Lost in time

Epilogue

Harry is standing at his desk grading the homework of the first years that just started a few months ago. Charlie is sitting close by and currently assisting Harry in his work in class since the red head refuses to let Harry stand for the majority of the class or cast any dangerous spells, never mind protecting against them and standing in a room where dangerous spells are flying.

"Do you want something?" Charlie asks for what feel like the millionth time.

"No," Harry grumbles, "I'm fine and I told you that I tell you if I need anything."

"I just asked." Charlie whines and rolls his eyes like Harry is over reacting. Harry just glares at him. "I didn't say anything."

"I wish." Harry grumbles sounding even more angry.

"He's just as moody." Godric helpfully says from a portrait in the wall. "Sal was the same when he was pregnant with Jamie."

"I'm not moody." Harry growls positively furious. "I'm just sick of everyone treating me like some porcelain doll that might break or is incapable of the simplest task like bloody asking for something. And now kindly shut up or get the hell out of here."

He glowers to them for a moment before he returns his attention towards the homework of Balthazar. It's been years since his 30 birthday and Balthazar, the first son of Tom and Severus is in his first year. Tom had gotten pregnant a year after Harry and Charlie had gotten together. Much to everyone's surprise it hadn't been Severus that had carried the child but it probably was for the best since Tom could work during most of his pregnancies since he worked in the ministry at the relatively new department of child protection that Tom had started and organized.

Another surprise in those last years had been three years ago when Harry had told Dudley and Draco that they were expecting a child since Draco was the one knocked up. I had already been a shock that Draco Malfoy started dating a Muggle. Even after all the change towards Muggle born, that wasn't something Harry could ever have seen coming. It does however seem that Draco loves the Muggle world nearly as much as Mister Weasley. Especially movies, Draco seems addicted to them and constantly wants to go to the cinema with Dudley.

But when Draco had gotten pregnant Dudley had fainted since he hadn't been around Tom during his pregnancy and apparently thought that Balthazar as well as James in the past had been produced with the help of a woman who carried the child. It seems he thought it worked the same way as in the muggle world where only one of the fathers would be biologically the father and some woman had carried it for them.

He had been fussing over Draco nearly as bad as Charlie was over him after the initial shock had worn off. There had been a little fight between them because Draco had misunderstood his muggle lover's reaction and thought that Dudley didn't want their child. In the end Dudley had managed to convince his beloved that he had simply not known that man could get pregnant and been shocked by the revelation and that this particular child was his but that he was excited about being a dad.

Draco had however insisted that they marry before the baby was born and preferably before he looked like a whale. Dudley had tried to reassure his lover that he could never look like a whale and constantly had to do the same later when Draco did gain a baby bump. The wedding however had been very nice even with Draco being very moody during his pregnancy.

Dudley was lucky that Draco is so damn rich and since Draco's father is still in Azkaban, for trying to kidnap Dudley to threaten Harry, Draco has full access to all the Malfoy money and could use it to spoil himself during that pregnancy as well as the one that followed two years later and just recently ended with a cute little sister for their son.

Tom and Severus still aren't married since Severus constantly insisted that he's too old for such romantic nonsense and that it's unnecessary but Tom is still trying at least once a year to talk his partner into it.

By now Harry even knows that Severus had meant him when talking about the person he liked because he was like Severus' first love interest which had been Harry's mother. Tom had told him about two years after Harry was with Charlie. By then Severus insisted that it is long in the past and that he is with Tom and will stay with him. It seems he has gotten over his infatuation with Harry even though he still is talking very lovingly about Harry's mother and visits her grave every year on her birthday and deathday.

"You want something now?" Charile once again asks only to see the door to Harry's office fly open and a glare on his husbands face.

"Out!" Harry growls, "NOW! Or I swear I call for Basily and have her forcibly remove you from this room. And I will NOT tell her to be careful while doing so."

"Okay, okay." Charlie grumbles. "Could just have told me that you want some peace."

"I DID!" Harry screams at him. "And now get the hell out and don't you dare come back until you can stop pestering me every few seconds."

Harry is magically closing and locking the door after his husband the second he's out. With a sigh Harry tries to refocus his attention on Balthazar's homework. Which is bloody hard to do when someone is constantly pestering him. Harry still remembers that Bellatrix had seemed to enjoy her husband's constant attention on her when she had been pregnant around the same time as Tom had been, Rodolphus was at least as overbearing but Bella had enjoyed it. Their daughter Asphodel is also in her first year and only two months younger then Balthazar and the two of them are good friends even though to everyone's surprise, her daughter is a Gryffindor while Balthazar is a Slytherin.

