WARNING: Short chapter :D but thanks for the support, 1k reviews, 2k favourites, and 3k followers, and to think this story is only the beginning.
Thank you, Nauze!
Chapter 12 - A New Beginning
To say it was strange, Ted thought while standing over his wife's grave, to not think it should have been me but to know it should have been, was an understatement.
Of Andromeda's family, only Sirius and Regulus showed up, then Kingsley and Amelia and a few of his classmates from Hufflepuff.
Cause of death? Cancer. Magical cancer that had made her sick and caused black lines to stripe her limbs with black veins. Ted felt stupid for not having noticed it sooner, to have dismissed her occasional cough of the last few months, the odd mood swings from the summer. But there had been no visible signs until the end.
His friend at St. Mungos hadn't wanted to tell him the cause of the death, nor the details, of how the curse she had been using had bloomed near root chakra and had spread from there. Her body was eating itself until the decay reached her heart.
The disease, the curse, had sped exponentially, spread through her blood, and once it reached her brain, death was inevitable.
Only her death had stopped it.
Dora was devastated and Ted…
He was broken because he was grateful.
Choosing between Andromeda's death and his daughter's…
He would always choose his daughter, just like he knew if it was himself or Nymphadora, Andromeda would always choose Dora.
It was what it meant to be a parent, how things should be, and it broke his heart that Andromeda had been powerful enough to have the ability to make that choice.
A choice that was never intended for mortals to have. Ted's mother had assured him that she would go to hell for witchcraft but then, he supposed, she thought the same about him.
Huddling in his coat jacket, standing alone at the grave, he almost didn't notice Harris Black approach.
Ted looked up at the man, his sapphire eyes hard and distant, staring down at the tombstone as if he were thinking of spitting on it.
The quiet pooled between them, until he couldn't take it anymore, and he blurted, "You loved her?"
Those dark blue eyes flicked to him, considering, before saying, "Yes, I did."
"Do you still?" Ted asked, for some perverse reason wanting to know he wasn't alone in this pain, in having loved a woman whose loss was of her own making.
Harris sighed, looking down at the dirt, "I hate her, Ted Tonks, and I suppose, that yes, I do, because hating someone has never hurt this much."
Ted swallowed hard before saying, "Thank you."
Harris's gaze snapped back up meeting his, "For what?"
"For taking care of her, for loving her, for taking care of my grandson, even if she betrayed you, I'm- thank you. My family wouldn't have…" Ted trailed off, his heart twisting.
Harris nodded, "I know."
Ted thought he would have hated any man who would have slept with his wife, but Ted couldn't hate the man who had picked up the pieces of his family after his death. Nor could he be jealous, not when Andromeda had chosen him, humble little Hufflepuff, over the man that Harry Potter had grown into.
"I meant it," Harris continued, "You and Nymphadora are a part of House Black."
Ted looked back at the grave. "There was a time when she would have done just about anything to have us accepted by the family."
Harris didn't answer for a long time. Ted had just about given up on any further conversation when Harris said in a hoarse voice, "She stole everything from me, and I wish every day that she had simply murdered me in my sleep, that when Voldemort killed me, that I had stayed dead. I have never wished for death, but she's taught me to crave it. I'm never going to see my sons again. I'm never going to get back to the daughter I walked down the aisle. I am never going to know my granddaughter, to know the person she would have become."
Ted looked at him, and felt suddenly very small. He had no words of comfort to offer, no way to relate.
To lose a spouse, to be betrayed by a partner was an indescribable pain, but to outlive one's children, one's grandchildren, that was unimaginable, and Ted envied Harris Black not at all.
And standing at his wife's graveside, he felt selfishly grateful for not being Harry Potter, the man who had lived through far too much.
Harry Potter, the younger, was petting Buckbeak, who he and Luna were leaning against by the firelight. Everyone else, the Weasley twins, Theo and Blaise, were in chairs around the open bonfire.
Suffice it to say, things at Hogwarts were not improving. He had done what Harris had suggested and had quit the Gryffindor team. But he had let Harris off the hook for talking to Angelina for two reasons, one, the man -future him- was obviously distraught, and two, Harry knew if he had felt that bad that if he had to confront anyone, he would have lost his temper.
And while Angelina definitely deserved a talking down to, she didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of that.
"You should just transfer into Slytherin," Theo suggested.
Harry snorted, "Yeah, because that is going to make things better."
"At least no one would try hexing you in your sleep," Blaise noted.
Cormac McLaggen had done so and had nearly been thrown through the wall when Harry had woken to a stinging hex in a panic.
Needless to say, McLaggen hadn't tried that again.
