Chapter One: At Harry's

A middle-aged red-haired man suddenly appeared at the end of the drive of a nice but understated house located in Whimple, England. He shoved a newspaper into the back pocket of his jeans and pushed the long tendrils that had escaped his ponytail out of his face. He turned towards the house and made his way purposefully down the driveway to the front door.

Harry and Ginny Potter were engaging in a rare post-coital cuddle before their young children woke and burst unannounced into their bedroom. Harry walked his fingertips up his wife's arm towards her shoulder. She was covered in more freckles every year they were together. Her muscles had softened since the had retired from Quidditch, but her arms were still thin. "You are so beautiful," Harry whispered as he breathily kissed her in the space between her neck and shoulder. "I'm happy you're home," he breathed.

Ginny laughed gently. "I'll have to convince my editor to send me away on assignments more often if this is the reception I receive when I come home." She shifted in the bed so that she was lying on her back. She stretched her arms around Harry's shoulders and pulled him back down on top of her. "Do you have it in you for a second round before the kids wake up? We probably have about a half hour until Albus wants to check up on that bloody crup." Ginny's eyes glinted with the challenge as she wiggled suggestively under Harry.

"Hagrid didn't mean anything by giving it to him. We're lucky he didn't bring a blast-ended skrewt to dinner. And remember, as far as I know, that is a dog with a strange genetic defect making its tail slightly off. It is not an unregistered crup," Harry said in defense of his giant friend. Harry reflected on a dinner from a few months ago when Hagrid had arrived with a young dog tucked under his coat. Albus instantly lit up upon seeing the creature. Harry, although knowing that Ginny would balk at the gift, did not suspect anything suspicious until he noticed that the puppy had an oddly forked tail.

"Harry, please focus. You're running out the clock," Ginny said as she ran her finger down Harry's shoulders to tap emphatically on the place where his watch would normally sit. Harry leaned down towards Ginny and closed the space in between them with a kiss.

The pair wrongly assumed that they would remain uninterrupted due to the earliness of the hour. While the children were still sleeping off their jet-lag from the previous weekend, a loud knock seemed to magically reverberate throughout the house. Harry froze atop Ginny.

Without thinking, she quickly rubbed her hand up and down his back to calm him down. "It has to be family. They're the only ones who could get past the Fidelius here," she said hurriedly in a calming tone. As Harry calmed, Ginny became agitated. She rolled out from underneath Harry and slid to an upright position on the edge of the bed. "Although whoever it is might not be family for long after this interruption. So help me Merlin if it is Ron again. I mean honestly, do they have any idea what hour it is?" She angrily shoved her feet into her slippers and swung her bathrobe over her shoulders. She hastily tied the belt.

"Erm, Gin-" Harry started. She rounded on him with a fiery expression. Harry gestured to his chest indicating that she needed to readjust the top of her robe.

She huffed as she pulled the fabric to cover herself, then she stormed out of the bedroom. Harry slowly sat up and ran a hand through his messy hair. He searched for his discarded pajama pants and cotton shirt from the night before and quickly dressed. He wrapped himself in his own bathrobe and shoved his feet into his slippers. He looked longingly at their bed as he left the bedroom with a sigh.

"Daddy, who's at the door?" A six year old Lily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she stood in the doorway of her bedroom.

"No one you need to worry about sweetie. Mummy and daddy will take care of it. You go back to sleep," Harry said as pulled his daughter against his hip for a quick hug.

"But I'm already awake," Lily pouted. Harry pulled away from her and looked at her eyes that were so like Ginny's. Stubbornness exuded from every feature, and Harry knew he would not be able to coax her back to sleep.

Harry sighed. He kneeled down to her level. "You can stay in your room and play with your dolls until mummy and daddy call you down for breakfast. Just don't tell mummy," he said with a wink.

"Okay," Lily replied joyfully. She turned away from her father and closed the door behind her as she went back into her room.

Harry turned to head downstairs. Now that he focused on it, he could hear strained whispers coming from the foyer.

"Bill, it is eight in the morning on a Saturday. What in Merlin's name are you doing here?" Ginny demanded.

"Have you seen last Tuesday's Prophet?" Bill asked.

"I haven't" Ginny huffed. "I don't normally make a habit of looking at old newspapers at eight in the bloody morning on a Saturday, especially when I have a chance to be alone with my husband for the first time in weeks," Ginny said pointedly.

