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"Why didn't you tell me Harry was home?" Ginny demanded, barging into Ron and Hermione's flat where Hermione was doing laundry.
"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked, internally vowing to renew the locking charms on the front door.
"Harry, he's here in England. Why didn't you tell me? Is he staying with you?" Ginny repeated, trying to be pleasant enough to get an answer.
"He never stays with us, we haven't the room for him and his family and our flat isn't secure enough," Hermione replied trying to hide her irritation.
"What do you mean isn't secure enough, you've got this place warded to the hilt," Ginny scoffed.
"It's not warded against you and your mother," Hermione replied dryly.
"Where is he staying then and why didn't you tell me he was coming home? Why doesn't everybody know?" Ginny demanded, ignoring Hermione's reference that the reason Harry didn't stay with Hermione and Ron was because of her.
"He isn't coming home to live, Ginny. The last time I spoke with him he told me that he doubted that he would ever move back to England, and he also didn't tell me he was planning to come to England at all this week so it's probably just a very short business or Auror related visit. Even if he is here in England he's made it clear that he doesn't want to see you. Harry's married. If he's brought his family with him, then he wouldn't tell us about it in advance to protect his family from you. He knows you nearly killed him to get what you want. He wouldn't trust you anywhere near his family," Hermione said.
"You don't know anything!" Ginny insisted.
"Ginny, he showed me a copy of his wedding vows and the ritual he used. It's a lot more than the traditional marriage Ron and I had. He is married not just for life but for eternity, he vowed fidelity for the rest of his life. They were the strongest marriage vows I've ever heard of. Even killing his partner and placing Harry under the imperious couldn't get Harry to marry you. What you want is impossible," Hermione argued. "Harry is happy with the life he has now. Happier and more relaxed than he ever was in the whole time you knew him. Tim loves him, really loves Harry as he really is, not the fantasy Harry Potter boy-who-lived that you imagine he is."
Unfortunately, Ginny refused to listen, again.
"Where is he staying?" Ginny demanded.
"I don't know, probably somewhere in the muggle world. I didn't even know he was here in England?" Hermione admitted. "How did you hear he was here?"
"I heard Ernie MacMillan tell Zach Smith this morning. Why would he come back if it wasn't to see you and Ron?" Ginny scoffed.
"He's closer to Kingsley and Robbards than he is to Ron these days," Hermione replied. "He often meets with them on Auror business, not always here in England, but it is often enough. If he came for a business meeting he might already have left again. Kingsley was also talking about having him run some Auror training sessions soon but I hadn't heard that they'd set a date for that."
"I don't believe you!" Ginny said. "Is he still close to Neville?"
"Yes, I believe he is. Neville votes his seats on the Wizengamot and they correspond regularly about Wizengamot business and other things. Why?" Hermione replied.
"Neville's having a party tomorrow. Were you invited?" Ginny asked.
"No we weren't, it's a family party. His son's Christening," Hermione said.
"So he wouldn't invite Harry?" Ginny said.
"He might, Neville did go to Harry's daughter's first birthday last month and Neville was the only one of our school friends to attend Harry's wedding," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"How do I get an invite to Neville's party?" Ginny pondered.
"You don't! Stay away from Harry and leave him and his family alone. Harry has information in a secure place to ensure you spend the rest of your life in Azkaban if there's even a hint that you harmed him or threatened his family. Kingsley and Robbards would like nothing better than to have you charged with attempted line theft, and if it goes to trial and people realise this is the reason Harry left the country they'd find you guilty and you'd be lucky to avoid the Dementor's kiss," Hermione replied. "Don't you care about your family at all? If you're prosecuted for line theft Bill, Percy and your father would be ruined and probably the twins, nobody would be game to buy their potions if it came out that their sister had nearly potioned The-Boy-Who-Lived to death."
Ginny looked at her sister in law in shock. "Harry wouldn't have me prosecuted. Not when it would harm his family like that."
