Eleven Years Later: Bedtime Story (1/2)

[kanedax]

Title: Eleven Years Later: Bedtime Story (1/2)
Author: kanedax
Spoilers: Deathly Hallows & Previous Chapters
Characters/Pairings: Harry/Ginny, The Potter children, Teddy, Andromeda, Lupin/Tonks
Rating: R for language and graphic violence
Word Count: 3,964 words
Summary: Teddy wants some answers
Notes: This section was originally supposed to be attached to the previous chapter, Special Delivery. But in the end I decided that it deserved to be a stand-alone.
I don’t own any of these characters. They all belong to JK Rowling.

Special Delivery / Previous Chapters / Bedtime Story (2/2)

“Daddy!” came an ear-splitting yell from the drawing room.

Ginny gave Harry a sideways glance as they stood over the sink. “Do you want me to go?”

Harry glanced down at his arms, which were currently elbow-deep in soapy water. “No, I can go,” he said. “Al called me.”

“Pull ‘em,” Ginny said with a smirk, throwing the dishtowel over her shoulder and taking her wand out of her back pocket. Harry held his sudsy arms aloft. “Scourgify.”

“Thanks,” he said, wiping his now dry hands on his shirt just to be safe before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Don’t go to easy on James if he’s being mean,” said Ginny.

“I won’t…”

“And if they broke anything, don’t be afraid to leave it broken,” she continued. “My Mum didn’t always use Reparo on everything. Made us remember to be careful.”

“Yes, dear…” Harry said in mock weariness.

“Love you,” Ginny said in matching sarcasm.

“Love you, too,” he replied with a wink, leaving the kitchen and walking into drawing room of the Potters’ home in Wimbourne, Dorset. He didn’t know what to expect. You never do when you have three children constantly calling for either you or your wife. James tended to split his requests evenly. Lily, though still learning, tended to cling to Ginny for comfort.

But to Albus Severus Potter, who looked more like his father while his brother and sister carried the Weasley gene, Harry was the one to call whenever trouble arose.

Usually a bump on the head or a toy stolen by his older brother, Albus, who was small for his age when compared to James two years ago or Rose last year, had a tendency to not call unless he was in trouble. So when Harry saw both he and his brother standing calmly in the middle of the drawing room, Harry couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Teddy’s in the fire, Daddy,” Albus said, pointing to the fireplace. Even Lily, who Harry and Ginny kept in a playpen when they couldn’t be watching her (not that she was a danger to herself, but more that her roughhousing brothers occasionally didn’t watch where they were going) was standing, transfixed, staring at the glowing red hearth.

Sure enough, the head of Teddy Lupin was floating in the flames.

“Oh, hey, Teddy,” said Harry, kneeling down beside the fire. “Did you call for us?”

“No, I let Al do that,” Teddy said, and Harry could see he was still reeling. “Can I come over?”

Harry’s brow furrowed in concern. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his watch, given to him by Molly on his seventeenth birthday. “Eight o’clock,” he said to himself. “Where’s Andromeda?”

“She went out for a bit,” said Teddy. “Had to run a few errands.”

Harry thought for a few moments. Teddy’s visits were usually planned out, even if they were on short notice, and he was only allowed to come over with Andromeda’s permission. Harry and Ginny may be his godparents, but Grandmother Tonks was still his legal guardian.

Oh, what the hell…

“Leave her a note, okay?” said Harry. “That way she knows who to blame.”

Harry expected a smile from Teddy at the joke, or some sort of recognition that he was being allowed a little more freedom than he had ever had in the past. Instead, Teddy just nodded. “I’ll be there in a minute,” he said, and disappeared.

“Teddy’s coming over?” asked James. “Is he bringing his Game Boy?”

“No, I don’t think he is,” said Harry. “He’s just coming to visit, he won’t be here for long.”

“He’s not staying?” asked Albus.

“Not tonight,” said Harry. “Besides, it’s almost bedtime for all three of you.”

“Awww,” said James. “That’s not fair! I want to play with Teddy!”

“Yeah, I want to play with Teddy,” Albus mirrored.

