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‘Ted,’ Harry said loudly. ‘Ted, watch his-’ But Ted wasn’t listening, and had casually thrown Harry’s eldest son, shrieking and laughing, into the pool with an almighty splash.
‘Will you relax?’ asked Ron lazily, applying liberal amounts of suncream to his arm. ‘His head was nowhere near the edge that time.’
‘It’s just a constant battle to keep that boy alive,’ said Harry, watching his son do a headstand in the water, his feet kicking close to Lily’s head. Behind them, Al and Rose ran on the slippery tiles by the edge of the pool, pursued by Teddy.
‘Takes after you then, doesn’t he?’ said Ron. ‘At least all your kids know how to have fun when there’s a swimming pool and enough heat to cook a skrewt.’
Harry followed his gaze to see Hugo sitting beneath an upturned sun lounger, presumably for the shade, scribbling furiously in his diary. Harry chuckled affectionately. ‘He really is just all your strangest traits and all Hermione’s strangest traits smashed into the sweetest little oddball.’
‘Yeah, he’s pretty funny,’ said Ron, grinning. ‘Reminds me of Percy sometimes, but as he’s my son I don’t mind.’
Harry reached for his beer, still chuckling over his (secretly favourite) nephew. Their wives had left the villa to go to a local spa, and though they had asked them to take the kids down to the beach, it had seemed so much easier, when they had a villa with a private pool, to just sit in the sun and let them run riot, let Teddy entertain them, slowly drink beers and eat snacks.
Lily’s shrieking giggle echoed through the hot air - Teddy seized her by the waist and chucked her in too.
‘I do worry sometimes though,’ said Ron quietly. Harry looked at him, surprised. ‘About Hugo.’
‘Why?’ Harry looked back at the little boy, his curly red hair hidden under the towel he had thrown over his head.
‘You said it yourself, he’s an oddball.’
‘In a very endearing way.’
Ron nodded. ‘I mean, yeah, sure. But he’s always so tightly wound, you know? I mean, Rosie, she’s competitive and clever like her mum, but she got enough of my personality to chill out once in a while. Hugo’s always so…’ he waved his his hands vaguely.
‘Righteously indignant?’ Harry suggested with a grin.
‘Yeah. It’s like all the spew stuff Hermione did, but about everything. You know what he’s probably writing in that diary right now? Probably writing that he’s annoyed we’re making him sit outside. While he’s on holiday. With a pool and a bunch of other kids to play with.’
‘He’s doing what he enjoys,’ said Harry easily. ‘He likes reading and writing in his diary. That moral compass he’s got is utterly charming, too, even if it does make me laugh sometimes. It makes him happy.’
‘Does it though?’ Ron asked uneasily. ‘I wasn’t joking, he does remind me of Percy, and we gave him a miserable time growing up. Or if not Percy, Hermione. Don’t you remember how annoying she was when we started Hogwarts? How horrible we were to her? All those tears.’
‘We made friends with her in the end,’ said Harry.
‘Not being funny, mate, but I was hoping none of my kids would end up fighting a troll.’
‘Well, same,’ said Harry frowning. ‘But knowing James, he’d probably be the one to let it in for a laugh.’
‘Maybe it says something about us that I would be less worried about my son doing that.’
Harry laughed again. ‘What exactly are you worried about? That he won’t make friends? Or that he’s not like you?’
Ron didn’t laugh with him. ‘I s’pose I don’t want him growing up unhappy… Or thinking his dad’s stupid. Both my kids are so smart, Hermione saw to that.’
‘You want a dumb one?’ Harry asked casually, sipping on his beer.
Ron finally grinned, and gave him a sideways glance. ‘Yeah, a bit. Don’t tell any of them I said that, though.’
‘Well…’ said Harry, watching James put swimming bands around his feet. ‘I’m not sure that’s the right way to look at it. Anyway, you’re not stupid, it’s just no one looks clever next to Hermione… Except her own kids.’
‘I know, it’s fantastic, isn’t it?’ said Ron, beaming. ‘I just want to make sure they’re not as lonely as she was too.’
‘Well, he might be at times,’ said Harry fairly. ‘It must be lonely, being so smart. And harder for him because he thinks in such a black and white way. But he’ll be all right in the end.’ He nodded at them. ‘They all will.’
‘I suppose it’s nice we’re even worrying about this,’ said Ron. ‘Forget whacking their heads on the side of the pool, as I get older I get more and more appalled at what we put my mum through.’
Harry laughed, but he was unable to answer as his daughter waved at him. ‘Daddy! Daddy! Watch how long I can hold my breath!’
‘I’m watching, sweetheart,’ he called back, and her red hair vanished under the water. ‘We’re so lucky,’ he said softly to Ron.
Beside him, Ron nodded. ‘Who’d have ever thought it?’