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Raising Albus | ||||||
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Category: Post-Hogwarts Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama, General Warnings: Death, Violence Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 94 Summary: Raising Albus is turning out to be a challenge. Raising a child that is extraordinarily magically talented is difficult enough, but when the child is the subject of several prophesies the task can be daunting. Harry feels it may have been easier being a child subject to prophesies than raising one. Teddy wants to be an Auror, not the safest occupation. James and Lily pose their own challenges. This story will take us up to Albus and Rose train ride to Hogwarts. Hitcount: Story Total: 95359; Chapter Total: 2538 Author's Notes: In the USA what the British call a Jumper is called a Sweater. |
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Albus had a hard time getting to sleep. He was usually up between 6:00 AM and 6:30 AM, but today, Christmas morning, James woke him up at 6:45. Al quickly used the bathroom, got dressed, and precisely at 7:00 AM met Lily at the stairs and went downstairs. They met their parents at the door to their bedroom, and Harry and Ginny followed their children down the stairs. Waiting for them was Teddy, who had come over via the floo network. Teddy usually got a little Christmas present from his grandmother on Christmas Eve, and then received the usual Christmas jumper from Grandma Weasley on Christmas day. He received any stocking presents and bigger presents on Christmas morning with the other Potter children, and had since he had gone to North America with the Potters. This Christmas morning Teddy’s thoughts were not on Christmas presents, though. As soon as he saw the family he went over to Harry and said, “Daddy Harry, is being an Auror always as hard as it was last night?” “Last night was particularly difficult,” said Harry. “A husband killing his wife, or a wife killing her husband, is thankfully pretty rare.” “Other killings?” asked Teddy. “Some fights or other things,” said Harry. “Criminals, dark wizards, die a violent death much more often than the innocent. In all honesty Teddy, it’s sometimes hard to feel too sorry when a couple of real bad wizards, and it’s usually wizards and not witches, get into a fight, and one of them or sometimes both of them are killed.” “So little children are usually pretty safe?” asked Teddy. “Usually,” said Harry, “but we do not do as good a job of protecting children as I would like. It’s hard to take children away from their parents, but it’s also not always the best to leave them in a violent situation. That’s one I do not have any easy answers to.” “There’s got to be a way to protect little children,” said Albus. “There’s got to be a way.” “You would think so,” said Harry. “You wouldn’t think it would be that hard.” “Is it always the men who are bad?” asked Albus. “All the Death Eaters were men.” Harry had to think about that. “Bellatrix Lestrange was a Death Eater, but she was the only woman Death Eater I know of,” Harry finally said. “Most of the criminals we confront are men, but not all of them.” “So it’s mostly men who are bad?” asked Albus. “It’s mostly men who are violently bad, I guess,” Harry said. “I am going to have to think about that, Albus.” Harry thought about Alecto Carrow, but he did not want to talk to Albus about Alecto without talking to Ginny first. Harry was reasonably sure that Alecto was partly responsible for the scar on Ginny’s breast. Harry and the two boys joined the rest of the family in opening their Christmas presents, their spirits rather subdued. At 9:00 AM they went over to The New Burrow. The whole family arrived within about ten minutes, and ate a big breakfast together. About 10:30 presents were exchanged. All the cousins received something from each family. George and Angelica always had WWW toys for everybody. Percy and Audrey usually had books or something like books, as did Ron and Hermione, although Ron and Hermione could surprise you sometimes. Ron would occasionally give every child a Muggle toy to see if they should develop Magic variations. Bill and Fleur usually had some type of clothing, always high quality and appreciated more as you got older. Charlie frequently had dragon skin gloves or boots or something similar. Harry and Ginny tried to find out what the children wanted, and make each present special. Maybe half of their presents over the years had to do with Quidditch, except for presents to Rose who really did not show any interest in Quidditch. Albus tried to open his mind to