The passing months were some of the hardest, Juliet turned one without her grandfather around, and everyone started to train, Harry continued work at the ministry training as an Auror.
Christopher was continuing his work in the Auror department, training with the 'new kids' a requirement now for all Aurors.
Keira was working tirelessly with the ministry as now a lawyer was required at every trial, and it seemed there weren't that many fully fledged wizarding Lawyers in England, well not that knew how to do trials.
Ethan Finally told Kate the full story, she was worried, but understood that he would be out of the picture for a while.
Melanie decided not to go to work as planned, and instead stayed in with Ginny, Ethan, Luna, and Pansy and practised defensive spells, curses, and hexes. Fleur would have joined, but it had been decided that she was better off looking after Juliet. Remus and Belle married.
All too soon the year came to an end, and everyone was starting to worry, why had everything been so calm?
On January first Draco and Melanie celebrated their first wedding anniversary as Emma and Severus also celebrated their anniversary.
Then not two weeks later there was more good news.
Ginny ran into the living room, laughing and squealing, she held up her hand and waved in it her mothers face.
"He asked me to marry him!" Ginny squealed.
Weeks passed by slowly, there had been no arrests, but there had been several disappearances, three muggle attacks, and nine deaths.
One of the muggle attacks struck close to home as Ethan got a call at three am.
"H-hello... Eth-Ethan?" Kate sobbed down the phone.
"Hey, what's wrong babe?" Ethan asked extremely concerned.
"Ethan, pl-please... I-I-I. Ethan I j-just don't k-know..."
"Tell me where you are," Ethan said trying to keep the panic out of his voice.
"I-I don't know!" Kate wailed.
"Ok don't worry I'll be there soon," Ethan said then ran to Christopher's room. "CHRIS!" Ethan bellowed banging on his brothers door, with in seconds half the house was up. "We need to get to Kate, some things happened!" Ethan explained quickly.
Christopher nodded and he yanked on a t-shirt, Charlie, Harry and Draco all started to quickly get dressed then waited until Ethan figured out where Kate was most likely to be.
"Ok Draco go to Madison Street, that's where her family own a bakery. Chris go to Eden Bar. Harry the Library. Charlie Go to the police station." Ethan instructed then left, running out of the door, along the long pathway, out the gates, and around the corner.
"How's he going to find her?" Keira asked Emma as they sat down in the Living room waiting nervously.
"I-I... I don't know..."
Ethan scoured the streets; he was walking past an alley when he heard a whimper, he stopped and listened intently, he heard it again, a quiet whimper. Slowly Ethan walked down the alley; he stopped when the whimpering got louder.
"Kate, Kate is that you?" Ethan asked softly.
"E-Ethan!" Kate sobbed, Ethan reached behind a bin where she had been hidden, he pulled her out and held her sobbing form in his arms.
"What happened, Kate, tell me what happened?" Ethan asked as he held her.
"My family... Ethan... They killed them!" Kate sobbed; grabbing hold of his t-shirt, Ethan said nothing, just picked her up and carried her back towards the main street. Christopher was only a little bit away near the bar.
"Ethan, you've got her, I'll send out word," Christopher said as Ethan neared him. "Get Kate home."
Keira wrapped the younger woman up in a large fluffy blanket. Ethan walked straight into the kitchen and poured himself a large glass of fire whiskey.
"Ethan I really don't think that's the best idea," Draco said as he walked into the kitchen.
"I'm just waiting for the ministry to run along and tell us there's been a muggle attack," Five minutes later there was a ministry letter. Sirius got up and slowly walked to Ethan, clapping him on the back.
The next day Kate sat with Ethan in the frosted garden.
"I woke up and heard them screaming... I tried to move but I just couldn't. I heard them scream, and I couldn't help them. Leah and Mike where only young, fifteen. They shouldn't have died." The way she said it, no tears, but like she was seeing it before her once again... Just telling a story.
Melanie watched them from her bedroom window sadly, she was surprised slightly when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist.
"Morning gorgeous. Do you know what day it is?" Draco muttered into her neck, kissing her pale skin.
