Ch 62 Christmas of twenty-twenty-six
It was ten-thirty in the morning, Thursday December twenty-fourth, and Ginny's mobile rang.
"Hello, Erica," Ginny answered.
"Hello, mum," Erica replied. "Could Viktor and James and I stay in James Senior's room tonight? We've been sleeping in the same bed, sleeping, just sharing a bed, since we have been here, and it would just be nice to have breakfast with the family again like little James and I have been doing. Back to normal."
"We could arrange for a formal betrothal if that is what you want," Ginny grinned.
"I think that because Viktor has been accused of all sorts of things, and just because he is a good and honorable wizard, we will wait, mum," Erica replied. "He has a very developed sense of honor, and I can see where that comes from after meeting some grandparents and great-grandparents. Not his mum, who we have all sorts of issues with, but, well, some of the last three days have been good and some not so good."
Ginny thought, from the way Erica said 'not so good' that she was being charitable.
"The room will be ready for you," Ginny replied.
It was late the evening of December twenty-fourth before a tired Erica and Viktor and a sleeping James came through the Floo. Harry stayed up to wait for them. "I need less sleep than Ginny," Harry explained. "How was Bulgaria?"
"Some of it was good and some of it wasn't so good," Viktor sighed. "My father tried to be nice to all of us, and his parents and grandparents are nice. I'm not sure about the grandparents my mother's side. One of my sister was friendly, the other one is on my mother's side and not friendly. My mother was not nice at all, and it was hard."
"Christmas!" Gregory Potter told his parents as they went downstairs to have breakfast Christmas morning. "Presents!"
"Yes, there will be Christmas presents," Ginny told her three-year-old. 'Three years and three months, about nine months older than Will,' Ginny thought. That age difference would not matter much once they were adults, but now it was a huge difference.
"Did Erica, James and Viktor get here last night?" nine-year-old Minerva wondered.
"Late, and they were very tired," Harry announced.
A short time later Lily came downstairs, carrying nine-month-old Eileen. Billy was walking with two-and-a-half-year-old Will, holding his hand as Will proudly but carefully walked down the stairs.
"Merry Christmas, Will," Gregory told his nephew. "Presents!"
"Lo, Greg-rey," Will replied.
"Did Erica, James and Viktor get here last night?" Lily wondered.
"Late, and they were very tired," Harry repeated to Lily and family.
It was close to seven-thirty before Erica and Viktor stumbled downstairs, Viktor holding three-and-a-half-year-old James's hand. Erica was seven months pregnant, and she looked very pregnant.
"Welcome back, Erica, Viktor, James," Ginny greeted the trio.
"Glad to be back," Erica muttered. "Thank you for letting us use the bedroom."
"How was your trip?" Lily wondered.
"Later," Erica frowned at Lily, conveying much more than her words by her looks.
Lily grimaced.
Erica nodded.
The family finished eating and went up to the drawing room to take down stockings and exchange Christmas presents.
"It works better having Josefina at the children's table," Victoire told her grandmother as she and Molly looked over the table arrangements. "Especially since there are three more now four-year-olds, my Venus, Javier and Rosario."
"That makes thirteen at that table with one adult, and there will be many more next year," Molly noted. "Even the children's table is getting crowded."
"There are nine more turning four next year," Victoire pondered. "That could be a table all by itself."
"Maybe Alice Milne, Al's nanny, could sit at that table," Molly thought. "She is a widow, and is living with Al and his family. If she thinks she can handle nine four-year-olds. We may have to have another adult at that table for a couple of years.
"Have you finished the jumper for Viktor?"
"Yes. I hope he will like it," Victoire replied.
Quite to everyone's surprise, Louis came through the Floo with a girl he introduced as Amanda Meijer.
Shortly after Harry, Ginny and their whole clan, except for Albus and his family, came in via the Closet. Louis brought Amanda over to meet them, saying "Amanda, this is my Aunt and Uncle Ginny and Harry Potter and their youngest children, Minerva and Gregory. This is my classmate Amanda Meijer."
Amanda piped up, "M-e-i-j-e-r."
Ginny asked, "Is your mother Ann Meijer, the witch who writes a column in the monthly magazine "Home Schooling your young witch and wizard?"
"She is," Amanda admitted with a big grin on her face.
Ginny looked at Louis, who seemed to be in shock. Just then Ron and Hermione Granger-Weasley came in.
