Ch. 29
Thursday 3 September 1998
The next morning, Harry woke to the beautiful whines of his godson. He jumped out of bed and ran through his godson's door and found him kicking up a storm. "Hey little guy. How's my boy?" He picked the little man up to change and feed him. By this time, he was a pro at getting this done quickly and easily. He took Teddy to his room and went in to take a shower. When he got out of the bathroom, his love was sitting in the rocking chair playing with the baby.
"Mione, the shower's free. I can take the little man now." He smiled as she handed Teddy over.
"Here you go. You men go make breakfast while I get dressed." She smirked at her fiancé as she sashayed into the bathroom with only the revealing top she wore to bed on. Looking at her long, shapely legs did not help Harry calm down—especially when she moved like that. If it wasn't for Teddy, he would be joining her! He had noticed that their bath was almost a duplicate of the Prefect's bathroom-meaning that it had plenty of room for two in the shower and the tub. Might make an interesting wash up tonight, he grinned as he worked in the kitchen.
Soon, The Family was seated at a magically extended table with Professor Richardson. "Professor, where did you get your mastery?" Mione asked.
"Everyone, please call me Jaime when we're not in class." She smiled as she kissed Teddy's hand.
"Okay." Everyone agreed.
"I got my undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley and my Doctorate at Stanford." She explained. "Then I got my History of Magic Mastery at Winchester. It's been a hard few years but I'm glad I did it. What I'd like to know is how someone who doesn't have a Mastery ends up a Potions teacher." She looked at Sirius.
"Well, let's just say I learned my potions ability on the staff and students of Hogwarts in the seventies." He laughed.
"Pranks?" she got a gleam in her eyes Harry had only seen when Sirius talked about the Marauders.
Sirius looked down as though he was ashamed. Everybody knew it was a lie except Jaime.
"Jaime, don't let him fool you. He, my husband, Harry's dad and another were known for their pranks. And they loved it almost as much as they enjoyed telling the stories." Dora laughed at the 'caught-me' look Sirius had.
"I was known for my pranking abilities at Winchester." Jaime laughed at which point Sirius looked up excited.
"Can you help me? I'm looking for something—wait until we leave then we can talk." He winked at her.
HP
As everyone gathered at the dinner table, Sirius started with asking the same question he asked during most dinners at the Madhouse. "So, what was your day like today Harry?" Harry and Nev looked at one another and burst into giggles worthy of eleven-year-old girls. Sirius looked a little concerned at the moment, as did the rest of the adults, until he queried, "What did you do?"
"Nothing. It wasn't us." Harry continued through his laughter. "Ron got a phone call from his mum in Transfiguration. . . and answered it in front of Minerva."
"Oh shit!" Dora and Sirius gasped. "What happened?" Sirius fearfully asked.
"Well, she got on the phone with Molly and explained in a very controlled voice that Ronald was in class and she'd have to call back." Hermione added.
"Meanwhile, Ron looks like he's about to pee himself." Nev added.
"Then Minerva took him outside and gave him what for." Luna was also laughing.
"Honestly Pads. She's one scary witch when she's pissed off. Sure, she's been stern and strict all the time with us. This was not irritated; this was absolutely angry. I thought steam was going to come out of her ears. I've never seen her like this." Harry wheezed.
"Then she came in and told us all to turn our phones off before class or they would be taken away for the school year." Luna finished.
Sirius just laughed. "I believe the look you're thinking of is the one she used to give James and me ALL THE BLOODY TIME! It always made us want to run and hide."
Sunday 6 September 1998
The Heads decided to have an after-dinner Prefect meeting in their flat on Sunday night. By now, the drawing room was an exact duplicate of their game room at home. It had the sitting area around the fire, the game area with the pool table and dart board and the bar area. This new drawing room now had a smallish, by comparison to the one at home, kitchen that opened on to the drawing room. There were also the two en suites, one off each end of the drawing room.
When everyone filed into the game room, the male prefects were just staring, the girls just sat down as though nothing was wrong.
"Everyone, please take a seat so we can get started." Neville sat down.
"How did you get such nice rooms?" someone asked.
"Oh, he always gets the best of everything. Whatever the great Harry Potter wants, he gets." Ron muttered loudly.
Looking at the Ravenclaw girl that asked, Harry replied. "House elves have amazing magic. Ours enlarged this room and brought our game room here."