Bill regarded his sister's hastily clad appearance. He looked simultaneously sheepish and uncomfortable. "I'm here to speak with Harry anyways," he said after a pause. At the sound of his own name, Harry entered the foyer. Bill reached into his back pocket and took out the offending copy of the Prophet. The newspaper was folded open to an article. Bill held it so that his sister and brother-in-law could see the page. Ginny quickly read the headline aloud: "'Dumbledore's Army Reunites at Quidditch World Cup.'" She snorted rudely when she read the byline. "'By the Daily Prophet's Gossip Correspondent, RIta Skeeter.' Bill if you got me out of bed for that woman, you have five minutes to get out of my house before I hex you back to yours." GInny crossed her arms over her chest which caused her bathrobe to once again shift to a less-than-suitable level of concealment.

Bill looked bast his glaring sister. "Harry,can we talk?" Bill pleaded.

Harry sighed and ran his hand nervously through his hair. "Sure," he said. "Gin, could put the pot on for some tea?"

"Take care of yourselves. I'm going back upstairs and will be doing the same," Ginny growled as she spun and stomped up the stairs cursing under her breath about lack of boundaries and the need for a new Fidelius Charm. Harry's eyes followed his wife up the stairs longingly.

"Sorry about that mate. I'm sure I'll get it next time we're at the Burrow," Bill sighed as he followed Harry into the kitchen.

"It's fine. She'll be over it by the time she has some tea," Harry said as he sat at the kitchen table with his brother-in-law and began sending the items for tea zooming around the kitchen with a flick of his wand. "Let me see it," Harry said as he extended his hand across the table. Bill slid the paper to Harry. He watched Harry read as he absentmindedly dipped the tea bag in and out of the hot water.

"I don't see what the problem is, Bill. It certainly isn't the worst thing Skeeter has ever written about us. Although the bit about Lorcan and Lysander is certainly uncalled for. They're barely a year old. Skeeter can count her lucky stars that I don't think Luna has ever picked up a copy of the Prophet in her life."

"You really don't take issue with the fact that she portrays my daughter - your niece - to be a harlot?" Bill asked accusingly as he took a sip of his tea.

"Sure, but also according to this Ginny - your sister - is supposedly engaging in spousal abuse," Harry countered as he took a sip of his own tea. "You need to take these things with a grain of salt, Bill."

Bill pulled the offending paper over to him and began reading aloud from the second to last paragraph. "'Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Bill Weasley might like to know that their beautiful, blonde daughter Victoire seems to be attracted to any dark corner where Master Lupin happens to be lurking. The good news is both of them seem to have invented a method of breathing through their ears. I can think of no other reason how they have survived such prolonged periods of what, in my young day, was called 'snogging.''" Bill silently put the paper back down.

Harry winced. "I'll agree with you, it's not the best thing that's ever been said about Vic and Teddy. But Skeeter has said loads worse about all of us."

"That's the problem, Harry. It's fine when she talks about me or you, or my sister for that matter. We're adults, we can handle it. This is my fourteen-year old daughter we're talking about. I'll like to see how you respond when Skeeter is sexualizing Lily when she's still three years away from finishing Hogwarts." Bill angrily tossed the paper aside.

Harry felt sick at the thought of Lily being discussed in the papers in any manner. His sons earned their bit of coverage about misbehaving honestly, but Skeeter had no right prying into the timid explorations of teenagers. "I'll talk to Ginny. She can probably use her connections to make sure the kids are off limits in the Prophet. I'm sure that'll make the coverage on us worse, though." Harry started to drum his fingers on the table as he brainstormed a solution while dreading the retaliatory articles Skeeter would write.

"We've made harder sacrifices for them," Bill said in a restrained tone. He looked thoughtfully at the article. "I'd appreciate Ginny reaching out," he said after a moment.

"Bill, you could have asked Ginny yourself. In fact, I'm sure it would have been a more meaningful ask coming from you," Harry mused as he looked at Bill. The older man refused to make eye contact as he continued to stare at the offending article. "What else did you want to talk about?" Harry asked after several silent beats had passed.

"Do you know if they're together?" Bill blurted out.

"Who? Vic and Teddy?" Harry asked.

"Fleur says they are are. She says Vic hasn't told her yet, but she says this is something a mother 'just knows.' They were quite — well 'smitten' is too weak a word and 'intimate' is too strong a word —"

"Glued to the hip?" Harry supplied.

"Yes, thank you. They were glued to the hip at the World Cup," Bill took a long sip of his tea after he finished talking.

"I don't know if they're together. I hardly ever see Teddy alone anymore. James follows him around like a lost puppy. But Teddy hasn't hinted at anything going on between them. Why don't you ask Vic? I'm sure she'd come clean." Harry took a contemplative sip of his own tea.

