Chapter Text
The cottage stood along the shoreline. Lily could have easily spent all her days looking out into water, looking at the sea which ebbed and flowed, gently breathing against the house. It was peaceful, more peaceful than she could have ever imagined, but her mind, her soul and heart was tormented, unable to rest.
She thought of Harry.
He had pushed them away so easily, as if they had been nothing to him, and she knew that she wasn’t his mum, she knew that he wasn’t really… her son. But a part of her, the part that had always longed for him, that had always grieved and wished for him, had hoped that he would want the same. Had hoped that he would want a mother too.
I’m too old to have parents.
The words continued to echo in her mind.
She knew that she wasn’t the only one that thought this way, she knew that she wasn’t the only one that doubted what they were doing, staying here. Daniel’s hand had been handled, any trace of the mirror gone, of its spell, they weren’t going home, this was their home now.
Which meant the cameras, the people, the scramble and chaos of their world.
It hurt to think that they had brought that on Harry again, that they had disrupted his world and there was nothing that they could do about it now. They were there, and they had to… wait for him to come to them. Wait for Harry to accept them.
Did he accept people? Did he let people in?
She took a sip of her tea as she heard the alarm for an apparition. She looked at the sea shore again and headed inside, expecting to see the boys coming in, their trip to the shop, an exploration of the town nearby. But she was surprised to see Teddy, Harry and Emma coming up to the house.
“Harry?” she asked, as she put her cup down, and stepped towards them. “What are you doing here?”
Her heart raced, hoping that it wasn’t bad news. But Emma was with Teddy, they had bags with them, like they were staying. Lily couldn’t help but wish, and hope, that this was happening.
And she saw the look in Harry’s eyes, there was a happiness in them, a… regret as well. “I thought… well, since we’re technically on holidays-”
There were three more pops as James, Sirius, Remus and Daniel appeared. They were arguing about something but they stopped when they saw Harry.
“Harry, what are you-”
He smiled. “Well, Ted’s always wanted to come to the beach, so…”
He turned to them.
“Is it okay that we’re here?” he asked, “I mean…”
“Of course it is!” James said, as he left the groceries on the sand and walked towards him. “Of course it is!”
And he was hugging Harry, tightly, and Harry hesitated, only briefly, before he hugged him back. And then, the hug lasted longer, and Harry was resting his face in the crook of his father’s neck, hugging him tightly, tighter. His fingers tightening in his shirt as he did.
When they stepped back, both green and hazel eyes were filled with tears.
“So uh… what about work?”
Harry looked at Sirius and James. “I quit.”
“What?”
“Yeah I uh…” he looked at them. “They can handle things, besides, I hear that you two are pretty good aurors, and we need a new Head of the Department, if you’re willing to step in.”
Sirius grinned and looked at James. “Sure, we’ll look into it.”
And Harry stepped back and Teddy was there, holding Mr. Moony and looking up at them.
“So it’s okay if we stay for a bit?”
“Of course, but… you’re not here to work are you?” Lily asked, looking at Emma.
Emma glanced at Harry before she shook her head, “Oh no, he owes me a few months of paid leave, he suggested that I come here with him…. With them I mean. I mean, it’s the least he could do.”
Harry was trying not to smile.
“I think it’s more for your sake I think, even the playing field.”
Lily smiled, because there was something about the way that she said that, there was something in the way that Harry smiled, the way that she leaned slightly towards him. James and Lily exchanged a glance, they knew those looks.
They weren’t saying it, but they were saying it.
And Lily couldn’t be happier.
“Come straight in, we were just getting ready for lunch,” Lily said, “Danny can show you to your rooms-”
“Daaaad!”
Teddy looked up at Harry, already bored with the conversation, as he leaned against his grip. Harry turned to Remus. “Teddy wants to see the beach, do you think you could-?”
“Me?” Remus asked, as he looked at the small boy.
He could see his toes wriggling in the sand, the urge to go and run as he pulled at Harry’s hand, almost leaning over into the grass that grew around them.
“Sure,” Sirius said, as he looked at Remus, and smiled at him. “We’d be glad to.”
Remus stepped towards Teddy and smiled, as he knelt down in front of him. “Is it okay if we take you?”
Teddy held onto Me. Moony and blinked at the man in front of him, he nodded and then looked up at Harry, who held out his hand for his toy.
“Don’t want him to get lost, do we?”
Teddy let go of Harry’s hand and then took Remus’ and then Sirius’ with the other.
“Come on, down the stairs, whoop!” Sirius said, as Teddy swung his legs up, laughing already as they headed down to the beach.
Lily watched as Harry watched them, as he saw how Teddy smiled and laughed, and how he escaped and Sirius chased after him. Even when Emma stepped inside with James and Daniel, Harry still lingered nearby. Forever watchful and present. But there was a sadness in him, a fear for the future. She had it too.
She had felt it the day that Harry had been born, the day that Daniel had been born. The knowledge that one day, they would leave her. It had happened with Harry far too soon, she had felt that pain and anger, and grief.
Daniel had grown, and every day had been a struggle, but she had watched him leave for school, become a young man, and one day he’d leave her too.
But she was watching it with Harry now, as Harry seemed to know what that feeling was like. Sure, Teddy wasn’t his own child, but blood mattered very little when it came to family.
She moved towards him, she placed her hand in his, and she leaned into him as they both watched.
“He’ll be alright Harry,” she said. “He has a whole family that loves him.”
He nodded, and she turned and kissed him on the cheek.
“You do too.”
