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Birth of the Potter Children | ||||||
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Category: Post-DH/AB Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Nymphadora Tonks, Ron Weasley Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama, General, Romance Warnings: Death, Intimate Sexual Situations, Violence Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 59 Summary: Third in the Almost Happily Ever After series, starting at the end of the hunt for the remaining supporters of Tom Riddle and the end of Ginny's Quidditch career. Hitcount: Story Total: 123106; Chapter Total: 4300 Author's Notes: A year and a half in this chapter. |
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The fall of 2006 was a busy one for Ginny, with two children to take care of. With the help of her family she did keep up with her Quidditch reporting, with two columns and a report on the weekend games during the Quidditch season, and one column a week after the season was over. Ginny had kept working with Donna Lionheart on the columns. Every week she would spend some time with her talking about Quidditch, asking Donna’s advice about some article she was writing. Donna was not much of a writer, but her memory of what had happened during any particular Quidditch game was better than Ginny’s. Ginny was still having a little problem with her memory. The two families usually got together two or three days before Christmas, because Harry worked Christmas Eve, and they got together Christmas 2006 as usual. Tabitha was twelve, Erica two and a half, and William Jr. was just two months old. Ginny looked at Donna nursing her second child, Albus at her breast, and though how different their lives where than when they were playing together for the Harpies. Harry had been an Auror since the fall after the Battle of Hogwarts. She had been a student, then a full time Quidditch player with hardly enough time to be a wife, seldom home, and working even harder than Harry. Then when she got injured she had to suddenly switch to the wife staying home person, and then a mother to Teddy, and then to James and Albus. Christmas Eve the Potters went to Church again. Harry and Ginny had two little children, James at just over a year and Albus, three and a half months. By this time Rose was a year old, and with Jean Granger there were two small families with four people each, Christmas Eve being one of the few times Ron accompanied Hermione and his mother-in-law to church. Harry and Ginny thought that Christmas’s and summers around the pond were always major markers for how big the children were getting, Christmas because of the presents, summer because you could see the differences in the way the children played. Teddy was eight and a half. He was growing up to be as nice a young boy as you could hope for. Harry and Ginny were both shocked when someone mentioned that Teddy was going to be going to Hogwarts in two and a half years! There were going to be quite a number of years where either a Weasley or a Potter was going to be at Hogwarts, but that was a few years away. Fred, at seven and a half, was more under control, although that was relative. Little Molly, at six and a half, was more confident than she was a five and a half, smart and nice. Victoire at six and a half was just a year older version of the five and a half year old Victoire. Roxanne at five and a half was less in the shadow of her older brother. Lucy at five was just much more grown up, and as a pair Molly and Lucy were more confident in their interactions with their wilder and more energetic cousins. Dominique at four was all girl, not quite as outgoing as Victoire, but fully able to keep up with the cousins. Dominique looked like her mother, with just a little bit of Bill in the facial structure, hair, just a touch darker, eyes not such a light blue. Victoire’s reddish hair had continued to get darker, although there was still quite a bit of a darker blond in it, and her blue eyes reminded you of Bill’s. Victoire showed a little of the Veela influence, but obviously looked like Grandma Molly’s granddaughter. Dominique was already a thinner version of Victoire. Louis was obviously Bill and Fleur’s son, beautiful blond red hair, and a face that, like the hair, was a beautiful blend of his mother and father. Louis at two and a half wanted to be a boy like Teddy and Fred, but he was just too young. He ended up spending a lot of time with his father, and occasionally Bill would take him to work, where he had a little desk where he drew and looked at pictures. Louis also spent a lot of time playing with James, who was also almost two and a half. James was definitely one of the more energetic of the grandchildren, occasionally too wild for Louis. Because James was born in October and Louis was born in August Louis was going to be at Hogwarts a year before