James was laying on the couch, his head in Lily's lap, legs up over the arm of the couch, hands held up over his chest, loops of wool wrapped about his fingers and palms, head turned and watching the telly as it flashed.

"VROOM? Mate, this bird wouldn't vroom if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!"

"No no! 'Es pining!"

"'Es not pinin'! 'Es passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushin' up the daisies! 'is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffed off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!"

James was laughing, his eyes squinted up. "An ex-parrot," he wheezed, legs kicking with amusement.

Lily looked at Dora, smirking, and Dora laughed and reached over and patted James's hair as he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes under his glasses. 

The hearth of the fireplace lit and through the green flames came Remus Lupin, carrying Newt Scamander's suitcase. He stood at the hearth, taking in the scene before him. "I'm learning how to knit," Lily said, answering his unasked question. She held up her needles and beamed. She looked at James, "I need a yarn bowl."

"I'm apparently a yarn bowl," James supplied.

"Hullo Remus," Dora said, smiling.

"Monty Pythion," James said, gesturing with his chin at the telly. "It's an Ex-Parrot."

"An ex-parrot? What?" Remus looked thoroughly confused.

James was chuckling. 

Remus plopped the suitcase on the table. "I was hoping you lot could do me and Sirius a solid favor?"

"Of course we can, what's the matter?" Lily asked.

"We've been having a rather much-needed series of very serious conversations --"

"Every conversation Sirius has is a sirius conversation," James supplied.

"Ha, you're so funny, I forgot to laugh," Remus said dryly. "As if I haven't heard that joke thirty-seven million times before."

James grinned, "Ah, but have you heard it tonight?"

"Not outloud, but I'm sure he thought it at least thrice," Remus answered. "Anyway - we need a, erm, evening of reconnecting. Would you lot be able to watch Bradley for me for the night? We'kl come collect him back in the morning."

Lily's eyes brightened, "Yes!" she said eagerly.

James said, "The queen has spoken."

Dora smirked into her knitting and stayed silent.

"Alright, brilliant," Remus said. "In that case, he's just reading some comics in his room in the house in the case and he'll pop out soon enough when his belly starts rumbling - I'm going to just -" he pointed at the floo. "Sirius is... waiting for me."

James sang out, "Bow-chica-bow-bow."

Remus flushed very red as Lily smacked James's arm as he laughed loudly.

"What James means to sat is have a good evening," Lily said, rolling her eyes at him.

"Yes, a very good evening," James snickered.

"James Charlus Fleamont Potter," warned Dora.

James looked up, "Mum, c'mon, I'm just wishing the man a good evenin'."

"We both know what you mean and it's inappropriate in front of your mother." 

James smirked. 

"I'm off," Remus said before things could get weirder, and he turned back to the floo. "I'll see you lot tomorrow, we'll be in 'round breakky for Bradley."

"Take all the time you need," Lily said quickly.

James glanced at Lily, then back to Remus. "She may have adopted him by the time you come back for him, but that's neither here nor there."

Remus laughed, "Take it up with the Scamanders." He paused, "Make sure the suitcase gets closed tight when he comes out of it or all your pretty things will be in the niffler's pouch and she doesn't give things up easily."

"Could do with a few less knick-knacks 'round here," James said.

"I love all my knick-knacks, you hush," Lily replied.

"We'll make sure it's proper closed," Dora offered.

"Thank you," Remus answered Dora. Then Remus was off and the three of them were alone with the suitcase. 

James stared at the suitcase, then looked up at Lily.

"Oh go on, I know it's killing you," Lily said, sliding the yarn off James's fingers as he eagerly flipped himself off her lap and onto the floor with a grunt - he'd forgotten the state he was in, but the pain that shot through him at the motion was well worth it, and he slowly pushed himself up and moved over to the suitcase, giddy as a child.

Getting his hands on Newt Scamander's suitcase had been a dream of James Potter's since he was a wee'un and Dora Potter had read him off to sleep with the contents of his beautiful illustrated edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. His fingers were practically tingling as he reached for the latches and clicked them open, biting his lips, eyes wide with ecstatic energy. He popped the lid up.

The sounds of the creatures below echoed out from within and he grinned, nervous and excited equally, then hurried to climb down the ladder as fast as his currently bruised and still sore body let him.

"If he's anything like his father, he never will grow up," Dora said, chuckling.

Lily laughed, "That's what I love about him."

"I always loved that about Charlus, too," Dora said wistfully. "He was always such a child at heart. The good ones usually are. They don't forget to be amazed at things and to wonder at life, and they keep you in awe of it in the process."

Lily smiled, remembering some of the sillier moments with Charlus Potter, and the things he used to do and say that reminded her of James and she thought of how much James much remind Dora of Charlus, too, everyday. She wondered if it would be the same as that with her and her children one day, too, and she hoped it would. She hoped there would be so many things about her children that would make her smile and laugh because of just how exactly like their father they were.

Meanwhile, in the suitcase, James reached the bottom of the ladder and stared about. Since the time in fourth year when Newt had given him a very brief tour while dropping Remus off for the school year, a lot of things had changed. 

There was a house now, instead of the old shack that Newt had once used as his work room, and there was a steep mountain face with a pouring waterfall that sparkled with colorful waters that poured down into a pool sparkling with kelpie eggs being incubated. There was a large knoll in the grass where the edges of the demiguise nest were just visible, and a wide pen of long-legged birds that looked something like a cross between an ostrich and a peacock. Speaking of peacocks, there was a pearl white one wandering across the grass before the house, his long tail feathers pastels of lavender, pink and teal, opalescent in a low, artificial sunlight that filled the whole case.

