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Author: Cygnus Crux Story: Harry Potter's Existence After Life Rating: Teens Setting: AU Status: Completed Reviews: 2 Words: 158,815
It had happened again; he had lost another one. Another Ranger had died because of him! After Skaras had broken free of his magical vortex, Wolfe had fared rather poorly in the fight. Not that he had expected to beat the ancient vampire. After all, Skaras could even survive in the sun for short periods of time. He'd managed to weaken the vampire, but his efforts hadn't been enough. He had resigned himself to death at that point. Skaras had been toying with him when Potter arrived on the scene. The kid had put a full body-bind on the vampire and fired numerous stakes into him. One of them must have pieced Skaras' heart. Wolfe couldn't help but smile at that memory. Potter had learned his lessons well! He had known that old vampires usually keep their hearts somewhere else in their bodies and had taken the correct course of action to optimise his chances of hurting the vampire. He was also surprised that the body-bind had worked, even in Skaras' weakened state, since vampires over a thousand years old were highly resistant to many hexes and curses. Potter must have been very powerful indeed. Then the boy had decapitated the vampire. Skaras was past tense! Wolfe winced as Evgenia Ivanova set his arm and mended the broken bone. He knew he should have been pleased that Skaras was dead. After all, the vampire had killed his mother's father and his own father…both Rangers. Skaras' minions, lead by his second in command, Athanasios Anastasiou, had then killed his mother and grandmother, in retaliation for the imprisonment of their master in a magical bubble created by then Captain Donovan Ironheart and another Ranger, Commander Lei Li, his mother's grandfather. His family's destroyer was dead, but Wolfe didn't feel the least bit gratified. All he could feel was a dull ache in his chest, as if it was an over-pressurised kettle. It was a haunting and indefinable sensation he'd felt only once before in his young life. It had happened after he and three other Rangers fought their way out of a trap set by Voldemort's Romanian supporters four years ago, when world-wide dark wizard activity was just starting to pick up. They'd surprised their foes with their skill and fought their way out, but one by one his teammates had fallen. An English wizard called Astor Clagg, his team leader, and the only person he'd ever let get close, had ordered him to go while covered his retreat. Wolfe closed his eyes and pictured their faces. Clagg, pink faced and good-natured. Elvira Bonetti, serene and beautiful, the woman he'd had a crush on, and Abdul el-Hage, with stern, hawk-like features and no sense of humour. They had died so he could live. And now Harry Potter… He couldn't have Apparated out of there, because the dark wizards in league with Anastasiou, the vampire who had supposedly been running the plot had put Apparition barriers over the tunnels. Nobody could have survived that! Wolfe clenched his hands into fists to stop his hands from shaking, and he closed his eyes as he remembered. *** "This is the end…Ranger! Yes…I remember your father, that pesky Avery Wolfe…and his father-in-law, Rudolf van de Ketel. Yes, your family managed to delay my plans quite bit over the last century, and your great-grandfather even managed to trap me for twenty-three years, imagine that!" Skaras chuckled and kicked Wolfe in the stomach, sending him skidding back ten feet. "It looks like I had the last laugh." "You had your true last laugh two-thousand years ago. You don't belong in this world anymore, Skaras! The world changes…you don't." "Quite right, young Wolfe, and you see, that is why I must carve out my own little empire and mould it as I please. Unfortunately, the Order of Illumination meddled in my affairs again, and I will have to start over." The vampire pursed his lips. Of course, the silver lining to this cloud is that Lei Li's descendant won't be there to thwart me." Again he kicked Wolfe savagely, and the young Ranger spat some blood. If it hadn't been for his tough Graphorn-hide armour, the vampire's foot would have gone through his chest. Wolfe gave him a bloody grin. "You're going down. It's only a matter of time. There is a sun behind your metaphoric cloud. Never forget that!" Skaras never replied to that taunt, for at that moment, his body froze in place, and seconds later, stakes were sticking out of it like a pincushion. Then Wolfe's sword whistled through the air and slashed off Skaras' head. "Funny how they always lose their head in the end!" a voice panted. "Potter, what are you doing here? I thought I ordered you out of here!" "You're welcome!" Potter