Chapter 9: Laughter and Stress
Eleven years later…
"Morning sweetie," Harry said to his daughter who had just walked into the kitchen half asleep.
"Daddy, why do we always have to wake up at 6 in the morning???" Lillian asked, "And why may I ask on my birthday that I have to wake up at this unusual hour? You could have stopped that when I turned 6 years old. But honestly Daddy, do you still have to do that when I'm 11 YEARS OLD?"
Harry chuckled at his daughters words and said, "Go back to bed then Lillian."
"Gladly," Lillian stated as she turned around and went back to bed.
A few minutes later Lillian screamed, "AHHHHH!!!!!!!!! WHY ME?!?!?!?!?"
That was basically signaling that she couldn't go back to sleep since Harry had already woken her up.
Hermione turned to Harry and said, "What was that about? Did you wake her up early again?"
Harry looked at her with a grin on his face, "Sorta."
"Harry James Potter, don't tell me you did that for her special birthday saying, `if it's your birthday, you might as well start as early as you can', again. Honestly, Harry," Hermione sighed, "You never did wake Rose up that early. And you better not do that to our son."
Harry went over to Hermione, who was now at least 8 months pregnant with their son and said, "Hermione, of course not. He's not even born yet, so how could I?" Harry asked slyly with a smirk.
"Draco would be proud of that smirk. But Ginny and I would not. I'm going over to Ginny," Hermione said looking at Harry, "And yes I know what time it is. Ginny always is up this time of day."
"If you insist but how will our 14-year-old daughter, Rose figure out what to wear without her mother somewhere close behind her?" Harry asked innocently.
"Harry, you know she doesn't want me around her when she's deciding what to wear in the morning. She took after you with that messy black hair. Thank goodness Lillian doesn't have that problem. See you in a few later," Hermione said as she went to the fireplace.
"Hermione! Please don't go?" Harry asked very innocently as if he had something up his sleeve.
"Harry James Potter, if you start another game of exploding snap with your eldest daughter against your youngest daughter you will be in trouble later," Hermione said as she went into the fireplace, grabbed some floo and said, "Malfoy Manor!"
And she was gone. Harry had been really ornery lately. Hermione felt that she was sometimes the only sane person in the household that could keep things under control. Harry had obviously inherited some of James's personalities, the trickster ones too.
"Morning Mione," Ginny said as she cradled her newest child in her arms.
"Morning Ginny," Hermione said to Ginny as she dusted herself off, "I see Draco didn't want to get up to his newest child's cries huh?"
"Nope he didn't. Let me guess Harry woke Lillian up the same usual way he always does on her birthday?" Ginny asked.
"Yep," Hermione said, "How's Caitlyn?"
Caitlyn was the newest child in Ginny's arms. Over the last eleven years, Draco had managed to get Ginny pregnant again at least 2 more times; first it was Adrian, then a couple months after his first birthday the twins, LeAnn and Nicole had come and then only a couple of months ago, Caitlyn had come. Caitlyn had been what you might sometimes call a "oops", not literally but she just came as a surprise.
"Oh fine. It's just the waking up at 3 in the morning deal that's getting me a little on the evil side once in a while," Ginny said, "So how are you feeling? Rose hasn't been much of a bad teenager has she lately?"
"Well, not bad, but then again I guess it could be worse. Don't know where she got this rebellious stage. Seems like yesterday we had to explain what a stork was to her," Hermione answered.
"That was funny. Although, if Ginny didn't just hand that question off to me then well, I don't know where we'd be," Draco said as he entered the room, "Harry do his little ritual for Lillian on her birthday again this year?"
"Yep and I'm not surprised if he started another game of exploding snap too," Hermione said.
Draco's face lit up like a Christmas tree as Hermione had said the two magic words: exploding snap.
"Un-uh Draco; you're not going over there to play that game too. Poor Lillian, Harry's woken her up at 6 each year since she was at least 5 on her birthday," Ginny said noticing Draco's excited face.
"Oh come on Gin. You never let me go have any fun anymore," Draco said with a pleading look on his face, "and it was 6." He added hoping to win her over. He decided to add just the right touch to his face, the puppy dog face.
