Warning- There is a short CP scene in this chapter. You have been warned. Oh, and implied sex.

The Weasley house included as many windows as Fred could work into the design when he had it built. There had been so much darkness in their lives that all he wanted in their house was light. Now, he stood in their living room and worried that the windows exposed his children to darkness that was trying to reemerge.

"What are you thinking about?" Elizabeth came up behind him softly, sliding her arms around his waist.

"We can charm these windows to be one-way, right?" Fred looked at the glass critically.

"Probably," Elizabeth moved around him to look at his face. "Of course with Georgia, we are lucky we have windows left to charm at all."

Fred snorted. "Human wrecking ball." He put his arms around his wife. "What did your father say about the guy?"

"Walden McNair. Dad said he was young during the last war. One of those kids that Voldemort was bringing in for muscle. Apparently he's gone a bit cracked, spends all his time trying to bring his master back."

"I would argue that he was a bit cracked to become a Death Eater to begin with," Fred said mildly, and glanced at the clock on the wall. "I told my mum that we would get the babies by 5. And we should probably check in at the store since we've been busy the last few days."

Elizabeth nodded. "Why don't you go, make sure everything is alright at the shop? I'll grab the kids and meet you there, and we can close up together."

Fred released her and headed toward the floo. "It's not that I don't trust Ron, mind you. Just that if I'm not careful, he'll let Hermione turn the place into a library."

*S*S*

"Mummy!" Elizabeth smiled to herself at her son's excitement. Orion, his dark hair falling over his dark eyes, flew down the stairs at the Burrow and threw himself into his mother's arms.

"Oof," she mimicked being unable to hold him. "You are almost too big for me to carry."

Orion gripped her tighter. "I love you, Mummy. You're the best Mummy ever."

Elizabeth found herself getting suspicious. Orion tended to become effusively loving when he thought he was going to be in trouble for something. "Were you good for Grandma?"

"Yes," Orion said slowly, sounding a little less excited now.

"Orion," Elizabeth said firmly, looking her child in his darting eyes. "What is Grandma going to say if I ask her if you were good?"

"She will say that she is often thankful to be a grandmother and not a mother of small children anymore," Molly Weasley came out of the kitchen. Lily toddled behind her. Elizabeth looked at her daughter's hair, sticking out every which way. Their youngest had what Fred had described as "aggressively Weasley hair", flaming red and so curly that it was impossible to control.

"It's mostly Arthur's fault," Molly said handing Elizabeth the bag she brought with the children when they stayed at the Burrow. "He has been tinkering with Sirius' bike in the shed."

The mention of Sirius didn't cause Elizabeth the stabbing physical pain it once had. But thinking of him still made her feel as if she was missing a piece of herself. She had given the bike to Arthur after The Battle of Hogwarts not just because Arthur loved combining Muggle items with magic, but because she couldn't bear to look at it. Now, she turned her gaze to her son. "Orion Gideon Weasley. Are you supposed to be in Grandpa's shed?"

The young wizard squirmed a little in his mother's arms, looking down. "No."

Elizabeth looked at her mother-in-law. "What happened?"

"He managed to get in there and start the ridiculous thing," Molly sighed. "Saw him shoot across the yard from the kitchen window."

"Orion!" Elizabeth pressed her lips together before having the striking realization that she must look and sound exactly like Severus in this moment. "You are in a world of trouble, young man." She looked back at Molly apologetically, but the older witch waved away her apologies.

"As I said, I'm just glad that I don't have to be the parent in these things anymore." She bent down and kissed Lily's cheeks, then stepped closer to Elizabeth and did the same to Orion. "Kiss the twins for me when you see them again. From what Fred said, that might be soon."

Elizabeth smirked. "He wants to pull them both out of school."

"He has Daddy-itis." Molly smiled. "Not that being taken by a Death Eater is something trivial, mind you. But he should know better than anyone that danger is everywhere."

"It most certainly is," Elizabeth sighed. "Of course I think he cares more about the danger a certain young man poses."

*S*S*

Fred stood in his office at the shop, leaning against the edge of his desk with his arms crossed, looking at his son. "We have talked about going into Grandpa's shed before, haven't we?"

The 6-year-old scratched at the arm of the chair he was sitting in. He didn't like it when his daddy was upset with him. And he hadn't even done anything bad! Grandma said not to leave the yard, and he didn't leave the yard.

"It was an accident!" he protested. Nothing good happened when Daddy said that he had already been told not to do something that he had just done.

"Oh really?" Fred raised an eyebrow. "You accidentally went into the shed?"

Orion nodded emphatically. "I didn't mean to!"

Fred crouched down so he was eye-level with his wayward child. "Orion Gideon Weasley, it was not an accident. You knew that you weren't allowed to go in there, and you still did it. Worse, you played with something dangerous. You could have been hurt, young man." He scowled at the dark-haired little boy. "You disobeyed, and you put yourself in danger. Do you understand why that is bad?"

Orion blinked as the tears that had welled up in his eyes started to spill over. "I'm sorry, Daddy."

Fred steeled himself against the tears, knowing he had to stay stern. "Do you understand why disobeying a rule and doing something dangerous is bad?"

Orion sniffled and looked at his shoes. "Because I could get hurt."

