Ch 24 Christmas Day
Harry looked at his wife as she finished dressing. "Is that a new Christmas dress?" he wondered. Ginny twirled around to show off the dress, briefly losing her balance, before Mitzi appeared at her side.
"Breakfast here at Grimmauld Place?" Harry confirmed Christmas morning as they left their bedroom, making sure that they were having breakfast at Grimmauld Place.
"Yes, with Ron and Hermione and some of the children, in our kitchen," Ginny explained. "This Christmas is really different. We are not gathering at Mum's until a big Christmas dinner at noon. It is going to be us, Albus and Cleo, Lily, Minerva and Ivana, Ron and Hermione with Hugo.
"Rose and Scorpius are at the Malfoy's. I have no idea where James and Erica are going to be eating breakfast. I forgot to ask if they wanted to come over here.
"We are going to have to get James a mobile. We are getting closer to buying the Cannons, and the new General Manager needs to be able to get in touch with him. James and Erica have been at her house clearing out her bedroom, and at Potter's New Burrow setting up their rooms, and I'm not quite sure where else."
Ginny looked with concern at Harry. He was, she thought, stretched thin, like when he had too much to do after The Battle of Hogwarts. Losing those Aurors at Malfoy Manor was hard on him, and she knew he was concerned about the state of the Auror Department. Well, he needed a day off. He needed to connect with family.
Ginny was very grateful that Dennis Creevey was going to be working this Christmas day, giving Harry the day off.
Everybody who was going to be eating in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place showed up about eight. They all sat down at the large kitchen table, as Mabel and Winky served the Magi breakfast.
"Do you like your new rooms?" Ginny asked Albus and Cleo.
"What Rose did with the bedroom is really fantastic," Albus smiled. "She has a real gift for making rooms function well and look nice."
"And I don't have to live at Malfoy Manor with, well grandmother is nice but it is not a comfortable place," Cleo added. "I get to sleep with Albus!"
"Is it just the sleeping you like?" Lily kidded.
"Well, I like the other things too," Cleo just beamed, joy and desire all over her being, "but yes, sleeping next to Albus and waking up next to him is … is … is just BETTER."
"Scorpius and Rose think it is going to be very important to establish themselves at Malfoy Manor," Hermione told the group. "I feel sorry for her having to establish herself there, though. Narcissa and Druella are nice, but Astoria is awful, and Draco is, I don't know, not good.
"I didn't see them at church last night either."
"I was baptized!" Cleo exclaimed. "Mum and dad said that I was baptized as an infant. Now that I'm living with Albus we can go to church together and learn about how to be good people and all!
Albus reflected, "I think Rose is going to want to come to church. Rose and Scorpius were faithful going to church at Hogwarts. I know both of them want to be good people, but it is hard to love everybody when some of the people in the family are horrid. I've never met Mr. Malfoy who is in prison, but he sounds like just an awful person."
"How are your rooms coming?" Narcissa asked Rose at breakfast.
"They are coming," Rose replied. "I spent more time yesterday getting Albus and Cleo's rooms ready, but tomorrow and the rest of the week Scorpius and I have plenty of time to make our rooms our rooms. I think they will be nice."
"I'm sure you can think of other things to do to make Malfoy Manor a more inviting place," Narcissa told her new granddaughter-in-law. "Where will you put the baby when it comes?"
"That will take a little remodeling, but we will have time for that this summer," Rose answered. "I'd like three or four eventually, so we are going to have to make the place much more child friendly."
"It's not YOUR house!" Astoria snapped.
"As long as Lucius is alive it is not YOUR house either," Rose snapped back, staring at her across the dining room table.
"And I am supposed to be nice to someone who publically called me a little bitch?" Rose sneered. "I am doing my best to be civil to Mr. Malfoy, but it is very hard to be civil to someone who publically calls you a little bitch."
"Astoria, you are the one who needs to catch this snitch," Narcissa told Astoria. "If you want to be civil to Rose I am sure she will be civil to you. If you want to be friends with your daughter-in-law, you need to make peace with her. Meanwhile, it is up to you."
