Harry Potter - After the Epilogue

by PotterFanSteve

Continuing the storyline from 'After the War', this book focuses on the Hogwarts years and beyond for Albus and Lily Potter, Rose, and Hugo Weasley, and their family and friends. I hope you will enjoy this imagining of what happens in the Harry Potter universe - After the Epilogue!

84. Training Camp Cannonball

Chapter Eighty-Four – Training Camp Cannonball!

**A/N: Merry Christmas 2019! This year, I have a baker's dozen – thirteen – chpaters for your Christmas gift; and the After the Epilogue adventures continue with the eighth year of this epic story that covers Al and Gwendolyn's first year of marriage and their first season playing in the show! I hope that you continue to enjoy this story as much as I continue to love imagining it!

Al and Gwendolyn were both smiling brilliantly as Rose, Brandon, Harry, Ginny, and Malorie arrived with the first group of 'employees' that were being given the key to the practice pitch defenses; and everyone in the group stopped and gaped in astonishment. For some, that was because they'd expected to see the total dump that had been there just a day ago; and the rest of the group had been warned to keep their expectations low.

"You must've brought us to the wrong place," Lily joked. "They even have a couple of campers here that look a lot like my brother and sister-in-law; but i'd say that this place looks pretty good – and you told us that it was Grimmauld-Place-awful; as in before the remodel there."

"I was sure that Al would get some work done after they left the party yesterday; but this is ridiculous!" Brandon offered.

"And brilliant," Ginny added as she hugged Gwendolyn and Al in that order. "It seems that we'll all want to add a tour into the mix before we get to work, though, so those of you that are staying should do that; and the rest of us can go back to town and bring the next group."

"Do we have to?" Harry joked; and Ginny laughed.

"Yes, we do," she agreed. "You may not have noticed thanks to all of the shiny, new stuff; but I can see that there is still a lot of work to be done here – and Malorie has our first appointments starting in about an hour."

"I could go along too," Al offered; but Ginny shook her head.

"You're in charge of the construction – and seem to have a knack for it; so keep at that. I love what you've done with the place so far!"

"Who wouldn't?" Lily agreed as she took a turn to hug Al. "You've been put to work; so I guess it'll be up to Gwendolyn to give the rest of us the tour."

"I can do that," Gwendolyn agreed. "Let's start with the atrium and work our way out to the practice pitch – where you definitely will still see some of the scary that we've been working on fixing up on this side of the place."

There were more hugs and good morning greetings first; Al was left to go his own way once the two groups split up; and he happily went through the new entrance to the practice pitch and got to work on the repairs. Even with magic, repairs that had been decades or longer in the making took time to repair. Some things were unfixable, so he made a list of things they'd need as he went along; and had a shopping list ready to delegate to others by the time everyone that was going to be working with him over the next two weeks was there. He had to take a short break then to get and distribute eight team uniforms in the right sizes and for the team meeting that Rose wanted to have with everyone – and they did that gathering around a conjured conference table and chairs that Harry created for them out on the sidelines of the practice pitch.

"We have a lot to do today," Rose began – "though not as much as I'd expected for Day One," she added with a grin for Al and Gwendolyn. "We all know each other, but while the team players know what our jobs are; I'd like to officially introduce Kendall Towler, Renee Bradley, and Susannah Macmillan. Kendall has already begun her work as the Chudley Cannons' office manager, and she'll be taking care of pretty much everything to do with the team that isn't Quidditch-related."

"Be glad that I'm not involved in that last part; or you'd all be in big trouble," Kendall added quietly with a small, somewhat-shy smile.

"Most of us could say the same about what you will be doing," Rose countered. "Renee is starting her job today as GO MagiSports Public Relations Liason; which basically means that she'll be first in line for dealing with everything from first contact with reporters to keeping track of all of the communications between everyone that works for GO MagiSports and our suppliers, customers, fans, and the general public."

"I get paid to talk with people," Renee summarized with a grin. "I'm going to love my job!"

"Finally, for this morning, Susannah is the Manager for Go MagiSports' charity. Next to making my dream for a league championship for the Cannons come true; we hope that her work will be the next most-important part of what we want to do here; so I hope that everyone will contribute and help us to help as many others as we can through the charity."

"Hi, everyone," Susannah offered.

"Our schedule for the rest of this week is going to be changed up now, but today is picture day for the new Cannons' team. We each have hair appointments in pairs with Helena and Nicole; modeling for the toys will come after that; and then the photos will be next – and take about an hour for each pair. You'll need your new team uniforms, team robes, and your brooms for both the modeling and photos – though none of the posters, trading cards, or toys will be available in the uniform versions until after the start of our first match in August."

"After the surprise reveal," Lily surmised; and Rose nodded.

"We hope that'll be the case," she agreed. "First appointments are for Gwendolyn and me; Brandon and Seth are second; Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny are third – with a break between modeling and pictures for lunch; Al and Ray are last; and then we'll all need to be at the stadium for the full-team photos for the final hour of the photo shoot."

"Are you going to get a new hair style for Dad too?" Lily asked with a grin for her father. "Maybe he'd look good with long wavy hair – or some other radical style."

"I'll stick with something close to what I have now," harry advised her.

"I can't believe you're suggesting that," Hugo told his cousin. "You know that your roommates will be sure to put u posters of your Dad and brother in your dorm room. Would you really want to see that every day if your Dad had some wild hairdo?"

"Maybe," Lily agreed. "That won't be any scarier for me than posters of your sister and aunt in your dorm room will be for you."

"Don't remind me," Hugo told her; and then turned his attention to Rose. "We're not involved in that photo shoot; so what will the rest of us be doing today? cleaning up around here?"

"Probably," Rose agreed. "Al's in charge of the construction and clean-up; so that'll be up to him – and He can talk with you about that once we're done and the rest of us can get going."

She went on to talk with Malorie, Kendall, and Renee about their work plans for the day; they ended up 'drafting' Lily, Alyssa, and Cyndia to work with them for the day; and then Rose and Gwendolyn headed for their hair appointments while leaving everyone else with Al. He had to keep in mind the photo shoot schedule so that he didn't have helpers needing to leave to get cleaned up ahead of their appointments, but it was easy-enough to delegate the work; and then they all split up and just got to it – whether that was going out to shop for building supplies or working in and around the practice pitch. Al didn't actually supervise, but he made sure that his underage helpers didn't have jobs that would have been awful to do without magic; and he did all of the heavy, structural work that wasn't cosmetically a big deal at first; but was important for making sure that the practice pitch would stay standing when they were done for a very long time – possibly for millennia, if what he was doing worked for as long as he expected it would.

By the time the first supplies were delivered, Al had a second list, but needed different volunteers for the shopping because Brandon and Seth had to go and get their hair done. The clean-up work chugged along slowly, but while he didn't supervise; he did try to make that as much fun as possible – including breaks to drink and cool off with the portable pool he set up near the tent. Rose and Gwendolyn were back in time to have a take-out lunch with everyone, but Rose then went on to work at the office in Chudley while Al and Ray had to go and get started on their round of appointments; and Gwendolyn took over supervising the work at the practice pitch – though that slowed down considerably without Al; and included more shopping for the supplies he wanted to have on-site to start out with on Tuesday.

Helena did Al's hair again, and only tweaked the style a bit from Friday. Nicole had a new style for Ray that his best mate seemed to like – and that Cyndia gave her stamp of approval to before they went on to the toy modeling session and photo shoot. Both of those experiences were new for Al despite the fact that he'd modeled his own toys in the past, and there were more than a few moments of weird; but he thought that everything went well-enough; and the Witches involved in the work all seemed impressed too. There was a short break between the last individual photos before Rose had the rest of the team there – and they brought all of the younger players, Jaimie, and Lorie along for that last blast of work and fun. It took more than an hour to get through the team and group photos that were both on the ground and in various airborne formations; and then, finally, that part of the job was done and Al was glad of it. Most of his team mates enjoyed the novelty of that work, but he preferred the kind of jobs that actually had him doing something more than trying to look good for pictures or making the toy models.

Their first workday was done after the photo shoot was finished; but Al and Gwendolyn weren't left on their own – they had campers join them for the night. Rose, Brandon, Susannah, and Seth set up one tent; Lily, Jonah, Alyssa, and Hugo set up a second; and Jaimie and Lorie were invited to stay with Al and Gwendolyn for their first sleepover with the newlyweds. They ordered in food; and they had nearly everyone else with them for a take-out dinner that they had in the atrium. The evening entertainment was all about exploring townhouses and flats; making plans for getting them ready to live in; and then having a swim and campfire for the campers that were spending the night while everyone else left for their respective homes. Al and Gwendolyn ended their day with bedtime cuddles and stories with Jaimie and Lorie; and then they all went off to sleep while the other camping couples stayed up for a while and enjoyed a bit of bonus play time before being ready to sleep too.

Tuesday wasn't the first day of a new routine because they only had two weeks until they'd be starting training camp, but it began to feel like they were working full-time jobs – and there was some structure to their schedule too. Al woke early, did his morning workout, and then cooked breakfast for Gwendolyn, Jaimie, and Lorie while letting the rest of the campers take care of themselves. He was definitely in charge of the construction, but Rose started their work day with a meeting; and then she moved on to the office in Chudley so that she could work with Malorie, Kendall, and Renee. Al's first job of the day for Tuesday – or at least the first official one – was to welcome Art Kettleburn and Wanda Willaimson to the practice pitch and then show them around the place before letting Gwendolyn and others help them out with their work in the cafe. The major construction work he had planned for the day was on the practice pitch building; with the highlight being a top-level viewing platform across the pitch from the apartment building that he envisioned with tables and comfortable chairs that reporters and spectators could use to watch practices and work at more-comfortably than was possible at any other practice pitch – or at least that had been true the last time his mother was still one of those reporters.

She'd loved that idea, and while there was only the open platform with a protective railing around it when he was done, and it still needed to be painted and decorated; Al was happy with the results. The other top project that he worked on for the day was installing the atrium lagoon-pool. By mid-afternoon, it had become clear that the portable pool wasn't large-enough for the demand for swimming and cooling off breaks; so he took the time to get that done; and then joined in when nearly everyone working there at the time decided to test it out for a mid-afternoon break. Al wasn't involved in most of the work going on around Rose and many of the others, but he was in on a merchandising meeting with all of the players; and was kept in the loop for all of the other work that was going on – and picking up speed now as nearly everyone that Malorie had hired from Hogwarts began to work their new full-time or summer jobs.

With more campers on-site, Al had been worried about keeping ahead of schedule on his work, but that didn't end up being a problem for him because everyone except Gwendolyn went out for dinner after work; that allowed them the chance for some bonus time-stopped work that they could do on jobs that wouldn't be obvious to everyone; and they were able to enjoy some alone time too that included a dinner for two and some fairly-hot play time too. Their evening entertainment included a first shopping trip for furniture for their townhouse while Lily, Jonah, Rose, Brandon, Susannah, and Seth went along with them – and picked up a few things too. They then wrapped up their day in Al and Gwendolyn's tent with a bedtime chat that helped to get everyone up-to-date on the news of the day and talk about their plans for Wednesday before splitting up and going to bed in their own tents.

Wednesday and Thursday were big work days around the practice pitch when there was a lot of visible, sometimes-amazing progress. Al's personal highlight for Wednesday was putting the retractable roof on the practice pitch and then getting to find out that it worked exactly as he'd hoped and expected. That had definitely been one of the amazing moments, but then the outdoor work on the grounds around the pitch was great too – especially the first section of walking paths that they built out to the campground and then beyond and into the woods – including a footbridge across the brook; and a looped trail that returned to the bridge. Thursday also included a lot of inddor work in the atrium and apartment building. The hallways for the four levels of flats were completed; the ground floor lobby and offices were worked on; and the work in the atrium included adding plants, trees, and a small playground for the kids.

On Friday, the workweek wrap-up included a private, exclusive luncheon for the team with suppliers that had been sworn to secrecy before meeting the new Cannons' players, and by the time that Rose was finished wining and dining them; they'd all signed up to be part of the program that included getting in on the advertising and everything else that team partners normally did with the other league teams. At the practice pitch, the work on the interior of the pitch building was finished by the time they went out for that lunch; and the work on the atrium was finished by the time they were done work for the week and would be taking the weekend off. Al and Gwendolyn were booked to have dinner at her house – along with their brother, sister, and his parents, so when they were finished work for the day; they split up to get cleaned-up and changed; and then met up again at the McCormacks where Kirley and Gwenog were both there to welcome them – and the take-out food that Harry and Ginny brought with them and that they'd picked up along the way.

"Well, so much for my hopes that they'd all look miserable," Gwenog said with a dramatic sigh. "I guess that Al's plan for them to have fun is working – at least for the first week."

"Is there a reason for that comment?" Gwendolyn asked her; and Gwenog smiled and shook her head.

"Not really – though we will have one little surprise at opening day of training camp this year after all that we hadn't expected."

"Don't tell us that Victoire's decided to take another year off!" Lily exclaimed.

"Not this year," Gwenog answered. "It's apparently Hailey's turn – though that's not going to be public knowledge until after we announce the team a week from Monday. Amber's thrilled for obvious reasons, but this is going to set us back a bit this season. Victoire will need time to get back up to game speed; and now she'll also need to work with a new third Chaser for the first time."

"Hailey and Amber aren't just closely-matched, Al offered – "they're very-similar players. Victoire will be able to work with Amber easily-enough – though you're right that she'll need at least a bit of time to get up to game speed."

"She seemed ready to go back to work when we talked last Sunday," Ginny told Gwenog. "Have you worked out some baby time with her – at least for the first couple of months? That'll be the toughest part for her." She smiled when Lily laughed at that.

"Sorry, but we both know what the Harpies' training is like, Mum; so that really is funny to me."

"Tough doesn't have to only be physical," Ginny reminded her – "and it'll be hard on Dora too after spending most of her time with Victoire up until now."

"She's been working on that," Gwenog advised Ginny – "and yes, we do have baby time planned into her new schedule. You know we've done that in the past; so it isn't really anything unusual. How are things going with work for all of you – or is everything that's happening confidential?"

"Most of it is that," Gwendolyn agreed; "but we'd still like to take you and Dad there after dinner and show you what we've managed to get done this week – at least for the work at the practice pitch. We're enough ahead of schedule there that some of us will be moving into our townhomes or flats this weekend instead of next."

"You and Al included?" Gwenog guessed; and Gwendolyn nodded.

"Yes – though it's proved to be convenient for us that Uncle Percy not-so-politely un-invited us to Lucy's wedding. We can do some more shopping tomorrow and then do the move-in on Sunday."

"That's also Susannah's birthday; so her move-in is going to be part of the birthday fun," Al advised Gwenog and Kirley.

"She's getting Seth's townhouse," Gwendolyn added with a grin. "I don't get the feeling that Seth is going to propose too; but they're definitely looking at that place being theirs eventually – and he just prefers having less work with one of the flats while he's still a bachelor."

"If it's the choice between less work and having him hire some pretty Witch to clean his house for him; Susannah might be okay with that," Lily teased. "What are you doing for all of the cleaning, Al?" she asked seriously. "I haven't heard anyone talk about who is going to keep that place clean."

"We'll all need to clean up after ourselves," Al answered, "but I've also built in some self-cleaning features; have a few charmed cleaners that will do work at nights; and I'll try to keep up with the rest – at least at first. If we need a cleaning crew eventually too; we'll do that – but I hope that we won't; since that's one job that I just don't think that I could make fun for anyone."

"I was expecting you to have a House Elf surprise for all of us," Lily advised him; "but I guess that nobody will mind if you do all of the work for them."

"I might be interested in those self-cleaning charms or the magical cleaning devices," Kirley told them. "Will that lead to yet another new business for you, Al?"

"Probably," Al agreed. "I doubt that any of you want to talk about cleaning practice pitches or atriums, though; so let's move on to whatever you want to discuss anything else."

"Like your talent for attracting trouble?" Gwenog teased. "From some of the things that I've heard; your uncle, aunt, and some cousins haven't chosen to keep that little spat with you a private family matter."

"That's their mistake to make," Al predicted. "Nothing I say ought to change what anyone thinks on either side of that issue; so making that argument public will only make some people wonder why they're making such a big deal of it."

"Rita loves it," Gwendolyn reminded him – "and I'm sure that James does too."

"True," Al agreed – "but that hasn't changed anything. In fact, I'd say that it helps us; since Rita's busy chewing on that story and doing nothing to mess with our plans for the team. We're now one week closer to opening day of training camp; and the only stories about the Cannons are related to disgruntled former players that are mad about not even being offered interviews with the new Manager."

"Our new Manager that is still a Wizard," Gwendolyn added with a grin. "It's really funny that everyone seems to assume that GO MagiSports must have hired a guy."

"The Harpies and Prides are the only teams with Witches as manager right now – or they were until Rose took over for the Cannons," Gwenog reminded them. "There are only a couple of assistant manager Witches; and maybe a half-dozen Witches working as trainers or scouts on the other teams. For the most part, Wizards do still run the league – especially with the officials and the team owners."

"Well, that explains a lot," Lily joked. "The league would be much better-off with Witches in charge – just as is true at the Ministry of Magic. Aren't all of the best-run departments there led by Witches? I'd sure prefer to have Aunt Hermione in charge next over Uncle Percy – or any other Wizard."

"Including your Dad?" Kirley teased; and Lily laughed.

"Definitely – "and Al would be even worse!"

"I would be – from the perspective of a lot of the people working there," Al agreed. "The first thing I'd want to do is make the Ministry of Magic about half the size it is right now."

"That sounds like a great idea," Gwenog agreed, "but you should likely stay out of politics for a while, Al. You want to gain fans for the Cannons – not lose them."

"I think he'd sell a lot of posters," Lily disagreed. "Every bad guy would want one to throw poisoned darts at!"

That joke was just the lead-in for Lily's topic choice about what the bad guys could do with Cannons' merchandise and souvenirs – particularly for anything related to Al or Harry. They were sitting down to eat by then; so they enjoyed the meal and chat time; moved on to the Cannons' practice pitch where they amazed Kirley and Gwenog with their new workplace and homes; and then the parents went home while the four teens were left to do some work on two townhomes until they were ready to head back to their tents – which they did not long after most of the other campers returned for the night from their own family dinners and evening adventures.

Al was up early on Saturday morning; did his workout near the tents; and then cooked breakfast for everyone so that his sister, brother-in-law, cousins, and friends didn't have to do that work. That effort was more to help the teens that would be going to Lucy and Alex's wedding; though they wouldn't need to be there until early-afternoon. That was also why Al and Gwendolyn had extra shoppers with them for the first part of their Furniture-shopping excursion. Gwendolyn had a lot of fun with that – thanks to her birthday gift that had the entire adventure paid for by Al; and he also took care of all of the 'deliveries' that went directly to their townhouse – whether that was from Muggle or magical furniture shops. Al and Gwendolyn were on their own for lunch while everyone else either went to get ready for the wedding or got on with other plans for the rest of the day. They ate at their favorite Muggle mall food court; did another couple of hours of shopping; and then returned to their townhouse and got to work on unpacking and setting up their furniture.

They didn't have nearly-everything purchased for the entire place, but they did have a master bedroom suite, furniture for one guest room, and another room with beds for Jaimie and Lorie to use when having sleepovers with them. There was a kitchen table set and most of the sitting room furniture; but most of the rest of the rooms were still empty; and could be worked on as needed or when they had more time to get that done. That blast of work kept them busy until late-afternoon; they followed that up with some play time in the lagoon that they were able to do with Jaimie and Lorie to give Malorie and Patrick a little break while they did some work in her townhouse; and then they got cleaned up and went out to dinner at a seaside restaurant with a spectacular view of the open water in one direction and the village and harbor in the other. They were missing out on what was likely the biggest wedding of the summer, but they were happy; and it was an added bonus that the trouble-magnet was far away from London and, hopefully, in no position to mess up Lucy and Alex's special day!

"Wow!" Lily breathed quietly as she walked into the Magick Hall with her parents and Jonah. "Al and Gwendolyn really did practically-elope by comparison!"

"They're just a couple of average kids that got married right out of Hogwarts," Ginny teased. "Your cousin and her fiancee are rather famous now; Alex has famous parents; and Lucy's parents have a lot of clout and connections at the Ministry of Magic. Wouldn't you say that this is appropriate?"

"I think we could have arrived a half-hour late; and Uncle Percy would just be getting Lucy to the front of the hall by then," Lily offered. "Was Louis' wedding this big?"

"Not quite," Ginny answered. I'd say they had about three-quarters of this crowd. They must pretty much be at capacity for the hall. This is as many guests as they usually have for the big parties at New Year's Eve or for a Halloween or Christmas dance."

"Then it really is for the best that Al got himself uninvited," Lily decided with a nod and smile. "The last time he was at a party this big; there was a bit of trouble – and then he slept through the last day of his Christmas holidays."

"Is Rita Skeeter here?" Jonah asked. "This sort of event must be one of her jobs."

"I expect that she is," Ginny agreed. "Keep an eye out – just in case our table is bugged!"

They were in line for about five minutes before they were seated by one of the hired ushers, and while the groomsmen were working to seat their guests too; Harry and Ginny were apparently being snubbed by not being assigned the VIP status necessary to have one of Alex's friends escort their group to their seats. Being seated in the last row reserved for the family of the bride – and as far away from the center aisle as possible was a more-obvious snub; since they weren't even seated with Hermione, Ron, and their kids – but beyond where the more-distant cousins for both Percy's and Audrey's families.

"If this wedding was at the Quidditch World Cup stadium; we'd have a great view – of the surrounding countryside," Lily teased in a whisper meant only for Jonah and her parents. "I'll have to send mirror messages to grandma just to say hello."

"Don't do that," Ginny warned. "Mumwill play nice today; but she won't be happy about this." She smiled at Lily's reaction. "We're going to play nice too," she insisted. "Lucy and Alex deserve to have a happy day, and while I wish things could be different; that isn't their fault."

"For this," Lily agreed. "Lucy has picked the wrong side against Al before out of jealousy; and I'm sure that's why she didn't argue about this either."

"I know," Ginny agreed, "and that's too bad too; but let's leave off on the negative and have fun today. This is sure to be an epic wedding and reception!"

Ginny really wanted to do that, but it wasn't long before her resolve was tested – and it was Lily that was first to advise them that James was attending the wedding too. He hadn't been an invited guest, but apparently got around that obviously-unintended omission by being the plus-one for the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Wizengamot Elder. She seemed very happy to have the current league champion Seeker as her appropriately-famous and hot escort for the wedding; and James was just-as-obviously happy with his brilliant wedding-crasher success. He and his date ended up on the bride's side of the aisle too; in the VIP section reserved for Ministry of Magic officials – which put James near the center aisle and ahead of his parents, sister, and Jonah – a fact that he noted and tried to make sure that they noticed without overtly even looking in their direction.

"Would you be terribly mad if I used the Aunt Muriel wheeze I brought with me?" Lily asked her mother after watching James sit down and then start chatting it up with the other VIPs around him.

"Yes," Ginny agreed. "Don't do it."

"Did you warn your brothers against doing things like that too?" Harry asked Ginny.

"No. That would have just given them incentive to do it."

"As if having an audience this large won't be enough for that," Lily countered. "This is a brilliant opportunity for low-cost advertising for the stores!"

"You almost seem to be hoping for trouble today," Ginny suggested with quiet disapproval.

"That really is wrong of me," Lily admitted more-seriously as she continued to look around and watch what was going on around them as the rest of the guests were quickly being seated. "Unlike Al, I actually like big parties too; so I should just shut it and have fun."

The wish to do that alone wasn't enough to make that happen. While they didn't really have to wait all that long for the start of the ceremony, there was such a strange mix of activity going on around them that it was impossible not to notice – even for the least-empathic Wizard or Witch in the room. As a child, Lily had always been amused by the attention directed at her famous parents – regardless of the sentiment being directed at them too. That was different now, and she understood – at least in part – what Al went through while in large crowds. That didn't mean that there was no fun to be had at all. They did, after all, have a lot of friends, and quite a few of them were at the wedding too. They enjoyed watching George, Angelina, and their kids arrive and spend time with guests on both sides of the aisle thanks to Angelina's close friendship with the mother-of-the-groom. Kirley and Gwenog were there as part of the contingent for the Harpies – on the groom's side of the hall. Lee and Alicia attracted a lot of attention when it was their turn to be seated just a few minutes before the ceremony was to begin, and even though Harry and Ginny didn't see their friends very often while each couple was leading very different lives over the past few years; they also had one of those special relationships that were strong and true – and cherished by people that understood the difference between true friendships and the superficial ones that were only opportunistic – or even parasitic.

It was a bit of a relief to have the entertainment diversion when Alex arrived at the front of the hall with the officiating Wizard, his best man, and five groomsmen. The Aunt Muriel in Lily had fun at least imagining what her great-aunt would have to say about those seven young Wizards; since they were quite a mix that ranged from popular and well-known league players including Alex himself along with Zack Smith, who was a true friend of Alex's along with his younger brother, Roman; and Jared Davies; who Lily expected had been included because he was Molly's boyfriend. That last thought wasn't a hit against Jared. He was a good-looking, decent Wizard. Lily just didn't think that he had anything in common with Alex other than the sisters they were each with – just as Molly and Lucy were very different. As Lily thought about all of that, though, she also realized that her aunt probably wouldn't have had anything bad to say about any of the guys.

