It had been a family tradition for Harry to cook a special meal for the kids whenever they were back from Hogwarts so just like what he had done at the start of the Christmas holiday, Harry put extra care into preparing a special meal for his children.

At dinner, Albus had looked tired but he had chatted with James, helped spooning second helpings for Lily, emptied three full plates himself and had even volunteered to help cleaning up after the meal even though Ginny had dismissed it before quickly clearing everything up with magic herself instead. Albus might not be his most spirited self but he certainly behaved normally, no, Harry thought that his youngest son was on his best behaviours that if he had not have known, he would not have guessed that Albus had been this troubled lately.

About half an hour after Albus had retreated to his room, Harry found himself standing outside of his son's door, bracing himself for a conversation he had dreaded for weeks by taking a deep breath, before he knocked on the door.

"Come in." This felt so similar to the time he had knocked on this door right after Albus had returned from school during Christmas break despite he had known nothing about Al's nightmares then, which was not a bad sign at all, as that first meeting had actually gone rather well. It had been the first time Albus had accepted a hug from him in quite a long time.

He cautiously opened the door then automatically looked towards the other end of the room where Albus' desk was but all he could find there was Amber, Al's owl, which was staring at him as if she could understand all his secrets. It was curious that of all the owls his family had owned after Hedwig, it was this small black owl which reminded him the most of Hedwig. Instead of sitting at his desk like he usually did, the boy was lying comfortably on his bed, which stood right next to the door, with a book in his hands. Harry recalled Al mentioning in a letter that he had started getting into books recently, yet it was still a strange sight to see him with a book in person.

"Hey, dad." He did not appear to have any intention of closing his book that Harry took as not much an invitation for him to enter the room, so he stayed where he was.

Harry asked gently, "Albus, may I come in?"

He only stepped in when he saw Albus nodded after giving him a strange look. "Of course." Harry turned back and decided to close the door after a moment of hesitation. Al had certainly caught that as he had looked up and was looking intently at him when Harry turned to face him.

"There's something I want to talk to you, would you mind stop reading for a bit? It won't take long."

Albus stared at him for a second, then he let out a sigh, which was very soft but was there nonetheless, before putting his book face down on his bedside table. Then he sat up and moved his blanket aside so he was now sitting crossed legged on his own bed. He leaned in a little and asked a little warily, "So what do you want to talk about, dad?"

Albus seemed to have prepared himself for something serious, Harry did not want for him to get all worked up so he pulled out Albus' chair and sat down before he began, "I just want to see if you're really doing good, Albus."

"Oh," Al visually slackened his body, "I've told you and I've meant it. I really am doing fine, dad."

Harry wanted to tell his son that he could tell him absolutely anything anytime he wanted but he did not want to pressure Al this early in the conversation, so he said, "Okay… hmm, so have you gotten a chance to take a look at the broomstick catalogue I sent you? They're still doing promotion so we would be able to see those bargain deals for ourselves tomorrow."

"Yes, I did, they all looked good." If it had been James, he would be shouting about the specific model he wanted, reciting all its specifications and reasoning why he absolutely had to get a professional grade broomstick. He remembered how excited his eldest son had been at the start of the school year when he had gone choosing his new broomstick (A Firebolt, which had not been as expensive as it had once been but it was still a pretty luxurious model for a student to have) as a reward for becoming the captain of the house team. In contrast to James' excitement and even Lily's giddiness of getting Ginny's secondhand but well-maintained first professional broomstick, he could as well described Al's reaction as indifference.

"Were you attracted to any specific model in there? Do you have the catalogue here? Perhaps we can look at it together now? It'd be better for us to have more ideas about what you want before we go to the shop tomorrow."

"Hmm… it's buried in my truck somewhere…" he leaned forward as if he was reaching out to open his truck, which was standing at the end of his bed, but then he changed his mind. "Actually, I can read it tomorrow or spend a little time there myself or with Scorpius… or with mum beforehand, so you won't have to waste your time doing it with me now."

"It won't be a waste of time, Al… I mean, Albus…" In his mind, Albus would always be Al but he had gotten so good at calling him with his full name that his slip-ups had become pretty rare now that he was surprised by it himself.

"I-I really want to pick it with you." He tried to keep his disappointment to a minimum in his tone. This had been the first time he had ever felt that he could share his interest with Al, that he had been looking forward to this since he had first known that Albus had conquered his fear in flying. He remembered he had once told Ginny that he wished Albus had been more like James or Lily. He knew better now and had realised that he would never change Albus for anything, he loved his son with all his heart the exact way he was now, but still things could become so much easier and more enjoyable for the both of them if they could share a mutual interest.

