Ch 55 Another year (Twenty-Twenty-Five)
Molly Weasley Hudson took a Floo to the narthex of the main church of the wizard Christians in the Swiss valley. The day was cold, but not blustery, this end of January day of twenty-twenty-five, and she wanted to set the stage for the article she was commissioned to write, so she stepped outside to remember what the building looked like from the outside. Like most buildings in the Swiss valley it was made of stone, and from the front and visible sides it looked very church like, with a bell tower, large windows with stain glass on the sides, large doors three or more meters high in font, more stain glass windows in the front of the church.
Again like most buildings it was built into the mountain, and was much larger on the inside that you could tell it was from the outside.
Molly had not been in very many churches, but she thought the narthex or gathering space was larger than normal. From the outside you could see six windows on each side. Once inside one of the stain glass windows shone down on the narthex on each side, and inside the church there were eleven more windows, something that would have confused Muggles or No-Maj, but that was rather normal in the magical construction of the valley. Molly wasn't sure how six windows outside turned into twelve windows inside, but this sort of thing was so common in magical construction she didn't even notice it.
The church was rectangular, and on the main floor it could seat about a thousand people, with a choir loft and a mezzanine level around the side that could seat maybe five hundred more people, again by the magical use of space. Molly sat down in one of the pews in the back of church, took out her tablet, and started to set the scene. The church was quiet, but she was supposed to meet Cleo here, so she looked around, up at the large pipe organ that Cleo often played, and towards the back (or was it the front) of the church where the altar was. An Elf was coming out of a side door up by the altar, and Molly waved at her.
The Elf Apparated to where Molly was, and asked her, "Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Cleo," Molly replied. "I understand she is in a song writing session."
"Oh, that is in the choir room in the basement," The Elf replied. "I can lead you there."
The two beings walked out of the church proper, and towards some stairs that led up to the choir loft. If you went behind the stairs there were more stairs leading down, and they took the stairs to another large space. The room was maybe four meters high, with a floor that seemed to be a commercial carpet. There were doors to rooms off the main room. The room seemed to be lit by natural light, but it was hard to tell where the light was coming from, more magic.
Molly could hear music, then discussion, then a few more notes, coming from one of the rooms. The Elf pointed her towards the room, and Molly opened the door and entered.
"Welcome!" Cleo answered, getting up from the two rank portable keyboard where she had been sitting. There were a dozen beings, seven Magi and five Elf, with musical instruments, staff paper, and some Muggle recording devices scattered around the room.
Also in the room were the inevitable Magi and Elf guards, and Alice Milne, the children's nanny plus Cleo's children playing in a corner.
Cleo proceeded to introduce the other beings in the room to Molly, as she proceeded to take down their names.
The song writing session lasted a couple of hours.
When the session was over Cleo told Molly, "I need to go back to the castle, but you can come with me if you would like."
"I would like that," Molly replied.
There was an underground passageway from the lower level of the church to the first lower level (floor -1 by the strange way the castle floors were numbered) where you could enter the castle, and the group walked to the castle.
"This is not an easy article to write," Molly Hudson told Cleo. They had just come from a, she guessed it was a song writing session although it was both more and less than a song writing session. She was on one side of Cleo, who was pushing a double stroller that also carried a two rank keyboard, a tablet, and several collections of sheet music. Adam and Morgana were babbling at each other in the stroller. The children's nanny was walking alongside the stroller, on the other side of Cleo. There were guards before and after as they entered the palace, and even when they entered a private living room a guard Auror and a guard Elf stood nearby.
Cleo took the two toddlers out of the stroller and kissed them. Their nanny took them to a play area in the room so Cleo and Molly could talk.
"We needed something better than the song that they sung when the last regents came in," Cleo told Molly, scowling. "It was like the "God save the King" of the English song but much worse, like you were the subjects of the regents. Albus stresses that we are the servants of the Magi and, well, that is where it gets complicated."
Molly thought, "It is like you are composing music for the Elves as well as the Magi, some individual songs and some, or at least one, joint song."
"That is why we have Elves involved in the composing. And we are trying to make them sound good in different languages," Cleo sighed.
"How come Bishop Scherica is so involved?" Molly wondered.
