cousins' voices.
'Hey, it's almost dinner, you lot,' he called as he entered the shadow of the Weasley family's small stone garage. As always, the doors were thrown wide open. The cool, familiar smell of the dirt floor and dusty shelves surrounded him. He sighed happily.
'Nice grab, James!' the twins, Harold and Jules, called in unison as James approached.
'Thanks!'
'Too bad you spoiled it by getting intimate with an apple tree,' Rose said from where she sat, kicking her legs idly. 'What a downer.'
'Hey,' James said, ignoring Rose's remarks. 'That's Merlin's car! What's it doing here?'
Rose glanced down at the bonnet of the car she was sitting on. The old Anglia had been meticulously cleaned and was half-repainted, but one headlight still hung askew from its socket. 'This isn't Merlin's, you nitwit,' Rose chided. 'It's Grandfather's. Don't you remember the stories about the flying Ford? Your dad and my dad took it for a joyride back when they were in school. They ended up losing it in the Forbidden Forest. All Merlin did was find it. When he discovered whose it was, he arranged to have it returned here. Grandfather's been getting it back into shape over the summer.'
'He's making some pretty keen modifications to it too!' Hugo announced, popping his head out the driver's side window. 'Watch this!'
He disappeared again and the car rocked a bit as he and Albus moved around in the front seat.
'That's probably not a good idea—' James began, and then jumped back as a pair of wood and canvas wings shot out of the sides of the automobile, squeaking and ratcheting as they unfolded. They began to flap up and down violently, making the entire car bounce and rock. A moment later, they screeched to a stop.
'It's a good thing you know how to turn those off!' James exclaimed, his eyes wide.
'I didn't!' Albus answered, working buttons and levers on the car's dashboard. 'They stopped on their own. Looks like they aren't quite finished yet. I hope we didn't break them. Hey, Hugo, climb back there and jump on them a little, why don't you?'
'No, let us!' the twins cried, scrambling toward the wings.
'No!' James called, throwing up his hands. 'Nobody jump on anything! Granddad will leather you with a hex if you break his stuff!'
Hugo scowled, ignoring James. 'Too bad Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey aren't here. Lucy's the mechanical one. I bet she could get this thing in the air.'
'I wonder why it needs the wings anyway,' Rose commented. 'I thought it flew on its own.'
'Uncle Harry smashed it into the Whomping Willow at Hogwarts, remember?' Hugo called out. 'Totally crippled it. That's why it ran off into the Forest and turned all feral.'
'You've got it all wrong,' Albus said. 'Your dad was driving. If my dad had been behind the wheel, they'd have made a four-point landing.'
'Yeah,' Rose agreed, 'probably right through the windows of the Great Hall.'
The twins guffawed and ran around the car, pretending to fly and crash. Harold mimicked the Whomping Willow, thrashing at his brother, who feigned death and keeled over.
'Anyway,' Hugo continued, 'everybody knows about the Alma Alerons and their flying cars. I bet Granddad wanted to see if he could make this fly even better.'
James grinned. 'Come on, you lot. He'll be home soon. If we don't get inside, we'll miss the surprise.'
'And the cake,' Rose added.
That got their attention. Jules and Harold spun on their heels and darted past James, yelling and trying to push each other out of the way. Albus shrugged and followed Hugo out the driver's door of the car. Rose slid off the bonnet and brushed the dust from her bottom with her hands.
'Grandfather's quite peculiar, isn't he?' she said, glancing around at the Anglia and the collection of mismatched Muggle objects that filled the shelves nearby. James had seen them a hundred times, but there were always a few new things. He followed Rose as she approached the collection and ran her hand lightly over some of the items, drawing lines in the dust with her fingers. Alongside the assortment of batteries and electric can openers, extension cords and nose hair trimmers, James saw the newer additions. There was an old laptop computer, a video game controller, and a digital alarm clock in the shape of a cartoon character.
'Why do you suppose he loves all this stuff so much?' Rose asked.
'I don't know,' James said. 'I think part of it is because he grew up a wizard, not like us. My dad grew up with Muggles. Your mum too. They brought a bit of the Muggle world with them, so to us, it's no mystery. But for Granddad, the Muggle world is as foreign as aliens would be to us. He just loves figuring out how it all works, and what they use it for.'
'He could just take a Muggle Studies course, nowadays, couldn't he?' Rose said as the two of them turned toward the door. 'They didn't have classes like that when he was a kid.'
James shrugged. 'I guess so. I don't think he wants to learn it like that though. That's not the point for him. I don't really know what he thinks the point is though.'
Rose tilted her head. 'He just loves the mystery of it, don't you think?'
'Well, what's the point of a mystery if you never find out?' James frowned.
'You're such a boy, James. The moment the mystery is solved, it's not a mystery anymore.'
'Granddad's a boy too, you know.'
'No, Grandfather's a man.'
James rolled his eyes. 'What's the difference, then?'
Rose sniffed. 'Well, a man can catch the Snitch and
James chased her the rest of the way to the back door.
Inside, Grandma Weasley was frantically arranging the final details as the family milled around, mostly trying to stay out of her way.
'Hugo! Dominique! You get your fingers away from that cake this moment!' she admonished as she passed by the table, her arms full of plates and cutlery. 'Fleur, would you be a dear and help me with the pudding? It's Arthur's favorite and I want it right in the middle of the table. Oh, when did this family become so large that we can't eat indoors without sitting on each other's laps?'
'It's your fault entirely, Mum,' George said reasonably. 'You can't go having seven kids and not expect the lot of us to see it as a dare to have more.'
'Don't you start,' Angelina said, grimacing and throwing an arm around his neck.
'You knew what you were getting into when you got engaged to me,' George replied airily. 'The thing I love best about you is your childbearing hips.'
Angelina tightened her grip around his neck, dragging him into the parlor where everyone was gathering.
'How'd the match go, James?' Bill asked from his seat next to his son Louis.
James shrugged and grinned. 'Pretty good. Nobody got killed. I caught the Snitch.'
Louis smiled crookedly. 'Rose told us all about it already.'
James rolled his eyes as Bill laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.
'Oh! Arthur will be here any moment!' Molly fretted, wringing her hands on her apron and glancing around at her gathered family. 'I just know I'm forgetting something. He's so dreadfully hard to surprise. James! You didn't change your shirt! You're covered with rotten apple! No! Don't sit on the sofa! It's too late now to do anything about it, I suppose…'
