A/N: Hello everyone! It's the beginning of June so here's the next update.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Victoire and Teddy found out that Jilly's three months pregnant and her and Caleb Cooke are going to have a baby, James is a reserve right-wing chaser for Puddlemere United and Victoire walked in on him the morning after a one night stand a few weeks ago, and because of that Victoire and Ally are anxious about him bringing a quaffle-bunny to their weddings. Cecilia and Louis are still together, and Baxter is single.
Re-Assignments and Wedding Dates
Wednesday, April 17th 2024
9:13 PM
"Three sickles says that Jilly's late 'cause she and Caleb were up late celebrating last night," Kurt bet Hayden with a roguish wag of his eyebrows.
Hayden didn't take the bait to talk about Jilly's love life, instead he said in a worried tone, "What if she's still not feeling well? She's never late . . . so she might actually be sick, right?"
Kurt snorted, "If she was sick she'd have called in already and said so. She's almost an hour late by now so she must be sleeping off a hangover or something-"
"Let's not jump to conclusions," Teddy commented calmly as he finally finished up the paperwork he'd be assigned the day before, "Perhaps she ended up switching shifts with someone else and is not due in until later today?"
The suggestion Teddy offered made both Kurt and Hayden pause for a moment and think, which was exactly what he intended it to do. He obviously knew that Jilly was probably late because she'd made an early morning appointment with an obstetric healer so that she could get solid confirmation about her pregnancy and a doctor's note that would be necessary for her to give to her superior aurors so that she could be put on desk duty.
"Well that would be a boring explanation," Kurt mumbled with a frown, "Can we at least bet on whether Caleb went through with asking Jilly to marry him or not?"
"Don't you have paperwork to do?"
Kurt frowned directly at Teddy this time and muttered something under his breath about Teddy 'not being the boss of me' even as he sat down at his desk and started to look through the haphazard piles of paper covering it.
A few minutes later Jilly walked into their shared office space and Kurt immediately went about trying to discover why she was late.
"Where have you been?" Kurt asked Jilly; sounding like a parent about to scold a teenager who had arrived home after curfew had passed.
Jilly just rolled her eyes at her partner –she was so used to his personality after so many years of working together– and then she glanced from Kurt to Hayden and Teddy, and then back to Kurt.
"I was at a healer's appointment."
"Are you still not feeling well?" Hayden asked Jilly worriedly even though from his opinion she didn't exactly look like she was ill.
Jilly shook her head and took a deep breath, "No–I feel fine actually. I was at a healer's appointment because I'm pregnant."
Teddy watched the expressions on Kurt and Hayden's faces carefully. They didn't automatically react when Jilly made her announcement, it took a few moments for her words to bounce around their heads into places where they could comprehend them.
"Wha-"
"How-"
"Really?"
"Con–congratulations?"
Hayden's tone of voice had gone from shocked to congratulatory with just a hint of surprise, while Kurt's voice had started out bemused and shifted fully into incredulity.
Jilly's lips quirked into an amused smile as she watched the sputtering red faces of two of her colleagues. Teddy rolled his eyes at Hayden and Kurt as well and he got up from his desk, strode over to Jilly, and gave her a gentle hug.
"Congratulations on the baby, for you and Caleb."
"Thank you Ted," Jilly replied softly.
Hayden's expression immediately changed from surprised to suspicious, "Why don't you look shocked Teddy?"
"Because Victoire and I accidently stumbled upon Jilly and Caleb last night while Jilly was telling Caleb about the baby," Teddy explained.
Hayden nodded and then he was able to congratulate Jilly with an adequate amount of excitement. Kurt still looked shocked at the announcement while Hayden asked Jilly how she was feeling.
"I wasn't lying when I said that I was feeling pretty good, I haven't had many normal pregnancy symptoms at all," She explained.
Teddy folded his arms across his chest, "How did your appointment go this morning?"
"Healer Jarvis was able to confirm my pregnancy without a doubt and he ran a few normal tests on me, blood sugar, urine, etc." A soft smile began to bloom across Jilly's face, "Healer Jarvis was even able to run an ultrasound so that Caleb and I could see the baby."
Teddy felt his heart melting at the sweetness of her words and the affectionate look on her face, even though he was feeling a slight twinge of jealousy at the clear adoration she already felt for her unborn child, "That's wonderful."
"I take it you've gotten a healer's note that says you're no longer allowed to do fieldwork now that you're pregnant?" Hayden asked Jilly.
Jilly nodded, "I just dropped it off in Auror Weasley's office. He's wasn't there so I just left the note and skedaddled away."
"You won't be my partner anymore?" Kurt interrupted in a tone of voice that sounded despondent and a little broken-hearted.
Jilly glanced at her partner, snorted at the pout on his face, and then unceremoniously pulled him into a hug.
"Just until the baby's born and my maternity leave is finished you git," Jilly told him with another roll of her eyes.
Kurt gave Jilly a tight squeeze, only realizing a second later that he should probably be a little gentler since she was carrying precious cargo, "But who's going to watch my back when we get called out to investigate odd noises at rickety old cabins in the woods?"
"I'm sure Weasley or Potter will be able to find someone who's willing to ignore your bad jokes and inability to make it out of an investigation without getting an unknown sticky substance on your shoes," Jilly told him in a soothing tone.
He pulled away from her and ended their hug, "I'll make sure to keep you up to date with all my shenanigans while you're on desk duty and then on mat leave."
"Lucky me," His partner replied in a tone that started out sarcastic but somehow ended sincere.
There was a knock on their closed office door, and Teddy waved his hand to wandlessly open the door. Auror Ron Weasley and Auror Harry Potter walked into the room a moment later.
"Morning all," Ron exclaimed in a chipper voice, "Donaldson, did you just stop by my office and drop this off?"
Ron held up a piece of paper that was Jilly's healer's note.
Jilly felt her heart begin to race, "Yes, I did."
"Well I guess congratulations are in order then!" Ron announced, his voice still cheery.
He reached forward to shake Jilly's hand in congratulations, and when he let go Harry scooped up Jilly's hand and offered his own –slightly more quiet– congratulations.
"Congratulations Auror Donaldson."
"Now, it seems we need to discuss a bit more of the details of this lovely new occurrence," Ron said with a clap of his hands, "As you already know Donaldson, now that you know that you're pregnant and we have confirmation from a healer, we'll have to pull you out of active field work."
Jilly nodded her head, "I understand."
"And at some point over the next several months you'll have to speak with wizard resources about the time you're going to take off for your maternity leave. When are you due?" Ron asked curiously.