practice legilimency. He though there was enough chaos to prevent anyone from catching on what he was doing. There was so much going on that Al was having a very hard time getting anything, until he decided to focus on the jumpers grandma Weasley was handing out, and see if he could tell what everyone thought about them. The first two handed out were to Bill and Louis Weasley. They were matching jumpers, and both had the DPW logo on them. Bill was thinking something like ‘ideal to wear when Louis and I walk through the DPW factories. Fleur will think we could go in more stylish garb, and we could, but these are perfect. Mum sort of expects them to be used, and no one will complain too much if they get dirty.’ Louis was thinking ‘just like daddy!’ Al knew that Louis wanted to grow up to be like his father. Next was a pair for Fleur and Dominique. Fleur was thinking ‘another ugly jumper from the hands of Molly Weasley. I’d rather have the love this represents than all the stylish clothes in the world,’ as she looked at the jumper that really clashed with her stylish dress, and then put it on. Dominique was thinking something like, ‘I can’t wait until I can live somewhere more fashionable that this place. The jumpers are ugly, and the whole Weasley clan is so (basic)lower class. I’d rather be in France at the Chateau of the Delacour family, or Aunt Danielle’s Chateau.’ **so basic class? I am not sure what you are suggesting.** Next Grandmother Molly had a pair for Teddy and Victoire. Teddy was thinking, ‘grandma Weasley already has us married, all paired up. I’ve got a year and a half of school, then two years Aurors training, then probably two more years of a foreign assignment before I should get married to Victoire. Can’t think of anything I’d rather do than my part in getting Victoire pregnant with all the children she wants, though.’ Albus quickly withdrew from Teddy’s mind as his thoughts got a little graphic. Victoire was thinking ‘Now that we ARE dating, I hope Teddy is happy we have matching jumpers. I love this family! Someday I want to make lots of jumpers, for Teddy and my children, and grandchildren.’ Albus noticed that Victoire’s hair was very close to the same shade as grandma Weasley’s hair, except there was no gray in Victoire’s hair. As Victoire had developed she had also gotten just heavier than her mother, and she really looked like Grandma Molly’s grand-daughter. The only thing that changed from year to year for Uncle George, Aunt Angelica and Fred were the colors of the jumpers; they always had the WWW theme. George was very hard to read, and his thoughts seemed to jump around a lot. Fred was not a lot better. Aunt Angelina was looking at Roxanne’s jumper. It had a gardening theme, not a WWW logo, and Aunt Angelina was thinking ‘Roxanne is not going to be a shopkeeper. Grandma can see that.’ Roxanne was thinking, ‘I hope Frank Longbottom likes my jumper. I hope to see him before we go back to Hogwarts.’ Uncle Percy was just analyzing the colors of the jumpers his family had received, and trying to remember the colors of the last few. Aunt Audrey was thinking, ‘Mum Weasley knows everybody and tries to make everybody, every jumper special, even with all these people, children and spouses and grandchildren. I’m lucky I married into this family.’ Little Molly was just pleased with her jumper. Al could not read any special thoughts. Lucy was close to tears for some reason. She seemed to be thinking, ‘grandma Weasley makes a jumper special for me, my colors, things on it that I like. Grandma Baker does not even know my name.’ That could not be true! Grandma and Grandpa Baker only had one daughter, Aunt Audrey, and they lived right next door. How could Grandma Baker not know the name of her younger granddaughter? He decided that he would have to find out. Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron got matching jumpers, with little white outlines of a father, mother, bigger girl, smaller boy, and a cat. Grandma Weasley had seen something Uncle Ron had seen in North America, and then duplicated on the back window of their car, a sort of generic white outline of a family, mother, father, daughter, son, and a cat. Aunt Hermione thought it was really sort of stupid, Al could tell, although it was sweet that Uncle Ron was proud of his family. Grandma Weasley thought the family on the back of the car window was cute as well, and had put the same white outline on the jumpers. Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione were looking at the jumpers and trying hard not to laugh. Aunt Hermione finally said, “The jumpers are unique to our family and uniquely Molly Weasley creations. Thank you mum.” Grandmum Jean Granger got a jumper too, something that looked very grandmotherly. Rose’s jumper had as usual book and learning themes, and with Uncle George’s and his father’s permission Grandma Molly had given Hugo a jumper almost identical to the ones she had knitted for Uncle George and his family, with the WWW theme. James got a jumper that said JAMES POTTER on it, with Quidditch themes. He was pleased, Al could see, although Al could not quite get James attention and could not read his thoughts. Lily received a very frilly girly jumper, and she put it on and started prancing around like she was the cutest little girl you could imagine. Lily was cute, thought Al, but not that cute. Al went to get his jumper, a practical one with similar bookish themes. For some reason Al’s father had a jumper similar to the DPW jumpers of Uncle Bill and Cousin Louis, his mother one with Quidditch themes, one that his mother could wear to any of the colder training camps. Charley Weasley and his partner Stribog Romanoff, plus their adopted daughter Ivana Romanoff, all received jumpers with dragon themes on them. Al sensed something sexual between Charley and Stribog, almost as if they were married. He was going to have to ask his father about that. Grandma Tonks and Grandpa Weasley also got jumpers, and then, for the first time, (but not the last), Victoire Weasley gave grandma Weasley a jumper that Victoire had been working on since last summer. Victoire was very proud of herself. The theme knitted into the jumper was of Grandma Weasley knitting all the jumpers, and Molly Weasley was moved to tears. After all those years of knitting jumpers for other people, this was the first time someone had knit one for her. Victoire was thinking, ‘I’m going to be like you someday, grandma.’ Al stopped trying to use legilimency. Trying to read people’s minds was a lot of work, and Al was worried that it was too personal, almost like undressing someone. He made up his mind to talk to his father about it as soon as he could. Late that evening, when everybody was through with dinner and getting ready for bed at the New Burrow or Potters New Burrow Al asked his parents if he could talk, and they took him into the little library or office in the middle of Potters New Burrow. Al said, “I’ve read about legilimency, and sort of could what I thought might be more than normal reading of thoughts, maybe legilimency, over the last few months, but then with Philly and Melody I really could read their thoughts, and calm them. So today, this morning, I tried to see if I could use it again, and I read a lot of thoughts, not all but a lot. It’s scary, and I’m not sure I should be doing it.” “It’s scary for a lot of reasons, Al,” said Harry. “Sometimes you catch a person just as they are thinking something they are ashamed of, and by just catching that thought you are getting a totally wrong idea of what the person is like.” “Like Dominique thinking we are lower class, and the jumpers are ugly?” asked Albus. “There’s a little snobbery in Dominique,” said Ginny, “but if that is all that you get you do not have a true picture of her. She’s happy to play Quidditch, or exploding snap, with her lower class cousins. She’s just at an age where she looks at her Grandparents and Aunt and their grand Chateau, and envies their different lifestyle.” “I guess she’s still a cousin and friend,” said Al. “Lucy Weasley does not think that her grandma Baker knows her name. That can’t be true!” Ginny replied “It may be. I know Audrey and Percy are furious that Grandmother Baker ignores her younger granddaughter. She is not much more than polite to Molly, but she seems to be as hurtful as she can be to Lucy. It’s sad, and I’m sorry for Lucy that it hurts so much she is even thinking about it Christmas morning.” “So should I practice legilimency?” asked Al. “Just enough to not lose the skill,” said Harry, “but not too much. I’ll talk to a couple of people at the Ministry and see if we can get you some training. Good legilimens are hard to find, and I do not think the Ministry would want to lose a natural legilimens.” “Can Albus really read minds? Legilimency at this young an age?” asked Ginny as she and Harry were getting ready to go to bed. “Sometimes traumatic events can reveal a latent talent,” Harry replied. “Albus has talent for prophecy and legilimency, and I expect he will get better and better at it over the next few years. “He’s scary sometimes. I wonder what he will end up doing. We are letting him grow up fast, and I think that’s the right thing to do, but I worry sometimes.” |
| Reviews 94 |
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