grinned as he helped Wolfe up. Then all of the sudden, Skaras' body went slack as it overcame the Petrificus Totalus, and the mouth in the severed head opened and emitted an ear-splitting shriek that passed through marrow and bone and caused the walls and ceilings of the tunnels to crack. It was the death-cry of ancient vampires intended to rally their minions to avenge them. "We have to get out of here!" Wolfe said. "Don't worry, I know the way," Potter said. He looked at the snake, which was hissing uncontrollably. "We don't have much time." They hurried through the tunnels dodging falling debris from time to time, towards the alternate exit the team had found. Recalling the information about the tunnels from their briefing to his mind, Wolfe estimated that they would need ten minutes to get out of the tunnels at their current pace, which was too slow for comfort. He heard the howling of vampire ghouls who were gaining on the two Rangers quickly, trying to find a way out too. The problem of course, was that the ghouls would kill them as soon as they came across them, and were too numerous to defeat. They were standing on a narrow stone bridge that connected the tunnel they were standing in with the tunnel they had to go to. It was positioned over a deep chasm that ended in darkness. Wolfe could hear the roar of a fast-moving underground river below. "Go on ahead! I'll hold them off!" Potter said. "If you do that you won't get out!" "Just go straight ahead. Don't take any of the side tunnels," Potter continued, pretending he hadn't heard Wolfe. "No!" "Wolfe! If I don't, neither of us will get out of here! You're in no shape to hold these ghouls off. You have a couple of broken ribs, and your wand-arm is broken!" "I don't need my wand!" Wolfe growled. "I know how good you are when it comes to wand-less magic, but trust me, it won't be enough. Now go, damn it! You still have some relatives who love you. And it'll break Galatea's heart if you die, even if you don't feel anything for her, which I doubt. You care for her too, because you allow her to call you by your first name." Potter swallowed before continuing. "You shouldn't throw that away." Wolfe really didn't feel like discussing women and their strange behaviour with Potter, but he understood the underlying meaning of Potter's words and tone. Potter was suggesting that Wolfe should go, because he had people who cared about him, whereas Potter had nothing to come home to. "Are you trying to get killed? Is that it? Do you want to die because you think won't be missed if you do?" "No! This isn't about my life. It's true, I don't have much of a life anymore…but that's not the reason I'm doing this. It's pure math. If I don't hold these things off we both die, and in our stupidity betray the vows we made to protect the innocent. You can live to fight another day! Now move it before it's too late." Wolfe bit back a reply and thrust his own wand into Harry's hand. "You can fight better with two wands!" Then he turned around and started to run towards the exit. As he drew further away, he could hear Potter shouting hexes and curses, trying to hold the ghouls off as long as possible. He also heard the familiar booming of his wand when spitting curses. He was sixty feet from the exit, when a huge shock rattled the tunnels and accelerated the cave-in. Dust billowed out from inside the tunnel and overtook him as he made his way towards the exit. He cleared the dust cloud and stumbled into the arms of Caleb Mordecai. *** "How are you feeling?" Ivanova asked, snapping Wolfe out of his reverie. Wolfe stared at the ceiling of the cargo bay of the Notus. That was the name of the craft. It had three sister ships, each ship named after one of the four winds. The Notus was a troop and cargo carrier, and therefore sparsely furnished. "Wolfe, are you okay?" she asked again. He looked at the Indian girl they'd rescued. She was quietly weeping in her chair. He absently noted that she would look quite lovely once she'd recovered from her ordeal. Caleb, who came closer than anyone else to being his friend, sat down next to him. "Do you want to talk about it?" Wolfe regarded the Israeli for a minute. "Skaras is dead. Potter avenged my family and all Skaras' victims over the past two millennia. My great-grandfather would have loved him. He was…we were all very privileged to have known him. I don't think I'll ever meet a greater man. He sacrificed himself so I could get out to fight another day. There was no way both of us could have gotten out. I almost wish I could have stayed and fought beside him to the end. I wanted to, but he wouldn't have it." For the first time in over ten years, tears blurred Wolfe's vision. "Astor, Elvira, Abdul, and now Harry Potter. How many more have