The weather station on the muggle television revealed that a storm had taken a sudden change in direction overnight and would not leave Cornwall until later that night, far past the time Severus would prefer his kids in bed. It was pouring outside right now, the waves rough and choppy, the sky a dreary grey, and Harry and Iris wore very sad faces.
“No more ocean?” Iris asked.
“Not today,” Severus answered.
“Now what do we do?” Harry asked.
“Don’t worry,” Severus said as he picked up the hotel phone and dialed Tori’s room number. “There is plenty to do inside and we’ll have just as much fun.”
Severus paused as he waited for the other end to pick up.
“Tori? Yes, I just saw the news, the weather isn’t looking to change . . . Upset, and will probably go stir crazy if we don’t find things to do . . . Oh? . . . Tonight? Isn’t that good news? What are we supposed to do until then?” Severus chuckled at whatever Tori said on the other line, then said, “Alright, we’ll be down shortly.”
Severus hung up the phone, then smiled at the curious looks his kids were giving him.
“What’s happening tonight?” Iris asked.
“You’ll find out tonight,” Severus said. “Right now, it’s time for breakfast.”
“I don’t want breakfast,” Harry said moodily as he took a couple puffs of his inhaler before following his father to their door. “Are we meeting up with Tori?”
“We are meeting them for breakfast. Imani has made something very special in the kitchen. I think you’ll like it.”
“Does she make all the food?” Iris asked, taking her father’s hand as they walked to the elevator. “For the whole hotel?”
Harry grabbed his father’s other hand and looked up at him as he waited for an answer.
“She makes the majority of it,” Severus answered as they stepped on to the elevator. When the doors closed and it was just him and his kids, he added, “With a little magical aid, of course. She’s quite gifted in charms, and practically runs the kitchens alone.”
“Can I learn charms to do that?” Harry asked.
“When you’re older. And hopefully, you’ll want to learn charms for something other than kitchen work.”
Downstairs in the hotel restaurant, Severus and his kids joined Tori and Samuel at their table with their kids already running around at the buffet style set up. It was a South African themed breakfast with eggs, bacon, boerewors, fried tomatoes, fried plantains, rusks with tea, and much more. Severus was impressed with how much there was available, and several guests were taking part in the food. Harry and Iris quickly ran over to the food stations to grab plates and serve themselves alongside Ruth and Joshua. Tori assisted Esther in picking out what she wanted. Severus took his jacket off and served himself, keeping an eye on his kids to make sure they didn’t go crazy piling food on their plates.
Finally, everyone sat down at the table and dug into their food. Severus had served himself an easy helping of rusks with tea, with just a touch of eggs and fried tomatoes. He glanced at Iris’s dish, glad to see she had a good helping of tomatoes and plantains, along with pastries and boerewors. She had a cup of orange juice to wash everything down. Then, Severus glanced at Harry’s plate and snorted softly.
“What did you do, take a sample of everything?” Severus asked.
Harry nodded as if it was no big deal, nibbling on the bacon first. He had a small scoop of everything from the buffet, and a couple pastries teetering on the edge of his plate. He also had a cup of orange juice to wash all the food down.
“That a boy!” Samuel praised from across the table, his plate piled in a similar manner.
“You are not going to eat all of that,” Severus said.
“Don’t discourage him,” Samuel said. “You got this, Harry. Tuck in.”
“What’s this?” Harry asked, scooping up a small amount of thick brown pudding like material.
“See, you don’t even know what everything is,” Severus said, frowning at the food.
“Sorghum pudding,” Samuel answered. “Good stuff. Give it a try.”
Harry put the pudding in his mouth, smacking his lips inquisitively, his face not betraying whether he liked it or not. He looked up at his father, then scooped up more and offered it to Severus.
“You try, Daddy,” Harry said.
“No, you eat it. I have my own breakfast.”
“I want you to try it.”
“I don’t like sorghum pudding.”
“How do you know if you don’t try it?”