Ron and Hermione also have a child who will start Hogwarts next year and another that will join a year later. Most of the Weasley children have a child by now. All but Charlie and Molly is nearly as overbearing as Charlie since she knows that her second eldest son is finally going to give her another grandchild. Like she doesn't already have enough of those. The fact that the other parent to Charlies child is no one else but Harry whom she sees like another son for ages and whom she had once upon a time hoped would marry Ginny to be a part of her family, is probably another reason for her to annoy the hell out of Harry right now.

Ginny is married as well even if not to Harry. Which is fine with Molly since Harry did become a member of the family and is by now much older than Ginny anyway. She's now married to Blaise Zabini instead, something that caused Ron to faint but he got over it quickly since he's also getting along with Draco. Ginny and Blaise by now have two kids, twins that will start Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione's younger child and Harry is starting to fear it since they already are planning to take over their uncles store even though the twins both have kids of their own. But they want to show their uncles that they still are the more worthy heirs to their joke shop.

Severus isn't the only unwedded one from Harry's friends though. Sirius and Rabastan also haven't married yet but are finally engaged for two months now. Harry had helped out a little by asking Rabastan why he never asked Sirius only to hear that the man was certain that Sirius would run the second he's asked to marry anyone. Rabastan apparently was still expecting Sirius to dump him for the next best person he met.

After telling Sirius how worried his lover is about it and how he assumed Sirius would react about being asked to marry him Sirius had gone all out and asked Rabastan on the next Christmas eve under the tree at midnight. From what Harry heard there had been candles and rosses involved in the decoration and a huge expensive diamond ring.

Rabastan is still bragging about the way he'd been asked and Harry must admit that it really sounded rather romantic. Harry kept it to himself that from the sound of it Sirius had simply done what Harry had once told Sirius how Charlie had asked him. He did see the recognition in Charlies eyes when Rabastan had bragged but in the end Charlie only said, "Lucky you, most man aren't that romantic."

Harry is glad that Charlie hadn't told Rabastan that he had done the same. Even though Harry is sure that Charlie only went all out on it because a month before that Christmas, Charlie had asked Harry if he ever thought about marrying again since he already had married once and Harry actually had told him that he rather thinks like Severus on the topic, meaning no way in hell. But the way Charlie had kneeled under the tree with all the candles floating in the air and the roses floating in a way that lots of hearts were wormed from them and on top of that there had been romantic music.

But the best had been when Charlie had spoken which at least is something Harry never mentioned to Sirius so he couldn't copy that. Harry will never forget how Charlie had looked up into his eyes and said, "Harry I know you don't really want to marry again but I just can't imagine growing old with anyone else than you, nor do I want to imagine it because I know that my life will never be complete without you beside me to share it. When I think about you, I know that no one else will ever hold my heart the way you do. And I know that you deserve the very best, someone who will back you up without limits, let you grow without borders, and love you without end. Of course I also know that no one really will ever be as perfect as you deserve and that I'm still not even close to truly deserve someone as amazing as you but I promise you, no one will work harder, to make you happy and cherish you the way you deserve, than me."

With a sigh Harry once again wonders if anyone in the world could have had the heart to say no after that! Harry most certainly hadn't been able to do it. He had no choice but to say yes after that speech. And then had to follow through since he couldn't just change his mind the way Charlie would always light up when talking about their wedding and who they'd invite and the fact that they would spend the rest of their lives with each other.

"Why isn't Charlie with you?" Harry hears and glowers towards the portrait of his first born that is currently visiting one in his office, the same one Godric had visited a little earlier. "He better not neglect you while you're carrying my baby brother or sister."

"James, darling." Harry says in a deathly voice, "If you don't stop being even more overbearing then Charlie and his mother put together I will remove your portrait from the wall until this baby is born! Is that understood?"

"Yes dad." James replies, "I was just worried."

"I know but I'm fine." Harry grumbles. "I still got three more months of this, how on earth am I to survive that if everyone is already getting on my nerves?"

"We're just worried dad since you never tell anyone when you need something." James tries to explain. "We care and want you happy. If you'd told us what you want a little more we might back off and feel more secure that you're going to tell us if you need something but you're still rather walking down to the kitchens than ask an elf to get you a drink."

"That's how I am." Harry grumbles. "But I'm fine and I can go down and get a drink and if I do need something I will tell like I am telling you now LET ME WORK!"

