It's Friday and another chapter's here. Ideally I would like to update twice a week but the absence of a beta (for this story) is really wounding all of us here, it seems. I had almost succeeded in getting one but after agreeing, he has absolutely disappeared and I haven't heard a bloody word from him for around twenty days now. It's disheartening and very, very much aggravating (I'm trying my best to keep myself from swearing here).

Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter belongs to Jo.

Chapter#16

Fitting In

It was almost immediately after the call from the future that Victoire rounded the little ones in a single room. There was something very important that she needed to make sure did not reach her younger parents, aunts and uncles.

"You lot remember what I told you last night?"

Hugo, Lily and Lucy nodded seriously, "We remember Vic and we haven't mentioned anything about Uncle Bill and Aunty Lavender's scars." Lily said, looking very concerned as if she feared she had somehow let slip the information without realising.

"Good, I know all of you are very responsible." Victoire smiled at all three of them, "But there's one more thing that I forgot to remind you about."

"What?" Lucy asked.

"You three know about the scar on Aunty Hermione's arm?"

"The scar that's the bad word?" Hugo asked with wide eyes.

"Yes Hugo." Victoire crouched down on her knees so she was eye level with the three redheads, "I want you not to mention that either, okay?"

"Okay." The three said together.

"Let's go downstairs then. Everyone will be waiting."

Downstairs, for the last half an hour Fred had been watching his nephews mope around the lounge and he had had enough of it now; it wasn't everyday that you met your future prankster nephews and he wanted to make the most of this time.

"Oh for the love of Merlin, stop sulking you three!" Fred said exasperatedly.

"You've never had to endure a quidditch and pranking ban for a month, have you?" James said morosely.

"No I haven't but what I really don't understand is the way you're reacting to this. I mean, the Christmas holidays are going to be over in a week or so and it isn't like your mums will follow you to Hogwarts to make sure that you obey them."

"You know Uncle Fred, I feel like you haven't even met your own sister and sister-in-laws."

"Why do you say that?" Fred questioned indignantly.

"Because dear Uncle, mum and Aunt Angie and Aunt Fleur have their sources at school to make sure that we don't get out of punishments like these."

"And what sort of 'sources' are these, dare I ask?"

"Molly Weasley and Neville Longbottom"

"What's Neville got to do with anything?" Fred asked confusedly.

"Neville is the Herbology Professor and the Head of Gryffindor." Louis replied grumpily,

"Old Neville's a professor at Hogwarts?!" Fred exclaimed, visibly excited at the prospect.

"Yes Uncle Fred, he is!" Fred (II) seemed frustrated now, "Merlin, will all of you just stop repeating everything we say!"

"All right, I won't." Fred raised his hands in a defensive manner, "There's no need to get all bothered. Anyway, I understand that Neville would make sure that you three don't get away with anything but, Molly? I mean she seems very affable, not the sort to keep you lot bound."

Louis raised his eyebrows at that, clearly giving his uncle the impression that he was missing out on something vital, he sighed and shook his head before explaining, "Well, Uncle Fred, as nice as Molly seems, she does posses a very deadly and significant weapon, namely Matt Wood-"

"Who's Matt Wood?" Fred cut across, "He's not related to Oliver Wood, is he?"

"He's Oliver Wood's son." James put in.

Fred seemed ready to make another comment when an agitated Louis interrupted him, "Aaaaaas I was saying, Matt Wood is the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and the boyfriend of our dear, sweet, shy, Molly. He is absolutely mad about quidditch but more than that he's mad about Molls, hence he'd do anything she'd say in a heartbeat, even if it was banning some members of the team from the quidditch pitch for good reason."

"Oh" Fred said as he looked at his nephews sympathetically, "I'm sorry you have to bear all that. Can't imagine what George and I would've done in this situation."

The three nodded solemnly and seemed as if they were going to stay glued to their places until Fred sighed loudly, proceeded to grab them by their arms and dragged them out of the room.

"Can I come in?" Scorpius poked his head in the room which he knew was occupied currently by Draco, Daphne, Astoria, Pansy and Theo.

Draco hesitated but Daphne saved him the trouble of answering, "Of course!"

Scorpius cheerily made his way to sit beside his Aunt Daphne, "So, what are you all up to?" he grinned at them.

