Career Day

"You present tomorrow."

"No! You present tomorrow! I did Gabrielle's!" Ginny argued. Tomorrow was the dreaded Career Day for Julian Potter. Neither Ginny nor Harry wanted to do it. Who would? Who would want to go up in front of a room full of clueless five-year-olds and try to make them comprehend what they did for a living.

"Fine," Harry said. "We'll flip for it, okay?"

"Okay," Ginny agreed.

"Call it in the air." Harry pulled a galleon from his pocket and flipped it.

"HEADS!" yelled Ginny.

"TAILS!" The galleon landed on the ground...

"NO!" ...Outside the window. The two looked at each other for a split second until they dashed out of the house. They searched for about ten minutes before they found it wedged sideways into the dirt of their lawn.

"I guess both of you have to do it," said their daughter, Gabrielle, standing on the porch, carrying her beloved stuffed snake in her pajamas.

"Both of us?" Harry questioned. "The both of us can't do it, only one, right?"

"Nuh-uh!" retorted Gabrielle. "At MY Career Day, both Billy Longbottom's parents did it!" Ginny and Harry sighed as they looked at each other again.

"Fine..." said Harry, as he scooped up his daughter from the porch and carried her into the house. He held her above his head and made whooshing noises like a broomstick as he delivered her to her room, squealing with delight. Gabby, not Harry.

"Mum? Mum, come here you promised me a story!" whined her son, Julian, from his room.

"Okay, honey, I'm coming!"

"You think if we told them we died and couldn't do it they'd believe us?" Harry sarcastically asked Ginny as she climbed into bed with him.

She laughed. "No."

"It was worth a shot, g'night love," Harry said.

"G'night," Ginny replied as she kissed him goodnight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wake up!" Ginny shouted as she came into Julian's room. She found a messy mop of red hair hiding under the Quidditch blankets. "Julian, honey, wake up, it's time for school!" Groggily, Julian Potter sat up and opened his eyes. He blinked twice and looked at his mom.

"Morning, mum," he murmured as he slowly went into his bathroom. Ginny heard the water turn on and she proceeded to Gabrielle's room.

"Gabby?" she called, opening the door to her room. "Gabby, wake up! C'mon Gabby, it's time for school, wake up! Gabby? GABS!" Obviously, the eight-year-old was a lot harder to awaken than her five-year-old brother. Ginny walked to the bathroom, and then came back with a glass of water. She pulled back the blankets slowly to hear Gabby's light snoring. She then dumped the water on Gabby's face. She shrieked in a high-pitched voice.

"MUM!" she screamed as she sat up. Ginny was laughing uncontrollably; she was clutching her stomach to keep herself up.

"Sorry, luv, couldn't help myself, get ready for school," she said breathlessly and left her room, still laughing down the hall and imitating her daughter's shriek.

"Morning, luv," said Harry, sipping his coffee as Ginny entered the kitchen.

"Morning," she replied, and kissed him on the cheek.

Half an hour later, the Potter family finished their pancakes and was ready to leave for school. They got up from the table and headed for the fireplace. They each took the powder from the side table, stepped into the fireplace, threw the powder on the ground and said loudly and clearly, "HOGWARTS ELEMENTARY." Minutes later, they were poofed into the Hogwarts Elementary Floo Drop-Off.

Hogwarts Elementary was a lot more different than Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. First of all, children started attending at age five and ended at age ten. They didn't stay there, nor do they take the train there. Everyone Floos there and arrives at the Drop-Off, which is a room filled with fireplaces. It was like a regular Muggle school, except they teach magic and arrive in fireplaces. Most of the things taught there were the basics, how to hold a wand, how charms and spells work, a few essential potions, some everyday useful spells and what not.

"See you later, Mum and Daddy," said Gabrielle, and she went to her classroom.

"C'mon, let's go!" said Julian, getting into the middle of his mother and father and holding their hands. He skipped, rather girlish-like, Harry noticed uneasily, to his classroom. What they came to see what a large, colorful, circular room filled with colorful, fake potions and floating unicorns prancing around the ceiling. Julian, still holding their hands, skipped up to his teacher and introduced his parents. "Professor Mickey, this is my mum," he looked at Ginny, "and my dad," he looked at Harry.

"Mickey?" questioned Harry.

"McGonagall," she explained. Harry and Ginny looked at each other first then looked at 'Mickey' in disbelief. "I...like being separate from my mom." She was fairly tall; she had long, light brown hair, which she wore down, and a black cloak covering a flowery dress beneath. "Okay! Now everybody's parents are here, sit down in the Magic Circle!"

"Magic Circle! Magic Circle!" the children chanted excitedly. They all sat in a large rug with moving pictures of the well-known, greatest witches and wizards, including a boy with tousled black hair and striking green eyes.

"Okay, children, who wants to go first?" Professor Mickey asked. The young students rose their small hands with excitement, going, "Ooh! Me, me, me!"

"Uh... Rosie!" she said, a pointed to the shy, timid girl in the back. "Miss Longbottom, you may bring your parent up here and introduce him!" Rosie stood up, holding a familiar man's hand.

"This is my daddy," she said, barely louder than a whisper. Professor Mickey signaled to her ear in the back, telling Rosie to be louder. "He is a herbal healer," she said, slightly louder than last time.

"Hi," greeted Neville. "I am-" Just then, two adults rushed through the door.

"Sorry, we're late," the man said, leading his two children into the room.

"Uh, Floo traffic," said the woman.

The teacher smiled. "It's okay, Sabrina and Nathan Weasley, sit down in the Magic Circle." Ron and Hermione sat down next to Harry and Ginny.

"Hey, Harry," whispered Ron. "You see the game?"

Harry grinned. "Yeah, it was awesome," he whispered back. "Especially when Wood took that bludger to the-"

"How do you know what game he's talking about?" Hermione cut in.

