Harry's second visit to Godric's Hollow was ever so different from the first. As it was now May instead of December there was no snow on the ground, and this time he was visiting in the morning rather than at night. By the time they'd finished digging the graves, there was bright sunlight warming and filling the place and Harry's anger from that morning had evaporated.
A half dozen of the men who were among the surviving members of the Order had come to help with the arrangements. Harry let them for the most part, but he had insisted on digging Remus's grave himself. This was partly he knew an effort to work through his own guilt and grief over the death of his father's best friend and his own mentor, teacher and very good friend. But there was also something strange about working on a grave in this particular place, knowing his own parents lay only a few feet away. He didn't go looking for them, but he thought he remembered, he thought knew the place. While he was there he learned that Andromeda too lived only a short distance away, and Harry shook his head. Why should he be so surprised when apparently a good number of wizarding families lived in this place? It hadn't only been his and Dumbledore's and Bathilda Bagshot's home. So after the grave was dug and before the funeral proper, Harry walked down one of the lanes a short distance to the Tonks place. Brushing the soil from his hands as best he could, he prepared to meet his godson.
"Hi Harry," the older woman greeted him at the door.
"Hi Mrs. Tonks."
"Please, call me 'Andromeda'."
Harry nodded. "Okay."
"I am sure you are here to see Teddy."
"Yes, if that's okay."
"Of course Harry. I just put him down to sleep. He doesn't realize what is happening today."
Harry felt himself blink. How could he? Little Teddy was even younger than he had been when his parents had been laid to rest in this place and Harry found his thoughts drifting wondering what had happened on that day.
"If you'll follow me, he's right in here."
Harry brain kicked in again bringing him back to the present. He nodded silently and followed Andromeda Tonks up to the nursery. Quietly she opened the door and let Harry in. Harry crept into the room looking down at the tiny, curled up form asleep in the crib. His hair was a brilliant turquoise, just the way Lupin had described it to him, and yet from what he could see of the baby's face he did look indeed like his father.Like I did Harry found himself thinking. There were so many parallels there.
"I won't ever forget them," Harry whispered to the sleeping boy. "And I'll be sure to tell you everything…everything I ever knew. I promise."
Andromeda smiled sadly as she listened to the quite promise her grandson's godfather made, And she knew that her daughter and son-in-law had known what they were doing in granting Harry that honor, even though he himself was so young. Harry knew what it meant and he took the responsibility seriously.
Harry crept back out of the nursery again looking around. "Thank you."
"Any time Harry. You are welcome to come see him, spend as much time with Teddy as you wish."
"I will," Harry promised.
Andromeda smiled sadly. "I know you will. You are Remus and your father all over again, combined.
Harry looked at her oddly. "I don't understand."
"You are like your father because of family Harry. But you knew Remus, and he as your father's friend has influenced you. In that sense, you are a little bit like him, wanting to look after the son of a friend."
Harry nodded. She was right. He was told he was like his father quite often, but he'd never actually known James. But to be told he was like Lupin…that was different. Harry knew what a comment like that actually meant.
"Thank you, again. Will I see you this afternoon?" he asked.
"Yes. I have a neighbor coming in to look after Teddy," she explained.
"Won't he be coming to the wake?" Harry asked in surprise.
"You may bring him if you wish. He will be here."
"I will," Harry said. "I'll be back."
Harry stepped outside, walked to the corner and disapparated to the Burrow to dress.
By comparison the Lupin / Tonks funeral was relatively subdued. There were large numbers of Order of the Phoenix members in attendance, other Aurors who had worked with Tonks from the Ministry, and a good many family friends that Harry didn't know. He'd worked out much of his grief digging the grave, so now Harry just stood silently, feeling drained, but with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all studying him closely.
"I'm alright," he whispered to them during a break in the speeches. "Will you lay off?"
