Scorpius whispered in her ear while they were hugging; "Don't be mad at Al. He didn't want to disappoint you by getting your hopes up. Just smile and go with it." Then he leant back and smirked at her. "Have a good Christmas, Weasley." She scowled at him but couldn't keep that face. She ended up grinning and walking to where James was waiting for her by the oak front doors.
She made James wait until Albus was there too then they all caught the same carriage down to the train, and joining them in the carriage was Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, who were both in James's year, but in Ravenclaw. It gave James some people to talk to while Al and Rose spoke about what to do on their holiday and what they were going to get for Christmas; Rose still a little frosty towards Al, but was warming quickly because of his terrible jokes and hesitant smiling. By the time they got to the station they were best friends again.
"I'm going to sit with my friends," James grumbled when the boarded the Hogwarts Express. Al shrugged and Rose murmured something about him having fun and he sped off down the corridor. They found a semi-empty compartment and shuffled in. The only person sitting there was a sandy-haired fifth-year boy who was vaguely familiar by Rose couldn't place it.
"Um, can we sit?" Rose asked. The boy looked up at them and smiled, indicating that they could come inside. His ears stuck out a bit and he had a Hufflepuff tie on. Rose tried not to stare too hard at him but he was really familiar and it was annoying her that she didn't know him.
"Thanks," Albus said, sighing and flopping on the chair opposite the boy. He sighed and closed his eyes. Rose rolled her eyes and nudged him. His eyes snapped open and he leapt up into an erect sitting position. Rose almost laughed and, as it was, she barely retained a snort of derision. "I'm Albus Potter." Al held his hand out to the boy across from them. The boy widened his eyes and looked hurt, for some reason. He swallowed and sort of shrunk away from Al's hand.
"I know, we know each other. We've met a couple of times. I know both of you." The boy said. Rose swore in her head. "I'm Bradley. Bradley Longbottom." Rose's eyes widened and she remembered meeting Bradley a couple of times before, at her house and at Uncle Harry's house. He was Neville's son, and always sat in the corner reading daggy comic books and Muggle novels. No wonder she forgot him.
She turned to Al. "I can't believe you forgot who Brad was!" He looked so alarmed that she though he was going to run crying from the compartment. But instead he licked his lips nervously and turned to Bradley.
"S-sorry. I remember you now, it's just that I've been so busy at school I forgot what you looked like, for about a second. I completely remember you now." He said.
Bradley studied him for a second, then grinned and nodded, totally believing him. "Okay!" He chirped. Well, Rose thought, if the stories were true about Neville as a child, I suppose this is sort of normal…
For the rest of the train ride, they had a great time with Bradley. He had a pack of exploding snap cards and Al bought them all chocolate frogs. Rose pulled out her chess board and, by the time they got to King's Cross Station, Bradley had repaired Al's chess pieces about five times, and he hadn't had the guts to challenge Rose himself.
When the train started braking, Al was getting down his trunk and moving out the door even though the train hadn't stopped yet. "Why so eager, Al?" Rose asked.
"I just… I can't wait to see mum and dad." He smiled at her and she could almost forget that just a couple of hours ago, his robes had been trimmed with green.
Rose grimaced as the thought entered her head. "Um… have you told my dad that you're in Slytherin?" Al's eyes widened and he shook his head. "Well… I haven't. Um…" She said and got her own trunk down as the train came to a complete stop. "You tell him!" she yelled down the corridor to Al's receding figure which was already at the door of the train. He stopped at the door, scowled at her, and then left the train, and she walked back into the compartment in time to see him leap into her Uncle Harry's arms, his trunk forgotten at the compartment door.

---

"Slytherin! I'm so proud of you." Albus's dad said, his green eyes crinkling behind his glasses as he smiled. Al grinned and hugged him again, squeezing hard and laughing. He only just now realized he had been worried about whether his dad would be happy or not, disregarding anything Harry had said at the start of the year.