As the bridal processional began, and Lily's thoughts wandered along the same track; she was sure that Muriel would have had a lot to say about the Witches – starting with Alex's sister, Leanne. That would've been in a mostly-good – or at least amusing – way, but Lily had her own thoughts too; and she was impressed with the formal bridesmaids gowns that were so breathtakingly-beautiful and made the Witches look spectacular. Jonah earned a playful elbow from her that proved her point, but then her attention was soon drawn to her cousin, Molly, and the sparkling rock that was a new addition to her left hand – and apparently new-enough that Molly made sure that it was visible and obvious even as she was carrying a small bouquet of flowers in her hands.

"Molly got engaged," Lily whispered to her mother; but saw that Ginny had noticed the diamond ring too. "Maybe we'll get to attend a wedding at the world cup stadium next year!"

"Not if you don't behave today," Ginny suggested; and Lily laughed quietly.

"That hasn't kept James from being here today," she pointed out – "and he helped to put the groom in the hospital just a month and a half ago while cheating his way to a league championship."

"Shhh," Ginny admonished; though she was grinning at Lily's comments.

They both returned to watching the rest of the processional. Tina Johnson, Belinda and Olivia Wood, and Dominique rounded out the bride's side of the wedding party; they all looked spectacular, and while Lily thought that Al and Gwendolyn's small, intimate wedding had been brilliant too; she still loved to watch what was proving to be the most-elaborate wedding she'd ever attended. Lucy was gorgeous in a masive, traditional wedding dress that had an enormous train that probably needed a levitation charm on it to keep from being too-heavy to pull along behind her. It took Lily a few long moments before she paid any attention at all to her Uncle Percy, but when she did; she saw exactly what she saw every time she was around him. Sure, he was a handsome Wizard – though not quite as good-looking as Bill had been before one side of his face had been so disfigured by Fenrir Greyback; but he was also a politician through-and-through, and even on what should be a very happy day for him; Percy looked as though he was more-focused on making sure that they were following all of the wedding rules.

That thought had her laughing on the inside as she imagined her uncle lecturing Lucy and the other Witches on the correct speed for the processional; how to make sure that they start out on the right foot to ensure that they're all walking in perfect unison; and maybe even practice the appropriate smile for such a formal occasion. What she didn't see a trace of, though, was joy,happiness, and love. She didn't doubt that her uncle loved his daughters, since she had – rarely – seen that affection on display, but she did wonder if he loved them more than his political career and aspirations; and didn't like her gut-feeling answer to that question. She'd take her own loving, happy, unemployed parents over that any day!

The processional didn't take a half hour, but it felt that way to Lily by the time that a very formal exchange was performed that made Percy a much-bigger part of the ceremony than was normal for most weddings. He performed his duties flawlessly, though – and without any sense of true emotion; and then he went to sit with his wife and her parents; and they all settled in to bear witness to the bonding between Lucy and Alex. That, apparently, also required an extended and appropriately-elaborate version of the wedding ceremony, and by the time the actual bonding was performed; Lily was sure that she'd never want to have that kind of wedding for herself – no matter how beautiful the dresses or how great the huge party would be – if they ever got around to actually being allowed to party.

After witnessing Al and Gwendolyn's bonding so recently, Lily did take note of the magic that surrounded Lucy and Alex as they shared the bonding embrace. There was a visible difference between the two, and while she expected that it was due to the strength of the commitment between each couple; she didn't try to guess at whether that made any difference for what the future would be like for Alex and Lucy – or for Al and Gwendolyn. Alex and Lucy were happy at that moment; it was their special day; and Lily chose to be happy for them.

She didn't choose to be happy about the next couple of hours of tedium that was their life as the next event of the afternoon was the wedding pictures. That, apparently, could not be done at the Magick Hall, so everyone that was going to be in at least one of those photos had to move to the park nearest to Percy and Audrey's home while the Hall was set up for the dinner and dance. Sure, the setting was perfect, but the photo shoot was ridiculous – and Lily didn't only think that because 'her' family photos with the bride and groom were left to the very last while both sides of Alex's family, Audrey's family, and even the United and Harpies' 'families' came ahead of the Weasleys. By the time that she and Jonah were staged for those photos – along with Harry and Ginny – in a way that would make all four of them all but invisible for those photos; she was fed up and ready to tell her aunt and uncle to take their wedding and shove it somewhere uncomfortable and dark.

After a couple of hours baking in the hot summer sun – because there was no room in the shaded areas being used by the wedding party and more-important members of the family; going back to the Magick Hall was at least a bit of a relief, but then they just traded one wait for another as the wedding party took a break to freshen up before beginning the formal reception line that would be the start of the social hour before dinner. There were refreshments available in the hall's grand lobby, but not much seating; it was crowded; and it wasn't long before Lily wanted to get out of the building again – and had Jonah and both sets of their parents with her for a walk around the neighborhood.

"Do I really have to keep playing nice, Mum?" Lily asked when they were away from the Magick Hall and on their own. "I get that someone has to be last for things like those wedding pictures, and it's wrong of me to think that my parents ought to deserve better than what happened over at the park; but this entire afternoon has been ridiculous! It's no wonder that the Ministry of Magic has such an awful reputation! They must need a year to do something that most of us could get done in an hour!"

"You could request a study about that; but it'd likely take a year just to get through the paperwork for that request," Harry joked. "We should have expected this, honey. Your aunt and uncle have gone with the most-formal wedding; and this is going to be a very long night. It could easily be eight o'clock by the time we start dinner; and closer to eleven before the dance starts. Merlin only knows how late the party will go on for after that. At least three or four in the morning would be my guess."

"I should've gone home for a nap," Lily said half-seriously – "and we should've taken a side trip for some fast food to hold us over until dinner is served."

"We could still get you something to eat," Ginny offered; "but you don't need the nap – and I expect that you'll enjoy the party once it gets started."

"I hope so," Lily told her. "If it's just going to keep being like this for another ten or eleven hours; I'll probably do something that'll ensure that I don't get invited to Molly's wedding next year."

"I don't even want to think about what this wedding costs," Kirley offered. "Paying for two of them in two years would be a serious drain on even the largest of Gringotts' vaults."

"Al and Gwendolyn's wedding is sure looking great for us by comparison." Harry added with a smile and nod of agreement. "Maybe this is why Percy wants to be Minister of Magic so much – because he could use the pay raise to cover all of the wedding costs."

"It didn't need to be this big if he can't," Ginny pointed out, "but then this has been the way he is – always trying to prove that he deserves his station in life." She sighed and shook her head. "We need to stop this. We all wish the best for Lucy and Alex; and that doesn't need to be affected by any of the family drama – unless we let it."

"We keep coming back around to that, but it just isn't that simple – at least for me," Lily told her seriously. "I can't help but be annoyed – especially when I see James in there acting as though he's King of the World when he's really just a wedding crasher that Lucy and Alex can't possibly want here with them today."

"They might say the same about the rest of us," Harry pointed out; "but let's not go there either. We've had problems within the family before and gotten past them; and we can do that again this time."

Lily wasn't at all certain about that statement, but their chat moved on to happier topics; they enjoyed their walk; and then resumed the waiting game back at the Magick Hall. The reception line ended up lasting for an hour and a half; and then the dinner was an epic event within the overall wedding and reception. Lily's temperment was not well-suited for drawn-out meals – or unnecessary waits for anything; so having long breaks to digest food between each course of the meal just bugged her when she'd have much-preferred to eat quickly and then get to the partying! That didn't happen. They spent those long hours sitting at the table; the speeches began with the dessert course and continued for more than an hour; and then there was a break before the dance began – though they only got to be spectators for the first four songs from the Graves Robbers as the bride and groom, wedding party, parents of the bride and groom, and then granparents of the happy couple all joined in on the fun during the first twenty minutes of the dance.

"Well, now that we're finally allowed to actually do something, I suppose there's no point in requesting the Animorphmagus song without having one here to help make that more-fun for all of us, but do you think that any of these full-of-themselves politicians would join in for a Bat-B0gey Brother Boogie with us?" Lily asked Jonah as they began to dance together – to yet another ballad. "I love slow dances with you too, but this party will be a total snooze-fest if things don't get a bit more-exciting around here soon."

Jonah smiled at her. "That might be exactly what your Aunt and Uncle are worried about," he joked. "From their perspective, Lily, I'd say that everything is going perfectly – and that's having exactly the effect on most – or all – of the politicians heretoo. We don't have to like it, but we did agree to come; so your Mum's right and we need to play nice. You did notice that even yourwheezes uncles are doing that tonight."

"Yeah – and it's likely killing them to do it," Lily told him. "Do you think that's why James seems to be playing nice so far tonight too?"

Jonah nodded. "He's here; Al isn't; and if there isn't any trouble; he proves that he's the better Wizard."

"So as long as you pretend to be good; you are in this fantasyland of fakery," Lily summarized.

"It isn't all fake," Jonah disagreed. "I think that Lucy and Alex are truly happy. We're faking it a bit, but I hope that's at least for the right reasons; since I wouldn't want to be seen as somehow supporting your uncle's political agenda simply by being here."

"I expect that some of the nonsense we've put up with today was meant to prove that he can control the troublesome members of his own family," Lily suggested; and felt the truth of that flash of insight – even as she understood that her uncle was wrong about that; and didn't understand that what her parents put up with from him was done out of love for their family. "Let's stop talking about all of this," she suggested. "If this party livens up a bit, then great, and if it doesn't; we'll get your parents or mine to help us to go home early."

Jonah laughed. "Depending on your perspective; it's already getting late," he reminded her. "It'll be midnight before we know it."

James smiled as he stepped up next to Louis and joined the small line-up for one of the bars that were set up around the outer walls of the hall that was set up in 'Grand Ballroom' mode fo rthe wedding reception. Louis was smiling too; and nodded in welcome while still listening to the conversation he was having with Jared Davies. James only needed to catch a few words to know that he could care les about what Jared was yammering about – it was enough to know that he was talking politics to get him to lose interest. That's why he jumped on the first chance he got to interrupt his most-boring cousin's new fiancée to rescue Louis from all of the dull.

"I am so glad that things are getting a bit livelier around here," he told Louis. At the rate we were going; I was ready to see about getting a scrimmage started to add in a bit of excitement. I'm pretty sure that even a couple of the Graves Robbers were nodding off up there on stage."

"Well, I heard a joke about needing to use a Quidditch stadium for Molly and Jared's wedding," Louis told him with a smile for Jared. "Maybe you should save that thought for next summer."

"Or not," Jared told them. "Lucy and Alex might actually find that amusing; but Molly would be appalled."

"Probably," Louis agreed. "I was only going for the laughs, though; and there's no way that Molly would want her wedding at a stadium anyway."

"Maybe Miya and Roman will do that instead," James suggested. "They could get married after we win the league championship again next May – and then just celebrate with everyone while we're already partying anyway." He smiled at Jared; though there was a not-so-subtle edge to his next comment. "Is that why you've jumped on the engagement bandwagon? Because both your little sister and Molly's have taken that leap too?"

"I resemble that comment," Louis joked. "Don't mind him, Jared. My cousin isn't interested in even thinking about having a bonded-for-life kind of relationship with any Witch; so he can't understand what the rest of us see in it."

"That's true," James agreed. "I'll at least give you credit for throwing your life away in public for all to see – unlike a certain loser who, thankfully for all of us, isn't here tonight. From what I've heard; his potty-trainer was too embarrassed to marry her dog with any real Wizards and Witches around to witness – probably because they just used a leash instead of a bonding."

"That's fairly-rude," Louis admonished – "though Deanna would likely suggest that it's too bad that Gwendolyn didn't have Al on a leash last weekend. She's still rather put out with him – with both of them."

James nodded and smirked. "Good. It's about time that everyone else got around to seeing what I've been telling you all along about the loser."

"Let's not talk about that," Jared told them. "Al got a lot of us mad at him last weekend, but it's a mess that I don't want to get into again, since every time I've talked about it since then; it seems that another argument breaks out. My own Mum agrees with him; and she's far from the only one to do so."

"He's a disease that infects the weak-minded," James suggested. "We all need to hope that someone puts that rabid dog down to protect the rest of us from him."

"Suggesting that my Mum is feeble-minded is hardly the way to impress me with your point of view," Jared told him stiffly. "We're supposed to be celebrating your cousin's wedding, though; so I'll move on and do that."

He was able to turn his attention toward getting his drinks order from the bar; and then walked away without waiting for Louis to get his drinks too.

"His Mum is a Tornados fan," James told Louis. "I rest my case."

"She's Miya's biggest fan," Louis reminded him. "I don't know if she's all that much of a fan of the Tornados right now; but then she's not that happy with some of us either."

"Yet I'm sure she's proud to have a league-champion daughter," James countered. "That just makes her a hypocrite as well as weak-minded. "Maybe she'll jump on the Cannons' clown brigade bandwagon with the other six fans when the loser and weasel take her favorite team to all-new lows for those idiots that bought the team." They both had their drinks by then – a tray of them for Louis and just two flutes of champagne for James; but James stayed with his cousin as they walked away.

"We both know that there's more going on with that story than we know for sure," Louis told him. "Having Victoire back with the Harpies again, and having Gwendolyn join her at Chaser this season ought to be scary-enough for us this summer, but when I think about what Rose and Al might be up to right now; I'm more worried about them than the Harpies."

"You shouldn't worry about either team," James told him. "Even when you're a member of the league champion team; you still doubt yourself – and the rest of us. Why is that, Louis?"

"Past history, I suppose," Louis answered seriously. "I've gone from first-to-worst; never expected that to happen; and certainly didn't think that it could happen so easily."

"We're not kids anymore – and the loser won't be messing up our team – he'll do that for the Cannons Clown Brigade," James retorted dismissively. "It's all of the players on the other teams that need to be worried about us."

"I'm sure they'll do that," Louis agreed. "The fact that we're league champions means that we're the team with the targets on our backs, though; and the other top teams will be trying even harder to best us this year."

"Good," James told him with a nod. "That way, they'll know they've been beaten by the best team and have no excuses to moan and complain."

"Whatever you say," Louis told him. "It's time to play nice in mixed-team company, though, so either do that; or move on to wherever you're sitting with your date."

"I'll move on," James decided with just a glance toward the Witches and Wizards at the table with Deanna. "That lot would just bore me to death. I don't know how you can stand them."

Louis shrugged. "I'm having fun tonight; and it's refreshing to spend time with other Witches and Wizards that want to talk about more-important things than Quidditch now and then too."

"The only thing more-important than Quidditch isn't something I'd want to talk about with a bunch of dull political hacks," James told him – "even if they were all hot, naked Witches!"

"Only because you wouldn't want to be talking with them at all in that situation," Louis joked. "See you around – or at work again on Monday."

"We're working on Monday?" James asked; and Louis nodded.

"Yes. Check your schedule now and then. You really annoy Daniel when he has to send Ritchie to fetch you."

"Good. That's payback for annoying me all of the time. The owners ought to fire them and replace them with a couple of hot Witches that can just hang around and entertain us while we do the real Quidditch work!"

"Or not," Louis disagreed. "Some of us actually learn a lot from them."

"Cut it out – you're making me wonder if you're a dim-wit too."

James walked away then; rejoined his date; and got back to partying – and proving to everyone that he was the best Wizard in the room – while the loser was probably curled up with his tail between his legs; keeping his potty-trainer's feet warm while she got the beauty sleep that would only work on her hag-of-the-month ugly if she slept forever!

Lily smiled as Jonah set a drink on the table in front of her and then sat down next to her while Brandon and Hugo were delivering drinks to Rose and Alyssa; and then joined their girlfriends at the table too.

"Thank-you," she told him. "We'll be able to get out of here soon, but we may as well have something cold to drink while we're watching that last round of dances before Lucy and Alex are sent off on their honeymoon."

"Our parents didn't seem to mind not having all of these dances at Al and Gwendolyn's wedding, but maybe we should've at least had the bride and groom dances with them."

"I've been thinking about things like that all night," Rose advised him, "but in ten years; I'll still remember that Animorphmagus dance – and pretty much everything else about that wedding; and don't think that I'll remember much about this one – other than that it was really big and really boring more-often than not."

"Will you have a really small wedding too?" Lily asked; and Rose shrugged.

"I'm not thinking about my own wedding at all," she answered. "Are you?"

"Yes, but not in an imminent sort of way," Lily answered. "I think that I'll want a wedding that's big-enough to be a party; but without all of the dragged-out formalities – or all of the guests that aren't actually friends at all."

"I'd rather elope than go through all of this," Alyssa told them. "I'm exhausted; and we're just guests. I'd never want to spend this much money on a party either."

"Lucy and Alex have received a lot of gifts to off-set that," Rose pointed out; and Alyssa shrugged.

"How many gifts does any newlywed couple need?" she countered. "Al and Gwendolyn were likely happier with the ten or fifteen gifts that we collectively gave them; and your family likely appreciated not having to spend even more money on a fourth wedding in just two months." She waved a hand to indicate the six of them as a group. "How much did we spend just on dresses and suits for this wedding? Multiply that by everyone in this room; and that alone gets a bit ridiculous. Susannah would likely tell us that the cost of this wedding with everything included would pay for a lot of charity work."

"Actually, she might think that you have a brilliant idea there – if all of the wedding guests donated to charity instead of doing gifts," Rose offered.

"Maybe," Alyssa agreed; "but then you could say the same for the rest of the costs of a wedding this large." She smiled ruefully. "I'm not actually against the idea of a big wedding. This just feels like too much to me. I guess that it's always a matter of perspective. For all I know, there are some Witches and Wizards that think that this wedding is the perfect size – or even a bit small."

"I can't imagine anyone thinking that this is a small wedding," Lily told her, "but since Rose doesn't even want to think about her own wedding; let's talk about something else."

"Any suggestions?" Rose asked when Lily didn't offer an alternative.

"No," Lily admitted. "I'm tired; and these ballads are putting me to sleep."

"What are you doing tomorrow?" Alyssa asked her – "other than sleeping in."

"It's Susannah's birthday," Lily answered with a shrug. "I'm sure we'll all be doing something for that – though if she's having a big party, I didn't hear about it; and Jonah and I weren't invited."

"Susannah's just having a quiet dinner party with Seth and her family for that," Rose advised her. "We'll spend some time with her too; but she didn't want to have a big party when we didn't even know whether we'd need to work all weekend."

"For all we know; Al has been working all day while we've been here," Lily suggested.

"He likely has been – but that was going to be on their new home," Rose told her; though she spoke quietly and didn't offer specifics that they didn't want overheard by anyone around them. "I won't take the entire day off tomorrow, but I'm not going to work all day either. We'll be working hard-enough next week; so we should get at least a bit of rest when we can."

"Okay," Lily agreed. "Let's hope that we can get to that resting up thing soon – or I'll be having a nap right here in my chair. Couldn't they have had any songs in this set that weren't ballads or waltzes?"

After enjoying their seafood dinner, Al and Gwendolyn went for a walk around the village and along a harbor walkway that led out to a comparatively-small, automated lighthouse and multi-tech beacon that could, apparently, link in with several types of Muggle electronic navigation systems to prevent modern-day shipwrecks. From there, they headed back to the Atrium, had a visit with Malorie, Patrick, Ruth, Eric, and the four kids; they ended up playing with the kids at the playground and in the lagoon for an hour; and then took Jaimie and Lorie for another camping sleepover while Ruth's kids got grandparent babysitting; and the four friends spent the rest of the evening working at Ruth's flat to help her with packing for the move that she was going to be able to do into her new townhouse over the next week. Once they were on their own with the twins, Al and Gwendolyn had a small campfire for the bedtime entertainment; they toasted treats, told the girls a few stories, and then sang them to sleep. After cuddling with them for a while; they doused the fire; put Jaimie and Lorie into their beds; and then settled onto one of the sitting room sofas with glasses of wine and wrapped up their day with a quiet chat while cuddling and half-watching Lee's nightly show that was a repeat because he was a bit busy while at his son's wedding.

"Remind me to watch Lee's next live show," Gwendolyn told Al after the 'best-of' monologue had ended. "He ought to have a lot of new material to use from the wedding."

"He likely does," Al agreed – "but will he use it? We might want to be careful what we wish for too; since he's sure to have a lot of fun starting a week from Monday night – at our expense."

"He's sure to do that anyway," Gwendolyn pointed out. "I wouldn't want to see him seriously pick on the bride and groom, but he probably won't be able to resist talking about anything that he does think is funny today."

"Including the fact that you and I aren't there?" Al suggested; and Gwendolyn laughed.

"Maybe – though I'll hope not. "This has worked out nicely for us; though maybe I should be worried that I'm not wishing we were there instead. It could be that you're proving to be a bad influence on me."

"I've thought about that a bit today," Al admitted – "about why I'm not upset about missing my cousin's wedding – weddings, including Louis' wedding. I don't think that it has anything to do with the big parties for either. I'm likely changing more than you are for things like this – and I'm definitely different than I was two or three years ago."

"We all are," Gwendolyn suggested; "but what do you mean for that when it comes to weddings – or big parties?"

"Back then, I'd have said that it was my duty to support my family and be there for celebrations like this one," he answered. "Even after I decided that I wanted to choose to be happy as much of the time as possible, I'd have said that I should do that no matter what I had to put up with because family comes first. The thing that's changing since then, though, is that I'm finding out that I need to find the balance between that and realizing that some members of my family are happier when I'm not involved in their lives at all – as is the case tonight."

"I don't think that Lucy would have minded having us there," Gwendolyn disagreed.

"Probably not; but I doubt that she's missing me – and her parents and Molly are happy that I'm not there. It causes other problems, and I don't know what the balance should be, Gwendolyn; but my point is just that there does seem to be times when the best thing I can do to support my family is stay away when I'm not wanted or needed."

"I'd say that the members of your family that think that they don't want you around are the ones that need you the most," Gwendolyn teased; "but you do have a point about going to a celebration for someone that we basically don't have much of a relationship with anymore. We wouldn't even be having this discussion about any other Witches or Wizards that we know as well as we know Lucy and Alex; yet wouldn't even expect to be invited to a wedding or party for them."

"I always expected things to change with my cousins and me as we grew up," Al offered next. "There was never a chance that we could all stay close as we started to get our own, adult lives, but this isn't what I expected either."

"We may look back sometime in the future and see that the seeds had been planted and dormant for a long time," Gwendolyn proposed. "You're blaming yourself – at least a little – because of escalating that argument last Sunday, but you're still in the right; and I'd say it was past-time for someone to stand up and tell your uncle and cousins that they're on the wrong side of this nonsense."

"Taking any political stance starting next week could be a very bad idea – for our team. We could cause a lot of damage if we offend too many Quidditch fans."

We could," Gwendolyn agreed – "though I don't expect that anyone aligned with your Uncle Percy will be fans of our team anyway – especially if we're as successful as we hope to be."

"That shouldn't be true if they actually meant what they profess to believe," Al suggested, "but you're right; and Uncle Percy will not be happy for us." He smiled then. "That does have me wondering how he'll handle the questions he'll be asked about us starting with training camp. He played nice with James and the Catapults even after they put his son-in-law in the hospital and won that play-off match, but I'm having trouble picturing him being even that nice about me – or Dad."

"I could see him trying to mess with us," Gwendolyn admitted seriously. "We probably shouldn't go there and borrow the trouble."

"Okay," Al agreed. "Let's talk about our plans for tomorrow. Everyone at the wedding tonight will want to sleep in, so maybe we could do a late-morning birthday brunch for Susannah. She's going to be with her family later, but we could do that; give her the gifts; and then we could spend the afternoon moving our things from our homes into our townhouse and then move in by tomorrow night. We'll still need to stock the kitchen and pick up the rest of the supplies we'll need there, but I could run out and get the few things we'd need just to be able to stay there – and we can move the fresh food we already have here in the tent over there too when we're ready to pack it up and give it back to Mum and Dad."

"That works for me," Gwendolyn approved. "We're a week ahead of plan for that, but I'm also okay with getting so much more of the work around here finished before training camp starts. We really do want to focus on the Quidditch after that, and would have had a tough time doing that and working for a few hours every night on the work around here too."

"We'll still have work to do," Al pointed out, "but I'm glad that this has worked out so great too; and we'll have lots of help with that work once everyone else is here too."

"Are you sure about that?" Gwendolyn asked; and Al shrugged.

"I think that everyone will want to pitch in to help make this their home too; and the rest of the work we want to do around here really is about making it a great place to live and work."

"That's going to be brilliant – though I might miss the comparative quiet we've had over this past week – at least a little bit."

"Says the Witch that likes the attention that is going to come with our jobs – and the parties and the rest too," Al joked. "That is funny when I'm looking forward to getting our little community started."

"I'm excited about that too," Gwendolyn assured him. "Once training camp opens, though, I think that we'll also be glad that we did get to have a bit of quiet time around here first."

Al was sure she was right about that, but their chat wound down from there; they finished their drinks; and then went to bed. They'd had no intention of staying up late and waiting for anyone else to get 'home' from the wedding or elsewhere, and even with a bit of quiet playtime for two once they were in bed; they were still sleeping long-before the other campers returned to their tents in the wee hours of the morning. That choice proved to be a good one, since they were rested up and ready to go again by the time Jaimie and Lorie were awake and ready to play again by shortly-after Al finished his morning workout by the portable pool; so they took the kids with them; and left their 'campground' so that they could have fun without waking everyone else.

