The Spring term raced by in a flurry of letters from Daisy and extracurricular activities for Poppy. The dinners with the Potters were intermittent as Ginny's job called her hither and yon for Quidditch games and Dudley was promoted to a management position which meant more time at work.

Poppy communicated the most with her sister, still pouring over every letter as though she could absorb her sister's experiences through the paper. Anita had found them hiding beneath Poppy's pillow whilst doing the wash in February, along with a relatively straight stick that Poppy had apparently tried to carve a bit of whorls on.

In March, Dudley found her in her room, focusing on her stuffed elephant so intently that she was quivering. He could hear her whispering under her breath, "Move, move, come on Ellie, move." He frowned and backed out of the room without alerting her to his presence.

In April, Anita found her trying to talk to a garden snake. She remembered their conversation with Harry the previous night at dinner and smiled sadly.

"Did you have to learn French at school, Cousin Harry?" She had asked.

"No, no, though most of our spells are Latin. We never took Latin. I imagine they didn't want us trying to make our own spells. Dangerous game, that."

"Do you speak French from your time at Muggle school?" Anita asked.

"Nope. Not a lick. Can't speak any other languages, embarrassing I know." Harry laughed.

"Well," Ginny said, looking at him with her fiery eyebrows raised.

"That doesn't count!" Harry said, "I was cursed with that ability."

"You were cursed with a language?" Anita inquired.

"Yes and no. I could speak Parseltongue for a time."

The Dursleys stared, confused.

"Right, Parseltongue is snake language." Harry clarified, which didn't clarify anything for the Dursleys.

"He could speak to snakes." Ginny said, helping.

"Blimey," Dudley said. "Might be a nifty trick, especially at a...HANG ON A SECOND!"

Harry grinned.

"THE ZOO!"

"Yes?" Harry said, eyes full of laughter.

"YOU SET THAT THING ON ME!" Dudley howled, his family looking baffled.

"Not really," Harry chuckled. "I made the glass disappear on accident, but I didn't tell him to bother you. I just asked where he was from, and he thanked me as he left. He slithered near you as payback for the tapping on the glass."

"Daddy hates snakes," Poppy said, solemnly.

Dudley's face was a shade puce that would have made his father proud.

"Do you know how much time I spent in therapy to deal with my fear of snakes? That and the tail nearly put me in an asylum by my twelfth birthday." Dudley said, breathing hard at the thought.

"The tail?" Anita asked, looking confused.

Dudley's eyes widened along with Harry's grin.

"Oh, ho ho, tell me she doesn't know." Harry said, grinning almost evilly.

"Of course not! I couldn't bloody well tell her with the Statuate of Secrecy and what have you. And you needn't tell her either. I don't want to talk about it. I forbid it!"

"Oh, forbid it, do you?" Anita said, looking bewildered. "Now I simply must insist. What happened, Harry?"

"Have you heard the story of how I discovered I was a wizard?"

"No," Anita and Poppy said.

"Well, twas a dark and stormy night and--Don't look at me like that, Gin. It was--and Uncle Vernon had been running away from the owls for quite some time. The letters were overwhelming at the house, you see…"

Harry had his audience enraptured. Even Ginny and Lily, who had clearly heard the story before, listened to every word.

"...And then, Hagrid sees Dudley eating the birthday cake and points this pink umbrella at his derriere and right through his pyjama pants pokes a curly little pig tail."

Poppy and Lily were howling with mirth whilst Ginny was wiping tears of laughter from her face. Anita's jaw had dropped as she stared at her husband, who was an alarming shade of red at this point.

"What happened to your tail, Daddy? Do you still have it?" Poppy giggled.

"No, I do not." Dudley said, "My parents took me to a special, discrete clinic where it was removed."

"Oh, Dudley." Anita said, "You told me that was from a skating accident!"

Harry laughed and Dudley mumbled a response.

"I'm with Dudley," Ginny said, "I don't know that I'd have ever admitted to the truth. I am sorry you've become the butt of tonight's joke tonight, Dudley. You probably think we're awful and will refuse to come back."

Dudley released the long suffering sigh of the teased, "Well, it's out now. That's the last secret I had from my wife. Thanks, Potter."

Harry laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Secrets from the wife don't work mate. Last time my wife had a secret, she let a giant snake loose in the castle."

Dudley's eyes looked panicked again.

"Don't worry," Ginny reassured him, "Harry killed it."

"Is there anything you didn't do while at Hogwarts, Harry?" Anita asked.

"I didn't have a boring school year," Harry said with a cheeky grin.

"Given the stories we've heard thus far, I've never been so glad my little girl is having a 'boring school year'. Well, comparatively."

"She's lucky," Harry agreed. "And I've heard this is now Professor McLaggen's third year teaching Defense, so she shouldn't have the turnover we had. Boring school years for my children make me a very happy man."

"It's funny," Anita said, "Despite how different a magical school is for Daisy, the normalcy of hoping your children have good professors and don't get into trouble is comforting."

The parents all agreed with nods and smiles. The moment was broken with a squeal from Poppy.

"MAMA, LOOK! The dessert is flying to the table! I wanted it and it flew!"

The parents all looked bewildered, then cautiously thrilled for her. All except Harry, who watched Lily, never breaking eye contact with the pudding.

A/n Y'all, I'm so sorry for the delay. I was sick as a dog, then my better half finally returned from his deployment and THEN we adopted a sweet dog from the shelter last week. It's been a whirlwind of a few weeks, but thank you to ALL of my new readers and commenters. I'm thrilled to have you all with me on this journey that started as a 3 chapter fling and has taken on a life of its own.As always, please please review. The recent influx was what got me running again, so thank you. Keep em coming!