"Yes," Fred said.
"Because historically," George continued.
"The Slytherins have been Harry's biggest-" Fred picked up before they said together bookending each other with one handed quotation marks as each of them had are marshmallow stick, "'fans.'"
No one argued, Slytherin really wasn't somewhere he would be 'safer' because while he and the fifth year class, oddly not excluding Draco, were getting on just fine, the rest of Slytherin House wasn't exactly filled to brim with 'Boy Who Lived' supporters.
"Speaking of defense," Theo said, "We need to do something about Umbridge."
Professor Scamander came out then, floating them all hot cups of cocoa, nothing like s'mores and hot cocoa at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Harry took Luna's marshmallow stick so she could warm both her hands on the mug of chocolate-y goodness, Harry sipped from his own one handed, trying not to get too much whip cream on his lips.
Professor Scamander was literally the best teacher ever (sorry Hagrid, this professor hasn't accidentally fed us to man-eating spiders or blast-ended skrewts).
Scamander grinned, "Oh, nothing like a good revenge plot. What do you all have in mind?"
"Shouldn't you be chiding us?" Fred asked.
Scamander shrugged, "She tried to get me fired, along with Professor Flitwick. She has also been trying to push several unfortunate laws in Britain. I can't help you directly, Dumbledore wouldn't forgive me, but I'm sure as spikes, not going to stop you."
Sure as spikes.
Yeah, Scamander was just awesome.
"While I would enjoy screwing her over, I meant our Defense class. We have to pass our OWLs this year," Theo said.
Harry shrugged, "I've gone over the things that will and might be on the exam, it's all pretty basic."
"Basic?" Thoe asked incredulously, "I grew up with the Dark Arts and I'm not confident I could even define all the charms and counter-curses on the exam guide."
Scamander shrugged, "You are all doing well in my class, half of the exam is knowing your Magical Creatures."
"It's easier than the Triwizard Tournament," Harry said, "That's why I learned that material."
"Yeah," Blaise said, annoyed, "Because you were basically testing for a real world version of the seventh year course work."
"Exactly," Harry said with a grin. "Hermione helped me a lot too, though."
"Who knew she would get along with the Hufflepuffs so well," Fred said without malice.
Harry nodded in agreement.
Hermione and Harry didn't really hang out anymore, as she was always with Neville, Hannah Abbott, and Susan Bones. But Hermione, Neville, Fred, and George were the only ones who didn't hate him left in Gryffindor.
Because it didn't at all matter what he said anymore, he was a Slytherin in lion skin, according to the school, he had purposely botched the match.
Harry was just glad no one knew he had been possessed by Lord Voldemort, that Snape, at least had forgiven him, and Madame Pomfrey, who had also forgiven him and even told him off for blaming himself at all, had fully recovered, not so much as a scar remained from his attack on her.
Harry still had night terrors about it, but after seeing what his older, time travelling counterpart was dealing with, it was really hard to complain too much.
Luna took back the marshmallow sticks, bobbing them above the flames as Harry took his mug in both hands, soaking in the moment of being surrounded by friends, an adult who cared about his safety, a beautiful night beneath the stars, and a protective hippogryph at his back.
"I bet I could teach you guys, if you wanted," Harry said.
"Hell, I want to learn from you, Potter," George said, "I think you might be the best in the school for Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Just not the best at the Dark Arts," Blaise said with a sly smile.
Professor Scamander hummed, "I know a room in the castle you could use, but as a professor, I feel that I should advise you to teach more than just this group. There is a war about to start, after all."
"Why don't you teach us?" Fred asked.
"Because Umbridge will give him the boot, that's why," Theo said.
Scamander gave that quirky smile of his and took a deep draw from his hot cocoa.
He didn't care about the whip cream moustache.
George sighed, "I hate to say this but I don't think we should invite the other Gryffindors."
Fred nodded, "At least Slytherin can keep a secret."
"Ravenclaw thinks the Gryffindors are being daft about blaming Harry over being ill," Luna said.
Theo sighed, "Hufflepuff should be pretty reliable, but I doubt you could avoid Longbottom and Granger joining."
"Those two we can trust," Harry said.
Luna pointed the marshmallow stick at him and Harry bit it off, his mouth full gooey sweetness crisped to the perfect degree.
Luna grinned at him, "I suppose we are starting a rebellion."
Gazing at her like this, her eyes like reflecting pools of light, her hair a glowing blaze lit by the fire and the half moon above, Harry couldn't help thinking she was the most beautiful person on the planet.
AN: Short, I know, but what did you like about the chapter and what interactions and character moments do you want to see in the next?