Harry Potter was in the small conference room in the New Burrow with Teddy Lupin, Dennis MacGraw, and Dan Van Lente, looking at a map of Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and the area. It was a large map covering most of the conference table, and by shrinking the size of what was shown they could display all of not only Hogwarts and Hogsmeade but all of the Forbidden Forest.
"More Magi from Jezebel are starting to spend time in Hogsmeade and around Hogwarts," Teddy pointed out. "I am worried about all of them, but especially about these two, Celia Hernandes and Francisco Villodas."
"They have been spending time in the Forbidden Forest," Harry noticed. "I wonder why the centaurs do not notice them and say something."
"They are probably not in human form," Dennis suggested. "They are Animagi. They both take the shape of snakes, reasonably large snakes. They also transform from fully clothed Magi with their wands to the snakes and back, so as soon as they are back to human form they can perform magic."
"Can they perform magic as snakes?" Harry wondered. "I've never heard of a transformed Animagus being able to perform magic."
"I saw them transform often enough when I was on the island," Dennis volunteered. "I have no idea what powers they have as snakes. Teddy, do you know?"
"I think I only saw then once," Teddy responded, pondering. "I did not see them transform then either. I think they were off on assignment for Jezebel for most of the time I was on the island."
"Do you know what they were doing?" Harry wondered.
Teddy shook his head 'no.'
Harry looked at Dan Van Lente, who volunteered, "We do not dare reveal how good our map making has become, which is a problem. I think they have mostly been in South America, capturing people for Jezebel to sacrifice. We know that is some of what they have done, but have no idea what else they might have done."
"I will let Albus know,' Harry suggested. "He can contact the centaurs and have them look out for the Animagi. He gets more information from them than I can. I am also going to warn Minerva McGonagall and Albus about the increase in people around Hogwarts."
Everyone agreed that this was a good idea.
The group spent another hour going over all the information they had on what was going on around Hogwarts.
*
Harry went downstairs to the Closet, and Dan Van Lente left. Harry saw Molly sitting alone in the little sitting area next to the kitchen, and he went over to talk to her.
"How are you, Mum," Harry asked his mother-in-law after giving her a hug from behind and a kiss to the top of her grey hair.
Molly sighed a big sigh, and looked at Harry.
Harry pulled up a chair and sat down facing the only mother he could ever remember. Instead of trying to say anything, he just waited. It looked like Molly was close to tears. Finally, she admitted, "Losing Charlie was harder than I thought it would be. You are not supposed to bury your children. For that manner, you are not supposed to bury their spouses. I am not sure I ever grieved properly for Stribog, Charlie's partner. He is buried in Romania, and I never thought to bury Charlie next to him."
Molly gave another sigh, and Harry just waited some more.
"Stribog was not close to us, but still we were family," Molly admitted. She paused again, trying to formulate what she was thinking and feeling.
"I cannot say it was a surprise that Charlie died when he did. Caroline has worked with several patients during their last years. That is what she has done, what her job has been, for years. She was trying to prepare the family, but I guess you are never really ready to bury someone much younger.
"And he was in pain, very uncomfortable at the end. It really did take some extraordinary measures to keep him alive until he could see Ivana one last time. We did tell him, earlier in the week when he could talk, that it was all right for him to go, but that we would do everything to keep him alive for Ivana.
"So we know we did the right thing," and Molly gave another sigh, a big sorrowful one, "but it was still hard."
"I wish there was something I could do," Harry told Molly as he reached over to hold her hand. Molly, actually the whole Weasley family, had taught Harry the value of touch. Molly gladly responded, gripping Harry's hand.
"Listening to me helps," Molly replied. "You must need to get back to work."
"I really don't," Harry let Molly know. "I didn't tell anyone at the Auror office how long I was going to be gone. It is not like I am on the clock."
"Arthur has told me often how well the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is running," Molly smiled at Harry, squeezing his hand, before letting go. "We are very proud of what you and all the staff are doing to manage the Department. You and Dennis and a whole group of first line supervisors have made his job easier.
"How worried are you about Albus and Cleo?"
"It is my job to worry as head Auror," Harry admitted. "I have more sympathy for what Dumbledore went through preparing me to fight Tom Riddle. I think I am as worried about Albus and Cleo surviving intact as Dumbledore was worried about me.
"It is not easy sending people into dangerous assignments, or allowing them to volunteer. Two undercover Aurors were killed to allow Teddy to escape. Teddy is in some ways very lucky he escaped with as little damage as he did. You do not see the physical signs of damage on Dennis MacGraw, but he is far more fragile emotionally than one would expect."
"I've seen the haunted look on his face at times," Molly observed, shaking her head. "He doesn't want people to touch him, and he acts like he is afraid of little children." Molly shook her head. "This is not a house to live in if you are afraid of little children!"
"Teddy says he retreats to his rooms upstairs often," Harry remarked.
"He has a hard time eating with us when the great-grandchildren are over," Molly admitted. "Often he eats upstairs, alone. Minerva seems to be able to talk to him. She seems to know not to get too close."
"I know she is my daughter, but is Minerva as nice as I think she is?" Harry wondered.