James walked out of the train, scowled at Al and then kissed his mother on the cheek. Al's face flushed, and he went to get his trunk for a moment of privacy. When he got back, Harry was talking to James about Christmas. "…And George is going to be there, with Fred and Roxanne, and of course Percy and Audrey will come too, with Molly and Lucy. And Charlie will probably make an appearance with one of his girlfriends. That sounds like fun, right? But don't worry James, Teddy will surely be there too. I even think he's coming with us." Harry sighed tiredly at the thought, and then smiled when Albus came back. Al opened his mouth to contribute to the conversation but James smirked and cut in front of him, asking another question and stopping him from talking to his father. Al pouted and went to say hi to Ginny, wiping his eyes on his shirt as he went.

---

"Ugh, so what if it's crowded here, why do I have to sleep on the couch?" Rose complained at her dad when they arrived at the Burrow on Christmas Eve.
"Don't worry, Rosie. Al will sleep down here with you, and so will Fred and Louis. You'll have a ball." Ron replied, tousling Rose's already unruly hair. She pouted, but stopped when they entered the crowded kitchen Grandma Weasley tapped her cheek and opened her arms for a hug.
Later, after she gad grouped with Al, Fred and Hugo, and she'd stopped worrying about sleeping on the lumpy couch, Rose did have a good time. Even though Fred was eighteen and Hugo was ten, they all were practically the same age in maturity level. They de-gnomed the garden, set up the Christmas tree and ate a bunch of Grandma Weasley's cooking. By the end of the night, when all the kids were yawning and the grown-ups had pulled out their second bottle of firewhiskey, Rose was ready to go to bed.
"Dad," Rose whined, interrupting her father's conversation with his brother Percy. "Dad, I'm tired. So shut up." Ron looked like he was about to laugh, but Percy was looking insulted.
"Manners, young miss." Percy chided. "You'd never see my daughters talking like that." He told Ron. Rose knew for one thing that Lucy, who had gotten the looks of her mother, had hung out with the wrong crowd at Hogwarts before she graduated and Molly was so antisocial she snapped at everyone in the common room when she was studying with a lot crueler words than shut up. But she just nodded seriously and apologized to her uncle Percy. Ron kissed her forehead and she went to the lounge room where Al was waiting, in his faded Holyhead Harpies pajamas, and together they crawled into the fort they'd made previously and went to sleep.

---

Rose woke the next morning to Al curled like a cat, his knees jarring into her ribs, and eighteen-year-old Fred's foot in her face. She wheezed from disgust, shoved his foot away and sneezed as Louis assaulted her with some sort of spray deodorant he had stolen from Dominique's present pile. Al was jolted awake as Fred shoved him away from Rose on his way to tackle her to the ground for waking him up, and he fell back against the couch-pillow-wall that was, unfortunately, closest to the Christmas tree.
With a great tinkling crash the tree fell to the floor, stopping them all mid-stride. Fred was bent over Rose, looking around to see if anyone was hurt, fingers still on Rose's stomach as he stopped mid-tickle-attack. Fourteen-year-old Louis was standing on the shell of the couch, arms behind his head, fingers clutching his shiny blond hair, looking expectantly at the staircase which lead up to the bedrooms where everyone was staying. Rose was panting, out of breath from laughing, and trying not to sneeze from the sickly smell of Gabrielle Delacour's own line of perfume, and was about to shove Fred away from her. Al was lying amongst the wreckage of baubles, ornaments and tinsel, shaking from laughter, but trying to squirm into a comfortable position which was hard because he had a tree across his stomach.
They all heard a door open from upstairs and Fred leapt up off Rose and whipped his wand out from his pajama pocket. He lifted the tree and set it up, quickly following with repairing and enchanting the decorations to re-attach themselves to the tree. He then lifted Al from the ground, set him on his feet, enchanted all the pillows to jump back onto the couch and gestured them all to sit down. Louis threw the perfume back into Dominique's present pile and Fred summoned a pack of explosive snap, which they all grabbed about a quarter of the pack and pretended to play.
"Fred Weasley, if that was you, you won't be working with dad for another whole year!" Angelina Weasley stormed down the stairs, followed by George, his red hair still rumpled by sleep. Fred's clenched his fists around his card, but grinned at his mother, acting nonchalant.