They needed to feed the kids a snack-breakfast; they played in the atrium for a while; and then they decided to run out and do the shopping that Al wanted to get done before returning to the atrium and cooking brunch for a small gang that ended up including all of the campers, Malorie and Patrick, and six sets of parents. Susannah was the guest of honor for that brunch, and while the family, friends, and food time was great; it was giving her the birthday gifts that was the best part of the morning because almost all of her gifts were for her townhouse – including the gifts from her parents and brother. As with Al and Gwendolyn's place, that didn't leave her with a fully-furnished home, but her family and friends had conspired to get what she needed to at least live in her new home; and she discovered that everything they'd given her was something that she'd picked out herself while out on shopping trips with the rest of them.

That meal and play time ended up keeping them busy until nearly-one, and Susannah and Seth needed to move on by then with their families, so after a long round of goodbyes and best wishes; nearly everyone split up from there to do other work or activities. Harry and Ginny ended up taking the twins for the afternoon while Al and Gwendolyn were busy, but they went home with Jaimie and Lorie; so Al still spent some time with all of them while he was there too; packing up his room; and moving his things to the townhouse. Lily and Jonah went home with Kirley and Gwenog; and they were helping Gwendolyn to do the same at her house. Al didn't need help; but he did have four supervisors for most of the time he was there.

"I'd ask what you'll do with this room once I'm gone," Al joked; "but you won't be here much longer either."

"We won't be," Ginny agreed – "though we'll need more time to go through everything and decide what we'll keep and take with us to the townhouse."

"There's no hurry for that," Harry suggested. "We can take as much time as we want for the move. Are you taking Winter with you this afternoon; or should we send her out with an Owl Post tonight?"

"I'll take her along; and then she can explore her new home tonight," Al decided. "I'm going to offer to send her to Hogwarts with Lily – or just send her up there with weekly posts so that Lily can still send her back on Sunday nights."

"Either will work for Lily," Ginny assured him. "It really is a bit scary just how organized you are in here. You'll have this room empty in less than an hour; and there's almost no cleaning needed."

"A near-opposite to what we had to deal with in James' room," Harry added with a nod and then smiled at Jaimie and Lorie. "If you get boxed up; it might be a while before we find you again," he teased; earning a pair of giggles from the girls as they then tried to 'hide' in two of the boxes that Al was using to pack the clothes from his dresser and closet – along with the rest of his possessions that weren't already neatly boxed up and stored in his closet.

"I'm sure they'd find a way to escape by dinnertime at the latest," Al told him – "though I doubt they'll want to miss out on the rest of their play time with you and Mum for the afternoon while Gwendolyn and I are busy working around our townhouse. You'll have a lot more fun than we'll have."

"No doubt," Harry agreed. "Do you want to get together for dinner tonight?"

Al shrugged. "We didn't plan anything for that. Maybe you can check in with everyone and we can order something in for another group meal. I don't want to cook another big meal today, but Rose and Brandon are moving in today too; and I'm not even sure how many others will be there working on their townhouses or flats for the rest of the day."

"Then maybe we'll just let everyone fend for themselves," Ginny suggested. "We'll work out our own plans with Malorie for how we can best help her with the twins; and stay out of the way of the work over there."

That's what they ended up doing, and Al wasn't with them for long before he sent his things to the townhouse; and then went there to unpack what he needed and put the rest of his things into a storage room on the top floor. He really should have just gotten rid of most of those childhood things, since he didn't expect to even be opening any of those boxes anytime soon, but he couldn't just throw things away like that – even when he had no use at all for things like his boxes full of trophies. He had that work done by the time Gwendolyn caught up with him and her things had been moved over too; but she didn't want his help with getting her clothes and other possessions put away – other than letting him put the boxes she wasn't going to deal with yet into storage too. They kept busy until late afternoon; went for a swim in the lagoon; and then ended up sharing a pizza dinner with Rose, Brandon, Malorie, Patrick, Ruth, and Eric. After that, they helped Rose and Brandon for a couple of hours; and then went back to their own townhouse so that they could enjoy their first night there alone; have a bit of hot-rated fun; and still get some sleep so they'd be ready for another busy work week.

The week leading up to the opening day of training camp seemed progressively more-exciting for Al and Gwendolyn; and they were busy every day pretty much from dawn until late each evening. As with the first week, Al was in charge of the work going on around the practice pitch – though that was only true for the clean-up, repairs, and improvements. He only helped when needed for work on the offices or the cafe during the day; and he and Gwendolyn both helped out in the evenings for anyone that wanted help with getting their townhouses or flats ready – and then moved into them too. That meant that they did a lot of work, but they had fun too; and they got a lot done!

For Al, that included the repair and clean-up of the long lane that led from the only nearby road to the practice pitch entrance. The area bordering the outdoor sides of both the entrance to the practice pitch and offices and the 'private' entrances to the atrium and townhouses became part of a large patio, gardens, and walkways area that was both beautiful and functional as that area became part of the gardens and paths that Al did most of the work on that really took their community and the surrounding land to a place that none of the others had even been able to imagine.

While he led the way to making the Cannons' property an amazing place to live and work; Rose was busy with the business side of the Cannons; and she led the effort to get their team offices set up and ready for opening day. She had lots of help for that from Kendall Towler; and they both worked together with Malorie, Renee, and Susannah; since while they had three separate offices for the Cannons, GO MagiSports, and the Charity; they were able to do a lot of the jobs on their to-do lists together – such as bulk purchases of everything from office furniture to supplies. Al was more involved with setting up the team training room, locker rooms, and the rest of that part of the facility, but he was a worker for that; and Gwendolyn led that work project as she made sure that they had what was likely one of the best training facillities in the league by the time that work was finished on Friday morning.

While Al only helped out with some magical heavy lifting for the cafe, that was one of his favorite projects to watch come together as Art and Wanda took their own vision of the place and made it a reality. What they ended up with was a very interesting and comfortable blend that was somewhere between a cafe with an outdoor patio and atrium area with a great view of the practice pitch and a sports pub where their customers could sit around on a Saturday afternoon or weekday evening and catch a Quidditch match or other mirror network show or sporting event, have a few drinks, and enjoy some play time with their friends. They put together training-appropriate menues for breakfast and lunch; and planned on pub-friendly food offerings for the evenings that they were going to be open – which was something they were still going to work out.

The Cannonball Cafe wasn't going to officially open until Monday morning, but Art and Wanda had the place finished and the kitchen stocked by Friday afternoon; and they'd even hired their first employee – Romeo Remilard's sister, Juliet. She'd been around the practice pitch while helping Romeo to move into his flat; had offered to help out a few times; and that had led to Wanda offering to hire her for the summer so that they'd at least have a couple of months to get a better idea about how much help they'd need to run the cafe – and the small variety store side of the business. Since the cafe was going to be such an important part of their community; Al was very happy with how well that was working out for Art and Wanda; but then he felt that way about everything that they collectively accomplished by the time they ended their work week with a wrap up meeting before they'd all be taking the weekend off.

The 'they' for that meeting didn't include everyone – just Rose, Malorie, Susannah, Kendall, Renee, and the Quidditch players. They held that meeting in the conference room in the Cannons' training facility – the one that the team would use for meetings and prep work for their upcoming matches; they self-served drinks and snacks; and then sat down around the large conference table with Rose and Malorie at the head of the table. Al was one of the last to get a drink and sit down; so he got teased about that while sitting down in the chair that Gwendolyn had saved for him.

"So nice of you to join us," Rose told him; pretending to be annoyed. "You are here on time – barely, but in case nobody told you, it's Friday; and some of us are actually looking forward to having the weekend off."

"Sorry," Al apologized, "but you'll all be glad that I grabbed a quick shower first before coming here. Even with using magic, that last blast of work I was doing was hot and dirty."

"I thought you were done with that work this morning," Rose told him; and Al shrugged and smiled.

"I had another idea for an addition to the outdoor playground; and just went ahead and got it done."

"Do I even want to ask?" Rose asked rhetorically; and Al shrugged again.

"I added a zip line from the play fort to a new sand pit on the other side of the walk path so that the kids can zip past the hikers on that path if they time it right. The line is high-enough that it won't be in the way for anyone walking around out there."

"I want to play on that," Brandon joked; and earned a round of laughs.

"it's strong-enough that you could," Al assured him – "though you'd need to lift your legs a bit by the time you get to the sand pit end of it. I didn't want the kids to have a big drop into the sand – though the post is padded; and there's a small platform that they could land on there too."

"You're a bit scary," Rose told him. "Have we mentioned that lately?"

"Several times a day all week if I add them all up," Al answered. "This is fun, though; and nobody seems to really mind."

"We don't," Rose agreed, "but we do want to get started on our weekend off; so you may as welll give us the final report on your work out and around this place."

"Everything we wanted to get done this week is finished; and we're good to go for Monday," Al told her with a grin. "Fast enough for you?"

Rose laughed. "Yes, but I'll add your to-do list to the meeting record so we'll actually know what you're referring to for that 'everything' part of the statement. Why don't you go next, Gwendolyn. The training rooms look great. Is there anything left to get done?"

"We're ready for Monday," Gwendolyn answered. "There are a few things that are on order that haven't come in yet, but nothing that we have to have to start our workouts; and we're going to love the locker rooms a lot. If there aren't any additional delivery delays, that last bit of work will be done within two weeks."

"Sounds good," Rose said with a nod. "For anyone that hasn't seen the cafe yet, Art and Wanda are ready to go for Monday too; and they'll serve the first breakfast starting at eight o'clock. That's a bit later than what they'll do for training or game days after that, but we don't need to start our first work day early – and we want to look our best for the big reveal of our new team. Kendall?" she queried; inviting her new office manager to do the report for the Cannons' office and other team news.

"Our office is completely set up and in-use," Kendall advised everyone. "We only have one mirror communicator dedicated to the Cannons and the office, but since we've only allowed limited access to that portable mirror so far; that isn't a problem for keeping up with the chat requests or messages. Al's working on something that might help us to handle more of our communications that way, but we'll still do a lot of our work right now through face-to-face contact and Owl Posts. Rose and I want to warn you that we're going to have some former-player issues on Monday – particularly when this place is going to be open to the public in the afternoon; but we want to be as considerate with them as possible – and give them no reason to offer any bad publicity directed at us. Renee is going to take the lead on that; so maybe I should pass off to her next."

"Before you do that; you should update everyone on payroll,' Rose interjected before Renee could take over; and Kendall nodded.

"Okay – though I doubt that anyone will notice the difference. Your monthly pay deposits into your Gringotts accounts will now be coming from the vault that's been set up for the Cannons instead of through GO Magisports. I'll handle anything you need taken care of or problems you have for pretty much anything that isn't about the Quidditch for the team – with one exception. Any problems with your townhouses or flats will go through Al for now; and eventually through one of Malorie's office clerks."

"Quidditch player by day; handyman by night," Seth joked with a grin for Al. "Is there really much paperwork to deal with for our jobs?" he asked Kendall.

"Not on your end," she answered. "The Ministry of Magic and the league has more paperwork than you'd care to hear about, but that's my job too; so you don't have to worry about it."

"Then I won't," Seth decided with a nod. "Next?"

Renee didn't have a very long report to make. She'd spent most of her week getting everything set up for Monday with reporters, VIPs, and the mirror network channels that wanted to set up mirror-cams or even broadcast live from the practice pitch after they were finished the luncheon at Exmoor stadium. She wanted everyone to be on their best behavior on Monday, and advise her of any problems they did have so that she could handle them – or pass the responsibility for damage control to Rose or Malorie. When it was her turn, Malorie had a lot to go over with them. Ruth and her team was ready for the expected torrent of ticket requests that were sure to arrive by Monday afternoon. Lacey was ready to go for the first wave of souvenir sales; and most of the Cannons' merchandise was going through her to the stadium or Quidditch store vendors too. That was just going to be the start of the work for her company, though; and she'd hired extra summer students to get a jump on production ahead of the start of the season – and hoped to get to a point where they were two months ahead on production to sales. Toni and Michael had their first advert campaign ready to go on Monday; and then they were sure to get even busier while promoting the team, merchandise, and the business partners that had signed on as they took advantage of the deals that Malorie had set up for them – and that would all be very profitable if the mirror network shows related to Quidditch got the views they expected to have.

Two of Al's favorite bits of news were things that he had no involvement in at all. The first was his mother's added foray into a woreless web business geared toward Witches that she was officially launching on Monday too – though she was going with one of the names he'd suggested back when she'd first been unemployed. QuidditchProsandMoms was going to be a resource for Witches that were interested in Quidditch, how Witches handled the work and training, and a lot more that Al didn't really need to know the details for because his mother and the other Witches she'd recruited to work with her knew what they wanted to do – and what would appeal to their audience. That business was a GO MagiSports company too; but that was really only for the advantages that went along with being part of a bigger business.

The other magical media-related business was the birth of the Witches' Quidditch Network – or WQN for short. Al thought that Rose and Malorie were rather brilliant to start that up too; and their first show personalities were Teresa Thomas and Kylie Cootes. Considering his current problems with Deanna, having Teresa moving into the community too was going to be a bit weird, but he was really happy that Teresa and Kylie wouldn't be wasting their talents working their way up the ranks within the Quidditch News Network. Their new network wouldn't be 'on-the-air' all of the time – just for Quidditch matches and a daily show to start, but they were already working on plans for new shows; and could grow that business as they built a new fan base.

Al was in the loop for Virtual Mirror gaming and MirrorApps; and there was both a new Quidditch game and Quidditch-related apps coming out on Monday too. Cannons Quidditch – Rookie Season was going to be the first in a series; the players would be able to play their own matches as well as practice and train, but they'd also get game updates as the season went along and real results came in for the team and players that they could work into their own game play or use to compare their virtual team with the real one. The apps included TicketWizard and a Quidditch tracking app that would give users the ability to keep track of the latest standings and news from the Wireless Web for their favorite teams and players. There was a Quidditch game app too; though that wasn't anything nearly as intense as the Virtual Mirror Games.

Finally, Malorie updated them on the community. About half of their new tenants and neighbors were moved in or would be by the end of the weekend. The others that were being assigned flats would gain access to them starting on Monday; and Malorie expected most of them to be moved in by month-end – to avoid paying August rent for current flats for some; and to be moved away from home by then for others. Malorie also talked with them about the private open house that they were doing on Sunday evening, but that was just a reminder; and the exclusive guest list was being kept small to make sure that nothing got out to any reporters or the public at the last minute – though there was still a chance that they wouldn't make it through to Monday without any news leaks.

When Rose adjourned the meeting, there was a round of goodbyes that weren't entirely goodbyes when quite a few of them would still be around in the townhouses or flats, but it was, temporarily, goodbye for Al, Gwendolyn, his parents, and their brother and sister because they went over to the Potter home to have dinner there and to work on the next batch of packing that Harry, Ginny, and Lily were doing before they'd be making the move to their townhouse to stay starting by the end of the day on Saturday. They picked up a take-out dinner first; set up the dining room table for a 'last supper' in the old house meal; and then sat down to eat once everything was ready.

"I'm probably supposed to feel really sad about moving out of the house I've lived in for my entire life, but the townhouse is so brilliant; I'm having a tough time doing that,' Lily advised her parents. "Is that totally wrong of me?"

"Your father and I have loved living here," Ginny told her. "We've loved being able to raise you and your brothers in the Potter family home too, and we are still going to keep it in the family regardless of what we do with it over the next few years; but it's okay to take all of the happy memories with us and move on – just as I did when I moved out of the Burrow – and you likely would have done from here in a couple of years anyway once you're out of Hogwarts and playing in the show."

"For the Harpies," Lily amended. "Maybe that is part of the reason for why I feel this way – because I would have wanted my own place sooner instead of later after Hogwarts. I'm just not sure how we got to here from back when Al first talked about building a community and you didn't know whether you'd want to live there too or stay here."

Ginny laughed. "That was before we all got to see Al's imagination for that come to life," she reminded Lily. "We also get to be close to Al and Gwendolyn, Malorie and the twins, and our work; and who wouldn't love that atrium and everything else about our new home and community – even if we will be the only grandparents living there with all of you kids."

"I do hope to do something about that with the next phase for the community," Al advised them. "There should be more parents and grandparents there eventually – especially once there are more than just four kids living there with us."

"You're thinking bigger; and I'm thinking that I'm glad that Mum and Dad are keeping this house in the family so that if they need to do it; they can move back in when the old Cannons owners get their team back in ten years," Lily told him; and Al laughed.

"I am not going to be sorry about disappointing you on that, Lily," he assured her. "Training camp opens on Monday, though, so why don't you give us your predictions for the top eight teams in the league this year – and then you can adjust them if you'd like after work on Monday should there be any news from the other teams that might affect your choices. I'd really like to know how well you think the Cannons will do in our first season."

"Sure," Lily agreed – "if you do the same. Would you like to place a bet on which of us does better with our picks?"

"Would you bet whether you'll play..." he began; and Lily cut him off.

"Don't go there," she warned. "I am going to play for the Harpies!"

"Okay," Al agreed – "though I'm a bit surprised that you wouldn't want to put up something equally-big for me if I lost the bet. The usual ten galleons then?"

"Alright – and you're not going to mess with me by getting me to think about what that bet could've been either."

"Maybe not; but I'm wondering about it," Gwendolyn teased. "So what are your pre-season picks for top teams this season – one through eight?"

"Are we betting on the results after the playoffs?" Lily asked first; and Al shrugged.

"Sure – though we could make picks for the season too if you'd like."

"Let's just start with the final results after the playoffs," Lily decided. "I'll pick the Harpies to win; the Prides in second; United for third; and the Cannons in fourth as the teams making the championship and semi-final matches."

"Well, that's better than I expected you to place our team; considering the way you always talk about us," Gwendolyn told her seriously. "You're not placing the defending champions in the top four. Why not?"

"Because I think that they're going to have problems this season – possibly just with getting all of those fat heads into the stadiums for each match. That also isn't predicting that they'll end up lower than fourth in the regular season – just that I think they'll lose in the first round."

"Against the Cannons?" Jonah asked with a grin; and Lily laughed.

"I'd hope that they'd lose to the Harpies; but having Mum or Dad best James in the playoffs would be a great next-best match."

"Maybe, but your top four picks will lack a bit of context without knowing your predictions for the first round match-ups," Gwendolyn suggested."

"I don't know if anyone could get that right," Lily told her. "My picks for fifth-through-eight for those first-round losers would be the Catapults, Tornados, Arrows, and Falcons."

"So you're dropping the Wasps out of the top eight and moving the Cannons up," Ginny pointed out; and Lily shrugged.

"I guess. Your turn, Al."

"I agree with you for the top eight," he advised her – "but I'll go with the top four order being the Cannons, Prides, United, and Harpies. You didn't seem to actually specify the order for the other four playoff teams, and I guess that doesn't really matter; but I would also pick those same teams to place fifth-to-eighth in the regular season too."

"Well, that doesn't seem like much of a bet to me," Lily decided. "We may as well just put ten galleons on having either the Harpies or Cannons win the league championship – and I'd say that my money would be a lot safer than yours for that wager."

"I'm okay with that bet too," Al agreed. "If we're done with that, though, I have a non-Quidditch question for all of you about something I heard today that I was wondering if any of you have heard news about too. I heard a rumor that there are some unhappy people at the Ministry of Magic because they aren't getting many applications for jobs there from the graduating class this year. I can't say that I worried about that at all while we had Malorie recruiting this spring, but is that actually a problem for them; or is that just gossip?"

"They do like to hire the brightest and best every year," Harry advised him, "and there might truly be some people there that are mad about it if they aren't getting much interest in working there from this graduating class, since they do normally have the best-paying jobs; but no, the Ministry of Magic can survive not getting many new hires in any single year – or even several years."

"I'd say that fewer hires for a few years would be a good thing," Ginny suggested. "The Ministry of Magic needs to get smaller, not bigger; so tell Malorie to keep up the good work!"

"I hope that we will do that," Al assured her; and then grinned. "Who knows? If we can help the Cannons win a league championship; maybe reforming the Ministry of Magic is possible too!"

"He's finally worked too hard and broken his brain," Lily declared. "He's delusional now; and madness may be just around the corner."

His family needed to have a bit of fun with those jokes, but they enjoyed their meal; cleaned up; and then got to work on the packing that Ginny wanted to get done. Gwendolyn helped Lily with her room; Al and Jonah did some heavy lifting with Harry; and then Harry and Al ended up moving a lot of the furniture and boxes that would have been moved to the townhouse over the weekend anyway because that just saved Harry and Ginny some time on Saturday. They worked until eleven; and then Al and Gwendolyn went home while Harry, Ginny, Lily, and Jonah stayed to spend their last night in the house – possibly their last-ever night in the Potter family home. That was important for them – especially for Harry and Ginny, but Al had already gone through that on his last night there at the end of the Christmas holidays; and the new home he was making with Gwendolyn already felt like where he now belonged.

On Saturday, after having breakfast at their townhouse, Al and Gwendolyn collected Lily and Jonah on the way to the McCormak's home, and while Harry and Ginny got to work on the biggest part of the move to their townhouse while Lily was away and busy; they spent the morning helping Kirley and Gwenog with getting ready for the family play day that they were hosting before Gwenog would be too-busy with the Harpies and training camp to have many big family and friends events. With Al and Gwendolyn joining the ranks of players in the show, that was true for more members of their family; and with the teens all getting older and having summer jobs too; they were getting to a point when they wouldn't be able to get everyone together at the same time very often anyway. After two weeks of some fairly-intense work days, chores around the house and yard seemed mild by comparison; so Al had a lot of fun while working with Gwendolyn, Lily, and Jonah on those chores – and with Kirley and Gwenog now and then too when their jobs overlapped. They had everything ready by noon; got cleaned up and had a quick lunch; and then their guests began arriving by shortly before one o'clock.

The Rivers family was the first group to get there; Fred was there with Katrina; and it seemed a bit strange to be getting together for a McCormack-Jones family event after spending a lot of time working together at the Cannons' practice pitch over the past two weeks. Fred had also opted to use his townhouse for the summer and Christmas holidays, so while he'd only moved in some basics – like bedroom furniture and a small kitchen table; he was going to be a neighbor too. That likely had a lot to do with why he and Katrina were so happy – and was definitely why Meghan wanted to have a chat with Al and Gwendolyn.

"I've been thinking that those two have it bad," Meghan told them with a wave of her hand toward Fred and Katrina; "but now I see that they've only got a mild case of whatever it is that's going around at their summer job work site."

"I feel perfectly fine," Gwendolyn told her aunt – "great, in fact; so what exactly do you think that we're coming down with that has you so worried?"

"Extreme happiness," Meghan answered. "Goofy perma-smiles, laughing a lot, and singing to yourself for no apparent reason at all are just some of the symptoms."

"Al and I are newlyweds," Gwendolyn reminded her. "Shouldn't we be that happy for quite some time right now?"

"All things considered – no," Meghan answered half-seriously – "and that shouldn't be something that Fred and Katrina can catch from you – or at least they'd better not do that anytime soon."

"Well, we are having a lot of fun at work," Gwendolyn advised her. "That's going to get even better starting next week, though, so don't be surprised to see Katrina getting even happier."

"Maybe we should be worried about that," Al suggested. "She's going to be happy about getting paid to bash bludgers at us. The happier she is; the worse that might be for us."

"What are you going to do for a reserve squad starting in September?" Meghan asked after joining in for the round of laughs.

"We'd hate to spoil the surprise by telling you in advance," Gwendolyn answered – "though I can tell you that Rose doesn't want to go with Al's suggestion to have us play against Jaimie, Lorie, and some of their friends using their toy Quidditch set."

"It would be a great cardio workout trying to keep up with them," Al countered. "I think it'd work – and be a lot of fun too."

"You'd think that about sitting at center pitch and playing dolls with them," Lily interjected. "I seriously-doubt that playing with toddlers is going to get you ready to play the Falcons or Catapults."

"Some of the players on those teams are a bit like overgrown toddlers," Meghan suggested; "so you might be wrong about that. I see that you've caught this same affliction too. Did you get it from the same place; or have you been unofficially hired by the Harpies already?"

Lily laughed. "I wish, but your sister-in-law has decided that the Harpies aren't going to hire under-age players; and I won't be seventeen until September. I'm terribly-disappointed; but maybe I'll be able to talk her into letting me play the Christmas holiday matches."

"James has been a bad influence on too many of the younger players," Meghan told her. "We're amazed at how many of the Hogwarts players tell our scouts that they'd be interested in leaving school early to play in the show – and the only players there that we might have considered actually doing that with wouldn't even talk to the scouts from any of the teams for some unknown reason." She'd smiled at Lily again after turning her attention to Al and Gwendolyn for a moment. "Don't be in such a hurry to get into the show."

"James is Seeker for the current league champions," Lily reminded her. "We don't really want to talk about how he got there, but you're going to have a tough time convincing any of us kids that leaving school early doesn't work out pretty well – at least for some of us. If I hadn't made a deal with Mum; I'd still be thinking about leaving school early too."