"Nothing, just dealing with your dad's petty insecurities" She smiled at Scorpius and then glared at Draco who glared back.

Scorpius looked untainted by this as he smiled back and casually commented, "That's not a new thing is it? I'm used to it by now; mum always says the same thing to dad almost every day."

"It seems some things never change." Theo sniggered.

Scorpius snorted, "No they don't. Just like the fact that you still get hexed by Pansy at least three times a day."

Theo scowled as everyone burst out laughing, including Draco.

"I take it these two have finally managed to sort things out after years of looming sexual tension?" Daphne asked pointing at Theo and Pansy, once she'd caught her breath.

Scorpius laughed slightly as he answered, "Sorted quite brilliantly, I'd say. Given they have been happily married for about...fourteen years now I think."

"WHAT?!" the people in question shouted simultaneously.

"I don't think it's that surprising that you should both shout like bloody dunderheads!" Astoria said.

Theo and Pansy instead settled for glaring at Astoria as Pansy spoke, "At least we're able to shout, unlike some people who lost all ability to speak for a good ten minutes."

"Let's all calm down, yeah?" Scorpius suggested, still chuckling slightly.

Pansy huffed but sat down none the less, a stunned Theodore Nott beside her, who looked like he'd just received a dinner invitation from Bloody Baron.

"Well, I reckon this matter deserves a more in-depth discussion." Daphne said gleefully, "So Scorpius, tell us more about Mr and Mrs Nott."

Pansy tried to look annoyed at this but couldn't keep the curiosity peering out of her expression while Theo still sat in bafflement.

"Alright!" Scorpius grinned, "They do seem happy together, Pansy owns a clothing shop in Diagon, it's something with only dress robes I think, and Theo is a business partner of dad's."

"That's nice." Pansy muttered smiling.

"Oh and did I mention your daughter?" Scorpius smiled smugly.

This seemed to render Pansy speechless as well and Theo, if possible, was experiencing an increase in his bewilderment.

"I think Pansy, now you're definitely the one incapable of uttering a single word." Draco drawled teasingly, a small smile playing at his lips.

"Tell us more." Astoria said.

"Ah well, her name is actually Cassiopeia but we call her Cassie, she is fourteen, in her fourth year and is a fellow Slytherin. We've both grown up together, really...best friends since childhood. She plays quidditch as well, chaser usually and is bloody brilliant at Astronomy."

"Awww, she sounds fantastic!" Daphne exclaimed.

Theo finally recovered enough to mutter, "Bloody hell!"

"Since this one," Draco pointed at Daphne, "seems so intent on stunning everyone with information overload, you should tell us about her too, you know. I highly doubt her overexcited soul would've let her stay single for too long."

"Well dad, you're right about one thing; Aunt Daphne isn't single anymore."

"Really?" Daphne looked a bit excited, "Is it not-single-since-married or is it not-single-since-have-a-boyfriend?"

"Not-single-since-married" Scorpius smiled cheekily.

"All right, who's the husband then?"

"Dennis Creevey"

"WHAT?!" this time everyone shouted at the same time.

Scorpius looked mildly panicked as if he'd just realised he'd said the wrong thing.

"BUT HE'S IN GRYFFINDOR!" Theo yelled.

"HE'S RELATED TO THAT OTHER STUPID CREEVEY PHOTOGRAPHER KID!" Pansy shrieked.

"He's a MUDBLOOD!" Draco shouted.

Scorpius scowled, "Dad please don't use that word, believe me you'll regret every time you called someone that."

"Tell me more." Daphne said, looking only intrigued rather than disgusted and her previous shock changing into something akin to concern.

"Er... I can't really tell you anything in detail but you both got married around six years ago and you have one daughter together. Her name's Amelia, Amy for short and she's four, going to be five in a couple of months. She's brilliant really."

Scorpius was hesitant to disclose any more details than he already had. The relationship between his Aunt Daphne and Uncle Dennis had been a complex one to start with, given both their status in the Wizarding world; though the war had eradicated most of the prejudice stemming from blood status but you can't really get rid of these sort of things in a few years; change takes time. Furthermore his Aunt was one of the most successful businesswomen in the Wizarding world and Dennis Creevy was only sports photographer at the Daily Prophet; to say pursuing a relationship had been hard for them would be an understatement. Not to mention, if he tried to tell them more, most of the things would lead to him mentioning the death of Colin Creevey, which wasn't an option.