"You were not at the first meetings," Cleo replied. "He says we are trying to create what he calls secular liturgies, not exactly worshiping the governing but, it is complicated. You want everyone to feel good about the governing and the community. Being glad you are Magi or Elf, but also glad you are in this community of Magi and Elf. So the words are important."
"You are also trying to write songs and music and more, to make everyone feel good about the new way Magi and Elves relate," Molly observed.
"Singing it may be more, well more or better, than just saying it," Cleo mused. "Getting it right is not easy. We can use all the help we can get, and if your article gets us more suggestions or even complete songs that would be good."
Molly looked at her watch. "It is time for me to pick up the children, and see when Rich will be done. I thought he was going to be able to have dinner with us at six, but much more than me he has a reporter's schedule and gets called away when there is breaking news."
"I'm trying to control my fertility goddess persona," Cleo remarked. "I'm not causing you to want more children, am I?"
"Maybe a little, but I'm resisting it," Molly replied. "Two children plus a three-quarter time job is busy enough, and I'm not eager to have my life get busier."
Molly packed up her tablet and notes, and left to retrieve her children.
"Thank you for hosting these parties," Hermione told her daughter as Rose greeted her mother and father at the front door of Malfoy Manor the first Saturday of February. "Getting to know people outside of work is valuable."
"I enjoy it," Rose replied pulling her mother into a quick hug. "When you have a house set up to entertain like Malfoy Manor you ought to use it.
"I've enjoyed meeting the people who you and Scorpius are dealing with at the Wizengamot and the other ones who work at the Ministry." She linked her arm with her mother's and led her into the living room.
"How was your gathering of the new mothers, most of whom became pregnant when you did at Hogwarts," Hermione asked.
"That was a very different kind of party, with toddlers all over. We did have babysitters so the adults could talk. I've turned the big hallway upstairs into a great play area, and in bad weather the Weasley clan takes some of the little ones over here."
"You grew up with magic, and have no idea how magical it is to turn that large hallway from a formal looking space to a play area with a few waves of a wand," Hermione told her daughter.
"You do keep telling me," Rose replied. "I am grateful that you keep reminding me how magical some of the magic we take for granted is."
"I see more guests are arriving," Hermione ended with so Rose and Scorpius could greet their guests at the front door.
There was a modest size band playing in a corner of the living room, and so that the room was not crowded the wall that normally separated the entrance hall from the living room had been removed. Rose was proud of how she had remodeled Malfoy Manor so it could be comfortable for many different size gathering of beings. There were chairs and tables that could be easily resized for Elves (or very short Magi, or children) as well as more normal sized furniture.
The band consisted of five musicians, three Magi and two Elf. Most of the songs were in English, and many of them were new. Some of the songs seemed to be celebrating the new way Magi and Elf related. The world of the Magi, especially in the older fashion parts of the world, was very hierarchical, and at least one of the songs seemed to celebrate a more consultative way of governing.
Eventually a song was sung in Elfish. It seemed to be a sad song, with a few upbeat measures, and many of the Elves, plus Rose and Scorpius, were crying at the end of the song.
"What did the song say?" Hermione wanted to know as she approached her daughter.
"It is hard to translate, but it is lamenting the certainty that has been lost in becoming free. The tree that Adam and Eve ate from was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Losing the charms that forced you to obey subjects you to having to make your own moral judgements, and that is not easy.
"It also talks about becoming subject to the ruler of this world, his demons, and the Dementors. It is not so much saying they have lost more than they gained, but lamenting the losses that have come with the gains."
"I didn't want to make the Elves unhappy," Hermione confesses.
"Who is the happiest Elf you know?" Rose wondered.
"Winky is one of them, and she is still a house elf, not an Elf," Hermione admitted. "Life is way more complicated than I thought when I was at Hogwarts."
"You wanted to know everything when we were at Hogwarts," Ron volunteered, looking at Rose but also at her mother. "If it was in books, you almost did."
"Life is a whole lot more complicated than I thought it was when I was a student," Hermione admitted.
The party broke up about ten, Hermione and Ron being the last to leave because they were hosting the party along with Scorpius and Rose.
A week later Rose hosted just her parents for dinner. The dining room was large and formal, and as Rose led her parents into the room she remarked, "I have tried to make the Manor friendlier, but it was built to impress. The ceilings on the main floor are high, and it just isn't natural to make these rooms smaller."
