Harry Potter Happily Ever After

by PotterFanSteve

HEA follows Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and their family and friends from the day after the war through to the Deathly Hallows Epilogue. The New Marauders picks up this story from the end of HEA, and continues the storyline with their kids and friends.

35. Virtually Perfect Year

Chapter Thirty-Five - Virtually Perfect Year

Lisa had been working in the lab through the night, and had thought she'd put her head on the workbench to rest for a moment when the next thing she knew, Ginny was gently waking her up.

"You stayed her all night again working, didn't you?" she asked, and Lisa nodded as she took a moment to clear the fog from her mind, and then smiled at her friend.

"Yeah, but it works now," she told Ginny happily. "The problem was in the Arithmancy." She handed the now working prototype to Ginny. "Try it out," she suggested, and then watched as Ginny, her concern for her friend working so much evaporated by her excitement over Lisa's news, sat down and tested the device, and then a few minutes later, gave Lisa a big hug.

"It's perfect," Ginny told her. "You probably need to go home and get some sleep, but before you do that, meet with Mandy and the others so they can get started on production planning, and everything else we need to do. I imagine Luna will want to shoot for either the weekend school gets out or a back to school release, and we're still pushing production to keep up with the TransPortal devices too, so we're going to need all the time we can get."

Lisa stood up wearily. "Can you come with me and prop me up?" she asked.

Ginny laughed and put her arm around Lisa. "Anything you need, boss."

Later that day, Mandy met with Fleur to update her on their 'top secret' project. They were going to need a very big chunk of the financing that was being reserved for the new product, and Fleur would need to authorize the release of the funds. She'd already brought the manufacturing division manager into the loop, meeting with him, Natalie, and Luna. They'd put together a tentative schedule and product release date. Everyone at the Institute would really have to push it this year again, but they all knew that the extra work would really pay off. Fleur was reading the report and schedule, and when she finished, she looked up at Mandy.

"This looks fine, Mandy," she told the other woman. "Luna's sure that five million units will be enough?" Mandy nodded.

"To have ready for launch, yes," she answered. "She expects we'll sell another ten million by the end of the year."

Fleur bobbed her head. "This other revenue stream that Luna has listed here - do you believe that's realistic?"

Mandy smiled and nodded again. "Hard to believe, but she's already received seventy-five percent commitment from clients, sight unseen. They trust what she's done with everything else, and don't want to miss out on the next big thing."

Fleur returned Mandy's smile. "I'll have the money released by this afternoon," she promised. "Use it as you need it." She stood up, and gave Mandy a hug. "And we thought last year ended up so amazing. It'll be nothing compared to this year!"

Hermione and Ginny were working in the lab together. They'd finally managed to send Lisa home for some sleep, and were carefully checking everything over one last time.

"I guess this officially makes me number two in Arithmancy here at the Institute," Hermione said with a smile. "This was really great work that Lisa did." Ginny nodded.

"I keep looking at it over and over, and I understand what she's done, but I don't think it would have ever occurred to me to come up with anything like this in the first place," she said, and Hermione had agreed. She looked at her watch.

"Time to get to Natalie's meeting," she told Ginny. "She's got the team picked out. This should be fun when they all find out about this." Ginny picked up the prototype, and the two women headed for the conference room.

Harry was cooking dinner when Ginny got home, and he poured her a glass of wine. She gave him a hug, and a long kiss.

"Wow!" he said, smiling at her. "Good day?"

Ginny laughed. "One of the best," she agreed.

"That can only mean one thing – you must have succeeded in getting your top secret project working."

Ginny nodded. "Thanks to our new resident Arithmancy genius, Lisa," she confirmed, and Harry laughed.

"How did she manage that when you and Hermione know everything there is to know about the subject?" he asked. Ginny took a sip of her wine and smiled at her husband.

"By going out and inventing brand new Arithmancy," she answered.

"How do you do that?" Harry asked in surprise. "I don't even understand all that much of the Arithmancy we already have, and she goes and makes up new stuff?" Ginny laughed at him.

"You do realize that somebody had to invent that 'stuff' too, right?" she asked him, and Harry nodded. "And you know that we come up with 'new stuff' in the labs all the time, rihgt?"

Harry held up his hands. "I surrender. I'm just a bit surprised that she's a step ahead of you and Hermione."

Ginny nodded. "We are too, but we're not complaining." Lily came into the kitchen and gave her mother a hug and kiss.

"Hi Mum," she said brightly. "Did you have a good day? When's supper Daddy? James says he's starving. Al was helping me with my reading upstairs, but James played a trick on him, and now he's all purple like a grape. I tried not to laugh, I really did, but he does look really funny, and I couldn't help it. I told him I was sorry for laughing, but I don't think he believed me. We went to the Residence today, and Arianna played dolls with me and Carolyn, and Aaron, James, and Al beat Daddy at GameWizard five times." Lily stopped to take a breath, and Ginny quickly jumped in before she could get going again.

"Stay here with Daddy for a minute, sweetie, and let me go help out your purple brother," she told Lily. "I'll be right back, and then you can tell me all about your day."

Lily closed her mouth, having just about started up again, and nodded. Ginny left the kitchen to go help Al, then James, who had decided that Al being purple was so much fun, that he should be purple too. When Ginny got back to the kitchen with the boys, she was halfway between mad and laughing, and couldn't decide which way to go.

"Remind me to talk to that brother of mine," she told Harry. "He either needs a shorter time limit on those candies, or have another one they can eat to reverse the effects. At least they stayed with fruits like grape or orange. Just imagine if they'd used all of the anyflavour bean flavours." She looked at James, who's eyes had lit up.

"Never mind, young man," she told him. James smiled at her innocently, his eyes round and wide.

"Never mind what, Mum?" he asked, and Ginny laughed at him.

"You know exactly what, James," she told him. "I grew up with your Uncles, and that look of innocence you're trying there is just as fake as the ones they tried when they were kids." Her oldest son shrugged.

"It was worth a try," he said, as if he'd expected the ploy wouldn't work. "That was an awfully good idea, though, Mum. I don't know why you don't think so." Ginny sighed, and turned her attention back to Lily.

"Why don't you get back to telling me about your day, honey?" she suggested. That lit the fuse that launched her daughter into a non-stop, ten-minute oratory ride that took Ginny from the moment she left for work, until the moment Lily had walked into the kitchen. Maybe Lily should do the news on WWVN when she grew up - she could probably cover everything in about five minutes instead of the hour it took normal Witches or Wizards.

The kids were in bed. Harry and Ginny were on the sofa, snuggled close. "How are Aaron and Arianna doing?" she asked, and Harry smiled.

"They're coming along," he answered. "Aaron still isn't talking much, but he is starting to get involved with some of the activities there. He really likes the pool, and they're both learning to swim. I'm thinking about bringing them, and Carolyn, here for the weekend. What do you think?"

"I think that's a great idea," she told him. "Maybe we could leave after work on Friday for the island, and come back on Sunday. I bet Lisa would come if I asked her too - she's been working right through the night sometimes. The break would do her good."

Harry agreed. "I'll get everything ready. She'll probably prefer to stay in one of the guesthouses. What about Brianna? Should we bring her too?"

"I'll ask Lisa tomorrow and let you know," she told him.

By Friday afternoon, the weekend getaway had practically turned into a retreat. Mandy and Terry were coming, as were Natalie and Owen. Hermione and the kids were coming Friday, and Ron was coming after the game on Saturday. Lisa came home from work with Ginny, and Harry had already picked up Brianna, Carolyn, Aaron, and Arianna. Carolyn was the only one of the four kids who had been to the island before. She and Lily excitedly told the other three kids about what to expect there, and even Aaron was talking - asking questions of the two girls.

It was a beautiful, sunny day when they got to the island, and the kids all immediately ran for the beach. Ginny and Lisa went to get swimsuits on before joining the kids, and Harry was, by default, put in charge of getting luggage to rooms, then preparing dinner for he'd lost count of how many Witches and Wizards. When he started pulling out everything he was going to need, he sighed, and called out - "Kreacher! Winky!" The two house elves popped into the kitchen.

"You called, Master?" Kreacher said, smiling.

"Yes, Kreacher," Harry answered. "If you and Winky don't have anything pressing, I've got to make dinner for seventeen, and I could really use some help, since everyone else is tied up with the kids." Winky answered for them.

"Winky and Kreacher will be glad to help, master," she told him happily. "We were just doing cleaning, and that can wait until later." Harry nodded.

"Thank-you," he told his two elven friends gratefully.

The three of them had dinner ready and out at the beach in about an hour. Everyone else was already down there, and they joined Harry, Kreacher, and Winky for the meal before the kids were off again to play in the water, and on the jet-skis and AquaBikes. Ginny thanked Kreacher and Winky for helping out.

"Why don't you two take the weekend off too, and stay at one of the guest houses?" she suggested to them. Kreacher and Winky looked at each other.

"Kreacher and Winky would like that, but only if we can help out with the work too," Kreacher told her, and Ginny laughed.

"That's fine with me, but you also have to help out with the fun, too." Kreacher smiled, looking across the beach toward the lagoon.

"Those things that you pedal on the water look interesting," he told Ginny. "Do you think Winky and Kreacher could try one?"

"I think that would be brilliant if you would, Kreacher," she answered with a bright smile. The two house elves held hands as they walked down the beach together. Ginny put her arms around Harry and kissed him.

"You know, maybe someday they will decide to be free. They've come a really long way over the years. Who would've guessed that house elves would find AquaBikes interesting? Next thing you know, they'll be on the jet-skis too."

Harry laughed. "I know the cooks aren't supposed to clean up too, but -" he waved his hand, and everything started flying around - either to go get cleaned, or be put away "- I'd rather have the afternoon to play with you than have you stuck cleaning all of that up for an hour or two."

Ginny hugged him again, and laughed as she ran toward the water. "Race you to the jet-skis," she called over her shoulder.

Aaron and Arianna were sitting on her bed in her room the night they got back to the Residence from the island.

"We should just be glad that Harry and Ginny are our special volunteers, Aaron," she was telling her brother. "You can't just expect them to adopt us. They have three kids of their own."

Aaron was being stubborn. "They love us - they told us so," he protested. Arianna tried to be patient with him.

"And they love Stewart, and Carolyn, and Lisa and Megan too," she answered. "They didn't adopt them either. They helped build this place for kids like us Aaron, because they wanted to help us. There's no way they could take care of all of us themselves. That'd be impossible." She watched as her brother struggled with knowing that what she said was true, but really wanting to have a family that loved him to live with. She gave him a hug.