Severus chuckled as he recalled saying those same words to Harry. However, he was not feeling very adventurous and was not interested in the chunky pasty looking food. He’d much rather stick to his simple palate.
“I’m good, Harry,” Severus said, pushing the spoon Harry was holding out to him back towards Harry. “Eat your own food. I’ll stick with mine.”
Harry opened his mouth as if he would eat what was on the spoon, then at the last minute, while Severus had still been talking, Harry spun the spoon around and shoved the pudding into Severus’s mouth.
Almost instantly, Severus cringed and had to put a hand over his mouth as he felt a wave of nausea hit him as the goopy mess melted on his tongue, coating it in an earthy, semi-sweet flavor that he wasn’t exactly fond of. He wasn’t sure if he could bring himself to swallow it and he scrunched his face up in disgust as he fought to keep whatever he had in his stomach down, his eyes watering from the effort.
Tori laughed at Severus’s reaction while Samuel smirked. The other kids at the table chuckled softly as they watched Severus’s expression.
“Breathe through it, Severus,” Samuel said.
“Are you okay?” Tori asked.
Severus took a deep breath as he willed himself to force down the sticky substance, finding all the willpower not to upchuck it. He couldn’t even be too upset at Harry as he had used that trick on Harry to get potions into the child. Oh, how karma was cruel. He managed to swallow the pudding then picked up his tea and chugged it to get rid of the horrible flavor. He glanced down at his son.
Harry was giving him an innocent look as he held up another scoop of the pudding, but he lowered it and asked, “You don’t like it?”
“I do not,” Severus said as he glared at the offending food.
Harry hesitated, then said, “I like it,” before promptly putting a spoonful of the pudding in his own mouth.
The table erupted into laughter once more while Severus rolled his eyes, grabbing his teacup and standing up.
“I’m glad,” Severus said dryly. “I’m going to get myself more tea.”
Everyone returned to enjoying their food, and while Harry did not manage to eat everything on his plate, he surprised Severus by eating a few bites of every item, finding everything to be to his liking. After breakfast, there was a movie showing in the theater room for all guests to watch if they desired, and as it was a kids’ movie, all guests with children attended. Severus, Tori and Samuel sat in the back with other adults while the kids took seats on the floor and in the very first few rows in front of the big screen, and The Flight of the Navigator played with subtitles, an accommodation Isaiah made sure to add upon learning his niece was deaf, even if she couldn’t read well yet.
At some point, Harry and Esther dozed off, falling asleep against Joshua, who adjusted Harry against him so he was lying against his shoulder while Esther’s head rested in his lap, that way he could comfortably finish watching the movie. Tori and Severus came to Joshua’s rescue and lifted the sleeping children off him once the movie was over. Both kids stirred and were wide awake once more, ready for the next activity.
Iris received her artwork back that she had worked on last night, and she gifted it to Severus. It was a finger-painted picture of the beach, and Severus promised to hang it in his study once they got back home, which made Iris beam proudly.
Isaiah and Imani turned a conference room across from the arcade into a game room for the day, and several classic board, card, and floor games littered the room. Children played several games of charades, Mouse Trap, Monopoly, Cleudo, and several card games. Harry and Iris managed to get tangled up in a game of Twister, and they fell on top of each other laughing when Iris was supposed to place her left hand on red but couldn’t figure out a way to get around her brother. After that, Joshua and Harry played a few levels of Super Mario Bros. in the arcade, Joshua assisting Harry briefly when he struggled on certain parts, keeping them both alive through much of the game.
“Who wants to go swimming?” Tori asked when everyone seemed to have worn out the options in the game room and arcade.
“Me!” Everyone cheered, and the families returned to their hotel rooms to change into swimsuits.
