"It has to get better, Harry," Ron mumbles, pulling on his outer robe. "After today, it can't get any worse."
Harry wants to smile and pat Ron sympathetically on the shoulder and agree, but he can't make himself. Things can get worse, Harry thinks. Everyone could fall into a deep depression and end up turning to drugs and suicidal thoughts. That could be worse. But, Harry can't say that he's afraid no one will be happy again.
He resigns to just nodding and tying his shoes.
Andromeda knocks lightly (hesitantly) on the door before opening it. "Almost ready, boys," she says softly. Harry can see a bulge in her robes where Teddy's resting.
Ron nods, looking at himself once more in the mirror and sighing. Harry had told Kreacher a few days ago to discard all of Ron's dress robes and buy new, plain ones. Molly had driven herself crazy trying to find the missing robes before allowing Ron to dress in the new ones.
Harry and Ron, in almost identical black dress robes, exited their room to meet the Weasleys, Andromeda (and Teddy), Hermione, Fleur, and Angelina.
They would be meeting Hagrid, Minerva, and Kingsley at the ceremony, along with, what George thinks, is his entire year at Hogwarts.
Harry lifts his arm up as he gets to the bottom stair. Ginny tucks herself tight against Harry's side; his arm tightens around her shoulders.
The funeral is Fred, Nymphadora, and Remus's. Everyone involved had quickly decided it best to celebrate all their lives on the same day because after one, no one's going to want to put on their black clothes again.
Except for Harry. Harry will be putting on these robes for Colin's funeral, a small, private ceremony being held in two days time. Harry has already worn them once to Severus Snape's service. There were only a handful of people there, most of which were staff at Hogwarts and Mrs. Malfoy.
At the service, Harry holds Teddy because Andromeda (consumed with memories from both Nymphadora and Ted) is sobbing uncontrollably. Ginny's standing firm at Harry's side, one arm tight on his waist and the other resting on Harry's arm. Her fingers stretch every so often to touch Teddy's nose or hand.
Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys, save Molly and Fleur, are holding themselves together rather neatly. Ginny's eyes are watering, and Ron's biting his lip. Harry can't see George's face, but Angelina's hold on his hand seems to be steady enough to keep him from losing it. The older Weasley boys look much like Ron and Ginny: tight faces and strong grips on their partner.
Ginny's eyes meet Harry's momentarily when Harry can't stand to stare at the graves any longer.
"I love you," she mouths.
"I love you," Harry whispers back.
Ginny rests her head on Harry's shoulder and closes her eyes as they lower the caskets. Harry looks down at Teddy and hopes that no more bodies are meant to be buried outside of Hogwarts.
The school is shining in the background. They're quite far away from it, but the absolute size of the school makes it hard to miss. Many of the witches and wizards who had died during the Battle are buried down here, too. As to be expected, some families had moved their loved ones to family plots and the such.
But down here, on this abandoned outer property (where students don't pass through or by or even remotely close to), there are a few dozen brave people buried.
Harry had been here the day after the Battle, as Hermione had, helping families find their missing members. They had copied down all the names and aided the bustling St. Mungo's team in whatever they needed.
Harry kisses the top of Ginny's head lightly and is instantly glad that he didn't lose anymore people than he already had.
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Harry spends much of his time either at Hogwarts, helping Headmistress McGonagall with scheduling and staffing, at the Ministry, turning over his memories of the Battle to better aide the trials, or at Andromeda's home.
The last is the only that he finds comforting and not required of him. They spend the majority of their time gathering pictures of Tonks and Remus from various family members and person collections.
They're making a scrapbook (or two with the amount of pictures they're collecting) for Teddy. Andromeda had even mentioned maybe, someday, creating a pensieve of short memories.
Harry's not sure if that'd make Teddy sad or not, seeing his parents through eyes that would never be his own. But, as Harry thinks about it, he'd kill for more memories (anyone's memories) of his own parents.
