The Young Ones
Chapter Two: Family Bonding
Harry stirred awake, surprised that he wasn't in any pain. He could feel a small, warm weight on his chest and the connection filled with love and hope that tied him to the weight.
He remembered. He remembered what happened.
His children from the future. Protecting them. Tom. Snape.
Harry wasn't a Potter.
He had been lied to his whole life.
He had children, with Tom.
His breath hitched in his throat and he felt the weight on his chest move.
"Mummy, are you awake?" a small voice asked and he felt his heart swell as he looked at the small bundle, his Lyra, and he wrapped his arms around her.
"Yes, I'm awake," he whispered.
"Is baby awake, too? I can't feel him moving like usually,"
Harry's breath hitched again, in surprise.
"Little one, mummy doesn't have a baby in his belly right now," he heard Tom say from beside them and he turned his head to see him lying next to them. He raised his eyebrow at the man; who looked like a thirty year old version of Tom Riddle from the diary now, only with red eyes, and he just smirked back at him.
"But why? He did yesterday. Not here for four months, you said. So he is still in belly," Lyra said, sitting up on Harry's chest and looking down at them, her little head tilted to the side in confusion. It was rather adorable the way she bit her little lip.
Before either of them could answer there was a knock on the door and Snape and the other three children rushed into the room. The children bounced onto the bed and cuddled into Harry, all chattering away about how worried they were, and asking if he was okay. He felt tears fill his eyes but he didn't let them fall.
He had never felt this much love from anyone before. It was quite overwhelming.
He wrapped his arms around all of them and told them he was fine, because he was. He was the finest he had ever been, surrounded by his children that hadn't been born yet.
He looked up from his children and saw Snape looking at him with dark eyes filled with sadness, pain, love and awe. He felt all those things too when he looked at the man who was actually his mother.
His mother.
Severus swallowed down his emotions, "How are you feeling, Harry?"
"Tired, but otherwise okay," Harry whispered, also trying to keep his emotions under control.
"Mummy always tired, because the baby makes him tired," Orion said from his place snuggled into Harry's side.
"Orion, this mummy isn't having a baby," Aurora said
"Why does baby make mummy tired?" Lyra said, concern in her little voice.
"It takes a lot of magic and energy to make a baby, sweetie," Severus said, pain in his voice, "So it can make you feel more tired than usual,"
"Did we make mummy tired?" Lyra sounded rather upset at making Harry tired and it made him both happy and sad that she cared so much about him that she was upset for such a trivial thing.
"I would happily be tired for any of you, baby. Don't worry so much. I am fine," he said as he ran his fingers through her soft hair, "Why don't the four of you go with your daddy to get ready for breakfast? I will be there soon,"
Harry was feeling very overwhelmed as they told him they loved him and followed Tom out of the room, leaving him alone with Snape. Severus.
His mother.
He sat up slowly, leaning back against the headboard as Severus sat to the side of him, looking at him in concern.
"Are you in any pain?"
"Physically, no," Harry answered and Severus nodded, not knowing quite what to say.
"So, erm… You will be needing nutrient potions for a while, with every meal. I see that you have had some throughout the years, but not nearly enough, and any progress has always been diminished over the summer months… I will also, at some point, need to break or remove all the mis-healed broken bones and correctly heal them or give you a skele-gro potion. You will then need to be put on bone strengthening potions. And you will need to be awake for it," Severus said in what sounded almost like his lecture voice.
Harry shivered at the thought of re-growing and breaking bones, "Will I be able to have pain relievers?" although he knew there wasn't much of a point in asking. He just wanted to say something. Anything.
"Unfortunately not, some of the ingredients in the potions don't react well. However, for any breaking and re-healing, for the more minor breaks, you can have pain reliever,"
Harry nodded, biting his lip.
"Can I…" Severus trailed off, clearly uncertain about something, and yet yearning for it at the same time, "Can I hold you?"
Harry looked at him in shock for several seconds before nodding. He sighed as Severus shifted forward and wrapped his strong, loving arms around his shoulders, pulling him against his chest.