to die so I can live? At times I feel like I'm living on borrowed time." "Like right now?" Caleb asked Wolfe nodded. He stared past Caleb and out of ship's loading ramp. "We can't leave him like this. We have to at least recover his body. They never recovered any of the others." He whispered, referring to his three fallen friends. "He once told Galatea, that he wanted to be buried in the grounds of Hogwarts, near a Whomping Willow." "I don't think time or resources can be spared to do that," Caleb sighed sadly. "We are too hard-pressed as it is." Wolfe shot upright, his nostrils flaring. "If they leave him behind like this, I quit!" "I do not think Harry died just for you to quit," a deep female voice said. It was Lieutenant Diatta. The Senegalese woman gave him a hard stare, and Wolfe looked away, to the surprise of the other Rangers, including Diatta. "I guess you're right. But we should still mark the area…erect a monument. People want to forget that he ever existed, Lieutenant. Children will grow up never knowing his name, or what he did for the wizarding world. At worst, they'll believe him to be the monster the British wizards have made him out to be! It's a matter of honour for me." "They won't!" a timid voice interrupted. It was the girl they'd rescued. "They won't remember him as a monster. I'll make sure that everybody knows the truth about him. It will probably be the end of my career, because my boss is among those who believe Harry was an evil fiend in disguise. But I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do anything about it." Diatta nodded. "Harry Potter deserves to have his name cleared posthumously. You are a reporter, correct?" The girl nodded. "And you are planning to write an article on this event?" Again the girl nodded. "If that's okay with you." "I do not wield that sort of authority. I am merely a lieutenant. But I will shoot a request up the channels, to see if we, who knew Harry in the final stage of his life, can make statements to corroborate your story." "That vill not vork!" An icy and emotionless voice said. A willowy woman with raven hair and a rather large nose strode into the Cruiser Notus. "She is not allowed to remember anything. Ve haff to keep a low profile in this matter." "What?" Wolfe, Ivanova and Mordecai chorused, outraged. Ivanova started jabbering at the woman in Russian, but the woman would not be swayed. She remained as stoic as a goblin." "Captain Kovalenko, please!" Caleb began. "Fine, we don't have to make statements…but can't she at least remember that Harry was part of this? I mean, someone is going to get a letter of regret, so the news is going to spread anyway." The woman thought about it. "I will take it up with Commander Nomvete," she said, turned on her heel and strode out of the Cruiser's cargo bay. *** Hermione stirred as a harpy eagle tapped on the bedroom window of her tiny little flat in Eldorado, a golden city somewhere in the north of the amazon jungle. It was six o' clock in the morning local time, and she had to get up to go to the Eldorado Research Institute for Magical Maladies, one of the better magical medicine training centres in the world. Groggily, she reached for her wand and magically opened the window to allow the postal carrier in. The bird dropped the Daily Prophet and a Witch Weekly onto the nightstand next to her bed and flew off. She didn't have to pay for them because she had a special overseas subscription to the British Daily Prophet and the Witch Weekly The issue on her nightstand was a day old, having come from overseas, and dated Thursday, August 24th, 2000. But Hermione didn't mind having to settle for slightly aged news. It was better than no news at all. Hermione climbed out of her bed and strode purposefully into the bathroom where she had a quick shower. In Eldorado, she needed at least two showers a day to keep from smelling. Ron, who was on assignment for the International Confederation of Wizards to monitor the Vipertooth population, didn't shower more often than he used to in Britain, which had certain unfortunate consequences. Normally Hermione would have come out of the shower feeling refreshed, but a huge fight with Ron the previous night had really drained her of her energy. