A/N: Well, after many long weeks, I'm finally updating. Sorry it took so long, but life's been just a little busy. For one thing, my five-year-old sister is currently running around singing the ABC Family "25 Days of Christmas" song.
TooSweet4Words: Sorry it took so long to updating.
Vandagirl519: For this to make sense you really ought to read the first story in the series When You See a Guy Reach for Stars in the Sky.
IHopeForAnarchy: I'll try to keep up the cuteness but also throw in some romance.
Atomic Elf: Neglecting schoolwork to read my stories? I'm so proud of you!
Ilikeoliverwood: I love your name!
Freespirit65: I don't think Emma's going to die but we'll all just have to wait and see. But so far it seems to me that she'll live. I'm glad you like this one.
Outlawed-little-angel: I'm not sure what's going to happen with everyone yet. Right now it's just the adventures of the Wood family.
Trinity Cloud: Yes, ma'am! I'm sorry it took so long.
Blackdragonofdeath13: always glad to please a reviewer.
Dadswell: You were my first reviewer for this story. I'm so glad you liked it.
Chapter Two: Oh, She Gets that From Her Mother
July 18, 2005: 7:19 PM the Woods' House (Third Person POV)
Katie was sitting on the porch swing with Oliver and Emma while Kiernan, Mary, and Chris played in the backyard. "So, Angelina and Fred are coming over for dinner tomorrow night," Katie announced.
"That should be interesting," Oliver replied, settling Emma in his lap. "Fred, Angelina, and two sets of twins, I just can't wait."
Katie smiled. Fred and Angelina had been married since they left Hogwarts nine years ago. They had seven-year-old twins, Fred, Jr. and Gina, and four-year-old twins, Greg and Francesca, more commonly known as Frannie. "Don't forget Grace," she reminded him of Fred and Angie's one-year-old daughter.
"How could I?" Oliver smiled. "After all, she is the only non-twin in that family other than Angelina. We should have George and Lish over sometime."
"You're right," Katie smiled. "It would be fun. You know what? We should have a reunion of the old Gryfinndor Quidditch team sometime. That would be so much fun!"
"It would," Oliver said, thoughtfully. "Fred, George, Angelina, Alicia, Harry, you, and me, that would be great."
"We'd have to invite Ginny too," his wife reminded him. "It wouldn't be right to have everyone except Harry with their spouse. We could invite their families over. The kids could play together and the parents could hang out."
"It would be great to see everyone again. We don't see any of them enough anymore."
Katie nodded. "We live in Scotland, Harry and Ginny live in Godric's Hollow, Angelina and Fred are in Diagon Alley, and Alicia and George are in Hogsmeade. We're all so far from each other."
"And we're so busy with our children. Kiernan, Mary, Chris, and Emma keep us busy enough."
"And yet we're talking about having baby number five."
Oliver shrugged. "What can I say? I can't keep my eyes off my wife."
"And I can't keep my hands off my husband."
"Oliver, let's face it. We were made to be together."
He kissed her cheek. "And have a large family, like the families we grew up in."
"So we're going to have a fifth baby?"
"Do you want to?"
"Emma is sixteen months old, in nine or ten months she'll be twenty-five or twenty-six months old; that's two years old. She's old enough and quite frankly, I miss having a baby around the house. Strangely enough, I almost miss being pregnant, feeling a baby growing inside of me. I want to have another baby; I love you, Oliver."
Oliver kissed her cheek again. "I love you, too. I'd kiss you properly but Emma's in the way."
"We'll do this properly after the kids go to bed," Katie promised.
July 19, 2005: 5:32 PM the Woods' HouseKatie was in the kitchen cooking when she heard coughing and voices. "Fred, that was my leg!" someone bellowed.
She turned around and there stood Fred and Angelina Weasley with their five children, Fred, Gina, Greg, Frannie, and Grace. "Welcome! Welcome! I'm so glad you're here!" She hugged Angelina. "Oh, Angie, it's wonderful to see you."
Angelina hugged Katie. "We never see each other enough anymore."
"I know. Fred and Gina are growing up SO fast! And so are Frannie and Greg. And Grace is walking now? I can't believe it!"
"Well, your kids must be growing up too," Angelina replied.
"They are," Katie said. "Kiernan and Mary are in the backyard; Chris and Emma are taking naps."
"Okay, okay, cut the small talk; let's get to the important stuff," Fred whined. "Where's Oliver?"
"Oliver? Who is Oliver? I don't know any Oliver," Katie teased. "Angie, do you know anyone named Oliver?"
"Nope," Angie replied, picking Grace up. "Never met an Oliver in my life."
