Ch. 29
Thursday 3 September 1998
The next morning, Harry woke to the beautiful whines of his godson. He jumped out of bed and ran through his godson's door and found him kicking up a storm. "Hey little guy. How's my boy?" He picked the little man up to change and feed him. By this time, he was a pro at getting this done quickly and easily. He took Teddy to his room and went in to take a shower. When he got out of the bathroom, his love was sitting in the rocking chair playing with the baby.
"Mione, the shower's free. I can take the little man now." He smiled as she handed Teddy over.
"Here you go. You men go make breakfast while I get dressed." She smirked at her fiancé as she sashayed into the bathroom with only the revealing top she wore to bed on. Looking at her long, shapely legs did not help him calm down—especially when she moved like that. If it wasn't for Teddy, he be joining her! He had noticed that their bath was almost a duplicate of the Prefect's bathroom-meaning that it had plenty of room for two in the shower and the tub. Might make an interesting wash up tonight, he grinned as he worked in the kitchen.
Soon, The Family was seated at a magically extended table with Professor Richardson. "Professor, where did you get your mastery?" Mione asked.
"Everyone, please call me Jaime when we're not in class." She smiled as she kissed Teddy's hand.
"Okay." Everyone agreed.
"I got my undergraduate degree at Stanford and my Doctorate at Princeton." She explained. "Then I got my History of Magic Mastery at Ilvermorny. It's been a hard few years but I'm glad I did it. What I'd like to know is how someone who doesn't have a Mastery ends up a Potions teacher." She looked at Sirius.
"Well, let's just say I learned my potions ability on the staff and students of Hogwarts in the seventies." He laughed.
"Pranks?" she got a gleam in her eyes Harry had only seen when Sirius talked about the Marauders.
Sirius looked down as though he was ashamed. Everybody knew it was a lie except Jaime.
"Jaime, don't let him fool you. He, my husband, Harry's dad and another were known for their pranks. And they loved it almost as much as they enjoyed telling the stories." Dora laughed at the 'caught-me' look Sirius had.
"I was known for my pranking abilities at Ilvermorny." Jaime laughed at which point Sirius looked up excited.
"Can you help me? I'm looking for something—wait until we leave then we can talk." He winked at her.
Breakfast went on with everyone enjoying each other's company. Once breakfast was finished, the two couples headed out to the grounds while the three teachers went to their classrooms.
Sunday 6 September 1998
The Heads decided to have an after-dinner Prefect meeting in their flat on Sunday night. By now, the drawing room was an exact duplicate of their game room at home. It had the sitting area around the fire, the game area with the pool table and dart board and the bar area. This new drawing room now had a smallish, by comparison to the one at home, kitchen that opened on to the drawing room. There were also the two en suites, one off each end of the drawing room.
When everyone filed into the game room, the male prefects were just staring, the girls just sat down as though nothing was wrong.
"Everyone, please take a seat so we can get started." Neville sat down.
"How did you get such nice rooms?" someone asked.
"Oh, he always gets the best of everything. Whatever the great Harry Potter wants, he gets." Ron muttered loudly.
Looking at the Ravenclaw girl that asked, Harry replied. "House elves have amazing magic. Ours enlarged this room and brought our game room here."
"So, you have a house elf who works for you?" a Hufflepuff sighed.
"Actually, he works for Professor Black but I freed him from the Malfoys at the end of second year so he and I are good friends." He answered. "Anyway, we called you here to talk about the points deducted and given."
The discussion lasted about an hour as they went over what the standard deductions and applications of points were and how to apply them.
After this, Luna summed it up. "Basically, if you don't follow these guidelines, you will get one warning, then the badge will be taken away. Does everyone understand?"
"We've already had to go to give one warning, we really don't want to do this again." Hermione emphasized.
Soon, the Prefects were leaving the flat and the four friends were heading off to bed.
HP
The next day began the students' first full week of classes. It began to be a regular occurrence for Jaime to arrive for breakfast with Sirius. At times, she would help Harry get breakfast on the table as well. They'd each go off to do their individual classes and meet up after the day was done.
