Chapter 4 Some Hot-headedness and Family Time

The Marauders made their way to the Order meeting. It was being held at the Vance's home, which was warded to the gills by Dumbledore. James made a mental note to ask Hydrus to put up the other wards. They met Frank, who was still a bit shaken from the attack, and they all walked to the house. Alice, like Lily, stayed home with her son, not wanting to leave the wards.

It was a nice three story brick house, and James thought there might be a basement, but they were never really given a tour. The most they ever saw as the hallway and the dining room.

"Oh, good, you're here," Emmeline said, when she let them in. "The meeting has been delayed a bit." She ushered them into the expanded dining room and they all took a seat at the table. "Albus is running late."

"Thank you, Emmeline," Remus said with a small smile. He was still getting over the happenings of today. It had been a long day and promised to be a longer night.

"You four look terrible. Let me get you some tea, that'll make you feel better," their hostess said, heading to the kitchen and bringing back tea and pastries and serving everyone.

"This is lovely, thank you," James said, taking a cup and a flaky pastry.

Others were at the table and everyone said their hellos and took drink or food. They all settled in to wait for Albus and held small talk. Alastor Moody, Emmeline Vance, Benjy Fenwick, Caradoc Dearborn, Dedalus Diggle, Dorcas Meadowes, Elphias Doge, Aberforth Dumbledore, the Prewett twins and Marlene McKinnon were all present. They had lost many and others were on missions, scouting information and trying to get allies.

If this war didn't end soon they might lose more, and Remus would be sent away again. His mission to reform the werewolves was important. Sirius and James were both tasked to help bring families to the Order. However, that was a rather hard task since they couldn't actually talk about the group.

The Headmaster came sweeping in with his bright colored robe, and took his seat at the head of the table. "We seem to have another vigilante or a Dark Wizard trying to gain control," he started with no preamble. "I am unsure whether it is one or more people," he added rubbing his beard. He really hated when he didn't know what was going on around him. He could not plan what to do with his group if someone was undermining his order to not use deadly force.

"Why do you say that?" Alastor asked, his eyes roaming the table as if one of them was said person.

"It appears that the entire inner circle has disappeared, I am sure you have all read the newspapers," Albus answered, still stroking his beard, not a twinkle in sight. "As we do not know who is doing such a thing, I feel we should stand on the better side of caution and assume it is a Dark Wizard or more."

"Why would you think he or she is Dark? That doesn't make a lick of sense. I mean, if they are taking down You-Know-Who's supporters, doesn't that mean they are on our side?" someone stated.

"I have my sources, which I will not reveal at this time," the Headmaster said knowingly. His source at this time was one of the Aurors he was trying to recruit into the Order.

"If there are no attacks on us then I'm not sure I can agree with that this is the work of a Dark Wizard, Albus," James reiterated. He knew it was all Hydrus' doing and he was positive the immortal wasn't Dark, Grey maybe, but not Dark. He knew that the immortal was only putting these people out of commission. "For all you know, he's just got them locked up somewhere," the messy-haired man offered.

"Still, until we know better, we will be vigilant in our actions," was the gentle rebuttal.

There were nods and disagreements all up and down the table as the Order hashed out whether or not this was a good thing.

Dumbledore fired off his wand to regain silence and order and then looked at the male Potter. "James, I am so happy you could join us today. I was trying to reach you and found that I could not remember your place of residence," Albus said with a smile, changing the subject. He had been trying to get the Potters under wards because he was quite positive that little Harry was the prophesied child.

"We, Lily and I, put the house under the Fidelius," the young man answered the unspoken question, casually taking a sip of his tea, as if it was a completely normal thing to do.

"Ah, then you can have your Secret Keeper come and inform the Order as to where you are." It was more of an order than a question.

"No," James said slowly, placing his tea cup gently on the table, "I don't think that's a good idea. We found out two days ago that Peter is a Death Eater and was spying on the Order. I think your vigilante took him down. If he had not, then it is a good possibility that Peter would have given up our secrets. So, no, I think we'll keep it to the few who already know." His face took on a defiant look.