Bill winced at Harry's suggestion. "I can't ask her. I mean, obviously, I can ask her, I'm just not ready to ask her. In my mind she is still eight years old, and I can make her day by taking her up on the broom with me. I'm not ready for fourteen, I'm not ready for dating drama," Bill constantly twisted his mug against the table.

Harry tried to read his face, but there were so many emotions appearing there. Harry could recognize some of the fatherly concern that flitted across Bill's face, but he also knew that there was something there that he had not yet experienced and therefore could not glean. Harry's voice softened. "I would tend to agree with Fleur. If they're not together yet, then they're heading in that direction." Harry pushed the newspaper to the far corner of the kitchen table. "But I don't think you need a shit article to point that out to you. And I don't think you're here to discuss Skeeter's disgraceful ethical boundaries." Harry said.

Bill was silent as he continued to twist his cup in his hands. "Have you had the talk with Teddy?" Bill blurted suddenly.

"The talk?" Harry asked with complete ignorance. Bill looked at Harry with a pointed and pleading look.

"The sex talk?" Harry clarified, his voice rising nearly an octave. "Blimey Bill, Vic's barely fourteen! They're not having sex." Harry said definitively. But at the look on Bill's face, his confidence on the matter wavered.

"Teddy's just turned sixteen" Bill said miserably. "How old were you?" he asked accusingly.

Without thinking, Harry's eyes rolled towards the direction of his bedroom where Ginny was. Bill tactfully ignored Harry's gesture. "Bloody hell, why do I have to do it?" Harry changed the subject with indignation. "It's not like Vernon Dursley every sat me down and talked the birds and the bees," Harry grumbled sounding momentarily much younger than his thirty-three years.

"And that's why James was born weighing over a half stone six months after the wedding. No offense to Ginny, but I don't want a repeat of that for Vic," Bill mumbled.

Harry ignored the slight. "What about Andromeda. She has custody of Teddy and he lives with her," Harry argued back defensively.

"Well mate, you were sixteen years old once. How closely would you pay attention if your sixty-year old grandmother was telling you the exact right moments to perform the right contraceptive charm?"

"Dunno, I didn't have a grandmother, did I?" Harry said crossly.

"Don't play the orphan-card with me," Bill laughed. "You're the godfather. This is squarely in godfather territory. Think of it as practice for James and Albus."

Harry thought he might be sick at the turn of this conversation. "Yeah, good logic. I'll be sure to remind Charlie of his godfatherly duties," Harry fired back after a moment.

"That's different."

"How?" Harry challenged.

"Bill shrugged his shoulders. "Fleur and I are alive," he said lamely.

There was a moment of silence. "I didn't really think about them dying when I agreed to be his godfather," Harry said quietly.

"Given that you were seventeen years old and had just escaped Voldemort with several captives in tow, and you had never even held a baby before, I don't think you fully considered Remus's request with the gravitas it deserved. And I'm sorry, of course you didn't expect them to die. But this is where we are, and you're stalling. You need to talk to Teddy, and preferably sooner rather than later." Bill's voice turned serious.

"Where do I talk to him," Harry asked, defeated.

"Take him out to dinner alone."

"He'll be suspicious."

"Pretend it's for your birthday. Invite him to dinner here. But suddenly, Ginny and the kids have a prior engagement they forgot about," Bill said with a shrug.

"Bloody wonderful birthday present," Harry mumbled.

"Yeah, it is. If he treats my daughter right, then your godson's bollocks stay where they are supposed to be" Bill said.

Harry could not make himself laugh a Bill's joke. "Ugh," he groaned. "Do you have any advice?"

"Only don't do what dad did. He of course went on a muggle tangent which had me thinking about whichever poor muggle he had asked. On second thought, I was dad's first go around and he had six chances. So you may want to ask him. But other than that, I don't have any advice. I don't have to worry about it for six more years." Bill leaned back in his chair extending his long legs and crossing his arms.

"You all of a sudden seem quite cool, calm, and collected about this whole thing," Harry said accusingly.

Bill blinked at Harry and sat up straight. "I'm not really, but I don't have any power over the situation. They either are dating or they start dating or they don't do anything. The goal is to raise them so they can make their own decisions. Sometimes they'll be wrong and sometimes they'll be right. But it's our responsibility to give them all the tools so they know how to make the right ones. Which is why you need to talk to Teddy and stress the value of abstinence as a viable option. And you probably want to mention that I break curses for a living, which means that I know how to cast some pretty gnarly ones."

"Yeah, sure. I'll get right on that," Harry said sarcastically. He drained his cup of tea and looked out the kitchen window before turning back to Bill. "Are we good? I'll talk to Ginny about the Skeeter thing and I'll talk to Teddy—"

"Sooner rather than later," Bill interrupted.

