Extended Family

Chapter 88: Dragon About

Takes place around chapter 36

Charlie stepped out of the Floo, smiling brightly at the happy sounds.  The sound of children laughing and squealing seemed to be just right here.  "Bet Mum loves it when everyone comes visiting."

George grinned.  "Yeah she does.  Says while she enjoys the quiet during the week, it's too quiet for too long."

"Has she complained about the lack of Weasley noise-making?" Charlie asked softly.

"Not to me," George said smugly.  "Mostly because I'm the only one that's contributed to grand-sprogs so far."

Charlie groaned.  "I never would've guessed you'd be the first to have a kid."

"Me neither to be honest but I'm not complaining."

Charlie laughed as he watched Hailey, Hadley, and Dahlia chasing Arthur around the garden.  "At least Dad will stay in shape."

"Mum's got grandmum energy in spades," George said admiringly.  "She was chasing them about earlier.  They pretended to steal some biscuits and she ran them about to encourage them to work it off."

"Steal biscuits?  What'd she do, shove them down their mouths?"

"Something like that," George snorted.

Charlie chuckled.  "Thanks Harry," he said, taking a bottle of butterbeer and sipping it.

"I hope your dad doesn't keel over," Harry smiled as the three men watched the three small girls and the older man running around.  "I'd feel terrible."

"He loves it, don't you worry," George said reassuringly.

"What's the game?" Charlie asked.

"I think they're pretending to be dragons and chasing the biscuit monster," Harry smiled.

"No wonder you showed up then," George remarked, nudging Charlie with an elbow.

"And the coincidences continue," Charlie chuckled.  "I was hoping to talk to you two actually and you can pass the message on to Ollie and Alicia.  The preserve is having an open field day for visitors and the like and I wanted to see if the girls wanted to come."

"Oh yeah?" George asked.

"Yeah.  Originally it was just to the Ministry and related departments as well as a few parts purveyors but we decided to open it up to select others.  Visitors can come in, see the dragons, see some eggs and things, look at how we do some grooming and harvesting, stuff like that."

"That does sound interesting," Harry said.

"I have plenty of tickets for family and friends so I wanted to ask you lot."

"I'll check and see who wants to go and who can go depending on the day, but that sounds like a lot of fun.  Thanks Charlie," Harry said warmly.

Arthur came up to them, huffing and puffing.  "Goodness me," he laughed breathlessly.  "I need to stay active to keep up with them!"

"Charlie can take over," George grinned.

"Sure can!"  Charlie shucked off his heavy jacket and tossed it over George.  "I'm going to steal your biscuits!"  The girls shrieked and ran off with Charlie running after them, roaring very realistically.  He yelped and stopped running, jumping into the air with his hands over his rear.