"No, don't give me that. You know I can't stand it," Ginny said turning away from him.
He went over to her making sure she saw his face.
"NO! Don't give me that!" Ginny said.
Hermione laughed and then said, "Ouch!"
"What's wrong Hermione?" Draco asked putting a serious look on his face this time.
"Uh, I think… it's time," Hermione answered.
"Do you want me to go get Harry for you?" Draco asked.
"Uh…" Hermione had said but then Ginny interrupted her.
"No Draco. You take her to the hospital. If you go get Harry and there is a game going on, there's not telling how long it'll be before you get Harry to Hermione," Ginny said.
"Yes dear but what about the children?" Draco asked innocently.
"Let the house elves take care of them for a while. Besides, it's still early before they wake up," Ginny said, "Now go. Don't make her wait on you."
"Alright, ready Hermione?" Draco asked.
"Yeah, can I hang on to you, you know just in case?" Hermione said.
"Sure," Draco said as he held onto her as they went to the fireplace and he said, "St.Mungo's!"
And then they were gone.
Ginny quickly took LeAnn back to her crib, told the elf nanny what was going on and for her to take care of the children while they were gone; told her to watch the Rose and Lillian if they came over too. She then left to get Harry.
Unfortunately, when she arrived the game was going on. She dodged Rose's little spell to Lillian.
"Sorry Aunt Ginny," Rose said, "Where's Mum?"
"That's ok. But-" Ginny had started to say but then Harry had got Ginny by mistake with the tongue twister spell.
"Ginny! Oh I'm so sorry," Harry said as he undid the spell on Ginny.
"Harry James Potter! Doing exactly what your wife told you not to do! Alright! Rose! Lillian! Go over to my house and help the nanny watch the kids. NOW!" Ginny exclaimed with her temper roaring.
They didn't wait for a response from Harry, they just did what Ginny said before the Weasley temper in her rose to full power. They had heard what had happened. They sure as heck didn't want it to happen again so they left immediately.
"Ginny! Calm down. It's just a game," Harry said as he went closer to Ginny.
"Calm down! How can I calm down when I have the twins wake me up at the weird hours of the night just after Caitlyn kept me up, and then I come here to see a game going on just like Hermione warned -" Ginny said but then Harry put a finger on her mouth to silence her, "So define calm down for me will you?"
"Sorry, Gin. So what brings you here that you need to send my daughters to your house to help baby-sit your other children?" Harry asked.
"That would be because you're about to have a son born to you," Ginny said getting a little annoyed.
"What? It's not even time yet!" Harry said going into a frantic stage.
"Harry!" Ginny said trying to get his attention.
"She's only 8 months pregnant. She can't be having the baby now," Harry rambled on as he paced around the room.
"Harry James Potter! She is and you're going to her. Let's go," Ginny said dragging him to the fireplace, grabbing some floo, grabbed a hold of Harry and said, "St.Mungo's!"
"Right, sorry about that Ginny," Harry said.
"Don't worry about it. Let's go find Hermione," Ginny said, "let's check the information desk."
"Hello how may I help you?" the lady asked.
"Yes, where might be Mrs. Potter?" Harry asked.
"What relation are you? Her husband is with her right now," the lady said back.
Before Harry could answer to that Ginny had already spoken.
"Excuse me but that's MY husband that is in there with her. This is HER husband right here, Harry Potter," Ginny said a little on the touchy side.
"Oh I'm sorry. I'll let you both in personally," the lady said as she got up from her chair and then said, "Just follow me if you would."
They followed her. Wherever Hermione was, it was a long way. It took a good five minutes just to get there.
Harry could see Hermione through the glass window in pain as she gripped Draco's hand.
He stopped and looked at Hermione, still a little on the nervous side.
"Harry, come on already. I'm sure Hermione wants you right now and I want my husband back!" Ginny said, still annoyed.
"Sorry Ginny," Harry said as he turned the knob of the door to the room.
Draco's eyes immediately shot up towards the door as Harry walked in.
