Piece By Piece

Epilogue

      James Potter, every year, dreaded the beginning of the Quidditch season. Not because he didn't like going to play; in fact, quite the opposite was true. He loved playing Quidditch and everything it entailed. What he dreaded, truly, was leaving home. Fortunately enough, he had a year now before any of that happened again.

      "Y'know the war's over," Sirius said to him as he sat sideways on one of the large armchairs in the living room of Grimmuald Place. "So you don't need to stay here and protect us or whatever your logic was back in the 70s."

      James let out a short laugh. "None of the teams had openings anyway; I would've been too close to the beginning of the season. No time to calibrate myself."

      "Uh huh," Sirius scoffed. "That's why." 

      "Well I, for one, am not complaining," Lily jumped in. James felt her voice against his chest as she stayed put with her head against it. The rest of her was curled up next to him and under his arm; a position from which she hadn't budged since she and Dora had gotten home from the Ministry nearly two hours earlier. Dora had run upstairs after about an hour to go take a shower.

      "Oh of course you wouldn't complain," Sirius joked. "Every night now you can come home and-"

      "Sirius," Remus called from his seat on the other armchair. "There are children present." He pointed to Teddy, who was sitting contentedly on his lap and playing with action figures of some muggle superheroes. 

      "Whatever mom," Sirius grumbled. "Hey you've been kinda quiet actually. You got any plans for the year?"

      "Not at the moment," Remus said. "McGonagall offered me the Defense Against the Dark Arts position for next year, so I'll think about that. In the meantime I've got a kid that I'd like to take care of." He smiled at Teddy and moved him closer into his arms.

      James felt an ache in his heart whenever he saw Remus play with his son. It made him think of all the years he'd missed with Harry. All those years he'd never get back, no matter how hard he tried. That was why he was taing a year off from Quidditch; to be with his son. 

      "Hey," Dora called as she entered the room. Her hair was still damp from the shower she'd taken. "What's for dinner?" 

      "Mommy!" Teddy squealed from his father's lap. 

      James felt another ache as Dora walked over to her son with a smile and picked him up. And by the way that he felt Lily squeeze his side, he figured that he wasn't alone. 

      "I think we collectively forgot about dinner," Sirius said, making no other effort to actually get dinner ready. "Whoops."

      "You guys haven't had dinner yet?" Harry's voice startled James, though not in a bad way. He and Regulus had just gotten home from the Ministry. "C'mon, I had to work late and you haven't eaten? Teddy's bedtime is in like, 30 minutes."

      "He'll survive," Dora mumbled.

      Harry seemed to let the subject go as he put his bag down and walked over to the couch where James and Lily were seated. He dropped down next to James and immediately put his head on his shoulder. The small gesture made James' heart soar higher than he'd ever flown on a broom.

      "Hi," James greeted his son. "How was work?"

      "Exhausting," Harry groaned. "There are too many small pieces to glue back together in recovery. I don't think we'll be finished until early next year." He shifted in his seat to look at both James and Lily. "How's the house going?"