"Bill?" Harry yelled as he stumbled out of the fireplace at Shell Cottage. "Bill, you around?"
A red head popped around the living door and Harry smiled at the sight of his niece. "Hi Uncle Harry." Dominique grinned, flopping down on one of the sofas.
"Hi Dom, how's your summer going?" He asked the twelve year old who was holding a book with a title he didn't understand and he made the correct assumption that it was in French.
"It's alright, there's nothing quite like Hogwarts though." The twelve year old shrugged and Harry grinned, knowing exactly how the soon to be second year felt. He'd experienced the same thing when he'd returned home after his first year.
"Harry?" The auror turned to the door to see his eldest brother-in-law stood there and he smiled. Bill was intimidating, he always had been. Harry knew the story well enough himself. He had been terrified of the overprotective nature of the man when his relationship with Ginny had been revealed. Bill was a kind man but when it came to the women in his life, he had a tendency to be slightly overdramatic.
"I need to talk to you; it's about Victoire and Teddy." Harry watched as the man tensed and then sighed, turning to his middle child.
"Squirt, could you go upstairs please?" He asked and the twelve year old huffed but complied, stopping to kiss her father's cheek on the way out as if to prove that she wasn't really angry.
"Bill, this is getting ridiculous." Harry said honestly, sitting down on the sofa that his niece had just occupied. He watched carefully as the large man settled into an armchair slowly.
"The kid couldn't come himself?" Bill almost growled and Harry sighed, leaning back in his seat. He knew this was hard for Bill. He was dreading the day when his little Lilypad was old enough to date but Teddy and Victoire had been dating for almost three years and Bill still wasn't letting up.
"Hey, he wanted to but I told him I'd speak to you. We've been here before, although you were never this harsh with me." Harry commented and Bill chuckled darkly, thinking of the conversation he'd had with the man sat in front of him nearly 20 years ago.
"That's because I knew deep down you were perfect for Gin." The older man sighed, some of the tension leaving his face.
"And Teddy's perfect for Victoire. Merlin Bill, I've never seen two people more in sync than those two. You'd think they could read each other's minds. You know it's not Teddy that's the issue here, like it wasn't me that was the issue with Ginny." The auror probed, watching the emotions dance across the father's face.
There was a long pause in which Harry could hear the gentle sounds of his niece and nephew arguing upstairs and then Bill sighed heavily. "Can you believe she's seventeen already?" He asked, looking at Harry. The younger man truly couldn't. Victoire had been like a beacon of hope for the entire Weasley family when she was born and Harry could still remember holding that little pink bundle of joy. She had fit in the palm of his hand and now? She was an adult. An actual legal adult.
He thought of the carefree days they'd spent at the Burrow, watching the kids run around. Victoire Weasley had had everyone wrapped around her little finger from day one. A flash of her toothy grin and a flick of her long blonde hair and she could worm her way out of any sort of trouble she and Teddy found themselves in.
"The time's flown by." Harry commented, thinking of his own family. His own little baby girl was already nine years old. When had that happened? His little flower had blossomed into a little person, full of ideas and opinions. It was strange to think about. "But Bill, this is what we fought for. Remus. Tonks. Colin. Fred. This is what they died for. The chance for a world where our children could grow up without ever knowing what it felt like to be terrified that tomorrow wouldn't come. A chance for a world where lovewas the greatest force, not hate."
Another deep sigh. "I should loosen up on the boy but it's hard. She's my baby girl and I feel like if I accept whatever's between the two of them, she won't be mine anymore."
"She's always gonna be your baby girl Bill, you know that." Harry reassured him and Bill nodded, the torn look still on his face.
At that point the fire roared and two red heads tumbled out, Harry's wife and daughter.
"Daddy!" Lily grinned and flung herself into Harry's lap. The auror chuckled and shifted her so she was more comfortable and hugged her tightly.
