It had been a few weeks and everyone was getting so much more comfortable in the home over the ice cream parlor so on that Saturday morning the house was full of invariable chaotic energy. Five boys, all yelling, and Meg shouting for the younger four of them to sit down and eat their breakfast while Jasper was trying to get Oliver to come out of his room -- It felt like a real family. Especially when Oliver finally came downstairs like a typical moody teenager and dramatically fell into his chair at the breakfast table.
"YERTLE DOESN'T LIKE THIS CEREAL!" Eli shouted.
"Yertle's a turtle, he shouldn't be eating Ricicles anyways dumby," Michael answered.
"Yeah!" cried Nate.
Kevin rolled a grape across the table, "Give him this."
"He doesn't like grapes," pouted Eli.
"He does so!" Nate argued.
"All turtles like grapes, I'll bet," Michael said, "Yertle's a stupid turtle."
"He's not stupid!" wailed Eli.
"He is so!" Michael replied.
"Not, not, not," Eli snapped.
"HE KNOWS TRICKS!" cried Nate.
"He doesn't!" Kevin snapped, "Rolling him over doesn't count as him knowing tricks."
"No that was funny!" Nate cried.
Oliver put his head down in his elbow and groaned.
"Here you are, honey," Meg's voice was gentle by his ear and Oliver looked up to see a bowl of Ricicles before him, the milk freshly poured over and a glass of orange juice and Oliver smiled sleepily at her, taking the bowl up in his hand and leaning back in his chair, holding it as he ate, watching the other kids arguing.
"Turtle off the table, please," Meg sang, and she reached over Nate's head and plucked Yertle up from the table.
Jasper had just walked back into the kitchen and Meg turned and handed Yertle to him without any context and Jasper held Yertle a moment, looking him over. "Hullo good sir."
Eli let out a shriek of laughter and suddenly all eyes were on Jasper as he conversed with the turtle, having Yertle answer him in a funny, pseudo-sophisticated voice.
There was a sound then from the hearth and Jasper turned about and saw James Potter's face in the fireplace. "Mornin' Odairs!"
"Hey Potter!" he cried and all five boys heads snapped to look, perhaps none as excitedly as Oliver's though. "Good morning, come on in."
There was a pause, his face disappeared and a moment later in a brilliant flash, James himself stepped out of the fireplace.
"WHAT!" Nate exclaimed, "How'd you do that!"
"Magic," James grinned as Nate stared between James and the floo - Eli's eyes wide, too, right beside him.
Jasper put Yertle in the turtle tank they had in the kitchen - Yertle had tanks all over the Odair house now, safe places to put him when Eli had something he needed to be doing, like eating his breakfast. Meg and Jasper had put a large tank in what had become Nate and Eli's room so that Yertle's full time habitat was big enough for the turtle to explore and get exercise, but he had at least one safe place in each room to avoid any turtle accidents from occurring.
"Sirius got off house arrest yesterday," James told Jasper, "And today the whole lot of us are spending the day out side by my place and we're thinking of playing quidditch. We wanted to know if you lot wanted to join in?"
"What is quidditch?" Michael asked.
"Only the best sport in the world," Oliver answered quickly.
James nodded, pointing at Oliver, "Yes. Precisely."
The field behind the Potter Cottage in Godric's Hollow had turned into a grand event indeed. The quidditch rings James had purchased for training with Ollie gleamed in the mid-morning sunlight. Lily and Dora had spread out blankets and magicked lawn chairs out for a spectators section and Sirius was trimming twigs for optimal flight on the broomsticks, five of them freshly purchased from Quality Quidditch Supplies (Peter had happily made the run to Diagon Alley for them, using James's coin purse) just for the occasion.
The kids from outback - Theo, Roger, and Alfie, and their baby sister Nessa - had come over to see what the fuss was all about, and Remus sent a patronus to Andromeda Tonks so that she and Nymphadora were soon on the field, too, and there was a general hum of excitement as Eli, Nate, Michael, Kevin and Oliver arrived along with Meg and Jasper. It was quite the crowd.