"So, you have a house elf who works for you?" a Hufflepuff sighed.
"Actually, he works for Professor Black but I freed him from the Malfoys at the end of second year so he and I are good friends." He answered. "Anyway, we called you here to talk about the points deducted and given."
The discussion lasted about an hour as they went over what the standard deductions and applications of points were and how to apply them.
After this, Luna summed it up. "Basically, if you don't follow these guidelines, you will get two warnings, then the badge will be taken away. Does everyone understand?"
"We've already had to go to give one warning, we really don't want to do this again." Hermione emphasized.
Soon, the Prefects were leaving the flat and the four friends were heading off to bed.
HP
The next day began the students' first full week of classes. It began to be a regular occurrence for Jaime to arrive for breakfast with Sirius. At times, she would help Harry get breakfast on the table as well. They'd each go off to do their individual classes and meet up after the day was done.
Sirius and Jaime were getting closer all week as well. One afternoon, Sirius and Jaime were taking their daily walk around the lake talking about their students when Sirius mentioned he'd be gone most of the next day due to Wizengamot business. This led to a long discussion about the government and how corrupt it was and how they were trying to fix it.
As they were walking back into the castle, headed for Harry's flat, Jaime commented a little worriedly. "It sounds like you have two almost full-time jobs. How are you going to manage it?"
"We'll see if I do." He laughed. "One thing that's working out really well is that Augusta Longbottom and I work very well together. She's great at picking up any slack I drop."
"Who is she, now?"
"That'd be my Gran." Nev interrupted as they walked through the door.
"My Gran too!" Harry chimed in.
"But you're not brothers, right?"
"Nope. Godbrothers. My mum is Harry's godmum and his is mine. We should have been raised together but we weren't"
Noticing the anger on both boys' faces, she decided not to probe that angle.
As Sirius summoned a butterbeer, he enquired, "So, how'd school go today boys?"
"Fine." Harry answered simply as he heard Teddy crying and went to get him.
Sirius looked at Nev, knowing something was wrong with Harry because he usually gets a rant about school in answer to that question. "Okay, Nev. What happened or do I need to know about it?"
"We're both a little stressed." Nev shrugged. "Weasley is upset because Harry and I are so close now and he is trying to make us feel bad about that. What's really bugging Harry I think is that Weasley and he would still be friends if Weasley could have gotten over his jealousy."
Sirius shook his head as he racked the balls. "Wanna play?" he smirked at Nev. He got a nod in return. "So where are the girls?"
"Where do you think they are?" He smirked at the man filling in for his own Dad in a lot of ways. Nev was constantly surprised at how much he looked up to and relied on Sirius as a father-like figure in the short time he'd known him. He wondered if it was because Sirius knew and liked his real dad.
"Ours or Hogwarts'?" Sirius rolled his eyes.
Nev laughed that they even had to ask that question. "I know they were at least starting in Hogwarts' library but I don't know if they're still there."
Jaime gasped with a grin. "You have your own library?"
Sirius and Nev looked at each other and burst out laughing as Sirius groaned. "Yes. Mione and Luna built it this summer." He paused in thought. "You might actually want to go there sometime because Mione has bought lots of history books."
"That sounds like fun." She grinned.
"Nev, I think I got involved with another library nerd. James gets Lily. You get Luna. Harry gets Mione and I get Jaime." He groaned jokingly.
"Just because I like books doesn't mean I'm a nerd." Jaime shot back. "Besides what's wrong with being a nerd?"
"Nothing, love." He said as he gave her a peck on the cheek.
Friday 9 September 1998
The next morning, the family decided to go home for the weekend since they had the Alliance dinner to worry about Saturday. Jaime decided to come with them.
When they apparated into the entrance hall, Jaime looked at the picture of Padfoot and Teddy sleeping and burst out laughing. "Where is that cute dog playing protector?" she asked. They looked over at the photo Dobby had taken months ago and pointed to Sirius. He promptly changed into Padfoot. "Oh my!" she giggled as she bent down to pet him.
"If you keep petting him, he'll stay that way. He loves it." Nev warned.
She got up and grinned as Sirius turned back. "That is why we have no cats in the house! Only a half-kneazle." He exclaimed as they made their way to their rooms to change.
Jaime went to the bedroom right next to Sirius'. She noticed that Harry and Hermione shared a room as did Neville and Luna.
