"Ah… Charlie…?" Harry's eyes widened comically, as he counted. "How many phoenix eggs are there likely to be at any one time?"

"In the wild, we estimate about fifteen to twenty at any given point. As for domesticated phoenixes, we only know of three and to date no domesticated phoenix is recorded as ever having laid eggs. Why?"

"Um… I think I have all of the eggs…" Harry whispered.

"How many?" Charlie repeated.

"Twenty-seven…"

The redhead man looked from one person to the next, shock clear on his face.

"Are you freaking kidding?!" He screeched.

"No." The eldest of the four wizards facing him, sighed. "No, we're not."

"Bollocks." Ron Weasley moaned.

"Yesh, definitely." Viktor Krumm's heavy accent had softened over the ten year since the Tri-Wizard Tournament but it was still there.

"And mum knows?" Ron asked.

"I can't be certain, but I would say so. Ginny's not good enough at potions to do this, herself." Arthur closed his eyes in pain at the thought that his beloved wife would do such a thing, but there was just no other way for it to happen. "And she always believed that Ginny would marry Harry." He glanced at the fifth wizard. "Sorry, Uric."

"No, do not be sorry. Help me to fix this." The blonde quidditch star replied.

"Alright. How did it happen? How did you find out, Uric?" Ron stood and began to pace, Arthur recognising his son's 'planning' behaviour.

"Ginny gave birth to twins. That started my suspicions. There are no twins in my heritage, but there are in hers, so I waved it off. Then I saw the babies. The only non-blondes in my family are those that married in." He paused. "At least, for the last five hundred years, anyway."

"The babies have black hair." Arthur commented.

"Yes." Uric nodded. "So, I quietly tested them. They are not mine. I would love them and raise them, but I found Ginevra's journal. In it she states that once the babies are six months old, she will divorce me and use the children to claim the remains of Potter's estates and all royalties centred around his name."

Ron snorted and waved a hand for Uric to continue.

"I went to Viktor, he is my captain, after all. He brought me to Arthur, who fire-called the Minister. And here we are…" Uric sighed.

"We have to protect the children." Ron started.

"Yes… and… No…" Arthur corrected him. "Until they're six months old, they're safe, Ginny won't let anything happen to them, until then." Arthur stood moved to stand in front of the fireplace, before turning to face the four men. Uric blinked, this was not his soft and gentle father-in-law, this was the warrior that had faced Voldemort and his entire army and defied them all. "No, first, we need to ensure she can't do this again. We need to cleanse this entire house, of anything that bears any physical traces of Harry. Clothes, skin, hair, blood, everything. Then we need to do the same to Uric's house. And a tracking spell, just to make certain she hasn't stashed anything, somewhere else. Then we can look at the children." All five men nodded.

"Arthur?" Kingsley asked.

"Yes?"

"There's something else to take into consideration." The Minister said.

"Yes…?" Arthur frowned.

"My term as Minister ends in two days."

"Oh."

"Yes. If you mean to send the children after Harry… if… Well, it has to happen by five o'clock, tomorrow afternoon. After that, I can't get you into the Ministry, let alone the DoM, again." Kingsley sighed.

"Send them…?" Ron started. "Dad? What does Kingsley mean, send them after Harry?"

"Oh, Ronnie…" Arthur sighed. "Harry going through the veil makes him dead, legally, at least. He has no legal standing. Ginny, however, is alive. That means that no matter how she did it, the children will remain hers, legally. We can stop her from doing it again, but unless we can prove her to be an unfit mother, we can't take the children off of her, legally. There's no country in the world that would back us, if we did that."

"Yes, the only way to remove the children, in such a way that they can't be returned to her, or used by her, is to send them into the veil after Harry." Kingsley agreed.

"Oh, bollocks." Ron said again.

"And Kingsley's term finishes at five o'clock tomorrow afternoon…" Arthur added.

"Bollocks." Ron cursed viciously.

"Exactly…" Arthur sighed.

"You want to… what…?" Ron demanded.