"We really don't want to go there when it comes to James and that championship," Meghan agreed, "but while that may look pretty good for him right now; we'll see what happens from here. It's a new season; and there are real risks that go along with playing like that and making a lot of enemies on the other teams."

"That's pretty much the same thing that Lily suggested last night when we were talking Quidditch at dinner," Gwendolyn told her aunt. Since your team will be up first to try and best them despite the cheating; I really hope that you're both right about that."

"Let's not get started on that either," Meghan suggested. "I've spent too-many hours trying to work out a plan for that – and worrying – already. This is supposed to be a play day, though, and your uncle and cousins will not be happy wit me if all I do is sit around and talk Quidditch."

Gwendolyn laughed. "He knows the family he married into; and I doubt that we've ever had a family event of any kind that didn't include talking about or playing Quidditch."

"Or both," her Uncle Darian agreed and added with a nod and understanding smile. "Corey would love any advice you can offer to him so that he can get ready for tryouts in September. He's already stressing about making the team."

"We can do that," Gwendolyn promised as she looked over to where Corey had gone to drop his gear bag off at the edge of the pitch where the Quidditch set and other gear bags had been set out earlier. "I don't know if we'll be much help. Chaser is the one place on our junior team that Ravenclaw is loaded with talent; and he's going to have it tough with so many really good players. Jonah Madley has the same problem – which was why he played Seeker last year instead; though he really only earned that job because he was the best we had."

"We really need to hope for better at Seeker for our junior team this year," Katrina suggested. "Ryan and Meg think that Corey should try out for Keeper now that Meg's moving up to the senior team; and Fred and I have suggested that he try out at Beater; but Corey hates those ideas. He wants to be a Chaser for some unknown reason."

"Yeah – I can't imagine why he might want to do that," Gwendolyn joked. "I get why he doesn't want to follow the rest of you, but unless we get a good firstie prospect at Keeper or Beater; Corey might actually have his best shot to make the team at one of those spots instead – and he can always try out for more than one spot and try to be one of the top Chasers too."

"We've pointed that out too," Katrina assured her. "That doesn't seem to be helping him.

Gwendolyn shrugged. "Then nothing we say will likely matter either. The best examples we have for doing that at tryouts are probably Victoire and Rose – and Victoire played Seeker instead of Chaser to best-help her team; since she was top Chaser at tryouts too. Rose couldn't be Keeper in her first year because Louis didn't put his job on the line while he was Captain in his third year, but that says a lot about her because she did earn that spot against a pretty good group of Chasers – including some that are – or soon will be – playing in the show."

"She didn't beat Al," Katrina challenged. "I'm sure that I've never heard that before."

"You haven't," Gwendolyn agreed; "but she did come in second – ahead of Ollie, Ray, and some other pretty good players – like Cyndia's brother."

"This extended Quidditch chat moment is on you this time," Meghan told her husband, "but if they can't move on to something else; we can at least go and get drinks and hang out with the other grown-ups."

"Won't Al and Gwendolyn need to hang out with the adults too?" Katrina teased. "You should be happy today, Mum. They can't play on the kids' teams anymore – so I guess they'll have to play on your team instead."

"Now that is a happy thought," Meghan assured her. "We'll see if the cousins agree with you; since I'm sure that they'd make an exception for Al and Gwendolyn – possibly for another decade or two – especially now that Al looks like that with the new hair. It's probably for the best that Gwendolyn didn't wait to marry him; since I predict that his posters are going to be very popular with the Witches."

"Will you get one for your office wall?" Katrina teased; and Meghan laughed.

"No, but I might get a set of the trading cards to stick up on the inside of my locker."

"I'm so glad that you didn't suggest you'd get the poster for your bedroom," Darian teased.

"She wouldn't; but Meg and I might," Katrina suggested with a grin for Gwendolyn.

"We should've gone for those drinks the moment you suggested it," Darian told Meghan. "Let's escape before this gets any stranger."

They did that, but while Al and Gwendolyn got teased a bit more about being too old now to hang out with the kids, they still stayed with Lily, Jonah, and their cousins – and went on to welcome the Jones' cousins too as they arrived. There was a transition for them, and everyone in Gwendolyn's family wanted to congratulate them on their marriage – at least for everyone that hadn't seen them yet since they'd gotten home from school. All of the cameo moments added up to an awesome afternoon – whether that was talking weddings and what their grown-up life would be like next or while they played Quidditch, swam, or got involved with other games around the back yard. Talking much about work wasn't an option – yet, but that was fun too; and the news that would be out on Monday would give them lots to talk about at the next family event!

While the play day was mostly for Kirley's and Gwenog's families, they had friends stopping by for visits too; and that included Harry and Ginny coming over for dinner after working on the move to their townhouse for most of the day. Al, Gwendolyn, Lily, and Jonah didn't actually get to spend a lot of time with them because they were put at other tables during that meal, but they still had a few cameo moments of fun with them when they could before and after dinner; and then Harry and Ginny moved on again while their kids stayed for the after-dinner fun that wrapped up with a campfire. The cuddle time by the fire, toasted treats, scary stories, and amazing music play time with their family and friends was a brilliant end to a really happy, fun day. While there hadn't been any hurry to wrap up their play day, the campfire still wound down by midnight; the rest of the guests were gone by a bit after one; and Kirley and Gwenog had four helpers to get the clean-up finished before Al and Gwendolyn took Lily and Jonah with them and apparated back to their townhouses.

Harry and Ginny weren't still awake by then, but Lily took Jonah home with her after sayging goodnight to Al and Gwenodlyn; and they all pretty much went straight off to sleep soon after getting to their respective bedrooms and ready for bed too. The four teens had missed a fair bit of fun while they'd been busy on Saturday, so Sunday morning was an adventure – right from the start of the day for Al. He had balcony spectators for his early-morning exercises by the atrium lagoon; he and Gwendolyn had breakfast on their townhouse patio in the atrium too; and got to have a few cameo visits from their neighbors – including Rose and Brandon, Harry and Ginny, and Lily and Jonah. After that, it wa stime to play again – though this time; it was a quiet Potter family day that was fun and restful through until the private open house began by mid-afternoon and the selected guests began to arrive.

For the Potter family, those guests included Molly, Arthur, and Muriel; Kirley and Gwenog were there for Gwendolyn; and Ron and Hermione were there too – though they were technically Rose's guests – as were Brandon and Alyssa's parents. Most of the other residents of their new little comminity had parents or siblings visiting too, but Al, Gwendolyn, Rose, and Brandon got to do one of the first tours with 'their' collective group; and that began outdoors and in front of the entrance to the practice pitch where a reception area had been set up with drinks and snacks for all of the guests to enjoy while meeting up with their hosts. While those arrivals had been amazing for everyone, Al was sure that the best part of that entire scene for everyone in their own family was getting to watch Ron's reaction to seeing the place for the first time – and it was a first for him because Rose wouldn't let him come over sooner so that he'd be able to get the full effect of the work they'd done on the place.

"You're pranking me," Ron decided as he got his first look around at the practice pitch, the parts of the atrium, townhouses, and apartment building that he could see; and the beautiful walkways and gardens around him. "Where are we, really?"

"We really are at the new and improved home of the Chudley Cannons, Dad," Rose assured him proudly after joining in on the round of laughs. "That look on your face is so worth having made you wait to see it until now!"

"I can't believe it," Ron said with a shake of his head. "It's been a long time since I've been here, but I did know that this place was falling apart." He kept looking around and tried to take it all in; but still looked stunned. "You did all of this in two weeks?"

"A lot of work went into this plan before we started working here, Dad, but yes; all of the clean-up, repairs, and new construction has been done over the past two weeks. We have Al to thank for that. My plan would've been to repair the practice pitch, add a coat or ten of paint; and then get to work on the Quidditch training part of my plan. we all like this a lot better."

"No doubt," Ron agreed. "Are we going on a tour next?"

"We are," Rose agreed. "You're the last to get here for our group, so let's get drinks; and then we can head inside."

They all did that; Rose and Brandon led the way with their parents; and Al and Gwendolyn ended up near the back of the pack with Kirley and Gwenog while Harry, Ginny, Lily, and Jonah stayed with Molly, Arthur, and Muriel.

"You could start mutinies with the other teams when word gets around about this place," Gwenog told them; and didn't look happy even as she loved everything about her kids' new home. "Maybe this won't be a disaster – if I get Glynnis to add a new team rule first thing in the morning banning any of our players from coming here to visit anyone. That might work!"

"As long as you don't hire Lily," Kirley teased. "I'm sure she'll want to come and visit – since she'll be living here during holidays for the next two years."

"I'll have more immediate problems once Victoire visits for the first time – which I expect will be tomorrow after work once the mirror network shows start reporting on this – and the new team."

"Maybe they'll forget about the team altogether," Al suggested with a smile. "I'd be okay with that."

"If that was your motivation for doing all of this; it won't work," Gwenog predicted. "You are going to get a lot of attention for this place, though; and it's going to be fun to see how some of your favorite reporter-haters will try and spin this to be awful."

"I know that I'll be reading Rita's column every day," Gwendolyn assured her. "Then we'll use it for Winter's cage."

They had fun with their sidelines chats along the way, but it was Ron's and Muriel's reactions to everything they saw that was most-entertaining. Malorie was 'hosting' in the GO MagiSports offices for the open house, but Jaimie and Lorie were added to their group after that stop on the tour; so Al and Gwendolyn helped out with keeping them entertained too. The highlights of the tour - for Ron – included the practice pitch and training rooms; the Cannonball Cafe that he offered to visit a lot; the atrium; and the tours of Brandon's flat and rose's townhouse. They spent more than an hour doing that; and then they gathered in the atrium where more drinks and snacks were availalbe for everyone to enjoy until dinnertime.

That social time included mingling with the other groups of 'hosts' and 'guests' as those groups finished their own tours; and that was a lot of fun – especially when the new connections with GO Magisports crossed paths with old friendships – usually between the parents of the colective GO MagiSports employees. Al and Gwendolyn had a lot of fun with that; Muriel added to the entertainment with her stories; and Al was happy to find out that his unbreakable atrium roof actually could handle his Aunt Muriel's powerful voice. The open house wasn't over at dinnertime, but the group events part of it was; so some of the guests left to have dinner elsewhere while others stayed to have first meals with their kids in one of the flats or townhomes. Al and Gwendolyn hosted a dinner at their townhouse for their parents, Molly, Arthur, Muriel, Lily, and Jonah; but it was also a take-out meal because they didn't want to do a major cooking event when they were officially going to have their first training day curfew.

"There is so much that I'd like to talk about with you," Molly offered as a general comment, "but for some odd reason; the first thing I'm surprised about at the moment is how quiet it is in here. With so many neighbors; I expected it to be more like it is in a town or the cities."

"Al built in soundproofing charms between the townhouses and flats – and even into the outer walls and windows,' Gwendolyn advised her. "We'd hear more with the windows open – at least from that direction; but he wanted everyone to have privacy whenever they want it."

"This place is just full of amazing little surprises," Molly acknowledged with a nod. "We'll be at Exmoor stadium tomorrow for all of our grandchildren, but if i had any doubts about it at all before now; I'd say that the Cannons will definitely be the news story of the day – and I'm glad that we'll get to be there to see it all happen!"

"I'll want to be there – and maybe back here again too – just to see the look on Rita Skeeter's face," Muriel offered with a snort of laughter. "With a bit of luck, we'll get to see her choke on her inks and quills when she sees this place!"

"She'll find some way to spin this into the worst-possible light," Ginny predicted. "That could be both good and bad for us; since I fully-expect that we'll see her around the practice pitch a lot after tomorrow."

"Do you really think that she'll be able to do that?" Gwenog asked seriously. "I'm sure she'd love to do that, but could she; or would being around Harry and Al just send her into fits of giggles all of the time?"

Ginny laughed. "That's a good point. I don't know – but it'll be fun to find out!"

"Everything about this seems to be as much fun as you all hoped that it would be," Arthur suggested. "How are you going to handle the team introduction tomorrow – and the luncheon and the rest of the day back here at the practice pitch?"

Harry and Ginny tag-teamed that question; though they didn't give away all of the surprises. They enjoyed their meal and chat time; Molly, Arthur, and Muriel spent some time with Rose, Brandon, and their group for an hour or so after that; while Al and Gwendolyn took their parents on a walk along the paths and showed Kirley and Gwenog that part of the outdoor clean-up and landscaping that was transforming the property into an amazing place to live and work from the overgrown near-ruins they'd purchased. Gwenog had work to do ahead of opening day for the Harpies, so she went home after that and took Kirley along; while Harry, Ginny, and their kids split up to do chores or other things for the time they had left before their team curfew – which even Lily and Jonah had for their summer jobs even though they would be spectators for the opening day ceremony. Al and Gwendolyn had chores to do ahead of their first 'real' team work week, but they had a few cameo visits with their neighbors; a micro-meeting with Rose and Malorie to go over a couple of things ahead of their big morning; and then they eventually headed for bed – even though they didn't actually get to sleep right on-time for their curfew.

They were in bed on time, though; so they didn't break any team rules on their very first night of needing to follow them!

Gwendolyn side-along apparated Al into the staging room at Exmoor stadium that had been assigned to the Cannons, and she brought him because Malorie, Kendall, and Renee had come to the stadium first; they'd then brought Rose, Gwendolyn, and Ginny; and then four of them had returned to the Cannons' practice pitch to get the guys so that they'd make sure that nobody at the stadium saw them arrive – or saw them at all before they were introduced. The room wasn't large; Al knew by then that the Cannons didn't rate one of the nicer rooms – like the team locker rooms or one of the stadium conference rooms; and even the mirror that was set up in there so that they could watch the opening ceremony until it was their turn to be introduced wasn't even as big as most Wizarding families had in their home sitting rooms now. The chairs looked worn; and the smell in the room suggested to Al that it was likely just used for storage the rest of the year – or just not used at all.

"Well, this probably did seem a step up from the old team practice pitch," Seth joked. "Let's see what we can do about moving up to better accommodations for this time next year."

"That is part of the plan," Rose reminded him. "Isn't this as glamorous as you expected our first day in the show to be?"

"I know what to expect for the rest of the day," Seth assured her; "but yes, I expected that even the Cannons would rate a bit more than this."

"Maybe it's intentional," Gwendolyn suggested seriously; and then smiled when that comment got everyone's attention. "The Cannons have been last for a long time, but it is possible that putting the worst team in the league in a storage room or whatever this place is was meant to motivate them to do better the next season."

"You could be right," Rose agreed. "I'm not a fan of negative motivation; but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the league would do something like that."

"Then I'm glad that you don't like that," Seth told her. "I don't think that any of us would have fun at work if we were always worried about negative consequences to being last or worst during any parts of our workouts."

"We're definitely not going to do anything like that," Rose assured him. "Let's get comfortable. The speeches are just getting started; so we've a bit of a wait."

"Just be glad that your Dad's favorite team wasn't the Wasps; or we'd have a very long wait," Brandon teased.

Lily and Jonah Did not arrive at Exmoor stadium with the rest of the 'reserve squad' or the rest of the GO MagiSports employees that were all getting paid time off to attend the training camp opening ceremony and luncheon, but they did have Jaimie and Lorie with them; Kirley, Molly, and Arthur had helped them to get there; and now they were wandering around the stadium booths while keeping the twins entertained during the boring speeches. The souvenir booths didn't have much merchandise out yet because the player-related souvenirs, collectibles, and toys wouldn't be available until after each team was presented. Hugo and Alyssa had met up with them; went along for the walk instead of sitting through the speeches too; and then they headed for their seats with the rest of their group when they heard the last speech on the schedule – the one from the Head of the Department for Magical Games and Sports – begin nearly twenty minutes after the start of the ceremony.

"Does the Ministry of Magic pay that guy by the word or something?" Lily asked her grandfather after sitting down with Lorie. "We hoped that he'd be done by the time we got back; yet he just seems to be warming up now."

"He gets paid a salary just like the rest of us," Arthur answered. "The long-winded speech is just his way of proving how important he is, and he doesn't get many chances to do that with such a large audience; so he probably works on the few speeches he does get to give for weeks – or maybe that's all he does the rest of the year."

Lily laughed. "I'm sure he fills up his day with paperwork and meetings too – even if there hasn't been a major rule change to Quidditch in decades. Are you ready for the fun to get started soon? I wonder if having grandchildren on four league Quidditch teams at the same time is a record."

"If it isn't, will you think about picking a fifth team to help him out with that in a couple of years?" Kirley teased.

"No, but Roxanne could still help Grandma and Grandpa out when she gets to the show – and having eleven grandchildren in the show would have to be a record – plus more if you add the in-law grandkids."

"Don't forget the parents," Jonah whispered with a grin. "I suppose that isn't a record or anything; but it will be a fun fact."

"We'll see," Lily said with a shrug. "For right now; I'll hope that it won't prove to be a reputation disaster for me once we're back at Hogwarts."

"I'll expect more trouble for us over Al and Gwendolyn," Jonah told her seriously. "They still have lots of haters at Hogwarts; we'll have to deal with them; and won't have your brother there to help us out with the bullies."

"We don't need his help anymore," Lily assured him; and Jonah shrugged.

"We can defend ourselves," he agreed; "but I think we'll all have more trouble than we've had in a while because Al won't be there stopping pretty much all of the bullying. Most of them might not even know that Al was stopping them, but all it will take will be a few successful pranks and attacks; and we'll be right back to having to watch our backs again."

"Then remind me to get Al to show us how to add people to our maps so that we'll be ready if needed," Lily suggested. "Most of the Witches and Wizards they put on them originally aren't there anymore."

"That's a good idea," Jonah agreed; and then nodded toward the stage. "I think he's ready to wrap this up. Do you think we'll see any surprises today?"

Lily laughed. "Yeah – a few," she agreed.

"First up – the Appleby Arrows," Gwendolyn said; though they could all see the Arrows' Manager walking out onto the stage that now had the Arrows' colors and logo for the backdrop; and heard his introduction from the league official acting as Master of Ceremony. "Will the players be the news story of the day for them; or will it be the broom count for number of Lightningstorms they've managed to get during the off-season?"

"The brooms might be a big deal for all of the teams," Rose suggested – "our team included; since we don't have any Lightningstorms."

"You hope that will get us underestimated," Harry reminded her. "The Arrows have a good team with some very talented players. I'm not sure why they seem to be stuck in the middle of the pack for the league. We've seen them play some really great matches; and then some fairly-bad ones too."

"According to our scouting reports from last season; they have a tendency to play up or down to their opponent's level," Al offered. "Their game strategy can be messed with just by changing up the speed and rhythm of the game they expect to play; and they have trouble adjusting from match-to-match – especially when they alternate between playing the top and bottom teams in the league."

They watched as the Arrows' Manager introduced Eddie Bones first; their Beaters, and then their Chasers without any new changes. There were some cheers of support among the Cannons players when Madison Whitby was introduced as the Arows' new Seeker; and she was flying a Lightningstorm.

"Madison's with the Arrows," Rose stated thoughtfully; "but Tory isn't on the team with her. Do you think she signed on with one of the other teams? I can't believe she didn't get some offeres – especially after that match against Ravenclaw in May. That might have been the best match she had at Hogwarts."

"I don't know," Brandon told her. "We'll likely find out sometime today – especially if we see her introduced with one of the other teams."

"Madison is a good addition for the Arrows," Ginny suggested. "Their fans will love getting Kevin's daughter on their team. She's the only player flying a Lightningstorm, but I wouldn't count on that meaning much; since they might not want to let the other teams know it if they have more of them – or will have them in time for the start of the season."

"Would they be able to hide them for long if they do?" Gwendolyn asked.

"Yes – once they're in training camp and the reporters wouldn't be allowed to report that kind of information," Ginny answered with a nod. "I'd be tempted to do that if I was managing a team like the Arrows."

"Maybe we should have brought a set of Cleansweeps with us," Gwenodlyn suggested next; earning a round of laughs.

"No, we shouldn't have," Rose disagreed. "We're trying to impress today – and sell a lot of tickets, souvenirs, and merchandise. We can't do that if nobody wants to at least come to our matches to find out what happens – even if they only do that in the hopes that we'll crash and burn."

"We'll likely have more spectators hoping for that at first," Ginny assured them; "so it'll be up to us to turn as many of them into new fans as possible. The Bats are up next. When they're done; we should get our robes on and ready to get out there once the Catapults are finished with their team introductions."

"Okay, boys, they're done with the second group of losers; and it's time for us to go back out there again this year and give the fans what they're really here for – a look at the league champions!"

"That's 'again' for the rest of you," Scorpius reminded James. "This is a first for me."

James laughed. "I forgot that your job was offered in an open tryout. That did work out rather well for you, though, and now you'll get your first introduction as a member of the league champions. That's quite an improvement over your previous record with Slytherin."

"That's true," Scorpius agreed. "We don't have another contest set up for training camp this year, but we're supposed to have the only full set of Lightningstorms; so that should give everyone something to talk about for the rest of the day – even if all of the other team introductions are as boring as the first two sets have been!"

"Do you actually believe that there won't be any excitement with any of the other teams today?" Louis asked him.

"Are you talking about the Cannons' Clown Brigade, the Harpies, or some other news we haven't heard about yet?" James asked scornfully.

"I do think that the Cannons could be the big story of the day," Louis answered seriously.

"They might be the joke of the day," James retorted dismissively. "That's Daniel and Ritchie out on stage now, though, so let's go have some fun; and then we can sit back and have a good laugh while whomever they hired that was stupid enough to take the job managing the Cannons introduces the loser, weasel, and whomever else they'll have with them on the clown brigade!"

James was introduced then; he flew out and around the stadium; had fun showing off with a few flying tricks; and then landed on stage to the cheers and applause from his adoring fans. Louis was up next; followed by Miya, Roman, and Scorpius; and then Tiberius and Brock were introduced last. Their moment in the spotlight was over soon after Brock landed next to his brother; and they had time to take their seats next to the Arrows and Bats before it was time to enjoy the farce that would be the loser's fate as a member of the worst team in the league! He then had to keep the smile pasted on his face when he heard the master of ceremony introduce Malorie O'Malley; and she walked out onto the stage looking suprisingly-good in a stylish, professional-looking skirt-suit; a hair style that looked great on her too; and a confident attitude as she stepped up to the lecturn in heels that made her look taller and showed off legs that he would have appreciated more if he didn't know and hate the Witch that they were atached at the hip to.

"Good morning," she said clearly; her Irish lilt having the same effect on James as it always had – a fact that he hated. "As many of you know, the Chudley Cannons' team was purchased by GO MagiSports after the end of last season. I am the Manager for GO MagiSports – a company that was set up to invest in magical sports-related businesses. We are very proud to be the new owners for the Chudley Cannons – a team with a long, storied history that we will do our very best to honor as we seek to build an exciting future for the team and our fans! To begin that journey, I am pleased to introduce the Chudley Cannons' new team Manager – and rookie Keeper; three-time Hogwarts Quidditch Cup champion, four-times top Keeper as a junior or senior team player, and also undefeated as Keeper for Gryffindor House – as well as a lifetime fan of the Cannons; Rose Weasley!"

"What the hell?" James exclaimed. "They hired the weasel as Manager?"

"Still think there won't be any other stories today?" Louis deadpanned as he applauded politely for their cousin.

"Why couldn't the Catapults have hired her as manager?" Brock asked plaintively. "No offense, Daniel; but she's way hotter than you!"

"I'm so sorry that I didn't want to fire myself to make room for a new manager," Daniel retorted in amusement. "That's also some kind of publicity stunt. She's just a kid; and won't have a clue about how to run a league team. What in Merlin's name is she flying?"

"They're called Hurricanes," Louis answered. "James' brother built them."

Daniel stared at him. "That's the broom we've heard you talk about around the locker room – and that our scout thought was so great?"

"Yes," Louis answered. "As far as I know, they've never been tested against a Lightningstorm, but I have seem them go faster than a Lightningbolt – at least on take-off or for short bursts."

"So they don't just look good," Ritchie offered; and Louis shook his head.

"They're crap," James offered – "and perfect for the Cannons Clown Brigade!"

Rose had finished her lap and landed on the stage by then; she hugged Malorie; and then took her place at the podium.

"Thank-you, Malorie," she said with a brilliant smile; her voice a bit breathless after the excitement of her lap around the stadium – "and thank-you to GO MagiSports for their confidence in me – and in the vision we have for the Chudley Cannons! The first step in that plan has been to put together an all-new Cannons team; so let's get right to those introductions!"

"Let me guess – the Animorphloser will be her first pick for the Clown Brigade," James declared derisively.

"Please join me in welcoming the Chudley Cannons' new Captain, four-time Hogwarts Quidditch Cup Champion, four-time Captain for Ravenclaw teams, and multiple individual award winner for top Chaser and top Scorer – Gwendolyn Potter!"

"Merlin!" Louis exclaimed in astonishment. "She's not going to play for the Harpies!"

"If Gwendolyn wasn't going to play for the Harpies, then why didn't the Catapults hire her?" Brock asked. "No offense, Scorpius and Roman."

They watched as Gwendolyn flew her lap; landed on stage; and had hugs for Rose and Malorie before Rose continued her team introductions.

"Joining our Captain at Chaser, we have three-time Hogwarts Quidditch Cup Champion, and our Captain's new husband – Albus Potter!"