"I'll wait for you out here so you won't get lost." Sirius smiled as they went into their own rooms.
She went inside to discover a huge bedroom beautifully decorated with a king sized four poster bed with matching nightstands and shelves in the walk-in closet. The room was done in all shades of blue. There were French doors that went out to a balcony. When she went into the bathroom, she saw a shower that could hold three with four different shower heads and a tub nearly the size of the spa in her mom's backyard.
When she had changed into muggle clothes, she really didn't want to leave the room it was so nice. However, she did leave and ran straight into Sirius. "Oh! I'm sorry." She apologised as his arms came around her waist.
"No problem, love." He smiled down at her. Being this close to him and being able to smell his cologne mixed with grass and diesel, was nearly intoxicating for her. She just relaxed and curled into his arms.
"You're comfy." She took a deep breath as he chuckled low in his throat. She knew she shouldn't be succumbing to not only his smell but his beautiful body. The problem was that Sirius was her dream man: passionately loyal to his family, kind, caring, loves learning even if he refuses to admit it, sarcastic, great sense of fun and a great sense of humour and he happens to have that amazing British accent. To a California girl, raised by educators who believe in family, he was damn near perfect. But in her experience, there was always something wrong with the "perfect" guy; he's married or gay, he has an overbearing mother, or a crazed ex, something was wrong. She couldn't just let herself enjoy and explore this relationship because he was too perfect.
"Yeah. People have told me that before." He laughed as he let her go and took her hand. "Let's go see who's done." He took her up two flights of stairs to a perfect replica of Harry's drawing room.
"Hey." Hermione greeted them as she summoned a Coke for herself. She was sitting on the sofa curled into Harry. "Do you want a soda Jaime?"
"Of course." She smiled as one came to her. "I notice you have a lot of muggle appliances both here and at school. Is one of you muggleborn?"
"That's me." Hermione laughed. "When the war was over, Sirius wanted a house that was mainly muggle and I wanted to live near my parents, so we bought the house next door to my childhood home."
"Oh." Jaime thought for a moment as Nev, Luna, Dora and Teddy joined them. The boys and Dora began playing pool. "I had heard that the British Wizarding Population did not accept muggle electronics, or for that matter, change well."
"Oh, that reputation is well earned." Dora laughed.
"Well, then, why do I see all sorts of muggle things at Hogwarts?"
"Well, that's our fault." Luna laughed. "Hermione and I decided to create a rune and charm system that will let muggle appliances work in magical areas."
"Yeah. We converted some mobiles and computers and other devices to run on magic and started a company." Hermione added. "We need to check in with Fleur today, Luna."
"Yeah. I suppose."
"What our brilliant girlfriend and fiancée haven't told you," Nev laughed. "is that they are extremely smart and can invent anything you can dream up."
"What started off as a school project is changing our world in ways we can't see yet." Sirius contributed. "What are you two working on now?"
"We're trying to come up with our own Gameboy. We can rune and charm current Gameboys but we want a wizarding version and that's hard. Like I said, we need to talk to Fleur." Hermione got up. "Let's go Luna."
"We need to go check on the orphanage and the nursery." Harry added as he and Nev got up as well. "We'll be home around five. Then we can have dinner and a movie tonight."
HP
When Luna and Hermione got to the office building that MIT rented, they were surprised to learn that Fleur had rented out two floors. They found Fleur's office where they expected and knocked on the door. Fleur waved them in and got off her mobile as she came around the desk.
'Ello. Ow are my favorite inventors?" she grinned at them.
"Great." Hermione grinned back. It was really nice having girlfriends now, she thought. "We have an Alliance meeting tomorrow, so we came home today. I'm thinking we might do it as much as we can. The Madhouse has become home in the last few months and I missed it."
"Me too." Luna agreed. And they were off talking about the business.
HP
At the Orphanage, Harry really didn't have enough time to properly spend with Penny right now, so he snuck into Venus' office to have a chat. He eventually made it in and took off the invisibility cloak so they could talk.
"So, that's how you get around the castle and Auntie doesn't know!" Venus exclaimed laughing.
"Please don't rat me out?" He pled.
"Of course not. Auntie can't know everything now, can she?" She shook her head. "So, I assume you're here to talk business, yes?"