James, but they were almost the same age. Rose was a year old, a very bright toddler. She was ahead of her age in talking, although not at walking. She received a broom for Christmas, and flew it a little, but really did not take to it. Hermione had never really gotten the hang of flying. She could sort of do it, but she did not like to and had never practiced enough to get even moderately competent, and it sure looked like Rose could be the same way. Albus seemed to be a very inquisitive baby, not quite a toddler yet, active but not wild, not speaking much, but interested in everybody and everything. Harry was taking having two children in stride, but of course he was not the one who was with small children all the time. Ginny was very grateful that her parents or sister-in-laws would there watch the children, or even just watch James, so she could get things done. It was only because of the babysitters that she could write her Daily Prophet articles. The beginning of 2007 Harry and Ginny took their usual vacation to the Caribbean, again to another island where Harry could do some mapping. As before there was quite an entourage, with families getting larger. Dan VanLente spent most of the week with his family at the same resort. Dan told Harry more stories about the Bermuda Triangle, old and new stories about a hidden island and very wicked things going on around these islands. Ginny always enjoyed the beach and the relaxed atmosphere. Young Bill VanLente was eighteen and in college in San Francisco. He brought along a girl friend, and she was delighted to help take care of the babies and show Bill how domestic she could be. Bill was eager to show that he could be a good father. Harry and Ginny enjoyed watching the young couple, as did Dan and Willimena, and James just enjoyed being the center of attention. Albus never warmed up to new people quite as quickly as did James, but by the end of the week even he was eager for the extra personal attention. The end of January Albus discovered a new trick. He was given O’s cereal, but his hands were not quite coordinated enough to pick them up. He started to see if he could levitate them. He could, but then getting them into his mouth was difficult. Al could get a whole bowl of cereal all over the kitchen without getting more than two or three of the O’s in his mouth. This did not seem to be too much of a problem for Al; he enjoyed seeing the O’s fly. Ginny ended up finding a spell that could corral the wayward O’s and deposit them back in the bowl, giving Al even more O’s to practice with. It took Al a month, but eventually he could eat a whole bowl of O’s by levitating them one at a time into his mouth. It took a while, but Al was very content to get most of his nourishment at Ginny’s breast and just eat a little cereal from time to time. Once Al discovered he could levitate things he really started to work at it. The heavier something was the harder it was, but Ginny quickly learned that she had better place weights or charms on any piece of paper she did not want Al to levitate somewhere where she could not find it. This was something James could not do; it was very unusual to develop such a skill so early, and James was not amused. Ginny and Harry could already see that James liked being the center of attention, and became jealous when people were paying attention to Al and not to him. The first of February Bill came to Harry with a problem. “We want to hide Fourteen Grimmauld Place, because it has been remodeled to have shorter floors and be quite obviously a house for elves. At the same time we want to make your house visible and at least public enough that there is a Muggle address for you. Your house will still be very well protected. “The problem is that your house has never existed in Muggle records.” Harry answered, “Change our address to Thirteen Grimmauld Place, and Ron and Hermione’s to Fourteen Grimmauld Place.” “We cannot do that,” Bill said. “Some of the magic connected to the house is tied to it being ‘Twelve Grimmauld Place.’ We are going to formally change Muggle records, but it is going to be an expensive and messy business.” When everything was done Twelve Grimmauld Place was quite visible, but Muggles usually stayed away from the entire end of the block. The beginning of March Harry came home and Ginny had a letter. “A Mr. Larry Lau and his wife Laura, from China, want to test Albus, Harry. Their family has developed tests of magic for centuries, I guess. The Chinese have always had testing. They have a test of magic in a baby.” “Why do they want to test Albus?” Harry asked. “It has something to do with the prophets, I guess,” Ginny answered. “I don’t know if the prophets in Switzerland contacted them, or if it has something to do with prophets in China, or both, but Valerie sent a letter along with the letter from Larry and Laura.” Harry grumbled, and he and Ginny had