Ch. 51

The next few days were taken up with wedding talk, shopping for both nurseries, finishing up last minute homework, planning the trip to the Tower for the students, lesson planning and packing up to leave.

The night before everyone was to leave on the Hogwarts Express,they had a family dinner with the Weasleys, Lovegoods, Grangers, Tonks and Longbottoms. They ate in the kitchen at the magically extended table. Then they went to the game room.

Both the babies were playing with their various Christmas presents. It was a very relaxing dinner. Fleur and the girls agreed to open up one more store in Scotland and see how that went before opening their second store in Ireland.

Hermione and Luna started talking about creating a magical telly that could play either muggle telly or new programming from the wizarding world.

"Would you be broadcasting things like wizarding and muggle plays?" Andi asked.

"We could. As long as we recorded it and got the owners' permission, I don't see why not." Mione smiled. "Problem is I don't even know the process for getting those permissions."

"If I remember right, Moony had a spell to record lectures in school." Sirius added. "I'm sure it's hidden in his school trunk."

"Don't worry about the permissions Mione. I have connections in that world. I may not have kept up with the political world but I still have friends in the art world." Andi answered.

"That'd be great." Luna got excited. "We could broadcast Star Wars to Hogwarts."

"Or football for people like Dean." Harry added.

Hermione looked over at her partner-in-crime, "I guess we go into the television business."

Luna just grinned right back.

3 January 1999

The next morning, at breakfast, Harry asked Dora, "Can I take Teddy on the train with me today?"

"Why doesn't Dobby bring him when he brings you lunch? That way he can have his morning nap in peace and only miss his afternoon one." Dora laughed at Harry's wide grin.

"Thanks Dora."

HP

Because the Heads got to the station about a half hour early, thanks to Luna and Mione's prodding, they were able to relax in the Head compartment for a few minutes before Prefects started arriving.

"Okay, all." Harry stood after the train got going. "The roster for rounds on the train is here." he handed them out. "Before you get off the train, each seventh year girl will need a copy of the roster for this month. Please take one and put it on your common room's board. You'll get a new one at lunch the Friday before the new month starts, just like the last few months. We'll be having lunch here at noon and Dobby will be bringing Ted with him. Any questions?"

"How'd he like his Quidditch gear?" Ginny asked.

Harry smiled. "We loved it. He looks good in red and gold. Although Dora is going to get him yellow and black."

"He'll be red and gold if I have anything to say about it." Ginny said stubbornly.

Harry laughed as he looked at the rounds for the day. "Daph and Blaise, you're up first." He began making shooing motions.

"Fine, fine." Blaise laughed as they left.

After everyone left to join their friends, Harry looked over at Hermione, she seemed lost in thought to him. "You okay, love?" He asked. She didn't answer, just kept staring off into space. He looked a little concerned and looked at Luna for any advice. She shrugged. He decided to just hold Mione until she came out of it on her own.

Around half twelve, Dobby popped in, which startled her out of her reverie. She blinked and looked up at Harry. "It's lunch time?" She was confused. It felt like they'd just got on the train,

"Yeah, love. You were out for quite a while. You okay?" he asked concernedly.

"Yeah, now." She smiled and squeezed his hand as Teddy was handed to him.

"We'll talk later." He said firmly. She nodded as prefects started coming in the compartment.

"There's the little guy." Susan said as she took Teddy from Harry. For the rest of the train ride, Prefects came and went, the girls inevitably picking Teddy up and playing with him. You could hear his happy giggles from halfway down the train.

Around four, he fell asleep in Hermione's arms. Since Dobby had brought his old Moses Basket-enlarged to fit him, Harry motioned for her to lay him down. She just smiled and shook her head.

Unlike at the beginning of term, where Mione was running around making sure everyone knew where to go, she held Teddy quietly as she got into a carriage. The other three took care of the students.

HP

When they got done with dinner, the Heads went to their new rooms. As you came in, unlike at the madhouse where you had a front and rear entry room,here the grand staircase in maple was centerstage. Off to the left was the game room. Off to the right was the kitchen/dining room. The door to the study was behind the stairs.

They went up to the first floor and there were five suites around the landing. "Each wall has a window to the outside." Hermione commented as she went through each suite. "That can't be."

"That's Hogwarts magic, Mistress." Dobby popped in. Their suite was much larger than previously. "Do you like, Mistress?"

She smiled softly. He'd turned their sitting room into almost a library. Two walls had bookshelves. A third wall had a fireplace, and the fourth had baby things like a changing table on it.

"I love it. Thank you Dobby." She smiled at Harry. "If this is anything like you do at the Madhouse, we are so lucky." She giggled as they left for the game room. "Have you guys looked upstairs yet?" She looked at Luna.

