Neville rubbed his eyes. Jude and Georgie were getting so big, but they loved driving their parents insane. Right when Jude would fall asleep, Georgie would start to wail. When Georgie was hungry, Jude would be wet. Neville was sure that they were doing it on purpose, but Hannah insisted that it was just the sleep deprivation that was making him think that. Neville had been awake for nearly twenty-four hours, between his children and his duties as headmaster it was almost too much, but he loved it. Neville yawned into his hand and walked down one of the endless hallways of Hogwarts. He knew the place like the back of his hand, and it was his second home. He loved knowing that his children could find their places in the world through this school, and hoped that Jude and Georgie would feel the same.

Just had to get back to his office, send out one final owl and he would be able to go back home to his wife, his babies and a hot meal. Everything that he could ever need to recharge his batteries for even a little bit and then do it all over again. Passing down a hallway, Neville smiled when he spotted his new dueling professor looking dreadfully lost. He tried to wipe the amused smirk from his face before he insulted the man who was able to hex him sixteen ways to Sunday. He might have been part of the Wizarding War, but he was an academic now. A father and a husband. Not a seventeen year old with nothing to lose. Seven children had a way of doing shifting priorities.

"Having trouble, mate?" He called down the hall, walking towards the dueling professor.
"It's a tricky school. We really should put in some of those you are here maps." The ones that were so popular in muggle shopping malls to allow people to find their ways. Something to let people navigate their halls when a friendly ghost wasn't around. Sometimes it was painful for him to see glimpses of faces he knew in life. The ghosts of those who fell in the battle of Hogwarts usually kept their distance from him. He had only seen Fred Weasley once, he was helping a first year when she was missing her brother. He saw Remus and Tonks watching with pride when Teddy was sorted into Gryffindor, when he danced with Victorie at a dance, when he graduated.

Everything that they would have done in life, all without letting their son know. Neville had seen what happened when a orphaned child held on too much to the ghost of their parents. He would spend hours in St Mungo's hoping that his would remember who he was. When Harry would spend hours looking into the Mirror of Erised. It wasn't healthy and they both knew it.

"Long day, Mr Zachor?"