AN: For the purposes of this particular story; post the Second Wizarding War (shall we call it that? Let us call it that), those students who should have sat their Seventh Year are, for most part, now more soldier than student, and this is taken into account by the Ministry of Magic. Those who plead their case to the Board may study a gap program and sit accelerated OWLS rather than study the full year. Harry and Ron sit the accelerated program in order to start work while Hermione, Ginny and Neville, among others, opt to sit the full year.
Harry was sitting at the Burrow's long kitchen table with his head in his hands. Molly's sympathetic advice had been given and received with a cup of piping hot tea, but she'd had to go down to the Ministry with Arthur's lunch and left him to his thoughts.
Sighed heavily, he left his head from the cradle of his hands and rubbed the dark stubble of three days without a shave. Deep in thought, he linked his fingers together and leaned his chin on his hands, frowning.
Three days ago, he and Ron had completed their final exams. They'd all come back to the Burrow for a celebratory dinner and those of them who had opted to complete the full year at Hogwarts, rather than the gap course which he and Ron entered to, had gotten special permission from the Headmistress to attend. It had been the first time he'd seen Hermione laugh since she and Ron had arrived back from Australia without her parents. Andromeda Tonks had come too, with ten month old Teddy in tow. She looked, Harry realised now looking back, sick and tired, drawn to the point of grey. He hadn't noticed at the time because everything had been utterly, inescapably, brilliantly bloody fantastic; there he was, surrounded by friends, family, his amazing little godson, his girlfriend, his best mates, his adoptive family, good food, a clear night and plenty of drinking and laughing. It was as if he'd stepped back in time.
Then, when festivities began to die down, Andromeda had pulled him aside. An important conversation. The conversation that saw him sitting here at the Burrow, covered in dust and grime, desperate for some Molly Weasley Kitchen Table Advice.
Andromeda was not young, and since the deaths of her husband and daughter, it seemed as though the years had been conspiring against her. Harry felt an immense amount of guilt, sitting on the Burrow's patched couches across the coffee table from her. She looked haunted and worn out, even as she smiled at him. She'd given a nervous little laugh to try and break the sudden awkward silence and then just jumped right in.
She was tired, she said. She'd taken on the responsibility of her grandson under the impression that Harry, Teddy's godfather, would be taking over as soon as he was settled. Well it was ten months on and he was still living at the Burrow when he wasn't at Hogwarts or at the Auror Academy. She loved her grandson unconditionally, however, she pointed out that she was not prepared for full-time parenthood again. She wrung her hands nervously as she spoke, guilt on her face. He was such a spirited little boy and...
Finally, the bombshell. A once in a lifetime opportunity, she said. An cottage near a wizarding village in Berlin. A beautiful little place. Only...what to do with Teddy...
When Harry said nothing at first, Andromeda began to say she'd take Teddy, of course she'd take Teddy, of course it was far too much responsibility to ask such a young man to take on when he was just starting out, but Harry cut her off.
Thinking back, he had no idea what had forced those words to his mouth. Maybe it was the thought of Sirius, promising to take him in as soon as he could. Maybe it was his own childhood memories of the Cupboard under the Stairs. Maybe it was the chortling sound he could hear in the kitchen that could only belong to Teddy and the great debt he owed to Remus Lupin. Probably a mixture of all three. The point was, that this was the moment he would look back on for many years to come and he'd been damned if he'd look back and remember that he hesitated.
Teddy would be loved. He would be cared for. He would have everything in his childhood that Harry himself, and Lupin for that matter, missed out on.
"Well, I'll take him, won't I? I'm his godfather"
They'd both looked surprised. Now the words were out in the open, Harry had a frantic moment to consider them.
Oh good bloody Godric, what the hell have I done?
"Well...well, then, you, ah...where are you going to live?"
He thought about that in the blackness of the back of his eyelids during a blink.