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to make up with him either. Hermione sighed. She had thought they'd come so far from the days when they used to bicker over the most trivial things. Now there was only one hot issue between them. Unfortunately that issue was Harry. *** Ron walked in as she was writing a letter. She had sent three letters like it already in the past month, and the post office assured her that her letters did arrive at their intended destination. But she had never received a reply. Tracking Harry down had not been difficult. On her last visit to her parents she had gone over to the Auror Office of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The witch at the desk had given her the strangest look as she asked how she could reach Harry, complied with her request all the same. Hermione sent her letters to a special mailbox in the Department of International Magical Co-operation, which in turn, if everything went according to plan, would be sent to wherever Harry was living. Hermione assumed that all went well because she didn't want to think the Ministry had sunken so low as to block any letters for Harry Potter. "What are you writing, Mione?" he asked cheerfully. Hermione heaved an annoyed sigh at the pet name, but she didn't look up from the letter. Trying to get her attention, he whisked the letter away from her desk. "Ron…no!" she gasped. She watched his facial expressions as she braced herself for what she knew was coming. Shaking with fury, he crumpled the paper. "I can't believe you! You…of all people, betray me like this!" "Honestly, Ron!" She tried to sound casual, but her voice was trembling. "I…" "Shut up!" he screamed. "I can't believe you're consorting with the enemy!" "He's not the enemy!" Hermione yelled shrilly. "You don't know what you're talking about! You didn't see the look in his eyes when he cursed me! He is evil, Hermione. He looked even worse than Lucius Malfoy." "He apologised afterwards, and explained!" "And you believed him?" Ron growled. "He just pleaded temporary insanity to stay out of trouble. The only reason they let him off is because he killed Voldemort." "I believe he meant what he said!" Hermione sobbed. "If he were evil, he wouldn't started Auror training, would he? If he were evil, he would have finished you off when put that curse on you! How can you judge him like that? How can you dismiss all the good things he did for you and your family for seven years?" "Why do you always defend him?" Ron went on, quickly turning tack. "I lost Dad and Fred too, but I didn't go crazy did I? You're supposed to be smart. Why can't you see him for what he is?" "I do see him for what he is! I imagine it's horrible to see your own friend lose it, and be on the receiving on of his curse, but your trauma is clouding your judgement. He looked miserable in those pictures the Daily Prophet took last year in June, in the article about the new class of Aurors. That couldn't have been an act! If he's really evil, he'd be strutting around like Draco Malfoy, with an annoying smirk that rubs in the fact that he got away with something!" "I knew it!" Ron yelled, with a gleam of manic triumph in his eyes. "You're in love with him. Hah. I've always known you had a soft spot for him. That's the reason you didn't want to be my girlfriend until the end of our sixth year. 'Dear dear, but what will Harry think? He'll be all alone.'" "That's ridiculous!" Hermione howled "He needed his friends more than ever then! Or do you conveniently choose to forget that Voldemort tortured and killed twenty Muggles and let it be known that it all could have been avoided if Harry had just surrendered himself? And Fred and your father…I'm sure he was thinking about them as well when he tried to get information out of Malfoy. I love you, Ron. Right now I can't imagine why, but I do!" Ron didn't answer that. He just raised a quivering finger and pointed it at Hermione. "Either you stop trying to contact him, or you and I are through." "I'm sorry it had to be this way then!" Hermione said coldly, tears streaming out of her puffy red eyes. "What?" Ron screamed with disbelief etched on his features. "Oh, bloody hell. Fine!" He stormed out of her bedroom and her apartment slamming the door closed behind him. *** Not really being hungry, Hermione forced down a banana anyway, as she opened the Daily Prophet and started to read. She flipped through the pages and read several articles. She saw that St. Mungo's was looking for mediwitches and wizards. She marked the article with the tip of her wand. She was nearly done in Eldorado anyway, and though she had enjoyed her year in South America, the weather was too humid for her. And Ron wouldn't be able to leave his assignment for another six months, so that would give her some time away from him. Hermione continued to read the paper. She smiled as she saw the wedding announcement about Neville and Eloise Midgen's wedding. She had been invited too, but she hadn't been able to make it. Ginny had attended the wedding, and Hermione was sure she would receive a letter later in the week, in which Ginny would give her a blow-by-blow account of all the accidents Neville inevitably must have caused in during the ceremony and reception. A couple of weeks ago, Hermione had received a letter