Everything was under control. Dinner, a wonderful filo pastry topped chicken pie, was in the oven bubbling merrily. The salad was fresh and glistening in a bowl on the sideboard and the table was set Ten perfectly aligned knives, forks and glasses gleaming and ready to go. The late afternoon sunlight warmed the kitchen through a double set of French doors; both currently flung open to allow the very essence of summer filter into the house. There was a strong scent from the lavender that framed the patio and it mingled with the smell of the pie as it cooked.
Confident that she could do nothing more until her husband and sister-in-law arrived home Ginny Potter walked through the doors feeling the sun hit her skin. She stopped briefly watching her brother race around the lawn pursued by her husband's godson and her eldest son both of whom wielded brightly coloured plastic water guns, aiming with deadly and sopping accuracy. She smiled as she watched her second son and her niece hurtle from behind the summer house and into Ron's path forcing him to swerve towards the two youngest members of the family who quickly pulled a rope, Merlin knew where from, in front of his feet bringing him to the ground. She heard him bellow as all four of children quickly piled onto him – a wriggling and giggling mass of tickling followed by squeals of laughter as James and Teddy alternated powering their WWW Reservoir Charged Soakers at the pile of limbs wrestling on the floor.
"Should I help him d'you think?"
She turned to the sound of her husband who had stepped into the open door way, case still in hand and soot clinging to the arm of his shirt indicating he had only just arrived. Her smile blossomed into a grin as she reached up to wipe the soot away and to kiss his cheek.
"Nah. I think he's got it under control." She sniggered as they both stood for a moment watching as Ron pulled himself upright and shook his head droplets of water shooting away from him as if he were a dog just out of a river only to be pulled back down by Albus clambering on his back.
"Daddy!" A pink streak, hair glowing in the sun shot out of the ? on the floor and ploughed into his stomach. "You're home!" She peered around him, "Where's Aunt Hermione? I'm hungry?"
Lily's disengagement from the group has given Ron a moment's respite and he took it jumping to his feet. He shoulder charged Teddy whilst flicking his hair which flickered between blue and purple at the touch and pulling James into a loose headlock with one arm and tickling his side mercilessly with the other.
"Peace, Uncle Ron, Peace" he yelled "Dad! Save me!"
Harry planted a quick kiss on his daughters crown, muttered at her to hold tight, dropped his case and headed towards the group in the middle of the lawn.
"Seems to me like you've bit off more than you can chew son," he laughed as he watched the two. He caught his godson's eye and made an almost indiscernible tilt of his head. Demonstrating reflexes that had not slowed over time he reached out and grabbed the Soaker as it flew through the air. He pumped it once and then fired it down the back of his best friend's shirt. Almost immediately James was released and in a heartbeat treating the front of his uncle's polo shirt in the same way much to the hilarity of the children still on the floor.
"I give in, I give in!" Ron shouted. "I've learned my lesson. Never mess with the Potter's!"
"Victory" shouted James high fiving his father who laughed whilst pulling his other son from the floor and to his side.
"A drying charm if you wouldn't mind Gin? pleaded Ron laughing, "and I'm with Lil's - where is my wife? I thought she was going to head straight here with you from the ministry tonight mate."
Ginny headed out to the lawn wielding her wand at the family and dried them off, "Do I need to slow down dinner?"
"Don't think so," said Harry, pushing his hair from his forehead, "we'd just got off the lift on the way to the floo when she got pinged by a memo. She's been called down to the Registry room. No idea what but she didn't seem too worried so I don't think it has anything to do with anything she's working on at the moment. Mind, she did say that we should start dinner without her if needed. " he paused as the group walked back to the house, "you know she doesn't like to be a bother."
Ginny thought – eyes seeking out the two clocks on the wall. The regular clock told her she still had ten minutes before she needed to get dinner out of the oven whilst the nifty upgrade on the family clock she had grown up with showed Hermione was 'in transit'. As she looked the words flipped over in the odd style Hermione has created years ago to 'visiting'. No sooner had the words registered than Hermione herself appeared in the open door between the hallway, which held the floo, and the kitchen.