"You do have me here, you know. And we'll be going to school in September anyway, so we'll only be here for summer and Christmas holidays after that anyway." She took his hand and continued.

"In a way, this is even better when you think about it. Here we have our own rooms, lots of things to do - like having a pool, and all the games and everything, and then we also get to hang out with Harry and Ginny, and do things like go to the island, or when he took us to the Mall too. And I really do like Susan and all of the other people here."

Aaron nodded in agreement. "That's true," he answered. "I just mostly wish that our family had been like them, instead of what we got stuck with." Arianna's eyes hardened slightly at the mention of their family.

"That's probably why Harry makes such a great Dad," she suggested. "When I grow up and have my own family, I'm gonna be like him and Ginny."

"Me too," Aaron agreed. He stood up. "I guess I better get to my own room. Do we have swimming lessons again tomorrow?" Arianna smiled, stood, and gave him a big hug.

"You bet. Lesson starts about an hour before lunch. I'll see you in the morning, Aaron. I love you. Have a good night's sleep."

It was about eleven-thirty at night, and Teddy was in the Common Room studying, having returned there after the library closed for the night. He idly wondered if there was a chance that his grandmother and the other Professors secretly enjoyed piling homework on their students until they were ready to scream. He and Stewart weren't the only students that were still working. There were a few other fifth and seventh year students plugging away at their studies too.

"Stop dreaming about that kiss goodnight, and get back to work, or you'll be up all night," Stewart told his friend. Teddy smiled. Victoire's kiss goodnight certainly would have been a better use to put his wandering thoughts toward, but oh well, back to the books at hand.

"I don't even know why I have to learn about this Potion," he complained. "It's a total waste of time for me." Stewart shook his head.

"Maybe, but we can't all be born a Metamorphmagus, and you never know when you'll have to help someone else do it." Teddy nodded.

"I guess that's true," he conceded. "Let's get this done and call it a night. I was so tired this morning, I almost fell asleep in Arithmancy class." Stewart laughed at him.

"You fall asleep in every Arithmancy class, Teddy," he reminded his friend, and Teddy laughed too, knowing it really wasn't that far from the truth.

Valentine's Day was on a Friday this year. The Gryffindor - Hufflepuff game was on the Saturday. Victoire and Isabelle received flowers by Owl Post at breakfast to start their day. The boys got each girl a new 'Spa in a Bag' from SpaMagic that Aunt Ginny had told them the girls would love. They were all busy with classes, had lunch together, more classes, and then the boys had a game night practice and meeting before dinner in the Great Hall. The Captain of the Quidditch team had given everyone an his team an early curfew so that they would all be rested for the big game, so Teddy and Victoire only had a little time to spend alone before he had to head for the boys dorm.

"You guys had better win tomorrow," she teased him, "or I'm going to have words with your Captain for taking you away from me on Valentine's Day." Teddy laughed and kissed her.

"What will you do to him if we win?" he asked, and Victoire gave him an impish little grin.

"I'll think of something," she promised.

Harry and the kids went to the Residence for the Valentine's Day lunch and the afternoon party. He'd taken Aaron to pick up a gold necklace that he could give his sister, and she'd also gotten a makeup kit. They played all afternoon, and then Harry dropped the kids off at the Burrow, where Grandma and Grandpa were taking the kids for the night. He went from there to the Mall, where he picked up the corsage he'd ordered for Ginny, and then headed home to get everything ready for the evening.

When she got home, there was a glass of champagne and a hot bubble bath waiting for her, so Ginny happily slipped into the tub and relaxed. When she was dressed for their night out, she met Harry downstairs in the sitting room, where he gave her the flowers and her Valentine's present. She'd gotten a box of chocolates, roses, and a SpaDay package from SpaMagic this morning at breakfast, and hadn't expected any other presents from him.

"Happy fifteenth Valentine's Day," Harry told her, giving her a kiss. Ginny put the corsage down on the table, and opened the present first. She opened the box, and lifted out a beautiful, delicate diamond broach. She marvelled at the incredible detail in the design, and then went to stand in front of the hall mirror to put it on. She saw Harry come up behind her and wrap his arms around her waist, kissing her neck.

"This is lovely, Harry," she told him. "Thank-you." He smiled and held her close.

"You're welcome," he answered. "And you're lovely too," he added, and his eyes were sparkling. "Too bad we have that dinner and dance to atten. I think it might be more fun to just keep you here all to myself." Ginny laughed, and extracted herself from his arms.

"Probably, but it is Neville and Luna's anniversary, and they'll be there too, and I skipped lunch at the lab, so let's get going."

The Valentine's dinner and dance was again at the Emerald City Centre, in the newly expanded Grand Ballroom that could now hold ten thousand. Harry and Ginny were at a table of twelve with Ron and Hermione, Luna and Neville, Mandy and Terry, Natalie and Owen, and Lisa and an as yet unidentified date, since they hadn't yet arrived.

Harry and Ron were talking Quidditch at their table, and most of the others were mingling around the room. Ron was telling him about being invited to be an assistant coach of England's World Cup team this year, and that he'd accepted.

"Congratulations, Ron," Harry had told his friend. "You'll do a great job for them, and you've certainly got a lot of great players to choose from this year."

Ron nodded. "There are, but our Keeper will likely be playing for France, so I won't be able to get him." Harry shrugged, looking around the room.

"So get the Harpies Keeper - she's probably even a little better than yours anyway. You guys just have better defense from your Beaters, or they'd have beaten you in that last game." Ron grudgingly agreed with Harry's assessment.

"We may have won our games against them, but nobody else is. I wouldn't be surprised to be playing them in the finals this year."

Harry laughed at him. "You might not look forward to a game like that, but I can tell you as a fan, I'd rather have a game with two good teams than something like that final you guys had against the Wasps that one year. Your team should have skipped that game and gone right from the opening ceremony to the awards presentation, and saved the fans the boredom of watching what looked more like a practice game than a Championship match."

Ron snorted. "Remember you said that if they beat us in the finals, mate," he told Harry.

Lisa came over to their table, holding hands with a good looking young man, and Harry and Ron both stood up to welcome her. Harry gave her a warm hug and kissed her cheek.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Lisa," he told her as he looked pointedly at the new necklace she was wearing, and at her date. "It looks like it's off to a pretty good start for you." Lisa blushed a little, and laughed.

"Marcus Allen, I'd like to introduce you to Ron Weasley, Assistant Coach, and former star Keeper of the Chudley Cannons," she said, then paused as the two men shook hands and exchanged greetings. "And the closest thing I have in this world to a father, Harry Potter." Lisa had prepared Marcus for the people he'd be meeting tonight, and had told him that Harry liked it when he was treated like anybody else, so Marcus shook his hand, smiled, and tried his best to act like he wasn't meeting the most famous person in the Wizarding World for the first time in his life.

Harry liked him right away, and smiled in return. "How did you guys meet?" he asked Marcus. The young man laughed.

"I work at Marauders Institute in manufacturing, but I met Lisa through Megan and one of my friends at Marauders Paradise over Christmas," he answered. "If she didn't work so much, we might have seen each other once or twice before that, since our houses are only a couple of streets apart."

Harry looked at Lisa and smiled. "I'm guessing by the looks of both of you, that she'll be able to find some time now." Marcus smiled too.

"I'm kinda hoping so too," he told Harry, "but just about everyone at the Institute is pretty busy right now. This is the first night we've been out in two weeks." Harry nodded.

"I'd feel sorry for you, but Ginny and I have three kids, and her boss is a slave driver. Our last date was the Christmas party here."

Lisa laughed. "I am not a slave driver, and you should do something about having so much time between dates, Harry. It's a long time until the Institute's next party."

Ginny and Hermione were back next, and the introductions resumed. Marcus was a supervisor at the plant. He'd been recruited from one of the schools in the United States, and had been one of the top students in his year. When Mandy joined them, she greeted him warmly, and commented that he was expected to be one of their top managers in his division.

"Apparently I'm not getting enough information, though," she'd added. "Nobody told me that one of my best supervisors was now dating one of my best researchers." The young couple had laughed.

"I knew I'd forgotten something in that weekly report," Lisa had told her.

Owen and Natalie were the last to get to the table, and be introduced to Marcus, and by then it was time for dinner. During the meal, Marcus told them about getting teased at work about sitting in the back of the room last Valentine's Day, and sitting at the same table with Mandy this year. They all laughed at his comments, but laughed harder when Lisa poked him in the ribs and said - "And just whom did you bring as your Valentine last year?"

Marcus didn't miss a beat. "Well, sweetie, I would've taken you, except you were still in school, and I hear the defenses are pretty good at Hogwarts."

There was a live band for the dance, and Harry was on the dance floor with Ginny most of the night. She didn't have to work in the morning, and the kids were with Grandma and Grandpa until Saturday after lunchtime, so they were allowed to stay up past their bedtime tonight. Ginny was wearing a black dress that was nearly as silky soft as her skin to Harry's touch, and which moved as they danced in a way that definitely kept his attention focused on her.

"If you'd planned on getting any sleep tonight, you shouldn't have worn that dress," he whispered in her ear. "Not that I really expect you'll be wearing it for very long once I get you home." Ginny looked into his eyes, and leaned in to kiss him.

"Then my plan worked perfectly," she answered, "'cause we're definitely way overdue for some just me and you time."

There was a midnight buffet, and the dance started to wrap up around two o'clock. Harry and Ginny said their goodnights to everyone, and again wished Neville and Luna a Happy Anniversary, then decided at the last minute to head for the island instead of going home to the Cottage. They took a walk on the beach, and then headed back to their house, where they planned to get changed, and go for a swim in the pool.

Harry had been getting a bottle of wine and glasses when he'd heard Ginny splash into the pool, and when he got next to the water, he had nearly dropped the glasses and bottle, since she'd apparently skipped the getting the bathing suit part of the 'I'll just go change and meet you in the pool' process. He was still wearing most of his suit, having left his shoes at the door, and his jacket on a chair in the kitchen. He put the bottle and glasses down, and jumped in with her.

Ginny laughed at him. "You're going to ruin that suit, Harry!" she told him. He just smiled and swam toward her.

"I'll buy a new one," he answered. "I love your new swimsuit." He put his arms around her, and ran a hand up and down her back. "The softest, silkiest material, and it fits perfectly." He trailed kisses down her neck, and let his hands roam.