"That's right." Fred gently pushed his child's chin up to look at him. "Mummy and I would be so sad if you got hurt," he said. "And Grandma and both of your Grandpas would be sad too."

"And Georgia and Sevannah and Lily?"

Fred suppressed a smile. "They would be sad too. You can't do things that are dangerous, young man. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Daddy." Orion's voice was barely audible.

Fred took a breath. He hated everything about this part of being a parent. "I think an early bedtime tonight is in order," he said firmly. "And no dessert."

Orion' sniffles got louder, but Fred continued to ignore them. "What did I tell you I would do if you went into Grandpa's shed again, Orion Weasley?"

Orion's voice was thick with tears. "Spank me."

Fred had mildly been hoping his son had forgotten his threat. He knew very well how his father would have handled this kind of dangerous disobedience in his sons, but he had no idea how the older man had ever survived doling out punishments to so many children. He steeled himself, then sat in the chair next to his child. "Come here, Orion."

Three swats later, Orion's tears were freely flowing into his father's robes as he pledged his obedience FOREVER. Fred smiled at the top of his son's head. "I hope so, love." He kissed the tousled hair and wiped the little boy's cheeks. "Daddy can't let you do dangerous things, do you understand?"

Orion nodded into his father's chest, and Fred continued to hold him, rocking him back and forth. "Let's go home and see what Mummy has to eat." He said, when the child's sniffles disappeared,

"Mmmhmm," Orion said, his eyes heavy with sleep. Fred stood, carrying his son to the floo, and stepped into the flames, disappearing.

*S*S*

"Mummy! Mail!" Two days later, Orion alerted Elizabeth as an owl arrived at the kitchen window.

Elizabeth watching Severus play with Lily on the floor of the living room. She got up to retrieve the letter from the bird's beak, and opened the seal with a fingernail.

"Dad?" She came back into the living room, holding the parchment in her hand. "Grandma's getting married?"

"Didn't I mention that?" Severus asked innocently, building a tower of blocks for Lily to knock over.

"No." Elizabeth sat on the sofa. "Who is this guy?"

"They met on a cruise," Severus shrugged. "He seems fine."

"That's a ringing endorsement." Elizabeth smirked. "They aren't wasting any time, it looks like. Saturday, 2:00. I didn't even know she was seeing anyone."

*S*S*

Minerva McGonagall drew her hair back into its usual bun and examined her reflection in the mirror. "I don't even know why I'm doing this again," she said to her son and granddaughter, who sat with her in the magically enlarged room below the deck on the yacht. "I'm certainly old enough to live in sin."

Elizabeth laughed. "I'm glad you found someone to be close to again, Grandma. I've been afraid you were lonely since Albus died."

Minerva met her son's eyes in the mirror.

"What?" Elizabeth saw the look. "What?"

Severus cleared his throat. "Albus didn't really serve the traditional role of companion for your grandmother. At least not as people would think of a husband."

Elizabeth frowned, puzzling out what he said for a moment. "Oh. Oh."

"Your father needed a father," Minerva said, fastening a necklace around her neck. "It was a different time. He gave me a father for my child and I gave him social legitimacy."

"You know that the world is too interested in the relationships with other people when a man taking a wife 44 years his junior is more acceptable than taking an age-appropriate husband," Severus said mildly. "Although, frankly, I'd like to think of all my parents without any sort of preference for another person. At all."

Elizabeth smirked at him. "Are you going to call Donald 'Dad'?"

Severus rolled his eyes. "Yes. Not only that, but maybe we'll play catch in the yard."

"You both are not at all helpful." Minerva stood, her cream robes falling to the floor. "You," she pointed at Elizabeth, "are going to stand beside me during the ceremony."

"Why, Grandma, I'd love to be your attendant. Thank you so much for asking so far in advance."

"I allowed your father to have too much influence on you," Minerva swept toward the stairs. "Let's go. We don't have time for any more nonsense."

*S*S*

Fred loosened his tie and shrugged off his dress robes. "I truly thought we might have been finished with weddings," he said, watching his wife remove her dress with interest. "But then all of a sudden, your elderly relatives decide to make you sit through a ceremony without warning."

Elizabeth laughed. "At least you got to to sit," she dropped the crimson dress to the floor and went over to stand between his knees as he sat on the bed.

"Yeah, you didn't mention that you would be in the ceremony, leaving me at a formal event with two young children." Fred gave a mock scowl and settled his hands on her slip-covered hips.

"She didn't tell me. Apparently when you get old, you can just do whatever you want." She put her arms around his neck and lowered her lips to his. "You were a good sport tonight, love."

Fred let his hands wander, pulling her closer to him and sliding his hands under the thin material. "I was, wasn't I?" He kissed her neck. "A nice side benefit was that apparently wedding receptions exhaust one of our children and the other one was… stolen?" He grinned. "I think stolen is the right word. Stolen by your father."

Elizabeth sat on his lap, and went to work on the buttons on his shirt. "He didn't ask, did he? Another example of what you can do when you get old. Steal grandchildren." She kissed him. "Either way, it looks like we have a bit of time on our hands."

"A bit of time on our hands," Fred nodded. "That's what got us into this whole kid situation to begin with." He pulled her slip over her head.

"Speaking of," Elizabeth fished a vial out of her bedside table and handed it to him. "Let's keep it at 4, shall we?"