Chapter 49 – Christmas morning 1

"So, you remembered you had another son?" Albus asked low when Harry handed him a present at the breakfast table on Christmas morning. "What do I get this time, another stupid thing like your blanket?"

"Maybe." His father answered, looking older that he should. He had tried to take all the advice to heart and remember that his son was a teenager and he loved him.

Albus ripped the paper away unenthusiastically and looked at the small brown paper in his hands. It looked a lot like the Marauders' Map he knew his brother had in his possession.

"Huh?" He asked dumbstruck. Opening it, he could see a sketch of Hogwarts grounds, but no names showed on it.

"Do you want to take me for a fool now, fobbing me with an ersatz?" Albus voice was angry when he threw the paper to the ground and went to leave the dining room. It was his mother's voice that held him back.

"Albus, stay until your father has time to explain your present." Her voice was soft, but commanding. Just one look at her made Albus close his mouth and stay where he was, seething inwardly. His mother could be rather scary if she wanted to be and normally, she left him to his moods.

James rolled his eyes at the theatrics his brother pulled and went back to admiring his new broom. He had asked his parents in his first letter after the summer holidays to get it for him. Holding it in his hands he ignored the rest of his family, daydreaming about his first game after the Christmas break. This time they wouldn't lose. It was an AshPhoenix, the newest product from a cooperation between two of the biggest Quidditch companies of Britain.

"The map shows the Hogwarts we rebuilt after the war, while your brother's map still shows the old Hogwarts. Most of the old secret passages his map shows are not usable anymore, so I left them out. I'm not as good at enchantments as the Marauders were, so you'll only see the names of the people around you, not everyone at Hogwarts. But if you want to find someone, you can use a point me charm on the map and it'll show you the person you seek, as long as he or she is at Hogwarts. The map kept me out of a lot of trouble and I hope it'll do the same for you."

Harry explained, trying not to sound irritated. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to give his son the opportunity to sneak out of Hogwarts, but he wanted to believe in him. There was also a way to make sure it wasn't misused.

"Thanks, I guess." Albus picked the paper up again, but he still was sullen. Sitting back down with his arms crossed Albus avoided looking at his parents.

Harry knew he looked angry, he could see it looking at Ginny, but he was an adult, so he would not be hurt by Albus' mood. It was Christmas for Merlin's sake.

He stood up to get himself a cup of coffee from the machine, and to give himself time to cool down.

"Don't you want to know the password for it?" He asked with all the patience he could muster, while his back was turned towards his family. Albus eyebrows rose to his hairline. Rolling his eyes, he looked down at the paper and said out loud:

"Mischief managed." Instead of vanishing, as he had thought, the paper turned into a mouth much like a howler and blew a raspberry at him and then turned back into a boring map. Albus looked at it in horror, while his sister held her stomach and laughed.

Harry caught slightly and walked over to stand behind Albus. He pointed his wand at it and whispered, so only Albus could hear it:

"I pledge myself to be a Marauder." Suddenly the lines grew exact, and brown dots could be seen moving around, but without names attached. Tapping the paper a second time, Harry said another sentence in a low voice:

"I vow to be uninspired."

Now the map suddenly looked ages old again and stopped showing anything moving.

"Uninspired?" Albus asked and for the first time in a long while Harry saw his son smiling, or more like smirking, but it was just as good.

"I'm old, my head didn't come up with any good stuff."

"Yep, I can see that." Albus agreed and suddenly, like he noticed he had shared a joke with his old man, he was sober again and nodded. "Thanks." It was all he said and then packed the map away, but stayed on his chair, watching his sister while she rummaged through her new beauty potions, credit to Ginny.

Ginny and Harry shared a small moment in silent, where she proudly smiled at him.

XxX

Ron was still half asleep when his daughter jumped on his bed and hugged him hard.

"Thank you Daddy!" She shouted and made sure he was awake now.

"I take you liked your Christmas gifts?"

Her eyes were shining and she radiated with happiness. Sitting next to him on his bed she nodded her head.

"The new gloves for Quidditch are beautiful with the Gryffindor emblem on them and I finally have my hair potion again. I don't know how you knew or where you got it but thank you!"

Rose hugged him again and ran out of the room.

"I'll get breakfast ready!"

Smiling after his grownup little girl, Ron sighed. When he got the request from Hermione to look into her book with her own inventions, he had wanted to deny her, because he had no idea what she wanted with it. In an attempt to be the bigger man, and be civil, he had packed everything up yesterday night and sent it her way. A comment from Hugo when he had seen the letter might have urged him to do it too.

Now he knew what his youngest had been up to, and why Hermione had known about her books, when she had lost all memories. If he didn't know better, he would have found it a very Slytherin move from his son. However, Hugo was all about family and making everyone around him happy in the way he deemed best.

Standing up, Ron walked towards the kitchen from where he could hear his daughter working on the food. Halfway inside he saw Hugo standing next to his sister and handing her whatever she called for. He was his usual silent and patient self, while his sister bubbled around, ordering him around to do one task and another.

Ron stayed back at the entrance of the room and smiled at his little family. He missed Hermione, standing beside him and hugging him, but he knew even if she was still here, she would be sitting in her home office, working. A stone settled in his stomach when the realisation sank in that the Hermione he loved hadn't been with him for years already. And with it came the acceptance of the inevitable. He might be a divorced man, but he still had a family. No one could ever take that from him.

So when Rose saw him standing behind them and called him over to set the table up, he took out his wand to fly the dishes around the kids.

"Dad!" Rose shouted at him and wielded the spoon. "That's cheating!"

"Nope, I'm over 17, so that's just an advantage I get from growing old."

For a moment his daughter made his heart throb, she reminded him so much of his lost wife, but he smiled through the pain. Make the best of what you have, he told himself and joined his children.

AN: What do you think of Ron, I would love to know your opinions.