Albus Potter and the Prophesied Year

Ch 37 Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil

Priyanka Johanna Patil is from My Dear Professor McGonagall's story "The Twenty-Five Labors of Dumbledore's Army, as are her parents. You can find her stories on FanFiction dot net. Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein are, of course, JK Rowlings characters. What I have done with these characters was inspired by Professor McGonagall's story, but it is part of my "Almost Happily Ever After" universe. Thanks for permission to use the characters, Lucy.

Readers, this chapter about Padma and Anthony can be skipped without missing anything important in the story.

*

It was Tuesday, March fourteenth, and Harry's desk was finally clear. He was tempted to ward his door so no more paperwork could sneak onto his desk. The worst of the chaos of the last few months seem to have temporarily cleared up. Hopefully Cleopatra, Albus's seventeen-year-old bride and the reincarnation of some old fertility goddess, was learning how to keep her need to project the joy of procreation and motherhood under control. Harry wasn't quite sure how having three children had turned into six, now that Ginny was pregnant with twins, not that he minded.

Anthony Goldstein peeked into the office, informing Harry, "Mary Lou Creevey said you were not busy, and I should just walk in."

Harry smiled. "Come in, Anthony. For the first time in what seems like forever, although it has only been about five months, I don't have any urgent things hanging over me."

"I have some invitations to deliver in person," Anthony said. He handed Harry three invitations.

The one on top read, "Solomon and Golda Goldstein invite you to the wedding of their son Anthony to Padma Patil." The date was the following Sunday. It was being held at a Temple, with a rabbi officiating.

"Golda Goldstein?" Harry remarked, rolling his eyes.

Anthony laughed. "She wasn't Golda Goldstein until she married my father, and he said she could keep her maiden name, so I guess it is her fault."

The next invitation was from Padma's parents, inviting Harry and Ginny to the Hindu wedding of their daughter to Anthony the same Sunday afternoon.

The final invitation was from Anthony and Padma inviting Harry and Ginny to a wedding reception on Sunday night.

"How long did it take to arrange this?" Harry asked as he waved the three invitations.

"Depending on how you look at it, a couple of months, or maybe twenty years," Anthony answered. "The baby finally made us decide.

"How do you and Ginny stay so much in love after all the years you have been married? You still kiss and hold each other like newlyweds. And excuse me for saying it, but Ginny looks more like her mother than the cute little girl you married."

Harry reflected, "There IS more of her to love. Her mother was the first mother I remember, the person who really took the place of my mother. I love it that she is such a good mother to our children. I fell in love with her spirit, her fire, her personality. I like it that she is curvy, but I loved her when she was too thin and bony when she was playing for the Harpies."

Anthony asked, "Could Padma and I talk to you and Ginny? What Padma and I are embarking on is, or ought to be, I guess, very different than the casual, convenient relationship we have had for the last twenty years."

"Let me call Ginny right now," Harry replied.

*

Ginny Potter was in the Potter's Drawing Room at Grimmauld Place engaging in some structured playtime with her youngest, Minerva. At five Minerva was what she had always been, an exceptionally easy child. She felt down to the baby bump, just visible sooner than she had been for the last four pregnancies. Having twins would do that.