A Fated Encounter 2
Hogwarts Bound
Dr. Spencer Reid sighed feeling slightly melancholy as his twin sons Lochlan in Landon had turned 11 several months ago. They were both doing very well in school and were at the top of their class as both of them were very intelligent as was his adopted son Jack, son of his life partner Aaron Hotchner.
Aaron and him him had been married not quite five years, although their anniversary was approaching in another few months. It didn't really seem like the twins should be so old already as the time had almost literally flown, or at least it seemed that way. His marriage to Aaron was going extremely well and although they'd had a few minor spats just like any other couple they were closer than ever and both of them were very happy, so why was he feeling melancholy you might ask? Well, that was a question that wasn't easy to answer but at least part of the reason he was feeling so down was that his sons were growing up way too fast on him and it wouldn't more than a few more years before they were off to college where he wouldn't see them everyday. Spencer know that it was a hard lesson for any parent to learn where they had to let the children grow up and start to make their own decisions, cut the parental cords in other words. You could just hope that you had raised them well enough that they would be back frequently for visits. Spencer sighed again and couldn't wait for Aaron to get home as he knew that his lover would be able to cheer him up when, not even Sara could.
Now it was just a couple of weeks into summer and all three boys were away at sports camp, but would be back in another week. He missed all three of them even though he was enjoying the time spent with just his mate and Sara for company.
What he needed was a vacation and he knew that Aaron did as well as neither had had one in over a year except for a few long weekends as they had both been extremely busy. Spencer was an integral part of the BAU team even though he didn't officially work for the FBI and the team had welcomed him as one of their own. Even the relatively new section chief Arnold Lodge, as Strauss had been killed last year, could see the benefit of his presence in solving cases for they got solved a lot faster thanks to his knowledge of obscure facts.
Spencer sat down in his favorite chair in the den and picked up the book that had been sitting on a small table waiting for him to pick up and read for a couple of days now. He still read quite a bit, although he didn't spend all his time at it like he had before he had met Aaron simply because he was so involved in his life with his sons and mate that he didn't have as much time to and he didn't mind in the least.
All three of his sons had kept up with their martial arts and now wore black belts, although not first degree quite yet, but they were certainly more than proficient enough to handle a few bullies.
Suddenly the phone rang and he picked it up and answered it on the second ring. "Hello?"
"Spencer, I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out to dinner. I'll be home shortly," Hotch said.
"Sure, sounds like heaven," Spencer responded his voice warm. "What are you doing leaving work so early it's only 4 o'clock? Is anything amiss?"
"No," Hotch assured him. "I just finished up the last of the paperwork is all and since we haven't had a case in a couple of days I can actually leave early for once."
"In that case I'll be expecting you home in what? About half an hour?" asked Spencer.
"Yes, about that," Hotch agreed. "Why don't you get dressed up a little and we'll go someplace nice."
"Where would you suggest as I probably need to make reservations," Spencer said.
"What about that new place that we read about in the paper last week? Sorry I can't remember the name," Hotch suggested, well aware that Spencer would thanks to his eidetic memory.
"Oh you mean Mario's?"
"Yeah, that's the one," Hotch confirmed.
"I'll see if I can get a reservation, but it's apparently a very popular place at least from what I've heard. If you had given me a few days warning I could have probably had one."
"If you can't, then we'll just go somewhere else," Hotch said. "I need this night out as much as I know you do."
"Yes, we haven't really had a night just to ourselves lately have we?" Spencer said his question entirely rhetorical since the hadn't had a night just to themselves in over a month not with Hotch's busy schedule.
"No," Hotch said. "Afterwards I'm planning on taking you dancing so tell Sara that we won't be home until late."
"That's a really good suggestion," Spencer said as he had learned how to dance thanks to Aaron teaching him several years ago. Spencer remembered the first time that Aaron had wanted to take him dancing on their honeymoon and how he had protested that he didn't know how to dance and so Aaron had started you teach him. The lesson had started slowly because Spencer was very skittish, and also slightly clumsy, but soon he was enjoying just being in Aaron's arms with his head on his shoulder letting the other man lean him around the floor.
Aaron had guided him very gently around the floor and soon Spencer's confidence had risen and he had gotten the hang of it rather quickly. He would never be the lead when dancing, but that was okay because Aaron was extraordinarily good in that particular role and he didn't mind taking the submissive position. "We haven't been dancing in awhile."
"No, we haven't," Hotch agreed softly remembering the last time they had been, which had been over half a year ago. "Perhaps we could take a trip for our anniversary this year."
"If you can manage to get away for a couple of weeks that would be good," Spencer agreed trying not to get excited for he knew very well that it might not happen.
"So where would you like to go, if I can get leave?"
"What about somewhere like Paris?" Spencer suggested. "It is supposed to be the most romantic city in the world after all. Besides I've never been overseas before and it will be a good experience."
"Paris it is," Hotch agreed. "I've been, but it was years ago when I was on an assignment protecting an ambassador who was over there for a conference and I didn't really have much time to take in the sites."
"Alright then, I'll make that reservation and see you when you get home," Spencer said saying goodbye and then hanging up the phone.
The two of them had no idea that their plans were about to be changed quite suddenly as just a few days later there would be an unexpected knock on the door.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
Three days later the doorbell rang around ten o'clock in the morning. It was Saturday and Hotch had the weekend off, which didn't happen very often.
Spencer got up from Aaron's lap where he was sitting with a groan and went to open the door. "Can I help you?" Spencer asked when he saw a man with messy black hair and a pair of vivid green eyes standing there along with a gorgeous woman with red hair and brown eyes.
"Are you Spencer Reid?" asked the black haired man.
"Yes?" Spencer said just a little and nervously, "And you are?"
"Harry and Ginny Potter."
"It's nice to meet you, but what can we do for you?" asked Hotch who had come out of the den. "Oh sorry, I didn't introduce myself, I'm Aaron Hotchner."
"It's nice to meet you, sir," Ginny said speaking for the first time.
"As what you can do for us, well..." Ginny begin glancing at her husband. "Harry, here was digging into his family tree, since he didn't know much about them and discovered that some of the Potter relatives moved to America about 300 years ago."
"To make a long story short we managed to trace my family line to you and your family," Harry said as calmly as possibly, not mentioning for the moment the book he had found in the Potter library that was kind of like a family tree, except magical as it automatically updated whenever a new Potter was born and then gave details whenever you tapped a name.
Spencer thought about it, then nodded but he did know that his father's family had come from England about 300 years ago and by the two people on his doorstep accent they were definitely from the British Isles.
Hotch studied the two closely both their body language and facial expressions and decided that while they were understandably nervous that they were being truthful and so nodded at Spencer when he looked at his mate.
"Why don't you come in," Spencer offered and the two gratefully stepped inside.
"Thank you," Ginny said with a brilliant smile shaking Spencer's hand and then Hotch's.
"Would you two like any refreshments?" asked Spencer politely.
"Only if it's not too much trouble," Harry said. "We don't want to put you out or anything."
"It's no trouble," Spencer assured them. "We always have cookies and juice for the boys to snack on."
"Then, thank you," Ginny said with another brilliant smile.
"Let me just go and tell Sara that we need some refreshments," Spencer said leaving the room briefly and heading to the kitchen.
When he returned and sat back down Harry said apologetically, "We're very sorry that we just showed up like this and took you by surprise. It wasn't our intention to cause any problems for your family."
"The two of us weren't even sure if we were going to approach you except that Harry really doesn't have much family at least from his side, so I urged him to at least meet with you," Ginny explained.
"It's alright," Spencer said with a smile. "I really don't have much family either besides the boys, Aaron and my mother in Las Vegas."
"So you came to America just to track down your family when you learned you had some?" asked Hotch with a raised eyebrow.
"Well that was partly it," Harry admitted, "but Ginny and I also really needed a vacation."
"We love our family and three children a whole bunch, but we needed to get away for awhile, so we decided we might as well come to America, since neither one of had ever been and explore a little."
"I'm afraid our oldest son James takes after my late father and Ginny's twin brothers and is something of a prankster. He never means any harm, but he never knows when to stop either, which should explain why we needed a vacation," Harry explained. "He's been grounded for most of the summer for the last prank he pulled and lost all of his privileges to. Ginny and I are hoping that this will teach him some restraint, although we are both doubtful about that happening."
"It's not that we mind the pranks so much, just that James doesn't know when to quit before he goes to far," Ginny explained. "He needs to learn some restraint before he really does someone serious harm and getting in so much trouble that nothing we can do will get him out of it."
"Being grounded for the rest of the summer the prank must have been pretty bad," Hotch said knowing that whatever the prank had been it must have been deadly serious where someone must've gotten hurt.
"It was," Ginny agreed not going into details. "We've tried telling James before that he needs to tone down the pranks and he seems to listen to us for awhile before it gets out of hand again."