"Maybe we should ask him," Harry suggests. "You know, when he's older?"
Andromeda nods thoughtfully, saying, "That might be best."
Teddy may not be growing up with his parents, but he'll be raised by a family who loves him. Harry laughs to himself at the thought. Between Andromeda and Harry, this kid will be the most spoiled in his year.
Andromeda and Harry still casually bicker over what house Teddy will land himself in. Harry insists it will be Gryffindor, just as Andromeda insists he will carry in either her own or Nymphadora's footsteps.
How could he not be in Gryffindor, though, Harry jokes often.
"What with Remus's blood in him and myself and the Weasleys, he's going to be a natural Gryffindor," Harry says, smiling over the table of pictures.
"And yet you forget your intended house, dear boy," she snickers.
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With twice the number of first years entering Hogwarts, Harry volunteers himself to take over first year Defense Against the Dark Arts and any other class McGonagall sees fit. She's contemplating giving him either Transfigurations or Charms. Madam Hooch's position is one that Harry readily offered to take.
"Oliver injured himself rather badly last season," she says. "I'm offering him that job." She gives Harry a sympathetic smile.
McGonagall's pulling in an ex-Ravenclaw, Maureen McCord, a classmate of Bill's, to permanently take the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts after Harry had said he'd help out for a year and then he was done.
Slughorn's taken it upon himself to stay on staff for a few years or until his heart "just gives out in the middle of a damned lesson". Minerva briefly mentioned he'd be head of Slytherin.
Professor Flitwick is to continue at his position as Charms teacher and head of Ravenclaw, just as Professor Sprout will remain on staff.
"Which leaves you as Head of Gryffindor and Headmistress?" Harry asks, scanning over the staff list. "And teaching all upper level Transfigurations?"
"Until I find a suitable substitute or manage to convince you to stay," she says softly, glancing up at Harry's reaction.
"Once the year is up, I promise to give it serious thought," Harry replies. He's not lying. He will think it over, but he can't see himself anywhere in the future yet.
He's just now coming to terms with the fact that he has a tangible future that doesn't hinge on Voldemort.
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The Burrow isn't nearly as crowded as it had always been. Bill and Fleur have already returned to the Shell Cottage. Charlie had just left this morning. Percy spends all of his time with Minister Shacklebolt cleaning up the Ministry.
George and Ron spend a great amount of their time holed up in their rooms.
Harry and Hermione are sitting in the kitchen with Mrs. Weasley bustling over tonight's dinner.
"Where's Ginny?" Hermione questions, sipping on a cup of tea.
"Grimmauld Place." Harry clears his throat. "She's got the contractors there. Been tryin' to get Mrs. Black off the damned wall. An' if we can't get her portrait off, then the wall's coming down because I can't live with that for the rest of my life."
"And why is Ginny there instead of you?" Hermione asks, but Harry gets the feeling she's fishing for information.
"Said she wanted to. I don't know."
"It looks wonderful in there, Harry," Mrs. Weasley adds. "Not so dark anymore." And then to Hermione, "He and Ginny got themselves some decent decorators in there. Too much black in that place, if you ask me."
"You're redecorating?"
Harry dips his head and mumbles, "Ginny's got one more year of school and she's hopin' to join a professional team. We just wanted to make sure that she, iwe/i, had someplace nice to, you know, come home to."
Hermione just smiles.
"Tell her about Teddy's room, too," Mrs. Weasley gushes.
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Four days into classes, the first years quickly realize that Harry's not going to be as easy going as they've heard he would. The young Gryffindors were as shocked as any to discover Harry holds no favoritism toward his former-house.
"He's as strict as Slughorn," a young Ravenclaw groans as they exit Harry's classroom.
All of the first years have Harry as their Defense teacher and Transfigurations teacher. Harry's even taken Headmistress McGonagall's house duties for the time being. Students in trouble are sent to Harry for punishment.
"You know," Ron says, flipping through the book Harry teaches out of, "you icould/i do this. You know, later."
