A/N: Hi everyone, here's my update right on time! I've now finished my placement for school and I have one more class to take over the summer while I work at my summer job. I've got a busy summer lined up but I'm still going to try my best to carve out time for writing.
Anyway, enjoy this chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Victoire and Teddy's friends Jilly and Caleb and Colton and Anastasia are pregnant. Vic and Teddy can't wait to get married and start on their family, Ally and Xavier are getting married a few months after Victoire. Giavanna and Christopher Mullin got married and pregnant in the last story so the baby's a year old now, Molly's favourite quidditch team is not Puddlemere and it drives Ally crazy, and Brogan Wood is the most adorable child ever.
The Game of Life
Thursday, April 18th 2024
6:14 PM
"Why are we here so early?" Dom Weasley questioned her big sister as she trudged behind her aforementioned big sister and said sister's fiancé as the group walked into Puddlemere United's quidditch stadium.
"Because this way we have a chance to chat with everyone before the game beings!" Victoire explained cheerily as she swung her and Teddy's combined hands back-and-forth as they walked.
Dom rolled her eyes, "Why can't we talk to them during the game?"
"Because we should be watching the game during the game," Teddy added with a smirk. He knew that Dom actually wasn't a big fan of quidditch but that she was only attending the game that night because everyone else was going to be there.
"And because Ally likes to yell 'shhh' at anyone who talks over the sound of the announcer talking about how good of a job Xavier is doing," Victoire added at the expense of her favourite cousin who wasn't there to defend herself.
"True," Her fiancé agreed.
Dom let out a loud sigh, "Still I-"
"You didn't have to come with us," Victoire notified her younger sister, "You could have come later with Colton and Anastasia."
Dom made a face at the suggestion, "They were stopping by Colton's parents' home today to inform them about the pregnancy. No way was I going to be there in case it went south."
"How could it go south? They're bringing good news," Teddy remarked.
"Have you forgotten that Colton's father offered to arrange a divorce for him the last time Stasia miscarried so that Colton could marry a new woman who would be able to give him 'the heir he deserves'?" Dom asked.
Teddy nodded sadly, "Ah, I must have subconsciously blocked out that memory because of how horrid it was."
"Exactly, who knows what they'll say this time. Creighton Knott won't give Anastasia a break until she delivers a healthy baby," Dom said sadly.
Victoire gritted her teeth at the thought of Colton's prat of a father, "I don't know how you can work for him."
"It's just for another few years until he retires and Colton takes over his position as Sr. partner. I actually think he'd retire sooner if Anastasia's baby ends up being a boy. He might just let his hold on his practice go if Colton has an heir to eventually pass it along to," Dom expounded.
Victoire rolled her eyes, "Yes, and heaven forbid that Stasia and Colton's first child be a girl and not the long-awaited male heir."
"It'd serve Creighton right though," Dom muttered with a self-righteous nod.
The group of three reached the level of the stadium where they had to show their ticket passes to the security wizard stationed just below the upper level of box seats. Despite Dom's complaint that they had arrived much too soon for the game (which was to start in just over a half-hour) fans were already trickling into the stadium and it was already about half full. The security wizard spent more time staring at the low-cut black shirt Dom was wearing –she had forewent wearing a Puddlemere jersey, like the ones Teddy and Victoire were decked out in, to prove that she was unconcerned with the game she was about to watch– than he did inspecting their badges, and within a few moments the trio was striding down the hallway towards the box that they normally sat in with some other friends and family members of Puddlemere United players.
Upon entering the box Victoire was unsurprised to see that her cousin Ally was already there, nor was she surprised to see that Cecilia, Louis, and little Brogan Wood were already present and sitting in seats around Ally as they had a conversation with her.
Louis was the first person to notice his sisters and Teddy's arrival, but before Louis could get the words "Hey everyone" out of his mouth Brogan Wood unceremoniously jumped off of Ally's lap and darted towards one of his favourite people.
"Vic!" The five-year-old voice of the youngest Wood sibling yelled as he barrelled into Victoire's legs, wrapping his arms around her legs and giving her as tight a squeeze as he could manage.
Victoire giggled at him and knelt down so that he could give her a proper hug, "Hey there Baby Boy! Are you happy to see me?"
The words sounded a little sarcastic to the adults, but Brogan ignored it and squeezed her impossibly tighter, "I missed you."
"It's only been a week since you've seen her Bro," Cecilia told her much younger brother with a roll of her eyes.
Brogan turned his head so that he could stick his tongue out at his sister, causing all of the adults to laugh. Once Victoire was able to gently pry the littlest Wood off of her, Brogan merrily moved on to giving Teddy, and then Dom big hugs of their own. Neither hug was quite as enthusiastic as the one Brogan gave Victoire, but since they had all known Brogan since his birth just under six years ago, they were all aware of the partiality he'd held for Victoire since he could crawl.
Somehow Brogan ended up conning Victoire into picking him up and carrying him the short distance to where Ally, Louis, and Cecilia were sitting; and once Victoire, Teddy, and Dom settled themselves in seats around the former, Brogan cuddled himself up on top of Victoire's lap.
"So who's on Brogan duty tonight?" Victoire asked the group as she glanced between Cecilia and Ally.
Between the two of them and Brogan's mother Katie, one of them would be designated as in charge of the littlest Wood for the game that evening. They usually traded off the duty between them from game to game.
"Louis and I are," Cecilia explained as she half-heartedly raised her hand, Brogan jumped off of Victoire's lap and skipped back to Cecilia's side when she started talking, "We can't stay for the entire game because we both have busy days at work tomorrow, so we're going to leave around nine. Mum found out our plans and asked me to take Brogan back home with me when I go to leave, and get him into bed."
Cecilia still lived at home with her parents and Brogan. She had tried to bring up the topic of potentially moving out of home and finding her own flat (she had a full time job and could easily afford it) but every time she tried to mention it to her mother, Katie seemed to sense where the conversation was going and she seemed to be intentionally side-stepping the topic. Despite Cecilia technically living at home, she did spend several nights a week with Louis at his and Baxter's flat. Her parents were well aware of how she split her time, so when her mother asked her to take Brogan home later that night Katie knew that she was also asking her to stay at home that night with Brogan and not go over to Louis's.
"Did Baxter not come with you?" Dom asked Louis and Cecilia curiously.
The three of them were close to inseparable and found together more often than not ever since their birth twenty years ago. Cecilia's father Oliver Wood and Baxter's father Percy Weasley had been friends since their Hogwarts years, and with Cecilia and Baxter's births within a few months of each other's they were guaranteed to be playmates from a young age. Katie and Oliver had also become close with Bill and Fleur Weasley when their eldest children Xavier and Victoire were born, so when Louis and Cecilia and Baxter were all born within the same year the two Weasley cousins and one Wood were thrown together for all kinds of activities and playdates. Not even Cecilia and Louis being sorted into Gryffindor house and Baxter in Hufflepuff during their first year at Hogwarts could separate the three friends.
