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The Trouble with Family | ||||||
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Category: Post-DH/AB Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Nymphadora Tonks, Other, Ron Weasley Genres: Action/Adventure, General, Humor, Romance Warnings: Death, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Spouse/Adult/Child Abuse, Violence Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 19 Summary: It is after the Battle and the search for Hermione's parents uncovers some unexpected branches on a previously well known family tree. Canon Relationships. Some Mature/Adult Themes and Language. Hitcount: Story Total: 51975; Chapter Total: 1511 |
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My thanks to Ginny for providing the preceding chapters. It was enlightening and entertaining reading for me. I’m certainly looking forward to reading some more of Ginny’s work. Well, now we are back to some events where I was around and wasn’t so distressed, and have a much better memory of them. I do hope you will enjoy these memories. For those family members of mine who have been proof reading and are complaining about not getting to the more ‘action packed’ chapters quicker, I’m only going to remind you that this journal is for Dave and his bride to be. Your own journals cover many of the events that you have requested in this one. So just be patient. Yes Ron I am talking to you here. Molly. Afte r we were discovered trying to ‘keep an eye on’ the goings on in Dave’s tent we all raced off to assist with the packing up. Partly to cover our own embarrassment at being discovered, but also out of a desire to see what Dave would be doing to make the Talisman’s that he mentioned. In a reasonably short amount of time the pack up was complete. I began to look around for Dave and Gabrielle, but they were nowhere to be seen. Having failed to convince any of the girls who were caught with me outside of Dave’s tent to go and collect him, I was facing the possibility of having to go looking for him myself. At this point Mick arrived carrying two boxes and looking for Dave. It goes without saying that we took the boxes off him and sent him to Dave’s tent to collect Dave and Gabrielle. Mick seemed happy to oblige although I do believe he suspected we had an ulterior motive for sending him. If he didn’t before he went to collect Dave he certainly did when he came back. As he couldn’t look at us girls without flashing that brilliant smile of his at us. I couldn’t help the guilty blush that quickly spread to my cheeks when he smiled knowingly at me like that. Dave and Gabrielle were following Mick out from the tents. They had their hands around each other’s waist and were very happily chatting. Gabrielle seemed to be holding something in her free hand as she frequently glanced at it as they were walking. Like his earlier illusion Dave was dressed once more in t-shirt and shorts with bare feet. When they reached the middle of the yard the two of them stopped and once more embraced and shared a kiss. Dave then sent Gabrielle on into the house with Mick. I did notice her putting whatever she was previously holding into her dress pocket while a contented smile played about her lips. Fleur also seemed to notice this and had the same questioning look on her face as me. Glancing at my sister I saw that she also had a knowing sort of smile on her face as well when she looked to Dave and Gabrielle. She saw me looking at her with an unspoken question on my face but she only winked at me by way of reply. Dave was standing in the middle of the yard and was staring at the house. Initially I thought he was simply watching Gabrielle, but then I noticed Fireball also standing simply staring back at him. They were communicating somehow. After they broke off their conversation I noticed Dave switch his gaze to following Gabrielle as she walked from the yard. His blush betrayed him when he noticed Fleur and I watching him though. He smiled cheekily at us and then sat down cross legged in the yard facing the house. He rested his arms on his knees and closed his eyes. Once Gabrielle and Mick reached the House I could almost see small ‘waves’ rippling out from Dave and go running across the yard. It was rather fascinating to watch but Fireball had other ideas. “Ok everyone listen up, while Dave is prospecting we are going to try and get you all fitted out with two or three different sorts of holsters for your wands.” Fireball explained. “All of us girls will go into the lounge as that looks like it will offer the most amount of space for us. The boys can split up between the different bedrooms to try out the