Girl's Day Out:
"Hermione! Ginny! I'm home!" Harry spun out of the fireplace and deposited his sister-in-law's dry cleaning on the sofa. "And here's your dress, Mione."
"Oh good, you're back." Hermione ran down the stairs, a three-year-old Lily bouncing crazily on her hip. "Daddee!" Lily propelled herself out of Hermione's hands and into Harry's. Thanks to Auror reflexes, Harry caught her just in time. She giggled and buried her face into his neck.
"Now, Ron should be here any minute with James, Rose, Ted and Al. Hugo's asleep in Al's room. There's lunch in the icebox, Muggle money in the top right drawer if you need it, Floo powder where it usually is, I've left my phone on the vanity, and if—"
"Relax, Mione. We'll be fine. It is my place, after all." Hermione checked her watch impatiently "Harry, you and Ron better be, and woe betide you if I have to pick either you or the kids up at St. Mungo's because Ginny's about this close—" she held her fingers a millimeter apart—"from completely breaking down , and Merlin knows how much she needs this. Not to mention the appointment at a Muggle spa, and how long I've waited for this one, specifically and what will happen if something goes wrong?"
"Hermione. We. Will. Be. Fine."
"Oh, yes, of course," she said absent mindedly, tapping the glass of her watch with ever growing impatience. "GINNY!"
"I'm coming!" she called. A moment later, she apparated down the stairs. She looked tired and stressed, with bags under her eyes. She did need a day just for herself. Harry smiled at her and gave her a kiss. Lily closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out. "Yuckee!" everyone laughed. Just then, a sharp popping noise was heard out in the foyer. Hermione rushed out of the sitting room and wrenched the door open. James barreled into her, knocked her off balance and ran into the house. "Ow, oof! James Sirius Potter!" she yelled, picking herself up. Ron followed in next, carrying Rose, and then Ted, and then Al, looking windswept and slight as usual. Ron offered her a hand, and she gratefully accepted it. "We're leaving now." She told him. "All right, have fun, and don't come back too soon." She rolled her eyes.
They entered the sitting room just as Ginny was in the middle of lecturing James. What else was new? Hermione carefully steered Ginny away from her unblushing son, handed her her pocket book, waved to the guys, and POP! Was gone.
As soon as Hermione left, Ron rushed Rose into their bedroom. "Harry help me!" he cried frantically. Harry followed after him. "What the matt…" Rose's entire left side was covered with blood. "Oh, my god." Carefully, but quickly, Ron started to roll up Rose's sleeve. Her left arm, just below the elbow, was completely missing. "I splinched her," Ron responded to Harry's unasked question. "I know Hermione keeps telling me not to, but somehow I managed to, and just her, none of the others were injured or anything, and I mean we've got dittany and blood replenishing potions…" Harry tuned Ron out. He grabbed the Wizarding first aid kit and pulled out the bottle of Dittany. Slowly, he dabbed three drops into the open wound. Skin began to stretch, bone began to regrow, and in a matter of minutes, her entire arm was regrown. Ron gently shook Rose awake. "Rosie, get up," She stirred but did not wake. "Rose Weasley! I will ban you from the library!" Instantly she got up and rubbed her eyes, mumbling something about Mum and how she would never forgive him. "Rose, I need you to take this…this…"
"…Cranberry juice." Harry finished. "Hermione told me how you liked it but I didn't try to make the Muggle way, try it, see if its any good."
Rose nodded and took a sip of the blood-replenishing potion. "Mmmm…good. Can I go play with Al now?" Harry nodded and helped her off the bed. She scampered away.
Halfway down the stairs, she encountered none other but…
"Teddy!" She giggled. "Make your hair Rosie." He obliged, turning his currently blue hair into a frenzied mass of red curls. "You play snap?" she asked, pulling out a pack of Exploding Snap from her dress pocket. HE shook his head. "Maybe later, I'm gonna play Gobstones with James." She looked up eagerly. "I'll play too!" James sidled upto her and pulled her pigtails. "No. Babies cant play with us. You're a baby." She stuck her tongue out. "I AM NOT A BABY!" Laughing, james ran down the stairs,pulling teddy down behind him. Al reached for her hand from behind and led her into his room. "Let's play Snap here," he said, clearing out a stack of Quidditch magazines. She began to sort out the cards.