"Wake up to yourself Ginny! Harry stopped seeing the Weasleys as his family when the whole lot of them believed your lies and turned on him without listening to his side of the story. You nearly murdered him. The twins kicked him out of their partnership in WWW, Bill lost his job with the goblins for letting cursed money be put in his vault, Percy tried to have him fired from the ministry and Molly made it nearly impossible to be out in public without her screeching at him, preventing him from doing his job in Diagon Alley which is partly what led to him being offered the international position, driving him out of his home country. Do they sound like actions of a family to you? They sound more like the actions of an enemy to me. The only reason he didn't have you prosecuted at the time was because he had another way out of the situation and he wanted to put the whole thing out of his mind," Hermione lectured, petrifying the red headed woman when she tried to storm off.
"You've done Harry more than enough harm, so I'm going to give you a choice. Either you give me your word and vow to leave him alone or I'll tie you to that chair until Harry leaves the country," Hermione said fiercely, removing the silencing charm. "Harry may no longer be family to you, but he is still my brother."
"You can't do this!" Ginny screamed.
"Watch me!" Hermione said bluntly.
"Ron won't let you do this to me," Ginny continued between obscenities.
"Yeah he will, if he knows what's good for him," Hermione said reapplying the silencing charm, and petrifying her, adding a sticking charm on the seat, before levitating the chair and Ginny with it into the spare bedroom and relieving the woman of her wand. She considered stunning her as well but she wanted her sister-in-law conscious to think about exactly why Hermione felt she needed to do this to her though she had little hope that the message would finally get through. She cast the incarcerous binding Ginny to the chair and warded the room for added security
-o0o-
"What the hell is that? Please tell me it isn't dinner," Ron said watching Hermione put pineapple, apples, spinach, celery, cabbage, kale and muggle protein powder into some muggle looking gadget.
"It's a food processor magically adapted to run off magical batteries. It was a gift from Harry. When we spoke about magical and muggle appliances I told him this was one thing I missed most and I wished there was a spell to vitamise foods. Dobby dropped it off this morning." Which in hindsight should have told her that Harry was in England this morning.
"And what exactly are you making?" Ron asked with trepidation.
"It's a protein and vitamin shake, a meal replacement. Don't worry it isn't for you. You're dinner's in the oven. Can you take this in to feed Ginny? She's in the spare room. You'll need to unpetrify her, so she can swallow and digest the drink but don't untie her," Hermione asked casting a spill proof spell and inserting a straw.
"Why do you have Ginny tied up and petrified in the spare room?" Ron asked confused.
"She came here this morning demanding to know why we hadn't told her Harry's in England, then she started making plans to crash Neville's sons christening. I took her prisoner because she wouldn't vow not to harm Harry's family," Hermione said angrily. "I'll let her go when she vows or I know Harry's left England again."
Ron sighed. He went into the room and unpetrified his sister. "Drink," he ordered, sticking the cup in front of her mouth.
"Untie me!" Ginny yelled silently.
"I'm not setting you free to hurt Harry. I regret believing your lies before he left the country and helped you drive him away. I was a lousy friend and I'm incredibly glad he's forgiven me and I'm not going to do anything else to harm our friendship," Ron said. "And I'm not removing the silencing charm because I don't want to listen to any more of your lies. Now do you want Hermione's shake or aren't you hungry?"
Ginny shook her head and turned it away even as her stomach rumbled.
"Suit yourself," Ron said moving away and reapplying the petrificus totalus. "Can't say I blame you, it's very green, but you know she isn't going to give you anything else," he mumbled hoping Hermione wouldn't make him drink it.
"She said she isn't hungry," Ron said.
"Did she spit in it?" Hermione asked taking back the drink.
"No she didn't even try to taste it," Ron replied. "You can't give that to her," he protested as Hermione poured some into Rose's sippy cup.
"Why not? She likes it and it's good for her," Hermione asked.
Ron watched his daughter happily drink the bright green juice smoothie in astonishment and decided to taste it. It was surprisingly good. More refreshing than pumpkin juice.
-o0o-
Hadrian received an owl at breakfast next morning. Tim looked up surprised, post owls weren't widely used in America.
