Ch. 55

Saturday 30 January 1999

The next morning, Harry woke up with Teddy but what was unusual was that Hermione got up with him. He had noticed this over the last few weeks and was a little concerned.

"Mione, you okay? You're getting up earlier these days." He asked as he got dressed.

"Yeah. The babies are just active more at night and I haven't been sleeping too well." She grimaced as she slowly got into a sitting position. "Merlin, I'm huge."

"Yes but you're beautiful too." He came and kissed her.

She laughed as she made her way slowly into the en suite. "I feel as big as a hippogriff."

Harry left through the arch in the bedroom. It was a master bedroom feature that had been added on. There was a blank wall separating the bedroom from the landing. If you tapped a pattern into it, it turned into a regular archway that led out of their suite. It opened onto the landing of their floor near their main entrance.

As Harry took Teddy down to the kitchen, he put him on his feet near the wall in the floo room. He watched as Teddy began to crawl to the wall, get up and cruise into the kitchen. Harry laughed as he went in to start breakfast. "You're a smart little man, just like your Dad."

Teddy then spent quite a bit of time cruising the furniture as Harry cooked. As Harry was finishing up and people were coming in, he felt a pull at his jeans. Looking down, he saw Teddy looking up and grinning, his eyes and hair matching Harry.

"You want up here kiddo?" Harry laughed as he put Ted on the counter that wasn't hot.

"Dadadadadada" Teddy clapped his hands. Harry just laughed as he began moving stuff to the table.

"What is Teddy doing on the counter?" Dora rushed in and grabbed him.

"He was watching me cook." Harry replied nonchalantly.

"He could have fallen off." she countered irritatedly.

"I have cushioning charms on the floor. It's not like he's near the hob."

Dora took a deep breath and let it out as she calmed a bit. "Sorry I overreacted. I saw him on the counter and thought the worst."

Harry smiled as they sat at the table. "I won't let him get hurt, Dora. You have to know that, yeah?"

He seemed concerned by this so she smiled. "I know Harry. I'm just being overprotective I guess."

"Hello, Hello." They heard from the floo room.

"Daddy! Come on in." Hermione yelled. As they came in, she saw her Mum. "Ready for the Tower, Mum?"

"Yup. What time is the appointment?" She hugged her daughter.

"Half nine."

"Are you going, Harry?" Emma asked.

"Am I supposed to?" He looked at the other men in the room. They busted out laughing.

"At least for this one." Mark stated through his laughter.

"Come for this one, love. Mum will handle the rest of them or at least most of them." Mione grinned.

"So, who's the appointment with?" He asked.

"A witch by the name of Wendy Hall."

"A witch?" Mark asked.

"Yes. There's one witch wedding coordinator. They handle all the charms to keep the wedding muggle-free along with the actual wedding. I understand they've been doing it for several centuries this way." Mione smiled.

"That's amazing." Sarah smiled. "It'll be fun to see how it works."

"Yeah. As long as I don't have to do anything towards planning I'm fine."

"I find that so strange. That you want Emma in charge instead of you." Jaime looked surprised.

"Mum and I have a book that we designed 2 or three years ago. It has everything planned out, down to when we leave the reception. Everything I want from my wedding is in that book."

"That is so Hermione." Sirius laughed. "Only you would have your wedding already planned out 2 years in advance."

"Two and a half." Emma corrected with a grin. "It was her summer project so she wouldn't think about the war."

"I didn't realise Mum still had it until the day after Harry proposed." She laughed.

"I started building one last summer," Luna smiled. "But it only has the basics. I found my mother's book and decided to use some of her ideas."

"Are you getting a planner?" Hermione asked.

"I've asked Molly to do it. Gave her the book a few weeks ago. I don't want the full blown wedding like yours is going to be. I'd rather it just be a party." She responded as they got up to leave.

HP

As they sat in Ms. Hall's office a little while later, she began asking all sorts of what would be routine questions for a wedding planner. How many people? Any muggles attending? Where on the grounds would they like to be married? What caterer are they using? Date and time of the wedding, all that sort of questions.

As Mione, her mum and all the other ladies there started answering the questions, Harry kept completely silent. Wendy kept taking notes as they spoke about the wedding. Eventually, she put her quill down and said, "It seems like you have a good grasp of what you want the wedding to look like. Is there anything else I should know?"

At that, Mione pulled out the wedding binder and it gave a heavy thump as it fell on the desk. "What you have to know for the wedding is right in there. Mum and I planned it out years ago."