"Oliver Michael Wood? Doesn't the name ring a bell? Katie, he's your husband! You two have been married for six years and you have four children together."
"Oh that Oliver Michael Wood! I'd completely forgotten about him!" Katie joked. "He's in the backyard with Kiernan and Mary. Fred, take your kids out there and you all can talk. Angie can help me with dinner and we can talk in here."
"Finally the woman talks sense. Freddie, Gina, Greg, Frannie, come on; let's go see Uncle Oliver, Kiernan, and Mary. We can leave these crazy women to their nonsense," the redheaded twin was up to his old antics.
"Dad, Mum and Aunt Katie aren't crazy," Fred Jr. told his dad. "You're absolutely off your rocker, but Mum's pretty sane."
"Pretty sane? Tell me, Freddie, what exactly does 'pretty sane' mean?" his mother asked.
"Well, you're kinda nuts since you have to be if you're married to Dad, but you're about a million, zillion times saner than Dad is," her son answered rapidly.
Angelina shook her head. "Fred, just get the kids out of here." She snatched Grace out of Fred's arms. "She'll be staying here with me, where it's safe."
Fred rolled his eyes. "I don't know how being with in the kitchen is safer than being with a co-owner of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. I'd think it would be safer to enjoy the fresh outdoors than to be cooped up in a hot, stuffy kitchen."
"OUT!!!!!" Katie bellowed. "Frederick, get out of my kitchen!"
Fred walked into the backyard with his four older children. Oliver was watching Kiernan and Mary who were playing with toy brooms. "Your beautiful but slightly mental wife just kicked me out of her kitchen," Fred greeted his old Quidditch captain.
"You know she's scared you'll do something to the food that will hurt our children," Oliver replied. "She's afraid you'll turn Kiernan into a canary again."
"I only did that as a joke! You'd think she'd get over that by now; it was over a year ago, after all," Fred protested, with what he thought was a hidden giggle as he thought about the day over a year ago when he'd turned then four-year-old Kiernan into a canary with one of his legendary Canary Creams.
"It wasn't funny!" Oliver replied, firmly with a fierce glare. "You scared the living daylights out of my wife and sent her into premature labor. If you hadn't done that, Emma would have been born a month later." His voice turned sad. "Then she wouldn't get sick so easily."
Fred looked down. He knew Oliver was telling the truth; he knew he had shocked Katie so badly she'd gone into premature labor. And he knew that Emma being born six weeks early was the reason she was so fragile. He cautiously put his hand on Oliver's shoulder. "I know there's nothing I can do to make that up to you. But, Oliver, I'm really sorry about that. I wish I could make this all up to you; I really do. I'm so sorry about this."
Oliver nodded and then Fred realized that there were tears in his friend's brown eyes. Oliver spoke slowly. "I'll forgive you, but never do anything like that to my wife or my children again. I love Katie and the children more than anything. Your pranks are amusing except when they endanger those closest to me."
Fred nodded. "Oliver, all I can say is I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to do anything to Katie or the baby."
Oliver looked at Fred. "I know. I know you were being yourself. It's just hard for me to know that we came to close to losing Emma. She's my daughter and she means so much to me. And Katie was so sick afterwards; the whole thing scared me so badly. I love my wife and my baby so much; I can't bear the thought of losing them."
Fred looked at his old friend for a moment. "You've changed a lot since Hogwarts. Back at Hogwarts you had one thing on the brain, Quidditch, and sometimes, you'd think about Katie. But now, you can concentrate on your job and your family. You work as an Auror five days a week from seven-thirty in the morning to five-thirty at night and then come home to a wife and four kids. You've grown up and changed for the better. You may not believe this, Oliver, but you're one of my role models. I really look up to you; you're an amazing husband and father."
Oliver smiled as Mary came running over to him. "Daddy! Daddy! Guess what I can do?"
He scooped her up in his arms. "What can you do now? What can my little Mary do?"
"I know a new song!" she pronounced. "A-B-C-D-E-F-G…" she started singing the alphabet song.
Oliver shook his head but listened with a smile. When she was done, Oliver asked her, "Where did you learn that song?"
"From Mummy!" she announced excitedly. "She taught it to Kiernan and me this morning so we would learn the ABCs."
Her father sighed. "Did she teach you any other songs?"
"Mary had a little lamb!" the five-year-old brunette announced. "I have a little lamb!"
Oliver laughed. "Silly Mary! You don't have a lamb."
"Mary has a little cat, little cat, little cat!" the little girl sang. "Mary has a little cat whose fur was orange as a pumpkin!"
