"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?"
As the carpet flowed down from the mountains, Ron shook his head. "Okay, that's just typical of Harry's luck." This was Ron's response to Lee's explanation of how Hermione had hidden people in a trunk without telling Harry and of the lead-up to the Battle of Erebor, as it was being called.
"Yes, Hermione seems to think so, too." Lee laughed.
"What happened after the Battle?" Kingsley asked.
"After the Battle? Well Miss Sissy and Fleur gave Thorin a dose of Severus' de-aging potion and followed that up with two doses of a regeneration potion. Then it-"
"Regeneration? Is that different from the de-aging potion?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, the de-aging potion literally reverses your age, but the regeneration potion only repairs any damage done within a set period of time." Lee replied.
"So, why give him both?" Arthur asked.
"De-aging doesn't work quite right on dwarves, it doesn't make them younger, it just heals some of the damage. That's where Severus got the idea for the regeneration potion." Lee explained and the three men nodded. "Severus gave him a de-aging potion that repaired most of the injuries that he got in the Battle but it didn't change his age and because that was its primary focus, it didn't repair all the damage from his injuries. So Severus went to work with Draco and between them… and Hermione and Luna, who did the arithmancy… they came up with a regeneration potion, that was supposed to repair any damage to a body that had been caused within a set amount of time, depending on the dosage given. Thorin got dosed twice, a week apart, as his injuries were pretty bad and Severus wasn't absolutely certain how the potion would react to a dwarf's body as opposed to a human one. Thankfully, it worked."
When the babies began to wake and cry, there was a few minutes of frenetic action, as nappies were changed and bottles prepared. Arthur and Ron settled themselves back in their seats, a baby in their arms, happily sucking away at a bottle of milk.
"Things were quiet for a bit, while we worked on rebuilding Erebor, on building an Outpost for Legolas and a castle for Hogwarts." Lee went one once everyone was settled again. "During that time, Padma, Parvati and Lavender convinced Thorin to let them build a depot-slash-terminal for their carpet service. It wasn't a hard sell. Parvati was to marry Fíli once dwarves from Ered Luin were resettled in Erebor. Fíli and Kíli's mother, Lady Dís, was the first to arrive, Thorin sent Balin and Fíli with Colin and Oliver to let Lady Dís and the rest of their people know that the Company had been successful and to bring the first wave back."
"Oliver must have hated being stuck on a carpet." Ron laughed.
"You have no idea." Lee snorted. "But he wasn't letting Colin go without him. They used a spare trunk to bring back pretty much everything that belonged to Thorin, Fíli, Kíli and Dís. Balin did the same with his and Dwalin's stuff and announced that the rest of the Company would be taking it in turns to return and pack up their families and possessions."
There was another pause while the babies were burped and laid back in their cribs and each of the wizards took turns to visit the tent's bathroom. Drinks and snacks were brought out and shared among them.
"While all that was going on, Harry and Charlie got married, just the Company, Legolas, Tauriel, Kressian and us, as witnesses." Lee laughed fondly. "There were a few snickers when Harry had Hermione stand as his best witch, but no-one was really all that surprised. Nothing changed until mid-summer when Parvati and Fíli married, that was a whole mountain-wide celebration, but it did cause a stir as, in all the fuss and bother, Thorin forgot that he hadn't actually been crowned as King Under the Mountain. No-one seemed too concerned, so he just shoved the crowning to the background, it was done the same morning as the wedding. Padma and Justin married later that month, again just quiet, Company, Outpost and Hogwarts. Sirius and Fleur both gave birth that summer, Fleur in May and Sirius in June, both girls. Harry nearly laughed himself sick at Sirius having to deal with a daughter. Fleur's daughter, Victoire and Sirius' Dorea are turning out to be little hellions, not a week goes by without either Fleur or Sirius running after them screaming."
"Oh, I have to see that…" Ron snickered.
"You will, I guarantee it. Hermione was the next to drop, she and Draco have twins, Belladora and Alexander, both take after their father in looks, but they have their mother's brains, they're already sitting in on lessons when they can."
"What else do you expect Hermione's kids to do? I mean, really?" Ron huffed.
