Author's Note: Naturally we all know that I have no ownership whatsoever of Harry Potter and his fellow wizarding mates, or of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Original characters are mine.
Thank you Trickster32 for your review. (Very bittersweet)
Chapter Sixteen
Perfect
Three years later;
Squeals of delight rang on through the air, followed by as big of a splash as her little body could make after being tossed into the lake by her father.
"Do me Dad! Do me!" cries Freya, grinning with anticipation.
Remus grins as he picks up his now five year old daughter and gets her into position, waits until Athena swam out of the way before doing the exact same toss he did, which sent Freya screaming with giggles into the air before she, too, like her twin, landed right in the water.
Today was the twenty-sixth of August, Freya and Athena's fifth birthday, and to celebrate their two fathers had decided to put on a good decent party for them at the lake, naturally inviting Splinter and the Turtles, however, they also couldn't forget Morrigan and Apollo, and one newer addition, Kimika, nestled nice and snug in Splinter's loving and protective arms, born two months previous, in June. She was nearly camouflaged because she inherited her father's brown fur, her little white hands and feet were white, like her mother's with a small touch of black upon her head, which was actual human hair, a small reminder of her mother being a mixture of human and rat.
Learning of Morrigan being pregnant to Splinter was a bit of a surprise, but the news was fast welcomed, especially with five doting older brothers and two over adoring cousins for Kimika to play with, well... when she's older, for right now all she cared for was to sleep in her parents' arms, unless she wanted to be fed.
Admittedly, Apollo wasn't sure of the whole idea of his mother being with Splinter, at first, his worries growing worse when the pregnancy was announced. But Splinter made sure that Apollo's concerns were proved to be unfounded, as he was just as strongly accepted as one of his own, even allowing him into the dojo with his Turtles, Athena and Freya and learn Ninjitsu with them and treating like another son.
Plus pointing out that the Turtles had already pretty much adopted the black and white mutant rat as another brother before their parents even looked at each other with affection.
"Woohoo!" Leonardo calls out as he swang on the rope that hung on the tree and let go to crash nicely into the water of one of the lagoons that made up the entire area.
"Come on Apollo!" Raphael calls out from on top of the waterfall slide.
"No... no thank you!" Apollo replies staying comfortably where he was on the rock with his feet in the water.
"Still not keen on swimming?"
Apollo looks up to see Splinter. "Nope," he answers.
With a chuckle, he sits beside his stepson, taking extra care of his daughter. "Don't worry, I'm not really one for it, either," he said.
"You're not?"
Splinter shakes his head. "Only when it is necessary, otherwise, I am quite happy being a land dwelling rat."
"I think Mom must have gotten essence of water rat, given that she hasn't gotten out yet," Apollo says, now watching Morrigan over at the second lagoon helping Donatello test out his new invention of a remote control power-boat. Before that she was quite happy to be referee to the dive for rings challenge in the shallowest, (but still deep enough) of the three lagoons, that Remus and Severus set up. Again, something Apollo wasn't keen on participating in, he didn't miss out, however, as there were other games that were to his liking given it was dry land that are yet to be played out, it was more that this first hour, right after the very first party game 'Dive for rings' was for free play; which is what they were doing now.
Splinter smiles. "Some are more adapted to the water than others. You know Remus doesn't always join Severus and his daughters in the water either, preferring to participate on the side, like he is doing right now."
Saying this as Freya was gleefully flying through the air again and into the lake, splashing Severus and Michelangelo for being close to where she landed.
"How is that not scaring them?" Apollo wonders aloud, stunned on how near daredevil the twins were.
"Your Turtle brothers were just as bad and just outrages in their ventures, I think they gotten more bold over the years, however."
"I don't know if I could ever be that bold," Apollo mutters.
"You are in bold in other things, Apollo, so don't be too harsh in not being daring in other aspects, just be you," said Splinter, placing a supporting hand on his stepson's shoulder.
Apollo smiles.
Soon, it was time for a round of snacks before the next party game; pass-the-parcel with a twist.
"As like a normal game of pass-the-parcel you pass it along until the music stops and then you open the paper. But, we decided to make it interesting, instead of just getting the little novelty prize, you need to find the item that is in the picture, sort of like a scavenger or treasure hunt," Remus explains.
This got the children keen.
Severus turned on the player;
"Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want. So, tell me what you want, what you really, really want -"
"Who in Merlin's name decided to put the Spice Girls in the mix?" Severus exclaims as though his ears were being assaulted, stopping the player at once, causing a mass of giggles from a certain pair of girls.