"Constant Vigilance!" Moody shouted as he slammed a fist on the table, making the tea cups rattle and everyone jump. They all glared at the paranoid man. "Good for you, Potter."

"Yes, thank you, Alastor. Now, James," Albus said in his best grandfather voice, his twinkle going full-force, "it is a pity to hear about Peter, but I assure you that everyone at this table is trustworthy." He was wondering how he could have missed the fact that shy Peter was a Death Eater. Wouldn't his vow to him have rendered spying useless? It was something he was going to have to ponder on.

"No, Professor, I won't be asking my Keeper to tell anyone. Not even you," James said firmly.

Protests were heard until Albus held up his hand. "Now, James, be reasonable. Do you not trust us?" he asked kindly, though there was conniving in his pale blue eyes.

"No offence to any of you, but the charm won't work if too many people know the secret," James said as he looked around the table and gave a small smile to everyone, then turned back to the leader, once more taking a stoic look. "We're keeping it to our Keeper and a few friends."

There were various nods of agreements and reassurances that they were not offended. Although a few protested, stating that Albus knew best. A small argument ensued.

Frank was looking at him strangely, wondering why he was not revealing Hydrus. There must be more to the man than he knew and that made him decide to also keep his secrets to himself. "I have something to report," he said, trying to take the pressure off of his friend and savior.

Everyone perked up at that and stopped arguing. There wasn't often that someone had something new to say. Hopefully it was good news.

"Yes, Frank," the Headmaster turned to the sandy-haired man, letting it go for now. He was sure he'd get the secret sooner or later, after all he was the leader.

"My family was attacked by You-Know-Who today," he said bluntly.

Gasps were heard around the table and one of the men fainted.

"Merlin's beard, were you really? How did you manage to escape?" Dedalus asked with awe in his eyes. Not many defeated or ran off You Know Who; though both the Longbottoms and the Potters were known to have fought the man off three times.

"Yes, Frank, tell us how you won. Was Voldemort hurt in any way?" Albus asked, ignoring the gasps.

James narrowed his eyes, according to Hydrus there was a taboo on the name, why would the Professor take such risk? Was he so confident that he could protect everyone in this room if the snatchers showed? He fingered his wand and was alert, when no one popped in, he had to wonder if Albus had put up wards to prevent the Dork Lord from hearing the name. Still, why risk it?

"These men," Frank waved to the Marauders, "and one other came to the rescue." He gave them a beaming smile and recounted the battle for the Order, not naming Hydrus. "You-Know-Who was injured, but I was too busy fighting to see how bad," he finished his report. "Oh, and the other man has a cure for the Crucio curse, it stopped my tremors right away," he added, thinking he'd promote Hydrus in any way he could.

That cause excited mumbling.

"Wonderful news, I must meet this young man. But for now, answer me this, how ever did you know, my boy?" Albus turned once more to James. While a cure was good news he had other things on his mind. He was contemplating on how this affected the prophecy, now that both the Potters and the Longbottoms had fought Tom four times instead of three. Would he need to turn his sights to someone else? But for the life of him he couldn't think of any other families that fit the bill. Maybe since Lily was not involved in the battle, little Harry was still the savior. One more thing to meditate on.

"Lily remembered that Neville's birthday was the day before Harry's and had a bad feeling about today. So we went to make sure they were safe and ran straight into a fight. Sirius' cousin ran off You-Know-Who with my help," he said, making sure he stuck with the story. The other two nodded their heads when the Headmaster looked their way for confirmation.

"Sirius, I did not know you had a cousin," Albus said with a curious note in his voice, once again asking a question without actually asking.

"He's a wizard born from one of the squibs," Sirius tried to wave it off as unimportant.

"Nevertheless, if he took on Voldemort and has a cure, I feel it is imperative that I meet him," was the firm reply.

"I'll ask," Sirius said.

The meeting turned to information that was collected by the others. It was mostly that the Death Eaters they were stalking were gone and they had no idea how or why. Talks turned once again to the unknown vigilante. This seemed to confirm to Albus that it was a Dark Wizard trying to undermine Voldemort. He did not think it was Sirius' cousin, since he had the new potion, but he would have to keep his eye on the young man.