"Yes, sooner rather than later," Harry agreed.

"Then we're good," Bill said as he clapped his hands together and pushed himself away from the table. "We'll see you and Ginny and the kids at mum's on the twenty-eighth for your birthday, right? They're dying to hear how the Cup went and how everyone from the DA is doing."

"Yup, we'll be there."

"Well I'll let you get back to my sister. Sorry for interrupting your morning," Bill said with an uncharacteristically sheepish expression.

"Yeah, thanks for that," Harry grumbled as he punched Bill in the shoulder. "I'm the one that has to deal with an angry-Ginny for the rest of the day because you made her mad this morning."

"I'm just amazed you manage to stay in bed past eight at all with three kids. Fleur and I haven't slept past seven since Dominique was born."

"Whatever," Harry grumbled. "Go home Bill. I'll see you later."

"Sounds good. And thank you, Harry," Bill said sincerely as he walked through the door that Harry held open and made his way to the end of the drive so he could apparate home.

Harry closed the door behind his brother-in-law. He turned towards the stairs and slowly walked up to his bedroom.

"Has Bill left, then?" Ginny asked when Harry entered the room. She had a book in her lap.

"Yup," Harry said.

"What did he want?"

"You to reach out to your contacts at the Prophet to make Skeeter stop writing about the kids."

"And what else?" Ginny pried sagely.

"Nothing," Harry lied.

"Bollocks. You were downstairs for an hour. And if that's all he wanted, that's not enough of an excuse for me to not to hex him the next time I see him. It's been a while since I've had a reason to cast a good bat-bogey for old-time's sake," Ginny thought aloud.

"He's worried about Vic and Teddy," Harry confessed automatically.

"What is with my brothers. Why can't they just let the girls in their lives date and not act like over-protective nutters. I mean really. When I was dating Dean —" Ginny started to rant.

Harry interrupted her. "No, it's not that. He wants me to have the sex talk with Teddy," Harry said morosely.

Ginny regarded Harry and burst out laughing.

"It's not funny," Harry countered.

"I'm sorry, but is Bill serious?"

"Yes, he sounded very serious."

"Teddy hasn't even realized that Vic likes him yet!" Ginny exclaimed as she folded her legs and sat on her knees eagerly.

"Then why is Skeeter writing about the two of them kissing at the World Cup?" Harry countered.

Taken aback, Ginny looked at Harry with a thoughtful expression. "It's Skeeter, she could be lying."

"Or, beetle Skeeter could have seen something that Vic and Teddy didn't want any of adults to see," Harry countered as he sat next to Ginny on the bed and rubbed his knees.

Ginny thought about this for a moment. "Well, good for them. They make an adorable pair, don't you think?"

Harry absently responded, "Yeah, sure."

"But if they are in a relationship, then you definitely need to talk to Teddy."

"Yeah, I know, Gin," Harry responded shortly.

"Don't get cross with me. I'm only trying to help." She sat back and glared at him. She swung her feet around the edge of the bed and moved to sit next to Harry.

"You can help by taking the kids out to dinner next Thursday. Then Teddy and I can have the place to ourselves while we talk," Harry said glumly as he stood up and shrugged out of his bathrobe.

"I can't do Thursday, I have a deadline for the post-World Cup analysis. And I know I'll be waiting on Krum's quote until the last minute. I can do Wednesday," Ginny said as she stood and walked over to her dressing table which held her small leather clad planner.

"That should work. I can get Kingsley to cover for me at the post-cup ICW Security Warlock debrief," he sighed as he ran his hands through his hair nervously.

Ginny moved back over to Harry and sat next to him. She ran her hand supportively up and down his back. "Don't worry about it Harry, it's not too bad. Anyways, as a source with first-hand knowledge, you know what you're doing regarding the matter," Ginny moved her hand to the back of Harry's head and pulled him towards her for a kiss.

"Ginny, the kids will be up in a minute. Lily's already awake," Harry replied huskily.

"I may or may not have put a locking charm on their bedrooms," Ginny whispered breathily against his lips. "Plus, there are a limited number of days for you to get in enough research for your talk with Teddy," Ginny laughed. She kissed Harry deeply.

"Ah yes, research," Harry said as he twisted his hand in Ginny's long hair and laid back on the bed.

"Mum! I can't open my door!" Albus screamed from his bedroom next door.

Ginny sighed against Harry. "Harry Potter, you better stress the use of contraception very strongly to young Teddy," she grumbled as she slipped back in her robe and moved towards the door. Harry watched her leave the bedroom.

He smiled to himself. He could not help feeling happy for Teddy: he was incredibly lucky to have snagged a Weasley girl.