"Early to mid-October."
Everyone in the room but Teddy blinked.
"You are already three months pregnant?" Harry asked a little bewilderedly.
Jilly's cheeks went red, "I–Yes. I'm just three months pregnant."
"And you just found out that you're pregnant?" Kurt repeated dumbly.
"I wasn't suffering from any of the normal early pregnancy symptoms!" Jilly explained to her partner heatedly.
Ron coughed a little awkwardly, "Yes well . . . now that you're restricted to desk duty Auror Donaldson, Auror Potter and I have decided on a new assignment for you."
Jilly looked between the two elder aurors with interest, "What kind of assignment?"
"We were speaking to Auror McKenny and Auror Burton just a few days ago about how our class of first year aurors-in-training could use a change in instructors as it would give them a chance to learn from several different aurors," Ron was explaining, "So Auror Potter and I have decided to switch you out with one of their current instructors, Auror Smyth."
Jilly glanced wide-eyed back and forth between both elder aurors, "You want me to teach the first year aurors-in-training?"
"Just until July when they either graduate to their second year or fail out," Ron clarified.
Kurt and Hayden both did a terrible job of holding in their snickers as they heard Jilly's new assignment. Training the first year aurors took a lot of planning, effort, patience, and (according to the aurors who were usually the first year trianees' instructors) a lot of alcohol to calm the nerves after a ridiculous week filled with the foolishness of the few auror trainees who would fail out before the next year of training. Since Jilly couldn't have the alcohol that instructors usually suggest to each other, her time spent training the first year trainees was sure to be doubly draining.
Even Teddy had a hard time keeping a straight face as he heard Jilly's new project. Everyone knew that dealing with the first year aurors-in-training was sometimes a crap-shoot, especially considering how angry many of the trainees got at their instructors when they ended up failing out of first-year training, or how many trainees spent time squabbling instead of working as a team because they were trying to be the top of their class. Instructing the second-years was much better and more enjoyable because less of them were likely to fail out or to take it too personally when they did so.
It wasn't unusual for a few of the other aurors to get called in to help with smaller aspects of training while they were working around their own assignments –like how the instructors always asked Teddy to run a demonstration for the concealment and disguise aspect– and it seemed like some of the first-year aurors in training were easier to be around in smaller doses.
"Being this close to the end of the training year means that the first-year trainees that are left are more likely to be taking their training sessions seriously and are done trying to constantly try to show each other up," Teddy offered to Jilly in a tone that was supposed to be sympathetic.
Harry smirked, "We're glad to hear you being so supportive about Jilly's new position training the first year trainees Teddy, because you're going to be spending a lot of time with them too."
Teddy frowned at his godfather's words, "I thought that they'd finished their section on concealment and disguise. Do I need to help with a different component?"
"You get to help with a lot of different components, because from now on you're going to be helping Jilly instruct the trainees while Auror Smyth and his partner Auror Wentworth get a break from the first years and a new assignment of their own," Ron added with a bright smile.
"You're putting me on training duty?" Teddy repeated more than a little incredulously.
"And pulling you out of all active fieldwork, until after June," Harry supplemented with an even wider smirk.
The metamorphmagus ran a hand through his turquoise blue hair, "Why?"
"Because you're getting married to the goddaughter of the head of the Auror Department at the end of June," Harry reminded his godson needlessly, "And there is no way that I am going to be responsible for you ending up involved in a mission that could take you out of the country or get you hurt when you're less than three months away from marrying my niece."
The younger man sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, "So you're saying that you're taking me off of active duty and putting me on this training assignment because you're afraid of the off-chance that I might get hurt before my wedding?"
Harry snorted, "No, we're taking you out of active duty because I'm afraid of what your fiancée will do to me if you get hurt before the wedding."
Teddy looked dubiously at Harry and Ron –the latter who was nodding enthusiastically at Harry's explanation– and sighed again. Before he was able to say anything, Hayden slipped his two-knuts worth into the conversation.
"I totally get where this is coming from. I for one have had more than one nightmare lately about what Victoire would do to me if I let Ted get hurt while we were out on a mission."
"Victoire's not that scary-"
He wasn't even able to finish his defence of his fiancée before the five other aurors in the room (two of them the woman in question's uncles) gave him a disbelieving look.
"Okay, she can be scary sometimes . . . but she not crazy enough to blame someone for something that occurs accidentally-"
Again he got a series of sceptical looks.
"I–alright, maybe putting me on training duty just until the wedding is over is a good call," Teddy confessed with another brush of his hands through his hair.
Ron laughed in a tone that sounded similar to a cackle, "Well while Donaldson and Lupin are in charge of instructing the first-year aurors in training that means that Williamson and Summers get to partner together in the meantime."
Jilly and Teddy's eyes went wide at the mention of their respective partners partnering together while they were both out of active field duty. More than a year ago the pair of male aurors had been banned from being allowed to partner together even on short assignments.
"I thought Auror Burton forbade us from working together because of the last time we worked together when Jilly and Teddy went on holiday at the same time?" Kurt asked Auror Weasley innocently.
"We'll discussed this with Auror Burton and Auror McKenny. But we reckon that you two have grown and matured since then and that the pair of you can handle a few months of working together without blowing up the office," Ron explained.
Hayden and Kurt both started nodding in earnest agreement that they would do their best not to implode the office while they partnered together.
"Not to mention that Jilly and Ted are still around here to help keep you in line. In fact their skills at that will be sharpened now that they're going to be spending most of their days with the trainee aurors," Harry replied with another smile.
Hayden nodded his head again, "Got it . . . can we still keep this office space though?"
"Have you guys figured out how to get rid of that writing on the back wall yet?" Ron asked Hayden and Kurt as he nodded in the direction of the far wall that had the words 'Why a dragon's skull or manticore tail?' written in slightly faded black ink.
Over a year ago the four aurors were working on a joint case together in the office space. They used the blank far wall as a kind of whiteboard space where they wrote out a large web of facts and information from the case as they tried to piece together all of their evidence. They had used magical erasable markers to write their questions and evidence on the wall, and when their case was closed they erased all of the words. After casting the erasing spell, they found the question 'Why a dragon's skull or manticore tail?', which was written in Kurt's distinctive handwriting, still present on the far wall. It seemed that Kurt had accidentally written the words in permanent ink instead of one of the erasable-ink quills.
It was a running gag in the entire department by that time about the Kurt's question still being present on the otherwise clean wall, and even though Teddy probably could have figured out how to get rid of it if he tried hard enough and did some extra research on household cleaning spells, they kept the phrase. It made them laugh when they looked at it, and Kurt figured that they'd be allowed to keep the office at least until they figured out how to make the words disappear.
