Harry kept Lily close by him as the family crossed the station. Her light red hair, more of a strawberry blonde, hung over her face to hide her tears. An old pain lodged in the back of his throat. Lily was extremely close to her brothers, and now that Al was leaving for Hogwarts, it would be hard for her to be the only one subjected to Ginny's overbearing attempts at being their mother.
He wanted to close his eyes as he heard Al shout, "I won't! I won't be a Slytherin!"
"James, give it a rest!" Ginny said sharply.
"I only said he might be," James said with a grin. "There's nothing wrong with that. He might be in Slytherin…"
Ginny's glare, however, made him trail off. Everyone knew that though James had an easy time in Slytherin, the thought of it outright scared Al.
Al had the hardest time melding into the Weasley family, and Harry thought it might be exacerbated by his name. Unfortunately, Al's name, Damon Alexander, obviously came from Daphne's side of the family, and so to everyone else he was known as Albus Severus. Ginny thought Albus sounded like a name she and Harry might choose, and Severus was picked because the nasty Potions professor had always reminded Harry of a demon.
"You'll write to me, won't you?" Al asked once James vanished through the barrier.
"Every day, if you want us to," Ginny assured him.
"Not every day," Al said quickly, "James says most people only get letters from home about once a month."
"We wrote to James three times a week last year," said Ginny, neglecting to mention that they wrote so often because James was subjected to quite a bit of ridicule for being the first Potter in Slytherin. She and Harry had decided to keep it from Al to ease his fears.
That was why Harry added, "And you don't want to believe everything he tells you about Hogwarts. He likes a laugh, your brother."
On the other side of the barrier, Harry wasn't surprised to find that James didn't wait for them. James had the most difficulty pretending that Ginny was his mother, since he was old enough to remember Daphne.
Rose beamed at Al when they reached Ron and Hermione's family. They tried the hardest to make Harry's three children feel welcomed in the family. Unfortunately, Ron's joke fell flat when he said, ""If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you, but no pressure." After seeing the reactions to James' sorting, Al and Rose were extremely solemn about their own.
Harry grimaced. There had been quite a bit of chaos when James was sorted into Slytherin. The newspapers had been preprinted to say that he was a Gryffindor, even including statements from other people. It was quite common for articles to be written before an event, but this time it failed by saying, 'James S. Potter has been Sorted (to nobody's surprise) into Gryffindor.' The next day at work Ginny had hexed Rita Skeeter, to nobody's surprise.
Suddenly Ron caught Harry's eye and jerked his head in the direction of another family. "Look who it is."
Draco was standing with his wife, Astoria, and son, Scorpius. Idly, Harry wondered why their younger daughter, Aurelia, wasn't with them, and decided the seven-year-old must have been considered too young to come to such a crowded place. Draco noticed Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny staring, nodded curtly, and turned away again. He had never approved of how Harry reacted to Daphne's death.
"Hey!" With a shout, James reappeared. "Teddy's back there. Just seen him! And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire!"
Harry searched the crowd behind James, but didn't see Teddy. His godson had decided not to continue living with them after Harry married Ginny, and until recently when he graduated, stayed with Andromeda.
He checked the battered old watch that had once belonged to Fabian Prewett. "It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board."
"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" Ginny told James as she hugged him.
"Mum! I can't give a professor love!"
"But you know Neville-"
James rolled his eyes. "Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't walk into Herbology and give him love..."
Shaking his head at her foolishness, he vented his feelings by aiming a kick at Al. "See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals."
"I thought they were invisible? You said they were invisible!"
As James laughed, Harry felt another pang inside his chest. James would be able to see thestrals since he was by Daphne's bedside when she died. Al and Lily, who had been three and one respectively at the time, had no actual concept of death.
"Thestrals are nothing to worry about," Harry said. "They're gentle things, there's nothing scary about them. Anyway, you won't be going up to school in the carriages, you'll be going in the boats."
Ginny kissed Albus good-bye. "See you at Christmas."
"Bye, Al," said Harry as his son hugged him. "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves. Don't duel anyone till you've learned how. And don't let James wind you up."
"What if I'm in Slytherin?" Al whispered to him fearfully.
Harry crouched down so that Al's face was slightly above his own. Sometimes it disappointed him that Al, with messy, dark brown hair and Harry's eyes, looked so little like Daphne. At least James had Daphne's grass-green eyes, and Lily's hair was only a few shades redder than Daphne's own blonde hair.
"Albus Severus," Harry said quietly, "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."
This was how they slipped in references to Daphne's father. Damon had helped Harry and Daphne hide their relationship from society, which, after the war, would not have been pleased to see their Savior married to a Slytherin. After Daphne died, Damon used his influence in the Ministry to forge a marriage certificate for Harry and Ginny. Harry would be forever grateful to both him and Ginny for protecting his family.
"But just say-"
"-then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it? It doesn't matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."
"Really?"
"It did for me," said Harry.
He had never told any of his children that before. There was no need with James, who had been almost singularly determined to be a Slytherin like his mother.
Al leaped aboard the train and Ginny closed the door behind him. Students were hanging from the windows nearest them. A great number of faces, both on the train and off, seemed to be turned toward Harry.
"Why are they all staring?" demanded Al as he and Rose craned around to look at the other students. It was another one of his fears that people would figure out their family's ruse.
"Don't let it worry you," Ron said to ease them. "It's me, I'm extremely famous."
The train began to move, and Harry walked alongside it, watching his son's thin face. Scorpius had entered their compartment, and as Al excitedly introduced him to Rose, Harry saw a head of messy black hair poke around the door. Harry kept smiling and waving, happy that James was looking out for his younger brother and cousins. It felt like a little bereavement that Al would now be depending on James for protection.
"He'll be alright," murmured Ginny.
As Harry looked at her, he lowered his hand absentmindedly and touched the lightning scar on his forehead. It was a curse that hadn't let him be with Daphne, but he still thought everything had worked out fairly well. He had their three children, four if he were to include Teddy, and a wife who was willing to be their mother.
"I know he will."
Then she turned to fully face him, and peered up at him from beneath her eyelashes.
"By the way... I'm pregnant."
All was well.
AN: Someone asked me to write an alternate ending to the Epilogue. Well, this is it. Also inspired because there was no reference to James' appearance at all, which I found incredibly frustrating and unfair to a kid who's already being shunted to the side, and this explains that.