After a few more minutes of chitchat Ginny and Harry exchanged glances and a silent exchange seemed to pass between them.
"There's also something we need to discuss with you and although we both know it will be hard to believe it's still the truth," Harry said.
"What's that?" asked Spencer with the raised eyebrow.
"Well have you noticed anything unusual with your sons?" asked Ginny
"Like what?" asked Hotch.
"Oh things happening that can't be explained or at least not easily," Harry said.
"Such as?" asked Spencer.
"Oh bruises appearing to heal overnight, things being moved from one place to another without the use of hands, things like that," Harry said.
"Come to think of it there have been several incidents, especially when one of my sons is upset," Spencer finally admitted. "We put it down to just our imaginations or the fact that we were seeing things. Why?"
"What kind of things?" asked Ginny looking intent.
"Well there was once when the twins were about two when Sara wouldn't give them any sweets before dinner and the cookie jar was sitting on a high shelf somehow fell down on the floor and broke into a million pieces scattering cookies all over the place. Luckily Lochlan and Landon weren't hurt and Sara and I just put it down to the fact that she hadn't pushed the cookie jar back from the edge of the shelf and that it just fell because of the tilt of the shelves. The thing is, that Sara swore that she had pushed the jar back and the shelf was perfectly straight and not slanted in anyway. Why?"
Harry and Ginny looked at each other and then Harry nodded and Ginny said, "Anything else?"
Hotch tried to figure out where their guests were going with this, although he to had noted several incidents in the years he had been a member of Spencer's family. That the two Potters were building up to something, he had no doubt, but what it was he had no clue. He did truly believe that they didn't mean him or his family any harm, which was why he was still sitting here calmly listening to the conversation.
Spencer described several more incidents that had happened ever since the twins had been toddlers and then, Harry said after looking at Ginny, "What am I about to tell you is something so secret that not many people are aware it even exists."
"What's that?" asked Hotch.
"As children did you ever believe that magic existed for real and not just on books and peoples imaginations?" asked Harry.
"Don't all children?" asked Spencer.
"Most of them, but the adults drum into their heads that magic is nothing more than fantasy, so that by the time children are grown most have stopped believing in things that they cannot see, or touch, but what I am here to tell you is that magic is indeed very real."
Before Hotch or Spencer could say a word in protest, Harry took out what looked like nothing more than a long stick and swished it at the couch that their hosts were sitting on and it started to rise in the air.
"Magic is very real as you can see," Harry said as he set the couch they just leave back down on the floor.
"The reason we are telling you this is that your sons have magic and only if you're born with it can you do the things that they did. Accidental Magic tends to come out when you're upset or angry. When I was a child living with my aunt, uncle and cousin I tended to get angry or upset a lot because I was bullied, picked on, made to do the all the chores while they're lazy lump of a son did absolutely nothing. I was punished for every act of accidental magic I displayed, but it tends to escape you if you're upset or angry at least until you learn to control it."
Spencer and Hotch weren't sure what to say although Harry's little display by lifting the couch was certainly very convincing.
"So you're saying that my sons have this magic?" asked Spencer not sure if he believed it.
"Yes, they do and one of the reasons I found out is of this," Harry said taking what looked like miniature book out of his pocket and enlarged right in front of their eyes. "Look at the last page and you'll see what I mean."
Spencer took the book and with Hotch beside him opened it to the last page and printed on it was a list of names what looked like a family tree and at the very bottom were his mother's and father's name, then a branch with his name with Hotch's beside him and then three little branches underneath that with his sons name including Jack's.
"I found this totally by accident when I was going through the library at the Potters ancestral home. It's self updates so that it is always accurate. I had a friend of mine do some research for me to discover as much as she could about the relatives I didn't even know I had."
"Don't think that Harry and I don't know about how hard it is to believe that such a thing as magic is real," Ginny told them understanding their disbelief. "A lot of magic users like your sons come from parents that are muggles and all that means is that they don't have any magic. The Potters have been magic users, well, ever since there were any Potters actually, but even with a history as long as theirs they still produce squibs every now and then."
"Squibs?" asked Hotch. "I'm assuming you don't mean like the ones they a use in the movies?"
"No in this case it means a person who was born to a family where both parents have magic, but one or more of the children does not. It does happen occasionally, even in pureblooded families," Ginny explained. "Or should I say especially in pureblooded families."
"I had my friend Hermione do some research and she found out that about 300 years ago the Potters had five children and the middle son was a squib while the rest of them had their parents magic. Evidently Edwin Potter grew up and went to normal school instead of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When he was old enough he decided that he wanted to move to America as he felt as if he wanted to go somewhere where the Potters weren't as well known like they were in England. From his journal that was left behind he got tired of being looked at with pity and sympathy and treated as if he was made of glass from every magical person he met because he didn't have the magic. Think of it like what if one of your children was born blind or deaf for example, people would look at them with the same way and that does get tiring after awhile. That is where the journal stops, but we know that he did evidently get married and had at least one child, but whether he had a son or daughter or several children we do not know."
"If you all don't mind I'm going to change the subject for a minute," Hotch said and when everybody nodded he continued, "so you're telling Spencer and I that there is a whole community of 'magic users'."
The emphasis on magic users was pretty obvious to everybody present.
"It's not just a community Mr. Hotchner it's a whole different world in some ways," Harry said. "Tell me did you ever read Lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien when you were a young man?"
"Yes," Hotch admitted, "but what does that have to do with this?"
"A lot," Harry told him. "Think of the world of Middle Earth a lot like the wizarding world where fantastical creatures of myth exist and also things that would not be real any ordinary everyday world. The wizarding world is a fantastic place, although it is also has its darker side. In our world there are things such as werewolves, unicorns, dragons, centaurs, and many other fantastic creatures are very real, but also very dangerous. Also in our world we have made advancements in the medical field to where an injury that would kill somebody without magic can be healed. Broken bones can be healed in an instant and many other things besides. The world is not perfect, for one thing, at least in England it is stuck in what would be known to you as the Victorian era. Most magic users don't have electric lights, unless they are muggle-born or half-bloods. It was just a few years ago that we were in the middle of a bloody Civil War based on the purity of your blood. The guy who started that is now history, but not before many good families were totally wiped out."
"Harry doesn't like to talk about it, because his parents were killed because of the purity of blood issue and that is why he landed with his Muggle relatives that hated magic," Ginny said.
"Ever since the war ended there have been many changes most of them good," Harry said. "We have a new honest Minster of Magic replacing the old corrupt one, the ministry itself has been cleaned out of what were known as Death Eaters who were the followers of Voldemort who started the whole purity of blood issue."
"I have a question," Spencer said speaking for the first time in a long while. Harry raised an eyebrow and Spencer took that to mean that he was to continue. The gesture was so like Spencer's as he did the exact same thing occasionally that it startled Hotch, although he didn't show it. "If there is a whole world of magic out there how do you hide and not let normal people know about you?"
"Well, for one thing, at least in England the laws are pretty strict about letting normal people know about the magical community," Ginny explained, calmly. "That doesn't really count the two of you because your family and your sons have magic that needs to be trained. Also witches and wizards have developed spells and charms that make muggles think a place is haunted if any of them encounter what is known as a muggle repelling charm. If a muggle were to encounter one of those you get the urge that you forgot to do something or that you are late for an appointment. The urge is very strong and since muggle aren't aware of the magic involved they obey what they think is their own voice is telling them."
"But why hide in the first place?" asked Hotch.
"Think about it," Ginny told the older man whom she thought was very handsome, although not as handsome as her Harry of course. "What happens to minority groups?"
Hotch thought about that then nodded as he was beginning to understand why he had never known that another world existed.
"We are very small minority," Ginny explained gently. "There's probably not more then maybe 500,000 wizards and witches spread out all over the world. Also with your technology as advanced as it is if magic users were found out about en masse we would never be able to fight back and our way of life would not only disappear, but we would probably be hunted down and killed or at least made to use our magic for muggles use so we could continue to be able feed our families. I'm not saying that some muggles don't know, since a lot of magic users tend to marry people who don't have magic as it's a way of keeping the bloodlines from becoming interbred and also keeps our magic strong."
"Part of the reason that we just survived a bloody Civil War about 15 years ago, was because a lot of the old pureblood families tried to keep their bloodlines supposedly pure and would marry only other purebloods because they hated muggles, half-bloods and muggle-born, anybody really that didn't fit their rather narrow idea of who should be taught magic, which is a very narrow viewpoint. There was a lot of pureblooded family that didn't believe in this viewpoint who fought back including my wife's family the Weasleys. They and other families like them were considered blood traitors because they didn't agree with the other purebloods ideas, which included wiping out most of muggle population and keeping the half-bloods as slaves to serve them. They also believed that only purebloods should be allowed to go to Hogwarts to be able to learn magic at all and a lot of people didn't agree with this ideal."
