Chapter Ten - Warm Welcoming
The next morning dawned and Harry and Hermione had a lie in before getting up and having a breakfast of croissants and coffee. Harry and Hermione arrived back at Heathrow Airport at 10:00am and waiting for them at the arrival gate were Hermione's parents.
Joanna was the first to spot them and went rushing over.
"Mum!" Hermione shouted enthusiastically and they hugged joyously.
"Darling, look at you! You look so tanned!" she said as they let go. Then she turned to Harry and hugged him "Hiya Harry, darling. Are you alright?"
Harry grinned "I'm very well, thank you."
Hermione's father came up to them "Hey, hey! Here's the newlyweds!" he smiled and hugged Hermione and Harry "Here let me push the trolley you" and took hold of the trolley holding all their suitcases.
"Thanks dad" Hermione responded.
"So how was the honeymoon?" Hermione's mum asked excitedly.
They young couple beamed "Oh it was absolutely brilliant! Harry here treated me like a princess!" Hermione said and Harry blushed.
Mrs. Granger grinned "Well I hope you didn't let Harry do everything for you, must've let him have a treat once in a while."
Hermione looked at Harry and said "Oh yes I did treat him now and again" she winked at him and Harry blushed again, but tried not to look too embarrassed as he knew Hermione's parents were still watching them.
Hermione looked back at her mum "I let him take me out to the pub."
Joanna gave a small giggle, she knew her daughter was covering up what she had really done to treat Harry, but didn't want to say as to not embarrass either of them. Harry had noticed however, that David looked rather uncomfortable. Harry knew Hermione's father wasn't stupid, he would've figured out what was going on by now. Maybe it was the idea of Harry and his daughter reaching that final stage in their relationship, that David didn't like the idea of. Harry wondered if he should talk to him about it, but he didn't need think about it as David was one step ahead of him.
They were all back at Harry and Hermione's house, Hermione's parents having brought Hedwig and Crookshanks over to let them settle into their new home for the first time. While the girls were still discussing the honeymoon, David took Harry out into the garden and they sat by a bench next to the pond.
"Son, I think you probably know why I've taken you out here?"
Harry nodded, not saying a word.
David continued "I know that you and Hermione are married now and I suspect that you have" he gave an awkward pause "began the physical part of your relationship."
Harry blushed crimson and wanted nothing more than for a massive hole to appear in the ground and let it swallow him up.
David grinned "I thought so. I just wanted to say to you that whatever you and Hermione get up to behind closed doors is your business. I mean the idea of you and my daughter doing …" he paused again for a second then continued "Well it's not a nice image for a father to have in his mind. So what I'm trying to say is, I'm fine with what you two are doing but I just don't want to know anything about it."
Harry really didn't know how he should respond to his father-in-law's comments so he simply nodded "Umm … okay."
David smiled "Good, now no awkwardness between us yeah? I need you here son to keep me sane; I've been around these women for far too long."
Harry, having just had one of the most embarrassing and awkward conversations of his entire life, laughed and smiled "Yeah no awkwardness, you were just doing what you needed to do and I respect that and I completely understand."
David looked very grateful and then hugged Harry and all the emotions of a few minutes ago drifted clean away.
They got up and started making their way back inside.
"So go on son tell me, what did my darling daughter make you endure on this honeymoon then?" David asked with a slight grin.
Harry thought of something immediately "The only bad thing really, happened yesterday in fact, she took me shopping. But wait for it, it gets worse" he looked straight at his father-in-law in total dismay "This shopping place had twelve floors!"
David went wide eyed "Twelve floors! Oh heck Harry, you're a very brave man!" he patted Harry on the back as they went into the kitchen "for that alone you deserve a medal! But since I don't have one for you, how about a beer?"
Harry grinned and eagerly took one of the beer bottles that David was holding out to him "That'll do."
The two guys laughed and went back into the living room and heard Hermione finishing the end of her rant about the honeymoon "and you could see the whole city lit up and we ate dinner by candlelight! It was so romantic!" Hermione sighed happily.
Her mother beamed "You're so lucky darling! It sounds incredible!"
David looked confused as he sat down next to Harry on one of the sofas "What's this?" he asked his daughter.
"I was just saying to mum, how last night Harry planned a candlelit dinner on top of the Eiffel Tower" she smiled at Harry, while her father nearly spat out his drink in shock "A dinner? On top… of the Eiffel Tower! I didn't even know that was possible?!"