The boy's face softened as he sighed, "Sure we can do that now if you like…"

For the next five minutes, Harry glimpsed through the whole catalogue with Albus and it became obvious to him that Albus had not actually read it before.

"Albus, it's totally fine either way but did you look at the catalogue at all?" he tried to ask this as neutrally as possible.

"Of course I did," the answer came abruptly and defensively, but then he amended, "well sort of… Scorpius was flipping through it excitedly so I was just listening to him…"

"Oh, I thought Scorpius didn't know you're getting your broomstick?"

"He knew that I'll get a broomstick, just not that I'm going to get it so soon into the holiday." The young Malfoy had reacted so strongly that Harry had automatically assumed that he had not even known about Albus getting a broomstick at all. If only Albus could act half as excited as his best friend about this.

"But there's one thing I know for sure… I don't want a Firebolt." Albus said decidedly.

Firebolt was one of the models which Harry had circled on the catalogue. While it truly was on sale, the discount was very small that it was still very expensive, especially for a student who had yet to express any desire to try out on the school team, but he had thought that it would be well worth the price if it could lift Albus' spirits. It also would not have been unfair as James had gotten two broomsticks of his own including the Firebolt and he was planning to get a new broomstick for Lily next year. Of course Harry had not believed that he could buy his son's happiness with money or that he could bribe his son, he had just thought that a Firebolt was something that even Al could not resist. Unfortunately, he had underestimated his son, who just could not help from making things difficult for him.

"Ar-are you sure? I mean, you'll have to stick with your broomstick for at least a good few years that it'd make sense for you to get the best model you can. Of course, Firebolt is far less prestigious than it had been but it's still the best within the budget… If it's about the money, you don't have to worry about it at all. We have spent much more on James for his two broomsticks, dozens of Quidditch gidgets that even your mum didn't know about and his magazine subscriptions that it's totally fair for us to spend a bit more for you for once…" Harry was normally a rather thrifty father even though he was pretty sure he could comfortably support his family with just his dad's fortune but in this instance, he desperately wanted to be able to spend this kind of money for his son.

"Yes I'm sure, I'm not James or even Lily. Sure it's cool to fly for fun sometimes… but I'm not interested in playing Quidditch so any good broomstick will suit me fine, a Nimbus, Cleansweep or even Comet. Lily wants to try out to be a Chaser next year so if you have to get a Firebolt, it'd be more worth it to get it for her. Just because you can afford the price, dad, doesn't mean that you should waste it on me."

Harry let out a sigh. He knew his son was being mature and considerate but he would rather him be selfish for once. "It wouldn't be a waste… but if you said so."

Albus was awkwardly playing with his fingers before he said, "Dad, I know it doesn't seem like it… but I really do appreciate you doing this for me." His son gave him a weak smile.

Harry looked at his son's green eyes for a moment before saying, "Anything for you, son… Anyway, we should get going with this," he moved to flip the catalogue to another page with one of his picks, "Maybe you'll like this one better..."

They spent the next fifteen minutes debating the most suitable broomstick to get, with Harry insisting to pick a higher-end one while Albus arguing to get one of the cheaper ones. At the end, they settled on the Nimbus 3000 series and the Cleansweep 100 series. While both lines of broomsticks could not hold a candle to Firebolt, they were still excellent broomsticks at more reasonable prices that Harry was confident that his son would end up loving his new treasure and he was extremely proud of himself when Albus said in the end, "I can't wait to look at them up close tomorrow."

"You'll surely be so happy with it tomorrow." It was time for him to move on to something more serious. "Hmm… Albus, there's something else I want to talk to you about."

The rare and beautiful grin on his son's face vanished at once and was replaced by a wary frown. Harry thought his son must really hated talking about his nightmares and feelings for him to act all guarded within seconds like this. "Yes?"

"Don't worry Albus, it's not what you expect... " Albus did not look convinced at all. "I've taken the last Monday of your Easter break off. It's the day between the Malfoys' visit and your return to school, I want to spend a whole day together with you."

"Oh…" His son did not look particularly happy but quite puzzled.

"We can go wherever you want to go and do whatever you want to do… just the two of us."

"Are you sure you don't want to spend it with James and Lily too? Sure they'll be disappointed…" Harry felt like Albus was bringing his siblings up to avoid the need to spend the day with him, which was disappointing but he was determined to get his way with Al.

"Maybe they'll be a little disappointed but strangely enough, it's you I think who will benefit the most from some alone time with me…" He looked at his son intently but Albus was looking down to avoid any eye contact with him.

