"If we're heading out tomorrow, everyone needs a decent night's sleep. Kannan, Bill? That means no midnight gadabouts for you two." Padraig waggled his eyebrows, causing Teddy to laugh and reach for him from Kannan's lap.
The reunion between Hermione and her parents proved to be emotional, in more ways than one, and quite entertaining for the spectators. It started with a stilted standoff that became tears that morphed into laughter then into anger before the tears resurfaced again. But what amused Kannan and George, who were the only ones to have previously met the Grangers personally, were the timing of the changes. Each of the Grangers moved from one emotion to another, independent of each other. Monica Granger was the first to cry, but Chris was first to get angry. Kannan was amused at whom he was angry with. Not Hermione. Not Harry. Not even Dumbledore. No, Christien Granger was angry with Minerva McGonagall for deceiving them in regard to the safety of the wizarding world.
For nearly four hours, Padraig, Bill, Kannan and George munched popcorn and sipped on hot chocolate while they watched what George quickly dubbed 'The Granger Show'. A couple of time Kannan nudged George and reminded him that he was very seriously considering marrying/bonding into that family. George would snark bark something about Kannan looking to bond with a curse-breaker, one that had the dreadful habit of searching out Christmas and birthday presents, nothing would be hidden ever again. Kannan would laugh and say there were worse things in life than a present hunter, it just meant that gifts would either be left at shops or not bought until the last second. George huffed and muttered something about 'that's taking all the fun out of Christmas', while Bill blustered that he wasn't the only present hunter in the family.
Both senior Grangers were furious at Ron over the hitting Hermione incident and Chris threatened to remove 'the imbecilic idiot's teeth, without anaesthetic', unsurprisingly Kannan and George were his strongest supporters. Monica was a little more creative and wanted to have George, Kannan and Bill between them, curse out every other upper tooth, making almost impossible for them to be regrown magically. The idea behind this was to make it extremely difficult for Ron to eat much in the way of solid foods, ever again.
Either way, the spectators were reminded to never anger a dentist, they tend to air out their Slytherin sides, viciously. And they liked the results to be permanent.
After hearing about the issues that faced Bill, Charlie and George, the senior Grangers muttered darkly about pureblood idiots. When Hermione told them what the current options were, her parents asked her to erect a privacy screen, that there were a few things that needed to be said just between the three of them. Ten minutes later, George was asked to join them and over the next fifteen minutes, Kannan watched as George answered questions, went red, went pale, laughed and cried. All without him hearing a sound.
When Hermione dropped the screen, Chris informed the spectators that Hermione and George were getting married/bonded sometime in the next month.
While this was happening Luna and Neville had left them to attend the New Zealand MoM. Neville was going through his Auror testing, as per Robards' request. Luna spent her week sitting her NEWTs, she deferred them after the battle not wanting to deal with the stress of exams while her father was in such poor health. The group were reminded exactly why Luna had been sorted into Ravenclaw, when she received her NEWT results.
She'd blown Bartemius Crouch Jnr's record of twelve OWLs and Hermione's of twelve NEWTs, out of the cauldron with a whopping fifteen O's in fifteen subjects. It was the highest number awarded in decades, she'd beaten Lily Evans by one subject and Dumbledore by three.
When they returned it was a sober Nev that told them his parents were deteriorating quicker than expected and that he would have to make a decision within the next two months. Augusta was also pushing them to marry before his father died, something to do with the head of House rings accepting Luna easier if they were married or bonded prior to the changeover. And that raised an issue that no one had considered.
Luna, thanks to her stay in Malfoy manor and the torture she received from the Lestrange brothers, was sterile. She had a working uterus capable of carrying a child from conception to birth but… while her ovaries produced the required hormones to regulate her body, they didn't produce fertile eggs. This was upsetting for Nev, Luna and Augusta, until one night, Padraig was reminiscing about how he came to be a father or at least the public story, of donated eggs and a surrogate mother. Neville and Luna liked the idea, but Augusta took it one step further and suggested that sperm be taken from Frank, that could be used to fertilise eggs from Alice and then Luna could safely carry them to birth, when each child could be blood adopted by Neville and Luna. After many hours of detailed discussions with healers from St. Mungo's, St. Basillissa's Maternity Hospital in Sydney and the Gerard Majella Maternity Clinic in Salem, an agreement was reached. Twelve eggs would be taken from Alice and fertilised, each would be allowed to grow to six weeks, then eleven of those would be placed under a medical stasis, while the twelfth would be inserted into Luna. Whether they used all of these or not, was a different matter and one for the future.