Harry blushed a bit "Well apparently we were the first ever people to do so." He looked very happy.
"Wow that's amazing! How did you even manage to plan it?" David asked.
"With a bit of researching and lots of this" Harry rubbed two fingers together, indicating money. "But it was oh so worth it!"
Then all of a sudden three owls came flying in through the open living room window, dropping three very large packages on the coffee table. They all yelped with shock when the owls had flown in.
"What could these be?" Joanna asked as the owls flew away. Hermione, however, had an idea and grabbed the nearest package to her and opened it eagerly and then she shouted excitedly "Our wedding photographs!"
The packages had been so big and there had been three of them, because so many pictures had been taken that day, and Harry and Hermione wanted numerous copies of some of them so they could give them out to people like, Hermione's parents and Ron and Luna.
"Wow! These turned out brilliantly!" Hermione said delightedly.
Harry went into the coat room and brought out a big cardboard box filled with photo frames, Harry and Hermione has bought especially to put their favourite wedding photographs in.
"Oh that's a gorgeous one!" Mrs. Granger said as she held up one to show Harry and Hermione, who grinned as they gazed at it.
It was a shot of the two of them standing near the Willow tree with the castle and the lake in the background. Harry had his arm around Hermione's waist and she was leaning into him, both of them showing brilliant bright smiles.
"I love that one!" Hermione instantly and took the photo and put it into a frame and onto the mantelpiece.
A moving photograph of the two of them laughing and looking utterly besotted with one another before leaning into kiss and looking at the camera was also put in a frame on the mantelpiece, along with a shot of the two of them with Hermione's parents. The other photos were either put into a photo album or into frames that were placed in the kitchen, dining room, study, library, along the hallway and in the bedroom.
Hermione's parents also took quite a few and Joanna put them in her bag "I'm definitely going to put one of these in the surgery for all to see."
Hermione and Harry laughed.
"Fair enough mum, just as long as it's a still photo or all your patients will get a bit freaked out if they see a photograph which is moving."
Her mother laughed "I know don't worry I'll use a normal one, the rest can go around the house."
Hermione smiled "Well I don't know what we are going to do with all these envelopes" she said as she looked at the big pile of them that contained various pictures for different people. "We are going to have to go to everyone's houses or we could send them by owl I suppose?"
"Hmm yeah possibly" Harry replied, he had been thinking about something for the past few minutes and decided to share it with the group. He gave a wide grin at Hermione who frowned at him in return "Harry, what are you thinking?"
Hermione's parents laughed, Hermione laughed too "What? I know that look; it's an 'I've got a brilliant idea, Hermione' look. So come on Harry, spill!" she said to him. Harry broke out of his day-dream state not having heard anything she just said to her parents.
"Well I don't know how you might feel about this but" he paused "how about we have our house warming party, this evening?"
Hermione raised her eyebrows in surprise "Tonight?" she paused for a moment, letting it sink in "but… but what about food, decorations and not to mention its very short notice" she said sceptically.
Harry still looked at her calmly "Well it is only just coming up to lunchtime, we got bags of time. I can go to the ministry and ask Mr. Weasley to spread the word to his lot; I could go speak to Lupin or Tonks. You and your mum could go into the village and maybe you could get some like burgers and hot dogs, we could fire up our new barbeque as the weather is so nice, and I can go and get the drinks from Dean and Seamus's pub, and then we can all do the decorations" he turned back to Hermione "we could do it easily, if I get everyone here for 5:30pm, that gives us just over five hours to get the place ready, which is bags of time! So what do you think?"
Hermione's parents were smiling, Hermione herself was just staring at Harry, not believing he could have formed a plan that fast, then she went up to him and kissed him.
"I think that's the first time I've seen you form a plan that quickly. Yes let's do it!"
"Are you sure?" Harry asked.
Hermione grinned "Yes!" she laughed "Mum, dad, are you alright with this, do you want to stay for the party?"
They both nodded "Of course darling, it should be fun!" Joanna said.
"Fair play to you Harry. That was some quick thinking, right let's all go do our jobs and get the stuff."
Hermione kissed Harry on the cheek and her and Joanna rushed out of the house. Harry turned to David "Could you get started with the decorations David, they are in the cupboard next to the front door. I must go and inform people and get the drinks. I will be about fifteen, twenty minutes?"
David nodded "Yeah that's fine, I'll get on with it. You just do what you got to do."