"It seems to have some special magical properties to it too," he added. "I know it's working some magic on me." Ginny put her arms around him as his kisses moved elsewhere.

"Apparently it has some effect on you too," he suggested. She leaned back into the water, and floated, her hair spread out in a fiery splash of colour around her, and she closed her eyes as Harry continued kissing and caressing her.

Ginny had no idea how long they stayed in the pool like that, and didn't even realize at first that he'd gently lifted her, and carried her into their bedroom, kissing her the whole time. She did notice when he dried them both off. He laid her on the bed, and lying down next to her, put his arms around her. He looked into those eyes that just made him melt every time, and smiled.

"I think that this is definitely my favourite swimsuit," he said, stroking a hand gently along her side that sent shivers of pleasure running through her. Ginny smiled back at him, and gave him a push onto his back.

"Yours, however," she said, starting to undo buttons, "is just a bit too conservative for my taste - and speaking of taste…"

They slept in late, which had only been for a few hours, and were late getting to the Burrow to pick up the kids, which Mum and Dad thought was very funny - especially when Harry started blushing when Molly asked them why they were late. Ginny had just laughed.

"It's the only time we've been late from a date in over fifteen years, Mum," she told Molly. "I'd say we won't do it again, but if I'd known it would have been that much fun, I would've made sure we were late every time." Ginny and her parents all laughed, and Harry just kept his mouth shut and turned even redder.

They'd planned to spend the afternoon with Aaron, Arianna, and Carolyn today, so they picked them up, and headed for an afternoon in Diagon Alley. Ginny set up an appointment for her spa day at SpaMagic, and looking at Arianna, added an appointment for her.

"Trust me, you'll love it," she told the girl. Lily gave her mommy the saddest look, but Ginny just hugged her.

"You're not quite old enough yet, sweetie," she told Lily. "We'll make another appointment to get your hair done, though." Lily hugged her back, and smiled.

The boys were trying to get them to move on. They wanted to check out the BroomCloset, and the GamePortal stores, and the girls wanted to go shopping for clothes, so they decided to split up. James was turning nine this year, and he knew that this year he was finally old enough to get a 'real' broom, and so the BroomCloset was where he liked to spend at least some time every trip they made to the mall, looking over all of the new brooms.

The Firebolt was still the fastest broom, and the one that all the best professional Quidditch players used, but the place carried nearly every kind of broom there was, and he liked to look at them, even though he knew that he'd never even think about flying anything other than the same broom that Teddy used. Aaron was happy to look around with him. He might be shy, but he definitely loved Quidditch.

Maybe when it was spring, he'd be allowed to play with the other kids. He'd never been allowed to fly before, but he just knew that he'd be a good flyer, and he read everything he could find about the game. Harry had watched him with James in the store.

"Have you done any flying before, Aaron?" he asked. The boy shook his head 'no'. "If you'd like to, James and I could help you learn to fly," Harry offered, and Aaron had nodded that he'd like that.

"When we're over next week, we'll put some time aside to start teaching you," he promised, and Aaron gave him a hug. "Thank-you," he whispered in Harry's ear.

James had been watching Aaron with his father. He didn't know what all the boy and his sister, Arianna had been through, but he knew it had been bad. "If we're going to teach him to fly, Dad, don't you think he should have a broom to learn on?" he asked, and Harry smiled at his son.

"You know, I think you're right, James," he agreed. "That does seem to be the one thing you can't learn to fly one without having." James took Aaron's arm, and tugged him toward the broom displays.

"What do you think, Aaron?" he asked. "The new Cleansweep does close to one hundred. The Nimbus 2013 only gets to ninety-five, but it does it faster and turns better." Aaron couldn't speak. They were actually talking about getting him his very own broom! James looked up at his Dad, who nodded and smiled encouragingly.

"I think you should go with the Nimbus, Aaron," he said confidently. "Dad really liked his - the Nimbus 2000 was his very first broom." Aaron nodded slightly, still not quite believing that this was happening.

"Is that ok, Dad?" James asked Harry. "We'd need to get Aaron a cleaning kit too." Harry nodded, and called over the nearest sales person.

"We'll take one of the Nimbus 2013's and a cleaning kit for it, please," he said, and the Wizard nodded and smiled.

"An excellent choice," he told them. "The best we have - next to the Firebolt, of course." Harry laughed.

"Our young friend here will have to make one of the Hogwarts Quidditch teams to earn one of those," he said, and wasn't sure who was more surprised, the Wizard selling them the Nimbus, or Aaron.

"You didn't know that?" he asked Aaron. "Talk to Stewart about his sometime - he got his in first year for making the Gryffindor practice team."

The Wizard smiled at the young man. "That's a pretty good reason to work hard and make one of the teams. Maybe I'll see you in here again in a few years."

Harry put a hand on Aaron's shoulder. "Let's start with learning to fly first, and see where it goes from there," he suggested.

The next week, he found out where it went from there. The kid was a natural, and was tearing around the Quidditch pitch like he'd been flying all of his life within the first hour. Arianna had come outside with them, and had asked to try too, and it turned out she was just as talented as her brother. He took the kids back to the Mall that afternoon, and picked up another Nimbus for Arianna.

Harry had an idea that Teddy was going to be in for a big surprise come tryout time next September. He agreed to practice with them three days a week, and by March they were learning to play Quidditch. James wasn't supposed to really play for another few months, but Harry borrowed Ginny's Firebolt, and James played with them too.

The twins were definitely Chasers, and Harry wondered if they could silently talk to each other, since they seemed to know exactly where the other was at any time. Their passes were excellent, and Arianna was best at scoring the goals while Aaron could set up the plays to make it easy for her. The boy still might not be talking much, but he certainly smiled the whole time they were out there playing.

Harry took them to watch a Cannons game, and then to meet the team after the match. Demelza and Dennis were very nice to them, and Arianna obviously had a crush on the good looking Keeper, who had kissed both of her cheeks, given her a dazzling smile, and signed an autograph for her. She didn't look like she planned on ever washing her face again. The Cannons did win the game too, and the team had ten wins, and just four losses through March. Demelza was currently the top scorer in the league, and Dennis was second in the league in Seeker rating. The Harpies were in first place with twelve wins and two losses, still having only lost both of their matches to the Cannons.

Teddy had sent flowers by Owl Post for Victoire's fourteenth birthday, and then they had a busy day with classes. They sat together at dinner in the Great Hall, and after they were done, he took her hand, and led her away to find a quiet place where he could give her the birthday present he'd picked up in Hogsmeade for her. Victoire's blue eyes were flashing with excitement as she opened up the gift. When she saw the soft, fuzzy teddy bear inside, she lifted it out and hugged it.

"I can't go up to the girls dorms, and I figured your Dad might decide to curse-break me if I got you the other kind of teddy, so I thought this would be alright for you to cuddle up with at night for a few more years."

Victoire laughed. "I love you, Teddy," she told him, and then she finally noticed the gleam of gold coming from around the neck of the teddy bear, and lifted the pendant away from the stuffed animal so she could see it. The pendant was a little heart with diamonds all around the edges of the heart.

"Aunt Ginny says a girl can never have too much jewellery," he told her with a smile, and Victoire threw her arms around his neck.

"I don't know about that yet," she told him, "but I do know a girl can never have too many kisses." Teddy laughed and put his arms around her too.

"I think you've come to the right place, 'cause I don't think I'll ever be able to kiss you enough either - but I'm willing to spend a lifetime or so trying."

Harry took a week each month, in April and May to tour the fifteen new Residences that would open in June. Taking in three thousand new kids by the end of the year would be a challenge for the Phoenix Foundation, but everything looked ready, and he was impressed with all of the managers and staff that he met. These fifteen residences put them at fifty residences so far, and by the end of the year, there would be ten thousand children under the care of the Foundation. At the end of this school year, they would have over eight hundred graduates so far too, and by next year it'd be close to five hundred graduates a year.

He had also been advised that the study the Foundation had undertaken was completed, and they had put together a ten year plan that would put at least one residence in every country in the world by 2025, have over two hundred total facilities, taking care of forty thousand children, which by then was projected to be over eighty percent of the orphans in the Wizarding World. Harry liked what he was seeing. It would be nearly twenty years after he'd started the project, but it was, and would be, an amazing accomplishment.

Teddy celebrated his sixteenth birthday with Victoire, Stewart, and Isabelle, having a quiet evening together studying. It wasn't exciting, but they all had too much work to do to take a night off. They did have a cake for him in the Common Room, and he had been given a few presents to open before getting back to studying. His birthday did end with one memory-making goodnight kiss from Victoire that was definitely the highlight of his day.

Lily had her sixth birthday. At breakfast, she had gotten her presents, and then Mommy and Aunt Fleur took her to Paris for a shopping day, and when they got back home, was surprised by all of her friends being there for a big party that Daddy, Aaron, Arianna, and her brothers had spent the day getting ready for her. She was sure that if today was any indication, being six years old must be the coolest age of all.

All Hogwarts Quidditch fans had their attention on the Hufflepuff-Slytherin game on the first weekend of May. Both teams had lost to Gryffindor. Slytherin had beaten Ravenclaw, but Ravenclaw had beaten Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff was facing a no-win season if they lost their last game, and Slytherin needed the win to still be in the chase for the Quidditch Cup.

Hufflepuff won the game, making the race for the Quidditch Cup simple - whoever won the last game of the year would win the Quidditch Cup. Teddy had let Harry and Ginny know about the Hufflepuff win the week after the game, and Harry had sent him an Owl Post that he got at the end of that week.

Teddy,

Tell your team that if they win the Cup, I'll have two tickets for each of them for the Quidditch World Cup this summer. It's in England this year too, and maybe England will even make the finals.

Good luck at the game, and don't let it get in the way of your OWL's - they're only a few weeks away.

Harry

When Teddy told his team about the tickets, he had no problem motivating them to practice, and they were ready by game day. Victoire and Isabelle were there to cheer their team on, and they watched with everyone else as the Gryffindor team completely dismantled the Ravenclaw team, who knew for sure that they were playing against the best team this year by the time the match was over. All of the students in Gryffindor House celebrated the victory, and they enjoyed one night of fun and games before they got back to the loads of school work again by Sunday morning.

The OWL and NEWT testing started the first week of June, along with the regular exams for the rest of the Hogwarts students. Victoire and Isabelle would sit with the boys while they all studied, and kiss them goodnight when they went to bed a few hours before Teddy and Stewart did.