"Since then, it's been a regular old pair-up. Luna and Neville, Fred and Angelina, George and Katie, Alicia and I, that was pretty expected. Right?" Lee asked and Ron nodded. "Yeah, figured that wouldn't surprise you. Seamus and Dean aren't a surprise, either. Colin and Euan caused a few blinks, but Dennis and Natalie didn't. Oliver married Master Bard's daughter, Sigrid, two years ago. Heck even Severus and Miss Sissy got married. We're not sure about McGonagall and Ollivander. We're taking bets, that sooner or later we're going to catch one of them leaving the other's rooms at some ungodly hour in the morning, either that, or they're just going to move in together. Bids vary. Thorin and Bilbo are another pairing that's still unconfirmed, they act like a married couple, but no-one's managed to catch them in the act. Not for lack of trying, though."
"Oh, heavens." Arthur quietly exclaimed, having completely missed that Lee had mentioned Fred.
"Erebor's mostly rebuilt but some mines are still being cleared and the treasury isn't finished being sorted, yet. Hogwarts's Keep is complete, but some of the towers and the walls are still being worked on. The Outpost is done and occupied, but Legolas recently asked for help with an extension to the gardens, Buckbeak's herd have taken up residence there, as have most of the phoenixes. There are terminals at Ered Luin, Hobbiton, Weathertop, Rivendell, the Beornings, Lothlorien and Erebor, with envoys being sent to Rohan and Minis Tirth next year. There are five passenger flights each day, two going west and the same number come east, one leaves early in the morning and the other leaves at midday and the last goes either to or from Lothlorien, depending on numbers. We still have five cargo flights from Ered Luin to Erebor each week, with a return flight three times a week."
"Why not pack a trunk and simply apparate?" Ron asked.
"Mostly it's livestock and that doesn't apparate too well. Tends to be too draining on the wizard. Carpets also mean that we can do stops along the way. Today was different, today's flight is a pre-booked flight from Hobbiton to Erebor, it's the last of the furniture and garden stuff, plants and the like, from Bilbo's people in the Shire. Bifur's got a carpet full of hobbits, Bilbo's with them just to keep everyone calm, but he felt it was easier to send all their things ahead, by a second carpet, that way more hobbits can be transported in one go. We need them, they know farming like no-one else. We've had three families for the last few years and they've done wonders, but there were only six of them. With the migrants from the few flights that we've done this week, we'll have a hobbit settlement of about one-fifty-ish."
"I can see the need, with new migrants arriving on an almost daily basis." Kingsley said.
"Yeah." Lee agreed. "Erebor's growing fast. Right now? Natalie, Luna, Lavender and McGonagall are the only witches that came with us, that aren't either, expecting a baby or nursing one. Seamus just gave birth, last week, Sigrid is due in less than a month and Sirius about a month after her."
"A regular baby boom, it seems." Arthur smiled, he loved being around children.
"Oh, yeah. Katie, Angelina and Alicia are all due within a day or two of each other, in about three months. The rest of the girls are anything from three to eight months, before they pop." Lee laughed. "Even Miss Sissy. Snape as a dad, that's going to be… interesting…"
Ron blinked a few times. "Don't want to know, don't want to know…" He muttered and even Kingsley looked doubtful.
"Ah, he's not so bad, here. Still snarky and a bit of a git, but we all know that he's here because he wants to be here." Lee defended the wizard.
"If you say so…" Ron muttered, he had heard, like everyone else at Hogwarts, of how Snape had truly been Dumbledore's man and had done what he could to camouflage that while Voldemort was still alive.
"We do." Lee shrugged. "Look, it's different here, we're all here, because we want to be here, not because we have to be. Most of us were muggle raised, we had identities in the muggle world, Hermione said the goblins could have changed the identity of anyone that wanted them to and moved them to the US, Canada or Australia. But that's not what most of us wanted. Michael Laws did and Hermione saw that the goblins got him out before Umbridge could get to him, but not us, we were all staying. All of us? Well, let's just say that none of us were going to abandon Harry again, we'd done that once, we weren't doing it again."
Ron winced, remembering that he'd abandoned Harry a number of time and even during the height of the war, he'd left Harry and Hermione. In a tent, at night, in the middle of winter, in the middle of a war. Not a good report, there.
"Yeah, you know what I mean." Lee nodded. "So, you get it. He stood by us, it was our turn to stand by him." He shrugged. "And we did. None of us regret it."
