Touching down, each was hugged by a waiting Alice, who also lifted the notice-me-nots and sent each of them off towards their own rooms.
Harry and Bilbo exchanged a long speaking glance.
"Well done, my Lord." Bilbo nodded regally.
"And to you, Your Highness." Harry did the same.
"Bloody dwarves." Bilbo muttered. "I'm not bloody royalty."
Harry snorted. "You will be, seeing as you finally accepted Thorin's courtship."
Bilbo glared at him. "Get lost, Lord Potter, and keep your mouth shut." The hobbit snarled and stalked away, muttering under his breath.
"Payback's a bitch." Harry called after him, before heading to find his own husband and their sons.
Harry had taken less than three steps before he felt the ground rumble.
"Guess that was it, then?" Alice asked as she and Harry grasped at the balcony's railing.
"I would say…" Harry trailed off as colour to the east caught his eye. "Oh..."
A tall slender beam of fire pierced the horizon, clouds of dirty orange smoke billowing from it. as Harry watched, he saw a front of air, much like that of a protego's shield advancing on the white city.
"Duck!" He warned and dropped below the level of the heavy stone railing.
The blast of hot air hit the walls of the city and went in the only direction available to it. Up. As the wind went up passed their balcony, Harry and Alice saw dust, leaves, feathers, scraps of fabric and a single basket being tossed about. Within seconds the wind fell and silence settled in behind it.
"Now what?" Alice asked, raising her head from behind a heavy stone bench.
Harry slowly stood, staying ready to move at the slightest need. "Not sure…" He answered.
"Were you expecting that?" Alice pointed to the east.
The mountain range of Ered Litui, including Minas Morgol was… gone. In its place was a low depression that was slowly filling with smoke and water.
"Uh… no…" Harry replied. "I kinda expected a big bang. Most of Voldy's horcruxes went out violently. That's a bit…"
"… a bit of a let-down…?" Alice finished for him.
"Eh, no complaint here. I'd much rather the ground sink than explode."
Alice tilted her and shrugged. "Yes, I suppose so. As long as it doesn't reach all the way here."
"Well, Osgiliath is still standing, so I think we're good." Harry stood up properly. "I need a shower. Ow." He added as he stretched and a twinge in his left shoulder reminded him that he'd just pushed a broom to its limits.
"Oh, go on, then. Charlie stayed in your rooms, waiting for you." Alice smirked at him, wagging her eyebrows up and down.
Harry snorted and shook his head, his godmother had no shame. Hussy.
After a long hot bath and a change of clothes, Harry felt better. He settled on the large bed beside Charlie and eased one of their sons into his arms.
"Here, let me take him." Harry whispered and stroked a finger down Regulus' face. "They're so sweet when they're asleep."
"And everyone else seems to want them when they're awake." Charlie laughed silently. "If they're anything like me and Bill as kids, we should be very glad."
"Hellions, were you?" Harry wriggled his way over until he was pressed against Charlie's side and lean forward as Charlie lifted and arm to curl it around Harry's shoulders.
"Dad always said it was us that taught the twins to be pranksters." Charlie leant his head against Harry's.
"Sweet. We've got hell to look forward to, then." Harry sighed before looking at Charlie. "Yeah, right who are we kidding? They'll probably learn more from us than anyone else." Charlie snickered in reply.
A few minutes passed before they next spoke.
"Where do we go from here, love?" Charlie asked.
"As in... from Minas Tirith or the future?" Harry asked in response.
"The future."
"Well… having the Prince of Dol Amroth here, means that we don't need to go there. Lavender, Padma and Parvati might need to, but you and I don't. We can head home with whoever's interested. Once we get home, I'm going to do the de-aging/re-aging thing. These two make me want more, Charlie, lots more." Harry bumped his head against Charlie's.
"Yeah, I can get behind that, they're kinda cute, aren't they? You make pretty Weasley babies."
Harry huffed. "Just… for the next ones, let's leave your sister out of it."
"Definitely."
"Classes start in a couple of weeks and we should be there for that." Harry reminded them both.
"CoMC and Domestic Magics." Charlie nodded.
"Yeah." Harry nodded back.
"Quidditch on the weekends?"
"At least until we decide to have more of these, then I'll be watching from the grandstands." Harry replied.
"Do you think Ron will ask Lavender out?" Charlie mused.
"Nope, he's gone the formal route, instead." Harry snorted.
"Formal?" Charlie raised his head to look Harry in the eye. "What did he do?"
"Asked Severus and his dad to negotiate a betrothal contract, with no penalties if Lavender changed her mind." Harry answered.
"He left it to Lavender?"
"Yep."
"What did she say?" Charlie grimaced.
"I have no idea, but he was exceptionally pale once she'd said whatever it was." Harry winced at the memory.
"Ugh, better Ron than us."
"Isn't that the truth? Lavender's just mean…" Harry whined the last word.
"How's our tower going? Is it going to take much longer, do you think?" Charlie asked.