different styles of holsters on offer.” “I will let Dad, Mick and Jono organise the boys across the different rooms. Try to ensure that you have options for covering formal, work and casual occasions. Ideally at a minimum BOTH wands will be in secure storage at all times.” “The same will go for us girls. We will need to ensure that you have holster combinations that cover the scenarios mentioned previously.” “The main points with a holster are to make sure it is comfortably positioned and affords easy access. All of these holsters are charmed to be accessible through your clothes. So unless you are wearing something like bunyip fur based clothing you should have no issues accessing them.” “Please ensure that you practise inserting and extracting your wand with the holster(s) fitted to you.” “Any questions?” she asked us. As there were none we all headed off to various rooms in the house to try on the various types of holsters. I had never used a wand holster before but after trying several of the ones on offer I could definitely see the advantages of them. The ‘casual’ holster that placed the wand at the small of my back was indeed my favourite. Some of the options for the more ‘formal ware’ type occasions were simply remarkable in the creativity that was shown in both the design and function of them. The girls from Dave’s team were also very creative in the various ways that they were able to hide their holsters and wands on themselves. Clearly a lot of time had been spent thinking about it. They also showed us various ways of hiding the miniature versions of the port key handcuffs as well. No I will not be going into all the details about where we were able to hide our wands and cuffs here. Girls do need some secrets after all you know. Surprisingly the girls were able to get ourselves sorted out with the holsters long before the boys. This was found to be rather amusing by us all, so we decided it was time to have a spot of afternoon tea and a good chat. I put the kettle on and while it was heating up I looked out into the yard to check on Dave. He looked as though he hadn’t moved at all. He was still in the middle of the yard and those strange ripples I had noticed before were even more pronounced now as they raced around inside the rock wall of the yard. My sister must have noticed me looking into the yard and she came over and joined me at the window. “I do hope he isn’t over extending himself on my account.” I said to her with worry in my heart. My sister just simply stared at me in astonishment before she replied, “I would have thought that you of all people would have understood the power of family bonds.” She said with an amused twinkle in her eyes. “If one of your children or family was facing a similar predicament wouldn’t you be doing all that you could to ensure their safety?” She asked me. “Of course I would. But Dave hardly knows me.” I tried to explain. “He knows you’re family, and that is enough. Family is something that all of my children are fiercely protective of. Even of those members that they do not see all that often.” “I’m not completely sure where it comes from, if it was because their Grandfather was kicked out of his. Or because their Grandmothers family were so tightly knit. Or if it was my own experiences with my family”, She said looking at me with a wistful expression, as though thinking of all those lost years. “However it came about it is like a warm impenetrable blanket that you can wrap yourself in and be sure of its love and support.” “I have seen what lengths Dave will go to for strangers, I have seen the even more extraordinary lengths he will go to for family. Knowing that I almost have a trace of pity for anyone dumb enough to try and collect on the contract that has been offered.” She said while holding both my hands and staring into my eyes. I could see the truth of her words in her eyes and it did make me feel very warm inside. She then smiled at me and pulled me into a very strong embrace that I thoroughly enjoyed. When we broke apart I noticed that we were the focus of the other ladies attention. They all had smiles of some sort on their faces at the scene before them. Not knowing what else to do I asked, “Who would like a cup of tea?” there were no shortage of takers for that offer. Once tea was made for everyone I refilled the kettle and put it back on so that it would be ready for the boys when they eventually finished with the holsters. While we were happily chatting over our tea, Fleur raised the topic of Sandra re-directing the conversation earlier during the de-briefing of the ‘Paris Incident’. “Excusez-moi Madame Webb, can you please explain why you wished the conversation earlier