The Granger-Weasleys were the first to leave the Christmas feast in preparation for their Christmas party, with the Potters followed soon after to help out. The party was a holiday tradition started a couple of years after the Second Wizarding War as an annual gathering for members of the Dumbledore's Army and since everyone was busy with his own family and career, by now it had become the only opportunity in a year for Harry to meet some of his old friends and comrades, meaning all DA members except the Weasleys, his dormmates and Luna. Not many of them brought their children along by now but as the Potters and the Granger-Weasleys alternated to host the party, their children, George's children, as well as Teddy were always included. The food was pretty good but as usual, his extended family would not have much of an appetite after eating so much of Molly's delicious lunch. In any case, it was a lovely occasion for Harry to chill and catch up with most of his closest friends over a drink.

Harry was talking to Luna when he saw Albus animatedly chatting with Neville Longbottom. He had been glad that the relationship shared between Albus and his godfather was somewhat similar to his relationship with Teddy. As someone who had been bullied a lot himself as a child, Neville understood exactly what the Slytherin boys had to deal with all the times and therefore was one of the few people Albus would choose to confide in even when he was most distant from his own family, despite not confiding that much. As a Hogwarts professor and one of his closest family friends, he was able to provide the boys with comfort and support that Harry liked to think had helped them survived their first three years in school. For that, he had felt extremely fortunate and grateful for his choice of Albus's godfather. Harry made a mental note to ask Neville about how the boys were doing in school for the past two months when he had the opportunity.

Presently he was listening to Luna's interesting account about her latest trip to some jungle in a country he could not remember, where she had a "party" with a dozen of demiguises. She was wearing a white gown which she claimed to be made of real snow, Harry did not doubt that completely as he could feel cold air radiating from her, with branches of mistletoes adorning her hair. They were actually very pretty if not a bit strange. He would always have a soft spot for Luna as she had proved to be one of his loyalest friends from the very beginning but often he found himself at a loss for words while "talking" with her. One good thing about Luna was that she could comfortably talk for a long time without any response and not felt awkward about it. Even so, he was somewhat glad when Ginny came to catch up with her, which freed him to seek out Neville, who had just parted ways with Albus a minute ago.

"Hello, Neville." Harry tried to sound more casual even though he was actually a bit breathless from rushing forward.

"Hey, Harry. Merry Christmas." Neville greeted happily. "Albus was just telling me about his morning at the Malfoy Manor. That's really nice of you to have thought of Scorpius."

"Honestly, it felt like something I should have thought of doing from the beginning, from last year at the very least." Thinking back, he could distinctly remember Albus spending almost the whole day before Christmas last year writing letter. His boy must have been very worried about how his best friend would cope with his loss during Christmas times.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Harry. Give yourself some credit at least, Albus seems so much more comfortable and relaxed talking about you these days. I wouldn't worry too much about Scorpius either, I caught him grinning the whole time at detention last time." His friend was of course referring to the detentions the boys had gotten from their Time Turner adventures. A part of Harry really wished that they could have been exempted from them all. In any case, if Neville's goal was to reassure him, he had completely failed.

"Grinning at detention? Surely that could not be good… Has Madam Pomfrey checked him for emotional traumas or illness?" He asked in an alarmed tone.

"Relax, Harry… the first thing you need to remember about Scorpius is that he's kind of different from most kids his age." Harry tried not to feel offended as Neville sounded like he was trying to explain something pretty simple to one of his students.

"I'm well aware that he is different, Neville … I feel like by now I have a much fairer idea of what kind of a boy he's from Albus. But even so, grinning at detention could not have been a reasonable response from any student."

"I think he's just immensely relieved to have returned to a normal life after what he had been through in the other worlds."

"Oh… that makes sense. Hmm… Neville, it sounds to me that you know Scorpius very well."

"Sure, I would say I know him almost as well as I know Albus… Who would have thought that Draco Malfoy's son would be one of my favourite students, if not my favourite student of all time? I can still remember the first time he entered the greenhouse as if it was yesterday." Neville had a look of nostalgia right now.