They all knew how important the OWL's were, and the girls had their own exams to study for, so for the last few weeks of school they just concentrated on their work, and promised each other to make up for the lack of any serious snogging time during the summer.

James had his ninth birthday, and he spent most of the day at the Residence, playing Quidditch with Harry, Aaron, and Arianna, trying out his new, speed-limited Firebolt. They all went back to the Cottage for his birthday party, and he had fun there too, playing LaserBroom, and getting a few other presents, but his year had already been made when Mum and Dad had given him the broom at breakfast.

Aaron and Arianna were both getting to be truly outstanding Chasers. Harry thought they might just be good enough to make a House team next year. He knew if they weren't in Gryffindor, whichever House got them would have a very happy team Captain.

The Cannons made it to the finals, and as Ron had feared, faced the Harpies. He should not have worried so much. The Championship game proved that the best Chaser in the League was better than the best Keeper in the league, and with her husband backing her up at Seeker, the two of them led the Cannons to another League Championship win.

Ron and his team might have liked to take some time to enjoy the win, but he, Demelza and Dennis had to start practicing with the National team for the Quidditch World Cup, along with that same Harpies Keeper, and the other members of the team who had been selected from the other League teams. The Cannons Keeper had been selected to play for France, although that team wasn't considered a favourite for the tournament this year.

School was out, and the kids were on the way home. Harry had five kids with him to help pick up Teddy, Stewart, Victoire, and Isabelle. Teddy was spending the whole summer at the Cottage this year, and all four teens were working at the Institute this summer. Harry sent their things to the Residence, Cottage, and to Bill and Fleur's house respectively, took them to the Marauders Mall for lunch, and then they spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and having fun.

Victoire and Isabelle took Arianna, Carolyn, and Lily with them, and went looking for clothes for work, while Harry took the boys to do the same. Victoire and Isabelle were going to be doing a spa day with Fleur and Ginny on Saturday, and Harry was going to introduce Teddy and Stewart to the budding Quidditch stars he'd been working with all spring, take them all out for lunch, and then go and do whatever else they decided to spend the afternoon doing.

Aaron, Arianna, and Carolyn were dropped off at the Residence when they were done shopping, and then they went back to the Cottage, where Bill and Fleur picked the girls up after work. Harry had dinner ready for when Ginny got home from work, and they spent the eveing catching up with Teddy and Stewart.

Ginny left after breakfast in the morning to meet Fleur and the girls for the spa day, and Harry went with the kids to the Residence. Aaron and Arianna were waiting for them. Albus and Lily decided to stay inside and play with Carolyn and some of the other kids, while Harry went with the other kids to the Quidditch pitch to play. Teddy and Stewart hadn't really expected Aaron and Arianna to be very good, but by the end of the morning they were both hoping that the twins would be sorted into Gryffindor.

They weren't even on Firebolts, and Teddy thought they might just be better Chasers than he was, and they were five years younger - how good would they be when they grew up? He also made sure that he told James that he played pretty well too. For only being nine, he was keeping up with the older players, and managing to avoid the bludgers. James hadn't decided whether he wanted to be a Chaser or a Seeker yet. He had a good eye for spotting the snitch, and he could throw the Quaffle too, so he could probably play either position when he got a little bigger and stronger.

Harry took all of the kids out for lunch, and they talked Quidditch, then spent another afternoon at the Mall. This time, the five boys went off on their own leaving Arianna, Carolyn and Lily with Harry, who then took them around the mall trying on clothes, testing perfumes and makeup, and having a lot of fun together. Several new outfits each, three bottles of perfume, and a trio of gold bracelets later, and it was time to round up the boys and head back to the Residence to drop off Stewart, Aaron, Arianna, and Carolyn, then take Teddy, James, Al, and Lily back to the Cottage, where they planned to spend the rest of the weekend relaxing before Teddy and the others started work on Monday.

Harry and Ginny celebrated their fifteenth anniversary with a really great, and very private day for just the two of them on the island. They took the kids to Romania to celebrate Art's eleventh birthday. Rose turned eight, and was reminding Harry more and more of the young Hermione he'd met back on that first ride on the Hogwarts Express.

Ginny and Teddy headed off to work each morning, and Harry would either be at the Residence, taking the kids on outings, or hanging out with them at home. He helped Susan a little bit with getting everything ready for the upcoming trip to Marauders Paradise, and attended one Wizengamot meeting.

The Phoenix Foundation week at Marauders Paradise was the last full week of July this year, so that it didn't end up too close to the Quidditch World Cup. This was Arianna and Aaron's first time to the island, and Harry was looking forward to the week, and watching them discover all of the amazing things to do there. They were one of the first groups leaving this year, and so Harry and Ginny took Teddy, Stewart, Aaron, Arianna, James, Al, Carolyn, and Lily to Marauders Paradise using the TransPortal.

They were shown to their suite, and after a quick unpacking, went out to wander the island for the morning. Teddy and Stewart took the three boys with them and went exploring, and to show Aaron all of the things they'd have to do this week. Harry and Ginny took Arianna, Carolyn, and Lily with them, and started with a browse through the shops, a visit with Kevin and Michael, and a walk on the beach.

They met the boys for lunch, and were joined by Lisa and Brianna, Fleur, Bill, Isabelle, Victoire, and the two children they were chaperoning. Lily, Carolyn, Al, and Brianna stayed with 'the parents' and Lisa, while all of the other kids and teens headed off to play for the afternoon. There were more new activities and rides this year, and they all had a fun afternoon before heading back to their suites to get ready for the evening banquet.

Harry looked around the room in amazement. Marauders Paradise had continued to grow as PBP Investments and the Marauders Institute had grown, but he was always surprised when they went into the Grand Ballroom, and each year there were so many more people here. This year, even though the newest Residences had only an average of fifty children each so far, there was still over thirteen thousand children and chaperones here this week. Gabrielle came up beside him, and put her arm around his waist.

"Who would have ever thought it'd be this big already?" she told him, flashing that brilliant smile of hers. "I've seen the ten year plan for the Residences, and we're going to need to look at having two weeks for the kids, probably next year, and three weeks by the sixth or seventh year."

Harry looked at her in surprise. "This island isn't big enough to have sixty or seventy thousand guests a week, Harry," she explained. "It would be too crowded, and wouldn't be any fun if everyone had to wait in line all day to do things. Even this year, we've had to set up times that can be booked for some of the more popular rides and activities."

"Will you be able to shuffle everything else around here to get two weeks for next year?" he asked her, and Gabrielle laughed.

"I knew you'd understand and agree. It's already done," she answered, and Harry smiled at her.

"I shouldn't have bothered to ask. You're always way ahead of everything here." She smiled at him.

"Actually, Megan takes care of all of that for me now. She manages all of the reservations and scheduling here. Everything from booking guest suites to maintenance on the roller coasters crosses her desk." Ginny came up to them, and pulled Gabrielle away from Harry for a big hug.

"I've really missed you," she told her friend. "You don't get up to see us very much."

Gabrielle hugged her back. "And you haven't taken your two weeks here in the last three years, so look who's talking?" she answered. Ginny laughed.

"Check with Megan, I've booked my two weeks for this fall," she told Gabrielle, who hugged her again, smiling happily.

"Good. I'll make sure I book some time off then too," she promised.

There was another great meal, followed by the show put on by the staff on the island. Even the usually resilient teens were all tired after the show, so they all went back to their suites so they'd be rested and ready for the exciting week ahead.

Aaron was definitely coming out of his shell. Arianna watched her brother, smiling as he flew around the LaserBroom game area. He shouted in excitement when he 'took out' Stewart. She was already out, having been shot down with two shots from her brother, and one from Teddy. Stewart joined her on the sidelines.

"I really hope you and Aaron are sorted into Gryffindor in September," he told her. "I wouln't want to be playing against either of you in Quidditch next season." She smiled up at him.

"In case I forget to tell you later, thanks for being so nice to Aaron," she said in her usual soft manner. "I can hardly believe how great he's doing now, and you, Teddy, and James are a big part of the reason why he is starting to talk, and even just have fun."

Stewart looked at her for a moment, and then gave her a hug. "You're welcome," he assured her with a smile. "We're glad we can help." Isabelle came up and playfully slapped him on the arm.

"I leave you for five minutes, and you're already hugging other pretty girls," she teased, and winked at Arianna. "If you boys are going to play these manly games all afternoon, Victoire and I are going to take Arianna and go spend our time at the spa. Make sure you dress up nice to take us out later though, because we're going to look spectacular."

Stewart laughed, and then kissed her goodbye. "How about dinner by the beach, and dancing at the club after?" he suggested, and Isabelle smiled.

"Throw in flowers, and you have a deal," she answered. "Come on Arianna. When we're done with you, your brother will have to beat the boys off of you with his broom." Arianna laughed as Isabelle hooked her arm, and led her away.

Harry and Ginny were in the sitting room of their suite when Teddy, Stewart, and Aaron came out of their rooms dressed up in the best clothes they'd brought for the week. Ginny stood up, and gave them each a hug.

"Must be date night. You boys look pretty good." She smiled at Aaron. "I think I'll have to tell Arianna to keep an eye on you, though. The girls are going to be paying you a lot of attention." Aaron blushed, and she hugged him again. "That's not a bad thing, you know."

Victoire and Isabelle had taken Arianna back to their suite, but were coming here to meet the boys, so Harry and Ginny talked with them while they waited for the three girls to arrive. Aaron's jaw dropped when he saw his sister walk in the door.

"Who is this girl, and what did you do with my sister?" he asked Isabelle. 'Yep, definitely coming out of his shell' Arianna thought to herself. He gave her a hug, then handed her a corsage. "You look beautiful, sis. Don't ask me to pin this on, though, unless you're interested in parting company with some of your blood."

Ginny laughed at him. "I'll help you, honey," she offered, "and Aaron's right. You look terrific!" Teddy and Stewart also complimented their girlfriends, who both were stunning, and gave them their flowers too, which Ginny also helped to pin on.

"Shall we go?" Teddy asked everyone. Aaron made a move for the bedrooms.

"Just a minute," he told the others. "I have to go get my broom - I think Isabelle was right, and I'm going to need it tonight." They all laughed at him teasing Arianna, wished Harry and Ginny a good night, then headed out.

Ginny gave Harry a hug. "That's so sweet. I guess we should round up our dinner dates and get them all fed. Lisa, Bill, and Fleur are coming with their kids too."