"You okay?"
"Good day?"
"Mum!"
"Anything we need to worry about?"
"You look like a glass of wine would go down well. Hmm?"
A cacophony of voices greeted her plus one set of serious glinting green eyes. She smiled, her own eyes quickly spotting the tell tale signs of the afternoon's frivolity. She held her arms out to her children, turning her face upwards to her husband for a kiss. She stopped for a moment and then with a deep breadth,
" I'm fine Ted, you? I had a lovely day thank you Rosie. "Hugo! Good to see you too, do I want to know what happened to your shorts?" she spotted the mud and grass stains that her son was littered with and he looked down, bit his lip and shook his head firmly "Nothing to worry about at all Ron, and Gin a glass of wine sounds beyond perfect . I don't suppose you have any of that elven fizz we had last weekend do you? Oh and Harry stop with the glaring everything is fine. In fact," the adults goggled at her and she let out a very un Hermione Weasley giggle, " things are fabulous!"
"Okay folks, I need everyone at the table in five minutes. I need everyone clean," Ginny eyeballed her eldest son and allowed her eyes to flick to his hands which he promptly put behind his back, "washed and ready to eat" Having so dismissed the younger members of the party Ginny turned into the kitchen opening the door to the cool air charmed pantry and pulled out a bottle of the requested wine whilst her husband retrieved wine glasses from the table which she quickly filled to near their rims.
"Are we celebrating then?" he asked.
"Lets wait for the kids, I think they'll be interested, especially Rosie and Al." She rolled her glass in hand and took a deep breath of the wine, "any help required Ginny?"
The red head smiled weakly at the thought of her sister in law in her kitchen, "you could get the jugs of juice out of the pantry for the kids." She raised her voice to be heard upstairs, "Teddy will you have wine, butterbeer or juice with dinner?"
Less than ten minutes later a significantly fresher looking group sat around the table, plates piled high with food.
"So love," Ron started speaking around a mouthful of food, "you going to tell us what has you giggling and necking wine on a school night?"
The hand that was lifting a forkful of chicken stopped in mid air. Everyone around the table froze. Ginny pulled her lips together and looked down at her plate trying not to catch anyone else's eye. This was classic Ron and she was fully expecting his wife to start shouting. At the bare minimum he was going to get full named. As the youngest of a large family she had never quite grown out of the joy of watching one of her siblings get firmly put in her place and Hermione had it down to an art form.
"Ah yes," Hermione took a breath and tried to ignore her frustration with Ron, "my little diversion on the way home from work. It's about Peter. Well more accurately it's about Olivia." She put for knife and fork down on the plate and watched the rest of the table.
The Potter kids and their mother looked blankly at her, as did Teddy. Ron has the furrow in between his eyebrows that meant he was thinking hard. Their son was showcasing the same look in perfect duplicate. Amusingly Rose and Harry were trying out the opposite look, both pairs of eyebrows shooting for their hairlines as they opened their mouths,
"Your dad's brother?"
"Great uncle Peter? cousin Liv?"
Noise broke out around the table as Hermione caught Harry's eye. They stared at each other briefly. His eyebrows moved once more and she motioned forward with her head.
"Yup. Her name's appeared on the Hogwarts Register. My cousin should get her letter tomorrow and they want me to take it down there," all heads were now turned towards Hermione whose eyes shone with mirth, "if I manage to explain to my uncle how everything he thought was true for the last thirty eight years wasn't quite as he saw it AND how his daughter is in fact a witch," again she let out a most unusual giggle, "come September Hogwarts gets a Weasley," she smiled at her daughter fondly, "a Potter," now she made eye contact with Albus who for seemed to have forgotten his pre school nerves as he grinned back at her, "and a Granger!" she leaned back in her chair and watched the show unfold, "just imagine!"
