Albus:
If it was your mum who was pregnant, you’d assume that she’d tell you and your immediate family first, before telling all your grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, wouldn’t you? Apparently, this doesn’t happen in the Weasley family.
Pandemonium erupted immediately after this announcement. I sat there, shocked, as Nana Molly, predictably, rushed over to Mum and hugged her, crying, “That’s wonderful, Ginny dear! My word, yet another grandchild!”
Ron thumped Dad on his back in congratulations and Percy pompously shook his hand. My older cousins grinned at James, Lily and I, who both looked as bewildered as me.
“Aren’t you too old for a kid?” Roxy asked Mum, and Angie scolded her daughter. Grandad looked happy, and took another sip of his wine, while Charlie laughed at Tori, as she gave Teddy a soppy grin about the news.
“How did she get that baby inside of her?” Louis asked his dad, causing George to spray his drink over those near him. Lucy and Molly said nothing, as per usual. And Scorpius just looked like he didn’t quite belong here right now.
Unfortunately, this is as normal as the Weasley family gets.
“I must give you my pregnancy books, Ginny, they helped me so much when I was pregnant with the girls!” exclaimed Audrey excitedly. Hermione rolled her eyes.
“Audrey, I’ve been pregnant before,” sighed my mum irritably.
“How come you didn’t tell us, Mum?” yelled James.
“Yeah, we’re your own kids!” joined in Lily.
“Wait a second,” Charlie butted in, “you didn’t tell them first “”
“SHUT UP!” Mum yelled, silencing everyone. We all turned to stare at her; even Nana Molly stopped fussing over her daughter.
“James, Al, Lily, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys before,” she began. “We just thought it’d be better to get it done in one go.” Lily looked satisfied with that answer.
“I’m gonna have a baby sister!” she squealed.
“It could be a boy, you know,” said cousin Molly, finally speaking.
“It’s not going to be!” my sister retorted. “It’s obvious that it’s going to be a girl; there are already two boys.”
“It still might be a boy.”
“You’re so dumb, Molly!” cried Lily angrily. “Don’t you know anything? IT’S A GIRL!”
“Girls, please!” Audrey reprimanded.
“Ginny, how far along are you?” Hermione asked.
“Anyway,” Mum said, frustrated, “the reason Harry and I told nobody is that we weren’t sure that the baby would make it past the first trimester. We didn’t want anyone getting disappointed. As Roxy put it, I am getting too old to have another child. But now, I’m now twelve weeks pregnant, and our Healer said it would be safe to tell people.”
“Well, it’s wonderful news, dear!” cried Nana Molly. “Now, let’s start cleaning up. Then we can do Christmas presents!”
All of my little cousins grinned happily, and enthusiastically started ‘helping’ with the cleaning up process. The rest of us did the job properly, slightly less enthusiastically.
I still couldn’t believe it. My mum was going to have another kid. I barely remembered my mum giving birth to Lily; I was only two at the time. This time, I was old enough to understand exactly what was going on. I started getting excited. I was going to get a little brother or sister!
“This is so cool!” I said to Scorpius. He grinned at me.
“I know!” he said to me back.
An hour later, we were all settled in the sitting room comfortably, right by the fire. The Christmas gifts had been placed under the decorated tree throughout the night. As usual, there was squabbling as to who got their gifts first. We only did the Weasley gifts at Christmas Eve; our family gifts were always done with our immediate families on Christmas Day.
From Nana and Grandad I got the usual Weasley jumper, this year’s one red with a gold lion, in tribute to my Sorting at Hogwarts. From the Delacour-Weasleys I got a Tornadoes poster of Tyrone Sydney and Rowan Kingston, the two Beaters. Charlie and Teddy gave me a miniature model dragon, a Norwegian Ridgeback. From the Johnson-Weasleys I was given a bag of the latest Weasley Wizard Wheezes products. The Granger-Weasleys gave me a Tornadoes hat, which had knitted versions of the seven players flying around it. From the Milton-Weasleys I was given a horribly boring book about magical animals and Aunt Meda, bless her, gave me sweets. Even Scorpius got a fair amount of gifts, and looked shocked at getting one. His first Weasley jumper was plain black with a silver ‘S’ emboldened on it. He couldn’t stop stammering his thanks.
“Bedtime!” cried Nana Molly after the gift giving was over. The adults went to bed upstairs; exhausted. However, the kids were sleeping in the sitting room, and we were pretty hyper. It was Christmas, after all.
“I love your family, Al,” Scorpius told me as Rose, him and I rolled our sleeping bags out on the floor.
“It must be boring, having no brothers or sisters or cousins,” Rose commented thoughtfully.
“Well, I actually do have two cousins on my mum’s side, but they live in France now, so we hardly ever see them. They both go to Beauxbatons “ Julienne and Angus.”
