Chapter Eleven. 1,100 Words.
Theme 076. Broken Pieces.
Remus Lupin stood in the expansive foyer within the Potter home, and marveled quietly at both its grandeur, and its taste.
"It's definitely too big for one person," Harry was saying, taking Remus's newly-purchased coat (another gift from Harry, of course) and approaching a coat rack, which promptly grew another arm and labeled itself with Remus's name on a small golden plaque right above. Harry hung his own coat on an arm higher up. There were six additional arms; four for each of Harry's children including Teddy, one for Maddox Brown, the personal assistant, and one that could only have belonged to Ginevra Potter.
"It was a gift from Molly," Harry smiled, gazing at Remus, and Remus only then noticed he'd been staring. "You should see her clock; it's got appendages for all the grandchildren now, as well as the Weasleys-by-marriage. Although she's long since removed Ron's and mine, because she was tired of seeing them go to 'Mortal Peril' every other day at work."
"Is it really that dangerous? Even still, after Voldemort?"
"Yeah, unfortunately." Harry shrugged, leading Remus up the stairs to show him the various rooms. "I'm not like a lot of the younger guys on the squad; I don't actively look for danger, but that's fine because plenty of it finds me instead. I just try to deal with it as it comes, and eradicate it as best as I'm able."
"Which must be pretty well," Remus guessed. "Considering you're head of the Department."
"Yeah. I mean, obviously, I'm a celebrity, so they were eager to promote me so that they had a nice figurehead that people generally liked, and all that. But I'm a decent auror."
Remus thought that Harry was probably being very conservative with his own praise. He'd heard enough since he had woken up three weeks ago to know that Harry was considered rather powerfully gifted in Defense Against the Dark Arts, as well as more than moderately proficient in a host of other subjects.
"This is the library," Harry said, standing in the door frame of a modestly sized, but certainly well-stocked library, covered wall-to-wall with books. "Haven't read half of them," Harry confessed. "Dumbledore once told me, back at Hogwarts, how people insisted on giving him books. I seem to run into the same problem."
"Looks like someone has a fondness for Teen Witch Mysteries," Remus chuckled, finding a stack of worn paperbacks on a sofa by the room's only window.
"My daughter, Lily," Harry smiled. "And I've never caught him at it, but I have a suspicion Al picks them up when no one is looking."
"He's your youngest, right?"
"Yeah. The one who looks the most like me, too. He's a good kid. They all are," Harry smiled fondly. "I can't wait for you to meet them."
"Me either," Remus murmured, and the followed Harry back into the hall. They looked through studies and bedrooms, harry pointing out along the way what belonged to who, and Remus all the while grew conscious of just how much time had passed while he had been, for lack of a better word, dead.
"And this is where Teddy stays, when he visits," Harry showed Remus a guest room that was obviously a bit more lived-in than most of thee others had been, although still neat. There was a chest of drawers that, upon inspection, revealed a set of spare robes, as well as some flannel pajamas. There were also photographs along every surface" young Teddy and his godsiblings; Victoire and Teddy with their arms around each other's waists, standing in front of a large canyon; a large Weasely clan photo; a photographs of Teddy's graduation ceremony from Hogwarts; Teddy and Harry at what must have been Harry's office at work; teenage Teddy and a few other boys lounging laconically in the Gryffindor common room. Abruptly, Remus came across a picture of himself, Dora, and their infant son. Remus remembered acutely the photograph being taken; for him, it had been a mere four weeks ago. Harry remained carefully silent while Remus perused the room, only speaking up when he came across a photograph of Harry and Ginny, laughing silently as Ginny pushed Harry away for a moment before he stepped close to her again and pulled her tight against him.
"One of her last pictures," Harry said, and when Remus turned, he saw that Harry was not smiling. "She took a pretty steep decline after that. We didn't think... We didn't want anyone to remember her like that, in those last few months."
"What happened, Harry?" Remus asked softly. It was a question that had been on the tip of his tongue so many times before, but somehow, the timing had just never seemed right.
"Bellatrix Lestrange," Harry growled. He looked at Remus, seemed to realise where he was, and relaxed. "It was at the final battle of Hogwarts. You know, there is more than one curse for killing. Voldemort used the instantaneous method; much more efficient. But Bellatrix was in a way even more evil; the Wasting Curse can take months to take effect, or even years; so everything seems like it's finally going to be okay, and then..." Harry broke off, and turned abruptly back into the hall. Remus hesitated, but followed him.
"Sorry," Harry said, leaning against the wall. "I don't talk about her very much, because every time I do... I get like this." Remus tried to make eye contact, but Harry stared steadfastly at his feet. "But you're living with me, so I thought you should know. It comes up every now and then, but overall, I try not to think about it too much."
"Probably not too healthy, Harry," Remus said, but it was very empathetic.
"Probably not," Harry agreed. "Anyway, your room is right across, and mine's next door to that. If you want to go ahead and get settled in, Maddox will be over soon, and we'll have dinner."
"Sure," Remus said, because he knew he was being dismissed so that Harry could gather of the broken pieces of glass that were his emotions.
An hour later, Harry, Remus, and Maddox stood in the kitchen, lifting glasses of wine.
"To old friends," Harry smiled, and as Remus intoned the toast lowly after, he understood that it wasn't just friends they were toasting.
A/N: No one ever asked me about Ginny, which kind of surprised me. Either you assumed I'd deliver, or you assumed that I just killed her off any old way. But Ginny's spirit bears a large significance in this story, and over Harry's character in general, so I'm definitely not trying to disregard her, or Tonks, for that matter. Anyway, this chapter was sort of ambiguous about it, but the POV has shifteed to Remus for the next ten chapters. It'll alternate every ten like that, except where story demands otherwise, I think. Which is good, because I need to develop Remus's narrative voice a little more fluently in my head. I have a very good feel for pretty much everyone else, I think. Okay, enough rambling. I really need a writing blog for all of this. And thank you so much to my reviewers, especially chronicxxinsanity, and especially especially Lupinescence; they have submitted reviews for close to every chapter so far, and I really love hearing from them. Everyone else who has been reviewing is marvellous, too. I got some awesome feedback these last few chapters; I love love love when people suggest what I could improve upon in addition to what they like about the chapter. Thank you so much, guys. And for those who haven't reviewed yet, just know that Santa Claus will shove a piece of coal down your throat if you continue in your silence. Okay, maybe he won't. But maybe I will! But probably not. I guess it really just depends on how big a chance you feel like risking with that sort of thing.