English is my second language, so please bear with my not so perfect grammar. Thanks.
With tact
Sunlight was shining through the living room window and illuminated the velvety Persian carpet. There was an eerie silence over the house. Only the distant rush of the sea could be heard and the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway.
Harry loved the cottage on the south coast and could hardly imagine why James, Al and Lily had been so reluctant to come here. But now that he thought of his children, the silence worried him even more. These three were NEVER silent.
His perfectly trained Auror instincts kicked in and he pulled his wand out. Quick as a flash he turned in his large wing chair to one side and pointed behind it. However, there was nothing and nobody. Elated, he got up and searched the lower floor. But he couldn't find a trace of his children. Gradually his suspicions vanished and he returned to the cozy living room. Again he sat down in the great wing chair, stretched out his legs and took "The Auror Today" from the table beside him and opened it. He wanted to read the article about the Aurors in Moscow, who had just caught a wizard that had forced Muggle in a large scale under the Imperius curse. Harry sighed relaxed and began to read. He was so engrossed in the article that he vaguely heard the back door and several steps. The voices whispered excitedly and Harry recognized his children.
"You ask him", Al mumbled barely audible.
"No, do you", muttered James.
"We cannot just ask him straight out ", whispered Lily seriously.
"Why not", sounded it from her two brothers? "That's what other people also do with us."
"Dad is not other people", Lily hissed and Harry grinned. His daughter was not only the outward image of her mother, but also had inherited her temperament. Yes, Ginny and he had done everything right.
"We have agreed that we would ask him", Albus protested now.
"Exactly", James agreed.
"I'm not saying that we shouldn't do it. I want to know just as badly as you two. I'm just saying we shouldn't blurt it out, like Hugo wanted to", Lily said insistently. "Remember what Rose said. This requires tact. "
Albus and James snorted and Harry interpreted it as agreement. But what on Merlin's underpants wanted his children? And they had spoken with Rose and Hugo about it? Harry thought for a moment. They had been to dinner at the Burrow a week ago. A big family dinner. He couldn't say whether he had heard those five plan conspiracies over something or even the other Weaslys. But hadn't they been seen suspiciously often in a small group? Ah, the family dinners were always simply too large and a confusing affair. They always had to eat outside in the garden when ALL were there. Harry shook his head and listened intently.
"All right Lils", James said. "We do it together and with tact."
"Thank you, James", rang Lily's voice out, and Harry knew that she was smiling.
"Then go ahead", urged Albus and there was a sound as if someone had been pushed against the glass cabinet in the kitchen.
"Ouch", Lily complained and a muffled slap followed.
"Ouch!"
Harry grinned. What were his children up to?
"Stop it!" James voice sounded commanding.
"All right, all right."
The floorboards creaked as his children walked from the kitchen into the hallway.
"Stop! So, how do we ask now ", wanted Albus to know and he sounded excited?
"Well ... We..." stammered Lily.
"We first ask how his day was", said James. "And then we slowly build it up!" There was a lot of confidence in his voice. "I know Dad the longest, that will be a good start. Trust me. "
Harry had to bite back a laugh. He had to tell Ginny later.
"Oh .. Okay. Good plan!" This was Lily's voice again.
Again footsteps sounded and Harry pretended to be engrossed in his magazine. James, Albus and Lily appeared ranked by size in the doorway. They looked at each other when they found Harry so engrossed in his magazine. Lily made a move to slip back out of the room, but James and Albus clamped her between them.
"Chm, chm", cleared James his throat.
Harry looked seriously over the top of his glasses. Ginny had told him some time ago that he now mastered the Dumbledore-x-ray look.
James blinked at him incessantly while Lily had a forced smile on her face and Albus skin was covered with small red spots. A clear sign that he was nervous.
"Hi, Dad", James greeted, grinning now just as put-on as Lily.
"Hello", Harry replied, trying desperately to keep a straight face.
"How was your day", asked Al and he grinned forced.
Harry felt like in a horror cabinet, or in the movie "Village of the Damned". He shook himself. "Excellent" he replied lightly. "Wonderful weather today. Your mother and I thought we would do a barbecue tonight.
