Later that evening, when everyone was settling down after dinner, an unexpected, but certainly not unwanted, visitor arrived through the fireplace of the Potter residence. Her unannounced arrival to visit her grandson was so commonplace that when she stepped out of the fireplace James merely looked up from his paper for a moment and greeted her, "Good evening, Augusta," before returning to his evening reading.
She in turn responded, "Good evening, James" before turning to the boys and saying, "Good evening, Neville, come over here and give me a hug." He came over slowly, neither rushing to greet her nor shying away. Her relationship with the boy could hardly be considered that of a doting grandmother, but nor was she unduly severe, most of the time anyway. Rather, they had a loving if overly protective relationship.
While Augusta pulled Neville into an embrace, Harry remained seated where he was, not wanting to intrude, and waited his turn. Harry always received just as much love from her as her own grandson, without all the overdone paranoid protection. When she called him to her, "What about you Harry? Come over here and give Augusta a hug." Harry dutifully rose to greet the old lady, allowing himself to be pulled into a warm embrace.
Finally, she released her hold on the two boys and enquired, "So what did you two do today? Have you been up to no good?"
Both boys shook their heads energetically. "This morning, me and Harry played... "
"Harry and I," Augusta corrected, interrupting Neville's narrative.
Neville bowed his head in apology, "Sorry, Harry and I played with our action figures, and then...and then..." Neville trailed off mid-sentence, unable to continue. He wasn't one to stammer normally but it made him nervous when his grandmother corrected him and he often found himself at a loss for words.
Harry picked off where the other boy had left off, "Then after lunch, we went next door to pick up Colin so we could..." Harry too trailed off noticing that the woman's face had suddenly turned red and she looked like she might blow up like the time he'd told her that Daddy had taken them flying. Both boys backed away, frightened that they had upset her.
But her rage was not directed at them. She swivelled around violently, turning to face Lily, then let loose a torrent, "YOU DID WHAT?"
Lily, who had been listening to the conversation, replied, shaking slightly, "I simply took the boys next door when I went to pick up their playmate."
"YOU TOOK HIM OFF THE PROPERTY WHERE ANYONE COULD SEE HIM!!" she continued to yell.
James, wisely rose from where he was sitting and made his way over to the boys. Ushering them from the room. "Come on, boys. Let's go upstairs. I'll read you a story." As soon as he had gotten them out of the room, he cast a silencing spell on the room. Then, sending his wife a pitying look, he followed the boys upstairs.
At this point Lily was yelling too, "WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER, THAT I HAD LEFT THEM ALONE IN THE HOUSE?"
"You needn't have invited the boy over in the first place," the other countered.
"The boys wanted to see him." Lily explained.
"Do you give them everything they want?" the older woman demanded.
"No of course not." Then seeing that she wasn't going to win the argument this way, she continued, "What am I supposed to do? Keep the child under house arrest?"
"Only till he's older."
"Older? He's already four years old. Next year he'll be needing to start school. No matter how old he gets, you'll always think he's too young."
"He's still a boy."
"Exactly, he has to get out. Most kids his age have playmates. They get out of the house, visit the park..."
"The yard is big enough. He's got Harry to play with."
"It's not enough. Besides he was perfectly safe. We only went next door. I was there the whole time with him."
"Still, he could have been seen."
"We're in the middle of a Muggle neighbourhood. There isn't another wizarding family in the whole town. Who would have seen him?"
"You can never be too careful..."
"Yes you can, the boy needs to be able to live a normal life. We can't keep him completely sheltered and locked up."
"He's not a normal boy..."
"But he is, regardless of what he has given the world, regardless of the power he wields, regardless of his magical potential, he is still just a boy, a boy with a right to a normal childhood. I know you want to protect him Augusta, but you have to let him live. Trust me. Let me take him out of the house, let him have a life. We don't have to take the charm off. I won't be careless about his safety. Trust me..." It seemed that she had finally gotten through.
Augusta conceded reluctantly, but everything in her tone and posture suggested that she would make her regret it if anything should happen to her grandson.
Meanwhile, upstairs, Neville, having allowed himself to be ushered away from the row, turned to James and asked, "James, why is Gran upset?"
"Well...you see...mmm...remember the spell your Gran cast on you to protect you from evil wizards?" Neville nodded and he continued, "so she cast this spell, right? The thing is...the spell only works if you stay on our property...see? And so when Lily took you next door to see Colin, you weren't invisible. People could see you. And, well...your Gran, she worries about you. She doesn't want you to get hurt and so she's upset that Lily took you out. Do you understand?"
Neville nodded in response as Harry asked shyly, "Were we in danger?"
"No, no, of course not," James tried to reassure him, "but that doesn't stop Neville's Gran from worrying." Neville tried to smile but he was still shaken up from hearing the two women yelling. Both boys were. James, held out both his arms and pulled the children into a warm embrace, "There, there...everything will be fine. It'll all work out." Then releasing them he added, "Now go on and pick out a book for me to read to you."
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A.N. Well what do you think? Was the row unrealistic? Did I overdo it? Do you folks feel this story contains too much arguing? There shouldn't be quite so much once the boys start school. The problem is that the adults have to establish a balance in the way that Neville will be raised but they have a hard time agreeing. I'd love to hear from you. Reviews are welcome, (if not encouraged) even flames.
I'd like to thank my beta Aggiebell for her work on this chapter (and all the ones that came before...).