Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
The year went by relatively uneventful, save the several instances where Georgia and Freddie pulled a prank. After his talk with the boy, Freddie had regained his previous confidence and embraced his Slytherin nature and Georgia, after getting a letter from her father, had realized the potential that this held.
The two had quickly become famous around the castle for their pranks. Their most famous was when they somehow managed to sneak a potion into the school's pumpkin juice so that everyone's hair turned into a rainbow of colors.
Of course, the two had gotten plenty of detentions, though they didn't seem to care. Sirius was ecstatic to see the pranks performed and often gave them tips on how to get away with it. McGonagall did not approve.
Harry had to admit that he was jealous of Michael after his kids had come back with stories of how much fun they had had. James babbled on about the stuffed dragon that Michael had gotten and Lily couldn't stop talking about when he took them flying. The only one who didn't really seem to like him was Albus, who had been overjoyed to come home.
At least one of his kids liked him more than Michael.
The other thing that was on his mind was Hermione. He wasn't sure when it had started, but she was creeping into his thoughts more often now.
Before he knew it, Christmas Break had arrived. Since the kids were over at Ginny's until Christmas day (where Harry would be picking them up from the Burrow), he decided to get to bed early.
He settled down in his bed and turned on to his side, staring at the wall in thought. He couldn't get Hermione out of his head. Her laugh, her smile. He furrowed his eyebrows. Did he like Hermione?
No, he didn't. He couldn't. She was like a sister to him, right?
A noise caught his attention across the room. His head snapped to the door as it opened and a small face appeared.
"Daddy?"
"Albus?" Harry asked in disbelief, scrambling out of his bed, "What are you doing here?"
The boy walked in, looking at the floor. He was dressed in his pajamas and he seemed a bit jittery, "I had a nightmare."
"You're supposed to be with your mum," he said pointedly.
Albus nodded, "I know, but I had a nightmare."
Harry sighed. The fact that Albus had gotten up in the middle of the night and flooed away alarmed him. He's always told his children not to use the floo without permission unless it was an emergency.
"Come here," he said, patting the bed. Albus hopped onto the bed and immediately curled up next to Harry, "You know, you could have gone to your mum."
Albus wrinkled up his nose, "But Michael was in her room."
Oh.
He hadn't expected that at all. Eyes wide in surprise, he coughed awkwardly, "What was your nightmare about?"
Albus simply shrugged, "Don't remember."
Harry could tell that the boy was falling asleep. He rubbed his back. He knew he couldn't let him sleep here. Ginny would freak out in the morning when she couldn't find him, but it would be a lot easier to let him fall asleep and then carry him there.
Pretty soon, Albus had fallen asleep next to him. Harry pulled his hand away and caught the boy's sleeve, causing it to ride up, revealing a bruise.
He frowned, letting his fingers trace it lightly. Where had that come from? He didn't think that Albus and James had been roughhousing lately, but they had probably been at Ginny's. Still, he couldn't get the sprinkle of worry to leave as he carefully lifted Albus up and walked to the floo.
Being sure to be quiet, he flooed to Ginny's. Luckily, Albus stayed asleep.
As he walked out of the floo, he noticed Ginny pacing, looking panicked. She saw him and her face immediately relaxed as she bolted to him and gathered Albus out of his arms, holding him close.
"He had a nightmare, apparently," Harry explained to her, "Flooed over to my quarters. You should put a lock on the floo."
She simply nodded. Harry briefly noticed Michael on the couch, watching the exchange closely. The more time he spent around the man, the more he realized that Michael hated him. Why, he had no idea, but at least it didn't seem to bleed over into the kids. He seemed to adore them, especially Lily.
While he didn't understand the man, he knew that he had to be civil, especially if what he suspected was true.
"Well, I'll be going. I'll see you Saturday."
Ginny nodded, sending him a quiet thank you. He gave her a smile and then went on his way.
Christmas day arrived swiftly. Harry woke up in his quarters to silence, as he had the past seven days. He didn't think he'd ever get used to being alone for a week.
He climbed out of bed and got ready before heading to the Great Hall. McGonagall had told him that they would have a Christmas Breakfast ready and he planned on getting some food before heading off to the Burrow.
Upon entering, he noticed the small group set up at the table. Sitting at a round table was McGonagall, Hagrid, Mallory Martin (the Ancient Runes Professor), three Slytherins, and a Ravenclaw.
He took a spot between Hagrid and the Fifth year Slytherin, Tara Harley.
"Merry Christmas," he greeted them.
They echoed it back and gave him a smile. He piled pancakes onto his plate and glanced around. Christmas at Hogwarts would never cease to amaze him. The decorations were beautiful.