"So you're saying that this civil war was fought over class?" asked Spencer in astonishment. "Mostly," Harry admitted, "but you have to remember that purebloods are interbred and when you interbreed too much you start to get defects. A great many of the purebloods of England have been interbreeding for centuries and not only did they not only give birth to just one child or at most two, because they had trouble conceiving in recent decades, it also led to other defects such as madness. My ancestors at least from what I can find out never believed in that pureblooded crap at least for the most part. While my father was a pure blooded as they came with many generations of witches and wizards on either side of his family tree my mother was muggle-born, which means I am classified as a half-blood and my children as three-quarters."
"Which some people in certain circles still look down on," Ginny said darkly.
"Because the Potters have never believed in that pureblooded crap they always had three or four children until my father, James. It was true my father was still pureblooded, and an only child but other Potters did not always marry purebloods."
"Also a large part of why the war happened in the first place is because a lot of witches and wizards are afraid of the muggle world. To most of us it is big and it is strange and the muggles outnumber us about 10,000 to 1. Also with all the technology that muggles have come up with we would be outmatched if they were ever to find out about us," Harry said.
"Also think about it if a large number of muggles were to find out about us then they would eventually figure out how to track magic or at least large quantities of magic, like at Hogwarts," Ginny said. "It is just better that most muggles don't even know we exist so that our way of life doesn't disappear."
"You mentioned this Hogwarts several times," Spencer said. "You said it was a school?"
"It is," Harry said his face lighting up as he thought about Hogwarts which he thought of as a second home. "Hogwarts has been around for over thousand years and was built by four of the greatest witches and wizards of the age and they were Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin. It is a coed school and has been since it's founding and each of the founders has a Hogwarts house named after them."
"Each house embodies the different traits that each of the founders prized," Ginny went on to explain. "Gryffindor was known for his loyalty, bravery and also for charging into situations alone that most wouldn't dare to, especially if it meant correcting an injustice. Harry and I were both Gryffindors, in different years since I'm a year younger then Harry and my brother Ron. Ravenclaw is for the really intelligent who like to study more than anything else. Hermione really should've been in this house since she is scarily intelligent and is in fact the smartest witch of her age breaking all academic records when she attended, but she ended up in Gryffindor instead."
"The purebloods, especially the ones that followed Voldemort were pissed off, because she outstripped their little darlings in every class," Harry added with a snicker. "They felt that muggle-borns didn't even deserve to learn magic and that they didn't have even two brain cells to rub together, which is a common misconception in the wizarding England I'm afraid, and yet Hermione proved them wrong time and again. Unfortunately that put her on their hit list, not that she wasn't already on it since I was and she is one of my best friends."
"Those purebloods that followed Voldemort, that believed in the purity the blood didn't like to be shown up by someone they considered not even worthy of studying magic," Ginny added.
"Pride goeth before the fall," Spencer softly quoted. "Proverbs, 16:18."
"Exactly," Harry agreed.
"Anyway there are two more houses, Hufflepuff, who are known to be loyal and hardworking and Slytherin who are known for being sly and cunning. Most dark wizards came from this house, since it contained a majority of the purebloods children whose parents believed, in Voldemort's ideals. Not all of dark wizards came from that house of course, but a vast majority of them did," Ginny said.
"So you said earlier that Lochlan and Landon will need to be trained to learn to control their ability?" Spencer asked.
"Yes, they will," Harry said. "It will just keep a escaping and causing problems if it isn't trained. Think of their magic like a pair of untrained puppies who don't know that they're not supposed to pee on the floor or chew your slippers and they won't know until they are taught. Magic is very similar and as they grow up their magic will only stop growing when they reach a certain age, which is around twenty-one."
"And what do you teach at this school?" asked Hotch.
"Not things that are taught at any muggle school," Ginny told the pair. "We teach things like, defense against the dark arts, transfigurations, magical potions, herbology, charms, history of magic and astronomy. Those are the seven core classes that you have to take all the way through to the seventh year, but you can add up to three classes starting your third year, like runes, arithmancy, care of magical creatures and several more."
"Will they be able to go to college if they don't have an academic record at a normal school?" asked Spencer looking very concerned. "I want them to go into careers that they love."
"Well, after they finish their Hogwarts education it's more than likely that they will want to get a job in the magical world. We have just as many job opportunities as muggles do and now they will be able to get any one that they are qualified for even though they are not pureblooded. In the past muggle-borns and half-bloods were denied a lot of opportunities that purebloods got just because of prejudice from a certain faction within the magical community and a corrupt government. That faction held a lot of power until about 15 years ago. If they still want to go to college and get jobs in the muggle world that will be possible, although a few years ago it wouldn't have been."
"So this Hogwarts is a year around school?" asked Hotch.
"Yes, it is a boarding school, but you get two weeks off for the Christmas holiday's and most students decide to go home, although some stay at the school until summer. School starts on September 1st and ends June 15th It is located in Scotland out in the middle of nowhere and muggles can't see it because of all the charms and spells on it to make it invisible to muggle eyes. To them it looks like the ruin of a castle with a sign that says, "do not enter – dangerous."
"Would we be able to visit and check out this Hogwarts?" asked Hotch looking intent.
Harry and Ginny looked at each other and seemed to be communicating silently. Finally Harry said, "It could be arranged. We can give you each a necklace that will be charmed to enable you to see the school and other protected places. Lochlan and Landon of course will not need them. Before we do that though Ginny and I need to talk to the Headmistress Minerva McGonagall and also the Minster of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt. There are certain arrangements that need to be made."
"How do the students get there?" asked Hotch.
"They leave from King's Cross Station, London England, on the Hogwarts Express, from platform 9 and ¾, which is between platforms nine and ten and behind a magical barrier with several strong charms on it so somebody who isn't supposed to notice a bunch of students going through a supposedly solid wall and onto the platform beyond. The barrier is solid to muggles unless they truly believe in magic. The Hogwarts Express leaves at precisely eleven o'clock on September 1st.
"And where do you buy the supplies you will need for this magic school?" asked Hotch with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, in London there is a place called Diagon Alley that you gain access to through a wizarding pub known as the Leaky Cauldron, which muggles cannot see, unless someone with magic is touching you. The amulets that we're going to give you should take care of that problem through. Anyway you go out the back door into dead end alley and you tap certain bricks on the wall and an archway opens up into Diagon Alley which is the wizard equivalent of a shopping mall. You will see many strange things that you have never even imagined existed, we have Ollivander's wands, Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, Quality Quidditch Supplies, Flourish and Blotts bookstore, Eeylops Owl Emporium, Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, Gringotts Bank and many more shops besides. Before you buy anything you will have to go to going Gringotts bank as the wizarding world has it's own money, so you will have to exchange American dollars for Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. You can even open an account there so that the boys will always have money if you want. The wizarding world doesn't believe in paper money, and so the Gallons are made out of gold, the Sickles out of silver, and Knuts out of copper. The bank is run by goblins who are deadly clever and intelligent."
Hotch and Spencer were beginning to look a little stunned and the Potters could hardly blame him as a know it was a lot to take in.
"We know it's a lot to take in as it is a whole world out there that you knew nothing about until about four hours ago," Harry said looking sympathetic and then checked the time from the clock on the mantle.
"We can leave and give you some time to absorb this if you like," Ginny suggested with no little sympathy as she remembered well how stunned Harry had been when he had first learned of the wizarding world. "You're going to be learning about the wizarding for some years to come, so we don't have to tell you everything tonight, which is impossible in any case."
"Why don't you to stay for dinner?" Spencer suggested after looking it Hotch. "The boys won't be back from their summer camp for another few days so we do have some time to discuss this, although not much. We also do need to tell Sara since she is a member of this family and we never would've been able look after the boys so well without her."
"Besides there's no way we can keep this from her, since she lives here and helps take care of the boys when I am at work," Hotch said. "Spencer's here most of the time true, but he does have to go out sometimes."
"And let's not forget Jack," Spencer said, "there's no way we can keep it from him either."
"We will be stretching the rules a bit in order to tell Sara since she isn't related to you and the boys," Ginny said looking at Harry who nodded in agreement. "Jack is okay because you legally adopted him, but I also think you're correct and there's no way that you can keep it from your housekeeper. We'll need your words of honor from all of you that you will not mention this to anyone not that they would believe you, but we have some fairly heavy-duty secrecy laws that could get us in a lot of trouble if anybody goes blabbing about things in the wizarding world. I'm not sure what the laws the wizards of America are about that, but in England, well, let's just say that we could be in a lot of trouble with the Ministry of Magic if they hear about the fact that we told muggles about the magical world."
"Sara, won't say anything," Spencer guaranteed. "She would never want to get any of us in trouble. She's been a member of the family since the boys were six months old and is extremely loyal to all of us. I don't know that I would have survived raising the twins on my own as I didn't meet Aaron until they were four years old."
