Author's Note:
Sorry for waiting so long to update. Had no idea what I was gonna do next.
One thing, I didn't realize that I had messed up the ages according to Hogwarts school time. I didn't realize until after the first four chapters that students are 17 in their 7th year, not 18. Forgive me.
Also, the idea that I have 'fans' is laughable. Heh. On with the story!
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Harry awoke with difficulty. He didn't move his head. He didn't reach for his glasses. He just simply asked a question. "Is it still fifteen years later?"
He heard the Headmaster's voice answer him. "Yes. Still fifteen years later."
"Okay. Just checking." He then moved his head and reached for his glasses.
Once he got his vision back, he looked at Albus, who had a distraught expression on his face.
"Why do you look so worried, Albus?"
"Lily told me what happened in the hall."
"Oh." Harry spoke, knowing he was going to get in a lot of trouble. "I'm not sorry I hit that kid, you know. He has been terrorizing my only child for long enough."
Dumbledore found this statement highly amusing. "I wasn't worried about you hitting Mr. Flint, although I probably should have been." He chuckled to himself. "I was worried about your stopping time."
Harry, not wanting to think about it, decided to change the subject. "Where are Hermione and Lily?"
"Lily is in the DA meeting. Hermione was growing restless, so I sent her to the library to gather something to read while you slept."
Harry nodded, still clearly waking up, until the last statement sunk through. "DA meetings?"
Albus nodded and chuckled. "They wanted to name it "Potter's Army", but I knew that you wouldn't want that. So, we just went with the original. It was, however, inspired by your original DA and the fact that students as well as teachers stopped that Death Eater raid. It began the term after your disappearance."
Harry could only slack-jawed stare.
"You have more visitors, who would like to see you very much. Shall I allow them in?"
Harry yawned while nodding his head. "Please do, and thank you."
"Very well Harry, but we do need to talk about your new 'abilities' soon, agreed?"
"Agreed," Harry said remorsefully.
Albus rose, and walked over to the door, closing it behind him as he left. Harry took what precious little time he had, grabbing his wand from his nightstand, waving it over him and muttering cleaning charms.
Just as he had finished, the door opened very gently and seven people walked into the room, six of them tearing up at the sight of him, not believing the sight before their eyes. Ginny stifled a sob behind her hand, and Neville put his arm up, silently rubbing her back, while smiling through his own tears.
The youngest in the room walked up to the side of the bed first looking at The-Boy-Who-Lived, then back at his parents. "Is this him, Daddy?" the child asked. Ron, not trusting his voice, nodded back.
"Hi. My name is Harry." Little Harry said to 'Big Harry'
"Hi, my name is Harry too." Big Harry looked up to the child's father. "Ron?" he asked disbelieving. "Is that you?"
Ron walked over to where his son and best friend were. "Its me, Harry." He bent down and gave Harry the first hug he had ever given him. Harry noticed that he was shaking all over.
"Alright there, Ron?"
Ron backed up to give him a very watery grin. "I have honestly never been better."
Harry found himself moved, and tried to change the subject before he started sobbing as well. "SOOO, named your son after me, did ya? This is gonna get really confusing, you do realize, right?"
Ron sat himself at the bed, and ruffled his son's hair. "You wouldn't believe how many people fifteen and younger are named 'Harry' and 'Harriet'. Personally, I think that 'Mione and I should have been the only ones to have that right, but you can't very well copyright a name now, can you?"
Harry groaned. "And here I thought that the hero worship was bad before. It's gonna be downright unbearable now, isn't it?"
Ron chuckled, and looked down at his son. "We'll just call him Harold then. Mom and Lav both call him that when he's in trouble, so he ought to be used to it by now."
He now looked up at the rest of the family, who were all still in shock at seeing him for the first time in fifteen years. "Well, aren't you going to come say hello? Or are you just going to stand there and stare at me all day?" He finished with his trademark impish grin to let them know that he wasn't really offended.
They descended on him as a swarm, but Molly got to him first. Weeping openly, she was hugging him so hard his oxygen supply was nearly depleted when she finally let go.
