The Potter Twins
Epilogue
"Mummy, tell me the story again of when I was born," a little girl with light auburn hair and shining blue eyes said, trying to climb onto her mother's lap.
"Joss, remember what we've said about you sitting on my lap?" her mother, with dark auburn hair and hazel eyes that were silently laughing, scolded as she put her daughter beside her.
"Daddy D said I can't anymore because you're too fat now because of the twins, and Daddy said I should do it anyways," she said. "That sounds like something Ron would say," the mother muttered. "And baby, I am not fat, I'm pregnant, and let me say, I love you so much because you didn't make me – as Draco says – fat."
Joss giggled. "Mummy, the story!"
"Right, right," she said, wrapping an arm around her daughter. "So exactly five years ago today, I was living in a flat with your godfather Seamus because your daddy and me were having problems and knew that we would never sort them all out before you were born. Then, one day when Uncle Harry and Daddy D were visiting me in one of my last days of being pregnant with you, I went into labour. They panicked so much."
"Even Uncle Harry when he's been through so much?" asked Joss, who already knew the answer because she knew the story so well.
"Especially Uncle Harry, he had never been in a scarier position in all his life, seeing his sister going into labour," Michelle said, smiling slightly. "I asked them to go get Grandma Molly, because, despite our differences, she really wanted to be the one to help deliver you and I thought after she had seven children of her own, she must know what she was doing."
"Did she come?"
"Oh yes, and she brought in tow Auntie Ginny for help and I was extremely surprised because we always got on like oil and water, especially after she dated – and broke up with – Uncle Harry. Then when Ron and I broke up, well, we weren't exactly the best of buddies."
"Why wasn't Auntie Hermione there or Auntie Pansy?"
"Auntie Hermione was out grocery shopping for her, Daddy D and Harry while they visited me. And Daddy and I didn't choose Auntie Pansy for your godmother until two or so months after your birth – besides, the Gryffindors never got along with Pansy, even after the house differences were put aside.
"Anyways, once Grandma Molly and Auntie Ginny were there, I was all set to bring you into the world."
"And pop, I was born, right? Like I Apparated right in front of you?" asked Joss, smiling.
"Sure Joss," Michelle replied, laughing as well, tickling her daughter.
Joss was dying of laughter when the doorbell rang, causing Michelle to stop and look up. She was about to get up to answer it (because Draco was not home at the moment) when Joss slithered out of her grasp and ran to the door.
"Joss, let Mummy answer it, it probably isn't for you," Michelle said, leaning back into the chair.
"Yes it is!" the little girl exclaimed, answering the door. "Uncle Harry, Auntie Hermione!" She flung herself into the arms of her aunt and uncle.
"Happy birthday Ms. Joss," Harry said, hugging his niece fiercely.
"What did you get me?" asked Joss, eyeing the present Hermione was holding.
"Who says this is for you?" asked Hermione, grinning. "It might be for your mummy."
"It's not her birthday though! That was last week!"
"Hi guys," Michelle called from the chair.
"You know, you shouldn't let five year olds answer the door," Harry scolded her, kissing his sister's cheek.
"Well she beat me to it, fair and square," Michelle said, shrugging.
"Mummy was just telling me the story of when I was born," Joss said, climbing up the chair to sit next to sit Michelle once more. "I was just born. What happened next Mummy?"
"Well, after we found out you were a healthy baby girl, Ron and I had to choose a suitable name for you. We fought about it for ages," Michelle continued, ignoring their new audience that had taken residence on her couch.
"Yeah, she wouldn't let us see you – or tell us you were a girl – until she had a name for you. She made Mrs. Weasley and Ginny swear they wouldn't tell us what gender you were."
Michelle ignored him, even though Joss heard and was giggling. "Finally, after many disagreements on names, we decided to name our newborn Joss Lillian Potter Weasley. Joss because we both had a mutual like for it, Lillian for your grandmother, and Potter Weasley because Ron and I knew we weren't getting back together and we couldn't choose which last name for you – I didn't want to shun Ron completely from your name (he wanted your name to be Molly), but I didn't want it to just be Weasley."
"And why was that?"
"Because at the time, I was angry with him," said Michelle, shrugging.
"When aren't you angry with Ron?" asked Hermione.
"I no longer get angry at him, he's somebody else's problem." By somebody else, she meant Lavender Brown (now Weasley), Ron's wife of three years and the one bearing his seed at the moment.
There was a bang, causing all to look at the front door, where Draco was standing, trying to hide a box behind his back.
"Daddy D!" cried Joss, climbing down off the chair again and running to Draco.
"Speaking of Ron and Lavender, when are they supposed to be here, it is his daughter's fifth birthday," Harry said, leaning on his knees with his elbows.
"I don't know, he was supposed to be here earlier," Michelle said, shrugging. "I guess Lavender is having trouble with transportation, because isn't it her eighth month?"
