Disclaimer: The rights of Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling and Warner Bros. I am making no financial gain from this story whatsoever.

Chapter 4
Uncle Harry and the Weasleys

It was Hugo's birthday that night, and Ron would be damned if it didn't turn out great. This year, he demanded to take over the preparations; Hermione always managed to do most of the work.

It was his twentieth birthday, and Ron intended to make it big. He invited as many people as he could think, and then told Hugo to invite as many people as he could think. Ron then realised that he had to book a place because he didn't know of anyone who would had a house large enough and would be willing to lend it for the night.

Hugo really turned out quite differently from his parents. One could see a bit of her parents in Rose, the fierce determination of her Mum, the desire to seek alternate means to almost any problem of her Dad, and from both the need to state their mind at any moment she could.

But Hugo was different. Hermione loved to say he was like a poker player on autopilot; his face was near expressionless all day. Even when he was having a good time or angry, his emotions would only flicker and his voice almost never wavered. He was shrewd, but no genius like his Mum. He was an open book normally, but he never stood out unlike his Dad. He kept to himself, enjoying the company of others for as long as he deemed it so.

Now, one could wonder if this resulted in Hugo being an outcast, but to the surprise of many, it seemed to only draw people in more. Boys looked up to him at Hogwarts and always wanted to know what he thought of certain things. And the girls... well the ones who managed to avoid falling head over heels for him still seemed to fall under his charm like the boys.

Hugo also seemed to walk through life with a dispassionate view of everything around him. He consistently got very good marks, but never worked harder than enough to get the marks. His mother tried again and again to spark an interest in anything, but he always waved her off by saying he didn't need to at that moment and something would come up in the future. He also disappointed his father in treating Quidditch no differently, training to get into the team and play in matches, but uninterested in Quidditch discussions. He was for going to one or two professional games in a year, but right after the game he was thinking about something else. And while he'd fly alot in the summer holidays, he never was interested in playing Quidditch for fun, save for the few times to ensure he didn't get rusty.

And what would a person like this be doing for work at the age of twenty? Well, you might've guessed he hadn't found a passion yet and had already done a number of different jobs already, despite only graduating three years ago. Right now he was working from the bottom for the Wizardry World Weekly, a magazine on magical news. In nine months here, he got one article and one opinion piece on the magazine, but Hugo said that was good as he really was starting from the bottom.

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Soft music was playing in the hall. It was early into the party for anything else.

Harry was standing there, always early to gatherings; that way if he had to leave early, he wouldn't seem rude (or would seem less rude, that is).

"You're early, Uncle Harry," said Rose as she fell into the seat beside him. She patted the chair beside her, Harry obeyed her and sat.

"I realised it when I came in," said Harry. "Although I figured Hugo will more likely want to be with those of his age later on in the party so it's another reason I came early."

"So how are you doing?" said Rose.

"Fine," said Harry noncommittally.

"I hear Mum's been on your case," she said.

"Yep," said Harry.

"She won't let up," said Rose.

"Tell me about it," said Harry.

"Well, she doesn't let up when she doesn't..." said Rose, before giggling at Harry's look at her silly joke.

"How are you doing?" said Harry.

"Wish I could say well," said Rose, "but not really."

That got Harry's attention, and he took one of her hands as he shifted in his chair to face her better. "Tell me all about it."

"I got another rejection letter," she said, looking down at her lap.

"This is your second year trying?" said Harry.

"No," she said. "Third."

"Do you have a back-up plan?" asked Harry.

"Do I look like Hugo?" she asked, before she answered. "No, I don't. I only want to be a Healer."

"Then try again next year," said Harry. "In the mean-time continue on in jobs to pass the time."

"Aren't I wasting time, then?" said Rose.

"Wasting time?" asked Harry. "Rose, you're twenty-two. That's young by muggle standards and we magical people have longer life-spans. Heck I'm a young adult in the magical world.

"If you truly want to be a Healer," he continued, "then it's only a question of how much you're willing to try to get there."