"Okay thanks, see you in a bit" a second later Harry apparated into the Ministry of Magic, got into one of the lifts and arrived at the top floor where the Minister's office was.
He was met by Mr. Weasley's assistant and she smiled at him "Ah Mr. Potter, very nice to see you, and may I just say congratulations on your wedding!"
Harry smiled "Thank you very much, is Mr. Weasley busy at the moment?"
"Well he has a meeting in about ten minutes, but he's free right now so go right on in" she pointed to a door behind her.
"Thank you" Harry said again, he knocked on the door and heard a voice say "Come in" and Harry entered, closing the door behind him.
"Harry!" Mr. Weasley said merrily as he saw Harry enter "You're back! Did you have a good honeymoon?"
Harry smiled "Yeah was really great, thank you."
"And how's the lovely Mrs. Potter?"
Harry smiled even more at Mr. Weasley calling Hermione by that name "She is very well, how are you and the rest of the family?"
"Yeah we're all fine thanks Harry. So, what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Well I know this is very short notice, but Hermione and I have decided to have a house-warming barbeque party this evening and we would like you and all the family to come."
Mr. Weasley looked very pleased "Oh yes that sounds great! Been waiting quite a while to see this house of yours, so what time would you like us there?"
"About 5:30pm if that's possible."
Mr. Weasley nodded "Yeah that sounds fine to me, would you like me to inform the rest of the family?"
"Oh could you? That would be brilliant, save me a lot of running around." He gave a thoughtful pause "Oh but I can go and tell Remus and Tonks about the party, is either of them working today?" Harry asked.
"Yeah Remus is and he does actually have something he needs to talk to you about."
Harry looked suspicious "Alright – I'll have a chat with him in a minute, oh by the way, have you got a quill and some parchment so I can write down the house address, I'm sure you can activate a portkey to get you all there."
Mr. Weasley nodded and handed him a quill and parchment where Harry wrote the address down "Thanks Harry, I will get a portkey activated and could you let Remus know to come to the Burrow and use it?"
"Yeah course I will, right well I best be off and let you go to your meeting. Thanks for seeing me; I know you're very busy."
Mr. Weasley smiled "No problem, I always have time to talk to you anytime you need to, Harry, you know that."
"Thanks, okay I'll see you at 5:30pm" and Harry left Mr. Weasley's office and went down to the Auror Department and found Lupin, who looked overjoyed to see Harry.
"Harry!" he hugged him "Oh it's so nice to see you back" he let go "Did you and Hermione enjoy your honeymoon?"
Harry grinned "Oh yes we had a brilliant time thank you."
"Good, so what brings you here, I thought you would be at home?"
"Ah well that's the reason why I came, Hermione and I are having a housewarming barbeque party at 5:30pm this evening and we were hoping that you, Tonks and Teddy would come?"
Remus looked very happy "Oh yes definitely! We would love to come, thank you; I finish at 5:00pm so yeah the three of us will be there. How are we going to get there though, because I don't know where it is" Remus chuckled.
Harry grinned "Well that's all sorted. I just saw Mr. Weasley and he said for you to get to The Burrow and you can all get there by Portkey."
Remus nodded "Okay that's good, oh and while you're here I need to talk to you about something."
"Hmm yeah Mr. Weasley said you did. What's up?"
"Well basically, I have stepped down as Head Auror for the Ministry" Harry looked quite stunned by this admission but let Remus continue "I just feel I can no longer handle all this hassle anymore, and as a result of that, Tonks will now be working full time as the new Head Auror, and I'm going to be staying at home with Teddy full time."
"Well as long as you're happy that's the main thing" Harry said happily before looking a tad confused "But what has all of this got to do with me?"
"Well sadly our Deputy Head Auror, Thomas, passed away a few days ago, and Arthur, myself and Tonks have had many discussions on who should replace him, and we have decided that we need someone younger, who knows what its like to fight the dark arts."
Harry looked puzzled "So who is that going to be?"
Lupin rolled his eyes and chuckled "I can see this two week honeymoon has affected your thinking. Harry, I thought it would have been obvious. I'm talking about you."
Harry looked shocked "Me? You want me to be the new Deputy Head Auror? But I have never had any training, I won't be able help Tonks look after and take control of all the other Aurors who are probably all like ten years older than me!"
