Ch 60 Summertime, and The Living is Easy (2026)
Saturday July fourth, twenty-twenty-six, Albus and Cleo, along with Adam, Morgana and Eve, left for Resort Cleo. Rose, Scorpius, Elanor, Bella and Gardner accompanied them. As they were traveling Cleo explained, "We are meeting four couples there. Two couples in their thirties and one in their forties didn't want any children until recently, and now that they do they are having a hard time getting pregnant. The other couple is in their twenties, and have not done anything to prevent her from becoming pregnant, but after a couple of years of trying nothing has happened.
"I've brought my wedding dress, and am going to be praying for them and trying to do a fertility spell over them when we arrive."
"I'm not ready for another one, not yet," Rose volunteered. "I will be, eventually, but not right now."
"I know I can control my magic much better than I could at my wedding," Cleo let Rose know. "I doubt if I will cause you and Scorpius to start a baby this week."
"I'm still nursing Gardner, and you are still nursing Eve," Rose observed. "I am still taking the birth control and lactation potions."
"I am too," Cleo confirmed. "Eve is in no hurry to wean."
"You know my father, Orwant Smith," Cleo told the Granger-Malfoy family as they arrived on the island. "He is going to take you to your rooms. I need to meet my mother and the four couples we talked about."
Scorpius, Rose, Elanor and Gardner were taken to a dwelling with room for five families, two and three bedroom apartments. Scorpius and Rose were put in one of the two bedroom apartments. When they came out there were two more couples there, one with one child and another obviously on the way, a second with four children ranging in age from ten to two.
Both the inside of the dwelling and a fenced in outside area were obviously set up for families with children, with toys inside, and a playhouse/slide/swing set/climbing thing outside. The couples introduced themselves and their children, and let the children explore and play.
By the next day all five suites were filled, and the Grange-Malfoy family had a wonderful time vacationing with the various families. They played with the toys inside and outside, spent time in the ocean water, and walked over the island exploring. The older children were given strict instructions where they could and could not go, but were allowed to run free. Of course Elanor needed watching all the time, but the parents took turns watching groups of toddlers, giving others a break.
There was even a shallow pool for the little children, in a separate fenced in area, and both Rose and Scorpius learned that when you were watching five to seven children you were always counting heads to make sure none of the children were lost, or under water, or in some other way unaccounted for.
Cleo worked her magic on the four couples the first night they were there. She wore the wedding dress, and examined all of them, one couple at a time, with both wands. There was a fair amount of giggling as Cleo prayed for success in the bedroom, but also prayed that the couples would enjoy each other.
After, as the couples left for their bedrooms, Cleo went over to the building where Rose was, and told her, "I could sense eggs in the wombs of three of the witches. I think this is going to be a good night!"
"The fourth?" Rose wondered.
"The youngest couple, the youngest witch," Cleo replied. "I should be able to sense more at the end of the week, and if she is not pregnant, has not ovulated, I will suggest Mayo Magical Medical in North America. We have a good branch of Mayo Magical in Switzerland, but if she has a Muggle type problem she needs to go to North America."
Cleo's mother had become pregnant about the time of Cleo's wedding, actually just after the wedding, and by this time Cleo had a very young brother and sister that she saw whenever she was at Resort Cleo or her parents were in Switzerland. In addition, a number of Orwant's relatives had moved to the island, including several families with children. Ann and Orwant Smith had turned the island into a great vacation spot for magical families.
Cleo and her parents took their children over to play with the families that were staying with Rose and Scorpius for at least part of every day. If you liked young children, and it seemed all the parents did, the chaos was glorious.
The only issue, at the end of the vacation. was that the young witch was not pregnant, had not ovulated, by the time they left the island.
"Magic cannot cure every problem," Albus consoled a very frustrated, and sad, Cleo.
"I know, but I feel so sorry for them," Cleo responded.
Ginny Potter sat in the comfortable chair under a large sun umbrella overlooking the pond and play area at the New Burrow. It was the first Saturday in August, and the weather was perfect. Warm but not quite hot, a very slight breeze blowing. It was the type of weather where you didn't mind having as little on as possible, although she wore a tankini style bathing costume to cover her tummy. It was in Harpies colors and had a Harpie logo in it; Lily and a photographer were going to be there to take photographs for an advert. Ginny did not want to discourage Lily's entrepreneurial spirit.