"Wow. You're organised." She responded as she pulled it over.

"You have no idea." Harry snorted. "This is the girl that colour-codes the prefect rounds at school." They all chuckled because that is exactly what she did.

"Another thing you should be aware of: Mum is going to be doing most of the planning with you." Mione sighed. "As you can see, I'm pregnant-with twins, mind you. I am also teaching History at Hogwarts-at least the underclassmen. And we're studying for NEWTs. So I'm busy. Really busy. I've picked my robes and am leaving the rest in mum's hands."

"Binns isn't teaching anymore?" Wendy looked delighted as everyone laughed.

"No. Jaime, Sarah and I are teaching that. Harry's teaching defence, Luna Charms. Harry's godfather is teaching potions. Sarah's husband and Jaime's brother's teaching Transfiguration. Luna's fiance is teaching Herbology. Sirius' cousin is teaching defence and her mum is teaching a new Wizarding Studies class next year."

About halfway through Mione's list, Wendy's jaw dropped, at the end of Mione's speech, she said, "So Hogwarts has become a family business?"

"Pretty much." Jaime said as everyone laughed.

"Well, my cousin will start there next year. I'm glad she'll have live teachers. And a human one for potions." Wendy sighed as she looked at Emma. "Well, I can see why she put you in charge, she's trying to kill herself before the wedding." Everyone chuckled at that as they continued planning.

HP

It was half eleven when everyone got home. The women could hear the noise from the game room upstairs. When Mione and Luna got to the game room, they were attacked by four preschoolers. Fortunately for them, Jaime and Harry were right behind them to make sure they stayed balanced. "Hey guys! What're you doing here?" Harry asked as they sat on the couches.

"We thought you might like to see the kids, so we kidnapped them." Sirius grinned. "How'd the meeting go?"

"I think I said a total of 20 words." Harry grinned as he began plaiting Penny's hair as she sat on his lap.

"You're getting good at that." Dan commented about Penny's hair.

Harry grinned. "Well, I better, I'm having a girl."

"Turns out the planner's cousin will be starting at Hogwarts next year. When we told her our schedules, she claimed we were trying to kill ourselves." Luna contributed as Alex came to sit with her.

"Isn't that what the four of you are trying to do?" Mark laughed as they glared at him.

"We aren't trying to kill ourselves." Nev smirked at Mark, "We're just trying to do everything."

"Same difference."

That afternoon was spent in the pool or in the game room by the family. They eventually had dinner and took the kids back to LAR. The four teens stayed up a little longer to finish up some essays they needed that week.

"You know, Mark is right. I think we're trying to kill ourselves." Harry quipped as he closed his last essay that was due that week. Now onto grading papers on grindylows from his third years.

"I think it's like we've talked about before, we need to change as much as we can in our world while we still have the leverage." Nev grinned.

"We still need to do something about other magical races and how they're viewed." Mione commented as the other three laughed.

Sirius poked his head in. "It's midnight. You might want to go to bed soon." He grinned at them. "We're having a family dinner tomorrow and Kings has asked to come."

"Yeah. You're right Uncle Sirius." Mione agreed as she got into her magicked seat and gave Harry a kiss. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed, Harry." She leaned over and kissed him again.

He smiled warmly at her and looked to his Godfather, "Can you make sure she gets upstairs okay?"

"I can get myself upstairs!" Mione nearly growled down at him.

"I'm just worried, love." he gave her a lopsided smirk.

"I'm fine." She repeated as she turned to the door and sped past Sirius.

Sirius sat down next to his godson. "Let me explain one of the key lessons I learned from watching your dad screw up when Lily was pregnant with you. Pregnant women in general don't like to be treated as though they are now fragile because they're carrying kids. This is especially true of overly independent women like Lily or Hermione. Half of the time your dad spent the night at my flat was because he said something that Lily took the wrong way. That's when he would send me over to stay with Lils cause I knew better than to question her independence."

"I can't help it! I'm worried. So many things could go wrong." Harry worried.

"All you can do is make sure she knows you're there if needed." He got up and patted Harry's shoulder. "I'll go check on her." He grinned at the young man as he left. He knocked on Mione's door a few minutes later.

"Come in." He heard her yell. He opened the door and saw her resting on the sofa in their sitting room.

"Just wanted to make sure you're okay." He smiled.

"Yeah. I'm fine." She groaned as she got to her feet. She came over and gave Padfoot a kiss. "I'm off to bed." she turned towards her room as he headed to his.