Author's Note:

Here's a little fluffy-ness for y'all.

Also, it should be noted that in canon, Bill was Prefect and Head Boy at Hogwarts and Charlie was the Seeker for Gryffindor. However, when it came time to write the Easter egg hunt in Five Months, I got a little mixed up and said that Charlie was afraid of heights, thinking he was the Prefect/Head Boy. So, seeing as I really can't go back and change the egg hunt scene, Bill and Charlie's opinions on Quidditch will be reversed from now on. So sorry about all this confusion.

Chapter Seven: Battle of the Ages

Harry wasn't sure how it had happened, but by the end of Wednesday night, he and Ron had agreed to spend the weekend babysitting while their wives had a couple of nights to themselves. But things began to get a little complicated when Angelina and Fleur heard about the plans and decided that they also wanted to get away. It wasn't long after that, that Katie, Penelope, and Marnie also spoke up about wanting to come too. And so Harry was suddenly going to be entertaining his six brother-in-laws and nine of their kids.

"-And Mum's offered to come over and cook if you have any trouble," Ginny said, finishing a lengthy speech about how to cook a few different meals while she watched Harry prepare one of the guest rooms for Ron.

"I think we can handle it," Harry replied, now moving into Joseph and Wesley's room to set up Rachel's old crib for Emmett to sleep in.

"Well, she also offered to watch the kids for a little while ... Dad's got some important meetings at the Ministry this weekend, so she's gonna be lonely."

"Shouldn't you be packing?"

"I'm already done," Ginny said just as the doorbell rang. She left to let Ron and Hermione in while Harry finished.

Hermione and Ginny waited a few minutes before leaving for their weekend retreat to remind their husbands of any last minute details. Finally, when Ron started passing out, they said their good-byes and left.

The original plans the men had made for Saturday consisted of a quick game of Quidditch for those who played, then lunch, then cards before dinner. And all of this was to be done outside, where everybody was going to camp out for the night. Excluding Harry and Ron, who had the youngest children and therefore had to stay in the house for the night. Nevertheless, it was still going to be a great Saturday morning - until it started raining, canceling out the Quidditch game and the picnic for lunch.

It was when the seven adults were seated around Harry's living room in silence that the children approached them with the idea of a Hopper tournament to pass the time.

"What's Hopper?" Harry asked Ron, imagining something to do with rabbits.

"It's like that Muggle game, Backgammon."

Everyone agreed to the game and the teams were quickly established: all the adults would play and Wendy, Angel, Colleen, Calvin, Philippe, Carter and Amy would play for the kids. Neil, being the most experienced player of all, was made score keeper and judge in case any disagreements arose.

Luckily, Neil, Angel, Fred, and Colleen all brought their Hopper sets, so four games could be played at once. The first game started was Harry against Wendy which, despite Harry's basic knowledge of the game, he lost in ten minutes. The second game was between Ron and Carter. It was tied through most of the half-hour they played, but Ron finally came out on top. Colleen beat George in the third game. But the fourth game, between Fred and Angel, had become the most popular. It lasted for well over an hour as both players were champions in their own households, but with the lucky roll of double sixes, Fred won.

The second round started with Percy catching Philippe off guard with his good strategies and kicking him out of the competition. Next, Amy booted Charlie out. And Calvin beat Bill in fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, Wendy and Ron entered the second level of battle. But they didn't have to play for long before Wendy won. Colleen and Fred also went into the second level, as did Percy and Amy. But the brothers managed to win just as Wendy was finishing up her game with Ron. She and Fred then began their third game each while Percy challenged Calvin.

In the end, father and son entered the Final Game against each other while relatives watched on. Now, the way Fred will tell it years later, he was winning for the whole twenty minutes, until Calvin somehow cheated and won the game. And Calvin will say that he was simply naturally talented, being able to dominate the whole game and then win it. In reality, most of the twenty minutes was spent with Fred and Calvin thinking of their next moves and the game could have been played in five. Also, as the twelve other competitors and one judge will attest to, the game was basically tied all the way through. Nevertheless, Calvin won the Hopper Tournament, earning him the choice of what to order for lunch, as it was clear by the still-pouring rain that no picnic would happen that day. And Harry hadn't started preparing the food anyway.

Four extra-large pizzas arrived fifteen minutes later, (Vegetarian for Neil, Amy, and Carter; Hawaiian for Harry, Percy, Wendy, and Ron; Pepperoni for Fred, George, Calvin, and Angel; and Meat Lover for Bill, Charlie, Colleen and Philippe.) along with Molly.

"You're not really planning to eat all of this, are you?" she asked the men, watching as they and the children began to eat their lunch.

