Author's Notes:
So here it is – the eighth chapter.
I'm so grateful to all of you for reading my story, putting it on alert, adding it to your favourites and reviewing.
And now the story has got an image as well, thanks to the talented charmontez (from deviantArt)!
Enjoy the new chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I make no profit from this work of art. However, I do own the plot and some OCs. The image belongs to charmontez.
Chapter 8. Of former enemies and daughters
On 23 December, Hogwarts resembled an artist's dream: a medieval castle surrounded by acres of snow drifts, the calm dark loch like a stain in the midst of the vast whiteness; an endless forest on the school's border; a bright blue sky and children, joyful children laughing, playing in the snow or going towards the Hogsmeade Station. Some would take carriages, while others preferred walking. What could've been better than so beautiful a painting in watercolour on a canvas?
Nine first years, wrapped in their winter cloaks over their robes, were admiring the view, as the carriage pulled by the infamous Thestrals neared the train station. The scarlet coloured Hogwarts Express was already there, ready to leave in about 30 minutes. The group were currently discussing their up-coming plans to stay over at the Potters'.
"Although James is going to be at nana's, Lily will still be at home," announced Al, "but, she's cool, so don't worry. She won't bother us much."
"If Lily is going to be there, then I bet my brother will want to come as well," said Rose, rubbing her gloved hands together as to warm them. For a reason or another, she always got cold hands. Seeing this Amorette, being near her, took the red-head's hands and started warming them with her own. "Thanks, Amor," whispered Rosie.
"You're welcome, Rosie," replied Amorette. "And I don't think that your siblings being there will to be a problem. From what I gathered, your house is quite big, and it will easily fit all of us."
"Yes, it is quite big," confirmed Albus. "It's a pity you can't come, Sierra."
"Yeah, I really wanted to be with you, guys. But mama wants to visit nonna in Genoa, and I couldn't possibly travel alone from there to London," mumbled the girl dejectedly. She genuinely looked forward to spending some time with her friends.
"I've been to Genoa once," said Thea with her soft voice. "The city is really impressing and its history is so rich. I heard there are lots of vampires in that area, but I hadn't met one during my journey. And near the seaside, there is a hidden cave. Some say a goddess once lived there and her magic still resides in the rocks."
"I've never heard of such a cave when my family and I travelled through Italy," said Lizzy, her voice reflecting her scepticism of the other girl's words.
"It doesn't really matter, Liz," Tristan subtly chided his sister. "And the bit about vampires is true; we've met one ourselves."
Seeing Elizabeth's embarrassment and indignation at being told off by her brother, Al changed the subject, remarking that they were near the station and that they should prepare. Lizzy's tone made her comment seem a bit vicious, but he knew she didn't want to hurt Thea's feelings, it just came out wrong. He was sure that Thea was aware of that as well, as she took no offence. When they descended, Albus saw Liz take the blue-eyed girl's hand and squeeze it as if apologising. They were Slytherins, and asking forgiveness was a rather uncommon phenomenon. The girl squeezed Miss Nott's hand in return.
Once inside a compartment, Rose took out a potions book and made herself comfortable in the cushioned seat, Amorette and her brother quietly discussed what they should buy for their parents, Sierra and Thea told each other some of the unusual things they'd seen or heard, while Al, Scorp and the Nott twins played Exploding Snap. The journey back to London was much more relaxed than the one to Hogwarts, when they all were fretting over the house they'd be sorted in.
A bit later, different acquaintances and relatives would go in and out to greet the first years or wish them a merry Christmas. James and his friends' visit was possibly the most irritating, for they had dropped some Nasty Seeds on their way out. These seeds were some of the newest WWW products and as soon as they touched solid ground they would start growing very fast and if no measures were taken, they could evolve into a veritable jungle with ferns and all.
Fortunately, just half of the compartment was full of greenery when Dom slid the door open. The counter-action to the spell put on the seeds was far above a first year's capabilities, even one's whose name is Rose Weasley. Dominique quickly took care of it.
"It was Jammed and Fried, was it not?" she asked. A simple eye roll from Scorpius was all the confirmation she needed, so she took off to find James and his good for nothing friends, muttering something akin to "New Marauders, my arse!"