"He was supposed to come with us but someone brought an antique wand in need of a complete restoration into the shop just before closing time, and Blair and Baxter got so wrapped up in fixing it that we would have literally had to drag him out of the shop to get him to come with us. He said he'd try to stop by later if he could," Louis explained with a careless shrug.
Baxter Weasley started working as an assistant to Blair Ollivander, the head wandmaker of Ollivander's Wand Shop in Diagon Alley, since his graduation from Hogwarts almost three years ago. Originally Baxter had gotten the job because he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but he had quickly gotten swept up in the field of wand repair and wandmaking, and after just a couple years it seemed that Blair Ollivander was finally starting to show him the ropes and even the family secrets of wandmaking. Baxter was greatly enjoying his work and he was now excited to go to the shop each morning.
"Did Molly not come with you?" Louis asked his middle sister in return.
Molly Weasley was Percy and Audrey Weasley's middle child, and she was a year older than Baxter, and one year younger than their eldest sister Lucy. Molly and Dom had been sharing a flat for a year and she and Dom usually arrived at events together when it was a place they were both expected to be.
Dom shrugged her shoulders, "She was taking too long to figure out which pieces of her Tutshill Tornadoes clothing she wanted to wear."
Molly, Rose, and their Uncle Ron were the lone members of the Weasley and Potter families who cheered for a team that wasn't Puddlemere or the Harpies. Molly's love for the Tornadoes only really annoyed Ally, who was such a strong supporter of her fiancé's team that she would berate anyone around her who wasn't cheering for Xavier's team.
Just hearing that Molly was going to spend her time during that evening's game cheering for the Tutshill Tornadoes over Puddlemere United made Ally grind her teeth together.
"Although now I'm second-guessing coming with Vic and Teddy because they made me come here so bloody early-" Dom began her argument again.
"It's not that early," Victoire interrupted her sister, "And it's fun being able to talk to everyone before the game starts!"
The door of the large box seating area opened again and Malcolm Wood entered the room along with a short women who had very blonde hair and who was wearing surprisingly expensive shoes for an evening of quidditch game viewing.
Malcolm Wood was an age contemporary of Teddy, and the two had been best mates since they were younger. They had both been in Gryffindor house at Hogwarts and the two were hardly ever seen without the other in their younger years. Malcolm Wood was one of Cecilia and Xavier's many cousins on their father's side, and he was the youngest cousin and was closest in age to them, as their father Oliver was himself the youngest of all of his siblings and as such had the youngest children of all of the Woods.
Malcolm Wood was also presently in a relationship with Puddlemere United's starting centre chaser Nadia Cassano, so when he wasn't away on work –he was a freelance writer for many different magazines– he could be found attending almost every Puddlemere game, sitting right next to Ally as the both of them cheered for their respective partners.
At the moment, there was a slight twitch in Malcolm's left eye as he tried to think of a way to politely extricate himself from the she-demon he somehow got stuck talking to as he entered the stadium and made his way to his seat.
"So then I told Daddy that . . ."
Malcolm's eye twitch seemed to be a side effect of him suppressing a series of eye rolls as he tried to keep a neutral expression on his face as he listened to the woman's inane and self-centred chatter.
"Should we save Malcolm from Miss Richy-Rich?" Dom asked her family idly as she obtrusively pointed towards where Malcolm was still stuck listening to a monologue which was being presented with extra flourish by Giavanna Tracey-Mullin.
Ally let out a long suffering sigh, "It would be the nice thing to do."
There was a quiet pause as the group of them thought about whether they should do the nice thing or if they should keep themselves under Giavanna's radar to avoid also possibly getting stuck talking to her themselves.
Giavanna Tracey-Mullin was an interesting person. She was the only child of the incredibly wealthy owner of Puddlemere United's quidditch team, Garrick Tracey; and she married Puddlemere's second-string seeker turned starting seeker Christopher Mullin two and a half years ago.
Before her marriage, Giavanna fancied Xavier and they even went on a date during a point in Ally and Xavier's relationship where they had broken up for six months. The first date abruptly ended with Xavier vomiting all over Giavanna because he had the flu, and that had ended whatever attraction she felt for him.
Giavanna was a spoiled woman who was used to getting everything she wanted from a very young age, which is how her fiancé-turned-husband was quickly promoted to starting seeker on the team her father owned just around the time of their marriage. Ally and the others weren't the biggest fans of Giavanna; and they had also weren't fond of her husband, Christopher Mullin, either as Victoire and Xavier specifically had had a serious falling out with Chris during their last year at Hogwarts despite the fact that they had been friends and housemates since their first year.
"Hey Malcolm!" Teddy called to get the attention of his best mate, making the decision about doing the nice thing for everyone else, "We saved you a seat."
Malcolm's face automatically relaxed when he spotted Teddy and the others, and even though Malcolm did force out some sort of farewell to Giavanna as he slowly side-stepped away from her, she ended up following behind him as he made his way over to the others.
After tossing out a quick greeting to his cousins and friends, he pulled Teddy into a tight man-hug and whispered a relieved thank-you into the metamorphmagus's ear.
"Hello everyone," Giavanna greeted the group even though there was a pinch of distaste in her face. The feeling of antipathy between her and everyone else was mutual, "Lovely evening isn't it?"
"It will be if the rain holds off," Ally replied politely.
Giavanna started to tap the toe of her high-heeled shoe against the floor, "It's hard to believe that there's only a few months left of the quidditch season."
"Yeah," Ally agreed blandly with a nod.
"It's too bad that the season is ending so soon, Chris'll probably be under my feet at home now since he won't know what to do with his extra free time," Giavanna announced with a not-so-affectionate eye roll at the mention of her husband.
Ally held in an eye roll of her own, "I'm quite excited for Xavier to be free for almost three months, especially since the break occurs just before our wedding and after it. There will be a lot to get done in those few months, and the timing of our wedding actually allows us to take an actual vacation for our honeymoon."
"How long were you able to convince Xavier to go without off season practicing for?" Victoire asked Ally curiously.
"Two weeks, although I did convince him that he could keep up his cardio and basic strength training without it putting too much of a damper on our vacation," Ally replied.
Teddy whistled impressed, "How did you manage that? I had to go behind Vic's back and talk to Cassidy Hopewell and Wesley Hall about taking over her shifts for two weeks before she even started discussing it with the head of her ward so that they'd be able to convince her that taking two weeks off for our honeymoon wouldn't be the end of the world."