"Hello Mrs. Weasley. It's good to see you too."
She sniffed rather loudly. "Oh, you dear. When we thought we lost you.. it was like losing a son. You are never to call me Mrs. Weasley again, you hear?"
"Okay.. Mum?" he ventured.
Molly, who was expecting him to just call her Molly, began the waterworks anew. "Oh Harry, you've made me so happy!" she shrieked as she gathered him into another hug. When she finally let go, he turned to Mr. Weasley.
"Mr. Weasley?"
"As far as I am concerned, you are a son to me too. Don't go favoring Molly over me now, got that?" he said in a mock-threatening tone, but his wide smile and tears belied his true intentions."
Harry sat up and hugged him, the tears now cascading down his own face as well, as he whispered. "I have a family.. I finally have a family."
"And a Big one as well," came a response from behind him.
He turned and looked at the lady who said that, but aside from a nagging familiarity, he couldn't place her.
Lavender saw his confusion, and decided to give him a break. She pulled him into a hug of her own, and whispered in his ear. "It's Lavender, and I'll forgive you for not recognizing me just this once, okay?"
Harry nodded into her shoulder, having no words to say.
He pulled back, and looked at the last two inhabitants of the room. "Ginny?.. and ... NEVILLE?!?!?"
Ginny walked over and gave a hug that rivaled her mothers, openly weeping into his shoulder, while Nev grabbed his hand for a shake while wiping away tears with his other. "It's good to have you back, Harry."
"So, I take it you two are married?" he asked after Ginny had stepped back so she could look at him. They both nodded, grinning sheepishly at each other. "Well, congratulations. Where are your rugrats?"
The temperature of the room fell a couple degrees, and Harry could tell that Ginny's tears weren't from happiness anymore.
Neville took Ginny in his arms, and spoke to Harry. "Did anyone tell you what happened the night of your dissappearance? In regards to Draco and his father?"
"I was told that Draco had to kill his father, but I don't see where this is going."
"Okay, here's what happened." He took a deep breath, silently asking permission from the rest of the family before continuing. "When the death eater attack came, we ambushed them, but there were a few who fought back especially hard. Lucious Malfoy was dueling Ginny, and decided to do something worse than killing or torturing her. He took away her dream." Ginny and Molly were both sobbing openly at this point, while Lavender was trying to calm down Ron.
"I don't understand, Neville. Took away her dream?"
Neville nodded, while rubbing Ginny's back as she cried into his neck. "You know how important family is to the Weasleys, right? He robbed her of her ability to have children. Draco knew what curse was used, and went insane when he heard it. He used the disarming charm, but his emotions were so out of control that Lucious went flying into a tree. A tree branch, to be exact. Broke his neck, you see. Dead before he hit the ground."
"And lucky he was, too. Damn lucky I couldn't get my hands on him," came the voice of Arthur. Harry was shocked at his tone. He had never heard Arthur say a threatening thing about anyone before. Harry knew how he felt, however. His own emotions were spiraling out of control.
From out of nowhere, Ginny was slowly raised into the air, wrapped in a blue aura, the same blue aura that currently surrounded Harry, to the other's notice. She seemed to regress to the age of about fourteen in a matter of a minute, and then in the next minute progressed back to her current age, before the blue aura set her gently down onto the floor.
"What was THAT?!?" Ginny screamed, while everyone else turned a fearful/awe-filled gaze to Harry. Harry, feeling guilty, tried to explain to the best of his ability.
"Sorry, it seems like when I fell through time I gained some sort of control over it. It happens when my emotions run high. Are you okay, Ginny?"
Ginny did a mental checkover, and nodded. "I'm just a little disoriented and scared Harry."
"Will you get Madame Pomfrey, Lavender? I want to make sure she is really okay."
Lavender nodded, unable to speak, then came back with Madame Pomfrey in a matter of seconds.
"Now what's going on here?" she asked as soon as she saw everyone's fearful expressions and Ginny lying on the floor with a dazed expression. Harry was the one to answer her.