"Mum, calm down, nothing's wrong here. We're just playing cards. What happened, did something wake you up?" He looked at her innocently, his light-brown eyes shining and his teeth glinting as he smiled. George winked and nodded approvingly behind Angelina's back, giving Fred the thumbs up, whilst Angelina glared at her son, making Fred's mocha-coloured skin pale.
"Aunt Angelina, what did you hear?" piped up Albus. Angelina had always had a soft spot for Al, which was noticeable when her gaze switched to him and immediately softened. She re-tied her Holyhead Harpies dressing gown and pondered for a second.
"I hope you haven't started opening your presents, boys and girl." She looked pointedly and Fred and Louis, who were the family trouble-makers, but they both smiled angelically at her and everyone shook their heads.
"These are my cards, Aunt Angelina." Rose said, smiling and showing her aunt the battered case of her exploding snap pack. Looking defeated, Angelina walked into the kitchen and started rummaging around for things for breakfast, mumbling something about how life was easier when she played Quidditch.
A while later, after everyone was up and breakfast had been had, everyone dispersed to open their presents. Rose, Al and Fred went outside, wrapped in mittens and scarves, to open theirs because it was less crowded and Fred always like blasting the gnomes with his wand when they tried to steal his hoard.
Rose got books, a new wand case, a Gryffindor jumper, red-and-gold striped socks, confectionary, home-made fudge and a woolen jumper (from Grandma Weasley, of course) and Weasley Wizard Wheezes products. Verity had given her a box of chocolate frogs, Al had proudly presented her with a sugar quill and a book he knew she wanted. She disappointedly noted that she received nothing from Scorpius.
Al received all things green. His parents seemed to want to go all out to show they were fine with his house, giving him green striped pyjamas, a brand new Slytherin cloak, three pairs of green-and-grey socks,  some patterned ties, robes and even two scarves, both with green and silver on them just different patterns. From Rose he got new Quidditch gloves and Verity gave him a box of ice-mice. Al cast a crestfallen look at Rose as he also realised nothing was in his present pile from Scorpius.
"What did you get, Fred?" Al asked trying to forget his feeling of being left out. Fred chuckled and rolled his eyes.
"Grown up stuff, unfortunately. Your piles are way better." He sighed and blasted a gnome off its feet as it tried to run off with his new copy of Advanced Transfiguration for the Working Wizard. "Being old is no fun at all." He grumbled.
"But Fred!" Rose piped up. "You can use magic outside of school! And you can work at the Shop, and you can go anywhere you want! Isn't that the best part of being a grown up?" He just shook his head and laughed.
Al smiled sadly but was distracted by two handsome Eagle Owls as they flew through the Burrow window. He followed them inside, Rose and Fred trailing him. They found them sitting on the table, waiting for someone to notice them as all the adults were in the sitting room. Al untied two letters and a small package from one owl's leg, and the same from the other. The owls hooted at him impatiently, and he frowned at them, went to the sink and filled a bowl with water, then returned, mumbling something that sounded vaguely like "next time, say please."
One of the cards said 'Rose', whilst the other said 'Albus', both written in beautiful calligraphy. The same names and script were on either package. One of the other letters was addressed to 'The Weasley's' and one to 'Mr. Potter.'
"Dad!" Al yelled in the direction of the sitting room, still unsure about the packages and who they were from. Harry walked into the kitchen hurriedly but stopped short and smiled tiredly at the two owls on the table. He walked past the owls, telling them they were late. They puffed out their chests irritably and, when he opened the window to let them out, they cuffed him over the head with their wings. He just chortled and grabbed the letters addressed to him and the Weasley's.
"Who're these from, Dad? Can we open them?" Al asked, slowly reaching for his gift. Harry laughed again and smiled warmly at his son.
"Of course you can open it. And if you do, you'll find out who it's from, won't you?" Al poked his tongue out at his dad, and sat at the table, dragging his present closer to him as his dad walked upstairs to his temporary room. Rose wondered why he didn't return to the others, but maybe he wanted some privacy. Uncle Harry could be weird at times, and Christmas was one of them. Her dad said it was because he never had a proper Christmas until he was eleven and that scarred him for life. But Rose wasn't sure if that was true, because right after he said that her mother whacked Ron up the arm and told him not to be mean.
