"I see your folks made the front of Witch Weekly," Scorpius Malfoy said.
Albus Potter cringed and grabbed the copy his friend was waving in his face to find his parents, Harry and Ginny Potter gracing the cover with his Aunt and Uncle, Hermione and Ron Weasley.
Albus began flipping through the magazine, still cringing.
"Relax, it's not like they talk about you much," Scorpius said, lighting a cigarette.
"Watch it. The prefects are monitoring smoking apparently," Albus said, turning to look around the school lawn. "Some girl in Huffelpuff got suspended."
"For smoking?" Scorpius asked, taking a drag.
Albus nodded and kept reading the magazine.
"Did you even read this?" Albus asked.
"No," Scorpius laughed. "But I knew it would bother you."
Albus turned around and glared at his friend.
"What's it about?" Scorpius asked.
"Anniversary of the battle. They'll be up here tomorrow for it," Albus said. "Is your dad coming?"
"Why? To remind everyone who he sided with? No, thank you."
Albus laughed.
"He's changed though, right?"
"Of course!" Scorpius said, slightly offended. He kept smoking while looking out onto the lawn at his fellow students. "Oh, shit. Your brother's coming."
Scorpius threw his cigarette in the grass behind him and leaned up against the same tree that Albus had chosen to lean against.
James Potter was headed their way, his prefect badge gleaming in the sunlight.
"Albus!" he said crossly. Albus looked up from his book to see his brother.
"What?"
"Were you smoking?" James asked.
"No, James," Albus said.
James stared at Scorpius. "You?"
"Merlin, no!" Scorpius said, pretending to be taken aback at the accusation.
James nodded, squinting at them as the sun hit his eyes.
"Ready for the match tomorrow?" Albus asked his brother.
"Hope so," James said, walking closer.
"Lily playing?"
"Yeah."
"Mum'll be happy," Albus said, smiling.
"Yeah. Well, I'll see you guys on the pitch tomorrow," James said, turning to leave.
Scorpius looked to Albus and frowned.
"What?"
"You two are so cold to one another," Scorpius said. "It's sad."
Albus shrugged and pulled his own pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and began to smoke.
Across the lawn, Albus's sister Lily Potter sat studying for her final exams. Lily was the smartest of her year. She could outperform almost every witch in the school—seventh years included.
Her friend Cora sat close to her, occasionally looking up from her book to watch Lily work on a transfiguration project while Rose Weasley, Lily's cousin read a book for leisure.
In between watching Lily and looking down at her studies, Cora looked across the lawn at Albus and Scorpius, who were laughing and enjoying themselves, as per usual.
"I can't believe your brother hangs out with Scorpius Malfoy," Cora said, shuddering.
"He's not that bad," Lily said, swishing her wand.
"He's not very nice to James or Hugo though," Rose said.
"That's because James and Hugo deserve it," Lily said.
"Deserve it?
"You've met them. They're terrifying together," Lily said. "They're so mean!"
"They are not," Cora said.
"You say that because you have a crush on Hugo," Lily spat.
"You what?" Rose asked, irate.
"I do not!" Cora said. She stood quickly and took her books, leaving their study group.
"She has a crush on my brother. Gross," Rose said. "Who would want to date Hugo anyway?"
"That's exactly how I feel about my brothers," Lily said, smiling.
"Did you see you mum and dad on the cover of Witch Weekly?" Rose asked.
"Cora showed me it this morning. I nearly vomited," Lily admitted.
"Did you see the article about them in Warlock Monthly?" Rose asked.
"I don't even know what Warlock Monthly is," Lily said.
Rose delved into her explanation. Warlock Monthly was a trashy tabloid magazine, often commenting on Wizard Society. And this month's topic was none other than the Potter family.
"That sounds awful," Lily said.
"It was," Rose said.
And in London, in the Ministry of Magic Auror offices, Harry Potter sat with his wife reading this trashy magazine.
Mother Ginny is a former Quidditch player for England as a Chaser. And when their youngest child, Lily was born, she decided to retire and write for the Daily Prophet. Working for the Prophet obviously takes some time, so she has been a bit negligent as a mother. Uncle Ron, one of their father's closest friends is co-owner of his brother George's multi-million-galleon fortune—but we'll get to that later. Aunt Hermione, head of legal matters in the Ministry and Wizengamot Court member. Uncle Bill, head of Gringotts bank. Uncle George, the wealthiest man in England with his numerous joke shops and restaurants. Uncle Charlie, dragon tamer who always takes his favorite niece and nephews on a few dangerous rides.