to change direction?” She asked warmly, but also with heightened interest. “Certainly I can. But only if you call me Sandra.” She replied, “Madame Webb makes me feel rather old.” She said with a smile at Fleur. “Merci Sandra.” Fleur answered also with a smile. Putting her tea cup down Sandra thought for a moment before replying, “Do you recall the image that Ivan made of what he sees when he looks in the mirror?” “Oui” Fleur answered. “Did it startle you at all?” Sandra asked. “Oui, it did. It ez a terrible fate for someone to suffer.” Fleur replied. “Did you notice how uncomfortable he was about what he saw in it? How embarrassed it made him?” “Oui I did.” Fleur answered. “My husband has had over 50 years to get used to that sight. It still affects him greatly whenever he sees it. It is always in his mind when he is made to think about his physical appearance. Much like a slice from a dagger across the image of his self-worth whenever he thinks about it.” “It took me a long time to understand growing up why he never reacted well to comments about him being a very handsome looking man.” “When we began dating ‘officially’” she said with a smile, “It became a real issue in our relationship. As I couldn’t understand what the reasons were as to why he almost cringed when I commented on things like his wonderful eyes.” “It wasn’t until his father showed me what he saw in the mirror that I finally understood. I felt so ashamed of what I had been doing to him in bringing the conversation around to this topic so many times, in my attempts to try and understand.” You could see her anguish at the memories. “After the conversation with his father I sought him out to apologise and to tell him that I finally understood. When I told him this I was not prepared for the fear and self-loathing that showed in his eyes.” “He thought that I had come to break off our relationship now that I knew.” She said with very moist eyes. “It took some rather direct action upon my part to convince him otherwise.” Sandra said with a naughty little smile and a throaty chuckle to herself. The other ladies caught her meaning and smiled. “At the time he was 21 and I was 20. It was only at that point in our relationship did I learn that what I should have been doing is telling him what I saw when I looked at him. Not what others would see.” “As I had finally learnt that while he had no concept of what he looked like himself, he did have a VERY strong concept of how he was viewed through MY eyes.” “In a way MY view of him was far and away the most important way, maybe even the only way, of how he viewed himself.” She said thoughtfully. “Does that make sense?” She asked Fleur. “Oui it does. A great deal actually” She answered. “There is one small ‘silver lining’ to the condition however.” Sandra said with a slightly evil grin that caught the attention of all of the ladies. “It keeps away all those annoying gold diggers and floozies who would try and take MY man away from Me.” She said with her grin now on full display. “The loyalty and faithfulness of my boys has never been an issue. But there are those who like to try and steal what they can’t hope to earn honestly.” “They always seem to try the same approach with every man that crosses their path. But their outrageous flattery and over the top flirting and compliments have the completely opposite effect on my boys. Each time I see them try to ‘chat up’ one of my boys I almost feel sorry for them knowing the reaction that they will receive for their efforts.” She said with an evil little chuckle. “It sounds like there are some stories in there.” I prodded my sister. “Oh there are many stories in there and if we started telling them all we would be going for days.” Sandra said with a real twinkle in her eyes. “Just telling the ones that we witnessed with girls trying to flirt with Jimmy and Dave would take up a week or more, let alone the ones we only heard about.” Fireball said with a chuckle. “Emma used to tell some great ones about girls who tried to ‘chat up’ Dave in the hospital.” She said with an evil gleam in her eyes. This brought a look of surprise from Gabrielle. “’ow did Emma find out about zat?” She asked Fireball. “She either saw it, or Dave told her about it. As it always annoys him when things like that happened, and he would tell Emma about it as she seemed to get a strange sort of delight out of them. Or more specifically Dave’s reaction to them.” Fireball explained. “Yeah like when he gave that cow Renee a bedpan that Emma had recently filled and asked her ‘sweetly’ to go and empty it.” Andrea said struggling not to laugh. Gabrielle looked like she was also struggling not to laugh as well at that image. “There’s