This discussion also raised the fact that Luna had no male relatives, within four removes, which made a magical bonding between the two impossible, as a male head of House has to approve and give his consent, it was a holdover from the more patriarchal days of old. To remedy this Padraig and Kannan duelled, the winner would be the one to offer her an adoption. Padraig wanted a daughter and Kannan wanted a sister. Padraig, Bill, Augusta and the Grangers were more than a little surprised when Kannan won, but the others knew what he was capable of, they'd all seen Harry use a wand.
Kannan got his sister. Padraig sulked. Bill found the whole thing amusing. Hermione just shook her head. George didn't even attempt to smother his laughter. Neville said 'I told you so' to his stunned grandmother. The Grangers compared it to a light-sabre duel from Star Wars. And Luna rocked Teddy, laughing at the lot of them, she'd known exactly what was going to happen.
That moved the group to the next issue, that of adoptions and blood claim-and-purges.
When Bill and Padraig contacted Gringotts, they were told that St. Damian's would need to be involved, at least if they wanted it to be legal and ICW recognised. St. Damian's brought in three specialists, one Kiwi and two Canadians, to monitor and sign off on the certification. The consultations went on for two full days. Who was doing what and why? The actual process was a highly guarded secret an even those that went through it, only remembered their own words.
The results were simple but effective.
Bill claimed Prewett blood as his primary ancestry with the Blacks as a minor blood connection and the Grimm family as a legal but not blood-connected adoption. This left it open for Milton Prewett to name Bill as his heir which was done with alarming speed, Bill had barely been cleared by the healers before Milton was handing him the Prewett heir's ring, promising that Kannan would get a family ring upon bonding with Bill. Physically, Bill changed little as a result of the ritual, the only visible changes were his hair darkening from vibrant ginger to a deeper richer auburn and his eyes going from jade green to a striking golden brown with green streaks.
Charlie went with Black as his main bloodline of origin, with Prewett and Grimm both being minor blood connections. His hair went from coppery auburn to a warm chocolate with auburn streaks and his eyes went from a similar jade as Bill's to a pale blue with streaks of jade green. He also gained nearly three inches in height, bringing him to a quite respectable five-foot-nine-inches, which stretched his previously stocky body and gave him proportional physique. Padraig was more patient than Milton and waited until the next morning before handing Charlie the head of House ring for the Black family along with his coffee.
George went with Grimm as his primary family with Black and Prewett as his minor connection. The only physical changes George went through were his hair darkening to match Kannan's and his eyes going from golden brown to a light hazel with green being the predominant colour. George received the Grimm heir's ring, that Padraig had commissioned for him, on his plate alongside his scrambled eggs.
Kannan chose Grimm as his main family and Black as a more distant connection, remembering that Harry's great-grandmother Potter had been born a Black. He suffered no physical changes or none that anyone could tell. The next day saw him given a Black family ring by Charlie and a Grimm family ring by Padraig, Charlie at least handed him the ring directly whereas Padraig had planted the Grimm ring on the middle of a slice of toast.
Luna stuck with Lovegood as her primary bloodline, but she also chose her mother's family, the Ollivander family as a minor connection, along with the Grimm family. Garrick Ollivander, the wandsmith was her closest relation they only shared a great-great-grandfather, not close enough to give consent for a bonding. The only change the claim-and-purge had on Luna, that were visible, were her eyes gaining a streaking of Kannan's green. Padraig pouted mightily when Kannan snatched a Grimm family ring from Padraig's hand, as he went to add it to Luna's jam, and presented it to his new sister.
Kannan made the same offer to Hermione as he had to Luna, however, during the process of returning her parents' memories, the New Zealand MoM had discovered that Christien wasn't a muggle but a squib, his father who had died when Christien was very young, had been a wizard, a distant member of the Dagworth-Granger family. This changed Hermione's status in the wizarding world considerably and made her a far more desirable catch as a wife, something that she feared would push Molly or one of the other nearly obsolete families into taking unscrupulous action. This brought forward the bonding between Hermione and George from Yule to the solstice in June.
Thankfully, that was only weeks away. It was also a very short length of time in which to plan a wedding. Here Hermione's legendary organisational skills came into play. It took her, Monica and Luna, one single day to work out what the difference was between a magical bonding ceremony and a legal wedding and work out what parts of which they were going to have, so as to combine the two in a double ceremony for Hermione and George, as well as Neville and Luna.
They had a set date, so the first thing they had to choose was a location. They chose a magical resort just to the west of Lake Te Anau over the edge into the Fiordlands National Park. Next it was invitations, who were they going to invite and how much notice were they going to give them?
