Thursday dinner found Hermione eyeing Harry and the small smirk he had when they had come back from the Longbottoms courtesy of Dobby. Harry had taken the their friend and his Grandmother aside for something and since then, he had been quite close-mouthed. She would get it out of him.
Right as the dinner was complete, however, Susan dragged Hermione upstairs saying, "Hannah's going to be here in 20 minutes. We have to get ready." Harry kissed her on the cheek and waved as she was forcefully escorted upstairs to freshen up.
At 7:59, the doorbell chimed and Susan, after a quick look at the Grangers for permission, went to the door and opened it to find Amelia Bones escorting Hannah.
Hannah started with, "The bobbies got me." To which Amelia added, "Do you know this delinquent?"
The people in the house laughed as Susan squealed and pulled her closest friend in a hug. Harry was the one who said, "Thanks, Amelia," as Susan took Hannah and Hermione toward the family room. When the girls heard him, they all turned and ran back and hugged the woman, although Hermione was slightly more hesitant. However, as it seemed to be the order of the day, she just went with it. She was much less hesitant as Harry and even the Grangers were included in the thank you hugs before once again Susan dragged the two toward the family room again.
After the girls had made their way out of the room, Harry looked at Robert and said, "It's going to be a long night, isn't it?" Robert laughed even as Emma and Amelia looked at Harry with fond annoyance. His only reply was, "Hey, I'm starting to feel quite outnumbered. Besides Robert here, I'm the only other guy." Although the smile when he said that seemed to indicate there was more to it.
Before Emma could question it, there was another chime at the door. Harry rushed to the door and opened it. Neville was standing there with Tonks and Remus with a big smile on their face. The girls had returned in response to the chime just in time to hear Harry say to Neville, "Thank, Merlin! I was starting to feel quite outnumbered with only me and Robert as the men against the gaggle of women in the house." Neville laughed even as the teenagers in the background started protesting good naturedly.
For Emma and Robert's part, seeing their daughter act as a normal teenage girl with friends and a boyfriend eased a lot of the worries that had gradually built up over the years as Hermione seemed more and more to move away from her mundane roots and more and more into the magical world.
Neville looked toward the girls and waved as he said, "Hello, girls. Harry invited me here for backup, the Longbottoms have allied with Harry here, so here I am." Even as the girls laughed at Neville's comment, they were noticing the changes in him even since the end of the year. Hermione only noticed from an objective viewpoint -- her attentions were firmly fixed -- but Susan and Hannah were not quite so objective. The two girls were very friendly in their greetings. As the adults were welcoming Remus and Tonks to their home. Robert whispered to Emma that Harry had invited the three.
Finally Robert said, "Well, it seems everyone's here. I'm going to take the boys down to the pub while you girls ... do whatever it is that you girls do when the boys are not around." Harry and Neville waved cheerfully as Neville and Remus followed Robert out of the door. Tonks just laughed and Hermione and the two other girls welcomed her into the circle of younger women. Both knew her as Amelia was Tonks' boss.
Amelia and Emma were quite amused as they made their way to the kitchen for tea and a chat.
Neville and Harry were both introduced to the game of darts as well as the pub atmosphere. Harry had gone to a bar in Harrods with Robert during the shopping trip, but this was another thing entirely. The bartender was a friend of Robert's and as a result the two teens had a chance for a taste of ale. Harry found that his seeker skills in catching the snitch in no way translated to throwing skills in darts. Robert and Remus quite thoroughly trashed them in the first games even though the two adults were far more tipsy than the teenagers after a few drinks. Neither was drunk, but both were in a happy state.
The third game was much closer as Harry found that if he pushed his magic in a certain way while he was throwing it seemed to help him. Harry whispered instructions to Neville and it seemed to help him a bit too -- after his first disastrous throw when he made his first attempt. In the end however, experience trounced magic. As far as Harry was concerned, the humiliation of losing spectacularly in the first games more than excused his attempts at cheating. Remus did stick his tongue out at Harry when the game was done as he wiggled his fingers and laughed. He had caught on.
