Author's Note: This chapter has been a long time in coming. And by that I mean that I pretty much forgot about this fic for the last six months. But I started rereading the Harry Potter books, remembered, and was struck to continue it. So, here we go.

Chapter 8: Letters

Ginny pulled all of the letters of her post box, and causally flipped through them. A letter from Lily, presumably telling her about how fabulous Hogwarts is. A note from her mother, probably nagging her to stop by sometime soon. And a third that the very sight of caused her heart to skip a beat. Her name and post address, written in a familiar messy handwriting she hadn't seen in more than a decade.

She hurried back through Diagon Alley and Muggle London to her apartment. Once she was safely back in her home, she flopped down on the couch and sat staring at the letter in her hands. She knew it was from Harry. What would it say? Should she even open it? And then she had a thought. She dropped the letters from her mother and daughter on the coffee, and walked to the fireplace.

When she dropped into the clean, familiar living room, there was no one in sight. She looked around, slightly frantically; hand still wrapped tightly around the letter.

"Hermione! 'Mione where are you?" she called out.

She looked around her again as she walked toward the kitchen, and jumped. There was a suddenly a small boy standing near her, his big brown eyes staring up at her. She smiled down at her nephew.

"Hey, Jimmy. Do you know where your mommy is, hun?" she asked sweetly as she picked him up. He was small for three, and was very light, which was fortunate, as he loved to be carried.

"Out in the backyard with Uncle Bill and Auntie," he mumbled around his thumb, which he had shoved into his mouth.

"Well, lets go outside and see her. You want to?" He nodded. "Okay. Is Johnny out there too? And your cousins?" He nodded again.

She walked through the kitchen, and out into the backyard, which was sunny and full of noise. Bill and Fleur sat talking with Hermione at the table on the other side of the patio, while their two younger children, Bridgette and Topher, played on the grass with Johnny, and their oldest, Adele sat against the fence looking huffy.

She kissed Jimmy on the top of the head, and put him down. "Go play with your cousins, honey."

Ginny turned to walk toward the table and saw her eldest brother walking towards her.

"Hey, Gin." He hugged her, and began to lead her back towards the table. "This is a lovely surprise."

"Ginny, eet iz lovely to see you," Fleur said as she stood to hug Ginny, despite her enormous pregnant stomach. Ginny noted that Fleur's French accent, although still there, was becoming fainter everytime Ginny saw her.

"Hello, Fleur. How are you?" Ginny asked as she hugged Hermione.

"Very pregnant," Bill said with a laugh. Everyone else laughed with him, and Ginny situated herself at the table between Bill and Hermione.

"Er—why is Adele sulking?" she asked. Adele was very much like her mother; beautiful, but moody, and slightly stuck on herself. Ginny loved her niece very much, but sometimes the girl drove her crazy.

"Oh, who knows. One of the kids probably looked at her wrong and set her off. She'll be fine," Bill said in a slightly off-hand manner. "How's Lily? She started at Hogwarts this year, didn't she? What house is she in?"

Ginny glanced quickly at Hermione. She was being awfully quiet. Hermione looked nervous, but pleasant, so Ginny turned back to her brother.

"Lily's fine. Yes, she started this year. What house do you think she's in? Every Weasley I can think of has been in Gryffindor. Her father was a Gryffindor. His father was a Gryffindor. Use your brain, Bill."

Bill smiled, at his sister's teasing. "So she's in Hufflepuff then?"

Ginny smiled back. "Yep. You guessed it. No seriously, she's a Gryffindor, just like the rest of us. Although, I have no idea who the head of house is now that McGonagall has retired. I mean that was four years ago, but I still never found out who her replacement was. But I saw that Ernie is the new head—what's wrong with you all?"

Suddenly, looking around the table, everyone looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"Actually, Gin, I'm glad you're here. Bill, Fleur, would you mind watching the kids for a minute? We'll be right back. Ginny, come inside with me for a minute."

Ginny shot confused looks at the other three, and then followed Hermione into the house. As soon as they were out of earshot of the backyard, Ginny asked, "Okay, seriously you're freaking me out here. What's going on?"

"We honestly should have told you this years ago. Okay, so there's something you should know about the current teachers at Hogwarts. After Professor McGonagall retired, they needed a new headmaster, a head of Gryffindor, a Transfiguration teacher, and well, and a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, because, well we both know the luck Hogwarts has had with them. Ernie was hired as the new headmaster, and they found a woman by the name of Laura Faye to teach Transfiguration." Hermione stopped and took a deep breath.

"Okay, but what's the big deal?" Ginny said slightly impatiently.

"I'm getting to it. So, they were still down a head of Gryffindor, and a Defense teacher. And well, they hired Harry." She glanced nervously at Ginny, fully expecting her to blow up. But Ginny looked completely stunned.

Ginny glanced quickly at the letter she was still holding, and whispered, "Oh."

"There's more." Hermione pulled a chair out from the kitchen table and steered her friend toward it. "Here. Sit. He was here last night. He came barging in shouting and asking where you were. He somehow found out that Lily was his and wanted to know where you were so that he could talk to you. I don't even know how he found out. He was here the night before asking about Lily, about if we knew whose kid she was. We didn't say anything then, but when he came back last night, and he knew, I had to tell him, Gin. I explained about why you never told him, why we never told him. I gave him your box number so that he could write you if he wanted. I assume that's the letter you're holding and that's why you're here." Ginny nodded slowly, processing.

