So many thoughts raced through Harry's head as he stepped out of the Floo.
What will Sirius think of me? Remus? Tonks? What will my past self think of me? Will they see right through me? Will Teddy get emotional when he sees his parents? Will he give us away?
Meanwhile, Teddy had one thing on his mind.
Parents.
It didn't occur to him at all that his parents might not like him. After all, his mom and dad were obviously perfect people who would love him right away, even if they didn't know he was their child. He could already see it; Dad would sneak him candy behind Mom's back, and Mom would yell at him, but laugh and let him have the candy anyway. At least, that's what Vicky's parents did. And he was sure that when Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry had kids, it'd be the same way.
As Dumbledore, Harry, and Teddy stepped out of the Floo, everyone in the kitchen turned their head to look at them. Everyone stared with varying degrees of suspicion, hostility, and curiosity. Teddy felt himself blushing, and did all he could to keep his hair from turning the same color as his face. He hid behind Harry in embarrassment.
Harry mustered up all the courage he had, took a deep breath, and walked inside.
"Um, hello." He muttered shyly. He wished he could hide behind Dumbledore like Teddy was hiding behind him at the moment. "I'm- well, I already told you, but I guess you'd prefer to hear it from the Professor."
Everyone in the room looked to Dumbledore to confirm.
"This man has told the truth."
There was relief on everyone's face.
"He is who he says he is. I'm afraid that these two are in serious danger. Daniel Vallance and his son are on the run from Fenrir Greyback."
Teddy didn't know who Fenrir Greyback was, but at his name, everyone gasped, so he knew the man must be a bad guy.
"Why is he targeting you? What did you do?" A sandy haired man asked. Teddy's head shot up at the man's voice; it was as if he had heard it before. Teddy liked the man's voice.
Next to the man there was a woman with pink hair. He had never seen a woman with pink hair before. He made a mental note in his mind to talk to the lady. She was pretty, and she looked nice.
"Why is he targeting you? What did you do?" Remus asked.
"I…." Harry had to come up with a lie quick. Why did Remus get bit again? "I—well - when I was younger—young and stupid—I called him a savage. I insulted him and, at that time, I didn't have children. So I thought nothing of it. Then, Michael came along and I got scared. But he never struck until this summer. I guess it's because of the rumors that You-Know-Who is back. Or maybe he was just biding his time." Harry hated lying to the people he loved, and he saw more holes in his story than there are in Swiss cheese, but the words were out of his mouth, and there was nothing he could do.
Remus looked like he had more questions, but Dumbledore had decided the conversation was over.
"So, I was wondering if you would be willing to let these two live here with you, so as to keep them safe, especially the child. I'll give you a moment to think it over."
Teddy knew he wanted to live here. The people all looked really nice, except maybe the man with the long black hair and the black eyes that always looked like he was mad. But his grandma always said you can't judge a book by its cover. He didn't know if he would like the house. It was really big; it wasn't as big as Potter Manor, but bigger than his own house. It looked dark and scary, but he also thought it would be fun to explore. Like Potter Manor, it had many nooks and crannies that Teddy would want to investigate. He also wanted to meet his aunts and uncles as teenagers and play with them. He only wished there was someone his age here. Back home, he had Vicky, even though she was only three and didn't know as many words as him and she was barely potty trained. He considered Vicky his best friend, after his grandma and Uncle Harry. He surely would miss them while he was here. He also had this weird thought that he would miss the monster under his bed. He knew it must miss nipping at his toes every time he climbed into bed.
Harry didn't think he'd ever been more nervous in his life. He remembered when he and Hermione had time traveled. They had only gone back three hours, and yet he had almost screwed everything up so many times. He could only imagine how much he could mess up now that he had travelled eight years.
His thought were interrupted when Sirius spoke. They had decided.
"I can't see why we can't take any more misfits," he said cheerfully. "Welcome home."
Harry felt his nervousness fade away. He grinned. He knew it would be irresponsible, but he wanted more than anything to go up and hug Sirius. He felt a pang of sadness as he remembered that Sirius would probably think Harry was crazy or creepy if he tried to hug him. Instead, he shook his hand. He felt a surge going through his hand, as if electricity was coursing through it. He thought he might cry.
"Daddy?" Teddy said to Harry. "Is it supper yet?"
Everyone laughed. Harry thanked God that Teddy was actually playing along. Although he had a feeling it might not last long, once Teddy knew which of these people his parents were.
While the nice ginger lady made dinner, Uncle Harry and Teddy were being introduced to everyone.
The man with the big scary blue eyes and scars all over his face was named Mad-Eye Moody. Teddy laughed when he heard the name. Surely no parents would name their son Mad-Eye!
The man with the black hair and scary black eyes was Severus Snake. That was a curious last name.
The nice ginger lady was none other than his Grandma Molly! She looked so different without her graying hair, and she had less wrinkles. The balding man was Grandpa Arthur, who, in his time, had only a few hairs left.
The man with the long ginger hair in a ponytail was Uncle Bill. He looked so different without the scars on his face. Seeing Uncle Bill made him miss Victoire.
There were also young uncles Harry, George, Ron, and George's twin, Fred. It was nice to see Uncle George having fun with his twin. And though he already knew them in his time, he felt scared of them, as if they weren't going to like him now that they were teenagers.
"I'm…. Sirius Black."
… "I'm… Sirius Black."
Harry pretended to be horrified. He backed away from Sirius, dragging Teddy as if to protect him. He hated pretending that Sirius was a convict, but if he was going to try to keep this up, he had to be convincing.