"Gotchya Daddy!" Freya grins.
Severus turns to his husband. "Did you put them up to this?"
Remus tried to look innocent over the little prank, but his eyes betrayed him, because Severus knew him all too well.
"Maybe..."
"What's wrong with the Spice Girls?" Michelangelo asks. "They may have been disbanded years ago, but their music is still good."
"Their music, as you call it, isn't something that I am fond of," Severus says simply, pressing the button that forward to the next song.
"Bit like how you're not into The Offspring," Splinter gives a good example.
The player was put back on with a song from Hilary Duff, something Severus didn't bother to question when he found out about some show called Lizzie McGuire that the twins seemed to have both found an interest in, among other things, such as The Wild Thornberries, Bratz Dolls and following their Turtle friends, (and Apollo) in skateboards, Beyblades and whatever else, given that Remus wasn't as over strict in what the girls were allowed to be interested in, so long as there was limits, naturally.
As the parcel was passed about, anticipation grew, until the music stopped and the parcel was in Donatello's hands.
Excitedly, he rips the paper and finds the photo of the item he was meant to find, a yellow bucket used for making sandcastles with. The purple wearing Turtle got to his feet and scanned the area carefully. He saw a rainbow coloured one near one of the trees, a transparent pink one by one of the caves, and even a blue one that had the look of a castle located at the rock pool. He moved around and looked for the bucket he was to find and it didn't take long for him to find the only yellow bucket, peeking out from behind one of the larger rocks.
As it turned out, the first seven were all pictures of the different buckets, this got everyone really curious as to why that was. There was no doubt that Athena was mighty pleased that she got the transparent pink one, Raphael wasn't so sure about getting the bucket that had a picture of a My Little Pony on it, was happy to swap with Freya with the square shaped red one she got.
It appeared that there was near common theme to this pass-the-parcel, as the next items they had to find were a series of items that helped to put sand into the buckets or mould them, such as little spades, rakes and moulds of various shapes. There were also random items such as a rubber chicken, a fake lei and even a little broomstick that hovers over the palm.
The winning item, which landed in Raphael's hands, was small bag of goodies, including Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and normal Muggle lollipops.
"Can anyone figure out what the next game is going to be?" Remus asks the kids.
"Making sandcastles? Seeing as there is a sandpit over there that we know wasn't there until today," Leonardo guessed.
"Close," said Remus. "As you can see there are three marked out squares, those are where you're going to divide into three teams and build whatever sand sculpture you like. However, you will notice there are flags that match the colour of the designated zone, pink, black and light blue."
"What are those for?" Apollo asks.
"That's the surprise of it, you won't know until you start building the sculptures," says Remus.
"Buried treasure mixed with a sand build," Donatello puts it simply, looking with thorough interest on what could be under those flags.
"The buckets with the items you've collected are allowed to be used however you see fit on your builds," Remus adds, as Severus moves to stand beside him with seven 20 centimetre sticks wrapped in the same coloured paper. "To decide who is on which team, it's a matter of taking the end of one of the flags and take the paper off to see what colour the flag is."
Each of the children took the small flags and eagerly took off the paper to see their colours.
"YES! I got black!" Freya cheers, seeing the little triangle shaped material on hers.
"Aaawww! Pink?" Raphael groans.
"You do know pink is a shade of red, don't you?" Donatello grins at his brother, who was also holding a pink flag.
"I like pink," Athena says quietly, holding her pink flag up.
"Only because it's your colour, I'll be okay with it for this game," says Raphael.
"Now that you know your teams you can head on over and start building, but, something you need to know, when you hear this song..."
Severus presses play on the player...
"Hiya Barbie! Hi Ken! You want to go for a ride? Sure Ken! Jump in! I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie World!"
Remus raises his brows at Severus, who gave the expression of, 'did you really think I wasn't going to get you back for the bloody Spice Girls song?'
Again fits of laughter were high.
Severus fixed the player to the original song that was to be the final countdown song, (Simple Plan 'Grow up') was heard;
"When this song ends, that means it's the end of building and must step away from what you made. Oh, and girls, no using your powers!"
"Aw, nuts!" said Freya with a little pout, crossing her arms.
"Okay Dad," said Athena simply.
The kids all hurried to their areas and started to plan and so on.
"Who came up with this idea?" Morrigan asks, impressed by the visual of the three groups working together.
