*There are 4 chapters to this story, I will be posting daily to match the days, culminating on Sunday September 1st*

James Sirius Potter had been sent upstairs by his mother to start packing for Hogwarts. He grumbled, usually he left it to the night before they left, then chucked a few last minute things in the morning. But his mother had insisted, and not many people defied Ginny Potter; his father being one of the few brave enough to even try.

He pulled the trunk out of his closet and dragged it to the middle of the room, sitting with legs spreadeagled, with the trunk inside them. He opened the lid, immediately screwing his nose up at the smell. Investigating further, he pulled out two pairs of sweaty socks and a teeshirt from the last time he'd played Quidditch at school, balling them all up together and throwing them in a corner of the room.

He sniffed again, then upturned the trunk, letting books, scarves, parchment and quills fall out. Laying the trunk back down, he pulled out his wand and, thinking no-one would know, he cast a freshening charm on the trunk. Pleased with himself at his efforts – he'd seen his mum and gran do it a million times – he grinned.

"Tsk, tsk, is that a Potter doing underage magic?"

James looked up, prepared to defend himself, but relaxed when he saw it was just Teddy. He knew his godbrother – brother, really – wouldn't tell on him, but he wasn't taking any chances, now Teddy was working at the ministry with his dad.

"Should have locked the door," he grumbled.

"Yeah, you should have," agreed Teddy, " you do not want to make your mum mad these days, trust me."

"Dad's just as bad," nodded James, clearing a space for Teddy to walk in and sit on his bed. "So what's up?"

"We need to have a chat." Something about Teddy's tone sounded awfully familiar to James.

"About what?" he asked, suspiciously.

"Lily, of course."

"What about her?" asked James.

Teddy shot him an 'are you serious?' look. " She's leaving for her first year at Hogwarts with you guys on Sunday."

James nodded. "Yeah...so?"

Teddy looked at him. "James," he sighed, " you know what I'm going to ask you. The same thing I asked you two years ago."

"Yeah, and look how well that went," muttered James, more to himself, as he fingered a hole in a worn scarf.

"So Al's in Slytherin, so what?" demanded Teddy. "What will you do if Lily's sorted there too?"

James snorted. "No way, Lily is the most Gryffindor-est one of all of us."

Teddy chuckled and nodded in agreement. "You're probably right...but it shouldn't matter. She's your sister, and you and Al need to look out for her."

"She hates being protected," whined James.

"I said look out for, not be an overprotective git," reminded Teddy. "I'm sure your mum already taught her a certain hex."

James wondered if Teddy was right. Since Lily had come home from Diagon Alley last week, with all her new school books and sundry, he had seen her and their mum with their heads together more often than not.

He looked up at Teddy. "I already fucked it up with Al, what if...what if Lily isn't sorted into Gryffindor?"

He remembered the shock and disappointment when the Sorting Hat had shouted "Slytherin, and his brother had slunk over to join the Malfoy kid. All the plans he, James, had had, to show his brother the secret passage ways, to let Al join him and Freddie in their pranks, they were all gone, and he hadn't known how to tell Al that without sounding like a prat.

So he had ignored Al, even more so when the rumours started about Scorpius Malfoy being the son of Voldemort. Al didn't seem to even miss James, never came to the Gryffindor table in the Great hall, never came to James asking for help in lessons, or finding his way around the castle.

But he had never checked up on his little brother, as he had promised Teddy almost exactly two years ago.

He was a lousy big brother. The distance between him and Al now seemed impossible to breach.

A hand lay on his shoulder, and he looked up at Teddy. "It's not too late, you know. You could go talk to him right now." He looked up; Al's bedroom was directly over James', in the attic.

"Are you going to go and talk to him?" asked James, curiously. "About Lily, I mean."

Teddy got to his feet and headed for the door. He stopped and looked back at James. "Nah. That's something an older brother should do. My job is done."

With that, he smiled and walked away, going back downstairs to thank Ginny for dinner and hug her, Harry and Lily goodbye, having already said goodbye to Al earlier.

Two hours later, the Potter house settled into quiet. Ginny, having scourgified James' trunk and set it in the mud room to air, was now on the sofa with Harry, listening to the wireless wrap up the Tutshill Tornadoes/Appleby Arrows match which Tutshill had won.

Lily had gone to bed, but James was sure she wasn't asleep. She was spending the next day with her godmother, Luna Lovegood, and was probably picking out several outfits to wear, for one never knew where you'd end up on an outing with Aunt Luna.

James stacked his new schoolbooks, parchment, quills and ink in a corner of his room, planning to sort his clothes the next day, when his trunk should be aired out enough to pack. His mother had taken his scarf to mend, and he had spent the last half hour polishing his broom.

Hearing a door open, then shut above him, reminded him of what Teddy had said so, before he could change his mind, he left his room and went up the stairs.

He knocked lightly but there was no answer. The door had swung open slightly at his touch, so he knocked louder and opened the door, stepping in.

Albus Severus was on his bed, still dressed, but his eyes were closed as he listened to music on his music box thing that their grandpa had given him. Aunt Angelina had shown him how to add his favourite music on it, and Albus loved it.

James looked around, smiling smugly to see Albus hadn't finished packing his trunk either, for it sat open and ready, with just his books and a few clothes thrown in, like Albus didn't even really care.

James looked around the small room; Albus' bed was under the window and the slanted ceilings on either side made the room look cosy. He spied a colourful knitted blanket draped over the end of the bed, and a photo of Brazilian Quidditch star, Goncalo Flores, waved to him as he walked closer.