The group broke up hours later, with little accomplished, though Frank had to tell that his family was now hidden and he too was keeping his secret to just family.

Hphphp

It was late the next morning when Hydrus went to the Potters. He knocked on the door and waited. He had slept in, because his wound was healing, which was good. He hated going hunting while injured. So after waking up and showering, he dressed and grabbed a cup of tea. He let Tippy know he was going out and hoped Lily would feed him.

Lily, with Harry on her hip, opened the door and gave him a huge smile. "Good morning, Hydrus. I trust you slept well," she said as she led him into the living room.

"Well enough, I suppose. It was quite a trying day yesterday," he said as he sat in what he now considered his chair. He actually had a fitful night's sleep, what with the wound and yesterday's events floating around his dreams.

"Yes, it was," was the sad reply. She was still feeling bad about Severus and hoped the man sitting across from her had a solution that didn't involve death. "Do you know what to do about Severus? I would rather not see him dead," she asked, echoing her thoughts.

"I'm not sure, I thought for sure if the offer came from you, he'd leave. So now I'm up in the air about him. I have a few ideas, but knowing the man as I do, I'm not sure I can pull them off. Let me think on it some more," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, at least you're trying," she said as she patted his hand. "I'll think about it as well and between the two of us we should be able to come up with something."

"Right, so today I'm going to redecorate your home. How big is the back garden?" Hydrus asked, changing the subject with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"It's about medium size. Why do you ask? And what do you mean 'redecorate'? I like my home the way it is, thank you very much," she said without bite, bouncing a fussy Harry up and down on her knee.

"Well, I was going to empty my pocketspace, but I need a lot of room. I have things from the future, remember? I want to give some of them to you guys," he answered, and then looked around. "Where is everyone?" he asked as if he just noticed they were alone.

"James is still asleep; the meeting ran long last night. The guys are probably doing the same," Lily explained, putting Harry on the floor so he was now standing by the sofa and trying to balance on his wobbly legs.

"Do you want to surprise James or wait until he gets up?" the immortal asked, that playful glint still dancing in his eyes.

"Oh, let's spring it on him," the redhead said, standing and picking up Harry, placing him on her hip, making him wiggle to get down.

"Since your garden isn't big enough, we'll just rearrange your stuff. So living room or kitchen first?" he asked, looking around and trying to picture where to put everything.

"There's a telly, right?" He nodded. "Living room then," she said decisively, all but jumping in place. She hadn't seen a telly in such a long time, now there would be one in her house. She walked Harry across the room and put him in his playpen so he wouldn't be in the way.

Harry spotted his color ball and squealed; clapping his hands he crawled over and started changing the colors. Since he couldn't really talk yet, he had to wait until the voice said the color three times for each change, but it was a nice soothing female voice so it was okay. He did get one color right and that was red, well, 'ed', but it worked, which made him giggle and clap his hands every time the voice said 'correct'.

"Do you want to expand the room or do you want to keep it comfy?" the time traveler asked his mum, who was watching him with a woman's appraising eye, like he was a man and had no idea what he was doing.

"I like the cozy atmosphere, so let's keep it small," Lily answered, glancing around the room to see what could be changed.

"Right, here, let's at least move the furniture around and then I'll have a better working space on that wall," her son said, pointing to the west wall and then shrinking said furniture and placing it where it was going to be when he was done.

The two worked for about fifteen minutes and now the living room was a bit more crowded, but Hydrus did his best to keep it cozy. A flat screen telly and game system were on a stand, on the wall opposite of the fireplace; the sofa, chairs and coffee table arranged around them. The radio and weather clock were on one of the book shelves and there was now an alarm system set up for when they came from under the wards.

Lily looked around her new family area and smiled in approval. "This looks great. Let's see what you've got for the kitchen." She grabbed his hand and dragged him into the other room.

Hydrus smiled at her antics and when they got to the kitchen he looked around, nodded and went through the same motions. Shrinking and storing the cold box and putting in a refrigerator with stasis spell; it was much like a cold box, but prettier and had a water dispenser and ice maker.

