An owl landed on the kitchen window sill while Dora Potter was puttering about, making breakfast. James was upstairs getting his auror uniform on and Lily was going through her satchel, looking for a particular book she'd stashed away and now simply could not find anywhere. Still singing, Dora opened the window and invited the owl inside. 

The owl hopped in and landed on the back of one of the chairs at the dining room table next to where Lily was standing. "Oh, good morning," she said. She took the envelope from the owl and turned to the counter where they had a cookie car shaped like a Kermit the Frog and took out a owl nut. "Here you are." The owl happily took it's treat and fluttered back out the window.

The envelope was soft cream colored and smelled slightly of heather.

To James & Lily Potter
The Potters Cottage, Down Chuchyard Lane
Godric's Hollow, South Suffolk

"Was that Minerva's handwriting I saw?" Dora asked, wiping her hands on an apron she'd tied about her waist. She had just finished cutting an assortment of fruits and popped a bit of an orange from Costa Rica into her mouth, smiling at the sunshine flavor.

"I believe so," Lily said. Curious, she turned over the envelope and broke the seal - a pale purple thing with a bit of Scottish Heather pressed into the wax. Inside, was a cream colored notecard, which unfolded and she read the card aloud:

Dearest James and Lily Potter,

You are cordially invited to the wedding of Elphinstone Uilleac Urquart & Minerva Grace McGonagall on Sunday, 8 July, 1979 at 2:00 in the Afternoon in the Garden of the Chapel in Faire Dhu, Scotland.

Please RSVP by return owl no later than 1 July 1979.

Blessings & Love,
Elphie & Minnie

Lily let out a shriek, and Dora's eyes lit up with excitement as she clapped her palms over her mouth in joy.

The shriek was punctuated by the sound of James coming down the stairs - tripping, of course, on the landing, cursing, and running the rest of the way down, "What on earth is happening?" he asked, coming across the room, still buttoning those twenty-eight buttons on his uniform.

Lily held out the envelope and notecard to James and rushed to gush excitedly with Dora in the kitchen. "Oh my stars I could just cry I'm so happy!" Lily said, fanning herself to keep the tears out of her eyes.

"Well that's just brilliant, isn't it? I'm so happy for them, bloody hell, the event of the century that is!" James said, grinning ear-to-ear. "I'll send back our RSVP owl when I get to work," he said. He ducked into the kitchen and kissed Lily on the mouth and his mother on the cheek. Dora held up a wrapped up bit of wax paper. "Bacon sandwich?" he guessed, breathing in the smell of it.

"Of course, nothing less for my growing boy," Dora replied, tucking a strand of his hair back that had gone astray. 

"Mum, the only direction I'm growing is outwards about the middle," James said, He kissed her cheek again, though, and then Lily a second time. "I'll see you lot tonight," he added, headed for the front door. He plucked the Daily Prophet up from the porch rail, where the delivery owl had left it, tucking it under his arm, and trotted down the walk to the main road. He could see Lily and Dora dancing about excitedly in the kitchen through the window and he laughed to himself as he stepped out the gate of the front yard and the house blinked out of view as he stepped up to the curb, and with a great yawn, stuck out his wand hand.

As much as Lily hated the Knight Bus - James loved the thing. Taking the Knight Bus to work was the perk he was allowing himself to keep. 

"Morning Ernie," he said, dropping his sickle into the till.

"Mornin' Potter," came Ernie's reply as he peered at James through his thick glasses. "Lookin' sharp in them Auror clothes again today, m'boy! Ministry again?"

"That's right Ern."

"Got your pick of the lot, been slow this mornin'!"

"Excellent!" James put his bag and the Daily Prophet into a bin for holding luggage from flying every which way and quickly dashed for the much coveted purple bean bag chair, tossing himself into the thing and settling in for the ride. 

With a BANG! they were off and James appreciated that after dropping off the only other passenger - a witch headed to the Isle of Man - Ernie took the long way about through west and southern Britain rather than going directly to the Embankment in London. James enjoyed the extra time sliding about on the bean bag chair as the Knight Bus moved manically 'round the country. When they finally came to a stop beside Westminster, James struggled up out of the chair, collected his things, and wished Ernie a brilliant day. 

He stepped out onto the pavement and BANG! the Knight bus was gone, leaving James to stand on the sidewalk and stared across the road to the Embankment and the entrance to the Auror Training Center.

He sighed, straightened his uniform, and tucked the Daily Prophet back under his arm. "Day two," he muttered, and he started off across the road.