"Loser!" James declared loudly while pretending to cough it out. "Maybe the Clown Brigade will have a dog and trainer show too!"

"Says the Wizard that won't have to play Keeper against them twice a season," Louis retorted.

Rose had another pause while Al did a shorter loop of the stadium; landed; and had three hugs to share – along with a kiss with Gwendolyn that earned some laughs and whistles.

"Rounding out our trio of rookie Chasers, Ray Wood has won two Quidditch Cups, one junior and two senior team titles with his Gryffindor teams; and joins Al as one of an exclusive group of Chasers to be undefeated during their Hogwarts Quidditch careers – in Ray's case; with a record of nine wins and no losses in three seasons."

"Yeah – not including the four seasons when he couldn't cheat to get on the team," James said scathingly. "What a joke!"

"I'd say that quite a few of those reporters agree with you," Scorpius offered with a nod toward the section of the pitch seating that was reserved for reporters and other media personalities – most of them mirror network sports broadcasters."

"They'll have a field day tearing apart the clown brigade," James predicted.

Ray joined his friends on the stage; there was another round of hugs; and then Rose moved on to introduce Brandon and Seth. While those announcements were news for most of the spectators, it wasn't for James; and he had fun ridiculing the Beater duo that couldn't even get a job in the show without getting Brandon's girlfriend to hire them – and Tiberius and Brock were happy to help him out with those rude jokes and insults. They weren't laughing when Rose made her final team introduction – they were as stunned as everyone else.

"Finally, I am especially-honored to introduce the Chudley Cannons' Seekers for the twenty-twenty-four twenty-five season!" she announced enthusiastically. Yes, we have two Seekers sharing that duty for GO MagiSports' first year as team owner! PLease join me in welcoming League and Quidditch World Cup champion, Ginny Potter; and her rookie Seeker partner – Harry Potter!"

Harry and Ginny did their lap of the stadium together; they held hands as they landed on the stage; and the roar of noise that accompanied their flight and landing was a mix of shocked, excited cheers and applause along with laughter and loud ridicule.

"If your Mum was available..." Brock began; but broke off when James glared at him and said – "Don't go there, mate."

"Congratulations, James," Miya interjected with an amused smile. "It seems that you're going to get that chance to prove to everyone that you're father is a senile old nutter – unless they put your Mum in for their matches against us. Will you get Tiberius and Brock to bash her head in too – or will you put her into her hospital bed yourself?"

"Keep it up and I'll start by putting you into your bed at St. Mungo's later this afternoon," James warned darkly. "Keep your dog leashed and muzzled, Roman, or stop bringing it to work."

"Stop insulting and threatening my fiancee, James. You obviously don't believe it; but I'd say that the Cannons definitely have the Quidditch news hit of the day – regardless of what the other teams do now."

"You can say what you want, but that doesn't make it so,' James retorted. "Try to leave the thinking to others. You're obviously not very good at it."

"That's gone and done it," Jonah whispered to Lily. "James isn't even pretending to be all smiles and happiness anymore. Did you ever get Aunt Muriel to teach you how to read lips? I'd love to know what he's saying over there."

"Nothing nice, I'm sure," Lily suggested. "The exact insults don't really matter. That was brilliant, though; and I have a feeling that the fun is just getting started for us today!"

"No doubt," Jonah agreed. "They look good in the new team robes. I wasn't sure about that when we first saw them, but I do like the neon orange better than the old color."

Lily turned to look at him curiously. "Why are you talking fashion?"

Jonah grinned at her. "To avoid picturing you and me up there instead of your parents in a couple of years?" he only half-joked. "They've been the happiest parents I know, Lily, and I think they've been even more amazing since quitting their jobs; but that's an entirely-new level of happy for them. I always thought that Al and Gwendolyn would be like your parents, but right now; it seems to be the other way around – with your parents wanting to be as happy as our brother and sister."

"Those new robes do look pretty good," Lily offered as an intentional avoidance of what Jonah didn't add out loud – that he wanted them to be that happy too; and believed that they could and should both want that for themselves.

Well, maybe that would be brilliant – as long as they did that and she played for the Harpies too!

Al and Gwendolyn sat as far away from James and the rest of the Catapults as possible, but the Cannons were in the section of team seating next-in-line; so Rose put Brandon and Seth on that side of their seating; and that gave them a bit of a buffer from James and the McClaggens. That didn't keep Al from overhearing every insult and joke that the three Wizards tossed around – with most of them meant to be overheard by the Cannons' players nearest them. Those nasty comments were amusing when contrasted against what Al sensed of their thoughts and emotions, though, and since he'd been paying close attention to all of the Catapults; he knew that their true reactions were often near-opposite of their rhetoric.

"We'll have a lot to talk about after work tonight, won't we?" Gwendolyn whispered with a knowing smile; and Al laughed quietly as they both watched the Falcons' Managers stride out onto the stage once their team banner had been put in place ahead of the Cannons' neon-orage and black one.

"You might like the jokes that Brock's been making about why the Catapults didn't hire you, Rose, and Mum for their team if you were all available," he suggested. "I suppose we should thank him if he buys some posters and action figures – even if he'll only do that to mess with James and Louis."

Gwendolyn grinned at him. "Every little bit will help us with our plans. Maybe James will buy cases of your action figures – just so that he can tear them apart. Doing that once a day might be good therapy for his anger issues."

"Speaking of anger issues – let's see what the Falcons have for us this year," Al suggested.

They quieted; were happy to hold hands and enjoy the experience together; and watch the rest of the team introductions. Davis Zabini joined his brother at Chaser for the Falcons, and was the only change to their team – other than that his new team also had Lightningstorms for Brand and their three Chasers; while Rupert and the Nott brothers stayed with the Lightningbolts. Al actually thought that the Falcons had chosen wisely – even if they could have gotten three more Lightningstorms. The changes between the brooms wouldn't help Keepers at all; and the Nott brothers weren't good-enough to use the brooms they did have to their full potential; so the faster brooms would just be a waste of money. On the not-so-much-fun side of things, when the Falcons came to sit down next to the Cannons; Gregor and Theo sat closest to Al and Gwendolyn; and then had fun quietly taunting them with both lewd and crude promises about what they were going to do to all of the Cannons in their matches against the Falcons.

That took away from the fun, but didn't keep Al and Gwendolyn from getting up and cheering for their favorite Harpies. Having Victoire back again was the top news for the Harpies; with just a minor blip on the side for the news about Hailey taking the year off while Amber stayed on the team with Victoire and Candice. While Al had loved watching that, he also enjoyed the reactions to the Harpies' introductions from his family – and especially from Teddy as he watched his wife with love and pride while holding their beautiful daughter in his arms and dreaming a bit about a day when Dora might play for the Harpies too.

The Kenmare Kestrels didn't have any major changes to their team, but there was some fun for the Cannons' players with the introductions for the Montrose Magpies. Ollie Wood was back on the team, but the surprise addition to the Magpies' team was Landon Graves. Al, Gwendolyn, Brandon, and Rose had all stood to cheer for Landon – loudly-enough that he'd noticed on his way in for the landing on stage; and Al had been happy for Landon because of what he sensed from Gwendolyn's former team mate. He'd never really been able to become friends with Lanndon too because of how Landon felt about Gwendolyn, but Brandon's brother was still a good person; and he hoped that Landon would be happy playing for the Magpies.

When the Magpies' players sat in the row in front of the Cannons, there was a bit more fun as Landon and Ollie were both offered some hugs, handshakes, and congratulations. That was also a bit weird for Al because Ollie accepted those best wishes – and even the one hug that he was offered too from Ginny as she'd hugged everyone she knew on the Magpies' team – including Geoffrey Hooper. That interaction between the teams had been so much different than what had happened with the Catapults or Falcons that it earned some attention from the reporters and other spectators; but they were all sitting again by the time the Prides' Managers were at the lecturn and ready to introduce their team. There were no changes for the Prides, and like the Falcons; they had four Lightningstorms for their Chasers and Seeker. Seeing that combination of brooms for a second time led Al to thinking about those brooms in relation to possible team strategies for them this season. The Harpies had only put one Lightningstorm in Gabrielle's hands, but while Al knew why they were doing that – because of the deal he had with the team for his own brooms; he still wondered if that would be as good a choice as getting the faster brooms for the Chasers too.

He didn't come up with any answers for that while watching the Puddlemere United players being introduced – again without any changes; and they'd gone with the four-Lightningstorm strategy too. The Tutshill Tornados had some news with their team introductions, but not in a good way from Al's perspective. They hired Caleb and Dave Harper as their new Beaters; and that change now gave the league three teams with Beaters on them that were more-interested in knocking their opponents out of the match than in any other part of the game – including winning. That seemed strange to Al, since he knew that the Tornados owners, managers, and players like Rachel Rosier really did want to win, but if they were going to try and emulate the Catapults to get there; they were on the wrong track. Their broom strategy was different too, but Al didn't disagree with the choice to put Lightningstorms in the hands of their Chasers and not their Seeker because that was another example of a player that wouldn't be able to handle the faster broom anyway.

The Wanderers and Wasps were the final two teams to be introduced, but that didn't take long; and then the Wasps' players only sat down long-enough for a quick group photo-op with all of the players together before the reporters were set loose on them – and about three-quarters of them converged on the Cannons.

Let's go shopping!" Lily offered enthusiastically; and mostly directing that invitation to Jaimie and Lorie. "They'll be at that until lunchtime now; and we definitely want to get some posters and toys of our favorite players."

"Yes!" Jaimie agreed. "Grandma and Grandpa toys!"

"And Uncle Al and Aunt Gwendolyn," Lily added with a smile, hug, and nod. "Let's see if Teddy and Dora want to go along. We should definitely get one of her Mommy's action figures for Dora!"

"She's a bit young to play with them," Molly advised her; "but we could see if one of the dolls would be safe for her. She is at the chewing on everything stage right now."

"That works too. Should we check and see whether Susannah needs any extra help with her sports camp kids?"

"She has all of her summer students and a few adult volunteers," Jonah reminded her. "Let's stay out of the way; since she'll want them to get used to taking care of their campers for the rest of the summer. We'll still be helping out when they're playing with the team every Friday."

Lily had agreed with him for that too, though they crossed paths with Susannah and her group; spent some time with them; and had a blast picking up quite a few toys and souvenirs – including three full sets of Cannons' players; one or two sets of the Harpies, United, and Catapults teams; and some extra favorite players from some of the other teams – including their favorite Prides players. That kept them busy until shortly before lunch; Lily and Jonah made sure that the twins went for washroom breaks; and then they handed them off to Malorie, Harry, and Ginny for the luncheon while they were with the Harpies for that meal and team meet-and-greet opportunity.

"Remind me to thank Malorie later," Al told Gwendolyn in a whisper as they sat down for lunch with a group of six very-excited kids ranging in age from about four to ten.

"I will," Gwendolyn promised, "but don't be surprised if Rose gets you to play with the kids a lot; since you are rather good at it."

That was all the time they had for that private little exchange, but Al was happy to entertain the kids; enjoy the meal; and gain a few new fans for their team along the way That was certainly a lot better than some of the time with the reporters had been – though that had been entertaining in a twisted sort of way as they were swarmed with questions that weren't even about Quidditch at all more-often-than-not; and the questions that were sports-related were also usually meant to be insulting or attempting to lead them into answers that would make them look bad. They didn't succeed in doing that, but had no illusions about whether that would keep the reporters that wanted to hate on him from writing or saying whatever they wanted about him – or the rest of his team.

Despite the efforts of some to tear them donw or ridicule them, Al was happy with what he sensed around them; and there were a lot of the spectators at the stadium truly interested in seeing whether the new owners and players could turn the Cannons around from being perennial dungeon-dwellers in the league standings. He knew that his parents, Rose, and Brandon made a good impression on their lunchion special guests, Seth and Susannah had fun with her sports campers; and Ray had Cyndia with him for help with the group of VIP teens and parents that had been put together with them for the meal. That hour of food and fun blasted past; the Cannons' players took extra time after the meal to spend time with their new – and old – fans; and then they headed for the practice pitch – and brought about two-thirds of the reporters along with them for the next part of their opening day of training camp adventures.

Rita Skeeter looked around as she walked up to the Cannons' practice pitch; her face a mask that was meant to portray impartial professionalism; but only seemed that way in her own mind. She did need to hide her shock at what she – and the rest of the reporters and mirror-cam operators – was seeing. She hadn't bothered to visit the Cannons' practice pitch in a long time, since the only news story with them in decades was Santini's unrequited love for the Harpies' Seeker. The hate she was feeling needed to be kept harnessed too – in part because she was angry than none of her sources had brought any part of this story to her so that she' could have scooped it days or weeks ago! Okay, she had gotten some rumors passed along to her, but they'd been the same stupid rumors and jokes about the loser and his weasel cousin hoping to play for the Cannons after finishing at Hogwarts.

She'd gotten nothing about the potty-trainer signing up with the Cannons too – and no hint at all about Harry and Ginny Potter teaming up to play Seeker! The rest of the team was no big surprise – or a big deal either; since they hadn't even been noteworthy players at Hogwarts from what she could remember of them, but what she was seeing now was truly astonishing. The practice pitch looked newly-built; and the sight of the massive new buildings that included what appeared to be a massive atrium, an apartment building, and a row of townhouses on the far-side of the atrium. When they reached the path leading into the practice pitch entrance or toward the atrium; she turned toward the atrium and away from the rest of the group.

"Ms. Skeeter, if you would please stay with the group; we will begin the tour with the team facilities and practice pitch." She turned around and looked down her nose at the pretty young Witch that had spoken to her.

"Is there something you don't want us to see over there – Miss...:" she asked with a tone of only-mild suspicion.

"Renee Bradley – and you're all welcome to call me Renee. We will be offering a tour of the rest of our new facilities here, but we only have a short time for this part of the tour before the team will be starting the short workout demonstration they've scheduled for this afternoon."

"Bradley," Rita said almost as if musing aloud. "This new Cannons team seems to be a bit inbred from what I've seen so far."

Renee laughed. "We have some strong family and friends connections, Ms. Skeeter; but not in the way you've just intimated. Should it be a surprise to any of you that our new Manager has assembled her team from among her family and friends – or that those connections are with well-known Quidditch families – my own included?"

"It's a surprise to some of us that Miss Weasley was hired as Manager at all – and more than a little suspicious," Rita asserted. By then, Renee had them moving into the large, vaulted-ceilinged lobby that led through to the practice pitch – and the entrances for at least four offices to the left that had large glass doors and windows for an easy, open look into all but one of those spaces.

"GO MagiSports is trying a new approach to team ownership; and believe that will start with a Manager that loves the team and has her own dreams for our future."

Rita snorted. "I've heard about Miss Weasley's dreams of winning a league championship with the Cannons. Childhood fantasies are not qualifications for managing a league Quidditch team."

"That's true," Renee agreed. "Rose would also be the first to tell you that she doesn't have the experience that all of the other managers in the league do have – though she has a pretty good record as an amateur player at Hogwarts; and has been taught by some very talented league veterans."

"Would that be singular – and the veteran that she's hired to be one of your Seekers?" Rita asked next. "That seems to be a publicity stunt. Ginny Potter hasn't played in the show for fifteen years or more; and she was just a maternity-leave replacement player back then."

"I'm sure that she has learned a lot from her Aunt," Renee agreed; "and we should all wait and find out whether Ginny still has the skills to do well against the other Seekers. We obviously believe that she does. As to Rose's other Quidditch influences, you're welcome to ask her about that; but I do know that she's played Quidditch with the rest of her Aunts – including Gabrielle Fawcett and Angelina Weasley; with my father, Brandon Graves' mother, and most of the current and former Harpies that are still good friends with her aunts."

"Interesting; but not impressive," Rita told her dismissively.

"I'd respectfully disagree, Ms. Skeeter, but let's continue your questions a bit later; and I'll show you through the offices for the Cannons, GO MagiSports, our Charity, and then the team training rooms."

"Very well," Rita agreed – "I'm sure we'll all be very impressed indeed.

She then soon hated the fact that she was impressed – and could find no fault anywhere in the well-appointed offices; the brilliantly-designed training facilities that she knew were unmatched anywhere else in the league; and then she was flabergasted to see the practice pitch – complete with a retractable roof! The balconies and small atrium sunrooms for each flat looked amazing; and then the small reception for the reporters in the Cannonball Cafe had been over-the-top compared to what she knew was being offered by the other teams. When Renee gave the reporters the option between watching the demonstration team workout on the cafe patio or the goals-level observation platform; she picked the better vantage point; took her extra-large gourmet iced coffee and two bakery sweets to go; and then was again annoyed and impressed with the tables and comfortable chairs that would make working there as a reporter a hateful pleasure. There was a problem for her choice of viewing location – the start of the workout was done on the ground; so the reporters that had stayed at the cafe had a much better view for that part of the demonstration. Rita could see well-enough to finally have something good to work with – and that was finding out that the new Cannons team was, apparently, going to train against a bunch of kids instead of professional players!

"Okay, Al – get us started, but take it easy. We want to impress; but some of us have been slacking off on our training over the past few weeks," Rose told Al.

"He can always heal us if needed," Lily pointed out; and then grinned. "Never mind. I don't know why I'd be suggesting that we work harder without being ordered to do it by the boss."

"Pair up and start with the stretching warm-ups," Al told them; and then he proceeded to just get to doing that with Gwendolyn as his partner. The 'light' version of that took five minutes; Al led them through a short-form Tai Chi workout; and then they wrapped up that part of their demonstration with some simple gymnastics and ten minutes of cardio training. After that, it was time to take to the air; and Harry and Ginny took over and led the way with some flying fun that was all play even as it was also a good workout.

"Hello again, Ms. Skeeter," Renee said as she stepped up next to the table that Rita had chosen to sit at. "I promised to get back to answering your questions, and we have a few minutes now if you'd like to do that while we watch the aerial parts of the workout."

"I suppose that will be acceptable," Rita decided after a short pause. "What is your job with the Cannons again, Miss, um, Bradley?"

"I'm the Public Relations Co-ordinator," Renee answered; "and I technically work for GO MagiSports."

"Is there a difference?" Rita asked next.

"Only in that my job includes handling this type of communications for all of the GO MagiSports companies – including the Cannons," Renee explained.

"And your qualifications for such an important position are?"

Renee laughed. "I love to talk with people and am as much of an expert with my portable mirror as any teen."

"That's a rather uninspiring answer," Rita told her. "You have no business qualifications? No Quidditch experience? Nothing at all?"

"I've never been interested in playing Quidditch, Ms. Skeeter, but you don't grow up in a family with a professional Quidditch player and not learn a lot about the game and business. I'm sure that I'll have a lot to learn too, but I love my job so far; and I'll leave it up to others to decide whether I'll be good at it or not. You were asking about Rose's qualifications for being hired as team manager before we began the tour of the offices. Did you have any follow-up questions about that – or the rest of the players?"

"Let's start with having you explain why your new Manager has apparently hired a bunch of kids for your reserve squad – and has issues with counting; since you have sixteen players out there."

"All of those teens are among the best players at Hogwarts," Renee answered. "They're also familiar with the training program that we'll be putting in place for the team and won't need to be taught any of those routines. They've also used the Hurrcane brooms for between one and one-and-a-half years; so there likely aren't many reserve squad players on any of the other teams that could keep up with them now."

"That's a rather bold – and unbelievable claim," Rita scoffed; and Renee shrugged.

"I'm not professing to be a Quidditch expert, and as with everything else that GO MagiSports is doing with their magical sports related investments; we'll all find out whether their innovative approach to both the game and business will be successful or not."

"Insane might be more-appropriate than innovative," Rita suggested with a wave of her hand. "How did you get all of this done in only what – five weeks; since your company bought the team?"

"The on-site construction took two weeks," Renee advised her.

"That's impossible," Rita insisted.

"No – that's a fact," Renee disagreed. "It might help for you to know that all of the new construction was pre-fabricated off-site though; and that work took most of a year."

"A year!" Rita exclaimed. "You built all of this before even knowing that you'd have a deal to buy the team?"

"Well, not me personally, but yes; that is what the GO MagiSports investors did. That should give you an idea of the sort of commitment they're making to the team, league, and magical sports in general."

"Except, apparently, when it comes to their players," Rita stated. "Hiring six unproven rookies, a has-been, disgraced, and unemployed old veteran, and her equally-pathetic never-been husband will surely prove to be a rather costly mistake."

"I'll again, respectfully, disagree with you again, Ms. Skeeter, but you are entitled to your opinion; and GO MagiSports believes that we have recruited some of the very best players available."

Rita laughed. "That well may be true; since none of the truly gifted players would be available for the worst team in the league."

Renee laughed too. "That's an interesting interpretation of my comment. You half-asked about having sixteen players, and you're right about not needing the extra Seekers. Lily and Jonah are training with the team because we want them to continue the training they've done with Harry and Ginny – and because Jonah is a future prospect for the team."

"He is – but the Potty-sister isn't?" Rita asked.

"Lily would definitely be a prospect – if it wasn't for the fact that she wants to play for the Harpies after she's done school. She's fourteen-and-one in her first five years at Hogwarts. The Harpies will be fortunate to get her."

"Well, you've convinced me of one thing with that claim – that you really don't know much about Quidditch. That shouldn't surprise me; since everything I've seen so far is all show and no substance – you included."

"It seems that you've already made up your mind about our team," Renee suggested. "You are still welcome to visit and observe our team workouts and practices – as are all reporters with league credentials. We'll also be continuing the tour of the rest of the new team facilities after this practice if you'd like to join in for that; and the training schedules and press package will be available after the tour."

"I'm sure that will be an entertaining piece of propaganda," Rita suggested. "Have I run out of time for my questions already?"

"Do you have any other questions?" Renee asked.

"None that I expect an honest answer for from you," Rita answered dismissively.

"I've answered all of your questions honestly – and will continue to do so," Renee assured her. "If you believe that anything I've told you is incorrect; then I will be happy to review any facts you might have to support such claims; and correct the record if necessary."

"That would be a waste of my time," Rita told her bluntly. "I prefer to offer my facts to my readers and allow them to decide the truth for themselves."

"As you wish," Renee told her with a nod and smile. "Enjoy the rest of the demonstration, Ms. Skeeter."

Lily and Jonah picked up drinks at the cafe and then went to sit out on the patio so that they could watch the short scrimmage that the team was having without them since they were really just playing while having their little opening day demonstration. They'd had fun with the rest of the mini-workout, but while Lily wished she was up there and still playing too; JOnah really enjoyed getting to watch her parents have a 'real' Seeker duel instead.

"Excuse me," a handsome, young Wizard said as he stepped up to their table not long after they sat down. "Would you mind if I ask you a few questions while we're watching that scrimmage?"

"I recognize you," Lily told him with a smile. "You're the reporter that I have to thank for my father deciding to take your advice and get a job in the show!"

"Kellum McAdams," he said with a nod and smile that likely had devastating effect on most Witches – even too-young-for-him teens. "May I join you?"

"Of course," Lily agreed. "What do you think of what you've seen so far, Mr. McAdams?"

"What we've seen of the new facilities here has been quite impressive, Miss Potter; and I have not yet decided what to make of the team that the new Cannons owner has assembled. Your team mates seem to be having a lot of fun out there this afternoon; but it's a bit difficult to assess anything when they're playing with children – no offense meant to you and your friend here."

"Jonah McCormack," Lily introduced with a smile and nod for him. "Please call us Lily and Jonah; and no offense taken. Teens are used to being underestimated by over-age Wizards and Wizards."

"That's likely true," Kellum agreed with feigned understanding. "I'm only suggesting that it's difficult to even compare this team to the others in the league when you're just playing around instead of training seriously – and doing that against a practice squad of Hogwarts students."

"I'm a few months older than James was when he won his first match with the Catapults," Lily advised him – "and I believe that I'm a better Seeker than my big brother."

"That's quite a claim," Kellum told her. "You've a fair bit of confidence to believe that you're better than the Seeker for the current league champions." Lily laughed and nodded.

"Have you met many Seekers that don't have more than the normal share of confidence?" she countered.

"Including your parents?" Kellum asked next. "Are you better than they are too?"

"I'm going to be training with them this summer, so there is no way that I'll answer that question only to have you keep track of our Seeker duels to find the answer," she advised him. "I can assure you that I've learned a lot of what I know about Quidditch and being a Seeker from both of my parents. They each play a bit differently than I do too, but then that's true for every Seeker; and I'd definitely rank them among the top five Seekers I've ever played against – along with Aunt Gabrielle and Jonah."

"That's a bold statement too," Kellum told her – "and a bit unbelievable."

"I know," Lily agreed. "I ought to be mad at you for making that suggestion to my father, since i'm going to have to deal with a lot of weird because of his new job – especially once we get back to Hogwarts in September, but this is going to be a really good place to live and work while we're home from shcool at holidays."

"You're going to live here?" Kellum asked.

"Yes," Lily confirmed. "We moved in on the weekend into one of the townhouses. All of the players and quite a few of the GO MagiSports managers and other employees will be living here in the townhouses or flats. "The visitors here will be able to tour that part of the facility after this demonstration; though I don't think that'll include a tour of the actual homes – unless they let you take a look at one of the unoccupied flats."

"So you've been moved from your home because of your parents' new jobs?" Kellum asked.