"I think you have done an excellent job of redecorating Malfoy Manor," Hermione responded. The dining room was large but not too fussy. All the portraits of frowning ancestors had been confined to a portrait room in the lower level, and the art work was mostly paintings of outdoor scenes. The room was lit by magical paintings, plus a large chandler and sconces on the wall, the last two lit by LED light bulbs.
There was a beautiful carpet on the floor, but where the two toddlers were eating there was some type of covering over the carpet. You could only be so formal when you were eating with two toddlers.
After dinner Scorpius wanted to show Ron some new gadgets, some combination of Muggle and magic, that the farmers were using to speed up transplanting, and they left the dining room for Scorpius's office. Rose and Hermione went to the room that Rose had converted into not only her office but a small sitting room, it being a much more comfortable room for intimate conversation. They had a chance to talk, just the two of them. Elanor and Bella were in the room, content to play with a couple of stuffed toys as Rose sat next to her mother.
"Did you want two children?" Rose asked her mother.
"Hugo wasn't exactly planned," Hermione admitted. "He wasn't planned at all."
"Did you even want to be a mother?" Rose wondered. Her mother just seemed much less motherly than many of the other witches.
"It was just expected that you would be," Hermione reflected. "I stopped taking birth control potions about the time Aunt Ginny became pregnant with James, but then I had a miscarriage." Hermione looked sad.
"I never knew that!" Rose exclaimed. "I was your second pregnancy?"
"My father was so excited that I was pregnant, when I was, that first time, but he had cancer," Hermione shared. "I think that when I had my miscarriage all the fight went out of him. And when you have a miscarriage it is like what you are expected to do as a woman you have failed at. It wasn't an easy time for me."
"I guess not," Rose commiserated, feeling sorry for her mother.
"Then I became pregnant with you, but I was afraid that I was going to lose you too. It wasn't until the second half of my pregnancy that I could relax a little. But you were an easy baby. I had an easy labor and delivery, and then the best possible baby. Life was good, and I was content."
"So then you wanted another one?" Rose wondered.
"Well, not really," Hermione admitted. "I think I would have been content to have just one, like my mother, but I wasn't quite ready to do what I needed to do to make sure I couldn't have another one either. And then we had a chance to go on a cruise at the last minute, with Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry, and when the boat was too far from shore to leave we both found out we had left the birth control potions home.
"Well, my pregnancy wasn't bad, but Hugo was breach, and to get him out they had to do what they call an emergency expanded delivery, expand the birth canal way beyond it's normal size, and when they do it suddenly it is about as painful as anything you can imagine."
Hermione looked sadly at Rose.
"Hugo was not an easy baby. He wiggled and pulled at me when he nursed. He bit me with teeth when they came in. He has just always been active, loud, just a boy's boy, except grandmother says Aunt Ginny was just as loud and active. Neither Grandmother Granger or I could really handle him, but Grandmother Molly didn't have any problem, so that is why Hugo was always taught over there while you and Albus were taught by my mother."
"So that's why you didn't have any more," Rose guessed.
"I'm glad for your father's sake we have Hugo, and your father really stepped up to help take care of him," Hermione admitted. "I'd reached my limit, though, and made sure I could not have any more."
"I think I want more children," Rose told her mother. "I know I want more children."
"You are much more a natural mother than I ever was," Hermione admitted. "You can certainly afford as many as you want."
"I don't want to pop one out every other year like Victoire," Rose thought. "Maybe have another one, and then wait a few years, and then have another pair?"
"It sounds like a sensible plan to me," Hermione replied.
"You won't mind having four grandchildren, or more if Hugo marries and has children?"
"Not at all," Hermione replied. "As a grandmother you can have children in small doses. I'm never going to be a grandmother like Molly, but I think I can be a good grandmother to as many children as you want."
"That's good to know," Rose replied, relieved that her mother wouldn't mind if she had a larger family. Not that it would have stopped her, exactly, but it was nice to know.
The two little girls soon became bored with their toys, and went over to their mother. Hermione held Elanor and Rose held Bella as they read the little girls a couple of stories.