"And live at Hogwarts for the rest of my life? Only seeing Ginny and Hermione and you on holidays?" Harry snorts. "No thank you. After this year, we'll be starting Auror training, yeah?"
Ron grins and nods.
"Three years of training," he says, stretching his arms over his head, laughing. "Haven't we already had like, oh, I dunno, seven?"
Harry laughs and agrees.
"Up for a round on the field?" Harry suggests, accioing his broom.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Ron says back. "You've an extra?"
Harry says the closet on the field has all the teams' brooms; they'll grab one when they're down there.
"Maybe we should just do this," Ron jokes. "Play Quidditch forever."
"I'm with you," Harry says, darting off to the other side of the field.
They race around the field with the quaffle, trying to score. Harry charmed some bludgers to fly around without getting too far off the field.
"And the crowd goes crazy," Ron imitates, his hands around his mouth to amplify the sound. "Ron Weasley beats the infamous Harry Potter!"
"Oh, shut up," Harry groans playfully. "If we were going after a Snitch, you'd be crying."
Ron just grins and tries to knock Harry off of his broom.
hr
"Gin," Harry mumbles against her lips. "Dromeda needed to speak with me."
Harry's been trying to make it over to Andromeda's house all afternoon. She'd owled him a letter earlier this morning asking Harry to stop by, that it was slightly urgent and needed to be taken care of today.
But, Ginny's lips had managed to keep him in bed all morning and afternoon. The clock is rounding on four and Harry's blindly reaching for his pants over the edge of the bed.
"Okay," Ginny says, but doesn't detach her mouth from Harry's chest.
Harry groans, but tries to keep his mind on his present task of leaving.
"You sure?" she asks, smiling.
"I will be back," Harry says, twisting out of the bed. "Believe me."
He tugs his pants on and finds a shirt, kissing Ginny once more before exiting his room.
The contractors had managed to remove the wall, which meant a iquiet/i house. They'd opened up the rooms on the lower level, making everything generally brighter, especially with the new coats of paint and wallpaper.
Harry pauses to admire his new living area before realizing he needs to be somewhere. He purposefully strides to the fireplace and grips some floo powder in his hand.
"Andromeda?" Harry calls into her empty family room.
"Harry, stay there," she calls back, her voice becoming increasingly closer. The first few times Harry'd met Andromeda Tonks had surprised him. She had resembled Bellatrix so much it made Harry flinch.
Now, though, looking at her, Harry can't imagine not seeing her kind expression.
"You wished to speak with me?"
"Sit down, yes?" She motions to the patterned couch. Harry cautiously sits down, watching her carefully as she takes a seat opposite him. "You see, the thing is."
"Please," Harry says softly. "Just say it. It can't be all that bad."
"My sister is going to be staying with me," she blurts.
Andromeda opens her mouth to begin rationalizing her choice, but stops when Harry says, "That's fine. Is that all you wanted me for?"
"You're fine with that?" she clarifies happily.
"The woman saved my life, of course I'm fine with that." Harry smiles and adds, "It's not like Malfoy's staying or anything."
When Andromeda doesn't speak, Harry drops his mouth uncouthly.
"You're joking with me."
"Oh, Harry, you're fine with Cissa staying and not her son?"
"iHer son/i isn't a good person," Harry says, crossing his arms like a young child. "iHer son/i has tried to kill me."
"Harry-"
"And with Teddy around! If you're going to have the ferret here, then I'll take Teddy home with me."
"When you're gone most days with class? You're not being rational."
Harry sits silently. More than anything, he doesn't want Malfoy to be around Teddy more often than Harry is. He doesn't want Teddy speaking Malfoy's name first. Hell, he doesn't want Teddy to think that Malfoy is a decent person.
"Weekends, then," Harry resolves. "He'll stay with me on weekends. And don't leave Malfoy alone with Teddy."
"He's my nephew," Andromeda presses.
"He's a bloody Death Eater," Harry snaps.