"When will you open?" Paddy asked.
"Not for a while, yet." Titania answered. "I have a meeting with some students next week, I ran into Hermione, Ginny and a couple of others, they want me to show them my stuff and maybe sell some of what I have ready."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Hermione's reserving a parlour at the Cauldron next Monday."
"It'll be interesting to see how much you sell." Paddy rocked his head. "Hermione did like her quills."
Paddy and Myah stood in the door of the barn and watched as Titania flicked two wands around and things changed from scraps of wood, metal, leather, card, glass and parchment and became a myriad of things. From rulers to mechanical pencils and tiny inkwells, from quill-grips to notebooks, from compendiums to portfolios and pretty much everything in between.
"And I thought Harry was gifted at DADA…" Myah whispered.
"I know what you mean." Paddy whispered back. "That's just… mind-blowing."
"How does she do it?" Myah asked Flitwick, as the half-goblin joined them.
"I have no idea." He replied. "She took my lessons and flew with them. Do you know? She passed her Mastery with less than a year of tuition. The last to do that was… Minerva, I believe."
"Not you?" Myah asked.
"Oh, no, I dragged it out for nearly five years before I sat my exams." Flitwick disagreed.
"Only five years?" Paddy replied sarcastically, knowing that a typical apprentice took ten years before being ready to undertake their Mastery exams.
"I'm good, but not that good." Flitwick nodded in Titania's direction. "And you know the best thing about what she's doing?"
"What" Myah asked.
"While she's using magic to place everything and hold it in place, temporarily, she's still using glues and sealants to put things together. Nothing will come undone with a finite or finite incantatum."
"It wouldn't anyway." Titania wandered over to stand between her father and Flitwick. "I use passphrase protected charms."
"Pass-phrase?" Myah asked.
"Passphrase." Titania nodded. "A password is easier to break. A phrase, however…? That's much harder, particularly as I use nonsense phrases. The likelihood of someone saying one of my phrases and adding a finite to it pretty small."
"That would make it easier to use magic to hold things together." Paddy nodded in response.
"No, Da." Titania shook her head. "The passphrases are just for the charm-work. All my stuff is held together physically, not magically."
"That would make sense, if you're selling to muggleborns and muggle-raised." Myah said.
"That sounds about right." Paddy nodded.
"So, will you have enough stock to open?" Myah asked. "Actually…? When are you going to open?"
"May, just before the holidays." Titania said. "I want it to be a quiet opening, just open the door one morning and leave it at that."
"Like you're any other business in the Alley." Flitwick nodded. "Yes, I can see that working."
"Have you decided on a name, yet?" Paddy asked. "You were up in the air, last week."
"Yep." The 'P' popped. "The Desk Top. That's where everything I sell, goes."
"The Desk Top." Paddy rolled the name around in his mind. "Yeah, that works."
"It does but I've still a long way to go before I've enough stock for the shop." Titania looked over her shoulder.
"We'll let you get back to it, then." Flitwick nodded to the interior of the barn.
"Thanks, I'll be done in an hour or so, at least for today." Titania gave each of them a hug and headed back to the piles of materials.
The ritual chamber was spotlessly clean and nearly gleamed in the brightness given off by the lumos lights that filled delicate containers.
"Very pretty." Paddy said, sitting on one of the chairs carefully placed along one wall.
"Another one of Titania's inventions?" McGonagall asked, seated beside him.
"Yep." Paddy nodded. "She took a piece of broken wand and a storage crystal and linked them together, passed a lumosonto it and set it with a rune sequence. It can be nox-ed and relit without registering on the Ministry's detection network, as the crystal supplies the magical energy not the user."
"I wouldn't have thought the Ministry would like that." McGonagall sighed.
"They loved it." Paddy snorted. "So far? They're her buyer, nearly three hundred desk lamps and two hundred ceiling lamps. Gringotts are the next best customers."
"And how long do they last?"
"They need to be recharged after a thousand uses." Paddy said.
"A thousand?" McGonagall asked.
"She didn't want to spend all her time recharging them, as far as she's concerned, the shop is more important. She's hoping that by the time she needs to start taking time out to recharge things, she'll have been able to hire a couple of students to do it for her." Paddy shrugged.
"Does she have anyone in mind?"
"She's aiming for a couple of muggle-raised lads, the Cravey brothers?" Paddy said the name with a questioning grimace.
"Creevey." McGonagall corrected. "Why them?"
"That's it. Creevey." Paddy snapped his fingers. "And them, because a lot of muggleborns are buying them and taking them home. It lets their families see and use something magical. The brothers are muggle-raised, so moving in the muggle world is easy for them, but they're also wizards, so moving in the magical world is reasonably easy for them, too."
