"Dad, don't worry about the Death Eater spawn," Lily spoke up. "I won't let anybody hurt you."
In Lily-speak: I'm sorry, Dad. I love you.
"Thanks, Lily. I feel much better now."
In Harry-speak: It's okay, and I'm sorry, too. I love you, too.
They smiled at each other.
"Lily doesn't hate me anymore," Harry told Ginny. Ginny looked up from her journal. She was sitting beside him, her chair rotated so she was facing his side, her legs thrown casually over his lap.
"She never hated you, Harry. She just wanted to hex you for a bit there."
"Well, okay. She doesn't want to hex me anymore, then."
"Give it time," Ginny said, idly flipping to the next page. Harry rolled his eyes, amused, but didn't press that particular topic any further, because his daughter returned a moment later, a neon orange bottle of nail polish in hand.
"Aunt Audrey gave it to me! Who's next?!"
Harry looked down at his bare feet. He wiggled his magenta toes. James held up his purple nails and swung his purple toes. Ginny shook her head to remind Lily that she'd already been done, too. Albus pulled his blankets back to showcase his pale pink toenails. Scorpius gave Lily a good-natured smile.
"I guess it's mine," he said.
Lily grinned. "This orange will look great with your skin tone, Scorpius!"
Without any further discussion on the matter, she hopped up onto the end of Albus's hospital bed, grabbed Scorpius's left foot, and got to work, chatting animatedly with the boys as she did. Ginny and Harry exchanged an amused look. Ginny turned back to her journal afterwards and Harry turned back to her. He rested his palm on her calf and smoothed it along her soft skin, eyes examining the downturned profile of her face, waiting...
She smiled. He rested his head against the back of his chair and grinned, too. She lowered her quill and looked fully at him a moment later.
"How'd you know I've been waking with headaches?" she asked abruptly.
Harry blinked. "Hmm?"
"When you were screaming at Rita—yes, Harry, I heard every word—you told her I've been waking with headaches. I didn't mention it."
Harry smiled sadly. He continued idly caressing her leg. "Well, clearly, I've discovered a long-neglected power for Legilimency."
Ginny's lips parted in a surprised (and sarcastic) O. She sat up straighter.
"Okay, what am I thinking right now?"
Harry leaned forward and peered intently into her eyes. He studied the periodic flecks of dark green hidden within the brown hue. "You're thinking...'I hope Harry actually starts coming home for dinner again so I don't have to cook'."
She leaned back and blinked, surprised.
"Wait, what? No. Try again."
Harry laughed. "Merlin, was I right?!"
"...No. Just...try again."
He peered intently into her eyes again.
"You're thinking...I should've listened to Harry and taken the Flying Instructor position and quit at the Daily Prophet...and we should've moved to Hogwarts...because then...I would never have to cook ever again..."
"Ha! Wrong. I'd never think 'I should've listened to Harry'."
Harry smacked over his scar with mock regret. "Ah, damn, I knew I was messing up somewhere."
She leaned in and lowered her voice.
"But, you know, I do think that sometimes. More often than not."
"I do, too," he whispered back.
Draco's initial suggestion didn't seem so unrealistic in the fallout from Albus's near-death experience. Ginny reached up and held his face.
"And for the record, Harry," she said, her eyes now peering into his like she was attempting Legilimency. "I don't think you were wrong for what you did."
"Well, you wouldn't. You tried to knock Rita's teeth out," Harry laughed.
She smiled. She dropped her hands from his face. "Still. I understand."
He reached down and took her hands, weaving his fingers through hers. "I know you do."
He and Ginny decided to stay at the hospital that night, making it their second night there. Ginny was planning on sleeping there every night until Albus was released, something Albus had only half-heartedly protested. It wasn't difficult to conjure a camp bed. But it was difficult to get Scorpius and Albus apart.
"Why can't he stay?" Albus asked them.
"He needs to get back to school."
"No way! Not without me!" Albus argued fiercely. Scorpius was nodding along beside him. "Alone in the Slytherin dungeon with a whole load of angry ex-Death Eater's kids when he's known to walk around hand-in-hand with Harry Potter's son? No way!"
"Dorm rooms have been temporarily given passwords."