They nodded at him and Ginny took his arm in a comforting manner, absently patting his arm just below the shoulder. Harry let her. It was easier than trying to argue, but he felt distracted by all the talks. His mind kept wandering, especially so when he happened to catch a glimpse of a headstone on the next row over. It said Potter, in bold capital letters. Harry turned slightly trying to get a better look at it without totally ignoring the speaker. It was older than his father's and Harry didn't recognize the first name. He glanced at the dates. Could it be his grandfather's? Curiously he looked a bit more and saw another with the same surname with similar dates. This one was for a woman, and beside that another Potter man. His parents' graves he knew were two rows over, but here surrounding where Tonks and Lupin would lie for all eternity were the graves of Harry's ancestors, his family. And there were a lot of them. The reality of this gave Harry an odd feeling in his chest, a sense of history of himself that had been slowly growing since his first visit here.
Finally the speeches were over and witches and wizards alike made their way away from the graves and out of the cemetery. Harry stood motionless watching them go, noticing as he did the confused, confunded looks of the muggles who were entering the church near by. Sunday afternoon services were about to begin and the wizard funeral was happening in the midst of this. Ginny let go of Harry's arm and he took advantage of this to conjure up two wreaths of summer flowers. One he lay by the newly filled grave occupied by Tonks and Remus, the other he took over to his parents' graves. He laid it by his mother's name then stood there a while staring at them, thinking with the small knot of wizards standing a short distance away. Not far away the service in the church had started and a choir began to sing.
"Harry, are you alright?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
Harry looked up and was surprised to find Mrs. Weasley standing beside him at the foot of his parents' grave.
"Sure Mrs. Weasley, I'm fine. I was just thinking."
She nodded supportively, urging him to go on.
Harry again looked up at the muggle church goers who were approaching nearest to the cemetery. Some looked momentarily so confused they forgot where they were going and turned around as if to go back home.
"Mrs. Weasley, what happens if a witch or wizard has muggle relatives?" he asked. "Are they allowed to attend funerals like this?"
"Well squibs would be of course," Mrs. Weasley said.
"No not squibs, muggles," Harry said. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione quietly approaching them and he knew she was listening to this too. "A lot of us have them," Harry said.
"Well yes Harry, but the wizarding world keeps quite apart from them." She nodded at the confounded muggles now walking by the gate.
"But what if a muggle and a wizarding family member were really, really close? Couldn't some sort of exception be made?"
"No Harry." It was Mr. Weasley who answered this time as he joined them. "The Wizards' Statute of Secrecy prohibits any interaction that would give our existence away to the muggle world. You know that."
Harry frowned. "Mr. Weasley, for those of us who have muggle families, they already know quite a lot. More than you might expect in some cases," Harry said thinking of what he had learned about his Aunt Petunia and his mother from Snape's memories. "My Aunt for instance, she obviously knows I'm a wizard."
"Well yes. Of course for immediate family members."
"And she knew my mother, her sister was a witch," Harry continued.
"Well yes," Mr. Weasley said again.
"She knows about magic and spells and wands. I mean you did it in her house,"
"Of course I did," Mr. Weasley said uncomfortably. "What is your point Harry?"
"I am beginning to think that no muggles, even immediate family members would be allowed to participate in a wizard's funeral, even if they already knew all about it," Harry explained.
"Well that is true," Mr. Weasley said.
"My parents are muggles!" Hermione exclaimed. "Do you mean to tell me that if I had died during this war, they wouldn't have been allowed to attend the funeral for their only daughter?"
"Well, seeing how you modified their memories and they don't even know they have a daughter that wouldn't have been a problem would it?" Ron asked.
"That is totally beside the point," Hermione snapped. "That is so wrong!… It's outrageous!… unbelievable…its just…" she crossed her arms tightly over her chest and snapped her mouth shut. Apparently Hermione couldn't think of any words strong enough to describe how bad she felt this to be.
Harry only nodded looking down now only on his mother's grave, remembering. The little girls Lilly and Petunia Evans had been very, very close. He'd seen how Petunia had been hurt to be left behind when Lily had gone to Hogwarts, how jealously she'd reacted when Lily came home. Was it possible Aunt Petunia had tried to come to her sisters funeral and been kept away? Harry chewed on his lip as he considered that.
