RA CH 21 Summer Quidditch and Fall Reorganization
I am writing a story about Albus at Hogwarts. Some of the below is background, and we will see the children of Cho and Seamus at Hogwarts. If you have any children of Potter characters you would like in my story, let me know. I may use your back story, if you have one, and give you credit.
Summer was the time the family got together at the New Burrow property, and of course there were family Quidditch games. The middle of July Charlie brought Ivana Romanoff over to spend about four weeks with Lily. Ivana was going to learn how to play Quidditch, and spend some 'girl time' with Lily Luna.
"It looks like you have two teams just in Mum's grandchildren, Ginny," Charlie said. "I know Ivana is in between Albus and Lily, but I am not sure how old everybody else is. They all seem to be about a year apart. I have everybody's name written down, but not when they were born."
Ginny said, "They are not exactly a year apart. Teddy is sixteen, and is always included in the count. Freddy is fifteen, Molly and Victoire are both fourteen, Roxanne is thirteen. Lucy is twelve and a half, Dominique is eleven, Louis is almost ten. My James is almost nine, Rose is eight, and Albus is almost eight. Lily Luna and Hugo are almost six. That's thirteen children, but Rose almost never plays, and she is not very good when she does play. Of course there are other children in the neighborhood who often join in the games."
"What positions do they play?" asked Charlie.
Ginny said, "Teddy and Fred usually guarded the goals. Louis and Roxanne usually hit the the bludgers, youth bludgers that will not seriously hurt you, but that you do have to avoid. Occasionally they will switch places, with Teddy and Fred doing the bludgers and Louis and Roxanne guarding the goals.
"James has always wanted to be a seeker. The only one of the other children who has the patience to be a seeker is Albus. So my sons are competing. Albus takes losing in stride, but James gets real upset if Albus beats him. The cousins have found out that it is better if the two brothers are not on the same team, so having them as competing seekers works well, usually.
"James likes to tease everybody, but the teasing is usually friendly. Our biggest problem is that James constantly kids Albus that they're practicing for when he, James, is going to be seeker for Gryffindor, and Albus is going to be seeker for Slytherin. Al doesn't blow up or anything, but James kidding galls Albus."
"So if you were Albus, James would have Bat Boogies flying out of his nose?" asked Charlie, grinning. "You were never famous for being patient when we were kids growing up."
"Probably," Ginny ruefully admitted. "Albus can be amazingly patient.
"The other six cousins are chasers. You have some of the older children with Molly and Victoire, and the youngest with Hugo and Lily. Victoire is a better chaser than Molly, and Lily is a better chaser than Hugo. Neither Lucy nor Dominique are very good, so they are well matched. Everyone enjoyed playing, even if they are not all that good.
"Harry spends some of his free time training James and Albus as seekers. I do the best I can, training the rest of the team from the ground. Not being able to fly REALLY frustrates me, but I still know Quidditch."
"What happens when other children come?" Charlie asked. "I know Ivana would like to be considered one of the cousins, even though she is not biologically related."
"Charlie, since when does blood relation mean anything to Mum?" Ginny asked. "Ivana is your daughter, since you and Stribog adopted her. I think the cousins consider her just another cousin, and they will make sure she can play with the other cousins."
"I'm just very grateful Mum and the whole family has accepted Ivana. Everyone has accepted Stribog and me as well," Charlie said. "His family doesn't."
Ginny said, "When other children show up, usually the oldest or the youngest sit out the games, or does other things. James and Albus are usually the seekers, though, if Albus is playing. Albus really is a good seeker, and James is exceptional.
This particular summer seemed to just fly by. There were lots of Quidditch games. Schooling, although a lot less intense, continued over the summer. Al and Rose spend two to three nights a week on the Potions textbook with Hermione.
James and Lily loved to fly, and Ginny had a hard time not allowing them to fly as much as they wanted to. Ginny remembered how she had to sneak into the broom shed to learn to fly on her brothers' brooms, and how she loved to fly until she got hurt. The medical staff at St. Mungo's had introduced her to a couple of Magi who really had severe brain damage, to make sure she knew what she was facing if she hurt her head again, and Ginny put up with the restrictions, but she did not like them. In some ways Ginny was enjoying flying through her children.