"I want to take the children through the veil to join their father." Uric said. "Until someone tests them, I am legally their father, so it falls to me to take them."

"No." Ron argued. "I will. Ginny and I are estranged and are publicly feuding. And add to that, it's also public knowledge that I've been seeing a mind-healer since the war… Only a few people would think it strange that I react in such a vindictive manner."

Arthur closed his eyes and sighed quietly. "Unfortunately, he's right."

"And Uric's got family, if he were to do this, there's every possibility that Ginevra may accuse them of being complicit with him and have them charged." Kingsley said.

"Plus, we have no idea what type of environment they will be going into, Ron is far more comfortable in the muggle world, than you are, and he's also a very capable warrior." Viktor said.

"That is true…" Uric nodded.

"But that means that we have a huge amount of things to do, before five tomorrow." Ron said.

"I'll do a search here, if Uric does the same at their place." Arthur said.

"And I'll talk to Croaker. You're going to need a trunk like Harry's."

"So, I guess that I'll close up my workshop and speak to the goblins, then?" Ron said.

"You'll also need to hit the shops. Those kids are going to need a heap of stuff. Diapers, formula, clothes and toys, just to get you started." Kingsley added.

"And you'll need food and clothes for yourself, too." Arthur said.

"Oh, hell." Ron muttered.

"And that's not to mention any of your personal things." Kingsley said.

"What do we tell Ginny?" Uric asked.

"We don't." Ron answered. "In fact… before we get too far into this, you need to forget any suspicions you might have about the kids."

"What? Why?" Uric frowned in confusion.

"Plausible deniability." Kingsley answered, even though he raised an eyebrow to Ron.

"Exactly." Ron nodded back. "It would be best if you knew nothing about what we're planning to do."

"Obliviate me, you mean?" Uric's eyes went wide.

"Yes, but we can't until you've searched your house for anything connected to Harry." Kingsley warned.

"Well, that should be fine. Ginny is with Molly today and I know that she planned to go clothes shopping tomorrow. It should hopefully only take a few minutes to scan for anything Potter related. Removing it might be a little more difficult, depending on what wards have been placed." Uric said.

"Wards are definitely not Ginny's strength, spell-wise." Ron shrugged. "She's far better at offensive magics than passive ones. Curses, hexes and jinxes? She can cast them, no worries. But passive magics? Shields, wards, notice-me-nots and the like? No. She no good at them."

"And if they're on property owned by you, as head of her married house, you can override them, just as I can, here." Arthur added.

"Oh, yes, I had forgotten that." Uric hummed.

"Locate any stashes, but don't remove them, not until tomorrow morning. We don't want to alert her before we're ready to move." Kingsley warned.

"I'll encourage Molly to go with Ginny again, tomorrow, I can use the excuse of wanting time with Uric and the babies, as male bonding time." Arthur suggested.

"I'll pick a fight with Ginny this evening, nothing serious, nothing new. Nothing that would seem to be out of the ordinary for us, for the last few years." Ron added.

"Alright, that sounds fine. Any questions?" Kingsley asked. "No? Great. Ron, you come with me, now and we'll go and speak to Croaker. Let's meet tomorrow morning and review where we're at and what we still need to do." He stood and made his way to the floo-fireplace.

Ron nodded and joined Kingsley in front of the fireplace.

The meeting with Croaker went quickly and within minutes Ron had a trunk ready to go. All he had to do was fill it. A short stop at Gringotts to speak with the goblins and he had his first items, a carefully packed armoury consisting of a broad axe, a machete-like short-sword, a long scimitar with matching dagger, a cudgel with matching staff, a pole-axe, four sets of throwing knives, a pair of single-handed crossbows, a pair of boot daggers, a pair of middle-eastern khanjar-styled daggers, three different length short-swords, four full length swords, five shields of different sizes and a box of phials containing training memories. The goblins had also converted the contents of his vault to unstamped gold, jewellery and gems, stating that these were much the same as what Hermione had ordered for Harry, herself and the others that went with them.