"No," Kurt announced untroubled.
"Then this space is still all yours for now," Harry replied with a casual shrug.
"Wicked," Kurt and Hayden announced as the shared a high-five.
Ron and Harry turned to walk towards the door, "Well we've got to go tell Aurors Smyth and Wentworth the good news that they get a break from their trainees for a few months."
The pair of elder aurors congratulated Jilly on her pregnancy once more and then left the office.
Teddy and Jilly went to their desks to start organizing everything they needed to for their new assignment, while Hayden and Kurt started to take the piss out of the pair for being reassigned to babysitting with the first-year aurors in training.
When there was finally a break in their teasing, Kurt smirked at his pregnant partner.
"So what did Caleb say about the baby?"
Jilly felt her cheeks go red, "He's really excited about it. He's a bit nervous of course about how we're going to make it all work since right now he spends most of his year at Hogwarts . . . but he's confident that he'll be able to work it out with McGonagall so that he doesn't have to be on campus so often. He did say that he might have to offer to give up being the Head of House for Ravenclaw to make it work though."
"Not as many professors are as interested in being head of house as Caleb might think they are. Neville was able to stay as Head of House for Gryffindor when his kids were born, so I don't think Caleb has to worry so much," Teddy commented helpfully.
Kurt smirked at Hayden and Teddy and then glanced back at Jilly, "So . . . did Caleb say anything else interesting or . . . life-changing last night?"
Jilly narrowed her eyes at him and gave him a suspicious look, "No . . . why?"
"No reason," Kurt answered too quickly as he glanced back down at his desk and pretended to read a piece of paper that he had yet to realize was upside-down.
Jilly didn't look convinced but she had so much more to organize and worry about that she didn't have time to contemplate whatever weird thing Kurt seemed to be considering.
10:58 AM
"Why are we doing this?" Clark Westin complained as he sat on his broom several hundred metres in the air above Puddlemere United stadium's quidditch pitch. The first-string beater glared around at his teammates and coaches as they started to join him up in the air on their own brooms.
Xavier Wood, first-string keeper on Puddlemere's quidditch team, rolled his eyes at his teammate's dramatic question, "Because we have a game tomorrow night and our coaches want us to practice a new play one more time?"
"But we never have a practice the day before a game, we always just have the team run and an optional workout," Clark continued to complain.
Xavier sighed at him so Clark turned to Mark Doyle –his fellow first-string beater– and continued to grumble at him about how unfair it was that they were forced to do their traditional team run before being told that they were also expected to be up in the air for a final practice. Mark was a good sport, and very much used to his beater partner's complaints when the smallest thing changed without his input, so he just settled into the air on his broom next to him and pretended to listen to his mumbled grumbles.
"Just get over it already Clark, the sooner we get this play down the sooner we can be done," Nadia Cassano –Puddlemere's starting centre chaser– snapped at her teammate and friend. She had unfortunately been situated on Clark's other side and could hear all of his irritated grumbles as well as Mark could.
Their coaches and trainers called them and the rest of the first-string players to order a few moments later and separated them into groups of chasers and beaters so that they could discuss the finer details of their new play. Xavier as keeper and Christopher Mullin as seeker meant that they didn't have particularly large parts in the new play, so Xavier went off with one of his keeping coaches (who just so happened to be his father Oliver Wood) to practice his quaffle saves, while Chris was sent off to chase after a slower practice snitch that had just been released on the pitch.
The first-string team was higher up in the air over the pitch while the second-string team was amassed on their brooms several metres below them. The reserve team had already done a bit of practicing that morning, so they were amalgamated in a loose circle as they hovered on their brooms and talked strategy and development with their coaches. Coach Bissenette was in the middle of the group of players as he lectured them on what they did wrong and what they needed to work on for their next practice.
From the far end of the pitch where Xavier was essentially playing a game of catch with his father (although a very intense game as Oliver had been a professional quidditch keeper himself for Puddlemere for several decades until he finally decided to retire when Xavier was in his last year of schooling at Hogwarts), but he could see enough of his starting-team teammates to grasp whether or not they were mastering the new play to a level that would allow them to finish practice before Clark could come up with more things to complain about.
Their first run-through was about as good as it had been the day before when they had their last attempt at it, but the next several tries were sloppy. The new play involved a lot of assumptions and perfect timing-situations that the chasers and beaters had to get just right for it to work out. If one person was a second off in timing it would throw the entire play off. It was that precarious timing that they were having trouble working out. The coaches for the beaters, chasers, and some of the trainers were on their brooms in the air playing the positions of the 'opposing team', and when one of the trainers (Xavier's mother Katie Bell-Wood) snagged the quaffle and dogged two bludgers for the fifth time in a row in a quarter of an hour the coaches called for a quick pause so that they could go over the specifics of the plays once more with their respective players.
The coach in charge of the beaters had a quick discussion with Clark and Mark before flying over to Katie and one of the coaches for the chasers so that they could confer on something. After a few minutes the coaches nodded at each other and flew away to inform their players about a new tweak they had made to the play. Before the coach for the beaters made it back to Clark and Mark, he turned around and yelled something to the chasing coach. The coach nodded and yelled something else back that was unintelligible from Xavier's position near the hoops, and then flew over to tell Nadia Cassano and the right wing chaser something. The beating coach was back near Clark and Mark but gave them a wider berth of space –the two beaters had started beating the two bludgers back and forth with their bats to stay limber while the coaches conferred– and he yelled something to the two beaters from a safe distance away. Clark and Mark nodded at his words but were focused on the bludgers flying back and forth between them.
A coach for the chasers blew on his whistle loudly to sound the start of the play, and the players went back into position. Katie started with the quaffle and tried to pass it to the chasing coach, only to miss when she had to dodge a bludger sent by Mark –something she knew was coming because she knew the play even though she pretended that she didn't– and the right wing chaser scooped up the free quaffle for a second before tossing it laterally to the left wing chaser. Nadia Cassano was flying to her position for the play several metres down the length of the pitch and rather farther away from the rest of the group, while Clark lined up to give a free bludger a harsh smack with his bat.
According to the play they had been practicing all morning, the bludger was supposed to be sent towards the trainer who was following close behind the right wing chaser that had the quaffle. Instead, the bludger went careening in the opposite direction towards where Nadia was in the process of flying.
The centre chaser had her back to the bludger, and even though Mark tried to get to the bludger first to hit it off course, he was much too slow and the bludger zoomed towards the female chaser and snapped clean through the wood just laterally attached to the brush-end of her broom.