According to his children, nieces and nephews, Neville was perhaps the most beloved and caring professor currently teaching in Hogwarts, despite teaching Herbology, a subject that was extremely challenging to make interesting. Perhaps it was the fact that Neville had had his fair share of struggles in school that made him such a great professor, that he would never make a student's life difficult on purpose and he would always be willing to spend extra time for a struggling student. Therefore, he was shocked to hear his old classmate playing favourites and was even more shocked by Scorpius' ability to impress Neville that much as Harry had only heard about Scorpius' talent in Magical History.

"Wow, Scorpius must be very good at Herbology then?"

"He is reasonably good at my subject, but I would say it's a combination of many factors that make him my favourite student… please don't repeat this to my students, I try really hard to maintain as neutral as I can in class and not to show my preference over any student." Neville added guiltily, "But of course I do have my favourite students… I'm only human."

"Your secret is safe with me… But what exactly make him your favourite?"

"Hmm… first of all, he's everything a good student is supposed to be, meaning he is attentive in classes, he always does his work and follows instructions to a tee. He is eager to learn so he asks a lot of thoughtful questions but he never asks them in a way to challenge a teacher. He's respectful towards others, careful and patient with his plants and he is willing to help others… even when they're not always kind to him. There was once when he prevented a student from being attacked by his plant… and mind you, that bully would have been sent straight to the hospital wing and would have to stay for days if the plant had succeeded. The student… had called him by that rumoured title before. I believe Albus was a bit pissed that Scorpius would help an 'enemy'." Judging by how easy it was for Neville to list off Scorpius' good qualities, he was indeed a perfect student.

"Scorpius does sound lovely, but that couldn't be 'first of all', right? I believe you have come up with all the qualities that could be used to describe a good student."

"Well, the other reasons are actually somewhat personal…" here Neville looked surprisingly embarrassed, "To explain this, I will have to recount the boys' first class with me. Albus entered first and it was only his second day of Hogwarts that he wasn't that subdued yet so he greeted me with a good-natured but way too casual 'Morning, Neville' immediately when he saw me. I was asking him to call me professor when Scorpius entered. He looked at me as if he could not believe who he was seeing then he greeted me very respectfully as Professor Longbottom, which was rare for a first year before any proper introduction, then he left after looking at me tongue-tied for a while. To be honest, I knew that I'd be teaching Malfoy's son but I had absolutely no idea what to expect as Malfoy hadn't been in the public eye for years by that point and I was well aware of the rumour. I was careful not to have any preconceived idea of how the boy would be like but I did do a double take as seeing him up close was so much like seeing Draco Malfoy's eleven-year-old self." Thinking about the first time he saw the boy on the platform, Harry could totally imagine the meeting himself.

"The class itself was very much like any other first-term introductory class except when a boy very unsubtly called him 'son of Voldemort', Scorpius didn't say anything… his face turned red but he tried to keep his head down while Albus immediately glared at the boy. At that moment, Scorpius reminded me so much of my younger self and my heart was completely full of pity for the poor boy, not to mention anger for the other boy who had no idea how much an insult it was to be using that name as an attack, that I scolded him pretty bad and I would never forget that grateful look Scorpius gave me." Harry thought about all the times Draco had thrown insults his way in class, it would definitely be nice if more professors would care enough to try to put a stop to that kind of behaviours.

"Albus stayed behind to chat with me while Scorpius stayed in the back waiting for him after class so I asked him to come join us. He was pretty shy at first but then he stammered out, 'It's such an honour to meet you, professor.' Albus looked at him as if he was crazy. I asked him what he meant then he squealed, 'you were one of the pillars of the Dumbledore's Army and you killed Nagini the snake!' Being admired by Malfoy's son has to be one of the most surreal moments of my life but I got used to it. He had since asked me so much about the war, like how it had felt to hold the sword or if I still have my DA coin. As it happened, even at eleven, Scorpius knew all about the Second Wizarding War, and I do mean all of it." Harry tried to imagine how it would have been liked for a kind-hearted boy like Scorpius to learn about all the things Lucius and his beloved father had done in the war. It must have been difficult for him.

"I have seen how Albus considers Scorpius as authority when it comes to history myself, it reminded me of how Hermione had been a walking textbook to me in school."