Hermione sat down carefully next to her. "What does it say, Gin?" she asked quietly.

Ginny shook her head, and practically whispered, "I—I don't know. I haven't opened it yet."

"Open it now. He probably just wants to talk. You can floo to his office from here once you read it if you'd like. I—I'm going back outside, okay?" Ginny nodded.

As soon as Hermione disappeared outside, she slit open the envelope, and read the letter inside.

Dear Ginny,

I haven't heard from you in a long time. I hope you are doing well. I'd like to speak with you at some point in the near future, if that is at all possible. Send back a time to meet or just come to my office. If I'm not there, please wait for me.

Respectfully,

Harry

Ginny read the letter twice, and then folded it back up and put it back into its envelope. She tucked the envelope into her back pocket, and then went back into the yard and walked quickly over to the table.

"I'm afraid that I have to go now," she said when she reached the table. She said her goodbyes, hugging Hermione and Fleur, and quickly kissing her brother on the cheek. On her way back into the house, she called out a goodbye to her nieces and nephews, who each came and hugged her. Once she was back in the house, she walked straight to the fireplace, and floo'd herself away.

x

Harry suddenly knew how everyone who had ever known his parents felt when they looked at him. All of his wizarding life, he had heard the same two sentences out of everyone who had known them; "you look just like your father. But you've got your mother's eyes." And now he understood how it felt to look at someone and see someone else. He now felt the same pangs they must have felt whenever they looked at him.

His daughter looked exactly like her mother. But she had his eyes. Looking at Lily was like looking at Ginny. And this is what made it difficult. He was in love with Ginny. He always had been.

He hadn't spoken to Lily yet, however. He was, actually afraid to. Harry Potter, hero of the wizarding world, was afraid of an eleven-year-old girl. He had so many questions for her. Did she know he was her father? Did she know about him and what he had done in his life? Did she care? How had her life been? How was Ginny?

But he couldn't risk talking to her about all of this, if it wasn't what Ginny wanted. Luckily, for him, between it being the start of term, and him being famous, his first year classes were pretty much silent if he wasn't talking.

He stood at the front of the classroom, looking out at petrified faces of the first year Gryffindors.

Well here goes nothing, he thought to himself.

"Okay, well. Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am Professor Potter. I am also your head of house, which means that you can come to me if you have any problems. You'll also be coming to me if you're in trouble. Yes, I am the Harry Potter. Yes, I really have the scar." He pushed his hair off of his face at this point to reveal the lightening bolt on his forehead. "Yes I really did battle Voldemort," the class flinched as a collective whole. "On several occasions. Yes, more than one of those battles actually did take place within the walls of this school. No, I will not get into the gory details. If you think you know someone who went here about ten years ago, and you think that they'll tell you, ask them.

"So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I should probably get to know you guys." He smiled hoping they would loosen up a little. "Look, kids. I'm a nice guy. I want this to be a fun class. Over the six years that I actually attended this school, I had six different Defense teachers. Some of them were okay, some of them were useless, and some of them made this class something to look forward to. I want to do that for you. I want to make this class worth it for you. And as I stated before, I've battled Voldemort, so I've got a bit of a heads up on the subject." At the sound of Voldemort's name the class again flinched.

"Alright, not to put off attendance even more, but I need to say this. I do call Voldemort by his name. In the words of Professor Dumbledore, 'fear of the name, only increases fear of the thing itself.' And although, I will admit that Voldemort is terrifying, there is no need to increase the fear he causes by fearing his name, so you will hear me use his name. I don't expect you to, unless you feel comfortable, but I expect you to become comfortable hearing the name.

"And now finally, attendance. When I call your name, please do something to call attention to the fact that I'm speaking to you. If I miss pronounce your name, please let me know. Let's start at the bottom of the list.

"Weasley, Lily."

Lily cautiously raised her hand.

"Ah, I should have known you were the Weasley. You have the hair you know," he said.

She smiled slightly and nodded.

"I spent a lot of time at your grandmother's house growing up. I was good friends with, well all of your aunts and uncles. Ron in particular."

"I know, sir." Harry's heart skipped a beat. She sounded exactly like Ginny, too. "My mum said that you and Uncle Ron had been friends at Hogwarts, and that you would come to Grandma's during the summers because you lived with these awful Muggles."

Harry felt himself go red. "Yes, well, your mum is a smart woman. Out of curiosity, which Weasley do you belong to?" he asked, smiling in a way that was friendly and not petrified like if felt, and already knowing the answer.

"Ginny."

"Oh. I didn't know she had a daughter. But on the other hand I haven't talked to her in ten years. I hear you're living in Muggle London?"

"Er… yes, sir."

Harry continued to call the role and discovered that most of the class was a sibling of a former student or a relative of a former friend. He then set the class to work reading about blocking charms. When the bell rang, he called out, "now remember we're going to practice those next week, so you need to read on how to do them. If you don't, and someone hexes you, I'm going to allow the whole class to point and laugh." This statement got a giggle out of a few of the girls in the class, and he was satisfied that they were getting used to him.

He was about to pack up himself, and go back to his office, when a tallish red headed woman wearing Muggle clothing and looking slightly ruffled appeared in the doorway.

xxxxx

That's it. I'll, hopefully, post another chapter soon.