A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to get up! Thank you guys SO much for all the feedback! I was floored by the reviews this got! You're all incredible, really! I've gotten some ideas for this story that I hadn't originally expected, so we'll see where it goes, but nothing more than five or six chapters is what I'm thinking. Well, I hope you enjoy this!
Teddy squeezed his eyes shut for a second, almost dreading seeing who the next recipient would be. But when he looked down, he found a modicum of relief. He recognized the name, blearily matched it up with a face from his childhood, a sporadic visitor at the Potter household or the Burrow, but it was not someone he knew intimately, not someone whose own emotions he would be able to picture and feel as he read.
Maybe here he would find a less emotion-clogged window into the mysteries of the end of the war.
Early January-ish, 1998
Dear Luna
This has to get to you. It will. I suppose it's pointless for me to write that here. If you're reading this, obviously it has found you, and if this never gets opened, then my hope doesn't do you any good anyway. But it makes me feel better to put it down in ink.
I'm so sorry. I don't know what's happened to you or your father, but it was because of me. It's always because of me. But somehow, there you all still are, standing next to me. I hardly deserve friends like you. You were a great friend to me, one of the best I could have found actually. I only hope I managed to return some of that. Right now I feel like I haven't.
I've got a confession to make. I sort of snooped in your room. You know, the day we sort of accidentally got your house demolished. We're all really sorry about that. Really. We shouldn't have bothered your father, shouldn't have gotten him mixed up with us anymore. It's just, we needed to talk to him, needed some answers. Everywhere we turn, it's a dead end and –
But that must all be over now. I hope it is. I hope to Merlin I managed to accomplish something.
Anyway, back to my confession. Before things turned destructive, I kind of ended up in your room. And I saw your ceiling. I just wanted to tell you – tell you that I'm honored to be a part of that. I wish I'd known you earlier. I remember what it's like to be lonely, and you don't deserve that.
And I understand why your dad did what he did. Trying to turn us in, I mean. He thought he had to. He was trying to save you, and I can't hold that against him. If he's – If you can, please let him know that I don't hold it against him.
Maybe it's already too late. War changes everybody and everything. I know that, but I just hope – I hope it doesn't change you. I hope you don't let it, Luna. You're strong and brilliant and great exactly as you are. It would be nearly as bad as losing you if you let them take that away from you. Keep your roaring-lion hat and your durigible-plum earrings. Keep chasing those Crumplehorned Snorkacks. Keep believing in the things other people can't see.
I don't know what it's like now, but I'm pretty sure the world's always going to need someone to teach them believing is seeing. You'll be okay. You're probably the last person who needs me to tell you that, but you'll be okay. You wouldn't have insisted on following someone you barley knew on some insanely dangerous and stupid rescue mission for the most wanted man in the wizarding world if you weren't made of some pretty strong stuff.
Can I ask you for something, though? Do you think you could keep an eye on the others for me? I'm worried about them. They didn't hear them whispering behind the veil like you and I did. They don't know death like we do. And you've managed to get through to me when none of them could, not even Ron or Hermione or Ginny. Can you make sure they're all okay for me?
I owe you. I'll remember that when we see each other again. Make sure that's a long, long time from now though, okay?
Thanks for standing by me. You'll always have a friend in me.
Harry
Teddy dropped the parchment. No, it hadn't been any easier not knowing Luna as he knew Ron and Hermione and Ginny. He knew Harry, could hear his voice in the words. The beginning more than anything made him feel sick. Harry had wanted this letter to reach Luna. That meant two things to him: something bad was happening to Luna and Harry assumed the reason she wouldn't read his letter was not because he would live, but because she would not either.
A picture was coming to him of Luna. She spent most of her time trotting the globe, but once in a while she would pop up, her dirty-blonde hair pinned up, adorned in strange jewelry and clothes. She was odd in a way that Teddy had always found fascinating, but he could see her at seventeen, younger than that, even. It sounded like she hadn't changed so much, like Harry had gotten his hope. And Teddy could only imagine how other students would react to a girl like that.
