A/N Some of you have commented on the lack of emotional conflict in this story. Part of that is I feel they are still somewhat in denial about what has happened to them. They've pushed it to the back of their minds as they concentrate on things they feel are more important. However, this will change as the Yule season hits them full force.
A/N 2 I can't believe I'm up to 101 reviews. Thank you to all who have read and reviewed. I truly appreciate it.
A/N 3 As the coronavirus has screwed up my student teaching (schools are closed in Ca), I seem to have more time to write. However, as I am not going to church right now, I will update once a weekend depending on when I get to it. I was picking up my daughter from college this weekend, which is why this is late. Have fun self isolating!
On to the story!
Ch. 26
14 August 1998
The next day, Harry woke up before Teddy. As the sun was shining through the window, he looked down on his beautiful fiancée. How he was lucky enough to get such an amazing, intelligent, loving, gorgeous woman to agree to marry him was a constant question in his mind. He was so damned lucky, he was a little afraid he'd wake up in the tent again and this would've been a dream.
"Hello sexy." Mione grumbled hoarsely as she opened her eyes.
Harry suddenly was aware he was playing with her fascinating hair and he must have awoken her. He took his hand away from her hair as he said, "I'm sorry, luv. I didn't mean to wake you."
"I know. But I'm up now so what do you want to do?" She asked huskily.
"This." He smiled as he leaned down and captured her lips with his. Then he took it deeper. They spent the morning exploring each other and what made them feel best.
Soon though, they were resting with Mione curled up naked to her equally naked fiancé with her head resting on his chest, enjoying the feeling of him breathing. "I love you sweetheart."
"I love you too." He smiled down at her. He then heard Teddy whining. "I better get that." He sighed reluctantly as she moved off him.
Mione decided to start her morning routine while her love was dealing with the baby. She got dressed into a nice pair of jeans, a green top and high heeled boots and put on a little makeup before she tied her crazy hair (her mum's and her nickname for the mass of bushy hair on her head) into a ponytail and looked in the mirror. Satisfied, she smiled and went downstairs.
Looking around the kitchen, she noticed Mitzy was making breakfast. "Why are you here Mitzy? Where's Dobby? Is he all right?" she rapid fired at the elf.
"I'm making breakfast." She smiled. "Dondla asked if Dobby could help with some sewing that she needs to work on because she can't do it all. So, I'm here until Dobby is done. He wouldn't go until he knew someone was caring for his family." She said proudly. Then her ears slowly fell. "Does Miss Her-mine-ee have a problem with that?"
"No. I'm glad to see you again." She smiled at the diminutive elf. "You can come here any time. I was just worried he might be ill."
"He's fine." She turned back to her work as Harry and Teddy came down.
"Dobby was needed at Longbottom Estate, so Mitzy's here." Mione informed Harry as she took Teddy. Soon everyone was down and it was a happy family that broke their fast together.
After breakfast, Harry was ready to go. "Come on. The kids will be there in 45 minutes. We should be there before them." He urged. He was really looking forward to seeing the kids when they moved in to LAR.
"That means we have 40 minutes." Sirius teased when he saw the look he got from Harry.
"Okay. I'm going. You people can come later but I want to make sure the nursery people are there. I'll see you later." He stated as he disapparated from the entry way.
HP
When he arrived, he immediately went inside. Elves were hurrying about placing items in the entry as Harry went up the stairs to the Nursery. When he got to the Common Room, he noticed Jacen's flat door open. He stuck his head in. "Jacen, Jaina! You guys here?" Harry asked.
"Come on in Harry." He heard Jaina from the kitchen. He went through the drawing room, through the sitting room to the kitchen.
"Hey Jaina. I was wondering where Jacen was?"
"Where else?" She smiled as she fed one of the twins. He couldn't tell them apart. "He's with his staff, making sure they are ready. It's really nice to know we won't be doing everything at night. The extra bedroom across the common room means we will have help."
"Yeah. I think Jacen said he was going to have the staff switch nights so there are two in that room each night." Harry laughed. "By tonight, you'll have seventeen babies in the tower."
Jaina laughed as she put one twin in the Moses Basket and set about feeding the other. "Yeah. But Jace said they all sleep through the night now."
"Yeah. Well, I should go check in with Venus." Harry got up and began to leave. "Bye Jaina."
"Bye Harry."
Harry found Venus talking to the Head Elf in the kitchen about lunch. Celeste set the menu, made sure it was nutritious and made sure the elves had everything they needed. However, Venus was just doing one last check.
"Hey Venus. I was just in the nursery and Jacen is having a staff meeting. I assume everything's ready."
