James Potter looked at him in silence for a moment before responding. "You… sound like you've put a lot of thought into this."
Harry waved a vague hand. "I've had a lot of time to think."
James smirked. "Bit of a loner in school were you?" Harry looked up sharply, still hidden by the mask. "I believe you are close friends with Lord Chief-Auror Sirius Black? I was in a situation sort of similar to what he had with his family."
James sucked in his breath. "Ooo that sucks… I'm sorry."
Harry couldn't help but say nothing, just for a moment, before responding. "…Are you really? …I doubt that."
James frowned and looked away.
An uncomfortable silence descended on the pair.
Eventually James broke the silence. "Shall we be getting back? The sun will be setting soon." Harry loosened his shoulders. "Yes." He turned away from his father and back towards his horse. "Let's." He untied the reins from the tree, put his foot in the stirrup and allowed the magic to yank him up to the saddle. He turned back and found the man replaced with Prongs, who trotted on ahead, and disappeared into the brush-growth.
Harry watched the empty space for a few moments and frowned. Conversations were sometimes too much like riding a wild animal. You could try to steer them in the direction you wanted to go, but you couldn't force them, and you so often ended up miles away from where you intended to be.
Oh well.
He slowly shook his head, clicked the reins, boot tapped his horse's flanks, and quietly began the slow and peaceful trek back to Greengrass manor — back to his actual family.
Elsewhere in the forest, an epic battle for supremacy was raging.
"Get back here you damn squirrel!"
Pandora Lovegood soared overhead, landed in a tree several dozen metres away, and chitted at them, clinging upside-down to the far up tree trunk.
From atop their horse, Daphne swung her legs in frustration, wishing desperately that she'd brought Freekey along with them. "How are we supposed to do this? It's too far up to use the official stunner, accio isn't working and probably wouldn't count anyway, and neither of us are that good at climbing!"
From on the ground where she'd just completed her umpteenth hundred metre sprint, Hermione took deep, panting breathes. They'd been chasing the rodent for what seemed an age. Pandora was clearly playing with them, coming down low enough for them to reach her before dashing back up when they got too close. "What" *pant* "would our" *pant* "lord do?" *pant*
Daphne grimaced. "Fly up and tag her? Cut down every tree in the forest? Send a horde of snakes up to grab her?"
They looked at each other.
Daphne looked down at her shoulder.
The fluffy toy snake looked back at her. "Um…" Daphne took a deep breath. "As the future Lady Slytherin, I command you to hunt that squirrel!"
The toy snake tilted its head, but didn't move.
Daphne looked back at Hermione.
Hermione shook her head. "If parseltongue even is family magic, I don't think you get it until you're actually married."
Far on the other side of the clearing, the squirrel taunted them with more chittering.
Daphne sighed. "At least we now know where Luna gets her… her…" She petered off.
"Her what?" A look of pure evil crept over Daphne's face. She smirked, pointed her wand at her throat and muttered, "Sonorous." She felt the flow of magic going through her into the spell, felt the level, felt the flamelage. She grinned and repeated the spell on Hermione, earning a 'what are you doing' look from her fellow huntress.
"So, Hermione," she jumped down from their horse, tied it up, took Hermione's shoulders and started walking in the opposite direction from the squirrel, her voice booming over the clearing. "What did you think about that conversation we were having with Luna this morning?"
Hermione looked momentarily perplexed. "Which conversation?"
"Oh you know the one, the one about having children—" she reduced the flow of magic to their voice spells"—with our lord."
On the other side of the clearing, the squirrel's head shot up, suddenly totally focused on tracking their retreating backs.
Hermione's eyes widened slightly. She nodded. "Oh. Oh. Yes," she said, the words coming out slowly and deliberately. "You mean the one where she was asking about when we thought they should start?"
"Yes. That one."
They continued to walk away, out of the clearing, and towards a rocky outcrop. As she went, Daphne continued to reduce the levels on the voice spell. "I mean, we wouldn't want to give her the wrong kind of advice. You know how Luna is once she gets an idea in her head," she continued, bullshitting wildly. They hid right behind a large rock and Daphne reduced the voice spell to nothing.
They waited.
Suddenly, not two feet away, the squirrel dropped onto the rock.
"Now!"
They whipped their wands up, but before either could get off a spell, the squirrel leaped straight at Hermione, scrabbled for purchase on her robe arm, and bit her hand.
"Oww!"
Daphne tried to adjust, but wasn't quick enough.
"Ouch!" Both wands hit the ground.
Pandora leaped back onto the rock, turned, and smugly chittered at them in victory for a whole half a second, right before the fluffy snake lunged with the speed of a cobra strike.
There was a startled squeak sound.
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