"Wow, great, that's really helpful for, you know, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. But we've got about 99% of Hogwarts' Death-Eater-offspring population in our House!"
"Draco wouldn't send Scorpius back if—"
Albus interrupted his mum. "Please, I just want him to stay."
"I want to stay," Scorpius countered.
"That's not up to us. That's up to the Healers and your dad, Scorpius," Harry reminded him. "You can go Floo and ask him."
Scorpius jumped up from Albus's bed and hurried off towards the nearest Floo. James snorted from the corner.
"What?" Albus snapped.
"Nothing."
"What was that noise about, then?"
James snorted again. "What noise?"
"That noise, you prat!"
"Oh, nothing. Just thinking. You must be really tired, Al. So exhausted from your day of almost-dying...you must really want to...'rest'...."
Albus scowled. He threw one of his pillows across the room, smacking James square in the face.
"Nice shot," Ginny appreciated, surprised.
"Mum!" James complained.
"What? It was a nice shot—great aim, great throw, right in the face."
Lily was snickering. Harry arched an eyebrow when she met his eyes and pointed back at her DADA book. She groaned and resumed writing her essay.
"James, don't tease Al. Al, don't hit James. Arg—I feel like I've just been transported back in time ten years with all this bickering."
"Don't even joke like that," Harry said, alarmed. James and Al, at their height of arguing, aged seven and five respectively, could argue overbreathing (and had once).
"I'm only saying..." James sang.
"You've said enough. Leave your brother alone. You act as if our entire family hasn't had to see you and Nora snogging in every room since you two were fifteen."
"Ha, ha," Albus laughed immediately.
"And Al tormented me for it! So this is just payback, Mum, it's only fair," James said, his eyes widened with innocence.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ginny said, "save it for an unsuspecting and easily manipulated adult."
"But I don't know the next time I'll see Uncle Percy..."
This time, Harry was the one who laughed. Ginny's lips twitched, but she managed to stifle it.
"James Sirius Potter! Lily, tell James what happens when he talks badly about my family."
"Scourgify the mouth."
"Right. That."
"The truth is an obscenity now, Mum? I thought this family had values..."
Scorpius returned. His devastated face said it all. Albus groaned angrily.
"This is rubbish!"
"Cheer up, Al, there will be plenty of time to rest at—"
"James!" Harry and Ginny chorused.
"Fine," James sighed. He amused himself with picking at his toenail polish.
"Come on, you lot," Harry said. He gently pushed Ginny's legs from his lap and stood. "Let's get you to Gran's."
"No!"
"I'll take them, Harry," Ginny said quickly. Harry hesitated, met her eyes, and then slowly sat back down. "All right, you two, I mean it—no arguments, let's go."
Lily slammed her book shut and James heaved a sigh, but they followed Ginny from the room. Harry glanced at Al, but he and Scorpius looked seconds away from snogging again, so he slowly edged from the room so they could say their goodbyes. He wandered down to the bakery on the ground floor and mulled over what to buy for Al and Ginny. He was wrestling with the choice between steak and ale pie and chicken curry pasty when he felt a brief touch to his shoulder. He turned.
"Hermione," he said dumbly.
"Hi," she said flatly. She crossed her arms. "How's Al?"
"A bit better. Still can't hold anything down—he vomited his lunch—but we're going to give it another go. Er...how did...you know."
"Horrible, thanks. Half the Wizengamot wants my head."
"Oh. That's...oh."
A silence settled over them.
"Sir? Sir? Harry Potter, sir? Did you want to order?"
Harry turned back to the woman at the till, distracted.
"Er, yeah, I'll take...a steak and kidney pie, a chicken curry pasty, a chicken and thyme and...one of each type of dessert."
The woman said nothing, but she'd arched her eyebrow. Harry paid and stepped to the side to wait. Hermione stepped with him.
"So you're back on sugar, then?"
"Long story. Life's been stressful. And I figure Al might at least try and eat Lemon Meringue."
"Probably."
Another silence. Harry sighed.
"Hermione—"
"Harry—"
They both stopped. And started again.
"I'm sorry," they said at once.
They both blinked at each other, surprised.
"You're sorry?" Harry demanded. "Hermione, I called you out in front of everybody. I never should've done that. I'm sorry. I talked to Ron, who is very emotionally mature lately, you know, and was really compassionate, and he explained everything. I didn't mean to make your life difficult."