At the indoor pool, the kids played many water games, including Marco Polo, tag, and cannonball contests. Joshua managed to convince his father to play chicken against Severus and Harry, but Joshua could not find the will to knock Harry down and allowed himself to be pushed off his father’s shoulders. Iris and Ruth were up next and both girls tried their best to knock the other off only for Severus and Samuel to allow them both to fall back into the water. When Esther wanted a turn, Tori reappeared from collecting drinks for the family, and she put an end to that kind of play and scolded her husband and Severus for encouraging it. All the kids laughed at their fathers’ abashed faces.
Everyone exited the pool for a drink of juice for the kids, and wine for the adults, save Tori who drank a fruity non-alcoholic drink. After everyone was rehydrated, more water games ensued for an hour before the children seemed tired.
Lunch was lighter than breakfast, with a salad bar, sandwiches and veggie wraps, and a variety of soups to choose from. Severus carried his kids back to their hotel room, where he magically dried them off and had them change into pajamas, then they settled in bed and fell asleep listening to Severus read from one of his potion journals. While they napped, Severus cast a few charms in the room, then snuck out of the room and sought out Tori and Samuel in the theater room. He took the empty seat next to Samuel.
“Think your kids will sleep through the whole movie?” Samuel asked.
“I doubt it,” Severus answered honestly. “What’s showing?”
“A View to a Kill,” Samuel answered. “Yeah, I doubt our kids will stay down for long. Joshua’s babysitting if they do wake up. He’s watching football on the tv right now while his sister’s nap.”
“Let me guess,” Severus smirked. “Too old for naps?”
“He was too old the minute he turned three,” Tori chuckled.
“I have a few charms on the room, one will alert me the moment one or both of them wake up, but hopefully I’ll be able to see the whole thing.”
“It’s nice to have a few minutes of child free time. Isaiah planned this day perfectly.”
“I agree.”
Sometimes, Karma was kind, and Severus was able to enjoy the two-hour long movie before his wand alerted him to his kids waking up in the room. He left before the subtitles came on, but he had managed to get the gist of the ending, and he returned to his hotel room just in time to see Harry and Iris slipping out of the bed.
As the weatherman had said, it was still raining outside, though it had settled from a pour to a drizzle. Regardless, their plans for the evening were inside. After baths and an hour of quiet time (which consisted of Iris reading silently to herself, Harry watching a dinosaur show on the TV, and Severus browsing through a couple potion journals), it was time to head downstairs once more, to a surprise that Isaiah and Imani had managed to pull off. Severus led the way to where Tori had told him to go, and he paused in front of a marked closet.
“We’re going into a storage closet?” Iris asked with a disbelieving face, a pout starting to form as she crossed her arms.
“That’s simply show for the muggles,” Severus said, opening the door to reveal an ordinary storage closet full of boring cleaning supplies and extra towels and blankets. He closed the door, tapped his finger on the brass knob three times, then opened it again, and this time, it revealed a long, candlelit hallway.
“Whoa!” Harry and Iris said at the same time. They shared an amazed look. “That’s brilliant.”
“After you,” Severus said, gesturing for his kids to step through. Harry and Iris ran inside, and Severus closed the door behind him, tapping his finger on the knob once again to restore the image for muggles. Harry and Iris slowly followed the hallway, glancing back at Severus now and then for confirmation as they carried on, excited for what might be ahead.
At the end of the hallway was a large room where several wizards and witches were enjoying appetizers, games, dancing, and even art. There were several round tables for families to sit and browse a menu, and several people were already eating. A few stalls lined the opposite wall, hosting magic face painting, wizard candy, a small petting zoo, and a kiosk selling streamers, fireworks, and other trinkets. Imani was assisting families with their food and orders while Isaiah worked a muggle DJ set in the far back of the room, playing the music at a moderate noise. Terrell and Cela were giving young kids rides on broomsticks, nearly touching the very high ceiling.
“This is amazing!” Iris squealed. “What should we do first? Daddy, can I get my face painted, please? Oh, can I get a streamer? I want to dance on the floor, too, come dance with me!”