The four men moved to the billiards table and Harry learned that his hand-eye coordination counted for much more in this game. The team of Robert and Harry beat Remus and Neville. Harry and Remus also beat Neville and Robert. And Harry and Neville won by a single ball against Robert and Remus. Harry was celebrated as the king of the table.
As it was getting close to 10:00, the four made their way down the road back to the house. Remus hit Robert with a sobering charm just in case, as he was driving. Robert's eyes gleamed at the chance to enjoy his ale and still safely get home. Harry was then made to promise to learn the spell before their vacation. In exchange, Hermione's father offered to teach him how to drive.
The four men made their way to the front door chattering away with enthusiasm about the trip to the pub. Neville never felt so ... accepted as he did at that moment. Unlike his time at home where he had to live with his gran's expectations (except when he could escape to the greenhouses) and his time at Hogwarts where he was considered either clumsy, or later treated with awe because of his work on the DA with Harry, Neville felt like a regular guy out having a good time with some friends. The fact that magic played little or no part in it whatsoever (outside of that one game of darts) mattered very little to him.
Although he prided himself in his Herbology skills as well as the skills he had learned for the DA, in the end Neville just wanted looked at as a regular guy, and as a good friend. He was getting his first taste of it, and he was looking forward to more chances in the future.
Robert had enjoyed spending time with not only Harry, but Remus and Neville as well. As a dentist, he didn't have nearly as many casual friends as he had in his uni days. The people he tended to spend time with were other dentists and professionals who spent far too much time talking shop and being "proper". He wasn't trying to recapture his youth, but he definitely enjoyed the rare chance to have a couple of cold ones and a few games with friends at the pub.
Remus had enjoyed himself as well. With the loss of his friends from his teenage years, he was not used to the easy camaraderie that he had missed these last fifteen years. Even in his later teenage years, time spent with friends was a rare commodity with the pressure of classes in the final year of Hogwarts and war after. When Sirius had escaped and they had been reunited, the problem of his fugitive status, the Order of the Phoenix activities and the troubles Harry had to endure on a regular basis still tended to distract from the chance to just have a good time. His status as a werewolf had never helped either. He still missed his friends, even Peter traitor though he was, but with Harry's new independence, the relationship with Dora and the relationships with the family of his girlfriend and now the cub's girlfriend's family, he was starting to feel almost ... normal.
Harry just reveled in the chance to have some fun away from those that would gawk and stare or try to control or attack him. He also decided that Neville was a much more fun person to spend time with than Ron ever was. Without the jealousy and need to be careful to avoid or accidentally insulting Ron's pride, Harry decided that Neville as a friend was much less stressful.
When they made it in the door, they looked around and didn't see anyone. But they heard some chattering and some giggles coming from the family room. Robert put his finger to his lips and whispered to them. They then snuck over to the door and Robert held 3 fingers up. He quietly counted down as he pulled each finger down. At zero, he pulled the door open violently and the four men shouted, "WE'RE BACK!!"
As no one in the room had expected it, every one of those in the room jumped and screamed. Remus, Marauder that he was, asked, "Miss up, ladies?" Harry just grinned along with Robert and Neville was shyly smiling as well. The girls in the room paused for a moment to settle their heartbeats, Hermione said a word to the other women, they each grabbed pillows from around the room that they had been sitting on and stood up, although Tonks, who was sitting on the floor with the teenagers, and Amelia, who was sitting in a chair as was Emma, took out their wands. .
Robert took one look at them, turned to the others and said, "Err. I think we should make a run for it." Emma and Amelia decided the four younger women had it well in hand as they sat back down. The boys could be heard screaming as they raced through the other rooms in the house as the yells of the four younger women could be heard in pursuit. Tonks, clumsy woman that she was, tripped and knocked over the three other girls. The males got a good lead because of this and made it around to the other door in the family room.