"So…" Kingsley tried to change the subject. "You fly carpets, these days?"
"Mostly, yeah." Lee nodded. "Oh, I still do the commentary at the quidditch games, but that's usually on the weekends. During the week, I apparate to wherever and fly back to Erebor. Dennis is my counterpart, he flies out from Erebor and apparates back. We do the cargo flights. Bifur and Bombur do the Ered Luin to Erebor passenger flights. Euan and Natalie do the Erebor to Ered Luin passenger flights. Lendalen does the Beornings to Lothlorien passenger flights. And Dean does the Beornings to Lothlorien cargo flight, when there's a need, which isn't all that often, about once a month."
The next few hours were filled with tales and anecdotes of life in Erebor. Like Harry losing Teddy for a few hours in the mountain's treasury and having to get Smaug to go in and find him before Remus found out, only to find that Teddy was with Remus the whole time. Or Hermione going into labour in the middle of a quidditch match and the entirety of the stadium invading the hospital to anxiously await the birth of the twins. Or Teddy using a combination of accidental and metamorphmagus magics to morph himself into a dwarfling, panicking his fathers and causing Severus and Minerva hours of headaches as they tried to undo it. Or the time that visiting dwarven dignitaries didn't realise that Padma and Parvati were twins and assumed that Parvati was cheating on Fíli.
As the carpet drew close to the terminal, Ron, Arthur and Kingsley were still chuckling.
"Heads up, lads, we've got a welcoming committee." Lee warned, causing all three men to lift their heads and look in the direction Lee was pointing.
A tall redheaded man stood with a clearly pregnant blonde woman at his side.
"Is that… Bill?" Arthur asked.
"Yeah." Lee nodded.
"But… his scars…?" Arthur gasped.
"Oh, Miss Sissy and Severus fixed that, a small dose of a de-aging potion and… hey, problem solved." Lee grinned and brought the carpet to a halt and let it settle down onto the well-marked landing-pad. "Hey, Bill. Look who I found."
"Hello, Lee, picking up strays, are we?" Bill's smile was tight, belying the light-hearted greeting.
"Eh, most of them are family, so… yeah, why not?" Lee grunted.
While the two were talking, Ron and Arthur were busy scooping up the babies and settling them into their travel-slings. When they turned to face Bill, the only reaction to the children was a raised brow.
"Well, come along, we'll take you home and see about getting something sorted out for you." Bill waved the three tired wizards over.
"Thanks, Bill." Ron said easily. "How's things? Lee said you're still curse-breaking, just that you're mostly working on coins and jewellery, these days?"
"Yeah, keeps me busy and I'm home every night. A bit different to Gringotts, but every once in a while, there's a real challenge, so it's fine." Bill answered, he wasn't sure what to make of a confident and comfortable-in-his-own-skin Ron.
"Good to hear. Fleur… beautiful as ever. Almost as pretty as this one." Ron nodded towards Bill.
"Oui. My Bill draws eyes, no matter where he is." Fleur smiled, a teasing look thrown Bill's way. "It is sad times, when a wizard outshines a veela."
"Oi, be nice." Bill let his arm slide over her shoulder. "So, Draco didn't give us much in the way of details. He just said, you'd turned up and that there were problems back in England?" Bill lead them to another carpet and once they were settled, directed it towards the northern edge of what was clearly a reproduction of Hogwarts.
"Yes and no." Arthur nodded to Ron. "Best if you do the talking, Ron." He remembered the last discussion that he, Bill and Charlie had had, about Molly, Percy and George's shop, had been rather… volatile.
"Yeah, probably." Ron nodded.
"Wait a bit." Bill pulled the carpet to a stop in a large courtyard that sat nestled between a partially built structure, that Ron thought was supposed to be a smaller version of the portcullis keep, and a tower that was little more than a stone foundation a few feet high. The courtyard was surrounded by a twenty-foot stone wall. "This is us." He stood and lead them into a cosy timber cottage. "Have a seat. And Ron? Start talking." He crossed his arms and stood in the doorway, they weren't going anywhere until he was happy with what they had to say.
"Got it." Ron nodded. "Short version or long one?"
"Start with the short one and go from there, I'm sure Fleur and I will have questions." Bill replied.