"Well, that was not a total disaster," Sammy Sun commented as the team trying to train the Honor Guard looked over the results of the last training mission. It was the middle of February, and they were in a well-guarded, totally hidden to Muggles, building made of stone overlooking K-2, looking out at the hidden cave of the Lord of the Dementors.
It was not freezing in the building, but all the magic in the world couldn't make the room warm.
"I really don't want to have it here next to K-2 in the middle of the winter, though," Harry reflected. "It is bad enough in good weather, but when the weather is bad in the middle of the winter it is almost impossible.
"At least most of the Aurors did not land on top of each other," Sammy sighed. "They all recovered reasonably quickly."
"Reasonably quickly is not good enough," Harry insisted. "I'm still haunted by the deaths at Malfoy Manor. I am just worried that our Aurors are going to appear one at a time, and be killed one at a time."
"Do you have any alternative?" Sammy wondered.
"Other than have all of them as well protected by magical armor and spells, and as well trained as we can get them, no," Harry admitted.
"I'm not surprised that Cleo is pregnant," Molly told Arthur the end of April, twenty-twenty-five. They were sitting in the two comfortable chairs looking into the kitchen, Molly never being as comfortable in the large living room as she was in the little niche right off the kitchen that led into their bedroom wing of the New Burrow. "We are going to get a passel of great-grandchildren out of that couple. I'm not really surprised that Rose is either. She was always more domestic than Hermione, and I know she is thinking of having more than two, but spacing them.
"George and Angelina talked about having a pair for Fred as well as a pair for themselves. I didn't think they were serious, but since she is pregnant I guess they are.
"What surprises me are Percy and Audrey. Audrey has decided that she really likes having children and being a mother. I think it is partly because she just doesn't see her mother at all, and her father is very happy with Narcissa, and he loves being a grandfather. "
"I thought that after the huge number of babies two years ago we were all finished with grandchildren, but I was wrong.
"Not that I mind, no, not at all. I cannot complain, after having all those children of our own, if they want big families as well."
Arthur agreed. "The only thing better than being a father is being a grandfather," he reflected. "You don't change messy nappies very often, but you get to hold and love them."
"And play with their toys," Molly joked.
"And teach them to cook," Arthur countered. "I'm rather good at a play kitchen with the little girls, but I'm no good with real food."
Molly nodded. Arthur's few attempts at cooking had not been very successful
James Potter risks his life to show off the headline read.
"Rita Skeeter is at it again," Lily grumbled, standing up in the office at Grimmauld Place where she and her mother usually put together the Quidditch columns. Ginny did have a desk at The Daily Prophet, but she seldom used it. Lily had used it occasionally when she was covering for her mother, but the management of the paper was more than content to let Lily work remotely. For some reason there was always a little chaos around when Lily was there, talking to people.
"I think the article is correct, though," Ginny told her daughter. "James does an excellent job, most of the time, but when he spots the Snitch and instead of catching it he chases it and almost catches it, dodging all sorts of obstacles in the way, it is exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Your father and I are terrified that he is going to seriously hurt or kill himself sometime with his showing off."
"People don't die playing Quidditch," Lily objected.
"They have," Ginny corrected. "You have no idea how close to dying I came,when that Bludger hit me."
"It is still exciting," Lily sighed. She liked excitement!
"Lily is going to cover the last of the post season games," Ginny told Harry Monday morning, July first, twenty-twenty-five as she and Harry ate breakfast in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, "so I can go to the ICWW with you."
Harry looked up from the Daily Prophet and his breakfast. "They won all their post-season games," Harry remarked. "Is there another one?"
"They are playing the winner of the All European League," Ginny replied. "It was scheduled at the last minute. It is not an official world cup game, since they are only played every four years, but they are both undefeated and it looks like it will be a sold out game. The players are making a decent share of the revenue, so they are mostly eager to play."
"Sounds like something James and Jake would arrange," Harry thought. "I bet James is going to try and recruit players too."
"As long as he doesn't lose players to some European team that outbids him," Ginny thought. "Two can play that game."
"No babies at this year's opening ball," Albus remarked as he and Cleo left their quarters and walked towards the negative first floor entrance to the castle on July fifth for the opening of the International Confederation of Witches and Wizards. "Hopefully by the time this conference is over with it will officially be the International Confederation of Magi and Elves."
"Ick Me?" Cleo pondered. "I lik M, or Ice M better, but I guess it doesn't really matter."
