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Molly happily invited the Potters over for Christmas dinner Harry's first year at Hogwarts. She was so glad Ron had made friends, and Harry wanted to go so badly, it was barely even a choice. James and Lily had just missed Molly and Arthur's time at Hogwarts, but they all still joked about Professor Bins' boring lectures and how glad they were that they didn't have to take them anymore. Harry wandered off early, Ron had invited him to see his room, and James had lost track of Olive, but he was fairly certain she had just run off with Ginny, they were about the same age.
"How many kids did you say you have again?" James asks, taking a sip of his wine.
"Seven," Molly says, smiling proudly, "and proud of every one of them."
"Eight, mum," says a boy who had just entered the kitchen. He looks just like all the other ones to James, but Lily leans over and whispers in his ear.
"Fred," she said, "or- or George, maybe, they're the twins, remember?" Harry nods.
"Don't go forgetting about Forge, now," the boy finishes his thought with a completely sober look on his face.
Molly pauses for a second, subtly counting on her fingers. "Forge?" She sighs, "I have never named a child Forge, and there certainly aren't eight of you demons, Merlin bless us. Go tell everyone to start washing up for dinner."
The boy's sober exterior cracks, and he gives up a huge toothy grin. Harry thinks he looks quite a bit like Arthur, though much younger. "Right, mum, I'll just sneak some food up to Forge then, make sure he doesn't starve." The boy bounds off back upstairs and James hears some yelling as he collects his siblings for dinner.
Molly sighs and rubs her eyes. "Fred and George," she says as if that should be explanation enough. "Fancy themselves as some kind of tricksters, and are getting quite good at it, much to my dismay."
James smiles, thinking back to his days at Hogwarts, sneaking around with the Marauders. They did a job pranking the Slytherins, to Lily's disapproval, of course, but he always thought they deserved it, at least a little bit.
Dinner is the most magically enhanced thing James has seen since Hogwarts, the dishes scrub themselves in the kitchen as Molly serves food from heavy platters. Mashed potatoes and gravy and string beans in some sauce that James can't quite place, but they are absolutely the best vegetables he's ever had. The dinner table is loud as they're all served, and it doesn't quiet down much either, the family being too big to have the same conversation all at once. James listens carefully to the conversations around him.
At the head of the table, Molly, Arthur, and Lily are having a conversation about raising kids that James finds about a billion times more boring than actually raising kids has been. Across from him, Bill and Charlie sat next to each other. Molly had explained (and Lily had later explained again) that they didn't live in the Burrow but were back home for the break, having a conversation that was marginally more interesting because it was about dragons, but lost all appeal when James realised their conversation was quite a bit more advanced than he could understand. Percy was sat across from him, reading a book that he had thought was about potions, but upon further inspection seemed to be about cauldron bottoms? So starting a conversation there seemed out of the question.
At the other end of the table, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Olive were engrossed in a conversation about something he couldn't quite make out and didn't especially care to. He always thought that, as their father, he had a requirement to keep them alive and be there when they wanted him, but otherwise to stay out of their business. It was the way his father had raised him, and James felt that it has instilled in him a sense of independence, and as little trauma as possible, and was, therefore, quite a good way to go about the whole parenting business.
One of the twins was sat next to him, the other one across the table next to Percy, so that the twins were sat across from each other. After listening to their conversation for a second, James determined he was sat next to Fred. He listened for a while to their conversation.
They were talking mainly about Hogwarts, Harry heard them mention a few teachers he recognised and a name or two he didn't, and then they moved on to a somewhat quieter discussion of pranks. They mentioned something about hexing Percy's Prefect badge, which James thought was particularly bold considering Percy was sitting right next to them, but he was so engrossed in his book he didn't seem to care, or even hear.
"You know, I used to be somewhat of a prankster back in my day," James says, and immediately cringes. What a horribly dad-esque thing to say. But the boys don't seem to be thrown, in fact, they look at him excitedly. "Yeah, me and a few friends used to prank the Slytherins all the time." James continues. At this, they looked even more interested, and James, gaining confidence, begins recounting a tale of the Marauders versus Slytherin house, particularly the time they put itchy rose hips in their beds. "Never caught for that one," James says smugly. "And we plotted all the secret passageways on this map…" he trails off, thinking of the map they had put so many hours and difficult spells into. They had passed it onto a first year after they left, but, "I wonder where that thing ended up?" He asks, finishing his thought aloud.
Fred looks wide-eyed at his brother. "This map-" he starts.
"-it didn't happen to be bewitched?" George finishes the sentence, peering at James intently.
"Showed things like where the staircases moved to-"
"-and where people were at any particular moment?"
James looks between them, alarmed. "Yes, yes it did. How did you-"
"Was it enchanted to hurl insults at anyone who tried to get into it without the key?" Fred asks.
James smiles. "Sirius' idea, that. Added almost 2 months to the project, but totally worth it."
George looks at Fred, grinning ear to ear, "Yeah, we think so too."
James looks between the boys as they seem to have a silent conversation with their eyes.
"Can we ask-" George starts.
"-were you Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, or Prongs?" Fred finishes.
And now James is really, truly grinning. "Prongs. Remus was Moony, Sirius' Padfoot, and Peter was Wormtail, the little rat. How'd you end up with it?"
George drops a cool façade over his grin. "It was in Filch's office, wasn't it, Fred?" George says, but he's not really asking.
"Got in there for setting off fireworks in the bathroom, didn't we?" Fred responds, but he's unable to keep up a cool exterior and is still grinning from ear to ear.
"Had a bit of a peek in his desk," George nods.
"Ah, the drawer was open." Fred shrugs, "he practically wanted us to look there, eh George?"
George nods along, "Right you are, Fredo. Anyway, we have the map now." He says, turning to James. "Are you gonna want it back?" He asks, brow furrowing.
James shakes his head so hard his glasses almost fall off. "Absolutely not, I have no use for a map of Hogwarts anymore, and I'm sure the others would love you to have it. You seem to be using it for the right purpose, anyhow." He grins again. "I can help you add your own names and insults though."
The twins grin at each other and nod at James and the three of them eat the rest of their dinner noticeably faster. James makes an apologetic face at Molly and Lily as he gets up, but he's too excited for the guilt to weigh him down. Fred and George were exactly the people he had hoped the map would end up with.