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

Extended Family

Chapter 125 – Rubric

Takes place after chapter 110.

"Auntie Hermione, we need help."

"Of course girls." Hermione pushed her work to one side and turned to face the bunnies directly. "What can I do for you?"

"What's the thing when you grade something?" Dahlia asked.

"Like how to grade something?" Hermione asked. She hummed when they nodded. "A criterion or a rubric?"

"Yeah that, how do we make one?" Hailey asked.

"It depends on what you are grading or judging," Hermione said. "You generally have to craft the rubric for a specific thing. You can't always grade one thing the same way as another because the conditions are different. For example, you can't judge favorite soups against favorite flavor of biscuit after all."

"Chocolate chip," Dahlia said automatically.

"Peanut butter," Hailey said, frowning.

"Oatmeal raisin," Hadley said. She glared back at Hailey. "What?"

"No one likes oatmeal raisin!"

"I like oatmeal raisin!"

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do!"

"You're gross and wrong!"

"You're wrong and gross!"

"Alright girls, first of all, no need to fight over biscuit flavors," Hermione said with a smile, gently pushing Hailey and Hadley apart as the two started pushing each other. "Second of all, the best flavor is clearly brown sugar." She continued when the three little girls looked up at her with scowls and snorts. "But back to the original topic, you need to craft a rubric to fully examine what you are wanting to grade. What are you trying to determine, anyways?"

"The best flyer," Hadley said.

"Oh boy, that's going to cause a bit of ruckus," Hermione said. "I assume you mean out of the people here at the Village?" She conjured a floating blackboard and chalk when they nodded. "I better help you make this then to try and prevent some future trouble."

-0-

"Hermione, are you trying to cause trouble?" Alicia asked.

"No! I helped to try and prevent trouble!"

Everyone in the Village gathered at the Pitch, summoned by the bunnies. They made themselves comfortable and looked at the floating blackboard with interest.

"Besides," Hermione continued, "it wasn't my idea to begin with."

"You're blaming the children?!" Alicia gasped.

"Yes," Hermione said firmly.

"Okay, fair enough," Alicia said easily. She looked at the board. "You did a good job with coming up with this rubric."

"Speed, Agility, Safety, and Flair?" Angelina asked, reading the board.

"Flair is apparently important," Hermione said. She snorted when the Quidditch players nodded. "Of course it is."

"We can put Baby Bird at dead last for Safety," Alicia mused.

"That's not fair," Harry protested. He wilted a little when everyone looked at him. "Most of the time," he mumbled. He brightened when the bunnies hugged him. He was so overcome by their affection, he fell over, giving the other children the opportunity to pile onto him.

Hermione smiled at the sight. "But yes, in any case, we figured these are the most important qualities of a flyer."

"Safety's a bit relative though," Oliver said thoughtfully. "In terms of position for a team or for general flying."

"Which, fair, but maybe I was trying to reinforce the idea," Hermione shrugged. "Not to mention like any sport, there is a degree of personal safety you should adhere to, isn't there?"

"You're not wrong," Oliver agreed.

"I thought it best to keep it relatively simple," Hermione said. "We also came up with a biscuit rubric and that got rather cutthroat and personal."

"Oh, why?" Luna asked.

"Because one of the biscuits that fit most of the criteria was oatmeal raisin and Hailey got very upset about that," Hermione smiled.

"What's wrong with oatmeal raisin biscuits?" Oliver asked.

Alicia patted him on the arm. "You don't get an opinion since you drink hot chocolate all year and lather gravy on most things."

"Oatmeal raisin is a good biscuit," Oliver protested.

"That's where Hadley gets it from," Hermione laughed.

Katie giggled and then patted her front softly. "Well, until I've had the baby, I can't try out for the title sadly."

Tracy patted her front too. "I wouldn't be trying even if I wasn't preggers but I'm more than happy to blame the baby."

"I have no desire to be the best flyer," Alicia said easily. "I know my skills."

"I'll throw in," Oliver smiled. "I know where I'm at but always am game to try."

"If the babies stay on Rabbit, I got this in the bag," Angelina grinned.

"Oh, I wish to compete!" Aimee jumped up and down. "I have always wanted to try my skills against you after you all going professional."

"I've been flying a lot recently, I'll have a go," Fred said.

"I'm good," George grinned.

"What, scared that you'll lose to your wife?" Fred teased.

"Not at all! I know she'll beat the trousers off me." George waggled his eyebrows.

"Ugh gross," Fred groaned when George pretended to swoon when Angelina winked and blew a kiss at him.

"We'll all use the same broom," Oliver smiled. "We have those Nimbus training clouds for the girls when they're older right? We can keep it fair that way for broom type. Oh wait, hold on. I've been meaning to try something. Hey, Sir Harry!"