"Well, we'll get a chance to see if we survive," Ginny said patting her stomach. "Harry and I just found out a couple of weeks ago that we are expecting twins."
"We really weren't expecting to have anymore children," Harry said, "not that we aren't delighted at adding to our family, but we stopped at three because we had our hands full, but two of them are almost grown-up now, so if it had to happen it did it at a good time."
Ginny blushed in embarrassment and admitted, "I forgot my contraceptive potion one morning accidentally and that has to be when they were conceived."
"Let's not forget we can always ask your mother for advice, since she did raise Fred and George. Let's just hope that these two grow up and aren't the pranksters that your bothers still are even to this day. I don't think I could handle two more pranksters in the family as James is bad enough."
"Congratulations," Spencer and Hotch said sincerely.
"Thank you," Ginny said beaming. "I really wanted a couple more kids for some years and so has Harry, but since we already had three..."
"We felt that we had enough to deal with. Both Ginny and I work, although there's really no need for either of us to, because I inherited the Potter fortunate when I turned seventeen, which is considered an adult in the wizarding world."
"But we both decided that we still wanted careers as we weren't about to have our kids turn into people like Lucius Malfoy who didn't have a job and just lived off his family's fortune. He was one of the Death Eaters we fought against, but most people wouldn't believe it because he kept his good name in society. He had our former Minister Cornelius Fudge in his back pocket and offered him bribes in order to get certain discriminatory laws passed and also to buy himself and his son Draco out of trouble," Ginny said.
"Draco did turn out decent in the end," Harry reminded her. "He did fight beside us in order to defeat Voldemort."
"Well, yes, he did turn out decent in the end," Ginny admitted grudgingly, "but that doesn't mean he should be forgiven for every time he insulted you, me or any of our friends or hexed us behind our backs during our years at Hogwarts."
Hotch and Spencer listened and both thought that this Draco Malfoy sounded like a bully and also that the wizarding world that they had just learned about was a lot more complicated than they had thought. It appeared to be a whole separate society hidden from the rest of the world, but if what they had been told was true and they believed that it was they could understand why witches and wizards up and down the country can't their world separate from theirs.
"So what do you do for a living?" asked Hotch.
"I'm a teacher at Hogwarts," Harry said. "I found out through a defense group that I led back in my fifth year that we named the DA or Defense Association that I have quite a knack for teaching that subject. It was my best class at Hogwarts to tell you the truth and I got the highest score ever recorded. I thought about being an Auror, which is kind of like a policeman except in the wizarding world, but once Voldemort was defeated and at least most of the Death Eaters rounded up I knew that it would probably be fairly boring so Minerva offered me the defense position and I accepted. Now I can't imagine doing anything else as I love teaching young witches and wizards how to defend themselves from anybody who attacks them. Ginny and I also get the summers off so we can travel usually with the children along for the ride."
"As for me I'm a healer, which is the equivalent of being a doctor," Ginny said. "I work at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries."
"How do you hide all these things from the rest of the world?" asked Spencer curiously truly interested in the answer.
"Well, as I said we do have muggle repelling charms on a lot of our buildings, and when someone sees something they shouldn't we also have Obliviators and memory charms. In the case of St. Mungo's though it is located underground and you must step through a window of what appears to be an old shop called Purge and Dowse."
"You mentioned memory charms? Does that mean what the name implies?" asked Hotch not sure he liked the idea of losing his memories of an event, although he couldn't really blame the wizarding world either for going to such extremes to protect the society they had built for themselves since he could see both sides of the argument.
"I'm afraid it does," Harry said. "I don't particularly like the fact that memory charms exist, but I also know they are necessary, for as I said earlier too many people finding out about the wizarding world would be the end of our society. If somebody who knows what they're doing uses one you will have your memory erased with no damage, but if they don't then it is possible to damage the part of the brain the stores information. I have a friend Neville Longbottom and all the way through his school years he had trouble remembering his lessons, well everything except herbology, which was by far his best subject and it was discovered much later, that after his parents were driven insane with the use of the Cruciatus curse the Death Eater used a memory charm on him and he was only two at the time. The information that Neville got in his classes went into his brain recorded perfectly but afterwards it was almost impossible to extract again because of the damage that the memory charm had done to such a young child. It made him extremely absentminded and forgetful."
Both Hotch and Spencer winced and felt sorry for what had happened to the Potters friend Neville.
"Will we ever have our memories altered?" asked Spencer looking concerned.
"No, because of the fact that Lochlan and Landon will be going to Hogwarts or some other school and as their father you must know."
"What about me?" asked Hotch.
"You two are married, which means that what applies to Spencer also applies to you. Besides you have raised those boys for the last five years and you are as much their parent as Spencer is," Ginny said firmly.
"You sure have accepted our relationship easily," Spencer commented.
"That's probably because the two of us know better than most people what prejudice and hate can do to someone," Harry said. "I hated Lucius Malfoy, Voldemort and several other people for a very long time, but that hate was eating away at my soul and I eventually had to find it within myself to forgive them for what they had done to me and to my friend or that hate would have turned me into the next dark wizard. Both Ginny and I had our run-ins with Voldemort before he was finally defeated, but we don't have time to go into the full story right now."
"You would never have turned dark," Ginny told him sternly, "despite how some people manipulated you. You might've turned bitter and angry at the world, but you never would've turned into another Voldemort you're just too good for that."
"So what other schools are there to send magical children?" asked Spencer.
"Well there's Salem Academy, located in Salem Massachusetts," Ginny answered glad for the change of subject as she didn't want her Harry to fall into a depression or start to brood, which he still did sometimes. "There's also Durmstrang, which is located in Scandinavia, but they have a rather dark reputation and actually teach the dark arts not just how to defend against them, so I wouldn't think you'd want to see your children there."
"No, definitely not," both Spencer and Hotch said at the exact the same time.
"If all you told me about people who use it the dark arts is accurate there's no way I want my sons exposed to such things," Spencer added vehemently.
"The only other major school is Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, which is in France," Harry said. "A lot of magical children are homeschooled, because the parents can't afford the fees for boarding school or because they don't want to send the children away for nine a half months of the year."
"You know if you were to send the boys to school in Scotland they would have support from the family there," Ginny pointed out. "We would invite them to spend the Christmas holidays with us, so they could get a good idea what a magical house is like and you of course would be welcome as well, along with Sara and Jack."
"You know that's a good idea if I could get the time away from work," Hotch said. "I would like to get to know you two better as well as the rest of your family."
"Me too," Spencer agreed. "Besides we are related and having family I never knew about is a precious gift."
"I agree," Harry said with a nod. "As I grew up with the Dursleys I always wished that I'd had other family, so that I wouldn't have to stay with people that hated me."
"So where do you work?" Ginny asked Hotch changing the subject.
"I work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation the Bureau Analysis Unit," Hotch said. "While I love my job, I really don't have a lot of free time and it's hard to get time off, where I am not at least on call. Not only is there always a ton of paperwork to take care of, me and the rest of the team are often off to another city to catch yet another serial killer by giving a profile. I love my job, I do but it's very difficult to have much of a life outside the Bureau. If Spencer wasn't so understanding and patient about my job we never would've gotten together at all, though I am grateful that he is." And with that statement Hotch gave Spencer's hand a gentle, affectionate squeeze.
"You could take a sabbatical," Spencer suggested, squeezing Hotch's hand back. "Or unpaid leave. It's not like we need the money."
"Before I met you I never would have considered doing that unless it was an emergency since my job was very important to me," Hotch said, "but I admit I could use a break and getting to spend a lot of uninterrupted time with you and the children would be a bonus."
Sara came into the living room just then to announce that dinner was ready and therefore the four got up and headed into the formal dining room where did I had been said up instead of the kitchen, shelving the rest of the discussion for a later date.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
Two days later it had been decided by Hotch and Spencer that they would be going to England to at least inspect the school and to get to know the Potter family better. It had also been decided to sit Lochlan and Landon down as soon as they got home from their summer camp and tell them about the fact that they had the ability to do magic and that all the strange things that had been happening on and off for years, when they were experiencing high levels of emotions were because of that ability.
Harry had told Hotch and Spencer that he would loan the twins his wand and guide each of them through a simple spell to prove to them that they did have the ability if they doubted it.
The Potters, Hotch, Spencer and Sara, once she had learned that magic was real, although she had at first had trouble accepting it, had sat down and had several long discussions about the magical world and other things. The Potters had explained all about the wizarding economy and how much Galleons, Sickles and Knuts were worth when American dollars were exchanged for them and vice versa of course. They explained all about how the post was delivered by owls, how electronics did not work at Hogwarts because of all the magic, which interfered and what first year classes would be like. They explained about the village that was not far from the castle and how it was only all wizarding village in all of Scotland and Britain.
By the time that they had finished these discussions which were hours long the twins and Jack were due to arrive home the very next day.