"Yes, but that wasn't mandatory for any of the players. This really is going to be an amazing place to live, and it isn't really a big deal for me anyway. I'm only home for about three months of the year; and I'll be out on my own in two years anyway; since I'd never planned on staying at home for long after I graduate."

"As your brothers have done before you," Kellum observed. "That seems to be a statement about your home life – none of you can wait to get out."

Lily shook her head and smiled. "Al and I have, for the most part, had a wonderful, happy childhood, Mr. Kellum. James would certainly agree with you, but his opinion of that is well-known, old news. I'm sure that you'd rather talk about Quidditch – just as we would, though; so do you have any questions about this demonstration?"

"I expect that I'll need to return and observe full team practices to learn anything useful – though I've my doubts about that." He smiled at Lily; but that didn't have the effect on her that he was sure that it did. "I understand that you believe that you and your friends are adequate competition for this new team, but your opinion – or mine – won't be what matters; since it will be what happens in the league matches that will guage whether this unusual, possibly-mad choice for players by the new team owners has any merit whatsoever."

"That's true," Lily agreed. "The Cannons have been the worst team in the league for a long time, though; so what would you consider a failure for GO MagiSports' plans? REmaining in last place this season? Anything else would be an improvement."

"The new owners have surely not built all of this in the hopes of moving up to second-to-last in the league," Kellum suggested – "which just continues to baffle me. Maybe they just know too little about Quidditch to know what they're doing when it comes to building a team that can compete in the league. That could lead to them losing a lot of money on this investment!"

"Now you're definitely talking to the wrong players if you're looking to talk business," Lily told him. "I just want to play Quidditch – and get paid to do it once we graduate."

"We are getting paid to play this summer," Jonah reminded her.

"Yes, we are," Lily agreed with a nod, "but all I need to know about the business side of that contract is that the galleons go into my vault at Gringotts. As long as that happens, I don't care whether the team owners make money or not – and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Harpies fan."

"So why not get a summer job with the Harpies instead?" Kellum asked; and Lily shrugged.

"I would – except the Harpies don't hire underage Witches – at least to play Quidditch. I suppose they might hire teens for other jobs; but I wouldn't be interested in those jobs."

"Is that a sentiment that the rest of the players have – a complete disinterest in whether the team succeeds or not?" Kellum asked.

"I didn't say that – only that I don't care about the business side of Quidditch," Lily answered and disagreed. "Everyone on the team wants to win as much as any good Quidditch player does – me included. That ought to be obvious. Every player on the team has a winning record at Quidditch – including my father."

"From more than twenty-five years ago – and I wouldn't call his record a winning one."

"Dad was part of three Quidditch Cup winning teams," Lily advised the reporter. "He was the youngest Seeker for a Hogwarts team – before there were junior teams – in a century or more; and the only losses he had for matches he was actually in came because of being knocked out of those matches by a Dementor attack in one and getting hit in the back of the head by a bludger from one of his own players. Out of his six years at Hogwarts, his team didn't win the Quidditch Cup in his first year because he was injured and unable to play in the last match that year; the last match of the season was cancelled in his second year because of the Basilisk attacks; he helped his team to win in his third, fifth, and sixth years – when he was actually allowed to play; and there was no Quidditch in his fourth year because of the Tri-Wizard tournament. He was co-champion and winner of that prize too; so I'd say he did pretty well – even with all of the awful he had to deal with while at Hogwarts."

"Thank-you for the history lesson," Kellum told her with feigned sincerity. "That was still a long time ago; and your father has never played in the show."

"No, but he's trained with Mum regularly since then – and worked with Al, our cousins, friends, and me a lot while we've been home for holidays – especially while they've been unemployed for the past few years. We're all also flying the brooms that Al's designed; so you might want to take that into consideration in your assessment."

"The so-called Hurricane brooms," Kellum said with a nod +toward the sky and no player in particular up there. "Without any players on Lightningstorms to compare them to; I don't expect to know whether they're any good at all."

"Then you're not trying very hard to work that out," Lily told him seriously. "I've only just finished OWL-year Arithmancy, and don't claim to be as good at it as Al is; but I can work out how fast those brooms are; and they can do more than any other broom."

"You believe them to be better than the Lightningstorms?" Kellum asked; and Lily shrugged.

"I don't know," she answered. "Mum, Dad, and Gwendolyn are sure that the Hurricane is better than the Lightningbolt, and they've used both; but we haven't put them up against a Lightningstorm yet. That will make our matches in the show a lot of fun; so I'll want to watch those matches for a lot of reasons on top of finding out how well my parents, brother, sister-in-law, cousin, and friends do against the other teams."

"What other reasons?" Kellum asked; and Lily shrugged.

"Well, for a few examples, I'm looking forward to seeing how my Uncle Ron will react if his team finally starts winning some matches. There are going to be some fun match-ups with specific teams – like the games between the Cannons and my brother's and cousins' teams. Mum has some old rivalries that will be exciting to have renewed; and a match between Aunt Gabrielle and Mum will be great too."

"Will you still think so for any of that if the Cannons get embarrassed in those matches?" Kellum asked.

"That isn't going to happen," Lily told him seriously. "I wouldn't even try to guess at how many matches the Cannons will win and lose this season, but they're not going to have any embarrassing losses."

"Your confidence is expected," Kellum decided. "Maybe we can talk about that again later this summer – or once the Cannons have played their first few matches."

"We can do that," Lily agreed with a nod. "Dad just caught the snitch; so that's it for this demonstration. They'll be having another short round of interviews; so you might want to get out there if you want a first chance at asking some questions before the last part of the tour."

Malorie was at the main entrance to the practice pitch as the demonstration workout ended and the last round of interviews were going on on the sidelines of the practice pitch. While Renee was busy with the reporters and other visitors watching the workout; she'd dealt with some other issues; and was now helping out with the reception area as new, interested visitors arrived for the open house – most of them coming after work. She had help with that both from her own office staff and employees from the other GO MagiSports companies that were multi-tasking work with getting to show off their new home to more of their friends and family than had been permitted on Sunday. She smiled when she saw one of the former team owners come into view on the lane; and got ready to welcome him.

"You're in charge," she told Kendall. "We have our first former owner here to see what we've done with the place. I'll take him on the VIP tour."

"Good luck with that," Kendall had time to offer before Malorie stepped away – and toward the older Wizard. She still needed to wait a few moments for him to walk the rest of the way to the patio; and then she held out her hand to him and smiled warmly.

"Mr. Chapman, it's good to see you again – and we're glad that you decided to come to the open house today. How have you – and your family – been since I saw you last at the end of May?"

"Thank-you; and we've been well – if not as busy as you've apparently been, Ms. O'Malley!" he answered while shaking her hand and smiling too. "We knew that you'd promised significant investment and improvements here; but I and more than a little shocked at just how much you've accomplished. How have you managed this in such a short time?"

Malorie smiled and invited him to join her so that they could talk and get started on the tour too. "Much of the new construction was pre-fabricated off-site over the past year," she advised him; and enjoyed watching his surprised reaction to that news. "We were not being over-confident about our negotiations with you and the other owners. There was a back-up investment plan that would have been worked on had we not been able to come to an agreement with you for buying the Cannons."

"Is that true?" he asked; though he didn't seem to disbelieve her. "What was your back-up plan?"

"It is, but I can't tell you what; since it is still a future investment that GO MagiSports is considering – though it may be a few years before we'll be ready to take on any larger new projects like this one."

"Or not at all; depending on how this one works out for you," the old Wizard suggested. "We were quite surprised by your choices for the new team manager and players too."

"I can introduce you to Rose and her new team too once they're finished with the interviews they're doing now." She offered him a drink on their way past that table; he accepted a flute of wine; and then they headed into the main lobby.

"There's more to that story than you've told us as well," Mr. Chapman suggested as he looked around the beautiful room. "I've been around a bit longer than most of the other owners; and it isn't simple coincidence that your daughters' grandparents, uncle, and aunt are all on the new team along with their cousin as a manager-player. What I don't know is which came first."

"Well, I did get help from my daughters' family with Finding this job, but I can't talk about GO MagiSports business with you, Mr. Chapman. You do know that Rose's father has been a life-long Cannons fan and season's ticket holder since the year after the war; so I think that having a true fan of the team at Manager was a good pick; and I'm not surprised that Rose chose her team from among the best players she knew and wanted to play with in the show."

"All true – and exactly what you want most of us to believe and interpret the wrong way," he suggested with a knowing smile. "You'll be happy to know that the other owners are doing just that; and I'm sure that most of the reporters will go out of their way to help you out with that too."

"But you will not," Malorie surmised.

"I will not dismiss you – or GO MagiSports – as they have," he agreed. "I am also a life-long Cannons fan, Ms. O'Malley, so while I may have ample reason to hope that you have no success at all; I would not enjoy another decade of failure for my team; and hope for better."

"That's good to know; and we hope that there will be quite a few more new fans for the team this season."

"You'll need them for this investment to make any sense at all – though we did expect that you'd get an early boost regardless of what you did just from Witches and Wizards wanting to find out what the new team would be like." He smiled at Malorie. "There's no doubt that you'll have that and more just to watch your new Seekers. The bad news is that most of those spectators will be hoping to be there to watch them crash and burn."

"Since my daughters will be their grandparents' biggest fans; I'll hope that doesn't happen. Would you like to start with the offices and then work our way around to the practice pitch, atrium, and the rest of the place?"

"Lead the way," Mr. Chapman told her with a wave of the hand that wasn't holding the glass of wine. "I'm sure that this will be a very interesting visit."

Rose was ready for the break by the time that their questions and answers time with the reporters was finished; they'd met with the old team owner that Malorie had introduced them to; and she could head for the locker room with the rest of the team. Renee took a moment to go along with them while the reporters were invited to get drink refills before the rest of the facility tour that Malorie was going to do along with them; and she looked brilliantly happy.

"I've only got a moment or two; but needed to let you know that you've got a rather important interview to do tonight, Rose – as a guest on Lee's nightly show. He wants Harry and Ginny too; but not tonight."

"That's likely because we're friends and he doesn't want to look like he's playing favorites," Ginny offered.

"Or he just wants more time to work on his material for us," Harry joked. "I'll be watching that show for sure tonight just for the opening monologue."

"Won't that be on after your training day curfew?" Lily teased; and Harry laughed.

"Yes, so don't tell our manager or I might get into trouble."

"Won't she be out past curfew to do that interview?" Lily pointed out.

"She will be," Renee agreed; "but that's part of the job for all of you now. I'll make sure that these interviews and other activities won't get in the way of your work anymore than necessary. I'm also working on a morning show interview that I'll let you know about later, but I need to get back to the reporters and the rest of the tour; and I'm hoping that we can do that interview here at the practice pitch."

"Sounds good," Rose told her. "We'll catch up later."

"Okay," Renee agreed. "Once you've cleaned up and changed; you're supposed to meet with the sports camp kids for a while."

"Got it," Rose confirmed.

The next couple of hours was a whirlwind of activity around the Cannons' practice pitch and community. While the players were busy with the sports camp kids, tours were going on at various stages; reporters happily dug into the stories they were choosing to work on by trying to get all of the information they could while having the extra access that wouldn't be permitted again by the end of the open house. Malorie eventually ended up doing a second tour with some of the other former team owners; other new residents of the community brought guests – even though they'd obviously be able to do that anytime now that the big secret was out; and there seemed to be small crowds everywhere you went either inside or out. There was more than enough strange moments too; and the top weird highlight for the new Cannons players was the visits from Santini and the other, former players. They'd all been shocked by the changes to their practice pitch; and Al found it amusing to sense that more than half of them believed that they were better players than the 'kids' that had taken their jobs from them.

The open house for the reporters and other VIPs ended at six o'clock, but while everyone remaining there moved on to have dinner; nearly every occupied townhouse and flat had guests there for that meal – and there were still a lot of Witches and Wizards touring the place either before having that meal or afterward. The lagoon was popular – especially with the kid and teen guests; but all of the team players were too-busy to play too. They split up for family and friends' dinners; had a team meeting after that to go over new plans for the rest of the week that included interviews for all of the players with various reporters or on mirror network or Wizarding Wireless shows. Everyone except Rose and Renee were done for the night after that, but by then; they really didn't have much time left before training night curfew anyway; and wound down the rest of their evening hanging out in smaller groups or with other friends until it was time to head for their own homes for the rest of the night.

James sat on the sofa in his flat; and he was both annoyed and glad that he was alone while having a drink and getting ready to watch Lee's nightly show. He could have had a play mate or two for the night if he'd wanted that, but he was in a foul mood; and didn't want to mess with his own reputation by having that affect his ability to satisfy the Witches.

There was a lot to be annoyed about – starting with the fact that the Cannons had stolen the spotlight from him and his league champions team with their new manager and players introductions. That had led to a lousy press conference that had not only meant a lack of interest from the reporters toward the other twelve teams; but the attention James did get was only to get his comments about his parents, brother, sister-in-law, and cousin being on the new Cannons team! He'd been happy to tell them all what he thought about them going to play for the worst team in the league, and those reporters – including Rita Skeeter – had been happy to take those quotes and run with them; but it hadn't made him feel better when the attention should have been on him and his team – not the loser!

Instead of basking in the glow of being league champions, though, he was relegated to the sidelines while the loser and the others got most of the attention! That trend continued when only a few reporters went on to the Catapults' practice pitch after the luncheon. He hadn't been interested in showing off for such a tiny audience, but he vented his frustrations a bit by catching the snitch three times during the short workout and scrimmage; and then he was mad again as the reporters still only wanted to have him talk about the Cannons. They began to hear and see the news coming from the Cannons' practice pitch by the time they were in the locker room, but while he made fun of everything they saw; Scorpius was the only member of his team that didn't act impressed with what the mirror-cams showed of the practice pitch and the rest of the new facility there that apparently included townhouses, an apartment building, and a large atrium in addition to the practice pitch and training facilities upgrades.

They had a team dinner event to attend after their work day ended that was hosted by the team owners, and James played nice while there – including having some fairly-hot fun with one of the VIP Witches at the party, but even that event was tainted as everyone there seemed to want to talk about the Cannons too. Sure, that audience was more-receptive to the jokes and insults, and he had some fun with that; but he really disliked the news and rumors that he heard about the Cannons and his ex-family. That had sucked, but then getting home again after the party and seeing for himself the clips from the interviews and tour of the Cannons' practice pitch and so-called community had just added to the anger. He hated learning that his parents had moved into one of those townhouses over the weekend. So much for the hypocrites and their claims that they lived in the Potter family shack in the boonies out of love and happiness! No videos were taken from inside the townhouses, but the outside pictures strongly-hinted at how nice their new home was – and the loser and his potty-trainer had moved into one of those townhouses too!

A tour of one of the few still-unoccupied flats had shown them to be at least as nice as his own, but the atrium had been the real attention-getter with the huge indoor lagoon-pool, playground, and all of the other features. He hated all of that, but his dark musings were interrupted when Lee's show began and he focused his attention on Lee's opening monologue.

"Good evening!" Lee said enthusiastically. He was wearing a neon-orage Cannons jacket with a small black logo – and a large version of it on the back that he showed off before continuing his monologue. "You do not need to take your mirrors in for repair, folks, and the color is working just fine. I can assure you that it also isn't April Fool's Day; and this is no prank – the Chudley Cannons are the Quidditch news story from opening day of the league training camps! That's right, Wizards and Witches – you heard me right; and the Chudley Cannons are the team that everyone is talking about – though unless you've been spending the day under a rock troll; you know that already!" He paused for a moment as there were laughs from the small studio audience.

"With the world's first Animorphmagus player, I'm sure that we can all expect that the Cannons have gone to the dogs, but when you're already the worst team in the league; that might be an improvement,' Lee suggested. "That might have even been the top story for the Cannons – if not for the fact that the Cannons actually hired an Animagus too; so I didn't miss-speak by saying dogs when there are two of them – and we're all amazed to find out today that Harry Potter actually did take Kellum McAdams' advice and got a job in the show! Sure, it's only a part-time gig while he shares the Seeker duties with his wife; but it is heartening to find out that there actually is a job out there for our former Head of the Aurors – though it took him three years to find one." He grinned then before adding – "let's hope that it doesn't take him three years to find his first snitch!"

James had joined in for those laughs – and enjoyed the rest of the monologue as Lee had fun at the expense of some of the people he hated-most, but the fun wore off quickly as he remembered that he should have been getting this attention – even when that meant Lee's jokes and insults. The studio audience votes for hottest Cannons' players hadn't amused him. Lee declared Harry the winner of the Animagus father-son vote – based on the mock posters that had been made up with their respective dog forms wearing Chudley Cannons' sweaters; and it had just been weird to watch Lee declare a tie for the audience reaction to the real team posters for the mother and daughter-in-law half of that hottest player competition.

Normally, he'd have turned off Lee's show after that, but kept watching after finding out that the Weasel was one of his guests – and she was first-up after the commercial break. He probably should have turned his mirror off, but while he hated watching his weasel-cousin have a brilliantly-entertaining interview with Lee that included having fun with the jokes; he also learned a lot too. Topping that list for new information was finding out that the townhouses and flats were part of the pay packages that GO MagiSports offered their employees. He was sure that the work and play together plan for the new Cannons' team was Al's idea, but while he could only guess at what they must've done to get anyone to invest in Rose's ridiculous dream; he was sure by the end of that interview that he'd enjoy helping to crush that dream – and proving once and for all that he was the greatest Quidditch player in history while the loser became the biggest joke on the Cannons Clown Brigade!

Al woke as early as normal; did his morning workout by the lagoon while Gwendolyn slept a bit longer; they got cleaned up and ready for the day together; and then headed for the Cannonball Cafe for breakfast. They were early, but half of their team was there already – as were more than half of the other residents of their community because many of them were starting work for the day sooner than the Cannons' players would be doing with their team training. Rose and Brandon were there; so they went and sat down with them.

"We'd congratulate you on a great interview with Lee last night, but that was past-curfew; so we can't," Gwendolyn offered as an opening line. "Did you manage to get enough sleep? I hear that the new team Captain is really tough; so we're likely in for it today now that the opening day games are behind us."

"I'm more-ready for the training than anything else – like these interviews." She nodded toward the observation platform across the pitch and above them; where a mirror network crew was set up and already doing an interview with Harry and Ginny for one of the most-popular morning news shows. "Get ready for that; since your turn is coming up at lunchtime."

"If they use Rita's column for a starting point; that'll be an interesting interview," Brandon predicted; and then pretended to sigh. "I wonder why Seth and I aren't getting asked to do interviews too?"

"You'd be welcome to stand in and do mine," Al assured him. "I'd be happy if the only interviews I had to do would be with the hosts of kids' shows."

"That's a brilliant idea," Rose told him. "I'll talk to Renee about that and see what she can come up with."

"Now you've done it," Gwendolyn told Al with a laugh. "There will be no way for you to do any kid show without an Animorphmagus demonstration – especially if you take your father along and the kids want some puppy play time."

"Not that you watched Lee's monologue and saw that vote," Rose deadpanned with a grin. "That was such a hit; I'd say we should definitely go ahead with that Animorphmagus animal of the match-day poster and toy idea. What should we do for our first match?"

"Well, you could have two for opening day," Brandon suggested – "and then find out which set sells more."

"After that; you could do animals based on the other team mascots when applicable," Gwendolyn suggested. "Add in themes for holidays and seasons; and I think it'd be easy to come up with twenty-four animal forms."

"I am so wishing that I hadn't opened my mouth at all," Al advised them; though he was smiling and amused by their plans.

"The team mascot idea was yours – from when you gave me those toys; including the Gryffindor lion in the Ravenclaw colors. I think that'd be brilliant for our opponents in the league too. It's just too bad that the Catapults don't have an animal mascot."

"The Falcons do, though," Brandon reminded her. "Do we really want to get them mad at us ahead of our matches with them?"

"Maybe," Gwendolyn offered. "You bring up a good point about matches instead of the singular. We could use team mascots where possible twice a season; and wouldn't need twenty-four animal forms if we didn't want a new one for every match." She turned away from Brandon and smiled at Lily and Jonah. Al was already standing to welcome them with hugs and a kiss for his sister; she stood and had hugs and kisses for both of them; and then the all sat down. "You look happy and ready to play today," she told them.

"We are," Lily agreed. "It's going to be a bit weird with four Seekers; but we'll deal with it."

"I'm going to have you pair off with your parents," Rose advised her. "We'll decide how when we get around to the position training, but I'm going to have one of you help your Dad get ready for his first match; and have the other do the same for your Mum."

"Is Dad going to play in the first match?" Lily asked. "I guess that I just assumed it would be Mum."

"It will be," Rose confirmed. "I wasn't putting that in order of the playing schedule. Your Mum will be getting ready for the Kestrels; and the Wanderers are first for your Dad."

"The Kestrels have an animal mascot," Brandon interjected. "Maybe you should save the puppies for that Wanderers' match."

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked him.

"Animorphmagus animal posters and toys of the match-day," Brandon answered with a grin. "We think it's a brilliant idea after Lee's monolouge vote last night."

"I'd agree with you – if I'd been awake to watch Lee's show last night," Lily offered innocently. "Are the rest of you in trouble this morning for messing up your training day curfew?"

"We're not going to be like that with our team," Rose told her seriously. "Everyone knows what's at stake, so we'll either make that happen together; or we won't."

"We'll have fun – and make the rest of this dream happen for you, Rose," Al told her. "You also don't need to worry about the rest of us being motivated. We all want to prove all of the naysayers wrong."

That was certainly true, but their chat moved on from there to less-weighty things while they had their breakfast; and then it was time to get to work. Harry and Ginny were finished their morning interview by then, but there were a lot of reporters on-site for their first full day of training – including several of the reporters that loved to hate the Potters the most; and had already been offering scathing reports about the team and players. Renee was again on-site to handle the reporters, but wouldn't do that every day since she had other responsibilities; and the players weren't spending much time with the reporters either as they got focused on their training – starting with a warm-up and workout in the trainining room while the reporters were able to watch on from the separate seating area that had a great view of the main room where the team could do everything from their warm-ups to weight training and other exercises.

They eventually headed out to the pitch for the rest of their morning workout, but while they did work hard too; everything they did was fun – and it looked as though they were playing and enjoying themselves far-more than most reporters thought was appropriate for a league team. Add in some play time with the twins and practicing flying tricks; and almost all of the reporters were so convinced that Rose had no idea what she was doing that they stopped even trying to see what was really going on. Al knew that because he could sense what all of the reporters were thinking and feeling, but while he was mostly just amused by the total lack of awareness of reality; he thought that the bad reports could help his team – as long as that didn't also cause a problem with ticket sales. He didn't think that would happen, since the first day results had already been spectacular for all ticket sales. Malorie and Ruth were already expecting to sell-out their two summer matches by week-end; and they were getting strong sales for the first matches the Cannons were going to have against the Harpies, Prides, Catapults, Falcons, and United; as there seemed to be a lot of interest in those specific match-ups.

Al and Gwendolyn had to take their lunch from the Cannonball Cafe to go; snacked on that food around their lunchtime news show interview that went brilliantly-well thanks to Gwendolyn; and then they got back to work again for the afternoon with more position training and a scrimmage that included a double Seeker duel that pitted Harry against Jonah and Ginny against Lily as the two teens really did get started on helping Harry and Ginny to get ready for their first matches of the season. Their afternoon break included more play time with the twins that added more fuel to the 'burn the Cannons' fire with the reporters; and the actual Quidditch action was dismissed as child's play too. By the time they wrapped up their work for the day; Al and Gwendolyn were happy, tired, and ready for a quiet night.

Quiet was a relative term – and didn't mean the same thing in their new community as it had at either of their childhood homes. After a long workday, the lagoon was a popular destination for quite a few of their neighbors – including Jaimie and Lorie; they played with their friends for a while; had some playground fun with the kids; and then had dinner-for-two at their home while everyone else did their own thing. They took Jaimie and Lorie for a walk and some outdoor play time after dinner while Malorie was busy with some extra work; and then they wrapped up their first full day of training camp fun with an early bedtime that was ahead of curfew; but didn't involve going to sleep for quite some time!

Wednesday was Harry and Ginny's twenty-fifth anniversary. Al didn't really feel bad that his parents couldn't have a major celebration of their special day when what they were getting to do together instead was so amazing, but he and Gwendolyn did work to make their day as special as possible – starting with breakfast at the Cannonball Cafe that included his grandparents, her parents, Ron, Hermione, and a few other guests. Because of that, they didn't actually get to sit with Harry and Ginny for that meal, but there were some gifts; and everyone in the cafe got to join in on the fun at some level – even if that was just through the special breakfast menu and a moment or two with the couple of honor before it was time to get to work again.

Work really was the name of the game – even if it didn't seem that way to the smaller group of reporters that began their work day with the Cannons. There was extra, anniversary-themed fun to be had all day too – whether that was doing repetitive exercises in sets of twenty-five or having twins wearing team shirts with the numbers two and five that Jaimie and Lorie got mixed up more often than not when together so that they were fifty-two as a pair instead of twenty-five. There were special treats; some games; and a special lunchtime meal. After work; Al and Gwendolyn hosted a family-only anniversary dinner that Al actually cooked instead of ordering in take-out. That was another blast of fun – and a big success for Al and Gwendolyn's first 'big' dinner in their new home; and then there was an evening reception for Harry and Ginny in the atrium that was open to everyone in the communiity, their extended family, and any friends that wanted to stop by to join in on the celebration. Al and Gwendolyn had still been involved in the work for that, but took a break once the guests began arriving and Harry and Ginny were being kept busy with that next round of anniversary entertainment.

