Thanks again for the reviews. They make me smile.

I'm not sure on Teddy's age - I don't know how much time passed between him being born and the battle at Hogwarts - so I just guessed. If anyone (smarter than me) actually knows, I can change it.

Chapter 4

"Morning." Ginny said, walking into the kitchen. Harry jerked his head up, looking blearily around.

"I wasn't asleep." He said quickly.

"Sure." Ginny smirked, sitting across from him. "You were just looking at your toast really, really closely."

"Yeah. That's right. Wait - what?" His brain seemed waterlogged. Or it was just refusing to work today.

"Why don't you go back to bed, Harry, and start again?" Ginny laughed.

"Ugh. Teddy was awake most of the night. Not crying. Not hungry, or sick, or needing changing. Just awake. Gurgling. Clapping. Just because he has something against me actually sleeping." Even as he said it, his face glowed. She saw it, she saw the love and pride he had for his godson and she knew that nothing the baby could do would really bother Harry.

It was kind of sweet, really.

Ginny laughed again, then, when she'd sobered, tentativly asked "Has there been an word from Andromeda?"

"No." Harry replied. "You'd think she'd at least ask how he is, at least pretend she cares. But no. Nothing."

"Then Teddy's better off without her." Ginny shrugged. She, too, was angry, she, too, pitied little Teddy. But she had long since mastered the art of controlling her emotions. You had to with six brothers.

"You know, even if she came back for him...I'm don't think I'd hand him over."

"You know, I don't think you should." Ginny replied solemly. After a pause, she spoke again. "I don't think she'll want him back for a long time. She really does need to go away and deal with herself."

"I know. I do feel sorry for her, but still..." He looked at Teddy, who was smiling up at him from the little carry-cot.

"If you want to go back to bed, I'll take Teddy out for a walk. I could do with the air."

"No, it's OK." Harry replied, not keen to go to the worl where his people died in front of him...because of him. "Actually, maybe I'll take Teddy out...Hey, do you wanna come to Diagon Alley?" the idea occured to him suddenly, but he liked it.

"Why?"

"Teddy's two months old now. I think it's time I bought him something, don't you? Come on - I'll buy you a present."

"Why?"

"Because." Harry replied, heat creeping slowly up his neck. Why was he embarrassed? "I gave Ron and Hermione money for new wands...since it's my fault they lost theirs...I'll get you something. It's nearly your birthday. It can be an early birthday present." He was speaking a little too fast and he knew it. She was looking at him in amusment.

"And your parents. I should get them something, shouldn't I, to say thanks for everything they've done for me? And Bill and Fleur, 'cause they let us stay with them after we got caught."

"Huh, so, tell me, what hit you on the head?" She asked casually.

"What?"

"Well do you have a reason for wanting to spend all your money? You have something against the colour gold?" She was smiling at him, in a kind of exasperated way.

"No. Come on." He grinned at her, and she realised it was the first time she'd seen him really smile since that night at Hogwarts. And she found herself grinning back.

"OK."

----

Less than half an hour later, Harry walked into the Leaky Cauldron, with his arm around Ginny, who was carrying a bewildered Teddy. They baby was looking around himself with mild interest, rarely having been outside before, and never in a busy city.

As the doors swung closed behind them, silence fell.

"Harry Potter?" Tom the barman said croakily, and all at once there was an explosion of noise, as the people around the pub pushed back their chairs and ran at him.

It was similar to his welcome all those years ago, when he'd walked into the Leaky Cauldron with Hagrid, hours after discovering what he was.

He wasn't eleven any more, but he still found all the attention unnearving.

People were saying stuff to him; congratulating him, thanking him, telling him they always believed him, believed in him, shaking his hand to violently he thought his arm might detatch, and he couldn't think of anything to say to any of them. It was like being back to eleven year old, not really knowing why he was getting so much attention.

Actually, he did know why. He wasn't that stupid. And it made him smile slightly to remember being eleven, not even dreaming that nearly seven years later he'd be stood here again, the hero of the wizarding world.

Beside him, Giny was trying to melt through the crowd, but someone saw her, as well.

"A Weasley? It's a Weasley, isn't it?" An exited voice said; an exited person sought out Ginny through the crowd.

"Ah - yes." Ginny said, looking alarmed.

"So sorry about your brother. You must be proud of your family though - and you were there, weren't you? Fighting? I heard the whole lot of you were -"

And Ginny was having her hand shook, and people were talking to her, and she was in danger of dropping Teddy.

Seeing this, Harry darted forwards and lifted the boy from her arms. For the first time, the crowd in the pub noticed the baby, and began to ask who it was, confused because they knew Harry Potter didn't have a son.

"My godson." Harry told the crowd, feeling awkward, as he always did when so many eyes were on him.