Hermione looked at Amanda and exclaimed, "Amanda Meijer! I haven't seen you since I saw your mother in California, was it, six years ago?"
"Louis and I are classmates at Harvard Business School," Amanda replied.
Hermione pulled Louis and Amanda aside, wanting to talk to Amanda.
The rest of the Potter clan came into the room, and people started to surround Erica and Viktor. Ginny went over to her daughter-in-law and let people know, "Erica and Viktor arrived very late last night. Give them a little room!"
Erica looked at Ginny with gratitude, and went to sit down at the table, obviously a little tired. Viktor put James down between them, before sitting down himself.
Lily plopped down next to Erica, holding Eileen. She pulled out a breast and told the baby, "You should eat before I do." Eileen started to nurse.
Erica looked at Lily, who had never been particular modest about nursing. "One of Viktor's sisters has a baby, but I think she went into another room to feed her baby," Erica sighed.
"That's stupid!" Lily snapped. "It's not like you are making love or anything, and at Resort Cleo you don't even have to cover them. If it was me I'd whip it out in front of everybody and defy them to complain. I mean, babies need to be fed!"
Erica could see Lily doing just that! Even in front of a hostile family like Viktor's.
Hermione jumped in with, "Some people are shy, and some cultures just don't approve of exposing any part of women's bodies, Lily. Witches even were in trouble in ages past because they were the ones to treat female problems, and talking too freely about female bodies could get you into trouble. Everyone is not as self-confident as you are, Lily."
Lily huffed like it wasn't her problem, before turning away from Hermione and back to Erica.
"I guess you didn't have the best time in Bulgaria," Lily guessed.
"Viktor's father's mother's family, great and great-great grandparents, are very nice people and tried to make me feel welcome. His father isn't too bad either," Erica responded. "His mother hates me, though, and she doesn't even try to hide it. They don't like it that Viktor is in England, and they don't like it that he is not seeing someone who is from Eastern Europe, and they don't like it that he is seeing a widow with children, or that he may be a foster father to two children. His mum made it very clear that my two are not going to be her grandchildren.
"It is just so different from how accepting this family is."
"If you and Viktor have children I'm sure mum and dad will treat them as grandchildren, and grandmum and Victoire will make them jumpers, and all," Lily insisted, growling at the hostile way Erica has been received. "I'll sic Rita Skeeter on them."
"Don't do that!" Erica pled. "Viktor's father and his sisters, well one of his sisters, are not that bad. Don't ruin it for us."
Lily made a face indicating her unhappiness at Erica's problems.
"What is going on with Louis?" Viktor wondered, as he sat down, James next to him, between Erica and Viktor.
"Louis has never brought a girl to one of the family gatherings," Lily told Viktor. "Never. He always had a date for dances, but they were never serious girlfriends. Bringing someone to Christmas is serious!"
"Cleo is examining them!" Erica giggled. "I know that smile! She sees another couple and more babies on the way. Amanda is totally flustered, but Louis, he is smiling. Louis was flustered earlier, but he knows now. Poor Amanda. She has never run into someone like Cleo."
Harry sat down next to Viktor as the family started their meal. Lily told her father, "Viktor's mother said that James's children are never going to be her grandchildren. That's not how you are going to treat Erica and Viktor's children, are you?"
"We are not even married, Lily!" Erica exclaimed. "I'm still pregnant. I'm not going to be like Victoire and start popping one out every other year or so!"
"But?" Lily pressed, staring at Erica.
"We will see," Erica muttered. "Just don't push!"
"I don't know if I will have any more either," Lily thought.
Erica whispered to Lily, "They will probably be mistakes, like the first two."
Lily sighed. "Probably. I haven't exactly been very good at family planning."
The family didn't gather at the New Burrow on Boxing Day, Saturday, since they were going to be together on Sunday. The extended Potter family did, however, gather at Grimmauld Place, including Al and Cleo. They combined the two drawing rooms at twelve and thirteen Grimmauld Place, and Ron and Hermione's family joined them.
Harry, Ron, Albus, Scorpius and Viktor were in one corner of the room playing with and watching Adam, James Jr., Gregory and Will. Billy seemed to be walking a fussy Eileen, who was overtired, and despite having been fed was in no mood to take a nap or be pleasant.
Harry, Ron and Albus talked some about the last practice of the Honor Guard.
"I've practiced some offensive and defensive spells," Scorpius told the group. "My healers have cautioned me about trying to do too much too fast. They are still working on removing the last effects of the curses from my insides."