"Yes. I was just checking about lunch. Everything seems ready." She looked at her watch. "The Knight Bus should be here with all the kids in about ten minutes. All their belongings have been brought here and set up by the elves. The infants will be brought from Mary's House, through apparition, by the staff there at half ten."
"That's good." He was walking over to the game room. "I know that all the noisy games are down here. Do you guys have a stereo system?"
"No. I was thinking of buying one from MIT though." She smiled.
"Bugger that, Venus." Harry scoffed. "I'll donate one with a supply of our favorite music and I'll have Mione and Luna put up the charms that make it sound throughout the structure."
"We could also donate an Omni-Reader for the Library." Mione offered as she walked in from behind and put her head over her lover's shoulder.
"What's an Omni-Reader?" Venus was intrigued.
"It's a portable index of all the books in a particular library and gives you a map to where that book, subject or author is in that library." She explained. "We are also trying to develop a charm like Gemenio but more permanent that will duplicate the books contents onto the Omni-Reader. That way, Luna and I can be at Hogwarts and still access The PB Library." At the confused look by Venus she remembered, "That's the Potter-Black Library, our home library."
"Oh yes. I've heard of your collection. Auntie's a little afraid you'll run out of room."
"Well, we can always expand." She shrugged as they heard a bang outside. Harry just ran out, bouncing Teddy in his sling but holding his head still. Venus and Mione came more slowly.
Harry got out there and realised there were lots of staff waiting for the kids. As the kids got off the bus, the staff put them into lines. However, Penny, Kyle, Richard and Alex immediately went to their adult friend. Penny just walked up to Harry and said in a tiny, scared voice. "Up please?" Harry handed Teddy to Dora, giving Teddy a kiss and reached down to pick her up. "Come on, little one. Let's get in line." He smiled at her as Mione, Nev and Luna followed with their kids. "How's my Penny today?" he asked.
"Scared."
"Why?"
"Cause I'm leaving home again."
"This is your new home and you can stay however long you want." He smiled reassuringly at her.
"Will you come visit?"
"Of course. Especially when I'm not in school." He gave her a kiss as they went to the Dining Hall where everyone sat and was introduced to the staff. Then the staff, including teachers, showed small groups of similar ages around the home.
The staff showing Harry and Penny around was the Headmistress of the school, Ms. Froshbent. When they were shown the library, Penny's eyes got huge. "Oh my! This is so big." Harry let her down and she ran off to the stacks. Harry was a little concerned when she didn't come back right away so he went looking for her. It took him a few minutes to find her again. When he did find her, he told her, "You scared me. I thought I'd lost you."
She smiled and said. "Janet always said that if they lost me to look where there are books."
"Hmm. I'll have to remember that." Harry smiled as they found their group. Ms. Froshbent, who showed the children her office, the primary and secondary Deputy's offices on the first floor and the entrance to their flat (all three women were sharing one flat because they were already friends), also showed them to the toddler/preschool tower.
It was there that the four adults, Harry, Ida the Preschool Deputy, April and Jacqueline the Primary School Deputy, let the kids wander and find their own rooms. Harry asked, "So April, have you found all the teachers you'll need."
She looked at her Preschool and Primary School Deputies. Jacqueline nodded and Ida shook her head. "I'm still looking for three more because we decided to have a two-year-old, three-year-old and a four-year -old class. I have all the main teachers in place, I'm just looking for aids now."
"I would not want to keep track of a class of four-year-olds, I almost lost Penny just in the library." Harry shook his head.
"She is fond of you, isn't she?" Ida laughed.
"Yeah. But she's so adorable, it's hard to say no to her." He grimaced playfully.
"Harry! Harry! Harry!" Penny shot down the stairs and grabbed his hand. "Come here! See my new room!"
He looked over at his employees as he said, "How am I supposed to say no to that?"
He heard the door to the common room open and saw his godfather coming in. "Can we say whipped anyone?" Sirius asked jokingly as Harry rolled his eyes and followed Penny upstairs.
The last thing he heard before he started paying attention to Penny was Sirius saying, "Harry can never, ever say no to a kid!" as they all laughed.
When Penny and Harry came down, all the kids in their group had gathered. They were all playing nicely when a bell rang. "That's the ten-minute bell everyone. Please stop what you're doing and follow me to lunch." April told the youngsters as she and her co-workers gathered the children. Penny simply stood up and held her hands out to Harry. Without stopping the conversation he was having with Sirius, he picked her up and started following the others.
"Whipped!" Sirius coughed.
