Renata woke up to the sound of the front door opening to the flat, instantly waking her up and placing her on alert as she attempted to sit up. The last thing she could remember was falling asleep on the floor beside James as she watched Harry perform his puppet show. But she found herself relatively puzzled as she tried to sit up and found Harry sound asleep on her chest. Suddenly, she felt at a lost with what to do because it was a rare occurrence that Harry was the last in the household to wake up. However, as she moved her head up, she saw that it was James returning from wherever he had gone that morning.

He was already dressed, a couple of bags in hand as if he had done some shopping, and there was a smile on his face as he approached the sofa. She probably didn't realise at the time that her hair was an absolute mess at the time, but she seemed to fit right into the hairstyle of the household. Despite James smiling at her, there was still a sense of worry that fluttered in her chest, hoping that everything was alright with him. It seemed that James was capable of hearing her thoughts as he made his way to stand behind her.

"Everything is alright," he reassured her as he leaned over the back of the sofa, looking directly at her. Suddenly, it felt like her throat had grown tight as she met his gaze, she had yet to say anything, fearful that she would punch him in the face with her morning breath.

His smile seemed to grow in the absence of her talking as she stared at him" I ended up waking up before you two and decided to head out for a little bit, I hope I wasn't the one to wake you."

"Uh, no," she said, keeping her head directed downward as she spoke, " I was just waking up when you were coming in, so no harm was done. I just didn't want to move because I didn't want to wake Harry."

Her voice trailed off for a few seconds as they both peered down at Harry, who remained asleep, his eyelids fluttering as it appeared he had entered some sort of dream. Every so often, his lips moved, forming a smile and his body would jerk lightly in laughter. Whatever his dream was about, it seemed to be a good one. Renata looked over at James, wondering if he was taking in the precious moment, only to find that he was still looking at her.

She was sure she was blushing heavily, she could feel the warmth of her skin, especially all over her face as she quickly averted her gaze. There was something about the way James looked that morning that was giving her sudden heart palpitations as she tried to adjust her breathing. She didn't even realise that she had been holding her breath for so long until she started to feel the aching sensation in her chest.

"Er, would you like me to get started on breakfast, Mr Potter?" she asked, not bringing herself to directly look in his direction. But out of the corner of her eye, she could see him look away when she addressed him.

"No," he answered after clearing his throat, " I can manage that with no problem. Actually, I want you to open this."

Just as she was about to question what she was supposed to open, Renata suddenly found an envelope in front of her face causing her to jump lightly. Of course, she was rather confused by the presentation of what appeared to be a letter, but she carefully moved to grab it without disturbing Harry. There wasn't anything on the front that said it was addressed to her or that it was from anyone else, so she could only assume that whatever was inside was more than likely from James himself.

Stealing one more glance in his direction, she saw James give her an encouraging nod before she ripped open the top carefully. Only, she found herself even more confused as she peered in and saw that it wasn't a letter inside. Instead, as she poured the contents out to the side where Harry did not occupy her lap, she found Quidditch tickets.

HOLYHEAD HARPIES V. KENMARE KESTRELS

For a few seconds, she just sat there with a stunned look on her face, blown away by the gesture of being offered tickets. Perhaps it didn't seem like much to most people that had attended multiple matches over the years, it wasn't like he presented her with tickets to the Quidditch World Cup finals. However, Renata appeared absolutely delighted before looking at him.

"I can go? I can actually go?" she asked, her voice quivering with excitement. "I'm invited?"

To James, she sounded like a child that had been invited to their first birthday party, she was nearly jumping in place to the point where Harry stirred from his slumber and looked around in confusion, wondering what was going on. But luckily, he didn't appear upset as he woke up, instead, as he caught sight of Renata's excitement, he was automatically in a good mood as he pushed himself up.

The tickets in her hand seemed to be the source of her excitement that brought Harry to grab one and look it over as if he knew exactly what it was as he nodded his head. Truth be told, he didn't have any idea as to what the ticket in his hand meant, he just liked that it made Renata happy. And as he looked over at his father, he could see that James shared in her happiness as well.

"Of course you can go," James informed her, surprised that she was so excited by the gift. It wasn't a bad gift at all, but they were just regular Quidditch tickets. However, it seemed that Adelmo hadn't been exaggerating when he claimed that Renata would practically be in tears, happy tears of course. "This is your gift, Renata."

Trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why she was so excited, James figured that she was probably a rabid fan of either team and was probably just excited to see them, but something told him that it was probably so much more than that.

"Are you a Harpies or a Kestrels fan?" he asked, hoping to get to the bottom of it. Renata was quiet for a few moments before she placed the tickets done and looked over at him again, this time, the smile fading slightly.

"Well, I guess it would be inappropriate to claim that I'm a fan of either when I've been to none of their matches," she confessed, "I've never actually been to a Quidditch match before, Mr Potter."

He didn't mean to start laughing right away, but he was so certain that Renata was joining that James couldn't really help himself. But as Renata didn't join in the laughter, nor she even crack a grin, his laughter died down rather quickly. Harry made a face at him, believing that his father was the reason that Renata suddenly appeared so sad before them.

"I-I-I don't understand," James said, "you've never been to a Quidditch match? Not even back in school? Nothing?"

Sure, he wasn't expecting everyone he came across to be a diehard Quidditch fan, he was rather used to being the one that absolutely loved Quidditch. Sirius, Remus, and Peter had put up with his Quidditch obsession back in school, none of them ever really being into the sport themselves. But to never attend even a school match, James didn't know what to make of that, even if one didn't like the sport, every witch and wizard had pretty much attended at least one match throughout their lifetime, more than likely when they were younger.

Quidditch wasn't just about the sport in school, it was about house rivalry and socialising in the stands. The atmosphere itself surrounding the match was supposed to be exciting, so for Renata to miss out on that, James couldn't wrap his head around it.

"No," she shook her head, " my mother didn't allow us to attend Quidditch matches. She said they were basically a waste of time. Even during school matches, she would make Adelmo and I stay inside so that we could study and get homework done and such."

"Well, studying is great and all, maybe getting a headstart on your work, but Renata, not being able to attend a Quidditch match...I don't understand that. It's part of school or you know, growing up in general. You attend a match with your friends, spend time together, even if you're not watching anything that's happening. You mean to tell me you missed out on that so you could study inside?"

"She was just concerned with our academic success, that's all," Renata added quickly. "I don't think she meant to deprive us of the experience. She just saw our academics as more important at the time."

James wasn't exactly buying the excuse, first Renata had never been to the beach due to her mother claiming it was dangerous, then she had been deprived of a Quidditch experience because her mother found it to be harmful to their academics to let her children enjoy one day to themselves and friends. He didn't like what he was hearing at all and he didn't really like that Renata didn't see it as a bad thing but more along the lines of "it was for her own good."

Of course, there were things that parents did that their children didn't always agree with, but Renata's mother was beginning to sound like an extremist of some sort. It was almost like Renata and Adelmo were to dedicate their lives to what she wanted and if they didn't, who knows what took place?

He realised that outside of Adelmo, Renata didn't make much of an effort to talk about her family. She would discuss some of her upbringings, such as her mother being firm or something along those lines, but every other story seemed to be involved something that she wasn't able to do during her upbringing because her mother didn't find it practical.

"But we can go right?" Renata asked him after a couple of minutes of silence passed between them. "We can all go right?"

She held up the other tickets so that James could see that more than one person could attend the match.

"Of course," James told her in a soft voice, " we can all go, if that's what you want."

"Fantastic!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together, already getting Harry worked up as he joined her in clapping his hands. "There are more than enough tickets for us to go. We could invite Remus, Sirius, and Adelmo-"

"Uh, about that," James interjected right away, " inviting Sirius and Adelmo may not be the best idea right now."

The clapping and cheering immediately came to a halt as Renata stopped and turned her entire body to face James. Suddenly, she found herself concerned with the topic of her brother and Sirius. The last she had spoken to either one of them they had been dancing around their feelings or feeling the burn of unrequited affection. With a slight grimace, she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the story, but at the same time, if Adelmo needed her and if Sirius needed James, they had to be there for them.

"Oh no, what happened?"

James rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, not really looking forward to the task of discussing anyone else's sex life. But since he was the one that had basically walked in on the morning after a one-night stand, he felt it was only right to give her a head's up.

"Well, I went over to your brother's flat this morning," he confessed, " I wanted to um, talk to him about doing something nice for you. Of course, I guess I just spoiled that, didn't I? Anyways, I just figured, who knew you better than your brother, right? I just wanted to surprise with something that would make you really happy. Apparently he knew exactly what that was."