“Cool,” I said sleepily.
“Lights out, kids!” came Grandad’s voice from down the hall.
“How’s Santa getting here?” Lucy asked timidly.
“He’s not,” was Dom’s short reply.
“It’ll be so fun to have all five of us at the New Year’s party!” I said to my friends.
Tori caught me. “You heard Grandad, just go to sleep!” she said, ever the Head Girl.
Claudia:
My mum was normally an easygoing, carefree woman. Everything she did, she did with ease. Everyone loved her, and she was normally so bright and bubbly; a trait that I’d inherited from her.
Visiting the wizarding world, however, was way out of her comfort zone.
Her hand shook with nerves as she drove us to Rose’s house in London on New Year’s Eve. The sky was just getting dark, and the full moon grew hazy as we drove closer and closer towards the city. Leah sat in the backseat, quite scared as well. She’d been very understanding, along with Mum, about the whole magic thing. And when I asked her if she’d like to come to the Potter’s on New Year’s Eve, she jumped at the chance to see magic (I wasn’t allowed to use it during the holidays) and not have to have a babysitter. I think she was regretting her decision. She probably thought we were all freaks.
We pulled up outside Rose’s house. It was a modern, white building; two stories high. It looked cosy. We wandered up to her front door, locking the car behind us. Leah looked so frightened that I took her hand, and she clung onto mine for dear life. My mum knocked on the door of Number 8.
“Hello!” greeted a friendly woman at the door. She had brown hair waving down to her shoulders, and she had a pretty face that didn’t need much makeup on it. This must be Rose’s mother.
“I’m Hermione, Rose’s mother,” she said. “Come in!” She gestured inside the door for us to come inside.
We entered their house, into their hallway. It was a nice, normal Muggle house. In fact, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that a family of wizards and witches lived there if I didn’t already know it. Hermione saw my face.
“We try to blend in as best as possible,” she told us. “Plus, if the Muggles next door saw moving photos… who knows what mess we’d be cleaning up then?” She said it with a giggle, and Mum chuckled with her. She was apparently relieved that it was a ‘regular’ place. Hermione led us into the sitting room.
“Hiya, Claudia!” greeted Rose as we entered the room. She had a pretty yellow dress on, which brought out her lovely waist-length red hair beautifully. I looked down at my outfit; a sky blue dress with black tights underneath. I didn’t look half as pretty as she did. She waltzed over to where my family and I were standing.
“I’m Rose,” she said, introducing herself to my mum. “I’m one of Claudia’s best friends at school.”
“Hello, Rose, it’s lovely to meet you,” Mum greeted her warmly. “This is Claudia’s eight year old sister, Leah.”
“Hi, Leah!” she said, bending down low (why in Merlin’s name were both Leah and I so short?). Leah gave her a quick smile, and looked down, scared.
A boy of about nine or ten years of age came into the room. He looked like his mother; he had curly, brown locks that seemed to go well with his fair skin. He had a boyish grin on his face. Seeing that they had visitors, he came over to us.
“This is my brother, Hugo,” she told us.
“Hi,” he said, waving.
I noticed that my little sister was now suddenly very interested in the floor, now that Hugo had came into the room. Hugo also looked away when he saw Leah. My sister was so pretty, I didn’t blame him. She’d inherited my dad’s wavy, blonde hair, while I got stuck with my mum’s boring colour. Rose and I exchanged a smirk, and so did both of our mothers.
“Umm, I’m Leah,” she said, her face turning red.
Hugo blushed. “How old are you? You look around my age.”
“I’m eight years old.”
“Oh, I’m turning ten in February. That means you’ll be in the year below me at Hogwarts!”
Leah blushed as well. “Sounds like it.” She didn’t mention that she had no idea whether she’d be a witch or not.
Hermione cleared her throat. “Anyway, we’re almost ready; we’re just waiting for my husband, Ron, to finish “”
“My ears are burning!”
A man entered the room, his vivid red hair matching his daughter’s. “These must be the Kelaneys!” he said, noticing us.
After the introductions were over again, Hermione spoke again. “As I was saying, the fireplace is this way,” she said, pointing over to their sitting room.
“Okay, so travelling by Floo powder is pretty weird the first time, but it’s not dangerous in any way,” she assured my mum. Leah grabbed Mum’s hand again. “Just take a small handful of this stuff, throw it in the fireplace, and walk into the green flames. Sounds crazy, but you can’t even feel the flames. Then say your destination clearly, and you’ll be taken there! Watch my daughter do it now.”
Rose stepped into the fireplace, taking a handful of Floo powder. The flames turned an emerald green, and she said clearly, “The Potter House, Godric’s Hollow.” A second later, she had disappeared.
“It’s not uncomfortable at all!” said Ron brightly, following his daughter. “Just keep your elbows tucked in.”