"No. No, Harry, I'm sorry. You and Ginny tried to tell me. You both tried so many times. And I wouldn't listen...I got too blinded by the politics. I let the politics take precedence over my family. And that's something swore I would never do."
"You were just trying to do things for the greater good."
"And who's that sound like?" Hermione pointed out, looking vaguely troubled.
Harry shook his head. "Ron put it right. He told me I couldn't see past my own family, and he's right. I can't. Whenever they're involved, I go a bit mad. I could make excuses for myself. I could say it's because I never had a family before, etcetera etcetera, but the truth is I'm a hothead."
"I already knew that, Harry."
Harry smiled. Hermione smiled back.
"I accept your apology," Hermione finally said.
"I accept yours," Harry shot back quickly, pleased that they'd reached this point without Hermione crying or sending birds flying at his face.
"Good. I'll have you know we've arrested Rita Skeeter. For the time being, she won't be saying anything about what happened to Albus, and most importantly: she won't be able to harass him while he's recovering. I'm sure she'll find a way to get out of this. But at least she's temporarily stopped."
"Order eighty-six," the woman behind the till called, bored. Harry looked around. He was literally the only person in the room. He moved forward and took the warm paper bag. He gestured towards the lift; Hermione nodded and walked with him.
"What do you think's going to happen?"
"We'll have a few weeks Skeeter-free. And then she'll start attacking the Ministry for misusing its power to impede free speech. That's what I was worried about."
"Yeah, Ron said. He said you were worried that if she managed to find out about the new laws before they were enacted, she'd find a way to stop them."
Hermione looked at Harry, surprised.
"Ron said that? I didn't think he was even listening when I was talking about that."
"He was listening. He explained everything to me. Really gave me hell for what I did, actually. I haven't seen him that angry in ages..."
Hermione didn't say anything in response, but she was grinning softly the entire ride up to Albus's ward. Harry was certain that Ron was going to have a better night than he was.
"Don't tell your mum that I let you eat nearly an entire lemon meringue pie," Harry said.
Albus looked up. He traced an X over his heart.
"Promise," he grinned.
"If she asks, you ate the steak and kidney pie."
"Right. We also won't mention that you ate that one and the chicken curry."
"Right. You're catching on, son."
Albus laughed. Harry grinned back. He perched on the edge of Albus's bed once Albus was done with his pie and took the container away. He set it in the paper bag on the floor and then looked back at his son. He realized that this was probably the only time he'd have to speak alone with Albus for a while, as he had to go back to his classes tomorrow. There were so many things Harry needed to say. He wasn't sure where to start.
"I think I died, Dad."
Albus began for him. Harry swallowed the pain those words caused and forced himself to focus on the facts: Al was alive, he'd just polished off an entire lemon meringue pie, he was breathing, he was looking at Harry, he was here. Not dead. A couple of deep breaths and Harry was ready to address the matter.
"Victoire finally admitted that you did. Just for a minute or so. She didn't want to tell us...I understand why."
Albus was staring intently at Harry, his eyes churning with something Harry couldn't name.
"Dad, I saw your parents. And Sirius. And Uncle Fred. Teddy's dad." A pause. "I saw Dumbledore."
Harry smiled. "Me too. When I died, I mean. I saw Dumbledore."
Albus sat up with a brief grimace of pain.
"Were you in the Great Lake, too?"
"No—King's Cross. I wonder why you were in the lake?"
"I wonder why you were in King's Cross?"
Harry laughed. "Fair enough. So...what did they say?"
"Who?"
"Everybody."
Albus grinned suddenly. "Well. Sirius and Uncle Fred made fun of my middle name."
Harry felt his heart jolt. He wasn't sure that was a detail Albus's mind could've fabricated. He'd yet to define his own post-death experience—Hermione told him it was a hallucination—but he always felt it'd been deeper than that. Not a full-on glimpse into an afterlife, but something. If Albus told anybody but his parents and Scorpius, they might point out that his brain was literally bleeding, which was a fair point. But Harry was going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"That doesn't surprise me," Harry laughed. "Hope they weren't too hard on you."
"Nah—they were hard on you and Mum. Uncle Fred said I'm named after an ear murderer?"
