Author's Note: To give you all a bit of a peek behind the curtain of how these stories get made, each entry in the series is a slight iteration of the writing process beginning with completely unstructured, progressing through outlines so detailed they may as well be stories themselves, into more vague outlines, and now with this story where I am back to being mostly unstructured. I have laid out this story's core themes and ideas in a separate document and used them to inform the narrative, but this one has very little rigid planning. The reason for that is that I felt like the structure behind The Angel of the Sea got a bit in the way of the storytelling, the world tended to overshadow the people within it. To Carry Our Memories is an experiment in the opposite, and I eagerly await the response it gets. But, this method has its downsides as well. Foremost among them is that I can't tell you definitively how many chapters this one will be. It won't be longer than The Anger of the Sea, I know that, but I can't tell if it'll go for one more chapter or two. I don't expect it to reach six but anything is possible, especially with how much I'm getting into Andromeda's side of things.

That said, I never would have gotten even this far if it were not for the support of many people over on the Harry/Fleur Discord server, the link to which will be at the end along with a fanfic recommendation. Thanks to DaveAthenai, Charlennette, and x102reddragon in particular for inspiring me and encouraging me to write these stories. If you enjoy the story please leave a comment telling me what you think worked and what didn't, your feedback is crucial in helping me to get better as an author.


To Carry Our Memories:

Chapter Three


Tick, tick, tick…

Teddy ran his finger down the edge of the picture frame, brow furrowing.

Tick, tick, tick…

He glanced over at his bag and, though it wasn't visible, he could feel the letter inside, a sort of phantom sense of weight like when someone was looking at the back of his head.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, ti—

He growled releasing the tension in his forehead as he slumped back against the wall, letting his head loll to the side. Teddy fixed one eye on the clock hanging innocently by the door and gave it his best and most intimidating glare. The clock elected to continue ticking, either unaware of his displeasure or so unimpressed by his display that it felt no fear of disobeying. He pouted at the traitorous timepiece, internally cursing its mutiny.

His eyes fell back down to the photo in his hand and he sighed, sliding down even farther as he stared at his parents in the photograph, a familiar pressure forming in the corners of his eyes as he stared at them and a hint of lump rising in his throat. It was a picture of Fleur, Harry, Remus, and Dora, taken on November the twenty-second, nineteen ninety-eight. Dora was visibly pregnant with him — he'd been born a little less than two months later — and all four of them looked filthy. He'd heard the story behind the photo at least a hundred times. It was nothing special, the four of them had been taking one of the rare moments of calm in those days to walk around the castle together. They'd happened upon a locked closet and, curiosity overcoming his father, they had spelled the door open. The closet had been inexplicably filled with charcoal-crusted cauldrons which had promptly collapsed into the hallway and filled the air with a cloud of soot, not unlike Fred and George's instant darkness powder.

The way Fleur told the story, the four of them had each reacted instantly, tense as they were, and simultaneously conjured gusts of wind to carry the soot away. The four separate gales, having been conjured in hasty panic and without any semblance of coordination, had whipped into each other and created a confusing vortex that only made the cloud worse. Once the wind had settled down, and once they could all tell they weren't under attack, they'd taken one look at each other and burst out laughing.

Tick, tick, tick…

Teddy smiled sadly, staring at Dora's face in the photo. She was bent over, one hand on the wall and the other on her hip as she tried and failed to get a hold of herself, her hair whipped into a frenzy and stuck there by the soot with hints of bright yellow and deep blue showing through. Remus was much the same, and not even Fleur's Veela heritage had protected her hair from the onslaught, though she was too busy staring at Harry and clutching her stomach in laughter to notice. The reason was plain to see, as while Harry's hair didn't appear too ridiculous, merely being a bit blacker and slightly messier than it perpetually was anyway, his eyes were inescapably absurd. Having lived with, and fought while wearing, glasses for so many years, he had had some basic enchantments and charms cast upon his spectacles. They were unbreakable by mundane means, if they were pressed too hard they would bend like rubber before snapping back into shape, and they were imperturbable to dust, water, and debris, and even extended those protections to the area around his eyes, among other things. All to say that, while the others were covered head to toe in soot, Harry stood frozen, peering owlishly out at them from behind a mask of charcoal, having been directly in front of the closet door when it opened, with two perfect circles of clear skin centred on the middle of his lenses. The miniature photographic Remus spluttered, wiping the soot out of his own eyes and peering around only to freeze when his gaze landed on Harry, who slowly turned towards him, only to promptly erupt in laughter of his own, throwing his head back and howling in mirth.

