Journey into the past

"... and now he's going to be sitting in Azkaban for quite a while," Arthur concluded his whispered account of Ludo Bagman's trial. It was Christmas Eve and they sat in the kitchen of the Burrow and listened to Celestina Warbeck's Christmas concert – well, Molly, Percy and Penelope listened while George and Ron played a game of magic chess (Ron won, also because he didn't listen to Hermione's advice), and Arthur told Harry and Ginny about Bagman. Bill and Fleur sat by the fire and tussled with each other; he had put his hand on her already visibly rounded belly. Charlie wouldn't arrive until the next day. The mood had been extremely depressed at the beginning, because now that the whole family was together, Fred's absence was particularly noticeable; Especially the Christmas angel at the top of the tree had given Harry a stab because he had to remember how Fred had replaced him with a garden gnome two years ago.

"And what about all the money he owes to people, Dad?", asked Ginny quietly.

Arthur sighed and took off his glasses. "They have to wait until Bagman is free and able to work, then he has to start paying off his debts slowly if he finds a job."

"And if the goblins keep him alive for so long," Harry said dryly.

Arthur nodded. "Yes, yes."

Celestina Warbeck finished her final aria with a particularly shrill tone, which elicited a slight sigh from Molly before turning off the radio.

"Finally," Fleur muttered softly, before getting up to get a new glass of water. Bill made arrangements to restrain her, but she gave him a sharp look and he sat down again. Harry and Ginny exchanged amused looks.

"I have to go to the bank on Wednesday, Bill," Harry said. "Because of some inheritance issue. Would you mind coming along?"

Bill shook his head. "No, no problem. It drives me mad," he added to his father.

"I believe, her too," Ginny chuckled. "You mother her like a hen her chick!"

"She's pregnant," Bill said. "She shouldn't do so much."

"In the fifth month," Ginny said, turning a blind eye.

Bill gave Arthur a questioning look.

"You're both right," Arthur said, smiling. "But in this case, it's just a glass of water, Bill."

When Harry woke up at Grimmauld Place the next morning, the foot end of his bed was filled with a variety of gifts. From Ginny he got a shirt that supposedly fit his eyes well, from Molly the usual green Weasley sweater, from Arthur a short note that he had to pick up his gift in person, which made him hesitate in confusion, and from Bill and Fleur a thick waltz to goblins and their culture, which he curiously scrolled through. Ron gave him a Cannons scarf, Hermione a book about advanced defensive magic, and George a lavish stock of Weasley products so that he didn't always have to rely on Ginny in delicate situations. Hagrid sent him a can of biscuits that he did not touch, and a bunch of new feathers that came from Buckbeak, as he wrote, and finally he got a picture of Andromeda and Teddy showing him with his godson which he placed on his bedside table. Kreacher, despite his assertions that he shouldn't give him anything, hadn't let himself be dissuaded from getting him some new winter gloves. Harry thanked his elf warmly and ordered him to have a lazy day so he could rest a bit before he apparated to the Burrow.

Both Ginny (a silver necklace) and Ron (again a new pair of Keeper gloves) were extremely pleased with their gifts at breakfast, and Arthur and Molly were really excited about the toolbox and the new tea service they had received from him.

"Thank you, Harry, darling", Mrs Weasley said, smiling. "Will you stay for lunch?"

Harry shook his head. "No, Andromeda invited me - I have to leave right away."

Arthur pushed his plate away and got up grinning. "Well, then I want to show you my gift now."

Harry said goodbye to the others and followed him out into the garden, confused. As Arthur opened the door to the shed, a queasy feeling spread in him; Apparently, he now had the inevitable "treat-my-daughter-good-and-take-your-time-with-certain-things" conversation. But no: in the shed stood a huge motorcycle with sidecar, which looked like new.

"Is that..."

" Sirius's motorcycle," Arthur said contentedly. "I patched it up again after you and Hagrid crashed. You should have it."

"Thank you, Arthur," Harry said, touched.

Arthur shrugged. "Of course, I had the uh, usual additional instruments built in - invisibility button and so on, so you can fly with it untroubled."

"Then I have to do my driver's license after all," Harry said with a grin.

Lunch with Andromeda and Teddy it was much quieter, because there were no guests besides him. Teddy was thrilled with Harry's gift, a convertible ball he had bought from George: every time Teddy threw the ball to the ground, it changed his shape; until now it had made such different things as baby dragons, quaffels and small goblins. At the sight of the unusually cheerfully grinning goblin, which his godson cheerfully pressed to his chest, Harry had to think involuntarily about his appointment in the bank.

"I have to go to Gringotts next week," he said. "To take on the rest of my legacy, obviously I own more houses than I thought."

Andromeda nodded slowly and briefly emerged from her gloom. She had been even more silent than usual all the time, because the first Christmas only with Teddy had conjured up many unpleasant memories.

"Your grandparents lived in Potter Manor, I visited Sirius there after he ran away from home. It's close to Exeter, not far from Godric's Hollow."