Ally snickered, "It was actually rather easy to convince Xavier, I'm impressed that you were able to get Vic to take two weeks off in a row without causing at least a month of arguing though."
"It only took a week, but I did get the concession that I would be available for owl or muggle phone consultations during our honeymoon," Victoire added with a sly smile.
"Did Healer Seward demand that or . . ."
"I came up with it," The blonde healer piped up.
Dom rolled her eyes at her work-aholic big sister, "Of course you did."
"So Giavanna," Cecilia addressed the other woman who was still there for some reason, "How's your daughter doing?"
Instead of her face lighting up at the mention of her one-year-old daughter like most mothers, Giavanna let out an exasperated exhale and pinched the bridge of her nose, "She's still not sleeping through the night, or so her night-nurse tells me, but she doesn't seem the worse for wear when I see her at breakfast in the morning. She's a little cranky by dinner time though, so I've been cutting that time short and sending her to bed earlier."
"What time have you been putting her down for the night?" Cecilia asked the question before she could think better of it.
"I hand her off to the night nurse so she can go down for six," Giavanna explained with a longsuffering sigh.
"Have you ever considered keeping her up a little later so that she's more tired when she goes down to sleep? My friend Eliza did that with her daughter when she was having trouble sleeping throughout the night," Cecilia suggested helpfully.
Giavanna rolled her eyes, "She'll adjust to the schedule I've set for her at some point. I've spent enough money on nannies and night-nurses that they should be able to get her to sleep and eat when I need her to."
"The joys of parenthood," Malcolm muttered sarcastically but with a deadpanned expression that Giavanna had a hard time distinguishing.
"I of course love her to pieces, but I'd be able to love her a little bit better if she was less cranky when I'm around her," Giavanna said with a bright smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
Nobody else had much to say to her as they wanted to let the subject drop in hopes that Giavanna would get bored with their silence and then leave them alone, and after a few awkward minutes of Giavanna glancing between Malcolm and Ally, the daughter of Puddlemere's owner turned her back on the group and teetered away on her high-heels.
When she was out of earshot Dom glanced at the adults of the group, "That poor, poor child."
Malcolm nodded with a sad sigh, "That baby doesn't deserve to have that woman and her husband as her parents."
"No child deserves that," Victoire replied with a roll of her own eyes.
"No child deserves what?" Molly Weasley repeated curiously as she popped up in between her two eldest cousins.
Molly was a gentle and quiet soul –expecting the times she became riled up as she watched the Tornadoes play quidditch– so it didn't surprise Victoire too much to find that Molly had snuck into the box and up to the group without them first noticing it.
The group quietly greeted Molly, but the new arrival repeated her question, "So what does no child deserve?"
"To have Christopher Mullin and Giavanna Tracey as her parents," Dom explained.
Molly pursed her lips, "Are you debating on reporting them to child services again for their atrocious inability to name their daughter something appropriate?"
"Casey isn't a bad name for a baby girl," Louis replied even though he wasn't quite sure why he was defending Chris Mullin and Giavanna Tracey.
Dom snorted mockingly, "The name Casey isn't bad, it's how Giavanna decided to spell it that is going get the poor child bullied for the more formative years of her life."
Giavanna Tracey had safely delivered a healthy baby girl a year ago, and she told her husband and family that she had the perfect name for her beautiful angel. The baby's father and Giavanna's husband Chris Mullin had agreed right away to the name Casey, he liked the sound of it, and it seemed to fit the pudgy baby he held in his arms. It wasn't until Giavanna had filled out their daughter's birth certificate in permanent ink that Chris realized that Giavanna had decided to jump on the trend of spelling more general baby names uniquely.
Baby Casey Mullin was actually Baby Que-ehsí Giavanna Mullin. When Ally had first read the name written out –in a birth announcement that Giavanna had sent out to every member of her husband's team no less– she thought that she might be having a stroke. Xavier confirmed for her that there was nothing wrong with her brain or her eyesight, and the next time she saw Giavanna Tracey-Mullin, Ally very delicately asked Giavanna exactly how she wanted her daughter's name pronounced. It wasn't until Chris had red-facedly explained that their daughter's name was Casey, that Ally realized the horror the little girl would have to go through for the rest of her life. Giavanna had explained that Que-ehsí was spelt that way since 'que' in French was pronounced like 'kuh', and that at the end sí was supposed to be pronounced like 'sí' or 'yes' in Spanish. She had also decided that the middle letters of 'eh' were supposed to be pronounced like a long 'ay' sound, which is how Giavanna decided that Que-ehsí would be a proper way to spell the name that was often spelt like 'Casey'.
Giavanna seemed to be the only one who thought that Que-ehsí was an appropriate alternate spelling for the name she gave her daughter, but no one else was brave enough to tell her that her naming and spelling abilities were appalling.
Well no one but Nadia Cassano, would have told Giavanna to her face the grave mistake she'd made when naming her daughter, if Nadia's boyfriend and teammates hadn't physically held her back each time she tried.
The conversation eventually drifted away from Giavanna's horrible baby-naming skills and towards a more pertinent discussion about quidditch and whether or not Puddlemere or the Tornadoes were going to come out as the winner of the game. While Ally and Molly hotly debated each other, Ally obviously pleading Puddlemere's case while Molly argued on behalf of her favourite team, a few of the others threw in their own opinions and statistics just to further the argument. Malcolm decided to play devil's advocate and reminded Ally that the Tornadoes seeker had a better percentage of catching the snitch quicker in the game than Puddlemere's seeker, and even though Ally knew that Malcolm would never actually cheer for a team opposing his girlfriend's team, it was still enough to rile her up.
While Dom, Cecilia, and Louis teased Ally about how red her face was getting as she argued with Molly and Malcolm, Victoire glanced at Teddy and pressed a quick kiss to his jaw.
Teddy raised a questioning eyebrow at her while he placed his hand on her knee and squeezed, "What was that for?"
"I'm just happy right now . . . here with them, and with you," She told him softly.
He smiled gently at her, "Well I'm glad to hear that I'm still a contributing factor to your happiness."
"You always have been," Victoire reminded him with shinning blue eyes.
Teddy leaned forward and pressed a kiss of his own to the lightly freckled bridge of Victoire's nose, "And I can't imagine what my life would be like if I never had you in it."
"I love you," She told him with a tender smile.
He locked his sapphire blues eyes with her ocean blue ones, "And I love you."
"I love you too Vic!" A cheery voice piped up, unintentionally interrupting their attempt to share a kiss.
Victoire and Teddy turned their heads to find Brogan standing in front of them, he had wandered over to where they were sitting after getting bored listening to everyone else try to rile Ally up.
