Albus Potter, Friends and Foes

Ch 31 A Difficult Start to the Christmas Break

Thursday December sixteenth at dinner Harry told Ginny, "I'm having the kids come back home via the Floo tomorrow. The Autumn at Hogwarts has been uneventful, and there does not seem to be any need for Rose and Scorpius to be on the train. While sometimes prefects help to keep order on the train, there does not seem to be any need of keeping order with this group of students."

"You are still worried about an attack on the train," Ginny reflected.

"Things are too quiet," Harry sighed rubbing his forehead and fluffing his bangs to cover his scar per his old habit. "All the signs are that something big is going to happen, but we have no idea what."

"Teddy coming back is pretty big," Ginny countered.

"Yes, and so far there is no sign that The Pirate Witch Queen knows that he escaped, who he was, or that Teddy brought excellent maps of the island and much other intelligence as well. We have just had to hide any hint of that, including letting some very bad people escape so as to not hint at the maps we have."

"I asked my brother Charlie about having Ivana come back sooner," Ginny sighed, changing the subject, "but he wants no part of it. I have written to Ivana trying to prepare her for how sick her adopted father is."

"Has she written back?" Harry wondered.

"Just to thank me," Ginny replied. "She did indicate that dragon tenders do not admit it when they are hurting."

*

Friday December seventeenth the Hogwarts Express brought the Hogwarts students back to London. Albus, Rose, Cleo and Scorpius took the Floo in the office of the headmistress direct to twelve Grimmauld Place. Scorpius and Cleo almost immediately took the Floo to Malfoy Manor.

Harry met the train, and picked up James, Lily, and Hugo. They also picked up Ivana, Charlie's adopted daughter, along with Jane and some other students that lived in the Grimmauld Place area. Jim Snook had another Auror automobile to pick up more students. There was a large contingent of students living in the Grimmauld Place/NewBright Street area going to Hogwarts.

Once they were in the garage of Grimmauld Place, the other students scattered to their homes. Harry and the students, James, Lily, Hugo and Ivana went up the stairs from the subterranean garage into the Potter's Grimmauld Place home.

Ginny was sitting at the kitchen table, along with Minerva, Albus and Rose, and Hermione was pacing around the room. It was obvious that something was going on.

"Please sit down," Ginny informed the group.

Once they were all seated, Harry started, "Teddy is back, wounded but back." Albus and Rose knew this, but none of the other children did. Harry continued, "He is wearing an artificial leg some of the time, but he is just getting used to it. He also looks rather battered. He is in hiding at the New Burrow, and we are going to be doing spells so none of you will be able to talk about Teddy when anyone who is not in on the secret is around. No one can learn about Teddy's escape!

"To complicate matters, Victoire is pregnant with Teddy's child, and they are married and living together at the New Burrow, along with Maria Guadalupe, Pippa's child, who was fathered by Teddy when he was undercover."

"How is Victoire handling that!" Albus asked.

"Amazingly well," Ginny stated. "She knew that Maria was Teddy's baby before she was born, and has known that it was not Teddy's idea to father children with other women. We will not talk about where he was or what he had to do to survive.

"Pippa, the witch that also escaped, wants her daughter raised in a stable two parent household, and so she has given Victoire permission to adopt Maria. Marie will eventually learn that Pippa is her birth mother, but Teddy and Victoire are going to raise her."