Ch. 38
Saturday 19 December 1998
When everyone arrived home for lunch, there was a mad dash to the kitchen by all those under 20. "I am so hungry." Hermione groaned as she sat down next to Harry.
"Good to hear it." Nev smiled. "I was worried there for a while."
"Don't worry, Nev. I'll be fine—as long as I eat." She smiled.
"So, how'd your morning go?" He asked.
"Well. We've had a few new developments with the store." Mione sighed.
"What's wrong?" Sirius asked.
"Nothing," Luna replied. "It's just that Fleur thinks we need to hire more developers."
"And it looks like we may need to expand the factory," Hermione added.
"Isn't that good, pumpkin?" Dan asked.
"Yeah but we're also talking about adding at least three new stores in the new year." Hermione bit her lower lip in worry. "Fleur's afraid we're growing too fast."
"Well, I think we need to let Fleur worry about that." Luna smiled with finality in her voice. "I want to go Yule shopping."
"So do I," Mione smiled back, then looked at Dora, Jaime and Sarah. "Why don't we leave the kids with the men and we can go alone?"
"Sure." They responded as the men groaned.
"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll be fine." Dan consoled them. "I took care of Hermione as a baby; I think we can handle it, men."
At that, Emma snorted as she whispered to Sarah, "We'll see what he remembers. It was a long time ago."
"So, where do we start?" Sarah asked, laughed quietly.
"Let's go to the Alley first," Mione suggested. "Then we can go to the mall if we need to."
Everyone agreed, and the women left. The men took Jordan and Teddy upstairs to the game room.
HP
As Mark racked the balls, Nev asked Harry "So, what did you and Penny do today?"
"Went to Gringotts. After she opened her eyes on the cart ride, she loved it." he laughed as he set Teddy down on the floor so he could practice his crawling. Currently, the little man could get his arms and legs in place and was rocking back and forth. "She asked me to take her back soon."
"She'd love Alton Towers then." Nev laughed.
"I told her I'd teach her how to fly this spring." He said looking sheepish as Nev burst out laughing.
"You do realise that you have two kids on the way that you can teach. You don't need to teach every kid you meet, yeah?"
"Flying is fun."
"Says the youngest seeker in a century." Nev groaned. "Not the one that lost control of the broom on his first flight." He and Harry both chuckled.
Sirius put Jordan down next to Teddy and started playing Mark. "You really have taken to Jordan, haven't you?" Mark commented.
"Yeah. Why not? She's a cute rug rat, and she's Jaime's niece. I'm going to see a lot of her, so she better start getting used to me." Sirius grinned. "Have you and Sarah decided what you are going to do about teaching?"
"Yeah, she and I talked about it last night. Actually, she wanted me to ask you guys if you'd mind us moving to one of the suites upstairs because we want to stay in England."
"That'd be great!" Harry popped up. "Then Teddy would have a friend his age."
"We can even build you a house on the property if you want." Sirius grinned.
"You're just determined to make this a compound, aren't you?" Harry laughed.
"After Azkaban, I want everyone I care about around me." Sirius shrugged. "I'm a little paranoid after everything that happened during the war."
"Yeah. I guess I can see that." Nev responded gravely.
"Besides, I think it'd be nice for you and Jaime to live so close." Sirius looked at Mark. "She rarely talks about your sisters but has always talked about you and your parents. I think she'd really enjoy you living here; she told me that this is the happiest she's been in a while, and that seems to be because she has you three here."
"Oh, that might have something to do with it, but she loves you, Sirius. Don't be surprised that some of that happiness has to do with you." At the goofy look on Sirius' face caused the others to laugh.
HP
Meanwhile, the women had arrived at Diagon Alley and began shopping; talk spread amongst the women starting with the usual light topics, how were exams? How is Yule treating you? And such, after a while the inane babble had finished the women branched out to more serious topics.
"Hermione, how are you doing love?" Emma asked her daughter.
"Okay, mum I'm tired a lot, I don't know if that is from the pregnancy or this last week." She smiled.
