Legends and Rascals

AN: Apparently in my Hinny era cause I've written like five Hinny fics. Oh well ;)

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"What a day." Harry muttered quietly as he brought the mug of hot coffee to his lips, taking a sip.

"You can say that again." Ginny's voice could be heard from a distance in the other room as she was finishing up putting away the newly washed and dried dishes in the kitchen. Even though she could do it with magic it felt quite therapeutic to just hand wash and dry them.

Once her task was finally complete, she appeared in the doorway, her fiery red hair shoved up into a messy bun and dressed in comfy some trousers and one of Harry's oversized jumpers.

Ginny padded carefully through to the living room where Harry was sat in the corner of the room on the couch. After gently lowering herself into the space next to her husband, she smiled when he instantly opened his arm to envelope her in loving embrace.

They fit together like a perfect puzzle, even years after the war and Ginny would never tire of being held by him.

"I swear the kids are getting more and more stubborn like you by the day." Ginny commented, which caused Harry to huff in response.

"Me?" Harry asked incredulously as he placed his mug down onto the table next to the sofa. Once this was done, he returned to his original position, a smirk forming on his lips as he leant over and pressed a kiss by her ear. "I think you'll find you're the stubborn one here, sweetheart."

"Well, I never. How rude." Ginny countered playfully.

"You love it when I'm rude." He whispered in her ear once again, knowing exactly what this kind of talk did to his wife.

Ginny quirked her eyebrow up before slowly turning her head to face Harry. She opened her mouth to retaliate, but instead, Ginny closed the gap between them and captured her lips with his. The kiss started to heat up a little and as Ginny moved over to straddle his hips, a sudden noise from upstairs tore the two apart in an instant.

"Did you hear that?" Ginny questioned, her voice filling with alarm and her arm reaching for her wand.

"Shh."

"Don't shush me." Said Ginny nudging Harry's shoulder.

Harry smirked before pointing his finger upwards causing Ginny to fall silent and then look up to the ceiling as they listened intently to see if they could hear anything else.

The sounds of pitter-pattering feet and children's giggling could be heard, and Ginny groaned a little as she slumped down into her husband's chest, knowing instantly that their children were not in fact asleep like they thought. "I swear..."

Harry chuckled lightly at his wife, before stealing a quick peck to her lips. "Come on Gin, let's go check on the kids."

As the couple crept upstairs and arrived outside the bedroom door, Ginny suddenly waved her hand to pause their movements as they heard the voice of their eldest child, eight-year-old James. He had obviously snuck out of his own bedroom and had joined his two younger siblings.

Albus who was six and Lily who was four both shared a room. Albus had terrible nightmares after his brother had played a horrible prank on him the basement of Grimmuald place and had left him trapped down there for an hour in the dark with the thought that a dementor would come and get him. Their older god brother Teddy had found out and had rescued Albus from the basement, but the damage had been done and Albus had been having these nightmares on and off for a year now.

Albus for six weeks straight wouldn't sleep in his own room and always ended up in their bed, so Harry and Ginny had considered the option of obliviating him to get rid of this problem, but both decided that they didn't like the idea of using that kind of magic on their son, especially at such a young age.

So, they had decided that he could share a room with Lily until they sorted the issue out. They had started making him see a mind healer. Albus was getting better, but they wanted to be certain he would be fine sleeping by himself before they made him go back to his room.

Albus had been very upset with James for no less than three months but eventually forgave his elder brother after they had an outing with their muggle cousins. Whilst Harry and Dudley had gotten to a decent place in their live the children were another story that neither party truly wanted address, but it had done the job of fixing Albus and James relationship at least.

Harry and Ginny heard some more shuffling and giggling.

What were they up to?

Ginny shuffled closer and pressed her ear to the door and what she heard made her heart melt a little. James was telling some sort of story to his younger brother and sister, little noises of excitement coming from Albus and Lily as they anticipated what would happen next.

Before James could say anymore, the bedroom door swung open, revealing Ginny's figure in the darkness of the doorway.

"Now, what is going on here?" Effie asked as she witnessed her three children freezing in position, taken by surprise. "It's late. What are you all doing up?"

After a moment of silence and some thought, James finally spoke up.

"We couldn't sleep mummy." The eight-year-old tried to reason with his mother, bringing his little hands together and wringing them nervously.

"Jamese was just telling us a story mummy, honest." Said little Albus.

Their younger, red haired, sister was lying beside him and was looking up at her, nodding in agreement.

Turning her attention back to her eldest child, Ginny's voice softened a little. "Well, I can see that you couldn't sleep." Ginny took a few steps forward and knelt down to her children's level. After taking in the sight of her kids, sitting cross legged watching their older brother with so much adoration, a warm smile slowly appeared on her face. "What story were you telling Al and lily, darling?"

Whilst this was happening, Harry had crept in quietly and was now in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe as he watched Ginny converse with their kids.

Ginny was an absolute natural at being a mother.

He had known it from the minute he had seen her holding their tiny baby James in her arms eight years ago. Harry knew that Ginny was made to be a mother. He was in complete awe of her every single day.

James had now become aware of his father's presence in the room, and he looked up at him before replying. "I was telling the story that uncle Ron told me when I was younger, about how daddy was the chosen one, and how daddy, uncle Ron and aunty Mione saved the world, whilst you mummy, aunty Lulu and uncle Neville led the resistance and fought the bad men, and how you all became saviours of the light!"