The rest of the week was a wonderful, fun-filled adventure, and it was over too soon. The Phoenix Cup was won by the Residence from South Africa this year, and the closing banquet and the show that followed was a great way to cap off the perfect week they'd all spent on the island. The older kids went out for a last night of dancing and moonlight walks on the beach, and the other kids were taken on a last quick round playing some of their favourite games. The next morning, they said 'goodbye' to the island and their friends, and headed home to a summer filled with promise and continuing adventures.

In the kitchen, Harry was cooking breakfast, and the gang was starting to make their way into the room to eat. They each wished him a Happy Birthday, and gave him hugs and/or kisses, and when everyone was there, Ginny gave him a present, and had him sit down. He opened his gift, and found a pair of very different looking glasses. They had small earphones attached to the arms.

"Tomorrow morning," Ginny told him, "the advertising will be starting for the Virtual GameWizard. They'll go on sale the week before school starts. You get to have yours early." Harry was smiling, and got up to hug them all.

"How does it work?" he asked. Ginny nodded to Teddy, who pulled another pair out of his pocket.

"I'll let one of our resident game testers show you how to use them," she told him. "Teddy, why don't you take Harry into the sitting room after you both eat, and show him how to play with his new toy. I'll do cleanup this morning, and then we'll head to work after that."

They both inhaled their food, then went in the other room, where Harry got the crash course in the new game system. The biggest difference between the Virtual GameWizard and the previous GameWizards, was that in these games, you were 'in' the game, and everything happened from your own perspective. The sound was just like being in the game, and you could talk with the other players, or in this case, with Teddy.

Harry understood quickly why Ginny had sent them in here. Until you got used to just thinking your actions, you tended to swing your head around, and move your hands, arms, and legs, even though none of that was necessary. When Harry had learned the basics and played one round of BroomRacer with Teddy, they were out of playtime, and Teddy had to go to work.

"So this is what you've been doing all summer so far?" Harry had asked him and Teddy smiled.

"Hard to believe we get paid for it, but I love my job," he answered.

Harry laughed at him. "Just make sure you bring yours back here so we can play later." He gave Ginny a hug and kiss. "Thank-you. I really love my new toy."

Ginny hugged him back. "You're welcome. I was pretty sure you would. It's been hard to keep it a secret all this time, but Luna made me. It's probably better now anyway, because we're going to have about fifty games available for the week they go on sale."

Teddy laughed. "Yep, and at ten galleons a game for the testers, Stewart and I are going to love bonus day at the end of the summer!"

Ginny, and everyone else at the Institute were working non-stop for the rest of August, with the only break being for those who were lucky enough to get to go to the Quidditch World Cup finals. Aaron and Arianna were thrilled when they found out that they'd be going with Harry and Ginny to the game, along with nearly everyone else in the family too.

This was the first World Cup where Witches and Wizards could use the TransPortal sytem to go to and from the game. There were still lots of people staying in the campground, but there were lots of people that were planning on just going for the game, and the evening's celebration, then head back home afterwards.

The kids had asked Harry and Ginny if they could do the camping too, and they had agreed, so when they arrived, they all stored bags in the tents they'd brought before heading to the stadium. England had made it to the finals again this year, thanks to great play from their all-star team, and some creative coaching from Ron. They were going to be playing the team from Peru, who had finally broken through to the final game after decades of just seeming to fall short.

The stadium had been expanded to hold an extra twenty thousand more fans than it could hold back in ninety-four. Ginny stayed close to Harry, knowing that he'd need some support. None of their group who had been here last time had very good memories of this place, and Harry's were worse than most. He squeezed her hand in silent appreciation for her help.

They had a pretty large group, and by the time they'd all gathered and found their seats, it was time for the opening ceremonies. The pre-game show and ceremony took nearly an hour, and then the game got under way. Peru had a really good team, but England's Keeper was playing the game of her life, and Demelza was better than the Peruvian Keeper. There was a close call when the Peru Seeker nearly caught the snitch when the score had been one hundred and eighty to forty, but after that, England was soon more than one hundred and fifty points ahead, and he then had to try to defend against Dennis catching the snitch while his team valiantly tried to catch up again.

The game was in it's seventh hour when Dennis finally caught the snitch after his opponent made a small mistake, probably caused by exhaustion, that left Dennis a clear shot at the winning catch that he took full advantage of to end the long battle, giving Ron his first Quidditch World Cup as a coach to go with the two he had won as a player.

The celebration lasted into the early hours of the morning, since the game had been so long. Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes once again put on the fireworks display this year, and it was another spectacular event. Ginny and the others that were here from Marauders Institute left to go back to work first thing in the morning, and so Harry was left with the few adults who could stay to help with the kids and they took care of packing everything up before heading home.

The Quidditch World Cup might have been the highlight for the sports fans in the family in August, but there were a few other events, like Ginny's birthday party. Harry took her with a bunch of their friends for an evening in Paris. Her main birthday present this year was a new sports car - this time a black Porsche, the all-new 2015 model that was sure to require her to confound the Muggle police on a regular basis. Albus had his eighth birthday, and Hugo turned six.

Hogwarts letters came out, and another trip to Diagon Alley and the Marauders Mall was planned for the six students who would need supplies and new clothes. Stewart and Teddy had both done well on their OWL's. Stewart had five O's and four E's, and Teddy had four O's and five E's. Isabelle was made a Prefect, and had all O's except for one E for her fourth year classes. Victoire had nine O's and the rest E's. All four of them had been happy with their results, knowing they'd each done their best.

Aaron and Arianna were with Harry for the morning of the shopping trip, and he took them to get their wands, which had been what Olivander called 'one of the most interesting wand selecting sessions since - well, since yours, Harry'. He told Harry to keep and eye on these two - they could very well grow up to be very special. Harry paid for the wands and thanked him.

"I think you're both already very special," he told them as they left the shop.

They went on to get the first year books and supplies, then met up with Ginny. She and Harry took the kids to be fitted for their school robes, and then met everyone for lunch. The afternoon was spent in the Marauders Mall getting clothes, and a few other supplies. They had made a point of staying away from the GamePortal store all day.

Ginny had been getting updates through her WiComm all day about how well the sales had been going for the Virtual GameWizards, and the numbers were slightly better than Luna's projections. Owen, and ten other store managers, including Valerie, needed extra systems sent to them by Translocator to keep up with demand. Luna's advertising blitz had been well planned, including having quite a few ads during the WWVN broadcast of the Quidditch World Cup finals, and that was really paying off now.

Her real innovation, for the Wizarding World, anyway, was practically invisible to most people, and that was the in-game advertising that companies would be paying a per game sold fee for. A kid playing BroomRacer might find that they were flying past Weaseley's Wizarding Wheezes, or they could be flying a Firebolt, or a Nimbus broom.

There were literally hundreds of little product advertisements in the new games, and in addition, this had also been done with the 3D GameWizards and the original GameWizards, which were both now much more affordable, and continued to put out new games that were targeted to new markets. Sales for those systems and the games were also way up.

Teddy, Stewart, Isabelle, and Victoire all had their own Virtual GameWizards (or GameWitches), which they'd used all summer while testing games. They had each also been given a pretty decent bonus at the end of the summer for doing such a great job, and working so hard. It was the last day of August, so Teddy and Stewart were staying at the Cottage, as were Aaron and Arianna. They had a quiet evening, and went to bed early, with a big day ahead of them.

There was a large group with the students on the platform at King's Cross Station the next morning, and Aaron and Arianna were looking around in wonder at the train, and everything going on around them.

"You two are going to have a great year," Harry told them. He handed them each a present. "Wait until you're settled on the train before opening them." He gave them each a warm hug. "Have fun. Don't be afraid to ask Teddy and the others for help if you need it, and write anytime you want."

Aaron hugged him again. "Thanks for everything, Uncle Harry. We'll both write, and we'll see you at Christmas." Both kids gave Ginny hugs and kisses too, as did the other four teens. Harry took Teddy and Stewart aside for a moment.

"Take care of them for us, and Victoire and isabelle too, like I have to even mention that," he told them. They both grinned and gave him hugs, then helped everyone else get their things loaded on the train. The adults, James, Al, and Lily watched as their six students disappeared into the car as they went looking for a compartment. It wasn't more than a few minutes longer before the train began pulling away from the platform, signalling the start of another school year.

Arianna and Aaron were in a compartment with Teddy and Victoire. Stewart and Isabelle were doing whatever Prefects had to do, and would be back later. Victoire smiled at them.

"If you're settled in, let's see what Uncle Harry gave you guys," she suggested. "His presents are always awesome." Aaron smiled, and started opening his. He was faster than Arianna, and his eyes were wide as he pulled his Virtual GameWizard out of the box. Arianna wasn't too far behind him with her Virtual GameWitch. There was a note with hers.

Dear Arianna and Aaron,

Ginny and I are really proud of you two. Your new game systems have every game available so far for them, so you'll be able to play any of the games the others have. We hope you like them. Be good, study hard, and have fun. Watch out for Peeves.

Love, Harry

Arianna handed the letter to Aaron, and she had to wipe a few tears away. "Maybe some day we'll be able to pay him back for everything he's done for us," she told the others.

Victoire smiled at her young friend. "You two are doing just fine paying him back - since the only payment he thinks counts is smiles, hugs, and kisses."

Arianna laughed. "Then I guess I'll have to give him a couple more when we see him again at Christmas."

Aaron looked up at the huge form of Professor Hagrid, feeling intimidated, and small. "A'right, first years, follow me." Thankfully, Arianna stayed close with him, and they followed the big man to the lake, where they were loaded into boats. They both just stared at the school as they approached it. The place was nothing like any building they'd seen before. Teddy, Stewart, Isabelle, and Victoire had answered all of their questions about Hogwarts, but hearing about it and seeing it were a lot different. Professor Tonks met them as they reached the top of the stairs in the entrance hall. She smiled at them and welcomed them all to the school.

"In a moment, you will be brought into the Great Hall, where you will be sorted into your Houses," she told the large group of first year students. "Your House will be your family here for the years you will be at school. Wait here, and I will return for you shortly."

All of the first year students seemed both nervous and excited as they stood at the front of the hall, and the sorting began. Aaron was sorted ahead of Arianna, and when the sorting hat announced – 'GRYFFINDOR!', he and Arianna had smiled when they heard Teddy and Stewart both jump up and shout 'YES!'. Aaron walked over to the Gryffindor table, where he was met with hugs from the two boys, and from Isabelle and Victoire. Arianna was next, and as she sat on the stool, and the sorting hat was placed on her head.