Lily came bustling in with Billy in tow, she holding Eileen, Billy carrying Will. Billy and Will were both wearing Harpies bathing costumes. Billy was very fit, as a chaser should be, and good looking. Will was two, a typical toddler, and Ginny wondered how he would stay still for the photographs. Little Eileen, five months, was a cute baby, and she wore a very frilly two-piece bathing costume, with a totally cute top.
Ginny looked at the skimpy top Lily was wearing. There was too much of her for the modest amount of thin fabric in the top, and Ginny was sure all the support was because of spells. "I see you are wearing a new one and a half piece bathing costume," Ginny commented, looking at all the skin showing.
"I figure people will notice my bust and not my belly," Lily countered, putting her arms under her bust and wiggling them. Lily was of course nursing Eileen, and like all Ginny's female relatives Lily's bust swelled with nursing. She had also put on weight, and looked very much like a young mother.
Grandmother Molly gave Lily a look that would have made almost any of the other grandchildren ashamed. "At Resort Cleo you don't even have to wear this," Lily told her grandmother, tugging on the skimpy bra top and shrugging her shoulders. Molly frowned some more, and Lily backed off, turned, and went over to the photographer.
The photographer started to pose Ginny, Lily and her family for a three generation advert for Harpies branded swim wear.
As they were taking photographs, Erica, who was just starting to look pregnant, arrived, accompanied by Viktor Krum Jr., who was carrying little James. As soon as they arrived Viktor put James down, and the little boy ran over to the sandbox and hugged his grandfather Harry.
Erica was taller than average, and thin. Viktor was huge, well over a head taller than Erica and built like a beater and not a seeker. Ginny knew Viktor's father was also a large man, and his mother, as well as she could remember, was also tall and shapely, and not thin.
"We were deep into discussions about how a snitch moves, but the day was too perfect to stay inside," Erica told Ginny when the photography session was finished. "We decided to take James over here to play."
Erica looked at Viktor, and back at Ginny, a little embarrassed. Viktor looked like he was not very sure of himself either, looking at all the people at the pond.
"Do you have bathing costumes?" Ginny wondered.
"Under our clothes," Erica replied. "I'm serving as Viktor's spotter. The better the spotter and seeker know each other the better they can work together."
"You have stolen your other seeker from the Harpies," Ginny noted, frowning. The Harpies were still Ginny's second favorite team.
"The Cannons are just a much more couple and family friendly team than the Harpies," Erica responded. "Married couples see each other every day, and almost always sleep together. The Harpies seeker was just tired of not sleeping with her husband. Please keep Cleo away from her; I don't want to lose her because she's pregnant!" Erica felt down to her belly and sighed. "I'm really a better spotter than a chaser, but I do like to fly."
"Are you going to spot for both of them?" Ginny wondered.
Erica explained, "No, we have hired her husband to be her spotter. He's pretty good, and I've been working with him. The idea is that we will rotate out seekers as often as we can the first part of the game, so each seeker and spotter, Billy and whoever is the second string field captain, we have a couple of people on the team that can fill that role, can see how the other team and our team is playing.
"Some people think that the Cannons last year were good just because of James. That is not true at all. It is the teamwork that made the Cannons a winning team. You need a good seeker, and I think we have two good seekers, but just a good seeker doesn't make a winning team."
James came running over to where Ginny, Erica and Viktor were talking, grabbing Viktor's hand and saying, "Ikt, ikt, pay wif me," pointing to the sandbox. "Gampa, toys!"
Viktor looked at Erica and smiled, a little unsure of himself, and then let James lead him over to the sandbox.
Ginny looked at Erica as Viktor left with James.
Erica looked down and blushed. "He's good with James," Erica volunteered. "He is good with children. I've seen him in the childcare area at the Cannons with little, mostly girls, having a tea party. He really wants a family someday.
"His mother is his father's manager, and Viktor says sometimes he felt like his mother was just trying to market the family and make the family money. Risky moves and bravado helped sell the family. Beautiful witches with all the right connections were right for the family, even if they didn't like to fly or really didn't understand Quidditch."