"Oh, I like all these shelves," Lily comments, gazing in the device. "Is that a crisper?" she asked, point to the plastic drawer.

"Yep, makes your lettuce crunchy," was the immortals' answer as he added a microwave and then explained what it did. He had to banish a cabinet to add the dishwasher with a counter space. He replaced the stove and then went to the mudroom and put in a washer and dryer.

Lily cooed over the appliances, while magic was fantastic, there was something to be said about the softness and smell of clothes from a dryer.

They were finally satisfied and retired to the living room. "Thank you, Hydrus, your inventions are a marvel. The dishwasher is a nice surprise," she added.

"Yeah, magic can do the dishes, but the dishwasher will be quieter and faster. And it's spelled to fill and empty by itself," he explained. Many witches loved the silence and speed of doing the dishes in the machine.

It was at that time James came groggily down the stairs. He grumbled a good morning and stumbled into the kitchen. He was only half awake and didn't notice the changes. He got to where the cold box had been and when he tried to reach where the handle always was, he missed. This caused him to blink and his eyes widened at the shiny box in front of him. "Lily, someone has stolen the cold box," he called, frantic that someone broke through the wards.

"Calm down, James, it was Hydrus," his wife said, coming into the room and laying a hand on his arm.

"Oh, why?" the messy-haired man asked as he looked around the new kitchen, not knowing what any of this stuff was.

"Non-magical items work better than magical ones, well, once they're improved by magic," Hydrus answered from the doorway, Harry balanced on his hip.

"Let me show you," Lily offered and then went around the room and explained everything to her befuddled husband.

He nodded in all the right places and took in the changes. He really hoped Lily knew what she's doing, because he was completely lost.

Lily started brunch, pancakes, toast, eggs, bacon and sausage, demonstrating just how much better the new stuff was. James watched her and agreed the appliances were easier and quicker. He really like that water dispenser on the new cold box, the water didn't need to be spelled cold and the ice maker made his eyes go wide.

They all sat at the table and talked of mundane things. After the wonderful meal was eaten, they took James into the living room and explained what the telly and gaming system were.

"I'll give Padfoot and Moony each one of their own. Sirius was really into gaming in the last timeline and if he doesn't have his own system, he'll be here all the time," Hydrus laughed, remembering how hard it was to get the other man to go to bed some nights.

"Right," James said, not really paying attention, he was caught up in the non-magical news that was broadcasting the weather for today.

Lily just patted his arm and took Harry for a nappy change and to clean the syrup out of his hair.

Hydrus settled in his chair and pulled out a book-reader, going over some of the spells he wanted to use for the next time he took on the Dark Arsehole. While he was well versed in spell work, he needed to brush up on the more offensive ones. He was still berating himself over yesterday's altercation. He really should've started studying when he came back. He knew there was still a war going on, but he wanted to find the Potters first. Now though, it was going to be studying and training in all of his free time.

Lily came back down the stairs and went to the side of the room, trying to get Harry to say the colors on the ball. He was doing very well and she was proud.

Soon enough Sirius and Remus showed and the werewolf looked at the immortal with a remorseful glance. "I am truly sorry I bit your head off yesterday," he said, running his hand through his light brown hair, standing in front of the time traveller. "I have no idea what came over me," he confessed. He had been thinking about it the whole night and had come to no conclusion. The only thing that put him on edge about the man was his complete disregard of the enemy's life.

"No worries," Hydrus said, waving it away. "Just try and keep those opinions to yourself, or not around me." He was still concerned about the difference in this Moony, but he would take it one day at a time.

"I will try," Remus said, taking a seat on the sofa next to Sirius who, like James, was completely enthralled by the telly.

Hydrus gave a chuckle at the two and reached his hand in front of them and snapped his fingers. "I was wondering if there was anything you could tell me about the Order meeting," he said when they turned their heads his way.

"There really isn't much to tell. We… " Remus started only to be interrupted by Sirius.

"Albus wants to meet you. Oh, and he thinks you're a Dark Wizard," the youngest Black said almost absentmindedly, turning his attention back to the telly.