quite a discussion. In the end they did allow Larry and Laura to come and test Albus, at Grimmauld Place, when James was at The New Burrow. The Potters did not want James to see someone giving Albus special attention. The first tests seemed to involve some general observations, and examining Albus with their wands. Then they brought out a device with a couple of balls behind glass. Laura asked Albus, “Albus, can you move this ball from here,” pointing to one side of the instrument, “up and over to here?” Albus looked, and moved the lighter of the balls from the one side to the other, by levitating it. “Excellent, Albus,” Laura said. “Now can you move this heavier ball over?” Albus promptly moved the heavier ball over. The instrument became more and more of a maze, with Albus moving the balls reasonably quickly each time. Finally there was one last maze, and at the end a passageway that was too small. “Is there any way you can force this ball through this passageway?” Laura asked. Albus focused, and concentrated. Finally the barrier moved and the ball moved through. “Did!” Albus said. “Hoo…ray!” “How hard was that?” a shocked Laura said. Albus scowled. “H…hard.” After a couple of additional tests they were through. Ginny said, “Albus, would you like to go over to see Rose and her grandmother?” “Rose,” Albus said, as Ginny took him next door. Larry and Laura spent some time looking at results, and calculating. They kept shaking their heads. Finally Larry said, “When we developed these tests we tried to use a scale of zero to one-hundred, with almost all Muggles being something over zero, but usually under ten. Harry snorted, “I bet Vernon Dursley is about a minus ten.” Ginny laughed. “Most magical babies test in the forty to sixty range. We have had a few babies test in the ninety to ninety-five range. “We have been trying to make sense of Albus’s scores. They just don’t make any sense. He did things we put in to challenge young adults. The numbers are either in the hundreds, or the calculations do not make sense.” “So what do we do?” asked Harry. “Keep on doing whatever you are doing,” Laura said. The end of March Albus discovered levitating liquids. This was a disaster. There was no way Al could contain the liquids and make them behave, and it always ended up in a huge wet mess. It took about a month of telling Al “No” whenever he tried it, with James very eager to tell his younger brother “No” as well, before Al started to learn not to try and levitate liquids. Al always looked so sorry whenever he was corrected. Ginny would tell Harry, “Al seems to be trying to figure out the way the world works, like he really cares, but some things are hard for his little mind to figure out.” James liked it when he was read to, but usually only had patience for two short books or one longer one. Al at less than a year old was much more patient. Jean Granger found out when Al was about nine months old and hardly walking that he would crawl or toddle over to her if she was reading to Rose, and he wanted to be read to as well. Rose would occasionally take out one of the picture books or simple alphabet books she knew by heart and “read” them to Al, and he was amazingly patient listening to her and looking at the books. Rose at a year and a half already knew much of the alphabet and could read simple words. Her grandmother Jean was doing the same thing to her granddaughter that she had done years earlier to her daughter, and Rose was as willing a student as Hermione. What was amazing was the Al seemed to be as patient and willing to learn. Al ended up spending more time with Jean and Rose than anyone had anticipated. The other surprise was that Al and Rose spent some time almost every day with Martin, sometimes an hour or two up in the elves quarters where they were learning elfish, sometimes downstairs at the Weasley’s where Martin was learning English and his English letters. Eventually Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione learned that Martin’s full name was Martin Luther King P/W, the P/W always used as a last name to indicate that they were part of the ever expanding group of Potter/Weasley elves. Since Albus and Rose were spending time every day with Martin and his parents, Harry and Ginny also were learning how Kevin was doing. Kreacher’s little son was still alive, but not doing well. He and his mother seldom left the rooms above the Grimmauld Place attics. In May both Fourteen and Fifteen Grimmauld Place were done. Kreacher had a small suite of offices on the first floor, sized so a full size witch or wizard could enter and talk to someone although with seven foot ceilings so full size people always felt a little uncomfortable. There was a large meeting room on the first floor, which Harriet Tubman P/W had named ‘The Drinking Gourd.” The upstairs floors had five foot ceilings, and you could pack a lot of elves in Fourteen Grimmauld