"Probably a little of both. Baking one child is draining; I can't imagine two. Plus, you always stress too much about tests, so I imagine you haven't been sleeping all that well." She chuckled.
"Yeah. Having nightmares doesn't help either." Mione sighed.
"Are they back? I thought you stopped having those this summer."
"Yeah, but they came back with the miscarriage." Mione grabbed her mum's arm and rested her head on her shoulder as they walked.
"I'm sorry love, I should have seen that coming."
"Not your fault, mum." She sighed. "I can't help feeling that I must have done something wrong to lose the baby."
"I promise you; you didn't love. But I know how you feel. I felt guilty too-for a long time, but it'll get less and less with time."
"Did having me make up for losing that baby, mum?"
"No. I still wonder about that baby and what she might have been like. It just hurts less now."
HP
When the women arrived home, Dobby was in the kitchen whistling as he baked. Hermione came in and asked, "So, who actually took care of the kids? Was it you or the men?"
Dobby laughed. "Them. I've been down here all day."
"Okay." She took a deep breath and commented, "We better go up and see what a mess they've made." As Dora, Sarah and Jaime laughed. They trooped up to the game room together.
There, laying on one couch was Harry with Teddy on his chest fast asleep. Laying on the floor next to the fireplace was Padfoot with Jordan curled up into him. They could see her little fist tugging on his fur. Dan was laying out on the other couch, fast asleep.
Sarah walked over to the pool table where Mark and Nev were looking at the scene. "Did you do anything with Jordan in the last four hours?" she tried to look stern but really couldn't. His next comment proved her theory.
"Sirius wanted to play with Jordan. Who was I to deprive him of the exhausting experience of being a parent? If he marries Jaime, they will have kids. Better he gets used to it now." He whispered back with an evil chuckle in his voice.
Sarah shook her head in exasperation. "Why's Dan out?"
"Oh, he was bouncing back and forth between children. It was actually fun to see him having such a blast with Jordan." Mark's smirk turned suspicious. "Did you charm the nappies so they wouldn't fasten until the third time?"
"That was me." Jaime grinned at her brother.
"That was brilliant! Even Harry couldn't get the nappy on, and of the three of them he's the expert."
Nev chuckled. "Mione, you're going to have a very irritated fiancé if you don't fix that. He's just a little upset about it."
Luna came up and rested her head on Nev's shoulder. "We should get them up for dinner." She said in her dreamy voice.
"Yes, we should." Hermione's eyes twinkled merrily as she held up her fingers 3-2-1. "Harry!" "Dan!" and "Padfoot!" were yelled as they all bounced up in fright. Harry and Sirius rolled to their feet with the little one tucked in their arm as they pulled their wand-all in one "battle response" motion.
"Hell Witch!" Sirius growled at Jaime. "Don't scare me like that!"
Watching all of this, Mione was reminded of their plans this summer to go to counselling. Maybe it was time to revisit that.
"Hermione," Harry said as he got into a more comfortable position. "You need to fix the diapers. They won't go on until at least the third time."
"I will love, although it was Jaime that did it so she should fix it." She looked meaningfully at her friend.
"Fine. Fine" Jaime groaned as she went to fix the prank.
As they were all leaving, Mione heard Sirius whisper to his girlfriend, "Brilliant prank love. Moony and Prongs would've been proud."
When everyone got down to the kitchen, it truly became a madhouse. Teddy and Jordan were placed in their booster seats that hung in the air so the kid could eat at the table without a high chair and were their noisy selves, Luna had invented these seats recently. Everyone else was talking and teasing each other for most of the dinner.
It was when dessert came that Hermione spoke up. "I think it's time for those of us who went through the war, actually to go get help. I know my nightmares have come back and I know Harry still has them. From what happened upstairs, I think Sirius still has issues."
"Dora is having a hard time dealing with her grief." Sarah offered. "Don't glare at me, girl. I want my friend to get help."
"I'm fine." She grumbled.