Albus' eyes were still closed, completely unaware of James' presence. Feeling uncomfortable, for Al never invited him here to his private sanctuary, James merely shook Albus' foot, encased in running shoes.

Albus' eyes flew open and he simultaneously sat up and yanked the earphones off his head.

"What the fuck, James?" he demanded.

"You didn't hear my knock," shrugged James, looking around further.

"So you just came in anyway? Bloody rude, I could have been doing anything in here," pouted Albus.

"Like what?" James looked over his shoulder to see Albus shove some parchment under his pillow. No, not just parchment, letters. From who, wondered James, Malfoy?

"Never you mind. What do you want?" asked Al, surly.

James sighed; hating the tension between him and Al, and Al and their dad. "Teddy left."

"That's it? Okay, fine, Teddy left. Thanks for that information, and goodbye." Dismissed, Al lay back down, his earphones in his hand, green eyes burning as he waited for his brother to leave.

He arched an eyebrow when James didn't move. "What?"

"We need to talk...brother to brother," said James, determinedly.

Albus eyed him warily. "About what?"

"Lily. She's coming to Hogwarts with us on Sunday."

Albus rolled his eyes. "Really? I had no idea. Are you sure, James?" His tone was mocking.

James rubbed his eyes. "Look, shut it, will you. Let me say what I have to say, then you'll respond with something cutting, I'll reply with wittiness, you'll be sarcastic and all Slytherin-y, and we'll be at a stalemate, then I can go, all right?"

Albus actually looked amused, crossing his arms across his stomach. " Sounds about right. All right then, have at it."

James took a deep breath. "Lily, our baby sister Lily" – Albus rolled his eyes once again – "is going to Hogwarts with us for the first time...and it's our job as her older brothers to look out for her ..."

A flash of hurt fell over Albus' face before he carefully schooled his features. James continued, looking up at the photo of the fit Goncalo Flores.

"...no matter where she is sorted," finished James. He took a deep breath again and looked at Albus. His body was stiff and James could feel the anger emanating off him.

He swallowed and took a chance, thinking of what Teddy had said, what his parents had told him often enough the last two years.

"I know I let you down, Al -" he began.

Albus snorted. "Ya reckon?"

" – and if I could go back and change things, I would, honest," continued James, tampering down his quick Weasley temper at Albus' interruption.

"Change what? Me being sorted into Slytherin?" asked Albus, seemingly already knowing the anwer.

"NO! Honest Al, if, if that's where the sorting hat thinks you should be, then who am I to argue with it,' replied James.

"Then what, then?" asked Albus, wary again, " what would you change?"

"I would come over to you after the feast, tell you it doesn't make a difference to me, tell you I'd see you at breakfast, check your schedule, show you and Mal-er, Scorpius, where your classrooms are. Because that is what I should have done two years ago, Al." James spoke in complete honesty, his eyes now fixed on Albus's bright green ones.

Albus said nothing for several seconds, then, " why didn't you?" he asked, mumbled.

"I had so many plans for you and me to use dad's cloak and the map, to show you around the castle...then you got sorted into Slytherin."

"And you didn't want anything to do with me," stated Albus simply.

"No, it's just, I was in shock at first, then you had Scorpius and I thought you were going all right, making friends," shrugged James.

Albus snorted. " Son of Voldemort and the Slytherin Squib Potter. We only had each other, we looked out for each 's my best friend."

James gulped. "I-I'm sorry Al, really I am. I heard rumours...you and Rose weren't friends any more..."

"You teased me –"

"I tease everyone!"

"You never tried to like Scorpius," accused Albus.

James gulped. "Yeah, I shouldn't have listened to dad on that one. He was worried you didn't have more friends."

"Better one true friend that a bunch of followers," snapped Albus.

James took some deep gulps of air. "Al, look its not too late. You're a third year this year, that means Hogsmeade visits. I – we can go together, you, me, Freddie and Scorpius. We'll have fun, yeah?"

"Fun? Scorpius' mum is dying, James. I hardly think fun is what's important to him right now," snapped Albus.

"Woah." James sat on the end of Albus' bed. "That's horrible. I'm sorry, I had no idea."

"Yeah." Suddenly Albus was exhausted. "Look, I dont want to fight with you anymore. It's not like we see each other at school much...and we both know Lily is more than likely going to end up in Gryffindor, so it's going to be on you more than me."

"Yeah." James sat there contemplating while Albus watched James.

"Plus she'll have Rose, maybe Hugo. You know the other cousins will watch out for her too, she is the baby of the family," reminded Al, gentler now.

James nodded but looked again at Albus. "But she's our sister, and we should, I don't know, try to get together every now and then, just the three of us. Check in on each other. What do you think?"

Albus nodded slowly. "I think I'd like that...for Lily's sake, I mean."

"Oh yeah," James agreed immediately, " for Lily."

"And no more slithery Slytherin teasing, James, I mean it," said Albus, pointedly.

"I promise," said James, crossing his heart. He settled back on Albus' bed. "So..."

"What?"

"Any cute girls in Slytherin?"

"James..."

"Yeah?"

"Get out."

James chuckled as he stood and walked to the door. "Night, little brother."

"Goodnight."

James walked down the stairs and went to his bedroom, his heart much lighter. He didn't notice Lily's door slightly open, an eye peering out, as he strolled past her room.

Lily closed her door, leaning back against it, smiling.

"Good," she said to herself. "About time."