A new disaster
[This is essentially set in 2027. Harry would be 47. I have mostly new Hogwarts staff and will introduce some minor modernisation of the castle, built after the War. This is not a gen2 fic, it's my own little characters and plot line. Now, continue.]
Cobalt Talisrinth knew that the chances of his squib self and his muggle wife, Amelia, producing any magical offspring were minimal. But still, as the summer drew to a close and his eldest daughter's eleventh birthday approached, he couldn't help but get a little excited and nervous with anticipation.
He had lived a mostly ordinary muggle life since the age of nine, when it became clear to his parents his wizarding skill was none-existent, and had enrolled him in their local primary school the following September, after a hurried catch up over the summer with the basics of maths and science and such. He took his GCSEs at the same time his peers would have been taking their OWLs, and his A-Levels when they would have taken their NEWTs. He'd always kept in contact with the children he'd played with when they're parents had get togethers, and they shared stories about the differences between their lives. He was always jealous, anyone would have been, he thought, but right now he had it going pretty good for himself.
He met his wife in sixth form, and they had their first daughter, Seren, in their second year of university together. Amelia had consequently dropped out and taken up a low paid post as a nursery nurse, but she was enjoying it all the same, and she could obviously take Seren with her.
They had Meisha a year later, and moved to Giggleswick, Yorkshire, where Cobalt became part of the trainee nursing staffing the small hospital nearby. He had inherited his mother's knack for caring; she was a healer at St. Mungo's.
And there he sat, in the small silver hatchback outside of the village primary school to collect his daughters, aged 10 and 9, on their first day back.
He saw Meisha first, as usual, running out of the school and waiting at the gate for Seren to catch up as she scanned the pavement for her Dad's parked car. She waved gleefully when she spotted it, distinguishable by the yellow butterfly she had insisted be stuck to the antennae in year two, when she accidentally almost got into another silver hatch back.
The contrast between the sisters was unbelievable. Meisha had curly blonde hair she wore in high bunches, a pleated grey pinafore, white frill neck polo and red cardigan, worn open, with red tights to match and little black patent t-bar shoes, carrying her ballet lunch box and pink horse patterned backpack. Seren joined her at the gate, her long brown hair left loose at her waist, she wore grey trousers and laced ankle boots, with a crisp white shirt and red tie that the Year 6s' wore and she had her grey cardigan buttoned up. She had a simple navy satchel. She looked like a lawyer; Meisha could look like a Barbie.
Seren, always the sensible one, took Meisha's hand as they crossed the fairly deserted road and reached the car. She took the front seat, while Meisha sat on her booster in the seat behind her.
"Did you enjoy your first day back, girls?" Cobalt asked his daughters.
"It was brilliant, Daddy, we painted a background for our new homework timetables. I did a pony in front of a sunset."
"That's lovely, Honey. What did you do, Seren?"
"We learnt how to plan essays and how to use paragraphs," replied the older daughter.
Cobalt stifled a chuckle. Seren was sure to be sorted into Ravenclaw. He grinned widely. It was 25 days till her 11th birthday. They would receive a letter from Hogwarts in 20, if she was in. He would be so proud.
On arriving home, Seren settled instantly into the same routine she had before the holidays began. She put her lunchbox in the dishwasher, hung up her uniform, changed into jeans and a t-shirt and, as she didn't have any homework, sat on her beanbag in the reading nook in the corner of her room and opened her well-thumbed copy of Watership Down. Meisha left a trail of strewn uniform in her wake as he bolted to her room and dressed herself in her pink fleece onesie. She watched telly with Cobalt until dinner.
They chatted over dinner, simple fish fingers and waffles.
"So, Seren, just a year till big school, right?" Amelia said loving to her daughter.
"Yes, Honey, are you excited?" Cobalt added in.
"I think it will be more useful than primary school. It's too easy," she replied, bored.
"Do you think it's easy, Meesh?" Cobalt said to the child on his left.
"Well, it's not hard. Some bits are fun," her tone was much more enthusiastic.
"Have you thought about what school you'd like to go to, Seren?" he now said to his right.
"Not really. I assumed I was going to St. Kevin's."
Cobalt groaned internally. St. Kevin's was like a slaughter house.
"You could always look into private scholarships. You're smart enough. You could even go to boarding school."
"Maybe," she mumbled.
She left the table and retreated upstairs when her plate was clean, while Meisha stayed behind, chatting animatedly to her mother about her day. She went to bed at 8o'clock, and they knew Seren would tuck herself in.
"I think Seren's depressed, Cole," said Amelia sternly to her husband.
"Really? She just seems bored to me."
"She has no enthusiasm, no spirit!"
"Maybe she's just subdued. Meisha has enough spirit for both of them. She's mature for her age."
"It's not right, she's hiding something from us, I know it."
"Puberty." he said simply. Amelia went for a bath.