War Games
Three little boys and a little girl ran through the park, waving small tree branches at each other. Hannah Longbottom sat on the bench, her hand absentmindedly rubbing the little bump that was her belly. She was trying to decide what her child would look like, if it would be like one of the children that was making its way through the playground equipment.
"I got you! You're dead!" The little blonde boy waved his stick at the dark haired boy.
"Nuh uh. You missed! "
"Did not! I got you, Voldemort!"
Hannah gave a small gasp as the little girl came running over and hid behind the back of her bench. Suddenly she shot up and waved her twig at the dark haired boy.
"Well BANG! I got you. You're dead, Voldemort." The pudgy little boy with a blonde crew cut came running over and waved his stick at the dark haired boy.
"See?" It was the girl again. "We got you."
The children looked about five or six years old in Hannah's eyes. She didn't see any parents or babysitters around, so the children must live nearby, otherwise they wouldn't be here alone. Things had changed in the last few years; before parents would have never had let their children go play unsupervised in the park, but now things were different. Memories of the war would not fade, but these children were growing up in a time when Voldemort was just a story. "What are you playing, kids?"
They all tuned to look at her. It was the dark haired boy, or Voldemort, who spoke first. "We're playing war. I'm Voldemort." He pointed to the blonde boy. "He's Harry Potter."
"I'm Ron Weasley." It was the crew cut boy. "And she's Hermione Granger."
Hannah laughed, but stopped when she saw the little girl's face. "What's wrong, honey?"
The little girl made a pouty noise and her little face screwed itself up in irritation. "I always have to be Hermione Granger."
"That's because you're a girl." The dark-haired boy stuck his tongue out at her, and she did the same to him.
Hannah looked at the kids, not realizing that her hand was still resting on her bump. "You do know that Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are married, don't you? She's not Hermione Granger anymore, she's Hermione Weasley."
"Nuh uh!" It was the little crew cut boy who was playing at being Ron.
"It's true. I was at their wedding." Hannah looked at the horror playing across the crew cut boy's face.
The dark haired boy wiggled his shoulders and head around and sang "You're getting married, you're getting married!"
This was absolutely too much for the crew cut boy. "I'm NOT marrying her. I'm not Ron Weasley anymore."
"You can't quit, Kevin!" It was the other blonde boy. "I want to keep playing war!"
Hannah could see the wheels turning in Kevin's mind as he tried to figure a way out of marrying Hermione Granger. "I got it! I'm Neville Longbottom!" He threw down his tree branch and began running to the nearest tree. "Back in a minute, I need a big stick for a sword!"