Harry shrugged this time. "I don't know, do I look like I talk to him constantly?" He looked at Hermione, expecting she would know.
"Seventh and a half," she said.
"Damn, Joss is one lucky little girl," Harry mused after a moment when Joss and Draco still had not returned from the kitchen where they headed with the box.
"What do you mean?" asked Michelle and Hermione at the same time.
"Well think about it, in about a month or so, she's going to get two new half-siblings. Then, two months after that, she is going to get two more half-siblings. So in just four months, she's going to go from being an only child to the oldest of five," explained Harry.
"Oh boy, you're right. My poor little girl, she's used to so much attention – being the only child in the whole family – now though, I bet the Weasleys will pay more attention to Lavender's twins since they'll see them more, and Narcissa will probably gush over my twins since Joss isn't even her biological granddaughter."
"Hey, my mother loves Joss as if she were mine," Draco said hotly from the doorway.
"Where's Joss?" asked Michelle, hoping she did not hear the conversation.
"Trying to figure out where I hid the cake," he replied, walking over until he was right in front of Michelle. "My mother won't put off Joss because of the twins."
"How can you be sure?"
"Studies show that people generally pay more attention to their own blood relatives then they do to adopted – or by marriage – ones," Hermione said from behind Draco. "It has nothing to do with your mother's love, that's just human nature. No matter how long someone is in their life, they tend to be drawn more towards actual family."
Draco was spared giving a rebuttal when the doorbell rang again. Before he could go answer it, a tiny flash of red hair flew past him.
"Daddy!" exclaimed Joss, jumping into Ron's extended arms.
"Hey sweetheart," Ron said, carrying Joss into the sitting room where they were all situated, a very pregnant Lavender following with a present. "You know, she shouldn't…"
"I know, she just beats us there with her little legs, I bet she's going to be a Seeker," Michelle said, interrupting Ron from his would-be lecture.
"She takes after me," Harry gloated, leaning into the couch and wrapping an arm around Hermione.
"I do not, Uncle Harry," she giggled, squirming out of Ron's arms and running to Lavender. "What's in the bag, Mummy L?"
Because Michelle had married Draco a few months after the birth of Joss, she had naturally started calling him 'Daddy D' (it had been shortened from 'Daddy Draco') since she saw him so much, then, when Ron married two years after that, she started calling Lavender 'Mummy L'. She was able to accept having two sets of parents because she was still at a young age, whereas Ron and Michelle did not think she would have been so acccepting if they had got together and then divorced since she never knew her parents to be together.
"None of your business little girl until your mother says you can open them up," Lavender said, smiling sweetly while she sat on the love seat.
"Oh fine," Joss huffed, going back to her place next to Michelle. "Finish telling the story Mummy." This caused Michelle to look at her, glaring slightly. "Sorry, please Mummy. You were just telling me when you and Daddy named me."
Ron groaned, he knew this story too much, when he and Lavender had Joss, she asked for it. The groan caused his wife and the Potters to glare at him. He couldn't see Draco's face because he was turned away from him.
"Right. After we named you, your father asked me to marry him," said Michelle.
"For the hundredth time, right?" asked Joss, causing the adults to laugh.
"Yes, for the hundredth time. I said I didn't think it would be fair to either of us, or to you, if we got married because like I said earlier, we were having too many problems, that, and the love I once felt for your dad had disappeared, vanished."
"Pop, like Apparation," Joss filled in.
Michelle smiled and nodded. "So there I was, with this huge hole where I used to love your father while everyone – and I mean everyone – cooed over you, and I couldn't help but think that the only one I wanted with me was Draco. You see, we always loved each other but it was a best friend love that ended up growing into more, which I'm grateful for."
"So then you and Daddy D got married right?"
"More or less, jellybean," Michelle said.
"Alright, story time is over," Ron said suddenly very loudly. "It's time for cake and presents for the birthday girl!"
"But 'Elle hasn't finished the story," Harry said, standing with the rest (they were heading to the kitchen where the cake and most of the presents were).
"I think we'll finish it at bedtime," Draco responded for Michelle, taking Joss into his arms.
(Laterrr)
"Story time Mummy," Joss reminded her mother once her teeth were brushed, pajamas were on, and her new presents (consisting of a miniature broom, a stuffed Niffler, a tiny moving replica of Sandra Hickenlotter (her favourite Quidditch player) and various knick-knacks from her uncles' joke shop) had been tucked away in a corner.
"OK, I'm coming, I'm coming," Michelle said, sitting on the bed next to Joss who was curled under her blankets.
"You and Daddy D just married," Joss said, incase her mother forgot where she stopped talking.
