Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters

James was bored; which for the rest of the family was not good. Ginny was constantly scolding Harry for naming their son after not one, but two of most notorious pranksters in wizard history. She was almost dreading when he left for Hogwarts knowing that she was going to be dragged to Professor McGonagall's office to hear what James had just done.

James got up to see what his siblings were doing. Rose and Hugo weren't coming over until later so unfortunately he was stuck with them for now.

Lily was in her room playing with her dolls. She was preparing them to go off to Hogwarts as any good mother would, "Now Mary, make sure that you don't forget your broom!"

"Hey! Lilybug!" James called from the doorway.

"Go away!" Lily almost hissed, glaring at him in a way that only Ginny could have taught her.

"That's not how you greet your favourite brother and you know it!" James smirked back.

"Daaaad! Tell James to leave me alone!" Lily cried. Daddy's girl! James thought. Although he was smart enough to not voice his opinion. The last time he had said that out loud he had ended up ten feet in the air as a result of Lily's uncontrolled under- aged magic. The flying he didn't mind. The landing though was another story.

"Lily, you should know by now, that telling on James will only make him want to annoy you more!" Lily looked up to see Albus walking past, naturally with his nose stuck in a book.

"Don't remind me!"

Albus just chuckled and walked in to give his baby sister a cuddle.

"Hi, Harry! Ginny!" Teddy's voice drifted up the stairs.

"Teddy!" Lily squealed and ran out of Al's arms.

"Guess we know who her favourite is!" Al just rolled his eyes in response. Even though she was only six Lily had managed to get her father, Teddy and all her male relatives wrapped around her little fingers; a power that she used, frequently.

Al and James got up and followed Lily downstairs to the kitchen. Lily was bouncing on Teddy's lap. Ginny was preparing to cook dinner whilst Harry helped.

"So how is auror training Ted?" James asked whilst claiming an empty chair.

"Doesn't your Dad tell you?" Harry just rolled his eyes. Sure he was head auror but at home he liked to be just Harry.

"Dad NEVER tells us anything! I thought you knew this." James whined. Now it was Al's turn to roll his eyes.

James complaining about being left in the dark was a regular occurrence in the Potter household. All the younger generation were well aware of the war and its consequences. For the Potters it was hard to avoid it, with the paparazzi following their lives as if lives depended on it. Harry had actually started a collection of any Daily Prophet that didn't mention his name once. After ten years he had two issues. The current issue was on the kitchen table, once again the word Potter was in the headline. Although no one had read it properly yet to find out why.

"Sure he does!"

"Tell us what?" Lily was only vaguely aware of her father's heroics. So the chance to find out more about what her Daddy did was rather exciting.

"James!" Ginny's voice was stern. Harry often had to stifle laughter whenever she used that tone; she just sounded so like her mother.

Teddy was quick to change the subject, "Training's going really well. I just passed my first module in duelling and now we're beginning to work on strategies and stuff for missions."

"Wow Teddy! You sound so brave!" Lily grinned up at him. Harry smiled. He had been keeping tabs on Teddy's progress and unsurprisingly he was excelling. Honestly Harry had wanted him to do something more normal and less potentially dangerous; however Teddy was his father's son and his mother had been an auror, so Harry really wasn't surprised. Defence against the dark arts was in Ted's blood.

"Do you need any help mum?" Ever polite Al went over to see if there was anything that needed to be done. Ginny sometimes couldn't believe how like Harry he was, in both looks and demeanour.

"No thanks dear. You three can go back upstairs until dinner's ready and your cousins get here."

Three "Byes" were yelled in unison as they sprinted out the door.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it Ted!" Harry said proudly.

Teddy sighed and rolled his eyes, "You know very well how I'm doing!"

Harry winced—you think a trained auror would be able to spy on someone without them noticing.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed throwing a dishtowel in his direction.

"What!"

"You promised you wouldn't!"

Ted chuckled, "He's not that bad. He just miraculously appears whenever we're doing something that he might consider dangerous."

"HARRY!"

"So what should we do?" James mused.

"Not whatever you are thinking!" Al warned. He had been dragged into enough of James harebrained schemes.

"What!" James replied innocently, while Lily just giggled.

"Play with me!" Lily commanded. The boys just groaned. The last time they had agreed, the two boys had ended up wearing girls clothing.

