Ch 45
Epilogue
"MUM! Have you seen my new dress robes? They are not in the trunk like you said they were!" a voice called from upstairs.
"Look in there again, Marissa. If they aren't there then look in your closet," Ginny yelled back up the stairs balancing her daughter's owl in his cage in one hand and her books in the other.
"Here," Draco walked in and grabbed the books from her setting them down by the door. "What is she yelling about now?"
"Her new dress robes. Again," Ginny sighed giving him a resigned smile, holding out the owl's cage.
"Take Chloe and I'll go look."
She shoved the owl into Draco's hands and ran up the stairs.
"Did you find them?" Ginny walked into her eleven year old daughter's room.
"Yes…under everything in the trunk," Marissa locked it and turned around.
"Are you sure you have everything?" Ginny asked looking quickly around the room full of everything from her own drawings to Quidditch posters to a photo of a dragon her Uncle Charlie had taken.
"YES, stop asking," Marissa said grumpily, grabbing her trunk and dragging it out of her room. Ginny cast a levitating spell on it and they followed it down the stairs.
"You take forever!" a voice piped up from the area of the kitchen. Marissa's ten year old brother came out with a cookie in his hand. Marissa just stuck her tongue out at him.
"Stop," Draco said, heading off the argument before it began.
"Alright…trunk, books, owl, wand…anything else?" he asked Marissa who shook her head, causing her long strawberry blond hair to float around her shoulders.
"When can I go?" Devon asked, knowing full well he needed to be eleven. His father shot him a look and he quickly ran down the hall to find his shoes.
"I'm ready!" a chorus of voices yelled.
Ginny turned and found the littlest Malfoy's running in from the living room, each in their respective pair of shoes.
"See, even eight year olds can get ready faster!" Devon shot out to Marissa.
"Sod it, Dev," Marissa mumbled.
Ginny could tell that their oldest daughter was clearly nervous about entering her first year at Hogwarts. She had confessed she was nervous about the Sorting Ceremony, having parents from rivaling houses. Each parent had assured her it didn't matter which house she was sorted into, as long as she did her best and behaved.
"Are Uncle Ron and Aunt Samantha here yet?" Devon looked out the window of their house on the outskirts of London.
"Any minute now," Ginny said, bending down and tying shoes.
She had thought it was a cruel joke when the healer at St. Mungo's said they were going to have triplets. She and Draco thought that three would be a nice number, but that was total number of kids, not all at once.
Apparently, Ginny and Draco were told, if they had paid attention in Astronomy, to the bit of Astrology they had covered, if you conceived when Mars was aligned with Venus and the moon was full…Ginny was completely lost after the first few sentences the healer had expounded. But, in a nutshell, your chances of multiples were MUCH higher if conceived at this time…which explained Fred and George.
The triplets were born on their twin uncle's birthday, April 1st and Draco had laughed until he almost fell down when he found out his triplets were to be born on that day. There had been many twists and turns thrown their way in the past eleven years but he truly thought that triplets were the funniest one yet. That was the one point Ginny didn't agree with him on.
Devon was the only one born right on his due date of February 20th, and Ginny was fortunate enough to give birth to him the normal way. She was delighted when his dark blue eyes changed to hazel, and always thought he was cute with the blond hair and dark eyes.
The eight year olds weren't identical, and Ginny was grateful for that small favor.
Derek looked just like his father, blond hair and the same blue eyes; Erin (named after Samantha's middle name) had the strawberry blond hair and hazel eyes and Dixon had darker blond hair and also the hazel eyes.
Ginny had no intention of naming all her boys with the letter "D" but after Hermione had given Draco some Muggle Baby Name book he thought these names had strong sounding meanings and Ginny wasn't about to say "No" since she actually liked the names too and he seemed to be into something that was Muggle, even if it was a book.