“You can see him for a little bit,” said Harry as the fireplace blazed back to life, this time burning a bright green as Teddy Lupin stepped out and wiped his feet on the hearthmat before removing his shoes completely.

“Hi, Teddy!” said James, running up to the boy (not as much a boy anymore, Harry thought. He’s getting older). Albus followed suit, and Lily even called for him from her pen.

“Hi,” Teddy replied to the three children. “Thanks for letting me come over, Harry.”

“Hey, my casa is your casa,” Harry said with a smile, which once again wasn’t returned. Harry’s slipped slightly at Teddy’s mood, but he pressed on. “You eat yet? We have some leftover roast, maybe some rhubarb pie?”

“Maybe later,” said Teddy, sitting down on the sofa. “I got my letter today.”

“For Hogwarts?”

Teddy nodded.

“Well, congratulations!” Harry said, his grin returning as he sat down in the chair beside the couch. “Are you excited?”

“Yeah, I suppose,” said Teddy with a shrug. “It’s not like I didn’t expect it. But Hermione didn’t get her letter. She’s not going to be going with me. That stinks.”

Harry nodded. It’s not as though he didn’t expect that news. Colin and Dennis Creevey were both Muggle-born brothers at Hogwarts, but as far as Harry could tell they were the exception to the rule. A wizard in a Muggle family was as rare as a Squib in a magical one. One in every family’s a shock, two’s a miracle. And when Hermione’s sister Caroline went eleven years without showing anything remotely close to magical ability… well…

“She’s going to some all-girl’s school in Oxford,” Teddy continued, and Harry was a little surprised at how hard the boy was taking the news. “She won’t be able to get any owls or anything.”

“Well, I’m sure you two will figure something out,” said Harry. “You won’t be the only one who will want to write to her. I’m sure Dan and Charlotte would be more than accommodating to play messenger if you want to send her anything.”

“Yeah,” said Teddy sadly. “I guess there’s just stuff that I’d want to write to her that I wouldn’t want her parents to read, is all…”

Harry raised an eyebrow. Is he saying what I think he’s…? Harry pushed it out of his mind. If Teddy wanted to talk about girls, Harry would be here to listen. But when Harry and Ron were eleven, the female species was about as far from their mind as anything, and the last thing that they wanted was to talk to a grownup about them.

The Talk would come, and since Teddy probably wouldn’t want to hear it from Andromeda, Harry supposed he would be the one to give it. But that was for another time.

Teddy seemed to realize the direction that the conversation was going, and pushed it back onto its track. “But, yeah, should be okay otherwise,” he said. “We’re going to buy my wand this weekend, and I guess they’re going to have a tutor brought in to teach me how to be a metamorphmagus.”

“What’s a megamormagus?” Albus asked.

Teddy turned to the young Potter, and Harry was glad to see a small smile grow on his face as he grabbed his nose and pulled it until it was three inches long. He let go, and it snapped back into place.

“Wow,” James breathed.

“That’s a metamorphmagus,” Teddy said to Albus, whose jaw had dropped in amazement. He had gotten used to Teddy’s ever-changing hair color in his almost four years, but any other contortions were new news.

“And don’t try that yourself, Al,” said a voice from the corner. “You’ll only hurt your nose.” Harry turned toward the entryway to the drawing room to see that Ginny had finished drying the dishes and had joined them, leaning on the arch.

“Mummy!” Lily called, lifting her hands to the sky. Ginny obliged, walking over to the pen and pulling her daughter into her arms.

“Well, congratulations again,” Harry said, turning back to Teddy. “I want you to start thinking about what you want me and Ginny to get you for a present.”

“You don’t have to…” Teddy said, blushing.

“I insist,” said Harry. “You want an owl? A cat? Maybe a broom?”

“I want a broom!” James yelled.

“You’ll get one when you’re older,” said Harry before returning to Teddy. “Not that you’ll be able to use it right away. Brooms are outlawed at Hogwarts for first years.”

“Unless you’re on the Quidditch team,” Ginny corrected.

“Unless you’re on the Quidditch team,” Harry agreed. “But I wouldn’t get my hopes up. First years rarely make the club. It all depends on what the Head of House says. McGonagall made an exception for me, but that’s not always the case.”

Teddy nodded. “What Houses were my parents in?”

