"Oh, it's so great to see our little Jamie back home!" Hermione heard a very eager Euphemia Potter say from the front porch of their manor.

As she and Sirius walked closer and closer to the manor's doorsteps, Hermione lay eyes upon James' parents, or in her mind, Harry's grandparents. Dressed in an elaborate sweater, Euphemia resembled one of the Weasleys in their legendary holiday attire. She wore eyeglasses similar to Harry's, and before she knew it, she was overcome with another wave of nostalgia.

Her husband, Fleamont, stood beside her before their beautiful home, his eyes bright upon the homecoming of their son.

It killed Hermione that in her true time, this house was abandoned. Everything she was trying to do here was to keep that from being the truth. She didn't know if her actions back in time would have an effect on the lifespan of Euphemia and Fleamont, but securing James' livelihood and this his continued residence in his family home was what she wanted most.

Hermione admired from afar as Euphemia practically squeezed all of the air out of James, but he was unbothered. He was just happy to see his mother again after a long first term.

Soon, Fleamont did the same. "We've missed you greatly, son," he said, dusting the freshly-fallen snow off of his boots.

"And our Lily-flower!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed as she embraced Lily for a warm, yet surprising hug. "James has shared some exciting new with us," she added.

"MUM!"

"Hush hush, Jamie. I was just offering my congratulations to the newest happy couple," she put out casually, causing both James and Lily's cheeks to blush in an intense color.

Lily shot an interesting look at James, whispering, "I didn't know you told your mum." Happiness and slight confusing showed through her light smile and expression.

"They're my favorite little love birds," added Remus as he sarcastically squeezed James' cheeks as in he were a young child. Sirius, of course, was having and field day, while James remained unamused and Lily, embarrassed.

"Not a single one of us were surprised when they told us, and I've only known them a few months!" Hermione exclaimed, "my advice for James totally worked."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, aren't they just the cutest?" Sirius mocked in a high pitched voice, peeking his lips in sarcasm, getting an amusing reaction out of the girl he was trying impress.

"That's enough, Sirius," Euphemia said reluctantly to him, who continued joking around. Sirius was practically a second son to the Potters at this point in time, which was something that Hermione had entirely forgotten about. It was good to see him feel a form of acceptance that he had not received in earlier years from the Blacks.

Sirius also may have added some inappropriate hand motions that very clearly ticked Lily off, but thankfully, it was nothing that Mr. and Mrs. Potter could see.

James didn't seem to mind as much.

"Anywho," interrupted Mr. Potter, changing the subject, "it's such a shame Peter won't be joining us this year."

"Yeah, he's spending the holidays with his girlfriend. Meeting the family, we suppose," Remus responded as he and the others carried their travel bags through the ceiling-high door, still laughing from the embarrassment James and Lily had just suffered from.

"Girlfriend?" Fleamont questioned as he helped them into his home.

"A Slytherin girl in our year. She's been hanging out with us all since she's with Peter. Nice enough," Sirius added as he helped Harper bring her bag into the foyer.

"What's her name?"

"Emma Vanity."

"Oh!" Euphemia's face lit up at the mention of Emma's last name and turned to her husband with a smile, "we know the Vanity's! I work with her mother, Sally!"

"Edgar, her father, has always been, well, an odd sort of fellow..."

"Fleamont,"

"What? He's always given me the impression of a lurking, eavesdropping man. That one time I was trying to get to know him, he just, you know Euphemia."

Hermione's ears perked up at the mention of Edgar Vanity.

They knew him?

"Yes, well," she stopped, "we know Sally and you all know Emma, so I'm sure Peter is a very lucky boy."

Getting carried away with the mention of Emma Vanity and her family, Euphemia was taken aback by the certain someone new in her home. She laid her eyes upon Hermione, and Hermione tried her best to remain at clueless as possible.

"Wait, now here's a face I've never seen before. What's your name, dear?" she asked as she scanned Hermione up and now with piercing hazel eyes similar to her son. Sticking out her hand to James' newest guest, she stared peculiarly while being as polite as possible to her. After all, she wanted to know those whom she let into her home.

"Harper Slughorn. Thank you so much for inviting us in for the holidays, Mrs. Potter, it's a pleasure," Hermione responded warmly while shaking her hand.

"Please, call me Euphemia," she smiled back. "How come we haven't met before?" she questioned before turning to James awkwardly, "is she one of your new friends?"

"Erm, yes," James blurted before Hermione took over.

"I actually transferred from Beauxbaton's Academy of Magic this past fall to live with my uncle. He's the Potions Master at Hogwarts."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" she exclaimed as she welcomed Hermione in with open arms for a hug and catching her off guard, "any friend of James' is a friend of mine."

Although she was hesitant at first, especially after just shaking her hand, Hermione found comfort in James' mother, whom she knew she would never get the chance to meet in her own lifetime.

"Now, how was the trip for you all?" she continued after leading them all into the main living room, "None of you feel sick from the apparition, I hope? I would hate for an upset stomach to spoil the dinner that Fleamont and I have prepared for you all..."

As soon those words left Euphemia Potter's mouth, a light bulb flickered in Hermione's mind.