"Ha, Scorpius is in a way very similar to Hermione indeed… Anyway, you know Albus would have tea with me regularly at school… that pretty much started right from the beginning after the first class. I asked Albus to look out for Scorpius and invited them to have tea with me sometimes. Scorpius had come that first time and everytime afterwards, the two of them are simply inseparable." Neville said affectionately.

"I'm well aware of that… I bet Scorpius must like you a lot."

"That's true. He actually said that I'm his favourite teacher…" for someone talking about something he should be happy about, Neville had unexpected turned kind of sad, "actually, he said it right after that one time I had failed him very badly as a teacher."

"I doubt you could ever do anything too bad to Scorpius…"

"It was unintentional but still undeniably extremely hurtful for him…" Neville took a deep breath then continued, "Part of me feel like I probably shouldn't be telling you about this but it seems to me that you have been trying to help the boy that… I think this may help you. Once in their early days someone had wanted to play a prank on Scorpius but instead had hit Albus with a Leg-locker curse and at the time, Scorpius didn't know the counter curse that he had to help Albus around until they were able to get someone else to do it… So when Albus angrily recounted to me how humiliating it had been jumping around for help, I naturally said without thinking that I once had to bunny-hop all the way from the library to the Gryffindor common room on my own because of that curse. Scorpius' entire demeanour transformed within a second that I could see right away that he knew who had performed the curse on me. The next ten minutes were miserable for me as Albus hadn't noticed anything was wrong that he continued to heatedly talk about whoever had cursed me and the boy who had cursed him while Scorpius had hunched over, trying to look as small as he could. I desperately wanted to comfort him but I couldn't in front of Albus." It was indeed wrong for Neville to mention what Draco had done to him in front of Scorpius but Harry thought it very understandable to have happened.

"It took me a while to make Albus leave without Scorpius and he was very unhappy about it. Scorpius was silent at first which was so different from his usual self. I began by saying his name when he alarmingly said 'I want to thank you for being so kind to me, professor Longbottom.' I countered saying being nice to good students was practically my job. He stubbornly rebutted that teaching students was my job, saying I never had to go out of my way to be so kind to him. I felt so awful when he said, 'If I were you, I would not be able to treat myself so well.' I explained that I would never be prejudiced against a student just because I hadn't get along with the student's family, he sadly replied, 'That's what makes you a great professor. I feel so sorry about what my dad had done to you. You are actually my favourite professor.' I apologised for talking bad about his father in front of him but he insisted that I hadn't done that, that I had absolutely no reason to apologise. Despite everything, it was apparent that Scorpius loves his father a lot and it was rather complicated for him to think about the things Malfoy had done in his youth." To think that Scorpius had felt that conflicted by Draco's bullying, Harry did not want to think about how he must have felt about the almost murder his father had committed.

"But then I saw that something else was bothering him as well… it took some prompting but eventually he said that the boy had aimed the Leg-locker curse at him and Albus only got hit because he was trying to protect him. He actually said 'I should have been hit instead of Albus,' it almost seemed like he felt he had deserved to be hit because his own father had performed the curse on someone which made me feel so mad at the student. I had gotten the impression that he did wonder sometimes if Albus would be better off without him as a friend… which was just wrong." This showed Harry a glimpse of what the boys had to deal with at school and he suspected it might be just a tip of an iceberg, which was indeed heartbreaking thinking about how tender-hearted Scorpius was.

They were both lost in thought for a whole minute. "At least their social life must have been somewhat improved after Halloween?" Harry asked in a hopeful tone to lighten the mood.

"Oh, yes… but I would say it's both a blessing and a curse to them."

"What do you mean?" He had been so sure and felt so relieved that the boys were doing better these days that the information came as a disappointment.

"Of course life is easier for them when they are not being picked on as often… but you see, Harry, the boys have used to and enjoyed being low-key and out of sight from everyone. There are quite a number of students who treat them as heroes now when they used to consider them as losers. It's not easy for them to suddenly become the centre of attention, especially when they both feel responsible for someone's death."

"Have they… mentioned anything about Craig in front of you?" Harry asked tentatively, he had been worried about how the boys had been coping with the inevitable guilt they would feel but part of him was afraid to learn more about it.