The Training Center was a buzz, people dashing every which way. There was a ceremony happening that day for the trainees who were getting their official badges, having completed their training programs. Frank Longbottom was among them, and James was actually looking forward to celebrating his mate. There was also some talk that Moody had brought in a man suspected of the grave infraction of reanimating corpses, there was talk he might have been involved in the inferius in the underground the summer prior and James shivered remembering that, ducking down the corridor that led to Underhill's office and nearly running head-first into Annalee McKinnon, who was just dashing up the hallway.

"Oh careful there, Annalee!" James said, catching her about the shoulders to steady her from falling. "Blimey, almost got you there, didn't I?"

Her eyes widened at seeing him, "James Potter, look at you." She stepped back and did a once-over at the uniform, "Aren't you a sight." 

" Am I?" James said.

Annalee was clutching a sheaf of paperwork in one elbow, and she looked smart in the grey skirt and purple blazer of the Ministry administrative assistants uniform. She reached out, "May I?" and before he said anything either way, she was adjusting the collar of his shirt. "There you are."

"Thanks," James said.

"So you're working for Underhill now, huh?" she asked. "I was working for him before. I reckon you're the one that's taken over my position. I work up in the MInister's office now." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and James caught the faint smell of her flowery shampoo. 

"Very good," he said. "I'm sure you're doing a brilliant job of it."

"I am," she nodded. 

He got the feeling she was trying to show him she'd been a catch and he would've been lucky to end up with her if they'd stayed together during their Hogwarts days. James smirked because Annalee McKinnon was absolutely bats if she thought for a moment she could make him regret breaking up with her - considering he'd ended up with Lily in the end - but he could definitely see where perhaps others from Hogwarts might regret their choice. Annalee was, after all, very pretty. She just wasn't Lily Evans pretty. 

"So what're you doing way down here?" James said, "Surely anything down this far would be worthy of an interdepartmental owl to save time."

Annalee flushed, "I was needing some copies made."

"They haven't got a copier up in the Minister's office?"

Annalee sniffed, "I fancied myself a walk." She paused, then, "I'll see you about, Potter," and pushed 'round him, walking quickly down the hallway, her high heels clicking on the stone floor until she reached the end of the corridor and disappeared 'round the bend.

James laughed, then paused, and walked over to the doorway to the room for the copier, curious. He pushed open the door. "Hullo, good morning," he said into the room.

The room was windowless, just a small little office, a desk and piles of boxes of blank parchment. There were several interdepartmental tubes coming out the wall and a host of owls perched on a large wooden bracket on the far wall. A couple empty seats made up a tiny waiting area, and a water cooler sat beside them, humming quietly as it kept cold. There was a small table with a stack of tea cups which had what looked like yellow peacock feathers in a pattern all over them, rimmed with red.

The wizard behind the desk looked up from the document he was copying. He was a very plain bloke, with brown hair and eyes and a bit more of him about the middle than was particularly ideal - the side effect of a desk job. James recognized him from about the halls at Hogwarts and reckoned he was a Hufflepuff if memory served him correctly - he was fairly sure that Maryrose had once pointed him out for something or other while they'd been dating, but he couldn't quite recall what she'd said about him or why.

"Hullo," the bloke said back, "Needing a copy?"

"Nope, just saying good morning."

The wizard looked legitimately surprised. "What now?"

"Just a good morning," James replied. He waved, "Have a good day."

"Um, have a good day, too, sir," the bloke answered, a confused look on his face as James ducked back out. 

The door closed behind him and James muttered, "Odd," thinking the copier was not at all the sort that Annalee McKinnon would have walked all the way down from the MInister's office just to visit. He'd been expecting some windblown Quidditch star sort of a chap when he'd poked in - that would've explained Annalee's sudden ambition for exercise - but the copier was just an average guy that didn't seem much Annalee's sort. He wondered what she was up to, and mused about it as he stepped into Underhill's office.

Mr. Underhill was staring down at his paperwork. "You're late," he gruffed.

"Sorry, had to pop in at the copier across the hall a second," James said, putting his stuff down on the desk. 

"Well you can go back again, there's a document there we need copied and sent up to Mad-Eye," Underhill jabbed a finger at James's inbox. "Ceremony's today, we'll be heading up there in about an hour. Think you can get that copied and off to Moody before then? You can also assemble the Black case file while you're at it - that's over there - you'll want to read through it and make sure I caught all instances of your, uh, other friend out of there too while you're at it."

James nodded, "Alright." He threw the Daily Prophet, still rolled up, onto the desk and grabbed the pile of documents out of the inbox and headed back across the hall.