"Hmm… I guess we can if you say so." Not the most enthusiastic response but Harry had nothing to complain about.

"It's a whole day so we can visit a few places or stay at one place the whole time, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Muggle London, anywhere you want… or we can go flying together in the middle of nowhere." Harry tried to act as enthusiastically as he could.

Albus gave him a weak smile, "I suppose it could be fun…"

"It will be…" Here's the moment he had been dreading for weeks since he had first come up with the idea to spend the day with Albus. He had asked Ginny about it for more times than he could remember yet he could never feel prepared enough to ask the question out loud. He took a deep breath before he began, "I do have one suggestion of where we should go, Albus." The boy looked at him attentively.

"We absolutely don't have to go if you don't want to… and if we go, we could spend just a minute or an hour there depending on what you want or how you feel…" He could tell Albus was as impatient to know where he was talking about as he was scared about suggesting it. "I think... just maybe we should go to… G-Godric's Hollow to-together."

His son's face paled like a ghost as he asked with a hoarse and shaky voice, "B-but why?"

He leaned forward quite a bit so he was looking straight into Albus' eyes, "Because the Godric's Hollow today is about as different from the Godric's Hollow from forty years ago as possible. I, no, your mum agreed with me about this as well, we believe that if you could just see the place in a different light… perhaps it could help you overcome your…" A part of him wanted to trail off with the sentence to avoid mentioning the nightmares directly because he knew how little Albus wanted them to be addressed, but because this was indeed his intention, he tried not to think about his son's reactions and bravely carried on, "your nightmares and to help you move on from your scary memories from that night…"

Albus stared at him in shocked silence, at least he was not crying or yelling at him.

"Of course there's no guarantee that it'd be helpful for you… but both your mother and I think, believe that it's worth a shot on the off chance that it does help. And if you can't stand the place at all, we can always apparate out of there immediately." The boy looked thoughtful with a frown for a whole minute that Harry felt like there was a real chance he would end up agreeing to the visit, but he was finding the prolonged silence unnerving that he felt the need to lighten the mood.

"Believe it or not, Go- the place has become a really popular tourist attraction and they even have a farmers' market there…" Harry laughed weakly. Albus looked up to stare at him, but now he seemed to be wondering if his father had lost his mind.

He let out a heavy sigh then tried again in a more serious tone, "Look, Albus, it's like what I've just said, you don't have to go at all if you don't want to go. I'd never force you in any way… But even though I didn't get to know them at all… my parents. I've been going to the place every year since I've first gone there during the war with your aunt Hermione… to talk to them, to look at their statues. Your mother, James and Lily have all visited the place with me before… I had never forced you to come with me before and there's no way I'll do that now. That said, I've always wanted for you to go there someday, to meet them… because they're your grandparents too." He could tell that he had broken down the thickest barrier there because his son's expression had changed to one of melancholy, he was biting his lips nervously looking the most uncomfortable he had been the whole day.

"Come to think of it, in a way you actually know them way better than me…" Considering the fact that Albus had not even been looking at him a moment earlier, Harry felt extremely alarmed to see his son literally turned away to keep his face out of his father's sight the moment he vaguely referred to Albus seeing his grandparents the day they had died that he added panicky, "I just meant it as an observation, Albus… I would never use this to influence you into going." Albus took his time to slowly turn back towards him but he remained in silence while pondering what his father had said, at least there was no visible tear anywhere on his face even though his eyes did look suspiciously shiny.

"Albus? Could you look at me for a second?" he asked gently, the boy looked up reluctantly.

"You don't have to make the decision tonight. We have plenty of time so you should take your time to think it over. It's totally okay if we don't go, all I ask of you is to really take the time to consider it even if you don't want to go right now."

He did not wait for his son's response before standing up, "You've had a long day, I'll leave you to your book then. Don't stay up too late, Albus."

He had just turned towards the door when the boy cried out a bit louder than necessary, "I'll go, dad!" Harry had turned back towards his son immediately as Albus repeated self-consciously without looking at him, "I'll go to the Godric's Hollow with you."

Harry sank back onto the chair he had been sitting on, looked straight into his son's eyes before taking both of Albus' hands into his, Al was looking very embarrassed at the moment. "Albus, I'll be really glad if you'll go there with me, but please ask yourself, son, are you agreeing to go now because of me? Or because of yourself?" Albus had screwed up his forehead to make a deep frown, it was obvious to Harry that his son did not even know the answer to the question.