"They're going to be in lots of trouble," said Al, holding no sympathy in his voice at all.
"They definitely deserve it," muttered Liz, trying to untangle her copper locks. "Were it not for your cousin, we would've been strangled to death. That stupid liana! It completely messed my hair."
Seeing her desperation, both Tristan and Albus started helping her. Some ten minutes later, her hair returned to its initial state.
"Thank you, guys," said the girl cheerfully. "How come you're so good at it, Al? I understand Tristan, he's done this before, but you? Your hair might be messy, but not long enough to get tangled."
The boy in question blushed and suddenly found his shoes rather interesting. "I like combing my sister's hair after she'd wash it. It is really long and she isn't patient enough to comb it thoroughly without pulling out half of it."
"Oh, how cute!" cooed all the girls, except Rosie, for she'd known about that for a long time. Al even sometimes combed her hair. The boys, however, sniggered at the young Potter's blatant embarrassment.
"I wish my brother was as considerate as you," sighed Amor, and the other Italian girl nodded in agreement.
"All Manolo is good at with his fingers is holding that stupid beater's bat," complained Sierra.
"Mabel, what are whining about? You don't let anybody touch your hair, saying that it is sacred or something," Ambrose asked his sister, referring to her by her middle name. The remark made the boys laugh so hard they were actually struggling to catch their breath.
"I said that only to you, Prince! You were trying to cut it with gardening scissors, for Merlin's sake!" Amor yelled over the boys' guffaws.
"Prince?" inquired Rose intrigued about their friend's nickname.
"That's his middle name. No wonder he's so conceited. A perfect Slytherin," replied his sister, still upset with him for making her seem vain.
"Well, better Prince than Severus," mumbled Al. "Albus Severus sounds like a 100 year old man's name."
"Well, mate, about the time you get 100 years old, you'll feel completely comfortable with it," said Scorp smirking. "I, for one, will never come to terms with being Scorpius. I keep on imagining that tiny animal with pliers." His visions made everybody chuckle and they started discussing the unusual and dreadful names they'd ever heard of.
Astoria Malfoy indisputably was a beautiful and gracious woman. She was also quite a skilled liar. "Tracey, I'm telling you that Draco knows that I'm pregnant, I'm just asking you not to mention it to anybody as it's still too early. You're the healer; you know what the first three months are like better than I do."
"I just want to make sure that the both of you are aware of the risks you're submitting to by being pregnant," replied Healer Boot. "And I hope you remember from your former pregnancy, no apparating after your 16th week."
"Don't worry about that. We know. Now, tell me how Tara and Darren are doing," the younger woman tried to change the subject. "They should be 12 and 10 years old, right?"
"Oh yes! Tara, just like Terry, is a Ravenclaw. She's so bright, that little one," Tracey responded, the enormous love for her children reflected in her warm brown eyes. "And Darren is all the time on a broom. I think he's going to be a Slytherin, he's got too much mischievousness to be placed in Ravenclaw. How is your Scorpius doing?"
"He's just fine. Imagine his best friends are Potter's second kid, Blaise and Theo's twins! He's also all the time with Granger's girl and someone called Thea and Sierra. What a bunch!"
Tracey chuckled. She remembered her daughter informing her in the letter she'd sent that a Potter had been sorted into Slytherin. Her husband, who knew Potter quite well, was completely shocked. Mrs Boot herself found the situation rather hilarious. "Yes, quite an interesting group."
"Well, I'd better go. I have to meet Draco at King's Cross to take our little boy and Daphne's girl home," said Astoria and kissed her healer's cheeks.
"I wish I could go, but my shift doesn't end until 9 in the evening. Terry's shift was yesterday, so he is the one meeting Tara at the station," said Tracey and bid farewell to her former housemate.
As soon as she got off the train, Elizabeth ran towards her father, her friends trailing after her. "Daddy, daddy!" She was definitely a daddy's girl. And judging by his expression, she was the apple in his eye. As she went to hug him, the tall man lifted his princess and kissed her forehead.
"I've missed you, my little Lizzy," he said smiling. "And daddy has got a welcome gift for you! I've found a brilliant puppet master and he made Yoko not only unbreakable but also able to dance."