"Are you hiding out in plain sight by sitting here on your own back patio?" Rose asked as she and Brandon joined them. They had drinks too; and Gwendolyn invited them to sit down in two more bag lawn chairs that Al had already summoned and set up by then to her left.

"We do need a bit of a break," Gwendolyn agreed. "This has been a fun day; but we haven't had many chances to slow down since before breakfast."

"Get used to it," Rose told her. "That's going to be our lives from now on."

"Maybe for the three of you," Brandon offered. "I'm beginning to wish that you weren't team manager already; since you're busy all of the time right now – possbily even when you're sleeping."

"I am," Rose agreed, "but we knew that was part of the plan; and we still get to spend more time together than most couples." She nodded toward the lagoon where Teddy and Victoire were testing out the water in the shallow end with Dora while Lily and Jonah tried to keep Jaimie and Lorie from splashing the baby with their own water play fun. "Teddy's taking time off this week to help with Victoire's transition back to work, but then they'll be apart for their jobs; and busy with Dora when they're together – assuming that Teddy doesn't end up on night assignments with the Aurors. That might be an extreme case; but not really unusual for most couples."

"I wouldn't even say their situation is all that extreme," Gwendolyn suggested. "Most of our parents spend a lot of time apart – or have in the past. Your Mum is busy with her job at the Ministry; and your Dad often works evenings and weekends at the wheezes stores. My parents can be working anytime at least six days a week; and that can end up being on different schedules – though Dad doesn't have as many gigs right now as he usually has for as long as I can remember."

"So you're saying that we're becoming our parents," Brandon summarized. "You're scaring me just a little."

"No – I'm saying that Al's right – as annoying as that can be," Gwendolyn countered. "We'll be happier working together; and making the job fun will keep us happy even when we're too-busy like we are right now."

"We really aren't doing things the same as my parents did when they were our age," Al added. "With their jobs, they'd sometimes go weeks at a time where they'd only see each other for short visits once or twice a day."

"I'd comment on how what we're doing might be a problem when we have couples fighting with each other," Brandon suggested, "but I don't want to see Gwendolyn like that ever again; so I'll hope that Al never messes up with her again."

"He's a Wizard, so the odds are against him," Rose joked. "We're celebrating a twenty-fifth anniversary, though; so we probably shouldn't sit around talking about potential relationship troubles."

"Especially when we're all so happy right now," Gwendolyn agreed. "I'd be okay if we don't have any trouble tonight."

"Are you expecting any?" Brandon asked seriously; and Gwendolyn shrugged.

"That depends on whether Mum and Dad have any guests to this little reception that don't actually wish them well right now," Gwendolyn answered; and then smiled ruefully and shook her head. "Let's just hope for the best and not go there either."

"We can do that – and there are a few things that I wanted to talk about with you anyway," Rose advised them.

While the chat that followed was work-related, it was all fun too; since everything that was going on for the business side of the team and GO MagiSports was doing even better than most of their best projections. Team souvenirs and merchandise had, quite possibly, been the best for any team since opening day; the third day of ticket sales was showing no sign of slowing even with two days of bad press from the majority of the reporters with just a few sane exceptions; and the adverts deals were paying off thanks to the spike in viewers for the mirror network shows and more newspapers sales or wireless web views of those Quidditch stories. They eventually all got back to playing with everyone else in the atrium; and Al and Gwendolyn were happy to get to spend time with the rest of their friends – even if that was through cameo moments of fun with them while also continuing to help out with the work that kept the celebration going until shortly before team curfew.

The day wasn't done for Harry and Ginny after that because they were going to be on Lee's nightly show – and the timing for that offer hadn't beena coincidence. While they went to get ready for that interview, Al and Gwendolyn wrapped up their day with a clean-up of the atrium; they were home in time for team curfew; and then had a bit of play time before cuddling in bed and watching Lee's monologue and then his interview with Harry and Ginny. Lee wasn't running out of jokes for the Cannons during his monologue, though he didn't go on about their team exclusively. His interview with Harry and Ginny had been brilliantly-funny; Al and Gwendolyn thought that his father had likely earned some fans by having fun with the jokes and teasing that was usually at his expense; and the neon-orange rocking chairs gag gifts had been a fun end to the interview as the studio audience offered their laughter and congratulations for Harry and Ginny's anniversary. Though they weren't together for that bit of fun, it was still a great way to end another amazing day; and then it was time to crash and get some sleep!

"Good morning," Louis told James as he walked into the locker room. "You're early today. Did you have a rare early night and actually get to sleep before midnight?"

James grunted. "I don't want to talk about it," he declared.

"Maybe – or you do and that's why you're here so early," Louis countered; and then tried to assess what he saw from his cousin. "Could there be a connection between that mood and your parents' anniversary yesterday?"

"How would you even know that it was their anniversary?" James complained; and Louis laughed.

"Everyone that watched Lee's show last night knows that, James – though I did know sooner because I stopped in to the reception they had after dinner last night."

"Why? I thought that Deanna never wanted to see them again after that last party."

"She didn't go with me," Louis answered – "or at least she didn't go to the reception. She went and visited Teresa in her flat instead."

"What?" James exclaimed; and Louis smiled ruefully and shrugged.

"Sorry – I guess that we haven't talked about that yet; and Deanna and I only found out about it on Monday night. You knew that Teresea and Kylie have their own Quidditch shows now. That's apparently through a GO MagiSports company; and they have flats in that apartment building at the Cannons' practice pitch."

"Well, that explains why I needed to turn their show off the first time I tried watching it and they were spouting off total nonsense about the clown brigade," James retorted. "They're bought and paid for shills."

"I won't bother commenting on that," Louis decided. "Deanna isn't happy about the situation right now, but that's entirely about learning that the job Teresa is so happy with now is connected to your family – regardless of how that's happened through GO MagiSports. Like it or not, her new flat is beautiful too; so Deanna would be happy for her twin for that – if it had been anywhere else."

James snorted. "They weren't any better than mine," he retorted; and Louis shook his head.

"Maybe not for the empty flat that I saw the tour of on the mirror network news shows too. Teresa's flat is two levels with balcony views of the atrium and practice pitch; and about double the size of yours – maybe a bit more than double."

"You must mean for both of them," James decided; and Louis shook his head.

"No – Kylie has one of those two-level flats too. If that's going to bug you; then I really don't want to tell you about the townhouses. They're basically double the size of Teresa's flat."

"You're right – I don't want to know," James said; his tone angry and disgusted. "Let's see how long all of that lasts once the season starts and everyone finds out that their new team is even more-pathetic than the last one!"

"I definitely don't want to go there either," Louis told him. "Would you like to see pictures of Teddy and Victoire taking Dora swimming in that lagoon instead?"

"No," James assured him. "I hope that they have a dozen of the little brats and that they destroy Grimmauld Place so that it looks like the horror it supposedly was during the war; but I don't want to see pictures of the ugly beasts!"

Louis laughed and shook his head. "Only in your version of reality could you believe that Teddy and Victoire could have an ugly beast for a child. Dora is as beautiful as her mother and grandmother; and I don't know if there's ever been a part-Veela Metamorphmagus before."

"So you're saying that she's a freak – just like the loser," James retorted with a nod. "That's what you get when first cousins hook up like that."

Louis shook his head; stood up; and grabbed his broom. 'Now you're just being ridiculous, James."

"Am I?" he countered. "The Metamorphmagus thing has to have come through the Black family line; which means that Teddy could have gotten it from your family as easily as the dead Witch they claimed to be his Mum."

"You really are in a foul mood," Louis told him. "That's total rubbish, and we both know it, James; so save it for someone who might believe that kind of nonsense."

"You weren't there; and couldn't possibly know," James retorted.

"I don't need to have been there," Louis countered. "All I need to know is that Grandma would have never..." he trailed off and suddenly stared at James for a long moment of silence.

"Grandma would have never – what?" James demanded. "Finish a complete sentence?"

"She'd have never allowed Aunt Ginny to give away a child for someone else to raise," Louis finished quietly. "She might have taken on the responsibility herself while Aunt Ginny finished school; but she'd have never gone along with that kind of lie."

"Not even to protect the illegitimate first-born mutt of the Chosen Chump while everyone was trying to kill him?" James retorted; and smiled as that comment interjected exactly the right amount of doubt that he'd hoped for. "I'd say it's probable – and then they were stuck with the lie after that even though the war ended just weeks later."

Louis shook his head as if to clear it. "Give it a rest, James. It's a fact that Teddy is not your older brother; and stupid of you to claim that he is – which, after all, is what you're doing."

"I have no brothers – or family," James retorted. "I disowned them – because of all of the lies like that one."

"Well, then that would include me," Louis pointed out. "I'm going to get out of here and do my early warm-up, team-mate-that-isn't-my-cousin-anymore. I'll see you out there."

James snorted a derisive laugh; watched him go for a moment; and then started to get his own gear out and ready to put on. He was not amused by the turn in that chat with Louis – he knew exactly what had happened when his cousin had stopped mid-sentence and stared at him – he'd equated what he'd been saying about Teddy with how his grandmother was treating the loser and the litter. He thought he'd done pretty well with the damage control, but that didn't keep him from thinking about Louis' point – that their grandmother wouldn't go along with the lies – then or now. Then again, did it matter if that was true or not? Only for the people that probably wouldn't believe his assertions about all of that anyway; so James decided that it really didn't matter.

The more he thought about that, the more he was sure that none of it mattered. He was reigning King of the League; he was on his way to being King of the Quidditch World; and in his brilliant reality, the truth would be whatever he – the King – decided that it would be!

Life around the Cannons practice pitch and community didn't really settle into any routine yet on Thursday. There was still too-much going on that was new and different for nearly everyone living and working there for that to happen yet; and that was especially-true for the team players as they continued to be kept busy with their training and other public demands on their time. Al still managed to have fun with everything because he got to do that with Gwendolyn; and he was grateful that she had ended up joining the Cannons with him because he was sure that the public appearances wouldn't have been going nearly as well for him without her there to help him out with having fun even when they were dealing with reporters that could be insulting more-often than not in their interviews or with social gatherings – like their Thursday VIP luncheon that included guests that weren't there because they wanted to be fans; but to get front row seats for the expected train wreck.

None of that was unexpected, but Al was even happier with their actual training than he'd hoped – and those expectations had been high to start with. Getting to play every day with his parents, wife, and everyone else was brilliant; and Rose and Gwendolyn let him pretty much do what he wanted when it came to making the work fun. Play time with the twins was part of that entertainment; he added in a random swim break in the lagoon on Thursday afternoon; and then half of their work time on Friday was also play time with the sports day camp kids while they spent the day on-site with Susannah and her teen camp counsellors. That was very different from their day camps from last summer, but only in that the team wasn't responsible for taking care of the kids except for when they were actually working with them on Quidditch – and that was all fun and no real work at all.

Thanks to his extended senses, Al was aware of pretty much everything going on around him at all times, but he didn't focus much attention on what everyone else was doing while he and Gwendolyn were busy all of the time too. He did want to be involved in their friends' lives, though, which is why he was fired up by the end of their work day on Friday. Playing with their friends right away wasn't an option because Susannah had all of the players busy with a charity dinner fundraiser that started shortly after work, but that was a small, on-site, VIP event; so they were able to have fun with that; and then say goodbye to their guests before they could move on and get together with a bunch of their friends for the special entertainment that Al had set up for them. Nearly everyone in the community, along with some dates or other guests, met up with Al and Gwendolyn in the ground floor lobby between the elevators and entrance to the atrium; and there was a table set up with drinks and snacks that were in containers that they'd be able to take with them for the show that Al had planned for them.

"I want to thank everyone for coming tonight," Al began once he knew that everyone that was coming had arrived. "We've had a fairly busy, exciting week, but I hope that you can still handle a bit more fun; since you're going to all get to be the first group of Witches and Wizards to experience an all-new Virtual Mirror System – and GO MagiSports has the first two systems installed right here in this building."

"You're not talking about a new version of the glasses?" Teresa asked.

"No, but there are a different kind of glasses that work with the new system that we'll hand out to everyone. It'll be more fun to just show you everything; so let's just do that," Al answered with a bright smile. "We'll need to split into two, approximately-even groups, so if you can get your drinks and snacks; we'll just head into the two rooms now."

He and Gwendolyn were ready to go by then, so they led the way; he unsealed and opened the doors; and already had the rooms set up for the type of Virtual entertaiment he was using for the demonstration. They split up to lead groups into each of the rooms; and Al enjoyed watching the reactions from his family and friends as they walked into the room and he handed out the glasses and invited them to sit down in the comfortable-looking seats. For some of them, the safety bars that lowered over their chests were strange, since they'd never experienced Muggle amusement park rides, but that just added to the excited expectations for everyone that could guess at what might be coming next.

"I'll answer questions after the show," Al promised, "but for now; sit back and enjoy the show. We'll be getting it started as soon as I'm ready to go in the other room with Gwendolyn."

"Should we be afraid that you're not going to be in here with us?" Seth joked; and Al laughed.

"No – and I wouldn't dream of giving anything away to explain why. You'll see soon-enough."

He was already on his way out of the room; the 'house' lights went out when he closed the door behind him; and that group was left with just some peripheral, dim lighting while he joined Gwendolyn; sat down; and was ready to get the show on the road. He was still fired up; and happily held Gwendolyn's hand as the 'show' began.

"Welcome to the all-new, full-immersion Virtual Mirror System," he heard himself say as the mirrors all around them came alive and the seats they were in rose and hovered in mid-air; causing a round of gasps of suprise as everyone seeing the room in action for the first time was stunned by what they felt and saw. "For your first virtual adventure; we are going to explore just a few of the new systems, but let's not talk about it – let's go!"

With that, the room seemed to turn as if they were all apparating away from the open moor they'd been hovering above; and then they were suddenly all sitting on a Muggle roller coaster as it began to pull away from the loading platform.

"While we head toward the top of this tower; you'll notice that the new virtual systems are more than just audio-visual systems," Al's recorded voice advised his audience. You can feel the sense of motion and even the breeze and warmth of the sun. The glasses you're wearing allow you to use features that are available on the virtual mirror glasses such as magnification so that each viewer can experience any show or game the same way as with those portable systems without affecting what everyone else sees. We've chosen a Muggle roller coaster for our first demonstration of these new features because they're called thrill rides for a reason; and because they'll show off quite a few of the Virtual Mirror System features all at once in just a couple of minutes of extreme fun!" They were nearing the top of the first tower by then. "Hold on to your drinks and snacks 'cause here we go!"

Al didn't scream, but many of the Witches and Wizards with him did; and he laughed in delight as they went on that ride together that was a virtual creation he'd been able to make out of his own memories of a favorite coaster they'd ridden while having their extreme fun holiday week during the last Quidditch World Cup summer. That ride was just the beginning of the fun, though, and they went on a ninety-minute-long demonstration that ranged from real-life broom view flying as if doing a cross-country race; they got a player-view of a Quidditch scrimmage from the new 'rookie season' virtual game; and then they got to watch a few samples of mirror network shows from the viewpoint of virtual mirror-cams – though the only control each viewer had over what to look at came from turning their own heads around or using features on the glasses while the rest of the point of view was controlled by the demonstration. When it was finished; Al got out of his seat to a round of applause and stepped to the front of the room.

"Thank-you," he said gratefully; smiling as he spoke. "We have one more little demonstration to show you – and the friends in the other room are already aware of that; since they can hear me – and see me to their left if they're looking that way – just as we can now see them to our right. These rooms can be used in several different modes. Right now, you're in theater mode – which is meant for watching virtual shows. What you're seeing right now is meant more for the virtual mirror gaming mode, and when it is being used; game players in each room can be in the same game and compete indepentdently while still being able to see what their opponents – or team mates – are doing." As he said that; the views in each room changed so that the two groups were now facing each other; which led to some fun as the people in both rooms began trying to wave, make faces, or call out to eeach other – all of which was perfectly caught my the virtual systems and recreated in the other room as if they were all in one big theater.

"There are only these two systems right now, so the gaming competition will be limited for players that can do everything that's possible in these rooms, but they will still link with the portable systems for compatibility with the main difference being that those interactive games use the avatars while these games will show you exactly as you are."

"So don't try playing games in here while in your underwear," Brandon called out; earning a round of laughs.

"Once we're finished this demonstration in a moment, both of these rooms will be available for everyone in our community to use," Al continued. "We have instruction booklets for you on how to set the rooms up for what you want to do with them – incluidng running this demonstration again for friends and guests; the virtual gaming, and the other features. There will be schedules set up for booking times to use the rooms, but there will only be limited support available for learning to use the systems – at least until more of us get experience and can offer the help to everyone else. That does end our show for tonight, though; so let's get out of here and open the rooms up for anyone that does want to jump right in and have a bit more fun with our new toys tonight."

Gwendolyn had a hug for Al as she met up with him after getting out of her seat; they led the way back out into the lobby; and then spent a half hour talking with their friends; answering questions; and helping two groups of would-be gamers learn how to set up the rooms for gaming and then take turns trying the games out. After that, they joined the group that opted for a bedtime swim; they helped Malorie with getting the twins off to sleep; and then went home and didn't go straight off to sleep until they'd had just a bit more, quite-a-bit-hotter fun that helped them to be very, very happy when they did finally snuggle close and got some rest.

The new Cannons manager and players weren't training all weekend, but they also weren't able to take those two days off either. That was a bit of a reality-check for Al and Gwendolyn to be on the adult side of the Quidditch business even after growing up with Quidditch mothers. Sure, they were used to Gwenog's weekend work and additional responsiblities beyond the training and Quidditch matches, but the new perspective had them appreciating the effort that was required to juggle the work and family and friends time. They were busier than would be normal as more time was requested of them for interviews and photo ops, and that wouldn't continue at that pace indefinitely, but Malorie, Rose, Renee, and Susannah were also putting together a busy schedule to take advantage of the extra, intense attention to push their business and charity interests too.

As with the rest of their first week, Al didn't completely escape events or interviews with adults, but Gwendolyn helped him out with those activities; and shared in the fun when they got to lead the way for spending time with kids. On Saturday, they had a morning interview that was fun because it was with Teresa and Kylie; the lunchtime event included kids along with the VIPs, and Al and Gwendolyn enjoyed a very entertaining meal with a group of twelve kids ranging in age from four-to-ten; and then there was an evening party after dinner that the Cannons had been invited to attend that was hosted by the Quidditch News Network. That event offered a lot of free publicity for the team, but compared to the rest of the 'work' for the day; Al was mostly just glad to get through the night without any major problems – which was always a risk for a trouble-magnet.

On Sunday, Al and Gwendolyn did a late-morning mirror network interview; there was an afternoon picnic-at-the-sea vendor event that was fun thanks again to all of the kids – including Jaimie and Lorie; and then Al and Gwendolyn got to wrap up their weekend with a quiet night at home that only included a bit of work talk with Rose, Brandon, and some of the friends that hung out with them for a couple of hours in the atrium after dinner. Wrapping up their weekend with an early, training day curfew wasn't a problem for Al and Gwendolyn, since they both really enjoyed having a valid reason for wrapping up five or six days a week with some bedtime fun for two; though they also tried not to think of that in relation to their parents when they had the same training night curfew too.

Week two of training camp wasn't quite as crazy-busy as the firs week had been; so there was a bit more free time around the training and extra activities. There were fewer reporters too, but still more than at other team workouts; and Al noticed that the reporters were all spending time at the Cannonball Cafe – either for meals or to get drinks and snacks to enjoy while they worked. That was good for the cafe business; so it seemed as though all of the freebies that GO MagiSports paid for on opening day of training camp was paying off – at least in the short term. On the training side of the job, Al was in charge of keeping the work fun; and he was able to do that to the point where even some of the reporters that were impressed with what they saw began to doubt that they could be ready to play against the other league teams without getting more-serious about their work.

Al knew they were wrong about that, but Rose and Gwendolyn were happy to let everyone else underestimate them; and even the jokes and insults could be entertaining – especially when the sources were some of their favorite haters like Rita Skeeter. They didn't spend much of their time keeping up with everything being said about them, but Al's extended senses allowed him to stay informed all of the time; and they did talk about what they did read and hear – at least for the particularly-entertaining reports and opinion hit-jobs. None of that had anything at all to do with what was most-important, though, and while the training was a critical part of what would make all of their plans a success; it wasn't the only important work they were doing – even if it was the most time-consuming each day.

Susannah's charity work was one part of their plan that Al loved the most, and while his personal involvement in that was through the kids' sports camp on Fridays and the events that Susannah had set up either as fundraisers or social events for needy families; she was coordinating and preparing for bigger projects that would take more time, require more help, and help out in much bigger ways. Al wasn't going to be able to help out with any of that work, but he was going to do everything he could to support her efforts! During that second week of training camp, Al's help included playing with the day camp kids on Friday morning and having lunch with some of them after those hours of Quidditch and swimming fun; but Susannah and her volunteers took care of the afternoon outing to the quidditch museum while the team got back to their 'serious' training that was still just as much fun – if not at a kid-rated level.

The weekend between the second and third weeks of training camp was a bit quieter for Al and Gwendolyn. They were able to have a play night at home on Friday with their family and some friends around the atrium and their townhomes; Saturday's 'work' included another picnic luncheon that was a charity-publicity event and a VIP dinner and social event for the team; and then they had two interviews on Sunday morning – one for a Quidditch magazine; and the other for the noon Quidditch News Network sports news show. That still left them with time to have fun during the rest of both days. They spent a lot of that time with their parents, brother, and sister; adding in cameo fun with ther cousins and friends; and 'made' a bit of time here and there for themselves to make sure that they had enough of that kind of much-hotter fun-for-two along with all of the rest of the busy!

While the third week of training camp took them past the half-way point to opening day of the league Quidditch season, the Cannons weren't playing on opening day; and had an extra week of training to get ready for their first match of the season. That didn't change their training plans at all, but the last full week of July and the countdown to the start of the Quidditch season did add more demands on Al and Gwendolyn's time – including for non-work-related activities. With the Harpies, Prides, United, and Catapults teams all plaing on opening day, there were just two weekends left to go that were 'open' for family events – and one of them wasn't actually really open for the Jones' side of Gwendolyn's family because her cousin, Dennis Deverill, and Cyren Wheeler were getting married on the first Saturday in August. That was why Gwenog and Kirley were having their family and friends play day on the last Sunday of July instead – the one that they tried to have every year before Gwenog would be busy with the Harpies for the rest of the season.

Before getting to that play afternoon with her family, though, Al and Gwendolyn had fun and trained hard all week – including when they played with the sports camp kids on Friday morning; they had one VIP luncheon at the cafe; one charity barbeque dinner; and three interviews because they were apparently becoming a very popular couple on the mirror network shows and through the wireless web. They weren't going to be able to take the entire weekend off, but by the time they were done work on Friday; they were ready for a break – though even that needed to wait because Rose and Malorie set up a meeting for the end of the day that Al and Gwendolyn were invited to attend – along with Harry, Ginny, and most of the GO MagiSports company managers. They were able to get cleaned up and changed first; there were drinks and snacks from the cafe to self-serve before sitting down around the conference table in the GO MagiSports office; and then Rose got the meeting started.

"I know it's Friday and you all want to get started on your weekend, but we're half-way into our training camp now; and Malorie and I wanted to do an update with all of you so that we each know how our overall plans are going so far."

"If everyone else is having as much fun as we are; then we're likely doing brilliantly," Harry suggested. "Ginny and I are having as much fun with this as we were having while unemployed and spending a lot of time playing with Jaimie and Lorie."

"More fun," Ginny amended. "We're still playing with the twins a lot; and get paid too."

"Speaking of getting paid," Rose said with a smile and nod – "your QuidditchProsandMoms wireless web site is taking off. The last numbers I saw had your visitor count at over ten thousand per day."

"That's still a long way from the Quidditch News Network; but ahead of plan," Ginny offered. "I'm surprised that you want to start with that. The success of your plan won't hinge on that little side business."

"You're getting most of that attention and it's good publicity for our team – especially some of the things you're doing like training and diet tips based on what we're doing with our own workouts," Rose told her seriously. "I'm sure that'll help a lot with gaining new fans – and we are getting results from our adverts on your site too. That brought up a few things that we do want to cover today, though; so let's start with the ticket sales update; talk adverts after that; and then move on to souvenirs and merchandising."

"You don't want to talk about how our new team is doing too?" Renee teased. "That's a rather important part of your plan too; and the rest of your managers may be a bit worried about that from what they read and hear about in the news."

Rose laughed. "Isn't it your job to help us out with our reputation?" she joked in return.

"Yes, but then we all know that you want everyone else to underestimate your team. It might still be a good idea to keep your GO MagiSports employees in the loop for the real plan, though; since some of them might worry if they don't think that they'll have these new jobs for long."

"They'll start seeing that plan in action starting in three weeks," Rose pointed out, "but as long as we don't go into too much detail; I don't have a problem with quietly teling anyone truly-worried about their jobs that our team is a lot better than most reporters are suggesting that we are."