"No, what day is it?" Melanie asked with a playful grin.
"Valentines day, which means I get to spoil you rotten," Draco drawled, nuzzling close to her, feeling the warmth of his wifes body.
"Oh now that sounds nice," Melanie said with a big grin.
"That also means that I get to do very naughty things to you when we get home," Draco growled, Melanie smirked. Naughty Boy.
Keira walked into the training ground of Puddlemere United with a grin, in the holiday mood she was wearing a cute little outfit, her hair done up and wearing a bit more make-up then usual. One of the team members whistled at her and she winked back with a laugh.
"Why Miss Potter, you look great," The Team Captain, Steven Mitchell said with a grin.
"Thanks Steve, the whole family is celebrating today... As I'm in work I thought I might as well dress up a bit. Anyways it's not like I'm going to be playing quidditch," Keira replied, a small grin on her face as she paued to talk with Steve, he was a good guy, if a bit flirty.
"Are you sure you're a lawyer, most of them are boring old gits with beards?" Steven chuckled. Keira didn't even bother replying to that, she just laughed and shook her head.
It was as she passed the men's changing room she felt an arm snake around her waist and pull her into the room. She was pushed up against the wall and someone attached their lips to hers. She would have fought back if it hadn't have felt so good. Suddenly the person who grabbed her pulled back, and Keira blinked her eyes open and looked shocked.
"Oliver Wood! I wouldn't have expected this kind of attack from you!" Keira said teasingly.
"Why I say Keira Potter, it is hardly an attack. Maybe slightly inappropriate. How about I make up for that by taking you out to dinner, tonight, at seven. Great, I'll see you at that little Italian restaurant down the road tonight," Oliver said without letting her answer, then he stalked off leaving Keira to stand there slightly dazed.
Oliver was twenty five, three years older than Keira's twenty two; she knew that because he was four years older then Harry and Ethan, Harry had told her about Oliver before. He had changed a little from the Quidditch crazed; slightly dorky looking teenager she had seen in school photo's Harry had shown her. Oliver Wood was hot, Quidditch practice had done him well, he'd grown into himself better, he was one of the biggest bachelors, which came hand in hand with his confidence.
But oh was he worth it, from the few girls Keira had spoken to he treated the girls he was with like princess', he didn't just mess them around, but he hadn't really gone steady with anyone.
And for a while some of the team had been teasing Keira claiming that Oliver was interested in her. Of course she had dismissed it, he was out of her league, but apparently not, she been told that her family graced the papers as much as Oliver or any other famous wizard or witch.
So after work she went home and got ready.
Melanie and Draco hadn't quite made it to the bedroom and were in the hall way kissing like they were both about to drop dead. Shaking her head she walked into her room and looked through her closet.
She ended up deciding on an emerald green dress, it was a wrap around with a plunging neckline, it reached her knees, and showed off her figure to its best. Her hair she left so it brushed her shoulder and remained curly. She placed black, high heeled sandals on her feet. And smiled, she thought she looked great. Second opinion just to be sure.
The first person she came across was Sirius.
"No way!" Was all he said.
"Why what's wrong?" Keira asked.
"There's no chance of my girls going out with a top that low cut!" Sirius said as Emma passed by with Severus.
"Phwoar! Keira who are you meeting?" Emma asked with a grin.
"Oliver, he's on the Quidditch team. He asked me out tonight. But Sirius won't let me out the door." Keira answered.
"Sirius move aside now!" Emma demanded.
"NO! One of them is married, Gin is engaged, Pansy is refusing to listen to me, Remus says I can't boss his daughter around, and now Keira is off doing all the dating and I don't want her to!" Sirius whined.
"Aw Siri, we'll always be your girls, we just need to grow up," Keira said, kissed him on the cheek then walked out the front door.
"You are so sweet Sirius!" Pansy said appearing; she hugged Sirius then left with Neville.
Keira waited outside the restaurant as she was asked by Oliver, as the minutes started to tick by she realised she had been a fool. He had stood her up. Damn. Only as she started to walk away the door to the restaurant swung open and Keira looked in.