The farming was still going well. Everybody helped with the repotting of Magical Plants, even the older children when they were home. Young Frank Longbottom and Roxanne Weasley were even more of a pair; George complained that he could not get Roxanne to work at WWW even during the busy season, but she worked hard around the farms and greenhouses, and made some money doing it, so George really could not complain. Freddy had retail selling in his blood, but Roxanne was far more interested in green growing things, and Frank.
Shortly after the start of the school year Harry was meeting with Minerva McGonagall. After discussing business they started to talk about other things.
"Anything I can do to help you, Minerva," Harry asked.
"Tell that thick godson of yours to claim Victoire before we have half the boys in the school fighting over her."
"What does she want him to do?" Harry asked.
"From what I understand, she has told several of her friends that when she and Teddy grow up she is going to have lots of his babies," Minerva said. "The problem is that when Teddy is asked he says she is sort of a cousin, and doesn't get more specific. I've got a whole school of adolescents going through puberty, hormones aflame, and we haven't had a girl so nice and still so overtly sexy since Molly Prewett almost caused a couple of riots years ago."
"Molly?" asked Harry.
"Let me show you some photographs," Minerva said. There was Molly, looking just about as sexy as you could imagine. Harry had been hugged, captured between Molly's big bust, since he was eleven. He never thought back to what she must have looked like before having all those children, and putting on weight."
"Arthur fought several duels over her," Minerva said. "He didn't win them all, but he won Molly. Once it was clear that Molly had picked Arthur, so that particular trouble spot disappeared."
"I will try to talk to Teddy over Christmas break," said Harry. "Is he getting good enough grades to become an Auror? Teddy told Ginny and me that in some ways he feels that he needs to succeed, since his parents had their chance to make a mark on the world of the Magi cut short"
"An Auror and a Prefect, but probably not Head Boy."
"Is that the only problem you are having with the cousins?"
"Merlin no, Harry," said Minerva. "Freddy is George Weasley's son. What more do I need to say?"
Harry asked, "Do you have the same problems with Roxanne?"
Minerva said, "The only problem Neville and I have with Roxanne is trying to make sure Frank II and Roxanne don't start another generation of Longbottoms too soon."
"I never noticed anything like that when I was at Hogwarts," Harry said.
"You were, and maybe still are, a little naïve, Harry," Minerva said. "More often than not one of our seventh year girls is pregnant before she leaves school. I'm just glad when none of them show before they graduate."
"And then you have three nice Weasley girl cousins," said Harry.
"Molly and Lucy are nice, good but not outstanding," Minerva said, "Dominique Weasley was sorted into Gryffindor. I'm not quite sure why, except that all the Weasleys' seem to end up there. She looks like her mother, unlike Victoire."
"So you shouldn't have any problems with Dominique?" Harry asked.
"She's half Veela, unlike her sister. She is still has a little girl figure, and boys are already fighting over her, Harry. She has been taking dancing lessons, and I think she already has a date, with a third year boy, for the Christmas Ball. We generally discourage more than two years difference in Dance Dates and other couple activities, at least for the first three or four years."
"How did Dumbledore handle this type of thing?" Harry asked.
"If you look at the history of Hogwarts, the top two administrators have always been a witch and a wizard. I deal with the girls and Neville deals with the boys, and every week we get together, along with Hanna, and have a good stiff drink."
"Does Neville do a good job with the boys?" Harry asked.
"Generally," Minerva said. "The first two years he was the Wizard in charge of the boys he had three gay boys, and over the two years every one of the three had a turn to be the odd one out, with the other two paired up. I've never seen Neville so frustrated! I thought girls could be catty. He doesn't very often have boys coming to him crying because some girl broke up with him, but he has other problems to deal with."
"I don't think I would make a very good Headmaster," Harry said. "I have enough problems with my own three, four including Teddy."
Although he did not say anything to Minerva, Teddy becoming an Auror worried Harry. England and almost all of Europe had been almost eerily safe since the battle at Vernon's funeral, the attack at the ICWW being the only exception, but there were still very dangerous places in the world, parts of Asia outside of China and the Caribbean among the most dangerous, and every year there were seriously wounded young Aurors in the International Auror Association. All too often one or two would die.