“Well, your father was in Gryffindor,” said Harry. “He was in the same year as my Mum and Dad. Your mother was a Hufflepuff.”

“She was in the same year as my brother Charlie,” said Ginny. “Harry, Ron, and Hermione just missed her, she finished her seventh year the spring before they started their first year.”

“She was that young?” Teddy asked. “But Gran seems so much older than Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.”

Harry and Ginny exchanged a glance. Harry realized how little he had ever spoken about Teddy’s parents. How much he wanted to avoid the reminders, to avoid uncomfortable questions. He could see it in Ginny’s eyes, too.

Harry had promised himself that Teddy would grow up knowing his parents. But the thoughts of his own past, of his own discomfort and sadness when hearing of his own parents, often got in the way.

That has to change, Harry thought. He’s not a child anymore.

“She was,” said Ginny. “Tonks, Nymphadora, your mother, was twenty-four when she married Remus. He was thirty-seven. Your Gran’s only seven years older than your Dad was. But she’s been through a lot… we all have…”

“I understand,” said Teddy quietly. “She lost my Mum and my Granddad. She aged fast…

“How did my parents die?”

Harry knew the question was coming. From the look of anxiety he saw on Ginny’s face, she knew it was coming, too. He’s so young, Harry thought, looking at Teddy’s face. We can’t talk about this yet.

Didn’t Dumbledore say the same thing about you? Harry asked himself. Doesn’t he deserve to know?

What is there to know? You can’t answer that question. No one can.

“There’s… there’s really not much to tell,” said Harry. “Your parents both fought in the Second Battle of Hogwarts. If anyone was with them, they’re either gone or in prison. I know almost everyone who was involved, and no one’s claimed to have seen what happened.”

“Actually…”

Harry turned towards Ginny. Lily was resting on her shoulder, but Ginny looked like Harry remembered her on the Hogwarts steps, the morning after the battle. Like she had been waiting to say something, but was now afraid to say it. Afraid of what might happen next.

“Actually, I saw what happened,” she said. “I was there.”

“Ginny…”

“Teddy?” Ginny said, asking a question that didn’t need to be asked.

“I want to know,” said Teddy, and Harry saw the steel in his resolve that he shared with his parents. “I need to know what happened to them.”

“Okay,” said Ginny quietly. “Help me put these three to bed. Then we’ll sit down and talk.”

“But I don’t want to go to sleep!” James howled. “I want to stay up with Teddy!”

“No,” Ginny said firmly. “This isn’t talk for five-year-olds. And it’s definitely not talk for two or three year olds, either.”

“But, Teddy…!”

“Teddy can help you get ready for sleep,” Ginny said. “Do you think you can do that, Mr. Lupin?”

“Sure,” said Teddy. Harry was convinced that Teddy was willing to do a lot of things, so long as he was sure he would get the answers he had been wanting.

“I wanna show you my new toys!” James said as he grabbed Teddy’s arm.

“No, you’re going to put on your pajamas and climb straight into bed,” said Harry.

“But…”

“No ‘buts’,” Harry replied. “Teddy will tell me if you’re not cooperating.”

“Okay…” James said, downhearted.

“You got Albus?” Ginny asked Harry as she carried Lily up the stairs to the bedrooms above.

“Yep,” said Harry, who was grateful to see that Albus, despite his wishes to stay with Teddy, was yawning and barely keeping his eyes open.

“But I don’t want to go to bed!” said James as he stomped into his bedroom.

Teddy rolled his eyes. Why did they have to stick me with the crabby one? he thought. “James,” he said softly. “Your parents and I are going to be talking about grown-up stuff. Things you might not want to hear. Things that might give you nightmares.”

“I’m not scared…” James replied.

Well, you have one up on me, Teddy thought as James took his pajamas out of the dresser and began to change.

Teddy barely knew anything about his parents. Now that he was going to get what he hoped was the truth, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to hear it. What if they were bad people? What if they had done some stupid things (besides leaving him alone, that is)?

Don’t be an idiot, he thought. I doubt Ginny would want to tell you what happened if it was going to make you hate them in the end.

But still, he doubted…

“Can you tell me what they tell you?” James asked as he crawled into his bed. “Next time you come over, can you tell me?”