"Yes. I don't have time to stay but wanted to check in. How's it going? Have classes started yet?"
HP
Meanwhile, Sirius and Jaime were out on the grounds exploring. "So, what do you think of the place so far?" he asked.
"It's wonderful. It's just so surprising to me that you decided to buy a place that all of you could live so close together. It's great but I can't imagine living this close to my family." She smiled.
"Yeah. Most people think we're crazy but Harry and I haven't had the chance to be a family yet. Yeah, sure, I spent the first 15 months of his life absolutely doting on the kid but after that there was nothing. I didn't lay eyes on him again until he was thirteen." He said solemnly. "Then I only saw him occasionally through the war. When it was over, we decided it was time to be a real family and of course that meant his girlfriend Hermione too. So, when we saw this place, we couldn't resist. Three houses, each with their own individual plot on the property, and close to each other and the Grangers, it was perfect."
"You really love those two, don't you?" She enquired.
"Them and Nev and Luna, yeah." He grinned. "I think that when Luna and Nev marry, I'm going to build them a house here as well." Jaime just smiled and shook her head. "What?"
"I think it's cute. How you're looking after those boys."
"It's what James and Frankie would want me to do." He shrugged. They had finally gotten back to the terrace outside the kitchen.
"Does this stone terrace go all the way around the house?" She asked.
"Yeah. Do you like it?" He returned, sitting down on the bench swing as he patted it in invitation.
"I really love this place. It reminds me of the calendars I had as a young girl of English countryside. This is more beautiful than I could have imagined."
"Why are you here, Jaime? Why come to Britain? You could have gotten a job anywhere in the states with your degrees. Why here?" This question had been burning through him the past few weeks and he felt he needed to know.
"Well, I got this job, you see." She smiled at the irritated look on his face. "Look, I needed to get away. After the last few years, I needed a new start. I put my heart and soul into getting my degrees. While I was doing that, I got involved with someone that I shouldn't have." Sirius wrapped his arm around her and she leant into him "He needed more help than I could give. We broke up a few years ago but I found I was still brooding. So, I decided I wanted to restart my life somewhere I, mostly, knew the language and that would be interesting to live. I've always enjoyed English history, so I decided to look into Hogwarts."
"Is there anywhere that you would particularly like to see?" he asked.
"I would love to go to Hampton Court." She grinned.
"Let me talk to the family and maybe we can go there soon." She squealed and hugged him tightly.
"That would be awesome!" she grinned. He turned toward her and put his hands on her cheeks as he brought her face up to look at him. He bent down and kissed her. When she opened her mouth to him, he pulled her closer and delved deeper into her mouth.
She made a mewling sound as she ran her hands through his hair and gently pulled on it. He growled as his mouth went to explore her creamy neck and her hands went under his shirt to feel the muscles that she had dreamed of the past few nights.
She pulled herself onto his lap and straddled his waist. She pulled his mouth back to hers and enjoyed the sensation of his hands roaming her body as his lips made her move as close to him as possible. In the process she felt his hardness underneath her.
"Oh Siri. You're amazing." She groaned as she moved again, just to feel his hardness so close to her. Her hand moved from playing with his hair to unbuttoning his jeans. "I want you."
He pulled their lips apart. "I want you too." He groaned as he leant his forehead against hers. "But we can't do this here, now. I won't just shag you because we get too excited. I want it to be right for both of us."
"But we will soon?" She asked hesitantly. Gods, I am a 32-year-old woman acting like a teen. What is wrong with me? Begging for sex with a man that I met not three weeks ago. She thought to herself as she got off him.
"Sooner than you can imagine, love." He laughed huskily.
HP
"Hey, is anyone home?" Yelled Harry as he apparated into the entrance hall.
"In the kitchen." Sirius pitched his voice as Harry came in.
"Is anyone else home?"
"No. Just Jaime and me. Dora took Teddy to see Brianna and the girls and Nev haven't gotten home yet. How'd it go with Venus?" Sirius responded.
"Great. We're going to go by tomorrow and see the kids. Apparently, each kid has asked for us. Penny's been making a nuisance of herself. Every picture she's drawn in preschool has her and me doing something together." He laughed.
"Okay. That's it. I will definitely be bringing her to the Quidditch games this year." Sirius laughed
"Who's Penny?" Jaime asked.