"Mr. Weasley, can muggles see wizard graves?" he asked thoughtfully.
"Oh yes, once the confudus charm is lifted after the funeral they can see it just like anyone else," Mr. Weasley explained.
"Okay," Harry said tearing his eyes away.
"Ready to go?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
Harry nodded. "I'll meet you there," he said as they made their way to the gate. "I'm going by to get Teddy first." And he trotted away from them and down the lane to where Andromeda Tonks lived.
-
As the home where Remus and Tonks had lived during their short marriage during the war had been thoroughly destroyed, the wake for the Lupins was held in the community room of the church, very near by. The room was crowed when Harry entered, and so he found himself a seat to the side of the room. He held Teddy on his lap so that he could see the people too, and together they watched the people Harry knew contentedly. Never before had Harry seen the Weasleys quite like this. The Weasley's were all known to be blood-traitors, and yet they seemed blind to the shoddy treatment wizards gave muggle members of wizarding families when it came to funerals.
Harry had never quite understood the Dursley's attitude towards wizards before. Well Uncle Vernon he'd figured was just scared of them, but Aunt Petunia had seemed more than frightened. He'd seen for years that there was something else going on with her and for the first time Harry considered whether her attitude towards him hadn't after all been the result of something that had happened here. Of course if it had, she'd been confunded and wouldn't necessarily remember but the more he watched the witches and wizards at this gathering, knowing by now how important events like this were to the grieving process, the more he wondered if he could blame her. After all these years, was it possible he was actually feeling sorry for his Aunt? Harry shook his head in wonder. Who would have ever believed that?
"Hi," a voice shook him from his reverie as Hermione sat down beside him, offering Harry a large glass of very cold pumpkin juice.
"Hmm. Thanks Hermione," Harry said appreciatively as he attempted to drink the juice with one hand while holding a wide a wake Teddy who was reaching for his glass with the other.
"This must be Teddy," Hermione said leaning in towards the small boy. "Hi," she said waving a finger towards him until the baby made to grab it. "He sure looks like Remus doesn't he?" she asked Harry rhetorically.
"Except for the hair," Harry grinned. Teddy had now spotted the Weasleys and after a moment his formerly turquoise hair had started to turn bright orange.
Hermione laughed. "Tonks would have been so proud!"
"Yeah, she would have. I think I kind of know now what Remus and Sirius meant when they said that sort of stuff to me."
Hermione looked up at him. "Oh Harry, you are still thinking of them quite a lot aren't you?"
"This is Remus's funeral Hermione," Harry pointed out. "Aren't you supposed to think of him? Remember him and his life, what his life meant and all that?"
"Well yes," Hermione said.
"Well that's what his life meant, to me at least. He was my key to my parents. He helped me to learn something about the kind of people they were, and in the process I got to know him as well. He was kind and brave and caring, and I'm going to make sure Teddy knows all of this," Harry ended a bit fiercely.
Several people looked up at the tone of his voice.
"Oh there you are Harry!" It was Ginny who was coming towards him from across the room. She sat down on Harry's other side as Harry handed Hermione back the pumpkin juice glass. "And this must be Teddy," she said looking at the baby on Harry's lap.
"Yes. Teddy, this is Ginny. She's a great girl and very important to me," Harry told his godson who tipped his head backwards to look at Harry while he was speaking to him. His hair turned suddenly black like Harry's and he cooed, blowing a bubble at him.
Ginny instinctively put her hand behind the baby's head supporting it until he was able to hold it upright again. Now he was looking at her and his hair turned red again.
"Hello Teddy. I am very happy to meet you," she said and she held out a finger to the baby as if to shake his tiny hand. The baby grabbed it, smiled and enthusiastically blew a raspberry at her.
"There you go Ginny," Harry said with a laugh. "He's happy to meet you too."
Ginny smiled at him. "It is so good to hear you laugh Harry," she told him.
Harry smiled wanly. There hadn't been many laughs since they'd returned to the Burrow. He hoped in the future there'd be a few more.