even some excellent ones about Joseph and he isn’t affected like Dad, Jimmy and Dave are.” Andrea said with a laugh. “Who is Joseph?” I asked. “Joseph is the son of Ivan’s eldest sister Barbara Webb. She married a man by the name of Anthony Webb, so she is jokingly referred to as the ‘real Webb’ in the family by the kids. Both she and her husband see the funny side of the situation and so do their kids.” “Joseph is the team leader of one of the dedicated Auror Assault Groups so he is required to be a little blunt in his job. Unfortunately that sometimes carries over into social situations.” Sandra explained with a smirk. “Like Jimmy he has beautiful long blond hair and eyes almost as blue as Dave’s. He is almost the same height as Dave as well, so the girls flock to him.” “But he does have the same ‘world view’ as my boys though. So he shares a lot of their traits. One of which is being rather blunt to those who he doesn’t know that try to ‘butter him up’. His wife Scarlett sees the funny side of the situation thankfully. As it happens quite often, and she loves to tell the stories which are often very funny.” Sandra said smiling. “Often? They are bloody hilarious, especially if you ask Joe for his version of them.” Andrea exclaimed. “That’s a little cruel dear. You shouldn’t tease him like that. Even if it is very funny to see his reactions.” Sandra remarked. The other ladies also had a bit of a laugh as well. “Ok girls that’s enough you can tease your poor male cousins later on. Your Grandmother’s party will be the perfect place to do that.” She said with an evil twinkle in her eye. “Dave is so right about you girls ganging up on the boys.” Hermione said with a questioning look at Sandra. “Well we do need to keep them all in line don’t we?” She said with her innocent look on full display. There was a round of solid laughter at this comment. “Ok girls as fun as this conversation is we need to get it back on to the original topic.” She said with a look at her daughters. “Dave is only 15. Soon to be 16, he is still trying to come to terms with this ‘condition’ himself.” Sandra said and the hurt in her eyes was very clear to see. “To the best of my knowledge he has never shown anyone, what he sees when he looks in the mirror. He avoids mirrors more than any vampire that I know.” She remarked casually. “I’m sure that this is why he, Jimmy and their father all have such expressive faces.” She said to a group of questioning ones. “They have never seen their own face so they don’t know how much they are animating it with their different expressions.” “When Dave first showed the ability to change his form he was absolutely fascinated with the faces that he saw in the mirror. He would watch them very closely and often and quickly learnt to control all the muscles in them to make his expressions more ‘normal’ as he called it.” “His Grandmother suggested that maybe we could use this method to teach him for when he was in his natural form as well. I told her absolutely not. As I love the expressions that would often play across all of their faces.” She said with her own face breaking out into a wonderful smile. Gabrielle was also smiling at this as well. “When he is in his natural form, I have only seen him look in a mirror voluntarily once and he went as white as a sheet and collapsed to the ground.” “I went to him, to try and comfort him. When I made contact with him however, I caught a glimpse of his memory of the sight he saw. I’m ashamed to say it frightened me and I screamed.” Sandra said with tears now in her eyes. “The look of horror and self-loathing on his face was far and away worse than anything I had ever seen on my husbands. It wounded me in a way I have never forgotten.” “After this he just took off and disappeared. I was desperately afraid that he thought I had rejected him or something similar. None of us knew where he had gone.” She lamented. “It took us a week of dedicated searching by just about every family member and a lot of our friends before we found his trail. After that it was another few days before we had pinpointed where he actually was.” “When his campsite was finally identified he still wouldn’t talk to any of us about this. His Grandfather, Father and Jimmy all had to basically force their way in and pin him down and talk to him about what he was seeing and why they believed it was happening.” “It took almost another week to convince him to come back home. Then several more days before he would even leave his room. Not even Emma was having a great deal of success in reaching him about this.” “I think it was finally his Grandmother and Great Grandmother who were the ones that eventually got through to