"He what?" Hydrus asked loudly, reaching over and turning off the idiot box. "What do you mean he thinks I'm a Dark Wizard? Explain. How does he even know who I am?" he asked, knowing they hadn't gone against their vows or they'd be dead, but it did make him wonder.

James looked at the affronted face of the immortal and quickly said, "No, not you specifically. He thinks whoever is getting rid of the Death Eaters is a Dark Wizard, though he was told about your Cruciato cure. I think that threw him off your trail," he added, hoping that the man wouldn't explode. He reached over and smacked Padfoot across the head for wording it that way.

"Oh, yes, that's so much better," the time traveler drawled sarcastically and then sighed. "I'll make sure I brew some up. You're right he might not think it's me. However, why on earth does he think whoever is taking down the inner circle is Dark?" That was confusing, if anything the Headmaster should be thankful that the enemy was being taken care of.

"I don't know. He didn't say. He only said that whoever was taking them down must not be on our side," Sirius said thoughtfully, rubbing his goatee.

"That doesn't make a lick of sense," Hydrus said snidely with a shake of his head. "Sometimes I wonder if that old goat is senile."

"You should not talk about Albus that way," chastised Remus, pointing a finger at the time traveler. "He is a great man." He defended.

"I never said he wasn't," the immortal snapped. "I said he was old," glaring at the werewolf.

"Albus is a great wizard," Remus repeated with a glare of his own.

"Yet he thinks I'm a Dark Wizard because some of the Death Eaters disappeared," Hydrus argued with a quirk of his eyebrow. "Why does he think that? What proof does he have that the person doing this is Dark?"

"Killing is wrong. Everyone deserves a second chance. I saw you kill two people yesterday, it makes me wonder just what side you are on?" the werewolf said, causing everyone to stare at him.

Hydrus held up his hands to keep the other two out of the argument. Lily had taken Harry to the kitchen when voices started to rise. "Defending oneself and others is not murder. If I hadn't taken care of those two then one or two of us would be dead or insane. Do you think those are better options?" the immortal snapped, his hand gripping tightly to the arms of the chair. "Besides, I told you the inner circle aren't dead, just nullified."

Remus hung his head and shook it, not saying another word.

Hydrus slashed his hand in finality and said, "Look, I'm not having this argument with you. You believe what you want, but keep it to yourself, and I'll hold my comments as well." He was remembering all the times he fought with the two dogmen about the Leader of the Light and morals and knew that while Remus was under his vow it would be fruitless to continue.

"Fine," was the sullen return.

"So he wants to meet me? Why?" the older Black looked to the younger, glad to get back to the original subject.

"Something about if you fought the Dork Lord and had a cure, then it was imperative that you meet," Sirius paraphrased, glad the fight was over.

"Whatever, I'll meet him later. I've got stuff to do today. Lily," he called to the kitchen, making her come to the doorway, "thanks for brunch. I'll be back tomorrow." He got up and left the house.

"You did it again," Sirius accused, pointing his finger at Remus, "you apologized, and then turned right around and argued with him." He had no clue what was up with his friend, he and James were both under the same vow, but they both saw the flaws in Albus.

"What the bloody hell," James snapped in Hydrus' defense. "He hasn't done anything to you, Remus, why are you so defensive?" he asked, thinking along the same lines as Sirius.

"Didn't you hear what he said about Albus?" the werewolf questioned, confused as to why his friends were mad at him. "And like I said, he killed two people yesterday."

"After last night's meeting, I'm a bit inclined to agree that the old man is slightly off his rocker. You know there is a taboo on his name, but Albus keeps saying it, even in areas best left hidden. So, yeah, the headmaster is a great man, but he does some barmy shite," the messy-haired man argued back, poking his finger at his friend's chest. "Plus, if it hadn't been Hydrus' wand that had taken care of those Death Eaters, it would have been mine. Are you saying that I'm Dark now?" He folded his arms and glared as if to say he had better not think that.

"No, of course not," Remus said quickly, aghast that James would even think such a thing.

"I was also throwing some pretty Greyish curses in that fight and I know, I'm not a Dark Wizard," Sirius contributed, still miffed at his werewolf friend. "My family, notwithstanding," he added with a wave of his hand.

