"Morning Lee - guess what? My wife's pregnant! .... Hey there, Brennan. Have ya heard? M'wife's pregnant! Oi how's it goin', Wood? Jones? How's life been? Guess what? Evans is pregnant!" James was glowing, ping-pong balling about the halls of the Ministry, humming, carrying a box of breakfast pastries and balancing three to-go coffees. He backed into Sean Buckner's office. "Mornin' Sean-ny!" he called joyfully, dropping one of the three coffee cups on the desk beside the stack of copying Sean was working on. The Ministry worker standing before him, whose work Sean was copying, looked perturbed by the interruption. James grinned at him, "Hullo , mornin'!"

Sean kept on working, glancing at the coffee without pause, desperate to get the cranky Ministry worker on his way. "What's on, Potter?" he mumbled.

James's grin only grew. "Sean, you're looking at a genuine bonafide daddy right now."

"What?" Sean looked up at James, stopping working despite the throat clearing of the worker behind James.

"That's right. You heard me. I'm going to be a father. My wife's pregnant!" James grinned. "Have a scone!"

"A scone?"

"A celebration scone!" James flipped open the lid of the box of pastries and offered it up.

Sean took one, a bewildered look on his face.

James turned to the man beside him. "Here ya are, sour puss, take one of these - they're the best scones on earth - from me to you as repayment for the ten extra seconds you'll have to stand there and glower impatiently at my mate here. Best copier in the Ministry, that's why you arseholes make the trek down here for'im!" James grinned and winked, shoved a scone into the man's hands, and nodded to Sean, "Bye Buckner!"

"Bye?" Sean asked more than answered, confused by the whirlwind that was James Potter.

James went across the hall and into Underhill's office.

Underhill was bent over his desk. He mumbled what sounded like good morning but was so distracted it only barely counted as the words. James dropped one of the two remaining cups on his desk and Underhill glanced at it, and when his eyes had risen from the pages spread upon it, James opened the box of pastries. Underhill stared at the pastries then looked up at James. "What in hell has gotten into you? You're... abnormally cheerful."

James grinned, "My wife is pregnant, sir."

"My condolences," Underhill said dryly.

James laughed, "Sir."

"Congratulations," he said more seriously. "What do scones have to do with it?"

"Celebration scones, Sir."

Underhill blinked rapidly, the words celebration scones sinking in, and he finally reached up took two scones and dropped them next to the coffee. James grinned and carried the rest over to his own desk, dropping them on a shelf behind him. He took one for himself and sat with his coffee at his desk chair, eyes sparkling. "We weren't supposed to one able to get pregnant Sir," James explained his excitement. "But my wife and I, we're in the business of miracle making."

Underhill nodded slowly, turning back to his paper work. "Then maybe you ought to work one on this bleeding case. He sighed and rubbed his eyes and sank into his chair. He grabbed one of the scones, took a bite of it, and looked at it in surprise. "These are good," he said, shaking it.

"Best scones in Britain," James nodded.

"Where'd you get them from?"

"My oven at home," James answered.

"You made these?" Underhill said, raising an eyebrow and ready to accuse James of lying.

"No, my mother did," James replied.

Underhill nodded in appreciation.

"I have a spell for marmalade if you want some," James said. "My mate invented it. Course it's more meant for fighting Death Eaters than preparing a scone but --"

"Fighting Death Eaters?" Underhill asked. "With marmalade?"

"You've met Sirius Black."

"No further questions."

James grinned. "Sirius is a terrific fighter - unconventional, a wee bit mad, but a damned terrific fighter."

"Fighting with marmalade sounds a bit more than a wee bit mad, Potter."

James laughed, "Well. Maybe a little more than a wee."

Underhill took another couple of bites of his scone, polishing it off quickly, then, "Sincerely, though - congratulations. I know you've been trying for some time. Parenting isn't easy - but I reckon you'll be alright at it, Potter." He slipped the coffee James had brought in as well and started in one his second scone.

"Any advice for me?" James asked.

Underhill answered, "Stay fun. Don't forget what it was like to be a kid yourself and treat your kid with the respect you would've wanted when you were their age. You'll get a lot further in discussions when you can rationally explain your reasoning with rules if they see you respect them and understand the reasons why behind the rules you make." He thought for a moment, then added, "Just love'em."

"I can do that," James nodded.

Suddenly the office door busted opened again and Sean Buckner was in the office, holding up the scone. "She's pregnant!?" Sean stared at James in disbelief. "For real? You're not serious!"

"I'm not, it's true," James joked and, to Sean's confusion, he added, "Sorry, Sirius Black has a bit of a running joke on that line."

"I'll bet my breeches he does," Sean said, then back to incredulous he added, "Janey Mac Potter! A father to a real lil'un and all, huh? What great news, I'm deeply happy for ya!" He went 'round and gave James a good hug that nearly crushed his ribs with its strength. Sean Buckner had a good lot of strength in him that one might not suspect when looking at him. James remembered how he'd held his own in the collapsing house the day of the giant attacks and he thought it didn't much surprise him. "Celebration scones indeed!"