The photo had been taken by Colin Creevey who, it had been discovered after the final battle, had documented every quiet, tender, or happy moment inside Hogwarts that he could over the three years that war was waged from behind the castle's walls. The photos, which had been found along with detailed notes in an expanded compartment of Colin's trunk in his dormitory, had been the catalyst for a wave of acceptance and healing that truly marked the end of the dark times.

Tick, tick, tick…

Teddy straightened up into a proper sitting position, sighing as he came to his decision. He set the photo down on his bedside table, carefully arranging it so that it could be seen from every angle. He walked over to the door and placed his hand on the knob, hesitating, mind spinning. He'd decided that Fleur was wrong. Not about facing his fears or about running away from his problems, but about what he was scared of. He wasn't afraid of Hogwarts. He knew that. For every dark story, every painful memory, Harry, Fleur, and Gran had given him two happy ones. He knew that Hogwarts was a wonderful place just as surely as he knew that it wasn't where he belonged. His mind cast instead to other stories, rare among the wealth of tales he'd heard of Hogwarts, but all the more precious for it. Stories of flying carriages ferrying students to a palace hidden above a forest high in the mountains, of pale towers and domes of golden glass, of silver fountains and beautiful sculptures wreathed in flowering vines, partnered by statues of gleaming ice that never melted. Of libraries walls spanned with stained glass windows, elaborate tapestries depicting scenes of history and mythology lining every corridor, and vast frescoes of living art above the lintels of doors grand and small. Teddy loved his parents, both the ones that had died for him and the ones that had raised him, and he knew that they had always expected him to choose a certain path in life, but it wasn't for him.

"No matter what happens, no matter what you decide, I want you to know that you will not have to face it alone."

His Maman's words gave him strength, and he opened the door.