"There you are. Hi Bill!" Ginny sighed at her husband but grinned at her big brother, embracing him almost as enthusiastically as Lily had Harry. The younger man shot Bill a look, reminding him of their conversation and the one that took place almost two decades ago. Bill had been worried that with Harry around, he'd lose his baby sister. Now, almost twenty years later, they both knew that that had definitely not been the case.
"Hi Firefly." Bill grinned and hugged his sister tightly, realising now what Harry was saying. "Where are your mini-Marauders?" He asked, referring to his sister's eldest two children who were infamous for getting themselves into all sorts of trouble.
"At Mum and Dad's with Fred and Roxanne, can't believe Mum agreed to take all four of them at once. I'll be surprised if the house is in one piece when we go get them." Ginny laughed and headed over to Harry, kissing him quickly before sitting down next to him on the sofa.
"Daddy?" A soft voice sounded from the door and they all turned to see the subject of the conversation stood there. Victoire Weasley looked very grown up in her form-fitting dress with her wand tucked safely behind her ear. Harry watched as Bill's expression changed to a bittersweet smile.
"Hey Little Monkey, what's up?" The father asked and Harry could almost see his heart clench as the seventeen year old approached.
"Um, I was just wondering, um, if it, um, maybe would be, um, okay ifistayedatTeddy'stonight?" Harry could see how nervous his niece was and he felt Ginny chuckle next to him. He knew that she too was remembering the secretiveness of the summer in which Ginny turned eighteen. They had done a lot of sneaking around that summer.
"At his flat? Just the two of you?" Bill asked bluntly and Victoire flushed bright red but nodded. "Are you planning on wearing that?"
"Daddy!" The blonde exclaimed, looking down at her outfit as if to say what's wrong with it?
Another deep sigh. "I expect you back here by noon tomorrow or I'm sending out a search party, understood?"
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Oh Daddy, you're the best!" Harry looked down at his own little girl as Victoire jumped on her father in a manner that was not so different from the way that Harry himself had been launched on a few minutes earlier.
"I love you Little Monkey." Bill sighed, squeezing his first born tightly.
"I love you too Daddy." Victoire grinned back, pulling away from her father.
"Vicky?" Harry looked as his own daughter jumped off of his lap and headed over to her eldest cousin.
"What's up Munchkin?" Lily giggled as Victoire swung her up onto her hip.
"Are you meeting Teddy now?" The little redhead asked, wide brown eyes staring into baby blues.
"Not just yet, he's picking me up at six." Victoire explained and Harry chuckled as he watched his little girl try to do the maths in her head.
"That's like four hours! Can you show me that cool flip thing you did when we played at Grandma's on Thursday?" The adults all chuckled as the conversation moved to Quidditch. Harry wasn't surprised that all his kids were absolutely obsessed; his wife did used to play professionally. He noticed that Victoire was looking at him and Ginny with raised eyebrows as if asking permission to take the nine year old off of their hands for a few hours.
"You can go back to ours and use the pitch there. It looks a bit windy on the beach." Ginny smiled and Lily shouted her happiness.
"I'll go grab my broom and my stuff for Teddy's. Is it okay if I ask him to pick me up from yours?" Victoire asked, rounding on her aunt and uncle.
"Of course." Harry grinned and Victoire zoomed up the stairs at a speed alluding to her seeker status. Harry turned to Bill with a grin. "Well handled."
"Shut it Potter, you wait until it's Lily." His brother-in-law grumbled, nodding at the little girl who frowned in confusion.
"Lily, no boys until you're at least thirty." Harry said decisively and Ginny and Bill burst out laughing.
"Daddy!" Lily pouted and crossed her arms in a huff.
Sure enough, when Lily approached her father seven years later, Harry thought of Bill's words of warning as he stared at his little girl, almost an adult. He wanted nothing more than to lock her in a tower and throw away the key, at least then she'd be safe from the boys that came knocking. He headed over to Shell Cottage that night and shared a beer with Bill who laughed at his predicament from the old armchair with his granddaughter wrapped up safely in his arms.