Robert led the four men with Remus pulling up the rear looking back. Robert prostrated himself right in front of Emma and looked at her with puppy dog eyes from his knees and said, "Save me?" The other males hid behind the couch and expressed their own desires to be saved, forgetting for a moment that the back of the couch faced the door that they had just come through..
Robert was so cute that Emma leaned over and kissed him before sitting back and saying, "No." Suddenly the throw pillow she had reached back and grabbed from behind her was streaking sideways into his arm, knocking him down. The other men laughed themselves silly watching his look of betrayal. The girls followed on the heels of this and looked at the scene. They looked at each other and moved forward. Tonks hit Remus with a tickling hex, as the teenage girls went for a more manual approach. Harry was soon being tickled by Hermione and somehow Neville was being tickled by Susan and Hannah. Emma had taken a look at the teenagers, looked at Robert, looked at the teenagers again and then decided that it was a suitable punishment and started in on her husband.
Finally the men had cried for mercy sufficiently, even through their laughter, that the women had taken pity on them and let them up. Everyone around the room was laughing. Neville was blushing at the same time. Amelia, who had just sat and watched, was actually laughing almost as hard as the men had while under attack.
After all had settled down, Emma looked at the boys and said, "Okay you lot. Go and get cleaned up. We're going to watch the last movie in the series."
Neville and Remus had to have it explained to them what Emma was talking about. As they moved to the second floor, Neville got lost in the explanations, although Remus admitted he had seen the movies 15 years earlier. He also admitted that he had never had the opportunity to see the last one, as it had come out at a time that he was generally keeping himself away from society.
Neville was shown to Harry's room, as it was decided that he would stay with Harry while the girls bunked together. Although he was going to miss spending the night with Hermione -- they hadn't moved much past hands but what they had done with those hands was quite exhilarating -- he was actually happy to see Hermione spend time with other girls and he was looking forward to talking to Neville more about what was happening with his life.
Everyone made it back down to the family room at about the same time. Amelia had excused herself as she had last minute politicking to do in preparation for the next day. She was planning on arriving back in the guest room by apparition after having gotten permission from the Grangers. She had told Tonks to take the night off and she would make sure that she had Aurors around her when she was at the Ministry. Tonks decided that she was sufficiently protected and chose to stay and enjoy herself.
When Remus had shown back up with the boys, Tonks and Hermione had stood up next the the large plush chairs they had been sitting in and motioned for their respective men to sit down. Tonks then sat down next to Remus, half on her own and half on his lap, and put her head on his chest and turned toward the TV screen. Hermione and Harry were both slender enough that they fit in the chair, although it was a tight squeeze. Neither seemed to mind as they got comfortable. Neville nervously say on the couch between his two Hufflepuff classmates and after they nodded to each other, each sat back and leaned against his two shoulders. He sat rock still until the girls had grabbed his arms and each placed the one they had grabbed on their shoulders before leaning against him again. Neville was getting a crash course in snuggling.
Robert came in shortly thereafter and took a look around the dim room. He saw the position each person was in, shrugged and turned off the main lights as Emma hit the remote on the VCR and the video started. He then made his way to the loveseat next to his wife and sat back to enjoy the movie.
Earlier that evening, the girls looked at the door where Robert had taken the men out. Susan had corralled the women into the sitting room for some serious gossip.
When the four had settled, Hannah looked at Hermione and said, "So, you and Harry, huh. I want details." Susan giggled as Hermione blushed.
Hermione then took on her best lecturing tone and said, "Well, long story short: He loves me, I love him, my parents are very supportive, and I have learned quite a few things." She then blushed and giggled again.
Tonks piped in, "Not that I care -- I have my wolfie -- but would some of those things worthy of envy if you said too much?"
Hermione slyly said, "Possibly."