"Hmmm, the twin. But look at that, she'd do very well with Ravenclaw, yes, very well indeed."

Arianna was suddenly afraid. "Please, let me be in Gryffindor with my brother," she thought to the hat.

"Hmmm, yes, I see," the hat murmured. "You will need each other for you both to succeed." The hat saw something more, but didn't mention that to Arianna. "Very well then, GRYFFINDOR!" Arianna jumped down to more cheers from the Gryffindor table, and walked to where her brother was waiting for her, getting hugs from him, and from their four friends.

"That was close," she whispered in Aaron's ear. "The sorting hat wanted to put me in Ravenclaw." Aaron looked at her, his eyes wide.

"I'm glad it didn't do that," he told her. "I don't know what I would've done without you being in the same House with me." She hugged him again and smiled.

"Don't worry. We're in Gryffindor, and we're together, so that's all that matters."

Stewart and Isabelle led them to the Gryffindor Common Room, along with the other new first year Gryffindors, and after they'd been shown around, Isabelle and Victoire helped Arianna settle into her dorm room, and Teddy and Stewart did the same for Aaron. They were each introduced to their roommates, and then were left by the older students so that they could have some time to get to know some of the other first year students before going to bed.

In the morning, the schedules were handed out after breakfast. Aaron and Arianna were in the same classes, and left the Great Hall excited and happy, and ready for their first big day of lessons. Stewart had the same seven classes that Teddy had, and also had Ancient Runes, which Teddy had managed to pass, but didn't do well enough to be able to continue in sixth year - not that he minded, since he didn't like the class anyway. The girls were carrying a full load of classes, and with Isabelle now in her OWL year, and a Prefect, she was going to be very busy.

Teddy had a spare to start his day, so he took the time to post the signup sheets for the Quidditch team tryouts, and set the date of the tryouts for this Saturday morning. He then sat down to write a letter to Harry and Ginny, sent it off with the Owl Post, and then headed to his first class.

Harry and Ginny were sitting down at breakfast with the kids when Teddy's letter arrived on Wednesday. Ginny opened it and read it aloud.

Dear Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny,

We all got here safely, and settled in. Aaron and Arianna were sorted into Gryffindor, and you can imagine how glad I am that they'll be on our Quidditch team. We'll find out Saturday if there are any other Chasers out there who are better, but I seriously doubt it. Better plan on ordering a pair of Firebolts! Not much else going on here yet. I'll send you a post to let you know how the tryouts went. Say 'Hi' to James and Al, and give Lily a kiss for me.

Love, Teddy

Harry jumped out of his seat, and picked Lily up to give her the kisses. She laughed at him, and threw her arms around his neck.

"I love you, Daddy!" she told him. "You're being silly."

He smiled at his little girl. "I know, but who can resist any excuse to give you kisses?"

She smiled back at him. "I don't know, I haven't met anybody yet who can," she told him seriously. He laughed and set her back down. Ginny got up too, and started the round of goodbyes before going to work. Harry had walked her to the front door. He gave her a hug, and a long kiss.

"Have a good day," he told her. "I love you." Ginny smiled, and hugged him again.

"I love you too. What will you do now that your Quidditch buddies are all back in school?" Harry laughed.

"Not all of them have left," he answered. "James wants to work out every day."

She patted his arm. "I'm sure you'll survive. See you tonight." After Ginny left, Harry cleaned up the kitchen, then he and the kids got ready for their visit to the residence.

Teddy was excited when he got to the Quidditch pitch for the tryouts on Saturday morning. He got things organized right away, and started with the flying exercise that always eliminated the pretenders from the contenders. He then had the Beaters tryout first. Stewart kept his position, and one of the players that had been on last year's practice squad won the other Beater position.

He had the Chasers go next, competing for the two available spots, since his own wasn't up for grabs. There were more than a few surprised students when Aaron and Arianna ran circles around everyone else. There were some unhappy teens, but none of them had any doubt that the twins were much better than everyone else, and had won their places on the team fairly.

The Keeper from last year won that spot, as did their Seeker. Teddy then picked the players for the practice team, let everyone know when they'd be practicing next, then headed back to the Common Room to write a letter to Harry. He really had fun watching his two young friends when the two Firebolts showed up for Aaron and Arianna on Tuesday morning at breakfast. This was going to be another great Quidditch year!

The defending Champion Cannons lost their home opener to a Harpies team that was bent on getting revenge for the team that had given them their only three losses last season. Harry, James, and Al had gone to that game, and had Hugo and Hermione with them, while Ginny took Rose and Lily on a girl's day out.

Ginny had been busy all year with work, and it had been exciting, but she was looking forward to two weeks off. She was in the lab with Lisa, and hoping to get two pet projects for the Virtual GameWizard finished up before the end of the week, so that they could go to production and be out in time for the Christmas sales season. They were currently testing one of them, and Lisa had taken her Virtual glasses off.

"I think we can send this one out for final testing, Ginny," she said with a smile. "It looks good to me." Ginny nodded.

"I think so too," she agreed. "The VirtualChat can be checked and completed by the rest of the team. We can make better use of the rest of our time this week working on the VirtualLibrary. Every student, and a lot of adults are going to want one of each of these for Christmas, so we need to try to get them both done. They're not games, but they're both pretty awesome applications for the systems. I think there are a lot of other things we could use the Virtual GameWizards for too - we just have to figure them all out."

Lisa smiled. "You're going to single handedly make sure that everyone has their biggest bonus ever, aren't you?"

Ginny laughed. "Look who's talking, Ms. WorkAllNight so that the Virtual GameWizard works in the first place. You might want to reconsider the goal of being a Senior Manager, though. I can tell you from experience that it's not nearly as much fun as being a lowly researcher." Lisa smiled.

"Maybe, but it might be fun to be Marcus' boss too someday." Ginny laughed again.

"Maybe. Let's get the VirtualChat out to the others, grab something to eat, and then get back to work on the VirtualLibrary." Lisa agreed, and they left the lab together, deciding to go into Chudley for food, and take a rare real break.

Harry and Ginny took James, Al, Lily, and Carolyn to Marauders Paradise for the two weeks that Ginny was allowed there this year. A last minute decision added Brianna to their group. They had been given a three-bedroom, two-bath suite, and fortunately, one of the rooms had two double beds, so Lily and Carolyn would take one bed, while Brianna had the other. The boys didn't mind taking the slightly smaller beds in the other room. They had left for the island after Ginny was done work on Friday, so they had the whole afternoon local time to play before having dinner with Gabrielle, Kevin, and Michael. That was a great way to start two whole weeks together.

Gabrielle had taken the weekend off to spend with them, and Megan had a couple of days off in the middle of their first week. Michael, James, and Al would go out and play the games and go on the rides together. Sometimes Harry and Kevin would join them, but most of the time they let the boys have their fun, and they would stay with Ginny, Gabrielle, and the three girls. They wanted to spend their days playing at the beach, or at the pool. There was only one thing that Harry and Ginny wanted to do over the two weeks, and that was to completely relax.

She promised not to do any lab work, and if the kids wanted to blast around, they'd let them, but they were going to slow down and enjoy the weather and the island life. Gabrielle and Megan had worked out a couple of nights for Harry and Ginny to have to themselves. Megan took the three girls, and the boys stayed with Gabrielle, Kevin, and Michael, so that Harry could take his wife to dinner and have an evening of dancing, and a night to themselves.

Gabrielle took another few days off during their second week. On one of those days, she and Megan kidnapped Ginny for a Spa day, had sitters for the kids, and then had Kevin, Harry, and Megan's current boyfriend take them out to dinner and to see the stage show that was at the Hotel theatre. When it was time to go home, Harry was just glad to see that Ginny was really rested, and that they'd all had a lot of fun. He and Ginny both agreed they'd do more of these vacations over the next couple of years while they still had all of their kids at home.

While they were on vacation, the Cannons won their second home game, and were now at two wins, one loss. Ginny got right back into work at the lab, rested and fired up with excitement. Harry and the kids spent several days at the Residence each week for the first few weeks they were back from their vacation. James had recruited several nine and ten year old kids interested in practicing Quidditch, and Harry found himself hired as a coach/player for his son and the other kids. Al and Lily would hang out with Carolyn, Brianna, and some of the other younger kids while Harry and James were out playing Quidditch.

They would go on at least one outing a week, and watched two of the Cannons games before the end of November. Harry, James, and Al went to watch the first Gryffindor game of the Hogwarts Quidditch season against Slytherin, and to see Aaron and Arianna's first game. Anyone watching the game almost had to feel sorry for the Slytherin team.

Teddy, Aaron, and Arianna played like they were one person in three places at once. They didn't have to look to pass, and they scored so many times that the Slytherin Keeper nearly looked like he was standing still. When the Gryffindor Seeker finally caught the snitch, it was as much a relief for Slytherin that it was over as a disappointment over losing.

The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw teams were watching too, and they were two very solemn groups of students when they left the stadium after the game. None of them had any idea how they were going to compete against that team. They were probably as good as that legendary team with Harry, Ginny and Ron back in '98/99. Harry, James, and Al met with the team for a few minutes after the game before they headed back home, congratulating them, and reminding them to keep working hard - there were still two more games, and anything can happen in Quidditch.

Frederica had her fifth birthday in November, and Harry took her, and the other kids, to the Marauders Mall, where he dropped her off with Rose, Lily, Carolyn, and Brianna at SpaMagic, where they spent a morning at the all new Spa day that was just for young girls, and which had been added to the spa's services after Ginny had suggested to her Mum and the other women involved in Witch Investments that it was a potential big money maker.

Lily, Frederica, and Rose couldn't be the only young girls who wished they were big enough to go to the spa with their mothers. When SpaMagic advertised the service, they quickly had appointments booked, and they had already filled every available spot right through the Christmas holidays. Harry wandered around the mall with the boys until the girls were done at SpaMagic, then took the beautiful young ladies to lunch. After eating, they went shopping for a new outfit for each girl to wear to Frederica's party, and then dropped them all off with Marietta for the girls-only birthday party.

Since most of the women in the family would be at that party, Harry and the boys had plans with Dad, Bill, Ron, George, Percy, Nicolas, and Hugo to go to the island, have some food, then play on the jet-skis and AquaBikes for a few hours before heading back home.