Sirius and Jaime were getting closer all week as well. One afternoon, Sirius and Jaime were taking their daily walk around the lake talking about their students when Sirius mentioned he'd be gone most of the next day due to Wizengamot business. This led to a long discussion about the government and how corrupt it was and how they were trying to fix it.
As they were walking back into the castle, headed for Harry's flat, Jaime commented a little worriedly. "It sounds like you have two almost full-time jobs. How are you going to manage it?"
"We'll see if I do." He laughed. "One thing that's working out really well is that Augusta Longbottom and I work very well together. She's great at picking up any slack I drop."
"Who is she, now?"
"That'd be my Gran." Nev interrupted as they walked through the door.
"My Gran too!" Harry chimed in.
"But you're not brothers, right?"
"Nope. Godbrothers. My mum is Harry's godmum and his is mine. We should have been raised together but we weren't"
Noticing the anger on both boys' faces, she decided not to probe that angle.
As Sirius summoned a butterbeer, he enquired, "So, how'd school go today boys?"
"Fine." Harry answered simply as he heard Teddy crying and went to get him.
Sirius looked at Nev, knowing something was wrong with Harry because he usually gets a rant about school in answer to that question. "Okay, Nev. What happened or do I need to know about it?"
"We're both a little stressed." Nev shrugged. "Weasley is upset because Harry and I are so close now and he is trying to make us feel bad about that. What's really bugging Harry I think is that Weasley and he would still be friends if Weasley could have gotten over his jealousy."
Sirius shook his head as he racked the balls. "Wanna play?" he smirked at Nev. He got a nod in return. "So where are the girls?"
"Where do you think they are?" He smirked at the man filling in for his own Dad in a lot of ways. Nev was constantly surprised at how much he looked up to and relied on Sirius as a father-like figure in the short time he'd known him. He wondered if it was because Sirius knew and liked his real dad.
"Ours or Hogwarts'?" Sirius rolled his eyes.
Nev laughed that they even had to ask that question. "I know they were at least starting in Hogwarts' library but I don't know if they're still there."
Jaime gasped with a grin. "You have your own library?"
Sirius and Nev looked at each other and burst out laughing as Sirius groaned. "Yes. Mione and Luna built it this summer." He paused in thought. "You might actually want to go there sometime because Mione has bought lots of history books."
"That sounds like fun." She grinned.
"Nev, I think I got involved with another library nerd. James gets Lily. You get Luna. Harry gets Mione and I get Jaime." He groaned jokingly.
"Just because I like books doesn't mean I'm a nerd." Jaime shot back. "Besides what's wrong with being a nerd?"
"Nothing, love." He said as he gave her a peck on the cheek.
16 September 1998
Wednesday afternoon, after all classes had been over for an hour or so, a line of teachers showed up at the door. Nev looked up and grinned. "I don't think we'd need to tutor any of you in schoolwork, so come in and tell us what's up."
Sirius, Jaime and Dora laughed outright at this while Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall both gave a chuckle or a smile as they came in and sat down. "That is not why we are here, Mr. Longbottom." Minerva said seriously.
"Why are you here Professor?" Hermione asked.
"As you know, we have an extra-large group of first and second years this year because only purebloods were allowed to attend last year." Minerva began. "As such, the load for our teachers is a lot more than usual. We know you four are going to go for your masteries next year. One of the requirements for your masteries is 3 years teaching experience."
"We were wondering if you four would be willing to take on some of our extra load?" Professor Flitwick asked. "You would be teaching first through third year classes in the afternoons."
"I have no teaching experience at all." Hermione fretted.
"We will guide you through the process. We've each taught new teachers before, so it should be fairly easy." Jaime submitted.
"We'll spend the next few days with you teaching you what to know." Dora smiled.
"What do you think Sirius?" Nev asked.
"I think you four would make brilliant teachers. The kids would be lucky to get you." He replied solemnly.
During this whole conversation, Harry and Hermione were doing their silent talking thing. After Sirius made his opinion known, Harry sighed. "We'll do it. But we'll need help."
"Of course." Dora grinned.
"We will too." Luna piped up.