Place. The back yard was all garden, with a play area for the elf children below. Fifteen Grimmauld was laid out totally differently than the rest of the houses. The ground floor level had a garage covering the entire back half of the property and from the garage there were a couple of big doors that led to a work area or basement. Harry thought you could put a modest sized machine shop there, and there were some indications that something like that was what Dudley and Belinda had in mind. There was a small office with desks for both Dudley and Belinda in the basement. The kitchen and a family eating area and sort of a family room were combined into one great room on the main floor. Outside of the kitchen, which was in the back, there was a garden area, with space for a small children’s play area when that was needed. The level above that had a formal living and dining room, and with magic the area was set up so it could be a large formal living room if Dudley had a big gathering over, or a smaller living and dining room if a smaller number of people were coming over for dinner. Above that were four bedrooms, a master bedroom, master bath, small bath small bedroom setup that was ideal for a nursery on one floor, then two bedrooms with a bath between on the next floor. The top floor was unfinished. As soon as it was done Dudley and Belinda moved into it. Dudley and Belinda wanted to start a family soon, but the inability to talk to Vernon about Belinda being a witch was still in the way of a magical wedding. Vernon had continued to gain weight, and as he got less and less healthy his temper was getting worse. Dudley thought that even his mother was having a hard time living with Vernon, although Petunia would never say anything. The end of May Gawain announced that he was going to retire the end of August, and over the summer he gradually turned over all the work he had been doing to Harry and Mary Lou, so by the first of July he was only in about half of the time, covering unusual things that he had forgotten to teach or giving some appreciated advise in a few matters. He announced that he was going to be on vacation for much of August before formally retiring the last day in August. Nothing striking unusual happened that summer until August when Albus turned one. Albus had been very reluctant to stop nursing, and was not taking to drinking out of a cup all that well. He had become, if not real talkative, very capable of expressing his own opinion. He was at the same time extremely eager to please and equally determined to get his own way in a few matters of great importance to him, a usually pleasant but at some times maddeningly frustrating child. August eight Harry and Ginny gave Albus his first broom, and announced to him like they had to James that he could fly the broom, he was a big boy now, but he was going to have to stop nursing. Albus refused to get on the broom, and announced “Mum’s milk” for all to hear. The rest of the day he refused to drink, pulling at Ginny’s bra with his levitating skills and getting more and more upset. By evening he was crying and when he was put down to bed he kept at Ginny’s breast with more and more insistence. Finally about 4:00 AM, exhausted, Ginny let Albus nurse, and for the next two days Albus eagerly got back to a nursing routine with Ginny. He would look at the broom and say, “No broom. Mum’s milk.” Ginny tried to spend more and more time away from Albus, but although he would take modest drinks from a cup from time to time he would stop drinking and wait for Ginny if she was away from him for too long. Meanwhile Albus was trying to be the nicest most cooperative baby he could be, learning more and more from Jean Granger and being among the easier babies the group at the New Burrow had ever taught. The end of August Harry and Ginny again looked at the group of children at the pond. Teddy was nine, Freddy eight, Molly and Victoire seven, Roxanne six, Lucy five and a half, Dominique four and a half, Louis three, James almost three, Rose one and a half, and Albus just one. Teddy, being the first “adopted” grandchild, plus 10 biological grandchildren, made Molly and Arthur extremely proud of their growing brood. James had been picking on Albus about only sliding down the little slides in the little children’s play area, and the very end of August Harry noticed that James and Albus were climbing up to the top of the play structure where the huge slide was. It took Albus a very long time to climb up, and Harry went over and sat at the bottom of the structure in case anything went wrong. When they got to the top James promptly slid down the slide, then motioned for Al to follow. Al just stayed at the top looking at the huge slide. Finally James got back up to the top, put Albus between his legs, and went out to the top of the slide. James pushed Albus away from himself and let Albus slide down the