The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

But... But the Cup!

Charlus Potter stood by the front windows of the house, staring off to the disapparation point, where James and Lily would appear. He held the curtain back with one hand and cupped a handkerchief over his mouth with the other as he coughed.

"Will you sit down?" Dora pleaded, coming into the living room from the kitchen. She put down the tea tray she was carrying on the coffee table and walked over to where he was standing and took his arm. "You don't want James thinking we're the sort of parents that watch him out of windows!"

"Wouldn't be the first time we'd have done!" Charlus said, but at the expression on Dora's face he smiled, "Besides, what I mean to say is that of course I'll get out of the window before they see me watching, obviously!" Charlus laughed.

Dora sniffed, then jumped forward toward the window, "IS THAT THEM?"

"No I reckon that was just a bit of wind, Dora my love," Charlus replied, and he leaned even closer, adjusting his glasses position on his nose. "We will most definitely know it when they've arrived!"

"Not most definitely, it seems."

Charlus spun about, Dora too, and found James standing behind them, fresh from the floo, and Lily just behind, helping Mrs. Evans dust off. Mrs. Evans looked particularly shaken and held her palm to her chest as Lily fixed her mum's stray hair.

"You've flooed!" Charlus said in surprise. He clapped his hands, "We thought you might disapparate in."

"Oh is that why you lot were spying out the front then?" James teased.

"I was just trying to get your father to come and sit down!" Dora protested, though she'd gone pink and flurried over to Lily and Mrs. Evans to cover how flustered she'd gotten.

Charlus was tucking something into his pocket as he approached and greeting Lily and Mrs. Evans, too, while James stood, appreciating how their mums got along. He watched as Charlus moved and thought he seemed to be doing quite well and was glad to see it.

Dora had made her roast and the house smelled warm and inviting, and made James quite hungry. As Dora and Charlus led Mrs. Evans to the dining room, chatting idly about what Mrs. Evans and Petunia had been up to since they last saw her, James reached out and laced fingers with Lily. She paused and looked up at him, smiling. James rubbed the base of her left ring finger with his thumb, where the ring was, turned in to hide the diamond. She'd put it on just before leaving, having to keep it on a chain around her neck at home so that Tuney or her mum wouldn't see until they'd had the chance to tell them.

"I love you so bloody much, Evans," James said quietly, their parents having stepped into the next room ahead of them, he gave her a quick peck of a kiss.

"I love you, too, Potter." Her eyes seemed even brighter green than they had done just a moment before, having lit up when he kissed her.

James looked at the dining room door, then back to Lily. "You reckon your mum will be happy?" he asked nervously.

"Ecstatic," Lily answered, nodding. "And your parents, too."

"Yeah well, prepare yourself for the full Dora Potter waterworks extravaganza. She's going to cry an ocean probably, knowing mum. She nearly flooded King's Cross when I left for Hogwarts."

"My mum was a wreck the first time, too," Lily said.

"Well my mum got like that EVERY time."

Lily laughed.

Charlus stuck his head into the living room again, "Oi, I've been sort of waiting for this roast all bleedin' day and you lot are out here dillydallying and all the things that comes with it!"