"No one is trying to recruit you," Harry let Scorpius know.
"I have to admit that the last few years have been mostly about Quidditch," Viktor admitted. "I'm woefully out of practice on my Defense against the Dark Arts skills."
"No one is recruiting you either," Harry told Viktor.
"What is going on with Louis and Amanda?" Lily asked the assembled witches, her mother, Hermione, Cleo, Erica, and Rose. Minerva was as usual listening quietly in the background. The little girls and babies all seemed to be occupied or napping.
Hermione volunteered, "Amanda is half Veela, but she is lacking in social skills. Smart as they come with book learning, but she doesn't read people very well. I think Louis is her first boyfriend."
"He seems to like her," Rose suggested. "He tried all yesterday to let Amanda know who people were and answer her questions."
Everybody looked at Cleo, who had examined the couple. Cleo told the group, "Amanda is more than a little strange. She doesn't read people and situations very well. She wants to marry Louis but doesn't know how to go from being a friend to being a girlfriend. She has had too many bad experiences with guys going after her because of her physical beauty, and she doesn't know quite what to make of Louis, with his half-Veela mother and sister. He knows that she is pretty, but it doesn't seem to bother him or make him say stupid things.
"They will figure it out, eventually."
"You are sure?" Ginny wondered.
"I think so," Cleo replied. "Amanda survived Christmas. She will be fine."
"They are in California visiting her parents now," Hermione told the group. "I'm tempted to call Ann Meijer and ask how things went, but I probably won't pry since I don't need to."
"I think Viktor survived Christmas just fine as well," Ginny suggested, looking over to where the men were playing with the little boys.
"Viktor is so good with James," Erica grinned, before giving a lovesick sigh.
"My grandchildren will be in good hands," Ginny told Erica.
"We are going to spend part of next week with my mum and dad," Erica told the ladies. "Also with Tabitha and her family. "We all feel we need to spend more time with my father while he can still remember us. It is getting harder as he loses more memory."
"Are you going to start planning a wedding?" Lily asked. "I like big happy weddings!"
Ginny grinned, as did the other witches. Lily huffed a disgusted huff. "I know, I know, it is my own stupid fault that I didn't get a chance to have a big wedding."
"Viktor has started to go to church with me, and we would like to marry in St. Mungo's and Merlin's," Erica volunteered. "Viktor's family is not church goers, and his mother hates anything to do with religion. Any religion, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, anything. She is especially prejudice against Jews, for some reason. One of her daughters is the same. I'm not sure what to do."
"I'd marry in the church just to spite them!" Lily suggested.
"And right in the middle of the ceremony you would pull out a boob and nurse your baby," Erica laughed.
"I may do it in the midst of your marriage, if Eileen is hungry," Lily snapped, before laughing. She looked at Rose. "Gardner is still nursing. We should sit together and proudly feed our babies together."
"It has been over a year, but he still likes to nurse, and I'm in no hurry to wean him," Rose admitted. "Victoire's Remus isn't even six months old, though. She will still be nursing him."
"I don't mind," Erica replied. "I nursed the little Snitch while I was spotting for James, and I know there were a couple of times where things became rather exciting and I showed way more than I should have, even though I normally had a blanket over me."
"Erica and Viktor are going to marry," Minerva observed, talking to her mother the morning of December twenty-ninth, just after her father had left for work.
"Yes, they are, the end of January, I believe," Ginny responded.
"And they are going to consummate the marriage?" Minerva asked, eyes wide open in anticipation.
"I am sure they will," Ginny replied, wondering where this conversation was leading.
"Are you going to tell me what that means?" Minerva wondered, folding her arms and glaring at her mother.
"You are old enough," Ginny agreed. "I have a book that will help me tell you about what happens to girl and boy bodies as you grow up." Minerva was nine, and it would not be that long before her body began to change. It really was time.
Ginny retrieved the book on basic reproduction, and she and Minerva went through it. They spent some time talking about what happened to a women's body, and a little about what happened to a man's body. There were reasonably explicit drawings, but no photographs.
The information on making love was rather basic, but it covered the subject. It didn't just say the man's sperm joined with the woman's egg, but went into how this happened, which male and female body parts were involved. Ginny remembered that Rose had been rather appalled that a man would do that to her, but it didn't seem to bother Minerva.
Finally, Minerva asked, "Is it fun?"
"It should be," her mother answered. "With the right person, at the right time, it is wonderful."