from Ginny, asking her if she could make it to the wedding, and if she couldn't, whether she wanted to mail a present so Ginny could bring it to the wedding for her. She'd bought them a Searcher, an object that looked much like a Remembrall, but with a different function. The Searcher activated itself while held by a wizard who was looking for a lost possession, glowing brighter if the object was nearby, and dimmer as the person searching for the item got colder. She knew Neville could really use a gift like that…of course, he would probably lose it too, at some point. She frowned as she remembered another paragraph in Ginny's letter, in which the youngest Weasley talked about a new boyfriend, a French half-blood named Adrien Lenoir. She knew Adrien. He'd also spent some time in Eldorado with the research institute, and Hermione didn't like him one bit. He was too much of a sleaze, and she hoped Ginny knew what she was getting into. Crookshanks hadn't liked Lenoir either, and he was a good judge of character. Hermione shook her head. Perhaps she should give Lenoir the benefit of the doubt. Either way, she couldn't believe that Ginny had a boyfriend. She knew Ginny still loved Harry more than life itself, even though she hadn't told anybody but Hermione about it at first, because of Ron. Later, when it had become apparent that the other Weasleys had forgiven Harry for his brief and understandable lapse, she'd told them as well. Ginny had taken a huge chance by talking to Hermione about Harry. After all, at the time, Hermione too had been pretending to side with Ron. But now, she was glad that Ginny had taken the first step. It had taken an immense load off her chest. Hermione frowned worriedly. She just hoped that her friend wasn't dating Lenoir for the wrong reasons. Lenoir simply wasn't Harry. She blushed guiltily at that last thought. Ron had been right when he'd accused Hermione of having a soft spot for Harry, but it wasn't because she was in love with him. Harry had never noticed her little likes and dislikes the way Ron had. That's what had made her fall in love with Ron in the first place. And her extremely vicious fight with him was hurting her terribly, but she knew she couldn't give in to Ron if…no, when he would come by later that week to try and patch things up. He was so predictable when it came to these things! Ron's experience must have been terrible, but it was time that he got over his trauma. But like William Blake said, 'It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.' How true that statement rang. Still having some time on her hands, she reached over to the Witch Weekly and read the cover; "Head of Department of International Magical Co-operation and Secretary Romance?" written by none other than Rita Skeeter. The old cow was at it again! Hermione shook her head. Well, at least she was registered now, and people who wanted to avoid media coverage were always on the lookout for a certain beetle. Hermione smiled. She knew better than to believe anything Skeeter wrote, but she wouldn't be all too shocked if this little story turned out to be true. After Penny was killed by Death-Eaters, Percy had never been the same again, and he started working harder than ever. Penny's death also made him realise that the threat from Voldemort was very real, and he'd reconciled with his family and joined Dumbledore. But after Voldemort's demise, he was still hurting over her death. Maybe Hannah Abbott, his secretary, would fill that void now. Even if it was just a fling, at least Percy was showing human behaviour again. The article would probably mortify Mrs Weasley, though. Hermione smiled. The thought of her best-behaved son savagely taking his secretary on the desk…Hermione shook away her nasty thoughts. At least George would be proud of his older brother for a change. Finally she went back to the front page to see if there was anything else she might have missed and discovered that Padma Patil, who had been missing for four months, had resurfaced. An international team of wizards had rescued her from her captivity at the hands of vampires. Other details were sketchy at best, and according to the article, Padma had been forbidden to talk about it. Hermione shrugged. At least not everybody who disappeared did so permanently. It was good to know that sometimes people were still rescued. She made a mental to note write Parvati and ask how her sister was doing. Then glancing at her magical chrono, she saw she was running late, so she grabbed her stuff and hurried out of her apartment. *** Later that day at the Burrow, the family, minus Ron and Bill, had gathered for the family dinner. It was a new tradition that the children and in-laws would gather at the Burrow every Friday. Ginny scowled as she