December 23rd, Potter Manor
After the younger children were down for the night, Lily and James found their four older children in the study doing what came naturally to them: they were playing games, and in Harry's case, he was writing. Lily smiled at her little genius. He was definitely taking after her side of the family.
Sitting down beside him on the sofa, Lily asked, "What are you working on, sweetie?"
Concentration broken (but the train of thought not totally gone), Harry looked up and said a little absently, "Oh, it's a list of interesting things I've found at Hogwarts. I'm cross-referencing them with Hogwarts: A History to get an idea of how the castle actually works and when updates are made, as well as by whom or what."
"I'm sure the Headmasters have made improvements over the centuries," she suggested.
"I know they have, mum. I've found a couple references to the moving staircases. But sometimes the castle does things on its own. And I'd like to know if there's any pattern it's following or not."
His father sat down across from the two of them so he could keep a better eye on Leon, Shelia and Rose as they 'played' a game of chess. If the kids started randomly throwing moves in just for the heck of it (again), then the pieces would start refusing to play. And it was a pain to convince them to take up positions afterwards. The last time the kids did something like that, the pieces had started muttering something about a union.
"Tell us about your friends, Harry," his father suggested while watching Rose nudge a pawn to take out another pawn (who might have shouted something rude to her - he wasn't sure, but she was blushing for some reason).
"Yes, honey, tell us about your friends," his mother encouraged.
"Um, okay. Well first there's Hermione Granger. She's my best friend in school. She's smart, like you mum. And best of all, her parents torture people for a living."
"They don't," Lily gasped.
"You can get a job doing that?" James said.
"I'm kidding," Harry grinned. "They're dentists."
Lily gasped again. "They do torture people."
"They do?"
"She's kidding, dad. Mostly. Anyway I'm also friends with Pam Turner, Parvati and Padma Patil, Lavender Brown, Blaise Zabini, Susan Bones, Jamie Summers, Dora Tonks…"
"Sirius' cousin?"
"They're related?" Harry faked surprise. "Well, I guess that explains why she's so clumsy."
"I'm going to tell him you said that," James nudged his son.
"Yeah, yeah, bring it on," Harry nudged back.
"Do you have any friends who are boys?" Lily wondered.
"Sure. There's Edward… and, um… George?"
"Is that a question or a fact?" Lily wanted to know.
"Jeez, mum," Harry said in askew annoyance (meaning he didn't mean it if you know what I mean), "what is this? The Spanish Inquisition?"
"NOBODY EXPECTS the Spanish Inquisition!" boomed a voice.
"Dad, you okay?" Leon asked.
"Sorry, son, but I've always loved that line. It was on the first program your mum had me watch on her telly. Those muggles really knew how to entertain."
"You two are clowning around so much now," Lily pointed to both James and Harry. "You are getting closer all the time. Pretty soon, you won't need your mother."
"Mum, I'll always need you," Harry said seriously.
"He sure will," James agreed. "After all, he's going to need some advice from you in managing the harem he's building."
"Dad! I'm not building a harem!"
"Whatever you say, son. Whatever you say."
"Anyway you look at it, Harry, it sounds like you've made some friends at school," Lily commented.
"Now that you mention it, yeah, there are a lot of neat kids there that I'm friends with. I'm friendly with a lot of upper year kids as well."
"Now the big question, sweetie. I read it in your letters, but I wanted to hear it from you. What's your overall impression of Hogwarts?" Lily asked.
Harry's brother and sisters immediately turned their attention to Harry and their parents.
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