him.” “Together they are a force to be reckoned with, even so it took all of their skill to be able to handle our little Dave. I’m sure that is a big part of the reason why he is so close to his Grandmother and Great Grandmother.” She said with a small smile. “How old was Dave when that happened?” I asked. “It was just after he had done Nippers for the first time. So he would have been 6 years old.” She answered. “I zink zat would ‘ave been difficult for anyone to deal wiz, at any age.” Gabrielle said looking out the window at Dave with a very tender expression on her face. “Yes Gabrielle. You are very correct in that” Sandra replied with a smile, “Jimmy also had trouble with it as well. Dave’s reaction was much stronger though, we are still not sure as to the reason why.” “To this day he still has great difficulty with certain types of comments when they are directed at him. As they bring to mind what he saw that day.” “His Grandmother and Great Grandmother are the undisputed masters of slipping in comments about him into conversation so as to get him more used to them.” “However I don’t think even they, would have been able to get away with the comment that Gabrielle used earlier.” Sandra said with a sly little smile directed at her. “I’m not sure if you noticed or not, but he didn’t even flinch when you said he had a cute face.” Sandra remarked still smiling at a now blushing Gabrielle. “She might have missed it, but we didn’t.” Andrea said with Fireball and Cassy agreeing with her. They were also smiling at Gabrielle who was still blushing. “I thought my heart was going to skip a beat while I waiting to see what he would do.” “I think that perhaps it wasn’t only Dave being eloquent when giving opinions of what he saw in your conversation yesterday.” Sandra said with a knowing smile at Gabrielle, who was now in a blush that would have done a Weasley proud. “Do not worry Gabrielle, I’m not going to ask you to repeat what you said to him. But I will thank you for it. It seems to have given him a degree of confidence that wasn’t there before. For that I’m extremely grateful to you.” Sandra said as she regarded Gabrielle very approvingly. “I think you have been able to give him a good deal of confidence in himself recently.” “Especially if he gave you what I think he did just now.” She enquired of Gabrielle. Poor Gabrielle was already blushing rather hard and this new observation brought the full focus of the rest of the ladies there. She was staring very intently at her teacup in her hands. Eventually she raised her gaze and looked at Sandra and asked, “How did you know?” “A mother knows these things about her children.” Sandra replied cryptically, “Besides, I helped my mother-in-law create the invitations.” She said with a wink. “Invitations?” Just about everyone seemed to ask at the same time. “Yes invitations. I suppose Ivan will be giving them out at dinner. But Dave was most insistent about getting one earlier.” She said with a smirk. “He wished to invite a certain person to the event in question and was desperately worried that someone else might ask her before he could.” She said with her smile on full display. Gabrielle for her part was also smiling broadly at this news. “I take it from your smile that he has indeed asked you to the event.” Sandra enquired with an arched eyebrow and a smile. “Oui.” Gabrielle replied with a shy little smile. “And?” Fleur almost demanded. “I accepted.” Gabrielle said almost loftily. “We gathered that much.” Fireball remarked, “What did the great oaf say?” she said trying to contain her smile. At this Gabrielle began to giggle at the memory. This only served to irritate both her sister and Dave’s. This could have been part of her plan, who knows. “Gabrielle?” Her mother asked her. “I will not say ez exact words, but ee was very sweet. ‘e was most worried zat I wouldn’t want to go on such a formal date wiz ‘im.” She said smiling. “I was a little surprised, but very pleased wiz ze invitation. And I think ‘e took zis to be hesitation on my part. As while ‘e waited for my answer ‘e was adorable as ‘e was so nervous. Zose eyes of ‘is can be so expressive at times.” “When I realised zat he thought my surprise was hesitation, I quickly told ‘im zat I would be very pleased and ‘onoured to accept ‘is most wonderful invitation.” “Ze smile on ‘is face was magnifique. It warmed my ‘eart.” She said also smiling. “When we are in Paris tomorrow he wants to get me somezing special for ze party. So zat we will complement each ozer” She said with a huge smile. Fleur and Madame Delacour seemed very excited by this turn of events. The other girls also seemed to be quite interested as well. “Was the invitation to his