Brogan was giving Victoire the most endearing look a five-year-old child could conjure up, and she opened her arms up to allow him to give her a hug and cuddle into her.
"I love you too Baby Boy," Victoire told him with a smile. Baby Boy had been her nickname for Brogan ever since he was a baby, and even though he was at the age where he wanted to seem as mature as he could, he still allowed Victoire to call him by the nickname.
Brogan frowned a little as he glanced from her to Teddy, and then back to her, "But you love Teddy too?"
"I love the both of you," She explained sweetly but firmly.
When Victoire and Teddy had gotten engaged two years previously, Brogan had just turned four-years-old. Oliver and Katie tried to explain to their youngest what the term 'engaged' meant by saying that Victoire was going to get married. Before they could finish their sentence and say 'to Teddy' though, Brogan had interrupted them and asked 'to me?' in such an excited and innocent tone of voice that nobody immediately wanted to burst the little boy's bubble and explain to him that Victoire couldn't marry him.
It was eventually explained to Brogan that he was too young to marry Victoire, but despite the gentle explanations his parents and even Victoire and Teddy had given the boy, Brogan was still enthralled with Victoire and to that day he still had a huge crush on her.
"And you're marrying Teddy," Brogan added with a bit of a pout. His words came out blandly robotically, which made it apparent that Brogan had memorized those words after hearing them many times in the past few years.
Victoire reached out and tapped her index finger on the tip of Brogan's nose, "And I'm marrying Teddy because I love him and he loves me, and because he's old enough to marry me."
Brogan's frown didn't entirely disappear, but when he was no longer completely scowling Teddy grabbed the six-year-old around the waist and pulled him onto his lap.
"I promise to take very good care of Vic," Teddy assured Brogan as he pulled the boy into a tight hug that Brogan had a hard time not melting into.
"And one day, when you're much older, you'll find a person who you will come to love more than you've ever loved anyone before. More than you love me even, and when that happens it will be my turn to frown and to pout, and to make that person promise that they will love you and take care of you for the rest of their life," Victoire told Brogan gently.
Brogan nodded his head seriously and then glanced between Victoire and Teddy, "I can still come to the wedding?"
"Of course you can still come to the wedding!" Teddy told Brogan as he squeezed his arms around him again into another hug. Brogan allowed it this time.
Victoire pressed a kiss to the top of the little boy's dirty-blonde hair –hair that was the same colour as his older brother's and father's– and she smiled at him, "You're our ring-bearer Bro, you know that. You get to walk down the aisle just like you did a few years ago at Sandra and Kyle's wedding, do you remember that?"
Brogan nodded his head energetically.
"And you have a very important job at that, you get to carry our rings down the aisle, and you also get to help Rowan down the aisle," Teddy reminded the boy with a small chuckle.
While five-year-old Brogan Wood had agreed to be the ring-bearer for Victoire and Teddy's wedding at the end of June, Victoire had asked Eliza Parker if her not-quite-two-years-old yet daughter Rowan Parker-Dickinson would be the flower girl. Despite Rowan still being a young toddler and not quite two-year-old yet as her birthday was in August, she was a well behaved little girl who had started walking early and was already rather steady on her feet. Victoire and Teddy had no qualms about having the relatively young Rowan as their flower girl, especially since she would be walking down the aisle with Brogan who was much older than her and who had experience being a ring-bearer before.
Brogan finally gave Victoire and Teddy a bright smile as he remembered how excited he was to be a part of their upcoming wedding, and he rested his head on Teddy's shoulder.
Not five minutes later Katie Bell-Wood entered the box and immediately strode over to where Victoire and Teddy were sitting with her youngest child.
"Victoire I need to borrow you for a few moments," Katie explained in a no-nonsense tone.
Victoire could see that there was some tension in her body, and she quickly told Teddy and Brogan that she'd be 'right back' before she followed Katie out of the box and into one of the stadium's hallways. As Victoire followed Katie she began to question her on what she needed her for.
"Nadia's been vomiting for the past half hour," Katie explained in a quiet tone as they passed by crowds of people who were starting to make their way to their seats. The game was to start in twenty minutes.
"Where are your team's medical personnel?" Victoire asked. She had completed a few months' residency during her time at healing school working with Puddlemere United's medi-witch Claudia and medi-wizard Steven.
"Claudia didn't come into work today because she's ill, and Steven is busy with the team's reserve centre chaser Hawthorne. He came into the stadium early this morning to work out and ended up getting hit in the head by an errant piece of weight-lifting equipment. Coach Bissenette thinks Hawthorne might have a concussion," Katie expounded as she led Victoire through a security guarded door and into the restricted team area of the stadium.
It took them just a few minutes to get to the area that held the main team's locker rooms, and Katie held open the door to the women's locker room that only Nadia used since she was the only female member of Puddlemere's starting team. The locker room seemed empty at first, but Victoire quickly noticed the sound of retching coming from the area of the room that held an enclosed bathroom space.
Before Victoire could get to the bathroom, Nadia stumbled out with a rather green complexion. The starting centre chaser's short dark hair was pulled back by a thick elastic athletic headband, and Nadia was already dressed in her uniform for the game that day. Her face was a sickly pale-green in colour and she looked a little shaky. She blinked in surprise at Victoire's sudden presence, but she realized pretty quickly that Katie must have gone to find her after she couldn't get a hold of Steven. Nadia sat down heavily on the bench in the middle of locker room and started to take a few deeps breaths as she felt another roll of nausea cycle through her stomach.
"Steven's assessing Hawthorne so I grabbed Victoire to come take a look at you," Katie needlessly explained to Nadia.
Nadia swallowed thickly and groaned, "I'm fine . . . just a touch of food poisoning is all."
"Please tell me that you did not eat Malcolm's famous mincemeat pie," Victoire sarcastically asked Nadia with a roll of her eyes as she sat down next to the centre chaser on the bench.
Nadia scoffed and then muttered in Italian, "Manache no! Ever since he first made that for me years ago I made him swear to never ever cook that again."
"Then what did you eat that might have given you food poisoning?" Victoire asked curiously.
The taller woman frowned and spent a few minutes thinking, "I don't know . . . Malcolm ate everything I ate yesterday and he's not ill."
"Could I run a few diagnostic tests on you then? Just to check and see if it is food poisoning or maybe the flu? They have similar symptoms sometimes but are treated very differently," Victoire told Nadia.
Nadia let out a sigh but she slowly nodded her head. She wanted to get better as quickly as possible because she did have a game to play in that was about to start in fifteen minutes.