Teddy had fun the first two games of Gobstones, but after that, he began to get bored. HE was as good as James' brother, but was getting tired of the six year old's antics. So he decided to make a snack for himself. While in the kitchen, however, he noticed a scrap of lime green parchment stuck on the counter with a piece of spellotape. He peeled it off and read,
Harry,
There is some laundry to be taken care of, please make sure you do. If you forgot how to work the dryer, or if it doesn't work DO NOT TRY TO MAGICALLY FIX IT. It will only explode. Ask Ron or, no, wait, don't ask Ron, just hang up a clothesline and please remember to cast Securing charms on the clothes so they don't fly away. Thanks.
Love, Hermione.
Teddy grinned. If there was housework could be done, he could do it. Better yet, he knew someone who could help.
James was looking for Arnold, his mum's pygmy puff( He had been playing with it earlier in the day, and she surely would murder him if he lost it) when he wandered into the sitting room. He saw Ted helping Dominique off of the floor and Victoire holding Louis, trying to calm him down. "Hey." He wandered suspiciously inside. "what are you doing here?" he asked Dominique. She tossed her long red hair over her shoulders. "Nothing. Mum and Dad went to the Veela festival in Paris, and left us alone. Vic decided to come over because she was too lazy to watch us herself." Vic walked over and smacked her on the arm. "I was not! I was just getting bored, and ted wanted us to-" Dom reached over and slapped Vic across the face. Dom was fiery-tempered, and even as young as she was—she hadn't even started Hogwarts yet—she had trouble controlling it. Victoire gasped and raised her hand but ted swiftly inserted himself between the two sisters. Though generally mild tempered, Vic could get ugly, especially when it came to Dom. He pushed the two apart and hurriedly suggested some lunch. Vic nodded and Ted pulled her out of the room by the hand, leaving Dom breathing fire behind them. She vented her feelings by aiming a punch at James, who ducked and scowled at her. She stomped out, yelling in French about…something or the other.
James was suddenly struck by a brilliant idea. If Ted could have friends over, he could too, right?
Ten minutes later, James waltzed out of the sitting room, leading a jubilant Fred and a cranky Roxanne. He paused at the kitchen, where he heard voices.
"All right, so first we turn the stove on.."
"No, Ted, you have to grease the pan first."
"All right, so…Dom, cant you just be happy with some toast? Do you have to have an egg?"
"Maman makes one for me every morning." She said stubbornly, jutting her chin out.
"Ugh..fine."
Fred brightened up and motioned for James to follow him. He burst through the kitchen door. "Hey guys," he said casually, leaning against the counter.
"Fred," Dom said, narrowing her eyebrows, "What are you doing here?"
"Well…heard someone wanted eggs, and I can cook."
"You?" Vic said skeptically.
"Why, yes, mademoiselle." He said, sliding the spatula out of her hand.
"Your French skills, or lack thereof, do not impress me. But if you must…." She held up her hands in surrender, "Go ahead. Just, you know, don't burn the kitchen down or anything."
Fred grinned. "Lovely."
Ted steered Vic out of the room. "Let's go get that laundry done, shall we?"
At this point, Rox started wailing. Dom, who was exceptionally fond of her, picked her up and put her on the blanket that Vic had set up for Louis. Immediately, the two started gurgling and playing with the variety of blocky toys Vic had brought with her.
Harry ran down the stairs, into the kitchen, where he saw Dom. "Dominique?" she whirled around. "Hi Uncle Harry! Ted invited us over, and Mum and Dad are gone to Paris for the day, so Vic decided to come over." He nodded. "Just wondering what you were doing." She pointed to a bundle of blankets. "Putting Louis to sleep." Harry blanched. He had not counted on having a one year old on his hands today. Oh well. Things could only get better, right? Ummm…wrong.
Suddenly there was a shrill beeping noise and the smell of smoke, followed by a loud crash. Harry pulled out his wand and ran in the direction of the noise, Dom close at his heels. He pushed open the kitchen door to reveal a coughing James, desperately waving his hand over the open oven which was spouting plumes of acrid black smoke. Harry hesitated for exactly one second before pulling out the Muggle fire extinguisher Hermione insist they keep. He sprayed it everywhere, until everything was coated in its clingy white contents. Spitting out a mouthful himself, he muttered "Scourgify!" and it all disappeared.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" he rounded on James. "You are six, for Merlin's sake! What makes you think you're old enough to set the kitchen on fire? What were you doing?"
"Uh, Uncle Harry, its, um, my fault as well. I forgot to turn off the oven." The smoke cleared to reveal an abashed looking Fred. The only people Fred admitted anything to was Harry and, surprisingly, Hermione, his godmother.