"Right. Short version." Ron took a deep breath. "Mum and Ginny made a potion that made Ginny pregnant with Harry's children." He laid a gentle hand on the baby resting on his chest. "These children. Ginny's husband figured it out and tested the kids, found out they were Harry's and not his, went to Viktor, who brought him to dad and dad brought in Kingsley and I. Uric's plan was that he was going to bring them to Harry, but Kingsley and I vetoed that. Uric has family, his parents are aged and frail, we were concerned that Ginny might take it out on them, so we temporarily obliviated Uric, he'll get the memories of his suspicions, back, but not that he brought it to us."
"Mind, our actions make it quite clear that we did it." Kingsley added.
"Minister, I don't want a discussion, I want an explanation, please be quiet." Bill said quietly, but his voice was firm. "Longer version, now, please."
Kingsley raised his hands, nodded and sat back.
"We removed anything that traced back, physically, to Harry. We had no idea what mum used to make the potion, so we just summoned everything we could. By the time we finished, there wasn't even a single picture of Harry left. When he did this at the burrow, dad found a hidden trunk in Ginny's old room and another in mum's potions lab. But Uric and Ginny's house had just one picture, the two of you, Harry and Ginny at your wedding, nothing else."
"Did you try Aunt Muriel's?" Bill asked.
"Yep, and Uncle Gareth's, too. Nothing at Aunt Muriel's, but there was a lock-box at Uncle Gareth's. Mum asked him to look after it, he was fuming, when we told him what she'd done and what it contained. Apparently, Aunt Filberta was involved, too. She was the one to get all the ingredients for them, bar the actual Harry based stuff. We banished everything and Uncle Gareth followed behind us and did a second sweep. As far as we can tell, we got everything."
"Good." Bill snapped.
"Kingsley took me to Croaker for a trunk, then to Gringotts, I got a small armoury of stuff and a box of memories. Then it was shopping, for me and the babies. I hate shopping. Finally, home to pack up my workshop. This morning, I went muggle, shopping… clothes for me and the kids, food, toys, supplies for my shop, books, some furniture. Last stop was Hogwarts, to tell Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey, they gave me a trunk full of stuff for Hermione and Fleur. Remind me to dig it out." Ron held up a finger for emphasis.
"Will do. Keep going." Bill was slowly relaxing his stance.
"Just after four o'clock, I met Croaker outside the Ministry and he smuggled me into the DoM and the veil chamber. A few minutes before five there was an explosion in the Ministry, somewhere. Turns out it was dad, he'd set off some of the twins' prank explosives and a few Decoy Detonators as a diversion. Didn't really work, as mum or Ginny had figured out that dad had taken the children and reported him to the Aurors."
"Shite." Bill groaned.
"Viktor was caught with a cutting hex. Kingsley said he was dead before he hit the ground. Hexes were cast at dad, but Kingsley blocked them, he was spotted shielding him, by a couple of Aurors. He figured that if the Aurors were using cutting hexes, their only chance of surviving was to join me and enter the veil."
"Why you?"
"Three reasons. One. Ginny and I have been estranged since Harry went through the veil. Her 'oh, woe is me, I am Harry's widow' shite, really pissed me off, they'd only dated for a couple of months, the year before we went hunting horcruxes. Two. I've been seeing a mind-healer since the Battle, St. Mungo's worked out that me being knocked about during our first year at Hogwarts, damaged something, and each subsequent year's incidents, followed by the fight in the DoM where I got stuck with the tentacles of those brain-things, just made it worse. But to the public, needing to see a mind-healer for that long, indicated that I was mentally unstable. I kinda was, but I've been working on fixing it ever since. Three. I was Harry best mate, I might have let him down, but like I said, I've been working towards fixing that. Now, I just need to fix it with Harry and I'll consider it a success."
Bill nodded as Ron spoke.
"Fair enough. Draco said that other than you being surprised that he was there, you were quite civil with him." Bill raised a brow.
"Yeah, it took me a year of visits with Langdon, my mind-healer, before I started to get over the whole 'Slytherins are evil' crap. The rebuilding of Hogwarts helped with that. Hermione will be stunned, I went back when classes resumed in September 1999, to do my NEWTs. Many students stayed after the Battle to help, some were Slytherins. When classes didn't resume that year, more people turned up to help. There was so much to rebuild, we needed all the help we could get. Some towers had to be pulled down and rebuilt from scratch."