The girls were eager to take turns with Harry in holding the baby, and he let them so as to be able to get himself something to eat. Later he saw Mrs. Weasley smiling at them from across the room but she never approached him and didn't say anything. Harry rather appreciated that. He'd pointed a drying charm at Teddy's damp bottom only a few moments before and suspected that wasn't quite the proper way to be handling that particular situation. Mrs. Weasley would have of course corrected him, but not if she never knew.
Before too much longer the funeral related activities seemed to be coming to a close. People were leaving, the crowd was thinning, and Andromeda Tonks came over to retrieve Teddy from Harry to take him home. Harry got up, hastily drying the wet spot on his lap before joining the Weasleys who were still staying at the Burrow near the door. They walked out and across the square towards the apparition point, but when they reached the war memorial in the middle Ron and the rest of the Weasley's stopped in their tracks. They stood and stared at the statue of little Harry with his parents, scar free and whole and clearly loved. Mrs. Weasley looked from the bronze representation of Harry to the real flesh and blood man who she had come to know.
"Oh my," she murmured. "I knew of this of course, but I've never seen it before."
"Harry, is your house still here too?" Ron asked curiously.
"Yes," Harry said. "Would you like to see it?"
"Oh, we don't have to dear," Mrs. Weasley said clearly concerned that it would bother Harry to show them.
"It's no problem Mrs. Weasley, really," Harry said. "I don't mind. I think that a lot of wizards have been there actually."
"Well if you're sure?" Mrs. Weasley asked again. She had gotten so used to thinking of Harry as her son she found it a bit unsettling to be so strongly reminded that he'd once had real parents and that they had all lived here.
"I think we'd all like to see it," Mr. Weasley agreed. "Lead the way."
Harry glanced around the square then back to Hermione. Many of the lanes all looked alike with similar sorts of houses, and though he'd been there once it had been snowing then.
"Errh …ah," he looked at his friend with a question on his face.
"This way," Hermione said confidently.
They all trooped down the lane dressed in their wizarding best until they reached the ivy covered cottage at the very end of the lane. There they stood looking at it, the rusted gate, the graffiti on the sign, the over grown hedge, the missing section on the upper floor.
"Do you remember living there Harry?" Ron asked.
Harry considered. He hadn't really thought so, but the torn photograph he'd found at Grimmauld Place had surely been taken there, and looking at it had seemed to have awakened some very dim memories.
"A bit I think. My mum said in her letter that we celebrated my first birthday there, and I have some memories that must have been of that. So I think I remember the kitchen. It was yellow I think," he recalled. "And there was a cabinet in it that had a glass front. My mum kept things in it I wasn't supposed to have."
"Look at all these notes people have written to you," Mrs. Weasley said.
Harry nodded. He'd seen them that past December when he'd been there with Hermione. He didn't need to read them again.
"Does this house belong to you?" Ginny asked.
Harry looked at her with a start. "I dun know. I never asked," Harry said. "It was my mum and dad's house, so I guess."
"You have two houses?" Ron asked.
That fact caught Harry a little off guard. "Yeah well, one of them's a memorial and the other's so full of dark magic I doubt I can even get back in, especially after the Death Eaters finished with it, so I'm not sure how much good that will do me."
Mr. Weasley regarded his surrogate son thoughtfully, then looked back at the wreckage where he had begun his young life. Harry's life he reflected was something like this house. He was still standing after two wars, but he had scars that would never be healed, he had holes in him that ached to be filled, and like the house he longed for a family.
"It takes more than a house to make a home," Mr. Weasley told him thoughtfully. "I expect Bill could check the title for you at the bank if you'd like,"
"What? Oh… maybe," Harry said. He hadn't really thought much about all of this yet. He'd thought he'd been doing well just to get his friends buried.
"There's no hurry Harry. When you're ready," Mr. Weasley told him kindly.
"Thanks Mr. Weasley. Can we go?" Harry asked and he turned to go back to the village.
"We can apparate from here," Mr. Weasley said.
"Oh, right. It's just that there's something I wanted to do in town before I left. Can I meet you at the Burrow?" he asked.