Astoria just scowled. She was tempted to say she had just let Draco violate her, but she was … she didn't know how she thought about it. She wanted to let her snotty friends know that she did it, but doing it once would not … and she really didn't want to be pregnant but if she was it would show all those … and throw it at Rose's face and everybody's but she didn't want to risk giving Draco an excuse for more …
Narcissa and Druella smiled sympathetic smiles at Rose. Astoria was not easy to live with.
"I count fifty-one people who are going to be here for Christmas Dinner," Molly told Victoire and the Elves. "I think we can fit them all on three large tables this year. Victoire, I'm going to put your family at one table.
"Your mother and father, you, Teddy, Josefina, Dominique, Frank and Louis, plus the children Juana, Maria, Javier, Rosario, Venus, plus Fernando with Keystone the Elf, that is fifteen.
"George and Angelina, Fred and Miriam with Barack and Issa, Frank Longbottom and Roxanne with Wilkie and Irma, that's ten, plus Percy and Audrey, Molly and Rich Hudson with Kyle and Scarlet, and Lucy who wants to bring Bob Hudson. That's eight."
"Do you think Lucy and Bob will finally become engaged?" Victoire wondered.
"Do you think she might become pregnant?" Molly wondered.
"Did you see how Aunt Audrey was looking at Uncle Percy at the wedding?" Victoire laughed. "Just how many babies were conceived this week?"
"Too many," Molly sighed. "You and Teddy?"
"Merlin NO!" Victoire exclaimed. "I'm still taking the lactation and birth control potions, and Teddy and I have more than enough to deal with right now. After Venus weans, though, within the year, maybe."
"Well," Molly started again, "George's family and Percy's is eighteen at that table.
Just then Audrey came thru the Floo. "Molly, do we have room for my father?" she asked her mother-in-law.
"Nineteen at that table then," Molly smiled. "There is always room for one more. Just your father?"
"Just my father," Audrey replied as she left.
Molly turned back to Victoire. "Then you have Ron, Hermione, Huge, Jean Granger, Rose and Scorpius plus Ginny and Harry, James and Erica, Albus and Cleo, Lily, Ivana and Minerva, that is fifteen, and if Arthur and Andromeda and I sit at the same table we have another table of eighteen.
"I thought the house was too big when Harry built it for us, but four generations of us and it is not looking too big at all."
Victoire looked at her grandmother. "One of these years we are going to have to take the area between the houses and have, how many tables? Cleo and I both want big families."
"There are five and even six generation families among us Magi," Molly thought. "We are not going to be able to keep up with the jumpers without making it a full time job!"
"That will be a few years, grandmother," Victoire told Molly. "By that time we should be able to find more help."
"Hello, grandmum," Rose greeted Molly, coming through the Floo with Scorpius. They were the first ones to appear at the New Burrow, both eager to escape the tension at Malfoy Manor. "Do you need any help?"
"Everything is under control, although you can greet people," Molly told her. "We have family names at the tables, with suggested seating, although you can move people around if you want."
"I see you have the Christmas plates out," Rose beamed, seeing that her grandmother had taken her suggestion and procured some special Christmas china.
"Do you have any idea how many sets I have had to buy, Rose?" Molly asked. "Four place settings of twelve, and that's enough only because we have infants."
"The family is getting bigger," Rose agreed.
"I'm going to walk a little, Rose," Scorpius told his wife. "I need to keep moving to help my insides heal."
"How are you, Scorpius?" Molly wondered.
"I should be almost all healed by the time we go back to Hogwarts, but it is still a little tender where I was stabbed," Scorpius replied.
Bill, Fleur, Dominique, Frank and Louis came through the Floo next.
"Where are the grandbabies?" Fleur wondered.
Dominique unconsciously reached down towards her womb. Molly looked at Dominique, and thought, 'another one?'
"They are trying to have them all nap or rest until close to Dinner," Molly replied. "They should be down soon."
"I will go up and see if they need any help," Fleur announced.
"Your family is all sitting together," Molly waved, showing Bill where they had set a table for what had suddenly become a rather large family.
George and Angelina followed, with Fred carrying Barack and Miriam carrying Issa. "Roxanne and Frank and their two are coming from Longbottom Mansion shortly," Angelina told Molly, just before those four came through the Floo.