"She needs a checkover, Poppy. Something happened and we aren't sure what."
Poppy muttered a spell while holding her wand over Ginny. Purple strings of light came out of her wand, circling Ginny, and finally coming back to her wand a blue color. Poppy closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them, muttering something about 'impossible'.
"What's impossible, Madame?" Molly asked, being the closest to her.
"She's. She's completely fine. Aside from the fact that she's in the middle of her period. Would anyone care to explain this to me?"
Ginny, upon hearing this and realizing what it meant, jumped up off the floor and ran over to where Harry lay, giving him another hug, stammering in-between kissing him on the cheek. "I don't kn-know what y-you d-d-did, but t-t-thank you so much! I can't ever repay you," she sobbed out into his neck. Harry, bewildered, looked at the rest of the family with wide eyes. Gone was the fearful look, pure gratitude and joy was apparent on every face in the room.
Ron was the first to break from his stupor. "Jeez, Harry. Here we come to rescue you from the castle, and you wind up giving our family the greatest gift imaginable. Some things never change, do they?" he chuckled.
Ginny raised up from where she was crying on his shoulder, and kissed him on the cheek one last time. "I'll never forget this, Harry." She said very solemnly to him.
"Well, I think we should all be going now." Mrs. Weasley said from where she was standing. "I've still to tell everyone back home about you. As soon as you are up to it, come to the Burrow and meet all the extended family, okay?"
Harry nodded, wondering just how everyone else was doing now. "I don't think you could keep me away Mrs... Mum."
Everyone in the room hugged him goodbye, whispering some sort of thanks over Ginny and welcoming back, all except for 'Little Harry', who didn't understand any of that, but did understand that he was family and that you hug family.
"I'll send you an owl when I know when I can come, okay?"
"Okay, Harry."
"Good-bye Harry."
"It's good to have you back Harry."
"See you soon, Bud."
Harry felt so content, to have a family outside of his daughter, that he just laid back down with a genuine smile on his face to wait until his fiancée or his daughter to return.
Sorry for waiting so long to update. Had no idea what I was gonna do next.
One thing, I didn't realize that I had messed up the ages according to Hogwarts school time. I didn't realize until after the first four chapters that students are 17 in their 7th year, not 18. Forgive me.
Also, the idea that I have 'fans' is laughable. Heh. On with the story!
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Harry awoke with difficulty. He didn't move his head. He didn't reach for his glasses. He just simply asked a question. "Is it still fifteen years later?"
He heard the Headmaster's voice answer him. "Yes. Still fifteen years later."
"Okay. Just checking." He then moved his head and reached for his glasses.
Once he got his vision back, he looked at Albus, who had a distraught expression on his face.
"Why do you look so worried, Albus?"
"Lily told me what happened in the hall."
"Oh." Harry spoke, knowing he was going to get in a lot of trouble. "I'm not sorry I hit that kid, you know. He has been terrorizing my only child for long enough."
Dumbledore found this statement highly amusing. "I wasn't worried about you hitting Mr. Flint, although I probably should have been." He chuckled to himself. "I was worried about your stopping time."
Harry, not wanting to think about it, decided to change the subject. "Where are Hermione and Lily?"
"Lily is in the DA meeting. Hermione was growing restless, so I sent her to the library to gather something to read while you slept."
Harry nodded, still clearly waking up, until the last statement sunk through. "DA meetings?"
Albus nodded and chuckled. "They wanted to name it "Potter's Army", but I knew that you wouldn't want that. So, we just went with the original. It was, however, inspired by your original DA and the fact that students as well as teachers stopped that Death Eater raid. It began the term after your disappearance."
Harry could only slack-jawed stare.
"You have more visitors, who would like to see you very much. Shall I allow them in?"
Harry yawned while nodding his head. "Please do, and thank you."
"Very well Harry, but we do need to talk about your new 'abilities' soon, agreed?"
"Agreed," Harry said remorsefully.
