Hi! Hannah Longbottom here! This is the last chapter, I'm afraid! But, like I said in the last chapter, there will be a sequel soon enough! Stay tuned! I'm really glad you've all liked this story!
I'm going to dedicate this chapter to two people this time. Firstly, ObsessedTwilightFan because you've been a really good reviewer! And second of all to FaithfulHPReader, because you have lived up to your word and been a faithful HP reader! You're probably the one person who's kept up with my story the most! Thanks a lot! And don't worry, soon you'll have a whole new sequel to keep up with!
Thanks to all you reviewers!
Love,
HL.
xxx
"Where is Heidi?" Poppy asked, irritably.
"I don't know," Olive replied, unhelpfully. "Maybe she's saying goodbye to Nathan."
"Olive, he's going to be on the Hogwarts Express with us."
"Oh yeah. Well then, I have no idea what she's doing. Where's Max? He said he'd meet me down here to help me with my trunk."
On the other side of the Gryffindor common room, James and Albus were saying goodbye to Victoire, who was going to walk into Hogsmeade and Disapparate from there.
"Ah, I am so tearful," she said, which sounded sentimental, but the boys knew their cousin better than that. She was just worried about her makeup running.
"We'll miss you," James said. "There'll be no one here to boss us around anymore."
"Oh, I think I can fill in satisfactorily."
Dominique had overheard and came and stood beside James, grinning. James and Albus laughed.
"And anyway," Victoire went on. "You haven't gotten rid of me for long. I'll be around. I'll be showing up at your house unannounced and telling you to tidy up, James!"
"Great," James said, sarcastically.
"And will we see you in Brazil in the summer?" asked Albus.
"Wouldn't miss it," Victoire replied. "Partly because our dad is making us go."
"Yeah," Dominique put in. "And I thought Uncle Charlie was the one who liked exotic places."
They all laughed.
"So, bye guys," Victoire said, giving them both a hug in either of her arms. When she let go, she looked at Dominique and winked.
"See you at home sis," she said, and she walked out of the room, her startlingly many trunks flying alongside her.
Olive and Poppy were still waiting for they're absentee sister and absentee boyfriend in Olive's case.
"Where is she?" Poppy asked again.
"I don't know," Olive replied again, no more helpfully than the first time she had said it.
Finally, they saw Heidi walking down the staircase, carrying her trunk.
"Finally!" Poppy said. "You took long enough!"
"I'm sorry!" Heidi said. "I couldn't find some of my spellbooks! And the trunk is heavy!"
"You know," Olive said, drawing her wand. "You could just do this. Wingardium Leviosa!"
Heidi's trunk floated out of her hands and levitated, level with her eyes.
"Thanks," Heidi said, bemused. "I didn't think of that."
"It's OK," Olive replied, doing the same with her own trunk and putting her wand away. "I didn't either. I was going to have Max help me with my trunk. Now he doesn't need to."
Nevertheless, Max was walking down the stairs with his own trunk. He as well had not thought of levitating it. As he walked towards them, Heidi brought out her own wand and did the honours.
"Oh," Max said. "Thanks. Hey, now I don't need to help with your trunk, Olive!"
"Yeah, we gathered," Poppy replied, as Olive flounced over and gave him a hug.
"So, are we going?" Heidi asked.
"Yes, we are now that you've all decided to join us," Poppy said, irritably.
Heidi rolled her eyes, but did not say anything. By now, she'd learnt not to anger Poppy whenever she used that tone.
So, the five of them walked down to the train and met up with the rest of they're friends. Olive and Max separated to go and talk to Mat, Rose, Albus, Hazel, Gemma and Ryan. Poppy went with James, Felicity, Allie and Ella. Heidi and Nathan went over to Freya, Ruby, Daisy Crombie, a friendly, blonde haired girl from Hufflepuff in their year, Ollie, Hugo, Lucas, Georgie and Holly Winslet from Ravenclaw.
"Hi!" Heidi said, walking over to Ruby, beaming.
"Hi," Ruby replied, uncertainly. "I'm sorry, I don't seem to remember you. Have we met?"
"What?" Heidi asked, surprised. "Rubes, it's me."
"Oh," Ruby answered, still not convinced. "Right, sorry, you're name's Heidi something, isn't it? It's funny, I can't really remember you. Maybe because I don't remember the last proper conversation that you and I had that lasted more than five minutes!"
Heidi laughed. "Sorry, Rubes! It's not on purpose, I swear! OK, tell you what. I'll sit with you on the Hogwarts Express. A long journey, all devoted to you and me. And Nathan."
Ruby glared at her.
"Sorry!" Heidi apologized. "I promised him! But it's fine! We''ll find a big compartment."
An hour later, Mat, Rose, Hugo, Albus, Louis, Hazel, Gemma, Fred, Daphne, Victoria, Lily, Olive, Jack and Ryan managed to find a big enough compartment (the very biggest only recently built, most likely when they saw how many Weasleys were coming into the world) with Poppy, James, Felicity, Allie and Ella. Max and Olive were sitting together holding hands, and Mat was lying on Jack's lap, looking very tired. The conversation was casual and easy.
"Rose," Ryan said, lazily. "Your sister's coming to Hogwarts next year, isn't she?"
"Ryan, I don't have a sister," Rose replied, confused.
"Wha-"
"But I do have a cousin coming here next year," Rose went on. "Her name's Lily."
"OK whoa," Ryan said, sitting up. "I thought Lily was your sister."
"No," James answered, his voice muffled as his head was buried in Allie's shoulder. "Lily's my sister."
"And mine," Albus put in.