After hearing his father's words, Tristan turned towards his friends minus Thea and Sierra (they had already left to find their parents) and threw them an 'I told you so' look; their father would indeed do the impossible for Elizabeth. Ambrose shot him a 'tell me about it' look in return, gesturing with his head towards his own father hugging Amor and kissing her 'sacred' hair.
Harry Potter, watching his former classmates, felt sympathetic. He knew that he'd miss his own daughter once she left for Hogwarts. It didn't matter that they were Slytherins or Gryffindors, these fathers were putty in their daughters' little hands. However, what did seem mind-boggling to the Chosen One was Elizabeth's character. From Al's letters he had gathered that the girl had a bubbly personality, the scene before him confirming that. But she could also be manipulative and sarcastic in true Slytherin style, as well as talk and behave like an adult. That girl was a walking controversy.
'I will never understand Slytherins,' he concluded. 'I'd say they're a bunch of weirdoes, but with my son being one of them, it's not an option.' With that thought in mind he started walking towards the first years gathered around Nott and Zabini's family, taking Ginny with him. As he approached them, he saw Hermione, who had just apparated, following him and Malfoy with his wife having just passed through the barrier and going towards his own son.
"Nott, Zabini, Malfoy," Harry greeted them with a nod, receiving one in return from each of them.
"Potter, Mrs Potter, Madam Weasley," said Blaise. Hermione, as she always did, blushed at being referred to as 'Madam'. She'd been the Head of DMLE for more than three years and yet, she couldn't get used to it.
"Good evening," she said in return, turning her head from the head of the Level 7 Department, to Theo and then to the Senior Unspeakable Draco Malfoy and his spouse. The woman was gleaming. If Hermione didn't know any better, she'd say that Astoria was sporting a pregnant woman's glow.
Liz, ever the observant one, just like her friends, felt the tension between their parents. She knew she had to intervene. "Daddy, this is Harry Potter! We're going to stay at his and Mrs Potter's house after Christmas."
Unconsciously, Theo smiled at his daughter's light mood. Since he wasn't used to having her so far away from him, Elizabeth made him smile with anything she'd say or do. "Yes, Lizzy. I'm aware of that."
"Are you sure you'll manage to keep an eye on all of them?" Blaise asked the Potters, smirking.
"Don't worry, Zabini. We'll take great care of them and supervise that they don't destroy the house in the meantime," answered Ginny smirking in return.
Beside her husband, Mia Zabini giggled. "Hopefully, at the end of this holiday we won't be receiving cheques stating damage repairing."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Mia," said Astoria. Her smile made her even more beatific than she already was. She turned towards the two thirds of the Golden Trio. "You do have a Quidditch mini-pitch somewhere near the house, don't you?"
"Yes, we do," replied Harry. He had expanded the Black's garden quite a bit to allow his children and nephews and nieces play Quidditch whenever they stayed at 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Well then, should they use the floo to go to your house?" asked Draco.
"Yes the floo, would be preferable, but I will come to take each of them to my place. It's unplottable and heavily warded; they wouldn't be able to find it without me personally taking them there," the eldest Potter responded.
"Unplottable? Nice, Potter," complimented Blaise with a grin. "Let me guess, not even those from the Ministry know where it is."
"No, they don't," was Harry's response, a smile of his own making its way on his face.
"Custom travelling is good enough for us," said Theodore. "I will send you the address and adjust the floo so you'll be able to come in." Near him, his former housemates nodded in agreement, promising to do the same. "At what hour is this so-called party starting?"
"I'll be coming to collect them in the morning, let's say 11. Is it convenient for you?" inquired Harry.
"Perfect, Potter," Draco answered for them all.
The woman, who was holding Theo's hand, asked what all the mothers wanted to know: "I know it's some kind of a slumber party, but they will be staying for four days, so should we prepare some food or the like?"
"Thank you, but it's not needed. Hermione and I will prepare all the food. Just don't forget to put in their bags some change of clothes and brooms, if they have one. My nephews tend to take the spare ones and they haven't returned them yet, and we don't want anybody sulking or something" said Ginny smiling kindly.
"Well, it sounds like a plan. We should be going," announced Draco and bid everybody farewell, as his son did the same with his friends. Malfoy shrunk and pocketed Scorpius' luggage, took his hand and that of Astoria and they disapparated.