"I do not want you to make your decision now, Albus. It doesn't matter to me whether your immediate answer to the question is yes or no… I want you to really think this through before making your decision." He was looking deeply into his son's eyes as if he could see the bottom of that rich green. The boy seemed overwhelmed by the close distance between them that he made to back away a little before he nodded.

"I do have one condition though, Albus." The boy gave him a weary look, he supposed it was a bit inconsiderate of him to have this conversation tonight as Albus was clearly exhausted that he wondered if the boy would be able to sleep well tonight.

"If you end up saying yes, promise me you won't hesitate to make us leave Godric's Hollow immediately if being there proves to be too much for you, we can always just chill in Diagon Alley for the whole day, or if you feel too overwhelmed, we can just go straight home and rest for the whole day. Of course you can also pick another place you want to go."

Albus' face had softened considerably as he nodded while giving him a timid smile, "I promise, dad." Harry returned a smile which he meant to be more comforting, " And thank you, dad."

He did not exactly know what his son was thanking him for but he realised it did not matter at all, all it mattered to him was that he was able to show his love towards the boy and it had been well-received, something which would have been considered a miracle mere eight months ago. For this reason, it gave him the strength to try to address the impossible to his son.

He just remembered he was still holding his son's hands, he gave them a squeeze instead of letting them go, "Albus, regarding your problem… I know you don't want to talk about it and that's totally fine. But the thing is, I know I haven't been a good father to you, and I always have troubles finding the righ…"

"Dad… please don't say that" There was a deep frown on the boy's forehead and he looked surprisingly pained as if he was physically hurt by Harry's words.

"Don't say what?" He had unconsciously loosened Albus' hands due to the surprise of seeing his reaction, but he had to ask because he had no idea what Albus had meant.

"That you're a bad father, because you're not." Did he detect fierceness and protectiveness in his son's voice? It felt like a dream for the same person who had once said that he had wished that Harry Potter had not been his father to be defending Harry Potter as a father.

"Surely you of all people wouldn't actually think that? I mean, most of the time I feel and I'm clueless about being a father to you, and it showed."

"I-I'm very sorry that I've ever made you felt that way… but you're not a bad father." Despite being brief without elaboration, the apology felt very sincere. Also, the latter part was a statement without doubt and Albus had repeated it as if it had been fact, as if he was settling an argument and he would not take no as an answer. Harry was utterly bewildered, he did not know what was going on in his son's head but he knew enough not to repeat the same tired argument, so he just moved on.

"If you said so… but it's still true that I always have troubles finding the right words to say. I want so badly to be able to help you, Albus, but most of the time, I couldn't even be sure that I won't be saying anything that would upset you, let alone saying something that could actually be helpful to you in any way. So…" Albus had recovered from his upset but he was avoiding his eye contact again.

"If I happen to say anything that annoy or upset you, please do not hesitate to tell me so. I would rather you openly tell me that I've said something wrong again, that I'm making you uncomfortable, that you don't want to talk about something so I can learn from my mistakes, than for you to not let me know but secretly bottling up your annoyance and irritation that you end up harbouring hatred or doing something hurtful to yourself or to the people who love you."

Albus took his time to digest what he had said before he finally replied, "I understand, dad. I'll do as you said... thank you." Harry patted Albus on his shoulder before wordlessly pulling him into a hug, Albus returned the hug with one arm without saying anything. He finally stood to leave for real after letting go of his son. He instinctively looked at his watch the moment he stepped outside to realise that he had stayed in the room for almost an hour.

A/N: This chapter is long because it's one of those conversations which I don't want to break down into small parts. I'm not sure how I feel about writing Harry/Albus parts because on the one hand there're so many conversations between these two that I get worried that it could get boring and repetitive and both of them have a more complicated emotional arc that they could be really challenging to write, but when I get them right, it can be really satisfying. This conversation is build-up to a very important plot point of the fic and it should be quite easy to tell what it's. (if only I could know when I'll get to that, why did I have to make this such a marathon?)

Honestly, I'm feeling so much disappointment in my life right now that I don't really have much energy and motivation to write but you all deserve to get a new chapter fast because this fic had just passed 30000 views.

I'm perfectly aware that it's getting easier and easier to reach another 10000 views with more chapters but it's every bit as special to me and not something I'd take for granted. It's time for another group shoutout: Thank you Ronnie Jane, kahn1969, Blue Herons, snape zorro, HogwartsDreamer113, Scorpiusisthebest, wwe21, civilwarrose and Cris46. Thank you for all your continuous support and lovely reviews because I could never have done it without you.