"It's from Hermione," Hadrian said to him. "I wonder how she knew we were here."
He quickly scanned it, "Ernie has been telling people I'm here, Hermione is warning me that Ginny found out. She's intercepted Ginny but she can't guarantee who else she told before that."
Neville frowned.
"You didn't tell us to make it a secret," Hannah said.
"No we didn't, I hope you're warded against howlers, if Ginny told Molly," Hadrian said bluntly.
"The house is warded against uninvited guests but nobody I know has a howler ward," Neville replied.
"There must be such a thing, none of the professors ever got howlers while they were at breakfast," Hadrian said.
"I think they had a mail redirection ward to send all their non-personal mail to their offices where we wouldn't hear them," Neville replied.
Hadrian sighed and went back to his meal.
"The Christening's not until three, what are your plans for the rest of the day?" Hannah asked.
"We don't actually have any but I'm sure Quincy as some estate matters for us to attend to if you want us out of your hair," Hadrian said.
"Don't let us run you off," Neville said. "Hannah's made me promise not to discuss Wizengamot business this weekend but I'd be happy to show you around. There is room here to fly if you want."
"Tim doesn't enjoy it so thanks for the offer but no thanks," Hadrian replied not wanting to abandon his husband to Hannah's friends, though he'd coped okay the night before.
"Is there quidditch in America?" Hannah asked.
"There's a local competition but it doesn't have that much of a following. Most people follow American football, baseball, basketball or quadpot. I used to fly for a local team before we had Rosie but I just haven't had the time to go back to it. Perhaps I'm getting too old," Hadrian said. "I don't really miss it."
"Is Tim able to fly?" Hannah asked surprised.
"Yes of course, he is a wizard, though he doesn't like heights or rollercoasters so he enjoys flying about as much as Hermione did," Hadrian replied.
"I hate flying too, but Harry's always been part bird the things he can do on a broom defy belief," Neville said, smiling commiseratingly with Tim.
"I went to watch a couple of matches with him, but I've never seen him play," Tim replied. "I've flown with him occasionally in Hawaii, it's the best way to get across to the surf beach, the path's too overgrown and watched him chase the snitch out over the ocean."
"He's never seen you play?" Hannah asked astonished.
"The Statute of Secrecy, because Tim doesn't have active access to his magic I didn't realise he was a wizard and I didn't tell him I was one until after I quit quidditch because I was pregnant," Hadrian explained.
"But you were living together before then?" Neville asked, confused.
"Yes, for a couple of years," Hadrian agreed.
"How did Tim not know you were a wizard if you were living with him?" Hannah asked baffled.
"I grew up in the muggle world Hannah, so it wasn't like I had to learn how to use electricity and light switches and stuff. It was easy enough for me not to use magic when Tim was around and my wand holster disillusions my wand," Hadrian said easily. "Tim thought it a little odd that I didn't know how to drive but I explained that I lived in London and it is easier not to drive in the city."
"You really gave up using magic to live with him?" Hannah asked.
"Well not totally gave up, I was still working as an Auror and I did a lot of the housecleaning with magic when he wasn't home, except near the electronics," Hadrian said.
"But to put yourself in a position where you couldn't use magic for hours every day. I couldn't do it," Hannah said shuddering.
"I don't think I could do it either," Neville agreed quietly.
"I don't think I use magic every day at home even now. There's lots of things I prefer to do the muggle way. Of course, the elves do most of the cleaning and maintenance these days," Hadrian said.
Hadrian groaned a minute later, as he spotted the owl heading towards them with the ominous red envelope.
"Have you found a spell that works against them yet?" Neville asked.
"No the distance works against them, all my mail from England goes through Gringotts to reach me and they simply destroy the howlers and cursed letters and bill the sender's vault for the inconvenience," Hadrian replied. "It took a while for Mrs Weasley to realise it was costing her Galleons every time she tried to send me a howler."
Neville looked amused for a moment, until the owl reached it's destination.