While the three women hashed out the details. Kannan headed for Auckland. Luna's NEWT results had made him realise that neither he nor Padraig had OWLs or NEWT's to their names. An international floo-call to Kingsley and Padraig's scores had been copied from Sirius' Auror application and Harry's OWL results were copied from Hogwarts. After a long and slightly half-assed conversation with Padraig, Kannan chose seven of the eight subjects that as Harry, he'd sat for OWLs. He was pleasantly surprised with his results, sure he was nowhere in Hermione, Luna or Bill's league when it came to studying but he didn't need to be. All he really needed were passes, but what he got was the highest DADA scores in the last hundred year, even eclipsing Dumbledore's. The ICW examiner told him that all he'd need to do to get his Mastery, would be to put forward a thesis and duel with a Master Auror or Duelling Master.
A few days before Hermione and George's bonding, Kannan woke from yet another nightmare. He stumbled from his room, to the kitchen in search of a hot chocolate, he needed the pick-me-up, badly. With his hot chocolate in hand, Kannan grabbed a heavy cloak and made his way outside to the firepit they'd parked the bus beside.
Sitting in his seat, he flicked his wand and levitated a couple of logs into the pit before setting them alight with a silent incendio. Kannan leant back, his head resting against the back of the chair, just staring off into space, his mind curiously quiet after such a nightmare.
"Kannan?" Bill's voice made him turn his head towards the bus.
"Hey…" He whispered, giving the other man a tired smile.
"You okay?" Bill asked, sitting in a chair beside Kannan.
"Nightmare…" Was all the younger wizard said.
"Ah. What was it this time?"
"Malfoy manor. Ron and I didn't get out of the dungeons in time." Kannan answered.
"Well… you know better. Mione's here and bonding with George on Tuesday. Luna's here, too. Oh, and hey? She'd bonding with Neville on Tuesday, as well." Bill added the last bit brightly, like he was telling Kannan for the first time.
Kannan huffed a laugh. "Is she really?" He asked in a sarcastic tone.
Bill's laugh echoed in the silence of the night.
"Hey, Kannan?" Bill asked.
"Ye-ess…" Kannan drew the word out into a hiss.
"I never actually asked. Will you bond with me?" It was asked quietly, almost hesitantly.
Kannan laughed gently. "Yes, Bill, I'll bond with you. I thought we were passed that?"
"I know, but it just occurred to me this evening… That we'd talked about it and made plans for the September solstice and all that… but I still hadn't actually asked you, we just agreed with Hermione and Luna." Bill said.
"I could say the same, you know. I didn't ask you, either." Kannan replied.
"Yeah, but you're not the one that's got to bond, just to keep an ex-mother from manipulating them into a marriage of her choice." Bill objected.
"And what do you think would happen if Molly found out who I used to be? Huh?" Kannan snorted.
"Ooh… Nasty… Yeah, alright. So, we're either both a bit on the slow side, or neither of us needed a proposal… Fair enough." Bill grimaced as he thought about it.
"Hmm…" Kannan hummed and let silence fall, the calm of the night filling all the little gaps left by his nightmares.
"Hey, Bill?" Kannan asked some time later.
"Yeah?" Bill answered quietly, almost asleep.
"Do you reckon Hermione's pregnant yet?"
"What?!" Bill squawked, sitting up in a hurry.
"I mean… They've been sharing George's room since her parents joined us. And somehow I can't see him waiting for a wedding." Kannan commented.
Bill shuddered. "Don't tell me that! I don't want to know. I don't want to think about it." He waved his hands in a warding-off gesture.
"Oh, okay. Fair enough." Kannan nodded and hummed in thought. "What about Luna?"
"Oh, gods, Kannan…" Bill groaned, covering his eyes with a hand. "Luna's going in on Friday to have an embryo transplanted. Remember?"
"When were we told that?" Kannan frowned.
"Monday last week."
"Oh. Huh. I wasn't here. I was in Auckland sitting my NEWTs… remember?" Kannan tossed Bill's snarky 'remember' back at him.
"Oh, yeah, right." Bill nodded. "Luna's going in on Friday to get knocked up." He added redundantly.
"Have they decided on how many they're going to have?"
"Neville said he wanted four, if Luna would carry them. Luna just smiled."
"Okay, so probably closer to eight, then." Kannan wobbled his head from side to side in a seesaw motion.
"That's what Hermione and George both said, too." Bill shrugged.
"What about us?"
"What? Oh, I agree with them, Luna's probably already knows how many, what sex and what their names are." Bill replied.
"No. I meant… What about us? Are we going to have children, too?" Kannan asked, studiously not looking at Bill.
Bill looked like a deer caught in a lumos. "What…?"
"Are we going to have children?" Kannan repeated the question.
"Children…?"
"Yes, children. Are we going to have them?" Kannan was finding Bill's shock amusing, but he really wanted an answer.
"Okay, I can see that…" Bill whispered. "Yours or mine…?"