Hannah turned to Susan, "Okay, give! What do you know." Susan looked at Hermione, who nodded before she continued.
"Well, I've been here a couple of days. Since last week when Aunt Amelia went to Gringott's, she's been involved a lot with Harry. Harry also warned her of that attack."
Hannah was surprised. "How did he know?"
Hermione said, "He won't say. He has someone telling him things and they have worked. He won't say who as it would endanger the person." Harry had refused to tell even Hermione about Fawkes.
"Wait. Harry hasn't told you? Doesn't seem like him." Hannah was confused. Everyone knew Harry talked to Hermione about everything.
"Well, except this one thing, I know pretty much everything. But because he can't say on this."
"Well, Susan, good thing your Aunt had Aurors with her."
Susan, Hermione and Tonks looked at each other. Tonks then turned to Hannah and said, "If we tell you, you have to promise it goes no further. The only reason we're willing to tell you is because we know how close you are with Susan here."
Hannah replied, "Of course. So what is it?"
Hermione paused and said, "It wasn't several Aurors. It was Tonks, Professor Lupin, Amelia -- and Harry."
Hannah was shocked. "Wait! Harry? Harry faced off against You-Know-Who again?" Everyone around her nodded solemnly. "Why doesn't anyone know?"
"He doesn't want anyone who doesn't need to know to know about it. This is actually the sixth time he's face Voldemort." The teenagers flinched. "Oh, settle down; it's just a name and made one up at that." When the three others looked confused, Hermione explained Tom Riddle and Voldemort.
"Wait! He's a half-blood? How come no one knows this?"
Hermione replied, "Well, several do. All of us, Dumbledore, the Weasleys, Draco and Narcissa Malfoy, several professors and Amelia. It came up at Sirius's will reading in a comment he made and Harry had already told me and the Weasleys."
"And what's up with the Weasleys? I see Susan, Harry, Neville, you and Professor Lupin. I would have thought the youngest would be included, especially Ron."
Hermione, Susan and Tonks all looked sad for a moment before explaining about the Weasleys' betrayal. They also explained Dumbledore's part in is.
Hannah just looked at them in shock. She would have never guessed in a million years. Finally she said, "So, what are you two doing about it?"
"Well, besides taking care of everything that our illustrious Headmaster has been hiding from Harry, we are keeping away from the Weasleys as much as possible. No one knows that Harry is with me, and Tonks and Remus report to Dumbledore that they don't know. Also, we have told Amelia pretty much everything as the head of the DMLE. After we got checked for spells and potions and got several cleared out, we got together."
Susan added, "And they sleep in the same room every night." She smirked at Hermione's embarrassed smile.
"Okay, you'll have to explain everything else later. Back to what's important. I want details. How far have you two gone?"
Hermione was hesitating, although really she wanted to brag to every girl in Hogwarts. After all, she had Harry all to herself. "Well, we haven't gone further than hands, but we've seen everything and what we do has been ..." Hermione shuddered a bit as she thought about it, "quite nice."
Susan, Hannah, and Tonks looked at her. The two teenage girls were a bit jealous but not rudely so. "And just how big is Harry Jr.?"
Hermione took on a smirk as she said, "Let's just say it will never be called 'Little Harry'."
All of the girls giggled and then pressed her for more detail. Finally, Hermione held up her hands a certain distance apart and then nodded when the two girls looked surprised. "And he's still just 15. It usually keeps growing a bit until the mid-20s. Both length and width."
"Really? I didn't know that!" Tonks said loudly.
Emma and Amelia both entered the family room right at that time. Amelia asked, "What didn't you know?"
Tonks spluttered and the girls had guilty expressions on their face, except for Hermione. She didn't know Amelia well enough to say and unlike the other teenagers she wasn't of the same age range. She wasn't embarrassed but, she was reluctant.
Emma looked at Hermione's face and then at the other girls and then asked Amelia, "Are you offended when girls talk about boys and their bits?"
