Albus Potter, Classmates and Elves

Ch 26 Parents of the MELL Students

More great work by Deb and Diane, my beta advisors. Thank you.

*

"Hermione and I are meeting the parents of the MELL students, and the students, and other family members, today," Harry told Ginny as they were getting ready to go to breakfast. Harry was dressed and was gently bouncing Minerva on his shoulder as he waited for Ginny to finish getting ready. "From the messages we have been receiving over the last weeks, the whole day may be one contentious meeting after another. Do you and Minerva want to be somewhere else?"

"Jane too," Ginny proposed with a firm nod. "The last thing she needs is to be in the middle of arguments that she is not involved in and doesn't understand."

The same family group met for breakfast, and the tables were arranged the same, except that Ron Weasley was next to Hermione, so Jane was next to Ron.

"It sounds like I am going to be lucky to be at the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes store here in Switzerland instead of confronting all the parents of the Magi and Elf Language Learners," Ron remarked with a grin. "I will be thinking of you."

"All you will be thinking of is gross sales and profit margins," Hermione huffed.

"My profit margins help you buy beautiful books, my beautiful wife," Ron kidded. "Smartest witch in the world, and bloody beautiful too."

Hermione turned towards Ron, her face full of exasperation. Ron kissed Hermione before she could say anything. A world of emotions ran over Hermione's face, but her visage finally softened, and she returned Ron's kiss.

"I am going to take Jane back to our quarters," Ginny announced, rolling her eyes at the antics of her brother and best friend. "I am going to work on the next couple of Quidditch columns, and teach Jane how to take care of a toddler."

Jane did not understand all that was going on, but apparently most of the people at the table were concerned that they were facing a difficult day full of conflict. She was glad that she was going to be going with Mrs. Potter.

After breakfast Harry, Hermione, Albus, Rose, Cleo and Scorpius walked to a moderate sized room on the first floor of the castle. The castle had two floors above the main floor labeled floor one and two, but most of the castle was below the main floor, and those floors were labeled minus one to minus ten, a strange if accurate way of labeling the floors.

Harry and Hermione sat in an overstuffed piece of furniture, and the four students perched on high stools behind them, as they waited for the parents and other family members of the MELL students to assemble. There were several Auror guards, people from Britain and Switzerland, but no Elves of any kind.

The first families to appear were the French Canadians. Joseph Marie DuMond Jr., his wife Emilie, and their daughter Gabrielle were first, followed by Jean-Paul Felion, his wife Melissa, and their son Jean-Louis. Everyone was impeccably dressed, and the women each wore a fortune on their fingers.

Joseph wasted no time in attacking as he stormed over to Harry. "What have you done, Potter, with the house elves and goblins? My house elf and my wife's told us they are attending meetings, not staying with us! Impertinent! Disobedient! I thought that just the three of us and our servants would come, and two more house elves accompanied them, and four goblins. I think the two smaller ones were goblin females; they looked almost like house elves. They were just dressed like prosperous goblin wives, as near as I could tell.

"They took us to a big house owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Zwiefollhofer. They have this huge estate between the top and the next main road, with a house elf quarters that has at least six bedrooms and I do not know what else. The goblins are staying in one of the bedrooms, and our house elves announced that they were staying in another bedroom.