"These kids spend a lot of time with their family because their parents are often very busy. So they usually ask their parents if they can go to Albania to visit their Uncle Charlie. And when they don't visit there, they're helping out their Uncles George and Ron at their joke shop in London—where they employ all of his nieces and nephews. And Harry Potter, is actually an investor in the business, and has been since he was fourteen years old when George and his twin brother Fred decided to leave school and start their business. But when Fred died, George needed a new partner of sorts and Harry stepped in and helped George financially and suggested Ron to be co-owner of the store. Now, George Weasley and Ron Wealsey are the wealthiest men in England—which probably means Harry Potter isn't far behind," says Potter biographer Lila Mason.
These children live a charmed life. The three of them took flying lessons when they were younger from some of Britain's top Quidditch players. And whenever they have questions on magic, they can always turn to their father's colleagues. But where do these children with such charmed lives, actually live?
"These kids grew up primarily in Kent, with Harry and Ginny apparating to work. But when the kids go back to school in the fall, Harry and Ginny live in their London home—the legendary Grimmauld Place where all of those infamous meetings of the Order of the Phoenix took place during the second war. And when the kids come home, they usually go back to Kent for their summer holiday. If they don't want to go to Kent, they will stay in London to work for their Uncle George and Uncle Ron."
But how did we get all this information, you ask? We're not telling. Harry Potter rarely gives interviews or appears in public. And the only time any member of the family appears is for Ministry purposes. The children though, we're quite sure, may just break that rule and make a few appearances of their own—as each of them is set to inherit millions of Galleons through a trust fund set up by their parents. But for now, we'll just have to deal with the intensely private Harry and Ginny Potter. And if reports from The Witch Weekly are true, we'll be seeing an interview with the Potters, as well as Ron and Hermione Weasley to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.
"Negligent!" Ginny yelled, slamming an article down on Harry's desk. "Me!"
"Yes, I know," Harry said, picking up the article. "Just calm down, Gin."
"No!" she yelled.
A knock came at Harry's office door. It was Ron.
"Hey, Gin," he said, entering the office. Ginny kissed her brother hello on the cheek and then Ron shook Harry's hand.
"I have to go start packing," Ginny said.
"See you at home," Harry said, smiling.
Ginny kissed him quickly and then exited the office. Harry stared at her out the door and waited until she was out of ear shot to begin his conversation with Ron.
"She's gone mental over that Warlock Monthly article," Harry said.
"Can you blame her?" Ron asked.
"No, but I don't know what to do! We can't stop these nut jobs from running these articles, can we?"
Ron shrugged.
"You are no help," Harry said.
"Hey, you know what I liked about this article?"
"What?" Harry asked.
"They called me the second richest man in England," Ron said, laughing.
Harry then threw his copy of Warlock Monthly at his brother-in-law and retreated to his desk.
"I saw Malfoy a bit ago," Ron said.
"Oh yeah? What'd he want?"
"He wanted to know if you had any free time today."
"Why?"
"Said he needed to talk to you. Didn't say about what though," Ron said.
"That's odd," Harry said.
"Hello?" a girl's voice said meekly. Harry and Ron turned around to look at the door for a moment. A pretty blonde girl was standing in the door frame, wearing dress robes.
"Anna, right?" Harry asked her. The girl nodded.
"I'll see you later, mate," Ron said, exiting.
"Tell Malfoy to stop by whenever," Harry said. Ron nodded and the girl walked further into the office upon his exit.
"Anna Growland?" Harry asked.
"Yes, sir," she said, shaking his hand.
Harry stood from his desk to walk to a file cabinet. He pulled out a folder and began to read from it, looking over her personnel file.
"Nice to meet you," he said, looking over her personnel file.
"Same to you. It's an honor."
"Do you know why you're here?" Harry asked her, sitting down and drawing up a chair for her.
She shook her head.
"I need a new assistant," he said blatantly. "And your name kept coming up a lot from the academy. And I—"
"With all due respect, sir. I can't."
"Excuse me?"
"I have a younger brother and sister to take care of. They're muggles. I need to put them through University soon and—"
"You're a muggle born? They didn't tell me that," Harry said. "Muggle borns make better Aurors in my opinion. They've seen more of the world than anyone else. They know human nature a little bit better."
"Sir—"
"I want you for this job, Anna."
"Sir, I—"
"Consider your brother and sister's schooling to be paid for. You will receive a five percent increase than what regular first years receive. Do you understand?"