Severus held Harry close for a while, Harry clutching the front of his robes. If Harry felt any of the tears that landed on his hair he didn't say anything, because he was crying too. He was overwhelmed by the love he was feeling from his children and Snape. Severus. His mother.
No one had ever loved him this much before. His friends loved him, and he loved them, but not this profoundly. Not quite anyway.
There was just something so different about the love between children and their mother. So soul encompassing. So… everything.
He knew it would only grow when the potion was out of Severus' system.
"So, erm… what is your favourite colour?" Severus asked after a while, when their tears had dissolved into the occasional sniffle and he was running his fingers through Harry's hair.
Harry couldn't help but laugh as he leaned back from the man's arms, rubbing at his eyes and cheeks needlessly, "Green… and yours?"
"Green," Severus smiled at his son, who smiled back.
"I should probably get dressed so we can go to breakfast. Don't want to keep the kids waiting too long," Harry said, trying to get out of bed but his legs were quite shaky. Thankfully Severus caught him before he collapsed to his knees, though.
"Thanks," Harry said as he stood in Severus' arms, breathing shakily as he tried to regain his balance, "I mean, if my balance is this bad now, I can't imagine what it will be like during five pregnancies. Maybe I should just spend them in the air, I am a lot more graceful on a broom,"
Severus snorted a little but Harry could see something in his eyes that hinted at something else. Something Harry might not want to know.
"What is it?" Harry asked, worriedly.
Severus seemed to be having an internal battle, but in the end he decided to tell Harry, not wanting to start their new relationship off by hiding things, "Last night… Tom asked the kids if they had any other siblings. That is when he found out you were pregnant again in the future. But… the older two shared a worried look apparently, as if they were hiding something. We don't know what, but…" he trailed off.
Harry's breath caught at the thought of anything happening to any of his children. His heart clenched in pain.
"It also doesn't help that Lyra, when she came in, said that she had regular bad dreams of a 'bad man', that the others have also but not as often as her,"
His heart clenched some more, "She's what? Three? And she has regular bad dreams of a bad man. Is there anything we can do to help her?"
"The occasional, child-safe dreamless sleep potion, but it is still rather addictive so she can't be given it too often. Other than that I am unsure,"
Harry nodded and took a deep breath, he slowly took a step to see if his legs wanted to work, thankful when his knees didn't give out on him again.
"Right, clothes," he said, a tad distracted.
He left Severus' safe arms and walked to the en-suite, doing his usual morning routine, entering the bedroom again only to realise that he didn't have any other clothes. Neither did his friends, he had to assume they were here also.
"Dobby," Harry called, smiling kindly at the elf that popped into the room.
"Yes, Master Harry, sir,"
"Could you go to Hogwarts and all of mine and any student who came from Hogwarts possessions and bring them here, please? As well as Professor Snape's? Place them in our respective rooms also,"
"Of course, Master Harry," Dobby said, nodding eagerly.
"Thank you, Dobby,"
Dobby popped back out the room and Harry grabbed his wand off the bedside table, where Dumbledore's wand also lay, and it seemed to be calling to him, but he ignored the call, before transfiguring his already transfigured pyjamas into a pair of black skinny jeans and a baggy, green and black plaid shirt. He slid his school shoes on his already socked feet and left the room to find Severus lingering nervously in the hallway.
"I, erm… I thought you might need guiding to the dining room,"
Harry smiled nervously at the man and nodded in thanks. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Harry gathered the courage to speak, "I was meant to be in Slytherin," he said, smiling at the look of almost shock that Severus gave him.
"Then why aren't you?"
"I mean, it was a bit hard to want to be in it when I had Hagrid and Ron lamenting to me about how evil everyone in Slytherin was. Then I met Draco, in Madame Malkins and on the train, and he was just such a dick," Severus snorted at Harry's exaggerated voice, "So, yeah, I asked to be placed anywhere else and the Hat obliged. Said I could have been in any of the Houses but Slytherin suited me best, I am guessing he only placed me in Gryffindor to keep the old man happy,"
"Probably," Severus agreed, "Which House would you have wanted to go into? Your… y-your dad and I would have been proud of you no matter what House you were in. I am proud of you,"
"Honestly, Hufflepuff," Severus' eyes widened a fraction and Harry grinned, "Everyone underestimates a Hufflepuff… Who is my dad?"