Iris grabbed Severus’s hand and tried to drag him toward the DJ stand.
“Hold up, Iris, we have plenty of time to do everything. Let’s find the others first.”
“I see them!” Iris said, leading the way toward Samuel and Tori’s table, where the two were talking softly to each other while Esther fussed over her dinner, antsy in her seat.
“Hi, Tori!” Iris greeted enthusiastically. “Where’s Ruth?”
“Getting her face painted,” Tori answered, a grin on her face. “Why don’t you go join her?”
“Daddy, can I?” Iris asked, looking up at her father with big, brown eyes.
“Alright, but I do expect you to sit down and eat dinner at some point, deal?” Severus quirked a brow at his daughter.
“Deal!” Iris agreed before running over to the face painting stall with another squeal.
Severus chuckled as he watched her run away, then looked down at Harry, who seemed hesitant to explore the large, slightly crowded room.
“Would you like to eat some dinner first?” Severus asked.
Before Harry could answer, Joshua sprinted over, grabbing Harry’s hand and talking a mile a minute.
“Harry, you won’t believe it! There’s a baby dragon at the petting zoo! You have to come see, come see, come on!”
“A baby what?” Harry asked, but he allowed Joshua to pull him in the direction of the petting zoo before both boys ran over to it.
“Okay, then,” Severus said, turning back toward Tori and Samuel, “I’ve officially lost my kids.”
“They’ll come eat when they’re ready,” Tori said. “You can’t force them. Clearly.”
She gestured to Esther, who was smashing her dinner with her fork in protest. Tori caved and freed her daughter from her booster seat and set her down, allowing the little girl to take off running into the chaos of children.
“You know she’s going straight to Honeydukes’ Samplers,” Samuel told his wife.
“Then maybe someone should go watch her sugar intake,” Tori shot back, smiling at her husband.
Samuel sighed and threw his hands up in defeat, standing up and following his daughter. Severus chuckled as he sat across from Tori.
“Plan on joining the festivities?” Severus asked.
“Oh no,” Tori said, shaking her head as she stirred her tea. “Baby Jem’s not feeling up to doing much right now. Maybe dancing a bit later, but Mama needs some alone time from her crazy crew. How about you? Plan on getting your face painted?”
“Absolutely not,” Severus said. “Nor do I look forward to getting magic paint off her face later.”
“There’s a cleansing spell for it.” Tori smirked. “Just be sure to talk to the artist before you leave tonight.”
Meanwhile, Harry followed Joshua over to the petting zoo with a frown on his face. He still wasn’t sure if he had heard Joshua correctly, but he was excited to see what animals were at the petting zoo regardless. At the stall, several exotic owls waited in bird cages, grooming their feathers. A spectacled owl, an owl with brown plumage and white markings around its eyes that resembled glasses, looked down at Harry and Joshua and let out a deep, pulsating hoot. Harry smiled up at the bird before looking at the handler running the stall.
“Hi, sir,” Joshua greeted enthusiastically. “Can you show my friend the dragon?”
“Of course,” the man said, reaching under the stall covering and pulling out a cage. He slipped on arm length dragon hide gloves before opening the cage and offering his hand toward. A cat-sized green dragon slithered up his arm, resting comfortably on the glove while the handler fed it a piece of raw lamb he pulled from an ice box. The dragon crunched on it before allowing the handler to place a muzzle over its snout.
“Here he is, gentlemen,” the handler said, squatting so Joshua and Harry could admire the dragon. The dragon blinked at the boys with yellow eyes, unfazed by their presence. It had a scaly green back with oversized leathery wings and a long snout with a couple snaggle teeth.
Joshua stroked the back, and that encouraged Harry to reach out a hand to pet the dragon, his hand feeling the roughness of the dragon’s scales before gently touching the strong, leather-like wings. The green dragon reminded Harry of his dinosaur toy, Spikes, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the beautiful beast. It was so stunning and breathtaking.
“What’s his name?” Harry asked.