"The fact that you say that tells me you're not," Sirius replied with a sigh, "I think you're right Mione, but we need to be careful in case the therapist wants to take 'the chosen one's' life to the media."
"I can fix that." Mione grinned.
"Oh, shoot" Harry groaned "You've got one of your special contracts planned, don't you, love?" His fiancée just nodded.
"Why don't you look into that this week Mione?" Sirius asked.
"Of course." She grinned.
Sunday 20 December 1998
The next morning, Harry and Teddy got up like usual. They spent a little time just cuddling in the nursery before they went downstairs to the kitchen. Harry put him in the magical equivalent of a muggle exersaucer (A.N: An exersaucer is a sitting toy for babies and consists of a tray and a seat where the baby can sit and play with various attached smaller toys).
"Hello, love." Hermione kissed Harry as she walked around him to get some milk. "I heard people getting up a little while ago."
"Good, Harry. You're up." Sirius barged in next. "Augusta is coming for breakfast then a lesson. That should be done by noon. Then the Weasley's should be here around 2."
"When are the Richardson's coming?" Harry asked as Dobby set the table.
"Mark's picking them up at noon from the ministry." Sirius groaned as Harry laughed. "He says he'll be back by half twelve so we need to be at the floo by that time." Harry rolled his eyes. He knew Sirius was going to insist on a formal greeting, he didn't have to like it, however.
The floobell chimed and Sirius went to answer it as Nev and Luna came in. Soon everyone in the family was seated at the table and all trivialities had been thoroughly gone over. They ate as Augusta began to explain the Yule Time to everyone.
"Now." Augusta began. "Sirius and I have spent some time going over Yule Rituals we have in our families, plus some muggle traditions we know the Grangers celebrate. Actually, a lot of these traditions have gone out of favour in our society whilst we have adopted muggle Christmas in its place."
"The Weasley's only do Christmas," Harry observed.
"Yes. That has become a tradition but what we are going to be doing this Yule is a combination of both." Sirius added as they went to the drawing-room.
"We are starting in with a feast to say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new. This is a Potter tradition in which all the females make the meal and you have it at sundown. Next, we're going to do the Sun Rise Ritual Tuesday at dawn to welcome in the shorter nights, thus the new year." Augusta said.
"You mean when we get up the next day yeah Gran?" Nev asked hesitantly.
"No. I mean you will all get up before dawn and do these prayers at that time" At the loud groaning by the youngsters, Augusta turned to them with a scary look on her face. "You will do this. That is the end." She demanded as she looked at each student in turn and waited until they acquiesced with a reluctant nod. "This is a very old pureblood tradition. The evening of the Sun Rising Prayer, we will do a Longbottom tradition of counting blessings. Traditionally, this is the time we look back on all that is good in our lives. The next night we are doing a Black family tradition, the Beginning of Winter prayer. This is a way of looking to the new year."
"How many of these are there?" Neville asked, exasperated at the number of rituals, Gran had never done this with him before, so he was a little confused. At the quelling look from his Gran, he shut his mouth.
"Then on Christmas Eve, we will do a Yule Log, another Longbottom tradition and a Celtic Yule Blessing which is a Potter Tradition. Then on Christmas, we will do presents and another meal. This one, in Granger tradition, the men make."
Hermione laughed. "Don't expect much girls. Dad usually bakes a ham and mashed potatoes."
"I have a full list of foods the men will be preparing." Augusta smiled at the men's groan. "As we come to each celebration, we will be explaining why we do it to you. Next year, you'll all be responsible for it, with guidance of course."
"Why are there not more Black traditions?" Dora asked.
"Well, most of our family's Yule traditions are on the dark side and I don't think they belong here." Sirius chuckled.
"Sacrificing house elves or other lesser beings is not something Teddy should learn." Augusta shivered.
"Oh my!" Mione's hand went to her mouth.
"Yeah. I figured you would have a real problem with that." Sirius smiled at the look of shock on her face. She just nodded into Harry's chest as she began to shake.
"How could they?" Hermione asked.