Percy and his whole family followed, including Audrey's father Arthur Baker.
Finally, Ron, Ginny, and their families followed through the Floo.
James and Erica walked in from next door.
"What did you do this morning?" Rose asked them.
"Slept in, put away a few things," Erica replied. "We stayed a little later at my parents last night than I thought we would. It is hard to talk to mum when Tabitha and the little children are around, and it was rather late when they left."
Fleur came into the eating area holding Juana's hand, followed by Victoire with Venus, Teddy, his leg back on, with Javier and Maria, Josefina with Rosario, and finally a surly Fernando reluctantly holding the Elf Keystone's hand.
Arthur and Andromeda appeared as the crowd was assembling.
"Sit down, all of you," Molly proclaimed, "Victoire and I, with Elf help, have been preparing a meal for all of you. After the meal we will have leftovers and other food to snack on for the rest of the day."
Once they were seated Molly asked, "Do you know what happened to the mother of three of those children?" pointing to the table where Teddy's family was.
"She is dead," Harry quietly informed Molly.
"How do you know?" Molly wondered.
"We identified her as one of the dead," Harry responded
Scorpius looked at Harry, and Harry looked at him and then down. Scorpius looked hard at Harry, and Harry shook his head 'no.'
Scorpius looked over at the table where Teddy and the children were, and back at Harry. He pointed at himself.
"How are the children doing?" Harry asked Molly, not wanting to get into how Veronica had died. There was no reason for Scorpius or anyone else in the family to know that she was one of the Magi decapitated by the Sword of Gryffindor.
"The babies are just babies, and they each have someone that is nursing them. Juana is totally confused. Minerva was over here, and they are close enough in age, so they played some, which I think helped. Minerva is small so they look closer in age than they are, and she loves being a helpful big sister type, so she has been playing school, trying to teach Juana her letters and reading to her. Minerva has quite a selection of early reader books that she can read."
"I'm a good reader!" Minerva confirmed. "I can help take care of the babies. I like all of Teddy's babies. It is just Fernando that is mean, but the Elf Keystone keeps him away from us
"I'm very proud of you, Minerva," Harry told his daughter. "We are getting help for Fernando, but until he gets better you should just play with the other children."
Harry was aware of the effort they were putting into getting Fernando into some extensive treatment, but there was no magic they could do to quickly heal him.
"No one told us how many witches were pregnant, or if we would have our own rooms when we go back to Hogwarts after Christmas," James said. "Do any of you know?" James looked at his father when he asked the question.
"I am almost sure all the married couples will be in private rooms, and I have no idea who is going to be where," Harry replied. "If you hadn't noticed, we've been rather busy here."
"I'm glad you won, and didn't get hurt," James commented.
"Scorpius was almost disemboweled, and he is still getting better!" Rose insisted.
"Rose has a couple of scars from cursed knives or curses as well," Scorpius added.
"Sorry," James admitted. "I forgot. You don't look like you almost died."
"Well he did!" Rose proclaimed.
"How do you like your new rooms?" Molly asked her three newly married grandchildren, trying to head off what could become an argument.
"I LOVE sleeping with Albus," Cleo eagerly volunteered. "Rose just did the most marvelous things to Albus's old room, and to James room, and it just feels very … just very … much better. Much better than living at Malfoy Manor."
"It is nice," Albus confirmed. "Rose really knows how to furnish and decorate rooms."
"Ours are not really decorated," Erica confessed. "It is not like I've ever really had my own space. My younger sister and I shared a bedroom."
"I would think sharing a bedroom with your husband would be rather different than sharing one with your little sister," Ginny kidded.
"Sharing a bed is a lot different," Erica confessed.
"Who snores, and who steals the blankets?" Ginny wondered, laughing.
"Neither of us snore, and so far sharing the blankets has not been too bad," Erica replied. "I'm glad we have a big bed, though, because neither of us wants to … we each want a little space when we sleep."
"You don't fall asleep in each other's arms?" Ginny kidded.
"Are you supposed to?" James wondered.
"Everybody is different," Hermione interjected. "Ron and I don't exactly sleep with arms around each other."
Rose gave a big sigh of relief.
"You and Scorpius don't?" Lily asked her cousin.
