"I'll do it."

James turned and stared at Jasper Odair in surprise, a stare that was mirrored by Mr. Underhill's.

Jasper didn't even look up. He was so concentrated on Michael, who was hugging onto Jasper's neck, that he had just made the biggest life choice he'd ever made without so much as glancing up...

It was some time in the mid-afternoon, they were back at Underhill's office, and James and Underhill had been discussing what to do next when Jasper said it.

Following the absolute chaos of the street in West London, once Moody's auror team had descended and begun the work of reparations, Underhill looked about, a bit of fire in his eyes. "We've got some sorting to do before this gets presented formally to Moody, I reckon," Underhill had grumbled, yanking the still half-stunned looking James Potter over to where the kids were huddled about Jasper. "Well get the kids out of here, too - two birds and an excuse to give Al when he asks why we left the scene. Come on, the lot of you..." He looked at the five kids. Two to you, Potter, two to me, and Odair, you can side-along with one, can't you?"

Jasper nodded.

Underhill lifted Eli off the pavement, hoisting the small boy and his turtle onto his hip. "You best be holding onto that turtle lad," he said gently. "You.." he nodded at Kevin. "You come with me. James, you take those two --"

When he'd divvied out the kids - he said, "Westminster close. See you there." And off he went, disappearing with two kids and a turtle.

Jasper took a deep breath, taking hold on Nathan's hand. "Here we go," and off he went.

Oliver and Michael stood on the pavement next to James. Oliver looked at Michael, then turned to James. "Is she - Mrs. Jennings, I mean - is she --?"

James looked at Oliver solemnly. "She's not going to hurt you again."

Oliver nodded.

James took their hands and in a second they were on the pavement in the close behind Westminster. A little garden area in the center of the parish, gated of off from the main road specifically for travel by disapparation between the embankment entrance to the Auror Training Center for large groups that included muggles. Underhill stood a few paces away, holding Eli, who was crying in surprise by the feeling of the disapparation, Kevin looking perplexed and a bit seasick as Underhill knelt and let Eli stand on the grass.

"It's alright, you wee thing," Underhill was saying under his breath, a palm on Eli's shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't give you proper warning."

Eli sniffled, "You scared Yertle."

Underhill looked at the turtle. "I am very, very sorry Yertle. Please forgive me."

Eli looked at Yertle, who was kicking and then back to Underhill "He says you're forgiven."

Underhill replied, "I'm very glad to hear of it. A very noble turtle indeed." Underhill stood up. "Alright, come on, let's get to my ofice and we'll talk about what the --" he mouthed the words "bloody fucking hell" here -- is going on."

James couldn't help but feel amused at the care Underhill was taking with the children. It was weird, seeing his gruff boss being a softie like he was being toward Eli especially - without ever changing his tone. It made James sort of see him a bit different, in spite of the strain that had been on their relationship in the past. Perhaps, James dared to think, Underhill came off a bit strong, like a cup of tea steeped too long.

They'd made it to Underhill's office and Jasper had sat in the corner on the floor, distracting the boys while James briefed Underhill on everything Jasper had told him a second time, even though they'd been over it quickly before when they'd come to fetch him, and what he himself had seen of Mrs. Jennings before they'd left.

"Why didn't one of you bleedin' stay with the kids?" demanded Underhill, glancing at Jasper.

"I was trying to do things by the book, sir," James said pointedly. "This was my first time being in a scrap and -- I mean, my instinct was to take the kids then, But part of our agreement - yours and mine - was that I'd do things by the book, your way, in exchange for you getting Sirius out. You got Sirius out this morning sir, and it's my first day, isn't it? I didn't want to muck up on day one, sir."

Underhill sighed and ran a hand over his hair, shaking his head. "Of course the first time you listen to me this has to happen." He looked over at Jasper and the kids. "Bloody hell, Potter."

James hesitated, and a slight grin tickled the edge of his mouth. "Are you saying that I was right sir, that - that you can't always play by the rules?"

Underhill sighed. "Don't let it go to your head. This does not apply in most situations, you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"As you said, it's only your first day back. You don't need to be going off like a blasted... a renegade... less than 24 hours in!"