"An orphan who's taken a liking to Harry. She's this cute little red head who just loves him. It's so cute."
"Talking about Penny?" Hermione asked as she and Luna came in the kitchen.
"Of course."
"I told Venus we'd come for a visit tomorrow." Harry kissed his fiancée.
"Sounds lovely."
Soon everyone was home and they were enjoying a Friday Night Movie Night. They decided to watch Terminator 2, which Jaime owned and loved.
HP
Saturday, 12 September, 1998 Crawley, UK
The next morning, Harry woke up with Teddy like normal but Hermione woke up as well. As they were all walking down to the kitchen, Teddy was doing a lot of babbling to himself.
Harry put him in the swing as he started breakfast. A few minutes later, Jaime came in. "Can I help?" she asked.
"Make the bacon, please." Harry asked.
"Of course." She went to the cold box and got it out. Then as she found the skillet, she remarked "Everything is in the same place as your flat. Is that Dobby's doing?"
"Yes. Dobby is utterly amazing." Hermione grinned. "I love the little guy."
"I can see why." Jaime chuckled. "So I understand from Sirius that you two met on the Express your first year but didn't start dating until this last spring, what changed?"
"I saw him die." Hermione replied softly. "He came back but that was my wake-up call." They began to discuss the war and how everyone handled it. Eventually the other members of The Family joined in and contributed their own recollections. For a historian, getting all these primary sources talking was an amazing privilege.
As they all finished breakfast and went up to the game room, Jaime suggested. "You should all write this down. Tell the story from your perspective." As Harry began shaking his head and everyone else started laughing she said. "I know you don't like the publicity, Harry. In fact, I know you hate it. However, as a historian, what you and your friends did is amazing. I'm not just talking about a book centered on you Harry. I'm talking of starting when your parents went into hiding. Telling everyone's story. Telling about Sirius' arrest and imprisonment, your placing with your relatives and not knowing you're a wizard to meeting Ron, Hermione, and Neville. To how you three defeated Voldemort at the end of year one to brewing Polyjuice in year two-which is an incredible accomplishment, to all of your stories. I'm thinking of talking about the DA last year and how you and Luna ran it, Neville. Basically, a book that tells your side so people and future historians know the truth."
"Who would want to write it?" Hermione asked.
"I would love to. But we could get a ghost writer if you don't like that idea."
The four young people looked at each other. "We could do it one time and never have to relive it again." Neville thought aloud.
"She knows us and is becoming part of the family. She wouldn't Skeeter it." Luna added.
Hermione and Harry looked at each other. Jaime could see they were talking without using words. After several minutes of this behaviour, Harry looked at Jaime. "If you're willing to do it. I want everyone's story. This is not about me but about us. I may have held the wand that killed him but a lot of people did more than their share to rid the world of that bastard." He looked at his fiancée. "If it wasn't for this beauty, he'd still be alive. If it wasn't for Nev killing Nagini, he'd still be alive. If it wasn't for Ron, he'd still be alive. Do you understand?" Harry looked directly at Jaime. "I'll trust you to tell it but I want the whole truth put out so I only have to answer these questions once and I can refer everyone to the book to get their information."
"You do realise that you'll have to sit down and be interviewed by me, right?" she asked, knowing how he felt about the press.
"Only you." He said firmly.
She smiled brilliantly at him. "Thank you, Harry." They both stood up and Harry took her hand to shake it when she brought him in for a bear hug.
"Jai-nee—breathe" He got out.
"Oh. Sorry." She grinned as she let up. "The historian in me is doing backflips, cartwheels and any kind of gymnastics it can think of right now. I'm going to need to go through archives of the Daily Prophet." She paused a minute to take a breath. "I wonder if there's enough information about the First Blood War to write a book as well."
They spent the rest of the day playing pool or in the pool telling stories about their experiences. By that evening, when everyone went to get ready for the Alliance Dinner, Hermione, Luna and Jaime had a basic outline for each book.
HP
That evening, they ate the meal first while the heirs caught up. Most of them had gotten permission from the Headmistress to go off grounds that night because she was there herself.
"Do we want to present our ideas on the upper and lower house system to the group here tonight?" Bill asked.
"Why wouldn't we?" Daphne Greengrass asked.
"I'm just worried we're asking for too much change too fast." Bill replied.
