During the night, both elves had been outside and magically mowed the lawns front and back, trimmed and weeded the gardens, cleaned the paths and did little odd jobs about the place to make sure they were helpful. When Dobby alerted them that the family was in the process of waking up, Harry and Winky began to finalise what they cooked. They had no idea if Cele was still feeling the effects of morning sickness, as Harry felt it was too rude to ask, and the elves never would; so Harry prepared to supply a boiled egg and dried toast, if she'd rather that.
Cele was the first down, closely followed by Ant. Harry and Winky already had the coffee ready to be served and were ready to plate as the warm plates, which were in the low heat oven, were ready to come out.
"What's this?" asked Cele.
"I didn't know if you were still feeling the effects of morning sickness or not... or whether or not Ant cooks... so I decided to make myself useful by cooking breakfast," replied Harry to which Winky immediately gave her little throat a little clear.
"Sorry," he corrected himself. "I meant we decided to make ourselves useful by cooking breakfast."
"You didn't have to do this," said Cele.
"I know," he shrugged, as he began to gently stir the scrambled eggs. "But it's not often I get the chance to cook. It was the one chore I had at the Dursleys that I actually liked."
Meanwhile, Winky was both monitoring the toaster and one of the two frying pans, which was frying up the tomatoes. Harry was keeping an eye on the one frying the handmade hash browns and bacon.
"So, what are your plans for today," asked Ant, after he'd grabbed a cup of fresh coffee and sat down at the now six-seater kitchen table.
"We're in your hands," replied Harry before he turned to Cele. "Are you up for a big breakfast?"
"I am now," she replied, just as Hedwig landed on the window ledge, outside.
Letting her in, Ant asked, "Any ideas on what you want to do?" He was just about to close the window when two delivery owls from the Daily Prophet flew in, each carrying a copy.
"I believe Hermione will say, spend time with you two," replied Harry as Cele removed the Daily Prophet from each owl's leg. "Where we do that is up to you."
The two delivery owls flew back out the window before Harry could even offer them a rasher of bacon each.
With the smell and sound of sizzling bacon starting to permeate the house, Hermione and Daphne soon joined them.
"Where we do what?" asked Hermione, catching the end of the conversation.
"Spend our day, today," said Ant, beginning to read one of the Prophets.
"Take Harry down to the range, Daddy," suggested Hermione. "We girls want to spend time with Mum."
Ant cocked his eyebrow and looked back at Hermione. "Do mine ears deceive me? Dost mine fair maiden suggest we two knights depart her presence hence to do battle with the pigeons clay?" "Daddy, stop butchering Shakespeare," Hermione lightly scolded back. "I daresay you've not been far from Mum's side since you both found out she's pregnant. Daphne and I will be here, and this gives you some father-son bonding time with Harry."
"And you, Daphne and your mother some mother-daughter bonding time," Ant shot back. "Which, I've no doubt, is the real reason you wish to banish us mere males from the house."
The three ladies just grinned back.
He turned to Harry and said, "Well, son; feel like getting a better understanding of the noble sport of clay pigeon shooting?"
Grinning at the byplay, Harry looked at Ant and said, "Yeah, Dad; I'd like that." The other four all looked back at Harry in shock for a moment, at Harry calling Ant 'Dad'. But, Ant's face suddenly broke out in a huge grin. "Then we shall do so! And leave the fairer folk to... spinning wool, needlepoint and... whatnot."
Hermione and Cele both rolled their eyes while Daphne smiled. She turned to Hermione and asked, "Is your father truly this old-fashioned?"
"No," replied Hermione. "However, there's a reason I'm named after a Shakespearean character. Daddy's a fanatic."
Ant just unrepentantly grinned back at the pair of them.
Later that afternoon, the menfolk returned. Harry was sporting both a wide grin and a large bruise in the hollow of his right shoulder.
Hermione took one look at it, sighed at Harry, and said, "I've got some bruise paste in my trunk. Hang on while I get it out."
"How was it?" asked Daphne, as Hermione rose to go to her trunk upstairs.
"Loud!" grinned Harry. "But, loads of fun!"
"The first time I shot the shotgun I ended up falling on my ar...err... bum," he said, as Hermione walked back in.
"So did I!" said Hermione, as she sat down in front of Harry as he eased the collar of his shirt down. "It was also the last time I shot the gun. I've never wanted to do it since."
After a very enjoyable Easter weekend with the Grangers, on the Monday afternoon the three were readying to travel to the Black House. Unusually, this travel was taking place in the cars of the two Grangers; matching white third generation 5-Series BMWs they leased as part of their dental practice.
They were waiting on Sirius to arrive to guide them to Grimmauld Place in the inner suburbs of Northern London. The area was considered lower class and Sirius would be putting both cars under a Muggle Notice-me-Not field for the duration of the adult Grangers' few hours stay, as he didn't trust the locals not to cause damage to the two near-new cars.
"Everything packed?" asked Cele, not noticing any luggage when she walked in to join them in the kitchen.
"Packed and ready to be taken to Black House when we arrive," said Hermione. "Dobby will bring them when we call for him."
"Now, you're sure about Winky staying here?" asked Cele, a little worried.
"Yeah, Mum," said Hermione. "We don't have enough work for her at Hogwarts. We really don't have enough work for Dobby, either. But, there's no way we could convince him to do anything but help Harry and his ladies. Winky, however, just wants a family to work for. She'll come to Hogwarts to be with us at times to recharge her magic, but be continually available to help you; especially as your pregnancy progresses.
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