Victoire started professionally asking Nadia questions about fevers, stomach cramps, and shivers in between waving her wand and casting different wordless diagnostic spells on the chaser. The healer was going through a mental list of standard diagnostic spells that were pretty much reflex to cast at that point. She had just cast a spell that sent out a bright flash of light towards Nadia's stomach when, instead of the light being absorbed by Nadia's body, it bounced off of her abdomen and flew back towards Victoire, who was grossly unprepared for the ricochet.
The energy from the spell flew past Victoire's head and slammed against the locker behind her. It bounced off the locker and immediately set out to ricochet off another part of the room when Katie stepped forward and waved her wand to absorb the excess magical energy.
As she did so she glanced at Victoire with a startled expression, "Was that-"
Victoire gazed at the older woman with wide eyes of her own and silently nodded her head, "Yes." It didn't surprise Victoire that Katie, a mother of three children, recognized the spell she had cast on Nadia. It was intended as part of the normal battery of diagnostic spells she was trying out on Nadia to get to the bottom of her illness, but Victoire didn't expect that diagnostic test to reply the way it had.
Katie's expression was still dazed, but she nodded in reply to Victoire and then quietly excused herself from the locker room, leaving Victoire and Nadia alone.
"Wha-" Nadia attempted to ask as Katie practically sprinted out of the room. She couldn't finish her question before Victoire began intently asking even more questions about her health.
"Nadia, when was your last menstrual cycle?"
Nadia gave Victoire a look that said that she was puzzled by the sudden question, and she replied quickly, "Last month."
Victoire pursed her lips, "Was it exactly a month ago?"
Nadia narrowed her eyes at the healer, "Yeah I guess. I'm about five days overdue for my next one and-"
"Your period is five days late?" Victoire repeated sharply.
"About that, yeah."
"And you don't think that's . . . significant?" Victoire asked slowly.
Nadia shrugged, "I'm usually a few days off. I've never been really regular, it always comes at some point."
Victoire swallowed thickly and then glanced at Nadia sympathetically, "Nadia, you don't have a fever which would indicate the flu, and you haven't been having body aches or stomach aches which would indicate food poisoning."
"So why do you think I've been vomiting then?"
"Have you been feeling weird in any other ways? Dizziness?"
Nadia shook her head.
"Bloating?"
"Well yeah, but as I've established it is that time of the month-"
Victoire sighed heavily and inquired, "Abnormal breast tenderness?"
Nadia frowned, "Actually yes."
"Well," Victoire began as she took a deep breath, "That's not surprising because the spell I cast on you before Katie left was a pregnancy detecting spell . . . and when the spell ricocheted off of you and into the locker it was a sign that the test came out positive."
Nadia's complexion was verging towards a darker shade of green, "What?"
"I'd recommend another test by an obstetric healer of course, but the spell I cast on you is reliable, and it came out as strongly positive," Victoire explained in her healer voice, "Nadia you're pregnant."
The chaser's skin went even greener and she jumped off the bench and sprinted towards the bathroom and the closest toilet. She got there just in time to start vomiting again, but since she had already been throwing up for almost a whole hour there wasn't anything left in her stomach to come up. She spent several moments dry heaving while Victoire knelt down next to her and soothingly rubbed her back.
When Nadia finally stopped she moved away from the toilet and leaned her head against the wall to her immediate right. She took a deep breath and glanced at Victoire, "I can't be pregnant."
"Have you had sexual intercourse since your last period?" Victoire asked her professionally.
"Yes but-"
"Have you been using contraceptives while you've been sexually active?"
Nadia started nodding her head hastily even though it made her stomach start to churn again, "Yes of course!"
"Every time?"
"Yes."
Victoire took a deep breath, "What kind have you been using?"
"I cast a contraceptive spell each and every time Malcolm and I have sex," Nadia asserted insistently.
The blonde healer pursed her lips, "Is that the only contraception you use?"
"Yes . . . hormonal contraceptive potions and I don't really mix well," Nadia admitted.
Victoire patted Nadia's hand, "That's understandable . . . but are contraceptive spells the only thing you use?"
"Yes."
"And did you say that you're always the one who casts the spell?" Victoire asked.
Nadia snorted, "Yes, like I'm gonna trust Malcolm with something as important as that in the heat of the moment. Idiot gets rather absentminded when he gets distracted like that."
"And you're sure that you always use the spell?"
"Always," Nadia repeated resolutely, "I even cast it when-" Her eyes went wide and her face went green again as she swallowed thickly, "When we've been drinking because usually Malcolm's the one who's most inebriated."
Victoire nodded but Nadia started talking again, her voice cracking as she spoke, "Except for that one maledizione time a few weeks ago when we got back from brunch at Eilionoir's and I drank three-quarters of a bottle of firewhisky. Unfortunately I recall Malcolm taking the lead when it came to spells that time because I was more than a little tipsy."
"Why'd you drink three-quarters of a bottle of firewhisky?" Victoire asked curiously.
Nadia pinched the bridge of her nose, "Because Eilionoir spent almost the entirety of brunch berating Malcolm for the fact that his younger cousin –a. k. a. Xavier– is getting married before him."
Hearing that didn't surprise Victoire. Eilionoir Wood –Oliver Wood's mother and the blunt matriarch of the large Wood family– was a woman who could drive even the most sober person to drink. Malcolm, Xavier, and Cecilia's grandmother had strong opinions on just about everything, and she had several children and dozens of grandchildren to try to impose those opinions on. The semi-regular Wood family brunches at Eilionoir's home usually involved at least one grandchild storming out of the house in a fury after being antagonized by the matriarch for several hours straight. The incident that Nadia was referring to ended with Malcolm storming out of the house –Nadia following after him like a good girlfriend– and the pair arriving back at Malcolm's house with enough time left in the day for them to get reasonably drunk.
"So you think that it's possible that you could have gotten pregnant at that time?" Victoire asked her.
Nadia put her face in her hands, "Well it wouldn't surprise me that Stupid Malcolm cast the stupid spell wrong."
Victoire placed her arm over Nadia's shoulder and pulled the other woman towards her to give her a hug, "Want to go find Stupid Malcolm and tell him the news?"
Nadia felt her eyes start to water, and her heart started to ache with longing as she thought about her loving but definitely stupid boyfriend, "Yeah."
The two stood up from the floor so that they could walk back into the locker room, before they could move towards the exit of the locker room however, the door opened and Katie walked back into the room with Malcolm, and oddly enough Teddy, at her heels.
Malcolm and Teddy seemed to be confused as to why Katie had brought them to Nadia's locker room, so they were quiet as Katie explained to Nadia that she had arranged with the other coaches to get a reserve player to play for her in the game that evening.
"But Hawthorne is the reserve centre chaser and I thought Steven was treating him for a concussion?" Nadia asked Katie worriedly.
