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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: 123098; Chapter Total: 4827 Author's Notes: Boris, Natasha, and Rocky the Flying Squirrel are Hanna Barbara characters, Barbie dolls are from Mattel. The Red Cadillac Convertible is out of my childhood, although it was a 1960 and not a 1959. A grandson complained about our ‘girly’ pink car seat, and I thank him for the inspiration. |
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Harry, Ginny and Teddy left for San Francisco Friday January 2, 2004, and tried to get settled Saturday and Sunday January 3 and 4. Classes started for Harry, Ginny and Teddy Monday January 5. Harry and Ginny had documents showing that they were the legal guardians of ‘Theodore Lupin,’ something they needed to take care of Teddy in North America. As long as he was a minor the Potters stayed Teddy’s legal guardians. Harry and Ginny thought they would be able to blend in and not be noticed in San Francisco. That proved to be impossible. ‘Western Witches Weekly’ had a photograph of the Potters and Teddy on the cover of their last issue in December, and from then on there was not an issue without at least one article on the Potters. Many of the articles commented on how much weight Ginny had gained since leaving the Harpies, and speculated that she was probably pregnant or would soon be pregnant. ‘Snide,’ a very low class magazine, wrote articles about the Potters every week. Ginny saw a few, and she said to Harry, “I never thought anything could be worse than Rita’s writing, but I was wrong.” Of course ‘Witches Rumors’ made sure to have sources in San Francisco, so they kept up their occasionally truthful but always exciting coverage of the Potters. The Daily Prophet, in contrast, only had a Potter article once a week. And the biggest North American paper, the New York based Magical Times, followed suite with articles only once a week or so, usually with a headline on the second front page. Harry was taking two classes. One was on “Using Magic and Muggle Technology Together”. Much of the course was directly applicable to Law Enforcement, but many other areas were covered. The other course was on “Maintaining Secrecy from Sophisticated Muggle Technology”. This course was critical for Harry, partly because England was installing an expanding network of video monitoring cameras. Most of the students were the same in both classes, but there were some students taking only one of the classes’ The students had to introduce themselves in each of the classes. Harry introduced himself as “an Auror from Great Britain.” In the first class over half the class had heard about Harry and his coming to San Francisco. One of the students asked Harry, “Are you the wizard who brought down the notorious Lord Voldemort?” Harry replied, “His name was Tom Riddle, and although I was the one to duel him in the end, a lot of other people contributed to his downfall.” Another student said, “You are also the Regent in Switzerland. That sort of makes you something like the king of the wizards, doesn’t it?” Harry answered, “Not exactly. My heir, whoever he is, may be more like king or chief wizard, but I’m just a figurehead, as far as I can tell.” Harry was aware that he had more influence than he was admitting to. Everybody knew who Harry was immediately. Harry tried hard to learn the names and something about each of his classmates. Many were from Magical Law Enforcement Departments, most of the students were a decade or more older than Harry. Harry had Dobedo’s help with names; house elves have a fantastic memory for people. House elves also have many more ways of describing how people are related to their master, something very helpful for Harry. Two of the younger non-Law Enforcement students stood out in the class on “Using Magic and Muggle Technology Together”. The first student introduced herself after the first class, and wanted to talk about the metalworking business that Dudley and Bill Weasley were running. Her name was Belinda Shashaguay, and her family was in the metalworking business on the US West Coast, mostly making very tiny parts for the computer and high technology industries. Robrecht VanDer Raaltee was an expert in making Muggle Cellular Telephone networks work in magical spaces. His family, based in the Netherlands, had made a name for themselves, by creating electronic networks in Magical spaces that had been hostile to anything electrical or electronic. Harry’s classes were excellent, and very relevant to his work as an Auror and to some of the issues that he was dealing with in the Wizengamot and the International Council of Witches and Wizards. Ginny found that she was very busy, and pulled in more directions than she had ever been. She needed to spend about half of her day with Teddy, or at least working with the (mostly) witches who were