Albus Potter, Friends and Foes

Ch 21 Another Opening Ball

Occasionally a Beta rejects a chapter, and I have a major rewrite. Thank you, Deb. Both Diane and Deb also saved me by rejecting a sentence.

*

"Cuckoo Cuckoo, wake up Ginny," the little bird sang. Ginny Potter glared at the cheery little bird coming out of the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes clock, wondering just how George had talked her into buying the clock with the cheeky little bird. Well, it was partly her nephew Fred the second, who seemed so eager for her to have the blasted clock.

"Cuckoo Cuckoo, Harry has been up for an hour and you need to be at breakfast soon," the clock insisted.

"I'm up!" Ginny snapped at the clock. The bird stayed out, and Ginny shouted, "I'm up! Go back into that blasted clock."

"I'm just doing my job," the little bird sniffed, before slowly turned around and going back into the clock.

Ginny sat naked on the edge of her and Harry's bed at the Palace in Switzerland, looking at her fully dressed husband, who was sitting at a desk looking at some papers.

Ginny wiggled provocatively. "Time for a quick shag?"

"Unfortunately no." Harry turned and smiled at his wife before getting up and kissing her and sighing with regret. "We tried to make up for a week apart last evening, but it left you rather short of sleep, and we really do have to be going. We are meeting the children in less than half an hour."

"I know you are right, but I do not have to like it," Ginny complained.

Harry hovered make sure Ginny's lack of balance would not give her any problems, and together they went to the bathroom. She came out of the bathroom with her undergarments on, and Mitzi was there to help her finish dressing. The couple and Mitzi then made their way to a modest sized dining room in the Palace.

*

"Just what are we doing today, before the opening ball?" Ginny asked again, once they were seated at the breakfast table. "Reviewing documents for an hour, and then meeting with people?"

"Just don't Bat Bogey anyone, mum," Albus teased, laughing.

Ginny scowled at Albus. It was not like she would really Bat Bogey anyone, as much as these meetings were harder on her than on her husband and son.

Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Kingsley Shacklebolt were eating breakfast in a private room in the castle with Albus, Cleo, Rose and Scorpius, along with their MELL Elves Martin Luther King P/W, the son of Dobedo and Harriet Tubman P/W, and Rosa Parks, the Malfoy Elf. Mitzi was, of course, also with Ginny, and Dobedo was with Harry, but they were eating at a nearby table, not needing to be part of the discussion at the table. Jo and Mo, the other Elves that guarded various Potters, ate at the same table, along with Frerin and Dis, the Elf guards for Albus and Cleo.

Harry was worried because of all the unfamiliar Magi attending this session of the International Conference of Witches and Wizards. There were unofficial guests as well, some of them there just to, Harry thought, cause trouble.

"Most of the parents of the MELL students, their students, and their Elves, are going to be available to meet with people from their area, or who speak their language, to answer questions," Harry explained. "There are going to be other people available as well."

"I know it is part of your job," Ginny sighed. "It is something you are very good at." She sighed again. "I can do it, if I have to. I'm just not near as good as you and Albus as listening to these complaints."

"You are one of the Regents," Harry nodded. "Ron gets out of this, and Kingsley will be with Hermione, Rose, Scorpius and Rosa. But you are just going to have to pretend you are not utterly bored or frustrated by this whole exercise."