When Ron had asked how he was supposed to purchase items if the goblins had converted his ʛalleons to gold, he was told that Gringotts still had a vault with ʛalleons left over from Hermione's shopping spree, and as per her directions, anyone joining Harry by entering the veil, was to have access to those funds. A white card with the Gringotts logo was slid across the table towards him. Ron picked it up and after being assured that it would work in either the muggle or wizarding world, he put it in his pocket and left the bank.

He walked from the bank towards the apparition point tucked away beside the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, a thoughtful expression on his face. Making a decision, he apparated away. Appearing in front of the shrieking shack, he carefully layered himself in glamours. Four layers to be exact. He had a lot of places to go and if he wore his own face, it would leave a trail for Ginny and the Aurors to follow.

"I can't believe Harry's been gone for… huh… seven years. I can't believe he's been gone for seven years and now I'm about to do something even he would have thought twice about." He muttered. "Kidnapping babies. God, how wrong is that? But leaving them with Ginny? No, that's even worse… Right, four layers should be enough, most wards only drop one glamour. The only place that does more is… ooh… Gringotts and Wheezes. Yeah, let's avoid them." He shrugged. "Time to get shopping… I hate shopping…" He took a deep breath and apparated away.

Five minutes before five o'clock the next afternoon, Ron stood beside Croaker, the Unspeakable having lead him through the hidden passages of the Ministry. now, they stood in the veil chamber, waiting for Arthur to arrive with the babies.

Sounds of explosions, crashes and rumbles erupted outside the room.

"What the…?" Ron spun in the direction of the chamber's door and took one step.

"No!" Croaker snapped. "You can't help, you need to be here when Arthur arrives, or this is all for nothing." The heavily veiled wizard reminded him.

"But-" Ron got no further than that, as the chambers door opened.

"We got problems." Kingsley panted as he ran into the chamber. "Ginny or Molly twigged. They alerted the Aurors."

"They're only moments behind us." Arthur wheezed for breath. "They got Viktor, a cutting curse across the neck and shoulder."

"Dead before he hit the floor." Kingsley added. "Good thing we obliviated Uric and left him tied up, at their cottage. We've no choice now, we either all go or those that stay are dead." He flicked his wand at his heavily bleeding arm and healed the wound.

"Where are the kids?" Ron demanded, frowning.

"Here." Arthur unbuttoned his robe and opened it, showing the two sleeping infants in their slings. "I gave them light sleeping drafts, I didn't want them to wake and cry at the wrong time."

"Oh, thank god." Ron breathed, then winced as an explosion echoed outside the chamber.

"I set off a few things the twins' left when they moved out, mostly fireworks and a handful of Decoy Detonators." Arthur flinched at a particularly close blast. "But I don't think that's going to hold the Aurors off for long."

"You have to go." Croaker pushed them towards the veil. "Now. That was only yards away. Go!"

"Ron, grab hold of Arthur, we can't afford to be separated." Kingsley stepped up to Arthur's side and gripped his wrist firmly.

"Kingsley?" Ron asked.

"Robards and Williamson saw me shielding Arthur, if I stay, the chances are that I'll be cut down like Viktor. No, Ron, my only chance is going with you, now." Kingsley pulled the two redheads towards the veil. "Now, come on, while we still can."

Arthur and Ron exchanged glances and both nodded.

"Let's go." As one the three men stepped into the veil.

A heart-stopping, dizzying few moments later and blackness faded into light. Ron looked around them, his eyes wide.

"Okay…" He trailed off. "This is… weird." He whispered.

"Just a little." Arthur agreed, while Kingsley just nodded.

All around them were hills, tall but not enough to be mountains. Rocks, landslips and grass as far as the eye could see.

"Definitely not earth, then." Ron muttered.

"What makes you say that?" Kingsley asked.

"Two moons, earth only has one." Ron raised his hand beside his head, a finger pointing up.

Kingsley tilted his head back and studied the clearly visible two moons, one almost full and the other a sharp crescent.