Teddy sighed and sat down on James’s bed. “How about this?” he said. “When you’re my age, and are ready to go to Hogwarts, I’ll tell you then. Unless your Mummy and Daddy tell you first.”

“But you’re old!” James cried in dismay. “It’ll be forever until they let me go to Hogwarts!”

“Not as long as you might think,” said Teddy. “Just pay attention to your Mum when she gives you your lessons, and Hogwarts will be writing to you faster than you’d believe.”

“Do you get a wand?” James asked.

“Yeah,” said Teddy.

“Can I use it?”

“No,” Teddy chuckled.

“How about your broom?”

“Not unless your Mum and Dad say it’s okay…”

“But you won’t be coming over anymore?”

“I’ll be home for Christmas,” said Teddy. “And for the summers. And Easter, although Jean says that they give us a lot of homework during that week, so I’m not going to promise. But I do promise I’ll write as often as I can. Your Dad can read you the letters until you’re able to read them yourself.”

“What are you going to name your owl?”

Teddy smiled. “I’m sure I’ll come up with a good one…”

“Good night, Al,” Harry whispered.

“Night, Daddy,” Albus whispered back. Harry made sure that the candle that acted as Albus’s nightlight was lit before closing the door to his younger son’s room. He paused when the door clicked shut, his hand still on the knob. He could hear quiet conversation downstairs in the kitchen, and the clinking of dishes. Ginny and Teddy already put Lily and James to bed (Although what are the odds that James is actually asleep yet?) and were most likely putting on tea or breaking out some of the leftovers that the five Potters had eaten for dinner.

She did know, Harry thought. This whole time, Ginny knew. Ginny saw. Or at least saw more than anyone else that I know of.

He knew that Ginny had seen the two of them alive after Tonks had run off that night. She had accidentally mentioned it to him about a year after the battle was over. Part of him had wanted to press. Part of him knew that it would come in its own time.

But eleven years? Harry thought that he would be angry that they had been together for so long without this information coming to light.

But as he stood in the hallway, he realized what Ginny must have known all along. This story wasn’t for Harry. It was for Teddy. And for Andromeda, although Dromeda liked to speak of her daughter’s fate even less than anyone else Harry knew.

Whatever happened, he thought as he walked down the stairs, Ginny’s been holding it inside her for over ten years. What must that be like?

He entered the kitchen to see Ginny and Teddy sitting at the table. They both had a slice of rhubarb pie in front of them, Teddy’s with a scoop of ice cream, but both plates sat nearly untouched.

They both have their nerves going haywire, Harry understood. And they’re not the only ones.

Ginny turned to Harry. “Al’s asleep?”

“As asleep as he will be,” Harry replied.

“James, too,” said Teddy, poking at his pie with his fork. “But I wouldn’t be surprised to start hearing footsteps. He wants in on the story.”

Harry sighed. “I wouldn’t put it past him. Do we want to Muffliato?”

“You can now, if you want,” came a voice from the doorway. Harry and Teddy turned to see Andromeda Tonks standing in the entryway to the kitchen.

“Gran!” Teddy said, standing up. “I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

“It’s okay,” said Andromeda, walking in. “I read your note. Plus Ginny Flooed me while you were upstairs with James.”

“You’re not the only one who’s been wondering what happened,” said Ginny. “Your grandmother deserves to know just as much as you do.”

“So you’re not mad?” Teddy asked, warily looking at Andromeda.

“I’m not mad,” said Andromeda, sitting down between him and Harry. “But I am wondering why I had to wait so long to hear whatever it is Ginny’s been hiding.”

“I’ve been… I’ve been wanting to tell you, Mrs. Tonks,” said Ginny. “I just… I’m just not sure how you’ll feel about me when I’m done. And I’ll understand if you’re angry with me.”

“Then I think you should stop apologizing,” said Andromeda. “And get on with what you have to say. How I feel about it, how we feel about it, will come either way.”

Ginny nodded, and Harry saw that, once again, she was uncharacteristically anxious. He took her hand, trying to show her that he would love her no matter what. She squeezed it in response, took a deep breath, and turned to Teddy.