Apparition! Why had she not thought of it before? It was the perfect way to check in on the Vanity's over the holiday to see if Peter had done any harm to them.

There were just two slight issues. Number one: she had not packed Harry's invisibility cloak. Number two: she had no idea where the Vanity family lived.

But, she was Hermione Granger for Merlin's sake. She would figure it out.

Hermione pondered on for the rest of the day and into the evening about how she could possibly get to Emma's house unseen.

She could casually bring up in conversation Peter's trip to the Vanity household and see if anyone said anything about it's location? Maybe, she would ask Euphemia more about working with Emma's mother. They worked together: they were bound to be close. A simple locator spell may work instead of apparition.

As the evening time came around, the guests of the Potter's were treated with a delicious chicken and pasta dish for dinner, accompanied with a rainbow of various vegetables to pick and chose from. Together, they ate the food as if it were their job, but instead of focusing on the food in front of her plate, Hermione focused on how to effortlessly and unsuspiciously ask Euphemia about working with Mrs. Vanity.

"So, Mr. Potter," Hermione started, "James told me that you are the inventor of Sleakeasy's Hair Potion. That's incredible!"

Fleamont chuckled with modesty. "Yes, I am."

"That explains this," James joked as he pointed towards his father's covered scalp. Euphemia attempted to stop his rude remark by swatting away at James' hand, but there was no taking back that joke.

"My uncle could totally use it, that's for sure," Hermione chuckled.

"Yeah, and I know for a fact that I never will," Sirius remarked, running his fingers slowly through his long black hair.

He looked like he was in an advertisement for non other than Sleakeasy's Hair Potion. Hermione blushed, and laughter came easily to the rest.

After the chuckles from the table ceased, Hermione began to work her magic. "Do you also work as a potions-maker, Mrs. Potter?" she asked.

"Oh, me? No, I work at the Vanity Bakery down on Pudding Lane. I love to bake, and Sally Vanity is, like I mentioned, a friend of mine. I help her out there from time to time."

So she doesn't just work with Mrs. Vanity, but for her. Interesting.

"That's amazing," Hermione responded.

James, sitting to her right, whispered in Hermione's ear, "that's where all the desserts are from."

Soon, just as James had said, desserts from Vanity's Bakery were passed around and quickly gobbled up by everyone present. It was delightful. Not a single person wasn't enjoying themselves.

For a moment, Hermione wished that she could be present at a dinner like this without her thoughts being preoccupied by the task that Dumbledore had given her in the fall. She wanted to get to know James' parents without trying to get certain pieces of information out of them. She was getting tired of this façade.

And grappling with this got more and more difficult as other things, rather, people, began to occupy her mind just as much.

As she unpacked her clothes later in the evening, she tried her best to not have Lily's words go in one ear and out the other, but these pre-determined thoughts made this rather hard.

They had previously laughed together about her prior awkward situation with James' parents upon their first arrival, but Hermione was not processing much information at the moment.

"Harper!" Lily called out as she unpacked tomorrows outfit at the foot of their shared guest bed, trying to get her attention.

"What?"

"Did you even hear me?"

"Oh, no sorry," Hermione blushed, "could you repeat that?"

"I said," Lily cleared her throat, "we haven't talked about you and Sirius yet."

Hermione face quickly turned the color of Lily's vibrant hair. "What?" she exclaimed, catching her breath at the same time.

"I know you're from Beauxbaton's and everything but everyone knows you only need to make brief contact with a person in order to stay with them through apparition. A simple tap of the finger would keep you attached to Sirius."

"..."

"He quite literally held on to your hand for dear life, Harper."

"What did James tell you," Hermione bolted out immediately. It was no shock that after denial, came defensive action.

"You're so into him!" Lily laughed.

"Am not."

"Harper."

"Lily."

"You're going to die on this hill aren't you?"

"Yup," she admitted, arms crossed. All Lily returned was a short chuckle.

"It's okay, we don't have to talk about it. I just have maybe been picking up on a few things lately. And James is not the best secret keeper," she laughed, covering her mouth as she did so.

"I knew it!" she nearly yelled, "I can't believe he told you."

"I don't really care, and I don't have a big mouth like 'Jamie' does," she said, mocking James' parents' nickname for him, "but it does makes complete sense."

"It does?"

"Of course," Lily started while Hermione eagerly and anxiously awaited her response, "I've never seen him so nervous around someone before. And besides, James told me that he—" Lily choked on her words, realizing what she had just said. For once, she regretting knowing both sides to the story.

"He what?!?" Hermione pounced, heart racing.

"Merlin, I— I really shouldn't have said anything," Lily answered, "I may have a bigger mouth that I thought," she ended regretfully, biting the inside of her cheek.

And despite her internal efforts, Hermione let this go straight to her head.

A/N UPDATE (6/18/22): i don't know about y'all, but i love euphemia embarrassing james lol. btw i'm on family vacay right now, that's the reason this update is much later than usual!!

anyway, plz vote and comment! it means so much to me when you do! fellow writers, you know how important this is!! also, my consistent reads for this story have gone way down in recent chapters, so i would really appreciate if you would recommend this story to a friend! also thank u for 242k reads!!!

any predictions??

- callahan