"Why don't you come over for dinner tomorrow night?" suggested Hotch. "If you do that it will give us a chance to at least explain about you and how you are related to Spencer, who never knew you existed."
"Alright," Harry agreed immediately looking forward to another one of Sara's fabulous dinners. "That is a good idea. Besides I'm looking forward to another one of Sara's excellent dinners. You could give Ginny's mother Molly Weasley a run for her money in the cooking department and since she is one of the best cooks I've ever known you should take it as compliment," Harry told Sara.
"Oh hush," Sara said blushing. "Flattery will get you nowhere."
"How can it be flattery when it's true," asked Ginny, "as I happen to agree. Mom is an excellent cook, and I have rarely encountered anyone that cooks as well as she does, so when we say that you cook as well as mom you should take it as a supreme compliment."
"And you do it the muggle way, which is harder, while mom uses magic," Harry added.
Hotch and Spencer grinned at each other as Sara very easily fell under the Potters spell. Oh it wasn't a spell in a magical sense, but in the way they were obviously being very honest and sincere in their words and actions.
"So why don't you tell us some more about your family?" Spencer suggested eager to learn as much as he could.
"Well," Ginny said looking thoughtful, "I come from a large family as I have six older brothers and I am the only girl that has been born into the Weasley line in about seven generations."
"Six older brothers?" asked Hotch almost in disbelief. Oh he didn't doubt that Ginny was telling the truth he was just astonished that there wasn't at least one other girl, considering there were so many other children. The odds of having all those boys when there was so many must be at least 5000 to 1 and probably more than that.
"Yes," Ginny said. "I love my brothers, but they did kind of treat me like a object to be teased and played with for awhile before being put back on the shelf at least when I was younger. The only one who never did that was my oldest brother Bill as he has always treated me just like any little sister should be treated. Bill was always protective and he taught me a lot and once I got older I learned how to protect myself. I remember getting Fred and George in trouble with mom a lot of times because she couldn't bear to think that her little girl was the culprit, when some prank was played as usually at least part of it involved me in some way. Bill is a curse breaker for Gringotts wizarding bank and used to work in Egypt, but now has a desk job at the main branch in London and has ever since he got married, when I was sixteen. He and Fleur have four children the youngest of which are still at Hogwarts."
Ginny's eyes went unfocused as she remembered all the happy times she'd had with her family. "The next oldest is Charlie and he's a dragon keeper on the reserve in Romania so I don't get to see him as much as I would like. Also he is currently still unmarried and I suspect that he never intends on finding someone to tie the knot with. Mom gets upset when she thinks of Charlie being lonely without a wife and children, but it's just the way he is and he's happy enough so why meddle? Mom doesn't seem to understand that though and always tries to fix him up with some girl every time he comes home, although he doesn't do that too often, mostly to avoid mom's matchmaking attempts. He's there for all the important events, like when Harry and I got married, but most the time he doesn't come home not even for holidays like Christmas. I can't say I really blame him overmuch, for not wanting to come home too often. My third oldest brother is Percy." Ginny made a face as she thought about her stick up his ass older brother, although she had had to admit he had improved after they war. "I love Percy I do, but he's very pompous, stiff and proper and he even turned against the family during the war and hung on every word that our former corrupt Minister of Magic said. He tried to get Ron to turn against Harry by writing a letter to him and he did several other things that made my blood boil so bad that I wanted to hex him. Percy forgot for the longest time the Weasley family's motto, and that is 'Family First, Always.' The rest of the Weasleys have mostly made their peace with his actions during the war as he did come through for us in the end."
Spencer and Hotch really wanted more details, but perhaps they could get them a little later. Also they would be able to pick up hints just by paying attention when they met the rest of the family and observed how they interacted with each other. Besides both men could hardly blame the Potters for not giving full details as the war had obviously been a very painful and hard time for them. They were sure that Harry and Ginny had lost friends as well as family during that time.
"Next is Fred and George, they're always together because they're like your sons, identical twins," Ginny said.
"They're the ones that are always pulling pranks," Spencer said remembering Ginny mentioning them earlier.
"Yes," Ginny said smiling as she thought of her twin brothers, "but they're on their own now and both are married and have two children apiece, all boys. They own a magical joke shop that Harry gave them the funding to start. The products they create and sell are spectacular and they also sell some serious items as well and the store is very popular, especially with Hogwarts students. The last of my brothers is Ron and he and Harry have been best friends ever since the day they were sorted into the same house that first year at Hogwarts, although they actually met on the train and started building a friendship there. He's married to our best friend Hermione Granger and they have three children."
"What about your family Harry?" asked Spencer.
"I don't have any family except the Weasleys, my children and now you," Harry told them bluntly. "The Dursleys don't count, they may be my relatives, but they treated me worse then a slave when I was growing up with them after my parents were killed when I was just a little over a year old by Voldemort on Halloween night. Arthur and Molly, Ginny's parents have always treated me like a son and they asked me to call them mom and dad after I turned 17 and was considered a grown-up and that's what I've done ever since. I have many friends and a few of them I even consider family, like Neville, but I really don't have any family related by blood except my children, you, and your sons."
It was silent for a few minutes and Spencer and Hotch knew that they had hit a sore point with Harry and they couldn't really blame him for being bitter if his relatives had really been as bad as he was indicating.
"I'm sorry," Spencer said looking sincerely contrite.
"It's okay," Harry said with half a smile, "I shouldn't have taken my bitterness at the Dursleys out on you, since you didn't have anything to do with it. I haven't seen my Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon or their son Dudley ever since I left their house right before I turned 17. I haven't really thought about them in a lot of years, but I suspect that discussing them now brought up all the old bitterness. Let's just forget about it and start over."
Spencer nodded and promised himself to be a little more careful in the future about what he said as he didn't want to cause Harry anymore hurt as his aunt, uncle and cousin had done enough of that already, years ago.
"Anyway our three children are James Sirius, Arthur William, Lily Luna and then there is my Godson Teddy Lupin, but he lives with his parents Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin. James and Art both have Harry's black, wild hair, while James has my hazel eyes, Art has his father's green, while Lily got my red hair, but also Harry's eyes."
"Actually Lily looks so much like my mother that it is almost uncanny," Harry said. "I have a photo album that my friend Rubeus Hagrid, who is the care of magical creatures instructor as well as groundskeeper at Hogwarts, put together for me at the end of my first year of my parents, my godfather Sirius Black, Remus Lupin another of my parents very good friends that I mentioned a minute ago, and several other people."
"Let's not forget that James looks a lot like your father except his eyes were brown and not hazel is about the only difference," Ginny said. "Would you like to see a picture of our children?"
"Sure," Spencer said, "you have one on you?"
"Yes," Harry said reaching into the pocket of his pants and bringing out his wallet, opening it and taking out a picture and then enlarging it without speaking with a flick of his wand so that the figures weren't so small. Once that was done Harry passed the picture to Spencer who studied it with Hotch looking as well from where he was sitting beside the younger man.
The picture itself was of the four children with Harry and Ginny standing behind them arms around each other, but the weird thing was that the photo moved. The images of Harry and Ginny would look at each other, down at the children and then kissed every few seconds while the pictures of the children would make faces at seeing their parents being all lovey-dovey.
"You could have warned us," Spencer said meaning that he had jumped when the pictures moved.
"Sorry, I forget to mention that wizarding photos move," Ginny said who genuinely had forgotten. "Moving pictures is just such a part of our every day life that you really don't consciously think about them."
Hotch and Spencer nodded as Ginny's explanation made complete sense. Some thing you just didn't consciously pay attention to, especially if you had been around them for all your life.
"That one on the right is our son James," Harry said, "the girl in the middle of course is Lily, the boy on the other side is Art and the slightly older boy with green hair is my godson Teddy, who is a Metamorphmagus, which means that he can change his appearance at will, his hair color, and length, but also his face and body shape. Being a Metamorphmagus is a very rare talent, but in this case he inherited from his mother who can do the same thing."
"How recent is this photo?" asked Hotch studying the handsome family.
"It was just taken last year," Harry said looking at Ginny who nodded. "Teddy is 15, James is 12, Art 10 and Lily is just 8."
"So your youngest son and mine should be attending Hogwarts together and be in the same year?"
"Yes, they should as Art just turned 11 a few months ago," Harry said. "He's really excited, although he's told me more than once that he doesn't want to be in the same house as James because of all the pranks he pulls even at home. I can't say I really blame him for that since James does pull a lot of pranks on his brother and sister. James is in Gryffindor, but what house Art goes into doesn't really matter."
"He's smart enough for Ravenclaw, so I think that's probably where he's going to go, although we don't of course know until after he is sorted in September, but that's the house my money is on."
"I think that both twins will probably end up there as well," Hotch said who had heard all about the school houses and what traits they embodied, "both are extremely intelligent just like their father, although Lochlan likes to study more than Landon does."