Anna nodded.
"I thought you had an assistant though, Mr. Potter?" Anna said.
"I have eight," Harry replied, sighing whilst reading Anna's record. "My god, your grades were fantastic."
"Eight?"
"Yes, you will be in charge of all of them," he said.
"I—"
"You're more qualified than the rest of them, trust me," Harry said.
At that moment, one of the eight assistants entered the room and waved his arms in a clock-like motion and then left the office promptly. Harry sighed.
"What was that?" Anna asked, slightly alarmed.
"That's the sign that my godson is coming," Harry said.
Teddy Lupin, twenty-three now, entered the office wearing sunglasses and wearing disheveled clothing.
"Hello," he mumbled, leaning up against the wall.
"Hi," Harry said, smiling. "I'm in the middle of something, Teddy."
Teddy looked to Anna.
"Oh."
"That's OK. I can go," Anna offered, standing.
"I'm sorry. We'll get to more of this on Monday," Harry said to Anna.
"I look forward to it," Anna said. She extended her hand and shook Harry's, grasping it firmly.
"Say, you two know each other?" Harry asked, gesturing between Anna and Teddy.
"No," Teddy answered.
"We went to school together, actually," Anna corrected him.
"I drank a lot in school," Teddy replied, flipping up his sunglasses to look at Anna properly.
"Like a fish. I remember. You threw up on a house elf when I was a sixth year," Anna said, smiling.
"You told me that wasn't true," Harry shot at Teddy.
Teddy grinned.
"I was young, Harry," Teddy laughed. Teddy kept staring at Ann though. "I don't remember you that much."
"Well, how could you with your tongue down every other girl's throat?"
"I like you already," Harry laughed. "Can already keep up with everyone else's wit."
"And how did I manage to not notice you?" Teddy asked, ignoring Harry.
Anna laughs. "I hung out in the library a lot and only dated Quidditch players."
"Did I date one of your roommates?"
"You stood one up once and gave on of the other ones a pregnancy scare," Anna said.
"Ahh, youth," Teddy said, looking at Harry. Harry shook his head at his god son.
"I'll see you Monday, Mr. Potter," Anna said.
"Bye, Anna," Harry said.
After Anna had left, Harry swatted Teddy on the arm.
"What is wrong with you? I fought with McGonnagal for weeks about that house elf incident!"
"Harry, I was a fall down drunk during school. What do you expect?" Teddy asked.
"Speaking of that, how was your meeting today?" Harry asked.
"Good."
"You went?"
"Yep."
"You lying?"
"Nope. I even took Andrew with me as a witness," Teddy said.
"Good."
"We're going to be late. Ginny's going to be mad," Teddy said.
"Oh, right," Harry said, looking down at his watch. He grabbed his things and just as he was about to leave, Draco Malfoy walked into Harry's office.
"Oh, you're leaving!" Malfoy noted. "I thought Weasley—"
"He did. I'm sorry. I forgot," Harry said, putting his things back down. "Teddy, wait outside."
"Why?"
"Just wait outside," Harry instructed.
Teddy rolled his eyes and then exited the office, shutting the door.
The years had been kind to Malfoy. He was still handsome in the face and still had a glorious head of blond hair. After the war, he managed to find a job with the Ministry while his father and mother served time in Azkaban. Draco himself finished his Hogwarts degree and then spent years with the Ministry of Magic, trying to reach it to the top without his past creeping up on him.
"God son giving you trouble?" Malfoy asked.
"No more than usual," Harry laughed.
"I talked to Scorpius yesterday. He said they're ready for the match tomorrow," Draco said.
Harry nodded.
"He's a good captain from what I hear," Harry said.
"I think it's kind of ironic. Don't you?" Draco said to Harry, smiling.
"What?"
"That you and I were probably the worst enemies that Hogwarts has ever seen and our sons are best friends."
"Albus is a good kid. And from what he has told me about Scorpius, it seems as if he is too," Harry said nicely.
"Good. With that being said, I'm here to warn you," Draco said promptly.
Harry laughed a bit. "Warn me?"
"Yes."
"About what?"
"The Minister," he replied. Harry turned his head a little and started paying attention to him.
"Percy? I think I know what to expect from my own brother-in-law. Thanks though."
"The new minister, Potter," Draco said quietly.
Harry looked down at the floor at the mention of the new minister. He had heard rumors about the man and none of them good.
"What about him?"
"Seems he wants to…bring about the old ways."