It added injustice and pity to the tumult of other emotions spinning in him. What had happened to her? Why had it been Harry's fault? He didn't even have room in his head to wonder about the rescuing-the-most-wanted-man-in-the-wizarding-world part at the moment.
Shaking his head, Teddy ripped open the next envelope.
Winter, 1997 (probably)
Dear Neville
So I heard you tried to steal a sword. It's nice to know you and Ginny and Luna are keeping the sneaking-around-into-hidden-lairs thing up while we're occupied elsewhere. Shame it didn't work, but it's the thought that counts, right?
Pointing out the obvious here, but you've come a long way from our lesson on Boggarts third year, haven't you? I always knew you had it in you. And by the way, mate, thanks for undertaking that attempted robbery. I don't know how much Ginny's let on, but it was probably on my behalf, wasn't it? You've always been looking out for us all, even running the risk of McGonagall's fury and Hermione's spells. A true Gryffindor through and through to do that, mate. Thanks…. I know it's kind of late in coming and that one word doesn't really seem like enough for standing by me the way you and Luna and Ginny have, but it's all I've got.
Alright, I don't know what the world looks like now. I guess I never will. I hope to hell everything's over, hope that in the end I actually managed to do something, but I can't leave anything up to chance. There's something I have to tell you. I don't know, maybe I should have told you a year ago, but…. I don't even know if it'll make any difference. Dumbledore didn't seem to think it would have, or he'd have told you himself, but, well, things might be different now.
I'm dead.
-Teddy's breath caught involuntarily at the bluntness of those words, but he didn't – couldn't – stop reading –
But if Voldemort's still around, he's got to be stopped. He's got to be. Ron and Hermione know how, but – but they might need you.
You know that harebrained break-in we staged in the Department of Mysteries? The prophecy you and I smashed? Well… I heard what it said. It foretold the birth of the one who could defeat the Dark Lord. He was supposed to be born at the end of July to parents that had escaped Voldeomort three times. That's why he came after me and my parents in the first place. But it turns out I wasn't the only one who fit the qualifications. It could have been you, too.
I don't know exactly why Voldemort came after me first. Dumbledore thinks it was because I'm a half-blood like he is, but he knew it could have meant you. And maybe it still could be. There was another part that said Voldemort would mark the one who could destroy him 'as his equal', and Dumbledore told me that meant there was no doubt that it was me, but… there's always a chance he was wrong. He told me in that same conversation that he made mistakes.
Maybe this won't help anything at all. It said that 'either must fall at the hand of the other' which means that even though I'm dead and he's not, the prophecy could still have been fulfilled. But either way, I thought you ought to know. He might still come after you, just to be safe.
I wish I didn't have to tell you this; that everyone's lives might depend on you alone. It's not a position I'd wish on anyone. Funny how easily our lives could have been switched, isn't it? But I don't reckon you exactly got the lucky deal, either.
Look, I don't know if you're destined to destroy him or not, but… if there's anyone I can trust with this, it's you. You can do it, Neville. All prophecies aside, I know you can. Show this to Ron or Hermione, and they'll let you in on the secret. This HAS TO END. And you've got as good a shot as anyone else to do it. Don't let me die in vain, Neville. Please.
You all deserve a better life than this. It'll all be worth it if you get a better life.
You're one of the bravest people I know. Don't ever doubt it.
Harry
Teddy blinked stinging eyes. He felt winded by the desperation that seeped into the last lines, the words galloping across the page as if they had all come in a flood and Harry hadn't been able to get them out fast enough.
Neville, Teddy's cool herbology teacher. Neville, who grew violets in a corner of every greenhouse just for his four-year-old daughter to come and pick. Calm, quiet, collected Neville had been Harry's successor of choice to head a war. And but a luck of the draw and he would have been in Harry's shoes. A position Teddy had not fully appreciated before and was not sure he could even now.
Don't let me die in vain. That had been Harry's dying wish. Don't let me die in vain….