Remus nodded "You were the first person Arthur, Tonks and I thought of. You would only need like a week's course, I mean heaven knows you've had enough dealings with the dark arts to know what to do and also look what you did with the D.A? If you can set up a defence group and teach them spells, and do it with such success, then we are one hundred percent certain you can help lead a group of Aurors. Harry just think of it like you are back teaching the D.A just on a bigger scale. They all look up to you and admire you for what you've done Harry; they will love you working with them I know they would. Plus Tonks is in charge, she will help you with any problems that you may have. So it's up to you Harry, if you would like the job, then it's yours."
Harry looked completely stunned; all the doubts about being capable of being Deputy Head Auror had been wiped clean away, thanks to Remus's lengthy speech. Harry sat down so he could think things through.
Being an Auror had always been his dream job, he knew there was still a few death eaters out there in the world somewhere, and knew he wanted to get them either all killed or captured. Remus was basically offering the job to him on a plate, and all he would have to do is go on a course for one week, which meant he would not have to leave home for a long time, this would keep Hermione happy. On thinking of Hermione, Harry knew that she would support him in what he wanted to do, and Harry wanted to do the same by supporting his wife and bringing money into the house, not that they needed anymore than they already had. All these thoughts whizzed through Harry's mind and after a few moments, he came to a decision and stood up "Yes Remus, I would like to take it, thank you."
Lupin beamed and hugged Harry "Hey that's fantastic! Brilliant, I'm so glad, hey it's going to be a double celebration tonight now."
Harry laughed "Yeah, yeah suppose it will," he glanced down at his watch and gasped "Oh blimey I've got to go or Hermione will go ape! So I'll see you tonight?"
Remus laughed "Yeah, yeah we'll see you tonight."
Remus hugged him and Harry left the Ministry and apparated to The Golden Phoenix to invite Dean and Seamus to the party and to get some drinks, then he disapparated back home.
"Hello, I'm back" Harry called out as he entered the kitchen and saw David blowing up balloons and Hermione and her mum were back from the shops emptying the barbeque food out of the shopping bags.
"Harry, where have you been? You've been gone ages!" Hermione stated.
Harry put the drinks down on the kitchen counters before responding "Yeah I know I'm sorry, but I just had a long chat with Remus and you'll never guess what?"
Hermione's expression had changed and now she looked quite excited and curious "Ooo what?"
Harry grinned "He has offered me a job! You are now looking at the person who, in a few weeks, will be the new Deputy Head of the Auror Department!"
Hermione screamed with delight, flung her arms around Harry and kissed him, "Oh Harry, that's fantastic! Oh I'm so proud of you!" she kissed him again.
"That is brilliant news Harry!" Joanna said as she came up and hugged him as did David "Well done, son!"
"Thank you" Harry said "We can discuss it more later, but for now what can I do to help?"
The family spent the next few hours putting decorations around the house and David even made a very tasty fruit punch.
"Blimey David! That's some strong stuff!" Harry said after he took a sip of it.
"My own secret recipe, lots of alcohol in it, you might want to warn some people … too many glasses of this stuff you'll be out of it for like a week." Harry laughed in response.
A while later, Harry and Hermione got changed into something a bit more suitable for a party and subsequently joined Hermione's parents in the living-room. At bang on 5:30pm, the four of them suddenly saw a big group of people, all at once; appear at the front of the house. Harry and Hermione went to the front door to greet them all.
Mr and Mrs. Weasley, Tonks and Lupin with Teddy, Ron and Luna, Ginny and Neville, Bill and Fleur with Victoire, Fred and George with Angelina and Katie, Parvati and Lavender, Hagrid and finally Dean and Seamus came into the house all looking very stunned by it.
They were given a quick tour; Hermione even had to stop Ron from eating the food when they reached the dining-room. Everyone had very positive comments to say about the house, and the guys in particular got very excited once they were shown the small quidditch pitch at the very end of the garden. Everybody then seemed to disperse off into different groups, some stayed outside as Hermione's dad fired up the barbeque (much to Mr. Weasley's amusement, as he had never seen one before) while others went back indoors.
"This place is really great Harry!" Tonks said to Harry as she grabbed some wine from the kitchen "I love the décor. One question I do have is; how did you manage to move in so quickly? Surely a house of this size and standard would've taken ages to build?"
Harry grinned "Ah well you see that's where your husband came in. Remus informed us of some very good wizarding builders and they got it done much faster than muggle builders."
"Ah there you go then" she chuckled "So how was the honeymoon?"