helped her mother load the table with the delicious food Molly had cooked up over the course of the afternoon. It was hard work, but the Weasley matriarch really enjoyed it. Ginny guessed it was therapeutic for her mother to cook like that. "Wipe that look off you face, dear," Molly admonished. "Oh, now I can't scowl when I want to anymore?" "Not while you're still living under my roof." "Then maybe I should move out," Ginny hissed, glaring at her mother, her face reddening in anger. Molly turned and looked at her daughter, and a stare-down ensued between the two women. They finally looked away at the same time. It was Ginny who spoke first after a while. "Why don't you like him, mum?" "Oh, I don't know dear." Molly sighed. "He just doesn't seem sincere." "What do you mean?" "It's hard to explain. It's just that my mum approved of Arthur immediately when she met him. I guess we have a knack for these things when it comes to our daughter's boyfriends. I actually dated a Ravenclaw boy in my fifth year, and he came to visit during the summer." Molly giggled. "Mum really made it tough for him. But I'm sure you'll have the same feeling if you ever have a daughter." "There won't be much of a chance for that if you keep acting nasty towards my boyfriends, now will there?" Ginny groaned. "I'm so sorry, dear, but I really have a bad feeling about Mr Lenoir. Even your brothers have that feeling, and they are denser than lead." The Weasley-daughter's eyes widened in surprise and she nearly dropped the salad bowl she was carrying. Her mother never spoke like that about her sons. Well, only when she was angry and yelling at them. Certainly not in casual conversation with her daughter! Then she cracked a smile. "At least we agree on that." She sighed as she thought of her brothers. Bill was off in the Caribbean with Fleur and their eighteen month-old-daughter, Amelie. Fleur was teaching wizarding children part-time on the French overseas dependency islands, while Bill dove for the many sunken ships full of treasure that had never been recovered. Fleur was pregnant again, and according to Bill it would be a boy. Charlie was still single, and not really looking, to Mrs Weasley's great displeasure. He was the head of the Beast Division in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, for which Ron also worked. Percy, who had very nervously contacted his mother that afternoon to ask if he could bring Hannah to dinner, was the head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation. George, who like Fred and unlike Bill who chose to wait until after the war, had decided not to let Voldemort interfere with his life, married Katie Bell right after he left Hogwarts. She'd given him a red-haired son named Arthur, after his grandfather, who had been killed a few months earlier. Having turned three two weeks ago, he was the eldest Weasley grandchild. The boy didn't remember his mother, who had been killed by Death-Eaters ten months after his birth, along with his Uncle Fred, who had left behind three month-old twin girls and his widow Angelina. Fortunately, their deaths had caused George and Angelina to grow closer and to love one another, and Angelina had given birth to their mutual child exactly one year ago. So the dinner occasion was extra special. She looked outside and saw that George and Angelina had arrived with their four children. Baby Fred, who impossibly enough also had his father's fiery red hair, was sitting in a buggy for three, along with his twin sisters, Susan and Mildred, who were seventeen months older than he was. They looked very much like their mother, though their skin colour was a couple of shades lighter than their mother's cinnamon complexion. Molly's permission was a definite requirement at the moment, for during cooking she reigned supreme in the kitchen. So Ginny glanced at her mother, who smiled and nodded, excusing Ginny from her culinary duties so she could go outside to greet her nephews and nieces. She hurried out of the kitchen door, and little Arthur broke free from his stepmother's grasp and launched himself at Ginny, who caught the boy and twirled him around. Then, still holding Arthur and balancing him on her hip, she bent down and kissed the three other children, especially the little one-year-old Fred. "Oh, I still can't believe that he has red hair!" Ginny sighed. "Neither can I," the boy's mother said. The red in the Weasley hair must be magical." Ginny smiled and kissed her sister-in-law. "Good to see you again." "Why, we just saw you last week," George laughed. "Yes, but you didn't have to spend a whole week with mum," she said. "You got me there." George winked. "Is it that bad?" Angelina asked. "Smothering," Ginny replied tersely. "She won't come to grips with the fact that I'm