Dear Wizarding Britain
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, I probably wouldn't be playing around on fanfiction.
Phoenix Harry, carrying James, flashed to just inside the wards of the island, and then gently flew down to land. Upon gently touching the bassinet down to the ground, James started fussing as if he was uncomfortable with the form of travel, and Harry warbled a soothing tune, which seemed to calm little James down, then Harry transformed back to his human self and lifted James out of the bassinet, cradling him gently in his arms.
"Dobby, Winky," Harry called out softly, knowing they would hear his call, no matter the volume he used.
Both Dobby and Winky appeared with a pop and upon seeing Harry with a baby, Winky exclaimed, "Yous have brought home a little master!"
Dobby, meanwhile, bounced in excitement and asked, "What does Harry Potter, sir, have need for Dobby to do?"
"Well, I'm going to need a nursery set up for my newly adopted son, James Sirius Potter, that is attached to my room," Harry replied. "If that means that my room needs to be moved to another part of the house in order to connect two rooms, then that's acceptable.
"Next, I need one or both of you to search the house and/or other properties that I own to see if you can find baby supplies such as a crib, toys, anything else that we have in storage that a child would need."
Dobby and Winky exchanged looks and appeared to have some sort of nonverbal communication before Dobby replied, "Dobby will takes care of getting the rooms ready, and then beings helping Winky search all Harry Potter, sir's, properties for all the things that the new little master wills need."
"Before you go about those duties," Harry added, before either elf could pop out, "I believe little James is going to require a nappy change." Harry wrinkled his nose at the smell.
Winky giggled in amusement before she could stop herself, "Wes don't have nappies yet, sir." She then made a snapping gesture with her hand and the mess inside the baby's nappy vanished, and a freshening charm was done with a wave of the hand.
Harry relaxed a bit after that,"Thanks." Then he sighed and said, "Now, I'm going to go introduce James to everyone and see if anyone wants to help me go shopping for this little one, though I know it's getting a little late. I only hope we can get it done in a few hours and not several, I'm already getting tired.
"Winky, do you suppose you could make me a list of the basics that I should need? I've never been around babies much, and while I'm sure the girls would know some of what we'll need, I'm not sure they've been around babies any more than I have. Then again, perhaps the twins will know a bit, since they have younger siblings."
"Winky can do, sir. Winky will have a list ready for, sir, before sir leaves," Winky said before she and Dobby popped out to go about their duties, taking the bassinet with them.
Harry looked down at James, running a finger along his soft little cheek, saying softly, "Well, James, I wasn't expecting to be a father so soon before even having the pleasure of helping to make you, but you're my son now, and I'll not let anyone take you or try to hurt you."
Harry looked up at the house and whispered, mostly to himself, "I guess it's time to take you inside to introduce you to our little family." Then Harry cast a charm to check the time and saw that it was nearing supper, so he figured everyone should be gathering to eat soon enough, so he started to make his way to the house and on through to the dining room.
Sure enough, when Harry walked into the dining room, he saw everyone except the twins were just sitting down. Harry absently wondered if Winky relinquished her role to Lopsy tonight, so that she could help complete the jobs that Harry had given to her and Dobby.
All chatter stopped when everyone noticed that Harry was not exactly alone.
"Have you caught a crumple-horned snorkack, Harry?" Luna questioned, when no one else seemed able to speak up.
Hermione snorted in amusement at Luna's question, but did follow up with a question of her own, "Are you holding what it looks like you're holding?"
Neville was looking back and forth from Harry to Daphne and back again to look at the bundle in Harry's arms, but decided it best to hold his tongue.
Harry, not yet sure what to say, just nodded his head, and looked down at James with a small smile. He jerked his head back up when he heard an odd noise coming from Daphne's direction, and he looked up to see Blaise with a hand on her arm, as if to either comfort her or to keep her from bolting from the room.
Wondering what Daphne had to be distressed about, he turned his gaze to her questioningly, only to see that she seemed to be fighting a losing battle to keep her expression neutral. Harry, not knowing much about women, but realizing that he may have done something to offend her but didn't yet know what it might be, decided he should get the introductions over and done with, so that he could find out what it was he might have screwed up on.
Clearing his throat, "Well, first, let's get the twins here, so I only need to go through this once, so let me just send a patronus message—"
"No need, Harrikins—"
"We're here."