"What we do do and what we don't do is none of your business!" Rose snapped back.
"Every couple is different," Molly butted in with. "It is not a competition."
Molly and Ginny stared at Lily, who wisely kept quiet. Both could see Lily getting started on giving the married couples a hard time.
"Is everybody going to be able to come here Sunday, January first?" Molly wondered.
Harry sighed, looked around, obviously very stressed.
"Harry, your boss is telling you to take next Sunday off," Arthur told his son-in-law. "I know you will be working long hours between now and then. Being short fourteen Aurors is stressing your department, but we are dealing with it. Besides," at this Arthur looked at everyone else at the table, "how many years have you worked twelve and sixteen and even eighteen hour days the week before Christmas, and encouraged a few other Aurors without families to do the same, in order to give Aurors with young families' time off. Dennis and I have a number of DMLE officers who have volunteered to work extra hours to give you a break."
"Fourteen!" Ginny gasped. "You didn't lose fourteen Aurors, did you."
"Not exactly," Harry replied. "Five were killed in the living room at Malfoy Manor, and we just lost another one. Hermione, do you want to explain."
Hermione sighed. "It is more complicated than it should be. Max Maximillian was at St. Mungo's, brain dead. His husband Dax Dunleavy is recovering, in the same room next to him, but is not in good shape. Dax agreed that it was time to let Max go, but I would hate to get into a big court case trying to defend Dax's mental state right now.
"Max's parents are there, and they did not want to let him go, and they really didn't want Dax to be the one allowing it. They have never accepted Max and Dax's relationship, and we have a big power struggle going on, with international implications. Kingsley has delegated this one to me to handle, too."
Harry went on to further explain, "Max died yesterday while I was there, but there is a fight going on over the body.
"The three other Aurors, Dax and two others, who were in the initial group to go into the Malfoy Manor living room are going to recover, but they are out for weeks. We lost one Auror taking the island, and I have two others who were wounded in this operation and two who are out for other reasons."
"Two of the four Aurors on loan to the International Aurors are being called back," Arthur added. "We have two DMLE officers who have mostly been trained to be Aurors, and we can promote them. There are going to be enough graduating from training this summer that we will be fully staffed, if a little tight, by summer."
"It is way better than it was just after The Battle of Hogwarts," Harry admitted. "It is just not as good as I would like."
"Are you going to be around between now and the new year?" Molly asked Albus and Cleo.
"We are going to have to spend most of the next week on the island, grandmum," Albus replied. "Cleo needs to examine people to see if they should be allowed to stay on the island or if they are people who need, well, some of them are really bad and need to be confined and some did really bad things but need to have rules and standards and it is really complicated. The children on the island need caregivers as well, and that is complicated. Teddy's situation is, if you can believe it, less complicated than some."
"Plus we have to establish something like a constitution and set of laws, and Cleo has to proclaim it, but going over dry legal documents is not something she does very well."
Cleo frowned and shook her head at the mention of 'dry legal documents.'
"My mother and father are going to live on the island, and they are going to be the day to day rulers, at least right now," Cleo told the people at the table.
"I don't much like the idea of kings and queens," Albus elaborated, "but for right now Cleo owns the island, and it is up to her, to us, to establish the laws and standards. It helps that Cleo's parents are good people, and we are getting help, but we need to be there."
"I love the island," Cleo added, "but it doesn't feel like home. It feels like a place to go to for a vacation, but not home home."
"We usually spend a week or two in the Caribbean on vacation, Harry," Ginny grinned. "I would like to go there this winter."
"You are all invited," Cleo replied, waving her arms.
"The island is not going to support itself with piracy and theft," Albus added. "Maybe we can make it a resort for Magi."
"A child friendly place, and a place to go when you want to become pregnant!" Cleo suggested.
"It never took a tropical island vacation for me to become pregnant," Molly observes wistfully, looking at Arthur.
"I want to be much more aware of what is going on, and do it deliberately, the next time," Rose added. She smiled at Scorpius, and the two held hands briefly. Molly noted that Rose was already talking about a next time.
Roxanne looked at Lucy and Bob Hudson. "Are you too finally ready to admit that you are a good pair?"
"We're very comfortable together," Lucy replied.
