roll away your stone I will roll away mine

So, obviously James didn't know what Teddy had been up to. Even after all this time and distance and awkwardness, she couldn't help the amused smirk that pressed against her lips, always glad to see her seemingly unshakeable brother tripped up by something, especially when it meant throwing his own confidence into doubt. For a second, she felt nine years old again, and Teddy was correcting some stupidly false hypothesis about hippogriffs that James had posited with absolute authority. The only thing missing was Albus rolling his eyes and Ginny tsk-ing playfully at them.

But then she blinked and remembered that the men before her shaved and she was a professor, and Albus was gone and Ginny was dead.

Teddy looked almost irritated, another piece of evidence that this wasn't her childhood. Happy-go-lucky, everyone-is-good Teddy had been replaced by someone nursing a wound he wasn't sure existed. "Not sure when I'd be able to introduce her, all things considered," he said, shooting a look at James. His eyes wandered over to Lily, and he deflated a bit. She had that ability with him, to make him feel like he had to better or stronger or whatever. He let out a sigh and shook his head, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. "Sorry. She's great. I don't want to mess things up-"

"By introducing her to your crazy family," Lily added.

"No!" Teddy said, defensive immediately until he saw the smirk playing at Lily's mouth. Merlin, she was too smart for her own good. He shook his head, relaxing a bit more as he realized he was the one being too serious. "That's not it. Sorry. Her name's Avery. She's this amazing person, works in the Ministry, has this beautiful daughter- she's a friend of Keiran's, which is, y'know..."

"Intimidating?" Lily offered.

"Terrifying," he corrected. "But, yeah, maybe we can do introductions once... I dunno. Once I know I'm not messing everything up we can see about you meeting her."

Well, needless to say James was fascinated. He hadn't heard Teddy speak that way about anyone before, though he'd heard rumors during school about some girl he was interested in. So it wasn't exactly a baffling occurrence. Just fascinating. So when he was passed an unimpressed look by his godbrother, James smirked. Because, yeah. That made sense.

Of course, James would forget most of what he was told upon leaving Teddy's that night. Not the whole 'dating someone' part. But the details, yeah. Details weren't really his thing unless they could be used to make fun or cause some sort of disruption. And he wasn't about to make fun of a single mother, even though it would be easy to use Teddy to do so. James wasn't that callous. Merlin's sake.

"Interesting," he mused finally, tilting his head to the side. "Maybe next time Lily breaks in it'll be for dinner with this girl of yours. If it helps, I'll tone down the charm, just in case." A smirk lifted one side of his mouth but he was clearly joking. Mostly.

It was weird to see familiar expressions dancing on Teddy's face. Versions of faces she had seen on Apollo as they curled up, made plans, thought into the future where all their hopes lay. On Teddy, they were uncertain, reserved, fighting not to spill out in front of two people who knew the language of his face. But they were there. And if Lily had not been someone who prized privacy and wanted it for her brother as well, she might have pointed them out.

She smirked and rolled her eyes, her gaze dropping to the table at James' joke. Teddy, however, had just remembered Lily, for lack of a better sensation. His eyes flicked to her and settled there, noting the small grin on her lips reserved for those rare moments where they all felt like family again. Was that why she had come back? In the hopes that all could just mend? It didn't sound like the cynic he knew.

"Why did break in, then?" he asked, eyes narrowing just enough to indicate that he was committed to finding the truth, not just her version of it.

But Lily was practiced in the art of withholding. "You know, they say once a criminal, always one, so."