"Well, then in that case, you should have known better, Fred! Now, both of you clean this up!" It would be a bit comical, he supposed, if it hadn't been his kitchen blown up. Ron would be proud.
While taking a very cranky Hugo downstairs to eat, Ron ran into Teddy and Victoire. They were coming in from outside, both looking rather flushed. "Vic? What're you doing here?" she looked up. "Oh, Hi Uncle Ron. Mum and Dad left for the Veela Festival today, and Ted called us over." Ron looked confused. "The Veela Festival? The one in Paris?" Vic nodded. "you have to be thirteen, and Dom's not even part veela, so we weren't allowed to go." Now Ron was laughing. "Your dad went to a Veela Festival?" She nodded. He chuckled. "Huh."
Ron entered the kitchen and set Hugo on the table. James and Fred had just finished cleaning, with Teddy's wand, Ron noticed. He winked at them on their way out. Harry came in, looking very flustered, holding Louis in one arm and Rox in the other. "What do you feed a one year old again? Its been ages since Lily was a year old." He muttered, running his hands through his hair and poking through the icebox. "Speaking of which, where is the princess?" Ron wondered, slicing an apple. Harry looked up from the inner depths of the fridge, hair sticking up on one side. "Didn't you have her?" Ron shook his head. "I thought you did." Harry set Louis and Rox on the floor while Ron pulled Hugo off the counter. Together, they ran through the house, calling Lily over and over. Panicking, Harry burst through the bedroom door and discovered a ..well, a sight.
Lily was standing in the middle of the room, a stick of bright red lipstick in her hand. The vanity was upturned behind her, tubes and bottles spilling out of their drawers onto the floor, some open, others broken. But the walls was what worried Harry the most. Scrawled in bright red lipstick were designs and incomprehensible faces that could only be the obscure art of a three year old. "Lily," Harry sighed softly and sank to the floor. "Why were you looking through Mummy's desk? We explained this to you. You can't go around touching Mummy's things without asking." Lily's face dropped. "I made pictures for Daddy, but you don't like them?" she crawled into his lap. "No, love, I'd prefer it if your art is on paper, not my bedroom walls." Ron walked over to the vanity and found the box for the lipstick.
Wonder Witch LipStick
Guaranteed Hold For at least 12 hours
"Harry," Ron moaned softly. "Look." He tossed him the box. Harry read it, and his face hardened.
"Take all the kids outside except for the babies and Victoire. Tell them they can play Quidditch or something. Send her with the kids up here."
Ron nodded and apparated down the stairs. Harry turned away from the wall and started rubbing his temples. Poor Ginny. She had to deal with this every day! No wonder she was so stressed.
His thoughts were interrupted by a bang and a series of loud, relentless pounding. He had to stop and make sure it wasn't his head throbbing. But when he heard Teddy's pleading cries, he dashed out of the room. "Ted! Ted ! where are you?" the pounding stopped for a minute, and then—
"In here!" IT seemed to be coming from a large coat closet on the second floor. Harry raced down the stairs, pointed his wand in the keyhole and bellowed, "Alohomora!"
Nothing happened.
"This is the enchanted one Grandad gave us. Its only supposed to open with the key." Ted explained in a muffled voice to a bemused harry.
"Well then where's the key?" he finally asked.
"Uhhh…I dunno. Rose locked me in here because I said I wouldn't play snap with her."
"Brilliant. Hermione's five year old has the only key to this magically resistant cupboard. There's no telling what she'll do with it." Harry said bitterly.
"Harry!" Ron called urgently from downstairs. Harry bolted down to the kitchen doors, where Ron was standing, and behind him were two huge clotheslines, completely empty. "What?"
Ron held up Hermione's note. "The kids got it before I did, and, erm….well….they hung up the laundry." He said quietly.
"So…what's the problem?"
"They never picked it up. The forgot to do the securing charms." Harry's eyes widened. "Are you trying to tell me that my knickers are flying away somewhere ?"
Ron fought to keep his face straight. "Yeah."
"Well, isn't that splendid!" he marched back into his house, leaving a laughing Ron in his wake.
Ron entered the house, still laughing at the mental picture of Harry's underwear zooming across the countryside. He saw a strange glint of gold coming from the doormat. He bent down to examine it. It was a key, a key to his dad's magical cupboard, the one he had given to Harry and Ginny for their wedding…on instinct, he apparated into the second floor hallway and fit the key into the lock. The door sprung open, revealing a terrified Ted. "Ted? What happened?" Ted spared him one glance before answering shortly, "Your daughter," and running away. Ron groaned. He went into each and every room in the second floor. "Rose! Rosie! Where are you?" he pushed open the door to the bathroom to reveal Rose, in Hermione's dress, playing with her phone. She was standing with her back to the door, next to the bathtub, which was slowly filling itself with pink bubbles.