"You like him?" Ginny wondered, trying to ferret out what was going on between Erica and Viktor.
"Well, I do, and we can talk about almost everything. It is just that it is so soon after James died, and, and, I don't know what to feel or do," Erica told her mother-in-law, tears close to the surface. "I mean, it is all totally professional, or should be, but we can just talk, and we do, but it is awkward."
"My advice is to keep talking," Ginny advised. "My mum told me when Harry and I married that talking, really communicating with each other, was more important than sex." Ginny sighed. "I think Mum was right. Keep talking and see what develops.
"You will always be part of our family. You know that. But you are young, and life goes on."
"I still cry some days, and some days I'm so mad at James I could scream," Erica muttered.
"When we die and confront James that young man is going to face off with two angry witches, his mother and his wife," Ginny snarled. Then she rolled her eyes and shook her head at the scene she was describing. With James death grief was almost always mixed with some anger at the unnecessary risks James had taken.
Erica just shook her head. She was very grateful for James's family.
Harry was laughing as he came over to Ginny. Viktor and Erica had James down by the pond. "James told Viktor what all the construction equipment was," Harry grinned. "We had a loor, a back toe, and an nuncle Bill zzer."
Ginny looked quizzically at Harry.
"A lorry, and backhoe, and a bulldozer."
Ginny wiggled her bare feet. "A back toe, eh?"
"Viktor is not really familiar with Muggle construction equipment," Harry shook his head. "A couple of the older boys tried to correct James, but I told them to let Mr. Krum and James play."
"Rose and Scorpius have the three and almost-three year olds, including Gregory. Minerva is helping, like she so often does," Ginny observed. "I would like to swim."
Harry extended his hand, and hand in hand the couple went into the pond for a swim
Harry, Ginny, and their family went home for dinner.
Harry and Minerva went to Saturday church services.
That night, after church and after Gregory was down for bed, Ginny and Harry sat in the drawing room reading. Eventually Minerva came in and plopped down in a chair across from the sofa that Harry and Ginny were sharing.
"What is going on with Erica and Mr. Krum?" Minerva scowled.
"Erica is going to be Mr. Krum's spotter," Ginny told her daughter.
"It is more than that!" Minerva insisted. "Did you see how Mr. Krum was playing with James, like, like, I don't know?"
"He was just explaining what the toys were," Harry replied. "He showed Mr. Krum a loor, a back toe, and a nucle Bill zzzer."
Minerva wrinkled her nose and frowned. "What?"
"You know what a back toe is, Minerva," Harry told his daughter, making a backhoe digging motion with his arm and hand.
Minerva gave her father a look that indicated that he was being silly, arms crossed, head shaking. She then frowned. "It is like he wants to be James's father or something."
"Something may or may not happen," Ginny quietly observed. "Even if nothing happens except, they are friends, it is not bad that Mr. Krum is good with children. If something does happen, then it does. Happily married people want to marry again if their husband or wife dies."
"Would you marry again if one of you died?" Minerva asked, eyes wide open in shock.
"I would want your mother to be happy if something happened to me," Harry replied. "If I died and she found someone else that would be far better than wishing that she would spend the rest of her life alone and unhappy."
"Marriage is until death do us part, not forever even if one of us dies," Ginny added. "You hope to live a long life together, but it doesn't always happen that way."
"I wish James hadn't been such an idiot," Minerva growled. "This is all too complicated and too much. Mum, dad, don't die on me!"
"I cannot promise you that," Harry replied, "but I will do my best."
Minerva pulled out a chapter book and read it in the drawing room until it was time for her to go to bed, occasionally looking at her mother and father and shaking her head.
Viktor was not at grandmum Molly's the next day, Sunday. Erica deflected any questions about him and the two of them.
Wednesday Lily was at Grimmauld Place mid-morning to work on the Quidditch Columns. She had come bustling in like she usually did, went over to the playpen and deposited Eileen, and plopped down in her chair at her desk. After arriving she told her mother, "Erica would like to keep bringing Viktor to things like last Saturday and the Sundays at grand mum's, sometimes not all the time, but doesn't want anyone to start measuring him for a jumper or anything. Erica keeps telling me how hard she is working to keep her relationship with Viktor strictly professional, except I don't think it is quite working out.