"But they're muggleborns." McGonagall reminded him. "The purebloods won't be very accepting of them."
"Actually, they're not… technically… muggleborns." Paddy grimaced again. "Apparently their father is a squib from a pureblood family."
"Really?" McGonagall blinked in surprise. "Which one?"
"Moody." Paddy waited for McGonagall to stop spluttering before he went on. "He's Mad-Eye's younger brother, the head of family sent him to the family of a muggleborn that he'd shared a dorm with at Hogwarts, when the lad didn't get his letter. The Creevey brothers had no idea and it wasn't until Titania and Luna suggested an inheritance test at Gringotts that they found out. Things are still a bit tentative, you know what Mad-Eye's like, with his 'constant vigilance' paranoia." Paddy shook his head in amusement.
"I most certainly do." McGonagall sighed. "Are you ready for this?"
"I'm sorry the twins were forced into a position where this became reasonable." Paddy said. "But them taking our name doesn't worry me in the slightest."
"No, Paddy, I meant Titania getting married." McGonagall shook her head.
"No problems, there." Paddy gave her a smile. "I'm not losing my daughter, I'm gaining a son." He tilted his head. "Or should that be sons? With Fred and George being twins?"
"Does it matter?" Arthur asked as he sat on McGonagall's other side.
"No, I suppose not." McGonagall gave a small smile.
"Here they come." Myah nodded towards the door on the far side of the chamber, where Luna and George lead Titania and Fred into the chamber. The betrothed couple stepped forward while Luna and George joined those already seated.
"Last chance to change your mind, Mr's Weasley." A heavily robed goblin said.
"No, thanks." Fred said. "I want this.
"Same here." George added. "No take-backs."
"Very well." The goblin nodded. "We shall start with the ritual to bond Mr Fredrick Weasley with Miss Titania Grimmley, adding in Mr Weasley's permanent name change to Grimmley. This will be followed by Mr George Weasley's name change, also to Grimmley." The goblin crossed to a set of circles etched into the stone floor. "Titania Dorea Grimmley, if you would stand in the silver-lit circle." Titania smiled at Fred and went where the goblin directed. "Fredrick Gideon Weasley, please stand in the gold-lit circle." Once Fred entered the circle, the goblin continued. "We shall now begin. Before family you stand, ready to be bound by magic…" The goblin began the first ritual.
Snape and Lupin met near the table holding gifts for the newlyweds, each laying an envelope on the table.
"They did it." Lupin sighed.
"You can't say they didn't warn you it was coming." Snape screwed up his mouth.
"No, I suppose not." Lupin huffed.
"Miss Lovegood and Mr Jordan are next." Snape reminded him.
"Then George and Miss Johnson, if I recollect." McGonagall said as she laid her own envelope on the table. "Will you be returning to Hogwarts this coming year Severus?"
"I will." Snape nodded. "My contract is until June 2000. By which time, Eliza Mitcham will, hopefully, have completed her Potions Mastery. I would recommend her as my replacement."
"And if she's not finished?"
"That will be something to discuss at a later date, Minerva." Snape replied. "Let's not put nifflers before an open vault."
"True." McGonagall nodded. "I shall certainly encourage Albus to take your thoughts into consideration."
"Do you ever plan on telling anyone else?" Fred asked his wife as they walked the path from their new home's gate to the front door.
"No, we don't." Titania replied, gasping as Fred swung her up into his arms, her arms darting up to clasp his shoulders. "We talked about this, Fred. You were there."
"I was more interested in you, not who you were going to tell." Fred chuckled, his wand flicked and the cottage's front door opened.
"Oh, you…" Titania laughed.
"Welcome to our home, Mrs Grimmley." Fred stepped into the cottage, letting the door swing shut behind him.
"Thank you, Mr Grimmley." She pulled herself closer and kissed his cheek.
"Shall we?" He gestured to the stairs.
Her smile grew. "Lets."
"I have a confession to make…" Fred lowered his wife's feet to the floor.
"Oh, and what would that be, husband of mine?"
"The morning after you told us about Harry…"
"What about it?" Titania could see that Fred was nervous.
"I woke up and… well… I remembered…" He whispered.
"Remembered what?"
"It was Flint's bitch of a mother that hit me with a heart stopper." Titania froze, her eyes wide. "We were outside the Room, Percy and me. He told Thicknesse that he resigned, then a blasting curse hit the wall and it exploded, I was stunned for a moment and that's when Mrs Flint got me."
"Fred…?" Titania whispered, shocked.