"Did you get any centaurs to come to the opening ball?" Cleo wondered. "I know you were talking to them this afternoon."
"No," Albus replied. "There is still a lot of controversy over their status. We have status questions about the merpeople too. Giants are considered a branch of Magi, but there are status questions of them as well."
Albus, Cleo and the rest of their retinue exited the guarded area of the castle and entered a moderate size room where everyone who wanted to enter the castle was examined. They took a Closet to the large governmental complex where the ICWW was held, and took their places.
Cleo was bored. The details of governing were critically important, and when you were passing laws every word mattered. It was also to her mind something that was better left to others. Sitting at her place in the large assembly hall was just plain work, one of the hardest jobs she felt she had to do. She scanned the assembly, looking for signs of arguments, no, arguments were acceptable. She was looking for signs of arguments that were spiraling out of control into fights. She normally just had to point The Wand of Circe, the first wand of the Magi, towards an argumentative group, and they would notice her and calm down.
Normally. It wasn't working, and she flicked the wand at the mixed group of argumentative Magi and Elves. The beam of light and power that went to the groups attracted their attention, and the attention of a mixed group of Aurors and Goblin Elves that were patrolling.
"Do you know what that group was arguing about?" Albus wondered, as he noticed what Cleo was doing.
"Not really," Cleo admitted. "Probably just trying to protect some perceived advantage. Some stupid status argument."
It was the closing ball, and Albus and Cleo were sitting at their places in the large ballroom on the main floor of the palace. The centaurs were still not there, although there had been a couple of meetings with some of them and various groups attending the ICWW. The meetings were mostly productive, and boring, which was how Albus liked it. They could not get to an agreement to change the name to the International Conference of Magi and Elves, though.
As far as Albus was concerned, he had already in his short lifetime had more than enough adventures for a lifetime, and he was not looking forward to the prophesied confrontation with The Lord of the Dementors. Boring was better.
He and Cleo did have a chance to dance, and talk with various beings, and enjoy the ending of the ICWW.
Friday August first Albus awoke to find Cleo already dressed. "It is real labor again," Cleo told Albus. "They are not all that close together or hard, but this is our second child, so it would be better to go to the hospital."
Albus had procured a small electric cart that could be used to go through the passageways going from the Castle to the Hospital. He drove Cleo to the hospital, well protected by Magi and Elf guards. Unlike the first time, they had plenty of time to register and get ready for the birth, and late in the afternoon Eve Peverell was born.
Cleo's parents had come from Resort Cleo to spend the last days of Cleo's pregnancy with her, and to be present at the birth of their second grandchild.
Ginny waited for news of Eve's birth at Grimmauld Place, trying to concentrate on a Quidditch column without a lot of success, spending much of the time pacing back and forth. By touching a wall or furniture, and keeping Mitzi close at hand, she could pace, but at least once Mitzi had to catch Ginny to keep her from falling. Lily tried not to look. It was scary when her mother paced.
In the end the column was written mostly by Lily, with some suggestions and editing by Ginny. And a moderate amount of arguing, but that was just Lily. Ginny thought that the discussions had resulted in a better column, and she was used to Lily's way of arguing. Just a little sparking between two opinionated individuals.
Ginny took the Floo from Grimmauld Place to the Ministry, and was waved through inspection with only a cursory inspection of her wand. She took the elevator to the floor of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and went over to Harry's office. Dennis Creevey was standing outside his office talking to a couple of people that Ginny didn't know, but he dismissed them and turned to talk to Ginny.
Ginny greeted Dennis Creevey with, "I hear you are going to be a grandfather. Dennis," as she entered the Auror department to collect Harry and go to Switzerland to see her new granddaughter.
Dennis grinned. "Harry has been telling me how great it is to be a grandfather. I'm glad that he is enjoying it, because he seems to be getting a large number of grandchildren."
"Harry says that Colin is doing well in Auror training," Ginny told Dennis.
"My daughter-in-law Christy Shook, no, she is Christy Creevey now, or Christy Shook Creevey, is going through DMLE training, but I don't think she wants to become an Auror," Dennis replied. "She became pregnant about a month after their wedding. I think she wants to have their children early, and then work full time once they are away at school. Colin wants to be an Auror, but he doesn't want to join the Honor Guard. Too dangerous."