He bit down hard on his lip and dropped this letter, too, moving on to the next. It was shorter than the others and Teddy read through it with a raging speed.
Late 1997,
Dear Hagrid
I don't really know what to say to be honest. I meant to thank you, I think, but I can't quite find the words to do it. You met the Dursleys. You know what you took me away from. You brought me into a place I belonged and I just can't explain what that meant.
You've done a lot for me. And I want to make sure you know how much I appreciate it. You were the first person I met who really cared about me. Or at least the first person I can remember caring about me.
I just… I wouldn't give back a minute of the last six and a half years if it meant forgetting the whole thing. Not one minute.
You've lived through two wars. You know the score better than I do, probably. Some people live. Some people don't. I guess I'm part of the latter, and I'm okay with that. Or at least, I can accept that it has to be like that. I just didn't want to leave without saying thank you and without saying goodbye.
So… thank you, and I'll see you around.
Harry
Teddy threw that letter aside, too, his throat beginning to ache. He registered the allusions to Harry's childhood in this letter, the ominous picture it painted, but he couldn't spare room for the anger and sick feelings that would occasion. Not now. Later, when he was lying in bed and the whirlpool of emotions churning inside him had faded, he would probably remember it. But now he had reached his emotional limit.
Or at least he thought he had until he saw the name on the next envelope. Biting down so hard on his lip a metallic-y taste was starting to fill his mouth, Teddy ripped open the next letter.
1997, I think
Dear Tonks
I hope you get this. From what I understand, you're in a pretty dangerous situation right now. But you're a brilliant Auror, so I'm sure you can handle whatever comes your way.
I wanted to thank you for risking your neck for me. I mean, I know it wasn't just for me, but not everybody would voluntarily book themselves a ticket for that flight from Hell that got me out of Number Four.
But also I'm writing because I ran into your husband before we dropped off the face of the earth. Well, he let slip that you're going to have a baby, among other things. First of all, congratulations! I really hope I got to meet your kid because I'm sure he/she will be brilliant, too.
Look, I don't know what's going on exactly, but Remus seemed… a bit freaked-out when we saw him. I hope he came straight home to you and the baby. If he's with you now, don't be too hard on him. He wants the best for you, really. And the baby, I'm sure of it. But… if he's not with you now… well, first of all, I'm probably haunting him right now. But you and the baby will be fine. Like I said, you can handle just about anything that comes your way. You're going to raise a great kid with or without help.
Don't worry about Remus. Things will be okay. They always get back to okay eventually. Even if it's not the okay we maybe would have liked.
Well, I suppose you've got nursery rhymes to memorize or sleep to catch up on or something important like that. You're going to make a great mother. Just, make sure you slip your kid an extra chocolate frog from me once in a while. And make sure the world's a better place for them.
No matter what happens, it'll be okay. I'm going to give it my best to make sure of that.
Harry
That was it. The last of Teddy's control melted away. What the hell had his father done? No, everything did not turn out 'okay' for his mother. And if she'd ever read this, they wouldn't have turned out 'okay' for Harry either.
He crumpled the letter in his fist as his vision blurred worse than ever. Answers. He needed answers. His father and Ron had both run out, something awful had happened to Luna and her father, Neville was nest in line to kill Voldemort and Harry was expecting to die. He could feel his head slipping farther and farther below the surface.
Teddy lurched to his feet, nearly bent double by the sloping ceiling. His eyes landed on the heap of ripped-open envelopes and the stack of untouched, yellowing ones, and he stooped to snatch them up haphazardly in his arms before staggering down the stairs to find somebody who could stop him floundering in this icy sea of unknown.
A/N: So what did you think? I certainly never get tired of hearing from you! Anyway, I very much hope this was satisfactory. Since the really emotional ones (Ron, Hermione, Ginny) were tackled in the first chapter, I'm not sure if the rest will be quite as powerful, but if Harry started writing letters, I imagine he has something to say to all these people, and Teddy would read them all. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! :D