"The old ways?"
"The ways that my father used to want," Draco said, leveling with him a bit.
Harry's eyebrows raised. He had never expected Malfoy, or anyone for that matter, to be that direct about the Minister's intentions.
"How do you know this? I mean, I've heard rumors. But rumors are rumors," Harry said.
"He and my father are old friends. Grew up together. Their parents were all friends."
"Draco, please, we already won the war. There's enough people to overtake any kind of uprising that—"
"Less than you'd think."
"What do you mean?"
"Children of Death Eaters want their revenge, Potter. And they want it on you and the Weasley family. And former Minister Shackelbolt and anyone that was associated with Dumbledore."
"The new Minister isn't a child of a former Death Eater," Harry said. "You are."
"Potter, I was a Death Eater. You know that. Everyone knows that. That's why I have a low-paying job and am at the bottom of the Ministry food chain—hence why you, Dumbledore's golden boy, is the highest paid Ministry faculty member next to the Minister himself."
"What is your point, Draco?" Harry asked, getting irritated very quickly now.
"My point is, that this Ministry, will end up worse than Scrimgeour's ended."
Harry nodded and said, "Anything else?"
"You're going away this weekend right? The Anniversary of the Battle?"
"It's tomorrow. Why?"
"You're spending the whole weekend at Hogwarts?"
"Yes."
"Now, I know that if I were the new Minister, I'd be walking through every department of the Ministry this weekend then—with all the heads of the departments at Hogwarts. The Auror department in particular. All changes that are going to be made Potter, will start with your department—because he wants the boy who lived on his side more than anything."
Teddy stepped back inside the office. "Harry, Ginny's going to kill us."
"I'll be right there," Harry said.
Malfoy leaned into Harry, whispering, "Make sure your office is locked."
Harry nodded and shook Malfoy's hand. Malfoy then left the office in a swift motion and as he exited, Teddy entered.
"What did he want?"
"Not important," Harry insisted. "You go ahead. I'll be there in two seconds."
"Harry, she's gonna be mad at me. And…and, I can't handle that all by myself," Teddy insisted.
"I'm sorry, are we talking about Ginny or Victoire?" Harry shot at him.
"Not funny!" Teddy snapped. With that, Teddy disapparated leaving Harry along in the office.
Harry whipped out his wand and began placing hexes and spells over everything in his office; his desk, his file cabinet, his private stash of Firewhiskey and even photos of his family that were prominent fixtures on his desk.
Teddy arrived at the Hogwarts front gates, along with several other witches and wizards, many of whom Teddy had seen at Ministry party after Ministry party. He walked up the familiar path to the school, arriving at the castle doors where Ginny waited for him.
"There you are!" Ginny said. She was immediately crestfallen noticing Teddy was alone. "Where's Harry?"
"He's on his way," Teddy mumbled. "Right behind me."
"On his way? I told him he had to be out of there by two!" Ginny yelled, looking down at her watch.
"I know! I told him that too!"
Ginny sighed and began looking through the oncoming crowd of Ministry of Magic officials. She then looked back to Teddy, who was also anxiously surveying the oncoming crowd.
"She's inside already," Ginny said.
"What?" Teddy asked, confused.
"Vic is inside already. They got here about an hour ago," Ginny informed him.
"Oh, I don't…I don't care," Teddy said. Ginny glared at Teddy which then garnered an admission of, "Fine. I care."
"I know you do," Ginny replied. "Did you go to your meeting today?"
Teddy nodded.
"You should tell her that," Ginny insisted. "She'd be very proud of you."
Victoire had broken up with Teddy after growing tiresome of his partying lifestyle. Their breakup was brutal, often causing arguments between Harry and Bill, as well as Ginny and Fleur.
"I haven't seen her in over a year, you know?" Teddy said. "I'd doubt she'd want to speak to me anyway."
"Why don't we go inside? I doubt he's just 'right behind you' as he says," Ginny suggested. Teddy nodded in agreement and followed Ginny into the castle.
They walked along the corridors, looking around and noticing that memorial plaques had been set up throughout the walk to the Great Hall. Ginny passed one with her brother Fred's name on it while Teddy stared at one with his mother and father's names engraved on it with a photo of them above their names.
"Hermione and I would beg your mum to do this stupid thing with her nose. She could turn into any animal's nose. So we'd basically make her do tricks for us at the dinner table," Ginny recalled fondly to Teddy. "They were so funny together. Your mum and dad. Remus was so proper all the time. Tonks brought him out of his shell."