He saw sadness and grief fill Severus' eyes and felt it himself, "Regulus Black,"
Harry swallowed, "Sirius' brother?"
Severus nodded, not wanting to say any more at that time, Harry allowed him his silence. He honestly didn't know what to say either.
As they neared the dining room they could hear laughter coming from within. Harry smiled at the sound of his friends and his children laughing together. Severus smiled slightly also.
Harry opened the door and stopped at the sight he found. Tom, his children, his friends and the inner circle Death Eaters were all laughing at Fred and George being chased around the large room by an almost angry canary. That is also when he noticed that Bill, Charlie and Percy were also there, alongside Oliver and Lee.
Suddenly the canary turned back into Rabastan Lestrange, who he recognised from the wanted posters, and who stopped chasing the twins and collapsed to the floor in laughter.
The twins almost ran into Harry when they also started laughing, but they stopped in time, also no longer laughing at Harry's incredulous look.
"Hello, Harry, Professor," the twins said together, nodding at each of them in turn.
"George, Fred," he greeted, a small smile pulling at his lips, "How and when did you get here?"
"Well, Dumbles told the Order about what happened, only mentioning everything when a very angry McGonagall practically burst out with the news that you are actually the son of our favourite Potions Master," Fred said, letting his brother continue for him.
"And when we were able to get away from the meeting we contacted your Dark Lord asking to come and see you and the kiddies. He provided us with a portkey and, voila, here we are," Fred bowed dramatically when his brother stopped talking.
"By the way, Harrykins, you certainly did well for yourself, didn't you? The kiddies are adorable," Fred winked, Harry blushed.
"Who knew you could pop out such beautiful sprog? It's a shame you're taken, really,"
"I'm not taken. And I would much appreciate it if you didn't call my children sprogs," Harry growled.
"Yet. Your future husband awaits, and unfortunately it isn't one of us," George said, looking for all the world as if he was going to cry.
"That does beg the question as to how this match came to be," Lucius said from his seat between his wife and son.
Tom and Harry glared at the man, Tom because he dared to question things, and Harry because to be completely honest he didn't want to know. At least, not at that moment.
"Uncle Luc, they got together because of you," Orion said with a perfectly innocent look on his face that made everyone stop and look at him in shock, except his siblings, who also looked perfectly innocent.
"W-what?" Lucius choked.
"Yes, mum and dad were working together on a project of some kind and you could tell they had feelings for each other, but they wouldn't admit it. So you locked them in a room until they admitted their feelings," Aurora explained.
"I do believe that is also when they conceived me. They had to have a very rushed wedding," Salazar said.
Apparently that was too much for the younger two who both burst out laughing, closely followed by the older two, and the twins, and everyone else apart from Tom, Harry, Severus and Lucius who were still in shock.
It was the high fives that the kids shared under the table that clued Harry in that they may have been joking. He took a deep shaky breath, "Was that a joke?" Harry asked and his children looked at him with worried eyes which, in turn, worried him.
"Yes, mummy. Please may we have ice cream after dinner?" Orion asked.
"Of course, baby," Harry breathed a sigh of relief as did the kids and he went to sit with them, Orion and Lyra on either side of him as he piled food onto his plate and poured some orange juice into his goblet.
"So, little Salazar, when were you conceived?" Harry choked on his juice at Bill's question.
"No! No baby maths!" He practically yelled, ignoring the burn in this throat from the choking fit.
Everyone laughed again, apart from Tom who just smirked at him.
Despite all the jokes that tried to ease the tension between the groups, Harry found himself feeling warm at the thought and vision of the family he would have one day. Especially when Orion's little hand tugged on his sleeve and Harry saw he held his arms up, wanting to be held.
Harry smiled as he pulled his young son into his arms, sitting him comfortably on his lap and letting Orion wrap his small arms around his chest, placing his small ear over his heart. Harry continues eating with one hand as he holds Orion, occasionally feeding him small bites of food, and he listened to the chatter around the table.