He nodded and squeezed her hand tightly, he looked at her, green eyes meeting green.
“I know mum.”
She inhaled a shaky breath as he spoke, and he leaned over and rested his head on her shoulder.
-
Harry hadn’t ever had a holiday, ever in his life. He had never gone somewhere where he could wake up whenever he wanted and spend all day just lazing about. He learned a lot from Emma, who seemed to be a pro at lazing about, which she denied completely despite the fact that she would spend days just sunbathing on the beach.
He knew that they had seen them.
He knew that they had seen Harry covering her in sunscreen, his hands moving over her skin, familiar. And her own hands found him, tracing the scars on his arms, chest and legs. He knew that they had seen them both asleep, their legs entangled on their beach towels. That they had seen the slight marks on their skins in the morning, and the fact that Harry creeped over to her room at night.
The secret hadn’t lasted very long at all.
But Harry didn’t mind it at all.
He didn’t mind going shopping with his mother, and letting her buy him jumpers and shirts. He didn’t mind Remus and Sirius taking Teddy shopping for ice cream, or Danny and him going to an arcade to spend hours trying to win the big ticket items in the store. He didn’t mind how James cheated at board games or that Emma always fell asleep before Teddy’s stories were done.
They were things that he had never thought that he would ever have.
Things that he never thought that he’d experience.
And he thought about the wish that he had made when he had been eleven years old, wishing that he could get out of the Dursleys, that he’d find his family.
Maybe it wasn’t the same but it felt better than what he imagined.
-
“They keep staring,” Daniel said, as they worked to get his things onto the train.
“They’ll get used to you,” Harry said. “Don’t worry.”
Daniel nodded as he looked at his parents, who were meeting a few of the other parents on the platform.
They had tried to handle the media for the day, the announcement of Viktor Krum and Ginerva Weasley, hitting the stands before the morning, so most of the newspapers were busy chasing after them instead.
But there was not much they could do about the parents, the students, the passers-by who walked past to look at The-Chosen-Family, as they were being called. It made them nervous, nervous about what awaited Daniel at school.
They wouldn’t be able to follow him in, wouldn’t be able to protect him from what would happen at the school.
“You better make the Quidditch team,” Harry said. “We have a reputation now.”
Daniel’s eyes lit up, knowing that it was true. Harry was moving to a team, practising for the National qualifiers. Emma had done one last thing for him before she had officially handed off to someone else, and that was to get Harry a deal with the makers of the Firebolt Supreme.
Though Daniel had yet to ask his brother for an autograph, he was pretty sure that being related to him was enough. But Daniel was eager now, with his firebolt, signed by Krum himself, to get into the team and make sure that the Gryffindor streak continued, for at least two more years.
“Danny!” Sirius said, as he stepped towards Daniel, and hugged him tightly.
Harry laughed as Daniel pushed him away, embarrassed.
But there was no stopping Daniel from hugging Teddy as he came up to him.
Teddy and Daniel were definitely the closest ones, and Harry knew that he’d be sending pictures to Daniel every second he could.
“Take care of your dads, okay?” Daniel whispered to Teddy, who nodded and began to sniffle and then cry, as he ran into Remus’ arms. Harry looked at Remus, who looked a little confused, but Harry just nodded and smiled at him.
It was okay. It was okay.
“Don’t forget, win at Quidditch, okay?”
“I already told him,” Harry said, but Sirius ignored him.
“We’ll be at every match, and I’ll even go to practice sessions if you need me to and-”
‘I’ll be fine,” Daniel said, and then he turned to his parents.
This was worse than when he had needed to go to Hogwarts at 11.
But Lily hugged him and then James hugged him, and he promised to write as he headed onto the train and they all watched as the clock moved closer to 11.
Harry remembered when he had been so nervous to leave Teddy at the daycare centre, how he had been told that it never got easier.
It really didn’t.
He felt the same anxiety, the same nervousness.
He looked at Teddy before he left, heading out to the platform where Emma was waiting for them. Both her and Harry had decided that they wouldn't announce anything, not even that she was his date to the Krum/Weasley wedding until the end of the year. Too much news of one family would cause chaos, and she wasn’t in charge of sorting it anymore.
“Everything okay?” Emma asked, as he nodded, and he reached her. He resisted the urge to kiss her, to hold her against him, so instead they both watched the clock above the platform strike eleven.
That was it.
Danniel was gone.
The others arrived shortly afterwards.
“Will you be okay?” James asked Harry, and he nodded.
“Yeah, we’ll hang out at home for a bit.”
James gave Harry a look and Harry couldn’t help but feel his cheeks go red, was this what it was like, to always be embarrassed by your parents.
“Teddy, what’s in your mouth?”
“Teds, come on mate, no more eating random stuff,” Sirius said, as they all crowded around the little kid. But Teddy seemed to like the attention, as he smiled, and they saw a small beetle trying to escape between the gaps in Teddy’s baby teeth.
Remus burst out laughing at Sirius and Emma’s face, and then Teddy, who laughed, and opened his mouth, allowing the beetle to escape quickly, confused and traumatised to freedom.
“You know Harry,” Lily said, as she leaned in towards him. “I’m not too young to become a grandmother.”
“Mum,” Harry said, and she smiled as she held his face.
“Go on,” she said, as she kissed him. “Go and live that life you finally earned.”
He smiled at her, and then at James. Sirius and Remus had Teddy, and so he went over and took Emma’s hand, and ran off with her down the platform to her car.
Oh yes, Harry could get used to this.