Professor Lupin placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool he put a pointed wizard's hat. It was patched and frayed, dirty and singed.

For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat began to sing.

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But I've been around the block,

I'll eat myself if you can find

Such history in a sock.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be."

Sevannah listened to the Sorting Hat sing, dreading her turn at putting the object on her head.

"Adams, Kristin," Remus said, when the Sorting Hat finished.

Sevannah watched a curly-haired girl skip up to the stool and grin as the hat was lowered onto her head.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat said, and Kristin smiled even wider, dancing over to a table where an older girl, clearly her sister, embraced her.

"Fredricks, David."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Goyle, Millicent."

"SLYTHERIN!"

Sevannah watched the girl, her face at once pinched and plump, saunter over to the table surrounded by green crests. She saw Scorpius sitting toward the end of the table. He caught her eye and nodded, tapping the snake on his chest with one long finger. Sevannah gave him a weak smile, and looked back at Remus, who was pulling the hat off of a new Gryffindor.

"Weasley, Georgia," Lupin said, gesturing to the stool as the older twin stepped up. The hat barely grazed her head when the slit opened and the bellow filled the room.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Teddy Lupin tousled the girl's hair as she took her seat, her robes now trimmed with crimson. Sevannah felt her stomach clench. She'd expected it, of course. If anyone was a Gryffindor, it was Georgia. She glanced at Scorpius again, but he was busy selecting a piece of fruit from the plates on the table.

"Weasley, Rose," Remus called, and Sevannah watched her cousin approach the stool with more reserve than Georgia.

There was a prolonged silence. Sevannah remembered how Elizabeth had said that the Hat had debated her placement for a long time, between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"That won't happen to you," Arthur had said, ruffling Sevannah's hair. "Hasn't been a Weasley in a hundred years that hasn't been in Gryffindor."

Finally, the Hat decided, and Rose flew off the stool to her new seat at the Gryffindor table.

"Weasley, Sevannah," Remus said, as a ripple of mirth went through the crowd at the repeated last name.

"My mum says the Weasleys breed like rabbits," Sevannah heard a Ravenclaw say as she passed on her way to the dais.

"Ready?" Remus whispered, smiling at his grand-goddaughter. He waited until she sat on the stool before setting the Hat on her head.

"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Strong Gryffindor blood, I see. Legendary, some might say, though I really feel like I should get some of the credit… Hmm…"

Sevannah shifted uncomfortably. "Just decide already," she thought.

"Impatient," the Hat said, not giving any indication of speeding up. "A bit of your grandfather you have there. More than a bit, really. Usually I know what to do with Weasleys, but you have quite a bit of greatness inside you. A greatness that might be best helped by a stay in Slytherin."

Severus watched the proceedings from the head table, not surprised by the verdict concerning his first granddaughter. Georgia was all of her parents' Gryffindor traits rolled into one child-sized package.

"SLYTHERIN!"

There was a gasp in the hall. Severus smirked behind his goblet. Clearly the audience didn't know his namesake. If they thought she would be a Lion solely on her name, they were mistaken. Sevannah slipped off the stool and looked back at him. Severus gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile, tilting his head in the direction of the Slytherin table.

*S*S*

Severus Snape's hand clamped on his granddaughter's upper arm. "Up," he ordered.

"Grandpa!"

"Now," Severus growled, marching her down the aisle of the Great Hall and up the stairs to his office.

"But I'm hungry!"

"You'll eat," Severus said tightly. "After we see what your parents have to say about this." He released her and pointed to a chair in front of his desk. "Sit."

"Grandpa—

"Silence." Severus snapped. He strode to the fireplace and tossed powder in, bending to look into the flames.

Georgia watched nervously as her mother's head appeared in the flames.

"Dad? Is everything alright? The girls—

"The girls are fine," Severus said quickly, sending a quick look over his shoulder at his granddaughter, who was now staring at her feet. "At least for now. Are Fred and the babies there?"