"It's a nice name...Amelia..." Daphne smiled.

Silence followed Daphne's comment, no one felt up to saying anything and quite honestly, they needed time to absorb all the information that they'd just been made aware of.

"Let's go downstairs. You can't possibly spend the whole day in this room, can you?" Scorpius said eventually.

"I think I'm quite all right here." Draco stated looking away from everyone and Daphne saw Scorpius' face fall.

"I might wait here as well." Pansy said joining Draco in his endeavours of not-facing-anyone-else-in-the-house-besides-friends-and-Scorpius.

Daphne gave them both a dangerous warning glare which both of them pointedly ignored. Daphne then turned towards his nephew, sister and Theo, forcing a smile onto her face she said,

"Theo, Astoria both of you go with Scorpius. I'll just have a talk with Draco and Pansy here." she scowled at both her friends, who still seemed to be deliberately ignoring her. "Don't worry, we won't be long."

"All right" Scorpius said as he smiled at Theo and Astoria, who nodded and the three of them proceeded to walk out of the door and down the stairs.

The three Slytherins entered the living room which was currently occupied by all the time-travellers -who for some reason seemed very much amused-, an awkward looking Lavender, a scowling Charlie Weasley and a grinning Bill Weasley with Nymphadora Tonks.

"What's happening?" Scorpius asked smiling as he fell in a seat beside Al.

"Nothing much, Uncle Bill and Tonks are just having a go at Uncle Charlie." Al replied without looking at Scorpius, "What about you, I take it your dad still isn't comfortable to join us?"

"Well yeah, but that won't be the case for long, I reckon. Aunt Daphne stayed behind to have a little talk with him and Pansy, I'm quite sure they'll have their heads knocked in the right place after that." Scorpius said and then looked around as if not understanding something, "Where is everyone else? I mean your parents and the rest of your aunts and uncles."

"Gran's in the kitchen as usual, dad and Uncle Ron are too shocked still to even look at us without going red in the face with embarrassment, in fact Uncle George and Fred have just gone to fetch them...and I think Aunt Hermione-"

Al stopped short as he spotted his dad and Uncle Ron being dragged into the room by Fred and George while Hermione followed quietly them behind.

"I don't understand what the point in hiding is-" Fred started.

"-when we all know that our future children are not going to be leaving anytime soon, from the look of things." George continued.

"We were not hiding" Ron mumbled, noticeably red in the face.

Fred looked ready to retort when Bill decided to intervene before his siblings got into another stupid argument, "Okay, that's enough." He said raising both hands in front of him. "As unusual as our situation is, I think everyone of us would quite appreciate if we can get through this without getting into unneeded arguments."

The others nodded and after a few moments of awkward silence – which to the dismay of everyone had become an irritatingly regular occurrence in the last twenty-four hours or so –started conversing with each other.

Hugo, Lily and Lucy were sitting on the floor with some parchment and a few odd colour quills, presumably drawing something. Hermione looked at them and smiled when she spotted Hugo, wearing the very same look of concentration that she often saw on the face of her red-headed best friend when he was doing something that caught his interest.

"Those three are a handful, even if you think they're looking extremely adorable right now." The voice came from her right and she turned her head to see Teddy smiling at her.

She smiled back and returned her gaze to the red-headed trio hunched over their parchments on the floor as she said, "Well, all of this doesn't happen until quite a while in the future, so there's nothing to worry till then."

"Valid point" Teddy said as he nodded, he then looked sideways at Lavender who was sitting on his other side, "How come they are not bouncing on top of you and regaling you with their stories when you're sitting in the same room as them?"

Lavender's lips curved upward into an amused smile as she said, "Oh they tried, I mean I even heard a twenty minute story which included a two-headed dragon attacking Percy's office and Ron riding a Hippogriff with Harry flying on a Threstal's back." Teddy laughed boisterously as Lavender continued, "But then I told them that I had a nasty head ache and maybe they should do something else for a while, so I could get better to play with them later."