The Ravenclaw, Sidney Young, leaned over to him, "You're picking up the kids, right?"
Sidney had grown rather close to James, Albus, and Lily. He was pretty sure James had a crush on her.
He nodded, "Yeah, I'll be spending Christmas with the Weasley's and picking them up there."
Sidney gave a gleeful grin.
"Oh," Mallory turned from her conversation with McGonagall to speak to Harry, "Your son, Albus, has an amazing gift for Ancient Runes."
Harry raised his eyebrows at the woman, "How so?"
"Cassie brought the kids to the staff room last week and I had a wonderful conversation with him. He asked me what I was reading and it was a book on runes that I was going over to for class and we started talking about it. He seemed interested so I showed him some runes. By the time he left, he could recognize several, including the rune for water and air."
This surprised Harry. After all, Albus had never spoken of it.
Though, Albus didn't seem to speak about much at all, lately. He'd gotten much quieter and Harry frowned to himself, wondering when that had happened, and why. Albus had always been quieter than James and Lily, especially in public, but he used to tell Harry everything.
A sinking feeling hit his stomach. Something was wrong with his son. He needed to figure out what it was. Was it because of the divorce? Harry had thought that his children had taken it well, but maybe they hadn't.
He shoveled the food down quickly and stood up, "Well, I've got to get going. Molly and Arthur are having a Christmas Party at the Burrow."
When Harry arrived at the Burrow, he realized that Ginny had already arrived with the kids, as well as Corner. The man was talking to Arthur and the two were laughing heartily about some story about Lily making him play dress up.
James and Lily were nowhere to be found, but Albus' face lit up at the sight of Harry and he ran to him and jumped into his arms. Harry frowned slightly as he saw a bruise on the boy's chin.
"Where'd you get that, Al?" he asked him, concerned as his fingers trailed over it carefully.
Albus' hands went up to the bruise, as if he was surprised at it being mentioned. His bright green eyes lit up in realization, "I fell," he said simply, "I was racing James and I tripped over a toy."
Harry sighed, really wanting to chastise his son for not cleaning up his toys but holding himself back because it was Christmas. Instead, he levelled his gaze at him and said, "Did your mother talk to you about using the floo?"
The boy nodded sheepishly, "Mummy grounded me for three whole days!"
"Good," Harry said with a nod, "If you had accidentally ended up somewhere else, what would we have done?"
He shrugged, looking down at the floor, "Sorry, daddy."
Harry ruffled his hair, not wanting his son to be upset on Christmas, "That's alright. Just don't do it again. Now, are you okay?"
A confused look appeared on his face and he nodded, "Yeah."
He didn't know if he believed him but as he watched him carefully, he couldn't find anything wrong. He nodded, "Alright, go play. Did Santa Claus bring you that dinosaur you wanted?"
His eyes lit up excitedly and he nodded, "Yeah! And I got book on dragons! Isn't that cool?"
"That's very cool," Harry agreed, grinning, and he sat back as Albus babbled about everything he got.
This was how things were supposed to be. Albus told him everything and he listened. Why was it something that had become so rare?
Ron arrived not long afterwards with his kids. Albus immediately ran over to Rose, babbling about what he'd gotten. Hugo was attached to Ron's leg and Harry walked over with a smirk, "You've got a leech there, Ron."
His friend rolled his eyes, "He's got a bit of a cold," he explained, bending down and trying to pull the red-haired boy off of him, but Hugo just held on harder, "He gets clingy when he's sick."
Molly seemed to sense the sick child from the other side of the house as she came sweeping in, motherly instincts turned on. She immediately pried Hugo off of Ron.
"Oh, you poor thing," she cooed, "Come on, I'll make you some soup. Would you like that?"
The four-year-old nodded sleepily, wrapping his arms around her neck.
Ron snickered as Molly immediately fled with the child to the kitchen, "I'm pretty sure that Percy is going to have a fit when he finds out that Hugo is sick and in the kitchen with all of the food."
"That'll be fun to watch," Harry responded with a grin, "How's work?"
"Awful," Ron groaned, throwing his head back and closing his eyes as if he was absolutely exhausted, "I've been having to work overtime a lot lately. We're working on this murder case and-"
"Are you talking about murder around kids again?"
An exasperated Hermione walked in, rolling her eyes at Ron. She was carrying a plate of cookies that she immediately sat on the table with all the other food that people had brought. Her hair was pulled back into a bushy ponytail and her brown eyes gleamed.
Ron rolled his eyes, "'Course not. They're all running around somewhere."
