Ch 57 A Vacation, and Honor Guard Practices (2026)
Ginny was sitting on the beach at Resort Cleo, under a big beach umbrella. Minerva was sitting next to her, and Gregory was putting sand in a bucket and dumping it out, looking at things he found in the sand, and generally having a good time. The sun was out, a gentle breeze was blowing, and in general the day was as perfect as these days could be. The smell of the sea, and the profusion of flowers on the island, a riot of joyous odors attacking the senses.
Harry was talking to a couple of Aurors who were guarding the island.
Minerva looked at her father and asked her mother, "Does father ever really relax?"
Ginny looked at her husband, a pensive look on her face. "Yes, he does, but it is hard for him to relax. He is a very kind hearted individual in a most difficult job, and he is worried about our safety and the safety of every Magi, of everybody actually."
"I know he practices with the Honor Guard, and before and after those practices he comes back worried," Minerva told her mother. "You adults try to keep the worry away from us children, but I know Roxanne is worried too. I would hate to be married to someone in a dangerous job. I want someone who comes home to dinner every night, with a nice simple safe job."
Minerva looked at her mother. "Is that wrong? To just want a nice ordinary life. You and father know all these important people, and are busy and important yourself, and I'd just like to be ordinary."
"There is nothing wrong with that," Ginny responded, pulling her daughter into a hug. "I do sometimes envy people who live ordinary lives, without all the excitement and danger we have had in our lives." Ginny thought some more. "Actually, I would be bored to death without some excitement, but I don't need the danger. I'm glad I am working as a sport's editor and reporter. To be absolutely honest with you, I am even enjoying some of the chaos that surrounds Lily. She is really good at reporting and writing, if you can keep her focused. You just have to put up with a little complaining and chaos to work with her."
"I don't like the chaos," Minerva mumbled, crawling on her mum's lap. "I want to marry a farmer or someone who works in a factory or has some boring job, and he and I can be boring together."
"I can accept that," Ginny responded. Every child was different, even before they were born. She wondered about Gregory. So far he had been a very good baby, an active boy, and from what her mother said a very smart one, but not as wild as some of the youngsters.
It only took four and then five pregnancies to have normal. Well, she was finished. She's popped out enough babies, and it was time for the next generation to procreate.
Harry came over to the blanket and umbrella where Ginny and Minerva were sitting. Minerva rose and motioned for her father to sit down. "We are on this magnificent beach, father, on vacation!" she implored her father, hands on her hips. "Sit next to mum and relax like normal people do when they are on vacation."
"Normal people also do some exciting sports type things, Minerva," Harry replied. "What do you want to do?"
"I enjoyed it when we went sailing on Orwant's boat," Minerva replied. "Well, until the end of the day when the wind picked up and the boat started to lean over and, Mr. Smith, Orwant, loved it, but I didn't like it when the boat came about fast and the sail flew from one side of the boat to the other and people were cranking on the ropes to make the boat go faster."
"The ropes on a boat are called lines, not ropes," Harry smiled andtold his daughter.
"And right and left are port and starboard, I know," she sighed. "I like smooth sailing, not exciting sailing."
Harry smiled. How did he and Ginny create two such different people, James who was not content unless his flying caused people to gasp at how close he came to demolishing himself, and Minerva who wasn't thrilled when a sailboat caught what was a nice but not dangerous wind. Harry knew Minerva wasn't much of a flyer either, being able to ride a broom but normally going low and slow.
"I'm not going to be able to take these winter vacations with you when I go to Hogwarts, am I?" Minerva asked.
"No," Ginny replied.
"Did you ever take the family on a winter vacation when my brothers and sister were attending Hogwarts?" Minerva asked.
Ginny grimaced. "That didn't work out like I had planned it!" she exclaimed.
"Why, what happened?" Minerva wondered.
"It was shortly before your brothers were married, and I wanted one last family vacation before they were married. You were born, but too young to remember the excitement. Albus was on a sailboard, and Dementors surrounded him. We thought we were going to lose him. Then he and Cleo, maybe at first it was just Cleo, produced their Patronus and drove the Dementors away, and there they were, Cleo with Albus, and no one has been able to explain to us how she suddenly appeared. And of course once she was here there was no way of sending her back, so my vacation with nothing but our family suddenly had Cleo with us. Not that I minded exactly, but if you want quiet Cleo isn't exactly the person you want around."
"I like Cleo, but she's not exactly, well, well, there is just a LOT of her," Minerva tried to explain. "Some people can be in a room and you almost don't know they are there, but if Cleo is in a room you ALWAYS know she is there. It is not like she is trying to be the center of attention. She isn't always the center of attention, and she doesn't try to be. She is not the biggest, tallest, or heaviest person either. I mean, she is bigger than average, quite a bit, but it is more that there just seems to be more of her."
"And I have seen you sit in a chair and read, or listen, and the people in the room can almost forget you are there," Ginny told her daughter. "There is nothing wrong with that. And I guess that you learn things by just quietly listening."
Minerva grinned, and nodded a shy 'yes.' Sometimes you could learn quite a lot by just quietly listening.