"Hermione, hello?" Ron said. "The game?" he repeated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Hermione still looked confused.

"Men's Intuition," Ginny chimed in.

"They have that?" joked Hermione. They started laughing.

"You four in the back!" called Professor Mickey. Their heads snapped forwards to her. "Quiet down!" The students laughed while saying, "Ooooooooooh... they're in trouble!"

"Now, students listen so we may learn what Mr. Longbottom does," said Professor Mickey sharply.

"But I already know what Neville does," muttered Ron.

"I HEARD THAT!"

"Sorry..." After Neville finished, it was Bobby Finnigan's turn. Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione smiled secretly.

"My daddy is a...what are you again?" Bobby asked. Seamus looked uncomfortably around the room of kids.

"I am...I'm a...er...Happiness Provider," he said.

"What's that?" Nathan Weasley asked.

"Yeah? What do you do?" his twin, Sabrina asked.

"Uh...well," Seamus started. "When women are sad or when they feel...lonely, well, when women are sad they come to me to...make...them...happy? Yeah, to make them happy, that's it," he said awkwardly.

"How?" a small child asked.

"I...play games with them," he rushed. The four howled with laughter.

"Where is Bobby's mommy?" another small child asked.

"She's on vacation, a really long one," Bobby explained matter-of-factly. "Right, daddy?" Seamus nodded. Then it was Leila Corner's turn.

"I am," her father said, his chest swelling with pride, "the Head Enforcer of Lavatory Sanitation."

"Oh please," mumbled Harry with obvious dislike. "He cleans the loo for God's sake."

"Any questions?" Mr. Corner asked.

"Doesn't that mean you clean toilets?" a particularly smart kid asked.

"Well-uh..."

"EEEW!!! HE CLEANS PEOPLE'S DOOKIE!" The class burst in to laughter. Leila Corner blushed furiously. The teacher winked at Seamus. Then, it was Nathan's turn. Hermione was representing him. And after a long lecture on doing drugs, which had nothing to do with Hermione's being a teacher for Defense against the Dark Arts, it was Sabrina's turn.

"This is my daddy," said Sabrina, pointing to Ron. "He plays Quidditch," she boasted.

"Hey, kids, I play keeper for the Chudley Cannons," he said.

"Can I have your autograph?" a couple kids asked.

"I have the Ron Weasley model, can I have an autograph too?"

"I have a model?" muttered Ron. He loved this, especially after being in Harry's shadow for so long, but Harry didn't mind.

"So, that concludes my presentation," finished Ron.

"Very good," said Professor Mickey. "Julian Potter?"

"Um, both my parents are doing it," he explained.

"Okay, Mrs. Potter?" she asked. Ginny smiled.

"Hi kids, I'm an interior designer," she said. "I make people's houses pretty."

"Isn't that a Muggle job?" asked Leila.

"Well, it can be magical, too, I designed this room," Ginny explained, pointing to the magical, unicorn frolicking filled ceiling.

"Oooooooooh..."

"I know a secret," Ginny said, and pointed to her wand to the ceiling and swirled it. Then, the unicorns pranced from the ceiling and descended into the room, they circled around the children, who reached out and tried to pet them, but their small fingers went through the ghost-like unicorns. Then returned to the ceiling. The children gasped and squealed. Then it was Harry's turn.

"Hi kids," he said. They gasped when they saw his forehead.

"That's the guy who beat Boldymort!" squeaked Rosie.

"Is he a ghost now?" a child asked.

"No, he's in Heaven now!" another argued.

"Nuh-UH! He went to HELL, stupid!" said Bobby.

"BOBBY FINNIGAN! Do NOT use that language in MY classroom!" the teacher yelled.

"Sorry, Professor Mickey," he apologized.

"Did you stab him?"

"Did you shoot him?"

"Did you uthe Abada Kedabra?"

"Did you push him out of a building?"

"Did you stab him through the heart seventeen times with a dagger, and use Godric Gryffindor's sword to slice each of his limbs off, carve his heart out, squeeze the blood out of it, cut out his eyes so he'll walk blind through the Underworld, put a scar on his forehead, then decapitate him, burn his head, then throw his remains for the lions to eat for supper?" Everyone looked at the boy who asked the question. "Okay, guess not," he muttered, his eyes flickering unnervingly.

"Could you not ask about that please?" Harry asked uncomfortably.

"Okay," the class sullenly answered.

"Thanks. So, I'm an Auror," Harry said. "That means I look for bad guys and put them in Azkaban."

The kids looked bored. "Can I touch your scar?" one asked.

"No," Harry said shortly.

"Are you done yet?" another kid asked.

Harry looked a little disappointed. "Yeah...I guess."

"Can I touch your scar now?" asked the same child as before.

"No." The class was over, so all of the parents left.

"So," said Hermione as they left the classroom, "what do you guys want to do next, I got the day off."

"Me too," said Ginny, Ron, and Harry in unison.

"Umm... let's get ice at Florean Fortescue!" suggested Ginny.

"Mmm...sounds good! And we can look at that cute little Quidditch shop for kids!" said Hermione.

"Ooh, yeah, Gabby's been complaining that her broomstick is broken," said Ginny. "She wants to be a seeker, like her dad." She grinned at Harry.

"How cute...they have the cutest little Quidditch uniforms-"

"I know!"

"Well let's go then!" Hermione kissed Ron. "Love you, see you later, hon."

"Bye, love you, Scarface," said Ginny jokingly as she kissed Harry.

"Bye," said the men in unison.

"So, what do you want to do?" asked Ron.

"I dunno, what do you want to do?" said Harry dully.

"I dunno." The two stood in silence for several minutes.

"Wanna grab a butterbeer?"

"Sure."