"Remus, you have to understand Hydrus saved our lives. We can never repay that," Lily said softly as she sat on the sofa, shifting Harry onto her lap.

"Fine, I will try and not fight with Hydrus," Remus said, not wanting to get into it with pack.

"Okay then," James said, letting it go for now and settling down. "Lily, do you know how the… gaming system works?" he asked with pleading eyes.

She just laughed and handed him the rule/guide book to Mortal Kombat.

Hphphp

Hydrus decided to take a bit of a walk before he went home, hoping the cool air would help. He took some deep breaths to calm down as he glanced indifferently around Godric's Hollow. He didn't really take in the scenic village, his mind was thinking too fast for that.

He knew Remus' problem was the vow, probably, and he also knew that the werewolf was completely against killing of any kind. No matter what his argument was, that man never changed that attitude. What he didn't understand was the alteration. Was it the Potters death that caused the werewolf to be more placid? He didn't know if it was the animal inside him that made him fight so hard or if it was just his natural state of being. Whatever it was, he hated having to defend his actions to those he considered friends. He really hoped that it stopped or at least dwindled like it had last time.

After walking around the village for about a half an hour, he popped home. He went to the room he set up for meditation and went about doing some martial arts movements. An hour later his temper was entirely cooled and he decided it was time to get some Death Eaters.

He changed into a pair of comfortable jeans and a tight, long sleeved T-shirt. Making sure he had his Cloak in his pocketspace, he popped to a wooded area where no one lived. Putting on the Cloak, he called out, "Voldemort is a pansy."

About three minutes later, five Death Eaters appeared with a 'crack', in their regulation costume of dark robes and masks. They were standing in a circle, wands drawn, looking around the clearing.

"Where are they? I don't see anyone," minion number one said, his wand up ready to cast at the slightest movement. The wind blew and a tree was blown to smithereens by the twitchy man.

"I don't know, but we had better not come back without anyone. The Dark Lord will not be pleased if we return empty-handed," minion number two said as he shot a curse to the nearest bush, like it would flush out who was hiding.

Minion three did a detection spell to find out if there were wards in the area. "There are no wards up," he called, glancing around the area.

"Shields up, I reckon," minion number four said as if he knew there was someone lurking about. His eyes taking in the empty woods and a chill ran up his spine. If he didn't have orders to bring back whoever was defeating the Death Eaters, he would've Apparated away, but his Lord scared him, so he stayed.

"We can't cast if we have our shields up," argued number five as he sent a bombardment curse to the nearest rock to see if anyone was hiding there.

"Homenum Revelio," minion three incanted, sweeping his wand around the area.

Now if Hydrus had been under a normal invisibility cloak he would have been screwed, but The Invisibility Cloak could shield against any detection spells. It was designed to hide from Death after all.

"There is no one here," minion number two said, lowering his wand and heaving a sigh.

"Someone said the Dark Lord's name," came the rebuttal from number three.

"Show yourself," said number five.

Hydrus chuckled from under his Cloak, making the minions turn in his direction. He moved out of the area and cast a Stupify dropping minion number one, since he was the twitchier one.

"I knew it was a trap," number five said, firing off curses at where the spell had come from.

Hydrus had to wonder why they were still reacting to the calling of that name if they knew it was only going to get them captured. He ducked one of the curses and silently fired off stunning spells and quietly moved around the area, so they never knew where he was. He got four of them and minion number five disapparated, leaving his comrades behind. He went up to the knocked out men and, using the Elder Wand, transfigured them into rocks and threw them over his left shoulder into his space.

He did this three more times that afternoon, catching ten Death Eaters and then went home. He was still mulling over what to do with the minions as he ate a nice pork stir-fry. Maybe he'd decorate his garden with them or put them on display like he did with Peter, who was sitting as a shiny red marble on a small pillow, in his living room, on the bookshelf. He gave it up as a bad job and instead contemplated what to say when he met Albus. He was going to be a more prominent figure in the Ministry this time, if he took James' advice, so he was going to have to play nice to the old man and continue to keep his secrets.

