Chapter Text
Ron came over with his stuff so we could head off to Australia tomorrow morning. We needed to leave really early in the morning so Hermione was coming over for dinner to say goodbye.
When she arrived, she had a smile on her face and a copy of Witch Weekly. “It worked”, she said handing me the magazine.
I opened it up and there was a picture of me and Draco laughing in the pub and a Skeeter story about me hanging out with a death eater.
“Bingo”, I said, “has he seen it?”
She nodded, “he said to say thanks”.
I explained to Ron and Charlie that Draco had been receiving some awful post so we had Justin tip Rita off that I’d be in the pub.
We had a nice dinner and Charlie and I went to bed early to leave Ron and Hermione to their goodbyes.
Our portkey was scheduled for 7 am and would land us in Australia at 18:00. I was really stressed about leaving Charlie behind, we have slept in the same place ever since the war ended. Ron was a bit uncomfortable with all the kissing before we left but I couldn’t give a sh*t.
We landed in Sydney and the weather was lovely and warm as I threw up into the receptacle provided. I was glad to see Ron did too and we sat on a bench for a couple minutes before we headed over to the immigration line. We had to show our World Cup tickets and they led us to a real short line.
“You’re with the Scottish team?”, the woman said as she looked at our tickets.
“Guests of the captain”, Ron said proudly.
They checked our wands and gave us instructions to get to the hotel. They asked if we were dressing in kit, we should bring it with us and there would be a space to change in the box since we were coming from a muggle hotel.
We checked in and Ron was so impressed by the suite. It was super cool. We could see the opera house and the bridge. There was a bottle of Scottish fire whiskey and a note.
My darling Harry,
I am devastated that I cannot be with you tonight but I have a big day tomorrow. I have arranged tour guides for you tomorrow at 10:00 am and they will meet you in the lobby. They’ll get you to the stadium and to the after party where you will be able to toast to the World Cup-winning Scottish team.
Pining for you.
Morag
“You sure she doesn’t fancy you?”, Ron asked.
“She likes the ladies Ron”.
“Ah”.
We wandered about the waterfront for a while and then went back to the hotel to eat and try to sleep. In my luggage I found a little stuffed dragon with a note. ‘I know you need your cuddles. xxx Charlie’
When I got up, I wrote a note to Charlie and called for Kreacher to bring it to him. I think it was just before bedtime in Hogsmeade so I told him to sleep well and I love him.
We had breakfast and headed down to the lobby to meet out tour guides and we ran into Angelina and Alicia.
Turns out they were our tour guides and Alicia was Morag’s girlfriend. They had been here all week. Ron was annoyed that George hadn’t told him Angelina was here or about Alicia and Morag.
They took us to the bridge and we walked over the top, we had lunch in a cafe near the opera house. We walked back to our hotel and picked up our stuff and then we went to their’s which was a magical one and very cool. We changed there. Ron looked really funny in a kilt and the navy blue Scotland jerseys looked much better with the Bowes tartan than the Gryffindor.
Angelina took some pictures and we headed out to the stadium about 14:30 for the 15:00 start.
We were in the box with all the Scotland team’s families and friends. There were elves serving drinks. Alicia introduced us to some of the spouses and to Morag’s parents and brother who asked me to sign the picture of me and Morag. It felt weird to be signing stuff here, especially since he was also a professional quidditch player with the Arrows.
Ron and I were in the first row with Angelina and Alicia behind us. Ron and I had our omnioculars from the last World Cup and were all set for an exciting match.
I didn’t know much about the team from Laos, but clearly they had beaten some pretty impressive teams to get here.
The match was incredible - really clean playing from both teams and very close. Morag was fierce to watch and her aim with a bludger was scary. I would not want to be on the other side of her bat.
Four hours in and there was no sign of the snitch and no sign of fatigue in either team. The elves came by with dinner for each of us, but it was hard to eat and watch.
Finally, at about 21:15 after over six hours of play, the snitch appeared. I spotted it before either seeker I think, but the Scottish seeker caught it and Scotland won 470- 350.
Our box went nuts and the teams went to the main box for the awards ceremony. I hugged Ron, Angelina and Alicia - who was crying she was so happy. The whole Scottish team flew and hovered in front of our box with Morag holding the cup aloft.
We went with Angelina and Alicia to their hotel and went up to the ballroom where there was a huge party. It was probably midnight when the team appeared to huge cheers.
After a while Morag came over, she flashed a wicked smile at Alicia and then grabbed me, dipped me and gave me a kiss. I just knew this was going to be in some paper.
When I was standing again, she was staring at Ron. “I must have been misinformed, I was expecting another Weasley”.
“He would have loved to have been here, but his shoulder is still recovering from one of your bludgers. This is Ron”.
The party was still going when we headed back to our hotel at 5 am. We were both buzzing so we ordered up a couple of full Englishes and showered, changed and packed before we went to the area where we were told to use our portkeys which activated at 10:00 on what was Friday morning here.