"Grimmald Place. It's the only place I own, and we're redoing the safety spells over it probably next week when I move in. A bit of cleaning up, it'll be fine"
Well, if he wanted to be completely honest, the idea had been thrown between he and Ron over drinks at the Three Broomsticks a couple of weeks ago.
He tried to ignore the looks of horror on their faces as he dealt with the horror in his own heart. Raise a kid in that, that place? Sirius' prison? Wherever he was, he was sure at that moment his own godfather was cursing a blue streak at him. He struggled to keep his face polite and nonchalant, as if he had complete confidence in this plan of his.
"You're moving in?" exclaimed Andromeda. Harry swallowed, mind whirling.
"Well, yes. Hardly seems fair to ask Molly and Arthur to keep me on now I'll be at the Academy full time" he said offhandedly, leaning back as if it was completely casual. In reality he was leaning back to look into the kitchen, where a yawning Teddy was curled in Ginny's lap while she talked to Hermione and Molly. His heart stuttered; oh bloody hell, Ginny!
And Molly! They were going to have him for this.
"Well. Well then, it seems you've got it all sorted out, Harry. I...I-thank-you. If you need anything, anything at all for Teddy, any help, you don't hesitate to owl-" she stood and embraced the young man fiercely- "Nymphadora would have appreciated it"
Andromeda seemed to struggle with tears as she kissed Harry's cheek. He was shaking, hopefully not noticeably, as he saw her to the door. There was a flurry of good-byes from all in the kitchen and Ginny slid a whinging Teddy into Andromeda's arms. The tiny, currently bright red-haired, boy had his father's eyes exactly at the moment, and reached out suddenly to grasp Harry's finger. The Chosen One's heart stuttered devastatingly as he looked down at the child.
His child, he realised painfully, and bent his head to kiss the little boy's forehead.
"I'll come pick you up as soon as the renovations are done, Teddy" he whispered, for Andromeda as well as his godson to know.
Then they'd been gone, and Harry had been left with an absolute mess of his own doing in his lap. He'd had three days before he was due back at the Academy for training and threw himself into making Grimmald place child-friendly. It was almost as bad as making the damn place liveable. Ron, George, Luna and, of course, Kretcher, threw themselves into the dusty, cursed dump of a place with cheerful enthusiasm and insane loyalty. He fervently thanked his lucky stars for friends like his.
For two nights he fell onto a mattress on the ground floor with sated exhaustion, mind never fully rested when he rose with the sun the next morning, as it spent the night buzzing through lists and spells and plans and plots.
On the morning of his third and final day, George, Luna and Ron all had work. George at the shop and Ron at the Magical Law Enforcement Department. Not as an Auror, but as an assistant, working his way up to being a handler. Everyone had been quite surprised at his choice of career; Harry hadn't been. He'd played chess against him; underneath that red-head temper and his atrocious foot-in-mouth habit, Ron was a shrewd strategist. He could only hope he got landed with a handler half as good as his mate had the potential to be. Luna, of course, was needed at the Quibbler, which she had taken over from her father. It was still printing the usual insane content and Harry had a free copy with his owl-post every morning.
The point was that he was alone in the half-finished house reeking of cleaning products and dust. Every now and again there'd be a muffled thump as old Mrs Black tried to break the silencing spell Hermione had spent a whole afternoon placing over the portrait. Buckbeak the hippogriff was back at Hogwarts with a clean record, but the second floor still smelt of rats and faeces. There was a new coat of paint on the walls and most of the ceilings, carpet in four of the bedrooms, including what would become Teddy's nursery, and the kitchen had been completely redone. He could hear Kretcher banging about upstairs.
But it was missing something crucial. He didn't know what it was, but walking around, Harry felt awkwardly embarrassed. He was tempted to tear it all down and start again, as crazy as it sounded. Teddy would be arriving that night with Andromeda, who would be leaving for Germany part-way through next week. With a sinking feeling of drowning and being unable to swim, Harry had retreated to the Burrow in a panic.