“What have you been told?” Ginny asked. “About that night?”

“I don’t know,” said Teddy.  “Things that my friends told me, or that your family said. That it the last battle against Voldemort. That Harry, Jean, and Ron had been off all of that year trying to find some sort of magical items to help destroy him, and that the fight happened while they were searching Hogwarts. I know that a lot of people died. My Mum and Dad. Your brother. Voldemort. Everyone who’s written on the memorial in Hogsmeade. Everyone thought that Harry had died, too, but that he was just faking it, tricking Voldemort into thinking that he had won.”

Ginny nodded. “Harry, Ron, and Hermione… Jean… had slipped into Hogwarts during the night. They knew that the last horcrux, the magical items that they had been searching for, was hidden somewhere in the school. They came in through a back entrance, found a few students in hiding. Neville was one of them. Susan, Seamus, Lavender, the Patil twins. Hannah and Ernie.”

“They were hiding from the Death Eaters that had taken over the school, right?” Teddy asked.

“Right,” said Ginny. “After the three of them arrived, Neville sent out a secret signal to me and Luna. We were both away from the school for reasons that… ummm… are a whole other story. So we came to Hogwarts, with other members of… God… Teddy, you don’t know about Dumbledore’s Army, do you?”

Teddy shook his head. “Another story?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ginny said nervously. “Sorry, I’m just… okay. Okay. Neville sent us a signal, which started a chain that resulted in pretty much everyone coming to Hogwarts to fight the big battle. Your father was part of that group. He had left you and your mother with your grandmother, and come to join the fight.”

“But why?” Teddy asked. “Why would he do that?”

“For the same reason your mother followed him,” said Andromeda quietly. “I tried to talk her out of leaving. But she wouldn’t listen. She knew that you were safe with me. And they knew that they were fighting for something important. That your world would be worse if Voldemort won, whether they were alive or not. They wanted to do their part.”

“I just think it sounds stupid,” Teddy muttered. “If they had loved me, they wouldn’t have left…”

“I know it’s easy to feel that way,” Harry said…

My father died trying to protect my mother and me, and you reckon he’d tell you to abandon your kid to go on an adventure with us?

How - how dare you? This is not about a desire for - for danger or personal glory - how dare you suggest such a -

I think you’re feeling a bit of a daredevil. You fancy stepping into Sirius’s shoes. I’d never have believed this. The man who taught me to fight dementors - a coward.

That was different, Harry thought. They weren’t cowards in the end. So forget about that.

“…and I don’t know how to give you a proper answer. But just know that everything your parents did were for your benefit. They knew that they were fighting for you and for your future, and understood the risks, understood that they might not be able to be a part of that future.”

Teddy looked down at his hands, which were now folded on the table, his pie pushed aside. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know if I can accept that. Or… I don’t know. But I still want to know how they died.”

Ginny nodded. “Like I said, your father came first. The battle had already started, he was already gone, when your mother arrived. I was only sixteen at the time. My Mum refused to let me take part in the battle, because I wasn’t of age. Remus convinced her to let me at least stay in the safe haven, the Room of Requirement.  Do you know about that room?”

“Ron told me about it,” said Teddy. “It was a room that could become whatever you wanted it to be, right?”

“That was where the hideout was for the rebels,” said Ginny. “The students who fought against the Death Eaters during that school year. That was also where the secret passageway to Hogsmeade was hidden. So that’s where your Mum showed up. So did Neville’s Gran. Harry, Ron, and… and Jean came back into the room. Your mother and Mrs. Longbottom left after Harry told them what he knew about Neville and your Dad. Then Harry told me that they needed to get into… well, into another aspect of the Room of Requirement, if that makes any sense. And that I would have to leave.

“I did what he asked because, well… like I said, I was sixteen, my Mum wasn’t ready to let me fight, but of course I wanted to. So I ran up to see what I could do. And your mother was standing in front of one of the windows, throwing spells down on the bad guys below. So I helped her. Harry and the others came back out a few minutes later, ready to re-enter the room.

“We talked for a few seconds,” she said quietly. “And that’s when Aberforth Dumbledore showed up…”

Special Delivery / Previous Chapters / Bedtime Story (2/2)