not eleven anymore," she added, and heaved a sigh. Even though the house was empty except for her and Molly, it seemed too small for the two of them at times. For a brief moment, Ginny thought maybe it was time to leave the nest, but she dismissed that thought as soon as it entered her head. That would only happen over Molly Weasley's cooling corpse. And then her ghost would probably try to prevent Ginny from leaving. The young woman sighed. She got along with her mother well enough…most of the time. If her mother would only stop treating her like a baby, they'd probably get along famously. They all went inside, and started setting up the restless children for dinner, which wasn't easy. They were Fred and George's offspring, after all, and while the girls looked perfectly angelic right then, Ginny had a feeling that they would probably surpass their father and uncle as troublemakers in the future. The children cheered as their Uncle Charlie Apparated into the kitchen, nearly causing Molly to crash into him as she was carrying a large bowl of mashed potatoes. "Charlie! What did I tell you about Apparating into the kitchen at dinnertime?" "Sorry, Mum." Charlie sighed exasperatedly. Then he beamed at little Fred. "And here's the birthday boy!" "Leave him in the chair Charlie," Angelina warned. "He won't let us strap him in again!" Hannah and Percy arrived at the Burrow a couple of minutes later and they all sat down to eat. Ginny and Hannah volunteered to help Angelina feed Fred and the girls. While the girls could actually feed themselves, Ginny could imagine the cogs in their little heads turning and clicking as they saw Arthur, who was a bit clumsy, making a huge mess as he ate. The girls would have followed his lead, and their mess wouldn't have been accidental! The brothers talked about their work. "So how is business, little brother?" Charlie asked George. "Great! Lee managed to buy me fifteen percent of Majoke Inc. Stock while it was cheap. Then we launched our new Luminous Liquorice line and they were such a hit that the shares doubled overnight. It was actually an idea Fred had a couple of years ago. He wrote a diary full of ideas. Lee and I are looking into them to see if they are commercially viable. There's a Language Lollipop we are working on right now…if you eat it you'll speak a different language. So far we've got our volunteer guinea pigs speaking French, German and Spanish. But we're pretty close to a breakthrough in Chinese and Hindi." "Wait a minute. Are you saying you own fifteen percent of an international joke shop chain?" Percy asked, amazed. "George nodded." And Lee owns ten percent. That gives us a quarter of the vote, and we always vote on the same side. The other shareholders always come to us if they want to pass new corporate policy." Angelina interrupted. "George, could you please discipline your daughters, they are being a pain!" Ginny smiled. In a way, Angelina was raising George alongside their kids. While she could have easily told Millie and Susie off herself, she was making George do it in order to make him more of an authority figure to his children rather than just an oversized sibling. She knew that, given the chance, George would much rather play the big brother and get in as much trouble as the children. Although the two identical little devils were actually Fred's, George considered them his own, like Angelina considered Katie's son as her own. While a visibly reluctant George scolded his daughters for their behaviour, Ginny looked at Angelina. "You know, your hair looks all greasy and untamed. Are you having a bad hair day? And your hair is all greasy too, Hannah. Is that a new style, have I missed a new fashion here?" Molly Weasley heard Ginny's comments and narrowed her eyes as she examined Angelina. "Are you pregnant again?" "Guilty!" Angelina blushed. Molly smiled, but half a second later her smile faltered and she looked at Hannah. "Oh, no!" The young woman was blushing furiously, and Percy was shifting in his seat uncomfortably. "You got her in trouble…Percy how could you?" she shrieked. "I didn't get her in trouble mum!" Percy countered. But Molly didn't hear him. "Oh lord, you're not even married…the shame!" she moaned. "Honestly mum, they're both adults!" Ginny frowned. "And many people don't marry these days." "Besides, we are married. We eloped in March," Percy said calmly. For Molly, who had been on the verge of fainting anyway, that was it. Her chair tipped back and she hit the kitchen floor. While Ginny rushed over to help her mother, George was patting Percy on the shoulder. "I never thought you had it in you! Following in Bill's footsteps. I wonder what he'll say?" "He was best man!" Percy grinned. ***
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