Her teammates and coaches only just had time to yell "Cassano!" before Nadia heard a sharp crack and found herself spinning out of control and falling through the air. The speed of the impact of the bludger and her own flying made it impossible for her to keep a hold of her broom –even if it hadn't been as badly compromised as it was– and she found herself plummeting towards the hard ground of the stadium's pitch before she could even blink.
She landed with a heavy thud not even a few seconds later, and it took her a moment to realize that her landing was softer, less painful, and much quicker than she thought it would be.
"You alright Cassano?" A voice whispered in her ear.
Nadia turned her head, her heart still in her throat from her fall and her muscles and brain mostly all still frozen from the speed of the incident, and belatedly realized that she was in the slightly awkward hold of a teammate who must have flown towards her to catch her before she could land like a splat on the grass.
"I am now," Nadia muttered as she started to breathe again. She could feel the movement of the broom beneath her and her teammate tilting slowly towards the pitch to bring them in for a soft and slow landing, "Thanks Potter."
James Potter nodded at her and focused on trying to land his broom slowly and safely while also keeping a hold of his teammate on the same broom. It was a slightly difficult task considering that Nadia was tall for a woman and very solid from all of the muscles she had developed from being a professional quidditch player for several years, so he was trying very hard not to drop her or let her slip.
When they finally reached the ground he released his hold on Nadia slightly and helped her get to her feet on the grass –he had originally caught her in a bridal carry in his arms – and by the time the both of them got off the broom all of the other members of the first-string team, reserve team, and coaches were making their way towards the pair.
Even though Xavier and Oliver had been too far away to initially help –not that the both of them hadn't immediately tried to fly towards Nadia before she could fall despite the futility of their actions– they had an unobstructed view of the incident. After Nadia had been knocked off of her broom she had only managed to fall a few metres towards the ground of the pitch before James Potter swooped in to save her. Since James had been with the rest of his reserve team members (he was a reserve right wing chaser for the team) hovering on his broom below the action of the first-string team at the lower level of the pitch, he was able to fly directly towards where Nadia was falling through the air and get under her right in time to catch her in his arms. Any of the starting players and coaches would have needed to fly over to Nadia and then down in order to time their catch as well as James had.
Katie Bell-Wood was the first to touch down on the grass, "Are you alright Nadia?"
Nadia nodded slowly at her trainer and mentor and took a deep breath, "Yeah, I'm better than I would have been if Potter hadn't caught me."
A few of the other players and coaches were arriving as Nadia said that.
Katie nodded and then patted James's shoulder, "That was some impressively quick flying there James."
James shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm just glad that I was already hovering this low so that I could just fly straight and catch her."
"Everything good here?" Oliver asked as he and Xavier touched down.
"It will be until I get my hands on Clark," Nadia muttered angrily as she watched the two beaters slowly land on the grass.
The other two starting chasers, who had run to Nadia's side to see if she was alright, took large steps away from her and moved out of the way so that she had an unimpeded view of Clark.
"You!" Nadia scowled at the tallest beater as she pointed her finger dangerously at him.
Both men stopped in their tracks and Mark grimaced as he slowly shuffled away from his partner. He didn't want to end up as collateral damage.
"It was an accident," Clark said automatically as he held his hands up, "There must have already been a wonky spin on the bludger when I hit it. Coach told me to give it a bit more spin to the left but it did something else instead and-" Clark cut himself off and eyed his teammate warily, "You don't care, do you?"
"No."
"Can I get a head start?"
"Run. Now," Nadia informed his with her arms crossed over her chest.
Clark nodded at her and then took off running towards the opposite side of the pitch. Nadia counted to five and then took off after him. The rest of their teammates and coaches watched them almost idly as Nadia started to catch up to the beater despite the latter's head start.
"Do you think she's going to maim him, or just cause a minor injury?" The coach in charge of the beaters asked Katie casually.
Katie sighed, "She's trying to scare him more than anything. She doesn't exactly blame him, but even though she will never admit to it that fall frightened her a little. I think she'd just trying to give him a bit of his own medicine so that he realizes how serious it could have been if Potter hadn't gotten to her first."
"Sounds good to me, this'll hit home more than any consequence I could give him anyway," The coach for the beaters observed.
"Potter!"
James, Xavier, Katie, and Oliver turned when they heard the roaring tone of reserve team head coach, Coach Bissenette.
"What were you doing Potter?" Bissenette demanded to know as his face started to go red with irritation.
James eyed his head coach warily, "Helping a teammate?"
"You get to go run ten laps around the pitch, now!" Bissenette thundered as he punctuated his words with a jerk of his thumb towards the running track that bordered the entire ovular shape of the pitch.
Katie –who had disliked Bissenette since her own tenure as a player for Puddlemere back when he was one of the head coaches– raised a sardonic eyebrow at the other coach, "May I ask why you're punishing Potter for saving Cassano from becoming a pile of melted gelato on the grass of the pitch?"
Being questioned by Katie did nothing to help Bissenette's surly attitude, "Because they only way he would have been able to get to Cassano in time is because he wasn't listening to me during our team meeting. Obviously he was ignoring me and day dreaming and that's how he was able to get to Cassano first. I didn't even dismiss him-"
"You're mad at him for saving one of our starting chasers from a potentially life-threatening injury? Forget your charge that Potter wasn't listening to you, are you even listening to yourself right now?" Katie asked him incredulously.
Bissenette's face went an ugly shade of purple, "Listen Bell-"
"It's Wood Coach," Katie reminded Coach Bissenette with a bit of a smirk.
Coach Bissenette had detested Katie for decades, ever since she had suddenly eloped with his star starting keeper (Oliver Wood) and gotten pregnant during her first year as a first-string chaser for the team; he liked to ignore the fact that Oliver was just as much involved in the sudden marriage and then subsequent pregnancy as Katie had been. Instead he chose to make the first several years of Katie's time on the team a nightmare since he –incorrectly– thought that she was weak and would quit the team and her relationship with Oliver once the going got tough. Katie usually wasn't a stickler for how people addressed her and even though she had legally taken Oliver's last name when they got married, she had kept Bell for a little while and for simplicity's sake since they played on the same team after all. After a few years the name on the back of her jersey switched to Bell-Wood when the people in charge of merchandising realized they could sell a lot more jersey's that way.
Therefore, she was definitely just correcting Bissenette on her name to rile him up with the further reminder of her marriage to Oliver, that the coach had sworn wouldn't last a year, and which had actually lasted twenty-five years and counting.