The former two Slytherins did the same and soon the only ones left were Harry, Ginny, Hermione and their children.
"That was fun," commented the latter, and they all started laughing.
"Where's James, Al?" asked Harry.
"He, Fred and Paul had been hiding from Dom the last time I saw them," he replied.
"What did they do?" demanded Ginny, her joyful expression turning murderous.
"You'd better ask what they didn't do, aunt Ginny," said Rosie, "the list would be much shorter."
"Those boys are such troublemakers," complained Ginny.
"Well, James and Fred definitely live up to their namesakes," remarked Hermione. She thanked the Heavens that her daughter wasn't one to break rules on a daily basis. Her son, however, was another story.
"Thank you for your empathetic feelings, Hermione," her best friend said sarcastically, but his gentle voice soothed the mean edge to her words. "We'd better go find James. See you at the Burrow and say hello to Ron." He and his wife hugged her, while Al's cousin kissed him on the cheek. They left in search of the other Potter, Harry pushing the cart with Albus' trunk on it.
"Speaking of daddy, where is he?" Rose asked her mother. She didn't want to admit it, but she was a bit jealous of Liz and Amor when their fathers hugged and kissed them, treating them like princesses. She didn't want to be the only one whose father didn't even come meet her.
"A good question, love. Perhaps he was held at work."
Hermione was actually quite peeved by Ron's absence. She told him to be there at 6 pm, but it seemed that he forgot – a common occurrence in the last two months or so. She wondered what was happening to him, for he didn't pick up Hugo from Molly's when he was supposed to, neither did he accompany her to Diagon Alley for the usual Christmas shopping as he had promised. 'Midlife crisis, perhaps?'
"Let's go Rosie. Hugo is waiting for you," her mother said with a bright smile. She took her daughters hand, put the shrunken trunk in her bag and apparated the both of them to their home.
"Yes, yes! Harder!" exclaimed Karin passionately underneath her lover. She hadn't distracted him enough to have unprotected (by charms) sex, but it didn't mean that she wouldn't enjoy it either way.
With his next thrust, she climaxed and he soon followed after, riding their exhilaration together.
"Oh, I love Saturdays!" said the woman in his arms. "This way we can stay in bed from dawn till sunset, without anybody disturbing us."
"Yes, Saturdays are nice," mumbled Ron, his body still euphoric after the violent release he'd just had.
Karin started rambling about something, and he didn't really care enough to listen to all of it. However something did catch his attention. "What have you just said?"
"I said that I bought a beautiful dress from a muggle shop near Oxford Street Station," she repeated.
"Oh," he said disinterested.
"Yes, love," she giggled.
And then it clicked. "King's Cross Station!" he exclaimed jumping naked out of the bed. "I had to meet Rose today. How late is it?"
"It's 10 pm, darling. Don't worry, what's the big deal?" asked Karin watching him getting dressed.
"Hermione will suspect something, that's the big deal!"
"Oh, then tell her you were busy at work," she suggested.
"Yeah, I could do that. Hopefully, Harry didn't mention anything about me to her," he said, putting on his cloak. "I love you!"
"I love you, too!" she said. "See you," but he had already left.
'That bitch,' she cursed in her mind. 'He forgot about his own daughter, so this means that my plan is working. Slow steps, they say, have a better result in the end…'
Explanation of some things that might be confusing:
1. Nonna from Italian means nana or grandmother.
2. Genoa is a real city in Italy, a rather beautiful one.
3. Manolo is Sierra's brother, who is a 4th year Ravenclaw and a beater for his house team.
4. Although in the 8th film, Lily was depicted by an actress with short hair, I think that long hair would suit her character much better.
A quick poll for entertainment purposes:
Who is your favourite Marauder?
A) Sirius Black
B) James Potter
C) John Lupin
D) Petter Pettigrew (although he doesn't deserve to have his name listed here). Let me know!
My own answer to the previous poll: My favourite character out of the Golden Trio is Hermione! She's brilliant, devoted, loyal, witty, honest, a bit mischievous, isn't quick to judge people (Luna is an exception, but she did get like her) and knows how to stand for herself. Love her! And Harry comes as a close second.
Please review!