"But-" Ryan said, bewildered. "OK, can someone please explain this bizarre and complicated family tree because it's been two years and I still don't get it."
"Yeah me too," Allie said.
"I actually have trouble with it sometimes," Jack said.
"It is a bit confusing," agreed Mat.
Rose, Albus, Fred, Daphne, Lily, Hugo, Louis, Victoria and James all looked at each other.
"You're the smart one Rose," James commented. "Do you want to take it away?"
Rose sat up.
"OK," she sighed, deeply. "This could take a while, but here we go. My name is Rose Weasley. I have one brother, Hugo. Our parents are Hermione Weasley nee Granger and Ron Weasley. Our mum doesn't have any brothers or sisters, but our dad has five brothers, one dead, and a sister. The eldest brother, our uncle, Bill Weasley married our aunt, Fleur Delacour. Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur had three children. Victoire, Dominique and Louis, our three cousins.
Dad's next brother is our uncle, Charlie Weasley, the second third. Uncle Charlie married our aunt, Miriam Thwaites. Uncle Charlie and Aunt Miriam had twin daughters. Our cousins, Victoria and Lily Weasley."
"I'm older by two minutes by the way," Victoria interrupted.
"Don't interrupt!" Rose snapped. "Anyway, our dad's third brother is Uncle Percy. He married our aunt, Penelope Clearwater. Uncle Percy and Aunt Penelope had two children. Our cousins, Lucy and Harry Weasley. Harry will be here next year.
"Dad's fourth brothers were the identical twins Uncle Fred and Uncle George. But sadly, Uncle Fred died before we had even been born. We never met him, but even so, we've heard a lot about him and he sounds like he was really fun and funny and interesting, and we're all really sorry that we never met him. But however, Uncle George is still with us, and he's still funny enough for us. Uncle George married our aunt, Alicia Spinnet. Uncle George and Aunt Alicia had two twins, a boy and a girl, Fred and Daphne. And, yes I know, Fred! You're older by ten minutes! Shut up!
"Anyway, Dad was next after Uncles Fred and George. And then dad's younger sister is our aunt, Ginny Potter nee Weasley. Aunt Ginny married our uncle, Harry Potter, and of course, you all know who he is. Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry had three children, James, Albus and Lily Potter. Lily is coming to Hogwarts next year along with Harry Weasley, Uncle Percy and Aunt Penny's son. Oh, and our grandparents are Molly and Arthur Weasley. And, that's basically it. Understand it now?"
"See?" James said. "It's really not that complicated."
"Yeah," Gemma agreed, sarcastically. "It's like one plus one multiplied by 200, 456 divided by 56, 7345! Completely simple!"
"What are you on about?" Olive asked, in bewilderment.
"So," Ryan said, still trying to get his head around all this. "You have two cousins called Lily. Lily Potter and Lily Weasley."
"Yep," Rose replied.
"And James and Albus, you have a sister and a cousin called Lily."
"Yeah," James and Albus replied, simultaneously.
"Wow," Ryan said. "So, Olive, Poppy, where do you come in?"
"We're family friends," Olive replied. "Our mum and dad were friends with James and Albus's parents at school."
"And Hazel?" Ryan asked.
"Ditto," Hazel replied, in her airy-fairy tone.
"Wow," Ryan uttered for the second time. "That is one warped family tree."
Finally, the Hogwarts Express drew to a stop and all the students grabbed their trunks and belongings and rushed out to meet their families.
James and Albus dragged their trunks when they saw their parents and Lily standing beside Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, who were as usual, having one of their silly quarrels.
"Honestly Ron, you're so-"
"Hermione!"
"No, don't interrupt me! You're so-"
"Hermione! Our children are here!"
"Oh!" Hermione looked around with a start and smiled when she saw Hugo and Rose looking up at her. Rose had an eyebrow raised suspiciously.
"Are you two fighting again?" she asked, sternly.
"What?" her mother asked, in an unconvincingly surprised tone. "No, darling! Of course not!"
Rose looked at her father and he winked before hastily bending down to pick up Hugo's trunk as Hermione turned around to look at him. Rose knew that they had been fighting, but she wasn't worried. She only had to take one look at the way her father looked at her mother, and she knew it was OK.
"Hi Dad!" James said, walking up to his parents and sister along with Albus.
"Before you sweet talk me, what have you done this time?" Harry said sternly, as Ginny bent down and gave Albus a hug.
"Dad," James began, in a pacifying tone. "I promise you, this time I didn't do anything."
"And what about you?" Ginny asked Albus, ruffling his hair affectionately.
"Not much," Albus said.
"So," Harry was saying to Ron. "When are we all going to Brazil again?"
"Beginning of August. Not my idea." Ron muttered the second sentence out of the corner of his mouth. "Hermione thought it would be fun."
"Mum, we really do have one warped family tree," Albus commented.
Harry and Ginny laughed.
"Where did that come from?" Harry asked.
"Oh, we were just talking about it on the train," James answered.
"Yeah, I know," Ron agreed. "I can't believe I'm related to Harry now. But I learn to live with him."
So after Ron had rightfully earned a punch on the arm from Harry, the Potters and the Weasleys all went home to relax for three months before they worried about yet another eventful year.
"Hey Fred, Dpah," Albus said, as the twins and their parents joined up with them and walked alongside. "You guys didn't cause any trouble!"
"Fred, Daphne," George put in, sternly. "I am so disappointed."
"You have every right to be Dad," Fred replied, shaking his head. "We were much too calm this year."
"Oh well," Daphne sighed, with a sneaky smile on her face. "There's always next year."
And Daphne was right. There was always next year.