"But I can't get a reference letter from Hogwarts," she said. "And my application doesn't look good enough with three rejections."

"Nah," waved Harry aside. "They're just obstacles, not the source of your problems. You can't get school reference letters? Then work so well outside of school where you can get good reference letters. You've been rejected a few times, try doing something else that'll make your application look better."

"Do something? Like what?" she said.

"Anything," he said. "Travel the world, work in something that you find passion in. Write a book, work with muggles, do humanitarian work... whatever it takes. You'll be surprised with the quality some people come up with when applying for jobs. Two years ago, I was going through applications for assistants for the International Confederation members, and one person was applying as a seventh year at Hogwarts. That person had already traveled extensively, the student also spoke four other languages and had done some summer studies in international relations, muggle and wizardry."

"Did one of the members hire that applicant?" asked Rose.

"Sod the members," said Harry. "I offered her a job. She still works for me."

"So you're saying I need to go overboard?" said Rose.

"No," said Harry. "But if you want it enough, fight hard for it. And if then you still cannot achieve it... well, you may not like it, but you'll have few regrets."

"Any other advice?" she said.

"Yep," he said. "Don't ignore the possibility of having to leave the country to do your studies. You don't have to be trained here. I've met a few wizards and witches who studied to become healers in many places."

"Thanks, Uncle Harry," she said, hugging him.

"Anytime," he said. He looked around and said, "It seems like the party is finally starting. Now you can be with kids your own age and not a cranky old sod like me."

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Hermione sat in the chair that Rose had vacated.

"So, Mr. Potter," she said. "Giving advice?"

"Yes," said Harry. "Not sure if it was very helpful."

"I'd say it was," said Hermione. "Rose seemed to have taken it positively."

"Nice party," said Harry. "As always."

"Oh, you'll have to send compliments to my ex," she said. "I had nothing to do with this."

"I see," he said. "Where is Ron, by the way?"

"Had to go to the office," she said. "Apparently a prisoner had just attacked another prisoner, and they needed him to fill out some paperwork for the prisoner to see the Wizengamot."

Harry nodded. They sat in silence for a number of minutes, watching the kids (relatively speaking, almost every young person was at least 20. Hugo was one of the younger new generation Weasleys) enjoy themselves on the dance floor. They waved at Dean who had just entered, with his son nearby. Victoire, who was trying to wave away an overly enthusiastic young man as politely as possible, saw them and made her way quickly there.

"Hey Aunt Hermione, Uncle Harry," she said, and they replied warmly back. "Where's Uncle Ron?"

"At work," said Hermione. "He'll be here very soon."

"Oh," said Victoire. "Uncle Harry, you owe me a dance."

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Victoire," he said. "I'm not that into dancing."

"S'il te plait," said Victoire. "You said last time you'll dance next occasion. Well, voila!"

"Go on, Harry," said Hermione. "If you promised, you promised."

Victoire ignored her uncle's groan as he got up and dragged him to the floor. She could tell he was rather uncomfortable with this, and he was honest; even when his family was around he never was comfortable with dancing. The thing was he'd still have some fun despite not doing well.

Victoire was a bit of a nut in the dancefloor. She wasn't a bad dancer, sure, and 'nut' was more to do with her enthusiasm on the floor. Without waiting for Harry to ease in, she moved around rather quick. Harry didn't bother to try to keep up and kept to a more leisurely pace, grinning as Victoire's long red hair nearly hit him in the face. George Weasley decided at that moment to walk by.

"Hey, Harry ol' boy," said George. "I see Viccy has dragged you, too."

Victoire slapped George's shoulder. The music slowed down and someone else came by.

"Mind if I cut in, Mr. Potter?" the person said.

"Colin, it's Harry outside the office at least," said Harry, but he stepped back and waved his hand towards Victoire. "By all means."

"Thanks for the dance, Uncle Harry," said Victoire.

"Anytime," said Harry. "Well not really." Victoire giggled as she turned her attention to Dean's son. Harry stood there for a moment, before realising he had an escape opportunity. Looking around, he made his way to one of the corners of the hall.