“Bronwen,” the handler said.
“He’s so pretty! Why does he have a muzzle on?”
“So he doesn’t bite anyone,” the handler said. “His kind are actually very docile, so they do not have a tendency to act aggressively toward humans, but better safe than sorry, especially with kids involved.”
“How old is he?”
“He’ll be fourteen weeks this Saturday.”
“How big will he get?”
“Bigger than this room.”
“Whoa!”
Harry asked question after question, wearing out the poor handler while continuing to pet the dragon, amusing Joshua who was silent for a change as he listened to Harry’s questions and the handler’s feedback. Finally, the handler removed the muzzle and allowed the dragon to go back in his cage with another bite of lamb. A few other children appeared and listened in as well, petting the dragon too.
“Now, who wants to see a baby hippogriff?” the handler asked.
“Me!” cheered seven children.
The handler chuckled as he stepped into the back of the stall, disappearing behind a curtain before he led a pony-sized hippogriff out into the open, and it tugged excitedly on the rope as it curiously stared at all the children.
“Now, children,” the handler said, “before you can pet him, you must all bow to him to show him that you respect him, and you mean no harm. So, copy me. Let’s all bow.”
The handler bowed to the hippogriff and all the children copied him, a couple peeking up at the baby animal to see its reaction. The baby eyed everyone before it bowed in return, loving the attention it was receiving. The handler cheered and fed the baby a mouse, and it happily swallowed the treat, earning several “ewws” from the kids. They all took turns petting the hippogriff, and everyone asked questions as they each got to feed the baby a mouse, to the disgust of some and the amusement of others. Finally, the handler said the baby needed a break, and he led the baby back behind the curtain.
“Pretty brill, huh?” Joshua asked Harry as he walked with him toward the Honeydukes’ Samplers. He picked out two chocolate frogs and handed Harry one, who gladly accepted it.
“I loved the dragon. He was just like Spikes.”
“Yeah, he was. Hey, you want a sparkler?” Joshua asked even as he grabbed one from another kiosk. “Give it a flick to get it started.”
Harry had opened the chocolate frog and was waiting for it to stop moving. Once the chocolate was still, he took a bite of the frog’s head and flicked his wrist, and the sparkler in his hand came alive in a fiery show, and he smiled at it as he ate the chocolate. They walked around the room, admiring kids playing with streamers—which were long ribbon like threads that left a reddish magical trail behind the user. The trails would slowly fade away, but it lingered long enough to reveal patterns the kids drew in the air. They passed the face painting stall where kids were getting magically animated images painted on their skin. One boy asked for a snake to wrap around his arm, and once it was painted, the red and blue snake slithered around his arm briefly before going still once more.
They ran into Iris and Ruth here, and the girls stopped in front of the boys.
“Do you like it?” Iris asked Harry, tilting her head so Harry could see the butterflies painted on her cheek.
“They’re cool,” Harry said. “What do they do?”
“Watch.” Iris made a duck face and the butterflies fluttered around, flying toward her eye then around her cheek before landing in their inanimate pose.
“What’s yours do?” Joshua asked his sister, and Ruth pointed at upper arm where a beautiful rose was painted. She brushed her fingers against the rose, and one by one the petals fell off the flower, falling down her arm and disappearing in a crumble of sparkly dust. Then, the rose regrew the petals. “That’s awesome, actually.”
Ruth smiled at her brother’s praise.
With most of the kids back together, they relocated to their parents’ table and sat down, ready for something to munch on. The girls showed off their paintings to their parents respectively. Tori awed over Ruth’s while Severus was reminded that he needed to talk to the artist before she left on how to remove the paint later. Severus ordered Iris and Harry fish and chips, taking Harry’s sparkler, and blowing it out for now. Iris ate quickly before taking off with Ruth to find streamers for themselves to dance with. Tori was busy talking to Imani and Samuel was playing around at the DJ stand while Isaiah watched amused. Severus was fiddling with a puzzler trinket Joshua had left behind at the table while Harry nibbled at his food as he thought back to the dragon.