"Viktor is the same way. He tells me that he just wants to be the best seeker and work with Erica on a professional level, and I think he is sincere, and then I see him glance at Erica, and James, and Mum, life can get confusing.
"Viktor's mother and father want him to go back to visit them Sundays, and he will, occasionally, but not very often. He told Erica and then yesterday told me that he would just rather stay here. They put too much pressure on him to move home, like he has not really moved here."
"I do not see any problem," Ginny told her daughter, "But Erica should really talk to grandmum about that, and not you and me."
"I will tell her," Lily replied. "I think Erica is embarrassed, and feels guilty and confused and, it is just real hard all the things she is going through."
"I am sure it is," Ginny consoled Lily. "Just keep listening to Erica, and feel free to talk to me about it any time."
"You are a great mum," Lily shyly grinned. "Even when you were sending me Howlers you were a great mum, a great mum to all of your daughters and daughters-in-law and foster daughters and even Rose.
"Except you really never taught me to cook. Erica and Mrs. Lionheart, she wants me to call her mum or Donna and I do but it is a little hard calling her mum but it feels good too, mum Lionheart is helping Erica teach me to cook, and I'm pretty good at breakfast and even lunch when I have to but I'm no good making a fancy dinner."
"Mum taught me," Ginny remembered. "I was always willing to let the Elves cook, though, and I think I have forgotten most of what my mum taught me. I'm sorry."
"Mum Lionheart was really almost my substitute mum when you were so busy with Monica Jane," Lily sadly told her mother. "Don't you ever feel guilty about it, though. You were doing absolutely the best you could, and Monica needed all the attention anyone could give her. Thank you for loving her like you did!"
Lily arose and went over to her mother and gave Ginny a big hug. The two witches hugged for a bit before going back to working on writing about Quidditch, with no more than the normal amount of bickering between the two.
"It was not too bad a practice alert," Harry told Ginny mid-August after another one of their practice alerts with the Honor Guard. Ginny knew Harry was coming, had waited at the Closet, and had taken Harry by the hand and led him up to the drawing room, so they could sit together on one of the comfortable pieces of furniture. "We just had the Honor Guard. The other people who have agreed to come if we need them didn't sign up for four emergency practice sessions a year.
"The problem is every time we do one of these, we solve some problems, but discover ones we never thought about. And it is getting tiring. There is an awful prophecy that one of Albus and Cleo's children will die saving their lives, and that could apply to this confrontation with the Lord of the Dementors, but if it does the child would have to be older, I would think. That would imply that we will be doing these practices for years. But other things prophesy that the confrontation will happen much sooner, and everything we see indicates that The Lord of the Dementors is anxious to confront them As Soon As Possible."
"Have you found any way to make the job of the Honor Guard any safer?" Ginny wondered.
"No," Harry replied. "I'm still terrified that we will lose over half of them, worse than the Battle of Malfoy Manor where we lost half of the first group of Aurors."
Ginny didn't say anything, but she thought about Frank Longbottom, her cousin Molly, and their three children. Ginny had not been raised as a Christian, and she still had not joined the church, but she had learned how to pray, even if she wasn't all that sure who or what she was praying to. So, she said some prayers for Harry, and for Frank.
Harry Potter had never really wanted to be a farmer. His Aunt Dursley's raging at him when he weeded and tended the gardens at four Privet Drive had turned any tendency to have a green thumb quite brown, and Herbology was never his best subject. Nevertheless, when he became an adult and inherited all the property in Ottery St. Catchpole around the Burrow he had become a farm owner, and under the supervision of Elves and others the farm had prospered. So this Friday, the end of August, twenty-twenty-six, he told his administrative assistant Mary Lou Creevey, "Sojourner Truth, my head farm Elf, wants me to tour the farm today."
Mary Lou smiled, and the smile turned into a laugh. "The Auror Department and the whole Department of Magical Law Enforcement can survive quite well without you for the rest of the day. Enjoy the greenery."
Harry Apparated to the greenhouse where the farm was headquartered and was greeted by Sojourner. "Time to walk the property again," she told Harry. "We can start at the greenhouses."