"I've never been too eager to settle down," Bob admitted, "but it was hard to be at Cleo's wedding and not feel an obligation to perpetuate the Magi race."
"You didn't!" Roxanne exclaimed.
"We did," Lucy admitted. "We are talking about marrying, maybe even before we go back to Switzerland right after the first of the year."
"Maybe! There is not much time," Roxanne insisted. "You ought to announce it here, right now!"
"Not right now!" Lucy replied, looking around.
Bob whispered to Lucy, "Maybe this afternoon?"
Lucy gave Bob an uncertain look back.
"You going to give mum more grandchildren, Percy?" George asked.
Percy grinned at Audrey, and they held hands. They both became red in the face, smiling at each other with more desire than George had ever seen.
"Percy, you rake!" George laughed. "I'm glad for both of you."
"We are not sure of anything yet," Percy replied. "What about you and Angelina?"
George looked at his wife. "We will see," she replied. She looked around. "Just how many couples were charmed by Cleo at their wedding?"
"Everybody?" George suggested.
"That's a scary thought," Angelina replied. "That's a lot of babies all at once."
"She seems to have that part of her under control now, though," Miriam suggested, looking at Cleo. "It sure wasn't at the wedding."
"You too?" Angelina asked.
"Maybe," Miriam admitted. She grinned at Fred II. "It was a lot of fun. It almost always is, but it was like an Aphrodisiac spell was over all the couples."
"What is Ahhh…pro…deeee…zack?" Barack asked.
"It is when mummy's and daddy's love each other, like when we hug and kiss and really love each other," Fred replied. "It is something you do when you are a grown up."
"With a girl" Barack scowled.
"Only if you want to, and she wants to as well," Fred continued. "It is nothing little boys have to worry about."
Fleur noticed that Dominique was a little more eager to hold and play with the babies. She wasn't sure if it was just because of the abundance of babies, or because … She knew that she was pregnant. Being a Veela you always knew, and you miscarried much less often than other witches, and witches miscarried less often than Muggles.
Victoire had confirmed that she was still on the lactation and birth control potions. That was good. Victoire didn't need any more confusion in her life right now.
Bill asked Teddy, "Now that you do not have to stay hidden, are you going to just join the Auror department here in England?"
"Harry could use me," Teddy replied. "I've some things I have to do with the captured people from the island, but I'm trying to finish up with that over the next week, or two, or four. I have no desire to live on the island. I want to stay at home as much as possible."
"The New Burrow is home," Victoire confessed. "It is big, but comfortable. I just cannot imagine living anywhere else."
"It is safe," Josefina told the adults. "I don't have to worry about …" Josefina did not want to talk about all the horrors she had been through with children at the table, but for the first time in her life she felt safe.
"Where is Dennis MacGraw?" Bill wondered.
"He is on the island, but as soon as they do not need him he is going to go live with a sister," Teddy replied. "He is having a really hard time being on the island, so they are only keeping him there when they really need him. The sister was actually here to pick up the few things he had here. She confirmed what I already knew; he is much more emotionally fragile that you think he is."
"Why are you not in worse shape?" Josefina wondered, looking in wonder at the people at the table, and at the other two tables.
"I am so very lucky," Teddy replied. "They think that the witch who killed my parents cursed me. My parents died a couple of weeks after I was born, killed at The Battle of Hogwarts, and I was supposedly cursed, but first Ginny and then Grandmother Molly and GrandmotherAndromeda, plus the rest of the family, loved the curses away. I had a reasonably happy childhood and grew up knowing I was loved.
"Harry doesn't have anybody on his side of the family to be grandparents to his children, but he and Ginny are my godparents and foster parents, and they have made it clear that they feel it is their job to be grandparents to my children as well. Including Maria and the rest.
"I was horrified by what I had to do to stay alive on that cursed island, but I felt if my parents could die to defeat Tom Riddle I could do everything I needed to do to defeat Jezebel. But I came back from the island feeling dirty and unworthy. Victoire and the rest of the family has just loved some of my guilt away. Not totally. I still feel like I do not deserve all I have. I am just so grateful."
"Grandmother Molly just looks like she loves everybody," Josefina observed.