Harry pursed his lips against the laughter threatening to spill out.
"Er...hmm. Not sure what he was going on about..."
Albus hesitated. "And your parents. They loved me. I don't remember much. But I remember that. I felt so loved and safe."
Harry's throat narrowed. He looked away from Albus's eyes—his eyes, Lily Evans's eyes—until he'd gotten a hold of himself.
"Of course they did. How could they not?"
Albus picked at the hospital blanket. "Teddy's dad wasn't sure about Teddy's idea to name the baby Remus. He said 'Dora' was having a fit over the idea of naming it after her."
Harry laughed, elated. "Al, you should tell Teddy about this when you're ready. He'd believe you."
"He said other stuff. I was going to tell Teddy."
"Good," Harry smiled.
He didn't want to pry. He could sense that whatever Dumbledore had said had been the most impactful. Albus looked up.
"Dumbledore said..."
He stopped. He picked at a loose thread.
"You can tell me," Harry said gently. "I'll believe you."
"I know, it's just...embarrassing. Especially if it turns out that I was just hallucinating."
"Embarrassing?" Harry said, puzzled.
"Yeah. He said...well. He said I made him proud to be called Albus."
Albus looked genuinely unconvinced and embarrassed. He'd never reminded Harry so much of himself. He leaned across and pulled Albus into his arms without even thinking about it. All he knew was that he loved his son.
"I love you, Al," he finally said. After a day of thinking those words over and over again like a prayer, it was such a relief to voice them. "And Dumbledore's right."
"Love you too, Dad," Albus shot back automatically, embarrassed.
Harry didn't let go.
"Al, I mean it. When I thought that...when it looked like you would..." he couldn't even finish the words. "I love you more than my own life. I always have. I always will."
"Merlin, Dad, don't make me cry," Albus complained.
"I'm going to cry, so it's okay," Harry said thickly. "We can be open for once, right? No one else is here. For once—let's not do our Potter-men thing."
"I guess," Albus said. His voice was wavering. "Dad. In the Hospital Wing...when I kept telling you I was sorry..." Harry leaned back. Albus was blinking rapidly against forming tears. "All I could think about was the fact that I was going to die without properly apologizing for the things I said last year. I was so frightened. Not because I was dying, but because I thought I might die before I could tell you that...I don't wish you weren't my dad. That wasn't true. And it isn't true. Because I love you. And—" he sniffed. He rubbed his face and pressed on. "And you've always given me everything and I can see that now. I know you always tried with every bit of you. And not many people can say that about their dads, you know? I couldn't see that before."
Harry pulled his glasses off and set them to the side. He rubbed at his burning eyes, overcome once more with more emotion than he was equipped to deal with. He slowly put his glasses back in place.
"Al, I know," he reassured Albus. "And you know I never meant what I said, right? Not for a second. Not ever."
"I know. We both spoke too quickly."
"That's the truth," Harry laughed. Albus chuckled along. Once it gradually trailed off, Harry observed his son. "So how are you handling it? The dying thing?"
"Well, I got to eat an entire pie and I don't have to do my Potions essay, so all in all, pretty all right. Though I wish it didn't hurt so much right now."
Harry frowned. "More pain potion?"
For once, Albus didn't refuse. "Yeah. Before bed. And maybe a Sleeping Draught? In case it wears off? The pain's been waking me. Scorpius said I was crying in my sleep during one nap today."
Harry instinctively reached forward and brushed Albus's hair back, like his comfort could somehow make all his son's pain go away. He wished it were that simple. Albus smiled at him, and all at once, Harry knew he would have to talk to him about things now. This was the only chance. So Harry took a deep breath and took advantage of Albus's mention of Scorpius.
"Hey, Al?"
"Dad?"
"Do you remember the...talk we had? A few weeks ago?"
Albus grimaced. "Unfortunately. Can't we pretend it never happened?"
"I know it's awkward but...I did a really terrible job...and, well, this is really important to get right...and I see how close you and Scorpius are now..."
"Dad, I literally died today."
"I know, just...really quickly. We'll talk about it really quickly. Okay?"
Albus looked miserable, but he nodded once, his cheeks already burning bright red.
"Okay. Just...don't prolong my
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net