"She really is," Molly confirmed. "She is smart, but also a very good person. She seems to instinctively know which adults want hugs and which ones don't want her to touch them."
Harry and Molly spent another half an hour talking about all the children in the family. Of course, Molly had to give Harry a big hug before he left, and he gladly returned the hug, both of them holding the hug a little longer than they normally did.
*
"Just how important are O.W.L.'s?" Ginny Wang wondered. "In some ways it seems that they are more important than graduating from Hogwarts."
Rose explained, "Many years ago many students left Hogwarts after their fifth year. Two hundred years ago you grew up fast. Magi still mature faster than Muggles, which is why we are adults at seventeen.
So, I guess O.W.L.'s do seem at least as important as N.E.W.T.'s"
"In China and India, in most of the East," Ginny explained, "There is an almost two-step process to becoming an adult. Even though most Magi stay in school until they are eighteen or so, you are allowed to do magic outside of school at sixteen, and become fully an adult at seventeen."
"Do any Magi marry at sixteen?" Cleo wondered.
"Fewer and fewer," Ginny replied. "It is mostly the very poor witches, plus a few wealthy ones where parents have found a good match.
"The odd thing is that I do not feel too young to marry. I will be sixteen next September, and although I want to finish school and have the ability to continue to learn, I don't feel like I am a child and have to wait years before marrying or having a child. I would rather wait, but I feel somehow grown up enough not to have to wait."
"The sooner the better as far as I am concerned," Cleo volunteered.
"Cleo and I are not normal, however," Albus suggested. "We've known for years we were going to marry. I would think the rest of you would want to wait."
Jesus Rios had a puzzled look as he volunteered, "I understand what Ginny is saying. I would expect we would finish this year and the next three, and then the chances are good we would marry, maybe have a child right away and maybe wait. I would hope we could continue to learn all our lives, but we may have duties, a job, right away.
"Everything I read about Muggles suggests that marrying at sixteen or seventeen is way too early, but between the marriage spells and, somehow, being more mature, marrying early does not seem to be the disaster it might be for a Muggle."
The other four looked at Rose and Scorpius.
"I can become lord of Malfoy Manor at sixteen, not before, if something would happen to my father," he let the others know. "I looked it up, and confirmed it with Aunt Hermione. I don't really want to wish my father harm, but if something would happen to him I would feel obligated to take my place as head of the Malfoy Estate, even if only sixteen or seventeen."
"Would you marry early as well?" Ginny wondered.
"I don't feel that I would be too young, if something happened, but I'm not planning on marrying early," Scorpius volunteered.
Everyone looked at Rose.
"My mother went back to Hogwarts and graduated," she insisted, "even though Uncle Harry and my father went to work for the Ministry right away. It is not that I feel that I would be too young, but education is important! I'm content to wait a few years, before having a few Granger-Malfoy children."
Rose looked at Scorpius with a shy smile, and he grinned back at her.
By all the standards of Muggles they were way too young, but Magi were different, and besides something seemed to be happening to mature the Hogwarts students quickly.
*
Easter was late 2022, April seventeenth. Few of the fifth year students were coming home for Easter break, so Monday April eleventh Harry arranged to meet with Albus and explain the situation with the Magi from Jezebel's island spending time around the edges of the Hogwarts property.
"The strangest thing is when they are usually close to the borders of the wards," Harry let Albus and Cleo know. "They seem to be concentrating their time when students are out of class but before curfew."
"I think they want us to mate," Cleo theorized.
"You and Albus?" Harry gasped.
"No, me and Scorpius," Cleo told Harry. "I can feel something, but it is just stupid, and then the rings that Albus and I wear start to glow, and, it is all just so stupid. I know all four of us have been together, and the rings start to glow, and I reach for Albus's hand, and Scorpius looks at me and reaches for Rose's hand.
"I mean, I like Scorpius, but he is like a brother or cousin or something, not someone I would want to marry! I know that is what Jezebel wants, but NO. It is not right."
"You have examined people for soap, shampoo and perfume since your first year, Cleo," Harry pondered. "Do you sense that older students are more eager to grow up and marry than your first or second year?"
Cleo had to think about that question. Albus and Harry stayed quiet; it was usually rather evident when Cleo was thinking, by her facial expressions and gestures. Finally, she explained, "Maybe. I have been trying very hard not to encourage the younger Hogwarts students, the ones seventh year and below, to have babies, even though I like babies and families, so that messes with what I am sensing. I do think that more of the students over sixteen are paring up, and eager to marry as soon as possible. Without it being discouraged I think you would have many of the seventh year students married, and I didn't sense that the first couple of years."
Harry nodded. There was no proof, but something was encouraging the young Magi to mature, and make lifetime commitments, early. And as someone who married his seventeen-year-old bride just after his eighteenth birthday he was not maybe the ideal person to say marrying early was a bad idea.
Albus told his father, "I will let the centaurs know about the snakes. I will also try to modify the maps so they show when Celia Hernandes and Francisco Villodas are in the forest."