"We will be with you every step of the way."

~~~O~~~

Harry and Fleur had just finished telling Andromeda everything they'd seen since Teddy's birthday, all the little details that she had been too preoccupied to miss. She felt blind, betrayed by her own powers of observation, and yet she found herself unsurprised. Not by Teddy's misgivings, but by her own ignorance of them. She thought bitterly, it wasn't the sort of thing she'd want herself to see.

"Andie?"

She could barely hear him over the numbing whine of her blood rushing through her ears. She was frozen in place while the world spun out of control around her. Distantly, she saw Harry and Fleur exchange a worried look.

"Are you alright?" Fleur asked quietly.

"No," Andromeda said suddenly. "I mean, yes, I'm alright. Just, no. Teddy must go to Hogwarts."

Fleur frowned, exchanging another glance with Harry.

"Obviously we aren't sure about this. We haven't sat down and talked to him about this yet, we're just sharing what we've seen so far," Harry said slowly, drawing out each word in a calming fashion. She felt an irrational urge to grab him by his collar and shake him, she didn't need to be calmed down. "Teddy could very well decide that he wants to stay at Hogwarts, but—"

"But nothing," she snapped. "His parents went there, he deserves to have a part of that legacy. I thought you understood that."

Harry's face cooled, and her gut twisted though she didn't let it show on her face. She knew it was a low blow, both because of how intimately she knew that Harry did understand it and because of the way her phrasing separated Harry and Fleur from Dora and Remus, the implication that they weren't just as much Teddy's parents as Dora and Remus were, but she just…

"Andromeda," Fleur began soothingly, "I know today has been hard for you, and I know that it would have been better to talk to you about this sooner, but it cannot wait any longer. Teddy needs us."

"You're right," she answered scathingly, "You should have said something sooner. You especially, since you seem to have known since the day the blasted letter arrived."

She couldn't help the way her stomach curled in on itself at the hurt that flashed through Fleur's eyes, but she just… it was too soon. She was supposed to have seven more years.

"Andie, that's enough." Harry's voice was firm but not sharp despite the tension in his jaw. He never yelled in the house, ever, and most days she admired that about him more than she could properly articulate, but now it was just one more drop of tooth-grinding damned calm and she caught herself wishing that he would leap to his feet and row with her properly. Maybe then she could release the blinding pressure that was building in her head and shaking the bones in her fingers.

"Is it?" she mocked, her voice growing quieter even as it grew more heated. She barely remembered to correct her posture as she leaned forward. A lady should always appear poised, especially when expressing her displeasure. Do you understand Andromeda? "I am not the one trying to take away someone's son."

"No one is attempting to take anyone away from anyone," Fleur said in a strained voice, her eyes wide and pleading.

"No?" she said loudly, her head snapping over to meet Fleur's concerned, confused gaze with her own iron-hard stare. Andromeda, be quiet! A lady is not some braggart to be heard by any passing ear. "You've just been filling Teddy's head with stories, is that it? You want him to go to Beauxbatons and, now that you've got it in his head that he'll be better off there than in England, you want me to just lie down and accept your words coming out of his mouth," she hissed.

Fleur looked as if she'd been slapped and her eyes began to glisten as she spoke in a resolute but wavering voice, "No. On the contrary, I have done my best to give Teddy as favourable a perspective on Hogwarts as I could, as we all have."

Andromeda opened her mouth to respond, as grateful to Fleur for engaging with the argument as she was guilt-ridden for the obvious pain she was causing when she was cut off by Harry's voice.

"Andie. Look at me."

It was not a request, and the tone he used was the same as he had employed during the war, a general commanding his troops. Her instinctive response to it had her meeting his gaze before she even processed the words, and then she was pinned there by the intensity of the look as he focused on her, Harry's eyes flitting back and forth as he searched her face but never straying far from her own.

"What's wrong?"

A bitter wave surged up through her, blind panic and denial held back by a paper-thin wall of fury. She clung to it, hands shaking as she clutched her anger tight, desperately feeding it with indignation at how he had the audacity not to be enraged, not to shout and scream, to meet her mania with calm concern. She was failing. Even as she tried her hardest to prop up the anger that was her last line of defence she knew it would be for nothing, but she was spared.

"Gran?"

All three of their heads snapped around in an instant and Teddy took a step back as if the weight of their frozen gaze had pushed him back against his will. Suddenly, standing in the doorway with a small brown satchel forgotten at his feet and looking so terribly uncertain, he seemed very young indeed.

"Are you alright?"

"And if I can get nothing else into your stubborn skull, daughter, I will at least be certain that you shall not embarrass us with your sensitivities."

"I'm fine."

She stood abruptly, patting down her skirts and nodding to Harry and Fleur as if the past few minutes hadn't happened. "I was just speaking to Harry and Fleur about your schooling, but the time has come for us to leave," she said briskly, composure firmly in place and warding off the panic inside her. "Harry, Fleur, I thank you for your concerns, but we shall have to continue this another time. Come along Teddy." She could feel Harry's gaze boring into the back of her head as she crossed the room, pulling Teddy by the hand as gently as she could manage until they were out the door. No one said a word.

~~~O~~~

Harry watched her go with a frown. He looked at Fleur and it deepened, seeing her brushing at the corners of her eyes with her sleeves. The front door closed from down the hall, and he could see Andromeda and Teddy walking away down the front path and out of sight behind the olive grove. He looked over at Fleur, her face was slightly puffy and her eyes were red. Harry crossed the gap between them in two long strides and sat down beside her, taking her hand in his and silently offering her his shoulder to lean on. She did, and they sank back into the couch for a moment, neither saying a word.

"Something is wrong," she said eventually, "She would not say those things without a reason."

"She wasn't responding at all as we expected," Harry said in agreement. He could feel Fleur nod her head slightly, the shifting causing her hair to rub along the exposed skin of his neck tickling him slightly.