As she suspected, Bissenette's face turned an even more alarming shade of purple, "Potter is my player and I'm allowed to dole out discipline as I find necessary."
"Coach," Oliver attempted in a wheedling tone before James actually cut him off.
"It's alright Coach Wood, if Coach Bissenette thinks I need to run laps, I'll run laps," James said respectfully before he jogged over to the running track and got started on his first of many laps.
Katie, Oliver, Xavier, and even Coach Bissenette were stunned to see James take the demand of laps so quickly and graciously.
"Uh," Xavier said as he glanced between his mother and his father, "Did anyone see if Nadia hit him in the head when she landed on him?"
Katie shook her head, "Not that I saw."
Xavier glanced back at where James was easily running around the track. The younger man was quickly coming close to where Nadia and Clark had given up sprinting and collapsed to the ground; both breathing heavily even though Clark definitively seemed to be the worst-off considering that he had always been a slower runner than Nadia.
Xavier watched James with a purse of his lips, "Weird."
An hour later after Nadia and Clark had caught their breath, and their coaches had decided to table the new play until they had much more time to practice it, both the starting team and the reserve team were released. They were told that they could hit the showers, or hit the weight rooms for an optional workout if they preferred. The bottom line was that they were free to go, and the groups of players were gone off of the field before any of them could say haversacking.
Normally Xavier was the first and last person in the training room when there were mandatory or optional weight room practices, but since it was getting closer and closer to his and Ally's wedding he found himself needing that extra time to do some of the million and one things that needed to be done for their wedding. He showered, changed, and left the starting team's men's changing rooms to find Clark outside in the hallway apologizing sincerely to a damp-haired Nadia. Nadia seemed to be courteously accepting his apology with nary a scowl or threatening word in sight, and they both nodded good-naturedly at Xavier while he walked by them. He continued down the hallway for several moments before coming to a stop in front of the weight room designated for the reserve team.
Xavier entered the room and wasn't surprised to see that James Potter was the lone member of the reserve team taking advantage of the optional weight room practice. James was a very diligent and determined athlete, and his commitment to the team was at a level that Xavier felt equal to his own fervent dedication when he first became a member of the team. Xavier felt more than a little kinship with James as the younger man was in a very similar position to the one he had been in when he first started at Puddlemere all of those years ago. The keeper understood that James had a lot of pressure on him to be a good quidditch player –more than most felt– with both his of parents being fantastic quidditch players in their own right. While Harry had never played professional quidditch, Ginny had played centre chaser for several years on the Holyhead Harpies's starting team before James and his siblings were born and when they were younger, and having professional quidditch players as parents added a whole new level of expectations to their positions.
James had another level of pressure that didn't involve quidditch connotations being the son of Harry Potter that Xavier didn't exactly have to deal with, but when Xavier was recruited to Puddlemere he left Hogwarts with five months left in his seventh year at school so that he could take over his father's position of starting keeper when Oliver decided to retire, so he did have another extraordinary level of pressure put on him that made it even easier for Xavier to sympathize with James's situation.
Xavier had made it all the way to the weight lifting area of the room before James noticed his presence.
"Oh, hey Xavier," James called cheerfully if a little out of breath from the heavy weight he was holding.
Xavier smiled at his fiancée's cousin, "Hey James, I have something for you."
James set the heavy weight onto the floor while Xavier pulled an envelope out of the pocket of his Puddlemere United hoodie. Xavier silently handed the wedding invitation to the nineteen-year-old.
The younger man accepted the envelope and read the words written on the front, "Didn't I just get a wedding invite from you a few months ago?"
"That was for Vic and Teddy's wedding," Xavier reminded the reserve chaser unnecessarily.
A faux-surprised look bloomed across James's face, "You mean to tell me that you and Victoire aren't marrying each other? I could have sworn that was what I heard."
"Which gossip rag's gone back to spreading that lie?" Xavier asked blithely with a roll of his eyes. As a professional quidditch player Xavier had been accused of cheating on Ally with pretty much every non-related female he was caught spending time with, "And you know that if Vic and I had ever gotten together that we would have killed each other before making it past like a month."
James chuckled knowingly, "Fair enough." He glanced back down at the writing on the envelope, his dark fringe falling into his brown eyes as his gaze traced the words again.
"I even get a plus one? Lucky me. I thought that I'd be barred from making that kind of choice after the incident with Victoire," James told Xavier sarcastically.
Xavier gave him a sympathetic look, "I only just stopped Ally from writing a caveat about what type of person you're not allowed to invite as your date."
"Bloody Vic walking in on me the one bloody time I had too much to bloody drink the night before and had a bloody one-night stand," James muttered exasperatedly as he remembered the incident that would more than likely scar him for the rest of his life.
It wasn't just the fact that Victoire had walked in on him and invaded his personal space that made the incident horrifying to recall, it was the fact that she had left his room but had stayed in his flat waiting until the girl left so that she could then spend an hour lecturing him about unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. She was softer at the end of the lecture and closed it off by telling him that if he wanted to live his life that way she wasn't judging him, but that he needed to be safer and smarter about it. She then told him to refer to Dom if he wanted advice that she and Teddy couldn't really give him as they'd been in a committed monogamous relationship for seven years, and James had to stop her right there because he couldn't handle anymore well-meaning but intrusive discussions about his own or his cousins' sex lives.
"Teddy and I were able to convince Vic and Ally that you don't make a habit out of bringing home girls you've known for less than a day –not that it matters if that's what you do want to do– but I think we were able to calm those waters, which is why you can now bring whoever you want to the wedding," Xavier finished with a flourish.
James smiled appreciatively at his teammate but then he sighed, "It'd probably be safer not to bring a date though, wouldn't it? Both to your wedding and to Vic and Teddy's."
"Or not," Xavier said with a bit of an apologetic grimace, "Because if you don't bring a date to the weddings I am pretty sure that the girls will go one step farther and assign you a date so that they don't have to worry about you having a one-nightstand with one of their other guests . . ."
"So what you're saying is that they don't trust me?" James asked tiredly.
Xavier sighed, "No, what I'm saying is that Victoire doesn't trust her French cousins not to seduce you, and Ally muttered something about a colleague of hers from the hospital saying just the other day that they thought you were incredibly hot, so I think in their own way they're trying to protect you."
"By telling me who I'm allowed to date?" The younger man questioned.