A giggle from nearby proved Ron wrong. Hermione raised her eyebrows at him and bent down, pulling up the table cloth of the nearby table. James and Cori were underneath the table, each munching on a cupcake that had been made by Molly.
"James," Harry sighed, exasperated. The eight-year-old simply grinned up at him innocently, "Cori, where are your parents?"
The girl giggled, the sound matching the previous one, "Dad's with Uncle George," she said happily, "They're planning something, but it's a secret. So you can't tell anyone. And Mummy went to find him."
Of course. Harry hadn't even realized that George was there but as he turned his head, he spotted Angelina talking to Ginny about what had to be Quidditch, considering the fact that both of them were on the same team. He wasn't sure where Freddie was but he could guess that he was somewhere planning something. Roxanne, at age 9, was probably outside looking for bugs. She had an odd fascination with them.
"Well, you two need to stop eating the food. It's not time for lunch yet," Harry said, "If you're good, I'll take you guys flying later."
That did the trick. Their eyes lit up with giddiness and they immediately nodded, scrambling out from under the table. James immediately had a question on his lips, "Can Michael come?"
He frowned, the jealousy rising up again, "Oh, I'm sure he's busy."
"No, he's not," James said happily, turning to where Michael was talking to Arthur, "Michael! Can you come flying with us later?"
Corner smiled at that, nodding, "Of course, James."
"See?" James said as he turned back.
Harry sighed, but nodded. He didn't like Corner. Something about him was rubbing him the wrong way, but James and Lily at least seem to really like him, so he guessed that he would have to put his jealousy aside.
By noon, everyone had arrived and they settled down at the large, extended table. Due to how big the family (and honorary family) was, they had had to put a charm on the kitchen to allow for them all to eat at the same table, as Molly insisted. Harry was seated beside Hermione towards the end of the table and he was in a discussion with Ron about Quidditch.
"Okay, they might not have the best Seeker but-"
"Ron, Oswald wouldn't knew a snitch from a bird, and without a good Seeker, you can't have a good team," Harry said as he ate a bite of mashed potatoes.
Ron shook his head, "He got the snitch before Ulrich in the game against the Appleby Arrows."
Harry snickered at that, "That's because they haven't won a single match all year."
Before Ron could have a response for that, Fred and George stood to their feet in unison, matching grins on their faces as they climbed onto the chairs in order to tower in front of everyone. Angelina and Alicia both exchanged exasperated glances and Harry saw James lean forward excitedly.
"Attention everyone!" Fred spoke as if he was announcing the World Cup, "We have a very special announcement."
George took over before anyone could say a word about it, "Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes is officially branching out!"
"Hogsmeade will be getting their own shop!" they finished excitedly in unison.
The room broke into applause. Harry could see Teddy talking excitedly to Victoire about the new shop, his hair changing colors sporadically. Sirius looked ecstatic, most likely having plans on heading to the shop on a Hogsmeade trip in order to plan the ultimate prank in his class.
"Congratulations, Fred, George," Remus said, smiling at them and patting them on the back, "Pretty soon you'll have a shop in every Wizarding Village around the world."
"That's the plan," George nodded happily.
"Though, it'll be a bit difficult. The plan is for me to work at Hogsmeade and him to work at Diagon Alley. We're going to need some more partners," Fred finish with a smirk and he could see the boy sending glances off to Freddie and Georgia, who were already whispering excitedly to each other.
Harry had no doubt that they planned for the two to take over one day.
As the excitement from the announcement calmed down and they finished eating, James and Cori hopped out of the seat, "Let's go flying now!"
"Now?" Harry asked, amused, "We just finished eating."
"Won't you get cramps?" Caroline asked innocently, causing Teddy to snicker.
He changed his appearance to match his sister's and mocked, "Won't you get cramps?"
Caroline glared at him and stomped on his foot, causing him to yelp and his normal appearance to snap back into place as he held his foot.
"Hey, no fighting," Tonks said as she walked in, "Teddy, be nice to your sister. Caroline, that's swimming, dear."
Caroline's eyes widened in understanding, "Oh, right."
Sirius walked over and clapped Harry on the back, "You taking them flying?" at Harry's nod, he turned to the rest of the family, "QUIDDITCH MATCH!"
The excitement that bubbled through everyone told Harry that this was going to be one epic match.
AN: This chapter was shorter than I wanted it to be, and it took forever to finish, so sorry guys! It's close to the end of the school year so teachers are going crazy with work. I get out on May 20th, though, so I should be able to get back to this. Next chapter will a Quidditch match to remember!
Leave in a review anything you would like to see!