"No, not all of it," Ron answered truthfully. They'd planned to save a couple of slices for Hermione and Ginny.

"And we've made sure there are tons of fruits and vegetables, Mum," Charlie said with a smirk, pointing to the Vegetarian pizza.

Molly shook her head, but gave up on scolding and joined the group seated around the Pepperoni pizza.

-After Lunch-

"What should we do now?" George asked.

Four pizza boxes lay scattered in the corner of the room and the Weasleys and Potter who had helped to empty them were all relaxing in the living room, including Molly.

"Does everybody know how to play poker?" Amy asked.

Once everyone got over the shock of an eight-year-old girl asking them this, they all said yes and started working out the details. Like how there would be two games being played at once, and the winner from each would play each other in the end. But to do this, the adults and kids needed to be split into two teams of four. For this, the two oldest adults and kids were made Captains to choose the teams.

"Well, I guess it's you and me, then," Charlie said to Bill.

"Forget about me?" Molly said, smirking.

Seeing as Molly was the oldest, she got to choose first.

"Charlie," she said.

"Ron," Bill countered.

"Harry."

"Percy."

"Fred."

"George."

"I think this is the first time I've been picked last for something," George said to his twin as they separated.

Next, eleven-year-old Wendy and ten-year-old Calvin chose their teams.

"Amy," Wendy said.

"Neil," Cal said.

"Angel."

"Colleen."

"Philippe."

"Oh, fine. Carter."

After the teams were decided the games began. One being Molly's team against Calvin's, the other being Bill's against Wendy's.

Bill and Wendy's game started out strong for the kids. First to be eliminated was Percy, then Bill, and even though Philippe was sacrificed in third, Ron was the fourth taken out, leaving George as the only adult left at the table. However, that must have worked to his advantage as he slowly won against Wendy, Angel, and Amy.

Meanwhile, Molly and Calvin's game seemed to be going back and forth between the teams as Colleen, and Fred were already eliminated. But once Calvin and Carter left one after the other, all bets were off. Harry and Charlie were taken out next, leaving Molly and Neil to fight it out. But Neil was no match for his grandmother's supreme bluffing skills, and he soon followed his uncles and cousins to watch the final game between Molly and George on the sidelines.

As it turned out, the final game didn't take so long, about ten minutes to be exact. And it only consisted of one hand as George went all in with a two and eight of spades against Molly's two kings. Needless to say, Molly won the whole game.

Soon after, the family realized that it had stopped raining a while ago and so the barbeque dinner was still on. As were plans for roasting marshmallows over a campfire in the backyard before everyone went to bed.

-Back at Hogwarts-

It was Sunday morning, a few minutes after breakfast. Nearly half of Gryffindor house filled the Quidditch stadium as Captain Esther McLaggen conducted try-outs. All of the first-years had shown up to see what all the fuss was about. Alroy noticed that Eamon Finnigan even managed to sneak into the line of kids wanting to play Keeper. Until Esther had Aaron Wood kick all the first-years off the field, that is.

"Nice try," Xavier said to Eamon as he passed by their seats.

All Seekers were soon dismissed as Esther happily announced that Aaron would be staying on the team, and so there was no need to see anyone else. Chaser try-outs then began and Xavier switched seats with Kara to get a better view of Rona and Timothy performing.

It was after a minute of awkward silence that Kara leaned into Alroy and whispered, "I'm sorry for leaving you on the steps last Wednesday," in his ear.

Al looked at her out of the corner of his eye. The pair had been avoiding each other since their History of Magic lesson four days ago. Actually, it was Kara doing all the avoiding, but Alroy wasn't too excited to be talking about anything with her either.

"I've just never told anyone about my parents," she continued when Alroy didn't say anything. "And it's not the easiest thing to talk about. I mean, I've practically been raising my sister since she was three. She's seven now."

"What about all the help you said your parents hired?"

"Oh, they've always been there. But Sapphire - that's my sister - she doesn't really like any of the nannies. So we keep the cooks and maids and only call the nannies if it's a real emergency."

"Like you going to Hogwarts?"

"Er, yeah." Kara stopped talking to listen to Esther call out the names of the three new Chasers.

"Ulysses Vachel. Shirley Maslin. Rona Weasley."

Everybody sitting around Al and Kara began to cheer loudly, including themselves, Xavier, Jeremy, and Maddie. But the cheering and clapping stopped as Timothy, wearing a fake smile on behalf of his cousin, sat beside his brother in the stands.

Author's Note:

Okay, I was going to write a few paragraphs showing what the women were doing during their weekend retreat. But as I started writing I realized that it was going to be really short. However, I'm willing to edit this chapter to put the scene in if enough of you want to read it.

Happy reading,

Lizzy