Harry, Sammy Sun and Raphael Vaud met with Albus and Cleo early in the afternoon the beginning of February, twenty-twenty-six. Their Elves Frerin and Dis were with them. They were meeting in what was called the 'small living room.' In most homes it would be considered a large, or at least moderately large room. It was the room with the large windows, the carpet over wood floor, and in general it looked more comfortable, almost a family room, than a formal room in a formal palace.
"Have you two been more than a kilometer apart since you have been married?" Harry asked the couple.
"Only in Switzerland, and even here not all that far apart," Albus replied. "I really have not often traveled very far from the castle and the administrative office of the government. Most of those are within a very few kilometers."
"The church is not that far away either," Cleo confirmed. "When we go to more distant parts of the valley or to anyplace outside the valley we are always together."
"Whenever we are somewhere other than the palace we have extra guards, both No-Maj and Elf," Albus informed the group. "It is a bit of a bother, but we are very worried about being captured. There are beings here in Switzerland from all over the world, and we want that, but we know that by accepting beings from all over we are letting in less than desirable characters."
"We have tried to make maps of everywhere where we know Albus and Cleo might be going, but that is an immense project," Raphael added, shaking his head. "I have one couple, not Aurors but part of the Swiss Department of Law Enforcement, who has been doing nothing but map making for the last year, but we are still not close to doing a good job of mapping the valley. Some parts of the valley are just hard to map, and others need to be mapped a little at a time and the various maps combined."
"We had to do that to map all of Hogwarts, map a new section of the grounds and add it to the existing map," Albus told the group.
"We have all run into that problem," Harry sighed. "Despite all our attempts to map the area around K2 there are significant gaps in the maps."
"We do have a map of the cave where The Lord of the Dementors stays," Sammy confirmed. "We can usually see where he is, we think." Sammy sighed. "It cost us the lives of four Aurors and two Elves to get this map, and there are plenty of areas the map does not cover.
"I wish we could just confine him, like we have done for hundreds of years, but all the prophesies foretell of a battle. We have too many histories of us hiding from a foretold battle with disastrous consequences. I hate to say it, but I think we are just going to have to prepare to battle The Lord of the Dementors."
"We have found an abandon monastery a few hundred kilometers away from K-2, still in the same mountains, that we would like to use for practice," Harry explained, bringing out a map. "We would like to take you, Albus, Cleo, there, make sure Frerin and Dis will follow along, and stage an All Auror alert. We want to have the Honor Guard come, then others."
"When?" Albus asked.
"We will tell you later," Harry explained. "One of us will take you there, without anyone else knowing when it will be, so we can imitate a surprise capture."
Cleo frowned. "I don't like this. I don't like having to practice dueling, although Albus and I do. I hate this waiting and waiting for something to happen."
"No one feels good about it, Cleo," Harry replied. "At least we are getting the chance to prepare."
Albus and Cleo were sitting down to dinner with just themselves, the children, and Frerin and Dis, when Harry walked in and told them, "Practice time!"
"The children!" Cleo yelled.
"They will be taken care of," Harry tried to reassure the couple. "Hold hands." Harry gave them a purse, and they felt the familiar yank as they were transported half way around the world. The further you went by Portkey the harder it was, and they popped into a modest size room in the Himalaya Mountains. Albus and Cleo immediately drew out their wands. Frerin and Dis appeared almost immediately, a little disoriented. Albus took out something like a second Auror wallet he always tried to have on himself, and unshrunk two oxygen concentrators, putting one on himself, then one on Cleo.
One by one members of the Honor Guard appeared, and moved away from a spot on the floor that an Elf had created. It took fifteen seconds to a minute for each one to appear, occasionally two appearing at almost the same time and bumping into each other. Sammy Sun was at one corner of the room saying, "Enemy over here." Harry was in another corner saying, "Enemy over here." There were three more Magi in three other directions playing the enemy.
The group tried to form a rehearsed plan to guard first themselves, and then also Albus, Cleo and the Elves while a few of them went on the attack.
Several of the Aurors sat down and put on their oxygen concentrators before joining the fray again. Others had to pause what they were doing to put on the oxygen concentrators. Everything was taking too much time.
"I expect we will be battling The Lord of the Dementors at this point," Albus told Cleo.
"We have four more Elves to guard us, as we keep anyone from getting to The Lord of the Dementors," Frerin confirmed.
"What if there are beings in with The Lord of the Dementors?" Cleo wondered.
"We may have to battle them too," Albus replied.
"May not kill Magi with magic," Dis told the pair, "but may with knives. Not The Lord of the Dementors, though. You must defeat and kill him."
The exercise was over in about half an hour.
"Next time we should have the others come, like at the Battle of Hogwarts," Harry suggested. "We are reasonably sure The Lord of the Dementors will rally all of his allies, and we need to be able to fight all of them."
"I hate this," Cleo told Albus as they sat in the living room shortly after practice. "It is hard to relax and nurse after one of these sessions, and it just makes me all upset. Eve was frantic and I was upset and it just isn't comfortable."