teaching the younger children. She also found that Harry’s schedule was demanding, and although he wanted to help with Teddy he was not the primary caregiver. Her classes were not near as demanding as Harry’s, but they took all the spare time she had and more. Cooking and cleaning was easier by far with magic. She felt that her mother would be very disappointed, but she depended on more Mc Wizard meals than she felt good about, almost every lunch instead of an occasional treat. School was also harder. Ginny was not sure if it was because her memory wasn’t quite as good, or that she was worried about Teddy and Harry and keeping them fed and taking care of the house. It seemed that everything was changing in her world. “Mummy Ginny, Mummy Ginny, we going to school?” Teddy would ask almost every morning. `` “Monday through Friday morning we go to school,” Ginny replied the first week of school. “Do you have school today?” Teddy would ask. “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday” Ginny would reply. “What day is today?” “Dunno? What day?” Teddy said the first Wednesday. He had never had to pay attention to which day of the week it was before this. “Yesterday was Tuesday,” Ginny prompted, “So today is?” “Threesday?” asked Teddy. “Say your days of the week for me, Teddy,” Ginny told the little boy. Teddy thought hard, then asked, “Monday, Tuesday, Threesday, Foursday, Fi-day, Saturday, Sunday?” “Close,” Ginny replied, laughing. “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.” “I’ll never learn all those days, Mum. That’s a lot of days!” Teddy complained. “You can count way past a thousand,” Ginny reassured Teddy. “You are a very smart boy. You will learn all the days of the week real quickly.” Teddy looked a little skeptical. “I dunno know, mum Ginny. Saturday and Sunday are different. Monday school starts. Fi-day is the end. All those other days just sort of … I don’t know if I can learn all them.” “Sure you will, Ted,” Ginny reassured the little boy. “Say them with me, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.” Teddy repeated the days of the week with Ginny for the rest of the walk to school, and by the end of the first week he knew all his days of the week. “Harry,” Ginny said one night, “How can one little five year old boy take all your time? “I’ve seen you do your homework and cook and do laundry while talking to Teddy,” Harry replied. “I can cook and clean while talking to Ted, but I don’t get much homework done when we are talking,” Ginny said. “You do have to listen to him, try to figure out what he is saying,” agreed Harry. “Do you need more help? We can get another house elf over here.” “I kind of want to prove to myself, maybe to Mum too, that I can be a wife and mother without lots of house elf help,” Ginny said. “Everything is changing, though. I’m still gaining a little weight.” Harry smiled, almost a leer. “It’s going in nice places.” Ginny looked at her expanding bust and hips, not sure whether to be happy or upset. Well, so far she was not really that much bigger than when she was first married. She was only a few pounds heavier, and hopefully the weight gain would stop soon. Maybe she wasn’t buying the right kind of food. Thinking back she never before had to buy the food and plan the meals and make time for laundry. House elves did all that for her. How had her mother managed with all those children? Here she was just taking care of Harry and Teddy and going to school and she was just overwhelmed. Mitzi was a lot of help, but Mitzi had to stay close to her to keep her from falling, so it wasn’t anything like having a full time house elf helper. Ginny’s writing classes started the right away, and they were a challenge. “Those of you born and raised in almost all Magical families have a harder time understanding the Muggle world than those of you raised by parents who kept you in both worlds,” the writing teacher said. “What do you find most challenging?” When it was Ginny’s turn she said, “Muggle cartoons. Some of them are pretty easy, but some of them seem to refer to things that refer to things, and it’s really hard to follow.” “I have a good example of that,” the teacher said. “Look over these cartoons and write a paper explaining what you found most confusing. If you found out why, it would be good to add that in.” The teacher handed Ginny four CD’s of Rocky the Flying Squirrel. ‘Well,’ thought Ginny a couple of evenings later. ‘I’ve had enough Muggle fairy tales to get the Fractured Fairy Tale part of this series pretty easily. I just had to buy a book of popular fairy tales to understand the rest. Maybe Harry knows who Boris and Natasha are supposed to be.’ “Harry,” Ginny said, “Can you help me with my homework? Do you have any idea who these people are supposed to be?” Ginny put on a CD and played the skits about Boris and Natasha. Harry grinned and laughed. The first time Natasha said “dollink” Harry doubled over with laughter. When the brief episode was done Ginny looked at Harry and said, “What is so funny? Who are those people?” Harry had to catch his breath. Finally he said, “They are supposed to be Russian spies, not very good ones, and criminals but not very good at that either.” “I can see that they are not very competent,” a very puzzled Ginny said. “I suppose that’s funny, but not that funny. What am I missing?” “Remember that estate in Eastern Europe where I said everybody was cheating everybody, where Kreacher got so mad he was jumping up and down pointing his finger at a Goblin?” Harry asked. “Yes,” said Ginny. “What does that have to do with this?” “Bill had hired couple of Americans who knew business and Slavic languages, to manage and oversee some of the Eastern European properties. She is very tall and he is very short, and I think they changed their names to Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. Boris is way too smart and competent, hardly bad enough, and he is Boris mostly because of his size. Natasha is right on, however! I’m going to ask Bill if they are still working for me.” Ginny looked at Harry. “Boris Badenov, bad enough? Oh Harry, that’s an awful pun.” “And?” questioned Harry. “The whole series if full of awful puns,” Ginny mused. “They did that on purpose?” “Think Fred and George,” Harry replied. “I guess they did,” Ginny said. “That helps! I don’t have to worry about writing about something because it’s too obvious. Boris is bad enough, just not competent enough.” Harry and Ginny spent a couple more hours going over the Rocky the Flying Squirrel cartoons, analyzing the humor, finding the references that Harry got and Ginny did not. Ginny had more than enough for a couple of papers for her writing class. Harry wrote a brief e-mail to Bill asking about Boris and Natasha, and got this reply back. “Harry, they are still stationed in Eastern Europe. They came back to the West Coast, to California, for some of months study, and to take a break. I should have told you, but Boris is studying in San Francisco right now. I’ll have them get in touch with you.” ‘I am very curious how Ginny is going to react to Natasha,’ thought Harry. Friday Harry received a phone call from Natasha. “Dollink” she said in that horrible Russian accent, and then in her best West Coast American “We’d love to come over tomorrow. Give Ginny a ride in the car. The offer is still open.” “My five year old godson is staying with us,” Harry said. “I’ll make sure we have a child seat in the car,” Natasha said cheerily. “I’ll even watch the little bugger if you want to use the back seat!” Harry thought, ‘this may be like playing with dynamite. It’s either going to be very good or very bad.’ “Ginny,” Harry called. “Remember when I told you about Boris and Natasha? They are here in San Francisco, and would like to meet with us tomorrow. Would that be all right with you?” “How about nine in the morning?” asked Ginny. Harry gave Natasha a call and arraigned for them to drive over to the apartment building where Harry and Ginny were staying. The day was cool but not below freezing. Being San Francisco the fog was just beginning to burn off. Harry had a heavy coat on, and Ginny was warmly bundled up and had bundled up Teddy as well. Harry, Ginny and Teddy were waiting outside when the 1959 Candy Apple Red Cadillac convertible with the huge tail fins came driving up. Boris was sitting in the driver’s seat, wearing a hat that looked like it had been lifted from the cartoon, with a pencil thin moustache that was a very good imitation of the one on Boris Badenov. Natasha got out of the car. Harry could not believe it. Natasha was obviously very pregnant, but instead of a maternity dress she had on one of the typical Natasha type dresses with a bump in front that could have been drawn by a cartoon artist. “Harry dollink,” Natasha said in an expansive manner imitating the cartoon in an obvious parody. “Ginny dollink, Teddy dollink.” Ginny started to laugh. Ginny was laughing so hard that what little balance she had was going, so Harry rushed over to help Mitzi support her. Teddy was staring at everybody, not at all sure what was going on. In an American West Coast accent Natasha said, “Teddy, is this a little confusing?” Teddy nodded yes. “We are playing, just a moment.” Natasha asked Ginny, “Has Teddy seen the cartoons?” “Yes,” Ginny answered. “You’re Boris and Natasha from the cartoons?” Teddy asked, his eyes wide open in amazement. “Sort of,” Natasha said. “We are pretending to be them.” “Ginny, do you want to sit up with Boris or in back with me?” Natasha asked. “We are going to put Teddy in the middle.” “I’d rather sit in back and talk to you,” Ginny said. “We can put Teddy between us.” Ginny turned to Mitzi and said, “I have plenty of help here, Mitzi. Why don’t you take a rest.” Mitzi