"I thought my whole family lived in Godric's Hollow," Harry said, somewhat confused.

"Only the cottage was there," Andromeda said. "The head of the family has always lived in Potter Manor, but when your grandparents died, James and Lily didn't move there - it was too big for James. Presumably he didn't endure it there without his parents, they were very close."

She thought for a moment. "I didn't know them very well, but they were good people. James was their everything, he got sweets and letters from home in Hogwarts practically every day, and when Sirius left at sixteen, they took him in without hesitation."

"I don't even know their names," Harry said sadly.

Andromeda smiled tiredly as she watched Teddy copy the hair color of the leprechaun into which the convertible ball had turned. "Fleamont and Euphemia. Yeah, I know, horrible, right? Your grandfather was an ace in magic potions, he invented Sleakeasy's hair tincture."

"Never heard of it," Harry said with a grin, wondering why he had so little talent for potions when it was obviously in his blood.

"You're not an old wizard with hair loss," Andromeda laughed. "He made a lot of money from it and then sold the company and retired. They got James very late."

"What happened to them?" asked Harry.

"Dragonpox," Andromeda said somberly. "They both died just before you were born."

Harry pondered briefly. "Potter Manor," he said slowly. "That sounds pretty noble."

"It is," Andromeda said earnestly. "You probably don't like it very much, but the Potters have always been a significant pure-blood family, even though they've never interfered in politics like the Blacks or the Malfoys have."

- "What does it look like?"

"Pretty Victorian, the muggles would say," Andromeda sighed. "But cozy, not at all like the house at Grimmauld Place. Beautiful gardens."

- "How come you visited Sirius?" asked Harry curiously. "Your family certainly didn't like him running away."

"I was gone before him," Andromeda sighed. "Ted and I got married right after we left Hogwarts, Sirius and your parents were just in their second year."

"Excuse me," Harry said embarrassedly. "I didn't want to... I didn't want to open old wounds."

Andromeda waved it off with a smile. 'You haven't, Harry. It was a nice time, although I wish it had been easier."

"Gah!" said Teddy, grinning at them both.

In the late afternoon, Harry returned to the Burrow to pick up Ginny, who had insisted on accompanying him to Godric's Hollow. They hung arrived under the invisibility cloak on the church square, which was thickly covered with snow. A few schoolboys, who fought a snowball fight there, paused briefly because of the loud bang and looked around confused before continuing. Ginny paid no attention to them, staring with big eyes at the war memorial, which had turned into the statues of Harry's parents holding him in his arms.

"That's nice," she said softly.

"Yes," Harry muttered.

"Where... where are they?"

He took her hand and led her under the cloak to the cemetery, where he looked around briefly and then took it off.

"What if Selwyn sees us?", Ginny asked, a little nervously. "He certainly expects you to come here for Christmas."

"He's welcome," Harry muttered grimly, thinking of Williamson, whose grave he had visited two days ago.

The tomb looked exactly like last year, though Hermine's flower wreath had disappeared by now. Harry looked at the stone, at the names, and wondered what it would be like if his parents could be with him now, and why Voldemort, this monster, had not simply left them alone. Ginny leaned her head against his shoulder and so they stood there as the snow fell around them until Harry finally sighed and tightened.

"You want to see the house?"

Ginny nodded with tears in her eyes. "Only if you don't mind."

- "Hey, Harry."

The two started violently and drove apart, pulling their wands.

"Neville," he groaned with relief. "Hannah..."

- "Who were you expecting?" asked Hannah nervously as they put their wands away.

"Not you," Harry sighed. "Excuse us."

Neville laughed a little nervously. "Merry Christmas, you two."

- "Yes..."

They all hugged each other and then they stood there a little embarrassed. Neville and Hannah looked upon the tombstone.

"Your family are here, aren't they?", Harry asked Hannah quietly.

She nodded slowly. "How do you know that?"

"Hermione and I were here last Christmas," he said. 'We didn't know where my parents were, so we had to look for them, and there are a lot of Abbotts lying here.'

Hannah nodded. "Yes, my family comes from here, but now no one lives here anymore."

"Wasn't it pretty dangerous for you to come here last year?" asked Neville with a ruffled forehead.

Harry laughed drily. "Yes, Voldemort's snake almost caught us."

Neville nodded slowly. "A nasty beast."

"Good that you've finished it, Nev," Ginny said, smiling.

Neville shrugged his shoulders a little embarrassed. "Well... yes. I'll see you at Hogwarts, folks."

They said goodbye to the two and left the cemetery. "Neville and Hannah," Harry said tiredly. "How did this happen?"

Ginny sighed. "We were the inner circle, you know. Neville, Luna and I were like the leaders, and then we had two in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw who looked after those in their houses - Ernie and Hannah and Michael and Padma. We met almost every day in the room of requirement to discuss our next steps, and well... Somehow it ended with Neville and Hannah coming together. Just like Michael and Padma."