"Actually, not at all. I know that they have never really been friends but Craig had never been one of the students to make life difficult for them. They hide it well but I know them well enough to be able to tell that they are certainly bothered about it to some extent… and because of that, it bothered them to be awarded others' esteem for their mistakes. You would think that they would not visit me as often now that they are friends with Rose and people are treating them better. However, they visit me more often than ever to talk about everything except the incidents. It's a bit worrisome but on the whole, they are definitely doing okay considering what they have been through."

"I see… but at least it must have been better for them that they are now friends with Rose." Harry tried to stay optimistic but it was getting a bit trying for him.

"Oh, definitely. Rose has been very helpful to them as you know she's the kind of person who would not hesitate at all to tell people off when they were being ridiculous."

"That's good to hear… Neville, thank you so much for looking out for the boys, I can't express how grateful I am for all your help. As you must know, Albus and I hadn't been in good terms for quite a long time and you of course are aware of the way I had separated them before…"

"Harry, I know you well… I know that whatever you had done, you did it out of love."

"Sure but that couldn't excuse it…"

"You of all people should know that you must learn to move on." Neville interrupted firmly then gave him a comforting smile. "Anyway, you're welcome. I love the boys and it's my job as their professor to take care of them. Not to mention… anything for my godson and his best friend." He had said my godson with so much pride that brought an involuntary smile to Harry's face. Being able to relate to much of the boys' experience meant Neville was intuitive enough to decipher how the boys were feeling without being explicitly told. He was also observant and caring that he would easily be able to tell when something was wrong. Neville Longbottom really was the perfect godfather for Albus.

Later at the party, Harry ran into his own godson. To his amusement, not only had Teddy his signature "Christmas tree" hair, the tree now had two tiers completed with a shining gold star on top. In fact, the star was so bright that Harry could not look at his godson's face without shielding himself from the light with his hand.

"Teddy, you really outdid yourself but would you mind dimming it down for your godfather? Hmm… and may I suggest you to go easy on the fire whisky." Harry was very happy to talk with his godson but he could not suppress a grimace from staring at the light.

"I'm sorry, Harry." Teddy had now transformed his hair into bubblegum-pink, reminding Harry so much of Tonks. "I just couldn't resist from going a bit crazy these days as I have been banned from sporting 'ridiculous' hair colours at work."

"Oh, no wonder. That's absolutely tragic for you." Even though Harry could totally see where Teddy's boss was coming from, knowing his godson, "tragic" was not an exaggeration at all.

"Exactly. This is just ridiculous… I don't see how my hair colour would affect my working ability at all. Apparently, the Assistant Manager of the department is supposed to look presentable."

"My godson would always look presentable to me, even... if he grows a snowman on top of his head." Harry teased.

Teddy gave him a wicked smile, he always loved a good challenge. "Oh, snowman… that's a new one. Let me try…" Teddy closed his eyes to concentrate, his hair did not change at all for a while but eventually they grew longer, turned white then got shaped into a bun, then it turned into a little snowman standing on top of his head. To Harry's surprise, the middle of the snowman was emerald green.

"I see that Albus has told you all about his snowman." Harry wondered if the snowmen were still standing happily together.

"He did! It made me quite happy really… it has been a while since I last played with snow myself and I haven't seen Al this excited for a long time." Teddy said with a fond smile.

"You were just saying today that Albus has told you all about Scorpius in his letter?" Harry saw the perfect opening to ask how his godson would feel about meeting his cousin.

"I would say, Scorpius is all he ever writes about in his letter, maybe because he had never felt comfortable talking about him to the others. You can totally quiz me about Scorpius' favourite food, favourite subject, favourite book and so on. It feels so strange to feel that you know someone so well even though you have never met that person in your entire life… especially when you know that the person is your blood relative." Teddy's tone had turned from playful to serious, especially when he said the words blood relative. Harry just realised that the snowman had been replaced by his natural brown hair while he was talking about his cousin.

"Teddy, is there something you would like to talk to me about?" he asked hesitantly.