And, poor Hermione had experienced the same Astrology line up as Ginny had. They had blamed all this on their husbands as they had decided to vacation at Draco and Ginny's house in Spain and conceived the children at the same time. Harry and Hermione had their triplet girls two days before Ginny gave birth. Triplet Potter girls that were exactly like Hermione intelligence wise, except they all loved flying and Quidditch. Luckily her girls weren't identical either and fit the broad spectrum of looks; two with their father's green eyes and one with Hermione's brown.
A loud pop sounded in the foyer and Devon went running to his Uncle Ron, who swept him up in a manly hug then set him down.
"Hey everyone," Ron held an owl cage in his hand and James came walking behind him, followed by his younger brother Jeremy who was nine and promptly tackled Devon until their fathers grabbed them by their collars and held them up off the floor.
"We're just playing!" Jeremy protested.
"Knock it off," Samantha said sternly, patting Erin's head then bending down to tie her shoe.
"Are Harry and Hermione meeting us at the station?" Ron asked and Ginny nodded.
So, with a lot of scrambling around, lots of hand holding and the rules explained yet again about side along apparition
the entire group disapparated from Ginny and Draco's foyer and appeared in what was a designated safe spot at the
station for them to apparate into. Making sure no Muggles were anywhere near their magically camouflaged area, they all
ducked out from behind a pillar and began the walk to Platform 9 ¾.
Ginny reached for Draco's hand, not quite sure how she was feeling sending her daughter off to school. She was a
bit settled in the fact that this was Jillian and Cassandra's third year.
It was Brian's second year and Harry had made him promise to help his friends in anyway he could. Being twelve he had grumbled about it but had to agree when Harry threatened to come to his Common Room in Gryffindor everyday and pick him up for his first class.
Draco squeezed Ginny's hand. He was to apparate into Hogsmeade with Harry in about two hours and get ready for the
new students to arrive.
"She'll be fine. I'm there every day you know," he said quietly to her, watching Ron and Samantha (who had to hold her hand) go through the barrier and Ginny made sure her nephews got through ok before her family went through and appeared before the large red train.
Marissa halted and Ginny ran into the back of her. Marissa had only seen the Hogwarts Express once last year when Hermione brought her with them to pick up Brian from school but it was still an impressive sight.
"Keep going. I see Brian up ahead," Ginny placed a hand on Marissa's shoulder and steered her towards a group near the middle of the train.
Charlie and Katharine were there with their 13 year old daughters, third year Gryffindor's who were very excited about having their cousins come with them. However, they were up the platform, talking to a few blokes that were fourth years.
"Hi Brian," Ginny said and he gave her a small smile, looking as if he would rather be on the train with his second year friends then standing here with two first years and their siblings. Charlie waved before he was attacked by Erin, Derek and Dixon.
Draco looked up and saw an empty car and the group followed him and paused outside the door.
"Have a great year," Hermione knew better than to kiss her twelve year old son so she squeezed his shoulder.
"We'll try not to ruin your room too much," piped up Laura and she received a dark glare from her older brother. Her other sisters were busy talking with Erin about a new book that they had read. Dixon and Devon were now ogling the train and the steam rising up from the smokestack.
"Kirstin, Taryn, come say goodbye to your brother," Hermione motioned them over and they came running up to Hermione.
Brian had told them no hugging on the platform so they had gotten that out of the way at their house.
"Alright Brian, I'll see you in a couple of hours. Have a good trip," Harry said and felt Taryn slip her hand into his and he grabbed it.
"I will. Got lots of candy and magazines and Carl said he was bringing Exploding Snap."
"Keep your eyebrows this time!" Marissa teased him and he rolled his eyes.
The whistle sounded and all the parents on the platform started saying goodbye to their children going off to their first semester of school.
Marissa let her aunt and uncle hug her and even let Ginny give her a small hug. Draco kissed his daughter on the forehead and whispered something to her, causing her to laugh.