"Mum!" Ginny heard. She turned and found that her eldest son, James, was walking toward them. She hugged James tightly and kissed him on the forehead.
"Mum," he groaned, wiping his forehead. "Where's Dad?"
"He's—"
"On his way?" James guessed.
"Exactly," Ginny said, beginning to walk with Teddy and James. "Where are your brother and sister?"
"Lily's studying still. And Merlin knows where Al is," James said.
"Go find him."
"Mum, I can't just go barging into the Slytherin dungeons," James reminded her. "Like I'd want to anyway."
Yes, his brother was a Slytherin. After generations of Potters in Gryffindor, Albus became the first Slytherin. His father had told him that the Sorting Hat takes personal choice into consideration. On that particular September 1st, Albus met a girl on the train. Her name was Katie. She was beautiful with blonde hair and fair skin with blue eyes. She was perfect in his mind. And she told him she wanted to be a Slytherin—and after she told him that, he wanted to be a Slytherin as well. They were friends for the first two years of school, and by third year, they had become boyfriend and girlfriend. In the middle of fifth year, however, Albus began growing restless in his relationship and broke it off.
"Maybe he's with Katie," Teddy suggested. James scoffed.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"He and Katie broke up months ago. Like before Christmas," James informed them.
Suddenly, James felt an arm creep around his neck and bending him backwards. James looked up and found that it was Albus who was pulling on his neck.
"Talking about me?" Albus asked his older brother.
"Just telling mum how we're facing a subpar team tomorrow," James retorted. Albus let go of his hold on James's neck and hugged his mother.
"Let me guess. Dad's on his way?" Albus said, laughing.
"Very astute," Ginny said.
The four of them continued walking down to the Great Hall and seated themselves with the rest of the Weasley clan. Teddy latched onto Albus and sat at the end of the table, trying to avoid Vic and the rest of her immediate family.
On the lawn, Lily still sat outside attempting to perfect a charm. They were to turn a blade of grass into a sword. The grounds were entirely empty. She was the only one still studying—even though she really didn't need to.
"Swish your wand a little bit more," a voice said. Lily looked up and saw Richard Biel, a sixth year and friend of her brother James's was now standing over her trying to read her text book.
Lily tried the technique with her wand, and the grass became a sword immediately.
"Impressive," he said, sitting down. "Most seventh years can't even do that."
Lily smiled.
"You look very pretty today," Richard said.
"Thank you," she replied, blushing slightly. Lily looked at Richard closely and noticed he looked exactly how Teddy had looked for most of his life. Richard's eyes were tired, his face flushed and that his speech had been a little slurred. He had been drinking.
"You excited for the match?"
"Uh…not really," Lily replied. "My…my father's coming and he's not too keen on me playing Quidditch."
"Why?"
"Thinks my brothers play too rough."
"Wasn't your mother a Quidditch player?"
"Yes. Apparently that means nothing. He has to protect me," Lily laughed.
Richard inched closer to her, causing Lily to grow a little uncomfortable.
"So um…you and Rupert ended things, then?" Richard asked.
Lily looked at him in surprise. "Oh. Yeah. Months ago."
"Good."
"Good?" she asked skeptically.
"You deserve someone nice."
"He was nice."
Richard shrugged, still coming closer to her, this time putting his arm around her waist.
"You know I've always had a thing for you," Richard said.
Lily held up her arms in protest, but Richard leaned forward and kissed her. She pushed him away.
"What are you doing?"
"C'mon, Lily. You know you've always had a thing for me," he said softly.
Lily pushed him back again as he leaned in.
"Stop it!" she yelled, standing up.
Richard stood up as well, towering over her. He grabbed her hands and held tightly.
"Get away from me, Richard," she said forcefully. "You're drunk."
"Am I?" he asked quizzically.
"Yes. Please stop or I'll get James," she threatened.
"Oooh, I'm scared of your prefect brother," he lamented.
"Lily!" a voice yelled. Lily looked to her right and noticed Scorpius Malfoy walking on the lawn with his girlfriend. She gave a sigh of relief.
"You OK?" Scorpius asked, walking closer. The closer he walked, the more Richard's grip on her hands loosened.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Lily said. She finally managed to disengaged her hands from Richard's and grab her things.
"We're going to walk up to the castle. You should come," Scorpius encouraged her.
"Yeah, thanks," Lily agreed.
Lily grabbed her things and began to walk away with Scorpius, before giving an evil stare to Richard.