"Bofur and Headley are almost finished the first level, the stairs held them back, but they've figured out how to carve in bracing on each step to stop it letting the step below it collapse. It's beyond me, I just put stones where they tell me to." Harry shrugged. "Since the twins arrival, we've designed a wing from the tower that leads back towards Ravenhill. It'll be part of the access along the out wall, but the only internal access will be from our tower. It will meet up with the mountain arm at that little plateau. Bofur suggested walling it in as a private garden, seeing as no-one else wants it."
"That'd be a garden and yard for the horrors to run wild in." Charlie nodded.
"Yeah. Oh and remind me to speak to Severus later." Harry said.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I want to see if he can come up with a potion that will make hobbits and dwarves into carriers. Even if they have to take a potion every day during a pregnancy. The look on Bilbo's face when he held Regulus… He probably won't say it, but he wants kids of his own."
"And marrying Thorin, the only way he's going to get them, is if one of them is a carrier." Charlie finished for him.
"Exactly." Harry nodded.
A sharp buzzing noise sounded, not quite loud enough to wake the twins but loud enough to be heard by the adults. Harry flicked his wand and a small mirror compact flew into his hands. "Harry Potter-Weasley." Oliver's voice came from the mirror.
"Oliver Potter-Wood." Harry responded and the mirror's surface swirled and his image became that of his brother, Oliver. "Hey, Ollie. What's up?"
"You're uncles, again. Sigrid and I have another son." Oliver beamed at them.
"Two of each, now. Well done. Give Sig a hug for us." Harry grinned.
"Will do."
"What have you named him?" Charlie demanded.
"We decided that we'd still with the plant names that the Evans family liked. You know that. So, we've Azalea, Cedar and Heather. And now this little fellow, his name is Sage." Oliver answered nodding to the swaddled baby in his arms
"Oh, nice." Harry nodded.
"Thought you might like it." Oliver laughed and gently rocked his arms, settling the baby back to sleep.
"You want us to pass it on? Or do you want us to call a meeting?" Charlie asked.
"Nah, just pass it along. I'll catch everyone sooner or later. When will you be home?" Oliver asked and Harry was hit with the realisation that Erebor was home.
"We're probably looking at another one or two days here, then we can head back." Charlie answered. "A day to and another in Rohan, same to Lothlorien, Beorn's and back to Erebor. Ten days?"
"Just in time for Sirius to go into labour, I'll bet." Harry snickered, the thought of his godfather running around after toddlers never failed to amuse Harry.
"How much bigger is he?" Oliver bit his lip.
"Huge. Narcissa thinks it might be twins but can't get a good read on it." Harry huffed. "Something to do with carriers and the charms not registering as well as on females. I wasn't really listening."
"You never do." Oliver shook his head.
"What can I say? I've spend enough time in hospitals, tuning healers out is automatic." Harry grinned.
"You'd better not let Narcissa hear you say that." Oliver warned.
"I'm not that stupid, Ollie, I know better than that." Harry argued.
"If you knew better, you'd actually listen to her." Charlie snorted.
"Nooo…." Harry whined.
"Yes." Both Oliver and Charlie said together. A heartbeat later and all three men laughed.
"Alright, alright. I'm going to take this little fellow back to his mama for a feed, then I have to go to Erebor and let the rest of the Company know. I'll catch up with you lot a bit later. Say 'hi' for us and hugs to all the horrors." Oliver shook his head. "See you soon, little brother." And the mirror swirled again before showing Harry and Charlie's reflections.
"Sage, huh?" Charlie twitched his lips as he repeated the name a few times. "Yeah, that works."
"It does." Harry agreed.
"I wonder how many more they're going to have?"
"Well… given that Sigrid seems to like be pregnant and Severus' potions make getting her figure back so much easier, I'd say… quite a few."
"Hmm… Are we going be like that?" Charlie asked.
"Possibly… Probably… Depends on how the first pregnancy goes. Even if we don't go back for a second go, we'll have at least three. These two and… however many I carry." Harry assured him.
"That's true. We can deal with three if it's not something you like doing. Three's fine." Charlie agreed. "Making them is the fun bit, anyway."
Harry smirked. "These two are asleep. Wanna get in some practise?"
Charlie's eyes lit up and he quickly began to shuffle off the bed. "Let me put these two in their cots and I'll be right back."
Dinner that even was a relaxed affair. The news of Mordor's collapse had spread and while some people were worried about what that meant, the Hogwarts/Erebor contingent weren't among them. They knew what had happened.
All they were interested in, was the future.
"Dean and Seamus are going to stay in Minas Tirith during construction of the terminal, then they'll head down to Dol Amroth." Lavender told them. "Prince Adrahil has offered accommodation for myself and whoever's going with me. Up to six people. At this point, Gimris and I seem to be it. The offer's open if anyone else is interested."
"There's also portkeys back to Hogwarts, so don't think that you have to fly all the way if you want to pop back for the weekend." Padma added.
"I wouldn't mind staying." Ron said. "I can help with construction."
Harry ducked his head to avoid laughing, he knew exactly why Ron wanted to stay and it wasn't to help in building.
"Sure, why not?" Lavender tried to answer casually, but everyone knew how much it meant to her.
"The rest of us are getting antsy and want to go home." Parvati said.
