It wasn't that Harry was unaware of his sons' reputations as the hellions of Beech Street, it was just that he honestly could not give a fuck about what the other neighbors thought.
Thankfully he was often spared Sharon's unending and unsolicited advice, simply because Sharon and the others invited Ginny to neighborhood playdates and things more than they did him, thinking she would want to join their little 'Mum's Club'. Nothing caused Ginny more frustration than the constant unannounced visits and invitations, whose outward friendliness masked a strong desire to change and 'fix' everything about their family.
Harry, on the other hand, was spared the condescending advice and book club invitations. The book club viewed him with the same suspicion that they reserved for their own husbands, assuming he was incapable of any childcare beyond the occasional babysitting while holding Ginny to an impossibly high standard of 'perfect' motherhood.
While Sharon and the other wives ignored him as a result of their sexist view of parental roles, Harry was often approached by the other dads, who seemed to think he would enjoy a night of beer, football, and bitching about their wives. This, in Harry's opinion, was almost worse than attending a play date with Sharon and her kids. The other husbands both complained about their wives and hyper-sexualized them in equal measure, complaining about 'period hormones' while describing their latest sexual exploits in detail. If Harry had to listen to one more story about Sharon and Tom's struggle to plan their sex lives around their schedules, he was going to take a time turner back to a fucking standoff against Voldemort.
So for the most part, Ginny and Harry did their best to avoid their Muggle neighbors, and made sure that their family was unavailable on the weekends, going to the Burrow, visiting Teddy Lupin, or just hanging out at home and making pillow forts with the kids. So when James's first day of school approached, Harry and Ginny were determined to avoid idle chitchat and condescending advice by leaving as soon as possible.
They somehow made it to the school on time, even with the chaos in the backseat; Lily was screaming at the top of her lungs, Albus had no shoes on, and James had gum in his hair that Ginny had not been able to remove before school. Harry felt the judging stares from the other parents as he and Ginny dropped James off at his classroom, but he ignored them and kissed James goodbye, holding on to Albus's hand to keep him from wandering off.
James had never been a child that was particularly shy or timid, and he raced into the classroom, eager to be in a new place away from his annoying siblings. Ginny and Harry attempted to herd Albus and Lily back to the car, trying to ignore the other parents' attempts at making conversation.
"Ah, Ginny! Good to see you!" Sharon called, moving in front of them and effectively blocking their escape route.
"Sharon!" Ginny smiled tightly.
"How are you? We haven't seen you around lately! Why, I was just telling Tom that we simply must invite all of you round for dinner some time!"
"Ah, well, things have been busy." Ginny replied, pulling Lily away from the table of craft supplies.
"Mummy!" The little girl whined, reaching for the glue stick.
"No, Lily. You can play with the arts and crafts things at home." Ginny said, lifting Lily up onto her hip.
"I wanna play now!" Lily screamed, throwing back her head and writhing, nearly flipping out of Ginny's hold and falling to the floor.
Sharon smiled in that judgmental way of hers and put her arm around her own daughter, who was Lily's age and stood quietly and well-behaved at her mother's side, dressed in a frilly pink dress that Lily would have destroyed within five minutes of wearing it.
"Yes, you must be very busy with all those children!"
"Mhm." Ginny said, hoisting Lily higher onto her hip as the girl kicked wildly. "They do keep us busy."
"Well, you simply must come round tomorrow evening. Isn't that right, Tom?" Sharon said, looking over at her husband, who was not even slightly listening as he tapped away on his phone.
"Isn't that right, Tom?" Sharon said again, hitting him in the arm rather forcefully.
"What? Oh, yes, of course darling." He said distractedly, looking up for a moment with a dismissive smile before returning to his phone.
"There you have it. So, tomorrow evening?"
Ginny smiled politely. "Of course."
Sharon clapped her hands together in satisfaction. "Six o'clock all right?"
"Perfect." Ginny said tersely, dodging an elbow to the eye as Ginny continued to scream.
"We'll see you tomorrow, then!" Sharon said, finally moving aside so they could pass.
Sighing in relief, Ginny and Harry took the opportunity to flee the room, heading towards the entrance of the school.
"Well, that went well." Ginny muttered, shifting Lily on her hip as she opened the door.
"Mummy!" The girl wailed. "I wanna play arts and crafts!"
"If you're a big girl, we can play it at home." Ginny replied evenly. "But that means walking properly next to Mummy and no more shouting."
Hiccuping, Lily nodded. Ginny put her down, taking her hand as they crossed the parking lot.
Albus sighed loudly and looked up at Harry. "Daddy, I'm hungry."
Harry ruffled his son's hair and smiled. "There's fruit snacks in the car."
"I wanna fruit snack!" Lily cried indignantly.
"You can have one too." Harry assured her, reaching into his pocket for the car keys and unlocking the car. He opened the door and helped Albus into his car seat while Ginny buckled Lily into hers.
Closing the door, Harry walked over to Ginny and held out the keys. "I'd better head into work. Everything good here?"
Ginny nodded, rubbing her eyes wearily. "I'll take them to my Mum's after lunch. Training might run late though. We have to prepare for Saturday's match."
"I'll pick up James and do dinner and bedtime, since you're doing the morning and lunch." Harry agreed.
"Great." Ginny smiled and gave him a quick kiss. "It's already eight-thirty. You'd better get going, Potter."
Harry smirked and gave a lazy salute. "What are they going to do, fire me? I'm the head of the Auror Department."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Show-off. You're worse than James, honestly."
"Where do you think he gets it from?" Harry grinned, reaching into his jeans pocket for his wand.
He glanced around furtively before Apparating with a pop, leaving Ginny standing alone next to the car.
"Such a peacock." She muttered, smiling fondly as she got into the driver's seat.
"All right, who's ready to go home?"