"What's going on?" Fred and George said in their usual twinspeak, as they came walking through the door, only to come to a shocked stop when they noticed that Harry was holding a baby.
"Did you have a night of fun that resulted in an interesting little after present?" George asked as he peered at the baby curiously.
Daphne fought to hold back the sob that was building, but it escaped, causing all eyes to turn upon her. She fought down her embarrassment as best she could and told herself, You have no reason to be upset. You've only just started to get involved with him. Obviously, this is the result of a relationship that happened well before the two of us found each other. You're being stupid and emotional. Get it together, you're embarrassing yourself!
This time, Harry thought he had figured out what might have made Daphne upset and decided that he was going to tell his story, but if, after the explanations, Daphne wasn't able to accept that he now has a child, then he'd have to let her go. He doesn't want to, but his son is going to have to come first over any potential relationship, romantic or otherwise, and if she can't accept that, then that's that.
Harry rolled his eyes at George and said, "This is my son—," he stopped at Daphne's sharp intake of breath, so turned to meet her eyes pleadingly and finished speaking, "My son that I just blood adopted." He relaxed when Daphne's expression changed from what he thought might have been bordering on heartbreak, to one that appeared more calm, yet curious, though he couldn't quite pinpoint the exact expression.
"I've named him James Sirius Potter-Black, but for safety reasons, his public name will be Jeremiah Jennings Ford, while my public name will be Harrison Orion Ford, for however long we'll have to remain in hiding," Harry shared briefly.
Blaise, feeling like he didn't need to offer Daphne comfort anymore, moved his arm from Daphne and crossed both arms over his chest before stating with a curious tone, "None of that explains to us how young James came to be your blood-adopted son."
"Yes, I was getting there," Harry replied with a nod.
Blaise grinned and waved his hand in a gesture that indicated, well, let's get to it then.
The food arrived, just as Harry was getting ready to start his story, and that's when Lopsy noticed the baby and quickly popped out and back in with a bottle for Harry to have if the baby started to fuss.
"Thanks, Lopsy," Harry said.
"You is welcome," Lopsy replied with a squeak, before she popped back out.
Then after everyone had served themselves from the provided food and had begun to eat, their eyes turned to Harry in question, who had just taken a bite. Quickly chewing and swallowing his bite, he started his story, "All right. So I told you I received an owl from Gringotts and it appeared to be a bit of an emergency, so I took their portkey and left quickly."
Harry continued to explain how he came to adopt James, talking between bites and eating one handed, as he held James in his other hand as if he'd been doing it for years. "I felt it best that I blood adopt him so that he's mine by blood and no one would have the right to come back and take him from me," Harry concluded.
"So Tonks and Professor Lupin got married, naturally, she got pregnant, and she died in childbirth, after which Professor Lupin named you godfather and pretty much left his child to you to raise, and then you blood adopted the child then and there?" Hermione clarified. She was finding it hard to believe that Professor Lupin would just abandon his child like that. On top of that, Hermione was struggling to reconcile that the bubbly woman she had spent time with during the summer before fifth year at Grimmauld Place was just gone, never to be seen again, never to hold her child, never to brighten anyone's day again by morphing her face into different shapes.
"Basically," Harry said with a nod.
"We should send Professor Lupin something to clear up his wrackspurt infestation," Luna said decidedly. "If he hadn't had his head filled with wrackspurts, he wouldn't have listened to the nargles, I'm sure."
When James started fussing, Harry stretched his hand out for the bottle, so he could feed him, but just as his fingers touched the bottle, he heard Daphne ask softly, "May I feed him, Harry?"
Harry blinked in surprise, before he smiled softly and said, "Of course." He then stood up and walked around to where Daphne was seated. She pushed back her chair a bit from the table and held out her arms, where Harry very carefully placed James. Once he was sure she had a good hold of the baby, Harry summoned the bottle and handed it to her.
Daphne met Harry's eyes, hoping she conveyed to him how much his trust meant to her, before she looked down at little James and placed the nipple of the bottle into his mouth. She smiled softly when James made cute sucking noises, as he greedily sucked down the milk.
Conversation started up around the table as the baby ate his fill, and Harry mentioned that he needed to go shopping for baby supplies, but all became quiet again when they heard Daphne make a noise of surprise and they noticed her looking down at James in awe.
"He changed his appearance," Daphne breathed in wonder.