"It was really good thanks, if you talk to Hermione she would gladly give you the rundown of what we did each day."
Tonks laughed "Oh I bet she would. I'll ask her later."
Harry rolled his eyes and laughed.
"So, Remus just told me you accepted the job as my Deputy Head Auror! Which is great news, how you feeling about it?"
Harry pondered for a moment before answering "Nervous and excited all at the same time. Going to be great working alongside you" Tonks gave Harry a grin in return of his compliment as Harry continued "I was really surprised Remus has decided to step down from the job though."
"I think he's getting a bit old" Tonks said in a slight whisper and grinned.
"Who's getting old?" Remus inquired as he came up to where Harry and Tonks were talking in the kitchen.
"No one honey" Tonks said as she and Harry, with much difficulty, managed to keep straight faces.
Lupin had looked curious at first but shook it off, then addressed Tonks. "Dora, where is Teddy?"
"Molly has him; I suspect he's still with her."
"No I have him" came Hermione's voice as she wandered over to join them from the hallway, a very content looking Teddy in her arms; she smiled at them "He was getting a bit groggy so I offered to take him off Mrs. Weasley, seems alright now aren't you sweetie" she cooed to Teddy.
"Could I have a hold of my godson Hermione, or are you going to keep hold of him all night?" Harry asked with a chuckle.
Hermione held Teddy closer to her "Keep hold of him" she said and Lupin, Tonks and Harry laughed. Hermione grinned "Okay you can hold him, but I want him back afterwards."
Harry laughed as Hermione handed Teddy to him "God you've gotten heavier!" he said, Tonks and Lupin laughed.
"Babies tend to do that, Harry" Hermione chuckled.
"Shush you" Harry laughed and Hermione poked her tongue out at him.
"Wouldn't believe he's nearly six months old would you" Hermione said as she stroked Teddy's hair, that today was dark brown.
Harry looked quite stunned "Really? Wow seems like only yesterday when you came into Shell Cottage, Remus, to tell us he was born."
Lupin and Tonks smiled "Yeah I know what you mean" Remus nodded "time flies."
Ron then came bounding in carrying a massive plate piled high with three hot dogs.
"Heya guys!" he tried to say while stuffing one in his mouth, he grabbed a beer off the kitchen counter "Great party!"
"Mate, you want a hold of Teddy? Get some practice in?" Harry said.
Ron looked rather startled, and as his mouth was full of food all he could do was point frantically in the direction of the garden and walked backwards quickly, before disappearing through the French double doors.
Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry shook his head with a grin as he said "Well time may fly, but some things never change."
They all laughed, even Teddy giggled, still in Harry arms, before he handed the toddler back to Hermione as he went outside to help David with the barbeque.
Hermione came outside a while later and found Ginny, Parvati and Angelina chatting happily; they smiled as they saw Hermione approach.
"Hey! Here she is! The new Mrs. Potter" Angelina said happily and the girls giggled.
"How's married life then Mrs. Potter?" Parvati asked with a cheeky grin.
Hermione was blushing but beaming with delight "Just perfect!"
The girls just wolf whistled and giggled heartedly.
"Hermione, I got to say, this house is just beautiful!" Ginny told her "and I can't wait to try out the quidditch pitch!"
Hermione chuckled "Oh I'm sure it wouldn't take much to persuade Harry into letting a load of you go down for a game."
The party continued on and sure enough Harry was very easily persuaded in taking a few of the guests down to the quidditch pitch for a game, Harry's team losing by only ten points. Neville announced that he had got a job helping Professor Sprout in the greenhouses at Hogwarts; this was a complete surprise to Ginny who was absolutely delighted, as she would now be able to see her boyfriend on a daily basis. They were both setting off to start a new year at Hogwarts tomorrow.
Harry and Hermione's wedding photograph copies were distributed to the people who had wanted them, which everyone was delighted with. Mrs. Weasley was almost in tears as she saw the photographs of the happy event. Hermione's parents were the last people to leave the party that evening at 10:30pm; and once Harry and Hermione watched them drive away they closed the front door and sighed.
"What a day! I've got myself a brilliant job and we've just had a house-warming party! You wouldn't have thought we came back off honeymoon this morning would ya?" Harry laughed.
"Well who says our honeymoon has to be over?" Hermione said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Oh I like the sound of that!" Harry said eagerly and Hermione squealed as Harry attempted to grab her but she ran off up the stairs, Harry laughed and ran straight upstairs after her.