I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters

Extended Family

Chapter 114 – Clear Communication

Takes place after chapter 63.

"What are they doing?" Colette asked.

She and Aimee were visiting Potter Village/Barony de Potter, name depending on who you asked, which is not an unusual thing. They have visited many times in the past, ever since the neighborhood came into being. Now though, with Fleur having a home there, they went from rare visitors to often visitors and were happier for it, they and the residents of the village.

Fleur, Aimee, and Colette were sitting in the small space that was called the Triangle, where chairs and tables were permanently there as well as a playground. The trio of French witches watched fondly at Dahlia, Hailey, and Hadley in the playground with Hedwig in attendance.

"I do not know," Fleur said. "Harry, what are the girls doing?"

Harry walked up with Katie and was carrying Iris. He handed Iris to Aimee who held her arms out for the baby. "Oh so the bunnies are into 'communicating without speaking', or something like that right now. Apparently just pointing at your open mouth doesn't suffice really," he snorted and the women laughed. "Luna suggested interpretive dance and Hedwig is the best dancer here so she's teaching them how to dance."

"Is she really the best dancer?" Colette asked.

"I can usually tell what she's trying to say when she's dancing," Katie laughed. "She also has very expressive facial expressions."

"That and when all else fails, she nips," Harry grinned.

"They know her happy dance," Fleur smiled. "I remember that from the Cup celebration."

"That's a good one," Harry nodded.

"What's that dance?" Aimee asked, pointing with one arm while cradling Iris with the other. They watched as Hedwig hopped up and down, first on one leg, then the other, then both.

"That's when she's being eager or impatient, which is sorta both for her," Harry said.

"I dance like that when I need to use the restroom so that tracks," Katie said and they laughed.

"Oh what is that one?" Fleur asked. "It does not seem polite."

"That's-HEDWIG! NO!" Harry rushed over. "Don't teach them that dance!"

"Now I have to know what it is!" Colette exclaimed.

"Probably her 'I think you're an idiot dance'," Katie snickered. "It involves a lot of mooning and arse waggling which is distinctly different from fanny wiggling and butt shaking." She looked at Fleur. "How did you know it was impolite?"

"Hedwig and I are kindred spirits," Fleur sniffed with faux haughtiness. "We are both beautiful, care for the finer things in life-"

"-both are birds," Colette continued, "both are very snooty." She shrieked when Fleur shot her with a stinger. "Both attack people without cause when confronted with the truth!"

"Fleur danced a little when she was younger," Aimee said, cooing at Iris in her arms.

"Really?" Katie asked.

"Ballet," Fleur said. "How terribly French of me, no?"

"Why did you stop?" Katie asked.

"The culture became unpleasant. People fighting for roles and positions and a lot of the old Veela related troubles," Fleur said lightly. She shook her head. "Did you ever do ballet?"

"Once. I spun, cramped my toe, fell on my arse, and cried," Katie said and laughed when the trio did, them all laughing harder when Iris joined in. "Turns out, I'm a lot more graceful on a broomstick." They watched as Harry chased Hedwig around the playground with the bunnies chasing after them.

"Does that happen often?" Colette asked, holding her stomach from laughing.

"At least a couple times a week, usually Hedwig chasing Harry though," Katie smiled.

"Oh what did Rabbit do?" Angelina asked as she came walking up with Fred and George carrying the twins.

"Hedwig was teaching the girls a rude dance and he wanted her to stop," Katie explained.

"Oh the 'you're an idiot' dance?" Fred asked.

"How did you guess?" Aimee asked.

"I've seen it a lot," Fred sighed.

"I wonder why," Angelina said dryly.

"Because we're idiots," George said proudly, puffing his chest out.

Eventually the table was turned and Hedwig and the bunnies chased Harry to the tables, tackling him over and piling on top of him with Hedwig sitting on his head. Alicia, Oliver, Melanie, Hermione, Luna and Lyla came drifting over.

"What happened here?" Alicia asked, seeing the pile.

"Hedwig was teaching them a rude dance," Harry said, ignoring Hedwig's indignant cheep. "I tried to stop it." He looked up at her. "Wait until they're older at least." He sputtered when Hedwig shoved her tail feathers into his face.

"Hedwig was teaching us how to communicate through dance," Hadley said, "like Auntie Luna suggested."

"How does that work?" George asked.

"Interpretive dance is admittedly more for art and is more broad," Luna said. "But I don't see why you couldn't use it for day-to-day communication."

"Sounds exhausting," Alicia snorted.

"You'd have to know what they were doing to guess what they were going for," Oliver said.

"That's easy enough," Fred and George said together.

"For you two maybe," Katie said. "You two are twins."

"Excuse me," they said in the same indignant tone.

"Just because we're twins has nothing to do with it," George sniffed.

