"Can we meet them now?" came some more voices from the other side of the door.
Harry dropped down on to his knees and moved Hermione's arms from Marissa. He pushed her face up so that her green eyes were meeting his. "I don't hate you if that's what you were thinking, I was just surprised. I know that you're not from here and that in that sense I'm not your father but you have my blood and my name regardless." He pulled her close in a hug. She buried her head into his shoulder and cried.
James and Tara took turns hugging their parents. When Marissa finally stopped crying Hermione opened the door and let a group of kids into the room. James and Tara backed away and ended up hitting Melody who smacked both their arms.
Out of the group they had already meet Dominique, Victoire, Louis, Fred and Roxanne and behind them stood eight more kids that they had yet to meet. One of the boys had blonde hair that matched Tara's and the same stormy silver-blue eyes. One had hair that was a couple shades lighter than Harry's but had the same bright green eyes that Marissa and Harry both had. Two red haired boys were next to him one with straight hair and the other with messy hair like Harry's. The four girls standing beside the boys looked enough alike that you could tell they were related. All of the girls had red hair in varying shades and blue eyes in varying shades. The oldest of them looked to be the same age as Marissa.
"Wow, so you are real." The boy with messy brown hair said while the boy with messy red hair let an out a low whistle at the sight.
Tara snapped her eyes up to meet the boys and shot him a smirk just as their parents stepped between to introduce them.
Hermione and Ron pulled their kids into a group in front of them and the others automatically did the same with their parents, leaving the groups like this:
Hermione and Ron: one of the red haired girls the one who looked to match Marissa in age and the red haired boy with straight hair (he obviously got it from dad) Noted Melody as her brothers looked at them with uncertainty etched on their faces.
Harry and Ginny: the boy with messy red hair, the boy with Harry's eyes and the red haired girl who had been standing next to said boy. Marissa closed her eyes trying to picture her brother.
Draco: the boy with blonde hair and silver-blue eyes.
Percy and his wife: the last two girls with red hair.
Of course they already knew who the other five belonged too and were not surprised to see them standing with Bill and fleur and George and Angelina respectively.
Hermione pushed their two forward first, "these are Rose and Hugo. They are our kids."
Melody and the boys walked the few steps to stand right in front of them and she smiled what Hermione thought was a somewhat sad smile. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Melody and these are Percy and Dray."
"It's nice to meet you too, though a bit surprising to have another sister and two brothers." Rose said before she smiled and launched a hug on the unsuspecting girl. Melody stiffened then the three of them closed their eyes as if fighting back tears and Dray whispered "Jillian" so softly Hermione almost didn't catch it.
The introductions continued as no one else had apparently heard what the young boy had whispered and Harry and Ginny pushed their kids forward.
"Hi, I'm James." The oldest boy said sticking his hand out to the girl who had to be at least a year older than him and Rose. She had long blonde hair and bright emerald green eyes that matched his dad and brothers.
"Marissa." She said shakily holding out her hand which he shook almost immediately but didn't let go of as his brother and sister stepped forward.
"Hello Marissa we're Albus and Lily." They said together before they each wrapped an arm around her in a hug than let go to stand next her and James who was still holding her hand, she knew for support as he had seen it in her eyes that this was hard for her.
Percy pushed his daughters forward while their mother just smiled at them.
"We're Molly and Lucy your cousins, it's nice to meet you. " The older of the two said while the younger one looked down as if embarrassed.
Finally the blonde boy stepped forward at the nod from his father. "My name is Scorpius and it's nice to meet you." Tara and James smirked at the boy and he returned it. "You must take more after dad than your mom." He said as he looked over at Ginny who smiled as the potter children moved to reintroduce themselves to the twins.
Two hours later the children were all sitting around a table in the backyard talking about the world that the "alters" as they had been dubbed had come from.
"So how did your parents get together?" J.S. as they had agreed to call James Sirius asked Tara.
"Mom and dad meet at a mall in the U.S. one summer in disguise and started a friendship that slowly turned to love. The year that he, Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Harry graduated dad asked Mom to marry him when she graduated and she said yes."
"I bet that didn't go over well." Scorpius said leaning his head on one of his hands.
"You're right it didn't." James said smirking. "Mom had been kidnapped earlier in the year by Granddad and Uncle Ron and Harry both went off on her when she told them."
"Yeah and our mom almost left dad too saying she couldn't be with him if he would deny his sister happiness with the man she loved. Though it all worked out in the end it was a long road for them. Uncle Draco went on a mission while she was still at Hogwarts and disappeared. Mom, dad and Uncle Harry left on the night of their wedding to find him." Melody said
"Leaving my mom at the castle with Aunt Ginny, she was Pregnant with me at the time and she and dad had been married for almost six months without telling anyone." Marissa said laughing a little.