Katie nodded her head and bit her lip, "Steven is, and Hawthorne does have a concussion. Which is why in five minutes James is going to be playing centre chaser."
Nadia blinked, "Potter plays right wing chaser."
"Beggars can't be choosers, and between James and the left wing reserve chaser they're our only other options for tonight," Katie reminded her.
Victoire crossed her arms over her chest, "And you gave the spot to James?"
"He's the best of the two of them, he's actually the best of the three of them so I'm sure that he'll adapt the best he can to centre chaser for tonight," Katie replied. She didn't sound too worried about it.
Malcolm glanced at his aunt in confusion, "Wait . . . why isn't Nadia playing tonight?"
"I've been vomiting for the past hour," Nadia admitted to Malcolm as she unsteadily sat down on the bench in the centre of the room.
Malcolm strode over to Nadia immediately and sat down next to her, "Oh Babe I'm so sorry, do you have the flu?" He lifted his hand up and patted his girlfriend's forehead and cheeks to see if she had a fever or if she felt clammy.
"No," Nadia exclaimed quickly as she exasperatedly batted Malcolm's hands away from her face, "I don't have the flu."
Malcolm frowned, "Then why have you been tossing your cookies?"
Nadia's face turned green again, but it was hard to tell if it was because of the mention of her vomiting or because of what she was about to disclose, "Because I'm pregnant."
Malcolm froze as the words took a few moments to penetrate his thick head, and Nadia stared at him in silence until her stomach did a complete three-sixty twist and she started to gag. Victoire instantly conjured up a small rubbish bin and she pushed it into Nadia's hands before she could throw up on her own feet. The bin got into Nadia's hands right in time for her to vomit up some stomach bile, the liquid the only thing left in her stomach after the long hour of retching.
Victoire patted Nadia's back comfortingly while Malcolm did an excellent impression of a muggle statue. The sound of Nadia's gaging and coughing quieted a bit after a few moments and then Malcolm slowly blinked as his brain started to work again. His harried brown eyes glanced from Nadia, to Victoire, and then back to Nadia even though his next question was clearly addressed to Victoire.
"Are you sure that she's pregnant? Because it's not exactly like obstetrics is your specialty . . ."
The healer sighed and put one hand on her hip as she looked at her fiancé's best mate with a raised eyebrow, "You're right Malcolm, obstetrics isn't my specialty. My healing specialty is the hardest most difficult healing specialty to get certified in because it takes a lot of education and magical ability to heal and reverse the darkest magic wizard-kind can create and inflict upon each other; and because of this I can assure you that my ability to cast a pregnancy detecting spell is one-hundred percent effective."
Malcolm swallowed thickly while Nadia lifted her head out of the rubbish bin. Victoire took the bin from Nadia and vanished its contents. Malcolm slipped off of the bench and knelt down on the floor in front of Nadia and he took both of her slightly shaking hands in his, also rather shaky, hands.
"We're having a baby?" He said to her, his voice going up at the end and turning what should have been a serious statement into a slightly bewildered question.
Nadia met his gaze and her eyes started to water again, "We're having a baby."
Hearing her shaky voice confirm it caused a small smile spread across Malcolm's lips and he let go of Nadia's hands so that he could wrap his arms around her and pull her into a tight embrace.
Malcolm ran his hands comfortingly up and down Nadia's back as he blurted out, "I don't know anything about babies."
Nadia pulled back a little and met his gaze again, she reached a hand up to cup Malcolm's cheek, "Me either."
Both their eyes had started to leak tears, but from Victoire's vantage point the tears seemed to stem from happiness instead of despair. Victoire took a few steps back to give the couple a bit of space, and she ended up backing right into Teddy's chest. She turned and glanced up at him while he wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her.
"Why're you here?"
Teddy smiled softly at her, "Katie came to get Malcolm, obviously, and just before they walked out of the box she walked back to me and said that it might be helpful if I came too."
Victoire glanced from her fiancé to where Malcolm was kneeling with Nadia in his arms, "She was probably worried about how Malcolm might take the news. Must have thought that having his best mate here might help him."
Teddy nodded and glanced at Nadia and Malcolm as well, his fingers unintentionally tightened on Victoire's waist as he watched the pair start to whisper to each other.
"I love you," Malcolm told Nadia softly but earnestly, his expression still rather dazed from the life changing bombshell that had just been dropped on them.
"I love you too," Nadia replied. Her tone was soft but her eyes soon took on a hard edge, "But I'm not going to marry you."
Malcolm stared at her, his mouth open wide in bewilderment, "Uh . . . did I ask you to marry me? Because I don't remember saying those words-"
"You didn't," Nadia agreed with a nod, "And you're not going to. I don't care what your grandmother, your parents, or even my parents will say, I'm not going to marry you just because I'm pregnant."
Malcolm licked his lips and nodded his head slowly, "Noted."
Victoire, Teddy, and Katie –who was still standing quietly and unobtrusively in the room– shared a few confused looks at the sudden change in direction of the conversation and newly developed tension.
"Um, so for future reference though . . . is this moratorium on marriage just while you're pregnant or, like, for forever?" Malcolm asked his girlfriend hesitantly and still perplexedly.
Nadia gave him a sudden fierce look, "I do not want to marry you just because I'm pregnant and outdated societal norms says that we should. That is not how I want to start a marriage."
"But you do want to get married when you're not pregnant?" Malcolm asked a little less hesitant but still really confused-sounding.
Nadia placed her hands on either side of her boyfriend's face, "No marriage talk until much, much further notice. Got it?"
"Got it."
She nodded approvingly and then frowned as she stared at his face, his expression had quickly changed to one of intense concentration, "What are you thinking?"
Malcolm blinked, "About the fact that I'm going to have to give up on my free-lance writing days for the foreseeable future and talk to an editor about getting a full time writing position that I can do from here in England."
"Why?" Nadia asked him, her eyes narrowing suspiciously at him.
"Because with a baby on the way I'll need to spend much more time here at home in the future than I have been now," Malcolm replied as if it was obvious.
Nadia stared at him, her expression suddenly angry, "What about me? Do you expect me to be at home more often now too because we're having a baby?"
He frowned at her emphasis on the words 'at home'. Even though Malcolm did own his own home, Nadia didn't officially live with him. She still lived in her flat at the Puddlemere United team apartment complex, even though she spent most of her time at Malcolm's when he was at home and not in some other country on assignment writing an article.
"Why would I expect that? I figured that you'd want to get back to playing quidditch once you're cleared after the baby is born, so if I'm no longer travelling to different parts of the world every few weeks it will be easier for me to bring the baby along with us when you have away games," Malcolm explained even though he was confused by Nadia's unexpectedly angry expression.