Hugo went after him, and then I volunteered myself to go next with my Mum, who was having a slight panic attack by now. Leah and Hermione would bring up the rear.
I took the powder from the pot on the ledge, and threw it in. Taking my mum’s hand, I gingerly stepped forwards into the flames. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling; in fact, it was really cool. My mum looked at me, as if to say “Just do it now!”
“The Potter House, Godric’s Hollow.”
We whizzed down the flames and into the Floo system. Everything was rushing past so quickly, and I shut my eyes so I wouldn’t get motion sickness. It was over really quickly; twenty seconds later, we emerged from the fireplace in what appeared to be a very lively party.
The three Weasleys were standing by it, waiting for us. Rose grinned up at me. My mum gave me an awestruck look. I nodded my head as if to say, “Yeah. Welcome to my world.”
Leah and Hermione came whizzing in very shortly afterwards. I’d expected Leah to be absolutely hysterical, but on the contrary, she was grinning, saying “Can we do that again? That was awesome!” I had a feeling she’d be really well-suited to the wizarding world.
“Hey guys!” cried a voice. Scorpius and Al were walking towards us, Butterbeers in their hands. “Had a nice trip?”
Adam:
The party was in full swing by the time Mum, Dad, Zane, Ella and I got there. None of us liked Flooing much, so instead, Mum and Dad took us Side-Along Apparation. Outside, we could see the shining lights and the blaring music. It was a huge house, too, but we already knew that the Potters were fairly rich. It was the Boy Who Lived’s house, for Merlin’s sake. Across the front of the house read a huge, massive banner, with the words “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” emblazoned on it. It was a floating banner, too. It looked like the Potters had casted an Anti-Muggle spell on their property. Well, at least I hope they did!
The house was packed to the rafters; people were swarming together left and right. In the main room, a big dance party had started. Throughout the rest of the gigantic house, adults were chatting and drinking and kids were running around, playing tag. It was pretty cool.
The second we got inside, Zane saw one of his Gryffindor friends, Liam Wood, and with a quick “Later” to my parents, he joined him. Ella looked slightly out of place; she didn’t know that many people here. I let her tag along with me as I tried to find my friends.
“Adam! Over here!” shouted a voice, and I saw Claudia waving to me, chatting and laughing with our other three friends.
“Happy New Year!” I grinned.
“Can’t say that ‘till midnight, you idiot!” she laughed.
“Now that we’re all here…” Rose said, her eyes scheming, “let’s play a massive game of Truth or Dare!” Everyone grinned with her.
“Okay everyone, go find as many of the kids as you can! Meet me in the back garden!”
Ten minutes later, twenty-two kids, ranging from eight years old to thirteen years old, sat in the thermal-controlled garden. Along with us five, James and Lily, Al’s siblings, Hugo, Rose’s brother, Leah, Claudia’s sister, Fred, Dom, Roxy, Molly, Lucy, Zane, Liam and Ella were there, along with five other kids I didn’t know, but probably went to Hogwarts.
“I’ll go first, shall I?” said Rose. She scanned her eyes around the crowd.
“Hmm, Alice, Truth or Dare?” she asked a sweet-looking blonde girl. I recognised her as Alice Longbottom, a second year Hufflepuff, and Professor Longbottom’s daughter.
“Dare!” she grinned wickedly, and I was reminded of the fact that she and James Potter had shared the highest number of detentions this year so far in second year. She wasn’t as sweet as she looked, but she was certainly a lot of fun!
“Okay…” Rose thought for a minute, and grinned evilly to herself. She beckoned for Alice to come over, and she whispered something in her ear. The other girl laughed.
“Piece of cake!” she said, and walked inside with Rose. We all crowded around one of the large windows, trying to see what was happening.
Alice and Rose had started a conversation with none other than Professor Macmillan! Alice said something, and Macmillan looked offended. The two girls burst into giggles and ran out the door.
“What did you say?” asked Dom.
“I asked him if I could borrow his ear hair removal cream!” squealed Alice, doubling over in laugher. The rest of us joined in. We sat down in a circle again. Alice looked around, trying to find a victim.
“Molly Weasley! Truth or Dare?” she asked her fellow second-year.
Molly gulped. Why she was even playing this game was a mystery to me. “Truth,” she said timidly.
“Okay then… who do you have a crush on at school?”
Molly turned a bright shade of red, looking like a true Weasley. It was common knowledge in the school that Molly was crazy about Liam Wood, Zane’s third year friend. All the girls liked him. Liam started blushing too, and both of them refused to let their eyes meet.
“No-one,” said Molly unconvincingly. “Umm… Roxy, Truth or Dare?”
“Dare,” she said confidently.
“I dare you to… sing the national anthem while upside down!”
She rolled her eyes. “Molly, that’s not a proper dare! You’re so dumb at this game.” She did it anyway, though.