"It has been known for twins to end up in different houses if their personalities are very dissimilar, Ginny said. "When I went to school Parvati Patil ended up in Gryffindor and her twin sister Padma was in Ravenclaw, but on the other hand it's also possible that they'll both end up being in the same house just like Fred and George were."
"I for one can't wait to meet them as until I discovered that book with the Potter family tree I thought that Ginny, the children and the Weasleys were the only family I had and none of those I mentioned have the Potter blood, except the children. For a lot of years I was the last of the Potters until I married and had children, so it's just so good to find out I have family on my side. By the way I didn't think about mentioning this before, but when I discovered that I had other family, I went to Hogwarts and convinced Minerva to let me look at the book that lists all magical children in Britain and Ireland as soon as they are born, although they and their families aren't actually contacted until the children turn 11."
"And the twins were listed?" asked Hotch knowing he was right even before Harry confirmed it.
"They were," Harry admitted. "The reason I believe this is is that they are related to the Potter line, but are the first to be born to display magic in a long line of squibs. Witches and wizards who have the Potter blood have always gone to Hogwarts ever since the founding over a thousand years ago and in fact a Richard Potter was one of the very first students to go to the school right after it was built. I'm not sure if there were any Potters before Richard though as that is as far as the journals I discovered in the Potter manner library go back, so I suppose I'll never know if Richard was the first Potter or if there were other's before him."
"That you have records that go so far back is truly astounding," Spencer said. "I would think that they would have disintegrated by now."
"Preservation spells," Ginny told Spencer simply. "A preservations spell does exactly what the name implies and protects the paper or in our case parchment from falling to shreds."
"Do you think I could read some of those records?" asked Spencer sounding eager, since he loved learning new facts and that those journals had to do with his family, one he had never known about was just a bonus as far as he was concerned.
"I don't see why not, just so long as you read them at Potter Manor," Harry told him.
"We're really going to have to visit now," Hotch told the Potters smiling at his mate. "You've just let loose a monster. Spencer reads faster than anybody else I've ever met and he'll speed through those records at warp speed. He'll remember everything he reads to since his memory's eidetic. I tested him once you know, right after we had met and he quoted me word for word entire pages from half a dozen books that he hadn't read in years."
"Hermione and you will get along great," Harry told Spencer dryly with a smile as he thought of the friend that he had known since they were eleven. "She's a lot like you and loves to read and study even if she doesn't have that eidetic memory. As I mentioned before she's brilliant and we never would've won the war against Voldemort without her or at least not without the cost being greater. She'll understand when you get technical about something even when the rest of us are totally lost since she's the same way. I've gotten pretty good at translating when she does that though, or at least I have most of the time."
"You and this Hermione Granger you've mentioned several times seem pretty close," Hotch said.
"We are, but not in the way you mean," Harry said calmly. "Ron Weasley, Ginny's brother, Hermione and I faced a lot of danger together and we've also been best friends at Hogwarts since we were 11 and that forges a kind of bond between you. I think of Hermione like a sister actually since I never had one before. I love her, just not in a sexual way. How could I not love her? She's saved my life on several occasions just as I saved hers. When you save someone's life, especially in the magical world, well, let's just say that those kind of bonds are strong and are very rarely broken."
"You keep alluding to the fact that you were involved in this wizarding war, but weren't you a little young at the time to be involved in something like that?" asked Hotch.
"Well, I agree with you I was young and so were my friends," Harry admitted. "Maybe I'll tell you the whole story sometime, but right now it would take way too long as you need at least a whole day free and the twins will be home in a few hours and no I won't tell you part of it now because once I get started, well, let's just say I'd like to get it over with all at once as a lot of it isn't exactly very fun for me to remember."
"That's the understatement of the century," Ginny muttered not looking pleased, although she also knew that the two deserved to hear the whole story since they were family.
The four of them sat and talked for few more minutes and then Harry and Ginny left in order to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner so they could meet the twins and Jack.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
At 6:30 precisely the doorbell rang and Sara went to answer the door as they were expecting the Potters for dinner.
When the twins and Jack had gotten home from their summer camp at 4 o'clock they had immediately been sat down and told that they had relatives that they had never known about.
It had been explained to them about how the Potters had discovered that they were related and that they were from England.
Spencer and Hotch hadn't mentioned magic thinking it would be better to tell them after the Potters had gotten there for they knew how hard it was to believe as even they still had trouble believing it even though it had been proven that magic was very real and present even in today's world.
"Come on in," Sara invited moving out of the way so that the Potters could enter the house.
The two Potters entered the house and Sara closed the front door. "You know where the living room is I've got to finish of dinner."
"Thank you," said Harry as he kissed Sara on the cheek, causing the older lady to blush.
As soon as the Potters came into the living room Hotch got up from where he was sitting and introduced the two of them to the three children, "Jack, Lochlan, Landon this is Harry and Ginny Potter. Spencer and I have told you how the two of them discovered that Harry is related to him and that means that you as his sons are also related," Hotch told them and the three children knew that Hotch meant the Lochlan and Landon and not Jack.
"It's nice to meet all three of you," Harry told them sitting down in one of the chairs while Ginny took her place in another chair across from him.
"We're actually related?" asked Landon as he studied Harry. Harry didn't look anything like his father or him and Lochlan at all.
"Very distantly related, yes," Harry said. "We're something like 6th or 7th cousins, which is why we don't look anything alike. Until just a couple of months ago I believed that me and my children were the last of the Potter line."
"How did you discover that we are related?" asked Lochlan speaking for the first time.
"I had a friend of mine do some research since she's much better at it than I ever could hope to be and she's the one that discovered the connection." What Harry said was technically true he'd had Hermione do some research, but only after he had discovered the book with the family tree that self-updated. "I really didn't know much about my family at all since I grew up with my aunt and uncle because my parents were murdered, so I had Hermione, my friend look into it for me."
All three children digested this for a minute.
"I have to say that I was delighted to discover that it wasn't just me and my children with the Potter blood even if it's a very distant connection," Harry added.
"So you don't have any brothers or sisters?" Jack said logically.
"I'm afraid not," Harry told Jack kindly. "I would've loved to have had a brother or sister growing up, but my parents were killed when I was just a little bit over a year old and so they had no time to have a second child. From what I know from some old friends of theirs both my parents wanted a large family they just didn't have time to get that far."
"How were your parents killed?" asked Landon.
"We can discuss that after dinner," Spencer said immediately putting a halt to the questioning as he knew what it would lead to and once it did they would be here for the rest of the evening and miss dinner entirely.
"Ah, Dad, we want to hear more," both twins whined at the same time causing both Ginny and Harry too suppress grins as the twins response reminded them so much of Fred and George that it was almost uncanny, but then twins always seemed to have a special, almost mystical connection and this was doubly true for identical ones.
Before the twins could protest further or even before Spencer could respond Sara stuck her head in the door and informed them that dinner was ready to be served and that they all needed to get to the table.
"You three go wash your hands and then join us in the dining room, since there are to many people for the kitchen," Hotch ordered the three sternly, but the half smile on his lips let everyone know that he wasn't as serious as he sounded.
All three children looked at each other and headed to the downstairs bathroom in order to wash their hands for they knew better than to disobey their uncle when he used that tone of voice.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
An hour later they were all finished eating and sitting in the living room again including Sara.
"I believe you were going to tell us how your parents were murdered before dad stopped us," Lochlan said.
"In order to tell you that I must tell you a secret, but you must promise never to tell anyone."
All three children glanced at their parents who nodded that it was okay for them to promise as they knew what the secret was.
"We promise," all three children said at the same time and Harry nodded reading just from their expressions that they truly meant it.
"Well, there's no less startling way to tell you this, but magic is very real."
"Magic?" Jack looking disbelieving, although the twins didn't since both of them remembered incidents where strange things had happened when they were angry or upset.
"Yes, magic," Harry said taking out his wand. "Let me prove it to you," and with those words he pointed wand at Jack and said, "Rictusempra." A jet of silver light left Harry's wand and hit Jack who immediately started rolling around on the floor laughing his head off for no discernable at all.
"Believe me now?" asked Harry trying not to grin as he and the others watched Jack rolling around on the floor laughing his head off.
"Don't worry it won't hurt him," Ginny assured the other three adults as well as the twins as they started to look worried for Jack. "It is simply a spell designed to tickle you and make you laugh and it is sometimes good in a fighting situation to get the bad guys to drop their wands because they won't expect this particular spell. As you can see it makes you laugh so hard that it is very hard to pronounce the counter curse properly, which gives you at least a few seconds advantage in order to either do another spell or to hide."
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry I didn't believe you, so would you please stop it?" asked Jack between laughs.
"Sure," Harry said and immediately the did the counterspell, "Finite Incantatem." A jet of red light left Harry's wand this time and hit Jack and he immediately quit laughing and sat up.