That was before a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Not so fast," said Hermione, who seemed to find amusement at Harry's groan. "Since you're here, might's well have a dance."

"Must I?" asked Harry.

"You must," she said, and pulled Harry towards her. She waved at Ron who had walked in at that moment, who waved back and smirked at Harry.

"What do you think of the rumours that our loveable Minister is planning to make further cuts into the services budget while increasing law enforcement budgets?" said Hermione, as she interlocked her arms around his neck.

"What do I think?" said Harry. "It's a bit much, but I see where she's going with it, I just question the logic in what's being rumoured to be proposed. What's idiotic is the stupid idea from our Minister to change Wizengamot rules. Add to the fact she wants to lower the restrictions on Auror investigations and she's going to raise convictions with no correlation to improved policing."

"Well, what are we going to do?" said Hermione. "We're in the International department. We're being run fine. The public are angry with the descent into crime and they want actions. It's going to be unpopular to argue for the other side."

"I'm thinking of moving departments when we're done with the Clarkson affair," said Harry. "To something more domestic."

"Seriously, Harry," said Hermione. "You were working your way up to head of the overall department. Just like with being head of the Auror office years back, you get one or two steps away from overall department head and you're off again?"

"I feel the domestic agenda is now more important," said Harry.

"Even if it is," said Hermione. "You're only going to be able to change things if you get influence, and it's not easy getting more influence if you're hopping departments just when you reach high enough."

"I can't wait on this, Hermione," he said. "She's causing a right mess on this. And we both don't care about popularity because either of us or Ron could've been Minister of Magic years back if that was the case. Though we'd have been rubbish with the lack of experience."

"Just making sure you were aware of the circumstances," said Hermione.

They became silent again, and continued to dance slowly in the hall. Hermione loved how pleasant Harry was when things were superficial and she didn't dare try to get deeper in the middle of a party. She simply enjoyed the warmth in being held by her best friend. As her head lay on Harry's shoulder, she looked around the hall and saw Rose laughing hard at something Ted told her, while Hugo was being mobbed by a few of his friends to do something. Ron was sitting with Fleur and talking, and Marissa was laughing as she ran from an angry Roxanne who was drenched in juice. Roxanne's father, George, only roared with laughter at her.

She got a pang in her heart knowing that the hall was filled with Weasleys and a bunch of friends of the kids that she frankly didn't know most of their names, but still it was empty missing four people. She wondered if Harry walked around this pang all day, or did it come and go.

Harry pulled out as the third song ended. "I think the kids want to have their fun," said Harry. "So, I'll just talk to some of the family before heading home."

"Okay, then," she said, reluctantly pulling away.

"Hugo!" said Harry loudly as he drew his nephew into a tight hug.

"Uncle Harry," said Hugo. "So glad you could make it."

"So, I hear you're working for Wizardry World," said Harry. "How's the experience?"

"Interesting, I guess," said Hugo. "Things are a bit slow for me, but I have to be patient."

"Yeah," said Harry. "I'm thinking of a couple of things that might get me in the news so keep an eye out."

"Hmm," said Hugo. "I'd ask you if you wanted to make a comment, but I'm not going to bleedin walk into the magazine offices with a quote from my uncle. That's not quidditch, and humiliating if I get it wrong. But I'll keep an eye out."

"You know," said Harry, "there's this one girl who's giving me these impatient looks the whole time. Should I leave you?"

"Wha-? No, no, Uncle Harry," said Hugo. "She's got a bit of an... err... liking to me. Problem is I don't know her that well and she's trying to get comfortable pretty quickly."

"You know, apart from the veela-blood trio of your Uncle Bill," said Harry. "You've got the next amount of attention. Shame the rest of your cousins have to live life like normal people with the same lack of attention the world gives us. Speaking of veela-blood, where are your cousins Dominique and Louis?"