Renata felt her heart flutter in her chest, not even putting it together that James had gone through the trouble of approaching her brother for help. She thought he had just taken a random shot in the dark at presenting her with Quidditch tickets. She knew that he enjoyed Quidditch, so she only assumed that he would present her with something he liked thinking she would enjoy it.

But apparently it went beyond that.

"But when I got there, Sirius was there and um, I really don't know how to tell you this because it's-"

"I'm already aware of the feelings between the two," she said, saving him the trouble of having to go into an explanation. James let out a visible sigh of relief. "I just didn't think that they would act on it so quickly, especially Adelmo."

"That's what I said!" James chimed in. "I didn't even know that your brother...I knew Sirius but I figured he was just being a fool about things as usual. But apparently, I was wrong. Unfortunately, your brother isn't looking for anything long term and Sirius didn't get that memo intially, so it all kind of went to hell rather quickly."

She pressed her lips together with a troubled look on her face. " I wish Adelmo was more open about how he felt in those ways, but understandably, he's terrified of how other people will react. We grew up in a very different household when it comes to that-"

"Your parents don't approve of him being attracted towards men?"

"As many families do," Renata said in a slightly defensive tone, but her expression softened right away. "I...I don't know. I never thought it was a bad thing, but our parents had us grow up believing it was. They are very much involved in the followings of the church, they held a heavy influence as we were growing up. When Adelmo came out to tell them..."

She paused for a few seconds, rubbing the side of her head with a frown.

"Well, I guess I could just say that the reaction was not pretty," she continued, " it was terrible. From that point on, Adelmo has been terrified when it comes to acting on anything of the sort. He's even dated women or brought them to meet my parents, but they don't last long. They're more of a cover up or he's trying to convince himself otherwise. I don't know, he doesn't like talking about it at all, even with me."

James did feel bad for Adelmo initially but now he felt even worse for the man, knowing that he had grown up in such a household. The more he was learning about Renata's parents, the less he liked anything about them. He knew Sirius had grown up in a prejudice household, one that didn't care for his choice in friends or the fact that Sirius was attracted to both men and women. They had given him absolute hell for it until he ran off to live with James and his family.

That's where he found acceptance and even if people in the world didn't agree with, Sirius didn't need the world's approval as long as he had the approval of the people he cared about. James supported him, at the time when they were all close, Sirius could find support in Remus and Peter, and he had Euphemia and Fleamont, James' parents, right there behind him as well.

Adelmo obviously didn't have that growing up, even though he had Renata's support, it probably wasn't enough, at least not enough to counteract the fear that he had with anyone finding out. Which was why he had probably kicked Sirius out with no means of pursuing anything.

"Our parents think he's "cured," she said after a minute, " I don't know what that means by their definition. But they thought he was cured and I think Adelmo believed that as well, until Sirius came around. There's a definite attraction between them, but Adelmo's too scared to act on it any further. If he does, it means he's failed and failure is not an option in the Abate household."

"Renata, him being attracted to the same sex and succumbing to his true feelings is not failure and besides that, everyone fails at one point in their lives. But you're the one that showed me that we can move on from failure."

"I don't think you understand, Mr Potter, I believe that people can fail and continue moving forward. I believe we can hit rock bottom and only climb up. I am fine with my brother's sexual preferences, but our parents, they are not me. I don't think you understands what happens when you fail in the Abate household."

Returning to leaning against the back of the sofa, James looked her dead in the eye.

"Then tell me, Renata. You can tell me, it's only us here."

Renata looked directly at Harry who was making noises for the moving broomstick pictures on the tickets.

"I-I-I don't remember," she said touching her head lightly, " I don't know-"

"Renata, what are you talking about-"

"Anyways," she interrupted him, "I'll go get ready and we can start getting a move on to head towards the match.

She flashed him a quick smile before placing Harry down on the sofa and picking herself up to leave to her room. James wanted to call after her, ask her what she meant by not being able to remember. Was it more along the lines of not wanting to remember what happened if they failed in her household growing up? He didn't like anything that he had heard that morning so far. He was happy to see her excited about the Quidditch match, but a lot more was unfolding that he didn't expect.

Maybe Renata didn't come from perfection as he initially assumed, her past was beginning to sound a lot darker than he ever imagined.