A/N: This is my first attempt at fanfiction, and I have the entire first story typed already. The first chapter is going to be kind of slow, honestly. The action doesn't start until chapter 2. This story is set from Harry's POV and begins just after the epilogue from Deathly Hallows.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter
Harry looked at around the kitchen, "It seems strange, the house being so empty," he thought out loud. He looked at Ginny, who was moving like a tornado between her writing desk and the kitchen, preparing for the looming party. The adults in the Weasley/Potter clan always got together the night after the school term started, all except Molly and Arthur, who used it primarily as an excuse to steal away all their grandchildren who were still to young for Hogwarts. "You know, I can help with the cooking if you're busy with a story. I promise I won't burn the house down," Harry said, over the sound of the wireless blaring Quidditch Today, Ginny's favorite source of information even though most of what they said came from her reports. It had always been a busy time in the Potter household, the start of the quidditch season and the start of the school year. Ginny was busier now than she had ever been while she was playing professionally, at least back then she had the off season.
"I'm okay," Ginny said, absentmindedly, "just wish we could've apparated back instead of taking that bloody car to King's Cross." Ginny slipped on the damp floor while she was bringing the tray of hot biscuits from the oven, but Harry caught her around the waist, stabilizing her while he snatched a biscuit off the tray and biting into it too soon, burning his tongue.
"You should really slow down, Gin," Harry said with his mouth half full. "You don't want to burn yourself out before the party."
"I'll slow down when the season starts, the preseason's the only time my job is actually better than playing," Ginny said, turning to face him and fixing the collar of his shirt. She pulled away from him and added, almost as an afterthought, "and that shirt needs to be pressed, it's far too wrinkled to wear to the party."
Harry laughed, "But I pressed it this morning, and you sound more like Molly every day." He unbuttoned his shirt and threw it over the back of a chair, "Maybe I'll just go shirtless tonight."
"First, you better be talking about mum, and not Percy's whelp," Ginny said, tossing a grape at him, "and second, as much as I would enjoy that, I'm not sure the pub is going to stand for a shirtless Potter running around."
"I wouldn't dream of comparing you to our niece," Harry replied, running his wand up and down his shirt and watching the wrinkles disappear. "Speaking of nieces, do you think George and Angelina will be bringing Roxie tonight?"
"I doubt it, she always has trouble coping without her brother when he goes to school. Mum will probably have her for the next week until she calms down." Molly usually kept the younger children for as long as she could force their parents to let them go while school was in, Roxie especially. Ginny added, "Do you think we should let Lily stay there for a bit too?"
"Only if Hugo is there too, I don't want Molly spoiling her too much," Harry said, at least if all the other kids were there she'd have to share all the sweets his mother-in-law always had ready for her grandchildren. "I'll go check with Ron," he said, walking to the fireplace and grabbing a pinch of floo powder from the bowl on his way. He stepped into the fire, throwing down the powder and saying quietly "The Loft." He heard Ginny telling him to hurry back as his house spun away and his best friends' loft appeared in its place.
Harry appeared in the fireplace of the loft that Ron and Hermoine bought during the year before they got married. He appeared just in time to get hit by a massive ball of crumpled up parchment. After recovering from the initial shock, he laughed and said, "Still working on it then?"
"I never thought a joke shop would come with so much bloody paperwork. I swear it's like writing one of McGonagal's papers every day," Ron grumbled from his spot on the couch. Harry could see that he had been at it for quite some time by the mountain of parchment he had created around his desk.
"I'm just glad you didn't throw the ink bottle, Ginny would've gone mad if I had to change before the party, I think this is her favorite shirt." Harry looked around, "Where're Hugo and Hermoine?"
Ron chuckled, "Gin always did have a horrible sense of style." He added, "I expect they're at the Burrow by now, left a while ago."
"Let me guess, trying to cheer up Roxanne." Harry said, grabbing the bottle of firewhiskey off of Ron's desk and pouring himself a glass.
"As is tradition," Ron sighed as Harry fell into the large recliner by the television. "I still don't really know how that thing works, Hermoine bought it last year and Hugo loves watching the cartoons on it."
Harry picked up the remote and turned on the power, "The Dursleys had a television, but I never really got to watch anything except the news and whatever Dudley watched," he said.
"Well I don't really care for it too much, just seems like a picture that can't hear you. So knock yourself out," Ron said. Just as Harry found a channel that looked promising, the fireplace blazed green and Arthur Weasley's head appeared in the flames.
"Harry! Ginny said you'd be here, all right?" Arthur said, rather loudly. Ron, who hadn't been paying attention, was startled and spilled ink all over the parchment he was writing on.
"Bloody hell, warn a bloke next time won't you dad?" Ron said, cleaning the ink from his desk and summoning a fresh roll of parchment from the shelf.
"Sorry Ron," Arthur chuckled, "Gin said the two of you were considering leaving Lily with Molly and I, so we decided to make the decision easier by taking it out of your hands. Molly just picked up Lily and you can come retrieve her next Thursday." Harry had expected this, Molly and Arthur had a habit of stealing his children with little to no warning, especially Lily.
"Thanks for the heads up Arthur," Harry said, smiling at his father-in law, "You should come in for a drink before you have too many kids on your hands."