"How often do you do it?" Minerva wondered. "I don't think you only do it to start a baby."
"Different couples do it more or less often," Ginny replied. "I have been told some only do it a few times a year, and some try to do it every day. Most, I guess, are somewhere in between."
"I think you and dad do it a lot," Minerva mumbled with a shy and slightly embarrassed look.
Ginny giggled. She wiggled in her seat. She sighed. She looked at her daughter, and admitted, "I really like the physical side of marriage. The world is just right when your father and I make love." She smiled a slightly embarrassed smile.
Minerva giggled. "When we are on vacation, and I watch Gregory in the middle of the day, and you and dad giggle and go to your bedroom …"
Ginny nodded her head 'yes.'
"The book doesn't really tell you much about how to do it, though," Minerva complained. "The romance books talk about making love, and falling in each other's arms, and even taking off clothes. I guess you do it naked, or can, or it is nice to do it naked or something, but they really don't tell you how to do it. Is there a book about that?"
"I will give you a book about how to do it before you marry," Ginny told her daughter. "There are a lot of ways to do it, but I don't know anyone who tries to do it all the possible ways."
Except Hermione, Ginny thought, but she didn't need to share that with Minerva.
"It is rather private, except when you are having a baby," Minerva thought. "Then you go to St. Mungo's and a midwitch helps you?"
"That is what is supposed to happen," an embarrassed Ginny admitted.
Minerva saw the look on her mother's face, and asked, "Didn't you have all of us in St. Mungo's?"
"I didn't think Albus would come so fast, and ended up having him in the drawing room," Ginny admitted. "Your father caught the baby as he came out. I never did go to St. Mungo's."
"But the rest of us were born in St. Mungo's, with father there?" Minerva tried to confirm.
"Well, no," Ginny told her daughter. "You were born at Hogwarts, in the infirmary there. Your father was busy with an attack, an emergency, as were all the healers. Cleo is listed on your birth certificate as the assistant."
"Cleo?" Minerva gasped.
"She did a good enough job. It was a chaotic evening."
"I don't want excitement like that when I have my babies," Minerva frowned. "Cleo does sort of make you, no, not make but encourage you, to want to get all curvy and feminine looking and have babies and nurse them. I think that is what I want. To fall in love and get naked and make love with some nice guy, and have our babies, and be a mum. And just be a mum.
"I'm sorry if I'm not more ambitious, mum, but everybody I know is so busy and I just want a nice little life, without all the drama and danger and excitement."
"I hope you can have a nice life like that," Ginny told her daughter. She had to admit that she and Harry had experienced enough excitement, and trauma, for several lifetimes.
That night, after the children were in bed, Ginny told Harry, "Minerva wanted to know about consummating a marriage."
"I'm not giving a demonstration," Harry laughed.
Ginny shook her head 'no,' saying, "Be serious, Harry!"
"Did you use the book Hermione gave us?" Harry wondered. "Not the real basic book, but the rather explicit one?"
"She wants to get naked with some pretty boy and have babies, but only when she is old enough," Ginny rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I still remember Rose's reaction. Hermione was busy and gave Rose the book to read, and Rose and I talked about it a few times. She talked to her mother too, but Rose and I talked often when her mother was busy.
"Rose was horrified at the thought of some guy doing THAT to her."
"Well," Harry pondered, "that is what rape is. A guy doing THAT to a girl. Physically the act isn't that much different, well, it is, the same body parts doing sort of the same thing but one loving and mutual and the other an act of aggression. I can understand no woman would like someone to do that to her instead of with her."
"I want to do THAT with you tonight and take your time and use the spell that lets you stay in me when we are done and, I just want to feel like a woman and be loved tonight," Ginny told Harry.
And they did, and Harry even came again, a second time, although it took longer for him to recover than it did when he was younger.
Harry fell asleep, but Ginny lay in bed with Harry's contribution in her, and thought about being a wife and mother, how a man gave his contribution but a woman's whole body was taken over with the baby for nine months, and then you nursed the baby with your body for, well she did for about a year but Rose seemed to be content to let Gardner keep nursing. Ginny could understand that. There was a pleasure in letting your body be used growing and feeding a baby.
Well, she was done. During those awful days when she was taking care of Monica she had the spell done that would make sure she could not become pregnant again. Five pregnancies, six babies, and she was finished. It was time to finish raising her children and be a grandmother to what looked like it could be a large brood of grandchildren.
But she could still enjoy Harry in her, two becoming one flesh.
2023