Noises of all sorts of creatures echoed about from various areas that went off as far as James could see, partitions between the different habitats that went away like spokes from the center area, where the house was. One was closed off by wide windows, a forest beyond - the werewolf enclosure, he recognized, for he'd been shown that during his brief tour. It was the others that he hadn't really seen much of.

He walked over a little bridge that separated the landing where the ladder came down from the habitats and the house and he was halfway across the grass - figuring he should let Bradley know he was in the suitcase before he went exploring - when there came a soft sound behind him and he turned around to see a puffy lavender mooncalf looking at him with wide, blinking eyes full of curiosity. 

He stood still, nervous he would frighten it, and stared at it's huge eyes, the irises a pale blue like the color of crystal clear water in moonlight.

Nervous, James held out his palm. The moon calf made a noise like sniffing, and walked forward a few steps, then slammed it's face into his palm rather quickly. The tongue came out, alarmingly larger than James would have expected to come out of it, and licked the full of his palm with a funny, rough texture, rather like a cat's. "Oh, well, hello."

It paused. Stared up at him. Then let out a sound that he hadn't expected either, much like a toddler's yell, and he stumbled backwards in surprise, knocking into a second moon calf he hadn't realized was coming up from behind. "Oh wow, hi," he said, and he looked up and found there were four or five moon calves there, and more on the way. "There's a lot of you guys," he said. 

The first one head-butted his stomach gently, and James laughed - the way it felt was ticklish and playful. They must've liked his laugh, for the next thing he knew they were all doing it, taking it in turns to bomp against him and he was laughing, wriggling as twelve moon calves were volleying to head bump him. He held out his hands and was rewarded with even more moon calf licks and as they bumped him about, he started to feel a wee bit like a volley ball, and it occurred to him they were passing him between them.

"Careful you lot," he laughed.

They were chirruping and bomping and making funny giggling noises and James found himself laughing harder as they bomped and shuffled him about. He slipped on some wet grass and landed on his bum among them and they descended upon him, excitement rallying all the higher. He felt one tugging his hair and another was pressing its nose to the back of his neck. They were clustering closer and licking his face, neck, and arms and he found himself flailing, laughing harder with every passing moment.

"Hey, hey," he could barely breathe, "Hey, you're gonna smush me, hey." But he was loving it, and they were loving it.

"Alright guys, c'mon, let him breathe." Suddenly the moon calfs were being shoo'ed away and James watched them clear off, running after some sort of feed that had been thrown a few feet away and he looked up, peering through his fingers, which were covering his face, and found himself staring up at Bradley Scamander. "They'll do that for hours if you let'm," Bradley said, "They're really way too friendly like that."

"Hi Bradley."

"Hi James."

"I swear I was coming to tell you I was in the suitcase when they got me," he said, "I wanted to let you know, Remus and Sirius asked if it would be alright if you stayed with Lily and I tonight --"

"Him and Sirius were fighting before," Bradley said.

"Yeah, he mentioned. He said they just needed a night to talk it out and stuff."

"Are they alright?"

"Yeah they're alright," James said.

"Sirius sounded really mad."

"Sirius is just loud, that's all. I'm sure they'll work it all out."

"He sure is." Bradley stared at James, then laughed.

"What?"

"Your hair, the moon calves licked it so it's standing up funny. You should probably take a shower."

"That would be splendid actually," James admitted. Mooncalves have very sticky spittle, he realized, and he followed Bradley up to the house on the hill.

Inside, it was quite a cozy place and there were photographs everywhere on the walls of Newt and his family in a myriad of different locations with countless numbers of creatures. There were so many creatures and landscapes that James couldn't possibly list them all, and some of them were so exotic and rare that he didn't even know what they were or where the place was. There were horns and fossils and preserved footprints and hand prints and feathers and egg shells all over and diagrams and maps and a large tank of some sort of fish that glowed neon colors or blinked like tiny strobe lights. A fat frog sat on top of a high bookshelf and a snake was coiling it's way down the bannister of the stairs.

"Careful for Zayn," Bradley said as they passed the snake, who looked up and flicked it's tongue in James's direction, "He's not poisonous but he does like to nip if he doesn't know you; thinks it's funny, I'll reckon." 

Upstairs, Bradley showed James the bathroom. The niffler was in there, tryin to unscrew the handles of the sink basin and Bradley rolled his eyes and scooped her up. "She's always into something," he muttered.

"Your life must be constant adventure," James marvelled.

Bradley shrugged. "I guess?"

"I would've loved a place like this when I was a kid."

"I usually love it too," Bradley said. "It's lonely sometimes because there's not any other kids but the creatures kinda make up for it."

"Yeah, I s'pose I could see that... I didn't have a lot of friends growin' up either, 'til I met Sirius and Remus."

"Remus is so cool."

"Yeah he is."

"I met Tonks, too. Have you met Tonks?"

"Once or twice, but I've heard a lot about her from Sirius and Remus," James answered.

Bradley smiled, "She's really cool."

James chuckled, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Like really cool. Anyway... if you want when you're done with the shower I'll show you around the creatures. They aren't all as aggressively friendly as the mooncalves."

"That'd be brilliant," James replied, excited.

"Alright," Bradley smiled and he ducked out of the bathroom, leaving James to take his shower.

He turned on the water and found it flowed that funny pale color like the waterfall outside and smelled lovely and he laughed to himself - only in Newt Scamander's suitcase could something as cool as that exist. James thought to himself how amused Sirius would be when he heard about the mooncalves being aggressively friendly as Bradley had worded it, and he imagined Sirius's barking laughter, "James Potter and the mooncalves -" he would say, hooting the words with mirth, "Sounds like a wizarding punk band."

It really did, James thought, and he laughed all the more at the thought of it.