"Oh my," Keira gasped. Right in the far corner there was a single table, all the others were gone. The table was surrounded by flowers, roses mainly, but oh Merlin was it beautiful, beside the table stood Oliver Wood, smiling at her like he was happy she actually turned up.
"Wow... I hope you didn't go through all this trouble for me," Keira stated. As she was seated.
"If it's for you, it's no trouble at all," Oliver said.
Keira swooned.
The night was brilliant, he gave her an ever lasting lily, she'd never seen one so beautiful before, and a box of the most gorgeous chocolates, and then surprisingly a CD. Seriously. A muggle one, he went out and got her muggle CD.
"I don't know if you have it, but well I saw it and instantly knew you would like it," Oliver said as Keira stared in awe. How did he know what her favourite band was, even Christopher didn't know that. Plus she didn't have this CD.
"Have you been stalking me?" Keira asked teasingly, Oliver laughed.
"No, I haven't."
The rest of the night passed, and Keira really wished she didn't have to leave, she'd really enjoyed it.
"I wouldn't usually ask, but maybe, do you want to come back to mine?" Keira asked.
"How about mine?" Oliver asked, Keira smiled and let him take her back to his apartment.
They sat there the whole night talking, and when morning came around Keira found herself wrapped up in Oliver's arms, still fully dressed, lying on the couch in his living room.
When Keira sneaked back into the house at five am it was to the annoyed face of Charlie Weasley.
"Where have you been all night?" Charlie demanded.
"I was out on a date," Keira said defensively.
"Keira we're in the middle of a war and you were on a date?" Charlie asked.
"Hey my life isn't just going to stop because of this. I do have a life, I plan on living it," Keira snapped, it wasn't fair for him to suggest she forget her life.
"Look Keira, just please make sure everyone knows... We can't risk a false alarm," Charlie said earnestly.
"You're what six years older then me!" Keira snapped. "You don't have any right to check up on me! I'm twenty two!"
"Yes and you're like my little sister!" Charlie snapped then fell into the nearest chair. "You know they never warned us about this..."
"About what?" Keira asked stubbornly.
"This, the protectiveness. I mean damn, if anyone of you gets hurt it freaks us all out. You and Melanie are like Ginny to me, hell so are Hermione, Pansy and Luna, and even Kate since she's moved in is finding her place.
"No one said it would be easy," Keira said sitting beside him and wrapping her arms around his shoulder. "But hey, Tonks is all over you."
"What are you on about?" Charlie asked, fooling no one.
"She is so after you, if she was any more over you it would be indecent. I say you throw her down and-"
"You can stop right there!" Charlie exclaimed.
"What you've never done it?" Keira giggled.
Hey a house full of 18-29 year olds did you expect much more?
Christopher grinned as two weeks later Oliver was introduced to the family, yeah it was pretty soon but no one was sure how long they would live any more.
"Wow, this is... wow," Was all Oliver could say, as he looked at the what seemed hundreds of faces looking back at him.
"I'm sorry, maybe it was too soon," Keira said unsurely, looking at his expression.
"No, it's just I knew everyone was here, I just didn't quite expect everyone to be this big..." Oliver tried to explain.
"I'm sorry, it's just everyone lives here now, I mean it's big enough," Keira explained.
"Well let's eat, I'm starved," Ron said looking expectantly at Molly, who frowned at her son.
"Ron how could you be so rude, I swear that's all you do is eat," Molly said waving her serving spoon at her youngest son.
"That's not all he does," Luna said quietly to Melanie with a giggle, the two girls fell about laughing as Remus glared daggers at Ron.
"So Harry I read in the papers you proposed to Ginny?" Oliver asked as they settled down to the food Molly had cooked.
"Yeah, we're getting married in September, if all goes well," Harry replied with a smile to Ginny.
"Talking about weddings, Christopher when do you plan on marrying our Hermione?" Molly asked nonchalantly. There was a coughing fit at the other end of the table where Hermione sat coughing and gulping down a glass of water.
"Er... Hermione and I haven't really talked about that yet..." Christopher said embarrassedly.