The Weasley's, Potter's and Malfoy's watched their children climb up the steps and a minute later saw them moving around in a car, setting their trunks up on the racks with the help of the Prefects. Marissa and James sat by the window, opposite each other and for a moment, Ginny remembered her waving to her mother through the same window.
The train blew one last warning whistle and the doors clicked shut.
Ginny raised a hand and waved and was happy to see Marissa wave back. Devon and the triplets were jumping up and down yelling 'goodbye' at the top of their lungs. Laura rolled her eyes and stayed near Hermione's side. Kirstin was looking around for anyone she might know, but gave up and gave a half hearted wave to Brian who had settled in the car behind his friends.
Soon, the train began its slow movement out of the station and a few minutes later it was just a speck in the
distance.
Samantha let out a huge sigh and Ron handed her a tissue.
"We'll see him in October at Parent's Weekend, mum!" Jeremy said with his way of making her feel better.
Ron and Harry looked at each other and Ginny could see they were both remembering the seven years they had taken this train.
"Let's go," Devon tugged his mom's hand and with Draco, Bill and Katharine's help they shepherded everyone back through to the Muggle side.
"Let us know who gets sorted where," Ron said to Draco and Harry.
"I'll owl as soon as I can," Harry said and Draco agreed.
"Are Marissa and James trying out for Quidditch?" Hermione asked as they walked towards the apparition point.
"Yea…apparently Oliver Wood's son is on the Gryffindor team. He's a fourth year," Draco said and Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"I hear Percy's son is in Slytherin, a second year," Ginny said with a note of wistfulness.
Percy kept in contact occasionally but had gone and married, finally, Penelope Clearwater and they had one son whom both Draco and Harry taught. He wasn't really into family and kept to himself.
"Strange seeing the kids of people we went to school with," she said half to herself.
"Not half as strange as teaching them," Harry and Draco said in unison.
They exchanged a few more words until the kids became rowdy and they each apparated home…but Ron, Samantha and Jeremy were going to Ginny's for a late lunch.
Two hours later, Draco left their large house for Hogwarts via Hogsmeade, with the promise of coming back with detailed notes on how Marissa and James were handling their first day of their first year.
And, later that evening, after dinner two owls flew in through the open window, dropping an envelope onto Ron's lap and Ginny's.
Ginny tore it open and recognized Draco's handwriting. His had one word.
Ravenclaw.
Ginny looked up and saw Ron flip his note open from Harry. He let out a whoop.
"Gryffindor!"
Samantha squealed and hugged Jeremy then Ron.
"Well?" Ron asked and saw a look of astonishment on Ginny's face.
"She's in Ravenclaw."
Ron's jaw dropped open.
"Holy sh…crap! RAVENCLAW? She's going to be another Hermione if she has a brain that got her in there!" Ron patted Ginny's leg.
"Needless to say…this will be a very interesting journey," Ginny folded up the letter and stuck it in her pocket, not quite sure how she felt about her house and Draco's house totally being bypassed. Marissa must have something special in that quick brain of hers to be sorted into Ravenclaw and she couldn't wait to see how that manifested itself as her daughter grew under the care of the new Headmistress, Professor McGonagall.
Ginny made a mental note to write a retired Albus Dumbledore about James and Marissa; she wondered what he would think of Marissa in Ravenclaw.
"Well," Samantha began after being quiet for a moment. Devon and Jeremy looked up at her from their game of Chess.
"That's one way of starting a whole new generation of Weasley-Malfoy children. Put them in a house all their own and have them make their own niche."
Ginny thought that sounded like the best explanation, but she wouldn't know if it was totally true until all of her and Draco's children had entered Hogwarts, which wouldn't be for another three years.
*****
A/N: I will most likely pick up the sequel from here. What I plan on doing is rewriting this just a bit for the first chapter of the sequel then posting it---so they will be up at the same time. I have named the sequel Dragon Tears: The Next Generation! It's up there now!