"Remus's boy?" Someone said suddenly. "Is that Remus's boy?"

"Yes - did - did you know him?"

"Vaguely, vaguely." The man in front of Harry said. "A tradgey...such a tradgey...the poor boy..."

It took them a furthur ten minutes to get away from the crowd and into the back, and Harry wasn't sure if Ginny would be mad. She was, however, laughing.

"I guess you're gonna have to get used to that." She smirked at him. "The Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One, The Saviour -"

"The what?"

"Oh, that's your current name. Haven't you seen the Prophet lately?"

"No. I still haven't forgiven it." Harry admitted.

She laughed again.

"Well, you're the Saviour. C'mon." She tapped the brick with her wand, and the wall disappeared to reveal Diagon Alley.

They met the same treatment occationally as they wondered down the street, though not as concentrated as in the pub. Looking around, Harry said the purple misistry posters were gone, and several boarded up shops were back, including Ollivandars.

And people were stopping to talk again, and wondering down the street, and halting to look in display windows. There was no rushing, no tight-knit groups of people with worried faces and fearful eyes.

It was back to how it should be, how it used to be.

Of course, there were still places missing, their owners gone for good. But, all in all, there was some kind of normaility (albeit wizarding normality) restored.

They were halfway down the street when Narcissa Malfoy stopped in front of them. Startled, Harry just looked at her.

He had mixed feelings towards the Malfoy family at the moment. He knew that, in the end, Lucius had only cared for his son; but he couldn't forget all the things the man had done. He knew that Draco had been more scared than malisious, but, again, he couldn't forget.

But Narcissa had saved him, hadn't she? Sure, it was only for her own son, but she had saved him nonetheless. She looked at Harry, Ginny, then at the boy Ginny was carrying. And her eyes widened slightly. Then she looked back up at Harry.

"I want to thank you." She said softly. "For keeping Draco out of Azkaban."

It was true, he had vouched for him. Narcissa's husband was in the prison, but Harry had kept Draco out, for reasons he wasn't even sure of himself. He just remembered the fear of his old enemy's face when he was forced to do Voldemort's bidding.

"I guess I ought to thank you." Harry said awkwardly. "For saving my life."

Narcissa didn't speak, but looked again at Teddy.

"It's Tonks's son." Ginny said, in answer to the unasked question. She, too, was looking at Narcissa with a considering look, but her voice was harder than Harry's. He supposed she was less forgiving than he.

"My..." Narciassa paused, swallowed. "Andromeda's grandson?"

"Yes." Harry said, and Narcissa looked at Teddy, taking in every aspect of his appearence.

"I never met Nymphadora." Narcissa said quietly. It was unclear if she was talking to Harry and Ginny or herself. "When Andromeda married, the family severed ties with her. I had no choice." She looked back up at Harry and said; "It was all I knew. All I'd been brought up to believe. I...sometimes...She was still my sister...I sometimes wondered if I'd done the wrong thing. But I couldn't voice my doubts...Bellatrix...my husband...They wouldn't hae understood." She finally looked up, met Harry's eyes. "I'm sorry Nymphadora and her husband died."

"Yeah. So am I." Harry replied.

"I regret, Harry Potter. Don't ever think I don't regret." With a nod, Narcissa rounded them and left.

"I swear, people confuse the hell out of me." Harry muttered.

----

"It's a phoenix." Ginny said, entaced at the bird. Gold and violet, the phoenix looked down at them, and Harry saw the longing on Ginny's face.

"I'll buy you it." He said. He really was being careless, but then, he did have a lot of money in his vault.

"No." She said quickly. "I - no." She shifted the package in her arms awkwardly - the Firebolt he'd bought her some ten minutes ago. He'd wanted to buy himself another one - he morned the loss of his godfather's gift - and he'd bought her one, despite her protests. He knew she wouldn't permit him to buy her the phoenix too.

"If you are buying mum and dad a new owl - which, by the way, you really don't have to -"

"I know, but I'm gonna anyway. Errol can retire for good." He added with a smile, remembering just a few days ago when the bird had somehow fallen off of the drainer and onto the kitchen floor, where he laid until Hermione found him.

"Well, I won't pretend he doesn't need to." Ginny muttered. "So I can just use that...I don't need a phoenix..." But she was gazing at the bird again, now.

"Ginny." Harry waited until she looked at him, without any real knowledge of what he was about to say. "I'm going to move out of The Burrow soon. I'll get my own place, for Teddy and me."

"Ah...right..." He knew she was trying to figure out where this was going. He was doing the same.

"I hope...that...not right away, obviously, I mean after a while...If you wanted to...I'd like you to live with us. With Teddy and me, I mean." He really should think about what he's going to say before he gets someone's attention.