"Rose?"
She whirled around, startled, and dropped the phone into the bath. Her eyes widened, and ignoring Ron's call of "Rose, no!" she leaned over to extract the phone from a watery grave. Ron leaped forward and caught her just before she fell, but the damage was already done. The bodice of Hermione's formal dress was wet and soapy, and crinkled in other places. So much for the dry cleaning.
Ron plunged his hand into the tub, looking for the phone. He finally located it, and pulled it out. The screen was blank. He set it on the side of the tub, tapped it with his wand. "Ennervate." It remained blank. Damn. He pocketed it for the time being, making a mental note to ask Harry or his dad how to work these stupid Muggle gadgets Hermione insists on having.
He undressed Rose, and tried to scourgify Hermione's dress, but the fabric was too stiff to make any real difference. Carefully, he slipped it in its plastic covering, hung it in the back of Ginny's closet, and prayed Hermione wasn't planning to wear it anytime soon.
"Merlin's beard! What happened in here?" Ron entered the kitchen to reveal a chocolate-covered Hugo, an empty box of Chocolate Frogs, and a huge pile of cards. "Hugh, mate, did you eat all of these?" Ron asked, knowing what the answer was, but hoping against hope he was wrong. Hugo gave a nervous grin, and burped loudly. Ron laughed nervously, running a hand through his already mussed up hair. "Your mum is going to murder me." Rose laughed. "Mum isn't going to kill you dad. Look," she reached up and grabbed his wand out of his back pocket and waved it "Scourgify!" the counter cleaned itself, and Hugo's face was wiped clean. "There." She said, patting his hand. Ron smiled. She never failed to amaze him, nor did her mother. "Thanks, love," he said, kneeling down so they were eye to eye. "But that still doesn't stop Hugh from getting sick, does it?" she rolled her eyes. "Dadee…..use a potion or something!"
Ron rifled through a mediwitch book Hermione kept for cases like these. It said to use two drops of Stomachache potion every two hours until the pain stopped. Ron shut the book, Summoned the required potion, and measured out exactly two drops.
Harry burst through the door. "Ron, help me, the kids were playing Quidditch and Dom fell off her broom." Dominique was lying unconscious in his arms. Ron took her from him and laid her on the couch to examine the damage. A moment later, Ted came in, followed by a sobbing Victoire, and then James, and Fred, who was carrying Roxanne. Al came in a moment later, holding Lily by the hand.
Harry took a deep breath. Dom was still breathing. He turned to the others. "Listen. Vic, do you know how to remove WonderWitch products?" Startled, Victoire nodded. "Good. Take the entire crew upstairs and try to remove the lipstick Lil painted my walls with, all right? James will tell you where the sponges and buckets are, and if you need any magic, Ted, you're allowed to use your wand, but only to clean." Distracting them would help them concentrate and clean his walls.
Carefully, he turned Dom over. She had blood caking the bottom of her skull and more was flowing through a cut just above her ear. He Summoned some bandages and hot water and cleaned the wound. It was quite deep. He siphoned the grass and mud away from the edges to reduce risk of infection. Then he carefully sealed the wound using Dittany. Ron wrapped a thick bandage around her skull and carried her upstairs to Al's bedroom, where she could peacefully rest.
Then the two dads checked on their kids. The walls were sparkling clean. There were no sponges or buckets in sight, only a little pot labeled Cold Cream could be seen. All the kids were knocked out, fast asleep, on Harry and Ginny's bed. Harry walked over to behind the bed and found more Cold Cream bottles. "That's strange. Ginny only has one bottle of Cold cream. Where'd Vic get the others?" Ron grinned and picked up Ted's wand. "Geminio." Harry laughed softly, "She's smart." Ron shrugged. "She's got a Weasley for a father, what do you expect? Oh, by the way Harry, Rose accidently dropped Hermione's phone in the bathtub today…" he drew his hand put of his pocket and pointed to the blank screen. Harry shrugged. "Don't ask me, mate, your dad's the expert on that."
Just then, two popping noises could be heard. Harry and Ron ventured downstairs to see their wives waiting for them. "Hey," Hermione greeted them. "How are the kids?" Ron pressed a finger to his lips to indicate silence. "Asleep." "Oh? And how did your kids behave, may I ask?" Harry and Ron exchanged a glance before saying in unison, "Perfect little angels."