It was still dark outside, but Harry was up, and the lights were on in the kitchen, so the Owls delivered their packages, and the one that had Ginny's package headed back out right away, while the one with Harry's package waited for the return post. Harry decided not to keep her waiting, so he pulled Fleur's incentive letter out, reviewed it quickly, and approved it. When the Owl was on the way, he filled his coffee cup, and sat down to read Fleur's letter and the reports.

Dear Harry,

PBP Investments, the Phoenix Foundation, and the Investment Partnership have had another wonderful, incredible year. There was substantial growth in all areas, and as usual, Marauders Institute continues to be the star company. The new game system, huge increases in media revenue, the incredible expansion and use of the TransPortal system, all created an explosion in our investment value.

The medical division of the Institute doesn't get much notice most of the time, but ReVive is now used daily by forty million Witches and Wizards, and by over one billion Muggles, with projections for that market to grow by two hundred and fifty million customers per year for the next ten to fifteen years.

We will, for a second year, have no new investments for the Investment Partnership, and do not foresee the need for adding new investment in the next three to five years, since we have more than enough profit that we're continually re-investing to cover all of the projects and proposals we are working on.

The Investment Partnership, at our annual meeting, has authorized the Account Managers to make one change that takes effect with the year just ended. We have all watched in amazement with what the Phoenix Foundation has accomplished for both Witches and Wizards, and for Goblins. We have agreed to, for the next ten years, split profits equally in three parts with PBP Investments, the Phoenix Foundation, and the Investment Partnership each receiving one third of after incentive profits.

The split will be rounded to the nearest quarter million, with the Foundation receiving the rounded-up amount whenever necessary. This change does also improve your annual return on investment slightly, but we all also agreed that none of this would have ever been possible without you, so consider it our way of saying 'Thank-you' to you for making all of our lives so much better.

The annual financial summary for PBP Investments, and the annual report for the Phoenix Foundation are included with this package, along with my own incentive authorization letter. The Owl will wait for your return post.

Fleur Weasley

CEO - PBP Investments

Harry set that letter aside, got a second cup of coffee, and continued with the financial report.

Annual Financial Report - PBP Investments

Year Ending November 30, 2014

Beginning Balance PBPI: 20,829 million galleons

Beginning Balance PF: 1,970 million galleons

Beginning Balance - IP: 14,717.5 million galleons

New Investment: 0 million galleons

Total Beginning Balance: 37,516.5 million galleons

Profits:

Marauders Institute 9,900 million galleons

Property Division 1,900 million galleons

Goblin Ventures 700 million galleons

Witch Investment 300 million galleons

Other Investments 400 million galleons

Total Profit 13,200 million galleons

Less incentive (40 percent) 5,280 million galleons

*Pending approval of projected incentives.

Profit after incentives 7,920 million galleons

PBP Profit 2,640 million galleons

PF Profit 2,640 million galleons

IP Profit 2,640 million galleons

Ending Balance PBPI: 23,469 million galleons

Phoenix Foundation: 4,610 million galleons

Less Expenses: 2,010 million galleons

Ending Balance - PF: 2,600 million galleons

Ending Balance - IP: 17,357.5 million galleons

Total Ending Balance: 43,426.5 million galleons

Harry had tears in his eyes. The Investment Partnership's change might seem small, but it meant hundreds of millions of galleons for the Foundation. He made a note to have pins made up for any members of the Partnership that weren't already volunteers for the Foundation. Maybe they should make a separate silver pin for Financial donors. He moved on to the foundation report.

Annual Phoenix Foundation Report

Year Ending November 30, 2014

Financial Report:

Beginning Balance: 1,970.00 million galleons

New Revenue: 2,640.00 million galleons

Total Expenses: 2,010.00 million galleons

Ending Balance: 2,600.00 million galleons

Phoenix Foundation Program Expenses:

Residences: 820 million galleons

Vaccine Program: 5 million galleons

Goblin Programs: 150 million galleons

Food Program: 200 million galleons

Housing Program: 300 million galleons

Work Program: 520 million galleons

DREAM Christmas: 15 million galleons

Total Expenses: 2,010 million galleons

Phoenix Foundation Program Statistics:

Program Persons Aided Cost Per Person

Residences: 10,600 20,000 galleons**

Vaccine Program: 1 million 5 galleons

Goblin Programs: 50,000 3,000 galleons

Food Program: 1 million 200 galleons

Housing Program: 30,000 10,000 galleons*

Work Program: 208,000 2,500 galleons*

DREAM Christmas: 150,000 100 galleons*

Phoenix Foundation Activity Summary:

During the past year, the Phoenix Foundation has opened fifteen new Residences around the world, and we now help just over ten thousand children in fifty residences. Those Residences, being the Foundation's only significant physical assets, are valued at over two billion galleons. We have begun a ten-year plan for the Residences that will see our Foundation taking care of the majority of orphaned children in the Wizarding World by 2025.

We have been able to assist more than three hundred thousand more families than last year - over one and a half million more Wizards, Witches, and Goblins. Including the vaccine program, the Foundation directly impacted in excess of six and three-quarter million members of the Wizarding World.

The Account Managers and CEO of PBP Investments and the Investment Partnership have advised us of our available resources for the coming year, and we are developing plans to expand our programs, and the more than twenty-five percent increase in our resources will give us the opportunity for a major expansion in our food and work programs during the next year.

Once again the managers, employees, and volunteers of the Foundation should be very proud of our accomplishments. The ten-year commitment from the Foundation donors will ensure that we will be able to continue to expand and impact the most needy of our world.

David Matthews

Senior Account Manager – Phoenix Foundation

Harry finished his reports, and started to make breakfast. He was considering everything he'd just reviewed while he worked. There were so many needs in the world, but they were making a huge difference, and they hadn't even been at it for ten years yet. PBP Investments and the Investment Partnership were strong. Witch Investments was doing well, at least based on PBP's percentage of their profit for the past year, which was up significantly.

Ginny and the other girls might have to consider another big expansion too, since the Investment Partnership wasn't going to allow new investments for at least several years. Whatever they decided, he wasn't sure it was possible to consider it a problem for the girls to figure out what to do with all of their money.

James and Al rolled into the kitchen first, having smelled the food cooking, and sat down. Harry put plates in front of them, and they dug into their food. Ginny and Lily were down next, and Harry had plates for each of them too. Ginny looked over his reports first, then opened her package and read the letter from her Mum.

Dear Ginny,

Congratulations on another wonderful year! I am pleased to advise you that your annual incentive has been approved, and a transfer of ninety-nine million galleons has been made to your account.

I have included the annual financial report for Witch Investments. They had another year of exceptional growth, and a combination of new investment and profit has nearly doubled the value of the overall investments. There is a proposal for another major expansion for the coming year, and if that is approved, we will again significantly increase new investments to accommodate that growth.

We are excited about the coming year, and look forward to working closely with you. We appreciate everything you do, and I am also personally very proud of you.

Molly Weasley

Account Manager - PBP Investments & Witch Investments

P.S. Welcome to the Witch's Billionaire club!

Ginny smiled at her mother's last comment. While she'd been reading the letter, Harry had refilled her coffee, and nudged her to take a few bites of food. She handed him the letter, and read the financial report for Witch Investments.

Annual Financial Report - Witch Investments

Year Ending November 30, 2014

Beginning Balance WI: 1,395 million galleons

New Investment: 600 million galleons

Beginning Balance PBPI: 930 million galleons

New Investment: 400 million galleons

Total Beginning Balance: 3,325 million galleons

Profits:

Manufacturing: 300 million galleons

Retail: 700 million galleons

Total Profit: 1,000 million galleons

Less Incentive 250 million galleons (25 percent)

Profit: 750 million galleons

WI Profit: 450 million galleons

PBPI Profit: 300 million galleons

Ending Balance WI: 2,445 million galleons

Ending Balance PBPI: 1,630 million galleons

Total Ending Balance: 4,075 million galleons

"I love all of this," she told Harry with a smile. "There's going to be a lot of happy people today all over the Wizarding World." Harry nodded.

"I'm really happy about what the Foundation has been able to do, and with those changes that the Investment Partnership approved, they're going to be able to do even more." The kids had finished eating, and all of the boring 'grownup talk' sent them off to play until it was time for their trip to the Residence today. Harry sat down beside Ginny when they were alone, and kissed her softly, wrapping his arms around her waist, and holding her tightly.

"I love you," he whispered. Ginny put her arms around him too.

"I love you too, honey. In case I forgot to tell you lately, Thank-you. You're still earning an Outstanding on that happily ever after promise." Harry laughed and kissed her again.

"I'm pretty sure I get the best of that promise every day, but you are welcome," he told her. "So, what's one of the Wizarding World's few and newest billionaire Witches going to do today?"

Ginny got up from the table. "I'm going to work," she answered. "We've got the party today, and we also have my two favourite Virtual GameWizard products coming out today, and I want to keep an eye on how they do." Harry stood up too, kissed her again, and started cleaning up from breakfast.

"Knowing Luna, they'll do great," he said. "From what you've told me about them, they're both going to be big."

The DREAM Christmas weekends were going to be the weekends of the thirteenth and twentieth this year. Harry and Ginny had originally planned on doing both days on the first weekend, but they received a letter from Teddy asking if they could help out on the twentieth, so they took both Saturdays instead. Mum and Dad watched the kids for the first Saturday, and Harry and Ginny helped twenty-six families.

Harry had four kids with him to meet the train and pick up Teddy, Stewart, Victoire, Isabelle, Aaron, and Arianna. When they finished exchanging hugs, they loaded up the car, and headed for the Cottage. He'd missed all of the kids, and he and Ginny had agreed to keep all of them, except Victoire and Isabelle, at the Cottage for the weekend. They tried to get the two girls too, but for some reason, their parents had missed them too, and wanted to take them home tonight.

They did all get to have the rest of the day today together, and so they all left the Cottage after dropping everything off, and headed to the Marauders Mall for lunch and an afternoon of shopping. They split up after they'd eaten, and the kids all worked away at their gift lists for a few hours.

Harry helped the boys out. He'd already booked a Spa day package for Victoire, Isabelle, and Arianna, since the holiday openings had been filled up over two months ago. Today they picked out several gifts for each girl, and then continued down their lists that included girlfriend's parents, grandparents, and the rest of the friends and family on their lists.

They were all loaded down with bags and packages by the end of the afternoon, and headed for the Cottage again. Harry got right to work on dinner. Fleur and Bill would be joining them for dinner, and so he was cooking for fourteen. There were several drink options available for Bill, Fleur, and Ginny when they got to the Cottage, and the four of them chatted in the kitchen while the teens played with the kids.