"I'm afraid if we don't do it now, they won't listen. Right now, they're actually listening. I think we should at least broach it." Ernie MacMillan offered.
"You're making sense Ernie." Robert McGonagall, Malcolm's son, confirmed.
"Okay." Nev stood. "Vote. Aye to talking about this tonight is lit. Nay is unlit."
"Aye's have it. We'll discuss it after old business is taken care of." Nev intoned.
Sirius then gave a report about what each committee that had given their report had said. Augusta then let the Heirs know what had passed.
Silas gave a report about which committees still need to present.
Melania raised her hand and Silas called on her. She stood. "Weren't these reports supposed to be finished before summer was over?" she asked to which many of the older members started wholeheartedly laughing.
When Silas understood that she was embarrassed he said. "Mel, it's nothing to be embarrassed of. You would think that you'd be right but there is a general rule of thumb when dealing with Wizengamot. Add at least two weeks to any deadline it sets. For instance, the tax committee we formed around your ideas is supposed to present at the beginning of October. I don't expect that presentation until the end of October, beginning of November."
"Oh." She smiled.
"Is there any new business you Heirs want to discuss?" Silas asked. To Nev, it seemed that the leaders of the Alliance were now Sirius, Gran and Silas. Interesting, how they dominated the talking points.
"Yes Sir. William Weasley for those who don't know."
"The red hair makes it obvious son." Elphias Doge remarked.
Bill grinned. "Quite right. Anyway, we wanted to talk about more fair representation in Wizengamot.
"Who are we not including now?" Charles Abbott asked tiredly.
"Daddy! That's enough!" Hannah nearly shrilled.
"I'm listening sweetie." He replied fondly.
"So, here's what we are thinking." Bill began to explain.
The talk went long into the night until the Heirs had felt listened to—although nothing was decided. This made a few of the Heirs mad and they agreed to talk at school the next few weeks.
HP
The next day was a very restful day for the family. The Grangers came for breakfast and Hermione and Luna spent time in the library trying to animate a few board games. They had gotten Monopoly ready and were going to take it back to Hogwarts to let people play with it. They were working on Scrabble now.
"What really takes so long is figuring out what part of the game can be magicked and how to do those specific parts." Hermione was explaining to Jaime as she researched.
"What about creating an all magic Gameboy system. You already have the runes and charms to keep a muggle one running around magic but could you magick one specifically with wizard appropriate games?" Jaime wondered.
"I think we can create the Gameboy using magic rather than electronics but the games themselves would be difficult." Hermione answered.
"I can work on creating one or two games if you want to figure out how the Gameboy will work. It'll give my imagination a workout." Luna smiled.
"That sounds good."
"You two work well together. Did you know that?" Jaime asked.
"Yep. We've learned that." Hermione smiled. "Honestly MIT started as an extension of a school project. It grew too big for us, now we have a business manager who takes care of that side of things. You'll meet her in a little while. You know Bill from last night?" she nodded. "His wife Fleur is our business manager."
That evening they had another family dinner with the Weasley's Longbottoms and Lovegoods. Then they went back to school.
16 September 1998
Wednesday afternoon, after all classes had been over for an hour or so, a line of teachers showed up at the door. Nev looked up and grinned. "I don't think we'd need to tutor any of you in schoolwork, so come in and tell us what's up."
Sirius, Jaime and Dora laughed outright at this while Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall gave a chuckle or a smile as they came in and sat down. "That is not why we are here, Mr. Longbottom." Minerva said seriously.
"Why are you here Professor?" Hermione asked.
"As you know, we have an extra-large group of first and second years this year because only purebloods were allowed to attend last year." Minerva began. "As such, the load for our teachers is a lot more than usual. We know you four are going to go for your masteries next year. One of the requirements for your masteries is 3 years teaching experience."
"We were wondering if you four would be willing to take on some of our extra load?" Professor Flitwick asked. "You would be teaching first through third year classes in the afternoons."
"I have no teaching experience at all." Hermione fretted.
"We will guide you through the process. We've each taught new teachers before, so it should be fairly easy." Jaime submitted.
"We'll spend the next few days with you teaching you what to know." Dora smiled.
"What do you think Sirius?" Nev asked.
"I think you four would make brilliant teachers. The kids would be lucky to get you." He replied solemnly.
During this whole conversation, Harry and Hermione were doing their silent talking thing. After Sirius made his opinion known, Harry sighed. "We'll do it. But we'll need help."
