Disclaimer: This is a Harry Potter fanfiction. As you all know, JK ROWLING, owns the Harry Potter universe, and therefore I have no claim to it. I read a lot of fanfiction, and as such have probably been influenced by these stories when writing this, however no 'copying' has happened intentionally. I like to think I have been as original as I can be when writing a style of story that has been done countless times by countless people! Nevertheless, enjoy! Please review, I know I would benefit greatly from the feedback and constructive (hopefully) criticsm. Flame if you must, but that's really just a waste of my time, and your own. It won't stop me from writing this!

Chapter 4

A small crowd gathered on the worn stone steps of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, their respective robes fluttering in the light wind. Most had excited yet nervous expressions plastered on their faces, and one woman was twisting her hands in anxiety. An arm snaked its way around her shoulders, and the woman looked up at her red-headed husband and tried to smile as he squeezed her shoulder.

All eyes were glued to the gate hundreds of meters away as one of the school carriages approached the gate. Everyone present could clearly see the thestrals pulling them. Just one of the side-effects of the war against Voldemort in which they were all heavily involved, as members of either the Order of the Phoenix, the DA, and for a few, both.

An unnatural silence settled over the castle grounds as the carriage eased to a halt directly in front of the group gathered to meet it. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily and silently offered the man beside him a lemon-drop out of a silver container. Leaning heavily on an ebony cane, a man with grey hair curtaining his face and hiding his eyes shook his head in disgust. His hands shook as he lifted his cane to slightly adjust his stance.

……………………………..

The door of the carriage swung open and Harry stepped out confidently, but inside he was feeling rather queasy thanks to the hundreds of butterflies flying madly around his stomach. Harry really had no idea what to do next, but conscious of the fact he had been simply standing there for nearly thirty seconds, he gave a tentative half smile to the familiar, yet changed faces staring at him, mixed emotions crossing their faces, and mussed up his hair feeling stupid that he had nothing dramatic, or even interesting to say.

But the small action was enough for Hermione. She practically attacked Harry, nearly pulling Ron over as his arm was wrenched away from her shoulders. First she hugged him so tightly Harry could have sworn he could feel all his organs being squished together most uncooperatively and, embarrassingly, a strange sound halfway between a squeak and a burp came out of him. Then Hermione, still clutching him with one arm, started thumping Harry's chest with the other, tears of relief, anger, and the grief she'd already felt for his disappearance flowed out of her.

Ron stepped forward with a serious expression on his face, and gently took hold of Hermione by her shoulders and pulled her to him. He stared hardly at Harry for a moment – for a second he looked as though he wanted to inflict grievous bodily harm on him – and then grinned his trademark smile. "It's good to see you mate. Been too bloody long, but it's better than never."

After that, the others seemed to find their voices, and soon there was a buzz of greetings, admonishments, questions and news all directed towards Harry, who still had not spoken a word – unless you count that embarrassing sound just before.

It appeared that no one had noticed the two girls that had tentatively climbed out of the carriage just behind them and stood in their father's shadow, curiously watching the people surrounding them. That is, until the man with the walking stick spoke up, his voice booming above all the other noise. "It seems that your companions are no more literate than you are Potter."

Everyone turned to look at Severus Snape with confused looks on their faces; he however looked down his nose at them as he indicated with his cane at the two girls now resembling scared deer with their wide eyes darting from person to person, as they were gawked at.

Now Harry had something to say, and cleared his throat. "This is Luda, and this is Aida," he said loudly, indicating to them respectively. "My daughters," he finished lamely.

A few of the women had their hands covering their mouths in shock, Ron looked like he was still trying to process his new piece of information, and then a lithe woman slipped through the gaps in the small crowd and blinked at Harry, and cocked her head to one side as she looked Luda and Aida over. "You're teenagers," she told Luda and Aida, who looked hesitant about being addressed in such an odd manner. "You had children younger than I'd expected you to Harry," she said, clearly unsurprised that he had indeed, produced offspring.

"Er…" was Harry's poignant response.

"I'm thirteen," spoke up Aida, directing everyone's attention towards her. "I mean," she nearly whispered. "I'm only just a teenager…" she drifted off.

"I'm fourteen," offered Luda kind of aimlessly, not really sure whether she should add anything.

Professor Lupin smiled warmly at the girls, thinking reminiscently that James would be thrilled to have been a grandfather. Luda felt an immediate ease around the older man, although she didn't know who he was, or his connection with her father. Aida however didn't notice Remus smiling at her; she was staring intently at Snape, entirely intrigued with his demeanor. He felt her stare, and snarled at her silently. Inside though he was laughing. He had to leave the right sort of impression on Potter's kids, even if he no longer felt the same animosity towards Harry that he once did.

Aida didn't flinch, impressing Snape although he didn't show it. She was completely unaware of what was going on around her, and jumped when she felt her dad's hand gently pushing her on the back towards the looming doors at the top of the steps.

…………………………..

Harry observed everyone as they sat around the staff table sipping on pre-dinner drinks. On his left sat his daughters, who whispered to each other from time to time, but on the whole stayed fairly quiet, taking in their surroundings. On his right was Hermione who quite frankly, once she got hold of Harry again had not stopped clutching his arm as though she was afraid he'd disappear again if she let go. Ron was next to her, and Harry had not failed to notice that the two kept touching hands, not to mention the gold rings on both their hands. They sure had some catching up to do.