"Hey look Dad's office is open!" James rushed over. The only unbreakable rule in the Potter house was that under no circumstances were the kids to enter Harry's study. Even Teddy hadn't been in and he was training to be an auror. It had always been one of James' unsolved mysteries. He knew his father was a hero—there wasn't a wizard who didn't, but James wanted to understand the why better. All his life James had thought that the key to finding out lay in his Dad's study. However, also through his life the study door was always firmly shut and locked. James had never even seen the inside of the door.

"James!" The young Potter's turned to see Teddy at the top of the stairs.

"Weren't you talking with Mum and Dad?" Al mused.

"I was but Ginny found out that your Dad's been spying on me at work. So I left mid rant." Al just nodded his head in understanding.

"Come on!" James urged, "I know that you all what to know what is in there! If anything happens, which let's face it, it won't because Dad is one of the most boring men on the planet, Ted can just use his new auror skills."

"James, your Dad is certainly not boring. Safety conscious—yes. But boring—no!"

Teddy hated to admit, he was tempted. Having graduated from Hogwarts Teddy had studied Harry's unbelievable story, they used his techniques in auror training, once he was old enough Harry had told Teddy some of the unknown stories, but most importantly Teddy had got to see Harry in the field. He was, in Teddy's mind, apart from his parents, the greatest wizard to walk the earth. The chance to see some of his artefacts and work was really tempting.

"I wanna see!" Lily was curious.

"I don't know!" Al warned.

"Oh Come on!" and with that James barged into the study.

The study was clearly Harry's. It was unorganised but not messy. There were photos of the family all over the room; old ones which Al realised were the mauraders and Harry's Mum and Dad, several photos of their cousins, aunts and uncles, more recent photos of the Potter clan and of course in pride of place on Harry's desk was a photo of Ginny. There was paperwork all over the room as well as all sort of DADA books. There were also all sorts of magical instruments strewn around the room.

To Teddy it looked like a more personal and slightly smaller version of Harry's office in the Auror Department at the Ministry.

Al headed over to look at the books; he had only ever seen his Dad read the paper. Lily was looking at all the pictures. Teddy was leaning over Harry's desk trying to read what he was working on, but as usual was struggling to read Harry's messy handwriting. Unfortunately James started poking around the magical instruments.

He came across a gold sphere made of glass. Inside there was what looked like sand swirling around.

"Hey look at this!" James yelled waving the sphere in the air. However, he waved it with more force than he meant. The glass sphere slipped out of his fingers and went tumbling towards the floor. All four kids ran forward to try and catch it but it was too late. The glass shattered on impact.

The sand burst out from the glass orb and began swirling around the room. The four kids held on to each other when suddenly the floor disappeared and they were spinning through the sand.

Suddenly they collided with the floor; all landing in a heap on the floor.

The shock of losing Mad-eye hung over the house in the days that followed.

Harry, Hermione, the Weasley's, Fleur and many of the Order were at the Burrow for dinner, few spoke, they were all just hunched over their plates.

Suddenly there was a blinding flash followed by a crash that echoed through the house.

Harry jumped out of his seat, closely followed by Kingsley, Lupin and the others.

"JAMES YOU BLOODY IDIOT. WHEN MUM FINDS OUT YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!"

"AL GET OFF ME NOW!"

"TEDDY IT HURTS!"

The four of children attempted to detangle themselves from the floor.

The order had their wands raised. The number of enchantments on the burrow was unheard of. No one should be able to enter. The fact that not one but four had was terrifying, plus they looked like children—somehow their enchantments had been thwarted by some form a very powerful magic.

Lily was the first to get up.

"Daddy!" she cried, "It was all James he made me!" she ran to hide behind Harry's legs.

Teddy got up wary of the wands pointed in his direction, only to turn white when he spotted his parents. Seeing them in front of him for the first time in his life.

Harry looked down at the little girl clinging to his legs, "Um I'm not your Dad!"

Lily looked up confused and frightened by this. He was her Dad. Even without the scar she would know her Dad anywhere.

Lupin stepped forward with his wand still raised. "Who are you and how the hell did you get in here!"

All of Teddy's auror training went out the window seeing his father in front of him. Seeing Teddy struggling Al stepped forward, his calculating brain fearing what was in fact true. They had travelled back in time. There were collective gasps as he did so. Harry looked at Al confused.

"Harry why are there two of you?" Ginny asked.

"He's not Dad!" Lily cried running back to her brothers terrified. First her father didn't know who she was and now her mother didn't recognise her brother.

"Um my name is Al, actually and you can lower your wands we're not his. I know this is hard to understand but we're from the future." Al had kept his eyes on the floor the whole time. After the silence continued, Al dared to look up.

Lupin still had his wand raised, unsure. It was Tonks who stepped forward, "Perhaps you could prove it?"