"Back up grandfather kidnapped Ginny?" Scorpius asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah and they all learned that dad and Uncle Harry had someone in common. Her name was Marie and she was our dads' half-sister and Uncle Harry's cousin. Her dad had died just after graduating and so Grandma married Granddad, they had Dad and Marie went over to spend the night with Uncle Harry and his parents the night that Voldmort attacked. He killed her and everyone except Uncle Harry." James said "I was named after Uncle Harry's dad the same way that Dray was named after Dad."
"What about you how did your parents end up together?" Tara asked J.S.
"Mom had a huge crush on dad when she was younger and over time that turned to love, He saved her in his second year from the basilisk, they got together the end of his sixth year and then he didn't go back for seventh year. They got married after she graduated but I don't know how long after." He answered.
"What about you Scorpius how did they end up together?" Tara asked
"It was arranged." He said "I don't know if dad really loves mom but they seem to be alright with each other and I am loved."
Dray leaned against Melody and dabbed at his eyes, catching Rose's attention.
"You alright Dray?' She asked the boy who just turned his head even further into his sister's shoulder.
"He'll be fine we're all in the stages of grieving and he is in the crying stage." Melody said as a matter of fact before hugging her youngest brother with her free arm.
"Grief, what happened?" it was Lily who asked
"We just lost our cousin." Tara and James said in sync and glared at each other before they walked around the table and put an arm around Marissa. This movement caught Albus' attention and made him curious but he could see hurt and anger on her face as well as sadness and so he let it go unlike his older brother.
"Who was it?"
Marissa's eyes snapped up and meet his with both furry and sadness playing in them but what scared them the most was that they had gone from green to red. "My younger brother Seamus, he died just over a year ago, though he was actually murdered and we finally found the killer four months ago, he got life in Azkaban."
James and Tara hugged her close as the others each placed a hand on her arms, and slowly her eyes faded back into their bright green and she hung her head as if in pain.
"Are you alright Marissa?" Melody asked
"My head hurts I don't know how long I can be away from Matt." She said softly. "I haven't been away from him for more than a few hours since we found each other."
"Yes we know." The twins said and just rolled their eyes at each other.
"Who is Matt?" Albus asked finally saying something instead of just listening.
"Matt is Marissa's mate." Percy supplied the answer with a smile. "Being that she is half Valkyrie she would have a mate and that is Matt."
"I get the feeling that you have experienced a lot of loss in your world." Rose said to all of them.
They nodded their heads. "We also lost our other cousin Jillian and nearly lost Melody." James said
"Hey, I don't want to talk about that. I'm here. And Jillian…Jillian is buried at the burrow by grandpa and grandma." Melody said whipping away the tears that ran down her cheeks while her brothers did the same.
"Jillian was your sister wasn't she?" Lily asked
"Yes, she was so energetic and loveable. She played chaser for the house team until she got sick, then we moved to America so she could have the best Medi -witches looking after her but it didn't matter she died because they didn't catch it in time to get rid of all of it. We were all so devastated. Jacob left the wizarding world for six months and when Todd came back and learned of her death he cried too. Millie spent a week in her room." Melody replied
"Who are Millie, Jacob and Todd?" Scorpius asked
"Millie is Millennium Mara, she is the step daughter of Collin creevy and my girlfriend back home though she is two years older than me. Jacob is Jacob Zabini and he is a twin his brother is Jeremy they are the sons of Blaise and Mary Zabini. Todd is the son of Justin Flinch-Fletchly. He is married and Jordy just had their twins six months ago, two little girls." James answered.
"Jake and Jeremy are my second cousins." Marissa said "My mom is Blaise cousin."
"And Jake is now my boyfriend." Melody said "It's a long story."
"Not going to ask." Was the reply from everyone who was seated on the other side of the table?
Melody and the others laughed at that.
Hermione stood at the sink in the kitchen looking out the window at the kids who were all talking. She saw the looks of sadness on their faces a few times as they talked and wondered what she could do to help with that. She had taken Harry aside after the introductions and told him that she had a feeling these kids were in mourning (because she had heard the youngest of her boys), that would take some getting used to whisper the name Jillian. Now she could tell it was more than just that one girl they were mourning. She couldn't be sure but she believed it was someone closer to Marissa who had just moments before gone off about something though she couldn't hear her.
"What are you doing Love?"