Besides Dumbledore, Snape, Lupin and Luna, there were several other old friends and allies of Harry present. Ginny sat next to her father, whose hair was now grey with a couple of streaks of red hair. Arthur Weasley was not the same man he had been before the war. Sadly Molly had been killed by the killing curse when she had leapt in front of Percy when death eaters stormed the Ministry, despite him never apologizing to his parents for his abysmal behaviour and betrayal. Mrs. Weasley's sacrifice was in vain. As Percy stood in shock after watching his mother collapse on the ground before him, a stray reducto curse hit him full on. It had not been a pretty sight to witness.

Neville sat in deep conversation with Charlie Weasley, in a debate over whose area of expertise should receive the new Ministry research grant – magical plants or magical creatures. Hagrid was siding with Charlie, although Neville was ignoring Hagrid's calls of "He'yre he'yre!" to everything Charlie said. There were no other Weasley's present. In the final battle Fred and George had been fighting together back to back. After a vicious duel with Lucius Malfoy, Fred was hit by the Cruciatus curse. George, also in an unforgiving duel could not spare a moment to turn and break Lucius' spell beam. By the time he had killed the Death Eater he was facing, it was too late for Fred. Although still alive, he had been driven beyond insanity, and was lying on the ground unresponsive to everything.

In an explosive fury George had shot forward and literally slaughtered every enemy that crossed his path with a face completely devoid of all emotion. Not long after however, a vampire attacked George from behind and sucked all his blood from him, ditching his body into the lake. It was not found until the Giant Squid brought his body to shore a week later, limp and white, but eyes wide open, a ghostly stare ever-present. As for Fred, he died peacefully in the hospital wing, his spirit and mind completely broken, and eventually his body gave up. Bill of course, had been killed in the summer before Harry's seventh year, while on routine Order duties.

A few other members of the DA were seated at the table: Susan Bones, Zachariah Smith and Cho Chang, and Harry sincerely hoped that more than those present had survived the Final Battle, seeming as he had not exactly stuck around long afterwards. Harry noted that Professor McGonagall was missing from the throng of people, and this struck him quite hardly. He had become rather fond of the elderly woman in his final year at Hogwarts, despite her being ever-loyal to Dumbledore she had mentored him and giving him grandmotherly support during the times he needed it most. Harry would learn later that Minerva passed away only a few years ago. She was after all, quite old – though not any rival to Dumbledore – and the stress of the second war had diminished her strength considerably.

Kingsley Shacklebolt sat quietly listening to Tonks babble on, bright violet hair looking a bit funny on a woman in her forties (shock horror!). Looking considerably older than he had when Harry last saw him, Kingsley was now the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. Speaking of Kingsley looking older, it only then struck Harry how grown up his friends all were now. All were in their mid-thirties. Do I look as old as they do? Harry thought in horror. He had never really considered how he had aged. It's not liked he had paid any attention.

A crack behind Harry made him nearly topple off his chair. He had forgotten how jarring the sound of house-elf apparition could be if one wasn't expecting it.

A house-elf was staring up at Harry in utter adoration, the muggle party hats stacked up on his head threatening to topple at any moment. It let out a breath it had obviously been holding, only for a shrill toot to come out of the party whistle stuck in its mouth. It opened its mouth (causing the whistle to fall onto the ground) and whispered, "Harry Potter sir…" Then it shrieked causing everyone to hurriedly press their hands to their ears and scrunch up their faces. "HARRY POTTER HAS RETURNED TO'S US!"

Harry then found a house-elf crying into his lap and turned bright red. "Dobby?" he asked amazed.

The house-elf gasped. "The stories they is true! Harry Potter sir does speaks to lowly house-elveses."

"Or not Dobby," Harry muttered under his breath perplexed.

"Oh no Harry Potter sir. Dobby is gone to wash dishes fors eternity now, up in house-elf heavey. I's is Dobby's bubba-elf. I's is," and here the elf grinned a toothy smile. "I's is Harree."

Everybody around the table started to giggle, they all knew about this already. "It appears that when Dobby and Winky ah…procreated, they wanted to pay tribute to you." Dumbledore coughed. "Dobby asked my permission to name his first born after you, and I could hardly refuse him."

Harry groaned, mussed up his hair, and drawing a deep breath, couched down on the floor to be level with the little elf. Holding out his hand, Harry said as sincerely as he could muster, "I am very pleased to meet you Harree. Dobby was a great elf, and I was honoured to know him."

Harree burst into tears once again, and clutched Harry's hand as he laid his head on it.

Harry went red as his girls went into absolute hysterics. They knew as well as anyone else present how much Harry despised that sort of attention having grown up with him, but being that generation younger than everyone else found themselves unable to control their laughter.

……………………….

Dinner was as spectacular as any Hogwarts opening feast and Luda and Aida marveled at how the food appeared in front of them.

The social side of the evening soon finished, and it was time for catching up to be put on hold while the 'grown-ups' left to discuss the more serious matters. Harry told the girls to go explore the castle to their hearts desire, as long as they stayed inside. They disappeared before he even finished his sentence.

As a group, those who remained trailed up to the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office. One by one they climbed the stairs, and, stepping onto the stairs last, Harry stood still as the staircase wound gracefully upwards…

………………………..

Hey people, quick note! Yeah I know, a slightly dull way to finish the Chapter, but it didnt seem appropriate for anything vastly EXCITING to happen at this stage in the story... and I couldn't think of a cliffhanger lol. Purpose for this A/N: about Harree the house-elf. I'm cringing a little about all that, but I wanted to do it even though I'm not confident on if it's actually any good lol. Let me know what you think though... BTW: 'heavey' is not a typo...it's my pathetic attempt to distort the English language to make it sound house-elfish! Also, sorry if you found all the background stuff a bit dull, it needed to come out and I wanted to get that sort of info out as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed btw!