"Alright, alright, first off, who's never flown before?" James called as the kids crowded around James and Jasper, who were each wearing their old number jerseys from Hogwarts and had declared themselves captains of "Team Odair" and "Team Potter".
"I've never flown!!" cried Eli, clutching Yertle.
"Here honey, let me hold your turtle for you," Lily said, swooping in and saving Yertle from what would've been a very awful experience for a turtle. "He can sit with me on the blanket just over there." She pointed where Nessa was rolling about.
"You'll need a turtle leash," Sirius said. "In case he runs away."
"A turtle leash!" hooted Nate and he turned, laughing with Alfie, who had become his new best mate rather quickly.
"Thank you, Sirius, I think I can keep up with a runaway turtle."
It took some organization but eventually they sorted out the experienced fliers from the kids who hadn't tried it before so that within minutes four out of five of the children the Odairs were taking care of, Tonks, and Bradley were standing before James 'round the broomsticks laying on the ground. Bradley looked nervously between the others kids and himself and Tonks reached over and took his hand, giving it a good squeeze and smiling at him, her hair brown per Andromeda's orders, but wildly messy at least.
"Now, it's not a huge deal if you can't get it today, alright?" James was saying as he paced before them, "It's really not. Loads of kids can't fly their first time, it's really tricky, and a lot of muggle-borns don't even get to try out a broomstick 'til their first year in Hogwarts. It's also not possible for actual muggles to fly, technically... so... so don't feel discouraged. And if it doesn't work, we'll figure it out, alright? But let's give it a go and see what happens."
"What happens if I fall off?" Eli asked.
"We'll use the arresto momentum to stop you from falling," Meg answered from the sidelines.
"That's our job," Lily said, smiling. Yertle sat on the blanket beside her.
"Ollie," James called, "You want to demonstrate take off for our new flyers?"
"Sure," Ollie's chest puffed proudly.
Sirius grinned wickedly, "D'you remember the first time you flew, Ollie?"
Oliver lay his broomstick on the grass and looked at Sirius. "CMON LAD YOU'VE FALLEN ALL OF TWO FEET YOU'RE FINE!" Ollie imitated Sirius's voice, cupping his hands 'round his mouth and mock-yelling, "He's laying there like a little slug!"
Sirius's eyes sparkled.
"Alright, Oliver," James said, giving Sirius a Look. "Let's see how far you've come."
Oliver cleared his throat, held out his palm. "Up!" he commanded and the broom flew into his hand. He gripped it tightly and climbed on as all the other Odair kids exclaimed with surprise at the way the broomstick just listened to his command.
"Holy crow!" Kevin gasped, eyes wide.
Bradley looked at the broomstick on the ground beside him hungrily, then back at Oliver Kent who was now straddling the broom about six inches off the ground.
James grinned, "Very good, Oliver."
"Is that as high as it goes?" Michael asked.
"Oliver?" James smirked.
Ollie grinned.... then shot up through the air, speedily as could be, taking to the heights like he was a firecracker being shot off, his body pressed down against the handle of the broomstick as he ascended at a great speed, a blur of color within seconds, up-up-up-up over the line of the trees into the cloudy sky. He leveled off at a very great height and looked down to see all of Godric's Hollow laying below him, the field and the people in it small dots and he chuckled, imagining what the other boys were saying and thinking. He sat up there for a moment, feeling the chill of the altitude and the crispness of the air, took a couple slow laps, then went down in a slow, looping spiral. When he was somewhat close, he shot down sharply, pulling up just before he crashed into the grass and dismounted gracefully, jogging to come to a stop beside James, a bit winded, but holding the neck of his broomstick proudly, his cheeks flushed.
All the kids were clapping, even Theo who muttered, "That was really good flying!" to Alfie and Roger and baby Nessa clapped despite not fully knowing what was going on.
"Amazing job, Ollie," James grinned.
"Yeah, very impressive, Oliver!" Jasper added, clapping along with the kids.
"Thanks," Oliver said, proud of himself because James and Jasper were.