He saw Lyra sitting on Neville's lap and they seemed to be talking about a plant of some kind. He saw Aurora sitting next to Severus chatting happily about potions, cuddled into the older man's side. Salazar was cuddled into Tom's side talking about some animal. Everyone else was either joining these conversations or were having their own conversations.
Everyone was almost relaxed, having a good time.
"Mummy," Orion whispered and Harry looked down at him with a smile.
"Yes, baby?" Harry said as he ran his fingers through Orion's short black hair.
"Can we go to the garden? Just me and you?"
Harry nodded and silently stood with Orion in his arms. He left the room and followed Orion's directions to the garden.
It was huge, what he could see of it, anyway. He could tell there was more in the woods surrounding the property and beyond.
"Where do you want to go?" Harry asked.
"The big tree by the lake," Orion said, giving Harry directions to it.
They walked in a peaceful silence, Orion seemingly content to listen to his heartbeat for now, and Harry not really knowing what to say.
Harry sat on the ground with his back resting against the trunk of the tree so he was facing the lake, with Orion on his lap. It was a beautiful sight, but most of his attention was on his son.
He was so perfect, and Harry almost wished that he and the other children could stay forever. But he knew, logically, that they had to find a way to send them home. He could somewhat imagine how worried his older self and Tom were. And with the pregnancy… Harry shivered. Stress and pregnancy did not mix very well. Especially for bearers whose pregnancies could be a bit more fragile than female ones.
"Are you okay, baby?" Harry asked, he could sense that Orion was scared and upset.
Orion nodded, "I just get over… overwhe-over…"
"Overwhelmed?"
"Yes, that, sometimes,"
"Me, too," Harry said, smiling as Orion moved in his arms so he was lying like a baby, his head in the crook of Harry's arm, looking up at Harry with wide, loving eyes.
"Really?"
"Yeah,"
"But you're usually so strong and powerful,"
"Even the strongest of people get overwhelmed sometimes,"
"Everyone has been really sad. And you don't speak to papi Regulus, and grandma Lily, and grandpa James anymore. Or Uncle Sirius. But now everyone is happy," he sounded so confused and sad.
Harry's heart clenched in pain at the thought of what could have happened, "Baby, Regulus, Lily and James are dead,"
"I know. You are a necomencer. You used to talk to them a lot, we would too. But now you don't,"
"Necromancer?" Harry said in shock.
"Yes, that,"
There hadn't been a necromancer in centuries as far as Harry knew. How could he possibly be one? Though he guessed it made sense why he and Tom would get close. The Light would have shunned him because of what they believed necromancers capable of.
Harry knew, however, that they couldn't actually bring back the dead.
They could talk to the dead. They could use magic to figure out what killed a dead body a lot more efficiently than a regular wizard or witch. They could bring humans and animals back from the brink of death, depending on the issue. There were certain things that couldn't be fixed. And they tended to live a lot longer than normal witches and wizards, they were almost immortal. There were few things that could kill a necromancer. They could also speak to Death himself.
They also had a lot of magical power that derived from all paths of magic; Light, Grey and Dark. That was probably Dumbledore's biggest issue with Harry being a necromancer, the amount of power he would have compared to the old coot.
A lot of what the wizarding world thought about necromancers was derived from fictional works because there hadn't been many around to write or tell people about what it was actually like. And so, everything everyone thought was a lot of exaggeration. The closest they could come to bringing back the dead was to reanimate their bodies, and any wizard or witch could do that if they had the skill and desire.
Harry was only able to read about it from a very old diary in the back of the library at Grimmauld Place. Apparently one of the Black's a long, long time ago was a necromancer, and he decided to write about it truthfully. He was going to publish it but Harry assumed that he was killed before he could because it evidently never was, he had looked around all the bookshops he knew of to see if they had a copy. Even 'Dark' bookshops.
The only books on the subject that were ever sold were fictional ones.
"Mummy, why did you stop talking to them? I miss them," Orion said, breaking Harry out of his thoughts.