"Sometimes I think her love makes her the most powerful person in the family," Fleur observed. "She is a good person."
"You are too!" Bill insisted. "Much of your beauty is how good a person you are."
"Thank you," Fleur replied, looking lovingly at Bill.
"I think I felt, at the weddings, at all of them really but it was just out of control with Cleopatra and Albus, how a man and woman should love each other," Josefina proposed. "I've never felt anything like that, and I'm not sure if I will ever be able to, but it is not the same thing as what has happened to me. It's not what happens TO you."
"It is close to the same physical act," Fleur confirmed, "but it is totally different. Sex without love is not the same thing at all."
"What are you going to do?" Dominique asked. "What is going to happen to the children?"
"They are going to stay here," Victoire insisted. "We are going to love all the curses, all the bad, away! Veronica, the mother of three of them, is dead, and there is no reason they all cannot be part of our family, Teddy and my family. Josefina too, as a helper and someone we all love."
"Their mother is dead?" Dominique asked. "How did she die?"
Teddy told the table, "She came here with Jezebel, and she died. We don't need to talk about how and where."
All the people at dinner noticed that Victoire sat with Teddy on one side of her, well, with Venus in between so both parents could take care of her, and Josefina on the other side. Victoire was trying to tell Josefina who all the people were, a rather monumental task. Josefina was close to tears much of the day, but you could tell they were tears of joy.
As the family was assembling after dinner Molly found Lucy and Bob and asked, "Do you want to make an announcement?"
Lucy looked at Bob like she wanted to, but she needed his approval. Bob sighed. They had slept in her bed for two nights now, well more than slept, and he assumed they were committed, but this was all happening faster than he thought it would, and he was a little less sure than he wanted to be.
He didn't want to walk away, though. Lucy was a little more fragile than most people suspected, and he probably had loved her for years, but … well it was past time for buts.
"Yes, we ought to," Bob replied. "Do you want me to tell people?" he asked Lucy.
She nodded 'yes.'
"Bob Hudson has an announcement," Molly boomed.
The room became quiet. Everybody looked towards Molly.
"Lucy and I are going to see if we can marry next week, before going back to school in Switzerland," Bob told the crowd. Applause burst out.
Audrey whispered to Percy, "I suspected something like this would happen."
"You think they are?" Percy asked.
"Probably," Audrey replied. "We are not the only couple who succumbed to the Aphrodisiac spell."
Cleo came up to Lucy and Robert and examined them with her first wand. She had a pensive look. There were many couples like them, ready to marry and acceptable, if not ideal. She could sense, if they were pregnant it was early but they were intimate. She never told anyone but Albus that she could sense if a couple was intimate or not, but she could, and it was both revealing and embarrassing.
It would be good, she suspected, if she could really tell if a marriage was ideal or doomed, but most marriages were much more complex, not ideal but not bad. There were very few ideal marriages. There were more good marriages than bad ones, but many she had observed from making the soap, shampoo, and perfume, that were good but not ideal.
She had only been examining people for a few years. Most of the couples did, with the marriage spells and time, fall more in love, as long as love was faithfulness to marriage vows and, sometimes it was more liking each other and a partnership than the intense emotion of first love. The marriage vows and spells were more about agreeing to be in love than about having that frantic emotion that was infatuation, in any case.
Lucy was more fragile mentally than was ideal, and Bob less committed, but they were good people, and the wedding spells would help. If her fertility goddess persona caused this, however, although it was as good as some of the couples she had examined, it was not totally a good thing.
"I will make both of you new soap and shampoo, and new perfume for you, Lucy," she announced.
Cleo seldom had doubts about the goodness of having babies, but just maybe this was, if not bad, maybe not ideal.
"If you want to marry next Sunday I can do it right here," Hermione announced. "As Vice-minister of Magic I have that authority. You do need to see me in my office before then, however."
"Can we do that?" Bob asked.
"Yes," Lucy replied. "May Bob's parents be here?"
"Of course!" Molly boomed.
"I am sure that between Molly and me we can make you a wedding cake," Victoire replied.
"I even have a goblin made, I guess I should say a Goblin Elf made, tiara for you to wear," Molly concluded.
"The same one that Erica wore?" Lucy asked.