"Let me guess; Hugo would've offered to bring a pain-relieving potion, Lily would've insisted that you get to your room and rest while Lucy would've hugged you claiming that everything could be cured with a nice bowl of Percy's special soup and a hug." Teddy stated as if he had had a premonition of the entire conversation.

Lavender looked at him surprised, "How do you know that's what they said?"

"I would've said I'm a seer but I don't want to get a smack over the head by Hermione for uttering absolute non-sense, so I'll just say that this is what happens every time someone tells one of the little ones that they are sick."

"They seem really close to Lavender." Hermione mused out loud, looking intrigued.

"They are." Teddy said, looking somewhat nervous, "I mean they spend a great deal of time with her and she loves them as much as they love her."

It was evident that Teddy was trying to avoid the topic for some reason. Lavender seemed to catch onto this fact as she shook her head and said, "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. I understand you're worried that you might let slip something important."

Teddy nodded and smiled, acknowledging Lavender's insight. However his attention was soon diverted to Hermione, as he felt her tugging at his wrist and saw her fiddling with his communicator, "How does this work? Nothing of this sort has been invented yet."

"You're right, this was only put under use around nine years ago and even now, only the Auror Department has access to this sort magical technology." Teddy answered.

Hermione was still looking at his wrist curiously, "If you don't mind me asking, how does it work?"

"Well, it basically uses the magic of the wizard or witch wearing it. As you would already know; every wizard has their unique magic which sort of acts as their identity. This communicator identifies that magic and works for only that distinctive individual. The strength of one's magic powers the ability to communicate; that was the reason I only sent a signal to Ron; my magic isn't as strong as his and could not work the communicator through a time-travel call, but his could and we were able to talk. The outer casing of the communicator is made of dragon skin because that is the only material which seems to withstand the charms and spells used."

Hermione looked truly fascinated and had been just about to say something when Hugo came running forwards and for the lack of free space on the sofa, flopped down on Hermione's lap. He shoved a parchment into Hermione's hand excitedly; a big grin plastered on his face, "Mum look at this!"

Hermione gazed down at the parchment in her hands; there was an orange-coloured dragon, fire raging from his mouth and its wings flapping in sync. Upon further inspection Hermione noticed a red-haired man sitting on the back of the dragon and beside him was a brown-haired woman.

"Hugo, is that Ron?" Hermione asked, smiling.

"Yes its dad", Hugo said, nodding excitedly, "and that's you, behind him."

"This is wonderful Hugo!" Hermione kissed him on the cheek and gave him a tight hug, 'Come on, let's show this to Ron."

With that Hermione walked away, holding Hugo's hand. Teddy looked towards his other side and saw that Lavender was no longer there but on the floor beside Lily and Lucy, helping them with their drawings.

"I think everyone's coping fairly well...considering our situation." Victoire stated as she dropped on the seat beside Teddy.

Teddy entwined his fingers with her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah" Victoire smiled and nodded, "I'm as well as can be. What about you?"

"Well, I haven't seen either of my parents since last night so I'm fine, I suppose."

"Teddy" Victoire sighed as she leaned her head on his shoulder, "You should talk to them."

"I don't know how to."

"Just try; it'll work, trust me." Victoire said and kissed him on the cheek.

Teddy nodded as he squeezed her hand, "I hope so."

"YESSS!" the tender moment between the couple was interrupted by an almighty shout, followed by groans and yells of protest. Both of them turned to look at the source of all the racket and to their bafflement, saw Al and Molly laughing and giving each other a high-five, a deck of exploding snap cards sitting in front of them. The whole pretext of the situation it seemed was that, Al and Molly had just won a game as a team, their opponent being the teams of a groaning Scorpius, a yelling Dominique and a scowling Theo with Astoria.

This, for some reason made Teddy and Victoire laugh as well and stood to join their cousins, hoping to lighten their own moods as well.

Tell me what you thought of this chapter and please, leave a review.

And another thing; if any of you want something specific to happen, do tell me. I can't assure you that it will be included, but if it fits, I'll try to include some of your requests in the story. Also, if you do leave some of your ideas for the story in the reviews as a guest, I would highly appreciate if you give yourself some sort of a name, though it would still be fine if you don't.

Eagerly anticipating and awaiting your feedback.

Have a fabulous weekend Unresponsive Readers!