Harry could feel his cheeks burning, and he was pretty sure they were turning a magnificent shade of pink. "Well, that does sound exciting my darling." Effie spoke before glancing to her left, catching Harry shake his head.

Of course, both Harry and Ginny had intended to tell their children the story of the downfall of the darkest wizard of all time eventually as Harry was still very famous to this day for destroying Voldemort and that fame had rubbed off onto his immediate family and his not immediate family but he and Ginny had both agreed that they were too young.

Wizards across Britain had swarmed St Mungos when they found out Ginny was going into labour for their first-born child, they didn't want that kind of fame getting to their heads. Of course, both realised their mistake in not telling the others this and apparently Ginny would now have to have words with uncle Ron.

"Do you mind if I hear this story too? Then perhaps we can try going to sleep again?"

"Of course, mummy!" Said James nodding his head enthusiastically. "Daddy, will you come listen to the story too? That way if I forget or go wrong you can help me." The eight-year-old looked up to his dad, eyes full of hope, a bright smile spreading across his face.

"Yeah, Daddy. Please!" Lily's sweet voice came out of nowhere, and Harry could feel his heart swelling at the love he felt for his kids.

"Please, Daddy!" Albus chimed in, causing Ginny to giggle at her children's enthusiasm, something Haymitch would argue that they got from her.

"Yes, come join us, dear." Ginny moved so she was now sitting with her two youngest children by her side and patted the space next to her, signalling for her husband to join them on the floor, a mountain of pillows surrounding them. Harry was by their side in an instant, lifting Lily into his lap, Ginny mirroring his movements and doing the same with Albus.

"I'll start again from the beginning. We didn't get that far into the story, so it won't take me too long to tell the start again." James spoke confidently, clearing his throat before reciting the story his uncle had told him.

It was quite exaggerated and thankfully sounded less grim than it actually was. Leave it to Ron to make the story grander than it actually was.

It was also evident to Ginny and Harry whilst watching their son that this story meant a lot to him.

Every so often, Ginny would take a glance at Harry, who looked so proud of his eldest son that he could burst with happiness. She couldn't imagine living this life with anyone else other than him. Seeing him become a father to their children only made Ginny love him more, if that was possible.

Once the story was over, Ginny, Harry, Albus and Lily clapped and applauded, little James who took a bow, feeling proud of what he had accomplished. "Well done, my sweet boy." Ginny cooed at her eight-year-old, opening her arms to scoop him into a bear hug.

"You remembered every single word champ. I'm so proud of you." Harry ruffled James dark hair before leaning over and kissing him on the forehead.

"Ok now it's time for bed." Said Ginny authorially

They put Albus and Lily to bed first, leaving their room lit with a lumos charm that would last a couple hours and then they both took James to his room and tucked him in before bidding him a good night.

Once all three of their children were in bed, Harry and Ginny made sure they were sleeping before making their way back downstairs, slumping into their familiar spaces on the couch. Both letting out a contented sigh, Ginny perched her head onto Harry's shoulder, whilst he let his chin rest gently on her strawberry scented red hair.

A small chuckle soon erupted from Ginny, shattering the silence and pulling Harry's attention.

"Something funny?" Harry questioned, tilting his head down to look at his wife.

"What did we do to deserve those wonderful kids?" Ginny asked, admiring how the fire crackled and danced around, illuminating the room with orange and red hues.

"Well besides being 'saviours of the light'" Said Harry with some air quotes. Ginny snorted before Harry continued. "They have you as a mum, so I'd say we were all pretty lucky from the start."

Harry pressed a kiss into Ginny's hair, squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.

"And they have you as their father, Harry, our chosen one." She smirks a little saying the last few words, gaining blush from her husband.

It didn't matter that he was happily married, had three children or was in the Auror corps with a steadily growing reputation for capturing dark wizards, Harry would never give into the idea of his fame.

She couldn't blame him either. That fame came from a dark place, one that if Harry had his own way he would forget entirely.

"I know Ron didn't tell them the nitty gritty version of the story, but I wish he hadn't told James. I mean I know we said we'd tell them, but I just wish we had some more time you know? Let them have their innocence before they got swept up in the all the chosen one stuff. It's been fourteen years since the war and people still act as though it all happened yesterday." Said Harry wiping a hand through his locks frustrated.

"Honey, you ridded the world of the darkest wizard of all time. No one is gonna forget that even fifty years from now and you absolutely know that." Said Ginny taking her hand and rubbing circles on Harry's chest.

Harry sighed.

"We knew this was eventually gonna come up and we've done a really good job keeping them away from all of it in my opinion. Besides their still young and that's a watered-down version of the story well, watered down to our standards. For Ron it's a normal peppered up story. We don't have to elaborate anytime soon." She said moving her hand to his leg and squeezing it.

Harry sighed again.

"I suppose you're right." Said Harry putting his hand on top of hers.

"I'm always right."

Harry chuckled at his wife's comment, but it was half-hearted.

Ginny could sense her husband's thoughts drifting into a place he didn't want to go, so she shifted in his arms and caressed a delicate hand on his stubbled cheek. "Hey..." She whispered, to which Harry locked his sparkling green eyes onto her brown orbs. "I love you, Harry. You and our little rascals."

Harry pressed a kiss into Ginny's palm that was resting on his cheek. As he leaned forward and placed a tender kiss to her lips, he pulled back and smiled. "I love you too, Ginny."