Fred took a seat beside Al, just as curious as he was, and Rose sat opposite them, grabbing her present and card. She tore open the letter addressed to her. Inside was a card that had 'Merry Christmas' on the top, in the same calligraphy, with a large manor in the background. It was snowing, the white manor gardens in the foreground with a cast-iron gate with an 'M' in the centre of the frosty bars. Her eyebrows rose as she opened the card. It said;
Dear Rose,
Hope you're having a Merry Christmas and that you have a wonderful New Year.
See you at school,
Scorpius.
She almost laughed, then turned to the package on the table. Under the plain brown paper was gold wrapping, which she ripped open to find a large box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. She smiled and put them with her other presents.
Al had received the same card as Rose, but the message inside was longer, with more personal details about Scorpius's holidays. Rose frowned, but then remembered that Al and Scorpius were closer than Scorpius and herself, so Al deserved more details. Most of the time, Scorpius and Rose quarrelled. Al and Scorpius usually studied or chatted about their day, something normal friends do. Rose bit back a laugh as she remembered their last argument, and turned as she saw Teddy and James enter the room.
"Hey Teddy!" Al said, smiling in his direction. Teddy grinned and clapped Al on the shoulder, making James pout and glare at Al. Rose rolled her eyes.
"Hey Ted, is Aunt Andromeda here yet?" Rose asked. She loved Andromeda Tonks, even though they weren't directly related, Rose found her so interesting to talk to.
"No, I don't think she's coming this year. She was helping me move out and, well, she found some of mum's baby stuff. You know how it is." Ted answered offhandedly, but she saw he was worried. "Your gran's on the way over to help her out." He added. Rose smiled, thinking of Grandma Weasley busting around while Aunt Andromeda was having a cup of tea and holding some baby shoes.
"Who're you moving in with, Ted?" Fred asked, leaning back in his chair. He was always more adult when people closer to his age were around him.
"Oh, you know Brian Zeller and Lucas McLaggen, they bought an apartment in London and they said if I pay a third, I can stay. Its three bedrooms so it's a pretty sweet deal." Fred nodded.
"You always stick around with your little nerdy friends, don't you Lupin?" Fred joked. Teddy's hair turned a dark shade of red but he just rolled his eyes.
"Jealous, Weasley, that I got the NEWT score I wanted? And I do have a job interview soon that might just be the thing that tips you over the edge." Fred glared at Ted, and Rose sighed loudly, nodding in the direction of the sitting room, and which two adults had just emerged.
"Time to go, Rose. Have you seen Hugo?" Hermione asked Rose, who shrugged.
"He's usually with Louis, isn't he? Have you checked the attic? They love tormenting the ghoul in its old age." Rose answered, getting up and collecting all of her gifts.
"I'll go," said Ron, already making his way up the stairs. Harry and Ginny also came into the kitchen, telling James and Albus that they needed to take off too.

---

After they all said goodbye, the Potter's got into the car, Harry rejecting Ginny's offer to drive. When they were on the road, Harry checked his watch then grinned into the rear-view mirror at his kids.
"It's only one o'clock, so I think we have time to visit your favourite cousins!" He said, laughing when all three Potter children broke into cries of protest.
They arrived about half an hour later in a quiet Muggle suburb, in the driveway of a quaint but plain house. They trundled up the driveway sullenly, only Harry bounding forewords. He rang the doorbell, and it was answered by a man of Harry's age, who was robust but sturdy, with thick arms and neck. He gave a quiet word of surprise when he saw the Potter's, but shook Harry's hand warmly enough. His blond hair was receding a little, and he had a bushy moustache, but when he invited them inside, Dudley Dursley's eyes were kind yet hesitant as he nodded at Ginny and eyed the three Potter children.