Amelia looked at Emma, looked at the younger women and then let out a loud laugh. "Oh, is THAT all? I don't know about muggles, but with witches it's actually considered normal."
Emma was curious. "Why is that?"
"Well, a number of things. First of all, historically in wizarding society the woman's main role is making an heir. If there are problems, very frank and very detailed discussions about ... mechanics shall we say ... mechanics is not uncommon. Also, because of the number of hexes and curses that involve that area of the body, it just has to be common knowledge both for healers and for women in general, especially mothers. Also, witches like to gossip." She pointed at the four younger women. All smiled sheepishly and the two older women laughed.
Emma added, "Well, with us muggles, it's considered 'rude' by a lot of uptight people. Truth be told, that was mostly Queen Victoria's doing. She was brought up quite isolated by her mother, and all references to sex were removed from the history books. Before that, it was much more of an open subject. Personally, I think it's silly. Hermione and I have always had very ... complete discussions about things."
Amelia replied, "Well, that answers that. Since the wizarding world is still stuck in the 1700s, we never got around to changing the books."
All of the women laughed at that, although not very hard -- unfortunately, it was too true.
"So, anyway, Tonks. What didn't you know?"
"Hermione was explaining that a man's bits keep growing until their mid-20s."
Emma nodded her head as she had already known the fact. The others, who were not up on scientific knowledge, were a bit surprised. "As a medical professional who had to spend time in medical school before specializing in dentistry I can tell you that is a known fact."
Tonk's turned to Hermione. "So, how big was he again?" Hermione blushed and looked at the adults. Emma actually knew -- she would never tell Harry that Hermione talked so openly to her. Amelia looked on with interest.
Finally Hermione held her thumbs together and carefully moved her index fingers closer and further until she had it just about right and then help up her hands in that position in front of her face.
Amelia, who despite being older by a bit more than a generation -- closer to one and a half generations -- cleared her throat and said, "Well, all I can say is -- impressive."
Emma said, "Yes. A bit on the large side of normal for an average man but when it grows it's likely to reach this size." She held her fingers similarly to how Hermione had held hers. All of the other women in the room goggled. "I think if you last, and I can see that you plan to, you'll have quite the bit to play with for quite a number of years." Emma grinned at her daughter's blush.
Susan was a bit gobsmacked. Finally she asked quietly, "And how big around?" Hermione held her thumb and index finger so she formed a circle with them and then turned her hand toward the others. The two teenage girls looked at her hand, and then looked at Emma with a questioning look. Emma measured the circle Hermione was making with her own fingers and then adjusted them slightly to show how it would be when he had grown up fully.
Needless to say, the two teenagers who hadn't had many such discussions, especially with adults around, lapped up the information, and all the women became quite giggly with the discussion as it continued in more detail.
After an hour and a half, the two girls looked at each other and then asked Hermione about Neville, as they were not in Gryffindor. Hermione explained Neville's bravery and then offered that he was unattached. The two girls looked at each other silently until Susan said, "Share. Until he picks one ore until we decide we like it. Deal?"
Hannah nodded her head and shook Susan's hand. The other women, except Amelia, were shocked at how easily the two girls agreed to such an unusual thing. The two girls looked at each other and then looked at Hermione and said in unison, "Hufflepuff Loyalty".
The giggling continued as the discussion ranged more toward the other boy who would be present apparently.
In the middle of the discussion, suddenly the door opened violently and the men who had left earlier were standing in the door and yelled, "We're back!" They all had screamed a bit in their shock. Remus Lupin asked, "Miss us, ladies?" The women calmed their hearts and breaths and then looked at the smugly smiling males. She turned toward the other women and said, "Pillows". They all nodded and made a grab for them as the moved toward the grinning idiots. The grins melted off their faces, and then Hermione's dad said something about running and they took off. The girls took off after them.