"I think we need to rewind a bit in the story. OK, so Daddy D and I, we were just starting to date again, and we knew that we definitely belonged together. For one thing, whenever he had other dates in the two months leading up to your birth, I would deliberately sabotage his relationships and he didn't mind. Now, because Draco and I were getting serious, that left Daddy and me with one question: Who was going to be Joss' godparents?
"We didn't want anyone that was or was going to be family, so that ruled out many people. Daddy D was on the top of the list, number one contender if you will, but when we realized we did love each other, that blew that idea out the window. And at the same time, Uncle Harry had confided in me that he believed he and Auntie Hermione were going to be long term (but I knew this before he told me)."
"Sure you did," Harry (having stayed behind for clean-up duty) said from the doorway.
"I did, remember I was the one that convinced you that you loved Hermione."
"You didn't think you loved Auntie Hermione?" asked Joss, scrunching up her nose. She had never heard this version of the story before.
"We – like your mum and dad – had had problems, big ones, but your mum merely guided me in remembering that I truly loved Auntie Hermione," Harry replied, taking a seat on the chair in the room.
"So why didn't you do the same for Mummy and Daddy then?" asked Joss, glaring at Harry.
"In the last month, I tried to convince her she loved him, I mean, she had to if she was having his baby, because babies are born out of love. But, your mum said she just didn't love him anymore. And she was too stubborn to admit it if she did."
"Yes, I was stubborn about my feelings. So now, I should admit that I did – do – love your daddy. But only just a tiny little bit because he was able to give me the greatest love of my life," Michelle said, kissing Joss' cheek. Joss pointed at herself. "Yes you, silly."
"OK, so you only loved Daddy a bit for giving you me, Auntie Hermione and Uncle Harry were in love a lot, and you started loving Daddy D. What next?" asked Joss.
"The choosing of your godparents!" exclaimed Michelle, causing Harry to laugh. "Stuff it you, I'm telling a story.
"So because Auntie Hermione and Daddy D were at the top of list since Auntie Hermione was Daddy's best friend and Daddy D was mine, we had to choose new people that wouldn't probably become family down the line. Now see, our first choice after would have been Uncle Neville because he was Daddy's other best friend. But what nobody knew was that he had asked Auntie Ginny to marry him after only a month of dating!"
"What?" exclaimed Joss (because she always did that) and Harry at the same time.
"Neville and Ginny were engaged before everyone else?" he prompted.
"Yes, now shh," Michelle scolded. "When Daddy ran the idea by Auntie Ginny, she told him that he was her future husband.
"Now we were really screwed because we each wanted one friend of ours for your godparents. Now because I was living with Uncle Seamus at the time, Daddy suggested we should ask him because he was one of my other best friends and a really good friend of Daddy's. So now we had our godfather, but what about a godmother?"
"Tell her how the two you narrowed it down to almost killed you," Harry said nonchalantly, causing Joss' eyes to wonder. She really needed Uncle Harry there at story time more often!
"Well we counted Seamus as Daddy's friend, so that left me to make a choice. Now, I was really good friends with two girls that were in our year and house at Hogwarts, so I had to pick between them. It was a hard choice, but I think I picked the right one."
"Yeah, Auntie Pansy's the best!" This statement caused Harry to laugh, a lot.
"Anyways, when I told Blaise and Pansy I was considering them, they went into a fit because they wanted to know how I could choose one over the other. They went ballistic. Then when I actually chose Pansy, because Blaise and I had just gotten off a row, Blaise went even crazier. But she accepted it once I told her my reasoning."
"Blaise is no good," Joss said, shaking her head. Once when she was being babysat by Blaise, Blaise left her at the park.
"You're right on that," mumbled Harry.
"So now our daughter had a name, godparents, and many people who loved her so much. Her mother soon married and all of them lived happily ever after." Michelle kissed Joss' forehead. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight Mummy, goodnight Uncle Harry," Joss said sleepily.
"Daddy D will check in on you soon," Michelle said, heading to the doorway while Harry hugged Joss. They left the room silently.
"So why wasn't Daddy D in there giving extra commentary?" asked Harry when they were in the hall.
"He doesn't like the way I tell it," Michelle said, shrugging.
"Well it is all nicely wrapped, like a Christmas present."
Michelle rolled her eyes. "She's a child still, I'm not going to tell her the whole story, it would traumatize her!"
"Yeah, I guess you talking about how much pain and suffering you went through to get her to come out would be a bit scary. And how before you loved Draco you loved Snape."
"I did not love Snape! He gave me the wrong potion for pain, you dolt," she said, pushing Harry, who went to push back. "No way, I got babies in the oven."
"Boo. Spoilsport," Harry said, sticking his tongue out and Disapparating before Michelle could smack him, wishing he had that ability when they were children.
Fin.
A/N: So that is the conclusion of The Potter Twins. I hope that by showing me you enjoyed or that you hated it, you will please leave a review!