"Ah, right…"

"Oh, hello, Charlie." A new voice had the three wizards turning around to face a teenage boy. "We weren't expecting…" The boy frowned. "You're not Charlie." He said. "Who are you? And what are you doing out here? The terminal is back that way." He gestured over his shoulder.

"Ah, hello. Ron Weasley, pleased to meet you." Ron held out a hand for the boy to shake.

"Hello, I'm Estel." He shook Ron's hand. "Do you know Charlie? You have the same family name."

"Yes, I do, Charlie is my brother. One of them, anyway." Ron said.

"Brother? Really?" Estel asked eagerly. "What's it like to have brothers? I don't have any."

"Loud is the first thing that comes to mind." Ron grinned. "You mentioned you weren't expecting him? Can we get a message to him?" Ron was hesitant to send a Patronus, who knew if these people were aware of magic?

"If we ask at the terminal, surely one of the fliers will take a message. Come on, this way, I'll take you back to the terminal and we'll see what we can sort out." Estel assured them. The lad lead them up out of the little valley they were in and around a few rocks. "There's the terminal." He pointed to a tall outcropping of rock, jutting up out of the ground, a series of stone arches rising gracefully from its summit.

"Oh, my…" Arthur exclaimed.

"Yeah, they did a good job, didn't they?" Estel lead them to a set of broad stone steps. "Let's go up, the flight from Ered Luin and Hobbiton should be in soon."

Flight? Kingsley looked Arthur, who looked just as confused. But that didn't stop them from following the lad. Up the steps and out on flagstone observation platform, where the three paused to look around.

"Weasel?" A sharp voice addressed them from their left.

Ron turned in that direction, only to face a familiar blonde.

"Ferret?" He gasped.

"Weasel! How the devil did you get here?" Draco Malfoy demanded.

"Same way Harry did. We walked into the veil." Ron answered, he was no longer consumed with rage at the blonde, now all he felt was relief at being presented with a familiar face.

"The Veil? Why would you…?" Draco trailed off. "What happened.?" The second question was snapped out.

"Ginny." Was all Ron answered.

"The Weaselette? Oh, that answers so much." Draco muttered.

"You have no idea." Ron sighed.

"What did she do this time?" Draco muttered.

"She and mum concocted a potion, using god knows what, that made her pregnant with Harry's children." Ron replied.

"She did what?" Draco's voice went hard and cold.

"Yeah. Pretty much my reaction, too." Ron snorted. "Stupid bitch."

Draco's brows rose. "Do I detect a rift in the family?" A smirk twitched at Draco's lips.

"No. You detect a complete and utter fucking breakdown in the family." Ron sneered.

"I see." Draco said. "What happened to the children?"

"Dad's go them." Ron jerked a thumb over his shoulder and for the first time, Draco realised that Ron wasn't alone.

"Ah." Draco blinked. "Welcome to Arda, Minister, Mr Weasley."

"Thank you, Mr Malfoy." Kingsley's rich baritone voice was warm, but very tired.

"What else happened?" Draco frowned at the Minister, there was blood on his robes.

"Ginny, or maybe Molly, alerted the Aurors, we had to fight to get to the veil. They killed Viktor in the atrium." Kingsley answered.

"Viktor? Krumm?" Draco asked.

"Yes. He was helping us." Arthur answered.

"How old are the children?" Draco was running through various options in his mind.

"Six days." Arthur said.

"Damn, no apparating then." He sighed. "Alright. In that case the best option we have is to send you on the next flight east." He turned the lad that was hanging back near the steps. "Thank you, Estel, I'll see that they get to Erebor and their families."

"Yes, Mr Draco." The boy said and disappeared back down the steps.

"Flight?" Kingsley asked, when Draco faced them again.

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know about that, would you?" Draco muttered. "Right. Padma, Parvati and Lavender set up Hogwarts' Carpets, a flying carpet service. I'm standing in for Parvati, she's eight months pregnant and having a rough time."

"Flying carpets?" Kingsley blinked.