He wrote a note to Marius and gave the man his phone number, stating that he needed to talk to him, making sure to explain that it would get back at the Black family if he agreed to what Hydrus had planned. The immortal would have to hold off meeting the Headmaster until he spoke with his not-grandfather.

Hphphp

The rest of the crew spent the day either reading or playing the pixel fighting or war games.

Remus read from his book-reader, trying to research Hydrus. He read everything he could on time travel, not finding much to appease his conflicting thoughts. Everything he was reading only gave way for more questions- there were too many theories and not enough facts.

Lily spent the day playing with Harry until it was time to cook dinner. She looked over her new kitchen and smiled. Putting Harry in his highchair with a sugar biscuit and some apple juice, she went about making Beef Wellington, marveling at how much time she saved using both magic and mundane ways. Magic was useful for the prepping, while the new stove and microwave cooked faster. Her thoughts turned to the businesses that Hydrus wanted to set up and how she could help.

Playful banter came from the living room as Sirius yelled at James for killing his guy. They were having fun and keeping out of trouble, so Lily was thankful to her immortal son for providing such a distraction. Dinner done, she called to the men. James and Sirius had to be talked into eating; they were so engrossed in fighting one another.

"So I take it you guys are happy with your new toys?" she inquired with a smirk as she put the dinner on the table.

"Oh, yeah," James agreed. "Those muggle games are wicked." He scooped up some of the vegetables.

"Only if you're the one who doesn't die all the time," Sirius pouted as he took his share of the main dish.

"Lily, muggles don't really have weapons like that do they?" James asked, thinking of the war game he had played with his best friend and how they had weapons that would vaporize a man. It had been bugging him all day. The Wizarding World would be in deep shit if they did.

"Well, not to that extent, no, but they do have some pretty damaging warheads," she answered, giving Harry some mashed potatoes.

"What kind of warheads?" Remus asked, taking some of the Wellington.

"Well, there are bombs that can completely wipe out England," she answered honestly.

They all sat silent for a minute considering that bit horrific information.

"Do they really fight like that? With their hands and feet?" Sirius asked excitedly, never one to keep a depressed atmosphere. "Can we learn?" His eyes lit up with anticipation that she'd say yes.

Lily laughed at his eagerness, glad for the change in subject. "Yes, well, mostly, and yes you can learn. It takes years of practice and training, but there are men and women out there who can kill you with their pinky." She smiled at their disbelieving faces.

"You're taking the mickey," James said, not wanting to buy that.

"Nope, it's called Martial Arts and there are dozens of different types. Like I said it takes years to get that good, but they are out there."

"I want to learn," Sirius said, bouncing in his chair.

"You'll have to leave your wand at home," she warned. "And it's hard work. You'll be sore for weeks before you get to be any good." She didn't want him to go in blind.

"I have to try," Padfoot said with determination.

"Alright, I'll look up the nearest school tomorrow," Lily said with a soft smile. "Did you want to go to, James, Remus?" she looked at the other two.

"I don't think such an aggressive sport would be good for me," the werewolf sighed, thinking that what he saw on the games was real.

"There are disciplines that are for relaxing and keeping calm, actually all of them make you reflect on self-defense. They mostly focus on meditation, spiritual cleansing and body toning," she suggested. "They teach you to remain calm and practice meditation, but if you think that something soother will help, I'll research it for you," she added and then looked at the potato covered Harry and sighed.

That perked the weary man up; anything to help control the beast was welcome. "If you can find one I can afford then yes I would like to try."

"I'll pay," James said and then held his hand to stop the protest. "Call it a birthday or Christmas present, or whatever will ease your conscience."

"Fine," Remus said, knowing it would be futile to protest.

"Great, I'll go with Sirius and learn how to kill with my pinky and Remus will go to help with his furry little problem," James said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them, then turned back to the meal. "This is lovely, Lily."

"Thank you, James."

And talks turned to nonessential things while dinner was consumed. The only person missing from this happy scene was Hydrus and Lily hoped that whatever was making Remus so crabby would pass. She wanted the man who used to be another Lily's son here.