"Is that much of a problem?" Susannah asked; directing that question at the other managers. "I haven't heard anyone around here worrying about it."

"I have some employees wondering about whether the team will be any good or not," Lacey answered. "They know that we'll be in business because GO MagiSports owns both businesses, but they're a bit worried about how many employees we'll need if they don't do well and sell a lot of souvenirs."

"Then I have two things that you can pass on to them," Malorie advised her. "Our sales of souvenirs and merchandising is more than twenty percent ahead of our best projections so far; and Renee and I are ready to pass along a new deal to you to design and make the souvenirs for one of the other teams – and they may agree to make the switch this season instead of next – though they'd phase that in while selling off their current souvenir inventory."

"That's great news," Lacey said enthusiastically. "Phasing in that work would be good too; since we'd need time to get our inventories for Cannons' gear to where you want it to be for the fall anyway; and then we can deal with the new business."

"That's what we were thinking too," Malorie assured her. "You wanted ticket sales next, Rose?" she asked; and then nodded to Ruth when Rose agreed with doing that next.

"I'm glad to hear that everything is going so well for everything else," Ruth offered as an opening comment. "We're a bit worried about our jobs at TicketWizard too. If we keep selling them at the rate we have over the first three weeks; we'll be sold out for the season before Christmas." She smiled as her back-handed good news earned a round of laughs.

"That won't happen, but if you did sell every ticket by then; you'll have earned enough in bonuses to cover the time off until playoff tickets would go on sale," Rose suggested to her. "Has something happened with your sales since the last time I checked?"

"No, but that extrapolation would be accurate if the sales did stay this high," Ruth answered. "We've sold out our ticket allotment for the summer matches. Twenty percent of those sales have come through the TicketWizard MirrorApp; and the September matches are at about thirty percent – though those numbers are higher for the early matches and lower for the matches that are later in the month. Sales beyond that are lower except for holiday matches, but that's normal; and the only trend that I'm keeping an eye on is that the ticket sales for Cannons matches are quite a bit lower than for the other matches out beyond the first three matches of the season."

"That doesn't sound good," Malorie agreed; "but keep in mind that those sales for the Cannons tickets are still a lot higher than they've been for previous seasons; and we expect that to improve once we've played those first matches."

"What exactly does selling out for the summer matches mean?" Brandon asked. He hadn't needed to be at the meeting too, but was there with Rose.

"We have ten thousand tickets available for every match in addition to the tickets the Cannons are allowed for each of their matches," Ruth advised him. "The top eight teams get three summer matches this year; the bottom five get two; so that's one-hundred-and-seventy thousand tickets plus fifty thousand for the two Cannons matches." She smiled when Brandon whistled. "For just a bit of perspective; that fifty thousand tickets is just a bit more than the Cannons sold for the entire season last year."

"Merlin!" Brandon said in true astonishment. "That's amazing!"

"It is; and will be – if we can get those sales all season," Rose agreed with a nod. "We have plans to help with that if needed beyond having some success with the team; though the sales for the rest of the matches will, hopefully, happen through the TicketWizard MirrorApp ahead of the sales that go through other businesses. Ruth and her staff are doing brilliantly with that business, though; and deserve all the credit for the successes they're having so far. They've done an amazing job processing thousands of orders a day – and that's been a seven-day-a-week thing for them so far."

The meeting rolled on from there as Rose and Malorie took turns getting updates and talking about plans for the next few weeks leading up to their first match of the season. They covered adverts, Virtual Mirror games and MirrorApps; advertising, and the rest; and then they all moved on to whatever plans they had for the rest of the night. For Al and Gwendolyn, that meant having a dinner for two that he cooked; and then they spent the rest of the evening with their parents, brother, sister, and some friends hanging out around the atrium and townhouses. While they had a lot of fun with that play time; wrapping up their night with some hotter entertainment-for-two once they were alone in their townhouse was definitely a highlight of their day; and then they eventually got some sleep ahead of a slightly-less-busy weekend.

For Saturday, 'less-busy' meant breakfast for two at home; some chores around the townhouse; and then a team promotional luncheon that included VIP and media guests. Al had fun with that because he got to play with the kids while Gwendolyn and the other players helped out with more of the social time with the adults – which kept everyone happy as he stayed out of trouble. That was the only team event of the day, but Al and Gwendolyn were booked for a mirror network show interview that they did late in the afternoon; and then they were free for the rest of the day. They ended up going out for dinner to a seaside pub with Ray and Cyndia; they all went for a long walk on the beach after that; and then headed back to their homes for the night. Though they didn't have a training night curfew to worry about; Al and Gwendolyn didn't hang out with the rest of the neighbors spending the evening in and around the atrium, but going to bed early didn't include going to sleep; and they kept the fun going in an intimate sort of way for quite a while before eventually cuddling together and getting some rest ahead of the McCormack family play day on Sunday.

"Don't let Rita Skeeter see you working like this," Lily told Al as she walked up to him and held out a glass of iced water. "She'd have fun with a story about you needing a part-time job to help pay the bills that you can't cover with what you make with the Cannons Clown Brigade."

"No doubt," Al agreed. "Thanks," he added as he took the offered drink. "I'm sure she'd say the same thing about the work I do around the practice pitch and atrium too."

"Do you do any work there?" Lily asked. "I hadn't noticed."

Al laughed. "Do you think that everything gets cleaned up without anyone doing the laundry and the rest of the cleaning?" he countered. "I've made some of the work automatic with magic, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done – and I still haven't come up with a way to make that a job that someone could have that they'd be able to do and have fun with it too."

"Then that's definitely something that the reporters would have fun with if they knew that one of the star Chasers on your team is also the caretaker."

"I'm pretty sure that we'll need to win a few games before we'll start gaining any attention as Quidditch stars; and I'd be okay with it if I wasn't one of those stars on our team."

"Then you should stop making so many fans out of those little kids before they've even seen you play," Lily suggested. "I like playing with the kids too, but when I'm in the show; I'll also want all the boys to adore me and have all of the girls wish they could be me!"

"There's more than a few Witches wishing that already – just because you're dating Jonah," Al joked with a grin. "I'd better get back to work, though; since we still have a fair bit to get done before everyone gets here for the party."

"You'll need to do that and then grab a shower and get changed," Lily suggested. "Do you de-gnome the gardens at home too?"

"Not yet," Al answered. "There weren't any gardens at the practice pitch before we put some in, and we haven't planted vegetable gardens; so it might be a while before we have any garden gnomes wander along and try to move in to the neighborhood too."

"Well, that explains why I haven't seen any around," Lily said with a nod. "Have fun. I'll see you around the yard and house."

Al got back to work while Lily headed inside again to help out in the kitchen with the food prep work that she was doing with Gwenog and Gwendolyn. Jonah and Kirley had their own to-do lists too, but while they were outside too; they only crossed paths with Al a couple of times each; and they were all too-busy to stop and chat for more than a moment or two while they got the yard ready for the family picnic and play day. They worked until noon; Al got cleaned up and changed after that; and then they had a snack lunch right before the McCormack, Jones, and Rivers families began to arrive and the fun level kicked up a few notches. Not everyone in the family could come and spend the entire afternoon with them, but it was only the Deverill cousins that could only stop by for visits because they also had wedding-related activities going on too for Dennis and Cyren's wedding.

While the family wedding was a popular chat topic right from the start of their play time, Al and Gwendolyn had more fun with the kids – including the newest baby in the family, Anthony; his now nearly-four-year-old brother, Johnny, and the rest of the younger cousins. They didn't get to have much chat time before the first Quidditch match of the afternoon broke out and they were drafted to play, but that was fun too; and a first chance they'd had in too-long to play Quidditch with most of their cousins since the last family play afternoon at the start of the summer. Their team won the first scrimmage, and Al enjoyed that blast of fun, but he felt the changes in their lives affecting the relationships that he and Gwendolyn had with her cousins – both with the kids and adults. Their post-scrimmage chat while they watched the next contest exemplified that reality just through the things that they talked about that proved their daily lives were heading in different directions.

"Has anyone mentioned that the two of you are a bit scary when you play together?" Meg asked Al and Gwendolyn with a grin. "I'm so glad you were playing for my team instead of Ryan's today. I looked brilliant by comparison!"

"Too good," Ryan told his sister. "If I'm named Captain for our senior team instead of Stephanie; I'll have to really think about whether to have open tryouts for Keeper."

"If I win; I'll be happy to let you play against Slytherin," Meg offered. "Gryffindor might be scary too; but I'd still like to find out how I'd do against their Chasers – and compared to Hugo."

"We'll see," Ryan told her. "I need to impress the scouts this season, though, so I don't want to make any promises about a fair tryout for you, sis. I'm not as nice as Al and Gwendolyn; so don't be surprised if I'm a bit selfish if I am Captain."

"Okay,' Meg agreed, "but if you can't beat me at tryouts; then you're not likely going to impress the scouts against the other teams either."

"At least you've both been able to play on our House teams," Corey told them. "I didn't make the team last year; and itisn't looking good for this year either. I'm not doing very well against the other Chasers in our summer workouts for the junior team."

"Who's leading those practices?" Gwendolyn asked. "We've been so busy; I haven't heard anything about the junior teams – for Ravenclaw or Gryffindor."

"Adam's sure to be Captain; and he's leading the practices," Corey answered. "I doubt he's going to put his Chaser job on the line; Lorcan and Lysander are both better than him; and I'm likely going to be out of luck again."

"We keep telling you to try out for Keeper or Beater," Meg told him. "I know that it bugs you, little bro, but you're a better Keeper than Chaser anyway; so you should make the switch and try to take my old job on the junior team."

"I want to be a Chaser," Corey declared stubbornly. "I can't get better at that if I start training as a Keeper all of the time."

"Then get used to playing on the reserve squad," Meg told him bluntly. "You're good on Chaser defense, Corey, but not as good as the other guys when it comes to scoring goals; and you know that's what counts most in tryouts. It sucks for you to have the twins to compete against, but you'll have that problem every year at Hogwarts, so if you want to play on the team; you'll need to play a different position."

"Would you have done that if there'd been a better Keeper?" Corey challenged; and Meg shrugged.

"No, but only because I'd have likely just been out of luck," she answered seriously. "I'm not a very good Chaser; a worse Beater; and couldn't play Seeker at all. If I couldn't play Keeper; I'd likely be in the drama club instead."

"That's worked out fairly-well for quite a few of those teens," Gwendolyn pointed out with a grin. "Maybe Corey would like to join the drama club and then maybe have a future with Wendy and Wanda on The Healer. I could see if they have any parts available while they're working on that show this summer. Maybe he could be a patient in one of the episodes."

"A Quidditch injury?" Meg suggested. "That would be awesome!"

"Then have at it – and leave me out of it," Corey told them. "I want to be a Quidditch player – not pretend to be one on a mirror network show."

"Al's been teased about being on that show too," Lily advised him with a grin for Al. "I think it'd be funny for him to be an Animorphmagus-gone-wrong patient, but Gwendolyn has a problem with him becoming Lysandra's pet kneazle on the show; so it probably isn't going to happen."

"It isn't," Gwendolyn confirmed. "Wendy and Wanda may stop in for a visit today with their parents, so if they do; don't suggest that to them. We have enough on the go right now with the Cannons; and Al really doesn't want a job on that show."

"I don't," Al agreed fervently. "They really should have some Quidditch-related injuries on that show, though; since that is a real-life issue in most Wizarding hospitals – and they didn't have any of that in the first season."

"Probably because Lysandra only deals with the most-difficult cases," Lily offered. "Broken bones or a bashed-in head just wouldn't be challenging enough for her brilliance."

"I'm sure that's a terrible disappointment to all of the Wizard Quidditch players that wish they could have Lysandra as their Healer," Katrina joked. "Instead of going there, though, Gwendolyn did suggest that she'd like to hear about what's going on with our school teams training, so maybe Corey can tell her about that for Ravenclaw's junior team first. Are we going to have better luck finding a Seeker for your team this year?" she asked her brother.

That question led to a discussion of what the younger teens collectively knew about the summer training for three of the school Houses. Al and Gwendolyn knew a bit more about the senior team training for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw because they worked every day with players from both of those teams, but while they had fun talking about that with their cousins and some friends; Al felt the distance growing for his own interest in the school Quidditch scene – just as his perspective had changed after the move to the senior team level in relation to his interest in the junior teams beyond the personal relationships and how those matches impacted the Quidditch Cup race. Those personal relationships still mattered now, but Hogwarts Quidditch just couldn't have the same priority in his life anymore – and wouldn't as he needed to focus on his own future and their efforts to make their own Quidditch dreams a reality.

Changing perspectives and their places in the family had everything to do with why they spent more time with the other adults at the play day than in the past – and they talked about more grown-up things too – like taking care of a new home; work; and other topics that were more-serious than teen drama, the latest mirror games, or other, normal 'kid' chat topics. They sat at an 'adult' table for dinner; helped with the work before and after that meal; and then still managed to play with the younger cousins a lot too – even when that was sometimes done along with the other, younger adults. It was a training day curfew night for the family members with Quidditch jobs, so they didn't have a late night or even a campfire, but they did play until near-dusk; Al, Gwendolyn, Lily, and Jonah helped with the final clean-up as everyone else headed for their homes or elsewhere; and then they all headed home too. Lily brought Jonah home with her; Al and Gwendolyn joined in for a short bedtime visit with Harry and Ginny; and then they ended their weekend with a bit of newlywed-hot bedtime fun before getting the sleep they needed for the fourth week of training camp.

Sunday wasn't the start of a trend away from work and toward family, but the transition from July to August did include extra family and friends time for Al and Gwendolyn that kept them very, very busy. On Tuesday, they were involved in Neville's forty-fourth birthday because Hannah had invited them to the first party that Frank and Alice were actually able to attend with their son for the first time since his first birthday after spending more than four decades in the hospital. Al did his best to keep his role in their recovery low-key, but couldn't totally avoid some attention; and he really was glad to see that Neville's parents were, after another year of slow progress; as well as they were likely ever going to be. He couldn't do anything about the fact that they'd lost those decades of younger adulthood, but they could still at least, hopefully, look forward to a long, happier life that they'd still be able to share with their family and friends in meaningful ways.

While that was a special few hours of fun on Tuesday evening, Harry's forty-fourth birthday on Wednesday proved to be an amazingly-fun way to wrap up July – and that was thanks to the birthday adventures they had at and around their training and work; since they didn't really have a party for him this year. There was the birthday entertainment with breakfast at the cafe; more fun to be had while they trained all day – including at lunchtime and with an interview that Harry did with Teresa and Kylie; and then there was a birthday dinner at the cafe that wasn't really a party; but open to everyone in the community and a few family and friends' guests before Harry and Ginny were sent off on a kid-free night and Lily 'camped' with Jonah at his townhouse after hanging out with some friends after dinner.

Thursday was Bill and Fleur's twenty-seventh anniversary, so there was more family fun to help get August off to a great start, but while Harry and Ginny had a lunchtime celebration to attend at the Leaky, Bill and Fleur only had their kids and granddaughter with them for a dinner party at Shell Cottage; so the nieces and nephews were only directly involved in their special day through mirror chats and sending gifts. For Al, Gwendolyn, Lily, and Jonah; the family fun action for the week wrapped up on Satturday with Dennis and Cyren's wedding.

Al and Gwendolyn were ready to have fun with her family by Saturday after such a long busy week, but then they still needed to juggle work too; and took a morning publicity event geared toward kid-fans that also allowed them to be done for the day in time to get ready for the wedding. While this wedding was the fifth of the year for their combined families, it was only the second that Al and Gwendolyn attended – including their own; and it was a much-bigger event than their intimate little ceremony and dinner. That was entirely because Cyren had wanted the big wedding, but Dennis enjoyed a good party too; so he'd been happy to go along with the big plans. 'Big' was still relative, since the wedding wasn't as large as Louis' and Lucy's weddings had been, but they'd still needed a double-pavilion tent set up; and there were more than five hundred guests.

"It's scaring me just a bit, Gwendolyn, but you might want to stay close to your husband today," Lily offered with a smile as they sat down in the chairs they were led to by one of the ushers that was on the groom's side of the center aisle and in the fourth row that put them behind the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and a few extra VIP guests. "That new look of his plus the suit is getting a lot of attention from the Witches around here."

"I've always thought that Al looks great when he gets dressed up," Gwendolyn offered. "We're going to shoot for a trouble-free day for the magnet, though; so let's not get started on even teasing him about getting into trouble with me because of other Witches spending to much time enjoying the view – though I reserve the right to change my mind about that if they start flirting with him too."

"He'll only notice the attention from the youngest Witches," Lily predicted – "and you won't have to worry about them falling for your husband for another decade or two."

"Probably true," Gwendolyn agreed. "I'll just hope that they all think he's too-old by then. It's hot out here today. Maybe we should have gotten Al to work on sundresses with cooling charms on them for us to wear today. There isn't even much of a breeze in here right now."

"You don't need to charm your clothes to do that," Al reminded her. "That idea for the uniforms was because we can't use magic in matches – only magical devices."

"That's a good point – and obvious if I'd thought of it," Gwendolyn told him with a nod.

"Use Rule Number One for that," Lily suggested. "Al comes up with so many great ideas, that we sometimes forget to even look for the simple answers to problems." She laughed quietly when she suddenly felt noticably-cooler thanks to a non-verbal from Al that might be working to cool everyone under the pavilion down a bit. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Al assured her. "I want you to be able to have fun today. This might be the last party we'll have time for during the rest of the summer."

"There is no chance that's true – even for you," Lily disagreed. "Even if you lose your first matches and don't have any victory parties, we still have family and friends' birthdays and anniversaries; I'll have an end-of-summer team party; there will be a picnic-party for the sports camp; and at least one or two back-to-school family play days."

"When will we have time for Quidditch?" Al joked. There are only four weeks to go until you head back to school; and we're supposed to train or play in matches for twenty-two of those twenty-eight days. I'm pretty sure that your list added up to more than six days of fun."

"You'll have to multi-task the work and play time," Lily advised him – "just as you've done for the first half of the summer – and I doubt that I've covered a quarter of what we'll all be busy with." She turned her attention and smile toward the group of cousins filing into the row behind them. "Hi, Greta; Lee. Is there something you forgot to mention to us when we saw you last Sunday, Greta? I'm sure I'd have remembered if you'd told us that you were bringing Lee to the wedding."

"That's because I only invited him earlier this week," Greta told her. "It wasn't much notice for Lee; but kept me from getting razzed about it for the first half of the summer."

"We'll be happy to trade those weeks of entertainment for the condensed blast of extra fun today," Lily assured her. "Where should I start? Maybe with the fact that you're both Beaters – and so are Katrina and Fred?"

"Considering how much you hate being compared to Al and Gwendolyn – or your parents – when it comes to you and Jonah; I'd hope that you'd just leave us alone," Greta told her seriously. "It's bad enough to have my brother and sister razzing us over the past few days."

"I can relate – though it was always James trying to mess with me."

"You could also keep in mind that anything you say today might be used against you in your match against Hufflepuff this year," Gwendolyn reminded her. "It might be a bad idea to get the Beaters you could be playing against in that match mad at you."

"That's one topic we want to talk about less than dating," Greta advised her. "If Ricky ends up as Captain and doesn't have open tryouts for both Beater spots; then Lee, Jimmy, and I will all be fighting for that other spot on the team."

"As if Ricky will pick Jimmy or me over you," Lee told her with a rueful smile. "Don't take that the wrong way, because I think you might be better than we are too; but then I think that I'm better than Ricky now; so it does suck that we might not get the chance to prove that next month."

"Hufflepuff does have more top Beaters than the other Houses," Lily offered. Gryffindor is going to have issues after Fred and Orlando graduate."

"Thanks, but until our House teams start winning Quidditch Cups and junior and senior team titles again; we won't be happy," Greta advised her. "We don't have much time before the ceremony starts, though; so why don't we talk about something else – like how great your dress is. I should have talked to you and Gwendolyn about going shopping for something to wear today."

"You look great," Gwendolyn assured her. "So do you, Christy. Didn't you want to bring a date too?"

"No," Christy answered. "We might not be technically dating this summer, but my current favorite Wizard is away on an expedition with his parents and brother; and I'm not interested in dating anyone else right now."

"Lorcan and Lysander are two of the best Wizards in your year," Gwendolyn suggested. "You're down to four weeks before you'll see him again – unless he'll be home early."

"Won't they at least need to come home for a visit to get their books, robes, and the rest sometime in the next week or two?" Al asked. "I don't think that I heard what they did about that last year – though they were home at least twice."

"Maybe they'll come home to watch Mum's first match with the Cannons,' Lily suggested with a grin. "Aunt Luna has done that for other big moments for Mum."

"Maybe," Al agreed. "I still wouldn't be surprised if Lorcan and Lysander come back early from that expedition. It must be a lot different for them after being at Hogwarts for a year; and they are missing out on the summer training with the Ravenclaw junior team too."

"Well, if they're doing that; they haven't said anything to me about it," Christy told him with a shrug. "If I do get to see Lysander before school starts; that'll be a nice bonus – assuming he still wants to hang out with me at all anymore."

"We can talk about that later," Gwendolyn suggested with a nod toward the front of the pavilion. "It's apparently just about time for us to watch our cousin get bonded for life; and I'm sure that Cyren and her bridal party will give us something fashion-related to talk about in a few moments too."

Gwendolyn was right about that, and Al had fun with her as the ceremony began and the next half-hour or so was, hopefully, as perfect for Cyren and Dennis as the happy bride could have ever hoped for or dreamed. Being one-half of a newlywed couple gave Al a new perspective on weddings, but this wedding really was quite a bit different than his had been; and there was a lot more going on with hundreds of guests instead of dozens. That was an issue for Al with his extended senses – as always, but there was still far-more happy than less-pleasant emotions and thoughts; so it was still easy-enough to stay in a happy place. Dennis and Cyren were happy too, and while Al sensed differences in their bonding to others he'd been around to witness; that wasn't something that he could understand well-enough to know whether those differences would make a difference for each couple's future together.

As usual, the ceremony seemed very short to Al, but then it probably should be amusing that the wedding photos then took twice as long by the time Dennis and Cyren had pictures taken with their wedding party, collective families, and some best friends. Dennis' side of the family went second after Cyren's, so there was a long wait too, but there were drinks and snacks available, and Al and Gwendolyn were kept busy because there were a lot of Witches and Wizards interested in talking to two of the players on the most-talked-about team in the league this year. They were able to have fun with their family too; and then they were put together with three couples that they didn't know while having dinner because Cyren took advantage of their celebrity to earn some points with cousins and friends – just as she did with Kirley and Gwenog at another table with some fans of the Weird Sisters and Harpies.

Meeting new Witches and Wizards was more-fun for Gwendolyn than it was for Al, but they both had fun – and Al knew that they'd impressed their dinner companions. There was a break and social hour after dinner; and then the dance began with Kirley joining the band to take care of the first few songs that included the first one with the bride and groom; the second for the wedding party; and the third for the parents and grandparents. They had not booked one of the top, most-popular bands for the wedding, but had gotten a talented wedding band; so they went on to keep the fun going with a selection of pop hits and oldies that catered to all of the guests. Since they weren't involved in any of the wedding work or wedding party responsibilities, Al and Gwendolyn had fun all evening; danced a lot; and enjoyed the celebration through until Dennis and Cyren were sent off on their honeymoon by a bit after one o'clock.

They went home shortly after that, but left Lily and Jonah behind to party on with Kirley and Gwenog because they could stay out and party while Al and Gwendolyn had work-related commitments on Sunday that they didn't want to be too-tired for – and because they wanted to end their day with some hotter fun that they couldn't share while at a party with hundreds of guests around them! The atrium wasn't empty when they got back, but they stayed out of the way of the friends that were having fun with a moonlight swim in the lagoon and used the outside entrance to their townhome. The play time for two that they shared once behind closed doors was a brilliant end to their day; and then they cuddled close and headed off to sleep for the handful of hours they had left to do that before it'd be time to get up and going again.

Al didn't get to sleep right away, but he was content to cuddle with his amazing wife; and let his mind wander along until he could slide into nap mode too. They were past the half-way point of summer, but that felt very different this year now that they weren't on summer holidays at all. He'd also usually thought of his father's birthday and the end of July as the mid-point of his summer holidays; but that hadn't been the case this time either. The Hogwarts letters were going to be delivered in the morning, but that wouldn't be happening in their home, and with Lily and Jonah staying with his parents for the night; they wouldn't be in on the Hogwarts letters at all until whenever they started to get the news from Lily, Jonah, and the rest of their younger cousins and friends.

There was just a week to go until opening day for the league season, but while that was exciting; it was still different too when they still had two weeks to go until their first match of the season – and their league Quidditch careers. That was a countdown that felt very real to Al – and exciting. Whether they thought of their summer as half-over or not, Al was sure that their lives were going to get even more-exciting as they got to find out if all of the work and planning was going to lead to as brilliant a rookie season as they all hoped would happen for them. Lily had been right about the rest of the busy that they'd be juggling along with everything Cannons-related that they would be busy with over the next four weeks, but while there were still a lot of unknowns; the one thing that Al was absolutely certain of was that they were going to be brilliantly-happy whether they were working or playing with their families and friends!

That really was what mattered most to Al; so having a brilliant start to their league Quidditch careers would just be a really great bonus!