"Yeah, they have a number of flights." Draco pointed to a large noticeboard. "Four that go East-West, Erebor to Ered Luin, with stops at Hobbiton, here at Weathertop, Rivendell and the Beornings. And one that goes North-South, from the Beornings terminal to Lothlorien. You've good timing, there's two flights headed East, due to either stop here or go passed, in a matter of minutes, Lee's piloting one, while Bifur's got the other."

"Lee? Lee Jordan?" Ron asked.

"Yep. His flight is supposed to be a direct Hobbiton to Erebor cargo flight, but I think he'd make a stop to pick you up. I can Patronus someone to meet you at the other end." Draco offered.

"Why are you helping us?" Arthur asked. "Weasleys and Malfoys have been feuding for years. What changed?"

"Bill adopted Hermione and Luna into the Weasley family. I married Hermione, that makes you my father-in-law and brother-in-law. Why wouldn't I help family? Besides, Mione would likely hex me if I didn't." Draco shrugged.

"She would." Ron snorted. "Alright. How do we do this?" His head spinning with the idea that a Malfoy married a muggleborn.

Draco didn't answer him, but he did cast a Patronus. "Message to Lee. Need you to do an emergency pick-up at Weathertop for Erebor. Weasleys and infants involved." The silver hawk flew a few yards and vanished in a flash of silver/white light. "Cargo carpets only have a couple of seats, so I hope you have your wands, you might need to conjure-up chairs for yourselves." He gestured and the three wizards followed him. "Oh and the cargo carpets fly a lot faster than the passenger carpets, so you might want to cast some shields and warming charms on the infants, the windchill can be vicious." He leant over a telescope. "Let's see how far out they are…" He placed his eye to the viewer and studied the image it presented. "There they are." He stood up. "Want a look?"

Ron hesitated but his curiosity got the better of him and he stepped forward. Lowering his eye to the telescope he saw two objects coming towards them, one significantly larger and faster than the other.

"There's two. Which is which?" He asked.

"Oh, the passenger carpet from Ered Luin and Hobbiton is due in about half an hour, but the cargo carpet is only a few minutes away." Draco explained. "The carpet does have a tent, so you can always take the children in there, it's only basic though it does have a bathroom."

"I'm here." Another familiar voice yelled from an archway.

"Coming." Draco yelled back. "Come on, this way. You should get to Erebor in about six hours, maybe a little les, depending on the wind, sometimes it cuts the trip by an hour or so." He lead the three wizards up a set of steps to a deck, where a large oriental styled carpet floated.

"Ron?!" Lee gasped. "Ron? Is that really you?"

"Hey, Lee, how're you doing?" Ron gave him a wave. "You remember dad and Kingsley, yeah?"

"Yeah. Hey Mr Weasley, Minister." Lee blinked in surprise before looking back at Ron. "What in hell are you doing here?"

"Long story." Draco cut in. "How about you get moving and they can fill you in along the way. Bifur's getting close. Lee, you catch them up on… everything. Okay?"

"Right." Lee nodded quickly. "Come aboard. No passengers today, so pick a chair, any chair."

"Thanks, mate." Ron stepped onto the carpet and pulled his wand from his sleeve, he waved it in a circular motion, pointing mostly towards the carpet and a wide crib formed before their eyes. "There you are, dad. Put the babies in there, I've shielded it against wind and chills, but left it open to fresh air."

"Nicely done, Ron." Arthur carefully opened his robe and extracted a baby from an odd-looking sling/pouch thing. He laid it in the crib and quickly did the same with a second child.

"Yours, Ron?" Lee asked as he raised the carpet and sent it in an easterly direction.

"Nah, mate. Ginny and mum knocked up a potion to get Ginny pregnant with Harry's kids. Don't know the exact details, but…"

The carpet dipped. "She what?!" Lee screeched before quickly righting the carpet.

"Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction, too. And Malfoy's." Ron laughed.

"Oh, hell…" Lee muttered.

"Forget about her, tell us about what's going on here." Ron begged. "What's Malfoy doing here?"