Chapter 5: The Potluck

The twins woke up first and they were hungry. James and Lily raced out to the living room and immediately tackled Dean and Sam to the amusement of everyone else.

"Uncle Dean, I'm hungry." Lily said to Dean in a sweet voice.

"Me too, Uncle Sam." James said. Cris and Fred laughed and the two looked over at their parents.

"Maybe some juice, ok. We're going to a big picnic." Cris said.

"Like with Grammy?" Lily asked.

"Almost, just without magic." Fred said.

"Why not?" James asked. The two parents looked at each other to try and explain the best way that they were not in the wizarding world. The Jess stepped up.

"Because where we're going the people aren't magical. You do know that we have to keep it a secret, right?" Jess asked.

"Yep, because the muggles would hate us and use us." Lily said.

"Who said they would hate you?" Cris asked.

"Uncle Draco!" the twins said together.

"I don't think they would hate you. We're muggles; do you think we hate you?" Sam asked.

"You are?" James asked.

"We are." Dean confirmed.

"You don't hate us, do you?" Lily asked, her green eyes big and pleading.

"Of course not, how could we hate you two?" John asked.

"We may not hate you but other people may actually not understand and will be frightened." John said. Cris and Fred smiled; it really was the simplest explanation to give the two.

The two jumped off their laps and began playing with their toys. Cris moved to next to Dean and grabbed his hand. Their green eyes locked together and Dean pulled her into a hug.

"I wish we knew about you sooner, Cris." Dean said.

"Is he always like this?" Cris asked Sam and John. Father and son laughed and Dean pouted and looked affronted.

"Yes, he's very protective of Sam; he'll be the same way with you." John said.

Cris smiled and leaned her head on Dean's shoulder. Fred smiled and wished he could work a camera to capture the moment, well a muggle camera anyway. But there was a click and a flash and he was broken out of his thoughts.

"What was that?" he asked John, Sam and Dean just looked surprised at him but Cris just laughed.

"Let me guess, pureblood." Jessica said with a smile. Cris just nodded and turned to her husband.

"She just took a picture." Cris said.

"With that little thing? Camera's are huge." Fred said.

"In the wizarding world, yes. Remember Colin's camera?" Fred nodded as he remembered the young first year Colin. "They've only gotten smaller sense then."

"Really? Can I see?" Fred asked. Cris just laughed and Jessica nodded and Fred jumped up to see.

"Is he usually like that?" Sam asked as he looked at his cousin's husband.

"Yes, he isn't used to all the muggle objects. In the wizarding world the pictures move, including the paintings. Technology doesn't work all that well around us, but if we don't always use it, it's fine. And cars, we don't use cars at all, though the Weasley's did have one that Fred's father enchanted to fly." Cris said.

"I wouldn't be caught dead in it." Dean said.

"What happened to the car?" Sam asked.

"That's a long story." Cris said.

"But it's a good one. Well, my mum and dad weren't too thrilled about it but George and I thought it was awesome." Fred said.

"Ok, now I'm curious. What happened?" Jessica asked. Cris and Fred looked at each other then at the kids.

"Maybe tonight when the kids go to bed." Cris said.

"I'm guessing it's something you don't want them to know a lot of your school days." John said.

"Not just yet, they'll know eventually but I don't want them to know just yet. My school days were okay for the most part but I had a lot of crazy stuff happen to me." Cris said.

"Do we want to know?" Dean asked.

"Probably not. But that'll probably happen tonight as well." she responded.

"Alright, well, it's just about time for the potluck. So we should get going." Jessica said.

The kids cheered and the adults started to laugh a bit and they got everyone together. They left the apartment and all climbed into the cars. Same arrangement as before with Cris and Lily with John and Dean and Fred and the boys with Sam and Jessica.

"So how long is the drive going to be?" Cris asked.

"Not sure, this is the first time we've visited Sam since he went to college." John admitted.

"Just haven't had the chance to do so?" she asked.

"Something like that." Dean said.

"Sounds like you guys have been busy too."

"Yeah, we'll explain some other time." John said.

"Alright, I'll hold you to it." Cris said as the car started and the music started playing softly in the background as they followed the other car to the park that the potluck was being held at.

They arrived at the park and to Cris it was probably the most beautiful park she has seen. With Remus on her hip he was staring at the grass and all the children playing around and just wanted to get down and play with them as well. He started squirming and with a laugh she set him down and he and the twins ran off to go play with a nearby group of kids that were around their ages.

"This place is beautiful." Cris said.

"Definitely, especially with the ocean in the background. Did you place tracker and protection charms on the kids?" Fred asked.

"Yep, in the car."

"What" Dean asked.

"I placed charms on the kids so that way we know if they are hurt or in danger."

"That's smart, but also look up at the kids too, you don't want the other people here to be suspicious about anything." John said.

"Of course, I wouldn't want any of them to think I'm a bad mother. It just gives me a peace of mind." Cris said.

"Well come this way, those are my friends over there. It looks like they have the grill going. I hope you guys like Hot Dogs." Sam said.

"I haven't had those in forever. Last time was at a friends birthday party back in primary school." Cris said.

"Which is elementary school." John said.

"Got it." Dean said with a chuckle.

The group of people they were with were laughing and playing with Sam and Jessica. Cris and Fred kind of felt out of place. But it felt good and it was a probably the best vacation that they had in a long while. Then one of Sam's friends came up to them and handed each of them a beer.

"So you must be the cousin Sam was talking about. I'm Keith."

"Yeah, I'm his cousin Cris, and this is my husband Fred." Cris introduced. Cris looked over and saw Lily and James were playing tag and Remus was playing in a sand box nearby.

"So what do you guys do over there in England?" Keith asked. Dean and Sam looked over curiously because they hadn't thought to ask their cousin that yet.

"Well, I'm a police officer and Fred and his brother George own their own business." Cris said.

"It's a joke shop. It gets pretty good business as well. We even opened up a second branch near our school." Fred said.

"That's cool. You do seem like the jokester type."

"Please, there is one teacher we had back when I was in 5th year who had no idea how to teach so we brought it on ourselves to teach ourselves. But in retaliation Fred and George pulled really great pranks on her."

"That sounds awesome!"

"Why would the principle hire someone who couldn't teach?" Sam asked.

"It's a long and complicated story, I'll tell you later."

"I'll hold you to it." Dean said.

Cris laughed and just had a good time hanging out with the family. It was almost like the Weasley's. The only difference was that even though they were laughing and joking around it felt as though Sam hadn't seen his brother and father for some time. It was something she would have to ask about later. Once it got dark they all gathered together and looked up at the sky.

"Mum, what are we waiting for?" Lily asked.

"You'll see kiddo. It's going to be awesome." Dean responded. Lily pouted but continue to squirm around until there was a loud boom!

The children stared wide eyed as they saw bright colorful fireworks explode in the air above them. It was the first time that they had seen fireworks and it was a treat for them. They were oohing and ahing at the different shapes that were formed. It went on for about an hour then stopped. By this time the kids were just about sleep walking as they headed to the car and heading back to the hotel to crash for the night. All in all it was a good day.

A.N. Thank you for your patience everyone. I will continue to try to write. But life with a 4 month old is always busy at the moment. Thank you everyone for the well wishes for the health of my son. He was born 6 weeks early and spent 5 weeks in the NICU.