"Fred's at the shop and the little ones are at Molly's," Elizabeth said. "I'm only home for lunch. What's going on? You never call in the middle of the day."

"Could you come through?" Severus asked. "I think it's better seen than explained."

Severus stepped aside to allow her to come through the floo. When his daughter's feet were firmly on the stone, he pointed to Georgia. "Head up, young lady."

Georgia looked up, scratching her nose.

"Hand down," Severus rolled his eyes.

The redhead obeyed, putting her hands in her lap and looking at her mother.

"Georgia Ann Weasley," Elizabeth said, looking hard at her daughter's small, pierced nose. "Your father is going to lose his mind."

"It's just a little stud—

"A 'little stud' that you were told, in no uncertain terms, that you were not allowed to get," Elizabeth said, marching closer and extending her hand, palm up. "Take it out. Give it to me."

"Mum—

"Now."

Georgia scowled, but pulled the stud out of her nose and put it in her mother's hand.

"Look at me," Elizabeth ordered, pulling out her wand. Holding Georgia's chin with one hand, she pointed her wand at the piercing and cast a healing charm. The hole remained. "Georgia Ann, did you use a perma-pierce charm?"

Georgia grimaced. "Not me…"

Severus, who had wandered behind his desk pretending to examine some parchment, looked up sharply. "A student?"

Georgia squirmed.

"Young lady, you'll be considerably less comfortable if you don't tell me the truth right now," Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Rose got it from a book," Georgia whispered.

Elizabeth sighed. "You, miss, are grounded for the weekend. You'll come home Friday night and we'll have you back here Monday morning."

"There's a Quidditch game!"

"You should have thought of that before you did something you were specifically told not to do," Elizabeth said firmly. "And you'd better think of what you're going to tell your father when you get home. That is, if he doesn't come down here tonight."

Georgia turned white. "Do you have to tell him?"

"First, don't ask ridiculous questions," Elizabeth said, fixing her daughter with her Snape-taught glare. "Second, even if, for some ungodly reason, I wanted to keep this from your father, I think that permanent hole in your nose would be a clue." She shook her head. "I have to get back, and you have class, I assume."

Severus pointed at the door. "Go to class. And straight to your dormitory afterward."

"I didn't eat…"

Severus sighed, and waved his wand, summoning an apple and a muffin.

"Grandpa…" Georgia looked at him with her big brown eyes.

Severus looked at her and raised one eyebrow. "Georgia Weasley, you're going to turn the rest of my hair grey," he shook his head. "Say goodbye to your mother," he said, jerking his head in Elizabeth's direction, "Again, straight to your dormitory. If I find you wandering around, you'll sleep downstairs until Friday."

Georgia made a face, but went over to hug her mother. "I thought you might be okay if I just did it."

"Well, you were wrong," Elizabeth rolled her eyes and hugged her oldest tightly. "Go on, troublemaker." She watched her daughter go out the door, then sank into the chair the girl had just vacated.

Severus laughed and leaned against his desk, crossing his arms.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Karma," Severus smiled. "It's amazing how things come around, really."

"I never pierced anything."

"But you did dye your hair."

"Which you changed back immediately."

"Only because Miss Granger was too afraid of me to use a permanent dye charm. It would seem that Rose Weasley is a dangerous mix of her mother's brains and her father's recklessness." Severus leaned back in his chair. "I'll see you Friday night?"

"Why don't you come to dinner? You can bring our hooligan with you."

Severus nodded. "Bread and water for the prisoner," he smirked.

*S*S*

Elizabeth stepped into the office of the shop, closing the door behind her.

"What's wrong?" Fred looked up from the deposit slip he was writing.

"I just had to go to Hogwarts. Do you know what your daughter did?"

"My daughter?" Fred grimaced. "What did Georgia do?"

"She drove a metal post through her nose," Elizabeth said, crossing her arms.