"By trying to protect you from the tabloids I think," Xavier told him softly, "Which is the only real reason why they care so much about whether you have a one-nightstand or not. They don't want people to judge you based on a twisted lie that a gossip magazine can create with just one careless picture. Obviously it would be better if they were actually having this conversation with you-"
James shook his slightly-sweaty head, "No, no, this is better actually. I've already had more than enough lectures about STIs from my eldest cousin than I'll ever care to have, and Ally unintentionally does this thing when you talk to her sometimes were she looks at you with these big serious brown eyes and it just makes you want to apologize to her even though you've done nothing wrong."
"Oh trust me, I know exactly what you're talking about," Xavier mumbled in agreement as he thought about his fiancée.
"So hearing this from you helps. Teddy tries his best too, but when the conversation turns to more intimate matters my mind conjures up an image of him and Vic together and I just–bleck," James trailed off as a disgusted look came across his face.
Xavier's face also automatically slipped into a repulsed expression of his own at the mention of Victoire and Teddy being physically intimate together.
"So yeah, this is better, marginally," James replied.
"I'm glad I could help, and if there's ever anything else you want to talk about feel free to come to me," Xavier told him with an encouraging smile.
His offer had been open to James since he was first recruited to Puddlemere out of Hogwarts almost a whole year ago, but he wanted to repeat the offer since new things were coming up that James probably hadn't even considered before. Xavier knew well how easy it was to get caught up in the first whirlwind year of being a player for a professional quidditch team.
"Thanks," James finally replied with an appreciative smile.
5:12 PM
Baxter Weasley frowned in concentration as he gazed at the relatively empty kitchen cupboards in front of him. The twenty-year-old scratched at his red hair as he tried to mentally come up with a recipe that could turn the unrelated ingredient odds and ends in the cupboard into an edible meal for three.
He finally gave up on waiting for inspiration to strike and called over his shoulder towards the general direction of the attached open-concept living room, "What do you guys fancy for dinner?"
When he didn't get a response after a few minutes he turned around, and then prompty let out a loud groan at what he saw. His flatmate, cousin, and best friend Louis Weasley was sitting on the loveseat with his girlfriend Cecilia Wood. Or more accurately, Cecilia was practically sitting on Louis as they played what looked like an intense game of tonsil quidditch. He had only left them alone in the living room for five minutes and already the couple seemed to be in the middle of a fierce battle with their mouths, Louis's hand was underneath Cecilia's shirt, and Cecilia's hand was an inch away from slipping beneath the waistband of Louis's trousers.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa we agreed to keep this living room rated PG!" Baxter yelled at his two friends before they could get even more handsy.
When the couple's mouths finally separated –after they decided to take their own sweet time– Louis glanced apologetically at his cousin and best mate, "Sorry Bax."
Cecilia Wood on the other hand smirked archly at her friend and sent him a mischievous wink.
"So dinner?" Baxter repeated with a raised eyebrow.
Cecilia ran her finger across her boyfriend's clothed chest and then glanced at Baxter, "Give us twenty minutes?"
"Holy Helga Hufflepuff can we at least get a casual meal in before you two lock yourselves in Louis's room to make suspiciously muffled noises for the rest of the night?" Baxter asked with a frown.
Louis pursed his lips in confusion, "Suspiciously muffled noises?"
Baxter rolled his eyes while Cecilia snickered, "You know that you're bad at silencing charms Babe."
"But I've been practicing!" Louis defended his admittedly sometimes poor aptitude for charms.
"And when you concentrate really hard you do well with them, but when your mind is preoccupied with something else like when were alone in your bedroom together-"
"I think we all get the picture Cecilia, thanks," Baxter interrupted her as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "So food?"
Louis ran a hand through his silvery-blonde hair to straighten it out, "Wanna order take-away?"
"And give you and Cecilia fifteen to twenty minutes to get into some new sort of state of undress? No. Let's go out somewhere," Baxter suggested.
Cecilia and Louis agreed with his proposition and within a few minutes the group of three were leaving Baxter and Louis's shared flat and apparating to Diagon Alley. Louis and Cecilia unobtrusively held hands as they walked with Baxter through the alley, debating which restaurant or café they should stop at for dinner.
"How about this place?" Louis suggested as he jerked his head in the direction of a café across the street from where they had come to a stop. The café itself was small but seemed to be bustling with energy.
The other two shrugged their shoulders and let Louis lead them into the café. It was even more packed inside than it had seemed from the outside, and there was a crowd of people standing around in the entranceway just waiting to be seated.
"It might take a while to get seated," Cecilia commented as she stood up on her tiptoes –she was already rather short at five-foot-two– and was having a hard time seeing the host's podium.
Baxter pursed his lips as he eyed the crowd, "Maybe we should go somewhere else then-"
His words were cut off by a young woman unceremoniously bumping into him as she tried to go further into the restaurant.
"Oops, sorry," The woman called over her shoulder to Baxter as she continued to attempt to force herself into the crowd that was starting to get louder and slightly more restless.
Despite her attempt to wiggle through the mass of other patrons, the woman didn't make it very far.
"Uh," Louis began as he noticed the crowd of people near the dining area of the café start to get more boisterous, "Do you know what's going on?"
He addressed the young lady who had glanced Baxter's shoulder and she didn't even bother to turn to look in Louis's direction as she threw out a reply, "There's a quidditch player in there and everyone's trying to get his autograph or take a picture with him!"
"Which one?" Baxter asked curiously as Cecilia rolled her eyes at everyone's ridiculousness.
"James Potter!"
Cecilia and Baxter both exhaled heavily in frustration while Louis shrugged his shoulders, "I guess he's gotten more popular since he got called up to play against the Catapults last week when Chance was sick."
"Whatever," Cecilia replied with another roll of her eyes before squaring her shoulders and beginning to push her way through the loud crowd to get to James.
Unlike the other girl, Cecilia was closer to the ground and doubly more determined to get to the quidditch chaser, so she barrelled through the mob of patrons without even apologizing to the people she was jostling. Baxter and Louis followed closely behind her and after a few more pushes and thrown elbows –most courtesy of Cecilia– they found themselves breaking through the crowd to a front row seat of crazed quidditch fanatics and fangirls surrounding James Potter and shouting out requests for autographs and answers to personal questions. Standing just off to the side of James was his best mate and cousin Freddie Weasley, who didn't seem to know how to react to the sudden surge of people trying to get up in James's personal space. The pair of cousins hadn't even been seated at a table yet; it seemed the fans had swarmed quickly.
"Out of my way!" Cecilia called as she strutted over to James and slipped around a middle-aged woman who was begging for him to sign some part of her body that made James's face go red when it was requested.
Cecilia put her hands on her hips and stared down her boyfriend's cousin, "I hear you're quite popular around these parts."