"Yes. It's brilliant." She grinned.

4 January 1999

The next morning Hermione woke up and went to her sitting room, She got several books out about the Tower of London and William the Conqueror. She also got her unit lesson plan and started to tweak it.

She had that week's lessons about the run up to the battle of Hastings and why William won the battle all set out with her powerpoints and everything. She had projects for the kids to work on.

By the time Harry came in to give her Teddy while he showered, she was so deep in lessons that she didn't notice them arriving. "Hey love." Harry leant down to kiss her and she jumped. "Oh Merlin." she looked up and smacked him on his shoulder. "Don't scare me!"

Harry laughed. "Well, you shouldn't get so involved." Harry motioned to her work.

She sighed and grabbed Teddy, realising she was done for the morning. "Okay, I'll get dressed now. You take a shower." She reached up and kissed him as she took Teddy into their room.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry was downstairs cooking and Hermione was finally getting dressed. It seemed, the more active Teddy got the less she could do. She used to be able to leave him in their room and she would go to pick out her outfit. Now, Teddy seemed to want to crawl everywhere and get in the way.

When everyone was down in the kitchen, Jaime asked Hermione. "So, are you ready to start the lessons on William?"

"Yes. I may not want to do the Tower trip until February though. I have a lot to get through." She smiled.

"That's fine. You should have lessons for this week and next. We'll see how it goes and plan on Saturday." She grinned back.

"Remember we're having the Alliance meeting at Longbottom Estate on Saturday too." Sirius reminded everyone.

"How is your lesson planning going Luna?" Mark asked.

"Well. Professor Flitwick is doing a lot of it so I can concentrate on actually teaching, so I'm not as stressed as I was last term. I was trying to do it all myself then."

"Good. Jame, I talked to Dad last night and Mom wants to come back at Easter. I told her that might be too close to the babies' birth but I'd talk to everyone."

"Can we see how we're doing closer to the time?" Hermione asked, worry in her voice.

"Of course." He smiled at her as he fed Jordan.

"You know, they could always stay in one of the other houses on the property." Neville suggested.

"I like that." Hermione grinned happily.

"I'll tell them it's a possibility." Mark grinned at Hermione.

"Well, we should get to classes." She got up and started rummaging around for her bag.

"Love, you are a witch." Harry hugged her and kissed her on the temple as she summoned her bag.

"Don't forget the chair." Luna reminded her. Hermione rolled her eyes and summoned it too.

"I hate having to sit in that thing." She growled.

"You're lucky, you don't have to walk these halls while pregnant." Luna groaned as they left for their first class. "I'm exhausted just thinking about it." she giggled

As they left, they heard Harry say to Nev, "Do you even think they'd miss us if we skipped morning classes?"

"We would!" They yelled together from further down the hall. "And we hear everything!" Luna reminded them. This got a laugh from all the men.

HP

By lunchtime, they'd been through four classes and were dragging a little as they arrived in the Great Hall. As they sat, Andrea Cauldwood, the firstie sister of their new chaser, came up to Neville. "Professor Longbottom?"

"Yes Ms. Cauldwell?" He looked at the girl kindly.

"I was wondering if you could help me with some stuff I was having trouble with in my review holiday work after class?" She asked softly.

"Sure. Do we need to be in the greenhouse for this?" he wanted to know.

"Yeah. It's about Devil's Snare."

At that, Hermione and Harry chuckled, remembering first year's obstacles. "Okay, I'll see you after class." Nev turned back to his friends. "I'm not saying a word!" he groaned.

Hermione quickly finished up her lunch and got up. "I'll see everyone after classes. I need to set things up." She smiled and kissed Harry. He decided a peck wasn't good enough and pulled her into his lap for a real kiss. As he deepened the kiss and she let out a little mewl, they heard a lot of noise. When they came up, they noticed people laughing and pointing at them. To the people around him, he shrugged "I've got a beautiful fiancee, so sue me for wanting a kiss!" he let her leave with a small peck. "Bye love."

She shook her head and muttered as she walked off "Prat!"

As she walked into her classroom, she flicked her CD player on and started getting her computer ready for class and going over the lesson plan for the day. She was a little nervous because this was her first day teaching since the miscarriage.

She grabbed her drink from her desk and sat in front of her desk as she heard the bell ring. She had all three years today, starting with British history.

"Quiet in 3-2-1." She said from the front as everyone calmed down. And she started teaching."We are going to be starting the unit about William I and the middle ages. We will be looking at the Tower of London and some of its most famous residences, either as prisoners or inhabitants before we actually go to the Tower for our next field trip."