looked suspiciously at Ginny, but went back into the apartment building. Natasha let Teddy climb into the car, and Ginny followed. Right in the middle of the large back seat was a raised child seat with pink flowering fabric on it. Ginny sat down on one side of the seat and got ready to put her seat belt on, and Natasha entered the car from the other side. Teddy was standing on the hump in the middle of the floor, looking at the car seat with some distain. “You need to sit in the car seat so we can put your seat belt on,” Natasha said. Teddy touched the pink fabric, looked up at Natasha, and said, “It’s kind of girly.” “I’m sure sitting on pink fabric is not going to contaminate your bottom,” Ginny said. “Can you change it to look like a GUY seat?” Teddy asked. Boris, Harry and Natasha were all trying to keep from laughing. Ginny said, “I will transfigure it to blue flowers, Teddy. Is that all right?” Teddy sighed in resignation. “I guess it’s all right. Blue flowers are not QUITE as GIRLY as pink flowers.” Ginny said, “Not quite so girly?”“ Teddy just looked at the seat suspiciously. After they got in the car Boris put the top down and said some charms. “The Heat from the car is also by magic. It’s sort of like being outside without this blasted damp cold.” “What else can this car do?” asked Harry. “Made baby in car, dollink!” said Natasha. “Back seat ideal for …” Natasha didn’t say anything else, with a nod towards Teddy, but the looks she and Boris exchanged told the rest of the story. “When are you due?” asked Ginny, and Ginny and Natasha talked, played with Teddy and, to Harry’s relief, they seemed to bond right away. They drove around the San Francisco Bay area for some time, and while they were driving and sightseeing Natasha was busy making friends with Teddy. Finally Natasha asked Teddy, “Would you like to spend the night with us so your mother and father could have a night to themselves?” “Do I have to sleep in a girly bed?” asked Teddy. “What’s a girly bed?” Natasha asked. “Victoire, she is sort of a cousin, except I’m a Lupin, not a Weasley, so she isn’t really a cousin. Victoire has a girly bedroom. It has flowers and lace and a HUGE closet for clothes, and her own room with a loo and a big, HUGE tub, and she takes bubble baths in it and comes out smelling like flowers and like a GIRL. I like that, except she wants me to sleep with her in her bed with a can o peas on top. “Victoire really is sort of my best friend, but she is a GIRL and I am a BOY and I’m not sure about taking bubble baths with her. I don’t want to smell like a GIRL. I don’t want to sleep in a girly bed and with a girl.” Natasha reassured Teddy. “We have a guest bedroom with a real big person bed in it, and it is not at all girly. If we give you a bath we will not use bubble bath, and you will not come out smelling like a girl. I married a guy, and I like him being a guy.” “Could I, Mum?” Teddy asked. Ginny thought. She really could use an evening away from Teddy. “Let’s go back to the apartment, and get some night clothes and another change of clothes for Teddy.” Natasha reassured Ginny that they had a bed for Teddy to sleep in and could take care of a little boy, and Teddy seemed excited to be going on another adventure. The red Cadillac had been followed by two Aurors riding big Honda Gold Wing Motorcycles. Harry spoke to one of the Aurors, and they assured Harry that they would keep a good watch over then but allow Harry and Ginny privacy when they wanted it. The Motorcycles and Auror uniforms were a Magical Gray color that made it hard for Muggles to see and even harder for Muggles to remember. After they left Teddy with Boris and Natasha Harry drove up to the Redwood Forests a couple of hours north of San Francisco. The couple had a nice meal at a restaurant, and then drove to a rest area high up the mountains. There was a magical road that they could take, that led further out into the forest and away from the rest area. When they got to the end of the road they were alone in the middle of a meadow. They made the car invisible, and then turned the backseat into a bed. Maybe it was the spells on the bed, but they made love four times before getting going the next morning. After the last time Ginny said to Harry, “I promise you I didn’t use the Touch-of-Lust spell! Harry said, “There are some sort of spells on the back seat of this car.” Harry looked again at the instructions on how to change the bed back to a car seat. Harry and Ginny used the loo at the rest area, ate breakfast and lunch at restaurants on the road, and about one in the afternoon picked up Teddy. Ginny wondered if Natasha had gotten pregnant in the back seat of the car. Well, she had not really had what she considered a good period, so at least she wouldn’t get pregnant in the back of that car. |
| Reviews 59 |
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