"No, sir, of course not." James shook his head, thinking a marauder always, but - "Never a renegade, sir."

"Get that grin off your face." Underhill snapped.

"Yes sir." James cleared his throat, looked down, and when he looked back up his face was perfectly straight in a well practiced straight expression he'd perfected over years of keeping his best poker face 'round Sirius Black.

Underhill sighed, knowing James was still grinning on the inside, and he turned and looked at the cluster of kids across the room, huddled on the floor beside James's desk. Ranging in age from Oliver's 14 down to the ickle bean that was Eli, they were tiny and vulnerable, without  a caretaker, without a home, and clearly terrified.

"Somebody's got to care for these kids now," Underhill said, gruffly. He looked at James, entirely planning to accuse James of putting him, Underhill, in the position of taking on five children - because he did plan to take them himself, he realized even as he started to say it - but he saw on James's face that he, James, was planning to also. 

It was then, though, before James could get the words out, either, that Jasper spoke up.

"I'll do it."

Meg Johnson was exhausted. Jasper never came back from wherever he'd got off to during the afternoon and she was closing up the ice cream parlor as best she could by herself. She didn't know what to do really - she only helped Jasper off and on as a sort of wonky date time when he was too busy to get off to meet her elsewhere. It was a lot of fun, but she hadn't been formally trained or anything. 

The bell rang as the door opened, the key clicking in the lock, and Jasper came into the shop. He had a big bouquet of flowers and his face was red.

"There you are!" she exclaimed. "Where have you been? One minute you're punching bags of rock salt, the next you're running out of here --"

Jasper came over to the counter. She was on the other side of it, wearing the apron and little hat still, perched upon the top of her gorgeous red curls. He smiled and held out the bouquet. It was a whole mess of beautiful pink mums with little sprigs of white heather and lavender sprinkled throughout, a lovely ribbon tied around the stems. He leaned over and kissed her.

"Mm. Jasper Odair. Well that's not usually a flavor of ice cream we sell here," Meg said, her eyes sparkling. 

Jasper shook his head, "It's an exclusive one."

"Oh I see." She laughed and put her nose in among the flowers, breathing their floral scent in. "What are these for? They're lovely."

"You know how it's a stereotype that men buy their ladies flowers when they've done something bad?" Jasper asked.

Meg lowered the flowers slowly.

Jasper took a deep breath. "Okay. So. Don't be mad at me. But I did a thing."

"What did you do, Odair?" Meg asked. Her fiery spark really showed in her eyes as she looked at him and his eyebrows went up. He recognized that look - it was the look just before she made some wicked move on the quidditch pitch. The look of a girl about to kick somebody's ass and take no names for it.

"You asked me what I was going to do about Oliver Kent."

Meg's eyes widened, "You didn't attack ---"

"No! No. Well. I didn't. Somebody did. Right, I'll tell you the whole story. See, when I left here, I went and tried at finding Oliver but he'd got off to heaven knows where and I couldn't find him any place. But then I bump into Severus Snape. Well Snape's apparently found out somehow too because he practically attacks me and --" Jasper paused. "Hang on. Snape." His face paled. "It must've been Snape what's done it. Oh blimey. Hang on." He drew his wand and shook it, producing a perfect fox that blinked up at him, it's pushy tail twitching. "Go tell Harry Underhill at the Ministry for Magic that I think I know who might've done the attack and I'll be in touch first thing tomorrow morning after I've got the boys settled." The fox disappeared.

"The boys settled?" Meg asked.

Jasper turned to look at her. 

Meg's eyes widened. "Jasper... what did you do?"

"We tried to take the kids out but that woman that's beating them --"

"Who's we? Not Severus Snape?" Meg made a face.

"No - me and James Potter."

"How did James get into this?"

"He works for Harry Underhill. A friend of mine at the Ministry."

"I know who Underhill is."

"You do?"

"Annalee Mackinnon was his secretary for a few months. She just got moved to a different department, though."

"I reckon because that's what James does - sort of - he's Underhill's assistant," Jasper explained.