"Yes Captain?" Harry asked, freeing his head so he could speak clearly.

"Do you mind summoning your Patronus?"

Harry laughed while the others looked confused. "Oh yeah! Let's do it!"

Oliver grabbed his usual broom while Harry squirmed out from beneath the children. "When his Patronus came running to get me on Diagon that day, I made a remark about racing it," Oliver said

"Of course you did," Alicia said. She sighed a little at the memory of that day, knowing what happened. But the ludicrous thought of Oliver racing a Patronus kept the worse feelings at bay. When the Patronus appeared, conjured by Harry, the aura from the protector chased away all the bad feelings and everyone smiled at the argent lioness.

"Guess we need to wait a moment," Katie said lovingly when the lioness ran around the cheering children, gamboling and playing with them for a few long minutes. The giant beast was extra careful, nuzzling them playfully and licking them. She nuzzled Katie's stomach for a few moments before stalking gracefully to one end of the pitch and gave Oliver a look.

Oliver mounted his broom and hovered just over the lioness. "Right! Someone give us a countdown."

Dora held up her wand. "Alrighty! On your marks, get set, GO!" She flicked her wand and a giant boom filled the air with a blast of bright lights.

Oliver leaned down onto his broom and took off but the lioness had leapt forward before the sound of the boom faded. Four powerfully magically muscled legs pushed the lioness on and she ran, her body low to the ground and streamlined. She rounded the corners of the pitch with Oliver close behind but halfway around the pitch, she put on a terrific burst of speed and by the time Oliver reached the end, she was sitting comfortably, tail wrapped daintily around her legs.

"That answers that!" Oliver laughed while the others cheered.

Harry smiled when the lioness looked at him plaintively. "Off you go then." She licked his face and then chased after the squealing children, roaring happily.

"I wonder if there has ever been a recorded instance of a Patronus guardian playing with children," Daphne said lovingly, enjoying the sight and the sounds.

"I want to write a paper on Patronus behavior now," Fleur said eagerly.

"Sure, I'm sure we can work something out," Harry smiled. "Right, let's get this contest on, shall we?"

Alicia, Katie, and George crafted an aerial agility course, conjuring large wooden rings and then sending them up into the air with the assistance of the others. They made a course and the hoops would glow to show that the flyer would have to fly through that one next. They made sure there were few straight flight paths and decided on the order. The contestants watched as the hoops lit in order to give them familiarity of the course.

"Ladies first or age before beauty?" Fred asked.

"In actual years or maturity?" Alicia snorted.

"Well I lose either way so I don't care," Fred smiled.

"I'll go first," Oliver laughed. "I'll be pathfinder."

"We can do best of two," Angelina said. "Everyone gets two runs." Everyone agreed to that.

"Ready? Go!" Dora shouted and blasted her wand once more.

Oliver flew up and hit all the rings in succession, flying smoothly and conservatively. As he rounded through the last one, he came down to applause. "That's fun. Man, we should do more agility training. What was my time?"

"Two minutes, on the dot," Luna said, holding a large hourglass that also had numbers glowing on the base.

"I bet I can shave 15 seconds or so off that," Oliver said. "Let's have everyone give it a shot and then do second runs."

Fred went next and he scored two minutes and two seconds. Aimee went and she came down with a score of one minute, forty-five seconds. Angelina scored one minute, forty and Harry ended with an initial score of one minute, fifty. "One more person needs to go before we do our second run," Harry said.

"Who?" Colette asked. She shrieked when something flew by her face at a high speed. "Curse you Chicken!"

Hedwig flapped her wings at the start line, fluttering in air. She barked loudly, narrowing her eyes up at the hoops. At the blast, she flew hard, zooming through the air while the others cheered. She dashed through all the hoops in order and came back down to them, spreading her winds wide and landing daintily on Harry's head.

"One minute and thirty-eight seconds is the time to beat," Luna smiled, writing the times on the board.

"Oh, is that what we're doing then?" Angelina asked when Hedwig danced on Harry's head, mooning the other flyers and hooting happily. "Game on then!"

The second runs ended and Angelina was in the lead with one minute and thirty-five seconds. Hedwig was right behind at one minute and thirty-seven, Harry and Aimee at one minute and forty seconds, and Oliver and Fred at one minute and fifty seconds.

"Why don't you moon her back?" Alicia asked when Angelina made rude hand gestures at Hedwig who fluffed up with indignation.

"Because she has talons," Angelina said. "I'm not pulling a Weasley."

"You have to be more specific when you say that," George sniffed.

"I'm not pulling a Weasley twins and getting taloned in the arse," Angelina clarified.

"Better," Fred sniffed, rubbing his arse-cheek ruefully.