"It's about being observant and having a solid bond," Fred sniffed.

"Assuming we know everything because we're twins is rude."

"It's twinnist, that's what it is."

"Exactly. How could you, Katie?"

"We thought better of you." They both gasped theatrically when she made a rude hand gesture from behind the children.

"You're just jealous you don't have that kind of bond," Fred said. He rested an arm around George's shoulder. "Bless you by the way."

George sneezed. "Thanks," he said, wiping his nose with a handkerchief.

"Okay, that was weird, even for you two," Alicia said as they stared.

"Uncle Fred puts a bit of pepper on his wrist and then puts his arm around Daddy's shoulders," Hailey said. "That's how they do that trick."

"Hailey, you weren't supposed to tell!" Fred said while everyone roared and laughed.

"Oh, sorry," Hailey smiled, not looking sorry at all.

"I'm sure some of us here have those kinds of bonds and familiarity," Alicia said.

"Don't look at me," Oliver said, hugging a wiggling Melanie. "I've known you for years and I still don't know how you think sometimes. Your brain is tricky."

"You're so sweet," Alicia said and kissed him. "And no, I wasn't referring to you either."

"Oh thank goodness," he sighed with relief.

"Hey, this might be fun. Let's all write down some random things and put them in something. A person draws them out and see if they can have someone guess what they're referring to without saying exactly what it is," Katie suggested. She waved her wand and some parchment and ink and quill came flying out of the Potter home and she cut the parchment into pieces neatly. People scribbled some things down and put them into Aimee's purse that she shook out the contents of.

"More points if you can do it without saying anything," Luna said eagerly.

"I'll start since it was my idea." Katie reached into the purse and withdrew a piece and read it. "Oh!" She looked at Lyla. "Aunt Debby."

"Polka-dots?" Lyla asked, almost immediately. She and Katie shrieked with laughter when Katie nodded. "We have an aunt that loves polka-dots," Lyla explained. "Literally everything she has, if she can polka-dot it, she does." They laughed harder when the trio of French witches shuddered.

Angelina reached in and pulled out a piece of parchment. "Oh, hmmm, I think I can do this without saying anything." She looked at Alicia and moved her right pointer and middle finger like someone was walking and then plunged her fingers down suddenly.

"No! That was your fault!" Alicia shouted. "I told you the ice looked thin, it's not my fault that you didn't believe me!"

"You should have said it was thin and not that it looked thin!" Angelina shouted back.

"How was I supposed to know?! I wasn't going to walk out onto the Lake like you!" She stuck her tongue out in response to Angelina and rolled her eyes. "The word is ice, thin ice if we are being specific."

"Alicia tried to kill me via hypothermia our second year," Angelina growled.

"Is that why you kept threatening to drown her in the Lake?" Harry asked, still buried beneath the girls and Hedwig.

"Drown her stupidity more like," Alicia grumbled.

"Yes, you're my stupidity," Angelina retorted.

George reached into the purse and pulled a piece of parchment out. "Oh, actually, I can do this." He looked right at Fred and pulled on his pants in a very specific way.

"There are children present!" Alicia hissed and slapped him on the stomach.

"It's relevant!" George said, shying away.

"Okay, who wrote wedgie?" Katie asked.

"No it's not wedgie," Fred said. "It's either frog or puce."

"It's puce!" George said triumphantly.

"Okay, explain that," Oliver laughed.

"Well when we were innocent youngsters," Fred began, ignoring the collective snort from everyone present, "George and I accidentally played a prank on Percy."

"No you didn't," Angelina said.

"They play pranks all the time," Aimee said, "even we know this."

"I meant the accidental part," Angelina clarified.

"Well believe it or not, it was mostly an accident," Fred sniffed. "We found a bottle of Shrinking Solution that Mum made and we put some on a couple of frogs and they turned into tadpoles. We put them in a glass of water and were going to surprise people by suddenly having frogs spill out of a cup in the kitchen."

"Except Percy walked by and drank the cup," George said.

"Oh no, don't tell me he swallowed some," Harry groaned.

"No, thankfully, but a bunch transformed back into frogs in his mouth and he spat out a bunch of frogs," George said while others groaned and laughed.

"How is puce related to this?" Alicia asked. "And why touching yourself inappropriately?"

"We were getting there," Fred said. "Puce because his face turned that color while spitting out frog, which green frogs and puce Percy does not make a flattering combination."

"His revenge was to shrink our underwear and kept it shrunk," George said.

"That does not seem so bad," Oliver said.

"We were wearing them at the time," Fred said.

"We were going to tough it out and make him cave first but by the night Mum made him undo it and we had to do all of Percy's chores the next day," George said while everyone laughed.

"It did make walking awkward and truthfully we were getting a bit desperate," Fred said. "Not to mention it was a literal pain in the ar-" he jumped, clutching his rear and glaring at a frowning Alicia who waggled her wand at him.

