Chapter 14: No Way
Harry awoke the next morning with a huge grin on his face. He felt incredibly happy. It was amazing to have Hermione back in his life, though not in the way he had expected. Then there were the twins. His children. His son James and his daughter Lily. He had only known about them for a month, only lived with them for a day, but they were what were making his heart swell. It was crazy that he loved two people so much; he barley knew them at all.
Still smiling his ridiculously wide grin, Harry got out of bed and took a quick shower. It was early, around half past six, but Harry went down to make breakfast anyway. It was his first morning making breakfast for his children. The simple thought of cooking for his family widened his smile.
"What's with the grin Potty?" A voice said from the kitchen fireplace. Harry turned to see Fred, or was it George, Weasley's face flouting in green flames.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Harry responded, putting the batter he was mixing down, and walking towards the fireplace.
"You're up early."
"So are you."
"Yeah well the baby woke me up and I thought I'd pop in and see if you were still running on your Quidditch schedule." It was Fred, he and his wife Angelina had a two-month-old daughter named Olivia.
"So what's up?"
"Well George and I have some new products we want you to look at." Harry had given them the money to start their joke shop and to this day was heavily vested in it. Fred and George liked to run new products past him.
"Sounds good."
"So you'll come by the shop later?"
"Does noon work?"
"Yeah noon works."
"Have fun with, Liv."
"Oh I always do." Harry smiled as Fred's head vanished. Fred was exhausted from waking up early, but Harry knew he wouldn't trade it for the world and now Harry understood why.
At half past seven Hermione wondered down into the kitchen. Harry greeted her with pancakes and eggs. She was famished and accepted the food gratefully.
"I don't know why I'm so hungry; I'm never this hungry in the morning." Hermione said tucking into her food.
"Probably all the excitement of moving."
"Yeah probably; Lily and James took to you quickly." Harry smiled widely.
"Yeah they did."
"I'm sorry I took them out of your life Harry - I'm glad that's changed."
"Me too - so I talked to Fred a little while ago."
"The baby woke him up early?"
"Yeah, but you can tell he's happy about it. Anyway he and George wanted to talk to me about some of their new products. I was thinking I could take Lily and James with me." Hermione stopped eating and looked up at him, considering this carefully. Her possible rejection of his request made him mad. "They are my children too you know, I should be able to take them to see my friends."
"Oh no Harry you're right they're your children and that's fine I'm just hesitant about them being around products that Fred and George haven't tested yet." Harry's anger quickly evaporated.
"Oh well yeah don't worry about that I'll keep my eyes on them and we won't be in their workroom. We'll only be around things they've tested at least once."
"That makes me feel better." Harry nodded, Fred and George were great, but he wouldn't trust them as far as he could throw them.
When Lily and James came down to breakfast at eight Harry warmed up so food for them and told them his plans for the day. They were both excited. James wanted to meet Fred and George who he had heard about from his mother, though she had always spoken about them and their joke shop disapprovingly. Lily wanted desperately to see Diagon Alley.
At a quarter to noon Harry and the twins said goodbye to Hermione, who had organized her room and was now writing in his office, and went to Diagon Alley using the floo network. Lily was instantly taken in, she looked from store front to store front fascinated by absolutely everything. Harry assured her that they could look at the shops after they had been to Weasley Wizard Wheezes.
"Hey Fred, George you guys here?" Harry called as he walked into the store, his children right behind him.
"Yeah Harry, Fred's in the back and I'm just finishing up with this customer, then we'll close up the store so we can talk."
"So I'll just wait upstairs, shall I?"
"Yeah that's fine, everything is set up, up there."
"Alright." Harry said motioning for James and Lily to follow him through the shop and to the backstairs. In the early years and before either of them was married Fred and George had lived in the apartment above the shop, their brother Ron had even bunked there for a few months. But now they had houses and wives and the apartment was abandoned. Well not abandoned exactly, they still kept some food there for when they were working, and used it when they were just hanging out with `the guys'.
Harry, Lily, and James had barley been upstairs for five minutes when they heard footsteps and voices coming up the stairs.
"Well I did warn him it would do that if he played with it."
"Yes, but I don't think he could hear you warning him from across the room, while you were whispering." The twins burst into laughter which stopped dead as they came upstairs and saw Lily and James. They stood there with their mouths hanging open staring from the twins to Harry.
"Fred, George these are my children Lily and James. Kids those two are Fred and George Weasley. Ron and Ginny's older twin brothers.
"Hi," Lily and James in unison. Fred and George were so shocked they couldn't even say Hi back.
"Well how about you guys go look at some of there new products, just don't touch anything because your mother would kill me, while I talk to Fred and George quickly." Harry said. Lily and James nodded and walked over to the long table the twins had set up.
"What? Who? How?" Fred and George managed to stammer out as they walked towards Harry.