She turned her hair flying as she did to meet Ron's blue eyes with her own brown ones. "I was just looking at the kids." She said
He nodded and pulled her into his arms. "It's strange isn't it? Having those two boys and that young woman calling us mom and dad?"
"It is, but Ron I think they are in Mourning." Her brown eyes lifted to meet his blue ones once again. "I know those signs having seen them with all of us when Sirius passed, and when everyone was lost in the final Battle."
"If they are love all we can do is hope they come to us for help." Ron said as he watched them the same way his wife had been.
"Hey guys why don't you go get all the kids together; Harry says we are going out for dinner." Ginny called from the other side of the door.
They smiled at each other and then opened the door to the yard just in time to hear laughter.
"Come on kids, we're going out to dinner." Ron called and it was a rush to see which of the Weasley or potter brood made it to the door first though they noticed that Melody and the others were walking just like Scorpius. Hermione thought to herself that her kids from this other world were either more well-mannered or they just weren't as hungry.
Percy and his family had gone back home not to long after the introductions because they had a dinner planned with his in-laws for that night. George, Angelina and their kids had to go back to work and promised to drop by later in the week if the kids were still here. Louis had gone with them. Dominique and Victoire had both had to go to work as well; they stocked shelves at flourish and bolts. Teddy had left with a kiss to Ginny's cheek and a hug to Harry to go see his Grandmother.
They ended up at a restaurant out in muggle London. The families had to put four tables together. Just before they ordered Draco and Scorpius both stood up as a woman with long Black hair walked up to them. Draco kissed her cheek as did Scorpius and then they all sat back down.
"Guys meet my mom." Scorpius said motioning to them. "Mom, these are Tara, James, Melody, Percy, Dray and Marissa."
"Hello dears it's nice to meet you." Her eyes kept moving back to Tara the blonde with silver-blue eyes among them who looked like she could have been Scorpius' twin.
"Astoria, Tara and James are twins. I'll explain it all later." Draco told his wife.
Talking subsided when the waitress asked for orders and again later when the food arrived. In between the adults talked about what work had been like until they got the call and the kids kept switching topics so much that they couldn't keep up if they wanted to.
Astoria found that the twins as Draco had identified them were much like her own son but she could see in the girl a temper that didn't fit Draco or her son. She wondered just who these kids were and why they all looked like they belonged. Marissa she noted the other blonde girl having been called had Harry's emerald green eyes.
They ate in silence this night as they were all lost in thoughts. Harry and Ginny were both wondering what had gone different in this other world that lead to them not being together; but her with Draco and he with a woman who was in fact at least part Valkyrie.
Hermione and Ron were thinking about their life in this other world they had apparently ended up together there as well but what had happened along the way and why did their children look like they had lost so much?
Draco was wondering how he had ended up with Ginny and why his parents hadn't stopped it. He knew here his mom and dad would have disowned him had he fallen for the ginger red head.
Scorpius noticed first that night the beauty that apparently was passed down from Hermione Granger Weasley in both worlds ran strong in both of her living daughters. Rose had long curly red hair and bright brown eyes while Melody had long darker red brown hair and bright Weasley blue eyes. Both he noted had slightly rounded faces and pink cheeks. He wondered why it was that he felt a pull not for the first time toward the now 16 year old girl named Rose. Perhaps after all of this was figured out something could happen though with this maybe she would look at him in an odd way like a cousin. He sighed.
Rose had noticed that Scorpius was watching her and Melody who was oblivious to the fact that the boy was currently comparing them. When she looked at the girl who might as well be her sister she saw a beauty she was jealous of in a small way. Her hair was straight and looked shiny her eyes were the Weasley blue and she was at least two inches taller. She had to remind herself that she was also almost two years older than her. She had felt a pull toward the blonde boy for a while now and wondered if they now that they shared cousins (albeit from another world.) how he would look at her when they left if they left.
Marissa wanted to push Scorpius and Rose together. She was tired of the annoyingly strong magic that was trying to pull them together. They had the same smell that she had already found on her cousin Melody and Jake back home that of soul mates. She sighed. She cursed the fact that she was going to become the new queen of her people and she cursed the fact that being what she was her senses were different than others. She could always sense the brave warriors of the world and had once asked her mom to explain their heritage. She had been told that Valkyries were a race of demi-goddesses whoes' job was to go and bring the souls of brave warriors to Valhalla. She knew that when her dad passed away it would be where his soul would go. She believed that her brother was there as well.
James was thinking about the blonde haired blued girl he had waiting on him back at home. How long would she wait on him to come back? Would she be happy when he returned? He knew she was 19 and he was only 17 but he wanted to be with her as long as she would have him. She was now working as an auror just as his uncle Harry did.