"Oh Harry, I didn't know you were coming today! I had my suspicions, since you always do pop around some time on Christmas, but, we've just finished lunch, so I'll have to apologise." Said Fiona Dursley, Dudley's wife. She worked in sport advertisement, which was where she met Dudley during his wrestling days, and was slender with blue eyes and blond hair in a chic bob. Though she found the Potter's slightly abnormal, she was amused by them and liked the fact that they came around even though Dudley and Harry hadn't always been friends.
"Why don't you go find the kids," Harry told his children, and gathered Ginny under his arm as he answered Fiona.
With James in the lead, the Potter kids walked up the narrow staircase that lead to the Dursley children's bedrooms. James called out a hesitant hello and, soon enough, a door opened and Becca Dursley poked her head around the door. "Oh, guys, it's just you. We're in here, if you wanna come in." She said, and receded back into the room. The Potter kids went in too, slowly peeking around the door and hiding their wands from sight. James tucked his shirt over his while Al slid his into his boot. James grinned slowly as he saw his second-cousins, and ran a hand through his curly brown hair. Lily pulled shyly on one of her flaming pigtails and Albus coughed nervously.
Both Dursley children were big. They had blond hair and blue eyes, and were tall. Rebecca was the oldest of the two at fourteen with long hair in a bun. Then was Bruce was twelve, with curly hair and was muscly, like his dad. They were both surrounded by their bounty, which was expensive muggle presents that the Potter's looked at with interest.
"What's that?" Lily pointed at a glass block on a small silver platform. Becca's eyebrows rose in annoyance and Bruce's snort of derision was incredibly audible. But all they did was explain that the platform had four coloured lights in it and, when turned on, they shone through the glass and illuminated the picture within it. James looked frostily at the present and, when he sat down, accidentally-on-purpose knocked it over, with a loud thunk, onto the wooden floor.
"Oops," he sneered, and Becca glared at him, as she always did. He then picked it up and settled it, quite on purpose, upside down and just out of reach from both Dursley children. Al sat on one side of James, with Lily on the other, and tried to steer the conversation away from the frosty angle it was taking.
"So, um, what did you do today?" Al asked, hoping to quell the mood.
"Pop and Gran came round this morning and left just before you got here," Bruce answered, wrinkling his nose in Al's direction. Al saw James lean back casually and Lily tighten her fist.
"And how are they?" James drawled, grinning somewhat sinisterly at his second-cousins.
"They're fine," Becca said, "They just did the usual, you know, give us expensive gifts," she eyes their Weasley jumpers, which they were all still wearing and, even though Grandma Weasley had quite a bit of money now, it was hard to give up on her little-money spending habits and still ends up buying yarn from the same run-down shop for the jumper tradition. "Bring heaps of food from that fancy hotel/restaurant in London, and talking about how much of a, let's say, a disappointment you all were to them. To use nicer words." James's eyes flashed, Lily put her arms around her legs and hugged her knees to her chest and Albus actually glared at Becca.
Becca and Bruce doted on their grandparents, and, according to the apologising Dudley, they listened and believed whatever they said. Though Vernon and Petunia Dursley had softened towards the Potters in face-to-face contact, old habits die hard and they always seemed to be pointing out a flaw of the Potters to Rebecca and Bruce, most importantly how all three children had gone the same way as their parents: highly abnormal.
"At least we can think for ourselves," Al said quietly, glowering at his cousins.
"Shut up, freak, no one asked for your opinion," Bruce said. He couldn't really string together much a sentence, and Harry said that he was too much like Dudley in his younger years.
Now what would have normally happened was that Lily would have taken James and Al's hands and steered them safely back downstairs to pretend that nothing had happened. Al was usually withdrawn and hurt afterwards and James was taken because he was in forcible need of removing himself because, if it was himself or Lily that was insulted, he would be about to jump the Dursley's, or if the insults were aimed at Al he would be on the verge of complimenting the perpetrators on their wits.
As it was, Lily had just stood up when James, eyes furious, snapped "Don't say that to him," Lily's eyebrows rose and Al actually did a double-take to check that it was James that was talking. "He tries hard for a Potter, you just don't know it. You stuck-up little-" Lily yanked James through the door and down the stairs, Al leaving after them with a polite "Thanks for your time,"