Harry felt a pang of guilt when Sirius looked down in hurt at his reaction.
"I'm innocent, actually." Sirius said.
Harry looked to Dumbledore for confirmation. Dumbledore nodded.
Harry sighed. "Alright, then! Pleasure to meet you!"
Sirius looked like Christmas had come, and again, Harry fought the urge to latch onto him and cry.
"Well, my name is Tonks. That's it. Tonks." Tonks said, and no one dared to argue with her.
"And I am Remus Lupin. Nice to meet you both." Remus said, giving a warm smile.
…. Teddy looked up in awe when he heard the two people introduce themselves. This was them! His mommy and daddy! Seeing them in front of them, Teddy imagined playing Quidditch with dad, and . Then he imagined him, a big boy, eleven years old, getting on the Hogwarts train, with his parents waving him off.
Teddy couldn't help it. He cried. And this time, he wanted his mom and dad to comfort him, not Uncle Harry.
So he ran straight at his parents and hugged them, sobbing loudly. He buried his face in his dad's shirt.
He did not notice the bewildered looks on both of their faces.
Damn, Harry thought, as he watched Teddy hug his confused parents. Time to do some damage control.
"I'm sorry!" Harry apologized as he pried an unwilling Teddy away from Remus and Tonks. "I don't know why… maybe he's seen you before?"
Harry cursed himself for being a terrible liar. He'd be lucky if his story lasted five more minutes now.
"I've never seen him before in my life," Remus said honestly. At this, Teddy sobbed even harder.
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry!" Remus freaked out, trying to calm the boy down, but he was unsuccessful.
If it weren't a serious situation, Harry might have laughed. Hopefully, Remus got better with small children in the next two years.
The urge to laugh subsided when he realized Remus's ability to calm children would not be necessary.
Sirius, however, was laughing. "Moony, just do what you used to do with Harry when he was a baby!"
Remus panicked. "Harry was only one year old then! Help me, Tonks!"
Tonks snickered at him. "It's okay, I think I've got this." Tonks lifted Teddy into her arms and changed her nose to a pig nose, making the boy laugh.
Thankfully, Teddy did not change his nose to match. Otherwise, they would have been busted.
After about a minute of this, Teddy was calmed down. Tonks put the boy back down and he walked back over to Harry.
Before anyone could say anything, Molly called out from the kitchen, "Supper's ready!"
Harry was more than eager to eat so he could avoid conversation. Teddy was more than eager to eat because he was hungry.
Once everyone was sat down at the table, however, everyone wanted to know everything about the newcomers.
"So, Michael, how old are you?" Molly asked the young boy.
Teddy did not look up upon hearing his alias.
"Michael." Harry said softly, and Teddy looked up this time. "Tell them how old you are."
A smile lit up Teddy's face. Carefully, he counted on his fingers his age and showed everyone five fingers.
"Good job, Michael!" Tonks said encouragingly.
Harry was delighted to see Tonks so proud of her son, and by the look of it, so was Teddy.
Dinner continued a little while longer, rather awkwardly, because everyone was too afraid to ask the questions that were circling in their minds.
Finally, Ron broke the silence. "So- uh, Mr. Vallance. Do you have a wife?" He said, through mouthfuls of food.
Molly shot him an admonishing look.
Harry laughed. "It's okay. My wife has been dead for about a year now." His laugh faded into sadness, which wasn't an act. Thinking of Ginny dying was too painful when he was younger, and it was even more painful now. Thinking of her beautiful laugh never again reaching his ears and even her yells never being heard again broke his heart. He actually started to tear up thinking about it. He guessed that scored points for his story.
"She was a Muggle, you see," Harry continued. "She got sick."
Harry seriously hoped no one asked what illness his fake wife had, because he had no clue what he would say.
Thankfully, no one asked him to elaborate.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Sirius said sincerely. Harry gave him a genuine smile and thanked him.
"Anyway, my wife was a wonderful woman. We were friends since childhood, and then I grew up, found out I was a wizard, and it was great. Fell in love, got married. She called me mad when I told her." Harry did his best to sound like he was telling the truth, but he thought he sounded like he was reciting one of Uncle Vernon's manuals.
"So you're Muggle-born, then?" Bill asked, then quickly added, "not that it's an issue or anything."
"Yeah, I am."
"How old are you?" Said Hermione.
"I'm 26 years old."
The questions continued for the rest of dinner. After Molly insisted that she wouldn't allow Harry to help with the dishes, Harry and Teddy sat in the sitting room with Lupin, Tonks, Ron, Hermione, younger Harry, and Arthur. They sat talking as Harry did his best to stay out of the conversation and Teddy stared at his parents in wonder.
Soon, Tonks left, and the rest of the group decided to go to bed. Silently, they processed up the stairs. Right as Ron was standing in front of his room. Teddy said, "Are there any monsters under the bed here?"
Ron laughed quietly before responding. "There are a few things here you might consider monsters, but the worst is Mum when you don't do your bit of the cleaning." With that said, he bid the two good night and went to bed.
Teddy and Harry continued up to the bedroom they had been given, and as soon as Teddy's head hit the pillow, he fell asleep, certain as ever that good dreams awaited him.
Harry, however, stayed awake, the events of that day whirling within his mind with a sort of childlike wonder, as if he were trying to remember a wonderful dream he had. He was so blissful, that at that moment, he never wanted to leave.
