Hermione had forgone playing Quidditch at the Burrow for Ginny's birthday after lunch. She'd been a bit surprised that she and Harry had been invited to Ginny's birthday party. She was more friends with Ron than his little sister. Still, it was nice to get out of the house. At the moment, she was sitting on a bench overlooking the Weasley kitchen garden, her blouse open just enough for Jimmy to nurse from her breasts. At the moment it was the left one, since she'd managed to swap just a few minutes before.
"If there is one thing I miss about having babies, it is the nursing," Molly Weasley said, sitting down beside Hermione. "It's when you have the most connection with them. It helps that it's also one of the times when you can count on them being quiet. Did you enjoy swimming at the pond earlier?"
"Yes, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said. "The pond fit nicely in Jimmy's current radius. I'm still learning to trust Mimsy to watch him a bit, but I'm going to have to learn to let go a little before I return to Hogwarts if I'm going to be able to go to class at all."
"It is hard to let go," Molly said. "Only gets harder, I'm afraid. Ginny's going to Hogwarts this year, and I still want to keep her in my arms, no matter how much she's grown. Has the house elf been a good one for you? I understand that the Headmaster had to send several to each of the young mothers that he's lent elves to. Penny took six before she found one that she could work with."
"The Headmaster brought three of them, and I chose from them a couple days ago," Hermione said. "I still think they're sort of slaves, but there is nothing that can be done about their binding, yet, and I really need the help."
"You know, Percy thought I'd object to a house elf helping Penny," Molly mused. "Apparently he was too young to remember the trouble I went through with Fred and George the first few months. I swear those two never slept at the same time, and knew just how to take turns in waking me up as soon as I laid down. I don't think I got two hours together the entire first six months after their birth, and no more than five on a given day."
"Five hours?" Hermione groused. "Jimmy decided I wasn't going to have three last Monday. And yesterday he decided that I couldn't put him down for three hours, and Lord help me if I take too long to bare my breasts for him to nurse. He's got this I want you now cry that just seems to say NOW MUMMY! Sometimes he doesn't even seem to want to let me go to the loo. I don't know how you had seven children and lived."
"Oh, you get used it it, and sometimes you just have to learn to let him cry a bit, especially with those get attention cries," Molly said. "And don't be afraid to pass him off to someone you trust like his grandparents or Harry. I saw how that boy looked when you handed him off when you got here so you could take off that rain slicker. If you let him, and Jimmy didn't need nursing, I'd wager that Harry would hold his son all day."
"Oh, he would," Hermione said as Jimmy unlatched from her breast, done nursing for now. "Yesterday it was raining, and Jimmy did one of those want attention cries when I was taking a bath. When I got out, Harry was sitting on his bed, holding Jimmy gently, reading Quidditch Through the Ages to him, from memory. Of all the things to have memorized!"
"Oh, most wizard boys are Quidditch mad," Molly said. "Not that there are not a few young witches, as well. I wanted a little princess and I got another boy for a girl. If she doesn't sneak that Nimbus 1701 that Ron and her father bought her to Hogwarts ... well I've got rather good at searching Fred and George's trunk, so that shouldn't happen. At least she's chosen the Harpies instead of Ron's favorite."
"I think Neville said they were the lovable bottom of the league," Hermione said. "That being said, that orange is awful."
"It is," Molly said. "I blame his Grandmother Weasley. She took him to a Cannons game against the Harpies, when he was six. The Owner of the Harpies at the time, Edwina Hood, was apparently her eternal rival, and every time they played the Cannons she'd show up with one of her grandchildren. Most of them played along. Ron really got into it, and she bought him a full kit. Ginny, on the other hand, rooted for the Harpies."
"Every time I see Harry up on that broom in the game I want to drag him off it and off the pitch," Hermione said, burping Jimmy. Hermione remembered that first game she'd watched Harry play. "He scares me so much when he feints, especially. It's going to be a lot worse when Jimmy starts flying."
"You have some years, though," Molly said. "As long as they don't get him a toddler's broom."
"They have brooms for toddlers?" Hermione exclaimed.
"Oh yes, they say they're perfectly safe, and they aught to be for the price," Molly said. "Never thought it was worthwhile though, given how quickly babies grow. One moment they're in nursing, then next crawling, walking, and going off to Hogwarts. Then they're having babies of their own. I am not ready to be a grandmother."
"I think the rest of our children will wait a bit longer," Arthur Weasley said, approaching his wife from behind, and kissing his wife's left cheek. "Shall I call our Quidditch mad children in so Ginny can open her presents."
"Better let Ginny decide that," Molly said. "The Longbottom boy let Ginny use his broom, and she's bound and determine to prove that she's the best Chaser in the family. Somehow it seems that only Ron and maybe the twins knew she knew how to fly, and our older boys have been greatly surprised by her flying."
"Keeping a weather eye on her still?" Arthur said.
"Since the first night she snuck out to try Charlie's broom."