"Once you have the maps modified, let me know, Albus," Harry told his son. "I want you to accompany me to the New Burrow to modify the maps there as well."
*
Wednesday Albus sent his father a text message saying, I have found a way to modify the maps to tell if Celia Hernandes and Francisco Villodas are close to Hogwarts.
Harry texted back, I will meet you tomorrow after breakfast.
Harry then asked Ginny, "Do you mind if I have breakfast tomorrow at Hogwarts. I need to talk to Albus."
"I'm going to bring Minerva over to the New Burrow tomorrow morning anyway," Ginny explained. "I'll just go there early and have breakfast there. I'm interviewing a few players, and then need to talk to all my stringers to make sure all the Saturday games are covered."
"Are you happy with the people you have covering the games?" Harry wondered. "I know you have been working on getting better coverage."
"All the Magi working for me are adequate," Ginny responded, "but some are better than others. There are three of them I would replace if I could find someone better. Meanwhile I am trying to spend a little time with them and a couple of the other stringers to teach them to be better writers and reporters.
"I really couldn't do this job without Mum taking care of Minerva, Mum and Victoire. Both of them seem happy to have all the little ones over there."
*
Thursday morning Harry took the Floo to the Hogsmeade branch of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and then walked to the gates of Hogwarts. Harry was bundled up against the cold. The weather was chilly and windy, somewhat cloudy and dreary, typical April weather for Scotland. He looked at Hogwarts castle. It was still the same Hogwarts, except it wasn't. From the outside the castle looked almost the same. The extra wing where married staff was housed was different, and it had grown as the school had grown. Not visible from view as you walked to the front doors, but behind the married professors' wing, was the extra wing that they built for the students eighth year and beyond, many of whom were married, and some of whom had children.
Harry knew that many of the changes were not visible from the outside, but there were far fewer unused rooms. The total number of classrooms had grown significantly. All of the dormitories had also expanded. There were over twice as many students in just the first seven years of study than in his day.
The great hall was also noticeably bigger. There were three times as many teachers. Present were all the first to seventh year students and maybe half the older students, along with a few children of students and children of teachers. The Great Hall had a very different feel than it did during Harry's student days.
Harry walked up to the raised area in the front of the hall, and sat down next to Minerva. She usually wanted Harry to sit next to her during meals in the Great Hall when he was visiting. Harry saw Albus and his classmates at the Slytherin table and waved, and then saw Rose and her classmates at the Gryffindor table and waved.
"Hogwarts is still growing," Minerva let Harry know.
"It was the first place I felt at home, but it is not the same," Harry acknowledged. "I once heard a saying about you not being able to go home again, not home like the home you grew up in. I grew up here, but home is Grimmauld Place, has been for over half my life. Home is Ginny. I will not be an Auror all my life, if God grants me a long life, but Ginny will always be home as long as we are both living."
"Some professors and others never leave," Minerva noted. "Filius is one hundred and seventy-eight, and he still teaches a few of the older, eighth year and beyond, students. He also leads the orchestra, although he wants to quit that. We may have to hire a music teacher, for our students and the youngsters we now have around here. I expect Filius to die in his rooms here. Filius says he does not feel incapacitated, just stretched a little thin.
"I cannot see Hagrid leaving either."
"What about you, Minerva?" Harry wondered.
"Neville is fully capable of being the next headmaster," Minerva responded. "Cinnamon is teaching part time and helping with the young witches' part time. She is the logical person to become the next assistant headmistress, but she is still young. I would gladly trade places with her, let her be assistant headmistress and become a helper and part time teacher, in a few years.
"Do you know any more about the people surrounding the school?"
"No," Harry admitted. "Albus has found out how to modify maps so we are notified when certain people are near. Knowing they are near and knowing what to do about it are two different things, however."
"I know," Minerva acknowledged. "When Albus started at Hogwarts I told you I was not going to be the Dumbledore to your Albus, and so far you have done the best you could to teach and mold him. He is not like you in so many ways, but he is a good person. I think you have done as good a job as you could raising him and protecting him."
After breakfast Harry waved to Albus. Harry was only a little surprised when in addition to Albus, Scorpius, Cleo and Rose came over to see him. Harry was a little more surprised when Jesus Rios and Ginny Wang also came over, although Harry knew that those six seemed to be together often.
The seven went to the small room next to the Great Hall that was often used for private meetings, and Albus went over what he had done to the maps to have them make a noise when Celia Hernandes, Francisco Villodas, or certain other people were close to the boundaries of the wards protecting Hogwarts, and the rather loud ring if any of them crossed the boundaries of the wards.
"I've provided the centaurs with a map," Albus announced. "They have guards patrolling the edge of the forbidden forest where it reaches the wards protecting Hogwarts. They have spotted the snakes, and a couple of times shot arrows at them to wound them. They do not want to kill them; they do not kill unless it is absolutely necessary."
"Albus," Harry told his son. "I would like you to come with me to teach a couple of additional people."
"Yes, sir," Albus responded. The spells around Teddy, Dennis and the New Burrow made it impossible to mention their names, although Albus knew his father wanted him to teach Teddy and Dennis the spells.
2021