big slide all by himself. When he got down to the bottom Albus looked up at the slide in amazement, then toddled over to Ginny and wanted a long period of holding, ending with some nursing which always seemed to comfort him. About an hour later Albus was again at the top of the slide, this time all by himself. Harry and Ginny watched as Albus gingerly maneuvered himself to the top of the slide, sat at the top, and then went down again. Again he looked like he was terrified, and again he went to Ginny for some holding. Unlike James who at times seemed had no fear, Albus was very concerned with a lot of things. He seemed to have not so much the lack of fear that concerned Ginny about James, but the ability to conquer his fears, and to do what had to be done. The first of September, 2007, Harry Potter was formally named Head of the Auror department. He was twenty-six years old, the youngest Head Auror anyone could remember. He was also a prominent member of the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Witches and Wizards, and one of the area directors of the International Auror Association. He had managed to avoid becoming too involved in the African or Mid-Eastern problems, but his responsibility was mostly European including Eastern Europe and parts of Russia. He had some minor connection to the Caribbean, and somehow always felt that he was going to be more deeply involved with what was going on over there. Al and Dan VanLente did keep Harry apprised of any developments taking place over there. For the first time Harry had the freedom to build the Auror department the way he wanted to. One of the first things he wanted to do was find out how they could integrate Muggle and magic to produce a better Auror. He worked with Hermione and WWW, especially Angelina and Ron, who were very interested developing another line of products, to develop armor, combining Muggle bullet proof vest, with spells to deflect curses. They worked hard to develop a magical equivalent to the little radios that SWAT teams wore to keep in constant communication. The whole ministry was being computerized, with of course magical displays and magical ways to input data, and the Auror department was not being left behind once Harry became the Head of it. Harry and Hermione were also very instrumental in getting Arthur to modernize the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Arthur was delighted with all the new technology, although he was particularly incompetent in using it. The first part of September Albus was in the bathroom with James and noticed that James was going to the bathroom in a small potty chair. Ginny (or Harry when he had James) carried a very tiny potty chair in a purse or pocket that they enlarged when James needed to go to the bathroom. It had spells with it to automatically empty into the nearest conventional loo. James was telling Al how big boys do not wet their pants but go potty in the potty chair. Albus sat down by himself on the potty chair and did get a little urine out, and from then on he wanted to use the potty chair. Within a month he was dry all day and most nights, and the occasional accidents at night had ended within another couple of months. He was still nursing, however, which was driving Ginny crazy. By November Ginny had finally had it with nursing Albus. She told Harry that she needed to get away, and the first two weeks she managed to wean Albus by just letting him cry. He got dehydrated after the first forty-eight hours, but then started to drink, still trying to get Ginny to nurse him. Of course after almost two weeks Ginny’s milk had dried up, but Albus was still trying to get at her breasts. She finally told Harry, “I need to get away for a week so Albus knows that nursing is not going to start again.” Harry told Bill, and someone at the office found a cruise that was leaving in twenty four hours that would put Harry and Ginny out of touch for a full week. There was room on the cruise for two couples in adjoining bedrooms with separate bathrooms, but with a shared living room. It was expensive, but because it was available at the last minute it was less than half of the normal price. Ginny told Hermione about it, and Harry told Ron. Both couples were feeling a little burned out, and could free up the next week, so with only hours notice they packed up and went over to take the cruise. They got on the boat early in the morning having traveled overnight to where the boats were docked, put their clothes away, and went to one of the pools to swim and relax. They ate a fantastic lunch, and went back to take a brief nap. When both of the couples were up Hermione asked Ginny, “Do you have any birth control potion. I left mine at home.” Ginny said, “I got some just before the trip, because Albus has stopped nursing, but I must have left it at home.” Hermione said, “What are you going to do, Ginny?” Ginny