"Uh?" James looked to Teddy, he was the one who knew the most about the past.

Slowly recovering after seeing his mother right in front of him, Teddy slowly spoke looking at Harry. "When you lived with the Dursley's they made you live in the cupboard under the stairs and when you were punished you were locked in there without any food."

"WHAT!"

Everyone stared dumbstruck at Harry—they all knew he hated the Dursleys but they had not known the extent of the situation.

"Harry? Is that true?" Ginny whispered. Even if they weren't together anymore, she still cared.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Errr!" No one was supposed to know that, he had made a point of not telling anyone—and he was pretty sure that Dumbledore never had. Everyone was still staring in his direction, making Teddy feel incredibly guilty. He knew that Harry hadn't even told Ginny. She had found out sometime around their wedding—but Teddy wasn't quite sure how.

"Sorry!" Teddy whispered "I realised it had to be something dramatic and I knew that if you believed so would they."

Harry nodded his head in understanding. "Lupin, lower your wand. I think they are who they say they are."

"YOU THINK!" Lily cried.

"Ssh! Lils it okay!" James pulled his sister close. He was blaming himself for all this. Looking at his father he could tell that they were close to the end of the war. James knew his father well enough to see the worry in his eyes. His father looked as if he had the whole world on his shoulders—which he quite literally did. Now because of him he had brought his brother, Teddy and baby sister into the war without any way of getting back. This was bad and he knew it.

Hermione now came forward, "Well you seem to know who we are but would you mind telling us who you are?"

Teddy nodded, "I'm," he took a deep breath "Teddy Remus Lupin."

He braced himself for the reactions.

Lupin stared at him in shock. Really looking at him he could see the resemblance. Tonks beamed. Harry smiled slightly and everyone else was still trying to wrap their heads around what was going on—except Hermione that is.

"My son?"

"Hi Dad!" Teddy had wanted to say those words his whole life, "Hi Mum!" Tonks launched herself in his direction. Teddy hugged his mother tight, inhaling her sweet scent.

Finally she let him go. "Are you...you a?" Lupin couldn't finish.

"No I'm not." Teddy smiled weakly. "...but." Teddy scrunched up his face and turned his hair a bright bubblegum pink to match his mothers. Tonks squealed and hugged him even tighter if that was even possible.

James stepped forward, "Hi I'm James Sirius Potter."

Harry stared. He could not deny the resemblance but he couldn't believe it. All he could see in his future was Voldemort. He had not considered having a family. He had broke it off with Ginny; the one person who he could see himself settling down with. It had crushed him to do it—but her safety was more important than anything. Without her, he had realise that he loved her. He would do anything for her. He would end the war to keep her safe.

"Your Harry's son?" Ginny asked quietly. It was her worst nightmare, come true. Harry with a family. He had broken it off, so she knew that there was the possibility of someone else, but that had only been at her lowest moments. Her logical brain knew that it was him being idiotically noble, but at times she had her doubts. She fought back the tears. She was being stupid, there was a war going on and all she could think about was Harry!

James nodded proudly, smiling at his mother. "Who is your mother?" Hermione asked knowing the answer. Lily was Ginny's clone as much as Al was Harry's. Hermione also knew that there would never be anyone else for Harry other than Ginny.

"Ginny Weasley!" James beamed.

The Weasley's stared, Hermione beamed, the Order members smiled and Harry blushed. Ginny turned on Harry.

"See! We're meant to be together!" Ginny cried.

"I've told you. It's not safe!"

"I don't care!"

"I do! I could not bear it if you got hurt because of me!" Ginny ignored him and looked him straight in the eye.

"I'm clearly alright! We have kids."

Harry just shook his head exasperated. She was stubborn and god he loved her for it—but not so much when it's directed at him.

"I want you to be safe. No! I need you to be safe." Harry whispered.

"I told you! I. DON'T. CARE!" Ginny said through gritted teeth.

Ginny was now fighting tears, Harry still liked her. But he wasn't going to budge and she could see that. All she wanted to do was launched herself into her arms but she held her tongue and fled the room; with Harry watching her go, his heart sinking.

The younger Potters stared dumbstruck. They had never seen their parents fight. Harry would give Ginny anything and Ginny would do anything for Harry. Everyone knew how in love they were. Harry was staring after Ginny unsure what to do.

RINGGGG!

Teddy looked down at his pocket. One thing that Harry had brought to the Auror Department was muggle technology. Every auror was issued with a mobile phone, that was magically modified to receive signal anywhere and as it turned out at anytime.