The owl obviously knew what it was carrying because he dropped the envelope from height and sped up to clear the area.
Hadrian sighed, quickly scanned the letter for additional curses and then opened it. Molly Weasley's shrieking filled the air until Hadrian cast incendio restoring quiet. "For some reason spells don't work against them until they've started howling," he explained to Tim.
"Well Mrs Weasley clearly knows you're in the country," Tim said. "What do you think she'll do next? Wouldn't it have been better to hear what she had to say?"
"There's nothing she can do while you're here. I put all the Weasleys on the exclusion list for the wards. They can't get in here without a curse breaker and even then it would cause a major incident to attack the wards like that. The Aurors would probably arrive to arrest them before they got through the wards," Neville reassured them.
"They aren't likely to find us in the muggle world either, so don't think that we're prisoners here," Hadrian told Tim.
"But if she'd sent the howler while you were staying in the muggle world wouldn't that be a breach of the Statute of Secrecy?" Hannah asked.
"Yes it could be, but it could also be easily covered up by pretending that it was coming from my cell phone because I know about the muggle world, if they sent a howler to a pureblood while he's in the muggle world they'd have to call in the obliviators," Hadrian said. "Molly would still be prosecuted if I made a complaint though, and I would if she does it."
"She didn't know you weren't in the muggle world," Tim pointed out.
"No, but it probably wouldn't have occurred to her that I might be. She never goes into the muggle world herself and because I'm from an old pureblood family, people tend to forget that I was muggle raised," Hadrian said sighing. "That or they simply don't want to admit that the muggle world has anything to offer a wizard."
Tim just shook his head laughing. "I want to go and see the progress on that school you talked about building last time we were here," he said.
"Quincy said the building's finished and handed over to the education department. They're moving the school over the summer break," Hadrian replied. "They let us buy the land the original school was on as well and we're rebuilding and renovating those buildings to lease back to them too."
"So, it will still be an elementary school, the playground there was dismal," Tim said frowning.
"That's why we're totally rebuilding everything except their new library, making it three stories and installing lifts to free up more space for playgrounds," Hadrian replied. "It wasn't fair that the kids who lived near the new estate got to transfer to the new school and the others had to keep dealing with the old draughty buildings and concrete playground."
"Are these muggle schools?" Hannah asked.
"Yeah I had a lot of land sitting idle but if I'd turned it all into housing then the existing schools wouldn't have coped with the influx, they were bursting at the seams as it was, so the education department okayed me to build a new primary school as part of the estate, and then when they saw the quality of the new school they sold me the old one to rebuild as well. I have a 99 year contract to lease the schools back to the education department. It will take me the whole 99 years to break even on the investment itself but good schools attract better quality tenants. If it goes well I'm going to apply to build a school on all my new estates."
"It's a pity the American school system aren't as accommodating," Tim said. "We've been turned down again on investing in the school Teddy goes to."
"I am making some progress on purchasing all the surrounding properties though," Hadrian said grinning. Most of the area the kindergarten building is in is already under overhanging wards. Teddy's protected for this year at least. And I'll ward the rest of the school illegally next year if I have to."
"Why did the muggle school run out of space?" Hannah asked confused. Her only experience of school was Hogwarts that could easily accommodate five times the number of students than were attending when she was there.
"A couple of the businesses in the area expanded their workforce and the number of children in the area increased quicker than the education department had projected," Hadrian explained.
"Are there many muggle schools?" Hannah asked.
"Thousands," Hadrian replied.
"Thousands of schools, there can't be," Hannah protested.
"There are more than 24,000 schools in the United Kingdom," Tim said after googling it quickly.
"Why would they have so many little schools?" Neville asked.
"They can't centralise things like wizards do because muggle transportation is much slower and muggle schools send the students home each night. But they're not as little as you think, some of those schools will have thousands of students," Hadrian said.
"I knew muggles outnumbered us but I hadn't really thought about it like that," Neville said seriously.