The others did collective voting on flair and safety and despite the children clamoring, Harry was indeed at the bottom of the rankings for safety but they did separate it out between flying with others, he earned high marks there, and flying for games where he was firmly at the bottom. The others vied at the top for position.

"How should we do speed?" Oliver asked. "Timed course individually or racing each other?"

"Why not both?" Aimee suggested.

They decided that three laps around the pitch would be the course and they did individual circuits first. Harry cleared it the fastest, followed by Angelina, Hedwig, Aimee, Fred, and Oliver. Then they lined up on the start line for the race.

"Oh, this will be very good," Alicia said eagerly, looking at them standing there.

"My money is on Hedwig losing," Colette said.

"No betting real money!" Dahlia cried.

"A bottle of wine on Hedwig losing," Colette amended.

"I'm betting on Angelina, she wants it bad," George smiled. "Go Angie! Make them eat sky dust!"

"Harry's got this," Katie said with utter conviction.

"Alrighty racers!" Dora shouted. "On your marks, get set-"

Hedwig, who was perched on Harry's head screeched loudly with surprise and pointed with a wing to one side.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, looking.

Angelina looked too then turned back, face twisting. "Hey! You're trying to trip us-"

"-GO!" Dora shouted and shot the starting spell once more.

Hedwig smacked Angelina across the face with her wing as she flapped hard, launching herself into the air.

"YOU BLOODY BIRD!" Angelina shouted, recovering and jumping on her broom to chase after. The others jumped and mounted and pushed off as fast as they could.

"Oh Hedwig," Katie said, laughing fit to burst.

"Get her!" Colette shouted. "Do not let her win!"

The watchers laughed and cheered as the racers jostled for position, flying about each other to try and take the inside curve on the course. Hedwig was fast but the others caught up to her fairly swiftly. She flapped hard, staying ahead by a feather's width for the majority of the race but started to flag at the pace. She dove to one side, making Angelina veer and the others scattered about some.

Harry stuck his arm out and managed to snag Hedwig from the air, hugging her to him as he bent low. Hedwig latched onto his broomstick and screeched happily when Harry put on a burst of speed, edging to the front of the pack. Everyone cheered when Harry crossed the line a second ahead of Angelina and Aimee with Fred and Oliver tucked right behind.

"Even with a passenger, he beats us," Fred sighed but smiled.

"He's all weedy and wiry," Angelina laughed. "Not shrimpy but light." She glowered at Hedwig who cheeped back snootily. "You cheating chicken!" She shrieked when Hedwig flew into her face. Angelina endured several nips and battering wings before she took off her jersey and rolled it up, snapping it at Hedwig. "Get back here!" she shouted, chasing her down the pitch.

Harry shook his head as Dora and Colette joined Angelina in trying to attack Hedwig. "At least they're having fun." He chuckled when the children joined the fray, waving towels that Luna helpfully conjured for them. "Well, now they are."

"So Harry won speed, came last in safety, ranked middle for agility, and is high on flair," Hermione said, looking at the board. "Angelina and Aimee shared second rank for just about every category with Fred and Oliver doing the same for third. Hedwig was highest in flair, second in agility, not sure how she technically scores in speed if we consider the race, and her safety factor was undecided."

"I still say Hedwig has high safety," Luna said. "Now if we are referring to other people's safety while she is flying, that can be up to debate."

"Agreed. Let's put her in the middle then." Hermione tallied up the scores. "Harry has the slightest advantage over Angelina with the others within points of each other."

"That tracks," Katie smiled. "Or like how Mum and MumAndi like to say it, you're a menace on the broom, a talented menace, but a menace."

"I'm fine with that," Harry grinned. He chuckled at the sight of the children tackling Angelina, Dora, and Colette to the ground and piling onto them, pinning them down. Hedwig landed and danced just out of grasping range, kicking her legs high and mooning the three witches while barking condescendingly.

"Never a dull moment," Fleur said, her smile as bright as the sun.

"I don't think we'd know what to do with it if we found one," Katie laughed merrily.

-0-0-0-

odonellzoo99 - None can resist the image that is Hedwig in raybans and looking very cool.

Ghostwriter - Me too, would make things a lot easier.

Rori Potter - It's a fun mental image.

alix33 - Aviators would make the most sense for the style of raybans.

scpotter - Dahlia and Hedwig are always cute. Menaces too.

guest - Glad I can help you chuckle. They can lift many moods.

FanfictionFanGirl59 - Hey there. Glad to see you, hope you've been well. I'm not really taking requests anymore but we will see if that happens. I have had a short series sitting in my mind for a while now but am too busy right now to do anything with it.

TheSphynx - Hedwig would heard you into Dally range. What teamwork.

poka - The four of them would be very cute in glasses.