Fred narrowed his eyes. "I specifically told her that she wasn't allowed—

"Well, she did," Elizabeth sighed, then glared at Ron, who was sorting through the mail. "What are you laughing at, Ronald?"

Ron grinned. "Just thinking that now you'll be able to tell them apart."

Fred rolled his eyes. "You made her take it out, right?"

"Of course," Elizabeth glared at Ron again. "However, your niece decided to be helpful, and used a perma-pierce charm."

"Who?" Ron looked at her in alarm. "Rose?"

"None other. Dad's going to send an owl."

Ron closed his eyes. "I'm sorry… she's in this phase right now where she wants to show everything she's read."

"She's Hermione's kid," Fred sighed. "It's not a phase." He turned his attention back to Elizabeth. "So you made her take it out. And?"

"She's coming home for the weekend so we can ground her properly," Elizabeth dropped the stud on his desk before sitting in her chair. "Of course the only time she showed an ounce of remorse was when I told her that I was going to tell you."

Fred smirked. "Think I should go down there tonight? Perhaps pull a Molly Weasley and send a howler to announce my arrival?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "Dad's restricted her to the dormitory after classes, and he threatened to make her stay with him until the weekend. I think we'll be okay. Save your Weasley lecture for Friday night. And maybe Saturday."

Fred stretched out his legs. "It will give me time to practice. I didn't inherit the natural talent."

"Me either," Ron said. "But Bill did. Had it when we were kids, for Merlin's sake."

Fred grinned. "

"Alright, that's enough out of the two of you," Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "It's a miracle that anyone in this family has relatively normal children."

"I have hope for Lily," Fred grinned. "She never yells at me."

"Hermione is going to be horrified," Ron sighed. "I'd better call her now."

*S*S*

Fred Weasley crossed his arms and looked at his daughter. Sometimes he was surprised how different his girls were. When he'd been inside the twin relationship, George had always been an extension of himself. Everyone saw them as carbon copies. But Sevannah and Georgia were different. Of course, at the moment, he was glad he didn't have to deal with two Georgias. He'd been lecturing for ten minutes, and the thought of ten more was daunting.

"Georgia Ann Weasley, I'm disappointed in you," Fred started, narrowing his eyes at the redhead on the sofa. "There were no good intentions in this nonsense, just direct defiance of what you were told."

"I'm sorry, Dad."

"I'm sure you're sorry you were caught," Fred frowned. "How did you expect to keep it a secret, Georgia?"

"I didn't think Grandpa would tell," Georgia whispered. For all her bluster and mischief, she didn't like it when her father was angry with her.

"You clearly forgot which grandfather you were dealing with," Fred raised an eyebrow. "Grandad Weasley might not have noticed it."

Georgia dug one toe into the rug. "I just thought it would be cool."

"And it might be," Fred agreed. "When you are of age and no longer living under my roof."

Georgia nodded, biting her lip. "What about my nose?"

Fred sighed. "I wish you'd thought of that before allowing Rose to put a permanent hole in your face," he pressed his lips together. "It can't be mended, but Madame Pomfrey may be able to hide it."

"Why can't you?" Georgia tried to hold back the whining tone in her voice, but disapproval in her father's face along with having to miss the Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw game was wrecking havoc on her mood.

"Because I have very limited medical magic training." Fred sat on the table to take a closer look at the hole. "Merlin, Georgia, why do you do these things to yourself?" He looked at her nose, touching the pierced place carefully.

"Mum was really mad."

"The feeling was mutual," Fred said. "We created that nose, along with the rest of you, and we were hoping that we'd avoid you coming home with holes of any kind."

"Sorry," Georgia said again, this time sounding actually repentant.

Fred sighed again. "Come here, trouble." He pulled her up and sat in her spot before situating her on his lap. "You're making my hair grey."

"Like Grandpa's?"

Fred laughed. "Yeah, except your mum started that, I think." He hugged her and rocked her a little. "We don't make rules to upset you, Firebolt."

Georgia leaned her head against his shoulder and nodded. "Are you still mad?"