"Don't tell Annalee, she'll have a fit if she finds out. She really liked that job. I don't know what she got shuffled off to - today's her first day and I haven't heard from her yet - been doing this." She waved her hands around the shop.

"Thank you for that by the way."

"You can repay me by telling me what's on."

"Well we go to the house and that Jennings woman is a terrible hag. She tried at saying she never hit them, making up excuses and the lot. James was brilliant though, he caught her in it, and she lost it, threatened to call the jam-buttys --"

"The who?" Meg smirked.

"The muggle policemen."

"Did you call them Jam-buttys?" Meg asked.

Jasper flushed. "I - yeah. What's wrong with that?"

"Sorry but - why?"

"The - the car with the stripe, I don't know - we've always called them Jam-buttys. What do you call them?"

"Policemen? Like normal people?" Meg was smirking.

"Well me and my brothers called them jam-buttys."

"Alright. Sorry. I couldn't not react to that, honey."

Jasper said, "ANYWAY - she threatened us with the - the policemen - and James and I had to go and get a real warrant in order to take the kids and he needed me as corroboration to get the warrant - two witnesses and the link - and so we go and we come back not ten minutes later with Underhill and the warrants and the bleeding house has been attacked. Death eaters. They cast the dark mark in the sky and the roof's blown off and the windows blasted out -- glass everywhere, muggles on the streets freaking out... but all five boys are outside, on the sidewalk, and fine."

"The death eaters...sent the boys outside before attacking?" Meg asked.

"I think it was Severus Snape."

Meg's eyes widened. There was a pause, then her eyes lit with understanding. "Jasper, where are the boys now?"

"They're outside at the tables with James Potter." He paused. "Waiting to be told they can come inside." He paused again. Then, "Flowers are pretty, aren't they? Nearly as pretty as your face."

Meg looked down at the flowers, then back up at Jasper. "You - you brought home five children?"

"Yeah."

"You leave the ice cream parlor for a half a day - and you come back with five children."

"Yeah."

"For keeps?"

"If they need me."

Meg stared at him.

Jasper's voice shook, "Meg, I know you're probably right pisser and I don't blame you if you hate me, if you're angry, if you can't do it, I - I understand. But I can't NOT do it, given everything I've been through and all I know about being in their situation and everything that's happened and -- I just can't do it. They're too much like me and my brothers. Oliver's too much like me and Eli's too much like Edgar and Michael fell apart in my arms and Kevin was so anxious and Nathan's scared and --" he stopped, Meg was shaking her head. "What?"

"Jasper Brian Odiair and all those extra Fortescue names you've tacked on top of that... I know you couldn't not take them. I know that about you." Meg paused, and she reached out a hand, leaning over the counter, her palm on his cheek, her thumb running across the ever so slight cleft in his chin. "Jasper, I know that and I - I LOVE that about you! I couldn't NOT help them, either, I - you really brought home five children?"

"Yeah." Jasper was grinning, tears threatening his eyes, "You - you wanna meet them?"

"Do I want to meet them? Of course I want to meet them! Bloody hell, I --" she ripped the hat off her head and started untying the apron, running around the counter to him, leaving the flowers on a table as she ran over to the door. 

Jasper laughed, letting out all the nervous energy that had built up inside of him as Meg waved the little crowd of kids inside, and James, dressed in his full auror's uniform still, stepped in right along behind. James nodded at Jasper and Meg in greeting and the kids looked around the ice cream shop. Oliver had been before of course, but the younger four were wide-eyed and Eli clutched Yertle with both hands, and Michael said, "WOW this is cool!"

"Everything alright?" James asked Jasper and Meg.

Meg nodded, "More than alright! Hi sweethearts!" she looked at the kids with excitement, "I'm Meg!"

As she started introducing herself, learning their names and meeting Yertle the Turtle for the first time, Jasper turned to James. "Thanks Potter."

James nodded. "We'll get everything worked out. Thanks for taking them."

Jasper looked them over, eyes taking in the wear and tear, knowing that as long as they were with him - whether it be a night, a month, or years - they would only be experiencing healing. "I couldn't not."