"I guess… you know the Potters and the Weasleys have always been as good as my own family for as long as I remember, but while planning the wedding, I just couldn't shake the feeling that the Weasleys will be there as Vic's family and gran will be my only real family there." Harry could totally relate to that, thinking about how he could not get himself to be close to the Weasleys while they were grieving for Fred when he had returned to the Great Hall during the battle in Hogwarts, it took his marriage for him to stop feeling an outsider and finally feel truly belong to the family.

"Even though I can claim your family as mine… you guys would still be vastly outnumbered. I'm not complaining because gran is the best gran I could ever ask for and you all have been amazing to me… but I guess there will always be a part of me that long to know my parents… as well as my other family. Planning the wedding just really brings these feelings home to me."

"Oh Teddy…" Harry moved in to pull his godson, who was at least three inches taller than he was, into a hug. "I understand." The two of them just stood there in a sober hug for a whole minute, which attracted some concerned looks.

After they had pulled apart, Harry gave Teddy a smile and said, "As strange and coincidental as it sounds, I have actually been meaning to ask if you would like to meet your cousins Draco and Scorpius since this morning. I asked Draco today and he would love for Scorpius to meet you."

"Seriously?" Teddy looked a little dumbfounded as if it was too good to be true.

"Yes."

"This… is awesome! I remember gran saying Draco was rather distant… but unfailing polite. She said that the Malfoys had used to be quite prejudiced against Muggle-born but Draco had looked quite different to her. Gran has always felt bad for them regarding the rumour. And I just can't wait to meet Scorpius. He has already seemed like a little brother of mine, albeit one I have never met."

"I bet you will get along very well with Scorpius." Harry could just imagine the young Malfoy marvelling at Teddy's metamorphic abilities, not unlike the way Hermione and Ginny had marvelled at Tonks' pig nose all those years ago at 12 Grimmauld Place.

"Hm… Harry, do you think they will say yes if I invite them to my wedding?" Teddy seemed to be joking but he could not hide the hint of longing in his voice.

Harry laughed heartily, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay?"

That night Harry was finally able to have his long-overdue cosy moments with Ginny in which he filled her in about the time he had spent on Malfoy Manor's ground, his conversation with Neville and the encouraging response he had gotten from Teddy. As he had promised, he gave Ginny a full body massage even though he could not help nodding off doing it as he had been too exhausted. She was kind of pissed but ultimately got a good laugh out of it. As Harry felt his wife falling asleep in his arms, he thought about how he was able to give the Malfoys an unforgettable Christmas, how he could finally comfortably call Draco Malfoy a friend, how his best friends were now supportive regarding his new friendship, how he was able to make Albus happier than he had ever been for years and how he was well on his way to help an orphan and a motherless, isolated child meet for the very first time. He was convinced that for once, he was able to get most things right in his life.

A/N: As promised, long chapter =) Thematically, the two conversations work well together to me and writing both Neville and Teddy had been really fun but next chapter will be back to normal. I believe that Neville has a lot of potential as a Next-gen character because of his unique identity as both a Hogwarts teacher and Albus' godfather. I also think that he can provide quite an interesting perspective to the story as someone who used to be bullied by Draco but now gotta witness the bullying Scorpius would experience in school. I imagine the dynamic shared by our boys with Neville would be quite similar to the trio's relationship with Hagrid.

I'm planning to take a very difficult exam at the end of the month that I am not supposed to be writing (much) these days... but I'll see.

Thank you so much for all the support, all the follows, favorites and comments mean so much to me. Would be helpful to have some feedback on the long chapter and just anything related to the story. Please comment =)

Update: In response to pottermum's comment about whether Neville being Albus' godfather is canon, JK Rowling has written some pieces on the "2014 Quidditch World Cup" back in 2014 on pottermore including a "live commentary" by Rita Skeeter, in which it was mentioned in passing that Neville was describing something to his godson Albus Potter, so yes, Neville is canonically Albus' godfather, which I think is perfect as seen in this chapter. (In case anyone is wondering, JKR mentioned that Ron and Hermione are James' godparents in a documentary) I don't even remember when I first read about this but I have known it for so long that it hasn't even occurred to me that the information is obscure. Unfortunately, I can't find the source article on pottermore anymore but for anyone interested, simply do a google search on "2014 Quidditch World Cup Final".