"We have to do it, though," Albus responded. "We need to be able to fight The Lord of the Dementors, and we need help. From what everyone who has studied the history tells me, one of the reasons The Lord of the Dementors has not been defeated is pride, the refusal to ask for all the help you might need. That is why my father is trying to make sure that if there is a battle, and he and we need more help, it is available."
"Risking even more lives," Cleo sighed. "I know in my mind it is what we have to do, but it is still hard."
Friday March sixth Lily waddled into the office at twelve Grimmauld Place and told her mother, "I'm in labor. Will is being taken care of by the babysitters at the Cannons, and one of the mothers will keep him overnight if needed. Billy is going to meet me at St. Mungo's later this morning."
"We have all the games covered, Lily," Ginny told her daughter. "I can come with you."
"It might be a good idea," Lily grimaced. "They are getting harder and sooner quicker than the last time."
Ginny and Mitzi accompanied Lily down from the third floor office to the basement kitchen, and took the Floo to St. Mungo's. Lily was led into a labor and delivery room, and the midwitch on duty told her, "It will not be long now."
Ginny sent a Patronus to Billy telling him, "Time to get to St. Mungo's.
Within ten minutes Billy Lionheart was rushing into the delivery room.
Lily was breathing deeply, and grabbed hard onto Billy's hand. "Boggarts, blasted, aaahhh!" Lily groaned as she strained.
The midwitch looked down to where the baby was coming out, and told Lily, "It is time to push."
A couple more long, swear filled pushes and Eileen Lionheart was out. She opened her eyes, and started to scream.
'Good lungs," the midwitch giggled.
Victoire came into the room, and did an exam on the unhappy baby, and pronounced her healthy. Then Eileen was put on Lily's breast, which shut up the wailing.
"I'm working most mornings," Victoire told the room. "I have to go to some well baby appointments, but I had a little time and thought I'd see if Eileen was born."
"Thank you," Billy told his sister-in-law as Victoire rushed out of the room.
Billy called his mother. "You have new granddaughter, mum," he told her. "Mother and baby seem to be healthy. Ginny is here with us."
After a brief conversation, Billy asked Lily, "Do you still want mum to spend a few days with us?"
"Who is going to take care of your father?" Lily wondered.
"He will come along, and my parents' Elves will take care of him," Billy replied.
"You had babies a couple of years apart," Lily said, looking at her mother. "I guess I could use the help."
"Take advantage of it while you can," Ginny told Lily. "You will be taking care of both of them before long."
Donna Lionheart showed up at the hospital within the hour, and Ginny looked at the clock. It was eleven-thirty, only two hours from the time Lily showed up at the office. She took the Floo to the Ministry, and went up to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Mary Lou Creevey greeted her, "Why the big grin, Ginny?"
"New grandbaby, Lily's second," Ginny beamed.
"Does Harry know?"
"I'm here to tell him. Where is he?" Ginny looked around.
"Out in the field, but he is not doing anything that cannot wait. He is just spending time with a couple of the newer Aurors. I will tell him he has a visitor in the office." Mary Lou texted Harry, and Harry texted back that he would be there shortly.
"How is your grandson?" Ginny asked Mary Lou.
"Dylan is fine," Mary Lou replied. "They start out just little eating and pooping blobs, but at nine months he is turned into quite a little person. Christy is learning what she needs to learn to join the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but I don't think she will be doing much actual training until Dylan is weaned. I know they were surprised at how easily she became pregnant, and don't want another one for a few years."
"Harry says that Colin is doing well in his Auror training," Ginny reflected.
"He is good, but careful," Mary Lou replied. "Between having a wife and child and the family history he knows that the job can be dangerous."
Just then Harry walked in. "Hello, beautiful!" Harry beamed.
"Hello, grandpa, … again," Ginny beamed back. "Eileen Lionheart was born this morning. Mother and baby are fine. The baby is a wiggly, screaming, determined little thing."
"Like her mother and grandmother, I guess," Harry replied. "I have a meeting right after lunch, but we can have lunch in the cafeteria here."
"I'm never going to turn down a luncheon date with my favorite husband," Ginny smiled.
"Likewise," Harry responded.
"Why, who is your favorite husband?" Ginny kidded.
"I am, because I am your husband," Harry answered back.
Hand in hand the couple left for the cafeteria.
Once they were sitting down Ginny told Harry, "Billy is going to play tomorrow, and then take a couple of extra days off. He says he is going to make sure they have a couple of weeks of vacation this summer and again next winter, but this season is just so magical, them winning all their games, that he doesn't want to miss any of it."
"He is one of the many reasons they are so good," Harry replied. "As field captain he has made sure the rest of the team works well together. Half of the games they would have won even if James had not caught the Snitch."
"James doesn't need to take the chances he does!" Ginny exclaimed.
"I've been told that I will see a child die for no reason," Harry muttered. "Maybe that was Monica Jane, but I keep worrying that James will do something stupid, or something will happen, and all the charms that he is so confident will protect him will fail and we will lose him. I like Quidditch, but the game can be too dangerous. Look at Bill Lionheart. There is a reason there are always healers at every game, and Portkeys ready to take a player and healers to St. Mungo's."
"We've both tried to tell him," Ginny replied. "What more can we do?"
2023