Andromeda gave a small smile and said, "Harry, I'd like you to meet your godson." To his utmost surprise, he felt tears welling up in his eyes, and blinked them away furiously. They found seats on some nearby stools and Harry held Teddy in his arms for the first time. It gave him the feeling of being unbearably young and terribly old simultaneously.
They talked for a while, Andromeda sharing some small part of her awful grief for the loss of her husband, daughter, and son-in-law, the joy of her grandson, and her ambivalence around the fate of her two sisters. She also let him know that the funeral would be held a few days later, laying Remus and Tonks to rest by Tonks' father, Teddy's namesake. Harry promised he would be there.
Her surprising frankness had unlocked something inside him, and he began to talk too. He spoke of his guilt and his shame, the pain he felt for the loss of Remus, Tonks, Sirius, Fred, Dobby, Dumbledore, and the many other fallen brave. He also spoke of his confusion about his future path. She held his shoulder tightly, and as they sat quietly together with Teddy dozing in his arms, he felt a level of understanding pass between them.
After some time, she stood up, saying gently that it was late and that she had better get back and put Teddy to bed. As she made to leave, Harry helping her with her cloak as they tried not to wake the baby, she clasped him in a tight one-armed embrace, whispering tearfully that he was welcome to come and see her and his godson any time. Harry watched her walk down the path to outside the perimeter of the fidelius charm, and then, with a distant cracking sound, she and Teddy were gone.
It was then that he sensed Ginny's familiar presence next to him. They held each other for a few moments, then she broke the embrace to say, "there's something you should see".
They walked over to where a murmuring crowd had gathered. Squeezing through a gap, Harry saw to his surprise that Hermione and Ron were at the centre of it. Hermione was holding an enormous book, which was glinting golden in the firelight emanating from the living room window of the burrow. It took him a moment to realise that people seemed to be queuing up to write in it. Tens of pages had already been filled. Ron was standing nearby, beaming at Hermione while she talked to people and passed around quills and ink.
Ginny whispered in his ear "Amazing, isn't it!? Hermione came up with it. People were sharing so many stories about Fred, and I said it's a shame that we wouldn't be able to hear all of them. And she said well why not ask people to write them down? Like a bank of memories that we can look at later on. I mentioned it to Bill and George, and they thought it was a great idea, so Hermione organised it all." She looked up at him with a slightly wobbly smile, and grinning, he replied, "of course she did".
It was some time until the crowd of people queuing up to write in Fred's book had died down. Some people had filled several pages. Several hours later, when it was quieter, Harry walked over and picked up the quill that laid next to the heavily bound book. He felt sorrow but also an odd sense of relief as he penned some of the memories of Fred that had been bubbling up inside him over the past week.
As the last of the guests filtered away down the path, Ginny strapped up the book and took it to her parents, Bill, and Percy, who were sitting together in the living room, looking exhausted. They read it with a mixture of tears and laughter, and then when the fire had died down to just embers, they retreated upstairs to bed.
Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and George found a spot on a small hill round the side of the house. Ginny had procured some butter beers and a bottle of fire whisky which apparently weren't missed. They sat drinking and laughing and sharing stories of Fred until finally the last of the bottles was finished and the pink rays of sunrise lit up the morning sky.