"Harry is really worried about the Honor Guard," Ginny admitted. "He's never really gotten over losing all the Aurors at Malfoy Manor."
"That was tough!" Dennis sighed. "Once in a while it is still tough. Every time I see Charles Koizumi I think of his mother, Cho Chang, and how she was going to retire to be a grandmother. Charles is going to make a good Auror too, but with a wife and child a much more cautious one. That's good!"
Harry was coming out of his office. "Ready to go to Switzerland, grandmum," Harry smiled.
"Just enough gray to pass for a grandfather," Ginny kidded back. "Very extinguished looking." One of the grandchildren, Harry forgot which one, mispronounced 'distinguished' when someone was talking about Harry's gray, and from then on he was kidded that he was getting 'extinguished looking.'
Harry was smart enough not to mention the 'Colour Just the Gray" bottle Ginny used after each shower. He also occasionally reflected on just how close he had come to being extinguished.
After picking up the their two youngest, and as always accompanied by guards, Harry and Ginny took the International Floo to Switzerland. Eight-year-old Minerva Marie held on to Harry's hand, while Ginny pushed almost two-year-old Gregory Godric in an umbrella stroller as the toddler protested that, "I walk too, mum mum."
"As soon as we get there," Ginny told him as they took a shortcut to an area right under the plaza in front of the palace, and then passed through a security checkpoint to enter the castle, and then another checkpoint before being allowed into the private quarters. Harry noted with satisfaction how paranoid the Swiss were for Albus and Cleo's safety.
"I walk now," Gregory insisted. "I big boy."
"Just a little bit longer," Ginny told the youngster.
They were led into a modest sized living area in the castle, a room with large windows that faced into the atrium that ran through the middle of the castle from the glass roof down to the bottom floors. There was a little spring to the carpeted floor, despite the very low nap on the carpet.
"Carpet over wood instead of over stone," Albus told his parents as he saw Harry somewhat obviously feel the floor as he walked. "Ideal for toddlers. It lets them fall without getting hurt."
Ginny let Gregory out of the stroller, and he toddled, all but ran, right over to Adam. The two circled each other for a brief bit, before each took a vehicle of some kind and started to move it around on the floor. There was a certain amount of noise and movement as they played some sort of unintelligible game. The two had known each other for all of their lives, and played together as well as most toddler boys played, more parallel play than playing with each other.
Morgana looked at the two boys with distain, and went over to sit next to Cleo, hauling a couple of stuffed animals along. "Noisy boys," she muttered as she put a thumb in her mouth and leaned her head against Cleo.
Alice Milne, the Peverells' nanny, kept a watch over the boys.
"How are you, Cleo," Ginny wondered.
"My midwife says I have a body made for childbearing," Cleo beamed. "The second one was easier than the first, and I was told my labor for Adam was easy for a first child. It is still work, but apparently I have it easier than most witches."
"I'm happy for you," Ginny responded. Ginny did think that having easy labors and deliveries would not do anything to keep Cleo from having a really large family, something she was resigned to.
"How come Eve looks so much like her mother?" Minerva wondered. "Not looks looks, but like she is going to grow up to be a mother? Babies don't look, well, they usually don't look like boys or girls, just babies."
"Unless their nappies are off you usually cannot tell the difference," Cleo admitted. "Normally babies look more like their fathers. That is because biologically you know who the mother is, but you cannot be totally sure of the father. But Eve does look like I looked as a baby, and there is some sort of magical motherly aurora around her. I don't know. No other baby has that aurora that I know of."
Albus's mobile chimed, and he looked at it. "I have a meeting, but will be back for dinner," he told everybody.
Cleo was at one end of a large overstuffed piece of furniture, and she motioned to Ginny, "Sit down over there and I will give Eve to Harry and he can give her to you to hold."
"I would like that," Ginny replied as she turned, Mitzi briefly steadied her, and she went to sit down. Harry took the baby from Cleo and gave her to Ginny.
"You are a big girl now, a big sister," Ginny told Morgana. Morgana frowned.
"Do you want to sit next to me?" Ginny asked Morgana.
"My mummy!" Morgana insisted. She climbed into Cleo's lap.