"Oh, mon Dieu…" Fleur whispered.
"The Great Hall needed a new roof. The Central Tower and the Viaduct Towers had to be pretty much pulled down. The dome and cupola on the Astronomy Tower needed replacing. The Reception Chamber was razed to its foundations. The little tower that Filch lived in was gone, it just crumbled into the Lake. The top three floors of the DADA tower needed to be rebuilt. The Entrance Bridge had structural damage and sections had to be removed and rebuilt. The owlery was gone, other than a pile of rubble we only found a few eggs and a handful of just fledging chicks. The Middle courtyard and the Charms Tower seem to be the least damaged. But the greenhouses had to be written off and started over."
"Merlin…" Bill moaned.
"Yeah, a lot of work. But we got there in the end." Ron said proudly.
"And you've been there ever since?" Bill asked.
"Oh, no. I got an apprenticeship with Uncle Geraint. He taught me so much. Yes, how to make desks, stasis cabinets and desk sets, but also about being… a man? Sorta? Kinda? He taught me how to be good person. It was thanks to him and Langdon that I got my jealousy issues under control and worked out why I felt that way. Then I had to the impulsive actions under control. Uncle Geraint said, 'being a Gryffindor is all well and good, but being only a Gryffindor will cut your customer base down to only other Gryffindors' as 'a lion's pride is only his family, but a snake pit, a badger's den, or an eyrie can have many occupants'. I just needed to get my head around it. it took a while but I think I got there."
"Really…?" Bill asked.
"Yeah, sometimes I have to remind myself of Langdon's STEPs to act. If I do that, I'm good."
"Steps to act?" Fleur asked.
"STEPs to act. S. T. E. P. Stop. Think. Examine. Predict. Then act." Ron explained the emphasis on certain letters and words. "Stop for a moment, then Think about it, Examine my reaction, then Predict how that reaction would be taken. Then, once I've done that, if I'm happy with that reaction, then act."
"Oh, I see." Bill nodded. "And that works for you?"
"So far…" Ron grinned.
"And what do you plan to do with the children?" Fleur asked.
"They're Harry's kids. I figure that he deserves the chance to decide that. Either he can keep them, or I'll help dad raise them." Ron answered.
"Good answer." Harry said from behind him.
Ron spun around, one hand protectively holding a baby's head. "Harry! Hey, mate. Come meet your kids." Ron grinned.
"Gimme, gimme." Charlie stepped around Harry and held out his hands to Ron. "Hey, Squirt, hand 'em over."
"Hey, Snitch. Here." Ron carefully passed over the baby he held, before walking over and hugging Harry.
"What are their names?" Charlie asked.
"Uh…" Ron looked at Arthur. "Dad?"
"They aren't registered yet, I think Ginny was putting it off, just in case the charms picked up that Uric wasn't their father. I don't think they have names yet, Ginny never said either way." Arthur replied.
"Huh… what about getting Sissy to test them? If they aren't named, we can do that, or if they are, we can maybe look at changing it. Depends on what Ginny inflicted on them." Charlie huffed.
Harry let his arms fall after hugging Ron before crossing to Arthur. "May I?" He asked, nodded to the baby in Arthur's arms.
"Oh, Harry, of course you can, the boys are yours, after all." Arthur handed over the baby and made sure that Harry was comfortable holding him, before turning to Bill. "How's George doing?"
"Fine, dad. He and Fred run a shop, selling everything that Hermione's been able to magically boost. From brooms to communication mirrors." Bill assured his father.
"He and… Fred?" Arthur asked.
"Well, yeah, you didn't really think the twins would work in two different places, did you?" Bill frowned.
"Bill, son… Fred's dead, remember? He died at Hogwarts." Arthur whispered.
"Oh, god, you don't know… Fred… he didn't die. Almost but Madam Pomfrey was able to pull him through." Bill closed his eyes with the imagined pain that his father must have felt.
"What?" Arthur gasped. "Why didn't she tell us?"
"I asked her not to." A new voice said and Arthur turned around to see the twins standing together in the doorway.
"And a damn good thing he did. Mum was at me within minutes of being told Fred was dead, to sign the shop over to her and Percy." George added and the only reason Arthur thought it was George, was that he had called the other, Fred. Not that this was any guarantee, but…?
"Fred… George…" Arthur whispered.