About halfway through her slides, one boy raised his hand. "Yes Mr. Baylin?"

"Why were you gone for so long? Are you okay? Where's Mrs. Richardson?" He asked with lots of his peers nodding their heads.

"I had a medical issue that took a few weeks to get a handle on and I'm okay now." she smiled at the boy. "Professor Richardson will be teaching the OWL and NEWT students for the rest of the year."

"So she and Mr. Richardson will be here still?"

"Yes. They will be helping us for the rest of the year." She couldn't help but ask. "How is Mr. Richardson as a teacher?"

"Not nearly as scary as McGonagall." Someone else volunteered.

HP

Later that afternoon, Hermione went back to the Playhouse and made herself a snack as she sat down at the table with her Transfiguration homework. She summoned an Omni-Reader when she decided she needed more information.

Only about 20 minutes after she sat down, so did Luna. "How'd your day go, Mione?"

"Good. I forgot how much I loved teaching." She laughed. "How'd it go for you?"

"Same. I love the little ones, they are so cute."

"And so inquisitive. They wanted to know why I was out and if Sarah was going to be around. I think some of them were worried we'd lose Mark because he's easier than Minerva." They both laughed.

"We have a staff meeting after dinner, remember." she said as Mione nodded.

It was around five o'clock that people started coming back to the Playhouse. First the boys came in and gave their fiancees hugs. "How'd your day go?" Mione asked Harry as she finished up her Potions essay.

"Good. I spent the afternoon helping a few students out with tutoring so I didn't get any grading or homework done, which is why I stayed there in the first place." He grinned.

"Well, I won't let you copy my essay, but I will leave bookmarks where I got information I used." She smiled. "And we'll both be up grading tonight."

"Hello, Hello." Sirius yelled as he came in.

"Go away." Luna mumbled as Sirius mussed her hair. "I'm busy."

Soon all three Richardsons plus Dora and Teddy were home as well. All of the adults ended up in the game room as the Heads were stuck in the kitchen doing their own work.

Around six, Dobby kicked them out of the kitchen so he could serve dinner. "Mione, would you mind looking at my Potions paper to see if I missed anything?" Harry asked as they went to their room to put their stuff away.

"Sure. I'll do it tomorrow. It's not due till Friday." She kissed him as they walked back to the game room, but before they could sit down, Dobby popped in telling them dinner was ready.

As they all sat down, Harry started feeding Teddy from his plate. "Sirius, I was thinking why don't we expand the study to fit desks for each of us. They don't have to be the monster desks you and I have but there is not enough room for all of us to work in the kitchen easily." he suggested.

"Sure." Sirius grinned. "I think we can fit a few more desks in there. Dobby, can you do that?"

"Of course Master." Dobby smiled widely. "I'll have it ready for you tomorrow."

HP

When they went to the staff room after dinner for the start-of-term staff meeting, everyone else was already there. "Good." Minerva said. "The other half of my teaching staff is here." She smirked as Mark and Sirius huffed good-naturedly. "So, some of you will be conducting interviews with me Friday afternoon and Saturday morning."

"Ahhh. I was planning on sleeping in." Mark groaned.

Sarah just laughed. "In what universe? Jordan wakes us up at seven."

"True." He smiled fondly thinking of his daughter.

"Have you two decided what you'll do next year?" Minerva asked them.

"Yes." Mark got a mischievous look on his face. "We're staying."

She sighed. "Thank Merlin. Now to hire the rest." she murmured. At the end of the meeting, she handed out a schedule of interviews that would happen this weekend.

Towards the end of the meeting Hermione asked, "I've been thinking of all the research I want my kids to do and they really need access to our library to do it. Hogwarts has no 'muggle history' section. So, I was thinking of giving them each an Omni-Reader. That way, they're not at the house all the time. But I was hoping to have the Hogwarts library uploaded as well. Could that be done?"

"I don't see why not." Madam Pince said warmly.

"How are you planning on financing this?" Minerva asked.

Mione and Luna simultaneously put on their most innocent looks and turned to Sirius. "Bloody hell." he pretended to groan. "Fine. I'll finance it for-seven years."

"You are such a wuss." Mark laughed. "They can get you to do anything." Sirius just barked a laugh and shrugged his shoulders as though to say 'oh well.' as everyone laughed.

9 January 1999

The week went by very slowly and very fast at the same time for the members of The Family. While the whole family was grading and planning, the Heads were also getting ready for NEWTs.

According to Sirius, the fact that they each had nearly an assignment a night from each class was common for NEWT year. Apparently the load got worse as NEWTs came closer.