That fall Harry, after conferring with Kingsley and his father-in-law, had reorganized the Auror office. Magi who had fought at the Battle of Hogwarts were always given a little extra respect, but the real surprise was Dennis Creevey. Within a year of the battle at least four Magi had carefully researched the battle and written books on it. All of them found that right at the heart of the battle there was a circle of influence where the number of deaths and injuries was a fraction of what it was elsewhere. Eventually they all learned that right at the heart of the circle was little Dennis Creevey, who had made himself invisible and who with a couple other underage students working under him were throwing extremely effective shield charms at a furious pace. The two Magi who tried to put a number on it felt that Dennis and his team had saved between fifty and seventy five lives, had by his actions saved more lives than the number of Magi killed. Dennis had not said anything; at the time of the battle he was young enough that he really should not have been there. When Dennis graduated from Hogwarts Kingsley awarded Dennis an Order of Merlin First Class for his efforts.
Dennis became an Auror, and an excellent one. He was not only well respected by everyone but he knew the politics of the ministry as well as anyone. Sometimes Harry thought that Dennis knew the inside politicking better than he did. Of course Dennis's wife was one of the two administrative assistants, and there was enough management and politicking that, even though Mary Lou Creevey was job sharing with another witch, both were putting in about thirty hours a week. Dennis had become a supervisor reasonably early, and Harry promoted Dennis to second in command, with an office right next to Harry's. There was a good second level of supervision, all of whom were capable of taking charge if Harry and Dennis were gone, including Cho Chang, who had gotten married and had two children, but who had kept her maiden name, and Seamus Finnigan, also married, and two younger Magi, another witch and wizard.
Well, everyone sort of knew that Cho Chang had gotten married. She had gotten what looked like an engagement ring, and never denied that it was one, and about six months later she took two weeks off and came back with what looked like a wedding ring, and never denied that it was a wedding ring. It was just that it was almost impossible to get her to talk about her personal life. Her first daughter was born eight months after what they assumed was the wedding, and she took three months off, and for the next three months her maternal grandmother Lee would occasionally show up with the daughter so Cho could nurse her. Two years after the first daughter was born there was another one, and again she worked right up to her due date, was in labor when she left the office before she gave birth, and then three months later was back. After her second daughter was weaned she might as well have been single as far as anyone in the office was concerned, except for the rings, and the fact that she was obviously off the market for a spouse. The daughters were born just before Albus and Lily, and Harry wondered if they would be in class at Hogwarts with his children, and if so maybe he would find out a little more about Cho's family.
Everyone knew Seamus's wife, wild Molly Mary MacCarthy. Molly Mary would come flying into the office with something on her mind, her long strawberry blond hair flying all over the place. She and Seamus did not know how to talk quietly, and he would always try and take her into one of the offices, as they both loudly talked with their hands and whole bodies. They both seemed to enjoy a little chaos. Molly Mary complaining loudly that it was un-Irish and unnatural to have to give up drinking, even if you were pregnant, although she did refrain from alcohol when she was pregnant. Despite this she had managed to have five children, the oldest already at Hogwarts, the youngest just two.
Harry and Dennis spent much more time out in the field than in their offices. One or the other of them were always at any raid, always close at hand when anything serious was happening. Both of them spent a lot of time with the new Aurors, and none of the other Aurors would escape having Harry or Dennis with them for a significant part of a shift at least once a year. The weekly management meeting usually included not only Harry and Dennis and the next level of supervisors but also Arthur Weasley at least once a month, occasionally Kingsley, and more often than not Gawain Robards. Gawain was included to give a little historical perspective, but also because he was still a most capable Auror.
Harry was really glad to have an excellent second in command, because he was still being pulled in many different directions. Being chief Mugwump was taking a little more time, maybe twenty percent of every week, and more time once a month. Harry was not going to escape having to spend time in the Magi valley in Switzerland until there was a new 'chief wizard.' Being one of the people in charge of the International Aurors also took time, and both took Harry out of the country from time to time. Harry also was on the Wizengamot, and that took time. Bill Weasley managed the Harry Potter Estates, so that took only a very little time but it still took some time. Harry figured that fully twenty five to thirty percent of his time was spent on things other than being Head Auror when he was not Chief Mugwump, and that he was acting as Head Auror only a little over half time the year he was Chief Mugwump.
Harry did his best not to skimp on family time, but it was hard. One of the really great things about being a Magi was the ability to travel quickly from place to place. Harry slept at home most nights even when he was working in Switzerland, and a few time Ginny and the children spend a couple of days in Switzerland so they could spend time with Harry. When Harry had to be gone he made sure that he used the Wizard Mobiles to talk to all the children briefly every day, and have a private call with Ginny every night. Harry was very glad that he would only be Chief Mugwump for a year.