"They're Blacks. They're better than everyone else." Sirius said sarcastically.
"It's okay Mione. It'll be okay." Harry murmured into her hair as she got herself under control.
"Well, I best be off." Augusta got up. "I'll be back around two o'clock for Sunday lunch."
"Okay, Gran" Harry jumped up for a hug "Let us know if you need anything, I don't like the idea of you living alone."
She laughed as she put her hand on his cheek in an affectionate gesture. "I'll be fine dear, don't worry about me" She chuckled as she left.
Hermione looked at the clock and realised it was eleven, she began to heave herself up to sit in her magicked chair. "Harry? I'm tired. I'm going to take a nap before people get here, I think."
"Okay, love can I help you up?" he asked as he got up to help her sit in the chair.
"I'm fine, I'm not an invalid! I'm pregnant." She said sternly.
"With twins." He commented under his breath.
"Yes, and millions of witches have done the same since time immemorial. I'm fine." She repeated with a little more stubbornness as she turned away from him and started to leave. "Come get me when people start arriving."
Harry just looked at Nev. "Did I do something wrong?" he was confused by her stubborn reaction to a simple question.
He got a shrug in return. "I don't know."
"You questioned her ability to take care of herself." Mark smiled as the two men looked at him like he was barmy. "She's going through physical changes, guys. Her hormones are out of whack and she'll be getting very short-tempered soon."
At that Sirius laughed. "When Lils was pregnant, it seemed she was always upset with Prongs. My flat was his getaway, and he used it frequently. It's funny, I think I was with Lil almost as much as Prongs in those days."
They all went upstairs to the game room and settled there. "Sarah was very short-tempered when she was pregnant." Mark offered.
"Well, if you would just have acted like a normal human being, you would've made it out without a scratch." Sarah sighed as she looked at Harry. "Just don't hide her wand or replace it with a fake and you'll be fine, Harry."
"You hid her wand?" Harry asked incredulously.
"She was so forgetful, I had to have some fun with it!" Mark protested at the looks he was getting from the men in the room.
"You're either very brave or very stupid Mark," Nev laughed. "I'm not sure which."
"Stupid," Sarah growled.
"So, when are you two having kids?" Mark looked at his sister who was sitting on the sofa with Sirius laid out with his head on her lap. She had started running her hands through his hair. At this comment, both stopped what they were doing and looked at Mark.
"Mark! Stop." Jaime growled in the universal way a sister does when her brother is about to spill secrets she doesn't want to be known.
"I mean, if you're going to—aack!" He yelled as Sarah put her hand over his mouth.
At the terrifying look on Jaime's face and the fact Sarah had nearly flung herself on Mark, Sirius started laughing, along with the other men there. "It's okay Sarah, I won't ask, you can let him go." Sirius laughed as Sarah let her husband go, Sirius said with a mischievous glint in his eye. "I'll just ask Mark later."
"You will not Sirius Black," Luna spoke up as she got to her feet, went over to Sirius and shook her finger angrily at her Uncle. "There are some things you just don't need to know. If you do, I'll get Ginny to Bat-Bogey you so badly you won't know what hit you."
At the flash of anger in her eyes, Sirius backed away a bit. "Ooooh-kaay." He nodded to Luna. "Fine. You got it, Luna." Luna rarely got angry, so you knew when she was serious.
"So, what wedding plans have you made yet?" Sarah asked Luna.
"Not much. We're getting married on the 10th of July but that's all we know so far." She smiled. "I suppose all that planning will go on in January. Mione will be my Maid of Honor, obviously."
"Harry will be my best man of course." Nev grinned at Harry who smiled and nodded his acceptance. "And Sirius will be a groomsman."
"And I'll do the stag night." Sirius grinned.
"Harry, keep him from doing anything horrible, k?" Luna groaned.
"Sure thing sis." He laughed at the look of fear on her face. "I'll make sure he's there on time and not too drunk."
The men laughed and the women rolled their eyes.
"I'd like to have Mitzy make my dress but that's all I've figured out so far." Luna smiled at the look of delight on Nev's face.