"We want to meet Ollie's newest horror." Fred corrected.
"That too." Bilbo said.
"Thorin's getting nervous. Leaving Amad in charge of Erebor is-" Fíli began.
"A bad idea." Thorin cut him off.
"Leaving Dís, Dwalin and Gloín alone, in charge of an army? No, it's definitely not a good idea." Balin agreed.
"Then…" Harry looked around the table. "Let's go home. Tomorrow, we go to Rohan, had a day to rest and finalise any issues that might have popped up. Do the same to Lothlorien and to Beorn's, then home."
"Who's going to man the Rohan terminal?" Remus asked.
"Me and Colin." Euan said.
"And me and Natalie will be staying in Lothlorien." Dennis added.
"As will Luna and I." Neville said. "Not permanently, just for a year or so. They have some plants that Severus and Elrond believe may be beneficial to some of Severus' potions."
"We'll be setting up a greenhouse trunk to bring back to Erebor, but we want to make sure that we can care for each plant properly." Luna added.
"And Luna wants to see it she can get a couple of mallorn tree seedlings, she wants some nargles in the garden." Neville smiled down at his petite wife.
Harry shook his head in amusement. "Fair enough. You convince Galadriel and no-one will argue the point. I'll build you a walled garden if you need it."
"Thank you, Harry, I was thinking of that little dell to the west of Ravenhill, it would only need a wall along the sou-western face." Luna smiled at him.
"The one where we found the injured eagle?" Harry asked.
"Yes, that one."
"Sure. I'll get a start on it, sometime in the next few months."
"Thank you, Harry." Luna patted his hand. "No hurry, I can help when we get back."
Harry squinted at her. "What do you See?"
"The de-aging/re-aging is going to be rough, not the actual process, but the after-affects, magically, I mean. Your levels are going be all over the place, it's going to take a few weeks to settle down." She replied.
"Oh, great. Just what I need…" Harry moaned.
"But you won't have any trouble with pregnancies, either getting pregnant, carrying to term or giving birth. That's the trade-off." Luna added.
"A few weeks?" Harry asked.
"Three and a bit." Luna frowned as she narrowed it down. "Three weeks and… four days." She shrugged. "Then you'll have to put in a lot of work to refine your precision control. Brute strength will not be an issue, but precision? You're going to have to be careful. No-one will get hurt but without work, you're going mess a few things up. That's a little vague, it depends on how much work you put in."
"Got it." Harry nodded. "I'll put it in."
"Also…?"
"Yes…?"
"You might want to suggest to Ron that he do the same. The de-aging/re-aging, I mean. The damage from your escapades… if it's not properly corrected, he'll have problems when he get's older. Not aggression, more mental, like fragmentation of his personality." Luna hurried to explain.
"Ah. Alright. I'll speak to him. He can always portkey back to Hogwarts for the treatment." Harry grimaced.
"The two of you should do it at the same time, it would make it much easier for the rest of us." Charlie leant in and whispered into Harry's ear.
"Why? Won't Ron only be going back to eleven?" Harry asked.
"Probably better if he goes back the same as you. The twins dropped him on his head a few times when he was a baby. Mum used to get so angry, but Ron never seemed to care. Maybe that's what set things up for your 'escapades'?" Charlie suggested.
"Luna?" Harry asked.
"I don't know if it did or not, but the idea of the two of you together is good." The blonde witch answered in her typically dreamy manner.
"Okay, I'll talk to Ron and Severus, later."
"Thanks, love." Charlie pressed a gentle kiss onto Harry cheek and turned his attention to his dessert.
Severus and Ron looked at Harry, both clearly thinking about what he'd said.
"And Luna thinks this is the best option?" Severus asked.
"Yes." Harry answered.
"Very well, I shall plan for the treatment. Mr Weasley?"
Ron was still thinking. It took a few more moments before he looked up. "Yeah. That's probably about right. I remember mum giving the twins a walloping because I fell down the stairs. Huh… From their room. Two flights of stairs. I was… two...? three…? Definitely no older, because Ginny wasn't walking, yet."
"In that case, I agreed with Luna. It would be far easier to de-age and re-age the pair of you the same length of time." Severus made a few notes in his ever-present notebook.
"Yeah. I can do that. Let me know when and I'll portkey back." Ron nodded.
"Very well." Severus nodded to the two men, stood and left the room.
"So… you're going to de-age, re-age and get knocked up?" Ron asked Harry. "Is that the plan?"
Harry laughed. "Pretty much."
"Only you, Harry, only you." Hermione huffed as she walked in the door, causing Ron and Harry to laugh.
For a few minutes the trio sat quietly, before the silence got too much for Hermione.
"So, was the Black library right, Harry? Is this your 'reward'?"
"I think it just might be, Mione. It sure feels like it." Harry answered quietly. "I like it, I feel more at home here than I have anywhere else, even the Burrow or Grimmauld Place."
"Erebor is home." Hermione agreed. "In a way that England and Scotland never were."
"Yeah." Harry nodded.
"I'm glad. You deserved to live in peace. You deserved a family to love. You deserved a home." Hermione said.
"And now I have that." Harry smiled.