Harry squeezed his lips. "Michael and Padma didn't make it."

Ginny nodded angrily. "It's a miracle that so many of us survived," she said. "We felt like we were always one nose ahead of the Carrows – though it really was Snape who made sure we got away." She laughed bitterly. "He caught us trying to steal Gryffindor's sword from his office and just ordered us to spend a night in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid. I should have noticed that he wasn't really on their side then."

"He was a good actor," Harry said grimly, and then they both said nothing for a while because they had reached the house. It looked like last year, too, covered by ice and snow, with the missing right side of the upper floor.

"Is that where...?" Ginny asked, nodding silently.

Harry swallowed briefly and then tightened his shoulders decisively. This was his home, he had every right to look at it. He stretched out his hand and opened the garden gate. As expected, the plaque immediately grew again with all the scribbles on it from the floor - there seemed to be some new ones, but Harry did not give it a second look, but entered the garden instead.

"Harry?" asked Ginny, unsure. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going in," he said softly. "I want to look at it."

"It doesn't look stable," Ginny said hesitantly.

"It's looked like this for seventeen years, it's not going to happen right now," he said, reaching out his hand invitingly. Ginny sighed, took it, and followed him across the small, overgrown path to the door. He wondered if others had been in the house since that terrible night. Probably not, as untouched as everything here looked: the overgrown garden, the cobwebs on the doorknob, the grass that protruded between the floor boards on the porch. Perhaps no one but him had been able to open the gate, he thought vaguely. Then he stood at the door and armed himself. Behind this door lay the happy part of his childhood, the part he knew only from pictures and from Voldemort's mind: toy broomsticks, clouds of smoke from wands and children's laughter. Ginny pressed his hand and opened the door.

Inside it was gloomy and quiet, right next to the door lay a smashed lamp.

"Lumos," they both whispered, and the light of their wands fell on a moth-eating carpet and an overturned couch. Harry's gaze wandered involuntarily to the foot of the stairs where his father had died. Who had picked them up, he wondered. Who had taken care of the funeral, of the tombstone? Dumbledore? McGonagall? Or Lupin? Ginny walked over to the chimney sim slowly, where several photos were set up. Harry's heart cramped when he looked into the happy faces of those who were dead: his mother and father at their wedding, overjoyed and radiant and full of love. His father and the marauders in front of the entrance hall with the strange hats that the seventh-years wore when they were released: James with bright eyes, Sirius broadly grinning and exuberant, Lupin stunned that he had really finished school, and Wormtail, who laughed so gladly into the camera that Harry wanted to vomit. He quickly looked at the next picture, which showed his mother with a little witch with curls, both in muggle clothes at Trafalgar Square.

"Who is that?", Ginny asked softly.

"Marlene McKinnon," Harry sighed, who recognized her from the picture Moody had shown him years ago. "She was also in the Order, they killed her whole family."

He was the only person in these pictures who was still alive, he thought concerned, as he looked at the last picture that showed him with his parents shortly after his birth. Only him, the rest was dead: his parents and all of their friends, even Wormtail, all dead, just like Snape and his Death Eater-friends, Mulciber, Wilkes and Rosier. An entire generation, wiped out because of a single madman.

"Do you want to take the pictures with you?", Ginny asked.

He nodded. "Later. Let's first - let's look at the rest."

The kitchen was small but cozy, a large stove and oven, a small table in the corner over which a photo of him and Sirius hung: his broadly grinning, handsome godfather who had thrown him over his shoulder. Baby Harry laughed wildly into the camera. As always when he saw pictures of Sirius, he was again horrified how much Azkaban had torn him, how this radiant face had collapsed into itself. He cleared his throat.

"Let's go upstairs."

Upstairs, everything was a ruin. His parents' bedroom was completely muddled, pictures, books and other things were scattered all over the floor, victims of the explosion that had taken place in the other room. The children's room was completely destroyed, walls and ceiling were missing. All that was left was the charred cradle, which still had a children's blanket and a scrambled teddy bear. Ginny sobbed in shock as Harry slowly stepped on the cradle and stared at it. Here it happened, he thought incredulously. Here his mother had sacrificed herself for him, the second person who, after his father, had thrown herself protectively before him and had paid for it with her life. Far too many had followed them, Sirius and Dumbledore, Lupin and Tonks, Mad-Eye and Fred and all the others...

Ginny took his hand again and put her arm around him.

"Come on, Harry," she said softly. "That's enough for today."

He wiped away the tears. "I want to take the pictures with me," he said laboriously, then let her drag him back into the hallway. They took everything they could find: pictures, letters from school friends, even James's spare goggles, which they found in his night cupboard, and Lily's jewelry, which was found in the dresser. In the closet they found his father's comet two-fifty and his mother's wedding dress. What they did not find were their wands, presumably they had been buried with them. They took everything to Grimmauld Place and stowed it in Regulus's old bedroom before they made their way back to the Burrow.