Albus rose, and walked over to the door, closing it behind him as he left. Harry took what precious little time he had, grabbing his wand from his nightstand, waving it over him and muttering cleaning charms.
Just as he had finished, the door opened very gently and seven people walked into the room, six of them tearing up at the sight of him, not believing the sight before their eyes. Ginny stifled a sob behind her hand, and Neville put his arm up, silently rubbing her back, while smiling through his own tears.
The youngest in the room walked up to the side of the bed first looking at The-Boy-Who-Lived, then back at his parents. "Is this him, Daddy?" the child asked. Ron, not trusting his voice, nodded back.
"Hi. My name is Harry." Little Harry said to 'Big Harry'
"Hi, my name is Harry too." Big Harry looked up to the child's father. "Ron?" he asked disbelieving. "Is that you?"
Ron walked over to where his son and best friend were. "Its me, Harry." He bent down and gave Harry the first hug he had ever given him. Harry noticed that he was shaking all over.
"Alright there, Ron?"
Ron backed up to give him a very watery grin. "I have honestly never been better."
Harry found himself moved, and tried to change the subject before he started sobbing as well. "SOOO, named your son after me, did ya? This is gonna get really confusing, you do realize, right?"
Ron sat himself at the bed, and ruffled his son's hair. "You wouldn't believe how many people fifteen and younger are named 'Harry' and 'Harriet'. Personally, I think that 'Mione and I should have been the only ones to have that right, but you can't very well copyright a name now, can you?"
Harry groaned. "And here I thought that the hero worship was bad before. It's gonna be downright unbearable now, isn't it?"
Ron chuckled, and looked down at his son. "We'll just call him Harold then. Mom and Lav both call him that when he's in trouble, so he ought to be used to it by now."
He now looked up at the rest of the family, who were all still in shock at seeing him for the first time in fifteen years. "Well, aren't you going to come say hello? Or are you just going to stand there and stare at me all day?" He finished with his trademark impish grin to let them know that he wasn't really offended.
They descended on him as a swarm, but Molly got to him first. Weeping openly, she was hugging him so hard his oxygen supply was nearly depleted when she finally let go.
"Hello Mrs. Weasley. It's good to see you too."
She sniffed rather loudly. "Oh, you dear. When we thought we lost you.. it was like losing a son. You are never to call me Mrs. Weasley again, you hear?"
"Okay.. Mum?" he ventured.
Molly, who was expecting him to just call her Molly, began the waterworks anew. "Oh Harry, you've made me so happy!" she shrieked as she gathered him into another hug. When she finally let go, he turned to Mr. Weasley.
"Mr. Weasley?"
"As far as I am concerned, you are a son to me too. Don't go favoring Molly over me now, got that?" he said in a mock-threatening tone, but his wide smile and tears belied his true intentions."
Harry sat up and hugged him, the tears now cascading down his own face as well, as he whispered. "I have a family.. I finally have a family."
"And a Big one as well," came a response from behind him.
He turned and looked at the lady who said that, but aside from a nagging familiarity, he couldn't place her.
Lavender saw his confusion, and decided to give him a break. She pulled him into a hug of her own, and whispered in his ear. "It's Lavender, and I'll forgive you for not recognizing me just this once, okay?"
Harry nodded into her shoulder, having no words to say.
He pulled back, and looked at the last two inhabitants of the room. "Ginny?.. and ... NEVILLE?!?!?"
Ginny walked over and gave a hug that rivaled her mothers, openly weeping into his shoulder, while Nev grabbed his hand for a shake while wiping away tears with his other. "It's good to have you back, Harry."
"So, I take it you two are married?" he asked after Ginny had stepped back so she could look at him. They both nodded, grinning sheepishly at each other. "Well, congratulations. Where are your rugrats?"
The temperature of the room fell a couple degrees, and Harry could tell that Ginny's tears weren't from happiness anymore.
Neville took Ginny in his arms, and spoke to Harry. "Did anyone tell you what happened the night of your dissappearance? In regards to Draco and his father?"
"I was told that Draco had to kill his father, but I don't see where this is going."