Luna withdrew a parchment next and smiled at it, then at Harry. She bent low and picked up a pebble that she tapped with her wand twice. It turned bright yellow and she stuck it to her shirt.

"Sibling stone or sunflower," Harry smiled.

"Sunflower!" Luna said happily and sat beside him to hug him. "I still have mine of course and take it with me when I leave the house."

"Hand me the purse?" Harry reached in when someone passed it to Luna who held it for him. He looked at it and smiled. "Oh, I got this." He looked up at Hedwig and scratched his arm a few times, then mimed holding something between thumb and forefinger beneath his arm.

Hedwig blinked once before brightening and nodding. She launched herself off his head and flapped energetically, flying into the Potter home. She came back soon after and dropped something into Harry's hand.

"Pancetta?" Lyla asked.

"We decided it was the third best bacon underneath rasher and slab," Harry said. He handed the piece back to Hedwig who munched noisily on it.

"Oh you scratched your arm, rash," Katie laughed. "That's clever."

"Oh, you want to try?" Luna asked brightly when Hedwig hopped onto her head and walked down her arm, reaching into the purse with her beak and withdrawing a slip. She fluttered to the table and dropped it flat, kicking it open and looking at the word. The owl tilted her head in thought before she turned on the spot and looked at Harry. She opened her beak and closed it, slowly and repeatedly.

"Talk?" Harry asked. "Oh you want me to keep talking?" he said when she shook her head. "Okay," he said when she nodded. "Uhm well I'll just keep talking and you tell me when-"

Hedwig closed her eyes and let her beak fall open and her head tilted to one side. As Harry continued to talk, she started to snore.

"Ooh is it boring?" Colette asked while everyone hooted with laughter. "Do you find him boring?" She gasped when Hedwig nipped her on the wrist before going back to snoring.

"I know, lessons at Hogwarts," Harry said. He laughed when Hedwig perked up and nodded, flapping her wings happily.

"Oooh, now that is a comment on your education," Fleur giggled.

"As if we never fell asleep during a lesson at Beauxbatons," Aimee smiled.

"Did Hedwig attend classes?" Lyla asked.

"She did a few times during fifth year, when she was sitting on my head for O.W.L.s luck," Harry said. He smiled when Hedwig flew back to him and settled on his head comfortably, hooting with satisfaction.

"I remember those classes," Hermione said fondly. "Professor Flitwick gave her treats. Professor Snape didn't even seem to notice."

"Professor McGonagall had a staring match and she fell asleep," Luna said. "Hedwig, not Professor McGonagall."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked.

"It happened the next year when Hedwig sat on my head for O.W.L.s luck," Luna said. "Professor McGonagall muttered, 'Not again,' and tried to shoo Hedwig away who ignored her and fell asleep."

"I should take her to one of my mastery lessons," Harry chuckled.

Hermione took a piece out of the purse. "Oh this is easy." She tapped it with her wand and it transfigured into a white quill that she stuck in her mouth.

"Sugar quill," everyone but the French women and the babies said.

"I need to learn how to transfigure sugar," Hermione smiled while sticking her tongue out. She took a glass of wine from Fleur and sipped it. "But that was it!"

"How did you all guess that so swiftly?" Colette asked, taking Iris from Aimee.

"Baby bird is addicted to them," Alicia said.

"I am not," Harry said. "I just have a passion for them."

"We like eating them with Daddy," Dahlia said and Hailey and Hadley nodded.

"And how often is that?" Angelina asked. She snorted when the three girls turned their faces away from their mothers. "Really? You have them trained to do that?"

"I didn't teach them that but I'm not complaining," Harry laughed. "Thanks bunnies," he whispered loudly and grinned and winked back at them when the girls blinked at him with both their eyes several times.

Colette reached into the purse with one hand and withdrew a slip. "Oh! This is easy too." She looked at Dahlia. "Allain Altois."

"Trou du cul!" Dahlia shouted happily.

"Dally!" Harry said loudly but could not scold properly because he was laughing. Katie and Aimee and Fleur started laughing uproariously too.

"Who wrote that on a slip?!" Katie laughed.

"What does trou du cul mean?" George asked.

"Hole in the rear is the literal translation," Fleur translated.

"That was me," Luna smiled. "I wrote the impolite word."

"Who's this Allain Altois person, aside from being a hole in the rear?" Fred asked eagerly.

"We both attended the Academie at the same time," Katie said, wiping tears of laughter away. "He thought he was Merlin's gift to women and he hit on me all the time."

"Oh that guy," Angelina said. "I remember you writing to us about him. What a jerk."

"I assumed he most certainly wasn't a gift," Hermione snorted.