"And you Charlie, you haven't even got a steady girlfriend, and your little sister here is already engaged," Molly said with a light smile at her second eldest.
"She does this a lot, plans on marrying us all off, it's a great laugh,," Keira explained to Oliver as Charlie stumbled over his words.
"Keira don't think you're off that easily, Oliver here, well, he's the first man you've brought home," Molly said.
"What about Blaise! Hey Blaise! How are things with Susan?" Keira squeaked as her face turned the colour of her hair.
"Thanks Keira. Susan is great, she is currently talking about our future, nothing set in stone. Actually Fred has been talking recently about our views on getting married." Blaise smirked at Fred.
"Mum George isn't even looking!" Fred squealed.
"Don't even bother or I'll tell your little secret!" George hissed at his brother.
"Oh Merlin!" Fred squeaked, he fidgeted with his shirt before pulling something out of his pocket and tossing it to Ginny. "Tell me what you think." Fred asked.
Ginny opened the velvet box and raised her eyebrows at her brother.
"Not for you, Berk, it's for Katie," Fred said answering her unasked question.
Everyone leaned in for a better view.
"It's stunning." Ginny said finally.
"Well then I guess you should all know that I'm going to ask Katie to marry me," Fred said to the sound of cheers.
"Katie Bell?" Melanie asked, just to make sure she had it right.
"Yeah."
"Well this calls for my special chocolate brownies," Molly declared then pulled out a tray full of chocolate brownies once dinner was finished.
Over the next few days there was a series of talks. Something was wrong.
"Why hasn't he attacked?" Harry demanded, sitting with his family and feeling useless.
"Maybe he is good now?" Ethan said lamely.
"No it's more then that," Melanie replied.
"Well I have an idea," Ginny mentioned, everyone turned to her.
"Go on," Moody said gruffly.
"Well think about it this way, loads of times now he didn't have the power to beat the five Potter's, so doesn't it make sense for him to wait until he's stronger, or thinks he is. I mean he must realise all these failures are making him seem weaker, and I thought it made sense, I mean if he gets stronger he has a bigger chance of winning," Ginny explained.
"That is why you are my sister, she's a genius," Bill exclaimed.
"I think you may have hit the nail on the head, Miss Weasley," Albus said, nodding.
"There's one problem with that," Pansy said. "We have no way of knowing how long that could be, weeks, months, years?"
"And all the while there's more disappearances and more deaths." Blaise finished.
"We're lucky they haven't gotten into the ministry or school, but they're right, I'm running low on Aurors, five in the past few months, five Aurors, that's a lot," Sirius said.
"I've been keeping an eye on the workers; I've noticed something odd with the people running floo and portkey," Hermione said suddenly. "Oh Merlin!" She gasped.
"What Mione?" Christopher asked.
"That's how the ministry officials are going missing; think about it, they arrive at the same time everyday. It wouldn't be hard to plan especially if you knew what time they arrived. The only people that actually know the exact time are the floo control..." Hermione answered.
"I'll get right on that." Sirius said, disappeared then reappeared.
"Albus, I want to call over some friends from Ireland. I've been owling them, I think that it's time we called over re-enforcements," Keira said.
That settled, in a week there were going to be a few more people staying at the house, it was alright though, because Albus, bless him, had converted the attic into extra rooms.
There was a knock at the door and Keira screamed happily, she jumped up from the sofa and ran to the door, she flung it open revealing a group of people standing there.
"BRIDGET!" Keira cried happily engulfing a tall woman; she had long sandy blonde hair and deep blue eyes, a kind face, and curvy figure.
"Keira! Oh I am so happy to see you!" The woman exclaimed.
Keira pulled back and her jaw dropped.
"I know I haven't seen you for a while, but I hadn't realised so much had changed," Keira said picking a young baby from Bridget.
"Ah so you've met Daisy. And you know my husband, Joe Burke," Bridget said with a grin.
"Jeez, you married Joe!" Keira exclaimed hugging a taller man with wavy brown hair and similar blue eyes.