We landed in a Ministry portkeys arrival centre somewhere, we were both sick again and I called for Kreacher to take us back to the cottage where Charlie was waiting with two pepper up potions. It was 23:15 on Thursday here and I was totally exhausted. Ron floo’d home and I barely stayed awake in the shower and then fell asleep in Charlie’s arms.
***
I was amazed at how much I had missed Harry, even though we only spent one full night apart. I slept so much better when he got home - allthough he smelled like a distillery.
Over the next couple of weeks, the fallout from the World Cup was funny. Morag sent me a framed picture of her kissing Harry with a note saying ‘you have competition, Weasley, you had better look after your man or I will’. Harry hung that in the gym.
There was a parade for the team through Hogsmeade village and all the students were allowed to go so I had to supervise them, but Harry watched with Ron and Hermione from outside the apothecary.
The next week there was a photo in Witch Weekly of Ron and Harry hugging at the match and then there was a closeup of Harry’s Weasley ring. “Have two thirds of the golden trio found love with each other?” That, of course, was from Rita Skeeter.
George and Ron were trying to come up with a new product using that.
Ron had sent a note back to Greg and it seemed to go down well. I saw him talking to Hermione between classes one day.
I found out what Harry had meant when he told Ryan about ‘that place’. Apparently Ryan mentioned that he wanted to move out of the castle and Harry just happened to own a flat above the apothecary in the village. It was vacant so he put Ryan in touch with Gringotts and Ryan let it.
I asked Harry if he had any more houses and he mentioned a block of flats in Diagon Alley. One of which he ‘may or may not’ have let to Percy at a below market rate without Percy knowing.
“But that’s it, I swear, except for the rest of the apothecary building. I own that too. Ryan is renting at market rate. The goblins set that. Percy will never find out, he just thinks he got a bargain and you have to promise not to tell him ok?”
“Are you doing something like this for every one of us?”
“I haven’t thought of anything for Ginny yet. Or your parents. Or you”, he said.
“You can strike me off your list right now”.
“That will never happen”, he said, “but I promise anything I give you will be openly - not a secret”.
“I know what you did for Ron and, now Percy. George?”
“I funded the start of Wheezes back in fourth year, but maybe that’s not enough?”
“That is fine. They have built a very successful business thanks to you plus you gave him a very expensive broom. And Bill?”
“It’s a secret”.
“Harry, what have you done?”
“Do you promise you won’t tell him? It will spoil his birthday”, he said.
“I promise”.
“Okay. This house came with three plots of land. Fleur bought one of them from me so they can build a house on it and move here. But he doesn’t know and she did pay for it”.
“Bill’s gonna move next door?”
He nodded. “Fleur hopes so - it’s the lot on the village side, but it’s actually not that close. The plots are pretty big. I hope that’s ok? I thought you’d like it if he was closer”.
“I will love it. But from now on, could I ask you let me know when you are making my siblings lives better?”
“As long as you don’t try to stop me”.
I knew at that moment that I needed to have a chat with Mia and Monty.
Everyone had agreed to the Swiss trip for the end of the month and Mia was in planning mode. She sat Harry down and mapped out the bedrooms. “You and Charlie will have to share darling. You can pretend that it is an inconvenience to Charlie’s parents”.
She and Fleur were also trying to talk us into having a party for the Solstice. “Gramps has noticed that you haven’t entertained your friends here and the Soltice has always been celebrated by the Potter family”.
“Bill can work out a way to get zem ‘ere wizzout zem knowing where ze house is”, Fleur added.
We eventually broke down and agreed. We decided that we’d invite all of the DA people at Hogwarts, my family, Draco, Anthony, his quidditch team and Lee. I’d ask Ryan if he wanted to come, but knew he may not want to hang out with his students.
Those invitations went out with a bizarre dress code that Fleur insisted upon.
On the Friday before Bill’s birthday, we all took our portkeys and arrived at the local Swiss Ministry.
***
We arrived in Lucerne and I was very proud I didn’t get sick. Fleur did though and Bill looked real worried.
We eventually all got processed and the ministry office was close enough that we could walk to the house.
It was f*cking huge. Everyone stared at me as the door opened at my touch. We walked in and I could hear Nana calling my name from a room on the left of the entry hall and so we walked into a sitting room with timber beams in the ceiling and a view out to the lake. Nana and Gramps were smiling and welcomed everyone.
“Harry will show you all to your rooms and we thought we’d give you an hour or so to rest before Kreacher serves dinner”.
I took out the floor plan that Nana had helped me to draw and first to took Mr and Mrs Weasley to their room which was on this floor and then brought everyone else upstairs.
“Bloody hell Harry, this is bigger than your house”, Ron said when we got to the top of the stairs and his mum was safely out of ear shot.
“She calls this a little holiday home”, I said lamely.
When we got to our room, there was a little balcony looking out over the lake, a very comfortable looking bed with a thick eiderdown duvet and a great, deep bath in the en-suite. There was a fireplace in both the bed and bath rooms. We had put his parents in the master bedroom so I can’t even imagine how nice that is.