"Remus did," said Severus, leaning against the boulders the player was set upon. "Most of these games came from him in truth."
"Except for the scavenger hunt for the next game in the pass-the-parcel, that was Severus, figuring the old fashioned game was too boring."
"Well, it is! How is it seen as exciting to just sit there in a circle passing a multilayered thing around and getting this cheap little chocolate or toy that no kid is going to play with? Plus, while I don't know if they were begging you or not, the girls wanted a treasure hunt, so why not kill two birds with one stone?"
"Yes, they had nagged to me, too, Severus," said Remus, amused.
"Whoa!" they hear surprised but thrilled cries coming from the sandpit.
The blue team – Apollo and Leonardo – had dug up a little toy bridge from one of their flags after remembering that stuff were buried under them.
"Typical, once they all see the possibilities of what could be under those flags, they all start going for them," says Severus, amused by how Freya and Raphael went to their coloured flags to start digging up whatever treasures awaited for them.
"Mikey and Asami look like they're trying to build a Mad Hatter's tea party," Morrigan giggles, she had adopted Splinter's Japanese nicknames for Freya and Athena.
"You can see a pretty detailed castle with the Don, Raph and Athena," Remus also comments.
"And... I don't know if that is meant to be a sandman, a robot or an alien," says Severus looking at Apollo and Leonardo's creation to be.
"So, how is the judging to work to determine the winner?" Morrigan asks.
"The kids will each score between one and five, but because there is three on the pink team, they will have to decide which two will score, or however. Write it down without anyone seeing and we just count them up," said Remus. "There is a first, second and third prize. Not that the kids worry about that, obviously, just more toward the fun of it."
"Plus with some of the items they've found and dug up, they'll be amused or pleased," said Severus.
He was right about this, it wasn't just items for their constructions the children were digging up, there were also well sealed bags of sweets and savoury style snacks, whacky quills and other nice simple well to do things that could be of some use.
When the final song started, that was went the real scrambled happened to finish.
In the end, Apollo and Leonardo's 'Warrior Sandman' complete with sword, castle to defend and even the lei Leonardo got from the scavenger hunt, was used to decorate the bridge. They had each received a brand new set of coloured markers that were scented.
"Thank you!" they were very pleased by this. Since Apollo loved to draw and Leonardo just needed new markers as his old ones had all dried up.
Soon, it was time to pack up and head back to the house, where the rest of the party was to be held.
There, it was organised chaos, with getting the children to get themselves ready and sorted to settle on down for the birthday cake and into the living area that was turned into sleeping area with mattresses and couches ready for the children to settle upon, all facing a nice decent sized screen.
Remus and Severus don't usually have this screen out all that often, while they didn't worry so much if they had a little more screen time when they were with Splinter and Morrigan, (and even then, they had similar rules over television and what goes on it), today was one of those special occasions where it was every bit allowed.
It was nice to know they had been able to find and manipulate certain things within the magic world to allow for the muggle one to coexist as though they always had been... not that the Ministry, or Dumbledore, or whoever they didn't feel the need to include in their circle needed to know this fact, of course.
As far as the Ministry is concerned, they've tried to reign the pair in a number of times, trying to put a lid on their abilities, a couple of times there were even near misses of being taken. They were still furious, none so more than Dumbledore, though he didn't display any loss of temper, just a stinging ray of disappointment that Severus would not cooperate with him and allow him to see the children.
Severus and Remus both knew the real reason behind this and weren't going to bend on their vow to not ever allow this man to do anymore harm to their family.
But right now, neither of the two were thinking about it, they were too wrapped up in the serving cake and getting the children to settle down on either the mattresses and couches, with the adults lounging on double recliners – Splinter and Morrigan sharing one (Kimika was within her bassinette fast asleep), and Remus and Severus sharing the other – they were all ready to enjoy the movie, 'Finding Nemo'. Also the four adults had taken quiet bets on who would be the first to crash be out and who would last the entire movie.
A nice way to end what had been a perfect fifth birthday celebration for two special young girls.
Yes, I jumped ahead in years. Don't worry, there will be little one shorts or short stories of how and so on things happened the way they did, including a story based mostly on Splinter and Morrigan and how they ended up being together. Plus better details thoughout of what happened in the three years since all that had happened and why).
This story also did need a light chapter amongst the darker ones. You will find as the children get older, the more humorous they will become, as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are well known for their funny moments and can't deny there were some really amusing moments in the Harry Potter books too.