"I'm worried," Fred said tapping his hand against the side of her leg. "How are we supposed to trust you at school if you don't even make it until Christmas without doing something to hurt yourself? That spell could have gone wrong, and then you'd be missing an eye."

Georgia grimaced, and Fred set her on the floor. "You can think about that while you're in your room," he said, pointing to the stairs. "Maybe you can tell me something at dinner that will help me trust that you can look after yourself if I let you go back to school."

Georgia's eyes widened. "If?"

Fred pointed at the stairs again. "Go. No playing around up there either. Think." Fred watched her go up the stairs then went into the kitchen, sitting heavily at the table where Severus was sitting, holding Lily.

"We might not make it," Fred said dramatically, stretching out his legs.

Elizabeth laughed. "You always say that."

"And one day, it will be true." He looked at Severus. "I'm sorry about this."

Severus waved his hand. "Please. I put up with you two, didn't I? At least this child isn't destructive to anything but herself."

"We never really damaged anything," Elizabeth protested.

"I seem to remember you purposefully exploding a cauldron in my classroom," Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Statute of limitations," Elizabeth said, checking the oven.

"Anyway, she isn't nearly the trouble some of them are," Severus sighed. "But this one isn't going to be trouble at all," he bounced Lily, who shrieked and clapped her hands.

"We have hope," Elizabeth grinned. Then there was a sudden loud bang from the back room the Weasleys used as a playroom. "Orion!"

All three adults ran into the room to find the sole male Weasley child sitting on the floor, surrounded by feathers. He was holding what was left of a pillow in his hands, but the insides appeared to have exploded all over him and the ground.

"Birdies, Mummy," Orion said proudly.

Elizabeth laughed, scooping him up and checking for damage. "Feathers like on birdies, yes. How did the feathers get out of the pillow?"

"Boom," Orion answered helpfully.

"Accidental magic," Severus said, brushing some of the feathers out of his grandson's hair. "You're a wizard, young man. Not that we were worried."

"Well that was less terrifying than the girls," Fred said, vanishing the feathers with a wave of his wand.

Georgia had followed in her mother's footsteps and had apparated to the roof of the house during her first bout of accidental magic. She then proceeded to do it so often that Fred was hard pressed to call it accidental. Sevannah set things on fire. The chair in the living room. Stuffed animals. While Georgia's seemed to be tied to nothing, they were quickly able to determine that when Sevannah felt confused or afraid, something was going to burst into flames.

"Unless he's going to explode other things," Elizabeth said, kissing her baby's face. "You're pleased with yourself," she laughed at Orion's haughty look.

"Boom," Orion said happily, putting his chubby arms around her neck.

"Yes, love. You're a wizard."

"Like grandpa," Orion nodded.

"And Daddy," Elizabeth grinned at Fred who rolled his eyes.

"Daddy's not a wizard," Orion shook his head.

"Oh really?" Fred took his son from Elizabeth and spun him around. "What am I?"

"Witch," Orion said, as if that answer was obvious.

Severus choked back laughter, then looked as if an idea occurred to him. "Orion, what color is a wizard's hair?"

"Like Mummy's," Orion said, pointing at Elizabeth's dark hair. "Wizard, Wizard, Wizard," he said, pointing at Severus, Elizabeth, and himself.

"And what color is a witch's hair?"

"Daddy's," Orion giggled. "Georgia and Sev-ah and Lily."

Elizabeth lost her battle with her laughter. "Go get Georgia, baby. Tell her it's time to eat."

Orion ran off, Severus following for the child's own protection, and Elizabeth doubled over with laughter.

"Alright, alright, it's not that funny," Fred grumbled. "So I've got girly hair."

"I love your witch hair, honey," Elizabeth straightened up and kissed him.

"Yep, emasculation in front of my father-in-law," Fred nodded. "That's exactly what I needed today."

"Poor guy," Elizabeth smiled fondly at her husband. "Would it make you feel better to go chop some wood or lift something heavy?"