"I'd love to, but I think Molly would blow a gasket," he laughed as he spoke. Arthur loved all things muggle and having Harry and Hermoine in the family had let him learn more about their technology in the years since they finished school than he had in his entire life before then. He never missed a chance to show off his growing knowledge on the subject.
"Well, some other time then," Harry said, "Don't let Lily burn down the Burrow." Harry's face fell momentarily when he remembered the time Bellatrix and a group of death eaters had nearly done just that all those years ago.
"Please, Harry. The Burrow survived Fred and George, you and Ron, and it has survived all the grandchildren so far. I don't think we have anything to worry about with Lily," Arthur laughed.
Ron, having finally finished cleaning the mess on and around his desk asked, "So, what do you have planned for our little monsters?"
"We were going to take them to Diagon Alley to look at the new broomsticks," Arthur said, "and Lily wants to go look at Luna and Rolf's new pet shop."
"Just don't let her bring home anything too dangerous, please," Harry said. He knew all too well that any pet shop of Luna's would have all sorts of creatures that most people wouldn't consider good pets. "I expect all that time with Hagrid has skewed her view of what is and isn't safe." Two small arms appeared suddenly around Arthur's shoulders, pulling him laughing out of the fireplace. When the fireplace had returned to its usual shade of orange, Harry stood up. "We should start getting ready, Merlin knows if we're late Gin and Hermoine will hex us into another dimension."
Ron looked up, surprised, "I was just going to wear this."
"Ink and all?" Harry asked.
"I guess you're right," Ron said, "muggle or magic?"
"Dunno, I assume we're going somewhere with dancing if the girls have their say. So wear something comfortable," Harry said. "Ginny told me to press my shirt too, if that tells you anything." Harry moved back to the fireplace and spun out of the loft.
"That was faster than expected," his wife's voice called from her desk. Harry noted that she was sitting down, a change of pace from when he left and she was practically running back and forth through the kitchen. She looked tired, and Harry knew why. She had barely slept all summer, mostly from being worried about Albus. Albus looked so much like Harry that when they went out the same whispers that always followed Harry tended to follow Al too. Ginny noticed this, even though usually Albus didn't, and she worried that when he got to Hogwarts he wouldn't be able to escape the publicity that came with being the child of the "chosen one".
"Ron was pretty distracted, Hermoine's going to lose it when she sees how much parchment he's wasted," Harry replied. Then, recognizing the old piece of parchment unfolded on the desk in front of her, he asked, "Has the sorting started yet?" He looked over her shoulder and noticed that the new dots that indicated the first years were just outside the great hall. He tried to find Albus in the group, but there were too many dots and names to find him.
Harry took a seat next to Ginny and settled in to watch the ceremony. They had done this twice since they got married; once when Teddy started, and again on James' first year. The first years' dots started walking into the great hall, Ginny nudged him and pointed to a pair of dots near the back of the group. The two dots read Albus Potter and Rose Weasley, Harry noticed that a dot labelled Scorpius Malfoy was lagging very far behind the group. They watched the dots of the students walk, one by one, to the front, each one stopping beside the Neville Longbottom labelled dot, then walking to a table to take a seat. The first interesting moment came when Scorpius Malfoy went to the front, then almost immediately moved to take his seat at the Hufflepuff table. Ginny gasped at this turn of events and Harry started laughing uncontrollably. "Draco is going to lose his shit," Harry said, still laughing, "Hufflepuff." By the time Harry managed to control himself, Albus was walking slowly down the middle aisle to take his turn with the sorting hat. After around a minute, which seemed like hours, Albus' dot practically flew to the Gryffindor table and took the seat next to James. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, for all his talk about the house not mattering he couldn't help hoping that his children would follow him to Gryffindor. Rose ended up in Gryffindor also, which was no surprise at all considering Ron was always putting down the other houses.
After the sorting was over, Harry noticed a dot labelled Draco Malfoy leaving the staff table. Ginny had apparently noticed the same thing because her voice was icy when she next spoke. "What the hell is that slimy little git doing there?"
"Well, my guess is he's the new potions professor," Harry said, with an amused look. "I guess old Slughorn really couldn't teach forever."
"You're not at all surprised by this?" Ginny asked, clearly distressed, "You hated Draco, and now he's going to be teaching our children!" She was practically hysterical at this point.
"Obviously, I'm not thrilled about it, but I'm confident that if Draco tries anything out of line⦠Neville will give him hell," Harry said calmly, "Plus, with all the Weasleys and Potters there this year he'd have to be mad to treat any of them worse than he treats other students. Who knows, it'll probably be good for our everyone, Draco was always decent at potions."
"Well I still don't like it." Ginny fumed "Draco was an absolute horror in school, what if he's still the same git he was back then?"
Harry laughed, "If he is, then Neville or one of the other kids will let us know, and you can bring back your famous bat bogey hex again." Ginny had been pacing and Harry pulled her into the chair with him.
"You're lucky I'm not using it right now, Harry," she said. Then a strange look crossed her face, "Ron is going to have a fit, who's going to tell him? You or me?"
Harry groaned, "I think we should let one of the kids tell him, that way he can't shoot the messenger."
"You read my mind."