James rolled his eyes at her deadpan expression, "I didn't intend to cause a mini-riot."
"Then you should have done a better job at disguising yourself," The one-year-older but one foot shorter woman scolded him.
"I did try!" James defended as he pointed to the dark unbranded ball cap he was wearing on his head that was doing a poor job on concealing his identity.
Cecilia scoffed, "That's just pathetic."
She then grabbed his forearm in one hand, reached to grab Freddie's arm with the other, and then unceremoniously began dragging the both of them towards the café's exit. The crowd of people were startled at by Cecilia's hasty actions, but they all seemed to understand with one glance that she wasn't a person to be messed with. Louis and Baxter silently followed behind them until they made it all the way out of the building, ignoring the complaints of the other patrons who still wanted autographs from the reserve chaser.
Once they were outside of the café and had more breathing room, Baxter asked his two cousins whether they had the chance to eat dinner yet. When James and Freddie replied in the negative Cecilia came up with a plan. She directed Freddie to take James back to the flat above his father's joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The store itself was already closed for the night, and it offered them a close-by place with privacy, while Cecilia gave herself the job of going back into the café to order takeaway food for all five of them. She then directed Baxter and Louis to sprint towards the bakery at the end of the alley before it closed for the evening to get them some sweets since both she and James seemed like they needed them. The group parted to go about fulfilling the directions Cecilia gave them, and Baxter and Louis literally jogged to the bakery so that they could get to it before it closed.
They made it to the familiar bakery in time and found themselves staring at the large selection of sweets and treats as they tried to figure out what to order.
"Well James's favourite dessert is treacle tart," Baxter commented as he nodded towards the sweet treat behind the glass, "But what will Cecilia want?"
Louis pursed his lips in consideration, "Maybe something with chocolate?"
Baxter gave his cousin a look, "Dude she's your girlfriend . . . you should have some sort of idea of what she'd want from a bakery."
"She likes to try new things!" Louis admitted as he threw his hands up, "When that happens usually she just tells me what she wants and then I do it."
His redheaded cousin rolled his eyes, "That's the story of your entire relationship."
"Well yeah."
Baxter rolled his eyes at his cousin and then started to point to a selection of delicious looking pastries one by one to see if that would help Louis make a decision. It didn't.
"What can I get for you handsome?"
The voice of the bakery's employee was somewhat familiar to both Baxter and Louis, and it made Louis smirk widely at Baxter while the red haired cousin flushed red in embarrassment. Louis raised his eyebrows at Baxter and then unceremoniously side-stepped away from the case of desserts they had been looking at to poorly pretend that he had spotted something of interest halfway across the empty bakery.
Baxter internally swore at his cousin for leaving him alone, and then he turned around to face the pretty woman standing behind him. She had a stylish blonde pixie haircut, and there was the beginning of a vine-like tattoo on the skin peeking out of the neckline of her shirt around her collar bone. Baxter had run into that particular female bakery employee many times over the past few years, and she seemed to enjoy flirting with him every time he came in. She had once told him that her name was Lia, but he had never been quite articulate enough in their encounters to fully introduce himself to her. Instead she chose to call him nicknames like 'Handsome', 'Red', and one time –much to the amusement of his friend Eliza Parker whom he had been standing next to at the time– 'Hot Stuff'.
Louis, Cecilia, and even Eliza had tried in the past to convince Baxter to ask the cute bakery employee out on a date, but shy Baxter had largely disregarded their advice and done his best to ignore the bakery in general unless it was absolutely necessary for him to go there. Louis's smirk and abandonment was obviously intended to force Baxter to talk to the young woman; he clearly hadn't given up on trying to push Baxter towards her whenever the golden opportunity rose.
"Uh . . . I need a treacle tart," Baxter finally told Lia after what he realized was a much too lengthy pause.
She smirked at him and her tongue peeked out just slightly to wet her lips, "Anything else?"
"Uh . . ." Baxter trailed off as he stared at her, his mind suddenly blanked.
Lia raised an eyebrow at him but moved to start collecting a treacle tart for him out of the pastry case. She finished the task rather quickly and was at Baxter's side in a second with the treacle start in a closed pastry box.
"Have you decided on whether you'd like something else?" She asked him with a look that made Baxter think that she wasn't strictly talking about the desserts in front of them.
He stared at her brown eyes for a moment before he blurted out the first dessert that came to mind, "Brownies."
Lia titled her head to the side and gave him a bit of a suspicious look, "What kind? We've got double-fudge, caramel and fudge with pecan, hot brownies-"
"Wh-What's a hot brownie?" Baxter blurted the question out before she could finish her list.
She just smirked at him and subtly shifted even closer towards him, decreasing the distance between their bodies to an intimate foot and a half, "They're a bit of a specialty here. They're like normal brownies but they have hot spices added to the batter. It gives the treat a nice exciting kick and heat that you don't get from the more mundane and boring desserts."
"Do they burn?" Baxter had meant to ask if they'd feel like they were burning the mouth when eaten, but for some reason he was only able to get out three words.
Her eyes were locked on his with a level of significance that hinted to Baxter that they were not talking about the desserts anymore, and she replied, "The spice can be a little . . . overwhelming at first for people who are used to more bland and vanilla flavours, but ultimately it's a much more satisfying choice with its luscious and tantalizing flavour combination. I haven't heard a complaint about them yet."
Baxter was certain at that point that his face was a shade of red comparative to his hair, and he stumbled around a reply before fortune decided to intervene and help him out of his agitation. Louis had ambled back to where Baxter and Lia stood near the first pasty case, and he had two small pastry bags full of self-serve cookies.
"Got everything we need?" Louis asked Baxter warily.
It was obvious to Louis that Baxter and Lia were in the middle of some sort of intense conversation –the tension between them was palpable, and the colour on Baxter's face was effulgent– but he had already given them a significant amount of time to talk to each other given their present circumstances. If they didn't get back to the flat above the shop soon with dessert Cecilia would come looking for them, and that would more than likely not turn out well for Baxter.
Lia broke her staring contest with the red-haired man and turned to glance at Louis, "We were just discussing what flavour of brownies Red wants."
Baxter felt his face flush to an even deeper shade of red while Louis shifted his gaze from them to the selection of brownies in the dessert case.
"Oh hot brownies! Cecilia loves those. Wanna get some of those too Bax?" Louis asked his cousin as he pointed a particular dessert array on one of the shelves in the case.
Baxter felt Lia's eyes on him but he turned to Louis and swallowed thickly, "If that's what you suggest, sure."
