SPRING FEVER
By APMom
All the usual disclaimers regarding the characters apply
The appearance of a robin flitting across the garden took Harry Potter's gaze from his reports to the window of his new home office. The back garden was in pretty dismal shape, a startling contrast to the now completely renovated interior of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Well almost completely renovated, as Harry had quite readily acquiesced to Kreacher's request that Master Regulus' old bedroom not be changed. Harry didn't really have the heart to do anything to change Sirius' room either and so the attic would remain as it was for the time being.
The garden was another story, and in a mere two weeks time, Easter Break would arrive and with it, Neville and his new landscape plan. And Ginny.
His musings on patios and azaleas and redheads were interrupted by a loud growl coming from the sitting room in the front of the house. 'Just Vernon,' he shrugged and tried to go back to the interrogation reports that he was suppose to be reviewing in the first place.
"Grrrr"
"Yip, Yip, Yip".
"GGGRRRR."
"YAP!"
"Vernon, Petunia come in here!" Harry yelled across the house.
"Growl".
"Vernon!" The young wizard noisily crumpled a wad of paper, Vernon's favorite snack, and tossed it across the floor. "Here Vernon. Food!"
The only response was another annoyed yelp from Petunia.
Harry got up from the desk and sighed. He had broken the two up at least twice already today. He knew he should have called Dedalus Diggle to do that spell he had promised when he had dropped the pair off last summer, as he had caught Vernon following Petunia around the house with a predatory look in his eyes just the other day. But he had been on the night shift and, well he just hadn't gotten around to it yet.
As he entered the sitting room, however, he caught sight of the pair on his new leather sofa and knew it was probably now too late. Vernon had Petunia pinned against the armrest and he seemed quite happy with himself to say the least. Petunia, on the other hand, gave Vernon a hard nip on the neck, wiggled out from underneath and ran from the room, growling.
Harry just shook his head. There wasn't much he could do about it now. "Vernon, you are such a beast!" he laughed as he went back into the office to send a now belated owl to Diggle.
Several weeks later....
The new azaleas were just starting to bloom as Harry and Ron finished up laying the flagstones on the walk to the carriage house in the back.
"Master Harry, come quick!" Kreacher's assistant elf, Bitsy, called from the mudroom door. She was fairly young but Harry had let the Black"s old elf pick his own helper from the ranks of all the homeless elves seeking shelter at Hogwarts after the war. They certainly seemed to work well together despite the age difference, and Kreacher had assured his Master that a young female elf would be perfect to "assist with all of Master Harry's babies". Harry had found the contemplation of that prospect both comforting (as he would have much needed help when Teddy stayed over), and frightening (he was only eighteen, after all).
"The cruppies are coming!" Bitsy squealed excitedly.
Harry and Ron ran into the house and followed Bitsy down to the basement kitchen. There in the corner lay Petunia, now grooming three ugly, hairless, fork-tailed pups curled up against her warm and tired body.
Vernon paced back and forth across the kitchen, growling viciously every time anyone went near. Ron's grin of anticipation had faded to green as he took in the bloody blanket on which mother and babies lay. Kreacher now had his arm around Bitsy and they were watching the proceedings with lopsided smiles and dreamy expressions.
Harry couldn't help but stare at the pair as Bitsy rubbed her stomach in circles with her right hand and Kreacher gently patted her back. Something was going on here that he hadn't noticed before. Harry's eyes widened in sudden understanding as the cagey old elf spoke.
"Er, Master Harry, Kreacher and Bitsy have something to tell you", he began nervously as Ron slumped soundlessly to the floor.