"I'll get over it," Fred rolled his eyes and looked toward the door as three sets of feet walked down the hall toward the kitchen. "Do you ever think our kids look in their history books and think 'hypocrites' when we get upset that they did dangerous things?"

"Binns still teaches History, so we're good," Elizabeth laughed. "He'll never get farther than the Goblin Wars. And they have my permission to fight any Dark wizards they come across."

"Maybe," Fred sighed. "They make me feel old."

"We are old," Elizabeth said, putting her arm around him and walking toward the kitchen. "But we've earned it."

*S*S*

Ginny took the glass of wine Elizabeth handed her when she stepped through the floo. "Listen," she said, sitting beside Fred on the sofa. "I want to tell you guys something before we start the girls' party."

"Gerard isn't coming?" Elizabeth asked, taking the present Ginny had and adding it to the pile.

"He's scouting new players for next season," Ginny said. "But what I have to tell you is kind of related to that." She smiled a little and held up her left hand. "I'm getting married!"

Elizabeth shrieked and Ginny stood up to hug her before they started bouncing up and down. "I'm so happy for you," Elizabeth grinned, taking the other witch's hand to examine the ring. "Fred? Your sister is getting married."

"I see," Fred said, smiling politely. "Congratulations, Ginny."

"What?" Ginny looked at her brother. "Why are you using your 'I've got something to say' voice?"

"I'm not," Fred shook his head. "It's just…"

"What?" Ginny asked again. Elizabeth busied herself with the pile of gifts, not willing to get in the middle of whatever sibling squabble was happening.

"Gin, you've been living with the guy for 8 years. I kind of forgot that you weren't married."

"Doesn't mean it's not still exciting," Ginny glared at him. "You could be happy for me."

"I am," Fred said, running a hand through his hair and standing to hug her. "And I'm glad you're happy, kid."

Ginny seemed mollified, and Elizabeth took that moment to ask her to take Orion flying in the back garden.

"Gets them both out of the way," Fred said appreciatively, picking up Lily from her playpen. "When is everyone else coming?"

"A half hour," Elizabeth said stopping him from going out of the living room. "You want to tell me what the real problem is with Ginny and Gerard? Don't pretend that you care they've been 'living in sin'."

Fred sighed. "The guy has a stupid name. There are multiple, perfectly phonetic ways to spell 'Jared'. Who spells it the way he does?"

"Well, I doubt he named himself, so why don't you try again?" Elizabeth took the baby and leveled the stare at him that she usually used on a lying child.

Fred frowned. "He's a prat."

Elizabeth laughed. "He's… not my type, but Ginny likes him. You hardly have to see him."

Fred rolled his eyes. "We have four children. That's four birthdays, Christmas, Easter…"

"Well, three birthdays," Elizabeth said, kissing his face. "But we'll make do. You know how I feel about Fleur—

"Daddy?" Sevannah appeared at the door. "Look!" She held up a Chocolate Frog card, the half-eaten candy in her other hand.

"Let me see," Fred said happy to stop talking about his sister's irritating fiancé. He took the card, snorting when he saw his face staring back. "How many pictures of me do you need, Angel?"

"It's not of you," Sevannah said, pointing at the bottom of the card. "Look."

Elizabeth looked over her husband's shoulder, glancing at the banner under the picture. "Oh."

"George Fabian Weasley," Fred said, smiling a little. "Well. Look at that."

"I'm going to show Grandma," Sevannah said, reaching for the picture.

"You know," Elizabeth said, putting an arm around her daughter. "We'll show her later, okay? Can you go find Georgia for me and get her to put on her dress?"

Sevannah nodded and scampered away, shouting for her sister.

"So," Elizabeth said carefully, putting Lily back in her playpen so she could put both arms around her husband. "More or less strange than when you and I became cards?"

Fred chuckled, tucking the card into his pocket. "See, I bet they just used my picture and put his name on it. That's too handsome a picture to be George."