Harry took a deep breath as they entered the first greenhouse. The various scents enthralled him, and as he looked over the plethora of plants he was more aware than usual of the variety of colors, mostly green, shades of greens and colors, iridescent colors, that no painting, no monitor, could ever display. There was a slight breeze blowing, the roof vents of the greenhouses being opened, and many of the side walls off or opened.
Sojourner picked a couple of red peppers and gave one to Harry. "We have a dozen varieties of peppers, and we can sell all we grow at the Potter, Weasley and Longbottom farm market."
Harry bit into the delicious pepper. "Molly has fresh vegetables for us every Sunday when we are at the Burrow, and the Elves who cook for us at Grimmauld Place try to have vegetables for us at every dinner."
Sojourner laughed as she finished her pepper. "Peppers are fruits, but so are tomatoes, and you wouldn't put them in a normal fruit salad."
"There is a reason why I'm not a farmer," Harry responded, a lighthearted grimace showing. "I obviously cannot tell a fruit from a vegetable.
"Red peppers don't taste quite so green as green peppers,"
They went into another greenhouse that was not open to the sky. It had several rooms, and artificially controlled temperature. "Magic lets us control the temperature at much less cost than if we had to use Muggle Electricity," Sojourner noted. "That is why we can grow strawberries year-round. These are not ready to pick, however, so keep your hands off!"
"I've have not come to seize your berries, but to praise them," Harry replied.
Sojourner frowned, and then laughed.
"We will walk through the orchard next," she told Harry. They walked west towards the River Otter, and a few meters short of the river headed south through the large, well-tended orchard. Harry pulled a green unripe pear off one of the trees and began to eat it. The fruit was more than firm, almost hard, but quite eatable. They were walking through short, green grass, the leaves of the trees giving shade. "You can feel the ocean breeze from here," Harry told Sojourner.
"We are just a few kilometers from the ocean, as you know," Sojourner reminded Harry.
"Walking through nature like this is balm for the soul," Harry sighed. "I wonder if heaven is going to be like this?"
"I would rather be on a farm than in the clouds playing a harp," Sojourner agreed, smiling broadly.
They came to the end of the orchard and looked over the large grain farm that had been owned by Arthur Wesley's brothers, before it was repossessed by Harry and Bill Weasley because they couldn't pay the mortgage debts. There was a road, of sorts, between the properties, but it was a grass covered pathway. "It takes some magic to keep the road looking like just grass, but it keeps the Muggles out," Sojourner reflected. "I like the green, though."
"I think your heaven wouldn't have any asphalt or concrete roads, just green pathways," Harry observed.
"Absolutely!" Sojourner agreed.
"Are they still making more money than they were when they owned the farms?" Harry wondered.
"Their wives are delighted, having more gold to spend," Sojourner replied. "Some magical and Muggle equipment, some Elf help, and some good marketing, and the turnover is several times what it was. They were set in their ways, and too responsible for their own poverty."
"I see you are growing several different types of grain," Harry observed, seeing all the different fields.
"I have a chart showing you what they all are," Sojourner responded, pulling out a piece of parchment. "I've charmed it so you can see what it looks like now, and with the spell on the back see what each will be when it is harvested."
"Does Neville have a parchment like this?" Harry wondered.
"It is another variation of the mapping programs that Albus and Cleo have developed from the Marauder's Map," Sojourner admitted. "We will go back by the path through the magical plants."
They walked down another green pathway, grain on the side closest to the Muggle road, a variety of magical plants on the other side. They came to the road that entered the large piece of property that the New Burrow, Potter's New Burrow, and the little subdivision of Ottery St. Catchpole that had grown up around the place where the old Burrow had been. In the distance Harry could hear children playing.
"Your family has been growing children as well," Sojourner noted.
"Sometimes I think a summer day with children playing in and around the pond is as close to heaven as I will ever get in this life, and today with touring the farms it has been a green heaven," Harry observed, a large smile in not only his face but his whole bearing.
"Enjoy," Sojourner replied, as she turned to head back to the greenhouses.
Victoire Lupin came out of the New Burrow, levitating a large container of drinks. "Come over to the pond, and play in the sandbox with the little children, Uncle Harry," Victoire suggested. "The day is too perfect to stay inside."
And Harry did.
2023