"Okay, here's what happened." He took a deep breath, silently asking permission from the rest of the family before continuing. "When the death eater attack came, we ambushed them, but there were a few who fought back especially hard. Lucious Malfoy was dueling Ginny, and decided to do something worse than killing or torturing her. He took away her dream." Ginny and Molly were both sobbing openly at this point, while Lavender was trying to calm down Ron.
"I don't understand, Neville. Took away her dream?"
Neville nodded, while rubbing Ginny's back as she cried into his neck. "You know how important family is to the Weasleys, right? He robbed her of her ability to have children. Draco knew what curse was used, and went insane when he heard it. He used the disarming charm, but his emotions were so out of control that Lucious went flying into a tree. A tree branch, to be exact. Broke his neck, you see. Dead before he hit the ground."
"And lucky he was, too. Damn lucky I couldn't get my hands on him," came the voice of Arthur. Harry was shocked at his tone. He had never heard Arthur say a threatening thing about anyone before. Harry knew how he felt, however. His own emotions were spiraling out of control.
From out of nowhere, Ginny was slowly raised into the air, wrapped in a blue aura, the same blue aura that currently surrounded Harry, to the other's notice. She seemed to regress to the age of about fourteen in a matter of a minute, and then in the next minute progressed back to her current age, before the blue aura set her gently down onto the floor.
"What was THAT?!?" Ginny screamed, while everyone else turned a fearful/awe-filled gaze to Harry. Harry, feeling guilty, tried to explain to the best of his ability.
"Sorry, it seems like when I fell through time I gained some sort of control over it. It happens when my emotions run high. Are you okay, Ginny?"
Ginny did a mental checkover, and nodded. "I'm just a little disoriented and scared Harry."
"Will you get Madame Pomfrey, Lavender? I want to make sure she is really okay."
Lavender nodded, unable to speak, then came back with Madame Pomfrey in a matter of seconds.
"Now what's going on here?" she asked as soon as she saw everyone's fearful expressions and Ginny lying on the floor with a dazed expression. Harry was the one to answer her.
"She needs a checkover, Poppy. Something happened and we aren't sure what."
Poppy muttered a spell while holding her wand over Ginny. Purple strings of light came out of her wand, circling Ginny, and finally coming back to her wand a blue color. Poppy closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them, muttering something about 'impossible'.
"What's impossible, Madame?" Molly asked, being the closest to her.
"She's. She's completely fine. Aside from the fact that she's in the middle of her period. Would anyone care to explain this to me?"
Ginny, upon hearing this and realizing what it meant, jumped up off the floor and ran over to where Harry lay, giving him another hug, stammering in-between kissing him on the cheek. "I don't kn-know what y-you d-d-did, but t-t-thank you so much! I can't ever repay you," she sobbed out into his neck. Harry, bewildered, looked at the rest of the family with wide eyes. Gone was the fearful look, pure gratitude and joy was apparent on every face in the room.
Ron was the first to break from his stupor. "Jeez, Harry. Here we come to rescue you from the castle, and you wind up giving our family the greatest gift imaginable. Some things never change, do they?" he chuckled.
Ginny raised up from where she was crying on his shoulder, and kissed him on the cheek one last time. "I'll never forget this, Harry." She said very solemnly to him.
"Well, I think we should all be going now." Mrs. Weasley said from where she was standing. "I've still to tell everyone back home about you. As soon as you are up to it, come to the Burrow and meet all the extended family, okay?"
Harry nodded, wondering just how everyone else was doing now. "I don't think you could keep me away Mrs... Mum."
Everyone in the room hugged him goodbye, whispering some sort of thanks over Ginny and welcoming back, all except for 'Little Harry', who didn't understand any of that, but did understand that he was family and that you hug family.
"I'll send you an owl when I know when I can come, okay?"
"Okay, Harry."
"Good-bye Harry."
"It's good to have you back Harry."
"See you soon, Bud."
Harry felt so content, to have a family outside of his daughter, that he just laid back down with a genuine smile on his face to wait until his fiancée or his daughter to return.