VI

JAMES

(H+G)

It was already lunchtime and both my siblings hadn't come back.  Harry had already gone to meet his American Auror squad but Ginny was starting to get really worried.  I usually didn't worry too much about Lily and Albus but this time it felt different.  Albus always came back on time and Lily... well, she always eventually returned.  Now, we were in a country that we didn't know at all and they were both way past our mother's deadline to come back.  It wasn't like them at all.

Finally, after being tired of waiting so much, I got up from my hotel bed and decided to go out and find my missing siblings.  As I was about to walk into the hall, my mother stopped me and asked where I was going.

"I'm going out to find Lily and Al and no one's stopping me," I replied confidently.

"Alright, but wait for me; I'm coming with you.  I'll send a patronus to your father first."

So, once that was done, we marched out of the hotel's back door and into the fields where the lost children had been headed for. 

After an hour of slowly advancing while calling their names and looking through the grass, we reached a road with a large tree perched atop a hill on the other side.  After crossing the deserted road, we went to the top of the hill and immediately knew that this was where Lily and Albus had gone.  In the valley between the Long Island Sound, a forest, some strawberry fields and this hill, lay a lake surrounded by Greek buildings, but they looked new, and they were in New York so it was obviously impossible for these structures to be here.  Yet this place seemed so wonderful and felt... magical, and believe me, I know what I'm talking about when I say magic.

But, standing there, looking at this place from above, it felt like another type of magic.  Much older, and certainly very different.  At that point, I wasn't sure what to do.  We could go down and possibly have the same fate and my brother and sister.  Or we could go back and wait for my dad to come and decide.  But I already knew what Ginny was going to do before she announced it.

"I'm going down.  You stay here and watch from above and if I don't come back soon, go home and wait for Harry."

"Oh come on Mum.  You bloody know I'm not gonna do that.  I'm coming with you whether you like it or not!"

Ginny's face hardened.  "You'll listen to me right now and go back to the hotel!" she shrieked.

"No!" I yelled back.

Right then we had a staring contest as anger boiled in each of us, but eventually my mother softened up and gave in.

"Fine, but only if you swear to do everything I tell you."

"Okay, I swear on Merlin's beard if you'd like."

So, mother and son marched together down the hill into this strange place.  The first building we reached was a big blue house with a balcony surrounding it.  There were lights coming from the windows and many voices could be heard.  Mum crept up to the window and peeked through it.

She gasped, "there's Lily!"

I looked through the window and, sure enough, I saw my sister's bright red hair as she stood back to us.  She was talking to a boy about her age with jet black hair and sea green eyes and a girl around my age also with long black hair but intelligent-looking stormy grey eyes.  Lily looked fine, but Albus was nowhere to be seen.

A little to the left was a centaur talking to what seemed like the parents of the children and a porky guy with a Hawaiian shirt.

"This place doesn't give me a bad feeling, but it's still odd.  Come with me and we'll talk to these interesting people." Ginny whispered.

"Alright," I responded, gathering my courage as we walked up the balcony stairs and got ready to open the door, wands at the ready.