"I don't know, baby. But when we are able to send you all home you can ask me then and I am sure I will tell you," Harry said, though he didn't know if that would be the case. He wondered to himself why he would stop talking to his dead family members.
And the fact that he talked to James and Lily meant they didn't know that he wasn't their child. And yet, even after finding out they still thought of him as family apparently, even though they are with their true son wherever you go when you die.
"When do you think we will be able to go home?"
"I don't know, but I promise we will try and send you home as fast as we can," Harry said, his heart clenching at the thought of them having to leave.
"Do you think the baby will be born yet?" he sounded so excited that Harry couldn't help but grin.
"Well, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" Harry said, tickling his little tummy causing him to squirm around in laughter.
"Mummy, stop," he laughed.
Harry stopped for all of a second before the little boy was tickling his stomach with his little fingers. Harry laughed even though it wasn't affecting him all that much, just because he was happy to see him so happy.
"Ooh, are we having a tickle war again?" Aurora said with a grin from a few feet away before she pounced on them, along with her brother and sister, and everyone was tickling everyone.
It only lasted a few minutes before Harry and his children were panting on the floor, his children tucked into his sides, but he felt like the smile would never leave his face.
He looked away from his children to find Tom and Severus standing a few feet away, Tom smirking and Severus smiling with a camera in his hand.
"Where is everyone else?"
"Your older friends who arrived today have all gone to work. Narcissa and some healers are helping the abused students still. And everyone else is either at their own homes in the case of my Inner Circle, or in the library getting some school work done, I believe," Tom said.
"Why are you smirking?" Harry asked.
"Dad smirks a lot of the time, mum. Apart from when he is in the 'dog house' as uncle Fred likes to say," Salazar said.
"Mummy, why you keep daddy in a dog house? We don't have a dog," Lyra said with a curious look in her eyes.
"And why does uncle George say you have daddy whipped? Why do you whip daddy?" Orion added.
Harry could see Severus trying to contain his laughter behind his hand, but Tom and Harry were just shocked. Although, Harry was admittedly pleased that the relationship they had in the future was somewhat normal. With Harry being able to have some control as well apparently.
"They are just sayings, little ones. I don't actually keep your daddy in a dog house, and I don't actually whip your daddy," Harry said, shivering slightly at the mere thought of actually whipping someone.
"I promised the kids we could go through some owl order catalogues to get them some bits for their stay," Tom said once he had gotten over his shock.
"Okay," Harry said as he got up from the floor, helping the kids up as he did so.
He picked up Lyra as Orion ran over to Tom to be held and he followed Tom and the older two back inside. Severus walked beside Harry.
"Are you okay, Harry?" Severus asked quietly, apparently sensing some lingering sadness in Harry from what Orion had said to him.
"Yeah. I think. Erm… you, Tom and I should probably talk later,"
"Okay," Severus said, looking concerned.
They walked to the family living room in relative peace, the children nattering away at each other about some games they wanted to play.
When Harry sat on the sofa with Lyra still in his arms he noticed that the pain was slowly working its way back into his bones. He took a shaky deep breath and Lyra looked at him worried, "Are you okay, mummy?"
Everyone looked at him with concerned eyes and he felt warmth fill him at the thought that people actually loved him enough to care. Or would come to love him in the case of Tom.
"I'm just a bit sore, baby. I'm fine,"
"Promise?" Lyra said, eyes filled with tears.
He saw out of the corner of his eyes that Severus was summoning a potion for him.
"I promise," he answered with a small smile as he took the potion from Severus' hand and downed it, ignoring the taste and breathing in relief when the pain left him again.
He slouched down into the sofa and mostly just watched and listened as his children and their father talked and laughed about what clothes they wanted, or what they wanted to decorate their bedrooms with. Harry and Severus gave their input occasionally but mostly just left them to it.
Harry smiled the whole time, he couldn't help but think about getting to hold them in his arms when they are babies, or getting to feel them move and grow inside of him, or getting to see all their firsts.
He fell asleep on the sofa with mostly pleasant thoughts, the sounds of soft talking and laughter filling his mind with happiness enough to drive his worry away. For the moment, at least.
Hiya, I hope you are all well!
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