"Louis is with the French Quidditch team in their training camp at Geneva," said Hugo. "He's been meaning to come and visit but he couldn't find time off because frankly the security there is pretty tight so close to the World Cup. They can't have security wizards coming and going. Dominique has been called to the shop as her boss is sick tonight. She's closing in an hour and she said she'll come then."

"Come on Hugo," said the impatient girl, tugging at Hugo's sleeve. "You promised me a dance."

With a roll of his eyes, Hugo said his goodbyes with his uncle and was dragged off. Harry felt his glasses get pushed up and his sight suddenly went black and he could feel tight fingers on his eyes.

"Normally I'd guess who this is," said Harry, "but with so many Weasleys around I'd rather not spend the rest of the night guessing."

He recognised the laugh. "Roxanne," he said. "You really need to learn to control yourself if you're trying to conceal yourself."

The fingers lifted from his eyes. He hugged his niece after turning around and took a look at her. It was a bit of a while since he last saw her. No reason why in particular, they just hadn't seem to bump into one another for awhile. This was common with the Weasleys who didn't work in the Ministry; time would pass and he'd realise it was months, or even a year, before he met them.

"Uncle Harry," Said Roxanne. "It's been awhile. How are you doing?" she said, her mood suddenly getting very serious.

Harry found it difficult being short with his nephews and nieces so he always showed he understood their concern and was a bit more forthcoming than the people in his generation whenever they came near to the discussion of his family. However, he still kept a tight lid.

"Okay, I guess," he said with a sigh. "But how is my little professor?" He rubbed her hair like she was some puppy, and she tried to squirm her way out of it.

"Uncle Harry," she said. "I'm still studying some advanced work and taking a part-time assisting professors at Hogwarts. It'll be years before I can even call myself a professor."

"How're the kids in the classes you did teach?" said Harry.

"Not as bad as I feared they would be," said Roxanne. "Though they're so small. I can't believe I was that tiny arriving at Hogwarts."

"Yes, well, Ravenclaws are known midgets," said Harry. "The strain of carrying all those books, you know."

"Rather be a midget than some hero-wannabe Gryffindor rushing into situations making them worse," said Roxanne with a grin. "Though present company excepted."

"Indeed," said Harry. "Boy-Who-Lived and all that bloody goodness. Ah, how popular I was. I had to beat people back with a stick."

"Uncle Ron says you were a twitchy little bespectacled boy who didn't know his arse from his elbow with regards to magic when you came," said Roxanne, "despite looking like a nerd. Uncle George disagrees, he thinks Uncle Ron was being too kind in his description. He told me that in your second, fourth and fifth years there were easily transmittable diseases that were far more popular than you were. "

"Heh, there are rooms filled with things Ron didn't know back then," said Harry. "Yep, one was called the school library. He's no trustworthy source. Uncle George nearly blew up the school right before dropping out. He's not even a source."

Someone hugged Harry from his side tightly. He turned his head and saw it was Marissa.

"Uncle Harry," she said. "You haven't come by the restaurant lately."

"Haven't had many lunch meetings, I guess," he said. "And I didn't trust the ones I did have them with to act properly in a muggle establishment."

"Uncle Harry," she said. "Come alone, if you must."

"Alone?" he asked. "Who goes to a restaurant alone?"

"Some people do," said Marissa. "I should know, I cook in one."

"Fine, fine," said Harry, and he laughed at her expression not changing. "Honest."

"Roxanne, where's your mum?" he asked.

"At work," said Roxanne. "She's on the night shift in St. Mungo's today."

Ron came by and slapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Alright?" said Ron.

"Alright," said Harry.

"Listen," said Ron. "I'd like to talk to you tomorrow about work, okay?"

"Sure," said Harry, who looked at his watch. "Look, I think the young ones are raring to have a bit more fun so I'll make my exit."

"Are you sure?" said Roxanne, who hugged him goodbye.

"Yeah, I'm also tired," said Harry. "I'll stop by at Scotland if I ever have time and see you. I'll see you too, Marissa, don't look at me like that. I'll come to the restaurant soon enough. Say bye to those I haven't had a chance to talk to."