I flopped down on the bed and groaned. “I’m not going to be able to give this to your mum and dad am I?”
He laughed. “No baby. But maybe you can do what you’re doing with your place in New York and let people use it”.
I opened the wardrobe to hang up our cloaks and saw some clothes in there. I pulled out a winter cloak. It was too small for me. “Charlie, I think this may be my Dad’s. From when he was young”.
Charlie gave me a hug. “Do you want me to ask Mia if this was his room?”
I nodded and he left the room. I went through the pockets and found a chocolate frog wrapper. The card was Dumbledore’s. I didn’t know how to feel about that.
I was sitting on the bed clutching the cloak when Charlie came back in and sat next to me.
“It is baby. She said the last time he was here would have been Christmas when he was 15. They stopped travelling out here after because things were getting more dangerous. Are you alright?”
I just cuddled into him with the cloak between us. “He slept here. He wore this”.
We stayed there for a while until a bell clanged announcing dinner.
I was relieved to see that the table was set simply. Bill said Fleur hadn’t reacted well to the portkey so was resting in their room.
Dinner started with something called gougeres which was like a pastry with ham and cheese and was lovely. Then for the main we had veg, geschnetzeltes (veal and mushrooms in a cream sauce) and rosti potatoes.
Percy was telling his parents about his new flat. “I can’t believe how cheap the rent is. Apparently, it’s tied to the rent from the previous tenants and they had been there for a very long time. I move in on the 1st. I was also told the landlord is open to a rent to buy scheme if I like it too”.
Charlie pinched my leg. It really hurt.
“Do you need any help moving or decorating”, I asked.
He shook his head, “No thanks, the goblins are moving my stuff and, erm, a friend is coming over to help me sort it out. She’s taking a day off work”. I bet that is Katie.
Dessert was just some local chocolates and then we all went to the sitting room where Gramps was discussing things people could do.
Mr Weasley asked me for some help with something in the other room.
“I spoke to Amos today and it is all sorted. He’ll send you through the details this week and I’ve asked Percy to arrange your portkeys”, he said.
“Thank you so much Mr Weasley”, I replied, “do you think he’ll like it?”
Mr Weasley smiled, “Harry, I can guarantee that it will be the best birthday present Charlie has ever had”.
We rejoined everyone else and then we all wandered off to bed. Charlie and I had a bath with the fireplace lit and then fell asleep in each others arms - in my Dad’s old room with the man I loved.
***
We spent the morning on a boat ride around Lake Lucerne. It was just the family on board (aside from Bill and Fleur as she still wasn’t feeling well). The water was a beautiful colour and the scenery was just amazing. It was a magical boat so there were warming charms. Elves were serving hot chocolate and there was a guide out the points of interest.
Afterwards we had a tour of a chocolate maker in the magical village and, based on Harry’s purchases, there were going to be some toddlers on a massive sugar rush at the Home.
We went back to the house and we all split up for the afternoon. Harry, Ginny and I went on a guided hike into the mountains to look for local creatures. Harry had arranged it of course, but I was surprised Ginny came. We saw quite a few golden eagles and some graphorns in the distance.
Ginny needed to pick up a gift for Bill so we stopped in the magical village on the way back.
Percy had picked up George from the portkey office (he had stayed behind to work in the shop today) and once he arrived, he decided it was happy hour, having stopped at the local market and picked up at least one of every flavour of schnapps.
Hermione had retreated to her room to study, but even Mum and Dad joined in the celebrations. Harry asked Kreacher just to make burgers and ‘fried stuff’ for dinner. It was funny to see Mum get so merry.
Fleur was down and feeling better, but drinking water and talking in French to Mia. Harry was right, they were scheming about something.
George and Ron had put some crazy music on the wireless and Ginny and a very tiddly Harry were dancing rather wildly so I took the opportunity to interrupt Fleur and have a private word with Monty and Mia. That went well so I spoke to Fleur, asking her to meet up with me next week, and then went back to watch the dancing and eventually help him up the stairs.
It was a very quiet morning on Sunday, Bill’s birthday. Harry, and seemingly all my siblings, had a lie in so breakfast was just me, Hermione, Fleur and Mum and Dad. Mum and Fleur were doing the cooking for a late Sunday lunch so Hermione and I went out for a walk after.
I asked her about Greg. She said he came up to her to apologise after he received the letter from Ron (which she had dictated). She had accepted and noticed he started to talk to a couple of other people. She thought he would be writing to Harry eventually. She also thought Harry could handle it and not to worry.
Lunch came and Mum and Fleur had outdone themselves. Bill liked the satchel I got him and the World Cup merch from Ron and Harry. Finally, it was time for his gift from Fleur. It was a deed to the land that Harry told me about. So they could build their own home next to us.
Bill was over the moon. “We’re going to be neighbours Charlie!!”
Harry was even cheeky enough to say how lucky she was to have been able to any land in Hogsmeade, much less next to ours. He is a very cool liar and I made a note to keep my eye on him.
We all packed up and took our portkeys to our respective homes and Harry was sick again.