Harry was confused for a second before it dawned on him, "Oh, he inherited metamorphmagus abilities from his biological mother, Tonks." Then he added quietly, "And he may have inherited some extra abilities from me after I blood adopted him, since I'm a metamorphmagus too."
Daphne looked up sharply at that. "Is that an ability you've always had?" She asked curiously.
Shaking his head, Harry replied, "It's one of those things that didn't manifest until midnight of the day I turned 17."
Fred nodded sagely, "It was a light show the like of—"
"—which we've never seen before," George finished.
"Nor have we been able to duplicate it with even our fireworks formula," Fred added, baffled.
Blaise looked thoughtful and suggested, "Do you suppose that was a result from some sort of magical block breaking?"
Hermione frowned at that suggestion and said thoughtfully, "I haven't read anything about that, but that, also, hasn't been one of my topics of research before."
Harry said with a sigh, "I wouldn't put it past Dumbledore to have placed magical blocks on me, considering that he probably never intended to give me any extra training. It's my belief that he didn't plan for me to survive the war, and training me or leaving me without magical blocks would have made it easier for me to survive."
That grim thought left the occupants of the table quiet, as they contemplated what Dumbledore may or may not have done.
The silence was soon interrupted by James burping, and then Daphne asking Harry, "Did you mention needing to go shopping?"
"Yes, James is going to need some nappies and more clothes, at the very least," Harry replied. "I've tasked Dobby and Winky with getting a nursery prepared and joined to my room, along with searching all of my property for things such as baby furniture, but I imagined any baby clothing they find in storage is going to be quite old and out of date."
"Did you plan to take James with you?" Daphne asked.
"Well, yes, otherwise how will I know what size to buy?" Harry replied, with eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
Hermione cut in then and said, "He's not more than a week old, Harry, he shouldn't be out and around in public yet, but he also needs to be seen by a pediactric healer or a muggle pediatrician for a check up." Seeing she had Harry's attention, she added, "And if you shop in the muggle world, they have clothing sizes that match the average baby's age, so for James being only a week old, he should be able to wear clothing labeled 0-6 months, same for nappies."
"Baby clothes in the magical world can be charmed to grow with the child for at least the first year, after that it's expected that the parents will bring their children in for fittings, but the clothing is still able to be charmed to grow as the child grows throughout the year," Daphne remarked, still holding James, who had managed to get a tight grip on her finger. "I do agree that he needs to have regular checkups with a healer though."
"Well, it's definitely going to have to be a magical healer and not a muggle, because James won't be able to control his morphing and any illusions I try to put on him might interfere with the muggle doctor's equipment," Harry said, more or less as if he was thinking out loud. "Merlin, I'm not even sure where to go about finding a discrete healer, because St. Mungo's is out of the question."
"We'll help find someplace safe, Harry," Neville replied, after being silent for so long. "Though with your metamorphmagus abilities, remaining unrecognizable shouldn't be that much of a problem for you."
Harry gave Neville a grateful look and said, "Yeah, you're right, Neville."
Next, Harry turned back to Hermione and asked, "Then what should I do with James, if I shouldn't take him with me?"
"I can stay here to care for James while you, and whoever joins you, can go shopping for the items that James will need," Daphne offered.
Harry gave Daphne a grateful look and replied quietly, "Only if you don't mind, Daphne. He's my responsibility now, I don't want you to feel as if you need to take care of him only because we've become involved with each other."
"I want to," Daphne said with a smile. "Besides, it's the least I can do to make up for my overreacting when you were trying to introduce him to all of us," she added with a slight blush.
"No, your reaction was understandable," Harry replied, "at least it was once I was able to deduce why you were having that reaction anyway."
Daphne, mindful of their audience, said, "We can talk about it later, Harry. Right now you need to go get that shopping done, so James will have some clean clothes to sleep in tonight."
"Oh, you're right," Harry replied. Turning to the rest of the room, he asked, "So who wants to come shopping with me?"
A/N: So I'm not a huge fan of shopping myself, but if any of you truly want me to go through the process of writing about their shopping trip, I'll come up with something. Otherwise, I may start incorporating more frequent time skips, until I get to a point where I feel that I can bring this story to a conclusion.
Also, I've only really proofread this chapter once, so if anyone notices anything that needs corrected, I definitely don't mind if anyone wants to let me know.