"Well Fred you do have a child of your own, you should know how."
"No, I mean how do you have kids that old that we don't know about?! And who's their mother?!"
"Hermione, their mother, didn't tell me about them until a month ago after my last game."
"Hermione!" They said in unison.
"Yeah, we had this one great night just before we left school. You guys remember that night we went out to dinner to celebrate me making the team?"
"Yeah." the twins said in unison
"Well apparently that's the day she found out. She came to my house to tell me, but when I told her about making the team she decided I deserved to have a life and decided not to tell me."
"Oh wow."
"Yeah - that's why she would never let any of us visit her or come back here for a visit."
"So what about you two? Ron told us you were going to tell her how you felt after the game."
"Well I didn't tell her obviously."
"Why not?"
"Because I was upset and I felt betrayed."
"But don't you still feel the same about her?"
"Of course I do."
"So?"
"So I want to tell her, but I don't know, now I have the twins to consider. If we started dating and things didn't work how would any of this work? I think it's best if for right now she and I just stay friends."
"No way." Fred and George said together and then George continued, "Harry you have to tell her."
"Yeah you've had ten years of bad relationships because of how you feel for Hermione, though now that we know about you 'one great night' it makes a bit more sense. You have to tell her."
"I want to I really do."
"Then do it."
"It's not exactly that easy. She and the twins are living with me now so that I can spend time with them and I'm afraid if I tell her she'll move out and I'll barley get to see my kids. I can't risk that now. I'll give it some time."
"Well," George said after a long pause, "we can only keep the shop closed for so long. So let's get down to why we asked you here." Harry nodded and they joined Lily and James at the table.
Fred and George showed them each product one by one. They were brilliant of course. Harry could tell the products were aimed at Hogwarts students. There were a couple of new Skiving Snackboxes, wristbands that made the wearer invisible the only problem with them being that the affects wore off, and numerous amounts of other products.
An hour later, with plans to meet them next Friday for dinner with the entire Weasley clan, Harry said goodbye to Fred and George and led Lily and James down to Gringotts. While helping them unpack Harry had noticed a few things they didn't have that he would like to by them. Harry also wanted to set up accounts for them so that when they went to Hogwarts they would have some spending money put aside for them (though Harry was going to keep their keys until then).
When they were done at Gringotts Harry took Lily and James to every store they wanted to see. Lily spent a good forty-five minutes wandering through Flourish and Blots looking at almost every book she got her hands on. They also looked at broomsticks in Quality Quidditch Supplies, but Harry didn't think he should buy them brooms without talking to Hermione first. Their last stop was The Magical Menagerie where Harry bought them each an owl. He knew when he got back to number twelve Hermione would get mad at him for spoiling them, but he didn't care. Buying them books and owls wasn't going to do any damage.
Hermione was amazed by the stuff Harry had bought Lily and James. She already owned most of the books Harry bought Lily, but Lily had wanted copies of her own. The owls were a bit much, but they had always loved animals and she knew they would take good care of them. While Lily and James were settling Eros and Thor -- Harry thought those were very strange names for owls, but his owl was named Hedwig so he couldn't talk --into their rooms and introducing them to Hedwig. Not until later did Harry and Hermione talk about getting the twins brooms.
Harry thought it was a good idea since they both wanted to fly. Hermione wasn't so sure; she had never been a big fan of flying herself so the concept of her kids wanting to fly failed her. But more then being confused she was concerned. They wouldn't be able to fly anywhere around number twelve, the muggles would see them. Then there was the concern for their health. Hermione was sure Harry would do what he could, but he couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't get hurt flying.
"You're right Hermione," Harry assured her. "I can't guarantee they won't get hurt flying, but I also can't guarantee that they won't hurt themselves walking down the stairs."
"But this is different," Hermione insisted. "This is putting them in a dangerous situation on purpose. You know how many injuries you got from Quidditch."
"Probably hundreds, but that was playing Quidditch, not flying - there is a difference." Hermione could see she was being stupid, but she didn't want to admit it. "Hermione I'll be with them the entire time, they'll be safe." Harry said taking her hands gently, asking her to trust him. She caved almost immediately.
"Alright Harry, I know they'll be safe if they're with you." Harry smiled at her before wrapping her in a one armed hug.
"Thanks Hermione, for trusting me."
"They are your children."
"Yeah, but I wanted to make sure it was alright with you before I told them yes. I figured this was the kind of decision parents make together." Harry said looking thrilled as he did the nervous kind of dance where he looked from her to the door and shuffled his feet. He looked like an excited child.
"Well go on then," Hermione said ushering him towards the door. "Tell them they can have their brooms." Harry smiled as he turned towards the door and left. Hermione loved seeing that smile.
AN: :::raises an eyebrow at Hermione::: oh you do do you? I don't know about these two and not saying how they feel - oh well all things come in there time - which is coming up
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