All the wizards looked confused, Harry and Hermione shocked that it actually worked.

"Hello?" Teddy answered.

"Teddy! Thank god." Older Harry sighed down the phone. "Where are you? Are the kids with you? What happened in my study?"

"Err!" Teddy wasn't sure how to answer. Lily grabbed his leg and reached out for the phone, hiccoughing as a result of her constant tears. Unwilling to deny her anything, Teddy passed her the phone.

"Daddy?" Lily sniffed down the phone.

"Lils! Don't cry it's alright sweetheart!" Harry tried to sooth, but his fears were coming through.

"No! It's not Daddy. James broke the gold thing and we got sent somewhere. Everything's all wrong. We saw you fight with Mummy and not kiss her better,"

Past Harry blushed at this; it wasn't as if he didn't want to.

"Teddy's Mummy and Daddy are here and the bad man is alive."

Future Harry was speechless.

"Lily sweetheart give the phone back to Teddy." She did as she was told and went to try and disappear in James's arms. She hated this.

"Teddy?"

"Yes!"

"Are you alone?"

"NO. We're at the burrow, you, Mum and Dad, Kingsley, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Fleur and Bill, Fred and George, Ron and Hermione."

"Where's Ginny?" Teddy rolled his eyes, but wasn't sure how to respond.

"Err, you had a bit of a fight."

"Put me on speaker I want to speak to them."

Teddy followed the instructions.

"Ok you're on."

"Errr. Right. Hello!"

Everyone from the past stared at the phone and then at Harry and then back to the phone. Hermione had briefly explained the muggle device to them but hearing the unmistakable, if slightly older, voice of Harry's coming from it, was odd. Especially considering that the current Harry was standing there with them, looking just as freaked out.

Hermione was the first to recover, "We'll look after the children Harry. I know you're worrying!"

"Thanks Hermione, you have no idea how much I appreciate this. Lupin I know that you want to check so ask me a question."

Lupin nodded curtly in response. He was still unsure that this wasn't all some elaborate plot. "What did I return to you, when I told you I resigned as DADA teacher at Hogwarts?"

"The Marauders Map." Harry replied confidently. Lupin smiled and nodded.

"Would someone mind telling me what the date is?" Harry asked carefully.

"It's 1997, just after Moody died," Hermione's voice breaking on the word 'died'.

"Ah. You're all safe for now. I will find a way to get the children home. Thank you for looking after them."

"Don't worry dear. We'll keep them safe." Mrs Weasley told Harry earnestly.

"Thank you Mrs Weasley. Would someone mind getting Ginny I need to tell her something?"

"Of course Harry I'll take her the phone!" Hermione smiled and took the phone from Teddy.

Hermione climbed the stairs to Ginny's room. Although she understood Harry's reasons for breaking it off with Ginny, she still thought he was being a bit of a git about it. By this point all the Weasley's were targets, and if Voldemort was as interested in Harry as she feared, he would probably already know about Ginny.

She knocked on the door. "Ginny it's me!"

"Come in 'Mione," was the quiet reply from the other side of the door.

Hermione entered the room. Ginny was sat on her bed, her arms around her knees and staring out the window, trying to forget the fact that Harry was just downstairs.

"Someone wants to talk to you." Hermione said, holding the phone out to Ginny. Hermione's parents had given Hermione a phone for her birthday several years ago. Hermione rarely used it, however Ginny had once found it in her bag and Hermione had shown it to her. So Ginny was aware of what they could do.

"Who?"

"Hi Ginny!" Harry said from the other side.

Ginny jumped. Looking at the phone she whispered, "Hi Harry."

"I'm sorry about the git downstairs!" Ginny just laughed and took the phone from Hermione who gracefully left the room.

"Technically you're calling yourself a git."

"This is weird isn't it?"

Ginny just laughed.

"I'm afraid that I don't have time to say all the things that I want to but I need keep my children, our children, safe. But here it is. The git downstairs is terrified of losing you, you more than anyone else. You are the only reason that he is willing to fight and not running away from all this. He actually cried after he broke up with you. So don't be too hard on him. He..." Harry took a deep breath "He loves you Ginny."

Ginny gasped. She knew that she loved Harry with all her heart, but she had only every hoped that he felt the same way. Now she knew he did.

"Tell everyone that I will give them the answers they want when I come to get the children. Please look after them Ginny."

"I will." She paused "I love you Harry."

Harry for the first time in a while smiled in his office. "I know. See you soon."

With that Harry hung up determined that no matter what he would get his children home safe.