"And what about Teddy," Fleur said, "We are still no closer to knowing what he wants…"

"And given how she reacted," Harry finished for her, "I doubt Andromeda will be much help in figuring out what's going on."

"It feels as if we have failed him somehow, that we have missed something." She pulled back slightly and turned to look him in the eye, "but I have no idea what it could be."

Harry nodded slightly, thinking back to his conversation with James earlier that evening. "Could it be that Teddy's reluctance doesn't have anything to do with Remus and Nymphadora?"

Fleur bit her lip, eyes flitting back and forth as she thought furiously. "It seems unlikely, but then all our attempts to reassure him focused on our history with the castle and none of them seem to have helped him much."

Harry nodded, the muscles in his brow beginning to protest from how intently and for how long he had furrowed them that day. "I spoke to James, Teddy talked to him earlier today, and he asked me if Teddy might have been worried about being separated from us."

But Fleur was already shaking her head, her frown matching his own, "No, he is too eager. He may well suffer from homesickness, but it will not be until he is already there that the reality will set in."

Harry let out an explosive sigh, running a hand through his hair as he wracked his brain furiously, but nothing came to mind. "Maybe he just doesn't like Hogwarts," he suggested at random. "Maybe… oh I don't know. Maybe Andromeda was right and he liked your stories about Beauxbatons more."

Fleur looked doubtful. "He could," she said reluctantly, "but I do not see how. I have not told him many."

"Allure of the unknown, perhaps?"

"He is eleven, I hardly think he is possessed by that fierce a wanderlust just yet."

Harry threw his hands up in defeat and flopped back onto the couch. After a moment he sighed and pulled himself back up all the way to a standing position. "You're right about one thing at least. Two, even," he said, offering Fleur his hand to pull her to her feet as well. "We are missing something important, and it does feel like we're failing."

"We still have time," Fleur said eventually. "It is not yet even properly Spring. September is months away."

"Yes," Harry sighed. "And the more come and go the faster they seem to pass us by."

"Time is time," she answered, "and whether the days fly past or crawl, we will not want for opportunities to look out for Teddy. In the end, all that matters is that we support him."

Harry smiled wanly. "When did you get so wise?"

She arched an eyebrow at him, "Are you implying that I used to be foolish?"

He gave her his best roguish smile, the one he had learned from Sirius in the short time they had together. "You married me, didn't you?"

His smile softened into something more genuine at the way the corners of her lips lifted upward. "If that was a mistake," she said quietly, stepping in close and wrapping herself around him to whisper in his ear, "Then I shall gladly play the fool."

A shiver went down his spine and he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close, burying his nose in her hair and holding her tight to him. After a moment he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers with his eyes closed.

"I love you, Mrs Potter," he whispered.

He knew she was smiling even without seeing it. "And I love you, Mr Potter."

He opened his eyes just in time to see her lean in to place a quick kiss on his lips before she pulled back and let her arms fall to her sides.

"Come," she said, "We should check on James and Isabelle, then we can go to bed. We'll worry in the morning."

She didn't wait for him to answer and was already walking out the door of the sitting room by the time he had opened his mouth. He shook his head with a wry chuckle and began to follow, "As you wish, my lady."


AN: Thank you for reading. If you liked the story then please leave a comment telling me what you think worked and what didn't, your feedback is crucial to helping me improve as an author and is always appreciated.

The link to the Harry Fleur discord server can be found on my profile, feel free to join if you want to chat with me or if you just like FlowerPot, we've got over 3,000 members now including most of the authors of the stories you love in the pairing.

Today's recommendation is not a single fic, but a collection of fics. Specifically the "Autumn Collection" as written by the members of the Harry/Fleur discord server. Not only was that collection the genesis of this series, but it also contains some of the best FlowerPot short stories out there. I'm particularly fond of Autumn Leaves, which follows vignettes of Harry and Fleur's life from their first meeting. The collection can be found on both FFN and AO3, search for Flowers of Autumn, though the easiest method of finding it is probably to join the discord server and ask for a link.