Louis sent his cousin a covert questioning look before he went on to request a specific number of hot brownies from Lia. She silently boxed them up and led both young men to the cash. Louis and Baxter paid for their purchases and then left the story with barely a word outside of common retail courtesy uttered by Lia. As the pair went to leave the shop Baxter could feel a pair of eyes on his back, he had a strong urge to turn around and look at her, but in the end he ignored it and mindlessly followed Louis out of the store.
They arrived at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes quickly and entered the shop through the unlocked back door where Freddie was waiting for them. He locked the door behind them –confirming Louis's suspicion that they were the last to arrive and that Cecilia had gotten there before them– and led them up to the flat that was above the store.
When Freddie's parents George and Angelina had found out that they were pregnant with his older sister Ally they decided to move out of the flat above the shop and into an actual house that had more rooms and an outside yard space. They had kept the flat in their possession and changed part of it into George's workshop so that they could utilize the workshop space already in the store as more floor space for their goods. Another section of the flat worked as extra storage for the store, while another part was adjusted to look like a bachelor style flat with open concept kitchenette, living space, and bedroom; the only area of the living part of the flat that was closed off with a door was the bathroom. Freddie's parents had allowed Freddie to live in the available flat space for the past several months when it became apparent to them that Freddie didn't have many goals in life above working at the joke shop. Since he had no present plans to change careers or to move somewhere for a new job, they gave him the flat space to give him the illusion of a bit more adult independence.
The minute Louis and Baxter entered the flat they were practically forced into a couple chairs so that the rest of their group could start eating dinner, and the first several moments passed with everyone stuffing their faces full of food. It wasn't until everyone had had a chance to put to rest their pangs of hunger that they started to actually converse about their days.
James had a captive audience as he recounted the incident at Puddlemere earlier in the day when he saved Nadia Cassano from becoming a splotch on the grass of the pitch, and after the story ended he absentmindedly added that he had received a wedding invitation from Xavier.
"But I haven't even gotten an invitation yet!" Freddie complained indignantly around mouthfuls of chips.
Louis rolled his eyes at his one-year-younger cousin, "That's because you're in the wedding."
"Still-"
"It's probably best not to get a formal invitation anyway, it comes with way too much pressure to bring a plus one," James explained with a frown.
Freddie snorted, "Why would you want to bring a plus one to either wedding? There's sure to be lots of fit birds at both Vic and Ally's weddings just waiting to be chatted up."
Cecilia sent Freddie an incredulous look, "You don't actually believe yourself do you? I can promise you that there is no bird waiting out there for you to chat them up."
"You waited for Louis," Freddie pointed out as he reminded her that she had come around to her more-than-friends feelings for Louis back in their third year before the boy in question had.
"For like a month," Cecilia replied with a scoff and a roll of her eyes, "No woman should wait forever for a bloke, they should try to make a move themselves or move on."
James sighed heavily, "Well it'd be a lot easier finding a date for both weddings if more women took the initiative."
"I'm sure you had half a dozen offers this evening already," Baxter pointed out with a smirk.
James's cheeks went red and he glared at his half-eaten sandwich, "Those don't count. Besides, I was given explicit instructions to bring someone family-gathering appropriate to both weddings or face the wrath of the brides."
"Whose definition of family-gathering appropriate? 'Cause Dom's would give you a fair bit of wiggle room," Freddie pointed out with a soggy chip.
The professional quidditch player tapped the side of his plate, "I'm going to hazard a guess and say that I should be working within Vic and Ally's definition of family-gathering appropriate."
"You should probably start looking now then," Cecilia suggested in an evident tone.
"You've get less than three months till Victoire and Teddy's wedding after all. In fact, all of you should be looking for potential wedding dates," She added as she called out Freddie and Baxter as well, "Because you can be sure that this rule about family-gathering appropriate dates applies to you two as well."
Freddie smirked at Cecilia and waggled his eyebrows at her, "Got any cute single girlfriends Cecilia?"
The statement was mostly teasing, Cecilia only had a few close female friendships and Freddie had already met pretty much all of them.
"You mean any cute single girlfriends that you or Anish haven't vomited on when you were drunk in the past year and a half?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, "That's a no."
"Oh well, on to Plan B," Freddie replied with a shrug.
James and Baxter both glanced at Freddie in curiosity, "What's Plan B?"
"Brua."
"Pardon?"
Freddie rolled his eyes at his cousins, "Brua, it's the newest hottest mixed wizard and muggle club. We'll go this weekend and find us some single women."
A/N: They're going to partaaay! So how did we like this chapter? I know it's a bit more catch up, but trust me when I say that there is some groundwork being laid for future storylines. Also, how much fun is it going to be to read about Teddy and Jilly training new aurors?
Please remember to leave me your thought on this chapter in the form of a review!
Next Update: Will be before the end of the month, maybe even as little as three weeks. I'm officially halfway through my placement so I'm intending to update once it's over.
Next Chapter: It's quidditch game night so we get too see a few more Weasley family members, more Nadia and Malcolm and Katie and Oliver, and finally some Brogan! Also, we're finally going to find out what gender of child Giavanna and Chris had, as well as the baby's name. If you'd like to guess as to the baby's gender, feel free!
Thanks you to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed!
BIG thank yous as always to:
TheProphetBVB, carbo21, ntlpurpolia, xXSlytherinsQueenXx, Katia0203, Guest (1), fangirl5300, zvc56, Izzy, Guest (2), ChrisfromSK, Dthea33, Break This Spell626, rosesnlilies, petitecanard, PhoenixHorcrux, bookstar97, kit94, kawaiiotaku0405, creativeH, and loverloverlover.
TheProphetBVB: Sorry about you Baxter/Eliza ship, maybe your next one will work out better?
carbo21: I'm glad you asked about Giavanna and Chris's kid, because you're going to find out next chapter. Any guesses?
Izzy: Thanks again for the lovely long review!
ChrisfromSK: I'd love to write a quidditch centred one-shot at some point, it's mostly a lack of time than a lack on interest in the idea that makes its hard to follow through on it.
Dthea33: The wedding will be the end of June, I'd aimed for beginning of July in HtA, but when I actually looked at the calendar for 2024 I found that the very last days of June were a weekend, and that that would give enough time for the Hogwarts kids to graduate and be done school. It's definitely the very end of June.
kit94: We get to see toddler Rowan in two chapters time.
loverloverlover: Thank you for the lovely review! Also, yes, it has been quite a while, especially if you started reading TTA from the very beginning. Hopefully things will go well and we'll have a few more years of updates and stories together :)
I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter,
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I hope everyone has a great June,
Until next time, DFTBA!