The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Monopoly

Dora was cleared to go home the next day. Sirius and James were practically falling over one another trying to be helpful in getting her transported from Mungo's to the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow, and she had to reprimand them gently to allow her to go through the floo without holding one of their hands. "I am a grown woman," she said regally, "I can step through the floo network without catching death and the both of you will do me the respect of remembering that, please."

"Yes mum," they chorused simultaneously.

"Like proper brothers," Lily whispered to Remus, who laughed and nodded.

When they got back to the Potter's house, it was to find Peter was there, waiting for them, and holding a potted plant as a gift for Dora, along with a little banner that said "Get Well Soon" upon it. Dora gave Peter a hug and thanked him, remarking that the fern was one of her favorite plants and how lovely it would be in her new bedroom window. Peter flushed and soaked up the motherly praises and attention with glowing red cheeks.

Remus was nearly as tuckered out as Dora was, and so he sat in the living room to give his knees a rest while the others showed Dora up to the room they'd fixed up for her. "Watch that first step off the landing, mum," James said, directing her up the stairs.

She paused to look at the photographs on the wall, and lay her hand against her wedding photo, her fingers tracing Charlus Potter's face as she smiled sadly, then she turned and went in the room. "This is lovely, thank you," she said when she'd looked around and seen all the little personal touches they'd added. She picked up a little glass figure of a cat and held it in her palm a moment before putting it down and her eyes moved over photographs and a little brass tree filled with her necklaces and another small musical jewelry box next to it. She smiled at all her little trinkets and things, collected from years of life, and she sighed and hung her jacket and a little hat she wore up on a hook by the door. "Very good," she nodded.

Dora took a nap then, and Snuffles curled himself up beside her while James, Lily, and Peter went back downstairs. James remembered and did not trip on the landing this time, though he was so busy making a big deal to warn Peter not to trip on the step that was a quarter inch taller than the others, he managed to trip by missing the first step of the second flight and nearly went down the full thing before he caught himself on the bannister. 

"Bloody hell, those stairs will be the death of me," he said, shaking his head and laughing.

"It's as though you've never used stairs before," Lily chided him.

James laughed, "Maybe I need them to be moving like at Hogwarts. My stair-climbing skills are just so advanced that normal stairs are too easy for me."

"Yes I'm sure that's exactly the problem," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

James was the one who volunteered to make dinner that night, and Peter volunteered to help, so they went off to the kitchen and Lily went to the living room.

Remus was reading when she got out there and she sat down on the arm of the chair beside him, her arm slipping over his shoulders, and she looked at the book he was reading, a textbook from his courses. It was talking about the retention rate of the average wizarding teenager and how much new information ought to be presented at a single time, depending on the time of the year due to stress levels related to holidays and exams, as well as how things like moon cycles and seasonal weather patterns affected the student ability. 

"The moon cycle may effect some students learning and retention rates," Remus read the sentence outloud and looked up at Lily. "May also mean some students are unable to attend classes due to their furry little problems."

Lily smiled sadly and said, "Well luckily for future students with furry little problems, they will be able to take a class with not only one of the smartest men in the world, but also one of the most understanding of their problems." She hugged Remus's shoulders.