"Of course Harry," Mrs. Weasley said. "We'll have a late supper tonight, so be back by seven."
"Right."
Harry turned to leave, starting to walk towards the village, his hands in his pockets and his head down.
"Do you want company?" Hermione asked.
Harry turned towards her and shrugged. He saw her and Ron exchange a look and trudge up the lane after him. Harry smiled. It was nice that some things hadn't changed. Ginny must have tried to follow them too, for he heard Mrs. Weasley call her back. Harry didn't look around.
'Where are we going?" Ron asked when they'd caught up.
"To the church," Harry said.
"The church? The one by the cemetery?" Ron asked. "Why? I think the services are over mate."
"That is what I was hoping," Harry said. "I just wanted to look around."
Ron looked in confusion at Hermione who made a shushing sound, so he just shrugged and fell into step beside them.
As Ron had predicted the church service had ended before they got there and most of the people were gone, but the door to the church was still propped open so Harry walked up the steps and went inside. Hermione held Ron back a bit before following him. When they did, they saw their friend talking quietly to a tall gray-haired man in ministerial robes. The man nodded and smiled at them before leaving through a door to the right of the alter at the front of the church. An organ sat near the door. Pipes from the organ covered the front wall around a stained glass cross. On the wall opposite the organ was a panel covered in small, engraved brass plaques. Harry went over to them and began to read. Silently Ron and Hermione joined him.
"What are we looking for?" he asked. "I thought we were done with horo…"
Hermione shushed him again. "Don't say it! Not here. Its sacrilegious," she scolded.
Harry on the other hand didn't answer, he just kept reading. Finally he paused. "There!"
He pointed to a plaque three quarters of the way up the wall. The plaque read "The Potter Family". Following the surname was a list of Christian names Harry didn't recognize, though more than one was the same as those he'd seen in the cemetery. Well, one was familiar. The last of the names listed read 'Baby James'. Could that have been his father? Harry didn't know. There was no date on the plaque and he didn't know enough about his father's family to figure it out. Finally, he turned away, looking about the front of the building. A side alter with a baptismal caught his eye. He recognized it. It was the same as in the picture.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" the pastor of the church asked. He'd returned to the sanctuary minus the robes he'd worn for the service.
"Yes, thank you," Harry said. He studied the man. "I'm Harry Potter," he said extending his hand as he introduced himself to the man.
"Ah, a member of the Potter family who once attended this church?" the pastor asked.
"I think so," Harry said. "Actually, I don't know. That was what I was hoping to find out. My parents died when I was young you see."
The gray haired man looked carefully at him, seeming almost to look through him. Harry was almost certain this man was a muggle but his gaze had such intensity about it that for a moment he wasn't entirely sure.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Potter," the man repeated obviously thinking. "I'm Reverend Grey by the way."
"Pleasure to meet you," Harry said politely.
The man nodded apparently trying to remember something. He gazed back up at Harry again.
"You know, when I first took over this parish some twenty years ago there was a man who attended here that looked quite like you. He got married somewhere else…brought his wife here, from London I think he said. They gave heavily to help us fix the organ at one time."
Harry nodded. Except for this last bit, this fit with what he knew.
"They had a child I think, a boy. I remember baptizing him. I'm sorry, I don't remember his name."
"That was me," Harry said. "At least I think it was."
"What happened to your parents?" Pastor Grey asked. "They were such nice people."
Harry stared at the man incredulously. His parents were buried in the cemetery for this man's parish church, less than a few hundred feet away, but he didn't seem to remember that. Then Harry remembered the confundus charm wizards used on muggles around cemeteries.
Harry just shook his head. "It's a long story. Thank you for letting me visit."
"You are welcome young man, any time," Rev. Grey said. He patted Harry on the shoulder and escorted the three young people to the door before locking up to leave.
"You're parents and grandparents were members here," Hermione said.
"Looks like it," Harry agreed.
Ron just looked at them curiously. "Shall we go then?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm ready," Harry said and they walked to the end of the lane where they could apparate back to the Burrow.