The one thing that had the entire family worried was the mental disappearing act Hermione would do on occasion. Sometimes, she'd be sitting at her desk in the study, stop writing and just stare into space. They learned if you just left her there, she'd stay like that for hours. However, if Harry was there, he could talk her out of it.

On Thursday evening when Hermione came out of her depression, Harry finally asked what she was thinking of when she left. "Nothing. Just the baby and how the twins will miss it."

"Love, don't you think you need to concentrate on the twins not the one we lost?"

"I know that Harry!" She responded crossly. "I can't help how I'm feeling." She got up angrily and went to the study, leaving Harry even more worried.

Saturday morning, Harry found Hermione and Jaime planning their lessons together in the study as he came downstairs with Teddy.

"How long have you been down here?" He asked.

"About an hour." Jaime smiled.

"At least Mione has one other person who gets up early." He teased as he left for the kitchen with Teddy. Soon Dobby was calling everyone to breakfast.

As Mione and Jaime got up to go to the kitchen, they heard the characteristic "Hello, Hello," as the door slammed shut.

"Just in time for breakfast, hon." Jaime said to Sirius as they continued into the kitchen.

"So, how'd your interview go?" Jaime asked her lover as they sat down.

"We had two and I can work with both so I don't see any problem with them."

"I'm just glad I don't have to hire anyone." Jaime smiled at Mione and Sarah.

"I have a meeting at 11 for a DADA Professor." Dora injected. " But I really don't think we need a new one because Harry and I are handling it just fine.

"Yeah, but what about with the new class of 180 next year?" Mark asked.

"That's why I'm doing it." Dora groaned.

"We should be at Augusta's by half five." Sirius said. Looking at his godson, "We should tell the alliance about the pregnancies tonight." Both boys nodded. "Okay, I need to grade papers so I'll be in my classroom." He left the table as everyone left to do their own things.

HP

Around half four, Jaime finally looked up from her computer and said, "I think I'm done for the weekend."

"I think I am too." Hermione smiled at her mentor. "We finished up the lesson plans this morning and I put stuff in the gradebook. I just finished my Transfiguration, Herbology and Potions. Tomorrow I'll work on the rest."

"Why not work tomorrow morning and play in the afternoon?" Jaime asked as they went into the game room. "You need a break."

Hermione just put her hand to her belly. " I am tired." she admitted.

"You should make sure you're home by nine or ten tonight so you can get a good night's sleep." Sarah intervened. "At this stage, those little ones are syphoning a lot of energy from you."

HP

At half five, they floo'd to Longbottom Estates and sat down in the drawing room to catch up. Augusta began asking how their first week of school was going and how the pregnant ladies were doing.

"I'm just tired and running out of clothes that fit." Hermione joked.

"Have Mitzy make you some new robes. She made me robes while I was pregnant. I seem to remember her doing the same for Alice too." She suggested.

"I'll have her do she can make some skirts I could fit into too."

"How are you doing, Luna dear."

Luna smiled. "As long as I take the potion every day, I feel great!"

"That's good. And you're both eating well?"

"They eat everything on their plate Gran." Nev laughed as he kissed Luna.

They heard the first floochime and stood up to greet guests.

HP

As dinner was coming to an end, Harry and Nev gave each other a nod and stood up. Harry cleared his throat. "We have two announcements that we wanted to make tonight. The first announcement is ours. "He put his hand on Mione's shoulder. "We are pregnant with twins."

"I knew it!" Mel said loudly.

"How?" Mione asked.

"You've been holding your belly subconsciously this week. That and the use of the chair. You don't want to be climbing stairs while pregnant-at least not Hogwarts stairs." She laughed. Harry sat down during this while Nev stood up as everyone started talking at once.

Nev whistled to get everyone's attention. "We also are pregnant. Only with one though."

Everyone laughed and began to talk. Sirius let it go on for a while, after all, he was going to be granddad-he was a little proud. Eventually he got everyone's attention on him and started the meeting.

"Well, we've started the discussion about representation and we don't think it's going to work the way you guys want it to." Sirius laughed at the frustrated expressions on the youngsters faces, "The overwhelming majority of them are going to take some cajoling to see that including everyone, not just purebloods, in Wizengamot is a good thing."

"This is going to take time to accomplish." Silas agreed. "What you seem to forget is that Wizengamot has been run for at least 200 years by purebloods. They are going to take time to convince. We got the new members added because so many Heads were Death Eaters and everyone knew we needed more members. Now that that's done, they see no need for any more change."

"One thing I've suggested," Augusta took over, "is that we add popularly elected members to the Wizengamot."

"How is that working?" Dora asked.

Augusta sighed. "It's coming along-slowly."

The meeting came to a close around nine and Hermione went home to bed.