"You okay son," Hotch asked in slight concern, although he did trust Harry not to hurt his family he couldn't help being a little concerned for his son.
"I'm fine, dad," Jack assured his father. "I just suddenly felt like these ghost fingers were tickling my ribs making me roll around on the floor laughing my head off. My ribs are sore to be sure, but that's normal when you laugh so hard."
Hotch relaxed now that he knew that his son was fine.
"Wow! That was really ultracool," Landon said having no doubt that display had indeed been magic as he didn't know of anything else that could have made his brother laugh so hard.
"I'm glad you think so," Harry told him with a grin, "because one of the reasons we told your parents about magic when we didn't have to is that you two also have the ability. It tends to run in the Potter line very strongly, but although you have Potter blood you come from a squib in the Potter line from about 300 years ago. You two are the first of Edwin's progeny to have the ability to do magic."
"Squib?" asked Lochlan wondering what Harry meant by that term.
"That just means somebody who's born into a magical family, but doesn't have the magic themselves," Ginny explained calmly. "It happens sometimes. My family for example is as pureblooded as they come, which means we have nothing, but witches and wizards on either side of my family for many generations, but we still have a squib cousin who's an accountant by the name of Joe."
"The Potters are also as pureblood as they come, well they were before my father James married a muggle-born, which was my mother Lily Evans. I am considered a half-blood because of that, but until my children were born I was the last of the Potters being a half-blood didn't mean as much. Before you ask all muggle-born means is that while the child has magic the parents don't and muggle is our word for those without magic."
"So what exactly does this mean for us?" asked Lochlan curiously.
"Well, we would like you to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this coming term, which is located out in the middle of a moor in Scotland. It is a boarding school that is year-round except for two and a half months in the summer and two weeks for Christmas. If you decide to go you will be taught how to control your ability so that it doesn't always leak out when your emotions are running high. You will be taught transfigurations, defense against the dark arts, charms, history of magic, astronomy, herbology and magical potions. It is a seven year school where you will graduate fully trained wizards."
"Would we be able to keep in contact with the family?" Landon asked.
"Yes, you would, although owls, which is the way wizards deliver mail, are out of the question since they can't travel so far, but there are other means of delivering your letters."
"What about cell phones?" Landon asked.
"Sorry, but electronics won't work at Hogwarts as there is way too much magic interfering with things that work on electricity," Ginny explained, even pronouncing the word correctly. "It's possible that the cell phones would work from Hogsmeade, but then you'd have no way to recharge them since we don't use electricity."
"How about before you decide you take a tour of the school," Harry said. "We've already discussed this with your parents and they have agreed that it is a good idea. We can introduce you to Diagon Alley, which is our shopping center, which is alongside Charing Cross Rd. in London England."
"Yes we did agree that it's a good idea to at least tour the school and get a little of the flavor of the magical world and then if you decided against it at least you have made an informed decision," Spencer told his sons.
"Are you coming to Uncle Aaron?" asked Lochlan looking at the man that he and his twin considered a second father and had for the last five years.
"Yes, you're father suggested I take unpaid leave so I can come with you," Hotch said. "I want to see this Hogwarts that Harry and Ginny keep talking about. It will be like a vacation."
"Yeah!" all three children cheered making Hotch smile.
"You'll get to meet our three children, who are your distant cousins," Ginny added smiling, "see what a magical household is like and how it is different from your own."
"We can also arrange for you to meet Ginny's family, her mother and father and all her brothers. She has six of them just in case you're curious," Harry said.
"Six?" asked Jack who was an only child until he had been adopted by Spencer and now he had two brothers.
"Six," Ginny confirmed smiling. "All of them older. Harry was indeed very brave to date me considering he knew how protective my six older brothers were, but then again by the time we did start to date, he was considered a member of the family and a little brother to them so maybe it wasn't as brave as I thought."
"They did threaten to hex me so bad that the healers would never figure out how to reverse the effects of all of them if I hurt their little sister, so yes, I must have been brave, or maybe insane is a better word," Harry added smiling as he remembered back to all those years ago, "but then again I was a Gryffindor after all."
Ginny chuckled in appreciation at her husband's statement.
"I would think seven children would be a bit much," Sara said speaking for the first time since she had greeted Harry and Ginny at the door. "Why did your mother have so many?"
"Well, one reason is that mom and dad both really love children," Ginny explained, "but the main reason is that both my parents really wanted a daughter and the Weasleys have always been known for only producing boys so they just kept having children until they had me. I apparently broke the pattern because Harry and I have a daughter named Lily as well and my brothers Bill and Ron also have daughters."
"Molly is just thrilled with so many grandchildren," Harry added, "and she spoils them rotten."
"That's what grandmothers are supposed to do," Sara said with a smile.
"So when will we be leaving?" asked Jack looking excited.
"Well, probably not the least a couple of weeks," Hotch said. "I'm going to have to make arrangements at work first."
"While you're doing that we'll be touring the city and see some of the sites," Harry said. "By the way don't worry about arrangements to get to England we'll simply take a Portkey it's a lot easier and faster."
"What is a Portkey?" asked Spencer curiously.
"It's one way that wizards travel," Ginny explained. "You simply charm an object and it doesn't matter what that object is and so long as you know where you're going a Portkey can be charmed to take you anywhere in the world. Even muggles can use them, which is why Harry suggested them."
"What about passports and things like that," Hotch protested his sense of right and wrong coming to the fore. The government issued passports for a reason after all.
"Well, you could go the muggle way, but it seems a lot more complicated," Harry said. "You're only going for a short visit and none of the officials are going to know that you're in the country illegally. Most witches and wizards aren't even listed in muggle records unless they have some sort of non-magical background like parents who don't have the magic. The more you are familiar with the magical world, the more you'll find that most magical folks don't give a damn about the muggle world or their laws. We are a totally separate society even though we live hidden among non-magical folks. We have our own government, banking, education system etc. etc. as I mentioned earlier. You know why magical folks hide from the much larger nonmagical population."
"Well, yes," Hotch agreed reluctantly.
"I know you believe in the laws that have been created and also believe in justice, so do I," Harry said, "but you need to think of it from a wizarding point of view."
The three children looked back-and-forth between the five adults and finally Hotch nodded as he could indeed see Harry's point, although he didn't like it.
"The only problem I can see, is that Garcia is supposed to keep track of our team even while they are on holiday and if we don't tell her where we are going, well then I can guarantee that she's going to try to track down where we are and if she can't find us there could be trouble," Hotch said.
"Garcia?" asked Ginny as she tilted her head curiously.
"Penelope Garcia, she's our technical analyst for the BAU team. She's very good with computers and has managed to help us catch more than one criminal with the information she has managed to find. It's also her job to keep track of the team even when they are on holiday just in case they get into a situation and need help. She is also as curious as a dozen cats and trust me when I say you don't want that curiosity pointed at you as she'll never give up until she discovers what it is you are hiding."
Harry sighed and knew that this whole situation was getting more complicated all the time, but Hotch was also correct in his interpretation of the situation. "Is she trustworthy? Will she keep a secret no matter what?"
"Absolutely," Hotch said without hesitation.
"Then we'll have to tell her, although it is against my better judgment," Harry said. "The more people you let in on a secret the more likely it is to get out, but I realize we have very little choice in the matter if you are at all correct about her personality and intelligence. I don't plan on mentioning to anyone how many people I told about the wizarding though."
"Why?" asked Jack with the curiosity of any little boy.
"Because the wizarding world has laws about telling nonmagical folks about our society," Ginny explained gently. "It's okay for your parents, you and Sara to know because you are the twins family and there would be no way to keep it from people you live with, but Penelope Garcia doesn't fall into the category even if you think of her that way. Harry and I could both be in a lot of trouble if it was discovered that we had told someone who didn't really didn't need to know, or at least that will be the way that the people in charge will think. Our society is very primitive compared to the muggle world and most witches and wizards don't even know that computers exist much less what they can be used to track someone down."
"Ever since we fought and won a war about 15 years ago against a magical supremacist group things have improved a great deal, but we are still very primitive compared to nonmagical folks. Change in a society takes time, decades and even centuries as it must be done slowly so that people have time to accept the changes, starting with the children," Harry explained.
"You were going to tell us about how your parents were killed," Jack reminded Harry.