"Yeah like you're one to talk! How long have you been holding Farrah?" He looked behind him to Sirius and laughed at the guilty look on his face. Farrah had come up to him and wanted to play while Harry was upstairs with Penny.
After lunch, everyone said goodbye—or tried to at least. The kids that had glommed on to The Family were not happy and would only let them leave when they looked at their diaries and said they'd be back on Wednesday.
HP
When everyone got home, they got to the game room and collapsed. "That was only three hours with one child to keep my eye on. How do parents of toddlers do it?" Nev asked. "I'm exhausted!"
"Mum says you grow to have the energy you need as the kids grow." Dora answered.
Sirius' phone rang and he walked away to answer it. When he came back, he informed them. "Minnie say she's bringing your letters tonight. I invited her to dinner." People nodded in acceptance.
"Let's start Friday Night Movie Night early." Harry suggested. "Temple of Doom, anyone?"
"Sure." Nev, Dora and Sirius agreed as Harry put it in.
HP
That night, Harry went to the sitting room to greet Minerva.
"Welcome to the Madhouse, Minerva. Come to the kitchen, please." He greeted as he kissed her hand.
"Of course." She followed him in where greetings were exchanged and Minerva sat down. They ate dinner just talking about how the move-in went and how their summers were progressing.
When they were done with the peach cobbler that Nev seemed to want to scarf down, they went to the drawing room where Minerva spoke. "I came here this evening to give you these." She began, handing out Hogwarts letters. "And to let you know that the renovations are completely done. We now have an entrance to the Chamber that doesn't need you Harry. The chamber now has a pool, gym equipment and a basketball court. There is now a football pitch near the quidditch pitch with stands and outlines for the rugby field and cricket area."
She said all this as the young people were opening their letters.
All four people were really looking forward to getting their letters. No one would say it, but Hermione was really hoping to make Head Girl. When Hermione dumped the contents of the letter on the coffee table, she noticed the silver badge in the mix. Picking it up to make sure it was the Head Girl badge, she screamed as loud as anyone had ever heard as she jumped up and down. "I made it! I made it!" She pulled Harry up and started kissing him in between her screams.
Soon though the other three opened their letters. Harry dumped his out like Hermione and found the same pin his fiancée got but with Head Boy on it. "Wow." He whispered. "How'd I get this?" he looked with furrowed brow at Minerva. "What'd I do to get this?" The entire room started laughing.
"He—has—no—idea!" Dora got out through her laughter.
"He wouldn't." Hermione replied.
Harry looked at Minerva. "Is this because of Voldemort? I wasn't even there last year. I shouldn't get it. Nev should. He's the one that led the DA!"
Nev opened his letter, having a sort of sad look on his face. Obviously, happy for Harry, but sad for himself, as he noticed a Head Boy badge. He looked at Minerva curiously. "What?"
"The Heads and I decided we wanted to acknowledge both of your contributions, so we split it in two." She nodded to Luna, who opened her letter to find her Head Girl pin. She and Hermione started doing the jumpy dance Nev and Harry had noticed they did when excited. "This does mean you will be sharing a suite designed for two people with four. However, I don't think that will be a problem for the four of you." She said over the girls screams. When they had all calmed down, she continued. "We will need you to come to school the day before so I can show you your rooms. I will tell you now that I expect you to be available to all students all the time. I will also expect you to introduce each prefect for each house at the Welcome Feast. I will not have First Years wandering around trying to save their friends because they don't know who their prefects are." She looked meaningfully at Harry.
"Hey! I'm now marrying that friend!" he countered.
"Dangerous things like that won't happen at my school." She said firmly.
"Good!" The Family said as one.
"Well, I will see you on the thirty-first." She smiled at them as she got up to leave.
HP
The next two weeks were a blur for the two couples. The next day, while the men were all at a Quidditch match, the women were working on the Omni-Reader. They went to do their Hogwarts shopping on Monday. Tuesday, they spent the day at the amusement park Alton Towers. Wednesday they spent at LAR playing with and reading to the kids. Harry brought with him 14 brooms and a quidditch ball set so they could actually play real games.
Thursday, they attended Wizengamot and got the DMLE budget passed. That Saturday they all saw Cats. They spent the next week going to some historical places Mione thought every British person should be aware of. Places like Canterbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, William Shakespeare's hometown Stratford-upon-Avon, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Hadrian's Wall took up most of the week. They even decided to bring their orphanage friends to Shakespeare's hometown on the Friday before they left for Hogwarts. This was the fourth time in the past two weeks that they had seen the kids. When they dropped the kids off after a long day, they decided they needed to warn them about Hogwarts coming up.