Suddenly the door swung open to admit none other than Ginevra Weasley, her hair a flyaway spray of crimson fire, her cheek flushed from the darkening night outside, eyes bright, smile brighter still. He leapt to his feet and rushed across the kitchen to embrace her.
"Gin! What are you doing here?"
She laughed and shuffled them aside so Ron could squeeze past, toting his sister's trunk.
"Last time I checked it was her bloody house, Harry" he grumbled. Harry flushed and gave Ron a look, but Ginny laughed and pecked his lips to distract him. It always worked, that.
"Reconsidering my invasion of the bachelor pad so soon, Harry?" she asked sweetly, kissing him more firmly. Oh bloody Godric, her kisses never failed to wipe his mind.
"Huh?" he asked intelligently. Ginny laughed and he suddenly remembered;
Mm; flowers, warmth, soft skin, hot lips on his jaw; could life get any better?
"You know, I'm still mad at you" she said, nipping at the spot she'd just been kissing. He tried very hard to look suitably chastened, but it was hard when he was all wrapped up in that golden bubble of bliss that Ginny always managed to conjure around him.
"Mmhm...hey, Gin, have you thought about moving in with me?"
She sat up straight, looking down at him with wide eyes, and he suddenly had the feeling he'd said the wrong thing, sitting up as well.
"To Grimmald place? With you and Teddy?"
Oh God, Teddy. He scuffed the back of his head.
"Well...yeah. I mean, I mean I'm not-not asking you to play mums-and-dads and that, you'd still get to concentrate on getting that spot in the Harpies, because that's bloody important...but, you know. Just make my place your base"
"Yeah?"
He swallowed, trying to read her guarded expression.
"Yeah?" he said tentatively. She looked thoughtful and took a deep breath.
"I...Harry, what if...I'm no good at it, you know? Trying to, help you, raise a kid?"
He kissed her sweetly, swallowing all her inhibitions.
"You'll be perfect, Gin" he assured her. Then she smiled and got that blazing look that he was so fond of on her, and everything got a little blurry after that.
Harry was startled from his revelry by the end of Ginny's reply; "I'm just bringing a few things back from Hogwarts before exams...Harry, if you've got second thoughts-"
"He will not have bloody second thoughts" Ron corrected from down the hall. Harry grinned and took Ginny's hand as they walked down to meet Ron in the kitchen.
"Just because you're right doesn't mean you have to be so eager to get rid of me mate" Harry commented. The red-head made a face
"Just eager to get a decent night's sleep is all"
He always knew what buttons to press, Ron. It was something he had inherited from the twins. Harry's face turned redder than his girlfriend's hair and he muttered something suitable chaste but totally incomprehensible. Ginny, on the other hand, looked unabashed.
"That's rubbish, Ron. Ever since you caught us out in the meadow, he's been so bloody virtuous he should be in a damn monastery-" Harry looked horrified and Ron looked a little smug-
"Besides, it's not like you and Hermione ever remember"
The smug look was wiped off Ron's face and replaced with one of horror, an expression mirrored on Harry's face as he covered his eyes.
"Oh, Merlin, Gin, we promised never to speak of that" he groaned. More and more he'd come to see Hermione as his sister more than a friend, and hearing her moans through the thin walls of the Burrow that September night had very nearly made him turn a Memory Charm on himself. meanwhile, Ron was defending himself and his girlfriend.
"That was one bloody time!"
"Yeah, and once is enough thanks all the same. I've got to get going"
Harry had suddenly seen the time and his heart stopped. He'd been there for hours. Teddy was getting dropped off at any moment. He didn't see Ginny's look of alarm.
"Wh-wait, where?"
"Back to Grimma-home. Andromeda's dropping Teddy off any moment. I'll see you later; I'm dropping Teddy off here tomorrow morning before work"
He dropped his head to kiss her cheek and then soundly on the lips, ignoring Ron's retches in the background. She stared up at him with her huge blue eyes for a long moment, and then seemed to come to a decision.