"The same," Molly confirmed. "Generations of my ancestors have worn this tiara. Your mother wore it, as did all of the brides in our family."
"But Rose and Cleo didn't," Lucy remembered. "Erica wore it all evening."
"There wasn't time," Molly replied. "It doesn't work if multiple brides marry the same day." Molly wasn't eager to tell Lucy why, that the tiara would not come off until the marriage was consummated. Or that a quick shag would do it, as Ron and Hermione demonstrated between their magical and Muggle weddings.
"I will have a jumper for you as well," Molly told Bob.
"Thank you grandmum," Bob replied, hugging his grandmother-in-law to be.
Early in the evening of Christmas day, after everybody who did not live in the New Burrow had left, Pippa Lewis and Caroline Fawcett came over for a brief visit with Pippa's daughter Maria Guadalupe. Molly led then into the living room and called Teddy and Victoire.
Maria was in pajamas, ready for bed, when Teddy, Victoire and Maria came into the living room. Victoire told Maria, "Your Aunts Pippa and Caroline are here to see you."
Maria looked cautiously at the two middle aged women. She toddled over to Pippa and let Pippa put her in her lap and hold her. Pippa gave Maria a small stuffed unicorn as a Christmas present, and Maria took it and put the horn in her mouth. After a few minutes Maria wanted to get down, and she ran back to Victoire.
"It is her bedtime, and she has had a very busy day," Victoire apologetically told Pippa.
"Good night, Maria," Pippa said.
"Night," Maria replied, before putting the horn of the unicorn back in her mouth.
Victoire left with Maria.
Pippa sat awkwardly looking at Teddy. "It sounds like you have had quite a week. Did Cleopatra really kill Jezebel and take over the island?"
"Yes, she did," Teddy replied. "I've been there, and Cleo's parents are acting as the day to day rulers, with a strong Auror presence."
"What happened to Veronica?" Pippa wondered.
"Died in the battle at Malfoy Manor," Teddy replied.
"Good!" Pippa exclaimed, making a face to indicate her opinion of Veronica. "Your daughter?"
"Juana somehow survived, and is here along with my infant son by Veronica, Javier."
Just then Josefina looked into the living room, and stood awkwardly at the door.
"Come in, Josefina," Teddy told the uncertain looking young lady. "Do you remember Rosa?"
"Barely," Josefina replied. "I thought she was killed."
"Harry Potter and the Aurors wanted everyone to think that," Pippa replied. "I was captured, and I think the Weasley family loved island curses away. I have been Pippa Lewis, not Rosa, since my capture, and I don't want to go back. Pippa is a much nicer person than Rosa ever was.
"Josefina is the mother to one of my children, Rosario, and she has been nursing and taking care of my son by Veronica, Javier, as well," Teddy told Pippa. "We are also taking care of Fernando, my children's half-brother."
"How is Victoire handling you bringing back these children?" Pippa wondered.
"I didn't have much of a choice," Teddy admitted. "It helps that I am alive, and so many other people are dead. It is awkward and hard, but we married for better or for worse, and I always knew some of the worse that might be waiting for me. I love Victoire even more because she can love all the children, not just our Venus. She is an amazing witch and wife and mother."
"I didn't know there could be so much love in the world," Josefina tried to explain. "The whole family has accepted me and all the children. Teddy's wife Victoire and grandmother Molly Weasley are the most loving people. It is a little confusing around here, but all the people are so nice."
"It is a very accepting group," Pippa thought. "I would like to introduce you to my wife Caroline. We took care of Molly's son Charlie when he was sick and dying, and when we wanted to marry they were just so supporting. I've left my daughter by Teddy, Maria Guadalupe, here, because they can provide her with a much more stable home."
"Does she know you are her mother?" Josefina gasped.
"No," Pippa admitted. "We will eventually tell her, but she is really too young to understand right now."
"All the children are going to have to know the confused parentage eventually," Teddy admitted. "It is not going to be easy to explain why. I certainly don't want to go into any detail about what life was like on the island. It was triple X rated horrible for violence and sexual perversion."
Pippa and Josefina nodded their agreement. No one wanted to talk about what life was like under the rule of Jezebel.
2022