She pursed her lips, a bit of the heat in her eyes dying out, "So you don't expect me to give up playing quidditch after the baby's born?"
"No," Malcolm blurted out quickly, his tone going back to one of confusion, "Why would I expect that?"
"Some people might say that once a woman has a baby, quidditch is no longer a responsible occupation for her," Nadia muttered irritated.
Malcolm rolled his eyes, "And those people are arseholes. I might be a jerk sometimes but I don't think I'm that much of an arsehole."
Her eyes softened completely this time and she smiled at him, "You're not . . . I just–it just occurred to me that a lot of women don't go back to playing quidditch after they have kids and that thought scared me because I'm afraid that that's what people are going to expect from me and–and I feel like my emotions are everywhere and I don't know why-"
"It's the pregnancy," Victoire added helpfully from a few metres away, "Mood swings are a common symptom."
Nadia pinched the bridge of her nose, "Cazzo this is going to be a long pregnancy."
"Another eight months at least," Victoire reminded them with a nod of her head.
Malcolm and Nadia looked into each other's eyes and he slowly leaned forward to press a gentle kiss to her lips, "And I am going to be by your side for the entire thing."
She smiled lovingly at him but then a thought came to her that was slightly horrifying, "That's figurative right? Because if you're going to be under my feet for the next eight months we're going to have a whole new set of problems."
"You should listen to her Malcolm, I almost maimed your Uncle Oliver on several occasions while I was pregnant with all three of your cousins," Katie remarked helpfully from her spot in the room.
Malcolm swallowed thickly and then glanced at Nadia, she was looking at Victoire, "Know any good obstetricians who will be able to keep my identity confidential and who are willing to make house calls? I think a visit to St. Mungo's would attract the attention and scrutiny of the press more than I'd like."
"I know just the bloke if you think you'd be comfortable with a male obstetrician," Victoire told Nadia.
Nadia raised an eyebrow at her, "Would you trust this guy with your uterus?"
"I have in the past actually," Victoire admitted with an easy shrug.
Nadia shrugged her shoulders as well, "Alright then."
Malcolm helped Nadia to her feet and Katie paced over to the couple to pull them into a tight group hug, "You two are going to have a baby!"
Nadia laughed at Katie's enthusiasm, but she was glad to see that her mentor –who also happened to be Malcolm's favourite aunt– was being so supportive about her surprise pregnancy. Katie dropped her arms from around the pair and then she raised her hand to unceremoniously and unexpectedly smack Malcolm across the back of his head.
"Ow! What was that for Aunt Katie?" Malcolm asked with a pout as he rubbed the now sore spot on the back of his head.
"That was for impregnating my star chaser. Nadia can't play quidditch for ten months now," Katie told her nephew sternly and with a bit of a glare.
Malcolm looked down at his feet and muttered something about how 'it takes two to tango', but when Katie asked him to repeat it in a louder volume he wisely abstained.
Victoire and Teddy then stepped up to Nadia and Malcolm to officially congratulate the couple on their pregnancy, and Teddy felt Malcolm squeeze him almost too tightly in a hug while Victoire gave the still-slightly nauseas Nadia a gentle embrace.
"I have no bloody idea what I'm going to do," Malcolm confessed in a stressful whisper to Teddy as he clutched his best mate to him.
Teddy felt a slight pang of something akin to jealousy at the reminder that Malcolm was already well on his way to having a baby before the year was out, but he shook it off and hugged Malcolm back just as tightly as he quietly spoke into his friend's ear, "That's what your family and friends are for."
Malcolm smiled thankfully at his friend, but then he let Teddy go and moved back to Nadia's side so that he could get a head start on getting under her feet and treating her like a glass doll since he now knew that she was carrying precious cargo.
Victoire walked over to Teddy and wrapped her arms around him while Katie began to ask Nadia about when she would feel comfortable arranging a meeting with the team's head coaches and publicists to discuss taking the next nine months off and publicly announcing her pregnancy. It was a hard rule within every professional quidditch league that players would stop playing quidditch and take time off the minute they discovered that they were pregnant. The rule was created for the safety of both the player and the unborn child, so nobody really argued with it.
"So Nadia and Malcolm are going to have a baby . . ." Victoire whispered to Teddy as she watched the still-dazed expressions on the couple's faces.
"As are Jilly and Caleb and Colton and Anastasia," Teddy mused quietly.
She swallowed thickly, "That makes three of our friends who are going to have babies."
"Did you just admit that Colton's your friend?" He questioned her with a raised eyebrow.
His fiancée ignored him in favour of giving him a very serious look, "If I get pregnant within the next six months our child will be going to Hogwarts with Malcolm, your best mate's, child."
Teddy smiled brightly and rested his forehead against hers, "Oh trust me, I already did the math on that."
Victoire's gaze moved from him over to Nadia and Malcolm, "It is bad that I'm a little jealous of them?"
"Jealous of their apparent inability to use contraception properly and their consequent unplanned pregnancy?" He asked with a sardonic expression.
"Yes."
Teddy pressed a kiss to Victoire's head, "No it's not bad. To be honest I'm a little jealous of them myself, and of Jilly and Caleb as well actually."
"At least I'm not the only one," Victoire said with a sigh as she watched Nadia –who must have been in the middle of another mini mood-swing– threaten Malcolm over something trivial that Katie was freely laughing at.
There was a sudden knock on the locker room door before it slowly opened. Oliver Wood's head peaked into the room through the slight opening of the door, but he had a hand covering his eyes because he didn't know what he was going find in in Nadia's locker room.
"Uh . . . Katie are you in here?" Oliver asked the room that he was blind to.
Katie rolled her eyes at her husband even though he couldn't see her, "Yes I'm here Oliver, and you can look, it's fine."
Oliver removed his hand from his face and stepped fully into the room as his gaze scanned the locker room's occupants. He pursed his lips when his gaze drifted past Victoire and Teddy, but they stopped on Nadia, Malcolm, and Katie.
"I know you said that Nadia's relatively fine, but the game's been on for twenty minutes already and I thought I'd hear something else by now," Oliver said specifically to Katie. He glanced at Nadia next, "How are you feeling? Do you need to go to the hospital?"
Nadia shook her head, "No, Victoire's assured me that it's not fatal."
"Good," Oliver replied with a nod of his head, "I'm sure that Victoire has taken good care of you, but I can find Steven if you'd like our team's medi-wizard to examine you as well?"
Nadia's face went white at the suggestion, "No, Steven does not need to examine me."
"Ollie," Katie addressed her husband as she walked to his side and placed a hand on his arm, "Nadia's not exactly sick."
Oliver's eyebrows narrowed over his eyes, "I thought you said she was throwing up?"