"Yay!" His children cheered and the rigidity left them. After the short cry of joy they were serious again.
"And you three? Enjoying the nice weather?" Harry tried the same form of Smalltalk. This was, clearly, not their usual topic of conversation. Something drastically must have happened. Harry just hoped that they hadn't stolen Arthur's new Vauxhall and wrecked it.
"Well ..." Lily stretched the word out. "Excellent. You, Dad ... Well. "
"Yes, Dad", Albus tuned in. "We've got a problem."
Harry put his magazine aside and looked at them intently. They had not really stolen the Vauxhall?!
"Nonsense, Al", James said. "We have a question."
"Oh, yes."
Their father frowned.
"What we wanted to ask, yes ... that's a touchy subject", Lily continued after.
Harry suspected the worst. They did not want THE TALK? Did they? Lily was 13, Albus 14 and James 15! Though, James already had had the talk with Ginny and him a while ago. It was incredibly embarrassing for his eldest son and now this? How would he ever do this without Ginny? He needed her! Slight panic seized Harry, but still they hadn't asked! Just wait and see, he thought! Keep calm!
"Well, we don't know how to ask this." James looked at the floor in embarrassment.
"What is it?" Harry braced himself for the worst.
"So..." Al stretched the word out very long, too.
"Why do you, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron are banned from Gringotts", blurted Lily out.
James and Albus groaned on.
"Merlin, Lily! What happened to the, 'with tact'", puffed her eldest brother.
Lily made an embarrassed face.
Harry looked closely at his three children. Of course this question had to come. They had heard so much, were questioned by strangers over and over again and yet they knew very little. History gave vague answers, but Harry, Ron and Hermione had made sure that not much leaked out into the Wizarding World. They had agreed not to mention the Horcruxes. They hadn't wanted to give anyone ideas. For as Ron had put it so aptly, "There are more lunatics out there and we should never speak of it again. "
And now, Harry realized, that Ron and Hermione would hear that exact question at this exact time, in their cottage. Everything was planned!
"Sit down", Harry said, pointing to the sofa next to him. Obediently his children took a seat and looked at him intently.
"Well", he began.
"Is that true? With the dragon", said Albus quickly. He wanted to ask this question for a week now.
"And that you were one year in hiding", continued his big brother.
"You have to understand one thing", said Harry seriously. "That all sounds way cooler than it really is", quoting Ron so many years ago.
His children nodded.
"It was a difficult time", Harry started. "And I don't know what I would have done without your aunt and uncle. They were always with me. "
"Where was Mum?" Lily asked.
"She was at Hogwarts."
"Was she mad at you that you left her?"
"Oh yes." Harry tried to grin.
"But tell us, why are you banned from Gringotts," James asked again.
"Well, it began the night..." And Harry told them of the night of the Seven Potters. Harry talked and talked. He had only once told the complete true story to someone and that had been Ginny. He didn't tell his children what Horcruxes were, he only said that they had to find things that kept Voldemort alive. James, Lily and Albus were so fascinated by the stories of their father, that they had no time to think about it in more detail.
The sun moved slowly across the sky and the shadows of the trees outside grew longer.
"You destroyed Gringotts!" James exclaimed. "No wonder you got banned!"
Harry forced a smile and went on.
"Oh Dad", whispered Lily. "You went into the forest alone." There were tears in her eyes.
"I wasn't alone, I was thinking of your mother until the end."
"Wow, Dad." Albus sighed in awe as Harry described the scene in the forest. "You survived again."
"Yes, thanks to your grandmother Lily, who you never got to know."
When Harry had finished, they sat in silence for a while. Then Lily spoke up.
"Were you afraid?"
"Yes." Harry said honestly. "I wasn't always aware of it, but the fear was my daily companion."
"You never had a real childhood", realized James suddenly and his siblings nodded.
"No, I did not", Harry agreed. "But now I have everything I've always dreamed of. I have you three and your mother. I have Teddy, Ron and Hermione. I have a huge Family. And the war is won. "