They took them to the upper library where there was some comfortable seating. Each adult sat with a kid on their lap, Harry had Teddy too.
"So, kiddos," Harry started. "On Tuesday, the four of us are going to have to go back to Hogwarts for the school year."
"Why?" Penny asked.
"Does that mean we won't see you again?" Alex worried his lip.
"No. That means that you won't see that much of us." Mione answered. "We'll come get you for Quidditch matches but that's about it until Yule Break. Then we'll be back. At least for a few weeks."
"Does that mean we'll see you like we do now?" Richard asked.
"Yes." Nev smiled at the boy on his lap. "And when you come to Hogwarts for the game, I'll introduce you to Professor Sprout. She's the teacher I told you about?"
"Great!" Richard bounced on Nev's knee. "I want to see the greenhouses."
"Of course you do." Luna leaned over and mussed his blond hair.
"We'll see you play, Harry?" Kyle asked.
"Yes. But you have to cover my eyes when he does one of his dives." Hermione promised as everyone laughed. They had played plenty of Quidditch the past fortnight and all the kids knew about Mione shutting her eyes when Harry did something dangerous—at least by her standards.
"I will Mione." Kyle hugged her. "I'm going to miss you, Mione." He whispered to her.
"I'll miss you too sweetheart." Then she looked him in the eyes. "You'll have someone write to me, yeah? I want to hear how you're doing." She noticed tears in his eyes and felt tears in her own.
As they got up to leave, the kids gave everyone, including Teddy, a hug. As Harry was walking out the door, Penny ran up to him and grabbed his leg. "I love you Harry."
He bent down and kissed her head. "I love you too, little one." He whispered in her ear.
HP
By Saturday, the day of the Alliance Dinner, Harry was meloncholy. He got up that morning with Teddy. "I think this is going to be one of our last mornings together because I'll be off to Hogwarts and you'll be here. Maybe you can come on Quidditch weekends and I can get you up then." He told Teddy as he sat to feed him. Dora came into the nursery then.
"Did I hear you talking to Teddy about not having mornings with him?" she asked.
"Yeah. You'll be going back to work soon and I'll be at Hogwarts." Harry returned sadly.
"Didn't you know that I'm the new DADA teacher?" She looked concerned.
"Really?" Harry's face brightened. "So Teddy will be living there too?" Dora nodded. "Why didn't you tell me? I was so worried Teddy would forget me!"
"Well I just decided before the letters came out and you've been busy lately."
Harry then went back to being melancholy. "Sirius is going to be here alone though. Will he be okay?"
"Hey, it's not Grimmauld and he's got Dan next door." She smiled as she realised he was concerned for his godfather.
"True! I fear for Emma now that you put it like that." He laughed as Teddy burped and they went to the kitchen.
HP
That evening, the talk of the heirs was the start of the school year. When they learned about the new Head Boy/Girl situation, everyone was pleased. "It makes sense." Susan explained. "They couldn't decide so they chose all of you."
"And we have an actual DADA teacher this year." Mione said.
"Who?" was shouted by several students.
"A former Auror and our very own Dora Lupin." Harry grinned as he had Teddy wave to Dora.
"That's brilliant!", "That's going to be so cool!", "I can't wait! Wasn't she married to Professor Lupin, the only other good DADA teacher we had?" someone asked.
"Yep." Harry grinned. "And this is their little one. My godson!"
"He isn't proud or anything." Bill contributed. "Do you know who the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain is?"
"Not me." Harry grinned.
"It's Ron."
"Wow! If he can stand me, we'll do really well this year." Harry whistled.
"How's he going to handle Prefect and Captain?" Mione asked.
"I don't know."
The Alliance was brought back together to eat and discuss their goals.
"We have gotten Wizengamot to meet once a week; it was actually pretty easy to do because most understood things weren't getting accomplished in one session a month. Also, there is now a committee meeting to see if your tax plans can work. They will present their findings at the first Thursday in October." Sirius informed the group of changes.
"What are we going to do to make our government more responsive to the people?" Bill asked. He wanted to bring up the idea of a lower house in the government without putting everybody on the spot.
"What do you mean, it doesn't respond to everyone?" Cyrus Bell asked.
"Well, when has our government ever responded to a crisis that only effected muggleborns and half-bloods? In the First War, it only acted against Voldemort after he started killing purebloods." Bill continued. "My Goblin coworkers laugh at me because my dad is part of that "old boys club" known as Wizengamot. They think it's a waste of time."
"So, how do we fix it?" Arthur asked. And they were off to the races discussing this for several hours when they decided to put it aside until the next meeting.