Albus Potter, Classmates and Elves

Ch 33 The end of the summer 2019

Minor but significant rewrites and additions by Deb, and tweaks by Diane. Good beta readers are a blessing.

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Thursday, August 15, Harry came home to Grimmauld Place to find Ginny sitting on the sofa looking exhausted as she had just arrived with the four girls. "Take your bathing costumes up to your bedrooms," she told the excited girls. "We will be at Potter's New Burrow tomorrow and all weekend. The weather is predicted to be great for swimming."

Rose and Cleo went into the Closet, because there was a door from both the Potter and the Granger-Weasley homes in it. Lily and Jane headed upstairs to their bedrooms.

"How was it shopping for bathing costumes for the girls?" Harry innocently asked.

Ginny rolled her eyes and spread her arms in an obvious sign of frustration. "The two little girls are reasonably easy. We purchased Jane another bathing costume, and like the one she already owns, it is a conservative one-piece. I had to insist that Lily needed a more conservative two-piece, not that she has anything to cover up.

"The older girls are another issue. They both wanted wand pockets; they are being very paranoid about always wanting to defend themselves, and I cannot complain about that. Rose has a hidden wand pocket under the built in bra in her bathing costume. She is big enough on top, and the costume is conservative enough, that the wand pocket is hidden. With Rose everything has to be fashionable.

"Of course, Cleo wants pockets. She has a wand pocket and another pocket in the knickers in her bathing costume. The knickers part of her costume is big enough, and with spells you can minimize the pockets and make them waterproof, but the girl is obsessed over needing pockets.

"Rose is very conflicted about growing up. On one hand, she wants to be stylish and feminine. On the other hand, she doesn't want to show too much. She has a great figure for a young girl, but she doesn't want to draw too much attention to her bottom. She insists that the bottom has a skirt so it does not look like a pair of knickers. I think she learned about sex too early, reading about it, and is just getting over how physical and messy it can be.

Harry came over and sat next to Ginny and pulled her into his side as she sighed and continued, "Cleo does not seem to mind showing her body. She settled on a two-piece with knickers that covers her bottom. It doesn't hide the little belly, but she just sighs and says, 'I'm a little fat.' She isn't really fat, just a little heavy, but Astoria and the grandmothers at the Malfoy Mansion have just been nasty about her appearance. Cleo is really big on top as well. The top part of her costume is basically a really good bra, one that shows a reasonable amount of cleavage. It has excellent support spells, which she needs. I tried to suggest something a little more conservative, but it didn't work. The most frustrating thing about shopping for Cleo is that she ends up looking more maternal than like a young girl. There is some magic at work there, and I am not sure I like it.

"We are having dinner here with the children living in our house, and Hermione and Ron are having dinner with the three children living at their house."

*

"I'm going over to practice some spells with Albus," Cleo told the family after a dinner with the Granger-Weasley family that same evening.

"I'm going back to the Hogsmeade store to close up," Ron explained. "Hugo, do you want to come with me?"

"Sure," Hugo replied. The two left the dining room laughing about something or other.

When the other people were gone, Hermione noticed a glum look on Rose's face.

"Is something the matter, Rose?" Hermione wondered.