"Of course." Dora grinned.
"We will too." Luna piped up.
"Amazing." Flitwick smiled. "Why don't we split up and we can talk to you individually? Ms. Lovegood, come with me please." Luna hopped off the kitchen bench she was sitting on and followed Flitwick out. Dora and Harry went to her office. Sprout and Nev went to the greenhouses which left Mione and Jaime in the game room.
Jaime brought out her bag and began unloading it. "I have everything we need here." She said as Hermione summoned a soda and shook her head bemusedly.
HP
The next morning when everyone, which now included Jaime in the mix, congregated for breakfast, Sirius commented. "Are either of you boys busy with anything this afternoon?"
They looked at each other and shrugged. "Not that we know of." Harry replied.
"Great. After you're done with any studying you give me a call. Your Gran and I may want you to come to the ministry today."
"Okay."
HP
After lunch, the Heads went back to their flat to work on essays for History and Transfiguration. "You know, Professor Richardson is basically dating my Godfather, why is she giving us an essay the first week? She knows how busy we are." Harry complained.
"Harry!" Mione hissed. "Don't expect special treatment because she eats breakfast and dinner with us! You don't want her accused of favouritism, do you?"
"Well, no. Still, it's two pages on the contributions of magicals to the Crusades."
"Well, at least she'll be able to read it. You'll print it from the computer, yeah?" Mione remarked. "Merlin knows I'm the only other person who can read your chicken scratch!"
HP
The boys didn't get to Wizengamot that day because they each wrote not only their papers for Transfiguration and History but also Charms and Potions which weren't due until the end of next week.
In reality, the only reason they got the work done was Mione and Luna already owned the books they needed and they were on the Omni-Reader they'd brought from home.
At dinner, after getting an overview on Wizengamot procedures from Sirius, Harry looked at Jaime and grinned. "We finished your essay this afternoon and we barely used the text."
She looked suspiciously at them. "Then how'd you reference it?"
"Our girlfriends are geniuses. We used the Omni-Reader and accessed our library at home." Nev grinned at Luna. By this time both girls were blushing.
Friday 18 September, 1998 Hogwarts
Like every morning, it started for Harry with his Teddy-Wake-Up-Call. For some reason Harry was more tired than usual but he felt it his job to make breakfast, so they went to the kitchen and started it.
A brief knock to the door let Harry know who it was "Jaime! Just come in!" He pitched his voice so she could hear.
"Hi Harry. Need some help?" she asked as she put her long hair up in a clip.
"Sure. But you know what I need even more than that?" He grinned at her.
"What?" She asked as she moved around the kitchen.
"I need you to stop knocking every time you come in." He gave her his lopsided grin. "You've become a part of this family. Whether you two admit it to each other or not, you and Sirius are a couple. From the way he looks at you, he's never going to let you go. Accept it. We all love you. Yes, that's partly to do with how much Sirius dotes on you but also because you're you. I mean, how late have you stayed here the past couple of nights helping Hermione get ready to teach? Quite frankly, you're one of two people that is helping her not turn into Hurricane Hermione about her teaching starting next week. You. Are. A. Part. Of. This. Family. So, stop bloody knocking!"
Jaime had started to smile while Harry went on his mini-rant but at the end was grinning. "Okay. I won't knock."
"Good!" They heard Hermione say from the doorway. "You've been driving him barmy with the knocking bit." She laughed at Jaime's look of surprise.
After everyone was sitting at the table, Sirius spoke. "Tomorrow's Hermione's nineteenth birthday. I was thinking we could go home tonight and go to Hampton Court tomorrow. I've made arrangements for a private tour of the palace tomorrow at half twelve. I thought we could go out to breakfast then spend some time wandering, then do the tour. What do you-"He stopped speaking when Hermione shrieked and launched herself at Sirius, knocking him over in the process.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! That is the best present ever!" she kissed him all over his face. At this everyone, who had been trying to hold in their laughter at the surprise attack, started to laugh.
"Mione. Let Padfoot breathe. I like my Godfather alive, yeah." Harry grinned as she transferred her hug to him.
"Best birthday ever." She breathed.
"So, we'll go home after classes today and spend your birthday at a 500-year-old building, yay." Sirius said mock-sarcastically, at which point both Hermione and Jaime glared at him.