The copier wizard looked up from his desk again when James came back in.

"Hullo again," the bloke said, "I think I'm having deja vu."

James laughed, "Good morning."

"Come to say a second good morning, have you?"

"Come to do some copying this time, rather." James plopped the documents down on the desk.

"Going to be just a mo'," the copier said.

"Sure," James nodded, and wandered over to where the chairs were, looking at a large poster spellotaped over the chairs - a picture of an impossibly green glen, grass studded by stones, at the base of four towering stone faces, grown over by green. James stared at the picture, squinting at what looked like a sheep in the foreground, standing beside a stream that cut through the terrain. He was trying to decide if it was a wizarding photo - was the sheep moving? The stream looked like it might be, but he couldn't tell. "Is this a wizarding picture?" he asked, glancing back at the copier.

The copier looked up. "Nah, it's an old muggle thing. The water looks like it's movin' due to a long exposure on the camera." 

"It's very... green," James offered.

The copier raised an eyebrow, "Yes, it's very green. Most of Ireland is." 

"What's this place called?"

"The Poisoned Glen."

"Charming."

"More so than it sounds, really," the copier replied. "It's near by to Donegal." When James didn't seem to know what that was, the bloke went on, "It's on the border of Northern Ireland." Still nothing from James, he said simply, "It's where I'm from."

James nodded, "Well, it looks rather beautiful."

"Aye, it is," the copier nodded. He was undoing the clip that held Underhill's parchments together and shuffling through, inspecting them briefly. "You need this seal copied also?" he asked, pausing and holding up a sheet.

"Yeah, Underhill prefers the dupes to look the same as the originals," James answered.

"Oh this is for Underhill?" the copier asked.

"Yeah."

"So you're the new Annalee."

James answered, "That's what I hear. Sorry, I'm not as much of a looker."

The copier looked up and gave James a once-over of appraisal, then looked back down, "Eh, you'll do."

James laughed heartily. "I s'pose we'll be seeing more of each other, since I'll be working for Underhill for the foreseeable future." He paused, then held out his hand, "I'm Ja--"

"James Potter," the copier said. "I know who ye are." He held his wand in his teeth a moment, laying out the papers in a particular manner and bending to get a sheath of blanks from the box beside him, ignoring James's extended hand and James let it drop back to his side. When the copier took the wand back out of his mouth, he said, "Everyone who attended Hogwarts at the same time as the Marauders knows exactly who the lot of ye are. It isn't as though you were quiet wee things."

James grinned.

"I'm Sean, Sean Buckner," the copier offered.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Sean."

"We've met before, James," Sean said simply.

James looked surprised, "We have?"

"Yes, several times in fact. Most of which was here in this very office, but that's neither here nor there, I understand copying isn't glamorous and hardly could expect ye to remember that." Sean shrugged, and grabbed hold of the top of the stack of Underhill's parchments, aimed his wand, and with a practiced wrist, he did a sort of motion that set the papers fanning like a poker player shuffling a deck of cards at an amazing speed, the wand aimed at them as they moved and as James watched, the blank stack at the side slowly greyed as ink duplicated the stack Sean was fanning. It was rather impressive to watch, actually, when one paid attention to it, and James found himself a bit mesmerized by it. 

"That's very cool," he said.

Sean laughed, "It's a simply duplication spell, honestly, you could probably do it at your desk yourself."

James shrugged. "Where else have we met?"

"Maryrose Jenkins introduced us once," Sean answered. He neatened both the stack of originals and the stack of duplicates and put the clip back on James's originals.

"Did she? I thought she might. You'll have to excuse me, my brain's a bit thick."

"Fifth year," Sean replied, nodding.

James thought about it, then said, "Didn't happen to be during the Spring, did it?"

Sean gave him a curious look.

"Sorry, it's just I was going through a lot 'round about then and I don't reckon I made a very good impression at the time. I'm sorry if I was a bit of an arse." 

Sean shrugged. "Well, I appreciate the apology, Potter." He handed James both stacks of papers. "Here ye are."

"Thanks, Sean." 

Sean looked surprised, but nodded, "Not at all, Potter."

James headed for the door.

"Oh - Potter?"

"Yeah?" James paused and turned back 'round.

"Ye weren't an arse, least wise not to me."

James smiled, "Good. There's no tellin' what sort of idiocy I got up to back in those days. I was a bit of a prat, and you wouldnt've deserved it if I was, I don't reckon."

"Have a good day."

James laughed, "You too."