"Harry! It's about time you got -" Draco said but Hermione had squeezed his hand again but this time harder, grabbing his attention.
"I'll take over from here Draco. You've got an angry wife outside the door. If it was anything I did then I'm sorry," Harry said as he took Hermione's hand from Draco's into his.
"Thanks for warning me. Guess that's my fault really. Since the twins and all this morning or rather late last night," Draco said.
"Yeah she kind of blew up about that. Especially since I'm not mistaken for what she said was, they came in right after LeAnn had just gotten to sleep," Harry said.
"Yeah, I know. Just hope this midnight waking up thing doesn't keep-"
"Harry! Stop chatting with Draco and get over here and help me!" Hermione screamed in pain.
"Right. Sorry Mione," Harry said as he nodded a good bye to Draco as he left.
Draco shut the door to find a really angry wife. She was pacing around still fuming with anger in her system.
"Ginny! Honey, calm down please," Draco said.
The words: calm down, wasn't what Ginny wanted to hear right now; very wrong to say at the moment.
She then apparated to the only person who could really calm her down, to Charlie.
"Ginny! Uh, are you ok?" Charlie asked as Ginny appeared before him, Ron, and Patricia at the breakfast table.
"AM I OK? I THINK NOT! FIRST IT'S ADRIAN WHO WON'T GO TO SLEEP UNTIL HE INSISTS HE HAS HIS LITTLE OBVIOUS FIT, THEN IT'S THE TWINS WHO INSIST WHO WAKE ME UP JUST WHEN I GET TO SLEEP AFTER CAITLYN'S LITTLE WAKE UP SCENE AT 2 IN THE MORNING! THEN DRACO TAKES HERMIONE TO THE HOSPITAL WHILE I GET HARRY. I GET THERE DODGING ROSE'S SPELL AND END UP GETTING HIT BY HARRY'S. AND YOU ASK, AM I OK!" Ginny said and then sighed with relief as she finally breathed normally.
"Feel better?" Charlie asked.
"Yes, I do. Thank-you," Ginny said going into his arms.
"Anything for you sis," Charlie said putting his arms around her.
"Where's Chattie?" Ginny asked referring to Charlotte, Ron and Luna's second child.
Their first child was Adam, who was a year younger than Lillian was and a little more than a year older than LeAnn and Nicole, so he was 10; and then there was Chattie, who was 3 years old.
"Ginny, it's still only at least 7 in the morning," Ron said, "She's still in bed."
"Sorry Ron," Ginny said, "Forgot. Guess it's all the weird hours of sleep that I get these days."
"Wait, did you say that Hermione is at the hospital?" Luna asked.
"Yes she is," Ginny said suddenly remembering she just left Draco there, "And I better get back to Draco. Since I kind of just left him while I was in a rage."
"Nice Ginny. Knew you'd do that to him one day, just didn't think it'd be 4 children later," Ron teased.
"Ronald Weasley, you dare to tease me when I just finally relaxed from my rage? And leave him out of it," Ginny said annoyed again.
"Sorry, Gin. Relax would you," Ron said as he got up and put his arms around her.
"Thanks Ron but I've got to go," Ginny said as she apparated out of there.
She got there to see Hermione and Harry gazing at their newborn son in Hermione's arms. She opened the door.
"Hey Gin," Harry said, "Come see James."
"Aw! He's adorable Hermione. But did either of you see where Draco went?" Ginny asked.
"Uh, well Ginny…" Harry started to say.
"Oh please Harry, don't make it seem so dramatic," Hermione said and then turned to Ginny, "He went home hoping that you'd be there."
"Thanks," Ginny said, "See you later."
She was then out of there and back home.
"Draco!" Ginny said as she appeared home.
"In here!" Draco answered.
He was apparently in their room.
"Draco, I'm sorry I ran out on you like that. I just…" Ginny said but then Draco pulled her towards him, silencing her with a kiss.
"Shh… it's ok. You were just upset and you only reacted like you normally did. It's ok. I'm just glad you're ok," Draco said, pulling out of the kiss.
"Thanks sweetie," Ginny said as she settled her lips on his.