2015
The later the hours became, the drunker the adults were getting. It wasn’t a rare occasion for the Potters and Granger-Weasleys to get together on Boxing Day. They would usually have dinner and the kids would play together or watch a movie before eventually passing out on the sofa in the Potters' living room.
Today was no exception, besides Teddy joining the adults for the first time. He was in his final year at Hogwarts and was now legally allowed to drink. So he wasted no time in joining his godparents and Ron and Hermione in their late-night wine talks. He was sitting at the short end of the dining room table at Grimmauld place. Ron and Hermione joined him on the right and Harry and Ginny on the left.
The group started with casual conversations ranging from Quidditch to old stories from Hogwarts. At first, Teddy found it weird to be sitting with them talking about everything and nothing, but the wine helped him loosen up quite a bit.
Ron leaned back in his chair placing an arm around his wife.
“So Teddy, what’s new at Hogwarts? Headboy duties tiring you out, yet?”
“The first years are stressing me out, they don’t have any rhythm and I had to help the same kid with entering the Common Room at least five times in one week.”
“Sounds like Neville,” Ron chuckled.
“How’s James holding up?” Ginny chimed in.
“I promised not to tell on him, so I can’t answer that question,” Teddy grinned and took a huge sip from his glass.
“How’s Sluggys cult?”
“RON!” The three adults groan in unison.
“What? It’s weird!”
“It’s not weird, Ronald. Everyone except you was in his club.”
“As I said,” he whispers to the teenager, “weird.”
Teddy laughed at his uncle and shook his head, “It’s alright his Christmas party was pretty nice.”
“Oh no,” Hermione sighed.
“What?”
“We don’t talk about Slughorn’s Christmas parties in this household,” Ginny explained.
“Why not?” He looked at the four people in front of him who were all trying to avoid eye contact with each other, “hello?”
“I’m not gonna tell him,” Ron fires.
“Me neither,” Ginny and Hermione followed.
“Harry?” He stared at his godfather, one eyebrow raised.
“Why is it always me?” He asked no one specifically, “Okay fine. These two,” he pointed in between Ron and Hermione, “had their 6th-year drama going on so Ron didn’t go and Hermione took McLaggen to the party.”
“Prat,” Ron muttered.
“And Ginny and I weren’t yet together, so I took Luna.”
“Luna? Why didn’t you go with Hermione?”
“Because I had already asked McLaggen.”
“Why?”
“THANK YOU,” Ron breathed out.
“Oh, Ronald please you were busy snogging that blonde girlfriend of yours. And if you don't remember, I did ask you first.”
“How did you deal with these two for this long, Harry?”
“How long did he deal with us? It’s about how long we dealt with his ass,” Ron interrupted.
“Excuse me, I was perfectly reasonable during my time at Hogwarts.”
“Reasonably stupid, that’s for sure,” Ginny laughed.
“Hey!”
“Okay okay, I won’t ask again,” Teddy lifted his hands in surrender, “this is clearly a tricky topic.”
“What I wanna know,” Ron leaned forward putting his glass down, “is who did you take to the party?”
“Oh some girl from Gryffindor,” he responded entirely too fast.
The adults quirked their eyebrows at him in suspicion but got interrupted as a small girl ran into the kitchen.
“Daddy daddy, I’m bored,” Lily ran to her father and jumped onto his lap, “everyone is asleep. They are so boooring,” she complained as she lets out a yawn.
“Well Lilz, it’s almost midnight you should be asleep too.”
“But I’m a big girl now, I don’t need to sleep so ear-,” another yawn escapes her mouth.
“Can I stay for a bit please,” the girl grinned across the table at her aunt and uncle, “I will be very quiet.” She raised her hand and put one finger on her lips.
“Of course, you can,” Hermione, who had a real soft spot for her youngest niece, said smiling, “but whatever we talk about has to stay between the six of us, okay?”
Lily beamed and took fingers to zip her lips shut and gave the imaginary key to Hermione, who took it and put it in her pocket.
“I never got to stay,” Teddy mumbled under his breath, hoping no one would hear.
“Youngest privilege, mate,” Ron patted his shoulder, “can’t do anything about it.”
The boy rolled his eyes and took the bottle from the table to pour himself another glass. The conversations continued and Teddy was happy the group had dropped the topic of his date situation. They listened to Lily listing all her favourite gifts she had gotten this year and her story from the latest Quidditch practice with her mum. Sooner or later the rambling girl got tired and had a hard time keeping her eyes open until she ended up laying across her parents with Ginny stroking her hair gently.
“I’m glad I won’t have to deal with her when she gets to Hogwarts in four years.”
“Don’t say that, she’s still four to me. There is no way she’s going to Hogwarts this soon,” Ginny whined looking down at her daughter.
“Besides you would love the attention she’d give you. A first-year thinking you’re so cool would surely help with the ladies,” Ron smirked.
“Maybe I don’t need her help,” Teddy shot back.
“Hey it was just a joke, no need to get defensive,” he laughed and leaned over to Hermione whispering, “suspicious.”
She rolled her eyes and chuckled using her hand to push his cheek away gently, “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“You love it.”
“I do.” Ron leaned in and pecked her lips gently.