"Oh." Her eyes widened in surprise, but he saw instantly that she was pleased. "I...I think I would. Yes." She flushed, and he was reminded of the shy eleven year old who couldn't speak in front of him.

"Good." He said awkwardly, and turned to the assistant a little way away. "I'd like that owl, please, and this phoenix."

Ginny looked confused, he knew she was trying to work out why he was buying the phoenix; she didn't remember losing that argument.

"She'll be mine." He told her. "But one day...she'll be yours, too."

"Oh." And she smiled at him, and, not for the first time, he wondered how he could have gone so many years without noticing her as more than Ron's little sister.

----

Several hours later, Harry laid Teddy gently into his cot, and hoped that the little boy would sleep most of the night, at least. Teddy's hair was black today, jet black like Harry's, and before he could stop himself, Harry wondered if he'd had more hair than Teddy as a baby. He wondered, had his mother stroked his hair? Had his father proudly told Sirius and Remus and Peter that his boy looked like him?

Harry and Teddy, not that much different, were they? Orphans, both of them, orphans because of the same cause. And he remembered the night he had strode into the forest to die, when he'd seen his parents, when his mother had told him he was brave and his father had told him they were proud. And suddenly, he moured the life he'd lost, again, and he mourned the life little Teddy Lupin had lost, too.

And all at once, before he knew it was going to happen, it floooded him, the greif for Remus and Tonks and Fred that he'd been trying to repress, to bypass.

He was suddenly on the floor, but he wasn't aware of sinknig to his knees. His head was in his hands, but he didn't make the decision to put it there. And he was crying, and he didn't even try to stop.

It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair that he'd lost his parents, he'd lost Fred, the friend who'd almost been a brother to him, he'd lost Remus and Tonks, who he'd loved, and Teddy, little Teddy had lost his parents too. Both of them had lost a family, had lost a life, and it just wasn't fair.

Little Teddy would grow up not knowing how it felt to be hugged by his mother or father. He wouldn't know how his parents sounded, how they felt.

It just wasn't fair.

He was vaguely aware of a creaking of floorboards, but he didn't think about how he'd left the bedroom door open and whoever was stood in the hallway could see him, didn't care. He didn't raise his head, not even when he felt some sink to the floor beside him, when he caught a trace of familiar scent and thin arms wrapped around him. He turned slightly, and this time it was he who cried on Ginny's shoulder.

After several minutes - or maybe just a couple, who knew, who cared? - he was aware that he was no longer crying, but he made no effort to break away from Ginny, no effort to life his head.

Had he ever, in some part of his mind, known that someday he would love Ginny Weasley? Had he ever forseen the day that he'd cry all over her and just cling to her, needing her more than he'd ever needed anyone in his whole life? Had he known, about a year ago, when she'd comforted him over Dumbledore's death, that she'd comfort him again, now, when they'd both lost.

Maybe he had.

He finally lifted his head, and looked at her. She didn't speak, just looked at him with a mixture of emotions on her face.

"Sorry." He mumbled, a little ashamed of himself now. He had no business breaking down like that, not when little Teddy Lupin needed him. Not when Ginny herself was mourning.

He was the Boy Who Lived, wasn't he? The Chosen One. The - what was the new one? - Saviour. He was supposed to stay strong, he was sure of it. He was used to loss, it wasn't supposed to hurt him so much.

"I've been waiting for you to do that for a while." She murmured. "It's OK, Harry. It's OK to cry over them."

"It wasn't just Fred and Remus and Tonks." He muttered, looking back over at Teddy now. "I was...my parents. I was so used to them not being around, it...barely bothered me. Their absence was such a part of my life I didn't think about it. And then I saw them at Hogwarts, in an enchanted Mirror, coming out of Voldemort's wand, in the forest..." He had to draw in a deep breath at that. "I thought I was going to join them. Die, and join them. And in some weird kind of way, living, survivng, it's like losing them all over again. Stupid, huh?"

"It's not stupid. Not even nearly." She whispered. He turned to look at her again. "I'm glad you didn't die."

He looked at her, and he thought of Ron and Hermione, who he trusted with his life, who'd been through so much with him, almost without compliant. He thought of Teddy Lupin, the little boy who needed him. And he thought of Ginny. Ginny, right here in front of him.

"Me too. I love you."

The words were out of his mouth before he'd known they were even heading there, and there was, of course, no taking them back. Her eyes widened again, he felt heat creep up his face, and he wished he'd kept that little bit of information to himself, as she just sat at stared at him.

A little...messy...this one, I think. I'm not entirly sure how much sense it made. I keep getting several little ideas for stuff for this story...and they don't all fit together all that well.

I was thinking after a couple more chapters I'd skip ahead a few years. What do you think?