Fred laughed. "She's a smart little girl, Oliver."
"Oh, she gets that from her mother," Oliver announced as Katie walked into the yard with Emma on her hip and leading Chris by the hand.
"What does Mary get from her mother?" Katie asked, coming to stand beside her husband.
"Her intelligence and her astoundingly perfect looks," Oliver replied coyly.
"She must be unusually intelligent and amazingly gorgeous," his wife replied mischievously.
"Well, she is your daughter," he replied with a smile.
"She's your daughter too. As I recall, you were known for your good looks and astounding intelligence back in our Hogwarts days."
"His fan club had more members than Cedric Diggory and Roger Davies combined," Fred recalled. "Girls would stand in line for hours just to get his autograph or look at him for two seconds."
Angelina rolled her eyes. "While you and your brother would stare enviously at all the girls in short skirts who were waiting to talk to Oliver."
"Who was busy ignoring his fans to be with his girlfriend," Fred retorted. "I swear, there was this line of like a hundred girls waiting to talk to Ollie after we won the Quidditch Cup during fifth year and you know where Ollie was?"
"Snogging Katie in the showers?" Angelina suggested.
"Try in his bedroom, and who knows what else they were doing in there," Fred remarked suggestively.
"Oh, shut up!" Oliver protested. "It's none of your business what Katie and I did in private ELEVEN YEARS AGO! After all, there are children present."
Katie shook her head. "Not any more! Kiernan, Mary, Chris, come on; we're going inside away from your perverted Uncle Fred."
"I'm not a pervert!" Fred protested as Katie ushered the children into the house.
Alicia and Katie took the children into the kitchen so they could finish making dinner in peace. "So, how's life in the Wood family?" Alicia asked as she chopped peppers.
"Very interesting," Katie responded with raised eyebrows.
"Really? What's happening?"
"Last night, Oliver and I decided we're going to try for a fifth baby."
"Oh my gosh! Are you serious? Even after everything you two went through with Emma? This is amazing." Angelina hugged Katie. "Oh, Katie, I'm so happy for you two! Tell me the minute you know that you're pregnant."
"Oh, I will! I'm looking forward to having another baby around the house. I just hope that Emma will adjust to the new baby better than Chris adjusted to her."
"He kept demanding that you send her back for a refund because he was sure she was a mistake," Angelina remembered with a smile. "He told you that she was someone else's baby and he kept looking for your real baby, his brother."
Katie laughed. "He was so cute. Thankfully, he eventually warmed up to Emma and he adores her now."
Just then, Chris walked in leading Emma. "Mummy, Emma wants you."
"Mummy!" Emma squealed reaching her arms up to her mother.
Katie picked her daughter up and kissed her cheek. "How's my little girl?"
"Good!" This was a welcome change from the sick little girl Oliver and Katie had been so worried about the day before.
Katie kissed her daughter's forehead. "I'm glad to hear that."
Oliver looked at Fred. "Katie and I decided we're going to try for another child."
"After everything with Emma? That's great!" Fred replied enthusiastically. "Now, you're going to name him Frederick, right?"
"Umm," Oliver paused for effect. "No."
"But I'm your best friend."
"You're my best friend who already named one of his own children after himself. I still don't have an Oliver Jr. I have a Kiernan and a Christopher but no Oliver. If I name my son after anyone, it'll be me."
"I'm hurt," Fred replied. (At this point the author became really sarcastic and annoyed at her sisters, so this will be evident until aforementioned sarcasm goes on vacation.)
"You should be," Oliver replied.
"I hate you!" Fred yelled.
"Oh stop acting like a three-year-old! I have a three-year-old inside and he's more mature than you are."
"I'm telling my mother!"
"You're married and you're going to go off crying to your mummy?"
"Fine, I'm telling my wife."
"Oh, grow up!"
"You're a big meanie!"
"And you're acting like a baby! For once could you just act your age, not your shoe size?"
"No!"
"I'm going inside, moron."
"Oliver Michael Wood, I wish you were dead."
"Bite me," Oliver replied walking into the house.
"What was that all about?" Katie asked her husband.
"Oh, nothing," he replied innocently. "Fred and I just had a little tiff."
"Really?"
"Really."
"You're crazy, darling."
"Ah, but that's why you love me."
"I suppose it is," she replied, kissing him.
A/N: Now, ready, set, REVIEW! Good job! Yeah, I'm really sorry about how sarcastic that last bit was but I'm in a sarcastic mood and I don't feel like changing it. I hope you don't mind because I don't. I love y'all and I'll love you even more if you review.