Katie glanced at Nadia, who nodded her head at the older woman, and then she looked back at her husband, "Nadia was throwing up . . . Victoire discovered that it was morning sickness."
Oliver's eyes widened to the size of saucers and his neck cracked audibly as his head twisted around to look at Nadia and Malcolm.
"Oh."
He swallowed thickly and shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers, "Umm . . . congratulations?"
Nadia blushed and avoided making eye contact with Oliver while Malcolm uncomfortably rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh . . . thanks Uncle Oliver?"
Katie rolled her eyes and squeezed her husband's arm, "And since Nadia is pregnant she will now be taking a nine month sabbatical from playing quidditch."
"Of course," Oliver agreed with a hasty nod of his head, he then glanced at his nephew with a look that was a mix of shock and pride, "You're going to be a father."
Malcolm's eyes widened in surprise at his uncle's words, "I – I hadn't thought of it like that yet."
Nadia raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm pregnant and you didn't realize that that would make you a father?"
"I didn't connect the dots right away okay?" Malcolm argued with a scowl.
Nadia rolled her eyes at him but stayed silent because it was obvious that Malcolm was on the verge of an existential crisis. It was starting sooner than she expected it to, but she had no doubt that both she and he would have a few more existential crises before the baby was born. She reached her hand out to him and he squeezed it tightly.
"I don't know how to be a father," Malcolm's voice was quiet but it was clearly audible to the otherwise silent occupants of the room.
Oliver strode over to Malcolm, put his hands on his nephew's shoulders, and made purposeful eye contact, "Nobody knows how to be a father until their first child is born Malcolm. And even after that there is no one way to be a father. You will figure it out, eventually. Together with Nadia you'll figure out how to be parents. You both will have the support of so many people who care about you in this. You'll figure it out, together and you'll do fine."
Malcolm nodded intently as he mulled over his uncle's words, and Nadia sent Oliver a thankful smile.
The expression on Katie's face said that she was impressed with Oliver's heartfelt words, and she smiled softly at her husband, "That was very sweet Oliver, and very truthful." She glanced at Malcolm and Nadia, "Oliver and I weren't even at the level of good parents until Brogan was born, I mean we were okay parents by the time Cecilia was born, but those first few months of Xavier's life –the first few years actually– were ridiculous. I'm surprised that Xavier didn't end up being a serial killer or a drug addict or something."
Oliver glared at his wife but she continued, "It's true, especially since he spent so much time with your mother as a child. That alone should have been enough to drive him to alcohol abuse at an early age."
"My mother isn't-" Oliver wasn't able to finish his defense of his overbearing mother because of the series of looks he was getting from Katie, Malcolm, Nadia, Victoire, and Teddy.
"I think we're all grateful that Xavier survived into adulthood with nothing worse than an unhealthy addiction to quidditch," Victoire responded sagely.
Katie nodded in thanks, "And that's because children are resilient. You two don't need to worry about screwing up your kid too much, just do your best."
Malcolm and Nadia nodded in thanks for the advice.
"Oh, and limit the amount of time Eilionoir gets with the baby," Katie added seriously.
Malcolm nodded hastily, "Don't worry, we will."
A/N: Malcolm and Nadia are having a baby! Vic and Teddy are a little jealous, and Giavanna's horrible at naming children. Let me know how you thought about this chapter, and what your favourite part was!
Next Update: I'm going to say in three weeks because I'd like to err on the side of caution, if I finish it sooner I will update sooner though, so make sure that you're subscribed so that you can get updates right away!
Next Chapter: It's part one of Teddy's birthday, we get to see Victoire at work again and actually dealing with some patients. We will also finally see how Eliza and Rowan are going on almost two years later!
I want to heartily thank everyone for reading, following, favouriting, and especially reviewing!
BIG thanks to:
loverloverlover, zalavi0309, carbo21, bookstar97, Guest (1), Kb215, petitecanard, zvc56, If I Could Dream, Josie, NicoleTheSmith, htennis, Saagarika, pointe15, ChrisfromSK, cjaben1, xXSlytherinQueenXx, Break This Spell626, fangirl5300, Guest (2), Izzy, Nobothersgiventoday, lovelyjello, and Gnool.
loverloverlover: We'll see toddler Rowan in the next chapter! And my placement went very well, thank you.
zalavi0309: Think their baby fever is even worse now? ;) And thank you so much, I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the time you spend reading my writing.
carbo21: Excellent guess, although I went a little different with the name, what do you think?
bookstar97: Lots of Vic in this chapter! James does deserve a nice girl, but I wonder how he's going to go about finding one . . . Baxter does seem a little done with being a third wheel, and we will see Eliza in the next chapter.
zvc56: Don't worry, I'll love whatever you write in a review, I appreciate everyone who takes the time to do it!
NicoleTheSmith: Aww, that's so sweet!
htennis: It's nice to have you back!
Saagarika: Just a little reminder that Norah is a year younger than Freddie and James, and that she's the same age as Rose and Al, so she was still at Hogwarts for another year. We'll see Roan, Eliza, and Benjamin all in the next chapter.
pointe15: Don't worry, we've got lots more Baxter to see in this story!
ChrisfromSK: Louis and Cecilia's relationship has not seemed to change much on the surface no, but as this chapter alluded to, there may be some changes on the horizon. Wedding dress and tux shopping is over, and since I already wrote scenes about that for Sandra's wedding I didn't feel like trying to write another similar scene, however, there are usually several fittings before the clothes are ready for the big day, so I'm sure a few scenes from those might sneak in when we get closer to the wedding itself ;) Don't worry, there will be lots of wedding stuff left to read about, I'm just taking my time to consider how I want to write them so that they don't seem like a replay of Sandra and Kyle's scenes, I also want to add in some for Ally's wedding of course, so I want each to be unique but still conjure up the same feelings, if you know what I mean.
cjaben1: I won't make any promises yet about the club scenes, but I will say that I am very excited to finally write them because I have a lot of ideas for them.
Break This Spell626: Are those predictions or hopes? ;)
fangirl5300: It's like you were in my head, Bro's the ring-bearer and Rowan will be flower girl.
Izzy: Training the younger aurors will be a lot of fun! Cecilia is definitely still a boss, and as you can see from this chapter, Brogan's still adorable.
Gnool: I've never really added Luna Lovegood into the story before because I already have so many other characters and I've never found a real use for her yet in the story, but who knows, she might make a cameo at some point.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter,
PLEASE let me know what you thought about it in a review,
If you have any questions or concerns you can also let me know in a review or PM,
My next update will be after Canada Day and the Independence Day, so an early happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians out there, and an early happy Fourth of July to my American readers,
Until Next time, DFTBA!