"I'll come with you" she said firmly. And just like that, certainty rushed into Harry like a warm and soothing flood. He grinned appreciatively.
"Hang on, Gin, why are you going?" exclaimed Ron, looking surprised. A wave of guilt followed the confidence Ginny's statement had given him. He hadn't exactly gone to lengths to explain the deal he and Ginny had reached, laying in her bed on the night of his graduation; oh sure, Ron knew Ginny was moving in with him, but they'd never really spoken about the role she would play in his godson's life.
He must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights, because Ginny grabbed his arm with one hand and her coat with the other. The look she gave him said now is not the time and he spared a moment to marvel at how clearly they understood each other. Right now, he had to get to Grimmald place. He had to get home. He turned to Ron as she began to pull him out the door.
"We'll explain it all later, mate, I really gotta go-" he said fleetingly before being yanked breathlessly into Side-Along-Apparation. Standing at the front gate of Number 12, he caught his breath and glared as lovingly as he could at Ginny.
"I left my bloody Firebolt behind. You know I hate Apparating-"
She smirked and raised her eyebrows pointedly.
"Hullo Mrs Tonks" she said pleasantly behind him. He whirled, unsettling his glasses, and blushed again.
"Andromeda. Nice to see you. Come in. I just popped over to the Weasley-hey there Teddy!" he exclaimed, reaching for the boy deeply absorbed in the beads of Andromeda's necklace. He looked up excitedly at Harry's voice.
Suddenly, Harry hesitated, looking at Andromeda.
What. The bloody hell. Was he doing? He was nineteen, for God's sake! He didn't have a job. He would in about nine months unless, Salazar forbid, he failed the course, but it wasn't going to be all that high paying. That stack of money in Gringotts would only last so long.
Realistically, all he had was a house, and a run-down one at that, a little money and a history with the kid's parents. He bit his lip hard.
"Harry, take him. You're his father now" said Andromeda gently when the young man froze up, staring into the crystalline hazel eyes of the little boy. This was his preferred look; bright blue hair and his father's eyes exactly. Who knew how he managed to get the exact shade, tone and light of the past-werewolf's eyes so perfectly, knowing him as fleetingly as he had, but the small boy had it.
"Remus Lupin's his father" Harry whispered, the need to close his eyes as raw grief overwhelmed him for a moment too strong.
Remus Lupin; who told him about his parents, who taught him to cast his first Patronus, who had loved his mother, his father and his godfather, who had held him as he screamed for Sirius.
When he opened his eyes, Teddy was still looking at him, and appeared for all the world confused that his favourite person had not yet taken him for a cuddle. He stuck his hands out towards him pointedly.
"Up!" he ordered.
Nobody knew quite what to say in reply to either revelations.
From the corner of his eye, something above him caught his eye. It was a cloudy night, and this was London, but a sudden breeze had shifted both clouds and smog from a small wash of night sky. Among the small smattering of silver pinpricks on the velvet, one shone out. Harry caught his breath and suddenly took back everything he'd ever thought about higher powers and life beyond the grave. Because the single star that shone out in the normally obscured galaxy that night, at the moment he doubted himself, at the moment he questioned his ability to do this, was Sirius Major. For a heartbeat, it winked at him, and then was covered by cloud again.
Harry swallowed, squared his shoulders, and took a small step forward. Everyone bar Teddy was unwittingly holding their breath as he hesitatingly reached for the child. Immediately upon being held to his godfather's chest, Teddy chuckled and knocked Harry's glasses off. They all laughed, the tension broken, and Harry hoisted Teddy onto his shoulders while Ginny stooped, repaired the round wire-rimmed specs and replaced them on her boyfriends nose with a kiss. Harry looked faintly embarrassed when he caught Andromeda watching them and gestured inside.
"Let's go in, shall we?"
He glanced at the sky as he shut the door behind them.
Thanks Sirius...