“Hey hey hey, don’t need to see that,” Teddy waved his hands in front of his face.
“Gotta get used to it mate,” Harry explained, “they do it all the time.”
“And you two don’t?” Hermione defended.
“Nope,” Ginny grinned.
“Teddy,” Ron started, smirking at his sister and best friend, “Let me tell you about New Years' Eve of 1999.”
“Shut up,” Ginny shot back.
“Your godparents over here hadn’t seen each other in a while.”
“I’m not sure I wanna hear it,” Teddy questioned.
“Oh trust me you do.”
“Ron, please don’t,” Harry groaned and Hermione chuckled at his signature dramatic reaction.
“As I said Harry and Ginny hadn’t seen each other in a while and we were throwing a New Years' Party here at Grimmauld. The evening started pretty nicely and everyone was drinking until Seamus came back and announced to everyone that he had just found those two snogging in the pantry.”
“Romantic.”
“It doesn’t stop there. Throughout the entire evening Neville, Hannah, Hermione, George, Charlie, Dean and even Fleur caught these two some corner. And that’s not even the funny part of the story. When it was close to midnight everyone paired off and started counting down. But instead of kissing your respective significant other George, Charlie and Bill shot a hex at Harry and Ginny and made their lips stick together. They were stuck like that for 5 minutes.”
Ron leaned back into his chair, smiling satisfactorily as Teddy laughed and shot his head back, “I might just try that again this year. For the memories.”
“If you do, consider yourself moved out,” Ginny shot at him but Teddy just kept laughing.
“New Years' is gonna be boring anyways, let me have some fun at least.”
“Are you joining the family for that holiday?” Hermione asked.
“Yup.”
“I thought there was a party going on somewhere at one of your friend's houses.”
“There is.”
“Why don’t you go to that?”
“Vic won’t be there.”
Shit. Shit.
Ginny choked on her wine a little before placing the glass on the table, “Vic? As in Victoire?”
“No,” he shot back, “Vic as in… Uhm…”
“Just some girl from Gryffindor, my ass,” Ron almost shouted, “you took Victoire!”
“No one was supposed to know,” Teddy groaned letting his head fall into his hands and running through his hair.
“Bill is so gonna kill you,” Ron added laughing.
“Ron!” Hermione glared at him, “you’re not helping.”
“No, he’s right. Besides as far as she’s concerned we only went as friends.”
“You like Victoire?” Harry asked still in shock.
“God, you’re dim sometimes,” his wife smacked him on the back of his head before turning to Teddy, “you’re sure she doesn’t have feelings for either.”
“Why would she?”
“Mate, I’ve been there,” Ron chimed in again, “you won’t know until you know.”
“Well, how do I find out?” He stared at Ron who put up his hands, “you’re asking the wrong person.”
“But you just said - never mind, just forget I ever said anything. She’s two years younger anyways and I’ll leave Hogwarts next year. It’s never gonna happen.”
“I think you should tell her,” Hermione suddenly stated.
“Are you mad?”
“No, I regret it almost every day for wasting time not telling Ron how I felt back at Hogwarts.”
“Even if you did, he probably wouldn’t have gotten the hint,” Ginny laughed.
“Shut it, Ginevra.”
“No, Ronald.”
“Anyhow, you don’t know if she doesn’t have feelings for you too. I can’t tell you what to do, but I’d tell her.”
“Hermione’s right,” Harry agreed, “what’s the worst that could happen?”
“Oh I don’t know, she could laugh at me and think I’m mad and I’d be throwing 15 years of friendship away.”
“But what if she feels the same way?”
“Then I’d have Bill throwing me away. So really, it’s a lose-lose for me.”
“Have Lily tell her,” Ginny spoke calmly.
“What?”
“Have Lily tell her.”
“I heard you the first time but still. What?”
“She’s nosy, we all know that. Have her ‘overhear’ you say something about it and she’ll run to Victoire in no time. If Vic feels the same, great, I’ll deal with Bill. If she doesn’t you can just say that Lily didn’t hear the entire conversation and just jumped to conclusions.”
The remaining four people stared at her in shock, “What? It’s the perfect plan.”
“That actually could work.”
“I know. I pulled the Chosen One, you really think I haven’t got any game?”
“I never doubted you, love,” Harry chuckled.
“I’ll think about it,” Teddy sighed, emptied his glass and stood up from his chair, “but for now I am going to sleep. Want me to put her in her room?” He asked pointing at Lily.
Ginny shook her head and smiled, “No it’s okay. We’ll put her on the couch later, so she won’t feel left out.”
Teddy shrugged, “Okay,” he scanned the room once more, “I’m sure I can trust all of you to not go and tell everyone in the family?”
“Of course, we won’t,” Hermione assured him.
“Thank you. Good night everyone.” Teddy walked out of the room heading towards the stairs.
“Is he gone,” a small voice whispers from under the table.
Ginny bent down to respond to her daughter, “yes.”
Lily shot up and grinned at her mother.
“You know what to do?”
“Yes, mummy. I’ll tell her tomorrow.”
“That’s my girl. Now off to bed with you.”
Lily jumped off of her father's lap and ran towards the door but turned around again, “you can close your mouths now aunt Hermione and uncle Ron.”