"Yeah… That's how I felt, too." Fred sighed.
"What did you tell Mad-Eye when he said the potion tasted like goblin piss?" Was this really the Fred from Titania, Paddy and Myah's original world.
"Have a lot of experience with that, do you, Mad-Eye?" Fred obediently replied.
"Oh, Fred! How much do you remember?" Titania squealed flinging her arms around his neck, before pausing and pulling back. "But… that was a year ago? Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"Well, kitten, it's quite simple." Fred smirked. "No matter which way you look at it, you're mine. I wasn't going to say anything until I had you locked in with a colloportus, now was I? No take-backs."
"Fred!" Titania wacked him on the shoulder and taking a hold of his robes pulled his head down to meet hers.
"You are mine and I am yours." She whispered. "Everyone else can go chase Peeves." She pressed her lips to his.
Fred slowly pulled back and looked at her, his smile bright. "I am your, you are mine." He repeated, his arms sliding around her waist. "That bed's calling us."
"Then we should answer." Titania touched lips to his neck, feeling his groan through the chest pressing against hers.
Dobby beamed as he laid platter after platter on the table. His family had grown and would grow more.
"Morning, Dobby." Paddy smiled as he saw his daughter and son-in-law wandering across the yard towards the kitchen. "And good morning to you, too." He called.
"Morning, Da." Titania's smile was bright and cheery.
"I didn't expect you two to surface for a few more days." Paddy said as he poured milk into his tea.
"We thought about it but we have news." Titania replied.
"Already?" Paddy exclaimed, looking alarmed.
"No, Da, not that so of news." Titania laughed. "We're not planning on kids for a few years, yet."
"Oh, thank heavens." Paddy sighed in relief before frowning. "Then what sort of news?"
"The sort where we get everyone here, especially George and Myah." Titania answered.
"That doesn't sound good." Paddy whined.
"Nah, not so bad." Fred said as he sat down and pulled Titania down onto his lap.
Noises were heard from the front of the cottage.
"That will be the others." Titania guessed.
"Morning all." Lee ushered Luna to a seat before taking one for himself.
"Hi." George bounded into the sunroom and dropped into a seat beside Fred and Titania. "You're out early, something we should know?"
"Oh, yeah…" Fred smirked.
While Fred and George bickered, Myah and Remus Lupin entered, quietly taking seats and waiting for Fred and Titania to finish greeting the rest of the family.
"Good morning." Snape wove his way around the table taking a seat beside Paddy. "To what do we owe the early morning summons?"
Fred and Titania looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Titania huffed but began to speak.
"Fred remembers." She said. "He's not exactly the Fred from our world but he has that Fred's memories."
"Or at least where things differ." Fred added. "I mean I remember all of this life, but there's other memories in there, too. Not strong but there. Almost like... the echo of a memory left bihind, when you take a memory strand out for pensieve viewing."
"Whoa…" George whispered.
"Yeah." Fred sighed.
"So…?" George quirked an eyebrow, asking a question that only Fred would understand.
"No, not really. I'm happy with the way things turned out."
"Even though…?" Another half-finished question from George.
"Yeah, that's fine. Like I said before. No take-backs." Fred spread his hands in a warding-off gesture.
"Okay." George shrugged. "No changes, then."
"Nope, all good."
"Is that going to affect your plans for the future, Titania?" Myah looked from Fred and George to Titania.
"No. I knew months, years, ago that Fred and I were going to do this. Him remembering doesn't change anything for me." Titania answered.
"Fred? You saw Harry and Ginny together, does that change how you feel about Titania?" Myah asked.
"No, of course not." Fred frowned. "Titania isn't Harry. Harry might have become Titania but they're very definitely two different people. Not that it really matters, I loved Harry, too, more than enough to let him and Ginny be. If that was what Harry wanted, I was okay with that. Would I have fought anyone else? Hell yes! But Harry wanted Ginny. And now? Titania wants me. I have no regrets."
"Neither do I." Titania said. "As Harry… I knew that the public wouldn't have approved of me being into blokes."
"They wouldn't have." Myah agreed.
"Don't get me wrong, I cared about Ginny, but girls weren't really my first choice."
"So… Being with Fred is… better?" Lee asked.
"Being with Fred is… perfect…" Titania blushed and ducked her head.
"So…?" Paddy tilted his head. "Now what?"
"Nothing." Titania answered. "We've done everything that we had to, now we just… live. Take every day as is comes. This is our life and we get to live it how we want. Do what we want. We don't answer to anyone, not anymore."
"True." Remus nodded.
"To new lives." George held up his teacup.
"To new lives." They cheered.