James laughed.

"Just wait until Annalee hears, she'll be over the moon for you," Sean said.

When Sean had left, Underhill was staring intently at his files again, so James settled himself down and got to work filing other, smaller cases that Underhill had worked on that week. There had been an arrest of a wizard who had used a cruciatus curse on a muggle neighbor after an altercation over some gardening tools and several violations of minor laws, including accusations of magic carpet smuggling, and an arrest for illegal sales of powdered root of papaver spmniferum via an ingredients shop in Knockturn Alley.

"Potter."

James looked up. "Sir?"

"You were present the night the Prewett Twins were murdered, weren't you?"

"Yeah, I didn't really see it happen... I'd tried to step in and been cursed," he explained.

"Was Albus Dumbledore there?"

James said, "He... was in charge of most of that operation, yes, though I don't personally recall seeing him until the very end, sir, after the murder occurred. Gideon came into the fight accompanying me and Sirius Black from here after Dumbledore's initial plans went... off track." He wasn't sure how much information he should give, if he should divulge Dumbledore's plans to Underhill. He certainly trusted Underhill over Dumbledore, but for some reason he still hesitated or couldn't quite get his mouth around the real accusation he wanted to make.

Dumbledore hadn't bothered to step in until it was too late for whatever reason Dumbledore had. He'd been just outside the gates of the square where the battle had occurred, taking to Snape, and he had somehow missed the fact that two of his best men were being murdered? That the Order had been in such a pinch as they'd been? Remus had told James how reluctant Dumbledore was to go and help at all, even knowing Alice was captured, knowing Fabian had been undercover, too... There was no way that Dumbledore, in all his power and keen ability to predict things coming next, hadn't known he was needed inside the square. He had chosen to take his time...

James had added that to the list of unforgivable things about Dumbledore that he carried in his chest.

Yet he still couldn't quite get words wrapped around all that to tell Underhill and he wondered if that was a matter of his lack of trust in Underhill (or anyone outside of his small loop of friends, for that matter) or some twisted subconscious fear of Dumbledore.

Underhill mused, rubbing his chin.

"What is it, sir?" James pressed.

"I happened upon some files on the Blackburn case that had somehow ended up in the hands of Gideon and Fabian Prewett - or at least had been found in their offices, at least. I was helping Alastor Moody in reassigning their cases when I found it, tucked away in a drawer labeled for completed cases. When I showed Alastor, he was keen to reallocate that file himself, but I insisted on taking possession of it, as the Blackburn case is mine, and he had no valid argument to it."

"Interesting. Why did they have a case file for Blackburn if it's your case?" James's eyebrows knit.

Underhill said, "Exactly my question. Interestingly, it was a file that contained the profile of a known family of werewolves in the Blackburn area, just a tad bit outside of the city limit, and this family has some ties with the Blagojevic family. Do you know who they are?"

James hesitated. "Vampires."

"Mhm." Underhill nodded. "That connection was apparently the focus of Gideon and Fabian Prewett's research in the Blackburn case - and would appear to be an entirely different case on the surface value as they didn't include in their profile in the case notes that the family in question were werewolves. I happen to know from my own research."

James said, "What does that mean?"

"It means they were trying to cover up the work they were doing there," Underhill said. "It appears they were suspecting the vampires and werewolves were forming some sort of an alliance or else in talks about something, at the very least."

James frowned. He wondered how much Underhill knew about what had happened with Alice and the whole Five Blagojevics operation. He wondered what Underhill knew about Blagojevic and Voldemort, if he knew Voldemort was working to recruit Blagojevic and his family and others under him in the vampire community to the Death Eaters... and if Blagojevic and the pack of werewolves in Blackburn were getting on... Well, that was rather troubling. James was fairly certain that Kettleburn had once taught them that historically Vampires and Werewolves don't tend to get along. The venom of the werewolf was particularly repulsive to vampires, according to Kettleburn - it was like poisoning the food chain.

Fleetingly, James had a moment of wondering what a vampire would do if he were bit by a werewolf? He made a mental note to bring it up with Sirius later sometime as it was just the sort of theorizing that Sirius enjoyed doing in the wee hours over the two-way mirror when neither of them could fall asleep.

Underhill clearly knew one thing for certain though: James knew more on the subject than was being said out loud because he was staring at James, one eyebrow raised.

James kept his face composed in a thoughtful expression for a moment, then shrugged. Underhill considered James's silence nearly as intently as he'd considered anything James had actually said, it seemed, and it took some time before he looked away.

Had the Prewetts been working on something for Dumbledore under Moody's watchful eye? Was that why Moody hadn't wanted Underhill to get the folder? And why Gideon had been so persistent not to get Underhill involved in the operation?

James couldn't help but wonder if things might've gone differently if Underhill had been involved. After all, he was convinced Underhill was at least as powerful as Mad Eye Moody, if not Dumbledore himself.