"Muggles are also more fertile than wizards they have more children per family," Hadrian said so the amount they outnumber us by is growing every year. The statistics the ministry uses are nearly one hundred years old so they're very understated. Just like the general knowledge of muggle technology is decades behind at best and with the rate of innovation in the muggle world, it soon will be nearly impossible to hide from them if we don't blend in better. Kingsley is campaigning hard to have the muggle studies program at Hogwarts updated and made compulsory for a reason."
"You want me to back him up?" Neville said.
"Yeah I think you should. Wizards need to fit in better in the muggle world because just about every person now has a cell phone containing a camera capable of recording video and sending it anywhere in the world before the obliviators arrive. Not to mention a lot of cities are installing street cameras in high crime and high traffic areas. Wiping memories isn't going to work much longer, in fact it will make things worse if someone has footage on their phone that they don't remember. So we need to teach people ways to fit in without using magic and how to not stand out amongst the crowd," Hadrian said.
"We'll get out of your hair for a while. I want to see this school too," Hadrian said.
-o0o-
The Christening itself was beautiful as the family performed the protective rituals to tie the baby to the family magic, and Hadrian and Tim both unhesitatingly vowed to care for Ellison as if he was their own child.
"I thought rituals were considered dark magic in Britain?" Tim said confused at the end of it.
"All but the most basic of old family rituals are. But the christening, marriage and burial rituals have been grandfathered into acceptance because they are so widely used the government couldn't convince people they are dark so they claimed they were different from other rituals," Hadrian said cynically. "But this is a very light magic ritual there was no blood used or sacrifices or sex magic."
"What was the fluid used?" Tim asked.
"Tears, the tears Hannah shed during childbirth and the first tears Ellison shed at birth, and some tears from Neville too," Hadrian said.
"It was beautiful, we didn't use tears in Rosie's Christening," Tim said.
"We used blood, which is legal in America and a much stronger old Black family ritual. The Blacks were always a much darker family than the Longbottoms."
"There was blood in the ritual, my blood?" Tim asked astonished.
"Only a drop, collected from the scratches on your hand I inflicted during labour," Hadrian replied.
"And my blood from the caesarean incision and a drop of Rosie's and Teddy's taken that day too. Don't worry I didn't hurt them."
"Oh!" Tim said.
"This ritual wouldn't have worked for us with Teddy because he wasn't magically our son," Hadrian explained. "It would have worked with Rosie but the other one gives her more of a connection to us."
"Should we mingle or something," Tim asked.
Hadrian nodded and headed back towards the children. They spent some time playing with Teddy and Franklin then when Rosie awoke from her nap took Teddy by the hand and with Rosie on his hip introduced Tim and the children to everyone.
Many of the Longbottom relatives were torn between wanting to shake the hand of the boy-who-lived and wanting to turn their backs on such an unconventional relationship. Neville and Hannah's acceptance of the pair as godparents to their second child, determined the matter though and they were politely welcoming no matter what their personal feelings. Teddy soon squirmed loose to return to playing with Franklin but Rosie was a hit with the women of the family, especially once Ellison returned to the nursery for a nap.
Tim was amused by the formality of the relatives, he could see disapproval in more than one set of eyes in spite of their behaviour, but nobody was willing to disagree with their hosts and be impolite to a guest in his home.
A/N: Thank you to Kourtney Uzu Yato, Melikalilly, Tetractys, xDarklightx, WolfishPennings, julschristine975, Rori Potter, Fallow54 (Guest), Sakura Lisel, Kaorilamb, buterflypuss, Locket1, lilly-flower15, starie78, charm13insomnia, knuckles 8, aisa.32, KEZZ 1, Gime'SS, staar (Guest), Hikari-Pandora, Firehedgehog, Fyreheart, Rainbow2007, DS2010, DarkRavie, SpiritBlackPaw, delia cerrano, jilumasam, Harriverse, kimbarn30, Silvermane1, TruGemini, acherongoddess, Merlenyn, Beth9891, Village-Mystic, serenityselena, FotoDi, ArielSakura, T1962 and all those who followed and favourited for your support.