During dinner, and afterwards in the sitting room, the kids talked with them about school, plans for the holidays, and what they'd all been up to while they'd been at Hogwarts. They teased the younger kids about getting to spend two more weeks at Marauders Paradise while they were slaving away in classes, which got them no sympathy at all, and had Lily and Carolyn giggling. It was nearing eleven when Bill and Fleur took their girls home. They'd be meeting at the Mall in the morning again, and Bill and Fleur were going to take the younger kids shopping, while Harry and Ginny did the DREAM Christmas volunteering with Teddy, Stewart, Victoire, and Isabelle. Lisa was going to join Bill and Fleur, bringing Brianna with her, and helping with all of the younger children.

Harry made sure that everyone had a big breakfast, and then they headed for the Mall. Teddy and the other teens had made a suggestion for how to approach today. Harry and Ginny had really liked it, so they decided they'd test it out this year with just the six of them, and see how it went.

Their idea had been to not only help parents get gifts for their kids, but to also help kids get presents for their parents, since that was just as important for a lot of the kids - more important than gifts for themselves were. Teaming up this way, they found quite a few families that the parents might be able to buy some gifts for the kids, but they did that at the expense of not doing anything special for themselves, so Teddy, working with Victoire, and Stewart, working with Isabelle, were able to help one hundred and three kids make DREAM Christmases for their parents.

Harry and Ginny helped out thirty-two of those kid's parents do the same for their children. They also found nineteen other families to help, making for a very successful day. They took everyone out for dinner when they were finished and the others were done shopping, then headed home for the night.

This year, Christmas was on Thursday, so the family had decided to have a long weekend on the island. Most of them would head there after the Christmas party at the Residence. The Delacours would be coming, as were Andromeda and Robert. Teddy was going to stay at the Cottage until Christmas, spend the weekend with everyone on the island, and then have a week with his Grandmother before school started again.

Teddy, Stewart, Aaron, and Arianna practiced Quidditch every morning at the Residence. James, and some of the other kids joined them too, while Harry spent most of the week helping Susan and the rest of her staff get everything ready for the upcoming Christmas party.

There was a Christmas party put on by the Marauders Institute social club at the Emerald City Centre, but Harry and Ginny decided to skip it this year, and instead offer to take their nieces and nephews for the night. They had Rose, Hugo, Nicolas, Frederica, and Lance at the Cottage. Victoire and Isabelle were staying over to help, which also added Stewart to the gang.

After feeding the horde of children, they played for a while, then all sat down to watch the year's newest Christmas special on WWVN. Harry, and any other Witch or Wizard that had grown up in the Muggle World, knew that the show was taken straight from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but the story was cute, and the Ghoul that played the title character was hilarious. The kids all loved it, and sat, spellbound through the whole show. The Ghoul Who Gobbled Christmas was apparently a new instant classic holiday favourite.

Christmas Eve, Harry, Ginny, and the kids, as they now did every year, spent the evening at the Residence, playing with the kids, and enjoying the chance to share the fun and excitement of the holiday with them. Harry watched Aaron and Arianna as they interacted with the other kids. What a difference from last year. Word of their making the Gryffindor Quidditch team at Hogwarts, as first year students had catapulted them to hero status for a lot of the younger kids. Both kids smiled most of the time now, and looked very happy. They were both doing well in their classes at Hogwarts too, and Harry and Ginny had heard nothing but good things from their Professors.

Ginny was off somewhere playing with Carolyn, Brianna, and Lily, and Harry was wandering around from room to room, sometimes joining in a game, or catching a few minutes of a show with some of the kids. He walked into the Dining Hall, and saw Susan talking with a Wizard he didn't recognize at first. Susan smiled as he walked up.

"Hi, Harry," she said. "Having fun?"

Harry smiled in return. "Other than taking a beating at GameWizard, having my TeenWizard get girl germs, and getting caught kissing Ginny by one of those MagicMistletoe, yeah, I'm having a blast," he answered. Susan laughed at him. Harry had been looking at the Wizard, trying to remember why he was certain that he should know the man. Susan saved him by making the introductions.

"Wayne, I'm sure you know Harry, if maybe not in person," she said. "Harry, this is Wayne Hopkins. He was in Hufflepuff with me at Hogwarts." The light went on for Harry, and he put out his hand.

"That explains why you look so familiar," Harry said with a nod. "We're just a couple or fifteen years older now." Wayne laughed and shook Harry's hand.

"Nice to officially meet you. We did have some classes together, but you were the enemy back then - at least for every Hufflepuff Quidditch fan." Harry laughed too.

"Compared to some of my other enemies back then, we should have been best mates," he answered. "What brings you here to spend Christmas Eve with us?" Wayne smiled and looked at Susan.

"She does," he told Harry. "We crossed paths a few months ago - hadn't seen each other since Hogwarts, and got to talking, and that led to dinner, and then a few dates."

Harry nodded. "So you're the guy I've heard some of the girls whispering about. You've made quite an impression on some of the young ladies here." Susan and Wayne were both smiling.

"I guess nothing can stay secret in a place like this for long," Susan said. She took Wayne's hand, and held on to it. "We've been discovered by the kids, so I guess it's okay to hold hands in front of them now." Harry was smiling too now.

"I started to hear rumours over a month ago, Susan. You didn't have to wait this long. It's about time that someone realized what everyone here knows - just how wonderful Susan is," he told Wayne. "There've been a few Wizards that went running off as soon as they met her two hundred children, and didn't stick around long enough to find that out."

Wayne laughed, and Susan blushed a bit. "Too bad for them, good for me," he said, smiling at his girlfriend. "I don't know how anyone could meet these kids and not fall in love with every single one of them." Harry put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a pin that hadn't been there a moment before. He handed it to Wayne who looked at it with interest.

"Welcome to the family," Harry told him. "Consider yourself drafted as a Volunteer for the Phoenix Foundation. Your assignment is to take good care of our first and favourite Residence manager." Wayne laughed at Harry again.

"I think I can do that - after all, it's for a good cause, and I'm just the guy to make the sacrifice for the team." Harry laughed too.

"Then my work here is done. I'll see you around. I've got to get back to playing dolls before my TeenWizard ends up in a dress and with bows in his hair. For some reason, those girls find that very funny."

Harry and Ginny were cooking breakfast, and Teddy was playing with the kids in the sitting room. James and Al had both gotten Virtual GameWizards for Christmas, along with appropriate games for their ages, and so Teddy was showing them how to use them. Lily got one of the 3D GameWitches, with the new line of kids games, and was happily playing the TeenWitch game.

Teddy got several new games for his system, including Ginny's VirtualLibrary, complete with the very cool VirtualQuill that would allow him to write down on real parchment anything that he wrote down on the virtual parchment when he was in the library. He wasn't as interested in the VirtualChat at first, until he realized that it meant that he and Victoire could talk together even when they were in their dorms or at separate houses like they'd be next week when he went back to stay with his Grandmother.

Ginny was finishing setting the table, and Harry leaned past her, putting a platter of pancakes on the table, then turned slightly and kissed her cheek. She put an arm around his waist to keep him from going back to his cooking.

"Do you think I'm going to let you get away with a pitiful kiss like that?" she asked, and put her other arm around him, and pulled him into a real kiss. When she eventually decided to let him go, she looked into his eyes and smiled at him. "That's better. You can go back to work now."

Harry smiled at her too. "Sure," he agreed happily. "Could you remind me what I was doing? I don't think it was getting kissed senseless, but it's the last thing I remember, and if it was, then I can get right back to it if you want." Ginny laughed and kissed him again.

"That would be fun, but it's only a matter of time before the kids decide they're starving, so I guess we'd better get back to making breakfast," she told him.

Harry went back to cooking, and Ginny got everything else ready. The smell of food drew the four kids into the kitchen, and their Witch and Wizards made all of the food disappear. The kids played all morning, while Harry and Ginny packed for the weekend on the island, and Translocated the bags there. They made a light lunch for everyone and after cleaning up, headed off for the Residence.

When they got to the Residence, Ginny was the first of them to notice Susan's new ring, and ran over to congratulate her friend. Wayne was also the recipient of one of her hugs, and Harry followed behind his wife, giving Susan a hug and kiss, and shaking Wayne's hand for just the second time in two days.

That news was a great way to start the Christmas party, and the afternoon was filled with fun and entertainment. The kids opened their presents just before the holiday dinner. The Virtual GameWizard and GameWitch systems were big with the teens, and the new 3D GameWitches and GameWizards were popular with the younger kids. There was a lot of effort put into getting each child what they wished for most for Christmas, and Harry was happy to see so many smiles, hugs and kisses.

They stayed for the dinner, then headed for the island, taking Stewart, Aaron, Arianna, and Carolyn with them for the weekend. Lisa had been there for the afternoon too, accompanied by Marcus, and they were taking Brianna with them for a few days at Marauders Paradise, where Lisa and Brianna were going to stay with Megan, and Marcus was going to stay with his friend.

The kids may have felt a little tired after a long day already, but once they were on the island, and they saw the sun, sand, and crystal clear water, they all quickly went and changed into swimsuits, then headed for the beach. Harry and Ginny had a full house with six kids, but since they were usually outside most of the time, it worked out fine, with the three boys taking one room, and the three girls taking the other. Stewart stayed with Teddy, Andromeda, and Robert at their house for the weekend.

The family Christmas dinner was on Friday, and everyone was able to be there. Gabrielle, Kevin, and Michael could only come for the day, but everyone else was staying for the long weekend. They had their meal at Grandma and Grandpa Weasley's house, and opened presents there. The rest of the weekend was spent playing in the water and at the beach, having quiet nights in smaller groups, and having as much fun as they could fit into three days.

When it was time to go on Sunday, Teddy went with his Grandmother, Harry and Ginny took Stewart, Arianna, Aaron, and Carolyn back to the Residence, then headed for home with James, Al, and Lily, getting there Sunday evening, in time for Ginny to get a good sleep before having to go back to work in the morning.

They had a few more visits to the Residence between getting back from the island and New Years Eve, and they went to the New Years Eve party there too. They all had a great time welcoming in the New Year by playing games, having special treats, and having their own Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes New Year's countdown and fireworks display at midnight. It still felt like the holidays on those few days between New Year's Day and when school would be starting again, and it wasn't until Sunday, when they all went to King's Cross Station and saw their six students off to Hogwarts, that it really felt like their Christmas holidays were over, and the New Year had truly begun.