said, “Maybe try for a girl this time. I’m not going to be like my mother, and I would probably be on birth control for a year before trying again, but getting pregnant again is no big deal.” Hermione said, “I know Ron would like another child, and Merlin knows Rose is easy enough, but I’m not sure.” Ginny said, “Be a little spontaneous.” Hermione answered back with some concern in her face, “About a baby? That’s not just a minor problem. A baby is forever.” “I’m going to enjoy having sex with my husband this week, no children, no worries, what happens, happens,” said Ginny. “What you do with my brother is up to you.” Hermione’s problem was that as worried as she was about getting pregnant, she was even more horny, really wanting a sex filled week with Ron. In the end the decision was made very quickly. Saturday night both couples were back in London. Rose stayed with Grandma Granger, but James and Albus were with their Weasley grandparents. When Harry and Ginny arrived at the New Burrow both James and Albus ran to greet their parents, James of course arriving first since he was the larger and by far the faster of the two boys. When Albus got to his parents he hugged Ginny and said, “Mum’s milk?” Ginny sat down and said to Albus, “There is no more Mum’s milk. It’s all gone.” Al had a look of sorrow with just a little apprehension on his face. “All gone?” he said. “Where go?” Ginny said, “Mummies only nurse babies. When babies grow up to be big boys and girls then mummies stop nursing them. I stopped nursing James long before you were born, because James was becoming a big boy.” “No Mum’s milk?” asked Albus again. “Albus is not a baby anymore,” said Ginny. Albus looked at himself. “Not a baby?” he said. “Not a baby. Albus is growing up,” said Ginny. “I like Albus growing up, learning to do new things, getting bigger.” “Not a baby. No Mum’s milk?” said Albus again. From the look on his face Ginny was glad Albus had not learned any swear words. Ginny turned to Harry and said, “Let’s take our two big boys home. Neither one is a baby any more.” “Al’s still little,” said James. “I’m bigger!” The next day before dinner Al brought out the broom he had been given for his birthday. Harry and James were down in the big room under Ron and Hermione’s house flying around, and Al asked Ginny “Broom?” Al said again, “Big boy?” while he showed her the broom. Ginny helped Al on the broom and helped him learn how to ride it. Al did not spend near as much time on the broom as James, but he did learn to ride his little broom reasonably well. Shortly before Christmas both Ginny and Hermione approached Fleur, and she said both of them were pregnant. “You always did like doing things together,” Fleur said. Hermione looked at Ginny and said, “We hardly did this together! We just happened to do it at about the same time.” Ginny said, “We both forgot our birth control potions. I don’t mind. I hope we have a girl this time.” Hermione said, “I hope I’m ready for another child.” Ginny said, “When shall we tell the family?” Hermione said, “How about Christmas?” The two women talked about how they were going to tell the family, letting Harry and Ron know that they had to keep the pregnancies a secret until they had revealed it. Finally they decided to give Molly a joint Christmas card with the announcement inside. “August of 2008 Ginny and Hermione will unveil their latest presents to Molly, two more grandchildren.” They gave the card to Molly, who looked at the envelope. It was the last present. “A card from both of you?” she asked. Hermione said, “You are going to have to be very patient waiting for these gifts.” Molly had a very confused look on her face, looked at the rather conventional card, and opened it up. She then looked at the two girls grinning at her. “Both of you?” she asked. “Well, we both forgot birth control potions when we went on the cruise, mum,” said Ginny. “Your son is way too sexy to resist,” said Hermione. “I can’t really say it was an accident. As hard as it was to get pregnant the first time, I sure didn’t have any problems this time.” “I think Harry and I will take a break after this one,” said Ginny. “I am going to end up with almost six years straight of being pregnant or nursing.” “I was not sure if I wanted a second” said Hermione. “This is the last grandchild you are going to get out of this daughter-in-law.” Molly gave Ginny and Hermione each big hugs. She looked around at the room, abuzz with the news that both Ginny and Hermione were pregnant. She finally went up to Arthur and gave him a big hug, looked around the room with all the children, their spouses, and of course Andromeda and Teddy and Jean Granger, who were always part of these gatherings. “I’ve always wanted a big family,” she announced, still holding tightly on to Arthur. “I don’t think I could be any happier.” |
| Reviews 59 |
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