Grandmother’s 90th Birthday party?” Ginny asked Gabrielle. “Oui” She said still smiling. “What sort of party is it going to be?” Ginny enquired with her eyes lighting up. “A formal BBQ” Sandra replied with a grin. “BBQ?” Ginny asked a little confused. “It’s short for barbecue.” She clarified, “It’s a muggle style of cooking of which my mother-in-law is very fond. Most likely due to all the camping trips she and her husband went on over the years.” “A friend of hers runs a catering company and they do the most wonderful barbecues and spit roasts. She has used them for many family parties over the years.” The girls (and I) were eager for more details so we prodded her to supply them. “With her place being further north than ours it is much warmer all year round, so her parties are often done outdoors. As her place is close to the beach like ours and surrounded by native bush, especially the frangipani trees, it just all adds to the magic of it.” She was smiling as she said this. Clearly these parties were something special to her. “As this year’s party is going to be more formal than usual she has also organised, a marquee a dance floor as well as a band.” Sandra gave Gabrielle a sly little smile and added, “Maybe we will get to see the results of your dance classes with Dave?” she said with a chuckle at Gabrielle’s reaction. “The dress code indicated on the invitations isn’t ‘overly formal’ as in ball gowns or anything. But it is more along the line of what you would wear to a wedding or something similar.” “Just make sure you have some shoes that are easy to get on and off. As walking along the beach under the moonlight in bare feet is kind of magical also.” She said with a faraway smile. “I take it you have done that with Ivan a time or two?” I asked her with a knowing smile myself. “You could say that.” She said with a naughty little smile, “I mean the sand dunes are just so comfortable and offer all sorts of opportunities.” She said with only a small trace of a blush. “Don’t go giving the kids too many ideas now.” I told her, but I couldn’t hide my own smile at the thought. The other ladies also had smiles of their own at their own thoughts. “She is also planning a big fireworks display as she absolutely adores fireworks. Watching them go off over the water is always so wonderful.” Sandra replied happily. “So girls do please try to act surprised when Ivan gives out your invitations later on.” She requested us. We all indicated that we would indeed do our best to act surprised. “I know that he is hoping to surprise everyone here with them. His Mother and Grandmother are also very keen to meet you all as well.” Sandra said smiling at me and with a quick glance to Gabrielle as well. “It promises to be a special event and I’m very confident that you will all enjoy it.” She said happily. We were all in agreement with her. “Now Fleur, I’m sorry that I got side tracked there again. But I hope that I also answered your question as well?” Sandra asked. “It is a kind of a very fine distinction being drawn but it does make a great deal of difference in practise. I know that even now, if I make a comment without thinking to my husband I can still see a flicker of those thoughts go across his eyes.” “But framing those sort of comments as though they are from someone he accepts doesn’t cause those sorts of thoughts to surface at all.” She explained. “Oui, you did. It has made things quite a lot clearer.” Fleur replied. “How do you know if you are someone that he accepts?” Hermione asked. “I think it is very safe to say that you all here have been accepted by both of my boys.” Sandra replied, “Some more so than others.” She said with a cheeky grin at Gabrielle who happily returned it. “Yeah after de-briefing Dave” Fireball said to general laughter, “I think he is a lot more relaxed around everyone here.” “Very true. In some ways that was a very beneficial session for him.” Sandra said smiling at some of the reactions around the table. “Beneficial for who?” Came Ron’s voice from the door as the boys started to arrive back into the kitchen. “We were just discussing the earlier ‘de-briefing’ of Dave and how it seems to have helped him relax a bit more around everyone here.” Sandra replied. We all took this as the que not to mention the earlier discussion just yet. “He seemed at ease to me.” Harry replied, “But why is he behaving so oddly towards me at times?” He asked Sandra. Sandra turned to face Harry and simply stared at him for a few moments before answering. “I believe his behaviour towards you Harry is driven by a desire to ‘invite you in’ as they say. I’m willing to bet that he wants to know more about you.” She remarked. “One thing to