"So I was," Harry said falling silent seeming to be gathering his thoughts. "About 70 years ago there was this wizard, a half-blood and an orphan like me by the name of Tom Riddle that went as bad as anybody can possibly go. Riddle was deep into the darkest of arts determined to rule the wizarding world. Riddle went through so many magical changes during that time that he was no longer completely human or even recognizable as the handsome boy that had been head boy at Hogwarts. In the 70s when my parents went to school the war had really just gotten started and Tom Riddle had just begun gathering followers that believed the same way he did that only purebloods were worthy to practice magic. My parents were two of the strongest, most intelligent magical users that Hogwarts had seen in quite some time and they along with their friends were determined to fight for the right and help defeat Tom Riddle. My parents defied Riddle aka Voldemort three times and got away, which not many people could really say, except Headmaster Albus Dumbledore because Voldemort was very strong in magic and had about 30 years more experience then my parents and their friends did. The magical community was so afraid of Voldemort that they refused to say his name and called him You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Not many people were aware that Tom Riddle who had gone to Hogwarts in the 50s was Voldemort, because his appearance had changed drastically because of all the dark rituals he had undergone. In 1980 just before I was born a prophecy was made and one of Voldemort's Death Eaters overheard the first half of it. It basically stated that a baby born at the end of July would be the one with the power to defeat Voldemort once and for all. There were only two babies, both boys born in 1980 at the end of July that fit that description, me and Neville Longbottom. Finally on Halloween night 1981 my parents were hiding under a charm that was supposed to protect them from being discovered unless the Secret-Keeper betrayed them. There was nothing wrong with the charm itself, but my godfather Sirius Black convinced my parents to switch to Peter Pettigrew, who was another friend because he thought he was too obvious a choice as he and my father James were as close as brothers, which was well known in the magical community. What my father and his friends weren't aware of was that Peter Pettigrew was a Death Eater and had been over a year at that point..."
Harry continued to tell the story although he gave them the relatively short version but even that took a couple of hours.
Nobody said anything for some minutes when Harry had finished telling about his parents deaths, Peter Pettigrew's betrayal and his Godfather Sirius Black incarceration, being falsely accused of killing the Potters and about a dozen muggles.
"I'm sorry about what happened to your parents," Lochlan said sincerely.
"Thanks, but it was many years ago. I'll always miss them, probably because I never really got to know them, and even the stories that Remus can tell me aren't really enough," Harry said with a sad smile.
"Alright boys," Sara finally said not haven't spoken much at all that evening, "it is past time for bed as it is quite late."
"Ah, do we have to," Jack complained.
"Listen to Sara, boys," Hotch said. "We'll see you in the morning."
"Will we see you two tomorrow?" asked Lochlan who had grown quite find the Potters in the few hours he had known them.
"I'm not sure yet," Harry said, "but we'll see."
The three boys headed upstairs as Sara followed them making sure that they brushed their teeth and went straight to bed.
"We need to get going," Ginny said looking at the clock on the mantle. "We probably shouldn't have stayed so late."
"We're really sorry that you lost your parents in such a way and at such an early age," Spencer told him sincerely and Hotch echoed him.
"It's all right. I dealt with the loss of my parents a long time ago," Harry said with a sad smile. "I miss them and my godfather to, but I'll see them again, someday."
"From what I gathered from your story you're government needs to be completely overhauled," Hotch said. "More just laws need to be written where bribery is not acceptable and honest people need to be put into place that won't be susceptible to that kind of thing."
"The government was corrupt 15 years ago," Harry corrected with a smile, "but with Kingsley Shacklebolt in charge it has improved a great deal. Some of the older conservative families are still fighting him tooth and nail, so the changes are coming very slowly, but there have been quite a few."
"Kingsley Shacklebolt is as honest as the day is long and also very brave. He fought to protect Harry and everybody else doing the wizarding war. Thanks to him there are now no more discriminatory laws against muggle-borns, or magical creatures like goblins or centaurs. All the corrupt ministry officials have either been sent to Azkaban, fired or forcibly retired, depending on the level of their corruption or if they only did what they were told because they feared for their lives or the lives of their families," Ginny explained. "Really Kingsley is doing a terrific job considering how a lot of the old more conservative families who don't want change are fighting him. You're right that we need more changes in the government and also in the way that our society thinks for the way it was before with corruption running rife and a lot of purebloods ideas that they were better than anyone else is what made it so easy for Voldemort to take over in the first place. If we can change the government and people attitudes we'll not see another dark wizard in our lifetime and maybe not for centuries."
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," Spencer quoted.
"Who said that?" asked Hotch with a raised eyebrow always amazed at the things that Spencer knew right off the top of his head, even after five years of marriage and seven years of knowing him.
"George Santayana," Spencer replied immediately. "He was a somewhat famous poet, novelist, philosopher and essayist in 1863. His saying has had half a dozen variations over the last century and a half."
"We should be going," Harry said, getting up from his seat heading for the front door Ginny following. "You know how to reach us if you need to. We'll be here in our hotel for the next couple of weeks at least."
"Thank you for the giving our sons the watered-down version of your story," Spencer said as four of them reached the front door.
Harry turned to face Spencer his expression surprised and the younger man said, "I know the children didn't notice, but I certainly did of how you skipped over a lot of details so that they wouldn't have nightmares."
"I didn't know I was that obvious," Harry said.
"You weren't," Hotch said, "but I noticed it too, but then the both of us are fairly observant."
"No child should have to face what me and my classmates did. The problem should have been taken care of by adults, but instead they were put on the shoulders of a child and then a young teenager just because of some blasted prophecy. It didn't matter if I didn't believe the prophecy was real because Voldemort did and he kept coming after me. As much as I always admired and respected Albus Dumbledore he really had a lot to answer for as he should've done something before Voldemort started his rein of terror. He knew what Tom Riddle was like doing his Hogwarts years considering he taught him Transfiguration for seven years. I'm not saying that Albus Dumbledore was evil, but he lacked common sense and believed in giving everybody, a second chance or even a third. He left me with my relatives without even bothering to check on me occasionally to make sure I was being raised well. He ignored Arbella Figg's reports about me because he thought he knew best. He was a powerful force for good it's true, but he had so much power after he defeated another dark wizard before Voldemort, by the name of Grindelwald, and also to many positions to really pay attention to the little details. Minerva McGonagall told him that the Dursleys were the worst sorts of muggles after watching them without being noticed for a whole day and they were for my Aunt Petunia hated her youngest sister Lily so much because my mother had magic and she did not and she transferred that hate onto me when I was left on her doorstep in November the day after my parents died in order to protect me. I know nobody is perfect, but the headmaster's worst mistakes always seemed to involve me. Sorry I didn't mean to rant at you. I suppose that I still have lot of pent up anger at Dumbledore for the decisions he made about me, for keeping me in the dark for so long wanting me to have a supposedly 'normal childhood'," Ginny snorted at that, "when I could have been training for what was coming. One of the things he could've done is let Sirius Black my godfather take me and it was only after I was taken away by Hagrid that he tried to track Peter Pettigrew down and was framed and thrown into Azkaban for his trouble, without a trial I might add. If Sirius had taken me like he wanted to he never would have gone after Pettigrew, would have raised me and never would've been imprisoned at all and he'd likely would still be alive today."
"It's okay you can rant at us anytime you want," Hotch assured him with an understanding smile, because he did indeed understand where Harry was coming from. "Keeping all that bitterness bottled up isn't good for anybody and the more you rant the more you get it out of your system and maybe you can finally find some peace."
"Thanks," Harry said with a genuine smile. "Most of the time I don't even notice the bitterness anymore because I'm so happy, but I suppose talking about the past has brought up all those old feelings."
"You're welcome," Hotch said, "and believe me I do understand as I had somebody I hated as well, until she died last year, but that is another story for another time."
"You are welcome here tomorrow as I would like the boys to start getting to know you a little if they're going to be spending a lot of time at your home during the Christmas holidays and maybe part of the summers too," Spencer said.
"We'd be glad to," Ginny said speaking for the first, "What time do you want us here?"
"Oh about 10 o'clock or so as I'm sure the boys will sleep in a bit after they were up so late," Hotch replied. "Unfortunately for me I'm probably going to be tired tomorrow since I have to go to work and I'm not getting any younger. I'll also invite Garcia over for dinner tomorrow night, although I'm sure she'll wonder what it's about, but I don't plan on telling her where somebody could possibly overhear."
"I'm sure you'll like Penelope a great deal," Spencer told the two Potters. "She's very cheerful and outlandish, especially in the way she dresses, but she's also extremely intelligent, honest, and loyal to the people she cares about."
"We can't wait to meet her," Ginny said sincerely.
"I'm sure that you will become the best of friends with her and if you ever meet the rest of the team with them as well," Hotch said before ushering the Potters out the front door and closing it behind them.
"Well, it certainly has been a very astounding few days hasn't it," Hotch said as he put an arm around Spencer's waist.
"It has, but we can discuss it later as it is definitely time for bed because I might be able to sleep in tomorrow, but you can't."
Hotch groaned knowing that Spencer was right and that he was going to regret this late night in the morning since he did have to go to work and as he had told the Potters he wasn't getting any younger.
"Oh well, I'll just have to deal with it," Hotch said as he and Spencer headed upstairs and straight to bed since tomorrow night's dinner was going to be interesting to say the least.
~~~Hotch and Reid~~~