"Well, Hermione seems to think there's a way for any children to be ours, both yours and mine." Kannan tried to nonchalant, but a hint of tension had crept into his voice.
"How?" Bill leant forward sharply.
"There's two options. One of us would take a gender-swap potion, get pregnant and carry the children to birth. Or? One of us take a gender-swap potion and let the healers harvest eggs, then have a surrogate carry a baby to term."
"Excuse me?! Exactly what's involved in that?" Bill demanded.
"One of us takes a gender-swap potion, followed by a ten-day potion regime to increase fertility, then another potion to induce ovulation. Once ovulating, the healers can remove eggs to be externally fertilised and either stored or implanted in a surrogate." Kannan answered imitating Hermione's lecturing voice. "Personally," he went on in his own voice, "I prefer the second option. Being a woman for nine months and going through childbirth is not my idea of butterbeer and quidditch."
"Ugh… No." Bill groaned. "So, who…? Which of us…?"
"The healers feel that if we're going to do that, we're better off both doing it. That way they can test each embryo for genetic health, stability and magical potential."
"Ten days?"
"From start to finish? Fourteen." Kannan corrected. "We go in on day one, we take a purging potion to remove all other potions from our systems. Start the fertility potions on day two, they take ten days. Day eleven, there's no potions. Day twelve, we take the ovulation potion. Day thirteen, they harvest the eggs and after harvesting, we're given another purging potion which reversed the gender-swap. Day fourteen, we take a sperm booster and they harvest sperm. From there, we're done, it's in the hands of the healers. They don't need to check the eggs or sperm as they'll only transfer viable specimens, but they do need to externally fertilise each egg and suspend them in an artificial womb until they can determine the rate of success for each embryo."
"What happens to those that have a low rate? Or the ones that don't take?"
"That's up to us. They only take so many eggs for each person, how many is up to us. All of them are given back to us, they don't keep any. If any are going to be disposed of, we have to dispose of them. The healers don't have the legal right to do that, not even with our permission. Hermione's a little paranoid that a healer might try and keep some samples, so she's said that she, Monica and Luna will monitor the entire process, from start to finish. Once the embryos are under a medical stasis, they're given to us and it's up to us to find a woman to be our surrogate. Any good healer can transfer an embryo from the stasis phial into our surrogate."
"What about magical potential? Isn't that impacted by the mother? Sorry, the surrogate?"
"No, it shouldn't, but one of the things the healers would be testing for is magical potential. Both of us are reasonably powerful, and-"
"Reasonably? Kannan, we're both very powerful." Bill cut in.
"Both of us are reasonably powerful," Kannan repeated, "and my mother was a muggleborn, that brought in fresh magic, which makes the chances of a squib quite low. Odds of less than one in a thousand. For a mediocre wizard, the odds are one in a hundred. For children as powerful as us, well… that's what they expect most to be. More powerful than us, maybe one in a hundred, but there is the chance, so we have to be aware of the possibility."
"Geez…" Bill huffed. "Hermione doesn't mess around when she wants information, does she?"
"Nope, but most of this was told to Luna and Augusta, so Hermione only had to ask how it would relate to a same-sex couple." Kannan laughed.
"Okay…" Bill bit his lips. "Are we going to do this? When are we going to do this? Do we have to wait until we're bonded? Are we doing the right thing? In getting bonding?"
"Bill, you and me? We're both strong, stubborn men. We're powerful wizards. We already have an emotional connection and while it may not have been all that strong when we left England, over the last few months, it's been building. I don't think we're in love, but I can honestly say that, yes, I do love you. To what degree? In what manner? I don't know, but that's something I want to find out. I have no hesitation in bonding with you."
"Same here." Bill offered quietly.
"But fair warning? I have little experience with love, of any sort. Beit family or romantic. The Dursleys and Dumbledore's plans saw to that. What little knowledge I have, I got from your- the Weasley's, so that may be a little unreasonable."
"Ginny?" Bill raised an eyebrow.
"I think I liked the idea of Ginny, more than actually being with her. The fact that she and everyone around us, just accepted that we'd get together, used to annoyed me. Like, do they think I can't think for myself, so they have to plan out my entire life for me?" Kannan huffed.
"Maybe the Ministry did you a favour when they declared you, undesirable number one." Bill muttered, thinking about Harry's trial and subsequent Exile.
"Yeah, I think they might have." Kannan nodded.
"Alright, shall we speak to the healers and book in?"
"Yes. Maybe for later in the week or next week?"
"Sound good to me." Bill nodded and laid out his hand, palm up silently asking for Kannan's.
"It does." Kannan laid his hand in Bill's and leant back to watch the stars, content with their plan.