"Merlin's plague to women perhaps," Fleur sniffed. "We went to Beauxbatons with him and he was terrible then and he only got worse with time, like terrible wine becoming terrible vinegar."

"He even hit on me when we visited Paris a few years ago, knowing full well I was married," Katie said with disgust.

"I taught Dally his title the night they arrived," Colette said smugly.

"And Harry absolutely obliterated him in a Seeker duel," Aimee said. "Publicly humiliated him. We made copies of the memory of it and passed it around to his former classmates."

"So not a popular fellow," Alicia smiled.

"Not at all," Fleur laughed. "He became more popular after the memories went about, for not good reasons. He always claimed he was a very good Seeker and could outfly Harry."

"Daddy wasn't even sweating," Dahlia said proudly, smiling with glee when Harry kissed her cheek and the others laughed.

"Oooh, I bet you destroyed him," Oliver said admiringly.

"I wasn't feeling very kind, no," Harry said with a sharp smile. "He was insulting Katie, much less me, and he was about to say something rude about Dally."

"Do you have this Altois' address?" Luna asked, looking at the French witches.

"No, but he works at the Academie and I could give you his work address. Why?" Aimee asked.

"I want to send him something terrible for saying something rude about our Dally," Luna said, her dreamy expression replaced by a more savage one.

"I'll help," Hermione said, also looking furious.

"We got some new stuff that's highly experimental," Fred said.

"And mostly not permanent," George said.

"I don't think we should be sending anything terrible," Harry said. "I really appreciate the sentiment and the willingness, but no need to start an international incident."

Aimee made a subtle gesture and mouthed 'tell me later' and the other nodded at that, making Harry snort.

"Can we try?" Dahlia asked, pointing at the purse.

"Sure, go ahead," Harry said. They watched as Dahlia reached in and pulled out a parchment and she and Hailey and Hadley bent over it, looking at it. They whispered amongst themselves. They clapped their hands and nodded and stood in a line. With hands on their hips, they swayed first to the left, then to the right, staying in rough tandem. They swayed back and forth, moving left twice and then right twice before swaying up and down, squatting a little.

"Hula dancers?" Lyla asked.

"Oh uhm, hula-hoops?" Hermione offered.

They shook their heads, continuing to dance. They added another part, raising a right foot then a left foot before repeating the hip swaying and then squatting up and down.

"Rain dance?" Alicia asked.

"Ooh that's a good one but guess that's wrong," Angelina said thoughtfully. "Kinda look like frogs, a little."

Luna began to giggle, her face turning red from suppressed mirth.

"Do you know?" Katie asked.

"I have an idea," Luna said, continuing to giggle mightily. "Is it twins?"

"Yes!" the bunnies cried and they hugged and kissed Luna in congratulations.

"Twins, but it is three of them?" Aimee said.

"Do the dance again," Luna encouraged the girls, "but turn away from us."

"Hedwig!" Harry cried when he recognized the dance once the girls were facing away. "I thought I stopped you in time!"

"Oh the 'you are an idiot' dance!" Fleur laughed and the others joined her when they realized it.

"Oh right, us," Fred laughed.

"That's fair," George laughed.

"You are a terrible influence," Harry sighed, wincing when Hedwig pulled on his hair. The owl launched herself into the air and landed on Dahlia's head and joined the dance, waggling her tail feathers expressively.

"To be fair, they've seen her do it a lot before she taught it to them officially," Katie laughed. She smiled when the idiot dance became the happy dance, the girls and the owls stomping their feet and kicking in time with arms and wings held wide.

Day became evening, the sun sinking into the west, sending warm orange and red tones across the land. The firepit crackled as Harry lit a fire and he and the twins and Oliver carried out a table with food and things on it. Savory smells filled the air and the sound of easy chatter and laughter joined the crackling of the fire.

Fleur smiled as she watched the bunnies chase the twins who in turn were being chased by their mothers around the gardens, cuddling Iris in her lap.

"I'm glad you live here now," Aimee said soulfully. "This place is so pleasant and peaceful."

"You can feel the happiness," Colette said.

"It really is," Fleur sighed happily. She smiled when Iris pulled on her hair and chewed on it playfully. "Our hearts can be at home here."

-0-0-0-

odonnellzoo99 - I am not very good with strong liquor. The only bourbon or whisky I like is the honey ones. I have a candy palate.

Ghostwriter - He needs a hobby to keep busy but at least he's happy.

alix33 - The call sound was my favorite joke for all the reason you listed.

zlancer1 - I am actually not great with whisky or scotch or bourbon really but he one I like the most is this German honey bourbon that is really nice. Smooth and sweet. I can't remember the name but I'm sure you can find it online.

poka - Their dynamic makes me smile. They are polar opposites but can have a real genuine connection for all the reasons you listed. I thought him finding a distillery would make a lot of sense and be fun.