"Adam doesn't seem to care a lot one way or another, but Morgana is jealous," Cleo told her mother-in-law. "We are working on it."
"Go play with the boys," Ginny told Harry, and Harry did, getting down on his hands and knees to play with his son and grandson.
It was September first, twenty-twenty-five, and Ginny didn't have anyone to take to the Hogwarts Express, she thought, as she finished breakfast in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. Three more years and Minerva would go. The year had just rushed by, with all the normal busyness but nothing unusual happening. Well, the Cannons winning everything was unusual, but they were playing so well that maybe it was not unusual. And the birth of another grandchild was important, but Ginny was beginning to feel it was not unusual. It sure looked like there would be plenty more grandchildren.
Ginny took her two children to the New Burrow, and then headed back to her office. She started to work on the next couple of Quidditch columns when her magical mobile rang. She looked at her magical mobile. "I will be a little late this morning," the message from Lily read.
Ginny could not complain. Lily was a huge help with the Quidditch columns, even if she was a little erratic at times. Lily was always busy, but not always focused.
Lily arrived at the office in Grimmauld Place, about ten-thirty, all but running into the office. There was nothing subtle about Lily.
"I always forget something," she complained, looking at her mother, then down at the floor, then at her mother again.
"What did you forget this time?" Ginny wondered, a slight smile forming.
"Well, it's like this," Lily rushed to explain. "Will stopped nursing in May, and I stopped taking the lactation and birth control potions. I thought I should see my midwitch, but the Cannons were in post season play and everything was so busy, and we had some adverts for swim costumes we were working on, and the weather was great so we spent some time at the pond and it was a really good summer, so I just sort of forgot, and I had a monthly and thought that everything was fine, but then I missed the next one and then, once you have become pregnant you kind of know what it might feel like and that's how I felt the last week so I went to see the midwitch this morning."
Lily looked down, grimacing like she was a little embarrassed.
"And?" Ginny asked.
"I'm pregnant," Lily admitted, looking sheepishly at her mother. "I guess I ought to be embarrassed, not because Bill and I did what we did because that's what married people do but because I always forget something and, but, well, it is not like I'm ever going to play again. I like the writing and reporting and I even enjoyed the nursing but, mum, and I look like a mum, I've never gotten my girly shape back I'm a little heavier and I look like a mum so I might as well be a mum except, and we are going to need a bigger apartment and we can afford it but, I don't think I want to start popping another one out every other year like Victoire."
Lily sighed, wiggled like she was still embarrassed, and told her mother, "Next time I'm getting the birth control potions BEFORE the baby weans so I will have then on hand."
"I think that is an excellent idea, Lily," Ginny told her daughter. "Have you told anyone else?"
"Billy wanted me to text him, because we did talk, and thought I might be. He is not upset. Actually I think he is amused at the situation, but he's not the one whose body changes and who has to change careers and be tied down with an oversized body for months and then nurse a baby every few hours. He just likes that I get big boobs and we don't have to worry about my periods, well, I don't mind that either, not worrying about the monthly, so it is, it is just different but it is good enough. I might as well enjoy it because I really don't have much choice except for how I feel about it."
"I think deciding to enjoy being pregnant is an excellent choice," Ginny responded. "I will enjoy being a grandmother again."
"It is getting crowded at grandmother's house!" Lily exclaimed. "Al and Cleo had baby Eve the beginning of the summer, and Uncle George and Aunt Angelina plus Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey are both expecting the end of this month. That's three more babies, and Victoire is pregnant. She did say she wanted one every other year."
"Your grandmother loves it, although she did say it was quite a few more babies all at once than she expected," Ginny replied. "The New Burrow is several times bigger than the old Burrow, the house I grew up in, but it is looking like it is not going to be any too big."
"We have child care at the Cannons," Lily reflected. "Two of the wives of players are doing that full time, plus others help. I've even helped when they needed it, because my schedule is often flexible. Did I tell you, our pretty witch seeker is pregnant? She married one of the new players, and she really wants to get back in shape after this baby, even if it takes a couple of years, and she has potential, but I guess that is a problem when you have witches as players."
"The Harpies had that problem, losing players to pregnancy," Ginny noted.
"I guess I really like being a gal," Lily mused, "but it is just a whole lot more COMPLICATED than being a guy."
Ginny had to agree.
2023