"She did my mum's dress, so I'm sure she'll do yours. I think she did Gran's too but I'm not positive." He thought aloud.
Sirius leaned up to Jaime and kissed her as he got to his feet. He began to wrack the balls as Mark got up as well.
"So, I was thinking that maybe we could check out a few no-maj and wizarding boutiques to look at dresses after the Yule," Jaime suggested.
"Sounds like fun." Emma smiled. "That way you both can see what's out there. Then design the dresses that you want."
"Yeah," Luna replied slowly. "We'll just wanna make sure Mione doesn't do too much. Last I talked to her about the wedding, she was talking about getting married at the Tower."
"I've already booked it." Harry laughed at the stunned looks on the women's faces. "What? I called months ago. We have the date set and we have a meeting with the coordinator there in January."
"Wow." Emma was stunned. "Are you sure you're the Harry she used to complain would never take homework planning seriously?"
Harry, Nev and Sirius all chuckled. "Yes." He smiled. "The difference is I've been through a war now. Planning makes sense." He paused. "Besides, this is important to Mione and after everything she's done for me, I can do this one little thing."
"I don't think you understand Harry, she's wanted to get married at the Tower since she was little, this is her dream."
He just shrugged his shoulders as he took his shot.
HP
Mark quietly slipped out of the house just before noon, no one but Sirius had noticed. It was during this time that Mione came upstairs from her nap, bringing Teddy with her.
Handing him to Dora, she smiled. "I heard this one waking up, so I changed him and decided to bring him up, I think he's hungry."
"Thanks, Mione." She settled in to nurse.
"I wonder how I'm going to do that with twins." Hermione marvelled.
"One kid a breast?" Dora snorted.
"Probably have to supplement with formula," Emma answered. "Depends on how much you have."
"I need to go to a bookstore and do some research," Mione muttered as she looked at Luna. "Wanna come with me?"
"Sure, you never know, we might get pregnant soon too." She smiled at Nev's roll of the eyes.
"Have you been talking about it?" Mione asked eagerly.
"Yeah, we stopped using the charm earlier this month. I expect to be pregnant by New Year's." She grinned just as eagerly.
"Doesn't it take a while to get pregnant?"
"Not in my family. My mum was pregnant within three weeks, as was her mum. And my mum was a twin." She smiled sadly.
"Where's your aunt or uncle?"
"She didn't survive the birth, so my mum was an only child," Luna replied.
"Oh," Mione whispered, everyone could see her sort of deflating, deciding to not brood about her own missing child, she said with determination, "At least you had your mum."
"Yeah."
Everyone heard the sound of apparition from downstairs. Mione was up with her wand raised, ready for battle, as were the other veterans when she heard Mark yell up. "Jaime! I found someone you might like to see."
Jaime looked confusedly at the other women, then suspiciously at her boyfriend, who had a grin plastered over his face as she yelled down, "Be right there." She handed Jordan off to the nearest adult, which happened to be Neville. He took the baby like the pro he was becoming. She left for the stairs with everyone following.
"Oh, my Gods!" Jaime yelled as she launched herself into who Sirius thought must be her dad. "Daddy!" She began kissing him on the cheek. "How'd you get here? Who invited you? Was it Sirius? How are you Daddy?"
"Portkeyed. Sirius. Fine now that I see my little Jaime." He laughed as Jaime bounced over to her mom.
"I see you're doing well, little sweets." Her mom laughed as she kissed her. "So, who are these folks?"
"Oh." Jaime went red. In her excitement, she forgot everyone else.
Sirius came up to Adam. "Hello Sir, I'm Sirius Black and this is my family and our home." He said as he gestured to the rest of the family who were standing on the first-floor landing watching with smiles on their faces.
"Hello Sirius, it's good to meet you, We've heard a lot about you," He pulled his wife over and said. "This is my wife Suzan and you can call me Adam." Sirius raised her hand in a proper pureblood greeting.