"All right, all right." James grumbles and leaves still mumbling about mood swings. Harry sighs glad that he at least managed to finish one paper even with the distractions and the musing he does. Next is the one from Harry's godson Teddy who was been born two weeks after Asphodel and is the son of Remus and Nymphadora Lupin nee Tonks who is still called Tonks by most but some started to call her Dora since she's not really a Tonks anymore. To the surprise of most, including Severus, Teddy is in Slytherin and best buddy with Balthazar but does get along with Asphodel as well.

Harry is just glad that the boy is healthy and that Remus can calm down now that his child had no werewolf tendencies. Some insist that he's a little more hot-headed around the full moon but Harry is convinced that most people just imagine it since Harry has noticed him just as hot-headed at other times and just as calm as he sometimes is around the full moon. Teddy's baby sister is also healthy. Which is no surprise since in the meantime Harry had finally managed to find a cure for Lycanthropy. Like her brother and her mother, Anna, who is named after Andromeda but with a little more normal name since Dora hated her own unusual name, is a metamorphmagus. She's two years younger than Teddy but just as full of smiles and giggles and loves to use her metamorphmagus abilities to trick people and make her look like her friends. It gets particularly annoying when she's around Ginny's twins since they start to look like triplets and she's just as big of a prankster then the two of them. He shudders just thinking about them starting Hogwarts together in two years.

"Are you cold?" Salazar's voice comes from the painting that James just left. "I'll go get that good for nothing husband of yours to take proper care of you. After all you deserve it for always fulfilling every one of my whims during my pregnancy with Jamie."

"Do that and I'll happily burn your portrait and now leave me the hell alone!" Harry grumbles and the second Sal fled from the room Harry spells the portraits in his office of the walls.

Harry finally manages to grade Teddy's homework and wonders if Ron's little Rose will be as good as Teddy in defence. The girl is already reading as much as her mother always did and shows great potential in her primary school where the teachers constantly want her to skip a grade while Hermione insists that she'll stay with her friends still remembering how lonely she sometimes felt with no friends and not willing to risk her being the book worm that skipped a grade with the older kids the class above hers.

"Mother asked me to see how you're doing since Sal and Gody are driving everyone insane and Charlie doesn't dare to disturb you." The ghost of Helena, Rowena's daughter says in a dreamy voice while floating into the room through the ground.

"Helena dear." Harry grumbles through clenched teeth. "Please tell Sal and everyone else down there that wants to be nice to me to leave me the hell alone so I can grade those blasted homework papers in peace! And now out!"

The second she's gone Harry grabs the papers he still has to grade, moves them into a bag he throws over a shoulder and moves towards a small piece of wall that is visible between two bookcases and hisses twinkle, twinkle little star how I wonder where you are. In parsel to open a small space with gabs in the stone to make for easy climbing. Once he's in the gab the wall behind him closes and Harry feels the magic making the secret way invisible even to ghost that float through the wall and he starts his decent. It is getting hard to get down this way but at least no one will be bothering him once he's in his office in the chamber of secrets. And there are plenty of spells to protect him from falling.

Harry finally has a few hours of peace during which he managed the grade the other papers and have a moment of peace before he hears a door open and stares towards the door where no one else then Severus stands, having learned the parsel password to the entrance in myrtles bathroom by heart. He's looking at Harry asking, "I guess one of those secret passages that goes down here starts in your office?"

"Are you going to annoy the hell out of me too?" Harry questions in a grumble.

"Not really, I just wanted to see if you're here so I could actually ask you if I may use the potions lab you have down here because it is impossible to get any peace up there with everyone worried about you."

"Of course Severus." Harry replies, "Go ahead."

"By the way." Severus replies, "From what I overheard from their talk you should listen to what James told you. Ask for some rubbish on occasion so Charlie and the rest feel useful, that might get them of your back when you want peace."

"I'll think about it." Harry replies and a little later Basily is resting with her head next to him and smelling the air around Harry, glad to feel that he finally starts to relax after a clearly stressful day. She is just as excited about the baby as everyone else is and wondering if it will be able to talk to her. There is clearly a chance that it won't since only one of James two kids had been able to speak to snakes so it could be that only one of Harry's two can as well but Basily is really hoping to have another person to talk to when Harry eventually dies and hopes that the child will play down here on occasion. She even starts to hiss a lullaby hoping that the exposure to her hissing will make it more likely for the baby to understand the language later.

Authors Note: Thanks again for all the support, the reviews, favoring or following the story or even just reading it. I'm very happy about every hit the story gets.