"Yeah sweetheart, she married me," Joe said, holding his old friend closely, and looking at her pretty face.
"It was a shock to us all," Another man said he was about Keira's height with dark blonde hair and muddy brown eyes.
"Michael!" Keira exclaimed hugging her old friend.
"So tell me, you're not single are you?" Michael enquired, looking cheeky, causing Keira to blush.
"Really can't we leave these small details out until we've all had a cuppa," An older woman said, she was Minerva's age with grey hair and pale green eyes.
"Sorry Professor Collins," Michael said sheepishly.
"It's Mary-Louise; I am no longer your teacher," Mary-Louise said with a small but stern smile, she was much like Minevra.
Keira led her guests into the living room and introduced them to everyone.
"Guys this is Bridget and Joe Burke with their daughter Daisy, Michael O'Conner, and My old Defensive arts teacher Mary-Louise Collins," Keira said to the family.
"Guys this is My baby sister Melanie Malfoy, Her husband Draco Malfoy, My younger Brothers Harry and his twin Ethan, Ginny Weasley is Harry's fiancée, Kate is Ethan's Girlfriend, Christopher is my older brother, Hermione is his girlfriend, Emma my aunt, Severus her husband. Remus Lupin, his wife Belle and daughter Luna, Sirius Black, Molly Weasley, Her sons Bill, Charlie, Fred and George, and Ron. Bill is married to Fleur, they have a daughter Juliet, Katie is Fred's fiancée, there's also Pansy and Neville who are dating and Blaise and Susan who are dating, Tonks who is Belle's niece, and Oliver, My boyfriend," Keira said to her guests.
"Oh my." Mary-Louise said in shock.
"It's not as bad as it seems, I mean, a little chaotic, but not too bad, just one huge family," Keira said with a grin.
That night the whole bedroom arrangements were looked at. There were thirty bedrooms in total.
On the first floor, Pansy, Luna, Tonks, Melanie and Draco, Bill and Fleur and Juliet, Remus and Belle, Ethan and Kate, Christopher and Hermione, Michael, Bridget and Joe and Daisy, Mary-Louise, Keira and Oliver.
Second floor, Harry and Ginny, Ron, Charlie, Emma and Severus, Sirius, Fred and Katie, George, Neville, Blaise and Susan.
So that left three bedrooms on the first floor and six on the second, and another fifteen in the attic, although they were only to be used if there was no where else.
So it was a bit of a tight squeeze the following week when even more people turned up.
"Guys, Meet Pippa Sewell, Caitlyn Mahan, Mika Cooper, Jake Stevens, Eloise Dingle, they were in my year group at Maxwell's, my closest friends." Ethan introduced.
Seamus and Dean who where over for the day, helping the Order didn't seem to mind at all.
Pippa was stunning, she had a young face, with long flowing, dark brown hair, and electric blue eyes, she had a very slim body, and stood at nearly six foot tall, with legs that never seemed to end.
Caitlyn was short at just over five foot, with bobbed, dirty blonde hair, she had angelic, soft feature, with dark green eyes, darker then the Potter siblings emerald, more of a moss colour, but she too had a slim figure.
Mika was average height with chocolate brown hair and light brown eyes; he had a good body, and a boyish grin.
Jake was over six foot tall, he had shaggy, sandy blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and a cheeky grin, a light tan and a gorgeous tan.
Eloise was only a bit shorter then Jake, she had long red hair, much like the Weasleys, sapphire blue eyes and a girlie smile, her skin was near white, and she was very slim.
Yes it was hectic, the dinner table had been nearly doubled in size, it almost didn't fit in the room anymore, but everyone sat around comfortably. The new people settled in well, Daisy was only a month younger then Juliet's fourteen months.
Everything was strangely calm, everything. Christopher turn twenty five on May 5th, then Harry and Ethan turned twenty one; it was after the party that Charlie found Pippa and George cuddling on the sofa in the living room.
In actual fact nothing really went wrong at all. They were waiting for Harry and Ginny to get married, and everyday went out for the Order, but really things were peaceful.
Most of the time.