"Hello, Suzan." Sirius greeted, she looked very similar to her daughter however had a more coppery shade of hair than her daughter. Adam had black hair and blue eyes like Jaime's, they were obviously her parents.
"Hello Sirius, Adam's right we've heard a lot about you and your family from both kids." She smiled.
"Dobby!" Sirius called.
When Dobby appeared, Sirius asked. "My friend, could you show Suzan and Adam to their room, then bring them to the game room, please?"
"Don't worry Dobby." Jaime smiled. "I'll do it." She reached up to kiss Sirius. "Thank you. Best Yule Ever." She whispered as she turned to her parents. "C'mon, let me show you around, you're going to love the library Dad."
Since the rest of the family was still watching from the first-floor landing, the newcomers had to walk past them on their way to their room, Suzan went past the rest of them straight to her granddaughter, dropped her bag and pulled Jordan out of Nev's arms. "Hello, my little sweets." She cooed as Adam looked to Sirius, who was following them.
"You've made her Christmas Sirius, now that she's got Jordan, she isn't giving her up to anyone unless she has to" Adam laughed as Sirius barked in laughter.
"Well, I'm glad." Sirius couldn't help but give a warm smile because he saw how close the Richardson's were, especially compared to his family. "Jaime will bring you up to the game room when you're done settling in. Don't be afraid to call for Dobby if you need any help."
They separated with Mark, Adam, Suzan and Jaime all going to the bedrooms while everyone else went to the game room. As they all sat down near the fireplace, Sarah commented, "I think you made Jaime's week, maybe even her year, Sirius."
"That was the whole point." Sirius smiled happily.
"I guess since your mum hasn't seen Jordan recently, it makes sense she takes her," Dora said looking at her son in her lap. He was turning this way and that, obviously looking for something. "I think he's looking for Jordan." She laughed.
"You may be right. I hear Jordan whining." Sarah said with a mischievous grin. "Give him to me." She got up and took Teddy to the stairs and looked back at everyone, "C'mon, I think Teddy has his first crush." She made her way to her parents' bedroom with Teddy; Sirius, Harry, Hermione and Dora following closely behind.
They got to the bedroom door and as soon as they were within eyesight of each other, both kids calmed down. "Wow." Sarah grinned at Dora. "We may be mothers-in-law one day."
"That would be fun. Imagine planning their wedding." Dora grinned at her friend.
"Wait a minute, girls." Adam interrupted. "You're not marrying off my granddaughter. She's not even a year old."
"That's okay." Sirius laughed at the panicked look on his face. "In England, you can have betrothals that young. It's done in pureblood families all the time."
Adam's face went red. "MY granddaughter will not be betrothed! That's barbaric!"
"I believe that's up to Sarah, Dora and I, Dad," Mark said with his teaching face on.
Adam's eyes almost bugged out of his face. "You—You—You wouldn't!"
Mark got an outraged look on his face as he grabbed his daughter from Suzan and turned his back to them. "We will do what we want with our daughter's life." He said in a cold voice.
"Honey, please." Suzan pleaded in a worried voice as she grabbed Mark's arm. He turned towards her with a wide smile on his face. And got slapped on the shoulder from his mother.
"That WAS NOT funny Mark." She growled out.
"Oh, I think it was mom," Mark started laughing. "The look on Dad's face was priceless."
Sirius burst out with his bark like laughter. "That was so worth the 10 years he just took off your lifespan." He hit Mark on the shoulder. "Great job." They looked around to see everyone smiling. Sirius thought this is what it's like to have a brother. Merlin, I miss James!
Adam looked at Suzan. "We've got two pranksters in the family now." He shook his head as everyone climbed the stairs to the game room. "We're screwed."
AN: Sorry there have been no updates recently. I've gone from having 3 high schoolers at home and being a part-time substitute teacher to having three college kids and being a full time substitute teacher at a middle school. Spending each day with 12-13 year olds is tiring. All that to say, yes I'm still writing this when I have time but my life has changed dramatically and have not gotten around to posting the chapters I do have. Hopefully, I'll post more over the break.