keep in mind about Australians Harry is that they don’t put much store in formality. In fact if you find yourself being addressed formally it is usually an indication of trouble. Unless you’re meeting someone for the first time.” She explained with a smile. “Ask Ginny here about how Dave addressed her during their first meeting, before the reset.” She offered. Harry turned to Ginny with the question clear in his expression. “Aunty Sandra is right.” Ginny replied and I could see Sandra smile at the comment. I suspect though that her smile was more from the title used rather than from Ginny agreeing with her. “When we first met I was rather annoyed at him and a little rude as well.” “Only a little?” Ron asked, “You basically said he should have murdered those supporters of Riddle rather than capture them.” He exclaimed. Ginny gave him a fairly dirty look and then turned back to Harry with a slightly embarrassed smile on her face. “Like I said I was a little rude. In turn he was very correct and polite if a little blunt in his comments to me. He also always addressed me as ‘Miss Weasley’.” “While he called mum and dad Mr and Mrs Weasley there was a warmth in the way he said it. When he addressed me there was nothing but correctness. Thinking back on it, it made me nervous.” She explained. “I know it had me worried.” I said with a little smile, “After you two had your ‘chat’ and reset the introduction and he called you Ginny for the first time I was so relieved.” “I think we all were.” Arthur offered. There were some murmurs of agreement at that statement as well. Harry glanced around the room at those who had spoken. He then returned his gaze to Sandra. “Do you see what I’m saying Harry? These little comments he is directing to you are offers of informality.” Sandra explained, “Another way to interpret them is like this. He offering to lower his guard with you, in order to have a real conversation. He is looking for a reply from you, to see if you are prepared to do the same.” “I can see he is keen to talk to you about a great many things. But he also doesn’t want to force you into the conversation. He is giving you a ‘graceful way out’ as they say.” She said with a smile at Harry. “You represent something of an enigma to him Harry. He lives everyday with the consequences of actions that happened long before he was born. While he knows the story of what happened, he like the rest of us are still looking for the why.” “Knowing how Dave thinks, he will be wanting to come to understand you better in order to try and understand your family better. As the story of the ‘what’ that he knows, is not aligning with the facts that he ‘sees’ before him when he looks at you.” “That sort of disconnect indicates that something significant had to have happened to cause it. Dave isn’t the sort to walk away from that sort of puzzle.” She explained. “So he isn’t making fun of me then?” Harry asked. “He is.” Sandra answered, “But not in a derogatory way. He is doing it just like he would to a family member.” “A family member?” Harry asked with a strange look in his eyes. “Yes Harry. Remember, he can see the bonds that exist between you and Ginny here. He obviously considers it a matter of WHEN not IF, you will be part of his larger family tree through his cousin Ginny.” Sandra explained. This comment of course caused a big blush on Ginny along with a large smile. Harry for his part was also smiling as were all of my family. When the two of them looked at each other, even I could almost see the sparks flying between them. “How do I accept his invitation?” Harry asked Sandra. “Simply reply in kind when he next offers. Or if you are really game make a practical joke.” Sandra said with a smile. “I might be able to help you there Harry.” George said with his eyes alight with mischief. Harry simply grinned back at George, with his own eyes alight as well. “This could get interesting.” Fireball remarked to Sandra with her own grin on display. “Should we start to take bets on the outcome of that little encounter?” She asked hopefully. “No I think we should allow them this one as a training exercise.” Sandra said with a cheeky smile. George however seemed to take it as a challenge and he looked like he was indeed looking forward to it. It was at this point I noticed Dave stand up out in the yard. “Has he finished?” I asked Sandra. “I do believe the first part is finished.” Ivan said after looking out into the yard, “Now is the time for everyone to join in the ‘fun’ and get dirty.” He said with a smile. We all had questioning looks on our faces, but Ivan only smiled at our confusion and headed out into the yard. |
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