"Amazing." Flitwick smiled. "Why don't we split up and we can talk to you individually? Ms. Lovegood, come with me please." Luna hopped off the kitchen bench she was sitting on and followed Flitwick out. Dora and Harry went to her office. Sprout and Nev went to the greenhouses which left Mione and Jaime in the game room.
Jaime brought out her bag and began unloading it. "I have everything we need here." She said as Hermione summoned a soda and shook her head bemusedly.
HP
The next morning when everyone, which now included Jaime in the mix, congregated for breakfast, Sirius commented. "Are either of you boys busy with anything this afternoon?"
They looked at each other and shrugged. "Not that we know of." Harry replied.
"Great. After you're done with any studying you give me a call. Your Gran and I may want you to come to the ministry today."
"Okay."
HP
After lunch, the Heads went back to their flat to work on essays for History and Transfiguration. "You know, Professor Richardson is basically dating my Godfather, why is she giving us an essay the first week? She knows how busy we are." Harry complained.
"Harry!" Mione hissed. "Don't expect special treatment because she eats breakfast and dinner with us! You don't want her accused of favoritism, do you?"
"Well, no. Still, it's two pages on the contributions of magicals to the Crusades."
"Well, at least she'll be able to read it. You'll print it from the computer, yeah?" Mione remarked. "Merlin knows I'm the only other person who can read your chicken scratch!"
HP
The boys didn't get to Wizengamot that day because they each wrote not only their papers for Transfiguration and History but also Charms and Potions which weren't due until the end of next week.
In reality, the only reason they got the work done was Mione and Luna already owned the books they needed and they were on the Omni-Reader they'd brought from home.
At dinner, after getting an overview on Wizengamot procedures from Sirius, Harry looked at Jaime and grinned. "We finished your essay this afternoon and we barely used the text."
She looked suspiciously at them. "Then how'd you reference it?"
"Our girlfriends are geniuses. We used the Omni-Reader and accessed our library at home." Nev grinned at Luna. By this time both girls were blushing.
"I gotta see this library." She muttered as everyone laughed.
Friday 18 September, 1998 Hogwarts
Like every morning, it started for Harry with his Teddy-Wake-Up-Call. For some reason Harry was more tired than usual but he felt it his job to make breakfast, so they went to the kitchen and started it.
A brief knock to the door let Harry know who it was "Jaime! Just come in!" He pitched his voice so she could hear.
"Hi Harry. Need some help?" she asked as she put her long hair up in a clip.
"Sure. But you know what I need even more than that?" He grinned at her.
"What?" She asked as she moved around the kitchen.
"I need you to stop knocking every time you come in." He gave her his lopsided grin. "You've become a part of this family. Whether you two admit it to each other or not, you and Sirius are a couple. From the way he looks at you, he's never going to let you go. Accept it. We all love you. Yes, that's partly to do with how much Sirius dotes on you but also because you're you. I mean, how late have you stayed here the past couple of nights helping Hermione get ready to teach? Quite frankly, you're one of two people that is helping her not turn into Hurricane Hermione about her teaching starting next week. You. Are. A. Part. Of. This. Family. So, stop bloody knocking!"
Jaime had started to smile while Harry went on his mini-rant but at the end was grinning. "Okay. I won't knock."
"Good!" They heard Hermione say from the doorway. "You've been driving him barmy with the knocking bit." She laughed at Jaime's look of surprise.
After everyone was sitting at the table, Sirius spoke. "Tomorrow's Hermione's nineteenth birthday. I was thinking we could go home tonight and go to Hampton Court tomorrow. I've made arrangements for a private tour of the palace tomorrow at half twelve. I thought we could go out to breakfast then spend some time wandering, then do the tour. What do you-"He stopped speaking when Hermione shrieked and launched herself at Sirius, knocking him over in the process.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! That is the best present ever!" she kissed him all over his face. At this everyone, who had been trying to hold in their laughter at the surprise attack, started to laugh.
"Mione. Let Padfoot breathe. I like my Godfather alive, yeah." Harry grinned as she transferred her hug to him.
"Best birthday ever." She breathed.
"So, we'll go home after classes today and spend your birthday at a 500-year-old building, yay." Sirius said mock-sarcastically, at which point both Hermione and Jaime glared at him.