Roxy continued the game. “Hugo, Truth or Dare?”
Hugo looked up. “Dare,” he replied.
Rose and Claudia exchanged a very knowing look, and immediately went over to Roxy and whispered something in her ear. A devious grin appeared on Roxy Weasley’s face. Hugo waited nervously for the three girls to stop scheming.
“Hugo Arthur Weasley,” Roxy began, “we dare you to kiss Leah Kelaney!”
The look on both Hugo and Leah’s faces was priceless as Hugo, blushing furiously, came over to where Leah sat and kissed her on the cheek. Somebody wolf-whistled and everyone cheered.
“Alright, it’s my turn!” Hugo stated when everyone had calmed down. “James, Truth or Dare?”
“Dare, of course!”
After James had declared to his mum, Ginny Potter, that he was joining the Weird Sister’s roadie group, much to the giggles of everyone present, the next victim appeared to be his younger brother.
“Al, Truth or Dare?”
Al narrowed his eyes. “Dare, I suppose.”
“Alright… I dare you to…” More whispers followed, and Al looked horrified.
“Are you insane, James?” he demanded. “There’s no way I can do that!”
“It’s not term time, is it now, Albie?”
Al glared at his brother for using his hated nickname. “No.”
“You can’t back out of a dare, little brother!” James grinned triumphantly.
His brother sighed. “Fine, I’ll do it.” He and James wandered inside, and like before, we all crowded up to the window. Pushing and shoving followed to get a good view.
“Why are James and Al going over to the buffet?” Lily asked to no-one in particular. However, the boys looked over at a very familiar man; an intimidating, dark-skinned Potions Professor who was chatting to another familiar face, our Charms Professor. And both of the Potter boys were standing by the…
“Potatoes,” said Fred simply, admiring his cousin’s genius plan.
I’ve told you about the potato joke, right? It all started eight years ago. Someone had… well, now isn’t probably the best time to get into it. But let’s just say, Zabini will never look at that particular vegetable with nothing but contempt ever again. It’s now a school-wide legend, the Zabini/potato joke.
James got out of his pocket a quill and some ink, and handed it to Al. He picked one up off the bowl, and bent over the potato, drawing something on it. Then, they walked over to Zabini.
Zabini greeted Al as pleasantly as he could; after all, he was in his house. It was the perfect plan. And there wasn’t much he could do when Al handed him the potato, the smiley face standing out brightly on the pale complexion of the potato, except clench his jaw and glare at Al. The two boys started laughing like maniacs, and burst out the back door, victory etched upon their faces.
“The best thing was… he had to take it, because it’s our house! And he couldn’t even dock points off Gryffindor, cause it’s not term time!
“Why’s Zabini even here?” Dom asked contemptuously. She’d obviously gotten her fair share of detentions from the Potions Professor.
“Mum’s friends with him, for god-knows what reason. They went to school together, I think,” James replied.
“Yeah, but he’s a Slytherin!”
James shrugged. “I dunno.”
“Anyway, who should I pick… Adam, Truth or Dare?”
I gulped. But before I could give him my answer, the back door opened and a hassled Ginny Potter glared down at the kids.
“Albus Severus and James Sirius Potter, come here now!”
Merlin, they were in trouble. And I was going to tease Al for his middle name later.
A few hours later saw the whole party standing somewhere in the house, silently listening to the Wizarding Wireless Network’s New Year’s Eve broadcast. And then the countdown began.
“TEN, NINE, EIGHT…” we all shouted collectively.
“…THREE, TWO, ONE... HAPPY NEW YEAR!”
Everyone clapped and cheered. A few of the adults kissed their partners. I saw Dad kiss Mum on the lips, who blushed and giggled. Yuck. Teddy Lupin started snogging Victoire Weasley, our Head Girl, both of them trying to suck each other’s faces off. We all began singing “Auld Lang Syne”, many of the grown-ups noticeably drunk.
“For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.”
The Gryffindor Gang by U-No-Poo
Chapter Notes: Hiya, guys! I'm back; isn't that quick? This chapter's been ready for AGES though.
Thanks to Sarah (Sapphire At Dawn) for her beta'ing. I believe this means I have to add her to my list on my story notes!
Anyway, a few other acknowledgments needed for this chapter. J.K Rowling, most obviously, owns Harry Potter - and who'd believe me if I said I did? Robert Burns wrote the fabulous poem at the end of the chapter, Auld Lang Syne. And Schmerg_The_Impaler owns the beloved potato joke.
Chapter Endnotes: Did everyone like this chapter? Ginny's pregnant, how fabulous is this going to be? I hope it wasn't too boring with the Truth or Dare game/New Year's Eve - maybe you just thought this was a filler chapter. Well, it sort of is, but still.
Please, tell me your favourite character and why! I'd love to hear. And leave your reviews after the beep... [insert beep].