"Alright," James said, "Now you're definitely not going to do that on your first go, but who wants to give it a shot?"
"ME!" Bradley said excitedly, he was tingling with excitement. His cry was echoed by the other boys and Tonks, too, and James grinned. "Alright. Let's give it a go, shall we?"
There was a general air of anticipation and excitement that crackled through everyone in the field, and Meg had her hands over her mouth, steepled as though praying. Jasper crossed his fingers and Ted Tonks got out a wizarding camera, his eyes bright with pride.
"UP!" cried all the voices, "UP! UP! UP!"
One broomstick flew from the ground on the first cry of "up!" - it was Michael's. He looked at it with absolute shock, his eyes wide and jaw dropped, and he looked up with a bright face at Oliver.
"YEAH! Alright!" Oliver cried, "You did it Mikey!"
"Hey! I did it!" Michael yelled, shivering.
Meg let out a shriek of excitement for him before returning to her nervous look at the other three boys.
Tonks's broomstick came up next after a few attempts and Ted Tonks's flashbulb went off and she flushed, "Daaaaad pleaaaaaase!"
"I'm so proud of you baby Dory!" he called.
Tonks's cheeks were as pink as her hair usually was and she looked at Bradley, who was snickering at her, "Dory?"
"Don't you dare call me that," she hissed.
Bradley grinned, then turned back to his broomstick, his smile fading off as he wiggled his fingers and kept trying. "Up! Up!"
But the other broomsticks were refusing.
Eli had given up, his attention span spent, and run over to where Yertle was sitting with Lily, more concerned about his turtle than he was about the fact that his broomstick hadn't jumped up into his palm.
Nate looked frustrated and so did Kevin, but it was Bradley whose reaction was most heart breaking, for he had tears in his eyes as he begged the broomstick, "Up! Up! Up... please!"
James sighed and he glanced at Jasper who frowned. He'd had a feeling about Kevin, since Kevin was twelve and hadn't received a Hogwarts letter, but that didn't make it any easier and Meg ran over and hugged Nate while Jasper bent over and whispered to Kevin. Remus pushed himself from the ground, wincing as his knees fought with him for walking and he put his arm around Bradley. "Hey bud..."
"Up!" Bradley persisted, long after the other two children had given up. "Up!" Bradley stared at the broomstick. "Maybe it's broken? Can I try another?"
Remus hesitated, but before he could hesitate too much, Bradley had turned and tried on Nate's abandoned broom, and still no results. Bradley looked at Remus, eyes sopping, and he murmured, "Is it because I'm --" he looked around at the others, then leaned closer and whispered to Remus so only he could hear, "Is it because I'm a werewolf?"
Remus shook his head, "I don't think so. I'm not very good at flying, I honestly didn't like it, but I don't think it has to do with our Furry Little Problem." He hesitated. "I'm sorry, Bradley."
"Does it mean I'm not magic?" Bradley whispered.
"You are magic," Remus said, "Everyone is magic in their own way. Whether it means you're a wizard or not, I don't know. Like James said, often it takes time and practice and maybe it'll come in time... I don't know."
Bradley's tears slipped over his cheeks. He so, so, so had wanted to play quidditch...
James looked at Jasper and Meg wrapped her arms around both Kevin and Nate as Jasper went over to where James stood and their heads met as they talked lowly and Lily looked at Sirius who actually looked quite upset himself, watching Remus comfort little Bradley. Ted Tonks was showing Nymphadora how to move the broomstick quietly to one side while Oliver was directing Michael, who was flushed with excitement. Michael had never had anything go right for him and this was the first time and he couldn't believe that of all the times to find himself lucky it was this that he was getting to do...
"Alright," James called, turning back from his consultation with Jasper. "After talking it over, we're taking this thing to the ground. The game goes on!"
"Quidditch on the ground?" Theo asked, confused, "How's that work?"
"C'mon everyone who's playing, gather 'round and Jasper and I will tell you."
Sirius grinned, "Muggle modified quidditch is being invented folks, take note. History's being made!"