“Daddy, can I have a baby dragon?” Harry asked.
“Absolutely not.”
“What about a baby hippogriff?”
“No. And no exotic owls, and no other pets. Where would you keep them anyway when they were full grown?”
“In my room,” Harry said as if it was the most obvious conclusion.
“How very accommodating. What about Spikes? He’d have no room for himself.”
Harry frowned. How could he forget about Spikes? Spikes needed space and playtime too, just like any other pet. But he was sure he could handle all of them. He would be a responsible dinosaur-dragon-hippogriff handler.
“I could train the dragon and the hippogriff and Spikes to all get along in my room,” Harry said.
“I’m sure you could, but let’s stick with Spikes for a while longer, all right?”
Harry pouted, but he was sure he wouldn’t be able to change Severus’s mind, so he let the subject drop. At that moment, Esther came leaping over, waving her hands at Harry.
“Come dance,” Esther signed before moving to the beat.
“How can you hear it?” Harry asked while pointing at his ear and frowning at Esther, hoping to get the message across as he wasn’t sure how to sign the question.
“Follow me,” was Esther’s answer.
Harry pushed his food away and followed Esther out to the dance floor where she squatted down and placed her hands on the floor. Harry studied her before copying what she was doing. The floor vibrated to the beat of the music, the heavy base pulsating through Harry’s arms.
“You can feel it,” Harry said.
Esther slowly stood, dragging her hands up her body before jumping up and down.
“You can feel it all the way up to your head,” Harry concluded while Esther danced around him. The music changes suddenly, courtesy of Samuel, and Iris and Ruth ran over to Harry, already doing a few steps. Several other kids and adults stepped out onto the dance floor.
“Come on, Harry,” Iris encouraged her brother when he began to back away.
“I don’t know how to dance,” Harry said.
“You don’t have to. It’s the electric slide. Everyone’s doing it. Just copy me.”
Harry watched Iris’s footwork before attempting the first few steps. Joshua joined at his other side, Esther copying his moves. Soon, Harry was dancing along with everyone to the music, and he was smiling the whole way, and Severus watched his kids have the time of their lives from the table before Tori and Samuel managed to drag him out to the floor, forcing him to partake in the dance.
The night ended with several very tired kids that night.
All good things come to an end, and the last couple days of their vacation was full of sunny beach days and tours of Cornwall. Iris and Harry pouted as they were bucked into their car seats, and they stared at the castle longingly, already missing it.
“Can’t we stay one more day?” Iris asked, cuddling her doll close.
“Afraid not. Break is coming to an end, you know.”
“But I don’t want to leave.”
“I know. We’ll be back, I promise.”
“Really?” Harry asked. He adjusted Spikes in his lap. “When?”
“Maybe this summer,” Severus said. “We’ll see.”
“We’ll see you back home, Severus,” Tori said as she walked by Severus’s car to her own, her kids running ahead of her. “I hope the vacation was perfect.”
“It was, Tori. The kids don’t want to leave.”
Iris and Harry shook their heads.
“Aw, I’m glad they had fun.” Tori smiled at them. “Now you guys can enjoy the road trip back.”
“About that, they did not really enjoy it on the way here,” Severus said.
“The first time is never easy,” Tori said, smirking at Severus. “They’ll get used to the rides the more you do it.”
“Their behavior the first time makes me want to do less.”
Tori laughed out loud at that.
“Hang in there, Severus.” She patted his shoulder mockingly before pointing a finger at the kids in the backseat of the car. “Behave for your daddy, you two.”
“Yes, Tori,” Iris and Harry answered sweetly.
Tori bid them goodbye, and Severus closed the door to the backseat and climbed in the front. He spared the castle one last glance himself, smiling at the many memories he had created with his kids, and he hoped his kids carried those memories for many years to come.